Jai ho!

The other day, a return trip, to Bengalooru from Delhi, turned out to be as non eventful, as most other flights, that I've been on.

However, the flight to my mind was very different & significant, as, I hark back to my first flight, in 1986. This aeroplane was piloted by two very smart young ladies, a first for me, on an Indian domestic airline. Back in the 1980's through the 1990's, piloting a plane was the sole domain of men and women confined themselves, to being cabin crew.

While, the lady pilots flew their bird, very well, I was very impressed, by the efficiency of young Srikanth, who served us, through the flight. Extremely deft and in control all the time, his manners were perfect.

One day, in the near future, I hope to see, ships, 'manned' by a all woman crew. Maybe I should have used the word 'womanned'.

This is not a piece on the training methods at Jet Air, but rather, my curios interest, in the role reversal that I'm seeing all around. To me it would appear, that growth in India, is inclusive, though slow and I'm prepared to live with that.

If you look at India's long history, you would see, that we started with a superb system of division of labor ( Caste system), which fell apart as we went along and turned increasingly ugly, rigid, exploitative and non inclusive. This non inclusion of major chunks of our population, ( Dalits) in our growth has plagued India, through recent times and we have labored with divisive politics, unequal growth and a lack of national unity.

Though the pilot story, may seem insignificant, to me, it provides a window to peer into the future and if you can see through the fog, you would see an India, that is inclusive, non exploitative and strong, as against some of our neighbors, who thrive on the business of terror or who have made rapid progress through exploitative growth.

I'm prepared to wait and live with our model, because I'm convinced, that short cuts can take you only that far and not the distance. Our growth story must be sustainable.

Over the many years that I've flown the fear of landing has not left me & as I shut my eyes and prayed as we descended into Bangalore, the pilot made a perfect smooth landing.

Jai ho.................