Comics of Air Travel

I lay no claim to be a frequent dasher across the face of the earth, but if you can't relax after 3 trans-continental trips in a year, you never can. So it was time to assure myself that air travel doesn't mean a mad dash across air terminals into the mouth of nowhere! With the company of the iPod, the travel was made very pleasurable.

• There was this airport employee who was picking my suitcase after the baggage scan and i was nearly bambozzled by his efficiency before realising that he was trying to get the baggage of a lady accompanied by a police officer. A few seconds after i notice the airport person pick my baggage, he realises the same - and to my surprise, he just drops the suitcase!
• The line in the Lufthansa counter is slow; there is this lady in brick red dress who joins the line after me, looks around totally lost; A few seconds, her relative - the airport officer arrives and whisks her away to the business class check-in counter: advantages of having employees in key places
• This lady was replaced by another 'lost' one & she had no relatives to help her. She confessed to me that she was first time traveller and did not exactly know what to do. I ended up helping her right to boarding the plane
• After baggage check-in, moved across the floor to Immigration. It stumps me as to how people never leave any way across a hallway. They need to park the trolley 2 inches behind you & bump the trolley atleast a dozen times
• Flight was quite enjoyable - last time around Lufthansa had Hindi movie & this time, they changed to Tamizh; talk about catering to the local market
• I can still not understand the rush for people to de-board a plane as soon as it lands. Atleast 75% have a connecting flight not earlier than a couple of hours and it beats me that they always are in a hurry
• I got the last seat on the Frankfurt-Boston sector and it is not as bad as it sounds.
• While collecting baggage, there was a smoke scare leading to waiting outside the airport terminal for nearly an hour. No compliants though, as i will always take a 60F afternoon over the 100F (in Chennai, with 80% humidity!)

I finished David Beckham's My Side - a thoroughly enjoyable book. The best thing about the book is that there is very little mention of the zillions that he has accumulated (though it did show in all the vacations, travels etc); the way he tries leading a normal life; the way he calls Sir Alex Ferguson - gaffer; a very pragmatic analysis of why left ManU; detailed coverage of his international stint. A few areas to work on - we know you love your family, wife & kids, there is no need to mention that once every 5 pages.

The next book in my list is the Biography of Nelson Mandela.