Today was the date of my Indian Aviation
Medical Exam. How exciting! I have been waiting for this day for
awhile now; never thought it would actually get here. But here it
is. For those of you wondering why I am so excited for a medical
exam I'll tell you. It's not necessarily the exam, but rather the
trip and overnight in Bangalore that I'm looking forward too. One of
the many rumors that floats around from time to time, one that
actually has some merit to it, is the possibility of an aircraft base
in Bangalore. When I received my contract from SpiceJet, this was
one of the three bases mentioned. So far, bases in Hyderabad and
Chennai have been created. So this trip was one way to scope out the
landscape and area to see if Bangalore would be a good fit for me.
Anyway, because I did the medical
today, I'll tell you about that too. It's a little mundane and
boring, but I'll tell you anyway. The exam takes place at the Air
Force Base in Bangalore. It's about a hour drive from the hotel that
we stay. The procedure is to wake up and leave the hotel by 06:30AM,
which entails getting up at 06:25 and rushing to the lobby, to get to
the base by 07:30. Then we check in at the guard station. They
issue us “visitor” passes, after they verify our passport
numbers, and take all our
electronics. Phones, laptops, cameras; things like that. I just
left my whole bag with them and took just my paperwork. Only Expats
get the medical done at the Air Force Base, but we have to have a
company chaperone, so they usually send another pilot to go with us.
This time it was a terrific FO from the 737, Saurabh Singh, based out
of Delhi.
The
day was pretty easy. We floated around doing little tests here and
there. There were about 7 different tests all together. The info
that I received lead me to believe that I would do the same tests as
I did in the pre-medical test, which took place in Delhi in the
beginning of February. But once again, as with many things here in
India, the real life experience didn't match the info. The only two
things that were common between the test's were the trip to the
bathroom with the cup and a blood test. Oh, and I guess one more
thing; sitting. There was a great deal of that. That was actually
the largest consumer of our time. I'll have you know that I didn't
waste that time like so many people would have. No, I deduced that
it was a good time to catch up on a little napping; do some reading;
a little more napping; walk to the washroom; and do a little more
napping. Time well spent.
Things
are going pretty well around here. The minor things still sometimes
drive me crazy and the lack of organization is frustrating as well.
Things that I have been trying to figure out how to deal with. I'm
slowly dealing and getting better. So imagine my surprise to find
myself deep in trouble the other day! Yes, can you believe it! The
crazy thing is, is that it all started so innocently; like many of my
actions do these days. Now, I will confess that I sometimes, I
repeat sometimes, not all the time mind you, seek out a little
trouble and try to cause some commotion. But I never try to do bad things;
just tease and have fun mostly. So anyway, my trouble started with
the annoying sound of a hungry mosquito flying around my head trying
to bite me. Well I couldn't have that. Who knows, that mosquito
could be carrying malaria or the West Nile virus or something worse!
So I squashed it. Flat. Then I noticed another. So I squashed that
one flat as well. Soon I was squashing them left and right. The
palm of my hand was sore and red from the constant and repeated slaps
to the wall, but I didn't care. I was in my element. No mosquito
was safe from my wrath and fury! Things were looking pretty bleak
for the mosquito population in that room until my FO walked in. “What are you
doing?” She asked me.
“Pancaking
mosquitoes.” I replied.
“What?”
“Squishing
mosquitoes.”
A
look of horror spread across her face. “Killing them?”
“Yep.”
“No!
Stop! You can't!”
“Why
not? They're driving me crazy and trying to bite me.”
“No,
you can't; you're not supposed to.”
“Why
not?”
“Because
you're not supposed to kill anything intentionally.”
I
didn't see that one coming at all. Took me just a second to reply. “Sorry, I didn't know that mosquitoes
fell into the protected category.” I thought for a few more seconds and then
asked, “how about flies? Are they protected too?”
“Yes.”
“Even
if they try to bite me?”
“Yes.”
"I can't claim self defense?"
"No."
“Oh.......OK. You know I'll probably just wait until you leave the room."
"I'm not leaving now!"
"Oh.......OK."
I
guess everything falls into the protected category. Good to know for next time!
