The actor was on his way home from Delhi when the wing of the aircraft caught fire the other day. (Representational image)Two years ago death came calling on me in the form of cancer. I was spared on that occasion thanks to the requests made by my near and dear ones. If my first face-off with death was in the form of an ailment, the second rendezvous occurred while I was aboard Air India flight on Tuesday night.
I was on my way home from Delhi when the wing of the aircraft caught fire at 7.30.
I was taking a nap beside my son Sonnet. At 7.30 he woke me and in private told me, "Dad, seems like there is a problem. I can see flames beneath the wing of the plane." I looked around. The situation inside had drastically changed. Some were immersed in prayers. Some did not still know what was happening. The pilot was repeating his announcement, ‘We have lost one engine and are using the second one. Soon we will be landing at Nagpur airport.’
A ground engineer of the airline was inside the plane. I enquired him about the situation. As time passes by the situation will become serious, he told me. The sparks in the wing may reignite any moment. If it intensifies fire may erupt.
On Wednesday morning when I was at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, doctors informed me that cancer has returned to my body. But continuous medication can keep it at bay, they told. I felt as if death had come calling on me again. After the doctor gave an assurance, I felt that yet again it had left me alone. When I was in the plane, death was in front of me both as cancer and fire. Cancer can be cured with different special treatments. But what to do if the plane goes to flames while in air? I chose cancer as best of the two. I hummed the lines of a Malayalam film song, ‘Innale neeyoru sundara raagamaayen ponnodakkuzhalil vannolichirunnu...’(yesterday you came and hid yourself in my golden flute as a lovely raga). I didn’t know what was the relevance of that tune at that particular point of time. Sonnet gave me a spiky stare. Dad, we are still uncertain when the downfall starts. You are singing in the middle of that? He asked.
Again, I heard a heavy sound from underneath the wing. I could measure the gravity of the situation from the pale faces of the air hostesses and the ground engineer. I was terribly hungry. I asked for some food. At least no one should later report that Innocent died out of hunger. Again Sonnet became red hot. The air hostess didn’t laugh. There came the announcement that the plane is landing. And at last it landed. I could hear many heave a sigh of relief. The ground engineer grinned. He was one among the few persons who felt that the plane would not land.
I had witnessed the facial expressions and prayers of the passengers when there were flames in the wing of the plane. Their countenance changed as soon as the plane landed. They were arguing with the crew for getting out of the plane. Hearing the mass prayers God might have thought that these people have become good Samaritans. But as the plane landed smoothly they showed their true colours. After a night’s stay at Nagpur, when everyone reached the airport for the return journey, they were quite jovial. I could see some of them simply going on fondling their grand children, and creating commotion. Some of them congratulating me for rightly and nightly intervening as an M.P to get a new flight. Last night many of these people did not even have the slightest inclination even to look at me. Today they are huddling to get snapped with me. All of them knew that they had returned from the blazing wings of death. That was a rebirth. And for me, a second or third birth. Next week again I have to go to Delhi AIIMS for a check up. I don’t know what is being kept in store for me there.
Really I am thankful to Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. May be his death had saved me. If I had died in that air crash, and if people may tomorrow enquire about my date of death, the answer would be: that happened on the day of the demise of Dr. Kalam. No one would ever forget that date.
God may not be happy with that. He thought Innocent should not become famous on that ease. God may have another reason. My son Sonnet was with me. If something happens to us, I don’t have another son to contest the elections in Chalakkudi constituency.
This envy of God towards me and his interest in Kerala politics had saved me. Anyway praise the Lord. (The author is an actor and an MP from Kerala)
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