Recently, I made the terrible mistake of choosing IndiGo to travel from New Delhi to Mumbai. I can only hope that these people learn to respect english language, professionalism and customer service. If you are a frequent flier (not necessarily IndiGo), I’m sure you understand what I mean when I say “english language”. Thanks to these kind of air travel operators, the connotation of phrases like “last and final” has taken a big hit. In my childhood days, a “last and final” warning from my teacher was like a matter of life and death. Nowadays, the same phrase sounds like a ridicule. The fact that IndiGo crew makes at least 20 last and final boarding calls before giving green signal to a flight testifies this more than anything. Due to this extreme act of “customer service” by IndiGo, my flight which was scheduled to take off at 0615 hrs actually took off at 0650, hence making me get stuck in the deadly Mumbai traffic, the very thing I was looking to avoid by taking an early morning flight. That half an hour, totally wasted by an ignorant firm for some over-ignorant passengers, made me vow never to fly IndiGo again. I was pissed off big time!

My second example of “people who piss me off” actually arises from the first example. These are the “ignorant passengers” who think that they have all the time in the world when they get inside an airplane and start putting their luggage into the overhead cabins. I despise those passengers who are not mindful of the fact that they are blocking the way for fellow passengers. They also fail to realize that their lousiness also adds to the time the plane is going to take to get ready before taking off. Sad cases!

My third example is from my office premises. For some people, the biggest happiness in life is to disturb others with their stupid cellphone ringtones. They think that they are doing a great service to mankind by making people aware of the newest and latest kinds of ringtones in the market. Sadly, they fail to recognize that there are people around them who are really serious about their work and do not like to be disturbed. The worst part is, when Mr. X’s phone rings with its stupid and creaky ringtone for the first time, the whole group looks at him surprisingly, he mistakes the scorn with attention and does not put his instrument into silent mode. Either this, or that he does not know that there is something called a silent mode in cellphones. I hope its the former, because that makes him less dumber!

My fourth example is a general one. Since the time I am staying out of my hometown, I have shared space with plenty and variety of people. I am a person who likes a level of privacy and mannerism, even if it is with the best and closest friend. I get absolutely pissed off if someone tries to use/uses my stuff without permission. And if I need to use someone else’s stuff, I make sure that I return it to him/her in the same condition in which I borrowed. But some people just do not understand the concept of private property. I will not take any names here, but there was a person whom I stayed with (say Mr. Y). He was obsessed with using my slippers, sneakers, shirts, T-shirts. If at any time I did not find them in my room, his room was the place to look for. And this continued till I did not talk to him clearly. Thankfully, I did not have to stay with him for long.

Today I was watching a repeat telecast of Roadies 6 first task-episode. The 10 people who were selected as safe contained both the dumbest guy and the dumbest gal (obviously my opinion). Maybe MTV’s crew believes that not letting dumb people go increases their TRP. Increase or no increase is not my headache, but hats off to their tolerance!

Other people who piss me off do not even do anything too different to be worth a mention here. As they say, some people are alive only because it is illegal to shoot them.

I think I will keep updating this post as and when I come across more people who deserve a mention here.

My heart goes out to the people who have similar experiences.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I moved to Mumbai in July last year. I was highly relieved and excited when I found that unlike most of my peers, I would be spending next couple of years at a place other than Bangalore. I have a terrible experience struggling with the mismanaged transport infrastructure of Bangalore during my internship time. The city lacks subways, and one can rarely cross a street without getting stranded for minutes.

I must mention that the relief I talked about was not unfounded. I visited Mumbai for 5 days in September 2003 for the Aditya Birla Scholarships interview. Though I did not get much time to roam around, that visit reinforced the cosmopolitan image of Mumbai I had my mind. While travelling from the railway station to the destination and back, the weather and the path made it feel exactly like the movie scenes where the lead is travelling in a cool town in his open jeep. The only place we visited out of our way was Gateway of India (well, not exactly “out of the way”; we stayed in The Taj). I left the city wanting to come back and have a better look around soon.

Ironically, it saddens me to realize that I now work and stay in Mumbai. Sixteen months into it, I have found that the city is nowhere near the “Mumbai” I experienced in my first trip. Well, a lot of things still attract me, and will always do. But if I leave these “fascinations” aside, I dare say that everything else about this city is screwed up. Yes, in the real sense of the word!

Picture this:

7:00 AM. Wake up. Check email. Internet not working. Bah.

7:30 AM. Wake up call from Mom. Start talking. Call gets dropped after 20 seconds. Huh.

8:00 AM. Watch news channels. Read newspaper. Someone broke something in town yesterday. Someone is doing something about it. All the same. Crib. Show me the NEWs!

9:00 AM. Get ready for office. Fortunately everything is in order in the bath. Yay!

9:35 AM. Auto-rickshaws not on strike. Relief. Hunt for an empty one.

9:40 AM. Could not find an empty one. Curse mankind for over-population. Start walking towards office.

9:45 AM. Walked nearly 1 km. Pity the godforsaken roads. Finally found an auto. Thank God. Yippee!

9:50 AM. Stuck in traffic jam. Half road blocked due to construction. Vehicles parked carelessly on the other half. Curse mankind again. Curse yourself. Curse everyone. No point. Wait and watch.

10:00 AM. Somehow manage to reach office on time. Thank God.

2:00 PM. Feel like eating outside today. Come out. Get wet – either due to heavy rain or due to sultry sun. Crib. Return. Eat random office meal.

9:00 PM. Reach home. Check mail. Net working dead slow. Try calling Mom. Network strength weak. Wait.

9:15 PM. Try calling Mom again. Connects this time. Voice breaking. Crib. Get frustrated. Bid an early good night. Have dinner.

10:00 PM. Net crawling. Takes minutes to open mail account. Curse. Curse. Curse.

To sum up, no network connectivity on Vodafone phone, crawling Tata Indicom “broadband”, broken roads, no traffic management, overcrowded local trains – all in all, a total infrastructure breakdown.

Would you want to stay in a “financial capital” that offers you this kind of a lifestyle? And, above all, costs you more than Rs. 15 thousand per month?

I have to. And many others.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.