by Walter NandalikeEditor-in-chief (Daijiworld.com) Pictures: Vivek Sequeira Mangalore & Alex Correa Dubai An atmosphere of a picnic pervaded the entire journey Announcements in English, Kannada, Tulu, Konkani and Malayalam Multilingual fare of songs and entertainment Mangalore, Oct 4: Today, I am feeling proud to be a Mangalorean as much as anyone around the world, who is delighted to hear of the very first ever international flight landed safely on October 3, 2006 at 6.10pm. The journey from Dubai to mangalore has just suppressed the pain and insult we have received in the past several years, especially over the past three years. Around the evening hours of September 15, when we received the information about the online availability, the first thing I did was to book a ticket. Later we flashed the news and what happened later is is history. The first flight was booked within 36 hours of announcement, followed by all flights until October 28 fully booked. It was a pleasant surprise to me and indeed a great honour when I came to know from Air India Express that I was the first person to book the online ticket to Mangalore! Soon after reading the news on daijiworld, many people started sending congratulatory messages, a few still could not believe and quite a few of them sent abusive email to us "Daijiworld, don't mislead us. Every time you have published the news about a direct flight, it never came true. Stop publishing false news. The flight is never going to take off!" Though aimed at us for no fault of ours, such demoralizing comments hurt us, it did not stop us from doing a better job from our side! October 3 finally arrived and it was a very special day. Many still did not believe that the flight would take off after all. There was a feeling that the news of cancellation would be announced any moment at the eleventh hour ! But it never happened. When we arrived at Dubai International airport, Terminal 2 prior to the take-off, the feeling was different. We felt as if we are entering the venue of a major Mangalorean cultural event in Dubai! Even the local authorities were very helpful, and going out of the way, allowed people to click the pictures. Thre was a large posse of media community. At leats 12 members of newspapers and TV channels (all from Kerala) travelled along with us just to cover the event. Cameras were mainly focusing on our prominent entrepreneur and community leader B R Shetty. It was a eye-pleasing scene to see a group of beautiful girls and handsome boys of the Mangalorean community, from all religions, including Kodava community, dressed up in traditional attires and accorded a heart-warming welcome to every passenger of AI Express to Mangalore. Immediatley after the check-in, some of the business community members and community leaders were ushered into one of the lounges where Air India Express organized the launching ceremony. Local airport officials, prominent among them being UAE nationals, B R Shetty and Rajya Sabha member Abdul Wahab (representing Kerala) were the guests of honour. Captain of the flight Pushpendra Singh was the special guest along with his crew members. For Daijiworld, a moment of honor was when B R Shetty in his speech highlighted the combined effort of the dynamic NRIKF convener Rajesh Sequeira and Daijiworld.com (which published a massive series of airport-related articles in the past three years, especially the last six months.) When he recognized and commended Daijiworld in the presence of such an elite gathering, I was indeed touched and felt extremely honoured. The flight was on the dot. A huge round of applause from the passengers marked the historic take-off. Passengers were feeling just emotional as a whole and this was something they would not believe that has really happened. Apprehension of rains at the destination As the flight took off, news arrived from Mangalore there were rains. Gosh ! What a day to rain, we thought. There was no other option but just pray. though, the Bajpe airport currently better equipped to handle flights despite of rains, the fear among some passengers that they could be deprived of being the maiden flight passengers landing in Mangalore on the scheduled day, October 3. But we kept our chins up..we did not lose heart. Multi-lingual affair Soon after the Hindi and English announcement by the crew, there was another surprise when we heard an announcement in Tulu! There was yet another huge applause for this announcement in Tulu. Then everybody realized that the microphone was in the hand of Rajesh Sequiera, who took up all the roles inside the flight except being a captain!. He was in full josh, and thereafter made some regular announcement in Tulu. Needless to say it added spice to our flight experience. Sarvothama Shetty, Bunt community leader from Abu Dhabi, was in a different mood. He entertained the passengers with his humour and singing talents. The passengers followed his songs and joined him by providing him with a chorus. Perhaps our Malayali friends felt like left out when proceeding was dominated by the coastal Kannadigas. Beleive it or not, out of the 168 passengers that travelled, as many as 55% were from Kerala!. But the picture was complete when some announcements were made in Malayalam also, followed by songs. Now James Mendonca, president of Mangalore Konkans sitting next to me said, "After Tulu and Malayalam, why should Konkani be left out?" Jerome Saldanha, president of Kanara Enterprenuers Limited, Frank Fernades of Mosaco and Mark Denis D'Souza of Fortuna, urged me to speak a few words in Konkani. My request to the crew to fulfil their request was honoured. Then it was an announcement about landing procedures, in-flight regulations and thanksgiving for the people who worked for the cause. We could see appreciative smiles on the Konkani-speaking people's faces. The hectic proceedings indeed had a touch of variety with the inauguration of a website. Adolph Lobo, a well-known organizer, entrepreneur and a man who always tries to do something for South kanara has hosted his web portal oordhar.com. He was very proud to say that the portal was inaugurated in the sky, by none other than B R Shetty. Landing Moments - Sentimental ... When around 6 pm IST the announcement from the captain the flight was about to land at Bajpe airport, oh, the feeling around was simply unbelievable. Tears of happiness may have rolled from many eyes. Loud whistles and appplause that began never seemed to stop until the flight landed! Who thought that one day we could really reach Mangalore from Dubai within 210 minutes? This is one of the finest moments of my life like anyone else in the flight. The only disappointment we had at the landing was despite landing on the dot at 6.10pm, we had to wait for 27 minutes in the aircraft before setting our foot the Mangalore soil! The reason was the VIPs were not ready to relieve the audience from the flurry of their speeches! The punishment of staying aboard for 27 minutes for nothing too is perhaps another thing that we would long remember ! Finally when we disembarked from the aircraft, the feeling was overwhelming for us as some new experience, dignitaries including Praful patel, Oscar Fernades, Blossom Fernandes, Nagaraj Shetty, V S Acharya, Ivan D`Souza, B S Yediyurappa, Vinayakkumar Sorake, Ramanath Rai and many other well-wishers received us. The welcome was as if we were the heroes returning home after winning a battle! Indeed, the journey was a memorable one. Air India service was too good. Though it was budget airline, everyone was served food free of cost as inaugural offer. The Captain was too kind, crew were not only charming and but very courteous. It was certainly an experience which will be long cherished.
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