SOUND ADVICE

     I groaned a bit as I stretched my arms out. It had been a long journey from Mumbai in India to a tiny island called St. Eustachius in the Caribbean. Sitting in 5 different planes routed from Mumbai via Frankfurt, Miami, San Juan, Martinique to St. Eustachius had left miserable aches on my tired muscles. I was glad to finally set foot on the island from where we were to board our ship.

     My would be shipmate Mr. “V” was from New Delhi and I had met him in Frankfurt Airport. We had to stay overnight at a hotel in San Juan.  “V” asked me to go out with him for a couple of hours to take a look at the city. I declined the offer as I had visited San Juan a couple of times on my earlier sea voyages. My aching muscles brought out all the required words as my dulled head longed for the comfort of a pillow.

     The next morning , “V” looked anxiously at the whirring twin propellers  of a tiny plane on the air-strip. He had always flown on Jets and had never stepped on a small plane before.  I  allayed his fears and reassured him about the safety aspects of these kind of flying machines. After an uneventful flight, we landed on the bustling island of Martinique. Tourists from many countries were dressed in multi-coloured attire, smiles adorned their faces elevating the holiday mood. Colourful ribbons and flags enhanced the sparsely decorated airport lobby. We approached the information desk and were told that we had to wait for a few hours before we can embark on the last leg of the journey. Flight schedules were not usually adhered to, since there was only one plane which flew to St. Eustachius . This plane had to arrive from some other island and it made 3 trips daily flying passengers to and from various islands.

     Having an indeterminable amount of time on our hands, we had our lunch at a colourful restaurant nearby. The sea-food was delicious and the interiors had a cooling effect. Having a full belly, “V” was finally getting to be his usual self.  We hurried back to the airport and waited amongst a crowd of people in front of the gate. Tiny clusters of people chattered excitedly, animated greetings exchanged when a familiar face was seen and a generally jovial bon-homie atmosphere prevailed in the hot naturally ventilated departure lobby.

     No announcements were made but small groups of people went out onto the runway tarmac whenever a tiny plane landed and embarked on it without much fuss. There were people of all ages, a mixture of races, but the unifying threads were the benign smiles on all their faces.

    We anxiously asked an elderly lady standing beside us about  our flight to St. Eustachius. She beamed at us and dispelled our apprehensions. She told us that she will let us know when it arrives. Another half and hour of trepidation elapsed. If we missed that flight, we would be answerable to our Company’s Superintendent . A  delay would cause loss of money, time and require rescheduling of the ship’s passage.

   All of a sudden, the elderly lady cocked her head to one side as if listening intently and declared that our flight was arriving. We were flabbergasted at this announcement of hers and looked up at the blue cloudless sky. Unable to see any flying object we stared at her, trying to smile. Here was a lady in a far-away land trying to play a prank on unsuspecting foreigners! She told us that the plane would arrive in 3 minutes. A minute later a tiny speck showed above the horizon of the shimmering blue sea and as the seconds passed, it grew in size, morphing into the image of a tiny plane. Sure enough, 2 minutes later, as if to the second, a small single engined plane landed, taxied and stopped outside our departure gate.

     The pilot came out and shouted “Passengers for St.Eustachius!”

      Four other passengers, one of them a lady carrying  puppy in a cage began to walk across the tarmac. As I heaved my shoulder bag, I turned around to the old lady  with a perplexed look and asked her how she had been able to identify the arrival of our plane.

     “Don’t just HEAR the noise of the world my son, LISTEN for the sound you really want and you will know!” she smiled.

     I kept thinking about her words throughout my flight to St. Eustachius. It has been two years since that flight of mine. Even today, when an unfamiliar sound enters my aural universe, I smile in remembrance.