Captain Navaneethan flying Air India flight from Singapore to Madras gave the usual Captain talk – you know the one about landing at this time, the weather conditions blah blah blah.

But this talk was different – he covered all topics from baggage loading delays to cloud densities. He made it clear that he was not piloting/flying (?) and talking on the microphone. He also made sure we understood that landing the aircraft was not his duty. He went ahead and praised Mr.David from the cabin crew. He managed to throw in Deepavali wishes and ended his talk with a Jai Hind. The talk was first in English and then Tamil.

At the end of both versions, I felt like standing up and clapping as the people around me slept.