Going Places With People: Meet Captain Mohit Teotia, The Pilot Who Makes Announcements In Prose

Most flight announcements can get monotonous, but Captain Mohit Teotia has found a way to keep flight passengers entertained—through poetry! In a conversation with Travel+Leisure India & South Asia, the pilot talks about how he started by announcing poetry on flights, what the life of a pilot looks like, and more.

Excerpts from the interview with Mohit Teotia:

T+L India: How did the idea of announcing poetry on flights come about? 

Mohit Teotia: Two reasons: one, I noticed that a lot of passengers were not paying attention to the crew announcements, so I thought of writing something which would catch their attention; and two, a lot of the passengers are not frequent flyers and are scared to fly. To help them relax and lighten up their mood, I decided to write poetry. 

T+L India: What sparked your interest in poetry? 

Mohit Teotia: I was always a fan of rap singers and liked how they would play with words to make them rhyme. 

T+L India: What is the best reaction you’ve gotten from people during your announcements? 

Mohit Teotia: Once, a group started dancing and whistling after the announcement!

T+L India: Why did you choose to make a career in aviation? What inspired you to do so? 

Mohit Teotia: Planes always fascinated me. When I was in sixth grade, my school was right beside the Jammu airport. I would watch planes fly in and out every day. With time, that dream [of flying] faded till I saw an advertisement in a newspaper regarding a seminar on how to proceed with pilot training. Since then, I’ve never looked back. 

T+L India: Which was your first flight? How many destinations have you visited during your job? 

Mohit Teotia: My first flight as a passenger was to Canada. I was visiting for my pilot training. My first flight as a pilot was from Guwahati to Delhi. There were thunderstorms in Delhi that day; I can never forget that flight. 

It is hard to keep a count of destinations in our job profile, but it must have been close to 100. 

T+L India: What does the life of a pilot look like? 

Mohit Teotia: There is a reason we get our stripes on our shoulders. With every increase in stripe, your responsibilities increase. It is a job that needs full concentration and activeness at all times. Jet lag, disturbed sleep cycles, and homesickness becomes a part of your life. But every single pilot loves to wear that uniform, walk through the terminal and fly the passengers to their destinations.  

T+L India: Often, the life of a pilot can be draining, especially when flying for long hours. How do you deal with this? 

Mohit Teotia: A healthy diet, exercise and sufficient rest periods in between keep you going. 

T+L India: In-flight crews are known for their cordial hospitality. How did you deal with ‘off-days’ when you were feeling low yourself? 

Mohit Teotia: There are very few times when this would have happened. Generally, I enjoy spending time with family and cousins on my days off. But once in a while, I just open my phone and watch stand-up comedy. 

T+L India: Your most memorable flight? 

Mohit Teotia: In a good way — when I landed a small training aircraft on a grass runway after flying through a valley of mountains, to go to a lovely restaurant by a lake in Canada. 

In a bad way – when we tried our level best and landed the aeroplane halfway through our journey at a different airport to save an old age passenger. Unfortunately, we could not save him. 

T+L India: Your favourite destination to fly to? 

Mohit Teotia: Srinagar

T+L India: And to vacation?

Mohit Teotia: Las Vegas, and Greece. 

T+L India: A bucket list destination? 

Mohit Teotia: Mexico. 

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