Airports are the worst thing to pick if you want to argue India is not progressing.
Let me explain.
Yesterday, an intense burst of rain on 4 September with the IMD on a red alert.
Water collected in the Terminal 3 forecourt and on the approach road. Nine flights were diverted and more than 400 delayed. The operator said the water was limited to the forecourt and approach areas and that pumping cleared most of it once the rain eased.
Interestingly, on 16 August 2023, about 60mm of rain fell around Frankfurt Airport in roughly three hours. Sixty.
That is what IMD would classify as moderate rain in Delhi.
However, Germany’s biggest airport, and one of Europe’s main hubs, could not handle it. Water covered the tarmac and the runway. Ground handling stopped completely for over two hours.
Passengers sat on aircraft that had already landed, unable to get off. Ninety flights were cancelled and 23 more were diverted to other airports. The airport shut its doors two hours early to stop the situation getting worse. People slept on camp beds.
Nobody used that to argue Germany is not a developed country.
There are more examples, all from countries nobody mocks.
Toronto Pearson, 16 July 2024. Just under 100mm in a day, its fifth highest single day rainfall on record. The city flooded, the Don Valley Parkway shut, cars were abandoned on the expressway. Pearson had already logged 126mm in a single day in 2013 and did the same thing again in August 2024 with 121mm. Two hundred year storms in back to back months.
Barcelona El Prat, 4 November 2024. Water was filmed pouring through the terminal ceiling and one runway went under. Around 50 flights cancelled or delayed and 17 diverted. Spain’s second busiest airport, in a country that gets serious rain every autumn.
And the one I find funniest. Madrid Barajas, 5 February this year. A water pipe burst outside the airport and flooded the M-14 tunnel that connects Terminals 1, 2 and 3 to Terminal 4.
Emergency services pulled drivers off the roofs of their cars. Metro Line 8 to the city was suspended. Thousands missed flights. That happened with zero rainfall. Just a pipe.
See every airport sizes its drainage to a design storm. Engineers look at decades of local rainfall records, pick a level the system should handle, and build the pipes and pumps for that number. When water arrives faster than the pipes can carry it away, it sits on the surface until the pumps catch up.
Frankfurt’s pipes could not take 60mm in three hours.
The thing that separates a well run airport from a badly run one is not whether water ever collects. It is how fast it clears and whether the runways keep working.
Frankfurt lost its runway and stopped ground handling. Barcelona lost a runway. Delhi lost a kerbside pickup zone and kept flying.
Yes, Delhi airport’s operator has been publicly asking state and central agencies for years to widen the underground drainage line running from Terminal 3 to Najafgarh. That request has been on record since at least 2021. The same forecourt has flooded before.
But a country can grow at 7.8% and still have an undersized drain.
Germany’s GDP per capita is roughly twenty times India’s and its main airport still trapped passengers inside parked aircraft after 60mm of rain.
Please don’t pretend a puddle at arrivals defines India’s growth story. It doesn’t make sense.
As over 900 people died in the deadly flash floods in Nepal and Tibet, spiritual leader Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev has called for a five-nation Himalayan Board involving India, China, Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan to coordinate responses to disasters in the mountainous region.
Read More: https://t.co/H5jdxnhntR
#Sadhguru #Nepal #NepalFloods @sagayrajp
Grazie, caro @narendramodi, per le tue parole e per la tua amicizia.
Il rapporto tra Italia e India è oggi più forte che mai 🇮🇹🇮🇳
Il Partenariato Strategico Speciale che abbiamo lanciato durante il nostro ultimo incontro è il riconoscimento dell’importanza di questo legame e della volontà di unire le competenze delle nostre Nazioni per creare nuove occasioni di crescita, cogliendo le straordinarie opportunità di collaborazione che abbiamo davanti a noi.
Sono certa che Italia e India, insieme, continueranno a rafforzare anche il legame tra i nostri Continenti, lavorando fianco a fianco anche per sviluppare il Corridoio economico India-Medio Oriente-Europa.
@SadhguruJV Absolutely! People remember those inspirational teachers all their lives. Such a powerful and influential position must be held with utmost responsibility.
THE CHARGE AGAINST ISHA
After Isha announced Kalabhairava processes for those affected by the Tibet floods, the familiar criticism appeared:
“Where is this exact ritual in scripture?��
“Which text gives Sadhguru this procedure?”
“Isn’t this simply an invented Isha ritual?”
Fair question.
But some traditionalists are asking it using a framework Sanatana Dharma itself never required.
ईशा फाउंडेशन के संस्थापक पूज्य सद्गुरु श्री जग्गी वासुदेव जी महाराज को जन्मदिवस की हार्दिक शुभकामनाएं।
देवाधिदेव महादेव से प्रार्थना है कि आप उत्तम स्��ास्थ्य, दीर्घायु एवं यशस्वी जीवन के साथ समाज और राष्ट्र के उत्थान हेतु निरंतर प्रेरणास्रोत बने रहें।
@SadhguruJV @ishafoundation
Birthday wishes to Padma Vibhushan @SadhguruJV Jaggi Vasudev Ji.
Your contribution towards humanity through spirituality & social initiatives is commendable.
Prayers for your long life & best health.
@ishafoundation
ईशा फाउंडेशन के संस्थापक, प्रख्यात आध्यात्मिक गुरु, 'पद्म विभूषण' श्री @SadhguruJV जी को जन्मदिन की हार्दिक बधाई एवं शुभकामनाएं।
आपकी प्रेरणादायी वाणी और मार्गदर्शन से समाज में आध्यात्मिक चेतना, सेवा और समरसता का विस्तार हो। बाबा महाकाल से आपके उत्तम स्वास्थ्य एवं दीर्घायु जीवन की मंगलकामना करता हूं।
@ishafoundation
पद्म विभूषण सद्गुरू जग्गी वासुदेव जी आपको जन्मदिन की हार्दिक शुभकामनाएं।💐 ईश्वर से आपके उत्तम स्वास्थ्य, दीर्घायु और मंगलमय जीवन की प्रार्थना करता हूं।
@SadhguruJV
Wishing a very Happy Birthday to Revered Sadhguru Ji! May your profound wisdom, grace, and tireless efforts continue to light the path of inner peace and transformation for millions around the world. Wishing you abundant health, joy and long life🙏
@SadhguruJV
प्रख्यात आध्यात्मिक गुरु एवं ईशा फाउंडेशन के संस्थापक, पद्म विभूषण से सम्मानित श्री सद्गुरु जग्गी वासुदेव जी को जन्मदिन की ��ार्दिक शुभकामनाएं।
योग, साधना और आध्यात्मिक चेतना के माध्यम से आप असंख्य लोगों को आंतरिक शांति और मानव कल्याण के भाव से जोड़ रहे हैं। भारतीय आध्यात्मिक परंपरा को विश्वभर तक पहुंचाने में आपका योगदान महत्वपूर्ण है।
ईश्वर से आपके उत्तम स्वास्थ्य और दीर्घायु की कामना करती हूं।
@SadhguruJV
Some lives inspire. Some perspectives transform the way we see life itself.
Warm birthday greetings to Padma Vibhushan awardee and founder of @ishafoundation, Pujya Shri @SadhguruJV Ji.
May your journey ahead continue to touch countless lives with greater clarity, purpose and joy.
प्रसिद्ध आध्यात्मिक गुरु, पद्म विभूषण से सम्मानित सद्गुरू जग्गी वासुदेव जी को जन्मदिवस की हार्दिक बधाई एवं शुभकामनाएं।
प्रभु श्री बदरी विशाल से आपके उत्तम स्वास्थ्य, सुदीर्घ व सुयशपूर्ण जीवन की कामना करता हूं।
@SadhguruJV