I've spent about 25 years of my life spent in Mangalore-my hometown. Overtime, I may have flown out of here over a hundred times at the very least. This number may have been crossed as I fly frequently but I've never caught a bird's eye view of my city before. Luckily today I was able to do it by fluke and I have a few thoughts to share.
Mangalore is situated on the western coastline of India. It's a Southern city that is popular for many things. It is located just off the western ghats, a long mountain range that runs parallel to the western coast. These mountains are older the Himalaya itself and the city dates back historically as early as 3rd Century BC.
It's famous for being a great educational hub on the western seaboard and people come from all over the country and many foreigners also study here. Mangalorean cuisine is diverse and there's a whole variety of option available here. From vegans to non-vegetarians, everyone will find themselves at home quickly with a huge appetite here!
In all these years of flying with a window seat, I've missed a full viewing of my city. This is because the commonly used flight paths out of the city usually have the planes heading towards the Middle-East immediately after take-off or circle-clockwise to head North towards Mumbai or East towards Bangalore, Hyderabad or Chennai.
Today, I was on a SpiceJet ATR aircraft and on the window seat. Infact, I flew on the same flight 6 days ago and yet missed these views. However, today I got to view my beautiful city. Mangalore infact, had a massive green cover. In the past decade it has reduced a lot. Those days, it would seem as though we were landing in the midst of a full-blown rain-forest.
The city has a table-top runaway and we've had a major air crash (pilot error) once. It can seem a bit dangerous to land here during the monsoon season owing to heavy rains and turbulence. I've never really seen the length of the runway until today. When you look at the existing green cover, it does feel like we took off from middle of a forest!
A decade ago you could barely see any buildings around the airport, let alone any tall buildings in the city. The airport is only 15 minutes drive from the city and under 10 minutes from my home. The population has doubled here to over 700,000 residents and that shows in the increased number of construction activities in and around the city.
The two rivers that converge with the Arabian Sea are Nethravathi and Gurpur Rivers. But the highlight was seeing the entire length of the main portion of the city. You can view it below.
The best part was seeing the housing society I reside in. Infact if the same picture was shot with a hi-res DSLR, I would've been able to spot my rooftop in the picture below as we're at a low altitude here. My residence is in the lower portion of the picture, closer to where the two major roads converge.
But if you were to ask me about a favourite recent memory of flying into Mangalore, then it's from when we were descending over the western ghats on a A320 towards Mangalore from Bangalore. I caught a glimpse of the beautiful and rich green peaks of western ghats peaking out through the clouds!
They were all simply magnificent! Karnataka has two high peaks in Southern-India of around 1800-1950 mts and the greenery was just amazing to view even if from a distance. Flying can be quite interesting if you know what to do when you're stuck up there for a while I suppose!
This is how I felt when we landed in Bangalore and I couldn't wait to jot these thoughts down and share these pictures with you. If you have any pictures from flying in/out of your respective cities, feel free to post them in the comments below!
Here's a beautiful video on my city that deserves a watch!
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