A memorable day

“Houma Tower, this is 6603 X ray requesting take off from PHI north ramp.”
“6603 X ray, proceed, maintain altitude below one thousand five hundred feet”
“Roger, will fly below one thousand five hundred feet”

It was my birthday and I was sitting next to the pilot in a Bell helicopter and listening in (or talking to the pilot) on the headphone. Destination – Garden Bank 72 and Ship Shoal 332 in the Gulf of Mexico. I got up at 5:00 AM and left home at 5:30 to fly to New Orleans. There I got into this yellow bird to head out to the open ocean. “Have you seen the ocean?” (Saagar dekhisaa? – some Assamese poet penned this long time ago). Yes, there was a time when it was a distant dream, but now I have seen it million times so it seems. Many mornings I had seen the pretty sunrise out of the blue ocean. Other times it was a lonesome feeling in the middle of nowhere like a castaway. On those pretty sunny days when I flew, it appeared like I was in the belly of a yellow bird flying inside a huge blue sphere.

It was cloudy and foggy this morning. Visibility was poor. However, these birds fly anyway. Thanks to GPS. I had no clue which way was east or west. I had faith on that pilot and those gadgets. The young pilot was from Phoenix, AZ where the scenery was nothing like south Louisiana marshland that we were flying over. There is no “ocean front property” in Arizona.

Suddenly through the fog we saw the monstrous yellow structure called a platform. Oil and Gas jargons make up this world that many have no clue. DMA, Suction pile, VRU, HPU, MCP, LACT, PLET, umbilical, I-tube, SCR, Christmas tree, Lay down head, A&R cable, ROV, Pig Trap, and what not. This is the world of black gold. This is the world we created to fetch that energy secretly hidden by nature. We produce and we consume insatiably resulting in advanced technology to conquer the inner space; resulting in greed, war, turmoil in the world for control of that energy.

We visited the platforms and my ongoing projects to bring more oil to these platforms. The yellow bird brought us back to New Orleans airport. Then we flew back home on a bigger bird (jet). As I went through the security, my cell phone rang. It was our older daughter from SFO wishing a happy birthday. When I got home (at 7:00 PM), I received the cutest and funniest ecard (A Tigger like cat singing a happy birthday and hoping to hang out many more years with me) from the younger daughter in NYC. Then there was Jonathan's birthday wish from Chicago. I even received some email greetings from friends from ERC (Enron Running Club) days - Cindy from Amsterdam, Karl from Baghdad. Karl is running Marine Corps Marathon next week. I am planning to do Houston Striders Half Marathon next weekend. I think I am three score and zero years young and perhaps stupid. I have not been running much. Who cares? Just do it. It has been a long, tiring, but memorable birthday. I wish a Happy birthday to all those who were born on this day.