Air India makes me question my love for India

I LOVE MY INDIA!???

But do I really? I thought I did, but my recent trip was an eye opener..and I saw what my dad had been telling me about the issues in india come to life right before my eyes. We talk about booming economy, great minds and aggressive teams.. What I saw was the complete opposite and what any foreigner would have seen would ensure that he/she for many generations would never come back to india. In anycase… I would like you to visually see what I am about to narrate..
I land with a big thud made by the Air India flight, which took off fashionably late..just an hour later than the original time of departure, not bad I say to myself ;). Obviously, if you are flying in from the middle east you can completely forget about services, since it is 90% labor dominated, hence the tv screen refuses to work while passengers in the next block are watching 'Hey baby', I watch a blank screen; the switch to call the airhostess is just a show piece, how can you think of disturbing them? Shame on you!! And finally, a blast to the past..when I attempted to have the dinner, which tasted exactly like what it used to about 2 decades back when I used to travel with Air India as a 7 year old. Wow! How nostaligic !!

But the arrival was not as exciting as the departure. I enter the wonderful IGI airport at 7 AM to catch a 9:10AM flight by the low budget (read- low priority) airline- Air Inda Express. I could just see a sea of heads.. Bopping up and down, straining their necks to see when they would be able to check in their baggages. With about 1000 people there and 4 counters open, it was the heights of indian efficiency at work!! The term chaos is toooo small to describe the scenario. No one had a clue of where to stand. And just to give you a flavor, a few quotes:

A very old woman: " I have travelled all across the world, but only in India are the old treated so badly, I have been begging for a wheel chair for the past hour and they have kept me standing here"

A fight between a brit and me when I just went to enquire about my flight
Brit: "I have been here for 1.5 hours, get lost and don't cut in"
Me: " I don't need your bloody spot, I need to enquire about my flight"
Brit: "enquire somewhere else"
Me: "I have the right to enquire anywhere I want, it is a free country you know"

The politician in the crowd speaks up after 1 hour of fights occuring between officials and passengers every 5 minutes." WE WILL START SHOUTING SLOGANS IN 2 MINUTES, IF THEY DO NOT CHECK US IN"

And the beauty of it all, the screen showed ALLLLL Air india flights as being on time. That was nerve wrecking!

A few of us took up the responsibility of moving the trolleys from the counter towards the outside..I and another woman began doing that, then a brit and a chinese started to help us, then the indian men realised they should move a finger and they got in with us too. Ofcourse the helpers in the airport were very busy to do their job

After having checked in, I went to grab a bite from Subways..only to find the vegetables were all stale and that I would have to be sharing my breakfast with 3 cats hovering around the subway stall. YIKES!!!!

I walked around like a headless chicken attempting to find an official to enquire about my flight, which showed 'On time' at 9:30 for a 9:10 flight with no boarding gates indicated. Finally they announced boarding at 10, I was impressed because I met some passengers who had been waiting since 5 in the morning. I boarded the aircraft, covered my face with my shawl and fell asleep. Woke up finally at 12 only to discover that we had yet not taken off and the pilot had left the aircraft. The restless laborers fought with the stewerdeses and then got off the aircraft to fight with security. After a lot of mayhem, we were transported back to the airport and given free lunch at the disgusting ashoka lounge as a way to shut up and not bother the officials.

The laborers settled infront of the big screen to watch India get clobbered by Pakistan. I befriended another professional, Mr.Sam and we took it up to fight a battle with the Air India professionals. And the best answer I received was" Flight will leave at midnight, why don't you sit and watch the match". My husband in dubai messages me of other possibilities, Sam contacts a friend from Air India who honestly tells us to offboard ourselves because the flight will never take off and I try calling Air India officials on the phone, please note the conversation:

After 10 rings they pick up " I am an air india express passenger, I need to get out or give me some info on my flight"
" yes mam, let me get duty manager"
click
Hmmmm now what is that click??
Blank…….
Light voices
Click-blank…….
Light murmurs… then I respond " I know you're there!! Helloooooo!!"
Click-blank…….
Light murmurs… then I respond " I know you're there!! Helloooooo!!"
Click-blank…….
After 3 such rounds of calls, we give up and we request customs to offboard us. I take off to indian airlines to get another set of tickets and sam waits for his luggage which should take just half hour and actually takes just \n1.5 hours, making us almost miss our next flight. Getting a ticket is not an easy task too, because after massaging a thousand egos inside to get outside, I need to stoop myself from an engineer-mba professional to a damsel in distress who can be saved by the oh so mighty indian men…oooooh!! The airline officials first say I am waitlisted.. Then after my begging they say I am confirmed. When I go again to book sam's ticket, I am told to wait..but there is no one around and it's almost time for the flight.. But nooooooo..so what if no one is there is what I am told.. I am told to just wait while the official finishes his update on the latest gossip with his counterpart. Yet again I beg him 'sir sir sir sir' and then he books another ticket

We check in Indian airlines after fighting with the official who was busy on a very crucial economy shaking call of how he will meet his friend tomorrow at 9:30 and what they must wear and where they must go etc etc..but only once we had landed in Dubai at midnight India Time did we both breathe a sigh of relief. That must be the longest flight on the shortest distance ever.. It took me 17 hours to reach dubai!!!

I have had 2 major revelations in this entire episode:
- I have developed more tolerance than I have ever had
- the slow motion scenes in indian movies are actually a reflection of reality, because from check in to the security check to the boarding.. Everyone in india works in slow motion..you can actually see ppl moving at the pace of 1km/hour..even that is toooo fast

And I wonder now " How much do I really love my India?"