Wit Wisdom and Whoop

As I read of the handing over of Air India to the Tata Group, a sweet homecoming after 69 years I noticed this comment about how Tata group Chairman N. Chandrasekaran took his first flight on Air India. I think that as a marketing strategy if the Tata Group were to invite people to talk of their first flight on Air India they can kindle lots of interest and connect with a larger audience. I share below my tryst with Air India. My First Flight: Sometime in 1977 or so I had just joined college, an irresponsible teenager who’s thinking did not extend beyond the next 10 minutes at best. My aged grandparents, in their 70s were invited by their daughter, my aunt, to visit USA and spend some time with her family. The only flight option then was to fly from Mumbai, or Bombay as it was then called. All things were set, and my grandparents developed cold feet at having to fly to Bombay in the morning, spend a whole day, then catch a flight somewhere in the middle of the night. In those days no...

  There is a famous comment by a Wodehouse character who says – “Never confuse the impossible with the unusual”. What the security breach of the Prime Minister’s cavalcade showed is that it is not impossible for such a cavalcade to be “stopped” but the event itself is unusual. Depending upon how one thinks, the situation can be judged as an assassination attempt to a dry run to an unusual event being blown up politically. Various media and even courts are advising that the issue be NOT politicised. But the issue MUST be politicised since that’s how change comes, especially in a country like India. Let’s step back to 1984 when Mrs. Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister was assassinated by her own bodyguards. Till then the Delhi police were responsible for the security of the PM and state policemen on visits. Its facetious to argue that in those days PM’s and such high offices did not need protection like today. The result, politically backed, was the formation of the SPG or special...

As one follows the developments across the globe regarding administration of vaccines and the response of people, we notice 4 sections of people. A minority who oppose the vaccine & can be called Anti-Vaxxers A significant section who have genuine fears given the speed of development & deployment & mass usage under emergency usage authorisation A significant section who feel trapped/ forced into a situation without choice/ information that calms them down. The majority rest who seem to trust and follow the dictate's of their government's and/or have a touching faith that vaccines are the absolute solution against the Covid virus.     Meanwhile, in the pharmaceutical world we see 4 things happening. The pharma lobby with each pushing their own vaccine as quickly as they can to earn revenue/ profits A concerted attempt to discredit other competitor vaccines The active lobbying of pharma industry with different governments resulting in contradictory messages go...