This is a funny story.

It could have happened only to me.

But… if you laugh at me after reading it, I’ll find you… and kill you.

I know, I know. That’s a rather over the top threat to a harmless (and quite natural) response to a funny story. What can I say, being a fan, I have always wanted to use Liam Neeson’s famous dialogue from the movie Taken. This was as good an opportunity as any. So, relax, I won’t be killing anyone.

Now, the story. True one.

I am a frequent traveler on Indigo flights. Once securely buckled in and just before take off, the crew as is usual, give the safety instructions. Most of the time, I listen it with half a mind. At the end of it all, they remind you to go through their magazine ‘Hello Sexy’ kept in the seat back pouches.

Hello Sexy. Each time I hear it, I idly wonder how the airlines had hit upon this particular name for their magazine. How could a magazine be ‘sexy’? People did use sexy as a prefix to a lot of things. Sexy house, sexy lake, sexy sunset, sexy whatchamacallit. Yeah, I know. Stimulating, interesting, appealing, intriguing, sexy covers it all. So, a magazine could very well be ‘sexy’. What did I know of what sold, anyway. I’d then forget all about it and go back to my music or book.

And then it happened.

On my last trip, lost in thought, I was scanning my surroundings. Not really registering what my eyes were seeing, I noticed the magazines stuffed in the seat back pouches in the seats in front as far as the eye could see (I was one of the early ones to board). Prominently displayed on the front cover was HELLO 6E.

Of course!

OF COURSE!

6E not sexy!

How could I have not got that sooner. How many times had I gone through the magazine and actually seen the 6E (the IATA code for Indigo) prominently displayed on the front page? Besides ALL the flight numbers of Indigo had 6E as prefix to them.

I am amazed at the ease with which I am able to surmount ‘obstacles’ in my way to successfully embarrass myself. 😉

© Shail Mohan 2019