Review of Singapore Airlines flight Singapore → Bangalore in Economy

Prelude

Aircraft are typically referred to using female pronouns — I myself like to indulge in this affectionate practice in my reports — and that’s especially true for this A350, whose registration ends with ‘SHE’. However, since the front nosewheel has the last two letters of the registration, which in this case is HE, I will refer to 9V-SHE as the Hermaphrodite: HE at the front, SHE at the back!

Introduction

Some of you may be disappointed that, after ecstatically waxing lyrical about the splendour of my KLM Royal Dutch Airlines flight to Denpasar on a SkyTeam-liveried 777 — marking my first flight on the airline, on the alliance and to the country — I should not immediately continue my two-day adventure in Bali, with my return on alliance partner Garuda Indonesia’s A330-300s via Jakarta that also had their own special stickers. Fret not: I have retrieved all the pictures I had feared were missing from the trip; even though I did manage to lose my 2 TB hard drive in the process, it turns out all the pictures from my Indonesian intrepidness have escaped safe and sound. Now, however, having sorted and sifted through the pictures of my five-day trip to my new Indian home city of Bengaluru, I feel it is more appropriate to put up two back-to-back flights on the bread-and-butter Singapore Airlines A350 Regional, which I took in late June and early July. I hope these will drive up my readership, since historically my SQ reports have outperformed those of other airlines, garnering more views than most others, with the exception of a singularly unremarkable AirAsia flight that was one of my least memorable but racked up an astounding 10,000+ views — clearly an outlier, when the previous AirAsia flight from Hyderabad could not even get 300.

These will be published in October 2023, followed by the two Garuda A330 flights in November, and to wrap up the year I will post two short reports from an equally short trip: an Ethiopian 787-9 to Kuala Lumpur — on the same route and airline as my whirlwind weekend trip in May — and a cramped little Jetstar A320 barely five hours later. I won’t have too much time to write a lot, because much of my time will be spent actually flying: a redux on SriLankan Airlines for the Diwali festival holiday back home in November, and a return involving a Bangkok day trip and Gulf Air’s fifth-freedom (GF166) to Singapore. More exciting flights are coming up to wrap up the year, including the A380 on SQ to Mumbai — a year as extraordinary for personal travel as 2023 would be incomplete without the superjumbo — and a New Year’s Eve Vietnam trip involving (potentially) the Cathay Pacific A350 and A321neo and (definitely) the VietJetAir A330 and Vietnam Airlines A350! And this could only be possible because of my new credit cards, the Citi PremierMiles and HSBC Revolution, which grant me increased mile earning and free Priority Pass lounge access.

A lot of chopping and changing at Singapore Airlines this winter season

There are many changes coming to SQ’s South Indian routes with the start of the northern winter schedule on 29 October. My new home city Bengaluru (BLR)’s morning flight goes from 4x 737 MAXes to 5x A350s and 2x 737s, but my old home city of Chennai (MAA) suffers a severe cut in A350 flights, with the 6x weekly SQ526/527 disappearing altogether — though the morning service now gets two weekly A350s instead — and low-cost division Scoot returning after three years to the largest gateway for India–Singapore flights. Hyderabad (HYD), meanwhile, gets lucky with daily A350 night flights plus a new 5x weekly morning service, with Scoot pulling out and shifting to Chennai instead. That’s a lot of data to pack into a paragraph, so here’s an infographic instead.

For the record, SQ510/511 — the flight number in these two reports — is completely unaffected, as it keeps the daily A350 service. Interestingly, Chennai is the only destination in the entire SQ network to be served by all three of the A350, 737 MAX and 787! (No A350s served Chennai until March, when SQ526/527 shifted to the A350, and so did SQ528/529 for a three-month period until June. However, even though SQ526/527 will cease to exist, the 2x weekly morning A350 flights ensure that MAA retains its unique distinction.) Delhi is the only other Indian city to get the 787 (alongside the A380), but it has never got the A350, which also serves all of SQ’s other Indian destinations — except Kochi (COK), its fourth and final South Indian city, which gets only 737 MAXes.

Pre-departure

Tuesday, 27 June. The check-in screens, flight information and boarding pass from the SingaporeAir app served to remind me that I was taking the infinitely superior evening option home, compared to IndiGo’s and Air India’s early-morning flights (the former of which I was forced to take at the last minute in September due to a chronic illness) that require you to be at the airport at four in the morning night.

As I often do before a flight, I take sweeping pictures of my home: in this case the first time I was leaving my new home on Marine Parade Road, near the sea and near Changi Airport. The room was much bigger than the old, and the house tastefully done up after a renovation, after which I’d moved in on 17 June, the Saturday before last.

I played the who-will-operate-my-flight game by eliminating those A350-900s already in the air, as well as which ones had arrived at Terminal 3 recently. Notice a certain Central European city here? LH778 from Frankfurt had for some reason diverted to the Hungarian capital, and was coming from there.

Too bad Budapest, one of the most picturesque places in Europe, has nothing to Southeast Asia — though it does have the 4x weekly LO2001/2002 to Seoul/Incheon on LOT Polish Airlines — unlike another city which also has the letters B, U, A, S and T in its name, the one that straddles two continents and is among the most breathtaking in the world.

I left home at a quarter to six, and the Thomson–East Coast MRT (train) line was taking shape, with this being the Siglap station close to home. In a few months or so it should begin operations, and June 2024 — a year after this flight — seems a reasonable enough expectation for the opening.

Some unbelievably beautiful landscaped gardens during the short fifteen-minute drive to Changi, at the other end of the spectrum from the 1.5–2-hour trek I’d have to undertake to and from Kempegowda Airport hereafter.

And now the airport entrance, flanked by a couple of trees, glowingly lit by the about-to-set sun: on the road directly above the sign, aircraft are often towed across the tarmac.

As with most SQ flights, this departure was from T3, excluding those to Southeast Asia and all other South Asian countries except India, which use T2. Truth be told, at this point I probably prefer T2 with its stuningly jaw-dropping renovations to even the much-vaunted T3. Either way, travellers don’t lose much: splitting hairs at the world’s best airport is of no use!

Printing the boarding pass and baggage tags was easy enough thanks to the automated counters…

…but actually dropping the bags at a different set of kiosks was not, thanks to a mismatch between the names on the passport and the boarding pass — a non-issue actually, which I’ve had before on Scoot. Fortunately a friendly agent nearby resolved the problem.

On to the retail outlets at T3: one of only two Singaporean branches of Bikanervala, the Indian sweet-shop (mithaiwala) and vegetarian restaurant, is at Level 4 of Changi T3, where I’d been in April just to visit — no flying involved! — and the other is at Tanjong Katong Road not far from my previous home, also in the eastern side but closer to the city.

Departures became increasingly Indian ones as the evening progressed, followed by largely European and North American ones as night fell, with regional departures drying up after sundown.

Once past Immigration, a spectacular aquarium-like showcase surrounded the Louis Vuitton boutique. All the world’s major five-dollar-figure-plus luxury brands were here: Tiffany & Co., Cartier, Prada, Hermès, Dior, you name it. Do you expect any different from cold, costly Changi?

As well as this poster for Furla’s Unica bag: the ad itself was unbranded, but was positioned right beside the Furla store, removing any doubt.

However, the most dazzingly lit-up store was one I had not anticipated at all: Bacha Coffee from Marrakech, Morocco, since 1910. A resplendent sight!

Higher ceilings than usual: T3 departure gates

T3’s departure gates are certainly much more higher-ceilinged — something I am usually terrified of, but not here — than the low-ceilinged gates in T1 and T2. Another luxury brand, Chanel, had surrounded the entryway into the long corridor with its Blue de Chanel pour homme, available in both eau de parfum and eau de toilette. (Not that I’d know!)

A winged statue stood amidst rows upon rows of SQ A350s awaiting their next departure, with the sun on the verge of making its daily sub-horizon disappearing act. A handful of North Indian passengers buzzed around the gates, as seen in the last picture of this collage.

Two far-flung Star Alliance 787-9s held court now: Air New Zealand’s ZK-NZR as NZ283 departing to Auckland, and United Airlines’ N27957 as UA29 from San Francisco, with United’s other SFO–SIN flight being UA1. (Unlike other US airlines, United usually does not follow the N123AB pattern of registrations for most aircraft, preferring five-digit registrations instead. Those that do follow the N123UA series are very likely to be built before circa 2006!)

Some of the more ecletic arrivals at this point: Finnair’s OH-LWE from Helsinki, Spring Airlines’ B-320L from Shanghai Pudong and Bangkok Airways’ HS-PPT from Koh Samui being the other standouts.

I approached the A16–20 gates at the far end of the terminal, which were hosting SQ departures to three Indian cities plus the one on Air New Zealand, with its own security checkpoint.

NZ283 to Auckland had already closed its gates, leaving the three Indian departures: SQ510 to Bengaluru, SQ534 to Kochi and — not seen here — SQ516 to Kolkata, my birthplace, in the east of the country.

No A350 for Kolkata today: unlike Hyderabad which will now get a daily A350 boost, Kolkata stays put with its A350 from Saturday to Monday and the 737 MAX on the other four days. At least Kolkata did get the A350 back (prepandemic the A350 was daily, but post-COVID until March 2023 only 737s): Kochi, however, has only the 737 MAX, but twice a day.

It had been a while since the Air New Zealand gate closed, but the others were ready with their Indian departures.

Signs for Garuda Indonesia were placed near some gates, a common occurrence at Changi, which was also the case for my previous T3 flight to India: Vistara’s A321neo to Mumbai.

A snacks stall had its fair share of customers lining up for Dairy Milk and Toblerone chocolates and Nissin Cup Noodles potato chips in Black Pepper Crab flavour, one of my favourites. Beside, our A350 stood at the gate, but there was no way of making out the registration from the nosewheel door. SQ departures from Changi are always a mystery as to what aircraft will operate the flight, unlike my KLM flight to Denpasar, where I knew from the outset — over 24 hours before the plane left Amsterdam — that I’d be getting the SkyTeam-liveried 777-300ER.

Going up close to the sharp-nosed plane did not solve the registration mystery in any way. There’s only so much I could do, short of breaking through the glass…!

I bought the aforementioned Nissin Black Pepper Crab potato chips, and a Snapple pink lemonade which came straight from the US. Paired with them was a ‘Welcome to World Class’ zip bag, one of many I’d received at the Singapore Airlines Restaurant A380@Changi event in October 2020 three years ago, at a time when the world was wondering when we would get to fly A380s again instead of just having to make do with the on-ground dinner that this event was.

But now that the world has well and truly opened again, the coast cleared for me to buy an SQ A380 ticket to Mumbai just before the Christmas break, reuniting me with one of my favourite Indian airports alongside BLR — and finally snagging a (typically expensive) seat on the A380!

Most passengers were families, many with kids, and several were bored stiff while others were chatting amongst themselves. Before long, however, at around half-past seven, the Star Alliance Golds and KrisFlyer elites were called to step on board, followed by the general rush that stopped short of disintegrating into a frenzied melee.

Surprisingly, boarding announcements were additionally made in Hindi for SQ534 to Kochi, a coastal South Indian city with barely any Hindi-speakers, while Kolkata and Bengaluru — which have a larger Hindi-speaking population, though not as much as Northern and Western Indian cities — did not get them.

Soon it was my turn, and at last the mystery was going to be solved on the HSBC-branded jetbridges which wasn’t possible from the terminal.

At long last, here HE was, thanks to the nosewheel door… or should I say SHE… I don’t know, this aircraft seems like a hermaphrodite — HE at the front, SHE at the back.

Better call him/her/them/it Niner Victor Sierra Hotel Echo, then: I don’t know of what other description to use. ‘Her name is SHE!’ I wrote.

Anyway, as is typically the case on SQ, economy earphones are handed out on the jetbridge itself, instead of on board. Thus began my first nonstop nighttime flight to India, on Singapore Airlines at that. This is more of a ‘been there, done that’ box to tick, and not the extraordinary exhilaration on the likes of Ethiopian, KLM and Garuda — but you can’t beat the consistency of SQ’s product, service and legendary perception when others in the region continue to flounder, that too on the world’s most cutting-edge widebody aircraft.

The flight: Boarding and departure

Flight: Singapore Airlines SQ510/SIA510
Date: Tuesday, 27 June 2023
Route: Singapore Changi (WSSS/SIN) to Bengaluru Kempegowda (VOBL/BLR)
Aircraft: 9V-SHE, Airbus A350-900 (regional configuration)
Age: 3 years 3 months at the time (built: 25 March 2019, delivered: 5 April 2019)
Seat: 67K
Boarding: 8:00pm SGT, UTC +8 (5:30pm IST, UTC +5:30)
Departure: 8:40pm SGT (6:10pm IST)
Arrival: 9:50pm IST (12:20am SGT)
Duration: 3 hours 40 minutes

Notes:
• Third flight on Singapore Airlines’ A350 after 9V-SMF (the 10,000th Airbus built) in October 2022 to Kuala Lumpur, and 9V-SHJ in December 2022 to Bangkok. Sixth overall on the A350, with the others being on Thai Airways: HS-THF, THJ and THL. In December I plan to add Cathay Pacific and Vietnam Airlines to my A350 log on the HKG–HAN and SGN–HAN segments, hence covering the other two alliances.
• First nighttime westbound flight to India; also, first flight to Bengaluru after my parents moved house there from Chennai in May 2023.
• Second of three international arrivals at BLR T1, after TG325 on Thai Airways’ A350-900 HS-THJ (June 2022), with the last being the early-morning 6E1006 on IndiGo’s A321neo VT-IUZ in September 2023. The redeye return flight — 6E1005, operated by fellow A321neo VT-IMC — was on 12 September, the day that all international flights at BLR moved to T2 once and for all.

Regional A350s and 787-10s have more or less the same product, with purplish business-class seating and dreary grey and blue economy seats, sans premium economy. The A350 Longhaul (9V-SM*/SJ* series) and ULR (9V-SG*, with no economy) have much brighter fabrics, which I personally prefer.

This, then, was the recent flying history of the Hermaphrodite. ‘Doesn’t SHE look beautiful?!’ I told my parents. (No, I don’t have siblings: my parents are my main family.)

Several conversations were partially in our native language of Bengali, which I have translated below.
Dad at 7:41: The airport [in Chennai] was 30–45 minutes away, now 2+ hours.
Me at 7:41: Over here the airport is 10 minutes from home!
Mom at 7:42: Over here [your dad’s] office is 10 minutes from home. To each their own.

The welcome screen in the seatback of 67K was, well, welcoming — even though there was no Singapore Girl to be found here. And thank you to Thales — who designed the IFE on the A350-900 Regional as opposed to Panasonic Avionics on all other SQ aircraft (except the 737-800 which has no seatback IFE) — for not putting the filthy Montserrat font here, which appears on all Panasonic IFE aircraft.

Sadly, that font is exactly what Air India Express has chosen to use in its latest rebrand, but the vibrant colours and Air India Sans custom font with its sexy stretched look more than make up for it. While well above par, I wish, though, that the rebrands of Air India and AIX were as typographically perfect as Saudia’s surprise rebrand, with an exqusite chiselled font. Anyway…

Out the window stood 9V-SCD, the very first SQ aircraft I had the privilege of flying on in January 2022 — when flights arriving at Singapore were classified as ‘Vaccinated Travel Lane’ (VTL) or otherwise, to which I say: a big fat good riddance! I’d dubbed it the ‘Singapore Chennai Dreamliner’ at the time.

But not the first SQ aircraft that I’d laid foot on. That honour fell to two A380s for the Restaurant A380@Changi event (as mentioned) in October 2020: 9V-SKS for the early-evening tour of the A380, including the Suites, and 9V-SKN for the main dinner event.

9V-SHV, a fellow A350 Regional arriving from Mumbai as SQ421, sped past. BOM is the luckiest Indian city for Singapore Airlines flights, in my opinion: it gets not only the A350 Regional and A380, but even the A350 Longhaul on weekend nights, which no other Indian city gets. I’ve spotted Sierra Hotel Victor on a few other occasions, such as my Vistara A321neo flight to the same city in March.

There was also Malaysia Airlines’ subsidiary Firefly with its 737s — and, interestingly, it is currently the only commercial operator at Singapore’s smaller Seletar Airport (XSP), where it flies its ATR 72 fleet from Kuala Lumpur’s Subang Airport (SZB), which accepts only turboprops and regional jets. So don’t get your hopes up if you want to escape the 50-km commute to KLIA.

As passengers continued to file in, they placed their bags in the overhead lockers, with the walls lit by the purple-pink mood lighting, while the cabin crew stood on guard.

Please, please, do not forget the boarding music played, on an airline that is all about serenity and tranquility.

Here were the flight details, the system options and the entertainment selection spotlight for June.

This was the extent of the seatback contents, aside from the safety card: the duty-free magazine and the Wi-Fi connection guide. Do NOT ever expect the SilverKris magazine to be restored in its physical form, even as other prepandemic aspects of the SQ experience, like hot towels, make a comeback.

The 747-8 bound from… — should I say Budapesthansa, or Bufthansa, or BUDthansa? All sound equally awful — was yet to land. Meanwhile I tried to connect to the KrisWorld Wi-Fi, which succeeded, in order to pair my phone to the seat and use it as a remote for the IFE, which failed.

I’d recently created a publication log for my flight reports, consisting of airline, alliance, origin, destination, registration, date of flight, date of publication and other such exciting (hah) details.

After some announcements in English and Bengaluru’s local language of Kannada — the latter of which did not feature on the return — the soothing, becalming safety-video-cum-Singapore-tour was played.

This little guy here and that exuberant toothless smile of his never fails to light up a lamp of laughter in me. His parents are equally joyful about taking their infant on a river cruise.

Not that the two other kids were any less cute, accompanied as they were by their doting daddies.

The conclusion was no less appropriate an example of the elegance inherent in the brand this airline has built. Which is a long way of saying: bravissimo!

These were followed by some ads promoting the complimentary Wi-Fi for ALL KrisFlyer members (time-limited in economy/premium economy) in addition to premium-cabin passengers, which was moved up a notch in July to extend it to every KF member on board with no time limits. Something that is nothing short of revolutionary. Except that A350 Regionals like this one flying have the SITA OnAir Wi-Fi, which doesn’t work over India. A380s and most 777-300ERs (until 9V-SWT) are also hindered by this nuisance, but not other A350s and 777s, or 737 MAX 8s and 787-10s.

More promos on how SQ was cutting down on physical items to read, from the menu to onboard magazines and newspapers, and finally a list of accolades from the vintners of the world. Here’s an idea, SQ: instead of the heavy-duty duty-free magazine no one reads anyway, why not bring back your light-as-a-feather SilverKris magazine — ideally in paper form?

The Budapesthansa had landed by now, and of the four SQ departures to India at this time, ours was the only one not on a 737 MAX. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, neither Hyderabad nor Kolkata get anything bigger than a 737 MAX — but HYD has now been bumped up to daily A350 flights from the end of October. (See schedule at start of the report.)

Taxi and takeoff

VH-EBV, Qantas’ A330-200 in the Oneworld titles, was among the guests of honour this evening; fellow blue-circle members Qatar, JAL and Finnair occupied adjacent gates, as seen in the last picture. An Emirates A380 was present, too, as were an ANA 787 and even XY-ALL, a Myanmar Airways International A320 (bottom row, left) beside the Qantas A330.

Thales’ 3DMaps are ordinarily no contest to Panasonic’s much superior Voyager 3D — much less the Arc system that’s found on SQ 737 MAXes and Vistara A321neos and 787s, among other airlines. The version I’d had on Flight 714 (named after the Tintin book; aircraft: 9V-SHJ) was not very nice, but this one knocked my socks off, by the simple fact that it had the registration, 9V-SHE, on display. Something that is hard to find outside Emirates. SCORE!

Highlights were also shown for closeby cities, in this case Johor Bahru in addition to Singapore. No attraction details, however, like I have seen on Thai, KLM and Vistara.

Someone in the row in front was watching Creed III, and I wouldn’t have cared if not for this cute little girl named Amara. (Black and with curly hair, but that shouldn’t matter.)

The night was brilliantly lit up, at first by all the yellow and white lights from the terminal and apron.

And then by the green and blue ones on the runway, and eventually the city and its ships — with the sea now right next door to my new home — as we soared over and above. No better time than night if you want to be enthralled and mesmerised!

Entertainment: SQ’s selection above par, my selection below par

These were the Hollywood movies on offer this month.

These were the Bollywood ones, including many 2022 releases..

…and these were in other Indian regional languages. SQ should be commended for going beyond Tamil and Telugu, which are the larger industries that I’d seen on 9V-SCD in January 2022, and expanding to Marathi and Punjabi, among others. Nevertheless, it still pales in front of ice by Emirates.

I picked the family comedy-drama Jugjugg Jeeyo for a handful of reasons:
(a) I’d enjoyed the director’s previous and first venture, Good Newwz (2019) — on my first Emirates and 777 flight, in fact — which dealt with two women with the same surname, Batra, being impregnated by the other one’s husband’s sperm, thanks to a goof-up during the process of In-Vitro Fertilisation or IVF.
(b) You can’t go wrong with Anil Kapoor, one of Bollywood’s legendary actors, but underrated in recent years. Kiara Advani, now an established young actress, also featured in Good Newwz as one of the leading ladies.
© Prajakta Koli, who also goes by MostlySane, and who’s one of the most influential YouTubers in India, was turning 30 today (27 June 2023). She makes her Bollywood début with this film.
(d) The film was released a year prior, on 24 June 2022, almost to the day.

Terrible, terrible decision, as it turned out — and I would rue it!

The film began with a charming little ad by Singaporean bank UOB, with small children sleeping in a room, presided over by their teacher, most of them straight — but not the littlest one, for he was sleeping upturned with butt up and arms on either side. You are unique, and that’s why we personalise banking for you. Adorable, but what did this have to do with a bank? I wondered.

An intro sequence by Viacom18 Studios, which owns the Hindi movie channel Colors Cineplex that has the rights to the film. They are part of Reliance Industries, the conglomerate led by the country’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, and one of the top businessmen in Asia.

As the KrisWorld inflight portal was enabled, some notifications came on air informing passengers of the same.

The start may have been promising, but the film quickly went downhill from there, never to recover. The jokes did not land, the sequences were meaningless, and as for the drama, oh, it was insufferable.

My caption did not fail to capitalise the word ‘SHE’, it being part of the registration of the aircraft. (Kiara Advani was originally called Alia Advani, before changing her name to avoid confusion with Alia Bhatt, now one of the youngest and most well-known Indian film ambassadors globally.)

Free Wi-Fi for all: a rarity, even in 2023

I have never been able to connect to the KrisWorld Wi-Fi on Panasonic-equipped planes, but with OnAir there was no such problem.

I wasted no time pinpointing us in the vast expanse of the night sky. It was still far from nightfall in India, but it wouldn’t be long. Most A350s in the 9V-SH* series were flying to Northeast Asia (SQ6/8 series) with some to India and the Middle East, and a couple in the region: Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City.

SilverKris may no longer exist physically, but it continues as a website. If this is SQ’s idea of cutting down on printed materials to save the environment, I am in no way a supporter of it. At least a digital flip-page magazine should have been in order, but no!

That said, there are not too many other blemishes on one of the best airlines in the world, as its ‘Welcome to World Class’ in January made clear. Except in terms of catering, which has been steadily rolling downhill on regional routes.

These were the preferences while viewing the movie, which were quite extensive.

Catering: Better than the movie!

Meals were served at 9:45 SGT or 7:15 IST, an hour after departure, which is par for the course.

I’d chosen the South Indian vegetarian option this time. Regrettably, I hadn’t taken a screenshot of the menu from the SingaporeAir app, but I will tell you what it consisted of, and also that I enjoyed it much more than I would have the non-veg offering. It left my belly full and my heart happy, but it was nothing on KLM’s splendid North Indian meal to Denpasar.

Red potato curry to the left, white basmati rice in the centre and yellow dal tadka to the right, with papad (poppadoms) and a dry bread roll, not to mention roti or flatbread in the aluminium packet. Accompaniments: packaged mineral water MOMAwater (oh, the pretentious branding-speak you’ll have to wade through on their website!); 7-Up in the cupholder below the screen, and mango juice below that; a tasty chaat salad; Meiji yoghurt; and the local Udders brand of French vanilla ice-cream — not your typical plain-vanilla flavour, and far better than the ridiculous chocolate flavour on SQ714 to Bangkok six months before.

On a non-Indian airline, it is impossible to note the names of the flight attendants other than the one serving you, which in this case was Cheryl Anne Vivera — possibly from the Philippines.

Our A350 was one in a veritable sea of aircraft crossing the Bay of Bengal at twilight, not only to South Asia but also several intercontinental flights — among them V8-DLB, one of five 787-8s at Royal Brunei Airlines (now a decade old) making her way to Dubai as BI97 en route to Heathrow.

Interesting discussions on boring films

The movie droned on in the background, but I had no interest of watching Kiara Advani asking ‘Why can’t I get pregnant?’ — when that is exactly what her character did in Good Newwz — or the birthday girl Prajakta Koli for that matter.

(Translation of the sign: saavdhani hati, durghatna ghati — take your eyes off the road and there will be disaster. As far as I was concerned, taking my eyes off the screen was the way to prevent disaster!)

By now I’d switched to Indian time, and before the Wi-Fi coverage could come to an end, I had a last few conversations with my parents, translated from Bengali as followd.

Picture 1: 8:05: ‘KLM had served better than this.’ 8:07: ‘Big talk! Nowadays everyone says QR is the best.’ 8:08: ‘How was your bus?’ 8:10: ‘Your sister-in-law works for Qatar Airways!’
Picture 2: 8:11: ’Not sister-in-law, but brother’s wife.’ 8:15: ‘Similar: rice, dal, curry.’
Picture 3/4: 8:06: ‘All students are going in a line.’ 8:16: ‘As much as you can speak.’ And then I zoomed in on all the planes moving in an ant-like line.

Some discussions on film now, with the latest big-budget mythological actioner Adipurush having flopped in the box office.
Picture 1: 8:17: ‘I’m watching something. Bogus film, timepass.’ 8:19: ‘Prabhas (the lead of Adipurush) has tanked again.’
Picture 2: 8:19: ‘Barring Pathaan (the year’s biggest blockbuster until then), everyone’s a patha (sacrificial goat).’
Picture 3: 8:22: ‘Granny is again going to (my aunt’s home in) Kasba, Kolkata, for 2 days.’
Picture 4: 8:21: ‘Has the turbulence lessened, son?’ 8:22: ‘Come home safe. Glory to Goddess Durga!’

As I publish this report in mid-October 2023, Durga Puja, the greatest festival in the Bengali calendar, has reached its peak.

My journal made a mention of how SQ was becoming dal-chawal (lentils and rice, a staple Indian food) as a sign of its being more ‘ordinary’ than the exotic Ethiopian, KLM and Garuda Indonesia. Which is not a bad thing at all, considering that the alternatives are IndiGo and Air India, neither of which has IFE on their narrowbody aircraft. (Sorry, no Vistara A321neo/LR for you if you’re not going to Delhi, Mumbai or Pune.)

The atrocious movie was nearing completion, thankfully, as was the flight, with under an hour to go. No point sleeping!

Descent: not at coastal Chennai hereafter

I became nostalgic when the aircraft passed over the coastal city lights of Chennai, where we’d lived for neary two decades. A great, easygoing, well-planned city let down by a horrible state-run airport, one that does not do any justice to its motherly airport code of MAA. In contrast, Bengaluru’s airport is as wonderful as its roads are disgraceful, with the traffic sometimes forcing people to pedal on for kilometres at a stretch.

My descriptions were as succinct as they were pithy. I would love to have Bengaluru’s airport with Chennai’s road infrastructure, but you can’t have the best of everything, can you?

As we prepared to land, KrisWorld showed its obligatory reminder to not leave anything for the cleaners.

At a quarter to ten, the Hermaphrodite made his/her/their/its landing at Kempegowda International Airport, lying too far northeast of Bengaluru for comfort.

As seen with TG325 in June 2022, we were the only passenger widebody on the ground, with Etihad’s 787-9 A6-BNA having just taken off as EY239. Every other aircraft on the ground had a VT registration prefix, barring A9C-DHU, a freighter 767 operated by DHL’s Bahraini subsidiary.

Some Vistara A320neos were parked in the distance, after which came the pair of Embraer 175s belonging to regional carrier Star Air, which has expanded nicely from its cramped Embraer 145 fleet and done well after the collapse of other turboprop-operating regional airlines like Trujet.

And then a sad sight: A320s of Go First, which had gone bust at the beginning of May, and will face a Herculean battle to come back like what Jet Airways has been going through for years on end.

Welcome to our new city, Dad said — and I was more than thrilled to finally call BLR home, instead of being disappointed by Chennai’s now-decommissioned ‘cattle shed’! (International flights moved to Chennai’s New Integrated Terminal Building in July, which is actually excellent, even for a government airport, but still nothing on the ‘airport-in-a-garden’ T2 at BLR.)

The sharp winglet of the A350 provided a sleek juxtaposition against the BLR tarmac, with rows upon rows of predominantly A320-family aircraft parked.

I looked up the other planed in the sky right now, among them three from Thai Airways: a pathetic 777-200ER to Bengaluru (sadly, ever so often the case for a city that once got A350s consistently from TG); a 787-9 to Chennai (the exact one I’d flown in December 2022), though in summer 2023 it’s been switched to the -200ER more often than not; and a 787-8 to Hyderabad, which at least does not get downgraded like the other two.

Also: SriLankan’s UL470 to Seoul/Incheon and UL318 to Kuala Lumpur; Emirates’ evening A380 service from Denpasar, launched at the beginning of June; and the Budapesthansa, which would return to Deutschland, as scheduled, and not Magyarország.

The cabin emptied in speedy fashion, despite the typical Indian behaviour of fumbling for baggage.

And so I could finally have the right to call Bengaluru my Indian home, but these girls — and, presumably, most other passengers — have been here longer.

One last look at the Hermaphrodite’s nose and the so-called ‘raccoon mask’.

I went up a level to the international arrivals, along a narrow corridor overlooking the departures.

Hasta la vista, Hermaphrodite!

The WHSmith — a staple of most Indian metro airports (except Chennai) — almost beckoned me to jump down and grab a book!

This area was used for COVID-19 testing for arriving passengers, but even the random 2% testing of arrivals has been scrapped by the Indian government.

On it was to Immigration, and I had to be discreet; photography is only a great idea here if you want to get arrested!

Here’s a view of the arrivals duty-free stores from atop the immigration floor.

A healthy dose of arrivals from near and far was seen: Europe, the Middle East, Northeast and Southeast Asia — even Ethiopian from Africa and Air India’s San Francisco flight, but not Qantas from Sydney, which lands much earlier before sundown. BLR is therefore served from every inhabited continent except South America! (Delhi is the other such Indian airport, since Qantas flies there but not to Mumbai, and all of AI’s Australian flights are from DEL.)

Down I went into the arrivals area, which itself had pretty artworks and decorations — as well as a lone woman on a phone call sitting beside the money-changer!

Suswaagatha, Bengaluru: Welcome to a new home

The baggage took a fair bit of time to arrive, but not inordinately long, which was impressive given the large number of passengers.

Some duty-free products — alcohol, perfume and Toblerone chocolates — were perched atop a bunch of grey-pink-and-purple boxes.

Luggage in hand, I strode out past the duty-free stores and towards the exit, where my father was waiting to bundle me into an Uber.

To one side was a Relay bookshop — again, available at all major Indian airports except MAA — and I had half a mind to sneak into it and squish a book inside, but my trembling bag and baggage pleaded otherwise.

An ad for the Samsung Galaxy S23, now in a sunflower-gold edition, peered above; below, the airport had put up a sign for its fifteenth anniversary.

The ‘Quad’, with its Pizza Hut and Street Foods by Punjab Grill, almost tempted me to part with some cash, but I thought the better of it.

Dad was standing there, his trademark white head of hair and signature cough recognisable even from a distance. He led me over to the Uber stand, where I’d been solo six months before, also on Tuesday the 27th but in the afternoon.

A much better organisation of amenities than Chennai, where touts are going to fall over you in their pleas to get you into their taxis. I followed Dad into the humble little Maruti Suzuki Dzire, a small sedan that is the mainstay of taxi fleets across the country, alongside the Hyundai Xcent and now-discontinued Toyota Etios.

It would be quite the journey to the bottom of the city — 48 km — but in half the time: ‘only’ one hour and a bit, compared to two hours to trek up the ‘mountain’ to the airport.

None of that mattered, however: all I cared about was the signs and sights of urban India, and the fact that, despite the subpar roads, I would finally be able to call a new city home!