An old man, an air hostess, and a surprise

“Excuse me, khane mein kya hai?” (“Excuse me, what are the meal options?”), asked the elderly gentleman seated with his wife just one row behind me. The question was directed to an airhostess of an Indigo flight en route to Pune from Kolkata (India) on a July 2016 evening. All the passengers who had a pre-booked meal, or wanted to purchase onboard, had been served with their choice of food and beverage, and the cabin crew were busy with cash consolidation and preparing to clean up the deck.

Unlike the passengers around, I was not really taken aback by the loud and out-of-protocol gesture, as I was already irritated by the couple’s high pitched conversations in Marathi and Hindi throughout the first hour of the flight. It seemed they were not used to flights. They had even interacted with their immediate neighbor, an old formally dressed man seating by the aisle seat, in such a high tone that I knew they hail from Satara, returning after spending some time with their newly born grandson at their son’s place at Gangtok (Sikkim). Their son had booked the journey tickets for them, the first leg of which was from Bagdogra to Kolkata, and here they were, in their second part of the trip.

“Can I see your boarding pass, Sir?”, asked the air hostess politely, hiding the element of surprise that they are well trained for. “Of course, here it is”, said the elderly gentleman in a Marathi accented Hindi and extended a card to her. “Sir, this is the pass for the Bagdogra-Kolkata sector, can I please have the pass for this sector?” To this the man seemed visibly unsettled, searching for the right card with continuous ramblings in Marathi. His wife joined the commotion, “Just see how heartless they are, we haven’t eaten anything since lunch.” The gentleman found the right card and handed it over to the pretty lady in uniform.

As I was finishing my drink over a gripping novel, I decided to pause it for a moment and concentrate on the unfolding drama happening live beside me.

“Sorry sir, you do not have a booked meal for this sector. You had one in the flight from Bagdogra only. However, if you wish, you can purchase any food or drinks”, concluded the patient airhostess with a heart-stealing smile.

“Yeh kaise ho sakta hai? Plane mein khana milna hai to? Pehla flight mein bhi diya tha?!” (“How come that’s possible? Planes serve meals, isn’t it? We were served food in the first flight!”), stated the gentleman with a clear body language of non-cooperation and don’t-pay-whatever-hell-comes-up attitude. Clearly, his idea of modern day aviation is that of what we used to have in 90’s with Indian Airlines having a monopoly over the skies.

The trained young lady, did what she could’ve done best. Excused herself for a minute, went to the lead cabin attendant, had a sub-sonic whisper with her, and handed over the boarding pass to her.

The leading lady came to the spot after few minutes, and was straight to the point, “Sir, what would you like to have?”

Seriously, none of the nearby passengers including me was expecting this.

“Dekha? Maine bola tha na?” (“See? I had told you no?!”), the man said with a smile, oblivious of the fact that he was going to receive a free meal. “What do you have in the meals?”

The actions which followed next were heart-warming. The leading lady served 2 sets of sandwiches and mixed fruit beverages along with a beautiful smile tagged with a wish, “Enjoy your meals, Sir!”. The couple happily gorged into the food over a high pitched conversation in Marathi. I returned to my novel.

Even though the sentences in the book were running in front of my eyes, my mind was absorbed in something else. I got reminded of a talk by Subroto Bagchi, co-founder of Mindtree Ltd, where he stressed on the “neo P/E ratio”. We have found that in quarterly results and share market lingo (price-equity). But his point was on the right mix of Process along with Empathy in building and running an organization. All problems of the world can’t be solved by following the right process, unless you have an empathy element to back it up. It becomes particularly important when one deals with the most important aspect of one's job, people.

If our leading lady had adhered to the laid down process, she would have rightfully refused the old couple two food packets. That was what the business framework and people like me around expected out of her. But being a proper ‘Lead’, when she decided to exercise her acumen of Empathy, it suddenly made more business sense to all of us. I felt a vibe in my co-passengers, that some part in all of them wanted to see the old couple have a chirping dinner. Probably Indigo lost INR 500 (which is anyway peanuts compared to their daily transactions) as a result of this, but the value they earned for themselves surpassed that number by miles. It made two old people satisfied, created many appreciating passengers, and made me write this blog lauding them.   

While Empathy alone is not recommended to go about regular business, rock-solid and meticulously designed processes alone also will not enable us to create organizations of the future. It is very important to have that healthy P/E ratio in our institutions that we build so that they become a joyous place to be associated with.