曝光台 注意防骗
网曝天猫店富美金盛家居专营店坑蒙拐骗欺诈消费者
manual of aircrafts at a Colaba
bookstore for Rs4. He soon headed for the
open gallery at the international airport
near terminal 1B (1A didn’t exist then) to
watch airplanes all night. “It was an intimidating
experience — the guard at the control
tower would wave the red-and-yellow-checkered
cloth to signal the arrival of the flight,”
he says nostalgically.
The budding planespotter persuaded the
airport authorities to give him permission to
watch and photograph airplanes right at the
tarmac. “I took a 15-day leave from my job at
the bank and spent all my days and nights at
the airport,” he smiles. D’ Silva sighs dramatically:
“We can’t dream of that now.”
Wadia has old vintage photographs of
planes that brought dignitaries. “I was allowed
to photograph only civil airplanes, but
the personnel at the airport were quite
chummy. They would wink and let me take
photographs of anything that could fly!”
He would also carefully record the registration
numbers of the planes he spotted. It’s
thrilling to note how many times one spots
the same aircraft, he points out. Or to spot an
airplane that has a registration number of a
vintage aircraft that is now defunct. He says
he has spotted planes with registration numbers
that earlier belonged to fighter aircraft
during the Second World War.
Over the years,Wadia’s hobby became his
profession as he became an aviation historian
and wrote for publications worldwide.
As for D’ Silva, he jokes that his first
brush with aircraft happened 28 years ago
when his first birthday cake was in the shape
of an airplane. He remembers the day in 1984
when his uncle took him to the Mumbai airport,
geared up with binoculars and notebooks.
He would sit for days and nights at his
aunt’s terrace near Milan subway, another
site where one can spot airplanes up close.
“In 2003 Quantas introduced direct flights to
Australia from Mumbai. Due to the weight of
the tank and passengers, the flight would
keep low right after takeoff and it was bliss
for a planespotter,” says D’ Silva.
He started photographing airplanes only
in 2006 just before the Air Sahara flight
crashed. D’Silva had photographed the illfated
flight at 9pm the same night. The next
day, when he went to the site of the crash, he
found other aviation hobbyists there and
that’s when he thought of forming a group.
Pallav Desai, 20, and Yash Rajgor, 19 may
be the youngest members of the group but
aren’t any less clued in. Rajgor was among
those who photographed the Airbus A380
that came to Mumbai in 2007. Today, along
with D’ Silva, he regularly sends his photographs
to the website www.jetphotos.net, dedicated
to aviation enthusiasts. He spends
days and nights near Jari Mari, clicking photographs
both in the chaos of the day and
quiet of the night.
Desai wishes aviation photography in
Mumbai could enjoy the status it does in
Heathrow, Osaka, Toronto, Frankfurt and
Miami. In those places, specific spots at the
airport are meant to accommodate
planespotters, “unlike us who constantly
have to look over our shoulders for the cops.”
To join Aviation India, contact Sean
D’ Silva on 9920023892
g_kareena@dnaindia.net
Last week’s best
The colour of the handcuffs does not
match that of my dress.
—Gopal Menon
“No! I dont want to call my Lawyer,
I want to call my Stylist”
— Ankit Khandelwal
Oh no! I’ll have to get size zero
handcuffs too!
—Subodh Chaubey
The above three winning caption
writers will each receive a copy of
Thanks for The Memories published by
HarperCollins.
Match your wits
with DNA's cartoonist
Manjul. Email
your caption (along
with your complete
address) for this cartoon
to thinksunday@
gmail.com
with ‘Caption This’ in
the subject line by
Friday. The three
best entries will
each receive a copy
of Jesus by Deepak
Chopra published by HarperCollins India.
CAPTION THIS!
AND WIN A BOOK
River rafting
Last week we featured the adventure group
Nature Knights on our page. They have plenty of
events lined up for the coming season. Join them
for a river rafting session in the Kundalika river
on July 5. The group also has a number of other
excursions including a trek to Kohoj Fort on July
中国航空网 www.aero.cn
航空翻译 www.aviation.cn
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