‘Zero self-awareness’: Indian-origin professor slams viral video of woman welcoming parents at US airport triggering wheelchair row
Videos of Indians using wheelchairs at international airports surface on social media from time to time. This time, a video of an Indian woman apparently welcoming her parents at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport in Texas went viral as the mother was seen emerging from the airport in a wheelchair. But later she was walking.“Dallas Fort Worth airport needs to publish its recovery statistics. Arrives needing a wheelchair and two airport employees. Leaves walking after all five suitcases have been handled. Remarkable medicine,” an X post sharing the video commented sarcastically. It also mentioned that the video was on a public platform.The video went viral amid massive backlash targeted at Indians and Indian parents, while many explained why the wheelchairs are not only meant for disability but also for travel anxiety, long waiting, changes in schedules etc.Indian-origin professor Gaurav Sabnis slammed the ‘scammy mindset’ and observed that the woman didn’t even think twice before posting the video. “Shows how normalized the scammy mindset has become in our culture in recent years. This woman didn’t even have a thought before posting it that she was giving evidence of her parents using wheelchairs as a “jugaad”. That this could go viral for that fact. Zero self-awareness,” Prof Sabnis noted.Sabnis also countered factors like ‘travel anxiety’ and said that people from other countries too face anxiety, but wheelchairs are mostly abused by Indians. “Flaunting it on social media shows the extent of the moral rot in today’s Indian elite,” he commented. “Aren’t there older adults from other countries flying places?” he asked.“I’ve been traveling multiple times a year for many years and this wasn’t common in 2012 for example where you still had a lot of senior citizens landing at Newark for their kids. This is a jugaad actively spread using Whatsapp and social media,” he later explained.
