The dawn of 2021 brought with it a new basis of division among humankind; one section remained as scared and cautious of the virus as it was during last year and another stepped out to face the world with a ‘que sera sera’ attitude. I fall in the former category. After not budging from the safety of my Pune abode for the past eleven months, I started feeling the pressure from my wife who had to bear with me during this tenure. Instagram posts from her vacationing friends and family drove her to become more assertive. Eventually, I had to bow before her plan of us to fly to Delhi with our four-year-old kid.
I was prepared for D-day; in fact, more than prepared. The first step was to book an open autorickshaw with a safety partition between the driver and passenger seat, instead of a closed air-conditioned cab, to drop us at the airport. Needless to say, I sprayed ample sanitizer on the seats and most other interior parts of the autorickshaw before stepping into it. All was going well, albeit with a slight apprehension in my mind, till we reached the airport.
The first sight of the long queues comprising of hundreds of people standing inches away from each other, leading up to the entry gates, made me almost abort our travel plan and return to base. But the pinch on my arm by my wife, who probably read my mind, and the pinch I could foresee on my pocket by the non-refundable over-expensive flight tickets drew me into one of the dreaded queues. I spent the next forty-five minutes in the queue policing people sporting no masks or masks below nose and chin levels.
“Seat numbers 14E, 24B, and 26B for you, sir. Have a nice journey,” said the airline staff who handed over our boarding passes. “But I am traveling with a child…”
“Sorry, we cannot help you as the flight is fully booked. Please try to adjust with the passenger in your adjacent seat after boarding the flight. Have a nice journey.”
Worried, I headed towards the security gates, where it was a complete bloodbath! Distances between people in the queues had shrunk and masks had slid further down from the nose. I spent the next thirty minutes in the queue again policing people sporting no masks or masks below nose and chin levels.
Finally, while boarding the flight I saw a ray of hope when the airline staff started handing over a PPE kit including a mask, a face shield, and sanitizer pouches to each passenger. Further, the security personnel ensured that everyone was wearing these properly before entering the flight. However, as soon as I entered the flight, I realized that we weren’t the only family with allocated seats strewn across the length of the airplane. There was a commotion with people negotiating with each other to ensure that they could sit with their respective family members. Heated discussions and frustration had brought off quite a few masks and face shields. Putting aside all thoughts about COVID, I jumped into the commotion, but fully armored with my PPE kit.
Much to my surprise, even though the commotion caused a bit of delay in take-off, every family in the flight managed to negotiate adjacent seats for their members. The air-hostess announced, “We have kept complimentary bottles of drinking water for you at the rear end of this airplane. To avoid contact, we would request you to help yourself,” which triggered a stream of people to head towards the spot. Till now passengers had started complaining about the uncomfortable PPE robes, vision-restricting face shields, and suffocating masks which resulted in quite a few people strolling in the aisle with exposed nose and lips. Tired, but not yet entirely defeated, for the umpteenth time I continued policing people sporting no masks or masks below nose and chin levels.
That’s when the next announcement happened, “Ladies and gentlemen. We have reached cruising altitude. Complimentary food and beverage service will commence in approximately fifteen minutes.” That was it. This ironic revelation put to rest every remaining COVID protection gear on the airplane and my already dwindled hope of not contracting the virus that day. However, to look at the brighter side, if I get out of this one scratchless, I just might turn into the latter category with a ‘que sera sera’ attitude. Only time will tell. Till then I will persuade myself and my family to forgo such complimentary food and beverage services and remain cocooned inside our PPE kits.
