Why Fly? I had no plans to fly, let alone fly Indigo. It was all bcos of my Guru! I mean my Guru movie review that won a return ticket. Thats how an aam aadmi became a Flight raja & ruled the skies ..though for a short while ;-) Wanda ( now called She-two) from FR called me & as per my plans gave me a Indigo ticket to Delhi for 16th march. Until then I had only heard about this name among LCC ( Low Cost Carriers), some passengers of which had experiences which made them call these – Low Class Carriers!
Check-In: 24hrs before departure I did web check-in via indigo website & chose a comfortable window seat just behind the wings. If one has luggage enough to qualify as cabin baggage its better to do a webcheck in & select seat. With this I could not only choose the seat, but also could reach airport ALAP ( as late as possible), before departure time.
Waiting time: I reach airport at about 9.25am for a 1010am flight. The courteous staff at indigo counter check the ticket, my license & issue the boarding pass. Then I head toward a quick massage .err I mean frisking & security check. Soon I am at the waiting lounge. With a paper to read, I also indulge in people watching. I see airlines staff going around doing some announcements like “kingfisher Hyderabad any passengers” … they were looking for passenger yet boarded. I just wondered about a future possibility when there would be so many airlines & airports, that we wud see a bus stand like situation. “Bangalore-poona-bhopal-jaipur-delhi .. idhar aana bhaisaab, … bhaisaab kitney seat .. abhi nikalnewale hain, .. oye munna ticket kaatna inke” ;-)
Take-off: all their fleet is standard 180 seater airbus A320 planes. With a 20min delay which the staff easily blamed on unavailability of runway, we are ferried into the plane. I say my prayers before I get inside the plane. U see, not everyone gets to pray before death. ;-) as we get in, we are greeted by the air hostess in excess make-up, with bright lipstick, excess pink on cheeks & brows. But they did have good hairstyle & uniform ;-)
Once seated what follows is a synchronized performance by the girls on safety drills. If only they could do this in swimming pool, India wud have won a gold in sync swimming event ;-) after a charged up run our plane takes off, making the aam aadmi defy gravity for the sixth time in his life. The other 5 were when I took some gravity-defying jhonty rhodesesque catches in cricket. In other words this was the first time, I defied gravity & continued to travel in air!! The craft gains speed & altitude with a serious of bankings & soon I am among the clouds, on my way to another city where I stand chances of meeting a cloud that doesn’t rain –Megha !! my eyes have now become google earth camera !! I use time cliking pics of earth down from the window. I see buildings, mountains being reduced to mere projections. I see Indian villages with their typical cluster of houses, a village lake & the banyan tree under which sit many aam aadmis idling their time over indias chances in the worldcup ;-). Soon our girls turn to selling snacks & beverages. One way LCCs cut costs is by not providing food on board. The same with indigo. Mid air the plane did shake few times, which made me wonder if like our roads our air space also had potholes!! ;-)
Myths busted: soon captain announces that we are at an height of 35000Ft (around 11km) above ground & going at 730km/hour. But I don’t feel the speed nor the friction. Its as if I am raised in air & left there. Being my first time in air ( though previously I had been in air, to build those castles in air) ;-) many myths got busted. Firstly as a child I used to think clouds were icerbergs of the atmosphere. Though education taught the truth, I got to verify this by experience. Just imagine if clouds were icebergs, most flights wud be titanics! ;-) secondly, I had heard many motivational speakers, writers say ‘every dark cloud has a silver lining’. Belive me, they are lying. ;-) our plane scattered the clouds & went over them. Forget silver, there isn’t even a aluminum lining ;-). Third myth has a story behind it. Sometime back a kid asked his dad as to how they painted a plane that was so big. The dad replied ‘son, it looks big here, haven’t u seen, when it goes up it becomes small, so it takes only 2-3 strokes of the brush’!! he too was lying. I kept looking at the wings outside, it remained the same. In fact the earth below is what got smaller!! ;-)
Orgasm in air: having nothing to do I get into thinking & let me tell u there is pleasure in thinking. One quote says “There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.” I see myself in the second category. As I start thinking, I realize my brain is inside the craft, but my mind is going places. The pace of thoughts ensure my brain running faster than the engine I see outside the window, resulting in my mind going faster than the plane. I wonder abt how aviation has shrunk the world reducing distances, I wonder abt the different systems that make this flight possible, I think of newtons laws, wright brothers, communication systems, electronics & software that goes into each craft, I am in awe of strides man has made in aviation & elsewhere. I think of how science & technology has made things easy for aam aadmis to reach from here to there. As the thoughts increase I realize increased blood supply to my organ in use – the brain. ;-) there is also increased blood supply to my face making it light red with anand, bliss – the joy that comes from knowledge. I also wondered if God hadn’t made birds, wud man have thought of flying? Soon I can no longer handle the pace of thoughts, I spurt out saying ‘thank God, for making man so intelligent. Man couldn’t have done any of these, but for the gift of creativity from the master designer & creator that God is”. This was the intellectual orgasm I experienced. Due to space constraints I used Int. in title. ;-) & shame on u if u thought of physical orgasm, to which, as per an amateurabe I don’t have the license (unmarried)! ;-)
For more about the airline & booking https://goindigo.in
Conclusion: my experience with indigo was good bcos I had nothing to complain. Since this was the first time, I had no previous experience to compare with. They will be counted a good LCC if they can maintain the levels of service that I got to experience. With LCCs normally they operate good, only when crisis, delays, flight cancellations occur do their true colors come out. Till such a time, hope for the best & hop into them.
Thanks for reading (Hope it made u smile), Ratings don’t matter, Comments most welcome!