Watching from the skies

Peering out of the window and enjoying the passing scenery, is typically associated with a train-ride. However, a different scenery presents itself when you look out of an airplane.

Some of the most arresting visuals are undoubtedly associated with the takeoff and the landing. As the plane takes off, you see the entire city in a single sweep.  Buildings and villas, highways and bridges are like school projects- cardboard models arranged on a thermocol base! And when it is time for landing, the metropolis slowly comes into view- initially blurry, and then in greater detail, till the plane finally touches the runway.

While the above visuals are dramatic, most travelers completely switch off, once the plane is in mid-air. Either they are fast asleep or don their earphones to enjoy the in-flight entertainment. In the process, they lose out on some of the most eye-catching landscapes, that changes like a kaleidoscope!

The plane has reached the cruising altitude of 30,000 feet. The seat-belt signs are off. You look out of the window. The sky is colored a bright turquoise blue. As you look down, you observe a unique cloudscape. Lit by the afternoon sun, the clouds are like fluffy cotton-balls. They are packed, one against the other, and extend like a carpet, stretched across the sky. Sometimes, they resemble waves, over an ocean of milky-white cotton-wads! Or they shine like glassy ice, as though you are flying over a glacier.

Very soon, the topography changes. It is now completely cloudless. You get a bird’s eye view of the earth filled with lakes and rivers, villages and hamlets. Ribbon-like roads emerge from the hamlets and disappear into the distant haze. A lonesome car crawls like a miniscule ant! At times, stray, patchy clouds cast their shadows upon the sun-drenched earth. It is an interesting pastime- to map the cloud’s shape to the contours of the shadow spread over the verdant vales and hills.

You notice the coastline- the gentle curves of the land, hemmed in by the ocean. As you fly over the ocean, it is a canvas of blue. The eyes pick the dot of a ship- down in the water. Imagination is stirred. You wonder, “Where did the ship come from? Where is it headed?”

As sunset nears, the bright blue of the sky turns a shimmering-gold. And soon, the gold melts into violet and finally to deep black. The airplane darts across the night sky. The flashing lights from the plane’s wings, hold your attention. The half-moon stares at you curiously. The sky is pocked with a riot of stars. Now, you fly over a human settlement- a sprawling city dotted with twinkling city-lights. The starry sky and the city- both glisten like competing diamond necklaces!

What untold story lies beneath this city? Cities, hamlets, men, women- their peals of laughter, their brooding sadness, their relentless struggles- everything reduced to tiny diamond studs. From the vantage point of the night sky, it is picture-perfect.

As you press your nose against the plane’s window, a thought comes to mind. “Maybe, we get too close for comfort-too close to people, too close to the profession, too close to all else.  In the process, our struggles get magnified, and we suffer needlessly. All we need to do, is to take one step back and admire the painting. It is like watching from the skies.  Our life with its seeming jagged edges, suddenly gets smoothened, and unfolds like a tapestry- at once beautiful and studded with diamonds!”