What exactly about the following statement is difficult to understand?
“Boarding has not started. Please be seated. We’ll announce when it is time”?!
Personally, I find the statement pretty clear and totally non-ambiguous in nature. Apparently to a majority of traveling Indians, and mind you they are the educated lot, this seems to be complicated mumbo-jumbo unable to be processed easily enough and something which goes right above (or may be that should be THROUGH) their empty heads. What? Be seated? Not on your life, siree! Suppose the flight left without them? Better still act as if you are deaf adders and zombies rolled into one and keep on standing where you are.
What IS it about us that we love to disregard announcements, flout requests, and crowd where there is absolutely no need to? I mean look at it this way. No one is going to run away with your seat on the designated flight, nor is the seat going to run away on its own. No one who walks ahead of can usurp your seat either. If it is luggage space that you are worried abut there is a solution for that too. The airline crew WILL find space for your baggage. They are not going to ask you to leave it behind. And yet, the blubber-heads passengers are all crowding the entrance as soon as those on wheel chairs are being helped to board, ignoring the requests of staff to please be seated. Anyone who has flown at least once knows next comes those with infants, the business class and then the different zones. Zones? Did you say zones? The poor beleaguered staff made a feeble attempts to make people board according to assigned zones and failing, gave it up altogether.
Shame on you people. I wonder what examples you are setting for your children since many of you were parents with children in tow. I bet they obey their teachers when they are told to go and sit at their desks. Sad for them that they had to see their parents acting dumb and disregarding properly worded and clear instructions.
And then there are the high and mighty among us who are inordinately proud of their “paying capacity” but wrongly think that the rest of the world subsist on charity. There was this young lady with kids in tow, one a baby. She had one medium-sized bag, a slightly smaller one and an even smaller one in one of the luggage racks above. When the stewardess tried to move it around to make space for my bag, she objected. I have my baby’s things in those bags and I need access them. Right. The stewardess said, Okay Ma’am, tell me which one you want, I will keep it in such a way you can easily access it. Or, she suggests, the smallest of bags, a handbag actually, can be kept under the seat. The lady says, one has medicines, the other has clothes and the third has food. In short, that whole rack has to be left alone. It is hers. I was amusedly thinking, if three seats entitled you to a whole luggage rack, then the airlines would have to build new planes with a different design from the present ones. Anyways, next she uttered words which I have heard many Indians say at the drop of a hat. I PAID for my seats.
I almost snorted out loud but controlled myself in time. With great restraint I kept my mouth shut, not allowing any quip to escape me at this pompous statement, instead letting the stewardess deal with things. Ma’am we have to find place for everyone. This lady needs to keep her bag as well, Ma’am. Finally after a few exchanges, the stewardess managed to squeeze in my bag as well though the Lady Who Paid For Her Seats was not pleased and only grudgingly accepted the final arrangement. You know something? I am secretly hoping LWPFHS would come across this post some day and at least then realize how ridiculous she sounded to those around.
Read this hilarious post on a related topic, written by Sumana: We are like this only
Updated to add these related posts:
We are like this only! from Govind
The case of the desolate dollars... from Suranga
Shail's Nest 
Hi Shail, Your writing is the best thing to begin my morning with. And yes I know what you are talking about. When I first came back from Bahrain with my four-months Prince A in tow I had to face the same problem by the fellow passengers who refused budge their luggage and this despite the fact that 50% of the flight was empty. Anyway enjoy your holiday. God Bless!
It is a real shame how our people behave this way 😦
Welcome! to this side of the world. LOL!! thank you for writing what I tried not to write about. Its not just luggage, there are people who think that just because they Paid, its okay to keep their headsets or book or puter on the tray before them when they arent being served and it is a long flight and most like to open their seats out…And then there are nuts who think they have the right to keep their seats stretched when food is being served…Oh! there are all kinds of inconsiderate, unthinking people who cant see anything farther than their nose.
Thank you Mysoul. Sigh, yes about keeping their seat stretched back while food is being served and the rest. The less said about the toilets the better. I shudder thinking of the return journey. 😦
Shail, Yes, we do meet these types. But I also met some who would probably e better off in films . On my way back from Sunnyvale, in 2009, on the HongKong-Mumbai stretch. I wrote about it . http://kaimhanta.blogspot.in/2009/08/case-of-desolate-dollars.html
Whoa! Throwing around money! Drama on the high skies! Pathetic.
I have shared your link on my post, Suranga..
I so feel for you here ! I just don’t understand why we refuse to stand in lines, or why we have that mindset of I paid so I have the right !
I am very surprised you didn’t say anything sarcastic and tongue in cheek to the Lady who paid for her seats 😛
You know,I wanted to laugh out loud, but I didn’t. Well, I very rarely say much outside my blogs 😉 And then she was not talking to me,,so I thought why butt in?!:P
Shail this a very interesting and also a thought ful post. I never understand the psychology of the people who behave so irrationally. You say that wheel chair travellers are given preferance. I am on wheelchair and generally notice the expression onthe faces of some people when they are asked to wait. I always tell the person leading me to take me in the end.
It is very sad that people cannot wait their turn for an *assured* seat! Something really wrong with the outlook/mentality of such people.
Some times people wake up on wrong side of the bad but we Indians always make sure we even sleep in the wrong side :p
Hilarious shail !
I love ur posts and god bless the lady who paid
Haha. Looks like some of us do sleep on the wrong side 😛
Thanks, Afshan 🙂
Well, clearly you did not pay for your seats, Shail!! 😛
I’ve seen people making that huge line in front of the boarding area and wonder why you would want to stand and wait like that when you can easily keep sitting and maybe even finish your novel before your turn for boarding comes! I guess the answer is definitely because of the bulky-sized hand baggage that people insist on taking!
I know *hangs head in shame* 😛
I agree with you, I’d rather sit and read a little more!
We are like this only Shail 🙂 We like herding, pushing, owning the plane and if possible, the air hostess too 😀
Unfortunately,that says it, Jas! 🙂
You would have also seen the rush the people who paid for their seats make to unfasten their seat belt and take out their luggage just when the plane is landing, as if the plane will take off before they get down… “please be seated” announcements to them is like Meira Kumar’s “baith jaiye” in the lok sabha..
That comparison is classic! Lol. This jumping up and collecting baggage and the hurry to get off is as if someone announced there is a bomb aboard.
What is it that brings out our worst
the feeling to be always the first
is it the fear that we will be left out lest
out to a population that would at its seams burst
or is it that our values have been given a twist
to make us think that we deserve more than rest
if we think for some more time there wouldn’t be enough space for this list.
Shail, you kept quiet to the ‘ I paid for my seats’. I don’t believe it. 🙂
I remember having written a couple of posts about the Indian attitude here,
I shared your post above, Govind. You wil l have to believe that I did keep quiet. The main reason was that I was not in the conversation with the LWPFHS at all as it was the stewardess who was trying to make some space for my bag. 🙂
Uh oh.. looks like you did not pay for your seats 😛
But seriously, I wonder what makes people behave in this manner.
I really really hope that lady gets to read this post 😀
I hope so too. 😉
Oh my goodness! All sounds painfully like stuff I have witnessed – and dying of shame on behalf of our fellow Indians. I must say I don’t have your self-restraint and have told people off sometimes! 🙂
Sometimes (mostly) I have too much self-restraint for my own good 😦
I think our people need to come first everywhere 🙂 They get some thrill by blocking the way, and making sure that they are the first people who entered the flight! So what if they cause chaos and inconvenience? But dare someone inconvenience them! In some international airports, it starts to get embarrassing when you see your compatriots behaving in this way. Once daughter started getting really scared, when everybody started crowding the door, while husband and I sat, peacefully,waiting for the announcements – she was convinced that we would miss the flight
As for the parents being an example, some people believe that this is how you teach a child to be street smart, what can one say to people like that.
I know just what you mean, Smitha. It is really shameful and sad 😦
🙂 thanks for the mention. you did not hurl bricks?! i’m surprised the lady did not lay claim on the aisle too…for her kids to play cricket just in case they got bored.
have a wonderful holiday!
Thanks Sumana. 😉 I think she might have laid claims, only thing the flight was full and there were others also with claims on the aisle 😉 In this case I had just obliged another passenger by moving to a different seat, and the air-hostess was taking care of space for my bag. So I merely watched the exchanges from the sidelines. 😛
Ah. C’mon, she probably paid extra 😀
But, as Govind has said, you really kept quiet? Really? Never mind the kids, you shouldn’t have 😀
You know the same things happen in this same fashion everywhere. At PTA Meetings, Class P T meeting, like the one just concluded. After the general session I asked them to please take turns to come to the table where I was at. In two seconds the entire group was surrounding my table, and talking together, to me. Sigh.
The kids wisely stepped back, each one trying to pull their parents back! It actually happened that way. I wish they’d learn lessons from them about taking turns, and standing in order 😀
I do hope you told her – LWPFHS – that you blog. 😀
Haha. Usha, I know, I should have told her I blog 😉 I was merely a by-stander. The conversation was between the stewardess and the LWPFHS. So I chose to remain mum 😉 But you bet, i was already writing the blog in my head 😉
You brought back memories of PTA meetings and the parents crowding the teachers and me waiting for my turn,which never seemed to come!
A very common sight on any of your travels. You described them so well.
Sadly it is so common.
too true!!
Another example – people start taking out their bags, getting up even before the seat-belt sign turns off after landing!!
and mobile phones – when they shut off your device, its never done! People continue to talk Very loudly!!
How it irritates and amuses me! On a flight to Kuala Lumpur, I heard a guy proudly tell whoever was on the other end that ‘they’have asked that mobile phone be switched off but he was talking without ‘them’seeing. What an idiot!