The flip and flop of a Seat grabber

Flip side:

There is this something universal about the Seat Grabber. He never lets go any chance to grab a Window, Middle or an Aisle seat in a row, for his flock.

Why He? She always fronts him up in these forages. The main ideology of this family’s travelogue is togetherness in travel.

The flock’s logic defies definition – they knew , in advance, that the allotted seats were not in serial order; their confidence that they some how could mange to be seated together in the train.

The one thing that needs careful observation is how that chosen hero manges to identify the likely victims to strike a deal and how he goes about accomplishing this task - the ‘a la seat affair’!

On entering the compartment, he surveys the luggage rack and the space about twenty inches below it for vital clues.

Vacant spaces or small carry cases mean that he has found the likely row, where he can discuss a barter deal. His logic is simple – fewer luggage's mean less resistance to move to another seat.

He breaks the initial ice with a question “are you both travelling together?” Negative answer pleases him as working on the psyche of an individual is easier.

He pleads that two of his family ladies have been allotted seating, in different rows and can he please help. This sentiment succeeds 50 to 60% of the times.

One occupant is ready to adjust; the other one may throw a furtive glance at the rack- an auto reflexive gesture.

This is enough, for our hero. He will immediately offer to carry the small case and show the gentleman to the seat he has now allotted to him!

Now he has managed two seats ,side by side and if, he could manage the third seat as well….

This will be a little difficult task – might be a window seat or an occupant totally disliking such approach. The Seat Grabber looks at the power point to see whether some gadget has been plugged-in.

A plugged-in lap top or cell phone means resistance. If not, he will then offer his window seat, in the back row.

After reluctantly agreeing to change their seats, these gentlemen will be shocked to see that the ladies were already sitting side by side in two Aisle seats, barely separated by the walkway. Our hero is in the same row, but in a two seater window seat – two other passengers and the aisle way, in between!

What do they do after settling down? Open packet after packet of homely food, share and eat to their heart’s content. Catch the 40 winks or call and discuss on the affairs of friends or relatives.If nothing else, read newspapers and magazines.

Flop side:

Will it be this easy, every time to grab the seats of choice – No... No.

By coincidence, the chosen hero happens to board the same train. This time, one of the seat “donors” in the earlier journey assumes the observer status – he has easily identified the face.

He eagerly follows the progress, in seat negotiations that are sure to follow as nights follow evenings.

The second episode of ‘a la seat affair’ unfolded, as expected. The initial opening was a repeat performance of survey of the luggage rack and the space about twenty inches below it.

His body language indicated that he has already found what he wanted. The seat “donor” followed the Grabber’s eye-line that led to two small carry cases.

The likely victims were seated in the Middle and Aisle seat, one row ahead of him.

The “donor” sharpened his ears and eagerly waited to catch the sales pitch. He concluded, that the bargain will not take much time - only Grabber and his wife and a 06 or 07 year old boy made the contingent.

He also, rightly guessed that the grabber family had an aisle, middle seat in the three seater and the third, an aisle in the two seater – all in the same row.

The “donor” suspected that the bargain about to start might be for the one of the occupied window seats. This he inferred from the reluctant attitude of the boy, to occupy the aisle seat.

Seat Grabber swung into action, with out prompting from Madame this time, eyeing the gentle man (introvert), occupying the coveted window seat.

He moved nearer and asked him, “Sir, can you please adjust; this boy wants only a window seat and actually has this aisle seat?”

The Introvert, lowered his newspaper a little and politely said, “Sorry”. But Seat Grabber did not give up. Again he requested saying that the boy remained adamant and asked, “Sir, kindly do me this as a favour”.

The Introvert remained unmoved.Mr. Nosey, seated in a window seat, a row behind Mr. Introvert tried to help and joined in the pleadings.

Mr. Introvert maintained his silence and continued with his reading.

Grabber felt helpless and the boy started getting restive. He was about to move over to the other window seater to try his luck, in the same row.

But Mr. Nosey wanted to try one more time and convince Mr. Introvert, that he could make the boy’s journey memorable.

Nosey was happy on two counts – supporting Grabber’s boy and troubling Mr. Introvert.Why? He had this grudge– Mr. Introvert did not spare the extra newspaper to Mr. Nosey for reading.

By this time Mr. Introvert has had enough of nosing in his affairs. He turned to Mr. Nosey and loudly said, “Why don’t you make the boy’s journey a memorable one?  – give your window seat to the boy”

Suddenly Mr. Nosey realised that he had been missing the finest scenery passing by and started to intently gaze through the window to nurse his bruised ego!

Till the “donor” got down from the train,the boy was travelling as a standee, refusing to occupy his seat.

The chosen hero is after all not infallible – has hits and misses. The solace for him will probably be the odds of travelling with the same set of passengers, again, will be an astronomical probability. So, he was not perturbed by the thought that one of them might them witness his fiasco, if he fails next time.