Monday, December 10, 2007

My First Flight


I had never thought traveling by flight could be a great experience, probably I was biased by the fact that I had not traveled by flight at all. That is why I never gave it a thought, in fact I used to say to myself-"well it’s a great technology, but sheer waste of money. I was the only person in my family who had never boarded an aircraft. I had gone home on Nov first week and my mom said next time why don't you fly down to Coimbatore. You are the only one who has not traveled by flight. I told mom-"Verudhe endhina paisa kalayande(Why waste money) besides if I am destined to fly I will".

Nov 15th evening my PM called me and said there is an urgent implementation to be finished and I was to travel to Kochi. I quickly called up "Friends travels Madivala and said Chetta Cochin lekku oru seat urgent aaytu venam-adhey A/c bus thanne".Then my PM said forget the tickets, apply for domestic travel and said the tickets could be collected from K2 (Koramangala Wipro office). On reaching K2 office, I was handed a nice little envelope and inside it was the to and fro FLIGHT ticket by King Fisher Airways. Mind blowing I could not believe I was going to fly the next day morning.

Bangalore Airport 5:30AM my aunt dropped me @the airport. I went inside,did not have a clue as to what to do and thanks to another PM who was also a close friend of mine I managed to reach the plane without problems. I went in not able to make sense of which was my seat number and thanks to the air hostess, I finally managed to find my seat and like most times there was no one sitting next to me!!!Memories of TV shots of Twin tower and other catastrophes came racing, enthusiasm took over fear....5,4,3,2,1 and lift off I was air borne and yep I never once unfastened my seat belt throughout the journey as if that is going to protect me if something happended!!!

Bangalore looked like a gray city with silver nitrate spilled carelessly all over. Then came the sun rise....The sun appeared on the horizon, a pink color and then slow and steady He arose in full glory. A rotating gold ring shimmering and standing out, captured my attention. It was a clear day and there were no clouds and the sun started blinding everything else from my view. So I turned to the breakfast served...did full justice to it though I knew from my historic trips to ooty and shabarimala that I vomit at the slightest twist in the hairpin bend. The plane did swerve at some dizzying angles to the left and I shifted my attention to the newspaper. And then lo the landscape changed to an endearing green-God's own country and why not? The picturesque landscape reminded me of brocolli.It was as if the entire region was filled with broccoli cultivation amidst clear silver streams. Then came the landing....I felt as if I was in a race bike which was in mid air and Then suddenly gravity pulls it down. The tires came down and then I did feel relieved that I was back on earth. It was an experience which brought back my childlike enthusiasm and I felt very happy.


December 3 there I was at Nedumbasheri airport after 2 weeks of back breaking work. Now that I knew the process of boarding and checkin, I was pleasantly surprised that I had not noted one of the "other beautiful aspects of Kingfisher”. Vijay mallya says,” The crew is personally selected by me" and why not...the King of good times certainly has an excellent eye for beauty, especially when he chose the customer coordinator at the airport!!! Though I had to wait for half an hour before boarding, I never felt bored!!! I then boarded the flight and I did notice ;-) the airhostess this time. The flight took off again and I did not want to waste time on the mundane attractions of life. I tilted my head towards the window. I could see Bharatha puzha-well I think it was or some other river whatever it is was flowing right through the landscape flanked by lush green "broccoli". It was a cloudy day and it was a wondrous trip. I would say this was much better than the onward journey. I was flying above the clouds. The clouds were like loads and loads of cotton thrown over the mountains. I remembered the serials like Om Namah Shivaya, Mahabharath etc...where in the Kailas and Palaazhi, the abodes of Shiva and Vishnu are filled with clouds and man I did feel like a God. Then came the sun mercilessly blocking my view, but this time the clouds effectively shielded him and it was wondrous to see the cotton clouds turn into shining silver. The landscape shifted to boxes of organized buildings at first and then into utter chaotic boxes.....yes we reached Bangalore.... the flight will land shortly came the announcement. Then the same landing I kept hoping that the wheels don't bounce off.

It was an exciting and exhilarating trip to be cherished forever ad moreover the best part of all of it was that it was sponsored by the company!!!The best things in life do come free sometimes when you least expect it!!! No idea whether I will get such journeys again but I am not looking forward to it cause it is best when it comes unexpected.

"Bhagwan ki Jai Wipro ki Jai!!! "

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Dear Karthi,

A Good and frank one. May be that many these days would like to say " oh .. you have just boarded an Aircraft just now.. Oh no no" But frankness is frankness- nothing to hide.. nothing to be ashamed of.

I just went back to my First Flight Memory flying from Chennai to Kolkatta. When we had just flown for almost Half an Hour we were told to watch a Huge Fire in an ONGC Oil Well - this was somewhere in AP and the Flight was sometime in 1994.

Even these days I enjoy Flying. When you flew by an Indian Airlines initially then migrated to the International Airlines - it is a revelation. Flying by Lufthansa , British Airways ,Korean Air , Emirates , American Airlines , KLM have all added new dimensions to the aura of flying.

Meanwhile , the River you saw when you took off from Kochi was Peeriyar and not Bharathapuzha( Neela nadhi) which is near my Kerala Home.

All the best ,

sree uncle

sudha srivalsan said...

Dear Karthi

True, the first flight experience is an exhilarating one and at the same time full of anxious moments. I vividly remember my first flight experience and actually I was in cloud nine. But believe me, after some years it becomes really a mundane thing and little boring too. Flying is an experience and thanks to the budget airlines which have made the common man to realize this dream which was once considered impossible by many. We wish and pray that you get many more chances to fly in the international sector too.
your writing style is very good and keep up the good work.
wishing you the very best in all your endeavours.

sudha ammaye