Indian Hospitality

A few days ago, I boarded flight LH 952 from Frankfurt to Bangalore. (rather Bengaluru) It felt great - the fact that I would be home in less than 12 hours. The time I spent in Europe was excellent but one thing I missed was the feeling of being at home. Those of you who've been away from home for an extended period of time (like in a hostel with bad food, water shortages and 100% humidity) will probably know how I felt on my way back.
What I didn't anticipate was a plane full (it certainly felt that way) of noisy NRI kids with blatantly unconcerned mothers. (and fathers) Most unfortunately, our flight was a connection between the USA and India. And these little terrors were on their first visit to India. Now I quite understand the inability of children (being one myself) to keep still but my understanding went right out the window when it came to their mothers. (Most of you would probably be saying - "there he goes ranting incoherently again". Hold on for a few sentences and I'll explain.)
There was one particularly ghastly kid who had the most annoying, drawling accent. He insisted on meeting every other kid nearby. Questions like "Whaaat is yur naaame" or "Whaaat is yur mom's naaame" must have been repeated at least a hundred times. All this while I was trying my hardest to sleep. Once the introduction between the kids was over, the racket really began. Game-boys and other noisy contraptions were switched on. Amidst several beeps, boops and other sounds, I could still hear the same kid going on "How diiid I diiieee?". It lasted for two torturous hours before the air-hostess (god bless her soul!) came and put an end to the bedlam.
OK, so where do the mothers come in? Well, they were right next to these kids. All they did was look at their beautiful, darling devils and go back to sleep without a word. They didn't realize that none of the others on board wished to hear a nine-year-old's exploits at a god-damn video game.
Their apathy got me thinking. And then I realized the root cause of the problem. We're just too accommodating. We always feel that there's place for one more person. Children have to be tolerated by all and sundry. After all, they're kids. Discipline and basic civic sense can wait while we perennially adjust.
This sense of Indian hospitality is great in some ways. In fact, I love India for it. However, at 37000 ft, in a 25 ft wide cabin, there are limits. It's time we respected those limits. Civic sense. We need to learn it.