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Quest
Learning to fly
At last, the day had come to go para sailing. I never thought the day would actually come. The next morning one of my friends telephoned and the information was like a bolt from the blue, because I wasn't even prepared for that. I washed my uniform and made all the arrangements for the next day in a hurry. It was midnight when I slept.
The next morning my mother woke me up at 5 a.m. I had a bath, wore my uniform, read the newspaper and had my breakfast. I left at 6.45 a.m. and reached the Naval Base by 7.15 a.m. We had been told to report at the main gate. Two permanent army officers came and led us into the airport. We were brought to the runway and our instructor found that the wind was not in a favourable direction. He made a demonstration of para sailing using a dummy and when the wind became favourable, he called out one of the cadets and it happened to be me.
He explained the procedures to me and I was a little tense. But my instructor said, "Don't worry, you keep running and you will be raised up automatically." These words reassured me and I gained confidence.
The white kerchief was shown and the Jeep started moving slowly. When the rope was tight enough to pull me, I started running. The next moment, the situation became terrible. The Jeep was pulling me forward and the parachute was pulling me backwards. I struggled to run with the speed of the Jeep. But I could not fly because I had fallen and was being dragged along by the Jeep. Even after three attempts I could not fly and in those three attempts had two big falls.
At last, I was able to fly in the fourth attempt. And to my surprise, after a few steps I had been lifted up in the air and I got a real aerial view of the Naval Base. After a few minutes in the air, I came down safely. Twenty-four cadets, including me, had come for the expedition and three of us were injured. We were taken to the hospital in the Naval Base and given first aid.
We had a good lunch of chicken biryani. We packed the parachutes and the accessories in to two big bags and left the place in a few minutes. I boarded a bus and reached home at 7.30 p.m. and described the thrilling experience to my mother and brother.
Bino P Job.
Kochi: Darul Uloom H.S. School
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