It was Sept 2012. I was at the Newark airport. I was at the Air India counter when the African lady at the counter asked ,"So you are staff?"
"No" , I said , "My mum worked in Air India"
She looked at my staff ticket ( which is confirmed subject to availability) and said "Ma'am your ticket is confirmed. You have got an upgrade to business class". I was thousands of miles away from my home country India and the only bond that connected me and the African lady at the counter was Air India.
I have experienced this all the time. A nice special treatment as the daughter of an Air India staff. Whenever I travel by Air India flights, I cannot help but feel a sense of nostalgia.
Air India was the company where my mum worked for more than 30 years of her life. Like any daughter, I always wanted to see mum's office. I still remember sitting in my mum's cabin and seeing planes from as close as I could. I remember taking flights when air travel was far from becoming mainstream. And I still do not remember my mum or any of her friends boasting about having travelled or having the ability to travel at such low cost and ease.
When I still take air india flights, sometimes people ask me when I need to have a non confirm ticket when low cost confirm tickets are available? My answer to that is , "For me, air india is a feeling. It's a feeling of pride for my mum having worked and served there. And I feel privileged whenever I take air india flights"
Air India was the company where my mum worked for more than 30 years of her life. Like any daughter, I always wanted to see mum's office. I still remember sitting in my mum's cabin and seeing planes from as close as I could. I remember taking flights when air travel was far from becoming mainstream. And I still do not remember my mum or any of her friends boasting about having travelled or having the ability to travel at such low cost and ease.
When I still take air india flights, sometimes people ask me when I need to have a non confirm ticket when low cost confirm tickets are available? My answer to that is , "For me, air india is a feeling. It's a feeling of pride for my mum having worked and served there. And I feel privileged whenever I take air india flights"
When Asshrita Chincharkar wrote yesterday about how she felt about being the co_pilot in her mum's retirement flight as air hostess, I just felt too nostalgic.
For this and many other reasons, I will always have a Namaskar to the Maharaja![ I had written a poem about the same earlier -http://dsaidso.blogspot.com/20…/…/namaskar-to-maharaja.html… ]
-Dhanashree
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