Jhapa — It had only been three days since the news broke that a plane flying from Ahmedabad, India to London had crashed just 32 seconds after takeoff. Even before this incident, I had witnessed a similar plane accident.

It was last year, on Saun 9 (late July). I had gone to Kathmandu Airport to travel to Bhadrapur. Hearing the news of a Surya Airlines accident inside the airport left me startled.

I couldn’t mentally recover from these two incidents. And yet, I had to travel to China.

It was Asar 1 (mid-June). Midnight. A China Southern flight carrying about 200 passengers, including me, cut through Kathmandu’s sky, heading toward Beijing, the capital of China. Our transit city was Guangzhou.

Since this was my first long international flight, I felt both fear and excitement. I tried to sleep, but turbulence, fellow passengers, and the constant movement of the air hostesses disrupted my rest. Some of my travel companions, however, slept soundly. Satendra Jabegu, a journalist from Ilam, joked, “Whether in a car or a plane, I fall asleep immediately.”