Aisle be damned- Rishi Piparaiya
It had been several months since I had bought a book from a physical store. I saw this book- Aisle be damned, written by Rishi Piparaiya in a book exhibition in our campus. The MRP was Rs 250 and I was told it carried a 20% discount, which meant Rs 200.
I checked on flipkart, it was retailing at Rs 159, but carried a Rs 40 delivery charge. I weighed my option- buy at Rs 159+40 Rs delivery charge, or buy few more books worth Rs 350 to qualify for free delivery or buy on the spot for Rs 200. After few uncertain moments, bought the book on the spot.
I was expecting it to be little serious and more informative, but the book is more fun oriented. For example, I was expecting tips on how to make the most of airline miles and leverage them for upgrades and free flights. There was no such tip in the book. Author's guideline to try business class upgrade is looking for middle aged, authoritative counter staff and try commanding an upgrade by impressing her with branded jacket.
But otherwise, book entertains with various aspects of flying- how to select a seat, dealing with airport taxies, some real life incidents and so on.
Couple of points are really worth pondering
- Why is that despite so much of technology advancement we're still required to switch off our phones?
- How practical are tourist tax refund schemes?
- If you start with 50$, convert into local currency, then convert local currency back to USD and repeat this loop till all money is gone, how many iterations would your money last?-
Some tips are really useful
- Collecting soiled food plates is probably the most annoying task for a flight attendant. Try to return a cleaner, well packed used meal tray and you might win their heart.
- Always keep your bags in overhead bins ahead of you. If you keep it few rows behind, reaching it post landing will be like swimming against the flood.
Author writes that he's getting 10% loyalty on book sales. I hope it is on MRP and not the discounted price. Author's wishlist for future of air travel, & the bonus chapter are interesting.
Summary
Rishi can be reached on twitter at @rishipiparaiya
I checked on flipkart, it was retailing at Rs 159, but carried a Rs 40 delivery charge. I weighed my option- buy at Rs 159+40 Rs delivery charge, or buy few more books worth Rs 350 to qualify for free delivery or buy on the spot for Rs 200. After few uncertain moments, bought the book on the spot.
I was expecting it to be little serious and more informative, but the book is more fun oriented. For example, I was expecting tips on how to make the most of airline miles and leverage them for upgrades and free flights. There was no such tip in the book. Author's guideline to try business class upgrade is looking for middle aged, authoritative counter staff and try commanding an upgrade by impressing her with branded jacket.
But otherwise, book entertains with various aspects of flying- how to select a seat, dealing with airport taxies, some real life incidents and so on.
Couple of points are really worth pondering
- Why is that despite so much of technology advancement we're still required to switch off our phones?
- How practical are tourist tax refund schemes?
- If you start with 50$, convert into local currency, then convert local currency back to USD and repeat this loop till all money is gone, how many iterations would your money last?-
Some tips are really useful
- Collecting soiled food plates is probably the most annoying task for a flight attendant. Try to return a cleaner, well packed used meal tray and you might win their heart.
- Always keep your bags in overhead bins ahead of you. If you keep it few rows behind, reaching it post landing will be like swimming against the flood.
Author writes that he's getting 10% loyalty on book sales. I hope it is on MRP and not the discounted price. Author's wishlist for future of air travel, & the bonus chapter are interesting.
Summary
- Title: Aisle be damned
- Author: Rishi Piparaiya
- Publishers: Jaico
- Genre: Business/Humor
- ISBN 13 : 978-81-8495-465-4
- Pages: 214
- MRP: Rs 250
Rishi can be reached on twitter at @rishipiparaiya
I had few pending orders in flipkart so made use of this book to reach the 500 mark and got this delivered. One time read, and only few points are really worth otherwise a nice timepass
ReplyDeleteAgree with you Sheshadri
ReplyDeleteRishi Piparaiya has truly outdone himself and has shown himself to be a master of satire. He has shown great care and acute observational skills in picking the most annoying and embarrassing of things that happen in one's day to day exchange with the airport and it's queer inhabitants and projected them in a hilarious and thoroughly entertaining way. He has given an whole new outlook to the things that happen in and out of an airplane. Seriously who would have thought that my missing jacket was actually stolen by the Italian mafia.
ReplyDeleteRishi uses a delicate and simple style of writing to convey his story and that too with an even flavor of humour and satire. There is a chance that his sense of humour, predominant his style of humour would come across as slapstick to some but it is undeniable that he got a suave way of making his readers laugh. Anyone who has ever been on a flight and anyone who has seen the way the various quirks of the aluminium tube that flies will find it interesting and can relate to it seamlessly. It is just an understatement to say that Rishi has outdone himself.
They book though randomly satirical, is not random at all in organization. The book is neatly edited and organized as in the order of which the events would occur in an actual flight, from take off to landing and this differentiate 'Aisle be damned' from a regular book of jokes and into a humorous page turner. I will though advice the ones who have not flown to keep away, you don't need to add to your aviatophobia do we and secondly most jokes would appear to be tasteless and blown up to a person who is unaccustomed with such an environment as an airport.
But for everyone else this is hilarious and light hearted, and would make your stomach hurt from laughing. I personally found the beginning and end to be rather bland and tasteless in nature as compared to the rest of it. I give the book a 'good' status and recommend it exclusively for all fliers, frequent and otherwise. The swaying hips awaits... *chuckle*.
Ghalib,
ReplyDeleteThat was very elaborate comment- almost a review in it eself.
Thanks