Comments for Cutting The Edge

Comment on The Irish economy — and its beautiful people by DC

DC — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:55:53 +0000

Nice one Gautam, liked it; pls elaborate on how slowdownis affecting high profile jobs there (i.e. so called mid-management jobs).

Comment on The Irish economy — and its beautiful people by Gautam Chikermane

Gautam Chikermane — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:40:32 +0000

perpetual dilettante: thanks for writing in. Glad you liked the post.

Comment on The Irish economy — and its beautiful people by perpetual dilettante

perpetual dilettante — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 08:22:57 +0000

regular reader, first time poster…really enjoyed the post. A large section of our country has been shielded from the worst of the downturn. It is fascinating to get a peek into the magnitude of the impact of this recession on other parts of the world, even if these geographies have absolutely nothing in common with us.

Comment on Silence at the Zurich airport by Deb

Deb — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:35:05 +0000

The pain extends to not only US airlines, but most airlines and I dare say also the hospitality industry of most Western countries, in stark contrast to those of the East. I used to travel a lot till a few years back, mostly to SE Asia/Africa and occasionally to Europe. I found both the airlines and hotels of Western countries totally inhospitable. The staff of most Western airlines would treat you as if you were a freeloader, being downright rude. Those of African ones (like Kenyan Air) were a bit better but by far the best were the SE Asian ones, among them Thai which was the one I used most. And not only in inflight service. I remember an incident where my Delhi-Bangkok flight got delayed due to late arrival at Delhi of the Air India (what else?) flight from Mumbai. I landed at Bangkok just a few minues before my Thai flight to Phnom Penh was to leave and, lo and behold, a Thai attendant was standing right at the aerobridge gate to receive me and zip me through the airport to my connection (it’s another matter that my luggage got left at Bangkok - thanks to Air India!). Some ‘Asian’ airlines like Emirates, though, which had reasonable standards of service a few years back (even if almost totally staffed by Europeans) have fallen to more ‘Western’ standards.

As for hotels, most hotels in Europe would serve you a ‘cold breakfast’ in the morning, and that too only if you’ve hung the ‘breakfast card’ outside your door at night. Else, since many small hotels don’t have a lavish buffet breakfast a la Asian hotels, you can go hungry. And at one hotel in an English town, I had to drag my luggage all the way to the third floor across steep stairs (it was a converted castle), only to reach the smallest hotel room I’ve even set my eyes on in my life - about 4×9 ft. with the minuscule toilet jutting in one side!

I’m happy to be in Asia, thank you very much.

Comment on Revisiting rock…19 years later by Gautam Chikermane

Gautam Chikermane — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:14:32 +0000

Aram: Glad you enjoy the blog. Yes, Advaita is brilliant.

Comment on The Irish economy — and its beautiful people by Gautam Chikermane

Gautam Chikermane — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:13:04 +0000

Vikram: I wrote because I thought it would give insights into the struggle of a people against the global economic onslaught. I am sorry you felt the story was unnecessary or the insights I hoped you would get were missed.

Comment on The Irish economy — and its beautiful people by Vikram

Vikram — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 06:43:13 +0000

and if the weather is anything likethe english weather it will certainly not be helping matters much. with the days so short and dark and deary, the whole place dripping like an old bucket one and with a desperate economic situation like that one would feel like flinging themselves in the sea. thank god the water is usually very cold and not many people would do that. and why mr gautam were u writing a treatise on their economic conditions !! i dont see Ireland anywhere on the Indian economic or political radar. the only thing we have in common must be that both of us have been tormented by the english. so there ..

Comment on The Irish economy — and its beautiful people by Ashish

Ashish — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 05:38:54 +0000

Opitmism - at the heart of everything we do. The message is universal. Thank you for the pictures.

Comment on Silence at the Zurich airport by Rastogi

Rastogi — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 01:21:50 +0000

Well, Zurich airport opens only at 5-6 in the morning. It does get a little crowded after that.

And talking of airlines, have you ever tried LAN? Bloody good!

Comment on Shed a tear for Shanno… by Ish.Kumar

Ish.Kumar — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:41:07 +0000

Dear Sir,
It is very important to protect the child Against neglect and abuse. Recently I have come across a case where a 16 year old girl ,of a well educated family took an extreme step and committed suicide by hanging herself . There is clear evidence that her engineer father and well-qualified mother abused her verbally and would hit her mercilessly. The poor girl has pen down her sad biography.Is there any provision under Indian law to book parents for abetment to suicide of their child.

Please advise.

Regards

Kumar.