We’ve all been there – on a plane, settling down for the flight ahead, and then suddenly spotting someone who you really don’t want to acknowledge. But you know the person so well that avoiding him or her would be impossible. So, despite being as keen to meet each other and say hi-hello as a cat is on taking a swim, you start rehearsing in your head what you’ll say when you do finally exchange feasantries – fake pleasantries.No one knows what words Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi Yadav exchanged during their Wednesday flight from Patna to Delhi. But assigned a seat behind the Bihar chief minister, the RJD leader was visibly awkward. Especially since unlike other public spaces, removing oneself from an airborne plane, not the biggest of spaces to hide away inside anyway, wasn’t an option.
Kumar did the smart thing by making the first move when he greeted his former deputy. By making that first move, he took the higher social ground, gaining the confidence to even call his estranged ‘bhatija’ to sit and chat in the seat next to him.
Remember, Kumar hasn’t been Yadav’s favourite ‘chacha’ since the former Paltu Ram-ed to return to NDA, leaving the JD(U)-RJD-Congress mahagathbandhan seat-belted. So, it’s best to grab the narrative and ‘get over with it’ when it comes to ‘seat-sharing’ on flights. Avoiding the person only lengthens the discomfiture.
