From my childhood, i have always been fascinated by heights. Anything above the ground be it birds, butterflies, kites, aeroplanes or any one of those deadliest roller coasters, there is nothing more fun to me than thse.
I remember my English teacher back in high school speaking of ROMANCE. Romance is something that takes you to a totally different plane. He despises the conventional movie definition of Romance, where a guy meets a girl, and his surroundings just change. Sudden rain from nowhere, violins coir in the background, or a gush of wind swaying the girl along with it are a few changes that can be named. Well I wouldn't want to disagree with him, not because he is my teacher but for my own reasons.
Different plane to me is a plane away from your general existence. Sky to me is one such plane. I can say with conviction that "capturing the sky" must have been the Wright Brothers' inspiration to come up with this wonderful invention, the flight.
My first romance with the skies started when I was three. Well my memory doesn't allow me to go beyond that age. This was the time when my mother fed me dinner, while i kept staring at the twinkling stars and singing the nursery rhyme.
As i grew up, my Science textbooks became my source of inspiration. Watching flocks of birds flying and gently kissing the horizon during those mesmerising sunsets.. wow.. wht a treat it was?
Being the tom boy back home, I have always enjoyed playing cricket with all the boys in my apartments. They were kind enough to make me partners in their kite flying sessions too. Everytime i hepled them fly kite, I wished once in my life I would fly high.
And I did!!! Thanks a ton to the Deccan!! For people like me who has never travelled abroad or has ever got the opportunity to do so, these low cost airlines have made it possible. Finally for the first time in my life I flew from Delhi to Bangalore when I was on my way to training in Infosys, Mysore. I love you god!! Thank you very much!! From then on, my romancing just continued....
My trip back to Delhi after my summer internship in Bangalore via flight was a different one. I have seen people who are generally not happy about flying, but this time there were more reasons that added to their woes. The recent mangalore Crash and the series of tyre bursting issues that followed.
There was this old lady who sat to my left along the aisle. From the time she sat next to me while boarding she kept on chattering with me talking about her family, her dead husband and two sons. Well initially I thought she might be one another Chatter-Box aunty whom you find regularly in Delhi. But later I discovered that this was not the case. The lady has been unwell for days and was under treatment. That morning too she had been given drips and then brought to the airport. She was alone! I could see the anguish in her eyes when she spoke of her busy sons with a pretty smile on her face. Adding to all this was the fear of a plane crash. She kept chanting the mantas from some of her "Chalisa" collection from the point the plane started to take off till it landed. Poor lady!!
As we started to hover around the IGI Airport and as the pilot annonced the temperature outside to be 41 degrees, I took one last notice of the weather outside. Suddenly I felt it was raining. But I had to make myself understand that this was not water, but the air molecules glistening in the sun forming a Mirage, which I call teh Mid-Air Mirage.
But nothing in this world is going to stop me from romancing the clouds and the skies. This love story will continue!!
