The last flight home

The Woman from Madras Musings has been travelling a lot in recent times, and was thankful when she learned that her most recent trip would be the last one in a long time. The return flight home was a particularly lovely experience. Not only did she reach the airport in time, but found that there was virtually no queue at the security checkpoints. WMM had all the time and space in the world to arrange her electronics in the tray and roll them down the conveyor belt, and the person conducting the personal screening had an infectious air of joy and goodwill. The flight too was on time and there was none of the chaos that had marked less cheerful trips. There was ample seating at the gate for passengers, and WMM didn’t have to stand until boarding commenced. The lady who sat beside her at the gate turned out to be a foreign tourist who was visiting Chennai for the first time. WMM asked her what she planned to do in the city, and received an answer that rather surprised her – the tourist was travelling to Chennai to consult a palm reader after which she planned to return to the garden city to meet a popular guru. It was evident that she was quite excited at the prospect, for she had a lot to say – in fact, WMM found herself listening to her even when she was settled into her seat on the flight. It was only when WMM asked her about her ticket that she realized that she was in the wrong seat; she scrambled across the aisle, apologizing profusely to everyone around her.

WMM was just beginning to think that the flight was going to fly half-empty when a large contingent poured through. The group was traveling together, and it appeared to be their first time on a flight. A gentleman seated in front of WMM immediately assumed the role of what WMM can only term as a flight conductor. Much like his counterpart on a bus, he asked each person in the group their seat number and directed them to their respective seats. One couple discovered to their dismay that they had been assigned separate seats – the gentleman was to sit next to WMM while his wife was to sit further back. Deciding that this was not to their liking, the wife convinced her husband to sit next to her. The flight conductor was perturbed – more, it must be said, than the flight attendants. He warned the couple that there could be trouble when the rightful owner turned up, but there was no arguing with the wife. She would talk him into exchanging seats, she said, and left it at that. WMM waited and watched, curious to see what would unfold. Sure enough, a young gentleman turned up and was momentarily confused at finding his seat taken. When he was informed by the couple – rather firmly, WMM thought – that they wished to sit together, he gamely agreed to exchange seats. WMM thought that was rather sporting of him and told him so. The rest of the flight passed uneventfully, affording WMM a restful nap before touchdown.

On the bus transfer from the flight to the airport, WMM encountered another heartwarming moment. WMM had noticed that the girl next to her was watching a live IPL match on her phone, and couldn’t help but peek at the screen. This did not go unnoticed. The girl was kind enough to remove her headphones and turn up the volume so WMM could follow the match too.

WMM wonders whether readers will empathize when she says that these small acts of kindness are sometimes more touching than grand gestures. After all, life gives us more occasions to make small displays of kindness and friendship than dramatic ones.

WMM returned home with a light step. It’s not often that one enjoys a flight.

The AI lie

The Woman from Madras Musings felt both sad and alarmed last week when the Better Half managed to fool her with an AI-generated image. It looked incredibly convincing, and the thought that it was not real hadn’t crossed WMM’s mind. Just the week before, WMM had gently chided the Eternals for buying into a plainly spurious piece of propaganda, so B.H.’s rather harmless trick made her both silly and old.

The only silver lining appears to be that she is not alone in her artlessness – fake content has reached such levels of sophistication that many are unable to distinguish between the true and false. WMM wonders whether the future will bring legal guidelines for the use of AI-generated content. She hopes it does.

– WMM