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Indian wants to offload airhostesses who are overweight. So what about fat pursers?

In these days of hourglass figures and size-zero heroines, here’s some good news for the weight-enhanced. The Supreme Court has weighed in on the side of weight. The apex court, commenting on an ongoing case between the national carrier, Indian, and airhostesses dismissed or grounded for being overweight, has condemned the tyranny of the thin. The Bench told the State carrier that the real issue should not be the weight of the airhostesses but how well they behave with the passengers onboard. The judge, a fellow sympathiser, spoke of his own losing battle of the bulge.

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What we’d like to know is why should a few pounds here and there take on gender connotations. The male flight pursers, not to mention some of the pilots, are not exactly lean and mean. Yes, so much extra baggage could cramp your style in an emergency. And this applies to all cabin crew. Now, you may argue, that aesthetics could be a reason why we need hourglass figured airhostesses. We’ll have you know that in some cultures, less is not more. It is the adipose-enhanced who are in demand. Or take the erstwhile Air-India mascot, the Maharaja. Would he have evoked such nostalgia if he were as thin as a whip? We don’t think so.

No matter what the final verdict of the case is, let’s hope that it will be balanced. This should tilt the scales in favour of the portly. It could be a learning curve, or in this case curves, for those who sit on judgment on such weighty matters. Soon we’ll be able to tell fat from fiction.