Basking in the glory!

Hurray time for people in India as the news of Nobel peace prize sets in. I will be lying if I said, i knew Kailash - in fact I knew Malala because of recent media coverage. There will be blogs, articles and many write-ups now on Kailash Sathyarthi. Discussions on how India's 28 million kids of age 6-14 are working in India, some will be bashing as usual the man at the centre, some will be debating H-M combination that the Nobel committee mentioned, a few like me will be reflecting tangentially on a related subject. Anyway...

I did something that annoyed a few people around me and I am wondering why? this is what I did, if you are weak-hearted, don't read further:

I have a pet and been nurturing it well. I decided to teach the pet some clever tricks to keep it occupied; some people who came home appreciated the pet and 'me' for 'my efforts' - I felt really pleased about myself. Though the pet was doing those tricks, I was enjoying its new found glory. So I decided to take it a better master and helped it learn/show off those tricks. Obviously the fame multiplied and things started paying off.  However the pet was now tired and got bored of these tricks - however will I let my new-found fame let go?

I was blinded and did not see that I am hurting its mental health, not only that the pet started gaining an ego and it also lost a few good friends in the neighbourhood. Frustration started building up. As far as I am concerned, I am working hard for the pet to learn more tricks and be well known in its circle, whereas the pet was losing its social circle, sometimes delivering those tricks well, sometimes miserably failed and people laughed at me. The vicious cycle went on and on until one day the pet got tired of me and deserted me.

The same people who appreciated me started flipping their tongues other way; started blaming and foul-mouthing me. They said I am such a bad pet-owner that never really cared about the pet, but it was all about boosting my ego and myself than really caring about the cute little pet.

I am wondering what did I do? I loved the pet so much, fed it nicely, dressed it up, spent my time and energy to help the pet learn new tricks, took it around the neighbourhood to show its talents. I was only meaning well to the pet. The same people who clapped, cried and appreciated me are throwing brickbats at me? Many people secretly yearned that they couldn't have a pet like that and chided their pets and nudged them to be like my pet - now they have all left me in a lurch.

I was so depressed that not only I lost my new found glory, but more importantly my loveable pet - what am I going to do? In addition the blue-cross is at my door steps to investigate - I might face a jail too.

I hope this story doesn't reminds you of this recent incident (click here to know) or brings any uncanny resemblance, I am not responsible. Please note the above story is not true but I was reminded when I read how Kailash Satyarthi got a Nobel peace prize for helping recover poor children from labour. By no way, I mean the incident in the link is about child labour, but more importantly is linked to better mental health for kids.

I only wish, that all children grow along their age curve, enjoy their pranks and time - while we talk about work life balance, we also should bring a healthy grow-play-learn balance concept for our young ones. May peace be upon you!

The Newspaper is dead, Long live the 'New' Social-e-Paper

Blog gist: In the technology driven, Information anywhere world, newspapers need to reinvent how they communicate, focus on new concepts, (drop the 'Know your English' mentality) and time is an essence - tell the story real quick - just don't be a Modi basher and learn it from Rajnikanth's Kochadiiyan. psst: who are the two anchors who have resigned/gone on a month unpaid holiday!!

Now over to the full story:
The Hindu newspaper was a precious commodity at our house. The head of the family had his first rights to the paper - After a customary glance through news and other sections, the paper would be neatly folded back and on its place fresh. Then the elder brother ran through the sports pages and back in its fold.

Being the last in pecking order not only for the family but to The Hindu as well. I started reading The Hindu when I was 8 or 9.  Typically the interest started from the reverse sections of the paper - sports pages. Then moved on to 'This day that age', S&T, Tuesday's Know Your English, Friday's Entertainment, Sunday Magazines and I finally grew up to reading the political sections. By the time I started reading the editorial, lead or open column I would have been probably 17.Retaining the fresh look and returning to its folds took me years to learn. I used to be awed by how my father could read it even in a windy bus drive and retain its fold. 

There was a brand to The Hindu, a societal elitist look on you if you were known to be an avid reader. Whereas some of my father's friends read a dusty Indian Express who would frown upon, but still secretly look up to The Hindu reader's for its English panache.

Fast forward 20 years: I am not an avid reader of The Hindu anymore. Profession facilitating travel around the globe led to reading The Washington Post, Financial Times, The New York Times, The Telegraph, The Guardian, The Independent and recently The Daily Sabah too. But to be honest, I have stopped reading these papers and use technology to bespoke relevant news as a summary.

In addition I have a set of blogs and also Apps that filters and gives me the essence. As if this is not enough, I have my own sources of "grapevine providers" So you can say I am actually a news-junkie and not only that, you can also say I am a new world order- Fast News Junkie.  (like a fast food junkie) and I don't have time!

This morning I decided to take it to the 1990s style and woke up with e-Hindu. I read a good write up from by Shiv Visvanathan. After many years, If anything hasn't changed it is The Hindu. Apart from a short-period of their interesting ads and their bold take on to the TOI plus a few aesthetic bits, nothing has changed fundamentally. Hope my above write-up gives them a dose of what is already happening to the "Media" and what is more to come.

I actually wanted to write a "closed" letter to Mr Shiv Visvanathan. But why not make it a bit more interesting with my own view of The Hindu and use his article as a means. I used a summariser app and the gist provided by an app: 

1. Acting as the vector of a new generation, Mr. Modi decimated the Congress.
2. Watching the rituals of Delhi one senses, first, signs of doubt, about the paucity of new ideas.
3. In this scenario, Mr. Modi as the new Patel rules instead of an adolescent Nehru (Rahul Gandhi) but the categories are not different

In less than a fortnight this gentleman has passed on the verdict. However in order to pass his views, he has used language to his best use. "If one looks at it starkly, India stands between a desiccated left and an inflated right. Yet, one stands at a time when the left and the right as ideologies or problem-solving solutions are outdated. The nature of history has changed and Mr. Modi’s moves look outdated." 

So let me say through the closed letter to Shiv, that this blog is not about Modi or defending his nascent government. It is about highlighting that Shiv's profession may be teaching, but his pastime of writing articles in newspapers is under threat.

"The News Paper is dead, Long Live the social-e-paper!"  If he looks abstemiously in to my above write-up this will be clear.

1. Those days of long winded flowering articles are fading. Like the Cricket Test matches, they may provide a platform to enjoy the technique of writing, but IPL has come to stay - so a new social news order has come to stay.
2. The ideology of left vs. right has been dead with Cold War v1.0 and the v2.0 is about capitalism and naked truth is nothing but that. Even though left had a presence in India, contrary to popular belief India has never (in my opinion) understood either left or right wing politics - Simply because those models have never been described by any statesman or proponent to India and its polity. There were some notable names, but these Models were never explored even as a proof of concept, let alone an actual implementation. 

He then goes on to discuss the problems in a set of 3 triangles - The first triangle (allegedly inspired by French Revolution - which is the need for Liberty, Equality and Fraternity), Second triangle (Industrial - Productivity, growth and efficiency), but instead of projecting the third problem, he says it is the third solution!!! Which is Uniformity, Governance and Security.

So for the above problems or the needs, he outlines three solutions

1. A Social Contract  which brings Nature and Ways of livelihoods
2. Democracy as electoralism must go instead should be seen as plurality
3. Technology blend of culture into a cultic religion: Technocratic-fundamentalism

Unfortunately my summariser app has chosen to omit his above "innovative" thinking altogether.

1. People across the globe largely have moved to left-centre or right-centre. So he has decided to bring new concepts which make little sense to me, if in fact he has really found some new concepts, then he should work hard to share  them much more succinctly.
2. Like the politics, Media is also changing, the news consumption is changing.

I see three problems here and let me explain using Venn diagrams. Even though Shiv talked about three triangles and forgot to mention one, I am going to use Venn's Circles.

So the first set is whether one wishes or not, technology has changed the world and will go on changing it as it did in the Mechanical and Computing Industrial revolutions. The new world order of "social media" has arrived. 

The second circle that cuts into first circle is, the way people consume news, consume information and more importantly the way people will analyse news means the Media outlets have to work hard in bringing out "quality debates" - they have a choice of a) run a 24x7 news channel that has a set of anchors shouting at 9PM every day or b) to bring new world-order news consumption techniques.(grapevine: and as I write this, I hear two lead-anchors have resigned from CNN-IBN nothing to do with their "high pitch debates" - they have apparently gone to a month unpaid holiday)  

Three, sorry unlike Shiv I don't see a third problem Grrr. (Mixing humor, so keeping my reader's attention) Actually the third problem is we don't have time, so make your point very quickly or pitch a point in 1 minute elevator pitch and maybe we will come again tomorrow to read your full story. 

With the above three problems, I see three areas for change.

• The Hindu and Shiv instead of debating about politics, should first think about renewing its communication mechanism,  story-line vs. actual content of article, using pictures or other means to share new topics. Originally The Hindu was just a newspaper, then it introduced Sundays, then Tuesdays, then Fridays, then a supplement every day. In a similar manner, try to change your communication models to the new world order
• As you pitched yourself as a quality paper (as opposed to the likes of TOI), try engaging the audience with quality debates by encouraging new order concepts, keep the language really simple and don't regurgitate words. Know your English era is fading, there are many other ways now people can learn better English. So drop your English panache and focus on real ideas.
• Time is an essence, before publishing try using a summariser app to see if the real message comes through. As highlighted above, Shiv's message only shows his bias about Modi when I ran his article through the summariser. If he was truly trying to engage the audience about new type of politics and nation building then the proof of the pudding is out there - his message has been omitted in algorithimisation (yes I can make up some new words like Shiv - and wake up the techncrati is going to rule the world whether you like it or not) -

So if you don't want them to rule and if "this type of world view was thought to be more dangerous than any secularism that you and your friends might have espoused", then wake up, learn the new tricks to stop them. Hope my write-up makes sense and The Hindu reinvents itself. Also please use http://freesummarizer.com/ to see if my message is conveyed - try to shrink it to 5 sentences and see if the gist conveys my message :)

Finally a joke to finish the order of the day (truly from Facebook). Apparently the media has junked "Kochadiiyan" that the graphics looks like amateurish and the film quality was not to its expectation and cannot match to the Hollywood grandeur and so on and on. This social-media junkie  rips apart and truly reflecting to the new world-order expectations that "We also expect our Indian media and news channels to be like the NY times, the CNNs, the BBCs or the Al-Jazeeras' - but what do we get? Shrill pitched anchors and garbage news! - so are we complaining that we don't get international quality media and news outlets - No! - Just keep quiet and move on!...."

Anyway somehow got Rajini and Deepika's photo to get more coverage to my blog! Vaybara Gaantham-appa... (Business Magnet) - If you have fully read this write-up to the end, then I have succeeded in the new-news world!

Good Morning 'Modi'fied India

Assuming exit polls are true, tomorrow will undoubtedly be a good morning and a dawn to India.  I moved out of India when the previous NDA government was midway in power and hope to go back when they are back in power!

5 key takeaways if the polls results lean towards a majority vote to BJP+

1. EVM cannot be tampered? If it is a hung verdict like 2009, then this scepticism will go up, if not it will vindicate the EVMs

2. It is indeed a Modi wave - After 1984 there has never been a majority. In the new social media age, with so much changed, getting a majority in India is actually a wave but not a clean sweep. Yes a wave gently brushes your foot and removes what's underneath your foot, doesn't sweep you off like a tsunami

3. India's democracy will be going through its fifth major cycle of change. From the Nehruvian to Indira to Rao to Vajpayee to Modi. However as a political cycle it will set foot onto a federal set-up from a central (till Indira) to regional (till MMS).

4. India will it become the 1980s China? Ushering a growth not only for itself but to the wider global-economy?

5. A proper rule of law might finally happen. I am already hearing that many groups in Delhi are facing the unknown and are clueless on their next strategy. They have all along played chamchas and will be uprooted.

In fact Delhi will not be the Capital any more!

All the best India.

3 Reasons Who Should Govern India Next

Short snappy recommendation - Give BJP your vote

1. Let me tackle 2002 straight away: In spite of 10 years of congress led full-focus investigation, an iota of tenable proof has not been found; so I believe  BJP's PM candidate is not at blame yet. Re. Apology, yes he should do - but if almost an entire nation has hounded someone for more than decade, it is the Nation that should first Apologise and then expect one back.

2. Change can be better implemented only if the governing team has a bit of freedom to handle - So stability and majority is key; From this perspective BJP should be voted to Majority - for people who are concerned about possible repercussions, After 12 years No Riots in Gujarat is the proof of pudding. So for BJP to implement things better vote for them to be in Majority

3. No other viable alternative (NOTA) is to be seen as OOTA - Only Other Tangible Alternative. When you have a narrow set of choices e.g. one is unwell, and in alternate set of medicines, there is only one option that is available; with that there is a threat of cancer (i will use Media's analogy - but personally I don't believe so) - but the probability of success is high too.  - So VOTE 4 BJP to win in Majority.

Thank you.

Kedi's Day Out 2014

It was an event too good to miss; fortunately I was in a position to make it to the Kedi's (Rowdy's) Day out - an alumni of JHSS 10th class batch especially for the D section gang with a couple from other sections too.

When the day was organised, in my hearts and hearts I wanted to go. But my personal situation had constrained me until the last moment. But things turned in my favour and I booked in Air India and flew to Chennai.  It was a short 8 days trip with jam packed schedule. In addition the alumni event was also packed with a strong agenda.

When one expects so much, something is bound to go wrong. You may have guessed it right, if you had paid attention to previous para - I booked my trip with Air India. The dinner was horrible leading to a food poisoning to a few passengers. For some reason just after a mouthful of that dinner, my gut instinct warned me. I too fell sick with a bad headache. Luckily, I stabilised and more to my surprise landed half-an-hour early. I pranced around happily with a confident feeling to reach the event; but I was greeted with a delay message by 3 hours, that meant I had to spend 6 hours at Mumbai, more importantly, my plans were going to go astray.

It was painful, but I decided not to get frustrated. And just on a day like this, everything worked perfectly. I was the first person to clear immigration checks, one of the very first to get my baggage and someone assisted me in transferring my baggage to Chennai. So with all those tasks complete in less than 30 minutes, I went around an almost empty Mumbai airport (as it was 4AM). Then I found a nice food-court, ate Idly (just to be safe); I got a free internet log-in for 30 minutes, but alas only 30 minutes. Ha there were lot of free daily newspapers. I read same news from different dailies; tried even spelling out each syllable and read a Hindi daily (Dainik Bhaskaran). How else do you kill time? I took a quick shower, changed my clothes, tried a bit of hustle with Air India to put me on earlier flight - well nothing worked.

Finally landed at Chennai, visited a couple of close friends (due to a particular situation that I cannot share it in the blog, I prioritised to meet those friends first), then went over to meet my family.

At last, onto the highlight of the day/trip to Kedi's Day Out!!

My heart skipped a beat as I walked into the lift at the venue, can't explain how it felt - There were many thoughts. These are my friends from kindergarten days.The first 13/14 years of my life had been with these guys.  It is special, they knew everything about me, they know the Original Bajji (my name in school)! No Fake, Pure Bajji!!

Not many would have reflected this view. I think one is too naive to be fake (aka Matured) in their first 12-14 years of life - especially if one grew up in a remote town like Neyveli. So meeting such friends is always special with so much hype and expectations, It was exciting. What if they judged or rejected me, worse didn't recognise me at all? What if there was an awkward silence - then in a split second, I realised, I am not judging anyone and I was going there plain simple, so they would be the same - coz' this friendship was built on foundational days - so nothing would be judgemental or awkward. I can be myself.

As these thoughts resolved, I exited the lift and there was a hurrah when they saw me. It was hugs, pats and kicks that I gave them a pleasant surprise to everyone and a great feeling. As usual the Kedis started chitt-chatting about yester-year mischiefs etc. Interestingly we remembered most of our teachers (even though we were notorious) and their impact on us.

I was one of the last guys to leave. It was close to midnight and as I walked back (nervously - mainly because of the street dogs), I reflected the day. We had shared our personal stories, a few friends came on line via Google hang-out and it was truly a global get together. One thing stood common, some of us were top scorers, some like me were all over the place, some average rank holders. But today we were all accomplished or to put it exactly - satisfied with what we are! all of us had hit some or other stumbling roadblocks; but we chose to work hard to overcome those challenges and difficult phases in life.

That presents a perspective, life's experiences and one's approach to take on those situations makes you who you really are. We still haven't figured it all, there were few more hurdles to be removed. One thing was sure, we may have 'matured' to world's expectations, but the Kedis were all about fun. It was better than American Pie reunion. It is real!

They say if you are friends with someone for 7 years, then it is a friendship for life, so in my case these guys are friends in this and next life! This is a special post to my Kedi friends. I am proud of you guys!

AAP: Ada Assattu Pasanga Party

It happens only in India - Govinda's infamous song comes to my mind as I see the comedy show AAP. If anything AAP has achieved, it is that they have underlined their stupidity, in-experience and have made sure, no new party can rise to challenge of BJP & Congress for the foreseeable future.

I have expressed previously that I am not a great fan of Gandhi's "adam-pudikkum" non-cooperation movement, even though it helped us to get freedom. It is a bad practice and a bad example for not only kids but also for democracy. Anyway it worked in 19th/20th century, but it is not a valid tool anymore. Today for every other challenge one does a dharna in India. In the absence of an information medium, one man fasting and dharna created ripples, but today you have the instant judge and lightning fast judiciary arms such as 24x7TV, Twitters and FB's. If a message needed to be conveyed and acted up on, it can be made possible. Instead what does AAP do? Dharna!!! I digress...

Modi has been Gujarat's CM since 2001 and has successfully implemented some or other schemes (because the moment Modi's achievements are mentioned, someone will come with a % based statistic to disprove - btw % is one of the most abused measure). Except for a few, most would agree that he has delivered 24x7 electricity, Sabarmati re-furb and a few other schemes... More importantly no riots since 2002;  in addition he has convinced his party across multiple states (Gujarat, Goa, Maharastra, Bihar hmm actually, all of BJP's state functionaries) PM nominee and all these in highly charged hostile, step-motherly environment.

Compare that with this guy AK from AAP; An IIT-ian, and also an ex-IRI fellow. or Compare him with UP's CM...

In spite of the hostile environment, did Modi not participate in democracy? did he not go to all-CMs meeting? (Unlike JJ from TN, Modi never walked off  from the CM's conference or sent a second rank minister) did he not meet our MMS - 'Mutta Mestri' Singh and seek solutions for Gujarat? Even though he received very little help from MMS & Co. He has done something... Has he not? Instead of tearing up the letters from Centre (like our RaGa), Modi always engaged Central government and persevered. Think along these lines, one would see that Modi is a better democrat and a governor.

AAP and AK have taken Gandhi (I mean Mohanchand not Rahul) and applied his idea directly. It is akin to a developer copying code, without realising the context...(I have copied code, but will fully re-modify ;) )... The point is Dharna would take you only that far; Gandhi himself was well aware of its value and hence he went to the round-tables and other participative means to keep the conversation going. Also a less discussed fact that Gandhi was the power centre and he allowed other leaders to join the government, embed the party leaders into governance(even prior to Independence). If AK had truly understood Gandhi (Mohanchand & Sonia), he would have let Yogendra or someone else become the CM and remain as AAP's functioning party leader. Thus he could have kept the movement going (if it was his primary motivation). This guy has gone overboard and will soon lose his sheen, dampen aspirations further.

India needs better governors, not these Asattu pasanga...

Operation 6 year old - Success

I decided to test it on my 6 year old to see if he has got it. My parents should have let me taken this test, but those days we never had these much challenges. So unfortunately I took these tests only in my teenage and not to mention, I failed and still appear to these tests once in a while. A trifle satisfaction is that my wife also appears with me to take these tests and fail 'em but these days very rarely but still continue to appear. That's one advantage of marriage (I don't know why, but we spend money and still take it, with the HOPE that one day we will learn our lessons finally).

But as the next generation starts, I wanted him to take it up early in his life - if he passed it, then life-long it will be a lesson and if he didn't then, we got another one to join us for the next sitting.

This all started when one of our friends suggested this idea. What are friends for? Recently they moved back to UK after a couple of years in India. They were sharing these wonderful stories about India, malls, movies, and pani-puris. Apparently their boys had taken these tests in India and are used to it. Believe me in India, a lot of kids these days go take it, just so much peer-pressure! They talked my boy into it and he was really looking forward to it.

On Sunday they joined us for Lunch and the boys though they knew it from their previous experience, they really didn't know what they were getting into this time. We allowed them to play XBOX and fed 'em with good lunch. Good Parenting you see, no pressure. My 6 year old boy was kind'a excited and was ably joined by other two kids. The rush was setting in.

It was time!

We drove in two separate cars and reached the hall, got the necessary passes. The kids wanted a treat before going into the hall. We as mature adults, didn't budge - It was a clear NO. They will have to go into the hall for 3 hours of tests and may be in between at the break, they can get an ice cream. Poor kids - the phrase Bakra came to my mind.

As usual, we went and sat in the back row. (Ah always back-benchers) and my 2 year old didn't know what was happening, she got scared a bit. Poor thing, she didn't know she will be subjected to such a severe test when she turns 6. Who knows may be early too. My boy kept nagging me. Any one who's been to a test before sure knows that last minute tension and stress. There may be a few minutes to start, but you would better like it just start and get on with it. So, I understood his feelings and was very supportive. After all, with so much pressure on a 6 year old these days.

It was time. The test had just begun. Boys were initially quite happy to take it, but within half-an-hour, they were exhausted. Given that we grown-ups had been taking the tests for 15 years, we were trained to the necessary stamina and resilience levels. But after 45 minutes or so, even we couldn't take it. My friends' wife, who really likes these tests - she herself couldn't take it.

Luckily my boy, he had a brilliant idea to get out. He raised his hand for a wee-wee; I happily took him out. This probably was one of the rarest moments that I had taken him happily to the loo even without the missus pushing me to do it. Wifey was fuming because she couldn't grab the opportunity as she was having the 2 year old who was sleeping like an angel. I mentally noted, sleep my dear little one. One day you will go through this pain and I am sorry. It is for your betterment.

Fortunately we had the break between the tests and all of us rushed out with a deep sigh. My friend and I were discussing strategies for the next half of the tests - the boys were tired, but were looking forward to the ice-creams. Then it started again - My son he couldn't take it. He begged, pleaded - Nope I didn't budge. I decided - he just needed to stay in there till the finish and it will be a lesson fulfilled for his whole life. He was really frustrated. He might have thought I am the worst dad in the whole world. Never mind, one day he will thank me.

Shrewd guy that he is, threw a master strategy back - He said if i just stay in here till the finish, will i pass? I said yes, then he said, give me your phone and let me play a game. I said, Ha but my loan phone (as Nokia & Vodafone have ruined my smart phone) is a basic one. He said never mind, "give me the phone, I will just play a very basic game of popping the bubbles, let the time run out and I will come out fully passed. I swear will never ever come to a Tamil cinema especially this guy Vijay's movies" - Jilla Nee Jeichuttada! (Click here)

Post-Script: We adults have not yet learned the lesson after Sura and such movies - we continue to waste time & money on it. So it was my way of teaching my son a valuable lesson. If you are young and not a teenager, your mind will still be healthy and will reject crap. My 6 year old boy did it. He sat there bravely for three hours and I am sure will never set foot on the movie halls any more.

Mumbai T2: Why do we need to spend lavishly?

My friends in India are quite pleased about the way T2 has been done. Needless to say that Media are
excited about T2.

The Hindu: "The T2 terminal is touted to be larger than Singapore's Changi T3 (3.80 lakh sqm) and London's Heathrow T5 (3.53 lakh sqm)"

Ibnlive: "The four-storey glass marvel, whose design has been inspired by a dancing peacock"

NDTV: "The terminal boasts of tens of thousands of artifacts and paintings, housing arguably one the largest collections in the world at an airport."

Indiatoday: A three kilometer long 'art walk' titled 'Jaya He' has been built inside the T2. It displays Indian art pieces between the 8th century and 19th century

Is it actually worth it for a developing country like India? While we try and throw spanner into Mangalyaan type of space projects, actually these T2 type of wastages should be culled. This a classic example of just copying existing implementations, with no attention to what is actually required today and in future. Actually India has gone beyond aping the western world's model of airport building.Who defines that airports should be built in such a way? If the passengers can get in and out in a queue, receive their bags in time and fly out & in in-time then the purpose is well served.

I read on the net that people on average spend 4-10 hours on airport layovers. I also understand for Airbus a380  needs more landing space, but where is the need for a lavish layover when there is a billion people in the country who would need a lot more space in future.  There is an argument that if you are stuck in delays, then the layovers could be useful to spend your time. Seriously? I don't think this is a sound argument... if you are stuck because of delays, you may be keen to window-shop but would you go visit the art gallery? I think if you did, you might miss another flight and get further delayed.

Why is nobody thinking about alternate designs and building things suited to Indian context? In fact this should be the case for all countries. When the world is reeling in recession and billions are starving, Countries need to plan and build in a sustainable way. As internet and Kinect type of technologies are enabling virtual presence, business related travel might actually start to drop off over the next few years. Leisure and tourism might be the key travel reasons, Even if this is not the so - why overload airport infrastructure for very little returns? The maintenance cost over years is going to mount on the public. Am I the only one who is concerned about such extravagant, no-purpose layovers?

Let me clarify that I am not against building new terminals or expanding infrastructure, I only advocate for minimalistic and effective use of funds, acreage in such infrastructure projects. There is no point in competing with China or West on these projects. There are also additional indirect expenses like electricity utilisation, people and maintenance costs. This money could have pooled for building multiple bus-stands or local train stations.

Above all, not many would know that India's aviation policy under UPA-2, allegedly 200,000 seats a week has been magnanimously given to middle-east sector through Jet-Etihad deal (Ref: https://medium.com/p/ab752d0cf543). If this is the case, how will T2 operate successfully as a Hub?

Literally on a very bad foundation, a multi-story T2 has been built. Even if the above posture of Jet deal is a farce, still it begs the question - why should India lavishly spend on airports in a needless and meaningless race of sprawling airports?