Shyam's Blog

Seeing the wave Indian PM is creating in the US, it is hard to imagine how technology can really raise India from the current situation. From a basic standpoint, I want 24/7 electricity, good drinking water, and good roads. While the State Governments blame the Central Government, Centre doesn't care too much of the state as the ruling parties are different. Because of tussle between State and Central, sufferers are the citizens. How can technology of Internet and foreign investments improve roads in Bangalore?!!! How can Googles and Facebooks help me provide 24/7 electricity? India and its states must unite first to have a common goal to meet the basic needs of every citizen. Till this is not achieved, there is always friction between states and Central Government which will halt progress of country. On the other hand, there are other important aspects of education and healthcare that needs attention. If affordable schooling and medical facilities are available in all corne

Visited Ooty recently. Started off from Bangalore on Friday morning at 9:30am. Midway, took a tea break in Shivalli restaurant near Channapatna (about 60 Kms away from Bangalore). Route: Bangalore -> Mysore -> Nanjanagudu -> Gundlupet -> Bandipur National Park -> Theppakadu -> Masinagudi -> 36-hairpin bends -> Ooty Note: We need not go to Gudalur to reach Ooty. But, Road transport buses takes Gudalur route. Road Conditions: After crossing Mysore, road between Mysore and Nanjanagudu was not the best of state roads. Also, after Nanjanagudu, road to Gundlupet was undergoing repair at regular intervals. Apart from these patches, road was very good to reach Bandipur. Inside Bandipur, road was good, but, speed limit was about 30Kmph. We reduced speed and did wildlife watching. After crossing Bandipur, we reached Masinagudi (Tamil Nadu). From here, it took is about an hour to hit the base of Nilgiris. From here starts 36 hairpin bends to Ooty. Our resort, My

Daily, table topic in office is about traffic jam while commute in Bangalore. Traffic is always high and slow moving in IT corridors. It takes 90 minutes to cover a distance of 20 Kms, i.e., average speed of about 15 Km/hr. Main reasons for slow moving traffic: 1. Excess traffic on road during peak hour. 2. Bus/truck breakdown 3. Bad road condition due to digging or overnight rain creating water logging areas. There seems to be no solution to this concern. But, with existing resources and funds, there are possible areas of improvement: 1. Improve road conditions. Never allow for potholes to grow bigger day-by-day. 2. Clear broken down vehicle at the earliest. Hanging a branch of a tree to the window of the vehicle is an indication that vehicle is broken down. Police should try to move the vehicle to a safer zone and avoid slowing down vehicular movement. Best times to commute to/from office: Before 7:30am and after 11:00pm. Peak hours: 7:30am to 11:00a

I completed reading a book about Indian history this weekend and was shocked and disappointed by the way things took shape in the years 1947-48. Few points noted: 1. British didn't want to hold on with Indian land as the country was breaking apart in riots. 2. Mountbatten was given the task to finish handing of this part of the land to the people of sub-continent. 3. He completed the task along with support from British and few Indians. From Congress, representatives were Nehru, Patel and Gandhi and from the Moslem League, it was Jinnah. 4. Racliffe was invited from Britain to mark the partition boundary. He knew least about the terrain and hence was chosen to be unbiased! This marking of border was a major controversy and head to confusion and riots along the border. 5. In the first week of June 1947, Mountbatten announced that Britain had agreed to handover and move out of India. Conditions were: Partition will be done. Pakistan and India will be two countries as per demand

After reading the book 'Breaking India' by Rajiv Malhotra, I am thinking about recent history since 1990. In the past 15 years, we have seen India getting into the world map in terms of IT. On one side, we feel proud that India has evolved as a global major and is termed as prospective super power next to US and China. On the other side, we don't realize the possible mistake that was done in the 1980s by the so called entrepreneurs within India. Whenever we start something new, we are always circumspect. This is specifically in case of business and investments. When Indian IT companies kicked off 2-3 decades ago, their main goal was to do things that they people felt right. They would have hardly thought of revolutionizing Indian life 15 years down. They started business for their own success. What has this done to the greater India? It has created a gap among the people by splitting the population into IT and non-IT crowd. Also, this has created a gap of 15 years in te

Last night, I was introducing my wife to the concept of Toastmasters Club and had shown her few 'Humorous Speech' videos from Youtube. She instantly gave me the topic, "One Sunny Morning". I couldn't think much at the moment as RCB was losing to SRH in the IPL match. After reaching office today, I called my wife and narrated the below story, "One Sunny Morning": This morning, after getting ready, I started walking towards my cab at 7am. Just then, I started hearing the 'lapp-tapp' sound from my left foot. For my surprise the sole had chipped off in front. I reached the gate and thought of telling the cab driver to stop me on the way to office to buy fevi-quik. Fortunately or unfortunately, the driver was busy working with changing the flat tyre. This gave me good reason to run back home and wear another pair of shoes. As I walked, the sound, 'lapp-tapp' increased. For people taking the morning walk, my walk looked peculiar which

It was good experience to be a vendor today and sell kadlepuri and panipuri. Our apartment organises this food event every year. Rule is food should be prepared by residents and sold by residents. This year, arrangements started 2 weeks in advance. I had convinced my wife to keep a stall and sell something unique. Kadlepuri was the first option. As a second option, panipuri was decided. Though we had thought of many other options like 'vusli', 'Maddur vada' and chapati-saagu, because of time constraints, we decided to skip these items. Mom and wife discussed in length about items to prepare in the past 2 weeks and had put a detailed plan. On the day of event, wife and son woke up early and prepared a small banner, "Taste of Karnataka". Mom arrived with kadlepuri and quantity was less. We shopped for kadlepuri couple of hours before the event and arranged everything by 4pm. For me, I had dressed similar to street vendor and roamed around the venue calling "