30th Sept: 1745 hours
I am still on the ground. Not even inside the aircraft.
I am so impatient that I cannot wait to start this post. I want to get into the aircraft and take off.
Desperately want to get out of Chennai and head towards Kolkata, towards home.
I make no secret of my dislike for Chennai. I know it is strange in light if the fact that my mother is Tamil. However I can never relate to this city. Alas! This is where I am based and will be so for the immediate future. So I have learnt the survival strategies.
For me the way to survive life in a place abhorred is to look forward to times when I can get out of it!
Today I am going out of Chennai! Back to my beloved Calcutta for the Durga Puja.
I am not alone. Over here in the waiting area of the domestic terminal of Chennai airport I can see several people who will be my co-passengers. Some of them are alone. Like me they are the professionals seeking out a career away from home. Some are with their families, no doubt going back to visit parents and relatives.
You will all laugh at me. I am going home for only 2 days! Come Tuesday and I will be back to Chennai. Then I shall look forward to my next trip - a grand 2 week vacation!
I wanted to write about the people waiting in this part of the terminal building. However that will have to wait. I need a cup of strong coffee and a cookie.
1819 Hours:
The androgynous voice on the public address system informs us that Spice Jet flight SG 520 will be delayed by 20 minutes. Awful.
18:25 Hours:
At last the boarding announcement is made! I am already at the gate, the first passenger to cross the boarding gate and into the waiting bus. Five minutes later I am on board.
And a familiar face. it’s the same flight attendant, a girl from Sikkim. Have had he on 3 previous flights. Very sweet and very efficient. I exchange a smile of recognition before proceeding to take my window seat.
18:44 Hours:
There were not many people boarding the flight. It was anyway full of nerdy looking software engineers and pretty damsels working in call centres. All returning home to Calcutta.
As is always the case with me I did not have any pretty young thing sitting next to me. But I had the window seat and that’s all that mattered.
18:46 Hours:
The perfunctory safety drill over, the plane began taxiing towards the runway, past the maintenance hangar, the fire station and the cargo terminal, where the lights were off and the planes sinister in the shadows. A U turn and we were in the runway.
A sudden acceleration and we were on course for takeoff. As we crossed the cargo terminal I realized that we had crossed V1 Speed. Now whatever happens the plane has to take off, no turning back.
Nothing happened and we took off smoothly. The city lights fast receeding as we rose higher and higher until they looked as if a constellation had come to rest on planet earth. Then the plane banked to the right and I knew we were flying over the Bay of Bengal.
Then something inexplicable happened. I fell asleep.
20:43 hours:
After drifting into and out of sleep for almost two hours I heard the welcome announcement that we were starting our descent into Calcutta. I kept my nose firmly pressed against the window pane, eager to catch the first glimmer of light that would tell me that we have arrived.
I was greeted by compete darkness and a few scattered points of light. Where were we?
Then we banked to the left.
Chennai at night looked like a constellation. This looked like an entire galaxy.
Stretched out below in all its festive brilliance, was Calcutta. Someone had gathered all the twinkling stars and gathered them in a long slender heap.
We were flying slowly and low. So I could see quite clearly.
Wait a minute, what is the dark serpentine thing that seems to bisect the illuminated mass? The river! And we were flying along it a little to the left.
There I could see the Kidderpore Docks, the Second Hoogly Bridge and looking a little beyond, could spy the Victoria Memorial, its light more white than the rest. And amidst all this was the light from the Durga Puja festivities, in colours green and red making for a spectacular sound and light show, if you could consider the drone of the jet engines.
We flew along the entire length of the city, stretching like a sliver of light for about 80 kilometres on either side of the river Hooghly. Calcutta is a very deceptive place. Only from the air did I realize how big the city was. it’s the third largest urban agglomeration in India and the 9th largest in the world.
A sharp turn to the right and we were flying over the Estern wetlands, silvery in the moonlight. A wide descending arc and we were touching down even before we could realize it.
21:13 Hours
A slight bump, a sudden deceleration, the howling of the breeze and I was home.
Right in the epicentre of festive joy and cheer!
