I spend an unhealthy amount of time wondering about the small things in life. One such thing is about emergency rows in flights.
Over time, I have decided that I need to listen to the emergency row instructions as diligently as possible instead of actively ignoring that human telling me something up and close.
Last night, I was on a terribly delayed GoAir flight from Mumbai to Bengaluru (9pm flight took off only at 10:05pm due to air traffic congestion at Mumbai Airport).
I had opted for the emergency row, to sleep through the flight. It’s been quite some time since I was subjected to the emergency row instructions because I hadn’t opted for it recently. I don’t pay attention to the safety instructions anymore (also because it is one-to-many broadcast), but pay very close attention to the emergency row instruction, not because I don’t know what they’d say, but because it is usually a one-to-one or one-to-three (3 people seated in that row) communication. It is direct and personal, even if they do it mechanically.
As the GoAir lady rattled the first line with zero emotion and asked me, as per script, “Are you willing to open the emergency door?”. I said, “Most definitely!” with genuine enthusiasm. She probably didn’t expect anyone to say that in the first place and definitely not with that kind of enthusiasm. She lost her flow briefly and regained it after a few seconds and a surprised grin 🙂 Small things you can do to add dignity to another person’s job, however monotonous they think it is, and make a tiny difference in their lives.