Memory is a weird thing

It’s weird how there are some things you don’t want to be reminded of, but don’t want to forget either. The emotions they bring, are the emotions you miss, but it’s the feeling of missing them which puts you in a spot.

Just got a call from JustDial. They keep calling from time to time, to keep their database of professionals updated, in this case of my mother. But one thing they’ve failed to update is that she not with us anymore, for a while now. But I guess their database doesn’t have an option to update that, so they keep calling.

But how does that make me feel ? To be reminded of her absence, it surely doesn’t feel nice. But it does make me proud of her accomplishments. It feels nice to imagine that some people might still be clicking on her profile, hoping to get helped. Leave other aside, the fact that JD still keeps her in their directory, it feels good. It feels she’s still there, in digital memory and real.

So everytime I get that call, I feel all of it, all at once. Some feelings I don’t want to have, some feelings I don’t want to lose. So when today I told the agent to not call again, as I’ve done it a lot of times before, she hung up, and my heart sank. What if she really does it, what if I don’t get a call again? Do I really not want to get that call?

I really hope, they call again.

Future of aviation training in India: The role IGRUA must play

India is poised to be the third largest aviation market in coming decade. Even with disruption like covid pandemic, strength of our domestic demand kept most airlines afloat. By all estimates, the market is going to grow positively from this point, very likely exponentially. This growth will fuel a demand for trained professionals. The critical need will be for the jobs which require specialised experience to be working in position of responsibility, namely our pilots and engineers.

As the airlines have grown at a faster rate, the time it takes to transition from First Officer to Captain and further to trainer has reduced. But the standards needed to be in these roles cannot be compromised, hence FOs have had to learn same content within a shorter duration. Airlines have managed to provide required positive learning environment by following best practices from around the world. Current airline learning environment has been highly dynamic, constantly evolving to match the requirements, and so is their recruitment standards. The kind of candidates who could cope up with such dynamic progress have to be assessed thoroughly. Over the years things like psychometric tests have become part of induction process. The better prepared recruits at early stages of training make the operations safer. For this, we need to look at where they come from.

Before they begin their airline journey, aspirants have to get their Commercial Pilot License (CPL) from any Flying Training Organisation (FTO), sometimes called flying school or flying club. They can do it in any country as long as they complete the required syllabus designed by DGCA. When we talk about FTOs in India, the title of premier institution has belonged to one place for some time, that is Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Udan Akademi (IGRUA). It has been at the forefront of pilot’s training in India since the day of its foundation. Its training standards are considered hallmark for every FTO in the region, its infrastructure and resources could be considered one of the best in the world, and its legacy is undisputed, thanks to long line of leaders it has produced. For these very reasons, IGRUA is the best candidate to lead the training evolution at grass root level.

Why we need such evolution in first place is because we are going to need visionary leaders to guide Indian Aviation towards a bright future. Leaders flourish when responsibility and accountability are empowered with right support and guidance. Educational institutions are the best forum for open discussions on industries, and open discourses breed innovation needed for growth. All over the world, outlier specialised institutions have been the lynchpin of progress in their respective sector and country. Be it IITs for technology in India, which contributes to its largest export sector, or Wageningen university for agricultural in Netherland, which has made them biggest net food exporter. IGRUA has potential to become such institution of change for Indian Aviation. For that, IGRUA will need to evolve itself first.

A vision would be required for IGRUA, with a roadmap for coming years. The changes required would need a proactive approach towards training program, modify it in line with times. Tenets of Crew Resource Management should be taught and applied from day one. Towards the end, they should go through line oriented flying training with UPRT being part of training. Concepts of Airline operations and Safety management systems should be part of curriculum. An active feedback based training program will be suitable, and for that, cadets need to be trained on self assessment. Evidence Based Training should be the mantra for it.

IGRUA then should go about creating formal flying training standards on which FTOs could be assessed. Design a LOSA like program for flying training, as well as criterion for grading flying schools apart from DGCA FTD audits. IGRUA can become a research test bed of best practices for DGCA and other CAA for various purposes. An official oversight committee could be formed for auditing and assessing new flying training standards. Then the educational material and dynamic curriculum for flying training could be created in conjunction, available for all.

Further, IGRUA could go about creating an outreach program and open forums. In short, host and attend seminars, become part of a global FTO community, as well as become active in domestic aviation communities to a greater effect. In this age of connected world, a lot of this can be achieved through internet. For this, IGRUA will need to expand its online presence. It could start with a journal, a blog or wiki of some sort. Articles would be contributed from industry experts, former IGRUAns, as well as from staff and students currently in IGRUA. Other multimedia platforms like YouTube and podcasts could be used for various purposes, ranging from hosting webinars to disseminating information.


Slowly and steadily, most of educational material could be collated and provided from a combined source. We wouldn’t have to depend on foreign publications for our studies, both for traditional and current topics. IGRUA could become hub for open source knowledge, getting into offering MOOCs on various subjects which may not be offered in smaller FTOs.

Endgame of this roadmap is to create a Learned Society out of the community centred around IGRUA by above approach, which would then be contributing to growth of aviation in India not just by supplying good CPL holders, but by providing expertise in policies for the industry. Advantages associated with IGRUA are a huge number of Alumni who could co-operate for common good, sharing campus with first purpose-made aviation university of India, and being a body directly under MoCA, which gives it capacity to be an Institute of National importance.

The truth about telling the truth

More often than not, we hear that truth is bitter. But, is it? Truth many times are straight facts, devoid of any inherent feeling. So it’s not that the truth is bitter, but your emotional reaction to it. If something doesn’t conform with your point of view, it’s going to feel bitter.
But if bitterness of some fact depends on listener’s perspective, what about the speaker? Are those speakers objective enough for the truth to be delivered as it is? Can it be possible that they are delivering their viewpoint in the name of truth? If truth is bitter, they should feel the taste of it too. Or do we use the excuse of delivering the truth to hurt the others.
If at all, it doesn’t cost us anything to be kind. If the truth is really bitter, then we should be able to be empathetic to the listener, and break the news the way it doesn’t antagonise them. If it doesn’t feel bitter to you, you need to ask yourself, are you serving your opinion in the name of truth? Questions one should ask oneself.

A day in summer continued

Only social connect he had was his ‘friends’ on the island. For him, they were new faces everyday, for them, he was an old friend. Though even they didn’t know much about his past, apparently he is very private and secretive person. He wasn’t trying to be so today. Some days, an odd friend would comment something about a girlfriend from past, on other days, the ‘other’ friends won’t have a clue. Vic has made a ritual everyday to keep track of his friends. He would go to his Dive shop every morning, it hopefully being in the same place every time. Take out the employee register and check all the names, so that he at least know his employees you name. For the rest, he would call them champ, dude or bro, whatever short slang he could muster then. He had become an expert in guessing people’s vocation by just looking at their attire. Another social connect he had was with the tourists, many coming to his shops late mornings to book an afternoon dive. He would at times spend evenings with them, even nights on some lucky days. He was much more relaxed with ‘strangers’ as they knew as much about him as he knew about them. He could forget, without worrying too much about remembering.

One fine day, it was another warm 12th of July 2016. Vic was up and ready to receive new tourists at 9:30 in the morning. A group emerged from nearby resort on the opposite end of the beach. A couple of cute looking girl in them. They stopped by the shanty across the dive shop to grab breakfast. Vic was expecting a few customers as his register read an appointment at 10 AM. He could see them looking across towards his place and figured this could be them. One gaze particularly caught his attention. This girl, one in a white sundress, she was staring with a kind of familiarity. Vic had learnt to identify such gaze, it helped him figure who on the island were his friend. But he had never seen this in a tourist, is she a local guide, her dress doesn’t suggest so. Who is she, and why is she staring at him like that. The group gets up and starts walking towards the shop. “Okay, let’s see”, Vic gets up and gets ready to greet the incoming customers as they come close.

“Vic, is that you? God, I haven’t seen you in years. So this is where you had disappeared,” It was a long time since Vic has had a startling sensation. The element of surprise had become a bit redundant in his life. But what was this, was it something he had been waiting for all this time. A sign, that he wasn’t in some god forsaken purgatory. An evidence, that he has a real life as well. But what does this evidence leads to. Why he is in this situation, and how does it actually works. All these questions suddenly came back to him. Why now, and what is this ‘now’?

The Meticulous Citizen.

With the increasingly politicised world and frequent political process, questions of polity has become a day to day affair. A large part of population is affected everyday by this, and thanks to social media, much more actively participating than previous generations. Active participation for previous generation as citizen was limited to voting in elections, and participating in a few rallies, if they intended from time to time. Activism was reserved for a few, mostly those who were actually involved closer with active politics.
But with our generation, activism is reaching every doorstep. Everyone has means to raise their voice and be heard. Every news of politics, be it international or small regional ones reaches us. Regional elections are matter of national discussion, and affect national politics many a times. While this easiness of information exchange has strengthened democracy, it has also put it at risk. Inflammatory articles reach you as quickly and in much larger volume than before. Masses are more polarised, as their convictions are reinforced through fake news, which masquerades as genuine sources of information.
With all this, the task of being an effective citizen has become tougher. Vetting correct information from barrage of false ones is a critical skill to gain itself. And it’s not just about the fake news, even the genuine ones at times are not straight facts, but opinions based on events. Opinions, which may carry biases of the ones sharing them. How they sound to you depends on which set of ideas you carry. When those comes from people of authority, they carry a different weight. You may immediately feel accepting, or critical about it depending on which camp that information originated from. And that’s where the effectiveness of a Meticulous Citizen comes in play.
Being a good citizen means you do your homework before acting on any information. You vote after understanding the policy, not because you’ve always voted for them. You listen to both sides, and then do activism not based on ideology but on logic. And to apply logic, you need to be critical, not just of the camp you disagree with, but the ones you support too. In fact, a good citizen doesn’t need to stay in a camp, fealty is a thing of feudal societies. We live in democracies where every vote counts. We may take it for granted, but having ability to elect our officials is a great privilege. The only loyalty we need to worry about is to our society as a whole. To excercise privileges of citizenship is what it is, an excercise.

What do you think about it?

A day in summer

There is an island, not a deserted one, no. It’s an island in the middle of Pacific, and a famous tourist spot. Its 12th July 2016, a number of tourists have turned up for vacation. Spread across the island are little trinklet shops, beach resorts, and other stuff tourists pay money for. Water sports is one thing which gets some footfall. Coral atolls around the islands attracts some to seek below the surface. And that takes them to our guy, a diving instructor, he gets a number of students, some experienced, some not, but always new ones. Tourists are there to enjoy their summer vacation. The thing with our guy is that it’s always 12th of July 2016. He doesn’t remember when was 11th of July, that is a distant memory. He is stuck on that date. Everyone around him keeps changing, everyday he wakes up to new tourists, to new colleagues, to new residents. Sometimes the latter two are repeated, but never more than a few times. Everybody knows him though, for them, he has been living on the island for 5, or maybe 6 years. He doesn’t remember how was 2010, or even 2011, or any of the days since then. Why did he move there? Does he have anyone elsewhere? He remembers his mother faintly, a little bit of his father too, standing besides her. Not sure if he had any siblings, or many friends. He explored his personal belongings many time, but never found anything useful. He had ‘misplaced’ his identity documents except for his diving certificate, which just read a first name, ‘Victor’.

It’s not that he has been like this forever, he is sure. He has been trying to get out of this situation ever since he remembers. But memory can hold so much. Everyday he wakes up, and thinks about the previous day. So much has happened on a single day, so many times. There is always some bad weather, some stupid people, some accidents. Some days, they are happening the same way, some days they surprise Vic. Yeah, that’s what people call him. A long time ago, Vic did everything he could to escape the island, but it’s so far off. The little seaplanes take 4 hours to reach nearest major island, but something always goes wrong. At times it was typhoon, other times it was some malfunction, and Vic always ends up in the ocean. He does wake up in his bed at 3:30 in the morning, but the memory of the crash is nevertheless traumatic. He did try to use a boat, but the story isn’t much different. He never made it to the other land. For some reasons, he doesn’t know what happens after 2 AM. He doses off, goes in trance, loses his mind, but he always wakes up in his cottage at 3:30 AM. He remember being up with those hidpsters once till 3, but was too high to remember any details.

For a while now he hasn’t been stuck in the middle of the ocean. It isn’t that he doesn’t want to get out of here. It’s just seems fruitless to try doing the same thing. He is trying to understand what’s happening with him. He is taking his time, it’s not running out anyway. There’s a little hope in heart that someday he would get out of this like Phil did in The Groundhog Day. Oh yes, that movie. A tourist told him about this when Vic told his story around the evening bonfire. “Your story sounds similar to the Bill Murray movie, you should definitely watch that”. He did watch that, the island wasn’t an isolated backwater. Thanks to modern technology, it was connected with whole world. Vic would spend a lot of days on the Internet. He did keep updated with the world, he needed to lot of time, as world was a little different everyday. There was no drastic changes, the history was pretty much the same, just a little odd thing here and there. World war 2 still happened, humanity did reach the moon, but some world leaders didn’t live or die the same time as Vic knew. He wasn’t on social media though, no Facebook, no Twitter, not even a google account. These could have given him some glimpse of his life before, some idea about friends outside of the islands.

Thoughts on Star Wars sequel trilogy

Imagine this, Rey is the tough sith lord, leading the first order as the heiress to the emperor. She destroys Jedi temple in a surprise attack, killing most. Luke disappears to find answers to why Sith keep coming back stronger. While Kylo, who’s conflicted because of lineage shared with Darth Vader, disillusioned because of his mentor missing, and unsure in his capabilities as he failed to save his Jedi brothers, reluctantly leads an under-prepared resistance as auxiliary forces of the weak new republic.

He falls to the Dark Side, betrays his father at the end of episode 7 and joins Rey. Then Rey leaves him as a second in command and goes to track down Luke. Kylo leads the first order into an open conflict with republic, and decimates them, further enforcing his belief in Dark side. While Rey finds Luke, who’s on a journey to learn the secrets of force, discovering that Jedi and Sith are two faces of same coin. Rey has little change of heart herself on this journey. She doesn’t eliminate Luke and both return to their sides. Towards the end of episode 8, Kylo has inner conflicts while facing his mother, but returning Luke enrages him and he goes all out against the resistance, while Rey finds herself sidelined in the first order.

Episode 9 could then be a redemption arc for the characters, where they find balance in some manners. Luke and Leia could sacrifice themselves in some way. Rey could have a complete change of heart, turning from a sith to Jedi, abandoning the palpatine name and taking Skywalker name, finding that she was probably relating more with Vader rather than the emperor. Ren could survive to continue Luke’s work.
How different this storyline would be in a good creator’s hand?