Leaving On A Jet Plane

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Tour operators as service providers are a traveller’s delight serving dream vacations on a platter. By Deeya Nayar-Nambiar

Ride a camel in Dubai, shop for designer clothes on Bond Street, enjoy the concert at the Sydney Opera House or experience the beauty of the island at the Soneva Fushi Resort and Spa in the Maldives; your wish is their command. Tour operators, a one-stop shop for all your travel needs, have simplified the concept of travel and vacation.

As the holiday season approaches, tour operators bring out exclusive holiday packages and even slash prices to woo the customers. Besides package tours for the hoi polloi, they also offer customised holiday plans for the affluent who demand a five star accommodation, fine dining at exclusive getaways.

At a time when tourism has bloomed into a global leisure activity and the buying and spending power of the consumers is on an upswing, reaching out to your favourite destination is just a matter of planning a trip according to a budget that fits your pocket. Indeed, these service providers are a traveller’s delight who serve dream vacations on a platter and offer all your necessities under one roof.

It takes only a couple of minutes but fix your priorities in advance – the duration of your holiday, the period you are travelling and the budget –  much before you decide to walk into the nearest office of a tour operator. Based on your requirement, they prepare the itinerary and organise everything for your trip.

“In customised packages you do not have readymade itineraries, but we make it as per their requirement and duration. Here the budget comes in last,” says Yogesh Selarka, chief operating officer of RAJ Travel World.

Most of the packages include airfare, airport taxes, food (mostly breakfast and dinner), accommodation and sightseeing. Yet, beside the brochures, inquire and get a clear picture of what the package is inclusive of. Remember, tour operators are only service providers; you have to make a wise buy.

Though runaway inflation has affected many leisure holiday plans of even the upper middle class, to the affluent it has made no difference. At a cost (inclusive of all charges other than the holiday packages) of about Rs 70,000 to Rs 7 lakh, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, USA, Australia, UK, and New Zealand are the most preferred destinations. However, “people are open to visiting exotic destinations like Scandinavia, Turkey, Greece, Alaska and Morocco,” says Selarka.

Destinations are a welcome but what entice you are the packages. Kesari takes pride in their Special Interest Tour that is designed taking into consideration the need of a specific segment of people. “This segmentation is done based on various aspects such as age, gender, activities, sports, and adventure etc. For instance, ‘My Fair Lady’ is meant only for women and ‘Second Innings’ for senior citizens. These tours are different from that of the regular tours, they do not have mere sightseeing but also have many fun games, fashion shows, and other interesting activities and that is why they are special,” says Sandesh Sonawale, public relation executive at Kesari. Kesari also offers travel loans for the total tour cost, including airfare; you only need to pay the initial booking amount, which will be refunded once the loan is sanctioned.

Similarly, RAJ Travels offers a Nano series to Far East, Europe and the US, which is an all-inclusive package. Likewise, SOTC, a leading brand of Kuoni Travel Group India, has many ‘Cost Saver’ tours that have been designed keeping in mind the budget of the traveller without compromising on sightseeing and basic holiday needs. However, if you are planning a more high-end customised tour, Kuoni holidays have many a destinations to choose from.

Interestingly, food, especially vegetarian, has been a concern for most of the Indians travelling abroad and tour operators have made it their USP. “We send cooks with our customers to wherever they go. And we provide only vegetarian cuisines including Jain food,” says Jitendra Shah, CMD of Heena Tours & Travels.

In fact RAJ Travels was the first outbound tour company to introduce Indian meals on its Globe Tour Packages, and their concept of ‘caravan kitchens’ serving Indian hot meals in Europe.

“Tour Guides and managers as well as cooks are mandatory additions to our packages. In fact, Cox and Kings have specially stationed Indian chefs at different European destinations,” says Karan Anand, head of business development. Cox and Kings is one of the oldest and reputed travel organisations in India that specialises in foreign exchange and medical insurance assistance as well.

And the point to be noted is travel insurance is a must, say travel operators in unison, but it is not always included in their services. You have to specifically ask the tour operator to get you insured by a reputed company.

With Diwali and Christmas round the corner and summer vacations to follow soon, tour operators are gearing up for business. “Bookings commence well in advance; even for RAJ Travels’ European Holidays the brochures come 8-9 months in advance and enquiries have already begun for 2009,” says Selarka.

Published in September 2008, btw of Chitralekha Group

Knocking on Heaven’s Door

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Alienation is a deeply individual feeling that can be overcome by indexing it to self esteem, self belonging and self worth.

By Deeya Nayar-Nambiar

Everybody has a story to tell; so does Kabir. He has been searching for the perfect way to die. This has taken a long time and tonight is the night. Home is the place where he decides to take his life and he mixes his last cocktail for a smooth way to exit…His books, his things, everything is filed and tagged, marked with ‘Post-it’, ready to be passed on to its new owners. His belongings witness the trail of events as mute spectators. As he takes the final plunge in a methodical manner, both eager and tentative, the telephone in his apartment rings. This is what the movie Ctrl+Alt+Del, available only through Reliance mobiles, has to say. But he is not alone. He just represents many such Kabirs around us. While we get to read about some who have taken their life after failed love, there are others who have lived a successful life after overcoming that spur of moment.

In a fragmented modern world where time for each other is ‘virtual’ and the rat race is ‘reality’, alienation has got the better of the vulnerable. These meek individuals can be anyone – married, single, old, or teenagers. They take time off to party or meet over a cup of coffee. But most of the time they come in exhausted, leaving little space for communication, thus hampering the process of building a stronger bond. The desire to connect remains unfulfilled and in the meantime a sense of emptiness and loneliness grips them. And despite the success, loneliness, followed by alienation, is the end product.

The result is “a dramatic contrast, death represents the diametric opposite of success and its trappings.” For instance, take the character of Kabir. “Kabir is a man who believes in the perfectness of things – perfect friend, perfect product, perfect service, the very tools that have made him successful also aid his decision to find the ‘perfect way to die’,” says Saurabh Gupta, director of Ctrl+Alt+Del. Perhaps by being extremely sensitive and diligent one tends to be a mismatch in this society. In fact, as actor Rahul Bose who gave life to the character of Kabir adds, “He is sensitive, he is intelligent and such people are unable to deal with the cruelty of life. Such people see or look out for purity, innocence and love in society.”

Then the question remains: You have everything and everyone, but why still alone? Studies have shown that feeling lonely can be a healthy emotion and choosing to be alone or being in solitude can be enriching indeed. But experiencing loneliness will be to feel overwhelmed by an unbearable feeling of separateness at a profound level, which can manifest in feelings of abandonment, rejection, depression, insecurity, anxiety, hopelessness, unworthiness and meaninglessness. If ignored, they may cause hindrance and serve to prevent development of healthy relationships and lifestyles. Gradually this leads to alienation – a feeling of separation or isolation. May be that is the story of many a senior citizens, who have well-settled children in different parts of the world, a bungalow to live in with a huge lawn in backyard, but only a dog and gardener for company.

According to sociologists, alienation refers to the individual’s estrangement from traditional community and others in general. That is, in the present world where the society is not close knit, individual relationships become shallower. Indeed, we can withstand the situation for some time. Yet, mind you, we cannot battle it out always and then feelings like loneliness, solitude, and alienation will encourage depression, anxiety and other mental illness such as schizophrenia and neurosis. And in extreme cases the mind takes a suicidal bend.

Statistics claim that in India over 1,00,000 persons commit suicide every year. The reasons may be many. Dr Lakshmi Vijayakumar, a member of WHO’s (World Health Organisation) International Network for Suicide Research and Prevention feels, “The media sometimes give intense publicity to ‘suicide clusters’ – a series of suicides that occur, mainly among young people, in a small area within a short period of time. These have a contagious effect especially when they have been glamorised provoking imitation or ‘copycat suicides’. As the HOD of department of psychiatry of Voluntary Health Services in Chennai says, “This multi-dimensional malaise with social, religious, cultural reasons, alcoholism or personality disorder are driven by a triad of emotions – loneliness, helplessness and hopelessness, is preventable since there is process time between thought and action.”

Yet in spite of a strong family support system, friends and loved ones, young people continue to kill themselves because we fail to diagnose the real malaise. “The concept of urban tribes, city slickers who stick to small cohesive groups instead of socialising with the larger world, is a by-product of an inward looking society that looks to reinforce the very stereotypes (caste, class, pedigree) it has abandoned, albeit in a different form,” says Saurabh Gupta.

May be to some extent with the advancement of technology the human element has started taking a backseat for the rich and affordable class of society. And often it is the impersonal voice of a customer care service that gives you the much needed company as you get alienated from everything and everybody around. At some point of time the desire to be known and the feeling of being wanted makes you press Ctrl+Alt+Del just as you can do with a computer. Is it that alienation is a state you want to be but you cannot be in?

“It is a deeply individual feeling and no human being would feel alienated if indexed to self-esteem, self-belonging, self-worth and such other,” observes Rahul Bose. But it is necessary to ensure that once smitten by such feelings you do not surrender to it. The day we are able to detach the stigma surrounding a ‘failure’ and the emphasis laid on being ‘successful’, with professional counselling and support gravity of alienation can be overcome. Also before you reach a point of being alienated or succumb to loneliness get yourself occupied in things that you love to do best – may be join a club, pursue a hobby, or even play with your pet. Feeling alienated is not an end. The day this is realised you can begin your life afresh.

Indicators

    • Experiencing low self esteem

      Feeling estranged in a crowd

      Feelings of being either superior or inferior to the surrounding

      Feeling reluctant to make changes or try new things

      Feeling upset about why no one knows how isolated you are

      Feeling empty, depressed and in extreme cases suicidal tendencies

Published in February 2007, btw of Chitralekha Group

Split Wide Open

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Seance on a Sunday Afternoon is collection of short stories about emotions, situations and circumstances that reflect the little nuances of life. By Deeya Nayar-Nambiar

Set in the modern society of sex and the city, hard-pressed for time, every character is self-indulgent. Shinie Antony pens her stories mysteriously and mischievously like the contemporary artist who paints with bold brush strokes to bring out the symbolism and meaningfulness.

Giving the reader a slice of urban society with its confluence of the dos and don’ts, Seance on a Sunday Afternoon is a collection of short stories that reflect the little nuances of the lives, of human emotions, people in queer situations and circumstances. The stories are a trail of words and word play, poetic at times and prose otherwise.

Shinie lives through the characters, springing them to life to tell their tales as if in flesh and blood. Her bold writing style is not only her freedom of expression but also an expression of bold and sensuous themes on a lighter note. If one sentence provokes laughter, the other moves you to tears.

Even the harsh realities of life as a breast cancer patient, L finds a new meaning to her lost beauty. Elsewhere, a widow re-marries but still cannot come to terms with her first husband’s death. Everything is handled delicately.

Stories like ‘The Sofa’ and the ‘Seance On A Sunday Afternoon’ bring out the feelings of old people and the young, their memories, loneliness, detachments and attachments. In the process of writing, Shinie brings to life inanimate objects such as the sofa, fan and cancer.

Shinie’s tryst with writing is not new. As a journalist she polished her skills in imaginative and intuitive writing and has not looked back since her ‘Somewhere in Gujarat’ and ‘A Dog’s Death’ bagged the first prize in the Commonwealth Short Story Competition in 2001 and 2002.

Fascinated by the dark side of life, and an interest to keep pace with the Net savvy world, Shinie has also attempted to write like a blogger, uses sms language and similies, to explore the mind of a housewife who wants to connect with others in the cyber space.

Indeed, to understand the hidden facts of relationships and life in a city, the reader as a “common man” should sharpen his intellect to decipher or interpret the wit and the beauty of the language and idiom of Seance on a Sunday Afternoon.

Séance On A Sunday Afternoon

Shinie Antony

Rupa & Co, Rs 195

Published in June 2008, btw of Chitralekha Group

Interesting Fact: August 2008

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There has never been a dearth of facts…

1. Saturn is the only planet in our solar system that is less dense than water. If you could build an imaginary gigantic bathtub, Saturn would float in it says NASA

2. Basenji, smallish dog with a silky copper coat, does not bark. Instead, it yodels when it gets excited

3. Fossilised tree sap or resin must be at least 30 million years old to be recognised as Amber. Interestingly it is considered as one of the most popular gemstone in jewellery

4. The 4 minutes 33 seconds (4’33”) musical piece is famous for its no sound at all. Written by the American composer John Cage, it is a piano piece where a pianist sits at the piano and plays nothing for exactly 4 minutes and 33 seconds

5. One of the most important inventions in history was the rubber band-powered airplane, the planophore. French scientist Alphonse Penaud astounded everyone by flying a rubber band-powered aircraft for 131 feet. Indeed it was the first recorded flight of an inherently stable aircraft

6. Nepal is the only country without a rectangular flag as theirs look like two pennants glued on top of the other

7. The most filmed story of all time is Dracula followed by Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and and Oliver Twist in the second and third position

8. Libra, the Scales, is the only inanimate symbol in the zodiac signs

9. Pingu a swiss animated children’s television serial has adventures that are suitable for broadcast in any language, because the closest thing it has to a dialog is in a non-language called “Penguinese”

10. Nasturtiums have long been prized for their nutritive value. A nasturtium leaf is as high in vitamin C as a lettuce leaf

By Deeya Nayar-Nambiar, Published in SigningOff column, btw of Chitralekha Group