Idly at Maddur Tiffany's on Bangalore Mysore H'way is an abomination

Started reading the Ramayana

 

After reading the complete mahabharata

 

Kalidasa's Meghaduta

 

India, A million mutinees now by V. S. Naipul

A common thread to be observed about anything you want to read and watch about India is that the sources are from people outside India. It is like we Indians lack the ability to look inward. We are so used to see the other state, the other country, the other city. We know so less about ourselves, our locality, our country but somehow we seem to know a great deal about he "other". It is a shocking and fascinating thing. So when Naipul came to India, he saw what we ourselves dont want to see. He saw that we dont want to see. He saw a million mutinees for which the people opened up. There are other trillions which people did not open about. There were several of his mutinees he couldn't prod further because people wouldn't. They wanted him to leave it as it is. If knowing about a country is knowing about its extremes, then to know India, you should be reading this. Indians should read this book. Every Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist & the other plethora of unscientific societies should read this book. It is like a mirror held up to them. People visiting India should read this book. They know the extremes and they know that safe zone now. India is easy to travel an move about in that safe zone.

I loved the book. It is well written. It is well researched. And majority of the people he has talked to are real people and somehow he has made them comfortable to talk about things which people dont talk in their normal sense of mind. It is not a secret. It is just that we dont want to talk about it. He has understood that modern India as it stands today would have been a million pieces if not for the modern advent and administration of the British. But at the same time he has laid bare the brutality, unjustness, usurping, Plundering, Caste politics, Famines and many other synonyms related to these words. What I liked about his choice of interviewees is their innate purity. Everyone wants to be good. Every one wants to do good. But they are result of circumstances. Circumstances are staged by one group and the results spread across the community creating chasms between individuals. These chasms then end up in physical barriers. These then extend to fighting for rights. This then gives rise to leaders, sects, followers and what not.

I loved the way the history seamlessly gels with the present in Naipul's India. The transition from historical perspective to the present is one of the best I have read in any book. It is like India itself where the old co-exists with the modern seamlessly. I love this flow. It just shows how beautifully the author has envisioned India in his travel. Once he catches a thread, on a majority of cases he has followed it on his own because he was not ready to be biassed. This though is awesome. Once he sees that a particular individual is pushing certain things down his throat, he will take only what he thinks applies and then travels around to confirm or negate it with completely unknown individuals.

When you talk about India, foreign nationals and the commercial media is bemused by the mystic rather than the core India. They are also interested in the destitute. So here again, the author has added sufficient amount of both these aspects. But I did not mind much since he tries to juxtapose the mystic, the destitution, the middle class, the affluent class, the billionaires in a complete round up. So if any reader is expecting just "slumdog millionaire" he will be disappointing. This is much more. The narrative is not linear, and I liked that style of writing. It is like when you start to have a preset image of India, he will stop you and take you on a different ride. Only this time, your thoughts change to something else and when you come back to the same topic, you no longer have that previous notion.

The book is thoroughly entertaining and bold in certain aspects. The bold aspects are cleverly hidden and is available only to the more interested and demanding reader. It is not a book to finish in one sitting. It has to be savored. It has to be understood. Ultimately the author is happy with how India has turned out. The last few pages become dull after so much action in the majority of the portion. It appeared as thought the author was finished. He was tired and he couldnt find anything more interesting. And one more noticeable thing is the coverage of south India. Normally majority of the authors stop at the middle and the northern part of India and dont look south. But the author here has spent sufficient amount of time in the south also. There is good work on periyar of Tamilnadu and the wodeyars of Karnataka. All in all, the book is a testament to the never die spirit of India.

The profession of Farming

           The profession closest to the elements of nature is of course, farming. Is the profession of farming menial? Can the world survive with no farming at all? Have we reached the position wherein the human necessities can be given in a pill? Does the human race want that? Well, the virtual living beings, the corporations would love such a situation. That would be total control. Let us come back to the profession of farming. Where does it fall in the continuum of the current professions. Is farming really a profession? Is Industrial farming the answer to all the problems faced by the present farming community. Why is it always farming community and IT profession? Why is it that a farmer is always left high and dry to the whims and fancies of natural elements. A farmer is something like air, water and fire. It is like the food grown by him is in excess as the other natural elements. But, food has to be grown. It is not available readily and in abundance.

          When will the farmer get his due? He uses fertilizers to get a good yield to make a profit, we call him un-ethical. He farms using organic practices we dont like the look of the produce and scoff at the cost of it. Now take the example of all other professions everything is right until the stockholders profit expectations are met and these expectations keep growing. Why does the farmer not worry about profits. Why is he alone in this? Why is he not formed into a corporation? Why because this model was tried and lead to bonded labor. Farming is hard work and corporations cannot bear it if farming is given the proper identification as a "Industry". Farming is labor intensive and involves plenty of risks until you grow "cash" crops. Farming is a high risk profession. The factors which go against a good yield is mind boggling. I cannot list it here. But, then, you will ask me whether sweepers/toiler cleaners are menial jobs. Well, no job is menial. But, in these cases, there is a necessity and opportunity available. The risk will only be reduction in salaries but, salary is available and cleaning is a must and has to continue. The earnings are definitely menial. But, the risk to get the stipulated salary is nothing compared to what might happen to a farmer.

          Will the solution be consolidation of farms and mechanization? The US is a fine example. But, the employment opportunities in such a setup is minimal and seasonal. If there are 100 people in a village small tracts of land was providing employment opportunities for all the 100. Now if it is consolidated, maybe a couple will get jobs and the remaining 98 have to be accommodated in other professions. That is one side of the story. These farming corporations will only grow what will yield the maximum profits irrespective what is the requirements. Here again the corporations might have hidden deals wherein every group in a particular state would grow a specific type of crop so that there is no duplication. This appears to be economically viable but, what about the people whose livelihoods have now been lost. They have their homes in their villages but they cannot stay there since there is no employment. Now, they would come out of their villages. How about employment and housing for these displaced farmers. In our country farmers displaced for construction of dams(tip of the iceberg) are living on pavements in towns and cities lacking any other professional knowledge and already heavily crowded lower level employments.

               There have been reverse migration of highly educated and plenty earned professionals going back to village and be close to the elements. This is not solving any issues. They are just buying huge swaths of land, barricading them and employing helpers from the villages, who again are the same farmers who sold their lands. These are small corporations. If they really need to be near to the elements, then there is one more element, the human element. They should first get close to that element. Instead of buying up huge swaths of land, they should perform the role of advisors and try to improve their knowledge about their professions and improve their profitability and survival prospects.

          The world may look down upon our country for the caste system. But, the roots of the caste system is societal/economic and later brought under political strategy. The world has always been following the varna system and has been following to this day. How one profession is better and high paying than the other, is nothing but the varna system taken for granted.

But, it is high time the single farmer is given his due.
  

Indian Agriculture and the apathy of the educated class

            We are at another inflection point at looking at India's agrarian problems. The subcontinent, even after 7 decades of independence is still agrarian in its economical and social setup. Let us leave out the politics part. Though people tell me that politicians are different in various countries, for me they all appear the same and do the same. That is, they loot and plunder. Though I have had good education from my parents and I have been a netizen since the year 2000, I am not having any solution in sight for the issues plaguing our agrarian setup. If we see the setup before independence we see that the tillers were bonded to their job by devious methods. Land being a property was known to only a few of the elite. This elite owned all the land. The tillers were laborers and would till the land for being compensated with a very puny portion of what grew out of their efforts. The agrarian scene in India has changed from self sufficiency to a heavily commercialized scene with the advent of the British in India.

           Plethora of laws/rules/regulations have happened since that time. The zamindari system is one of the first attempt at consolidation of land but the system was tyrannic. So plenty of laws/rules/regulations were changed across the presence of british in India to reduce this tyranny and to bring the tiller and the government face to face. This was not a goodwill gesture from the british but more of a corrective action since the zamindaris knew how to hoodwink the government with their payment of taxes. All other actions by the british and later the governments of free India was to reduce the oppression of the tiller. They all thought that the best way is to make the tiller the owner. This resulted in a huge numbers of tillers with tiny pieces of land. Now the tillers will grow what they always wanted to grow. But there is no scientific thought to it. It does not consider what other farmers in India are growing.

          There are numerous examples where majority of the farmers have grown the same vegetable/fruit, leading to a price crash and in course leading to many suicides. Many other reasons for suicides being depended on the monsoons for the water aspect. More recent reasons being threats from Micro-financing companies. Micro-financing which was supposed to be the silver bullet for Indian agriculture has proved to be a golden noose. This also led to more commercialization of agriculture. Because now, the tiller is the owner, the agricultural specialist, the marketeer, the economist, the forecast specialist and what not. This led to a new crop of consolidators called the middle men. These people are what keep the circuitry closed between the tillers and the consumers. Once again, the tiller is face to face with another avatar of consolidators.

             Yes, Yes, You know all about it. What are you going to do about it. All feelgood samaritans take up this topic. What will the farmers do? How will the farmers survive the pandemic? Who is thinking about the farmer? I will answer the question. Every damn fellow is thinking about the farmer. The problem is not in thinking. The problem is nobody has any solutions to the problem. The next agrarian revolution has to happen with an IT backbone with data regarding every acre of land being cultivated. What is being cultivated, When is the probable yield and data like these superimposed with issues that might be facing the cultivators and the crop.

           Yes, it is not easy to visualize. But then if you tell me that India is primarily an agrarian economy and agriculture is the largest industry then you definitely have to think big. You cannot solve the issue by forcing companies to open call centres at district levels. Though that would be an added bonus. This would be an impetus and motivation for education. But you are not doing anything to motivate future educated farmers which we would be having in the next generations. Right now all educated farmer's sons are in towns and districts which is at the consuming end of the agrarian spectrum.

           I hate us educated lot of India, who just feel sorry for the plight of our farmers as though they are in a different planet. If we cant do anything let us stop being sorry for the farmers. They dont deserve our sorry and I dont know how many of us deserve their hard cultivate produce. If you are that kind who thinks nobody is doing anything to improve the farmers plight dont have any conversation with me. I know all about that. If you are that kind who wants to tell me that only you are concerned about their plight, I give you the middle finger.

English, August. From City to village and back

After reading catch 22. The most nasty comment I received was that this  book should have  been ready earlier, ie, I should have read it at younger age. I think it is not about the age at all. It is just that you should be in the know of it and the book should attract you. It could happen in a myriad number of ways. Any how, this post is about an English, August by Upamanyu Chatterjee.

I liked the book. It is well written. It is just a coming together of jottings kept over a period of one year. The Indian sub-continent comes across in all its glory. The author travels from a hard core India city to the deepest of the forests possible. The society varies from rich, to the tribals to the lepors, to the beggars, to the helpers, to the public administration offices and the officers, to the most beautiful churches in the remotest parts of the country where drinking water is not available. The book definitely has the spread. The different hues of the sub-continent is nice. The language used is simple and straight forward. If "sex" sells then the word is used freely and profusely through the book. Lots of stoned situations, by the river, by the railway tracks, on the top floor of the house, in dark rooms, with friends, with colleagues, with unknowns. There is plenty of booze also, if you liked it. The point of view is from a well to do Indian. So you may tell that the narrative doesnt have the depth. But, yes, the book does scratch the surface and does     it well.

The most beautiful depiction is the bureaucratic setup in the country. It brings out aptly how the government resources which are to be distributed gets concentrated in few hands just by the manipulation of papers. It also bring out the monotony of a government official.     The constraints under which a bureaucrat works are also nicely portrayed. There are a few situations in the book where the protagonist goes deep about his real purpose with sayings from the Bhagavad Gita interspersed between. The novel has an unexpected ending. I was     expecting some other way. The individual coming out of the dilemma is nicely brought out. It is like ready reckoner for all the aspiring public servants. Of course, there are foreign visitors also. If the author was not intending to satisfy the foreign readers, the book    s would have a bit more depth.

The characters come alive, the office personnel, the tribals, rich kids whose parents have made enough for many generations, Egoist bureaucrats,  their more egoist wags, the variety of food, the lack and plenty of water, the effect of forcing of modern societal system on the tribals. The destruction of their very livelihood to survive the modern society and its demands. Roads, cycles, buffalos, and all other quintessential characters of a novel which plans to cross the border of India to other English speaking countries.

The private sector and its workings and its shortcomings, Doctors, helpers, drivers all have played out their role. Official Jeeps, "silent" Maruti cars also make their appearance.

Fascinating read. The book was also made into a movie. I dont remember it perfectly, But, I liked it more because of the lead actor. He was so perfect for the role. I would still recommend the book over the movie. This is one book which you would like to watch after reading it just because of the range and variety of places the protagonist passes. The book oozes laziness, everywhere and the protagonist is the epitome of it and thereby is able to recognize that aspect in all the people he meets.

Apathy in India

          I am sitting waiting for my train. Two elderly couple order coffe from the vendor who is busy counting his money.In fact he reluctantly gave them coffee. They enjoyed the coffee gleefuylly sitting on the chairs provided on the platform. They finished it and then got up from their chair and did the most unthinkable and unimaginable thing. They threw the disposable coffe cup right in front of them. They then went back to their chairs waiting for the train. And I am in for one more shocker. The train rambled in right on time. But still, the time beig announced was for the arrival of the time. There was no indication as to when it would depart.

             Now there are two parts in the above situation. One is that of the elderly couple and the other is the dinasour of a train service, The Indian railways. Let us now take up the first part, the elderly couple. They had their cuppa which is very much ingrained in an Indian's daily routing, nothing wrong about it. The difference and the shock starts when the couple finish their cuppa. They threw the cup right on to the train tracks. They did this in auto mode. They did not give it a thought. They just thought that that was where the garbage had to go. Now they are waiting for a train which is supposed to arrive on the same track. For me this incident was a shocker. The event really caught my attention.

         This happened while I was going through a blog post regarding slackware and how the author adored the way the distro is being maintained and gave accolades to its history. All of a sudden because of this incident my eyes started to scan that particular platform. I was not searching for anything in particular. To start with, I started looking for waste bins, I found one just beside the elderly couple's chair. I nearly went near them and wanted to advice them that they had a bin at arms length. I just paused for a moment and observed that the bin was full to its complete capacity. Now I searched for all the bins across the platform and to my shock, every single one was overflowing. I restrained myself from advicing the elderly couple. Now, I turned my attention towards the vendor. Having counted his money, he was belting out the beverage at a feverish pace without bothering where the used cups are going to end. Now, I extended my horizong to all the platforms, wait for it, It was the same across the 10 platforms.

         The solution, which I thought at that moment was very simple. Dont allow the vendor to sell any more coffee until the waste bins are cleared. Imagine the uproar of the commuters at such a proposal. Thereby putting pressure on the vendors as well as railway personnel. Let us start keeping up cleanliness across all the public utilities. It is not happening with people on their own. It is better to put meaningful constraints on all the stake holders. The constraint should be on both the service provider and the service receiver.

Meeting RMS at Mandya(Once in a lifetime opportunity), Karnataka, India

As I have written in many of my blog posts regarding my introduction to computing in 2002. No event affected me more than the reading of RMS's escapades with the printer at the AI laboratory. There was something about the philosophy being churned out in the help file withing the church of emacs. Now, maybe if i had tried editing my configuration files in vi I wouldnt have come across this philosophy of sharing. I still am not sure what prompted me to fire up emacs from my RH 6 machine. I finished the tutor and the was looking for further directions. It was at that time I read the about page on emacs. From that day I have been an ardent fan of RMS and his strict idealistic ideologies which is a mouthful for many an individuals who take sharing as sharing and nothing else. It is very difficult to understand him. He is egoistic. He is very strict on his beliefs and ideologies. I still remember when he last visited India and was interviewed by swapnil bhartiya. He did not drink bottled water until he got a bottled water not manufactured by coca cola. The reason being that he was against some un-ethical practises by the said company in some part of the world.


Let me come back to the present. I was damn lucky to meet him in person at Mandya, Karnataka, India. The event was organized by FSMK(Free software movement, Karnataka). I did not know that such a group existed and am indebted to their efforts in organizing this event. Now, how did I know about it. I am not on any proprietary social networks. I got the information on Mastodon. This makes my decision to stay on Non-proprietary online information sharing tools more interesting. This place, Mandya, is around 100Kms from my place. It was a 2 hour journey. I was present in the auditorium an hour before the stipulated time. There were announcements made to the attendees regarding the mentioning of Linux and GNU/Linux. He was on time and he walked in to a rousing standing reception. And the first one liner was shot. "Dont stand for me, stand for free software" He removed his shoes and started his presentation almost immediately. He did not want to waste a minute. He wanted to get right to the point almost immediately. The organizers were shocked at his speed. It took some time to get their bearings. After 10 minutes or so into his talk, The Indian way of welcoming the guest with a Mysore peta(Traditional cap of Mysore made with silk thread and a sandal wood garland) was done.


His homework regarding the local issues were excellent. He asked for "Mandya Gowdara Tea". Since there was a delay he was given tea made from Tea bags he had brought all along. He spelt the name of the language spoken in our parts perfectly i,e, Kannada(Majority of the Indians who dont stay in our parts spell it Kannad, which is wrong). The most striking was the parallel he drew of our freedom struggle with the present software freedom struggle. His say was that to gain freedom we have to embrace things which we are not comfortable. Freedom is not free. We have to work for it. In the Indian freedom struggle though the British flooded the Indian market with ready to wear clothes from Great Britain(Of course the raw material was from India). We as Indians fought against it by announcing swaraj, wherein we starting spinning our own textile raw material and stitching our own clothes from raw cotton. This was definitely not comfortable at all. But that is a cost we paid for gaining the freedom we cherish(or taken for granted) today. Excellent point. He used the word "Svatantra", the kannada word for "libre" instead of "Uchita" for "Free". RMS, I love you.


The talk and the content was standard. The freedoms associated with the software licensed with GNU GPL v3 and above and why all the developers should use this version particularly and also mention "GNU GPL v3 and higher" which would make the job of the FSF easy when faced with issues regarding copyright.


As usual, the Q&A is where he succeeds or fails miserably


There were questions regarding privacy, china government's mode of working etc which received long and boring answers. Let us cut back to the little interesting ones.


Q. I wanted to contribute to the FSF. When I opened the contribution page I saw that the amount of information I have to give before even entering the payment details was more than that required for opening an amazon account. The contribution process should be simple and as easy as clicking a button
A. Oh. I dont know about this. e-mail me the web page you are talking about. The payment cannot be as simple as a single click(It is for the reader to decide what is right or wrong about his answer)
Q. Wil the development of GNU os continue
A. No. It will not be developed. We had all the userland utilities and were lacking a kernel. Now we have the Linux kernel.
Q. What are the future projects of fsf
A. Oh, you can see our website regarding where the money comes and goes. librejs is being developed to remove the proprietary JS being used.
Q. What about building social networks. Like GNU social
A. Muffled answer.(I dont remember much)
Q. Free software conservancy hosted few videos on its website requiring proprietary JS implementation which if not enabled is not allowing to be viewed and fsf is one of the sponsor of the event of the video. Isnt it ethically wrong
A. I cannot keep track off each and every activity of the FSF.(summary I dont know and I am not going to anything about it)
Q. As a first time developer I am very interested in making money. How am I going to make money by giving my code away
A. (Unclear points) followed by You can work as a waiter for a living and then you can code in your spare time for the public good. If I did not have this job then I would have been a waiter to support what I am doing now.


Thank you,RMS, for everything you have done and will do in your endeavor towards pushing freedom software. Yes there will be fallacies, there will be pitfalls. But walking the talk is what matters. In a world where ethics are washed out at the drop of a hat, we have you, as a benchmark for the philosophic side of freedom software. I wish you would live for eternity, negating all the naysayers.

My first trip towards the North of India, Maharashtra on a Mahindra Scorpio SLE

Disclaimer: This blog does not encourage you to take long distance trips nor asks you to speed up your vehicle beyond the stipulated mark as and when mentioned on the highways. Drive responsibly. Slow down as you reach villages.

Left home exactly at 4.30 am. Road to davanagere are good. Tolls all the way. Reached Guru kotureshwara hotel, davanagere (14.453710, 75.915252), at 8.30. Turns out that is the perfect time for breakfast. The place is too modest. Just the size of a small room. Ur order is limited to set dosa or benne dosa. We opted for the benne dosa. Had to wait approximately 20 minutes. All this while I was just watching with awe the chef was continually going through the motion of belting out 10 dosas at a time with such perfect timing and finesse. He exactly knew when the dosas were fried just right. The aroma is unbelievable. The hotel is truly Japanese ideology. It just doles out what it can do best. The first bite presents my tongue with a medley of salt, chilly, pepper, mixed in the preparation of the batter itself. and all these harsh flavors moderated by oodles of butter. U also get a handful of potato mash and coconut chutney. But, believe me, u can have the dosa as is or with any other side dish u want and it will taste the same. We ordered two dosas per person in the beginning itself and that was an excellent decision.As a side note, we returned to this hotel again during our return journey at around 1.00 PM in the afternoon and the activities in the hotel are the same. They are outstaffed and out of space. Had to wait a good 15 minutes before my order was taken.

It was the time to hit the road again towards kolhapur. The stop at kolhapur was only for having kolhapur mutton. Again excellent tolled roads all the way and reached hotel opal, kolhapur, (16.703068, 74.250572) at around 1.30 pm. Parking is available. The layout of the hotel was very confusing and sonny rightly called it bhul bhulayya. The rooms were spacious. Toilets were clean. Ac working. With another small bed. By the side of the double bed. Just right for a couple with a kid. The restaurant serves all Maharashtrian delicacies. Had a Maharashtrian thaali which had all the regular food u can find to be specifically Maharashtrian. If u had Hyderabad dishes u will be at home with all the spicy nature of kolhapuri food.

Did not want do go out much. Sonny pressed us to visit the mall just next door. Went there and did the unthinkable. Watched a Telugu movie. Woke up in the morning and headed towards the restaurant for breakfast. The assortment was truly Maharashtrian. We had misal pav, upma, poha, sweet curd. The misal was a revelation. The taste and the ingredients going in r unique. A mixture of healthy and sinful ingredients. U have bhujia on the one band with varying thickness and shapes which is to be drowned in a spicy, oily curry of sprouts. The combination is a spicy and very tasty did efor use with any Indian bread, but normally used with pav. The poha is nice, mildly fried and spicy. In the South the poha ingredient is used to make a variety of kheer. Was thinking of visiting phadtares misal kendra, udyam nagar, (16.694454, 74.233168), but decided against it after having it in the restaurant itself. Checked out of the hotel and drove towards Mahalaxmi temple, kolhapur, (16.660884, 74.211154). Be very careful while visiting this place. It is somewhat hidden in the centre of the city. Google maps was totally confused. Ask the locals. And be careful there are a lot of mahalaxmi temples around kolhapur. The next stop was rankala lake, kolhapur, 16.693724, 74.209255. It is a big lake and I did not see any boating activity. Maybe it happens in the evening.

Time to hit the road again. Headed towards hotel panorama, mahabaleswar, (17.924890, 73.656868). This decision was solely based on the availability of swimming pool, nearness to market, parking and ac rooms. Not disappointed. It had all our requirements. It was located right in the heart of the market area. Had lunch at the hotel and it was ordinary. U receive a food coupon on arrival and u have no option but to use them. At checkout i was told that there is a balance in my food coupons and was advised to take a parcel. Decided to take a sandwich. One issue, the room was not serviced, though we gave the keys to the reception and instructed them to do so.

The market area was unique. It displayed nothing else than whatever was grown or fabricated in house. It rarely had the usual fare. Had a mixed fruit ice gola. Mahabaleswar is red, red with strawberry plantations. If u like strawberries, then, there is no better place than here. Everything is strawberry. Juice, ice cream, fudge, chikkie, u name it. Sone juice making companies are housed here. Maple is one among them. The maple restaurant is huge. Pizzas sandwiches, juices, mock tails, ice creams, sinful. U have a plethora of fruit concentrates, bottled pulp and plenty of ready to drink mock tails. Bought pina colada and a mojito. Sonny bought a chocolate drink, The better half bought a rose based drink. Visited venna lake boat club, mahabaleshwar, (17.934275, 73.668901) row and pedal boats r available.

For lunch we headed towards panchgani, (17.923644, 73.798307), another hill station approx 18 kms. Hidden here unknown to the lesser mortals is jafer bhai's Delhi darbar (17.921530, 73.796844), Do not miss this place, if u r not a delhite. Ordered a chicken starter and two mutton biryani. The ambience is nice with a bit of parking available. The starter was spicy, juicy, creamy and fresh. They just called it darbar special. Next was the biryani. If u r two, start with just one biryani otherwise u will struggle plenty to finish ur meal. Enough about qty, let us talk about quality. The biryani is aromatic, just spicy enough with a medley of colors and flavors. The mutton juicy, tender, spices spread throughout the core, indication of good marination and nice dum style cooking. A good biryani doesn't require anything to support it except itself. This was proved once again here. Here u r served only the biryani, no curds nor any other curry. other masala. It was not required. Excellent fare. This space is a haven for meat lovers. I just enjoyed every byte of food at this place

Next destination was shirdi. The route took us through the most gruelling drive. Pune is a concrete jungle in the most realistic sense. The traffic drove me mad. Approx 100 kms of hateful driving. My beast was huffing at the traffic. It did not hide its dislike for the traffic.

Reached mtdc shirdi, aka, travellers inn, around 3.30 pm. It is just at a distance of 100 metres from the temple. The moment u near the temple there will be touts and they will virtually catch u by ur hand and take u to their shop and give u all the required pooja things and charge u starting from INR 450/-. But there is really no need except u know what u r doing. Back to the hotel, had a coffee. It was good. For dinner we decided to have it in the in-house restaurant. Food was also good. Had a masala soda just to wash things down, just in front of the hotel, was good

Checked out around 9.00. Drove to etrange resort, 8 kms from ellora. Came to know that very day that ellora caves are closed on Tuesdays(Ajanta caves are closed on monday). Also came to know on that day, ajanta caves are 112 kms from our resort. No option but to visit ajanta. And in all the reviews, ajanta gets more brownie points. Got out the beast and headed towards ajanta caves. The road is good for 80 percent of the distance. The other 20% is nerve rattling. Reached around 1.30 pm. The last 4 kms are to be covered only by mtdc buses which are available every 10 minutes in both AC and non AC versions. There r three ways to climb the hills.
1. Crossing the bridge available, it will take u directly to cave no 9.
2. Climb the steps, the hardest and the best way. It will take u to cave no 1 and will in reality take u from 200 BC to the next 800 years.
3. If u can't walk then there are people to carry u in a palki like chair

Don't use cameras with flash, it is supposed to affect the paintings. Drinking water is available along the entire distance of the caves. Chilled water is available somewhere around the 9th cave. Do not forget to take guide. If u don't take a guide then, don't visit the place. U will not be able to appreciate the art, history, evolution of techniques, phasing out of ideas and ideals. There is an mtdc restaurant at the hills, for info. The best time to visit is the monsoons. It will be more picturesque and cool. If u head out in the summers wear chappals and carry an umbrella. Of course a water bottle.

Came back to the resort, had food. Half handi of mutton masala, semi gravy and chapattis. Both were prepared well. Nothing out of the ordinary. The chef, seeing, us south Indians had just made the mutton fiery enough. He admitted that he did not want to take any risk. The last course was kheer without dry fruits and it did taste good. Swimming pool was not clean, disappointing day for sonny.

The resort is good. It has a conference hall which can be converted to a dancing hall with a computer ready to accommodate a DJ. A swimming pool. Made to order dishes, a further free area after the swimming pool for other games. Negatives, don't go in summer, guests r minimal. It is a very solitary place. All the facilities might not be as u thought it would be. No WiFi. No shops nearby.

There was one big issue from stayzilla, through which I booked the resort, they booked a double AC room and then three days later, I get a call telling me though I booked an ac room, the amount I paid was only sufficient for a normal room. So if u book through stayzilla, confirm with them about the room and all the amenities. I also received a link to provide feedback, but it takes me to the homepage, so......

Had a veg sandwich in the morning and left for ellora caves. Reached at 9.00 AM and then came to know it is open from morning 6.00 AM to evening 6.00 PM. Biggest mistake of the day. Again beware of touts and head towards mtdci nformation centre. It is a huge campus with facility for an expansive vehicle parking. From thee again, mtdc/msrtc operates buses to the ellora caves. Just remember the caves are spread across a distance of 4 kms. If u buy a ticket here u can catch any bus moving within the ellora campus and move around between the caves. U r totally lost without a guide. Not much paintings to see here. They r damaged. But the carvings r more pronounced here.

My 2 cents tip when u go to any place if art is

1. Look closely at the face. Lot of feelings will be expressed here. The intent of the art piece is evident from the face.

2. The other portions of the body will reinforce this feel.

3. Keep the religion, race, creed, language, color for later. The artist talks to u irrespective of all these.

4. Majority of the carvings and paintings are serial and follow a certain progression. The progression is visible in the quality also, a result of learning.

Its time to go home. The route taken, hotels chosen have been affected by this blog post on team-bhp. I am stressing this here because, I wanted to skip pune altogether in my return journey. The route to be taken to do so was taken from this blog. Couldn't return home on the same day. Rented a budget hotel at kolhapur and called it a day. I don't like driving in the night when surroundings and people r not visible and I cannot taste the local food, the local fruit.

Honorable mention regarding food. On my return journey I tasted a twist of the venerable dum biryani. With the regular masala, this had fried corn chips, deep fried onions, lots of cloves and plenty of pepper. The concoction was tasty and crispy. The mutton definitely was beautifully dum cooked. There was only one chicken item, fried chicken. No twist here, but tasty. I don't remember the hotel name. Who cares. U might find a different twist in some other place. For a foodie, is there any limit......

Everything about any trip starts with and ends with the "drive". There is a catch 22 here. Whether the destination or the path to the destination, which is more important or which comes first. Without path you don't reach the destination and without a destination you cannot formulate a path. It is "very" difficult to single out which was more beautiful, the journey or the destinations. My jumbo did a 140 Kmph as effortlessly as it did 160 Kmph. I have a suggestion for the RTO of India. The driving license for a two wheeler should be given only and only if the driver passes the test given for cars also. These two wheeler drivers spoil the entire fun of a "drive" in a car. They should be shown "this" fun of driving a car and then they will know how not to destroy the journey for all the car drivers.

Almost throughout the journey the roads were good owing to the pune highway. With fuel guzzlers, it is always better to fill up when the fuel gage reads half way.

The ordeal of backing Pebble Time Steel smartwatch as a kickstarter backer

This is the first time I have backed a project on kickstarter. And, boy, it has been one exhillarating roller coaster ride. It is nice to see a project get incubated and grow against the goliaths in the same industry. The pebble time steel was backed in March 2015. I have recieved the watch on october 1st 2015.

There are some 40,000 comments on the kickstarter website. Most comments can be classified under the following headings
1. Backer numbers
2. The choice of colors
3. Requesting language packs
4. Lack of communication from the pebble side
5. Evident proof of lack of customer support
6. Receipt of tracking numbers
7. Receipt of watches
8. Watches shipped without any regard to the backup number
9. Steel bands not shipped with pebble time "steel". The greatest joke on backers
10. Not to forget how much people loved their pebble time and its simple, intuitive interface.


On this web page you need the tracking number given by the importing country's postal service. If that country has an arrangement of EDI with our country then you can track the shipment through India post. Otherwise, Wait for the Force to Help you.

Aug 24      My order is succesfully processed(email from pebble)
sept 15     See the tracking number in the source code of the plege page
sept 17     Recieved email from pebble with the same tracking number
sept 19     Started seeing tracking info on singapore posts website
sept 21     Package arrived at chennai. From now on tracking information will be available only from India post website.

Tracking through India post is at http://ipsweb.ptcmysore.gov.in/ipswebtracking/

sept 30     Went to Bangalore foreign post office and found out that the package was opened in the morning(Lucky)

Once the package leaves chennai all the modern tracking technologies(EDI and the like) stop and we are back to the age old excel sheet entry at the post office.

Reached the foreign post office at 12.00 Noon. The visit was not planned but just went ahead on a hunch.


1. Went to the first desk. Gave the tracking number. The tracking number is searched for data in a Microsoft Excel sheet. A tracking number unique to the Foreign post office(It is actually a serial number which may be generated as the parcels are Recieved) is given
2. With this serial number you go to the next person. He will inform you whether the parcel has been inspected or not.
3. If it is inspected, then you have to go to the guy who will value the item and affix duties
4. Bangalore post office has a standard procedure. Affix a duty of 44% of the total cost(price of the item + shipping costs). No questions to be asked and none will be answered.
5. If the total cost of the item is less than INR 2,000/- then you are a lucky guy.
6. If the item is marked as "gift" and the total cost is less than INR 10,000/-, then too you are lucky
7. Otherwise, the duty is a standard 44% of the total cost. If you think otherwise go armed with all the necessary forex docs to state your case and wish you all the very best in your endeavour.
8. Once you recieve notification that the package has arrived at chennai, wait for a minimum of 10 days before visting the post office.
9. The foreign post office is in the Central GPO, Near Indian express building. 1.5 Km from shivajinagar bus stop. On reaching GPO you can ask anybody in the post office and you will be directed to the office.
10. You can bring the item with you on payment of duties at the post office according to the whims of the staff. If they are in good mood, You can get the delivery at the office itself. The requirements keeping aside the mood of the staff are

a. The invoice copy of the item recieved(There should be an invoice in the package also)
b. Proof of transaction of payment(credit card statement of that month and the like)
c. Address proof in your name with the same address as the delivery address with photo.

Once all the above ordeals are over and you were denied collecting the package at the post office, then go back and wait..........
The status in the tracking page should change by another line indicating your local area.

I would suggest to not consider the free shipping option and to select international courier companies like DHL and the like, who know the duties and rules regarding import of various commodities beforehand. They get the item cleared at chennai itself and courier it to you at the earliest. Whatever you are saving in shipping will be doubled or tripled with the duties at the bangalore post office.

I had ordered a second hand book from the U.S and did not have any issues at all. There was no tracking information, just the info that the book is despatched. It reached me through Indian post in approx 20~25 days. The total cost of the book and shipping was approx INR 700/-

Anyhow, congratulations pebble team, for making a "Simple" watch. True to Unix philosophy of "KISS"

UPDATE:  06/11/15 :-  Recieved the steel watch strap and let me tell you, now the watch really shines. It looks awesome on the wrist. I have never worn a watch with a leather strap. It has always been steel straps. The design of the strap is also excellent and goes well with the watch portion.

P.S:  The round pebble watch is a fashion disaster.

South India is NOT Tamilnadu. It is much much much more.......

Let us get down to it. Bollywood and mass media are making a huge blunder by representing the entire southern part of India as Tamilnadu. Tamilnadu is a state of the various others in the souther part of India. Let us name the southern states which the northern part of India tries to represent as one single large piece called Tamilnadu

1. Karnataka
2. Kerala
3. Seemandhra
4. Telangana
5. Pondicherry
6. Lakshadweep and other islands

The six states listed above are as unique as The united states of America and India. Every state has its own unique identity. If we go on based on the linguistic basis(The methodology used for framing states) we can list the languages in the same order

1. Kannada
2. Malayalam
3. Telugu
4. Telugu(A little difference in pronounciation)
5. Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, French(Yes)
6. Malayalam, Mahl

Now, I dont see how all these different languages which are so different can be compressed to one single language called Tamil. A person proficient in any one language will not be able to understand an iota of any other languages. The way the languages are written dont match. They are ages different from each other in pronounciation and written words. Each language in its uniqueness speaks volumes about the differences in culture, attitude, outlook, practises, Ideals and other human properties.

In fact, in Karnataka, there are other districts which speak completely different languages and are fighting for a "state" status since they have their own original language like Tulu and konkani.

But, when it comes to Bangalore, things change. It is the one "real" cosmopolitan of India. Uh uh, Ok. What is the purpose of this post? The purpose is not Jingoism, the purpose is information, the purpose is clarity. So, anybody visiting souther india, Just remember you are visiting a world altogether. It is not visiting all the temples in south india in one go. It is understanding the uniqueness of all the groups of people. Nothern India is very careful in differentiating itself as Marathis, Gujarathis and etc. We dont believe in that. We are unique but we are a part of the family called the "World". But if you want to identify us, do so with each of our uniqueness.

I want the mass media and the film industry to please do some home work and put some work into selling the uniqueness of all the souther states with the district you are thinking of also. Give all the southerners our own identity. Dont you make a stamp and press it on us.

Empathy and Apathy

India is not new to man made mistakes, Nor is any other country. Issues involving huge areas and a sizable population are better off being automated. So, what prompted me to write this piece? The recent tragedy wherein students lost their lives owing to release of water from a dam. State owned/delivered welfare activities have been over years have been prescribed as a panacea for "common" good. That is, the private sector, always looks up to profit and the entire setup is for profit optimization. The previous two sentences are in conflict. But we are not seeing the fine line between them.

The fine line are the activities of the government that can be decided as welfare activities. Which are the activities to be taken as a pure welfare activity? How do we decide on this classification. The classification cannot be based on the activity as an independent entity. It should be related to all the issues which are touched by this activity.

Let us take this small activity of monitoring the release of water through a dam. The activity though, very simple, has a huge impact on a large distance of land and affects the entire gamut of human activity. The people on the release side have to intimated well in advance. This can happen by using a simple kanban indicator linked to the electronics handling the opening of the dam gates. When there is a huge downpour nature itself gives an indication to the people in and around the area. If it is man made, then, men have to act god. All theists have drawn their weapon, Oh, Please wait. If man can stop the natural flow of events as depicted by natural causes(Gods ways for a theist), then he can continue the flow also.

Dams have to be constructed by the government. Yes, It is a welfare activity. Though, people in the vicinity of the dam might not agree. But operating them, well, should the state bother about that. That statement has puased me. By my observation, there is a sense of apathy with which people working in state owned enterprises. This is solely because of the monotonous nature of the job on hand. People preferring the jobs in state owned enterprises normally aim and are capable of doing mundane and monotonous jobs. They resist change and lack entreprenual spirit. If at all few have them, it will be killed in the course of time and they too become a brick in the wall.

So, why would I argue that a private interest would be better off running the dam? Or, can I succesfuly argue for privatization of dam management? Or, in general, can I succesfuly argue for identification of all activities in governing a country and yet dole out all the welfare to the last person in the country. It is high time that we hand out a certain portion of the activities undertaken by the government to independent individuals. I think our country is now in a position of producing educated elite for taking care of mundane tasks in a welfare activity.

Instead of treating the citizens like children and asking them to open factories for making soaps and detergents since it is a low cost and low risk engagement we should bring the common man into the fold of welfare activities and also regarding the security of our country. It is high time that all individuals should stop thinking that whenever a wrong happens, he should look up at the government. The individuals should forget that new laws framed by the government would automatically improve the conditions of the country. Normally, the citizens of our country dissect every decission of the government and imagine how it can improve the country. No laws or rules are going to create any magic. There is no "abracadabra" law.

So, instead of cribbing over the loss of young students, the common man has to wake up and sense opportunity here. To contribute to the good of the countrymen as well as his own private self. The specific dam issue in question can provide private employment for many type of industry. You have security, Electrical, Mechanical, Electronics, Civil maintenance, Event management, Tourism, Planned agriculture and the list can go on.

From all this, I should not be confused for lack of empathy for the loss of precious human lives, I empathize that we may have lost the entrepreneur who thought in similar lines, I empathize that we may have lost the next Sir M. Visweswariah, I empathize that we may have lost the next visionary. I am concerned more towards the apathy of state enterprises. Let this be the last time we empathize for the result of apapthy of state owned enterprises.

For the past years, India, our country with its past vast natural resources has done a lot for its citizens. Now, we, the citizens, Let us stand up and do for our country. Shall we.........

Making history

I am now creating history. I am not a historian/politician/economist/author. It is just this habit of seeing the past with my own mindset, bring it to the present and try to extrapolate to the future. The ideas mentioned are my own. These days you not only stand on the shoulder of giants but have to confront many number of chauvinistic giants, chauvinistic for various reasons.

The caste system. Why didnt I write about this all these days? why? May be, I, thought that a lot has been told and written. A sense of DejaVu. I will be going to write about history, present and future of the caste system. This topic is unlike any other topic which I have written about. I have to tread carefully, there are a lot of historical chauvinists. My definition of truth is very simple. "Past is the truth" and it is the only truth. How do we know the past? How do we come to know about the past? Through history. Shall we change my one liner to "History is the only truth", NO. History is and will be subjective. I have not come across any objective historical material because it is impossible to have one. Why? It is impossible to write one. When you write, you are limited by the language, time and other external subjective influences.

How do we add objective dimension to history? By asking many many people to write one. Homogenising these various writings will make us tend towards objectivity of the subject in question. I used the word "tend" to indicate that the number of people required to get a real objective estimate has to tend to infinity, which is humanly impossible. And if at all it happens, homogenising will be IMPOSSIBLE in the required time. Truth is always difficult.

History has been the recorded views of the elite. Ther is no record of the lives of all the other 99%. Why? Gods and kings were supreme. Everybody others were just "people". We have an account of all the Gods the elite prayed to. Do we have the same account of gods worshipped by the artisan, the laborer, the road cleaner, the cobbler, the blacksmith. etc... NO. What have we done to enslave them further. Further we have made them forget the gods whom they prayed for, all these years and made them embrace the flashy and the costlier gods of the elitist society.

Why did all the ancestral sufferings get forgotten so easily? Majority of the sufferings was due to the exclusitivity of these elitist gods and all the rules regarding their worship. Was a cleaner allowed to think of various building materials, was an artisan, an artist, laborer ever allowed to think anything beyond his work, NO. If allowed they would'nt get any. Where do you get the innovation? Are you telling me the iron pillar somewhere in India has stood the test of time? You are joking with half a billion population, of course, there will be one artisan who is passionate about his job and accidentally that is what he liked.

I have heard that the Aryans were responsible for the division of tasks among the people, which is in turn the pre-cursor to the caste system in India. What was the strategy which the dravidions followed? Did they follow an exact socialism? Wherein everbody just stepped in to overcome the shortcomings/need of the society on their own without anybody's influence?

What do I think? I thin the aryans already knew the shortcoming of this kind of society. They understood that there are certain tasks in the societal setup which majority of them disliked. In the dravidian setup, I think this discord was not present, at that moment, among the members.

The aryans observed this "bliss" of relationships and started thinking. They came to know that everybody "valued" their work and thought of every work having the same value. The aryans sowed the first seeds of the elitist behaviour by the way they worshipped and presented their gods. They just complicated it to make it elitist. They were able to impress upon the simple minded, since they worshipped a superior god, they themselves were superior. Here started the divide. Goodness is somehow and always associated with naiveness. This simplistic co-existence of the dravidians led to their exploitation. The stagnancy of learning and basking in the glory of successfully creating the divide, led us to being ruled by plethora of kings/governments. The aryans seperated themselves from the original and made them un-approachable, thereby increasing their supremacy. The original submitted to the vileys who then carefully carved the hierarchial system of society.

This power over 99% of the people led to creation of various units. Each unit size depended on the power the leader was having. Now, more power was needed. The leaders waged war against each other, thereby increased their domain of power. Who fought the wars on the battlefield? Your answer here. Because "history" does not answer this.

Now, I can fantasize, am i good at it....................

We want Indian premium brands.

So,

We Indians cannot make or generate any premium brand? If at all we do can we continue to keep it premium? Come on, what is a premium brand? It is to take a very simple ingredient and add premium to it so that a "common" person does not have or not allowed to have access to it. A leather hand bag is a "hand bag" at its roots. A Macbook Air is a laptop at its roots.

Should we wait for starbucks to tell us what or how a premium coffee should be made?
Should we, Since how long do we know about coffee and tea?
Do we need KFC to come and show us how a chicken is to be sold or made a premium product?

Just look at the variety we have in our presentation of chicken. Just imagine travelling the length and breadth of India and see how differently chicken is prepared at every village. Just imagine.

Cant we have Burgers made of idlis. Cant we find out that secret ingredient which will make idlis remain fluffy and still allow them to be packaged as "take aways"?. Cant we make dosas premium by adding gold dust...(Oh, I just got a little carried away, sorry). But cant we? Why is the entrepreneural spirit existing only in the IT sector. For how many years shall we ape the other biggies? For how many years will we be able to sell chicken currys to the British?

So, you are gonna ask why cant you do it yourself, dude? Exactly. This is exactly the same question all the billion people ask to each other and will continue to do so. Come on guys, Entrepreneurs need ideas, ideas can come from kids/elders alike. I have seen people laugh at my hobbies but I have slogged on with mine. Turn your hobbies into something big. I want to see more premium brands from India. Not the likes of coffee day, which my son doesnt talk or know about. I want it to be like Mc Donalds, KFC, starbucks. There should be an awe and then to continue that, there should be an element of surprise everytime. This element is what keeps the brand going on.

When customers buy the service/product the feel should be that We have consumed something premium. We have consumed something healthy. We have consumed something which was worth every penny. The customer should not think even once before chalking out the required money.

Can we make it happen, or will we have starbucks making us drink coffe and Mc donalds ask us to have breakfast and ofcourse have lunch and dinner at a KFC/pizza hut.

I, for one, would like to have a premium idli/dosa/roti. Can I.