Posted by: Captain Haddock August 21, 2005
RNAC, a passengerspeake
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I totally hear you, Bihan. I stopped flying RNAC years ago. And I have now stopped complaining about the airline altogether . But I have a story to share about RNAC . There was this one time when I had to go to the RNAC office at 44 Janpath in New Delhi to re-confirm my ticket. And this was long before I came to the West and expected some semblance of customer service from an airline. Back then I was like any other Nepali kid studying in India, a little shy, a little aggressive, a little talkative and a little quiet. I was a little but of everything - the only thing not little was my appetite to have a good time! :) So anyways, I walk into the RNAC office and find a dozen or so people in there - a couple of them standing next to the service counters and others sitting on the chairs and sofas. There were 3 service counters open, each manned by an RNAC staff with an identification card hung around their necks. I try to figure out how their queue worked and quickly give up and stand behind 2 people already at one of the counters. 10 minutes pass and I am still standing there. 20 minutes pass and nothing. 30 minutes pass and I haven't moved an inch and neither have the people in front of me. The person at the counter has been hammering at the computer for the last half-hour and occassioanly looking up to ask a question of the person being served. I am begining to get frustrated. I was still a patient guy those days. But the person infront of me was not I guess. He leaves the line and storms out of the RNAC office mumbling something to himself. After what seemed like an eternity, my turn finally comes. A naive 19-year-old, I quickly forgive and forget the ordeal of the last one hour without even being asked to do so. Come to think of it, the person at the counter, never apologized for keeping me waiting. Back then those kind of things didn't bother me me so I go up to the counter and flash my Binaca smile (or was it Dabur Danta Manjan, I forget) He returns the gesture by putting sachet full of Pan Parag in his mouth, his eyes never in contact with mine all this while. He holds out his hand expecting me to place my ticket on it. I do so and tell him I need to re-confirm my ticket. He slowly flips to the pages of my ticket and types something into the computer. A good five minutes pass before he looks up and says "seat chainna, belka ko flight ma tyo hapta bhari". "Ani kahilo ko flight ma chha ta, dai " I ask politely. We make eye contact for the first time that afternoon. "Khai ... hernu parcha" he says and stares at his screen for a couple of minutes. I felt as though I were inconveniencing him by asking him that question. Maybe that was how he wanted me to feel. Without looking up he says " Sombar bihana ko chha, janeho tesma?. Aajkal sabai flight pack chha. Tourist haru dherai chhan" I wanted to fly on Wednesday or Thursday and he was telling me he only had a seat the following Monday! I could not fly out that late because I was going for a short vacation. Winter vacations were for 15 days only and I would get to spend much less time in Kathmandu if I flew on Monday. And I wasn't trying to get a ticket last minute. I was in the office 3 or 4 weeks before the trip. I was told that was sufficient time to confirm your ticket. Frustrated, I ask him if there is any way he can accommodate me on an earlier flight. Then without warning, out of the blue, he takes me by total surprise and launches a diatribe against "certain types of Nepali students". He spares no one under the sun - the kids, their parents, the government, no one. I am 19 and proud, a little arrogant I must confess, full of self esteem and boy yes, hot-headed. I am also on my nerves end. His Pan Parag is beginning to annoy me. His pancake-sized glasses make my palms itch. I feel a rush of blood into my head. My primordial instincts are taking over. I stop thinking. The last time I was this way I was bad. I don't even want to recall how bad. I feel I cannot control myself and I am going to break his nose. I feel a deep uncontrollable anger taking over me Then all of a sudden something pops up at the back of my mind and says I must not do this. My dad's reputation is at stake. The whole family's reputation is at stake. And my uncle is a fairly important person in RNAC - everyone will find out what his nephew did and it will all be in the papers. This will make him and the rest of the family look really bad. A picture of my mom flashes across - "Ke kareko babu timile esto". But dang, I hate those pizza-sized glasses that dude is wearing. I am going to smash them. Come what may! Then by what surely must have been divine intervention, someone I knew walked into the scene. She was working for RNAC in their New Delhi office as I found out then. I must have done something right in a previous life. I thank god to this day for not just did her presence provide an honorable way out of the situation, she actually got me the very flight I wanted! I had long forgotten the incident but the posting on RNAC brought back some memories. I haven't had the need to fly RA for a long time now and I don't know if I will fly it again. As for that guy and his out-of-the-blue implosion, I think it must have been the Delhi heat ... something about Sardars going mad at noon? :)
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