The Inspiring Old Man in Air India Fight

I am back again!!
I know, the 'Bang' is missing....but I arrived...


This was to be my second post after my very first official blog 'Ganapati Pooja' , not that it is the most momentous post I have always wanted to write.

This was second in the chronological order.

Like I already discussed in my earlier blogs ( you remember my strategy..dont you?) I was looking for some logic for arriving at the topics to be written in the blog.

is it the most memorable memories of my life

my defining moments...

or the things that I am most passionate about.....

most unromantic logic was to go about chronologically, the definition 'Online Diary'

and would trace back ma life....but I heard a feeble voice from with in, cursing my lack of creativity...so I decided I wd first write the headings of the posts that I want to publish....save them in the draft mode....and ACTUALLY write about it when I felt like it....



So I have some 10 topics already in draft mode........



About this post, it is about one of the most touching and thought provoking event that occured in the recent past........



I was in this Air India Flight, travelling from Delhi to this place.




Now, I have to tell you about my Air India Experience.My comparison is with my earlier travel with Cathey Pacific.



I get in to this Air India flight, filled with Indians, esp Sardars. my earlier Travel had very few Indians in the flight and I was trying to feel home with those few souls.but here, it WAS home.

so after the seat belt sign goes off, everyone juss gets up.not that they have some thing urgent...but because they switched the seat belt light off.

and this lady gets up, and limps her way out in the Aisle.

I just thought it must be one of those 'Tamil Paatti ' visiting her kids.And was sympathising with the enormous effort she is making to just visit her kids/grand kids. Majority of these flights from India will have these old parents visiting their kids, and I am always awed by the patience and amount of stress they take.I feel very tired and stressed with that no movement, little food, juss sleep sessions.and if you are a vegetarian with no drinking ' skills' all that u can do is to sleep.

and they way they glide thru it, makes me feel ashamed of myself.

so the paatti ( Tamil for Grand mother...if some foreigner reads this) gets up, goes in to one of those pantries. 'Must be some special request' I thought.



and BANG....



she comes out with a tray!!!







SHE IS THE AIR HOSTESS!!!!!!







It juss took the entire travel for me to digest the fact that she IS a air hostess.
All my life I had this ''ILLUSION' that all the air hostess are sexy young ladies. c mon that Adi Godrej's wife is a air hostess.....and King fisher...it was hard to learn the reality...


and there comes, the whole fleet of 'Crew' emerged out of the curtains.I had a tough time differentiating which one is the curtain, and which one is a piece of cloth on the 'Crew'.

the 'Guy' crew was no less. They were wearing soiled, unpressed, ill fitting clothes.bald old n all.

OK, everyone would find this way of description obnoxious, I am feeling it too.

but I am writing this because of the way they treated people on flight



Example one : they had to announce something like 'Please wait' .after the English announcement is done, he was tryin to say the same thing in hindi. and without covering the mike he clarifies 'Arre, wiating ko hindi mein kya bolthe re'( Whats hindi for 'Waiting')....the tapori slang.....to the whole crowd.


now , what kind of professionalism is it when a guy who's been working in the same job for years together does not know hindi for 'wait'. He would use the word day in and day out.OK, count his frayed nerves, he has a hand to cover the mike....

When the rest of the world is going 'Katrina Kaif' with Polished language skills, the state airlines is this situation


Example two:


The old man besides me is done with one cup of coffee and after some time he decided to go for another.
he politely calls the 'Attendant' and asks for a cup of coffee, while returning the used cup.
Now this gurl (If I may say so) suddenly gets aggressive, and shouts' why did you put the tissue in the cup'?

She is bothered that she has to take out a new PLASTIC, DISPOSABLE cup for the second round of coffee...It was being so rude to a customer....inhuman to a old man....absolute unprofessional attitude
so I was amused with the aunties and uncles in the flight.but MAN, I should accept one thing....FOOD....it was continuous supply of good food, Indian to the core...filling and good

not much option in the liquor division though, but they do serve....only if you can dare to pick that glass from a 'Hostess' who looks like ur granny...it feels so awkward and all u can see is ur granny saying 'Ayyo ayyo'....


after the Frankfurt stop over, my co passenger changed

and I donno whats wrong with my travel stars........It is ALWAYS that I have a KID , who is never beyond 4 years , as my co passenger.Middle aged aunties glorifying their engg kids( why cant they carry them along?) Young married aunties with their 4 and below kids...IT never changed.....

This time it was oldies...the one on this side is a Catholic father working in California.Mallu from Kerela.From him , I understood the difference between a Pastor and a Father.then this new co passenger.

This guy was old again, dint seem like very easy guy.Very reserved and I thought his wave length did not match with mine.Somewhere during those silent ,monotonous hours, he started a conversation.
As usual, where am I going, what do I do , what did I study....
IT was my turn to ask questions.....

I said where in US?..........


His answer 'I am on a 21 day vacation, US tour'......now.....that was not a regular answer I expected.Like I said, I expected this guy to be visiting his kid in US.

Next Question : do u have anyone in the US who would receive you at the Airport.
answer NO


and what does he do for a living....He has a Gas agency.....the cooking gas, HP agency in a town near Guntur. Narsapuram, a very small town and not famous for anything.Juss one in million.


And the grace and etiquette with which he was speaking, was wonderful.HE sounded like a typical business tycoon on his business trip.but the way he dressed and his humble ways...never quite matched with a business tycoon.

and because I found it interesting, I keep shooting questions...
He is on a 21 day vacation at us, visiting every place across US.He is a 70 year old guy
3 kids, all gurls...all married.....all welll settled......

his wife has arthritis , so cant travel ...so he is alone.......

then he talks about his passion...Travelling...and showed his passport


If I were in a train, I wd have gone out near the door and tried containing the surprise....


HE had a Epitome Passport, with VISA s from God knows what countries...

And not like me and the scores of others, who travel on the work....thats all leisure roaming.....if there is some word called Global warming, this should be 'Global roaming'.

He started telling about the major attractions in each country, the people, the rules the norms, his favourite places in the world ( quite predictable, New Zealand and Switzerland) et al.


IT made a wonderful time pass, the pace at which he told..........like some old movie star, narrating his story....slowly sipping his wine( which he was doing)....


and suddenly it veered from his travel life to his personal life......He has this Gas agency which he started some 35 years ago.He did his graduation and wasn't interested in a job.using his connections, he got this dealership...

His father was a very rich guy and his brothers took up jobs unlike him.

He told me how they struggled to get a foothold in to almost non existent market.how he went to each and every door in the afternoons, when the lady of the house would be free to talk....how he explained each and every woman about natural gas

Apparently he used to arrange a free demo of how to cook on a LPG stove and how easy it is to cook without smoke.

and how he felt when none turned up to these demos.

of painstakingly clarifying that the gas cylinder will not burst, its made of very strong steel

Every time the users found a new risk involved...the biggest being death...so no one wanted to try the new way of cooking....

so it went on....his company went in to losses..year after year...

When he said how long that went....it almost sounded unreal.........



the company ran on losses for 14 years, Fourteen God damn years

and every year he lost, his father would give him money....his share in the property

so he was eroding his own wealth....and he had 3 girls..

imagine, in that age, 3 girls...he got them to good schools though.........

so the hardships apparently went on for 14 years....and he never abandoned his afternoon demos.slowly people started accepting his ideas..

and he could sell some connections...and it went on.......and the numbers slowly started increasing.......

and he never stopped having that personal touch with everyone of his customer........



Turn to 2008, he has more than a lakh customers and he makes two lakhs every month, post tax.......

HE employs some 20 odd people and all of them are insured and given salary as per labour laws.



you could have heard stories like this, but I never saw a person who survived it.

and above all, he apparently had a son too....he was born with congenital heart disease.....he needed specialized care and surgery, and this guy never had money....

He juss haplessly watched his only son die a silent death..............could not afford his surgery......no one to help....



Fourteen years, fourteen years of challenge, 14 years of struggle, 14 years of faith, of loss.....

It almost seemed impossible....how many can survive such hardships..........

he not only survived it, but triumphed over every hurdle he faced...



at times when one month of hectic schedule drives us to the edges of depression, 6 months of global financial crisis, jeopardizes our jobs and the related tension seems insurmountable, when smallest of issues become our 'to hell with it' frustrations........where are we

how are we taking life....when we are unable to see life beyond an year.................and live life on a edge as if its gonna end tomorrow........

Stressed to the core for the smallest of things , thinking about what would happen to the 'Future'.......

with such 'trained' emotional quotients and 'studied' perspectives........why cant we survive a night of darkness.......



which school of thought taught him to fight the situation, not losing hope, of having faith in himself. How did he get over the loss .......he sure must have and a perspective...a vision...



Despite all these, what made him pursue his passion of travel.its accepting life as it is...of looking beyond the moment........of accepting the past and inviting future...........its living life



What I could see from his story was to look beyond today........and accepting things.Of looking at things on a broader perspective..Life is not that short.......it might end anytime.........but its gonna be long until then.......



for what ever life throws at you, finding ways of living every moment of it is life..of making the best of now and think there is tomorrow is wonderful.......



Yes there is tomorrow



after every dark night, there is a sunny morning

after every long winter..there is wonderful spring time

After every fury of a volcano, there is fertile earth for recreation



and the cycle goes on, like it did from eons.......



I learned from him to look beyond the shorter spans of time, of having faith, of facing hardships with modesty, of accepting life...of having a purpose, of having a vision and fighting for it , of living a life and making the most of it......



I wish I never forget this episode ( looking forward to a psychology masters after I am 75)

If anyone needs this lesson, more than anybody else....it ME