Corruption in our country? You tell me!

Quite honestly, today’s speech by Kiran Bedi was very strident. It almost amounted to sedition. She at once insulted the voters of the country and the democratic fabric of the country. It seemed she was more miffed at not becoming the Delhi CP than truly worrying about the issue at hand.

Yes there is corruption in this country, but our constitution is a very well written one. I just hope that the “team anna” approach the problem within the constitutional framework. But time and again, when members of “team anna” keep insulting the democratic framework,insulting the voters and also talk about 60 years of degradation in the country, I think they are corrupting ourminds and insulting the intelligence of Indians. Is protesting outside our PM’s house or outside MP’s house a sign of an intelligent protest?

I think the movement has made the point that corruption is a key issue, and has also generated mass appeal. What they are doing now is just a farce. We need a debate about this issue and not our version of an Arab Spring.

Honestly, I’m not a big fan of the lokpal bill. I don’t want yet another draconian law that would dictate our citizens what is right and what is wrong. I don’t care if Singapore had one or not in 1982. What I want is what would work for this country. This country that we all are proud of. I would be very proud when each one of us would come together to not bribe that government official or when we don’t pay extra for that seat in the prestigious medical college or that extra 50 bucks to the autowallah just because he refuses to come to our route. Corruption will be rooted out from the bottom, and not from the top!

Right now, I am extremely disappointed and angry at the same time. I hope sanity prevails tomorrow.

2010 – Bittersweet

2010 is almost coming to an end, and I thought what better way to make a long overdue post than to talk about the year. The year 2010 was probably one of the most memorable years of my life. I did a lot of new things, and it had lots of ups and downs.

2010 was a year that I turned 30, and with that I suddenly started feeling much older. All of a sudden, I started getting muscle stiffness after a cricket match, after a heavy gym session.

2010 was the year when I realized that you need to take each day as it comes, and never trust anyone.

2010 was the year when I realized that being envious of others will not take you anywhere.

2010 was the year when I truly discovered twitter, and gained a lot of new friends on the way.

2010 was the year when I finally changed from a Nokia phone to an iPhone, and I feel it was the best gadget decision that I’ve ever made. Android notwithstanding

2010 was a year where I expected that personal health is something that you cannot ever ignore

2010 was the year when I became more aware that intelligence != marks scored in school. I always heard about this, but saw it first hand.

2010 was the year when I finally grew up !

I’m happy that this year is coming to an end, there were some unhappy memories that I really want to move on from.  There were some good moments, but overall I’m looking forward to 2011. So what has 2011 got in store for me?

I hope in 2011, my energy levels go up a bit more than they were this year.

I hope in 2011, there will be a positive outcome to efforts that I make.

I hope in 2011, all my loved ones have a wonderful year.

I hope in 2011, I really focus on my fitness

I hope in 2011, I get the iPhone 5 !

I hope in 2011, India wins the world cup !

I hope in 2011, I become more richer   (Okay I know I’m asking for a lot there)

So here’s to 2011 !

Water woes …

    For the past couple of years, there has been some serious problem with water supply in Pune. This year has been no different. It’s the 21st of July already, and there’s hardly any water in the Dams that supply water to Pune. Last year, we had the same problem but then miraculously, the prayers by priests, frogs getting married and a mega-namaaz was enough to bless the city with good rains. Can it happen this year ? I hope so. The fact remains that the situation is only going to get worse. The planners of the city need to sit down and probably think of ways to help the situation.

Here are some of the things that I think may help in mitigating the water woes of the city :

1) There is plenty of capacity in the dams. The question is if it is being distributed correctly. There needs to be a check in the supply pipes from Khadakwasla dam for leakages. I think a lot of water is being wasted through unauthorized selling of water to the Tanker Mafia, Builders & unauthorized slums. Leakages in supply pipes throughout the city is also a major issue.

2) We need to educate people to utilize the water resources efficiently. Even simple things like turning off the tap while shaving/brushing. Recycling the water would mitigate the problem.

3) Education in schools in effective utilization of water is a must.

4) Ministers need to keep their mouth shuts, and let the experts do the talking. Earlier this year, we had Mr. Ajit Pawar saying that there is no need of water cuts in summer, as it is definitely going to rain by the 15th of July. Either Mr. Pawar has a major “foot in mouth” disease or he works part-time at the weather channel.

5) Rainwater harvesting needs to be taken up by everyone. All big societies need to submit a plan to the PMC with their rainwater harvesting models. This could even be a case for property tax rebates.

6) We need to micro manage all the dams in the Pune region for effective distribution of water. The pavana dam for instance has 96 days worth of water supply left (as of today). If we could effectively manage the usage across all corporations, cantonments, municipalities, it will help a lot. For this, establishment of PMRDA is a MUST.

7) Installing Water meters in the city, and increasing the cost of water. This might sound as a controversial suggestion but I think in the long-term, it would be an effective solution. Most people in the city of Pune do not value water, and therefore we have excessive wastage associated with it. If we could monetize the supply of water, we should be able to observe better water usage patterns.

8 ) Finally, the city of Pune is expanding at a breakneck speed. It has been estimated that the population would double by the year 2030. Are we ready for this ? Can we start looking at building more dams ? If we don’t, I’m afraid that the situation is going to get out of hand and we will have a new crisis to go with the power crisis.

Inception …

   Over the past weekend, I saw the movie “Inception” at Inox. Now this was a movie that I was waiting to watch for a really long time. I’ve been impressed with the movies that Christopher Nolan has made so far. Each movies that he’s made has been quite different. I haven’t seen his first movie, “Following” but it’s definitely going to movie that I’m going to watch. His next movie “Memento” was an exceptional movie with a non-linear plot. “Insomnia” was a good movie, but since it was an adaptation it probably did not let Nolan utilize his usual style. “Batman Begins” is an underrated super hero film. “Dark Knight” : well what can I say !, and finally “inception”.

           So as you can see, I’ve been following Christopher Nolan’s movies and like his style of filmmaking, and thats the reason why I was so looking forward to the movie. So was I disappointed ? Blown Away ? Satisfied ? by watching the movie. It’s all of this and more !
Inception is a movie that needs to time to think about, and thats not because of the “dream within a dream within a dream……n” style. It’s a movie that will blow you away. It’s a movie where you can’t afford to go to the loo, or buy popcorn. Because if you do, you’ve screwed up. Nolan must have spent months, maybe years in perfecting the screenplay. With a 3 or 4 level movie, there are surprisingly no loopholes in the plot.

Is it a disappointment ? Not really but there are times when Nolan goes the conventional way of scouting for the experts (just like a regular heist movie). But hey, this is a heist movie. Other times I feel Nolan has tried to trick the minds of the audience so much with levels and levels of dreams, that we end up saying “Oh ok … Fuck that… This movie is Fucking Brilliant !).

But apart from those few things, the movie was superb. It was essentially a summer blockbuster, with right levels of action, romance, suspense with a bit of nerdiness added. The acting in the movie was good. Some of the action scenes were beautifully orchestrated. Overall it is the best movie of the year so far.

Did I get the movie ? I believe I did. The ending of the movie was ambigious, and I have my own theories about the ending. Its a must watch film for everyone.

Overall I was really satisfied with the movie, and it was totally worth waiting for the movie. Now looking forward to Nolan’s  next Batman sequel.

Tata Indica

So whats up with this post then ?  Well its a rant post about the car called Tata Indica !!

Its been around 11 years since India & the Tata company had their proud moment of having a car manufactured in India from the ground up. That monumental invention was the Indica. Everyone was so excited to see a Tata Indica whenever it was on the street.  “It was a marvel”, they said. The car had a supposedly a wonderful design, and buying the car showed how patriotic you were towards the country. There were some teething troubles in v1 generation. I remember sitting in one and getting strong clunky metal sound while riding in it. A v2 came out that was supposedly better, then a Xeta came out. But the overall feedback towards the car was that it was spacious, at a really affordable price, but having lots of mechanical troubles.

Circa 2010, Tata Indica still is bad. I have one, its a v2. Well actually its my brother’s car which I’ve been driving for the past 4 years now. So as you can imagine, I have some good idea of how good / bad the car really is.

1) Changed Wiper (twice)
2) Changed Door Locks (twice)
3) Changed rear exhaust
4) Changed Ball bearings (thrice)
5) Changed wiper controls

Well these are just some of the things that I have changed in the car. What this all means is that I have spent a cool 60000+ on the car in the past 4 years. Now that’s a lot of money !! Fuck the cheap, affordability, car of the masses tag if it gives some stupid trouble every 3 months. Our other cars have never given so much trouble.

This car Indica is the worst car made in India. The plastic inside is so cheap, the ride isn’t that smooth. The power steering really isn’t power steering, the average sucks, everything about it sucks. I hate the fucking car !!

I wouldn’t even want my enemies to drive the damn Indica !!

There I said it … feeling much better now. Time to head out now in my beloved Indica

iPhone 3GS … !

Okay so I jumped the bandwagon pretty late, but I finally got an iPhone 3gs in march this year. I’ve been meaning to buy one for a really long time now.

Basically I’ve been a Nokia User for a pretty long time and for a while it was Symbian for me all the while. Suddenly in the past year and a half, Symbian is on a downslide and Android and iOS is on an upswing. I believe that in the long term, Android is going to take over phones over the next couple of years. It would not really enter the business phone space, but I do see it gaining share amongst phones above the 10000 rupee barrier.

So inspite of singing praises for Android, why did I go in for a iPhone ?
Well to simply put it; its because its an IPHONE ! I still believe that the design of the phone, the design of the UI is an amazing . I think thats where the Apple phone beats other phones. Yes Yes, you will get better hardware at a lower cost with a better camera but its still worth buying an iPhone.

The apps that you can download for the iPhone are simply sensational. When I had a symbian phone, there were just a few apps that were worth talking about. The Gravity app is still simply awesome but apart from that you hardly had great apps. In the iphone, you have mindless apps, informational apps, utilities,etc that can really change the way you use a phone and also drain your battery that much quickly !

Overall the 3gs has been a good buy for me, and I think i’ll probably be sticking with this phone for a couple of years atleast

Terror strikes Pune !!

Saturday was a normal weekend for me. After some good cricket practice, I headed over to have some sumptuous lunch at the coconut grove. It was followed up with some donuts at Donut Magic in Koregaon Park. I went back home at around 5:15 and passed by the north main road. Who would have known what lied ahead ?

When I heard the news about the bomb blast in German Bakery in Pune, I was horrified, saddened, disgusted to see the visuals. It was a grim reminder that life is such a gift, but can be taken away in a minute. The only question that came to my mind was that Why was Pune targetted ? Its such a peace loving city. There’s never been any communal riots in the city, never has there been any other forms of protests.

I can go one and talk about the Pune spirit just like the mumbai spirit. Yes at one level, people will go on with their lives and put this behind. But on a far more deeper level, I feel there has been some considerable mental scars put by this bomb blast.

In a couple of weeks, ppl will forget about this and talk about “how I was there ?”, “How I love that place – the german bakery?”,etc. We don’t want peace protests or marches. The crux of the issue is why was this place bombed ? What is it that these terrorists want that we’re not willing to give ? Can this be solved by dialogue? I truly believe that there is no true evil in the society.. its just that some people are flawed. I truly believe through peaceful dialogue and understanding, almost any issue can be solved.

Till then, let the city recover