CHRONICLES OF A CABIN CREW………A LOG OF MY EXPERIENCES 2

( Disclaimer:  All names of the crew have been changed in order to protect their privacy..Any resemblance of the names mentioned herein is purely coincidental without any malice to anyone)

In my career I have flown many aircrafts and the first huge aircraft that I flew was the 747-200 classic aircraft. Before I go into the details of the incident that I am about to write I need to familiarize my readers a little about the aircraft and the crew compliment.

In any case the jumbos are JUMBO and they are huge in terms of size and volume. Hence the crew compliment during those times were 19 comprising of an IFS (Inflight Supervisor), 4 Pursers,4 assistant Flight pursers and 10 hostesses . At the CCMCO ie Cabin Crew Movement Control office we would all assemble, IFS would then allocate working positions in the aircraft and that was purely based on seniority. We being the junior most would always end up getting the tougher zones mainly the aft economy. The economy configuration of the classic then was, if I am not mistaken, 334 passengers. Therefore economy was divided in three zones and they were C, D, & E zones. D&E zones had the maximum number of passengers and we as juniors would inevitably end up working there.

Being young and not having seen the world and not having been exposed to the various cultures and its nuances, we found humor in everything. Along with that we were brash and sometimes we would not understand what exactly customer service was. Basically we had not learned how to delink ourselves from ourselves in uniform then. We were very young.

The incident that I am about to narrate now to was very humourous and we talked about it for many years to come by. It was our famous London New York flight which was one of the most sought after flight and was very tough flight for us Assistant Flight Purser. We were on our return leg and we would take the flight from London. Usually the call time for this flight was early around 0700 hrs in the morning as far as I remember. I usually made it a practice that I would wake up half an hour before call so at around 0630 I got up and saw a slip underneath the door of my room. I picked it up and it read and it was a delay notice. The flight would now depart at night and accordingly the call time given was 1800 hrs. I was happy, drank a glass of water and went back to sleep. Just then my batch mate Shomnath called me to inform me the same.

Now we were at the airport and we boarded the flight. I was assigned the A4 position which meant that I was in charge of the aft of the aft galley. This Galley catered to 205 passengers hence it had an attached galley with configuration for 92 passengers and my friend and batchmate Shomnath was manning that galley. Passenger boarding started and one passenger huffing and snorting and shouting came and took his seat which was the exit row seat just near the galley where Shomnath was working. Now we being Assistant Flight Pursers we mainly worked in the galley doing the mise en place (A French Word Meaning preparations before the service) , getting ready for the liquor service and the dinner service. Liquor was chargeable then. We were not paying attention to this passenger as we had the pursers and the hostesses who were senior to us and they interact with passengers and do the service in the cabin. So we were not paying any attention to this passenger but we could clearly hear the series and barrages of abuses that he was throwing at Air India and Us. Ofcourse flight was delayed and passengers have the right to be angry was the first thought came to my mind and shomnath . We both agreed that passengers have the right to get angry. This passenger came to galley and just shouted at shomnath saying, “ you Faa#$*# don’t know anything abaaut customer service” ( I am trying to write the way he spoke) “what is the reason of this delay? “aaye want som compensaytion.” I could see shomnath was getting irritated but he calmly said, “Sir please be seated I will ask my Purser to talk to you” The passenger said ,”aaye don care aayem taking to you and you bloody will do as aaye saiy” shomnath was cool as a cucumber and said, “Yes sir I will call him soon”. The passenger took his seat but kept on grumbling. Shomnath came to my galley and said, “One tight slap and he will be in his senses” I said, “cool lets chill the bars”, which meant we had to open the bar carts and put ice on the bears and wines and our Pursers would check the bear cans whether they are chilled properly or not and if not then we would get a piece of his mind too.

This Passenger dressed in a three-quarter short and a heavy hooded jacket with earphones plugged in his ears and the other end plugged in a walkman somehow attached on his belt. Since the flight was delayed every agencies hurried to get the flight airborne. The flight took off.

. Liquor service started and the hostess approached him. Now this girl was also new round about our batch and she was the one who would serve this irate passenger. "What would you like to drink sir?" she asked. He replied, " Kaanii haav som raacks with maa whisky?" The hostess was perplexed. Her eyes were expressive of the fact that she understood nothing. She asked again. "Yes sir?' The Passenger now removed his ear phones in a way that showed that he was more than disgusted  and said,"kaanii haav som raacks with maa whiskey?" The girl now was completely  perplexed so she went to Shomnath and told him that this passenger is asking something which she is unable to decipher.. Shomnath asked who the passenger was and she told him that the same passenger who was shouting in the galley.  Shomnath said okay and in that Okay I noticed that he his on a war path. I was just praying that he should not have any unpleasant arguments and that he should be able to control the situation. Shomnath went to the passenger and very somberly asked him what exactly he wanted. The passenger was furious to infinity and  said,"aalii wont  som raacks with maa whiskey whaaii is it so difficoolt to understaand?' Shomnath understood exactly what he wanted, he caught hold of his hand, I looked the other wayexpecting the worst, and took him to the door viewing window and said, " Sir we are flying at 34000 feet I cant give you any raacks (rocks).  The way Shomnath , he has a baritone voice, spoke and the way he caught hold of the passenger’s hand had some definitive effect on the passenger. The passenger immediately and timidly said ,"neyii neyii borof chahiye" . The moment he said "borof" we understood that he is a Bengali because how hard one Bengali may try to speak Hindi or any other Indian language his accent will have the "O" incorporated. It was now Shomnath’s turn to speak to him and he asked him,"You are a Bengali right ?" The guy was perplexed. it was his turn to be perplexed. "How do you know?" "Well your Hindi gave you away, you said Borof. Shomnath then asked him,"So how long are you in UK ?" He said, "For the last Six Months'. Shomnath was quick to remark, "Whao ..in six months your Borof has turned to raacks? that's strange because whatever India taught you in your 28 years of staying in this country has suddenly disappeared" The passenger was quite for some time and then he went to the washroom and came back changed in a trouser and a shirt. Somewhere I guess this entire episode had some retrospective effect on him. Later after all the services were over Shomnath sat in the jump seat facing him and a little later the passenger started talking to him and asked him whether Shomnath was from Kolkatta or not and Shomnath said yes and then the logical question was which place in kolkatta to which Shomnath said he stays in jadavpur . Now this passenger also said that he stays in the same locality. This was the time I joined Shomnath on the jump seat. I also told the passenger that I am also a Bong . We both noticed that there was a drop of sweat around the passenger’s neck. Conversations continued and we found out that he has done masters in geography from Ballygunj Science College. I quipped and said,  “Oh is it? I too have done my masters from the same college and I would be going there in a fortnight to attend the Dept of anthropology get together. I mentioned a name of a professor and he was now sweating quite visibly.

The passenger now knew that we have information about him with which we can play about and so he was very very apologetic about his behavior and was trying to impress upon us that it was all because he had a hard time at his work place and that he is not like this at all .

We both just smiled and I told him that he needs to rest and that we would pull the curtain so that he can rest. Just before deplaning at Mumbai he was again apologetic to shomnath.  Shomnath didn’t say anything but just smiled.