The Month Long Flight
I’ve never traveled by air before the age of 22. It wasn’t an affordable means of transportation for a middle class family in India because flight tickets were very expensive back then. The concept of air travel had fascinated me since childhood. Not the mere idea of flying in the air, but a flight with a group of people shut in a metallic tube, a thousand miles from everyone else. As a kid, I would love watching planes pass over my house at night-time, their lights twinkling. Even during the day if I hear a plane, I’d stop what I’m doing, run outside and look up the sky.
The first time I got a job, I saved three months’ worth of salary with the sole intention of flying by airplane. Destination wasn’t important, just bought the cheapest ticket I could find — a half-hour journey. The flight was still a month away, but in my mind, I started flying the moment I got the ticket.
On the day of the flight, I arrived three hours early at Coimbatore International airport. Luckily I had a friend who worked in the airport who explained(“trained” would be the better word) what I need to do from the moment I go to the airport till I board the airplane. The guard at the gate eyed me suspiciously as I shaking with excitement.” Why so excited Thambi (younger brother in Tamil) ? Do you have to catch a bus?” he asked. “No,” I said nervously. “I have to catch a plane.” with my head held high but still shaking inside. He let me in with a shrug.
I completed check-in and baggage and settled in my seat. The plane would not depart for another 15 minutes. From my tiny window, I could see men dressed in fluorescent yellow and orange jackets clearing the runway.
There is a brief period of weightlessness I have become accustomed to since that first flight, a feeling that amazed me when I first felt it. The plane took off the runway and into the air. Two thoughts kept fighting with each other in my mind “Oh my god, I am really flying”, “May be not, I am just dreaming”.
My ears popped. I had read about this; the body reacting to the low air pressure in the cabin.
The plane steadied in the air. A voice in speaker politely asked us to keep our belts fastened. Cute, smartly dressed women in navy blue uniforms went across the rows, smiling and offering water. I was expecting a full course meal and drinks. But so disappointed, it was just water. To remind you it was just a 30 minute flight.
The most embarrassing part about my journey was the Turbulence. What most people don’t tell you about an airplane is that, sometimes, it shakes vigorously and people call it “Turbulence”. I was never prepared for this, I almost got a mini heart attack when the plane started to shake.
After recovering from that deathly experience, I went to collect my baggage and call my friend. With all the movies that I saw, I was imagining about my friend standing outside the airport with a card reading my name and me greeting him with a hug. Well, my friend not picking up my call should’ve been a good enough sign for me to get out of the fairytale world. After calling him about a hundred times, he finally picks up and yells at me for disturbing him during a meeting. “Wise words from the person who can’t follow a schedule,” I thought to myself. He asked me to get myself a bus or take the metro train and meet him at his place. This was the time I landed back in reality from my month-long flight !
