Tuesday, August 10, 2010
The 2 day Patriotism Syndrome
It hurts me when I see the “2 day patriotism syndrome" we Indians (including myself) exhibit. We do everything possible to express patriotism and celebrate Jan 26 & Aug 15. We Indians choose note to bother about the country on the rest 363 days a year. We use tri color flags in our vehicles, wear clothes to resemble the tricolor, have tri color decorations, eat pastry with tri-color cream, eat tiranga paratha, draw the India map in tri color in all possible street locations, conduct/take part in rangoli competitions, listen to patriotic songs etc.
But we don’t care about our fellow citizens ( about 175 million Indians living in slums), we never like to stand in a que or follow any kind of discipline, we never drive sensibly on the roads, we like to jump red signals, we don’t follow lane discipline, we don’t treat our elders with respect ( we love to abandon them. India got more than 2000 registered old age homes), we don’t give enough care to our children or even love children (India ranks 2nd in child labour behind Africa and is home to the world’s largest population of street children, estimated at 18 million). We are hardly bothered about the environment. We litter all around – street, road, movie halls, shopping malls &, even worship places. We love to use plastic bags and tamper with the ecosystem. For us, individual convenience is more important than anything else. We won’t understand the importance of preserving our natural resources (water, forest etc), we love to waste them rather. Still we assume and pretend that we are very patriotic and exhibit patriotism on 2 days every year. (Interestingly, our heart beats for the country when a cricket match is telecasted in TV. But we are quick to abuse and throw stones at the team if they lose the match.)
Why can’t we love our country by the way we live here and let our fellow citizens live ? Why can’t we take care of the country, as we take care of our home? Why don’t we treat the fellow country men like our relatives ?
Can we think of bringing in a small difference to this nation with our actions this 15th August onwards ? Can we decide to follow lane discipline while driving ? Can we cut down on the number of printouts we take everyday ? Can we reduce the usage of tissue by one piece a day ? Can we provide 1 meal for a senior citizen in an year ? Can we do anything to reduce the no.of child labourers in this country ? Are we all incapable of doing any one ( or the countless other stuff we can do that I haven’t listed) of the above ? If not, let us take the escape root of celebrating Independence day and Republic day every year without fail. Let us explore innovative means of doing so. Jai hind!
Disclaimer : I do not intend to criticize the initiatives taken by my HR dept in any manner by referring to the office decorations. I am thankful to them, as this has given me the spark to write. This blog is a reflection of my thoughts on how Indians in general treat this country.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
There is Free Lunch! - The Air Indian way of Hos-pita(ti)-lity
There is Free Lunch!
The Air Indian way of Hos-pita(ti)-lity
Many people might have faced occasional hardships during their air travel (or any kind of travel). Rarely will every passenger will get everything wrong during a travel. The degree of torture increases exponentially with the amount of travelling time. And we had almost 12 hrs to experience the Air Indian Hospitality (or hostility?).
It all started when they cancelled the Singapore-Bangalore flight, AI445 due to shortage of staff. The message came to us on 13th (note the date) of June. We were booked into a
Five of us, Ravi, Anil PG, Madhura, Suzanne and myself reached the Chan Gi airport
Thanks to the shopping options at the airport, the time flew fast till we got into the aero bridge to board the 20 minute late flight. At the entry I saw two scary faces dressed like air hostesses talking to each other without bothering about the passengers boarding the flight. It looked like two sisters having a private conversation in a busy street. I hope they don’t treat the guests who visit their home also in the same manner.
To our glee, we got the seat near emergency exit – the only pleasant experience in the flight- and the leg space was spacious enough for two people to sleep. We settled down in our seats and found a day old news paper "News today" - Chennai edition. (They do not have any other edition). The first news item in the paper was a narrow escape by an Air India flight in
Once the flight took off, Madhura continued to do what she has been doing through out the trip. She is a blessed person who can sleep anywhere anytime. PG was still busy with the newspaper. I browsed through the 5 entertainment channels provided and decided to watch the Dilipkumar starrer “Dastaan”. Seat belt signs were off and the hostess continued to read the newspaper. She angrily got up when Suzanne pressed the help button to ask for a blanket. I think she is showing this attitude and frowning face because Air
I woke up from my little nap when the familiar unpleasant smell of
After 30minutes, I saw
At Chennai
After 4.5 hrs we reached Chennai. We got out of the flight and saw two airhostesses standing at the door. From their face I was sure that their purpose of standing there is to check if any passenger has taken any valuable ( ?) from the flight and not to say thanks for flying with them. May because they were aware that we were forced to fly Air
We could get our luggage in half an hour. The lock in my strolley and the rod use to pull the strolley were broken due to rough handling. I was still happy because I got my luggage back. We reached the customer service desk in
After the "Free lunch", we proceeded for Baggage screening. Couple of us were carrying some liquor purchased at the duty free shops at
We passed the security check-in and took 5 minutes to find chairs to sit. I wanted to check some urgent mails and found that Wi-Fi was paid and not complimentary in
“Excuse me, can I clear a doubt with you? “
The reply came back immediately in Tamil ; “ Sollunga sir”
“ I have a boarding pass for flight no. 519, going to
He was the most efficient Air
When they announced boarding, we were so relieved, but only for a short while. We were boarded in to a non a/c airport transfer coach. Three of us entered the coach and two others were asked to wait for the next coach. They were not fortunate to enter the first ever airport coach used in
We reached
And we headed back to our respective homes to meet the eagerly waiting family members.