I had ended my last Post with an apology for “sounding off” on the subject of the Air-India CMD.  

Unfortunately, he has once again put his foot in his mouth and taken unjustified credit.  In an interview with Jyotsna Sharma of Business World, Mr. Lohani stated:

“The biggest high was posting operational profits for two years running, in 2015-16 and 2016-17 and this happened after a gap of 10 years. We proved to the world that left to us we can run this airline as well as anyone else.” 

Air-India’s operating profits in those two years were an illusion and speaking bluntly, the books were “cooked”. Not only did Air India fail to pay arrears to the staff, but also held back invoices from oil companies, AAI and vendors. Just visualize a scenario of these bills and arrears having been paid on time and Air India as a consequence having had to borrow an equivalent amount from banks to manage its operations. Would the interest payable on this borrowed amounts been less than the claimed operational profit? AI, as per media reports still owes massive amounts, in the region of over Rs 10,000 crore, to airports, Oil companies, employees and vendors.

As if taking this unjustified credit was not enough, Mr. Lohani has the audacity - yes, the audacity to run down Jet Airways by saying “It (Air India) is a fully functional airline that operates over 450 flights every day. It is definitely not Jet Airways, which suddenly disappeared.”

I hold no brief for Naresh Goyal, but it is ludicrous to compare the two airlines.  Air-India has existed during the last decade entirely due to the subsidies and handouts from the Government.  Had these not existed, the airline would have also “suddenly disappeared”.  Jet received no such largesse.

I can only console myself by the news released today that Mr. Lohani has gone and that AI has a new CMD.  The sycophant, boot licker “headless run-around chicken” has finally left.  I am sure he is hoping to be awarded the Padma Bhushan or similar award for his service to the P.M.  This would be similar to the Congressional Medal of Honor awarded by Donald Trump to Rush Limbaugh who is a divisive racist and another of the U.S. President’s boot lickers.

Let me switch now to a more interesting topic.  Manju and I were members of Team Devonshire which joined a large group of volunteers to pack 75,000 meals for the school children of Haiti.  In the one hour alloted to us, Team Devonshire packed 1,296 meals.  This is the second time that we had participated in such a venture and we are indeed proud to be part of the Team.

While we were awaiting our turn, I overheard a very familiar language being spoken.  I saw two ladies in white clothes and was delighted to learn that they were speaking in Urdu and were part of another Team comprising women and children of Pakistani origin.  Interestingly, two of them were born in the same town as Manju - Faisalabad, which is the new name for Lyallpur.

It is now over 2 and 1/2 years since we moved to Devonshire.  Ed and June Macedo joined us at Devonshire a year and 6 months ago. And, next week another couple of Indian origin is moving here.  They are also Punjabis - Ravi and Neera Seth, both retired Doctors and so, we appear to have started a movement.  

The similarity of our surnames is bound to cause confusion.  As a matter of fact, their laundry (bed sheets and quilts) were delivered to our apartment by mistake yesterday.

When we came to Devonshire, there was no vegetarian dish among the entrees in any of the 5 restaurants.  Today, 3 restaurants have one for more vegetarian entrees and on occasion, we have chicken curry and fish curry as a “Special”.

Manju and I were invited to meet the Culinary team this afternoon and I am glad to say that future menus will include two or more International Specials once a week.  The Internationals will be seven types of cuisines, including Thai, Chinese, Turkish, Greek and Indian.

We certainly have made an impact in Devonshire.

The only fly in the ointment has been my health.  Apart from being hospitalized twice in 2019, I have last week undergone hernia surgery.  This was due to a reoccurrence of hernia in my right side which was operated upon by Dr. Arther D’Sa , Bombay’s premier surgeon at St. Elizabeths’ Nursing Home in 1970 - exactly 50 years ago.

I am recovering, albeit slowly.  I haven’t played Croquet of Golf for the past two months but do hope to get back shortly, once I get the free signal from my Doctors. Incidentally, Ravi and Neera Seth both play golf and will be joining the men’s and ladies golf groups once they settle down.

In closing may I offer my condolences to the families of Somu Mukherjee and Dennis Daniel, two of Air-India’s stalwarts who recently passed away.  Another two sad occasions for us.

So, till next time and this time, with a hope that I will have only pleasant things to speak about - au revoir.