When my niece stopped a plane!

Bangalore, the beautiful garden city was engulfed in a thick blanket of fog at 4 o’ clock in the morning that day. Getting up that early was not my usual routine, but it was meant to be a very special day. I was to drop my dear cousin and her little one to the airport. My cousin had a trans-Atlantic flight to catch from Bangalore all the way to Chicago with one stop in-between. It was going to be an affair with the skies for more than 20 hours! She was quite tensed thinking of the long journey with my niece who was just a few months old. The very first flight for the baby!

We reached the airport before time so that she could comfortably finish check-in related procedures. These were the days when online check-in was yet to become the norm. My uncle and aunt, her parents, were with us as well to see her off. Uncle informed her that we’ll wait outside the airport till the time the flight departs. It was probably one of the finest decisions uncle took which I’m sure made him happy later.

The sequence of incidents that unfolded later was to be termed nothing less than a real-life-drama. My sister along with the baby completed the check-in procedures pretty well. Being a mom for the first time and travelling with a few days old baby is never an easy combination. She somehow managed to complete the process and moved to the boarding gate. Soon enough she found herself seated next to an American guy who was destined to have a flight of his lifetime!

Shortly before the take-off, my niece decided that she had enough of being a nice kid and started acting cranky. My cousin used every possible arsenal she had to pacify the little one. This was the first of a million times she was to realize that there were certain moments when no tricks what-so-ever worked with an angry baby. What she wouldn’t have known then is that she was to become an expert in all such cases soon with God blessing her with four more such angels in future!

The baby continued to act difficult and started crying incessantly. My cousin could see the American gentleman starting to get a bit uneasy in the next seat. Somehow he seemed to have got a vision of what’s going to happen next and was mentally preparing for the worst. The cabin crew started to take notice of the situation as well. While the drama was on, the captain of the flight announced the immediate departure of the flight. The tyres started to roll.

My niece promptly elevated the tension of the scene by shifting her crying to top gear. Soon she was competing with the vibration of the flight taxiing to the runway with her earth shattering scream. She realized that something needed to be done immediately lest the flight will take off. The moment of truth arrived! She took her full strength and with a loud cry splashed an entire load of vomit right on to the lovely wrinkle free shirt of the American. This was the very moment when flight touched the runway!

The whole scene on-board turned quite chaotic. Everyone around my cousin’s seat started getting panicky. The cabin crew decided to intervene. Without wasting a moment they informed the dire situation to the captain. This was moments before the flight was given clearance to take off by Air Traffic Control.

Not knowing any of these dramatic events, we remained at the airport parking lot awaiting the sight of the departing flight. Shortly after my niece finished executing her final scene of the play, my uncle got a call on his mobile. I could see his face muscles getting tightened as my sister gave him a quick summary of what happened. In a few minutes, we greeted her along with my niece at the Arrivals area of the airport.

My sister narrated the unbelievable story again to all of us. I looked at my niece and there she was, peacefully lying in the arms of my aunt. She even had a smile, the one that is seen only on the face of those who created history!

Joy of Giving!

Article for Bethlehem Matrimonial - Nov 2015

It has been more than half a decade since I got my first opportunity to cross the Atlantic and experience the place nick named as ‘Land of Dreams’, the US. We were a team of six from my company and were to spend the next three months in Atlanta on a project for a large airline telecommunication company.

Being my first ever trip outside India I was obviously super excited! Though the excitement did last throughout the trip, after a few days I really missed being back home, especially the aroma of desi food. The American cuisine wasn’t bad, but my taste buds craved for some Indian spices. One month passed by and we did find a couple of Indian restaurants and I even remember driving down almost 40 miles, approximately 65 kilometers to have idly and vada from the closest Saravana Bhavan by paying 7 US Dollars when idly back home in India would’ve cost me not even 7 Rupees!

Things were going in this fashion and that’s when I got a call from my cousin sister in Chicago. She told me that her sweetheart is sending me a round trip plane ticket so that I can visit them over the next weekend! I was totally bowled over by such a wonderful offer from my cousin’s husband. He really had no reason to extend such an act of kindness to me, but did it with all his heart, I learned. I was overjoyed and immediately planned for the trip.

Weekend came and soon I was at my cousin’s place enjoying the warmth of their comfortable home. My happiness was doubled as I knew one of my favorite aunts was also there at her place. They all made me feel right at home and had prepared one of the most delicious meals I probably ever had in my life! The stay with them gave me so much of happiness that the feeling of joy is still so deep rooted in my mind that any given day, the mere thought of it brings back a smile on my face wiping away all the stress and strains life offers.  

I had thought about this many times later in my life. The delight that my cousin sister and family brought to my life had no parallels to compare with. I tried to visualize the other side of the fence and realized that the joy-of-getting was made possible only because there was a joy-in-giving. A fact that many of us take for granted. We all love it when people gift us with surprises and other wonderful presents. We are always eager to unpack and get drenched in the pleasure of receiving the gift. Hardly do we register the joy on the faces that gave us these gifts. That joy I must say is more valuable than the natural feeling of your happiness of receiving a gift.

Giving someone something takes a lot of courage. It is so easy to gift someone close to your heart as you find no difficulty in parting with your hard earned money and precious time to do so. But it is definitely not easy to do that for someone who could be an extended family or friend of yours. It is good to remind ourselves once a while that all the joy-of-getting you experienced was only because someone decided to experience the joy-of-giving.

I remember packing my bags after the three months of our stay in US. There was something or other for every member in my family as well as my cousins and kids. I felt so happy to see their faces when I handed over these gifts after I got back home. I shared the joy-of-giving experienced by my cousin and family. While unpacking my bags back home and telling my mom what I got for each one of them she asked me a question, “What did you get for yourself?”

I smiled at her and said, “Three bags full of happiness”!

May the good God bless you experience the ‘joy-of-giving’. May this joy bring a lot of smiles on many faces making the world a much better place to live in! 

A Journey of Thousand Clicks!

I need to mention a bit about the late 80’s before I jump into what this ‘journey’ is all about. The time when I grew up as a kid. A couple of uncles and aunts of mine who are settled in the US, visited our home once a year, especially since we live in the ancestral home with our grandpa.
Their visits were always special since there was an aura to it. Other than being able to meet them, there was this thought that, they came from a place on the globe known as the ‘Land of Dreams’! It was even more interesting for me since these visits gave me an opportunity to go to the airport to pick up and later drop them back on their return. I guess my fascination towards anything to do with aircrafts started with these trips. Then of course, there always was those eager moments of opening of the huge travel bags which contained variety of unique things we get to see only once in a year!
All these experiences, I must say, created an out-of-the-world image about this place called The United States of America along with the fantasy of traveling on an aircraft. As a child I do remember running out of my house each time when I hear that distinct buzz of a plane and look up at the skies, spot the aircraft and watch it till it goes out of my sight… Those were wonderful moments of joy and I think even now, involuntarily, my head turns towards the sky when I hear that sound!
All these and more came to reality with my project team expected to visit Atlanta in the State of Georgia in the US! I was consciously trying hard, not to think much about it knowing how unpredictable travel plans in IT industry are. As the days neared, shopping done and bags ready, I must admit I was looking forward for experiencing my childhood dream coming true! In fact, I was more excited in the prospect of flying than visiting the US :)
It must be sheer irony that the first ever flight in my life, I was expected to take was Air France which just lost a flight after a lightning strike, with a couple of hundreds of passengers in the middle of Atlantic Ocean about a week before my designated date of travel! I didn’t feel nervous though, since I guess the excitement did override the concern.
The wait at the Bangalore Int’l airport exposed me to almost real time connectivity with the Wi-Fi available there. I promptly updated my status in Orkut and I loved the thought of my near and dear ones getting to know where I am almost at any given point of time :)
The class I flew was Economy and the itinerary was Bangalore-Paris-Atlanta with 2 hours of transit time at Paris. The experience of being seated in a flight was something which I felt was similar or even a bit less interesting than the local long distance buses which I take from Bangalore to Kerala! The only difference could be the presence of a small TV to your front and the regular supply of refreshments served by pretty flight attendants.
I loved the take off! The sudden increase in speed of the aircraft, once cleared to take off, pumps in so much of adrenalin that you seem to anticipate a mega event about to unveil right in front of yours eyes! The lift off and the climb added to the good feeling. I must say, compared to this experience, landing wasn’t that exciting.
The interim 2 hours of transit time at Paris exposed me to the ‘dry’ life of the Western World. In India we don’t get the feeling of being clean unless you use water. The rest room taught me one of the first lessons I need to learn for this short duration at least.
The flight above The Atlantic was magnificent! Cruise ships appeared as tiny spots in the ocean and the trail they left, reminded me of the jet trails we see while we look at the skies! At one point we were cruising at a height of above 40000 ft. The water drops that were on the window crystallized itself to ice and formed really interesting patterns. My camera, Canon A 590 IS, if she could speak, would’ve smothered me with her love for letting her capture every possible moment! :)

Finally after a combined flight of almost 22 hours we started our descent to the city of Atlanta in the state of Georgia, the World Head Quarters of Coca-Cola. As though the pilot wanted us to have a better view of the city, he went around in circles for a while before touching down. And there we were… In the Land of Dreams!!!

My Pictures
http://picasaweb.google.com/jerrymukkadan/AJourneyOfThousandClicks?authkey=Gv1sRgCICYuar72aq4xAE#