In the realm of the bird’s eye

Saturday, April 16, 2005

I had read somewhere that rows with emergency exit doors have more leg space, so when I saw an unoccupied window seat, I quickly moved in. The leg spacing was indeed generous, wide enough to use a laptop fully opened, and still having space spare. Such a relief from Air Deccan’s typically cramped seating!

The flight attendant was busy with someone in the second emergency exit row. She turned to me and said I couldn’t keep my bag on the floor—regulations prohibited luggage in emergency exit rows. Darn. But I wasn’t planning to use the laptop anyway, so no issue. I rose, remembered my camera was in it, and asked her if photography was indeed allowed in aircraft. Affirmative. But what about at the airport?

“Is this a defence airport?”
“Photography is allowed in aircraft and at all airports except defence airports.”
Umm, yeah, “Is Bombay a defence airport?”
“No.”

Oh excellent! Out came the D70.

She was talking to the person in the next row again. I looked at the door. It had instructions on how to be opened in an emergency. She turned to me, now with an embarrassed smile. “Because you are sitting in the emergency exit row, I have to instruct you on how to open the door in an emergency. Are you willing to do this?” “Yeah, sure!” “Okay, to open the door…”

Yeah, I know, it says how right here, I wanted to say. “…put one hand to the handle and pull the panel off,” she said. I reached for it. “Like this?” I wanted to know if I was holding it right. “Oh no, only in an emergency, when we alert you!” “Yes, I know it’s very unlikely I’ll ever have to do this in my life; I’m just curious.” I wanted a proper drill. No nodding off without paying attention.

Then I realised she was only doing her job, so forced the smile off my face, even as she struggled with hers. She finished explaining how to open the door and moved on to general safety instructions for all passengers. I turned to the window.

Aircraft windows are made of what appears to be three layers of glass and perspex, all of which contribute to spoiling the view. The passenger side is inevitably covered in grease from someone’s head. If you can’t see it, blow gently and it’ll show up. The middle layer collects humidity just when you could do without it, and then there’s nothing you can do about it. The outer layer collects atmospheric dirt. It seems like there’s no such thing as a planewash, or no thorough job of one. I scrubbed my side clean and found a reasonably clear spot to shoot through. The brain is wired to see through dirt like it doesn’t exist; that’s a trivial task compared to its ability to stitch images from two eyes into binocular vision. With a camera, there’s no such luck. The view must be clear or it’ll scar the picture.

For the next hour and a half, I stayed glued to the window; despaired when the plane got too high up to shoot the city anymore; continued shooting pretty much every new cloud pattern, and then shooting it again because I thought it looked better with only this much of the wing showing in the frame, or perhaps this much more; and at landing time, desperately shot every familiar landmark in the hope of getting an interesting view.

When we touched down, she was at her station again, still with that mischievous smile, gently telling the passenger in front that he may not use his cellphone until he was outside. Maybe she glanced at me. I looked for her name badge, eyed it until she stopped moving long enough that I could read it. ‘Ragini’. What a lovely name.

Thank you, Ragini, for what was undoubtedly the best flight I’ve ever been on.

Shortly after takeoff. No idea which part of Bombay this is, but the water seemed more like a lake than a creek. Perhaps Powai?

arunshanbhag — Apr 16, 2005 11:04:11 PM — # ↩

nice aerial pic.
teemus — Apr 16, 2005 11:30:19 PM — # ↩

So glad that the aerial photography is now allowed.
aivalli — Apr 16, 2005 11:46:56 PM — # ↩

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm Ragini ! What about her phone number ? :-? Or you are as dumb as me ? :-?

-nerdy
- Kiran Jonnalagadda — Apr 17, 2005 8:20:12 AM — # ↩
  
  Desperado!
bluesmoon — Apr 17, 2005 12:13:08 AM — # ↩

That's Carter Road. You can actually see the coffee day that we had our LJ meet in. It's approximately 1400px from the left and 1160px from the top in the full size image.
fox2mike — Apr 17, 2005 12:15:13 AM — # ↩

Was this an Airbus A-320? What ad did it have on its side? :D

And yes, Ragini is a nice name!
- Kiran Jonnalagadda — Apr 17, 2005 7:50:22 AM — # ↩
  
  A320. No ads on the side, but Sri Krishna Sweets behind each seat.
  - fox2mike — Apr 17, 2005 10:50:13 PM — # ↩
    
    Aah.
    
    They should actually give all passengers some complimentary stuff from Sri Krishna Sweets then :D
pavismaya — Apr 17, 2005 12:32:13 AM — # ↩

Raw -gini (parrot)....i knw its a pj...but cant help.
- deepix — Apr 17, 2005 11:30:40 AM — # ↩
  
  Ragi-nee. You're (as dark and lowly as) ragi. ;-)
  - pavismaya — Apr 17, 2005 5:19:56 PM — # ↩
    
    Thanks a lot,
    
    For comparing me to the staple food of karnataka, keeping many farmers happy (remember deve gowda...he still eats it)
    
    hehehe..
    
    Couldnt match your wit, But all I would say is
    
    Ra (telugu) Gin (english) eey(Telugu)
    Beat That !!
    - ashwinne — Apr 17, 2005 8:47:42 PM — # ↩
      
      Ragini
      Ah guys! Taking such a beautiful name and PJing it! :-P
      
      She was named Ragini probably to wish her a mellifluous personality :)
      - deepix — Apr 17, 2005 10:49:35 PM — # ↩
        
        Re: Ragini
        > mellifluous
        Phew. Man, are you next in line for an MS? ;-)
    - deepix — Apr 17, 2005 10:48:32 PM — # ↩
      
      I didn't mean to offend - it was just humour/wordplay. Am sorry if it hurt. :-)
      - pavismaya — Apr 17, 2005 11:04:13 PM — # ↩
        
        heyyyy....
        
        did u buckle soo fast, I didnt mean it either, I thought u are sportive, well bad guess :) I was looking for a good battle on kirans lj !! :))
        
        If it consoles you, i shouldnt have made a pj's about somebodys name !! :)I am lowly !
        
        Pavan
        * on a lighter note, guess what raga she likes ??*
sriniram — Apr 17, 2005 10:09:50 AM — # ↩

Indian Airlines told me photography was not allowed on all the three flights I was on this past week!
- Kiran Jonnalagadda — Apr 17, 2005 10:31:46 AM — # ↩
  
  Fly a sensible airline. Or flash this (pdf) at them next time.
  - kalyancreddy — Apr 17, 2005 5:02:27 PM — # ↩
    
    On a closer look this time, I see that the permission is for taking photographs from 'INSIDE' of a flight, but what do you think about taking photographs from the outside, I mean when you land and get down the plane, can you take pics of the airport and the plane you were flying in?
    - Kiran Jonnalagadda — Apr 17, 2005 5:55:07 PM — # ↩
      
      Ask a security person next time. ;-)
  - kalyancreddy — Apr 17, 2005 5:06:39 PM — # ↩
    
    Aren't those Sahara planes in the first pic? And was it 'Ragini' or 'Raagini'? To me the latter sounds much pleasant ;-)
    - fox2mike — Apr 17, 2005 11:35:34 PM — # ↩
      
      They're Jet Airways.
      
      http://jace.seacrow.com/pics/misc/2005/04/1601.jpg
      
      You can read the names on the photo... :)
manozz — Apr 18, 2005 8:17:11 AM — # ↩

holy existenstial coincidence batman!
Ok..typing this a second time, as ie at work decides to refresh at any given moment. so i'll be brief and uneloquent....

Holy Crap dude! thats my whole life in that picture. that place is Carter road. I grew up there along with a bunch of my friends. I know alleys, most faces there. this is so fuken weird, being in australia for the last 3-4 years, that pic is a very objective view of my entire life in bombay.
idea49 — Apr 18, 2005 4:36:25 PM — # ↩

Ahh Ha!! that was a really well written one...
Hmmm... a little flirting.... a little fun and yes..ofcourse...pictures!
But if photography is allowed on flight...why is there no pic of Ragini???
- Kiran Jonnalagadda — Apr 19, 2005 2:13:01 AM — # ↩
  
  Intentionally not. Her job requires her to tolerate mild flirting, but asking for a picture is taking it too far. It spoils the essence of the flirting. Everyone comes out happy when it remains like this.
Anonymous — Apr 19, 2005 5:16:52 AM — # ↩

The most beautiful flight I've ever been on was a Kuwait Air from Kuwait to Amsterdam. When we were landing in Amsterdam, the clouds took up a peculiar vertical shape. The impression was one of descending through a gallery of enormous columns. There was also formation of birds keeping us company at a safe distance. And to top it all, the captain flipped to a recording of Mozart as we neared land and made a sweet 3 point as it hit the crescendo. Awesome!

As an aside, the emergency row is my favorite, since it has better leg room and allows for quick access to restrooms on large body aircraft.
- Anonymous — Apr 19, 2005 5:17:46 AM — # ↩
  
  That was me. Kingsley
nakulshenoy — Apr 19, 2005 12:25:59 PM — # ↩

Jace,

Oh no!! Now you've told everybody about the emergency window row! ;-)

As regards the aerial photography, I think the rules of "no photography allowed" in Indian airports and over Indian territory still stands. While I do remember that the Deccan guys do not announced this rule, Sahara still does. I guess the others do too, unless the rule has changed recently and they have forgotten to update their scripts. So...

Nakul

PS: Ignorentia juris non excusat
- nakulshenoy — Apr 19, 2005 12:30:03 PM — # ↩
  
  Duh! I stand corrected.
  
  Guess my earlier observation of the script needing updation stands.
  
  Bangalore, being HAL, is a Defence airport... Ain't it?
  
  Nakul
  - Kiran Jonnalagadda — Apr 19, 2005 4:24:02 PM — # ↩
    
    Yes, Bangalore is a defence airport.
- premkudva — Apr 21, 2005 4:49:18 PM — # ↩
  
  Rules have now been changed, some minister decided that it was a brain dead rule finally.
urmila — Apr 20, 2005 1:47:16 PM — # ↩

lovely pikchur from amchee mumbai