King Of Good Times and Goa Mukti Suvarna Mahotsav Lok Samruddhi Yatra

I had to go to Bangalore for a day to attend a family function. The travel options were,
1. To travel by bus, up and down, two nights, twelve hours each way, to be in Bangalore for twelve hours - very tiring and not worth it.
2. Travel by air, up and down, paying about ten thousand rupees - very expensive. (and the journey from B’lore air port to home - not less tiring)

I had given up the idea till my brother in law very kindly offered his frequent flier miles. If someone else is paying nothing is expensive and I was booked on Kingfisher - King of good times - up and down.

‘Kingfisher cancels fifty flights’ - front page news four days before my departure.
‘Actual cancellations were 169 flights, not fifty as claimed, Kingfisher in trouble, owes huge amount to oil companies and airports’ - three days before my departure.
‘Oil companies refuse to supply fuel and airports refuse landing permits unless the backlog is cleared. 150 pilots resign from kingfisher for non payment of salaries, more flights being cancelled.’ - two days before my departure.
‘Banks refuse to bail out Kingfisher, top management to meet bankers today’ - the day of my departure.

The proverb in kannada, ‘paapi samudra hokkaru monakaludda neeru’ - which can be translated as ‘the sinner finds no more than knee deep water even if he gets into the sea’ - explained my situation adequately. It is difficult to explain a proverb but it means, roughly, If you are not destined to get it you will not.

I was in a dilemma. To go or not to go? Something like ‘to be or not to be’. Shakespeare I think. I am not sure. I could have asked Jeeves but he is not with me. Works for someone called Wooster.

Since the tickets were non refundable we could not cancel the tickets, call off the trip and be peaceful. But what if the flight is cancelled at the last minute? Of course I could simply return home after a futile trip to the airport and I only lose taxi fare. (Cannot be as shameless as to ask my brother in law to pay for the taxi too). What if I reach Bangalore and my return flight is cancelled? Would cause quite a bit of inconvenience. Should i anticipate flight cancellation and book a seat on the bus too? Many such thoughts kept rolling around in the mind. Mind was agitated.

I was checking the Kingfisher site for flight status every hour for three days and it kept saying that the flights were as scheduled.

The flights did take off and I made my trip successfully - even got a very decent vegetable sandwich during the onward flight. Free. Nice taste - Kingfisher class. No sandwich on return flight but it was OK. It was at six in the morning, I would not have eaten one at that time anyway.

Since Kingfisher affected my life considerably for nearly a week I kept watching it. Right now the company is asking the banks to release 800 crores to tide over the crisis and the banks are reluctant. I was happy that our banks are cautious while lending money and are keeping our money safe. The overall loss to Kingfisher till date is about 8000crores. Let Vijay Mallya lose his money. He has plenty.

Today I read that the banks have a 27 percent stake in the company. If that is so, their loss is twenty seven percent of 8000 crores. More than 2000 crores of bank’s, that is MY money. Shock. One report says that the exposure of the banks could be as high as 6000 crores. So, it is WE who are losing the money. Not Mallya. He is running his airline king style with our money and losing it! His money is safe in barrels of Kingfisher beer. And the bankers whom we thought are safeguarding our money have been pouring it freely into Kingfisher. 6000 crores are gone and they are now showing their concern for 800. ‘Saabi ne hodamele gaddakke attarante’. Another proverb in kannada. This is what I understand.

If there are any economists reading this please say I am wrong. The nice vegetable sandwich is giving out a very bad aftertaste after four days.

King of good times is having a bad time.

But it is worse for us.


"G M S M L S Y"

Advani is on a rath yatra again or is it over? The ‘Jan chetana yatra’.
When BJP is running a yatra how can the congress keep quiet? The Goa congress party decided to have its own yatra.

“Goa mukti suvarna mahotsav lok samruddhi yatra”. Oh god, it is surely bigger than ‘Jan chetana yatra’. You can’t even say it in one breath. The yatra started and was over by the time I read the name fully. What did it mean any way? I could make out that it had something to do with the golden jubilee of Goa liberation - hence the ‘mukti suvarna mahotsav’. But what is ‘lok samruddhi’? As far as my knowledge goes samruddhi is ‘plenty’. Is lok samruddhi -‘plenty of people’? Or ‘plenty for the people’?

If it is plenty of people it is not good news and if it is plenty for the people what is plenty? As I see, only two things are plenty in Goa right now. One is illegal iron ore and the other is Garbage. Both not to be shouted about in a political yatra.

So what is this ‘Yatra’ about? If any big mouth politician opens his mouth I will let you know.