लोग हमेशा चदते सूरज को सलाम करते हैं और ढलते सूरज से सब दूर रहते हैं, क्यूंकि चदता सूरज रौशनी लाता है और ढलता सूरज अँधेरा. अँधेरे में तो साया भी सात नहीं देता है लोगों से क्या उम्मीद करें
These were the profound words that were told to me many years ago by someone I hold in high regard. The very worldly wise paan-wala who has rarely said things which are untrue. His company for the last 20+ years has kept my ears close to the ground and head firmly on my shoulders.
Flashback four years.
If you recall air travel many years ago, as passengers you had two terminals to choose from depending on which airline you flew. More often than not, every city had a terminal dedicated to "Indian Airlines" and the other terminal for "Private Airlines". Delhi, Bombay, Bangalore all had separate terminals for the erstwhile Indian Airlines, which was uncrowded, had far better facilities and usually had the friendly Indian Airlines staff ever willing to ensure that you caught your flight even if you were a few minutes late. This like I said was many moons ago. A sense of pride was instilled in employees of "Air India + Indian Airlines + Alliance Air" (now known as NACIL or Nonsense Accentuated Company of Incompetent Legislature) in the fact that we stood out, we had an identity, we had our own fr***in terminal. Eat that you private airline fliers, we at Indian Airlines care about our passengers enough to give them the best. The facilities were envied by every other airline, then one day Jet Airways took the bold step and said they would work towards their own terminal in Bombay. But then every flier in those days on Indian Airlines had the luxury of not being crowded into serpentine check-in lines followed by longer security lines and then even longer boarding lines. Especially the early morning crowd out of Delhi, doing a 5:50 departure to Leh or the Army charters were fun.
Then one day despatch was abuzz with rumours that BeerJet had forayed into the airline business and they had sent gifts the size of a Ukulele case to almost everyone of any relevance in Indian Airlines, Airports Authority of India, ATC services, et-al. A couple of days later the news doing the rounds was that the Alliance Air counters at the Delhi & Mumbai airports were being wound up and merged into the Indian Airlines counters (after all we were one company). Well that seemed like the good part of the news. And then the bombshell was dropped, the area was being cleared to make way for Check-In counters for BeerJet. Well the bearded man sure knew how to get his way around things for one. And then slowly we figured out that he signed up Indian Airlines ground services as well, so guess what, while we were waiting for a tug, we'd see one zip right across our faces (remember Alliance Air used to be at the far end of the Delhi tarmac) to the other end to push out a waiting BeerJet 320 after which they would come to get us. It was not surprising when ATC wouldn't give you lower levels 200miles out and then ask you to do an orbit and then you figure out that while you did that orbit an aircraft at a lower level went ahead of you, and more often than not it was a BeerJet. Then you had these pretty-young-things who would hog the mic at airports making "guest" announcements repeatedly in a well orchestrated script. Well, maybe I read too much into situations and circumstances, but let's speculate things even if it is circumstantial. It has never been easy making the government machinery move, however when BeerJet came about things did happen albeit quickly for them. I'm not sure if it was intent or content that made things happen for them, but sharing OUR terminal, OUR ground equipment, OUR aero-bridges, OUR staff used to get me infuriated. At that time it was clear that our obituary had been written and we were merely collecting for a coffin for the erstwhile "Indian Airlines + Alliance Air" combination which had been a revenue generator.
Flash forward four years.
The bearded man is in trouble, the king of good times has fallen on bad ones. Beer is finally a four letter word. No one gives a rats ass of what happens to them. The aviation industry's parasites have shown that they can gnaw away at an airline finish it, feed on its carcass and move on to the next. But more often than not it is the airline that courts its own trouble. Reality, the erstwhile friends of BeerJet have deserted them.
The sun my friends has set.
With every setting sun in the west, rises a new one in the east.
The new sun now is IndiJOe Airlines, with their snazzy adverts (remember the czech+baniya model crooning to something in my window, earth below) and similar posturing as was BeerJet four years ago. You see them do the same thing, except this time they're out for the gullet. Get slots, Get Pilots, Get terminal space, Get Mic space, Get get get get get....
Given sufficient time, the new found friends of IndiJOe will start gnawing at them shortly and will eventually result in their demise, when another sun will rise in the east. Why are they blind? Can't they see what has happened to the various others who courted the devil and danced with him, who today are the devil's dessert? In this day and age, my heart aches just a little bit every time I look at the far side of Delhi or Bombay terminals and remember how we used to have this colorful parade of Orange tails in unison almost as if harmony flowed through the space. A small sense of pride remains that I was a part of this history. You can go ahead and rename all the taxiways and parking bays all you want, but Old Lufthansa Hangar will remain the landmark for many generations to come.
And to IndiJOe all I have to say is "आज जवानी पर इतराने वाले कल पछतायेगा, चदता सूरज धीरे धीरे ढलता है ढल जाएगा"
These were the profound words that were told to me many years ago by someone I hold in high regard. The very worldly wise paan-wala who has rarely said things which are untrue. His company for the last 20+ years has kept my ears close to the ground and head firmly on my shoulders.
Flashback four years.
If you recall air travel many years ago, as passengers you had two terminals to choose from depending on which airline you flew. More often than not, every city had a terminal dedicated to "Indian Airlines" and the other terminal for "Private Airlines". Delhi, Bombay, Bangalore all had separate terminals for the erstwhile Indian Airlines, which was uncrowded, had far better facilities and usually had the friendly Indian Airlines staff ever willing to ensure that you caught your flight even if you were a few minutes late. This like I said was many moons ago. A sense of pride was instilled in employees of "Air India + Indian Airlines + Alliance Air" (
Then one day despatch was abuzz with rumours that BeerJet had forayed into the airline business and they had sent gifts the size of a Ukulele case to almost everyone of any relevance in Indian Airlines, Airports Authority of India, ATC services, et-al. A couple of days later the news doing the rounds was that the Alliance Air counters at the Delhi & Mumbai airports were being wound up and merged into the Indian Airlines counters (after all we were one company). Well that seemed like the good part of the news. And then the bombshell was dropped, the area was being cleared to make way for Check-In counters for BeerJet. Well the bearded man sure knew how to get his way around things for one. And then slowly we figured out that he signed up Indian Airlines ground services as well, so guess what, while we were waiting for a tug, we'd see one zip right across our faces (remember Alliance Air used to be at the far end of the Delhi tarmac) to the other end to push out a waiting BeerJet 320 after which they would come to get us. It was not surprising when ATC wouldn't give you lower levels 200miles out and then ask you to do an orbit and then you figure out that while you did that orbit an aircraft at a lower level went ahead of you, and more often than not it was a BeerJet. Then you had these pretty-young-things who would hog the mic at airports making "guest" announcements repeatedly in a well orchestrated script. Well, maybe I read too much into situations and circumstances, but let's speculate things even if it is circumstantial. It has never been easy making the government machinery move, however when BeerJet came about things did happen albeit quickly for them. I'm not sure if it was intent or content that made things happen for them, but sharing OUR terminal, OUR ground equipment, OUR aero-bridges, OUR staff used to get me infuriated. At that time it was clear that our obituary had been written and we were merely collecting for a coffin for the erstwhile "Indian Airlines + Alliance Air" combination which had been a revenue generator.
Flash forward four years.
The bearded man is in trouble, the king of good times has fallen on bad ones. Beer is finally a four letter word. No one gives a rats ass of what happens to them. The aviation industry's parasites have shown that they can gnaw away at an airline finish it, feed on its carcass and move on to the next. But more often than not it is the airline that courts its own trouble. Reality, the erstwhile friends of BeerJet have deserted them.
The sun my friends has set.
With every setting sun in the west, rises a new one in the east.
The new sun now is IndiJOe Airlines, with their snazzy adverts (remember the czech+baniya model crooning to something in my window, earth below) and similar posturing as was BeerJet four years ago. You see them do the same thing, except this time they're out for the gullet. Get slots, Get Pilots, Get terminal space, Get Mic space, Get get get get get....
Given sufficient time, the new found friends of IndiJOe will start gnawing at them shortly and will eventually result in their demise, when another sun will rise in the east. Why are they blind? Can't they see what has happened to the various others who courted the devil and danced with him, who today are the devil's dessert? In this day and age, my heart aches just a little bit every time I look at the far side of Delhi or Bombay terminals and remember how we used to have this colorful parade of Orange tails in unison almost as if harmony flowed through the space. A small sense of pride remains that I was a part of this history. You can go ahead and rename all the taxiways and parking bays all you want, but Old Lufthansa Hangar will remain the landmark for many generations to come.
And to IndiJOe all I have to say is "आज जवानी पर इतराने वाले कल पछतायेगा, चदता सूरज धीरे धीरे ढलता है ढल जाएगा"
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