Sycophancy or stupidity?

Now, I am really getting fed up reading about the birthday gift Mr Dayanidhi Maran had planned for Karunanidhi. Every other article on Maran or Raja or communications ministry these days mentions the fact that Mr Maran was planning to announce abolishing of roaming charges on June 3, MK’s birthday.

Tell me one thing. Is this how things are supposed to work at high, ministerial or policy levels? If Mr Maran really wanted to save us all (consumers) some money, and was in a position to do so, why did he have to wait till June 3? Alternatively, if abolishing roaming charges is going to pinch BSNL’s bottom-line, then why could he not wait for things to get finalized? Unless the dates were anyway running close, and he was merely planning to align them, I will say this was either sycophancy or stupidity.

BTW, whether doing away with roaming charges is a good idea or not, or, whether MK has the right to recall his party’s minister – these are not the matters for this post. I am only irked by these sycophantic touches to policy matters.

Fostering national integration?

Oh wow! What a great starter package you got there Tatasky – Marathi, Oriya, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Bangla and more. God! I didn’t even know my country had such a broad linguistic spectrum. I was told late Mr P V Narasimha Rao was the last scholar to know all Indian languages. Now I am sure that information isn’t right. Looking at your thoughtfully structured starter package, I am guessing your marketing folks figured there are tons of of viewers who want to enjoy all our languages at once.

Traffic cops to get blackberrys

Check out this link – Bangalore cops go hitech.

My solution for traffic violators is simpler. Just 5 steps:

1. stop them
2. take away keys.
3. Make them wait for 30 mins. Serve them a cup of tea :)
4. return keys
5. wave them goodbye

Srivathsa

More ring roads!

No no. No new ones around Bangalore. That count for rings around Bangalore stays at 5 and a half. ORR, PRR, IRR, STRR = 4. Add half a ring for BMIC’s peripheral road = 4.5. Last, add the proposed elevated core inner ring road to get 5.5!

The good news BMRDA has for us is about the satellite towns. They seem to have finalized what they call individual town ring roads (ITRR). Look at the image (click on it for bigger version) and notice the small rings drawn around satellite towns. How many did you spot, 8 !?

Nice job of planning these ring roads now itself. But not having plans for cut-through-the-heart radial roads for each peripheral town could mean trouble later. Anyways, while on the subject of radial roads, BMRDA seems to have finalized on the alignment of roads that will lead you out of Bangalore to these satellite towns. Click on this second thumbnail (below) to find a list of these radials.

Just curious #6 – horning at traffic lights

Silkboard has agreed to let me blog on his site instead of creating another blog. So here goes…

Any good ideas on why people horn as soon as the light turns green at traffic lights?

• Can I climb over the car/bus/bike/auto in front of me if you do that?
• Do you think I love to linger at traffic lights and take in the sights?
• Do you think I need a reminder on traffic light logic – stop says the red light…?

I have been to quite a few cities outside India. No, these have pretty much the same per-capita GDP as Bangalore. Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Manila, Siem Reap, Guangzhou. No one loves the sound of their car horns as much as we do.

Love to read some responses.

Srivathsa

Cheap thrill thanks to NAL

Wrote this 6 months ago – “Time to think beyond Boeing and Airbus” – wondering why we dont make commercial aircrafts ourselves. Then, posted this a few days ago – “Come sell aircrafts to us” – with similar thoughts.

Now this morning, I read in the papers that NAL has submitted a proposal to the government for a Rs 2000 crore project to make 70 seater regional commercial aircrafts, which they say could be ready by 2015. This is called cheap thrill, not of the I-said-so kind, but of learning that there are folks who think alike :)

Security and procedures?

Spotted this picture in Monday’s TOI that showed a bomb disposal guy inspecting a mobile phone that was found at the spot of the bomb blast in Hyderabad on Sunday. My first reactions to the picture – how can you hold that with bare hands? Where are the gloves, or a hanky? Is this how they do it? No standard procedure for possible evidences?

[Picture clipped from TOI Bangalore epaper, May 21 2007]

 

While on the subject of Metro …

… here are the surprise pictures Tarle was pointing us to. Krinix @ skyscrapercity noticed soil testing Type work going on in Attibele and Chandapura. Apparently the work sites had Metro boards put on.

Trenching for Metro!

Found this interesting tender on Bangalore Metro site. Rs 27 lakh worth of work to be done in 60 days, it goes:

Identification of underground utilities by trenching in the metro corridor.

I know this is reality. But isn’t it a sad reflection of record keeping on part of our utility companies?  In Pune, I heard rumors that the University Road flyovers were delayed because they discovered some unexpected underground utilities during the course of work. [I bet the contractor there may have (mis)used this as an excuse to delay the project to their convenient schedule.]

Howrah again!

Went through Kolkata on a personal trip last month, and spent 4 quality evening hours at Howrah! The place I think is a photographer’s paradise what with a river, shining steel bridge, chaos and poverty rubbing shoulders with fast life at a century old railway station. I am no shutter bug, some photos thanks only to my N80.

Dressed as a bride, Howrah at night: