30,000 ft & above: Friends, Life and other BS

30,000 ft & above: Friends, Life and other BS: Sitting empty and thinking about what I lost and what I gain.. Others seem to be enjoying, and from here it looks like I am in pain. There ...

Friends, Life and other BS

Sitting empty and thinking about what I lost and what I gain..
Others seem to be enjoying, and from here it looks like I am in pain.

There was a time when I was a part of them, but today it feels like I am a forgotten gem.

Time has a habit that it changes, and change is inevitable,
They say “one should never get too comfortable”,
At one place…….

I made the same mistake to consider everything to be gold which glazed.
Sitting empty and thinking about what I lost and wait I gain..

Others seems to be enjoying, and from here it looks like I am in pain
Everyone seem to be advising, and sympathizing
In reality everyone criticizing

I guess I woke up from the dream they are still watching.
I prefer silence everyone likes talking.
I want to listen more when everyone is hearing.

We all were the same but today seems like there is a huge gap.
Even though we all travel the same map.
Talking about the machines with spoilers, rudders and flaps.
Nights use to pass and days were kept for naps.

Sitting empty and thinking about what I lost and wait I gain..
Others seems to be enjoying, and from here it looks like I am in pain

Life shows various jubilation, leaves everyone a room for speculation.
It’s just a matter of time on a given day someone is called Einstein.
Rests are just lost despite of numerous creations.

Definitely I have learned a lot about human nature,
They react differently obviously they are not made of paper.

Then I think do we need to be that evil.
But hey who am I when they even doubted Jesus.

Sitting empty and thinking about what I lost and wait I gain..
Others seem to be enjoying, and from here it looks like I am in pain.

Is it a Conspiracy @ 45000 ft?

It’s almost 2 weeks since the Boeing 777 has been lost flying with Malaysian airline MH370. Now there are amazing developments in this scenario but only and only on papers and media. The investigation hasn’t reached any altitude in regards to finding, what say is a “missing plane”.

Now it does raise some questions, more so it raises question on the probable theories coming out of this uneventful situation. When on the one hand thousands of people associated with missing families are praying and hope to hear baffled news that their family members are still alive. ?? What all media and respective aviation heads are doing is selling the propositions as what might have happened?

In a very recent development the Malaysian govt. is checking any criminal background of any crew (including flight deck), and passengers to seek if some or any dots can be connected. Nevertheless I have no clue where this will take the investigation because even if they determine any connection, it will raise double the suspicion about the scenario rather then any problem to be solved.

I don’t think so that any measure taken is bad, but I hope everyone would agree that the cabin crew of any airline is thoroughly investigated before they are even hired. Background checks, police verification, no criminal records, NOC’s and so on and so forth documents are collected in hand before allowing anyone to be a part of a crew member. Now being an Ex-crew member I felt for those missing crew members that this step is a little insulting to their caliber.

 I guess then all the other crew members flying should be inquired again as well. As if any crew member is involved then I am sure they will try their level best not to be on that plane. People who ask how it can be done? Answer is a simple report sick for duty will solve the problem for them.

There will be a handful of people who would like to argue that why I felt insulting only for crew not passengers?

 Answer is that crew members usually have no affinity to travel to a certain aircraft and destination, but passengers do want to reach a certain point so they might have a motive. So checking various passengers makes sense.

Now I would like to throw some light on this conspiracy theories and their possibilities or being true or not. It’s my own imagination and studies that I have come to this point and conclusions, I beg your pardon if I am not able to assess the situation to perfection.

Now there is number of theories that I have heard and I just want to comment why I think these are not probable?

HIJACK

Almost 2 weeks passed and there is no clue for the missing aircraft. Loads of people would say that it’s been hijacked, as when we haven’t found any debris of the aircraft. Now my argument here is that if it is hijacked then what is this hijacker doing? Taking personal interviews of 200+ passengers? We all know that a hijacker’s motive is to fulfill some demands, where are those demands? Okay, let’s say that he is waiting for situation to aggravate but then did he manage to land a 777 somewhere in a jungle that no one, ya, no one could see it. Okay, let’s say some one is helping these people so it cannot be figured out, but where are the errands coming from? So he doesn't wanna ask for food and water? To my knowledge 777 can’t contain food for 2 weeks survival for 200+ PASSENGERS.

From my timid understanding this rules out the possibility of a hijack.

CRASH/ DITCHING

Now the next big probability is that aircraft might have crashed somewhere and they cannot find it, for reference sake let’s take example of Air France 2009 crash of which they found the plane debris almost after 3 years. But I have only one question, I was taught that during any crash if none of the signaling devices works but one means is installed just to work with the impact. RLB (Radio Locator Beacon), it comes one on impact automatically. No one needs to switch it on, and if I am right RLB is installed above the false ceiling of the aircraft and a Boeing 777 at least has 2 of these and rest 6 ones - on each slide which will come on automatically if come in contact with water.

So what they wanna say? That none of them are working? So everything what I was taught when I was a crew was not full proof. Like is there any explanation for this. Black box is not emitting any signals too, no civil, no military and none to satellite. Simply telling the world that a  777 aircraft eloped in the sky. And none of the signaling device is working. It is compelling me to state that cabin crew have another equipment called as ELT (emergency locater transmitter), which usually now works on switching on a toggle switch. Shall we assume that none of the crew got any where closer to single ELT present on board?

ALIEN ABDUCTION

A bunch of people or I may say maniacs, who wanna make the whole situation a joke came up with this one -  that might be it is been abducted by an alien. Common guys give it a break, not everything which is un explainable is supernatural. Simple words stop bullsh**ing people.

Theories yet to be discussed

I have some apprehensions about some technical information provided to us. It is said that the radar was switched off from the plane. I am no expert on this information, but shouldn't these radars be constantly working, why is there an option to switch it off?

If it is a ditching scenario then understandably heavy metal may drown but what about the flotation devices like seat cushions which are made of a floating material?

Me and one of my dear friends was disusing this next probe and it came out to be a very interesting question. Many people claimed that the cell phones of fellow passengers are ringing, in today’s world way more then 90% people use smart phones, the battery life of which Is maximum 2 days. How these phones are ringing? Failing all possibilities of ditching (water landing)…

There is another thing about fake passports, how come the immigration didn't scrutinize the passports while these 2 people were going for travelling. How come they found these passports afterwards, determined that they were fake and so far made no connection with the story.

Last but not the least with a heavy heart i won't be flabbergasted if after the radar was switched off, some countries military would have taken the aircraft down with a missile, thinking that it is an unidentified aircraft infiltrating in there airspace. And after doing it now trying to cover it up. Isn't it possible with our worlds political structure, i guess yes is the answer.

All in all the world of speculation is at its top most point, where everyone is been looked with eyes of suspicion but do we realize what must have been going through the families of these crew and passengers?

Not a single article came across me from the families of the crew. No official statement, no concrete answers. The blame game has just started, with human lives at stake. Is this what we signed for, for politics to warm up on people lives?

Some consider this a threat to them; some don’t succeed in finding any traces of the plane and cannot even connect the story. And it breaks my heart when the crew is suspected who were just there accidentally, trapped in all this.

My heart goes out to all the people involved in this Missing plane, once again I would say May god be with us and honesty prevails.

Value of Life @ 30000 ft & Above

Just about time when I haven't even finished showing the real face of humans in the role of a cabin crew, as how much they crib and complain about life and time that they spend on board. World got  news flashing about catastrophy happened with Malaysian airline aircraft, which is still missing and nothing concrete came up as they found the wreckage or not. Was it a crash or a hijack? Malfunction of an equipment or some nervous breakdown of the pilot itself. The room for the conspiracy theories is widely open. And believe me one will spare no chance for a dime to speculate as what would have happened up in the air that day.

I am not here to discuss as what could have happened, I am not here to blame the airline as to how come they didn’t come to know that the aircraft was missing? When every airline monitors every single aircraft in the air on a simple radar.

Even stupid enough smart phones have this application to track the aircraft, even if it is parked somewhere in this world. I am not here to blame the govt. of any country as for how come there is no concrete statement even after 3 days to the accident?

Ever since the air travel started the industry have seen some of the tremendous accidents in the history. We learn from our mistakes and then we improve, as we were getting a bit complacent with the fact that air travel is safe. Yeah, it slapped us right through the face waking us up from an easy dream to the harsh reality. So, if I am not here to talk about the lapses leading to the mishap, then what m I trying to say ?

Let me show u something first….

This was the crew list of the 12 crew member including the pilot and the co-pilot of the aircraft that left so many families into tears and sorrow. The one thing that caught my eye was the briefing room no. 6, I was a crew myself and all I cared about was which briefing room am I going to . Often happened that I used to forget the destination where I was going, but the most important was to find the bunch of people in a briefing room headed for the same place as mine.

Heading to the briefing room safely answering the safety and first aid questions, discussing the service and cribbing through as why did I get galley again? Gosh ! it’s a full load!!, Making plans as what we will do in Peking, some would have made plans to shop, some for clubbing and some must have had plans to get one of those China’s best massage.

There is nothing wrong in doing that right? The job has its own perks, and that’s life. But do we realize while making our plans to call one more time to the people we love, was it enough, or do we want one more only one more phone call.

Or working in an human touch industry has made us stone cold that we often forget about the most important people around us. . Or taking an oath of saving life of everyone around us in an aircraft, makes people around our life meaningless?

In the age of technology connecting to people is so easy that in our day to day life we don’t realize that we are hushing people off. With a very comfortable reasonability that I will do it later. But when the time arrives just one call looks as if the world, one look of the people whom you love, one touch, one kiss, one more goodbye, all these material things from LV bags to Rolex watches (water proof up to 300m), all of a sudden looks meaningless. All some wanna do is to call your mother and hear her, call  your wife, a message to type. An overwhelming feeling of why I wasted these years cribbing of what I had, I always had enough. But today I may beg for that one call.

Humans complain and that makes them humans, anyone who doesn't actually call themselves as Saints the one who achieved salvation somewhere. But as a cabin crew, don’t you agree that the sanctity of life is in being with a flaw, life is not perfect, we can’t make it, life doesn't wait for later.

All we do as a crew is to either complain or be complacent, gossip is a religion, the place where you work is the worst and the country you live in is never the best. Best is what someone else has? 

We don’t have time for wasteful subjects like LOVE, empathy is only shown when we are paid for it. Smiles are thrown randomly to a lucky winner for it, Glass of water depends on how sharp is our memory, considerate friends are either ones who get us something from the destination they are going or the ones who can listen to our bullshit book full of unsatisfactory remarks and still be quite. Love is only shown most often in layover hotel room,  parties are only with strange people the ones who you met less then 12 hours before.

Native countries become blurred which lack opportunities, mothers bug us off as they keep on nag us for the information like have we eaten on time or not. All of a sudden father is showing us ego as, why he never calls so why should I? Paris becomes the best place to eat and China to shop, Sanctity of life appears only in USA, and the best beach in the world is in Maldives. We get the capability to chose, and we start to live in an illusion.

The value of that, one call …. One more time….. just once…. To say I love you …….the importance of things and people around you in life is realized when it's slipping out of your hands.

Let’s pledge to us today that we will make that one call everyday and we will not leave even one opportunity to tell someone that how much we love them. Stop the cribbing business and spread that smile. Touch the untouched and help the one who needs it. Let’s pledge that we will be better race of people and we will redefine the SANCTITY OF LIFE.

P.S. This is my hearty condolences to the families of the deceased in the Malaysian airline crash. But I am still in hope that there are people out there who survived. May god be with us.

A tragic day in Aviation (Malaysian Aircraft missing)

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/03/08/uk-malaysiaairlines-flight-idUKBREA2701C20140308

30000ft Where the Magic Happens...!!

There is already so much written about cabin crew to empathizes with them, but often it either remains  totally not noticed or passengers are still unaware of the cabin crew life.

A tiny person who only used to dream about the metal tube flying and making a horrendous sound while flying up above at 30000ft, trying to look in the sky the very moment when there ears catch the slightest noise, just to figure out that the plane has already passed over a little further, closing the eyes and emotionally thinking that “one day I will be there”, practically realizing the principle of “light travels faster then sound”.

Emotions as always are stronger than our practical world as we tend to dream our emotional side and then put all efforts to achieve them, make them the reality. 

Yeah! Some of us will say that the quench can be attained by flying as passengers, but a glass of water is not enough when you dream of fresh water river.

Hence giving birth to the ever energetic, enthusiastic, agile, smiling, aspiring, loveable, dreamable Cabin Crew. The job that promises that you can get in that metal tube over and over again till the time you feel it has satisfied your hunger of traveling. And the best part is that you don’t pay rather one get paid to travel.

Obviously with the greater job comes the greater responsibility, and our cabin crew life is not different.

The selection process

Itself is horrifying, as not only that the charm of the job is unexplainable also the money is tremendous. Not everyone who appears is selected, the most heart breaking is that the ones who are not selected are not even given any feedback for self development. In some of the airlines even it is said that “go home and think what mistakes you made”. Leaving a person in the middle of the ocean with no magnetic compass, so one does not have any idea which way to swim (if you know swimming). Nevertheless the ones who got through the interviews are asked to do there medicals and pack their bags and get in habit of doing it.

First day of training

All smiling faces are around trying to get acquainted with each other (Keep in mind that most of the candidates are around 21-25 year), who is from where and what are their names, it’s imperative because of two reasons first that you will have to spend another 2 months of training with others and second and important because your mere survival in the aviation industry depends on if you are a Social person.

After that starts the induction program, telling in depth about the company and paperwork. This usually takes a week almost. As the service training gets over starts the important stuff safety training with the famous line “if u goof up in the service we can correct it but safety has no second chances”, which apparently is correct to some extent. After an extensive and grilling 2 months and exams, a fresh product is ready to deliver in the sky.

At work

The dream of many, actually came to life and took more then 2 months to realize, there goes our fresh cabin crew with tantalizing eyes to grab the world with both the arms. Having the impression that just has to serve the passengers and see the world. It merely takes a few weeks for her/him to realize that this is a different ball game. “It’s more like that I am an onboard magician” once a crew said to me.

YOU DON’T HAVE CHICKEN?

Usually the first encounter happens when you finish with chicken on board and some passenger is so angry that there is no chicken any more, as if it was the crew mistake and she is supposed to open the door or a  tandoor and bring some more kids of our dear HEN. Or simply do some magic and get it.

I AM SMARTER THAN YOU…!!!

Some of the passengers are psychologically advanced I guess because the moment they come they would try to make some ruckus so that they will get better attention all through the flight.

GIVE ME MORE… YOU BITCH!!!

After the food mystery comes the Alcohol  needs, doesn't matter if you don’t have it or if the bar cart Is closed, or if one is unduly intoxicated and not even smelling of alcohol but the passenger next to him complains about his beer farts as well.

But he needs more and he needs now!! That’s not a request it a fucking order now!” Who are these 20-25 year old smart looking tiny ladies to tell me that I am drunk, I need more”,

 And after a few drinks I don’t know why that it always becomes impossible for the passenger  to understand that anything whether food or drinks just can be finished. Doesn’t matter if the flight is 16 hours or less but nothing should or could finish on a plane.

When surprisingly almost 80% travelers these days are at least partially literate, who get to face these people? Yes the one who is not allowed to drink on board “cabin crew”. I bet you allow cabin crew to drink two tequila shots they will straighten these mother F*%#ks.

One won’t believe that cabin crew is the one, who people shout at, curse, abuse, harassed, sexually harassed, pressurized, pushed, manipulated, and look down upon.  And the worse of it is that cabin crew is just like another office job when comes to team work, your zone, your mistake, your passenger, you serve him, you clean him, you you you you you you you!!!!!!!

KNEEL DOWN IN FRONT OF ME!

I have seen supervisors asking the junior cabin crew to apologies to the drunk passengers as she refused him a drink and now he is upset. I have seen cabin crew catching hold of some VIPs’ legs as they are upset and threaten to complain about the crew and get them fired. I have seen cabin crew crying as the passenger has thoroughly sexually harassed her by just his words. On complaining the mistake comes on to the crew itself as it is perceived that she is the one who is friendlier.

WHAT WERE YOU THINKING SO FAR?

A crew who has more meaningful job she/he thought, while administering oxygen to asthmatic passenger, CPR to heart attack, Heimlich maneuver, and trained to help the mother giving birth to a child in mid air. Life savers on board, who can save everyone life in 90 seconds by using 50% of total exits, Who fight the fire, comply with the hijackers, know how to use the PBE, asbestos gloves, crash axe, and procedures to survive in jungle (if crashed in one), usage of Radio locater beacon, Fire extinguisher, know how to make a tent, camp, which water to use which not….. Etc. etc. The one who board the plane first and leave the last even in case of emergency, even if there own life is in danger.

Still taking shit from everyone, from passenger and colleagues, everyday they come to work in hope of a good day, smiling and greeting  walking through the aisle they are the ones spreading the magic to miles……

Respect the crew, who are truly the heroes of the airline, what would a plane do made of diamonds if there is no crew.

This is my effort to say I salute the life of a cabin crew.

Fly High Burn the Sky

What does dream girl dream about & what is the reality?

Someone great once said “ travel the world and you won't repent spending a penny”, The dream of many would be to travel the world. Indeed travelling the world has no limits and to see the unseen has no price. The idea of travelling the world is itself very lucrative.

The one who said the above saying forgot to envision the 21^st century  world. Where every thing has a cost to incur. Nothing comes for free and no travel is cheap, yes one might not care about the cost while you are travelling because the world is actually mesmerizing, the more you see the more you wanna see. Technology has made it even more easier to know about different places.

Hence our beautiful green and blue earth has been divided within categories of “ Must see places” & “not so cool places”.

Must see places are the parts of the green blue ball where one should go before the short term life vanishes. Whereas Not so cool places are the ones where if you don't go, society will not make you feel jealous.

I think In this ever evolving world, there is one thing that  middle class people always wanna do is to travel and see the world. I say middle class people because the poor won’t imagine and the Rich don’t care as they always go from one place to the other. Yes, the middle class is the one who wants to travel, collects money for it, longs for it, work even harder and harder so to enjoy later. A study shows that more than 45% of middle class people take double jobs so as they can travel abroad to have a nice little vacation.It will be really imperative to talk about the first person who ever traveled the world Ferdinand Magellan, who started his voyage when he was 25 years old, from the west of the known world to the east of it.

Hence creating the everlasting and zillion dollar travel business. Ever since right from the Mayan civilization the traveling between the worlds or lets say rather traveling to moon and other planets have been thought of, processed and trialed. There by making the journey across any two points important and necessary.

So after all this debate of traveling and how and why is it a dream of many?

What would be the perfect way to travel and how not to spend a penny and see the world across. Like any other query google can answer this even faster and easier.

Let’s join the travel business which offers to take you from one continent to an other and from one country to another. Shipping business sounds good to the same but ships do take a longer span of time and it's a very meticulous job to be in the water from approx 45 days before landing up on the docks of any country. Railways make it even narrower as it's practically impossible to cross seven seas.

Here come an option which is safer (nowadays), advanced, way too faster than ships, and offers to show you across the green and blue floating ball in the universe, you guessed it right Aviation. Apparently, not everyone associated with the aviation business can see the world at a pace of that compared to the Flight attendants.

Flight attendants commonly called as cabin crew & flight crew do travel the world at a tremendous pace and sometimes are able to cover all the continents within 2 years of the career. Of cause they are paid to travel, and most obviously their stay is taken care by the company they work for.

Thus making it the most perfect career option, often I have seen people who want to join as a cabin crew talking that how much they wanna see the world, the glamour of the job pulls everyone. The timid little girl who only used to put make up on her face (that to some local one)occasionally, will now have to apply most luxurious branded make up on her face every day. Advertisers have made the mere walk in the airport so important that every gal longs to wear that uniform and put that affectionate make up with the smile up her face showing the content and feeling of gratification and walking through various airports across the world.

Way before even she (talking in specific gender as 90% of crew members are girls, but It could also apply to boys in various occasions) is selected to be a crew, she already have dreams to move out her native country, all of a sudden her own country either becomes dirty and crowded or becomes very static and boring, if nothing then the people of their own country become so narrow and lifestyle is like a sheep walk. They start dreaming about the destinations they wanna visit, things they wanna buy, world to see and yes of cause a boyfriend who may be from different country and which might make her settle in abroad and the exit plan is also ready by now.

 Expecting to explore various cultures and people their languages and accents. Here she keeps her few first steps in the webbed world of Cabin crew.

On the first few months and years everything seems to fall in place and first few months are just perfect and as per the plan, new crew members start to believe in the illusion of controlling their life and running the show, the very way they wanted it to be. They say “to get comfortable in any place is your first mistake”, and that what happens. First clicker goes off when the body starts to hurt and your back hurts more than your heart. Time flies right beneath your foot steps and you don’t even realize that your exit plan has passed and over due by 2 years now. Money never seems enough, the standard of life becomes like such. You find less real friends but more Gucci ,Prada, LV bags in your closet. Suddenly all other nationalities become faded and your flag and food becomes priced possessions, your vocabulary increases so much that you keep mixing your native language with the others. 

Parties, clubs , lounges and pubs give you so much of your favorite music that you don’t wanna talk anymore. People everywhere seem to be unhappy which start to make you negative about life and you tend to move backward from them. Passengers shout at you, supervisors blame you for their mistakes, fellow crew member is not there for you, all of a sudden you might find yourself on a 12 hour flight with others talking in their native language and no one to talk, It’s like standing in times square for the 5th time and you are all alone, the loneliness kills you inside. You long for your leaves, you wanna go  to your stupid looking country which now soothes you, where you feel belonged, you wanna make a new exit plan.One day you feel that it's enough - I had enough of world traveling I wanna settle, relax, I have seen it all and the next split second you realize that this is  addiction. Outside this world your experience is not counted, what will you do? Where will you work? Visiting home is fine but can you go back there in that dirt and filth?

The world of cabin crew has now webbed you, the illusion now is showing its magic trick, it has made you a woman of Prada and Gucci bag, a woman who hadn't even heard about sushi before but now you love it, what if u don't find it again? There starts a flight between the heart and the mind, and believe me not mind always wins. You have already expanded your world, bought a new house, a new car, loaned some money, invested in shares, bought the best insurance. You have come too far to turn back.

Hence leaving a Cabin crew to adapt a plastic smile from the smile of that genuine little timid, naive, simple and enthusiastic girl who once jumped from her bed to see the world. And today she is dragging her feet as she has realized that she is trapped in this vicious circle. She can’t live it but she can't leave it.

There is no exit plan.

Fly High Burn The Sky