The travel back from Baroda to Chennai, this May, was probably something I'd never forget in my life time... Nothing spectacular, frightening or adventurous happened.. Yet, there was something about the flying experience that made me think, and a lot...
First thing that caught my eye was the sophistication of the entire boarding process... I found it amusing.. If the aircraft is farther away, I can still understand the security issues that would come up.. Why do you need a dozen buses to drive you to the aircraft, when u are barely ten steps away from it? And that too, the bus driver makes dozens of turns, before he gets you to the aircraft... Why such a complex procedure for something as simple as, walking directly up to the aircraft, neatly in a line??? May be am missing something, but i honestly felt that walking was much better than zooming around in buses that have no seats when the terminal gate is 30 feet from the aircraft..
And entering the aircraft was a joy in itself... And I noticed something that didn't exactly make me astonished, but definitely made me reflect.. Without loading, the weight of the aircraft was approx. 40,000 kg.. And when fully loaded, its approx. 70,000 kg... beats me, to make such a huge mass fly requires hell lot of potential energy,acceleration and most importantly, FUEL... I could just imagine the amount of White Petroleum that goes into each flight.. No wonder, we'd run dry of all our petroleum reserves in a short while.!!!
As soon as we settled in the seats, I was all ready to surf the Jet Screen, behind each seat, to check the movie I might want to see, there was so much in it to completely entertain me for more than 30 hours.. But, I somehow changed my mind and decided to look out through the window while I listened to Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt's Mohan Veena.... The speed at which we took off, the sight of all Mumbai looking so tiny and the huge waves in the Arabian Sea made me wonder how beautiful Nature is..
The fight that goes on for land, water, geographical boundaries, and the divide between people, religions, castes and creed, seemed so silly when I saw the huge landscape, the path of the rivers glistening under the sun, the huge hills full of trees, the innumerable houses that looked like miniature toys,and the calm sea with its innumerable number of waves...
And flying above the skies, I could get an idea of what heaven is... When you look down from the sky, everything looks beautiful, hatred vanishes and you can feel the depth of the cosmos and the entire universe in your eyes and your mind... And you can't help but think great of the Creator who made all this....
The world is so huge, we are a part of something greater... When you see from above the part you play in the larger scheme of things, you will forget all differences..The hatred you feel for your competitor, or the indifference you feel for the beggar or the happiness you feel for yourself..Everything will vanish.. You'll feel one with the world.. There'd not be "I", you'd think about "All of us"... You'd find Godliness descending upon yourself!!
