But no one returned, to clean up, fuel up or anything — not that day, or the next day, not for a week or a month or a year.
Illustration/Uday Mohite
Once upon a time there was an airplane. He was a young Maharaja, he was agile and ambitious, he wanted to fly through the clouds, and speed past the sun, he wanted to be a warrior in the sky, he wanted to lead the fleet, the 737-200 batch of 1982. He was shiny, the head of his class. But surprisingly, while his batchmates were given exotic destinations, he was given post and cargo duty.
He ferried telegrams and posts and packages and couriers and some passengers, mostly postmen from Bombay to Calcutta — he didn’t have ‘connections’ like some of his ‘batchmates’, so he couldn’t object — but he was patriotic. “Let me be the best I can be,” he justified to himself: he was turned into a workhorse and he became a workaholic. Bombay to Calcutta soon became Mumbai to Kolkata, Santa Cruz Airport to Dum Dum Airport soon transformed to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport Mumbai to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Airport; 1982 became 2012.
Then one day in 2012, a strange thing happened.
He had just landed at Kolkata Airport with his regular bunch of posts and letters. He had been parked, the passengers disembarked, and the packages were removed.
But no one returned, to clean up, fuel up or anything — not that day, or the next day, not for a week or a month or a year.
It wasn’t like he was Robinson Crusoe, like a castaway. There was action all around Kolkata Airport, but he was stranded, parked in the far corner in a distant hangar as life passed on all around him — planes taking off and landing, passengers walking past him, aero bridges being connected in his peripheral vision, pitying his vintage. He felt like vinyl in a bluetooth age, letter writing in an era of email, he was white clouds in blue sky in a time of iCloud. He soon realised no one was coming back; he had been abandoned and forgotten.
He was Bengali, his full name was AI Basu Bandopadyaya aka Bubbles aka Boeing 737 200. His heart beat for West Bengal, he began to culturalise himself – he feasted on a diet of rosogollas and Ray movies, he watched the Pather Panchali trilogy multiple times and Ritwik Ghatak’s slow burners. He had always loved Bengali babu Kishore Kumar aka Abbas Kumar Ganguly, he had a small Murphy Radio, he had cherished songs about travel and love, Zindagi Ka Safar, Saamne Yeh Kaun Aaya, Chingari Koi Bhadke, Main Shayar Badnaam. Thirteen years passed, 2012 became 2025.
And one day he was noticed, he felt overjoyed, he was getting on in age, but he felt optimistic.
Air India first refused to take responsibility for him, but finally bought him at rock bottom rates — there was talk of him being carted away in a trailer 1900 km to Bengaluru.
He felt fit to fly. But they did a 3D echo, a stress test and a thorough lipid profile. It yielded high cholesterol and unchecked high triglycerides; nothing a few tablets wouldn’t sort, but they insisted on road travel.
Then one day, he received a letter, a handwritten one from the Indigo Airlines high command. It read, “There is total disarray and chaos in air travel. These are desperate times, you have experience, you don’t need pilots, or co-pilots, you’re old school, we need your services asap. SOS help.”
And he realised, finally, his time had come. India needed him, Indigo Airlines needed him, irate passengers needed him. AI Basu Bandopadhaya aka Bubbles aka Boeing 737 200 was ready to fly, ready for duty.
So he was sold by Air India to Indigo Airlines – he shrugged off old age and obsolescence, he underwent a little botox, got some bee-stung lips, had a minor bypass and did some bicep curls. He indulged in box breathing, got a manicure-pedicure, his BP and Blood sugar were normalised, he did some test flights.
On Sunday, December 7, 2025, a brand new souped-up plane, 6E 007 aka Bubbles, took off from Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose airport. “I’m Boeing Boeing Gone,” he whispered to himself.
Rahul daCunha is an adman, theatre director/playwright, photographer and traveller. Reach him at rahul.dacunha@mid-day.com
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