First class passengers

“Attention please! Emirates flight EK450 is ready for departure. Passengers travelling on business class and first class please board the plane from gate number 42, all other passengers please remain seated”

A group of select few move towards the gate to board the plane and disappear out of sight.

“Attention please! Emirates flight EK450 is ready for departure. Passengers travelling on Platinum and gold class please board the plane from gate number 42. All other passengers please remain seated until further notice”

Another group of select few move towards the gate and disappear out of sight.

“Attention please! Emirates flight EK450 is ready for departure. Passengers travelling on Silver and Bronze class please board the plane from gate number 42. All other passengers remain seated until further notice”

Another group of people now get up and line up to board the plane.

“Attention please ! Emirates flight EK 450 is ready for departure. All passengers are requested to board the plane from gate number 42.

And a huge throng of people gets up and lines up to get on board.

It is sad that I only had to add one class (the bronze class) to the number of classes above but what I fail to truly understand is why we need classes to sit on a chair in the sky fitted to a metallic bird that travels at 600 km/hour. and its not like the passengers on first class are going to reach sooner than the ones on economy.

The plane I boarded twice in a month was an A380, the world’s largest aircraft at least as of the writing of the following full stop. The aircraft has two decks, the main deck and upper deck. I say this because I got to know the business class and first class passengers get to board the upper deck. What is so special about being 10 feet above other people who are already several thousand feet above the ground eludes me altogether.

And the last parable that I am going to share with you guys is that what classes in air fares remind me of is the Hindu caste system which was much prevalent in ancient India. For purposes of comparison it should be noted that both the systems are called classes.  

However I am sure there are many people who would disagree to my idea of an ideal world where airlines would offer only one class of fare but I am sure everyone can see how unnatural and artificial this particular divide is. Makes me think humanity thrives on creating hierarchies like these. Indeed sad.

But truth be told, the view from the upper deck of this particular A 380 is fantastic.

                          

Euro Trip

I havent written in a while, and the reason is because I have been travelling. Ofcourse its just an excuse the truth is, I am just lazy.

After much deliberation and thought, on the 6^th of September I went touring Europe finally. I saw Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, Geneva, Milan, Venice and Vienna and I think from all places I have been to so far, I like Vienna the most.

Then a month ago I went back to Lahore, Pakistan for a month and consequently found something that gives more meaning to the phrase “there is no place like home” and only two days ago I got back to Berlin. Why I am writing all these details. Because I want to make it sound like I was occupied and didn’t have any time to blog. I hope this alibi would work. A brief intro to the places I visited.

Amsterdam is a nice city and I feel it is the epitome of everything western European. Its quiet lenient on things like prostitution and cannabis which makes sense because I feel in the modern world, there is no justification for these things to be banned.  

I went to Brussels because I had to see Kaiser “the Kallu” Sheikh. I had hoped that Kallu would be the only interesting thing in the town but I was pleasantly proven wrong when I discovered that Brussels too has the traditional European square called the Grand place and it really was worth a visit.

In Paris I was hosted by an Isreali Parisian middle aged man who didn’t eat non Kosher food but because of him I had exclusive access to places like the Louvre and other points of interests in Paris. Paris is a big city and that means one has to walk a lot. The Champs Elyse’s is to me just a road (not even a cobblestone street) that has shops for the worlds largest brands and since they are all one road its considered novel. I failed to see utterly what all the fuss was about.

I went to Geneva because it houses the European centre for nuclear research; the CERN. It was exactly how I had expected it to be, a marvel of scientific advancement. I truly had a great time there. I stayed in Geneva with a Chinese person who was pursuing his PhD on global warming. That is when he told me that the city Venice may not be there in another 20 years and it needs to be visited now. And that’s exactly what and why I did.

Next I went to Milan and was hosted by an Italian. I stayed in Seregno which is a bit north of Milan. I was in Milan only for a day that I decided that Venice must be visited for reasons already stated. I had a failed attempt to hitchhike to Venice which had me stranded in the middle of an Autostrate in Italy. How things could have worked out better I don’t know.

When I reached Venice I was completely exhausted from touring all these cities and went straight ahead and found myself a nice place to sleep. The next day I went around the small island and found it be absolutely different from all the other places I had ever seen. For one thing the police in Venice ride water scooters to maintain law and order. That almost never happens anywhere else.

And my last stop was Vienna. What I think about Vienna is that if I was asked to choose one city that I would like to live in that would be Vienna. It is an extremely beautiful city with its old town reeking of medieval charm and beauty. A walk in Vienna is like a walk across time and history. I would like to go back to Vienna someday to discover more. I hope I am able to do that soon.

And then I returned to Berlin. With its bustling city life I consider Berlin to be a must visit place on a tour to Europe.