Monday, August 17, 2009

Mr. Shashi Tharoor and his BlackBerry

Just read a news item that Mr. Shashi Tharoor, Minister of State in the Indian External Affairs Ministry, was using his BlackBerry inside the aircraft just before the Mumbai Cochin flight about to take off. The air hostess told him to switch it off. He then switched it off. However, while the plane was ascending, other passengers heard his phone ring many times.

When Mumbai Mirror asked him about this, he gave the following reply:

“That is completely false. I was reading emails on my Blackberry, not speaking to anyone. In fact, the phone function was off. When the air hostess asked me to turn it off I did so promptly, as I always do when the plane doors are closed. The phone never rang. I am astonished at the stories people like to tell just to see themselves in the press!”

Mr. Tharoor, even reading email is a no no. Cell phone must be completely switched off. You should know better.

Mr. Tharoor is not some uneducated thug (criminal) who became a Member of Parliament and then a Minister of State. He is highly educated. He worked at the United Nations for a long time. He was Under Secretary General for the UN. He even contested for the post of UN Secretary General and lost. He was elected as an MP from Thiruvananthapuram. Therefore, he should have known better.

But the association with the Indian politicians apparently changed him. Indian politicians think they are above all rules. Why single out politicians? Even movie actors and actresses and sports personalities can be included in this category. We have heard stories about how commercial planes were kept waiting for late arriving VIPs in India. Being a VIP, they may disregard many rules. But when certain acts endanger the lives of many people, even VIPs should obey them. I bet Mr. Tharoor will not have the guts to use his cell phone in an American commercial flight.

Why they don’t allow use of cell phones while in the air? They interfere with the plane’s communication and navigation system. This could cause confusion for the pilot and may lead to disaster.

Additionally, because the calls are made from a very high elevation, the cell phones may be connecting too many towers simultaneously. Cell phones are designed to automatically detect which is receiving the strongest signal and ignore other towers. If many airborne passengers flying over a city use their phones and each of them connect to dozens of towers, the computers controlling the system would be overwhelmed and nobody will be able to talk.

Again, Mr. Tharoor may be telling the truth. And, the newspaper reports are wrong.

While on the subject of cell phone, I want to give an interesting information. In 1981, a world famous consulting company predicted that in the year 2000 only 500,000 people will be using cell phones in the WORLD. Today, in Mumbai city alone more than 500,000 people are using cell phone.

You want to guess how many cell phones are in use in the world today. I don’t know. But in 2005, there were 2 billion cell phone users. In the year 2008 alone, 950 million cell phones were sold in the world.

27 comments:

  1. well cellphones have become a part of our communication in this busy world .Anyway it was a nice piece of information

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  2. Thanks for your comments Shilpa. Yes, cellphones have become part of our communications. However, if it endangers the passengers, no one should be using while airborne.

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  3. SG, we are way too helpless without cell phones...it is a horrible addiction..which is not good u know..

    on a lighter note, I bet he was checking a mail from his wife..u knw how it is na, biwi ke mail ka reply immediately nai kiya to kya hoga?? :))

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  4. Talk about 'getting influenced'. Maybe as you said Mr Tharoor is under Indian politician's influences.

    And yeah movie stars, politicians all these think they are above law. Read about SRK of late? He was detained at Newark Airport. Whole of India(read Indian Media) made a hue and cry.

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  5. Thanks for your comments Neha. I appreciate it. I do not know Hindi. But I can understand what you are saying. However, he divorced his wife, Journalist Tilottama Tharoor. May be his current wife Christa Giles was emailing him.

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  6. Thanks for your comments Insignia. SRK may be a well known personality in India. But, to an oridnary immigration inspector at the Newark Airport, here is a passenger and his name is S R Khan and this name is on the "most wanted list". What should he do?

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  7. Great post SG!Congrats! There are approximately 4.1 Billion mobile phone users worldwide today.Looks like 60% of the world’s population have access to mobile phones.Refer-
    http://telecompk.net/2009/03/03/41-billion-mobile-phone-subscribers-worldwide/
    And I think it's not the question of being a top honcho in the Parliament or a superstar, under the law we are all the same. As responsible citizens of any country we must follow the rules and laws of the land. It's as simple as that.
    Very informative post! You send the mind-bugs running..hehe!

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  8. Well i dont think Mr. Tharoor must have done this..as he's really a man of integrity. Well it can also be that his blackberry was on flight mode so u can use your phones that time too....

    Well politicians yes do consider themselves too big most of then not all...n i think even media is corrupt here ....so both go hand in hand!!!

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  9. This could have been blown out of proportion, and maybe he was doing it, but bigger crimes are being done..so the media should focus on that. I have immense respect for Mr Tharoor.

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  10. Thanks for your comments Varsha. As you said, everyone must follow the rules and obey the law.

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  11. Thanks for your comments Nazish. I gave the benefit of doubt to Mr. Tharoor by writing "he may be telling the truth and the newspapers are wrong".

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  12. Thanks for your comments Sujata. And, welcome to my blog. I respect your views. I think endangering the lives of other people is a bigger crime. If someone is using cellphone while airborne, I would be afraid to fly in that plane.

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  13. Hey, thanks so much for your visit to my blog & your kind words are much appreciated!

    No matter what the truth of this story, cell phones are a no-no on aircrafts!

    Thanks for the good reporting on this!

    Margie:)

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  14. Thanks for your comments Margie. And, welcome to my blog. Cell phones are a no-no on a commercial aircraft. No matter who you are.

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  15. Thanks for dropping in m u blog...

    I like your small concern.I wish we all could gather up and fight for bigger concern.Also India and its VIP thing will take long long way..Because almost all people are considering themselves as VIP nowadays...

    A minority class have recently become superbly rich in Delhi NCR area due to selling of there land.And there VIP status is too annoying.They fight in middle of the road,use abusive language and break ques....Indian really need to do something to come out of this.

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  16. I don't think what Mr. Tharoor did was wrong.
    If you're Indian and famous...you're above the law of the comman man/woman.
    Didn't you know that by now?
    It doesn't matter if you are on a plane, in an airport, in India or outside India.
    You need to kiss my VIP rear-end at all times.

    Regards,
    Shah Rukh Khan

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  17. This is why the airline industry is in the toilet.
    Anyone should be able to use their cell phone wherever they are at.
    You're telling me that you don't have the technology to stop my cell phone from interfering with your controls. Give me a break.
    It's industries like you that are keeping me in 3rd place behind Bill and Warren.

    Regards,
    Carlos Slim

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  18. Thanks for your comments Anamika. Endangering the lives of other passengers is not a small concern. It is a big concern. It is very true about Delhi NCR. I was in Noida last year for a week.

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  19. Thanks for your comments SRK and Carlos.

    SRK, please learn from Carlos how to enter into United States. Then you don't have to worry about these types of airport hassels.

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  20. Very informative blog. Those who think that this is no big deal or this is only a small concern may not have set foot inside a plane. They have no idea how using cell phone will create lot of problems inside the cockpit that may result in the plane crashing with all the passengers.

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  21. I had great respect for Shashi Tharoor. He had held very important posts and well educated, still behaving like an uneducated politician, unbelievable. I used to read his articles in the Sunday edition of Indian Express and liked them a lot.

    Hmm, in the end, all politicians are the same.

    Thanks for the interesting information about why cell phones should not be used while the place takes off. I just knew that it interferes with the radar usage, but did not know so much information about it.

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  22. Thanks for your comments Vivek. And, welcome back after a long time. Don't be shy. Please be frank.

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  23. Thanks for your comments Sandhya. I value your opinion.

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  24. I have immense respect for Shashi Tharoor and I really do not believe that he would intentionally put the lives of passengers in danger. I would give him the benefit of doubt.

    I have seen many car drivers speaking on the phone while driving. Though there is a law against it, nobody seems to be listening.

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  25. Thanks for your comments Aparna. Using cell phones while driving is also dangerous.

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  26. I don't know the details of this situation and if he was using his cell phone after being told not to, that is clearly not appropriate. I've read some of his writings and respect his views and don't believe he is in the same class of many of the power hungry, corrupt politicians-- from what I've seen, I don't think that's what he's like.

    As far as his use of Twitter, there has been some controversy about his use of Twitter as a politician. I follow him on Twitter and find it very enlightening to read his comments and get a glimpse into his life and thinking in this present day. I hope he continues the Twittering, just not on airplanes :)

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  27. Thanks for your comments Apurva. That is why I gave him the benefit of doubt by writing he may be telling the truth.

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