Air India....where do I begin?? Lets begin on the first leg of my flight, New York-London. After an orderly check in (at the waaaaay back of the terminal) we proceeded to the gate. Check in was a stampede, no priority or zone boarding. I entered a shabby boeing 747-400 "vhela goa" to find two overweight scowling flight attendants lazily slapping their hands together forming a broken namaste. Walking down the isle I found three gum wrappers, and a large coffee stain on the carpet until I reached my sickly green colored economy-class seat. The arm was cello taped to prevent it from falling off, the pillows were non-existent, and blankets were brown, filthy piece of unwrapped cloth.
We departed an hour late because Air India has no clue or care about punctuality and a movie was shown, the quality of the only screen in the cabin which was centered on the middle bulkhead was so hazy, I could not tell which movie was playing..which didnt even matter anyway because the fat airhostess had no intention of circulating earphones. Drinks came around, I asked for ice and she said "u vant ice eh? *she puts ice in a cup with her hands *take..take how much u vant" she said..almost throwing the cup at me in anger for asking her to do extra work and give me ice.
The fact she had previously stuck her finger in her ear and then put it in the ice made me give it back..there was hell to pay for she screamed at me for turning the ice away after asking her to lift her fat arm and giving it to me. The meal I was unable to distinguish its contents, for it all looked like a sea of spices that were slapped together and labeled FOOD. So I ended up eating dahi. I slept ( barley without pillows and refused to use the dirty blanket ona hard seat with barley any recline) with hunger and we landed at heathrow, to find one shop where I feasted, for I knew the London-Mumbai leg would be no different.
The next leg was no different, with inedible food, horrible serivice, no sense of hygene or entertainment. There was just their mascot, the ugly and diminutive maharaja painted on the emergency door who kept sniggering at me with his looong mustache until we landed in Mumbai. I was so relieved to be done with my adventure, and was dreading the reutrn journey back next month. Air India is not India’s national airline....It is their national shame.