THE PLANE CRASH

 

"I heard that it was ATC's fault." 

"Yes, it might be. Indians are like that, aren't they? Irresponsible pieces of shit."

"But you are also Indian, aren't you?" 

"I have been responsible my whole life", exclaimed Jai to his Grandson Prabhat. 

This talk was being overheard by Ajay, Prabhat's father, Aarti, Prabhat's Grandma, and Ranvijay, Prabhat's uncle. 

Prabhat said "I do not doubt it a bit. I have my ATC exam next month. It feels weird when the job you aspire for comes to light for an irresponsible act." 

Ajay intervened, "Now there is a new angle to this. People are saying CIA and ISI are behind this. Boeing is an American aerospace company. They did all this." 

Aarti asked Prabhat, "So, the ATC will lose his job, won't he?" 

"Yes", replied to Prabhat. He will have to give another exam for the same probably. 

"At least he will not be jailed", Said Aarti, being uninformed about the case. 

Ranvijay intervened, "Things will be straight when the black box opens". Ajay said in a tone of a voice, "But who will do the check up? Boeing itself. We cannot trust them." 

Everybody agreed in a non-verbal manner. 

Then began, a series of stories by Jai, the grandfather on how he, as an Engineer was a fully responsible, honest man, who never compromised on his duty ever, was deeply religious and this reflected his being a high caste, Bhumihar, and his being an RSS-ite. 

Prabhat did not care for the caste or organizational affiliations, but unlike other family members, who hated the honesty, integrity and responsibility mania of Jai, they always complaint why Jai never took bribes while his friends became rich by taking them, Prabhat only cared for these qualities. It is not like they did not have differences. They used to fight the most. Prabhat once told him, "I will not pass on your traits to my children. I will not be a casteist, communal bigot." But, they loved each other. Jai had a soft corner for Prabhat since his childhood. Prabhat through his merit, also made this soft corner reasonable. This had made both of them alike. Both Grandson and Grandpa, Egoistic, responsibility freak, cleanliness maniacs who wished to be things in order. It required great character indeed to have ideological differences with your own family member, especially in the post-ideological period like these. 

Prabhat said, "But this model of plane has never crashed in History." 

Ajay shouted, "Nope! It has in Japan". Prabhat counter-argued, "Nope I am sure it hasn't."

Ajay's reference for his inference was his opinion supported by WhatsApp forward, whereas Prabhat, although not-well informed had watched a video of the famous Youtuber Dhruv Rathee. Prabhat knew, Rathee is not unbiased, but at least he will be more informed than his own father. 

This is the change information age brought with it. A man might trust a stranger on internet more than his own father. Delusions prevail or they just surface due to more transparency, Only God knows. 

Chit chats going on, but Prabhat had to go study for exams. But he wanted to put his final opinion amongst these opinionated family members. 

"But I have observed for 2 days, I have seen trains derailing, Buses falling off cliffs, numerous accidents, and normal poor people die every day. But the way people react when rich man's transport, that is airways, crashes. And see people become analysts and policymakers and empaths. Are our concerns also class-conscious? Is our empathy also following trickle down model where it begins with the rich and in being unable to trickle down ends up accumulating at the top." 

Ranvijay said, "Yeah, the flight was of rich men. Like, Air India is privatized. And it was going to London. Also, if they could afford Flights, they must be rich." 

Everyone felt like non-contributing to this conversation. Rich and poor are too much of a topic to be commented upon in a lower middle-class family when their own aspirations are to be rich someday. Jai remembered that he had to take a bathe. Ajay started using his phone. Ranvijay went to open his shop. And Aarti and Prabhat stayed there in a usual silence after a discussion this home was habitual of. 

Prabhat said, "I always wished to take you to a flight one day. I know you haven't seen one closely. Do not get scared. These happen once in a lifetime. I will take you one day on a flight." 

Aarti laughed. Prabhat and Aarti shared a moment of respect and love masked in humor. The relation between a grandma and a Grandson is sublime. The Grandson remains a little kid inside until his grandma is alive. And this Grandson wanted to gift his grandma a flight trip. A short one may be, but a flight trip. 

ATC irresponsibility, CIA conspiracy, or whatever, and perhaps 300 people died. But I still think, call me Narcissistic perhaps, the biggest loss that happened was a fear in the innocent dream of a grandson who just wanted to gift his grandma a flight trip. 

Perhaps, the Global world Politics and the CIA is too intelligent to understand that.