Wake up and smell the omelette, Air India
Nothing is beyond the infinite capacity of Air India - except of course ceasing to be a burdensome beast riding the weary shoulders of the unsuspecting taxpayer. The airline's latest move - to deny hot non-vegetarian meals to passengers who desire the privilege - has, despite civil aviation minister Mahesh Sharma's clarification, scaled new heights of idiocy.
If the cabin crew can serve hot vegetarian meals to passengers on flights lasting between 61 and 90 minutes, what stops them from offering non-vegetarian sustenance? Both vegetarian and non-vegetarian meals are packed into the same trolleys, so where's the possibility of time being lost because the cabin crew also have to serve resolutely non-vegetarian passengers? Air India's line of reasoning borders on the ludicrous.
Not long ago, Sharma had suggested that non-vegetarians should abstain from the pleasures of the flesh during the Navaratras; now, he has advanced the rather ingenious argument that warm vegetarian meals are a step up from the cold vegetarian sandwiches that used to be offered before. Air India recent move seems suspiciously close to the minister's worldview. Internationally, airlines follow the practice of serving microwaved heat-and-eat sandwiches - vegetarian and non-vegetarian - on short-haul flights. Usually, two air-hostesses are good enough for the job, and Air India can easily put this precedent into practice.
If the airline was being stupidly stingy in the past and denying its passengers non-vegetarian sandwiches, what stops it from making a course correction and taking its patrons by surprise? Airlines all over the world are upgrading their food offerings - take Emirates for example, which is going to the extent of celebrating Indian regional food, depending on the sector - but Air India seems to be caught in a time warp. Instead of learning from airlines such as South African Airways and Cathay Pacific, and Singapore Airlines closer home, and becoming a flag-bearer of Indian food and wine, Air India is retreating into an arcane vegetarian shell.
Equally ludicrous is the idea of not serving tea and coffee at lunch - or dinner-time. Again, and I should know, for I have even flown Alitalia's domestic service; Lot, the Polish airline; and Aeroflot, if airlines all over the world can manage both lunch/dinner and tea/coffee services together, what makes Air India so special - or so different - that it can't pull it off. It is still led by the old licence-permit raj mindset that only allowed the government and its agencies to be king, and not the consumer. Well, we live in another era, Air India. It's time for the national carrier to wake up and smell the coffee (a Chikmagalur, one hopes!) - or, may I be as bold to suggest, the omelette.