3 Out Of Top 5 Is Not Bad

Whenever a non resident Indian or a person of Indian origin becomes famous, we all celebrate his/her achievements. Indian media go overboard and start interviewing any one remotely connected with that person. There will be a huge celebration in the town/village that person was born. If that person was never born in India, there will be a huge celebration in the town/village where his/her ancestors lived.

I am tired of the whole thing. We should celebrate our own achievements. I was browsing through the web and this news caught my attention.

According to Yahoo Travel, the following airports were selected in this year’s list. The top 5 are ranked as follows:

1. Indira Gandhi International Airport (Delhi, India)
2. Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (Mumbai, India)
3. Istanbul Ataturk International Airport (Turkey)
4. Anna International Airport (Chennai, India)
5. LA-Ontario International Airport (USA)

These are the top 5 “Most Delayed” airports in the world. And, three airports from India are included.

A flight is considered "on time" if it arrives or departs less than 15 minutes after its scheduled landing or take-off time. At the Indira Gandhi International Airport, only 45 percent of the flights arrive on time. The article relied on FlightStats, a service that tracks historical and real-time flight information around the globe.

We should either be famous or notorious. 3 spots in the top-5 in any category calls for a big celebration. The following are some suggestions:

A three day holiday should be declared by the Delhi, Maharashtra, and Tamilnadu Governments. Set off firecrackers in the middle of the runways at these 3 airports. The Director General of Civil Aviation be awarded the Padma Vibushan. We should resolve that we sweep all the top 5 spots in the next year’s list. The Government should announce extra bonus for the employees involved to make this happen.

Airlines should do their part also. They should tell the truth to the passengers why the plane is being delayed. For example: “We apologize for the delay. Unfortunately, the machine that rips the handles of your bags is not working properly and our employees are doing it by hand”.

Delay due to pilot shortage? Delay due to staff shortage? Delay due to not loading the luggage on time? Or any other reason? Please announce the only truth, which is “delay due to weather conditions”. When you call it a weather delay, you are off the hook. No passenger will complain.

Another way we can sweep the top 5 in this category is never listen to the passengers. Look at surveys. Fill the planes through computers. Measure success totally on the basis of load factors and revenue per passenger mile.

On the flip side, Osaka’s Itami Airport arrived and departed on time 94 percent of the time in 2009. Seoul’s Gimpo International Airport had 91 percent on time arrival and 93 percent on time departure.

We read the following incident in “dumb.com”. We both laughed and laughed and laughed. I want to share that with you.

“During the "rush hour" at Houston's Hobby Airport, a flight was delayed due to a mechanical problem.

Since they needed the gate for another flight, the aircraft was backed away from the gate while the maintenance crew worked on it. The passengers were then told the new gate number, which was some distance away. Everyone moved to the new gate, only to find a third gate had been designated for them.

After some further shuffling, everyone got on board, and as they were settling in, the flight attendant made the standard announcement, "We apologize for the inconvenience of this last-minute gate change. This flight is going to Washington, D.C. If your destination is not Washington, D.C., then you should 'deplane' at this time."

A very confused-looking and red-faced pilot emerged from the cockpit, carrying his bags. "Sorry," he said, “wrong plane." He then deplaned.

Neologist

Neologist is a person who creates new word. We are all neologists. May be accidental neologists. We always add suffixes like ism to someone’s name and become neologists.

New words need not be public and/or popular. We create new words at home, at work place, and among our friends. It includes all the languages in the world. All babies are natural born neologists. When we talk to babies, new words known only to them come out constantly. And, we love them and those words stay permanently. A child we know called “medicine” as “badhadha”. That child has grown up now. Even today, within his family, “badhadha” means “medicine”.

See how many neologists among us bloggers! Look at their blog names. I would even consider extension of a name is also coming under neologism. Guria is a neologist for coming up with the name Nehatrix Blogstrange. I am also a neologist for coming up with the name Insigniacharya.

I am in favor of neology. It is one of the ways vocabulary in a language will grow. Even adopting a foreign word is also most desirable. For example, even in Tamil, a spoon is a spoon. A bus is a bus (and very rarely people call it “peyrundhu”).

This is very much true for technical and scientific words. We should adopt them into our language as it is and not try to translate. When someone said “madi kanini”, it took me several days and several inquiries to find out it is the Tamil translation for “laptop”.

If an individual uses a new word and it is adopted by several people, it will be included in the dictionary. Rachael Ray (famous chef) coined the phrase EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil) and it has been included in the dictionary now.

U.S. Presidents are famous for being neologists. Jefferson is known for creating the words “lengthily” and “belittle”. Theodore Roosevelt is known for “lunatic fringe”. And, our own George W. Bush created “misunderestimate” and “embetterment”. Even former U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle is a sort of neologist. When he was visiting a sixth grade class, he asked a student to spell "potato". The student spelled it correctly. But the Vice President insisted on adding an "e" at the end (potatoe).

Are you a neologist? Then say something. Do you have any words that are popularly used within your family or friends circle? Please share with us.

Awesome Music Video (and an award)

There is a band group named OK Go. They are more known for their videos than their music. When you see any of their music video, you will certainly nod your head in astonishment. Your reaction will be: Wow.

Recently they have released a music video titled “This Too Shall Pass”. They used a complex Rube Goldberg machine that sparks chain reactions. Please view and listen here:



(A Rube Goldberg machine is designed deliberately to perform a very simple task in a very complex fashion. I am remembering a Tamil saying here. Mookkai nera thodaradhukku padhila, thalaya suthi thottanaam. (Instead of touching the nose straight, a guy took his hand around his head and touched the nose.)

The band members said they tried 60 times in 2 days to shoot the entire video in a single-shot. But succeeded only 3 times.

Creativity is missing in today’s musical world. Congratulations to these guys. What do you think of this music video?
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And now, the award ceremony.

Anyone who has visited Gautam’s blog would have noticed on the right side a caption “My Photos in Picasa”. If you had seen those pictures, you would know that he is a very talented photographer. Insignia also wrote a post about his pictures on his birthday. I wanted to recognize Gautam’s talents. So, I proudly present this award to Gautam.

Gautam