Kerala: God’s Own Country with Devil’s Own People.

Part 1

My First Flight.

I’m all excited. Tonight I’m going to board my first flight ever, and I’m going to God’s Own Country (with the Devil as my guide), Kerela. I have always dreamt of how it would be to fly and used to spend most of my time watching youtube videos of masses enjoying on their flights. I cannot help imagine how exciting this is going to be.
And there he calls! The Devil has announced his arrival at my gate. How could this guy possibly look this cute! (Well, looks can be deceptive). It should have ended as a thought in my mind; alas! I blurt that out loud, and now he is standing in front of me with his quirky smile!

I forgot to mention, the entire journey is about us, Sai—my partner in crime—and I deciding to present a paper at a National Conference in Kerala when the Devil, our English teacher, who challenged us to write a research paper on Game of Thrones. The moment he is in my house, the discussion is diverted to the conference and the plans he has made for us in Kerala. As Sai, Geet—my sister—and I are sitting patiently and listening (do we have a say in this?), my mother prepares coffee for the Devil. He chose to take just one bite of the sweet offered to him. Really?

I wonder what made me ask him for a challenging task! The price we had to pay was really high. We were forced to go to the college every day (that is mandatory otherwise too, but we were denied the freedom of occasionally bunking a day or two) and the next three weeks turned out to be terribly tiring! Surprisingly, we managed to finish our paper well within the deadline! Dealing with the Devil has its own benefits, I guess.

And it has its cons as well; for a 02.45 am flight, he is forcing us to leave at 11 pm itself when the airport is hardly an hour away. I am fine with it, at least for now. After all, my first flight is awaiting me there, and I enter the cab struggling to contain my excitement. Do I look calm? I guess I do, I have done a decent job to stay normal although, in my mind, I have already boarded the flight!
An hour’s journey and here we are, at the Pune International Airport. I feel a sense of achievement. It may sound silly, but for someone who grew up looking up at the aeroplanes, going crazy about them and is on the urge of getting an aircraft inked on the body, it most definitely feels like an achievement. The security check is done (that was not fun!), and now we have to wait for almost two hours before we board. Meanwhile, the beautiful and artistic bottles of different colours are smiling at us from the wine shop, and my smile in return is stopped halfway through by the cold stare from the Devil! (Seriously, this old man is too boring).

As always, hunger overpowers my other emotion, and I am in search of Pringles now. There they are, and now I am overwhelmed! I have been searching for those for quite some time now, and now when I have finally found it, it costs more than a Subway meal. I think I’d rather buy nuggets! (This is the first and the last time I’ll be choosing something over pringles)

KFC’s food is fine, but my heart goes out to the Pringles staring at me from a distance. As I helplessly munch on my nuggets, Devil’s phone rings informing us that it is the time to board.

Finally, the moment is here. I wish I could click a picture with all these airships in the background, but the airport is maintained by the air force and photography is strictly prohibited here. Honestly, it didn’t affect my enthusiasm much as I boarded the flight with increasing excitement.I’m given the window seat, neither of them asked for it. It’s about to take off, and I can see it skittering across the runway and boom! I think my bodily homeostasis is disturbed!