A Flight from Delhi to Mumbai!!

The most frequented sector on Indian Air Map, and one of the busiest in the world: Mumbai -Delhi.

The Airport, I get into the line and walk till the check-in counter. I give me luggage, and ask the pretty lady behind the counter, for an aisle seat on the emergency exit row so that I can stretch my legs. Unfortunately, it wasn't available and poor me had to settle for a middle seat. The lady hands me the boarding pass and says with a smile "Mr. Gupta, Have a pleasant flight and I hope you have two hot chics sitting next to you". I smiled, being 20-something, I always wished you had an option to say, "Give me the seat next to the prettiest girl on the plane".

Anyway, it was not so. I sat between a 20-something slob who slept most of the flight and an elderly gentleman. This made matters worse!! You see, I am restless, a little edgy, and this elderly gentleman had the aisle sit. Oh Boy!! how I sat through the journey just to save him the trouble to get off his seat and get back in (which took nothing less than 5 minutes!!)

But sitting there, in my seat for 2 hours, without much movement (except one trip to the loo) caused me to stare, stare at the people around me, and wonder what they did, what their struggle were, what their story was.

The elderly gentleman next to me had another friend travelling, another 70-something sitting on aisle seat on the other side of the aisle.

You know I realized how once you are 70-something, the struggle in you would be more or less dead. There will be pride, a pride coming from some sense of achievement and from experience. Pride from the fact that they know (more often than not) what is really bothering the young, they can see through our problems probably better than ourselves. But, no one will listen to them, the middle-aged are too busy striving, the young too busy being different. They are lost in time and space, the body wouldn't allow, the people won't listen and it is all too late to act.

Anyway. allow me to to tell you a small incident.....

They had their meals paid for with their ticket, but since it was a 2 sector flight : Goa-Mumbai, Mumbai-Delhi, their meals were already served to them in first sector. Without realizing this, the air hostess of the flight gave a whole nice sounding rhetoric on how they are special and they have meals as part of their tickets. She dutifully, took their orders and served them. As soon as she served, the other air-hostess whispered that they have been travelling from Goa and are probably already served. She confirmed this, and took back the food already served (Indigo's customer service department should train air-hostesses better. A Rs. 200 loss here would have been totally worth the ugliness of taking back food, having two grumbling oldies and a bunch of people like me who witnessed this bad customer service. It is not the hostesses fault, probably she is under-trained, over-worked or just unhappy with her job or boss). Anyway, the two oldies grumbled silently, one took out a remaining sandwich from the earlier meal, while the other opened the half empty juice pouch. The sight caught my imagination, the two had lost the will to fight or tell the air-hostess that it was rude to serve food and take it back, but the two had the pride to take out the remaining food and eat it with all their heart. I loved it, it is a story I will remember forever.

The behaviour had defiance , a child-like defiance for the indifference people have for the old. I am no different, but that moment, that minute, I was lost in them. At the end of the journey, I helped one of them get his luggage out of the overhead cabin, and I got the most gracious smile in return. I think just the fact that I acknowledged him, his problem, was more than enough for him. He stepped back from the crowded aisle and said "your girlfriend might be waiting for you, why don't you walk ahead". I politely declined asking him to go first.

That is why I love flights, this one was on 21st November, Flight 6E 190, Indigo airlines. Also, what made things exciting was, me missing the boarding call, announcement for me and a special transit bus etc. etc. Looking forward to the trip back, and hopefully some hot women next to me this time....

SRK Detained!! What if I am?

Flash Flash Flash, the TV screen flashes "Breaking News", every journo is busy getting the story, the king of bollywood (at least he was a few years back) has been detained at US Airport for 2 hours, that too on our Independence Day! Sigh! How can they do this to Shah Rukh Khan??

This is the question in our minds, this is the question on front pages, this is the question on TV chat shows and this is what SRK had to say " I told them I am an actor who has shoot for movies in US, I am a celebrity and .... how can you detain me?". Come on SRK, for all your wit and charm couldn't you muster anything different from a whinning rich kid saying " You don't know who my father is?". His first call was to an MP to call the Indian consulate and have this sorted ASAP.

Many Indians must be facing the same trauma at US aiports and many other global airports, it is part and parcel of being a brown global traveller and having a muslim identity just makes it worse. We know it. It is a fact, we are aware and one we live with. So why does the media go in a frenzy everytime a high profile person is stopped? Yes, it is news worthy and it does let you finish news print, garner TRP's, rattle debates etc. Somewhere in our celeb-idol worship country we feel more offended when our celebs are stopped rather than us being stopped. Why does the media not look at it any differently..why?

Why can't we laugh at the incident, and say "Ha! Ha! SRK I have been detained thrice, and I went through it more calmly". Why can't our consulate ask "what percentage of Indians or Indian Muslims are being subjected to this on US airports?" rather than asking "Why was SRK detained, don't you know he has powerful friends?". Why are we not asking how many normal Indians are detained, questioned, harassed etc and how many of them have an MP a call away.

No, I am not being intellectual or righteous or raising any deeper issues. I am not asking any deep questions of why are browns stopped, and is it nor rascism? No, I am not asking that. I am ok with what they do, they are securing their borders, just like we want to do by looking at every Pakistani with a beard as suspects. In our country, mulsims sometimes have a problem booking an appartment or securing a land, as the housing society objects. Therefore, I don't expect USA to give answers to questions which plague my part of the world, and questions which we ourselves cannot answer.

All I am asking is, is the media so unified in its thought? is it so univocal or so monotonous that it could not think of asking any more relevant question than " Why was SRK detained?". Did no one had any different approach to the story and presented "How are we detained?", "What to do when detained at International Airports?", "10 quick fixes out of detention", "What not to say when detained". Why not a story which makes me want to read or remember, with a headline screaming "SRK detained", I really don't need to read the rest of the text. But if it said "What to do when detained?" or if you gave me the right consulate numbers, I would have loved it.

This is a question not just for the media but also the consumers of media, on why are we not asking the questions we ought to? Why are we so idol struck? When will we move beyond bollywood and cricket? When will we stop singing "Jai Ho" and rather sing "Dil Se", Get Real India, Get going......

Glorification of Trash wins 8 Oscars.!!!

Slumdog Millionaire.....wow!! Red Carpet, Black Tux, glamor and the glitter and a movie which we have adopted as our own got awards after awards and missed out only in one nominated category...who cares what it was. For lot of Desi people, its Desi Victory of Videshi Award. The one we have seen the goras take for years. Some brown skin at the Kodak theater was what we needed to an otherwise recessionary time. And what we love the most, our Apna A.R.Rehman won the Oscars for a Track titled Jai Ho, which I am sure no Indian would regard as his best or even good work. Thats his average, the least we expect from him. But who cares, Rehman finally won. I agree, he deserved an Oscar in his life, but not for this track for sure. We would have forgotten Jai Ho in a month or sooner but for the Media bombarding us with how great the song is and how it has won awards and nominations, and now the great Oscar too. I just wanna say..come on..Roja, Bombay, Rangeela, Rang De Basanti and even the recently released Delhi 6 has a better soundtrack. ( N I m sure I have missed some of his best movies)

While we will tom tom the 8 Oscars delight, i would ask everyone who is proud what does cinematography, sound mixing and adapted screenplay mean, which are some of the categories this movie has won. And, what was so great about the film, Dev patel's suddenly found accent and language proficiency outside the Taj Mahal or his eternal love for his childhood sweetheart (God!! Hindi movies are full of it).

To give it to the movie, it is a good script (the book from which the movie was copied and which won nothing) and it is interesting to know how he knows the answer to the questions. But, the narrative would have not even touched one film award anywhere in the world had it not been for two things: 1) had it not been fried and Tadka marroed in the filth and poverty of our Desi Slums. Be it the protagonist jumping into shit, or the children having their eyes popped out, or living out of garbage dumps, it had it all 2) And had it not been backed by a hollywood big-wig like Fox Searchlight and a pre-dominantly foreign behind the camera crew.

I can understand some critical acclaim but cross your heart and say this is the best or amongst your best 50 Indian movies of all time and I would just sympathize with you for your bad taste in movies. The movie shows us in first half a part of our existence what we ignore everyday but one which we are completely aware about and want to do nothing about it. Second half has him chasing his own life and love, both of which have been the stuff Bollywood has done to death. None the less, it is interesting to know how he knows the answer to every question but not interesting enough for 8 Oscars and all the noise.

And Miss Frieda Pinto, you had 4 screen shots and 2 dialogs and you are acting and behaving as the movie was about you. Poor Dev Patel, missed out on the hype in our nation partly because he in not a native Indian and partly because unlike Freida he is not available to the media at the drop of a hat for an interview or a sound byte.

The movie is a perfect case of international media which was tired of hearing India-china success story catching this movie as a proof that its still all filthy and dirty, then tag it at as "Art" and go gung ho about the boldness and honesty of film making as their egos pleased to see all the dirt in the nation people talked in economic reports as a possible next superpower. International Media went hot on it, Fox Searchlight managed some great lobbying and our desi media, like always, picked up stories and blindly upheld something foreign media was promoting. Bombay being highlighted after 26/11 only added to the movie, as it was shot in the city which became red hot in international debate on terrorism. Indian media hyped it, got caught in their own hype and snow bowled the frigging movie into a blockbuster.

In all, it was a good story shot in an opportunistic way and did everything right to come on top. I give movie 8 on 10 on business sense ( I subtracted 2 as they released it too late in India, and everybody had already seen the DVD) . I will appreciate the business sense and lobbying of the production house and director but please give me a break, and don't call it a Great Indian Film which got my country 8 Oscars.