After an arduous day of travel I arrived at Bombay (or is it Mumbai) International Airport late on Feb. 10. All the madness and excitement that ensued after getting off the plane will be the subject of a later post, so Ill restrict myself here to reflections on the trip itself. First of all, be advised - the three hours before takeoff principle for international flights is a good rule of thumb only if you think you need two and a half hours to shop for alcohol at the Duty Free shop and page through a five dollar copy of the Economist. I was spoiled by flying KLM from New York to Amsterdam. The Dutch are obviously the most civilized people on earth. I was offered beverages on the half hour, and my personal tv screen gave me access to more movies than Time Warner Digital cable. And you could even fast forward, so as to skip the hoakey love dialogue between Neo and Trinity (or Frodo and Sam for that matter) and head right to the wicked action scenes. The stewardesses had to kick me off the plane when we landed. In contrast, Northwest (er, Northworst) had me feeling like I was in the stalag. The stewardesses were so rude they even yelled at the little Indian babies. And chairs hadn't been replaced since the eighties. Personal tv screen - not a chance. We did get to watch Seabiscuit, which made be feel proud to be an American, until the narrator told me for the tenth time that I should be proud to be an American, at which point I took the headphones off. Not clear why KLM would partner with Northwest - maybe to make themeselves look better. I did manage to get into a great conversation on the Northwest flight with a young Indian executive flying back to his family in Mumbai. It became a great three way coversation when the woman next to us pulled the old "Not to eavesdrop, but I couldn't help overhearing. . " line. Pretty soon they were more interested in talking to each other, which meant I had to lean forward so that they could make eye contact. Good thing we all had to fill out the disembrakation cards before we landed.

More soon. . . . .





 


   

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