And miles to fly...

I wish it were just another normal Sunday I woke upto. The moment my dream broke and I opened my eyes, I saw myself sitting in this cramped seat with a constant hum that bordered on a drone around me. There was a dim light coming from somewhere and it was hurting my eyes. Was I in one of those famous interrogation chambers behind the Iron Curtain that I used to read about in those cold war thrillers a long time back? I certainly am not a super secret spy, no sir, not even in my dreams. And I don’t look like one so that the secret police will book me and haul me into such a terrifying place. And my imagination is not that great. I blinked and it took me a moment to realize that I was in an aircraft that was doing the night-time crossing of the Pacific. No wonder, I had such thoughts crossing my simple mind. Anyone who’s traveled economy class in an international trip will know how difficult it is to sleep in the aircraft and how extra difficult it is to keep oneself charged-on to catch the connecting flight. Probably, its always the destination that keeps you ticking till the time you finally arrive. Especially, when you’re heading home after a long time. The odd hours of boarding, departures, in-flight meals, the long waits for the connections, the extra rigid security checks, etc., become a killjoy for such travels. And I’m enduring one of them now. And that too right after my packing fiasco which I had mentioned earlier on. The airline I’ve been condemned to travel is Singapore Air. Mind you, it’s a good airline to travel with. But no matter how good an airline is, the only way to travel is either First-Class or Business Class for such long journeys. Any other class lower than those is sheer punishment. Reminds me of that Seinfeld episode where Elaine gets to travel in economy while Jerry gets an upgrade and gets to travel in the Business Class where he he has a seat right next to this blonde leggy model. I was in Elaine’s position, not Jerry’s. Not even remotely.

So, here I am stuck at Changi Int’l airport (that world famous airport of Singapore) for the next 7 hours after traveling 16 hours non-stop sitting in a middle seat of the economy class (see above, in case you missed). One positive thing though was that the seat was next to the emergency exit. So I could stretch my legs without bumping my knees into the back of the passenger seat in front of me. Oh! And yes, another positive thing that I almost forgot to mention. The cabin crew jumpseats were bang opposite my aisle. Just before landing or taking off, a couple of young and pretty stewardesses in those pretty sarong kinda attires used to come and buckle themselves up in these seats and would try to look everywhere but at me. My pleasure. I could stare at them unabashedly without being noticed and I did so. For all practical purposes I was invisible to them. I could have made faces at them and they wouldn’t have even blinked. Hollow Man. C’est la vie. You need to make out the best out of any situation. They sure were a sight for my tired, sleepy and very sore pair of eyes. And I certainly was not for them, from their point of view. Note to self. Ask out an airline stewardess for a date sometime. You will get access to some pretty (no pun intended) company. I never can fathom how they can remain fresh as a daisy even after such long flights and that too after tirelessly helping a never-happy, unendingly dissatisfied bunch of passengers. My sincere compliments to them. Probably it’s the make-up. Anyways, while I was not having the pleasure of their company (3 minutes before take-off and 3 minutes before landing, overall a measly 12 minutes in a 16 hour flight), I tried to sleep most of the stretch so that I can avoid the jet lag. Trust me, it’s a difficult thing to do when there’s a 6-month old infant in the next aisle, who for every 10-second interval realizes that this is not her home and the only way she expresses her displeasure is by crying out hoarse. As I said, the next connection is after 7 hours. This will be a 5-hour long flight before I finally can say that I reached home. I just hope I get the same kinda seat. Minus the infant.

Meanwhile, what do I get to do during this time? I will be roaming around the duty free shops in the intransit lounge like Tom Hanks did in The Terminal. Beautiful movie, wasn't it? Made more beautiful for me by the very charming Ms. Catherine Zeta-Jones as a stewardess having a rough patch in her life. Hope a stewardess like that finds my company interesting in these 7 hours. Yea, right! Wishful thinking. Thankfully, Changi’s a good airport to walk around. I’d say its like walking in a decent shopping mall provided you are just window shopping. Also thanks to the free Internet lounge I get to spend some time writing, editing, revising and then re-writing, re-editing, re-revising and then finally publishing this new entry in my blog. This will take care of the next 15 mins. After that, what? Look out for some pretty faces, I suppose, as I walk around the terminal. Changi, here I come.