{"id":883,"date":"2009-02-03T12:25:00","date_gmt":"2009-02-03T12:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indianaviationnews.net\/avicareers\/?p=883"},"modified":"2009-02-03T12:25:00","modified_gmt":"2009-02-03T12:25:00","slug":"humiliation-on-board-routine-for-attendants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.indianaviationnews.net\/careers\/2009\/02\/humiliation-on-board-routine-for-attendants.html","title":{"rendered":"Humiliation on board routine for attendants"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: rgb(153, 0, 0);\">New Delhi<\/span>: She was manoeuvring the refreshments trolley down the narrow aisle in economy class, when she suddenly felt a hand brush against her thigh. Pallavi (name changed), a 22-year-old air hostess with Jet Airways, had no choice but to carry on with her duties, seemingly unruffled by the humiliation. &#8220;I turned around and saw an elderly man who had probably touched me, but there was absolutely nothing I could do about it,&#8221; she says.<br \/>A young and glamorous cabin crew, traversing both domestic and international skeis, encounters a variety of in-flight provocations. The recent bid to hijack an IndiGo Airlines flight by three passengers who were<a href=\"http:\/\/avindia.blogspot.com\/2009\/02\/hijack-threat-3-passengers-including.html\"> inebriated and behaving aggressively<\/a>, reinforces the stereotypes associated with the Indian flyer, especially men: &#8220;They have money, but no manners.&#8221;<br \/>Bindu Ramachandran, aviation trainer with Frankfinn Institute of Air Hostess Training, and ex-cabin crew with Singapore Airlines, recalls with horror a flight on which a &#8220;totally smashed&#8221; passenger from Chennai asked for more liquor. &#8220;I still remember he was drinking cognac. I told him, gently, that I could only offer him a non-alcoholic beverage. He couldn&#8217;t handle the refusal, so he started spitting and using abusive language.&#8221; Far from being intimidated, Bindu informed the rest of the cabin crew serving in economy: &#8220;There were eight of us we surrounded him and told him if he didn&#8217;t stop hurtling obscenities, we&#8217;d have him arrested when we landed. That sobered him.&#8221;<br \/>Young recruits at institutes like Frankfinn are often from small towns and need extensive counselling to deal with a job that promises only the good things travel and money in glossy brochures.<br \/>For touchy-feely passengers, Bindu suggests a firm reprimand that draws the attention of the rest of the cabin: &#8220;Girls should say, `Please don&#8217;t touch me&#8217;, loud enough for everyone else to hear. That usually embarrasses shady passengers.&#8221;<br \/>Ishita (name changed) flying to Mumbai on a JetLite flight teeming with the `educated elite&#8217;, recalls a passenger who called out to her with a rude &#8220;Hey!&#8221; Taken aback by the bad attitude, she ignored him until he called out again. &#8220;I went up to him and told him that my name was written on my badge. He should either address me politely by name, or press the service button. He apologised.&#8221;<br \/>Savita (name changed) a 23-year-old aboard a SpiceJet flight, is still shaken by the sudden aggression of a 40-year-old man, travelling from Ahmedabad to Delhi: &#8220;I was serving candy and he grabbed the whole basket and stuffed the candy into his bag. It was disgusting.&#8221;<br \/>Sapna Gupta, founder and director of Air Hostess Academy Pvt Ltd, says categorically:&#8221;&#8230;.in our country, girls grow up being eve teased in buses, on the streets, everywhere. So most of them can deal with it, even before we formally train them.&#8221;<br \/><span style=\"color: rgb(153, 0, 0);\">03\/02\/09 Radhika Oberoi\/Times of India<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New Delhi: She was manoeuvring the refreshments trolley down the narrow aisle in economy class, when she suddenly felt a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indianaviationnews.net\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indianaviationnews.net\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indianaviationnews.net\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indianaviationnews.net\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indianaviationnews.net\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.indianaviationnews.net\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indianaviationnews.net\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indianaviationnews.net\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indianaviationnews.net\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}