60 years of pride or shame?

August 15th, the day that rings in the minds of most Indians as a day for holiday in the midst of the week. In case it falls on a weekend, most of the lot swears or curses for missing a holiday… & still some curse it for it being a dry day throughout the country. However, few of the lot still take time out to celebrate the freedom gained by this country on this day in 1947. Newspapers, as usual, are strewn around with the achievements of the past 60 years, the most contributing faces of the years gone & most defining moments which left a mark on the history. Here’s my view on the 60th year of Independence & not the 60 years of Independence.



This year, in 2007, India completed 60 years of independence from the British rule of more than 200 years. Unlike a life of a professional working in public sector, 60th year does not bring any retirement to this country. However, at the 60th year, India has finally arrived. It has emerged as one of the safest investment destination for global investors. At the 60th year, Indian bourses crossed the trillion rupee milestone in terms of transactions amount; & in this 60th year, Indian conglomerates like the TATA group have almost dominated the global industry by making its presence felt by way of acquisitions & expansions on global scale. At the 60th year, India has nominated a woman to preside over the country. It’s at the 60th year, India tested its indigenously built missile off the coast of Orissa; a missile which has the capability to land at its neighbors’ capital, if the need arises. It’s at the 60th year of independence that justice prevailed, so as to punish the perpetrators (though not all of them) for the riots that shook the nation more than a decade back. It’s at the 60th year that Indian railways, the largest railway network throughout the world, finally turned around & reported a profit.

However, while the above may be a short brief of the happenings which may pride India for its achievements in the 60th year of independence, there are still some shortcomings. There are still a lot of people surviving below poverty line & sleeping hungry while the government warehouses which stock the grains are stocked beyond their capacity... There are still people whose lives are wrecked by natural disasters like rainfall since there are no disaster management systems in place. The financial capital of the country – Mumbai – still comes to a standstill when the rain God’s go berserk on the coastal city. And the people of the city are so used to being tested for their resilience that it has become a part of their life, to expect a day or two off, every year, due to heavy monsoon; and when the rain God’s are cool, mafia & politicians test their patience, in form of bomb blasts & bandhs. In the 60th year, a ruling CM of a progressive South Indian state shamelessly humiliated the opposition party member in the most disgraceful manner. In the 60th year, India still suffers from a monolithic bureaucracy which aggravates corruption. In the 60th year, the communal divide still exists & every spark of the divide is fuelled so as to result in a fire. In the 60th year, the members of the assembly openly threaten & assault a Bangaldeshi writer in presence of the media, & roam around scot free. Her fault: expressing herself freely in her book.

Hence, there’s still a long way to go, for India to become a superpower. Ironically, at its 60th year of independence, India is still termed as a “potential superpower”, rather than a “superpower”. It’s still “speculated” to be a sound investment decision. It’s still termed as a developing country, rather than a developed country. Consider Japan, which was devastated after the nuclear bombing in 1945; but the country has succeeded in almost all its endeavors, so as to churn out auto companies like Honda, Toyota & Suzuki, the brands which have been ruling the auto market in India. & while this may sound dependant (rather than independent), unless the politicians of the country are not accounted for their work, their callousness & their fraudulence, the next 60 years are also not going to be any better. Next year may be better than today, but may not be at par with what the developed countries like Germany & Japan would be then. Hoping the politicos’ become instrumental in the growth of the company & strive to put India into the top most countries of the world, I wish all the readers an Happy Independence Day…

Flying by Local Class…

Many centimeters of newspaper editorials have been devoted to the rising commercial aviation in India, its accessibility to the common man & an overall change of times in the domestic travel industry. The ease of reach ability of these services can be attributed to the recent spurt of no-frills, low-frills, & extra frills airlines to cater the domestic junta out here. But there's more to it than that meets the eye. This is my attempt to look at it from a different perspective.

Based on my experience of flying from Delhi to Hyderabad by one such no-frill airline & from Hyderabad to Mumbai by another low-frill airline, the service encountered therein urged me to blog about it.



Ok, few of the things that characterizes flying in domestic sector are:

1. The passengers are not allocated a seat number along with Boarding pass. The result being that as soon as the boarding commences, passengers are hasty to grab the seat nearest to exit or a window seat, as per desires. In most cases, first time travelers would vie for a window seat to get a peek of bird eye’s view. I can already imagine a situation in future, when the cabin crew would be offered some chai-paani to book seats as per the choice of the passengers – similar to what a coolie does in unreserved compartments of express trains.

2. After the boarding pass is allotted & one waits at the lounge, one would witness a scene similar to state transport bus stands. Various airlines have counters placed near the lounge exit with their representatives yelling at the top of their pitch to announce departure of their respective flights. Like, when waiting at Delhi airport, I heard one such rep announcing: “XYZ airlines ICXXX Delhi to Bangalore – boarding has started. Everyone, please form a queue at gate # 2”. This easily reminisced me of the conductor standing next to a bus in Jaipur bus stand: “Bus # 7202 Jaipur se Delhi ke liye nikalne wali hai.” This was not comparable to a railway station where a sound system is used to make announcements.

3. For the same matter, Hyderabad airport is comparatively better since it has a functional sound system in place to announce departure & arrivals of the flights. Or may be, in Delhi, the presently installed sound systems may not be able to manage the rush of flights.

4. The ordeal of flying by evening & late night flights is tumultuous. On an average, these flights are usually late by almost 30 to 45 minutes, which frustrates the passengers waiting at the lounge, subjected to the chaos & rest rooms comparable to the one found at railways stations & bus stands.

5. Within the flight, one can have only month old magazines to read, high priced snacks & subdued service from cabin staff. Well, these aspects can be justified by calling it a no-frill airline.

6. The saga of suffering doesn’t just end here. At the destination airport, collecting the checked in baggage & commuting from the airport to the city by auto / taxies adds to the woes. Well, this happens irrespective of flying by a no-frill, low frill or extra frilled airline.

On further thought, the private aviation companies cannot do anything about this state of air travel.

Considering the simple economics, when I recently traveled from Hyderabad to Mumbai, I paid a total of 1,574 bucks. Out of this, only 199 bucks ends up in to the airlines kitty. Rest of it is tax. Meaning, a substantial chunk of the airfare finds its way in to the government coffers. Hence, even though airfares have decreased, the government coffers must be brimming with the tax revenues. Screech! Brakes! The buck stops here. Once at the behest of government, it may not be considered fair to expect any better service or any fair account of money paid as tax

Finally, I hope that when the private players take over management of the airports, the experience improves overall, which is essential if ITDC is keen to make India as a favorable tourist destination. Else, foreigners traveling to India would carry with them similar memoirs of “Flying by Local Class”…

The Great Indian World Cup Dream..

“If you dreamt of your beloved nation returning home from the Caribbean islands with the Cricket World Cup, then your dream has just got shattered down the drain & will have to be shelved for another 4 years…” Imagine waking up to hear this news on a Saturday… Ouch!

That’s exactly how a majority of the Indian junta received this day of their life; well, that’s exactly how I did… And at the end of ruining the hopes of the billions, our honourable captain prefers calling it as the ‘darkest day of his life…’ Well Rahul (Dravid), for us - it was the darkest weekend of our life.

Ok, I’m not blogging on this to express my anguish on the Men in Blue (which even our opponents Lankan’s were!), but I take this opportunity to wake the nation from its devotion towards this sport. It’s amazing that a country as huge & diverse as ours has one common thread – the religion of cricket.

Kudos to the enthusiasm & the fervour.

But in return, it has always been disappointment that has been served to the followers of this religion. Considering the fact that the cricket playing population in our country is one of the highest in the world, its astonishing to note that the last time our boys did us proud (by bringing home the world cup) was more than two decades back.



Still the smiling face of Kapil Dev, adorned in a Blue blazer with a cup in his hand brings smiles to the face of many – including my mom…

As for folks like my father, the 1983 World Cup victory is (& was) more commendable moment than our ladies Sushmita Sen & Aishwarya Rai bagging the Miss Universe & Miss World titles – the latter being a more commendable achievement as per my sister.

While I feel proud (at such moments when the majority of the nation is in despair) not to have been as fervent follower of this sport as most of the people around me are, it does sends a chill down my spine to know that we were ousted in the league matches itself. Aah! A country whose economy is also referred as a Rising Cricket Economy is no more in the tournaments that decides the most talented team in the world of cricket.

I wish that now the media & India Inc. learns a lesson from this episode & gets rid of the blot of a one sport nation. I mean, it’s high time we wake up & start acknowledging the existence of other sports & focus on them too. & I have always felt that the level of attention that we give to this sport in effect mars the mental state of the players, making them more conscious thereby, making them more vulnerable to errors.

I wish the change from a one sport nation to a multi sport nation comes soon…


Lastly, I feel sad for all the Indian cricket fans who bought in new TV sets to witness their country win… for all the money lost in betting & hoping… & a humble sorry for all the efforts spent by ‘Hyderabad Times’ editions of ‘The Times of India’ for roping in our celebrity cricketers with their views on the preparedness of the team to bring home the cup! I can almost imagine each of those players putting their foot in a mouthful of words… At-least, for some time now, I won’t feel punished for reading Turbanator’s diet regime & the exercise regimen of a Chandigarh lad.

& I hope the Stock market Sensex doesn’t plummets on Monday on account of the cricket dream getting shattered, considering India being termed as a rising Cricket Economy (though me haven’t got any clue as to what does a Cricket Economy mean)

As for team India - Better luck next time…