When I travelled in year 2003, I paid more than Rs.20,000 for a round trip from Delhi to Bhubaneswar. Now, I am paying Rs.8800, a lot cheaper, taking into the inflation from the year 2000.
The best part of air travel during winter is the less turbulence due to lack of tropical thunderstorms. The turbulence though rarely damaging, the bumpy ride always scares the hell out of me. Yet I rarely fail to bump into some interesting folks on domestic flights in India.
Once when the flight landed at Bhubaneswar close to lunch time, I heard a guy from the front row shouting to his wife to keep the mutton (goat meat) curry ready for his lunch. I quizzed him "Sir, you must be hungry". "Addressing an unknown as Sir on first meet usually impresses, even flatters the person). He responded " Yes, I am. Been with Gujuratis in Bombay on a business trip till Sunday. So no luck with non-Veg food. Followed Monday and Tuesday,(vegetarian day for many Oriyas), so today I desperately want to break free with a typical Odia style home cooked mutton curry ". The hungry me rolled swallowed a few sips of saliva as he finished talking.
Last time I was travelling alone, a guy next to me was conspicuously reading Economics Times. I asked him why he is travelling to Bhubaneswar. He said he is on a short trip to reach out into organic farming in Orissa which he envisions as a potential future money spinner.
During the course of our conversation the amateur farmer in me asked him certain aspects of farming, which I expected this gentleman with prospective farming interest might be aware of. Apparently he turned out to be a very novice on that front, sounding more of an investor on a hunt for big bucks and ready for the kill, not to nurture the nature. He sounded more like a soldier who had never set foot on the battle field.
Our conversation turned out to beq a damp squib. The message was as loud as the airplane roar and clear like the winter sky below. During winter, sunny and dry weather enabled me to have a nice view of the Eastern Ghat mountains and Mahanadi river minutes before the flight lands in Bhubaneswar. Close to Bhubaneswar, plane flies at a low altitude and the view of late afternoon winter sun baths hills and rivulets looked awesome. Just before the flight lands I had one of the rarest sights of my life, similar to Johny Walker Scotch made from the blend of the rarest of the rarest of the Whiskeys. That is the unique bird's eye view of the areas of Bhubaneswar I am familiar and grew with. How contrasting is the warms eye view of the sky from the ground to the bird's eye view from the top. It makes me understand the meaning of the phrase "Down To Earth". When it all seems you are on top of the world, in minutes you are back on the ground..so are the vagaries of life..How much and how high you fly you have to come down one day.
My day dreaming came to an end suddenly the announcement " Please keep your seat belt fastened and mobiles switched off until the plane comes to a full stop. Before the announcement came to a complete halt, I heard incessant clicks of opening up the seat belts and mobiles going up surrounding me likes the hands in a Baba Ramdev Yoga camp. Why can't we have patience to wait for another 5 minutes. Never mind, time to rush home. More later....
The best part of air travel during winter is the less turbulence due to lack of tropical thunderstorms. The turbulence though rarely damaging, the bumpy ride always scares the hell out of me. Yet I rarely fail to bump into some interesting folks on domestic flights in India.
Once when the flight landed at Bhubaneswar close to lunch time, I heard a guy from the front row shouting to his wife to keep the mutton (goat meat) curry ready for his lunch. I quizzed him "Sir, you must be hungry". "Addressing an unknown as Sir on first meet usually impresses, even flatters the person). He responded " Yes, I am. Been with Gujuratis in Bombay on a business trip till Sunday. So no luck with non-Veg food. Followed Monday and Tuesday,(vegetarian day for many Oriyas), so today I desperately want to break free with a typical Odia style home cooked mutton curry ". The hungry me rolled swallowed a few sips of saliva as he finished talking.
Last time I was travelling alone, a guy next to me was conspicuously reading Economics Times. I asked him why he is travelling to Bhubaneswar. He said he is on a short trip to reach out into organic farming in Orissa which he envisions as a potential future money spinner.
During the course of our conversation the amateur farmer in me asked him certain aspects of farming, which I expected this gentleman with prospective farming interest might be aware of. Apparently he turned out to be a very novice on that front, sounding more of an investor on a hunt for big bucks and ready for the kill, not to nurture the nature. He sounded more like a soldier who had never set foot on the battle field.
Our conversation turned out to beq a damp squib. The message was as loud as the airplane roar and clear like the winter sky below. During winter, sunny and dry weather enabled me to have a nice view of the Eastern Ghat mountains and Mahanadi river minutes before the flight lands in Bhubaneswar. Close to Bhubaneswar, plane flies at a low altitude and the view of late afternoon winter sun baths hills and rivulets looked awesome. Just before the flight lands I had one of the rarest sights of my life, similar to Johny Walker Scotch made from the blend of the rarest of the rarest of the Whiskeys. That is the unique bird's eye view of the areas of Bhubaneswar I am familiar and grew with. How contrasting is the warms eye view of the sky from the ground to the bird's eye view from the top. It makes me understand the meaning of the phrase "Down To Earth". When it all seems you are on top of the world, in minutes you are back on the ground..so are the vagaries of life..How much and how high you fly you have to come down one day.
My day dreaming came to an end suddenly the announcement " Please keep your seat belt fastened and mobiles switched off until the plane comes to a full stop. Before the announcement came to a complete halt, I heard incessant clicks of opening up the seat belts and mobiles going up surrounding me likes the hands in a Baba Ramdev Yoga camp. Why can't we have patience to wait for another 5 minutes. Never mind, time to rush home. More later....
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