Tamil and airports

Airports are no longer the exclusive domain of a few business people and chief executives jetsetting around the globe.Last few years has seen a tremendous increase in passenger traffic.Globe trotting IT professionals are the most visible signs of this trend.Last few months has seen a different kind of crowd in airports.They are the train passengers who have found air travel competitive to train travel.Yes, i am talking about the few budget airlines which have sprung up and have changed the landscape of airtravel completely.
All this is old hat. What is new?Change in profile of the travellers strikes you in many ways.Language of travellers is definitely more casual and congenial.Earlier it used to be either studied silence(!) or a muttering of accented English. Now the copassengers are very much at ease to talk in Tamil to each other;not only that they talk non stop and in a loud voice throughout the flight.While waiting in the lounge, they are busy communicating with their family/friends/colleagues in office through their mobiles;yes, again not in hushed tones, but at a fairly high decibel level.With the result, I am privy to the idiosyncracies of their family members, their habits and preferences.I know that my neighbour in the security check queue has a very understanding wife, who will not worry if the flight is delayed;while his friend's father is a compulsive neurotic;he would see every channel on the tv when his son is travelling and be ready and worked up about slight change in the flight schedules.
Do I want to know all this?Yes and no. Yes, because it is almost like travelling in a train;you bare your heart out to your copassengers and share everything you have brought in your food basket.But forget them the minute you disembark.K Balachandar, the tamil film director, had made a teleserial on this subject 'railsneham'.
And again a no, for obvious reasons. I am tuned in to be left to myself and my thoughts when i am in an airport and in an aircraft and all these unnecessary personal details leave me irritated.This time around, i had carried a book with me, which i wanted to read in the flight, but was constantly interrupted.
Having said this, it does appeal to me that there is so much cordiality going around which was absent earlier and also you get to hear Tamil much more than ever before. Yes, it is a mixed blessing.