I Got My First Dose of Covishield Today

 Like most of us I failed to register on the Cowin site in the morning today.  The problem that I and most of us faced, was non-delivery of the verification code through SMS.  So I gave up and took my car, that had been serviced yesterday, for a test drive.  I drove up to a nearby hospital, Shekhar Hospital, and walked in to enquire about the vaccination.  Enquiry revealed that Shekhar was offering Covaxin.  I was further told that all slots for the day were taken up and that I could register for a slot on 4th March.  It seems there will be a two day break for taking stock and fine-tuning the processes.  I drove back home without registering.

Then I got a phone call from my nephew, who is a journalist and was doing a story on vaccination at Ram Manohar Lohia Institute, now renamed Atal Bihari Bajpayee University of Medicine.  He said that the queue there wasn't too long and things seemed to be proceeding smoothly.  He advised us to visit the place before they ran out of vaccine stock.  I drove down to the University with my wife and sister, all three of us armed with our Aadhaar cards.

There were several booths set up there and the process was like this: 

a) Get a token from the reception desk giving you the booth number and serial number, 

b) Go to the booth, fill out a card giving your name and contact details, 

c) Present the card and your Aadhaar to a person who will register you, 

d) After successful registration enter the booth and get the jab, check that the nurse has entered the date for the second jab on the card,

e) On exit get your particulars entered in a manual register maintained by another person, 

f) Wait for half an hour, and if there are no adverse effects, sign the manual register and depart.

To ensure that you don't face any hiccups, keep these things in mind:

• The jab is given in the shoulder muscle, so men should wear a half-sleeved or sleeveless T and women should have a sleeveless top.  Else, you may be asked to take off the shirt or the blouse.
• While filling out the card take care to mention the same phone number that is registered with your Aadhaar card, else the registration may fail.  I may add that no biometric or SMS based authentication was carried out.

A very interesting observation was that a couple of people who had successfully registered through website or the app, were sent away by the person doing the registration.  They were told to wait for a message from the system telling them the date and venue for their vaccination.  One gentleman was very upset at this, kept arguing and holding up the queue, and finally left saying that he will never set foot there again!  Same was the case with an important looking lady who was escorted by two policemen.  It seems she could seek some intervention and get the jab.  There was just one more case of jumping the queue assisted by someone who seemed to be a staff.

But for the general aversion to forming orderly queues, things went well and it seems that the walk-in is a better alternative to pre-registration.  The person who carries out the registration hardly takes two minutes per person.

Before I close, I must mention a very strange issue in the systems.  Today the system was rejecting all those born in the year 1960!  It seems the programmer has used greater than 60 as a condition instead of greater than or equal to.  If so, this is too silly a mistake to be made by a programmer.

I have already received an SMS saying that I have been successfully vaccinated and also giving a link to view the certificate on the site.  The certificate is fine except that it mentions my year of birth as 31 making me 90 years old!  It is incorrect in the case of my wife and my sister too.  This is puzzling as our DOBs are correctly registered in the Aadhaar database.

And finally, it is nearly 5 hours after I got the jab and I am feeling fit and fine.  The only regret is that I could not go for the same vaccine as our PM, but then I now have a tinge of Oxford within me. :)

Wishing you happy inoculation.

I Am In Lucknow And The Smile Is Waning

I live in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh (UP) state in India.  This historical city is famous for its Chikankari (embroidery handwork), monuments from the British era and the era of Nawabs, fine cuisine and superb etiquette.  All these, especially the last two, are believed to be capable of making the face of any visitor light up with joy: And hence the adage "मुस्कुराइए कि आप लखनऊ में हैं!"  It translates to "Now that you are in Lucknow, smile!"

While the city takes pains to keep the ageing monuments in good repairs, little is being done to prevent erosion of its fine etiquettes and the accompanying moral fabric.  Things seem to have gone so far that business entities, especially those of online variety, are reluctant to do business with the residents and accord to them common courtesies accorded to a group of good customers.  I will give some examples from my own experience that bear this out.

I am an Airtel customer and my relationship with them is strong in so much as I subscribe to all their services, DTH, Broadband and LL as well as a mobile connection.  And so their response came as a shock to me when I contacted their customer care for activating international roaming (IR) on my phone.  They said, quite categorically, that this service is not provided to customers in UP (East) circle!  It is interesting to note that those in the UP (West) circle do not face this ignominy!

Then, again, while enquiring with airlines operating on the Delhi-Lucknow sector, I found out that passengers coming in to Delhi from an international sector and proposing to travel on the D-L domestic sector were not allowed any additional baggage allowance.  Though, such additional allowance was given by some airlines on such sectors as Delhi-Raipur!  Yet another case of discrimination!

The latest affront comes from Amazon (India.)  I used their app to order a Moto g plus phone with protective cover and screen guard.  The latter two, of course, are low value items while the phone is priced at INR 15K.  While the latter articles were okayed in my order, a message said that the first item could not be shipped to my PIN code.  I tried other PIN codes in Lucknow and even in Faizabad but in vain.  Correspndence with their customer care suggests that Amazon has stopped delivering high value merchandise in whole of eastern UP!  Amazon being the exclusive dealer for this phone I now have to give up my plan to purchase this phone!

I feel deeply hurt by these incidents and am wondering why are commercial entities are viewing the residents of this state as such unreliable and irresponsible louts?  I would also like to check with our state government and political leaders if they have any plans to check this loss of face and the waning smile.

LKO to SFO: US pre-clearance at Abu Dhabi

My wife and I travel to USA each year for spending some time with our grandsons.  Though Lucknow boasts of an international terminal, the only international flights available are those to destinations in the Middle East.  We often wondered why did they not offer flights onwards from there to other destinations, but could not find an answer.  In the absence of such connecting onward booking, the only option for us was to travel from Delhi.  Airlines operating between Lucknow and Delhi do not allow any extra baggage allowance to passengers connecting to or from international sectors.  In view of this and also double the normal baggage allowance for USA bound passengers, we used to travel to Delhi by train.  This often meant a prefix interval of 24 hours from the time we left home at Lucknow to the time we boarded the international flight at New Delhi.  The travel time from New Delhi to San Francisco being 24 hours, this train travel doubled the total travel time.

So we were very happy when we learnt that Jet Airways was likely to start bookings for the sector LKO-SFO.  Finally, when my son made the booking, we discovered that the itinerary was a collaboration between three airlines.  For our outward journey from Lucknow, the first flight from Lucknow to Abu Dhabi was operated by Jet.  The next flight from Abu Dhabi to San Francisco, 16 hours of flight time, was an Etihad airways flight. The third airline is Air Berlin on the return leg which doesn't trace back the outward journey.  But the most unusual thing was US pre-clearance at Abu Dhabi.  Pre-clearance simply means completing US immigration and customs check at Abu Dhabi itself.  And this means that you exit on arrival in USA as if you had traveled domestically!  Though, as we discovered, this has one disadvantage too: you have to pay for the luggage cart!  Regular international travelers get the cart free.  Another side effect is that the admission date stamped on your passport is the date in Abu Dhabi at the time of clearance.  Thus though I actually entered the USA on 11th June 2016, the date stamped on my passport is 10th June 2016!

It seems that all US bound passengers at Abu Dhabi board their flight through gate no. 59.  It also seems that this gate opens only after boarding for an US bound flight is announced.  Passengers have to wait in the waiting areas of the adjoining gates.

The way to pre-clearance facility is through a door across the corridor from gate number 59.  You descend a flight of stairs into the pre-clearance area and then ascend a flight of stairs to get back to gate number 58 adjoining 59.  The whole process starts 3 hours before departure.   About an hour before this starting time we were asked to vacate the seating area at gate number 58 so that the area could be sanitized: sanitized as in security and not in hygiene.  Upon inquiry we were told to return to that place after an hour.  The customs clearance form was also provided.

At the appointed time the queue started forming in the corridor which had been blocked near gate 59.  Passengers were directed towards the pre-clearance area.  The boarding pass and the passport were checked by the airlines staff.  Then there was a thorough security check.  After the check we went for the proper immigration process.  It was exactly as done in USA on arrival.  Usual questions were asked and biometric impressions were taken.  The only difference was that a picture of all our checked-in bags appeared on a computer screen in the immigration officer's cabin.  I may add that the luggage had been accepted at Lucknow under through check-in and we were NOT required to take possession of the luggage at Abu Dhabi for custom clearance.

After the immigration formalities were over, we exited and went one flight of stairs up to gate number 58.  At around the time of boarding all economy class passengers were requested to move to the waiting area of gate number 60 and wait for the boarding call.  The boarding was in the usual zone-wise manner.

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

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!)

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

I reviewed Passport Seva Kendra at Lucknow.

My review as appearing at their site is reproduced below:

The center is able to handle very large number of applicants efficiently and the processes are quite well defined. Though a person here and a person there may not be an epitome of courtesy, as a team they are able to perform efficiently. Some of my observations are listed below:

Appreciated:

•            Paid parking is available.

•            IT enabled processes are quite efficient.

•            The staff seems to be a mix from TCS and MEA. The service executives (from TCS?) are courteous and efficient.

•            The waiting hall is clean and has a tea and coffee kiosk and also a kiosk for photocopying.

•            Toilets provided are clean.

•            APO (Additional / Assistant Passport Officer) is very considerate and helpful in case you are required to approach him.

•            Queue management is efficient and displays are updated in real time.

Need Attention:

•            Placards should be placed directing first time visitors to the parking area for applicants. I entered the basement parking. That too was through the exit as no signage is posted on the two slopes for indicating which one is for Entry and which one for Exit. I was asked to leave as the basement parking is not for applicants.

•            An elderly lady at the entrance of the waiting hall was found to be rather rude to the visitors. This detracts from good work done by other staff.

•            The waiting halls, especially the one inside the processing area, are too small looking to the number of applicants handled by the center.

•            Exception handling in the system is not very graceful. You may read my blog post http://anil-upadhyaya.blogspot.in/2015/02/passport-for-psu-retirees.html.

Endangered Spaces in My City - New Meaning of B2B

I had purchased my house in Indira Nagar, Lucknow, quarter of a century ago.  My sector in the huge residential colony has three types of houses - High Income Group (HIG), MIG and LIG.  All houses used to have a front yard, a backyard, parking for 3, 2 or 1 cars, and a side setback along the entire depth of the plot on one side.  The houses have a common wall on the other side along the depth.  The open spaces are quite adequate and provide lots of natural lighting and ventilation and keep you from feeling claustrophobic.

At the time these houses were built, false ceilings providing diffused lighting in the rooms and airconditioning that positively discourages ventilation, were not very common.  Thus these open spaces and the windows opening into those spaces were a necessity too.  To be fair, even at that time there was a group that felt that open spaces were sheer waste and attempted to minimize them by expanding out the structure using ingenious architectural tricks.

25 years is a long period.  Children have grown up and moved out of Lucknow and some the original occupants too are migrating to live with their sons and daughters or in flats.  The houses are being sold off.  When a sale takes place this is what typically happens.  The old structure is pulled down and a new house built with the maximum number of floors permitted in the area.  Currently rules permit three floors.  This would be considered a normal development but for what I am going to narrate now.

The new structures blatantly do away with all requirements of open spaces in the form of a side setback on one side, back and front yards, and parking withing the plot.  These structures are almost B2B (boundary to boundary!)  Backyard, if there is one, is just an air shaft for ventilating the kitchen and toilets.  I understand that the building bylaws have not changed in any significant way and yet these violation are either not noticed by the local development authority or deliberately overlooked (for a consideration?)  Rooms are liberally airconditioned and windows are merely decorative and seldom opened.

A major problem arises for the neighbor who still has a side setback.  The new structure next door, as described above, extends right up to the boundary.  These new kids on the block then cleverly have a opening into the side setback of the poor old neighbor.  They use the neighbor's setback for lighting and ventilation while they use all their space in the B2B manner.

Complaining to authorities can have one and only one result, that is, dangerously inimical neighbor relations for all times to come.  If you choose to have a level headed talk, you get just one response.  It goes like this - you may also construct B2B if you wish!  And if you do that out of desperation what is the result?  Both the neighbor and you have houses that extend into each other and / or total darkness and lack of ventilation for both.

Now that everybody is convinced that the neighbor will go for B2B in any case, those who have the advantage of constructing first try to preempt the neighbor by going B2B without even waiting to talk to the neighbor in the matter.

In the meantime authorities are planning a tax on vehicles which are parked alongside streets overnight.  Thus B2B has become a revenue earner for both the authorities and their officials.

B2B has become the new architectural norm in my city.  How about yours?

Municipal Elections in Lucknow

Elections for the Lucknow Municipal Corporation are on and the votes will be cast this weekend.  The neighborhood mithaiwala Mr. Shivraj Singh had made up his mind to contest the election from this ward many many months ago.  He had started collecting all his customers' mobile numbers even as he continued collecting the milk bill from them.  His aspirations got dashed to the ground when the seat for our ward was declared reserved for women candidates.

Once the election symbols were approved by the State Election Commission (SEC) about 10 days ago, the campaigning started in the right earnest.  The uniformity in all aspects of campaigning is a little perplexing.  It extends from the size and color schemes of the pamphlets distributed by the candidates to loud voices from mobile vans pleading for support and the choice of patriotic songs that serve as fillers.  However what is most remarkable is the fact that each pamphlet invariably carries the candidate's husband's photo alongside the candidate's photo!  And the husband has more of a neta look than the actual candidate.  The sole exception is the pamphlet from the mother of a martyr in the Kargil war.  The martyr's photograph - a young and handsome officer - appears at the top.

There is little that helps you choose one candidate above the other.  All of them make the same promises, refrain from commenting on what has withheld and is withholding the area's development, and claim the same virtues for themselves except one.  The young ones claim youth and energy as a virtue while the older ones claim their experience and maturity as one.  They all leave the whole place littered with pamphlets after their door-to-door visit, their promises for ensuring cleanliness notwithstanding.  This pollution is later compounded by noise pollution from mobiles blaring out appeal in their favor.

While BJP and congress have fielded their candidates with the party symbols, some other parties have let their candidates contest on their personal symbol. I understand that there was a debate during the BSP government whether party symbols should be allowed in these elections or not.  The court ruled in favor of using party symbols.  I am not able to fully make out the reasons and motives for and against this practice.

An interesting thing happened on Monday.  We received an invitation to attend a Sunder Kand path by well-known Tiwari brothers in the neighborhood park.  This was being organized by three people who were not on the candidates' list.  Many people attended.  The recitation was enchanting but ended with an anti-climax. The seniormost Tiwari thanked the audience at the end of the performance and lo and behold, asked for supporting a candidate who had quietly slipped into the gathering towards the end of the performance!  Well, glory be to Lord Hanuman!

My wife and I are still trying to make up our minds on whom to support when we go for casting our vote on 23rd June, but find ourselves rather clueless.