Flying... With Strings Attached

In the last post I talked about the confusion apparent in airports and aircrafts of India, and highlighted the confusion that I witnessed in some of our international airports.

I wish to dive deeper to understand the root causes for this confusion in our airports, and unravel what lies beyond this mirage of confusion.

Amidst the fast expanding global liberal markets that have resulted in influences deep into societies across the world, Indian governance machinery appears peculiarly suspicious of the power of market forces, and continues exercising its power by means of regulations, constraints, guidelines and circulars on businesses through complex & innovative combinations of committees, regulatory bodies, departments and sometimes dedicated ministries. One such combination is that of the Airports Authority of India (AAI), Airports Economic Regulatory Authority, Civil Aviation Ministry, and the quintessential Indian flagship - the Department of Official Language.

At the outset, isn't it itself startling that the Rajbhasha department (whoever needs it?) is even listed in the affairs of an authority responsible for Indian airports?! Being a super biased yet powerful department that it is, it is not surprising how this department finds an influential spot in the airways market in India. It is empowered to monitor and influence the deployment of Hindi in AAI, among other central government undertakings. This deployment has incorporated Hindi in examinations and interviews, Hindi literacy is now a key pre-requisite for employment in many of its agencies. These agencies, in turn strive to press indirectly and repeatedly on the AAI and related departments the need for having Hindi in all possible uses of language - the interiors of airports and flights not excluded from this list. As a consequence of such machinery aided by the who-asked-for-it three-language formula we've all become mute evidence to confusion lurking in our public places.

The final casualty of all this is doubtlessly the common man, and the customer in his respective market. It is reasons such as these behind market ill-health that we need to wake up to, not get used to the filthy situation itself. It is the customer inside each of us who can poke businesses to strive to get our markets back to good health. After all how far can one fly with strings attached?

Our Airports, very confusing!

Welcoming the world via elaborate airports is a new found fashion of every country. This is a trend one can notice today - in an era when a globalized economy seems to be the destiny of every nation and embracing a higher flux of people across its borders a desired consequence, reasons manifold.

With this as background, I happened to take a quick glance at a couple of Indian airports. In fact the following few illustrations are sequences one would commonly witness when passing through some of our country's airports and when flying in planes run by some of our airline companies. (Please note, I am referring to those airlines that are registered on Indian soil, and come under the purview of rules applying here.)

Tamil comes first in Anna airport in Chennai

Ambient Language
While the ambiance and services an airport offers to its passengers could be a mere cosmetic artifact, the real charisma is embedded in the cultural richness the airport stands to represent, a culture the airport apparently opens doors to. Its an easy guess about the important role the ambient-language of the airport plays in making it this cultural tableaux.

The picture to the left illustrates two informative boards inside Chennai (Anna intl) Airport, marked significantly in the Tamil language (on top), followed by Hindi and English. Although the question about the need for three languages remains unasked here (too), common-sense seems to have prevailed though, clearly prioritizing communication in Tamil. This pattern of signage appears uniform across this airport making it clear that Tamil is the language that represents the culture of that land. This airport certainly has a bright future.. all such airports I mean.

Near invisible Kannada on boards in Bengaluru Intl airport

On the other hand, the picture on the right taken in the new Bengaluru Intl Airport illustrates its dismal state of affairs when it comes to clarity in communication. Ambivalence and poor understanding of the real culture of Karnataka seems to be advertised shamelessly in every such placard inside BIA. Notice the clear difference in the sign-age methodologies between these two airports of neighboring states. Bengaluru being the capital of a Kannada state, this situation in BIA confuses the daylight out of its visitors with every such board!

More Confusion mid-air

In-flight directions - a rather risky confusion this!

Going ahead, this picture inside a plane further demonstrates how worse this confusion about language use (in a market) has become and how troubled and confused it leaves the common man participating in such markets. Consequence - this flight between Bengaluru and Chennai is evidently missing languages of both cities involved in this flight! Even here, English and Hindi swap positions between boards, reflecting the confusion even these airliners seem to be in when it comes to providing vital communication to passengers!

Why, I ask myself, does this confusion prevail in a market that has been functioning since longer than many other world markets. Let to itself, will our market not figure out which language is best placed in which market? Will the customers in those markets not want lesser confusion?! Who is voting confusion to rule here, after all? Let us find out...

(to be continued)