Bicycle Rickshaw: Symbols of Poverty or future?

I had been to NCR region few times. Earlier (Before joining the current company) I used to be on a Sales/consulting assignment which was 1-2 days. I didn’t had too much of chance to explore NCR region. I preferred staying in Delhi and travel to Noida or Gurgaon. This time I had a chance to stay in Noida for about a week.

Hmmm … the first thing I could notice was bicycle rickshaws and shared autos. There is no proper means of public transport in this region. People here, rely heavily on bicycle rickshaws. Now I am on dual thoughts, if rickshaws run on Indian roads outsiders or even Indians think it is symbol of poverty, bad governance, under development and things like that. But if rickshaws run in developed nations, we think it’s a future, an act of responsible citizens doing their bit to the nature.
Pls comment, I don’t know… if bicycle rickshaws should be forced to go off streets as they cause nuisance on roads as rickshaw wallah’s have very bad road sense or should be allowed to run on roads as they are environment friendly…

My first experience with new Bengaluru Airport

I was supposed to go to Noida on official visit and hence need to fly to Delhi. I was little excited about the new Bengaluru Airport, as I have heard enough of it, both good and bad.

As told in my earlier blog (To Airport via Vayu Vajra), I took Vayu Vajra (BMTC’s Volvo bus service to airport). When the bus took diversion towards the new airport from NH-7, I was waiting to catch a glimpse of the airport. First came gigantic Indian Oil aviation fuel tanks and then followed catering and cargo buildings. The bus had a separate parking area which is about 100mts from the airport entrance. The first thing that made me WOW was the ample parking space. I started comparing everything in new airport with the old airport.

I went 90 minutes early, as Air-India people instructed. I grabbed something to eat. I had couple of samosas and coke. Outside the departure area, there is very wide open space with heavy breeze hitting people around. I think authorities would have made some arrangements to cover the breeze. Now that I had outside glimpse of the airport and thought I would get into the airport.

The line wasn’t so long as compared to the old airport and had multiple departure gates. As I entered the airport, I could see few nice ads including Satyam’s. I went to Air-India counter and took the boarding pass and dumped my bag. Now that I had nothing to carry, I started looking one end to other end of the airport. It had everything snack, bar, restaurant, shopping outlets (with all international brands). It was overall good experience. I have only one thing to complain about, the LCD’s displayed to show the flight schedule is very small in dimensions. If somebody wants to look at the flight schedule, he/she needs to go too close to look at it. Otherwise the new airport is beyond doubt, is an international standard. My overall experience is "WOW".