Terminal 1D at Delhi airport is superb as far as they make them. You check-in and are not required to screen your baggage which is taken care by somebody later. When you enter there is just elegance,beautiful shops,lovely coffee shops and a tasteful ambience. But then there you find in the morning that there are no real newspapers. Now in the old terminal you could get newspapers which give news apart from those which specialize in pictures of scantly clad ladies which certainly gets boring after some time. I hope I am not showing my age now for I still feel seventy years young. Then I got into the plane and there was on the public address system this rollicking slightly prosperous looking chairman of the airline wearing a goatee and I was told he cavorts with young ladies in bikini decorated calendars He said,I know you have a choice of airlines so I introduce you to the worlds best cuisine and the staff who look after you have been personally selected by me. The gentleman sitting next to me uncomfortable with the small leg space in the plane snorted that he,the Chairman of the airline that is,was lying. I politely asked him why he was using strong words. The gentleman who seemed to be a veteran on this sector of the plane said that you don’t have a choice of airlines,you get a samosa dipped in channas which is not exactly global cuisine and the staff in the plane were selected by an earlier airline Chairman ,who believed in ‘Simplify’.
More seriously as the downturn begins why are we losing our elan. We complain so that we can do better but the fact is we are doing better than most. However the quality of a system gets known only when it is under pressure. The President of India,has asked us to innovate. This is the time to do it. I have always felt that we would be a developed country when we can open a packet of creamer without spilling it and do all those small things which make life pleasurable. When life gets tough as he said when inviting martyrdom in the snowy peaks serving his country and you and me,dil mange more.
