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Notes on the Passage to India – July 11, 2007
The Myth of Air India Food
Air India is notorious for having bad service and dirty bathrooms (that generally clog or otherwise malfunction midway through the flight). Those flying Air India console themselves with the thought, “At least the food will be good.”
Strangely enough, on our flight to Delhi, the service was pleasing, with plentiful snacks and beverages. Even the toilets remained clean and fully functional. What proved most disappointing was the food.
On the New York–London segment, we opted for the veg entrée. (The non-veg offering was lamb, which didn’t sound too appealing.) The main items in veg entrée were bhindi (okra) and vegetable korma (a coconut milk-based stew). The bhindi was fairly decent and not slimy. The korma was flavorless, except for a healthy dose of lal mirch (red chili powder), which killed any flavors that might have been lurking in the dish.
On the London-Delhi segment, we selected the non-veg entrée, hoping it would be better than the veg dish. The offerings in this meal were capsicum-aloo (green peppers and potato) and a dahi- (yogurt-) based chicken curry. The chicken was all right, although the gravy lacked complexity. The capsicum-aloo was inedible—cooked with some haldi (turmeric) and far too much lal mirch.
Both meals were inexplicably served with a poor imitation of a white roll (no roti or naan) and some spurious looking salad that consisted of a few lettuce leaves. The desserts were a very chemical-tasting blueberry muffin and strawberry yogurt (not one gulab jamun or piece of burfi in sight).
For future reference: Don’t believe anyone who tells you the food on Air India is good.
Super Security at Heathrow
We initially thought going to India via Heathrow would fun—the prospect of missing our connecting flight and being stranded overnight in London was quite appealing. However, transiting through Heathrow turned into a nightmare.
Even though we didn’t have to transfer flights in London (the plane simply landed to pick up more passengers before heading to India), we still had to disembark at Heathrow. Why? To pass through another security check. Apparently passing through security in the US wasn’t secure enough for the British.
This wouldn’t have been so bad if we didn’t have to walk at least a kilometer through barren corridors to reach the check point. Even this would’ve been somewhat tolerable if the queue at the check point hadn’t been so long. (We stood in line nearly 25 minutes.)
Naturally, after we passed through the check point, we had to walk another kilometer to return to our boarding gate. At least this time, we passed by some rather nice-looking shops, but since the security check took so long and since we had to trek another kilometer to the plane, we didn’t time to even look at the shops.
The silliest thing is when we were walking to the check point, we saw our boarding gate. It was literally right beside the gate we used to disembark from the plane.
The Neverending Flight
On our past trips to India, we usually felt that the return trip was endless. Somewhere over the Atlantic, feeling restless, tired, and bored, we would look at the clock and realize only two hours had elapsed since we started the eight-hour flight to the US.
For the first time, the segment between Europe and India seemed endless. We had no idea where we were—maybe over far Eastern Europe, perhaps over Iran—but we thought we had been in the air for hours. At quick glance at Gitanjali’s watch showed that we still had five more hours on the plane.
Air India “Air Bus”
The Air India flight transiting through Heathrow operates like a bus making stops on a regular route. It leaves from New York for London. In London, some passengers exit, some new ones board, and the rest continue to India. Then at Delhi, more passengers get off, and the rest continue to Mumbai.
Of course, the stop in Delhi wasn’t announced in any way, so those heading to Mumbai had no way of knowing that they were in Delhi, not Mumbai. Worse, the ticket gave no indication that there were additional stops along the way; ours simply read, “New York to Delhi,” with no mention of passage through Heathrow.
I can only imagine that the tickets for those going to Mumbai read, “New York to Mumbai”—which could cause confusion for anyone not familiar with this air bus system. Luckily, they were checking boarding passes as we were disembarking to prevent those headed to Mumbai from getting off at the wrong location.
As we progressed to the terminal, I saw several very tired and confused-looking people being told to return to the plane after presenting their boarding passes to the security guards. To complicate the matter, the reason why they were being asked to return wasn’t even explained; they were simply ordered back.
Welcome to India.
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