5 hrs 30 mins.

That's how long it generally takes to travel on an Indian Airlines flight from Singapore to New Delhi, if the flight doesnt spend time circling above the airport waiting its' turn to land (probably there is just one runway?) or taxing around the runaway and the other pathways trying to find a vacant spot to park.

For my fellow software brethren who live in the US, 5 hrs 30 mins is a short travel time. Needless to say, it is also a boon. They are surprised I dont travel back home every 3 months. Not even every 6 months. They dont reliase that 5 hrs 30 mins isnt always a short time, it is generally enough to catch onto some observations which are unique, weird, interesting, frustrating, funny - but always memorable.

This Dec of 06 when I boarded the flight from Singapore, I happened to queue behind a French family for my boarding pass. The family of 5, were tourists to India. The Lonely Planet gave them away. I was surprised to see how little luggage they were carrying - just 2 small suitcases for 5 of them (no checkin luggage with items filled in - just a backup for the boys and a purse for the mother and the girl). That's the amount of luggage my ma generally carries when she visits her ma. Ooops, I digress! I left them to shop in the huge Changi Duty free, but we met again in the waiting lounge (just outside the boarding gate). Another interesting thing happened - all 5 of them, the parents, the 2 boys and the girl - took out a book and started reading/flipping pages. The youngest boy was fidgety, and he found the free internet PC luring him more often. The others, remained with the books. I turned my head around to see if many others (mostly of my Indian kin) were also reading. Not many. Infact, just a handful. Which didnt include me either. Books, I remembered are costly in India. The fictional interesting ones, more so.

I lost the French family after we entered the small Airbus, and never saw them again.

In the flight, right across me was this family of 3, the mom, the papa, and the noisy not-so-young kid. I thought that the kid had to potential to frustrate me. Didnt quite realise that the mom was more capable. The first thing the lady did was to stand up and look up for vacant places, probably she didnt need to. She noticed the two empty seats (out of 3 in the cluster) next to me, which I was just about planning to use as a bed. She jumped right into the one by aisle, I was by the window, one vacant seat in between.

With the kid safely with the responsible father, she started getting restless for things to do (sleep was sadly not an option, I later realised). Picked up the Strait Times (a fat one considering it was Saturday). Finished flipping through it in what seemed to me like just a few seconds. Maybe it was a few minutes. Didnt even read one article in the 150 or so pages she flipped. Not one.

Went on to the next newspaper, and a few other magazines lying in the backpocket of the seat in front. Their fate - predictable. Not one article was worthy of the few minutes required to read it. I felt offended. Dont know why.

Then there was this pair of guys sitting diagonally opposite. 3 seats for 2 people. But they remained seated in next to each other, in that tight space. Ate their breakfast together, went to sleep together, I mean, at approx the same time. Dont know if they woke up together, I was sleeping then. They were probably just very good friends.

Just like the two middle aged gentlemen sitting in front of me. No, I didnt see what they were doing, I actually couldnt. But hear I could. Yes, of course, they were loud. The first round of alcohol had kicked in. The stewardess probably figured that - but probably didnt realise that it is useless to explain people in that state of mind the fact that Indian Airlines is almost always short on alcohol. I dont know why it is so - Laloo probably snatched the IA budget ? The gentleman kept asking for more, the stewardess politely pushed back, the gentlemen didnt relent, the stewardness kept saying no - I eventually got bored and tried to look away. Saw the two very good friends having lunch together. The mother was now playing with her 15.4'' wide screen Dell laptop.

I went to sleep, the loud gentlemen couldnt wake me up. Delhi, indeed seemed far. 5hrs 30 mins, not that short a time.