Images of Butter Chicken! ..cont

So, there I was sitting on the NorthWest Airlines flight from Minneapolis to Austin.. reading the book 'Five Point Someone' by Chetan Anand and reliving my IIT days. In fact, I was so engrossed in the novel that I didnt realize that my flight was still on the tarmac for about 3 hours before it was finally air-borne. During the take-off, I took an intermission from my reading. Only then did I saw how me and everyone around me were sweating the whole time and had been using all the inflight magazines and pamplets in fanning themselves. I was thinking..'So much for the state of technology in the high-tech country'!!

By then (the sun sets pretty late here), it was 10pm local time and I could get a fantastic view of Minneapolis - St. Paul, the twin cities. It was so spectacular a view, with the illuminated images of various regular geometrical objects and the roads and freeways that I was entralled by it. I dont know how, but then, I associated that with butter chicken.

Let me give a disclaimer here: I have not tasted butter chicken. But I have many close friends who were hardcore fans of chicken tikka butter masala at restaurants around IIT Kharagpur. And a couple of friends at Bangalore who have visited the US, were exclaiming in similar exalted tones about the butter chicken here. Thus, my knowledge is only hearsay!

As soon as the images vanished with the gaining altitude, I got back into my reading. And after about an hour or so, the seat-belts sign was turned on and captain announced that we are again in the path of high turbulence and that we should return to our seats and stay there. Soon, I started feeling a slight pain in the ear. I get this during low pressure conditions and I invariably use cotton earplugs on my flight but NWA did not have any :( I had to make-d0 with tissue paper. And I continued reading.

I knew we were in for some trouble, but then I never thought it will be this bad.. The plane was jolting quite a bit and probably I was sitting at the back of the place, hence the impact was more. Anyways, after a point, the plane went on a sudden descent!! The pressure went lower and I had a splitting pain in my ears. I had keep my book aside and hold my ears closed tight. And then, oxygen masks were deployed. Thankfully, a couple of times I had paid attention to the stewardess's demo (rather than herself!) on how to wear the oxygen mask and to pull it so as to start the oxygen flow. I did that but I was not really sure whether there was oxygen in the cylinder ;) The plane was back in control but it was a bit difficult to breathe, but then I didnt think much about anything 'cos I was afraid my eardrums were going to burst anyway. The whole place started getting HOT and there was the captain's voice in the background saying that the air would get very warm 'cos of the oxygen equipment and that it is only to be expected.

This went on for about 20 mins before things were back to normal and we were asked to remove the masks. We were then informed that there was not enough fuel now and the flight had to deviate and land in Denver instead of Austin, but then, nobody was really bothered as long as we could land safely at some place! Such was the relief that people were actually clapping when the airplane touched down!!!

PS: Somebody mentioned that one of the engines had failed.. but then, you just need one engine to take you to your destination (with of course more fuel being consumed)!