Travels with an open book on my lap
1. View of clouds from an Air Plane | 2. ‘Compartment C Car 293’ by Edward Hopper
I am half asleep while cruising at 35,000 feet above the earth’s crust at a speed of 920 kilometers per hour. On my lap is Bruce Chatwin’s ‘Anatomy of Restlessness’, with my finger marking my progress. There is a slight chill from the air-conditioning, and I am lulled by that special calm of being alone among many, and of traveling while sitting still. I hear the sound of someone else turning a page.
Looking across at a clean-shaven man in his 40s holding a paperback with gem-stone studded fingers, I search his face for hints of what he might be reading... is it a murder mystery involving identical twins? Or the story of a family struggling to survive through a global epidemic? Or is he reading tips from ...