Feb 22, 2008

...and i lived to tell d tale

p.s.: facts in this piece may be exaggerated. so take it with as much salt as u please.

i'd read a post on Y's blog a long time ago about her near-death experience... at that point, i couldn't really think of anything that i cud say was anywhere near-death to me! no, not that i'm complaining... but i just thought of something which seemed pretty scary to me when it happened. not near-death. but VERY darn scary.

i was abt 15, i guess.. old enough to be think i knew everything and young enough to actually know nothing. my elder bro was pursuing his dream of becoming a pilot and so was living in indore. he had JUST received his PPL when my summer vacation set in. as we know, pilots don't really have holidays like normal people. so mom & i decided that it would be good fun to visit him there. dad being the work-a-holic said he'd happily manage by himself while the two of us gallivanted around central india!

so it was that we reached indore. the first day we were there, bro in tremendous enthu that only he can muster, said he'd take me for a joyride. before my mom could say anything, i said WOW! and grinned from ear-to-ear in total brotherly adoration.

the "airplane" in which i was to go for my "joyride" was a cessna. the 4-seater kinds. it was my bro, another pilot friend of his - mind you, BOTH were students there and had recently got their PPLs *private pilot's license* but as i said, i was 15 and didn't know better.

so there we were... the take off was kewl... and i was rather kicked about it. my bro was probably as excited as i was... the only thing was each time he'd bend over to show me something on 'my' side of the plane - like the lakes @ bhopal... or some famous temple or some such... the plane would actually "dip" to my side... kinda scary. but again, i was 15. and thought this was fun.

after a while, this "look, the plane dips" became monotonous. so, just like that. for fun. he said "let's switch off the engine for a while". now, this was a single engine plane. and i may not have known much, but even at 15, i knew that this meant that the bloody thing had ONE engine... without which it would FALL!
so i said... "WHAT!" this was meant to be like a "why wud we do that?!" kind of what. instead bro thought his stupid kid sister couldn't follow what he was saying. *yeah, now i think we had communication problems.* so he went ahead to demonstrate. he switched off the engine.

in that one moment, must have been 10 seconds or lesser, my entire life flashed in front of my eyes. *yeah, all 15 years of it!* i wondered if that was his plan - to say it was an accident and 'take care of me' in a mafia fashion. i thought of everything i hadn't done yet and wanted to do. like have shikanji, go para-sailing, get a pet tiger, kiss a boy et al... yeah, ALL of it flashed in front of my eyes *i never had my priorities right, did i?!* in the 10 seconds that my bro had switched off the engine.
he switched it back on, of course, coz he only wanted to illustrate what he had said. and demonstrate HOW fast an airplane would fall. yeah, i really needed to learn that. right. of course, i was speechless for 10 minutes after this. after that, we landed.


then, of course, he told me that they were trained to land those aircrafts even if the engine failed. good consolation, that. of course, now my brother is all grown up & stuff and he doesn't do such things. so if u're in india & flying on one of his flights, pls don't be scared.

and now, i feel like knowing about all those moments in ur life when ur life flashed in front of ur eyes. consider this a tag - and if u like it, pls do it. or leave comments, so i'll know.

SINCE i said this is a tag, the follg instructions are for suruchi & galadriel, whom i'm tag-married to. the rest of u - go, think and write. or read the other posts!
ok... u two... IF u haven't had a near death experience, IMAGINE it, and write. and if u did have a barely near death... go ahead namak-mirch lagao it and blog it. :)

19 comments:

Ramya Ramadurai said...

yowsa!that must have been pretty scary.

Anonymous said...

OMG!!!! That must have been scary.I get scared even if there is a slight turbulence while flying...I can only imagine what u went through.By the way did u complain to ur mom :)

Mahogany said...

Are you serious? 15 years old and you'd never had shikanji?

Nat said...

which airline does your brother work for again? :)

RADhika said...

You are really courageous.. i would have died in those 10 secs... you should see me in a giant wheel,one of those in Disney land... i'm almost dead even there... :P

La vida Loca said...

nicely done.
Although I never had near death experience.

aMus said...

ok..that was scary,

but which is the part i add my namak to?
:D

rayshma said...

suma: hehee... u add d namak to thy story... and pls to tell... :)

loca: thanks! none? none remotely scary either?

radhika: i am SO paranoid abt those darned rollercoasters!!! i NEVER get on one!!! :D but yeah, i didn't die! :D

nat: no way am i telling u that! hehehe!! and even if u find out... he's older & wiser now... so... :)

mahog: d versions of shikanji i'd had before absolutely paled in front of the indore one... which i'd heard tonnes from bro abt.
u're such a foodie! that's all u read in that piece didn't ya?!

homecooked: strangely, i didn't complain to mom! :D i guess i was bullied by bro *when i was abt 2/3 yrs old* that if i ever squealed on him to mom, he'd turn me into an insect. guess i believed that! ;)

galadriel: hehee... u bet!

La vida Loca said...

Remotely scary.. here we are
http://commicacid.blogspot.com/2007/06/roadtrip-terror.html

Enjoy

Preethi said...

oh my you need to tell me what flights your brother operates now.. I am going to India.. I think I am gonna have a tiny heart attack now!!

There all better... I bet he wanted to teach you a lesson.. and he did didn't he :) I have one too.. but will blog after a while :)

Savani said...

what a tale! phew. and what's shikanji?

Lena said...

really scary.. but then such kind of experiences (if we get out alive :D) make us think about all the things life has to offer :)

Unknown said...

Whew. Scary. Been in an almost fatal car crash. My life flashed before my eyes. Had plastic surgery to reconstruct the lower half of my face. I never drive since.

Pixie said...

OMG!!! Thats's scary!!!
I have not had any such experience so far - not that I'm complaining or anything... But, my sister did and my mom saw it actually happen - not a pretty incident - will blog it anyways... :-)

Lavs said...

I beg to be excused from this tag. My life at present looks like a scary experience in itself...when my mind returns to normalcy, I shall pen down some story:-0

rayshma said...

lavs: :D take care, gurl!

pix: this wasn't as bad as it sounds, u know... was fun, actly! :D waiting for ur story :)

kiran: oh geez! i don't drive...and i don't even have a reason... :(

lena: how true! and, welcome :)

dotmom: just a fancy name for an extremely ordinary drink! but of course, i didn't know that before, did i! :D

preethi: hehee... yeah, he didn't intend to crash d plane, u know! :D was his idea of fun, i guess! :D and NO, i'm not telling u what route he operates... hehehe!

loca: ooh... yeah, it's SO scary when it rains like that and u're on the road... geez!

Monsieur K said...

does sound scary :D
last saturday, i went rappelling at duke's nose, khandala - and believe me - it wasnt exactly facing death in your face - but an exhilarating, nerve racking experience :D
another experience tht comes close is falling off the jet scooter in the middle of the Atlantic, off Marathon, in the Florida Keys :D

well.. well.. i have been planning to write about these incidents on my marathi blog.. lets hope i shrug off my laziness soon ;-)

Yashodhara said...

Hey, Ray!

This was a good read...and I remember you telling me once that your bro flies for my fave airline :-)...will look forward to that...NOT!

:-)

Anonymous said...

Believe it or faint - i picked up this tag!!
Go read.