Domestic travel: Airlines can go fly a kite!

11.12.10

My work takes me to and fro Bangalore-Pune at least half a dozen times a year. A decade back, this journey one way meant 24hrs by road or at best 20 hrs by rail. If you were in the productive years, surface transport was ruled out and air travel a necessity. Just look at what changes to infrastructure have done.

We now have 4 laned highways and Volvo/Mercedes buses. Point to point air travel (from my house in Kothrud to downtown Bangalore )takes 7 hours, bus travel takes 13 hrs ( I actual did it in 13 hrs on 6.12 by KSRTC Volvo) and holds promise of 11 hrs once the highway is fully completed.

Ditto on the Pune Delhi sector. Duronto takes you to Del in 20 hrs and holds promise of a 12 hr ride once the rapid corridor comes up in Gujarat.

At this rate,over a period of time,only the snobs and hicks will be travelling by air, at least intra India.Praful Patel then need not oversee the greedy boys!

TVS Suzukied, Hero Hondaed

5.12.10

A couple of years back TVS was dear Johned by Suzuki. This turned out to be good for them. A confident TVS went on to launch Victor and notch respectable market share in the competitive bike segment. It has now forayed into 3 wheelers with their King and slowly inching its way into a pan India presence in Bajaj dominated market.

Over the weekend, Honda has announced plans to ditch its partner Hero and focus on HSMI. It would be interesting to see if parting ways with Honda will prove to be a blessing for Hero group. This should stir their engineering juices to come out with a killer product on their own. Let us not forget what homespun Pulsar did to Bajaj's fortunes.

I am quite upbeat that Hero will come out with flying colours after this divorce. After all, they have not become the world's largest 2 wheeler company by fluke!Time the Japs got a taste of their own medicine.

Dynamics of the stock market

18.11.10

Here is an interesting explanation of the dynamics of the stock market.Right click and chose "view image " for the complete picture.

Brenton Woods revisited

9.11.10

World Bank chief Zoellick has mooted the idea of a Gold standard.I n the late 40s, as per Brenton Woods agreement, the value of the US Dollar was pegged to 35 per ounce of gold and the $ became the world's reserve currency. Most countries pegged their exchange rates relative to the $.This arrangement went haywire post Vietnam war in the 70s.

The new arrangement envisaged by Zoellick involves a basket of currencies that includes the USD, Euro, Pound ,Yen and Yuan. One fervently hopes that in one's lifetime the INR will figure on this podium.

As much as the new order recognises a basket of currencies, in keeping with global realities, it would make similar sense to peg this against a basket of commodities: Gold, Oil, Silver, Copper, Lithium and probably Uranium.

Encourage your kids to blog

6.11.10

One of the dilemmas of parenting is how much exposure one should allow to one's kids. (I have a 15 yr old dot) .Following is an interesting article.

Rishabh Gupta is a successful blogger. His posts are nothing extraordinary. He usually writes about his daily routine, friends, family outings, the movies and TV shows he's watched, and sometimes , even homework. The days he does not make an entry, however, are disappointing to his avid readership—a modest 30 in number—which includes his doting grand parents, uncles and aunts, cousins, and family friends.

Rishabh is just 10 years old.

His parents Suneela and Rajesh take keen interest in their son's blog, constantly egging him on and providing him with feedback on the entries he has made. Besides, the comments left on the blog by the Guptas' family and friends encourage the fifth-standardstudent to write regularly.

And it's true. Children love the attention that comes from having an audience and the approval of adults and peers – and weblogs provide them with such a forum.

Weblogs, a tool to unleash creativity

"For kids, blogging represents a new way to not only write, but to create as well. With all the information and media available on the web today, a blog is the perfect way for young people, to research, vet, and create a living project instead of just a static book report," says Karl Meinhardt , an internet guru with over 20 years of experience in the field of information technology products and services.

Meinhardt, who maintains the resource EdSoMe.com (Educational Social Media), is a key figure in the Portland Project – a program that encourages school teachers in US' Portland Public School District to introduce social media into their classrooms and the learning process.

"The fact that blogs exist in a digital space means that kids can add to it indefinitely and learn more and more about what interests them. If we can use blogs as a way to help young people find their life's passion , then they are invaluable," Meinhardt says.

A tool for new literacy...

Blogging also helps kids in many obvious ways: It improves their capacity for observation; increases the child's communication with family and friends who might be living in other cities; teaches them how to use the internet appropriately, and even helps improve writing skills and spelling.

"In the past, students learned how to read and write using print and paper . Today, in the global digital world, they learn by using the computer and internet," says Dr Patricia Fioriello , a US-based educationist who publishes at Kidslearntoblog.com.

Dr Fioerello—whose e-book 'Teaching Literacy: Keeping Up with the Times' examines the relationship between technology and the way we teach children—also believes that blogging could help increase the confidence levels of shy students, letting them express themselves better with the help and assistance of the internet and technology. "When children blog their thoughts and ideas, they have the opportunity to interact with different cultures and countries within a matter of minutes. They also learn to write in an interactive way and to understand how and when to respond to comments," she says. Besides, blogging for a reciprocative audience inculcates a sense of discipline in kids from having to make a daily post, Meinhardt says. "Kids begin to understand that blogs are messages that need maintenance and care. They also help children obtain some rudimentary project management skills," he opines. And Rishabh is a case in point. Over time, Suneela says, he has been spending more time on his entries, constantly asking to check his spellings and for help in grammar. Recently, he posted a school essay to his blog for his grandparents to read. "He was proud of how he was graded in that essay, but what made him happier was the feedback he received from the family in the form of comments to that post," his mother says. "Also, in just two years, Rishabh is quite a proficient typist and is well-acquainted with the computer keyboard," Rajesh pitches in proudly.

Blogging for homework...

And increasingly, educationists closer to home are seeing the power of the medium. Santa Cruz-based Ramniranjan Podar High School, for example, allows its students in the 9th, 10th and 11th standard to submit their assignments in the form of blogs. "The response has been phenomenal ," says Principal Avnita Bir. "Students are so technology driven these days – and now, even our teachers have realised that assignments are being submitted very systematically and on time using the medium." Meera Isaacs, principal of Cathedral and John Connon School in Fort, concurs: Nowadays, kids use the internet extensively, they "would be more than happy to submit their homework online in the blog form," she says, while adding that the introduction of blogs in her school could be a distinct possibility. "Educators and parents must embrace the new technological way of learning if they want children to succeed," says Dr Fioriello. "And what better way than to start with blogging; it is a win-win situation for everyone."


SETTING UP A BLOG FOR KIDS...

1. Before you choose a blog service for your child, make it a point to check for privacy tools that the various web sites allow you – this, especially if you want the entries to be readable only to a "controlled" circle of family and friends. Blogger.com, for example, gives you the option of listing the blog on its home page, or turning off the functionality for more privacy. Similarly, it also allows you to decide whether you want the blog to show up in Google Blog Search results or not. Other such simple services include Wordpress.org and www.tumblr.com.

Parents could also choose blog services offered by kids-only sites such as www.kidzworld.com. School teachers looking for similar tools for an entire class might want to consider Kidblog.org.

"Whatever type of service you select, make sure it is safe and appropriate for children," Dr Fioriello recommends. "What you want to look for is how the service addresses issues relating to ageappropriate activities. If the service involves social media, find out if it is a controlled environment where kids only interact with other kids their age on that particular site."

2. Once you set up a blog for your child, create ground rules with regards to what can be posted. Inform and educate your child about the ills of posting any personal information and photographs online that could possibly disclose identity or location.

Very importantly, make sure that the only way your child can be contacted through the blog is an e-mail address that you can monitor.

3. Supervise your child's blog posts. This does not necessarily have to be an intrusive process. Supervision could take the form daily discussions on what the day's post is going to be about. Also, it would be advisable that the computer your kid uses is in an open space that can be easily monitored. And yes, make it a point to regularly check the blog, and even post comments to your child's entries.

"It is important for parents to subscribe to their child's blog to provide some oversight in the blogging process," Meinhardt says. "In fact, parents should make their child's blog more of a group project than a solo project. In a group blog project, parents could act as the editor-in-chief or even better, act as the "customer" of the blog and respond to the content. It will also help the parent stay more visible in the process."

4. Setting up a blog is one thing, but getting your child to write and post is quite something else. Encourage discussions on topics that could be possible blog posts. This could include the books your child has read, and even movies and TV shows. Make it a point to show off your child's blog to friends and family when he or she is around, and invite relatives to visit it regularly. Also, if you have a digital scanner at hand, your child's artwork could make for an interesting post. A picture, after all, is worth a thousand words. "It's important for young people to learn how to embed media to illustrate and add meaning to their message. This is a critical skill for life as people respond to pictures more than printed words," Meinhardt says.

Corporate Subterfuge: Idea Cellular

6.11.10

Like all Indian owned companies, Idea too controls a number of subsidiaries-some of the underlying mathematics of these inferior siblings makes no sense on the face of it. Take for example its 100% subsidiary Aditya Birla Telecom, a privately held company. Idea's equity investment in this subsidiary totes up to Rs 16.3 bn which works out to a purchase price of Rs 1633 per share of Rs 10 each face value. This would appear to be an expensive piece of acquisition and, Idea gets not a dime as dividend from this deadwood sibling. But let that be. The paid up capital of this subsidiary is shown as Rs 119 m, though Idea's investment in this subsidiary as per its books works out to only Rs 100 m at face value. But let that also be. Idea has very 'craftily' merged only the telecom operations of the subsidiary with it. The subsidiary is now left holding some nuggets, or so it appears. The subsidiary has zilch revenues but it has investments to the tune of Rs 73 bn - being investments other than investment in subsidiary. What exactly are these goofy humungous investments, and why do they not yield any returns please? Eureka, it also appears that these investments have come for free! The sibling boasts equally hefty reserves of Rs 73 bn. The exact nature of these reserves is not known, and it did not get merged with the parent for reasons best known to the parent. Why do managements resort to such abysmal subterfuges?

Or take the example of another subsidiary Idea Cellular Towers Infrastructure. Idea has invested Rs 0.5 m in the equity of this sibling and then transferred assets worth Rs 16 bn to it. It appears that this subsidiary has got these assets for free from the parent as the only corresponding entry on the liability side of the balance sheet is a figure of Rs 15.7 bn, shown under reserves. This is truly fantastic by any yardstick. It recorded a negative profit of Rs 332 m on a turnover of Rs 1.6 bn for the latest accounting year. How it managed to repay a loan of Rs 710 m advanced to it by the parent in the face of these dismal results is not known. One wonders what the figures are like for its joint venture, Indus Towers, to which it has advanced dollops of credit.

Courtesy: Equitymaster.com

Economics Gyaan

6.11.10

Debt. This four letter word is indeed sending shivers down the spine of economies across the world. And why wouldn't it? If used beyond reasonable proportions, debt has the capacity to seriously impair economic growth for years to come. And this is exactly what happened with most of the developed world. They took an overdose of it and are now suffering from its after effects. It seems India has also tried to take a lesson or two from this entire episode of excess leverage.

As per a leading daily, the Government is serious about a debt reduction strategy that would seek to improve upon the target already in place. If were to talk about numbers, then the Government is planning to lower the level of debt liabilities as a percentage of GDP to 43% by FY15. This is about 2% lower than the target already in place. If the target is indeed achieved, then it would ensure that interest rates stay lower, which in turn will boost both consumption as well as investment demand and ensure that economic growth comes in higher than normal. What more, this could also mean higher stock markets.

Courtesy: equitymaster.com

Wish List for Zee Saregama

6.11.10

One of the few programs I look forward to watching on TV is talent search Saregama. Over the years it has morphed from Sonu Nigam's hosting ( nothing has come close to it till now: not Udit Narayan, not Abhaas Joshi and definitely not Shaan ). The heart of the matter is talent and it is amazing how year after year, this amazing country of ours throws up such a rich repertoire.

We at home do not particularly care for Bishak Jyoti's tapori antics till he suddenly zapped us with his ghazal last week. Khurram's khafi was another discovery. It is indeed sad that he got eliminated within a week of his stellar performance. I sincerely hope Khurram and Ali Sher are not victims of parochialism. A couple of seasons back, Amanat Ali deserved more to win than the ultimate winner ( Oink something ), but that is the way the cookie crumbles.

The other day I chanced to listen to Mukesh's sajanwaa bairee ho gaye hamaar. These are lyrics meant to be sung by a female. For want of a soulful female voice, mebbe Mukesh was made to sing this song. I am looking forward to hear this in Sniti Mishra's voice. We hope this pint sized wonder really goes places!

Abhilaasha has already arrived. She should now move up from VOI/Zee Marathi/Zee Saregama before she picks up the realty show ''aunty" tag. Sugandhaa has done very well to be taken seriously as a singer and scrubbed away her comedienne persona. But one wishes she does not overdo the gareeb gai bit on stage.

Kamaal Khan is studio material and should give Sukhwinder ( shrillness personified ) a real run for his money. Ranjit Rajwaada should let be by the judges. As much as you cannot expect Mehdi saab to sing rap, this guy should not get ragged under the guise of versatility. Ditto with Sniti. We love her for what she is, and the way she is. Too much of mentoring, and we run the risk of another genreless Sunidhi Chavan.

Deepavali

5.11.2010

HAPPY DEEPAVALI Deepavali is a festival where people from all age groups participate. They give expression to their happiness by lighting earthen 'diyas' (lamps), decorating the houses, bursting firecrackers and inviting near and dear ones to their households for partaking in a sumptuous feast. The lighting of lamps is a way of paying obeisance to god for attainment of health, wealth, knowledge, peace, valor and fame. It is one time in the whole year that children volunteer to leave their beds long before the day begins. In fact, the traditional oil bath at 3 a.m, is the only chore that stands between them and the pre-dawn adventures. They emerge, scrubbed clean to get into their festive attire, and light up little oil lamps, candles and scented sticks(agarbathis), the wherewithal for setting alight crackers and sparklers. On Diwali night, little clay lamps are lit in Hindus homes, but now a days colored electric lamps are also used. What is the significance of lighting a lamp? There is a logical answer to this question. It is through the light that the beauty of this world is revealed or experienced. Most civilizations of the world recognize the importance of light as a gift of God. It has always been a symbol of whatever is positive in our world of experience. To Hindus, darkness represents ignorance, and light is a metaphor for knowledge. Therefore, lighting a lamp symbolizes the destruction, through knowledge, of all negative forces- wickedness, violence, lust, anger, envy, greed, bigotry, fear, injustice, oppression and suffering, etc. Competition is stiff, and even the little girl in silk frocks and their finery are watching out for the best sparklers and flowerpots, the rockets and Vishnuchakras, which light-up the night sky like a thousand stars. Grown-ups are the soul of generosity. Festive bonhomie abounds. Courtesy: Jay Mistry

Navratri

16.10.10

One of the biggest festivals in many parts of the country is the worship of Godesses in their many manifestations. These festivities are especially big in Gujarat and Bengal. Celebrations over nine days and nights culminate on the Dussehra day. Legend has it that on this day evil was conquered by good.

Ganapati Festival

16.10.10

India is primarily an agrarian society and hence most of its festivals ride piggyback on the agricultural cycle.The end of monsoon heralds the beginning of festivities. Among the first major Hindu festivals is Ganesh Chaturthi, where the elephant headed Hindu deity Ganesha is worshipped. On all auspicious occassions the blessings of this deity is invoked and worshipped first.

The Indian Thali

16.10.10

Among the blessings of being born an Indian is our food diversity. A typical Indian meal is vegan most of the time and quite a balanced diet. There is chapati ( flat rolled wheat bread ) or bhakri ( millet bread ), curries, lentil soup, rice, curds pickles and spicy pappadams.

Economics Trivia

15.6.10


"While the crash only took place six months ago, I am convinced we have now passed through the worst -- and with continued unity of effort we shall rapidly recover. There has been no significant bank or industrial failure. That danger, too, is safely behind us."
- Herbert Hoover, President of the United States, May 1, 1930

...by May or June the spring recovery forecast in our letters of last December and November should clearly be apparent..."
- HES May 17, 1930

"Gentleman, you have come sixty days too late. The depression is over."
- Herbert Hoover, responding to a delegation requesting a public works program to help speed the recovery, June 1930

"... irregular and conflicting movements of business should soon give way to a sustained recovery..."
- HES June 28, 1930

"... the present depression has about spent its force..."
- HES, Aug 30, 1930

"We are now near the end of the declining phase of the depression."
- HES Nov 15, 1930

"Stabilization at [present] levels is clearly possible."
- HES Oct 31, 1931

"All safe deposit boxes in banks or financial institutions have been sealed... and may only be opened in the presence of an agent of the I.R.S."
- President F.D. Roosevelt, 1933

Japan's new prime minister warned Friday that his country could face a financial mess like the one that has crippled Greece if it did not deal urgently with its swelling national debt.

While Japan is on firmer financial footing than Greece because most of its debt is held domestically, Prime Minister Naoto Kan's blunt talk appeared designed to push forward his agenda, which may involve raising taxes.

Speaking in his first address to Parliament after taking office Tuesday, Kan said Japan, the world's second-largest economy, cannot continue to let government debt swell while state finances are under pressure from an aging and declining population.

"It is difficult to sustain a policy that relies too heavily on issuing debt. As we have seen with the financial confusion in the European community stemming from Greece, our finances could collapse if trust in national bonds is lost and growing national debt is left alone," he said.

Japan has the largest public debt among industrialized nations at 218.6 percent of its gross domestic product in 2009, according to the International Monetary Fund.

The Ants and the Grasshoppers

28.5.10

An interesting analogy caught our eye this morning. We all have been brought up on a healthy dose of the 'ant and the grasshopper' story as kids in school. The story ends quite vividly. Winter comes, and the ants thrive on the resources they have worked hard to collect all summer. The grasshopper, for all his frolicking during that time, dies a sad death as winter intensifies and he has no food to bank on. Something uncannily similar is happening in the world today. But with one big difference. The ending may not be so similar after all. The ants are the Germans, Chinese and Japanese. The grasshoppers on the other hand are American, British, Greek, Irish and Spanish.

The ants have been producing enticing goods that grasshoppers want to buy. What the ants have been getting in return for selling their wares has been mostly been grasshopper debt. Promises that the grasshoppers will pay back in future their debts to the ants. But as the ants have realised, a consumption binge based on leverage can go on for a while. But not forever. The day of reckoning has now arrived. And the grasshoppers have nothing to pay the ants. So some of them print more money (Americans), and some try to convert to ants by slashing their fiscal deficits (Greeks). The former then end up paying back the ants with a currency of lower value. The latter leads to huge write offs as some grasshoppers die in the process. Either ways, the ants have turned out to be the losers. The new moral of the story? Do not lend to grasshoppers!

Credits:Equitymaster.com

Fooling the Gullible

10.5.10

Street smarts , they say , are best learned on the streets. What better place can there be than the tough streets of Mumbai? If you can survive the rough and tumble in this city, chances are you can do it anywhere on earth. The lessons learnt here can be useful in far flung areas of your life later. You must have the wisdom and the intelligence to draw an analogy and corelate.

One of the earliest con games I have seen has left a lasting impression and comes back again and again as a reference point in many of the sophisticated fast ones that are pulled on us from time to time. Be it book building, price rigging. circular trading or what have you.

Roughly 40% of this megapolis' population has no choice but to commute by local trains. Besides your workplace, much of your time and energy is spent in getting from one place to another. Most other activities, from buying vegetables or undies or sundries on the way back home to downing a beer are ancillary activities to this commuting.

Among the longest foot overbridges on this network is the one at Matunga. It starts on the Western Rly side and ends on the Central Rly side, and is a goodish km+ long.When the traffic is thin, this overbridge can give you the creeps. It has the typical " Nikaal, Ghadiyal nikaal, nahin to cheerke rakh doonga" ambience.

This foot overbridge is also home to enetrpreneurs hawking newspapers, flowers, lemonade, undies/hankies, lottery tickets etc. This is commonplace at most stations.

The more enterprising guys turn a trick called teen patti. It is a typical "get rich quick!" lure. To set shop, all that is needed is a pack of cards and a box of sorts toplace these cards. And most important, cronies who impersonate members of the general public.

This is how the trick goes: The bloke deals the cards and gets himself surrounded ( almost hidden ) by half a dozen of his cronies. This small crowd is the nucleus to garner the attention of the passersby. The bloke lets a couple of his cronies win, curses them for impoverishing him, discourages them from playing more and says others also should be given a chance. Couple of his cronies move away to create an impression of authenticity. Once the system is cranked, there is a steady stream of gullible fools who are ripped off subtly. They even have a trick to assess how much cash the bakra is carrying. One of the bloke's cronies will ask for change of a large denomination note ( if this note is a dud , then a double whammy ! ). Anyone from the crowd who volunteers change is targeted for a rip off. The usual trick is to let him earn a profit on small wager, induce him to raise the stakes and finally zilch!

......... To be continued

Fine print in Insurance Policies

2.5.10

We may be blissfully unaware of the following risks which are out of our control and could present a nasty surprise in case of a mishap.

The following occurrences/accidents are not covered under this policy (read the policy wording for an exhaustive list):

1. Suicide or accidents resulting from attempted suicide, regardless of mental or psychological state;
2. Accidents resulting from obvious intoxication or use of narcotics, medicine or harmful substances (unless administered on the advice of a physician);
3. Medical accidents except those occurring during the treatment of an injury sustained in an accident covered under the policy;
4. Accidents occurring in war or warlike operations, or civil disorders and uprisings, including revolution, rebellion, strikes, labor movements, civil commotion or fighting;
5. Accidents occurring during the commission or attempted commission of unlawful acts;
6. Accidents resulting from intentional actions of the insured presenting serious danger to himself/herself, except the rescue of people in danger;
7. Injury or Disease directly or indirectly caused by or contributed by ionizing radiation or contamination by radioactivity from any nuclear fuel or from any nuclear waste from burning nuclear fuel;
8. Injury or Disease directly or indirectly caused by or contributed by the radioactive, toxic, explosive or other dangerous properties of any explosive nuclear equipment or any part of that equipment;
9. Accidents occurring during the practice of a sport, or time or endurance competitions;
10. Loss sustained while flying in any aircraft or device for aerial navigation except while riding as a passenger (but not as a pilot, operator or member of the crew) in or on, boarding or alighting from a certified passenger aircraft provided by a commercial airline on any regular scheduled or chartered flight, and operated by a properly certified pilot flying between duly established and maintained airports;
11. Accidents occurring while serving in any branch of the Indian military or armed forces whether in peace or war;
12. Accidents resulting directly or indirectly, contributed or aggravated or prolonged by childbirth or from pregnancy;
13. Accidents sustained while participating in contests of speed using a motorized vehicle or bicycle;
14. Any opportunistic infection and/or malignant neoplasm, if at the time of the accident or sickness the Insured had an Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) or having an antibody positive blood test to HIV (Human Immune-deficiency Virus). Opportunistic infection shall include but will not be limited to pneumosystis carinii pneumonia, organism of Kaposi’s Sarcoma, central nervous system lymphoma, and/or other malignancies now known or which become known as causes of death in the presence of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome;
15. Any Pre-existing condition;
16. Congenital anomalies and conditions arising out of or resulting therefrom;
17. Participating in skydiving/parachuting, hang gliding, bungee jumping, scuba diving, mountain climbing, pot-holing.

Short Family Holiday

My daughter Nandita is moving from 9th std to 10th std, which means virtually no summer holiday this year because of special classes, tuitions etc. The day immediately after her exams got over, her cousin Radhika along with her mum ( whom Nandita gets along like a house on fire ) came over from Dharwad.

My wife's cousin Karthiki is married into the family of Dr Baliga who is settled in Chowk near Karjat. We dropped in there for a day on Fri. The sensible thing to do to reach this place in summers is to take an early morning train to Karjat and then hop into rick or tum-tum to Chowk. But the day got off to a lazy start and we could reach Swargate for a bus ride only by 9.30. Around 10 we got a blessed bus that takes the old highway and dropped us at walking distance from our destination by 13.30. We polished off 2 litres of water and 4 half ltr bottles of soft drinks among the five of us during the journey.

The next half hour was spent koochying the new born daughter of Karhiki. Sharanya is a bundle of joy. After a lazy lunch we all had a lazier nap in the afternoon. The evening talk session went on till 1 in the am.

In the morning we all got up at crack of dawn and made it to Karjat before 8am. A rixa ride from Chowk to Karjat costs Rs 125 and they aramsey accomodate 5 people. We took Indrayani from Karjat to Pune at 8.15 and reached Pune before 10am. Everyone was agreed that although we were standing all the way, this journey was better than the earlier bus journey.

After polishing off some South Indian breakfast at Hotel Sagar opp stn, we made it to Kothrud by 11.30. All in all, a small but pleasurable trip.

1024 Sahyadri Express

In the bygone days, the glitterati and the hoi polloi from Pune used to travel to Mumbai by train. Why because the notorious Bhor ghat used to make even Lamborghinis travel at 10kmph, that too if you were lucky. Many are the hapless road travellers of yore who have spent an entire night in the infamous traffic jams.

Enter the expressway and, hey presto! everything has changed. It is almost infra dig to travel by train now. You can vroom to outskirts of Mumbai in 2hrs and even AC public transport will take you there in 3 hrs max. You now dont plan a trip to Mumbai. Even by public transport. You micro manage your destination to Thane, Mulund, Sion, Dadar, Mantralaya, Borivali and what not.

All said and done, train journeys are more C1 C2 friendly. ( The spinal cord vertebrae, silly! ) And of late, easier on the purse too. Moreover, the ceetees in the tunnels and the monkeys at Monkey Hill are perks on the house.

For some reason, the Rlys dont seem to recognise the growing clout of the suburbs in Mumbai. Almost all the morning trains leaving Pune stop at Kalyan and then snobbishly zoom past Thane to Dadar. Everyone seems to be in a hurry to get to downtown.

I had some work in the Eastern suburbs last week and decided to travel by easy paced, conveniently timed Sahyadri Exp. USP: halt at Thane. From there you can now take AC city buses, my fav mode of transport in Mumbai. VFM, safe, comfy and C1C2 friendly ( courtesy air suspension.)

The junta traveling by this train are a relaxed and earthy suburban lot. It has a lot to do with the train's halt at Pimpri, Dehu, Talegaon, Karjat, Neral etc. And yes, most of them dont flaunt gizmos in their ears. That makes them eager and willing to strike up a conversation. That is my favourite timepass while travelling. Start a debate on a random topic in a motley crowd.
( Corruption or cricket come in very handy). Then lapse into listen mode! Beats MP3 anyday.

Kanda Pohe at 3:30 am

1.4.10

Pune is a campus city with hordes of students. Hence Pune has its night owls. Nal stop is where the mighty Symbians ( include its neighbors Law college, FTII, BMCC ) and the MITians converge. Nal stop is where Law college Road ends ( there is one way traffic, so it definitely does not start here ) and melds into Karve Road.

The night owls are an interesting lot.During exam times, they study hard. So they keep awake. During other times , they hang around with friends. So they keep awake. Pune goes into a police induced curfew around midnight. Forget about booze, even a cup of chai or a cigarette is impossible after that.

Bang on the corner of Nal stop is a joint called Amrut Bhavan. This is non descript by day. But Gosh, you gotta see the action here in the wee hours. Like addicts fighting withdrawal symptom, you can see night owls falling over one another for their chai and cigarette at the rear window ( this is in the building staircase ) even before the front shutters are opened. The action starts here 3ish ( am ). And that is the big deal. Much before the upma and the sheera is getting readied at Khau Galli opp Mrityunjay temple in Kothrud.

This is the time of the day when the newspaper network is getting ready for the last mile. And this is what gives this place its legitimacy so early in the day. The cops have a benign presence. Nothing happens for free. Quid pro quo is delivered in the patrol vehicle to the sahibs. Alongwith a complimentary newspaper.

Women power is making its presence here too. Earlier, there used to be the occassional chick with boyfriend/colleague/classmate. It has now progressed to groups of poultry coming on their own. Many times 3 to a 2 wheeler. Very soon we will have solo appearances at 3:30 am for the kanda pohe and chai. If not in Pune, where else?

The early bird can catch his chai at other places like Shivaji Putla and Khau Galli. But nothing is as early as Nal stop. Not even Shivajinagar, not even Swargate. Station? Maybe! But station isnt Pune.

Long live Nal stop! And Long live the night owls!

Dignity to the Ragpicker

31.3.10

The other day, 23.3 to be precise, I was travelling Mum Del by Garib Rath. Due to rush season, couldn't manage a berth and was traveling chair car. Half my compartment was full of lower middle class looking ladies and the placards stacked on the racks were a giveaway that this was a group headed for some kind of morcha in Delhi. It is only when some volunteers from an NGO which was organizing them turned up that we realized they were rag pickers heading for a national rally. Like this, there were more groups expected from all over the country.

The normal image associated with this community is shabby, unkempt persons ( mostly women ) rummaging through the smelly filth of dumping grounds/landfills.This lot in the train was quite clean and well turned out .The volunteers informed that most of them have either drunken husbands or are widowed due to death of spouse to drugs/alcohol or many of them are abandoned by their husbands. They single handedly raise their children. If the husband is around, more often than not, he has a parasitic role in their lives rather than being a help.

Interesting aside was that almost 1/3 rd of them were carrying mobile phones and were quite informed about charging/roaming etc. For identification on e tickets, many of them flashed PAN cards. Their average daily income varies from Rs100 to Rs 250 on a lucky day.

Illiteracy is rampant and skill sets so poor that they are not capable of taking up any other profession. Within their families, working as a housemaid, for which there should be perennial demand in places like Mumbai, is taboo. All of them want decent education for their children and do not want the next generation to take up the same profession.

Demographically, most ragpickers in Mumbai, who recycle almost 30%! of Mumbai's waste hail either from the Nasik region of Maharashtra or from Andhra and Tamil Nadu. The Maharashtrians tend to send their children to schools, but the South Indians let their children loiter or supplement income through begging at signals etc.

I am not very sure what the purpose of the rally was and what their demands are. They want recognition as a profession, government patronage for self help groups, sanitation facilities and potable water at the dumping grounds. They also want review of plans for mechanised waste management Hats off to the educated volunteers and social workers of the NGOs who are trying to give dignity to these people!

Ginger Hotel New Delhi

This is going to be my pad in Delhi for sometime to come.The property belongs to the Railways and the room rates are relatively ridiculous. This is a paisa vasool hotel, extremely well connected ( walking distance from New Delhi Rly stn and metro network.)

There is a Comesum restaurant on the premises, pricey but decent spread. Their Chicken Biryani is yummy without being too spicy. The rotis here are consistently good.

Early birds can book a standard room for Rs 999 and later on you tend to get ripped for similar room which gets classified as "twin" for Rs1200. It is still a bargain considering okay type hotels in Karol bagh are now pushing Rs 2500 plus per day.

4 bottles of 1/2 litre Bisleri and 4 packets for tea/coffee are a convenience on the house worth mentioning. The hot pot works! They even have a ironing board and iron on every floor. The house keeping is good.

Internet is available in the lobby @ Rs 111 for a single session of 1 hr!

Check in is a little inconvenient at 1300 hrs, although they try their best to put you up by 1215.

All in all a habit forming experience.

2909 Garib Rath

On 23.3 took this train from Borivali to Nizamuddin Delhi. The dep time 1736 is convenient for catching up some work in the western suburbs. This is a damn fast paisa vasool train, rivals Rajdhani in speed. Makes it to Surat by 8pm and Baroda by 9:45pm.

The grub from the pantry is so so. The best bet is food from the platform stalls at Baroda where it has a longish halt.

I made this journey by chair car which is not as bad as the other Garib Raths running on Konkan Railway. The one disturbing thing is that the bright lights are kept on throughout the night.

It chugs into Nizamuddin around 10am and one can catch up quite a bit of work same day in Delhi.

Amul Voice Of India

15.3.10

I have been following this program in its various variants over the years. It has thrown up some very good talent like Abhaas and Anwesha. This program also has a history of sobriety and balance compared to the histrionics in other similar shows.

The episode aired on Sun 14.3, however was jarring. I hold no brief for Shaan and I am definitely not a fan rooting for him. Personally, I feel that Shankar is a more accomplished musician albeit with a team that is not as talented as Shaan's. Honestly, the best combination was Shreya's super stars. Ironically, they were the first to get eliminated last week.

Coming back to yesterday's episode, Javed saab's judging was atrocious. Right from the word go, he was carrying his prejudice against Shaan on his sleeve. The 6 points doled for Shadaab's performance ( Shadaab was in tears ) and the 5 point difference in medley from Javed Akhtar's marks clearly shows that he was taking out some old khunnas. Such egotists who totally distort the judgement of the panel with their immature display of power should be debarred from judging reality shows in future. For starters, the format should be immediately changed to eliminate extreme swings in voting. This is a well established statistical procedure.

How safe are our Highways?

13.3.10

Major highways in India are now 4/6 laned and incidence of head on collisions has come down. But major mishaps continue. Saw a truck's cabin totally ripped while going down hill in Khandala ghat, ( the exit point towards Khopoli is a death trap ) , another truck overturned and a bus rammed from behind by a truck near Kini ( Kolhapur ). All in the course of a week.

Mumbai is reputed for its traffic discipline. But Eastern Express highway seems to be an exception. There is scant respect for signals, might is right seems to be the order of the day and everyone ( including auto rickshaws ) seems to be driving at breakneck speed.

1013 Coimbatore Express

Many are the options if you are travelling to Bangalore from Mumbai.

Most flexible and cost effective is to take a bus, if not direct, just keeping moving in your direction . But your bones should be able to take it. A few blessings have come our way of late: better roads, divided ones at that, which make travel much safer, and high end Volvo/Mrecedes buses with air suspension that slash 4-5 hours off the transit time, Can set you back by approx Rs 1200.

If your time is precious, you can take a cheap flight from Rs2200 onwards, provided you can plan at least 15 days in advance. Urgent travel can rip you off.

Cheapest and comfortable mode is to take a train. AC travel again needs advance planning, 3 tier being the most popular. If the weather is okay, you can also take a non AC sleeper. Choices include Udyan Express, which gets filled up earliest, Chalukya Express ( goes via interesting towns like Belgaum, Hubli and Davangere ) or the least preferred Coimbatore express.

This train chugs out of LTT around 2230 hrs.You can catch goodish sleep on this train upto Solapur till early morning. Later on, the journey and terrain gets drab. It passes through dry Karnataka cities like Gulbarga, Raichur ( thermal plant with impressive cooling towers ), Yadgir ( very rugged fort on a rocky hill ) and crosses over to Andhra Pradesh. Guntakal, Mantralayam Rd, Anantpur ( neat city ) are some interesting AP towns on the way. The journey can get very boring due to innumerable stoppages for "crossing". This is a single track, you see!

The real irritating thing with this train is the delay as it approaches Bangalore. You could be in Yelahanka at roughly 8pm. From here, heart of Bangalore is approx. 45 mins by bus. But this train takes upto 2 1/2 hrs to make this journey. We got stranded at Chikkasandra for 75 mins.
By the time you get off at Bangalore around 2230, you are absolutely ready to grab a quick bite and plonk into bed. Pity the guys wanting to continue further overnight to Coimbatore!

Kurla LTT Mumbai

9.3.10

For the first time, I took a train out of Lokmanya Tilak Terminus ( Kurla, Mumbai ) on 5.3. After finishing my work at Godrej, Vikhroli by 5pm, I had helluva time to spend till 2240 for my train leaving for Bangalore. LTT has a main concourse that is quite spacious but looks like a unoccupied municipal fish market. Spent close to an hour in this ambience. Suddenly it dawned on me that there is a waiting room. Pleasant surprise! This blessed thing is air conditioned and tucked away so discretely that common junta wont even know about it.

There is a train around 2030 that goes to Kolkota. Till such time the loud Bongs dominate this room. Interesting lot these Eastern Indians are! Their loud talk on the mobiles is the equivalent of drying underwear in public.

Once this train chugs out the Southies take over. the next happening thing is the train leaving for Coimbatore via Bangalore.Half the chaps will be whining how they are on this train as a last resort. First preference for Bangalore is Udyan, followed by Chalukya. Only if you dont get either of these then you condescendingly take this Coimbatore train. More on the journey by this train in my next blog.

Catching Up

4.3.10

Suddenly realised that I havent been on this medium for close to 3 years. I am now pretty well settled as an independent marketing service provider for tool holding solutions. I am on the learning curve for similar status in spindles. My workplace is Western India, suppliers are in South and North India. Keep doing my bit of travelling in places that matter. East India anyway has been a dud case for quite sometime now.

Celebrated Silver anniv on 28.2. One thing I must admit I have been maha lucky in life is on the marriage front!

Will be visiting India Wood exhibition in Bangalore over the weekend. Ciao!