Gotsunshine.com

There was a very famous ad campaign in the US 'Got Milk?' a few years ago. It is now a famous business school case study. It was a case where to encourage flagging consumption, the milk federation launched a TV campaign portraing numerous scenarios of households without milk, and its drawing parallel to an absence of a life sustaining utility. The campaign turned on scarcity triggers in the remote psyche of lot many people.. So many in fact that the campaign was very successful and generated a robust increase in milk consumption.

Milk was the easy part and man-made, surrogate that is. But am wondering what to do when the man runs his limits...and when its a case of something as basic as - Sunshine. 

This feeling comes out of spending some time in a Northernly latitude, closer to the 6 month day and 6 month night Arctic model.  The 'Got Sunshine?' syndrome doesnt need an ad campaign here.

Having lived under the sub-tropical sun for a good part of one's life, wading through days without a good bit of sun can take adjusting to. In fact when the Sun does come out, life feels wonderful even if the world is warming, oil is running out, and economies are melting down everywhere.

No easy solutions. You might choose to escape on a weekend to a place which has a bit sunshine more, but as it happens more often than not, clouds catch up with weekends everywhere before you get there.  

Or how about a different interpretation - www.gotsunshine.com. A portal that will upfront aggregate all the places close to a given set of coordinates which has a sunny weather on a certain weekend and save me the effort of looking up the map and iterating city by city on BBC weather.

Gotsunshine.com, hmm, I think its a rather good idea that I should do something about this..., or well, whosoever has already taken the domain name should!

Cambridge Cabbage

Have been here in Cambridge, UK last 2 months now. Slipped into a semi-detachment from the world or rather the interfaces to the world. Newspaper once a week, no TV, no radio, no car. Have bought a cycle though. The long days here give ample time after work to ride it around this intellectually endowed town. Perhaps a quality that inspired a recent implusive culinary creation which came out rather well. So here goes the formula for what I have decided to christen - "Cambridge Cabbage"

Ingredients:
1 Cabbage
2 handfuls of french beans
1 large boiled potato
1 raw potato
3 spoons of cummin powder
Salt and chilli to taste

Steps:
Chop the cabbage to large flat noodle pieces
Chop the french beans to half inch bits
Light fry the above two with salt, cummin powder and red chilli to taste
About half way through add in the mashed potato and shuffle it around
Chop the other potato in fine fingers and light sautee with salt
Once sauteed add these into the main pan with the , beans and mashed potato and drop the cummin powder 3 spoons or less to taste
Place a plate above the pan to cook in steam
18-22 min and you are done

For all its simplicity, the smoothness with which the cabbage, french beans and the mashed and sauteed potato variants blend in together, you'll relish it long time to come.

But frankly, humble thought it may sound I feel this can be a serious contender to the Great Indian recipe panel around these ingredients - which have for the most part been limited to,

1. Cabbage light fried
2. Cabbage and potato light fried
3. Potato and French beans light fried
4. Potato by itself

But now - time for change - time for the humble cabbage to show its intellectual avatar -

Time for "Cambridge Cabbage"
:)

बैल to BIAL

Glossary : बैल is Hindi for Bullock

(Standard disclaimer: This is a fictious writeup. All resemblance to people, places, these times, issues and things is purely coincidental)

Pumpkin Times, Bangalore
In a move, that speaks of the far sight of our Government, the following plan has been mooted by the Government of Karnataka that at once eases out the problem of commute to the new International airport cost effectively, promises employment generation on a large scale, and in the long run promises to raise the water table levels of the parched Devanahalli region where at present no widespread habitation is feasible

The plan starts by mooting as follows,

The Government has proposed a dedicated bullock corridor along the National highway linking Hyderabad and branching into Bangalore along the Bellary road, Outer Ring Road, and then further on to Tumkur Road and Hosur road.

The dedicated corridor will run in parallel lanes to the existing traffic, with the difference that the divine road-usage rights exercised by cattle and politicians in India will empower the bullocks to governance free movement along the stretch.

This without a pun is expected to ensure a smooth albeit a little slow passage for all future passengers of the BIAL.

The Government is planning to hire the services of a world reknown firm in buggy design from Italy.

The contraption that will be attached to the bullocks will have capacity to carry 6 passengers at a time and 10 pieces of luggage.

The route chart will be published shortly by the newly formed BMBTC (Bengaluru Metrolpolitan Bullock Transport Corporation). There are expected to be numerous stops along the way, so the city will be catered well.

Reinforcing the experience that the passengers are expected to enjoy, will be the paratha with fresh morning butter, lassi as breakfast to the early morning commuters.

The typical bio-breaks required by the bullocks are expected to enhance this further besides contributing to developemnt of some greenery along Bangalores dirt and dust paved highways.

What makes the plan even more viable is the fact that, the cattle will ply in two directions, during the night time, from the cargo section of the airport, bringing back the precious international freight into the city on its way from the Airport to the city.

Post their ablutions and regurgitations the bullocks will be fresh to take the early morning passenger load to the BIAL.

The commute is expected to take about 3-6 hours, but due to the steady nature of commute, the positive effects on clean air and nominal charge the passengesr are expected to be more than happy.

The farmers owning these bullocks have demanded an exclusive rights to cargo movement with the Government, and the Government has kindly consented this concession.

Also for the next 3 years it has been agreed that the bullocks will be sourced only from Devanahalli region so as to provide wide scale bullock re-employment in the wake of Devanahalli region's parched nature and agricultural infeasibility.

Payment towards these services can be offered through cash, monthly passes or fodder.
Noted that payment by fodder will be exempt from service tax and various cesses. The reason is that in the process of the large scale bullock employment, the bullocks are expected to be much more well fed than they were prior to BIAL. As a result they are expected to contribute well to the arability of the land through their biological endowments such as cowdung.
The Government is expecting Industry associations along the IT Corridor to come forward and demand for chartered arrangements soon as the service is announced.
But for now the Government is keeping further details of proposal tightly wrapped at the moment, and intends to declare this as a gift to the citizens of Bangalore one day before the opening of the new Airport, and thus also have the last laugh.

More details shortly. Reporting from Devanahalli on behalf of Pumpkin Times, this is your humble Bangalorean.

On India

A lot of Indian history is debated in arguements of "what-ifs". "What-ifs" that are fundamentally unsound by the fact that they seem to depend on the very outcomes of what actually happened.

"What if "we" had beaten back the invasions of Mohammad bin Tughlaq, "What if "we" had been more united against the East India company, and so on...

I have had a long standing doubt has been who is "we" in this context. Probably "we" refers to the foreparents of the "present" Indian generation, in those times and who are counted guilty of dis-unity. But take a minute, did those foreparents live in the geo-politically unified identity that India is today. To me, having seen India, that unified entity was the result of the very conquests and invasions that we tend to speak regretfully about.

In our school text, we were taught that Hindustan(India) was invaded time and again because the feudal rulers of the local provinces were not united for the cause of Hindustan, and so fell pray to the repeated invasions. There is a notion of a collective "Hindustan" presented in that era, but as I see it, the definition of India at that time was more the correlation of culturally similar regions and people, than in physically consolidated frontiers. Also I believe that the reference of Hindustan and invasions in the early 20th century in the western historical text was in context of a sub-continent, than a single political entity.

India's existence in its present geo-political unified form was shaped to a large extent by the Mughal, British and the present generation of the last 5 decades . Pre 1300 AD - The subcontinent was made up of princely states of a range of cultures (pardon me for any misreferences here) - ranging between Persian-Aryan-Dravidian from North to South and Persion-Aryan-Sino from West to East. In the geo-political definition of a "country" in the current context that would have actually been about 5-15 different countries in existence or whereabouts at the time.

I think I am reasonably sure that me, my spouse and all my friends from North, South, East and Western parts of the current India, would quite likely trace their origins back to those different "countries" of the pre-1500 times if we could find a genealogy available. If the Maharajas and the feudal lords of the pre-1300 ADs, did not decide to fight together against a common invader, that was their problem and for reasons that history knows best. Their circumstances and choices made by them are nothing that the current generation needs to lament in any way.

And I think would might as well be mudling ourselves up if we do. I doubt if anyone can say which one of us descends from an invader, settler or native, and neednt care really. What matters and I feel we are extremely fortunate about is having inherited an India with an an incredible diversity - cultural and geographical, and that, this diversity is something our generation and future ones, need to appreciate, understand and protect. I'd be happy if we can work around our history text to educate in a way that emphasizes on this good fortune, than make us fret about the power exchanges that happened centuries ago.

Travelling

I love travelling. I would have written about my travel notes here, but think I've kind of gone all over the place with this blog, so I decided to start a new travel focussed one here A Small World
Intention is to put in experiences in a manner reusable for someone planning similar trips, or kind of attempt to :)

The best day in the world is Saturday

These days I seem to be working hard, staying away from my blog and being choosy on what to write if at all I blog. But its been a while. So a quick cheeky mindless one, and starting with a title I guess I can stake a soon-to-be-famous claim to.

This is the time of the year when there is a long hiatus before we hit a long weekend. A time when the weeks panning out about like this...

Monday - Why the monotony of the whole world jumping to road as if on fire
Tuesday - The monotony builds
Wednesday - Tuned up and forgotten all weekend
Thursday - Lingering anticipation
Friday - Freedom dawns close
Saturday - The best day in the world
Sunday - Why does this fizzle out so quickly


What I am getting at is the psychology of the week is basically about only 2 kinds of days really - A Monday, a Friday and a Saturday and everything else is in the middle. I 'll put down my take here,

Monday - Feels like 100% Monday
Tuesday - Feels like 99% Monday
Wednesday - Suddenly feels like 80% Monday, 20% Friday
Thursday - Feels like 60% Monday, and 40% Friday
Friday - 100% Friday
Saturday - 100% Saturday
Sunday - 25% Saturday, 75% Monday

Keeping this in mind I propose a renaming that has potential to improve the Psychology of the masses, make them more cheerful, conserve environment, and make the world a better place to live in.

Monday - Only1Monday
Tuesday - ByeByeMondayDay
Wednesday - FridayCloserDay
Thursday - FridayAlmostThereDay
Friday-Friday
Saturday-Saturday
Sunday-WarmupDay

You may ask while everything else is a derivation, what's with Sunday. Well, my thinking is that, Sunday evening has a certain unescapable drudgery about it... that you cant seem to get away from. The traffic is low, TV channels go low profile, and worse people start sitting and sulking at home about Monday... (See why Only1Monday makes sense). In light of this drudgery, why bother escaping it, and actually start warming up for the weekdays battle ahead...

Quite quixotic alright, it 'll take more than an epoch and a collective global amnesia to get about on these lines, trifle difficult hmm...
So I'll park it here, get back to work, and be happy about the fact still, that tomorrow is a Friday :)

"Minority biased Junctions" (...Bangalore Traffic)

About 4 years ago, Bangalore got its spanking new 200 ft wide double laned with 40 feet service lanes, Outer Ring road...

One would drive up here to break free from the traffic snarls elsewhere in the city...and check if their spanky investments still worked at high speeds.

Mostly worked fine, until a small hitch started showing up first little, then some more... and these days in full measure...

The hitch is what I call "minority-biased-junctions"... Bangalore's archaic mechanism of junction management...let me explain..

1) There is a very wide road, which is the highway, and contributes 80-90% of the traffic of the junction

2) The perpendicular "feeder" road is more like a 30-40 ft wide street, basically an outlet for the settlements off the highway, and contributes 10-15% traffic of the junction

3) There are no traffic lights (if they are a fair chance they will not work)

4) The "minority bias" is a speed breaker, placed not on this "feeder road" but on only on the highway in both directions.

6) What happens as illustrated above is that while the 70-80 Km/h highway traffic slows to a halt, the "feeder" traffic from the jumps on the highway as there are no deterrents, human, electronic or physical to it...

7)...and the 80:20 rule plays out...20% of traffic gets 80% of the junction time and 80% gets 20% of it...

Perhaps the idea was the same socialist one - tax the big road folks to feed the smaller road folks..problem is, it works about as much as socialism did for us.

In peak hours, you have a mile of traffic build up on this 200 ft wide highway, while the 30 ft wide street traffic jumps right on the road, nearly no waiting ...

This problem is not new, it got worse on the Hosur Road before we got lucky with a 9 KM elevated road ...so no junctions possible... but unlikely we'll get as lucky again...

So please, planners can you try wake up to some simpler solutions like simple signals adjusted to the traffic flow and do away with these "minority-bias" speed breakers!

750 sq kms and nowhere to go...

That's what happens on weekends, I sit like this on my chair, musing on what to do with with this huge 750 sq km pizza on a plateau called Bangalore....

So much to explore in some ways and then so little..

Theatre, Kannada mostly, I will have to look at the audience to figure out more than the play॥

Movies at PVR, All sold out, try your luck

MG Road, Cubbon park, Lalbagh, Visvesvaraya museum, no..they're not what they used to be..

One of those unlimited cliched exhibitions at Kanteevra stadium, no..no..no..

Go trekking with one of those adventure clubs, who take troops of 40 and turtle climb 300 feet hills, mostly very young couples helping each other along and who dont seem to notice you at all..

Take your wife to one of the happening hotspot discos, hasnt happened yet for me, as it requires the near impossible convergence of a good housemaid, my 3 year old's agreaableness to let us go and a fitting wardrobe so that us over-the-average-indian-age types can still pretend young.

Try to rub into the creative character of the city, join a music lesson and soon realize that the closest age group is 11 years younger to you and picks up 50% faster...you attend two weekends and then the third onwards the class is suddenly younger and faster

Go to the local derby season, Wonder La amusement park, or take a ride on the double decker tourist bus that shows you around bangalore...I'm saving these for "rainy" days.

So my standard last and safe resorts...try to feel busy by being in a busy situation...1) go for a tea at Koshy's with a novel and keep sitting there, while you may not be part of it, you will definitely be midst of lot happening around you...and 2) if you find travelling therapeutic, take a BMTC Volvo ride around Bangalore, you'l love how these sleek red beauties can accelerate on 20 feet wide roads with a spaghetti of a traffic around them...

And then come back, muse and write this blog...and hope to plan it better next week!

Good News India..

Changing in own little ways, a few pioneering spirits slowly adding up .. Good news India

Well apart from all that we wonder whether deserves to be news...a true oasis.

Butter and Mashed Bananas...

I have always wanted to see theatre...and finally I did last week...at Ranga Shankara, after 2 years of glossing over the idea... waiting for an english play..and then wondering where the theatre was.. and in some weak moments giving up...

Good thing is I made a great start, thanks in all measures to a brilliant bunch of Bangaloreans who gave an intense and richly creative performance in this play called..Butter and Mashed Bananas.

Its a great sense of relief that you feel when you realize that not missing out the smallest detail is not an aberration...when you see the small gestures in the performance, that seemingly instinctive are actually scripted to the finest detail.

Thanks to Harami(!) theatre and Ajay Krishnan, the director of this play who also does the live music score for the play.

Highlights - the inimitable Indian paradox, Left and Right, Page 3 sequel, freedom, the hypocrisy of the powerful, music and choreography... and minimalism..

And when you walk.. out you you also thank, that besides and despite all, how creative genius thrives in the country !

So all those lazin, on the verge of wishing- better- of- your- time Bangaloreans.. go-theatre!

Ranga Shankara is a landmark location in JP Nagar...

Mind you kids under 8 not allowed inside...and save the organizers some effort by switching off your cellphones inside the auditorium.

Why making money is alright...

The study of advanced subjects beyond your graduation basics and at a maturer time frame makes you feel better about your material pursuits...And as I was studyingMacroeconomics yesterday... I noted that GDP is calculated is based on the "value addition" of a raw material, and intermediate goods at each stage leading on to the final product... The key word is "value addition", and when we add value, we usually do something meaningful, and apply the vast grey reserves in a good, purposeful and right way...And then isnt that the basic enterprise of the world, to make use of the resources at your disposal meaningfully than fritter them away...And then, money is nothing but a consequence..

Age and insights help give a better perspective, and I realize now that the great stories of Gautam Buddha and Ashoka gave a strong bias to my early youth towards the principles of renunciation as being the ultimate ones. Too young for macroeconomics and value addition then. Well, I kind of have a more mature outlook now. What matters is that you should sustain your energies towards adding value in whatever you do, peaceful and righteous by social norms and you will be alright from the heaven and earth perspectives both.

Guns'n Roses

Guns 'n Roses in Bangalore...how would you feel. To me, its the greatest band ever second by a fraction to Pink Floyd, with Dire Straits and Metallica tied third. Everyone has their favorites and that's my order...but what I am talking about is how would it be to have a GNR concert in Bangalore...first time in India, that doesnt matter much...what does is to listen to Axl Rose and Slash and Knocking on Heaven's door and Sweet Child and November Rain and Estranged and Don't cry...
As far as I have seen nobody portrays the very fulfilled, wondering what to do next, musical genius than Axl, particularly in the single Estranged...
Somebody, potential organizers out there. I am prepared to pay $200 to watch this concert live...and the last I saw was Scorpions, 5 years ago on a $6 ticket. There are 10,000 higher plane rock fans than me in Bangalore, and 20,000 more who will come...total that up, isnt that good revenue to give GNR in Bangalore...

Karunashraya

Karunashraya, on Airport road in Bangalore, is perhaps one of the most noble human gestures that I have come across.

This is a joint project by Indian Cancer Society and the Rotary club of Bangalore. Their mission is to provide care to the terminally ill from Cancer absolutely free of cost. For those who have seen this disease from near and far, will know how devastating it can be. And yet at no time, should the afflicted lose their right to life and hope. Karunshraya is housed in a beautifully architected single floor stone campus and a very alleviating ambience. The infrastructure for care is very good and for a while and after you will think that in this age, within concrete towers and unrelenting wealth seeking, there is a quiet chunk of humanity right within.

I will strongly recommend Bangaloreans to take a small weekend detour to this place, see for themselves and help in some way possible. Its located about 2 km from the Marthahalli Outer Ring Road junction towards Whitefield on the Airport road (1 Km ahead of Spice Garden Restaurant). Has an obscure shrubbed entrance but quite noticeable.

Word of mouth advertising some

Over last few days over a mix of work and domestic I came across some interesting websites that I will recommend,

For those looking for some good, tutorail and encyclopaedic education on finance, capital markets and investing www.investopedia.com

I had been long searching for a website, in fact at one time even thinking of setting up one to integrate all the restauranteurs in town on a single portal where you can order a mix of chinese from Mainland China and Afghani from Samarkhand on the same day. Well! as with tons of ideas getting stacked up the dusty shelves, this one went there, but I found www.hungrybangalore.com , a good, seemingly comprehensive listing of restaurants, with a map to indicate which where and importantly an online menu to choose from. They also organize parties and am trying their service soon, so watch this space for feedback.

Another want of mine had been a utility which can take in all your financial details, bank balance, euqity, funds, assets and advise you real time on what your net worth is and suggest on what you should be doing to optimze your portfolio. I think I found something close at www.moneycontrol.com , a tool called Portfolio manager.

Well! while I find these, perhaps am still like a gleeful little kid, doing an Alice in wwwonderland, but deserving services deserve a bit of word of mouth advertising :)

There is this quite milk revolution that has been happening in India for the last 30 years (or more i think). http://www.nddb.org. A small initiative that started in a small village called Anand (means Happiness), to collect the surplus milk collected by farmers from the 1-2 animals in their keep. This went on to feed a whole nation's requirement of milk and milk products.
At present NDDB covers over 300 districts, approximately 110,000 villages, and hold on...some 15 million farmers!
The attached picture shows milk collection at a village society a routine every evening at 6:00 PM.

This one for case studies across social, agri, management, NGO and well milk of course!

50 first dates

I saw this movie yesterday. In a way if we can learn by pushing out the burden of the past, thanking for what we have, and living each day as a new day, it would make it that much more pleasant for all. Only thing, that as a bread-winner, one might have to figure out what to do...
Adam Sandler has done a good job, and the comic act of Rob Schneider is kindof similar to our Mumbai film industry goofs. A good movie all in all, is a Hindi director looking for a retake..

Wordy tastes

I have wondered at times if it possible to induce taste through writing. let me try.
Imagine a hot cheese dripping crisp bread, with luscious tomato and anchovies, liberally sprinkled with sour lemony juice. Does the taste hit you?

Or lemony lemony lemonade, made from the sourest yellow-gree lemons, and 6 cubes of ice in a yputall blue glass...and the freshest light green you've seen in times...and suddenly you've never felt better :)

Value of Money

Ever wonder how more money gets created if resources stay constant.I think I had a brief insight today that may make sense. In sum it is that a forced supply of financial instruments, increases spending power, increases demand, and hence valuation of limited resources - and hence backward justifies the value of increased money.

To illustrate with 2 parallel examples. 1) Paper money and 2) Equities traded on a stock exchange. For paper money, there is an invisible hand of the federal government churning out notes and currency that the banks dispense with. It is not suddenly that people get higher wages, or everyone seems to have more money to spend. What happens then? Everyone wants a little more iof limited resources then, and no wonder the little resources become more expensive.
Money is issues against gold, but as you put out more money, sooner or later the gold too becomes expensive, and justifies the additonal liquidity.

Likewise with equity, every now and then companies more visibly split their stocks, issue bonuses and the like. The re-valuation initially spreads across the increased equity base. At the same time. the price per share falls into the buying power range for more investors, and suddenly people are buying more. With a little usual demandonmics, the value goes up again.

Applications of this insight - guess different for different people,
1) someone will keep churning out more cash to make the asset valuable, so buy more assets
2) there is no asset comparable to blue chip equity, as you can keep increasing liquidity there theoretically forever, which not the case with land, gold, diamonds or carbon emissions for that matter.

Pre-Proof of Destiny

When things go wrong there is a reason, when things go right there is a reason. Civilization has defined what are constructive activities and what are not. Peace, hard work, patience, kindness, truth are all cited as noble goals. But if there were to be peace alone would we know its value? How do Scandinavians with 18 hour light and dark feel about it...is there a coincidence that there is relative peace and tranquil in those countries.

There are many facets to everything, and the self alone knows all those facets. What is wrong with doing something which many people will say is not good? Do it and often you will have a profound realization... What I am saying is that everything is a natural process, and even our attributions of the same are natural and even rejection is. Attempt to seek freedom is natural and so for bondage. When the girl ran away with her paramour it was bad, when they returned home in a successful family avatar it was good...a balance that did not necessarily come about the regular prescribed way. Am I saying its ok to challenge yourself. Yes and no, both are good and bad. If you were to search for text that tells what its is good to be and what not, both conformist and rebellion text would show up in any great numbers ...a google search of "good" and "bad" yields equal search results.

So basically what I am saying is that, can we get going on a logical pre-proof for destiny...before we start experimenting with the theories and some mathematics...

Success and Failure...

Failure and success are 2 hypocrites and sometimes I wonder why at all do we need to fight back the pain or over-savour the success. They are just there, and its a dent on one's humility to hit adrenaline on a success and lick bruised ego's on a failure. Let both pass and there will be some sustained peace.

Both come in any number of flavours in a day, from the hidden joy of solving a puzzle to the frustration at not cracking it after hours together, from the argument well won to the put down, besides of course the more obvious ones.... I think success is only one of the outcomes, and a rarer one, failure is the more frequent one.

While we read many stories of success, we often do not contemplate what after that...IBM got successes through its mainframe and then failure with its desktops. Jordan trumped with Bulls but came short in comeback with Wizards. That's life, do we need treat things as good or bad. Everyone has a reason.

Smile without necessarily being happy and cry too without being sad. Someone may call you a fool, but what's the difference, someone will call you a fool for some or the other reason anyway.