A world of smooth grey concrete beyond the glass walls...a forbidden, mysterious land, stretched out as far as the eye can see. The lanscape punctuated by brilliant, flashy red, yellow and blue lights. A world inhabited by men and women in bright flouroscent jackets scurrying about on their business, mumbling furtively into their walkie-talkies. A bewildering array of vehicles ply here - sleek, multi-coloured buses, seemingly made partly out of glass, that run noiselessly letting people in and out of automated doors, huge white trucks that elevate their carriers high up above the ground, vehicles that seem to be nothing more than moving platforms on wheels carrying an assortment of goods, staircases on wheels, and the more ordinary vans and jeeps of all sizes.
However, all of this takes a backseat to the huge, 3-storey behemoths that stand motionless in the foreground like slumbering giants, while the assortment of smaller vehicles go fussing around them, like servants getting a warrior primed and ready for battle. Occasionally, one of these mammoth creatures whizzes past in the background, emitting a loud. high-pitched shriek as it flashes past. Your eyes are drawn to it like a magnet, watching as it picks up speed and hurtles down the concrete like a stampeding elephant. At the last moment, when it has nearly run out of ground, this giant gets its nose up, it's wheels leave the ground and it majestically soars up into the air, going higher and higher until it disappears into the clouds.
There's a delay, as always, in two Air Deccan flights. Flights that are to arrive at 6pm are postponed to 7.30pm and then to 8.30pm. A passenger curses his fate as he took a couple of hours off work to reach the airport on time. Huge crowds throng the boarding gate as the attendant gives the standard excuse that the flight hasn't landed. One irate passenger asks to speak to the Air Traffic Control to determine where the plane is. People everywhere whip out their cell phones to inform their families or co-workers that they will be delayed by two hours. Someone grumbles about "Non-existent in-flight service as it is, combined with harassment like this". Angry, upset faces everywhere. A few people snigger as a Rajasthani type villager, who's probably never spoken a word of English in his life, approaches the attendant with a bewildered look, boarding pass clutched in hand.
Two little girls, in the meantime, have their noses flat against the window. An Emirates flight backs up to taxi down the runway. The elder of the girls turns around excitedly to inform her parents that "See, aeroplanes also have reverse gear!". Her little sister is jumping up and down in excitement.
It's at moments like these that I wish I could be a kid again. They don't actually need to read Harry Potter or 'The Faraway Tree' for their daily dose of fantasy...it really is present all around them. I remember my two most favorite outings as a kid being:
1. A visit to the Hyderabad airport, so I could climb to the balcony, wave goodbye and watch flights take off.
2. Going to the 'exhibition' so I could eat cotton candy and ride the 'merry-go-rounds' and the 'giant-wheel'.
And what's changed now? I'm still the same person, aren't I? So why is it that a few pegs of Vodka are an absolute necessity to achieve anything near that state of mind? It's not like I've grown weary with age and have the burden of the world on my shoulders. I'm only 28 and besides, burden...moi??? I guess it's just that we've gotten too used to the world and its ways. Not just an ever-increasing familiarity, but burgeoning expectations from technology means that there's nothing really left to wonder at anymore. A trip to Mars? Cybernetics? Nanotechnology? The workings of the human mind? Alien life forms? Hitherto unexplored, but today passe even to the well-informed layman. In case you're wondering about the last one, I watched this program on Discovery not long ago, where scientists have pinpointed the nearest planets that have conditions suitable for life, and based on a study of it's environment and drawing parallels with our own history of evolution, have created very realistic 3-D animations of the possible life forms there. They even have research labs and personnel dedicated 24/7 to this task.
It's not that I want everyone to change into heretics, give up all the modern pleasures of life and go live atop tree-houses in forests with fruits and bugs for their daily sustenance. Quite the contrary, actually. I welcome technology into my life with open arms - anything that allows me to do one iota less of work a day can't be all bad, right? I love rationalizing and discovering logical answers for anything and everything, from David Blaine to God to Near Death Experiences. But every once in a while, I just wish I could jump over a ditch into an enchanted forest, climb up a giant tree that grows pears and strawberries on the same branch, say 'Accio, broom' and go flying off into the unknown. Either that, or be transported 100 years into the future, so I could look agape at something ordinary and go "Shit!! No way is that possible" I wish I didn't have someone explain to me exactly how a whale in another planet could have wings and live it's life up in the air. Maybe there is, after all, such a thing as information overload.
I spent my time on that flight looking out the window and wondering what it would be like to fall into the carpet of clouds beneath me, marvelling at the technology that allowed me to eat a warm omelette while flying at breakneck speeds at an altitude of 34,000 feet, and at the fact that I reached Hyderabad in 50 minutes while the trip to the airport took me one hour.
It wasn't a bad flight, really!
However, all of this takes a backseat to the huge, 3-storey behemoths that stand motionless in the foreground like slumbering giants, while the assortment of smaller vehicles go fussing around them, like servants getting a warrior primed and ready for battle. Occasionally, one of these mammoth creatures whizzes past in the background, emitting a loud. high-pitched shriek as it flashes past. Your eyes are drawn to it like a magnet, watching as it picks up speed and hurtles down the concrete like a stampeding elephant. At the last moment, when it has nearly run out of ground, this giant gets its nose up, it's wheels leave the ground and it majestically soars up into the air, going higher and higher until it disappears into the clouds.
There's a delay, as always, in two Air Deccan flights. Flights that are to arrive at 6pm are postponed to 7.30pm and then to 8.30pm. A passenger curses his fate as he took a couple of hours off work to reach the airport on time. Huge crowds throng the boarding gate as the attendant gives the standard excuse that the flight hasn't landed. One irate passenger asks to speak to the Air Traffic Control to determine where the plane is. People everywhere whip out their cell phones to inform their families or co-workers that they will be delayed by two hours. Someone grumbles about "Non-existent in-flight service as it is, combined with harassment like this". Angry, upset faces everywhere. A few people snigger as a Rajasthani type villager, who's probably never spoken a word of English in his life, approaches the attendant with a bewildered look, boarding pass clutched in hand.
Two little girls, in the meantime, have their noses flat against the window. An Emirates flight backs up to taxi down the runway. The elder of the girls turns around excitedly to inform her parents that "See, aeroplanes also have reverse gear!". Her little sister is jumping up and down in excitement.
It's at moments like these that I wish I could be a kid again. They don't actually need to read Harry Potter or 'The Faraway Tree' for their daily dose of fantasy...it really is present all around them. I remember my two most favorite outings as a kid being:
1. A visit to the Hyderabad airport, so I could climb to the balcony, wave goodbye and watch flights take off.
2. Going to the 'exhibition' so I could eat cotton candy and ride the 'merry-go-rounds' and the 'giant-wheel'.
And what's changed now? I'm still the same person, aren't I? So why is it that a few pegs of Vodka are an absolute necessity to achieve anything near that state of mind? It's not like I've grown weary with age and have the burden of the world on my shoulders. I'm only 28 and besides, burden...moi??? I guess it's just that we've gotten too used to the world and its ways. Not just an ever-increasing familiarity, but burgeoning expectations from technology means that there's nothing really left to wonder at anymore. A trip to Mars? Cybernetics? Nanotechnology? The workings of the human mind? Alien life forms? Hitherto unexplored, but today passe even to the well-informed layman. In case you're wondering about the last one, I watched this program on Discovery not long ago, where scientists have pinpointed the nearest planets that have conditions suitable for life, and based on a study of it's environment and drawing parallels with our own history of evolution, have created very realistic 3-D animations of the possible life forms there. They even have research labs and personnel dedicated 24/7 to this task.
It's not that I want everyone to change into heretics, give up all the modern pleasures of life and go live atop tree-houses in forests with fruits and bugs for their daily sustenance. Quite the contrary, actually. I welcome technology into my life with open arms - anything that allows me to do one iota less of work a day can't be all bad, right? I love rationalizing and discovering logical answers for anything and everything, from David Blaine to God to Near Death Experiences. But every once in a while, I just wish I could jump over a ditch into an enchanted forest, climb up a giant tree that grows pears and strawberries on the same branch, say 'Accio, broom' and go flying off into the unknown. Either that, or be transported 100 years into the future, so I could look agape at something ordinary and go "Shit!! No way is that possible" I wish I didn't have someone explain to me exactly how a whale in another planet could have wings and live it's life up in the air. Maybe there is, after all, such a thing as information overload.
I spent my time on that flight looking out the window and wondering what it would be like to fall into the carpet of clouds beneath me, marvelling at the technology that allowed me to eat a warm omelette while flying at breakneck speeds at an altitude of 34,000 feet, and at the fact that I reached Hyderabad in 50 minutes while the trip to the airport took me one hour.
It wasn't a bad flight, really!
Comments