Category: Travel

Mother was in one of those taxis taking her from the Walgreens back to her home, and she didn’t know where it was coming from, but she felt it—no, she just knew it: there was a barking sound coming from somewhere inside the car, too close to be coming from outside.

“Do you hear that?” Mother asked the taxi driver.

“No-ma’am,” said the driver, slurring his syllables in such a way that Mother had to parse out the no and ma’am.

It didn’t matter what he said. Mother was damn sure she had heard it. It wasn’t like the ruff-ruff in a movie. It was a clear stuttering groan, followed by an elongated anguished howl.

The sound wasn’t going away either. She kept hearing it. There had to be a dog in here. The driver just wasn’t admitting it. Google Maps was telling her that home was just six minutes away, and those six minutes couldn’t come quickly enough.

There was a story that went around Charleston involving a little stray dog named Poogan who had roamed Queen’s Street in the seventies. The dog had been dead for many years. Yet people claimed all the time to see the dog, a ghost, going up and down the street just as he had done when he was a stray.

Mother was a good Christian woman. Mother believed in an afterlife, and while she couldn’t discount the idea of a ghost, she knew the Bible didn’t speak of it.

So why was it that in the moment Mother got out of her taxi, she saw a young wheaten terrier? It was just lying in the grass right outside of her lawn, napping. Mother had seen dogs here before that belonged to her neighbors, but none were small and toy-like. Wasn’t Poogan supposed to look like something of this breed?

Mother tried to pass it, but it woke up and started following her.

“Shoo,” Mother shouted. She got to her porch. Her heels clacked against the wood, and she saw that it hadn’t gone away. She held up her purse like she was about to throw it. “Get on, git!”

The dog perked up and stared at the purse like it was a toy. Did the poor thing think Mother was in the mood to be playing fetch? Mother sighed. At her age it was hard to protest against anybody or anything. She just wanted to get into her house and throw off her heels.

Mother closed the door quickly and rested her feet on the sofa, turned on the TV, and thought about making popcorn. Then she heard the dog barking again. Was it outside? She tried to shut out the noise.

It was just at the corner of her eye, the slight wag of that furry tail. Somehow, the dog had gotten into her home. It was sitting by the couch, staring up at her with big Bambi eyes. It barked once, twice, just waiting for Mother to give it some of her time. Mother didn’t know whether to turn her head or keep her eyes fixed on the TV. Acknowledging the dog meant that she’d be confirming it was there, meaning she would have to get up and try to shoo it out.

Some ten minutes passed, and the dog settled down. Her feet were feeling a bit more relaxed, so Mother thought she would go upstairs for a bit to sort out where she wanted to put the medicines she had bought. She thought about taking one of the Tylenols. Her ankles still felt sore as she got to her feet.

The dog didn’t follow her upstairs. She thought about calling her sister and asking her what to do. Summer was ending soon, and her nephew, Clarence, would be heading off to school. He’d be starting middle school, which was a big deal. She was sure her sister would be hosting a barbecue to celebrate, which would surely embarrass Clarence and get the whole family laughing.

Her niece, Nakeisha, had called a few days ago to say she’d love to take up Mother’s offer to go to the mall together someday. She said she loved spending time with family and that talking to Mother taught her a lot. Mother knew that was a damn lie. All Nakeisha wanted was their money.

Mother knew this to be true because Nakeisha’s family didn’t have the best life over in Mobile, and sometimes Nakeisha’s mother, Latoya, would call just to ask for some help. All the fuss was because Mother’s husband was a private practice doctor. In other words, they were pretty wealthy. Nakeisha was getting into the theatre scene in Charleston and probably wanted the types of clothes that would impress her friends.

The dog was suddenly barking so loudly that Mother almost knocked the pill bottles off the medicine cabinet. Why was that damn dog in the house? Mother didn’t care that it felt like her ankles would fall off. She thundered downstairs and saw the dog sitting by the couch.

“Shoo! Just git!” Instead, the dog came up and started sniffing Mother’s hand. Mother pushed it aside before it could get wet with nose dew.

Mother shouted again, “Go on! Git!” If the dog could just move to the side a bit, she could shut the door on it, and it would be gone.

It was getting to be too much work, and Mother was too old to do any of it. She thought she’d get started on lunch as Father would be coming home from the hospital early today. Would she make lasagna? Or soup? It had been some time since she’d opened up anything Campbell, and they did have minestrone soup. It’d be easier than laboring over some minced meat, for sure.

She turned on the radio. On the program they were arguing about abortion, and this made Mother miss her pastor. The good news was that he was being put on bail. He wasn’t going to be in jail for much longer. But who would want to be led by a pastor who had been accused of raping a minor?

The barking was getting so loud that Mother couldn’t keep her hands fixed over the can opener. She went back to the living room with a shoe in her hand. She waved the shoe around, shouting about, but all that caused was for the dog to stare at it. She threw the shoe at it but it almost hit the TV, and caused the remote on the table to hit the floor, spilling its batteries everywhere. Mother had to pick them all up and put them back in. All the while the dog was barking louder because it was panicking.

It was so damn exhausting. She took another seat on that sofa, needing to rest after all the hubbub. She closed her eyes hoping it would all just go away.

Why did everything down to the smallest things in her life have to be a struggle?

Her life had been her son, but then her son had grown up and left home.

Her life had been her nephew, but now her nephew was growing into a teenager and forgetting about her, too.

Her life had been her church, but now that church had a bad rap and Mother risked getting caught up with the controversy.

Her life could have been her friends, but she only liked hanging out with them casually. There were no deep connections.

Her life could have been other relatives, but they were all so different, and all with their own agendas, and Mother didn’t know who to trust.

The fact was that she had so many options, but she didn’t know what to do with her life.

Except for the cooking. That she was going to have to get done because Father was going to come home expecting a meal, barking and all.

The dog was pouncing about and trying to sniff her, but Mother ignored the pooch. She decided on mac and cheese, which wouldn’t be as much work as lasagna, but at least it was something Father would sniff when he came in and say, That sure smells good.

And sure enough, when Father came in an hour later, long after the gruyere on top of the elbow tubes had simmered, he said, “That sure smells good.”

“All for you, my handsome,” Mother said. She came up and gave him a smooch. He was a little sweaty from the night shift, which Mother could smell immediately. Mother wondered why Father wasn’t making a comment about the other smells in the house. It was probably reeking of dog, but Mother’s nose was already acclimated to it.

Father came back down after a shower in casual clothes, and they started eating. Father talked about how tiring the night shift was, and Mother went over the things she had bought at Walgreens. She thought about how nice it was when Father was home and relaxed. She thought about how nice it would be if they could spend more time together the way couples were supposed to, and how much more fulfilling that would make her life.

Mother said to Father, “I’m so sorry about the smell.”

“The cheeses you put in this thing are pretty damn strong,” Father said.

“Silly,” Mother said, pouring herself some more wine. “You know that ain’t what I’m talking about. I’m talking about that dog smell.”

“That dog smell?”

“That dog smell. I don’t know how it got into the house. I was coming out of the cab and a dog was on our lawn and wouldn’t leave me. I yelled at it to try to get it to go away, but it just wouldn’t. I’m telling you, the barking has been making me go crazy.”

“The barking?”

“Yes, babe,” Mother said, pointing to her ear. “The barking, don’t you hear it?”

It was still happening, loud as always, but Mother had gotten used to it.

Father looked puzzled. He got up, despite him having only gone through a quarter of the meal. He went into the living room, circled back to the kitchen from the other side, went upstairs, then came back down.

“I ain’t seeing no dog anywhere.”

“Did it leave?” Mother said, getting up herself. It had been some time since she actually last saw it. But it couldn’t have left. Mother could still hear the barking pounding in her ears.

Mother went through the living room and circled back into the kitchen. She took a look upstairs. She took a look in the basement just in case.

It was odd. Mother could swear she was still hearing the barking.

Except the dog wasn’t there.

Air India is eyeing expansion of its service network in the United States. The airline would operate nonstop flights to India from Boston, Los Angeles and other US cities in the next few months, as part of its 5-year development plan named Vihaan.AI. Currently, Washington DC, New York JFK, Newark EWR, Chicago ORD, and San Francisco are the only destinations of Air India’s nonstop flights to USA from India.

“The reports of Air India planning to add Los Angeles and Boston to its US-India nonstop service corridor is no surprise to us. In our exclusive news article about the airline’s $70bn aircraft deal, we had hinted at Air India’s potential plans for penetrating the US market further. However, we had little idea that Boston and LAX would steal the show while Atlanta, Seattle, Houston and Dallas have been lobbying with Indian authorities for nonstop flights for years,” said Sourav Agarwal, the Editor of Travel Beats.

The most likely launch of Boston and Los Angeles to India nonstop flights is anticipated to coincide with the induction of six A350-900 aircraft into Air India’s long-haul fleet in October or November 2023. This is just a fraction of the airline’s order of 40 A350s, including 34 A350-1000 aircraft. In his most recent interviews, CEO Campbell Wilson said that the ageing fleet with outdated cabins had been a deterrent to the Tata airline’s growth and expansion in international markets.

Six A350-900s will add a total of 144 premium economy seats to Air India flights for international service. Indians of Southern California and New England would get a taste of Air India’s Premium Economy service on board if A350-900s are deployed for the upcoming new routes between USA and India. Each Airbus 350-900 will come with 24 Premium Economy, 28 Business and 264 Economy seats. A350-900s have business class seats with direct aisle access and doors for passengers’ privacy. With 31-inch seat pitch, economy seats will be a breather for travelers.

“Our customers who have taken Air India’s premium economy flights from SFO and JFK to Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru are all praise of the seats, meals and other inflight service. We are thrilled to share with you the below feedback from the traveler named Diwakar,” said the chief travel advisor of Indian Eagle, a most trusted air-ticketing partner of Indian Diaspora in America,

“We recently traveled by Air India from Mumbai to San Francisco in Premium Economy class. The entire journey was most comfortable. It was a great surprise by Air India for travelers preferring nonstop travel. In the last 20 years, we have traveled to USA many times. It was our 18th trip and the BEST travel experience. Kudos to AIR INDIA!”

Why are Boston and Los Angeles being targeted as highly potential destinations for new nonstop Air India flights to USA? The primary reason being the growing Indian immigrant community in Southern California and New England. In Southern California, Greater Los Angeles alone houses an inflated Indian-origin populace of more than 200,000. New England comprising Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Vermont in the northeast US, is home to a growing base of over 1 lakh Indians.

Boston is centrally located in New England, which makes Boston Logan Airport seamlessly accessible from Albany, Hartford, Milford, New Haven, Stamford, Cambridge, Providence, Springfield, Greenwich and other cities. Los Angeles International Airport is much nearer than SFO to Arizona and Southern Nevada by road. If Air India’s nonstop flight service to LAX becomes a reality, it will be a double celebration for Indians in Southern California. They are most likely to get an Indian Consulate in Los Angeles as an online petition is garnering their support.

Currently, IndianEagle.com has best deals for LAX and Boston to India flights by Emirates, Qatar Airways, Lufthansa, Turkish Airways, SWISS Airlines and others. Once Air India’s plans for nonstop travel from Boston and Los Angeles  to India take shape, it will trigger a fare war with other airlines on these routes.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has introduced new facial recognition technology at Baltimore-Washington International Airport to aid its credential authentication technology (CAT) in detecting fraudulent IDs and passports. The new system uses pictures of travellers’ faces to verify their credentials automatically, providing greater efficiency for passengers and security personnel. The TSA has invested $128m in rolling out the first batch of CAT machines equipped with facial recognition technology to 16 airports across the US. “This technology is valuable because it enhances detection capabilities for identifying fraudulent IDs such as driver’s licenses and passports”, said Christopher Murgia, federal security director for Maryland.

The system is set to transform airport security, improving safety and increasing the ease of passenger travel. The facial recognition technology linked with CAT scanners has garnered some concern, however. The government has previously cited privacy concerns as a reason for not requiring airlines to adopt the same technology. Facial recognition can be used to gain access to people’s smartphones, and some fear that hackers could use it to access security checks, which could be a potential risk as airports adopt this technology.

Despite these concerns, the TSA has said that photographs from facial scans are only used for comparison with the travellers’ picture IDs and no other purpose.  The machines can also read a range of other IDs, including permanent resident cards, visas, military common access cards, and Global Entry cards.

The first generation of CAT scanners was implemented at US airports in 2018, which eliminated the need for passengers to scan boarding passes at the podium pre-security. “The second generation of CAT machines, which include facial recognition scans, are being deployed in many US airports,” said Murgia.

Facial recognition technology has been on the rise globally and is being implemented in several industries. Experts view it as a valuable tool that could help reduce fraud compared to card-based and token-based systems. However, critics have voiced their concerns about privacy and security implications.

In addition to security benefits, there is a growing consensus that facial recognition technology will kick-start a new era of technological development, increasing efficiency and optimisation in several industries. Banks, hospitals, and schools around the world are all exploring the benefits and applications of facial recognition technology.

As for airport security, the TSA has confirmed that the deployment of CAT scanners with facial recognition technology will help increase the accuracy of screening, while also speeding up the process of security checks. “The TSA intends to deploy these biometrics technologies in a way that supports both security and privacy,” said TSA Administrator David Pekoske.

As the number of US airports with new machines expands, it is expected that facial recognition technology will fast become the norm across the industry. It remains to be seen whether similar systems will be introduced elsewhere in the world, but it is certainly a trend that is set to gather momentum.

Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) has announced that it will offer seats on its first electric planes, the Heart Aerospace 30-seat ES-30 model, for commercial passengers to reserve. The flights are set to take off in 2028 and mark the first time such a service has been available to customers. The announcement reflects SAS’s ambitious plans to maintain its position as an innovation leader within the aviation industry, “particularly when it comes to exploring new ways to overcome the challenges of making aviation more sustainable,” according to Anko van der Werff, President and CEO of SAS.
SAS says the electrified planes will operate on domestic flights in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, with the exact date and airport locations to be announced at a later date. At launch, all 30 seats on each of the three inaugural flights were available from 6 a.m. ET with no deposit required. To commemorate this milestone, each seat cost 1,946 Swedish Krona, which is about $179 in U.S. dollars and is a tribute to the year the company was founded. Reservations sold out immediately, with interested travelers able to join a waitlist or sign up for notifications of future opportunities.
Van der Werff explained that the idea of offering electric flights is designed to manifest the airline’s deep belief in the development of such electric airplanes, and to demonstrate to its clientele that the future of aviation is closer than many may think. “When it comes to the aircraft, we have multiple initiatives underway towards zero-emission flights, and final selection will be done in time for the first electric flight—and beyond,” he added.
Passengers travelling on the electrified planes are promised an experience similar to current flights, with a few sustainable touches. “As always, our crew will be on station to make the flight as comfortable as possible for our travelers,” Van der Werff said. “Apart from the ceremonial feeling of being part of history, the most tangible difference for passengers will be the much-reduced noise levels on takeoff and landing.”
SAS has been working toward the goal of zero-emissions by the year 2050 and achieving various milestones along the way. This includes reducing total carbon emissions by 25 percent by 2025 through more fuel-efficient planes and sustainable energy. By 2030, the airline is aiming for a 50 percent reduction in noise levels compared to the levels recorded back in 2010. According to Visit Sweden, these targets are in line with the Swedish government’s targets, which seek to achieve net-zero emissions on domestic air travel by 2030 and on all international flights from the Nordic country by 2045.
Although SAS has been the first to offer seats on an electric plane to the public, other carriers such as United and Mesa Air Group among others have also been working with Swedish-based Heart Aerospace to add electric planes to their fleets. In 2021, United and Mesa Air Group ordered 200 19-seat planes, while Air Canada purchased 30 of the 30-seater planes. Heart Aerospace is already supplying electric planes to Air New Zealand and Portuguese carrier Sevenair.
It’s worth noting, however, that while SAS and its competitors are making strides in the field of contemporary aviation technology, researchers have highlighted the limitations of electric planes. Specifically, current technology and the required battery weight to operate the aircraft mean that electric planes can only transport short distances over short to mid-haul routes. Nevertheless, being at the forefront of green aviation is a significant breakthrough that SAS is proud to talk about as it moves towards a landmark in taking its first electric flights. “We can guarantee that everything from check-in to onboard service will make these flights an unforgettable experience for everyone involved,” van der Werff said.
India and US Unveil New Road Map to Accelerate Defense Cooperation and Strengthen Regional Security in the Indo-Pacific
On Monday, India and the United States revealed a new road map aimed at accelerating defense industrial cooperation and co-production in areas like air combat, land mobility systems, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, munitions, and the undersea domain. The announcement came during delegation-level talks between Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh and US Secretary of Defense Lloyd J Austin.
The new road map aims to “change the paradigm for cooperation between US and Indian defense sectors” by providing India with access to cutting-edge technologies and supporting the country’s defense modernization plans, according to the US Department of Defense (DoD). Furthermore, both sides will explore opportunities for co-development of new technologies, co-production of existing and new systems, and increased collaboration between their defense start-ups.
Among the topics discussed during the talks were manufacturing GE-414 fighter jet engines in India via technology transfer, purchasing high-tech drones for the Indian military, the ongoing border dispute between India and China in eastern Ladakh, and ensuring a free and rules-based Indo-Pacific region. As one of the officials mentioned, “The GE-414 engine deal will be a stepping stone to bring newer technologies to India. The scope for collaboration is immense across critical defense domains.”
India is also planning to buy Predator drones from the US for its three services, with discussions currently underway to finalize the required numbers. In addition, the two nations agreed to initiate negotiations on a new arrangement that would allow them to access each other’s industrial resources to address unexpected supply chain disruptions and meet their security needs. “The Secretary and Minister Singh also pledged to review regulatory hurdles impeding closer industry-to-industry cooperation,” the DoD statement added.
During their meetings, both parties exchanged views on various regional security issues and committed to working closely with India to support a “shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific.” They also discussed the growing importance of defense innovation and cooperation in emerging areas such as space, cyberspace, and artificial intelligence. The US-India Business Council is set to launch the India-US Defense Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS-X) on June 21, a new initiative aimed at advancing cutting-edge technology cooperation.
The two nations assessed their strong and diverse defense collaboration efforts, agreeing to sustain the pace of engagement, according to an official Indian statement. The statement also highlighted that both sides discussed regional security concerns, emphasizing their mutual interest in upholding peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.

According to a report released by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on Friday, airlines were responsible for most of the flight cancellations that occurred during the pandemic recovery period. The report also highlighted that airlines took longer to recover from disruptions, such as storms. The GAO examined flight data from January 2018 to April 2022 to understand the reasons behind the increase in flight cancellations and delays.

The GAO report found that weather was the primary cause of cancellations before the pandemic. However, the percentage of airline-caused cancellations began increasing in early 2021. From October to December 2021, airlines caused 60% or more of cancellations, which is higher than at any time in 2018 or 2019. Much of the increase in airline-caused cancellations occurred at budget airlines, but the largest carriers also made more unforced errors, according to government data.

The report also noted that airlines are taking longer to recover from disruptions such as storms. Surges in cancellations in late 2021 and early 2022 lasted longer than they did before the pandemic. The report highlights that airlines are understaffed and have struggled to replace thousands of workers who left during the pandemic. The airlines took $54 billion in taxpayer money to keep employees on the job through the pandemic, but they reduced workers anyway by paying them incentives to quit.

The GAO report was requested by Republican leaders of the House Transportation Committee. The report shows that many of the issues that led to the increase in cancellations were within the airlines’ control, such as maintenance issues or lack of a crew. Airlines have clashed with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg over blame for high rates of canceled and delayed flights in the past two years. Airlines argue that the government is at fault for not having enough air traffic controllers, while Buttigieg has blamed the carriers.

A spokeswoman for trade group Airlines for America said the majority of cancellations this year have been caused by severe weather and air traffic control outages. The spokeswoman also said, “Carriers have taken responsibility for challenges within their control and continue working diligently to improve operational reliability as demand for air travel rapidly returns. This includes launching aggressive, successful hiring campaigns for positions across the industry and reducing schedules in response to the FAA’s staffing shortages.”

The GAO report found that several airlines agreed to reduce schedules in New York this summer at the request of the FAA, which has a severe shortage of controllers at a key facility on Long Island. In 2019, Hawaiian Airlines and Alaska Airlines had the highest percentages of their own cancellations being caused by an airline-controlled issue. In late 2021, they were joined by low-fare carriers Allegiant Air, Spirit Airlines, JetBlue Airways, and Frontier, each of whom were responsible for 60% or more of their own total cancellations, according to GAO. The percentage of cancellations caused by the airline also increased at Southwest, Delta, American and United.

The GAO said the Transportation Department has increased its oversight of airline-scheduling practices. The Transportation and Justice departments are investigating whether Southwest scheduled more flights than it could handle before last December’s meltdown. The Southwest debacle has led to calls to strengthen passenger-compensation rules.

Right now, many U.S. travelers have the same worry on their minds: Why are passports taking so long? If you’re hoping to renew a U.S. passport in time for an international trip this summer, or receive your first-ever document, you’ll likely have a bureaucratic headache ahead of you, as wait times for passports are once again on the rise.

The State Department is facing “unprecedented demand” for passports, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in a Congressional budget hearing on March 23. As such, routine processing will take 10 to 13 weeks, while expedited processing—available for an extra $60 fee—is taking seven to nine weeks. And those estimates don’t include the time it takes to mail your passport to and from the processing center.

Officials say that it’s normal for passport demand to see upticks during certain times of the year, like in the lead-up to the peak summer travel season. However, this year’s demand is record-shattering, and it’s currently 30 to 40 percent higher than 2022’s surge in applications. Last year, the department issued its highest-ever number of passports—a whopping 22 million—and Blinken said the record is on-track to be broken.

“We’ve had an unprecedented demand for renewed travel, which is a good thing,” Blinken said in the hearing. “Historically the demand’s been cyclical. The busy season is March to late summer. Basically it’s full time now. We’re getting 500,000 applications a week for passports.” The department is hiring more customer service agents to help address the new and growing backlog of applications, Blinken added.

So what should travelers do if they need a passport fast? For dire situations—like an international flight that departs within two weeks or emergency travel for a life-or-death reason—you can try to snag an in-person appointment at one of the 26 Regional Passport Agencies. If your situation fits within the stipulations, which also includes needing to obtain a foreign visa within four weeks, you can call for an appointment at your nearest agency. You’ll need to provide evidence that you have flights booked and proof of a qualified emergency, if applicable.

How to Get a Passport Fast—Even in 24 Hours

From one-week turnarounds to renewals in as little as one day.  Of course, aside from using the expedited service from the government, there are other strategies to getting a passport fast. But they’ll cost you. Third-party expediter companies, like GenVisa or RushMyPassport, offer services like handling appointment requests at the passport agencies or passport renewal turnarounds as quick as one week. But these services can cost anywhere from $150 to $799 and above—on top of the government’s fees and postage costs.

If you have an international flight booked that departs within 48 hours, you can try to get a same-day appointment at one of the agencies for the fastest passport processing. But, as the appointments at the regional agencies need to be in person, they might not be a convenient option for those who don’t live nearby one of the locations. (Depending on your situation, it might be worth flying to one of the agencies with an open timeslot—a feat that is hardly unheard of these days.)

In the future, officials want to simplify the process by offering online renewal options on a large scale. “This is something I have great hope for,” Blinken said of online processing. The State Department ran a pilot project last year to test how online submission would work. “We have 500,000 renewal requests submitted through this pilot project,” Blinken said. “We’ve now halted it to make sure we can fine tune it and improve it before we roll it out in a bigger way. But here’s the bottom line: We expect that 65 percent of renewal customers for passports will be able to do so online once this program is fully up and running.”

Newswise — New research at the University of Massachusetts Amherst zeroes in on the root cause of adverse health effects from disruption of the body’s circadian rhythms, which typically occurs from jet lag and rotating work shifts.

The research, published in the journal eNeuro, also shows that the circadian clock gene Cryptochrome 1 (Cry 1) regulates adult neurogenesis – the ongoing formation of neurons in the brain’s hippocampus. Adult neurogenesis supports learning and memory, and its disruption has been linked to dementia and mental illness.

“Circadian disruption impacts a lot of things,” says lead author Michael Seifu Bahiru, a Ph.D. candidate in the lab of Eric Bittman, Professor Emeritus of Biology. “There are links to cancer, diabetes and hypertension, as well as adverse impacts on neurogenesis.”

Cell birth and survival in the adult hippocampus are regulated by a circadian clock, so its disruption may throw off the process of neurogenesis. In the U.S. alone, some 30 million people experience phase shifts in their circadian rhythms as they work rotating schedules.

Until recently, the researchers have faced a sort of chicken-or-egg question. “We always wondered what actually is the root cause of the ailments from circadian disruption?” Bahiru says. “Does the problem come from the act of shifting or the shift itself?”

Bittman explains further, “It’s possible it’s just changing the light cycle that affects neurogenesis, that jerking your clock around is bad for you, as opposed to the jet lag, which is the time delay that it takes for all circadian-dependent systems in your body to adjust to this change in daylight.”

Their findings support the hypothesis that it’s this internal misalignment, this state of desynchrony between and within organs that occurs during jet lag, that is responsible for the adverse impact on neurogenesis – and, they suspect, other adverse health effects from circadian disruption.

To test their hypothesis, they studied cell birth and differentiation in Syrian hamsters with a recessive mutation in the Cry 1 gene that speeds up the clock in constant conditions and dramatically accelerates its ability to shift in response to light. Bittman named the mutation, discovered in previous research, duper. The research team also tested a control group of hamsters without the duper mutation. Both underwent the same sequence of changes in the light cycle.

They simulated jet lag in the form of eight-hour advances and delays at eight 16-day intervals. A cell birth marker was given in the middle of the experiment. Results showed that jet lag has little effect on cell birth but steers the fate of newborn cells away from becoming neurons. Dupers are immune to this effect of phase shifts. “As predicted, the duper animals re-entrained quicker, but also were resistant to the negative effects of the jet lag protocol, whereas the control – the wild type hamsters – had reduced neurogenesis,” Bahiju says.

“The findings indicate that circadian misalignment is critical in jet lag,” the paper concludes.

The ultimate goal of Bittman’s lab is to advance understanding of the pathways involved in human biological clocks, which could lead to the prevention of or treatment for the effects of jet lag, shift work and circadian rhythm disorders. This latest research is a next step toward that goal.

Now the team will turn to “a big unanswered question,” Bittman says – “whether it’s the operation of circadian clocks in the hippocampus that is being directly regulated by shifts of the light:dark cycle,  or whether neurogenesis is controlled by biological clocks running in cells elsewhere in the body.”

Another possibility, which Bittman thinks is more likely, is that the master pacemaker in the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus in the brain detects the light shift and then relays it to the stem cell population that has to divide and differentiate in the hippocampus.

The women, men, and children are seated as the pastor reads out his sermon to all within the walls of the mud brick church, and it is in the midst of this otherwise normal Sunday that a girl who looks to be around the age of seventeen comes inside and shouts.

« Pastor, tem de me ouvir. Te estou a dizer que estou grávida… »

Mother turns her head. She has her hair wrapped in a polka-dotted headscarf. She wears her day-to-day orange-and-grey dress. Her earrings chime as she flips her head to look behind. She feels self-conscious of the sound she has made in the house of God, but it is nothing compared to the loud interruption of this woman.

Light banners against the pastor, from the opening in the wall he is standing under.

The pastor speaks on as if he has not heard the intrusion. 

« Aqui estamos com ele. Para ser salvo, em nome de Jesus…Aleluiah. »

« Amen » the congregation resounds. 

The woman comes up to the front and shows her belly to the pastor. 

« Pastor, look at what has happened. I said, I am pregnant! »

The hall, used as a church on Sundays, is quite cramped. The men and women who are in attendance are either sitting on the pews baked out of the mud or on plastic chairs that they have brought from outside. There is usually little distraction in such a closed space, and one can only remain fixed on the Holy Word for so long. It is natural that the men and women begin to murmur to themselves.

The pastor looks nowhere else except towards the entryway, from which light is peering through. He clutches his microphone and grows loud again. Without modulating his glare he says: 

« Look, everyone, look. Witness this. Without having sex, this girl has become pregnant. »

The chatter of the men and women grow tenfold. The noise is almost like the ripple of a wave, overtaking the quiet of the village, until it crashes and causes everyone to stand. These men and women circle the girl and the pastor. The women are the first to have their interview. Some take the words of the pastor like gospel itself and praise the Lord for this miracle. Others ask the girl directly how she became pregnant, whom she was sleeping with, why she is interrupting their church to share the scandal. One of the oldest ones is already taking her hand and feeling up the woman’s skirt, testing her virginity, to see if it has been taken. 

The girl has too many questions to answer. All she says is « It is the truth. I am pregnant, yes. »

The pastor interrupts before she can say anything else.

« It is a miracle, it is true. We are close to the birthday of Christ, and so God has blessed this village with our own Virgin Mary. Come, everyone. We must come together and pray. »

The pastor bows down his head and keeps his microphone close to his mouth.

« I confirm this knowing we are not far from God. We have been given this gift of a miracle because we are meant to be saved. It will be like fresh waters from the rivers. It will be like the sweetest of breads on our tongues. A new child has been born from God. Amen. »

« Amen » resound the churchgoers again, as does Mother. Mother feels the pleasant taste of spring water in the back of her throat, just like when she savours the taste of Portuguese-style breads. She was feeling perplexed before hearing the pastor, but now she looks at this girl and feels a sense of wonder and calm.  The other men and women have come to the belly of the girl and are closing their eyes and praying. Some are saying blessings to the miracle, some are wishing this child good health, and others are repeating the prayers the pastor has already said.

When it is her turn, Mother comes up herself and puts a hand on the child’s belly. She sees the concern on the girl’s face but says, « What a blessing! You have been gifted an immaculate conception, sim! »

Mother is smiling because she wants the girl to smile. 

The girl stares at the pastor, and says, « Estou grávida, sim… »

Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off MV Ganga Vilas, the world’s longest river cruise, in Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi through video conferencing. 32 Swiss tourists are part of the the maiden journey to reach Dibrugarh in Assam via Bangladesh.

The PM inaugurated a ‘Tent City’, developed on the lines of similar setups in Gujarat’s Kutch and Rajasthan, on the banks of the Ganga in Varanasi. Over 200 tents will offer tourists a panoramic view of the famed ghats of the holy city on the other side of the river along with live classical music, ‘aarti’ in the evening, and yoga sessions. He also laid the foundation for several inland waterways projects, worth over ₹ 1,000 crore.

“With this cruise, many places of eastern India will now figure in world tourism map… What can be more unfortunate that since Independence the banks of the Ganga did not develop and thousands of people living along the Ganges had to migrate for job,” the PM said.

MV Ganga Vilas is the first cruise vessel to be made in India. It will travel 3,200 km in 51 days. The 32 tourists from Switzerland, who will take the first journey, were welcomed at the Varanasi port with garlands and tunes of shehnai. They will visit various religious and historical places in Varanasi before setting out on the cruise.

The cruise’s Director Raj Singh told news agency PTI that this five-star moving hotel has 18 suites with the capacity of 36 tourists. Apart from this, it has accommodation for 40 crew members. The modernist ship is 62 meters in length and 12 meters wide and requires a draft of 1.4 meters.

It will take tourists across 27 river systems and will cruise through various prominent destinations. According to a statement from Uttar Pradesh Tourism Minister Jaiveer Singh issued in Lucknow, the cruise will cover 50 tourist destinations including world heritage sites, national parks, river ghats, and major cities like Patna in Bihar, Shahiganj in Jharkhand, Kolkata in West Bengal, Dhaka in Bangladesh, and Guwahati in Assam.

The cruise has also been fitted with facilities such as spa, salon, and gym. It will cost ₹ 25,000 to ₹ 50,000 a day, with the total cost for the 51-day journey totaling to around ₹ 20 lakh for each passenger, Raj Singh said. The cruise is equipped with a pollution-free system and noise control technology, he added.

There is a Sewage Treatment Plant on this cruise so that no sewage flows into the Ganges, as well as a filtration plant which purifies the Ganga water for bathing and other purposes, the cruise director said.

“The journey will give the foreign tourists an opportunity to embark upon an experiential voyage and indulge in the art, culture, history, and spirituality of India and Bangladesh,” Union Minister for Port Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal told news agency ANI.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has criticized the initiative. In a tweet in Hindi with a photograph of the cruise, Mr Yadav said, “Now will the BJP take away the jobs of the sailors as well? BJP’s policy of earning money by making religious places tourist sites is condemnable. People from all over the world come to experience the spiritual splendour of Kashi, not for luxury. BJP will no longer be able to cover the darkness of real issues with external glare.”

“India has everything that you can imagine. It has a lot beyond your imagination. India cannot be defined in words. It can only be experienced from the heart,” PM Modi said in his message for tourists.

Smelly sweet sweat is all over that man’s brows. He sitting over in the break room. Father. The doctor man. The man sitting on that plush red chair made for Americans. The life saver. The patient grandchild favourite. That is Father. He is the one all the other doctors in that room like to forget. They like to eat their buns, they like to stash an extra banana in their lab coat, they like to turn on the cricket match keeping it loud, keeping it at a blast. And in the meantime they are bantering.

‘When yuh a go Trinidad fuh holiday?’

‘I gun go next week. Yuh wan come wid me?’

‘Man, I dun tell ya I was deh last week. This is why I was asking. I need ya to send something over there.’

‘Something for your wife, or for that woman ya slamming?’

‘Hah-hah-hah-hah.’

‘Hey, hey . . . hey!’

The Father man ain’t listening. Father got his ten minutes to get his drink and that is that. He just finished looking at a patient with a bad case of the food poisoning, leaving his splattering all over the toilet for the janitors to clean.

He is feeling his own stirring in the stomach thinking about it. He could use something refreshing, but there’s no time to guzzle Cokes. He has to finish his break.

One of the senior men is talking to one of the other senior man. Five years back there was senior man and senior man and senior man and senior man. One by one they are retiring. Now this senior man and that senior man are the only ones that were there when Father was starting at the hospital.

When was the last time he gave a greeting? Father is about to say hello to them, but someone comes bustling in.

‘Get out!’ he shouts.

Which causes everyone to pause.  ‘Hey, hey, what’s going on?’

‘Gas leak,’ the man says. Everyone is looking serious as serious can be. The man says, ‘Move,’ and everyone listens. They leave and go downstairs. Father is following the line but can’t help looking at patients’  rooms that he is passing. They are empty. Who’s that someone who is clearing them?

They go downstairs and all the patients, they are already there. There are the cast-wearing men and women and then there are the wheelchair-stuck-in men and women and there are the random standing men and women. Father joins the doctors and the nurses. It is like a mob is outside of the hospital. And it is nothing like how the street does look normally. Normally these streets are empty.

The administration is coming out and the doctors are asking them questions.

‘Marlon, Marlon, ya hear?’

“Marlon, Marlon, ya tell me, what is this madness?’

‘Marlon, my patient is goin’ to die if he out like this.’

Marlon is on the phone or pretending to be. There are seven doctors shouting at him and Marlon does not address a single one of them.

Father is in another group of doctors standing with their arms crossed around their chests.

Father overhears one of the patients say, ‘It is like this hospital is Hell.’

This is not a kind thing to say and it is not a kind thing to hear. But Father sees how most of the nurses are already on their phones and Father sees it with some of the doctors as well. It is like they are getting a free break and that is all they are thinking of.

Father has seen a gas leak like this happen before, and it is like how Father once heard a rumour of how a doctor gave his patient insulin and caused him to have a cardiac arrest.

That is the doctor right in front of Father, playing Candy Crush.

And what about that petition Dr White was making them sign?

They were asking for more hospital computers, and yet they’re still writing all the records out by hand.

Or there were these medicines that the doctors visiting from America  gave to their patients, but the ones that they were prescribing were many years expired. There was the need for that new CAT scan machine, there was a whole lot of need for better surgical equipment.

Almost two years it had been, and not a single thing had come about from this document that a good hundred doctors signed.

There’s all this blathering, coming from some of the patients and some of the doctors.One of the doctors is defending Marlon.

‘Now, now, listen. This isn’t all the fault of that one man. He already done nuff ting for our hospital. And y’all talking about some petition like is some gospel but y’all nah ah go to dem patient on time.’

A doctor says in defense of himself: ’I  go to every patient and ask how their day is. Not like them nurses who don’t stand for ten minutes without complaining for a chair.’

And now a nurse says in defence of herself: ’A chair? We ten nurses sitting a desk when dey only have six chairs… and five a we crowd around at table which can only hold three . We don’t sleep in de day, we listen to every man complain.

‘This is different from a doctor ya say?’

‘Ya thinking it ain’t different, but it is. Ya just need to take a look at the pay cheque and sit back.’

‘The pay cheque?’

‘Yes, the pay cheque.’ Another nurse with blonde braids chirps in: ‘Twelve years done since I working at dis hospital.’ She takes a break to show off her name tag. ‘Twelve years.  And I know what I am getting paid.’

Another doctor starts at it again: ‘Ya listen to this…’

At this point the nurses and doctors are spitting words back to back, pointing fingers, forgetting who they were mad at in the first place.

Marlon puts his fingers to his mouth like he is fixing to whistle, but he keeps his two fingers at lips, because he knows what will happen if he calms them down really.  In the meantime the Father man is quiet because being quiet is what he likes to be.

The Father man doesn’t like to be a conflict man. The Father man likes to keep to himself and let everything happen and then go back to the work he tells himself he is supposed to be doing.

Why does the Father man speak up out of nowhere?

‘Ya all stop and listen here. Ya can’t stop blaming this on this person or that. The gas leak is one thing out of many. We are using hospital bed from the eighties. We have patients who are dying from our own neglect. We all have to be working hard.  If change has to come, change is what we have to be starting.’

The Father man feels like his legs are wobbling, the Father man feels like he is about to lose the breath in this chest. The Father man is becoming the warrior man, the Kofi kind of man.

The Father man might be changing but the Father man is thought by everyone as the passive man because that is how the Father man was thought of by the other men. The police cars are coming and the fire truck is coming and Marlon is leaving. He goes says something to the police. The firemen march into the building. The men and the women start talking about other things.

‘So, how ya missus doing?’

‘So, when ya go ta Port of Spain ya got ta change ya clothes so no one know who ya with.’

‘I’m getting hungry. Ya want a bake an saltfish?’

It is like no one even heard what Father said. It is like no one even felt like listening. That is normal for Father man. For decades in and decades out he has been that man no one listens to. Soon the fireman comes and says the gas leak has been fixed. Soon the doctors and nurses and patients are going back in. It is normal for  them that things go wrong in Georgetown, and they are fine now that it is getting fixed.

But the Father man said what the Father man said and the Father man mean it.

Another minute done pass, and another minute done gone, and Father’s legs aren’t moving.

It was the lunch hour, and as always Father had to determine where he was going to sit. The canteen and its tables were as crowded as the halls of the hospital itself. Though the hospital he worked for was private, and therefore modern in comparison to the ones maintained by the government, it was also not particularly big, just two storeys, and gated like any of the other residences on Bourdillon Road.

It had to be that the only table with a single chair available was the one at which Dr White was sitting. Father and Dr White weren’t friends. Father saw Dr White surrounded by the suck-ups he always had around him and knew the last thing he wanted to hear was them spew rants on Nigerian politics and football.

But Dr White saw that Father was standing there idly, not knowing where he could sit to eat, and he patted the plush of the chair next to him. ‘Come. You sit here.’

So Father sat, and had to greet each and every one of them with a little smile and ‘how is everything?’ They reciprocated with smiles but didn’t say much. Now that he was seated, Father let himself become comfortable. He broke his hand into his spiced chicken, mixed a bit of it into his jollof rice, and let the steam stir in his mouth as he fed himself.

The vibe at the table was odd for how these men normally behaved. They were all busy eating quietly, opening up their agidis or sliming up their hands with amala doused in ewedu. Father was used to seeing Dr White and his friends cackling loudly, talking to each other with the sort of camaraderie that he would see among the boys in his days in the village, fondly in arms with each other. It was all so bereft of the charm and pull that Dr White normally brought to the table,  flashing the wide-toothed grin he was infamous for.

Father asked, ‘It is strange. Why is it that you are so quiet today?’

Dr White looked at him, as did all of the other doctors at the table. Father realised that the question he thought he had kept at the back of his head was actually voiced out loud. He felt deeply embarrassed, for he rarely did that. He usually even scolded his wife for being so quick to say things without thinking about whether a person wanted to hear it.

The surprise at the very least was temporary. Dr White noticed he was being engaged, and whenever he was engaged, he was quick. He put on that grin, he smiled also with his eyes. He asked, ‘Abaeze, my friend. It has been long since we have talked. How have you been?’

To be honest, Father did not feel comfortable with the question. This was because he had a lot to say in response, but he didn’t want to share such things to a relative stranger like Dr White. For example, he had a mother out in the mangroves of Delta State, whose back had healed enough so that she could somewhat stand, but walking was difficult. Inflation was a horror, and Father was the only person in his family who earned. Not to mention the crime in Lagos, which affected their suburban house in Banana Island as it did the shanty towns of Ilaje or Agege.

Father doubted that Dr White really wanted to hear his thoughts on any of this. He also had other things on his mind during this fifteen-minute break carved into an otherwise busy day; he was remembering in particular the patient he was in the middle of seeing, a sweet Igbo lady who was developing emphysema. Her lungs were starting to fill with mucus, and it could be fatal given her age. Father was wondering what the best medications would be for her. So Father said, ‘I am doing well, thank you for asking,’ and left it at that, in the hopes that he could eat his chicken and think in peace.

Dr White smiled. Father noticed it was now a quiet smile, with his lips curving upward, rather than his typically wider and aggressive grin. Father was not used to the diffidence. He tried to get back to his meal and his reflections, but he felt unsatisfied in what he had said to the table. It was far too polite, too flavourless.

He wanted to say something in that moment.

What he came up with was quite random.

‘Age is a funny thing. It will do us all in. It is worse than any disease.’

One of the doctors, a bald man with huge glasses, gave a nod. So did another, who had a wide, curly bush of grey hair on his head. The bald doctor said, ‘It is nice to see how technology is advancing. I think people of my grandchildren’s age, they will not know death. They will live infinitely.’

The doctor with the greying bush of hair laughed. ‘Ha-ha. Infinite life. There is not electricity for most of the day. And you are telling me we will have android children. You are watching too many movies, my friend.’

Another doctor said out of the blue, ‘He is watching too much Nollywood, that is it,’ and they all laughed, even Father.

The doctor with the glasses defended himself. ‘There is a lot of precedent you are misunderstanding. You must read more American books to know fully. They are doing a lot to advance technology there. And it will be like anything else. It will come to Nigeria.’

To the rich and powerful, if it does, was what Father thought, but he did not say it out loud. All of them qualified to be in that class, living in the best parts of Lekki and Ikoyi, and not a single person there wanted to be indicted for it.

Another doctor at the table said, ‘With climate change coming as fast as it is, with the inflation killing all of our wallets, I will be surprised if anything lasts another ten years.’

The table grew silent. Something of what he said brought down a dark and pressing spirit. There was a collective sense that the world wasn’t moving in the direction that the people of their class and generation had thought it would. There was a sense that all of their early beliefs in moving upwards and making things as rich and big and fancy as possible for a city like Lagos wasn’t going to provide the comfort they had expected in their later lives.

Father was almost done with his meal, but he was getting curious about something that this conversation reminded him of.

‘Hey, Dr White, let me say something. You have been telling us about all these new gadgets and equipment, you were going to ask the board to give us this, give us that. And we all signed something about it. So now, it has been almost a year, or longer than a year. And I don’t see any new equipment. What is happening?’

Dr White said, with his teeth pinching together, ‘Did you not just listen to everyone?’

Father said, ‘No one said anything about the petition. That is why I am asking.’

Dr White pressed, ‘No, did you hear what they said? There is inflation, there are a lot of problems that are everywhere but also in Nigeria. We do have the generators working every day. But now you are asking if we can have new equipment?’

‘Because you had promised that last year.’

‘Because that was last year, and things are changing.’

That was all fair and well, Father thought, and quite understandable. But what surprised Father was not what Dr White said, but how he was saying it. There was none of his usual charm or charisma. Dr White was speaking directly, and not holding any of his true feelings back. It almost felt like how a steamroller went across freshly melted pavement—the words suavely rolled across their trajectory, and yet they burned on impact. Even the other doctors were looking away. Father got the sense that they were not in the habit of Dr White showing emotion that wasn’t artificially pleasant.

Dr White looked at his tray of bones and napkins, and he stood to throw it away. When he returned, the decorum came back for a moment. He looked at each doctor in the eye, said some words of departure, and summated overall, ‘That was a good chat. I look forward to talking more some other day.’

The doctors gave their nods, said their goodbyes, and continued to talk about the petition even though Dr White had long left, announcing their agreement with him. Not a single one gave Father any more of their time or words. They were not friends, and it had been that way for decades.

Father sensed that something about Dr White was changing. Father had known the man for decades. He was quick to gregariously show off around others, in an effort to feign closeness to them. But this was the first time Father had ever seen Dr White not faking it. Father thought about going up to him after his shift to ask if anything was wrong But of course they weren’t friends. They were barely acquaintances. So what if Dr White was acting differently? It was simply his business, just like Father had his own problems and concerns.

Speaking of, it was getting a little late, wasn’t it? There wasn’t much time left, and he would have to figure out what to do with his patient when he got upstairs. Father scarfed down the rest of his rice and he drank some water so that it would not clog in his belly. He took a minute to remain seated to avoid the gas which came from standing too quickly. He normally would have relished that minute and the calmness that came with it, except when he glanced around the table at the doctors beside him, in their stress-laden faces and tired stares, Father noticed something else which caused him to leave quickly.

It was not only Dr White who was in the process of changing.

(Kiran Bhat is an Indian-American polyglot, traveler, and author. He has been to 149 countries. He is working on using these experiences to create a novel for Planet Earth. To read more, follow me here, or check out my novel’s page, at www.girar.world)

From visiting friends and family to getting goods to markets around the world, Canadians rely on the aviation industry to provide diverse international air services. Expanding Canada’s existing air transport relationships allow airlines to introduce more flight options and routings, which benefit passengers and businesses by providing greater choice and convenience.

Canada’s Minister of Transport, the Omar Alghabra, has announced the recent conclusion of an expanded air transport agreement between Canada and India. The expanded agreement allows designated airlines to operate an unlimited number of flights between the two countries. The previous agreement limited each country to 35 flights per week.

This significant move will allow airlines of Canada and India to better respond to the needs of the Canada-India air transport market. Going forward, officials of both countries will remain in contact to discuss further expansion of the agreement.

The expanded agreement allows designated airlines to operate an unlimited number of flights between the two countries, while the previous agreement limited each country to only 35 flights. The new agreement gives Canadian air carriers access to Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Mumbai, and Indian air carriers access to Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton, Vancouver as well as two additional points to be selected by India.

“The expanded air transport agreement between Canada and India is a positive development for air transport relations between our countries. We are pleased to expand this relationship with additional flexibility for airlines to serve this growing market. By making the movement of goods and people faster and easier, this expanded agreement will continue to facilitate trade and investment between Canada and India and help our businesses grow and succeed,” said Omar Alghabra, Canada’s Minister of Transport.

“The Canada-India economic relationship is built on deep-rooted people to people ties. With this expanded air transport agreement, we are facilitating even more exchanges of professionals, students, business people, and investors. As we strengthen our trade and investment relationship with India, we will continue building bridges like this that enable our entrepreneurs, workers, and businesses to access new opportunities.”

Quick facts

• India is Canada’s 4th largest international air transport market.
• Canada’s first air transport agreement with India was concluded in 1982, and was last expanded in 2011. This new agreement was reached under Canada’s Blue Sky policy, which encourages long-term, sustainable competition and the development of international air services.
• The agreement gives Canadian air carriers access to Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Mumbai, and Indian air carriers access to Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton, Vancouver, and two additional points to be selected by India.
• Other cities in both countries can be served indirectly through code-share services.
• Rights for all-cargo services are already unrestricted.

The self-declaration forms for Covid vaccination that had to be filled in by incoming international passengers on the Air Suvidha portal, will no longer be necessary, the government has said. The decision will come into effect from midnight.

The form on the aviation ministry’s Air Suvidha portal was mandatory for incoming international passengers. In it, passengers had to declare their vaccination status, including the number of doses received and their dates.

A notice from the Civil Aviation ministry this evening read, “In the light of sustained declining COVID-19 trajectory and significant advances being made in COVID-19 vaccination coverage both globally as well as in India, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has issued revised ‘Guidelines for International Arrivals”.

Under the revised guidelines of the health ministry, the submission of self-declaration form on the online Air Suvidha portal stand discontinued, the aviation ministry said. It, however, added a statutory warning: The rule could be reviewed if needed in view of the Covid situation.

The form on the aviation ministry’s Air Suvidha portal was mandatory for incoming international passengers. In it, passengers had to declare their vaccination status, including the number of doses received and their dates.

This was in line with the rules in most nations.

The ministry, however, said it was preferred that the passengers be fully vaccinated. It was also preferable that all precautionary measures for Covid — including the use of masks and social distancing at airports — be continued.

Last week, the aviation ministry had said the use of masks was no longer compulsory during air travel, but passengers should use them to prevent another surge of coronavirus.

Till then, the use of masks in flights was mandatory. The ministry said the decision was taken in line with the government’s policy of a graded approach to Covid-19 management.

Over the last weeks, Covid figures have been shrinking. Official data this morning showed that currently, active cases (6,402) comprise 0.01 per cent of the total infections. The national recovery rate has increased to 98.8 per cent.

Father is sixty-eight years old, and yet he wakes up somewhere between four and five in the morning from a nightmare, drenched in sweat. The sweat, to be clear, is related as much to his age as it is to the amount of blankets laid over his bed; it is winter in Gangtok, and he is in the habit of covering himself in excess to be less affected by the chill. He lifts himself out of the sheets, taking care to fold them properly so as not to disturb Mother’s sleep. He goes into the bathroom. The pipe in the sink is not working, so he washes his face with the small bucket they use to shower. There is a little moonlight coming through the window, but it is otherwise dark. Father cannot help but catch his reflection in the mirror. The pudge of fat above his eyebrows is covered in sweat.

In the last two months, Father has been assaulted by dreams of his mother. They usually involve the few sweet memories of his childhood juxtaposed against the agony of her current health condition.  Often, the situations are exaggerated in ways to draw out Father’s guilt, and they leave him going to the hospital in a disturbed and under-rested state.

However, as Father takes a better stare at the mirror, he sees the wrinkles over his sandy-coloured cheeks, the wear and tear and soot that have collected under the baggy hoods of his eyes. This was the exact same way his father looked. With age, their faces are almost identical.

Father feels a churning in his chest. Father feels an anger. It is not because time has made him the inheritor of a face that is aged, ugly, or unpleasant to look at.

It is because his nightmare for the first time in a long while revolved not around his mother or his son, but over this abusive farmer who spent most of his life traumatising his children.

2nd April, 1961

On the second of April in 1961, Father was a simple boy named Samjyor who was turning seven. This was the sixties. Life was different. His homeland of Sikkim was not yet an Indian state, just as his hometown of Sakkyong was completely ignorant of the outside world. If there were foreigners at that time, they would be Bhutias or Nepalis or other Lepchas from other places, not necessarily Tamils or North Indians or Germans in the mood for a village stay. People did not have any technology of any sort to distract themselves with. They tilled the land, survived the winters, and lived peacefully with their loved ones. A birth day was also not a birthday. No one fed each other pieces of cake or bought each other presents.

The 2nd of April, in other words, was not meant to be a particularly special day, until Samjyor’s Father came home and made him remember it that way.

Normally Samjyor’s father would come home around four or five in the afternoon, directly from the rice paddies, and he would ignore Samjyor or any of his other children. He would immediately find his cot, throw the sheets over himself, and fall asleep. On that day, however, Samjyor’s father came home closer to nine in the night, just when everyone was sleeping. There was the clear smell of rakshi on his clothes. Samjyor was too young to know what rakshi was, but the stale millet smell blending into his father’s unshowered musk imprinted onto him, becoming one of the most important memories he would ever grow to have.

Samjyor’s mother began yelling. Where have you been? Why are you coming home late? Her yelling was not confrontational but curious. This was before it became normal for Samjyor’s father to come home drunk, before Samjyor’s mother learned it would not be in her benefit to confront him at all.

As Samjyor’s father came in through the door, he knocked over a grass broom. He stooped to pick it up, almost out of habit, but it was at that moment that Samjyor’s mother asked her question, causing something in his body language to abruptly change. He threw herself close to her and smacked her against the head with the broom, suddenly and with very clear intention. Even though the handle of the broom weighed little, the damage was done. Samjyor’s mother looked up, unable to respond. It was more than just being caught off guard. It was complete and utter paralysis, except for when she reached for her skull to assess whether it was bruised or bloodied.

But Samjyor’s father threw her down. Samjyor’s father clutched her throat with his hands.

‘How can you . . .’ he shouted. ‘You would choose to . . . I will not . . . I’ll kill you! You are a whore, and I will kill you!’

Samjyor was too young to understand the full language of this drunken man, who was speaking in a mix of a shout and a slur. But what Samjyor did know was that there was this big oaf of a man, as crackle-eyed and overpowering as a raksasa, threatening the life of the woman who looked after them. Samjyor should have shouted outside to get one of his uncles to help, but he was too young to be sensible. Instead he grabbed his father’s leg and cried for him to get off.

Samjyor’s father kicked Samjyor’s face with the full force of a foot. It was so strong that he was knocked out by it, completely unconscious. He woke up sometime after, with his mother wrapped around him and crying. His nose hurt worse than any other time the boys beat him, and he could feel that his tooth was broken. If he wiggled it around, it would come out. At least it was a baby tooth, and in some time it would come to be replaced by another. Samjyor had no idea how he went to sleep like that, shocked and stunned, with a need to cry, deep and loudly into his mother’s chest.

Later on, his younger brother, Lekmoo, told him wild and extravagant stories about how their older brother, Tshering, was the one who had fought off his father. Later on, his mother told Samjyor that it was his own bravery which had scared his father off somehow, or made him realise that he was going too far, which was what made him stop attacking her. Whatever the case, Samjyor’s father never apologised for how he had behaved that night. He never acknowledged what had happened. If some transgression had happened between his mother and father, it was never clarified to Samjyor, neither at the age of seven nor at any other age as he grew up. It was just one of those things that was going to be left a secret, to haunt Samjyor for much longer than the rest of his father’s lifetime.

What Samjyor noticed after his seventh birth day was that this was the day when his father’s personality changed. He spent most of his time working in the rice paddies, he only went to places where he could procure alcohol, and he rarely interacted with his wife or children, unless he was going out of his way to hurt them in some form.

14th November, 2022

Father has banged his fist on the mirror. Without thinking, he has taken his fist and thrown it with utter force against the glass. The glass, several decades old, cracks, though all of the pieces remain intact. Father gasps and withdraws his fist immediately. In doing so, he feels a sharp sting on his finger. The thin shards of cut glass are nearly invisible in the darkness, but he can feel them poking into his skin. Father has cut himself, and though the pieces lodged in his hand are most likely smaller than a needle, the blood is getting all over the sink. Father pours himself some more water from the bucket to clean it up.

In the commotion, he has woken Mother.

‘What is going on?’ Mother asks, turning on the light. Her eyes widen, and she throws herself into a panic. She grabs Father’s hand, asking, ‘What have you done to your hand?’ Father can see it now. Blood has rushed out quicker than he realised, dripping all the way down his arm. Father applies pressure to the wound while Mother rushes to find some Band-Aids.

All the while, Father yells at himself. ‘What have you done to yourself? Why are you acting crazy at this hour? It’s late. It’s almost four in the morning. You will go to work soon.’

He looks at the cracks in the mirror. He sees the face staring back at him. He wants to beat it again, no matter how much the face belongs to him.

That is how much he hates what he is staring at.

16th December, 1968

There were five of them sitting on the wooden floors of their cottage, eating the chumthuk—Samjyor; his younger brother, Lekmoo; his older brother, Tshering; his mother; and Tshering’s recent wife, who had been married to him only a few months ago. His father was not with them. Coming back home only when he felt like had become his norm. The conversation around the bowls was light. People concentrated on spooning grains of rice and beef into their mouths, taking a break only to make casual remarks when the mood suited.

Towards the end of the meal, Samjyor’s father opened the door loudly, then closed it tightly behind him so that the winter wind would not enter. He took off his boots, unstrapped his jacket. He barked at his wife, ‘I am hungry. Where is food?’

Without a moment’s hesitation, Samjyor’s mother brought him a bowl of gruel. Samjyor’s father made a place for himself around them and started shovelling the food down his throat.

Her chumthuk had a plain taste. At that time, spicing was considered a luxury because everything and anything was a luxury. Only basic survival was the goal. Samjyor’s father had eaten this chumthuk day in and day out for many decades, before his own children were born, probably before he was even married to this particular woman.

So, it was a surprise when he took his first bites and started acting like he was choking. He spat out the rice back into the bowl while Samjyor’s mother came to his side, wondering if her husband in fact had something lodged in his throat.

He said, ‘You really can’t cook, can you?’ and laughed gregariously. It was like he was telling a joke to his other drunk friends, and he looked about his household, waiting to catch the eye of someone who would smile back at him.

No one was smiling. All of the children looked down, afraid to meet his eyes, afraid of the consequences.

Samjyor’s mother tried to take the bowl, only for Samjyor’s father to resist.

‘Don’t worry, I will eat it. We should not waste food. We cannot waste food. But I earn everything for this family. I am the reason why we can afford to have beef in this soup in the first place. Next time, I want momos or thukpa. Make something tomorrow with a lot of meat.’

‘Of course,’ Samjyor’s mother said. Samjyor wanted to shout at his father. How in the world would they get money to make any of that food when they had no money at all? His father was claiming to make money for them, but he was the one spending whatever he made, while Samjyor and his siblings tried to subsist on the little that they had.

Samjyor’s father continued, ‘You know, I remember when you used to kiss me like you liked it. I remember when you actually knew how to touch me. What happened to those days? When are we going to make more children?’

Samjyor’s mother looked into her gruel, all while Samjyor’s father spoke louder about his urges and needs. He wasn’t going to control himself. He had an audience of a full family, and he would not dare waste it.

‘My son,’ Samjyor’s father said, clearly addressing Tshering, ‘you are lucky to have a wife who is young and beautiful. I wish you have many children.’

He raised his bowl of gruel as if in toast, and Tshering smiled, not politely, but warmly, because he was getting the validation from his father that he often felt he deserved.

Then Samjyor’s father turned to face his other two boys. ‘I’ve done everything for you all. I’ve done everything for this family.’

He looked like he was going to scold them more, say something specific, but he was too drunk. He started to eat his chumthuk, wolfing it down like it was the most delicious thing he had ever eaten. He filled up his belly, then gave a blank stare to the fireplace in their house, watching the flames dance about.

Then he stood up, mouthing to himself. ‘I did everything for this family. I did everything for this family.’ He put on his shoes, dressed himself, and went back out into the freezing cold.

14th November, 2022

Mother returns with some bandages. She wraps them over his hand while complaining.

‘It is so early. I will have to do pooja soon. Why are you making a mess like this?’

Father does not want to tell Mother he had a bad dream. But she can see the frustration in his eyes and make her own guesses.

‘It must be hard on you to be so far from your mother. I understand. But it is not going to help you if you hurt yourself.’

‘I know.’

Father makes listless eyes, which makes Mother hug him.

‘Don’t feel this bad. You are doing your best. And you have done a lot. You have sent so much money. You have hired someone to help. They are there for her, but you have provided what they cannot, and they know this. They will come to respect all you do for them in time.’

Father leans into Mother’s hug and reciprocates it. He gives her a kiss on the cheek and remains there, holding her. He is glad no one else is in the room except her. He is also incredibly tired. He knows he will have a full day of work ahead of him in a few hours, and the thought exhausts him even more.

‘I am sorry for this disturbance. Let us sleep.’

Mother turns off the light. Mother and Father return to the bed, holding hands. It is not long before Mother is snoring again.

Father would have fallen asleep soon, too, if it were not for the dream.

29 August, 1986

It was said that on the day Samjyor’s father passed on, Samjyor’s younger brother, Lekmoo, touched his body before the lama began his phowa, to the chagrin of the ones who found him with the corpse. A body on its way to death should never make contact with another physical being as the lama works on directing its soul. It makes the soul easy prey to the cravings of a demon, where it may not make it to the other stages of the afterlife. Because Lekmoo touched the body, he was scolded by almost every passing relative, and threatened to be beaten and pushed out of the home he had grown up in.

Father was not there at the time, but Father wouldn’t have been surprised if Lekmoo was intentionally trying to damn his father and his soul.

That being said, Lekmoo did look visibly distraught and disturbed, shaking as the lamas chanted around the box the body was displayed on. Samjyor could not imagine what it was like for Lekmoo to walk in on his father lying on his cot, suddenly smelling of someone who was starting to decompose. Samjyor would have probably done exactly what Lekmoo had. He had seen plenty of patients pass on, he was used to death, but it was another thing to witness it occur to a loved one. It would have been easy to lose one’s control, and to touch the body, even though one would have known immediately after that one had condemned it.

There was a lot of noise, and there were a lot of relatives, many of whom Samjyor had not interacted with in years. Samjyor kept himself seated, tried to pay no attention to them. His role was to witness the pooja. There was the surreal smell of decomposed flesh mixed with the juniper branches used to preserve the box. He tried to listen to the chanting, but there were too many memories in his mind. There were the images of his father feeding him a momo for the first time and his tongue burning from the steam, or the images of when he was a little boy lost in the rice paddies and was afraid he was going to die, except that he was found by his father at once. There were the kind words his father said when Samjyor got married, there was the excitement he heard in his father’s voice whenever Samjyor visited and his father delighted himself by playing with Tshering’s children.

It was odd. Despite the fact that Samjyor objectively hated his father, during the death ceremony, during the funeral, during the rituals done at the monastery and in the village itself, Samjyor could not remember a single negative thought about him. He only remembered that he missed his father, that he owed so much to his father, and that he loved his father. And he hated himself for not being there the day his father had died. He hated that he had allowed a parent to die alone, in a way no child ever should.

Samjyor told himself then and there that he visit his village as much as possible so that such a fate would never pass with his mother. He also made it a point to attend the duentsi poojas for all of the forty-nine days in the monastery, even though it was Tshering who had been called to do so.

Samjyor became a good son after his father died. And a few years afterwards, he became a father himself. During the funeral ceremony Samjyor thanked his father for the lessons he had taught him. He also promised himself that when his own child would be born he would never make a single one of the mistakes that he felt his father had made.

14th November, 2022

It is during the second dream of this early morning that Father is in the rice paddies once more. A little boy walks around barefoot. He is under the monasteries which are common in Gangtok. Their red-and-gold walls are like squares stacked on top of the mountains. It is like each one has a little eye that is looking at Father. The child’s feet are sticking in the mud.

He is falling, and he is calling to the monasteries to find him, but not a single one responds. The eyes on the walls stare and almost look to be in pleasure as Father sinks alone. He clutches at the rice stalks but is not able to grasp any. And he is still falling, sinking, diving. The mud comes up to his waist. He pounds his fists against the earth.

Father shouts and shouts, and no one comes.

Until there is one person standing over him among the rice stalks.

That is his father.

‘Father, come help! Father, help me up.’

His father does not move.

‘Father, I am going to die. Father, help.’

The boy’s head moves deeper into the earth.

It is when the earth comes up to his chin that his own father begins to snicker. His father pats his belly and points at his son.

‘You are an embarrassment of a man. You don’t dare stand on this ground.’

Father does not know what he is saying. He thinks he is moving his mouth, but not a single word is coming out. The mud starts to get inside. He tastes the mineral notes of zinc and calcium.

Father shouts, ‘Father . . . Father!’

And his father responds, ‘You are no better than your mother . . . you let me die . . . you left me alone . . .’

Father snaps his eyes open. He does not want to stay in bed, or he will be committed to returning to this dream. But if he gets up, he knows he will wake up his wife again. He does not want to stand once more. He does not want to go into the bathroom, look at the cracks he created in his mirror, find sadness in the inherited roundness of his face that he will never be able to escape.

But there is him and his father, and there will always be a part of him from his father, whether he stares at his reflection or not.

Father feels the puff of his own eyeballs, and they weigh his eyes open, no matter how much he wishes they could close.

Air India has announced that it has signed agreements to complete the acquisition of 100 per cent shareholding in AirAsia India (AAI) and to subsidiarise it under Air India.

An operational review process is underway with a view to ultimately integrating AAI fully with Air India Express (AIXL). Consolidation of these two airlines, both of which operate as low-cost carriers, will be undertaken as part of the restructuring roadmap that is being envisioned for the Tata Group’s airline business and is expected to bring customer, revenue, cost and operational benefits through broader adoption of each airlines’ best practices, systems and routes, and the combined entity’s greater scale.

Air India CEO and MD Campbell Wilson said: “We are excited to initiate the creation of a single Air India Group low-cost carrier. This is a key step in the rationalisation and transformation of the Group, and we will be working closely with the management teams and staff throughout the process. We also look forward to the many new opportunities a stronger AI Group low-cost carrier will bring for customers and staff alike.”

A working group has been formed to evaluate and execute the integration of the AI Group’s low-cost operations, which will be co-led by Sunil Bhaskaran, CEO & MD, AirAsia India and Aloke Singh, CEO, Air India Express. The working group will report to a committee chaired by Wilson.

The assessment and implementation of full integration process of AAI and AIXL, through a possible scheme of merger or otherwise and subject to necessary corporate approvals, is expected to take approximately 12 months, with network and other synergies to be realised progressively during that period.

Founded by the legendary JRD Tata, Air India is synonymous with the growth and evolution of civil aviation in India. Since its first flight on October 15, 1932, Air India has spread its wings to become a major international airline with a network across the US, Canada, the UK, Europe, Far East and South-East Asia, Australia and the Gulf.

The airline also has an extensive domestic network connecting over 55 cities in the country through its fleet of narrow and wide-bodied aircraft. Air India has been a member of Star Alliance, the largest global airline consortium, since July 2014.

Air Asia India, launched in 2014, as a joint venture between Tata Sons and Malaysia’s Air Asia Berhad, operates a fleet of 29 aircraft that flies over 50 direct and 100 connecting routes across India.

Upon Tata Sons acquisition of full ownership, the Bengaluru-based company was subsidiarised under Tata Sons’ 100 per cent-owned Air India. (IANS)

Set in between Bangalore, Karnataka, India, Larkana, the Sindh, Pakistan, and Chongqing, the People’s Republic of China!

I hope you enjoy the story, and my apologies for the web inconveniences once more. If you are having any issue accessing your content, do let me know. I’m here to serve!

As for this story, it’s an extremely experimental one, deeply inspired by the fact that I am living in a relatively prosperous version of India, all the while in the northeast China is dealing with crippling drought and in the northwest Pakistan is submerged by flood. One cannot help but think of the climate disaster that we are witnessing all across the globe. I’m also wondering how many months or years I have until India too is affected.

There is a version of Mother, right now, sitting in front of the television, lazing idly in a suburb of Bangalore. The suburb in question is Indira Nagar, an upper middle class area.  The roads look like they have been pounded by foot traffic and rain and overall negligence into a hodgepodge of shapes. The main roads outside of the suburb are clogged with cars, buses, and auto-rickshaws. Otherwise the lanes are long and leafy, the temperature is cool and agreeable, the area around the temple is clean and trash-less, and the gate into the suburb is green and purple, decorated with the murthis of Ganesha and Shiva and Kali and Saraswathi and Vishnu, each one painted to perfection.

All of this is outside of Mother’s two storey bungalow. The entire bungalow is just for herself and her family. She leaves her house only when she has to meet relatives or go the temple. Ninety percent of the time Mother sits inside her home and minds her business.

This is a version of Mother who lives a good life. This is a version of Mother who has lived well, seen nothing but economic growth and prosperity for her and her family, and wishes for nothing to change.

On the television are the floods.

On the other side of that camera is another version of Mother, who has lived very differently. In some ways this version and that version are similar. They have similar racial features, a similar tint of skin, and a similar well-offed-ness to them. To be wealthy in Pakistan and to be wealthy in India; both offer a lot of privileges that show in the fairness of the complexion, the lack of dust or wrinkles in the clothing, and a relative lack of awareness of the outside world.

That is, until what would normally be deemed a problem of the outside world, or a problem befitting of the lower classes, or a problem that need not be a concern for the privileged — until one of these said such problems becomes a problem, and then this version of Mother has to pay attention, because then it is very much her problem.

Larkana, the gateway of the Indus Valley, is almost completely submerged.

There was a version of Mother who lived so well in Larkana. She had a full wing of an apartment complex to herself, with each room decorated with lavish designs and furniture imported from various corners of the world. Flooding came into the Sindh here or there each and every year, and with this apartment being on the second floor of a complex overlooking the river, she was used to the water getting into the staircases, or making it difficult to get out during monsoon.

But this was not just monsoon. This was a flood of scale that Pakistan had never witnessed before.

With half of the building underwater as it was now, Mother and the other tenants only had the stairs between the upper floor and rooftop. They had brought whatever food or beddings they could have managed, they perched wherever they could, all the while trying to live life well, still, somehow, through their gossip, or their complaining, or the time shared through prayer, during namaz. In the meantime the rainwaters soaked all the roads of their city, inundating not only their little world, but everything around.

This was a version of Mother who only a few weeks ago was comfortably middle class. This was a version of Mother who once had everything going for her. This was a version of Mother who now had a home underwater, a husband stuck at the hospital, and relatives in other parts of the Sindh, their livelihoods completely upended by a flood of catastrophic proportions.

Time is passing, time is slipping, time is morphing the earth into something else, and nothing of what life was once like seems to be returning.

Except for on the television, where ten minutes pass, and another news clip is shown. It is the Yangtze River, completely parched.

This is where another version of Mother lives. This is near the outskirts of Chongqing, the base of the Three Rivers Gorge. If this were Guangzhou or Shenzhen, the news of another wave of lockdowns would have been the source of this Mother’s crippled morale. But at least when one was stuck at home one had access to food, so long as they weren’t relying on the government for their rations, so long as one was prepared.

But this is Chongqing and not Shenzhen, and outside of Mother’s apartment complex, there are people all around, outside, taking their children to school, going to work, living their lives, all the while the source of their sustenance has completely dried.

Mother is out on her walk. It had been so hot, and yet now it is cloudy. The temperature is moderate again. The weather report earlier today claimed that despite the month of heat the city was soon going to be witnessing torrential rains. The irony is in the back of Mother’s mind, but now that the temperature is in the mid twenties, Mother is pleased to be able to go out and exercise, without the fear of getting sunburned or darkened.

These walks, these evenings in the park practicing tai chi with the other neighbourhood girls; these are the little things which made life normal, despite the very obvious signs that life is changing all around.

On the riverside is a long winding road, with trees and a bike path and exercise equipment and a playground. It used to be so refreshing to see the Yangtze splash to itself on the side, the wide and gushing torrents of the river burping contentedly to itself.

Today the river is just empty silt, with little puddles of water in the process of drying out.

A tourist spot has come to be born out of the silt. Mother sees other Chinese people taking pictures with a set of three carvings that have been unearthed out of the river. An excavation has not unearthed them, but the actual drying up of the river. Remnants of a culture from six hundred years ago has returned to being a present part of their megalopolis.

Mother does not take a picture. Mother instead stares. She stares at the Buddha but also at the other side of the Buddha, something outside of its physical form. There were once many buildings, monuments, and religious objects that were concealed by the waters, made into dust by the deserts. Where there was dust could be river. And where there was once river could be dust. Humans inhabit desert, humans inhabit the riverside, humans inhabit the mountain, humans inhabit anywhere. But it takes time, decades, centuries, arguably millennia.

With the pace at which the land was changing, it would be impossible for humans to adapt to anything. By the time that they could consider relating to this river as it were desert, or this desert as it became river, the land would change again, and humans would have to spend days to months to years not understanding its form.

It is not just this version of Mother that is realising this. There is this version of Mother and that version and countless others, infinite as the shapes of the humans, or the shapes of the animals, or the shapes of the rocks, realising that life is no longer as it used to be.

There was a somewhere that they chose to inhabit. There was a somewhere that they chose with their husband, believing deeply that despite the problems in their village that this new home would be the place for their family to thrive. They chose that somewhere in the full belief that all that this would be the anointed place from which they would find that success, that happiness that contentment.

But at that moment that somewhere is becoming a nowhere. That somewhere was subject to change, subject to patterns of response to outside stimuli completely outside of their control.

Life was in flux, nature was in flux, and therefore that somewhere to reside, that somewhere to call home; such a place had become undependable once more.

Chongqing, Larkana, and Bangalore. To connect the lines of their three dots would create a triangle. At those three points there were these three versions of Mother, each of which had built an idea of life on the assumption that their comfort, their style of living, and their containment would be assured.All three versions of Mother live in this moment of time, but there will come a time at which none of them will exist. Such a time would come for all humans, all animals, all existences, even the very layers of the earth itself.

All life crumbles. All matter decays. All existence perishes. That is the one truth that unites the nature of the universe.

In between the point of beginning and the point of the end are an infinitude of others. Something passes on, but nothing is known and nothing is guaranteed between them.

There are multiple versions of Mother, but Mother no matter her background knows this and only this. She will not survive for long, whether it is because of the floods or the droughts or her ageing health.

But she is bound to this universe because she has been given love, and she has love to share.

And so Mother takes a second to make a promise to herself. The next time her son calls she will take the time to tell him that she loves him. She will do so not wishing for control over his life, not even wishing to talk much to him at all, but to pass on the only thing that remains eternal, despite all which is guaranteed to end, in front of her or not.

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The India-Middle East sector is one that never sees a slump in demand. Whether it’s point-to-point flights for the significant Indian population residing in the Gulf countries or smooth layovers provided by hub airports for transit passengers, these routes are perennially in demand. With this in mind, it’s not all that surprising to see the UAE wanting a bigger slice of the pie.

The UAE has requested 50,000 more seats a week for air travel between the UAE and India.

This will allow for a greater presence of Dubai-based carriers in India, where air travel to the Middle East is growing increasingly popular. According to the New Indian Express, the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority Director-General Mohammed A Ahli has written to India’s Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and asked India to let Dubai based carriers to fly to more Indian cities, such as Amritsar, Tiruchirapalli, Coimbatore, Kannur, Goa, Bhubaneswar, Guwahati, and Pune.

The report says that the UAE has been mounting pressure on the Indian government to allow more flights from there. Even Emirates President Tim Clark had earlier asked the Indian government to open up more routes.

Ahli, in his letter, stated, “As your esteemed offices will be aware, the current seat capacity of 65,200 seats was established vide the terms of the MoU between our respective Governments in 2014. In the past seven years not only has there been a very strong growth of passenger and freight between Dubai and India, but also both our countries have been at the forefront of major developments in aviation.”

Aiming to boost connectivity between key metro cities, Air India will start 24 additional domestic flights from Saturday onwards.

Most of these flights will be deployed on the routes of metro cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, among others.

While Air India will add two new frequencies from Delhi to Mumbai, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad, and from Mumbai to Chennai and Hyderabad, one new frequency on the Mumbai-Bengaluru route and Ahmedabad-Pune route will be included as well.

“The additional 24 flights include two new frequencies from Delhi to Mumbai, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad, and from Mumbai to Chennai and Hyderabad, as well as one new frequency on the Mumbai-Bengaluru route and Ahmedabad-Pune route,” the airline said in a statement.

Commenting on the network expansion, Campbell Wilson, MD and CEO, Air India, said: “This expansion bolsters connectivity between key metros, and improves connectivity between Air India’s domestic and international networks.Over the past six months, Air India has been working closely with our partners to return aircraft to service, and we are delighted that this effort is now bearing fruit.”

Air India’s narrow body fleet currently stands at 70 aircraft, of which 54are currently serviceable. The remaining 16 aircraft will progressively return to service by early 2023. (IANS)

A report by leading business consulting firm Nangia Andersen LLP in association with the Federation of Indian Commerce and Industry says that outbound trips from India will surpass US$42 billion by 2024. The report, titled “Outbound Travel and Tourism – An Opportunity Untapped”, was presented in the recently-held second edition of the Outbound Tourism Summit. The report was concerned with the rapidly developing Indian travel market, outlining a framework for creating a more value-for-money experience for Indian tourists and travelers.

Outbound trips from India will surpass USD 42 billion by 2024 and the government could bring about certain policy changes to boost this growing market, a report said.

The report’ titled ‘Outbound Travel and Tourism – An Opportunity Untapped’ by Nangia Andersen LLP in association with FICCI, highlights the up-and-coming Indian travel market and outline a framework for creating a more value for money experience for Indian tourists and travellers.

To facilitate ease of doing business and promote the interests of Indian firms dealing in outbound travel the government could look at steps like increasing direct connections to popular and upcoming destinations, allowing foreign cruise vessels to operate on Indian waters, besides taking concerted and coordinated efforts on multiple fronts to propel the outbound tourism market, the report said.

Nangia Andersen LLP Head – Government and Public Sector Advisory Suraj Nangia said Indian outbound tourism is going to surpass USD 42 billion by 2024.

“We are soon going to be the most populous country in the world with the fastest growing economy. The Indian outbound travel market is among the fastest growing markets globally with approximately 80 million passport level of purchasing power, especially among the middle class.”

The report noted that allowing foreign cruise vessels to include Indian destinations as a stop would encourage both inbound and outbound tourism as well as increase revenue for Indian ports.

With a growing economy, young population, and growing middle class, India is ideally positioned to become one of the most lucrative outbound tourism markers in the world. Europe sees 20 per cent of the travellers from India’s outbound traffic. 10 per cent travel to Australia and New Zealand, while the rest of the traffic is towards South east Asia, it said.

Nangia Andersen LLP Partner – Government and Public Sector Advisory Poonam Kaura said, “With the positive response of foreign delegations and their policies, our government can surely establish bilateral relations with tourist-friendly countries for both inbound and outbound tourists.

In 2021, Indians spent approximately USD 12.6 billion in outbound trips, compared to USD 22.9 billion in 2019. While the reason for decrease in spending could be due to the pandemic but these figures point out the huge value that can be captured from Indian outbound travellers, the report added.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

With a view to expand its network, Air India has planned to induct wide-body aircraft into its fleet. Total 10 grounded aircrafts will be brought back into service by early 2023, reporst suggested.

A wide-body aircraft is generally deployed on International routes as its bigger fuel tank allows it to travel on long-haul international routes like India-US and India-Canada.

Air India’s wide-body fleet currently stands at 43 aircraft, of which 33 are operational. This is a significant improvement from 28 aircraft that the airline was operating till recently,” said the airline.

The airline on Sunday also announced that it will operate daily flights between Delhi and Vancouver (Canada) from August 31 onwards. Currently, it operates Delhi-Vancouver service three times per week. Frequency on this route has been increased keeping in view the growing traffic between India and Canada and has been enabled by the return to service of the wide-body Boeing 777-300 ER aircraft.

The airline said that Boeing has been working closely with Air India following its acquisition by Tata Group to restore aircraft that had been grounded for prolonged periods due to the Covid-19 pandemic and other reasons.

“The progressive restoration of these aircraft has already allowed Air India to increase schedule resilience and will allow further frequency and network increases over the coming months,” it added.

It was on January 27 this year when the Tata Group took control of Air India after successfully winning the bid for the airline on October 8 last year. Air India’s newly appointed CMD Campbell Wilson had in the last week of July asked the airline’s Integrated Operations Control Center (IOCC), which is the “nerve centre” of any carrier, to report directly to him and give recommendations on how to improve the on-time performance. Wilson said in a statement that the increase of frequency on Delhi-Vancouver route marks the first step in restoring Air India’s fleet and international network.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention citing a “new phase” of the Covid pandemic in a statement confirming the rule change, lifting the requirement for international travelers to have Covid test prior to within 24 hourrs of traveling to the United States, as of Sunday, June 12th, 2022.

“Widespread uptake of highly effective Covid-19 vaccines, the availability of effective therapeutics, and the accrual of high rates of vaccine- and infection-induced immunity at the population level in the United States” have all helped lower the risk of severe disease and death, the agency said.

Many travelers in the United States and abroad have been waiting for it. The travel industry has been pushing for it. And now an end has come to the requirement for travelers to test negative for Covid-19 before entering the US. Navigating ever-shifting entry requirements across the globe has been a source of great confusion for travelers everywhere.

Here’s what we know about how the new policy will impact US arrivals:

When does the the pre-travel testing requirement be lifted?

The requirement ended on Sunday, June 12, at 12:01 a.m. ET.

That means flights departing to the US from a foreign country at or after that time no longer have to present a negative test result or documentation of recovery in the past 90 days from Covid-19.

Departures before that time will require testing.

Is the decision final?

Like many measures targeting Covid-19, the rules are subject to change.

“CDC continues to evaluate the latest science and state of the pandemic and will reassess the need for a testing requirement if the situation changes,” the agency said in a statement.

Do foreign arrivals to the US still need to be vaccinated?

Yes. The vaccination requirement for foreign arrivals has not changed.

Travelers 18 and older who are not US citizens, US nationals, legal permanent residents or immigrants must be fully vaccinated to travel to the US, with limited exceptions.

Children 17 and under are not required to be vaccinated.

What about unvaccinated Americans?

The end of the testing requirement applies to all travelers previously required to present negative test results, and vaccination requirements to enter the United States do not apply to US citizens.

What is the CDC’s recommendation for travel?

The CDC still recommends that travelers remain up to date on vaccinations and test for infection before and after travel and after any known exposure to someone with Covid-19.

The CDC also continues to recommend wearing masks in indoor public transportation settings. Masks are no longer required.

Are land border and ferry port arrivals affected by the rule change?

No. The rule change applies to air travel. Covid-19 testing has not been required for entry via a land or ferry port. Non-US travelers 18 and older must be fully vaccinated to enter the US.

According to Dr. Leana Wen, a CNN medical analyst, there were good reasons to have the testing requirements at other points during the pandemic. “Having the testing requirement is not doing much, if anything, to keep the coronavirus out of the US, and instead is creating a major barrier to people who wish to travel abroad and return,” Wen said. “Of course, if people have symptoms or exposure while traveling, they need to get tested, and if they test positive, to follow CDC’s isolation guidelines.”

High airfare is a global worry now. In the United States and around the world, travelers have been complaining for quite some about unusually high airfares almost on all routes. These are the times of summer vacation in schools in many parts of India, and also in courts. So, if you booked or attempted to book air tickets, you must have felt a bigger hole burning in your pocket.

Blame Covid-19: The pandemic forced the governments across the world to impose travel restrictions and opt for travel bubbles with highly regulated flight operations. Now, with the worst of Covid-19 seemingly over, restrictions are gone or in the days of force.

A travel burst: The international travel observers are saying that the demand for air travel is “off the charts” – even about 30% higher than the pre-pandemic levels. This is the pent up travel demands accumulated over the past two years. This is why internet searches show sky-high airfares for many routes.

Costlier fuel: The prices of Aviation turbine fuel (ATF) has been skyrocketing for several months, also due to the Russia-Ukraine war. ATF makes up about 40% of the operational cost for airlines. With lower ATF prices in pre-pandemic time, it formed 25-30% of the operational cost.

Fewer staff: The pandemic saw airlines reducing their fleet strength as well as the number of pilots, flight attendants, ground handlers and other aviation workers. Reports suggest that new hirings have begun but it takes time to put things in order for flight operation.

Repairing finances: Aviation sector, a capital-intensive business, runs on wafer-thin margins. Huge rush of travellers and an unusually high airfare are offering the airlines an opportunity to repair their balance sheets. This high-price situation, experts say, is likely to last a few more months globally.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is no longer enforcing the federal government’s mask mandate for travel after a federal judge in Florida struck down the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) directive, media reports here suggested.  

“The agencies are reviewing the decision and assessing potential next steps,” a Biden administration official said. “In the meantime, today’s court decision means CDC’s public transportation masking order is not in effect at this time.” 

“Therefore, TSA will not enforce its Security Directives and Emergency Amendment requiring mask use on public transportation and transportation hubs at this time,” the official said.  

The Biden administration is still encouraging travelers to wear masks on public transit in order to protect against COVID-19 in the wake of Monday’s ruling. But those who do not wear face coverings on planes and other modes of public transportation will not face consequences.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters earlier Monday that the ruling was “disappointing” and that the administration was reviewing the decision.  

The Justice Department would make any decision on litigation, she said. The administration could choose to appeal the ruling.

Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, an appointee of former President Trump, voided the CDC’s mandate earlier on Monday, writing that the agency exceeded its statutory authority with the order requiring mask use on planes, trains and other forms of public transit.  

The ruling came just days after the CDC extended the mandate for 15 days through May 3. In extending the mandate, the agency said it was reviewing the impact of a recent rise in COVID-19 cases.  

Tata Sons Chairman N. Chandrasekaran has been appointed as Air India Chairman, a group spokesperson said. The development comes as the Tata Group scouts for a new Air India CEO-MD.

Earlier this month, ex-Turkish Airlines head Mehmet Ilker Ayci, who was named as the new Air India CEO-MD, declined the position. No reason was given for Ayci’s decision.

Last month, the Tata Group-led Air India announced the appointment of Ayci as the new Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of the airline. At that time, Ayci while accepting the position said he is “delighted and honoured to accept the privilege of leading an iconic airline and to join the Tata Group”. He was expected to take the charge on or before April 1.

Ayci, 51, until recently was the Chairman of Turkish Airlines and was also on its Board of Directors prior to that.

Recently, the Tata Group bought the debt ridden state-owned Air India from the Central government by placing a bid of over Rs 18,000 crore at an auction and on January 27, it took over the full control of the airlines.

India will allow resumption of scheduled commercial international passenger services from March 27. “After having recognized the increased vaccination coverage across the globe and in consultation with the stakeholders, the Government of India has decided to resume scheduled commercial international passenger services to or from India from March 27, 2022,” an official communique said on Tuesday.

“The suspension of scheduled commercial international passenger services to or from India, thus, stands extended only upto 2359 hrs IST on March 26, 2022 and air bubble arrangements shall accordingly be extended to this extent only.”

Last year, the Centre had decided to allow resumption of scheduled commercial international passenger services from December 15. However, the decision was suspended after the spread of Omicron variant of Covid-19. (IANS)

National carrier Air India will not be able to operate a number of US-bound flights on Wednesday, the airline said.

Accordingly, the airline informed passengers via it’s official Twitter handle that it will not be able to operate the Delhi-JFK-Delhi and Mumbai-EWR-Mumbai flights amongst other on Wednesday.

The deployment of 5G communications in the US has been cited as the cause for flight cancellations.

However, in another tweet the airline said that it will operate the flight to Washington DC from Delhi by AI103 on Wednesday.

As per industry insiders, the 5G network deployment might cause certain crucial flight instruments to malfunction.

“#FlyAI: Due to deployment of 5G communications in USA, our operations to USA from India stand curtailed/revised with change in aircraft type from 19th January 2022,” the airline tweeted. (IANS)