Last month, I had to travel from Bengaluru's Kempegowda International Airport to Lucknow. I have traveled this route many many times before. Every time it was a journey of me myself, I never bothered to see which I saw this time. Something which is still lingering in front of my eyes. It was a challenge to being considerate, modest, caring and very humble in 'reality'. This is a story of a person who silently taught a lesson to all whoever witnessed it.
My flight was at 11.25 am, so i decided to take Uber from my home to airport. It's expected that you reach at least one hour before the departure. This rule make it to reach in-person by 10.25 am. The airport is 50km from my home, yeah 50! The best case for a typical morning traffic would be a travel time of at least 90min. So in an ideal situation, I should be leaving around 9 am. Well, life is highly non-ideal, I better need a margin of an hour for to absorb the shocks of real apathy of Bengaluru's Traffic. So in any case if I leave home by 8 am, I should be comfortably be reaching on time. Now I need to take care of the real time Uber booking issues, you never know when the cab will arrive. So 30min more margin, now i have to leave at 7.30 am. Ah lot of calculations!!!
So, booked Uber at 7.15am and cab arrived by 7.20am. A good omen! Started at 7.30am and I reached Airport by 9am! Wow! All my calculations went for a toss, but it's happy to be wrong here.
For all those who don't want to spend money against airport elevated foods, this airport has a nice Staff Canteen, good to explore. If you are looking for non-dramatic, simple meal this is the place.
After enjoying an authentic Dosa here, I was wandering around the airport area, for my surprise, a wonderful life sized Dasara tableau was placed. Wow it was beautiful, Kudos to Airport Authority, they are always on their toes to promote our culture. Before i get into the story, let me put on record my sincere appreciations to Bangalore Airport Authority for the marvelous works they are doing in uplifting our heritage.
Now, back to the story! After getting an automated boarding pass in about 30-40 seconds, which is an unique advantage, if you don't have a check-in bag, I walked in for security gates. Here is where I met the hero of my story.
Again for my pleasant surprise, this airport has automatic tray dispensing system which are used to keep the bags for x-ray scan. The movement of these trays is automatic but, placing is to be done manually. When we take the bags out we have to keep the trays in a bin. The machine takes from bin and gives the trays for next person. That is how it works.
I was wondering about this technology which I had thought of as a project during my B.TECH days. A project idea which was discarded by my limited vision, 10 years ago, now is standing in front of me making money for the designer and making life simple for security personnel at airports. So i say, no idea is small, discuss with someone who understands it, before discarding.
While I was wondering about this, one more part which was new for me was, the huge queue of people. More than 90% were women, which made the security check slower. Because men's gates were free but we had no access till that point! So officials were literally waiting for men to walk in for them to frisk.
Right in front of me was a man with a small kid on his shoulders. It was a small sleeping cute kid indeed. His wife was in queue and her line was very long. We (me and the guy with kid) both kept our luggage in the tray for x-ray and moved along.
Both of us got through and we are waiting for our luggage which is in for x-ray. First lot of trays came out of machine and ours were yet to come. The belt can accommodate about 10 boxes and the next ones can come only after it is cleared. For people who are not well versed with this security system, the trays are to be taken out by individuals and place them in bins designated.
As soon as a batch of trays came out, people who were waiting before us grabbed their belongings from the trays and left. Nearly half of them forgot to place trays into the bins. So, only few trays could actually come out from the next batch. Mine and the hero's bag came out. I took my tray and walked out, but ... The hero who was carrying his cute little kid removed 2 trays of others along with his tray, with a simple intention, to clear the space. The act is very simple but gave a lesson to many people there. Some of the people who forgot to remove their trays came back. I too grabbed few trays and cleared the conveyor belt.
You don't need words to teach a lesson, Simple actions teach more than the words could have! Life is beautiful with actions, of care and responsibilities.
Practice is better than Preach!
