Photo Speaks
Weekend in Venice is now a flight away with Etihad
Etihad Airways, the national airline of the UAE, will expand its services to Italy with a new daily flight to Venice’s Marco Polo Airport. The new service will begin operations from 30th October, 2016 and be served by an Airbus A319, offering 16 seats in Business and 90 in Economy. Together with Alitalia, its code-share and equity partner, Etihad Airways will offer 35 weekly flights in and out of Italy, including double daily services to Rome and Milan.
One of the most beautiful travel locations to plan your weekend/long holidays made easier by this new route.
You will agree with me as you see some of my clicks taken during my visit.
70th Independence Day -Be Humane, Hi-tech & Happy
President Pranab Mukherjee addressed the nation on the eve of our 70th Independence Day. Here are some of the top quotes from his address:
- May our studies be brilliant; may there be no hostility amongst us; may there be Peace Peace Peace.
- We are in the process of forging new relationships based on shared values and mutual benefit with all countries.
- India’s focus in foreign policy will remain on peaceful co-existence & harnessing tech & resources for eco development.
- I respectfully bow to the heroes of independence struggle who fought & sacrificed their lives to win freedom.
- India will grow, only when all of India grows; the excluded ones have to be included in the development process.
- It is much more important to look to the future; it is time to join hands to cooperate, innovate and advance.
- We often celebrate the achievements of our ancient past but it would be wrong to rest on our laurels.
- We should promote scientific temper by questioning our beliefs which aren’t compatible with scientific way of thinking.
- Passage of GST bill is reason enough to celebrate our democratic maturity.
- World has witnessed a spate of terror activities having their roots in radicalization of people on basis of religion. These forces pose a danger to entire comity of nations; world will have to fight them unconditionally & in one voice.
- Attacks on weaker sections that militate against our national ethos are aberrations that need to be dealt with firmly.
- Disruptions, obstructionism & unmindful pursuit of divisive political agenda lead to institutional travesty
- We cannot call ourselves a civilized society if we fail in providing safety and security to our women and children.
- We must take destiny in our own hands to build the India of our dreams.
- As we build an India of smart cities, towns & villages, we must ensure they are humane, hi-tech and happy places.
Credits to text: Times of India / Photo © Ramesh Menon, Abu Dhabi
Donations for a Cause
A temple at a small village Mudapuram, near Chirayinkeezhu, Trivandrum in Kerala have created a trend setter to emulate by all religious institutions.
They have placed a special “Hundi” (box for putting dontations). Whatever collections coming in this donation box will be utilized for the benefit of “Cancer patients”.
The initiative is getting good response from devotees and well wishers as the temple authorities have so far been able to donate Rs 2000/- each to 5 cancer patients. A small amount though, but not bad as every small step leads to a bigger and brighter destination of success.
I wish all the religious institutions and Corporate Organisations follow their thoughts and keep aside a small amount to assist cancer patients. It is a reality that one in ten we meet have a story tell about someone close within his/her family/friends circle suffering or lost life due to cancer. And 3/4th of them and their families struggled for the treatment!.
Why hesitate, Start today itself!
God bless.
Ramesh Menon, Abu Dhabi
12th August 2016
Based on a story published in Mathrubhumi Newspaper. Photo credits to Mathrubhumi.
Are you angry? Then, Relax & Think Back!
It was weekend and as usual I took my cycle for a ride along the newly created track in our community. As I came out from the lift, I noticed the weather outside was dusty and not conducive for riding. So, I parked my cycle and thought, sit inside the waiting area and watch for some time before returning home. My mind was disturbed due to something and thought cycling was a good option, I thought it could calm me down and change the disturbing thoughts. But, I couldn’t, due to the bad weather.
It was a hot day and there was a cat, lying outside the glass door. Then came a little girl with a pet dog. She too was planning to take it for a walk. Seeing the outside weather, she also cancelled her plan. The dog had a belt which was of extendable type and the girl had left it loose so that it has lot of space to move around.
Suddenly I noticed, both the cat, which was outside and the dog, standing inside started a fight with each other. It became so furious that if the glass barrier was not there, one of them would have finished the other! The girl played around with their furious emotional outpour for some time and then took it back to her home in the lift. As it left, it was still panting and growling.
Many times, we tend to be in such situations. Knowingly or unknowingly, we get carried away and start conversation or acts that lead to angry outpour of words, which may lead to physical actions!. Here in this case, the glass door was the strong physical barrier that prevented any mishaps. But, what will help us in such real life situations? A good friend? a a more relaxed and calm family member?, more than that a good family and school upbringing? a self discipline that is practiced?
Yes, control of anger is something that has to be consistently worked on and made a habit to not react to such unwarranted and unwanted situations instantaneously. If ever you happen to be in it, relax, take a deep breath. Think back and solutions to your disturbances will follow. It will save you!. God bless and wish you a great day.
EK 521 Incident – Efficient Crisis Management & Communication by Emirates Airlines
Dubai, Wednesday, 3rd August 2016
Emirates flight EK521 took off from Trivandrum in India while landing at Dubai International Airport on August 3, 2016 at about 12.45pm local time met with an emergency situation.
This is an age of swift and uninterrupted electronic communication. Dubai is an extremely busy city and its airport being open and visible from several points within the city.
- The airlines tweeted about this incident immediately. As soon as news broke of the incident, Emirates airlines official social media pages on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter changed their logo to a grey and white picture.As the news broke out and evolved, social media photos started coming out which showed thick plumes of black smoke rising from the burning plane.
- Within almost 1 hour of the incident, i.e. at 2pm Emirates put out a tweet saying, “We can confirm that there are no fatalities among our passengers and crew. All passengers and crew are accounted for and safe. #EK521”. Emirates confirmed that there were 282 passengers and 18 crew on board. They also confirmed that emergency response teams at Dubai Airport had fully extinguished the fire on the Emirates plane.
- The Airline’s well-trained crew were quick and safely evacuated all the 300 passengers including the 18 member crew from the plane in a matter of 46 seconds! (as tweeted by one user on Twitter).
- The nationalities of the passengers were announced on Facebook at 3pm. Dubai Airports offered refreshments across all terminals throughout the day. Passengers were just asked to present their ticket or boarding card.
- At 4.10pm Emirates put out an official statement on their website and Youtube page by His Highness Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Emirates’ Chairman & Chief Executive on incident involving EK521. “We can confirm that there are no fatalities among our passengers and crew. All passengers and crew are accounted for and safe,” he said.
- At 5.30pm, Emirates cancelled 42 flights at Dubai International. Dubai Media office tweeted at 5.50pm that specialized teams at Dubai Airports worked simultaneously to ensure safety & comfort of all passengers following the incident. The media office also tweeted that DXB will resume departure operations starting 18.30 UAE local time with larger aircraft given first priority. They also tweeted that all Emirates passengers who had purchased tickets on or before 3rd August will have rebooking; re-issue & cancellation charges waived.
- The General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) confirmed at 7.22pm that a fire fighter Jasim Issa Mohammad Hassan attached to Dubai Airports lost his life during firefighting operations. “He died while doing his duty and while evacuating the people to safety. On behalf of the General Civil Aviation Authority, I would like to offer my heartfelt condolences to the family of deceased. I salute his ultimate sacrifice that kept many from harm’s way. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family”, said the director general of GCAA. At the 7.30pm press conference Ahmed bin Saeed Al Makhtoum said: “We pay tribute to the firefighter who lost his life fighting the blaze. We thank all teams that dealt with the incident. He also paid tribute to the pilot who was instrumental in saving the passengers lives. The flight pilot is a well experienced Emirati national with more than 7000 flight hour. Medical teams dealt with 13 persons with minor injuries, who left after a short time.
An excellent example of Crisis Management
My sincere congratulations to Emirates Airline EK521 Captain and Crew for handling the Crisis exceedingly well. Highest level of praise also goes to the Dubai Airport Emergency Response Team, who handled the situation and made sure the incident was brought under control. As regards to Emirates Airline Crisis Management and Communication Team, this is an excellent example for all global Comms/Crisis Management Teams to observe and follow how effectively and efficiently a major crisis can be handled and communicated.
Proof of Efficient Crisis Communication from Emirates
Everyone will agree and accept that this is not an easy task these days, when all are on social media and dissemination of information is just within the press of our fingers. On behalf of Emirates, the press conference and address by His Highness Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Emirates’ Chairman & Chief Executive was very clear and matter of fact. The airline also came out with timely developing statements to avoid any rumors and feed stakeholders with right information.
Jasim Issa Mohammad Hassan – A great hero born!
Last but not the least, as a fitting tribute to the brave firefighter Jasim Issa Mohammad Hassan who lost his life, several high authorities from UAE government, including H.H. Vice President and Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Ruler of Dubai, H.H. General Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces attended his funeral and offered condolences to his family and friends. His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, offered his sincere condolences and sympathy to the family and friends of the martyr of the nation, firefighter Jassim Issa Al Balooshi, who was martyred while extinguishing the fire, which involved Emirates Airline plane on Wednesday. In his account on the social networking “Twitter” said, “We offer our condolences to the family and friends of the martyr of the nation, firefighter, Jassim Issa Al Balooshi. And we ask God to bestow patience and solace on his bereaved family.” He added, “As far as our grief on Jassim, however we are proud of our youth and their sacrifices while performing their duties in protecting the lives and saving people. This country has men to be proud of.
Ramesh Menon, Abu Dhabi
@rameshmenonauh /3rd August 2016
{Compilation of information from: Various news media – Khaleej Times, Gulf News, The National/Twitter/Emirates Airlines site etc}
#EK521 #EmiratesAirlines #CrisisManagement #CrisisCommunication #HSE
Mind Speaks: E-volution to excessiveness
E-volution to excessiveness
It was lying idle for quite some time. To be fair to that time limit, it has remained not in use for more than 5 years now. During its days, it was a king on its own merit.
You must be wondering, what I am talking about?
It is nothing but a 1 GB Desktop, I assembled and used for a long time. It had some of the best features handpicked and assembled including the high end hard disk, memory cards, a good resolution graphic card and monitor.
Today, I thought, I find time to re-assemble it once again. It used to be a hobby once upon a time to assemble PCs of choice.
Dissecting it into pieces brought again lot of memories.
What significantly stood out was the floppy disk option it had.
Suddenly, I thought about the 1980s, when all the computing work was done using an 8 inch floppy diskette. It was big and fragile and could handle about 500 KB of data. Imagine those days the accounting activities were more manual and some used Lotus 123. Both sides of the floppy diskettes were used and it writes data into the diskette with a loud noise! Those were also the days the data was stored only in floppy disks.
Years passed and then the 5 1/4 inch floppy diskettes arrive with more data space, at times up to 1200 KB (1.2 MB).
Then the 3½ inch compact floppy disks with 1.44 MB space arrived.
There has been no dearth in terms of storage options with hard disks coming out with bigger in terms of storage space and smaller in terms of physical size.
Now USB storage disks come in small size with 2 TB size even.
Life goes on and what used to be once an integral part of my professional and personal computing activities have now become redundant and retired.
What next? Everything is in unclear and remains suspense as in the cloud!
Remain Green.
Ramesh Menon, Abu Dhabi
30th July 2016
#SafeCycling #InAbuDhabi
Abu Dhabi is beautiful to explore in the morning. Try it out. If it on a cycle, nothing better than that!.
#Safecycling #inAbuDhabi
There has been mixed reaction to an earlier post of mine on cycling and hence attaching a cycling route map for those interested. This route is expanding.
Always be cautious for self and those others on your path.
#ClicksandWrites
#PassionatePhotographers
Congratulations to Solar Impulse 2
Congratulations to#solarimpulse. The #futureisclean. Well done #InAbuDhabi
Photo Speaks: Unite for peace and harmony
World need peace and harmony. Keep a strong vigil. Stay united. Samastha Lokah Sukhino Bhavantu,
ClicksandWrites 
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