My co-passenger

Those were dark times when I felt haunted by a particular co-passenger. To me it looked as if his demeanour had everything 'undesirable' written all over. Our paths crossed several times in that journey. First it was near the security at the entrance to the airport. He rushed past me to reach the Digiyatra gate first and beat me to it by a few inches. To add insult to injury he turned around and gave me a supercilious smile as he scanned his boarding pass and slipped through. The next encounter was near the check in counter. I was behind him in the queue. he finished checking in but refused to clear the counter. I was sure he was having some idle chat with the lady behind the counter while I was becoming jittery. Three times he feigned as if he is leaving- only to go back and ask the lady some other query ( I am positive these were all unnecessary questions). Before my blood pressure could go through the roof, the next counter opened and I was saved from a certain brain stroke.

His dark shadow crossed my path again at the food court. This time I was ahead of him in the queue and was trying to make up my mind whether to order the dosa or the idli- vada combo. Apparently to get dosa, I have to wait for 15 mts while idli- vada combo can be served immediately. However, I was worried that the idli- vada combo might have been cold and several hours old. So with genuine concern I was contemplating whether the immediate service is worth the risk of consumption of contaminated food. You would agree with me that it is an important decision to make. I assure you I did not take more than 2-3 minutes to decide but I could see the guy behind me (I am sure he has a dark past) was becoming restless, wringing his hands, saying Tch, Tch and becoming red in his face. A few minutes more and he would have thrown a fit. I opted for the dosa. I turned around answering a phone call when he got served with my dosa and I had to wait for 5 more minutes for my turn. Seething under my collar, I left the food court.

I then wandered around the shops and tentatively looked at buying a shirt that I do not need, a book that I will probably not read and bottle of wine that I will not drink. Sanity however prevailed and I did not buy any of them. Then I went to the men's wash room. After using the facility, I washed my hands and went to where the tissue is kept to dry the hands. Whom should I bump into but the very man with the dark past. He emptied all vestiges of the tissue in the box and I was left shaking my hands dry (and shaking all over with frustration).

I kept myself back to cool down and was the last person to board. I had a window seat and you guessed it right- the man (now with a definite dark past) is seated next to my seat. Instead of coming out to let me in, he wriggled his legs to one side and signalled me to go past. I had to squeeze through. Now you see his dark past- don't you.

I settled myself in my seat. I have this mortal fear of having to listen to the airline theme music (the airlines takes pleasure in irritating you with non- stop repetition of invariant music across all their flights). So I tried to quickly plug my ears with ear pods prime with music of my choice. I was fumbling with the ear pods when my neighbour (yes, the man with dark past) knocked them off my hands with a clumsy movement of his elbow. I was not sure he apologised (it may be possible that my ears and brain did not register it). I retrieved them and finally settled for a quiet flight.

Have you ever noticed  that there are only 4 arm rests for the three chairs on this side of the aisle and only one man gets to rest both his arms. I fortunately had one arm rest (near the window) exclusively for myself so I did not bother that my neighbour occupied the one between us with his burly hand. I was dozing off when there was a sharp jab in  my side and I woke up with a start. The man with the darkest past poked me in my ribs ( apparently inadvertently- but I do not believe it). His appeals for forgiveness fell on my deaf ears and so I turned away and stared into the dark sky (it was a night flight of course). When I turned my head straight, I found his elbow jutting a few milli meters into my territory. This set up a violent reaction in my mind as if Pakistan is intruding into Indian territory. Unlike the Indian army, I was unarmed. However, a lot of pleasant thoughts came to my mind- such as poking his elbow with a sharp pin; pouring hot coffee on his arm; or applying a sticky tape (zinc oxide medical plaster) and ripping it off the forehand (I can almost see him wincing since he has hairy hand). These pleasant thoughts although not translated into action served to calm my mind as if I got my revenge for transgression into my territory.

We landed and I picked up my red suitcase from the conveyor belt and was about to leave the airport when I checked the baggage tag and found some other name on it. I ambled back to the belt. By now most people have left. There is only one other red suit case on the belt and my co-passenger was standing there with a worried face. I discreetly placed the mistakenly picked up suitcase on the belt (without his knowledge) and picked up my suitcase, checked the baggage tag and was about to leave when I was hit by a gush of guilt. Here I am attributing a dark past for this man and convincing to myself that all the events that occurred between us were planned and executed by him for the express purpose of irritating me, while I picked up his suitcase and almost walked out of the airport. So with great deal of chagrin I went to him and profusely apologised for the faux pas. After that I felt much better and mysteriously his dark past just vanished.