Comments on: Let’s Fly First Class

By: boston_mahesh

boston_mahesh — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 03:31:00 +0000

I think that a business which specializes in customized paint jobs like the ones seen on Indian trucks would be a very lucrative business. Those art works are simply gorgeous.

By: Pravin

Pravin — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 00:31:20 +0000

There are many reasons why you can't have domestic air travel like our parents used to. 1) Flight attendants have a lot more demands these days. Just a pretty face alone can't cope with it. While I have been a supporter of sexist hiring of pretty flight attendants and I personally wouldn't mind a flight full of pretty female flight attendants who take you back to the era of Boeing Boeing( a silly Jerry Lewis - Tony Curtis comedy), you are going to have a hard time finding enough pretty pleasant folk at such outrageously low salaries. Litigation and mass fear of any tiny amount of danger risk amounts to flight attendants under a lot of stress because they have to be responsible for a lot of things on flights. If you do not wear your seatbelt, guess who gets into troube, if audited? Not you. It's her job on the line. 2) When we want bargain basement fares, don't expect airlines to give you a nice ride. 3) People are crybabies and overreact when an incident takes place. A lot of the TSA regulations are flat out idiotic. yet people who dont mind screaming at a flight attendant because of some trivial discomfort on the flight have no problem lining up like sheep in total silence when subjecting themselves to those dumb measures. All in the name of safety.

It doesnt mean there isn't room for improvement. THere is. And there is room for niche travel or international travel to be better.

By: Yoga Fire

Yoga Fire — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 21:55:17 +0000

So, yeah, planes are magical, conveying aloft in comfort and assurance our dreams of exotic destinations. We used to think this way about air travel in the US.

Yes. That was before we were subjected to a minimum of an hour of pre-flight boredom, being packed in like sardines in ever shrinking cabins, and subjected to a ritual disrobing followed by pointless security theater. It really takes the magic and glamor out of the whole experience. As illustrated here.

By: Darth Paul

Darth Paul — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 21:41:32 +0000

fussklass, yaar!

By: Preston

Preston — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 21:06:15 +0000

I agree with you, Amitava, about the small-town simplicity, even innocence, of the image. I saw a short doc (I think it was on an in-flight video) about a small amusement park in Mumbai that had purchased a de-commissioned jetliner and set it up as an exhibit for kids. Schoolchildren would be marched up the ramp and seated like real passengers, be given the safety instructions by the flight crew, etc. The doc made it seem as if the kids loved it, as they had never been on board an airplane and, given their demographic, probably never would.

So, yeah, planes are magical, conveying aloft in comfort and assurance our dreams of exotic destinations. We used to think this way about air travel in the US.

By: Amardeep

Amardeep — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 20:32:33 +0000

I like the paintings overall.

I'm not sure how I feel about the crescent/stars stuff (I probably need to see more of her art to get a better feel), but the airplane is beautiful. It seems like a high-art conceptual take on the idea of folk art, where ordinary people and untrained artists decorate objects in the world around themselves. Of course, fighter planes aren't everyday objects, so you'll never actually see an airplane that looks like this...

Agreed on the need to avoid making 9/11 as a context for everything (esp. with these planes). But you can also flip it around, and note that many young artists and writers also profit from the connection. Don't books like "Children of Dust" or "Home Boy" generate extra attention in the U.S. media precisely because they're written by young Muslims in the U.S. affected by the "war on terror"?

By: politics

politics — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 20:29:12 +0000

Rather than implicitly ask others to share a well-worn view without a thought. Appeals to convention and thus in some ways power may be commodious but streching is nice sometimes.

By: politics

politics — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 19:39:14 +0000

Ood. maybe you could examine what that reaction is saying to you about your reaction

By: Oodoodanoo

Oodoodanoo — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 19:31:58 +0000

I think when people choose an airline, they respond to subtle cues that say, “This thing will not crash”. The plane shown above does not give me that cue. It does make me think the pilot would rather be somewhere else. Or that he’s got a case of the munchies and will try to land in a Taco Bell parking lot.

By: vivek

vivek — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 18:06:50 +0000

I hope I one day find myself in a terminal in JFK, Brussels, or Chennai waiting to board a similarly decked out Jet Airways plane!