The spread that started it all
Picture this: you've just settled into your window seat, buckled up, and the person across the aisle is being handed a plate of samosas, dhokla and theplas from a large homemade stash — namkeen on the side, condiments included. That's exactly what a recent viral video showed unfolding on an IndiGo flight, where a family turned their row into something resembling a Sunday afternoon at a relative's house.
One woman served the food, others dug in, and a few of the younger members were busy applying press-on nails between bites. At one point, people from the group were spotted moving through the cabin with their plates. To be fair, the same woman who served the meal was also seen collecting all the used plates and waste into a large garbage bag before the flight ended — a detail that got less attention than everything else.
Why it lit up the internet
The video drew two very distinct camps online. One side argued there's nothing unusual about bringing your own food onto a flight — no rule was visibly broken, and Indian travellers have been packing theplas and namkeen into their cabin bags for decades. The other side raised a more nuanced point: it's less about the food itself and more about smell, space and the fact that an aircraft cabin is a sealed, shared environment.
Some commenters felt the cabin crew should have stepped in given the scale of the spread. Others pointed out the irony that passengers can carry an elaborate homemade meal on board but can't bring a bottle of water through security. There was also pushback against comments that tried to frame the incident along regional or community lines — Gujarati, North Indian, South Indian — with one user noting, reasonably, that this is really a conversation about behaviour in shared spaces, not identity.
Why this matters for a food audience in India
For most Indian families, carrying home food on a journey is second nature. Theplas on a long-distance train, laddoos in a tiffin for a flight, chakli tucked into a handbag — food is comfort, and travel is when you want it most. That instinct is completely understandable, and honestly, quite lovely.
But the conversation this video has opened up is worth sitting with. Strong aromas — even the ones we personally love — can feel overwhelming in an enclosed cabin where you can't step away. The question isn't whether desi food belongs on a plane. It does, and it will continue to. The real question is one of scale and awareness: how much space, smell and movement is your meal asking of the strangers sitting around you?
Cleaning up after yourself, as this family did, is a good baseline. Being mindful of portions and how far the aroma travels in a pressurised cabin is the next step. A flight is neither a living room nor a dhaba — it's somewhere in between, shared with dozens of people who didn't get a say in the menu.