Saturday, June 17, 2006

Who's next to you?

When I was a kid, they used to show an ad on TV, where this beautiful girl enters the aircraft and a guy sitting in his seat thinks, "Kya meri kismat jagegi?" and then the girl walks over to him and says, "Excuse me, shaayad aap meri seat par hain." ("Excuse me, I think you're on my seat.") It probably meant that the girl did indeed sit next to the guy, but I used to laugh my guts out thinking that the guy was in the right seat but the wrong flight.

Back then, I laughed at the ad, not realising how crucial it is to have the right kind of person sitting next to you, especially on long flights. There are the hot babes, the hot guys, the screaming kids, the rude aunties, the drunk middle-aged men, the old guys, and many many more. Usually, when I am seeing someone off or am taking a flight, I try to guess who's gonna be sitting next to the passenger in question. Once I freaked a friend out by correctly predicting his co-passenger two flights in a row. The next time he asked me, "So who's gonna be sitting next to me this time? Who do you see?" I had no answer. I felt this blankness. Fact is - I did not see anything. So I told him I could not tell him this time. Turns out - the seat next to him was empty. Freaky, huh?

So I was telling my sis all this, and then asked her to guess what I was gonna get during my flight back to Singapore.

"Handsome young guy on one side, really old guy on the other."

"Oooh! As long as I have the handsome guy..." I said happily.

We reached the airport and the adorable lady at the SQ check-in counter - I think she was Russian - asked me, "How many passengers?"

"One." I replied.

"You?"

"Yeah, me."

"Just you?"

"Yeah, just me."

"Oh dear! How old are you?"

"Errr... 26?"

"Really?? I thought you were too young to travel alone. I thought you're 17 or something."

I decided to do my victory dance in my head - after all I was a composed and mature 26-year-old.

(I also thought in my head - in Singlish no less - "Too young to travel alone? Got such a thing meh?")

Anyway, I turned my attention back to the sweet lady who was now frowning at her computer screen.

"Darling, why do you have such a bad seat?" She asked.

I was sandwiched in the middle in the middle column of seats. Worst place to be in, if you're gonna take a long flight, and if you're gonna be drinking lotsa orange juice to keep your skin alive in the dry environment of the flight.

"Well, that's the only seat that was available..." I replied.

"Hmmm... let me see... I think I have a cancellation...."

She got me a window - in a two-seat row. Yippee!

Just then, my sis called on my bro-in-law's mobile. (She could not come to the airport cos baby Aish is not allowed to go out of the house yet.)

"Hey, all set to go?"

"Yeah... hey, sis, listen..."

"Yup..."

"Change of plans... I'm only gonna have one person sitting next to me. So which one of the two will it be?"

"Hmm... the handsome young guy."

"Cool. Awesome. Call you when I reach Singapore. Bye!"

"Bye!"

I hung up, looking forward to handsome young guy's company over the next 21 hours, and boarded the flight.

All right man, I have a bone to pick with my sister.




31 comments:

shub said...

:O i dont believe this! I just chkd my feeds and saw you ahdnt updated...dropped a oneline mail to ya! and then check my feeds again here's this post!
yaaay! you're back >:D :D

...hope handsome young man wasn't a bore or tooo young for you though! :p :D

shub said...

ohh it was a grumpy old man? :p or some aunty types?

Unknown said...

for the first time, i'll say "SECOND" and be happy. man! you totally caught me off-guard here! :) never expected a post rt now.

Sahil said...

"mein kya karun raam mujhe budha mil gaya!"

hahahahaha - u deserved sitting next to the old guy. Aur pheyko chairs mere upar!

Unknown said...

lol @ above. sorry, not to be lofing at enemy camp's joke, but still.

and more importantly, WELCOME BACK!!!!!
now that order is restored to blogworld, i will look forward to more posts..

:))

and ya, sympathies about the buddha. damn yaar. not fair. who knows, if you were cramped in the middle row, there'd have been two buddhas surrounding you.
hahahaha

Anonymous said...

Welcome back to this time zone!:) Well my sympathies you didnt get a hottie, but you know if it makes you feel better, I've NEVER had any hunks by my side in all my travels.....but hey one day it will have to happen, I have not given up hope! Good luck with sorting out your jet lag;)

Anonymous said...

welcome back!

arey young handsome guys are jerks. with age, comes the poise. so worry nahin karne kaa, and you sud start enjoying the company of sophisticated and mature people.

God bless ya!

|nah i havent got that poise yet. so dont think kee i am one of them ;)|

R said...

bhelcummm bahin bhelcumm !!!!
the offer of the gabru jawan with beeeegggg beeeeggg muchiz still holds

Anonymous said...

waah! kya awesum-maushum hai yahan pe (mumbai mein). it had just been raining, and sun has just come out (its 10:40 am). and its saturday (chhutti kaa din)!

who the heck needs a hot-babe in such a pleasant weather?!

( i dunno why i am trying to convince you not to think about young handsome guys. afterall i am also one of them (hee hee))

Nirwa Mehta said...

You think I should dance that I am here before the world girl? Or you think I should hide that I am mentioning I am before the world girl

Tiny Tapori must be missing Tapori Masi! :D

And seems like you had great flight! :D

Nirwa

Joe said...

Old is Gold dear.. You missed one, you should have taken the middle row.

Joe/

Anonymous said...

hhheehehheh...poor sayesha with an old man :P...may i expect "whos next to you-part 2"?? :P

take care
sakhi.

Wanderlust said...

hey give us a post on hopscotch abt NY!

Sayesha said...

#Shub,
Thanks for the warm welcome. I'm feeling kinda sick to be back, and I really really missing Aish, but I'll recover soon, I hope... gotta go to work on Monday too, damn.

Yeah, it was a reallly old man... not grumpy, but reallly old, so he was napping most of the time, and I had to drink less OJ cos I didn't wanna wake him up when I crossed over to go pee. Luckily, he changed his seat after the Frankfurt stopover :D

#Ipanema Gal,
Muahahaha! :D

#Sahil,
Arre wah! Bada apt gana gaaya... chalo kuchh toh baaki hai :)

#Ipanema Gal,
Hum dushmani bhi nibhate hain ek izzat ke saath. Laughing at the enemy's jokes is permitted! ;)

#Duhita,
Really?? I had the cutest guy sitting next to me on two flights (yes, the same guy!!) back in the uni days :)
ps: The jetlag is driving me nuts... the disorientation started in the plane itself when they served supper, followed by lunch, and then breakfast! :O

#Satish,
Hahahaha! Chal ab apni age bol! ;)

#Raam Pyaari,
Nahin re... gabru jawaan ke saath bail-gaadi mein baithne se achha hai, tumri behen hawai jahaj mein akele hi ghoomegi! :P

#Satish,
Cool man. NY/NJ also had fabulous weather. It was sunny yet the winds were chilly, and it was bright till 8:30 or so! :)

#Nirwa,
Yeah I miss my tiny tapori... when I called my sis after landing, I could hear Aish cry. Mom said she misses me too! :(

#Joe,
Hahaha! Thanks man! Nahin chahiye! :)

#Sakhi,
Hahaha! There will be a part 2 only if a real hunk sits next to me on my next flight to wherever! :P

#Zombie,
Coming soon! Too many photos to sort, but I'll update Hopscotch soon! :)

Anusha said...

Yay! You back! World happy! :D

And poor poor girl. Sis doesn't have the same intuition as you, huh? Never worry. That handsome fellow will come along some day. I'm still waiting for mine too. All I've gotten so far are drunk/old/bald/sleepy/grumpy/disinterested (take your pick) people. *sigh* Mera time bhi aayega. Someday. :P

Unknown said...

Cool Sash.. so you're back.. Welcome :)

So.. who was it next to you?? Some fat gossiping aunty or some nose-leaking kid :P:P

Or maybe some rude old fella? :P

hehehe.. great you're back..
Now we can expect some nice action out here :D :P

Take care,
Aarti

Unknown said...

Btw Sash...

Hows Aish doing?? I know how much you'd be missing her :|

She sure might be missing you too !

Anyways, Take care,
Aarti

Pi said...

Dont you remember last July when you had a handsome guy sitting next to you on the way to Redang, when Jeeves did his "Pull-out-the-seat-armrest" routine?

Anonymous said...

Unrelated to your post actually - but check out http://songsofjo.blogspot.com/

Listen to the second song from top.... great voice and great song.

Pramod

Harsha said...

lol here... I go home to Mlore everymonth... Everytime I pray to god to give me some female company... Just doesnt seem to happen ;)

Hope you had better luck when u came back. :)

dearbharat said...

It doesnt matter what is the age of the person. What would matter is the energy levels and substance in the person. Did u learn something new during flight in ur interaction with the guy next seat?? Did u talk to him??

Welcome back....

Preethi said...

Pehle to samajh mein nahi aya ki kaun baitha tere saath.. lekin Sahil ke comment padh ke samajh mein aya.. (Kya karein yaar.. thoda processor slow hain apun ka..:))
But poor Sash.. 21 hrs with a Budhdha... how very pitiable...:)

Vinesh said...

Were there three handsome hunks back in the middle seat row you originally had a ticket for? ;-)

Siddhu said...

Drunk ol' man?

Sahil said...

Sahil to the rescue again :)

hahahahaha - stop fuming Sayesha, bacha party samajhte nahin, toh samjha diya na? :P

Sayesha said...

#Clueless,
Amen to that! ;)

#Aarti,
It was a really really really old guy. :|
ps: I miss Aish too :(

#American Pi,
Nice try, dude! ;)

#Venky,
I guess the old man sitting next to me in the plane got his wish of having a hot babe (ahem!) sitting next to him at the ripe age of 80. So there's hope for ya! ;)

#Pramod,
Brilliant!! Simply brilliant! I'm a fan of the guy now! He sounds simply superb, no accompaniments that too!! :O

#Bev,
May your wishes be answered soon! :)

#Bhaarat,
Yeah, I learnt something. I learnt that you should not drink too much water or orange juice if your path to the toilet is blocked by an old napping guy. :D

ps: Nice profile pic! I think you were sitting next to me on some flight a coupla years ago. :|

#Smiling Gal,
Kya baat hai? Aajkaal Sahil aapko bahut kuchh samjha raha hai, huh huh huh? ;)

#Vinesh,
Hahahaha! I did not look for fear of being heart-broken! ;)

#Siddhu,
Not drunk, but old man yes.

#Sahil,
Haan haan samjha lo... patti padha rahe ho masoom ladkiyon ko mere bar mein?? Even your pick-up lines are as old as you, man! :D

Sahil said...

yeah yeah - 21 hours jo old man ke saath guzaar liye hain, now u ONLY see old men in every direction!

Preethi said...

Arey haan.. maine to notice hi nahi kiya.. Sahil thanks dude..:)

Ab se khayal rakhega bhai apun... Sahil ke comments padhega lekin samajhne ki koshish nahi karega...:) Wht say?:);)

Just Jane said...

ok, so you can predict stuff for others, but not for yourself? i think you shud go professional with this, you might give sunita menon a run for her money! :P

Anonymous said...

Or lets look at it this way....

Maybe the oldie enjoyed sitting next to for 21 hours!!!!
Maybe his grandson (Ahem, Ahem) had predicted he would be sitting next to a hot babe;)))

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