Transcendence

Life as Chess simul

2010-07-11T08:47:00.001-07:00

The below post was written a long time ago but I never posted it knowing that I had just blabbered something silly. But I don't know; I don't care any more (16 Apr 2011).

Life seems to be like a Chess simul where a single chess player (usually a grand master) plays against a large number of other players simultaneously. In real life, however, you may not be the grand master, but you have to play anyway, for there is no escape.

The opponents you face are not just people, but also a large number of other abstract entities - which may include such personal traits as anger, courage, happiness, honesty, selfishness and much more ill-defined ones such as managing-others'-perception-of-you. Yes, you are in a game of Chess with all of them in a Chess simul. Can you imagine that? You might ask - "Why should I make happiness my opponent?". My answer is - "Do you want to be defeated in life by Happiness, whatever that means? No? So you play along and down the line of opponents, you do play against Unhappiness as well because you do not want to be defeated by unhappiness either, again, whatever that means".

Throughout your life, you keep moving across the boards making one move after another against your opponents with largely one ultimate motive every single time - to win, to be successful, or at the very least - not to lose.

Nakshatra

2010-01-20T09:50:00.000-08:00

I created another blog to write about Nakshatra - my Chess engine, as well as some general stuff about Chess engines, Chess programming and more. Check it out here. Feel free to subscribe to RSS feeds and do comment :-)

New Year Resolutions

2010-01-02T00:59:00.000-08:00

I've had resolutions in my life before. Lots of them in fact. However, I never had any "new year resolution". I never thought of aligning my resolutions with the beginning of a new calendar year. I created resolutions as and when I felt necessary and worked towards them right away. In most cases, my resolutions did not materialize as I simply quit working on them after some time or sometimes even forgot what those resolutions were! But now I want to experiment with how a new year resolution would work out. With the foolish hope that a "new year resolution" would turn out better than my stand-alone ones, here I write up my list:

1. 2.5 years of working in a Software Company + irregular gymming + some great free food in office + awesome home food has truly gotten into me, literally. My belly has bulged with quite a few layers of fat deposition. In the beginning of 2009, this was hardly visible but now it is more pronounced... to the extent that some friends have teased me about it. Back in College, I would have laughed at the proposition of me getting fat but now, well, its there for the world to see :-(. So, in 2010, I resolve to work out "regularly" at the gym with a single-minded focus on getting back into shape and become the cynosure in the eyes of hot girls yet again ;-).

2. I have mostly been a night-person throughout my life. I am usually up late into the night and wake up late in the morning. On weekdays when I have to leave for office, I get up between 7 and 7:30 AM. On weekends, its usually 9+ these days. However, I have always felt really nice whenever I managed to get up early (like 5-6 AM) in the morning. And in 2009, I had resolved many times in my mind to change my habit and do a "early to bed, early to rise" thing. But due to lack of determination, this has never lasted for more than 1-2 days on multiple occasions :-(. But its said that failure is not achieved until you stop trying. So in 2010, I again (for the n'th time) resolve to become an early-riser. In addition to that, I should start going for a jog/run in the nearby park after getting up (this again will fuel my resolution #1). I really gotta stop myself from switching off my alarm first. I probably have to buy one of these [Alarm clock that runs away!].

3. I resolve to practice a more balanced diet. South Indians just relish rice dishes and rice being a high-carb food directly leads to high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes in the 40s and 50s of our lives. This is one thing where I can claim I have planned 20 years ahead (for an otherwise visionless person). In 2010 I plan to have a better and balanced diet with reduced intake of rice :-).

4. Meditation and Yoga: In 2010, I have this desire to begin practicing meditation and yoga. This is a pretty lofty resolution because this is something I have been wanting to do for ages now and never got around to even begin! I thought of not mentioning this on my resolution list but then I hope I might get motivated if I at least write it down some place!

5. Read more books: In 2009, I did not read as many books as I liked to. So in 2010 I wish to read books of all different types and genre and expand the horizons of my knowledge and at the same time enjoy doing it.

6. Presence of mind and Clarity of thought: Sometimes I feel that software engineers dumb down over a period of time. Even the street-smart college kids who enter software profession tend to become absent minded and lose clarity in thinking. I, for one, feel I have become substantially more absent minded than I was a year or so ago. This process has to be reversed in 2010.

7. Be bolder and stop procrastinating: There are a thousand things I don't do because I am not bold enough or do not feel its worth taking the risk (even when, perhaps, it is worth taking the risk). There are another thousand things that I haven't done because I procrastinated long enough. 2010 it is, when I will change myself and become bolder, smarter and less-procrastinating.

8. Connect and make useful relationships: This is something I am probably really bad at - making new friends and develop existing relationships (professional or otherwise) in a meaningful manner. I am not yet sure if there is some personality disorder in me which is causing me to be too introvertish but I think not. I have developed a lot of useful relationships in 2009 but sometimes I feel its not enough. These relations are required in a lot of different aspects of life. I sort of realized how important professional relationships can be, in 2009 and I hope to do a better job in 2010.

9. When I was interviewed by Thoughtworks back in 2006, I was asked a question by one of the interviewers: "Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?" and I gave such a crappy answer (which I dare not mention here to save some embrassment) that it became the single most important reason for not being offered the job (the interviewer almost said so) despite what I would claim to be very good technical interviews. Now 4 years later, I have finally decided to find out what I really want to be doing 5 years from now. This is going to be a herculean task for sure but hell, I'm gonna make it my resolution anyway.

10. Do something wonderful/creative: One of the biggest turn-ons for me is to create something new. In 2009 there were a couple of things that I did outside of my work (like Nakshatra - the chess engine, which I will talk about in a separate blog post later on) which sort of soothed my creative cravings. I wish to do something even bigger and really wonderful in 2010.

11. Going offline: I have sort of become addicted to my virtual online persona. I stay on gmail chat most of the day (even on weekends when I am at home) and browse Orkut, Facebook, Twitter, Reader plenty of times. This is probably utterly out of boredom and part of the "procrastination" I mentioned earlier. At the end of the day, no productive work is done and there is a feeling of guilt because of wasting time on useless things. For instance, I have played about 2500 chess matches in 2009 :-O. Can you believe it? Its such a useless thing to do. Probably I was too bored in 2009 to have done this. Its too bad I should say that considering that I work for the best Software company out there! Although I improved my ratings, it wasn't an achievement considering the amount of time I might have spent on playing these games! I have to drastically reduce my chess addiction and also cut down totally on Orkut, facebook and such useless stuff. I could spend this time working on my other resolutions or just talking to my parents and relatives which I do less because I would be online and they wouldn't be.

12. Not be an insensitive clod: Lately I feel I have become more insensitive to people around me. I hurl jokeful insults just for the kick of it, that make people feel bad sometimes (I get bashed up too for this, sometimes, but thats besides the point). I gotta really be more sensitive to people around me and their needs.

Ok the above 12 are the resolutions that I can think of at the moment and by no means complete. After having written them once, I went over them and realized how much of a personality transformation I expect out of myself in 2010. Will it be possible? Only time has to tell. Probably some of the goals I have set for myself are not worth pursuing (so that I don't lose some of my original qualities) and probably I haven't thought of some other important goals that could be beneficial. Most of these resolutions have passed through my mind often in the past but I never wrote them down anywhere. In that sense, these are a sum total of all that I wanted to do but never got around to doing them. I will be happy if I can achieve a majority of them if not all. Wish me good luck!

Avatar - an amazing experience

2009-12-20T09:05:00.000-08:00

I was too excited about this movie after reading plenty of good reviews on DH and elsewhere. I was even regularly checking IMDB to see how well the movie was faring over the last 3-4 days. At the moment, Avatar is rated 8.9 on IMDB!! Thats like amaaazing. And thanks to my friends (Haseeb and Shashi), I watched the movie today @ Urvashi theater. The movie is insanely awesome, visually spellbinding and will definitely take movie-making to the next level! The plot is rather simple but very much enjoyable. The graphics is stunning. Never before has anyone seen such high quality special effects before! Even the expressions on the faces of Na'vi people (humanoid natives of Pandora) are so insanely real-life-ish that its just mind-blowing! Directory James Cameron has done a great job in creating a whole new imaginary World of Pandora - which is as fantastic and amusing as the Middle Earth of Lord of the Rings, if not better.

If you are a fan of the Sci-fi genre or if you have really enjoyed watching movies such as the Lord of the rings trilogy, you will fall in love with Avatar. However, I highly recommend watching the movie at a good 3D theater. In my case, Urvashi in Bangalore wasn't really up to the mark with the 3D thingy (at least when compared to my previous 3D experience) but I expect the multiplexes to be better equipped in Bangalore. Before you go, watch the official trailor and the video intro to Pandora.

Different types of drivers

2009-09-27T08:53:00.000-07:00

A brief compilation of different types of drivers of Indian roads (in no particular order of anything):

1. The snakers: Primarily characterized by their ability to snake around on our roads in the most efficient manner. The snakers get their pleasure from criss-crossing peacefully driving noble folks and transcending them into a state of sudden panic. Next time you get criss-crossed, there is a high probability that its a snaker (there could be others too as described below). When snakers get involved in accidents, its usually with other snakers... due to both trying to cross each other at the same time.

2. The honksters: Honksters are the ones who have an obsessive compulsion towards pressing horns in their vehicles. This makes them the most annoying on city roads. Honksters usually use the horn as an indicator for everything. Over time, they have also evolved different types of conventions in the pattern of sounds they create. Like fingerprints differentiate one human from another, the sound patterns created by honksters differentiate them from each other. Honksters are usually the most active at traffic signals. When the traffic signal turns green, all honksters engage in simultaneous orgy of honking, apparently to indicate the drivers in front to move forward, which in fact, is just an excuse to indulge their habit.

3. The road racers: Most road racers are aged between 15 and 30. They are avid fans of Formula 1 and racing video games. They get their kicks by such things as: driving at absurdly high speeds irrespective of the condition of the roads, disengaging the silencers of their bikes or cars, painting the exterior of their vehicles in extravagant fashions. Oh yes, the 2-wheel road racers are fond of wheelies. The most adept among them usually do wheelies with a pillon rider at their back. They are also averse to wearing helmets.

4. The Autorickshawwallas: An Autorickshawwalla is the highest embodiment of an Indian driver. They usually drive 3-wheeled vehicles and wear an uniform. That clearly makes them outstanding. An autorickshawwalla may simultaneously contain within him - a snaker, an honkster and a road racer or at least be capable of switching from one form to another when desired. Not having this quality disqualifies a driver from being considered as part of this elite category.

If you think you do not belong to any of the above categories then ask yourself if you are truly "driving Indian roads"?

My first open source contribution

2009-05-08T10:36:00.000-07:00

Last quarter, in my 20% time I worked on an open source project - "Google Web Toolkit bindings for Google Ajax Language API". Click here to understand what Google API libraries for Google Web Toolkit are. Among the listed libraries, I contributed Language Library (consisting of Translation and Transliteration API bindings). This was released on May 7th and you can see the blog post on GWT blog here.

Though not a big project, this project helped me make my first open source contribution (yay!). I also learned a lot of new things that I would not have as part of my day work.

xkcd on perception

2009-04-14T05:30:00.000-07:00

I have often wondered in the past if everybody really sees the same colors (and a few people I know have independently wondered the same!). I stumbled upon the below xkcd comic during a random browsing session that brought back some old memories :) (click on the image below if you cannot view it properly)

Kōans

2009-02-07T09:04:00.000-08:00

I am reading a book "Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid" also popular by the abbreviation GEB written by Douglas R. Hofstadter. It is described by author as "A metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll." Its hard to explain what this book is about in few words. You can always check wikipedia for that.

One of the topics in GEB is about Zen Buddhism. I didn't have any idea about this form of Buddhism but when i read about it in this book, it fascinated me. Zen is a form of Mahayana Buddhism founded by Bodhidharma. Zen emphasizes experimental wisdom, as realized in the form of meditation (zazen) and in that light, de-emphasizes both theoretical knowledge and study of religious texts. The goal of Zen practices is to train the mind to transcend duality and attain a state of enlightenment.

Zen Buddhists may practice something known as kōan inquiry during their meditation. A kōan is a story, dialogue question, or statement in the history and lore of Zen Buddhism, generally containing aspects that are inaccessible to rational understanding, yet may be accessible to intuition. kōans are supposed to be "triggers" which do not contain enough information in themselves to impart enlightenment but possibly be sufficient to unlock the mechanisms inside one's mind that lead to enlightenment. The Zen attitude is that words and truth are incompatible, or at least that no words can capture the truth.

Most kōans do not make any sense to the rational, logical mind. Take this for example:

Hogen of Seiryo monastery was about to lecture before dinner when he noticed that the bamboo screen, lowered for meditation, had not been rolled up. He pointed to it. Two monks arose wordlessly from the audience and rolled it up. Hogen, observing the physical moment, said, "The state of the first monk is good, not that of the second."

A Zen master Mumon comments on the above kōan in his 13th century work called Mumonkan ("No-gate barrier"). Here is his commentary:

I want to ask you: which of those two monks gained and which lost? If any of you has one eye, he will see the failure on the teacher's part. However, I am not discussing gain and loss.

Mumon follows it with a poem:

When the screen is rolled up the great sky opens,
Yet the sky is not attuned to Zen.
It is best to forget the great sky
And to retire from every wind.

It may come as a rude shock for a person who wants to have an "understanding" of the kōan as the commentary and poem are equally opaque and irrational.

Here is another kōan:

A monk asked Nansen: "Is there a teaching no master ever taught before?"
Nansen said: "Yes, there is."
"What is it?" asked the monk.
Nansen replied: "It is not mind, it is not Buddha, it is not things."

Mumon's commentary:

Old Nansen gave away his treasure-words. He must have been greatly upset.

Mumon's poem:

Nansen was too kind and lost his treasure.
Truly, the words have no power,
Even though the mountain becomes the sea,
Words cannot open another's mind.

The poem makes a little more sense and seems to de-emphasize the power of words (and thereby it is a paradox as it talks about its own ineffectiveness). Paradox is quite characteristic of Zen. The essence of a kōan seems to be to break the mind of logic in pursuit of enlightenment. But we can never be sure as one of the basic tenets of Zen Buddhism is that there is no way to characterize what Zen is!

Here is another kōan and this is my favorite:

The student Doko came to a Zen master, and said: "I am seeking the truth. In what state of mind should I train myself, so as to find it?"
Said the master, "There is no mind, so you cannot put it in any state. There is no truth, so you cannot train yourself for it."
"If there is no mind to train, and no truth to find, why do you have these monks gather before you every day to study Zen and train themselves for this study?"
"But I haven't an inch of room here," said the master, "so how could the monks gather? I have no tongue, so how could I call them together or teach them?"
"Oh, how can you lie like this?" asked Doko.
"But if I have no tongue to talk to others, how can I lie to you?" asked the master.
Then Doko said sadly, "I cannot follow you. I cannot understand you."
"I cannot understand myself," said the master.

Only by stepping outside of logic, so the theory goes, can one make the leap to enlightenment!

After GEB introduced me to the fascinating world of Zen Buddhism and kōan practice, I did a bit of search on the web and dug up some funny kōans (to a rational, logical mind they are funny but the Zen Buddhists take them seriously perhaps):

kōan:

Student asks master: "Why did Bodhidharma come from India to China?". Master says: "The oak tree in the garden."

kōan: Joshu's Mu

Joshu (A.D. 778-897) was a famous Chinese Zen Master who lived in Joshu, the province from which he took his name. One day a troubled monk approached him, intending to ask the Master for guidance. A dog walked by. The monk asked Joshu, "Has that dog a Buddha-nature or not?" The monk had barely completed his question when Joshu shouted: "MU!"

kōan: No Beard

Wakuan complained when he saw a picture of bearded Bodhidharma, "Why hasn't that fellow a beard?"

kōan: Everything is Best

One day Banzan was walking through a market. He overheard a customer say to the butcher, "Give me the best piece of meat you have." "Everything in my shop is the best," replied the butcher. "You can not find any piece of meat that is not the best." At these words, Banzan was enlightened.

kōan: Manjusri Enters the Gate

One day as Manjusri stood outside the gate, the Buddha called to him, "Manjusri, Manjusri, why do you not enter?" Manjusri replied, "I do not see myself as outside. Why enter?"

kōan: Joshu washes the bowl

A monk told Joshu: `I have just entered the monastery. Please teach me.'
Joshu asked: `Have you eaten your rice porridge?'
The monk replied: `I have eaten.'
Joshu said: `Then you had better wash your bowl.'
At that moment the monk was enlightened.

kōan:

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

kōan:

One day Chao-chou fell down in the snow, and called out, "Help me up! Help me up!" A monk came and lay down beside him. Chao-chou got up and went away.

kōan:

A monk asked Tozan when he was weighing some flax, "What is Buddha?"
Tozan said: "This flax weighs three pounds."

Kumara-parvatha trek

2008-12-27T07:32:00.000-08:00

I am back from an amazing weekend trek (Dec 20-21) to Kumara parvatha. Kumara parvatha is on the border between Dakshina kannada and Kodagu districts, standing 1712 meters above sea level (also known as Pushpagiri). It is a well-known trekking spot and every serious trekker from South India aspires to scale its heights. We ascended from the Somwarpet side on saturday, stayed overnight on top of KP and descended the following day from the Kukke side (13 km of a heck of a descent that almost ripped my legs off ;-). Overall, it was an unforgettable and an exhilarating experience. The beauty of the Western ghat ranges is just beyond words. Though I wanted to blog about this trek, my friend and a fellow trekker Srikanth has already taken care of it. Click here to read his post.

Here is a photo chronology of this incredible adventure (Click the pics to see enlarged versions):

The gang of 10: From left - Shreyas, Shreyas-2, Karthik, Goutham, Avinash, Rajesh, Srikanth, Balu, Kiran and photographer Srivatsan. This is on way to the Malalli falls at around 7:00 in the morning on Saturday.

Malalli falls as seen from the bottom. We had bath here and did quite a bit of (mis)adventure.

At Ponappa's house. This is after we got back from the falls, had breakfast and now ready to leave for the trek.

Near the check post. We walked 5 km here from Ponappa's house and we were exhausted even before we started trekking!

The hanging bridge just after the checkpost. We filled all our water bottles in the stream below.

Finally, we started on our way to scale the mighty Kumara parvatha.

View from the spot known as "view point" midway in our trek.

One of the three steep 60 degree inclined rocks we climbed.

We reached the top at around 4 in the evening and started building our nests!

The campfire we lit. Wasn't that powerful but did sustain us until 8:30 by which time we decided to sleep.

Around 6:00 in the morning. Sunrise as viewed from the top of KP. An awe inspiring sight.

Sunday morning: we started descending from the Kukke side. You can see the foot-path in the background disappear beyond the mountain.

At Bhattra mane. We had lunch here. I liked the simple foods and especially the butter milk.

After a grueling 13 km hike down, we reached Kukke!

The Kukke Subhramanya temple.

Movies I watched recently

2008-12-09T09:52:00.000-08:00

To start with, I am not a movie buff. Not very long ago, I used to watch even a hyped up movie only when it hit the TV screens a year or so after its release - that was if I coincidentally switched on the TV at the right time and was in a mood to watch ;-) But somehow, in the past few months things have changed dramatically - I am usually ending up watching a lot of new Bollywood movies pretty soon after their releases - mostly in theaters/multiplexes with my friends - sometimes as part of treats and sometimes just to subjugate boredom. The purpose of this post is not to give a review but to give a snippet of my opinion about these movies. I will try my best to keep it very short and to the point.

Dostana - A gay comedy movie where John Abraham and Abhishek Bachchan are not exactly gay but circumstances make them act that way. Most of the movie is rib tickling comedy with gay jokes and comedy-wrapped sentimental scenes. All in all, good movie to watch for some fun and entertainment.

1920 - A horror movie directed by Vikram Bhatt. A girl possessed by the ghost of her pichle janm ka ashish gets exorcised with Hanuman chalisa in the end. The plot, the story line, the screenplay were pretty intriguing. And most fascinating for me was Adah Sharma's antics as the possessed girl - quite scary stuff. I definitely recommend watching this one.

Yuvvraaj - Music was too good - it was from A R Rehman after all. Everything else was far below average. Story was very mediocre. I cannot even comprehend what was the point of such a story, so I won't even begin to talk about it. Location was very cinematic - somewhere in Austria. All in all, a pretty lame story line with some solid music and songs but still not a worthy entertainer.

Dasvidaniya - Here the lead actor, after coming to know about his apparently incurable stomach cancer, goes on to fulfill his dreams - buying new car, foreign trip, saying I love you to a childhood crush (who is now having 2 kids), etc. Nice movie to watch. Very good direction. Sentiments tied up in a manner that doesn't make you cry but subtly makes you feel the pain of the guy about to die.

Oye lucky, lucky Oye! - A movie about a thief who, since childhood does nothing but rob other people's stuff. Badly written story line, bad direction, lack of any intellectual or sentimental content that can keep you interested - I can go on. Overall the movie was quite stupid and I don't recommend it.

The US visit

2008-11-22T09:15:00.000-08:00

In April-May 2008, I visited USA for about 40 days on work. It was one of those rare moments of my life which I would probably never forget - my first US visit, in fact my first visit to any country outside of India. Here is a snippet of those memories.

To talk a bit about feelings before I left to US - though it was going to be a unique moment and first-time experience, it did not make me feel too elated. At home and in our family/friend circles, I was about to join the league of the people who are deemed as america return; not to mention that nowadays every other guy remotely connected with software industry seems to be in the same league (and with the recent economic crisis, I have heard that this title has lost the lusture that it once had). I was more apprehensive than excited - thinking more on lines of how will I manage myself in an alien country with a totally different culture, food habits and most importantly people. More than this, deep inside, I think I was afraid of being left lonely in a far-away land, away from my parents and friends.

Luckily enough, I had an old friend, Prithvi, who lived pretty close to the place where I was landing and he offered to pick me up from San Francisco airport which, more than me, relieved my parents who were afraid of me getting lost ;-).

I boarded the Singapore airlines flight on the morning of 19th Apr. In Singapore I did not get a chance to venture out of airport as the transit time was pretty short but I was impressed by the airport, the vastness, the infrastructure, the colors - even today I think is the best airport I have been. After another brief landing in Hong Kong, I boarded the plane back for one final 11 hour flight over Pacific ocean that terminated at SFO.

Mountain View, CA where I stayed was unusually quiet and calm, like some place of meditation with hardly any people to be seen on streets and mostly devoid of any kind of noise. It was clean and exceptionally beautiful. Though during the first few days, it was chilly cold, the weather improved and in fact on some days it became rather horribly hot - the reason for this absurd variation I don't know yet but thankfully it became normal afterward. Few of my colleagues there helped me in getting acquainted with the place. I learned that there were lot of Indian restaurants around - 4 of them within walking distance while others within few kilometers - some in Mountain View while others a little further away in Sunnyvale, Palo Alto or other nearby places.

Things I noticed in the first few days of my stay there (some of them I had expected anyways):

Incredible and huge freeways, very well planned towns, well organized roads with people following lane discipline strictly. Honking was considered rude. Driving was enjoyable experience - atleast for a newcomer like me.
People were warm and kind hearted. From my perspective, the culture there seemed to be more introvertish in nature and personal freedom was given a lot of importance.
The sheer number of Indians living in California was just amazing. I got to know that Indians were the second highest group of Asians - after Chinese in California.
I could easily get a rental car at Avis by just showing my Indian driving license and company id - no questions asked. I thought the guy was more than glad to rent me a car (of course the money would be sponsored by my company).
When I fell sick once, I had to wait 2 hours in the hospital before I could get to see a doc. The health care system seemed to be not as efficient as other things in the US.
There were atleast two occasions I witnessed where white guys abused a group of Indians - all in a matter of split seconds. It happened this way - there would be a group of Indians on the side-walk generally around the Indian restaurants and someone would swear loudly from inside a passing car.

Toyota Yaris - rental car that I used for 27 days

Apartment complex where I stayed

Visits to San Fransico and other places:

Near the end of my stay, I visited San Francisco, Santa Cruz beach and Bonny Doon beach with some of my colleagues. San Francisco seemed radically different - with more people, closely spaced buildings and roads though good seemed less organized and not-so-well-layed-out unlike Mountain View and other Suburban areas. There were more people to be seen on streets, a more urban lifestyle. Also noticeable were beggars (who are generally called homeless people) who were virtually absent in wealthy Mountain View and other suburbs.

We went to the famous crooked street:

We later visited the piers, there were artists on the streets near the piers - painters, dancers and unusual artists:

After spending some time in Pier 39, we visited the Golden Gate Bridge - probably the most renowned bridge in the world.

passing over the bridge

Golden gate bridge from a distance

Another day, we went to Santa Cruz and Bonny doon beaches. The Santa cruz beach was pretty crowded as it was a weekend. Bonny doon beach was very quiet and devoid of people.

Santa cruz beach

On a roller coaster

The quiet Bonny doon beach

So, I had a nice time there though I could not visit as many places as I would have liked to. And of course, I was there on work and not on a picnic so my schedule usually was to go to office in the mornings and come back in the evenings.

On 1st June, I boarded the flight back to India. This time I got 8 hours in Singapore and so I got the transit visa to go out of airport and visited a couple of places - the free tour by Singapore tourism board that took us to Suntec city, a big shopping center. Merlion statue was at a walking distance from here. Overall, I was impressed by Singapore's tremendously sophisticated infrastructure, which was even better than San Francisco but the weather was hot and humid which made me a bit uncomfortable. Singapore has so many Indians that it almost felt like I was back in India. Some memorable pics:

Fountain of wealth, Suntec city, Singapore

Sky scrapers in Suntec city as captured from inside the fountain of wealth

Merlion statue, Singapore

Singapore

And then in few hours I was back in namma Bengaluru :-)

"People pushed around like pawns" - DH 21 Nov

2008-11-22T00:59:00.000-08:00

I read an excellent article in Deccan Herald (21st Nov) that clearly described the agony faced by the people who were struck in the massive traffic jam that was caused by the JD(S) rally on Monday the 17th. This article was by Sakuntala Narasimhan who herself was caught up in this chaos. Here is the article (copied from DH website)...

Much has already been published about the infamous rally organised by the Janata Dal (S) on Monday but here are some updates, based on my personal experience of being stranded between Majestic and Sanjaynagar for five hours that evening.

Around 5.50 pm an ambulance rushing an emergency case to hospital was wailing its head off, for all of 20 minutes while it was held up in front of the Indian Institute of Science, unable to move an inch because the road was choked, end to end, kerb to kerb, with a long line of buses festooned with the JD(S) flag. In emergency cases, even three minutes delay makes all the difference between life and death. How much was the life of the patient in that ambulance worth, in terms of votes for your party, Mr Kumaraswamy?

On the bus I finally managed to get on to, after a wait of one and a half hours at Majestic, there were three schoolgirls aged 10-11. They had been waiting since 3.15 pm. At 5.45 pm when the bus was still stranded near Malleswaram 18th cross, unable to move because buses strung with your party flags appropriated all approach roads disregarding traffic rules and signals, one of the girls wet her uniform, unable to control herself. (She had tried to get off the bus and couldn’t make her way to the exit due to the crush of commuters). She began sobbing with embarrassment and distress while a group of young boys sniggered. When you went for village darshans, Mr Kumaraswamy, your minions carried portable toilets for your convenience. One has to be a VIP even to ease oneself without humiliation, in our kind of democracy, right?

You and your father have apologised for the inconvenience caused but have quickly and unrepentantly added that urban citizens do not understand the problems of the rural people who walk farther than what school children had to, during the chaos your meeting caused. You’re right. Shall we say, you should stay in a mud hut without electricity because that is how millions of rural people live?

It was the ineptness of the authorities, not your party that caused the chaos, your father has argued. No Sir, I can vouch for what I saw and experienced personally. At Majestic terminus, when no buses turned up from the north for over an hour, the milling crowd was several hundred strong. As soon as a north-bound bus hove in sight, hordes of lumpen rowdy youth ran alongside and boarded the buses even before they stopped. I saw three elderly men being thrown to the ground in the melee, shoved aside by your supporters. One old man got trampled.

I saw one large bus festooned with your party flag at CNR Rao circle block traffic in all directions by stopping in the middle of the circle while a youth standing by the door of the bus argued with another who was trying to clamber on, causing a 20-minute snarl. Policemen can handle goondas but not goons enjoying political backing. The driver of the bus I was on stopped the vehicle at the Indian Institute of Science signal, jumped off and disappeared because the police could not let him turn right towards BEL road, and the busload of harassed commuters began shouting menacingly when the vehicle was forced to go towards Yeshwantpur.

It was your party buses laden with ‘supporters’ that took the law into their own hands, disregarding traffic signals and right of way norms, forcing public buses to take arbitrary detours, holding the city to ransom. Since when has disruption of citizens’ normal life to this extent, for flexing party muscles — that too, of a party whose leaders claim to be ‘mannina makkalu’ (sons of the soil) been acceptable as part of democratic governance?

In another country, citizens would have claimed hefty compensation from the party for distress and inconvenience caused. I am a senior citizen with a limp but I had to hop off at Yeshwantpur, walk back to the Institute — there was no alternative — and call for a taxi to get home. It took me five hours to cover 14 km, Jayanagar to Sanjaynagar. You can get from Bangalore to Mysore, or Mumbai to Pune in less. One middle aged working woman has an arrangement with an autorickshaw driver who usually waits for her at her office gate every evening. She did not know what to do because the auto driver called her on his mobile to say he could not reach the gate due to traffic blockage. She could not have walked the distance to her home, it was already dark at 6.30 pm, there were no other autos, no taxis, no buses, nothing. She was one of thousands similarly stranded that evening.

I thought political parties are meant to serve the people, not the other way round. Here were people, commandeered instead to serve a party bash. Couldn’t the crores of rupees spent on this show have gone instead on helping the poor in some way? Or, does offering free food and transport for party supporters count as ‘helping the poor?’

Thoughts?