Gandhigiri?

We are choosing a new Il Presidente! Congress pulled out some obscure entity to become one. As it turns out the candidate has some financial irregularity charges leveled against her. Opposition is planning to make that an issue.
My suggestion - since when politicians bothered about mere frivolities like corruption being a disqualification? Dudes in opposition, nothing will come of it. if you want to fight, throws sins of public life like - morally upright, independent thinker, idealist. Now THAT will scare the politicos. No one wants someone who is independent, incorruptible, upright in any position of power. That might seal her fate.

Falling in work is hard on the keys

I'm bored. There is ample work to do. Chores arnd house, stuff at work, friends to be remembered, trips to be made. But there is no enthusiasm. Is this midlife crises? Its been ages since i did anything interesting apart from mixing normal coffee to decaf in the machine (No I'm a firm believer in death before decaf, but once a while one like to bring excitement in colleagues lives too). The long and short of this is that there is nothing exciting to do at the moment.
The rains have started so outdoor parties are off. People do go on treks but walking in slush with water pouring down ur back is hardly my idea of fun. Who likes to sit in wet underwear for heaven's sake? If you want to have fun in rains, do a rain dance, sip some vodka, play volleyball and then get back into house and change into cosy clothes and sip some martini more?
So here am I, evaluating my options. How about hopping over to Delhi on weekend, go to Chandni chowk and have some chat? Then onto Nai Sarak and buy some books. Go over to Cannaught Place and have icecreams.
Or a hop to Lucknow, Malai pan at Ram Asrey, shopping in Chowk for Chikan and Dussehri Mangoes ripened on the tree while still attached to em? Ever had that?
Or run upto those lovely Himalayas? Bathe at Sahastradhara, icecream at Ghantaghar, evening aarti at Har ki paidi?
All this thinking makes me tired. Lemme get some sleep now

Good Idea, wrong context

Pune recently introduced a Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) system. Apparently a technical committee of IIT professors and similar ilk recommended this over train/tram systems. On the face of it, its a good idea. dedicated tracks for high speed buses.
I think the solution suffers from 2 major shortcomings. One the existing roads are narrow and reserving two lanes for buses reduced the width of the rest of the road a lot. Then the BRT lanes at times criss cross with normal lanes leading to weird sorts of stops. Second is something more Pune and India specific.
What this technical solution completely misses is the human element. BRT buses can only be rapid if the drivers can safely speed. In India in general and Pune in particular, chances are that someone will come in the way unexpectedly. Look at some of my other posts on this. This is a city where while the traffic is moving in response to a valid green light, vehicles from red light facing lanes cut into it expecting the vehicles with valid signal to yield instead. Then there are the bus passengers.
On the way to work, the stretch in Hadapsar (locality) BRT got introduced today leading to all sorts of Jams (its supposed to solve jams by the way). 3 lanes suddenly have to collapse in 2. It did collapse because traffic cops were enforcing it. I am sure the day cops are not there, the BRT lanes will have all sorts of vehicles on it.
Then we had bus passengers coming out of bus. Now they want to come to the normal lanes and go shopping or whatever they want to do. So every 5 seconds someone happily crosses over in front of the oncoming traffic. Some of them realize that they lost a loved one back in BRT stop so immediately go back again cutting across traffic, retrieve the dude or the dudette and cut back again leading to utter chaos. Lets face it, we Indians simply do not have traffic sense and in their defence, there is no safe way to come to the other side of the road from the BRT stop that is in the middle of the road because their is no subway not a bridge to do so.
There is a lesson here. Mere technical suitability is not enough. You have to match the solution to the people too.

Improving Infrastructure

The monsoon season is here again. Mumbai has had painful experiences of infrastructure crumbling at the first sign of rains. There were lots of promises, lots of money spent but as people have come to expect, nothing has improved.
My own take is that while we do not have enough money to spend on infrastructure, what we do spend is also wasted by misplaced priorities, vested interests, apathy, incompetence and corruption. The real sufferers are the citizens. So I've been thinking. Why do we pay taxes? So that government can spend money on common good right? Now making infrastructure upto mark is a common good.
Here is my take, instead of paying taxes that still do not serve the purpose, why not create a special purpose vehicle (SPV) that reports to a high body (not necessarily made up of politicians, lets face it, no one trusts them to do the right thing). The body can float bonds that companies and individuals can subscribe to. The amount you subscribe is deducted from the taxes that you have to pay through some formula so that the whole amount is deducted over say 10 years.
This SPV will be a listed company like any other with full oversight by regulators and all. The SPV can now create storm drains, improve roads etc. Being a listed company, it cannot get away with corruption, shoddy job and all. The infrastructure created is operated on Build Operate Transfer (BOT) basis for say whichever is the number of years your tax bonds work for.
By taking the power of spending money as per whim, this will ensure that a designated part of the tax actually works for what its supposed to work for. Since owners (companies+individuals) are those who loose money / life because of lack of infrastructure they will do a good job of it. Win Win

Elitist Education

Business World has a good piece on the role of elitist education institutes in advancing the cause of higher education. Indeed I find the whole debate of making elite educational institutes as some sort of a discrimination against lesser mortals misguided. What is needed is equal opportunity to all to study in such institutes not an equal right to.
What this implies? Give scholarships even 100% + living expense to those who can make it into such institutes. This is especially easy for post graduate courses. But let the competition be brutal to gain an entry into this club. In case of pure sciences and some arts discipline like psychology etc, it will dramatically improve the standard of research. Let the aim of such institutes be primarily research though there is some value in preparing technicians of a particular trade too. After all, its the applied aspects that are often more relevant to life in short term.
10000 such top end graduates coming out every year over a 10 year period will provide the thought leadership that will raise the bar across the nation.

Hamburg, Cologne and a city called Frankfurt

A view of MaineHattan - Thats manhattan on river Maine Frankfurt. Lovely city, its what New York should have been!

Hotel opposite Hamburg railway station. My Mobcam was not upto capturing the glories of this party town but its a great place to have fun.
I got out the railway station at Cologne to see a construction site and wondering why people so love the place. Then hunting for the tourist information bureau got back in and came out the other side of the station when this beauty hit me. Whoa!

What impressed me the most about Germany were the people. Very friendly contrary to my believe. Luckily English was not as scarce as I feared, knowing no German. But collegues made the trip great fun.