I Travel by Cattle Class

I Travel by Cattle Class

It could be by bus, by train or by plane, I travel by what a particular politician, perhaps about a decade ago, called “Cattle Class”. In his case, it was the Economy Class in an airplane. Perhaps he had a point. Perhaps not. Dive in to find out.

The photo above shows the area in which passengers wait till Security Check has been announced. If that is how cattle wait before being driven to the abattoir in a truck, and put on a conveyor belt, well, I do not remember ever being in such a situation. Ain’t I alive?

As an aside, let me ask why the airport waiting halls have such high roofs? Is that for mere differentiation between plane and train passengers? Perhaps so. You cannot smell the sweat of others, till you are on the plane! On a railway station, the stench is all pervasive, even in the IR canteens and beyond the precincts of the station. I am coming to railway stations in just a bit.

By the way, people who enjoy the luxury of Business Class travel wait in the lounge reserved for Business Class travellers. Have you ever wondered why the Business and Economy classes are separated by a thick cloth curtain? 

It is to prevent the warmer (and possibly saltier) air from the latter sort of “leak” into the place of privilege. This is how travelling economy class becomes, if not equivalent to, at least parallel to the infamous Cattle Class. Cattle breathe and sweat their own bodily emanations,not to mention that of the others, on their way to Heaven.

The people with their backpacks or trolleys in the picture above are not anywhere crowded like they are on railway platforms of Indian Railways. The picture below (copied from a newspaper report and for no idea to profit from it). 

Were some cattle to see both the photos they would have realized how spaced out (not in the sense of being under the influence) they would have been in flying (at least as they wait), and been immensely comfortable in waiting to travel by air in “Cattle Class”, even to be on the conveyor belt in the luggage retrieval belt leading to their being cut up!

The politician who used the phrase “Cattle Class” to point out the commotion at the flight gate is right in one sense, I admit. At check-in, the passenger is given the seat number, accommodating her request−window/aisle/middle (who would choose the middle seat? I am merely accommodating all possibilities, no matter near zero probability; on the wings (for the curious, to watch the wing flaps go up and down, during take-off and landing; your humble writer many years earlier!), next to the emergency exits (concerned about her survival)−as much as possible. Then, why the rush to the boarding gates when the announcement to board is made?

Don’t you know, she is tugging along two large size strolleys, when she knows very well that though the allowance is utmost only one (of limiting dimensions), she would be allowed to take both into the cabin (the airline would offend the likely repeat offender). It is to be able to store them in the luggage space above before others, just like her, occupy the space, again with two strolleys, that she rushes to the boarding gate! Isn’t this encroachment, in the air?

The rush to the boarding gate is reminiscent of the bulls rushing in a Tom Cruise movie of about a couple of decades ago, Knight and Day!

Again, the metaphor, “Cattle Class” is justified! Politicians travelling in Business Class (at the expense of the taxpaying public) do not see any such bull runs! The bemoaning politician just saw how unjustly his privileges were being withdrawn. Tut, tut... 

I am coming towards the end of the post and weighing the right or wrong of the “Cattle Class” comment by the politician, I say that the case has not been made for either position definitively. The ayes neither have it nor not have it! This is precisely every politician’s position on any issue!

The person generically anchored this post is a true politician, after all! What did he mean by “Cattle Class”? He himself may not now!

Raghuram Ekambaram