Thursday, December 31, 2009

End to an eventful year

whew that was quite a year...started on a very pessimistic note...life changed. I understood how it feels to stare at lack of job security, how to persevere and knock, knock and knock again and once more to get that business. How heavy the loan burden feels when you know mentally that it has a high chance of being around for the entire tenure it was supposed to stand in the first place....

Realised scenario analysis that we did never captured a lot of scenarios, new words like black swan, new normal, too big happened and I searched for a bailout myself...

Resolutions were to look at life in a different manner, lead a more balanced life, get some exercise, do good to others not so privileged but when it came to survival, that's all one did...

Learnt its so very easy to keep the morale high, take failure, try again, smile when other hit it well during good times and how self belief, esteem and faith are so important and only saviours when all chips down...

Learnt still not sure how to deal when loved ones fight their own battles without success and experience pain and you in turn feel helpless, when you lose loved ones, when you gain new parts in life...obviously growing old doesn't mean things come automatically ( it never felt that way, but thought it would be easier) , you still need to learn new tricks...

Learnt once more to join organisations and not people or teams - realized organisations are living organisms and evolve and kicked self for taking so long to understand when the Profs said so in the first class...

Bottomline - realized life is all about small events with people who matter, experiences which enrich. Salary slavery seems serious trouble...medium term goals required to increase things which matter.

Happy new year to you all and as most of the beautiful women in beauty pageants wish - AND WORLD PEACE!!

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Bangalore International Airport - My view

Given I did about 70 flights out of Bangalore in the last year and the criticism I had in the past and in light of the review committee of the Karnataka State Assembly coming out with a damning report about the airport I thought I should come out with an update of my view.

The airport has improved from the initial days, its a smooth working, efficient airport and when I make this statement this is from the view of a business traveler who takes the first flight out, comes back by the late evening flight - I usually have a boarding pass and not much carry on luggage. So on the airside, I think the airport works beautifully. I can remember 4 instance when my flight was late and most of them were weather related. They claim 20 mins to get you out of the airport on landing (not sure where I read this but) and they do an awesome job most times. The CAT system to let planes take off in Fog have not been installed and you will find technical discussion why it is not and whose fault but that's a pain point.

The online security check of the baggage has removed a touch point and is now the norm in most large airports and I think works quite well. The baggage handling system is fairly good and I have never had too much trouble.

The biggest crib, trouble and pain point is the terminal - It just is too small for an airport of this size - The check in lines burst at seams now that travel is picking up. Its very messy with all those Queue control systems and I pity the airlines. The security check point on the domestic side is a major bottle neck - and when 8 flights with roughly 1000 people need to be checked through the system creaks. on days like the last few weeks when fog has descended on us in Bangalore- God help you if you are traveling - there is complete anarchy. The queues extend way beyond what BIAL has ever planned for, imagined or thought of I think. To be fair to them, I see the BIAL team managing the line along with the airlines gate executives but still, if someone tells me this airport can manage growth for the next 3 years- I am very doubtful. I think if something is not done about this, we will be back to the state the old HAL airport was with lines stretching to outside the airport.

Once post the security, if I am traveling with Kingfisher, my favourite airline (I seriously think they have pampered me silly, every time I travel abroad I am reminded of how much they have raised the bar on both inflight and ground treatment) - am blissfully unaware of the chaos since I am in a cozy lounge. Else welcome to chaos country. They have opened more toilets, not sure if they are still sufficient but have never had trouble. But charging points is still an issue - they have these weird stands with plug points - not enough mister when there are 3- 4 guys jostling for the point since they are badly placed. The chairs are grossly not enough. There are far too many stores, great - you want me to go give business to your retailers, but you are also taking land given by the government who also are funded by tax rupees...so if I don't want to give them business, please give me a seat to sit. It will be very kind of you.

On the Taxi front, they have managed to crack it, its a fairly efficient system, but you should hand it to the BMTC vayu vajra service, it is simply superb. Although I am still unsure why the heck they can put something which tells me when the next bus is leaving so that I can make the decision before the trudge all the way to the bus stand.

Also give the employees, the cops, the support staff some place to eat. I keep seeing this shanty type eatery and have heard people crib about it.

On the international side, the airport has managed to clear much of the chaos I think. The immigration process is smoother and the whole process seems far streamlined.

Overall, I hate the terminal side interaction if I am not in the lounge, the airside seems to be good since it seems majorly efficient...if only they could do something with the terminal, BIAL would be a fantastic world class airport from the good airport it is in my books.

And last piece - would I like the name to be changed, the local culture to be depicted - I would say "do it now" - not because of jingoism or regional chauvinism but we have a great medley of culture and rich history in India. Every single touch point we use to depict it, generate curiosity, teach about it to others, will allow us to develop better as a soft power....go on, depict the glory of stone we have in aihole, pattadkal, badami, the greenery in uttara kannada and dakhsina kannada, the wild life of bandipur, nagarahole, the tibetan monastery, single rock cut statue at sharavanabelagola, the basadis, the dome at bijapur.....we are a rich diverse state...lets help people explore and learn, let BIAL be the door to introduce some curiosity.