eeeeee see that... awhhhh! mummmmmy aeroplane! helloooooo! Hiiiii~! can you hear me? oyyeee! hey its gone! can u see it? where is it where is it? ahhhh... ya ya ya.. there ... ya i can see it... ahh behind that cloud? this side.. yea.. yea its so tiny yar! ahh gone.. hehe...
These used to be my expression during my childhood whenever I saw an aeroplane! n always asked my father, when we will fly in it dad? N later when i grew bit older, expression did not change much except the last line! - "One day I will fly in it!".
Yea, the day came on 28th Feb, 2006. My first aeroplane trip from vadodara to Bombay at 7pm. It was "jet airways" which took about 40 mins to reach to the destination. The inside of aeroplane was bit disappointing or probably my expectation were too high. The seats and the space wasn't much larger than an AC bus except the seat belt (I had never used seat belts before then). The only exciting part was an urge to talk with beautiful air hostesses. I did talk and it was as expected - soft polite with more than required courtesy. It feels good though. All of the materialistic excitement was overtaken by emotions as the plane flew and my nerve made me realised that "that is it!" This is it! I flew, I cant go back now! I was staring at the land which kept going far and far. The building started becoming small... the bikes, cars and trees were loosing site. The roads were transforming into lines... soon white clouds took over it and it was the different world! I was flying over clouds! there is this gigantic area above our so called clouds! clear, clean and blue.. It feels like we are on the ocen of cloud!
The scenery stayed almost same after that and it became boring which made my head turn back to the interior of the aeroplane which wasn't so exciting as I said ( except u know what! ). An urge to show off to everyone how smart I looked then (well I travel by planes now! isn't it big? My thought then ), I stood off to go to loo. Starting from opening the lavatory door till flushing the toilet, it was all so tough to figure out. Thank god I only pissed and did not do the other thing which takes longer time! I am sure I would have been in trouble if i would have done that! ( Many things happen first time in life, nothing to be ashamed of). Anyway, I figured all out and felt proud and went back to seat and the announcement was made to fasten seat belt as we were about to arrive Bombay! The exit with "good day" greetings was lovely!
It wasn't too late until I found out that the plane's interiors could be interesting when I got into my next International flight with "quntas" at 11:30pm the same night. (It was thrusday I guess). My expectation wasn't too high with an aeroplane I realised! The tyres were almost 5 feet tall and the wings were too lengthy where 20 people can easily sit. The interior was much more spacious with small TV infront of ur seat and headph and remote control to operate the machines which were suppose to entertain you throughout your journey. First 5-10 mins went into figuring out the remote and its functionality. It followed by the greetings from captain and instructions from extremely beautiful white polished, extremely well figured air hostesses. The standard had already uplifted there too! really there was much more to see I realised! And the "fasted your seat belt" thing and zoooooom supremely high speed and I flew again. At night mumbai looks awesome. While looking at the bottom from my requested window seat, I remembered few scenes from Hindi movies where they show large slum area and the long half circled road near some beach with lots of light! The fascination stayed packed with the dinner in the aeroplane! Too difficult to manage to look that you are familiar with the use of knives and forks and foreign style eating! I cornered one of my eyes to look at the lady sitting besides me which was completely unaware of how to use this cutlery which made me feel superior and I finished my first plane meal. The journey was of about 12:30 hours to Sydney ( The dream destination was only 11:30 hrs away, I realised after feeding my tummy! ) It wasn't too late until i thought of applying my recently learned skills about using the aeroplane loo ( Also I had eaten a lot then and natural call was on wait! ). It was pretty much similar so I felt comfortable and did the thing which usually takes longer than pee. Back to seat, to window, to small TV screen, to remote, to the uneducated lady, to the hot air hostess, to the air-cone adjustable button, to light switch, to water bottle and finally rested to my emotions and thought of the people i just left. My family, friends and everyone back at home ( Home is India now! The broader view! ) I cant remember what was I thinking then! It was so emotional.
Arrwghh...Got disturbed by a ph call!
Ok part 2 to come soon ~
cheers for now....