Walking Vs Work-out

I discovered (belatedly though I should say) that rapid, brisk walking does good to one’s physique as well as creates a sense of well-being after every completion of the walk.

I have been more or less consistently walking for approximately 35 minutes every morning covering a distance of around 2.2 Kms. I am yet to measure the distance accurately, this is only a broad guesstimate.

Given the time it takes to hit the club from home, I can only find time for some serious work-out once a week, I am still trying desperately to increase this to twice a week. The only major benefit I see in the work-out is the muscle strengthening from mild weight lifting (I believe heavy duty stuff is unnecessary for folks who do not really need 6-pack abs). Ofcourse, every individual’s need differs at various stages of life. But I determined that there are three things that are critical for achieving a decent health status - brisk walking, moderate weight lifting, and a positive attitude at all times. The last one is difficult to achieve for most people (including me), but should be seriously attempted despite challenges in the environment and generic living/driving conditions. The mental state determines the rest of the day, I firmly believe in this aspect.

Keeping the mind clear of any work or life related issues during the walk or the work-out is also very important. The mind has to be calm and clear, and intensely focused on achieving the goal. Sometimes, you can relax the mind with some music, or by seeing some screen action on the TV in front of you at the gym. But the best would be to sync the body action with the mind, it is difficult but can be achieved with practice.

I also help myself by frequently drinking water while working out, this is again an important aspect of building the strength of the body - water is a neglected element for most of us indulging in coffee and soft drinks. I have consistently desisted from the soft drinks’ impact - except for an occasional diet coke. It helps that in India one rarely gets diet coke, you get diet pepsi in most places which I don’t like. Juices should be avoided at all times for these add calories via the sugar content - atleast the ones you get outside of your home for sure.

Not able to escape the coffee need though. Tea is a better option.

I have seen the benefit of walking, and am trying hard to increase the distance walked every morning. My estimate is that the optimal time required is 45 minutes, and the distance should be not less than 3 Kms. Jogging is not as good as brisk walking in my opinion, but opinions do tend to differ vastly on this.

Have a good walk or run (!) tomorrow morning !

Cheers

Vijay Srinivasan
2nd December 2007
Mumbai

Apple Update

It’s almost going to be two years since I bought my first MAC (I have an Apple iMAC G5).

I know of friends who deserted Apple at around the same time and moved to Windows XP, and I also know of friends who moved to Apple after years of Windows experience. My experience with the iMAC has been good, though I have had my share of problems. Generally, the iMAC gets a much higher rating for user experience as compared to Windows XP (I am yet to see the Windows Vista). At office, I use Windows XP like anyone else, and even at home, I have couple of other computers which run Windows XP.

Last week, I noticed something on the iMAC - its speed was considerably slow, I could feel it. It took much longer to even switch users which used to be rapid before. Applications took longer to open. I did not like it, so I decided to investigate.

The first place was the hard disk followed by the memory. There was nothing unusual about the hard disk utilization - it had enough space, so I checked the RAM. Was I shocked ? Yes, I was - to my utter dismay, I found that the memory recognized in the system was 512 MB. The system always has had 1 GB DDR2 SDRAM, from the time it arrived first. I downloaded a memory test application for the MAC called “rember”, and it revealed the same information - that the slot on the motherboard was “empty” and the extended memory on the additional slot was 512 MB.

I thought it was not possible - I recalled the hard disk drive replacement under Warranty coverage by a local Apple ASP, and started wondering whether they did anything to my system. Later I discovered no one could have taken out the chips from the motherboard without damaging it forever. So that angle did not work out. Then I went about finding out whether it is possible to upgrade the extended slot memory to 1 GB - yes, it was possible.

How can Apple make a system with RAM on the motherboard so unreliable ? I really wonder, it has never happened to my Windows systems. Apple also has made it non-upgradeable, being on the motherboard. I talked to couple of Apple ASPs in Mumbai, and finally did a deal with one for the RAM upgrade.

Having read a lot about the new Apple MAC OS X 10.5 (Leopard), I decided to upgrade the O.S. as well, the cost was only slightly higher than the Apple pricing in its online store. I was also astonished as to the availability of all the latest stuff in India at almost the same world prices. This is absolutely great for technology users. Even iPhone is available in the unlocked fashion from the Mumbai electronics market at Lamington Road ! Amazing.

I will write about my Leopard experience soon.

In the meanwhile, have a wonderful weekend.

Cheers

Vijay Srinivasan
24 November 2007
Mumbai

What makes Mumbai tick

One of the commentators in my blog site felt that it would be interesting to get an analysis of what makes this place tick. Hey, why not have a positive attitude after all - so I decided to write this post on specifically what makes Mumbai tick. I think I might have touched on certain aspects elsewhere in this site, but I am going to be cogent about listing what I think and feel about this place :

PEOPLE This is the strongest differentiator of Mumbai over other commercial cities of India. You get to work with people who are smarter, hungrier, sharper ; people who are seeing the Rupee sign constantly ; people who wish to upgrade themselves in any way possible ; people who are ambitious ; people who wish to finish the task assigned and move on to the next task without wasting time ; people who are patient yet anxious to move on ; people who tolerate the foibles of civil society and government as a necessary evil ; people who are basically migrants with drive and passion (similar to the U.S. migrants) ; people who are pragmatic, want to get things done rather than argue about what is right and wrong ; people who span the length and breadth of India ; people who want to be successful in life.

CITY By its own design, the city generates creative action from its citizens. It is difficult to navigate by virtue of its natural peninsula-like formation, with narrow roads and lack of space all around. One has to figure out constantly the best way suitable to him or her just to pass a living day successfully in the city. By itself, this is a creative activity. It reflects in the way people travel around the city, in the manner that people plan their time, in the way they choose to spend time while commuting, in the approach to total strangers (quite warm and friendly as long as you speak the local tongue), and in the attitude of the inhabitants. Generally positively orientated ! The city is what one calls a “maximum city” - an environment which drives positive energy through its people for lack of external stimulants !

LAW AND ORDER Unlike the national capital, Mumbai has much less crime, especially of the violent types. People are conscious of this fact, and ladies are able to move around without much fear. Ofcourse, when disaster hits, it hits real big - like the bomb blasts last year, or the rain-induced floods the year before that. However, general life seems to move on less turbulently than in some other cities, especially in the North. That’s good for the general well-being of society.

ROLE MODELS Mumbai is full of illustrious role models, such as the Tatas, Birlas, Ambanis, et al, that one wonders if what media writes about the crumbling status of the city is so true and starkly evident, how come so many of India’s top business leaders come from the city. The financial progress that the city is making every day is clear indication that people are not abandoning Mumbai anytime soon in search of a new place - not even “Navi” or New Mumbai. South and Central Mumbai are the financial centres of India. One needs to just look out the window to witness the variety of imported cars competing for space with Indian cars on narrow roads in South Mumbai - what ya get ? - Porsches, Porsche Cayenne SUV, Toyota Camry, Lexus LX 470, Audis, Mercedes Benzs of various capacities, and now BMWs. Volvo is just entering India, and you would soon see Volvo S70 and above for sure in South Mumbai. Mumbai in a way is more like Hong Kong - people admire success, and success symbols are left untouched.

Time to read what the Economist magazine says about Mumbai -

“Maximum City Blues”

BOLLYWOOD Surprising, but Bollywood is a strategically important component of Mumbai’s success. The world’s second largest film industry is based out of Mumbai, though it is roughly only one-tenth of Hollywood’s size in terms of annual revenues. But it is growing fast. In terms of number of movies produced, Bollywood far exceeds Hollywood. One reserves comments about quality of Bollywood Movies vis-a-vis Hollywood Movies though. Let us say that personal preferences play a role herein ! Bollywood Movies are more for relaxation of the body and sometimes soul. Thinking would rarely be required, but that is the way the audience likes it. Can we question the Box-Office receipts ? Mumbai keeps getting more than its share of newcomers to Bollywood, so the creative industry is in full swing all through the year. The legacy endures !

GOVERNMENT The Government is trying hard to make Mumbai the financial centre of the world. Let us give it a chance. 2012 should see a different kind of Mumbai, why not believe in it ?

Well, there are more positives about Mumbai, I am still thinking about these points and more, and would like to invite comments from “Mumbaikars” (or Mumbai Citizens).

Have a wonderful Sunday,

Cheers

Vijay Srinivasan
30 September 2007
Mumbai

Apple Life

Late last evening, I looked around the mess of settling down in the new apartment, sent out the kitchen cabinet makers who had been trying to fix the same for the better part of three days (what an inefficiency compared to Singapore), and settled down to set up our iMAC G5. I have to acknowledge that I did pray a bit before switching on, even though the machine arrived in good external condition, having been crated and shipped by the well-known relocation company from Singapore to Mumbai.

I was happy to see the blue screen with our family members’ login names. But once I logged in into my account, something happened.

I got a white screen ! There was the rainbow-coloured spinning wheel, spinning eternally.

I switched off and on again, but just got the white screen with the Apple logo, but no more of the slow spinning grey colour spinning wheel this time before loading the MacOS.

If you have seen my earlier postings on the Apple, you would think I am an Apple wizard of some sort. But no more. I struggled with the Apple manuals, accessed the Apple support website via our PC, and spent almost two hours trying all the techniques listed somewhere or the other.

Then I hit upon the idea of the “Apple Hardware Test”. I ran that, it took almost 45 minutes to complete. The system announced that there is no apparent hardware problem. It is now established that it could only be a software problem.

I called the hotlines in India, Singapore, and the U.S. India and Singapore were closed, with the clear idea that support lines are meant for week days 9 AM to 5 PM, and customers do not really like to use their systems during weekends !

I got through to the U.S. support line, but was made to hold on for nearly 25 minutes in the first try, and another 30 minutes during the second try. Never made it to a live tech support specialist. I thought that Apple would atleast send the call to efficient Indian call centre operators, but no. Nothing seemed to be working.

I was a bit frustrated. I had a lot of work to do on the Apple, having been out of touch with it for more than 2 months. I had lot of plans for the Apple.

Finally, went to sleep on an “empty” apple !

Got up early today and again tried, but no luck. Then I called the Apple iShop in Singapore, and the support person picked up ! He advised me that if you start the Apple with the “C” key pressed while the Boot CD #1 is still inside the DVD drive, then may be it could boot from the CD, and why don’t you try ? If it does not work, you can always bring it into our iShop and we would fix it - no guarantee that your data will be safe though ! Ha Ha !!

It would be a tough thing to carry the Apple back to Singapore, ain’t it ?

Then I struck at the Apple Reseller locator at the Apple Asia website, and browsed through to India and found atleast 3 Authorised Support Providers near my current location in Mumbai.

Well, I am keeping my fingers crossed, and going to attempt my luck with one of these folks tomorrow ! Will keep you all posted on this journey towards Apple salvation.

Now I am back to my efficient Windows XP Professional PC and typing away. Apple is still far away at the Eden Gardens.

Have a great week ahead folks.

Best Regards

Vijay Srinivasan
27 Aug 2006
Mumbai

Hero Worship and Escapism

“Film Hero becomes Chief Minister” - not an unusual headline in the film-crazy Indian political landscape.

I am surprised by the impact of Bollywood on the common man’s life out here. There could be many reasons, one of the oft-cited being “escapism”. Escapism from the harsh realities of Indian life - for the common man ofcourse. It is so hard to get through a normal day, that after a week of hard slog, the family gets together for a movie outing at the theatre. Never mind the cost of a ticket has gone up by some 10 times over the past decade or so.

An average Indian movie hardly makes sense, as it is based on unrealities. There are very few, less than 5%, of the movies which do make some serious sense, and are of some international quality. And when they do, they often come out as a cropper at the box office. Indians do not like serious movies, or heavy ones which also contribute to their pre-existing depression.

I found that people are enamoured of heroes and heroines. For a fact, these folks look better than the ordinary ones. But as the heroes play out various roles, their ethos get embedded for a generation in the mindsets of the movie goers. While outside the country, we are used to liking the acting content of a particular actor or actress, and the impact he or she is having in developing a genre of movies, et al, in India it is more of the unique style and unbelievable stunts that a hero enacts on the screen. Everyone knows that the stuff is not possible. The sync that Indians feel is of a different kind - the kind that the movie goer Indian parent feels when he sees his hero as a pious son, the kind that the movie goer Indian grandma feels when the heroine sings a song running around the house with her new born, and the kind that the movie goer teenager feels when he or she sees the kind of quick love developing between the hero and heroine in no time at all - and all of it happening so smoothly. The personification of the movie happenings into the real lives of people - though most of the movie stuff is unreal - somehow combines with the unreal stuff of actors running around the world in one single movie song, changing dresses every few minutes, living in palatial houses, not seeming to be working for a living of any sort, etc.,

The real danger is the sense of “hero worship” that people develop ever so quickly, once the hero becomes wildly popular after a few movies which make it to the box office. Combined with the escapist tendencies of seeking out unreal experiences which only the heroes seem to be enjoying, the whole thing becomes a circus. People won’t even mind if their favourite hero one day decides to run for political office, as has often happened in India. Not that it has not happened in the U.S. - Ronald Reagan being the famous example. However, Indians become so emotional with their unreal identification with their hero that they can act in a totally irrational manner when it comes to politics. Their hero gets elected and then people hope he will solve all their problems, though the hero has probably got only acting experience. The real world becomes so unreal, after all !

The same kind of hero worship would serve India well if it comes to celebrating business success stories, economic success stories, political success stories, etc., There are outstanding economic and business managers in India, who are hardly known outside the business media. The average movie goer would not have heard of the story, forget the actual persona behind the story. Indians seem to love sensationalism more than anything else, and that is why media plays it up as well.

Well a posting on the Indian media is long overdue.

Have a great weekend.

Vijay Srinivasan
13 August 2006
Mumbai

Pre-emption

President George W Bush is a guy who I did not like for the past few years.

He had the moral courage to speak about “crusade” while invading Iraq with no legal basis whatsoever. He always alluded to the influence of God which guided him in tough moments. The world lost confidence in Bush, atleast that part of the world which believes in natural justice. Atocities paralleling those committed in Vietnam were perpetrated in Iraq with impunity and the U.N. was a mute, impotent spectator. More than 40,000 Iraqis have died since March 2003 in what is essentially, an unjust war with no legal sanction or authority.

Notwithstanding all of the above, and more, I have now come to the partial conclusion that one of Bush’s most famous theories is worth emulating around the world. This is his pre-emption theory, which was actually crafted by Donald Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defense and his cronies in the Justice Department. Without going into the specifics, which have been documented well in the International media, especially in the New York Times, I think the world should follow the U.S. principle on this count.

Israel has already demonstrated (repeatedly) the effectiveness of the pre-emptive attack strategy which does not depend on the probability that terrorists will indeed strike into the core of a nation. Israel has the guts to go against the U.N. and world opinion, to defend its statehood.

In principle, India and other countries similarly challenged by terrorists, should do the same. I saw feeble comments by the State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher, trying to tell India not to take hasty action in the light of the Mumbai blasts (let us not forget 11th July 2006), as there was no strong evidence linking the blasts to Pakistan. Given that India is very lethargic when it comes to making strategic decisions, and then implementing actions to validate the strategy, it becomes very susceptible to international criticism and lobbying. And, this is happening again. The reason - India has always been slow to take action even when the proof exists. Call it democracy, call it consensus decision-making at the highest levels, call it pandering to the West especially to the U.S. opinion, et al. But that is the way India operates.

Examples abound in the history of the Indian sub-continent. India was slow to go to the help of the Kashmir King (or prince, whatever it is) in 1948, and that led to Pakistan occupying one-third of Kashmir with an aggressive attack. India acceded to a U.N. monitored ceasefire, and lost out on a strategic piece of land which hobbles peace-making even today. What was supposed to be the Indian equivalent of Switzerland is now on a continuous edge, in a constant battle with terrorists who have hijacked the Indian agenda for a Kashmir peace.

What Israel has demonstrated consistently is that the weak will be punished, or pushed into a corner. Democracy or no democracy, leaders have to show a strong decision-making capability, backed by a show of force. Whether one really goes to war depends on a complex set of factors, but when the leader of the free world, the U.S. demonstrates that pre-emption does indeed work, there is nothing wrong in thinking about such a strategy and codifying the same in the U.N. system. The U.N. continues to be an expensive joke on mankind and the comity of nations, but atleast it can consider some improvement in this arena.

These are ofcourse, my personal line of thinking, and is not my policy statement. All of us are subject to environmental factors and influences, and this is an outcome of the same. It is critical for us to analyze world happenings which largely determine what a world it will become for our children. I think it is better to follow the U.S. than the European line of thinking on these matters, just because like India, Europe never acts, and when it does, it is based on a feeble consensus.

Have a great weekend, and think about pre-emption,

Best Regards

VIJAY SRINIVASAN
29 July 2006
Mumbai

Baris ka Mosam

Folks who have been following my blog postings would be baffled !

VJ, what language are you writing in ? Have you forgotten English once you returned to India ?

Well, sometimes it proves beneficial to be colloquial and merge with the local lingo. I don’t do that at all, and if I try, don’t do it well. It puzzles me how I am able to get through the daily routine without really speaking Hindi - even during weekends. While it is not nice to respond in English when people address you in Hindi, I always quickly make it clear that my Hindi is not where it should have been, and it would be easier for both sides to get along in English. But this logic fails when the other side communicates only in Hindi, which is mostly the case with drivers, cooks, retailers, housing agents, et al. While I can mostly understand what they are saying based on context, the nuances are lost on me, and it takes time to figure out the complete meaning.

It always amuses me when I tackle these folks in completely broken down nuggets of Hindi, interspersed with English, and they give me a straight face and reply probably in chaste Hindi, knowing full well that I will struggle to decipher their response for the next 30 seconds. But the net result of all these efforts, is that, I get what I want at the end of the conversation - be it coffee, or finding my way to the nearest book shop, or unbundling prices of items.

Coming to the title of this post, “Baris ka Mosam” - it means “rainy season”. Another nice way of saying this is “varsha ritu”. The delayed monsoon has finally arrived in Mumbai, India’s Commercial and Financial Capital. Those who know what happened last year this month in Mumbai will be terrified. Due to extremely poor drainage, and crumbling civic infrastructure, last year’s massive monsoon rains damaged the city and killed more than 200 people on what is now infamously known as 26/7 - 26th July 2005.

Well, the rains have arrived now, though belatedly, but the city does not seem to be ready for the onslaught of heavy rains. It rained a bit heavily yesterday, and when I went around this evening I found that the roads have cracked off, water was logging at various sections of even the main roads (forget the side roads and lanes), and there was a worsening traffic jam even in this distant suburb. It is always amazing how a democracy can be so badly and inefficiently managed like in India - there seems to be a total lack of accountability.

As I write this, there are no rains. But I am already getting calls from relatives who have seen pictures of rains on TV screens in other cities and are concerned about me. The most amazing thing is people go about doing their daily routine in the most usual manner, and do not appear to be bothered at all. May be most people here think that any disaster is tinged with divinity. And, so they either ignore the natural happenings around them, or don’t think it is necessary to play around with nature.

I am kind of lucky to stay just 5 minutes away from office, and the commute is almost totally traffic-free. I was just remarking to one of my colleagues the other day that given my situation, Mumbai is almost like Singapore ! The fact is that Mumbai is driven by professionals in all walks of life, like it is in Singapore, except in governance. I always imagine how great it would be if governments can outsource most of their work to people like Narayana Murthy of Infosys, or Mr Sreedharan, MD of Delhi Metro. Then you will see a real transformation of India - what India needs is less government, less government bureaucracy, more e-government, and more outsourcing to Private-Public Partnerships to make things easy for citizens. More government is bad government.

It started raining in Malad now (the suburb where I live and work) - not so bad, but that is Nature ! Welcome to India’s fascinating mix of energetic and dynamic citizenry, and the most useless infrastructure you can ever find in a country so important to the world economy as India. Yes, India is gaining its rightful place in the world’s pecking order of the most dynamic economies, but growth is mostly lopsided and skewed in several elements of societal development. But that topic is for another day !

Have a great weekend, and a robust week ahead, Folks !

Vijay Srinivasan
1 July 2006
Mumbai

Delhi’s Difference

I am spending time in Delhi this week, going through a short induction program. It has been hectic, but one cannot but notice the rapid strides in infrastructure at Delhi, as compared to any other city in India. A concerted effort to quickly build out highways and the Metro network is showing results - finally, Delhi is starting to look like any other advanced country’s capital city !

Well, the way they drive in Delhi is altogether a different matter, but not that different as compared to other major cities of India. My car had couple of close encounters of the flesh kind today, in the second instance when I was returning at about 7 PM to the hotel where I was staying - my head hit the ceiling of the door side while the driver sudden-breaked to avoid a cyclist who was backpedalling into the highway. Ofcourse, everyone is resilient, and goes about their normal way of doing things (in the wrong manner ofcourse) the moment the immediate danger passes by. This cannot be witnessed in any other country. Welcome to Indian driving. If you want to read about the way drivers in Singapore behave, please read one of my earlier blogposts on the matter.

So, today I learnt that it may not be a bad idea to be religious in a certain important way. When you get into the car in India, you are surrendering to the “fate god” who is actually the driver. The driver may be good, may not be good, you can’t really say till your Hindi is tested. If you don’t know Hindi, the only thing you can trust is your own instinct - gut feel, so to say. If you are not good in instinctive way of thinking on your feet, then you have to depend on God in this case. You may entrust God with your safe ride. Look outside the car, and you can see very “determined” mad drivers who could be executives and managers in companies, who have the sole intent of getting to their office before anyone else does, and don’t bother whether, in that process, they turn arrogant and sometimes cause bedlam.

Coming back to infrastructure and “architectural” beauty, I think Delhi remains unsurpassed in India. The elegant Moghul architecture always enchants me with its ambience, and timeless sense of beauty. Delhi has had a long history for anyone who cares to read up. Indian History text books in schools used to be full of the history of Delhi and Moghul emperors.

So much for Delhi’s difference. Hope it maintains the elegance in the new townships springing up all around. Gurgaon is amazing, looks like it is from North America. Gleaming blue and steel buildings all over the place, good roads, coffee shops in buildings, international companies, lots of youngsters coming to work - this is the microcosm of New, Emerging India !

Welcome to Delhi !

Best Regards

Vijay Srinivasan
8 June 2006
DELHI

Amazing Mumbai - Sorry No Photos

I flew into Mumbai on 2nd May by SQ flight. I enjoyed seeing the movie “Matador” in which Pierce Brosnan of James Bond fame and Greg Kinnear act with what I would call great alacrity and ease of delivery. I also liked the movie “Match Point” in which Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Scarlett Johansson have some great on-screen chemistry in an adulterous relationship, though I did not like the ending in which the murderer goes scot-free.

Though I got up at 4 AM that morning, I could not resist the temptation to see the movie selection on SQ flights which is the best amongst all airlines in the world. Since I fly SQ so frequently, I also get to see some of the latest flicks around, but I used to forget the names of the movies I saw and got ridiculed for my memory-loss by folks. So, I thought what the hell, let me record these names on my blog rightaway so that atleast I can refer to the postings before I talk about these movies with some good knowledge to impress my family and friends.

I landed at Mumbai International Airport, and could immediately witness the improvements happening due to the privatisation of the airport, saw gleaming new marble floors and expansion of space at the arrival and immigration areas. I last came to Mumbai just 6 weeks ago, and it was the old terrible airport, but now seems to be undergoing transformation. This again goes to show that governments should get out of the business of business such as running of airports, and enter into atleast public-private partnerships which is the model that India is adopting for infrastructure projects.

Mumbai people have great resilience, and face life’s troubles with a stoicism that parallels Londoners’. Almost everything works in Mumbai unlike in other parts of India. People are professional and go about their jobs with alacrity and competence. If the government provides the light and removes the hurdles, great progress can be made even within the next 3 to 5 years in a “happening” city like Mumbai.

Ofcourse, there should be no illusion here - Mumbai is no Shanghai or Singapore. It will take a very long time to sort out the social and political problems which arise during the modernisation efforts in a democratic country like India, where the true, noisier variety of democracy rules the roost. Foreigners and even advanced Indians curse the current state of infrastructure and related problems, but when it comes to business things are proceeding as per normal expectations. Delays are foreseen and factored into the business calculations, expectations are tempered, extra expenses are budgeted. One becomes a savvy business manager, and the skills learnt in the process adds greatly to the inherent “antenna” skills of Indian managers. The result is a big collection of global managers who are able to operate anywhere in the world under any kind of circumstances. Mumbai has such a gathering of managers at all times.

The roads are still bad, but progress is being made. Hotels are efficient though my friend JBW may disagree to a large extent. Limousine drivers make an effort to understand my broken Hindi spoken in English and sometimes Tamil, and somehow reach the destination of my choice which always amazes me. Resilience is an in-built characteristic of the souls here, but I will blog about that some other time.

Well, to summarise, the trip to Mumbai is proceeding well so far…..and, in my own reckoning Mumbai has taken a leap over Bangalore, but more because Bangalore has faltered on the way to silicon valley greatness. Mumbai is still #1 in Financial acumen and is India’s Banking and Finance Capital, may be Insurance Capital as well. It is probably #4 in BPO and IT after Bangalore, Hyderabad and Delhi. But in terms of people skills and professionalism, I would rate it as #1 in India.

How’s that for a mid-week review of emerging cities of South Asia ? and may be Asia Pacific ?

Have a good week, folks.

Best Regards

Vijay Srinivasan
3 May 2006
Camp : MUMBAI

Indian Airports and Human Tolerance

I am always amazed at the functional efficiency of the top 5 or 6 airports in India in moving millions of people with almost near flight take-off punctuality - here I am referring to Delhi, Mumbai, Cochin, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore. This may not be the statement of fact that you have come to expect from my travel observations, but it appears to be increasingly the case that these airports defy the common logic in assuming their incessant failures as operational transport entities.

Air travel in India has increased by over 25% last year, and more than 70 million passengers travelled by air. Couple of main reasons - government deregulated the airline industry quite some time back, and intense competition amongst the new airlines has driven airfares even below the I Class Airconditioned Rail Fares ! However, what was not planned well, as is often the case in India, has come to haunt the air traffic controllers and airport managements around the country - and that is, you guessed it, basic infrastructure needed to move millions of passengers, and hundreds of aircraft landings and takeoffs each day.

Notwithstanding this, thousands of people get through airports everyday, which increasingly look like “mofussil bus-stands” or railway stations in India. The airlines take the problems in their stride, not really complaining to anyone visibly - things move on in a stoic manner.

What I wanted to write about in this post is not just about airport management in this country, but more about how normal people deal with their lives at the airport, within the aircraft, and on the airport buses which invariably ferry passengers to distantly parked aircraft, as there are not enough parking bays. While local people have tons of tolerance, they also exhibit total apathy and insensitivity to things or people around them. This may be more because there are thousands of people around any one human at any time, and one can’t be bothered to individually “index” people around and suitably modify one’s behaviour to suit the environment.

I always get pushed around in the airport and airport buses, because the guy behind me always pushes to get ahead with seeming nonchalance to my condition or demeanour. I wish to keep the distance between myself and the guy in front of me, so that physical touch is avoided as should normally be the case. However, the guy behind me does not seem to think so. He seems to think flesh is all the same all around. But, I don’t understand the logic at all, as he cannot get ahead of me without dumping me on the way ahead. What is the point in physical flesh pushing ?

The same thing happens in airport buses where either everyone tries to get in at the same time, or everyone pushes to get down simultaneously in order to get into the plane or into the airport terminal. Then there is the rush to get the trolleys as these always seem to be in short-supply. Even if these are available in plenty, one is forced to think there is a shortage as people rush towards the parked ones. And, when they do get one, they don’t seem to mind any obstacles on the way, such as human beings or bags. They rush towards the conveyor belt, almost everyone crowding around the entry point of the baggage system. Very few people stand on the other side, when the baggages would have completed a circuit - I normally prefer that side.

Inside the aircraft, there is also a rush though the seats are pre-assigned, except in Air Deccan airlines. I never understood why. Then I realised people want to get baggage space on the overhead lockers above their seats, and are worried that space would be completely taken up by the time they reach their seats. People who are unfortunate to get into the aircraft as part of the last batch of passengers, have a furtive look on their faces, as they investigate any space available in any of the overhead lockers as they proceed towards their seats, as they are very confident that they won’t find space above their respective heads anyway. In the latest flight I took from Delhi to Bangalore last evening, my bag was moved around to make space for the baggage of some bloke whose seat was far behind, and he did not even look at me as he opened the locker above my head and shuffled the bags around. I just kept a wise silence, as otherwise it would be unproductive waste of an elegant language dynamics.

It has been a very interesting experience navigating through Indian airports, aircraft, airport buses, et al. In fact I forgot to mention the travails one goes through when one indeed arrives at the airport - there is no orderly disembarking of passengers in front of the terminal as there is no system of regulation which exists to regulate car/taxi flow in front of the airport. So, there is haphazard waiting of cars all over, with trolleys being pulled from elsewhere, and porters waiting to take your bags when you don’t need one in most cases. There are occasional squabbles which can be witnessed between taxi drivers and car owners/porters, etc.,

However, at the end of the day, everything seems to be working and delivering results, though may not be in an efficient manner. Comparisons with overseas airports produce yawns even amongst the well-educated elite. This is the way it is, friend, and accept it - are you going to change it ? No way. That seems to be the response.

However, I feel changes are afoot, with the contracts having been given out for airport modernisation projects for Delhi and Mumbai airports, which together handle more than 6o to 70% of passenger and aircraft traffic in the country.

Thanks for reading this through, and I welcome your thoughts and feedback.

Cheers

Vijay Srinivasan
Camp : Delhi - Bangalore
20 April 2006