Cyclone Fani- A Job Well Done

The government doing a great job? It showed us what can happen when all the wings of government work together with focus. Of course, we have seen it before in our Space program or Nuclear Program, or even Weather Satellites Development (which is one reason why this disaster was managed so well).

This could easily have been a Killer cyclone with thousands of deaths, but timely evacuation and provision of services to the evacuated people (like shelters), turned it into just another storm, weathered well.

When I lived in the U.S., there was Hurricane Hugo which hit the South Carolina coast, and the damage was extensive. We heard stories from affected people, and they were bad- late 80s sometime.

I am glad an Indian State has made such progress in managing crises created by natural forces. May the Force be with us, for greater good of our citizens.

Of Cyclones and More- Mission Impossible

I was in Great Lakes Institute at Chennai for a conference. Against impossible odds, when Cyclone Thane (a Burmese name) threatened, we still managed a round of Golf at the Gymkhana early morning before it struck. Mission Impossible? Tom Cruise would be proud. Great Lakes justified its name, and looked like all the Lakes had converged on it. Conference went on quite well in spite of that.

One of the bonuses of a conference is you get to meet academic friends and others too. Both missions were fulfilled. Some interesting papers on advertising effectiveness came from presenters. Also squeezed in some movies, including Mission Impossible 4- The Ghost Protocol. Interesting concept, though not new. Tom Cruise is aging, but still watchable. But a better film was a video watch called Hotel Rwanda, about a brave manager at this hotel who saves many guests through his innovative thinking, during one of the usual civil wars/coups that are the bane of many African nations. Moving, with a very good acting quotient. Also had a glimpse of Woody Allen's 2011 film, Midnight in Paris, which has the hero, a budding author (played by Owen Wilson) doing time travel to a Paris of another era and meeting great authors and artists- Hemingway, Picasso, Scott Fitzgerald, Salvadore Dali, and in the process, discovering himself. Fantastic idea!