Co-authored with Prof. Srinivas Akella
15th December, 1980 is forever etched in our memories. It was the day that the Air India Maharaja rolled out a red carpet and flew us from Bombay to New York in their magic skies… aboard Emperor Vikramaditya, one of the six 747s that Air India acquired in the early 1970s. It was the day when Prasad first traveled internationally. And, it was Srinivas’ birthday—the longest ever of his life before or since.
Air India was familiar to us, as my father traveled widely. Given how ticketing worked in those days, he’d spend hours with the Air India staff, working through his tickets, having them send telex messages to the Air India headquarters and to the other international airlines to ensure that the routing and layovers worked. (Perhaps shocking to this generation, back in the 1970s through deregulation in the mid-1980s, pricing was pretty standardized across all airlines by the CAB and, possibly, ICAO. Airlines differentiated on service and connectivity. And, frequent flyer programs. (In fact, AKR proudly carried around his “Million Miler” card, which gives you a sense of how much he was flying before flying became as ubiquitous as it is today.)) And, we vividly recall the Air India office in/next to Bangalore’s Unity building—with the omnipresent child-sized statues of the Air India Maharaja.
While many of the details of the New York trip are lost in the mists of time, a few do remain etched:
- The day dawned bright and early. As my father was a consultant to a company in Bombay, they had invited us to breakfast. Two distinct memories persist from breakfast… The first was that the breakfast was in a lovely apartment directly overlooking Wankhede Stadium. One could watch a test match from the comfort of this apartment! The second was eating fruits and drinking juice for breakfast. Together, they gave us a window into a world outside that of a Professor’s family.
- We recall that trip being about about 17 hrs of actual flying time (not that different than today) and total elapsed time of about 23 hours
- We also recall a 3-4-3 seating configuration. As both of us wanted to look out, Srinivas and our parents were in a 3 seater while Prasad sat one row behind by the window.
- Since we took off in the wee hours of the morning, IST, we flew above the Alps and Europe early in the morning. We can recall seeing the beauty on the ground below even now. Pictures and descriptions from Goh Cheng Leong’s extremely well written geography textbooks for the ICSE exams flashed through our minds. Seeing Oxbow lakes and snow for the first time from the air was a treat!
- One entertained oneself by listening to the 15-odd audio channels (that you switched using a rotary knob in the seat armrest and listened to in a cheap plastic, air-driven “headset”) , reading newspapers and magazines that were plentiful on board, or reading books you brought on board.
There were a few cultural recollections as well
- The air crew (air hostesses in beautiful sarees and the male hosts in formal western attire) were very friendly—flying in 1980 was still the domain of a few and the airlines had to deliver superior service. Very friendly!
- Prasad remembers the omelette distinctively. It was surprisingly soft and fluff, given that it was reheated. And, Srinivas remembers that they had actual silverware!
- And, Prasad recalls writing a note to the captain and having the air hostess hand carry it to him. It must have read “I am an engineer in the making and would love to join you in the cockpit for a few minutes.” Sure enough, the captain sent back an invitation to join him and the crew in the cockpit! Thrown in for free was a tour of the upper deck. For some reason, both of us recall the stairs being spiral. And, Prasad remembers promising himself that he would one day fly in the upper deck of a 747!
- Perhaps the most impactful cultural recollection was when we touched down in Heathrow. The first impression was that we had taken a long route to Delhi! Women in salwar kameez’ and men in kurta pyjamas, more often than not paired with a turban. It felt like they had been transported, just a few minutes earlier, from India. But, then, upon closer examination, we noticed that almost all of them were there as janitors, cleaning the toilets and the floor while the local Britishers were “running the show.” Prasad remembers thinking to himself in that instant “Why would I bother living in any other part of the world if the only roles available to me were at the bottom of the socio-economic totem pole?”
Fortunately, the contrast between Britain and the US was just as surprising. We remember touching down late in the afternoon and being picked up by my uncle Satya in his equally gigantic “jumbo jet” of a Pontiac Grand LeMans stationwagon. From JFK, we drove around Manhattan, including a stop at an Indian restaurant (Bombay Palace, at 30 W 52nd St) to pick up a takeout box of snacks. We drove around New York City viewing its many skyscrapers and important streets. We then made our way to our aunt’s place in New Jersey before driving on to uncle Satya’s house in Wappingers Falls, NY. And, thinking that America was indeed the land of milk and honey!
For a long time, read decades, neither of us flew Air India—fearful of poor service quality, including, sadly, dirty toilets and people peeing on each other. However, this past August, Prasad had the opportunity to fly Air India and, on a whim, decided to fly the royal skies again. He flew SFO → DEL → SFO non stop on Boeing 777-200LRs tagged AI174/AI173.
Upon sharing this with Sucharu Malhotra, the lead flight attendant, Charu and her team (Prena, Prasansha, Zebin and co-pilot, Ketan) delivered on a promise that she made—excellent service!
From the Boeing 747 (aka, the queen of skies) to the Boeing 777 and, soon, the Airbus 350 is a long and proud lineage of planes. Equally long and storied is Air India’s history. We can’t wait for the day when Air India is our preferred carrier to India. We sure hope that the Tata’s get things back on track. And, continue to deliver magical experiences in the skies!
