On Flying (in planes)

I do hate the old-hag manner of going ‘things used to be better in the days..yadda yadda….’, but in case of flying (on airplanes), the statement is probably true.

Or else, I must have been much less demanding and easily pleased twenty three years ago, which was the last time I flew half-way around the world on Singapore Airlines and figured I was in heaven or something. On the other hand, the recent trips between Brisbane and Kolkata on the same airlines were quite the disappointment.

But then, back in the mid-80s, flying was still somewhat of a novelty (to us at least) and had an aura of luxury surrounding it, even for Economy Class. That overall aura and glamour has all but eroded as flying became cheaper and ubiquitous. And in the post-911 era, flying is almost a chore, especially for domestic flights within the US: long security lines, rude flight-attendants, over-priced airport food, non-existent inflight service, unexplained delays, cramming of more and more passenger in smaller planes etc. One looks forward to these flights with dread.

International flight experiences, minus the chaos that is Los Angeles airport, fare slightly better. Plus, I am careful about avoiding obvious pit-falls such as flying Aeroflots, Royal Jordanians or Bangladesh Bimans. (I figure I’d rather pay an extra $200 than be stuck in Moscow bereft of my passport, told in Jeddah that my remaining non-stop segment has been converted into a 2-stop on - on two different airlines - or worse, not allowed on the the plane at all in spite of a confirmed ticket because some dude paid extra money at the check-in counter - all true stories that happened to people I know. And I have flown Air India and Indian Airlines on international segments - but those stories deserve a separate post). Even then, trips on Qantas, British Airways, Malaysian and China Airlines (this was before I was aware of their horrendous safety record) have been a mixed bag of expereinces. Somewhat true to stereotypes, personalized services and food were slightly better in the Asian airlines compared to the European or Australian ones. But there were are experiences aplenty: Malaysian once gave us a half-broken seat that would not recline (for a 12hour flight) and did not seem to be bothered to do anything about it and British Airway’s scheduling errors once led to a nightmare 10-hour wait in a queue at Heathrow, sustained only by warm bottles of Coke.

In this scenario, I was quite looking forward to the Singapore Airlines flights. Apart from the previous highly positive experiences with them (albeit two and half decade ago), the airline’s reputation for punctuality, safety and service is matched only by Cathay and more recently, Emirates.

Well, only the flight from Singapore to Kolkata was delayed by an hour due to technical problems and we did manage four flights without a crash - so they were delivered on punctuality and safety ! However, the service was a bit of a let-down. The so-called ‘warm towels’ handed out were regularly quite cold, and smelly (not the good smell). In one trip, half of the passengers got the towels before take-off and half later. Then there was the irritating habit of serving spirits only with the meal; pre-dinner Gin and Tonics had to be asked for (the horror!). The worst part was their highly touted personal entertainment systems. The system had about 99 channels - great variety of choice, including some of the latest blockbusters; but rather than a on-demand system like Qantas, the movies played on a loop. For some reason, quite a few of these movies started midway at the beginning of the flight and there was no indication as to when the next loop would start ! A minor inconvenience of course, especially given that I wasn’t going to spend much time watchin movies anyway. And all these lapses in services would have been quite acceptable on any other airlines, but I guess I had much loftier expectations from Singapore.

In their defence, the food and drink on all sectors were of very high quality, including the red wine. They even served ice-cream as deserts on some sectors. One only hopes that the attendants should know better one not be expected to ask for a slice of lime in the G&T. And their Boeing 777-200 (not the 777-300ERs) have quite a bit of extra leg-space - always welcome for vertically extended people like me.

On a slight aside, the best airlines service I have encountered in recent years have been on Qantas domestic flights. I have flown both short (1 hour) and long (5+ hours)-haul flights, and apart from the slightly cramped seats and tendency for long queues at the check-in counters, there is very little to complain about. Australian domestic flights do not have the stupid liquids and aerosol bans, and getting through security is much more hassle-free. They have a high ratio of on-board attendants to passengers, and these are usually a cheery lot. On any evening and all long haul flights they serve wine, not only pretty decent South Australian Shiraz ( they offer but I have never tried the white), but they actually hand out a whole 375ml bottle - to be poured into a proper wine glass that is actually made of glass ! On both my long-haul flights, the attendants were even quite insistent that I try out a second bottle. It does help that Qantas only has to compete with Virgin in Australia, and not a whole bevy of low-cost airlines.

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Among other flying notes: a bit of venting against co-passengers. When the flight it half-empty, why would you wish to be cramped up occupying the aisle seat in a 3-seater row ? One can easily move out to a another empty row and make life comfortable both for yourself and the remaingin two passengers. Yet this kind of obstinacy of clinging on to the assigned was demonstrated twice by different passengers, occupying the third seat next to ours when plenty vacant ones were available. Yes, I suppose we would have moved, but it is usually easier for the single person to find a different seat.

Also, when you don’t feel like reading a book, and the movie choices have whittled down to Aaja Nachle or 27 Dresses, a couple of G & Ts are of immense help in digesting either the silly song and dance routines or the saccharine-coated chick flick moments.

The obligatory ‘we are back’ post

Back in Australia where the lack of constant noise is deafening, but the cooler temperatures - not to mention the absence of humidity - of winter about to set in, is quite welcome.

We had a sensation of returning ‘home’ as we walked into the apartment, which is weird considering we were coming back from a visit to home.

Kolkata as usual was an overload on senses: auditory, visual and lets not forget smell and taste.  Mix in a  wedding, a few trips to relatives and meetings with couple of top-bloggers, there are several blog-posts worth waiting to be typed down.

All in due course, after a much needed catch up with hours of lost sleep.

Kolkata Ahoy…..

On the way to Calcutta/Kolkata …..a city chock full of emotions, brimming with memories and in my semi-nomadic existence, perhaps one true place to call home.

Last time in the city was three years back - a quick, extremely hectic 7-day trip. The trip before that was after a 3-year break as well. Was bit of a culture shock with new malls, roads and such. Expecting similar shocks again from newer malls, newer roads and perhaps hopefully, some new attitudes.

Although I am not sure I can cope with scenes like this.

(link via GreatBong)

But then, there should be some of the old reliables: the constant din of varying decibels from the early morning vendors to the incessant honking of car horns, playing Frogger while crossing the street at everyplace other than the designated zebra markings, and of course, the metallic grinding of the trams, the private buses competing to grab fares and clogging the streets, the state-owned ones zooming right past by a stranded gaggle of expectant passengers, and of course, the food. Oh the food !!!!

Phuchkas from the corner guy (been aroud for ever), mutton roll from Campari, not to mention all the regualr restaurants, and above all, the sweets: late evening rosgollas - spongy and moist; early morning jilipis - crunchy and filled inside with gooey sugary syrup; the mihidanas and bondes - best scooped up with a fluffy luchi…..the list is endless.

But most of all, its the special occasion that I am going for: that little kiddo who seemingly only yesterday was squinting through her slit-like eyes and giving me - the beaming brother on the other side - a smile through the nursery glass walls, has decided to get herself hitched for life ! With some dude (brothers can never totally accept prospective suitors for their sister). Should be much fun.

Any lurkers from Kokata wanting to meet-up, pliss to email: bongopondit_at_gmaildotcom.

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But before all that - a two-day stop-over at Singapore, which should be an interesting experience as well. I am returning to the island-city after a gap of 23 years. Singapore, was in fact, my first ‘foreign’ trip (not counting a trip to Nepal) - and landing from the chaos that is Kolkata to the order of Singapore had left a huge impression. Have heard that things have changed even there - for better (how do you improve on perfection).

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The Modern Man

’tis a morning for teh funnies:

How long before certain people start feeling offended ?

“Drabheed is the sinister…..a demon”

This has made my morning, day and possibly the entire two days left before we fly off to Kolkata.

Via J. A. P., a Bong vents his feelings on ……who else, Sourav Ganguly (and his removal from the team two years ago).

BONGULY (its not in Bong, so everyone can enjoy).

[is there any way to d/l from e-snips - this will help me through the flight!! update: managed to do this. if anyone needs the mp3 file, let me know]

Nuggets:

“Greg Chappel is scarce” (I think he means scrared)

“Bradman bhi bowled hua…..clean bowled to Garfield Sobers bhi hua…”

“Ganguly is the person born to lid “

“UPA government ko fall kar dega Ganguly”

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And yeah, you heard that right, we are off to the home-base/mother-ship/the cracker of all places, Kolkata. Three weeks of fun and bliss.

The day the flame died…..

Not exactly what De Coubertin envisaged (Image from New York Times).

The flame did not actually out ‘die out’, but had to be extinguished several times, as pro-Tibetian protesters disrupted the Paris leg of the Olympic torch relay. This was after similar protests in London (in addition to protests by Uighur Muslims in Istanbul) and certainly there is more to come.

Much of the protest is in response to the recent Chinese crackdown in Tibet, as well as an overall activism against China’s poor human rights record and suppression of individual rights. Calls have gone out for sportsmen to boycott the games and for world leaders to skip the opening/closing ceremonies to mark solidarity with the Tibetans.

However, some have questioned the timing of these protests: asking why it took an Olympic Games to highlight the Tibetan struggle and if an event that is meant for sports is a right place to mix in politics.

The answer to the first is the brutal truth that most people simply don’t care beyond their own sphere until it becomes fashionable to do so. For many years, the question of Tibet’s right to independence from China has been a niche cause célèbre. But now with the whole world’s attention on China, it was somewhat inevitable and justified that pro-independent elements in Tibet would attempt to highlight their plight. Just as surely, most people will forget the issue about a month after the Olympics (how many people care anymore about Darfur, even while the situation there has hardly improved?).

The second issue of whether sports and politics should mix is tougher to answer. While the protests are far removed from the idealism of promoting world peace and healthy relation between nations that Baron Coubertin preached, the Olympics are no strangers to political controversies, starting from the Nazi propaganda of 1936 to the terrorist acts in Munich ‘72 and reaching a nadir with the Cold War boycotts of 1980 and ‘84.

[The games have been relatively free of politics since then, though not short of controversies - from doping (or how best the athletes dont get caught), overcommercialisation, corruption in the bidding process etc. No one other than a dewy-eyed innocent will claim that the Olympics is about the spirit anymore.]

So there is precedence in the politicization of the Olympics. More broadly, sporting bans have been used - arguably with success - in dismantling South Africa’s apartheid regime. And Olympics is certainly one of the biggest sporting events (actually, currently more of an event or a gala than sports). So there is certainly some justification there as well.

However, the bigger question is whether any of these protests will an effect on the Chinese government or its policies. When demonstrations took place in Tibet, the Chinese were able to crack-down severely, gagging the media in the process. They have also launched an aggressive public relations strategy responding to the world-wide protests.

But herein lies the importance of the current torch-relay protests: They are happening in major world cities, and most notably in socities that actually allow the freedom to voice dissent. With such prolonged agitations against the most prominent symbol of an event that is supposed to be the Chinese government’s grand showpiece, how long can they afford to keep up the bullying tactics ?

Conversely, it is also time for national governments around the world to use the opportunity in forcing China’s hand into tackling human rights issues (So far, such a policy hasn’t been forthcoming, most head of states have been satisfied to merely voice demured complaints).

Additionally, given the commercial nature of the Olympics, will such prolonged agitations force the mega-corporations sposoring the events, to think twice about the risks invested in associating their names with Beijing Olympics?

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PS: Coming back to the torch relay, in our own country (where we sadly continue to suck at the Olympics), the torch is being carried by such sporting luminaries as Aamir Khan and Saif Ali Khan. Thankfully, one deserving torch bearer, Baichung Bhutia, has refused citing solidarity with the Tibetans.

Additionally, we have allowed ourselved to be stared down by the Chinese diplomacy over Tibet (see excellent posts by Nitin here and here).

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(Thanks to Rohit for comments/discussions)

Knight Riders Promotional Video

Speechless, we simply sit and shake our head in dismay:

(more on the Knight Riders here)

The comments section at the Youtube host site provides a good competition for Rediff. Enjoy gems such as:

This ad-vid is awesome!!! Ignoring the stupid commentaries that underestimate our king, I hope that to these boys all turns into gold. Is so sweet the determination with which he promotes the team.

PS - if someone can explain what this video has to do with cricket, Kolkata or even Bollywood, I will be much obliged.

FCB: A non-religous Easter and a Scotch-based drink

In which Friday Cocktail Blogging makes a (hopefully) stealthy return (just like a much too drunk husband enters the bedroom after a nite out with the blokes ? [1] ) Written while copiously consuming the drink mentioned below and the hi-fi belting out classic Ghazals such as Main Nashe Mein Hoon, Hungama Kyon Hai (Thodisi Jo Pee li Hain), (you get the drift) etc……..

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It’s a long weekend here down-under, with both Good Friday and Easter Monday being holidays (in Tasmania, they even take Easter Tuesday off)! What tickles me however, is the notion I gathered over the close-to-an-year I have been here; that the Aussies are really not that religious. At least not in the open, in your face, all too preachy manner of the US religious right. The Oz attitude towards religion is like most other things in their life: it is something that exists in the world, something to tolerate while getting on with the important stuff like cheap-beer chugging, bbq-ing and general partying.

Therefore, they make the best of it - by taking holidays and grabbing a chance to get pissed. Even as I type, I can hear shouts of drunken revelry in nearby apartments no doubt celebrating the crucification in some weird manner.

And in my mind, the current prevalent images of Easter are formed - not by resurrection, or even the colored eggs - but by the posters plastered all across the university: Enticements to attend weekend parties in which ‘Easter’ bunnies in their coquettish garbs are the focal point (for example see this).

Compare this state of affairs with the US, where during my first six years in New York state, we did not even get Good Friday holidays (a big surprise to us initially as it used to be holiday in ’secular’ India as well).

Anyhow, I am attempting to make the best of the situation, even with the temporary pseudo-bachelorhood state [worthy of a separate post by itself].

Add to this, it is the colorful festival of Holi in India.

So really, little excuse not to drink. And overall, a good reason for the FCB to return.

In that spirit, recently we have been trying out cocktails with Scotch. Now, if it is a single-malt Scotch, then mixing a nip with anything other than a hint of H₂O, is pure sacrilege. However, if it is blended malt that you have in the kitchen cupboard, then be a bit adventurous, and venture with some of those juices and liqueurs. In particular, I have realised that the orangy flavor of Triple-Sec/Cointreau goes well with Scotch. So here goes a recipe, which is sometimes referred to as the High Voltage, while I have named it as:

The Confused Scotsman

• 2 parts Scotch (I used Ballantine’s 12-year old blend)

• 1 part Triple-Sec (1.5 if you like it sweeter) [recommended you use regular Triple-sec rather than Cointreau, which will make it much too sweet)
• 0.5-1 part lime fresh lime juice (depends on taste and tartness of the lime)
• Soda water for topping

Mix all ingredients except Soda water in a shaker with ice. Shake vigorously (and I mean vigorous). Strain into a old-fashioned glass filled with ice. Top with Soda water. Now I actually prefer it without the soda-water, especially if the lime if fresh enough and the mix has been shaken well enough, but the choice is yours.

Goes well with ghazals with a romantic/unrequited-love/pining theme or even an old film-noir [or, as in my case, reading hard-boiled police detective stories set in Edinburgh].

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[1]: Yes, my metaphors suck.

Spot the irony

On an unrelated note, I title this: Roti, Kapda Aur Kalories…….

Original page here (or click to view the larger image).

(via DesiPundit, which is now the must-go destination for all recipes and diet recommendations)

RIP Arthur C Clarke

“If we have learned one thing from the history of invention and discovery, it is that, in the long run - and often in the short one - the most daring prophecies seem laughably conservative.”

Arthur C Clarke, 1917-2008.

The Knight Riders are coming…..

I am positively excited; brimming - nay, overflowing - with anticipation and gutted by the intolerably long wait. I am figuratively salivating …………

……..because, ladies and gents, the greatest thing to happen to my old, beloved city since Parnab started gracing the quiz circuits, is here:

Yes ……. the Kinght Riders are coming - no nothing to do with David Hasselhorf - but our very own Dada-led, SRK owned, Indian Premium League franchise, the Kolkata Knight Riders !!!

Naysayers who frown upon the cattle-trade nature of the IPL player auctions will find plenty wrong with this picture. Snobs will deride the the golden yellow helmet as tacky. But little they do they realize the visual symbolism of a morphed image of a viking helmet with a cricket grill. It is exactly what provides confidence that the home team will ‘unleash…power, tear down …rivals’, ‘win every war in the battlefield’ , ‘fight for glory’ and other such amazing stuff.

The same spoil-sports may even complain about the overly ‘Flash’y website, but once you have downloaded the team anthem, a stirring composition in Bengali-Hindi-English combined, extolling you to ‘korbo, lorbo, jeetbo re’, how can it not stir the those long-dormant Robindrosongeet-suppressed Bangali-passions? If only we had this slogan 30 years ago, Kolkata would have been far ahead of the game.

And if all that doesn’t get your adrenalin pumping and rushing to the nearest store to get your own autographed helmet while singing ‘lorbo, jeetbo’ at the top of your voice, there is no way you can evade the charms of the lovable mascot, ‘Hoog Lee’! Yes a spectacularly genius piece of witty nomenclature from some enterprising copywriter. As SRK sez:”not Bruce Lee, not Brett Lee, but better than all the Lees“. Oh yeah !

Yessireee, along with jhalmuri, phuckka and the Campari mutton roll, add the Knight Riders to the irresistible delights of Kolkata. Lucky me, I get to be in Kolkata for their opener on the 20th April !!

Errr….is that John Buchanan sniggering ? How dare he……..

(Thanks to Well-Pitched for drawing attention to the Knight Riders)

Friday afternoon comic relief….

Courtesy of DNA:

“We are watching the situation,” says Shashank Haridas, whose daughter is to fly to the [blank] for [blank]. “If the situation worsens, we might have to reconsider the plan.”

Do have a guess about those blanks before clicking on the original link.