Airport

Airports have fascinated me since the day I started traveling by airplanes. I had always traveled in ST (That’s short for State transport), the red, dirty, broken buses that ply between my village and mumbai. Baring that occasional trip on the Indian railways, it was mostly the ST.

The ST stands are dusty and dirty. Compare to ST stands, Airport is more fun. You have cleaner environment, cushion seats and service with a smile. The atmosphere at the ST stand is a different ball game altogether but more on it later.

Yesterday morning at 6:00 AM, I was at Schipol to drop Sandeep. I was there on Friday evening to pick him up when he visited me for the weekend. I haven’t been to many airports but I like Schipol Airport a lot. The people look relaxed and traveling is a pleasant experience.

I have been to Schipol a number of times to pick up and drop people and it’s still amazing that I don’t feel bored there. You look around and its just another world out there. People departing, people arriving. It’s a journey from one part of the earth to another and its life. I once saw a program called “Airport” on the BBC. Its showed life on the Heathrow airport. A similar program called “Schipol” airs on one of the Dutch channel. I don’t know if both these program are still running but whenever I visit Schipol, I try to relate the programs with the happening around.

Most of the times I have been to receive somebody and its long waiting and I see a lot of people waiting with me. As the people come out from the arrival terminal, their eyes search for someone they know. It does not matter if the person waiting have a attractive or an unattractive face because at that moment, the only thing they are searching are the faces they know. The same searching is going on at the waiting end. People who search for their dear ones with anticipation. Children waiting for their parents, spouses waiting for their partners, parents waiting for their children, friends waiting for friends.

Look at the faces of all those people. It does not matter if they are arriving or waiting. It does not matter if they had a big fight when they had last seen each other. It does not matter if the day had gone bad. It does not matter if the journey was worse. It does not matter if they had just cheated death in the flight or on the road. It does not matter what other think around them. It does not matter how many problems they have. It does not matter what caste, sub-caste, country, city, race or religion they belong. But when they see each other, it’s a small smile, its relief, its happiness.

There are the regular business travelers. There are the first time travelers. There are vacationing travelers. There are stewards and there are pilots. But all you see is happiness. People may fight, disagree and hate each other after coming out of the airport. But just for that one moment, when you see your friend, your spouse, your child, your parent, your colleague anyone you know, for that one moment that person is the world to you.

During the opening credits of the movie “Love Actually”, Hugh Grant’s voice is heard in the voice over and it captures the true essence of an Airport

“Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion’s starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don’t see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it’s not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it’s always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaky feeling you’ll find that love actually is all around.”