Airplane Memoirs

Let me not start with my usual rant of not writing enough (I guess that’s how my guilt gets its share of happiness) , so the below article I wrote it for an in-flight magazine, but unfortunately things didn’t work out and so here I am posting it in my loyal blog which motivates me to write even when laziness swamps me.

Thank you for stopping by to read my blog post, since I have thanked you don’t just leave- Go on read away!

 So, since you have decided to read I would like to start with a note that I am not going to gift you movie tickets for an upcoming Thalaivar movie (if you are not familiar with the term Thalaivar*God forbid* it is how we Tamilian’s lovingly call Superstar Rajnikanth!) or vouchers to shop at your favourite mall. But a few minutes of reading pleasure (or That’s what I like to think of it as !).

Just for my readers who don't know Rajnikanth (Thalaivar), here's an image of the promotion done for his movie Kabali on an Air Asia plane. Courtesy: Indian Express

                               

The airplane slowly started moving in the tarmac, the stewards hustle for final checks and take their seats

“ Ladies and gentlemen, we are now ready for take-off. Wish you all a safe journey.”

The giant man-made machine soars through the sky between the clouds flying effortlessly carrying tons of weight along with it. It’s been 112 years since the Wright brothers had their first flight and thankfully we have comfortable seats now unlike one of the brothers, Orville, who had to lie on his stomach on the lower wing of the aircraft.

 Welcome to the world of baggage queues, scary noisy toilets and midair dining experiences. The best part of it all , stunning bird eye views of the landscape below.

This was clicked on one of my flight travels from India to UAE,isn't the sunset beautiful?

As the flight takes off, you can see co-passengers chanting prayers to the Almighty for a safe trip which will be occasionally disturbed by a kid who needs attention! With hundreds of flights taking off every few minutes, God must really have a big server to process all these requests.I wouldn’t be surprised if his Inbox is constantly full!

During your travels, you will also come across co-passengers who think your shoulder is a free extension of their seat and doze off on your shoulder.You can handle these passengers easily, but there are some over concerned travelers who will dissect your entire life in a matter of minutes. Married? Studying ? Traveling alone? Aren’t you scared? Job details?  The lineage of your ancestors? What not! Don’t worry, you will get to know a share of their personal tragedies, happiness, and trivial information. Something to look forward to isn’t it?

With smartphones and tablets more popular, you also have annoying passengers who watch movies or listen to songs without headphones, these inconsiderate people do not even reduce the volume.So the best way to avoid them other than staring at them impolitely (which I am sure they won't understand) is to bring your own headphones.

But don’t let any of this dull the peace of mind you get when you are mid air, with no network coverage, just humans in a plane flying high among the clouds viewing the earth like a bird. The mountains, valleys and the sea look like paintings on a canvas.When you see the lights illuminating human civilization below you, you realize how you were a light down there yesterday for someone in an aircraft and the vastness of the world below you humbles and inspires you, all at the same time.

This picture here is an aerial shot of Dubai, and just watching this was such an introspective moment for me.

After this inspiring moment, when the plane lands with a thud back to earth, the mad rush to file out of the airplane begins.Then a seemingly calm airplane turns into a chaotic push and pull to get overhead luggage and move out to get out of the airport.   

So, till my next post , this is the annoying co-passenger who keeps the reading light on when you are trying to sleep- signing off. 

Hope you guys enjoyed it and as always do share your stories of travel J

Live life Carpe Diem!

And I shamelessly promise to write more often as always! (Hopefully I keep this one)
Another click which was taken, when I was trying to write in a flight.

It's Vishu timee! :D

It has been quite a long time since my last post and here is one on Vishu :D

Vishu aka  the Malayalam New Year,falls usually on April 14 or 15^th every year.It is celebrated with the usual  exuberance of any festival, it is also a harvest festival which is a reminder of the days of our forefathers. Vishu also means equal as it is the day during the equinox, when there is equal number of hours of daylight and darkness.

Now I shall stop providing Wikipedia like info on my blog and write what I wanted to about Vishu :P . Definitely my readers would by now know the fact that it is not that Vishu is a harvest festival nor that it has equal day and night hours that makes me feel so happy about the festival! *duuh* It is the festival where you get Kaineetam (Tradition where elders give money to the younger ones),Vishu Kani (the first sight in the morning), then the epic Sadhya ( feast) it is the elaborate meal on a big banana leaf where you will be treated to almost 25 dishes with rice ( a buffet where you needn't move around – everything comes to you in a specific order) then crackers and new clothes.

Yummy sumptuous Sadhya- The Keralite buffet ;)

 Vishu Kani arrangement is a fun thing to do in India, because the yellow golden Laburnum flowers are an integral part of the Kani and since we did not have these flowers at our house,we invariably plucked them from the trees in our  neighbors’ houses ,and in houses where they act like they can’t share a few flowers we take it without their consent *yeaah steal :P I am pretty sure that the people from whose backyards I “borrowed” some flowers without consent from  them will not read my blog, even if they do for the greater good they will forgive me :P*,  and in case it’s on the  higher branches all the monkey acts to get some so that the Vishu kani is perfect for the next day morning .Then setting it with Vegetables, fruits, mirrors, pictures and idols of God, Money, Gold and lot more things which depending on each household varies. And the even beautiful part is the view you have in the morning, usually my mother wakes me up and leads me to the place where the Kani is set and it is the first view that you have once you open your eyes. An auspicious Kani at dawn on the Vishu day is considered lucky for the entire year. It’s not every day that you get to see such a beautifully set view in the morning.

 

As a person who has spent only few Vishu’s in India with my relatives, the times I have are cherished memories. Especially watching my grandfather read the Ramayana and listening to him narrate the stories for me, also our conversations where he reminisces about his young days,then visiting the temple with him . Followed by, pestering everyone who comes home that day for Kaineetam. We used to literally visit *in reality,raid * every house in the neighborhood acting like kids spreading the joy of Vishu but there, just to get our money :D. Being the youngest one was good and bad then, because as the youngest some of my kind elders would give me more money and others would just be like’ you’re a kid what do you need money for !’ and give me less than my sister * What do they know about the financial needs of a ten year old! Hmph*.I also had to deal with extra” smart” brothers who would give coins and get away with it and their supposedly valid reasoning for it is that for Vishu Kaineetam it should be given only in coins and not notes! *Can’t blame them, coz I do it now :P*

The sumptuous lunch which is like a half an hour ritual *actually the time is variable, based on how much you hog*. After which there will be games and conversation and the usual laziness after a heavy meal! *burp :P*

Even in my 4years of hostel life, I used to set up Kani with great fervor , it was the only festival I religiously made sure to take the pain to celebrate. Though I don’t really believe in the auspiciousness of the Kani,the entire joy of setting it up and waking up in the morning to view it gives a sense of happiness that I cherish.

For those of my readers who could relate,I am sure you might have had a good time reminiscing old memories and for those of you who are getting to know Vishu for the first time- it is today and if you have Keralite friends around bug them to treat you with a Sadhya :) *fully vegetarian deliciouss meal! *

I would love to hear your favorite memories of the festival and for my readers who are wondering about Vishu it is a festival like Ugadi, Tamil New Year and Lohri *that’s all I can think of now*  .

So dear readers,   Vishu all a Happy Vishu ;D *pun intended* Hope all of you have a brilliant year ahead :)

OMG !! It's Board Exams :O

It’s been long since my last post and it’s high time I wrote a new post and here it comes!

 Oh it was  the last day of the shortest month in the calendar and this day has been a nightmare for me during two years once in 2007 and the other in 2009,reason Board exams * I can already sense a feeling of solidarity from my readers: D *.

Before I unravel the misery of my board exams, I will tell you about my ignorance towards this pressure point date. Having an elder sibling in the house who has been through it before equips both your parents and your sibling with unfathomable expertise on the subject. And clearly when my sister wrote her first boards in 10^th and fretted a bit about her exams, me being  the primary school kid - was laughing at it * yes, quite a pain in the neck sister I was, my sister still strongly feels that way! :P!*

And belonging to a family where academics is given high priority, it’s an unspoken rule that you need to score good marks*yeah that’s the scenario at almost every house!* .This is the score card at home:

·         90 % and above is extraordinary- You will be suffocated with love, surprises and what not! All this is hypothetical coz I haven’t ever got there!:D

·         85 % above is very good – You get lesser benefits than the above one but still can’t complain :P

·         80% - 85% we are satisfied but you could do better – in this situation I will be under scrutiny over why the marks went down.

·         Below 80%- I really don’t want to write it here: P and I have been in there quite a few times!

So when I was in 10^th, pretty much my school, parents and friends were enough to make me understand the seriousness of Board exams. The scary stories of my answer sheets being evaluated by some teacher in some corner of India and that they might not understand my handwriting*oh yeah my handwriting is worse than the one on a doctor’s prescription:D*,then the nightmare of not attaching the graph sheets, followed by my sisters expert advice that I should use black ,blue  ink, underlining, writing in points so on and so forth!

And one of my best friends in school was also the topper of my batch, so you can imagine my state.  She would be well prepared, all set for the exam and I will be looking for my text book just then! She used to get a little nervous and that was my cue that I am totally underprepared! She was a positive influence I must say * Thank you J *!

So after all the model exams conducted by my school which is like the toughest exam you could give before facing boards coz it will make you feel like an idiot and that you don’t even have a chance of getting 80 percent in boards *yeah, those model exams are meant to scare you and make us work harder *!

Eventually, I  actually started studying only in February making up a plan and trying hard to follow it. That was my month of hibernation; I like to think of it like giving my brain breathing space for the rest of the year and making it work under pressure for just two months! Its effective, at least for me:D*My mom hates that though! Consistency is her motto! *

                                   

My dad pretty much gave me the end rule – I expect you to score well-I don’t care how you do it!

So Feb 28, was the last day before exams when everyone’s worried and wondering how the exams are going to be. It’s also the day I analyzed how effective my planning for Feb has been * I ain’t going to tell you how successful it was*. Both in my 10^th and 12^th grades  Feb 28^th was filled with good luck wishes and calls from near and dear ones who seemed more worried than me! And their constant advice – Don’t get tensed, you’ll forget what you learnt so just relax and go and the best part is revise all that you learnt!  I so wanted to tell them that, firstly I need to know something to forget when I get tensed and secondly that “Revision” is something I can ever find time to do because to revise you need to learn first, which I do only last minute hence I combine learning and revision together *multi tasking:P* . And I am sure that Feb 28 is one of the busiest days for the Gods as he/she will be bombarded with lot of prayers from fretting kids, and anticipating parents &teachers.

This blog post is to all the students who are writing their board exams and to all those who have been through this pressurizing experience: P. And this is just a funny take on these exams from a person who underwent the grueling CBSE Board exam experience and did pretty ok in terms of grades *grueling is a hard word,I would say over accentuated*

All the very best to all those who are writing examsJ. Do your best and you will pass with great grades J.And finally don’t get tensed, after all its not the end of the world and board exams are pretty over hyped! And one of my favorite things to do in my exam halls were to smile at my examiners as they will be all serious *Boards duh!* and they also expect us to be tensed. By smiling at them they would come make conversation and help me get into ease :D *Please do not try this unless you can make meaningless social small talk :D ,coz else it will be plain awkwardness *

Till my next post keeeep smiling and have lots of fun J .And don’t forget to share your memories of your exams  J.

Live life Carpe diem  ;) *oh yeaah!I am using fancy vocabulary!Thats just a new word I learned ,it means  Enjoy the present !

  

The Glorious Kiddo Days :D

With children’s day just over, I was suddenly left thinking about my childhood (I always did of that glorious time, but now like actually thinking :D ).I miss doing a lot of things I once did like playing pranks, the street games, silly fights, carefree lazy times ,sibling war for trivial things and so on.So I thought I will list down few of my favorite memories of my childhood and I am sure you and I might have few similar cherished memories J and here goes the list :

1.       Trolley racing in the super market  -  This was one thing I looked forward the entire time we went shopping for monthly supplies. I would take my prized responsibility of being the trolley cart pusher ( I really considered it my Batcycle  J ) and would  just keep whirring away.(I have hit a fair share of shoppers and had my sudden breaks but all of it added to the fun :D)

2.       Funny email id – Yeah most of us had a mail id which looks funny or idiotic now when you think of it. I am not going to tell you what mine was let’s just say it has a wannabe tone to it :P and the most common adjectives we used in those mail ids were cool, crazy, princess, rulez, rockz ,shining what not :P Hilarious right ?!

3.       I played real games – Yeah we had actually running competitions instead of playing temple run(no offence, I play temple run too :P ) then street cricket, football ,hide and seek (all of which were specifically played in the corridors of my building much to the  annoyance of  our fellow residents and security guards :D)  

4.       Happiness of reading a letter –Yes, email was almost getting popular in my childhood but I had wonderful friends who wrote me long 3 to 4 page letters (fully handwritten with stickers and other artistic designs on them :D).Those letters always had a full summary of the recent happenings in my friends life with pictures as well. I still remember the happiness I used to feel when my dad hands me these envelopes and the joy of reading them.

5.       Boy cut –I loved my hair that way and had that hairstyle till I was in 6^th  grade, I guess  J .The best part about it was it couldn't get messy and I didn't have to worry about drying it or even combing it ,I just had to shuffle it carelessly with my fingers and I would look presentable in a minute! J(ominous smile )

6.     Treated special – Who wouldn't like being treated special ;) ?! And I was lot many times. Being the younger sibling I got extra helpings of tasty sweets and dishes made at home ( I got vegetables and things I didn't like too ,but that’s not the focus here :D ).My grandparents always supported me in my silly whims and I even got away with extra time to watch TV or play in the computer :D.

Yeah there’s actually lot more,but these stood out in my mind and are fond memories that I associate with my childhood.I am sure all of us have such treasured memories and  must be having something similar like mine do share them here. These childhood experiences mold us knowingly or unknowingly like how the flow of water creates impressions on the earth.These leave lasting impacts on us.Now I may sound like a person who is obsessed with smiling (sounds freaky rite?) , still  I would like to add that people smile back spontaneously to kids with grins on their faces  ( Experience speaks .One of my sister’s biggest concern  is that I smile constantly at most people around me *sigh*she told me such scary stories to refrain me from smiling :D it just made me smile more and test those stories ;) )  .

So till my next post all of you out there , keep smiling and celebrate being a kid at heart  J . Cheers J