As we were returning home this afternoon, saw a car stopped almost in the middle of the road. Through the half open window on the driver's side, an empty cigarette pack was dropped on the road.

As we passed that well-polished and bright red car, smoke was already half-escaping out the window.

---
I doubt if namma Bengaluru city will ever be free of garbage. Of the recycle-able, not-so recycle-able types.

Paths of Glory

Watched "Paths of Glory" a couple of weeks back. Once you have watched it, it's not easy to forget it. Although the background is that of war, one may find many parallels and situations to relate it to.

I read somewhere that there was a serious discussion to convert the film's end into a happy one. However, it was not done that way, and I think that's the high point of the film.

Don't miss it - if you can't find it, borrow from me :)

Out of this world

There was an accusation that the congress president spent INR1800 crores = ~$320 million over three years on foreign trips. Let's try to see what $320M can buy for you:

Foreign air-travel (assuming 200 round-trip first class tickets) over three years: $2M;
Assuming $10k/day stay at a hospital for 12 months: $3.65M;
Medicines: $0.5M per year (World's costliest drug)=$1.5M for three years;

Surgery: $1.2M (world's costliest procedure)
Misc expenses $5M (food etc etc)
So far, $13.35Million.

Even if one has to do this ten times (!!) over, it costs about $135M.

I recall an essay by Douglas Hofstadter about use of 'astronomical figures' to exaggerate. (Metamagical Themas: Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern, Basic Books, 1985. Chapter 6, "On Number Numbness," pp. 115- 135).

This is a wonderful example that can be added to numerous [sic] examples quoted there :-)

[I realized I didn't account for the security expenses, but still, no matter what you do (or spend) figures don't add up!

Check, mate!

It was an interesting experience to follow the chess world championship match that got over today at Moscow, with Vishy Anand of India being crowned the World Champion for the fifth time.

The professional chess is - well - difficult. First of all, I got lost (and amazed at) by extensive usage of chess-notation by the commentators. They seemed to remember the game move-by-move, just like a cricket scorer would remember statistics game-by-game. It was overwhelming, to say the least.

Here, at work, there was a large interest (because an Israeli was the challenger). At one of our weekly volleyball games, my friend teased me (Gelfand had just won a game to take lead in the 12-match series) about Israeli superiority. I simply had to offer a (Slav?) defense 'well, it's just a tactic to catch Boris unawares in the next match." And voila, Anand won the next game in mere 17 moves. "17 moves" was my subject in the follow-up email to my dear friend!

(I think) the tie-breaker games lived up to expectation. I was following game-2 (which Anand won). It was quite exciting to just see the moves and try my guess-work at what would be the next.

It was a complex situation: An Indian, Maharashtrian at that, working in Israel, following world championship match being played at Moscow between another Indian (Tamil) and an Israeli (originally born in Russia).

Yes, complex, but thoroughly enjoyable. Just as the tie-break games turned out to be.

Point of View

Stars crowd the sky
to find out why -
I'm counting them

---
My photos complain -
I hardly look the same
As at their birth

---
The words enjoy
lying in such a way
I asked them to

We were on our way back from Tel Aviv. Suddenly one of the radio stations started playing hindi lyrics. Such fun! On the occasion of Valentine's day :)

Facebook

Interesting facts and analysis of Facebook's imminent foray into the Market by The Economist: Here.
Alert readers must have noticed that I chose to share it only on my blog page and not on Facebook!

Aside, of late I have observed Facebook (of course courtesy of its users) has turned into a 'forward'ing tool. There was a time (not so long ago) that I'd delete most of the forwarded emails containing childish photos, propaganda messages, optical illusions and stale jokes. Facebook now reminds me of that. Just goes on to show it's not trivial to create 'content'.

With that, I have made a note for myself to reduce time spent on Facebook and invest it into something more creative somewhere else (like, here on blogger or reading a physical book!).

Surely there is a world waiting beyond Facebook and I surely can do better in those average seven minutes (refer to Facebook stats).

My experiments with Air**l

I have been a faithful customer of Air**l for almost 7 years now (Hint: A R Rahman's tune). Initially, I used to pay up front and use their services later. I realized there was no point in lending them money, so moved to post-paid plan (now favour is theirs upon me). Although the cellular business is on the high and will always be in India, incident such as narrated below might just tell the story of the state of mobile telephony services in India.

Question: How to get rid of unwanted services forced upon us?
Answer: A long answer, really:
Since we are presently not in India, my wife's pre-paid telephone is mostly switched off. Some analysis software must be highlighting this data to their marketing wing. One fine day (by rare chance, on that day we were in India!), she received a nice SMS stating "We have enabled Hello Tune on your phone. We'll deduct Re 1 per day, starting today. To disable the tune, please call XXX-XXXX". Natural reaction was to call the number and get rid of the ghastly tune. Well, if it were so simple, it wouldn't be India. Obsessed with that particular number, we began calling it every now and then. After lunch, before tea, after saying good night and so on. The other side seemed to have blocked all the numbers "Call Can't be connected" was the only greeting it would offer me.

Days passed and the balance eroded at the rate of Re 1 per day (consider another million subscribers, so for the company it's gain of a million Rupess a day!). Finally, I had enough, and decided to take the bull head-on. Determined to stop this leak, we went to local office. The staff was considerably arrogant (what did you expect?) and offered only a telephone and suggested to make a call to the call center. After holding the receiver for a few minutes, I finally got a human on the other end. He was unable (or unwilling) to help because I had called from Maharashtra, while the phone connection belonged to Karnataka. I thought silly matter of 'roaming' should not prevent the provider itself from fixing my problem. Apparently not. I picked a little fight with the local staff, who dared me to switch service to another company (which they promised would be as bad as they were).

Tired of all this, I lifted the phone again, but this time to lodge a complaint against the local office (for not showing willingness to help). This time, the other human side seemed way too much attentive. She politely asked me what was the complaint about and what problem I had with the connection itself. After listening to this minor complaint about Hello Tune, she asked me to wait a few moments. When she returned, I had achieved my goal. In the next minute I received SMS that the "service" was now disabled (and the note had the customary thank you in the end).

What a hard-fought victory!

Movie-spree

There has been much movie watching of late. Found most of the films good: Drive, Another Earth. One of them was as bad as ever: Don-2!

Now looking forward to: The Last Station and latest movie version of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

Let's see!

Perspective

The tame bird was in a cage, the free bird was in the forest,
They met when the time came, it was a decree of fate.
The free bird cries, "O my love, let us fly to wood."
The cage bird whispers, "Come hither, let us both live in the cage."
Says the free bird, "Among bars, where is there room to spread one's wings?"
"Alas," cries the cage bird, "I should not know where to sit perched in the sky."

--Rabindranath Tagore

My humble contribution to the lines above: only the title, and unlimited admiration!

The tow-er and the towed

This evening saw a towing truck parked at red-painted curb (= no parking). Practically (and interestingly) it had no other place to park to tow a car illegally parked there.


Can the 'system' punish lawbreakers without breaking the law themselves?! Who will punish the 'system,' for breaking the law? A supersystem maybe, and so on.


Is there a 'systematic' solution?

Excused

In Hebrew, they have the same word for 'sorry' and 'excuse me'. Example, if you sneeze in public you may say sli'kha and when you want to alight from a crowded elevator you say sli'kha again.

Now, the converse just isn't true which leads to this enjoyable situation (I have been part of it a couple of times already):
You order pizza and are requested to take a seat while pizza is getting ready. Invariably, once the order is ready, you can hear the waitress shout out "Sorry!" At this time, you are supposed to translate it as "excuse me" and pick up your order at the counter!

Relax!

So much about life can be learnt while driving on Israeli roads. The Israeli life is what I meant.

They say the Israelis drive agressively; well; it's there lifestyle, and hence driving style. They don't try to be polite or give way or even an inch of space. Again, it's their lifestyle.

On busy mornings on the street, it's not surprising to see a lone car holding up traffic of more that twenty cars behind it. Many a times, it resembles what we call in computer science - a deadlock.

That particular day, I was stuck  behind a couple of cars at the traffic signal. On my left, a lady wanted to take a left turn and park her SUV. Well, on crowded roads of Haifa there is hardly any space, and we are talking about peak morning traffic here. No wonder, she had none of it to take her left turn. Out of my politeness or willingness to help her, I tried to inch my car closer to the car in front of me, hoping to give her that critical meter or so make her left move. To my surprise (and a little dismay) the space I created was quickly taken up by the car right behind me. The lady in the SUV, let out a puff of smoke and glanced at me. I glanced back "What I can do now!" She looked back at me, "no worries - it happens all the time!"

By this time the twenty cars behind her had grown to twenty five and loud honks could be heard from far. She was the roadblock. And the roadblock couldn't take a left turn. The traffic signal ahead of me wouldn't budge either - a perfect deadlock. Thankfully, one which could solve itself if waited sufficiently.

Now, then, the angry traffic behind her started raising their voices through their honks and I grew a little worried about the lady. But this must have been a routine for her. She just extinguished her cigarette, pulled up her car windows, raised the volume of the stereo and relaxed. She was looking forward to waiting, it seemed.

By the time the traffic light in front of me turned green and I moved on, I had learnt yet another chapter of the book of life in Israel.

Software???!!!

Early morning today, I had the privilage to visit a Israeli post office. I had read on the web that they allow opening a 'checking account' and a VISA debit card comes along with it. I was fortunate to be served by a lady who could speak broken English. After going through numerous forms in Hebrew, she asked me about my profession.

What do you do? - She was talking and typing on the computer at the same time.

"I am an Engineer".

"Ok, but what do you do?"

(I didn't want to describe gory details of 22nm or 14 nm semiconductor technology) so I told her", Software." That works best in Bangalore, by the way.

"Software?? What does it mean?," she paused typing and looked up.

"It's well - the computer..!"

"Ah yes. Now I get it."

I walked out thanking myself for not mentioning "semiconductor" word.

On way back home
Moon joins me -
to fight Darkness
---

Catch-up game this,
wind chases the cloud
me: just a referee
---

I run long so
Even the horizon
gives up on locating.
---

Empty or half full
Pity, the poor glass
has no choice.
---

The waterfall knows not
where the water comes
nor the purpose
---

The dense forest
watches in fun---
the rays fight to reach the ground

Passport Seva

* This post is only for informational purpose, based on my experience. Also, please do not infer any linguistic features (such as irony, etc.) from what follows:

My passport expired. It could no longer serve me for the greater purposes of seeing the world. Now, to get a new one I had to start the process. Within 13 days of expiry, I started on application for the passport. For the better (for most part) Bangalore has a 'Seva Kendra' or 'Service Center' to go to (presently only in the cities of Bangalore and Chandigarh).

• The process starts with reading up the documentation requirement. For address proof, I had a gas connection receipt, SBI passbook, Citibank letter of address acknowledgement. If you are lucky to have a BSNL landline connection, that is even better.
• Further, I carried marriage certificate and degree certificate, all in original and 100 copies (all self attested) of which they ultimately picked only one.
• You need to create a login ID on the passport seva kendra website (google it), and create a new application. Here, you need to provide most of the details such as new address, service needed (new or re-issue, addition of details, etc.). Typically they ask for two references from the city you live in. You can count on your relatives or close friends for that.
• After successfully logging in (which takes 3-4 attempts every time) and completing the form, take an appointment. From what I know, and have experienced an appoint is a must (it will increase success rate and comfort level). Don't look shocked if you see appointments are available only after 15-20 days from the date your watch is showing. Take a print-out of the appointment letter which carries more important details than just appointment date and time (e.g. please be present at the venue 30 minutes before the appointment). 
• Once you are done with this, start collecting all possible address proofs, and other documents to strengthen your case. Please bear with the authorities there if they discard most of it (and call yourself lucky that they accepted a precious one to grant you a passport).
• On the day of appointment, get up early and start preparing yourself for unavoidable delays at the office. Reach on time (leave your helmet locked on the vehicle - they don't allow gear to save your head). Stand in the line, pass through the mild security checks.
• Once inside, don't say, Oh God where have I come - for you have come to the right place. There will be hundreds of people in different queues. Except for a couple of lines where you can guess something scribbled to be 'Token' you can pick your lane, get through first round of document verification. Once OKayed by the TCS employee, they offer you a token of appreciation. This one you will do good to keep all the time with you. On the token you'll see counters: A-->B-->C--> exit.
• It's much more than just three counters and exit. Based on the token order, you'll be asked to go to counter A (scanning of documents, photo+finger prints and payment of fees). After waiting for another hour or so, you'll get to see someone at counter B, where they verify all the documents and originals etc. You may be asked to provide some additional document for which you will be sent back to counter A (this will be quick though).
• Finally, after a couple of hours of much bench-warming in the waiting area, you'll find yourselves at Counter C, where they accept the 'File' and you are done.

Well, you are done just for the day. Then there is a different experience of waiting for the real passport.

Yes, but good thing is that they don't charge you for that!

India v/s Australia - a mismatch

Watching India v/s Australia lock horns at Qatar in the league stage of AFC-asia cup football was an ordeal. All the time I kept thinking that there was some problem with the transmission - all the Indian players seemed to be moving in slow motion. The ball was just sliding across, their passes were easily intercepted by vigilant Aussies.

Even in their wildest dreams, understandably, the players wouldn't have expected a win (given the disparity between the FIFA rankings, and going by history of football). Australia is rising fast on the football scene, and India is barely turning in sleep. We can talk forever about the physical strength, but as one of the commentators correctly pointed out: it doesn't necessarily take a physically strong side to put up a good show (pardon the cliche of David v/s Goliath etc). If the basics are right (passing, defending the set-pieces, etc etc) we could put up a far better show than last night. I guess by the time India got some rhythm going, they were already two goals behind. And as in any other sport, (more so for football - which is physically quite demanding) recovering deficit is very hard.

I am sure all this AFC 'stuff' is getting lost in the blaring music of IPL and upcoming world cup. Also, on the whole, Indians are more interested in watching football on TV (conveniently on lazy weekend evenings) and take pride in supporting Red Devils and who-not. In the land of cricket, I am sure football has been (and always will be?) a laggard. Unless it makes some headlines by winning some silverware internationally. Just like the Chak-De team did a few years back.

Until then, it's going to be a rough ride, pretty much reminding of the slo-mo torture of last night.

Beautiful Kingfisher
Clutches onto the wire
As the breeze passes.
---

Dense fog around
The dawn dreams of-
Sunshine.
---

Sundown time
The lone tree celebrates
Long shadows.
---

Similarity?

Don't they look so very same? Craig Bellamy and Peter Siddle..?

An enemy of the people

Last week I got hold of this DVD of "An Enemy of the People," a wonderful drama in three acts by Ibsen. I had watched Hedda Gabler - but don't remember liking it much. This one, however, I found marvelous, a classic! Arthur Miller sure did choose a perfect drama to adapt to English. Salute!

Subject? The topic? This is a story of a doctor who finds toxic effects of a local bath (spring is perhaps a better word) that the City is using as tourist attraction, a means to overcome poverty. Thinking of the discovery as a triumph, the doctor takes the route of publishing in a 'liberal' newspaper, effectively going against the high-flying Mayor: his own brother. As he finds out, standing by Truth, and convincing people to take side of the Truth is not easy. The liberals, are no more liberals and are hypocrites actually. The Mayor will not allow this devastating discovery to become a hurdle in economic growth of the town (only a handful powerful people, effectively). The two brothers turn enemies, and over time, entire town declares the doctor an enemy of the people. He stands alone in this battle.

Dr. Stockmann. Yes. (Gathers them round him, and says confidentially:) It is this, let me tell you--that the strongest man in the world is he who stands most alone.

You may replace the context of poisoned springs with corruption or even the issue of global warming - it's generic.

Definitely, a recommended watching (and a reading post-viewing).

Light Hearted Humor

What did a light bulb say to incoming electric current?
"Let me shed some light on the matter of Darkness"

---
Darkness said to the Sun "Well, what'd you know of darkness?"
The Sun replied "I know all your dark secrets. I keep watch when you are not around."

---
It's strange that fireflies shine only in darkness.

---

What did the match-stick receive when it took the box head-on?
"Enlightenment"