A flight to remember: Dayanidhi finds Rudy his ‘captain’ after MP duo’s official meeting

Central Chennai MP Dayanidhi Maran of DMK had one such memorable flight experience when one of his Parliament colleagues piloted the aircraft he boarded from New Delhi to hometown Chennai late Tuesday. Sharing his surprise on social media, Maran admitted how he could not recognise the ‘pilot-MP’ at the outset.

Narrating the pleasant ‘encounter’ aboard an Indigo flight on Tuesday night, Maran said a person dressed as the flight captain told him: ‘So, you are travelling in this flight as well.’ Unable to recognise the mask-sporting man with a familiar voice, a perplexed Maran, seated in the front row of the flight, quoted the ‘captain’ as subsequently exclaiming, ‘So, you don’t recognise me,’ with a smile hidden by his mask. “I realised then that it was none other than my colleague, senior member of Parliament and former union minister — my very good friend Rajiv Pratap Rudy.” “Just two hours ago, he and I were part of intense discussions at the Estimates Committee and now I could not believe my eyes, seeing his transformation from a politician to a pilot. I was pleasantly surprised and told Rudyji that I could not believe that he was going to be the captain flying us from Delhi to Chennai,” tweeted Maran. “Yes. I noticed that you didn’t recognise me. I fly frequently,” Maran quoted Rudy as saying, before wondering, how often does a sitting member of Parliament captain a commercial flight? A happy Maran summarised his experience as a “flight to remember” and thanked Captain Rajiv Pratap Rudy, MP for flying ‘us’ safely from Delhi to Chennai. An equally happy Rudy responded to Maran in style by tweeting in Tamil.

“Thank you Mr Dayanidhi Maran. I was surprised and glad that you came as a passenger aboard flight no 6E864 after we met in the Parliament. It is significant that you were a successful airline entrepreneur and union minister. I consider working with your late father Murasoli Maran, commerce minister of then Prime Minister Vajpayee-led NDA government, as a blessing. I had the opportunity to participate in the fourth summit of the World Economic Forum in Doha. I appreciate you from the bottom of my heart for your hospitality.” The encounter did not go unnoticed, thanks to South Chennai MP Thamizachi Thangapandian who celebrated the exchange on social media by tweeting, “Am equally surprised and happy to hear about this facet of our multi-talented senior member of Parliament and former union minister @rajivprataprudy. Kudos!” The former minister’s piloting skills were in news earlier this month when he flew the maiden flight of Indigo airlines from Kolkata to Darbhanga in Bihar.