BJP Claims Karnataka

That was the headlines in the morning when I turn on CNN-IBN. That has been the headline in all the channels since then and much to the chagrin of my wife, I have been glued to my TV since then. It is definitely the fun time to watch the TV. Complete Entertainment.

As usual, media predictions went which way I do not know. But definitely not the right way. And if you notice, there is a trend here by the way. Media exit polls have been going horribly wrong since quite sometime that I remember. To many this might be coming as a surprise but somehow to me, this is not coming as surprise. Because, as I watch more and more of CNN-IBN and NDTV these days, the analysis seems to be significantly lacking in objectivity. Conducting loud mouthed debates not letting everyone speak, coming to own conclusions have been some noteworthy observations that I have made. Finally, Sagarika Ghose puts it that Media has things to learn. I ask, Isnt it obvious Sagarika? Watch your own folks in debates in your channel where you do not even let people express their opinions completely. And what opinion polls are these? What basis are these being conducted? Has this been asked?

To clarify before I begin this next paragraph, let me be clear that I am not at all a BJP sympathiser. In fact, I used to be long time back. But after what happened in Godhra and how things have been handled since then, it would need some miracle for me to ever vote for them unless some other good deeds of them convince me. Inspite of that, it was so obvious to me since the beginning that this has to be BJP in Karnataka this time. How could it be not obvious?

Does that mean, people have suddenly started loving BJP? Absolutely not. And that is something, the master craftsman Arun Jaitley, the CM to be Yediruppa etc. need to keep in mind. The bottomline is, people had nothing left but to choose someone and turns out BJP was the best in the rotten lot. Forget about Congress. Dharam Singh did all his best during his tenure to ensure that a common man would never vote for Congress. Then comes the Betrayal saga. After that, it does not need too many experts, expert opinions and judgements to figure out that majority is never with people who they cannot trust. This is a fundamental philosophy of life that will stand out for ages that once you lose trust you will lose everything. That is precisely what JD(S) got.

Congress can say several things like secular vote got divided, BJP won on caste vote, BJP won on sympathy vote etc. The bottomline is, BJP is the winner and the Congress is the loser and the JD(S) is the super loser.

While this is an amazing opportunity for BJP to again prove that it is indeed a party with the difference and does not belong to the same breed of high promises and low executions.

Arun Jaitley should stop making comments like Congress is on the decline. Venkaiah Naidu and Rajnath Singh should stop making comments that BJP will rule Karnataka and India. The "rule" itself sounds like monarchy.

Infact, Yediyurappa displayed lots of humility. I hope he continues to be humble and gets some good work done fast, not only in Bangalore but in the whole of Karnataka.

In the run up to the general elections, it is completely in the hands of BJP to either capitalize on this opportunity and lose it by their own immaturity.

I hope BJP does not get swayed away by caste politics, reservation politics and religion politics. By focussing on simple things like development, infrastructure, convenient life for every individual, ease of access of everything to every individual, they will for sure ensure they will win the hearts of the people of Karnataka.

And then they will not have to rely on Expert Opinion Polls. They can be sure then that Expert Opinion Polls will predict their failure. And that will mean, they will win :-)

RTI Directory

Take a look at the following website :

http://www.rtidirectory.in/


There were two basic ideas which spurred the starting of this website.

1) The idea that two persons within close proximity to each other and
not knowing each other might file an RTI for the same piece of
information. In that case there would be some wastage of energy and
time.

2) Once a person finds information through an RTI, which is of public
importance then very few people actually get to see that information
since there is no means to disseminate it widely.

The Right to Information Directory is open for uploads from any city
and town in India. We look forward to an enthusiastic response form
applicants and browsers alike and look forward to your feedback.

The website is started by Mumbai based civic and environmental
activist Rishi Aggarwaal and developed by Wherrelz IT Solutions

**********************************************************

Interaction with the Auto Guy

This morning, I had a fantastic and a pleasing experience. So you know, when people talk about the auto guys, they portray them as mean, whining, fearsome, frightening individuals trying to rip you off. Right? But I have always disagreed with them. I have always maintained that it is very unfair to portray them like that. We must appreciate how much stress they go through. Furthermore, to me it seems, the educated folks are most maniacs on the road.

Anyways, the above whining can go on forever. Coming to my point, today I took an auto from my home to my work which is less than 2 km and hence it comes to Rs. 14.
When I got down, I realized that I have only Rs. 13 in loose change or the only next one I have was Rs. 20. So I gave the guy Rs. 20 and asked him to give me Rs. 5. He said he didnt have change. I told him that I have only Rs. 13 in such a case and I dont like giving less.

The auto guy immediately tells me : "Saab kam chalega. Rs. 13 hi de do. Kitne baar log humein jyaada to de dete hain. Humein uska khayaal bhi to rakhnaa padegaa.."

I was so touched. The only thing I could respond to him was " Aaapke jaise log aur bhi jyaadaa ho gaye to duniyaa sudhar jaayegee"...

He gave a nice smile and drove away. And my morning work started with a fantastic good feeling.

Update :
Thanks to Marcos' comment, here are the translations into english :
"Saab kam chalega. Rs. 13 hi de do. Kitne baar log humein jyaada to de dete hain. Humein uska khayaal bhi to rakhnaa padegaa.." : means "Sir leess will do. Just give me 13. Many times people give us more as well. So we need to keep that in mind too".

" Aaapke jaise log aur bhi jyaadaa ho gaye to duniyaa sudhar jaayegee"... means "If we have more people like you, then the world will be a much better place"

Ahh!!! I couldnt vote this time :-(

Damn it!! what an irony it is... Got the first chance to vote and couldnt vote this time in Karnataka assembly elections. Lazy ? May be. But why cant we make things simpler? I am not the only one you know.

I was supposed to get myself registered. And I did not do it. Hence I could not vote. There were many people who did not know where to go to register. I understand ti sounds like excuse. But here is a point.

Why can't the registration process be made online? I mean, one anyways has to provide an identification. Hence the Election Commission of India should open up the concept of online registration. Then people having access to computer can register whenever they want using a certain mode of identification such as passport, PAN card etc. ONce they register using an identification method, they should be able to vote using the same identification. Is it too difficult?

That way I would have registered online and would have voted. I am sure so many people could not vote because they did register.

Let me see what the Election Commission says to my suggestion. I have sent the commission a small email.

Belur Halebidu Trip

After a long time, finally I got to meet up with friends and could get out of town on a long trip. We decided to go to Belur Halebidu. Belur-Halebidu are around 230 kms from Bangalore. So covering them was going to be a long tiring trip. Still we decided to go ahead.

We started early in the morning from Bangalore at around 7:00 a.m We booked a small tempo traveller that was good enough for around 13 folks. The highway was pretty good enough. At aroun 11:30 a.m we reached Shravanabelgola. A beautiful place it was indeed. But we decided not to climb the steps of the taller hill since it would hamper the plans of Belur and Halebidu. Instead we climbed the smaller hill and still could get the pleasure. :-)

After a brief stay at Shravanabelgola, wee started heading towards Belur. The tempo would go over Hassan. Hassan is a good place to stop over for lunch since there are quite some good hotel/restauarants like Sri Krishna, Hassan Asshok, Suvarna Regency. But since most of us were asleep in the tempo, we went past Hassan and directly stopped at Belur. I must admit though that while the road was pretty good enough, the drivers werent and we saw many accident scenes primarily because of the mistakes to overtake over a single lane and coming straight in front of the opposite coming traffic. Never do that. There is no hurry and nothing is more important than life. Enjoy the trip and go slow. Its a bad sight to see such accidents.

We reached Belur at around 2:00 p.m We had lunch at Belur in a pretty ordinary restaraunt and then straight away headed to the temple. We hired a guide because these temples can never be understood without the help of a knowledgeable guide. These guides are Govt. of India approved. And the guide we chose was indeed very knowledgeable. He explained the art, culture, science, history, geaography and everything. It was really fun to understand the concepts in details. After spending some time at Belur, we headed towards Halebidu which was around 15 kms. Halebidu was another beautifulpiece of art. This place was the capital of the Hoysala kingdom.

Halebidu has a beautiful garden and an adjoining lake. So go to Belur first, and then come to Halebidu and relax on the grass besides the lake.

At around 6:00 p.m we started heading out of Halebidu and back to Bangalore. And there you go. It started raining heavily. Wow. what was a pleasant rain it was after a hot sunny humid day.
We started heading towards Bangalore. Wanted to have dinner at Hotel Hassan Asshok but they didnt have Dosas in the night. What a bummer it was. So we came out and started heading home. At Bellur Cross, we stopped to have our dinner. After having and coffee and we started heading back. Most of us fell asleep after a tiring day. We reached Bangalore at around 12:00 in the midnight.

It was a fantastic trip. Belur and Halebidu are awesome and I wouldnt mind going again and just spend the whole day there.

Dont miss them if you are in Bangalore..


Enjoy the photographs.

Bhopal Padayatra 2008 :: Blog

http://www.bhopal.net/march/padyatra2008_blog.html


Information on Bhopal Padayatra

International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal

http://www.bhopal.net

International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal (ICJB) 's complete resource on Bhopal, the History and the present.

The Students Bhopal Campaign

This is the location to find all information


http://www.studentsforbhopal.org/

and express solidarity and participate..

Air, Water, Earth and the Sins of the Powerful

Tehelka magazine's article on Bhopal Gas Leak... Read it to get an idea on what happened and what is happening..

Air, Water, Earth and the Sins of the Powerful

More Information under Bhopal Label

NY Times Article :: Mother's Influence on Barack Obama's Life

It has been such an inspiration for me reading this article.

A Free Spirited Wandered who set Obama's Path


Forget the influence etc. Just from a human perspective, purely based on what has been mentioned in the article by the author, the beliefs and practices of the lady have been so phenomenal that you feel like following similar practices.

Olympic Torch Relay

What funny Olympic torch relay it was . Wasnt it? Again proves that we do so many things just for the sake of doing with no introspection. I couldnt stop laughing at what I perceived this whole thing as drama.

Ideally, when asked, what would you imagine sports and their objective to be? For me, it is all about building relationships, friendship and a desire to live in harmony.

This olympics seems to anything but above and the torch relay process is a classic example of that. The relay has been a tight security affair at every place it has passed through. Shouldnt it have been a friendly jubiliant affair where people would throng the streets to catch a glimpse? Alas!! not so. Times of India reports that the people who witnessed the relay were the torch carriers themselves, 15000 policemen and a bunch of children.

Similar was the situation in many countries.

So it turned out to be a high security activity. What an approach to friendship isnt it?

Well what is the morale? There can be no peace and fun at the cost of someone else's human rights. Human rights have to be valued. Only then will there be harmony in this world.

Hats off to some sportpersons who have threatened not to participate and to people like Baichung Bhutia who refused to carry the torch in solidarity with Tibetans.

Speaking straight from my heart in a democratic country. :-)

Jab We Met

Oh baby!! Did I like it soo much that I am tempted to write on this blog? In fact, yes. I really loved the movie so much. Yes I did.

I saw this movie on board my flight from Bangalore to London during my recent travel.

Why did I fall for this movie? Was it extra ordinary? No not at all. In fact there were several flaws. The second half was dragging as I felt. But there was something about this movie that just moved me, made me feel good, feel happy, feel romantic.

It a simple down to earth movie yet one could push someone into introspection. Every dialogue was so simple yet was conveying a strong message.

I liked Kareen-Shahid conversations so much that I actually watched the movie again and again in my return flight. Sounds crazy? May be. And by the way, Kareena was adorable in this movie. And this might be the first movie where I actually am impressed with the energy and role delivery of Kareena. She did it so good that it made me thinking on who could have done it better than her. I couldnt find one name to be honest. Same is true with Shahid. I was convinced that he lived up to the expectations.

Romanticism was oozing out of the movie. It was loudly asking everyone to live their present to the fullest. And have fun.

It is a damn good movie at the end of the day you know. And the morale to all directors is, Keep It Simple Stupid. And yet you can make a fantastic movie.

IIT Kharagpur Trip

After almost 10 years, I finally got the chance to visit my alma mater, IIT Kharagpur, this time as an alumni. We flew from Bangalore to Kolkata and then the journey from Kolkata to Kharagpur was by road. This road, I came to know, was the Golden Quadrilateral. It was one smooth ride. The road was very wide and smooth enough except for the fact that pedestrians were still trying to cross the road and freaking the hell out of us. :-)

We reached Kharagpur almost in the mid night. The entry to Kharagpur was through Gol Bazaar area. I was happy that even after so many years, I could quickly recognize the GolB area by the huge overbridge that we would cycle over while coming from IIT towards the big market.

I know this might sound cheesy but it was nostalgic when our vehicle got stopped by the closed railway gate. Remember those days when the cycle rickshaw had to unfailingly stop for the approaching train to pass? The first thing that came to mind was Chhedis. :-)

Now, many shops have come up besides Chhedis. There also are some new restrictions on going out and coming back in after 10:00 p.m. The campus was well lit and it truly nostalgic.

Quite some new buildings have come up. But the overall campus look is still the same. The Harris is still there but they have cut down the beautiful tree.

Went to the Mech dept. and had a nice cup of coffee. Next morning, took a nice stroll around the scholars avenue. The conveyance was still cycle rickshaw.

Well that was short trip . Or may be not but mainly with events etc. Next time, I should go with no agenda and just walk around and come back :-)

This is just time pass

I can't believe I have not posted for more than a month. Ahh this is not a good trend :-) Have I lost out on thoughts? Or may be I have stopped posting random crap. But the fact is that the things have been kinda busy at work. Alrite!! same old crap. :-)

Nah I will be back soon with my post on the recent IIT Kharagpur trip.

Mickey Magic Show

Yesterday we went to see the Mickey's magic show. They are traveling all over the world and were in Bangalore as part of their tour.

As usual, the Disney's display was crisp and professional. And should I say, as usual, the organizer was anything but professional.

OK I am complaining as usual. But I am confused or fail to understand or whining or whatever but I fail to understand the lack of common sense where you think it is so common sense based .

1. I bought the tickets online and got the seats assigned. I go to the venue and realize that they have been given to someone else already. Huh? It not just with me. It was with someone else too. Later on they gave us different seats. I say, you dumb folks, is it soo difficult to manage the tickets? I too have organized concerts in the past with a bunch of 20 folks in the past and we could organize these things much more professionally.

2. Next in my whining list is the Koramangala Indoor Stadium. What a shameful construction it could be. Can you imagine I could find a freaking urinal there? There was this small Gents toilet which did not have a urinal. I still fail to believe this fact and wil only be happy to realize that I missed the urinal. But did 100 other folks around me also miss it? ha ha

3. Third , the parent. Folks!! Moms!! Dads. learn how to teach your kids behave. Yes Magic show was a kids show. I have seen many animation movies and childrens' shows in the past but never had seen this kind of unruly mob. Felt like, do we have a mob in the making? Or do we have these incompetent parents who are hell bent on showcasing the fact that their kids are wonder kinds jumping all around like monkeys? Interesting things were what I was hearing from the people sitting near me. So in the magic show, the artists were calling a kid from the audience. Man!! unbelieveable it was to see that he was being mobbed by the kids trying to go the stage. I am sure its the parents who cannot make their kids sit in a disciplined fashion. In fact, the kid with his mom on the seat next to mine started crying desperately when he was not taken to the stage. I get scared at what are these parent teaching their kids? Failure to accept the facts? Failure to accept the failures? I get worried to see these kids growing up into some obsession paranoid full grown individual incapable to accepting failure and willing to do anything to get the things like. Hopefully not at the cost of harming others. I even heard a lady saying these artists should not call one or two children on to the stage. Guys!! get a life OK? You are behaving like a ridiculous loser. If it was her son/daughter, then life very fair huh?!!

Parents get your act straight!! I am not generalizing but I see this so often in Bangalore that I wonder are these parents so clueless?

OK, now that I have vented out my frustration at these frustrating clueless parents, let me tell a little about the show itself. The show was very professional. But it was not out the world. I would rate PC Sorkar at leagues ahead. :-) One funny thing that I noticed in the show was the Cinderella item. It seems that Cinderella is in a really shabby dress and the magician will get her new shoes and dress. And guess what happens when the new dress and shoes were brought in magically? A new lady comes up :-) So different from the original lady. :-) Ah come on. did the magician change her face too? :-)

Overall I would say a crisp show. I wish Riverdance will also visit Bangalore. But do we have the auditorium to hold such a show?

Marasim

Out off the blues, I suddenly remembered Marasim today. This was an album by Gulzar and Jagjit Singh and I think it came out long time back in 1999. What an awesome album it was. Beautiful lyrics by gulzar rendered craftily by Jagjit Singh. In the middle of ghazals, there are short thoughts by Gulzar. I cannot forget those ever . Here are a couple :

Subah Subah ek khwaab ki dastak par
Darwaazaa kholaa dekhaa
Sarhad ke us paar se
Kuchh mehmaan aaye huye hain
Aakhon se maanoos the saare
Chehre saare soone sunaaye
Haath dhoye paanv dhulwaaye
Aangan mein aasan lagwaaye
Aur tandoor pe mote mote rot pakaaye
Aaankh khuli to dekhaa ghar mein koyi nahi tha
Haath lagaa kar dekha to tandoor abhi tak bujhaa nahin thaa
Aur hothon pe meethe gud kaa zehtaa ab tak chipak rahaa thaa
Khwaab thaa shaayad Khwaab hi hogaa
Sarhad par kal raat sunaa hai chalee thi golee
Sarhad par kal raat sunaa hai kuchh khwaabon kaa khoon hua hai

************************************

Mujhko bhi tarqeeb sikhaa koi yaar zulaahe
Aksar tujhko dekhaa hai taanaa bunte
Jab koi taagaa toot gayaa ya khatam hua
Phir se baandh ke aur sira koi jod ke usme
Aage bunne lagte ho
Tere is taane mein lekin
Ek bhi gaanth giraah buntar ki dekh nahin saktaa hai koi
Maine bhi ek baar bunaa thaa ek hi rishta
Lekin uski saari girahein saaf nazar aati hai mere yaar zulaahe
Mujhko bhi tarqeeb sikhaa koi yaar zulaahe

RF and Communications Posts will be on new blog

Just to keep things separate, I have decided that Math, DSP, RF, Communications posts will be on a different blog from now on. So if you are interested in these topics, you may visit :

http://rfandcommunications.blogspot.com

Built To Last

I am currently reading the book "Built To Last" with an intent that at least this time I will read till the end. Everytime one or other thing would come and I would halt the reading. My colleagues have told me that I am using too many phrases and philosophies from that book.

But I think, it is up to us to take what we want and not what we dont want. I personally think this is a great book and is a must read for everyone irrespective of whether they are in sales, marketing or R&D. It is a must read to get some perspectives about dealing with life too. I agree that we are looking through the mirror of author. Well they have done lots of research. But still I agree that we are reading their perspective, their thoughts. But we can always average out and come out with lots of good points.

There are many great points about the book and quite some not so good too. Some companies mentioned by the book as visionary companies may not necessarily be great companies.

Some of the key take aways for personal development as well include :

• You do not have to be street smart.
  
• Be desperate
• Be determined
  
• Be dreamy
  
• Be ready to fall down and get up
  
• Do not be discouraged by failures
  
• Do not be distracted and discouraged by negative feedback
  
• Keep trying whatever it is.
  
• Learn as you keep trying
  
• Do not be bogged down by thinking about a big problem in whole. Think small and keep building.
  
• Try different things
  
• Try with a goal. Well this is same as try with some product in mind.
  
• When things are not working, it is very easy to shun it, give up. And also these are moments when many may say that it is not worth trying. But if your heart says it is worth trying, then listen to your heart. You may be right!You may be wrong. But at the end of the day you would be happy you listened to your heart.
  

Coffee House er Sei Adda

And life goes on....

Walking through the music aisles of Landmark, I stumbled upon a CD of Manna Dey songs titled Coffee House er see Adda ta.... A perennially favorite song of my heart, it did not take me a second to pick it up and purchase it.

Last night when I put the CD in, I did not listen to the first song, second song but the last song first and that was the "coffee house er sei adda ta aaj aar nei"

As the song progresses, as the stanzas progress, you are taken into the reminiscent days of the past. More prominently striking are the teenage days when most of the time is spent in the social shaping. Spent with friends. Spent at college. Spent before tution. Spent after tution. Spent soon after the morning starts. Spent till the evening lasts.

How fascinating were those days... How sweet was it to ride on bicycles. Soon after the school would end, we would bike ourselves towards our homes but would park under a tree on the way to spend some time chatting about everything under the sky. Would it be about the future? Would it be about the exam? Would it be about the beautiful girl passing by? Would it be about the things we want to achieve? Very difficult to predict.

Then those tutions that many of us would attend. Most of us would eagerly wait for the tution to end so that we could bike ourselves fast to the singada/chop shop nearby to enjoy nice chop, singada and chaa. Each of us would take turns every week to feed others or sometimes we would just chip in whatever coins we would have in our pockets...

And days went by... we passed our exams.... We joined colleges....We made new friends....We got jobs....We moved places....We moved countries....We lost contacts....We shed old lives....We entered into new lives....

I am sure all of us were left with memories of those sweet days....

Coffee house er sei adda ta abaar hok ?


P.S : Lot of words, phrases used in the above post are in Bengali. They mean as follows :
Singada : Samosa (in hindi)
Chaa : Tea
Coffee House er sei adda : Time pass group meeting while having a sip of coffee
Aaj aar nei : No longer exists today
Abaar hok ? : Let it happen again ?

Auto Fares in Bangalore

So finally , after a long drama involving strike by Autos demanding the hike in fares, finally it was official that auto fares have increased starting friday, february 1. The rates have been increased to Rs. 14 as minimum and Rs. 7 per km there after .

We make a lot of noise about this increase. Ofcourse this noise is within ourselves and our friends and it is not like "We all will stop getting into autos". :-) That would be funny to observe you know. Suddenly autos are running around empty and people refusing to get into them.

Well, I think we should also appreciate the fact that the rates had to increase and should increase. This is, after I had this interesting discussion with the driver of the auto in which I was going home on January 31, the night before the new fares were to come into effect. He told me how the gas rates have increased to Rs. 37 (I cannot confirm this figure). He told me how this increase has made the restaurant owners to increase the food price. And how, now he has to pay Rs. 7 for his cup of coffee. It all made sense you know.

It seems that this new rate is for some number of years or till the gas rates increase, whichever happens first.

But when I was telling to this to my colleague, he asked me, how is it possible that the rate is Rs. 5 per km in Mumbai? Well, I dont have an answer. May be, Mumbai is cheaper than Bangalore. :-)

So, next time, think about that cup of coffee....