My first flight....
I found out an interesting statistic recently. Actually, one of the many interesting ones. Stat-1, I am the youngest person amongst my family to travel by air. I was just 58 days old when I first flew. Stat-2, the average age of my paternal grandparents when they first flew was a shade over 58 years :-)
Enough of my bragging. I travelled to New Jersey to my mama's house. It was a 2hr 20min flight. Not too long, but long enough to get Amma worried about. Though, she knew that I was a very very good girl... she wasn't sure if the pressure difference would hurt my ears. Even I wasn't sure if I would be able to stay put for such a long time.
Let me tell you all about my experience. Severe thunderstorm warnings were issued on the day of our travel. So we started early to the airport and reached there about an hour before. The thunderstorms didn't materialize, but our scheduled flight was late by an hour. So by the time we got in the plane... it was already 3 hrs since we left our home. Did "3 hrs" ring any bells in your mind? Never mind. I am still on the "feed-every-3-hrs" schedule by the way. So Amma kept shooting me these looks.... as if I was a time bomb ready to go off any time :-)
A quick trip to the restroom where she changed my diaper cooled things for a while. I wasn't very happy with the delay, but I wasn't very unhappy too. There were lots of people all around. Some were speaking languages I didn't understand, some weren't speaking at all and some were speaking languages that seemed a lot like what I speak.
Finally, after such a long wait, I entered into the flight and started looking here and there. It was such a small flight that I didnt have much place to play:-( I sat on Amma's lap. I started crying in a short while as I was very uncomfortable. All of Amma's guile and Nanna's charm failed to silence me. I attracted a lot of attention from the going-to-home-for-the-weekend crowd. But hunger got the better of me, poor me. Amma tried using a pacifier. I thought it was a game where I had to spit out the pacifier before amma could count till 2. Mis-communication I would say. End result - I was crying and Amma was at her wit's end.
Little did I realize that Amma was saving the feeding 'ceremony' for the take-off. Apparently that would help relieve the ear pain caused due to pressure difference. Finally, the plane started from the hangar and got on to the runway. Sensing an imminent take-off, Amma started using her "Mommy's charm" on me to calm me down. As soon as I calmed down and the plane reached the edge of the runway, the plane stopped :-) I overheard the pilot announcing that the flight would take a different route to avoid thunderstorms lashing the midwest.
Long story cut short.... by the time the plane actually took off, I stopped feeding and was wide awake! The pressure didn't bother me much but the cramped space definitely did. The fact that I was pretty tired, coupled with Amma's expert handling put me to sleep. I don't remember much of the landing... but by the time I woke up I found myself at Ravi Mama's house. Between so many more people who love me. I love y'all.
Enough of my bragging. I travelled to New Jersey to my mama's house. It was a 2hr 20min flight. Not too long, but long enough to get Amma worried about. Though, she knew that I was a very very good girl... she wasn't sure if the pressure difference would hurt my ears. Even I wasn't sure if I would be able to stay put for such a long time.
Let me tell you all about my experience. Severe thunderstorm warnings were issued on the day of our travel. So we started early to the airport and reached there about an hour before. The thunderstorms didn't materialize, but our scheduled flight was late by an hour. So by the time we got in the plane... it was already 3 hrs since we left our home. Did "3 hrs" ring any bells in your mind? Never mind. I am still on the "feed-every-3-hrs" schedule by the way. So Amma kept shooting me these looks.... as if I was a time bomb ready to go off any time :-)
A quick trip to the restroom where she changed my diaper cooled things for a while. I wasn't very happy with the delay, but I wasn't very unhappy too. There were lots of people all around. Some were speaking languages I didn't understand, some weren't speaking at all and some were speaking languages that seemed a lot like what I speak.
Finally, after such a long wait, I entered into the flight and started looking here and there. It was such a small flight that I didnt have much place to play:-( I sat on Amma's lap. I started crying in a short while as I was very uncomfortable. All of Amma's guile and Nanna's charm failed to silence me. I attracted a lot of attention from the going-to-home-for-the-weekend crowd. But hunger got the better of me, poor me. Amma tried using a pacifier. I thought it was a game where I had to spit out the pacifier before amma could count till 2. Mis-communication I would say. End result - I was crying and Amma was at her wit's end.
Little did I realize that Amma was saving the feeding 'ceremony' for the take-off. Apparently that would help relieve the ear pain caused due to pressure difference. Finally, the plane started from the hangar and got on to the runway. Sensing an imminent take-off, Amma started using her "Mommy's charm" on me to calm me down. As soon as I calmed down and the plane reached the edge of the runway, the plane stopped :-) I overheard the pilot announcing that the flight would take a different route to avoid thunderstorms lashing the midwest.
Long story cut short.... by the time the plane actually took off, I stopped feeding and was wide awake! The pressure didn't bother me much but the cramped space definitely did. The fact that I was pretty tired, coupled with Amma's expert handling put me to sleep. I don't remember much of the landing... but by the time I woke up I found myself at Ravi Mama's house. Between so many more people who love me. I love y'all.
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