anxious...FIRED...shock...sadness...anger...REHIRED...joy
all this in a matter of 2 days. It is indeed the JET age.
When jet decided to relieve it’s 1900 or so employees, there must have been some thought-process behind it. The aviation industry is in doldrums. The firing was inevitable. But then Naresh Goyal decided to rehire them. Why? No one knows. Maybe it was political pressure. Or maybe it actually was that his conscience did not allow him to do so.
But then does that serve the purpose. By taking them in again he is only going to make matters worse for himself. How long are these employees safe? Judging by the current conditions, not for long.
And surprisingly, no one from the centre is willing to help him out here. He was right when he said that the aviation industry would do with some tax cuts. The petroleum minister, Mr. Murli Deora is however unmoved. He has his own issues. Naresh Goyal had apparently promised him personally that Jet would never default in paying their dues. And they did default, so as a punishment, he will not help him out here. So what actually happened? Did Naresh Goyal actually pinch his neck and say ‘Maa kasam’ while stating that he would never default. Maybe he used his left hand or maybe he just kept his fingers crossed. But then who is Mr. Deora punishing, Goyal or the entire aviation ministry.
On hearing the news of their firing, thousands of Jet employees, understandably distraught, dressed in blinding yellow, were out on the streets. It was almost as if the yellow sun had descended on to the grounds. They were crying, pleading doing whatsoever they could do at that moment. Meanwhile, the Raj Thackeray controlled MNS started putting pressure on JET to Rehire the employees.
And then the seemingly impossible happened. Naresh Goyal rehired all his employees with no pay cuts. He claimed that having a 19 year old daughter, which was pretty close to the ages of almost all the fired employees, made him change his mind. Raj Thackeray claims it was his efforts which did it. And now even Aviation minister Praful Patel is taking responsibility for the rehiring. What really happened one can’t say. Maybe it was a bit of everything.
The point being, this is not a solution to the problem, only a temporary fix.
Now, ridiculously enough, one of the other airlines has come with a scheme wherein it’s employees will have to take a 3-5 year leave without pay (LWP). Even Kingfisher is planning to axe a few hundred employees.
The yellow sun may have risen again, but we may soon see a red, blue and many such colours on the streets soon.
Touch Wood.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Have a Nice Day!!!
This happened about a year ago.
I was with a friend. Had about a 100 bucks on me. Wanted to hangout for at least a couple of hours. There is only one answer to a situation like that. A coffee place.
I went to the nearest Cafe Coffee Day outlet. The coffee was ok. The food could trouble even the strongest stomach; But all-in-all a decent enough place to hang-out. We asked for the bill. The 100 rupee note converted into about 3 notes of Rs. 10. But while i was paying the bill, i realized something written on the bill. I was hand-written with a blue ball-point pen. It read “Have a Nice Day!!!”
Come to think of it almost all the restaurants you go to have something like this written on their bills. The difference is, it’s printed along with the bill. It’s a process. Maybe the computers they buy to print-out the bill have this facility in-built. But when you see something written by hand, it suddenly seems a lot more personal. It’s as if the guy is really wishing me.
Secondly, when you see something written by hand, it does manage to catch your attention. We are so used to seeing bills, our eyes automatically dart towards the final amount first, and if that amount is more than the money you are carrying with you, you immediately check the items you are charged for hoping to find some mistake. But the rest of the bill goes rather unnoticed.
I don’t know if this was another idea by the so called marketing strategists, but it felt nice. It definitely has more effect than something printed.
I smiled.
Tipped the guy Rs. 4 and left in a much better mood.
I was with a friend. Had about a 100 bucks on me. Wanted to hangout for at least a couple of hours. There is only one answer to a situation like that. A coffee place.
I went to the nearest Cafe Coffee Day outlet. The coffee was ok. The food could trouble even the strongest stomach; But all-in-all a decent enough place to hang-out. We asked for the bill. The 100 rupee note converted into about 3 notes of Rs. 10. But while i was paying the bill, i realized something written on the bill. I was hand-written with a blue ball-point pen. It read “Have a Nice Day!!!”
Come to think of it almost all the restaurants you go to have something like this written on their bills. The difference is, it’s printed along with the bill. It’s a process. Maybe the computers they buy to print-out the bill have this facility in-built. But when you see something written by hand, it suddenly seems a lot more personal. It’s as if the guy is really wishing me.
Secondly, when you see something written by hand, it does manage to catch your attention. We are so used to seeing bills, our eyes automatically dart towards the final amount first, and if that amount is more than the money you are carrying with you, you immediately check the items you are charged for hoping to find some mistake. But the rest of the bill goes rather unnoticed.
I don’t know if this was another idea by the so called marketing strategists, but it felt nice. It definitely has more effect than something printed.
I smiled.
Tipped the guy Rs. 4 and left in a much better mood.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Futbol Shutbol Hai Rabba
I was reading about the Football World Cup qualifier results and that reminded me of the coverage of the Euro 2008 coverage by ESPN Star.
The prematch show was led by Harsha Bhogle. Now I usually like this guy. But I am not too sure covering football is his cup of tea. Cricket he does fine but in the football briefings he looked a bit dazed. It almost looked like he had been up all night mugging up all he could about football.
And then there were the panellists:
One of them was an Indian, a Goan to be more specific. He supported the Portugal team whole-heartedly. Why? Goa was once a colony of Portugal. Now this happened a very long time ago but that did not deter this guy. He was so biased about his opinions that even the Portugal national team’s coach and players had a more unbiased view about the games.
The second was Steve McManaman (pronounced Steve MicMaan). This is another wierd guy. The only team he loves, being an Englishman, is England. He compared all the playing teams to England and whichever was closer to England ‘statistically’ would win the match, although, England did not feature in the final 32.
Now the thing with England is, although they did not qualify, they’re a pretty decent team. In fact, even in India they enjoy a lot of fan following. Now why would a lot of people support the team representing the country which had an oppressive rule over us for almost a century and a half is beyond my understanding. But then, I too am a fan of the England football team. So something’s are just the way they are. Our freedom fighters, most of who are looking down upon us from the heavens, must literally be looking down on us.
Back to the coverage, the thing is, we can miss the preshow if we don’t like it. But what would you do if the local cable-guy decides to show you the match in hindi. I’m not against hindi but then the hindi commentators do get such emotions out of me. The channel had 2 commentators: Ghaus Mohammad and Roshan Taneja. Now this Roshan Taneja was decent at best but the other guy got to my nerves. Not only did he have a very limited knowledge of football, but he compared everything with cricket. He actually kept referring to the main stars of the teams as being Sachin Tendulkars of their team. Fortunately enough, and to my sheer surprise he din’t blurt out ‘wicket-keeper’ instead of ‘goal-keeper’.
The worst statement of all was when he was referring to Michael Ballack of Germany. He said, “Yeh baalak (child) koi baalak nahi yeh toh maharathi hain”
We expect better, much better.
The prematch show was led by Harsha Bhogle. Now I usually like this guy. But I am not too sure covering football is his cup of tea. Cricket he does fine but in the football briefings he looked a bit dazed. It almost looked like he had been up all night mugging up all he could about football.
And then there were the panellists:
One of them was an Indian, a Goan to be more specific. He supported the Portugal team whole-heartedly. Why? Goa was once a colony of Portugal. Now this happened a very long time ago but that did not deter this guy. He was so biased about his opinions that even the Portugal national team’s coach and players had a more unbiased view about the games.
The second was Steve McManaman (pronounced Steve MicMaan). This is another wierd guy. The only team he loves, being an Englishman, is England. He compared all the playing teams to England and whichever was closer to England ‘statistically’ would win the match, although, England did not feature in the final 32.
Now the thing with England is, although they did not qualify, they’re a pretty decent team. In fact, even in India they enjoy a lot of fan following. Now why would a lot of people support the team representing the country which had an oppressive rule over us for almost a century and a half is beyond my understanding. But then, I too am a fan of the England football team. So something’s are just the way they are. Our freedom fighters, most of who are looking down upon us from the heavens, must literally be looking down on us.
Back to the coverage, the thing is, we can miss the preshow if we don’t like it. But what would you do if the local cable-guy decides to show you the match in hindi. I’m not against hindi but then the hindi commentators do get such emotions out of me. The channel had 2 commentators: Ghaus Mohammad and Roshan Taneja. Now this Roshan Taneja was decent at best but the other guy got to my nerves. Not only did he have a very limited knowledge of football, but he compared everything with cricket. He actually kept referring to the main stars of the teams as being Sachin Tendulkars of their team. Fortunately enough, and to my sheer surprise he din’t blurt out ‘wicket-keeper’ instead of ‘goal-keeper’.
The worst statement of all was when he was referring to Michael Ballack of Germany. He said, “Yeh baalak (child) koi baalak nahi yeh toh maharathi hain”
We expect better, much better.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
LOSERS
We finally have an answer to the terrorists attacks. We have given it right back to them. How? By the age old tried-and-tested method of ‘ignorance is bliss’.
A bicycle bomb went off in Kanpur on Tuesday hurting 8 people including children. And how have the newspapers covered it? Well, the story is printed on the 13th page of the TOI.
With so many blasts that have taken place killing people in hundreds, a minor blast which did not manage to kill even one is not worth Front-Page news. It’s an everyday thing now. In the foreseeable future such minor incidents won’t even show in papers. It’ll be like one of those road-side brawls which no one is bothered about.
This is what it has all come down to. Have the terrorists won? Maybe, maybe-not. Are they even terrorists? The official police statement is that it was not a terror attack but a ‘handiwork of miscreants’. These so-called ‘miscreants’ in the past were happy with their hoax bomb-threats and minor tiffs here-and-there. But now in the days where even they have taken to bombs, God Save Us.
But the point is, does this even bother us? It doesn’t seem so. We have become used-to or even immune to such deaths now. It’s part of our lives. In fact it’s so banal that it does not even find an honourable mention in our newspapers.
I can almost imagine the first thoughts of the people witnessing this blast.
The LOSERS only managed to hurt 8
A bicycle bomb went off in Kanpur on Tuesday hurting 8 people including children. And how have the newspapers covered it? Well, the story is printed on the 13th page of the TOI.
With so many blasts that have taken place killing people in hundreds, a minor blast which did not manage to kill even one is not worth Front-Page news. It’s an everyday thing now. In the foreseeable future such minor incidents won’t even show in papers. It’ll be like one of those road-side brawls which no one is bothered about.
This is what it has all come down to. Have the terrorists won? Maybe, maybe-not. Are they even terrorists? The official police statement is that it was not a terror attack but a ‘handiwork of miscreants’. These so-called ‘miscreants’ in the past were happy with their hoax bomb-threats and minor tiffs here-and-there. But now in the days where even they have taken to bombs, God Save Us.
But the point is, does this even bother us? It doesn’t seem so. We have become used-to or even immune to such deaths now. It’s part of our lives. In fact it’s so banal that it does not even find an honourable mention in our newspapers.
I can almost imagine the first thoughts of the people witnessing this blast.
The LOSERS only managed to hurt 8
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)