First Flight

"See that Bombardier over there. We dont want to hit its left wing. So steer clear."

"Cessna flight 179. Requesting take-off"



"Flight 179. Take-off from LR2"

"Now taxi on the yellow line to the runway there"

"Full throttle. Did you hear me? FULL THROTTLE."

"Its 2400 RPM. Now pull the wheel to take-off"

"Congratulations! on your first take-off. How does it feel?"

"See on the left, thats the I-90 interstate."

"Now as soon as we reach 1500 ft, level the plane, and slowly turn left"

"No! Not so much, just move the steering a little bit. Level the plane, we are going down. Nose up. NOSE UP!! Good"

"Thats the Lake Washington on your left. We will go over the Mercer Island and turn right towards Lake Sammamish....... And now on your left is the Madina Island.....Yes Bill gates lives right there.... Oh ofcourse you can take my pic."



"NOSE UP. Further UP. UP UP. Level it. We have lost 100 ft."

"You want to take a picture of the Marina? Go ahead, I am on the wheel"




"Back on the wheel. We are flying towards downtown"

"Requesting permission to fly to Seattle downtown"

"Flight 179. Seattle downtown. Permission granted"

"So, thats the downtown. See the Space Needle."




"That orange building is Amazon.com. And the Qwest futbol field. There was supposed to be a match today"



"Requesting permission for landing"

"Flight 179. Permission granted. Land on Left Runway"

"Landing is the trickiest part because there are so many steps to it.Hey look at that, thats a 757 landing on the Right Runway. Take a picure while we hit the ground."



"Sweet! So, how was it?....Really? I am honoured. Its great to give someone an experience which they enjoy. It was nice meeting you. Buh bye."

Spoilsport Sunday

Twas sunny. And I was surprized. Pleasantly, ofcourse. I dont know why I get a secret pleasure when people's predictions/forecasts dont hold true.

Perhaps its the belief that no matter what, one cannot predict the future, one cannot capture the innumerable variables that are in play, that our forecasts are based on assumptions and it takes only one of those obscure variables to misbehave, to screw up our equations.

Or perhaps, I am concerned about my own forecast of my future and it consoles me to know that forecasts are often proven incorrect.

Either way, I headed out for shopping as planned. The highlight of the day, however was scheduled for the evening...my maiden self-maneuvered flight. And suddenly when it was approaching evening, the forecast became correct. It was as if someone up there woke up late on a sunday, and realized that he had forgotten to turn the weather lever in the direction of "Thunderstorm and heavy showers", as predicted by weather.com. The flight was cancelled.

I decided to overcome my frustration by going to wal-mart to satiate the consumer inside me. There are other times when I get that inappropriate pleasure which I mentioned earlier- Thats when I make a dent (accidentally ofcourse) on the financial standing of an invincible corporation. The last time I heard 3 yrs back, Wal-mart had annual sales of more than $300 Bn. Thats 10 times more than how big Microsoft was then. And I made them lose a couple of cents perhaps, by accidentally hitting a garments stand, which caused some clothes to fall on the floor. I did not put them back on the stand. So, those clothes have to be rescanned and put back again on the stands by some store supritendent. I am not sure, what exactly gave me that kick. Was it just the boyish tendency to be desructive? Was it the jealousy towards highly successful people and businesses? Or was it that I admire their business so much, that I realized that their process is so durable that it efficiently absorbs such minor losses?

The pleasure was soon replaced by a guilt. I have after all promised myself that by the end of my life, I would have created more than I destroyed, produced more than I consumed. Those couple of hours at Wal-Mart pushed me away from my goal by a few hundred dollars.