Malavika’s Mumbaistan: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

How to fly, joyfully and gratefully. When you think about it, it’s really quite miraculous and magical that you are here at all. Pushing your trolley. Boarding a flight. Fastening your seat belt. Snoozing or reading or staring out of the window, alone with your thoughts, your feelings, yourself

By now, you’ve seen the video.

It’s the Season of Peace and Goodwill to all folks and here’s wishing that Tiger and Dragon go on to enjoy many pleasant years of flying and even laugh over the incident up in the sky over some tepid masala chai and instant upma some day. (Illustration/Ganesh Gamare)

Everyone with an internet connection has.

Indigo Flight 6E 12 from Istanbul to Delhi; on December 16, 2022.

Nasty little screaming match between on-camera airhostess (Crouching Tiger) and off-camera passenger (Hidden Dragon).

Raised voices. Heated exchange. A bit of finger pointing. A few instances of misused prepositions… All resulting in a viral video and a predictable palaver on social media where interestingly, public sympathy appears to be equally divided between the Crouching Tiger and the Hidden Dragon.

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But, contrary to the current discourse, IMHO what transpired on Indigo’s Flight 6E 12 this week was refreshingly decorous, dignified and even chaste, in comparison to other widely -circulated instances of recent mid-air skirmishes ( A middle aged passenger being pinned to the ground and pummelled by airline staff! Swarthy north-Indian males hurling expletives at each other and coming to blows!)

Consider the facts:

A. Throughout the recent 6E 12 Istanbul –Delhi no one resorted to that hoary old Indian practice of the hopelessly entitled or endearingly confused: ‘Do you know who I am?!’

B. No expletives were employed during the entire exchange.

C. There were no overtly sexist / racist remarks hurled either, nor any personal attacks.

D. Yes, there was finger pointing but mercifully no physical aggression, neither was there any spectator interference (besides another member of crew trying to restrain her colleague.)

E. Though Crouching Tiger was visibly enraged, throughout, she did use words such as: ‘With due to respect, sir’; and though she raised her voice repeating ‘I am NOT your servant’, the jury’s out on whether the passenger had actually called her ‘his’ servant or referred to her in a more general way, as ‘being a servant of the airline’ and she had misconstrued it.

F. In fact, though obviously furious, Crouching Tiger had displayed an admirable dignity and pride in her professional position and on his part the passenger (our Hidden Dragon) had also come across as reasonably restrained, especially when you consider that he hadn’t resorted to points A,B and C ; therefore, it is this columnist’s ardent hope that except for enrolment in some anger management classes, no recriminatory action should be taken against either party and the matter should be put to rest as a learning experience.

It’s the Season of Peace and Goodwill to all folks and here’s wishing that Tiger and Dragon go on to enjoy many pleasant years of flying and even laugh over the incident up in the sky over some tepid masala chai and instant upma some day.

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Service Providers:

Cabin crew. Ground staff. Delivery persons. Bank personnel. Store assistants.

Vendors. Restaurant Staff. Servicemen in your home, such as carpenters, plumbers, electricians. Domestic Staff. Nurses. Call center employees. Building watchmen. Lift men…

A significant part of ‘adulting’ is that we are called upon to engage with them at every turn of our days and lives.

So it’s important to know that it’s not too difficult to make each and every encounter with them a delight and joy if only we remember to:

A. Treat others like one would want to be treated oneself.

B. Offer consideration, empathy, understanding and maturity to the best of one’s ability in every situation.

C. Be aware of one’s tone of voice, body language and internal and external mood when dealing with others

D. Observe oneself as often as possible as if on hidden camera through the eyes of others.

E. Remember everyone that you meet is fighting battles that you know nothing about.

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As someone who unabashedly loves everything to do with the experience of travel (airports, queues, people-watching, samosas) and who has in their half century of air travel never been party or even witness to any airline unpleasantness ( barring one instance of mild racism at an European airport); in fact , as someone who was blissed out on a flight on another sector, on the very same airline, on the very same day and time when the 6E 12 incident was taking place, it would not be out of place to share my tips on how to experience smooth, joyful, friction-free flying:

A. Enjoy each and every moment of the journey.

B. For whatever the reason, you are going somewhere, bag in hand, hope in your heart, soon to be aloft, along with a set of random people, your fellow humans. And there is just so much to see, experience, observe, learn and share along the way.

C. Savour the minutae of your journey. Even the long queues; the inordinate delays; the jostling crowds; the wailing infant behind you and the never ending consoles and confusion and commotions.

Because when you think about it, it’s really quite miraculous and magical that you are here at all. Pushing your trolley. Boarding a flight. Fastening your seat belt. Adjusting your seat. Snoozing or reading or staring out of the window, alone with your thoughts, your feelings, yourself.

Relax. Breathe. Unwind…

This too is part of your life, your journey…

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And if for some reason you forget that your birth and death are nothing short of unfathomable miraculous, magical mysteries ( along with everything that transpires in-between them) and the matter of being short changed on your meal preference makes pressures and voices and tempers rise: try and remind yourself that you are in a man-made contraption, on a spinning planet, suspended on a puff of wind 30 miles above the ground, in the middle of the sky and that at the end of the day the issue of whether you get a hot or cold meal is not a matter of life and death after all…

Merry Christmas folks. Peace and Goodwill to Y’all.