On top of clouds

When I was on board AirIndia Express from Kuala Lumpur to Chennai, my daughter was peeping through the window when we were taking off and she exclaimed "amba see Google map!!!" without realizing that,we see the land scape almost zoomed out from this height in Google maps:)

I wanted to capture my favorite clouds at close. I was unsure if I can take photos when flying and on second thoughts my camera was in the cabin luggage and I cant even get it. Then, I remembered my Motorolo HP! and asked air hostess if I could activate my HP just to take photos, what a surprise! she said yes!:) And here we go on top of clouds...


Am I imagining seeing the curvature of our Earth in the above shots?! Well at one point my kid commented, "amba wow, I wanna walk on top of it" When I saw the scenery, I too felt that the clouds and the azure blue of the sky were very inviting:)


By the time I was satisfied taking pictures, my daughter too was dozing off, leaving me with my own thoughts. As we were sitting in the 4th row, I could see the crew members darting in and out of the private area to fetch food n drinks. Suddenly, I was reminded of Haan's visit to Air Asia cockpit, and I too wanted to try my luck in visiting the cockpit. After much thought and hesitation, I decided that I should have no regrets before leaving the air craft, so I asked a member about the possibility of visiting the cockpit. He informed that it was against the rules to allow anyone inside the cockpit when flying but he agreed that he would try to talk to the captain about my request. After that I kept looking at that member in great hope, whenever he passed by. But felt shy to remind/inquire about the status of my request.

There was no response and we were already landing, so I'd given up my hopes. Then came back the crew member with a smile asking me to stay back, until all the passengers disembarked! I was extremely ecstatic and my daughter was puzzled about my broad grin:) When I told her the news, she too was pleased and asked if am kidding:):)

After the formal introductions, the pilots spoke a bit about controlling the aircraft and added that the control room/panel was small, as it was a small plane (B737-800, 170 seater). But the hundreds of lights flickering on top of the roof and on the dash area were mind boggling. When I viewed from the cockpit, it felt like standing on the upper deck of a double-decker bus! Last, I pushed my luck for taking photos, but they politely stated that due to security reasons they cant let me photograph.

On my way back to Kuala Lumpur, I was sitting on the tail end of the air craft and the crew had different members. As a finishing touch, when I was disembarking, I was recognized by an hostess near the entrance, which was in itself a pleasant surprise, and we exchanged pleasantries!