Why so many legs are pained?

‘Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Mumbai’s Chatrapathi Shivaji international airport. Outside temperature is just enough to tan your skin and is expected to rain cats and dogs in next 10 hours. We hope you had a comfortable travel with us and will look forward to serve you with many more such utterly-no-frills-yet-enjoyable experiences for all eternity’, the head stewardess’ announcement woke me up from a deep slumber. ‘Please keep your mobile phones switched off…’, she continued in her heavenly voice.

It has been just a microsecond since the plane landed and I already see my fellow passengers struggling to decouple their butts from the seats. Within few seconds they get their hand baggage and impatiently stand to deplane. I have seen this behavior in every single flight I have boarded and needless to say it has aroused enough curiosity in me. This time I kept a constant eye on my watch and also people- It took full 5 minutes for the doors to open. I see people exchanging glances. A Punjabi woman staring at a foreigner’s blonde hair. A real fat Marwari uncle in his gold coated spectacles checking his cab driver on phone. A Telugu speaking guy irked at his wife who seems to be annoyingly concerned about his lunch. ‘Chepte neeku kada, pettayi phone’, he slammed his phone down. The man in suit with his hands on the seat and fingers supporting his chin was staring into infinity (or may be the air hostess on the far end?). The aunt and her beautiful daughter who sat beside me were about to follow the rest. This meant I had to work against the gravity as I was on aisle seat. I was successful in politely convincing them that there is no point in standing.

I find these moments extraordinarily incomprehensible. I am sure most of them are not first time travelers. They know it takes few minutes before doors open but still they prefer standing and aimlessly gape at each others heads or do things which they can happily do seated. There is hardly any incentive for getting down early. Is this a habit which got carried forward from train journey? Lazybones like me sit back, yawn, observe people and keep wondering –‘Why so many legs are pained?’