Of Kids,Trains,Planes and Pleasure

What pleasure do people get by seeing areoplanes and helicopters land and take off? You may say that these things are for kids:I used to run a kilometre to see Cholan Express go by near the rail track our home when I was six, seven.That was a routine thing during summer holidays. 8.30 AM and we know we had to run. The signal near our house was one of the lasts before the train enters Tanjore station and it was a fascinating sight for me as a kid to watch this signal. There would be a small bridge and after that the signal. It was the old type of signal, mind you, not the electric one with red, yellow and green lights. It was the one which had a hand painted in red and with a white stripe painted near the end. It used to give huge pleasure everytime when I used to see this hand signal down for it indicated the train was about to come anytime. Myself and my brother used to keep our ears on the rail track and keep listening. The track would start vibrating and the sound from the track would say it all. The train is approaching us fast. And when the train does pass by, we would start counting the bogeys of the train. It was easy to keep count of passenger trains, but for trains which carried goods, it would be difficult, we would be lost in the world of numbers. After the train passes, we would check with each other that the count was correct or not. And still I love trains, travelling in trains. They fascinate me still, no matter how many times I have travelled in trains, a train journey is something I always look forward to.

How about other adults? Are they like me? Actually yeah.My grandmother at 80+ would still not miss seeing a single aeroplane that flies above our home(My cousin calls her,"Aeroplane Paati").That day I went for this meeting with my manager and he, who has travelled so many times to many parts of the world tells me this: "I was coming to our office in a car and saw this Srilankan Airlines flight landing man. How huge was the flight and I was side by side with this plane. I was on the road and it was on the runway,and it was a great sight man". Yeah, to have your office right behind the airport, what else you can expect to see every now and then. But everyday I come to office in the bus, everytime when I pass through the road thats parallel to the plane's runway, I would see many pairs of eyes looking eagerly at the runway. Doesnt make a difference, be it a 5 year old girl or 60 year old man. All of them want to see a plane land or a plane take off.And that list includes yours truly as well.And I can clearly see the disappointment in their eyes when they cant see a copter on the helipad or a plane on the runway. It is amazing to see how an aeroplane could bring out the child in us! If you look at it, do you look that eagerly at every bus that passes by, I dont atleast! May be when it comes to a plane, the fascination comes because most of us cant afford to travel by a plane in this country. Bus, anytime I can travel man. That can be a reason as well. Look at this way. Why do many people support an underdog during a tennis match say, over the favourite? Thats because most of us associate ourselves and identify ourselves more with the underdog than with the favourite.And when we see this underdog fighting with the favourite, we get this vicarious pleasure as if 'we' are fighting and we enjoy that feeling. Same with the planes may be. I know I cant afford to travel in that. But I definitely would like to see it land and take off and see someone else travelling, and when many people would look at it, there would be mixed feelings of hope(that I would travel one day),pity(at my inability to travel by that)and with longing and yearing to travel by that.