Sit back, relax and stare at the map

You are sitting strapped to a chair helpless You can only make minimal movements If you try to stand up a sharp voice on a loudspeaker will tell you to sit down at once You cannot stretch your legs you canrsquot fold them under you You cannot lean back you cannot bend forward and there is no question of going to sleep For one it is terribly cold For two you donrsquot dare close your eyes for God knows what they will do to you thenYou can cry for help but there is no one to hear you You are invisibleNo human being should be in such a position You are suspended 30000 feet above the planet You will be shaken violently without warning like a rag doll for minutes on end Just as you are getting your breath back you will be dropped falling several thousand feet in secondsYou will endure these extreme punishments for at least seven hours but it has been known to go as high as 12 or 13 hoursThe words above describe a normal international flight in Economy Class in todayrsquos world It is one of the few situations in your life when your existence is in the hands of forces you neither understand nor control Your only two options are right above you a button to switch on a study light and another to get the stewardessrsquos attention She may or may not give itLetrsquos talk about Bombai Click the QR code above to join my WhatsApp group to share your Bombai stories for my bookmdashand perhaps answer some of my Bombai questionsWhat is the best way to get through this ordeal No need to guess FlightPath3D which provides inflight maps for over 90 airlines reported that about 68 per cent of todayrsquos passengers open the map on the seatback screens facing them About 20 per cent stare at the map throughout the flightDelta Air Lines says that 45 per cent of its passengers do this during flights making it the top content in its inflight entertainment package They find it more interesting than Hollywood Bollywood the latest Emmywinning movies Taylor Swiftrsquos newest album and the latest Superman releaseWe know human beings were born batshit crazy and are capable of casually doing lunatic things for no discernible reason But what kind of person would choose to spend seven hours or more staring at an animated map that shows a cartoon plane inching around the planetAnd whyIt began we are told in 2024 as a viral TikTok trend dubbed lsquorawdoggingrsquo slang for doing something with no buffers or comforts It challenged travellers to endure long flights with no entertainment no headphones no books just a flight map If you succeeded you were an aviation ninja with perfect mastery over mind and bodyYoung men many with sculpted gym bodies filmed themselves sitting like Buddhas in their seats using supreme mind power to stare at the flight tracker map Extreme practitioners skipped eating drinking water and even peeing pushing their mortal bodies to the limitTheir sagas went global on TikTok while scientists and philosophers debated their behaviour asking if they were heroes or fools One video was subtitled ldquoMy mind knows no limits I am operating in a differentspiritual realmrdquoIn a world where everything is overinterpreted and seen as more than it is psychologists talked about the phenomenon like it was cuttingedge detox Using more words than necessary business psychologist Danielle Haig said it represented ldquoa collective yearning for balance as people seek to reclaim their mental space and foster a deeper connection with their inner selvesrdquoldquoTheyrsquore idiotsrdquo says Dr Gill Jenkins a general practitioner who doubles as a medical escort in air ambulance work ldquoTheyrsquore risking dehydration and deep vein thrombosisrdquoNick Kosir known as the Dancing Weatherman on a TV channel was one of the early flyers to out themselves and regret it He said ldquoIt was awesome I just sat there stared straight ahead and didnrsquot do anything for like five hoursrdquo He posted a video of himself staring at a map and counting up to 1 million twiceHis manager said ldquoDude thatrsquos a serial killer traitrdquoThe truth is staring at the flight path is exactly what I have always done on long flights To understand why think of me as a frightened child enduring a nightmarish journey through a scary jungle in a car without headlights and asking from time to time ldquoAre we there yetrdquoMy mind churns with incremental data Somewhere below us is Mt Ararat Wasnrsquot that where they found Noahrsquos Ark I always thought Bosporus was spelled like phosphorus with an h The plane just moved another millimetre We dropped 3870 feet mdash that was scary Could it be an engine failure No you idiot that was clear air turbulence This is not your swan song We just entered Slovenian airspace Melania Trump was born here The temperature in London is 13deg The pubs will be closed when I get thereWe stare at the flight path because wersquore counting the minutes till we land Wersquore scared of flyingThatrsquos it in a nutshellYou can reach C Y Gopinath at cygopigmailcomSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper