One of the comments on my post said that Airports are perhaps one of the best places to reflect upon. How true it is indeed. Today I'm flying back from Jaipur. But its been an interesting experience. And I would think about them as colours. Reason being they just seem to show the vivid colours of life that make it so beautiful along with its darker shades as well.
The Colours: As I proceed to security check there is a bunch of 4 people ahead of me. Two "original" foreigners and two "wannabe" foreigners (ladies). They giggle into the security bay. One of them (lets call her A) first raises her pitch into a funny frequency and says "ooh you would want to see our laptops right .. here it is". And then she promptly heads towards the guys' side. Uh oh ... she realises and again giggles to the right side. Her friend follows (lets call her B), "no no please the bag should go like this". The two, between them, are carrying as much luggage as can be allowed perhaps. And then as we go ahead watching the drama. The scanner detects something so the lady A is politely asked to show her suitcase. She first grabs hold of her laptop (covered in a velvet bag by the way) and then promptly heads off. And poor security people have to shout to get her attention to show her suitcase. If I had thought I had seen enough of their weird behaviour more was to come.
The lady sits in the lounge and promptly lights up a cigarette. For a moment I was left wondering that have I visited enough airports in this country or not coz none allows smoking in the lounges. I look around and much to my relief even this doesn't because there are smoke detectors around. So it is indeed a non-smoking zone after all. So the next question I ask myself is that has this lady travelled much by air? And incidentally I forgot to give you one piece of the detail that apart from their accentuated speech there clothes are as much accentuated as they can get. Anyways who am I to interfere. My only option is just to wonder.. While I'm thinking about all these things a lady with her kid comes upto her and requests the lady that please don't smoke as her kid gets uncomfortable and this place is anyways not a smoking zone. Prompt comes a reply can you please take your kid to the gate as I can't go back to the security area !! Poor lady goes away.
I suddenly get into thinking about a certain kind of people who always want attention and can't live without it. Just as I am trying to figure out how she fits the bill in this profile, a gentleman shouts from the other seat "Can't you listen if someone is requesting you not to smoke. That too in a non-smoking zone!!". Just as I tried to gauge what would be her response she shouts back to her friends- "who the hell is he to talk to me like that? Noone talks to me like that. I don't give a fuck. If you wanna fight come and fight." I couldn't help smiling. After all it was a perfect example of a response of highly insecure person who knows she's wrong and yet she wants all the attention. And so the cigarette continued to emit the smoke. Soon after she got up to board her flight and left the cup she was using as an ashtray where she was sitting. I called up her friend and requested for the cup to be thrown away. Prompt came the reply "Jaane dijiye na (let it go)". I got up to throw away the cup myself. With 20 eyes following me and two ashamed ones I felt satisfied doing that. I don't know what prompted that action of mine but I felt happy doing it. I don't care what the world does but I knew I was right. Her friend ashamed by now started thanking me and I chose to ignore. Small incidence but a significant one for me. To know myself and to know others surrounding me. How happy I felt to know that I was perhaps not as good as the world claims to be. I'm happy being what I am.
The rest of the flight passed uneventfully. Mumbai as usual was a pain as soon as I landed thanks to the taxi guys. Beware : Never take a blue "pre-paid" cab at Mumbai airport and check the charts of yellow taxis before getting in.
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