Tagged: india

I was among those people who thought that this was never going to happen. And even if it was, it would at best be a soapbox-on-wheels. But no, hat’s off to Tata, they pulled off a gem.

Now I am in two minds. Again like a lot of others. It is a big deal, not by any means a minor achievement. But the environmentalists come out and say it is going to damage our Earth. That can’t be good right? But I would like to think in a different manner. If what Tata claims is true (I hope to dear god, it is at least half-true!), the car will have total emissions less than that of a standard motorcycle. If the Nano’s can achieve its said goal of replacing the 2-wheelers on the road, well then this can only be a good thing right. And the number of cars in India (.007 cars per person) are still too less compared to USA (.478 cars per person) or Germany (.508 cars per person). I think the whole hue and cry is a little too much.

But one point I agree on is that the Nano is going to severely choke the already congested Indian roads. Tata and other giants should actively invest in infrastructure projects beneficial for the general public and not just for their factories. I think all the hue and cry must be for this, lets not solve the wrong problem first.

And hey, I was reading some western reactions to the whole thing. While most of them ranged from faint sarcasm to slight appreciation, I noticed something interesting at many places. They were all saying we are going down the wrong path, all about green house gases and stuff. Yes that is important, but so is the development of our country (no, I am not just talking about Nano). The west created this whole mess, all the while enjoying all the goodies and when we are finally capable to doing all that, what right do they have tell us – ‘No, you cant do that. Its too late and we can’t clean up the mess we created.’.. Think about it people!

The point is that there needs to be a balance. We cannot afford to slow down too much on development, but we cannot totally forget about the environment either. The success of India depends on how well ‘we’ (no not just our politicians) strike the balance.

The rules of Germany. Well it does get some “getting used” to. From applying for a residence permit to driving on the roads to walking on the streets for everything there is a system. And for an outsider it seems like fitting a round object in a hole meant for something square.

I dipped my toes into this strange world before even leaving the shores of India. They need a biometric photo for my visa. Passport size photos won’t do. I always thought the passport size was invented for, well things related to a passport. Germans seem to disagree. They need a biometric. Ok fine, biometric then. I got my visa.

Visa in hand, I reach Deutschland. Then what? I need to apply for a residence permit. Ok great. Preplanning a lot of things I pay (or was it Bachu who paid? ) a few hundred bucks and get 20 additional copies from India. I recieve an email from my relocation agent saying you need a biometric pic. Glad at my genius of thinking about stuff before hand I read the next line in the mail – “Biometric photos taken in India are not valid”. Crap! My relocation agent says, but your company will re-imburse for it, what is the big deal! Hmmm. The big deal is a biometric photo is a biometric photo whether taken in India or Uzbekistan or Pluto! But the rules are theirs, and I need to play along. So paying 15 euros I get 4 more biometric photos of me from Germany. Now what? My friends say there is a chance that even this might get rejected.. Awwwww… I wait fingers crossed!

Ok, this is not just about the biometrics, but the rules, rules and more rules. Hmm. I take consolation in the fact that, their system works. Punkt! Everything here just works, so may be I shouldn’t complain too much. But I am an Indian. I have the right to crib about things. And after all being Indian I did make a round object fit into a square hole!

Maybe this was all inspired by the hazzle of getting the photos and missing trips to Salzberg and Paris because of the delay. But the German rules… Arggghh!

India and winter are not two words that really go together. Add Olympics to that, it becomes even more bizarre. While going through The Hindu today, I read that India is participating in this years winter Olympics! Big surprise! What’s more, India had been represented in the last two Olympics too. Guess by how many athletes? Yeah, just one! And his name is Shiva Kesavan. Never thought that winter sports existed in India, simply due to the fact that winter doesnt exist in most of India . I had my eyes pop out when I learned that his dad was from my very own Kerala – that’s as tropical as you can get in India! A winter athlete from Kerala? Not even in my dreams!!

He was also some sort of hero during the 2002 Salt Lake games. The American media, made this guy really famous, calling him one in a billion. How true! And amazingly I don’t remember a single mention of him here in the Indian media before.

He has turned out to be a hero to me instantly. How proud must he have been representing 1,000,000,000 people at not one but two (and soon three) Olympics. The guy obviously never got much support from our government and had to participate in his event with borrowed equipment… oh… and his event is called Luge. It is a high-speed race on a sled down a fixed track. I remember watching it once or twice on TV, seemed fun

In 2006 though, Shiva is not alone for India. The official site lists 3 more athletes. Good lord. Are winter sports catching up in India?

Anyway do support Shiva in his quest. The Turin games are live, here in India on DD Sports from February 10. Whether he wins or finishes last, he will be a big hero to me!

Further Reading:

• India’s lone luger » (the-south-asian.com)
• “900 MILLION STORIES: THIS IS THE BEST ONE” » (Mitch Albom – Detroit Free Press)
• Did an Indian compete at Salt Lake? » (melvindurai.com)
• Official Site » (torino2006.org)

One of the most beautiful places I have seen is a paradise called Munnar. So, when some of my friends suggested that we go for a trip to the place, I was more than happy to YES. I had been there just once before but I had already fallen in love with it, at first sight.

Seven of us crammed into a Toyota Qualis on a Saturday night (Jan 7) and set off. We took the more scenic routes, all those extra miles where worth every bit. It was a surreal experience travelling through the winding mountain roads cutting through the thick fog that surrounded us. You couldn’t see anything five feet beyond! As we reached higher though, we were a bit worried about the fog, since it could blur out all that beautiful scenery. But god was kind to us and the fog cleared at the right time. We parked near a tea-plantation on the way and had a lot of fun walking amidst the tea plants down the steep slopes. The greenery around us was truly breathtaking. Only now can I understand why Kerala is in fact “God’s own Country”!

We didn’t stay for long at Munnar town and headed to Rajamalai a part of the Eravikulam National Park. It was a short light trek up the mountains. Unlike my last visit, this time we were able to see the famous Nilgiri Thars… an endangered animal. Nothing special about them though, just wild goats! But again the view from the top was sensational. It also provided us with plenty of photo opportunities, and being the way we are, never missed one of them Oh, that old rusty shack, which inspired the title of this site during my last visit, still stood there.. neglected but brave!

Our next stop was an unlikely tourist centre called Marayoor. It is famous for its sandalwood forests and notorious for its sandalwood smugglers. There we were lucky to enjoy the hospitality of two locals – Babuji and “Comrade” Johnson. One of them was the local committee secretary of the Communist Party and the other was an ardent Congress party worker. You can guess the fun we had listening to their never ending amusing arguments about Kerala politics! They had a small place at the edge of the forest where they helped us to cook some food for ourselves. Our stomachs’ full, we set off to Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary.

The road is such that it cuts 40kms through the forest. I was wondering what would have happened had our vehicle broken down somewhere there! Hmm. The forest has a huge population of Elephants and Tigers, but unfortunately we had to be satisfied with seeing a few peacocks, a lot of monkeys and two or three deers. We also encountered a crocodile reserve on the way and we succeded in gettting into trouble taking a few photographs there, when it was stated quite clearly that photography was disallowed! Anyway “somehow” we managed to pull out from that mess and headed straight to Pollachi and our way back home.

The trip back was mostly filled with gossip and prank calls to friends who couldn’t make it But one thing of note were the huge windmills by the side of the highway. Made for some nice picture postcards! Tuesday early morning after a brief stop over at Ranjith’s home in Alappuzha we were back in good old Trivandrum and then were those loooong zzzzs.

For the complete photo gallery, simply click here .

How to get there?
From Trivandrum: The best route is to take the MC road to Ayur, then to Pathanamthitta, Pirmed, Thekkadi, Kallar, Devikolam and finally to Munnar. This seems to be the best option to me. Our return leg was from Marayoor to Udumalpettai, then Pollachi, Nenmara, Thrissur and then back to Trivandrum via NH 47. That was a (very) long route, but the drive through the forests was really exciting!
From Kochi: NH 49 via Muvattupuzha, but then you will miss the beauty of the Devikolam-Munnar road. One solution is to go to Devikolam just for the pleasure after reaching Munnar. But if you don’t want that, you can go to Thodupuzha from Muvattupuzha, then to Iddukki, Devikolam and Munnar. That route would cost you atleast 50km additional though.
From the North: From Bangalore via NH 209 to Coimbatore, Pollachi, Udumalaipetta, Chinnar, Marayoor and then to Munnar. Since you are coming down all this way you can also go to Thekkady via Devikolam and you wont miss the sight of all the tea-plantations
From outside India: Take a flight to Trivandrum or Kochi. Then as above.

Read the Intro first

It was sometime in July last year. So this one day we had a shortened college day for some reason. Someone suggested we go somewhere. Subhash I think, came up with the idea of a very little known beach called Aazhimala. Our first of those several “dynamic” plans began there. 6 of us squeezed ourselves in my car and 4 more followed in two mobikes.

Driving around narrow but uncrowded roads, we reached this big turn on the road. Subash, who was the only one who had visited this place earlier, was constantly telling us that we’ll all gasp in awe at the sight we’ll see… and boy he didn’t exaggerate a wee bit. The sea seemed to sneak right in front of our eyes with all its grandeur all of a sudden. It was an experience I cannot describe. One second we were looking at dull gray asphalt and at the next the gorgeuos blue sea.

Being a “road less taken” has its disadvantages too. There was no real fixed path to reach the sandy beach down, from the cliff where the road ended. But yeah, we did find one in the end and that was part of the fun too. Coming down to the beach made it look even more amazing. We were all enjoying the serene beauty of the whole scene, when suddenly disaster struck. I in my over enthusiasm to get into the water, misjudged the laws of physics, slipped on a rock and crashed my elbow on it. It was paining like hell, but to put a brave face in front of the others I kept saying it was alright (In reality a bone was almost broken and couldn’t move my hand properly for almost a week ). That did dampen the spirits for a minute but soon we began a game of volleyball cum football cum basketball. I tried my best to join them but my hurt arm kept saying no. After a while, we sat on the many huge rock jutting in to the sea and kept chitchatting. Sitting there was another awesome experience too. I know I have been repeating these superlatives so many times, but trust me this place deserves it. The only thing we did wrong during this trip was not taking a camera. Hmm. that was a basic mistake, but luckily something we never made in our future endeavours.

All done, we climbed back up to where the car was. Then came a local guy, talked a bit rough to us saying that this place was a bit dangerous and blah blah blah. Yeah, he is probably right you need to be a bit careful coming here, but hey.. what is life without taking some risks?

How to get there? So if you are impressed and want to visit this place, well here is how. Aazhimala is located around 30-40 minutes drive from Trivandrum city. Take the National Highway 47 towards Kanyakumari and take a right at Balaramapuram. Travel down the Vizhinjam road and ask some locals for precise directions. There are a few turns you will have to make, but its not that difficult to find. If you wish to travel via bus, then last time I checked there was a city bus from the East Fort stand going to Aazhimala Temple, which is only around a 100m away from this site. I am not very sure about the timing, frequency and crowd-factor of this bus though.

Highly recommended trip. But before you get down the cliff, it is always good to seek the advice of some local. Just to be on the safe side.

My semester exams are going on now and I have been (supposedly) spending most of my time studying for it. Not really studying, its more like mugging up. That makes me wonder how good an evaluation system our B.Tech examinations are.

From what I know, an engineer must be someone who applies his knowledge to engineer some ingenious things. Does that mean he needs to remember every theory in the world word-by-word? Hmm. Our University of Kerala seems to think so, unfortunately. The whole model and structure of their examinations makes us not want to apply anything anywhere!

We had this subject called “Information system for managers” this year. It was a rather interesting paper, but somehow the univ guys have managed to spoil it. You ask anyone in my class what the paper was about and I’m sure not one of us would know anything more than you do . The question papers seem to be testing our memory and not whether we have actually understood what the good old proffessors had written in those textbooks. I thinks its time that the whole written exam thing is scrapped, atleast modified. I mean wouldn’t it be better if an engineer is evaluated on how many useful things that he can do rather than test how many bytes of information he has stored in his brain. I know its not something that will change overnight. But surely its doable.

Then you might ask me.. How to make that change? Hmm.. I’m just a poor engineer from the University of Kerala. How would I know!