Scene 1: Changi Airport, Singapore 7:05 PM
The boarding pass in my hand indicated that my flight to Dhaka can be only availed at gate A52 and the flight was scheduled at 8:05 PM.
I had to take the train to Terminal 3 to reach this gate. At Terminal 3, I started to locate my gate… I passed by gates one by one.. I guess, the gates started from A11.. I kept walking.. walking .. walking.. oh dear ! A52 is a long way to go… I inevitably had to admire, what a huge airport this Changi Airport was.. Hats off to the architect !! He has made sure that every passenger realizes it is indeed a big airport !
Still walking(sometimes on ground & sometimes on the travellator ), I now see the density of people is gradually coming down.. In fact, I now realize I am passing by gates which didn't have any flights scheduled there and so very few people around.. By now, my legs are tiring.. But but still A52 is far away ! “What is this ? Where is this A52 gate? Is it in Singapore itself Or am I walking all the way to Dhaka?” exclaimed my mind !
Still walking.. from one point onwards, it was absolutely no-man’s land.. I again look at my boarding pass making sure if there is any printing mistake. No, it still indicates gate A52. I finally reach a point where I had to turn right and ah ! I breathe a sigh of relief. Finally, I get to see some people at the far end of this terminal.. but hey what is this? It is not some people.. It is a lot of people!
Scene 2: Gate A52
Within few minutes, I had experienced transition from pin-drop silence to mayhem ! There were lots of people sitting, standing, chatting, chit-chatting, babies crying, sounds of plastics rubbing each other, sounds of items falling down..and what not? And I notice, there were people with so much luggage ! many of them having more than 3 luggage..while some people had more number of luggages than their hands can hold. The luggages varied from footwear to clothes to children toys to big baggages. I began to wonder, were these guys checking in at the boarding gate? What about my check-in baggage which I through-checked in at KL airport? For a moment, I was a bit confused and also feared loss of my luggage.
But, luckily it didn't take me long to realize that all those luggages were not actually for check-in, the guys were infact holding on to their hand baggages ! :P
Now I just stopped myself short of imagining what could be the volume of their check-in luggages !!
While standing in the queue, I notice one of the security guys is holding a small but thick iron rod in his hand (The ones which is carried by police in Europe(probably even in Singapore, but I haven’t seen them)). I was taken aback. And on top of that he was screaming at us. I instantly felt insulted ! I had never seen this kind of behavior at any airport I have visited. But quickly I realized that this guy probably just didn't have any other option. A queue to the people standing there had only one meaning i.e. standing behind the person in front. It didnt matter to them, whether it was at an acute angle or at obtuse angle but definitely not in line ! The funniest part was, while, the security guy was screaming & shouting at every body, with that rod in his hand, these guys were seemingly in a different world altogether and had nothing to do with the security guard. They went about standing the way they wanted !!! Basically, I realized the security guard was at fault. He didn't know Bengali, you see ! Pity him, probably it's a punishment posting on this gate from his manager.
Scene 3: Biman Bangalesh Flight
Entering the flight, I notice four short, fat, fair, round faced with big bindi, middle-aged, saree cloud women turned up as air hostesses. Just like I am treated in any other flight, I expected these air-hostess to greet me with Namaste/Namoskar/Welcome et al. But no, sorry, I was expecting just a bit too much ! forget the greetings , I didn't seem interesting enough, for them to offer me a smile!
I quickly located my seat and sat on it. Mine was in the middle row having 4 seats with mine being 2nd from left. Slowly, rest of the crowd starting boarding the flight and it didn't take time for the flight turning into a typical fish market. And, the air-hostesses have begun shouting at the people and screaming at them while helping them to locate the seats and helping them to put their goods in to the hand baggage cabin.
Meanwhile, a well decked guy comes up with 3 baggages and starts stuffing the already stuffed hand baggage cabin. Having able to successfully stuff only two baggages in the cabin above his seat, he now turns to the adjacent cabin & pushes his other baggage into it and sits down. Few minutes later, I notice a short & thin person has begun a fight with this guy in high temper. Though I didn't understand Bengali, it was not very difficult to guess that this guy was the occupant of the seat in front of the well-decked guy. And he is arguing & scolding him for stuffing his baggage into the the cabin above him leaving no space for him. How could that guy do this ? According to him, the well-decked guy had violated the fundamental rights of a citizen of the Biman Bangladesh flight ! Meanwhile, the air-hostesses were busy screaming at people and were least bothered by this incident unfolding before them and decided its best left to the individuals to sort out the rights-to-use issue. Finally, the well-decked guy relented, removed his baggage and placed in front of him. Luckily, the fight ended quickly otherwise, the baggage space issue would have halted the flight for dunno how long !
Very soon, I saw the seats adjacent to me were occupied by 3 gentleman. The gentleman on my left was a middle-aged, stout, better-dressed fellow in his formals giving an impression of an educated man. On my right were two friends, one with a cap on his head and other without. They seemed to be hardworking labourers who had come to Singapore seeking a better income.
Even before the flight started to take off, the air-hostesses decided it's the best time to hand over the immigration forms to all the travelers, probably fearing the flight time of 4 hours, would not be sufficient for the passengers to fill in the forms before arrival in Dhaka !
I started filling the form taking out my passport. As usual my memory gave me a slip and I could not do without removing my passport out ! The guy on my right was quick to recognize that I was not a Bangladeshi but an Indian, seemingly from the color of my passport. And he started telling me in his broken English & hindi & bengali, that he was a fan of Bollywood music and he had lots of songs in his mobile phone. He had a high end mobile phone and he had stored more than 50 songs !
After a while, the flight started taking off. We were already in the stratosphere but there was no sign of the noise level coming down. People were playing loud music from their mobile phones and at a single point in time, I could listen to multiple hindi & Bengali songs. Some people were busy chatting loudly. Some guys were even half-standing on their seats, turning and talking to their friends who were atleast three four rows behind ! The scene in the flight reminded me of the scenes in a crowded KSRTC bus in my native village commuting people from village to village.
The guys next to me on the right didn't know to read and write. They promptly asked my help to fill their forms. After filling their forms, I noticed the person sitting on my left was still filling his form. In fact, he had not filled even a word. He had taken his pen out..He kept the pen in the mouth. after sometime, started scratching his head… flipped the form.. saw the Bengali version of the form.. still could not understand what the form was all about.. He looked at me, somewhat shyly or slyly. Seemingly, the form was totally out-of-syllabus for this gentleman ! But he didn't muster enough courage to ask me to fill up his form. I simply decided I would not offer help until he asked me specifically.
Finally, the flight approached Dhaka and began landing. No sooner had the wheels touched the ground, than the person in front of our row, suddenly sprang up from his seat ! He opened the cabin and started removing his luggage. The air-hostess shouted at him to sit down. But he was just in mood to listen. This scene reminded me of my KSRTC bus trips. As soon as the passenger realizes that his destination bus stop is ‘nearing’, he gets up from his seat and removes the luggage from the luggage deck, holds it and keeps it next to his legs. Some passengers go one step further. They take their luggage and go all the way to the bus door to a state of almost jumping down from the bus ! Interestingly, this gentleman didn't go that far. He just sat back in his seat !
Well, these were some of the incidents which happened on my trip to Dhaka from Singapore. And it was one unique , interesting & enjoyable flight experience unlike the many boring & mechanical flight trips I have taken for other destinations !
-Srinivas Murthy G
