The Train Chugs, at last

It was 1995... or was it earlier? The rail link between Mangalore and Bangalore was removed... Why? It was a meter gauge then and was supposed to be converted into broad gauge in 4-5 years...

2007, 12 years later... The rail link is complete and the 1st passenger train chugs its way from Mangalore into Bangalore for the 1st time after 12 years...The dream of every Mangalorean came true... Having a rail link to almost all parts of India (including Jammu Tavi), this place was not connected to its own state capital...

These 12 years have been a boon for the bus lobby which had been minting money from all corners which left the wary passenger with not much choice... Either pay 300 odd bucks and travel to Bangalore over the night, or cough up 3k for a flight ticket, not to forget the cost of journey between airports and final destination...

All said and done, this looks like a happy ending... as the saying goes.. and I quote reminding me of Shaks' latest post: Bhagwan ke yahaan der hai, andher nahi...

But is the picture what it looks like??

Ok... for the uninitiated, the train travels through what is called the "Kashmir of the South" Shiradi Ghat section, with about 57 tunnels within a gap of 40 odd KMs with some of the steepest gradient for a broad gauge in India, about 50 meters for every Kilometer for 30 KMs (not sure, remember reading somewhere)

Now, the entire journey is timed during the night and there is very minimal chance of watching this 55 KM section of splendid scenery. Another catch is of the journey itself.
There are 2 routes of getting into Bangalore.
One via the Hassan - Arsikere - Tumkur - Bangalore route about 350 kms
The other Hassan - Mysore - Bangalore - 410 kms

The trains take the latter route, which increases travel time by atleast 1.5 hrs and a distance increase of 60 kilometers. Thus, it artificially escalates the price of the journey, and thus could result in reduced demand. At the end of the day, the railway authorities can easily get away by washing their hands and claiming "financially not viable"

The price for a 3 tier AC is Rs. 611 in comparison with a Volvo charge of Rs. 400 one way

It doesnt stop there. The other aspect is of the illegal mining lobby which transports manganese ore and other minerals from Bellary and other areas into Mangalore port to be shipped to China. This being very profitable, goods are being transported by train. There are already 9 goods train running on this line ranging from petroleum, gas, minerals and other materials. They run via the Arsikere route and are given preference over passenger trains...

Is the railway, being a governmental agency, try to increase revenue by the way of compromising consideration for the passenger (here, customer) and that too making him pay for the route that is not favorable?

Is it a dream that will be short lived and that the railways could buckle under the lobby pressure?

Only time can tell...

Some of the snaps of the rail link: earlier it was a haven for all trekkers trekking 20 odd kms on these unlaid tracks

Taare Zameen Par

Can't get enough of the songs... Seriously refreshing and melodious...(from the usual jhatkas and remix songs)

Waiting for the movie to be out... Need to see if the perfectionist remains to be one when it comes to direction and handling (special) kids...

General Knowledge

Hey again,
Thought I'd share a concept of why 1 is one and 2 is two and so on... Not sure of the source, but got it as a forward through mail.

It's all about angles !

It's the number of angles. If one writes the numbers down (see below) on a piece of paper in their older forms, one quickly sees why. I have marked the angles with "o"s.

No 1 has one angle.
No 2 has two angles.
No 3 has three angles.
etc.

Holy Smokes!!!

San Diego Fire: A picture from the skies above (Satellite images)
Dated: 22/Oct/2007

Can just imagine the plight of people at Ground Zero!!! Here are a few snapshots... This must be what hell is like...without the firefighters of course...

Snapshots from Hell

Just wondering how would the satellite images be over Mumbai, Delhi and a few other cities during Diwali!!!

Happy Diwali in advance

Harassment

Just when I thought that respect for women in India was at an all time high given the number of women in top positions in the corporate world, NGOs, the President of India and so on, the common Indian man does not have seem to recognized it.

My personal experience a couple of days back replaced my belief and saw that man has not changed although women may be doing well in the country.

A married man, about 35-40 years of age, was allegedly harassing a young lady sitting in front of him. The trip from Mangalore to Bangalore was not pleasant in the first place after a hectic weekend and that too this act from a man who was married added to my mental agony. To top it all, this happened in a Volvo bus in which supposedly only ‘decent’ people travel…

After a fierce 15 minutes of verbal duel, the person received a well deserved slap from on of the co-passenger. This continued and after 45 minutes of begging and pleading, saying his career was at stake, his wife would leave him and stuff. Later, he was handed over to the police at a town near Bangalore.

God knows what has happened of him as I write this, but he should have thought of his career, his wife all that when he was committing the act. It was a good move by the young lady that she spoke out, else there would be many who would just avoid complaining and the guy would give a slip, only to continue making it a habit.

Illusion

Leaning Tower Illusion

The two images of the Leaning Tower of Pisa are identical, yet one has the impression that the tower on the right leans more, as if photographed from a different angle. The reason for this is because the visual system treats the two images as if part of a single scene. Normally, if two adjacent towers rise at the same angle, their image outlines converge as they recede from view due to perspective, and this is taken into account by the visual system. So when confronted with two towers whose corresponding outlines are parallel, the visual system assumes they must be diverging as they rise from view, and this is what we see.

Click here for more illusions

Power

The evergreen problem of India - Power. Here, I mean Electricity.

India currently has an installed capacity of 1,27,000 MW and already we are facing electricity shortages and blackouts. There is an estimate of 11 to 18 percent shortage in the near future. While China adds appox. 70,000 MW every year, India has added hardly 22,000 MW in the last 5 yrs. Let us not get into the reasons, mainly being political.

A recent article on Deccan Herald talked of using small measures to save electricity from being spent. This spoke of saving electricity rather than generating new power. The concept called 'negawatts' uses the theory of efficient management of energy. From switching to sunlight during the day to turning off TVs when on standby, such was the concept.

Of course, I believe in small droplets making an ocean, but looking at the current level of growth both in the economy, with more and more industries being setup, and the never ending population spurt, the ocean needs a downpour and not drops. Electricity needs to be produced.

But how? Thermal Power?
A recent debate on the Nagarjuna thermal plant near Udupi shows that the ash from the burnt coal pollutes the aquatic life in the sea (being the waste disposed into the sea) or the ground water of the surrounding areas get polluted. If they get released into the air, the Amazon of India, the Western Ghats would be affected. Not to forget, the western ghats have the rarest species of flora and fauna not found anywhere else in the country.

Are we ready to compromise mother nature in the name of development? Or due we take a cue from Nature herself, just like a small place like Malavalli Biomass Power plant has done?

Yes, I believe that nature has answers to all our questions. Malavalli Biomass plant is located in rural Karnataka in Mandya district. This plant locally accumulates crop residues which are otherwise burnt by the farmers which obviously add to environment pollution. Malavalli itself is reported to have a capacity to generate 5000 MW of power. Come to think of it, India produces approximately 100 million tonnes of crop and mill residues which can be used by biomass plants!!

So if we can think out of the box, with a little bit of will and partnership from both from the government and private entities we can end up in a much brighter scenario faster than expected. What can we being laymen do? We can help by efficient usage and management of power and there will hardly be a necessity to cry for power again.

For more details you can check the following references:

• Beware ghosts that gobble up power at homes - Deccan Herald - Jun 25, 2007
• Blacked out - India Today - Issue Jun 25, 2007
• http://www.tve.org/ho/doc.cfm?aid=1676&lang=English