How many times have you seen the earth from a distance of 36,000 feet? That's the height any respectable jet airplane attains. Usually, on a plane trip, there is not much to see. There are too many clouds and sometimes the airhostesses request passengers to roll the window shutters down. Most often, there is just a big sea or ocean underneath the plane and because I can't swim, I never feel like looking down at square miles upon square miles of very deep water. This July 4th weekend, I flew across USA, from Philadelphia in the northeastern corner to Los Angeles in the southwestern corner of USA. A total distance of 2402 air miles. Luckily for me on this journey, it was neither cloudy nor did any of the other passengers want me to pull the windows shut. I had an amazing view of the vast tracts of land that makes up USA. From high up in the sky, life on earth has a completely different hue.

The first leg of the trip from Philadelphia to Chicago was an hour and 25 minutes long. My flight was supposed to leave the Philadelphia airport at 8:05 am. Instead, we sat on the tarmac waiting for a very important visitor. The President of USA, Bill Clinton was visiting Philadelphia and the rules said that no other flight could land or take off while the First Plane with the First Visitor was landing. The First Plane that we all saw land was a small 80 seater and not the huge Boeing 747 that everyone was expecting. Even the smaller plane looked impressive in its white and blue colors but the amazing thing was that there were no crowds near the airport, no extra security, and no cops standing around looking fierce. In short, none of the typical "bundobust" that accompanies any important politician's visit in India. If the pilot hadn't told us the cause for the delay, nobody would have been any wiser about the President's visit. A solitary limousine made its way to Air Force Two (the little plane can't be Air Force One) and we assumed that the President made his way safely into it. Soon afterwards, about 40 minutes late, our flight took off. As the plane rose above the airport, over the steaming trees, and early morning rush hour madness on the expressways, I felt relaxed. I didn't have to go to work and I had a lazy 7 hours to look forward to.

As we flew across the 300 odd miles width of Pennsylvania, tall city buildings gave way to the neat suburban bungalows, these in turn moved out of sight to reveal huge farms and rural scenes of grain elevators, huge cows (because I could see them even from so far above in the sky), and corn fields. Peaceful! As we passed over Harrisburg, I could see the imposing white structure of the Pennsylvania State Capitol. Then the airhostess came by with food and drink and I busied myself with some of that. As we flew over northern Pennsylvania, the countryside gave way to total wilderness. Tall trees and small rivers. As I passed into a state of daydreaming and sleepiness, suddenly, the pilot announced that we would soon be landing in Chicago.

As I looked down over the great American Midwest, the extremely symmetrical fields struck me. Perfect squares and rectangles of green, gray, brown and black, growing corn, wheat and other crops. It was like flying over a huge blanket. Then we were on the outskirts of Chicago. Miles upon miles of old houses called brownstones swung into view. All of them ordered neatly in rows and columns. The high rises of Chicago moved closer (was that tall dark building the Sears tower?) and then without warning, the magnificent Great Lake Michigan appeared. I felt strange as the plane flew in an arc over the lake getting into position for landing. It looked as vast as an ocean but not a single wave marred the greenish blue surface. There was no beach at all. Weird. The rest of Chicago looked quite boring. I didn't see any building that looked the least bit interesting from the air. O'Hare airport in Chicago is the world's busiest. This morning was either a slow day or I was still half asleep. The airport did not look busy at all. As our plane made its way to the gate, it passed the international flights section. Amid the British Airways, Air France, and SAS planes, the sight of the Air India Maharaja made me feel very homesick. I suddenly felt like abandoning my flight to LA and sneaking aboard the Air India plane.

The flight from Chicago to LA was the longer leg of almost four hours. The plains of the American Midwest gave way to the marvelous Rocky Mountains near Denver, Colorado. The mountains in the distance, partly obscured by clouds, looked cold and dry. They were snow covered even in summer. Then we passed over the dry mud flats and canyons of Arizona. The Grand Canyon is an awe-inspiring sight even from the air. The steep walls of the canyons and the dry valley at the bottom looked extremely uninviting. As did the Mojave desert in Nevada. It seemed that we were no longer over the earth I knew but over some other planet hostile to human life, maybe even a lunar landscape. For some reason this extremely desolation depressed me and made me long for people, for crowds, and trees. My cousin, whom I was visiting in LA, planned to drive to the Grand Canyon and I made my mind up to tell him not to bother.

We passed into California and the landscape changed again. It became more temperate and trees started appearing in greater numbers. I was glad. Mountains surround LA itself but the constant haze that hangs over the city makes it difficult to see them clearly. LA is plagued by disasters of all kinds, earthquakes, landslides, fires, floods, and the list goes none. But right now, there was nothing of that sort occurring. Under the bright sunlight, LA with its palm trees and low slung houses looked most attractive. Almost every medium sized house had a swimming pool. I twisted my neck around looking for the giant HOLLYWOOD sign that is arranged on one of the hills, but I couldn't see it at all. As I got out of the plane, I could almost feel the hot dry air even though the aero-bridge was air-conditioned. As I entered the LAX airport, there was scaffolding everywhere and all the people seemed either Hispanic, Japanese or Indian. All announcements and signs were in English and Spanish. It was almost like going to a foreign country. Like USA was losing control and Mexico was gaining it. I looked forward to exploring the city.

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