Saturday 27 November 2021

A flight to forget!


 
Sometimes, you have soooooo simple expectations from life but then Murphy's law takes over and ruins all your plans.

The day started quite well. It was Vivek's birthday, so I already had a smile. I was travelling from Pune. At the security check, the person read the caption on my t-shirt and asked me 'is your name Rakesh?' I replied yes with a smile and he said - 'Cool caption' and even gave me a fist-bump with a trail. I was delighted and had an ear to ear smile on my face.

Unfortunately, I didn't know that this would be the only good thing happening that day. I don't want to name blame any airline, so let's call it chilliJet. At first, the flight got delayed from 11am by 1 hour. When I boarded the plane, I got the shock of my life. Never had I ever expected such a scene ever in my life. It looked like I had entered some old delapidated bus. The seats were so old and worn out that I didn't even dare take photo fearing I may ruin it further by exposing it to my mobile's flash light.

After the plane took off from Pune, the pilot realised mid way that the fuel was low. I think Maruti should start designing planes too - 'inka to petrol hi khatam ho jata hai'. Now instead of landing at Nagpur or Bhopal which would be on route, the pilot decided to go back to Mumbai to refuel. I am quite sure his girlfriend was waiting for him in Mumbai that we went in opposite direction. It was so hot and even the AC was not working.

It was already 2pm, when I should have already landed at my destination, but I was stuck in Mumbai with hundreds of angry and hungry passengers. I have faced flight delays before too but this was pathetic #chilliJetSucks. Forget food, they didn't even distribute water till we had reached halfway after flying from Mumbai. It was only after almost half the people threatened to take over the plane that they distributed fruit juice just before landing. And at 5pm, when I should have reached my home, I was still a 100km away contemplating whether to take train or cab and all my plans to surprise everyone at home was already ruined.

At last, I just have 1 simple advice for all the airlines - 'Please please don't keep such people as pilots who have been used to fill their bikes with petrol worth Rs.100 only for their whole life.'