Mumbai Airport, like many other airports, displays a complete array of emotions at all times. There is however, a noticeable difference in the emotions being expressed at the lower deck of arrivals and the upper deck of departures.
At my last visit to the airport to pick up my sister-in-law and nephew, I got a chance to observe the behaviour of people at these two decks. Somehow I could relate the feelings being expressed by them to those we feel through two distinct phases of our lives.
Take the arrivals terminal for instance. It’s always vibrating with these under currents of hope, excitement, anxiousness, surprise etc. People waiting with arms open wide for the new entrants into their life, whether for a few days or for a longer period. Something like what we go through during the initial years of our life.
Everything is new, being experienced for the first time. Everything is arriving into our lives. There is hope, excitement, anxiousness at every corner. We want to embrace every moment with arms open wide. Like the people waiting for hours for their loved ones to walk through those gates, we wait eagerly for all the rich experiences that life has in store for us. We want to grab every opportunity, we can get our hands on. Seems like a typical scene at the arrivals terminal, right.
Let’s move upwards to the departures. A lot of gloominess, sadness, tears over the parting of loved ones. You see a lot of goodbye wishes being exchanged, sad faces in cars driving away after having bid farewell to their near and dear ones.
A lot like what people go through, in the latter years of their life. Life seems to be a string of goodbyes – goodbyes to ageing family, goodbyes to children finding their own nests, goodbye to youth and good health, goodbye to adventures and career aspirations; goodbye to the unmarked items on your bucket list. One becomes like the seasoned traveler who has roamed the world and is now content with just guiding others at the start of their journeys. Behaviour very often noticed at the departure terminal.
I guess one can't choose or change the emotions they feel at each of these decks. It's standard, it's sacrosanct. However, according to me, what one can choose is, when to steer away from the arrivals' terminal and drive towards the departures.
Someone so rightly coined the adage – 'Time does not wait for anyone, it flies away……' - after all, our lives represent the typical Airport.
