Proud of Our National Airline...OR NOT !!!

My first experience with Air India...live...

Appalling is the only word that comes to my mind right now if I was to summarise my first flight with Air India. 

As I am writing this, sitting in this aged A320, the aircraft itself looks tired and uninterested in taking us safely to Mumbai. The worn out seat covers & flickering lights add to the antique look. Need I mention a bumpy take off and a damp smell in the cabin? 

Our tickets mention 'meals on board' & since it was an 8:55pm departure one would naturally assume that there would at least be hot food (if not full dinner service). Instead we have been served something which resembles a sandwich but does not taste like one at all...a thick slice of some cheap cheese between stale, dry bread does make for an interesting combination. Since there is nothing moist in the "sandwich", I have decided to swallow mine down (only eating this because I am extremely hungry) with the provided water bottle. There is a packet of cookies which are due to expire in December so I have skipped those. My wife in the mean time has had just one bite of the sandwich and left it at that. We have also now discussed how stupid we are to just assume that there will be good food specially since its Air India. If this food has come out of a flight kitchen, this Chef really needs to go eat a vada-pav at any railway station in Mumbai just to understand flavours. Being from the hospitality industry myself I am not only disgusted but ashamed. 

There is some salvation though...the air hostesses have just asked us if we need some more water...oh yes so there is service as well...Ms Naseem who seems in charge of cabin crew looks like someone with vast experience. So vast that she probably knows that patrons are aware of the reputation Air India holds in the aviation industry and has decided that she will only help in damaging it further. There has not been one smile from the crew and professionalism has been non existent as if on purpose. She did seem a bit polite while slamming the tray onto the tray table. And going by what we were served, it hardly needed a tray... I wonder if words like 'no frills', 'budget' etc. actually mean rude, unprofessional etc. I would rather buy coffee from the railway stations where the person selling it cannot pronounce 'coffee' properly but knows how best to serve it - with a smile !

I have always been told by my uncle to never travel by Air India. According to him it is better to delay the journey by a day than to put yourself through this ordeal. I beg to differ with him today. I think we should all travel by our national airliner at least once...to understand how bad it is...how appalling it is...

Oops my notepad just dropped on the floor...oh yes that was the landing ! 

Shame on you Air India...

Think Again

On 22^nd April 2013, Manchester United won their 20^th League title taking an unassailable lead in the championship with a record for most points in the season in sight. Fast forward exactly one year and on the 22^nd of April 2014 David Moyes was relieved of his duties as manager of the world’s biggest football club. In ten months, the ‘chosen one’ has made history…of course for all the wrong reasons. Manchester United have failed to qualify for the Champions League. In ten months, a championship winning team has turned into a mid-table disaster. Moyes, by way of his poor tactics, team selection, failed transfers, losing support of senior players etc. has earned the wrath of fans, football pundits, analysts and so on…Yes player performances have been highlighted by everyone. That United needed an overhaul in the summer hasn’t been denied either. But as a hard core United fan I asked myself ‘was a ten month reign of an unsuccessful manager enough to bring down a club of the magnitude of Manchester United??’ How is that possible?? I mean is he really that bad?? Or was it just the wrong choice at wrong time?? Whatever it is, think again…only ten months??

I have had countless arguments about whether David Moyes was the wrong man for United or whether the players must take the blame for this horrific season…At the end of the day, sacking Moyes and holding him responsible was the right or perhaps the only decision that seemed valid. While it is no doubt that the manager is the first in the line of fire, what makes me sad is that some players who don’t deserve the Red jersey are going to get away with shocking performances. Like last year, in the jubilation of winning the league, the cracks within would again be covered up. We might win the remaining games of the season and then everything will be forgotten in anticipation of probably the biggest transfer window in the club’s history.

Anyway, to cut the chase, in my rage towards the players this season, I looked up a few statistics. What I deduced makes me wonder what the analysts at Manchester United really do…Have a look below…

THE MANCHESTER UNITED MIDFIELD

2011-12                 Position : 2 (by goal difference)      Top scorer: Rooney (27 goals)
PLAYER	APPEARANCES	ASSISTS	CROSSES (SUCCESSFUL)	THROUGH BALLS (SUCCESSFUL)
YOUNG	19	7	60	3
NANI	25	8	47	4
GIGGS	25	8	24	7
VALENCIA	27	13	45	4
CARRICK	30	3	4	4
2012-13  Position: 1  Top scorer: RVP (26 goals) Rooney (12 goals) Please note: Rooney – 10 assists & RVP – 8 assists
YOUNG	17	3	23	2
VALENCIA	24	5	39	0
KAGAWA	17	3	5	5
CLEVERLY	18	2	4	0
CARRICK	34	4	7	3
WELBECK	13	4	3	0
2013-14 Position: not worth it  Top scorer: Rooney (17 goals) RVP (11 goals) Please note: Rooney – 10 assists
YOUNG	12	1	15	0
CLEVERLY	18	0	13	0
FELLAINI	11	0	7	0
CARRICK	24	0	5	0
WELBECK	14	1	0	0
VALENCIA	19	3	17	3
KAGAWA	12	3	6	5
MATA	12	4	12	8

  

We lost the title on the last day in 2012…The midfield performance that season is far better than the following season when we actually won quite emphatically. So did we really win or were the other teams just not good enough? If you hide the years from the table, looking at the figures anybody would claim that the first table is the one when it was most likely to win the league. According to me, the only reason we won the title last year was due to Robin Van Persie’s crucial & often breath-taking goals without much creativity from the almost non existant mid field (check the assists). The slide in performance had started. And what is the difference between last year’s & this year’s performance?? Check the table again, it’s not much. What is sad to see is the overall decline right from 2011-12 in terms of crosses, assists & through balls. Over the last 2 seasons, Tom Cleverly hasn’t played even one successful through ball…Young is not far away with 2. That, for me, is absolutely ridiculous. It is staggering how things like these have been overlooked. Steven Gerrard has made a total of 89 tackles this season….Azpilicueta has made 98. Fellaini (yes he tops this) has made 57. No United defender comes even close to some of the other stats from Chelsea or City. Micheal Carrick (United’s current best holding midfielder) fails miserably in every category and ranks even further down in the overall player ratings. Manchester United have failed to rebuild over the last two seasons while the others have consolidated. This season was just the tipping point…Moyes was a part of the failure not the reason for it.

So were ten months really enough to derail this football giant? And was David Moyes rightly sacked? Should he have been given more time? After all, the team had won the league just a season ago…

Think again…

   

A Professional Parody...

'Do not eat to stay alive...Live to eat'. No, not a tongue twister but just an old saying I have heard somewhere...

Look up the thesaurus and very interesting synonyms come up for the word FOODIE. Connoisseur, gastronome, gourmet, gourmand & sensualist show up in the dictionary as related words. They do sound rather sophisticated & professional. Connoisseur or gourmet sound somewhat like higher qualifications for someone who would be an authority on wines or fine dining or cigars, when essentially they just describe a person who...LOVES TO EAT GOOD FOOD !!! Foodie is a soft, fun word...sometimes mistaken for a less serious person who just macerates every ounce of good food thrown at them. It is almost as if there is a touch of gluttony involved in being a foodie, while being a gourmet seems very calculated & analytical. But I prefer the 'foodie' as it is less pretentious, does what it says on the cover !!

The life of a foodie is not easy though. It needs a lifetime of devotion, an oath that cannot be broken...It means being constantly in search of good food, good recipes, savouring every mouthful and still looking forward to the next one. It means pushing yourself to the brink of a tummy explosion every time you are around delicious food. And getting close to great food is also a part of the job, constantly understanding flavours & textures to determine what tastes good...often being frustrated but never to give up. A real foodie gives up diet plans, religious taboos or even financial constraints to make sure no opportunity to taste something new is squandered...just so that the common lot are spoon fed information about which cuisine is good, or which restaurant not to step into. A foodie is like a soldier who marches on...from one battlefield to another, head held high & honoured to serve. (will leave it at this...probably getting carried away)

Being a foodie is not everyone's mug of beer !! It is not just the eating. It involves interest in everything that is edible. Every meal is a ceremony, an occasion to remember, and every mouthful a story in itself. Butter chicken to most is just another tried and tested, never to fail, standard curry that will taste exactly of what you expect. So order a nice garlic naan to go with it and in the end polish the bowl off with some rice and you are done! To a foodie, it is a burst of flavours every single time...the aroma of kasoori methi tickling your senses as you dunk the first mouthful, fresh tomato, the subtle but prominent cardamom & cloves, the pulled tandoori chicken combined with the buttery-creamy gravy...a classic, comforting yet royal after taste that irresistible, and so you keep gobbling until the plate is so clean it doesn't need washing up ! But that is the simple bit...A foodie does not only eat, but thinks, sleeps, talks, walks, breaths & dreams FOOD. Passion for cooking is a must...an unconditional clause in the contract of a lifetime. This is followed by the urge to try every different restaurant in the vicinity with the need to try a new dish on each visit until the menu itself gets engraved on the intellect. Then there is the reading (or in modern terms 'googling'). A foodie's spare time is often taken up in researching about famous Chefs, different cuisines, watching television food shows, tweeting about food or even blogging !!
There are other prominent traits that are found in some extreme specimens...

• interrupting or ending most conversations with something related to food.
• getting involved in a meal to an extent as to forgetting that they are in a social circle and are expected to behave normal !!
• not realising that sharing is considered as an etiquette of dining.
• staring at somebody else's plate and wondering what makes it look so delicious and being oblivious to the fact that that person might get uncomfortable.
• thinking about 'lunch' while eating 'breakfast' and about 'dinner' while eating 'lunch'

Believe me, it is all worthwhile. The most exciting part about being a foodie is that life never gets mundane. New ingredients, new dishes, new cuisines...there are absolutely no restraints to the world of gastronomy. And for some of us who are fortunate enough to be working around food, every day is packed with intrigue and adventure.

I am sure you would relate to some of the traits that I mentioned above. Think twice, are you really a foodie?? 

And if you aren't, the time is right...fall in love with food and you will understand. LIVE TO EAT..DO NOT EAT TO STAY ALIVE. Slurppppp!!!!!!
         

GOD...Why???

Going by the latest happenings around us humans, I don't think there is any need for me to explain who the GOD is that I refer to in the title...Did anyone really think this post is about the secrets of Indian mythology or some Biblical truths?? I am sure not....But if we were to really analyse why a certain individual escalated to the level of being called GOD in a team sport, it would be as interesting and enlightening as the scriptures I mentioned above.

Sachin Tendulkar must be bored by now of breaking and creating statistical records. I am quite sure he holds the record for the most number of records in any international sport. One wonders whether he really thought about any milestones or landmarks at all by the end of his career?I have heard people say that he could have retired a while ago but just stayed on for his 200th test...really?? Sachin has in fact overseen the entire transition of this young cricket team.He ensured stability especially after the Dravid-Laxman era to nurture the talent that was evident in the team but too naive to be given the burden of expectations. He could have waited for another century in ODI's to bring the tally to 50 or for 4 more half-centuries to bring the tally to 100. But he quit when the time was right and only when the team was good enough to  fill in the void that he would leave. I am confident that the same would follow in test cricket...On a lighter note, one might say that the timing of Sachin's retirement was perfect...it just happened to be his 200th test as well...just the way GOD does things I guess !!

Metaphors for some are often exaggerations for others, especially in sport. In recent years, comparisons have been made between Messi & Ronaldo, Maradona & Pele, Roger Federer & Rafael Nadal, Sebastian Vettel & Micheal Schumacher etc. who are all best in their sport but divide public opinion as to who is better. Any sport, every once a while witnesses a player attain the status of a Demigod amongst fans. But then there are also comparisons & contradictions. Often these contradictions come from supporters of other teams or players who just cannot appreciate the fact that someone else might just be better. Sachin's case is different though. Comparisons have been made with a number of legends from different generations across all the cricket playing nations. Few disagree that as far as the statistics are concerned, there is really no point in comparing him to any other cricketer. It was not too long back that he was put in the same bracket of greatness of players like Ponting, Lara, Jayasurya, Ganguly etc. I remember watching discussions on ESPN where it was debated whether Ponting would finish with maximum centuries or Jayasurya. At the time it seemed relevant because all these players were at their peak and challenging Tendulkar in terms of runs & hundreds. It is almost insulting the way Sachin has outclassed any competition that came his way. He has not only left everyone else behind but in a way that any future analogy would be deemed irrational.

But still...why GOD?? Records speak for themselves. But there is something more to Sachin than just the cricket. It is the attitude, the discipline, determination, perseverance, humility and much more...It must have all started with a few banners or placards by true Sachin devotees. 'Cricket is my religion and Sachin my GOD' is the one that I remember the most. But what is astonishing is the fact that no Indian or international cricketer or any other sportsman has ever raised doubt about it. In fact, some quotes by other legends of the game from overseas or any known personality, surpass the praise that Sachin has received in his homeland. Mathew Hayden's famous 'I have seen GOD, he bats at number 4 for India' or Bryan Lara's 'Sachin is the genius, I am a mere mortal' are a testimony to the level of acceptance of Sachins Godliness. There is no other sport in which one single player has risen to the level that he has in cricket. It is the manner in which he has conducted himself for more than two decades on and off the field...smashing records, surpassing legends, yet keeping his feet firmly on the ground, never over reacting, often unselfish...the kind of character that every person dreams of. As a matter of fact, Ravi Shastri once said,' Open the dictionary, pick any adjective and use it for Sachin...they all sound perfect. That's Sachin '. He is absolutely right ( I just tried it and I am sure you did as well). It is not just the cricketer but it is Sachin 'the personality' and the 'human being' that commands the respect that he does.

There have been thousands of greats...and hundreds of legends...but rightly so, there is only ONE GOD of cricket...SRT !!!