Simply fly is an autobiography written to sketch life of the Indias first low cost carrier launcher but in reality

it traces the life story of a simple boy with humble beginnings who lands up creating value to the society that trickles down to common man. The book presents his life as a school boy learning the most from his father then living in a disciplined army life that formed the foundation of his entire life. At the very outset Capt Gopinaths lifes description is about how he lived in a remote village at the banks of river Hemavathy. Captain describes a childhood that gives a window into his real potential(How?). His patriotic family strongly believes in passing on the Gandhian value system alive making few minor tweaks that suit the need of the time. A close family circle supporting childrens education of all the relatives gave Capt an environment to grow and learn. One of the biggest learning in the formative years of his life that had a strong impact on him and his lifes events was the revolt of his schools headmaster against the exams of the army in English language. As a protagonist, he witnessed the change a school headmaster could bring to the policies of the Indian Army entrance exams on language. It can be understood that as a child, this victory of the headmaster to get the Indian army to conduct exams in vernacular must have impacted his confidence multifold in the power of common man of the country in bringing about a change. Capt Gopinath was one of those army Jawan who had the opportunity to face a war- the Bangaladesh Liberation war. Being in the Indian army, he was trained to be a man of honour and travelled through lengths and breadths of the country witnessing the diversity in people, topography culture and land. His understanding of the war situation and science at a young age impacted his life in many ways. While at war he saw why Pakistani army lost because of lack of local support of the villagers and why Indian army personnel naturally blended with the people of the area of the war. Oneness with environment, one of the lessons from Upanishads, mutual dependence on other people and symbiotic relationship of humans with each other reckoned him time and again through various crisis he faced while in army. Soon after his realization that his calling in life was not the Indian army, he quitted the army without much directions to go back to his agricultural roots. He decided to farm. Captains initial thrill to farm in his land kept him contended till he became more and more ambitious. He saw the ground reality of governments support to the priority sector of the country of that time. Garbed in beauraucracy and red-tapism, his pursuit for agricultural loan showed him the divide between the practice and the policy. I believe the impact of captains headmasters action to change exam policies of Indian army rippled all through his life while making appeals to government officials. He makes a mention of the fact that most of us do not get it because we do not ask for it and he ensured that he asked for his rights. Captains appeal

Simply Fly A Deccan Odyssey / Book Review Anshul Sharma

to provide electricity for water resource management was finally answered when he walked upto a secretary to explain his situation. He experienced the brunt of socialist babu culture. The theme of his life that resurfaced even in his farming career was blending in the backdrop to make a difference. As he grew in farming profession, the rhythm of other peoples perspectives solidified in him. He appreciated the landowners for their ability to employ farming techniques and the landless farmers for their ability to live in meager resources. Captain observed that the hardships of rural life affected various sections of society in plethora of ways and how each of these sections learnt to live with it. (connect and lessons to derive missing) From war science to agriculture science, the theme of his life revolved around harmony with nature. One of the profound lessons that he learnt from the soil was that unlike modern farming methods, traditional farming methods were both ecological and economical and that is why more sustainable. The cost of arriving at a farmers learning curves bent was agony. He lived the life of farmer for his love towards agriculture. He was an outlier as a farmer who made appeals to the government offices for infrastructure, made silk farming a profitable business and employed traditional farming methods so that he did not harm the ecological balance. His keenness to learn farming from successful farmers, agricultural scientists and his experience gave him ideas that were unparalleled. His farmland became a place to visit to watch out for good farming practices. The authors writing style is that of a story teller (??) and he gives credit to one of his colleagues who took notes as he told her the story of his life. He has given a vivid image of rural life of the country from a very rare perspective. Very rarely has a famer turned entrepreneur in India written and autobiography essaying the desperation of waiting for adequate rains to living in debts. This compilation has given a window into agricultural practices in rural India from a very intellectual view point. Captain Gopi, a learned man when stepped into farming also faced the brunt of the system till he managed to outsmart the pesticide and chemical business that left farmers in debt all their lifes. Captain Gopinaths life weaves a story of a serial entrepreneur whose every stint had inputs for the following stints. While he rode a motorcycle in the rural India, he saw a market for motorcycle spare parts and plunged into the business after the silk farming had become self sustainable. He was thrilled to have the capability of employing school drop outs and converting them into skilled labor. He hired many children as apprentice and gave a sincere attempt to change them. At this part of the story, there exists a dichotomy that remains unexplained. Though child labor was not officially and stringently followed in India, being so well read and

Simply Fly A Deccan Odyssey / Book Review Anshul Sharma

educated, he did not oppose the parents who bought their kids to him. The man who was not in favour of greasing hands for his benefits, did compromise on some of the values that Gandhian system promoted. This part of the story brings out one thing that is common with entrepreneurs and that is about picking the right battles in life. Since child labor law enforcement would have worked against his business, he did not chose to go on to oppose it. It certainly takes more courage for a businessman to increase his cost to give meaning to their principled life but somewhere this may not go well with the Indian audience( self perspective) even though Captain has tried to justify his decision saying that they were disowned children, school drop outs or academically incapable. Captain Gopi was extremely inspired by the hotel owner, Kasturi who led him by example into hospitality business. While his primary occupation was farming, he started spending time his time on learning new business and unrelated sectors that could go alongside his primary occupation. In the heart of his hearts he was an agriculture person but his repeated attempts to get into other business sub communicates his capitalistic thinking. He wanted to do something for common man that the government could not achieve so far. His heart melted for the peasants and he made every possible attempt to educate the farmers to improve their outputs. Captains first encounter with hospitality happened when he started his highway restaurant. To describe his stint in hospitality business he laconically says that it was like getting your daughter married every day. He understood the career trajectory of a restaurant worker and felt successfully being a job provider. Another experiment of Captain Gopis career was stepping into politics. His reasons to join politics have been very noble and his narration of events shows why he could not fit into the role well. Captain was service oriented businessman not really a politician who could maneuver his way to the top. Since the politics of his time was not very congruent with his ideas of growth, he even lost elections. His honest attempts at improving the rural India helped him surface his talents of having the right people around. He engaged the artists from his village and painters from his personal contacts to prepare for the political rallies. His political career was shortlived but the learning about dealing with politician helped him later in life. As he lost elections that he was very optimistic about, he lost interest in controlling the fate of the country as a politician. The next and most important venture idea came to him while enjoying the celebrity status of a farmer. As a winner of Rolex award and revolutionary productive silk farming, the government of India sent him to China to learn about silk farming. While he learnt about the farming techniques, an article in the newspaper turned the course of his thinking. He read about the

Simply Fly A Deccan Odyssey / Book Review Anshul Sharma

Vietnam war torn orphan when adopted by French parents could become a helicopter pilot and was finally helping her home country. At this point I felt that in Captains life, the things that caught his attention were awaiting revolution till he came into the picture. His visit to China and consequent events solidified his belief that private helicopter services in India as a profitable and public benefit business. The man was more than just a great businessman and public service enthusiast. His business ideas fetched from his personal experiences, that of his friends and colleagues. The idea of having helicopter services came to him from availability of trained personnel in the country (who were his ex-colleagues), need gap and his enthusiasm to bring about this change. He did lack the money but being a first generation serial entrepreneur he did not look at it as an end of road. His belief that resources will follow great ideas is very inspirational. Captain Gopinath anticipated lobbying and making several visits to Delhi, the seat of power to have the aviation space privatized. Parallelly along with his partner Sam, he was busy with the acquiring all the resources to start onto the business. Two notable characteristic about captain stand out at this point. One, the ancient Indian value system of consulting a guru whenever one needed a release from his own circling thoughts and falling back on a mentor or education to get better at achieving his mission. His entrepreneurial zest shouts out loud when he stresses onto the fact that through his management education he was least interested in the degree and more on the knowledge acquisition. Captain expresses his agony in dealing with the Indian bureaucrats and the system that discouraged an entrepreneur and tested his patience all ends. Importing aircrafts went through rigorous security checks, documentations, under table exchanges and a time frame that did not seem to end. Captains ability to have the approvals by identifying the relevant networks to his benefit talks volumes of his resourcefulness as every juncture of his life. Managing complicated import policies of India while maintaining the terms of contract with Japanese producers was remarkable display of captains negotiating skills and solution oriented approach. Today buying a helicopter is a routine purchase made possible by the efforts of captain who tasted dust pleading government officials for signatures. Captain was seamlessly involved in hiring, partnering, contracting, documentation, lobbying, pleading and advertising about the venture. The zealous enterprenuer details his experience as a service provider of helicopter services. It is appealing to notice that captain shares his enthusiasm about the discovery of need gap was much more than he could fantasize. Ranging from addressing fantasies of sixty year old man to providing paramedic services, the gamut of innovative services that helicopters could provide

Simply Fly A Deccan Odyssey / Book Review Anshul Sharma

was incredible. Captain Gopi experienced servicing a varied customer base from politician to spiritual leader, from medical urgencies to extravagant weddings. As he describes his experiences with the customers, he stays obliged to them to have taught him by availing the air transport facilities. Deccan aviation was a dream comes true for the Indian society. The benefits however were only limited to the creamy layer. Captains humble beginnings had a strong bearing on his business ventures. His idea was to elevate the life of a common man. He began with privatizing the aviation space and then was the time to diversify the business. In his words, an entrepreneur starts with what he has. One day Captain gave a patient ear to his friend Sam who recommended low cost civil aviation. He believed in his idea but not much has been narrated about how he decided that now was the time to do it. Achieving such heights of changing the transportation infrastructure of the country, he was energetic enough to get into business diversification. He drew inspiration from Sam Walton, Mintzberg and O Leary to embark on the journey to revolutionize the Indian aviation industry to reach common man. Civil aviation was monopolized before captain laid his eyes on it. Having the right people on his side to be in the business, he observed it as his duty to address the customers needs. Launching a low cost airline was a common theme in foreign lands and he could not hold back himself to renaissance the Indian infrastructure. The cornerstone of all the ventures of captain was common mans benefits. His business plan was launching low cost air travel services which were an oxymoron in those times. Right from his farming days his mantra for sustainability was economic viability of any venture. Extrapolating his values to every business venture, his life appears to be a consistent growth in ambitions to achieve same objectives. The question Why not? gave solutions to cost cutting avenues. The experience in helicopters flying came handy in knowing the nitty gritties of the running of operations of aero planes but the new aspect in this business was about addressing the exact customer need. He partnered with a team of qualified pilots, engineers, technicians, cabin crew, finance and operations experts who led him to launch the low cost flying experience for a customer. The costs saving opportunities were everywhere. He patiently stripped all the frills from the services being provided so far and innovated a product that met the needs of Indian middle class. By getting rid of complimentary food, water bottles, reading material from the aircraft he could arrive at the target ticket price. In a matter of 6 months, captain found avenues of cost saving and left no stone unturned to operationalize it. Credit of easing out the ticketing system by doing away with middlemen was a real revolution that has actually shaped modern days travel, entertainment

Simply Fly A Deccan Odyssey / Book Review Anshul Sharma

and lifestyle. When one thinks ticketing, they think about getting online. Captain vision did not encompass the mammoth change he was bringing about in the consumer behavior but that is what an entrepreneur does to the society. Some ideas are so grand that they cannot be contained. I believe that the Indian Railways benefitted from the online ticketing system much more than the aviation later on. Captains innovation towards cost saving touched all the aspects of his business ranging from ticketing to serving food, from uniforms to maintenance. All these ideas of cost saving though were inspired from Sam Walton and OLeary, the translation of these ideas into Indian context in Indian system of red-tapism was a phenomenal victory. Carrying print out of ticket was an unheard concept till Deccan aviation started it. Captains initiatives were in reality the primary ingredients to the wave of changes the country was going through. Learning about IT enablement for business and innovation maneuvering political corridors showed that it takes only one man to question the status quo that can steer the course of a decade. Providing low cost air travel facility impacted the economy in many ways than even captain could imagine as it empowered the common man. Captain Gopis life revolves around some of the biggest events that were turning points for Indian economy. His career witnessed it all. Deccan aviation survived the blood bath in the stock market, the tight security regulations, the slow monopolized banking system of Citibank and lastly multiple events that led Vijay Mallaya and Ambanis to strike a deal with him. When Deccans ambitions to grow fast year after year started to compromise the core service, the media splashed all the news and things began to look a little bleak. However, he bounced back after some negative feedbacks with better services. His obsession with giving value to customers and career to his people was remarkable. Captain ensured that the pilots in Deccan had a career path as it was in their industry by walking extra miles to buy progressively high standard air crafts. Though Captain has made it very clear in his autobiography that he agreed that Vijay Mallaya was not the kind of business partner that he wanted, it remains unclear why he agreed to negotiate with him. Though Mallayas persuasion was impeccable that could have melted a businessman, but it was hard to believe that it encompassed a visionary like Captain. Furthermore, not much description about the reaction of his close comrades who afloated the company is described while his dealings about merging the two organizations. The entire event of merging activities seems to revolve only around captain and his decisions seem to be final. The 45 minute call in which Captain sealed the deal with Vijay Mallaya shows a sea change in his people person image for a reader. It is evident that as his role developed from resource

Simply Fly A Deccan Odyssey / Book Review Anshul Sharma

aggregator to owner and initiator of an enterprise, his dependence on his people for key decisions dwarfed. Smitten by the idea of running Deccan by a professional organization to scale up the operations, he decided to join hands with Vijay Mallaya. Towards the end of the book Captain Gopi justifies all his decisions about Deccans equity distribution. Captain started losing ground after the merger because the Kingfisher as a company started implementing it flamboyant philosophies that was way too much in conflict with the humble soul of Deccan aviation. The life of Captain Gopinath, the visionary, gives hope to Indian entrepreneurs. The man rose from being a farmer to handling multi-million dollar business being first generation businessman. A man of character inspiring all the lives he touched and learnt something or the other every day. His life drives home the point that resources are a function of ambitions. Ambitions come from awareness and awareness comes by being observant of ones surroundings. All his business ventures were nothing more than knowing the pulse of the peoples need. Living his value systems, ambitions and servicing the society made his career such an eclectic journey. His life instills inspiration to all classes of society and it is a rare autobiography of a farmer turned public service provider who created value for every sections of the society that was economic and ecological.