Life after a near death experience.

Sitting in a plane + flying through dark clouds + major turbulence. Whew!!! What an experience and I live to die another day and blog about my near death flight.

Well, okay I admit I’ve exaggerated about the “major” turbulence part and I guess I’ve had a nearer death experience when I was a 3 month old baby which is another story but I couldn’t resist the above blog title after experiencing minor turbulence on my flight back to Kolkata after a long vacation.

Brief summary of my vacation >>

26th Sept: Kolkata to Aizawl
Morning - leave Kolkata ….early afternoon, land in Lengpui airport. Get to meet someone I’ve known only online – Sandman a.k.a Illusionaire over here. He’s busy dropping off some relatives but what surprises me most is that he’s not wearing any Arsenal clothing. Later, I’m in a taxi along with a good young man B.S-a. On our way up to the city the taxi driver stops to get some local liquor – not for himself but for friends as he states. He drops us safely to our homes.

27th Sept to 15th Oct: At home
Truth be told, peaceful “baby sitting” was pretty much what I did during my trip back home…..correction - my 3 year old daughter is nothing but a passive little baby. Anyways there I was back up in the hills; no phone or internet, communication with the “outside world” minimal and enjoying scenes like this on some mornings when I did wake up early enough to witness the mist/cloud engulfed hills….



Private transport absent and public transport scarce from my point of residence, I hardly went down into proper Aizawl city – now a concrete jungle in its own right…..



So, spending the majority of my time at home led me to taking mostly photos of my daughter and sometimes her pet spider ……



17th Oct: Aizawl to Kolkata
Wife and daughter see me off at Lengpui airport. Weather in Aizawl is bad but Lengpui is magically clear. However all is not clear once we enter Kolkata airspace. Our plane goes through grey clouds and then turbulence. Minor, I guess, since the other passengers who seemed to be frequent fliers didn’t make a sound. Me? I was ready to scream at the top of my lungs when the plane bumped a bit through the dark murderous clouds….my knuckles white holding tight on the armrest, my heart beating super fast, my eyes transfixed – looking out at nothing but the dark clouds through the tiny window.

On hindsight I believe the other passengers were all too scared to scream. Well the guy next to me was sleeping soundly. But really, I do recall the woman in front of me straining to see if the ground below was visible or not. The airhostess who’d been skillfully walking up and down the aisle had immediately taken an empty passenger seat during turbulence.

What a relief it was to hear the comforting “…cleared for landing” message from the pilot. Once on the ground I try to act cool and let all the other passengers leave first. What I’m really doing is calming down my highly tensed nerves and silently thanking God and the pilot for bringing us back to solid ground.

Outside it’s drizzling. I’m glad to walk out of the *flying coffin...[Captain Haddock' term for an aeroplane]
Earn to live. Learn to live. Love to be alive. Take a break. Have a vacation away from your vocation... :-)

Click HERE to view pics of my daughter playing with her new pet spider.....