A quirky tagline on an Indigo flight food packet set off a war of words mid-air between flight attendants of a private airline and a Gurugam-based businessman, leaving him "humiliated and cheated".

The traveler, Vinod Kumar, who had boarded a Pune-Delhi flight on September 1, told MAIL TODAY that he was shocked to read the tagline printed on the food-box served during the flight as it said: 'Buri nazar wale, rajma-chawal khale' (Have rajma-rice, you the evil-eyed).

"It was shocking and humiliating," said Kumar. "We pay for our comfort and here was this airline calling us 'evil-eye'. I was travelling with my sister who also felt insulted with the line."

He said he could not believe what was written and asked his sister, who was accompanying him, to confirm it. He even asked his fellow passengers to check what was written on their boxes, and said it was an embarrassing moment for him.

Kumar said that when he wanted to register a complaint over the matter in writing he was told by the flight attendant that there was no such on-flight provision.

Kumar said he would be filing a criminal case against the airline company and the Chennaibased food company Triguni Eze Eats which supplies the food box in flights.

The businessman said that first he had tried to take up the matter with the airline's office but their response had also not been satisfactory.

"The airline, after receiving my complaint, contacted me and agreed that what happened was wrong but they could not explain how they allowed such horrific lines printed on top of the packet," Kumar said.

Kumar says the incident has been a shocking experience because he had always relished 'rajma-chawal'.