Nothing surprising though.
I bought a car. A used car for USD2K. (Budget rose 100% from my last Japan life). I am in the process of transferring the registration to my name. Very simple steps compared to what the International schools out here have as their admission procedure.
1. I need to get a parking lot. Luckily I have parking included in my apartment rent. Last time, I used the car for one year. I paid more for parking in that one year, than the car purchase price. Anyway, this time I just had to get the papers from teh apartment office. The location of the apartment, the drive way, exact position of parking, driving directions till the slot. With their seal.
2. Next fill the Shako shome no youshi. This is the application form for parking permission. I filled in the details here. Car make, height, length, width. Police has to confirm that this car can be parked in this slot with no issues. Thats why this is being handled at the police station.
Police? Yes, in Japan there is no traffic police. Or in other words there is only traffic police. Traffic and parking pre occupies the police force here. You can see No parking, No stopping signs on any road here. At a minimum No Parking. If you see a road with no such sign? Well, by default all places in Japan are No Parking unless the expensive P is not found. In Tokyo this P would cost around 7-8 dollar per hour. In our office building, they have a full day scheme for 24 dollars a day.
So the police will always be patroling for these parking violations. You can see small Alto - Zen varieties of cute police cars driving past the parked vehicles. They use a long chalk which they use to mark the tyres-to-road line while they drive. They will then come again in 30 minutes. If the car is not moved - if the line over tyre and road are still aligned - they will put a small tag. You need to take this to police station and pay the fine. Could be like 100 to 200 dollars depending on the area.
Effectively the police here do nothing else than parking checks and traffic violations. Recently there was a house bugarly reported to which the Police said on the spot that they cant do anything. The burglars would have fled the country already. The default assumption is that, all mischief done by Chinese. And police cannot do anything, right? Not just me, even the Prime Minister knows the Police cant do anything. Read this http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4287899.stm
So now you dont wonder why only 1 out of 5 counters in the police station is handling non-traffic crimes.
Information / Reception
Consultation for crime victims
Registration of garage
Application for the use of roads (dont know what this is)
Parking matters (probably this is where parking fines are handled)
And on the 4th floor there was a counter for paying the fees too:)
Tuesday, August 9
Monday, August 8
Daiba and the turns in history
Well, it did come. On Friday night - must be actually saturday very early morning. I was sleeping and suddenly woke up and Mother Earth was calling me:)
The building was shivering and I could see the tuk-tuk sound as the building flexes to contain the quake. Guess it was around 5 or so, but lasted only some 10 sec.
Anyway did not affect the good weekend. And what would be very interesting is the pics. These are some pics of Tokyo night view taken from around 100 ft + above sea level. Need to know more about Odaiba, read at http://wikitravel.org/en/Tokyo/Odaiba
The cannon batteries Japanese placed then, if they had fired, the world history would have been different. Anyway the Perry black ships was a big turning point. You can actually link them to WWII also. Last week, it was a prayer day at Hiroshima. 150,000 souls departed in less than 48 hours - 60 years back. A lot of discussion still lingers around. Was it needed? Well, it was necessary, says one US military veteran. Otherwise it would have costed **** estimated lives of American soldiers to invade Japan. And this was cruicial to demonstrate to Russia what US has. US did not want Russia to come in and take over as they did in Europe.
If you can link Perry to WWII, you can easily link the current events to a future WWIII. Perry's black ships are now no longer just ships. These are now replaced with treaties, taxing, political pressure and etcetera.
The building was shivering and I could see the tuk-tuk sound as the building flexes to contain the quake. Guess it was around 5 or so, but lasted only some 10 sec.
Anyway did not affect the good weekend. And what would be very interesting is the pics. These are some pics of Tokyo night view taken from around 100 ft + above sea level. Need to know more about Odaiba, read at http://wikitravel.org/en/Tokyo/Odaiba
The cannon batteries Japanese placed then, if they had fired, the world history would have been different. Anyway the Perry black ships was a big turning point. You can actually link them to WWII also. Last week, it was a prayer day at Hiroshima. 150,000 souls departed in less than 48 hours - 60 years back. A lot of discussion still lingers around. Was it needed? Well, it was necessary, says one US military veteran. Otherwise it would have costed **** estimated lives of American soldiers to invade Japan. And this was cruicial to demonstrate to Russia what US has. US did not want Russia to come in and take over as they did in Europe.
If you can link Perry to WWII, you can easily link the current events to a future WWIII. Perry's black ships are now no longer just ships. These are now replaced with treaties, taxing, political pressure and etcetera.
Thursday, August 4
Monday, August 1
The 'irresistible cocktail' that sealed Japan's fate - Books - Entertainment
The 'irresistible cocktail' that sealed Japan's fate
July 31, 2005 The Age
Saving lives was just one reason for dropping the bomb, according to a new book. Paul Heinrichs examines the arguments.
Could the fate of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have been avoided - or was the nuclear bomb's use justifiable in the context?
In the nuclear weapons debate, where opinions are highly polarised, there is an interesting new perspective. British TV drama and documentary director Stephen Walker has written an account of the three-week lead-up to the first dropping of the nuclear bomb in Shockwave. The Countdown to Hiroshima.
Following his earlier 60-minute documentary for the BBC and History Channel on the countdown's final 24 hours, the book focuses on each person's role.
Where he deals with US Secretary for War Henry Stimson's final approval on July 25, 1945, for the bomb to be dropped, Walker makes a striking and probably controversial statement.
"Of course, the decision was always inevitable," he writes. "So inevitable, perhaps, that it could hardly be called a decision. Everything conspired to that end. There were so many urgent reasons to drop the bomb. Together they made an irresistible cocktail."
Walker, 43, explained why. "The most obvious reason why the bomb was dropped, the one that everybody tells, was to save lives - to win the war decisively and quickly and save lives."
He cites his research into the minutes of a critical meeting on June 18, 1945, of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff with the recently appointed President Truman (following the death of Roosevelt in April 1945) to discuss the invasion of Japan.
It was two months after the German capitulation, but finishing off Japan was proving incredibly difficult. The meeting took place as the final battles were being fought for Okinawa, the last Japanese outpost before the home islands.
Although only a small island, Okinawa took three months of vicious, hand-to-hand fighting and the loss of 12,000 American and 107,000 Japanese soldiers, plus an estimated 100,000 Japanese and Okinawan civilians.
The plan was first for a massive invasion of Kyushu, the southern island, on November 1, followed four months later by a second invasion on the plains near Tokyo. More than 750,000 Americans would be involved. At issue was the number of casualties expected.
Walker said that although there is little that is specific - one estimate by General George Marshall was a loss of 31,000 men killed or wounded in the first 30 days - "they are talking about very serious casualties".
He said it was clear Truman reluctantly gave his agreement for the invasion plan "and the only recourse he knew or believed would have been the bomb to prevent that slaughter from happening.
"It is also obvious that whether or not the bomb did save lives ultimately - I'm not into that equation business - it clearly ended the war more quickly, and revisionist historians who say that it didn't are fools, in my opinion.
"It's obvious - you drop a bomb and nine days later Japan has surrendered. That would not have happened without the bomb."
Walker does not ignore other elements. He believes the US was also seeking to win the war quickly, and with a demonstration of nuclear deterrent to Stalin, because it feared Russia was poised to send troops across the border into Japanese-occupied Manchuria (it was), possibly into South-East Asia, and even threaten Australia.
After seeing much of Europe swallowed by the Soviets in the wash-up of the war there, the US did not want a repeat in Asia, Walker said.
"It was critical to Truman to drop that bomb and end that war quickly before the Russians could do it, and at the same time, show the Russians what an atom bomb looked like," Walker said.
As evidence of US thinking, he cites a document he found in the US National Archives, written within two weeks of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which contains a list of every major Russian city, its area, population - and the number of nuclear bombs required to wipe them all out. The answer was 204.
"There must have been a top-secret target committee somewhere in the Pentagon that had been put to work to find out how destructive these bombs could be when used - if used - on the Soviets," he said.
Asked if the bomb had been dropped gratuitously, Walker said: "I wouldn't say the bomb was dropped because they hated the Japanese but I would say the bomb was able to be dropped because they hated the Japanese - a slightly different point.
"Understandably. You know, the Japanese started the war, they had the most horrific record on POWs, which had already started to come out in a really big way.
"There was, absolutely without question, an orchestrated campaign, particularly in the American media, to caricature the Japanese as a slightly sub-human race."
In considering the atomic bomb's use, Walker likes to look at what might have happened had it not been used, given the enormous process and cost of preparations of the bomb.
"Suppose the war had gone on and American soldiers had died - and other Allies - and the electorate turned around said said 'My God, you've spent $US2billion of taxpayers' money on a weapon that could have ended this war, quite possibly, and you chose not to use it because you were squeamish about the Japanese?'
"Put yourself in that mindset - how can you stop it?"
Add to that the power and charisma of the military administrator of the project, General Leslie Groves, "a tough sonofabitch" who "for a few weeks here was the most powerful man on earth".
"This bomb was his baby. He had made it happen. Everybody was in thrall to this guy. He was the puppeteer behind the scenes. Truman, frankly, was a message boy, really. He did what he had to do, but Groves was punching it through," said Walker.
Groves' only defeat was Japan's ancient capital Kyoto, which he described as Stimson's "pet city" - Stimson had been there twice, and ordered it off the list of targets. Hiroshima took its place at the head of the queue.
July 31, 2005 The Age
Saving lives was just one reason for dropping the bomb, according to a new book. Paul Heinrichs examines the arguments.
Could the fate of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have been avoided - or was the nuclear bomb's use justifiable in the context?
In the nuclear weapons debate, where opinions are highly polarised, there is an interesting new perspective. British TV drama and documentary director Stephen Walker has written an account of the three-week lead-up to the first dropping of the nuclear bomb in Shockwave. The Countdown to Hiroshima.
Following his earlier 60-minute documentary for the BBC and History Channel on the countdown's final 24 hours, the book focuses on each person's role.
Where he deals with US Secretary for War Henry Stimson's final approval on July 25, 1945, for the bomb to be dropped, Walker makes a striking and probably controversial statement.
"Of course, the decision was always inevitable," he writes. "So inevitable, perhaps, that it could hardly be called a decision. Everything conspired to that end. There were so many urgent reasons to drop the bomb. Together they made an irresistible cocktail."
Walker, 43, explained why. "The most obvious reason why the bomb was dropped, the one that everybody tells, was to save lives - to win the war decisively and quickly and save lives."
He cites his research into the minutes of a critical meeting on June 18, 1945, of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff with the recently appointed President Truman (following the death of Roosevelt in April 1945) to discuss the invasion of Japan.
It was two months after the German capitulation, but finishing off Japan was proving incredibly difficult. The meeting took place as the final battles were being fought for Okinawa, the last Japanese outpost before the home islands.
Although only a small island, Okinawa took three months of vicious, hand-to-hand fighting and the loss of 12,000 American and 107,000 Japanese soldiers, plus an estimated 100,000 Japanese and Okinawan civilians.
The plan was first for a massive invasion of Kyushu, the southern island, on November 1, followed four months later by a second invasion on the plains near Tokyo. More than 750,000 Americans would be involved. At issue was the number of casualties expected.
Walker said that although there is little that is specific - one estimate by General George Marshall was a loss of 31,000 men killed or wounded in the first 30 days - "they are talking about very serious casualties".
He said it was clear Truman reluctantly gave his agreement for the invasion plan "and the only recourse he knew or believed would have been the bomb to prevent that slaughter from happening.
"It is also obvious that whether or not the bomb did save lives ultimately - I'm not into that equation business - it clearly ended the war more quickly, and revisionist historians who say that it didn't are fools, in my opinion.
"It's obvious - you drop a bomb and nine days later Japan has surrendered. That would not have happened without the bomb."
Walker does not ignore other elements. He believes the US was also seeking to win the war quickly, and with a demonstration of nuclear deterrent to Stalin, because it feared Russia was poised to send troops across the border into Japanese-occupied Manchuria (it was), possibly into South-East Asia, and even threaten Australia.
After seeing much of Europe swallowed by the Soviets in the wash-up of the war there, the US did not want a repeat in Asia, Walker said.
"It was critical to Truman to drop that bomb and end that war quickly before the Russians could do it, and at the same time, show the Russians what an atom bomb looked like," Walker said.
As evidence of US thinking, he cites a document he found in the US National Archives, written within two weeks of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which contains a list of every major Russian city, its area, population - and the number of nuclear bombs required to wipe them all out. The answer was 204.
"There must have been a top-secret target committee somewhere in the Pentagon that had been put to work to find out how destructive these bombs could be when used - if used - on the Soviets," he said.
Asked if the bomb had been dropped gratuitously, Walker said: "I wouldn't say the bomb was dropped because they hated the Japanese but I would say the bomb was able to be dropped because they hated the Japanese - a slightly different point.
"Understandably. You know, the Japanese started the war, they had the most horrific record on POWs, which had already started to come out in a really big way.
"There was, absolutely without question, an orchestrated campaign, particularly in the American media, to caricature the Japanese as a slightly sub-human race."
In considering the atomic bomb's use, Walker likes to look at what might have happened had it not been used, given the enormous process and cost of preparations of the bomb.
"Suppose the war had gone on and American soldiers had died - and other Allies - and the electorate turned around said said 'My God, you've spent $US2billion of taxpayers' money on a weapon that could have ended this war, quite possibly, and you chose not to use it because you were squeamish about the Japanese?'
"Put yourself in that mindset - how can you stop it?"
Add to that the power and charisma of the military administrator of the project, General Leslie Groves, "a tough sonofabitch" who "for a few weeks here was the most powerful man on earth".
"This bomb was his baby. He had made it happen. Everybody was in thrall to this guy. He was the puppeteer behind the scenes. Truman, frankly, was a message boy, really. He did what he had to do, but Groves was punching it through," said Walker.
Groves' only defeat was Japan's ancient capital Kyoto, which he described as Stimson's "pet city" - Stimson had been there twice, and ordered it off the list of targets. Hiroshima took its place at the head of the queue.
Wednesday, June 1
Application to live in Planet Earth
Just took the printouts.
Going through the pages, stacking them neatly in a file, my memories went past the days after SSLC. Going to the colleges, buying application forms, filling them. It was rather an excitement then. Later, during pre-degree, entrance applications were much more than mere excitement. That was really thought of as the turning point of life. Probably they were - good or bad is something we dont know. Thank God, he never gave us a clue to think that way.
The pre degree forms used to be 2-3 pages? May be. Then an acknowledgement slip. And an interview notification slip.
Entrance form used to be thicker. One sheet was statistical questions. And it was computer read etc etc. First write in pencil, verify and then only write in pen - was the rule. You cannot afford to be careless with your life. Passport application form was the most confusing. That was thick. I got help from a friend to get it filled. The earlier Tax forms were too. Now they are simple excel sheets. Anyway thanks to TDS and no other income, life is as saral as Saral.
Todays printout was for just three schools. No need to go there. You can download from the web. Print them. Fill them. Submit and they will tell forget or not. Anyways we are used to it. The final year of engg was full of this activity. I remember me and Suresh used to combine the work - typing and printing application and sending them en masse thus saving a lot of money for everyone. Funniest incident was when we sent the IES application en masse (to save postage, again) and they replied in separate envelopes for each person. But to the same address. Room no.xx, Mens Hostel. The post office got into a technical snag. 11 of the envelopes bore female names and how they can deliver to Mens hostel? Well, we had to talk to the post master and then parade the 11 girls to the post office. Still we felt it was worth the savings we had in postage. Rs.100 was very big that time. Semester fees was Rs180. And monthly expenses would be like Rs 300.
Well, I probably never filled out so thick application forms. One was 10 pages. What is so much there to have in 10 pages?
Page 1. Checklist. Yupe, good idea. Earlier also many forms had this sheet I remember. It has some additional information and fees structure etc.
Page 2. Here it starts. Applicant info. Family Info. Photograph. Address. Phone. Fax. Mobile. Email. Fine. Easy.
Page 3. Continuation. Previous academic background. Earlier disciplianary actions faced. (My, I remember being put outside the class for 5 min on Aug 14, 1984). Signature. Date. So it should be over, good.
Page 4. Confidential Recommendation. From previous school. Wow.. so many questions - academic and personal.
Page 5. Confidential Rec. Continuation. What words come to mind to describe the applicants major strengths and weaknesses. Five such type questions. Signature, seal and date. Over?
Page 6, 7. Well one rec is not enough. Need two sets. Fine, understand. Anyway they cannot take a risk there. Should not end up like US training suicide pilots in their own land. Agreed.
Page 8. Thankyou, they have enclosed a letter to the previous school counsellor for filling the rec.
Page 9. Health history. Allergy etc etc.
Page 10. Medical examination sheet. Well, this I have done for employment at CDOT and later at TI too. NeST was convinced I am a healthy dynamic chap with nothing to worry.
Now, I have to fill these out and submit. Before that, I need to get to page 1 for the checklist. Ok, they need one more thing. Standardised achievement test scores. Eg. Stanford Achievement Test etc. Hmm.. none exists.
Interesting. I need to sit down and fill them today. I can do only half. They have agreed ot accept that way and submit the confidential rec later. I need to check with Bangalore and see if they woudl be willing to fill in customer rec forms for these schools. And if they would send this directly. Once I sent the applications, if vacancy exists, they will schedule an interview and inform.
Doing an MBA has always been a wish for me. While at CDOT I started doing IGNOU PGDFM. Applied for 4 papers in first sem (max allowed). Decided to take only 3. Down to two when exams came up. Did only one finally. Got A+ for that. By that time I moved to NeST. Then travel and things - I could never do it again. Joining TI, I am asked to do MBA. But last one year, I was always in travel again and hence nothing happened. God Willing, need to make sure I am on it at least this year.
BTW, the application form I talked of above is not for my MBA. Thats the application form for my daughters admission into international school in Japan. She is applying for Grade 1. Confidential Recs from KG is what applies for her.
Believe me, we were too lucky to have lived at a time when living was more fun than a task. Really. What if we had only Ambys and Fiats on the road?
Going through the pages, stacking them neatly in a file, my memories went past the days after SSLC. Going to the colleges, buying application forms, filling them. It was rather an excitement then. Later, during pre-degree, entrance applications were much more than mere excitement. That was really thought of as the turning point of life. Probably they were - good or bad is something we dont know. Thank God, he never gave us a clue to think that way.
The pre degree forms used to be 2-3 pages? May be. Then an acknowledgement slip. And an interview notification slip.
Entrance form used to be thicker. One sheet was statistical questions. And it was computer read etc etc. First write in pencil, verify and then only write in pen - was the rule. You cannot afford to be careless with your life. Passport application form was the most confusing. That was thick. I got help from a friend to get it filled. The earlier Tax forms were too. Now they are simple excel sheets. Anyway thanks to TDS and no other income, life is as saral as Saral.
Todays printout was for just three schools. No need to go there. You can download from the web. Print them. Fill them. Submit and they will tell forget or not. Anyways we are used to it. The final year of engg was full of this activity. I remember me and Suresh used to combine the work - typing and printing application and sending them en masse thus saving a lot of money for everyone. Funniest incident was when we sent the IES application en masse (to save postage, again) and they replied in separate envelopes for each person. But to the same address. Room no.xx, Mens Hostel. The post office got into a technical snag. 11 of the envelopes bore female names and how they can deliver to Mens hostel? Well, we had to talk to the post master and then parade the 11 girls to the post office. Still we felt it was worth the savings we had in postage. Rs.100 was very big that time. Semester fees was Rs180. And monthly expenses would be like Rs 300.
Well, I probably never filled out so thick application forms. One was 10 pages. What is so much there to have in 10 pages?
Page 1. Checklist. Yupe, good idea. Earlier also many forms had this sheet I remember. It has some additional information and fees structure etc.
Page 2. Here it starts. Applicant info. Family Info. Photograph. Address. Phone. Fax. Mobile. Email. Fine. Easy.
Page 3. Continuation. Previous academic background. Earlier disciplianary actions faced. (My, I remember being put outside the class for 5 min on Aug 14, 1984). Signature. Date. So it should be over, good.
Page 4. Confidential Recommendation. From previous school. Wow.. so many questions - academic and personal.
Page 5. Confidential Rec. Continuation. What words come to mind to describe the applicants major strengths and weaknesses. Five such type questions. Signature, seal and date. Over?
Page 6, 7. Well one rec is not enough. Need two sets. Fine, understand. Anyway they cannot take a risk there. Should not end up like US training suicide pilots in their own land. Agreed.
Page 8. Thankyou, they have enclosed a letter to the previous school counsellor for filling the rec.
Page 9. Health history. Allergy etc etc.
Page 10. Medical examination sheet. Well, this I have done for employment at CDOT and later at TI too. NeST was convinced I am a healthy dynamic chap with nothing to worry.
Now, I have to fill these out and submit. Before that, I need to get to page 1 for the checklist. Ok, they need one more thing. Standardised achievement test scores. Eg. Stanford Achievement Test etc. Hmm.. none exists.
Interesting. I need to sit down and fill them today. I can do only half. They have agreed ot accept that way and submit the confidential rec later. I need to check with Bangalore and see if they woudl be willing to fill in customer rec forms for these schools. And if they would send this directly. Once I sent the applications, if vacancy exists, they will schedule an interview and inform.
Doing an MBA has always been a wish for me. While at CDOT I started doing IGNOU PGDFM. Applied for 4 papers in first sem (max allowed). Decided to take only 3. Down to two when exams came up. Did only one finally. Got A+ for that. By that time I moved to NeST. Then travel and things - I could never do it again. Joining TI, I am asked to do MBA. But last one year, I was always in travel again and hence nothing happened. God Willing, need to make sure I am on it at least this year.
BTW, the application form I talked of above is not for my MBA. Thats the application form for my daughters admission into international school in Japan. She is applying for Grade 1. Confidential Recs from KG is what applies for her.
Believe me, we were too lucky to have lived at a time when living was more fun than a task. Really. What if we had only Ambys and Fiats on the road?
Tuesday, May 24
Democracy, Free World and Freedom of Press
Democracy (di-'mä-kr&-sE) n. The kind of governance observed in late 20th / early 21st century USA
Whatever you may say, for me, this is the most contemporary definition. The most popular one. Why not accept that. In a recent BBC show, someone was ferociously taking this stand. US has been successful, why not follow them? Well, you might then say that its only a minority that supports their view, but just because of power and money they are able propound the notion of the best democracy.
If I agree that view, then where is democracy? Do we have in India? Do we have in Congress? Do we have in CPM? Don’t we have a few set of decision makers everywhere?
All hoax. They tell us voting rights is a sacred cow and you need to worship that. You should exercise your voting rights and put your seal on one of those symbols. Why symbols and not names? Well, we do have a lot of illiterate who cannot read. If someone cannot read, how can he take a decision on who should lead the country? Stop - you are an anti poor "boorshwa". Pro poor means that you keep them uneducated, tell them the sacred cow is the ballot paper and worship means putting the stamp right on the so-and-so symbol. Get them to study classes and brain wash them on politically motivated theories. Tell them they are getting educated. Keep them loyal.
Condi Rice just finished a WW inspection of di-'mä-kr&-sE. The tour report is getting reviewed and the bosses will soon issue the next action plan. If the anti-democratic Marx said "goal justifies action" the di-'mä-kr&-sE advocates "actions justify goal". What if no WMD in Iraq. The action was good. What if Osama is still at large. What if Mussharaf is still CEO-turned President.
Condi has aired some observation without waiting for the action plan. She found that Russian democracy is not really there. A lot more to go. These godless chaps are killing di-'mä-kr&-sE with central government appointing governors. BAD. Should be the other way. Governor deciding on the President. Like Jeff Bush designing ballot paper favouring George Bush in 2000 election. Putin did not sit pretty. He pointed to the fact that American President has been elected by court and not people in 2000. Well, what a battle it was. Really enjoyed that. I guess India should send election observators to US next time. Make sure the ballot papers are designed well. Give them some of these machines too. Oh no, Americans get confused once you put anything new into their hands. And the press will cry, India tried to influence US election.
In a way 2000 was better. The di-'mä-kr&-sE went till court. It failed permenantly there. It did give up forever. So we did not have a fight in 2004. di-'mä-kr&-sE failed and Bush won. A clearly dead cat. Churchill said "The best argument against democracy is a five minute talk with the average voter". Blair and Bush now proved that you don’t have to do even that. The new proof is that it failed to get Bush and Blair out of power. Right after results came, Americans realised this and are looking for migrating to Canada!
Putin gave another instance - The largest democracy of India is having Governors appointed by the center. True. And we have these guys as the guardians of demo-crazy. Very soon we will have a law that would enable governors to screen the candidate list and approve like the Iranian guardian council. See how boldly Buta Singh kept democracy safe in Bihar. When he found horse trading (with a tilt towards NDA) he put his foot down and recommended dissolution of assembly. Well, we cannot tolerate this. We are not a people used to horse trading. And least when it is against the interest of ruling party in Delhi. Well, he was guarding democracy there for quite sometime with a suspended assembly. He thought the horses would themselves find their master without being traded.
Buta and Bush. Buta works for Congress. Bush also works for Congress. His own man in Afghanistan has been to US begging for a couple of files where he could put down his "President of Afghanistan" stamp. Bush is driven by the absolute desire that di-'mä-kr&-sE should reign. Not Hamid Karzai. He sent the psuedo-boss back home - Man, be in office every morning, watch CNN and go home in the evening. I will tell you when I think I can give some job for you. I know your people are being so-called harrassed in our prisons. Please try to understand our policy. Finally these are some murderers who are "motivated by something the west can never comprehend". Like Nayanar once went on record. "ethayalum chattathu RSS kaaralle?"
Thanks to Blogs and success of American propaganda - nowadays no one worried about freedom of press. Many cases it is over freedom. Like chasing Diana to death. Like selling imaginary weapons to George Fernandez. Like seducing Shakti Kapoor. Why even - the COPS in CNN was showing them catching prostitutes. One was a policeman in a clown costume driving by and getting the girls - recording the voice until she utters xx dollars. She is caught. The other is a police woman waving at passerby cars, offering dates and fixing up rates for service. Once done, cops come in.
Press is not free to report everything though. Why else Newsweek should have withdrawn a news report? . Clearly they are afraid. Why Tehelka is struggling these days? Why, of late, Sun is being threatened of actions for publishing Saddam photos? Well, I was happy on one thing. US understands Jeneva accord. They confirmed this is a clear violation of Jeneva accord - Not a full stop yet - while the people involved has clearly violated, US as a nation is not responsible for this violation. Now what? It could be a few US soldiers. Can you try them? Sorry sir. You cannot try US soldiers for war crimes in International War Tribunal. If you really want US to be questioned, you will need to establish di-'mä-kr&-sE in the rest of the world. Then you come back and tell us about international bodies which we are not in our control.
That’s another argument why you should go my definition. Blair will soon be asking Oxford to redefine the word as US Congress drafts it. If you want to question that, you need to follow it first. If NC(I) can get votes for you, why should you worry about Karunakaran or Muraleedharan.
Deepastambham thulayatte
Namukku kittanam panam
Whatever you may say, for me, this is the most contemporary definition. The most popular one. Why not accept that. In a recent BBC show, someone was ferociously taking this stand. US has been successful, why not follow them? Well, you might then say that its only a minority that supports their view, but just because of power and money they are able propound the notion of the best democracy.
If I agree that view, then where is democracy? Do we have in India? Do we have in Congress? Do we have in CPM? Don’t we have a few set of decision makers everywhere?
All hoax. They tell us voting rights is a sacred cow and you need to worship that. You should exercise your voting rights and put your seal on one of those symbols. Why symbols and not names? Well, we do have a lot of illiterate who cannot read. If someone cannot read, how can he take a decision on who should lead the country? Stop - you are an anti poor "boorshwa". Pro poor means that you keep them uneducated, tell them the sacred cow is the ballot paper and worship means putting the stamp right on the so-and-so symbol. Get them to study classes and brain wash them on politically motivated theories. Tell them they are getting educated. Keep them loyal.
Condi Rice just finished a WW inspection of di-'mä-kr&-sE. The tour report is getting reviewed and the bosses will soon issue the next action plan. If the anti-democratic Marx said "goal justifies action" the di-'mä-kr&-sE advocates "actions justify goal". What if no WMD in Iraq. The action was good. What if Osama is still at large. What if Mussharaf is still CEO-turned President.
Condi has aired some observation without waiting for the action plan. She found that Russian democracy is not really there. A lot more to go. These godless chaps are killing di-'mä-kr&-sE with central government appointing governors. BAD. Should be the other way. Governor deciding on the President. Like Jeff Bush designing ballot paper favouring George Bush in 2000 election. Putin did not sit pretty. He pointed to the fact that American President has been elected by court and not people in 2000. Well, what a battle it was. Really enjoyed that. I guess India should send election observators to US next time. Make sure the ballot papers are designed well. Give them some of these machines too. Oh no, Americans get confused once you put anything new into their hands. And the press will cry, India tried to influence US election.
In a way 2000 was better. The di-'mä-kr&-sE went till court. It failed permenantly there. It did give up forever. So we did not have a fight in 2004. di-'mä-kr&-sE failed and Bush won. A clearly dead cat. Churchill said "The best argument against democracy is a five minute talk with the average voter". Blair and Bush now proved that you don’t have to do even that. The new proof is that it failed to get Bush and Blair out of power. Right after results came, Americans realised this and are looking for migrating to Canada!
Putin gave another instance - The largest democracy of India is having Governors appointed by the center. True. And we have these guys as the guardians of demo-crazy. Very soon we will have a law that would enable governors to screen the candidate list and approve like the Iranian guardian council. See how boldly Buta Singh kept democracy safe in Bihar. When he found horse trading (with a tilt towards NDA) he put his foot down and recommended dissolution of assembly. Well, we cannot tolerate this. We are not a people used to horse trading. And least when it is against the interest of ruling party in Delhi. Well, he was guarding democracy there for quite sometime with a suspended assembly. He thought the horses would themselves find their master without being traded.
Buta and Bush. Buta works for Congress. Bush also works for Congress. His own man in Afghanistan has been to US begging for a couple of files where he could put down his "President of Afghanistan" stamp. Bush is driven by the absolute desire that di-'mä-kr&-sE should reign. Not Hamid Karzai. He sent the psuedo-boss back home - Man, be in office every morning, watch CNN and go home in the evening. I will tell you when I think I can give some job for you. I know your people are being so-called harrassed in our prisons. Please try to understand our policy. Finally these are some murderers who are "motivated by something the west can never comprehend". Like Nayanar once went on record. "ethayalum chattathu RSS kaaralle?"
Thanks to Blogs and success of American propaganda - nowadays no one worried about freedom of press. Many cases it is over freedom. Like chasing Diana to death. Like selling imaginary weapons to George Fernandez. Like seducing Shakti Kapoor. Why even - the COPS in CNN was showing them catching prostitutes. One was a policeman in a clown costume driving by and getting the girls - recording the voice until she utters xx dollars. She is caught. The other is a police woman waving at passerby cars, offering dates and fixing up rates for service. Once done, cops come in.
Press is not free to report everything though. Why else Newsweek should have withdrawn a news report? . Clearly they are afraid. Why Tehelka is struggling these days? Why, of late, Sun is being threatened of actions for publishing Saddam photos? Well, I was happy on one thing. US understands Jeneva accord. They confirmed this is a clear violation of Jeneva accord - Not a full stop yet - while the people involved has clearly violated, US as a nation is not responsible for this violation. Now what? It could be a few US soldiers. Can you try them? Sorry sir. You cannot try US soldiers for war crimes in International War Tribunal. If you really want US to be questioned, you will need to establish di-'mä-kr&-sE in the rest of the world. Then you come back and tell us about international bodies which we are not in our control.
That’s another argument why you should go my definition. Blair will soon be asking Oxford to redefine the word as US Congress drafts it. If you want to question that, you need to follow it first. If NC(I) can get votes for you, why should you worry about Karunakaran or Muraleedharan.
Deepastambham thulayatte
Namukku kittanam panam
Sunday, February 13
Just another flight
More that half the distance is over. 3500 covered. Another 2500 to go. In miles.
I never knew the flight path was to be so close to artic. Thought I would fly over India. It took off straight north from Narita. Till it hit the russian shore, then turned left. Then the curve - may be the straight line in spherical trigonometry - it crossed a couple of xxxxvsk's. At this time, the screen shows the plane icon crossing the Ural mountains. Don’t remember the names. Never liked geography in schools - never thought I would see places too. Ural almost starts from the Artic ocean and comes down with a little leftward bend. Must be ice tipped if that is what it means by the white shades on screen. On the right is the Western Siberian lowland. The plane is almost skitring the artic. If I had known, I would have asked for a window seat. Something which I started hating a long time back.
This is Alitalia from Narita to Milano. The real name of Milan. On my first ever trip to Europe.
Italy for me was Sonia. And the place of thugs - an info I learnt after the reports of handbag snatch story from Tara. Yup, the guys look almost that way. Is Sonia really from this place? She does not look so! I normally take the airline as the representative culture of the country. Alitalia is just west. Lufthansa is the only exception I have seen. I pressed what it looked like attendant call button for a glass of water. Hours later, someone came down to switch it off. Great job. I don’t expect better anyway!
I can see some non-vsk names now. St. Petersburg, Gorki etc. Moscow we crossed already. Via much north of it.
Coming back to Alitalia - its flying made easy. Really easy, for the crew. One hour after take off, comes Orange juice. Another hour and the lunch. The Muslim Meal was good. That leaves UA alone - Muslim meal, bad. Any other meal, bad. Juice came once again a few hours later, and then late into this 9:30, they don’t seem to be bothering about dinner. I got the first row seat - but for the cup of water for my medicines, I need to walk till the tail.
This is a long long flight. I never bothered to check how long it would take. Guess this will be like 11 hours. So long I have not taken this long a journey. The LH form Bangalore to Dallas gets a better mid-flight stop. Today, its almost nil. I get so close to Cannes, my destination - its just to cross the southern Alps taking an hour or less. Bad planning, Riyaz. My home time gets to 9:30. Thanks to some early flight nap, I don’t feel sleepy now. And I did not take any books to read. So the only thing I can do will be to empty out the Dell battery. It says another 4.5 hours. And I have a spare one - full charge.
Interesting - for the past one hour, we've been chasing the sun. The head of the plane still wants to play while the tail is getting to dinner. The picture has almost been static. Probably it will remain so till we land in Milano. The arrival time is past six in the evening. Tired chasing the sun for another 4.5 hours, we will concede defeat. God Willing. Why do they plot the plane so big on the map? Appears like there is such a fine line between day and night. Thinner than the length of a B777! In those younger days, there was some line to mark day and night. These days, donno when day ends and night starts.
A long time since I logged any travel. Pre-marriage love letters were the only docs that had any travellogues. They were all but burnt recently - when my then-fiancee realised that she has got me fully within her grip! So no more records. Some of them, the Japan-US flights and back. And the Seatac shuttles. And of a cute little Skywest from Seatac to Portland(?). Of the missing calender days and mid-day nights. Of the magnificent views of the mighty Mt.Rainier. The beautiful runways at SFO, the queues for the runway clearance. Today it’s the story of a long dusk. The missing view of the Artic ocean. Today, sitting in the middle row between two Japanese - one a guy who kills his time on movies and books and on my left, a mystery girl, who keeps on fast forwarding the video, listens to iPod and keep a handbound kind of, old-but-well-maintained book on the table tray, to wake up suddenly and jot a few lines in English. The book makes her a mystery girl - it’s a pure hardcopy version of a well run blog. Some pages have some clippings attached, some visiting cards and things like that. The only logging I can do is by looking at the big screen in front of me!
On the next leg of the journey, its crossing Alps. But will be to late to see anything down below. Mandai san warns me that the planes are propellor ones, get cancelled so often due to heavy mist and so on. On the way back, may be I should try train. I have been fancied a lot of the European train sceneries. Probably that would be good to log about.
Merci and Ciao!
Tuesday, February 1
Of Glories and Frailties
While we climb up the glories of technology, tsunamis humble us reminding our frailties.
We talk about great technologies that keep humans together, of great communication gadgets and systems and the hottest stocks these days crawl along the technology that can search out anything anywhere. There we get unbelievable news of someone reporting "Yeah, we got the message, unfortunately we dont have contact info of anyone in that part of the world" and someone faxing the most critical info to a wrong fax number - hmm...sorry... the ministry changed a year ago.
We had a space shuttle landing on a Saturn moon taking instructions from the earth just two days before this.
We do have UNs and Olympics that tries to lie on ourselves that we believe we are part of an earth community. Does anyone of us believe UN is a "man's" parliament. That the start and end ceremonies of the great Olympics truly embody a sense of one community? Who can we fool? Only someone outside the earth? Probably tsunamis and such natural calamities - which are from the other world. Only they could bring some kind of unity among us. A role for the UN. A role for the military rather than just pulling triggers of bloodshed.
Anyway I found that frailties need be focused on. Glories and Glorified honors or "honorified" glories need attention too. I have created a separate space for all tech talk here
We talk about great technologies that keep humans together, of great communication gadgets and systems and the hottest stocks these days crawl along the technology that can search out anything anywhere. There we get unbelievable news of someone reporting "Yeah, we got the message, unfortunately we dont have contact info of anyone in that part of the world" and someone faxing the most critical info to a wrong fax number - hmm...sorry... the ministry changed a year ago.
We had a space shuttle landing on a Saturn moon taking instructions from the earth just two days before this.
We do have UNs and Olympics that tries to lie on ourselves that we believe we are part of an earth community. Does anyone of us believe UN is a "man's" parliament. That the start and end ceremonies of the great Olympics truly embody a sense of one community? Who can we fool? Only someone outside the earth? Probably tsunamis and such natural calamities - which are from the other world. Only they could bring some kind of unity among us. A role for the UN. A role for the military rather than just pulling triggers of bloodshed.
Anyway I found that frailties need be focused on. Glories and Glorified honors or "honorified" glories need attention too. I have created a separate space for all tech talk here
Friday, December 31
Undermine right to be ashamed?
There is no place slated dreaded for politics to come up.
And this time again, no different. When US offered to work with India, Japan and Australia to coordinate relief operations, many of us were happy. And was a bit proud of seeing India out there too. What we need is help. Period. There is a limit of what kind of help. Food, water, clothes, shelter, money that can buy some of these. And there are many which no one can help. Lost love. Hope. Moms and Dads. Sons and daughters. Still, whatever we can do, let us do. And let us coordinate that right things flow to right place in right quantity.
Kerala is no place to compare in this vast wrath of God. Still, at the micro-level what Dr.Fuad told me echos why we need coordination upto macro level
Kerala is no place to compare in this vast wrath of God. Still, at the micro-level what Dr.Fuad told me echos why we need coordination upto macro level
we had visited the camps here. a lot can be done immediately. relief efforts are well coordinated and very active now. food no problem.manpower no problem. what they really need is bedsheets towels soap paste etc.NOT clothes,they have plenty of clothes we are not allowed to physically distribute materials.we can go there and hand over the materials to camp organizers.they are really doing a good job under the most trying circumstances.
The same is true across India. Enough food, enough clothes and enough people. Let the aid go to other nations who are in real need. This is out our PM also told other nations. And we have also allocated around $25M to other affected nations.
Coordination is a real tough job. World wide, people are pouring in money. Good souls across the continents are moved seeing footage of crying moms handing over their dead children. Of daughters moving in between piled bodies searching for their dear ones faces. They are all sending money, whatever they have. Families are offering adoption of orphaned children. What we need now is the distribution mechanism. I took the US offer as the one in the right direction. Very humanitarian.
Well, thats why we have the UN and the numerous organisation under its umbrella. But to read something like this is irritating, that too in the same year they started a Platform for the Promotion of Early Warning
..U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland, who is also the U.N. emergency relief coordinator, said he did not know the region didn't have a warning system....
Again I understand, fully agree that its not time for criticism. UN has probably failed here too. It fails to avoid wars. It failed to avoid other calamities too. It will continue hosting World Conferences of Disaster Reduction every year in great places. Let it. But I really dont think a criticism of "undermining UN role" http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3944374 is a timely one. Remember, one can undermine your powers. But never never your responsibility. As long as you deliver that. No mom will ever complain someone undermined her motherhood!
I really worry what would happen to UN now. Will it become another League of Nations?
Anyway lets all make sure no one else would undermine our responsibility. If anyone does, it simply means, we were not doing our job. I would hope that UN would find out places where it can take some responsiblity and deliver too. Anyway I am overwhelmed by new initiative on the UN website for setting up the early warning system within a year. And I guess UN is not left out in coordination too. Lets hope.
Thursday, December 30
Yes, it is shame on mankind
Cherian put me a note seeing the picture in my blog -
….. What I found most interesting in your blog was the comment under the picture on Tsunami. You said “shame on you mankind”. There was no note elaborating as to why you think mankind should be blamed for something that can be categorized as an act of God and one about which Man could do nothing to prevent or reduce the devastation…at least that is how every one treats it in the news media.
Whatever you mean when you say shame on mankind, I would like to echo those remarks and also tell you why I say so. For one, if we spend a fraction of the money that is spend on defense funding (which is basically money used to deliberately kill people) I am sure science could come up with solutions to provide warning about such calamities or even do things to reduce the impact on people and their lively hoods.
In addition I have a question or a comment about another aspect of how the impact could have been reduced. It is said that it took almost 2 and a half hours for the (first?) Tsunami to hit the cost of Sri Lanka and India. It is apparently common knowledge among meteorologists that an earth quake 7.0 and higher on the ritcher scale (in the ocean?) is capable of creating tsunami. If that was the case, as soon as the quake was recorded, why were there no warnings to evacuate people from the costs in India at least….we have a good system in place for disaster warnings, any such evacuation would have reduced the cost of lives drastically. Do I not understand something about this phenomenon? Am I missing something? Or do you think what I am saying makes sense…….
I am yet to write that. I am deeply disturbed after seeing some pics. Of flesh and blood. Of real emotions and faces. Of the true pain. In full real colours.
We have been behind WMD for around 10 years now. What are we trying to escape from? Whom are we trying to protect? From whom? We have forgotten God. Understand that He holds the power of nature. Nature the nice guy, when you are nice to him. Or you take sword, sure it will. In 2004, we have had hurricanes in the US, a series of typhoons and quakes that caused Japan tremble with fear and now the tsunamis that hit every nation in between.
And this is not new. We have a system working in Pacific already. For 40 years. True that we are not yet there in predicting earthquake. Even after a deep sea quake, they say it is difficult and costly to determine the tsunami and directions. But again, we had developed this 40 years back for the Pacific.
We had great celeberations for the new millenium. A lot of promises. Of a world of better ozone layer. Of no landmines (shame on us Indians, we are one of the top exporter of landmines). Of no WMD and with a global police and truly global economy. But leaving half of the world with half a century old technology.
US was busy designing SDI (aka Star Wars) last decade. Seconds after the satellites detect a fire on the ground, a patriot (or the ilike) will go and destroy an ICBM. Trillions of dollars is what they talked.
Then we have the UN. Whatever it means. As we all know it has failed to be a broker of peace, if war is the opposite of peace. But war is not necessarily the only opposite. A natural calamity is. Now the UN is saying it did not know Indian Ocean do not have a warning system. For 40 years we have one in pacific and we dont have one in Indian Ocean!!!! Shame, what else. Shame on you, Shame on me, Shame on all of us. God, forgive us. We talk about global economy. My salary comes from a global market. And here we say, no country in Indian Ocean has the money to install these costly equipments. I dont know what is big money and what is small money. What I read is that the finance required is just $3M. 100,000 people not worth for $3M?
If we can leave Siachen to be protected by nature, we would save $365 Million in a year? Why even talk about defense? If every new mobile phone buyer in India can pay Rs 100 extra, we have 10 million dollar in one year.
Zarqawi and Osama has united. If we have people like them with passion, with the charisma, with money and with followers that are ready to die, and alas, if the passion was for mankind, if the charisma is based on good faith on God, Asia becomes the richest continent on planet. O Osama, you could hit only two towers. See the sample of the wrath of God, it can wash off entire communities across continents. O LTTE, what you are trying to get as a homeland, can vanish off in a matter of hours. You could be begging to your neighbour.
People of Global Economy, it is time to unite. People of technology, get solutions working for humanity. Our kids should not be listening to such shameful stories in the future. I fully agree we cannot totally prevent these calamities. Unless we are as power as God. (God forgive). With all the systems in place, Japan had a lot of calamities. There were warnings of typhoon one full week, still there were casualties. But if we tried, our job is done.
Death is certain, so don’t you take your kin to hospital when he is sick? If someone says he did not, because hospital is costly, what will you feel like? Shame? Then this is 100,000 times that shame. And more
Tuesday, December 28
Shame on Mankind
WMD? Terrorist attack? This is tsunami. That killed more than a hundred thousand people.. Shame mankind, shame on you.
Petals I Picked
So I have set up a separate house for my friends today. Same neighborhood. Petals I Picked. I just moved all the posts. I did have some more nice posts. Google mail in feature should save from losing more posts. Anyway this is my email feed test! Let me see if this comes up there!!!
Ryz
Monday, July 12
Nammooru Bangalooru
"Good morning! This is Radio City 91 on a cloudy chilly Friday morning"
Not in the US. This is Bangalore. I am tuned to the "Bangalore's best music station", a private FM channel, in my car.
Apun ka naam hai Sunaina
Apun ka show ka naam hai Josh 91
Apun ka station ka naam hai Radio City
Radio City 91 FM.
Bangalore has changed in the past 10 years. It has grown wider, taller and deeper too. Not just the Airtel ER Ad. Ring roads tell us Airport is now inside the city. The flyovers symbolise a leap forward. The underpasses thurst how deep is the passion.
It is not just three aspects that has grown. Just for example, it is tougher to drive now. Thankfully the ring roads are good. At a few places it looks like a freeway. With exits and entries. I don’t know if we can ever afford to have a complete freeway ever in India. But for what we have, I am sure we could do something to use them better. A little bit of care in driving. Tell people driving is not just a skill, but a knowledge. That helps. All cars come with power steering now. Why still go for a diagonal turn when you have to turn right? The amount of time I would spend, yielding to a through traffic, is only a small percentage of the total journey with all the jams. Why not yield? And enjoy Sunaina's Josh, Dorrius' Route 91 and the Mattinee with Sindhu on Radio City?
Todays Times of India talks about what it costs when Ambulances get stuck in jams. You will realise only when you are involved. But it need not be. You don’t have to burn your fingers to know fire means heat. And to realise heat can mean burn.
Then again, on a the beautiful ring roads, a bit more care in putting signboards. BDA knows they can make money using signboards by ads. Why not have them in plenty? With all the exits and junctions marked properly it would be just good. Driving could be a fun if we could route all the slow trucks on one lane. Now they span the entire road and people zip in between these trucks. Don’t blame the truck drivers. They are not privileged to have a good education, a good pay and still overlook all rules. Good that, I can see many people believing that lane changing is aided by indicators. And why on earth these bike riders feel they should be on the extreme right of the extreme right lane? Good or bad thing is that they don’t do a rash driving. They keep steady 40s!!!
BTS has changed name. Now called BMTC. They have changes colours. Now many flavours. Janapriya Vahini to Parisara Vahini - a lot of them. ( I can understand what a Janapriya vahini is. But what about a Parisara vahini? Someone said they take Parisara for a ride!!) Kutti vandis for small areas. Double length buses for some other. Theorotically. The road toward my apartment is narrow. But they have the normal buses running in these roads.
Lots and lots of money flowing into Bangalore day by day. The most dangerous if the BPO wave. Teens are getting 5 digit salaries. With money in Bangalore, easy to spoil yourself.
Mobile is nothing luxury here. If you want to show off, have those latest models with colour screens and multimedia stuff, odd (call innovative?) shapes and like that. My first haircut was interrupted twice .The barber's mobile rang twice. (Did it ring or sing?)
People here don’t bother there is a silent mode. In Japan it is a single button manner mode. Here in meetings, people get calls and they even asnwer sitting where they sit. Cool. A decade back, I remember our CDOT tea table talk - "People now assume everyone has a phone at home. They don’t ask you if you have a phone, they just ask your number". This is now true about mobile. That time 90% around that tea table did not have a phone where they lived. "Well, whats your cell number btw?"
Moving in to Bangalore was easier done. Got furniture from home. Arranged with the apartment watchman for a few people to get things moved up. All done. They happy with 200 bucks. Thankfully this is not Trivandrum. The relocation from Japan was pretty too. Door to door was executed with me getting involved in a few telephone calls. Very neat and clean till unpacking. Great job Interem. Phone, application form downloaded from the web and then the handed over to the concierge service at TI (outsourced by TI). Second day the instrument was in place and the third day it started ringing. I am talking about BSNL, the erstwhile DoT. If you don’t want them, there are other landlines like TATA, Reliance, Bharati. Or you can go for fixed wireless again from all these people.
(Ever thought wires will be thought of as hassles in India? Before we could realise a wired society, we have a better wireless society grooming. See all the reports. Instat or whatever. World is watching India on wireless.)
Gas - Just went and told them. They gave an application. Filled it up. The next day morning the guy was there installing the LPG.
Life is good too. Malloos have taken over Bangalore with the super market concept everywhere. Now things are all a phone call away. Groceries, Vegetables, Fish, Meat, anything you can order on phone and get them delivered free of charge. I am not referring to brands like fabmall.com. These are local shops around.
Rents? I pay a rent of Rs.7600. I have not met anyone paying less than 6500. I have a colleague who pays 22000. Well, he has booked an apartment. He will get that in the late 2006. Good he says. He agreed to pay around 42 lakhs.
For car also it is actually quick. But thanks to TI car lease scheme, it took me more than a month to get it done. Anyway I never visited any car showrooms. At home evaluations. Home delivery. Thanks to Anoop who did this unbelievable service to happen in the non-service capital of India called Trivandrum. I followed it in the consumer city called Bangalore.
Talking about cars again, people are "driven" nowadays. They don’t drive. They have drivers. Someone was surprised last week "So you don’t have a driver?" A big problem for the new TI office location was that - the drivers have no space now. These are all personal drivers. Not for any directors or anyone. Just a man in the cubicle.
So much about the new Bangalore. But the old Bangalore is chugging along too. You can still spot many bullock carts in service. Something which you cannot see in Kerala. Garbages are the same old way. And they are handled in the same old way too. (I met a person, a driver for the garbage removal vehicle of the city, who has "outsourced" that job and he working as personal driver for someone else)
Well, this is my 90 days story in Bangalore. To start with. Now I am on the lookout to own or build a house. Many people are there to give me company. One difference - they are on the lookout for the second houses. The first for many are apartments. I am thinking of skipping that step. Second cars and second houses are not unusual here. Except for the guys who missed a part of the journey enjoying life in calm and cool places like Kerala and Japan!
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