HAPPY MEMORIES -- MY FIRST FLIGHT JOURNEY

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It was this day 44 years ago but still fresh in memory. My first flight journey. It was from Bhairava in Nepal to Kathmandu also in Nepal. My father was working in a small project area called Valmiki Nagar in Indo Nepal border. I had just completed my MBA and at home not knowing what further in life with the then widespread unemployment staring at me. 

Unmindful of that I traveled three hours with my parents and brother by jeep to reach Bhairava. I didn't know what is passport or VISA and there was none required. While the scheduled commercial flight was at 12 noon an empty flight was going to Kathmandu as we entered the airport. 

I had my own plans to graze the airport as it was my first entry to the airport as well. But as we accepted to take the offer to fly by that empty flight we were rushed through narrow gates which I learnt later were meant for security check.

Much to my dismay the aircraft was smaller than the Vayudoot flights that we saw in the eighties and was almost the size of a helicopter. The door doubled up as stairs and it was eight seater. The pilot was already in the cockpit as we sat and the flight doors were closed by an employee on the ground. There were no air hostess, flight purser and also copilot. The offer of chocolates that were a custom those days was also missing. 

As we reached Kathmandu the exit from the airport was equally quick. The ticket cost of Rs.160/- was very costly by our middle class standards that too for a flight that gave no feeling of take-off and landing and we returned by road as scheduled. 

As I look back today it was a flight with unique experience of a visit to a foreign country. No passport, visa, security checks, cabin crew, fellow passengers and co-pilot, mercifully the pilot was there. It was window seat for all passengers (all of our family) and watching Himalayas from close quarters and wading through its clouds was a unique experience all the more as a first experience. A decade later while working in the bank an urgent meeting at Baroda helped me take a commercial flight from Chennai to Baroda with an overnight stay en route at Bombay airport retiring room. 

I had all the time in the world to graze the airport in full at Chennai and Mumbai and the airport stay overnight though gave disturbed sleep was an experience watching flights take-off and landing from a height. Though it was my second flight that gave me all the glee that I expected in my first flight, the first flight reminds a pleasant memory. 

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Comments

Unknown said…
First flight is always memorable,because we have craze and thrill to fly for the first time.Though it may not be so comfortable as compared to subsequent flight.
June 26, 2020 at 5:14 PM
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