THE WINDOW SEAT

From Window to the Aisle Seat

Travelling could be fun,

Travelling could be hectic,

Travelling could be boring,

Travelling could be enlightening,

                 Travelling could be a jukebox of everything regardless of where you are travelling to or how far you are travelling to! I had one such trip where I was flying back from Ahmedabad to Kannur. There aren’t any direct flights so I had a transition from Ahmedabad to Mumbai and from Mumbai to Kannur. It isn't a long journey if you ask to any wanderlust- travel freak person who finds no trips long enough! But this journey is long enough for a student who didn't sleep doing her assignments the previous nights and had to wake up before the sun this day so that she could travel from Baroda to Ahmedabad airport and from there on...Well, in simple words it was a long journey for me. Though I couldn't eat anything in the morning other than a glass of chai, I had enough energy to try not to faint! I was starving. And the price of everything in the airport stopped me from feeding myself! My first flight was delayed by an hour and I was already cursing everyone I passed by.

It took an hour or so to reach Mumbai, but it felt even shorter as I slowly fell asleep watching the clouds take different forms as if it had stories to tell like I got to tell you! I was thankful I got the window seat. I always admired the window seat and a trip by any means without a seat near the window has been a great failure in my past few experiences. Flying in economy class has always been boring (I can’t tell you how boring the other classes are, as I have got to travel only in this!) If boring was a person, even he would have been bored of boring others in an economy class flight journey! And staring through the window, watching the clouds running nearing you or the sight of big buildings and tall trees as colourful dots is the only way of escape as it makes me feel like I am in the top of the world. Sometimes it’s the sunset that steals my heart. I find much pleasure in watching the sky change into different moods of colours and the sun slowly going down while you are still there up above! Like all the theories of Science hits the rock-bottom of nothingness!  The sky never fails to impress me. It either turns me into a romantic poet or a hedonistic writer and that’s why I love the window seat so much. It is the door that opens me to my inner soul.

Though I couldn’t decode the cloud stories I had a sound sleep which was very much needed! I promised myself to play the cloud game on my flight to Kannur. I would also get to see a beautiful view of the full city when the fight takes me to the sky! ‘ How beautiful will Kannur look from up there!’ I was really excited and my imagination took me to different places! I even had my notepad ready to scribble some poems or thoughts that the sky would tell me. 

On boarding, I walked inside looking for 15F, my seat. I realized someone was already sitting there! This doesn’t happen usually with me . I had pre-booked my window seat like always. How could they sit there, in ‘my seat’ !! An old granny was sitting in my seat with ‘he -who looked like her husband’ right next to her. I kept my baggage in the overhead cabin provided, took the vacant aisle seat so that the queue behind me could pace forth. I asked the grandpa sitting next to “which is your seat number?” He had a smiling face. He spoke with a ‘I am so cool’ swag, “15D and 15E”. I then told them that D is the aisle seat and E is the middle seat and F is the window seat(which is freakingggg Minneeee!!!!- My mind shouting inside). The grandpa ­­­­­­looked at me like he didn’t understand what I said , so I clarified to his confused expression “ The window seat is mine” ! I asserted the fact in a polite way. He looked at me and said, “Oh” and he looked at the window and never turned to my side again. The granny all this while was looking through the window! She glanced once at me while I was talking with the grandpa. The flight took off, the air hostess doing the usual gestures -giving the warnings, showing where the life jacket is, pointing to the fire exit -in case of fire and all the passengers didn’t bother even to give a glance. Everyone’s eyes wandered everywhere clearly ignoring the existence of these beautiful ladies teaching to save ourselves. The grandpa next to me kept on making some ‘cling-clich’ sound, I saw him having a hard time trying to fasten his seat belt. The grandma helped him and silently scolded him ordering him to zip up his pants. My inner mind giggled, Did he just walk all the way from the checking point till boarding with his trouser ’s zip wide open? Maybe or maybe not, but he still had his smiling face on and listening to them I got a smile on my face too.  I got settled on the aisle seat, I didn’t want to bother this old couple anymore! I found them cute, innocent and funny!

The grandma continued staring back through the window. At times she would point her fingers to some place and tell grandpa something, both of them would have a nostalgic smile and they would stare at whatever they were seeing without a blink.They would giggle, have silly fights , hold hands romantically. It was very nice to just look at them together. They were better travel partners than the clouds were to me. The grandma didn’t sleep the entire flight, it was like she had a better connection with the clouds than me. I felt happy giving them the window seat. Maybe they deserved it more than me . I didn’t know when I fell asleep but when I woke up we have already reached Kannur. It was captain Ravinder on the board and we were landing in 15 minutes or so and Kannur was 32 degree Celsius hot!! The grandma didn’t stop looking through the window yet.

After reaching Kannur I saw them again standing near the baggage belt. I slowly went near them, started a small talk which I didn’t dare do all these hours in flight. They got their bags and were about to leave. I asked my final doubt which was bugging my mind for quite a long time. “ Was it your first time in flight? You guys seemed to enjoy the flight really well!?” I said with an innocent smile on my face for which he replied with the same smile that he always had, “ The last flight”.

I never saw them again and I will never get to ask them what that really meant ‘ The last flight’. I didn’t know why I felt teary, but my eyes did dilate a little more than usual. What did the grandma look through the window? Was she enjoying her Last flight? Was that nostalgic smile a sign? How will I be on my last flight? Will I ever know when I will be on my last flight? Will I get a window seat then? Or will some college girl give me hers? That one flight opened up a new door of thoughts. Thoughts of life and how short it is!Thoughts of love and how divine it is! Thoughts of humans and how mysterious they are! Also, I realized its not always the window seat, even the other side has stories to tell.  The aisle seat stories!­­­