Looking down from the aircraft window, it was all so wonderful. Rows and rows of coconut trees, clusters of houses, the larger metal roofs of factories gleaming in the sunlight, clean roads. Five minutes after take off from Coimbatore, we were over the Nilgiris, a distance that would take 3 hours by road.
Flying over the Deccan plateau, geography lessons came alive. The red land that stretched on and on with little bits of green in-between; mottled grey stretches of rock and small ranges of hills lifting up in the middle. Just like an atlas :-) Pools of water collected in the valleys and depressions among the rocks. Around them was cultivation, civilization. Towns and villages huddled together near water and the roads. But the rest looked bare. There seems to be so much land that is uncultivated or uninhabited!
(stats say that only 21% of the earth's surface is cultivated and of that only 7.6% is actually in use due to water shortages).
Ponds, lakes, muddy rivers held the eye; especially mine brought up in water starved Coimbatore. Unfortunately, no one gives you a flight map so you can’t make out if what you are seeing is the generous Krishna or just a tributary.
The word meander takes on a new significance when you see the world from up on high. Rivers, the course they take, the changes in course are all yours to behold.. Road meander too; grey and long.
Banks of clouds did obscure the view occasionally. And I wondered how high up we were. When one is on the ground, the clouds up there seem so high and now we were so far above. It felt a bit Godlike to think of all those tiny beings down there and their concerns and troubles seemed so insignificant.
Closer to Delhi, everything is so much more neat and laid out. Neatly divided parcels of land surround starbursts of towns interconnected with the next town by straight roads drawn with a ruler and pencil. The land seems so fertile too. Many more water bodies. As the plane dips down the water shimmers in the sunlight.
No, not my first flight but the first one next to a window. Frequent fliers should get only aisle seats; so they can listen to music, sleep and smile with benign feelings towards all the new excited fliers. And if possible, school children should be able to experience all this when their lessons are still fresh.
4 comments:
I was lucky enough for a Window seat on my first flight. I was perhaps the only person in the flight who had the blinds up and was eagerly clicking pictures.
Geography lessons come alive..
Exactly this is what I thought as well, next to me was one of those regular fliers who winced everytime I clicked a picture.. and later, very patronisingly helped me undo the Seat Belt... :D
Very nice - glad you enjoyed being God for the short while
it is great - when u can take a detached look at all these things - ah how nice it is to be on a carefree vacation...
Ayappan, thanks for saying ditto:-)
Im not the only naive kind up there.
Raji , may it happen again but not too soon.
Maddy, you make me feel very lucky.
Post a Comment