Sonam Kapoor successfully played the role of Neerja Bhanot, an Ashok Chakra awardee in ‘Neerja’. You definitely must have appreciated her for how she saved the lives of passengers from the hijacked plane Pan Am 73. After the completion of this movie, Sonam claims that there was an increase in the respect for air-hostesses post ‘Neerja’.
However, the situation of air hostesses is something different. Behind the flawless skin, plastered smiles and perfect clothing, there is rigorous training, strenuous working hours and enormous struggle in the life of hostesses.
In the extensive training, there are arduous theoretical exams, mimicking emergency landings, mock evacuations and full-day fire drills. An air hostess working with a reputed Asian airlines, Swati Sharma, says that they are given a big manual of first-aid instructions and safety that they need to learn.
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Sonam says that 60 percent of the training is for emergency and safety purpose. After safety training and hijack training, air hostesses feel they have duty towards guests and clients.
Besides training for emergency situations, Swati talks about medical tests and courses that all air-hostesses have to undergo. Besides that they have to prove every year that they are fit for being an air hostess.
Another air hostess, Rhythm Kapoor working with a famous international airline says that apart from being mentally and physically strong they have to take special care of their body weight and skin. There are incidents wherein air hostesses are grounded just because they have acne on their face.
Often, air-hostesses are called ‘glorified ayahs’ and at times they are also treated as domestic servants.
