Addictions

 Mobile phones are the biggest among present addictions. Started with Orkut, maybe, went on to Facebook, and Instagram, and may go anywhere from here. The celebrities had Twitter, now X. And everyone has WhatsApp. 

There used to be the good old addictions, like tea, coffee, alcohol, and drugs. They now look like pale shadows of themselves. 

Reading or TV/film-watching may have been addictions too, now mostly replaced by Netflix-type OTT channels on whichever device is available. 

I have actually seen Chief Guests or bigwigs looking at their phones while sitting on stage in important events like Convocations, so one cannot blame it on the youngsters alone.

Movies in theatres are less appealing due to constant buzzing of phones, and people talking on them! Flights, likewise, unless the stewards are strict about it. Even if a plane is crashing, people may want to take a selfie for posterity.

Serious!

Innovations in Flying and Elsewhere

This was a Business Class like no other I have been in. Individual seats that can go horizontal. Was on this flight where I got upgraded, and looks like it was the right one to get upgraded on! Comfortable, so that even the half-hour delay circling over Mumbai did not seem like much (on a one and half- hour flight). Why don't they make all seats in an aircraft like these? Isn't that what innovation is supposed to do?

Anyway, let's leave that to high-flying innovators and concentrate on our job. What have we innovated lately?