You had me at Chatrapati...

I wrote about my positive arrival experience at Bombay's airport. With my departure to London today, I have completed my first arrival and departure sequence from the new international terminal.

I must admit, I'm impressed.

You had me at dedicated, fast and friendly business class checkin, security and immigration. You just overwhelmed me with flowing natural light, convenient gate access, impressive retail, moving walkways everywhere, high vaulted ceilings, creative art installations, green eco-walls, water features galore... and that's just the start.

People who read my posts know how critical I can be. First impressions here are very positive. Well done Bombay, well done.

Tons of natural light, high ceilings and no lines welcomed me to the new departures terminal.

Moving walkways, eco-walls, and convenient gate access? Yup.

Hello Boston!

According to the Boston East India Hotels business plan, "instead of catering to primarily Western or American travelers, hospitality companies of the future must plan to be conversant and proficient in the needs and desires of global travelers."

This "Hello Boston" ad for Emirates Airlines' new service to Boston from Bombay (via Dubai), which blanketed Linking Road in Bandra, Mumbai, today shows the resonance of our vision as we build our Troca Hotels brand into a collection of exceptional lifestyle luxury hotels in global gateways designed for travelers from around the world exploring an ever expanding universe.

Bombay's Airport Grows up - First Thoughts

I had heard a few rumblings about the new international terminal at Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. Having lived in Bombay for several years a few years ago, I remember the airport being the bane of my travel existence. Dusty, dirty, functionally difficult, it was everything I didn't want in a travel experience.

I am happy to report that things have changed. Here are my first thoughts from landing at Bombay after a red-eye flight from London on BA199: Arriving at BOM was a breeze. Lots of carpeted territory to cover, but miles of moving walkways to assist.  I felt like I was at Delhi's airport, perhaps without the chauvinism and fear of being shot on the highway.  I thought the art and installations were - dare I say - interesting, and this was the first time in my life that Bombay immigration wasn't revolting. That said, the customs bit was still overkill, including the massive "x" marks they scribble in chalk on suitcases they suspect contain an extra few Rupees of goods. Saw a few nice suitcases indelibly marked so.

Parking and airport exit also happened smoothly. Yes, that's right. Smoothly. All in all, though, positive marks for an airport experience I once dreaded. Thankfully, the one hour backup steps away from the airport on the Western Express Highway traversing the ill-placed and poorly-timed construction effort on one of Mumbai major arterial highways reminded me, alas, I was back in Bombay. Unlike the US, however, this was likely sheer incompetence at the highway planning department and a healthy dose of low level corruption than the efforts of a New Jersey Governor Christie wannabe at work. Ahh, Mumbai, there you are!

The choices we make...

reveal the true nature of our character."  The message is strong, and in this moving Guinness ad created by BBDO New York, unmistakably powerful.  It made me pause, from an unbelievably busy week, to reflect for a moment on that.  In just two years, we now employ nearly a hundred employees on three continents.  As we steer our company onto the global stage, the choices we make do indeed reveal our true natures -- and to a large audience.  We have chosen to push forward and grow the right way, believe in our mission and goals, believe in people, smile, build better systems, learn, educate, laugh heartily at ourselves on occasion, make people smile genuinely, do the right thing without fail, and always be kind.  I'm proud of our choices and the people who are making them.

As we launch our new multimedia campaign to tell the world about Boston East India Hotels and our Troca Hotels collection, I look forward to our work being as compelling and ultimately effective as this piece.  Stay tuned and let us know.  

Click here for a link to the video

The Consul and the Crime

I have refrained from making comments on the matter of Devyani Kohbragade, the Indian diplomat arrested in New York, because it seemed to be a diplomatic fracas of little long term import. On the one hand, you have Preet Bharara, the Indian born American US attorney for New York taking aim at the alleged illegalities of an Indian diplomat stationed within his jurisdiction. On the other, you have two countries awkwardly addressing an issue that should have been dealt with very differently.

I continue to be confused by why partial diplomatic immunity did not trigger a more gentle approach to Ms. Kohbragade and her arrest. At the same time, I am bewildered by both the decision by India's foreign service not to remove Ms. Khobragade from the US upon receiving notification that she was under criminal investigation (in September 2013) and its most recent decision to relocate her to India's UN Mission, also in New York. Ms. Kohbragade is no stranger to controversy, having been involved in the Adarsh Housing Society, a corruption riddled housing development in Mumbai. In this instance, she attempted to do something her limited diplomatic immunity did not allow her to do, namely commit visa fraud and violate US federal labor laws. While another American prosecutor may have been more deferential to Ms. Kohbragade's limited immunity, the rather aggressive Preet Bharara was not.

While US Attorney Bharara's posture smacks of a poor understanding of international relations (or blatant disregard thereof), India's childish removal of security barriers from the US Embassy in Delhi as retaliation does not even remotely befit the august role a country's official position must fill. India and Indians have far more important matters to address than this potential diplomatic misstep. At very least, Ms. Kohbragade's conduct -- and the apparent misguided insistence by the Indian government that she remain in the United States -- should not become the cause célèbre for a large swath of angry Indian citizens. US Secretary of State John Kerry has already expressed "regret" over the incident; India's government should do the same and move on from this silly affair.

A prayer for Claire

Claire Davis is 17 years old. She is a student at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado. Karl Pierson is 18 years old. According to the National Rifle Association, Karl had the right to purchase a shotgun quickly and easily. He exercised that right. Then, while carrying his new shotgun through his school yesterday, he shot Claire in the head and at close range.

I have long decried the number of guns in America and the alarming ease with which we are adding more. Firearms have transformed our country into a constant battlefield. On this the one year anniversary of the carnage in Newtown, Connecticut, let us again ask why. Why does the most powerful country on earth seem so powerless in the face of this scourge?

Claire Davis is in critical condition tonight, suffering from severe head trauma from her gunshot wound. Please add her to your thoughts and prayers. Let us all pray that our leaders have the courage to take action to finally end this madness.

Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson holds a picture of Claire Davis, the 17-year-old student who was shot on Friday. (Ed Andrieski / Associated Press / December 14, 2013)

Do we really need more guns?

Yesterday, it was a Naval facility, Last week it was a school. Tomorrow it might be a doctor's office. Last year it was a District Attorney's home. Today it was a TSA counter at LAX. Gun violence is raging in America. 

Add more guns, we are told by the NRA. 

As a former student of the US Constitution, I ask this question: at what point do we say, enough is enough? At what point do we realize that each additional gun circulating in society makes us exponentially more unsafe? At what point do we place the Second Amendment alongside the others, not above them? I weep for our country because we have become a literal battleground. Human beings will be born as they are and societies will continue to develop them as they do. When you add the number of guns we have in America to a mix which includes the naturally occurring rate of mental illness, you get a really toxic brew. More legally available guns is not the answer. It has proven itself not to be. Just as we cannot gauge and prevent the mentally infirm from acquiring weapons, we cannot entrust our future to a militarized life where you must live with your guns drawn at all times. 

America, it is time for a change.

A Game Changer From T-Mobile

Starting October 20st for new accounts (and October 31st for existing accounts), T-Mobile is offering nearly unlimited international data roaming for its US customers. I remember the days of roaming within the US where you would pay roaming charges for phone calls outside your home network area (which, back then, were narrowly drawn).  Those were the days when banking and many other services were not truly nationalized within the US. Interstate commerce had its internal borders.

That eventually gave way to unlimited nationwide roaming and the now commoditized domestic mobile phone and data service. Most other inter-state barriers have now fallen.  T-Mobile's move to remove international data roaming across its broad network is groundbreaking and will, in due course, serve as an international leveler. It's high time. Kudos, T-Mobile!

A Call for a More Perfect Political Union

Today's Senate passing of a bill to end the fiscal impasse delivers a stinging defeat for hard liners in Congress. While the opportunity to come together and work as a proper legislative body was lost long ago, I continue to fear that the idiocy of the far right will continue in to the next budget discussion only months away.  How members of a legislative body can be elected and serve with such destructive political philosophies continues to bewilder me. Creation of consensus from wide ranging viewpoints, not the perpetuation of poles, is the true sign of leadership. I call upon my friends from all political leanings to pledge to form a new political class which does just that. I suspect that history will not judge kindly this epoch and the errant cowboys who held our Federal government hostage for two weeks; let history also note that this low point served as a foundation for a better and more sound political union. For now, I am thankful that this ugly episode has passed. God bless America and guide her to that more stable place. 

My Time with "Hizzoner" - Mayor Edward I. Koch

New York, 1996

It was 1996 and I was a Legal Assistant at the law firm of Robinson, Silverman, Pearce, Aronsohn & Berman in New York.  I already knew that being being paralegal had no glory.  My time at Teitelbaum, Hiller, Rodman, Paden & Hibsher had already disavowed me of that notion.  But I wasn't yet looking for glory. I had graduated from Middlebury two summers ago and was still finding my way in the world. Having worked for my father's company as an executive at an early age, I thought I had a good internal gauge of my own capabilities, but had yet to prove them to many in the outside world. At my dad's company only recently, I had navigated ourselves to a large contract from the United States Navy for advanced strategic computer based linguistic systems at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. I personally bid for the project, procured and negotiated the contract, and built and delivered the computer hardware -- and all as a teenager.

Far from my life at my father's company, in New York I was a relatively new paralegal just out of college.  With as much innovation and intelligence as I was allowed to exercise, I would produce litigation files, research which polluters had polluted which amounts and when for one of many massive EPA Superfund litigations, or help prepare court filings. The work was unsophisticated, but required diligence and some level of care.  I arrived every morning at 1290 Avenue of the Americas ready to do whatever the lawyers I worked for would tell me.  I grew to dislike my job for many reasons: (a) I worked in New York yet made a salary that made living with any degree of style very challenging, (b) I worked for lawyers who I looked up to (merely because they were lawyers, and heck, what did I know in those days?) but who didn't share the same respect or fascination for me, and (c) I was, in effect, the lowest member of the "legal professional" totem pole; a role I didn't like one bit.

I met former Mayor Ed Koch, or "hizzoner" as he was affectionately called, while working at Robinson Silverman.  I had joined the firm along with several attorneys from Teitelbaum Hiller, which was collapsing in an old fashioned law firm split dust-up. Except for the fact that I knew Robinson Silverman was larger and had fancier offices, I knew nothing else about the firm.  When I first learned that Ed Koch worked there, I was clearly awestruck. While I had met prominent figures before, I had never had an opportunity to work in the same space as them and had never met them the way I met Mayor Koch.  Koch and I first met in the most unorthodox way: as we were both entering the men's room at our firm. I had gone to the men's room on a thankless errand for myself, to do what people do when they have to use the restroom. Mr. Koch had surely done the same. Yet the interaction that ensued would help alter my remaining time at the firm and ultimately shape my career.

My dissatisfaction with being a Legal Assistant had grown over time, and was now nearing its peak. I was looking to move on but wondered whether leaving the firm so soon after arriving would adversely affect my resume and job prospects.  Arriving at the rest room, however, none of those thoughts were primary. Rather, in addition to the need that had brought me to the restroom, I had a litigation project that Peter Paden, another partner at the firm, had given me, deeply on my mind. I entered the rest room and pulled up to a urinal.  As I approached, I saw that another person, mostly bald with tufts of grey hair, had also approached a urinal nearby. I glanced over, exercising the locational awareness that most humans like having when peeing next to others.  About the same time, my new bathroom companion glanced over at me. I instantly recognized this fellow restroom patron as the former Mayor of New York and quickly returned my gaze to my appointed task. Processing the fact that I was about to pee next to Mr. Koch distracted me from actually doing so, because what followed next was the most awkward 40 seconds of silence of my young career. As both Ed Koch and I stood there attempting to urinate, staring at our respective urinal walls, neither of us actually could. Finally breaking the silence after about forty five seconds, Mayor Koch zipped up, looked over at me, and with a wry smile said, "well, I guess I must have gotten stage fright."

Over the next few months, Mayor Koch made an effort to say hello to me, call me into his office on occasion, and share thoughts on politics, the profession, and on people. He and I shared a culinary love: Peking Duck House in Chinatown, and we referred to that love often. Beyond food, we talked about politics in New York. I recall asking him why he had switched parties to endorse Rudy Guiliani over David Dinkins, who had defeated Mayor Koch only one term prior. After all, Mayor Koch had supported Dinkins in the general election after his defeat in the primaries. Why the switch? Mayor Koch explained that Dinkins bore significant responsibility for the lawlessness of the anti-Semitic riots that raged in Crown Heights and that the riots had convinced him that Dinkins was no longer deserving of his support. The person is more important than the party, he quickly added. Having supported Guiliani in the previous election, Mayor Koch explained to me that he was pulling his support, suggesting that Guiliani's candor and tone bothered him.  The people of New York, Mr. Koch beamed, "deserved better."

When I told him about my dream of being a lawyer despite my disdain for being a paralegal, he spoke candidly about the challenges of the profession but also bullishly about its potential to protect and foster civil rights and aid in the governance of free people. "Bhijit," the Mayor told me in his New York accent, "if being a lawyer is what you want, go get it. Don't worry about your resume, just go do the best you can - nobody will fault you."  Soon after, I followed his advice and left the firm on my own journey to go to law school.

While I didn't keep in touch with Mayor Koch except to thank him after starting law school, his love for his city and the passion with which he lived his life remind me today, as they informed me in 1996, that a life worth living is born of conviction and the courage to pursue it. “How’m I doin?” he famously used to ask his constituents.  You did great, Mayor.

Rest in Peace.

NYT: Law Schools’ Applications Fall as Costs Rise and Jobs Are Cut

Paul Sakuma/Associated Press

This year's law school applicant pool is 30% smaller than last year's and nearly 40% smaller than in 2010, according to an article in today's The New York Times.  While I can understand the elasticity of demand based on macro-economic considerations, I firmly believe that applicants to all graduate programs, including law schools, must separate their beliefs about employment prospects from their  intellectual and professional passions.

My career has seen much evolution since I graduated from law school, but despite the changing focus and job environment, the intellectual process of law school and the training and refinement it provided remain invaluable to me. While I experienced a very comfortable job environment upon graduation, the economy cratered only a few years after, only to rebound and fall several times thereafter. Applicants to law schools must know that the job market may contain volatility, but also, and perhaps more importantly, that there will always be a need and role for qualified, passionate and intelligent lawyers. That is just as true today as it has always been.  A focus on just the availability of a big corporate law firm job after graduation robs the decision of whether to go to law school of much of its other essential considerations.

That said, we must address the broader issues of the financing and cost of modern American education so that bright students of all economic backgrounds are able to pursue and obtain the highest level and quality of education available anywhere in the world. That availability will define and reinforce America's greatness in the next century. 

Senate Approves Sen. Kerry for Secretary of State

Congratulations to Sen. Kerry on his confirmation as our next Secretary of State. He enters service in his new role as the geopolitical situation remains complicated, especially in the Middle East and North Africa. I am hopeful that he will put his significant experience to good use in furtherance of President Obama's foreign policy. Best of luck, Sen. Kerry.

Newtown's Massacre, America's Tragedy

It is hard to come up with words to encapsulate the sense of loss we all feel today in light of the tragedy at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.  

President Obama's tearful statement summed up the mood of much of the nation when he said, "as a country, we have been through this too many times. Whether it’s an elementary school in Newtown, or a shopping mall in Oregon, or a temple in Wisconsin, or a movie theater in Aurora, or a street corner in Chicago — these neighborhoods are our neighborhoods, and these children are our children. And we’re going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics...  May God bless the memory of the victims and, in the words of Scripture, heal the brokenhearted and bind up their wounds."

While today is perhaps not the day to discuss the policies we can adopt to reduce the number of these tragedies, the time is here for us to address the systemic problems that turn the world's most prosperous and amazing country into a suburban battlefield fueled by handguns and semi-automatic weapons. Surely, as today's tragedy in China, in which a knife wielding assailant attacked and injured 22 children, shows us, guns are not the world's only source or vehicle of violence. That said, guns surely augment the fury and impact of the violence wrought upon us. According to the United States Census, two thirds of all homicides in the United States from 2000 - 2008 -- 86,112 deaths -- were caused by guns. The next largest cause, knives, accounted for a mere 13% of homicides over the same period. If you are a victim of homicide, it surely won't matter whether a gun or knife took your life; as a society, however, it surely matters that over the period covered by the Census, you were five times as likely to be shot to death than killed by a knife.

Today's tragedy provides a complicated problem. On the one hand, the complete absence of guns in our society would likely have prevented today's tragedy. On the other hand, we live in a society that has nearly as many guns as residents. If one of the adult victims who fell today had a weapon, perhaps one fewer death might have occurred because the assailant might have been met with a force sufficient to stop him. Yet, that is also not a certainty. One gun owned by one owner might counter one attack. Yet, will one million guns counter a million attacks, or will some of those guns start creating their own chain violence? As I mentioned in a response to a facebook post from a friend earlier today, the issue isn't just what makes each of us safer individually. The issue is what makes us safer collectively. While I have little doubt that ownership of a gun by a friend I trust won't cause me harm, I also have little confidence that collective gun ownership makes me safer. Long story short, a world with almost no guns is safer than a world armed to its teeth. While we seek a world without nuclear proliferation, we endure a society in which it is easier to buy a gun than it is to vote. I can't see the logic in that.

Amidst all this uncertainty, what is certain is gun violence has become America's internal source of terror. It must be stopped. We must engage in an intelligent discussion to tackle the scourge of gun violence once and for all. The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution must be understood as the part of the broader Bill of Rights. Let us not allow the protection of one part of the Constitution to consume the protections afforded by the entire body of its work. It is time, America, to act to stop this escalating cycle of gun violence.

Google Maps is back to rescue Apple's iOS6

Google Maps for iPhone is back!

For those of you who are joined at the hip to your iPhone, there is good news to report. Google Maps is back on Apple's iOS. The Google designed Google Maps for iPhone, now available on Apple App Store, rescues the iPhone's from its self imposed irrelevance in mapping after the debacle that was Apple Maps. I encourage you to download Google Maps if you have not already done so. The New York Times review of the new app can be viewed by clicking here.

Sorry, Apple Maps.

What can brown do for you?

Bobby Jindal in 2011.  Photo by Gage Skidmore

Mitt Romney's latest remarks about why President Obama was re-elected have sparked some discussion among his public supporters, including this recent comment from Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal.

While I'm not a fan of Bobby Jindal's politics, he does have a huge opportunity for power in a Republican party starved for minority outreach. Michael Steele wasn't the right approach and neither was Herman Cain. Jindal's politics preach to the base while his ethnicity allows him leeway that Romney just didn't have.

Heck, if my political principles and ethics were as fluid as Mitt Romney's, I could run for office as a Republican and make out like a bandit. Thank god they're not.

Hotels On Point But Off The Beaten Path

Looking for hotels in Aix-en-Provence, France; Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany; Malmagen, Sweden; Oletta, Corsica; Puglia, Italy; Zafferana Etnea, Sicily; Istanbul; or London but tired of the big brands and being treated like a number by their loyalty point programs? Check out this article by Odine Cohane and Gisela Williams in The New York Times for some cool hotels off the beaten path.

Challenges Remain for FDI in Indian's Retail Sector

My friend Vikas Bajaj's article, India’s Embrace of Foreign Retailers, The New York Times, Oct. 9, 2012, touches on an important policy debate raging in India's political circles. The outcome affects much more than retail. Retailers like Walmart bring logistics and infrastructure on the back end that have far greater benefits to the country than policy makers who oppose foreign single brand retailers understand. Unlike developed countries, India desperately needs the logistics and infrastructure improvements if the country's economy is to be competitive globally.

Florist Express Just Isn't...

Those of you who read my blog posts know that my tolerance for bad customer service is relatively low especially when I work with a particular company frequently. I had an experience today that I think it is important to share with an e-commerce company called Florist Express. I usually order gifts and flowers from a company called ProFlowers, which I've had generally good experience with. Today, I needed a birthday floral arrangement delivered the same day, which ProFlowers sends to their "preferred partner" Florist Express. I'm assuming given the co-branding on certain pages, ProFlowers has a revenue sharing arrangement with Florist Express whereby Florist Express takes and fulfills same-day delivery orders.

Florist Express is a "preferred" and co-branded partner of Proflowers.

I placed my order for flowers and birthday balloons this morning. The web site indicated that I had to place my order for the zip code I was delivering to by 2:00pm. With hours left to go before the cut-off, I  placed my order and went on with my day. The number of places on the site that list reassuring messages about the company's abilities suggests that it takes its responsibility for same day delivery seriously. The main page banner has the company's phone number and tagline "florist arranged bouquets delivered today." The very next banner reads "all products on ProFlowers Florist Express can be delivered by our local florists TODAY!" The very next logo has large text that proclaims "Flowers Delivered TODAY!" along with a "100% On-Time Florist Express Guarantee." Several additional locations on the page suggest or guarantee that this company can get your flowers to their intended recipient not just today, but TODAY!

The number of places on the site that list reassuring messages about the company's
abilities suggests that it takes its responsibility for same day delivery seriously.

Imagine my disappointment and chagrin at receiving a phone call at 5:15pm EST on Saturday evening advising me that despite all the assurances on the site, the order could not in-fact be delivered today. Hours after I might be able to place a replacement order with someone else, Florist Express left me high and dry, up the proverbial creek without much of a paddle. There goes the company's "100% On-Time Guarantee."

The customer service agent quite formulaically offered to deliver the same order two days late, with a (presumably) form letter apology from the company suggesting that it had been the company's fault that the order was not delivered. I would still pay full price for the non-delivered flowers but apparently rest my consolation on the heartfelt computer generated apology produced by the same company that had made and broken its promises. I suggested to the customer service agent that the company should, at minimum, refund the order amount and still deliver the flowers as a gesture of true apology. "I wouldn't be able to do that sir," came the response from my helpful Florist Express agent. Having made a mockery of Florist Express' on-time guarantee, the agent's offer to me destroyed the company boldly stated "satisfaction guaranteed" promise. I wasn't satisfied and the company didn't care.

So, a word of caution to you those of you who view flowers as mission critical. Birthday, anniversary, or funeral? Order from Florist Express (www.floristexpress.net) and you may just miss it by a few days. But don't worry, I'm sure the form letter apology will suffice.

There goes the satisfaction guarantee too: I wasn't satisfied
and the company didn't care.

Democratic National Convention - First Night Recap

I spent part of my evening watching the DNC's convention being held in Charlotte. The speech of the evening belonged to Governor Deval Patrick, from my home state of Massachusetts, who gave the audience the gem that Mitt Romney, as governor, was "more interested in having the job than doing the job."

I thought Governor Martin O'Malley, who was Mayor of Baltimore when I was a law clerk at the Federal Court there, was good, on point, and got his message across that America should move "forward, not back," a message that was reinforced by convention goers wielding placards.

The keynote was delivered by San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, who was the first Latino keynote speaker at a Democratic National Convention and was introduced to the convention by his twin brother who is running for US Congress.  His performance, with a touching tribute to his immigrant grandmother and mother wasn't as strong as I had expected. While his focus on investments in education as a necessary condition for future economic growth in America is on point, he didn't have the depth to really move the convention. That said, he was better than many of the speakers at least week's RNC convention in terms of audience response.

The last big speech of the evening belonged to First Lady Michelle Obama, who spoke passionately about the President and her role as a mother and First Lady. I thought she humanized both the President and the basis of his decision making, suggesting that his was a personal cause not a political one. Her tribute to her father and her emphasis on her roll as "mother in chief" as she called it, was moving.

I agree with CNN analyst and former advisor to Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton, David Gergen, that the Democrats showed up ready for prime time and are on track to handily beat the impact of last week's RNC convention if their performances continue at the current pace.  Not hard to agree with Gergen given how bad some of the RNC speeches were, including the bizarre one from Academy Award winner Clint Eastwood.

Stay tuned.

Elizabeth Warren for US Senate

I like Scott Brown.

He seems like a nice guy. But, in this age of national and global turbulence, I believe Massachusetts deserves better than nice.

Economic reform. Healthcare. Abortion. The Supreme Court. Welfare. Our basic liberties.

Nice is good. We deserve the best.

I'm with Elizabeth Warren.