Lessons in management by an Eagle – 7.
Hi Friends
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Thanks a lot for reading my blog and also for those nice comments and queries if my stories are true incidents.
Okay, we have a very interesting story today about my recent trip to Jaipur , which is a dessert town in Rajasthan; India . The trip started at 4.30 am from Delhi and we reached Jaipur at around 10 am in the morning , looking like “Tandoori Chicken” or ‘’ Roasted Chicken” when we got off the tin box – train called “Jammu Express” and the temperature outside was almost 50 degree centigrade. On my way to the Airport – I could see the dust rise up in spirals and was feeling very excited about the decision to come to Jaipur for flying a Glider.
As you know in India – it’s very hot in the month of May & June and in North India we have something called “The Loo” – no way connected to the washroom Loo- This Loo is a heat –wave condition where the hot dry winds blow across the dessert and culminate in dust storms – called “Andhi” .Very interesting thing to watch in a dust storm is the way the warm air spirals upward carrying all sorts of paper objects and dust.
The conditions were perfect for Gliding and we got permission to take off and were soon at an altitude of two thousand feet above sea level. My eyes started looking around for my friend – the soaring birds and cumulus clouds. There was an Eagle flying over the Jaigarh Fort , which is in the tail end of the Aravalli Hills and is built on top of the hill known as ” Cheel Ka Teela” or Hill Of Eagles. I was feeling lucky – because to gain altitude , the Glider – which is basically an unpowered aircraft – needs to keep circling tightly within a “Thermal”. “Thermals” are basically columns of rising air created by heating of the earths surface.As the air near the ground is heated by the sun – it expands and rises. So our friend – the Eagle was soaring and we quickly started following the Eagle in circles.
Now the interesting part of the story , is that the Eagle was friendly and even made eye contact and intutively started guiding us. All of a sudden there was a dust storm on the ground due to intense heat. Our Glider rapidly gained altitude and we kept on soaring higher and higher along with the Eagle ;soon we were surrounded with lightening and I told my co-pilot that we had made a record for rising up rapidly and were being photographed by the God’s and the flash bulbs were all around us – my co-pilot was not amused as we could not land in a dust storm and at the same time we were getting into a “Cloud Suck” where you get significant lift due to “thermals’ under the base of the Cumulus Clouds.
The Altimeter in our Glider showed our altitude at ten thousand feet and we had heard of pilots dying at twentyfive thousand feet in similar “Cloud Suck” situations due to intense cold and lack of oxygen.
The scene was quite scary with the hailstones pounding our Glider and we kept our eyes on the Eagle who helped us by showing the way to quickly escape the powerful Cumulonimbus clouds by soaring higher and expanding the circle of flight – till the outer periphery of the thermal was reached and then using Airbrakes and spiralling downwards to break away from the powerful “Cloud Suck”.
However it was not all that simple , because it was natures fury and the only thing to follow was not the operators manual or pilots training but careful observation of a vetran pilot – the Eagle.
We escaped a very dangerous situation with the help of the Eagle and were able to land safely as soon as the storm subsided.
Eagles are admired the world over as living symbols of power ; freedom and transcendence and interestingly the Eagle is used in the Coat of Arms of many nations as their National Symbol.
My friends ; I learnt a few things in life from the Eagle which I wish to share with you – The Eagle flies at high altitude and it does it alone – the lesson is – if ever you want to do something great in life, learn to be alone and when you are with people , share your time with people of same ambition and desires.
The Eagle has very strong vision and the bird’s eye view can capture objects from an amazing distance and it does not back out till it’s prey is captured. Similarly we should stay focussed and never allow dissenting views to deter us from achieving the vital goals of our life.
The Eagle loves gathering clouds and in fact thrives in the midst of storms; it is the only bird which loves the storm and uses the pressure of the raging storm to soar the clouds and glide- similarly we can use the storms of our lives to rise to greater heights. Challenges should be stepping stones to success- like the Eagle we should learn to rest and soar during the times of storms in our lives.
Another thing which I learnt about the Eagle is that when its old wings become heavy and difficult to fly – it has two options of either dying or going through a painful process of almost five months on a lonely retreat where it plucks out all its feathers till it’s bare and sharpens it’s beak by hitting against the mountain rocks – then it takes it’s famous rebirth to fly higher – similarly we need to take breaks to shed off old habits and things which add no value to our lives – we need to discard what is worthless and renew ourselves as the freshness gained from such practice improves productivity.
There are many other interesting things about the Eagle – like the way they make their nest or mate and everything about the bird reveals something new and different from where we can learn a lot of things.
Thanks a lot my friends for reading my blog and shall appreciate your valuable feedback before the stories are published as a book .
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