Boeing Factory- Seattle

Space Needle Observatory, Seattle

Dr C Subramanian who is a Professor at Florida Institute of Technology and works closely with the team of NASA in Research and Development mooted the idea of a visit to the Boeing factory in Seattle a day before we were set to sail on a cruise to Alaska.  Dr Subramanian is an interesting person to talk to and will keep you at the hearing end of the conversation whenever he talks about space and its related matters including launching of space shuttles from the Kennedy space centre.  This gentleman adds something more to whatever the guide explains about the Boeing planes!  I was thrilled to be in the company of this value added services man who had abundant  knowledge about the flying machines. We boarded the bus that took a few interested visitors to the Boeing factory located in Seattle and was about 50 minutes drive from the downtown area where  our hotel was situated.

The Boeing factory was surrounded by mountains covered with snow and  cool breeze! What an atmosphere to work?

The car park from where one could see the latest Boeing 787 s parked and ready for delivery! I was very happy and thrilled to see that there were 4 brand new 787 Boeing s painted with logo of Air India amongst the dozen planes that were parked!  Mera Bharat Mahan!!

 Continuous flow of visitors to the facility not only encourages the team working on the projects but also brings in revenue in the form of entrance fees which goes for the development and welfare schemes formulated.

 The Boeing facility has its own Air strip which also trains aspirants to make them a full fledged pilot.  This functions as a private airport exclusively for the Boeing requirements.

 At the entrance reception.  They are very strict and make sure that visitors do not carry mobile phones or camera which according to me in unwarranted.  Photography inside the facility is strictly not allowed. The tour lasts 90 minutes and the tour guide warns us about unavailability of Rest Rooms during the tour!!

 A model of the initial planes that were launched by the Boeing.

  A view of the factory.

 The Dream lifter lanes carry some vital parts of the plane which are outsourced to various countries and from where the ferry it for final assembly at the facility.

  Rolls Royce engine that gets fitted in the plane.  Don't forget to assume the size of the engine!  The entire tour is made interesting as they take you through corridors of assembly and details about how assembling is done?  The mammoth size of cranes handling the parts of plane and the entire section of assembly makes you wonder about this flying machine and its capabilities.  You also feel satisfied about the fare that the airlines charges keeping in mind the huge size and proportion of the facility and the various inputs that is gathered all around the globe to keep this machine flying high!

 Brand new planes taking off from the Paine field near the start of the Tour.

 Parked behind are the planes ready for delivery.  If you zoom in you can find 787 s ordered by Air India.  The Boeing 787 Dream liner is a long-range, mid-size wide-body, twin-engine jet airliner developed by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. It seats 210 to 330 passengers, depending on the variant. Boeing states that it is the company's most fuel-efficient airliner and the world's first major airliner to use composite materials for most of its construction.^[4] The 787 consumes 20% less fuel than the similarly-sized Boeing 767. Some of its distinguishing features include a four-panel windshield, noise-reducing chevrons on its engine nacelles, and a smoother nose contour.

 A view of the front of the factory which has 5 gates which can take a plane in and out!  At the end of the tour, you feel its worth the visit to learn about this huge flying machine that takes you all over the globe ensuring safety aspects which are very important.  One feels like saying" I am not going if it is not Boeing"!!

Beyond Happiness!

Parents become proud parents when their children grow past them in terms of earning livelihood, standing on their own legs and settling down well in their respective lives. Any parent would love to dream that day happening in their life and very true so! My happiness knew no bounds when on the evening of 27Th April, 2011 my elder son Capt Neeraj,Commander of Air Bus A320 sprang a surprise by asking me to get ready to travel with him to Delhi and come back with him. He had reasons to do so and had booked my tickets in advance to give me a pleasant surprise and a special Tamil New Year gift too! I started to get ready to match the social status of being father of a commander drawing out some exotic perfumes which were forgotten. The shoes were smiling happily to be in gentle touch with the shoe shiner to compliment the dress code that I ordered for myself reminding myself of etiquette's as the person in command of the flight to Delhi is my son!

The Boarding pass was awaiting my arrival at the airport and there was absolute thrill in my mind that I was going to travel all the way to Delhi with my son in Command! I was thrilled like a kid to See various gadgets inside the cock-pit which reminded me of my Audio mixing console, I had in my Audio/video recording facility a few years back. The technique of Fly by wire was detailed to me by the co-pilot and I managed to absorb something like a capsule!

The controls of the mighty Jet was in a Joy-stick and the entire flight path and route were controlled by the computer on board!

The instructions to fasten seat belts and other formalities were announced. Goose bumps prevailed all over my body when the lady announced my son's name as Commander of the aircraft and I felt that was the greatest moment any father could have to realise that his name also flied high along with his son's! The hospitality during the flight was extra-ordinary and the food served was one up in taste coupled with my happiness! Truly, I am a proud father and my son has enhanced my name to fly farther up! May god bless the child and the airlines that he is working for.

Americans are unique in the way they do?

Osama Bin Laden, the master mind behind many terror attacks all over the world was killed in an encounter by  the elite U S Navy Seals who finished their assigned jobs in a perfect manner without causing much damage to the civilian properties and lives.  The U S did a job better than the killing by giving the body a silent deep sea burial in the North Arabian Sea without any fanfare or show.  All these things happened within a few hours without giving time for the Pakistan Establishment or the ISI even to digest and come to terms with the reality!

The Indians known for their long, wagging tongues have only reiterated their customary stand that Pakistan is a safe haven for such notorious, terrorist activities without taking any reciprocal defensive actions.  The Indian government lacks will and determination to bring to books the culprits of the 26/11 attacks or for that matter the mastermind behind the parliament attack who is captured and languishing in jail with high security.  It is quite clear from the methods adopted by the U S that culprits have to be eliminated without wasting time, precious time of the government machinery and money associated with it for the sake of giving security to the captured person!  In India, it is just the opposite!  The culprit is captured alive with injuries, given hospital treatment under heavy security cover which demands a sizable amount of national wealth to be spent, order a court trial which goes on for years and years without any results!  The confessional statement given by the accused is often retracted in the court saying it was given under police pressure just to gain time and divert the attention of the public from the ongoing issue.  In the meantime, the accused is housed in a very high security prison surrounded by a huge posse of policemen and National security guards on whom millions are spent everyday just for standing as security.  Even if the court pronounces the accused guilty and awards a death sentence, it can not be fulfilled so easily as the accused can appeal to the President for clemency and drag the proceedings easily without fear!  The President is nothing more than a rubber stamp of the ruling party which dictates the President to look the way the party looks!  In the meantime, political parties are bought by the outsiders to create road blocks in the process and to thwart any attempt to execute the death sentence.  The politicians play into the hands of vested interests and pawn the interests of the country for the sake of riches for self and family members.  There is no patriotism or National interest that prevails and the entire world knows that India is one of the most corrupt countries and the politicians more corrupt.  Anything can be done compromising country's interests by the mesmerising money trade!!  Death sentence for Afzal guru for the parliament attack and Ajmal Amir Kasab
  for the 26/11 Mumbai attack where so many persons lost their lives besides damage to properties in billions of dollars, is waiting to be executed but there is no political will to do it allowing the entire world to see how porous our political system remains and how selfish are the Indian politicians to support Terrorists and their organisations at the cost of our own country?

I would suggest that India can hire  the U S Navy Seals  to hunt the most wanted men by India and pay them the requisite money as they have been doing all these years for launching satellites for various facilities.  India does not have the guts or the dedicated, patriotic soldiers  to hunt down the enemies on its own and there is nothing wrong to seek foreign help to eliminate such criminals by paying money!  In other terms U S A can extort money in an official way along with the sale of Defence Equipments from India,  as  the underworld does in India!   There are several ways of improving the U S Economy and this can also be considered as one!!??  Is the U S listening??  After all, elimination of wanted Terrorists can also be considered as an indirect Defence Deal!!!

Delhi Development Authority- unfriendly officers and Executives

I thought of sharing with my friends and all those concerned about my personal experience with the DDA, New Delhi.

I had booked an MIG flat with the DDA in response to their advertisement in the year 1979.  In the year 2000, I came to know that my allotment had matured but I got no information about that? The DDA did not inform me of my allotment and numerous letters and legal notices sent to them were of little use or no use as I failed to elicit response from them.  I suspected something fishy in the whole affair and decided to go personally all the way to Delhi to meet the concerned officials and to get first hand information.  On reaching the Capital, I just could not break the barrier beyond the front reception and sent back on one pretext or the other!  I was determined to meet the top officials of the DDA and bring to their attention my plight.

I had known one Dr S Narayanan, IAS who was the Revenue secretary in South Block.  I fixed up a meeting with him and he was kind enough to call up the Vice-Chairman of the DDA Mr P K  Hota who asked me to meet him personally the same day within the next one hour.  My happiness knew no bounds as I thought I will be allotted the flat immediately upon meeting the Vice-Chairman who happened to be the top most executive in the DDA.

In the next hour, I was in the office of Mr Hota, Vice Chairman of the DDA in Vikas Sadan, I N A; New Delhi.  Mr Hota was very kind and ordered a cup of tea for me and heard my full story and sympathised with me finding fault with the DDA for not informing me correctly about the allotment.  He called his Deputy who was the commissioner, Housing with the DDA and introduced me as having referred by the cabinet Secretary and that my job should be attended on top priority basis. Mr Hota smiled at me and asked me to follow the gentleman  to his chamber in one floor below the Vice-chairman's office.  He made me comfortable and asked me if I would like to have a cup of coffee or tea to which I said and thanked him.  He summoned his Deputy Commissioner, Housing and told him my case and added that the Vice Chairman had referred me to him and that the job needed high priority.  The Dy. Commr smiled and asked me to follow him to his chamber in a floor one level below.  He was polite in offering me a glass of cold water and summoned his Asst Commr  who asked me to follow him to his room in a floor below.  In the meantime, it was lunch time and everyone vanished to fill their belly and I was left alone looking at the ceiling and walls of the Asst Commissioner's office.  Soon after lunch, the Asst Commr appeared on the scene and called his officer to help me find my file in the office so that he can put up a note and send it right to the Vice Chairman through proper channels.  The officer requested me to follow him to his room which was one floor below and it was a big hall where several officers and assistants were present doing nothing but smoking Beedi.  The entire hall was smelling of Beedi and was nauseating.  The officer called his office Peon(office boy) to locate my file which had an unique registration number.  An hour passed and the peon came back saying that the file was not to be found.  The officer exclaimed and asked me if I would go with the office boy to the store room and help him search my file and bring it to him, once located?  I was  disgusted to find myself falling in heights from the 7th floor of the chairman right on to the ground floor where I was searching for my own file along with a Haryanvi smoking Beedi and talking about the behaviour of the officers towards the lower ranking persons etc.... If only I had greased the palms of the peon with a couple of hundreds, may be the file would have emerged out of somewhere?   I had been sent from the prestigious and powerful North Block by none less than a cabinet secretary to talk straight to the Vice-Chairman,  I thought my files would be resting on the table of Mr P K Hota for clearance and allotment of a flat!  What a sad state of affairs?  The file was missing and so were the officers in ranks right up to the Dy. Commissioner.  I decided to meet the Vice Chairman Mr Prasanna Kumar Hota , once again to vent my feelings.  I went up to his office and narrated the entire episode which he heard patiently and asked me if I would like to have a cup of tea?   Tea was a commodity which was in abundance in the premises of DDA along with Beedi for those who liked to smoke that leaf!! When I asked him as to what I should tell Dr Narayanan, the Revenue Secretary, he simply told me to tell him that the officers of the DDA were useless and worthless!!  I was shocked to get a reply of this sort from an I A S officer who later on became the Health Secretary to Mr Anbu Mani Ramadoss!!  I realised that it was a futile effort and worthless as Dr Narayanan also threw up his hands in despair and asked me not to bring this subject to him in future as well!

I decided to take on DDADDA.  I owe my thanks to the powerful RTI act, 2005.
Lokpal Bill, if introduced will also be a powerful tool to pin down the corrupt politicians and babus working for the government.   Long live People's movement.. Long live Anna Hazare!!!!

Chalo Dilli- an incredile film with a message!

This film Chalo Dilli drew my attention and attracted me as I also hail from Delhi!  I got what I wanted from the film- the Delhi style of behaviour, functioning, and take it easy policy, well enacted by Vinay Pathak and wonderfully supported by Lara Dutta who had the opportunity to show her acting skills.  The general behaviour of the Delhi men is reflected nicely in this movie with Pathak chewing Paan Masala all the time and looking for place to spit the same anywhere and everywhere!  This is one aspect which can be found in the capital region at any given point of time!  Sometimes, when you visit public places, you wonder if the staircases are painted in Red?  Such is the magical influence of Paan and Paan masala in the capital and further up north!  The Delhi wallahs have to be appreciated in one way that they tend to take anything and everything easy which enables them to tackle any problems in their day to day life!  "Le, phir ki Hoya" in Punjabi and "kaun si badi baat hai" in Hindi are the two sides of a coin which keeps the people get going and tiding over their problems!  The recent conduct of the Commonwealth Games in the Capital is one classic example of  how Delhites camouflage uncompleted projects to present a picture perfect view to the foreigners and the visitors from other countries.  Such is the quality of public relations strategies that are used by the Delhiwallahs to face situation of any sort and to befriend even the enemies for a specified time after which they can get out unscathed!
In their effort to reach Delhi from Jaipur as quickly as possible, both Lara and Phatak make several goof-ups to be circling around Jaipur!  The behaviour of the Taxi driver who doses off while driving and says that he has not slept for 72 hours in something to be believed.  Of late, it has become a habit amongst the Taxi drivers to say that they have not slept since the past 72 hours even in Chennai, when you engage them for going out of the city.  Probably, the drivers want you to pamper them with tips and dinners and could be a ploy too?
The typical "Red Tomato Palace" like hotels are in countless numbers all over the North and is well pictured in the movie.  The local "Dadas" picking up fights between rivals and the sounds of gun shots are something which is very familiar to people in the Northern States!  You can see local self acclaimed leaders with followers carrying double barrel guns and pistols and terrorise people just to pamper their ego and wishes of being a leader!  I must share my experience of working in Ludhiana, Punjab in the late 70s.  Quite often, I used to hear gun shots in the evening only to learn from the next morning Newspapers about a gang war which consumed some lives!!  The basic underlying current in this is that 90% of men in State consume alcohol in the evening and with guns on their shoulders and some so called "Chamchas" following them blindly, these people will pick up quarrels or fights on one pretext or the other resulting in gun shots being fired and Death!
The film maker has presented the quality of socio-cultural fabric of these states through which the couple Lara and Phatak travel in their urge to get back to Delhi.
The film maker has praised the atttitude of the people living in North and particularly in Delhi when he shows the wife of Phatak totally in a vegetable state in Coma!  Tears roll down when Pathak explains the background of her illness and the way he speaks to her without her giving any response!  He is confident as any Delhiite that she will be totally cured and recover from her illness one day to talk to him and oozes out the rays of hopes embedded in his character!  The acting skills of Phatak comes alive in these scenes and gently reminds the audience of the legendary great Raj Kapoor who had this capability of drawing sympathy from the audience by his expressions and dialogue delivery that even tears shed tears!!  Phatak is a talented actor and has won the hearts of millions of film-goers!  The film is a wonderful entertainment that has come to be amidst the challenges thrown by the World cup cricket fever followed by IPL which has eaten 1/3rd of the tinsel world's life!!  The Express Avenue Mall where the picture is screened has power crisis which forced the audience to sit and sweat it out for more than 2 hours but then at the end, one could hear people saying "Kaun si Badi Baat hai"?
Chalo dilli depicts a way of life that has to be followed in this otherwise difficult state of living in India!!

Unscrupulous Politicians of Tamilnadu

The Living God Satya Sri Sai Baba attained Moksha on the 24th April, 2011 at Puttaparuthi, Andhra Pradesh sending millions of his devotees and followers into grief and sadness.  People are flocking to the small town to have one last glimpse of the great person who was born a human being and transformed into a holy God to give peace, solace and happiness to millions of his ardent devotees.  He had so much power in his gentle touch that he could heal people from chronic diseases and relieve them of pain and agony.  The entire humanity loved him as he was a medium of love and its spread.  Sai Baba preached one religion with a message of love and be loved.  There are quite many Educational and medical  institutions founded by satya sai  foundation serving the people for a social cause.

While the morning Newspapers were carrying messages of sympathy and sorrow, I was intrigued to read a statement from the state Minister  Durai Murugan saying  that it was satya Sai baba who expressed his desire to meet Karunanidhi  and accordingly he set up a meeting at Karunanidhi's house.  The most frustrating statement was when he said that Baba desired to walk in the hall where Karunanidhi walked indirectly sending a message that Baba wanted to follow the footsteps of Karunanidhi!  This sounds ridiculous and hurts the sentiments and feelings of millions of Sai devotees all over.  Karunanidhi further said that he is an atheist but got along well with Satya Sai baba.  In fact, everyone knew that the visit of Baba to Gopalapuram was on the insistence of the entire family of Karunanaidhi  and Baba only did an act of blessing to step in to the house of Karunanidhi.  The contribution of Rs 200 crores of money to the Government of Tamilnadu to bring Krishna Water into the city does not find any thankful acknowledgement from either the minister or the chief minister.
The followers and devotees of sai baba are in deep pain and anguish to watch the DMK leaders converting this sad moment of grief to suit their needs and to spread a feeling amongst the masses that Sai Baba endorsed Karunanidhi and his doings?  This is more serious specially in the wake of the huge 2 G spectrum scam where already the ex-central telecom Minister is in jail and, Kanimozhi the daughter of the DMK patriarch Karunanidhi is also charge sheeted by the CBI today!

My  humble pranams to Sai Baba and with sincere prayers for the great soul to continue guiding us in our day to day life.
No doubts on this that the politicians are unscrupulous, anywhere and at any time!! Sai Baba must be thinking as to why did he visit the politician's house despite resentment from all his devotees at that point of time?

finance companies going public!!!

Muthoot finance company is going public to raise about Rs 950 crores from Public- News!

You switch on the TV and suddenly you find heaps of advertisements coming all over the channels certifying the accomplishments of this finance company by popular film stars and others who vouch for this finance company!  You understand that all these advertisements are prelude to the oncoming public issue to raise funds from the market for which some kind of impression has to be painted.  These advertisements vanish like a thin layer of smoke once the public issue is fully subscribed by the public and some over enthusiastic underwriters!!
These finance companies like Muthoot's and Manappuram gold were classified as Blade Companies meaning to suck blood out of the borrowers quite a few years back.  The Reserve Bank of India had complete control over these non-banking finance companies and never allowed them to go beyond a limit.  The public also understood the steep rate of interest that these companies charged and never patronised them unless there was an acute emergency!  These companies were originally chit funds with clientele from the middle class who used to be content with the dividend that these chits used to give them every month on the draw.

Suddenly, I fail to understand how these companies have grown so much in size to warrant public issues. This could be because of slackness exhibited by the scheduled commercial banks who have allowed these companies to grow due change in priorities as a nationalised bank never wanted a middle class man to come to them with jewels for a loan!!  The Reserve Bank of India being the central Bank of the Indian Finance system should certify these public issues so that innocent people are not taken for a ride seeing all those glitters about the company which will be short lived.  There are hundreds of such public limited companies who have vanished overnight after appropriating and swindling public money for which recourse is unknown?

I appeal to all the investors to be alert in such investments and keep away from all those attractive advertisements  as money once invested will be gone for ever unless you know the tricks of the trade and the right time to exit the holdings in such companies.