Travel

It was my first trip in the airplane and I was pretty much excited and nervous about it. Excited, as it was my first trip to the airport itself. Nervous, as I was hallucinating about turbulence, air crash etcetera. My parents, two of my aunts, one of my uncles came with me for a heart warming send off.

A wonderful Singapore Airline aircraft was supposed to carry me till Los Angeles. It was a split journey, the first stop was at Singapore and the next was at Tokyo and the final one at LA. Way back in time, when I was young I used to make fun of one of my uncles when he used to talk about his itineraries to me. He used to travel a lot and his travel plans used to amuse me. I would tell him - "Hey! You know what? I have heard of people boarding from Mumbai and go to B'lore, via Pune or from Chennai to Delhi, via Nagpur. But you are the only guy who talks about Pacific routes, Atlantic routes, the ‘What other Ocean’ routes!". Well, here I was, telling every one of my family members about my Pacific route, when they asked me about the trip! So there was I, in the not so luxurious Economy class - well that is why it's E-Class, right? So economized that you can't push back your seats without hitting the guy (Ok - or the lady) sitting behind you. My my, those who travel a lot from B'lore to Chennai will know about the KPN travels and I will tell them and the rest, that the seats in KPN are more luxurious than the so called sophisticated, luxurious airplanes (Now who told me that E-Classes are luxurious? , Have I ever seen the First class in a flight?).

Well still more descrimination comes when first class passengers are the ones who boards the flight FIRST. Oh! is that why you call them "First" Class passengers? Besides all these cribbing, your travel will be pleasent, if you have a wonderful "Neighbor" - Its no longer Neighbour - I have shifted from Queens' English to American English. I had an amazing neighbor, whose name was Deva. He taught me everything, right from how do you call an airhostess to how to operate the remote control. It was definitely the best part of my journey from Chennai to LA.

My cousin had come to the LA airport to receive me and I bet I will be one in a million to have had a lunch in McDonalds outlet in LA Airport without buying anything from McD's. I had the delicious curd rice and onion sambar that my cousin had prepared! Apart from enjoying the beauty of Singapore Airport and the breath taking snow clad hills, when the flight descended in the cold capital of the state of Utah (For GK buffs - Salt Lake City is the capital of Utah), I really must mention the wonderful news that my ears heard. While descending the co-pilot made the following announcement: "Today is a very special day for Delta Airlines (These guys took me from LA to SLC), as today on board with us are a wonderful couple who celebrates their 50th Wedding Anniversary. There are 17 of their family members, who have joined us and we take this opportunity to wish the couple 50 more happy anniversaries". And us passengers wished the same too.

With more thoughts...