Roadways Noways- A summary of indian roads

“I’ll provide you roads that are smoother than Hema Malini’s cheeks” so went a famous quip by Mr Lalu Prasad, during the run up to the assembly elections in his state about two decades ago. Hema Malini, the actress of erstwhile, retired, was in her late thirties and hadn’t yet made a comeback in senior roles. So beautiful was Hema in her heyday that an entire generation was besotted by her and her skin, and so dismal was the state of the roads in the country, that such a quip found instant stardom. Fast-forward a decade and half and we have the golden quadrilateral project that has been largely completed, Mumbai-Pune expressway that has been functioning well and the Taj expressway has recently been opened as well. Hema Malini in the meanwhile has got comfortable in her aging skin and made a comeback in motherly roles and Kent purifier ads. A recent visit to East Asia however resulted in perspective change as far ‘counting my blessings’ with respect to state of Indian roads was concerned. Roads in Vietnam, a country that’s just 6 places above India in the UN Human development index, and a country that opened up much later to the world are way better than ours. It is here that I got to see what an art road making or patch repairing is. The ground is first evened up, and then a bed of gravel is laid to provide a foundation. Atop this gravel are laid about 5-6 layers of different material that when completed look like layers of ancient sedimentary rock. Even a minor repair on the road begins with all these deliberate and logical steps. A comparison with China always draws tut-tut but it is in china that one gets to see what is achievable despite a huge population. The roads are well laid out in Shanghai and there are at least 3-4 suspension bridges across the Huangpu river, under which freighters as tall as 45 m can pass. To put things in perspective, the infrastructure pride of the nation, the Bandra-Worli sealink, doesn’t afford this luxury even if the waters under it were deeper. There are also two tunnels built under the riverbed that connect the two parts of the city. The flyovers in Shanghai are constructed with more finesse than what we have here in Delhi and are much longer than those in Mumbai. The city has about 4 ring roads to cater to the vehicular traffic compared to one that exists in our capital city. Talking about developed world for us case is akin to talking about aliens and space. However talk we must. Japan and South Korea are the sole East Asian developed countries. The roads of Japan are made with more finesse and quality than possibly Mr Mukesh Ambani’s drawing room. Over 60 Km out of 80 Km journey from Yokosuka to Tokyo is elevated. These, state of art roads have noise dampeners all along. Lined on both sides along are miles of matte finished Aluminium baffles to protect the residents from Noise pollution. Now you don’t want the baffles to make the experience of driving dreary, so the baffles in the city limits are made of Perspex glass so that you can see through them. Their flyovers construction technology is about 50 years ahead of us. The concrete pylons, on which these towering 6 storey high compact flyovers rest, are cylindrical in shape with a diameter of couple of meters. The neat design is earthquake proof and doesn’t mar the greenery around. Back in our country, all these memories haunt me every day when I travel from one part of the city to another, and notice the pothole riddled road, which has these festering wounds of damage, waiting to go septic. One can almost trace the life history of a broken patch over a few days, as it gets from bad to worse. The pollution levels are so high that women in cities have resorted back to the purdah system that extends to their arms. Every morning, the men in my city, all resolute and prepared dress up in three layers of clothing like a Maratha warrior prior taking up their commute to work. The flyovers fare no better as their cheap construction technique results in a bump every few metres, thanks to the seamed expansion joints. A lip service is paid to road making every few months, when they ineptly cover up this undulations on the road with fresh tar. The undaunted undulations reappear within a week without fail. A nation’s infrastructure must first cater to the weakest and poorest. If that’s done, the rest automatically gets taken care of. 2009 statistics of road accidents shows that the number of pedestrian killed almost equals those killed in two wheeler accidents. Pavements, footpaths and walkways are nonexistent even in developed cities such a Mumbai and the stats are a stark reminder of official apathy. A holistic approach to resolution of transportation safety is must. It begins with the quality that’s part of the road building. Road building unfortunately has become a seasonal business in India. ©

Theory of Reduced Dividends

This intends to be a precipitate of my experience with human beings in the last 10 years or so. The Theory states that, the dividends one accrues out of a relationship or association diminishes vis-a-vis the emotional and physical effort it takes to sustain it, as the relationship thickens. The theory has the following corollaries:- (a) The lesser the depth of association with another person in a relationship, the more one is likely to benefit out of it. (b) A person who has several shallow relationships stands to gain more in terms of emotional and physical satisfaction, than someone who’s deeply committed in a single one considering all other factors remain the same. Now, let me try to explain my proposition with suitable examples. With my several years of association of various levels with near and dear friends and some more than friends, I have had a unique opportunity to get an insight into the human behaviour with regards to a relationship. When we fall in love, or develop a new friendship, the buoyancy it lends to our existence is unmatched in its freshness and energy. The euphoria of this new association is essentially due to the naive hope it engenders in all of us. It shuts down often the part of brain responsible for rational or logical thoughts, and the lust, love or the attraction as may be case, guides our hopes with this newfound occupation. The mystery that’s part of a new relationship adds to its charm as the mind fills up the gaps with positive tidings. For instance, If the guy you are dating drops you early home, you assume he’s going to go straight back to his home and think about you. When he doesn’t call you the whole day, the mystique builds up and creates an aura about him. When he meets you all prim and pruned up on the coffee dates, you assume that is the case throughout the day. When he offers to pay up for the party, you assume it to be his typical behaviour. It never occurs to you that most countries have different policies for tourists and immigrants. Therein lays the folly of all relationships. They paint glorious picture of the involved parties, a picture that one has to either live up to, often at the cost of bearing the pain silently for the rest of your life or in some other cases, result in the relationship deteriorate into a shadow of its former self. In either case, it’s not a happy situation. When the relationship culminates in a marriage, former of the two is the usually the result in closed societies like ours. Now coming back to my corollary No 1 which postulates that the lesser the association the more the benefits one has in a relationship. This can be aptly proved as in the following cases:- (a) When the mystery element remains, the relationship is filled with possibilities and thus the euphoric feeling persists. This euphoric feelings can often trigger a chain of positive events in other aspects of your life such as work and relationships. (b) When we meet people less often, we only carry the good memories of these meetings and it’s seldom that rudimentary heterosexual association turn practical in their scope or execution. (c) When very few words are being exchanged, they are likely to be sweet nothings rather than snide barbs. (d) The knowledge that one is going to be free after a short time being spent with the partner in question makes us euphoric about the association in most cases and in some cases switches off the logic switch of the brain and ups the emotions, making the people involved assess each other in more positive light than they might do otherwise. Now, I think I have done more justice than required explaining corollary 1 and will move to the second which states that, if one has several ‘shallow’ relationships rather than one deeply committed one, he’ll gain more satisfaction. I base this on the premise that every relationship loses its charm one fine day. The drudgery of everyday living, routine existence and dealing with constantly increasing financial targets while fending for the family takes one a long way from the days when there was ‘love’ in the relationship. One soon finds gestures that came naturally earlier such as a peck on the cheek of your spouse, or a small ‘I love you’ note becoming a chore. I am not going to touch the ‘point system’ that couples in committed relationship often maintain as a check on each other. You forgot the anniversary date, she’s one up. She got stuck in the elevator till you rescued her you got your point back. Such are the games people play. The self esteem touches a new low with passing time and when you are over the hill with your youth, one can’t help but get melancholic. Detractors of my theory will try to pulverise your better judgement with titillation of ‘joy of parenthood’ and ‘bliss of committed love’ etc. But don’t you fool yourselves my friends. To me, children are in the ‘cute’ bracket for finite amount of time. The cute little children soon grow into little brats thanks to the hours spent in bad company while you were away trudging to make ends meet. They demand amounts of pocket money that you as a child supported the yearly education budget on. Their demands for gadgets, games and computers outdo every bonus that you receive at the workplace for your overtime. Now, unless you are a true lover of mankind and had children for the pure joy of it, you aren’t going to like this situation. And if you are a mean man whose sole purpose of having children was to ensure care in old age, I don’t need to tell you how wrong you were. With this as background, now this is the groundbreaking reality that shallow relationships afford you:- (a) They afford you the ability to be totally honest with the partner. Every woman will sooner or later begin to appreciate a man who has been honest with her. So even if you lose out on a potential short term partner due to your propensity for hard truths in the initial days, in all likelihood you’ll regain lost ground later. (b) While a man who goes out looking for shallow associations might not find ‘true love’, he will surely find true friends. And friends with benefits are just what the doctor ordered for a joyous life. (c) I believe that all of us as thinking human beings have several layers and one needs to either find the perfect partner, a possibility that’s rather rare or find more ‘friends’ than one to lead a fulfilled life. Monogamy was invented by human beings to assure security to the offspring and is not a product of nature. And so all I am advocating is follow nature- be open to multiple love. (d) Multiple ‘friends’ gives you freedom to love each one in a unique way. We can’t underestimate the buoyant power of love and someone has said sagaciously, always be in love, never get married. So finally, coming back to the stated law- The law of diminishing returns, with its two corollaries, I think now stands explained.

MI-4 movie review

Agent Eathen Hunt takes us on glob trotting journey across 4 continents with a stopover at India. It’s non-stop edge of the seat action interspersed with that human touch just enough to make it a notch above super slick and over the top action movies such as ‘Salt’, ‘Red’ and ‘From Paris with Love’. If you liked the 1st edition of this franchise, chances are that this one will win you over as well. The film follows plot similar to earlier episodes of this franchise wherein it’s all about accomplishing the stated Mission which is delivered to the agents via a module, a cell phone or a random phone booth. In a film, when one knows the brass tacks of the plot, it’s the execution that becomes the moot point and MI-4 doesn’t disappoint on that count. The sequences are innovative and delightfully filmed. The film is almost flawless till the producers decide to include Mumbai in the plot. The climax has been supposedly shot in India (which I have my doubts on) and it surely doesn’t do justice to the chaos of this country. As an Indian audience, you feel a little fake when multi-story automatic car parking is the host of climatic sequence. The film’s journey from Budapest to Mumbai via Moscow and Dubai steers clear of unnecessary clutter through slick editing thus keeping it all very simple. Unlike some of the earlier films, a re-run of the plot is exposited by Agent Hunt on couple of occasions. I felt that was a necessity imposed by an Asian audience and thus convey the growing clout of Asia as a market for Hollywood. The plot is about 5-6 sequences which have each been done in a never-before seen manner. The politics of power has been not even scratched as true to an agent’s world view, it’s the man on field who gets the coverage here and we are spared long speeches or condescending press conference from the White house spokesperson. Well, I would give the first half of the film, which packs a huge punch 5 star and lower the rating of 4 for the second half where things get a wee bit slower. So the film is 4.5 STARS for me.

Life of Pi- movie review

The first half 25 minutes of the film are almost lyrical as they introduce Pi in the backdrop of Pondicherry of 1950s. The stark difference in quality of production between indigenous cinema and Hollywood hits you through this breezy phase of the film, which displays in its resplendent glory, the pluralism of this country. One can’t help but fall in love with India. It’s ironical that it takes a Taiwanese director to do it so beautifully. The brief voyage part of the film which follows next is flawless in its depiction and what follows thereafter is the crux of the film. A shipwrecked Pi, saving himself from the sinking ship, then the tiger and the sea and finally the elements he encounters along the several weeks of cast away is what forms this incredible saga. No words can do justice to the vision of Ang Lee, which needs to be seen in 3D to be appreciated. The last 20 minutes, albeit a necessary postlude, drag on to dampen the experience a wee bit. This is the stuff Oscars are made of. 4.5 Stars

Talaash - Movie Review

No gimmicky effects, no scary background score, Talaash scores by having its heart at the right place. Often suspense dramas are all about solving a high profile case of a famous person or a rich man, ending up in a self defeating process of undervaluing the common man’s life. Such stories end up becoming nothing more than a glitzy game of chess where one couldn’t care less about the characters as long as the killer was found. Departing from such stereotype, Talaash merges beautifully, the internal strife of a person with the pressures that his job puts on him and sets this against the backdrop of an after dark Mumbai. In the end, it goes beyond cheap thrills and emerges a more rounded and humane story. Technically excellent, this is yet another world class product from Aamir Khan’s stable. 4.5 Stars

Commando- A One man Army: Movie review

We have a new action hero and the name is Vidyut Jamwal. Representing the finest form of body building template we have so far seen in Bollywood, Jamwal comes up with extraordinary stunts. The camerawork is superb as well with fantastic aerial shots in wild, something Indian film makers haven’t yet learnt too well. It’s a case of Army commando out to render justice in the civilian world not by choice but by circumstances. Don’t go expecting a screenplay of quality of ‘Prahaar’ or a ‘Lakshya’ here but do expect hand to hand combat and martial art reminiscent Rambo I (tempered for a nascent Bollywood action). The film begins with a lot of promise and is sustained by screen presence of the brooding Jamwal with his good lines till the interval. The distracting presence of songs and the mandatory item numbers undo a lot of good work as the film progresses. Vidyut Jamwal almost did a Tony Jaa (of Ong Bak fame) here had the film been directed a tad better. Nonetheless, it’s a movie that’ll keep you engaged and entertained with well choreographed action and a well meaning message. The negative role has been played to perfection by Jaideep Ahlawat, who blends maniacal power play dry humour as he recites santa banta jokes, to strike fear into the audience’s hearts. 4 Stars.

Life Gyan

Arise, awake, walk and run
Invest every morning in the rising sun
 Renew, remember, recollect and restore
the deterioration seeping in your every pore

Leave that cushy bed, slough that soft pillow
Run the new mile to shed that extra kilo
Service your innards, your lungs and the heart
Your humble servants they are, till death does you part

Eat right, sleep well and embody thoughts nice
unburden yourselves, speak truth and avoid lies
Drink less, if have to, binges a strict no no
but on a social do, do swim with the flow

 Make friends for friendship, not for clout
Work hard at office, yet reserve some for a work out
Experience growth every single passing day
Progress by perseverance because sweet is fair-play

If such be the steps you take
a new beginning you'll come to make
Be at a lofty pedestal or in the sunken pits
to every man this model perfectly fits