My commute with God

My first voyage across the Bay of Bengal for 7 days was when I was still in my mother’s womb. Today people don’t take to the ships for crossing the seas. In those days ships were the common mode of commute to cross the seas. It took 7 to 8 days to cross the Bay of Bengal from Madras and reach Penang in Malaya. The two passenger ships in this route were SS Rajula and the State of Madras. God had given me the privilege to cross these seas again when I was six and nine. I have only faint traces of the last of these seven day trips which was made when I was nine.

It was in 1962 that God gave me, a mere 12 year old lad then, the rare privilege to fly from Singapore to Madras with my father. In those days Air travel was rare and a luxury used by the affluent. Hence children travelling by air were rather rare or uncommon. We flew in Air India, which by all means was a Maharajah in the skies, true to its icon the turbaned bowing Indian Maharajah. It was a noisy 4 propeller Super Constellation aircraft and everything in that six hour flight was excellent, the food, the petite pretty hostesses and the exquisite interior. I was taken to the cockpit at the request of Pappa.

It was one of the best moments in my childhood to see the plane tearing apart the clouds and going forward in the sky. I felt that I was very near God, just as mummy had told me that God was in heaven and on my further queries about heaven she would point to the sky. My little mind was full of awe and adoration for God as she had told me that God created the sky. God gave me yet another privilege to fly again a couple of years later, this time all alone from Cochin to Kuala Lumpur via Madras. The flight to Madras had stops at Coimbatore and Trichy. It was a Dakota aircraft which could carry about 30 passengers. It was one of the most horrible bumpy flights in my life and I vomited throughout the flight. However the flight from Madras to Singapore was on the Comet 4 C which had no propellers, as it was a 4-engined Jet which took only half the time of the Super Constellation to reach Singapore. Air India was indeed a Maharajah among other international airlines, the prominent of which were BOAC, QUANTAS, TWA, PANAM etc.

My spree in the air came to an abrupt end when Pappa had to leave Malaysia due to ill health and settle down in Kerala. Changes were taking place in the Indian political horizon. The Indian government stripped off the royal privileges of the Maharajas of India and their annual privy purses. As an icon, the Air India Maharajah had won the respect of millions who took to the skies. But he too was booted out like the erstwhile Maharajas of India. The voyages which I began in the  seas while I was still in my mummy’s womb and continued in the air came to a sudden halt as I was completing the high school. To fly again as in my childhood seemed a distant dream.

 My air travel was replaced by rail travel. The trains had steam locomotive engines using charcoal as the fuel and pulled dozens of narrow compartments, most of which had only the third class facility with plain wooden seats. Majority of these railroads were meter gauge and narrow gauge. Broad gauge railroads were found only in metropolitan cities. Only the two tier compartments had foam mattress on their berths. Not only were they filthy with ash and charcoal dust everywhere, but even the atmosphere was fortified with the stench from the toilets. Soon, I too became a part of it with my frequent travels during my college days. I realize now that it was God who protected me in my wild train travels. I call them wild because I loved to hang out at the door, even though there were empty seats inside, to enjoy the buzzing wind striking me as the train shot through the villages and the rural countryside, the rustic beauty of which enchanted me. In those lonely moments I adored the goodness and greatness of God as I had done in my childhood from my very first trip in the skies. Perhaps it was that attitude of silent, secret adoration and love for God that made Him choose a useless fellow like me and anoint me for the building of His Kingdom.

God resumed my air travel after 12 years, in 1976. It was an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Bombay to Addis Ababa. Though the frequency increased as the years went by, it became a part of my life after I took up His mantle, heeding His call 25 years ago. He gave me the privilege of travelling hundreds of thousands of miles in the air across the continents in the leading Airlines of the world.

 Prayer is my first agenda in the flight as the seat belts are fastened and when Raaji, my wife is with me we pray together without drawing the attention of adjacent passengers. I feel near to Him every time I fly as in my first flight when I was a 12 year old lad. I sink into His presence and He enables me to pen and tune His praises. He reveals the secrets of His Word in teaching and translating the Bible and grants me the knowledge and wisdom to go forward in my spiritual walk. Though the Air India Maharaja with whom I started flying with is gone with the erstwhile Maharajas of India, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords leads me on, empowering me to declare like David “The heavens declare His righteousness and all the people see His glory”.