Monday, June 2, 2008

FROM : Up above the world so high....

It was my first night flight.... Hmmm whats so special about it? Take off, cruise, and then land. Big deal.....! Nopes. There was more to it. It was not actually a night flight. I was going up when the sun was coming down... In short I was flying at dusk. I had to fly from B'lore to Mumbai for an interview. Since my role in my project was so critical (...!), I had got only a day's leave. So I decided to leave after office hours and hence had booked for an evening flight. Dont be surprised when I say the flight from B'lore to Bombay took 1.5 hours and my travel from office to airport took almost the same time. :( I live in B'lore, you see. After completing the formalities I was on the plane. I forgot to mention that I had got a window seat :D Its always fun for an aeronautical engineer to be in a window seat and observe the flight. Hmmm slowly the plane came to the runway, picked up speed and whoa..... took off :) Only then did I notice something. Storm clouds were forming in the sky. So were they doing in my stomach. Much to my relief, our captain assured us that we wont have any problems whatsoever because of that. The accent was fairly eventless and we climbed right through the storm clouds. Then on the flight radio they said it was raining in B'lore. I looked out of the window and hey what was that....!?!?! It took me sometime to comprehend that sight. C'mon yaar , how often do you get to see rain from a top angle? ;) Seen "independence day"? The clouds over B'lore skies sort of resembled it. It was fun to watch rain that way, I would say. It seemed like a giant taurpaulin roof that was leaking all over :) Oh nature, how beautiful can you become..? Nature answered me with a sight that can never be erased from my memory. I am still thinking for a word to describe it to perfection. Just as the sun had set, colours began to splash over the sky and it resembled one of those paintings in Taare Zammen Par. And finally as it became dark, I saw the biggest rainbow of my life. This time not because of rain, but because of sun and air alone. Yes scattering, diffraction, bla, bla, bla had joined hands to produce the biggest rainbow. The whole horizon was painted in seven colours. You need a thousand eyes to cherish that sight. Hmmm I had witnessed enough that evening and I wanted to rest my eyes a little. I had an interview the next day (if you remember). Slowly I started dreaming zzz.... I was so obsessed that day that even in my dream I was flying over Bombay. My dream captain said "We are going to land shortly. Fasten up your seat belts." Suddenly my neighbour shook me out of dream world. Actually those words were not uttered by my dream captian but by my actual captain. We were actually approaching Bombay airport. ;) I peeped out of the window and was literally shocked. How the hell is he going to find the runway in this mess? What if he gets frustrated and lands it in the sea? I dunno swimming. Arey yaar, even I forgot that I was an aeronautical engineer! I remember reading something called Instrument Landing System in an aircraft. Phew.... I was safe again. I closed my eyes to reduce the effect of reduced G forces and after sometime as gracefully as an Eagle, the aircraft touched down. The pilot applied full brakes and it came to a screeching halt. The moment I came out of the aircraft and smelled Bombay air, I wanted to sing "Pudhiya vanam, pudhiya boomi...." (For the benefit of those who do not know Tamil, its a Tamil song meaning "new skies, new land...") How much had technlogy advanced... Just 80 minutes back I was in B'lore and now I am in Bombay. Wow... But I had realised something else that evening. How much ever technology may advance, man can never match the beauty of nature. Nature's beauty is beyond wordly expression. I shouted, "Hey mankind... you may be foolish enough not to enjoy this beauty, at least dont spoil it." My voice got drowned in the metro noise...

8 comments:

KIWI said...

good one..

i liked d part wer u've compared grace wid an eagle...

Ratzzz said...

hey dash... don't say u didnt have a camera/mobilecam to capture the sight.... Gawd...
i can feel the exhilaration of seeing the rain from above and u actually saw it and forgot to take pic....
Kick ur ***

The Jamist said...

Instrument landing system eh... Soluve da Soluve... hehehe...

Very Nice Comparisons throughout the blog dude ...

Keem Em Cumin ...

Swarna Latha said...

seein de horizon and de inverted rainfall(if tat makes sense) wow!!!
nice descriptive one.....i liked de last line!

Vasu said...

@ Stranger: They say you have to live with whatever stupidity you were gifted with... I dint take my camera :(

Venkat said...

mama........ padicha enaka pullarikkudhe patha nee kuduthu vachavanda........... ana cam irundhum photo edukala paren nee oru _________. neeye fill panniko.aprum innonu indha description la instrument landing adhu enna karumamo vaila kooda nozhayala adhellam thevaya un kadamaunarchikku alava illada......

Shri.... said...

Dey, it s really nice which recalled my first flight to Bombay. I was searching ur words to explain the beauty of the Bombay seashore.. appo thoongitiya?? at dusk, view of sea from flight is awesome da.. also i was terribly shocked to find the location of airport.. I thought it s going to crash with the traffic below, somehow pilot landed in airstrip.. :)

Vasu said...

naan kadala pakave illa da... i slept :) flightla seat belt sign on ana apram dhan I got up :D