The intimacy of picking someone up from the airport is unmatched for its cinematic value alone. The restlessness of a boyfriend waiting at the arrivals gate, with the loved ones of 100 other strangers, can be felt at the runway. Actually, not felt—he texts about it. And then he runs toward you with flowers in his hand when he sees you. Who doesn’t want a welcome like that?
Apart from the people who avoid looking sweaty and travel-sad in front of their partner, everyone wants to be picked up—at the airport, railway station, or metro station. From a lover girl’s point of view, it’s a moment decorated with heart eye emojis and a background score of ‘awwwww’. In fact, it’s one of those gestures that make a casual relationship very, very serious. Some people go through lives dreaming of such a thing. Love Actually (2003) and a million other romcoms have shown this a trillion times. Now, imagine someone came to pick you up at Bengaluru airport. Kempegowda International is a torture trip. Spend more than two hours in traffic to see you? And pay for a cab, sometimes to and fro? There’s no bigger confession of love in this era.
What makes it more dramatic is if the airport pickup falls at a precarious moment. An Ahmedabad-based hiker had fought with her boyfriend while camping in Nepal, and then there was a text blackout for days. When she returned to the city, it was as if the entire arrival gate could sense the tension between the two people walking towards each other. Everything was happy in the world.
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Not always welcome
Not everyone can afford to be this welcoming. Airports in Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Kochi, Darbhanga, Lucknow, or any other city are not very accessible. Plus, the logistics are hard to figure out with flight delays becoming routine. Only someone who really wants to bother will get into it, and that’s fine. The grapevine also tells me that there tends to be a bit of confusion about when the right time is to pull the airport pick-up move. Remember what happened to Deepika Padukone’s boyfriend when she came back from her Corsica trip with Ranbir Kapoor in Tamasha (2015)? She made a face and broke up with him. Trust Imtiaz Ali to make everything sad.
And what if other people are also coming to pick up the same passenger, holding the exact variety of red rose bouquet, which frankly are very overdone at this point?
A Delhi-based communications specialist told me that she loved seeing her new partner at the airport, and more than that, she loved the flower arrangement he brought. Anybody can get a bouquet, but mixing the right colours and a unique big-to-small flower ratio is an art. It also shows how much the flower-giver knows you. Seriously, there’s a whole science to flower-giving.
Another added perk of being picked up by someone is that you won’t have to hire a porter. Independent modern women can be seen hauling 40 kg trolley bags up the stairs, down the ramp. That’s their nature, but they also don’t mind—on selective occasions, by the right person—to let someone else carry the damn bag. I, myself, have felt terribly single on days carrying a suitcase up three flights of stairs. I move like Robert Pattinson in Lighthouse (2019), parched and deathly alone.
Once you get used to the pick-up and drop service of romance, there’s no going back. Lover girls talk about feeling rejected by their hometowns the minute they land—someone who was supposed to be waiting at the exit wasn’t there. The arrival section generally makes people sad, seeing others being received with big laughs and tight hugs. There are also girl friends screaming and charging toward each other like they escaped from some penitentiary out of two different tunnels. Joy can be triggering.
Passengers who never get picked up also say they value their partner’s time. Call it copium. Cynics also flag that people get late, flights get delayed, and the act itself seems performative. To think about it, being received with a chart paper banner, massive flowers, and a jumping jack salute doesn’t really fix a lousy relationship. It’s also a classic lovebomber trait—I can attest. It’s far easier to figure out the Ola, Uber thing.
Views are personal.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)