AIRPORT
Playing cricket on a sun-scorched field and you hear a roar from the skies and suddenly all eyes go up to the sky as an Air India or a Kingfisher passes by.And then you see the admiration , the enigma, the excitement an aeroplane draws in everyone's eyes.
Have you been there?? Done that??
I entered college with one of my goals being getting on an aircraft before completing my bachelor degree. Well the prime objective that time was different as I thought my branch would interest me enough and I would toil hard getting a foreign internship. Nevertheless I got on an airplane this December, although it was on a family trip to Andamans and I had toiled only enough to pack my bags myself.We were to board Flight S2-319 of Jet Airways from Calcutta to Port Blair.
I set up my first objective. Getting up on that flight as professionally as possible. Now by that I mean concealing my child-like incredulity and steer clear of embarrassment. On the taxi to Netaji Subhas International Airport I devised the strategy. I was to stay behind Dad and Bro who were not a debutant, observe with Sherlock Holmes’ eyes and speak only when poked with a pin.
Once inside the airport, I let bhai manoeuvre the luggage trolley and carefully track his lefts and rights. Now as I look around I feel something amiss. Something strangely different from my railway stations. What was it ? Maybe I was missing the hawker’s cacophony . Why don’t planes whistle when they land? Why is no one tucking my shirt for a 1 rupee coin and arguing when I give him a 50 paisa instead? There are no beggars here to satiate the rankling coins in my pocket. Currency least count seems to be 10 Rupees. Even donation boxes boasting of crisp notes turn down my offerings. There were some plusses too. And what lovely ones. There is no other way than to put it simply as that there were a hell lot of good looking chicks. I need not strain my eye hunting a ‘decent see’ as I was accustomed doing travelling in second class sleepers. I remembered walking the entire length of the train in my younger days, hoping to catch glimpses of decent females.
Having received my boarding pass, I sit down to observe. I look around and an airport seems to be a world in itself. From shops selling goods at obnoxious rates to Engilsh-speaking hawaldars you see it all. Well an hypothesis of mine says that rate a person considering the shoes he puts on and rate a building considering the standard of toilets there. So keep waiting for my account aboard Jetlite, while I take leave to check out the toilets.
Will be back soon
Astalavista.
