It was humid May early morning in 1991. I was so excited about my first air travel and prayed to the almighty for a safe first flight of my life and about to leave home by 5.00 am to catch 6.30 am flight! (those period reporting time was just 30 minutes and I estimated 45 minutes for taxi to reach airport!). My spouse was little nervous and bid goodbye with a caution to take care.
As Chennai roads in those days were without median and deserted in morning hours, I arrived earlier at 5.20am at Chennai airport to board my Delhi-bound aircraft of a national airliner. It was a period in which there were no private airliners in India. It was my very first travel by air and to Delhi! I entered the airport as one of the earlier passengers. There was hardly any crowd at the airport and I was able to feel the humongous space of the departure hall. It was an airbus A320 flight and there were only 30-odd passengers! I was standing in the queue to check in and tried to reduce my anxiety by asking the person at what time this flight will reach Delhi. He told me by around 9.30 am. I asked have you travelled by this flight earlier; pat came the reply, ‘its my first flight’!
One by one a police constable let in the passengers after checking the boarding pass. In those days no X-ray checking in Chennai and hardly any physical checking of the baggage. My turn came to enter through the narrow opening of one door, which got further narrowed by a standing cop. The cop looked at me from top to bottom as if he is going to offer a plum job and then made a tick mark on my boarding pass. He made the tick mark in such a style by which his ballpoint pen made a mark in my white shirt also. I looked at him with a smile, but he asked me to go inside as if nothing happened. We all boarded the aircraft, which was if I am right Airbus A320. We were allowed to sit anywhere we liked and choose the window seat. Ever smiling, air airhostesses explained how to wear seat belts and customary safety precautions, which I grasped with utmost care! Then came the Pilot voice that confirmed that New Delhi reported fine weather with more than adequate visibility and we are about to take off. Vroom 300+ Km on runway and in seconds we were air borne. Sumptuous breakfast was served. There were bunch of magazines and newspapers which all I read with frequent turnings to see through the window. It was a clear sky and the flight was without any major turbulence. It was 140 minutes past take off and I did experience the customary feel of descending. Being the first flight, I felt descending a little uncomforting. I told myself in next flight I should avoid oily stuff like vada!
Believe me the landing was such a smooth one, in spite of mild fog in Delhi and my first flight really gave me lot of confidence to take subsequent 100s of flights I took on my sales and marketing profession. It was a period without mobile phones. You could make only landline trunk calls for which to get the connections you needed to wait for hours. Rather than that to get a landline phone connections you had to wait for years! As I was not having a landline at home, as first thing on arrival, I enquired where the post office was and send an express telegram stating “Arrived Safely” which cost much higher than 1-minute phone call of today from Delhi to Chennai.
