The relative un-importance of South Asia in the scheme of the West is to be found in numerous unexpected nooks and crannies – such as the unearthly hours in which they herd passengers into their aircrafts. Take Delhi, the most important capital of South Asia. Invariably, the flights out, whether it is Lufthansa or British Airways or Air France, are timed between midnight and three! The glitterati of the great nation – India that is Bharat – heading out for European jaunts are perplexed at this lack of consideration but apparently are in no position to do anything about it. Now how dare the airlines do this to the second-most-populous-country-in-the-world's movers and shakers, included among them some of the finest geopolitical analysts that have walked this land since the time of Mahabharata?
If you ask me, the disrespect for our civilization is writ large in these aircraft departure and arrival timings. The rest of us in South Asia would be proud if the power brokers of New Delhi, at least, got given the time of day. Some respect would then trickle down to the rest of us as well, one would think.
Even South Asia's own best-run airline is not giving due consideration to the body clock of the New Delhi – to repeat – mover and shaker. I see here listed Sri Lankan's flight UL 192 leaving DEL (Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sun) at 2340 hrs to unload its human cargo at CMB at 3:35 AM. AM? Imagine the plight! How is the diplomat, the businessman, the seminarian, to plan his/her life under these circumstances? There is no question of sleep, having to reach the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) airport before ten at night, which means leaving Karol Bagh at 8:30. Sleep is, of course, impossible during the three hour flight in the cramped Airbus 320. By the time you are out of Katunayake and heading down the highway towards Galle Face, the first rays of dawn are already lighting up the sky to the left.
It is clear that these Delhi arrival-departure timings are – as usual – part of a deep-rooted conspiracy to keep us down, to ensure that the great and glorious era of Chanakya and/or Akbar will not see a revival in the twenty-first century.