VIZAG matters - Sohan Hatangadi's Blog

This marketing effort would be termed "excellent" if it was done by the coffee board. But for tourism it is totally irrelevant and a waste of money. That is because Araku is already bursting at the seams with low to medium spending tourists. The roads are crowded, chaotic and  filthy. Mountains of organic and plastic  garbage are strewn everywhere. Lines of squatting children do their job on the road sides. So much for ODF! There are no public toilets and what little is available is sub Saharan standards. In the roads surrounding Araku we come across heaps of Plaster of Paris and plastic sheeting removed from some old film set. Thermocole packing material and styrofoam plates lie in the fields everywhere. In the absence of any organised solid waste management every hotel and lodge takes their garbage across the road and chucks it into the bushes. Other than the APTDC property all lodges have poor standards. The RTC bus stand is one of the worst anywhere with ha...

My article in the Times of India, Vizag edition dated 17th April 2016 MY MALLYA MILES I first started flying Kingfisher Red airlines from Vizag in 2009. Gosh the airlines had fantastic branding. Their counters were bright red and white and that sparkling orange and blue kingfisher bird, with its wings spread, made a terrific impact. At the check-in counter the lady in red had such a sophisticated air that we wouldn’t mind taking the centre seat on the flight if she gave it to us. The bright red coach took us to the ATR aircraft, K-I-N-G-F-I-S-H-E-R was emblazoned in all caps across the length of the aircraft. The first letter K and the last letter R were a little bigger than the rest of the letters. New flyers stopped and took pictures for remembrance and for bragging. And as we climbed up the ramp we were greeted by the ladies with flashing smiles. With their fashionably short red pencil skirts, white blouse and red vests, they looked like models. We took our red seats wit...