Airport

Being in an airport is a big deal for the Indian middle class. We’ll get dressed like we’re going to a rich friend’s wedding reception.

We’ll take so much care about how we look and the image we project. We won’t even wear comfortable clothes for the travel.

Apart from the brief period we fight for the tray to keep our belongings at the security check, we mostly behave and stick to our image.

We even buy from the Coca-Cola vending machine as it is the cheapest beverage we can buy in any Indian airport.

You can never see people sit or sleep on the floors like they do in bus and train stations. The level of order and etiquette people maintain at the airport, you can’t see anywhere else in the country.

On the other hand, you can see westerners travel with a vest, a pair of shorts, flip flops or sneakers, and a huge rucksack on their backs. They don’t try to maintain an image. They’ll be casual and comfortable.

At times, I wonder why this difference in behavior.

Maybe because air travel was, and is, still a dream for millions of Indians. What happens inside the airport is always a mystery to us. Growing up, every middle-class Indian’s dream is to travel in a flight at least once.

But, for Westerners, it’s not the same. The Western middle class got used to air travel a couple of decades before us. So, their perspective on airports and their need to maintain a self-image while traveling has worn down. They’ve learned to loosen up.

I guess we’ll do the same sooner, maybe in a decade or two.

Also, from what I observed, airport is where nobody judges another person. People are nicer when you meet them in airports and airplanes.

On my first international trip to Malaysia, I ordered something to eat, but I couldn’t pay for my meal. I had the Malaysian currency, but the air hostess didn’t have the change when I offered to pay for my meal and there was something wrong with my card. When I was about to skip from buying the meal, the Malaysian couple next to me paid for it.

It was a nice gesture. All of a sudden, my first international trip didn’t look so scary.

I personally love unwinding at airports. I know it’s an unusual place to unwind, but standing in front of the huge glass window and looking at aircrafts arriving and departing is unusually calming.

You can enjoy the calm as long as you want. As long as you hear a final boarding announcement with your name in it.