Some will be habitually restless while waiting. Even if they have been told that the boarding gate wouldn’t open for another hour, they will perch themselves upon the edge of their seats and keep gaping at the airline personnel on duty. Any slight movement in urgency that the staff makes will impel the restless traveller to scurry towards them and enquire whether boarding would soon begin.
Airport waiting areas are forever buzzing with a motley mix of the banal, the bizarre and the brilliant. Any frequent flyer knows that he is likely to encounter a microcosm of the vast expanse of humanity at an airport gate.
Individuals who could be from any race, any background, any mindset would probably rub shoulders with each other at such focal points. Flying is definitely a much more mundane activity in this jet setting era, but the entertainment that an observant flyer will perceive could potentially be limitless.
Take the example of Gate number 34 at Terminal 2 of the Delhi Airport. Flights to Chandigarh can typically be accessed through this gate but they are at times delayed. Thus, one finds ample opportunity to observe, dissect, admire or mentally criticise the conduct and appearance of several others. Though one has thankfully reduced the tendency to be overly critical of others, one’s thoughts remain akin to those of humankind as of now!
Some will be habitually restless while waiting. Even if they have been told that the boarding gate wouldn’t open for another hour, they will perch themselves upon the edge of their seats and keep gaping at the airline personnel on duty. Any slight movement in urgency that the staff makes will impel the restless traveller to scurry towards them and enquire whether boarding would soon begin. On being told that there is still time they will return to their perch but will be literally ready for take-off any moment!
Then there are the snoozers: those who seem to not have slept for a week, even if they have been on vacation. They will doze off without a care in the world on one of the reclining seats or even on a normal one but will risk being jolted out of their slumber by the aforementioned restless co-traveller, well before time.
Somewhere in the middle of these two extremes will be the conversationalists. These worthies will confabulate unendingly on issues as diverse as cricket, cinema, crime, politics, work pressure and the general state of the world. They will not bother much about who is listening intently and who is being disturbed by their constant banter.
An intellectual traveller will usually submerge his consciousness deep into a book, thankfully still of the paperback sort, although the lesser act of reading books on kindles and smartphones is also prevalent. He will raise an eyebrow occasionally when there is some hustle or bustle in the vicinity but will generally emanate an air of calmness. Foreign tourists on a visit to our mindboggling land would perhaps have a thick-looking India travel guide in hand. They would appear to be suitably befuddled by the sheer expanse of India’s canvas, not realising that even we Indians have understood little of it!
Families on vacation are boisterous travellers and the whole jing-bang will create quite a ruckus. This might entail scoldings from moms that their progeny will receive, frequent visits to the restrooms that kids will require, a spilled helping of ice cream with smears and smatter on the airport floor, collective laughter at family-type jokes, and some general fuss over the elders accompanying the clan.
Single travellers with small bags and some calls to make will steer clear of such groups and will find some calmness away from waiting areas. They will also catch up on their exercise deficiency for the day by covering appreciable expanses of the airport floor and catching up on their personal targets of 10,000 steps a day!
The tone, tenor and content of conversations at Gate Number 34 might also vary with the time of day. And when inordinately long January delays occur, nostrils might flare, and the overall degree of restlessness might take on an exponential route.
Be that as it may, the best recourse for a hardened traveller is to find amusement, though privately, in the general scenario that fellow human beings present before him. Not a single show on Netflix could hope to compare!
So, the next time you happen to arrive at an airport terminal, uncharacteristically, well in advance, you might contemplate essaying a write-up akin to this one!
