Scared at 35000 feet!

November 2016, Mia our daughter had just turned one and was quite excited exploring her new found skill of walking! Around the same time happened to be our first ID90 (discounted staff ticket) flight to Mauritius. Getting to experience the mighty and beautiful A380 was another first. 

A couple of hours into our flight, after the meal service was done, I got up and through the corner of my eye I could see my little one also getting down from her seat. Before even I could call her name, she was gone, in a flash! Neither my wife or my son could find her. We searched everyone, even the seat pockets! 

Panic set-in, though the only consoling thought was she won't get lost outside the aircraft since we were cruising at 35000 feet! I first thought of checking the upper deck since she loved climbing the stairs. But before that I thought of informing the Crew and was about to head to the front galley of the aircraft. 

That was when I saw a tiny little human being, completely oblivious to the scare she created, happily seated on the arms of the purser of the flight, playing with the toy gifted to her. He reached near me and my lovely little naughty daughter jumped onto my hands showing promptly the toy she received and giving me a full smile flashing the beautiful milk teeth she recently got!

A Product Launch - Pure Genius!

Picture this. A very famous lifestyle exhibition centre in Middle East vibrant with thousands of people every day. We strolled through the stalls of well-known brands pushing our shopping cart.

Mia, my nine-year-old darling little one, noticed a lot of people carrying similar large transparent bags containing probably a dozen or more of a certain brand of chips, unheard of in this part of the world. Curiosity climbed to its pinnacle as we kept meeting scores more carrying the same bag of chips. 

As we turned one of the corners among the exhibition stalls, we could see a name board carrying the same brand as of the mystery chips. There were two young men who stood on the pathway, in front of their allotted stall, each one assigned with a task. One of them, we felt was literally flying around with a sample packet of opened chips, politely offering to you to experience the taste first-hand. The offer had the charm of the prince from Cinderella and the persuasion of Don Corleone from The Godfather. It was an offer that you couldn't resist. 

As soon as you took the first bite, but before even you could form an opinion about the product, a big bag filled with more than a dozen packets of three different flavours of chips magically found its way to our trolley. This was placed tactically by the second young man who promptly mentioned it was only AED 10 or an equivalent of less than USD 4, a meagre sum compared to similar products in the market.

The conversion rate was an almost hundred percent for all the potential customers who walked through that alley. That's how solid the act of conviction was. Not just that, the complete act indeed was a performance worthy of a case study in B-schools! 

The product was probably mediocre, though opinions could be purely personal. Packaging was classy. Advertisement had novelty. Homework done well about target audience. Positioning was near perfect. Pricing was something short of a celestial phenomenon. 

Finally, with all this, a brand was born in a market, once penetrated, there was no look back at all. Peter Drucker, 'Father of Management', if alive, would have been more than happy to oblige a high-five! 

Well done boys!

PS: I’ve purposefully held back the brand name since I wanted this post to remain agnostic of any names.

Emirates & A350 – What’s the Big Deal?

It has been a roller coaster of emotions in Emirates’ (EK) offices from the beginning of this week. Something exciting was happening in the history of the airline. After quite a long wait, we were getting the delivery of our first A350 aircraft. It was in February 2019, the order for these aircrafts were placed.

It was not just that. The very fact that we are seeing a new aircraft type joining our fleet since 2008 gave us goose bumps. For the last sixteen years, we have been flying A380s and B777s for scheduled passenger operations. The elation is so much so that it feels like you are welcoming a cute little daughter to the family after a long time of being blessed with two sons!

The pertinent question now is, why is this a big deal for Emirates?

We’ve seen enough and more on the media that A350 is one of the most fuel-efficient aircrafts in the world of large sized aircrafts known as wide body. It is also one of the aircraft types which can be deployed on longer duration sectors better known as long haul flights in aviation industry. This simply means Emirates can deploy the new A350s where we currently operate the other aircrafts types and achieve better efficiency in operations. A win-win for both environment and organization.

Multiple advanced features come with a brand-new aircraft such as A350, some of which are tailor made for Emirates. These include, but are not limited to, a much faster Wi-Fi on board, even better Inflight Entertainment (IFE) system, quieter cabin and what not.

While all these and more are awesome additions to an already fantastic customer experience there are more to what meets the eye.

As soon as the contract was signed between Airbus and Emirates, preparations got underway in various departments of the airline to be ready for the D-day. On 03 January 2025, the first A350 scheduled flight of Emirates will take off from Dubai to Edinburgh which will be a new era in the history of one of the biggest success stories in aviation in the world. Here is a glimpse of a few things that happened behind the scenes as a run-up to this very special day:

ü  Training plans were charted for thousands of flight crew and cabin crew to ensure smooth operations of the A350.

ü  Current routes operated by Emirates reviewed with an intention to introduce this more efficient aircraft.

ü  Route planning for future also influenced with the new metal bird that is now part of the EK fleet.

ü  Having a brand-new aircraft type adds to the competitiveness of Emirates and combined with the award-winning in-flight products the competitors will be required to sit and take a good look at the latest entrant to the market.

ü  The entire ground handling operations were reviewed, staff trained and prepared to service and support the new A350. It was a massive initiative.

ü  With new aircrafts joining the fleet, Emirates will now be able to add new routes as well as expand the current routes much to the delight of the customers who would love to fly better on EK. This directly will have a positive impact on the revenue on the long run.

ü  Thousands of IT Products across the technology landscape of The Emirates Group will need to be updated to cater to the new member of the family, A350.

The list can go on. Nevertheless, let me summarize and say that we now have a shining new bird in our skies to look up to, with a promise to our customers, to offer them the joy of flying and they should feel nothing but sheer delight with their choice!

 

വേരുകൾ

ഇടവപ്പാതി പല തവണ തകർത്തു പെയ്തു,

പഞ്ഞ കർക്കിടകം പലവട്ടം തല കാണിച്ചു.

മീനമാസ സൂര്യൻ പല ആണ്ടുകളെ വെന്തുരുക്കി,

എങ്കിലും ആ വൻമരം അവിടെ നിന്നു, വേരുകൾ ഉറപ്പിച്ചു തന്നെ.

തായ് തടിയും ശാഖകളും ഉപ ശാഖകളും,

പച്ചിലകളും പഴങ്ങളും, പ്രകൃതി കനിഞ്ഞു നൽകപ്പെട്ട മഹാമേരു.

ആ വൻ മരത്തോട്, ഒരിക്കൽ ഞാൻ ചോദിച്ചു, 'അല്ലയോ മഹാത്മാവേ എങ്ങനെ ഇങ്ങനെ ജീവിക്കുന്നു, എന്തിനീ നിസ്വാർത്ഥത?'

ഉത്തരം വളരെ ലളിതം.

'ജീവിക്കുക, നിനക്കും നിൻറെ കുടുംബത്തിനും വേണ്ടി.

കുടുംബം എന്നത് സമൂഹവും,

സമൂഹം എന്നത് രാജ്യവും ആണെന്ന ബോധ്യം ഉണ്ടാവുക.

നന്മകൾ മാത്രം ചെയ്യുക, തിന്മകൾ നിരൂപിക്കാതിരിക്കുക.

പരോപകാരം പുണ്യമായി കരുതുക, അത് നാലു പേർ അറിയാതെ ചെയ്യുക.

സ്നേഹം ഒരു സത്യമാണെന്ന് അറിയുക,

ആ സത്യത്തിന് അളവുകോൽ നൽകാതിരിക്കുക.

ജീവിതം മുഴുവനായിത്തന്നെ ജീവിക്കുക, 

മരണം വന്നു വിളിക്കുമ്പോൾ പുഞ്ചിരിയോടെ കടന്നുപോവുക.'

ആ വൻ മരം ഇന്നില്ല, 

പക്ഷേ പഠിപ്പിച്ച പാഠങ്ങളൊക്കെയും മനസ്സിൽ നിലനിൽക്കുന്നു, 

ആഴത്തിൽ വേരൂന്നി തന്നെ! 

The Boiling Point

Have you ever boiled fresh milk on a stove? If so, have you always taken the pan out right on time, so that the milk does not spill over? If you have not experienced this, I suggest you stop reading this now and get into your kitchen, try boiling some milk and experience these things for yourself first. This is important for you to understand what I am going to say next. Else you better have a solid sense of imagination.

You would have noticed that when you boil a pan of milk, unless you take the pan out at the right time, a considerable amount of milk will spill over on to the stove. Getting the stove cleaned is a herculean task. The spilled milk stains the pan as well which poses a big challenge to clean the pan properly. You could only wish that you had taken the pan out on time so that you avoid all the hassle.

What I am going to say next is not something I have invented. But this will definitely be a good reminder for all of us, including me, so that if we ever go through such a state, we will remember these words and hopefully will act accordingly.

Now imagine this. The pan we use is nothing but our life itself. The milk we try to boil is the bunch of emotions we go through daily. The stove is the society where we live and the environment around us.

Just like how the milk will reach a boiling point, our emotions too have an upper limit. The more we refuse to address the fact that we are reaching a tipping point of an emotional churn, the bigger will be the impact. The earlier we acknowledge that we need to take out the pan of emotions, the better will be our mental situation. Else just like how the spilled over boiled milk leaves us with a nasty job, we will be gifting ourselves and people around us with quite a difficult challenge to solve, a twisted life of ours.

Now the bigger question is, how do we avoid this situation? This is where we all need to consciously build a support system for ourselves. This could be someone we are closer to at home or a friend, with whom we could speak about the emotional turmoil that we are going through or someone at our professional environment with whom we could disclose some of these experiences.

Please note that I mentioned both personal and professional contacts. There is a reason for it. There are topics or incidents involving our emotional wellbeing that are personal or professional in nature. The support system we develop needs to cater to both. We can't be addressing only one of them. Hence, we need to have a healthy mix of both personal and professional support system in place so that whenever we need to express our emotional concerns, the party on the other side understands and empathise with us.

So much is spoken these days about mental health and emotional wellbeing. These are not magical words, instead as humankind we are capable of ensuring these to our fellow humans. All that is needed is being a good human and live the spirit of what humanity stands for.

Let us all take out our pans of emotions on time and like how we enjoy a well-prepared cup of coffee, let us lead a life that is beautiful, how it is meant to be!

The Tea Team!

Year 2006. I joined my first corporate job with Mindtree in Bangalore. Soon after my induction days, I was taken to my seat and in a matter of time I got settled at my desk.

I started going through some of the documents provided to me to understand the process in place for the department I joined. A few minutes later, I heard a friendly voice from behind saying ‘Tea’. I turned around and saw a young man holding a large tray with a bunch of white porcelain cups rimmed with golden paint and filled with piping hot tea. With a smile, full of genuine care, he placed one cup carefully on my desk and went ahead with his job of serving tea for the rest of the staff.  

That was the day I learned the wonderful story behind the team who served tea on the various floors in our office.

Apparently, when the new campus came up where we were placed, there was a proposal to install vending machines at the pantry which could make coffee or tea for the staff. That was when one of the founders of Mindtree intervened and said that was not a people friendly decision. Instead, he wanted to employ a bunch of young people who will work as a team of tea makers whose job was to make fresh tea during morning and afternoon and deliver them at the desks, of course with a smile!

As a person who experienced this first hand, I must say it was possibly one of the best decisions taken by the management. It not only provided job opportunities for scores of people, but also brought in the much-needed people touch in an industry where tremendous amount of brain power was consumed daily. You really needed the human touch to bring the balance.

True leadership is not only about targets or profits. It is also when we learn to realize that businesses exist because of people. We need to do our part to give back to the community we benefit from.

Let me also reiterate that great experiences gained from organizations leave a lasting impression on employees. These will be fondly remembered and most importantly reflect on them in their interactions with colleagues in the same organization and in future as well.

I do remember with gratitude the truly amazing leadership team we were blessed with at Mindtree!

Thank you from the bottom of my heart, for not just giving me a job, but empowering me with an experience of a lifetime!

Back in Time - A breath-taking journey through UK!

I love reading and I distinctly remember my school days when a wonderful world of fantasy unveiling in my mind through all the animated series of story books. They painted a vivid picture of castles, palaces, fairy lands, life lived to the fullest by the prince, princesses and the royals. All these and more truly came to life when we decided to explore London and Scotland through our absolutely stunning 16 days of travel through UK.

Lovely winding roads, lush green landscapes, giant but gentle mountains, waterfalls, winds that carry you in its arms, strawberry picking, historical artefacts ranging from dinosaur fossils through the mother of all diamonds Koh-i-Noor, castles, palaces and what not! We thank God for a wonderful vacation literally through a fairy land and a lovely time together as family.

Quick specs of our trip:

Date: 03 Aug to 18 Aug 2024

Arrival: 03 Aug 2024 at Stanstead Airport (LHR was absolutely not feasible to avail staff travel benefits)

Departure: 18 Aug 2024 from Newcastle Airport (Initial departure plan was Glasgow but later changed to Newcastle where staff travel could be availed. Was only an additional 3 hours from Glasgow by road)

Mode of Transport: 5 days in London - Travelled only on public transport in London. You do not really need any other mode of transport in the city since the London Underground (metro) and the suburban trains (Dockland Light Railway - DLR) are well connected and easily accessible across the city. Most of the major attractions are at walking distance to the train station. The weather was also lovely though Londoners consider this as their summer, for us when we go from Dubai, it is a beautiful weather indeed! You could either buy Oyster card which is a multi-modal transport card or simply use any of your bank cards which has as Wi-Fi logo on it which you could tap on the gunnebo gates or equivalent at the stations.

Glimpses of London

State rooms of Buckingham Palace takes you to a world of luxury you may have never experienced in your lifetime! If you love to explore everything in the state rooms, you could spend the whole day if you like. Else you could reasonably finish in 3 hours. Ten minutes from the palace is Westminster Cathedral, a 121 year old beautiful church.

A tour of Tower of London is an absolute must have! This is a castle built by William the Conqueror in AD 1078, served as the royal residence, a mint, a jail as well as a fortress where precious jewels are stored including the most famous diamond the world has ever known, Koh-i-Noor! Don't get surprised if you get a feeling on and off that you are living in 11th century. Just a word of caution, for people who are claustrophobic, you may find it a bit of a challenge. Nevertheless, it is an experience worth every moment. The greatest feeling for me personally was to see Koh-i-Noor at my hand's length! The Tower Bridge which many people call as London Bridge is at a stone's throw away from Tower of London. Natural History Museum was our next step where my kids, 12 years and 8 years befriended dinosaurs from the past and learned a few elements of animal kingdom up close and personal!

St Paul's Cathedral is the seat of Bishop of London. This is another massive and beautiful church built in 17th century. We took the famous London double decker bus to the church for the experience of it. London as you may know is infamous for its weather, hence carry a small umbrella in your bag, it will come handy if it rains. We then checked if the clock is working well by saying hi to the Big Ben and the adjacent Parliament square. Explored some more of the city and of course did some shopping at the famous Oxford Street.

From London to Scotland

After 5 days in London, we hired a car from Avis / Budget nearby where we stayed and drove to Cheltenham. Gloucester Cathedral, a 12th century architectural marvel, made even more famous by Harry Potter series, awaited us. Be aware of the risk of getting lost in the magnificence of the cathedral that if you are not cautious you will end up spending a whole day there! We managed to get out after a few hours and headed to a location where natural beauty is at its peak as the name itself says. It was Peak District National Park. After a while we headed to York, but not before stopping at a friend's place at Sheffield.

The National Railway Museum in York is the place to be if you really want to feel immersed in the olden days where steam run locomotives and other types of trains operated. Even the tallest among us will feel dwarfed in front of these massive engineering marvels.

Further up North, after crossing the coastal region of Amble we stopped at Warkworth Castle, bringing life to some of the fantasy stories I mentioned in the beginning of the story. You get a glimpse of life lived by royals during the yester years. Alnwick Castle, one of the best-preserved castles was destined to be our next stop. The life and times of Percy family unfolds here, probably one of the most powerful families after the King of UK. A pleasant surprise to see a Buckingham-like state rooms here as well.

On the road again to reach Dunfermline, which once was the capital of Kingdom of Scotland and less than an hour from Edinburgh where J K Rowling wrote most of Harry Potter. Some more shopping around in the city before heading to Cairnie fruit farm at Cupar, a 40 minutes’ drive from Dunfermline. I cannot literally explain the happiness of those strawberries when they saw us that they literally jumped into our basket! Strawberry picking is such fun! Further up, after a quick stop at a wheat farm, enjoying the cool breeze near the Tay Bridge in Dundee and browsing through unique wines at Cairn o' Mohr a local winery and passing by Lochaber waterpower project commissioned in 1929 we finally arrived at Spean Bridge, our place of stay for the next four days.

From that day onwards, we got ourselves locked in a fairy tale. This is the only way to define our days in Scotland! Everywhere you go, nature will pamper you with the most beautiful of sights that you will literally be mesmerised! The cold clear water along with countless pebbles at Loch Lochy, third-deepest lake of Scotland next to Loch Ness famous for the monster story, a small yet lovely looking waterfall at Inverness, an absolutely out-of-the world location experience gifted by Eilean Donan Castle, the simple yet sweet port town of Mallaig, watching the Harry Potter fame Jacobite Steam train in action and exploring the incredible terrains at Isle of Skye, every one of these experiences left us with lasting memories for a lifetime!

We thank all our well-wishers who prayed, helped and supported through this journey of a lifetime!

Fun Fact: This is the approximate distance from Thiruvananthapuram in South India to Taj Mahal in North India by road!