By Chandran Iyer
Look at the image of the cruise liner Jalesh, Karnika. What a magnificent beauty it was. One of the meaning of Karnika is apsara or fairy queen. Before the pandemic, this cruise was considered to be one of the most beautiful cruises in India. After the pandemic, the company which was operating this cruise suffered such a financial loss, that they had to send it to Alang Shipbreaking yard to rip it apart and sell it as a scrap.
On April 13, 2019 I travelled in this magnificent cruise Jalesh from Goa to Mumbai. The cruise embraced luxury at every step. It boasted of professionally organized broadway musicals, dance performances, stand-up comedy shows, all time blockbuster movies and entertainment shows.
Sipping cocktails and mocktails on board the luxury liner was a heady experience. But now everything has changed. After the pandemic the company running the cruise suffered devastating losses. As a result this magnificent luxury liner was sent to Alang, the biggest shipbreaking yard in Gujarat to be sold as scrap.
What happened to Karnika is not an isolated case. It can happen to everyone. My magazine business too suffered a setback. The pandemic has shown to the world how fragile life can be. And those who are entrepreneurs go through worse times. The important thing to remember is the times can change. In fact it will change. Peter Drucker observed in a 1992 essay for Harvard Business Review. “In a matter of decades, society altogether rearranges itself – its worldview, its basic values, its social and political structures, its arts, its key institutions. Fifty years later a new world exists. And the people born into that world cannot even imagine the world in which their grandparents lived and into which their own parents were born. Our age is such a period of transformation.”
Peter was right in observing that our age is a period of transformation. In 50 years a new world exists. In this world you will find the business of mechanical typewriters, pagers, roll cameras or gramophone records only as antique items.
Lesson Number one that I learnt: The bad thing about life is Good times don’t last forever. And the Good thing is, Nor do bad times.
