Flight updates and family jewels
So another trip to Ma’s homeland ends. Another journey and now I am in the aircraft. The lady next to me is peering away. It surprises me to no end that while you could be doing anything really on a flight- free of all distractions, yet, there are people who sit and stare and perhaps eventually nod off.
This is the one part of the ongoing re-current trips that have been my favourite. With these multiple trips, I have set out a ritual – get to the airport a couple of hours ahead (gasp!), browse through a few stores, get lunch at my usual coffee shop, in my usual high back chair, read for a bit. Then, about twenty minutes or so before departure, on my way to the boarding gate, I stop by the kiosk that sells sweets. There, I pick up two pieces of my favourite Bengali sweets and immediately board the aircraft.
On the flight, I write out either on a notebook with a coloured glitter pen, or open up my laptop, while slowly relishing the aforementioned sweet. The trick is to not chew too much or swallow too quickly. It needs to slowly melt away into the oblivion that is the surface of your tongue.
The sweet I pick in particular – a childhood favourite is my reward for having survived another physically, mentally, emotionally taxing trip.
***
But then, I like flights. What is there to like in a cramped flight you ask? There is so much. Just the idea of being suspended in time and space for a while, everything else that is known and familiar being put on hold momentarily – the good and the bad – and all the while, there is the neutrality of the inside and the light white purity of the outside – miles on end.
It is rather unusual that I find it so easy to write on flights while it is so difficult to put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard) while on ground. Flying has always been a favourite sport of sorts. I have always flown most passionately.
***
Obligatory, gory Ma update (lol): The mother has left the building. I am left with a few jewels and as gory as it may sound, but every time I see them, I imagine the various body parts they were once attached to: Ma’s bangle on her arms, her earrings to her ears, etc. So I have locked them away. At some point, I will come to terms with them. And they, with me, as the new keeper. Until such time, I will “borrow” them once in a while, all the time, being reminded of the original wearer.
On the flight, I write out either on a notebook with a coloured glitter pen, or open up my laptop, while slowly relishing the aforementioned sweet. The trick is to not chew too much or swallow too quickly. It needs to slowly melt away into the oblivion that is the surface of your tongue.
The sweet I pick in particular – a childhood favourite is my reward for having survived another physically, mentally, emotionally taxing trip.
***
But then, I like flights. What is there to like in a cramped flight you ask? There is so much. Just the idea of being suspended in time and space for a while, everything else that is known and familiar being put on hold momentarily – the good and the bad – and all the while, there is the neutrality of the inside and the light white purity of the outside – miles on end.
It is rather unusual that I find it so easy to write on flights while it is so difficult to put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard) while on ground. Flying has always been a favourite sport of sorts. I have always flown most passionately.
***
Obligatory, gory Ma update (lol): The mother has left the building. I am left with a few jewels and as gory as it may sound, but every time I see them, I imagine the various body parts they were once attached to: Ma’s bangle on her arms, her earrings to her ears, etc. So I have locked them away. At some point, I will come to terms with them. And they, with me, as the new keeper. Until such time, I will “borrow” them once in a while, all the time, being reminded of the original wearer.