flying to hyderabad

Flying to Hyderabad

The woman was ahead of me in the line to enter Chennai airport. Everyone ahead of her handed over their ticket and “photo ID.”

She just stood there.

“Ticket and ID,” said the CISF personal.

“Arre “ she said “wait.”

The queue behind me started to build up.

“Tell your sister to hurry up,” said an irate gentleman behind me “my counter will close!”

“She is not my sister” I said and looked desperately to see if I was better off switching queues.

Not that the woman was old or senile, she was just flabby and unfit with coloured hair and vividly red lipstick.

Her son came up from the side.

“Amma, I just gave you your ticket and ID! Where did you put it?”

She started rummaging through two plastic bags, a handbag and a laptop bag.

“I told you I did not want to carry this thing! I don’t see why I have to carry it for your brother.” She irritably indicated the laptop bag.

Finally the ticket was found in the side zip pocket of the laptop bag.

Sheepishly she said, ”I put it there so I would not misplace it!”

Everyone, (including me) was beginning to glare at the son.

The gentleman behind said loudly  to no one in particular, ”I don’t understand why people can’t look after their mothers!”

Once we entered the airport, to my horror, she was travelling on the same Indigo flight as I was to Hyderabad.

We reached the check in baggage screening counter. She proceeded to put all her luggage on it.

“No hand baggage ,” said the porter. She refused to budge.

“If I don’t screen all of it they will send me back. “ She was adamant. “I have been sent back before---.“

He was adamant too---for some time. The queue started building up again. Bowing to the inevitable, he screened her plastic bags.

We finally reached the check in counter.

“You can have only two hand baggages madam,” said the lady at the counter politely.

“I have only two, a lap top bag  and a purse.”

“What about those plastic bags?”

“They are only bags,” argued the lady.

Finally she was persuaded to put the bags into her checked in luggage. This meant the luggage seal had to be broken and she was sent back for screening. I could hear her  berating the porter there long after I clutched my boarding pass and ran for my life.

I assume she had problems in security because I heard her yelling at the officers for confiscating the water bottle in her hand bag. My own view is that since she obviously obeyed no instructions what so ever, her son must have given up and abandoned her to her fate and to the rest of us.

Once I entered the aircraft, I found I was in the first row with ---you guessed it my friend from the airport.

She strapped herself into her seat, put her chair in the reclining position and pulled down the window shade.

“Madam,” said the airhostess politely,” window shade up, and seat upright. Also you have to put your hand baggage in the overhead bin.”

“Nonsense,” said the woman,” I need my purse. I am more comfortable  reclining like this.”

“Madam,” started the airhostess again.

The lady looked the other way and closed her eyes.

The air hostess called her senior, a majestic looking woman with a button on her uniform that proclaimed she was in charge.

The lady closed her eyes and ignored the proceedings.

The airhostess went to the cockpit. After a few minutes the pilot ? co-pilot emerged.

“Madam, you have to keep your seat upright. We cannot take off otherwise.”

She opened her eyes and glared.

“We definitely cannot take off if you stand here. Aren’t you the driver of this plane?”

Thwarted, with no answer for this logic, he returned to the cockpit and the plane took off.

The one hour flight was a nightmare. She demanded a bottle of water and refused to pay. She wanted to go to the toilet as the plane was landing. Finally when we did disembark, her luggage was the last to arrive on the conveyor belt. She looked around for the hapless airline attendant but she was balked of her prey. The lady wisely  hid in  Café Coffee day.

When I landed I told my husband, “I have never seen a character like this! In any other country the air marshals would have unloaded her.

My husband looked thoughtful, “ I had a professor like that in medical college, she got away with a lot of things ---.”