When there was exciting and fun in the air…!!!
When there was exciting and fun in the air…!!!
HARISH MONGA DIDO
The first-time journey by air is felt scary but afterwards, it is really amazing. It has always fascinated me since my childhood. In the school days when Physics is one of your subjects, it is taught that earth continuously revolves around its axis but as to what would be position, of amazing idea in those days, if a person in the helicopter stays in the air, there will be continually changing of places underneath him due to the rotational movement of the earth.
Anyhow, I could not understand at that time until I learned about the flying of planes in the sky, controlled with the sophisticated types of equipment to land at the particular place and particular I got few chances to travel by air.
It was my fifth journey by air with better-half from Amritsar to Singapore and like earlier, this too was fascinating. Starting from the immigration counter, passing through all the vigorous airport security procedure and down towards the terminal and getting the boarding pass after deposit of luggage duly scanned, the officer at the counter, pointing my grey-hair rather say totally white – by virtue of age or deficiency, I don’t bother but liked and appreciated its originally – said, Sir, are these originals. I said in a lighter tone, yes, you may test even pulling it.
We were very scared of the food items in our handbag which we consumed well before boarding the flight but after about half an hour of flight, everyone opened his bag and enjoyed the home-made food without any hesitation and objection by the air-hostesses. While we were repenting of finishing at the airport itself but enjoying as if sitting near the dhaba.
The person next to us was feeling little upset as his travel agent forget to mention vegetarian against the meal option. The mistake was realized but since the air hostess did not have anything vegetarian for him. However, to accommodate, she asked if he could take sea-food which is also considered as vegetarian. The most wonderful was when he asked to have a cup of tea as it was a short flight of five hours. She did not even serve tea as they don’t have soya milk and normal milk is also considered as a non-vegetarian being an animal product.
However, I came to know that vegetarians are of two types. One who consumes cow milk and not meat is classified as Asian vegetarian and those who don’t take any sort of animal product are called vegans. One has to plan his journey well before boarding. Journey by air is not like a hotel that one could order anything for eating during a flight. One has to be particular especially during the long journeys to have a choice between the flight foods and traditional feast item.
Frankly speaking, this time the journey with my better-half was interesting. However, after here announcements to tighten the seat-belt during the journey, when she casually asked me, out of curiosity, as to at which height the plane was flying. I told her that normally internationally flights flew at 35,000 ft which comes around 10 km from the earth. She asked innocently, as to why the aeroplanes fly so high? Since flying low is safer to come down for survival from a shorter height whereas fall from such a height is always fatal. I had no reply to her questions but to pray for the safe landing at Changi airport. But this time, it was definitely a fun in the air. Hope to have a different experience during my back journey.
