Praveen Angre, Strengths Finder 2.0, HBR green, Whiskey, 100,000

I wanted to thank Mr. Praveen Angre, one of the Chef at the BA Terminal Four BA Gate 1A Lounge at Heathrow. Praveen dishes out the requirements of the passengers based on their needs, thus customizing the food. Considering Hundreds go thro the menu and request, this is great service. More so, when there are vegetarians like me whose special needs are to be attended to (Like he prepared a Schezwan noodles with Veg ingradients when the menu item is under Meat). Great customer service. Thanks Praveen.

Sorry to see the heads roll at Terminal 5 fiasco. Read an interesting article by Vir Shangvi in livemint as to how BA is fast loosing its market share and that Indian Airliners are making a dent in to the west. I agree with him, the Jet and Kingfisher are making huge wave with their great customer service. I am also seriously contemplating the switch, it just the fact that No international flight of Jet Airways flies out of Bangalore that is holding me back to BA.

On the other front, I completed the Strength finder 2.0 yesterday, though I purchased the book 4 months back, I could find the time yesterday. This is an updated version with more practical and customized inputs. There are 34 Traits from which the top 5 manifests.

My Top 5 Clifton strength finder Characters (Talent)were
Consistency
Harmony
Input
Learner
Discipline.

The Top5 Strength finder 1.0 when I did in 2006 were
Focus
Achiever
Input
Learner
Self Assurance.

So more or less consistent. I guess I have mended a bit with more responsibility of family and stability taking the priority !!!!.

Read a very interesting article in HBR by Daniel Goleman which made me think a lot, this was on Reawakening your passion for work.

Also read / heard a very thought provoking podcast / article on HBR Green by Rakesh Khurana on "Should managers take a Hypocratic oath?. Kept me thinking. I think the MBA degree or universities are slowly loosing the final objectives. They tend now to focus on short term aspects rather than long term vision and gains for the individual as well as to the society.!!!!.

I was appalled at the news article that the Wine and Whiskey lobby is pressurizing the government to resume serving alcohol on Domestic flights. Knowing the way our folks behave and having personally been a witness to the misdeeds of couple of folks on international flights with Air hostess, this will be a disaster. Many of the Indians have an attitude that when it is free, you may as well rip it. So I hope the common sense prevails and nonsensical decisions on the affirmative don't happen.

Finally, I was amazed to hear that my wife's colleague paid Rs. 100,000(US$2600) as donation for her 4 year old baby for admission in to Lower Kinder Garten (LKG). WOW!!!!. That was at least Rs. 35,000 more than the entire amount I had spent for my Education from 1st standard in 1969 to my masters degree in 1985 in India (From Madras to Coimbatore). I just did a quick check and 65,000(US $ 1700) was the total expense as education fee. Add may be another 20,000 for the Hostel fees and the bus travel expenses!!!!. Still less than Rs. 100,000 (We call 1 lac in India). So as economy prospers, so are the educators who form the basis/ foundation. Make the hay while the sun Shines I would presume.

I also look forward to spending the next 4 to 6 weeks at home as no travel is planned.

Till next week, take it easy and take care; Live consciously.

Regards
Karthik.
Karaikudy@gmail.com

Trieste, Pizza, Terminal 5, Day of the Jackal

I was away on Business travel to Trieste, Italy. Trieste is a beautiful small town of 250,000 people on the Adriatic coast near Slovenia and Austria and 140 Kms from Venice.
The town is famous for its long unspoiled beaches of the Adriatic sea. It was an undivided stretch of atleast 5kms. Great to walk and enjoy the dashing waves.
The castle of Miramare, is located, built by Maxmillan the emeror of Mexico. It is worth spending 30 minutes there.
The visit also gave me the chance to taste, Italian Pizza। I never had time or chance to visit such resturants to order one. When I expressed a desire to my Italian team, they immediately fulfilled it. The famous story of Margarita Pizza.(The colour of Italian flag of Red, Green, white by tomato, Basil, and Cheese) was a classic innovation. Trieste has some very good restaurants too.

With great reservations/ skepticism of delays and chaos in Terminal 5, I worked this trip through London Heathrow(Via Munich to Trieste). It was not as bad as I thought, as more than 10 days has passed since the fiasco of March 28th Inauguration nightmare. Still some of the elevators didn't work so were some of the toilets. The terminal 5 is good 25 minutes by bus from Terminal 4 where most International flights land. No wonder! they have postponed the Full move of other BA flights from Terminal4 to 5 till June. You should keep good 150 minutes for flights connecting from terminal 4 to 5 or vice versa. Yes, the shopping experience, Galleries Lounge are all too good. I guess it is a question of couple of months before order would be restored. The Lounge at Madras (I took the flight from Madras to London)

By the way, 30 years after, Reading the classic by Fredrick Forsyth's Day Of the Jackal, I got a chance to watch the movie during the flight back from LHR to Bangalore. This is also a case where the essence of the movie was captured fully. I also watched the movie Kite Runner a story set in Pre Taliban Afganistan. This movie is also from a book from the same name. Worth watching.
Ok, then till next time, take it easy and take care; Live Conciously.

Karthik.

Kumbakonam Fire Tragedy

I post this special post to pay our homage to the Children who perished in the Kumbakonam School fire tragedy in 2004. We visited Kumbakonam (See last post) and took time to visit the school in which 93 children lost their lives. Our anguish was indescribable seeing the unsafe way the school was allowed to run. I hope this is the last of such incidents. Will the authorities learn a lesson on implementing school safety norms? I doubt!!!!!!.
I reproduce the poem of APJ Abdul Kalam, the then president of India.

Prayer for departed children of Kumbakonam

Oh dear little ones! Oh dear little ones!
For you, parents had glorious dreams !
And you were all immersed in your own dreams
Yet, Agni engulfed you and all of those dreams
Taking you to Almighty's divine presence
Usually, departed old parents are buried by sons
Whereas, Kumbakonam, saw a sad scene!
Crying parents burying their little ones!!
Oh Almighty! show Your grace on those little ones
And keep them all in Thy Holiest Presence!!
Oh Almighty! bless those parents wilting in grief
To have the strength to bear this great loss
May Thy compassion and grace pervade all souls
And bring down the pain and wipe away the tears
Oh Almighty! show Your grace on those little ones.

A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

Karthik.

Swamimalai, KS Mangalam, Vellankani.

Ok, It is Good to be back to Blogging. I am planning to make up for the last time this week.

We had a good holiday time. We had been away to our home town, Karaikudy. En route we visited some of the interesting places.
Our first stop was Swamimalai, a small temple town about 10 miles from Kumbakonam. (Near Tanjore). We had to offer prayers there for my son. There is a form of worship called taking Kavadi which my son performed. My son is named Swaminathan (Family name) after the Lord here.

The hotel we stayed in Kumbakonam, (ARK Lodge) was mediocre. The services was below average. Added to the insult was some construction work from which the noise was unbearable.

We then left for Vaideeswaran Koil which is about 75 min from Kumbakonam. This visit was also long overdue(17 years) and from there we proceeded (after a long debate in view of time constraints) to Velankanni. The road to reach the place was a traveler's nightmare.(Potholes and diversions). The town like The small Church over the years has grown in to a big shrine. (I visited Velankanni then a small unknown hamlet in the early 1970s). I always have secular outlook to religions and we offered our prayers to the virgin Mary there. The 4 Hour drive to Karaikudy was good, the roads were excellent. Karaikudy wore a festive look in view of the visit by Sonia Gandhi that week. I experienced the frustration of being stuck in a traffic jam of 1 Hr the day she visited on 5th April.(An impossible event in a town of 100,000).

We also visited the Family Deity at Karisuzhntha mangalam which we try to visit atleast once a year. The photos of the deity Kalahasthiswarar (The temple was inagurated recently) and Godess Ganambigai. The town is 20 Km from the famous Halwa sweet making Tirunelveli town.

I plan to post more posting for the day.
Karthik.
0945am.

Sorry being away

All,
I was away on Holidays and business travel out of India to Italy. Sitting now in Terminal 4 in Heathrow on the way back home. Passed Thro Terminal 5.
Will catch up this weekend and would make up. Lot of thoughts to share.
Take it easy and take care; live consciously.
Karthik.

Releif, Appeal, Movie.

This week the school exams for the kids got over, needless to say it was a great relief for me and Lalitha. More so when last Monday, my daughter took the math exam,(She is in Grad 10th school final) I was never more never as anxious waiting to hear how she did it. The past 4 weeks was mostly spend following their progress of their performance. The sad part was the Indian school exam system has not changed much over the last 30 years, (The time I took the school final exam) it all boils to memory recall and vomiting it on the answer sheet. The real test and practical aspects come much later and the kids are confused in the absence of good guidance and maturity. The syllabus was far too much and it all boils down to luck that questions are straight forward. Wonder, when this will change??

So much engrossing was John Grisham's Appeal, that I burned midnight oil and finished it within 24 Hrs of purchasing the book yesterday evening. Wonderful story how agencies, justice can be manipulated by the power be. Wonderful book, brings out more questions!!.

With Kids enjoying their first day of holiday from today, they rented a DVD and watched the movie Tarae Zameen Par(Star on earth). I was invited to watch the second half of the movie and I obliged. (after I finished Appeal). It was a touching movie touching up on Dyslexia of a 9 year old kid and how it is handled by the Teacher who takes special interest. Good effort worth spending time.The kid has acted very well. Will it get Nominated for Oscar??, lets see.

By the way, At last for my forthcoming Europe trip,I got two year Schengen entry visa, This should remove my agony and grouse of endless documentation submission every time I plan a Business trip to the region and applying for visa, with a need to meet unique documentation requirement of Each of the member countries.!!!. I wonder, when the visa free travel or some biometric effort would materialize for genuine Business traveler?. Not in my life time, I guess!!!.

Till Next week, take it easy and take care; Live consciously.
Karthik.

Kichadi, Innocent Man, Playing for Pizza, Terminal 5.

3 days holidays have just flown it is time back to business. Of course, I have had a busy and anxious week with kids having their exams(Both kids have the dreaded Maths exam tomorrow, Monday) and exams get over this Friday.

After ages(almost 5 to 6 months) I had been inside the kitchen to cook lunch for the family as Lalitha was busy coaching children for the exam. I usually cook the Gujarati Kadi and Kichadi with Lijjat Pappad turned out well. Yes, Lalitha must be complaining of inventory management as the stocks must have plummeted.

Ok, I finished the book Innocent Man by John Grisham, It took me 10 months to finish the book and it was always lying near my bed all the time (with 90% to finish) and I decided enough was enough and finished at one shot (350 pages) last night. If you beleived that law is an ASS(H...) your views would be consolidated by this. To imaging this as non fiction is more horrendous. What a tragedy!!!. Yes, It might be still happening in the great US of A and everywhere else in the world. Yes, at the same time, I believe that if you stay away from evil, you are not affected. Ron was not doing that, things took a turn for the worst. Excellent must read book. Ofcourse, Grisham takes the plot in a masterful way.

Of course, Friday was a holiday, I had finished Economist, Fortune, HBR (Skimmed thro) (The week was of less sleep due to heavy jet lag). I took the book "Playing for Pizza" by Grisham and finished in 3 Hrs. Since I had seen a bit of super bowl during US visits and had been to Italy 3 times, I could visualize the scenes. A thoroughly enjoyable book. Ofcourse, Grisham also takes us through the Italian cities to give a tourist's overview. Agree totally on the good Italian food, even as a vegetarian, I had enjoyed the Olive oil, Bread and the Parmesan cheese. Of course the Egg plant roast in some of the restaurants (Eggplant Parmigiana) are a delight.

With the Hyderabad new International Airport opening last night, and Bangalore in limbo (expected in 7 weeks!!!!!) both will have connectivity issues with the mess of the traffic jam. In that situation, I look forward to the opening of Terminal 5 at London Heathrow, this week on Thursday(27th). This brings all BA flights under one roof and no longer the steeple chase (for the last 12 years for me) to catch the terminal bus, rush for security checks from Terminal 4 to 1 or vice versa for connecting flights to USA and European cities. I hope the terminal lives up to the pre opening hype. Let's see. I must be hitting there in the next 2 to 3 weeks for my next European visit.

I leave you with some of the thought provoking articles I read this week.

Does your commitments match your convictions, has generated some sparks and Aha Moment in me. Very insightful article from HBR.

Local Memoirs of Global manager Gurcharan Das of P& G. Think local and act global. Yes, the local way is some times the best way. great Article.

Ok, till next week, Take it easy and take care; Live consciously.
Regards
Karthik.