The more I visit the lesser known places of interest (‘lesser known places of interest’ and not ‘ places of lesser interest’!), the stronger I am convinced that the development of tourism in our country is lying in these places
The Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) was holding its annu... | | |
The more I visit the lesser known places of interest (‘lesser known places of interest’ and not ‘ places of lesser interest’!), the stronger I am convinced that the development of tourism in our country is lying in these places
Tirupathi in Andhra Pradesh is the most highly visited place in ... |
Recently a friend of mine posted a picture of his from his maiden trip to Salzburg in Vienna and the location was, so it happened, the exact location where the famed movie ‘ The Sound of Music’ was shot way back in 1965. The musical film starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer was a runaw... | | |
Oct 1 is observed as the International Day of Older Persons worldwide. Now the question is who is an older person or how old is old? Though it differs from country to country , by and large 60 is seen as the old age . At this point, I am amusingly reminded of a senior officer from erstwhile Ind... |
A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favour by serving him. He is doing us a favou... | | |
In Bengaluru, just near the seat of State Legislature, the beautiful Vidhana Soudha, there is a road crossing called ‘Thimmaiah Circle’. The circle is not named after any great statesman or a leader, but after a traffic constable. But the traffic constable, in essence, was no less a person than any... |
Last month, I was travelling to USA and I was using Lufthansa and United Airlines for this purpose. I was flying from Chennai to Frankfurt by Lufthansa and Frankfurt to Dulles (Washington) by United Airlines and vice versa for my return. I was using both these airlines for the first time. For the f... | | |
Last week when we had an additional holiday, which coincided with the weekend, 20 of us, old colleagues of Jet Airways (while a few of them are still with the same airline, others have moved on to various airlines and other verticals) got speaking to each other via e-mail, over phone, facebook etc.... |
A meta-index is an index of indices. Likewise, meta-thinking is thinking of thinking and beyond thinking. Meta-thinking will help you see the complete, full 360-degree picture and thereby render you as a holistic thinker. ‘Meta’ is by the way the same ‘matru’ in Tamil or &ls... | | |
Think of Waterloo, think of Napoleon! Think of Napoleon, think of France! But where is Waterloo? Not in France but in Belgium. How history happens to record things not so correctly! Reason is again the Battle of Waterloo was not fought in Waterloo but at a place called Mont-Saint-Jean near Waterloo... |
January is the time for retrospection, introspection, and new beginnings. That is why so very aptly the month January is named after the Roman god of doors and beginnings. Most often he is depicted as having two heads, facing opposite directions; one head looks back at the last year while the othe... | | |
Last week I was in Port Blair and as I was driven from the airport by a relative, I saw on the road at a signal point the amber turning to red and we stopped. The traffic sign did not flash ‘STOP’ but it said ‘RELAX’! Nice thought! In fact there is a touch of poetry in it (... |
You just greet people and enquire after them as to how they are or their life or business is. The invariable answer you would be getting would be one of the followings:‘Not bad’ (80%)‘Can’t complain’ (10%)‘Can be better’ (5%)‘Good!’ (3%)‘... | | |
Anger is like the Italian pasta. If you really get to know the actual meaning of the names of various pastas, next time you may think twice before you take it. ‘Spaghetti’ means small strings, linguini means small tongues, ‘manicotti’ means sleeves and ‘vermicelli&rsq... |
A young man goes to see his doctor. He is hale and hearty. He is having enough money as well. But still there is something amiss in his life. He is overcome by a terrible sadness which he cannot describe and he does not think anything will make him feel better. The doctor says, ‘Why not you ... | | |
Many years ago, when Leonardo da Vinci was painting The Last Supper, he looked for someone to be a model for Jesus. Eventually he found a choirboy in a local church in Rome named Pietro Bandinelli, who not only had lovely features but lived a good life. Years passed, but the painting was still not... |
If you want, you can! Can you? Yes, you can! Conditions do not make life; only decisions! Born poor is a condition, becoming rich is a decision. Being illiterate is a condition but becoming literate is a decision. Parents are conditions but friends are decisions. Conditions do not decide our life ... | | |
This is Performance Appraisal time for most of the organizations as the year 2009 draws to a close and the year 2010 starts -the time for objective realization and goal setting. And we do have all kinds of degrees of performance appraisals: 90 degree - one person review (self or another, the boss),... |
What are the various ways of climbing up an oak tree? There are two. One is to start physically climbing the tree from its base to the top, step by step. The other is to bury an acorn, the oak seed in the sand and sit on it waiting for it to sprout and carry you aloft as it grows. The second on... | | | 
Anke Stirner went to Gibraltar expecting nothing much. But a pleasant surprise was in
Anke Stirner
store for her. Here is the account of her first experience. ... |
AI864 of October 20, 2009 operated by an Air India Boeing 747-400 from Hyderabad – Mumbai, was a very special flight. It was the last scheduled Boeing 747 service by Air India. This low key event brought the curtains down on 38 years of Boeing 747 operations by our national carrier after havi... | | |
We all just know the phrase ‘Aloha’ is a way of greeting in Hawaii so much so Hawaii is nicknamed Aloha State. But the word has more significance than that. ‘Aloha’ is composed of ‘alo’ and ‘ha’ – ‘alo’ means ‘to share’ a... |
It would be quite interesting for a typical office-goer or a salaried employee to stop for a minute and take stock of the kinds of leave he gets in a year of 365 days: - Weekly Offs - 52 or 104 (either Sunday or Saturday & Sunday/ we can take an average of 78 days taking the half-days of ... | | |
The equal sign '=' was invented by the Welshman Robert Recorde in 1557. The two tiny lines one over another are of same length and thereby they signify equality. How many of our mathematics teachers had taught this or this way?Anything frigid ( as in refrigerator) is cold and what is not cold, or i... |
A few months ago, I was booking a flight ticket to Singapore by our national carrier for my wife to visit our daughter. The journey was fixed and the ticket was obtained. While making the booking I gave my mobile number for the sake of contact, a mandatory element for making an airline booking. It ... | | | 
Arriving in Kerala's Fort Kochi after travelling around nearby towns and cities, I was struck by the quiet tranquility of this quaint town on the southwestern coast of India. The narrow roads, lack of traffic and small cafes offered a much-needed repose from the bustle and chaos of the area's neig... |
Did you take a look at one of your photo albums lately? Did you talk to one of your old friends about the good old times? Or did you return to some places where you have been many years ago, maybe for holidays?Yes, not only do we change but also the environment around us. When you compare your pic... | | |
One of the leading institutes of business management in down South of India once invited me as a guest lecturer for their graduation ceremony. And after a while, the same institute called me up if I could stand in for a scheduled lecturer-trainer who could not turn up for the workshop on organizat... |
Florian Mayer
On my travels through India I definitely wanted to check out one of the National Parks. To choose one is not very easy. There are quite a few. In the end I have selected the Periyar National Park in Kerala. The park measures 777 square kilo meters and lies close to the Tamil Nadu b... | | |
The year was 1995. The airline was just two years old. My team and I as its leader were very much part and cause of the airline's evolution and growth in our own way at that time. We had doubled the revenue for the year and had readied ourselves to take on a second flight into the city. It was the ... |
Although there have been coming more tourists to India every year, in 2008 about five million which still means a growth rate of more
than 10 per cent compared to 2007. The expectations for 2009 and 2010 however are not that bright. Most analysts e... | | |
In every organisation, the standing grievance of any employee is that the organisation is least bothered about his or her promotion or career growth. Many a time, employees deem it fit that their mere tenure of service is more than enough to claim the move up. Never do they realize that a pro... |
They used to be thrilling to watch… early Boeing 707s, DC-8s and Convair's taking off with an earth-shaking roar and thick black smoke spewing from their four turbo-jet engines were sufficient inspiration for any youngster who beheld that spectacle, to dream of flying those jets someday. A l... |
