MY VOYAGE TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE GLOBE

                I was very excited, when the plane finally took off from Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport at 9.20 p.m. on its 3 hr journey to Abu Dhabi. I am travelling to the other side of the globe, Canada, crossing the vast Atlantic Ocean, after a stop-over at Abu Dhabi. I recalled the time when I was locating the continents in an atlas in my school days. Canada, a part of American continent was really on the opposite part of the globe, where people worked when we all slept.

At Abu Dhabi, I requested for a wheel chair, for which I was eligible as a senior citizen. It enabled me, I thought, to easily locate the gate at which I had to take the second air-craft to Toronto. I was promptly attended to, and I was taken to a place where I was given a seat near a lift. The person said, he would come again and pick me up well in time to board the next plane to Toronto. There was a three-and-a half hour waiting time in that airport. There I got acquainted with an Indian youth, Mr. Avinash, who was also on his journey to Toronto by the same plane, but he was confined to another wheel chair as his leg was injured in a bike accident. I walked around exploring the area and even went down the lift to locate the gate I was directed to in my boarding pass. I could spot some points where we could charge our mobiles. I took advantage of that convenience. Then, I went around the duty-free shops for some more time. Finally, I located the gate and decided to wait there rather than go back to the seat where I was to wait for the wheel-chair service.

The next plane took more than thirteen hours to cover the distance. It was night-time throughout the journey, and my choosing the window-seat did not help me much. I watched a Malayalam and a Hindi movie on the mini-screen in front of my seat, to while away the time. Then, I saw in the map that the plane flew over Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Greenland and crossed the Atlantic Ocean only at the Northern end of the ocean where it cannot be called an ocean but a strait. Here, the Russia meets Canada like we in Mumbai meet Navi Mumbai across the Vashi creek. I wondered why the plane took that circuitous route, instead of flying directly across the ocean. In fact, I was looking forward to have the “plane’s eye-view” of the vast expanse of Atlantic Ocean through the window. I was disappointed.

Suddenly, it dawned upon me. Our earth is a globe, a sphere.  Places near the poles are really much closer to one another than when they are depicted on a flat surface.  You can practically observe it on the surface of a ball. What I mean to sway is that the route the plane had taken to Toronto is of a shorter distance than the apparent distance seen on the map of the world. As you know, Toronto is nearer to the North Pole than to the Equator.

It was unbelievable that I left Mumbai air-port at 9.20 p.m. and travelled for nearly 20 hours (including the waiting period of 3 ½ hours at Abu Dhabi) and still I landed in Toronto at about 8.20 a.m. Local Time, next day. Yes, the time difference between Mumbai and Toronto is 10 ½ hours, the former being in advance.   That is, you in Mumbai celebrated the New Year 10 ½ hours earlier than me in Toronto.