Not Being Sarkari

I read this headline on a newspaper last month. This headline stayed with me because it describes my ordeal on road whenever it rains in Delhi.

Its been raining (almost non-stop) in Delhi for last 48 hours and city has come to a halt. A screeching halt. Most of roads are waterlogged, potholes have become wider and houses in low lying areas are flooded. Time spent on roads has increased by 3 times, atleast. In a nutshell, India's capital is drowned in rains.

Another thing that has come to halt is Jet Airways. Pilots of Jet Airways have gone on mass sick leave and have taken airline and its passengers as hostage (well almost!!). Pilots went on mass leave because two of their pilots were sacked without any explanation last month. Jet is cancelling its flights at lightening speed. Worst part is customers are not informed in advance about the cancellations. As a customer reaches airport to take flight to his designated destination, he is informed about flight cancellation. Jet is refunding their fares and then customer is on its own. Other airlines are charging high prices for their flights and passengers are taken for a great ride by this airline industry. Government is trying to mediate between to warring parties but till now no solution is in sight.

On one side airline industry is asking for incentives so that they can stay afloat in these tough times and on another hand their own house is not in order and they are plagued by internal problems. Last month, Air-India staff went on strike. There are few airlines whose pilots were found drunk while they were on duty. Now, this Jet Airways stike.

Most of the airlines think that providing low fares, providing large leg space and some food on board will fetch them customers. But they tend to overlook these simmering problems which become giant when neglected for considerable time. Unfortunately, when these problems turn into raging inferno, they give noghtmares to customers. Nightmares which cannot be forgotten easliy.