Close call

“Groan”
“Yawn”
“What?!
“What the !@#$%”
“aiyo”
“Hey bhagwan”

Emotions that came out of different kinds of individuals when they came to know that the gate no has been shifted from 224 to 216. After some time, the temperature intensified to alarming rate when they discovered that the gate no has been shifted again from 216 to 116. Pleasant words were exchanged (sorry not exchanged, since it was only one way communication) between the airport authorities and the passengers. The lowes overflowed so much that authorities ears started bleeding.

After finally settling inside, we patiently waited for the flight to take off.
15 mins … half hour.. 45 mins… one hour… 1hour and 15 mins… 1 and half hour.. 1hour and 45 mins and finally after 2 hours the pilot announced that they were ready to take off.

Passing the time was not a big deal for me. 3 chinki guys were sitting next to me. They looked pretty professionals with all suits and ties dotted on. Would be in their early thirties. One was making planes out of the napkins provided to him, another was sticking the feedback forms over the first one’s head and the last one was trying to capture the art with his mobile camera. After one point they became so noisy that the airhostess came to them and made them do “finger on your lips”. Only after they got calls from their head office, they hushed down.

Finally the plane took off and we were given menu cards and were asked to pick our choices. Totally there were 3 dishes and 2 of them were non veg. Yours sincerely, being one pure vegetarian asked for the only vegetarian dish – Avial curry. While I was waiting for my turn to come, one steward came and placed a plate in front of me. I gave him one quizzical look and asked him for avail curry. He told its Shavial. I thought he pronounced Avial as shavial and tried to correct him.

Avial?
Shavial mam!
Avial?
Shavial !!
No, I want the avail curry (Showing him the menu card)
Oh !! You didn’t ask for Shavial?
(Almost in tears!!) NO!!!
Oh!! Sorry mam!!!

I still don’t know what he meant by shavial.. ! Finally my Avial curry came and I happily scooped it in a spoon and placed it in my mouth. The minute I placed in my mouth, the colour of my face changed from turquoise blue to peacock green!! With the steward watching my reactions intently, I quietly kept the spoon down and gulped down water. In the end, I was very much contented with the bland coffee, dry bun and not so fresh fruits !!

The final blow came when the plane started shaking violently on air. Announcement was made by the pilot requesting us to put up our seat belts. After one point of time, one was able to hear “allaaaaaah” on my left side, “sai ram, sai ram, sai ram” chants on my right side and “oh lord!! jesus save us” at the back. Even the chinki guys were murmuring something. Though I tried to decipher what they were chatting but I was not able to understand. Amidst all these confusion, one fat guy was snoring away to glory. He got up only when his wife smacked his head!! First came a big roaring yawn and then only he understood the seriousness. Ultimate comedy was when the pilot warned us to gear up for a belly landing. The volume of the chants became louder and occasionally someone played along in the orchestra with sounds of burping and puking. We did have a rough landing. People even also got small bumps on head. Which looked like the bumps Tom cat gets in the Tom and Jerry cartoon series. People were walking like drunks when they were getting down from the plane. It was a complete circus!!

Thus an eventful day came to an end. The funny part was that I was so busy in observing others antics, that I forgot the seriousness of the situation at that time. The Funniest part was when one air hostess was busy watching me observing others and forgot her job and when she mentioned that when we were getting down. My reaction?!

“:D”