A friends’ elderly parents are trapped in Mumbai, while
their son lives in New York. They usually stay with him, but happened to be in
Mumbai during the lockdown.
Another friend, M., is an air-hostess with Air India. AI
flies a Mumbai-Newark non-stop 16 hour service. The 93-year old man, and his 85-year
wife, would like to take that flight when an opportunity presents itself. I
wanted to know how well they would be taken care of on the flight. I called M.
to check.
*****
M answered.
“Are you home or abroad?” That’s the first question I
always ask M.
“I am in Mumbai.”
“Great. A. must be happy to see you.” A. is M’s
school-going son.
“Haven’t met him yet. I am in Mumbai, but not at home.”
“Oh, on the way from the airport?”
“No, in a hotel. Haven’t got my results yet.”
“What results?”
“On arrival, they take our swab test. Then we are sent
to a hotel, where we wait for the results. If it’s negative, we can go home. Takes
at least 48 hours. I should get it tomorrow.”
“You will go home tomorrow then.”
“It depends. We also have to do a test before
departure. Until that result comes through we can’t fly out. I may have another
flight soon. Without going home I can use the arrival test and fly out.”
“Looks strict.”
“Yes, you know what happened to the Moscow flight, don’t
you?”
Yes, I knew. On Saturday, 30 May, when flying the AI plane
to Moscow, its pilot received a message saying his test result was positive. The
plane was above Uzbekistan. He immediately turned around and brought the plane
back to Delhi. A human error, somebody had read his result as negative.
*****
I explained to M the situation with the 93/85 couple.
They will have a business class, maybe a first class ticket. They will be taken
good care of, won’t they, I asked M.
“The class doesn’t make any difference. We are not
allowed to service any passengers.” M explained. “We don’t go anywhere close to
them. The passengers must have Arogya
setu (India’s contact tracing app) on the smartphone. Without that they can’t
travel. On the 16-hour flight, meals in boxes and drink bottles will be kept on
their seats in advance. Also gloves, mask and a sanitiser. They must wear the
mask and gloves.”
I imagined the Indian air-hostesses in sarees wearing
masks and gloves. Do you also wear them, I asked M.
“Oh, we wear everything. We wear Hazmat suits, masks,
face shields and gloves. Wearing all of it, we just sit quietly through the flight.
What a nightmare. Hot, humid and suffocating. And you can’t imagine the
acrobatics when we go to the loo. Some pursers have started wearing diapers. On
arrival, the Hazmat suits are disposed off.” M said the suits had a price tag
of Rs 3000 ($40) printed on them.
“With so much protection, why do they need to test you
on arrival?” I asked.
“Protection is not guaranteed. Some pilots and
air-hostesses tested positive. In Mumbai, they are then sent to the Raheja
hospital. They stay there until they test negative.”
“M, you are like frontline soldiers. Are they
compensating you for that?” I asked.
“Well, we continue to get our salaries.” M said with
pride in her voice.
*****
Ravi
The realities of life for the next few months and probably beyond
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