I am often asked, “Are you a beach person or a mountains person?”
But the Indian-travelling-through-India type of traveller that I am,
my favourite question to ask is, “Are you an
Indian
airlines person or an Indian railways person?”
It may be evident from my
blog and social media posts that I am more loyal to the railways while choosing
my preferred mode of transportation.
But it wasn’t always like this.
When I first started travelling solo, I took flights to get to my
destinations. But somewhere the lure of slow travel and revelling in the
sensation of watching the world passing me by from the window seat took over
and train travel made a comeback.
That and the fact that the inside of a train’s coach is a microcosm of
the external journey!
But trust work-related travel to necessitate efficiency and therefore
make me board aeroplanes when I’d much rather still take a train. In spite of
all my travels, I have travelled by air a mere 8 times since 2015!
|
The famous Dudhsagar rail route in Goa |
I appreciate train travel because I enjoy observing human behaviour
and travelling by train offers the perfect opportunity. As it turns out,
co-passengers at airport terminals are no less quirkier than those at railway
stations.
Below are ten of my own observations from the terminal and the tarmac
–
- There is at least one person ahead of you rummaging for their ID at the airport entrance
- You can never go without watching someone drag their trolley bag the wrong way
- Security screenings are incomplete without somebody forgetting to deposit all their electronic gadgets in the plastic tray
- There has to be one fidgety restless soul who cannot seem to wait for the boarding gates to open and then wants to be the first person in that queue
- A passenger with a seat at the tail-end of the aircraft will forget to board from the tail-end of the aircraft
|
Somewhere in Jammu and Kashmir en route to Leh |
- There is always that one person who comes in after almost everyone else is in their seat and wants to put their bag while displacing those already in the hand-luggage compartment
- There is also the passenger who cannot decide whether they have on their person everything they need from their bag in the compartment above or whether they need to get up yet another time
- Never has a flight taken off without the flight attendant repeatedly making pleas to someone about switching their mobile phones off and wearing their seat belts
- Incidentally, it is this same person who is the first to switch their mobile phones on and release their seat belt the instant the wheels of the aircraft make their first contact with the tarmac
- And of course, there will be those who queue up to leave the aircraft even before the doors have been opened
So tell me, what do you observe while flying?
Disclaimer: This post has been written in collaboration with Cleartrip. All opinions are my own.
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