From closet TV & Movie buff to spotting the worst design

So pressure builds up. We've started a blog and we don't know what the heck to write into it everyday. Any thoughts right through the day pass through a filter of "Is this blogworthy?" and a few are flagged. Come the end of the day and flags suddenly disappear. So then the mind wanders and looks for something.. and then all one can come up with is Radio, bollywood or TV related! My worst fears might yet get confirmed - AM I A CLOSET TV & MOVIE BUFF?? I hate those fimi and tv types.. I've never wanted to be one of them. Of course then I realise its not that I am a closet anything - pure and simple - I am thinking of topics for this blog when I am watching TV or listening to the radio - duh! what other thoughts do you expect?

That behind us, One of the flags that came up today - I might safely conclude that middle seats in flights are the biggest design flaws in the world of transportation and yet no one seems to want to do anything about them. Why cant there be two armrests or an armrest that's as broad as two? I am almost certain it is so that people have something to do during the flight. Almost like they provide you with a game of chess that you play with your neighbour. You battle your wits with the person and after a satisfying hour or two, you are ready to land.

Here is what typically happens when you somehow land up in the middle seat - you slowly start fighting for space on the armrest/s. You think the other guy does not notice when you slowly slip your elbow in - somewhere in between the two back rests. And then start moving it forward on the armrest from there. But if he is a veteran, he knows (maybe he does the same thing when he is in the middle) and so you feel resistance. His arm just does not budge. All this is surreptitious. Overtly its like nothing is happening - you both look at each other and you give him a nice "Mr. Bean" type grin. He returns it. Both know what's going on. No one says anything about it.

By now you feel you have gained two inches on the armrest. That's the flat part. Then begins the battle of the bulge (which BTW I think is not a very family-type of name). Various tactics come into play and from here on its sheer cunning that can win you your 4-6 more inches. Get those and you are set. You have won. The score thus far - 6 inches needed in one hour to win, 4 inches to draw. You gather your wits and inspect the field. Your surroundings indicate that maybe he has a newspaper in his seat pocket and you don't! (this idea originally belongs to Rajesh Iyer at whose house we had this discussion at length) You ask him for the newspaper in his seat pocket. He might just lift his arm and give you the paper at which time you swoop in! Move your arm the requisite 6 inches or even 8 and stay put! Don't move. You have gained territory but it might be short lived. Keep the extra 2 inches so that you may concede those under pressure at some time in the future before landing.

If the newspaper trick doesn't work then the nastiest one is the coffee or tea spillage on the neighbour trick. Which almost always works but leaves you with a slightly pyrrhic victory type of feeling. If you do reach the end of your tether and have to use this remember - at this point the gloves are mostly off. Anything nasty can happen to you as well - Beany smiles are laid to rest now. The middle seat is right under the baggage rack and "mistakes" can happen when your neighbour tries to get his bag from the rack and some other bag (mostly of the heavy kind) might just slip out and fall onto anything under it, mostly the inviting expanse that is your head.

Anyway and so it goes... there are several tricks in between the two extremes of the newspaper and the tea/coffee spillage tricks and add to that - the whole battle might change if it were a girl/woman next to you. Just too many variables, so many strategies, so much stress... by the time you have landed you are ready to tear the head off any negotiator you were flying in to meet.