In the lap of luxury...

The hullabaloo outside the terminal contrasted sharply with the serenity of the airport... Through the security checks and trying to guess which of the pretty ladies was going to be our air hostess on Lufthansa, Jay and me settled down in our seats at the lounge... I was starting to wonder how I was going to spend the 3 hours before the flight when Jay forked out his cell and said 'Use up this prepaid card'... The few remaining farewell words were succinctly delivered on the cellphone when the speaker blared "Business class passengers, proceed to Gate 3"...


The walk to the plane was made little more dramatic when the security officer randomly called Jay by the side... I was entertaining myself with the notion that Jay might be carrying some illegal stuff, or may be he could be a terrorist or rather he was some biological weapon let loose on USA (which I might say is half true), when I saw him coming back with a smile on his face... shit, no drama!

We entered the plane nodding to the sweet voices of the ladies in chrome and navy blue... German, as they were, I found myself looking for some tilted swastik sign on their fabric... But the extravagance set before me shook my senses... The seats were none less than the LAZYBOY chairs seen in 'Friends' and I was soon exploring all the luxuries they had to offer... The take-off was smooth but the massage on my back was smoother... The remote control let me choose any kind of music, movie, ebook and documentaries (I wonder who checks them out)... Pretty soon spiderman was jumping on my screen,which merged into Shrek, an episode of friends and the like... small lights behind the chairs were set up for reading... a screen high up on the ceiling periodically showed the path that the plane had to follow... Man, it was -60 degrees outside, what if one of the windows is loose and comes flying by my face... Nasty thoughts... I thought I could use this time for some social interaction with my fellow passenger when Jay plugged in the headphones, switched on some music and let his body embrace the seat which was now a bed...

Lunch time brought relief... A certain chef from Taj, apologies to the man for forgetting the name, had laid down a splendid menu, (apologies to you for forgetting the names)... on a menu card that looked delicious enough... fish, chicken and veg, we had our choice... a seperate page for choicest of the drinks... I toyed with the idea of mixing a martini with a bloody mary when a yahoogroup post by a senior scared me enough to order an orange juice... 'If you drink like a binge, you are going to dehydrate soon enough and mess up your sleep'... Tropicana is no competition to the rasna that we get back home... Food served, Jay and me were checking out the salad when some prawns peeked out from the dish... the butter chicken taste-alike tasted awesome and so did the veggies dipped in sauce... the raspberry pudding was savored with many licks and slurps...

Science fact: When you eat like a pig, the heart pumps blood to your intestine rather than your brain, tickling the urge to sleep like a log... Put it this way... I was soon cuddling on my push-buttons-and-make-bed with soft music playing in my ears... 'Was it Mozart? Was it Bach? Who cares?... ' Two hours of sleep were enough for my dear intestines and I was back on my feet, nah..., back on my bums... I had pretty much decided on watching Namaste London,when it was time to say "Namaste, Frankfurt'... The plane swooped down on the airport with the eagerness of an eagle flying back to feed her young ones... Some towers, row of houses, dark patches of forests and sunlight streaming in my eyes, we landed on the destination,unhurt and afresh... 8 hours of journey, 8 hours of bliss... What are my chances of flying back home on the same flight, same class? Pretty much as my chances of scoring an A in all my semesters, I smiled acknowledgingly...