The sky below…

19 May… I was on the way to Mumbai. Flight took off on time (unexpected but true!!!)
Everything was going fine; I was “busy” watching recording of Great Indian Laughter Challenge. Suddenly there was announcement that because of traffic congestion at Mumbai airport… journey would be delayed….

On the screen I could see the location of the plane on the map of India and the route traced till now. Speed well in excess of 800 and altitude around 10500. The path traced now started making circles on the map.

Bored… I started looking out of window. Sky was clear so I could see the lights of the villages below.

The scene was exactly like what we would see if we look up on a dark night.
Soon I found myself amazed with those stars below and after some time I was literally sticking nose to the window glass with both hands blocking the light coming from side.

Till now I have seen a few cities from above during takeoff or landing…. Even from above.. It may look bright...With a glory and charm of its own… but this was something different. It had no glare. Only a few dots scattered over a large area… occasionally few dots cluttered… still it had its own appeal. Just like constellations. Needless to say I made a few futile attempts to take snaps only to be thwarted by the lights on the wings…

The horizon had vanished in the dark. For me now it was just a dark sphere outside.
I could see the stars above and below. By now I had started visualizing different patterns made from the “stars below” I could see an octopus…. A bow and arrow… and a few more shapes.

I don’t think the view can be any different for an astronaut when they look out from a window that is facing away from sun.

The plane was still going around the “round track” The altitude had reduced to 6500 and speed dropped to 550. The view was much clear now. And the constellations now have become small villages. I could now see the roads connecting. The long “string” I marked had now apparently become Mumbai-Bangalore Highway….and the octopus had now become a big city in the area… I looked at the position on map…. We were midway between Kolhapur and Pune. So I guess we were roaming over the Satara – Waai region.

After around 40 minutes… we headed again for Mumbai…. I don’t know about others but not a single minute was boring for me….