Travel to Germany

Finally I have got my Visa and am travelling to Germany tonight. I am going to Barcelona this Saturday 29th Oct 2005. If anybody knows of good places to see send me a mail.

Tags: Germany, Barcelona

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New investments in Chennai

While Bangalore is losing out on projects due to politics, Chennai is gaining because of politics!!
With the party running the State Goverment and the main opposition party part of the coalition in Central Goverment and both trying to win laurels from people before next election its boon time for Chennai and TamilNadu. Lots of new projects, new companies opening up centers and improvement in road infrastructure.

Latest in these, Cisco is investing about US $ 10 million for a lab to be setup jointly with BSNL, Chennai. Read more in lazygeek’s blog.

BMW is setting up plant in Chennai near Mahindra City. They will be importing not the complete assembled car but only half and then assemble in the Chennai plant. Their investment will be about Rs.10 crores.

Ericsson is setting up a lab in collaboration with Bharti Telecom which will run to million of dollars.

Chennai is picking up after its slow start and gaining more from Bangalore’s loss.

Tags: Chennai, Cisco, BMW, Ericsson

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Such a difference

I am not trying to sell Chennai nor am I trying to bring a black mark to Bangalore. After many years am spending a weekday in Chennai and travelled by the public transport bus to Mount Road and back home. Having been in Bangalore for close to 4 years now, in the past 1-2 yrs the traffice situation has worsened a lot that to cover a stretch of 2km during peak hours would take not less than 1hr, compared to that in Chennai to cross the same stretch under same conditions took just 30mins. Not that there wasnt any traffic but the vehicles are moving and not static for long.

There are police everywhere that too with Diwali and Ramzan nearing they got to keep constant vigil. They are there in bus stands pushing off any autos trying to slow down, getting people to stand on the platform and not come on to the road, regulating traffic. Though am not sure if they are also checking for people kissing around!!!

Any traffic violators would be fined unlike what happens in the capital city of neighbouring state.

Everything is in favor except two things. One is the climate, even though its been raining for past two days for about 2hrs still you sweat. Though sweating is good for health people are averse to shed drops of sweat.
The other thing is the auto rickshaws. Today I took one auto and was chatting to know what he does daily. The auto he drives is not his, he has to pay daily Rs.120/- as rent to the owner. Rs.30 – Rs.50/- goes for fuel expenses. He would make approximately Rs.200 – Rs.250/- per day. Finally deducting all he would take home about Rs.50 – Rs.100/-. From his side he is justified when he tells a rate and starts off without putting the auto meter and he always charges extra when he gets a customer who does not know local language.

Tags: Chennai, Bangalore

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Death Penalty – New Controversy

Our President Abdul Kalam asks Govt to review the death sentence and there is some discussion happening in Indian Express over this.
On a humane touch one would say it is not right to put a person to death. But one should also think of the anger and vengance in the minds of victims and its family. If there is such a humane touch and death sentences are not delivered any more one should think about the rise in crime rate that can happen.
All papers splash headlines ‘Minor Girl Raped’, ‘Minister shot dead’ so on and on which also hog the limelight in the media. A minor girl raped and declared dead what would be the effect on the family. On top if the rapist is given just life sentence he can come out after the term and still be the same old guy. On the other hand he can get reformed and be a nice man when he comes out of jail but what about the victims family can the girls life be brought back. Why should a rapist be not awarded death sentence.
Minister shot dead, what if he was the only bread winner in the family. The family would like to see to it that there is some justice done but if he is allowed to go scot free after some years on the pretext that he has reformed, the family will be thinking only of revenge. This would develop many more anti-social elements rather than reducing the crime rate.

If found guilty of crime there should be no second thoughts on awarding death sentence. This would also bring in fear into the minds of other people who are potential to cause violence or trouble in the society.
I hope our President would consider the other side and not just the humane touch. Our President might be right in his decision but what would be the reaction of family members of the victims is the question.

Tags: Death Penalty

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Trip to Kerala

Not much to write about the trip to Kerala. Visited Thrissur, Cochin, Kodengallur, Shornur, Palakkad though no specific tourist spots. At Cochin we drove on Marine drive and visited nearby islands and Cheraic Beach.
I liked this photo specifically which displays peoples emotion with sunset as backdrop, people jumping around splashing in the waves enjoying themselves and also people standing quitely.. All moods in the photo..

Did not click much photos this time as its always the same in Kerala, greenery and water sources.

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IIPM Vs Bloggers

I was reading out all the developments in recent times that I did not post anything on My Blogs. This whole thing is getting shitty and till date has resulted in negative publicity for IIPM and more publicity for Gaurav Sabnis. Though I would like to refrain from commenting on this subject now, I liked the idea of caption in t-shirt designed by Kribs. (I hope he wont mind me using his image)

Check out desipundit for more updates on this issue.

Tags: IIPM, Bloggers

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Aiyanar – Hotel review

Aiyanar is located in the Inner Ring Road connecting Airport Road to Koramangala. They have varities of Chettinad, Tandoor, Chinese.
I should say this place is also not worth the money one pays. The quantity they give is less. The quality is also not good.
They also make mistakes in the order and bring differently from what one has ordered though not to all customers.
Such errors and quality has to be improved if they are to retain their customer base.

I still feel after trying out many places, the best for Chettinad food is Anachi on Indiranagar 100ft Road.

Tags: Food, Restaurants, Bangalore

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Wonder la – Amusement Park

VegaLand in Cochin, the same guys have opened an amusement park ‘Wonder la’ about 35kms from Bangalore on the Mysore Highway near a place called Bidadi. This was opened on October 1st 2005 and the rates for Adults on public holiday’s is Rs.480/- and on other days is Rs.380/-. There is a 10% discount till October 20th as a promotion offer. It is open from 11:00 in the morning till 7:00 in the evening on all days. Even though it was recently opened there was pretty good turnout. It seems on Wednesday 12th October 2005 there were about 3000+ people who dropped in.
It has about 26 water rides and 24 land rides. Once the entrance fee is paid there are no charges for the rides individually except that one has to pay for the food which is costly and it goes by default in such kind of places.
I went yesterday with my friend and even though it was raining throughout the day there were lot of people even before the gates were opened.

The best part is they accept credit cards for payment and no service charge on that, plus the queue is little less in credit card counter.
In the water rides, you got a wooden boat (runs on a track) which goes up for a distance and then comes down into the water splashing it all over and then back to square one.

There are lot of pipes in which one has to lie down flat with head above the surface and then slide into the water, the height varies and also the curves of the pipes. There is a pool of water where people can lie down on the air boat and spend some time.

The major attractions in the water rides are the almost near 80deg fall from the top into water. And the other once is artificial WAVE POOL where waves are generated in the pool and people get the feeling that one is on the beach side though there isnt sand underneath.

In the land rides you got the DROP ZONE where people are fastened up and then taken to a height and then dropped again taken up and dropped. (I had to lie on the ground to take this shot!!)

Another is in the model of a windmill called HURRICANE, in this people are lifted above land and then rotated clockwise anti-clockwise and also upside down (this is major fun to look at, though I did not go in). There are many more rides of same types but the fun element is always there with people making screaming sounds to some who are afraid but dont show it off.

Of course, this needs a special mention. The Virtual Reality show, people are seated in an auditorium and its a show of journey through the mines. You experience such an effect that you actually feel you are moving in a train inside the mine field. It spoils the fun if I write about this in detail. (My friend said they had the same thing in Cochin). One should be in it to experience it.

It is definitely worth a visit.

Tags: Amusement Park, Bangalore, India

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Tradition and Indian Cities

Yesterday in the New Indian Express supplement CAREER, a CEO of a software company writes that while Bangalore, Pune are open to people from other states Chennai and Kolkatta are not open. He continues stating that in these two cities (Chennai and Kolkatta) the people who come in have to learn their language (local dialect) for communication.
I actually had to disagree first with the writer. For a person who has spent most of his life in Chennai, I know there are many Gujjus and Punjabi’s who are living there for ages and they are not complaining. They do not have much problem in learning the language Thamizh to speak with the locals.
In the case of Bangalore, the economy has changed after s/w companies started coming in but are there any other notable industries located here. Chennai is considered the automobile industry hub, all other industries also thrive and not essentially s/w. If you take sports there is MRF Pace Academy and thats the place which produced Vishwanath Anand. If you take film industry you have the greats Ilayaraja and AR Rehman and KamalHassan and Sivaji Ganesan.
Chennai has consistently produced the best of the talent in the country.
The problem with many people is they always tend to link s/w industry as the growth and do not look at other industries. These are views of only s/w people. For a development of state or a city there has to be other industries also and s/w alone would not help in the long run. We saw that when the boom bubble burst in the year 2000.
What the writer also failed to notice is with a vast talent pool available in the state and the city why should they be looking out for people from outside. The writer also quoted the example of USA which allowed Indians. Yes, USA allowed Indians and Chinese but just look now the same guys are removed from jobs and the jobs are transferred to these two countries.
When the place already has the talent pool why should they look elsewhere.
Bangalore allowed s/w companies to come in and so did other states, there was lack of talent pool in Karnataka which forced companies to recruit from other places. If not for this how would the writer have opened his office in Bangalore. Does he recruit localites in his workplace, I can take a bet that atleast 70% of the work force would be from other states.

I strongly feel that the writer should have made a good amount of research before writing on the subject.

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Crowded Coffee shops in Bangalore

Come Saturday and Sunday the crowd in Coffee Shops in Bangalore double up compared to weekdays. Of course these coffee shops are not akin to the ones in Amsterdam!!
Yesterday being Sunday, in the evening my friend and myself decided to meet up in coffee shop (Coffee Day/Barista) and all were packed to capacity. There are about 4 Coffee Day outlets in Jaynagar and one Barista outlet and man there was no space in any!! Finally we had to sit in Corner House and eat ice cream instead of having a coffee.
I believe coffee shops are the best places for people to spend long hours in one single place and they dont even kick you out when your coffee is over. People also dont stare at you when you are here coz everyone is busy.

Tags: Bangalore, India

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