Captain Gopinath was from very humble beginnings and went on to serve the Indian army and then founded Deccan Airways, India's first low-cost airline. This book is a collection of essays he wrote on emerging India in various publications. He is well-read and has ideas and opinions which he expresses in the book.
The book is divided into sections - Aviation, Enterprise, Society and Governance, Politics and Musings. In aviation he makes a case for low-cost airlines and why that model will never make losses. He is a Modi fan clearly and feels that Modi has all the right ideas but the world, the babudom etc are coming in his way. He seems to have some nice words fro Mr Naresh Goyal too and does dwell on Mallya and feels the banks should have given him a package instead of hounding him. In enterprise he says entrepreneurs are the new freedom fighters, naively wonders why India Inc is silent on corruption and has something about Uber being punished for its drivers' faults. He joined the AAP and then unjoined it.
Capt Gopinath is very well-read and most of his pieces are quite balanced and thought-provoking. his penchant to pick heroes perhaps comes in the way once in a while. He quotes excessively from various sources. The best part of the book to me was the last section 'Musings'. I liked the story of him and RK Laxman. Otherwise too much telling.
2 comments:
No one is particularly flawed.. there's nothing called a successful entrepreneur in aviation yet in India, all of them saw limited success, government included. But someone has to fly those planes, to feed Boeing and Airbus, if nothing else..
True. Like they say, everyone is trying their best in the given circumstances. But I am intrigued by Capt Gopinath and am wondering what he is doing now. He seems to have a lot of ideas and passion.
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