Page 17 - Seniorstoday May 2024 Issue

Alaimentary
What is Life,
if not the Purpose
Quite simply, what is Life, if not the Purpose, ponders Nagesh Alai
As a believer in the margin of safety, I
usually land up at the airport a good two
hours in advance of the flight, in spite of
knowing experientially that our carriers are
notoriously tardy with reasons that would
put the most creative person to shame.
Today is no different. As I make an entry
into the Delhi Terminal 1 lounge to relax
over coffee, I get a message saying that
my 8 pm Indigo flight to Mumbai will be
delayed by 2 hours and 5 minutes and leave
at 10.05 pm and within ten minutes of that
I get a new message saying it will now be
delayed further and will now leave at 23.20
pm. This time nature is to blame thanks to
a mini thunderstorm in Mumbai and other
interiors of Maharashtra. And what else
but the conveniently added ‘the flight is
delayed due to the delay in the incoming
flight’. The storm in the teacup, so to say,
lasted for a whole of 10 minutes or so, but
SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #59 | MAY 2024
was disruptive enough to add hours to the
arrival and departures of flights. Of course,
it always leaves me wondering how Indigo
(all airlines are the same, given the practical
duopoly today) can precisely say that the
delay is 2 hours and 5 minutes or 3 hours
and 20 minutes. I can bet my last buck that
it will get delayed by another 77 minutes or
whatever. So, I am staring at a red-eye flight,
for sure.
For the past hour and a half, I have been
patiently sitting and contemplating what
to do with the enforced spare time (not
extra time to our life; how I wish it can be).
A good 40 odd people were on the same
flight, waiting in the lounge like I am - some
chatting, some gorging food, some staring
at the screen, some playing games, some
messaging, most in a silent mode with their
own companions, kids prancing around,
some reading and some plain bored and
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