As a regular Air India passenger, I am not surprised to learn that the airline loves sweeteners. They come in many forms, like extension of service beyond the age of superannuation or productivity-linked incentives. The simplest sweetener was issuing 121 free tickets within a matter of months to an officer for his spouse, children, parents, brothers, sisters, sons-in-law and daughters-in-law, all in the family way. Hindu Joint Family way, that is.
But the sweetener that has now been brought to my notice left a bitter taste even though it was probably bought in Delhi’s Bengali Market. The news comes by way of my old paper, The Straits Times, or rather, it’s stable-mate, The Sunday Times, and bears the impeccable imprimatur of the Law Correspondent, K C Vijayan. It concerns my old friend, Shriniwas Rai, a sweet-spoken Gorakhpuri whose many distinctions include serving as a nominated member of Singapore’s parliament for some years while I lived there and authoring a little book titled The Common Heritage: A Survey of Hindi Words in Malay that almost claims Malay as another Hindi dialect.
Now, I wouldn’t be surprised if Malays took umbrage at that, but the mystery of the missing sweets suggests that Air India staff (unlikely to be Malay) had it in for him and his wife when they were flying back to Singapore from Delhi by AI 480 on March 21. According to the sequence that unfolded in the court of the deputy registrar, James Leong – remember, we are talking of Singaporeans who rush to sue at the drop of a hat (or sweet) and often even when it doesn’t drop, and I hope to god they won’t sue me for libel for saying so – the Rais suddenly realised to their dismay after landing at Changi airport that they had left behind on the plane a bag containing three boxes packed with sweets.
Homecoming wouldn’t have been at all sweet, so off they went to Baggage Claims where the officer telephoned Air India but surprise! surprise! no one answered. So the Rais went to the airline’s terminal office where the duty officer swore solemnly that no one had ever set eyes on any bag containing boxes of sweets and that it must all have been a sweet dream. The next stage I must quote from Vijayan’s report: “But when he (Shriniwas Rai) was about to leave the office, he spotted a box of the sweets with its contents half empty, according to court papers filed. An airline official whom he then spoke to apologised and said the sweets had been consumed and the remaining two boxes had been given to the crew.”
Finders keepers, as we used to say? Or do Air India staff just have a sweet tooth? Here’s where the plot thickens. “The boxes were delivered to the Rais’ home within two hours,” says Vijayan. But nary a word about whether they were full, half-full or empty. That’s sweet secrets for you.
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Like a good Singaporean (never mind he was born in Uttar Pradesh), Rai filed a suit against Air India on November 1. The date of hearing came … and went, another flight missed. Later, the airline explained “there was some miscommunication between the Air India-appointed lawyer and the local manager”. It was like our London-Calcutta AI 112 stuck for five hours at Delhi, also on November 1. The pilot said the new airport staff wasn’t up to handling the sophisticated equipment; the airport authorities said Air India didn’t have handlers. Miscommunication.
Anyway, Leong didn’t wait. When counsel didn’t show up, he gave default judgment against Air India for damages and costs. The court would assess the amount of damages at another hearing. But Air India quickly came to an out-of-court settlement with Rai. How much? Rai isn’t telling. But he has vowed to give the money to the Singapore Indian Development Association or SINDA, a worthy self-help group.
That recalls the small but unexplained deduction from my first pay slip in Singapore. What’s this? I asked. It’s for SINDA, they said. Every Indian contributes. It’s compulsory. No, it isn’t, I retorted. Not for this Indian. I choose my charities. And anyway, SINDA helps only Singaporeans. I am not one. Eventually, after a lot of argument, they stopped the deductions and reimbursed what had been taken. It was a question of principle but I felt a bit bad about SINDA. I am glad it will now have Shriniwas Rai’s bounty. I hope he stung Air India hard.