Pilots, politicians and low-cost flying

So the other day I was flying in to Bangalore, (and no, not by Jet, thankfully!) when gun toting terrorazzi stormed into the aircraft.u00a0

u00a0Now what do you think of, when you see guys with guns, on planes. Kandahar, here I come, I thought to myself. But that was just the advance party, the sniffer dogs of the human variety, for Madame Gandhi who was pledging her troth to the poor starving farmers, by cutting corners and horror of horrors, doing something no other Gandhi had ever done before u2014 flying economy!u00a0 While some waaay down the low rung Congress babu variety who was caught snoozing in the biz section, was seen shamefacedly slinking into the back.u00a0

It didn't matter that fifteen seats had to be booked for her, her security cordon, her secretary and her personal entourage of food taster, hairdresser andu00a0 interpreters (Italian to Kannada, Italian to English, and one specifically for Italian to Dharam Singh who speaks a sonorous language of his own.)

It didn't matter that the airport had to splurge an extra couple of hundreds of thousands arranging for security as she walked through the economy halls.

The point was made. The Madonna was flying economy. For god sakes, she was actually flying commercial, in the first place!

Now if only YSR had actually listened to her and caught a plane with a logo on its tail fin, things wouldn't have come to such an unfortunate pass.

As one of the most charismatic guys on the bloc, hysteria and grief melted into a giant outpouring that threatened to overflow the Husain Sagar Lake. Imagine if the same thing had happened to our Chief Minister. Or hey, the previous one. Or for that matter the one before him. Not one of us would have turned a hair in our clogged metro-ed roads.

Perhaps the only ones left beating their chests would have been the pro mourners and those oily paan chewing hangers-on that always crawl out of the woodwork when the TV cameras are blazing.

Way across the Deccan Plateau, and on the other side of the stormy skies, those Jet boys really brewed up a thunderstorm.

Frankly, getting into a spat because two of their colleagues had been sacked, and getting a tummy bug en masse, smacked of immaturity. Especially at a time when their company is growing through such turbulence, by itself.

Those three-odd days turned out really expensive for their corporate and as their little boy talks went late into the night, Jet's bottom line was giving an all new meaning to the Red Eye.u00a0 If they could be so immature, you think you can trust them to take the right decision when piloting a plane through a situation?

The other day, an ad in the papers was quite ironic it thanked all Jet customers for being patientu00a0 and supportive.u00a0 Like any of us have a choice except Soniaji, that is!