Re-Cycle

The 10-year old faithful BSA SLR bicycle I possessed was stolen one (not so) fine day and it was time to go for a new one. Rather, it was time to rediscover cycling and so this was the latest purchase made:

Hercules AXN DX 6 speed, as the name suggests is the same old Hercules AXN with 6 speed grip-shift gears. The 8km ride back home from the shop included the infamous 30-degree Symbiosis uphill slope, but tackling it was no problem now with the joys of geared bicycling. Sympathy was poured on other cyclists, most of whom preferred to manually push rather than cycle uphill, with looks of I've-done-that-so-many-times. Disdainful looks were casted at the 2-wheeler motorists as being filthy polluters and more been-there-done-that looks thrown to passengers sticking out of crowded buses.

Two days later, the weekend saw me participating in an early morning cycle rally. Looking at it more as a challenging exercise rather than environment propaganda, I somehow managed to complete it. A total of 15km and a terrible backache were achieved. Says a lot about the fitness dept. but in the eco-friendliness dept. we do have a tick-mark.

Next: prepare for longer cycle rallies and someday target the legendary Sinhagad cycle tour.

Error handling systems or smarter users?

Is it only an Indian attitude of expecting the mai-baap sarkar-raj to work for them because of living in years of servitude? Or is it visible elsewhere too?

Shriniwas, writes an angry post on why our parliamentary democratic systems have failed to bring out results. My long-ish comments and the following long-ish conversation are fodder for debate, so here is an attempt to hijack the topic and bring some traffic to my blog ;-).

Cutting to a minimum gist, the point to be made is that while it is easy to blame and find fault with systems when they don't work, one doesn't realize that it is not the system that has failed but faulty human usage. You wish that the (of-by-for)-people democracy that you love so much is a neat machine with all error handling mechanisms. Sadly it isn't, but it is among the better ones you have around, so live with it and make it work. Working with it does not start and end with you pressing a button once in a few years and leaving some others to run it hoping they'd do a good job and blaming them when they don't.

Part from one of my comments: "(the elected representatives) represent YOU. If you dont keep an eye on them, or meet them or lobby for your causes, how can you expect them to work from their own will? How many of us know our local corporator or have spoken to him about local development? Or gone to the MP and asked how much he has spent from the MPLADS scheme? Or asked your local MLA about the status of the govt hospital in your area?"

Ask, enquire, petition, question, lobby, protest, get involved. Stop whining, and start a revolution.

Signboards in Pune

The heart of Pune city (especially the Sadashiv Peth area) is known for the rather meanness of the residents. Often, this attitude comes out combined with their love for intellectualism in the form of sarcastic signboards outside their homes or public establishments. A message as simple as "No parking for visitors" is most likely be written as "Visitors parking their bikes inside will have their tyres punctured". Other favourite signs are "No credit will be given" and "Please do not ask for directions".

Puneri Patya is a marvellous site capturing this signboard culture of the city (albeit only for the Marathi reader, translations available for some). Among one of my submissions, it also has my favourite sign outside a small lodge-cum-restaurant called Badshahi Boarding. Translating this one doesn't do justice to its essence, but it goes something like: "Badshahi is private property. The bathroom and other facilities are for members only. Do not use this place to idle around chattting or for any public activities. Please note this and do not get yourself insulted unnecessarily." Badshahi could be the type site of the signboard culture. It has previously put up signs inside such as "Do not make a noise while rinsing your mouth" or "Do not talk on the mobile phone while eating" (actually in a place which calls itself a restaurant).

Most of the signs are in Marathi, but there are rare ones in English like this and this.

Quick update

(Just to revive this place)

Many happenings after the last post. Quit my job to explore other career options. Now on a study sabbatical and keeping a general low profile. And general noise has been transferred from this blog to twitter where random thoughts go in. It is planned to turn some of those noisy rants/observations into bigger blog posts. When that will happen, we'll see..

Are more guns the solution?

The Mumbai attacks are still not over as I write this and many voices have come up suggesting what we the citizens and the government need to do next. Some want the Home Minister to resign, some want to bring back POTA, some want war against Pakistan.

One of the ideas that has come up is to relax gun restrictions and allow every citizen to possess firearms. Among the many advocating the arming of citizens is Sauvik Chakraverti, whose blog I find very interesting to read because of his content and style. But I'm not very comfortable with the idea he suggests where he says:

I sincerely doubt whether such a brazen strike by just 25 armed men would have caused so much damage and lasted so long if all decent Mumbaikars had guns of their own.

In fact, if they did have guns, such an attack would have perished at the thought itself. It would not have been even contemplated.

...

So every honest man earns his (hard) money through voluntary exchanges in markets, courageously bears arms to defend himself and his properties and liberties - and that is how we become a land where "the mind is without fear and the head is held high."

Otherwise, we remain a nation of slaves.

I find this idea irresponsible and dangerous. It seems evident that the mentioned author of the above post has never been mugged with a gun pointing in his face. If it was ever made possible to easily own a gun, it is practically not possible to carry one around all the time. Even if one did have a gun in person, it takes a few seconds for a mugger/gangster/terrorist to kill and disappear before the victim can retaliate with his/her own gun.

One major argument of the pro-gun community is that having a gun deters another one from attacking. If so then can someone please explain this case in gangwars or police-underworld battles where each side is aware of the other side possessing arms?

Another classic argument thrown by gun-lovers is of Switzerland which has the highest rate of gun-ownership and also the lowest rates of firearm related crimes. Please remember, India is not Switzerland. We are not a land abundant with honest men all who can afford guns. What we do have here are idiots wanting to divide us people on the basis of region, religion, language and caste. These idiots also happen to have large numbers of supporters - common men ready to bash up others to "protect" their fellow community/religion/caste brethren at the slightest provocation. Considering not everyone will be able to legally afford a gun, do you really want all these idiots and their supports wielding guns and roaming about freely in your city? Seriously?

Think of your city with aam junta carrying weapons and you can foresee road rage turning into shootouts, more Columbine-like incidents in schools, and more Bihar-like violent political wars. Despite what has happened in the past few days, I happen to be one of those who trust only law-enforcing authorities like the police or army with guns, and not the average man on the street.

More guns are not the way to go.

My humble tribute

Hajaar tributes have already been written to the retiring duo of Anil Kumble and Sourav Ganguly. Normally I wouldn't have spared time to write one for anyone else, but this time it is special. Because if at all I did idolise anyone from the Indian team, it would be these two. (Ok, everyone idolises Sachin, leave him out for now.)

I might have been about 9 or 10 and we played cricket in the building opposite ours. Hours of play were decided by one kid who owned the bat who not only batted first, but also exceptionally well which made the rest of us take to bowling. Being the only bespactacled kid around who liked to bowl spin, I emulated the bespectacled spinner in the Indian team, Anil Kumble. The slight toss of the rubber ball, the slow short run-up and the action, all were copied from Jumbo. The car parking below the building ensured that playing on the leg side was not a great idea. Having plenty of attempts to bowl was good practice to get a decent break and flipper which often did fetch some wickets (too bad we didn't consider LBW). The googly, however, I couldn't master. That said, Anil Kumble was my first bowling hero.

Few years later, while playing at the same building, it was discovered that my bowling was too predictable. Right-handed batsmen had now started deliberately playing lefty to be able to score on my bowling. I urgently needed to change my action and do something to surprise them. Fast is the way to bowl, I decided and holding the ball with both hands close to my chest, I ran and bowled fast. "He's bowling like Saurav Ganguly!", said one. Yes! That was it - the ball was bowled well, and I kept bowling that way working on it without wanting to change the Ganguly-styled action. Of course, I couldn't emulate his batting, but only enjoy watching it and keenly follow his career, most memorable for me being the 1997 Sahara Cup, 183 at WC99 and the final moments of the 2002 Natwest Series.

And now, both of my favourite Indian cricketers have retired the same time. (Ok, everyone loves Sachin and so do I, but I didn't bowl like him did I?). Watching these two play live will be missed, as much as I miss trying to play like them.

Crimes of our times

Either Tata Sky or Doordarshan seems to have a wicked sense humour.

On Sunday evening, the Commonwealth Youth Games (CYG) Opening Ceremony was on and IOA president Suresh Kalmadi was making a bad speech. Now Tata Sky has this feature to display the currently running show. This is what they had to say:


Yes - "Crime Scene" is how they described the CYG. All I saw after the speech was some random laser show with the announcer guy interjecting in the background trying out crowd control techniques. From what I read in the papers the next day, the OC apparently went off very smoothly. Well, good for them then.

PS: And whats with President Pratibha Patil's fake accent?