I still remember the 80s and early 90s, the time when we were kids and India was becoming more liberal in terms of international trades (please don't ask me specifics, I'm too poor in economics also i cant read more than a paragraph printed on financial new papers).
I still remember the imagination we (all middle class children) had about aeroplane. 'The aeroplane i as big as 3 buses', 'Aeroplane needs 2 big cricket stadium to land', 'The interiors of aeroplane is as big as our room where we can sleep and play'............... and many more. Also there was a very famous joke 'How you would paint aeroplane economically?', 'Well, you can paint it when its flying because it appears so small when it flies'.
We had one word that could relate anything and everything with the aeroplane (flight) 'BIG'. Big in all terms. Even in price. My dad once told that he needs to spend his entire salary to buy a air ticket to New Delhi from Bangalore. We really cant afford travel by flight unless or until you are an millionaire.
We used to bid farewell to all the flights whenever it used to fly over out neighbourhood. All kids used to join and sing in chorus 'Aeroplane TaTa'. Even airports (even known to us as aerodrome) was an tourist destination for the people who could not afford flying. Especially for all middle class and rural people. People used to see with wide opened eyes and mouth and think 'how does this metallic beast will take off and land?'. Even many of my relatives who used visit Bangalore would have 'visit to the airport' mandatorily in their long list of places to be seen in Bangalore. All of them would invite me also to visit he airport but I don't know why I denied. All of them kidded saying that I'm scared to look at the metallic beast.
After few years we grew up, even our country. Many reforms were happening and cavalcade of new businesses were arriving which our fathers never heard. I don't know if it's a boon or curse but many of my generation people would be glad that we are not unemployed. We are earning no matter whats the work is. Many of them are skeptical of the kind of work people do at call centre, BPO, service oriented business, ITES and etc.......
Due to this so called "boom" the standard of people living started going up. New companies, new jobs demanded and offered many new aspects of working. The entire world was becoming small and globalization was new mantra to all the entrepreneurs. Geeks were earning high and became most sought out for weddings at least by the hot girl's parents and they got a new tag for themselves "Software Engineers". Going abroad was fast and easily accessible with multinational companies wanting their employees to get best training.
In between all these the air travel was accessible to common man and thanks to Captain Gopinath who started Deccan airways which revolutionized the geography of air travel.
Luckily I joined an MNC in October 2005. In that company travel was major part of the job and the best thing was that you have to travel by flight. To be frank that was one of the alluring factor for me to take up that job.
I was eagerly looking forward for my first travel by the flight. At last god smiled upon me (which he does very rarely, especially on me) and my first chance of travelling by flight was announced. The occasion of travel was INDIA connect, a program organized by company to meet and get acquainted with our colleagues in other locations. Venue was Mumbai, Park Plaza Hotel, date - 14-15 Dec 2005 (I hope i got the hotel name and date correct).
The anticipation was very exciting. Ice on the cake factor was that we were booked in Kingfisher airlines for both to and fro tickets. Kingfisher airlines was then newly kicked off and there were lot of talking was going on about flight's in flight entertainment, service and obviously the air hostesses. One of my good friend forwarded few snaps of air hostesses working in Kingfisher airlines. I don't know how many time we friends looked at it and discussed about it. Also we would feel more happy when other colleagues who were booked in other airlines were cursing their fate.
Tickets were received. The departure date was inching closer. Family was happy that someone from our family is travelling by flight for first time. one day before of travelling instructions were given by our Bangalore Operations Head Mr. Gaurav Bhatnagar. We were supposed to reach airport well before departure time, no late comers will be entertained, we need to wear semi formal dress, behave well, check the name on the ticket, need to carry some ID proof etc. All the instructions are etched on my mind because i was concentrating on each and every word which i rarely did in my college ;) When i checked my ticket my name was written as KUMAR/MAHESH instead of MAHESH/KUMAR. I was so worried. I was thinking what if they dont allow me to board? That would be a disaster. I asked few of my friends who were also flying first time and they scared me more. Finally I went to Gaurav's chamber. He told its fine. I was relieved.
The flight time was 6.30 am if I'm not wrong and we were supposed to reach by 5.30 am to airport. I calculated that it will take at least 1 hour to reach airport so I have to leave home by 4.30 am. So I need to wake up at 3.30 am to get ready. Conveyance from my home to airport was a problem as i would not get any auto so early. Finally i got number of one of my friend who is an auto driver. I informed him that i need to go to airport the next day and he has to drop me there by 5.30 am. Initially he thought I'm trying to fool him and it took 5 mins for me to convince that actually I'm travelling by flight.
You can guess how many hours I slept that night 3 hours or 4 hours, not more than that. I checked time 4 times before the alarm goes off. i dint get sleep after 3 am. So got ready by 4 am. Packing was done 3 days prior of travel. My auto driver friend who was skeptical about my trip came at 4.40 am. I shouted on him. In turn he told me that i'm an good actor. He was expecting April Fool word from my mouth any moment and he doesnt wanted to be embarrassed when the truth comes out. We started towards the airport. Once reached my friend asked me again are you really going. I got so irritated that i have not yet paid him till date the fare amount to him.
After reaching I called up my good friend Rajiv De. He reached 10 mins before. I was anxious which is common for every first time traveller, we would think where to go? where to show ticket? how would boarding pass look? where to get luggage scanned? We don't want to create an embarrassing situation in front of frequent fliers who would smirk upon us. Luckily it was more than 40 of us travelling which included frequent fliers who would guide us on the formalities.
Our Pushpesh took the initiative of coordinating the with the check-in procedures. Check-in was smooth. Me and my friend Rajiv got adjacent seats. I took window seat for obvious reasons. We boarded the bus that would take us to the flight as the airport is "Big". On the way to flight i saw my first flight of my life which was just meters away from me. It was an perfect dramatic scene the sun was rising, the sky getting brighter with dark blue and orange shades in background and the metallic beast was in front of me. It was "Big". It was beautiful. Bird like with bigger wings and tail. At that moment I felt that maybe I always wanted to see flight so closely. May be the fact that I would not satiated with seeing the flight landing and taking off from very far distance I refused in my childhood when my relatives invited me to visit airport. May be I wanted my first flight experience to be special so that even after so many days I can remember and write down about it.
Finally we boarded. got into our seats. staring at good looking air hostesses (I don't know how do they put up with such stupid glances like we did on that day). I felt flight's interior was big as i imagined. We were provided with small kit bag with a head phone, pen and menu card (I really miss that kit bag now). I still have the head phone that i got that day. I have kept it as a souvenir. The in-flight entertainment started off and Dr. Vijay Mallya started 'Welcome on-board............". We laughed naughtily when he said or still says that he personally selects all the flight cabin crew. Followed by safety instructions by beautiful Yana Gupta.
Flight was moving at great speed on run-way I felt it might crash somewhere. A sudden light feeling of tyres leaving the ground and going up. Change in cabin pressure and it took off. It was so exciting to see the buildings, vehicles, people and city to get so small that they would appear insignificant at one point. We started surfing through in-flight entertainment. Majority of them including me were watching 'Great Indian Laughter Challenge' which was craze at that time. After 1.5 hours we reached Mumbai. But our flight was not given permission to land due to air traffic congestion. So our flight was hovering on arabian sea. I was very much happy to watch sea from such an elevation. It was mere spectacle.
Finally we landed. Thus my first flight journey came to an end.
Well, till date I don't know how many flights I took. May be more than 250 or 300 I'm not sure but the first flight experience was always and will be cherishing.
