Flight 6E 785, from Hyderabad to Bhubaneswar took off 45 minutes late.
At 9.45 PM as soon as the seat belt signs were turned off, I chose to steal some sleep. The day had not been particularly kind to me. My eyes closed, and in a few minutes, I could realize that I am sitting amidst a bunch of men who were returning after a wild vacation.
Rows 9, 10, and 11 were almost taken over by them. The harder I tried to stay detached from their conversation, the more I was getting drawn into their world. How to miss the ringside view when I was at the center of the ring?
Observing that most of the conversations were directed at the one sitting at 9C I could guess that he is the leader of the pack. He demonstrated his knowledge and experience of doing many flights in the past by first taking the responsibility of ordering snacks for his fellow mates - he only knew how to order by speaking in a language the air hostess could make sense of. He also showed off his confidence by objecting to the quality of masala tea that was served. Having made the hostess apologize, he turned back to give a victorious look at his friends who were sitting behind him. His friends giggled and he took a bow by giving a broad toothy smile. I saw three completely black gutka-stained teeth. His alpha-male status in his pack was not without a reason.
Then he suddenly realized that he has forgotten to give very important instructions to his friends before they had started eating their snacks. He alerted everyone of a piece of white plastic locked to the back of the seat to their front. He said that it’s a food tray and not to be confused with a baby seat. One of his sisters-in-law had confused that to be a baby seat and had tried to make his toddler sit in an attempt to feed him. The naivete of his relative had left him red-faced. His friends joined in with a chorus of giggles.
After a few minutes, our alpha curled to the side and a few of his friends started giving him vigorous massages around his neck and back. His tee-shirt was wet around the neck. He was in acute pain. We naturally got worried about his health and I finding one of his friends sitting next to me calmly looking at the development in the front row, asked him what was happening. He told me that Alpha has been eating whatever he found available since morning. Now because of PETA GARAM, he has GAS, and because of this, he has JARA and now KAMPA. A good Samaritan sitting around him offered to give him some tablet he was carrying in his luggage.
I was curious to know more about these guys. They were 12 of them mostly from Pahala and Hansapal areas who for the last 7 days have been doing Mysore, Ooty, Bangalore, and now returning home after doing two days of Hyderabad. Many of them are doing real estate, transportation, and rasagola and civil contract business. They chose this time of the year for their vacation as many of them got their claims paid at the end of the financial year.
Some 15/ 20 minutes had passed in between. After taking the Tablet of India - Dolo 650; our alpha male had started feeling better. By that time the announcement of arrival was already made and the hostesses had sprung up to get the craft and passenger ready for landing some 25 minutes away. Things were much less tense and the air was filled with guffaws, serially getting up to go to the loo and exchanging their seats and also sitting at the partially vacant emergency exit. Their game which was attracting the hostess’s attention kept them excited.
All these times our Alpha was keeping quiet. He twisted his torso and swung his head to the back to ask loudly if anyone has checked what has been cooked back at home for dinner. On being told that its Chakuli and some vegetable curry without onion and garlic for Rama Nabami, our alpha male gave a disgusted look. He expected a bigger and better spread for his heroics and homecoming. Even immediately after his near-death experience, our Odia Bhai hadn't forgotten his first love - food.
Some days back a friend was lamenting how modern development has killed many micro-cultures in Old Town areas. But it was so assuring to know that they now exist 37000 feet above mean sea level.
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