Make a conscious effort to be a pleasant co-passenger

Indians are not known as the best co-passengers. They tend to be loud, have little or no sense of personal space and generally don’t care if something they do could inconvenience a fellow-traveller.

As an Indian, I of course do not like to be perceived this way. But the fact is, a large number of Indian tourists outside of the country or just co-passengers in public transport whether in India or elsewhere exhibit the above-mentioned traits all the time.

This is the story of the day I undertook the journey from Gangtok in India’s Sikkim state to Kolkata and how the journey could have been much more comfortable had I been lucky enough to not have the two co-passengers that I did.

I had planned to leave early even though my flight was in the afternoon because we had 125 kilometres to cover by road, most of it through the mountains.

I had booked a seat on a shuttle service called Wizzride and the driver picked me up right on time. There was only one more passenger booked to go with me in the car. He was late. After we had waited for a good half-hour, I requested the driver to please call him up again or inform the shuttle company’s office because I had a plane to catch. The second passenger came just as the driver was trying to call his office.

The man got into the seat beside mine without a word of apology, and the car filled with the stench of cigarettes and alcohol.

We started out and he got chatty with the driver. About 10 minutes or so later, he asked the driver to stop and went over to the front seat. He did ask me if he could lean the seat backwards, because I was sitting behind him, and did so when I said yes. A little while into the ride, he asked me if I minded if he smoked inside the car (which, by the way, had a “No Smoking” sign printed inside). I said yes, I did mind and that was that.

The chatty passenger was talking with the driver all along. They spoke in Nepali, which I did not understand. Still some way ahead, I found the car taking a turn right from the main road and when I was just starting to wonder if something was wrong, we stopped next to a liquor shop. He asked the driver if he wanted anything, and when the driver thankfully declined, he went ahead to buy some beer for himself.

When he was gone, the driver turned around to tell me that he was late because he had been drinking till late (which I had figured out by then) and he wanted to have some beer to get over the hangover. I’d never heard more drinking cured hangovers, but there you go!

The guy returned with two cans of beer and started drinking.

While I didn’t care that he was drinking in the car as long as he wasn’t being a nuisance, I was irritated because he stopped the car multiple times to pee (and also because he threw empty beer cans out of the window on the road).

Thankfully, since I had left Gangtok early, I reached on time. He got off in Siliguri, shortly before we got to the airport.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of my quota of unpleasant co-passengers for the day.

On the plane, which was fairly crowded, I’d gotten myself a window seat. The man in the middle seat came later. He wore a jacket that appeared too warm, and I realized it was indeed too warm when I could smell the stink of his sweat. And then, he started video calling someone to tell them he was in the plane and about to take-off. He did not use an earphone and he was loud.

I was reminded of Japan where people don’t even take phone calls inside trains because it would be impolite and cause inconvenience to co-passengers.

I pulled up my hood, leaned towards the window, and slept.

It doesn’t take much to be empathetic and respectful of  those travelling with you. Make an effort to be a good co-passenger because just as you do, the person sitting next to you on the bus/cab/plane/train deserves no less.