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A Rape, one Sixer and Air India's 787

 
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PAL@YWG
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Joined: 22 Dec 2006
Posts: 438
Location: YWG, Canada

PostPosted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 9:09 am    Post subject: A Rape, one Sixer and Air India's 787 Reply with quote

This is Part 2 of my trip to Trip to Europe and India.

Part 1 covered: Winnipeg- Toronto- Munich- Palma De Mallorca- Lagos (Portugal)- Seville- Barcelona

Courtsey: Great Circle Mapper

Part 2 will cover: Barcelona- Paris- Delhi- Calcutta- Delhi- Paris- London- Montreal- Winnipeg

Courtsey: Great Circle Mapper

I really wanted to spend a day or two more in Barcelona but with a LCC ticket in hand for my onward journey, my options were very limited!

Another nice sunny morning in Barcelona, after filling my stomach with a very well spread-out breakfast, I headed towards BCN. Taxi driver asked me my airline’s name. I said it Vueling. He said most of the LCCs depart from T2 whereas Vueling uses T1. The distance between two terminals is about 9 km, I was told.

6th Flight
Date: December 19, 2012
Route: BCN- ORY (Barcelona- Paris Orly)
Flight#: VY 8018
Airline: Vueling
Aircraft: A320
Departure: 1450
Arrival: 1640


Vueling’s website is not very user friendly. Being LCC, I tried to do web check in with my iPhone, I had the Veuling app downloaded beforehand. It did allow me to web check in but I didn’t get any email with my boarding pass, neither it showed me our seat numbers. So I was little anxious that I might have to pay for check in at the counter. But no, the check in was hassle free, lady at the counter happily check in my bag (I paid 20 euro for that while buying ticket) and given us our boarding passes. BCN is a very well laid-out airport and looks very modern and in far better shape than FRA, CDG or AMS for that matter. Here are some pictures:

Clearly shows who dominates here




Very nice Livery

Soon boarding was announced. Vueling is actually low cost arm of Iberia (I noticed almost all of their flights are code-shared with IB). It offers a decent product in terms of clean, newer aircrafts and maintains a good network. Prices are also cheap; I paid CAD69 per ticket and was purchased about 2 months in advance. Nothing is free on board, not even water. Announcements were made in Spanish and English.



Today’s load was about 75%. After about 1 hour 40 minutes of uneventful flying, we lined up for landing at Paris Orly airport.


I have never used ORY before but once inside the terminal, I realized that it’s not even LGW in terms of facilities. Quickly collected our bag and headed towards transfer to central Paris where we will spend about 36 hours.
First, there was a shuttle train to take us to RER (Local train) station. From there a train took us to Gare du Nord (equivalent to Victoria train station of London), we made one more change before we reached our station. At none of the connecting stations we found any elevator, so if you have heavy bags you will not like the experience.
Once I am out of the metro station, for the first time in this trip I encountered rainy, gloomy weather.
Believe it or not, I am in Paris after 19 long years (not counting transiting thru CDG)! We had one full day next day, so I took my daughter to some important landmarks of Paris.



Low hanging cloud covering the tower top








Napoleon's Cannon

Sir Churchill

At this point sun got an upperhand over clouds


The famous Champ de Elysees

A clearer Eiffel Tower

Finally, after a hectic sightseeing day, my moment of truth arrived. I will be flying Air India for the first time on a long-haul sector. If you see my signature panel on this forum, I have AI as one of the airline that I flew. Well, sort of. Here is the story:
The backdrop: Mid-eighties aviation scene in India; I was going to BOM from CCU on an official trip that was organized at the last moment. IC had two flights to BOM daily (morning & evening) and both were full. I don’t remember whether I had a wait-listed ticket but I remember that I arrived at CCU and we (about five of us) were told that we are not flying to BOM because no seats are available. Dejected we were, almost gave up any hope, suddenly one of us discovered that there is an AI flight to BOM that night (part of NRT-BKK-CCU-BOM service, if I am mistaken)! I even didn’t know what “endorsement” meant in those days but the colleague of mine kept on repeating that we need endorsement from IC. I vividly remember that we kept on shuttling between desks of various IC officers but without success. Another friend in the meantime found out that AI will take us if we can get our tickets endorsed but their gates will be closing soon!

After few phone calls, requests (Sir, please! I swear that if I miss this meeting, I will loose my job etc etc) we boarded the majestic B747 of Air India as last five passengers. Wow, it’s a different world inside! Didn’t raise my head much to have a look at the first class passengers (who are these sari-clad ladies! They look Indian but not our type, look how much gold they are wearing…between us we kept on whispering). Inside the aircraft we felt like we are gulf-bound labourer class as against a privileged class who are being pampered by the whole AI crew.
That was my one and only AI flight up until now.

Paying CAD877 for CDG-CCU return, I am not expecting much. If various TRs on this forum are any guide, I am expecting better food service if not anything else.

7th Flight
Date: December 20, 2012
Route: CDG- DEL
Flight#: AI 142
Airline: Air India
Aircraft: B772LR
Departure: 2130
Arrival: 1005+1





The flight AI 142 is terminating at MAA (DEL-MAA being A320 service). We were the first few ones to check-in. AF is the handling agent, we got our bag checked in and boarding passes issued till CCU. I was curious to know passenger mix. When everyone was seated, I would say 65% were non-Indians and rest Indians. When we landed in DEL, there were about 25 connecting passengers to KTM, BKK, MAA, CCU etc. With 8 First Class & 35 Business class seats on offer, my guess about 60% of the business class seats were empty (no idea about first class). Economy was 85-90% full.
We were greeted at the entrance and I noticed the crew members are all younger ones. Capt. D. Mukherjee was in command. He came on the PA at least 3 times during the flight and did leave an impression of professionalism.
These planes are not old (they were purchased during Mr.Thulasidas’s time, if I am not mistaken) but already it looked old inside. The seat cushions are paper thin, tray tables are not straight, touch screens are untouchable! Having 65% French speaking passengers, there were no announcements in French. Plus side is the seat pitch, I am guessing 32 inches at least. We took off about 30 minutes late. Capt. Mukherjee explained that was due to random quality control check by CDG authority on AI flight that night.

Once airborne, we were offered drinks (alcohol & soft drinks) with 2 packs of peanuts. Then came the dinner service. I was little disappointed, may be Sumantra’s mouth-watering description of AI food has set the bar high for me. Again, at CAD877 a piece, I am not complaining! I asked for Lamb but they ran out of that, so I got Chicken. I relished the authentic Indian cooking and once finished I concentrated on the AVOD. Before the lights were dimmed Captain Mukherjee came on the PA and gave us the flight path details that included Czech republic, Ukraine, some Stans, Pakistan and India.





My headphone was defective but was promptly replaced by a smiling airhostess. I watched “Le Chchkka”(“Another Sixer” will be loose translation) from Bengali section and “Kaahani” in Hindi.
Soon, morning light started seeping in. About 90 minutes before touch down, Breakfast was served, hold on was it breakfast? Have a look at the picture.



Just before landing Capt Mukherjee came on PA to tell us to look out from left window to catch a glimpse Himalaya mountain range on an exceptionally clear day. My picture didn’t do justice to the beauty.

We touched down smoothly almost on time.

I spotted a few exotic birds at DEL. Myanmar airlines, Druk Air, Mahan Air were among them.
Once at arrival hall, an AI representative was in charge of segregating transit passengers from others. Once all are gathered, we followed her to a transit desk where we were given new boarding passes (she took away old passes issued at CDG), went thru one more round of security check and now we are in departure area. How was my transiting experience? Well, not that great but not bad either. Way better than pre-T3 experience.

Now another excitement! My first 787 ride (Will I or won’t I?). I asked the CDG check-in lady about DEL-CCU aircraft, she told me it’s 772. I didn’t believe her, I knew it would be either 321 or 788, nothing in between. So I almost ran to my gate to spot my plane. Yes, there she is, I am lucky today!


8th Flight
Date: December 21, 2012
Route: DEL-CCU
Flight#: AI 020
Airline: Air India
Aircraft: B787-800
Departure: 1400
Arrival: 1605


Seeing the number of people at the holding area, I realized that the flight is full and it was. At Row 12, I was in the front section of the aircraft. Fell in love with 788 at first sight! First impression, it’s so spacious, it’s so modern! There was special mention by FA on how to use the Toilet flush and the window darkening buttons. We were served Lunch though I don’t recall what I ate.



Two hours flight to CCU was not enough; I wanted to go longer distance on this beautiful bird. Soon Captain Nambiar came on PA to announce that we will shortly be landing in CCU. We did our immigration and customs at CCU. International terminal at CCU is a shame in the name of a terminal. After passport control, the baggage claim area has big posting on the wall “Do not spit. Fine Rs.250”

I had about nine days in Calcutta and weather being nice and cold I took full advantage of it. First I visited my alma mater.


The same green door that I got closed behind me thirty years back. I desperately wanted to meet some of the residents here to ask about their life style, the canteen, the music room. Do the canteen still prepare that dish we used to relish so much- Baked gourd (Jhinga in Bengali) with grated beef stuffed inside. I waited for half an hour but nobody I could meet.

School playground, centre of Ragging drills at night

College notice board


Some more pictures from Calcutta:

McDelivery, not available in my part of the world

Nice looking Bus stop

Getting ready for Xmas & New year celebrations


Calcutta skyline

Display at a saloon that mostly caters to tourists

Every time I come to Calcutta I get frustrated at the stalemate or even deterioration of quality of life, lack of progress, lack of industrialization, lack of political leadership etc. But this time the whole nation was coming to terms with the horrific news of a gang-rape that happened in Delhi few days ago. Since I was on the road, I didn’t get the news on time but once in Calcutta, everyone I spoke or met got shaken by the story. It’s the feeling of helplessness of that brave girl, touched and inflicted pain to millions of people around the world.

When in Calcutta, I like to read Bengali newspaper with a cup of tea in the morning! It brings back the old habits alive for few days. So, I was reading two leading Bengali newspaper every morning. The Delhi gang-rape story is still the headline but I noticed Bengal is catching up quick. One statistics I read that said Bengal is on the second spot in reported rape of women in the country! Bah! Are these rapists the same Bengalis that boast by saying that we adore literature than setting up businesses? Are these rapists are same Bengalis that lines up whole night to buy the complete works of Rabindranath Tagore at a discounted price from a govt. book store next day morning?

The newspapers are full of rape stories everyday. I am not exaggerating. Rape in an empty bus, rape in a night club, rape of a 3 year old, rape in a moving train- all sorts of rapes, all sorts of descriptions. The lucid details penned by journalists are adding fuel to fire. They are just stopping or watering down their description where the rapist unzips his pant.
With selective abortion which is very prevalent in India, it’s a time bomb in the making!

“Le Chchkka” the movie I watched on CDG-DEL sector is based on the storyline of Laggan where an underdog team wins a match against the heavyweight by hitting a sixer on the last ball.
Apparently, all sport-loving youths in India want to become cricketers! There is only one sport in the limelight that is cricket. No other sport dares to come near. Hockey, Soccer, Badminton or Kabaddi are like Gulf-bound labourers in economy class of a SQ flight where Cricket is in Raffles class.

It was not so in my childhood. Hockey was very much in prominence just as Cricket. If we have collected pictures (from Newspapers) of Sunil Gavaskar or Bishen Singh Bedi we also have collected pictures of Zafar Iqbal, Ashok Kumar or Ajit Pal Singh. They were equal heros. But over the years with commercialization of sports, all sports except cricket faded away.

Sports section of news papers are full with quarter page photos of cricketing heros. After M.S. Soni scored a hundred against Kenya, the interviewer asked him “What’s your next target, Soni?” Soni replied, “well I haven’t scored a ton against Tanzania yet. I heard Mogambo is their ace bowler, I want to thrash him in his own country. Wait for few years till I do that though”.

On hearing that Gaurav Ganguly called a press conference next day and said “It won’t be easy for Soni to do that, you see. It’s like a mouse going to Lion’s den. Only a Bengali tiger can take on a Tanzanian lion”. Wah Wah Gaurav, kya bola – praised the reporters.

Any Tom, Dick and Harry who played some cricket somewhere, try to make a living out of Cricket. Commentator, Coach, Umpire, Selector or Maali for looking after the 22 yards. On Prachin’s recent announcement of retirement from ODI, Ashok Mehrotra (played one or two test matches, now camping in Bengal) comments, “he did the right thing”. Who gives a damn to your comment Ashok?

One more thing I miss is the running commentary of cricket matches heard by millions on pocket sized transistor Radios. It was not a crime to listen to your transistors while at work. Even bosses would come to you with some excuse and ask the score.
It was a common sight when a Cricket fan walking down a busy street with his transistor pressed on his ear and people following him asking the score. Just like the pied piper of Hamelin.
- Kaun gaya?
- “Bang”-sarkar.
- Kaun Liya?
- “Maal” com Marshall.
- Aaj India ko koi bacha nehi sakta.

Whole country went into mourning next day when West Indies beat India. Life came back to normal when Australia beat Pakistan across the border within few days!

9th Flight
Date: December 30, 2012
Route: CCU- DEL
Flight#: AI 763
Airline: Air India
Aircraft: A321
Departure: 0700
Arrival: 0905



Airport or Railway station?


This is the fog season in Calcutta, so I was little anxious whether we will be able to take off on time but I had about 4 hours between my flights. One thing that really impressed me is that airports have learnt how to handle foggy days. Though flights were not taking off that morning on time, passengers were taken by bus to the aircraft and boarding part was completed. Once the fog cleared, flights took off in quick succession. We were late by about 90 minutes but that’s no panic situation.



Captain Bhandari was in command but he never came on PA. Load was light about 65%. I noticed Indigo is kinda taking over CCU airport’s domestic load. Against 2 AI’s flight during my time at the terminal, there were at least 6 or 7 Indigo flights to various destinations. Good for them!


We were served a light but tasty breakfast. Forgot to mention that in all AI flights that I took, there was PA address to fill in the suggestion form so that AI can improve its service. Nice.



Once we landed at DEL, we had to do the same drill. All transit passengers were segregated. There were 7 transit passengers (2 to Paris, 3 to Frankfurt and 2 to London). I did some duty free shopping, I will be meeting a friend in London on 31st night.


Biggies from east & West

10th Flight
Date: December 30, 2012
Route: DEL- CDG
Flight#: AI 143
Airline: Air India
Aircraft: 772LR
Departure: 1310
Arrival: 1805




The aircraft we flew was VT-ALA. Captain S. Bhasin (or Sarin, apologize if I didn’t get the name right) was in command but he never came on the PA. The crew members were all young recruits and I should mention that in all AI flights that I took they did their job very well. Washrooms were always clean, they didn’t inherit the grumpiness of the older FAs of AI.

The load was lighter, about 70% and passenger mix was 50/50. Surprisingly this time, there was a native French speaking FA on board who conveyed all announcements in French. Our flying time was about 9 hours and for a change I experienced almost no turbulence during the whole flight. I watched two movies, “Bol Bachchan” in Hindi and one more movie from Bengali section. Lunch and sandwiches were served during the flight. We landed in Paris on time.






Huge FIDS at CDG

My next flight is from LHR on January 1st in the afternoon. So I have two nights, I wanted to reach London at the earliest. Since my daughter has her friends waiting in London for new year’s party, I changed my original plan while we were at Calcutta. I had Eurostar ticket to London next day but I also bought Eurolines Bus ticket departing night before from CDG to reach Victoria Station, London next morning at 6am. Since we landed on time I opted for Eurolines bus that will depart from terminal 2F of CDG. So my Eurostar tickets gone down the drain just like some other tickets (BA: BCN-LHR ticket). Well, no point brooding now.

So from Terminal 2C (where AI landed) we walked leisurely to Terminal 2F and waited for our bus. Eurolines bus brought back lots of memories when crossing channel was not underground as it is today but we used to get crossed channel in ferries. Calais on French side and Dover on the English side. Now this time I saw the bus gets into the tummy of a huge freight train (sort of) just like hundreds of cars and other vehicle and then the train take them thru the tunnel to the other side. Quite an engineering feat.

We reached Victoria station at about 6 in the morning. We will be spending the night at Indian YMCA (near Warren St. tube station) tonight. This stay will be after about nine years. For our forum members who don’t know about this place as an option to stay in London, I just want to say that it’s just a hotel who serves you Indian breakfast & Dinner (included in your room rate). And you will be mingling with students and employees of Indian companies who are posted in London long term. I used to stay here quite frequently during my student days shuttling between London and Manchester. And here I saw R.K. Narayanan, the great writer with his British admirers.




Monarchy decorating the walls of YMCA

1971 winning Cricket team I guess

Once checked in, we didn’t waste much time in going our respective ways. I went to my friend at Bracknell (near Heathrow) and daughter went with her friends to celebrate new year’s eve. Though it was typical London day, we had no time to complain.


waterloo station is just getting crowded on New Years eve


New Years Greetings on BT Tower

Happy New Year! Yeah!

11th Flight
Date: January 1, 2013
Route: LHR- YUL
Flight#: AC 865
Airline: Air Canada
Aircraft: 330-300
Departure: 1330
Arrival: 1555


While arriving at the airport I knew I have to fly AC 851 to Calgary and daughter will fly AC 865 to Montreal. That’s what our respective tickets were issued for. But then mine was an Aeroplan rewards ticket. So, I had a faint hope that what I couldn’t do over phone by calling Aeroplan centre to reroute my ticket, I might be able to do that at Air Canada desk at the airport. On reaching Terminal 3, I rushed to Ticketing desk and explained my situation. The super nice lady said the flight is full but let me see what I can do for you. After a few moments of anxious wait, she put me on YUL flight and then onto YWG reaching much earlier than backtracking from YYC. All for GBP50 change fee, yeah!


Where is the 747SP Iran Air?

Qantas's A380

Air Canada in my opinion has two distinct set of service on their international flights. Shabby service for their rickety 767-300ERs and excellent service for their newer 773ER, LR & 333s. Reader may recall my TR of July 2011 where I expressed similar satisfactions on their FRA- YUL run on a 333.

Same excellent service level on this flight. Warm, good portion lunch with free wine/Gin/ Vodka. And just before landing a filling beef wrap, not to mention numerous water, soft drink runs in between. The FAs were dedicated and courteous. AVOD had a good selection of movies, I watched “One flew over the Cuckoo’s nest”, a must see for movie buffs.



46th Row has one seat less, hence the unique position. Also note the dead-bolted latch on the tray table.


We landed at Montreal airport in time.
My trip is coming to an end, one more flight and I am home. At this point of my journey, I am feeling home sick, I want to crash on my bed. I am dreaming about my bed.

From here daughter is taking a different route, she is flying YUL- YVR and I am flying YUL- YWG.

12th Flight
Date: January 1, 2013
Route: YUL- YWG
Flight#: AC 8523
Airline: Air Canada Jazz
Aircraft: CRJ-700
Departure: 2010
Arrival: 2209


I was assigned 13A, didn’t know that it’s the first row in economy and being an aisle seat I had no seat at front. Once we got airborne, I stretched my legs and dozed off until seatbelt signs were on for landing at Winnipeg. We landed at Winnipeg on time.

Temperature was -9 degrees, that’s warm compared to -30 degrees which is the norm at this time of the year. I came prepared, I had one lighter tucked in the pocket of my checked in bag, in case I have to warm up my door keys to break the ice formed in the key hole! I told the taxi driver to wait until I open the door; if I can’t then I will check in to a hotel near by for the night.
I insert my key in the keyhole and gave a firm push, voila, key turns and door opens!
Now my bed is in my sight!

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed! Comments are always welcome! Cricket fans here, don’t take my words seriously
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ameya
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Joined: 09 May 2007
Posts: 3671
Location: Pune,Maharashtra

PostPosted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 11:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Great pics, nice TR
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Nimish
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Posts: 9757
Location: Bangalore, India

PostPosted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 11:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Duplicate thread - locking...

Go to http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/viewtopic.php?p=122500 for the still active thread.
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