Flying past the mountains, to the world of the needy!

 "Kaakurus"," Kaakurus", yelled the pilot from the flight looking out of his window. I looked around as the children standing near me started to run behind the cocks standing on the runway. Yes, you read it right, there were cocks running on the runway. 

Children running behind the kaakurus

Well, if you have seen the video, you are wondering where is the runway! Well, the green grass is what it is. An airstrip in a remote village called Sendeni, Papua New Guinea(PNG). 

"Can you see the smoke from afar", the pilot told me. I turned left to look into the mountains. We were flying 10000 feet above and the earth looked like a green blanket. "Yes, I can see some smoke", I replied. "Yea, there it is, the airstrip, that is where we are landing" the pilot told me. 

The pilot looking for the runway

Can you see the smoke & the runway?

The pilot is on a mission, to reach the unreached. With rice bags and household goods and with teachers and doctors and health care and education materials to those who are not as privileged. Every other week he flies into this village. Every other day into multiple villages. Difficult terrain, bad climate, rains, and hills do not stop him from flying in. On those days when extreme fog indeed stops him, he tries again tomorrow. Till he reaches them. The poor and the underprivileged. 

The village hadn't seen electricity! 7 villages surrounding this airstrip hadn't. They know no roads either. They can walk through the forest for days to reach the nearest town. Rains do come often here and then walking is difficult as well. 

They showed me the school. But for the children playing rugby, I would not have identified the school. For there were a few huts and nothing else. They were the classrooms apparently. I even saw a small boy cooking and it was heartbreaking. 

The school

Children playing Rugby

The home in a village

The pilot loads in a few cargoes and a few men got into the flight. It is a small 9-seater aircraft and had a few seats removed to accommodate more cargo as the villagers sell coffee in this part of the world, and the ground coffee powder had to be taken back to the towns to bring in some money. 

The kaakurus were cleared and the pilot took off again, through the bumpy runway, and off he went. He took a steep right turn to avoid the mighty mountains standing right in front of the runway and flew away.

 

Can you see the bird flying past the mountains?

As he left me, I stood there looking at the mountains, thinking about the pilot. What if he had decided to take life easy, rather than fly into this god-forsaken place? 

Perhaps, he is flying here, coz God indeed remembered the place! and someone decided 

Measuring life!

"There was a private jet waiting for me, as I finished my lunch; Does it mean I have finally arrived in life?" I was just joking in the family group about my work trip. "It means you have arrived in the place you are meant to go and nothing else, don't talk too much, berated my dad". I apologized. I was just playing anyways. 

As I lay down last night after the grueling 24-hour journey, tired as I was, the thought never went away! What does it mean to arrive in life? How do we measure life? 

Are success and failures good enough indicators to measure life? In that case, what defines success and failure? 

Is money a good indicator of a successful life? or of life itself? But, money is a privilege, is a blessing, isn't it? not everyone is accorded the privilege. The more I travel, the more I'm convinced that money can never be an indicator of success in life. 

Last week I was in Singapore! The modern-day epitome of wealth and success. Clean roads. Swanky malls. Fancy cars galore. From there I entered the country I'm now in. You can see poverty and hopelessness on the faces of people here. Does it mean they have failed lives here and Singaporeans have done life right? No, there is so much left to chance if we measure life like that. 

Then can life be measured based on the influence one has on society? Like, if I'm a doctor and I save lives, can I be called successful? Then, does it mean, people who work hard in the fields fending for themselves and their children alone haven't had a life? 

Can life's meaning be measured by the amount of travel one has made?  If I travel to ten countries every year, can I be called successful? 

Leaving aside all these, can life be measured based on happiness? The happiest having done life right. 

Ah, the complexities of it all! 

Last week, a few friends met together after 20 years. As dreamy-eyed young boys and girls, we parted ways. Life took each of us in its own way. Not one of us followed the same path as the other. Each of us lived our own lives. The way we were taught to/provided to live. 

So why do I have to measure life in the first place? 

I live mine, and you live yours. I respect yours, and you respect mine! 

One year of fatherhood

I was flying way above the African continent, sitting right next to the pilot asking him all sorts of questions. We are doing Monrovia to Harper on a small 9-seater aircraft in western Africa and the Swiss pilot was incredibly kind in answering everything with aplomb. 

"Sir, what was the most difficult flight you have ever done"? I asked him. Remember, the man flies in the remotest of jungles getting off and on amidst rough and difficult terrains. 

"I have three children and helping them soar above the clouds of life has been the most challenging flight of my life", came the reply. 

I smiled, for I knew then that I had just embarked on that journey of parenthood. Suddenly today, it is already a year since. Phew, the time has just flown by. 

'K', has been the cause of Joy, despair, love, anger, insecurity, happiness, tiredness and every other human emotion possible in the last year. As someone who prides himself in not letting emotions overcome me, the year has been one heck of a ride. Yet, it has only just started. 

Early today morning as I was fighting jet lag and sleep deprivation and lying down in faraway land, my dad called me and woke me up to check on me. I was angry. Whoever calls anyone so early, I berated him. Then it just hit me; It is part of his parenting journey, how much ever long it has been, to have that call, to hear that voice of his son. It doesn't bother him that the son he taught to talk, talks back ever so loudly. He just wants to listen to the voice. Ah, parenting, what can it do to you? 

I don't know how long my journey with K is going to be! Perhaps it is going to be a rough ride. I'm sure there will be anger and insecurity. Surely times of absolute despair. Yet, I absolutely look forward to it. Just like my dad looks forward to hearing my angry voice every day early in the morning. 

For through all the bumps on the road, this has been the most satisfying and happiest journey I have ever done. 

Year 2, here I come! 

First Birthday celebration

What a joy he is! 

Sad face coz appa scolded him

His search for life

The footballer

His love for the ball

Like father like son