On a Jet Plane

Am in mid-flight on an Indian flying to Chennai. Its about 5 minutes into the flight and we're already atleast half an hour behind schedule. Though it pains me to so blatantly disparage the Indian domestic carrier, it looks like these guys or atleast this particular flight needs a bit of an overhaul.

Most of my Indian Airlines flight memories involve throwing up while landing at New Delhi airport while visiting my grandparents once a year for winter holidays. While I am now a marginally better flyer and now mostly fly Jet Airways, some other things have apparently stayed just the same.

The first thing that struck me when I boarded the flight was the music. It had been ages since I last heard it. In all the years since I last flew the airline, the music has stayed exactly the same. There's still the same piano and sarangi instrumental playing Indian film music from the 60's and its still songs from Raj Kapoor movies. Even Russians aren't that taken up with Raj Kapoor anymore. Come to think of it, were they only interested in his films because he made a movie about the circus industry? Probably not.

We taxied around on the runway for about 20 minutes. I'm not quite sure why that was, for no official reason was forthcoming, but it was probably just the pilot waiting around till he could figure out which button could shut off the god-awful audio accompaniment. Come to think of it, there was quite a bit of turbulence even during the taxiing. That was probably him hitting speedbumps, looking around for the music button and taking his eyes off the road.

I also kinda object to having food, sweets and soft drinks thrust into my palms. However the food on board is so much improved that I shan't complain too much about this.

I also have a few choice observations about other passengers but I'll leave that to later.

Methinks this isn't going to be my most pleasant flight.


Update: Music during landing was a lot better. Instrumental version of Simon and Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water". I must admit... I sang along softly.