I received a very pleasant gift from Air India just before Christmas on a flight from Bengaluru to Delhi. The plane was spanking new. Business class seats consisted of a cubicle for each passenger. The service was excellent, and the food was several notches above the usual tasteless fare on flights. I had planned to work on my laptop. But soon after take-off right on time past noon, lunch was served. Then the temptation of taking a siesta was irresistibleβas the seat stretched to a full-length bedβand I readily succumbed.
An hour later when I woke up, the plane was about to land. I did not do the writing I had planned to do, but it was one of the most pleasurable flights I have had in an airline from which expectations had plummeted very low for quite some time now.
The reincarnated Air India, merged with Vistara, promises a new experience, at least in those sectors where new planes are flying, and the staff has been trained to provide world-class service. I was happy too at the degree of thought that has gone into all aspects of the flight experience.
The mandatory safety instructions were narrated and enacted on the screen in a novel manner. The short film, while giving the instructions, creatively incorporated all the classical dances of India, and some leading folk genres too. I am told that my good friend, the poet and writer, Prasoon Joshi, has designed the presentation. Well done, Prasoon.
The new Air India brand music, which plays before take-off and landing, has been composed by Shankar Mahadevan, with contributing artists Taufiq Qureshi, Prasoon Joshi, and others. It is a fusion piece in the lovely raga Yaman, rendered in the tarana style, combining vocalists, instruments like the tabla, flute and piano, and western orchestration done by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London.
