Day 71 - A mad dash to the boarding gate; Where is Emma (the book) going?

29 Apr 2017 100daysofwriting · airports · austen · books · emma · flights

I am now in Chennai. 1 mad dash to the boarding gate later. The fact that boarding gates close 25 minutes before departure totally skipped my mind. I was strolling happily through security when Indigo ground staff called me on my phone and asked me to rush to the gate as the flight was going to leave!

I was the last person on the plane, and as soon as I walked in, they announced on the PA “Boarding Complete”. It was a slightly harrowing experience, but CCU is not a large enough airport and I am fairly familiar with it, so it wasn’t too harrowing.

I safely made the flight to Chennai, and in the past few months although I have come across several articles about a variety of subjects. One of the most eye catching was this New York Times article about the de-escalation training that crew members go through! It was such an eye opener that such training programs exist in the first place.

“My job is to create a situation where people can comply with me and still save face,” he said. “If they do, I won just because they got an explanation.”

There was also a reference to a book, Cruising Attitude by Heather Poole. At 262 pages, it’s fairly small and I can hope to read it. I have absolutely no clue when, or how, yet.

Emma (Jane Austen) is the book I have been struggling to finish ever since a long time now. I am 2 books behind schedule on my Goodreads 40 books this year challenge. Yesterday, being a travel day gave some good progress. It was still not enough. I am two volumes of the book in, and this is the third volume. Everyone has been sufficiently hated by Emma, everyone has sufficiently harassed Harriet, and adored F Churchill, and adored/hated Elton. Where is the story going and how is it going to come to an end?

I would bet that Emma ends up falling in love and eventually marrying one of the people. Frank seems to be the obvious choice, Knightley is interestingly in love with the idea of Emma but not with the person herself, it appears. Jane Fairfax is a crazy puzzle piece that fits somewhere. I am not sure where though.

All in all, it will be an exciting finish because seldom have books left the reader in such a dark alley, after making it 60% to their destination!

POST #71 is OVER