Lufthansa – not what it used to be.

Sharing my experience with Lufthansa flights (operated by United Airlines). I had a ticket from Chicago to India with layover in Frankfurt. The ticket allowed to carry two luggage bags. I reach Chicago ORD and while doing my booking in United Airlines kiosk it asked me to pay for the second luggage bag. I thought there is a technical error and waited for someone to assist me with this. When the assistant saw that she had to reach out to some else to get clarity on this. Then another person came and informed me that I have to pay $100 for the second bag and Lufthansa will reimburse the $100 OR I can go ahead and ask Lufthansa service to put me on another flight they operate. I went to the Lufthansa service centre there they informed me there is no other way but to pay the $100 for the second bag and get the reimbursement. The reimbursement will be made after 15 days of the travel. I went to united Airlines Kiosk, paid the $100, and checked in the luggage bags. 
I reach Frankfurt. The layover time in Frankfurt was 3 hours and 30 minutes. The scheduled departure time was 1:20 PM on the 7th of Friday the gate # was B22. Near around the boarding time we are informed that the flight is delayed and moved to 3:00 pm. I look around and see lot of senior citizens I presume most of them are coming back to India after visiting their kids abroad. 
The second time we are told the flight is delayed again and the new departure time is 5:00 pm, now there is some unrest, people are wanting to know what is happening. All of us get a text with a EUR10 Coupon to buy some snacks and beverage. About the flight status all we get from the crew is, “there is some technical issue”. Then we are told the gate is moved and the new gate # is B32 (I somehow believe that this was a false information provided just to move people to a secluded gate where there is not many people around) 
Everyone move to the new gate area and start requesting for flight status. The response is this, “they are having a meeting and we will come know any status update after 4 pm. After 4:00pm people are frustrated and ask the status of their flight the service crew does not have any response and they inform they are also waiting for updated. Somewhere between 4:30 to 5:00 pm it is informed that the flight is cancelled. Now all the elderly people are panicking, most of them are having a transit visa. 
There was a gentleman in the crew who patiently answered everyone with these options. 
    1. For people who have Shenzhen visa (or who are eligible to enter Frankfurt) they get hotel                           accommodation and meals. 
    2. For everyone who are not eligible to enter Frankfurt have to stay near that gate till the next day,             they will be provided with blankets and meals coupon. 
There was lot of tension but the crew kept repeating this to every member who asked for accommodation or another flights or any other options. This went on for another 2 hours. Around 6PM this gentleman from the crew informed everyone to go to the Lufthansa service center, which was in another floor. Most of the elders were panicking and moving to the service centre not knowing what to do. Few people went to the service center few were waiting downstairs to know what options the service center was providing. 
While waiting an old man 70+ years fell down and cut his head. We picked him up and put him on the chair. It was a deep cut and lot blood was flowing. Thankfully there was a doctor among us. She was travelling with her husband and two toddlers. She tried to put pressure on the wound and stop the bleeding she had to shout out for the service person to call for an ambulance. The Ambulance arrived and put some bandage for the wound to stop bleeding. He suggested to take him to the hospital. But the old man refused saying he cannot spend money on hospital and he just wanted to go home. 
In the service center there was a long Queue. Around 8:30 pm my turn came to talk to the service center person. She told me there is no other option but to take the next flight tomorrow. However I have been hearing from the other counters that there are flight options available, so I called one of the fellow passenger and checked what was the option provided to him. He said he is taking a flight via Singapore to Mumbai. I asked if that option is available for me and she replied “if you can make it” and when I asked if my luggage will arrive to Mumbai her response was “I hope so”. Both of these response form the service center made me worried if I could catch this 9:55 pm flight and if my luggage will arrive with me. She recommended me to take the next day flight and when I asked for accommodation there was no reply. So I asked them to put me on the immediate Singapore flight partly because I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible and I was not provided any other flight / accommodation options. 

I believe many elderly people were also provided these careless responses because they choose to stay at the airport throughout the night in the fear of not being able to catch the flight OR losing their luggage. It was heart wrenching to see elders struggling in another country where they cannot speak their native language. From this incident I could gather that Lufthansa’s employees are overworked and under lot of stress. I can understand this burn out and the stress people have to go through in today’s world. However Lufthansa service crew’s callous behaviour towards their customers and especially the elderly people was unprecedented. It left a bitter taste for the service levels of Lufthansa.
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Why I chose Cersei Lannister!?


The TV show Game of thrones made some waves in the fantasy drama television series genre. It had lot of viewers and fans. Myself and few of my office colleagues were also loyal viewers and fans of the show. Before the beginning of the last season of the show everyone in our office picked a character that they would want to be. It is a fun game to play.

I was explaining this office game to another colleague and she asked me did your friends choose the character Cersei Lannister for you or did you choose it. “I chose Cersei Lannister” I said. Her question made me think; why would I choose a character that is villainous in nature?

Why her; her character is the most powerful woman, the queen of 7 kingdoms, I liked the actress and her previous work in movies like 300 and ‘You & I’. 
Why not her; her character is murderous, incestuous and pure evil.
Why not anyone else: I adored many other characters in the series, I am a fan of the whole stark clan, especially Arya Stark and Sansa Stark. I am hounded by this question why did I not choose any of the Stark’s?

The reason I could come up with is because these Stark characters were still developing and we did not know how things will turn up with them. That was not the case with Cersei, here character is already developed and known. In any situation we know the direction she will go. We also knew her character will be killed off in the end. She is the devil we know. As the saying goes “the known devil is better than the unknown angel”. This is probably why I chose Cersei Lannister.

This scares me because it raises another question, how and why is a known devil better than an unknown angel?


P.S.: While writing this I came across a good article on this topic – “known devil is better than an unknown angel? I think not!”, do read it 
https://www.iuemag.com/april2014/di/a-known-devil.php

#Mumbaimerijaan contest by The Zillion Gallery

There was a contest organized by The Zillion Gallery last month.  The contest was to capture the wala's and wali's of Mumbai. In short the people, or as I would like to call, the spirit of Mumbai. The attached images are the entries submitted by me for this contest. Came to know that such a contest to capture the buildings and infrastructure  was held @ January'15. 

This contest gave me an oppaortunity to pick up my camera and click some shots. Every-time I work with the camera it reminds me, how noob I am with the camera. You know how the saying goes - 'known is a drop, unknown is an ocean'. If any of the image gets selected it will be a huge motivation for me to be involved and explore my passion - photography even more.

I love to become a photographer like my brother - Abhay. His vision and perspective and the way he can capture them into a frame always inspires me. As a photographer I wish I could capture beauty and emotions like he does :o)

Coming back to the contest: this contest will be judged by Atul Kasbekar. Atul Kasbekar also co-produced the new Sonam Kapoor's staring movie - Neeraj.

shine bright like a diamond

one of my favorite quote by Oscar Wilde
I love to look up into the night sky and see the stars. The pollution in a city like Bombay can be felt when we look into the night sky and hardly see any stars. If looked closed enough we get the glimpse of couple of stars in the sky. So whenever I am out of the city, visiting a hill-station or our native place; I remember to look up into the night sky. There I see millions of stars shining bright in the night sky. These brightly shining stars keep me dreaming.

HORN OK PLEASE


Few years back, one of my friends from abroad asked me, why some Indian vehicles have ‘Horn Ok Pease’ written on the back. My beautiful mind being as it is, wandered to the incorrect grammar of this line - Horn ok please; rather than providing a reply to the question in front.

Today while driving, suddenly the sounds of different horns blowing surrounded me. It made me think, our roads don’t just belong to motor vehicles. It belongs to the people - walking /jaywalking (many of us don’t know what this word means), bicycles, animals like cows and horses, hawkers (way too many), religious affairs, tea & food stalls and in the future maybe aliens with running saucers (excuse my sense of humor).  We all share this common ground called ROADS. Hence it is inevitable to have a medium of communication to navigate on our roads.

The horns blowing on the roads are a line of communication unique to Indian roads. Here horns are honked in different styles to convey different messages. Mostly people don’t take offence when someone honks; they listen to the sound and provide appropriate reactions. Here are few different sounds of horns and their meaning.  

Just one or a couple of baby beep sounds like bip or bip-bip means, please give me way and let me overtake. It’s a nice gesture nothing to get offended about. Next is a long press beeep, used to convey urgency while overtaking. If a car beeep’s but does not overtake, one can safely assume either the car is new or the drive is or it’s a lady driver. Being a lady driver myself, I prefer not feed fodder to that last thoughtJ. Similarly there are many other beep sounds and different meanings associated to those sounds.

The next time you are on Indian roads and you hear horns blowing; don’t take offence or judge. Instead listen and try to keep up with this unique language.


Coming back to the original question; why do we write – ‘horn okay please’, on the back of some vehicles? Last time I heard that question, I blurted out some random reply that came to my mind. However, truth be told, I do not know the answer. There is a wiki page explaining the significance and origin of the line - ‘HORN OK PLEASE’. Please go check it out if you are keen to know. Here is the link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horn_OK_Please

Culture shock

I have visited three different Countries, without counting the airport stopovers -Germany, United States and Hong Kong. Mentioned by the order visited. All three of these Country’s offered different experiences, each different from the other.

Growing up along with American sitcoms, pop songs and TV shows I expected to find similarities in America rather than in any other Country. To my surprise, the biggest cultural shock I got, came from Uncle Sam. Maybe because of the transition from one of the busiest and congested cities in the world - Bombay, to a city in the lone star state - Dallas, Texas. The first thing to learn there was a local saying - “Everything’s bigger in Texas” and ohh boy, was it true!

As an automobile enthusiast, I can’t help but observe cars, regardless of where I am put. If you’ve been to Texas you’d know cars are almost synonyms with Indian mini trucks. The concept of small cars is almost not known. A Maruti Ritz running in Texas roads, would look like a baby among Megatron’s.  Not just automobiles; television, stadium, houses, green land and average size of a person…everything’s, bigger in Texas. The visit to the Cowboys stadium only proved that the local saying is indeed true. The vast land and the amount of sky one can see by standing in the front yard was simply epic!

On the adverse front the public transport system was as good as nonexistent. The food was bland, but thanks to Mexican food I could have something similar to the Indian spice rich meals. Fortunately, my stay was too short to experience the full agony of culture shock. The time to leave came just when I was about to experience the pinch of homesickness.

Now that I have visited few states in America I am looking forward to the opportunity to experience the big apple - New York City!

Aimless wandering: Myths


 Myth's I wanna feed fodder to:

  • white's nice, black's naughty and red's sexy
  • it rains when gods cry
  • prettier the girl; messier the car
  • chocolate is the closest alternative for sex 
  • It is harder to lose weight than to gain 
  • using a calculator to do complex math makes you look smart
  • vampires :D ohh cupids too
  • a messier desk is a sign of hard work
  • eyelashes, pennies, wishbone, shooting stars and birthday candles are elements that bring good fortune
  • the positive outweighs the negative (not sure if this is myth or real…but I'm all for it)

Mango People

The Story of Mango People [Aam Janta] Why do people cross the railway track and take chances with fatal accidents? I never understood this...