Indi(an)gnity of Labour

Mumbai Airport, Jan 21st, 1:30 PM. I was waiting for my domestic connection, and having travelled “cattle class” (is it politically incorrect for everyone or just ministers?) the previous night, was trying to position myself on the uncomfortable steel chair in a way that increased the probability of a nap and minimized the chances of my snores inducing a sonic boom. And there I saw him. All six feet 3 inches (don’t ask me how I know such details, not important in the present context) of him in that crisp white and blue uniform, aviator glasses and pilot written all over his gait.

It is this imagery more than anything else that inspires hundreds of young men, and increasing women, to spend millions in order to get their PPLs and CPLs. He walked as if he owned the airport, and maybe he did. Because right behind him walked a diminutive young man, in an airline attendant’s uniform, carrying, or rather pulling Mr Pilot’s Flight Case. And clarification, I am not talking of Mr Pilot the politician. Politicians in India, especially the born leader variety, have a right to have people carry their bags, shoes and more important their incompetence and lack of accountability on their shoulders without complaining. But here the person in question is the flying variety.

For those uninitiated in things aviation, a flight case is this leather bag that Pilots or sometimes Medical representatives, just kidding, carry. In airports around the world, if there is one thing that creates Pilot solidarity, its their Flight Case. That square leather boxy bag, the more worn out the better. No self respecting pilot, even if he is flying Aeroflot or its Indian avatar Air India, will be seen anywhere in the vicinity of an airport without their Flight Cases (I once made the mistake of comparing a Flight Case to a Ladies Purse. Still trying to figure out who got offended more, the Pilot or the lady).

So here is a strapping young man, having his bag carried by someone else. What’s wrong in that you might ask. Happens everywhere in India. Many CXOs have their laptops carried by assistants. Don’t we have maids or servants doing our chores? And the other argument is, in a country of a billion plus people, this is another way of employment generation.

Now hold your thought there. If Mr Pilot had personally employed someone to carry his bag around, I have no problems with that. His money, his life. Famous stand-up comic Lewis Black wanted to employ a private lady ball-washer once he had enough money. To each their own. But the Flight Case carrier in this case was directly or indirectly in the employment of Air India. And here I have a problem. And I hope you do too.

In my honest opinion, this problem is symptomatic of everything that is wrong with Air India, that shining example of Sarkari-Tarkari gone bad. Here is an airline struggling with flight delays, dirty aircrafts, pathetic service, the list goes on. But Mr Pilot can’t roll his own Flight Case. However I think this problem is deeper than bad governance, this highlights our feudal mindset. Any work, as long as we can afford to have it done by someone else, should be done by someone else.

In a rather heated discussion a client in London once told me Indians make great programmers but lousy Project Managers and Architects. I didn’t agree and like a true salesman told him how many do you want and what skill and rate. But in my heart I knew he was right. Management in India is not skill based, its tenure based. If you are not managing a team, you have not made it in life. Every programmer worth his salt should make it to Project Manager within six years. If not, he will command no respect from his peers. He wont even get married as no self respecting father will give his daughter to someone who is not a manager.

Individual excellence has often been sacrificed on the altar of a feudal notion of success that is measured by how many people one administers (manages is not the right word) rather than performance. In fact the entire country is run by people who spent years mugging up two subjects and did a crash course of Competition Success Review to pass the Administrative Services exams. And these guys then run Air India where the organization’s vision of flying in comfort seems to apply not to passengers but to the pilots and the crew.

I was once waiting at the aircraft door for my daughter’s stroller in Los Angeles. All other passengers had left and the pilot asked me what I was waiting for. When I told him, he put down his flight case (and they do carry their own), climbed down the stairs to the luggage hold, retrieved the stroller and brought it up for us. He not only had a happy passenger, he helped in turning around the aircraft faster, which in turn increases profitability. Between that and having the flight case carried by someone else, there is big chasm. And India’s success depends on how quickly we fill it.