(A)musings

Life.. in the jungle

2011-11-27T17:20:00.001+05:30

Nature never ceases to bewilder me.
not only the variety of creation, but also the ways of the world, so to say!
as evolved mental beings, we impose our mental models to understand evolution and the myriad models of representing life.
but still, there are so many unanswered questions.
recently, while walking to the Dodda Sampige, the jeep had a puncture and not having the right tools, the driver went up ahead to get help and spares.
while that was getting fixed, some of us decided to take a walk.
one of the persons in the group pointed out a ‘Gobbare Hula’.

an insect that would curl up to protect itself.
he demonstrated how that happens and we caught it on camera.

we walked further and came to a small breach on the path, and did not want to get our feet wet in that muddy water.

we saw another jeep with the spares coming our way and decided to get back to our jeep.
we could not miss a fresh squish on the road, which was the Hula we had seen just a few minutes ago.
squished by the second jeep.
we were, naturally, disturbed.
it surely was not normal for a jeep to go by that path regularly – particularly being a protected area with a requirement for advance permission to go there.
it was also not normal for someone to interfere with the Hula, to make it curl up on the road.

maybe it might still have got crushed, we thought – on the other side of the road or by someone else..
the only evidence of this Hula being there was the photo we had taken!
there must be zillions of such lives and deaths in this world, that go un-chronicled, and even without leaving any trace or impact.
i remembered the book – the selfish gene – where the ‘desire’ to propagate was so strong in a gene that it figures out how to stay on!
i saw an example of that also in that jungle.
a mango sapling, growing out of a seed that was embedded in elephant poop!

the seed had survived the elephant’s digestive system and at the first opportunity sprouted leaves..
not sure how long it can survive, without proper roots and nourishment..
maybe someone would transplant it or take it home.
who knows – that might even spawn off a new breed of mangoes – which would be the mango equivalent of ‘kopi luwak’!

Dodda Sampige

2011-11-18T22:10:00.001+05:30

it took 3 years, multiple wishes before we could see the Dodda Sampige.

The first time, i guess we did not wish hard enough.

the group that i am a member of, believed that a very strong intent by a group of persons [or even an individual] can make things happen.

the excuse was that the area was still in the zone of Veerappan – and public was not allowed in the interest of their own safety.

the next time, it was some other local ‘politics’ that the forest officer did not want to take any decision.

finally, this year – we could make it to the Dodda sampige. till we reached the place, there were elements of uncertainty. from the weather to the recent declaration of the area as a protected tiger reserve.

thanks to the stronger intent and the other forces, we finally made it!

we, here, refers to a group of like-minded, but diverse group of persons with an interest to understand the human mind..

So, what is so special about the Dodda Sampige?

the story goes -

Once, Renuka, the wife of sage jamadagni, saw a gandharva and an apsara play in the river and wanted to do the same with her husband. Jamadagni came to know abotu it and was angry. So, he ordered one of their seven sons to sever the head of their mother. all but the youngest refuse and were turned to ashes by the angry Jamadagni. when bhargaram does as his father expected him to, he is granted three wishes.

using two of those wishes, he brings back his mother and brothers back to life. his third wish was to have his father’s anger recede forever.

repenting has act on his mother, he goes into a deep penance deep in the forest, under a champaka tree – you guessed it – the dodda sampige, which is supposed to be many centuries old.

his mother turns into a river – bhargavi – and flows by the side.

all this is in the B.R. Hills area.

the access to the spot – about 4 kms from the main road, is not easily motorable by normal vehicles and we needed a 4 wheel drive [jeep].

after the recent rains, the thick plants and shrubs made it a good environment for the leeches..

a flight of steps

took us to the banks of bhargavi – with a view of dodda sampige!

here are some more views around the tree..

after some time around the tree and a short visit to a coffee estate on the other side, to see a soliga dwelling, i noticed the ‘chikka sampige’.

not sure if it is called that – but i felt thaty near the big brother, this one on the other side of the river looked very ignored, though imposing in its own way..

some more side stories the next time.. till then .. a panoramic view of the dodda sampige side bank of the bhargavi river

Masinagudi

2011-11-05T14:21:00.001+05:30

work and work related travel were the main reasons for being away from this blog in the last few months.

a recent weekend break to Masinagudi was a welcome relief.

about 250KM from Bangalore, it was a good drive upto mysore and then a little slow via nanjangud.

the drive through bandipur offered some close encounters with wildlife right from the road.

bathing elephants and

monkeys having the right of way to cross the road..

as a protected tiger reserve, the place is not very formally organized for ecotourism, though there are persons who offer services for those interested in some explorations.

the activities officer at the resort we stayed in welcomed us saying that is was a jungle resort, with the concept being ‘just relax’ – meaning that there are no special activities or adventure sports and we are pretty much on our own, except for a guided fishing trip

the trips with the guide, who said that he was also listed on the lonely planet took us to more interesting locations in the neighborhood.

on our walk in the Singara region, we saw some bones

just as we wondered if these bones were set up there by the guides for photo ops for the visitors, we were shown some pugmarks

we were told how lucky we were to see these clearly as it had rained the previous day and the path was very muddy and that it was a leapord that had crossed that spot less than 30 minutes earlier.

we were shown some more marks – saying that a bear had skidded, possibly while trying to escape from the leopard

our anticipation increased and the expectation that the leopard might spring on us anytime made the walk that much more exciting.

the leopard probably got its prey elsewhere and did not return, even though we walked for about 10 kilometers in that area for over 2 hours.

we decided to explore other areas around.

the walk in the Bokkapuram area was more of scenic beauty

and the horse path that Tipu Sultan had made for his trips to Ooty

our guide wanted us to hury back as it was getting dark and that it was not safe as animals would be returning to their homes.

on the way back, we spotted a waterfall – and could not resist taking a bath.

the force of the water was a good massage and the cold temperature made it refreshing.

and, this time also, no animal sighting.

the next morning, we decided to explore the Mavanalla area.

the vegetation here was different from the earlier expeditions with more thick shrubs.

this time, the guide smelt and told us that an elephat had passed that area a few minutes earlier.

we could see a startled deer, a huge male, run when we approached some shrubs – raising our hopes of spotting more animals.

but, what we spotted were – birds

and flora, including a golf ball shaped mushroom

and ‘fresh’ poop that indicated that animals were there!

a porcupine ‘nail’?

and a peacock feather

also gave us hopes that we would surely spot some of them or bears, that were supposed to be staying in that area.

but the closest encounter we had was with a herd of cattle that, we thought, were ready to charge on us

and realized soon that they were probably just amused to see us in their grazing area.

in spite of the disappointment of not seeing wild animals close, it was a very enjoyable break and would surely consider going there again.. maybe even if it to ‘just relax’!

A memorable reunion

2011-07-17T22:23:00.001+05:30

It was close to midnight. and I had returned to my hotel room just a few minutes earlier, after attending a concert by Mohit Chauhan in Colombo.

The conference I had come to attend was over and my flight was late afternoon the next day.

As I was wondering how i can spend the time in the morning – with rain in the forecast – it occurred to me that I could possibly try to trace an old pen pal.

We were pen pals during my school days. A common interest of DXing or SWLing [Short wave long distance listening] brought us in contact through the Radio Malaysia.

We used to write to each other fairly regularly for a few years. Even after I moved from Chennai to Bangalore for my studies and a little later on getting into the job, we were in touch, but much less frequently.

That was about 30+ years ago. All I could remember were:

his name
his town [Mount Lavinia]
and that he used to play cricket for his club there

It was a wild shot, but i wanted to still give it one.

After a few attempts, i seemed to get some search results that seemed to reinforce the identity.

still nothing concrete.

then, one site that catered to SWLs - with some details of QSL cards [the acknowledgement that SWLs get when their reception is confirmed by the broadcasting radio station], had the name i was looking for – and, an address. and a phone number.

i could not confirm the date of the entry.

but, i thought it was worth an attempt. anyway, as some of the locals explained earlier in the evening, there was not much to do / see in Colombo other than the museum, zoo etc which would take time – except shopping, as any other activity / visit would need more time than the couple of hours I had.

I decided to take a chance and told the cab driver to take me to the address. on the way, he wanted to confirm the directions and called the number.

to my pleasant surprise, it turned out to be the right number – though my friend was not very sure who i was.

after navigating fairly narrow roads in a hilly terrain – and missing the house a couple of times, we finally made it!

then, from memory, we recalled a few points that we had exchanged – i do not know how I suddenly remembered some of those trivia! – and could pretty much catch up on the lost years.

we then went to the Mount Lavinia beach and he showed me the hall where he got married etc.

it was then time for me to head back to the hotel, after a little shopping – to return.

i will cherish this meeting as the most memorable reunion.

p.s. while getting to know each other’s families, i came to know of the tragic demise of their son last year, due to cancer. i saw his picture – a charming and pleasant boy. he was also a cricket player, who was playing for his college and very well regarded by his teachers and friends. my prayers for his soul to rest in peace. and to give my friend and family the strength to tide over this irreplaceable loss.

while some of the online stalking techniques helped me reconnect with my friend, in keeping with the principle of online privacy, i have avoided mentioning names or other personally identifiable information of known people to be shared in public channels.

can i have a [less]smart phone please?

2011-05-11T16:07:00.001+05:30

a few months ago, i experienced my first thrill of a phone app!

while i have a lot of interest in new technology, and like to explore new applications that i can put technology to use – i have resisted a few things, such as email on the phone – or even the smart phones.. for fear that my life would be controlled more by these multi functional devices, rather than my spontaneous will..

it was an activity tracker – on my non-smart nokia phone, that i was using to track my daily morning walk. looking at the statistics, walk route etc and comparing my performance across days was some trivial thrill.

i was very excited when i got my first ‘smart’ phone.. that too on windows phone 7 operating system.

when everyone i knew had an iPhone, Blackberry, Android or a Nokia, i felt unique that i had a phone with an OS that has not yet been ‘officially’ launched in India.

what it meant was that i only had the web for help!

the first impression was good – in terms of how it powered up, got the initial settings and the basic phone was functional in minutes.

then, the ‘smartness’ took over! and i was totally lost.

it appeared as if i did not matter to the phone that had its own mind!

starting with the Wi-Fi settings – while it detected the network at home, it would not let me adjust any settings manually! that was a shame, because i have a non-standard setup at home, that requires a manual configuration of Wi-Fi settings. think of it as an additional layer of security..

the process of transferring my contacts from the old phone was also not easy. thanks to the web, found a few utilities that would : export my old contacts list, then convert them into a merged .csv file and then import it into my Gmail account and … and … and …

finally the contacts were set up.

i realized that – just like in the real world, we accumulate so much junk over time. i could see some very old phone numbers, addresses etc. and contacts that i have not been in touch with for ages..

thank you smart phone, for reminding me – but, no thanks – as you threaten to remove the contact details from the mail system also, if i want to delete them only from my phone.. they need to be in sync, you said!

then came the next challenge – of downloading any of my music collection. or games [free ones, of course!] and some other ‘enhancements’ that i saw ads of on various sites..

the designers assume that there should be only one way to do things [possibly to avoid calls to the help desk] and by not giving the users any choice, they can make it efficient..

thanks to the friends on the web again, i learnt how to do some of these.

all this, at a cost of a few days and many hours of time.. and i am probably about 30% set up on the phone.

i am yet to figure out how to set my favourite tune for the alarm, or to pick up or reject a call without the vertical swipe etc.

as i get used to it more, i am sure to find more situations when the phone makes me feel dumb!

not sure if i would like it.. maybe a dumb smart phone is what i need… a phone where i can see all the settings and decide what to use when and for the 10-15% of the functionality that i would use most frequently, have some defaults and shortcuts

are we there yet?

2011-05-01T15:07:00.001+05:30

Recently, I had an opportunity to accompany a seven year old from Bangalore to Chennai.

He was a very well mannered child who would normally not need constant supervision and find things to do to keep himself occupied.

but, transit was different.

while we were stuck in slow moving traffic or at lights, i could see some impatience surfacing.

after boarding the flight, we were waiting for about 10 minutes before the doors closed.

the impatience surfaced again.

as a question that has been made a classic in family vacation movies : are we there yet? or how much longer? how much farther?

and of course, i was blamed to be the cause of this boredom, which would not have been there, if we had travelled by train!

that set me thinking. how did i change to be resigned to the endless lines, traffic snarls and progressive delays – some times due to the weather, sometimes, ‘chumma’, as no reasonable reason was provided.

i was reminded of a very interesting description that i had read in a book recently.

that frequent travellers attain nirvana by developing techniques to deal with all the uncertainties and resultant induced stress.

some of them – reproduced very loosely:

consider yourself as ‘living cargo’. you are just like cargo, except that you do not move on the belt
spin yourself into a cocoon, ignore the world around you, plunge yourself into a book or the newspaper crossword , that you may never otherwise would
imagining – the wilder, the better – about what some of the other cocoons would have done before reaching the airport or what they would do first when they reach their destination

i like the last one – watching others, guessing and completing their halfalogs or make stories with characters inspired by the cocoons i see around me.

we see these everywhere – very rarely have i had a meaningful conversation that lasted more than a few initial exchanges around common frustrations of the flight delays or rude staff or the evergreens of traffic or the weather.

train journeys, possibly because the travel durations are longer and the arrangement of the seating, where the passengers face others, create at these more lasting ‘rail sneham’ – or train friendship.

even in the pre-Facebook days, updates about everybody’s friends and pets and their friends would be exchanged and discussed in detail. if you are in such a situation and want to make a lively conversation, talk of personal privacy in a train.. and watch the effect!

all will be forgotten the moment the passengers step out and go their own ways.

p.s – a bonus tip to handle a seven year old’s question of are we there yet, etc..

keep track of the time and distance you mentioned in your last response. decrement it – even if it is by just one [minute or kilometre] for the next one.. you can see the relief on the child’s face, knowing that we are getting closer to 'there’.

Greenwashing

2011-04-16T20:17:00.001+05:30

it is interesting to learn new words.

Greenwashing is not a new word, but recently when i came across a reference to a chair that had a low carbon footprint, i could not feel anything but amused!

this was one of those hi-tech chairs that comes with buttons for umpteen adjustments. sitting in those chairs makes one feel in control – of what, i do not know! but the novelty wears off soon.

once adjusted, most of us are going to sit / work in the same position.

i like car seats that can be adjusted. particularly when you need to make some minor adjustments in a car driven by someone else before you. most of those are mechanical adjustments.

by adding extra motors and increasing the costs and the carbon footprint when a company says that the latest model is their lowest carbon footprint, i am not sure if that is also not form of greenwashing.

in my school going years, i remember reading a monthly newsletter from a Canadian company that would have articles on new technologies and products. i used to wait for every issue eagerly. That company used to have a bye-line ‘if technology cannot solve problems, what else can?’. i remember writing to them asking how many of these problems solved by technology were created by technology! i never got an answer..

those were days before email and internet technology

don’t get me wrong – i love technology. like when earlier today, i was on a phone call with my daughter – who needed some directions to reach a place in Boston.

Here i was, in Bangalore, checking an online map and pretty much giving block by block directions over the phone to locate a place half way across the world!

i know, you my ask if a local GPS or a smartphone would have given the same or better results.. but the human touch would have been lost and sharing the feeling of being lost in real time is something that technology alone cannot completely capture or share..

a prize for [writing about] walking..

2011-04-07T20:25:00.001+05:30

Today is World Health Day!

for a contest organized by the wellness council @ the office, i wrote this piece while waitig for other to join a conference call..

not sure how many entries were received by the organizers, my entry was chosen to be one of five winning entries..

caveat:

I shall not respond to any queries related to how much of this is fact…

if you decide to jump to conclusions, maybe it is good for your health on this world health day..

===///===

I like to walk.

Even as a child, my mother used to say that I would convince her that we should walk, rather than take a rickshaw – and use that money – to buy some biscuits or juice that I could have while walking!

As we watch babies grow, it is always a very special moment to see a child standing up and taking the first step! That is the first sign of growing up and standing on one’s own feet and becoming mobile. It increases the confidence of the child and everyone around too!

While I enjoyed walking, particularly with bare feet sinking in the sands of Marina beach, it became a serious activity soon after I discovered that my cholesterol levels were high. The doctor was surprised to see that though the rations were high, the good cholesterol [HDL] levels were also high – higher than the normal expectation.

When I told him that I like and do walk regularly, he asked me to continue that practice. From that time, I try to walk for at least 30 minutes a day.

A few years ago, I used to walk at the Lalbagh gardens in Bangalore with a few friends and their families every weekend. Since that was limited to weekends – and also required some commute to get to Lalbagh, I was looking for other options. When we moved to the flat where I stay at present, the ‘mini forest’ close by became a convenient path for a walk.

An old saying goes – sit a while after supper; walk a mile after dinner. This walking would be more of a leisurely stroll, as it is not advisable to walk briskly after a [heavy] meal – as the body needs the energy to digest the food consumed.

Walking as an exercise has to be more aerobic. The action of walking with swinging arms and keeping a steady pace improves the blood circulation and also regulates breathing.

Breath control is a technique that many yoga schools also recommend. The side benefit of breath control is to have your pulse rate also low! This is something quite normal for athletes. They need to conserve their body energy to peak at the precise moment they need additional energy to push themselves higher or faster or farther.

Walking every morning is one of the best exercises one can get. It is advisable to walk at least for half an hour every morning. Studies show that walking has a positive effect on problems related to high sugar levels [diabetes] as well as high cholesterol levels.

If you are not able to walk any day, try to make up for it by climbing stairs. Someone told me once that ‘your health can be assessed by what you take two at a time. Steps – or tablets!’ from the time I heard it, I have been trying to take two steps at a time.

Our flat is on the 4^th level – and we are probably the only family in the building that takes the steps most of the time.

I am happy to see many colleagues take the stairs to get to work in the morning or to the cafeteria in the afternoon.

Now, are you enthused enough to start walking?

This page can be your starting page to get some basic concepts.

See you soon on the stairs in Surya Sapphire – or if you walk in the mornings, at JP Nagar Mini Forest! If there are sufficient enthusiasts, we can start a walking club – to explore electronics city and the neighborhood during lunch hours!

Summer is [almost] here!

2011-04-04T20:11:00.001+05:30

Today was Ugadi.

Tthe first day of the new moon cycle of the month of Chaitra. In terms of ritu (season), it is the last fortnight of basant (spring), and the onset of grishma ritu (summer) is a fortnight hence.

The day is celebrated as the beginning of the new year in various parts of the country. It is Gudi Padwa in Maharashtra; and Yugadi in Andhra and Karnatka. In Goa, today is being celebrated as Samsar Padvo. The Sindhi community celebrates today as Cheti Chand. It is also the beginning of the spring Navratra, the nine days of celebration and worship of the Mother Goddess. –-*--

While in other states, the new year is a couple of weeks away. the difference being the calendar based on the moon or the sun.

essentially, what this means is -- Summer is here.

that means the next two months would be the least comfortable weather wise in Bangalore.

before it gets too hot, this is a good time to enjoy cold water baths. after that, the water will also be hot through the day!

while i always have cold water baths in chennai, warm water in Bangalore feels more natural during the winter this season marks the return to cold water baths!

as refreshing as the water is the mental preparation for the first splash of cold water on the body.

a cold water bath after a sweatey morning walk is very refreshing. with the early mornings still soemwhat cool, the water could be … cold! it is a major decision. whether to wet the head, toe or thigh first.

after that, it does not mater. just plunge in - if under the shower, or pour it on - if from a bucket!

today, i also realized that i am not alone. look at the sequence below, when this bird hesitated for a moment, before jumping in to the little lilly basin!

step 1: take a close look at the water. is anyone else watching?

step 2: take a look from another angle

step 3: another view .. just make sure it is not too cold or hot!

step 4: just check the water – be ready to take off!

step 5: what does it matter now! just enjoy the summer bath..

the lilly basin has become a regular watering hole for mynahs, doves [recent visitors] and… sparrows! yes sparrows. i saw the first one today. i guess the SOS is working..

I remember a trip to kovai kutralam, where even at mid day, the water was very cold. the localite who took us there encouraged getting into the water, saying it would be very refreshing. jumping into the water without realizing it – was a resl shock! but very enjoyable and surely refreshing..

--*--thanks to a friend and former colleague for the fundas on the calendar!

Animal Similies

2011-03-26T19:01:00.001+05:30

i hope that this post does not trigger the wrath of the animal rights activists.

no offense intended directly or otherwise to any other living beings.

for humans, i leave it to the reader to interpret the similies as compliments – as much as a nmirror would be considered one.

if you feel offended, you know whom to blame!

i have wondered many times how some of the analogies or behaviors are associated with specirfic species.

as .. as a sloth or as .. as a dodo.

isn’t it their nature? i get very uncomfortable when someone remarks on somebody else’s physical form [size, for example] or their eating habits [quantity].

when one says as poor as a church mouse – do mice have a desire to be rich?

or as crazy as a bedbug .. i know that bedbugs drive me crazy, are they crazy? maybe they are stupid, by our standards – to expect a feast by biting me!

if dogs are geneticaly condition to be faithful to their contemporary masters – can that be considered lotyalty – as we define for humans?

the Chinese name their years after animals. the soothsayers attribute qualities to an individual based on the animal associated with their with their year of birth..

i have come across many references to the region influencing expressions in the local languages.

while it is very positive to be received warmly, in the west – in south India at least, it is a compliment when someone talks to you cool or cold. I had rationalized this as a quality that is sought after in that region – in cold climates, it is good to have warmth – and in hot climates, anything cold is welcome.

but, in today’s context – it is great to be cool whereever one is.

before my mind wanders off like a monkey i want to tell you about this research paper that i read recently – that is about some theory behind some of the animal similies in English.

warning: this is not a very deep research paper that you might find very educative. but, if the topic interests you, it might be worth a quick read.

p.s. why is a wandering mind like a monkey and not like a butterfly?

one of the amusing expressions that i have heard some persons say about secrets that aren’t is [in tamil!] Kamba sootram, kazhudai m…… [rhymes with sootram]

don’t ask me the connection or the exact meaning

SOS day : 20 March 2011

2011-03-18T21:11:00.001+05:30

No, it is not SOS due to the supermoon effect.

In a way, it is an SOS of a different kind.

it is the Save our Sparrows movement. i noticed it in a news item a couple of weeks ago. Got curious, as the organization, Burhani Foundation was distributing free bird feeders, not too far from home.

as i drove towards the Burhani Masjid, i was welcomed warmly by the volunteers and given priority treatment and taken to the distribution desk; after filling up a simple form – with contact details, i collected my bird feeder.

they were setting a record of number of bird feeders distributed in a day.

on the way out, some birdfeed was also distributed.

this was on one of my long time wish lists and i was very thrilled to have a birdfeeder in the garden.

an earlier attempt to have one

was not very successful as the birds could not recognize it, i guess.

i was hoping that this would have a better result.

though this had a clearly printed label, what it could attract was

a squirrel family!

other birds come to the garden, but i am yet to see a sparrow.

this does not seem to be a crisis only in India.

the facebook page indicates that this is possibly an international problem.

communicating briefly

2011-03-11T22:17:00.000+05:30

i grew up in the era of correspondence.
and letter writing.
i used to look forward to the weekends, to catch up on the 'snail mails' from pen friends and radio stations, to write back to them.
the challenge was to write something different and personal for each letter.
even if it was the same, one had to write it all over again.

then came email. the ability to send the same content to many, by just adding them to the To, CC or worse, BCC lists!

i was amused when i saw a Microsoft Word template called letter to mom. one could not miss the humor, that was part of the letter - that complained of how everything is being automated and simplified, but nothing could replace the joy of writing a letter to mom!

then came the world of blogs. one could just go on and on on whatever one wanted to fill cyberspace with.
a recent research that i read mentioned that most blogs have just one reader [i hope it is other than the person who wrote it!]

in the post facebook and twitter era, blogs seem to have lost their attraction for the Gen Y. but the facebook generation is freer with comments and discussions.

when i connected this blog to my facebook account, i find that more comments are on facebook, though, when i meet in person, more people talk to me about some of the posts.

can we not have a universal blog that could be read and commented on from various applications?

agastiyar everywhere

2011-03-06T15:18:00.000+05:30

it started as a drop .. as it rightfully should have, at the origin of the river cauvery.

the recent trip to talacauvery became more interesting when i knew that the complex houses a temple for sage agastya.

agastya being one of the sages of our 'gotram' that is named after him, has been associated with water.
there are many stories including how he drank up the ocean, how he spilt water from his 'kamandalam' to create rivers, how he acted as the counter weight to prevent the sub continent from tilting, when everyone was attending Lord Shiva's wedding in the Himalayas.

Agastya is also known as the deity of the Siddhas.

the initial drop became a major flow with multiple instances all having an agastya connection, all happening pretty much on the same day!

a couple of weeks ago, i came across an organization called atree - an NGO working on research in ecology and environment.
their newsletter is called Agasthya!
they have a focus on the agastyamalai biodiversity area.

as i was reading that, a friend had a status update on facebook about agastyar falls that he was visiting
.
all this was during a recent visit to pondicherry for a weekend. Pondicherry - aka Vedapuri - was said to have been the abode of many Siddhas.
Agasthya was supposed to have worshipped the 'swayambhu' deity of Vedapuriswarar, the god of Vedapuri - now known as Pondicherry or Puducherry.

while talking to someone about the building housing sri Aurobindo Ashram, i was pointed to the following reference:

According to the archaeologist, Prof. Dubreuil of Pondicherry, on this very site there stood thousands
of years ago, a Vedic College, a centre of culture. The legendary Patron of the city was the great sage
Agastya.

I could not stop thinking is there is some hidden message for me - from Agasthya..

7.25 AM

2011-02-21T21:59:00.000+05:30

all clocks exhibit a strange behavior.

irrespective of brand or geography, the following seem to be true:
- when you hit snooze in the morning, they seem to cover 5 minutes in much less time, to wake you up again
- when you switch off the alarm, for that 2 minute extra sleep, they move super fast and move ahead by anything between 10 and 30 [lucky, if it is not 45 or more] minutes

i could not agree any more with whoever said that no two clocks agree - except, i guess the ones that have stopped. they show the right time at least once a day.

most of the time time is approximate. particularly the Indian way. When shall we meet - say 7, 7.30.
- i'll call you around 4.30
etc.

while in mumbai, if we miss the 7.23 local, we can take the 7.27 and still make it to the bus @ ghatkopar!

it is not just while waking up - while getting ready to go to work [particularly on days when i take the company bus] - the clocks move double or triple fast between 7 AM and 7.45 AM.

with the nearly weekly trips to delhi over the last few weeks, this has become a very important time.
while the actual departure times have been delayed, the web check-in would open precisely 24 hours before the scheduled time and this becomes a very significant

so, in all the morning rush, i need to make sure that i get through to the website precisely at 7.25 AM for the choice of my preferred seat.
strangely, these seem to be many others who also seem to be waiting for this time and have the same preference of a seat.
why else would i be seq #7, even if i miss the 7.25 AM slot by a minute or two?

lessening this disappointment or stress is the irctc site at 8 AM in the morning, to book a tatkal ticket.
blood pressure will automatically rise, as you see the available seats go down faster than the clock - with every successive attempt that you would be forced to, as the transactions would fail in various stages..

starting young

2011-02-12T12:53:00.000+05:30

in the last four weeks, i have been averaging about three days a week in delhi.
i was amused when i saw a front page news item a couple of weeks ago, about the nursery schools publishing their first list of kids selected for admissions!

time was, when everyone would eagerly wait for the board / public exam results.
this news item triggered some nostalgic thoughts..
i remember a personal disappointment about not getting admission to one of the schools in chennai - for my nursery.
i got into another, with my sister's teacher's connections!

more recently, i regularly see parents camping out on the pavement overnight, to get applications for admission to nursery schools.

there are still a lot of variations in the nursery school admissions in Bangalore.
In Delhi, though, there are many regulations to streamline this.
the Directorate of Education, Delhi has a comprehensive website with all applicable information.

and when the first list is published, it is front page news.
i also have been reading many interviews from disappointed parents.
one of them said that the system is not fair - as it does not give adequate weightage to the potential of the child.
they were particularly disappointed and concerned since they do not qualify under many criteria - such as alumni, sibling in the school, income, one of the parents NOT working, not a transfer case, not a government employee etc [the last one may not be a qualifying criterion, i think].
they were happy that their driver could get admission for his daughter in the first list - in three prestigious schools, thanks to the Right To Education act, but felt that deserving kids should all be given equal opportunity to compete and qualify.

i also noticed that there are many websites specializing in ... yes, nursery admissions in delhi!
a sampling from a google search: admissionsnursery, nurseryadmissions, schooladmissions, schooladmissionsindia, delhischooladmissions, nurseryadmissions ..

interestingly, the last site in the above list is not for nursery schools, i found this under 'about', but could not understand what is means.

Cardiogenic shock occurs not only at large but also in the small focal myocardial infarction. Are 4 variants of the flow and cardiogenic shock: reflex (caused by severe pain attack), cardiogenic true (the sharp decrease of myocardial contractility, impaired peripheral resistance, development of acidosis and giperkoagulemii) areactive shock (the most severe variant of true cardiogenic shock resistant to curative interventions and forced to carry an auxiliary circulation); arrhythmic shock (occurs in patients with acute myocardial infarction with heart rhythm disturbances - paroxysmal tachycardia and slowing of atrioventricular conduction and complete transverse heart block).

maybe the site is work in progress, or being developed as a class project by nursery school students! a school started recently near my home, talks of all modern facilities being available for the children and when we went there to see what they have [a small detour from our normal walking path], we found that some of the facilities - such as tennis - are only indoors.

I am sure there are preparatory and finishing schools for nursery admissions, when children start their education.

bamboo flowers

2011-01-29T12:05:00.001+05:30

on the way to coorg, we had stopped briefly to get an aerial view of srirangapatna.
just a couple of kilometers off the main road [bangalore - mysore] - a deviation would take us to nimishambha temple, hat is very popular.

much before that, is a spot - a small hill - called kari ghatta.
no signs or markings, one has to just know where to turn.
a small hill, with a vishnu temple, that was supposed o have been established by the sage brughu.

from the hilltop, one can get a view of srirangapatna and also the dariya daulat [gumbaz?]

seen faintly in the mist.

another spot we stopped at - near coorg - was at the neerkolli estate [kotle kaadu].

typical of that region, the vegetation was thick

among the other usual sights a rare one was the bamboo flowers, though already dried.

a closer look:

legends from many parts of the world refer to this phenomenon :

“When bamboo flowers, famine, death and destruction follows”, says a tribal legend in Mizoram.
When bamboo flowers it dies! Anyone familiar with bamboo has probably heard this.
A bamboo plant flowers once in every 48 years, brings along with a plague of rats

the reasons for this - on further enquiry seem to be that the flowers are eaten by rats, who also cause damage to other crops.

the dried bamboo can also catch fire - leading to additional damage.

of course, it takes time to grow again.

i could not confirm the 48 year theory, as i have heard that bamboos are evergreen.

speaking of rare blooms, i have heard of 'kurunji' in tamilnadu, that blooms once in 12 years.

halfalogs

2011-01-23T21:50:00.000+05:30

one of the distractions or sources of entertainment while traveling - to overcome the boredom while waiting at airports [or even in trains], is to imagine what the other person might be saying - while listening to loud cell-phone conversations.

such 'dialogs' are called halfalogs.

some recent ones..

'sir, there was heavy fog in my hometown. i got delayed getting to kolkatta and was in transit from early morning. i just landed in bangalore and am in the bus. will check my mails after reaching my room'. ....... what do you mean by this is becoming a habit?... i sent you the documents you wanted this morning, from my gmail id. ...'
=== this halfalog was heard while boarding the Bangalore flight in Delhi!

'you know what? i am going to chennai. i am so excited. i will be there for 3-4 days. am planning to go to pondicherry for a day. i heard that you get very good leather items, and cheap too.. what? jaipur or delhi is cheaper? can you then get me a nice pair of kholapuris? ya, and by the way, i forgot to tell you that my dad has given me permission to spend upto 5,000/- rupees and buy whatever i wanted. but then, it seems that they have reduced the baggage allowance to the US. i don't know ya, these airlines are taking everyone for a ride. how can i visit the US for 2 weeks without at least 5-6 pairs of footwear? anyway, this is the first time that i am traveling alone. that was why my dad insisted on shatabdi, so that even if i sleep off, someone would ensure that i eat. and also i get used to flying to the US alone to meet some of my cousins .. etc etc etc etc ..'
the person at the other end had very little [or no] opportunity to speak. it was a monologue - though fit enough to be classified as a halfalog.
=== the person who was halfalogging was a 20-something. and a first time traveler by a day train..

there were many others - more business halfalogs, that make an interesting guessing game of what the company, customer, value of the deal, competition etc could be.

just like most people seem to be quite free with sharing personal details online, most people seem unmindful of the surroundings while talking personal or professional matters.

mandalpatti

2011-01-14T22:19:00.001+05:30

one of the other lesser known spots in coorg is mandalpatti.
the abbi falls is very popular and attracts a steady stream of tourists.
a deviation from that road - and a further 25 kilometers will bring you to mandalpatti.

the road, where it exists, is also in fairly bad shape. some of the steep hairpin bends with loose gravel, make it a thrilling [and risky] drive. in a couple of points,

the shola forests

another estate we visited in bhagmandala
amidst a thick forest, the place was just off the main road.

the estate had a stream running through.

the water was fresh and cool.

one more aspect to observe if you get a chance to got through coffee plantations is to look for the kopi-luwak [pronounced kopilua] or civet coffee.
coffee beans, eaten by wild cats [civets] and the undigested beans that are excreted - are considered very special and tasty - quite likely because of the enzymes in the digestive system that give them the special flavor.
in most estates, these are not really used, as the quantities are very limited and do require special cleaning, packaging etc.

of course, no trip down the jungles is complete, particularly in the monsoon or damp areas, without leeches.

as we walked through thickly wooded paths, we did come across a few.

they are considered to have therapeutic value and no need to panic.

it is interesting to see how these small leeches quickly bloat up with your blood!

this is a picture of one that had its fill, and then was caught.

TalaCauvery

2011-01-09T09:50:00.000+05:30

we drove from Bhagmandala to Talacauvery in the morning. the misty mountains and valleys

hid the rising sun.

The talacauvery complex was just waking up with no other visitors.
the priests were already busy for the morning puja.

the spot of the origin of Cauvery was not to be touched - and the excess water flowed into a larger tank, where one could have a bath.
the complex also has a shrine for sage Agastya, who was said to have brought cauvery to the Earth.
adjoining the complex is the Brahmagiri hill, which has a steep climb [on well cut and paved steps, with hand rails] and offers an excellent 360-degree view.

an aerial view of the talacauvery tank.
the source of the cauvery is under the glass covered roof in the picture.

at the foot of the complex, a small deviation took us to a century old house, of the senior priest of the complex.

this is not generally open to the public but we could go because of the contacts. an interesting feature to see was the water seeping through the crevices in the rocks, in the backyard of the house.

to capture this natural and fresh source of water for bathing and other purposes a contraption was made to collect the water.

an old 'bullet' motorcycle in the backyard completed the vintage ambiance.

we accessed the cauvery devara kaadu [mentioned in the earlier post], from their backyard.

lesser known coorg - Cauvery Devara Kaadu

2011-01-01T14:46:00.000+05:30

I had an opportunity to visit some of the lesser known - read not so touristy- spots in coorg on a whirlwind trip a couple of days ago.
thanks to our son-in-law's father [i believe here is no term for his relationship in english, what we call sambandhi], who had taken the pains to plan out the details so elaborately, though short, this was a wonderful trip.

among the spots we covered were the Cauvery Devara kaadu [at tala Cauvery, the source of the cauvery river], not usually accessible to the public without special permission.

the entrance to this section is right at the foot of the Tala Cauvery complex.

this path [motorable only with a 4WD, would apparently take us to a spot in kerala in about 18 km, which, otherwise, would take about 120km, by normal road].
the devara kaadu portion [below], is very heavily wooded and is not inhabited and apparently nobody enters this section - considered very sacred by the local community.

more pictures of some other spots in my later posts.

mist, mistakes and a mystic

2010-12-27T17:21:00.000+05:30

the delayed winter is here.
after many warm days and nights, it started cooling a bit in the last couple of weeks in Bangalore.
a few days ago - my morning trip to the airport was refreshingly different - with hardly 10 meters of visibility!

the good feeling did not last long - to think of the possible flight delays.
as expected, all flights in and out were delayed.

the real impact of the size of the bangalore airport could be felt.

particularly compared to the T3 - in spite of its problems - this is woefully inadequate for the increasing traffic.

the place looked like what bus stations used to look like.

announcements about the 'bad' weather being the cause made me think.
was the weather really bad?
they could have been kinder to mother nature by saying the foggy weather, that technology has not yet been able to deal with.
why bad weather or good weather.

maybe the trigger was what i had heard the previous evening.

the previous evening, i had an opportunity to listen to Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev, in person, talking to a small group of people, specially invited to spend an evening with the mystic.
He spoke on spirituality - how it is misunderstood and what it really means - and how there could be a balance of spirituality and 'normal' life.

in his definition, every human being is a mystic. some realize it and work towards an inner understanding, and are called mystics - and the others, just mishtiks [mistakes, as pronounced in the typical chennai tamil!]

p.s. i finally reached delhi - a full 10 hours after i left home [close to 11, from the time i woke up!].
but, that seems to have been a much better day compared to the last couple of days.

commoditized universes

2010-12-19T11:09:00.000+05:30

Oliver sets a new benchmark being at his peak in the last 2 weeks.
George breaks an earlier record to rise above that, yesterday.
Tania hits a new record.
Omanakutty crashes against tough competition and not being in good form.
Raghu's popularity rises with increased interest from the traders.
Sonya makes gains though the fans are dwindling.
Global trends help Edward stay high.
Chandra oscillates.

what could the stories above be? sports? business? P3? politics?

now read the same, replacing the names with the alternatives as below:
Oliver = [crude]Oil
George = Gold
Tania = Turmeric
Omanakutty = Onion
Raghu = Rice
Sonya = Soya
Edward = Edible oils
Chandra = Copper

these were slightly modified headlines from the commodities section of a business paper a few days ago.

with the overdose of politics and scams on almost every page of newspapers and every news channel on TV, i had switched to more of business news channels - that still carry some 'stories' - of companies, personalities etc.

i have always thought that the financial markets were the fictional side of business. most of the derivative concepts being primarily speculative and though cloaked in a lot of mathematics, it is not real economy!

nowadays i spend more time on the commodities [and weather] sections. one of the benefits of travel is that you get time to read the paper at leisure!

it struck me that every commodity seems to have a life of its own - going by the headlines - when the behavior on the [commodities] market, both real and the trading market. the movement of prices of commodities are many times attributed to behavior as if these commodities could act on their own.

such as Soya oil gains despite subdued demand.
what could Soya have done to achieve this?
Or Turmeric, when it hit a record Rs. 16,000 per quintal?

i recently read about the google / harvard university project on the study of the 'english language genome'. by analyzing words from published books over the last 200 years,
wonder if they also look at these 'sentiments' in the business news to complement the stock ticker data.
could provide many plots for novels and movies..
move over matrix!

Teeth[ree]-ing troubles

2010-12-11T13:08:00.000+05:30

after a long gap from the blog -- thought i should write on the new T3 terminal at New Delhi.
having used that every week in the last 3 weeks [and scheduled to in the next 2 as well!], before it is no longer news.

the first impression was the size. having been used to the other Indian airports, this looks somewhat intimidating!

Earlier, with the new runway, it used to take about 20 minutes of taxiing to get to the terminal after landing.
now, if you land in one of the farther gates, it would take about 15 minutes to get to the baggage claim area, even if you use the travellators.

the walk areas are wide and carpeted.

but it makes it difficult to pull your luggage along as the carpets have not yet settled in.

the parking infrastructure is very comfortable and world class in terms of design. the driver was cribbing about the check out system - where you go to a booth on the floor to pay and then yuo need to be out of the parking structure within 15 minutes - else pay more!
the construction is still on, with the exit control guards sitting out in the open.

the check-in area is very spacious. multiple bays and check in counters dedicated to various airlines. it does not feel crowded.

after check in, the shopping area is also spacious with comfortable seating.

there are many four seaters with a central riser with power points.
these seats also have small armrests that can comfortably accommodate a laptop.

the upper level is for the food courts.
it is still to be completed - but the floor is already giving away in some places - with the tiles broken.
the quality of workmanship in some other sections are also shoddy, with the joints either visible or mis-aligned.

the departure gates are also well spaced - you would be very lucky to get one of the closer gates - which is not bad, less than 5 minutes of brisk walk to reach after clearing security. there are sufficient seats

with some recliner seats as well..

another interesting aspect i noticed was that the labeling of toilets - the his and hers labels are on the doors, but to identify them as we walk along - other than the signs, there are pictures of men and women to let one identify.

with attractive pictures, wonder if it would lead people to the wrong toilets!

on departure, i realized that the time saved on arrival taxiing is lost.
though one of my flights was ready to take off on time, it had to taxi for about 20 minutes before reaching the runway to take off!

as my luck has been running in the last couple of months, every flight that i had to take has been delayed..

to summarize, T3 is a refreshingly pleasant experience, in spite of the glitches. i have probably explored less than 50% of the terminal.

i have not had any checked in baggage. but a couple of others i had spoken to, had some not so nice experience with their bags.

Navaratri - contemporary and green

2010-10-10T13:45:00.000+05:30

this time, the 'golu' was a little different from the usual format.
a smaller arrangement for the steps meant that many of the dolls had to stay in the cartons in the loft..
the space thus gained was taken up by the 'intergalactic sports meet' - inspired by the CWG and India's good showing reflected in the medals tally.

the green aspect came from the approach to recycle and reuse.
all athletes were made from wire [literally wire-frames] taken from broken and unused clotheslines / creeper support from the garden.. some of the other props - such as the poles for the medals tally banner and the bar for the pole vaulter were dry twigs from the garden

their skeletons were padded with shreds of newspaper, thread etc.

a slideshow of some of the pictures:

If you are not able to view that flash slideshow, or want to see the pictures as an album, you can follow this link to see the photo album.

200 minutes on the road

2010-09-19T22:24:00.000+05:30

that was every day, and that too, at least 200 minutes -- in the past few days, while i was on business travel.

this is more than three hours every day!
considering that i usually spend about an hour and a half every day normally - maybe this was not so bad.. i know some colleagues who spend that much time in Bangalore every day - living close(!) to 50km from the office.

one day, i had to visit four different office buildings for meetings from early morning till late evening.
the cab driver was wondering which office i worked out of, as he was apparently used to dropping visitors off at one facility in the morning and pick them up in the evening.

but the comment that triggered my thoughts were by the cab driver in Bangalore who had come to pick me up from the airport.. he was the same person who had been been driving me to and from the airport almost every week in the last few weeks, when i have been spending two to three days away from Bangalore - he asked me very innocently : Sir, don't you have any work in Bangalore? :-)

while it seems to be a lot of time in transit, and i believe and have been one of the regular users of technology for team working, there is no substitute to face to face meetings to establish the instant connect.
at least, i guess, it will stay that way, till most people are comfortable with not having face to face meetings.

for those that do, i use a lot of the 200 minutes for phone calls! otherwise, that is useful time for reading the newspaper or catching up with books.

i can now fully empathize with : bus drivers, cab drivers, travelling salesmen, pizza delivery boys [!] and many more professions that need their teams to be out on the road many more minutes, every day..

restarting with Ganesha

2010-09-12T22:55:00.000+05:30

After a gap from this blog, thought it was a good way to restart with this year's ganesha.
both the government agencies and many social organizations have been creating a lot of awareness of the pollution caused by painted ganeshas and indiscriminate immersions of the idols along with the flowers and other stuff.

this year also saw just plain mud ganeshas in the market.

we [my son and I] decided to make our own mud ganesha this time.
with some clay from our own garden, we set out to make a ganesha based on our own imagination.
the clay needed cleaning - to remove the pieces of stones and concrete etc.
and then had to be kneaded to make a smooth paste.

then some complications, as the clay was probably a little too watery.

with some more work, could get that to be more consistent to be shaped.
was looking for the 'kundumani' beads for the eyes, before deciding to use black pepper.

finally, it was all well and ready for the puja the next day - with time overnight for the idol to dry a bit.

Happy Ganesha!

Kavariars

2010-08-11T13:17:00.000+05:30

not sure what the reasons are, but it looks like the Gods are also vying for the mindshare of mankind.

Recently i had been to chennai and visiting a relative after many years. their house was close to a 'mariamman' [local village goddess] temple. this was one of those temples that had become very popular over the years. i remember that during my school days, it was quite neglected and used to have some activity only on special days.

that day seemed to have been a special day. there was a lot of crowd in front of the temple, waiting to get in. there were people carrying some 'kavadis', accompanied by their near and dear ones. effectively, the road was completely blocked - which was otherwise a two way street.
the police personnel watched and cajoled raffic and the people to keep on moving and after about 10 minutes, somehow, we were able to get on to a side street and take an alternate route.

I had a similar experience the next day in front of a sai baba temple, also in chennai.

the following day, we were driving back to bangalore from pondicherry via tiruvannamalai. it was a full moon day. i was told that the tiruvannamalai town could be crowded, as many devotees undertake a 'giri valam' - circumambulating the mountain, barefoot. so, we wanted to cross the place well before evening.
but, unfortunately for us, it appeared that they decided to block the main road a little earlier that day - as they probably anticipated a larger crowd.

we were approaching the town from the east, needing to go west. we were asked to turn back and take a detour.no further details or instructions, even from the policemen. there were no signs. a couple of auto drivers we asked for help, started arguing amongst themselves if we would be able to find our way, as it was a very narrow road, that had most of the length dug up.

we decided to brave it amd followed a bus to salem, assuming that he would know the way.
after a couple of kilometes in the wilderness and a very small village - where we could see a peacock, with its feathers spread out, that posed for us, to take pictures..
we got on to a main road that took us back to tiruvannamalai!

this time, we were approaching the town from the south. another detour and a few kilometers later, we were guided to take another road - a paved one this time, but just about as wide as the car! with hardly a soul insight, we would stop whenever we saw someone, just to reassure ourselves that the road did have an end on the other side, and connected to a larger road that would eventually take us towards our destination.

it was also very interesting to listen to how the people we crossed gave us directions. from the language - with a strong local dialect, that had some words that we could not understand - to the asumptions they made about our knowledge of the local topology as well as simplistic directions that we have to take three turns forward and two turns that would bring us back to almost where we were [or at least that was what we understood] and then the second turn would take us to the road connecting to the main road!

anyway, we finally crossed tiruvannamalai after spending more than an hour and about 12 kilometers, to crossed a distance of about 2 kilometers in 10 minutes.

with this experience, when i heard of the kavariyars that go to haridwar, i was somewhat relieved that what we went through was much milder.

while this is a regular event, it was not clear why the authorities have not managed to find a traffic regulation pattern - as i was told that all roads to haridwar would be completely taken over by the kavariyars and nobody can predict the delays.

the same question that crossed our minds about tiruvannamalai - as to why that could not have been managed better - as that seemed to be a regular occurrence, every full moon.
when we can manage kumbh mela without any major incidents, i am sure this should be a cakewalk.

when i wanted to check out more on the kavariars, google turned up with just one result!
that i could not register it as a googlewhcak was a disappointment,though.

modernizing languages

2010-07-31T22:38:00.000+05:30

the recently concluded world tamil conference evoked varying and extreme positions from different groups.
from the comments on inconvenience caused to the public to the non-inclusion of the former president of India, Dr. Abdul Kalam among the invitees / dignitaries, there were enough controversies.

in one of my recent visits to chennai, i noticed that there were many 'tamilized' name boards all over.
among the interesting ones was:
'alai pesi' - wave speakers - for mobile phones, a variation of 'tholai pesi' distant speakers [for normal phones].

but, on the TV commercials, i notice that still many english words were used in their native form.
one of the mobile TV ads spoke of 'kaal rates' [call rates] - where 'kaal' in tamil means a leg!

i am not sure if the renaming of streets is to keep the language current. my feeling is that many of the old names represent significant aspects of the local history that would be lost forever.

languages need to evolve, by absorption of newer terms to keep with the evolving technological and social trends.
why can we not just accept the words from other languages - where these would have originated - and localize it in terms of pronunciation.

how would facebook sound, when it is referred as 'mugha puttakam' or blog as 'inaya thala aettu kurippu'..

Counting people in cups of corn

2010-06-19T16:58:00.000+05:30

Last week, made a quick trip to yercaud.
the drive was good, with the roads and the weather in excellent condition almost all the way.
the last few kilometers on the 20 hairpin bends uphill, it was raining heavily with very little visibility.
the hotel where we stayed was small, but functional. one of those ecology themed hotels, close to the lake.
with very misty weather, took pleasant walks the next morning - but the view points - the pagoda point [invariably spelt as pakoda point - pakoda being a local snack!] had only the view of the mist.

we found very few visitors at the view point, and the local dog at the temple could also not be bothered from its sleep.

there were a few vendors who had their stalls - though on push-carts and makeshift sheds, they had screen-printed banners with names such as steam and roast - for steamed corn and roasted peanuts!
their steaming equipment was a hand operated blower!
i was wondering how they plan their quantities - as it looked like the corn would feed a battalion. i tried to imagine how the vendors would feel as they see visitors coming there. they surely welcomed us very enthusiastically and expectantly.. though we were not good customers.
i was tempted to try the fresh fig and honey combo, but decided against considering the cleanliness aspects.

on the way down, as the sky was also clearing up a bit, we saw many vehicles - cars, buses, two-wheelers going uphill. tried to visualize the emotions and expectations of the vendors at pakoda point!

like in cartoons, the image that flashed before my eyes, were that each vehicle was equivalent to a number of cups of corn..
2 for a 2 wheeler, 2-4 for a car and 10 for a bus....
i am sure they would have done good business for the rest of the day, going by the number of strewn paper cups and plastic spoons we could find along the way back.

June tunes

2010-06-06T10:31:00.000+05:30

June is here.
I love the smell of the earth with the first fresh showers followed by the fresh plant smells.
June is also the time when the schools re-open in Bangalore and one can see children getting ready to go to school in the mornings.
with the new school session starting, it is also interesting to observe the proud, dreamy and anxious parents, getting the kids ready for school, on to the bus etc.

as i wait for my company bus in the morning, these scenes not only provide some diversion, but also interesting insights.

like the mother of a small boy - who spotted another older boy going to the same school - and quizzing him on the school, teachers, bus timings etc.
or the father who gets a kid on the bus, then crosses over to the other side, to wave 'tata' to the kid, as the bus makes a U turn after picking up some other children.
or the very concerned mother who argues with the bus driver every day, as to why he cannot drop the kids back on the same side of the road - rather than the other side, in the afternoon - as it is not safe for kids to cross the road, particularly when the parents get a little delayed
or the patient 'ayahs' who get the little kids and their school bags + lunch boxes well settled before the buses move
or the impatient drivers, who play a teasing game with the kids who come late, by raising the engine, to make them run faster to the bus..

among all this, there are also these occasional drivers - both bus drivers and others - who drive into dirty puddles and splash water over others waiting.

evenings are wetter, with regular rains that time themselves with the office timings, to make two-wheeler drivers take shelter under trees - or the elevated roads and fly-overs, to wait out cloud bursts.

this is very different from the Mumbai culture, where life goes on, in spite of the heavy monsoon downpours.
in fact, the culture is so different in Bangalore, that - soon after we shifted here about 20 years ago - we would be among the very few that carried umbrellas - which were very common and a mandatory accessory in Mumbai, during this season.

that has changed a lot in the last 2 decades. while the acceptance to live with nature has increased, the awareness and responsible use of water has yet to catch up.
i have seen the ground water table dry up and go lower in our area. the recent rule about rainwater harvesting should show some results in the next few years, like it has helped chennai.

Exam

2010-05-28T13:44:00.000+05:30

one of the side effects of long air travel is an 'opportunity' to watch movies - some which one may not have watched otherwise.
last week, i watched this movie called Exam.
very interesting and absorbing. a simple theme. simple setting - all of the story is enacted in a windowless room.
it is about 8 candidates who come to the final stage of a selection process - without knowing much about the organization or its business, except that one winner would be the assistant to the CEO.

i was reminded of the 12 angry men.

not sure if I would have noticed this movie when released in theaters. maybe it already had its run.
on the topic of movies, i noticed during my recent trip to the US, that the pre-release promotions such as actor / producer interviews in the media, 'creating' some news about some of the characters or the movie itself - is not uncommon in hollywood also.
with so much money at stake, such promotion as well as in-place branding for products in movie scenes are becoming more common.

currently, i am also eagerly waiting for a positive result in another area. the top kill exercise being undertaken off the gulf of mexico. this has to succeed to not only limit and stop further damage to the environment, but also restore confidence in technology and engineering.

splitting hairs

2010-05-16T16:57:00.000+05:30

as i was at my monthly haircut session, i noticed some news stories [in the old newspapers and magazines that are a part of the salon visit experience] in the last week about some innovative solutions for the gulf of Mexico oil spill.

the most interesting one - which was contextual to where i was, was about using human hair to absorb the oil.
it sounded very logical.
i have heard of the tonsured hair from Tirupati being exported for making wigs, but this seemed to open up another market.

that set me thinking if my habit of keeping my hair short [full-short, in the language of the hair dresser] was not very social. if i grew my hair long, surely it would help the shampoo industry also. but then, would it mean consumption of more water that would only be polluted by washing the hair - as i am used to having head baths twice a day? also, with less frequent visits to the hairdresser, how would that industry survive? with a high level of attrition or shuffle among the technicians, and the growing costs, they already operate on hair-thin margins - mankind cannot afford to make them an endangered profession.

that is why, when some of my follicular-challenged friends say that they are charged more on their visits to the hairdresser, i can understand the reasons they are given ranging from an MBA-like answer such as since their visits are less frequent, and the annual RPC [revenue per customer] need to be at their industry norms, that have to charge higher, to a more frivolous reason that the hairdresser needs to spend more time searching for the hairs to be cut!

before i could get more confused, another report resolved the dilemma. with about 210,000 gallons of oil spilling every day, this was not a practical solution.

it was time for my turn and i decided to let this global problem be solved by the experts, while i relaxed and got my monthly 'full short'.

very different customer experiences

2010-05-01T20:24:00.000+05:30

yesterday, i had two very different customer experiences.

the first was very pleasant - and something that i was not expecting - or rather was expecting it to be much more gruelling. this was about a college admission.

going through the admission formalities, i was prepared for a 4 hour process, as the communication mentioned. the set up was very structured, and well coordinated. right from the security guard, who was very courteous, was aware of the process and proudly explained that there were 4 steps and the as we move from one stage to another, we would not have to retrace our steps.
it turned out that way - well documented steps, with the staff involved knowing not only what they were to do, but also the previous and next steps.
in fact, we were taken on a slight detour of the stages for the counselling step, and were taken to the department instead of the generic institution overview - as, we were told that there could be overlaps and the time would be more effectively spent if we had that discussion only at the department.

the last step also included a feedback seeking session, where the feedback from the parents and the students was sought - even if only informally.

compare that to a less than overwhelming experience from an institution that ought to be extremely customer focused - a bank.
getting an account converted from a junior account to a major account exposed the inadequate training to the staff on the process, the documentation required, the next steps etc.
having already made 2 trips to the bank on this activity, i found that even the branch manager was not very well equipped in terms of the wordings of declarations to be provided..
the TV ads from this bank talk about being sensitive to small things - such as wishing the customer who comes to the bank on his birthday - i found that the staff were more preoccupied with their promotion letters than customers waiting for more than half an hour to make deposits.

my hope is that the educational institutions like this one would turn out more customer focussed or customer-responsive graduates that would make a significant difference to the service industry.

Brinjal - the versatile vegetable

2010-04-05T10:50:00.002+05:30

Why a post on Brinjal?
as my favorite vegetable, i thought that it was time to give it some space on this blog!

the sheer number of varieties that this vegetable comes in, does not make it any common vegetable.
each one, due to its size and texture is ideally suited for some specific dishes.

The more popular varieties in the west - called aubergine in europe and egg plant in the US - are not as tasty as the smaller varieties you get in india.

I am sure you would have tasted it as a normal dry sabzi, as a gravy-ish bartha or the small ones, that are stuffed with masala as in the 'ennai-katthrikkai'.

other variations i like include the 'porichha kootu', with a dash of shredded coconuts or that little extra flavor that it adds to the avial - or the sambar-ish rasavangi,

you might also like the Vangi bath or gothsu or the special mangalore style gravy made with black channa that goes very well with jolada roti - all karnataka specialities.

when i used to live in Bombay and visit home for vacations, i used to enjoy a different dish made of brinjal every day, specially made by my mother.

I have been watching the recent controversy about Bt brinjal. the activists - both pro and against - are all missing the simple point - with the introduction of the Bt-ed variety, will the diversity be extinct? the commercial interests would surely overtake the gourmet's interests, and, we might have just the engineered variety.

i have not tasted it or seen any reports of how this new variety would taste.

the arguments on both sides are about the economics, the possible control of the market by multi-nationals, the possible effects of this variety on people etc etc etc.

nobody seems to care about the taste.

we have so many campaigns to preserve our heritage art, culture, wildlife.. but taste?
recently one of the magazines carried some articles on 'kitchen archaeology' - which included capturing and preserving old hand-written recipe notes, which are very traditional to every family. they may preserve the ingredients list, the process steps etc - but without the right brinjals, the original taste cannot be preserved or experienced.

in any case, if the taste can be preserved or the variety not compromised, i may not mind the Bt brinjal!
particularly if it can be used to make one of my top choices for dishes made with brinjal - the 'katthirikkkai rasam'.

Jumbled newspaper

2010-03-28T12:49:00.000+05:30

i had not planned it that way.
this morning, i started reading a newspaper [sundays are the leanest days in terms of newspapers @ home, as we get only 2 papers, compared to 3 during the week and 3 or 4 on saturdays, depending on the mood of the newspaper boy].
i had to step out for something, and when i got back the news papers were all jumbled up - not left in any order, by others who read the papers.
so, i read paper 1: main, followed by paper 2: sunday supplement 1; paper 2 sunday supplement 2; paper 1 supplement 2 and paper 2 main.

since each section was anyway independent, it was ok.
but, for some of the news items that were duplicated - found that the reports were very different.
or, the relative importance assigned to the reports in terms of prominence or location also varies from paper to paper.

i used to think that this was the characteristic or the character of the paper and the editorial policies.
but, of late, whether it is the TV channels or the print media, the 'advertorials' or 'placed' news and paid-news seems to be more the norm.

even the relatively conservative paper, Hindu, has prominent ads on the main page.
[nothing to beat the Times, for the launch of indya.com, when the complete front page was taken up [though the traditional first page was actually page 3!].
i suppose it is the pressure of profits - or possibly survival - that is pushing the media to resort to any-way-to-make-more-profit tactics.

to some extent, this competition is also pushing the print newspapers to be the same as their peers - in terms of the format - and, at the same time, be different enough to push those differences as their USPs.

with all this, another aspect that seems to have undergone significant change is the reporting style and also the background / profile of the reporters.
columns that were earlier associated only with seasoned and long-standing reporters are making way for more investigative reporting and sting operations taken up by much younger professionals.

some publishing houses have also started diversifying or extending their 'product portfolio' with news papers targeted at different segments, including tabloid formats from the earlier traditional or business news papers.

with all this, i am not sure how much of what we read or see / hear is really 'news' anymore. so, i guess i could jumble the morning papers and even mix and match pages and still not miss any story significantly.

crane-ial stuff

2010-03-13T22:04:00.000+05:30

one of the recent forwards in an egroup was the story of an Indian crane operator, Babu Sassi.
while that seems to be a hoax - per the hoax slayer, it led me to look more closely at the construction cranes that seem to surround our building.
one HUGE concrete tower of residences that are coming up on a reclaimed land [which had drain water flowing in that area and landfilled over the last few years.. and two commercial complexes - one a hypermarket and another a five or seven star hotel to be operated by the Taj group, adjacent to a bowling alley, multiplex cinema halls and an ice-skating rink!
i have been watching the construction progress over the last few months.
the first glimpse of the crane - which i later came to know as a tower crane - was what appeared to be scaffolding and a 'helicopter cockpit'.
i wanted to see it put together, but unfortunately, that happened when i was travelling one week.

last week, i suddenly noticed that the crane had grown taller! it seemed to have risen with the construction - having completed the concrete work for 5 basement levels of parking and slowly rising over the ground level.

after some web research i found that it was a self-erecting crane! neat concept of bootstrapping applied to a practical problem.

whether weather is an interesting topic..

2010-03-06T16:11:00.000+05:30

with the warmest days of the year in Bangalore, it difficult not to complain of the weather.
as everyone is eagerly anticipating the refreshing evening showers to set in - to cool the dry, hot day temperatures, i chose to dedicate this post to the weather.

many years ago, when one of my classmates in B.Sc., decided to go to the US after graduating in Physics, to pursue studies in meteorology - many of us used to pull his leg that all he would need is a set of standard predictions and just mix them all together with some probabilities - and some part of it would be true every day.

in one sense, we also used to tell him that he should take a parrot with him - since computers were still not that common - to model his predictions along the lines of the street parrot soothsayers.

my ideas of the weatherman - or the weathergirl - made popular by the TV channels, and the profession have significantly changed since then.

from Dr Karmarkar's model for predicting the Indian monsoon, to the detailed reports of Vinson Kurian in the business line newspaper, i am starting to get more intimate with the weather systems around us!
yes, the reports talk of systems and with names for the cyclones and treat them as individuals with their own behaviours,
the reports talk of these systems or names moving across, having to resist opposition or be influenced by other emerging phenomena - sprinkled with acronyms such as IMD, ECMWF, MJO etc.

i also found it interesting that the India meteorological department has so much of information available for free and near real time. another company skymet, has made a business of analyzing and providing weather data feeds and a few of the leading newspapers and TV channels depend on their feeds.

such analysis are also available in specific contexts - such as Media, Agriculture, Insurance, Shipping, power etc.

so, talking about the weather is not just a social pastime, as it is supposed to be in the U.K.
one of my friends, while talking about the ever changing weather in London, said - if you do not like the weather in London, just wait a minute! [hoping that it would change so quickly].

talking of weather - a friend, when asked why he does not exercise regularly, blamed it on the w(h)e[a]ther. he said that he would exercise based on whether he felt like it when he got up in the morning! and most of the days, felt lazy to get out of bed. he was in Seattle, where most of the year, one can see only cloudy or rainy days!

the next couple of months, i have one more serial to track - the monsoon watch on TV and the newspapers.

street vendors and clandestine geometry

2010-02-28T10:20:00.000+05:30

clandestine geometry is an interesting term i came across, while reading a book called 'street vendors in the global urban economy'.
an collection of insightful papers by various researchers covering the street vendor ecosystem across the world, primarily in the developing countries.
this term, used by Luciana Itikawa in the article of the same title, uses street maps of urban towns to plot the geometries of various densities and distribution related to the number of vendors at a place, the routes for smuggled goods, metropolitan tradeways etc.
capturing the economic and political synergies that are so closely intertwined with street vending.

i have always wondered the viability of street vending. with each transaction typically being a very small amount, and when the materials sold are perishables, such as food / vegetables etc - the nett take home for the vendor could be very small.

i could relate to the articles about the Indian scenario and found it interesting to note that the systems of political patronage and legal constraints are very similar all over the world.

for example, the municipality laws and the criminal laws [enforced by the police department] are in many points contradictory. that is, what is permitted by the municipality is not legal according to the police. so, technically it is near impossible for a street vendor to conduct business complying with all legal requirements.

then,there are these mafias and coteries that create or in some cases prevent unionization. many of these put women vendors at a great disadvantage. across major cities and towns, it appears that 20-50 rupees per day is paid by each vendor in terms of taxes and protection fees to the goons or the police!
the book has some statistics about not only the business generated by the street vendors per square meter, but also the bribes paid per square meter.
in brazil, for example, the bribe amounts to between 10.5 and 17 % of daily business volume!

there also seem to be an organized system to support these vendors with their supplies on a regular basis. obviously these middle men make more money than the vendors.

with all this, the kinds of goods being sold has also changed.
last weekend, i was in Pondicherry - and while taking a stroll along the ocean front, noticed a very large number of street vendors. this used to be a very peaceful and quiet walk, many years ago. i could find all kinds of wares being sold - from the regular 'chat' stall, to - i guess, pirated - DVDs. there were many chinese LED lit toys that could be catapulted in the air and would return to you, glowing all the while.
but, i could not find what i was looking for - after dinner - some dry roasted peanuts!
the peanuts that were available were the steamed ones, with garnishing of chillies, onion and pudina! while i like it, i was looking for the traditional sand roasted, slated peanuts.
finally i found one - and asked him why he was the only one.
he said that the margins are very low and the vendors prefer to switch to the boiled ones, as they can prepare them at home and the cart is less messy, while, for roasting, he needs the stove, and whoever buys, wants it hot - limiting his business volume.
he also comes there only for the weekends, he said.

the book also has stories of some successful vendors and how they made it, the kinds of challenges they had to overcome - as well as stories of dreams that went bust.

my intrigue about the parallel economy and the empathy for the plight of the street vendors has only increased after this book.

looking at the new entrants to this section, along my usual walking route, reaffirms that this still a financially viable option for many.

(re)cursive writing

2010-02-14T22:14:00.001+05:30

i have wondered why children are taught cursive writing in India, while in the US most of the writing practice is to 'print'.
one also finds a lot of variations in the script and handwriting - sometimes possibly influenced by the other - mostly vernacular - language that is also taught.
Indian scripts require a different stroke mechanism, while the Roman script expects the hand and pen to move differently.
and there is no concept of a cursive writing in Indian languages.
nor for that matter, in the typed world.
since most of us type our words using computer keyboards, is there still a place for cursive writing?
one argument that i have heard in favour of cursive writing is that it lets one write fast.
i guess that was ok when everyone was expected to learn typewriting and shorthand!

in writing letters or emails or other notes, a larger amount of time is spent in thinking and formulating our sentences than in the actual writing. so, the benefit of speed is also not all that important.

if it was really that beneficial, why can we all not adopt the shorthand notation and script?
that could be one solution to the multi-lingual requirements of the Indian constitution.

why is this post called recursive writing?
it is writing about writing!

thiruchy junction

2010-02-06T19:54:00.000+05:30

Got back from a one day trip to Trichy to attend a wedding.
it was a day of many pleasant surprises.
the first was the A/C waiting lounge at the station.
it was not crowded and fairly clean - at least when we got there. could get a quick bath and get ready.
all for a very nominal fee. surprisingly the lounge was not very crowded.
the next surprise was the auto. found out that they are the same pretty much everywhere these days - trying to make a quick buck, mostly from persons who are new to the city or town. a 4/5 km ride cost more per km than an AC limousine!
it was an early muhurtham - and so had an opportunity to visit a couple of temples - with a lot of history.
the huge and intricate temple of Akhilandeswari and the 'appu' or water lingam - one of the five special lingams dedicated to the five elements in south india. the temple was very clean - and, surprisingly, not crowded.
we were not rushed and could get a close few minutes with the deities.
next was a visit to the 'uchchi pillayar' temple - one of the few hill temples for Ganesha, rather than Karthikeya - in this region.
the thayumanavar temple about three fourths of the way to the top has had a few recent make overs - with paintings and flooring - and is clean!
back at the railway station, had close to 4 hours to kill.
the AC lounge was even less crowded and much cleaner now - as there were persons cleaning it very frequently.
the station was also well maintained and not crowded.
except for the traffic on the roads - which seemed very chaotic, possibly because of two visiting politicians that day.
the last surprise for the day was that there was NO curd rice available at the restaurant or with any of the vendors; as well as no fresh fruits at the station - every shop only had packaged food.

would like to go there more leisurely sometime.

UNglish

2010-01-30T14:16:00.001+05:30

I recently saw an ad on TV, for an insurance company that spoke of how complicated, confusing and jargonized our world has become and that is was time to uncomplicate!

not simplify - which i always thought of as the opposite of complicate, but UNcomplicate!

I pretty much accept undo : ctrl-Z, as the savior of many a disaster, while working with the computer. without that, life would have been a lot more difficult. the power to change one's mind and pretty much retract something that was done is really awesome.

i guess this could be a case of peer pressure. with facebook being so popular, the conversion of a noun - friend - to a verb to mean make friends, rather than befriend - that wren and martin taught us, paved the way for, what else - UNfriend! so, many people might think that Un-ning something makes it the opposite.

i am used to some words only in their un-form - such as uncouth or ungainly, though the non-un forms [un-un form?] couth or gainly are popular among scrabble players and are valid words.

i also found a site for unwords, though it is not really about words that could have been back-worded using un. these are more words that have been 'created' to mean some concept or thing.

a quick search of some dictionaries returned close to 4000 words that began with un.

maybe this is what makes english easy to adapt and adopt across the world.

is post-paid also a back word?

p.s. btw, this is my 'UNdred-and-first post on this blog!

dream jobs

2010-01-24T12:15:00.000+05:30

the much delayed elevated expressway in bangalore has finally been opened to the public.
though i have not been on it yet, i could see that a lot of work was completed in the last couple of months.
one small section is still to be done, but the major portions are complete.
in the last few weeks, as i had to go past the earlier entrance to electronics city beyond the toll booths and make a U turn to get back, i would be filled with thoughts of one of my old dream jobs - of a toll booth collector.

though in my professional career of about 30 years, i am only in my third job, i have switched many more among my dream jobs.

in school, i wanted to be a train dacoit! the trigger was a plastic spectacle with an artificial nose and moustache - that a family friend presented.

then, when i started learning German, i wanted to be a translator, or rather interpreter - and thereby be pat of historic moments of treaties beign signed between countries.

like a few other school friends, a railway engine driver or a pointsman - who had the power to change the tracks for a train, were also dreams at some time.

at IISc, doing some work in the library as part of the student assistanceship program - i wanted to be a librarian, who can get all the books in the world to keep on reading - till i realized that not all llibrarians read seriously. by extension, i also wanted to be in a bookshop - to not only be able to read all the new books,, but also interact with readers who walk in and help them choose. the habit of reading was inspired by my father, who worked in a bookshop.

i used to think that i could be a good teacher - for primary school children - till i attended a workshop for primary school teachers. though all the participants were very passionate about their jobs, the kinds of stories that i heard of the challenges they have seen with some children - made me think twice.

i have also dreamed to be an author - and write a book. after toying with themes of fiction and non-fiction, i felt more comfortable with non-fiction. even after identifying the theme and the name for a 'multi-modal and multi-dimensional' creation, i have not yet started, except for a blog post. [my other blog]. since i started that - in the last one year, my ideas have also become better formed.

i like wilfing. tell me if you know someone who has a job for wilfers.

i know a friend who would like to be a lift-operator.

but, i think that the job of a toll-collector is one of the most challenging and satisfying. it is a job that offers a lot of potential for constant learning; learning new languages to talk to the passing drivers; learning to be patient and keep one's calm; meditating between peak times; sit in the booth and sip coffee while watching a heavy downpour, when traffic is likely to be sparse; to read the psychology of drivers and automobiles, that coule lead to publishing research papers on 'human behavior on busy toll roads' that could lead to solutions to tackle road rage, which, in turn, can be extended to reduce or eliminate human rage, which might be the solution to the problems arising out of conflict between individuals and groups.

now, do you see how a toll-collector holds the key to a more peaceful world?
tell me what is your dream job?

p.s. thanks to those who contacted me wth suggestions for this [my 100th on this blog] post. i will try to address them sometime in the future.

nervous 99

2010-01-17T22:31:00.000+05:30

as i sat down to write my previous post, i realized that i would reach a 100 posts in this blog with the next one.
that makes this the 99th!
as i have been thinking about what to write in the 100th post, i realized that i was getting into a writer's block.
one of the thoughts was to delay this post, so i get more time for the next.
but then, that would not solve the problem.
it has taken a long time to reach this milestone. longer than what i thought i would need - by posting regularly every week.
it has also taken longer because i have multiple blogs - at least a couple of them reasonably active [2 on the company network] and this one.
a few blog posts are within some communities.
when i looked at it like that, i felt more courageous, as i crossed the 100 post mark long ago!

but stil, this blog is special.
as it has no specific theme and let me write whatever i wanted.
one question that i do not have a clear answer for - why do people blog? why do others read..
i do not know!
while some blogs are specific to a theme and have more serious content, some some are just ramblings - like this one!
some bloggers i know are very very active and some are very sporadic..

while i have received many questions, some requests - i cannot relate them to the stats shown by the widget on the page - that indicates visitors from countries that i have only read about and wished i could visit - as the comments on the posts do not provide any clues.

while i mull over what to write about the next time, it would be useful to know if you have any suggestions.

on being driven..

2010-01-11T08:05:00.000+05:30

this is not a self-motivation post!
recently, an auto rickshaw hit my car from behind. the fault was clearly his.
starting with a complete denial that he did anything wrong, after an eye witness extended support, he made a turnaround outside the police station, to admit his fault, so that damages may be claimed

as we were going towards the station, he produced his papers and pleaded that we do not lodge a complaint, as he has a family with 2 small kids,, and that this was his first accident and he had a loan to repay etc.. on closer scrutiny it turned out that his driving permit for an auto had expired a couple of months ago! the other papers - road tax, insurance etc were fine, as the vehicle was with a financing institution. that would have meant more trouble.

a few months ago, soon after my hand surgery, i was in an auto that was stopped by the police. it turned out the driver did not even have a license - let alone a auto driving permit!

in my frequent business travel, i have been driven by different cab drivers.
with some of them, one gets a comfort feel immediately, about their driving style. with others, it is not at all comfortable - like the driver who brought me tot he airport yesterday - on the highway, he suddenly seemed to have become uncontrollably thirsty - that he started drinking water from a bottle with both his hands.. while driving at the same speed. luckily, there was no traffic on the road..

i have had drivers who want to vent their road rage because some one cut them or did not let them overtake or turn, or drivers who are in no hurry and would not cross 30 km per hour, even when the roads are empty.

and this is not just in india.

probably only next to lawer-jokes, new york cabbie jokes rank the most common.
the ones that i remember are the ones about the cabbie who always jumps red lights, because his brother had been doing that for years without getting caught - and stops at a red, because his brother might be coming the other way!
or the cabbie, who was asked to go to heaven and not a priest, as the cabbie's passengers always prayed, while the people slept through the pastor's sermons!

thoughts for the next decade

2010-01-03T12:09:00.001+05:30

it suddenly occurred to me - as part of the seasonal introspection - that i have been only writing more of 'reportages' than a diary!

so, this time, i am going to make it a real rambling!
that is also in line with the blog theme - ' random thoughts'..

in a way, things around me are the triggers for thoughts, so not having very profound things to say to myself or anyone else is fine, i guess.

rambling is actually very difficult. while it may seem random, there is some connection and flow.

like the picture above, the water, land, trees, mountains and the sky are all flowingly connected. it may not make sense to see or express this connection unless one is looking for a reason for them to be connected.

while i stopped making new year resolutions, and made it more of a monthly review of plans and priorities, the new year is a time to take stock of some medium to longer term plans and make them more short term.

the last year has been good in many ways. i look forward to even more in this year - which is also considered the beginning of the new decade.
that is something that am not fully convinced. when i had posed this question to some of the other group members - of a couple of groups that i am a member of, i got a few answers that the very 'first' year is year zero - as it is still not 1 year old!
i understand and agree with that argument. but still, only after 100 years are over, would it make a century!
similarly, year '00' cannot be the beginning of a new decade.
the media - or the greeting card makers - influence many of our traditions - and create new ones.
with more and more people using SMS to send greetings - apparently this new year, the number of SMS greetings was more than a Billion in India! - they also have to find newer ways of growing their revenues.

e-greetings are fine, and maybe more eco-friendly, but, you cannot paste them on your notice board! paper greetings were also a source of revenue for some of the charities - including UNICEF - that went to help many improvement projects across the world.

talking of improvement, one quote that i received in a -- hmm... new year greeting !! -- said:

'To get something you never had, you have to do something you never did.'
simple, but very profound.

making a new decade resolution is better than a new year resolution because it makes you think bigger - on a larger scale.

move away from making wishes for yourself alone, to make wishes inclusive of others, and wish that there would be significant improvements in all our lives.
after all, we are in a very connected world.

in a recent retreat we had of some friends from another group that i am a member of - that delves into the topics related to understanding the human mind, we explored the power of 'the law of attraction'.
wishing strongly as a collective, can make things happen.

the most visible of this theorists, was Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and his theory of the creative intelligence and mass [transcendental] meditation, to improve the world.

to conclude, while I haven not yet understood why the new decade begins with 2010 and not 2011, I wish that all of us realize our dreams of good health and happiness with a comfortable lifestyle in a more peaceful, environmentally responsible world..

how is that for a one sentence wish that has various aspects connected!!

spaced out world

2009-12-26T20:42:00.000+05:30

well, it finally happened.
in spite of the denials by the Indian arm, worldspace will shut down the india operations on 31 december.

as a radio enthusiast - from school days, as a short wave listener, and one of the early subscribers of the then free service, it is sad to hear of a radio station folding up..

the initial doubts on the sustainability of this service were somewhat addressed when worldspace went paid. at least there was a revenue stream.
when i saw that they were also promoting events, felt that this could be a route to exclusive content, that could be monetized.

not sure what went wrong. maybe there were too many channels started too quickly.
maybe the costs of sourcing music was high.
maybe the subscriber base was not growing. it was interesting to note that the tie up with airtel got them more subscribers recently than direct subscriptions.

i hope that someone else would be able to revive this wonderful service and enhance the USPs.

this adds to my list of new things to do in the new year.
maybe internet radio.

do you know of any good internet radio guides?

Night trek in the forest

2009-12-22T11:24:00.000+05:30

this may also be called, thekkady, part 2!

i had the opportunity to take a night trek in the thekkady forest. it was a 3 hour trek in the jungle at night, with escorts.

with two escorts, one as the guide and the other with a rifle, it felt quite secure.
till we were deeper into the forest and almost cut off from the road and human sounds.

you can hear our footsteps also, if you listen closely.

we were asked to sign some declarations that we are doing this with full awareness of the dangers of the jungle and that we are solely responsible for anything that might happen to us etc etc etc - that increased the excitement.
While we were probably never too far from the roads, but the fact that the guards did not carry any radios made me feel a little insecure.
when asked,the guide said that they can always use the cell phone!
that was reassuring that were were not really out in the wilderness, but a region with cell tower visibility!

anyway, we saw mouse deer, barking deer, sambar deer, a fruit bat that was comfortable inside a hollow, a porcupine in a hurry etc.

the overall experience was very good, as every member of the trekking party - that was limited to 5 - also had very powerful torches, with a warning that we shoudl be very careful and watch out for snakes etc.

the kerala tourism department with the foirest departmetn has set up many eco-tourism initiatives.
if you are interested in the activities in and around thekkady, you can visit their site.

Thekkady

2009-12-08T14:30:00.000+05:30

Just back from a three day visit to thekkady, this post is mostly about the eco-tourism in kerala.
it was good to see that this sector, even within the government department [of forests], is getting organized.

we had taken a train to madurai and then traveled by road to thekkady. we had taken the day leisurely in madurai and by the time we got near thekkady, it was sunset time - a glimpse below..

this time, i wanted to capture most of the visit in a video, so do not have many pictures to share here,
this is a period after the monsoons, so the landscape was lush and green - with some traces of rain in places.
good period for trekking.
among the places we visited were - the chellarkoil, with views of tamilnadu and kerala and a steep waterfall. while on the cliff, one can see the vertical drop and the flat land below.
ramakalmedu, another spot with windmills, a huge statue of a couple as well as view points.

a day long safari-trek-boating in Gavi kept us busy.
a couple of waterfalls, with one at Kullar, where one could go near the water and the thick forests provided good relief from the reasonably hot sun.

or the noisy rush of water along the road:

With all these lovely places, it was a pity that we could not go for the boat rides on periyar lake that have been stopped after the recent tragedy. we could only see the anchored boats.

but one very interesting experience, was a night trek along with the 'jungle patrol' - three hours long, in the jungle gave an opportunity to see more wildlife than during the treks and the jeep safari.
more on that the next time..

straight on the roads

2009-11-29T13:01:00.000+05:30

one more post on road behavior..

soon after moving to bangalore - almost 20 years now - i had to depend on others to get directions to go from one place to another, as i was not familiar with the roads.

one lesson i learnt very soon was to not ask for directions when there was more than one person together.
the problem was that in bangalore, there are multiple routes to reach point B from point A. in many cases you have the option of choosing one of the many roads at a junction [more on that in a bit].

When there is more than one person, everyone will be very eager to help. and they can not easily agree what directions to give you. one would say - this is the shortest route, while another might say that another option would be the fastest and a third would say that for a two wheeler, it is better to go in a third road etc etc etc.
in all this, you and your question would become just incidental and each one would want to substantiate their position.

so, i try to find a single person - a shopkeeper, an auto driver or even a lone pedestrian, to ask for directions nowadays.

with multiple roads meeting at a junction - such as the south end cirlce, no two roads would align at a normal 'straight' angle - of 90 or 180 degree. while giving directions, one would say 'go straight' - leaving you wondering which is the straight road!

One view from the BTIS camera of the South End circle in Bangalore.
what takes the cake in getting directions is to figure out how one would take a turn at a dead end!
that is only till you figure out a dead end need not be a dead end, but a T-junction.

in an earlier post, i had mentioned that many road names need qualifiers. it is not just with road names.
recently, i was to meet someone visiting bangalore at the kumaraswamy layout bus stand, - which was close to where he was staying.

after a lot of difficulty and figuring out the right turn to take [as my directions were to go straight, when, in deed i needed to make a deep left - as most of the traffic flowed and not go by the geometric straight, which led me to a 'dead end'!], i got to know that there were TWO bus stands in kumaraswamy layout!

Road Names in bangalore

2009-11-22T13:53:00.000+05:30

One of the many things that have intrigued and amused me about bangalore are the road names.

the fist such name that i head was 'double road'.
back when, this name represented the first 'double' or divided raod, aka KH Road - possibly the only such road then.
subsequently any divided road seems to be called a double road, with a prefix or suffix of the neighborhood, such as indiranagar double road or lalbagh double road..

another category of road names is also amusing - roads named by their width. 80-feet road or 100-feet road are common names. my first impression was that this was the length of the road! used to wonder why someone would want to name such short roads - till we moved our office to an 80-feet road.

recently i noticed a board for a road called Hosa road - or 'new' road. wonder how long this will stay unique or whether we will have more hosa roads with prefixes and suffixes.

one example of a possibility of running out of road names: i have heard of three roads - Hosur Road, Marigowda Road and Siddapura Road - all called Hosur Road!

Roadside temples ..2

2009-11-14T10:41:00.000+05:30

i showed you the cluster of temples that are present at a intersection near my home in the last post.
how could these have developed?

the following sequence will provide you with one of the ways of how a roadside temple starts and grows..
first, pick a spot.

then, find a deity

make a shelter

make it more permanent

and make it an institution

now, you have not only created an organization, but also managed to grab a good area of public land with sufficient diversity in the Gods, that can start attracting devotees.

not all roadside temples would have had such ulterior motives.

it could well have been a way to increase public awareness and acceptable social behavior of not littering..
as in this case!

the presence of many God pictures do not seem to have had any effect on the littering of garbage around!

Roadside temples..

2009-10-24T18:11:00.002+05:30

Recently, I was very happy when i saw this supreme court directive.

i think that this has been long overdue. while i think that there should be places of worship and local gatherings for social occasions, the sentiments of people are being exploited by vested interests.
i have written earlier on some of the roadside temples that have come up as illegal structures.
i want to share some recent developments close to where i stay.
this was a temple that was located among the dwellings that were cleared to make way for a – hotel / multiplex / hypermarket and… a skating rink with real ice!
the others got fair cash compensations and alternate sites, though located a little far away, but bigger than what they had here.
the road is also scheduled for widening and it is a matter of time that this temple may also have to be removed or relocated.
diagonally opposite this temple is another, a more established one – as it seems to have been built on private land.
as if this was not enough, the third corner of the T-intersection had a couple of smaller temples that have started growing..
more on that in the next post.

Happy Deepavali

2009-10-18T11:23:00.000+05:30

May the festival of light bring everyone the best of health, wealth and happiness..

Sarve janAh suKino BavanTu

Harihar 2

2009-10-10T09:33:00.000+05:30

this is about another interesting location in harihar..

an oriental style

church

built by a brahmin

using a deity he found in the river.

harihareswara temple

2009-10-02T11:55:00.000+05:30

from my earlier post, if you got a [wrong!] idea that the reason for me going to davanegere was the benne dose, sorry to disappoint you.

i had some other work in that area and was using davanagere as a base.

one other town i visited was Harihar, on the banks of the thungabadhra.
architecturally, i saw something very old - a few centuries old - as well as something very new, both places of worship.

the first was the harihareswara temple.
the following pictures should give you an idea of the exquisite architecture.
the entrance was pretty unimpressive and does not give you an indication of what is inside.

the sanctum sanatorium indicated that the structure has been maintained, but not too well.

the location is declared as a heritage site and comes under the archeology department. this has also impacted the funds for the upkeep of the temple.

the hall with pillars in front shows how the structure - of limestone? - has weathered well through the centuries and still stays shining, without any paint!

the structure of some of the stupas were also different.

this snapshot describes the story of the origins of this temple.

i will share the details of the modern church in my next post.

Benne Dose

2009-09-19T17:48:00.001+05:30

It was a refreshing break for a couple of days from the city bustle.
off on an assignment, that took me to Davanegere - the home of the famed Benne Dose.

Having heard about the benne dose, we told the cab driver to take us to a genuine - not a star rated hotel - for authentic benne dose the first evening.
Sorry sir, no benne dose in the evening, he said.
makes sense, we thought, imagining oodles of butter on the Dosa that may be difficult to digest in the night.

so, we decided to get up early morning the next day and have BD for breakfast - so that we could still make it to our meeting in time.

we went to the Sagar Benne Dose eatery - that was also referred in wikipedia - with a lot of anticipation.

we were probably the first customers and the service was lethargic - somewhat like saying, why are you bothering us so early in the morning..

the place was very small, and if one looked at the way water was served, one would not want to eat there!
the cooking platform was very clean.

soon, we got our benne dose!
contrary to our expectation, the dose was not greasy - at least not as greasy as we thought it would be.

the taste was --- well, very good!
only half way through the dosa did i remember to take a picture.. what is missing in this is what i had eaten..

it was served with mashed potatoes, with a few onions sprinkled. no masala!
we topped it with a kali dosa [more like a set dosa] and another benne dose..

there was no wash basin, one had to wipe ones hands on pieces of old newspaper, that were cut in small rectangles and kept on the tables.

i guess it was the best way to take the grease out!

for all that, i was not feeling heavy - and had a normal appetite for lunch.

the next day, i wanted to try another variant of the benne dose - the open benne dose.. in a different place.

this also came with the mashed potato and thick coconut chutney.
there was a generous sprinkling of 'paruppu podi'.

again, the taste was yummy!

wish you had also been there :-)
p.s. as it was a rushed trip, we missed the 'chilli bhajji' that was made only in the late afternoons..
maybe next time.

Ganesha

2009-08-23T13:38:00.000+05:30

Today is Pillayar Chaturthi - or, more widely known as Ganesha.
right from my school days, i had a fascination for ganesha.
from street corner temples to the one on BIG street [a very narrow street in triplicane, madras] to the huge 'mukkuruni' ganesha in the meenakshi temple in madurai, i am amazed at the multitude of ways of representing ganesha in graphical forms..
from simple modern strokes to traditional renderings, from simple sitting posture to riding a bike - one can find ganesha representations limited only by one's imagination.

i have always felt that ganesha is the first god of IT - with his own mouse!

our home also has a reasonable collection of ganeshas.

or the specialized forms - such as the one to ward off the 'evei eye'

or wall murals like

have you come across any special forms of Ganesha?

the water concern

2009-08-16T22:13:00.000+05:30

Having grown up in Chennai - in the peak of the water shortage years, i have many memories of spending many hours a day - at odd hours, that too - on gathering water.

when water supply was limited to alternate days, we still needed to pump water as the pressure was very low.
i had to learn the mechanics of the pump - and associated techniques.
for priming - when the water level went down, including taking out the washer and softening it, if it went dry etc, or replacing it with a new one, when the old one wore out.

then there came the more modern versions like this:

we also had to wait for the water tanker and a camaraderie developed among neighbors till the water tanker came and competition when the tanker arrived, to ensure that each family got sufficient water.

i notice that water is also important for politics, where i see that even 'emerging' slums get water supplied in tankers by the local politician towards the welfare of that colony.

recently, when i was looking at the finalists of the engineering contests organized by mondialogo - one of the interesting initiatives that i have been following for the last couple of years -

noticed that the largest number of entries were related to - what else, water!

not only the Indian entries, but also from other countries!

Some of the smart investors in India have been investing in water.
as one of the economic theories go, the next major conflicts in the world are likely to be over water!

what is your take on water?

Eclipsed Bangalore

2009-08-08T15:13:00.000+05:30

i read how Thomas Friedman - the author of Hot, Flat and Crowded found a scene of an inaugural puja done for a flyover in Hyderabad, somewhat amazing.
his amazement was due to the fact that modernity and tradition co-existed without being felt as contradictions.

that is not only in hyderabad.
bangalore, for all the modernity and influence of foreign cultures - thanks to the IT boom - still has not forgotten old convictions.

i see this every time during an eclipse.
Bangaloreans love food. even on days of bandhs, the first establishments to open and do near normal business soon after.

but, eclipse days are different. not only are the food spots empty, so are the streets.
the fear of being exposed to harmful rays keeps people indoors.

the scenes on the 'mini forest' stretch, which is packed on other days, with morning walkers looked like this:

the stretch inside one of the segments that has many walkers looked like this.

the laughter club, very active and very regular also like this:

just reinforces the byline of an old documentary that India is a place where centuries co-exist!

Mukkani and Sidr Honey..

2009-08-01T13:49:00.000+05:30

after a couple of years, got to eat jackfruit grown at home [in chennai].
the last of the fruits this season, was waiting when i went to chennai a couple of weeks ago.
thugh it looked small - it was ready for consumtption in a couple of days.

the day i cut it, we also had the last of the mangoes for the season.

the trio of Mango - jackfruit - banana [Maa - pala - Vazhai] is called Mukkani [or three fruits].

my mom used to cook almost all parts of the jackfruit.
the fruit, of course - can be eaten by itself or with honey! though both are sweet, this combination is divine!
the seeds are also edible and make sambar taste better.

the skin - once the thorny outside and the stringy inside are removed - is still fleshy and can be used to make a gravy based 'koottu'.

that day was also special because i got to taste the 'sidr' honey - a speciality honey from yemen.
supposedly the most expensive honey - the consistency and aroma are really out of the world. [you might have guessed that i like honey :-)]

you can find some more details here.

Birds in the balcony

2009-07-25T13:38:00.000+05:30

the last few weeks have been quite hectic, and have been away from this blog.
while i have a few topics that i want to write about, am waiting for the thoughts to organize themselves.
and some apt pictures :-)

it was a refreshing break this morning to see some mynahs in the balcony garden.

they have been coming regularly in the last few weeks - possibly after they located a source for some worms? in the home composting tower - called khamba.

a simple system of three sections that make compost out of kitchen and organic waste at home.

more recently, a small bird feed tray was added, though that could not have been the cause - as it gets too hot in the sun and the seeds get wet in the rain.

but, whatever was the reason, it is good to see emboldened birds that are not afraid of us and move about freely.

very relaxing.

(de)fenceless

2009-06-28T15:35:00.000+05:30

the power availability today was pretty bad.
sunday. carpenters working at home.
trying to ignore the nail banging and sawing noises, i tried to drown myself in a book [on the origins of scientology and dianetics - more on that in some later post] sitting in the balcony among some plants..

so much for the preamble for the rambling thoughts this time..

first sight that caught my attention:

this is NOT one of the pictures from the recent trip to kabini. or any other wildlife park..
these are, i guess, domesticated cows and buffaloes, that have been left free to graze - encroaching on sn unprotected [in spite of the compound wall] BDA allotted plot.

so, the next thought was about other encroachments that i could spot around me..

This one, right next to where the buffaloes grazed - has been land under dispute between BDA and some other litigants.
the last court ruling was in favor of the BDA, and soon after they had also put up some fencing.
but soon after, the fences were tampered with first.
and segments began to disappear.
then, in one corder - quite a vantage point as it is on bannerghatta road and in a fairly heavy traffic spot, a small 'nursery' sprang up, with some potted plants for sale.
over a few months the business grew and occupied more and more space to cater to the increased volume.
diversification was the next step for growth - and got into selling Terra cota pots as well as cement pots.
backward integration, for this business meant making their own cement pots which needed more space.

the picture you see above shows the 'factory' and a portion of the road behind, if you look carefully.

with connections to the local councilor - who, i was told is also the supplier of water in tankers regularly, for this business, in addition to, i can extrapolate, of protection money, a couple of attempts to dislodge this activity have been unsuccessful.

talking of fences, at kabini, i saw a private farmhouse having an electrified fence. i guess the other extreme of being selfish, after encroaching on the wildlife territory.
howard hughes and michael jackson also fell in that category.

p.s. i watched the move slumdog millionaire on TV last night. i could relate to the comments made by some segments that the movie portrays some negative aspects of our society - but my comment is that we cannot ignore that under the guise of always being only politically correct.
we have our heritage as well as the successes in the modern world, but let us not simply wish away the negative aspects that need to be fixed as well.

clock-work

2009-06-21T10:18:00.000+05:30

It is now more than two months since i started commuting to work by the company bus.

as it is getting into a routine driven by the clock, that was made me think..
in some respects, it is not very different from when i used to drive.

every day, get into the same vehicle, sit in the same place [sometimes in the bus, it might be a different seat, if my usual place is occupied, by the time i board - whereas in the car, it is the driver's seat always!].

while i was driving, the office was at a different location, that i could take some variants of the route - small detours here and there or take different by-lanes to avoid boredom or traffic. to electronics city, there is only one main road. there are some other inner roads and a toll road, but i have not tried them and the bus route is fixed.

in the bus, it is pretty much the same faces every day. it is good in terms of familiarity and also some continuing threads of conversations from one day to another.
i the car, many days, i would see other cars that i overtake or that overtake me, same traffic wardens at intersections etc.

some variability in the time of departure from home or work was possible in the car. with the bus, that is driven by the clock.
though the commute time may be variable - due to traffic conditions, it is not dependent on the work load.

the experiment i started with closing work by 6.30 has been quite successful so far. on a couple of occasions, i have had to take some calls in the bus, but by and large, i am moving to a 6.30 - 9.30 or 10.00 as a quiet time for work.

While in Mumbai, the bus timing was a great influencer on closing work for the day. but that was a very very long time ago. with the work profile changing and many of my activities being dependent on others - and having to find a common time for calls etc, i thought that winding up at the same time every day would be more difficult.

so far, touch wood, it has been possible. since i anyway catch up with work later in the evening [and my quiet time being much shorter - say between 6.30 and 7.45, as of now], it has been manageable.

i feel the most significant impact of the clock in the mornings - while getting ready for breakfast and going to the bus stop, as well as evenings from 6.15 or 6.20, if i happen to be on a call - to see how i can finish the discussion by 6.30! that extra adrenalin is probably like the runners' high, though i have never been very fond of running or jogging. brisk walks is what i like best.

talking of time keeping and clocks, the two hand wound clocks at home have again started doing their own things - that is keeping pace of time as they choose.

i got them serviced some time back - when the horologist was very thrilled to service an 'antique' - as he felt that this was an imported japanese mechanism that might easily be almost a century old!

this clock was a gift from my father to his father - bought from his first salary!
a timely nostalgia on fathers' day!

the second clock was what my father got as a gift when he retired, from his colleagues.

the weekly wind ups, adjusting the length of the pendulum for seasonal variations and ensuring the orientation of the clock is as per the marks on the wall, so that it continues to run - are all part of the joys of having hand wound clocks.

All they seem to do is..

2009-06-14T17:05:00.000+05:30

a few days ago, i spent about four and a half hours in two safari rides through the Nagarahole national park.
it was a refreshing break from the routine - more so because it was mid-week :-)

though i have been on some other safaris and also seen many wildlife movies, it is always very insighhtful when i go through the experience of observing nature more closely - though under the guidance of a trained naturalist.

it was an open jeep, so the perceived danger of being 'attacked' was at the back of the mind. nothing like that happened, but i heard that others have had closer encounters.

a saying in tamil goes that one grain of rice [a sample] is enough to determine if the whole vessel has been cooked.

so, if i extrapolate what i saw, it appears that each of the wildlife specied seem to do just one thing!

like, the deer are always very afraid and wary of everything around them. [if you can spot the spotted deer in this pipcture ,that is]

we were told that the elephants need to spend close to 18 hours eating every day! particularly in the dry months, to get adequate quantities of food.

and the langurs always playful and somewhat irritated at being interrupted in their fun by the tourists!

and the moon just shining.. on the river kabini..

The highlight of the trip was the sighting of a leapord, sitting on e tree branch, after a sumptuous meal, i assume.

picture credit to a fellow-tourist who could get this shot.

i wonder if i can say something like this about me - other that what some others say - that all i do is spend time at the computer!

what is that one thing that anyone might say that you only do!

A [Street] Light Post

2009-05-30T21:08:00.000+05:30

i had written some time back about a slum that sprang up almost over a weekend, by illegally occupying some prime land that was under dispute.
the initial dwellings were very temporary, thatched units.
a few months after the initial 'invasion and occupation', a small fire broke out in one corner of this area.
this was probably an excuse for the residents to reconstruct more permanent structures.
now, one can see concrete, asbestos etc used for the small one- or two-room hutments.

thanks to the local politician / elected rep, this colony gets water supplied daily through tankers.

the latest development - that i noticed before the elections, and thought that it could be one of the election promises were electric poles along the narrow lanes.

you can see the line of these posts in the background - and the leaders pictures painted on the wall, representing the local 'association' affiliated to a party.
you can also see one of the water tanks, that is filled by the water tanker regularly.

i am watching this development which is now right next to a big hotel [multi-star, i assume] project.
that project had to reclaim some land that was used by another, smaller colony.
while most of those residents had taken some compensation and had vacated,a few stuck around, refusing to move and demanding a higher compensation.
a temple they had built acted as a shelter.

you can see the temple in the background.

another street light that had become a recent friend of mine is this:

this is a solar powered street light.
this picture may not be very impressive, but the shadow of the solar pane used to be my shade, while i waited for the company bus in the mornings.
the pickup spot did not have any other option for a shade and i would shift slowly with the sun - and if i waited for about 10 minutes, i would have moved a few feet at least, to keep the sun from my face, by 'hiding' under the shadow of the panel.

after the last serious post, hopefully this was a 'light' post!

writing with a 'holy' hand..

2009-05-24T12:30:00.000+05:30

i am back with this post after a long gap.
the first couple of weeks, it was travel and a lot of backlogged work.
then, it was a forced abstinence, as part of the recuperation.
this was needed, as i had decided to get the two implants i had in my right forearm removed.

with that, there are no foreign bodies in my body [!] except the sutures that would dissolve in a few more days.

the original incident was about six years ago. an accidental fall while searching for some stuff in the loft meant that i had to have 2 steel rods - one each for radius and ulna.

at that time, the doctor had said that these foreign bodies may be removed once the healing is complete - and preferably within 2-3 years, though the material is rated for at least 15 years.

had been postponing this every year, with some excuse or the other. so, this time, decided that it had to be done.
the doctor warned me that while he would attempt to remove the implants, due to the delay, he might have to decide not to remove it, in case of complications.

the next big decision for me was at the operating table. whether to go for a GA or a local block. i wanted to leave it to the anesthetist and the doctor. they decided for a local block.
i was excited that i could watch all that would happen - but, as my head was turned the other side, i could only catch their conversations.

this was a different experience, as i could almost walk out of the operation theater, compared to the original surgery, when it took me a while to get over the GA.

back in the room, it was a very insightful experience to see and [not] feel one arm, that was completely numb and not feeling part of your body at all!
while, mentally, i could move my fingers, they would not move!

over the next few hours, i could feel the sensation and movement coming back and feel better.

it is now two weeks and some of the muscles, are, technically, recovering from the trauma.
i keep exercising, but am unable to 'connect' with some of the muscles, that seem to have either become stiff or taking their own time to get back the strength and movement, in coordination with the rest of the muscles.

during the procedure, i could hear some hammering and some hushed discussions, though i could not feel anything.
there were 2 screws that needed additional work, the doctor told me later.
one was a hole that had some bony overgrowth

and another screwhead that had become blunt.

luckily, both of them could be handled with some filing and hammering.

when i looked at the equipment used, hammers, screwdrivers, chisels etc, they look quite normal and low-tech. a disappointment, as i was expecting some automatic drills etc, like at a dentist's.

with this, my hand is now 'holy' - or should it be 'holey'?

p.s. thanks to all the well wishers, who had called, sent emails or SMSes.

The proof of the Paneer..

2009-04-23T22:25:00.001+05:30

a few days ago, i noticed, for the first time, that a chocolate comes with an instruction manual!
as part of my interest in usability, i advocate the creation of products that do not require a user manual.
as a poser to my audience, i would ask for suggestions for the best location / position to keep a user manual for a soap!
but then, in this case, it seems to be part of the premium positioning of this chocolate.
the ad byline says 'you should earn it'!

this is part of the instructions that tell you how to open, how to smell, how to bite and enjoy the experience.

these instructions are printed on the inner side of the wrapper!

I realized yesterday - at the delhi airport - on my way back to bangalore that paneer [indian cottage cheese] is like pudding.

i had bought some cheese that is much fresher and tastier than what you get in bangalore in most places.

in the past, i used to keep it in my hand bag [a pull along] and invariably there would be a question about the contents.

this time, i thought that i would preempt the questions by keeping the packet separate to be scanned.

sure enough, this raised a suspicion and i was asked what it was.

the officer who would stamp the Tag was not sure if he should allow it and checked with his supervisor.

The supervisor thought for a very brief moment and said 'Khaake Dhikao' [eat it and show].

i had to prove that it was indeed paneer by eating a piece.

till then, i thought that eating was only proof of the pudding..

now i know that the proof of paneer is also in the eating!

the Leela experience

2009-04-05T21:06:00.000+05:30

this is a semi nostalgic post.
nostalgic, because it is more about memories of what were..
semi - because, it is not all that old memories.

after about 5 years in this unique location - in the heart of bangalore - one of the busiest streets - the [old] airport road, i am moving to a new location.

this location had many pluses..

a roomy, naturally lit [with 2 large french style windows] - was my favourite. i have been lucky for the last 19 years - when i moved to bangalore, to have an office with a window.

my earlier office overlooked a park.
this one did not quite have a park outside - but a small balcony with some potted plants.
enough to attract some pigeons

or the blocked view of the old airport runway - but still an occasional flight taking off or landing - behind the buildings

one good thing was to do some spring cleaning of many old papers and other things that had accumulated over the years.

left the cobweb that was building in the sky - on the plants in the balcony on the 6th floor..

while i have a small window in my new office too, i will miss many visitors who would drop in to say Hi or to catchup, when they came for some event at leela.

Now, i can get on to google maps!

2009-03-29T17:29:00.000+05:30

the last couple of weeks have been very significant in terms of my identify beign associated firmly with my address.

some time back, i mentioned that i had very little to prove my residential address.

through a series of actions, some that were very long pending, i now have multiple such proofs.

the first was the sriving license. the RTO was kind enough to accept the documents i had and was convinced to endorse my DL with the right address.

then, it was the passport office! while the passport was issued very painlessly, there was a typo in my father's name. the procedure to get it corrected was very simple. i had to fill up a form and submit it at the enquiry counter or send it by registered post - and, if it was their mistake - in this case, it was - they would send it in a couple of days.
the problem was that the particular form was not accessible online.
so, i had to take off from work for half a day, wait in line for a couple of hours for a 2 minute submission.

surely, the passport was ready and reached home in 3 days!

another offical record that now had the address is the BBMP issued land record.

with so many official records, i can put my address on the map!

there are still a few more records to be updated - like the voter id, PAN card etc that do not have the correct address still :-)

guess what? i've grown!

2009-03-12T22:02:00.000+05:30

could not think of any other, more appropriate title for the post.

that was the feeling i got last week, when i was back home - home, where i grew up as a child.
this is the house my father built!
house where i grew up.
we moved upstairs when the first floor was built and since then, the ground floor was occupied by tenants.
now, after my sister moved in to the ground floor, i visited the place and spent the night there.
a flood of memories of my very early childhood made me realize that it has been many years since then.

it sounds illogical and impossible now - but one such clear memory was my crawling through the window.
i distinctly remember me going through one of the windows that had a slightly larger gap.
but now, looking at it, looked impossible.

another interesting development was that the door number had changed again. don't know how i missed it.
the original number was 4A. then it became 14. another round of renumbering, it became 17.
that is what i have been using as my permanent address in all official documents in the last few years.
but the number had changed again - to 14!

this was surely something that comes round a full circle.

the government is online but.. inaccessible!

2009-02-22T16:46:00.000+05:30

two recent instances:

1. my passport, that was recently re-issued, as my father's name mis-spelled! i was quite happy that i was able to complete the process for getting an additional booklet in the first visit to the passport office. as per the current process, they issue a new passport with a 10 year validity.i was able to track the progress of my application online, and when i noticed the details for confirmation had my father's name mis spelt, the website had a provision to send comments to a special mail id.
many attempts to send a mail, failed. after 4 days, i sent the details of the failed attempts to the PRO - as per the escalation procedure - which again, was impressive - to see a government department having all this clearly spelt out. no responses.
a few days later, the passport arrived - with the wrong spelling.
once again, the website was very helpful - apparently this is not very uncommon - all i had to do was to fill a form, that is downloadable from the website, send it by registered post and, if the fault was that of the passport office, i would get my corrected passport in 4-5 working days.
only problem was that the page was not accessible.
the only option i have is to go to the passport office once again - and hope that the process is as smooth and efficient as the last time.

2. i saw an announcement about the electoral rolls available for verification.
my first search for my name did not return any results.
then i searched for my wife's name.
again no results.
searched for a partial name - and found hers.
my name was misspelt in that.
with the mis spelling, i could locate mine!
this time, i could download the form for correction, without any problems.
but, i cannot submit the corrections online.
i need to make a trip to the municipal commissioner's office for that, where the electoral office is..

i am happy that a lot of information is available online.
it is a lot of relief - to not have to depend on interpretations of intermediaries.

it should only be a matter of time to actually transact government business also online.

heights of automation: (im)personalized bankiing

2009-02-14T22:25:00.000+05:30

I was among the first few hundreds of customers, when this bank launched their mainly off-branch service model.
time was, ATMs were not that common and using electronic banking was also a fancy.
those days, i used to get a printed statement or communication from the bank once a quarter or six months.

i had given a letter to the branch about 3 weeks ago. since then, in the last 3 weeks, i [and my wife] received 6 snail mails - that had the following messages:
- we have updated your mailing address as requested
- we have updated your email address as requested
- we have updated your phone number as requested
all these mails were received in duplicate with identical content - each copy addressed to one of us!

today was the height:
it was a thank you note - that ran:
'We have observed that you had not been operating your account in the last six months. We are glad to note that you have resumed operations on the same recently. In case you require any assistance on the account, please contact us.
We thank you for banking with us
Sincerely Yours
Manager.'

no name. no street address.only a PO Box #.

i can understand that with automation, such letters can be generated automatically when some transaction is detected by the computer system.

i remember the 'letter to Mom' template that used to be part of the MS-Office installation many versions ago.
that used to talk of how everything was getting impersonalized and even writing to Mom might one day be templated...' etc etc etc

getting back to this bank that never sleeps - what i found most amusing was the letter that I had given to the bank was a request to close the account.

and, these letters started arriving AFTER i received a confirmation of account closure.

maybe it is the sleep deprivation that is making the computers also overworked and fatigued.
so much for personalized banking.

Ragi Gudda

2009-02-08T21:31:00.028+05:30

I visited the Ragi Gudda temple after a couple of years.
it was evening and the temple was crowded.
i was happy to see that there has been a lot of 'development' such as paved, guided paths that took you along the optimal route while ensuring that you do not miss out on activities along the way, such as handling your footwear on your way in to getting your prasadam on the way out.
the steps to the top of the hill - location of the main deity - hanuman - is now paved with marble.
the paths now have railings that prevent straying away.

it was also good to see many youngsters visiting the temple.

but, what i missed were the intimacy and the freedom that i remember of the temple.
when we had moved to bangalore - about 18 years ago, this was one spot where we could spend time at leisure near the deities, then on the hill slopes which was a favorite for the kids.

but now, since it was the evening and a lot of crowd, one could not go around the deities. those paths were blocked.
nor could one step out of line to sit on the hill.

i guess that i should visit the temple very early one weekday morning to enjoy the magnificent view from the hill top.

Layshmun

2009-01-31T19:49:00.026+05:30

This is one more travel related post.
it was rather foggy that morning.
just two days earlier, flights out of Bangalore were delayed. i was hoping that it was a rare occurrence in Bangalore.
the drive to the airport early that morning, felt suddenly strange. i noticed that many vehicles had their hazard lights on! but still driving at top speed.
my driver did not know if that was any convention to be followed and so, drive with normal lights.
on arrival at the airport, i checked with an airport taxi driver - who confirmed that it is their convention to have the hazards on, as it improved the identification of the vehicles by those that follow.

for the first time in Bangalore, i could see - or rather not see - that the visibility was so poor. all flights that morning were delayed by about 2+ hours!

the other strange experience on the road was in Noida.
as i was moving on an expressway, suddenly noticed that cars were coming in the opposite direction, fairly fast.
the driver was not very concerned.
he also slowed down, made a U turn and drove as if nothing happened till he came to an exit to get off the expressway.
apparently that is a normal thing to avoid any jams ahead.

but one thing from this trip that amused me was the steward on the flight.
it was an economy airline, and i could understand their austerity measures.
this person took it to an extreme in economizing on the announcements.

from what i could recall from other announcements, i could guess that Layshmun - is the economized form of Ladies and gentlemen!

My first step - need your help!

2009-01-24T15:56:00.000+05:30

After many years in thinking, I took the first step to formalize my thoughts related to a pet topic.
it is about creating a self development framework for individuals- professionals in particular and professionals in the software industry, to be very specific.

it is a more serious attempt compared to this blog. and may not be of interest to many of you, who have been following this blog.

I call the model the Software Kundalini.
I have discussed this idea with many friends over time and so, may not be very new to some of you.
while it has been an intention - and i had decided not to make any new year resolutions, one of my good friends - Rali - had taken this as his resolution - to push me to start.
By his theory, once you start, the stream might meander, but find its way to the destination.

Rali, thanks. i have taken the first step - after yesterday's call.
.
The first choice to be made was the structure of the documents, i want it to be an interactive and collective project, where i hope that the inputs from my well-wishers would enrich the work product.

after a very quick, not very scientific, comparison, i chose a different technology platform for that - on wordpress.

I would like to invite you to my other blog, look not only at the blog posts, but also the pages.
right now, it is very sketchy.
i hope to evolve it over time.
but early feedback from you all would be very valuable.

do spare some minutes to go to my new project and share your thoughts.

i will continue with my thoughts on other topics here.

Power Points on trains

2009-01-17T16:52:00.000+05:30

as i travel to chennai these days by train, i have been trying to find the most effective timings and options to use the transit time.

i prefer the day trains to night - as the night train timings are not very convenient - and they are usually full.

I try to catch up with some sleep as well reading which, of late, i have been finding it difficult to get time.

the last time i was in the I AC night train, i noticed that they had power points in the coach.
on shatabdi or lalbagh, i noticed that there were plug points, but not for every seat.

when i traveled last week, i was hoping that i would get a seat near a plug point.

i was lucky to get such a seat both ways and could be connected to the net with the data card.

now, i am convinced that day train travel to chennai is a very productive way of travel, as i can also catch up with the mails..

Cool! no?

the transcience of time

2009-01-11T12:27:00.000+05:30

i did not know how else to put it.
going through another turn of the calendar year, it was an overdose of looking back, looking forward everywhere, mostly in the media.
add to that the flood of new year wishes.
and some contrarian thoughts.
about the futility of new year resolutions.
or the myth of the self-improvement programs.
or the themes around the anger and frustrations of the effects of terror.
or the invitations from 5 star hotels, resorts and event managers to drink up and usher in the new year.

this time, i decided not to send out any greetings - or even post in this blog - till after a few days in the new year, so that everybody would have cleared their flooded mailboxes..

coming to the topic, i can understand the special days created by - i guess, archies, to promote sales of cards - such as fathers' day, mothers' day, pets' day, secretaries' day, or the festivals that occur throughout the year.
but, new year?

it does not coincide with any other years [birthday - at least for most of the people], financial years, academic years etc around which our plans and activities spin..
as legends have it, the current new year on Jan 1 was also forced from march 1 - when it used to be somewhat synchronized with the advent of spring..
last year, the tamilnadu government moved the tamil new year from sometime in april - according to the tamil calendar - to jan 14, pongal day - which is the harvest celebration.

i feel that we should have anniversary dates for various activities in our lives.
for self improvement - though it may be a myth - or the guilt-washing resolutions, it should be one's birthday.
for financial planning - sync it with the financial year, so at least your taxes would he managed in time.
for holidays, sync it with the school year.

make the current new year a day for social contribution and increase the social awareness around you.

go ahead and indulge, if you wish, but spare a thought and some action for others not so fortunate.

the Fog Effect

2008-12-30T12:02:00.000+05:30

One of the e-newsletters that I get daily had this editor's note yesterday..

EDITOR'S NOTE

FOR THE NEXT WEEK OR 10 DAYS, THE UPDATES WILL BE MAILED OUT ONE HOUR LATER THAN USUAL DUE TO THE EXTREMELY BAD FOG IN DELHI AND NCR.

WE REGRET THE INCONVENIENCE THIS MAY CAUSE, BUT REQUEST YOU TO PLEASE BEAR WITH US.

The Armadillo Cut

2008-12-20T13:55:00.006+05:30

I enjoy cutting vegetables and fruits from childhood.

next to watering plants, this is one of the activities i find very soothing.

every vegetable or fruit has its own personality and style. if you understand that, you can make the cutting activity interesting.

one of the first techniques i learnt from my father was to cut oranges for people who like the fruit, but not the pips and do not prefer to bite and spit the seeds.

the idea was to split every piece [or whatever it is called]so that it can be opened like 2 wings.

the seeds can be easily removed and it is served without the seedds. for thosethat want only the fruit, they can help themsleves easily.

later on i used to wonder why some cuts are called french cuts - particularly beans.

all i can associate with french cuts is that they have slanting cuts.

i remember my stay in one of the suburbs of Paris called Cergy Pontoise, which was a modern township.

among the nice things there was that one could get from one part of the town to another completely on foot, and not have to cross any of the roads.

the town planners also believed that while a straight line might be the shortest path between two points, it is not necessarily the prettiest. and their focus was to make the town pretty.

coming back to my vegetable cuts, to make the job interesting, i try different ways of cutting, to reduce the time taken as well as the presentation.
which was when i figured out that i could name [and patent?] a way of cutting okra!
i call it the armadillo cut.

the technique is to arrange the lady's fingers in a pyramid - with the large ones at the base and stack the smaller ones on top.

as the height grows, you reduce the number of okras, till you reach the top with a single okra.

then it is very easy to cut all of them together with very few strokes of the knife.

the cut okras resemble an armadillo, with its scaly skin.

the armadillo cut for okras is fast and fun..

other fruits i like cutting are : jackfruit, watermelon, coconuts.

i still have not figured an easy [ane least messy] way or cutting pineapples..

any suggestions?

IISc @ 100

2008-12-14T15:26:00.000+05:30

due to bad planning, i could not register for the centenary celebration conference @ IISc, my alma mater.
initially, i was not sure of my travel plans - though, of late, i have reduced it substantially.

then it was not knowing if any of my class / batch mates or immediate seniors / juniors would also be there.
and then, the registrations closed - as they had an overwhelming number of registrations.

that is good, in a way - as IIScians have been known to be very quiet and aloof.
compared to some other institutions, the activities of IIScians have been more of individual contributions and not so much in social gatherings and exchanges.

that was also a reason for my skepticism of finding some others i know.
but, then, that is somewhat like a reason for the IIScian behavior!

anyway, when i got the invitation to attend a get togethe and dinner on friday - pre conference - for the alumni, i jumped at it.
one class mate and a batch mate said they were going.
after reaching teh venue, i called a couple more and one of them also turned up.

what was surprising was that some persons had come to bangalroe exclusively to participate in this. one from mumbai and a couple from hyderabad and about half a dozen from chennai!

made me feel ashamed that i missed registering.

i also could meet many more seniors, who were also there at the dinner.
when they started calling out the batched - from 1954 -- i felt not so old.

this institute has been an institution [could not find any other words].
i have many fond memories of not only the knowledge acquired during the three year stay there, but also the wonderful people i got to know - such as faculty and also opportunities to interact with the likes of Prof. Satish Dhawan - who had made tremendous contributions to the indian space programme.

here's wishing the institute more centuries of continued contributions to the community.

free massage

2008-12-14T15:19:00.000+05:30

post the mumbai events, all hotels are on high alert.
since my office is in the commercial wing of a multi starred hotel, i go through the layers of security meant for VIPs - at least, let me assume that I am in the league of VIPs!

a couple of interesting things that i have noticed are
- the way they search seems to be changing, though slightly - from day to day. earlier, it was just a view under the chassis with a mirror
- the location where this search happens

etc etc etc, let me not document all the variations and the details to give them the benefit of their techniques.

last week, i had a meeting with a visitor from the US in a different star hotel.
as we entered, we were asked to show state issues IDs.

and then after other screenigs, the body frsiking.

later, as we chatted over dinner, he remarked the positive side of all this is the free massage you get many times a day! though not in the comfort and privacy of a spa!

while this is intended to lighten the situation, when will we regain the confidence and mutual trust among people?

The *sexuals : marketing inventions?

2008-12-06T12:52:00.003+05:30

First it was the metrosexuals.

this word has been around for a long time - if i remember right, from sometime in the mid 90s - when the term was coined to denote the generation of men who were conscious of their apearance.

this also led to a market of designer clothes and accessories that were to be used to be considered a metrosexual.

it became fashionable to be a metrosexual to be on page 3!

like with all products over time, since 'new and improved' versions need to be created, we got the Uber sexual.

defined as a male who is similar to a metroseual but displays the traditional manly qualities such as confidence, strength and class.

recently, i came across a classification - the gastrosexual.

the article that introduced me to this term went on to talk about this also possibly being a strategy by marketeers. this is a term being used for the launch of food products for male cooks!

as far as i know, most of the celebrity chefs are male, though, at home, the best food is made by women..

the one that beat me recently was the 'technosexual'.

the ones we used to call geeks or nerds are reborn as technosexuals.

again, the main characteristic of these men are the *est [latest, largest, fastest etc] gadgets that they surround themselves with. whether is is the PDA or the extra large flat screen [plasma] TV or the designer [prada?] sandals, they have to have them.

i do not know whether these marketers have taken the strategy that 'sex sells' to the extreme.

i did some research on the origin of these words. and guess what i found!

a term for people who create these words with a *sexual form.

they are called the logosexuals!

mumbai madness. words fail me.

2008-11-29T09:47:00.000+05:30

internalizing green

2008-11-22T15:43:00.000+05:30

of late, i find a lot of space in the media devoted to going green.
there are also many books and even major corporations that talk of going green - getting carbon credits etc.
and a lot of talk of sustainable architecture.
when i saw this on the road yesterday, while waiting for the traffic light to turn green - i was wondering..

the picture may not be very clear, but what i saw was this.
the driver of the car ahead of me was smoking. I guess a car is not a public place and hence the new no-smoking rules may not apply..
what he did was what triggered this thought:
he put his hand out [with the cigarette] and was dumping the ashen tip on the plants growing on the divider!
i am not sure if it is the bangalore traffic that makes one behave differently on the road or is all this talk just another fad being promoted by the media?

how do we bring about the concern for the environment to where the rubber meets the road - where it can make a significant difference?

Quizzing again

2008-11-01T22:39:00.000+05:30

after many many years, i participated in a Quiz competition.
organized by a bookstore, it was more of an impulsive decision, as a third member of a three member team - the other two being my niece and son.
waitlisted 30, after the organizers stopped confirmed entries after 400 - yes, 400! we were not sure if we would even get an opportunity to participate in the prelims.

we did get in, to a packed house at the chowdiah hall.
we debated some of the questions as to whose guess would be right and chose one.
some were very clear answers and some were tricky.

there were many 'professional' quizzers participating as well as school children, some of who were very very serious about quizzing.

having gone that far, we wanted to take our chance anyway.

though we did not stay back for the prelim results to be announced, it was a very refreshing experience.

brought back memories of college days - particularly the IISc days - and the quiz club.

quizzing is a simple but effective way to get people participate and also learn collectively.

in case you were wondering - we made 15 out of 40.
could have got a few more right - but after a quick discussion, we chose the wrong answer :-(

Deepavali thoughts

2008-10-26T09:32:00.003+05:30

it is deepavali time.

this time, the mood seems somewhat subdued.

partly the rains and partly, i guess, the drain on the stock markets.

today's paper talks about the reduced cracker sales.

increased cost and weather are considered the reasons.

but, some persons i spoke to - including some youngsters, who otherwise would have loved to burst crackers - were not that keen.

is it because the fireworks we see on TV and movies - which are grander and more vicarious. whether it is violence in the news and movies or the well orchestrated displays that precede or are part of concluding sessions of major events.

the small 'bijlees' or 'sparrows' or 'lakshmi's or even the 'atom' or 'hydrogen' bombs feel very pale in comparison.

i also noiticed this time, that the campaigns on going green [avoiding noise and air pollution] or the ones that say do something instead..

like donating for the needy or other social causes instead of spending on crackers.

a couple of years ago, it was a campaign against child labor, that used to be rampant in the fireworks industry.

it is good to see the spread of the spirit of sharing and caring.

like most occasions these days, this is also an opportunity for the retailers to gram a share of the wallets.

giving is redefined as buying.

one's affection and caring is measured by the price of the gifts to be given out.

newspapers carry full page ads; more implicit or not so subtle are placed articles on the goodness of giving.

yesterday's issue of Mint - a paper that i started liking - carried a special article on 100 options for giving.

while these provide opportunities for one to cleanse some felings of guilt, more tolerance and consideration for others is needed to make every day a deepavali celebration.

the business of education

2008-10-12T13:52:00.000+05:30

recently, i had an opportunity to visit a couple of educational institutions in a tier 2 city in tamilnadu.
one of the visits was for an assessment for business excellence and the other was more of a courtesy visit.

it was a good revelation on the business of education.
i was pleasantly surprised by the number of highly qualified persons who have taken to teaching and continue their research interests.
i had been under the impression that research was only at the IITs, IISc and IIMs.
the topics of research were also very contemporary and relevant to the present times.

the investments made by some of the institutions in infrastructure - with hig end technical equipment etc., was also very good to see.

over informal interactions, also came to know how many private institutions have come to the education field, with the intention of making fast money.
with minimal facilities, mostly part time staff etc - they collect a lot of cash with minimal investments,

i have seen the products of all kinds of institutions, as they get into the working world. and had wondered how come there is so much variation in the quality of the output.

these few days gave me more insight into the business of education.
how the ratings / rankings games are played, how the positioning with the campus recruitment teams is well planned etc.

these revelations only reinforced by belief that we need to do something in a large scale at the primary eduction level to bring about a consistent change in the attitudes in our children's view of the world.

with things like the current economic crisis raising basic questions on the soundness of the decisions of the 'adults', i get some simple questions that have no clear answers.

the children should not lose faith in the human systems.
let us start with primary education.

The Third Olive

2008-09-21T11:12:00.000+05:30

After many years I had an opportunity [!] to travel by local flights in the US.
in the recent years, it has been more of landing directly at one of the international airports and spending my time near that location, or travel by surface.

the pressures that airlines are under was very evident.
the no free baggage allowance - with charges of $15-$25 going upto $100 for checked in baggages was a surprise - having been used the 2 PCs free allowance.

talking to some others, i came across some of the innovative cost cutting measures that airlines seem to have adopted.

one canadian airline - that flew cross country, all over land - except for a brief stretch over lake michigan - apparently decided to do away with the flotation devices, as they were not flying over water. the saved weight, in turn, helped them improve the fuel efficiency [or maybe let them carry more baggage / cargo, to get more revenue].

while going from san jose to dallas, with a stopover in phoenix - for about 20 minutes, we were asked to keep the shutters down, to reduce the heating inside the cabin - that would help reduce the air conditioning load! i think that is a good idea anyway - of going, thinking green!

i was also told of canceled flights due to low occupancy. there was a time - when the southwest airlines model of keeping their aircraft as much as possible on the air, with very quick turnaround times on the ground - meant additional revenue!

back home, on my favourite carrier - jet airways, i noticed something strange on my way to delhi. the meal did not include a salad! there used to be some lettuce, tomatoes and cucumber - and an optional lemon slice or a chilli. the doubt was confirmed on my return flight - when, again, the salad was missing.

was it weight cutting? or cost cutting? or an attempt to be more conscious of waste? like the third olive.. the title of this post.

one americal airline had analyzed the consumption patterns of their passengers. they found that they normally served their drinks with three olives. and invariably, the third olive was not consumed. so, they figured that by reducing the number of olives served to two, they would save a significant number of olives - just multiply the # drinks per flight into the number of flights per year - and consequently, cost!

in times of trouble - that we seem to be in now, particularly after the wall street crashes, any creatuive way to reduce waste is most welcome.

immersed in radio waves

2008-09-10T05:13:00.002+05:30

It feels strange that i should have written about the radio just a few days ago.
now, one more thought related to radio..
i was at a user conference in the silicon valley area.
this area has always been very high in terms of technology.

this time, i was impressed by a technology called nTAG.
a device that was given to every participant, it could recognize other participants, detect your presence in a particular session, enable exchange of calling card information, participate in live polls, surveys etc and also manage one's schedule of visiting various sessions.
all this over RF technology.

pretty neat!
the scary though is: someone can and probably is - constantly watching you, as you move around, meet with others etc.

return of the radio?

2008-09-07T18:49:00.000+05:30

there was a recent news item that listening to the radio [or was it music too?] while driving was a punishable in offence in mumbai.
the reason given was that it could be distracting and therefore dangerous.

set me thinking..
for me, radio has been very special from childhood.
i needed a background ambience - which in those times was best provided by the radio - in the pre i-pod days! - to be able to effectively study or concentrate.
that got me into the hobby of short wave listening and DXing etc later.

then, there was the near death of the radio - with TV taking prime time from the viewers.

with the entry of FM radio and community radio stations in india, radio has been seeing a revival.
while on the one hand, these are commercial ventures and are slowly degenerating into a me-too format - with the main focus being on getting more advertising revenues and targetting the same audience with a lot of flocal flavour in every city, i find some stations trying a different formula.

in bangalore, the government channel - amruthavarshini - has been dishing out - for limited hours every day - good classical music, both hindustani and carnatic.
the AIR rainbow, has a very good collection of songs - indian and western - but need more forceful RJs.

bangalore also has radio indigo, that is the only private station that still plays only western / english music.

in chennai, i found chennai live being more of a mixed bag - still not possibly equalling teh collection of the old madras-2 station!

in delhi, i recently heard the station called 'meow' - an exclusive women oriented channel.

it is good to see that the diversity in interests are beign recognized and that there are sufficient target audience for each of these segments that it makes it worthwhile to have some dedicated services to cater to their needs..

at one time, i used to collect radios - from each of my travel destinations. i stopped that a long time ago.
maybe it is time to revive that..

Google's growing footprint on my desktop

2008-09-03T07:46:00.000+05:30

I am sure that i am not the first or the last to write about Chrome - the new browser from Google.
i was hoping to be among the first to download last night - and stayed up till about 11.45 IST, but then went to sleep as the link was not activated till then.

when i did it this morning, the net was slow - or was it the download site.. but, anyway, the first impressions are pretty good.

though, one typical google 'feature' that i do not like - still exists. no prompts for the location where the application should be installed. same happens for google talk as well. they go to the default C: drive, while i prefer to have all applications in stalled on a different drive.

having said that - i notice that most pages load fast. on some of my work related pages, the rendering was not clean.

the browsing history in thumbnails is interesting - so are the bookmarks tab.

the menu bar is non existent. still need to figure out how to print / save the pages.

when i looked at my desktop shortcuts, i realized that i have 4 google apps - out of the 10 custom shortcuts that i maintain!

recursion in blogs?

2008-08-31T14:26:00.000+05:30

i have always been impressed with the ingeniuty of the poet who had composed a song in tamil - that wonders how others wrote songs..
even without a main theme or plot, just talking about the lack of a plot could make a story or a blog post.

though i get many ideas to write about, they seem to vanish the moment i sit down to post. add to that the travel and slightly chaotic schedules, it is becoming difficult to maintain a regular frequency.

when i decided to write this post - so that the gap between two posts is not very long -- assuming that you find it worthwhile to read my posts occasionally -- the problem was what can i blog about today.

as i wait for the rain ourside to subside - to go out, there is a rush of ideas
- the beijing olympics?
-- talk of the winners and the ways of the winners?
-- talk of the infrastructure and the arrangements?
-- discuss the preparations and the fitness levels of the comnpetitors - and feeling guilty at not keeping fit..

- the damage caused by the kosi
-- how unpredictable nature is and the futility of considering modern development as a solution to growth

- the recent book i read
-- lean brain management: that says using less intelligence on the normal activities will free up so much intelligence that it can go and perfect itself

etc etc etc
but then, a blog is not a random list. well, it can be at times. i have also created such lists.
but then, it has to be at teh spur of the moment,

if it is very contemplated, i guess it would be a book.

so, as i wonder what to blog about and how to say it, it has beome a topic for this blog.

as i remember reading in one of my early programming books:
- to iterate is good; but to recurse is divine...

Plastic Palms of Puducheri

2008-08-15T22:28:00.000+05:30

Give time a break - say the hoardings, inviting people to come to Pondicherry.

after a long time, i took a very short break from chennai - and went to pondicherry, by bus.
i have been visiting pondicherry for many years - i can remember a visit almost 40 years ago, with my dad.
this time, as i was also going there alone - the last few times have been rushed drives in half a day - i decided to relive some of my old routines..

i was lucky to get some standing space, said the good hearted conductor, as it was a saturday afternoon - who, for some reason, took pity on me and offered his seat whenever he was moving inside to issue tickets etc - and ensured that the seat next to him was for me, when that passenger got off along the way.

like a walk along the beach after breakfast and a brief stop at the public library to catch up with all the newspapers..

a lot has changed.
from a sleepy little town - that one could walk all around in less than an hour, it has become a city and has expanded in all directions..
i could see many new hotels and restaurants including boutique hotels - such as the ones on the beach road, including a yoga therapy center.
some of the other hotel chains - such as GRT and Ginger also have established their presence.

the old trishaws are not to be seen at all. they have given way to the share autos and buses even for travel from the city to the new bus stand.

the old bus stand and the train station are still intact, though the bus stand is not used.

i do not have any complaints against development - but feel that some old things need not change and surely there is no need to make everything modern - like the plastic palms for street lights!

Is energy sustainable?

2008-08-03T14:46:00.000+05:30

I read a book called 'Keeping the lights on - Towards Sustainable Electricity', by Walt patterson.
[also on my shelfari bookshelf]

written in a simple language, it discusses various 'myths' related to sustainable energy and proposes an argument about changing the way we look at energy.
among other things, his main points are:

energy is only used and not consumed.
since energy can never be created or destroyes [as per the law of thermodynamics], as can only do something about the use of fuels
we need to change the way we think about the energy carriers aka fuels
one of the main reasons for promoting a culture of energy self sufficiency and energy security is the way we treat and charge the usage of energy
building more efficient networks for transsportation of fuels [including electricity] could also help increase the benefits we derive from these fuels

he goes on to talk about the complete ecosystem - of the energy carriers [such as electricity], the converters [devices].
he talks and quotes from another paper of his 'running the planet', where he urges us to stop borrowing from our descendants.

written in simple language, this book can be read to get a quick overview of various issues related to energy being sustainable.

but, the treatment of some of the aspects is not very deep and particularly the references to not using nuclear energy is not very convincing.

his website promises a lot more detailed treatment that i have not gone through yet.

temple economy

2008-07-27T14:56:00.000+05:30

it is interesting to note how the lines between commerce / economy, religion - or rather religious sentiments are being exploited by vested interests.

i noticed a few new constructions coming up in my neighborhood.
one is a big arch at the entrance of a narrow side road - leading to a small temple. the arch has been growing steadily and now stands as a tall concrete structure with painted figurines on the pillars.
another is an empty [again concrete] shell coming up on a storm water drain! yes standing on a narrow stretch between the drain and a compountd wall, the structure extends over the drain as well.

i am sure that this will become a very popular temple and soon encroach upon as much of land in the neighborhood as possible.

this is not the first such example. i have seen at least two other such 'enterprises' that have occupied space in playgrounds.

all these in areas where there are already many small temples very close. in one of the large land grabbing cases nearby, along with the hutments, two temples also came up.

wonder where the money for all this comes from.
with even a portion of that spent towards improving the storm water drain [which is always clogged during the monsoon] or the street surface, life would be much better for the local residents.

toothbrushes - the ultimate frontier in innovation?

2008-07-19T18:33:00.002+05:30

i have always been amazed at how the toothbrush industry has been innovating to keep growing.
recently, when i had some time to kill - at a grocery store - while waiting for the shopping to complete - i was near the tooth brush shelf.
the variety of the toothbrushes was at least equal to - if not more than - the variety in tooth pastes.
while i could understand the variations in tooth pastes - such as flavors, colors, packaging and claiming ingredients that would give one a good feeling, i had wondered what distinguishes one brush from another.
the innovations are not just product design innovations, but also in packaging and positoning.
looking at the claims by the brushes, one wonders why nobody has found the ultimate toothbrush yet.
from the curved ones to the zig zags, from sensitive to strong, from ones with bells for kids to motors for mechanized brushing.
from brushes with changeable handles to caps for the brush heads, from brushes with specially shaped bristles to brushes with specially arranged gum massagers - the combinations and variations seem to be infinite.
wonder how we kept our teeth clean when tooth brushes were much simpler.. or when we uses tooth powder?

legal density

2008-07-03T19:52:00.002+05:30

first a disclaimer:
i have a lot of admiration and respect for the legal profession and i also have a few good friends who are lawyers..
now the story for this post:
i was recently invited to witness a worldwide simulcast of an 'IP auction', that was being conducted in Europe.
intrigued, i went to the event - where there were some discussions on what is needed for an ecosystem to create more IPs and another discussion on the role of collaboration between industry, academia and government.
unfortunately, i could not connect with many of the speakers, as they all seemed to be more interested in establishing their credentials and track record more than address the topic.
with the exception of a couple of others, it appeared that the event was full of lawyers.
probably there were more lawyers per square inch than vehicles during peak hour traffic in Bangalore.
anyway - coming to the auction - it looked like an attempt to create a secondary market - along the lines of the stock market.
i have never understood the stock market [or the financial services in the secondary and tertiary markets, though i have been providing some technology solutions in that space]. as it all appears unreal and removed from the real value being created by manufacturing or services industries.
in a way, it is probably good because this created revenue opportunities for others, than just the inventor.
one day, when my ideas are patented, this might also help me realize more value for those..
till then, i choose to remain a sceptic.

Name Games

2008-06-22T22:42:00.002+05:30

my recent experiences in getting some certificates - including a correction on my daughter's passport led me to seriously think of how seriously people take the names of others..
right from school days, when i used to be an active short wave listener and had many pen friends across the globe, i would receive mails addressed to me with different spellings. when someone hears my name and address, they spell it the way they think is right.. including one addressed to c.bangu and a partial address.
somehow it reached me and the postman said that any mail received at that post office, which they could not figure out, he would check with me - as i used to receive a lof ot foreign mails...
for some reason, my name has been a favourite with many to spell it the way they chose to.
i have been called Siva, Shiv, Shiva, Guru, Siv, 'viz' etc etc etc
i always used to tell people that they can call me anything as long as they do not call me names.

in running around to get some papers organized for my daughter's visa, i realized that the project to correct the names and synchronize them will be a major effort.
the names are spelt the way the clerk in an office chooses - so i have different spellings for the name as it appears in some bank accounts [it was ok when the account was opened, but changed when an additional passbook was issued], property documents, PAN cards. voter ID card, airline frequent flyer cards etc etc etc.
is there any service that would detect these anomalies and get it all sorted out quickly?

Bangalore airport - user experience

2008-06-14T08:59:00.002+05:30

last week, i had the opportunity to experience travel through the Bangalore airport.
almost three weeks after it opened, i had mixed expectations, based on media reports and what some others had to say.
the drive to the airport was surprisingly fast - it was a sunday and without much traffic, i could make the 50 km stretch in less than an hour! my estimate was at least an hour and a half.
checkin: while there were many counters, the organization was still not very efficient, and my wait at the line was longer than at teh old airport, even though i did not have any bag to check in.
the airlines lounge was not yet operational and i was asked to use one of the three restaurants.
security screenign: was very quick - more scanners and faster screning.
this gave me some more time in the departure area - with shops including a bookstore run by crossword - but it did not feel the same like Sankars at the old airport.
three restaurants, but insufficient seating made people wait for a seat.
wonder how it would be during other peak hours.
there are more departure gates, but the waiting area in front had few seats. i also noticed that teh departure diaplays were positioned in fairly obscure points - and it was not very intuitive to locate one.
when i found my gate, there were two flights - from two different carriers - that were assigned to that gate, to depart at the same time! this was while many other gates were free.
while waiting for the departure, i thought of using the free wi-fi internet connection. as per the brochure, a free 15-minute session was available for all passengers.
when i connected, the home page asked me to sms a code to a number, to get a passowrd for a 1 hour connectivity.
eager to use the exrta surfing time, i got only a response that the service was nto available yet, as a return sms! wonder why they could not have put that up on the home page itself, saving passengers the cost of an sms..
overall, the departure experience needs to improve.
the arrival:
in chennai, we were told that the incoming flight was delated due to congestion @ bangalore. the same aircraft was to return to bangalore. effectively, the delay was close to 2 hours! not sure what the reason was, but part of the blame was put on the new airport..
on landing, even though there were free aerobridges, the plane was taken to a bay a little away from the terminal.
we had to wait for about 10 minutes, while the ground staff were figuring out how to get the ladder attached to the plane. theycould not get the height right. after a couple of attempts, that was set right. these were reported as problems in the first couple of days - but looked like it continues. not sure if it is the training for the staff or the quality of equipment.
a longer walk from the arrival gate to the exit, but the additional space did not make it feel crowded.
noticed many people waiting for their luggage from earlier flights, evan at that time of the night [close to midnight].
the return drive home also took less than an hour.
i am sure that during normal hours or peak hours, it is not going to be that smooth.
the highway - between hebbal flyover and the airport has a couple of signals and also speedbreakers - but there is talk of dropping the signal free access to the airport from the city.
instead, a high speed rail link is being planned.
for the time being, one just has to grin and bear it, while the airport matures.

Bangalore airport 2.0

2008-05-29T20:27:00.007+05:30

last weekend was an opportunity to ring out the old and ring in the new.

i was returning from chennai on friday and was supposed to land at the new airport - on day 1 of its operations.

but, due to elections in other parts of karnataka, the opening was delayed by a day.

so, mine was among the last flights that landed at the old airport.

I had many complaints about the old airport - in terms of passenger convenience, once you get into the airport.

but no complaints - in fact all admiration for the little book stall - sankars - that i used to partonise regularly.

small shop, but a very good collection of books- and an ever ready and informed person at the cash register, always ready to help.

i bought a book - other than the usual magazines etc - when the person told me that they do not have space at the new airport.

the ride back home took much longe rthan usual - close to an hour and a half - maybe a ploy by the new airport to get people used to long commutes..

on sunday, had an opportunity to go to the new airport to receive my niece.

decided to try the airport shuttle service, rather than drive.

the ride to the airport was by a volvo bus - that took an hour and 20 minutes in the afternoon.

being a new landmark, one could see many people picnicing there!

it was spacious in terms of parking spaces, the foyer, the arrival area etc.

but overall, it gave an impression of an international standard small time airport..

from the number of people i could see - it will soon be crowded.

the airport is still under construction and getting stable in terms of services and facilities.

maybe that is airport 2.0 - like web2.0 - constantly evolving and ever in beta.

this is reinforced by the 'mechanical' problems with the starircase / aerobridge that made passengers wait a couple of hours inside the aircraft, bagge belts that took more than 40 minutes to deliver baggages and even the parking gate, that would not let anyone out of the parking lot for more than a couple of hours.

the return trip was not by volvo - as they are only once an hour and it would have been a long wait.

the driver was new to the route, and took a wrong turn - and nearly got lost.

the only other passenger - apart from us - had to navigate. that and the traffic, made the return trip more than an two hours and fifteen minutes.

as i talk to persons who have been using the new airport in the last few days, the initial impression seems to be positive.