There really cannot be anything more enchanting than flying, even the sight of it is mesmerising. For thousands of years many enterprising people tried find ways to fly but without success, it is quite unbelievable that art of flying was achieved only about a century back. Unbelievable, since the way the aviation industry has advanced in recent years it gives the impression that we knew it all along. This blogger had recurring dreams of flying or rather floating in air in childhood, many times found it difficult to distinguish real from dream. For sometime i carried this grand notion that i could indeed fly and thought it as secret worth keeping! When i was six or seven there was this boy in the neighbourhood who was about seven or eight years older to me who tried ways to fly things i used be always be around him. We used to take the incense cover (cylindrical shaped agarbathi cover) as the body of the aircraft and slit it partly for cardboard wings, and work out the whole structure-sometimes it took many days. Then drop it from terrace, we did innovation by creating rudders. After much effort it did work fantastically. Goes without saying that it was my job to run down and fetch it for another attempt. That boy was my hero for a long time, incredibly a decade or so back i met him on a train near Bhopal and instantly recognised him, he worked in a Bank.Later i did take up Aerospace and was really excited about it, a book by Kermode was my favourite. With an aim of getting a break in Aviation industry i was in Chennai, and visited offices of airlines, i recall East West Airlines office in Kodambakam. The HR fellow there always said come next week, he did that to few other fellows. And we landed regularly every week, wondering why he behaves that way. He didn’t even take a test and kept us waiting for hours. Giving hope to people with an intention of never fulfilling i realised is the worst thing to do. It was hugely satisfying to know that the Airline collapsed few years later. At that time i used to read quite a lot about aircraft and so on. Also took up a part time assignment at a flying club. Sometimes even took a local train to Meenambakam airport just to see aircrafts fly, it really was quite an exhilarating sight. It still is. Few months back i almost had a major accident while driving on my two-wheeler as i was momentarily distracted by the sight of an aircraft. Such a magnificent sight that one. Don’t know whether travelling inside can be that exciting, once i travelled from Chennai to Port Blair and inside the aircraft was worst than a city bus. Quite a letdown that one. Chennai also had a club that met on Sundays wherein they flew remote controlled aircraft, there was this rich youngster whom i knew and went with him quite often, he never let anyone handle the gadget, nevertheless it was fun to watch. There are some excellent programs in Television channel that does show lots about aircraft, i liked the one on accidents, they traced the cause in meticulous detail and explain how the learning changed the aviation industry. One of the best programs i have come across.
