We had to rush through long queues of the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport to make it to our flight to Houston with Continental Airlines.
After being seated comfortably in the middle seat I noticed that the person sitting beside me was working heads down on his lap top with his side of the window shut. I grew restless in no moment as I wanted to see Fort Lauderdale from the air. It was an uncommon scenario for someone like me, as I always found myself occupying the window seat and for once it wasn’t mine this time. Oh! How I longed to be seated there. I was wondering as to why people occupy window seats and not have their windows open. There was a pressing urge in me to request him to exchange his seat with mine. He would have done that for a lady I’m sure. But then I just contained myself and requested him to open up the window for a while so that I could view the city from the top. Just then a hostess appeared, called him a Scientist and addressed him to shut his laptop and pull his seat forward. The plane took off and after a brief exchange of pleasantries I came to know that he was a Scientist at Stanford and did a lot of bird watching. He was an ornithologist which was not that common a field to encounter.
I asked him simple questions about birds, his likes and dislikes about them, the way they migrate, about his studies, surveys and contribution to human life, role of environmental pollution and diseases, extinction of birds, scope and limitations of bird watching, wild life photography, his frequent travels to various countries, his life as a gypsy as he had traveled more than 60 countries - to which he went copiously answering each and every aspect related to my query with utmost interest and earnestness. It was nice to hear him talk. He showed some of his pictures of the different birds shot in the wild looking at which I was completely awestruck! I guess he talked for more than an hour on the same lines. He was radiant and open, open and flowing, filled with light that he generously shared through his words, smiles and gestures. Completely authentic and too young to be a scientist.
I walked out of the flight feeling like a million bucks - not only because he was highly competent at making me develop interest in his talks, but because he naturally knew how to make a layman understand the importance of his subject too, he knew how to add value to the moment, to our encounter – genuinely, just by wholly and truly being who he was. We talked and connected - it was easy - a simple being to being sharing, enriching.
I had a nice flight. God bless him and all the birds on the planet.
-Manasi
"if you're not willing to be changed by a place, there's no point in going."
After being seated comfortably in the middle seat I noticed that the person sitting beside me was working heads down on his lap top with his side of the window shut. I grew restless in no moment as I wanted to see Fort Lauderdale from the air. It was an uncommon scenario for someone like me, as I always found myself occupying the window seat and for once it wasn’t mine this time. Oh! How I longed to be seated there. I was wondering as to why people occupy window seats and not have their windows open. There was a pressing urge in me to request him to exchange his seat with mine. He would have done that for a lady I’m sure. But then I just contained myself and requested him to open up the window for a while so that I could view the city from the top. Just then a hostess appeared, called him a Scientist and addressed him to shut his laptop and pull his seat forward. The plane took off and after a brief exchange of pleasantries I came to know that he was a Scientist at Stanford and did a lot of bird watching. He was an ornithologist which was not that common a field to encounter.
I asked him simple questions about birds, his likes and dislikes about them, the way they migrate, about his studies, surveys and contribution to human life, role of environmental pollution and diseases, extinction of birds, scope and limitations of bird watching, wild life photography, his frequent travels to various countries, his life as a gypsy as he had traveled more than 60 countries - to which he went copiously answering each and every aspect related to my query with utmost interest and earnestness. It was nice to hear him talk. He showed some of his pictures of the different birds shot in the wild looking at which I was completely awestruck! I guess he talked for more than an hour on the same lines. He was radiant and open, open and flowing, filled with light that he generously shared through his words, smiles and gestures. Completely authentic and too young to be a scientist.
I walked out of the flight feeling like a million bucks - not only because he was highly competent at making me develop interest in his talks, but because he naturally knew how to make a layman understand the importance of his subject too, he knew how to add value to the moment, to our encounter – genuinely, just by wholly and truly being who he was. We talked and connected - it was easy - a simple being to being sharing, enriching.
I had a nice flight. God bless him and all the birds on the planet.
-Manasi
"if you're not willing to be changed by a place, there's no point in going."
1 comment:
I love how much we can learn from random people!
I used to be very very quiet before - but ever since I started to see how much of a difference poeple I don;t know have made in my life, I have started talking more :)
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