India, July 6 -- International airlines have perfected the art of fooling passengers, and we happily cooperate.

The first thing they do after take-off is ask you to pull down your window shades. Outside, the sun is blazing away. Inside, they create midnight. Hundreds of passengers obediently shut out broad daylight without the slightest protest.

The meals, however, continue according to the time at which the flight departed.

If you left Mumbai after dinner, dinner arrives right on schedule, irrespective of what your watch says.

You eat happily, watch a movie, doze a little, wake up for another snack.

This goes on for the duration of the flight, when everybody inside believes what's outside, with what they're served inside.

And then...