The Long Trip to India - Cattle Truck to Chennai

So far, we have been treated very well in Paris - every one polite and courteous to us, as everyone should be to every other human being. Stories told by my father's generation about Indians abroad getting second rate treatment seem (as they do in the US) absurd. Things begin to change though as we board the Delta flight to Chennai. The second rate treatment of Indians it will turn out, is done exclusively b other Indians themselves.

As we queue up to board the flight, we pass through a luggage "spot check". All our luggage is selected to be checked by the supervisor. The supervisor waves through other single Europeans, but has deemed that my family with two little girls, is a security threat. He makes us step to a table, where he opens and systematically goes through all our luggage.

As he does this he starts chatting to me in a mixture of pure Tamil, and broken English. He is from Pondicherry (a part of Tamilnadu, once colonized by the French and where every original inhabitant was given French citizenship.) He tells me, he has chosen us for a security check SPECIFICALLY because we are Indian and because we are a family with small children.

Seeing that I look puzzled, he explains that he has given the rest of the persons in the queue, a "psychological signal", that absolutely no one is immune from a security check. He seems a nice guy, but I am irritated at his logic, and take petty pleasure when he opens my bag and finds he has to go through my used underwear which, I had simply thrown in at the top as per my usual method of packing.

It turns out, that it makes absolutely no sense for him to check my luggage at that point, because our luggage remains in our possession, unsupervised, for a further twenty minutes as we wait in a long queue to get to the check-in counter. This marks the first time in the five years that I have been abroad, that I have been singled out, for being an Indian (and it was done by an other Indian.)

We wait for the plane. Almost all the people waiting to board are Indian, with a smattering of non-Indians, and, judging from their clothes, a few people of Indian origin. The announcement that boarding has begun is made, and there is a mad rush to get to through the gates.

We decide to wait till the rush is over. Once through the gate, we enter the boarding walkway tunnel that typically would take us to the plane. It turns out, we end up at a stairwell, that takes us to the tarmac, where we find a crowded bus waiting to take us to the plane. My youngest daughter refuses to board the bus. I ask the waiting technician if there is going to be another bus, but he does not answer me.

I ask again, slightly irritated and he speaks into his walkie talkie, and continues to not answer me. We wait, refusing to board the bus. I know the plane cannot take of without us anyway. Meanwhile, other Indians, rush past us and squeeze into the already crowded bus. We continue to wait. Finally, an other bus, pulls up behind the crowded one. Interestingly, no one else seemst to believe that the second empty bus is going to go to the same plane and late comers continue to squeeze into the crowded first bus. Finally the crowded bus leaves. Since the plane is due to take off soon, the empty bus follows almost immediately after and we go in the empty bus.

It dawns on me that all this is carefully planned by someone at Delta - someone who must be an Indian and who knows that Indians are used to traveling in over crowded buses and that by keeping a single bus waiting, they can pack it to the maximum, simply by leveraging the "scarcity mentality" of the average Indian. This way, Delta's overheads are reduced - they need to run fewer buses; plus their aircraft docking fees are greatly reduced, as the plane can be kept at some far corner of the airport and not at the premium docking spots where passengers can simply walk on to the plane.

Once on the plane, we find that the overhead bins above our seats have been already packed with luggage from persons sitting in other seats. I am amazed as in the US, the bins above a seat are meant to be used by the person whose seats are below them. I complain to the extremely attractive and sweet Punjabi air-hostess who says that there is nothing she can do. She finds the owner of the luggage and asks if he can make space for some of our luggage - but he refuses, even though there is plenty of space because he has put his luggage in very inefficiently. He says he is carrying "glass" items and so cannot have his luggage squeezed.

I stand there wondering what to do. Another Indian woman tries to help - she points to an open bin about ten feet from me and asks me to try that. Finally, the airhostess insists to the owner of the luggage above my bin, that he make space, and she arranges it herself. She then loads one of my carry-on pieces into the bin and prepares to carry the remaining to the front "coat" section for storage. I feel bad for her and take the luggage for her, and store it in the front.

I recall behaving much the same way as the "gentleman" whose luggage is occupying "my" bin, many years ago, when I was leaving India for the first time. It dawns on me, that there is a "scarcity mentality" that lies behind much of the petty behavior I have seen so far.

The Delta plane is old - it still has "ash trays" and there is no "console" behind every seat. Again it strikes me that this is all carefully planned by the higher-ups at Delta - some very savvy "operations" people who know just how much they can get away with.

We have an uneventful trip the rest of the way. The airhostess and one airhost, are all very helpful, and sweet. They go a long way to making the trip more enjoyable. This has been the one common feature on all the flights to India - the cabin crew are so sweet and helpful - going far out of their way to help the travelers, some of whom are quite boorish.