ON AIR. 

Packing up the bags, her eyes constantly glanced at the clock, making sure she wasn't late. The traffic was like the politics. Unstable, unpredictable and always lagging. Her phone charge showed her a 100%, making a smile wrap around her lips.
"Have you taken your passport and ticket," her mother asked for the hundredth time.
"Yes ma, I've got them," she said as she locked the bag.
"You sure it is your passport?"
Slowly losing her temper, she pulled out her hand bag and took out a small black book. "See," Sunita Nair Dhwani. I think I am Dhwani. What do you think ma?" 
"That's you," her mother laughed. "I don't want you to get lost or confused when you are in that airport."
"Ma!" She cried out. "I am 23. Not 3. And this is not my first time really, so quit bothering me." Her eyes darted to the clock again. "Few more minutes left."
"Why don't you leave now?" Sunita asked. "You dont want to get stuck in the traffic."
"I wont get stuck in the traffic. I'll go in few minutes."
"Sweetheart, you cant trust anything here. The road is madness. So why not leave now rather than be a victim?"
"If you want me to leave, fine, I'll go," she said, rolling her suitcase to the verandah.
"It's not that..." Sunita began. 
"It is definitley what it is. You want me out of your hair!" Dhwani yelled out. Without saying a goodbye, she walked to the taxi stand.

"It's a good thing you are early madam," the driver said. "There will be a parade now soon by the NCC kids. You would have missed your flight."
"But there was nothing in the newspaper," she replied. "Where is the fun in letting everything know," he answered back with a wink. 

"This is flight B737-900ER and we are ready to take off," the captain announced. Enjoying the view outside the window, she rested her head on the headrest, listening to old malayalam songs her mother suggested before. She took out her phone and messaged her mother that she would soon be in air. 
As the flight took off, she felt her body heavy for a while. 'Laws of motion,' she told herself with a giggle. The city appeared smaller to her and soon, the great Travancore was just a small dot. 
"Angels come from the clouds," her mother had told her when she was seven. like any innocent child, she believed her. Every night, she would look up at the grey clouds in the black sky with white spots. Shades of black, her father would tell her. Now, being on air for not the first or the fifth time, she still looked out the window, looking for the angels. 
"Veg or non-veg mam?" The air hostess broke her moment with her past.
"Non-veg," she replied as she pulled down the tray. 
The packet had raw rice and chicken that looked funny. She missed her ma's home made pulav and butter chicken. In that moment, she fell homesick. Her eyes fell on a mother feeding her child, and then she realised how hard it was for her mother to raise her, especially with all the travelling. If only I could call her... she wondered.

"Have a nice day," the hostess told her as she stepped out of the plane. Her sim wouldn't work here, she knew for sure. Hell, it didnt work properly even in her country. Checking out with he baggage, she ran for the telephone booth. 
"Hello?" Her mother's eager voice roared in the speaker. 
"I love you ma," Dhwani said with a smile. And then, the pennies kept on falling into the phonebox.