Delhi, Delhi -- another diary entry

As I remember having ranted elsewhere on this blog and as should be evident, I don't travel much on work and at other times, as befits a "poor" poet, I rarely fly.

In fact, truth be told, I have flied on no more than a hand full of occasions, so naturally I still find airports to be places that are unfamiliar, strange and beguiling -- what with the elaborately made up, mannequin-thin-and-unreal, garishly uniformed air-hostesses, the varied cornucopias of affluence -- coffee shops, gift shops, et al -- a virtual orgy of stainless-steel-and-polished-glass eye candy, that is just that -- eye candy. Good looking, contemporaneous, stylish and utterly lacking in soul.

Or maybe it is the people, the people, the people. Not the air-hostesses (many are in all probability acting out a role after all -- from the time they put on make-up to the time they remove it) or the flight attendants, or the other "premier" airport personnel. But rather the large number of passengers, clothed in an affluence and sporting a casual nonchalance that indicates (or rather seems to have been practised to perfection to scream out) that they have been here and done this all before, that they have been born to be here. That they belong here, in this soulless construction of polished glass and steel, however alien they and their mannerisms may seem to me.

Then again, I think -- evidently I am the alien here; shocked at the simplest of Coffee costing close to Rs.100 and a Sandwich costing almost Rs. 200 and (please don't snicker) no sight of the equivalent of Samosas or Janta Khaana / Jan Aahaar.

But I survive the airport's soullessness and even chuckle at how fake and put-on this sense of naturalness and "I-am-as-used-to-flying-as-I-am-to-the-metro" look that most of my fellow passengers sport. Or it is that I get diverted by the welcome presence of those who look more normal, the CISF (Airport Security) staff, the baggage handlers, the housekeeping staff and so on.

And then, I chuckle again (inwardly of course), wondering -- isn't this entire airport alien?