Crash , Bang , Smoke , Water ....All survive!

Twas only up six minutes in the air when the US Airways Flight 1549 (Airbus 320) made a landing in the Hudson.Yes eye witnesses are calling it more a landing than a crash.Witnesses who had no clue as to what was happening were quoted as saying that it almost looked like the pilot knew he would land it there on the Hudson.Reason for this ditch on the Hudson : Two reported bird strikes.Big planes like Airbus 320 or its successor Airbus 380 or the Boeings 747 , 727 can handle running on one engine unless and until something real fatal happens to the aircraft.The craft was on its way from LaGuardia , NY to Charlotte, NC.Given the size of the plane, it could have well glided and could have landed in the New Jersey Teterboro airport being so close in airspace distance.But this plane that should have been flying over Newark from Manhattan to Charlotte couldn't reach that point.It was going down.Going down fast !
Captain in charge : Captain Chesley B "Sully" Sullenberger.He was a fighter pilot before he joined US Airways as a commercial pilot.He was an active participant in flight saftey and had started a company for air safety as pilots are taught from day one about emergency landings as they are taught to fly.And such a co-incidence that he should be flying that plane.Everybody is lauding both the pilot and co-pilot as heroes as there was a miraculous escape for all the passengers on board.But experts say that it was a text book landing.When you need to ditch a plane, safest way to ditch is water.That is why the pilots probably chose the Hudson than the nearest airport.
Pitfalls of landing in water : A plane is designed to land on ground.The engine, wings and the landing gear become a bane in water which is otherwise the means to land on ground.The landing gear was not disengaged as it would have caused the airplane to flip and break.The fuesalage,the belly provided the buoyancy of the flight.
The pilot said : Brace for impact and the passengers knew they were going down as they could already see the smoke from the engines.
Well even though experts are calling it a text book landing with all the passengers safe what is the most laudable aspect of the incident is that there was hardly time for the pilots to decide whether to take it onto the next nearest airport(which would have been catastrophic if it landed over a populated stretch) or make a landing on water.Well the decision to land over the Hudson near the midtown area of Manhattan by clearing the Washington Bridge by around 900 ms is not only heroic and laudable but also miraculous by the success of it.
The captains saw to it that the aircraft was empty before they disembarked and another passenger was offered the captain's shirt as the captain feared that he would succumb to hypothermia as his shirt was wet.Well he z still holding onto that shirt.At the end of the flight fiasco, the safe landing had earned its place in aviation history as a study in flight safety and the pilots make us feel that miracles still happen and sometimes you don't even have to look for it.

~A,humbled by the power of life

P.S. : In a quirky indication that the plane actually had good luck, the New York State Lottery said the numbers 1549 -- the flight's designation -- are sold out through next Tuesday night on the Win 4. Wagering on numbers 1549 has been cut off because they've already reached the $5 million cap.

Off the tangent...

Before writing this piece I convinced myself that I am an Aquarian and like a true Aquarian totally capable of imagination and thoughts off the tangent.Well my story today would either merit full points for accurate deduction from Sherlock Holmes or just earn chiding for being so foolishly school girlish when i have crossed the bridge of mid-twenties.There is this cute guy in a social networking site and I have seen his profile more than once 'cause I have already let you know that he is cute.He has this school boyish charm(as all his albums are unlocked,I could get a peek once..well i did peek more than once :-D).Now like the story goes all good girls like the bad boys.And from all my previous crushes, I knew I was (me being the good girl variety) doing it again.He was totally cute,had a bad boy charm,his unlocked albums spoke about his Bohemian lifestyle and amazingly cool was that he was a musician.A real passionate one too.Looked like he had given up his career(almost I am assuming) as a techie just to play music.He played in nyc clubs and he looked totally into it.Since he had posted quite a few pictures I knew his band's name and checked him out in Google.And i did end up with more than one hit.I was gleeful.I knew I could watch a live video of him playing.And so I did !! But..but...Where was the guy ?His name was mentioned in the credits but I couldn't spot him in the 4-man band.Why?Well this is why ?'Coz the man playing the instrument did in noways looked like the cute guy in the albums.What happened? Well he had put on way tooooo much weight.He in no way resembled the guy I was crushing on.He had the cute face but looked quite heavyset now.
So i started imagining why would a band player put on so much weight?Generally they tend to be of the lean variety.Cool and smokin hot.All in one.Playing the Sherlock Holmes I was , curious me made one more stop @ his album.And then I saw a very cosy picture of him with a band of frens.The girl next to him definitely looked like a girl fren than a fren.Something I had overlooked in my rush to a crush.So I started imagining that he must have been totally in love with this girl but his passion for music drew them apart.Her parents must have stopped her (like in all Indian love stories) from being with a guy who was into music so much.He would never keep you happy..He would be away from you most of the time...blah..blahh...And so the poor musician. rocker..whatever u call him was left alone!And being so much in love with this girl it ate him away that he did not have her anymore.He might have rocked away his blues but he could not forget her.He ignored himself to ignore the pain.And he din't care anymore..And the last thing he cared was how smokin hot he looked for the world when his world was not there with him....
Trrinnnggg !
Me : Hi Mom.Wassup? You know what?The guy I was talking to you about..blahh...blahhh....
Mom : That's how you are spending your free time ? Checking out some guy in some networking site ?You think you are sixteen..blaahh ...blaahhh...never ending blahh...blahhh.....

~A,only creative imagination counts..

"SHIRTS"

Come 2009 and i thought i would jazz up my blog a little.Well its not like the idea struck me like a bolt of blue from nowhere but my cousin who visits my blog now and then gave me the idea.She said -Yo sis..Could you make your blog a little snazzy and a lot of other words from the dictionary of cool lingo which i can't exactly remember now !So that made me think of shirts.Something i love and something cool.I have always loved wearing shirts.You can always team up shirts with something as formal as a trouser suit or as casual as a tights.Button up or button down -your choice.Its sexy.I love wearing shirts myself and the on screen diva whom i find crazy cool while carrying off a shirt is Uma Thurman.Shirts should be worn with attitude and probably that's why i like Uma most.Its not about being plump or lean, you carry it off well with your signature style and its gonna definitely sit well on ya.

Pics Courtesy : NY&C , IMDB

~A,A shirt affair....

Curios..

Time wounds all heels..

Solemates..

Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition... :-D

Love is faithless...

Happy co-incidences are a thing of the past...

Man in the moon with a cocaine spoon...Studio 54

Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.

Life is not merely a series of meaningless accidents or coincidences.Its a tapestry of events that culminate in an exquisite, sublime plan...Serendipity,2001

Of Broadway & Hollywood...

Last Tuesday I had the most amazing time in life.I had been meaning to go watch a Broadway musical for over a year now and yet it hadn't happened.Being a student, i resort to the philosophy of simple living and high thinking (which of course I do not believe in but my purse is compelled to right now).So that was it.A year of checking out the website and seeing favorite shows play and leave ;I was still not ready to take the plunge.
But now it was that time of the year again-holiday season ! And people do crazy things during the holidays.When Nan came visiting and we decided that since she had come all the way from west coast it dignified a visit to the Broadway.And I was in no way an unwilling participant.Have heard about it from teenage years how big Broadway was and how sometimes hollywood stars did shows too.You get to see real live talent.
Having decided that yes we are finally going to a B'way screening, we were now grappling with the decision of which show ? Chicago ?No.We had already seen the movie.All My Sons ? Naah looks too serious.We wanted to come out happy like we always do in Bollywood multiplexes.And being women,we are especially suckers for sweet happy endings which makes us go Awwwwww !!
So after a lot of researching and reading tons of reviews, we settled on either Mamma Mia or 13.I had seen Mamma Mia the movie and it was quite good. 13 looked fresh , enthusiastic and peppy.A middle school musical in the lines of High School Musical.
I never knew I would do so much research for a show.On Broadway or off Broadway ? Orchestra or Mezzanine seats ? Online booking or shipped tickets ? Your credit card or mine :-) ?
But finally we decided 13 be it.And we were not disappointed.The cast was aged between 12-16 and they were talented , young,fresh and confidence literally oozed out from every dialogue , every song, every dance step.
The lead role Evan was played By Graham Phillips (whom we later clicked in our blurry camera phone).It is about a jewish boy growing up in NYC and how he has to move to a small town in Indiana coz his parents split.He has his Bar Mitzvah' coming up and he wants the cool kids from school to come over to his party.In order to make his way into the group he tries all kinds of tactics which miserbaly fail and how in the end he realises that they are not worth it.He just sticks to his real frens otherwise labelled losers in the middle school fraternity.
We loved every bit of it.It was like young adoloscents bringing sunshine to the stage that night and the show ended with a standing ovation.The stars of the evening came out and we clicked pictures of the talented babies and also realised at 13 we had absolutely no talent nor the knack for anything extraordinary.Wonder if I have any now ? Ahem..Ahem..Moving on.
As soon as we were done , somebody said Katie Holmes was performing next door and Tom Cruise had come to pick her up.We rushed.Now the thing is we women love Tom Cruise and especially Top Gun even if we were infants when it was released.We happen to fall in and outta love with him as a part of growing up.Ask any girl who grew up in the nineties.But now my part of growing up fantasy was here and I had to have a look..And my first celebrity spotting too..Went gaga over him just at his glimpse..My brush with the glitz and the glitteratti...I felt like singing "I am so lucky" with stardust raining over me but i guess that was the B'Way side-effect...
So having notched up double bonuses of B'Way and H'Wood we made our way home like two contented purring cats..My year had just ended with a big bang !

~A, still on cloud 9...