TTI advertising on IRCTC

Well that TTI isn't Travelling Ticket Inspector; it is Trick That Idiot.

This style of advertising on the net must have a nice academic name.  Unfortunately I am unaware of it so I am using the non-pedantic TTI.

As you know, we love apps, we love music and we love books.  And we love them even more when they can be had for free.  Our search for such freeware often takes us to sites that employ TTI.  So, they will give you a download link for the stuff you are looking for. But it will not be so prominently displayed as another big Download button that will download something very different from what you are looking for.  And because of this visual design, you are more likely to click on this button instead of the one that you intend to.  Now it doesn't take a great marketing guru to figure out that this other Download button must have been placed there by someone who has paid for it.  It is paid TTI advertising.  Similarly some websites, notably the Readers Digest site, present content in the form of slide shows.  When a slide is presented you will find back and forward arrows for navigating the show.  Alongside other and more prominent arrows will be placed prominently on the screen.  These are TTIs that will take you not to the next or previous slide, but somewhere where the paying advertiser wants you to go.  I am sure you have experienced this TTI yourself and I would be happy to know what name you have given to them.

You may not mind being tricked when you are looking for something for free.  After all, the fellow maintaining the website has to seek revenue from somewhere.  But it does come as a nasty surprise when such TTI is embedded on an e-commerce website like IRCTC where the visitor is paying for what he wants from the site.  Let me narrate to you what happened today morning.

Someone approached me for online booking of train tickets from Mumbai to Lucknow in the sleeper class for her journey 120 days later.  She was very insistent that I sign into the website before 8 am so that I can initiate the booking as soon as the clock strikes eight.  Each second counted.  I was ready with the train and the class selected at 7:59 am.  However there was no link to book.  Then I noticed this huge "Book a seat" button and clicked it.  It took me to Bla-Bla car website.  I thought this was IRCTC's way of keeping you amused till 8:00 when the booking will open.  So I kept closing the popped up ad and clicking on the said button.  By the time I noticed that a row in which availability and booking link were displayed, had appeared on the screen, I was late by those few critical seconds.  I also think that I was under the impression that the same button which opened BlaBlaCar ad will open the booking form at eight.  By the time I noticed the actual booking link, all berths (449) had been taken and RAC had started!

Of course, I have learnt the lesson now.  But the question, dear reader, is whether it is fair for IRCTC to go for this TTI style advertising?

Holy Cow

“Milk Comes from a Grieving Mother” ~ leaflet by Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary

In terms of the airlines menu categories, we are a family of lacto-ovo-vegetarians: Ovo is only occasional.  We love cows, relish dairy products and find the thought of eating beef rather sickening.  My son is planning to go vegan and do away with the prefix lacto-ovo.  He feels that cows are the most exploited animals.  We milk them thereby starving, at least partially, their calves and we also slaughter them when they go dry: He lives in USA where beef is staple.  Most of the calves also end up at the slaughter house.  He feels that he wont be a party to this sinful treatment if he gives up dairy products.

I have spent part of my childhood in a village.  I have seen cows being treated with love and care.  Male calves too were taken good care of.  They were castrated and they powered the agriculture at that time.  A cow or a bull was fed and taken care of till the end of its life.  Once it died, the body was taken away by people who specialized in removing the skin and bones for various commercial purposes.

In those days the cows were milked but not to the last drop.  Some was left behind for the calf too.  Such milk could be considered fit for drinking by vegetarians.  But these days dairy has turned into an industry.  The industry treats cows as merely milk producing automatons and there are few ethical considerations, if any.  It is not a gentle industry.

Further, bulls are no longer needed as draft animals.  Religious cow owners let go of the calves and these turn into stray cattle.  Only a few are needed for reproduction.  The rest must be getting caught and ending up in slaughter houses.  The religious owner likes to think that he has not partaken of the sin as he didn't sell the calf for money.  The dairies, of course, are not bothered by these considerations.

Our cities are riddled with small scale illegal dairies.  The male calves born in these dairies turn into stray bulls that are a menace to the citizens.  Most of these dairies have no qualms about driving away the dry cows who roam the streets feeding on the garbage at the dumps.

With industrialization of dairy, male calves getting discarded and old cows and bulls being left to fend for themselves, it seems that our love for this animal is not reflected in the treatment meted out to them.

Perhaps the only conscientious way out of this guilt is to follow in the footsteps of vegans and give up diary products altogether.  This, of course, will not improve the fate of the poor animal.  But then, we can have the consolation of having nothing to do with the treatment meted out to it.

If this topic interests you and you have read this post up to this point you may also like reading this article: To-be-a-feminist-is-to-be-a-vegan.

How do you feel in the matter?

Support for the IronMan!

In his historical campaign, Mr. Modi projected himself as an Ironman with a legendary chest who will bulldoze all problems into magnificent solutions in one tenth of the time in which these were created.  There was much chest thumping amongst the followers who firmly believed that the panacea lied in Modi's victory.  Even fence-sitters like me were inclined to be charitable towards that belief.

In less than two years the tone and tenor of the discourse has changed.  The Ironman is being portrayed as a victim who deserves our fullest support because the whole world is conspiring against him.  There are posts in the social media suggesting that USA, UN Human Rights Commission, and Saudi Arabia are all after Mr. Modi.  It makes you wonder how could it be so after Mr. Modi's great thrust on international diplomacy, befriending Barack so as to be on first name terms with him and a most eloquent speech at the UN against terrorism.  And if you express your doubts on the social media the diehard fans howl at you.

Mr. Modi's Nepal initiative has failed miserably.  Fans say it is so because we cannot match the financial muscle power of China that has pumped in huge money to win Nepal over.  I don't claim any expertise in international affairs, but I do wonder why couldn't the billion dollar given to Mongolia, a little known country, have gone the Nepal way if this is the case?

Now the daal controversy is being blamed on traders who owe allegiance to Congress.  PM wanted India to be free from Congress. He knows for sure all the scandals that caused the public outrage that led to PMs victory.  With that knowledge and the fact of being in power, it should have been the easiest of the things to put Congress on the back foot by initiating action against it instead of preaching against politics of revenge.  Occasional noises are made about inquiry into Vadra's land deals and the National Herald case but it peters out quickly.  Any investigation into scams involving trillions of rupees are kept so carefully hidden that the public may be justified in thinking that all is forgiven and forgotten.  How is it that a party that has so much against it and is out of power is able to arm twist you through its cohorts without any fear of retaliation?  And then your supporters make big noise about bearing with the government in the distant hope of an golden era that seems to be getting more distant by the day.  Also how is it that the government machinery firmly controlled by you couldn't see the crisis coming and the game that the cohorts were playing?

Again, the current wave of protests against rising intolerance in the country is blamed on Congress and intellectuals who are all indebted to Congress.  It is as if Yogis, Sadhvis and BJP loudmouths are not to blame in the matter at all.  Or if they are, the Ironman is a victim of its own party and organization and we must show more understanding towards him.  As Arun Jaitley has said PM is the biggest victim of intolerance himself.

This call for more understanding and support is in stark contrast with the image projected for our PM whose mere presence in the seat of power was supposed to forcefully dispel all the gloom.  His own supporters are now portraying him as a hapless victim who needs greater support to be just able to withstand all the pressure being mounted on him from domestic and international spheres.

As a member of the voting public, I feel that our salvation lies in becoming more and more ruthlessly demanding and not in being compassionate towards the political class.  Is that unfair?

The Munshi Pulia Puzzle

Here is a puzzle set up by the traffic police of Lucknow.  As I do not have access to a helicopter for an aerial photograph, I have represented the puzzle diagrammatically.

For those who are not familiar with Lucknow, Munshi Pulia is a very busy road intersection on the Ring Road with a huge circle and lots of traffic.  The traffic also includes heavy vehicles passing through Lucknow.  There are no traffic signals at the chauraha.

The police have erected a barrier as shown in the diagram.  Because of it the traffic flows in crazy ways.  I have shown the patterns in the diagram.  I decided against drawing the remaining flow lines as the diagram was getting too crowded.

When you are at or near the point marked "battlefield", you tend to get disoriented as traffic seems to be coming towards you from all sides except from up above and down under.  You draw a huge sigh of relief every time you are able to safely make it to your chosen road on the other side of the intersection.

Traffic police normally doesn't intervene.  I think they are convinced of the futility of doing so.

Some friends have guessed that the barrier has been erected to force the traffic coming in from the road at the bottom of the drawing and turning right to go around the circle.  Do you agree?

The question posed to you, dear readers, is this - is it possible that there could be some other deep unfathomable reason for the police to have done what they have?  And has it resolved the traffic problems or magnified them?  It might help if you stood at or slowly walked past the "battle point" while deliberating.  Do I hear you saying that it will be dangerous to do so?  Pedestrians routinely do that!

Letter to Dr. Dinesh Sharma, Mayor of Lucknow

Dear Dr. Dinesh Sharma,

I am persisting with my letters in the hope of catching your attention for the causes that our Prime Minister is espousing and where municipalities have a big role to play.

The PM is espousing the cause of smart cities.  Without the basic infrastructure in place there is no way to realize this dream.  However the current state of infrastructure even in the capital city of Lucknow shows that we are continuing in decades / centuries old ways and that there is little application of thought towards smart infrastructure.

A very mundane case in point is that of open drains (naali) for storm water that runs alongside boundaries of houses.  Some people use a strip of the sidewalk adjoining their boundary for gardening and quite a few of them fill this drain up with mud.  In many cases the drains gradually get choked up on their own.  The drains are not maintained nor are the sidewalks.  Though, sometimes we do see the unpalatable sight of drains being cleaned and all the stinking trash left on the sidewalks to find its way back to the drains.  In fact, the sidewalks are merely muddy strips separating house boundaries from the road. Thus all the mud and dirt and litter from the sidewalks finds its way to the drain and chokes it.  Many citizens have created an inlet into the sewers for draining the water that accumulates in front of their houses.

Further, there is no standard design for the sidewalk and the driveway from a house to the road.  Since the corporation is not doing the sidewalks many people are having it paved at their own expense in front of their house.  Now the question arises whether the pavement should be sloping towards the road or towards the drain alongside the boundary.  Since the drain has disappeared in most places most house owners keep the slope towards the road.  This leads to accumulation of water on the road and its consequent erosion.  Also, as there are no standard designs for the driveway merging into the road, many people make it so massive and steep as to totally block the sidewalk.

This was about the residential areas.  In marketplaces, the sidewalks simply become extension of shops forcing pedestrians out on the road.  As sidewalks are occupied entirely by the merchants, half the road gets taken up by motorists and bikers for parking thereby choking the traffic.

We know that in most countries there are no open drains, not even for storm water.  We know that footpath and driveway too have been completely standardized in more developed parts of the world and this makes life easy for all.

I would like to ask you is there anything that LMC is planning to do in this direction?  And, if yes, what and by what time?  Paving the footpaths may also pave the way to a smart city!  And concealed storm water drains will add both aesthetics and smartness to the infrastructure.

Regards,

AK Upadhyaya
18/428 Indira Nagar
Lucknow - 16.

Mob: 9044275658

Letter to Dr. Dinesh Sharma, Mayor of Lucknow

Dear Dr. Sharma,

Earlier I had written to you about the menacing levels of pollution resulting from widespread practice of burning garbage on the streets.

The letter today is meant to draw your attention to the menace of stray animals on the road that, unfortunately, include cows too that are loved by all of us.  This love is sometimes overshadowed by trepidation when we find a whole cowherd headed our way with two of them fighting with their horns interlocked.  People do get pushed and hurt.  The herds also have one or two bulls whose presence itself is menacing.

It would seem that these cows are owned by people in the embedded villages in the colony and they have trained them to roam around for food and return to them for milking.  Religious minded people do keep on offering food to these cows reinforcing their behavior.  They are also attracted by the uncollected garbage that lies around at dumping centers as mentioned in my previous letter.

The bigger threat is from bulls that accompany the horde and are apparently not owned by anybody.  These must be those few male calves who could manage to escape the cattle smugglers or have been protected for reproduction purposes.  They are aggressive, look menacing and cause hurts to pedestrians.

Monkeys too have become a terror and are routinely visiting residential areas and doing substantial damages to gardens, cables, overhead tanks and also biting people.  Street dogs too are a menace.

If we want Lucknow to be a modern city, we must free the city of stray cattle, monkeys and dogs.  The LMC will do good to proactively comb the residential areas for stray cattle instead of waiting for a complaint.  Many a times these cattle come out after dusk when the offices are closed.

I am sure that the matter will receive your attention and lead to some action on the ground for making the city safe and clean.  This will also be a step towards making a smart city as visualized by our Prime Minister.

Regards,

AK Upadhyaya
18/428 Indira Nagar
Lucknow - 16.

Mob: 9044275658

A Letter to Dr. Dinesh Sharma, Mayor of Lucknow.

To:
      Dr. Dinesh Sharma,
      Mayor, Lucknow.


Dear Dr. Sharma,

I am writing this open letter to you for two reasons.  The first reason is the call by our Prime Minister for a Clean India.  The second is the ever diminishing space available to those who try to keep healthy by taking walks in the morning: I am a senior citizen and belong to this group.

I find Prime Minister's call for स्वच्छ भारत being interpreted merely as a call for not littering and for not peeing or defecating in the open.  However enlightened people like you would agree that it goes far beyond this.  I will illustrate this.  People in my locality are quite hygiene conscious and have engaged an agency, Chamaacham Lucknow, for garbage collection.  They come in a rickety thela rickshaw and take away the kitchen garbage and the recyclables.  Sometimes, if the garbage is voluminous, they protest and mumble about no or inadequate space allocated to them for dumping the garbage.  I do think that it is the municipal corporation that is finally responsible for processing and disposal of all garbage even if they don't collect it from each household.  Some open dumps used by these garbage collectors are in the residential areas itself.  There is one on the Picnic Spot Road leading to Kukrail forest too.  The garbage rots there giving off foul smell till municipal dumpsters collect them.  The garbage also attracts cows, pigs and dogs who feed off it.

But in this letter I would like to draw your attention to yet another class of garbage.  It is in the form of fallen leaves and plant trimmings and also littering on the road resulting from a habit that the PM is fighting against.  A contributing factor for such behavior is almost total lack of public trash cans too.

This last category of trash is swept into small mounds in the morning and then lighted up.  There is hardly any park in Indira Nagar where you will not find a smouldering garbage dump spewing dark smoke. This has made morning walk absolutely unhealthy and many people are thinking of either giving up morning walk, or to go for a walk before dawn and arrival of the sweepers, or drive to a faraway park like Lohia or Janeshwar Park.  These mounds of garbage emitting smoke can been seen throughout the city including the market areas.

The sweepers maintain that this is the only possible way of disposing this class of garbage and that even if they were to carry cartloads there is no place to dispose it off.

I wish to underscore that if the PMs Swachchh Bharat mission is to succeed, municipalities have to gear up and put in place arrangement for efficient collection and disposal / processing of garbage.  Without this arrangement in place, it is but bound to fail.

As the mayor of the capital city of UP and as a political figure who is loved by the citizens, you are just the right person to take a lead and blaze the trail for all other municipalities to follow.

We look forward to your initiatives to galvanize Lucknow Municipal Corporation into becoming a model for attaining the cleanliness visualized by our beloved PM.

Regards,

AK Upadhyaya
18/428 Indira Nagar
Lucknow - 226016.

Mobile: 9044275658.

The Era Of Wireless And The Wiry Household

These days we are much worried about electromagnetic pollution around us emanating from all kind of wireless devices.  And, yet, search an average household and you are very likely to find a basket or box full of a variety of wires.  Most of these will be chargers for various devices.  Then you will have earphones and headphones.  You will also find data cables for connecting portable devices to a bulkier computer or laptop.

Apart from these, there are those well known wires coming in from the external world too.  Apart from the electricity power cable there is one for broadband internet-cum-telephone cable and one for the TV (unless you have IP TV.)  While a complete wiring schema for distributing the electrical power throughout the house has been around for quite some time, that for the other two cables is yet to become mainstream.

For telephones, the problem has been mitigated by cordless phones with multiple handsets.  Similarly wired LANs have disappeared from households with the advent of wireless routers (though the issue of relocating your router remains.)  I wonder if something similar can be done for the TV too, so that you could be free to move your TV to any location in your house with the requirement of just a power point.

With the current state of technology, the most entanglement is found near the TV installation in the house.  Though these days TVs in many homes have a decorative wooden mounting which also serves to conceal this entanglement, if you look carefully you will find the following:

• Power cable for the TV.
• Power cable for the STB.
• The incoming TV cable.
• The cable(s) connecting TV and STB.
• If you have a DVD player too, power and data cables for the same.
• If you have a Chromecast, Roku or a similar device, a power cable and a connector for the same.
• An extension board and its lead.
• Wires going out to the home theater system.

The next jumble will be found close to the router.  Here you will find the following:

• Incoming cable for internet and telephone connected to a splitter.
• Two cables coming out from the splitter, one for the telephone and the other for the router.
• A power cable for the cordless telephone.
• A power cable for the router.

And then it is very likely that there will be a charging station with an extension board which can accommodate one charger for devices with mini-USB, one for Apple devices and one for the laptop.

Some people bring their devices from abroad where the plugs are different.  Hence you are also likely to find a collection of adapters or universal plugtops.

Needless to say that this paraphernalia does require some time for management and proper stock taking.  The management includes straightening out tangled leads and earphone wires as also finding a few missing cables and chargers.

This state of affairs is calling out for some more innovations, the foremost being a self charging battery like the self winding watches of the yesteryear.  Technologists should also ponder if is it possible to transmit energy through narrow laserlike beams and have reflectors and beam-seeking receptors. To start with this transmission could be for low power requirements like charging mobiles and tablets.  

It is heartening to note that these days many gadgets are coming with power adapters that accept input from 100 to 240 volts.  This has eliminated the need for step-up and step-down adapters.  Bluetooth too is a big help as it eliminates the need for a connector cable in many cases.

Ideas are invited for the least wiry household set up.

Poor Fishermen And The Mighty Navy

The TV images of exercises carried out by our mighty navy dazzle us with the display of navy's might.  The same media also brings to us the news of hapless fishermen being caught by Pakistan and Sri Lanka on the grounds of tresspass and then rotting in their jails.  We also know of terror attempts that find the sea route an easy option for infiltration.

We have fenced our land borders with Pakistan and have deployed the BSF to check infiltration as well as prevent our own citizens from walking into alien territory.  Can something similar not be done on our sea boundaries with the said two countries?

The idea is to guard the entire maritime boundary and not merely the coasts.  Can some kind of markers be put in the waters to help fishermen know where one country's jurisdiction ends?  Can we also have a strip of no man's waters as a guard band?  With our maritime might it should not be too difficult.

Comments from those with better knowledge of maritime affairs are welcome.

NJAC - A Citizen's Views

Today the legislature and the executive are elected by the public while the top judiciary appoints itself.  The executive and the legislature are seen by the long suffering public as going berserk and having no intentions of correcting their course.  The judiciary, especially the lower one, too is seen suffering from similar ills.

However in many cases the self-appointed top judiciary is the only institution that is able to exercise some check on the legislature and the executive. And hence any attempt by the executive to insinuate itself into the process of appointments in the judiciary must be opposed tooth and nail.

And, yet, it cannot be gainsaid that an institution as important as the judiciary cannot be left to its own devices for appointments without any external controls.  After all, we are opposing any role for the government in the appointment of judiciary on the grounds of checks and balances only.

Under these circumstances I feel that instead of giving the government any role in selection of judges for High and Supreme courts, the role should be given to the public itself.  A list of desirous and eligible persons may be prepared and their CV and achievements put on a website.  Thereafter the concerned public, state or the whole country, should vote for them.  Any campaigning must be through the website, national TV, SMS and electronic messengers only.  The voting must be done through mobiles only to cut down on all the hassles associated with setting up voting booths.  Now that voter id cards are being linked to Aadhaar, voter ids are automatically getting linked to voters' mobile numbers.  This would be a far better alternative to any meddling by the government.

Do you agree?

The Long Ignored Underpaid Banker Succumbs!

(This post is, unfortunately, prompted by the recently reported money laundering by a leading public sector bank.)

I had joined a nationalized bank as a DRO a little over four decades ago.  At that time, it was the best paying job in the public and most coveted next only to the administrative services.  Though, the reasons were not entirely monetary.  A bank DRO's total salary in those days exceeded that of a new IAS recruit!  Of course, for the latter salary was and remains only one of the many benefits that they enjoy.  Yet this shows that bankers were very well paid in those days.  They also had access to loans at much softer terms.  A good financial package was considered mandatory for the banker.  After all, you cannot have a hungry person guarding your food supplies.

In those days of fully manual working a bank officer had to slog a good deal.  We had jokes about dogs barking in the midnight signaling the return to home of a bank employee.  Yet, the job was considered prestigious and succeeded in attracting the best talent.  The minimum qualification for a bank officer was "first class graduate" and the competition was intense.

Of course, directly recruited officers, formed a minuscule percentage of the total workforce in the banking industry and their lateral entry was resented by clerks and promotee officers.  But it were these DROs who rose to higher echelons and played a very significant role in transformation of the industry through application of technology and modern management principles and methods.

It was 1973, 4 years after the first round of nationalization, when I joined the industry.  The second round came in 1980.  The new masters of the industry and the old players of one-up-man-ship, the bureaucrats must have been quite upset with the bankers' pay scales.  So they set up a committee called the Pillai committee which put in motion the task of turning bankers into underdogs (pillas in Hindi.)  The cunning and conniving leaders of trade unions in banking industry seem to have colluded with the bureaucracy and ensured in each successive wage negotiations a constant decline in the wage parity of bankers vis-a-vis government employees.

Today things have come to a pass where public sector bankers have probably the worst pay scales in any industry.  A bank officer starts at a salary which is much lower than what an IAS or PCS recruit draws.  It is perhaps the same as that of a school teacher recruited by state governments.  Even officers in higher echelons get a much lower salary, perhaps half of their counterparts in the government.  The public may find it hard to believe because the fact seldom receives any publicity.  The reason could be that any publicity about low wages of bankers will erode public's confidence in banks themselves.  But when the reality becomes too harsh for a group it finds its own ways to creep into public conscience.

With the vertically rising costs of education and housing and the prospect of a grossly inadequate pension and medical cover after superannuation, it is no wonder that some of the unfortunate bankers have finally succumbed to a temptation which they were able to ignore or resist earlier.  I am not trying to defend their actions in any way or to condone what they have done.  Yet, this is what happens when you systematically and persistently starve a class that is supposed to manage and guard humongous amounts of  public money.

Bank of Baroda, my employer, used to pride itself on the fact that during its 100+ years of existence, it was never found involved in any scandal.  It is painful to see that claim falling flat on its face and yet this was becoming inevitable and the industry should have seen this coming.

I am afraid that things are only going to get worse in the coming days.  The pathetic pay scales have ensured that banks are no more able to attract the best manpower but only those who are not even able to become a teacher in a school or a clerk in the government.  The recruitment process too is getting vitiated.  I shudder to think of what happens as these recruits make their way to the top.  And yet, the bankers and the government continue to play deaf to the travails of bankers.  Will this incident serve to wake them up?  I join in ringing the alarm because my own pension, howsoever low, is at stake.

Ruminations Of An Itinerant

We, from the still-developing world, sometimes find the developed world's concern for the handicapped a bit overdone, and not without justification.  After years of experience of train travel one starts suspecting that all public utilities are deliberately designed for difficult access, your handicapped status notwithstanding.  If you have ever traveled by train with some heavy luggage and a co-passenger who is past his peak of fitness, you will have many memories that will bear out my statement.

I recently returned from a visit to my son who lives in USA.  I live in Lucknow.  Lucknow boasts of an International Airport.  However its international status is restricted to operating Haj flights.  For traveling to any other international destination your nearest boarding point is New Delhi airport.  This involves using coolie services at Lucknow and New Delhi station and then a taxi or Delhi Airport Metro for reaching the airport.  You may be wondering why don't I travel by air on the domestic segment too.  The fact is that air travel to Delhi becomes quite expensive when you are travelling with 23X2 Kg of baggage, because all baggage in excess of 15 Kg is charged at Rs.250/= per Kg!  While some airlines slightly relax this rule for those coming in from an international segment, none of the airlines offering flights from Delhi to Lucknow do that.

Delhi Airport Metro is very close to New Delhi railway station.  However the short distance involves crossing a road and walking on a sidewalk or along the road for some distance.  Even a Sreedharan failed to connect the two through a subway!  I wonder if it was the futility of doing it that deterred him.  For ND railway station doesn't have subways connecting platforms.  You must ascend and descend from the FOB for going to another platform.  It being so, you might as well walk from the Metro station to get some practice!  And this lack of subway at the railway station in the country's capital is a little surprising considering that many smaller stations do have the subway.

Airport Metro, of course, has escalators and elevators for easy access to all.  Even better, they have an organized coolie (porterage) service with a prescribed fee that is very reasonable.  It is just Rs.50/= for one cart that can take three reasonably sized bags.  And you can take the same cart inside the airport, and vice versa.  The metro is so well connected with the airport that pushing the cart between airport and metro station is no hassle at all.

This time around on my return journey I reached New Delhi Terminal 3 in midnight and had to catch the Shatabdi for Lucknow that leaves from New Delhi railway station at 06:10.  I remembered having read on Metro's website that the first metro leaves the airport station at 04:45.  However when I approached the metro ticket vending machine inside the airport, I found a poster on it saying that the first metro departs from the airport station at 05:11!  I went to Metro website but the timings page was just not to be found!  The 5 digit helpline number mentioned on the website was missing according to the message received on dialing the number.  Inquiries with workers in the airport got very divergent responses.  As 05:11 will be rather late for catching the Shatabdi, I decided to take a taxi.  I was told by the person at the prepaid taxi counter that the fare for the under 30 kilometer distance was 1000/=.  Upon further inquiry he clarified that it had nothing to do with the time of the night.

So I took the taxi to New Delhi railway station.  The first coolie demanded Rs.1,200/= for four bags each weighing 23 Kg!  After prolonged bargaining and threats to discontinue negotiations, it was fixed at 600.  However the coolie said that for this amount he would only take the bags to the platform and not load them in the compartment.  After more negotiations, he agreed to do so after expressing his confidence that I would pay him "something" extra.  For comparison sake, the prescribed rate is Rs.50/= per bag.  It will help my readers to know that on my outward journey I had to take the same bags from New Delhi railway station to the Airport Metro station and the coolie had finally settled for Rs.500/=.

This state of affairs makes me wonder about what happens when a disabled person has to board a train that is not leaving from the 1st or the last platform.

Coolies are subscribing to "very low volumes with exorbitant revenue" model instead of "high volumes with reasonable price" implemented by the Airport Metro. This may partly be because of the back breaking labor.  This, in turn, is due to total disregard by the railways for ease of accessibility as discussed above.  If there were subways and trolleys and porterage was as reasonable as at the Metro stations, they could turn to the "reasonable price and high volumes" model.  This will make the passengers happy and also enhance their total earning.  Railways could also start accepting checked-in bags at a counter in the foyer and return the same at the destination as is done by the airlines.  To start with this could be implemented only at the bigger stations.

However doing all this requires meticulous planning, execution, and highly standardized operations:  Things that aren't really our forte. All these things are only practiced in outlandish places like star hotels and airports, not the real life places frequented by people like us.  After all we have had just one Sreedharan in the recent past!  And dear disabled fellow countrymen, all I can say to you is to be patient (pun intended!)

Veils Over Electorate's Eyes.

The ideal kind of politics that will build a better world will be real hard work.  Hard workers are conscientious people and unfortunately it is mostly the unconscientious who are drawn to politics.  So these politicians put up a veil to keep the real hard work that are not doing or are incapable of doing, carefully hidden from the public.  They fully subscribe to the wise saying "out of sight out of mind."  Sometimes this makes me wonder how did the saying "politics is the art of the possible" come about unless it means veiling up the real issues to the fullest possible extent.  While the real issues are objective ones and have the potential to unite the electorate behind them, the veils are emotive and mostly serve the purpose of dividing the electorate and keeping them divided. This division makes the life of the corrupt politician easy.

At times the public does get a glimpse of the real issues as it did during Anna's agitations.  Everybody united to demand a corruption free government.  Anna highlighted that politics and corruption have become synonymous.  The political establishment presented the non-incumbent party as non or less corrupt and the electorate put the power in their hand.  Now whenever the public wakes up from its slumber to ask whatever happened to promises on corruption and black money, it is dragged into a debate on Rashtravaad versus secularism.  This is the veil that is dropped down each time and will eventually drag the real issue into oblivion while deeply dividing the electorate.

The current charged up debate on reservations in education and jobs is a similar attempt to keep some underlying real issues veiled up.  The real issues in this case are several.  The foremost is persistent failure of governments to provide universal schooling for all.  Billions of rupees are drained off in the name of salaries paid to government teachers and maintenance of schools.  And yet we all know that the result is close to naught (You may like to read this earlier post.)  ITIs and Polytechnics that had the noble objectives of skilling persons who have received basic education are simply limping along with hardly any qualified and certificated electricians, plumbers or carpenters available in the market.  Even the private sector is opening up Engineering Colleges and Medical Colleges and not the equivalents of ITIs or Polytechnics.  Ease of doing business remains a distant objective and so there are not many jobs for the burgeoning population which cannot be absorbed in their hereditary profession of agriculture or other low skill professions.  Because of these abject failures of the political establishment, the only hope for the vast armies of unskilled and jobless persons remains a meaningless and learning-less degree followed by a government job.  (As an aside, the politicians have started calling these unemployable and unemployed people our demographic dividend!!)

And thus the hotly debated issue of reservations in colleges and government jobs is merely a veil to disguise the successive governments' utter failure in the area of basic education, skilling people and making it easy to do business.  We probably need another mass movement to enlighten the public to the fact that reservation is NOT the issue and that it is merely a veil for the real issues which are going unnoticed.  Though, I have a premonition that this movement too may be trumped by the politicians.

Narendra Modi owes his landslide victory to the fact that he drew public's attention to the unifying real issues.  Will he stick to these issues or will the veilsters ultimely prevail?

Are we doomed to admit that "छद्ममेव जयते (Veilster alone triumphs?)"  

Should We Wait Three Decades to Demand Performance?

Central government has sent a strong message to the bureaucracy to either perform or perish (POP.)  But they will let a bureaucrat stick around like a HIV infection for three long decades before deciding to throw him out.  Why?  Is it because it is only after three decades that he becomes senior enough to directly report to the political masters? Are you sending a message that it is okay to pester the poor public with your inefficiency as long as you dare not say NO to your political masters?

I am sure all of us long suffering citizens will be happy if this POP is made applicable to all bureaucrats from the date of joining itself.  Define their Key Performance Areas in quantifiable and boolean terms.  Let the appraisal be a 360 degree one where appraisal is done by public too for officials who are directly responsible for providing public services.  Yes, public, because bureaucrats are, after all, public servants.

Once you have a strong POP in place from the first day of service, the bad ones would have been weeded out in the first decade itself.  And then netas would not have to bother about having to deal with inefficient senior babus.  And if at all they try to punish a babu for reasons other than efficiency they will have to be very careful because the officer's credentials will be there in his defence.

And so our demand to Pradhan Sevak is introduce POP from Day 1 in government service.

Demand for Reservation for SMBs (Small and Marginal Brahmins)

To All Those Whom It May Concern and also the Unconcerned.

Dear All,

Not a single day passes when one community or another does not discover the extent of its backwardness that has somehow remained hidden from the society at large as also its own eyes.  It is astonishing to find that none of the communities mischievously labeled upper classes have yet been able to do so.  It seems that they have been duped by the label that the system has forced upon them.

And the fact that my own community has failed to perceive its backward status despite the indignities suffered by it, comes as a big surprise to me.  Upadhyayas, together with a few other sub-castes, are considered by the Brahmin community to be their lowest members sitting at the margin that separates Brahmins from others.  You could well call us SMBs (Small and Marginal Brahmins.)  There are derogatory sayings that highlight this SMB status.  One goes like this - "बैल, उपधिया, ऊसर, इन कर दैव दूसर."  It roughly translates to this - Oxen, Upadhyayas and barren land, these three truly belong to a different God!  The other saying goes like this - "मारिन गाय बैल किहिन बधिया, यही पाप से भये उपधिया."  This translates to - "Those who commit a cardinal sin like killing a cow or castrating a bull, are bound to be born as an Upadhyaya."

A more civilized explanation for the low status accorded to my community relates to our profession in earlier times.  Upadhyayas were teachers.  Other Brahmins thought of this, selling knowledge for money, as heretical.

Whatever be the reason, the fact is that we are treated as outcasts in our own community.  Those belonging to the upper strata don't like to give their daughters to our sons in marriage.  The reason given by their womenfolk is simple.  How can an Upadhyaya ever deserve the respect accorded to a son-in-law of our community!

When one is born in a lower cast, he learns to accept his lower status as a given and that somewhat blunts the pain.  But when you are born in the uppermost caste and then discover upon growing up that the higher sub-castes look down upon you with disdain, the pain is too much to bear.  This lowers our self esteem and keeps us from marching ahead in life.

This discrimination has been going on for centuries and the time has now come to rectify it through positive discrimination.  We call upon all political parties to ensure that suitable job reservations are immediately made for Upadhyayas.  It will help them blend in smoothly if the reservations are made in class 1 services including teaching jobs.

All Upadhyayas are requested to carry out a mass worldwide meditation to generate positive energy to gain the benefit of positive discrimination through reservations.  The date and time will be communicated separately.  Other SMBs are welcome to join in.

Yours faithfully

AK Upadhyaya
SMB.

;) :D

No Evidence

If health is wealth, what is money?
If you are serious, how can you be funny?
Why do you want your eggs' upside sunny?
And investigators have at last found out,
They don't have evidence against a rabbit called bunny!

Approaching ERP (Energy Rate Parity) between UP & US

If my last electricity bill had delivered a shock to me, this month's bill almost electrocuted me!  The steep rise in rates is having an ionizing effect on paying consumers' budget!!

I recalled a conversation with my son, settled in California, about his energy bill.  The prices had seemed quite reasonable, but I was not able to recall the exact figure.  So I Googled and found this chart that gives the average for the whole of USA - http://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.cfm?t=epmt_5_6_a

The table says that the average price of electricity in USA in the month of June 2015 was USD 0.13. Taking the exchange rate at INR 66 = 1 USD, this translates to INR 8.58 per kWh.  The last bill from Lucknow worked out to INR 7.05 per kWh.  It seems to be slightly lower than the US rate.  But we have to keep in mind that a typical US household, with all its gadgets, heating and cooling, has a load of much more than 10 kW.  A load of that kind would necessarily have to be commercial in UP.  So the correct thing would be to compare our commercial rates with the U.S. domestic rate.  However I have a hunch that doing so may invite a sharp rebuke from our energy managers and politicians.  So we will stick to domestic vs domestic comparison, connected loads and total consumption notwithstanding.

So I feel it wouldn't take more than one more revision to bring the electricity price in UP at par with that in USA!  And that will be the day to celebrate our parity with USA on at least one parameter!

Only thing that may spoil the party is the thought that people in USA who have income parity with me at current exchange rates, are considered poor enough to receive grants from the state, are exempt from Income Tax and get free medical care!

And the only consolation for us is that we get twice as much voltage as guys in USA do.  In fact, not too infrequently, it goes up to 4 times as much leading to electrical appliances giving up the ghost out of sheer exhilaration!!

Governance and Rocket Science

Tweet by Narendra Modi on 07-Sep-2015 - "Space science has a vital role in achieving good governance...."

Our Pradhan Sevak (PS) has finally endorsed what we, the masters, knew all along.  Governance, after all, is rocket science and space scientists (SS) must lend a hand to the government in achieving it.  This, naturally, makes one wonder if the poor state of good governance (GG) thus far has been on account of lack of close coordination between government and the SS.  The PS, having made it to the highest position in the country, is now convinced that there is a need to move further up to find the possible originating place for GG.  His advisers seem to have convinced him that the ultimate source of GG is the Lord who is up there in the heavens.  With the present advanced state of space technology, SS seem to be the only people who can possibly take us close to Him for a consultation and then, hopefully, bring us back for implementation. Hence the tweet?

While the SS are busy finding ways to facilitate the meeting, they have, in the mean time, been tasked with alerting train drivers of unmanned crossing close to them on their route and alerting Durga Shaktis of the government of illegal mining taking place in their jurisdiction.

Don't despair fellow countrymen.  We will soon be in touch with the Gangotri of GG (3G!)

Citizens' Charter Of Demands

Only a little more than an year ago there was a surge of hope among Indian electorate that led to reversal of the trend for cobbling together an alliance to gain access to power in the face of a fractured mandate.  Now that the euphoria has worn off, second thoughts are emerging.  There is a faint feeling of desperation at not having any more choices left to try them out.

The electorate has learnt that like branded medicines, the entire political class contains essentially the same molecules and just different labels.  The political parties resort to all kind of con men including babas and mullahs to prescribe their particular brand to the public.

Thus it is gradually becoming obvious to the public that changing their current prescription from one brand to another cannot remedy the situation.  New molecules need to be discovered / invented.  This calls for overhauling the system.

I feel that the following changes in the current system have become imperative.  And as they say, this list is minimal and indicative and not exhaustive.

1. Reduce the cost of electioneering by making use of modern cheap communication technologies compulsory and putting a ban on all rallies.  Set up free dedicated TV and Radio channels to be compulsorily carried by all DTH service providers.  These channels should divide their time between formats and parties equitably.  The formats could be moderated debate among representative parties on specific issues of public interest and speeches by party representatives.  It should also provide means for live interactions with the audiences.
2. The current trend in elections is to put forward the best face for the party.  This is like enticing customers on the basis of the packaging of your medicine (the contents of which remain no different from the others.)  Elections need to be fought on the basis of issues and not faces.  Further, issues must be framed in actionable and measurable terms and not platitudes.  Towards this end, the Election Commission must evolve a format for manifestos that ought to be adhered by all parties and should also publish score card of the incumbent government on all the issues on which performance targets were given by the party.  Voters ought to remember that "if you can't measure it you can't manage it."
3. The current expensive process of voting must be replaced by one where all voters are able to vote through their mobile phone from their home or workplace.  Current reality shows do this and there is no reason why it cannot be done for general elections.  Technology available today can provide more security than that provided by the current manual processes.
4. Except for elections to the Local Self Government where elected representatives are directly responsible for vital services touching day-to-day lives of citizens, there must not be any candidates fighting elections.  Election should be contested by parties on the basis of manifestos and parties should then depute representatives to legislative bodies on the basis of their vote share in the state / country.  Please click here for more details on this proposal.  This will do away with the 'first past the post' system and its glaring shortcomings.
5. If the above proposal is implemented the parties will have a total control in choice of representatives and will not be hampered by their 'capability to win.'  With 'capability to win' out of the electoral process, strong steps can be initiated to stop criminals and unqualified persons from infiltrating the system.  EC may constitute an 'Legislature Service Selection Board' for certification of suitable candidates.  Certification should be done on the basis of their character, integrity and knowledge of politics and economics.  Parties may depute candidates to legislatures only from this pool.
6. Clauses like 'Office of Profit' that restrain government servants and public sector employees from contesting elections (deputation to legislature in our suggested scheme,) should be removed.  Such persons may join the legislature and then return to their job after expiry of the term.
7. None of the a-to-z protection should be given to any elected representatives.  Exceptions may be made for Prime Minister and President only.  If elected representatives indulge in rabble rousing they should be ready to face the consequences.  They must not have any protection that is not available to the public at large.
8. Implement Lokpal for all from santri-to-mantri.  Remove all protections granted to the executive.
9. Implement police reforms.
10. Do away with the bureaucracy as designed by the British.  Redesign the government machinery for efficiency and service rather that lording it over the subjects.  Obviously, the redesign must not be done by the current government servants.  Engage a group of management consultancy firms to suggest the new organizational systems.

All these call for substantial modification of several acts including the Constitution.  Politicians who, naturally, will oppose all of the suggested measures have all the excuses for not doing it.  Excuses may range from lack of 2/3 majority to their sworn-in allegiance to the Constitution as it exists today!

How Do We Tame The Overlords?

Many of the issues agitating large groups in India can be traced to the absurdly plum pay and perquisites offered to government employees (GE) and the ridiculous levels of protection granted to them against non-performance and malpractices.  To make the picture complete you must also firmly keep in mind that GE do not view themselves as public servants but as overlords to whom the public must pay obeisances and who collect personal fees for every service that they are supposed to render as part of their duty.  IAS are an outstanding and dramatic sample of this rotten GE class.

This group (GEs) provoke two kinds of reaction amongst the non-GE public.  One is that of intense anger and the other an intense desire to become one of them.  The massive support that Anna received for his Jan Lokpal movement is a manifestation of the first reaction.  The current competitive backwardness (CB) for landing a government job is a manifestation of the second reaction: the current agitation in Gujarat brings out the gravity of the situation.

Another example of the second reaction is current agitation by army men.  Our defense veterans are very upset about the delay in One Rank One Pension (OROP.)  Another group to which I belong, namely, bankers, also wanted this.  They call it pension updation.  However I understand that this group has lowered its already weak voice after its treacherous leaders signed an agreement which lowered the pensions while granting a meager increase in salaries.

What is hurting these groups is that OROP has been granted to the mammoth non-performing and parasitic bureaucracy long back. (And if bureaucracy has it, I presume that politicians must be having it too.)  It hurts the pride of a soldier to think that a group of rotten pen-pushers and obstacle creators has it while it is denied to those who lay down their lives as part of their duty to the country!

Here are some suggestions that may partly remedy the situation:

1. A salary that is 20 times the current poverty line should be the ceiling for salaries paid to government servants at any level.
2. Salaries of PSUs should be decided on the basis of their capacity to pay and have no relation to those of government servants.
3. Government servants must compulsorily avail of government run services in every sector where it is available, the foremost being education and health.
4. If the budgetary deficit is not zero or below the agreed limit, no increases in staff expenses on any count should be admissible.
5. Top positions in each ministry must be filled only through lateral recruitment of those who have qualification and expertise in the area.  Such lateral recruits may be offered market based salaries to draw in the right talent.
6. Citizen's charter and Lokpal must be set up immediately and have offices down to district level.
7. The need to obtain government permissions for prosecuting government servants must be done away with.
8. Punishment for corruption as also inefficiency must be exemplary.

Additions and reactions to these suggestions are welcome.
_________________________________________________________________________________

हार्दिक शुभकामनाओं सहित:

सर्वोत्तम सरकारी नौकरी, हम को हो गया ज्ञान,
बन पिछड़ा हड़पो इसे, इसमें ही कल्याण.

The New(!) Insurance Scheme Offered By Members of IBA

I thank all the dear friends who took pains and made sure to spread the message about the captioned scheme using the social media.  I have not heard in the matter from my erstwhile employer bank.  They have buried it deep inside their website in such a way that no one who doesn't have the complete URL can ever discover it.  This certainly cannot be taken as notice enough.  I am away from India and so don't know if any communication has been delivered the expensive old fashioned way.  What I can confirm is that there is no communication on my e-mail id registered with the bank.  One could argue that I remain part of the big family and since when has there been a need for formal communications in a family!  After all, didn't the message reach me?

This elderly grouse apart, I recall that there used to be a similar scheme in my bank earlier with an insurance company at the back end.  The scheme turned out to be loss making for the insurance company which then disassociated itself.  The reason was simple.  This was not seen as an insurance at all but an additional allowance with the limit being decided by your own ingenuity.  I have already started seeing postings on social media assuring retirees that it will not be difficult to recover the premium!  You will recall that retirees will have to pay their own premium while that for working staff will be borne by the banks.  With the pathetic pension that is doled out to bank pensioners it wouldn't have been excessively indulgent to agree to extend payment of premium to pensioners too.

While I am sure that suitable mechanism will be put in place to prevent the abuse of medical insurance as an undefined allowance, it cannot be gainsaid that pathetic levels of pay and pensions in public sector banks do make it tempting to do so.

I have also seen a representation asking that the cover made available to retirees should extend to their parents and dependents too!  I wonder if any insurance company will ever agree to provide health insurance to parents of a 60 year old person!  And if a person still has dependents after retirement, it only shows poor family planning for which an employer can hardly be held accountable.  (Though, there can be children with severe disabilities and cover may be demanded for them.)  It would have been more sensible to ask for payment of premium by the banks for retirees too.

Then again, the scheme doesn't have any upper age limit for coverage.  This means that it will cover employees and spouses till their demise.  As things stand, these days it has become almost a ritual to put a dying person in ICU on life support systems for a week or two.  This is probably medical profession's way of imposing an inheritance tax to finance its expensive operations.  But if an insurer were to foot the bill for such ritual life support, it will amount to certain outgo on majority of insureds of an amount that may equal or surpass the premium paid by them over a decade or two.  This doesn't make actuarial sense.  And whatever doesn't make sense financially is suspect in a banker's eyes.

So I am evaluating whether it is okay to remain with Baroda Health which covers me up to 80 years and then be content with the over-the-lifetime and not annual cover of two lakhs available from the bank.

Your inputs are welcome.

An argument for politics of revenge.

Like many other erstwhile hopefuls I am watching with despair how governance is being drowned in cacophony and adamant indiscipline. And to think that this is happening in the sanctum sanctorum of maximum governance (and, hopefully, minimum government!)  Though, it may be conceded, it is not happening for the first time.  And this very fact is used as justification enough for it.

When Modiji was campaigning, he talked about the havoc wrought upon the country and its finances by the previous governments, mostly Congress governments.  Many in the audience were exhilarated at the likely prospect of perpetrators of massive scams involving astronomical sums being finally brought to book.  Rumors started circulating that Tihar jail was being readied with suitable amenities for inmates who were going to make it to the place in hordes.

Nothing of the sort has happened.  The government is content to point out that no scams are happening now; never mind Lalitgate and Vyapam.  For argument sake let us accept that it it not happening now.  But isn't the present government obliged to correct the wrongs committed by its predecessors?  Should it not go all out for recovering the money looted in the scams and punishing the guilty?  Why is this not being done?  Why are the perpetrators not being ruthlessly hounded?

That we don't do politics of revenge is a lame excuse.  Politics of revenge is where you settle your personal scores.  But when you deny restitution to a grievously hurt country for offences that you yourself believe to be true, it is not constructive politics but collaborative misrule.

We have seen neighbors or even strangers slugging it out in the streets for they have little faith in the system's ability to resolve their disputes.  But when you see lawmakers and elected "owners" of the system settling (or appearing to settle) scores in the same manner what does it tell you about the state of governance?

PS - By the way, whatever happened to the much publicized inquiry into Mr Vadra's land deals?

Birth - no laughing matter?

Recently an astrologer friend clarified which is the exact moment of birth for horoscope purposes.  It is not the moment at which the baby exits from the womb.  It is the moment when he emits his first cry: for life begins with first breath (and ends with the last!)  Many a times the cry is induced by holding the baby upside down by its legs and slapping it!*

Some psychologists hypothesize that the inherent negativity in human beings springs from this negative first encounter with the world.

One night as my grandson was chitchatting with me before going to sleep, he asked, "How does a baby breathe inside its mom's tummy?"  I told him that it doesn't and then added as I remembered my astrologer friend that soon after birth it has to be slapped to make it cry so that it starts breathing.  My grandson was aghast and inquired whether the babies are slapped real hard?  I tried to calm him by stating that it is only a light slap.  But he persisted, "Well, they can just as well tickle the baby.  It will make the baby laugh and hence breathe!!!"

Though I find it difficult to believe that this has not occurred to any obstetrician to tickle a baby, I will be happy if someone could confirm that this doesn't or wont work.  Could it be that each one remembers his / her first slap and insists on inflicting the same on a newborn?

I did some research on the net to find if a baby has ever entered this world laughing.  Here is one link that I found. 


*  कबिरा वा दिन याद कर पग ऊपर तल शीश, मिरतलोक में आय के बिसर गया जगदीश.

FB - A Prayer

#MarcZuckerberg in Palo Alto,
Hallowed be thy FB
May new versions come
On Google Play as on App Store
Make our daily posts widely liked
Enhance our photos and videos
And spare us the malignant posts
Even as we appreciate posts from our friends.
Amen!

Not Enough Work!

A friend and colleague is embarking upon authoring a book and has requested for anecdotes.  This one is for him.  Though, this is not to say that others will not find it interesting.

This relates to the period when I was working at the Corporate Office (CO) of the Bank with which my colleague and I spent a whole working life.  The Chairman & Managing Director (CMD), very fond of long hours of work like our present PM, used to have morning meetings with top executives.  Though I was only an AGM, I was sometimes invited to this meeting.

One of the General Managers at the CO who was a workaholic like most others and known for working till very late hours, had suffered a stroke and passed away.  In a morning meeting following this unfortunate event, the CMD advised everyone to take good care of their health.  He also expressed surprise that there were few regulars at the well appointed office gym which also had regular trainers.  One of the GMs said, "Sir, you know all of us reach office a little early in the morning after a commute of an hour or two and then we are seldom able to call it a day before 7:30 in the evening.  That leaves us little time for our families, leave alone the gym!"  The CMD gave this GM a long and pensive look and exclaimed, "Oh! So you are complaining, aren't you?"  The poor chap protested vigorously and said that he was merely stating a fact.  The CMD said, "OK.  Henceforth if I summon anyone of you after 7 pm and you are not in your seat, it would be quite okay."

As working till 7 or 7:30 was the norm, I had kept my schedule like this.  I would leave my seat between 6 and 6:15, go to the gym, have a good workout and then return to my seat to see if any papers requiring my attention had arrived.  If there was nothing urgent, I would pick up my briefcase and leave.  The GM to who I was reporting too used to visit the gym frequently at around the same time.

Our visits to the gym had not gone unnoticed.  A participant in the meeting, a GM, remarked that GM and AGM in the IT department were very regular users of the gym.  As we were awaiting the reaction from the CMD, another participant remarked, "May be they don't have enough work in the department!"

Resigned from AAP membership

Resignation
Anil Upadhyaya <anil.upadhyaya@gmail.com>
Fri 8 May, 2015 at 15:04

To: Aam Aadmi Party <contact@aamaadmiparty.org>

Dear Sir,

I had become a member of AAP quite some time back and stood by you through the thick and thin in your apparent struggle against corruption. I now stand disillusioned.

I think that AAP was only interested in exploiting public frustration with the political system for the sole purpose of gatecrashing into the same corrupt and disgusting system. You have succeeded. Congratulations!

I feel sad that I, like many others, was tricked into assisting you in this unfortunate endeavor in my own little way. As an atonement I hereby resign from the membership of AAP.

Please acknowledge.

Regards,

Anil Kumar Upadhyaya
18/428 Indira Nagar,
Lucknow - 226016.
Mobile: +91 962 152 6956

A Translation

Translation of a sher which, I am sure, is wrongly attributed to Ghalib.

There is no dearth of idiots, o Ghalib,
they are all around you, o idiophile,
You look for them on the sidewalks,
only to find them riding in style.
You don't have enough to buy their services,
it is available on credit, so smile.

Those who know the original in Hindi will naturally enjoy it more.  It goes like this -

चू..यों की कमी नहीं है ग़ालिब
एक ढूंढो हज़ार मिलते हैं
पैदल ढूंढो सवार मिलते हैं
नकद ढूंढो उधार मिलते हैं।

😂😂😂😂

Tectonics of Terra Firma

We are the life forms with highest maintenance requirements.  We need governments, schools, factories, banks, electricity, networks, vehicles, fuel and what have you.  And above all we need a home with its numerous furnishings and fittings to meet our persistent daily maintenance requirements many of which also require privacy.  I am not aware if any other animal needs such paraphernalia.

And so we build our houses, perhaps the most expensive of our possessions, on terra firma.  It is a bit surprising that in this ever changing world where nothing stays still, we take the terra firma as firm, still and stable enough to place our most important asset on it.  Thankfully it stays that way at many places and for relatively long times.  But when it gets shifty, it brings down our abodes like a house of cards!  The plight of being without a house and all the amenities that it provides must be no less terrible than getting trapped inside a fallen one.

One silver lining in this cloud of calamity is that such unfortunate incidents also bring out the best amongst fellow human beings whom we often see as guided by greed and selfishness alone in normal times.

It also brings out the need for governments to enforce bylaws for compulsorily making buildings earthquake proof in higher seismic risk zones to the extent that the current technology is capable of.  Given the nexus between builders and politicians this may prove to be more difficult to achieve than providing relief to the unfortunate and hapless victims.

For luckier people who escaped the brunt of the quake - and I am one - the tremors have served as an urgent reminder to renew our house insurance and ensure that the policy doesn't consider earthquake as an act of God which cannot be insured against (as in OMG!)

Proposed & To-Be-Quashed Intrusive Tax Returns and BTT

When I was working, my employer, a public sector bank, had asked all employees to open one more Savings account in addition to the primary account in which the salary was credited.  The idea was to credit all reimbursements, exempt from tax, to this second account.  Why?  So that the taxman is spared the trouble (or sadistic pleasure?) of asking, and the taxpayer the onus of explaining, the nature of reimbursement credits.  The primary account is picture and law perfect and the secondary account need not be mentioned in the return which has a field only for the primary account.

This acknowledges the universal truth that taxmen, generally armed with excessive powers, are exceedingly difficult people to deal with.  It is more so in the case of tax payers at the lower end, namely, the salaried class.  And hence anything that adds teeth to the taxman's bite is sure to get the goat of the tax paying and form-filling public, especially the salaried class.

The proposed revised return forms - I call them the 'Kathin' forms - also acknowledge a chink in the Aadhaar and PAN fortified armor of the tax collectors.  Now all accounts compulsorily have PAN numbers, or a declaration in lieu thereof.  And hence it should not be difficult for the government in this brave new world of big data to find out all the accounts of an individual in the whole of the banking system if they need to.  That they plan to ask the taxpayer to disclose the information only acknowledges their inability to do so.  Or, it could be just plain sinister.  Yes, I can find it out but I will do so only when you omit to mention your account.  It is the classical game of NIGYYSOB (Now I Got You, You Son Of a Bitch!)  First you frighten a (weak) taxpayer into non-disclosure and then pounce upon him!  I would like to think that this is what all the public outrage is about.

And all the dust that the Finance Minister has raised with his proposals brings the question back with a bang - 'Why are you not even discussing Banking Transaction Tax?'  This will do away with the guilt of tax evasion, the huge army of tax collectors, a vast array of acts and rates that you have to fiddle with in each budget etcetera, etcetera.  Is it because it will also call for minimizing the use of currency in big ticket transactions and that is something that the corrupt and the powerful cannot do without.  Perhaps that is the crux of the matter.

Why has Baba Ramdeo gone silent on his strident demand for BTT?  Why has the BJP totally forgotten its earlier promises to reduce the iniquitous burden of direct taxes on the salaried class? One would think that our Finance Minister not only wants the middle class to look after itself it also wants this class to have its hands full of things to watch out for and defend itself against?  The PM, of course, is silent on this issue as on other thorny ones.

My First Glimpse Through Progressive Lenses

I have been myopic since childhood.  The power gradually increased to -6 diopters before it stabilized.  Now I am 65 and it has for some reason decreased by about 1diopter.  I needed bifocals when I was close to 50.  As I was a desk worker, I used to wear what they call executive bifocals.  These lenses are divided into two distinct parts across the middle - upper half for distance vision and the lower half for near vision.  Kids would often ask why was I wearing glasses that had a crack!  Working on a computer was a challenge with this pair.  It would lead to a pain in the neck if you looked at the monitor through the lower half.

So I had a pair of monofocals made for 'intermediate' vision with a power lying between the two in the bifocals.  Often I would make do with the monofocals throughout the day and reach for the bifocals only when going out for a walk or a drive.  The monofocals would make do even for driving and walking during bright daylight.

The last time I had my glasses made the optician advised that instead of carrying two pairs, I should go for the progressive lenses which would serve for all three purposes, namely, distance, near and intermediate vision.  However my search on the internet brought out that progressive lenses have zones which make peripheral vision distorted.  It said that many professionals, particularly pilots, often reverted to bifocals because of this problem.  So I ignored the advice.

Then as luck would have it, I lost my intermediate vision glasses during a trip to Delhi.  I put my apprehensions aside and visited my optician for making me a pair of progressive glasses.  When I wore the glasses for the first time I experienced and realized what was meant by the blurry zones of intermediate vision.  I chose to wear my bifocals for driving back home.

As recommended by the optician I kept on wearing the progressive lenses throughout the day.  After a week I feel I am quite accustomed to it now and here are my findings.  The glasses work quite well outdoors when it is bright and sunny.  However when it is not so bright or you are indoors with subdued lighting, the distortions get amplified.  The peripheral distortion zones do leave two narrow strips, one at the top and one at the bottom, free of distortion.  So when you are looking at a distant object through the top narrow strip or looking at a book through the bottom narrow strip there is little problem.  For intermediate vision, which mostly means working on a computer, you must train yourself to look through the narrow vertical strips towards the nose on either side.  Distortions arise if you are not looking straight at the screen.  If your head is tilted even a little on one side, one eye starts looking through the blur zone and discomfort starts.

Another problem is watching TV while reclining on your bed.  In a reclining position you have to look through the lower part of the two lenses which are meant for reading.  So you have to sit up a bit and / or tilt your neck a little forward so that you look through the upper part.

Yet, it offers a huge advantage of not having to switch your spectacles.  I do hope that my eyes will acquire the discipline of looking through the correct zone and the visual cortex will learn not to mind the distortions when the eyes err!

Before I close, I must add that the distortions that we talked about are much more severe than the normal distortions at the periphery in monofocal lenses.

Needs, Comforts, Luxuries and Beyond

Mahatma Gandhi once said that there is more than enough for everyone's needs but not enough for even a single man's greed.  Then there was the billionaire who said that if he were to distribute his entire and vast fortune amongst whole of the humankind, it wouldn't make much difference to anyone except him.  Each one would get just a few dollars while he himself would turn a pauper!

What the billionaire said seems to echo a tenet that the capitalist way subconsciously subscribes to, that is, there isn't enough for everyone's comforts but more than enough for luxuries and beyond for a few.  This being so it makes eminent sense to be greedy.

Now there are two questions for you, dear reader.  First, who is right, Mahatma or the billionaire?  Second, what happens when you have indulged in all the available luxuries and even explored the limits of the beyond and still have money left?

And if I may add a third, should the society define a beyond and put a limit on an individual's wealth which doesn't leave him a surplus when he is at the limits of this beyond?  After this point money will be required only for the love of it and as the Bible says the love of money is the root of all evil!  How about the wealth belonging to the artificial persons, the corporations?

A Poem

They don't like suits and they don't wear ties,
They like having cola and also french fries,
They like their Ts and the jeans Levis,
Are you too, my friend, one of these guys?

GPS vs Taxi Driver!

My wife and I recently visited Delhi for renewal of our USA visa.  Taking advantage of the trip, we also took a Delhi sightseeing tour a day before the date of appointment.  However the tour missed out two important places, namely, the Lotus Temple and the Akshardham Temple.

On the date of appointment, we hired a taxi for '8 hours and 80 kms'.  We were staying in Dwarka.  From there we went to the VAC (Visa Application Center.)  After we were done at the Center, we inquired with the driver about visiting the two places that we had missed out.  He said that Lotus Temple was close by and took us there.  Next we asked him to take us to Akshardham.  He said, "Oh that is too far - somewhere between 30 to 40 kms.  A visit will entail extra charges!"

I checked for directions on Google Maps on my Android phone.  Along with directions it gave the distance as 12 kms!  I shared the finding with the driver.  He said he wasn't aware of any routes through the city and he would take us through a highway and that distance would be what he had already told us.  I told him that he need not worry and I would guide him through the short route.  He reluctantly agreed.

By the time I had navigated him through the first two legs of the route, he surrendered.  He said he could now figure out the rest of the route by himself and that I need not guide him.  I kept the navigation on and found him following the exact route that Google maps had told me!

We enjoyed darshan and lunch at the temple and left back for Dwarka.  The trip was complete within the original terms of hire without any extra charges.

Ginger Rail Yatri Niwas at New Delhi

This post is for sharing with you a feedback that I have given to Ginger Hotels.  The feedback follows.

QUOTE

I have stayed at Ginger hotel (Rail Yatri Niwas) in New Delhi on a few occasions earlier too and found it to be a good no-frills budget hotel.

However during my last stay on March 28th, 2015, I felt disappointed. The property is not in good repairs and the word dilapidated comes to mind when you look at the corridors and the rooms.  Bathrooms, both common ones on the ground floor, as well as those attached to rooms have leaky taps and unclean toilet bowls.  This is the surest mark of degeneration.

I find this deterioration painful and will be happy if you can restore the property to its initial neat, clean and pleasing appearance.

UNQUOTE

A Letter to Chief Minister (UP)

Anil Upadhyaya

to cmup
7 hours ago

Details

Sir,

I am writing this on behalf of my son who is an NRI currently working in USA.  My son and daughter-in-law booked a flat in Riverview Apartments in Gomati Nagar Extension in Lucknow in the year 2010.  The scheme was announced in 2009 by LDA and delivery was promised in two years.

The following facts will give you an idea of the suffering and losses that all allottees, and more so NRIs, have gone through and are still going through:

• As against promised period of 24 months, the flats were declared completed after 5 years in 2014 and, in fact, are yet not habitable.
• Though it was promised to restrict any escalation in costs to 5%, the escalation was to the extent of 5 lakhs against the declared price of 29.43 lakhs.  This amounts to 15% !!  Aggregate payments to LDA for this flat amounted to 38.33 lakhs after adding the escalation and extras.
• Additional charges have been taken for parking slots.  I understand that in many states the law prohibits sale of parking space.  The parking space belongs to the society which manages and allots them to the residents on a round robin basis.
• The parents of NRI customers went through great hassles as the General Power of Attorney held by many of them were rejected on such flimsy grounds as the instrument being very old.  This was done notwithstanding affidavits by concerned parent stating that the POA has not been revoked.  I had to get a special POA from my son and daughter-in-law from USA at considerable cost.
• As stated there was exorbitant delay by LDA in completing the project. During this period stamp duties went up on account of increase in DM circle rates.  The increase was more than 100% and each allottee had to pay more than two lakhs extra on stamp duties.
• Even though LDA has declared the project as complete and started registering the properties in 2014, even today the property is in a bad shape and not habitable at all.  A letter sent to LDA in this regard is appended.

You will agree that this shows the state of affairs in our state shows it in not too flattering a light.  At a time when you are putting your best foot forward to attract talent and capital to our state for our betterment, such stories about a government body can do a lot of damage.

I request you to kindly intervene and instruct LDA to complete all unfinished tasks and start maintaining the building properly.  They have collected 3 years maintenance charges from all allottees in advance and a substantial portion of this period has already passed without any maintenance whatsoever.

Regards,

Anil Kumar Upadhyaya

18/428 Indira Nagar,

Lucknow - 226016.

Mobile: +91 962 152 6956

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Anil Upadhyaya <anil.upadhyaya@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Mar 23, 2015 at 1:45 PM
Subject: Maintenance of Rapti Apartments
To: contactuslda22@gmail.com

Dear Sirs,

I have taken possession of flat number I-105 in Rapti Apartments three months ago and would like to occupy the flat soon.

I am perplexed to find that absolutely no maintenance of the apartment is taking place and that common areas are lying dirty and full of filth.  Some sewer manholes are lying without a lid and others have ill-fitting lids that can cause accidents.  No landscaping has been done nor any trees planted in the compound.  The basement is full of overflowing water.  Parking slots are yet to be marked out.

This is a serious matter in view of the fact that the owners have paid maintenance charges in advance.  Kindly look into the matter and the resolve the problem expeditiously.

Regards,

Anil Kumar Upadhyaya

for Anupam Upadhyaya

18/428 Indira Nagar,

Lucknow - 226016.

Mobile: +91 962 152 6956