Changing relationships over time?

Since the start of the human civilization, humans have been social animals and love to be in groups and lived as groups, possibly this is the behavior we all got from our ancestor the Apes.

As humans started to grow their own food and domesticate animals, they wanted support and help from each other. The families were large and they all lived together under the same roof.

I definitely did not want to sound like I am taking back everyone into times and giving a lecture on how humans started living and other historical events. Relationships and culture has always fascinated me and I wondered what it meant in the past and how this is changing with time.

So what is relationship? It could be just connection between two or more individuals and objects. English dictionaries have so many definitions about this word “Relationship”. I wanted to understand what human relationships meant yesterday, today and tomorrow. In this understanding I wanted to just take three key relationships, family, friends and firm or workplace. My observations, experiences and learning from the last many years is what I have tried to put in this blog.

Family –

Brother, sister, parents, grand parents, uncles, aunts and cousins form the closest network or relationship in a person’s life as he/she comes into this world. In the yester years all these relationships were under one roof as they were dependent on each other to earn, work, cook, protect and grow from generation to the other. As time passed by we started becoming nuclear and everyone moved out the unit in search of work, food and newer relationship. Today’s family mostly consists of a man, a woman and may be kids (as long as they are not ready for a boarding school or a teenager). Saying that ,I know there are a good number of families where generations stay together, but this is on a decline. Members of the family meet when there is a vacation, or someone is need. The physical distances between them have been minimized by technology like phone, skype, facebook or other social connections. Kids spend most of their time with outsiders than family members as they grow up in daycares, then boarding schools and then colleges. Similarly elderly have moved from homes to old age homes or elderly supported communities. What is likely to happen in the future is only one of the two things. People will start to get closer and dependency on one another for mental happiness will be the essence. Family may just be entities, that are connected through each other by technology and warmth, feelings, care and love will be transmitted through words and emotions.

Friends –

Friends are family that we choose. A friend is one who tells you what you truly portray as an individual and what you are not. He/she is not biased and always there for you during your thick and thin. This is how I would define a friend and what friendship to me has been.

Since times, people who assisted you, been with you, helped you beyond the family members have been regarded as extended family or friends. Even today there are places in the world where smaller colonies of people stay together where everyone knows everyone by name, and are there for one another during thick and thin.

As time moved in friends were people that one got associated at work or around ones home. As education got formalized, friends were individuals who studied with you or helped you during the time you spent at the educational institute. Colleague became friends too and soon people with you met once or may be never became the electronic form of friends, thanks to social networking options which helps you to keep in touch with them as an when needed.

So has the definition of friendship changed with time or are we in the race to just make sure we have added long list of friends to our social profiles and then call it “Networking”.

Has the essence of “Friend in need is a friend indeed” got diminished?

As I look into the future, the friend space of relationship seems be again headed towards electronic way where friends will be made based on common interests and professional growth.

Firm/Workplace –

“Work is worship” is how I was always told during my tender growing up days. I was fascinated by the fact that people spend their whole life in one firm or workplace with sincerity and integrity. At the beginning of my career, I had come across people who had generations serving and working for the same firm. As times changed and opportunities grew, people moved from one opportunity to another i.e. one firm to another. Individuals moved up on the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs chart, creating many more firms and so increasing more and more opportunities around the globe.

As I see in the future, the association between an individual and firm is likely to shorten and it will just be so much harder to contain individual’s aspirations and needs. What is to be seen is how the firms will be able to hold on to talented and much needed skilled resources? Also will machines or automated systems replace skilled human resources?

These aspects of relationships have been always been the toughest and most intricate. I am writing this blog to generate comments and thoughts from folks who have other experiences and share some of these thoughts or may be different.

How do we inculcate "The Good" from others?

It is we individuals who make up a family, an organization, a society and finally a nation. You all would imagine what I am upto now and what am I trying to convey.  Recently I had been on a trip to Singapore and there were so many things that we all can learn from that nation of 4 million people.

An island nation no more than the Los Angeles County in terms of area, can boast to be one of the most prosperous at nations of the modern times. The moment I landed at the Changi International Airport, I started to compare this fabulous airport with the ones that I have seen in the US, Dubai, Kuala Lampur etc. Unfortunately I could not compare this to any US airport.

When I reached the immigration center, it was delightful to see that place, a huge area with a giant statue. Even better, when you are greeted so politely by the immigration officer welcoming you to the country and a big smile at 3:00am in the morning. This shows how much they care for the visitors.

My week passed by with work and still I was trying to find out issues, limitations and again I was comparing it to the more developed countries of the west.

There were taxi stands along with bus stands, where people queued up to wait for their change to hop on the nicely maintained cabs. The best part, the charges were based on the meter, no tipping or any extras. The rates changes based on the time of the day, how may toll roads did your drive take and which part of the country are your heading to. Another interesting fact that I learned from my friend and folks I met, the whole country discourages on tipping which is a huge thing in the west and now catching up rapidly in India. So you pay what is billed.

Interestingly the only part of the country that was not well kept up and possibly seems chaotic was a place called “Little India”. This houses all sorts of Indian stores, eateries, not to forget the jewelry stores. People crossed the street anyplace they like, honking cars, over crowed streets, shopkeepers calling out load to pull in the customers.

This is where you can find Indian origin tourist from through the globe flocking to do their shopping and the favorite among them is “Mustafa”. This is an enormous store which practically keeps everything that one can ask for.

Thinking through the 18 hour long flight back home, I was happy to learn so much from this place, the people and the policies. Can we model these in any other developing countries, even states, even cities? Are we open to accept something good, way and means which improves everyone’s life and living standard. 

What is $11.50?

Changing economies and global currency fluctuations have made most commodities or food items dearer. There aren’t many things which we could say have become cheaper. Have we ever realized what is the value of USD 11.5 or what can we buy with this. The answer can be many a burger with a drink and fries at a burger joint, two and a half gallon of gasoline or a few gallons of milk and so on.

But now you might be thinking, why I am trying to say the obvious or something as trivial as this. Interestingly did we know that this 11.50 USD can feed a child one meal a day for a year. Yes and you heard it right.

I was fascinated how people like you and me can make such a big difference in someone’s life.  When I heard about this, I started to think what is hunger? When did I have to think about my next meal? How many kids in this world suffer from hunger? And list went on.

Here are some interesting facts that I learnt during my research around some of the questions that came to my mind

Hunger as defined by Oxford dictionary 1971 is “the uneasy or painful sensation caused by want of food; craving appetite. Also the exhausted condition caused by want of food”.

Based on Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations 2010 report

•          925 million people in this world are hungry
•          Nearly 578 millions are in Asia and Pacific area, followed by the Africa at 266 millions
•          It was interesting that 19 million people in developed nations were reported to be hungry

Would we say that this is due to any shortage of food produced in the world? The answer is no. The world produces enough food to feed everyone. The principal problem is that many people in the world do not have sufficient land to grow, or income to purchase, enough food. World Bank once estimated that there were an estimated 1.345 billion poor people in developing countries who live on USD 1.25 a day or less.

I wanted to know more about the hunger situation in India, were luckily I never realized what was hunger during my growing up days. Based on report published by the International Food Policy Research Institute, here are some key finding, which was interesting to know

• India ranks 66 out of 88 countries on the 2008 Global Hunger Index (GHI).
• Like the GHI, the 2008 India State Hunger Index (ISHI) is calculated using three equally-weighted indicators: the proportion of the population that is calorie deficient, the prevalence of underweight children under the age of five, and the under-five mortality rate.
• The ISHI calculates hunger levels for 17 major states in India, representing more than 95 percent of the population.
• India is home to the world’s largest food insecure population, with more than 200 million people who are hungry.
• When compared to countries in the GHI, Indian states’ rankings would range from 34th (Punjab) to 82nd (Madhya Pradesh). This indicates substantial variability among states.
• All Indian states have at least a “serious” level of hunger; there is not a single state with low or even moderate levels.
• Twelve states fall into the “alarming” category and one (Madhya Pradesh) is considered to have an “extremely alarming” level of hunger.
• India’s poor performance on the GHI is primarily due to its relatively high levels of child malnutrition and undernourishment resulting from calorie deficient diets.
• ISHI scores are closely aligned with poverty, but there is little association with state-level economic growth; high levels of hunger are seen even in states that are performing well economically.
• Improving child nutrition is of utmost urgency in most Indian states because of its large contribution to the ISHI scores. All states also need to improve strategies to facilitate inclusive economic growth, ensure food sufficiency, and reduce child mortality.

Interestingly there is a organization which is working on trying to help some of these millions of hungry children and at the same time providing them with education. Akshaya Patra is now serving mid day meal to almost 1.2 million children everyday. It could not be a better initiatives where young children are served food and they are expected to study. Atleast they can become better and strong individuals tomorrow.

Many of these will never then need to think about their next meal and can extend their support to one day eradicate the menace called Hunger. I support this cause and hope that many will join this movement.

More information www.foodforeducation.org

Flying birds are aging? How safe are we flying in them?

As we move to a fast tomorrow, mode of transportation is one of the biggest questions we have in our minds. How can we move faster from point A to B spending least possible and in the least possible time? Hence our answer is the aircraft – Our flying birds, which has bridged the time zone and distances making everyone’s life hassle free.

Do we ever think what it takes to maintain these giants running and flying for thousand of miles? Are these birds in pristine condition when this is still possibly the safest mode of transportation? There are so many operators and ever ones claim’s to be better than the other. Which one is better than the other?

In the last few years I have flown most of the airlines operating in the continental US for work or pleasure and wondered which airlines does really take care of its fleet? I have come across so many instances where, the aircraft has made me feel that “hope everything is fine”. I have seen minor to some not so minor cosmetic issues.

So I decided to do some research on trying to find the age of some of the major airlines operating in the US. My search was for the following

-       American Airlines

-       United Airways

-       Continental Airlines

-       Delta Airlines

-       Southwest Airlines

-       US Airways

-       Alaska Airlines

-       JetBlue

Airlines	Aircraft Type	Number in Service	Average Age (Years)
American Airlines	Boeing 737 Next Gen	243	7
	Boeing 757	124	16.7
	Boeing 767	73	18.5
	Boeing 777	47	10.4
	McDonnell Douglas MD-80/90	221	19.8
	TOTAL	708	14.1
United Airlines	Airbus A319	55	11.3
	Airbus A320	97	13
	Boeing 737	8	15.4
	Boeing 737 Next Gen	47	6
	Boeing 747	24	16
	Boeing 757	134	17.4
	Boeing 767	38	15.4
	Boeing 777	62	12.3
	TOTAL	465	13.7
Continental Airlines	Boeing 737	20	15.3
	Boeing 737 Next Gen	258	9.7
	Boeing 757	25	10.8
	Boeing 767	23	9.8
	Boeing 777	12	9.8
	TOTAL	338	10.1
Delta Airlines	Airbus A319	57	9.2
	Airbus A320	69	16.1
	Airbus A330	32	5.8
	Boeing 737 Next Gen	109	8.9
	Boeing 747	16	17.6
	Boeing 757	186	17.4
	Boeing 767	93	14.8
	Boeing 777	18	6.2
	McDonnell Douglas MD-80/90	149	19.5
	TOTAL	729	14.7
Southwest	Boeing 737	197	19.6
	Boeing 737 Next Gen	493	12.2
	TOTAL	690	14.3
US Airways	Airbus A319	93	10.6
	Airbus A320	72	12.3
	Airbus A321	51	6.3
	Airbus A330	16	6.7
	Boeing 737	59	21.8
	Boeing 757	24	17.8
	Boeing 767	10	21.8
	Embraer 190/195	15	3.6
	TOTAL	340	12.6
Alaska Airlines	Boeing 737	30	15.8
	Boeing 737 Next Gen	105	6.3
	TOTAL	135	8.4
JetBlue	Airbus A320	118	6.4
	Embraer 190/195	46	3.8
	TOTAL	164	5.7

There is an effort across the board where the airlines are trying to replace the old birds with the newer models, however the newer airlines certainly have a modern fleet and top of the line navigation devices.

However based on the type of birds which you are flying in is what could potentially tell what you can expect.

My experience with JetBlue and Continental has been mostly great with very little complaints mainly from the aircraft maintenance point of view.

When I wanted to compare the above analysis with some other international airlines, here is what I could find

Airlines	Average Age (Years)
Air India	9.8
British Airways	12.2
Lufthansa	13.2
Swiss	13.3
Emirates	6.6
Air France	9.2
Qantas	11.7
Japan Airlines	10.6
KLM	10.3
Air Canada	10.9
Singapore Airlines	6.9

During this analysis, I wanted to see which are the oldest serving birds and who is operating them

Airlines	Aircraft Type	Age (Years)
Mahan Air (Iran)	A300	33.2
Aerounion (Mexico)	A300	32.1
Air France	A320	22.2
Air India	A320	22.1
Virgin Atlantic	A340	19.3
Top Fly (Spain)	ATR 42/72	26
Airphil Express (Philippines)	Boeing – 737	42.4
Pace Airlines (USA)	Boeing – 737	41.6
Kabo Air (Nigeria)	Boeing – 747	40.2
EAT Leipzig (Germany)	Boeing – 757	28.5
Delta Airlines	Boeing – 757	26.8

With air traffic increasing day by day are the skies not getting clogged with some of these ailing birds which needs to be grounded and reduce potential accidents caused due to metal fatigue and old wiring systems.

Under current economic situations, the airlines are unable to replace older aircrafts with new ones, however it is important to pass all these aircrafts under strict safety checks to prevent any issues that can mean severe loss to life.