MASKS EVERYWHERE!

First it was the Japanese who always went around the World wearing masks and gloves long before this new bug called H1N1 came along. Now, it seems Indians have panicked (thanks to the high decibel, repeated screeching of anchors on news channels there) and loads of them were seen wearing these masks without knowing whether the masks they had on were really going to stop the infection from hitting them or not. I saw "normal" Indians, even couples in downtown Bangalore wearing these funny contraptions. Why funny? Let me tell you why. There were people with kerchiefs tied around their noses, there were those who had these single layer masks and there were those with dupattas around their faces looking like The Taliban had enforced a dress code. Of course there were regular masks all around too.

Went to the Bengaluru International Airport to catch my late night flight back to Singapore. Saw more varieties of masks there, mostly on Indian faces. What bugs me is that the wearers don't even know if they are protected or not. One should check on guidelines and there are sources on the net also, such as the Center for Disease Control, USA that explains what works and what won't help. The masks, the different variety of ones that are available in the market in India, are ineffective in preventing the wearer from contracting the disease. They are only good in the sense that they stop droplets from spreading all around when the wearer coughs or sneezes. So, while it may not protect the wearer, at least the chaps around are safe to a certain extent! The N95 respirator "mask" is the one that is approved by CDC and health officials around the World. Not the mickey mouse contraptions that most of them were wearing. The mask manufacturers are laughing all the way to the Bank as they make a "killing", selling them like hot cakes.

Let me briefly describe some of the masks I saw on many faces at the Airport. There were these green surgical ones you see on TV medical shows and at hospitals. Then there were ones that are labeled "Duck billed" (even on CDC website!), I swear this is the funniest one. Some looked like birds standing around because they were yellow in color (the masks I mean!) There is a definite beak shape, just like on Tweety Bird. I thought that was the funniest until a couple walked by, both of them wearing, what would have come straight from Star Wars. I am not kidding you, they looked like the ones Darth Vader would wear to the beach. These were large, dark, covered a lot of the nose, mouth and cheeks, had round discs jutting out from both sides of the mask like Oxygen regulators and they looked like what some one would wear in a chemical attack. Maybe effective against H1N1 too, no?

On the Aircraft, some of wearers decided to give it a rest and took them off and put them back on whenever they felt like it. Catering arrived and soon all the masks were off to eat and drink! Some people are deluded to think that H1N1 is only floating around when they are wearing these masks. For me, I was just pleased. Firstly because the person next to me sneezed, while wearing the mask and so I did not have to hold my breath till I turned blue in the face...and secondly, these mask wearers were a source of entertainment, just looking at some of them and their behavior with and without the masks made my night!

I have to end this story with something really funny, without disrespect to anyone. Many of you would already know this I think, although it may not be politically correct. Anyway, what I heard in Bangalore was that the sales of padded Bras were going up in the city. Not because more women had come into town all of a sudden leaving their wardrobe behind but because half a padded Bra works wonderfully well as a mask! This it seems, is a fact, and not a joke as it had been mentioned in some media. Thanks to H1N1, Bra manufacturers can also laugh all the way to the Bank! I kid you not.

MONSOON MAGIC PART-1

Use this link to read about the first part of my journey this monsoon season, undertaken by road...Mysore to Goa via Jog Falls. The article on my blog contains anecdotes of my journey, photos and videos especially of Jog Falls. Click on the title above to be redirected to my other blog where this article is published.

MYSORE AIRPORT LATEST AS ON JUL 2009

Hi All, for those of you who have been following the story on my blog about Mysore airport, here's the latest. I was in Mysore recently, just a few days back and found that the tarmac and runway is ready at the Mysore Airport. There have been some chartered flights that have already operated in and out of the Airport on unscheduled visits, having obtained prior special permission to land at Mysore. For those who live in Mysore or have been reading some sites on the net, they would already know this information. For those who don't have the latest, here is what's been going on.

The last item for development before the Airport can be officially opened is the terminal building. As it appears, the work is going on in full swing. Credible reports from the current DC of Mysore Mr. Manivannan suggests that the Airport will be open in time for Dasara 2009. That's around the last week of September this year. Some readers may laugh at this because several Dasara festivals in Mysore have come and gone with politicians of every hue and color making statements that the Airport would be ready by Dasara time. This time, it may be believed because the statement comes from the DC of Mysore, a person who I credit all positive things that are happening there. If there is an honest, upright and dynamic officer, then Manivannan is the man and he has been an asset to Mysore notwithstanding the political pressures that his office may experience and the threat of transfers of such good officers, again coming from politicians of every hue and color.

So after much waiting, decades of it in fact, maybe we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Naysayers are still at work saying that the Airport is inadequate, large Aircraft cannot operate from them and that additional land needs to be acquired, this is not the end of the story..blah..blah...blah.

It is left to the operator to decide whether there is enough traffic from Mysore for large Aircraft and if so, what sectors would make sense and so on. Airline business is not a charity, it is highly sensitive and break even/loss making at the best of times. To speak of the current situation where load factors on known, established routes have come down drastically and every one painting red on their Balance Sheets, one cannot expect anything more from the industry. The point is, at last we have an airport that can see commercial operations. Let's hope it is viable for operators to come in with ATR turboprops to begin with. Let's see what sectors will be offered and whether those sectors make enough sense in the long run for the operator to stay on this route. If the viability fails, it does not matter how big the Airport is or what it can handle in terms of Aircraft. If viability fails, we will have an airport either with sporadic service or none at all. Lets hope this becomes viable in the long term and it appears that way at the moment. I, for one, will await with some eagerness, to see the day we have air services into Mysore. Hopefully it is in September this year!

MUSTANG FERRY ENDS

This article appears on my regular blog page that can be accessed here.

In this post, I will import more pictures of my stop over in Egypt on the ferry.

MUSTANG FERRY GREENLAND PHOTOS

Before the Greenland pictures, here are some more of the Mustang in Wichita at the Cessna Service Center, just before we started on the ferry:





Now for pictures of Goose Bay with the Dash 8 turboprop and leaving Goose Bay and the rest of the pictures are Greenland shots:

Mustang ferry

I have just arrived in Singapore with a brand new Cessna Citation Mustang, serial number 0070. I have written about the acceptance of the Aircraft and now doing a series, with pictures, of the ferry flight of the Aircraft and can find that story here.

Airplane delivered

I wrote about the new Citation Mustang delivery and acceptance, the first one for SEAJET Singapore. That story can be found here