King for a few moments !

By default , I was a king for a few moments .

It was a flight from Nagpur to Mumbai by our ‘ international’ domestic carrier . As I entered into the air craft , I handed over the boarding pass to the air hostess .Interestingly and to my surprise , after seeing the boarding pass , she bowed down and respectfully ushered me to a seat . She asked me with respect with a divine smile on her face , ‘ How do you do , Sir ? ‘. She was an edifice of humility .

Soon followed another hostess , she presented me with ice cold towel to clean my face with . After a grueling day at Nagpur , it was refreshing indeed . As I finished , another beauty followed with a tray , ‘ What you will like to have , Sir , fresh lemon juice or water melon juice , sir ?’ I obliged her and asked for water melon juice .

By now I grew suspicious , am I dreaming ! Am I in a real world or in a wonderland or did I rub a magical lantern like Aladdin ?

I have flown to Mumbai on innumerable occasions but never did I have such a grand welcome . I looked around . The seats were broad , spacious , very comfortable , a separate tray holder with each seat , had extra leg space . The seat cushion was more than comfortable . Oh , at last our national carrier has changed its style of functioning - could be due to tough competition from other airlines . Competitions are really beneficial to passengers - so I thought .
As I was getting adjusted to new kind of unusual VIP treatment , I was further pampered by another air hostess , ‘ Sir , which magazine will you like to read please ! ’ said she in a melodious voice . She had brought 15 chronicles to choose from . ‘ Wow , great . The airline has definitely changed for good !! ’ , I thought .

Now time was ripe for the air craft to leave Nagpur .

An officer from the ground staff came to check the number of passengers in the air craft .Soon he was dialing to the air port check in counter , “ Sir , you said 2 executive class passengers , I find three here . ”

Now the things became crystal clear to me . I was offered a wrong seat , in place of usual cattle class , I mean business class , I was ushered on to executive class seat by mistake and hence all the pampering .

Soon I was back to my original seat in poor cattle class with congested seats , neglectful ‘ care you not ‘ air hostesses , torn outdated news papers in the cabin , passengers sitting next to me had dry parched throats , no one offering water even after asking , forget about fruit juices , ice cold towels and up to date chronicles .

I sighed a sense of relief when passengers of both the classes reached same destination i.e.
‘ aamchi Mumbai .’