And the Awards goes to…Part II

Cricketer of the year

Many contenders across the world - Ponting hitting more than a 1500 runs, Sachin hitting his 35th ton, Shane Warne taking a record number of wickets, Lara becoming the highest run-getter in tests, Dhoni making a great debut, Flintoff for a fantastic year et al. But the award goes to RD, Rahul Dravid, the man lead the country with imagination and was once again consistent in the ODI as well as Tests. He is one player, who has been asked to open, stabilize the middle-order and even keep wickets for the team when the need arose. A man who has so far has had no controversy in life and the only Indian featuring in the A to Z of cricket in the BBC website. Yes D is for Dravid.

Maximum benefit before retirement award for the year

Well Amitabh Bachchan seemed to be all over the place. Every month he had a release, if not in the main role he will make a cameo and make his part felt. If you thought the big-screen was his forte, well he was there in KBC 2 and every other ad from pen to suiting to chyawanprash. He even made headlines for 2 continuous weeks when he was sick. The newspapers in Mumbai had him all over the front page tracking his illness and recovery. God help journalism in this country.

Moral Policing of the year

I would give it to Deputy CM of Maharashtra for closing down the dance bars in Mumbai and making thousands of girls who were engaged in that profession jobless. The effect of that decision trickles down further, thousands of men who were working as waiters and cooks in these bars, another thousand rickshaw and taxi drivers who used to get maximum customers during the 1AM to 4 AM time are all jobless or looking at a lower income. Its also common news that these gals who were in this profession have moved to newer cities and have taken for prostitution. A close second would be the people of Tamil Nadu for the anti Khushboo campaign!

To be continued...

As the fog clears...

The fog at Delhi Airport, created enough and more problems for me and I am sure the rest of us, who were stuck there in Delhi Airport during those fateful days. But does that mean that a naturally recurring phenomenon like fog can hold the capital to a standstill? Wont businessmen, tourists and other people be held ransom to the fog? Can airlines like Deccan, Spice and other just cancel the flights and throw carefully prepared Xmas and New Year plans out of the window for thousands of people.

Well the answer is a big NO. There were solutions to the ongoing problem at Delhi or for that matter any airport in India having trouble with fog. If only a select few pilots of our own private airlines be trained in a technology called Instrument Landing System (ILS), our pilots would be capable of landing in fog and unclear conditions. Only the Indian Airlines has taken the pain to train a good number of their pilots, why wouldn’t they do that, money is being paid by our government. The training is a costly one, as it comes at a price of 10 Lakhs per pilot. Well this is an investment that the private airlines don’t want to take as they are scared that once the pilot is trained in that, then the other airlines will poach him/her.

Well if you are a no frills airline like Deccan, then I am sure they will not invest in equipping their pilots and rather cancel flights left right and center. I think it is left to the Govt. of India to make it compulsory that, you have to train atleast 5 pilots per airline so that the poaching part which is very common in the airline industry doesn’t happen.

Train your pilots or do not fly the Delhi route during December – January. It is better to stay at home and not plan a trip, than plan and spoil the fun.

~sujith

And the Awards goes to…Part I

Well it is that time of the year when you look back and say these were the best and worst of the lot. I am making a personal list of the best and worst for the year of the incidents that happened in India. Official disclaimers apply.

Burst of the year

Goes to the cloudburst on July 26th at Mumbai. How it rained that weekend in Mumbai. Initially it was fun to see so much of water. Then we heard news that the trains in Central and Western Line had been stopped due to excessive rains. I was having coffee at the coffee bay in my office when we happened to look out of the window to see cars and vans shaking in the winds and water pouring like never before. That convinced me to stay over at the office and I am telling you I am glad I did that. Mumbai was drowned but the attitude and the spirit of the people in the city floated to survive.

Change of State of the year

Happened in a state called Bihar. Laloo Prasad Yadav fooled all the people of the state and the country for 15 long years. The bluff was finally called by the same people who voted him to power. It should go as the single most important change in the political history of Bihar. Nitish Kumar, the new CM has a hell of a job in getting the state back to the levels of its counterparts. Hope he wins the battles and wars, in cleansing the state of its backwardness.

Flair in the Air of the year

Kingfisher Airlines is voted as the airline of the year for the kind of service it provided to the customer. It started defining new trends and standards in the industry. In-flight entertainment wrote new chapters on the Indian sky. The year saw the sprouting of a number of airlines, flying to cities which I never knew had an airport in the first place. India started traveling like crazy. To give an example, if your flight from Delhi to Bangalore got cancelled on the 24th of December (mine almost did), then the next one to Bangalore is on the 28th. The only other alternative for you would be to take a unreserved ticket in a train coz the trains are also completely booked atleast a month in advance.

Buying your customer award of the year

Goes to the Times of India for their new tabloid in Mumbai, called Mumbai Mirror. With competition catching up with them in the form of DNA and HT, they decided to eat into the Mid-day market by launching Mumbai Mirror. And how do they make people buy their newspaper, well if you are caught with the paper by the company sales people, you get a gift. And this came with the regular TOI free for the first couple of months. How people used to queue up in front of the Mirror sales people in the stations to get their gift, before hopping into the trains.

Year end publication of the year

India Today pips Outlook and the Week to this, with an anniversary issue that tracks their 30 long years in the media. Well it has a nice chronology of events on an year on year basis. Makes for a lot of interesting read. India Today has been there and done it all till the last 10 years, when Outlook came and toppled them in their own territory.

Footballer of the year

There is no doubt in anyone’s mind on this award. Ronaldinho is miles ahead of any active footballer, yes even Zidane, when it comes to displaying footballing skills on the field in the 90 minutes, being creative in his passing, scoring goals dribbling past a pack of defenders and the goalie or when it comes to being his modest self when accepting contracts with clubs. The FIFA Footballer of the year for the second time, European footballer of the year, winning hands down this time. He is one player, whom you would want to watch staying awake late in the night. Clubs and countries beware, he is getting better by the day…

Change in screen award of the year (Bollywood)

Goes to all the fresh ideas that were tried out by Bollywood this year. Starting with Iqbal, a Nagesh Kukoonoor movie, that moved everyone who heard the voice of the character. Movies like Yahaan, Sehar, Sarkar that were different from the usual chocolate love affair genre. Realistic movies, like Apaharan impressed the critic as well as the common viewer. And the hindi actor who stood out was of course the junior AB.

The rest of the list in the next post...

~sujith

Of Onions and Nuclear Reactions

For long, the world has been in awe of the American intelligence agencies. They seem to be keeping track of the whole world, what moves, what comes in and goes out of each country, especially the Islamic countries. CIA & FBI are agencies which have been splashed across the globe as the most equipped intelligence units in the world where, the more prominent of the heroes in Hollywood have played officers of these agencies at some point of time or the other.

Bollywood has tried to ape these agencies in their own style, when it comes to movies. Technically these agencies were better than most of the similar agencies of other countries. I have said most of the similar agencies because; there are highly sophisticated agencies in countries like Israel, like the Mossad, which is on a higher plane. They are too smart of the FBI or CIA any day.

Now coming back to CIA and FBI, well all I can say is that they are hyped. If they were not, then a 9/11 would not have happened, where the terrorists took a plane out of their own airports and created havoc in NY. Nowhere am I saying that our RAW is smarter or something. Well all I can say is when you have such a huge country with technology that has penetrated to levels of 10% level, it is difficult to monitor. On top of that we have our own ethnic problems in plenty, in each and every corner of the country.

But, our intelligence agencies have been able to fool some of the highly sophisticated equipments of our own CIA. This is recent news to me. Yes maybe you guys already know the secret behind the Pokhran blasts. I was discussing with a colleague of mine on how we outsmarted the Americans, who had satellites monitoring our country on whether we are doing any nuclear tests or not. Well we heard that onions were used in plenty during this operation and it was one of the reasons for which the onion price escalated in India.

A quick google with key words “Onion Pokhran”, gave us the answer that we were looking for. Well it seems onion has this property of absorbing radioactive emissions. So when our smart agencies were transferring nuclear material to Pokhran, they were covered in truckloads of onions. So all the Americans could see was onion being transported to this site in the middle of the desert. I am sure they must have gone crazy thinking of why we were doing it.

Well it seems 80% of the entire onion produced in India at that point of time, was used for this purpose. That’s a huge logistic issue which was handled quite well by our agencies. And one of the persons behind the entire show was our very own president Dr. P J Abdul Kalam.

And to continue on the way our intelligence agencies work, have you ever figured out how people are recruited to the RAW. Well no one knows how and that’s a mystery that I would like to decipher. One of my friend’s dad was supposedly (because we are not sure yet) in RAW and one of my friend tried to find out from that person’s dad on the recruitment and all he had to say was, whoever wants to get in will find out and find a way in. Hmm a la MIB…see there I go again behind the American way of life…sudhar ja

India's Airports

A common sight in the the busy airports of Delhi and Mumbai...every day during peak hours

From the World This Week to CNN IBN and Rajdeep Sardesai

World This Week was the first private news programme that I remember seeing in DD, the only channel that was available to us at that time. It used to come on Thursday nites, and then got shifted to Sunday nites at 11 PM. A crisp 1 hour programme, on what’s happening in the world around us. It was a show which did no have any comparison at that point of time.

Prannoy Roy, the bearded anchor and producer of the show, became a household name in India. He built his name and image to such a level that anything he presented came to be taken as the gospel truth or the most reliable information on the waves. Be it the election analysis or the budget analysis, his crisp analysis and getting the best out of the guests that he interviewed was uncomparable. There was one more anchor, Appan Menon, who sadly is no longer with us. He was also a gem of a reporter and a star anchor. I still remember the few minutes of airtime that was allowed to express condolence to this great reporter, where it was edited bits of Appan Menon, saying “ this is Appan Menon, reporting from Washington, London, Beijing and where not.

When Prannoy Roy split with the Star Group and started his own news channel, it was welcomed by one and all again. A refreshing change, as there was no good English news channel and it fitted the need gap very well. Most important at that point of time, there was a dedicated group of individuals, who left Star along with him in search of a new identity. Prominent among them were Rajdeep Sardesai, Barkha Dutt, Sreenivasan Jain, Vikram Chandra, Sonali Chander and others. He had a good team and all the individual presenters made a name for themselves.

Among the second string of news presenters, the personality who impressed me the most was Rajdeep Sardesai. He was emotional, authoritative, had a strong point of view and was matter of fact. He had a charisma to carry an entire show like the Walk the Talk, which was a debate where high profile personalities clashed on the controversial topic of that week. He knew how to get stuff out of the panelists and when to make them shut up. He conducted some of the most high profile interviews during the elections, with Laloo Prasad Yadav being the best of the lot. His contacts across the Political and Bureaucratic class are immense and looked like the next best Prannoy. His programme, Turning Poitn at 10 PM was an analysis of the day’s top stories. But I am yet to see him do an Election or Budget analysis with the clarity of a Prannoy.

Barkha braved the Kargil war and got accolades for her reporting of the war and the turmoils at those times. She was a celebrity over the fortnight and is still famous for that. Other than that she has tried to anchor some programmes, but to no good effect. She still reports some of the more important stories in NDTV.

Sreenivasan Jain, somehow was always overshadowed by Rajdeep and more recently, was good in covering the election reports from the South of India. His handling of the Walk the Talk, leaves mush to be desired. His Mumbai Live was just a little off the cuff. He doesn’t look and talk like a mature journalist at all. The rest of them were just ok kind and there was no one to carry the NDTV bandwagon forward.

When Bunty and Babli got released, Prannoy Roy allowed the 9 PM news to be presented by the actors of the movie. Well journalism gave way to a commercial possibility and they sold their ethics for a few lakhs of rupees, a la TOI. Well, Rajdeep had some issues before this, but this was the last straw. He quit NDTV and there were many rumours floating around as to what his future plans are.

His plans have finally borne fruit in the shape of another grand joint venture in the media industry, this time between CNN and TV 18. The channel, called CNN IBN, has viewers sticking to it just on the Rajdeep name. But the channel is trying to portray some more faces to the people of this country. Let me wish Rajdeep all the luck for this new venture. Not that I know him personally, but just a wish from my side.

The 100 best products of 2005

PC world came up with this list

Interesting read...

Money for Questions and the Fallen Star

I have heard of people paying to get answers of exam papers in this country. But money for questions!!! Well one of the most popularized sting operations ever did just that, catch politicians taking money to ask questions in parliament. The sad part is that, this is not the first time this has happened. Well it is the first time someone has done a sting operation to this effect, but it has been happening for sometime now.

The price ranged from Rs. 5000 to Rs. 50000. The problem with the system is that the politicians who have been caught have blamed opposition parties to unknown forces, in tarnishing their image. And don’t be surprised if these people are let off with just a petty fine and warning, instead of suspending from the party and parliament and making them ineligible for any elections ever.

With the Indian team for the 3rd test having no place for the Captain courageous, Sourav Ganguly, it looks like he has played for the last time in Indian colours. If Ganguly makes a comeback into the team (and I mean by only his cricketing skills and not with any political pressure) from here, it will be truly commendable and also will show the new blood in bad light who have been given an opportunity to encash on their talent and youth.

With more than 10000 runs in One Day cricket and 5000 odd runs in Test cricket, he has proved his worth over the years. But in the last couple of years, there has been nothing substantial coming from his bat, though his captaincy has been undeniably remarkable. But this is not tennis where we can have a non-playing captain. The problem with having a Bengali superstar is that they won’t let this issue or any issues die down on its own. They will take emotions to the streets.

I like the songs of Parineeta. Pretty decent music for a first timer, Shantanu Moitra. Never heard of him before this movie.

What is there in a name change???

Well the biggest issue to have rocked Bangalore in the past one week has been the suggested (or rather forced) name change to Bengaluru.

Now there have been cover stories, radio chat shows etc on this. An interesting argument by a college student during one of those live shows on radio was

"First of all improve the condition of roads here in this city. Then you call it whatever you want to."

Well that sums it up.

Now back to the name changing habit of our cities, which are obviously based on the social ethos of the local population.

Well with this change except for Delhi all the other major cities have undergone a name change.

Good old Madras has become Chennai
Swanky Bombay changed to Mumbai
Communist Calcutta became bengali Kolkata
Techno Bangalore will become Bengaluru

Whats left...
Hyderabad to Hyderabulu (i dont know whats the original suggested change)
Delhi to Dilli, else Nayi Dilli.

I do not have any issues with this name change. When Tri+Van+Drum changed to Thiruvananthapuram, none of us raised any issue in Kerala. But when Mumbai underwent the name change, I heard a lot of grumbling in Kerala, mostly because it was brought about by Shiv Sena. But I doubt if the Marathis had any problem with it.

An interesting thing is that when I travelled Kingfisher for the first time, the GPS in the flight was showing Bangalore as Bengaluru. Imagine, the techno savvy Vijay Mallya himself, calling his city by that name, thats something. I feel the local people would prefer it to be named in a manner thats suitable for their local language/dialect whatever. What is wrong in that?

The problem is with all non-kannadigas (in this case) who have difficulty in pronouncing the name now. I would say please adjust.

All said and done. There should be a limit to which you go about changing names. You may ask, who draws the limit, I have no clue. But it gets to you when you call Connaught Place as Rajiv Chowk (politically motivated) and VT station, Chathrapati Shivaji terminus ( religiously motivated). If you want to take off anything remotely British from India, its a tough ask.

~sujith

Dedicated to some memories of Trivandrum

Some of the images of TVM city remain with you wherever you go. These were the ones that I took while I was in the KPN bus enroute to Bangalore city.



This is the new underpass in Palayam. Probably, this is the single new construction of infrastructure in the city after the Technopark. It was supposed to reduce the traffic clog at the junction, but there is hardly any traffic on this road, so lets hope that it wil take care of the future traffic.



The Public Library at Palayam. Well, as the construction suggests, it was built by the British. Not as popular as the British library in the city, but it is much bigger and poorly managed. I have been inside couple of times.




That’s the Chandrasekhar Nair stadium. Named after a person who was a senior officer (dunnowhat was his post) in the Kerala Police who was immensely interested in Sports (football I guess). Most of the Trivandrum League matches are played here, with SBT playing there home matches here in this ground when they were playing in the NFL. It is a floodlit stadium, which has also witnessed a couple of International friendlies. But the new stadium at Ernakulam has overshadowed it in the recent past. It also provides a huge space for the movie posters to be pasted.




That’s the brand new Secretariat building. This houses the new assembly room, which is considered a state of the art building. The whole premise is breath-takingly beautiful, with nice gardens and fountains in the front. Never got to see the inside of the building. Built in traditional Mallu style is a mix of the modern with the traditional.



That’s Pattom junction. The place where I spent most of my time after school. I stayed close to the school which means I stayed close to this junction. It was nice hanging around with friends after class and seeing them off and then going home. The junction has been widened, but the tree in the middle of the junction is still there.



The first mall in Trivandrum. It came long before all the hi-tech malls came up in other cities. Built in 1994 or maybe even before, I am sure there are still some office spaces which are vacant. Built by the Trivandrum Development Authority (TRIDA for short) and situated in Kesavadasapuram, rightly called Kedaram. Ajeesh and I have very good memories of this place in 1996 when we escaped a major panga with some local college gang. I think this place is still not a very cool place.

So that’s about it about some of the places that I could take snaps of in Trivandrum

~sujith

Some memories of TVM through the lens and windshield

It rained like crazy in TVM for 1 and a half days continuously.

Rain soaked TVM was a plesant sight. Most of the roads were empty on the weekend.

~sujith

A wedding, an accident and some technology

I reached home at 8AM, had to go for my cousin sis' wedding. The problem with Hindu wedding is that most of the things are decided on muhurthams and other rituals.

For eg: The groom came with his people to the Mandap before 9AM, as it was rahu kalam from 9AM to 11AM. The wedding was at 12 noon. Imagine the poor guy sitting in his shaadi clothes for so many hours. Well to keep them amused there was this music troupe belting out the latest Malayalam and Tamil songs, very loudly. Well before he and she both got into the pandal to tie the knot that ties them together for the rest of their lives, there is this strange custom. They come in to the crowd, look for the senior citizens and fall at their feet. This is supposed to be a blessing ceremony. Well the worst thing is if they forget to fall at the feet of someone, as in they missed out on someone, thats it, that person will not only crib then, but will do so for the rest of his/her life.

And the wedding got over as soon as the bride left with the groom and party... no actually after the food was served and everyone had their stomach's fill. We got moving as we had to visit the grrom's place at 4PM. So we were driving down the main junction in this town and I was sitting in the front with my bro. Something happened that I cant forget for a long time to come.

There were 2 teenage girls (later came to know that they were sisters), holding each others hand and waiting for an opportunity to cross the road. We saw them and honked the car just to warn them. The younger one saw this and withdrew, but she didnt pull her sister back. We braked and skidded for some 3-4 metres, but the girl was already in the middle of the road. We hit her, she fell on top of the bonnet, it was as if I could feel her body weight on the car, bounced off it and fell on the road. I took off my seat bealt and got off, by which time this girl had also stood up and walked to the side, which was now crowded with people, wanting to know if anything happened to the girl.

When I reached the girl, her mom and sis were already asking her, if she was alright. She said she was fine and then we saw a drop of blood falling down her neck, from the back of her head. My aunt who is a doctor was also in the car and she did a prelim check up. I got off with another aunt of mine and they took her to the hospital. It seems she just had a scratch on the scalp and shoulder, nothing serious. We filed a report in the Traffic Police Station with the doctor report and and got back to the wedding.

Enough happenings for a single day I guess. But before I sign off I have to tell you about the technological advancements in Kerala. The KSRTC (Kerala State Road Transport Corporation) , which is considered as one of the defunct part of the government have adopted technology like no other division of the government. The conductors have this billing machine, which prints the ticket, instead of those budles of printed tickets, that they used to carry once upon a time. Well, I dont think many states have adopted something like this.

Rest later.
~sujith

Strings from Pakistan

There are bands and then there are the ones from Pakistan. I do not know why the country is so restricted when it comes to music, movies and fun. Perhaps the religious sentiment is keeping it down.

I had a once in a lifetime chance to visit Pakistan, but then I squandered it. We were in 2nd year at IIMC and it was the historic test series in Pakistan. My friends had bought the tickets and everything and all that I needed was permission from home. Ya I did not get it and ended up not seeing one of the best test series played between the two countries. Well my friend’s went had a great time there in Pakistan and came back and told us the stories.

The movies, well no one has heard of the good ones at least, if there are any. But couple of actresses have come and acted in Bollywood. The latest one to come has been Meera, who has acted in semi-skin flicks. Well not gorgeous, but a pleasant sight to watch on the screen I guess. And at least the crowd in the stadiums justifies my argument that the Paki gals are beautiful. Better still, have you seen Wasim Akram’s wife??? Now you know why he has diabetes!

Coming to music, well there are numerous bands that play fundoo music. None of the Indian bands show this kind of machismo when it comes to the music they shell out. Be it Jal, which had the original “Woh lamhe”, which was remixed and put into a hindi movie. And recently there are many Paki songs featuring in the hindi movies. I think it is cheaper to buy the Paki songs and put them in Bollywood movies. Goa recently forwarded me a song, titled “Sutta”. The song is by a band called Zeest and it is dedicated to all smokers and dopers of the world. The music is awesome and the lyrics abusive. Has a lot of MCs and BCs in it, but it is a classic.

The most successful of the Paki bands has been Strings. I remember when we were in Engineering their first album was released, or that was when I first started hearing the song “Duur”. It caught on to us when we had just joined Patni. During our training days, we used to sing it inside the bus. And this was a popular song in the numerous daaru parties we had. Then they came back with their new album, Dhaani. It was another classic.

Well the reason for this blog is another song from Strings, called "Yeh hai meri kahaani", its an OST for the movie Zinda, starring Sunjay Dutt. The song is haunting and it gets to you after you listen to it couple of times. The lyrics are just too good and seem to be as slow and haunting as the song.

~sujith

Last nite at Church street

Have to tell this…

Well we landed in Bangalore at about 11:30 PM India time. It was a nice feeling to be back home. Only thing was that it was not going to be like that after sometime.

I think India is the only country where the customs does a check on your belongings with an eagle-eye. They mark bags that they think are carrying some valuables and other new stuff. And ya they make you pay for the duty and stuff like that. I really wonder how much it matters if someone gets a digicam or a video cam from outside. I managed to give a cheeky “oh! That’s an old digicam” dialogue and get away with my new canon digicam.

We reached the baggage collection center by around 11:45 PM. I thought ya I should get my bag in the next 5-10 mins and should be home before 12:30 AM, catch up on some sleep and then get to office at the morning. If you have not come to Bangalore airport, it should take the award for the most mis-managed, ill-equipped airport in the whole country. The conveyor is long enough for a 20 seater flight and the area is as big as a 2 standard classroom. Ok, all that is forgiven, but why do the Indian airports have 20 year old tractors pulling the luggage from the plane to the terminal.

We waited for more than an hour for our luggage to reach us. I am sure if they allowed us, we could have gone to the plane, taken it out ourselves in less than 15 minutes. Afterall, the plane is parked some 20-30 feet away. But noone in the airport knows what is happening. The customs guys in that area got the wrath of the passengers. They blamed the Malaysian Airlines and because we could not find anyone from the airline, I think let the blame rest with the airlines. Atleast they wouldn’t pass the buck.

The KLIA is about 50 acres, you take a train to reach the main terminal. But the luggage is there even before you reach. Our own Bangalore airport is couple of hundred square metres in area and we wait for about and hour and half for our luggage to reach us after flying for three and half hours. Customer service is unknown in this industry in India. Please privatize it.

I have put some pics of the KLIA. This is the 5th level. Level 1 has the KLIA express the train that gets you back to the city in 45 mins and the rest of the four floors are shopping malls and ticket counters. Can someone just remake the Mumbai airport with one tenth of these facilities.

Airport Infrastructure

I know a lot has been said about the way our Indian Airports function and how shabby the service is at the airports. The HT carried a very interesting article on the Best Airports in the World. An interesting one to read and you will notice that most of them figuring in the list are in Asia and there are no airports from the US.

I am not surprised. The way the aviation industry has taken off in this part of the world is huge. The US is not the market to look out for in the future. Asia is the future, it is the next business destination.

I have not been to the airports mentioned in the list except Changi airport in Singapore and KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport). They are huge and as friendly as any airport can get. It is like a place where I can come 2-3 hours in advance and spend my time quite leisurely. In fact I think KLIA is better than Changi. One reason is that it is quite new and has been built at a place which is like a good 45 minute drive from the city. And when I say a 45 minute drive, please note that the taxis normally go at about 120-135 kmph. So thats a good 90 odd km away from the city.

You get out of the plane, board the KLIA express, do a nice 3-4 minute ride over the landscaped airport and reach the main terminal. Do the immigration and walk out and take a limo taxi to your destination. It is so hassle free. There is WiFi in certain sections and good food and book stores to boot. The mall in the airport is like as big as any mall you can find in the city. I dont know how big the area is but I can tell you that it is atleast 10 times the size of our Mumbai airport, which I think should be the biggest airport in India today.

The basic issue in placing an airport in India is that people crib when they decide to set up the airport in the outskirts. The new Mumbai airport is in New Panvel, thats a good way off the Andheri's and Dadar's of Mumbai. I can understand why people crib. The traffic to Panvel is killing till you pass Vashi. Now the whole point is you build the airport in the outskirts but please make a good 4 lane or 6 lane road to the place too. That our government will not do. The approach road to the KLIA is like an F-1 track but much wider :)

The new Bangalore airport is coming up in Hebbal, which at that point of time was the outskirts, but now it is as much part of the city as it can be. The IT companies complained that it is a good 2-3 hour drive from the Electronics city to the Hebbal Airport. Definitely, if they have to take the same roads that they are taking now. When will our governments not take a short term perspective on things and make up their mind on a long term vision. The HAL airport (the current Bangalore airport) is smaller than the dysfunctional Air India/Indian Airlines office in Nariman point. So that should give you an idea, how bad the scene is.

In KLIA, people board the airline like half an hour before the take off as they have 30-35 vestibules that can feed the planes at one go. So all it needs is 10 minutes for the plane to get into the runway and take-off. In our case, the poor airline has to do the boarding and the take-off in the 15- 20 minutes alloted to it and invariably, it gets delayed. A visit at exactly 12 midnight to the Bangalore international departure side will give you an idea of the increasing traffic at this airport. There are something like 2o0 chairs which get filled and another 100 odd people standing in the lounge area.

If you make the flying more pleasurable, I am sure more number of people are gonna take up air travel over rail travel. If we dont make anything like the KLIA or the Changi in the next 5 years in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore, I wonder what would happen to the air travellers...

A better Bihar for a better India

If there was one state which had got rotten in the last 10 years in India , it has been Bihar. Ok Kerala comes a close second in terms of Industrialization and opening up of the small economy. But it makes it up with the very high Human Development Index, which is comparable to many European countries and other developed countries. And it is exactly here that Bihar scores very poor. In fact there has been utter chaos of the management of the state.

There is this article by Prakash Jha in the Express today speaking of what he thinks has been happening in the state which was once the hub of education. (ya that goes a long long way back). Prakash Jha has been making some good movies on social causes, contesting elections unsuccessfully and his latest movie is something I am looking forward to this year. It is on the organized kidnapping market in Bihar.

I have a lot of friends from that state and I have to admit that most of them topped in different branches in REC. And there is enough examples of IAS officers from Bihar. So who is to blame? Laloo has been playing the caste card for long now. BJP was plain lucky to be the beneficiary this time because the people in that state has been fed up of the Laloo regime. An party which was in the opposition would have won this time. It doesn’t mean that BJP will not be corrupt. They will be, but not to the extent of what Laloo did, because they would like to go back to the masses after 5 years again.

Anyway, Bihar needed a break from Laloo. India needed a break from Laloo. Or for that matter it is high time India gave a break to the old and crumbling politicians in their parties. I was reading the newspaper here in Singapore, where the reporter has expressed surprise at the visiting Ex Prime Minister of Singapore finding young MPs in India. Well we are changing. How fast we do it will determine where we are in the race with China.

I have never been to Patna, but have heard enough stories of the place and other villages that it really gives you the jitters. Jamshedpur has been protected by what the Tatas have been doing there. Hence Jharkand to some extent has been shielded. There has been some really good movies which have shown the life and times of Bihar/UP. Most of them have been pretty low profile. One that comes to mind immediately (maybe because it is very recent) is Sehar. Was it eastern UP rather than Bihar? Well it is a beautiful movie with Arshad Warsi playing a subdued role to perfection.

Lets hope some changes will happen now in Bihar. Don’t expect anything dramatic.

~sujith

tuesdays with Morrie and Being Patient

A book I picked up from a shop that read "Less priced Books". Either their english is bad or they follow our less and lesslie slangs.

Another thing that I noticed over the last many many years is that, you need to be very patient to be mature and you need to be very mature to be patient. Well I think both are mutually inclusive. It is very difficult for us Indians to be patient, atleast in India.

One small experience that I had here just goes on to prove this. We were late for a meeting and driving out of the city. There was some rain which actually crippled traffic in the city and cars were moving at a very slow pace. All the roads were blocked. But when I say that they were blocked, they were neatly blocked. You could see 3 or 2 lines of cars in proper lines. There was space between cars, such that if this was India I am sure the ricks and smaller cars would have forced their way in. Here no one did.

But we had to rush as we were already late. So there is this lane for the Buses, which is not occupied. It was clear of any vehicles. Imagine you can see for the next 2 kms that there is a jam but the innermost lane (for the buses) are not occupied. So we get into it and zoom past the waiting buses. Well except for us and 1-2 vehicles, who I guess must also have been in some hurry were the only ones who used it. The rest of the vehicles, each and every one of them stayed clear of that particular lane.

I cant think of such a scenario in any of the Indian cities, especially in Bangalore. That is where your patience counts. Would you stand behind a 100 cars or take a quick left get into the bus lae and zoom past. Think about it, the day we learn to be patient, we will progress.

Twin Towers

I have been of awe of this building ever since I landed here. It is really huge and looks really sexy in the nite.

Too much of metal reflects the light and throws up a strange concoction.

I loved it.

A Room With a View

And what a view it is... So guess thats an easy clue to trace where I am now.

About 100 odd metres from my room I guess.

This city has got infra of the highest quality but i guess they realise the need for the expanding population/vehicles...etc

Hunted for some office space. Well got a digi cam and these are the initial pics from that.

rest later

~sujith

Where is the Vision?

Couple of days back, Govt of India finally opened its eyes and came up with a portal of its own. A much awaited one, given the fact that, in most of the developing countries it is very easy to get approvals online to start your own business etc and many other things. India has always been blamed of being covered from head to toe with red tape. Well rest assured, now
you can take your driving licence from any state online, companies can file returns online, you can contribute to Prime Minister's Fund and much much more. Yes you can also register your company and start business. This needs to be validated as the provision seems to bethere.

I checked it a little more in detail. There are maps which show almost all the demographic ratios and details. An interesting thing was that there are some state reports that are available online. There are four states for which there are some reports that are online. The obvious two should have been Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Well thats not the case. The list goes like this in alphabetical order - Goa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. Surprise it is that two of the states are the communist bastions where such things like adapting technology should be the least important programme of the government. Tamil Nadu has always been better off in terms of adapting technology and setting up infrastructure, be it the blooming educational institutions in that state or the industries setting up shop in the state. Goa is another state which is making progress at a rapid pace.They have quietly implemented changes like "Banning Plastic Bags", which lead to such a hue and cry even in Mumbai. They pulled it off quite successfully too.

I further probed and was surprised to find the "Vision 2020" document available online. I downloaded the document as I thought I will read it peacefully at home and see what the Govt has thought for us when we will be like 40 years old. There were seperate sections like Urban Infrastructure, Rural infrastructure, Telecom and Transport, which sounded interesting as these were the current issues in focus after the rains and stuff. Well we still live with our major issues like Poverty, Illiteracy and Unemployment. They are like the old politicians in parliament, they will take a while to get out of the system.

Ok now about the document Vision 2020. It is a document written in 2002, by the committee under the chairmanship of Dr. S P Gupta (He was/is a member of PLanning Commission). The Foreword is by K C Pant, the Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission. Its starts off like this "Every country needs a vision statement which stirs the imagination and motivates all segments of society to greater effort"...wow, should be interesting. It goes on to say that the committee after intensive research etc, has examined the issues that the country faces, giving projections for 2020 and all.

With this I thought let me check out the the 3 sections that I was talking about. Page number 58 took me to the Chapter 4 - Infrastructure. It started off with some statistics and then some general statements, which doesnt prove a point to anyone who is reading it. It moves to rural infra and then compares rural and urban living. A fifth standard comparison of these two parameters. I was expecting the Planning Commission to give some break-through ideas on how the infra problems would be solved,some new plans would be suggested, but nothing like that. There was a one and only alternative suggested, which goes like this "link clusters of ten villages together by a high speed circular highway, thereby bringing 100,000 or more people into a circular community that can be crossed within 30 minutes travel time, and promoting a balanced and well spread out development of urban services along the periphery of the ring road."

Telecom was even worse than Infra.It traces the history of how the telecom sector developed in India. Is this a document for the future or a circumsition of the past. Give me a break. There is a table thrown in to show the "Number Main Telephone Lines per 100 Inhabitants". Us rests on top followed by Germany, Japan...If the telecom sector was not thrown open to privatisation we would not have seen the kind of growth seen now. It is more affordable and easy for the mobiles to penetrate than waiting for the BSNL people to dig up the roads in laying cables. And with its set principles of generalised inferences the section on Telecom comes to an end in page number 64.

Next in line is Transport. The same statistics. The road transport is discussed and it makes a statement like this "No organised, viable and significant public transport system is available in major cities, except the four metro areas of Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Delhi." Thank you sir, it was an eye-opening statement. I feel ashamed to state the conclusions drawn in the document. It is like the fillers you sometimes write in your exam paper when you know like 2 points but have to somehow make 5 points out of it. Again there is a table with Future Trends in Transport. I dont have words to describe it. After the entire reading the only value add to me was in knowing the fact, if it is true is that "Already more people travel between Delhi and Mumbai by air than by rail." No numbers to prove it, will have to check it out. Not difficult these days. But I do not have the patience. All you need to do is find out the number of flights and trains between these sectors and then do some addition and multiplication.

Thats for later, but what do we do of our bureaucrats who cant think of any Vision for us, hapless Indians. they might bloody well think of how much to loot from the public pockets in the next 100 years, but not this. The only argument against this article could be that, maybe the actual vision of a country is not disclosed in the public domain. This is a loose argument as nobody gains anything in knowing our country's vision for 2020. I only have one thing to say after reading the Vision 2020 document - A paper writing contest in a B-school would have prepared a better Vision 2020 statement. I am serious.

~Sujith

And the whole time I was typing this article, I played just one song and repeated it. The title song fom Swades - "Yeh jo Desh hai tera". A R Rehman has got this unique ability to deliver patriotic numbers. The movie was one of the best I saw last year. But unfortunately, the Hindi movies I consider good are always a flop at the box-office.

This time a Fat One

A book which has been written by someone who has more than a say when it comes to International matters.

Frequently criticises Dubyaman and his likes. A big fat book it is. Lemme see how long I can go.

How Dubyaman got his name is a very interesting thing. It seems in his state "W" is pronounced as "Dubya" or something close to that. Hence George W Bush became, George Dubya Bush and later on Dubya man.

A busy week ahead.

Good to see Indian cricket look good, 100% effort in the field is a rare sight in Indian cricket. India has got 2 more good left handed batsmen - Raina and Gambhir. Both like to pull the ball and play aggresively, good running between the wickets and very very good fielders. Now where do we fit in Ganguly?

Chelsea lost. this should have been a seperate blog in itself, but then time doesnt permit. I am so glad. They are a good team but somehow, they seem arrogant, it is like the Australian cricket team. They are so good and win everything that you have to hate them. Arsenal and ManU might not finish on top but they should make Chelsea swet it out for the rest of the league.

But that team is a clas apart. Essien is a class act. He creates chances from nowhere. Wright Phillips runs and runs and runs. That young lad has stamina par his body. He dribles his way through any defence. Joe Cole is a talented footballer who has this knack of scoring goals. And I am not even talking of Lampard, Terry, Crespo and Drogba etc.

Whatever, Arsenal rocks.

Excerpts from FPS

FPS(Five Point Someone) has some cute descriptions of how girls think, how guys talk or dont talk and what guys generally think about how girls talk. I thought they were as close to the truth as it can get. Here are a few examples -

Neha said, "What's wrong?"
"Who said anything was wrong?"I said.
"It is written all over your face. Now are you going to tell me or what?"
That is the thing with girls. They are like half your size or something, but if they know you like them, they boss you around. Who the hell did she think she was?

-------------------------------------------
"Come here,"she said, tapping the seat next to her in the parlour.
"Why?"
"Just come here."
Like a trained pet, I got up from the seat opposite and sat next to her; pretty girls have this power to turn Mary, making lambs out of people.
-------------------------------------------
We went to Nirula's after the movie for a meal.
"So, what is Prof Veera like, tell me," Neha said, cutting the pizza we ordered into equal-sized pieces. Girls love organizing food on a table.
-------------------------------------------
"What are you doing?"Neha pulled back.
I tried to look innocent.
"Were you trying to kiss me on the lips?"
"No."
"Hari, you know I am not into that."
Then what the hell are you into? Funny private jokes?
"Because this is wrong. This spoils everything. Because it feels wrong. You are not a girl, you wont understand."
Yes, I wanted to say, and you are not a guy, so you will not understand.
-------------------------------------------
I watched Neha's face as she applied her lipstick with the same concentration as Alok had when solving quanti problems. Girls are beautiful, lets face it, and life is quite, quite worthless without them.
-------------------------------------------
I leaned forward to hug her.
"Ouch, careful,"she said, pushing me back on the bed,"I know what you pine for."
"What?"
"My body, not me,"she said, nose up in air.What is the difference? I thought. You just cannot understand girls sometimes.
"That is not true,"I said, just guessing that it would be the right response.
-------------------------------------------
Why is it hard to explain stuff to girls. Cant she just get on with it? Should I say something dumb that she wants to hear.
"Neha, I know I did all those things. but at one level, it wasnt me. It wasnt your Hari,"I said. Obviously, I made no sense. But that is the thing with girls. Give them confusing crap and they fall for it.
-------------------------------------------
"Hari?"
"What?"
"I missed you too." She broke into tears.I wish I could cry too. But her words made me too happy. I mentally hi-fived myself and tried to control my elation. Keep serious tone, I told myself."Oh Neha, dont cry,"I said, probably to make her cry a bit more. I cant tell you how good it feels when a girl cries because she missed you.
-------------------------------------------
FPS also has some decent coversations between guys, like this one between Ryan and Hari...
"So you guys serious?"
"Serious about what?"
"I dont know; like you love her and everything?"
"I dont know."I said.
That is how men talk about their relationships. Nobody knows anything - neither the questioner nor the answerer.
-------------------------------------------
If there is one thing men completely lack, it is the ability to communicate during tough moments.
-------------------------------------------

Though overall the book is just ok types, the engineering college funda is quite genuine. One of my friend thinks that it is not fair that a topper is trying to write about a life of some mediocre students (yup like us) in an engg college. Fyi, Chetan Bhagat is an IIT Delhi-IIM Ahmedabad combo and was last working as an I Banker in Honk Kong.

~Sujith

Another Book

5 Point Somenone by Chetan Bhagat was an Ok types book. I loved the part where Hari describes Neha Cherian (ya the heroine is a Mallu babe). The way gals think and the way guys think about it.

I was so impressed by it that I marked all the pages where the author talks about it. All that in the next blog. Happy holiday guys and gals.

A nite to remember

Well Diwali went off fine here in B'lore.

Went to this nice restaurant off Brigade Road, called Three Quarter Chinese, with Vikash and Vicky. Then went to Vikash's house, some fun over drinks. Well had to do something stupid as the guys forced me to. No nothing stupid like you think. Goa you can keep your wisecracks to yourself.

Well then it started off with "neele neele ambar par...", (I am not much into hard rock as these
guys are) slowly shifted to Vicky playing some nice classy hindi songs (never knew he could play pehla nasha), dooba dooba and stuff. Then Vikash had his own rendition of the Ronan Keating number. Vicky build the Wonder Wall and Vikash had to finish it off with a "Every rose has its thorn..."

Well have say that these guys have not changed one bit since college, Vicky was as funny as ever and Vikash as serious as ever, though he tried being funny. Well K they have already found a drummist, so you better lookout for another band :)

And then I got back home really late. Should say I had a nice diwali, a musical one.

Oh by the way, I went go-karting too. My time is not all that great but I guess I am enjoying it. Got beaten by all my friends and their wives, so better keep quiet about my speed. All I can say is I am improving, moreover I believe in safe driving :)

Long Holiday Ahead & some cricket

Well not that long...just 3 days for me.

While we have Diwali and Ramzan at almost the same time, the guys in US have Halloween. Have a nice time folks, whoever is reading in whichever part of the world.

Talking of what I intend to do...one thing is for sure, I will not miss the next cricket match. I have not been able to catch any crcket live so far. Have been reading and imagining Tendulkar coming out of the crease and lifting the bowlers over the covers and mid on. Well when you have 29'' Onida, it's not that hard to imagine! (borrowed from the Samsung ad)

I just hope Tendulkar's and India's form last till the end of next world cup. Otherwise it will be really sad for Tendulkar to go down as the greatest cricket player ever, not to have won a world cup. There are contenders for this too, like Lara. He is a good bat too. And in certain areas (like winning against the Australians from a hopeless situation) he is actually better than Tendulkar. But kya karein, Tendulkar is our own man.

Ganguly looks all set to bow out of International cricket. but cant write him off till the BCCI elections are over. If Dalmiya wins, I wont be surprised to see Ganguly back in the team. But captaincy is a no no for sure.

Have a great holiday ahead

Talk about vella guys

Yes when some CompSci students at the University of Virginia got vella they did something interesting

Well this is a link which can connect any actor to any other actor in less than 6 steps!

Try it out and have fun.

A Tale of Two Cities

Well it rained in Bangalore...and the city could not take it anymore. Scenes like the traffic jams on the left were seen all over Bangalore last nite. I was stuck in many of them on my way home. But some depressing news about the city was reported in Deccan Herald yesterday.

But something even worse happened 3 months back in Mumbai. And I was there. Given below is a brief description of what happened then.

Talking of that wet Tuesday...I had a relatively easy way back...Got dropped upto a point beyond Sion(which was where most of the people were stranded) by Bhaskar a localite friend(they know the inside out of the streets which will get flooded etc etc) in his Scorpio(damn nice vehicle in this kind of situations). Walked about a km when I got a rickshaw, 30 mins Mulund, another rick 15 mins Home. 2 of my friends were with me all the time.

I left office at 4PM and reached home at 6PM :) But saw few things which I will remember for the rest of my life...

I was scared of crossing the Kurla part of the Eastern expressway coz of the slums lined on both sides of the road. When I reached there it was brimming with activity, people serving tea, mineral water, biscuit etc etc And similar to scenes in War of the World, whoever was coming in a car/Bus were stopped,people bashing on the wind shields asking them to stop and take people(esp women and children) in their empty backseats. Initially I thought its ridiculous, but then looking at the gravity ofthe situation, why shudnt people be unwilling to take others if there is extra space. Pvt cars, buses were going full from Kurla as the roads were clear till Thane. And it was left to the people living in slums to teach the others to share and care for others. I thought it was great and genuine...

That was Bombay and this is Bangalore. And I always thought the South Indians are more helpful and stuff...Not anymore

One difference between Bombay and Bangalore is that in Bombay everyone has to go through the grind everyday. If you are earning 6 lacs or 60000, you take the train, you get stuck in jams, there is a hurry in everyone's life. They understand the pain that exists in their fellow city-mate.

Here it is different. They keep cribbing that because of the IT and BPO guys, the prices are soaring and if they can afford it then we might as well charge them. I see it more as a conservative city's jealousy at seeing a progressive part of the society move up in life.

King of Good Times!

After flying the good times to and fro from Bangalore, I am mighty impressed with the service. But have to admit that the cheapest one is still Deccan!

I thought I will just note down the differences of Kingfisher with respect to our other airlines. So here goes...

1. You get to watch NDTV, Star One, Ten Sports, Pogo...listen to 5 music channels. I had a nice time watching Walk the Talk in NDTV and Great Indian Laughter Show in Star One. There was a India-Pak hockey match on TenSports. Proper timepass for your flying time.
2. There is a positioning system inside which tells you the speed, altitude, how long it will take for you to land etc etc.
3. They avoid the boring ritual of the airhostess explaining the emergency exits and other instructions. Instead you have Yana Gupta doing it on the screen.

Overall a worthy experience.

The Crowded Land and the Crowded Skies

I am going to take my first Kingfisher today. Kingfisher airlines I mean. Its supposedly unique in many ways

1. It doesnt have a class differentiation. All people travel by the kingfisher class. No business, no economy class. They treat you as one single class.
2. There is this nice small cute screen behind every seat. Looks good in the ads atleast, let me check out what they show.
3. They put their tickets for bidding in ebay and rediff. You can get a Bangalore-Mumbai ticket for 1800 bucks. A cheap ticket one month in advance will be around 2700 in any of the airlines.
4. Last but not the least. Its a pleasant sight for the eyes, seeing goody goody gals in red skirts, rather than the old and almost retired aunties in sarees.

If you have not been to Mumbai airport recently then you would be surprised by the "new done up Lounge" in the domestic terminal. The departure was complete when I was there last. I guess the arrival should be getting done now. It has got a really international look to it now.

A straight contrast would be the Bangalore airport. It is not even as big as the Indian Airlines office in Nariman Point. Tell you what, people complain that there is no space in Mumbai. They should check out the unoccupied office of the Air India-Indian Airlines in one of the costliest office spaces in the world. What a waste of resource.

Another very very interesting development has been the Mumbai HC Order on selling of the mill lands. My take on this is, why should the government (read mill owners) sell off the land to the big builders who make money selling it to the rich and the richer sections of the population. They can very well build a park, (like the central park in NY, I dont know how big it is, but lets make one) have rain water storage under them or have underground parking lots and stuff like that.

You create a new multi storey housing complex in the heart of Mumbai, the density of the population will shoot up like crazy and who will give them the other resources. It is exactly for the same reason that places like Navi Mumbai, Borivili and Thane have to be developed. New offices should come up in these areas so that the one way traffic in the mornings and evenings drop. It is because cities like Mumbai are crowded further with activities like these that say a city like Nagpur or Aurangabad do not develop the way they should be doing. Similar scenario in Bangalore. Develop Mysore and Mangalore, give them a better infrastructure.

Let me finish the post with our airline industry only. You have no idea how many airline companies are there in India now. Let me just list them

1. Indian Airlines - our own oldie
2. Jet airways - The largest private player
3. Sahara Air - Looking at selling part of its equity
4. Kingfisher - the new bold and beautiful airline
5. Air Deccan - decent enough, supposedly break even achieved in 1 st year of operation
6. Spice Jet - Delhi based airlies, little low profile
7. Paramount Airways - Started by a Coimbatore-Madurai group
8. Go air - they fly Mumbai-Goa for cheap
9. Air One - hopefully they should have a Bangalore-TVM flight

I am sure there are many more lined up like

• The one planned by the Cochin Airports authority. It is going to operate in the South Indian skies

Sites like Ghumo, Make my trip and rediff are making money trying to evade the part time air travel agents. Dunno what those guys are doing nowadays

But it Rained...

Rain is a peculiar phenomenon on planet earth. It is a customary washing for this world once in a while. I like the feeling when it rains. It makes you feel nice if you are indoors away from it, feeling warm inside the clothing while it is pouring heavily outside.

Bangalore has been experiencing more than the occasional rain these days. You never know when it can rain here. I am yet to buy an umbrella for myself and the jacket I have does not have a hood to protect your head! But somehow I never had the enthu to buy an umbrella.

The period after it rains is not all that pleasant. The surroundings are sticky and muddy and it is not a good idea to take a walk. But most of the time these days when it rains I am either in office/home or in a rickshaw. And one day while going home after lunch at a friend's place my rick got stuck in a traffic signal. A huge truck came and stopped by the side. Water was dripping down itis side.

The result is this pic. A very usual scene but I thought the obvious is the in-thing now.

Rains Outside and the 13th Floor

Somethings are very peaceful and serene like the pic above. It is the view outside Vikash's house. We sat there in the morning, sipping tea, looking at the rain.

He has this beautiful apartment where he stays alone. I as usual woke up quite early. It was raining and was a little chilly in the morning. The view from his window and balcony was very peaceful. Simple things in life are very much in demand once your life gets complicated after you are 25 and working.

If there is one pub that I like in Bangalore, it has to be 13th floor. Been there twice now, both the time with a friend of mine, Vikash. I somehow do not like being in the crowded pubs with loud music and suffocating smoke. Well sometimes when you are in a disco/party or something like that with a special friend, it might be a different feeling, but altogether I would prefer to be in a more open environment with some good music.

13th Floor is that kind of a place. Ya it is on the 13th floor of a building with a view of one part of the Banagalore city.

We were there for sometime and then these days it seems you have to close shop at 11pm in Banaglore so got back to his house. Well the pic in the night time is a little hazy, kindly adjust. He is finishing off his Blender's Pride.

A Good Read

Well I completed the story.

Sometimes I wonder how influential the end of a story, the climax of the movie and the end exams of a course are. If that doesnt have an appeal the entire 200 pages of the book or the two and a half hours of the movie or the 4 years of study might not seem all that good. The end is what you remember the most. But then it is the way you think. If you had a good read, a entertaining 2 hours and a rolicking 4 years, who cares about how it ended.

So if you ask me about the novel, I would say,"The narration is just as good and simple as it can get. But the end was a bit cramped. As in too many things happened in too less a time (or rather too less pages). It did not finish the way I thought it would. I thought a tragic end would have been a good way to end the the story." It portrays the mind of a 15 year old special child and reminded me of Forrest Gump all the time. So the mental picture I had was of our own Forrest when he was a kid.

But I guess it is worth a read.

The Curious Incident Of A Dog In The Night-Time

Enough Brain chew for some time

This article is in support for Gaurav Sabhnis, Jammag and the freedom of expression in India.

Well you might wonder what he has done or rather written...well there is some institute in India by the name IIPM...well Jam Mag exposed the hollow claims of IIPM

And Gaurav quit from IBM, for keying in his thoughts...



A pity that things like this happen in India. wonder what is the extent of damage done to the future of India.

P.S. The novel is awesome...midway now

A Really Curious Book

Just started on a novel today. This book has been recommended by half of my annex toppers (thats the wing I used to stay in IIMC), Vicky...I do not know if Karthik, Kutty and all have read this. Goa has not for sure. I have just been to the first 20 odd pages and it is highly impressive.

I was wondering how exactly to describe the feeling, when I glanced at the back cover...It is a perfect description of my feeling...So here it goes, courtesy Observer

"Gave me that rare, greedy feeling of: this is so good I want to read it all at once but I mustn't or it will be over too soon"

Now let me get back to the book

~sujith

Who is the common man?

This is a rejoinder to an article in the Indian Express...

http://iecolumnists.expressindia.com/full_column.php?content_id=79647

I have been an avid reader of IE for a long time now. Now that I have moved to Bangalore, I have shifted to Hindu. My belief is that, these two are the only newspapers who have an obligation towards the society and most important believe in real journalism.
I have been following your saturday special editorials and the latest "Our Poor Little Rich" is one of the best so far. And it is with regards to that article that I intend to make my observations.
I have been brought up in a communist environment, as in my family believes that they are the only party who fight for the working class and poor etc. Most of the people I know also follow the same ideology. I know that you do not approve of what the commies are doing.
Maybe influenced by the people whom I interacted, I also have a lot of respect to the red brigade at least in some issues. This has happened over a period of time, influenced by a lot of incidents and happenings in Kerala and maybe all over india. To give you a small example, it would not be wrong to say that the movies made in India (atleast in Kerala) are representative of what is happening in the society or what they think. There have been numerous movies made on the heroics of communist revolutions in Kerala, political potboilers where the heroes are always the communist party and the villains the congress party. You might argue that no one is interested in making a movie with the opposite point of view, but I think it is because they do not have anything to speak of like this.
I have a lot of arguments with my friends on a lot of political issues pertaining to the commies. Be it the issues of fighting for the issue of Fee structure in private medical/engineering colleges in Kerala, Voting out Iran, All India Strike etc etc. But when I go home, I take the other side and argue against the commies, with my dad and uncle. So this time we were doing this exercise and we were discussing the lack of private airline penetration in Kerala. My argument was that due to lack of any business activity (Commies are blamed for this) in kerala you do not have that much air traffic and hence less airlines. These are supposed to bring air travel to the common man at an affordable price. So my uncle gave me an interesting, at the same time thought provoking argument.
He told me, "If Jet Airways start 2 airlines to Trivandrum, you would say, if only they could start 2 more flights, then I can have more choice to go home. It is not going to hit the common man if he gets a air ticket for 1000 rupees less. The issue is bigger than that, the common man is hit if you increase the bus ticket by 50 paise. It is important to decide who your common man is." All this while I thought I was from a middle class family and I should be representative of the common man. But I think I am wrong, the majority of the people in India are below the poverty line and it does not matter to them if you decrease the air fare, but it hits them hard if you increase the bus charge by 50 paise. We need to take a rethink. I guess me and my friend's are not facing the issues that stare at the face of a common man. We are no longer the common man.

Kerala in 1 and a half days

This weekend was a nice weekend,in the sense that I got to go home after a long time. Got to eat what mummy makes best, Beef (coz anything she makes - fry/curry both are good,in fact yummy) and Paal Payasam. Top it with Appam-Egg curry.
I was in TVM for abt a day and a half. well one thing is for sure in terms of development the government has made an underpass,which has reduced traffic by 0.002%. Well they had to do something so they did it. Next is the flyover in Bakery Junction. God help the tax payer.
Cudnt meet anyone other than Mohanlal in Naran at Sreekumar theatre...And I have to tell you, its quite different watching a Lal movie in a theatre. (I dont know how it is to watch any of his movie in Ramdas in Thrissur,as told to me by a RECTian) It was after a long time that I was seeing a movie in a non-Multiplex theatre (a stand alone thatre), for Rs 30. Man thats cheap. There were the guys in the front row, throwing bits of paper when Mohanlal made his first appearnce in the movie. Those were the days...
I had to catch up with a lot of relatives etc etc...There was a time when you would love to go home, meet up with relatives etc etc...when you are 25,single and eligible...you do not. they will list out the names of guys who are younger and expecting to become a father...I managed to negotiate all that and get back to b'lore - single & eligible i.e.
~sujith

My new place in B'lore

So thats a close view of my new home...cant take a better pic with my mobile...
From now on I guess I should be sharing my stories with pics...
So enjoy till then...

My thoughts on the latest crossfire

This entry is in retaliation to a mail from one of my friends who other than being a good friend is a highly emotional cricket fan...
Dada with due respect to what you have achieved so far in your cricketing career, here goes...

Let us go back to 1992...How did Saurav Ganguly come into the Indian team in the first place...His dad's best friend Jagmohan Dalmiya routes him into the Indian team...Was he qualified at that time to represent India and all is a question mark! Ok we can forget all that for the brilliant victories he has brought us, in say the Natwest or Australia series of 2001 etc etc

In India we always idolise our stars so much that it is very difficult for us to let go of them even if they are not performing...If we dont wake up now, by the time it is 2007, even Bangladesh might put in a better show than us. For records, Damien Martyn was Australia's star player for Australia's India and the Pakistan series...he averaged more than 55 in the last 15 test matches he played(includig Ashes)...but they dropped him coz he didnt do well in the Ashes...Thats how Australian selectors think.

Now everyone knows abt Saurav Ganguly's fitness and fielding capacities...he is not batting as he used to do 2 years back...lets not talk abt his bowling for the time being. Now if anyone thinks he is going to last till 2007 world cup, I guess its optimism of the highest order...

Imagine a scenario without that leaked email....what do we have in the public domain

1.Saurav Ganguly was asked to reconsider his Captaincy by Greg Chappel...which is valid given the point that he is not performing.
2.Half the nation thinks he does not deserve to be in the team

Now if it hadnt been for the BCCI( as in if they had not leaked the email), if Ganguly was asked to leave capatincy, all this issue would have been settled without any fuss. Now if Jagmohan Dalmiya adds a senti angle to the story then sentimental people will only fall for it.

And most important of all my personal opinion is Cricket is NOT a Team game at all...It is ONE batsman against ONE bowler....Unlike football,where you have a team coordination in the entire 90 minutes of play. Say, if the defender is not playing well, you replace him with another...you move on...So it becomes important in cricket that the Captain needs to demand individual performance from his players...The players need to be motivated themselves...Now if our own Captain is scared of fast bowlers,cant play the rising ball, what will he ask a Kaif/Yuvraj of getting out to a rising delivery...

Having said this we Indians also have this habit of thinking great of guys who have done well in the past...Greg Chappel was a great cricketer neednt necessarily mean that he is a great coach too...his 4 yr stint in Australia was pathetic

The important thing is we are losing out on cricketers like Dinesh Mongia, Hemang Badani and I dunno who all...who could have come and represented India. maybe we can prevent another Robin Singh from losing his career.

Getting Used to the Huff and Puff of Bangalore

Every single day there is an article in the newspapers on the terrible traffic in B'lore. Corporates are complaining, NGO's are complaining, common people are cribbing but the government instead of finding solutions to this menace, is blaming the big corporates for not employing enough Kannadigas...
Ok let us look at it this way...The IT companies in Bangalore recruit from the private colleges and govt colleges in Bangalore. The state govt approved the setting up of all these pvt colleges. I am sure there must have been some "greasing the palm" mechanism happening somewhere down the lline for giving approvals to these colleges. Now to get a return on their investment the colleges must charge high fees from the students. Now whose probelm is it if non-kannadiga students happen to study in Karnataka and end up getting jobs in the IT companies here.
Lets lay that to rest. The govt sure is trying to project Mysore and Mangalore as alternatives but Bangalore is 7 million and growing.
Mumbai on the other hand is 15 million and bursting in the seams. Mumbai is spread better than B'lore and the public infrastructure is miles ahead compared to B'lore but only compared to B'lore. Let us not talk about whats lacking in Mumbai.
I miss a lot of people/things in Mumbai.
Staying alone is like a sin actually. It is so difficult to imagine watching TV alone and not being able to discuss the possibilities of the last test of the Ashes, of the loss in form of Arsenal, which movie to watch in the weekend. Things change, cicumstances change, needs change.
The Indian Express you get here in south is a distant cousin to the Shekhar Gupta edited one. But you can always read the all encompassing Hindu. I happened to read the TOI Bangalore today (Hindu was sold out in that shop at 7:50 AM, can you imagine that) and all I can say is they are still as good as they were then. But I am sure they are targeted at a different kind of people. Talking about Hindu, its as opinionated a paper as IE, maybe more.
Early mornings are really chilly here in B'lore. And the whole day remains like that - about to rain and cloudy. Having hot Poori-Aloo Masala and filter coffee in the morning makes my day. I do not know how many of you people have seen the kind of fast food joints in B'lore. they are stand-up joints (not like stand up comedians, what a PJ). You pay, give the coupon, get the food, stand and eat( Of course there are tables to keep your plates and glasses). You can see the food being made, hence its their priority to make the food neat and clean and keep the kitchen also very clean.
I stay at a place which has got a group of private colleges - Engg, MBBS, Biotech, MBA, arts...you name it, they have it. So as a result, there are a lot of eating joints near my place. You can taste typical Mallu, Tam, Gulti, Bong or Punjabi in a small lane around the college. The eating joints are infested with college students and the roads zooming with bikes. This is other than your staple diet of CCDs and Barista's and bakeries.
I am planning to move into an apartment, very close to the Barista there. About that later
Sujith

Last couple of days in Mumbai

Been a long year and 5 months here in this city now...
Now possibly no more early morning 7.45/8.10 locals to catch and then a taxi from currey road to board...
Things look like changing big time...But not the traffic...I read some weeks back that the number of vehicles in B'lore outnumber that in Mumbai...so gotta look for some place which is close to my office. then there are my friends from RECT there in B'lore...gotta catch up with them as well...
Hope I get more time to spend for myself in B'lore now
take care

Trichy after many semesters

I was on my way home after about 10 months. But as luck would have it I had to go via Trichy. All because I had put my driving licence in my wallet which got picked in a Mumbai Local. So one good reason to be back in a place where 4 years of my prime youth was spent.
I had a brief stopover at Chennai. Met with 2 of my old Rectians (even if RECT becomes an NITT, we are still Rectians), infact 2 of my fellow mallu batchmates. One who is famous for bragging to get union guys to bash up our senior batch and the other who is famous for his eating mis-habits.
Now about Trichy. Well the old Plaza is gone and in its place stands a 6 storey shopping complex. I have very fond memories of going for a pondy movie with a friend of mine in that theatre. Well I should not have believed his Tamil reading skills :(
Spotted many a 128/26 ses, the Thuvakudi buses that used to take us to REC. They are still shining in their metallic best. Pal Pannai, BHEL, Anna Valavu and finally RECT. There is this new sculpture in front of our gate which looks quite good. check it out at www.rect.edu .
There was heavy security at our place because the President was visiting campus for some reason, which I am not aware of. I took a snap which I shall upload in some days. By the way, for all you Rectians info, all the shops in front of our gate have been destroyed. Some of them have shifted to the left of the VKN gate. Sam fox still functions. The guys there look younger :)
And also in the process saw the costliest South Indian movie ever made at Sona/Mina!!!

Tagged!!!

Have been tagged, but me being against such chains which force other people to contribute, will stop the buck at my end...

1. Movie I want to live?

Life is Beautiful

2. Last film I bought a Box seat ?

Hitch

3. My List

Forrest Gump
Enemy at the Gates
Rear Window
and some more...


K started the fire!