Security Managers' Conference - 26 Dec 2005

The 4th Security Managers' Conference was held at Mumbai on 26 Dec 2005. The conference will be remembered by me for a long time to come not because of the content thereof but because of the harrowing time I had at the airport - thanks to Incredible India's flagbearer "Indian" (the recently renamed Indian Airlines). Old wine in new bottle guys - changing the name or the logo will obviously not improve the sorry state of affairs at IA. Myself and Maj Rajeev were sweating on the ride to the airport whether we would make it on time or not. We need'nt have. The flight scheduled to take off at 8.30 PM ultimately took off at 1.00 AM and I reached home at the ungodly hour of 3.00 AM on 27 th Dec.

Anyway, the conference was basically a repetition of those held in earlier years. The same hackeneyed points were thrashed and flogged to death yet again. The powers that be seemed open to suggestions as far as Premises Dept was concerned. How it translates into action at ground level remains to be seen. CGM, HRDD gave a lot of "gyan" aimed at reviving the spirits of 'old and weary' and some motivational inputs for the youngsters to boot. He said that there was no embargo on foriegn training for Security Officers (much to the relief of everyone present).

During the first half of the session when an in-house discussion sans the HODs was conducted, I was surprised that some our colleagues were still in the "I, Me, Myself" mode. Some also resorted to the old rhetoric "I started so and so practice over there". Grow up guys !!! We all know "kaun kitne pani mein hai" since our "janampatris" have been so well advertised.

Overall the administrative arrangements were good (good lunch, tea and snacks), the parting gift (a sturdy strolley bag) excellent and the actual content a "damp squib". Some of the points for discussion were conveniently omitted by the CSC (I wonder why ??)

Finally, a word about our colleagues at Mumbai office. Thanks a lot guys - for going out of your way to make our stay at Mumbai comfortable. My friends Toms and Moudgil even found time to come over to the Grand Hotel and look us up. That was great and made our trip to Mumbai worthwhile !! Keep up the good work.