The Ways of the Highways!

I have had a decent amount of driving experience.. close to 4 years. And I have driven accross cities, inside cities.. hill driving is something which I havent been allowed to do. I have been thorugh UP highways, Haryana highways and Bangalore highways too. Well, its a pleasure to drive on Haryana highways. For one, the roads are quite nicely maintained and infrastructure etc is good.. but the most important thing is the traffic sense. Haryana roadways bus drivers are such well mannered people on the road.. you wont hear unnecessary honking on the road, they will let you pass gracefully (and that too from the correct side!). And its not just the roadways bus people but the truck drivers, auto drivers.. Another thing that is admirable is the way the highway is designed. For people who need to turn right or take a U-turn, there is an intersection bay so that they can quietly slip there and turn when convenient without haulting the mainroad traffic. You can easily manage a 90-100 kmph on these roads with an "A" segment car also. Compare this to UP driving - it makes you go mad!. They wont let you pass and incase they do let you pass, they wont let you go without giving you one of those "dekh loonga bacchhuu!" looks. Honking is like a driver's toy on the road. Lane changing is as common as shifting gears. The roads are not in good shape 50-60% of the time! I dont know.. the difference maybe because Haryana is a richer state and however corrupt the government has been there, they have always spent on development of the state. UP in contrast has had little or no development overall. But then, I must say.. whatever be the reason, people of Haryana know their traffic sense.. its nice to drive on those highways after driving in Delhi also. It makes you feel that driving can be fun too.. Its the way of the Highway!

The Sultans of Forwards

Its been some time we were exposed to the revolution of email.. but the imaturity of a ten year old still haunts the minds of young adults using email. I cant remember a single day when my inbox did not have "forwards" - from school mailing lists, college mailing lists, placements groups, preparation groups - not advertising spam but forwards sent in full conciousness by people who otherwise seem sane. Mushy flowers, cute animals, distorted faces.. one-liners, blonde jokes, sardarji jokes.. And not once, each forward has a cycle to complete and more often than not,a forward reaches an active inbox atleast 4-5 times.. There is another category of forwards which highlights indian achievements in the foreign soil looking for a reason to say "I am a proud Indian.. Are you?" But the facts these mails qoute are mostly false, created by some idiot typing away at a lame terminal. Percentage of indians in Microsoft, Intel etc.. A mail qouted 35% of Microsoft's employees are indians.. whereas, actually 5-10% of people there are indians (which is good too considering that India accounts for some 1% of US population only). And how can I forget the Sultans of forwards who have driven superstition to the unsuspecting field of IT also.. we have chain letters. I dont know when people will grow up and understand that chain letters are creations of people who have nothing else to do. Its not a message from the heaven! Chain letters existed during the snail mail days too.. but like everything, they have become saddled with technology too.. People instead of writing something creative themselves or maybe sharing some news (if its a batchmates group) or debating (if its a discussion group) send a forward. Is to make your presence felt? Then dont make it felt! Rather, just read what other people write.. but dont be a part of the spamming community that is increasing in size even as I finish this post..

Karnataka Express: A journey called Chhuk Chhuk!

As I wrote earlier, I had planned a trip to Bangalore from Delhi in the last week of January. The Karnataka Express starts from Delhi at 9:15 P.M and reaches at 1:30 P.M after some 40 hours. During the journey, you make some acquaintances that you don’t want to forget and some that you want to forget but just cant get out of your mind! I was on berth no. 23 which incidently is a side lower berth (I find it the most comfortable berth in AC 3) and I managed to book it for myself after much haggling. Anyways, usually it happens that I have to forego my berth for some women or the other – even she is young and athletic – for the “love of humanity” or “being considerate” (this being another topic of interest about which I am gonna write sometime later) so that the female doesn’t have to climb 4 feet. But this time, I was traveling after a long time and had made up my mind not to give in so easily for a “not so worthy cause”. Indeed, if its someone really old and incapable enough to climb 4 feet, I would oblige. And I decided that I would be the sole judge for the worthiness of the cause. Well, as I boarded the bogie with my sister who had come to drop me, I saw 2 couples and one mom – son combo ( the son was in early twenties and it was a relief for me that there was someone else too who could be asked for a sacrifice). As it turned out everyone was quite comfy with their arrangements and I managed to ward off some lone one or two attempts to acquire my seat. Well, after settling down in the train its time to look out for ways to pass time. Since I have some experience, I carry some books or magazines (I stopped carrying walkman when I passed out of teens). The other past time which is quite popular in long journey trains in India is eating. Its simply capacity of people to eat… and eat while at the same time saying nice things about the “seat of relief”. Its not a lesser known fact that train toilets are horrible on trains here but a lesser known fact is that the usability of the bathroom declines exponentially as the journey progresses. But the fervor to eat does not get dampened .. the diverse set of people, companions for some 40 hours, gladly open up their bags and bring out the best that their state or city has to offer.. sweets, namkeens or should I say, anything that is considered edible. And no, u cant just take one serving and be done with it, the first serving has to be followed by a second serving – and its not as if you don’t have the liberty to choose the number of servings – the third one is your choice. The next kind of pastime is standing near the door (but away from the toilet door) for some fresh unpolluted air and beautiful scenery. And that’s also the place u meet up with people from other bogies. I am gonna continue this.. later.. Karnataka Express: A journey called Chhuk Chhuk –2 As I was talking about the second most popular pass time is standing near the bogie door.. for some fresh unpolluted air and beautiful countryside scenery. Air is unbelievably fresh and clean and trees or undending “khet” (farms) are a feast for the eyes that normally don’t see a square park or a garden in the name of greenery. I met some quite interesting people this time.. A paraglider – he was carrying all his paraphernalia with him – who was going as an instructor. Some people from Samsung coming back after a conference in Jaipur. A businessman from Delhi who had a train to catch at midnight the same day for Hyderabad and was really panicky when Karnataka Express got delayed by around 1.5 hour. A guy from Delhi and a girl from Bangalore.. so basically, it was a nice mix of people. Everyone had an absolutely different accent – the Samsung guys had a southie accent, the bangalore girl had a bihari + southie accent, the businessman from Delhi had a Azadpur Mandi Delhi accent and the delhi guy had a different Punjabi accent. I found my accent to be very different to theirs too.. The paraglider guy didn’t say anything much.. It was good talking to them; we talked about China’s Manufacturing, Choclate Biscuits, Tsunami, politics, food ofcourse, bangalore and Delhi. And there was a 10 month old baby in the bogie and provided wholesome entertainment to anyone who was getting bored. On the whole I would say a train journey from North India to South India is a experience in itself. It’s a tale of diversity.. India’s diversity. I enjoy it..

City Outlook

I have been to bangalore a couple of times. The city always fascinates me.. it has a different feel to it. You get to see an extremely diverse set of people. Bangalore's diversity has just one reason.. it attracts software professionals from all over the country. Punjabis.. delhiites.. bongs.. mumbaiites.. its a melange of people from all parts of India. I have always felt that its enriching to interact with people from diverse backgrounds. My college has mostly delhiites.. but the circle of friends that I have is quite diverse.. southie, bong, haryanvi, UP's baniya.. they are all there.. Differenence of points of view makes just about anything sooo subjective and interesting.. Maybe thats why I like Bangalore.. Delhi is awesome in its own way; it is spacious and grand - no city can beat Delhi to this.. But Bangalore is cool - nice places to hangout and a cosmo culture.. Though, Bangalore has the same kind of story.. The rate of people pouring in is beating the developmental rate of the city. The infrastructure simply is not able to keep up. The traffic is horrible.. People drive like they are the only ones on the road. Pollution is horrifying! Delhi was going through a similar phase, remember? 6-7 years ago, Delhi's traffic and pollution were at an all time high.. Passing ITO during office hours was a scary idea. That all has been taken care of nicely here.. bangalore needs to do something fast..

History: Whose version is it anyway?

Have u ever thought if history could be tweaked? What is history?.. A narrative of events; a story.. History as it manifests itself in the documents seems to be like a tale narrated by an onlooker who was passing by.. Isnt it a whim of that person or an institution to report what it deems fit for future generations to know? Actually, it is the winner's story and the loser's story is lost. Dan Brown in his book Da Vinci Code outlines some of the histories greatest anomalies. Dan Brown's Angles & Demons gives evidence of a fearful "war" between the scientific community and the Church. The Church was at war to protect the faith and wanted to end the threat of the rising scientific reason. It is all fiction.. but on second thoughts, what if it could be true.. One's story could be another's history. Ultimately, it depends on whose version is it anyway?