Cebu

A friend of mine is likely to get married in the City of Cebu in Philippines. Another friend of mine got a job transfer to the City of Cebu, but in the last minute that friend was posted in Davao, Philippines. These 2 made me think about Cebu. 

Cebu province consists of a main island and more than 150 surrounding islands. The Cebu Province is located in the southern part of Philippines. The capital of Cebu Province is City of Cebu. It is the oldest city in that country and the first capital city. It is also the second largest metropolitan after Manila Metro. 

In the ancient days it was called the Cebu Rajanate, an Indianized version of Raja. According to legend, it was founded by Rajamuda Lumaya, a minor prince of Tamil Chola Dynasty. He was sent by the Chola Emperor in Tamil Nadu to establish a military base there. 

(I digress. When I was in high school, we used to study in history books how the Chola emperors sent their naval forces to Indochina, Indonesia, Malay Peninsula and other places and won. I and my friends used to make fun of this and say these were fake news. Now I realize they are not fake news.) (Now, per Ponniyin Selvan, we know Raja Raja Chola was stationed in Sri Lanka.) 

Later, Cebu province was occupied by Spanish, then the Americans, and then the Japanese and then Philippines became independent. 

Cebu was a major resistance center against the Marcos dictatorship. People of Cebu played a major role in the People Power Revolution that was responsible for the ouster of Marcos.

Cebu’s climate is tropical. It is a big tourist attraction. Popular tourist attractions are Whale Shark Watching, Water Sports Adventure, Sunset Cruise, and Cebu City Tour.

Female Pilots

I read a news item yesterday. I will tell you what it is at the end of this blog post because that is the punch line for this post. 

I have travelled all over the world with many airlines. I am not nervous when flying with female pilots. I have flown with many females as pilots. A few times with both Pilot and Co-pilot were females. 

My family has many flying crews. My own niece is a full-fledged commander (wearing 4 stripes on her sleeves and epaulets) for an airline company. 

Now a days, in many countries, even in Air Force there are female fighter pilots. USA, England, Russia, India, Pakistan, North Korea to name a few. There are other countries also that have female fighter pilots. 

I want to mention 2 (kind of) funny incidents. 

One time, I was flying from Salt Lake City to Chicago. The weather was very bad. This was pre 9/11. While boarding the plane I just looked inside the cockpit. I saw a female pilot on the left side. The plane took off. The weather was so bad even the flight attendants were asked to sit down. The plane was shaking violently for most of the flying time. 

I was on the aisle seat on a 3-seat row. The middle was occupied by a young lady and her husband in the window seat. They later told me it was their first time flying in a plane and going for their honeymoon. The lady was so nervous she held my hand tightly and told me how nervous she was. Her husband was also nervous but that was not visible. Flying time from SLC to CHI is 3 hours. An hour into the flight I could not stand that lady’s nervousness. I called the Flight Attendant and explained the situation. Asked the FA to give her a Screwdriver (Vodka and Orange Juice) with heavy on Vodka. She brought it and gave to the nervous passenger. She later calmed down. 

Finally, we landed in Chicago O’Hare. While deplaning, I told the honeymoon couple that the pilot of this aircraft was a female. The young lady said: Thank God, you did not tell us when we were in the air. I would have died.  I told her there was nothing to worry with females as pilots.

Here is the funny news I read yesterday. Someone wrote about the following actual incident.

Passenger: I see the pilot is a female. Is it safe to fly? 

Flight Attendant: Don’t worry sir. She is very experienced. 

Passenger: But she is a female. 

Flight Attendant: Sir, you don’t need a pxxxs to fly a plane. 

Passenger took his seat.