I better be earning some instant karma points

Some confounded rule of the universe has dictated that, from all the 300 passengers on a plane, I always find my seat next to the one over-sized person who needs an extension seatbelt and 1.5x the seatspace. Predictable as sunshine.

Which means, inevitably, that I find myself with .5x the economy seatspace (being such that seatspace is a decidedly finite quantity). And sometimes, its easier to just succumb than to fight the laws of the universe. And so it comes about that I have learnt to contort myself, in a Cirque de Soleil fashion, into shapes and sizes that can fit into half an economy plane seat.

This morning, on my flight to Seattle, life threw me a further hurdle. You know. Just for fun.

I had the middle seat. Podgy chap on the right who was merrily overflowing into my seat per usual. Irritating? Of course. But what could I tell him? To wear a corset? So I meekly made him some extra room and shifted to the extreme left side of my seat.

On my left was a fellow who promptly fell asleep, within a minute of taking off, and then his head kept rolling onto my shoulder. At first a soft dip of the head which would automatically wake him up, and he would flash me an apologetic smile. And then again. And again. And then his head would just stay there, comfortably lodged on my shoulder, until I lost patience and gave my shoulder a gentle shrug. Irritating? Of course. But then I remembered the time I myself exploited an unsuspecting stranger's shoulder not so long ago. And I thought how quickly what goes around comes around. (Like a door you throw open too fast which slams back at your nose). And I remembered that the stranger whose shoulder I had fallen asleep on had been nice enough not to censure me. And I thought about how, when one is given something gratuitously by life, like the kindness of a stranger, it's important to pass the favour on. So I tolerated the lolling head.

And that brings me to where I am now. Caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. Between a rock and a hard place. Between the frying pan and the fire. Squashed in the left half of an Economy seat. With a guy on my right pouring into my seat. And a guy on my left periodically falling asleep on my shoulder.

Somehow, in the midst of all this, with four more hours till we land, trying to find a perspective that will allow me to see the positive. Like an instant accumulation of karma points.