Flight number – AC 8389 (Part - II)

In continuation with my previous blog "Flight number AC - 8389". I looked out of window and guess what? The fan propellers next to me stopped rotating. I remembered one of the bollywood movies ‘3 Idiots’ in which one of the character Rancho always suggested to say “ALL IS WELL” to your heart when in problem. But nothing was going well at that time in flight number AC – 8389. I was stunned by the fact that I was in 25000 ft high above the ground and one of the plane engine stopped working completely. I wasn’t able to move a muscle. The plane had once again started tilting from the side where the engine had stopped. Once again I could see the mountains below the plane. But this time I couldn’t even think of taking snaps coz this time it happened unintentionally. It seemed clearly that both the pilots couldn’t control the plane. There was too much of disturbance in the plane. Two guys didn’t follow the pilot’s orders of tying the seat belts and because of that they suffered a lot. They were falling all around in the plane as it was swinging left and right. At that time I realized that tying seatbelt may not save from crash, but it can definitely save you from injuries before the crash. You never know that could make the difference between life and death.

I started praying and hoping that somehow there should be some miracle and all of us land safe or for that matter stay alive. The plane had begun to descend on its own. All of us could experience that. I was thinking of my loved ones, I did not want to die. Three hours and fifteen minutes into the flight which was descending, no one of us knew were we going to land safely or crash. But even if the pilot tries to land the plane in this position (perpendicular to ground) it would crash. About ten more minutes in to descend and I could see the land very clearly. In that case I thought we must be only a few hundred ft above the ground. At this time everyone on the plane was shouting for help, praying, crying and yelling. Just at that time we all heard a big boom. There was a blast at the back side of the plane. I turned back to look, god. There was a big blast which cause a big hole in the plane, wtf. There was a pressure drop in because of that. Immediately the oxygen mask dropped down. People struggled to use them as the plane was descending as well as inclined. I managed to get my and helped the lady next to me get hers.

Luckily no one at the back was hurt or was blown off. I could see a plain ground below. It gave me some hopes that at least we were not on top of some mountain where there were no hopes of landing at all. But this situation was even worse and everyone on that plane hoped for a miracle. We were descending at a faster rate now. Nothing in the world could go so wrong with me, why with the plane I am in? I was thinking. There was so much of noise all around, but still I could hear some sound of a motor. I looked out, slowly and steadily the fan propellers of the wing had started. Damn! That could be a sign of a miracle I thought. The engine which had stopped before had started just in time I believed. That was the time these pilots could become hero and get their names printed in the history for ever. They should just land this plane safely.

The propeller engine was working fine now and the plane was back from the inclination. People were silent, happily amazed that the engine started and now the plane was parallel to the ground. Just may be 150 meters from the ground though, there was a plane land to attempt a forceful landing. Just in few seconds we were close to ground. Descend was not steep now as both the engines were working. I just prayed that these engines worked few more seconds and no more booms until we all were safe away. Few more seconds and the plane hit the ground. Big boom!!! When I looked out I saw that the side wheels of the plane did not come out. There was lots of friction. We all were inclined backwards which made me think that only the front wheels had come out. There was a lot of friction which mad the plane slow down quickly than what it would with normal wheels.

After a few seconds the plane had come to stand still in the middle of grassland. There was a lot of dust blown all around. People at the back realized that at back side the plane had caught fire, may be due to the friction. The air hostess struggled to open the front door while all the people rushed behind her to get out. Before the fire could grow up all of us were out of the plane along with the air hostess and two pilots. The fire grew and in few minutes the whole plane was blazing. All of us were out and there were cheers all over the place. In couple of hours there were helicopters to take all of away. I was in the copter and someone tapped on my back. I turned around; she was the old lady who was sitting next to me in the plane. There was a big smile on her face. I gave a big smile and said, “Yes, we made it!!! You were right, we all are safe.”

I reached Toronto airport to continue my journey to India, but one day later. I was taken to the hospital for checkup. I got my remaining flights re-scheduled. A day later I landed in Mumbai and everyone was waiting for my arrival. Finally I was back and no more I had to take those Air Canada flights. I promised my self flight number AC – 8389 will be my last Air Canada flight ever in my lifetime.

God bless you all!!!

JJJ

Flight number – AC 8389 (Part - I)

It was 3 am when I took a step out of my house early morning. I had called a cab which was waiting for me outside my house. It was -60*C the coldest temperature in the history of Edmonton. I was going back to India after a long time as I had finished my site assignment in Canada. 10th November 2010 was the day which came after one year one month and one day since I came to Canada. The day had come to see my love, my family, my friends and my country. I had never been so patient for anything before this. My Flights were from Edmonton to Toronto, then from Toronto to Frankfurt and finally from Frankfurt to Mumbai. Yes!!! I was very happy even though I had to start my day so early. Salvinder an Indian Punjabi guy who stayed in Edmonton for last seven years had become my good friend there. He really helped me in needs. He dropped me at Edmonton International airport at Air Canada entrance gate. Whole heartedly I wished him luck for his future.

My first flight was booked with Air Canada and remaining two with Lufthansa Airlines. The entire year I took flights to travel from one place to another within Canada. But I never heard or saw any Air Canada international flight. Well I would be the last person in the world to opt for Air Canada for flying anywhere. Air Canada uses propellers to fly the planes where as all other airlines use jet planes. Even though for domestic flights you won’t find planes with propellers, at least not in a country who calls itself a developed country. The problem I faced with Air Canada was whenever there was a bad cold weather these planes always terrified me. Consider, you are 20000 ft above the ground between the clouds the airhostess are serving snacks and drinks, suddenly this plane starts shaking. Shaking like shivering as if the plane is feeling too cold in negative temperature. I bet all the people start praying until they land safely. In comparison the jet planes like that of West Jet were extremely stable like if a glass of water is kept on the flap, it never shook even a bit.

Well my happiness to go home had overcome the Air Canada terror in me. I was waiting my turn for security check with my ticket in hand. It read Flight number – AC 8389, seat number 5A – confirmed, departure time: 0550 and arrival 0950. It was a long flight for domestic travel of about four hours. I smiled happily looking at it and went through the check easily. I boarded the plane and took my seat, a window seat. Since it was a domestic plane it was a smaller one with just 50 seas in it. My seat was just near the left wing and I could see the propellers right next to me. Everyone took their seats. The air hostess was demonstrating the safety features and bla, bla, bla, bla… I had known that so many times that I could demonstrate it without mistake. Anyways I was least interested to pay attention. I was looking out thinking about my wish which came true in the form of a nightmare last year in these winters. Few minutes later the air hostess came to me and the sweet old lady sitting next to me. The air hostess started, “Please pay attention to me sir and madam. As you are sitting next to the emergency exit door you need to know how to open it only in case of emergency.” The word “only” kept revolving in my head like I could imagine hundreds of O, N, L and Y flying around me. The air hostess said, “Is it ok sir? Did you understand?” She had finished explaining while I was imagining and hoping that there would be no emergency. I don’t know why I said “Yes, I did”. She went back and took her seat.

The lady next to me looked at me and smiled, I smiled back saying “I hope there is no emergency”. The old lady started laughing as if I had cracked funniest joke. I once again smiled at her with little bit of happiness, little bit of kindness and anger for her, lots of nervousness and most of Air Canada terror which was back in me. I thought she was laughing on me, as she had lived her life and was in her 70s. I was in the planning stage of mine. I was in mid twenties where people are earning as well as planning for rest of their life. The plane started moving towards runway and I started looking out. The take off was pretty scary but it did and we were in air. Another problem with these planes is that those propellers make a lot of noise. And suddenly when you are in air the noise stops or fades feeling as if the engine stopped. That is even worse. Also I don’t understand why these pilots have to take a steep turn. As soon as we went few hundred feet up the plane took a turn at very steep angle. I could see the houses exactly below the plane very clearly. Just to share it with friends I took a couple of snaps on my Sony Ericsson phone W700i. About fifteen minutes later the pilot announced “We are 25000 ft above the ground. Good weather, it is now safe to unlock the seat belts, but advised to keep it locked”. I kept it locked just to be safe. Then thought even is something happens, how this locked seat belt was going to save me. I just hoped for good flight nothing else.

Three hours had passed on the flight. The air hostess had finished serving snacks and drinks to everyone. I could see everyone’s face that they were waiting to land sooner. Suddenly the plane started shaking like I said before. There was an announcement by the pilot. “Passengers kindly fasten their seat belts. Use of lavatory avoided at this time.” The plane engine was making too much of noise and shaking a lot. Some women started shouting. I said, “Why the hell are these women shouting? Is it going to stop shaking this plane?” not too loud. The old lady next to me taped my hand and smiled. This time she smiled as if she was saying “Don’t worry everything will be fine”. Like she read my mind and knew even I too was terrified by it. Then I looked out of window and guess what? The fan propellers next to me stopped rotating.

Remaining part in next blog…

God bless you all!!!

JJJ

Hunger

Hunger is the word when one speaks about many emotions starts arising within him. It depends on person to person which emotion comes first or you can say which emotion is the strongest. Explaining more, it depends upon the person’s nature, behavior, the region or country he/she belongs to, their upbringing, their education and literacy, their ambition in life, their relations with other people, etc. Taking into consideration all these factors any person in this world may have hunger of money, of fame, of helping others, of sex, of love (here I mean absolutely true love and it could be mother’s love, father’s love, husband, wife, son, daughter, friend, anything) and so on.

To commence I’ll tell you what I believe and think when I talk about hunger. I want to be ‘free financially’ as early as possible in my life. Financially free, it means I have enough money with me all the time to satisfy my family’s needs. For example I go out with my family for a weekend and my wife and parents decide to go on short tour and start shopping for it, then at that moment they should not feel the need to think of money or plan as per our financial status. I want my family to just tell me all their desire in life and I fulfill them straight away. This state is financially free. To be financially free I need to earn lots of money. I have the hunger of money within me. Frankly, most of the people in this world have this hunger in more or less amount and it is there because of their needs.

Hunger of fame is one of its kinds where people may do crazy things to become famous. In one of the Indian television shows “Entertainment ke liye kuch bhi karega” people ate tube lights and bulbs, another one ate nuts and screws. In other singing and dancing shows people come to sing and dance like they are the most eligible future stars and people were just waiting to see them. But when they open their mouth for singing or do a dancing step, it seems as if that must be first time ever in their life they sang or dance. When asked why all this? Fame was the answer. The famous Indian writer Chetan Bhagat is famous not because he wanted to be but because he has one good quality of writing. He is famous in India at least now after the release of movie ‘3 Idiots’ based on his first book “Five point someone”. The people who don’t read books even they will know him. I personally believe instead of doing crazy things one should spot the best quality in them and enhance to gain fame in life.

Sex is a desire present in variable amount in every human being. But I think some people are hungry for it when they attempt a rape whether successful or not. No wonder number of rapes is increasing in world. Male raping a male was heard but a male raped by female in Spokane in 1997 is something very rare. Definitely by now the number must have increased in this category as well. Bahamas has reported to have highest number of rapes in world. In India 0.143187 people (specifically women in India) are raped out of 1000. So if we consider 45% female population i.e. 500 million then 71594 Indian women are raped. More importantly all these figures are reported ones. If unreported incidents too are considered, I don’t need to say anything else. Well I feel it is absolutely distorted and erroneous mentality to leave someone shattered in life just to fulfill our desire.

Love, what can I say about this? There are many poets and writers who have written and said numerous articles about this beautiful desire in humans. Loving is one thing that separates humans from all other living beings in this world. Loving their own kids, bringing them up fighting with world for them is being done by animals as well. But loving other people, helping them, being kind to others is what humans can do. There are millions of orphans in this world who lack for parents love in their entire life. Also there are older men and women let alone by their children in their last days. They are just left at ‘old age home’ or you can say ‘old age house’. House is made by walls and roof, but home is made by the people living in that house. It is difficult to find a home at a place where our children are not there. What does it take for a person to give little happiness to others or for that matter to their own people?

Millions of people die in this world due to hunger and dehydration. But there are thousands of places where millions of people waste food and water everyday. Not only in India but in world 85% of income is owned by 15% of people. How much does it need for a person to live happily and die in this world? Yes one reason I want to be financially free is that I want to help as many poor and needy that I can in this world.

To talk, write or explain about hunger or desire in humans will never stop. One can go on and on and on. Just before I take a pause at this blog I just want to make you aware of one thing. If by chance your hunger of one thing is satisfied, it doesn’t mean the game is over. You will always be provoked to the next available desire in the list.

God bless you all!!!

JJJ