Travelling through the clouds: Part One

My office is at Santacruz; a place where you see more airplanes than birds in the sky. I saw the planes from office terrace, railway platform and the road but the vice versa view was awesome! I got to experience this for the first time for the HCP (Hana Cloud Platform) workshop conducted at SAP labs, Whitefield, Bengaluru. So I had to travel through the clouds for cloud training! The flight tickets got booked and also the hotel room. I was flying for the first time and that too officially! Ravi Sir, Amey Nandedkar, Santosh Malavade, Shailesh Malkar and Dhanapal were also attending the workshop. The flight Mumbai to Bengaluru was Indigo 6E at 06:10am from domestic airport. We did the Web Check-in; I selected the window seat in F column behind the wings. The duffle trolley came home a week prior. I have always been the reason to bring new things home; may it be the first geometry box or lab apron. I believe in packing minimum stuff because it’s me who has to carry it everywhere. There was a laptop bag and duffle trophy, that’s it! 

Mumbai to Bengaluru:

Since the flight was at 6am; we had to report the airport at 5am. I got up at 2.30am; actually I didn't sleep due to excitement. Papa and I left home at 3am, we had to walk all the way to station for catching the first local from Virar at 3:25am and it was raining.  We boarded the train; all fellow passengers were either like us with luggage or they were pandits and security staffs. We got down at Borivali. Shailesh and Santosh had booked a TAB to airport; they picked me at Borivali station. We went through the highway all the way to the domestic airport. The flight tickets were checked at the departure gate. The security check included scanning of luggage and getting the security check stamp on your boarding pass and tags on your luggage. Flight was announced; the boarding pass is scanned and luggage is checked for the tags. We boarded the bus; it drove us to the plane. It was still dark. As I entered the plane, two cute air hostesses greeted, "Good Morning Ma'am! Welcome to Indigo airlines". I put away the luggage in upper compartment; sat at window seat and took a few clicks. When all passengers were in; the safety instructions were demonstrated. I could feel the plane moving round and round; now there was light and it was drizzling. I saw two men giving thumbs up to the pilot; it meant we are good to go now. The pilot announced to fasten the seat belts and put mobiles on airplane mode. The plane started moving in forward direction. I was going to experience the first take off; which I had been seeing in the series Airlines. It felt like Harry Potter riding on hippogriff; a bit Pottermania! And the plane took off! I saw the waking Mumbai; the way we see in Google Maps but this was real. Reaching a certain height in the sky, the plane was steady and surrounded by clouds; felt like heaven. Looking at the wings I could make out that the plane actually flies like the birds. The meal and tea coffee was being served. The silly I asked for chocolates! The sweet air hostess got me choco chip cookies! We travelled through the clouds for almost 50minutes. I watched the green lands through the window. The announcement went like we have reached Bengaluru. Now the first landing experience; fastening the seat belts! The plane was descending with such a speed as if it would hit the ground. First the wheels hit; could feel it and then it was a normal run. Finally we landed at Kempegowda International Airport! Welcome to Bengaluru!