Monday, November 28, 2016

Roots...

While reading the article written by Bernie Swain in HBR, my mind started racing to recall incidents that left a deep and indelible impression in my mind about my father who was my real hero….it is 30 years since we lost him, but memories are still so fresh…small acts of his that have remained permanently etched in our memories!

I was in the last batch of student community in West Bengal state going through 8 + 3 program at school, which was later changed to 10 + 2. Bengal as a state, was a laggard when it came to conducting Board Examinations and declaring results. When I passed out in the year 1976 from a multipurpose school run by Durgapur Steel Plant, results from all other states in India had already been declared and admissions were coming to a close. My parents had decided that I must join a reputed college in South, if I were to make a career and so, the day results were announced, my father landed at my school to talk to the principal to get the marks sheet, get copies of it typed out (no photocopy facility those days…) and get them attested by the Principal. His intention was for us to catch the Howrah Madras Mail departing from Howrah Station at 9:30 PM, the same day. Durgapur, around 170 KM’s from Howrah was well connected by trains, but there used to be a lull period between 12 noon and 6:00 PM with no connections available. The only train we could take was an odd train called Toofan Express coming from New Delhi heading towards Howrah. Its scheduled arrival at Durgapur was 12:30. This train was notoriously known to be delayed on all days between 1 and 3 hours. We were in luck when my sister called the station to check and was told that it was 2 hours late. It was a race against time as the school Principal was nowhere around to receive the package containing all the students marks sheets. By the time we were able to locate him and request his help to issue the original marks sheet and thereafter sign the ‘True Copies’, it was 1 PM. After a quick bite and packing some essentials for our journey into the unknown, we headed for Durgapur station. It was a good 12 KM’s from the place where we lived. While the roads were deserted, it did take time to negotiate all the junctions and the lorry traffic on the grand trunk road, part of which we had to take to reach the station. It was 2:30 PM when we reached the station.

The train had already arrived and we could see it from the ticket counter. My memory gets a little fuzzy here. Events happened so swiftly, that we never realized what we were doing, but went through the sequence on a hunch and both my dad and myself got into the running train that had just started when we reached the platform. We didn’t even have time to say our good byes to my second elder sister, her husband and my mom who had played a major role in helping us push ourselves into this running train. My brother-in-law had also managed in the confusion to buy the train tickets to Howrah and slip it into my pocket.

So much about the train ride to Howrah, but the real test was getting into Madras Mail and traveling two nights without reservation in an unreserved compartment! Howrah station in the mid 70’s used to be extremely chaotic. Announcement over the public address system would be something, and the reality would be entirely different. There would be last minute changes in the platform allotment for the empty rakes of long distance trains. Dependence on the coolies would be very high; information would somehow reach them much before the traveling public. One can imagine the mad scramble amongst the passengers if the platform was changed in the last minute.

In those good old days, three unreserved compartments would be set aside for the last minute travellers – ones who had not booked in advance. Windows in these carriages would not have protective bars, making it easy for agile youngsters to dive into the compartment as the empty rake was slowly rolled into the platform. My father made me wait at a particular place and said he would make arrangements for two seats in the unreserved compartment. Little did I know that he would, like the youngsters jump in through the window and occupy two seats for us. Once the train came to a standstill, he informed the other occupants to take care of the seats he had occupied, while he walked back to where I was and return with me and luggage. The story doesn’t end here…he was determined to talk to the traveling ticket examiners (TTE’s) to see if he could get two berths for us.

The first stop was Kharagpur after a two hour run – At 3,519 feet, this city has the distinction of having the third longest platform in the world after Gorakhpur in UP, and Kollam in Kerala. This is a junction where the track from Howrah splits in two major arteries – one goes down south to Madras and the other goes west to Bombay. This is also where the electric loco is swapped for a diesel loco during a 30 minute halt for south bound trains.

My dad was confident that he would be able to find a way out with the TTE’s and get two berths while the train was standing at Kharagpur. The situation was much more complex in reality! At Kharagpur the TTE’s shift changeover takes place and in the handing and taking over process, none of them entertain any discussion on berth availability. My dad then ran back to the unreserved compartment to inform me that he would ride with the TTE’s in the sleeper coach until he obtained the berth and come back to fetch me at the next stop. Although he asked me not to worry and also requested other fellow passengers to keep an eye on me; this was all new to me as I had always travelled with the entire family in the past.

However, I did not have to wait for long…within a couple of hours, when the train had briefly halted at an outer signal near a lesser known town, I heard him calling my name from outside. He had been successful in talking his way through the TTE and got us the much needed berths. There was a rider though…he said it was an unscheduled stop for want of clear signal and nobody could predict when it would turn ‘Green’! It was anybody’s guess…He thought for a split second and then said, let’s take our chance…we grabbed our luggage and ran all the way to the coach where we had been allotted berths, once again just-in-time before the signal changed and the train started moving.


Years later, when I was reconstructing this incident in my mind, after completing his annual ceremony, what struck was his simplicity, honesty and integrity. He was pretty high up in the ranks, but consciously avoided use of his powers in his official capacity for a personal need. It was this quality that earned him tremendous respect amongst the rank and file of the organization he served till his last breadth. This was the journey that eventually took me to R E College at Tiruchirapalli and the person who made this possible against all odds was my dad…To me, this indeed was a defining start…and I am sure, each and every one of you will have someone in your life who would have played a very decisive role in shaping who you are and what successes you have achieved. Take some time to reflect and give credit to whosoever deserves!

Friday, November 25, 2016

Leveraging Conflict!

It wasn’t a usual 6E232 Chennai-Bengaluru flight last night, 25th November 2016. Indigo to a very large extent keeps their schedule departure time unaltered on all sectors. Perhaps, it is a form of training that is imparted to all new joinees, that they are pretty-much committed to ‘On Time’ departure and arrival and do whatever it takes! So much so, that they take pride during the departure announcement as, “Indigo Departure Time”…sole reason probably for their runaway success!

Last night however, while waiting at Chennai airport, I noticed that the departure time mentioned in the closed circuit TV panels showed a 15 minute delay. There was no announcement of this change from 21:15 to 21:30 Hours, whereas, a 15 minute delay in departure of their flight to Kolkata must have been announced over the Public Address system at least 3 to 4 times, if not more. All passengers one-by-one started walking up to the ground force at the departure gate to ask for the status. Not having a plausible reason to offer as an excuse for the delay, I guess the ground personnel decided to move away from the desk to avoid questions. They did however return when there was 25 minutes left for the revised departure time. Having been allotted a seat in first row, I had to wait till all passengers had walked in, as boarding was taking place through the aerobridge.

As I entered the aircraft I noticed that the Chief Flight Attendant was visibly angry and was having a heated argument with ground personnel in charge of loading food and beverages. It may be interesting to note, that variety of food served to passengers who pre-order their choice of refreshments is demarcated, based on duration of the flight. Short haul flights like Chennai-Bengaluru, there really isn’t any time to ask each passenger and serve a meal of their choice. Only passengers who have ordered at the time of booking their tickets are served and even the snack choice is limited between two/three varieties of soft drinks and between cashew nuts or cookies. Taj Sats – the catering agency for Indigo at Chennai had goofed up on 25th November 2016. They had loaded food that was meant for a long haul flight; this meant,  no nuts and cookies and to make matters worse the soft drinks and water loaded, were at room temperature in Chennai weather.

Couple of rows behind me, a frequent flyer, who made it known to all of us within his earshot that he flew 150 times each year was unhappy when a warm Nimbu Pani was offered to him. He asked for Aam Panna; normally Indigo offers this as an alternative on Chennai-Bengaluru sector under the brand ‘PaperBoat’. Having had a heated exchange with the ground personnel in-charge of loading food, the flight attendent’s patience just snapped. She rudely told the passenger that this was all she had in the aircraft today and the passenger had no choice but to accept the warm Nimbu Pani – almost a ‘take it or leave it’ kind…

Not wanting to be taken for granted, the passenger spoke in a firm voice about his preference. The attendant, now besides herself with rage, first on the Caterers, then on the Ground Personnel, Passenger asking for something that she was not in a position to offer was the proverbial last straw. She lost her cool and allowed emotions to take over and yelled at the passenger. In the same breadth, she went back to the ground personnel and accused them of goofing up the loading and finally said she would not allow the flight to take off if she did not get the variety meant for this short haul flight or deplane the rude passenger. It was as if she was leveraging on the conflict with a passenger to drive home the point with Ground personnel that they were sloppy in their execution. She even went to the extent of asking the ground personnel to convince the passenger by accepting their responsibility of the goof up. Sitting close to the front entrance, I was privy to these discussions. It was also clear that the ground personnel were least interested either in replenishing the stock or own up to their mistake and tender an apology to the passenger, the flight attendant was insisting on. Personally, I was quite in agreement with the way the flight attendant was fixing accountability and responsibility, but did we have the time to see who would blink first?

Unfortunately, the drama that was unfolding before us was having a silent toll on time. We had long crossed the ETD of 21:30 and it was getting to be 21:55. Few of us fellow passengers had to intervene with this flight attendant to calm her frayed nerves, wave the white flag and call for a truce to allow the plane to take the skies. Apparently, the ground personnel were waiting for such a window of opportunity to escape and it came to them on a platter. They quickly took a sign-off from the Captain and deplaned. Once the main doors were shut, locked and cross checked, our now infamous flight purser took control of the situation and was back in command doing whatever she needed to do, when in-charge! She did approach the passenger after we landed at Bengaluru, post a 20 minute circle over the Bengaluru skies, Queued at No 20 in the landing sequence and asked him to cooperate and explain the entire sequence of events to senior leadership team at Indigo. She promised him that she would seek justice from her organization on his behalf. While we may not get to know the final outcome, at least we should be happy that ‘quality of service’ will always be the discerning or deciding factor between companies that are good to companies that are great.

Come to think of ‘Conflicts’, most of them are like the one described above. The root cause is always far away from the stakeholders at loggerheads. A human mind is rather hard wired to jump to quick egoistic conclusions, a distressed me versus them, with “I” always assumed to be at the receiving end! In times of conflict, the world comes to a momentary halt, as the head begins its spin…and how we wish for the inverse!!