A drop of tranquility, a dash of bliss
June 2009- traveling from London to Mumbai on a Friday night, soon after finishing work, required a little more than strength and excitement. Friends came to see me off, delayed me and made the ordeal a bit harder when I had to run inside with my 5kg bag leaving no time to even shop at the duty free.
When I finally got seated, a lovely meal and three rounds of vodka later, it did not take a huge effort to slip into a slumber, snuggled inside the bright red 'Kingfisher Airlines' blanket. Hours passed and I suddenly woke up - there was no turbulence, no noise, the plane's engine sound was no longer a racket, everything and everyone still, no specific switching on of any light, the plane had got as dark as it could.
What woke me up? I was puzzled, at the silence, the darkness, the tranquility at thousands of feet above the ground level. Amazed at these surreal few seconds, I opened the window cover to look out. Needless to say, I could not have found out where I was, just by looking at the vast, empty sky but instinctively or intuitively, I am unsure of, I opened the cover.
What I saw gave me goose bumps. Pitch black sky, with no starting or an ending point, not a single star in sight, but sitting right outside my window was a full, radiant, bright round moon. Her beauty took my breath away. A thick layer of clouds at the same level as the plane were moon lit and silver. The view thus encompassed a soft silver floor, black background and a full moon vain with her beauty.
As I stumbled and struggled to take pictures, a kind flight purser came to me and said, "If you don't mind, I can take you to the front end of the plane where you will get a better view to take pictures?". A little startled and a little apprehensive, I followed him through an array of sleeping people, careful not to touch or wake them up.
Finally we came to what looked like a deserted bar, with sofas and tall chairs. As promised, I did get a chance to take beautiful pictures. I thanked the guy and went back to my seat pleased with nature's beauty, my Panasonic TZ5 and the service of Kingfisher Airlines. Just then, he took my camera from me to return with even more awe inspiring photos.
The pictures were of sunrise, dark blue sky with an orange frill.
I looked out of my window again - all I saw was the moon, black sky and clouds. Seeing my confused expression, he opened the window cover on the other side of the plane.
It was dawn on the other side.
I looked out of one window and then the other - I realized I was floating in space in this man-made metal vessel, caught in between night and day. Everybody else lost in oblivion, what woke me up? What made me look out? What made the kind flight staff open the opposite window cover?
I don't have answers to these questions. All I had was this mixed feeling of being insignificant in front of nature on one hand and feeling special for being the 'chosen one' to view this majestic phenomenon, on the other.
Pure bliss.
