Airplanes

The mountains, the sea and the sky- they never cease to excite me.
On a dull and mundane afternoon, I just need to take a stroll and stare at the sky. The expanse, the colour, the clouds, the birds, especially eagles and the occasional airplanes just let my heart rise and fly. The emotion I experience, is one that no crazy roller coaster ride could give. I marvel, I sigh, I admire, I jump deep within, I blush, I think and I feel so small and insignificant. Then my dull afternoon becomes all so lively and I am happy and refreshed.
But my favourite is the airplane. My first memories of the airplane starts as early as my fifth year on earth. I still hear my uncles screaming "Hannah come, come!! look that is a jet plane". I saw a speck moving in the sky leaving two white lines that got wider and blurred out. "What is that I asked "ahem..... thats like the smoke that comes out of the silencer in your dad's scooter said one of my uncles". Till date those two lines turn me on like nothing else does
Then came the helicopters that would drop printed notices from the air, I would rush to pick them where they fell and then scream at the top of my voice as I ran under the helicopter imagining I was chasing it. I never bothered to find out what the contents of those handbills where. There was a famous pass time with the children of my neighbourhood to rush out at the sound of an airplane and scream "bye!, bye!". I truly appreciate the grown-ups around with us then;they never killed our fun saying "no one up there can actually see you". Over the years I started to guess where an airplane was heading from my city based on the direction it took. I was not right always but it was a good excercise to learn my north,south,east and west so well that I could understand when my grandfather gave directions to any place. He always said 'walk a furlong towards the east then turn north......... " he never said "walk straight turn left and then right".
When I was eight I flew in an airplane for the first time. Believe me!! looking down from up there for the first time was amazing. It dawned to me that all my waving at an airplane was seen by no one in the airplane. Somehow after nearly 25 years I still wave and say bye to an airplane in the sky. People dont think I am crazy because my three year old is standing beside me. What they don't know is that I could wave and yell even if I were alone.
The only man that has had a fright because of this habit of mine is my husband. When we were newly married we lived close to the airport. So depending on the direction of the wind, all flights that were landing or taking off went right above my house.Imagine my glee, I would rush out at the sound of every plane and wave and say "bye". My husband wondered if he had married a lady with a strange idiosyncrasy. Then I would scream" Honey that's a British Airways, and this one is Lufthansa, gee I can actually see the Airline names is'nt that cool?". He would only say a hesitant "hm......". Fortunately he soon realised that airplanes in the sky just made me a child momentarily and I was normal otherwise.
Airplanes in the night sky are magical. The blinking lights, the lights through the windows that remind me of the borders in rolls of old photograph negatives.Wow what a sight!
I reached the epitome of the joy of seeing airplanes in the sky a couple of years ago. Guess what? I saw an airplane from inside another airplane in which I was flying. It looked like a toy ,really tiny and seemed to float in space. It stays on in mind like a digital photograph.
I may travel far and wide on airplanes in the years to come, but when a grandmum I am, I will still wave at an airplane and scream "bye", maybe my grandchildren will save my skin ;).