A trip to Bangalore

What do I do all of a sudden I had to travel to Bangalore for a day. I had to shell a sweet 1100 for my to and fro expenses apart from about Rs 400 as sundry expenses. This time, I did notice some differences during my travel.

First of all, in this era of Privatisation, the more you pay, the better service you will get. I started from Chennai on Sunday night by 11.00 from the Koyambedu private bus stand. It was a volva bus and it reached Bangalore private bus stand by 5.30 in the morning. In about six and half Hrs, it has taken us more than 350 Kms. As I reached there after a fairly good sleep in a semi-sleeper seat in a AC bus together with a woolen blanket, I didn't feel like having travelled 350 Kms. The opening of privatisation has given the Indian railways too a run for their money. Else, would they have any time thought of introducing a train like Sathabdi. I boarded the training by 6.00 in the morning and by 10.55 it was in Chennai. The train was amazingly punctual at te only stop in between Bangalore City Junction and Chennai Central. It reached there at 8.58 and started exactly at 9.00 from there. For someone who is used to seeing trains coming atleast half and hour to one and half an hours late, this is very unusaul. But these doesn't come cheap. The to and fro journey costed me 570 + 530 = a sweet 1100 Rs.

Apart from the difference in climate and the language, the other thing I could see was the obvious differences in bus fares. When it is fairly cheap in Chennai, it is pretty costly in Bangalore. If you are taking couple of buses to commute in Bangalore, the to and fro journey would easily cost 40 Rs. I think such a high cost mass transport and high petrol cost would effectively keep away lower middle class families out of Bangalore.

Whom do you expect to meet when you are travelling from Bangalore to Chennai in Sadhapthi. I was expecting a guy from the software indusry or someone working in a Bank or a grade I office in state or central Government. Strangely, I met a guy who is a creative writer working in an adverticement company. This guy was a chartered accountant by profession. But he told me that he is very passionate about advertising that he switched career and is now in advertising. His job is to write scripts for advertisements in visual media -print and TV commersials. I had nice time chatting with them for about 1 hr. He was telling me about the various activities they do and the processes they follow in their company.

Atlast thanks for the short notice. If not for that, I would have never travelled in a Volva or a Sadhabdhi.

Oil Price Hike and the Inevitable

It is official. The inevitable has happened at last. After increasing the price of petrol by Rs. 4 per liter and diesel by about Rs. 2 per liter, the Government has in principle agreed to allow the price of petroleum products to be decided by OMCs if the price crosses $75 per barrel. This will obviously have a cascading effect on the prices of essential commodities which in turn on the inflation. This is inevitable though as the Oil Marketing companies(OMCs) had been incurring a loss of Rs. 6.50 per liter of petrol and equally in diesel, LPG and Kerosene. Part of the high price can be attributed to Central and State taxes which account for about 55 per cent of the retail selling price of petrol and 34 per cent of diesel. The left have been demanding a cut on taxes instead of increasing the retail price of petroleum products. Looks like the government have struck a balance between the price hike, tax reduction and bonds. One thing I fail to understand is attitude of the government here. The government should in fact regulate the price of petroleum product when the price is high. But the Government is trying to do it other way around.

Need for an alternate source of energy
The international crude oil price which $25/barrel in September 2003 is now hovering around 73$/barrel and is soon expected to touch $100/barrel. Infact, it looks very much inevitable considering the phase in which the world community(especially India, US, China and European countries) are consuming the natural resource without giving much thought that we are depleting it very fast and the alternate means of producing oil proving to be atleast as costly. It invariably mean that the prices of petroleum products will keep raising. While the world community is already searching a way out either by might or by identifying alternate sources of energy, the top politicians and bureaucracy in India are quiet oblivious to this is quiet difficult to understand.

The short-sighted attitude of the governments and the bureaucracy is very well evident by the way they are trying to handle this long-term emergency. The Indian government should work on finding alternate source of energy instead of considering raisin the price, cutting taxes or issuing of bonds every time.

Dynasty Politics & Media Hype

The Indian society, particularly the politicians seem to have a hang-over of monarchial culture where a son of a king becomes a king, a son of a prohit becomes a prohit and a son of a vettiyan becomes a vettiyan. The obvious reason seems to be the ease of choice and lack of standards of merit of selection. Off late the print and electronic media in India seems to have joined such hypes. And the "party with a difference" doesn't seem to be any exception with it looking at Rahul Mahajan to fill-up the void created by Promodji. No doubt, Promod Mahajan was a great leader and I adore him. A great dad doesn't always mean a great son.

Rahul got the media glare when Promodji was hospitalized and all the great leaders like Atalji and Advaniji came calling. Proximity of his father with such leaders and a hug by them to Rahul was seen as enough reason for the second-rung BJP leaders to consider him the heir to Promodji. Not very late, the Maharashtra BJP sought the support of the congress for Rahul's RS membership a replacement for Promodji's. But as expected, it is promptly turned down by the congress. What else can you expect of a party which wants to rule even it is not the single largest party in the coalition.

Now after the hospoitalisation of Rahul Mahajan, after what looks like cosumption of drugs, the same media talks of embarrassment for the top-rung BJP leaders. I didn't expect the news of hospitalisation of Rahul to come as the headline in the front page in "The Hindu" or the headline news in "CNN IBN" or NDTV. But this happened and I don't find any reason other than for creating artificial hypes and there by increasing viewership. IMHO, the Indian media should learn to look at the professional and personal lives of the leaders differently. I am not sure if the media and indian political system is complementary or derogatory to each other. But I am sure journalists and media don't do justice to their profession by doing building such hypes.

The Political Justice

Many a times I am confronted by a nightmarish question. In a democratic country where majority counts, if a political party or alliance with a two-third majority can do anything by just enacting a legislation, I wonder what their limit is ?

If on one fine day I invent a gadget something like a legendary magical mirror which can tell me where one is and what the person is doing or acquire the ability to predict the same with a beetle leaf and kajal, can the politicians decide that I will be a nuisance and enact a legislation to exterminate me. Or to be more practical, can they one day say Reliance is a property of the nation and not of the two brothers or can they declare an emergency and say there are going to be no elections or election commission for the next 10 years.

In case such political parties decide to enact such a law the fate of those concerned will depend on The President of the nation, secondly The Judiciary and then the World community. But with a thumbing majority, it is very doubtful that the president will be in a position to oppose anything even if he feels it is not justified. Or what if the President himself favours the bill. Now the only other option would be be to take the case to the Supreme Court. With the recent stand-off between the parliament and judiciary, it is very unlikely that justice can be expected from the judiciary. Te final option will be for the ill-fated party to voice their protest in whatever way possible and mobilise support for their cause amoung the world community.

I think we are in fact living in such an era of political correctness, be it the emergency days or the US invasion of Iraq or the more current issue of reservation based on caste for the OBCs, SCs and STs.

The dictatorial attitude of the then prime minister was well personified in the days of emergency. Every Indian citizen including the press was deprived of the basic freedoms including freedom of speech, which was justified by the then political scenario including the then President of India. But the plight of the opposition and those who decided to oppose the emergency remains un-justified. Those days will remain to be a black days in our democratic system for centuries to come.

The US invasion of Iraq is more to do with military might than political correctness. But, the point to be noted here is that even the most powerful politician needed approval and backing from the congress for his live military adventures. Anyway, there is no justification for killing thousands of innocent people who were caught unaware and for those who fought the only super-power for the sake of defending their nation. But the hind-sight is that, in more than one way it is safe and good to have a super power like America. Can you or me live in a world where Afganistan or Iraq is mightier than the rest of world?

Coming to the current issue, the reservation based on caste or religion, the UPA with their number strength (or expecting the support of the so called OBCs who are considered to be the majority in this country) is trying to snatch the very right of equality from one section of the population. Again the politicians are trying to justify it politically. What justice can they give to a candidate belonging to general category who is economically backward while it is not his mistake to have born to his parents?

Every politician must understand that there are two types of justice, one is legal/political and the other being moral. The political system in a country may legalise what they ever to do. But they should look at their inner self to check if they are morally justified. In any case, one thing for sure is "Might is Right". So, it is more important that you are mighty than being morally right. If you are mighty you can survive even if you are morally unjustified where as there is no guarantee if you are morally right and not mighty enough.

Men in Blue - The Reality Check

With the world cup matches slated to be played in West-indies, it is very logical that the men in blue get used to the West-indies playing conditions.

Before the start of matchs with West-Indies, India was the clear favourite. Four matches then, it is a different story altogether. West-indies ranked 8th in the ODI rating has won the series even before the last match is yet to be played. After the first match thou, it looked as if the Indians were on course. But with every match then West-indies were doing better and they really outplayed Indians in every aspect of the game in the last match. The Indian batting didn't work as it worked earlier. Perhaps it is a tribute to the legend Lara for this might well be his last match in his home ground. One positive point about the tour is that Shewagh and Kaif have started playing better. Let us home that Indians improve over time and will be in race for the 2007 world cup.

Life at Chepauk vs Life at Mylapore

It is about a month and half since our family have shifted from Chepauk to Dhevadi Street, Mylapore. Life is quiet different from what it was at Chepauk.

At Chepauk, it was my dad's quarter. It is about a 60 yrs old building and very spacious. We have a pleanty of place to park our vehicles. People can manage having 2/3 cars even. Also with the Chennai Press Club next door and a couple of DSPs as your neighbour, you really feel like being in the power zone. Also need to mention pleanty of free space in acers around that area that we guys used to play cricket in. It would be a dreem come true for a kid at 7th or 8th grade.
We have rented a 3 BRHK rented house here at Dhevadi Street. We are paying a sweet 11K for this house. For the locality it is in, may be, it worth the money. Dhevadi street is in heart of Mylapore about a forlong from the Kabaleeswarar temple, about a Km from Luz corner and very close to Santhome. I love to be in Kabali temple in odd hours. At peak hours(for a temple it is by evening 6.00 to 8.00), it is a pain to be in any temple in the city. More so if it happens to be an auspicious day. Being at Mylapore I will have the option of gong to the temple as and when I like to.

When parking space is a privilege in Mylapore, we have ample parking space thou not covered. Just have a stroll thru the street by 11.00 at night. You can see pleanty of cars parked right in the roads. By 8.00 in the morning all of them would be gone.

My dream has been to buy a plot at Mylapore and construct a house. With the land prices sky-rocketing, it looks as like it will be a dream for ever. 2400 sq ft plot cost around a crore around Dhevadi street. Only commercial builders or business men can afford it. Not a salaried guy like me. I had some plans, but for sure my job or the stock market doesn't look like helping my cause. I am racing against time and let me check how soon I can beat it, if at all.

The Road Less Travelled - Not Always Better

This blog would tend to be boring. So, don't read this unless you are ready to hear my polambals.

It was June 1998 and as a guy in final year of MCA, I attended campus interview and got selected in the first company L & T. Actually I was interested in TCS and had prepared for that. But fortunately or unfortunately TCS came later to campus. I couldn't attend as I was already selected for L & T. Infact, I was the only guy from MCA to have got selected for L & T. It was just before the Y2K year and so, L &T didn't give me project and worse kept postponing my date of joining. Thus, I lost atleast 7/8 months and I joining in 24-Jan-2004. What impression will I get about such a company. I didn't have much positive about L & T when I joined there. Neither the work was good.

By about the end of 2000, I was given an option of going to Mumbai for ERP training. I was not much interested in that and meanwhile, I got an offer from my present company. But Nobody from my batch except me wanted to give a chance at the interview even. And some of the managers whom I consulted didn't recommend me to join too. Anyway I decided to take it more for satisfying my ego. The market was good then and so I was of the opinion that I can switch out if I find it unfitting to me. The rest is history. Then came the recession and getting a job even in India became difficult for about 3 yrs until offshoring picked up by 2004.

Throughout, I had tried to take the road less travelled (or atleast that was the only option for me) and it never proved to be better. Nevertheless, I would like to travel the road less travelled as that is what I feel will make the difference (the difference what Baskar is be it good or bad).