Dreaming of Ladakh

Ladakh is a place of distances. Not just because of the time it can take to get from one place to another, but also because it’s a place that can challenge you to expand your mind.

It’s a place of varied vistas — snow, rock, dust, greenery, sand, water. And everywhere, mountains. And the expansive sky.

Once you leave the main settlements — towns like Leh and Kargil or villages like Nimoo and Alchi — Ladakh often feels boundless, perhaps as vast as the universe. But it’s a companionable vastness; a bit like being in a pub full of friendly strangers.

On some journeys you’re sandwiched in a snaking convoy of olive green; army trucks carrying people and supplies across the region. On other roads you can go for an hour or more without encountering another human. Sometimes, it’s unclear where the road is and you decide it’s wherever your vehicle is!

Often, it all feels very profound. The immense never-ending sky, the chortens, the monasteries perched far up the side of a mountain, the ever-present five-coloured prayer flags snapping in the wind, lines of prayer wheels, the Indus or one of its tributaries meandering alongside the road. So much so that you begin to believe that in a moment or two the meaning of life will be revealed to you and that eternity is around the corner.

And then, around the corner, is an egg yolk-yellow road sign that declares ‘Be gentle on my curves’. 

But as Robert Louis Stevenson wrote in a 1878 essay titled El Dorado: “Little do ye know your own blessedness; for to travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour.”

So, it’s best to suspend all thought and luxuriate in Ladakh. In its people, food, history, culture and those vistas that bridge distances. 

Form with function

I’m not an expert in design. But I’ve always believed that design should be about form and function. Though I’m also fine with function being a heartbeat ahead of form.

It is, of course, helpful if the things we use are pleasing to look at. And it certainly helps with product differentiation — and a company’s sales figures — to design things that are attractive. But should this be at the expense of the product doing what it is meant to? 

Something that looks fantastic, but does not do what it is supposed to with a minimum of fuss is, in my book, not very useful.

Some weeks ago, I received a Fabindia gift card, which was a thoughtful gesture since I use the company’s products. In fact, I’ve found these gift cards to be the perfect present, particularly when I know the recipient enjoys the Fabindia aesthetic.

These gift cards were rectangles of elegantly designed thick-ish paper, with the card’s value printed on one face. On the same face, the date on which the card was bought and the date on which it expired — usually one year from the date of purchase — was either handwritten or stamped with an ink stamp. And on the reverse were the ‘terms and conditions’ for using the card. It was all very straightforward: with a glance you knew how much each card was worth and exactly when its validity would end.

But the FabGift Card, as it’s called, I recently received is very different. It’s a carton that’s slightly larger than a matchbox, and comes with a little ribbon loop. You pull on the ribbon to open the box and inside is a credit-card sized rectangle of cardboard topped by sliver of buttery paper with the Fabindia logo. One face of the card has a design with the FabGift logo worked in and on the other is a five-point list of ‘terms and conditions’, a number and barcode and a scratch strip (that I later discovered hides a code you need to enter when you use the card).

It looks very nice and compact. 

There is one problem though. You have absolutely no idea how much the card is worth and till when it is valid. The ‘terms and conditions’ declare it can be used for a year from the date of purchase. But then you have no idea of the date on which it was bought. So… 

The only way to figure out how much the card is worth and when it expires is to ask the person who gave you the gift or to go to a Fabindia store and get the staff to unearth this information for you. Rather complicated! 

It could, perhaps, be argued that we really don’t need to know much the card is worth or exactly when it expires, since we know it’s valid for a year. But I believe this information matters. 

Most of us aren’t going to rush off to the Fabindia website or a store and buy something the moment we get the card. Chances are we’ll put it away, intending to use it later. But with memory being a slippery character, we could forget about it or forget when we got it. However, if we know exactly when it expires, setting up a specific reminder becomes so much easier. And it’s always useful to know how much money there’s on the card so we can plan our shopping expedition. Also, knowing how much is on the FabGift Card and till when it’s valid means we can even gift it to someone else. 

I initially wondered whether I’d received a one-off or customised card. But from what I can discern, this is the new incarnation of the Fabindia gift card. 

Of course, the card’s new avatar does have some advantages. For one, it possibly offers a certain flexibility in terms of how much can be loaded onto it and it can be used both in stores and on the website. It’s also probably easier to manage for the company. 

I assume — always a tricky thing to do — that the gift card’s redesign process was so focused on form that it glossed over function, the card’s utilitarian aspect. However, I suspect that Fabindia can fix this if they want to. Something as simple as repurposing the buttery paper insert to display both the card’s value and validity and inserting this at the point of sale will probably work. The question though is whether Fabindia will do it.

Exiting the lockdown

A version of this article was in Outlook’s online edition in early April. This piece was written in collaboration with Dr M.I. Sahadulla, Chairman and Managing Director, KIMS Healthcare Group and the author of Vital Signs: Reflections on a Life in Medicine and Management.

Pandemics are not particularly new. In fact, Covid-19 is simply the latest in a long line of pandemics. But this one has a rather modern streak. For the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19 has used the connectedness of our globalised world to spread. And spread with such speed and stealth, that containment — keeping the virus out — has proved to be almost impossible.

Clouds of uncertainty, but rays of hope in the distance...

Most nations have largely turned to variations of a shutdown — what Singapore’s Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong, evocatively called “a circuit breaker” — to reduce the spread of Covid-19. The intention behind these shutdowns is to try and prevent, or at least curtail, the spread of the virus by limiting social interactions. This is because social interaction typically influences the rate at which a pandemic, especially a respiratory virus pandemic, spreads.

In India, the 21-day shutdown that began at midnight on 24 March has involved closing workplaces, shutting most public transport systems, shutting educational institutions, severely curtailing movements and gatherings of people and asking everyone to stay at home. But effectively implementing a shutdown in a country of over 1.2 billion people, from diverse socio-economic conditions, comes with its own set of challenges. Overcoming these challenges calls for coordinated, empathetic action by governments across the country, even as we throw everything we have at controlling the virus.

Yet, we also need to think about the future — not just medium or long term, but also the next few weeks and months. We need an exit strategy or post-shutdown plan that protects our wellbeing even as it bolsters our economy. Here are some options to consider:

Continue mobilising public health resources: Over the coming weeks — during the lockdown and even after it’s eased — we must use all our public health resources, including more testing, to curtail the spread of Covid-19 and ensure that the infection rate stays very low. At the same time, we need to recognise that the virus could probably linger in pockets for some time to come. Therefore, we must be part of the global effort to develop preventive vaccines or medicines that treat Covid-19. 

Launch a massive education campaign: It’s not easy to change our behaviour in the best of times. But at this moment, behavioural changes such as adopting basic hygiene practices or staying away from one another are vital to control the spread of Covid-19. Of course, given the conditions that large sections of our population live in, adopting these practices isn’t easy; so we need to create alternatives where possible. But adopt them we must.

This is why we need to invest more in campaigns to advocate responsible practices — cleaning hands, physical distancing from other people, staying at home when asked to and so on. Such behaviour needs to become second nature; something we all do on our own, without any coercion. While governments have already launched such campaigns fronted by celebrities, perhaps it’s time we considered innovative options including applying behavioural insights to these initiatives.  

Gradual easing of the shutdown: India’s national lockdown is scheduled to end on 14 April. Even if all goes well and the number of Covid-19 cases in the country stays relatively low, it makes better sense for the government to lift restrictions only gradually and cautiously. This is important to ensure there is no immediate resurgence of the virus from increased social interactions.

Controlled resumption of economic activity: The pandemic’s impact on the global economy is already being felt. Some of us can work from home. But India has millions of people who do not have that option. So in the weeks ahead, it’s important to consider ‘reopening’ key sectors of the economy ­—with strict physical distancing, hygiene norms and other controls in place. This reopening has to be carefully planned and even more carefully executed.

Make public health a focus area: Any investment in public health helps to prevent diseases and leads to the improved overall health of the population. But in India, healthcare, and public health in particular, has not received the governmental attention and financial support it merits. This must change immediately. India needs to view public health not as crisis management, but as a long-term priority.

We also need to make the ‘one health’ approach an integral part of our public health strategy. This involves recognising that our health is connected to the health of animals, plants and the environment that we all share. It, therefore, emphasises that efforts to prevent disease should focus not just on human, but also on animal, plant and environmental health. We really can’t afford to ignore this idea, given that SARS-CoV-2 is believed to have animal origins.

Pay special attention to mental health: The upheavals caused by Covid-19 are affecting every aspect of our lives. All of us are, understandably, beset by worries about money and about our own health and that of our loved ones. Bereft of our usual coping mechanisms such as social gatherings or even regular work routines, this anxiety could very easily spiral into mental health issues. So we need to allocate resources to mental wellness programmes.

For my father

For a heartbeat, a lifetime of devotion triumphed over dementia’s raging incursion. As the opening bars of ‘Jana Gana Mana’ to mark the end of this year’s Republic Day Parade in Delhi drifted from the television, my 89-year-old father started and then attempted to stand up on legs that no longer quite work. Somewhere inside a mind whose circuits have almost been obliterated by dementia, the old soldier knew that this was his country’s song and that he had to stand to attention.

He isn't perfect. But in the 30-odd years he was an officer in the Indian Air Force and the decades since, commitment to India and its people were the values he lived by. And one of those values was to stand to attention for the national anthem.

Once, a few years after he retired, we were at an event in my school. The school band struck up the national anthem, not to signal the end of proceedings, but as part of their repertoire. And like a shot, my dad was on his feet; this drew some strange looks, but we all followed. I squirmed then at the unwelcome attention that came our way. But now, whenever I think about that incident, it’s pride I feel, dusted with a pinch of shame for having squirmed back then. 

And that is what I breathed into his ear a few days ago. Hoping that somewhere inside what lingers of his mind a cluster of neurons would fire and let him know how very proud I am of him and how much of the good there is in me is largely because of him.

What’s the good word?

I’ve always been fascinated by how we use words. Sometimes we string them together with only the faintest of ideas about what they mean. Sometimes it comes out right and sometimes …

Here are some words and collections of words that have caught my eye over the past few months. They come from across India — okay, Delhi and Kerala to be specific. Together, they are a testament to our way with words.

I start with the ‘curious and miscellaneous stall’ and end with my personal favourite — ‘Om Fizz, full of primordial elements to promote freshness’. May these words bring ‘freshness’ to your day, every day. 

Mallus and money

Literacy levels in Kerala are very high. Among the highest in India at 93.91 per cent according to the latest census. Kerala also has nine universities and 300-plus colleges. So it would be safe to say that a good number of people in Kerala have college degrees.

Yet, people in the State seem to fall for all sorts of financial scams; from money chains to fly-by-night chit funds. The latest being an alleged real estate scam.

Why does this happen? Why is it that people who are among India’s most literate, educated and aware, don’t seem to be able to figure out what’s a con and what’s not.

One reason for the Malayalee’s susceptibility to financial scams, I guess, is a basic human instinct — the desire to get rich quick. So something that promises to double or treble money in a jiffy breaks through all notions of caution.

More important though, I believe, is our lack of Financial Literacy. Most of us just don’t get even the basics of finance; so the more complex stuff goes right over our heads. As the recent global economic crisis illustrated, we’re not alone in not being able to come to grips with the nuances of finance. But that’s no consolation at all.

What Kerala, and indeed India, needs is a new movement — for total financial literacy. A movement that gives us tools to understand and manage our finances and the skills to see through scams.

Financial literacy even needs to be a part of the ‘life skills’ courses that are increasingly being taught in our schools and colleges. For I really can’t think of a greater ‘life skill’ than the ability to understand money and how to manage it. Perhaps it’s time we established a Financial Literacy Mission.

Season of change

A new day, a new year. And a planet that’s beginning to show visible signs of being ill: snowstorms, extreme cold and floods.

In Kerala where I live, we’ve had thunder, lighting and pounding rain the past two evenings. Almost unheard of weather for this part of the world at this time of the year.

I have no idea how this is going to alter our lives and our world, but radical change is going to be part of our narrative. Here’s one story from the FT of how lives have changed because of climate change.

What will our change story be?

Responsible Traveler checks in

Responsible tourism is an approach to travel that’s been around for a while now.

Its appeal has been growing — leisurely but steadily — perhaps because of its emphasis on “creating better places for people to live in and better places for people to visit”. A tenet that allows people and destinations the flexibility to choose practices and strategies that suit the local needs and environment.

In India, a motley crew of hotel and travel companies, home stays, NGOs and the odd State tourism board have piloted responsible tourism, with varying levels of commitment and success. At the same time, Indian travellers too seem to be showing a growing interest in ‘ecotourism’ if not responsible tourism.

And now, MakeMyTrip.com, India’s oldest and, arguably, largest travel portal has dipped its toes into responsible tourism with the Responsible Traveler Web site.

Responsible Traveler is positioned as “an extension” of MakeMyTrip’s corporate social responsibility activities. At the same time, it seems that the company also “recognized the need for an ecologically-conscious community of travellers, who love travelling and their planet, equally; and thus the forum Responsible Traveler was born.”

So what is it that Responsible Traveler will offer? The site itself declares: “From the time you start planning your vacation to the moment you step back into your condo; Responsible Traveler makes sure that it gives you the right ideas, tips and advice to help make your travel eco-friendly, with bare minimum impact on the environment.”

For the moment though, the Web site seems a little raw, without a voice of its own; like a work in progress. Actually, I guess it is still a work in progress as it seems to have gone live only a few weeks ago.

However, the possibilities are tremendous. At the very least, Responsible Traveler could become the definitive Indian or South Asian resource on responsible travel. Commercially, the site has the potential to evolve into an online responsible travel company; one that allows travellers to book responsible holidays in India and South Asia.

It would, in fact, be a logical move for Responsible Traveler to become a link between travellers and hotels and home stays that practice responsible tourism. Consumer interest in this space is growing and it currently has just about one player — Travel To Care. With MakeMyTrip’s knowledge and experience of the market, coupled with its marketing muscle, Responsible Traveler has the potential to grow into a game changer for responsible tourism in India and South Asia.

Lit fest thoughts

Some interesting conversations, a couple of fun readings, lots of rain, half an alphabet soup of security agencies and event organisers who need a crash course in Event Management 101.

That, in thirty words, is pretty much what Kovalam Literary Festival- Edition III that happened this past weekend was.

What I really enjoyed about this year’s festival was the change in venue — from the beach village of Kovalam, in Trivandrum’s suburbs, to the Kanakakunnu Palace in the heart of the city. This meant that people could drop in for a session or two, leave and return later for another session. And there were people who did just that — I for one.

Given how accessible the palace is, there were also people who came in for a ‘feel’ of the festival, decided it wasn’t quite their scene and left. The sad part, however, was that despite the change in venue, participation levels were still rather low; better than previous years, perhaps, but still low.

I’d expected at least a couple of hundred people to turn up. But I don’t think there were ever more than around 150 people at the festival, including the medium-ish posse of security men protecting Daman Singh, daughter of India’s Prime Minister, who read at the festival. I must confess that the rather lukewarm turnout on a long weekend puzzles me.

The festival sessions themselves were standard lit fest stuff; some entertaining and thought provoking, others not quite so. The hard part though was figuring out who was going to read or speak next as the festival schedule had undergone some pretty drastic changes, especially since a couple of authors did not turn up. But these schedule changes were really not communicated to the audience.

So there were no information boards or posters with the revised schedule. And things sort of chugged along.

Most of the time though, the really interesting things were happening not inside the main hall of the palace, but in the bandstand alongside it. Tea, smokes, cutlets, biryani and eclectic conversations. Conversations on how going for a run is the best way to orient yourself to a new city; on memories dredged up by the smoke from Pakistani Gold Leaf cigarettes; on how green Kerala is; on the hazards of being an artist or writer with an even more famous artist or writer as a spouse…

And that, perhaps, is where the Kovalam Literary Festival really came into its own — in the interesting conversations that happened outside the festival halls. For you never know just what those discussions may have sparked off. 

Lit fest hub?

Could Trivandrum be on its way to becoming India’s hot new Lit Fest hub? Over the next two months, the city will host two festivals of literature — the Kovalam Literary Festival and the Hay Festival in Kerala.

First, the Kovalam Literary Festival: The festival’s third edition will be held in the city this coming weekend — October 2 and 3.

The festival’s organisers have finally seen the light and moved it from Kovalam, in Trivandrum’s suburbs, to the heart of the city. Those who know Trivandrum would have told them that they should’ve done this from the very beginning.

While Kovalam is quite the exotic beach destination, it is — in the Trivandrum scheme of things — some way away from the city. And though the festival’s organisers had arranged for a couple of coaches to ferry people from the city to Kovalam, residents of the city had to make a conscious decision to attend the Kovalam Lit Fest. There was no question of popping in for an interesting session, then slipping out and returning later for another interesting session or two; something you can do with relative ease at the Jaipur Literature Festival.

Faced with having to make a choice to either spend an entire day, or at least a large part of the day, at the festival or skip it altogether, most residents of the city choose to give the Kovalam Lit Fest a miss in its first two years. Which, for an event that should be inclusive and welcoming is not a very good sign.

I remember, in 2008, attending a session by Gulzar at the festival. There were at best about 50 people in the room, of whom about 35 had something to do with the festival — they were either authors reading there, publishers, festival organisers or support staff. While the sparse attendance made it a very intimate afternoon, it was a pity that so many people missed out on a wonderful opportunity to listen to one of India’s finest writers.

So it was good to hear a few days ago that the Kovalam Lit Fest will be held in the city this year. The organisers themselves admit that “local participation” in the festival has been poor and that the change in venue is part of an effort to “improve local participation.”

Kanakakunnu Palace, where the festival is to be held this year, was once the banquet hall of the erstwhile rulers of Travancore. Located bang in the heart of Trivandrum, it’s very accessible and a popular venue for many events; some cultural and others not quite cultural. It’s a welcoming sort of space and little effort is required to get there.

With entry free and a reasonable programming mix, this year’s Kovalam Lit Fest should see more people attending. Of course, it’s still too early to say that the festival is out of the woods, especially with the Hay Festival set to roll into Trivandrum in mid November. And according to whispers on the grapevine, it is also going to be held in the Kanakakunnu Palace.

Remembering Aubrey Menen

In 1980s-Trivandrum, Aubrey Menen stood out like a sore thumb.

By then into the last years of his life, Menen looked quite like the quintessential Biblical prophet, a slightly impish prophet: serene face, flowing white beard and long-ish white hair. Of course, notions of prophecy were slightly dispelled by the tan shorts and sun hat that he often wore while pottering around Trivandrum’s central Statue and Pulimood neighbourhoods.

I think I was around 12 years old when I first saw Menen either in or outside Trivandrum’s British Library. More than the Biblical mien, it was his name that snagged my attention — Aubrey, I could understand, but Menen? Did he have anything to do with the cosmetics company Mennen, I wondered?

In the 1980s, Trivandrum — it had not yet become Thiruvananthapuram — was still the sort of place where everyone just about knew everyone else or at least knew of everyone else! So with little effort, I discovered that ‘Menen’ was a variant of the more familiar ‘Menon’; familiar to Malayalis that is. Aubrey Menen, I learnt, had an Irish mother and a Malayali father. I also learnt that he was a writer who had retired to Trivandrum.

Most often, I’d come across Menen in or near the British Library. Sometimes, I’d also see him making his way home, to his rooms in Lukes Lane just off the city’s arterial M G Road. On some of these jaunts he’d be accompanied by Graham Hall, his companion.

I never actually spoke to him. Nor did I read any of his work then, though I have faint memories of a couple of his books gracing the shelves of the British Library.

And then one day in 1989, I read in the papers that Menen had died. Hall, about whom I knew very little, continued in Trivandrum and I often used to spot him in the British Library. In the late 1990s though, I left Trivandrum and when I returned some years later, there was no sign of Hall. Memories of both Menen and Hall receded into the corners of my mind.

But it all came rushing back to me a few days ago when I found Classic Aubrey Menen, a new Penguin anthology of his work. In an interesting coincidence, Jai Arjun Singh over at Jabberwock has also written about Penguin’s Menen anthology. 

I’ve since discovered that Menen wore many hats — radio person, ad type, essayist, satirist, travel writer, drama critic and theatre director among others. Over the years, he wrote some 20-odd works of fiction and non-fiction including Rama Retold, an interpretation of the Ramayana.

Menen’s Ramayana, it seems, irked Indian sensibilities and was banned in the country for some years. And I’m not surprised. For the little I’ve seen of his work reveals that Menen’s humour is subtle yet biting.

He pulls no punches when it comes to making fun of holy cows. Whether it is India’s caste system and Brahmin notions of superiority in A Conspiracy of Women or cardinals and politicians in The Fig Tree — all of them get the Menen treatment. Yet, his is not the ‘a laugh every other line’ sort of humour. It is multi-layered, quirky and not always apparent at first glance. 

Consider, for instance, this gem that appeared in the 1987 edition of the Mar Ivanios College magazine. Asked, during the course of an interview, whether writers are born or made, Menen responded: “All writers are made writers, but in fact they are born. Journalists can be made, but not creative writers.” 

As Menen’s New York Times obit says: 

“Asked to give advice to writers, Mr. Menen, who was admired as a satirist, told the publication Contemporary Authors that '’the aspiring writer should perform a daily physical exercise. He should sit on his bottom in front of a table equipped with writing materials,' he said. 'If his top end fails him, at least his nether end won't.'”

Humour like that, though cutting, is priceless not in the least for its ability to make us laugh at ourselves, at least once in a while. As Menen himself reportedly said: “There are three things which are real: God, human folly and laughter. Since the first two pass our comprehension, we must do what we can with the third.”

While satire was, perhaps, his forte, Menen was also a bit of a visionary it seems. In the Mar Ivanios College magazine interview, he observed: “The West will turn to the Indian mind for the solution of its problems.” I wonder if he had outsourcing in mind when he said this.

Kerala’s on top

Kerala has been ranked the top holiday destination in Asia in a poll conducted by online travel mag Smart Travel Asia.

Kerala, third on Smart Travel Asia’s ‘best in travel’ poll last year, has trumped Bali and Phuket this year. Rajasthan and Goa are the two other Indian destinations that figure on the top 10 list.

What’s rather telling though, is that just one hotel from Kerala seems to have made it to the list of top hotels. The Taj Garden Retreat, Kumarakom is number 24 on Smart Travel Asia’s list of ‘top 25 leisure hotels and resorts’. Several other hotels from India including The Oberoi Udaivilas, Udaipur; Neemrana Fort; and The Aman, New Delhi figure on this list.

The only Indian entry on the ‘top 25 spa hotel and resorts’ list is the Ananda in the Himalayas. Indian entrants on the ‘top business hotels in Asia’ list include The Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai; The Oberoi, New Delhi; and The Leela Palace Kempinski, Bangalore.

The Smart Travel Asia online poll ran for three months May-July this year and 60 per cent of the respondents were from Asia. The poll says that 91 per cent of the voters “drew their primary image of brands from the Internet and 85 per cent said they made travel decisions online.” Yet only 38 per cent said they book online. The Net, according to the Smart Travel Asia poll, it seems is still a traveller’s first port of call for information and independent reviews. All issues for tourism and travel mavens to chew on.

Meanwhile, though Kerala has reason to celebrate its recognition as a holiday destination, it’s also time for some introspection on the hospitality front. So perhaps, we should not break out the bubbly just yet.

Picture used courtesy Kerala Tourism

Goa gets an ambassador

Kerala Tourism talked about it, but now Goa tourism’s gone and done it — sign on a celebrity brand ambassador. With this, Goa is arguably the first tourism destination in India to have a brand ambassador.

Goa, of course, hasn’t been able to rope in the Big B as its brand ambassador, like Kerala Tourism hoped to do. Goa’s tourism department has, instead, signed on actress Prachi Desai as its ‘brand icon’.

Based on what I’ve read in the papers, Goa tourism is now focusing on attracting more young people and therefore the choice of Desai as brand ambassador. I’m a little fuddled by this strategy for two reasons.

First, I thought Goa, as a holiday destination, already attracts a large number of young people. So how has this market been suddenly discovered? And if the youth are a significant market segment for Goa’s tourism sector, wouldn’t it make more sense to invest more in leisure facilities that appeal to young people and make holidays in Goa more fun for them. I haven’t seen any mention of such investments or plans for such investments in any of the news reports on Goa tourism’s deal with Desai.

And second, the way I understand it, there is generally a fit between the brand and its ambassador. The ambassador sort of personifies the brand and helps position it as something the target market should aspire to. With this in mind, I’m not too sure if Desai quite fits the bill though she reportedly said: “I've been to Goa quite a few times and found out that there's so much more to explore.” Wouldn’t a youth icon like Mahendra Singh Dhoni, for instance, capture the youthful, edgy spirit of Goa better? He would have cost much more though, I guess.

Meanwhile, there’s been no news since March about the Kerala Tourism-Amitabh Bachchan courtship. Perhaps it was the ‘red card’ that nixed the budding relationship and caused a potential blockbuster to crash after the first weekend.

Not quite goodbye

I guess the relationship between technology and travel has always been direct and incremental. Every advancement in technology, particularly in that related to travel or communication, has, arguably, had significant implications for travel.

For some time now, I’ve been looking at the equation between technology — information and communication technologies in particular — and travel. The Internet, for one, has transformed the way we travel. The Net’s effect is visible on virtually every aspect of travel — from planning a trip to booking the tickets and hotels, and from applying for a visa to ordering foreign exchange cards.

What’s less visible is how personal communication devices such as smart phones are beginning to revolutionise travel. And leading this revolution are the “apps” or applications, which are pieces of software that run on a bunch of electronic devices including mobile phones.

So it was great to read this thoughtful piece by Tom Robbins, travel editor of the Financial Times. Robbins focuses on how the Internet, smart phones and smart phone apps like Google Goggles are likely to flush printed guidebooks down the drain.

It’s an insightful and entertaining read. And it sure sounds sexy to be able to dig out more dope on something interesting by simply taking its picture and then using Google Goggles’ image search power. But I wonder if it is a trifle premature to be writing a requiem for the guidebook.

Robbins is spot on when he writes that an app like Google Goggles allows him to “have at my fingertips more information than exists in any guidebook ever written – perhaps more even than the combined wisdom of all guidebooks ever written.” And that, perhaps, is also exactly why an app like Goggles may not be able to completely replace a good guidebook.

I’ve not tried Goggles, but I assume that a search would throw up at least several hundred results. And if it uses algorithms that are similar to those used by Google’s keyword search engine, I expect you’d end up with many results that may not have the exact information you are looking for.

So while apps like Goggles do make information accessible, a good guidebook goes one step further by filtering information to make it accessible and relevant. In a nutshell, a good guidebook will mostly dispense the wisdom you need and not all the wisdom in the universe.

Despite this, the guidebook in its present avatar may slowly disappear in some parts of the world over the next few years. But canny travel publishers, I believe, will develop guidebook apps that could give Goggles some competition. Along with this, they will also need to explore electronic versions of their guidebooks for devices like the iPad.

Robbins, himself, touches on this possibility, writing “this summer there’s a buzz in the world of travel publishing, a sense of being on the verge of a totally new era. The Internet allowed people to research their trips themselves before setting out, but smart phone apps and iPads travel with them.”

The buzz Robbins talks about will in all probability grow, as travel publishers realise that smart phones and similar devices are a market they need to create compelling products for. Of course, they’ll also need to invent business models for this market; models that compete with the ‘give it away free’ strategy that companies such as Google adopt.

Simultaneously, guidebook publishers will also need to create business models that cater to emerging outbound travel markets like India and China. In a market like India, where some 9.8 million people travelled out of the country in 2007, printed guidebooks may sell well for many more years, but quality and affordability will be key.

Of course, guidebook publishers could also decide to give printed guidebooks a miss and instead tap India’s exploding mobile phone market. But with smart phones not as ubiquitous in India as in many other telecom markets, guidebook apps may need to be offered at lower price points and also tweaked so they work reasonably well on phones that are not very ‘smart’.

Accessing guidebook apps while travelling aboard could also be a challenge for many mobile phone users in India, given the rather high international roaming charges the country’s telecom companies charge. This, I imagine, is an issue in many other markets too. So guidebook publishers are going to have to find ways around high roaming charges — working with telecom companies to create innovatively structured and priced guidebook apps could be one solution.

In emerging markets, travel publishers are also going to have to look very seriously at the mechanics of venturing into guidebook apps in local languages. In India, for instance, this could open up an entirely new segment of the market and generate significant returns. Global travel publishers may even be able to create a market for high quality, printed guidebooks in Indian languages.

Therefore, the guidebook strategy for markets such as India, I suspect, will have to be a hybrid — a model that builds on the publisher’s brand salience and uses innovative pricing to hawk both old-fashioned printed guidebooks and cutting edge guidebook apps.

And to answer the question that Robbins raises: Is it the end of the guidebook? Not quite. It’s more like the end of the guidebook as we know it. Make that ‘knew it’.

Games people play

Expectedly, the Equations report I wrote about a few days ago is less than enthusiastic about the Commonwealth Games to be held in Delhi later this year.

And in an intriguing coincidence, the Equations report came just days before India’s Central Vigilance Commission raised concerns about corruption in projects associated with the games. As I write this, the New Indian Express reports: “Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar is understood to have asked the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee to submit details about the delays in the completion of games projects, cost overruns and deals that have attracted adverse media attention…”

Rosemary Viswanath, Chief Functionary, Equations, for one, will not be surprised by the issues the Vigilance Commission seems to have raised. She wrote to me that many of the concerns the report raises came “like worms out of the woodwork as we investigated and went deeper into the issues.”

Much of what the report raises has been spoken of earlier — the opacity surrounding the Games and their organisation including the bidding process; notions of development, identity and belonging; the displacement of people; and the use of public funds. The report also draws attention to how all these issues seem largely to be ignored or sacrificed at the altar of ‘national pride’ and ‘building a world class city’.

The Equations report, Humanity–Equality–Destiny? Implicating Tourism in the Commonwealth Games, is crystal clear on one thing though — mega events like the Commonwealth Games do little to bolster tourism. It marshals data from around the world, to substantiate its arguments. For instance, it talks about how New Zealand withdrew its support for Auckland’s bid to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games because “economic analysis had shown the loss to taxpayers on the games, even after tourism revenues had been counted, could not be justified.”

Viswanath emphasises: “We are not against the Games per se – what we are attempting is to raise issues on the processes that have been adopted and why things should have been done differently.”

One issue that Equations raises is the basis on which India’s Tourism Ministry concludes that the Games will draw 70,000-plus foreign tourists and that 40,000 hotel rooms will be required to house these visitors. “What we are saying is that the methodology adopted by Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management (Ministry of Tourism) to arrive at the figures forecasted is flawed on various counts and as this is the sole study that the MoT is relying on we are extremely sceptical of these projections,” she explains.

Yes, October is when the ‘season’ begins; when foreign tourists start arriving in India in larger numbers. But it does seem a bit of a stretch to believe that upwards of 70,000 foreign tourists will come to Delhi just for the games. This seems even more unlikely given that India’s top inbound market is the US, which has no Commonwealth ties. And though the UK and Bangladesh are the two other top inbound markets, I do wonder whether many tourists from these countries will come to India for the Games. In fact, chances are that many foreign visitors will stay away from Delhi during the Games to escape possible problems thrown up by the event.

Another issue the Equations report throws up is the frenzy with which land was allotted to build new hotels and thus create the 40,000 high-end hotel rooms Delhi supposedly needs for the games. Referring to this, Viswanath says: “Remember massive real estate linked decisions have been made based on these ‘projections’.” According to the report, of the 39 hotel sites auctioned for the Games, work on only 4 sites had been completed by April this year.

Equations also argues that the Games’ organisers have focused a bit too much on high-end hotel rooms and almost ignored budget rooms. The real demand, if at all, is likely to be for budget hotel accommodation and not high-end rooms. And not much seems to have been done at this end of the market, the report adds.

It also raises questions about how the Games’ tourism strategy will benefit small and medium tourism businesses. “Also what we argue is ‘who’ or ‘what’ consists of Indian tourism – what happens to the small and informal operators. What do they get out of this?” Viswanath asks.

The report is also fascinating reading for some of the nuggets it has dug up on the smoke and mirrors that seem to cloak the Games. For instance, the original bid documents for the Games apparently declared that once the Games are over, apartments in the Games village will be handed over to Delhi University for its use and also for use during future sporting events. The last I heard, Games Village apartments are to be sold to the public for rather nifty sums.

Similarly, the report says that plans for the Games include dedicated road lanes in Delhi for the exclusive use of those associated with the Games. And, it seems, strict penalties will be imposed on those who stray into these exclusive lanes. I could go on…

Reading the Equations report got me wondering why they’d chosen to publish it now; when little can be done to change the contours of the Games. I put this question to Viswanath and here’s what she says: “It is true we may not be able to create much of a dent in relation to the CWG, but are hopeful that the larger questions we are raising will be addressed at a later date and time, when India bids again.”

Now, that’s not too much to hope for, is it?

Tourism games

The Commonwealth Games to be held in Delhi later this year are, arguably, being positioned as India’s coming of age party. As an occasion to showcase the country’s prowess — in sporting and off the sports field too. Whether the games will actually be able to do this, is still quite fuzzy.

One sector that has its hopes pinned on the games is tourism. At last year’s World Travel Market, India’s Tourism Minister reportedly said that around 100,000 tourists are expected to visit India during the Commonwealth Games. Segments of the hospitality industry, however, don’t seem to share this confidence. Similarly, there are also reports that tourists have not warmed up to the games, at least not yet.

And things are set to get even more interesting. An event that is scheduled to happen in New Delhi on Tuesday, July 27 will in all probability stir the Commonwealth Games cauldron a bit further.

The Bangalore-based NGO Equations and the Housing and Land Rights Network have announced a press conference to release the report ‘Humanity – Equality – Destiny? Implicating Tourism in the Commonwealth Games, 2010’. According to Equations, the report “comes in a series of investigations by civil society groups on the developments and implications” of the games. And it “investigates the links between mega-sport events, tourism and notions of development.”

Now I haven’t seen the report yet, but I expect that it is not going to be very complimentary about the Commonwealth Games-tourism link. Having said that, it will be interesting to see what the report and press conference throw up.