In his six years, little Sunny had seen planes quite a few times. Standing on the ground and gazing skywards, he would be thrilled every time he caught sight of one, far away in the horizon.
On Saturday morning, when he caught sight of one, he could not believe his eyes. Far from the speck in the sky, this thing was huge and was right in front of him. Had it fallen from the sky, Sunny wondered!
And then he saw the wheels, not of the aircraft, but those of a trailer. The plane seemed to be riding on it. Little Sunny stopped in his tracks and like him, others too came to a standstill - for a midsized aircraft was stranded right on the middle of GT Karnal Road. For those who have witnessed traffic snarls on city's roads, this was indeed a sight of a lifetime.
The aircraft was being transported from the scrap yard of the Capital's Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport to Alipur on a trailer. It was meant to be turned into a one-of-a-kind museum for the countless devotees of Shirdi Sai Baba. But even before it could woo devotees at its new home, the plane ended up being a spectacle.
The huge plane made movement difficult for the trailer and ended up slowing traffic on the GT Karnal Road, causing a snarl. It forced the police to park the vehicle on a bylane to resume normalcy of traffic.
From nine in the morning when the trailer was sidelined by the police, till late in the evening when they were planning to get the vehicle back on track, the sight of the aircraft transformed the dusty bylane into a picnic spot. People were selling ice-creams while others were supplying lemon water as people milled around to catch a glimpse of the aircraft.
People came from nearby villages and motorists plying the road also took their time as they soaked up on the rare sight. Rakesh Dixit, one of the Sai Baba trust members involved in the purchase of the aircraft, said they wanted to build a unique museum.
'Whenever we devotees are on a pilgrimage to Shirdi, most of us share a unique experience of feeling pious as we board the plane. We decided to share this experience with other Sai Baba devotees by gifting them this unique airplane museum,' Dixit said.
He claimed that once the 'airplane museum' is ready for the public, fitted with wings and nozzle, it would become the first ever such religious museum of its kind.
'The plane will take around two to three months to be ready and once it is done, we expect to attract devotees from not only India, but from around the world,' he said.
The plane started on its journey from IGI a few minutes after midnight and had made most of the way by 9 in the morning. But trouble started in the morning when the sight of the plane created a traffic snarl with curious drivers stopping by the wayside to catch a glimpse of it.
'This is a unique case of goods transport and it would have helped if the owners had applied for permission beforehand,' a Delhi Police official said.
For many of the onlookers, though, it was a rare opportunity to watch a plane from such close distance and they took full advantage of it by clicking pictures with the aircraft.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk
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