Landing up in lansdowne

Lansdowne is a small hill-station, situated at a distance of around 250 kms from Delhi. Named after an erstwhile British Viceroy of India, it is the home town of the Garhwal Rifles regiment of the Indian military, and is a well maintained, quiet and beautiful cantonment town. It also happens to be the closest 'hill-station' from Delhi.

A friend's visit and enough weekend enthusiasm got us moving early on an April Saturday morning. Despite limited morning traffic, reaching Meerut (some 70 kms from Delhi) took us over 2 hours.

Meerut is a dusty, yet vibrant and colorful town. A perfect spot to click those 'A day in the life of India' pictures. We quickly crossed the town and headed towards Mawana. Famous for its sugar, 'cane fields and mango orchards lined the route. Verdant green, and at this time of the year, blooming with mango flowers.The route from Mawana heads towards Najibabad and Bijnor, and is surprisingly well laid and maintained. 

A few kilometers outside of Mirapur, the road splits into two - with the one for Bijnor heading to the right. Busy with small talk and soaking in the beauty of those beautiful orchards, we missed the turn and headed straight to Muzzafarnagar. Nearing the town's vicinity, we realized our folly and with some Google Maps help, speedily headed back to track.

Drive up from Koratdwar was nice and breezy. Nice winding mountain roads, beautiful pine trees and meadows all around, and with hardly any traffic.

Oak Grove Inn, where we had booked our stay, lies on the Pauri-Lansdowne route, and required a slight detour to reach. This was the day of the World Cup Final match, with India and Sri Lanka battling it out, and we had reached just in time for the start.

The Inn, run by a retired Army Colonel (Col. Rawat) and his wife, is a beautiful, cozy, homely and neat bed-and-breakfast stay, situated a few kilometers outside the boundaries of Lansdowne, overlooking a beautiful valley. The Col. and his wife were great hosts, and went beyond their way to organize our stay. Gave me explicit directions on every part of the drive from Delhi to Lansdowne, and called me up twice enroute to enquire on my direction. While at the place too, they went out of their way to ensure things were up to the market. The closest one can get to feeling homely, away from home.

After settling in, we took a break during Sri Lanka's slog overs to go around town. 

The town is well maintained, with the army's discipline well exhibited. Small parks, winding clean roads, military presence all abound. Few attractions exist: a well laid-out museum on the Garwhal Rifles, a couple of view-points, and a lake (that could very well be a ditch).

What's distinctive is the quietness. Unlike most hill stations in India, there is little commercial activity. Few people walking around in gay abandon, and hardly any families with kaw-kawing children, that are wont at every other hill-station. It's almost un-Indian in this general lack of population / activity, and the cleanliness. The winding tree-lined roads make a great walking destination too.   

The evening, of course, was devoted to watching the match. And what a fine contest it turned out to be!

Overall, Lansdowne is a great place for a quiet weekend getaway from Delhi. Just don't land up there expecting to shop and party. However, it's just THE place to stretch your legs and detox away from Delhi's dust.

For those who seek to follow the trail: The drive takes 6+ hours, depending on the traffic, and your familiarity  with the route. After Meerut, follow NH-119 to Mawana, Bijnor, Najibabad and Kotdwar. The real traffic choke-point is Modinagar/Meerut, the rest of the drive, particularly after Mawana, is a drivers delight. Enroute, shortly after Mirapur, remember to take the right turn at a restaurant called 'Monty Millions' to head to Bijnor. Oak Grove is a great place to stay. Alternatively, the GVMN guest house at Tiffin Top is a picturesque location.

The Spirit of Mumbai

I stood outside a hotel in Mumbai, trying to find a cab to take me home. My travel was not too far, yet beyond walking limits. A sultry evening in a dusty and dirty part of town.

Just one cab stood outside, with the cabby looked eagerly to find a passenger. A black and yellow cab with a white shirted driver.

My destination disappointed him. He had been waiting for too long, to catch a short ride. He shook his head respectfully. "Sorry sir. Have been waiting here since morning."

I knew I wouldn't find another cab ride there, without a lengthy walk. Too few cabs, all ferrying riders. None waiting to stop. Resigned, I started the jaunt.

But the waiting cabby was beside me. "Sir, I will find you another. I am sorry I couldn't serve you".

He briskly crossed the road and flagged down a cab going in the opposite direction. A heated Marathi conversation ensured. But it ended with an approving nod.

The cabby waved me in and ran back to his waiting spot. Ignoring my profuse thanks and stunned expression.

The Spirit of Mumbai.

(Learn, Chennai auto-drivers. Learn.)

The Electronic Service Delivery Bill

The Indian Ministry of IT has put out a draft Electronic Service Delivery Bill 2011 for comments to general public. The intended Bill seeks to accelerate the process of electronic delivery of services to public by government departments by prescribing a time-bound transition from manual to electronic services, and creating an associated regulatory infrastructure.

My comments, based on an initial read.

It is an appreciable start, meant to galvanize state departments into action. While some states such as AP, Karnataka and Delhi have taken sizeable steps in e-Governance, the rest are largely laggards. If nothing else, this bill should make governments sit up and move a bit.

I specifically liked the wording around the use of service providers for delivery of services and collection of associated charges. If implemented properly, this will result in a new era of PPP opportunities for IT service providers in e-Governance. 

Yet, the bill gives too much leeway to individual ministries on the extent and time-frame of implementation. One good alternative would have been to prescribe a minimum set of services that each ministry must e-enable. In the current form, it would become the headache of the regulatory Commissioner to push ministries to expand scope.

Another open point is the open implementation timeline. Despite prescribing a 180-day limit for governments to decide on the scope, it makes the cut-off date for implementation, discretionary. Knowing the legendary delays in implementation of e-governance projects, this is a quagmire.

In sum, a great start. May run into financial impediments unless the associated investment burden of states is appropriately addressed (not everything can be a PPP with limited investment); and political bottlenecks could be envisaged since it seems to exert quite a bit of central influence on state functioning.

A case of two disruptive Ms

As consultants, we tend to be heavy users of travel services. Therefore, disruptive business models in the industry are particularly interesting.

Makemytrip, the travel portal, is an interesting case. For a frequent traveler, the ability to quickly evaluate flight options and comparison shop is of phenomenal value. Often travel schedules do become unpredictable and need change during odd hours. No conventional offline travel agent seems to come close to providing the level of experience and flexibility that a portal like Makemytrip does. In addition, what is particularly interesting is that prices online hardly ever differ from those booked through agents. Maybe its because both are hooked onto the same GDS systems for flight bookings and offline travel agent commissions are increasingly on the downward route.

This is making me and a number of my consultant colleagues, increasingly shift online to make bookings despite having dedicated corporate travel agents at our call. Soon offline travel houses will find it hard to justify their value and premium pricing against flexibility offered by these online setups.

The second disruptive case is that of Meru. Meru provides cab services in multiple cities of India with a dedicated phone-based booking facility. What is interesting is that Meru has been able to provide uniformly high quality cab services using a relatively low-cost model. Their cabs might not be the best of cars (and that's changing too), but are certainly clean enough, consistently in every city. Again where Meru beats "traditional" professional cab firms is the flexibilty of booking a car upto 30 minutes in advance in almost any location in cities where they operate - an invaluable service when schedules change rapidly; and at prices that are one-third of a corporate travel firm, they are a hands-down win proposition.

What both these models are doing really well is using technology to provide low-cost services with reasonable levels of quality and focusing on an important value point for frequent travelers - flexibility.

Moonlight descent

A descent under incandescent moonlight, in the deep stillness of the midnight, over the sprawling mumbai nightlights; with twinkling stars in the moonlit sky glistening, the distinct deep blue horizon curving, cabin lights dimmed to support the descent, beside the roaring outspread wing, just capturing the moment.