Saturday, January 25, 2014

AAP: Ada Assattu Pasanga Party

It happens only in India - Govinda's infamous song comes to my mind as I see the comedy show AAP. If anything AAP has achieved, it is that they have underlined their stupidity, in-experience and have made sure, no new party can rise to challenge of BJP & Congress for the foreseeable future.

I have expressed previously that I am not a great fan of Gandhi's "adam-pudikkum" non-cooperation movement, even though it helped us to get freedom. It is a bad practice and a bad example for not only kids but also for democracy. Anyway it worked in 19th/20th century, but it is not a valid tool anymore. Today for every other challenge one does a dharna in India. In the absence of an information medium, one man fasting and dharna created ripples, but today you have the instant judge and lightning fast judiciary arms such as 24x7TV, Twitters and FB's. If a message needed to be conveyed and acted up on, it can be made possible. Instead what does AAP do? Dharna!!! I digress...

Modi has been Gujarat's CM since 2001 and has successfully implemented some or other schemes (because the moment Modi's achievements are mentioned, someone will come with a % based statistic to disprove - btw % is one of the most abused measure). Except for a few, most would agree that he has delivered 24x7 electricity, Sabarmati re-furb and a few other schemes... More importantly no riots since 2002;  in addition he has convinced his party across multiple states (Gujarat, Goa, Maharastra, Bihar hmm actually, all of BJP's state functionaries) PM nominee and all these in highly charged hostile, step-motherly environment.

Compare that with this guy AK from AAP; An IIT-ian, and also an ex-IRI fellow. or Compare him with UP's CM...

In spite of the hostile environment, did Modi not participate in democracy? did he not go to all-CMs meeting? (Unlike JJ from TN, Modi never walked off  from the CM's conference or sent a second rank minister) did he not meet our MMS - 'Mutta Mestri' Singh and seek solutions for Gujarat? Even though he received very little help from MMS & Co. He has done something... Has he not? Instead of tearing up the letters from Centre (like our RaGa), Modi always engaged Central government and persevered. Think along these lines, one would see that Modi is a better democrat and a governor.

AAP and AK have taken Gandhi (I mean Mohanchand not Rahul) and applied his idea directly. It is akin to a developer copying code, without realising the context...(I have copied code, but will fully re-modify ;) )... The point is Dharna would take you only that far; Gandhi himself was well aware of its value and hence he went to the round-tables and other participative means to keep the conversation going. Also a less discussed fact that Gandhi was the power centre and he allowed other leaders to join the government, embed the party leaders into governance(even prior to Independence). If AK had truly understood Gandhi (Mohanchand & Sonia), he would have let Yogendra or someone else become the CM and remain as AAP's functioning party leader. Thus he could have kept the movement going (if it was his primary motivation). This guy has gone overboard and will soon lose his sheen, dampen aspirations further.

India needs better governors, not these Asattu pasanga...

Monday, January 13, 2014

Operation 6 year old - Success

I decided to test it on my 6 year old to see if he has got it. My parents should have let me taken this test, but those days we never had these much challenges. So unfortunately I took these tests only in my teenage and not to mention, I failed and still appear to these tests once in a while. A trifle satisfaction is that my wife also appears with me to take these tests and fail 'em but these days very rarely but still continue to appear. That's one advantage of marriage (I don't know why, but we spend money and still take it, with the HOPE that one day we will learn our lessons finally).

But as the next generation starts, I wanted him to take it up early in his life - if he passed it, then life-long it will be a lesson and if he didn't then, we got another one to join us for the next sitting.

This all started when one of our friends suggested this idea. What are friends for? Recently they moved back to UK after a couple of years in India. They were sharing these wonderful stories about India, malls, movies, and pani-puris. Apparently their boys had taken these tests in India and are used to it. Believe me in India, a lot of kids these days go take it, just so much peer-pressure! They talked my boy into it and he was really looking forward to it.

On Sunday they joined us for Lunch and the boys though they knew it from their previous experience, they really didn't know what they were getting into this time. We allowed them to play XBOX and fed 'em with good lunch. Good Parenting you see, no pressure. My 6 year old boy was kind'a excited and was ably joined by other two kids. The rush was setting in.

It was time!

We drove in two separate cars and reached the hall, got the necessary passes. The kids wanted a treat before going into the hall. We as mature adults, didn't budge - It was a clear NO. They will have to go into the hall for 3 hours of tests and may be in between at the break, they can get an ice cream. Poor kids - the phrase Bakra came to my mind.

As usual, we went and sat in the back row. (Ah always back-benchers) and my 2 year old didn't know what was happening, she got scared a bit. Poor thing, she didn't know she will be subjected to such a severe test when she turns 6. Who knows may be early too. My boy kept nagging me. Any one who's been to a test before sure knows that last minute tension and stress. There may be a few minutes to start, but you would better like it just start and get on with it. So, I understood his feelings and was very supportive. After all, with so much pressure on a 6 year old these days.

It was time. The test had just begun. Boys were initially quite happy to take it, but within half-an-hour, they were exhausted. Given that we grown-ups had been taking the tests for 15 years, we were trained to the necessary stamina and resilience levels. But after 45 minutes or so, even we couldn't take it. My friends' wife, who really likes these tests - she herself couldn't take it.

Luckily my boy, he had a brilliant idea to get out. He raised his hand for a wee-wee; I happily took him out. This probably was one of the rarest moments that I had taken him happily to the loo even without the missus pushing me to do it. Wifey was fuming because she couldn't grab the opportunity as she was having the 2 year old who was sleeping like an angel. I mentally noted, sleep my dear little one. One day you will go through this pain and I am sorry. It is for your betterment.

Fortunately we had the break between the tests and all of us rushed out with a deep sigh. My friend and I were discussing strategies for the next half of the tests - the boys were tired, but were looking forward to the ice-creams. Then it started again - My son he couldn't take it. He begged, pleaded - Nope I didn't budge. I decided - he just needed to stay in there till the finish and it will be a lesson fulfilled for his whole life. He was really frustrated. He might have thought I am the worst dad in the whole world. Never mind, one day he will thank me.

Shrewd guy that he is, threw a master strategy back - He said if i just stay in here till the finish, will i pass? I said yes, then he said, give me your phone and let me play a game. I said, Ha but my loan phone (as Nokia & Vodafone have ruined my smart phone) is a basic one. He said never mind, "give me the phone, I will just play a very basic game of popping the bubbles, let the time run out and I will come out fully passed. I swear will never ever come to a Tamil cinema especially this guy Vijay's movies" - Jilla Nee Jeichuttada! (Click here)

Post-Script: We adults have not yet learned the lesson after Sura and such movies - we continue to waste time & money on it. So it was my way of teaching my son a valuable lesson. If you are young and not a teenager, your mind will still be healthy and will reject crap. My 6 year old boy did it. He sat there bravely for three hours and I am sure will never set foot on the movie halls any more.

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Mumbai T2: Why do we need to spend lavishly?

My friends in India are quite pleased about the way T2 has been done. Needless to say that Media are
excited about T2.

The Hindu: "The T2 terminal is touted to be larger than Singapore's Changi T3 (3.80 lakh sqm) and London's Heathrow T5 (3.53 lakh sqm)"

Ibnlive: "The four-storey glass marvel, whose design has been inspired by a dancing peacock"

NDTV: "The terminal boasts of tens of thousands of artifacts and paintings, housing arguably one the largest collections in the world at an airport."

Indiatoday: A three kilometer long 'art walk' titled 'Jaya He' has been built inside the T2. It displays Indian art pieces between the 8th century and 19th century

Is it actually worth it for a developing country like India? While we try and throw spanner into Mangalyaan type of space projects, actually these T2 type of wastages should be culled. This a classic example of just copying existing implementations, with no attention to what is actually required today and in future. Actually India has gone beyond aping the western world's model of airport building.Who defines that airports should be built in such a way? If the passengers can get in and out in a queue, receive their bags in time and fly out & in in-time then the purpose is well served.

I read on the net that people on average spend 4-10 hours on airport layovers. I also understand for Airbus a380  needs more landing space, but where is the need for a lavish layover when there is a billion people in the country who would need a lot more space in future.  There is an argument that if you are stuck in delays, then the layovers could be useful to spend your time. Seriously? I don't think this is a sound argument... if you are stuck because of delays, you may be keen to window-shop but would you go visit the art gallery? I think if you did, you might miss another flight and get further delayed.

Why is nobody thinking about alternate designs and building things suited to Indian context? In fact this should be the case for all countries. When the world is reeling in recession and billions are starving, Countries need to plan and build in a sustainable way. As internet and Kinect type of technologies are enabling virtual presence, business related travel might actually start to drop off over the next few years. Leisure and tourism might be the key travel reasons, Even if this is not the so - why overload airport infrastructure for very little returns? The maintenance cost over years is going to mount on the public. Am I the only one who is concerned about such extravagant, no-purpose layovers?

Let me clarify that I am not against building new terminals or expanding infrastructure, I only advocate for minimalistic and effective use of funds, acreage in such infrastructure projects. There is no point in competing with China or West on these projects. There are also additional indirect expenses like electricity utilisation, people and maintenance costs. This money could have pooled for building multiple bus-stands or local train stations.

Above all, not many would know that India's aviation policy under UPA-2, allegedly 200,000 seats a week has been magnanimously given to middle-east sector through Jet-Etihad deal (Ref: https://medium.com/p/ab752d0cf543). If this is the case, how will T2 operate successfully as a Hub?

Literally on a very bad foundation, a multi-story T2 has been built. Even if the above posture of Jet deal is a farce, still it begs the question - why should India lavishly spend on airports in a needless and meaningless race of sprawling airports?