Shades on the flight

The person sitting next to me had his shades on during the 90 minute flight from Hyderabad to Goa. He wore his shades when the hostess was serving; adjusted them when she was clearing his plate and had them on when he was reading the paper. The only time he removed his shades was when he was watching something on the in-flight entertainment system. I found this amusing.

Why would somebody do that? Am I missing a point?

Shades are supposed to keep out the sun. People also wear them to look cool. I buy both those points. But on a flight, where is the sun? And who’s around to impress? I am not too sure the hostess really cared.

I was itching to ask him about the shades. I said ‘excuse me’ and he turned. I couldn’t tell whether he was looking at me or looking outside. So I said ‘nothing…sorry’ and looked out of the window. He went back to his reading or so I thought.

And then, I started thinking of possible reasons why people wear shades on a flight. I couldn’t get beyond the “I look so cool in these shades” factor and left it at that. I went back to thinking of all I could do in Goa in 24 hours.

We landed 10 minutes later. As I was getting into the cab which would take me to North Goa, I saw my neighbor for possibly the last time in my life. He was arguing with a cab driver and…you guessed it right. He was wearing his shades.