Funny messages on the IMS...

Somewhere towards the end of 2005, I took a trip to the IMS (Indian Museum Ship) Vikrant (the erstwhile INS Vikrant). It was docked just beside the high profile and heavily guarded still in-use INS Viraat. The rules for photography were very clear...no photography from the outside and no photography on the deck. That meant photographing only the inside. There were still a lot of things to be photographed and I clicked away to glory.

There were some photographs of particular interest. These are from that collection...

Vikrant's bell and shipmaker's board...the year mentioned on the bell is 1961
Be a bright spark
No Is and Us in a team
No Shortcuts...

The better natural ice cream

India thinks Natural is the best ice-cream. Versova does not think so. Its true. After the spat the co-owners had and parted their ways, Versova enjoys a much better natural ice cream. L&G, please welcome...Sancha, the natural ice-cream of Versova. Sancha, founded by one of the original co-owners of the original "Natural Ice Cream of the Juhu Scheme", is much better than the original Natural ice-cream. This is located on the J. P. Road - the road parallel to the beach - and on the right side while travelling towards Versova - just after the bend at the 7B garden.

The cups are priced at Rs. 27, whereas shakes are priced at Rs. 60.

"Balle Balle"

"Balle Balle Urban Tadka" is what you hear when you call this restaurant almost always booked to capacity - hell, I have seen people waiting outside (for a seat) even at 11 p.m. After recommendations from an acquaintance, I decided I should try it out.

Since I avoid non-veg stuff, half of the items on the menu were off for me. I tried "Sabji Kheema" - nothing non-veg about it - just minced vegetables. Also, the "Chole Te Alu De Biryani". Both were very tasty and not at all oily (unlike at the Udipi restaurants). In fact, the biryani comes packed in a small pot with a cover sealed with "atta". And its quite yummy.

The same owners also own "Pop Tate's" as well as some of the other popular restaurants.

Idli House

The other day I had the opportunity (rather excuse) to visit this new eatery at B. N. Maheshwari Udyaan (aka King's Circle or L&T circle) near Matunga. This is located almost opposite to the "Anand Bhavan" restaurant and is from the stable of "A. Rama Nayak" (the same flock that runs the Cafe Mysore and other Rama Nayak* eateries in Matunga).

I found it to be a surprisingly small eatery - only 3 tables. The other point is that you only get idlis - no other snacks. The coffee (filter) is almost similar to the Cafe Mysore's, though I did not think much of the idlis or the sambar (my personal choice is Cafe Mysore's or Anand Bhavan's). Here is scan of the flyer for the restaurant - one can get a good idea of what is in store.

However, the restaurant also sells the accompaniments (chutneys, etc.) as well as filter coffee powder (I think its the same coffee powder they use - aah their secret powder). The coffee powder is Rs. 50 for 250 gms - slightly higher than the Rs. 180 / kg powder from Quality (near Matunga station).

So most of my mornings are now powered by the new found coffee powder (2 cups) - alas, we do not use buffalo milk at home, but the taste is quite close to the one we get in the restaurant.

Update: I could find no review of Idli House on the SigFood site, but here's a detailed review by a Gujju that appeared in Mumbai Mirror.

What a thriller...

Our media has found a brand new subject to focus on these days. With Rahul Mahajan's case becoming more complicated, it seems to have all the trappings of a super thriller. Of course, it won't be long before it fades out of the media, but in the meantime, the readers can thrive on the daily dose of mystery from the newspapers.

It won't be long before someone takes up to make a film on the subject...its sure to be a hit, if directed properly. It seems that the story has all the ingredients as in a Agatha Christie, Conan Doyle or a Poe story.

Many would know that Christie's Poirot was said to have been influenced by Doyle's Holmes, but few would know that Holmes itself was influenced from Poe's Dupin. Dupin was a strange character and there seem to be only 3 stories by Poe that involved Dupin. Such was the problem-solving skill of Dupin that he could simply read various newspapers reports and solve mysteries. Personally, though I have read all the stories of Holmes, Dupin remains a favorite maybe because of Poe's language or simply because Dupin was one of the first detective characters.

Quite like this current-day mystery, Poe himself was a drug addict whose cause of death remained uncertain ( alcohol, drugs, rabid cat bites, etc.).

Back from LNL

I am back after a refreshing break (holiday) at LNL (Lonavala). It was raining in LNL so there was not much of a sight-seeing done (most of LNL has anyways been already seen)...just lazing around and doing nothing...not even thinking of work. Rainy season (or just there after) is the best season to visit LNL and because of the rains, LNL wore a fresh green and unpolluted look. The clouds (and mist) had engulfed KAD (Khandala)...even in the afternoon, traveling on the roads of KAD was proving to be quite difficult due to poor visibility beyond a few metres. Its always been like that and this time too it was not different.

A trip to LNL would not have been complete without a visit to the railway station. So, there we were at the LNL station checking out how delayed the trains were to / from Mumbai (since TV channels were busy broadcasting all day how life in Mumbai was paralysed from the first rains of the season). It was quite interesting to note that most trains were hauled by KYN WCGs...only CR knows what happened to the KYN WCAMs, although I did spot one train with a KYN WCAM3. All trains coming into LNL on their way to PUNE had at least 2 or 3 WCG bankers (pushing the trains from behind up the ghats). These were detached at LNL and sent back (light) to KJT (Karjat) from where they were attached in the first place.

Of course, LNL and chikki go hand-in-hand. It is not clear to me how LNL got itself entangled into this chikki business...neither peanut plantations nor jaggery or sugarcane grow anywhere near LNL. Still, chikkis had to be bought and one had to choose from Maganlal, Rupam, Navratna, and many others.

We decided it would be better if we returned by road (instead of the 1008) since trains were reportedly being halted at CLA because of waterlogging. While returning, at SNPD (Sanpada), we had a flat tyre and apart from that, there were no major incidents. It was clear that the new expressway was making travel faster...much faster. For example, it took us only 0.5 hour from LNL to Khopoli and another 20 minutes later, we were at Panvel. So, in about an hour's time we had reached Vashi from LNL...that is a real improvement over the past, when journeys through the ghats were cumbersome and slow (not to mention the traffic jams because of broken axles of trucks and other heavy vehicles).

And, while at LNL, we stayed at Swiss Resorts. It is supposed to part of the chain that owns the famous Rajdhani group of restaurants. Though the rooms were comparatively cleaner, the food was quite standard and nothing great about it. One gets a feeling that maybe the hotel may be on its wane now...

Apart from that, nothing much in LNL...now that its started to rain, more Mumbaikars will head to their favorite monsoon weekend location...LNL.

Off to LNL

Looks like the trip to UBL (Hubli) will have to wait. I am proceeding today for a short holiday to LNL (Lonavala). While going, I'll be going by the Cool Cab service (from DDR) and while returning, it would be through the 1008 Deccan Express.

I'll be staying at some hotel that I've never stayed before...hopefully, it is good. Reviews after I get back to Mumbai.

Reserved for life

Oh this is getting too much to just sit quiet and not enjoy. The current HRD minister is trying to create more chaos than the previous one. While the previous one succumbed to people's pressure, this one is in a tight spot...only the Supreme can intervene now.

Some chaps (those retired guys get pension as well as money for doling out such crap reports) in some "Commission" came out with some report that recommended some such reservation based on the "caste" that one is born into. Whereas multitudes of people thought we were moving away from the "caste system", it seems these guys want to re-introduce it.

So, it seems, upto 50% seats would be reserved for the "lower castes" (SC, ST, OBC and any other minorities) in education (also professional courses). Someone is also recommending that these reservations be carried over to the jobs in the private sector. While the private sector (especially the IT industry which is supposed to be "knowledge-intensive" - doing VB is supposedly "knowledge-intensive") is crying hoarse that this would adversely impact their competitiveness, I propose that the reservations should be for life:

• Naturally, if people have landed a job not based on merit and competition, they would find the going to be tough indeed - that might work in a governmental setup, but in a private sector, these guys would most likely be sidelined (because many of them may not perform to the same level). As a result, I propose that promotions should also be reserved.
• Taking it further, everything should have reservations - power supply, rations, seats in buses (already some seats are reserved - no harm in reserving more seats - as it is, we commute by standing)
• Very logically, this is going to anger the majority (who should by then be the minority). As a result, one may try to append to their qualifications the "category" to indicate that they are from the general category. For example, Mr. A. B. C., B.E. (General).
  
  

All this fine, but one can see how this has clearly stirred up a division amongst the students (and people). In this article, one can clearly see the animosity that has been generated. My favorite part in the article is how the reserved guys make fun of the others

Look at us, we don'’t have to work hard at all. Our post graduation seats are assured no matter how badly we fare in our exams

There's also the part where the teachers have allegedly threatened the anti-reservation students with "dire consequences" and "appropriate marks" in the examinations.

Knuth tidbits

A few posts ago (this one) I had dropped a reference to Donald Knuth and what he considers as the work of his lifetime, "The Art of Computer Programming", a planned 6-volume series of books on algorithms and related applications. He has been able to complete 4 of those 6 volumes, so 2 more volumes remain to be done.

I was surprised to learn from many of the readers of this blog that they did not know who Knuth is and that they had never heard of him. After a quick confirmation with my (ex)classmate, we concluded that it was indeed very surprising that today's "youngsters" haven't heard of him - during "our" days (13 years ago), there was hardly anyone using the Internet in India - and when the Internet usage is so prevalent now, this should not have been the case. I guess "youngsters" these days are busy browsing other things. (Ah I get it...its the "generation gap"...for us, Knuth, Kernighan, Ritchie and Stroustrup were god...for the current generation, it must be Johny Abraham, Rakhey Sawant, and *Khan...I can see wallpapers of these people on youngster's desktops...that's true).

Anyways, I thought I'll put together some tidbits about Knuth from the various sources now available on the Internet.

• Knuth is a computer scientist (yes, that's a new word for a "discrete" mathematics person) and now a "Professor Emeritus" at the Stanford University.
  
• He did his B.S. (in mathematics) with "summa cum laude" (the highest honors) from the Case Institute of Technology
• His work was found to be so wonderful that by a special vote of faculty, the institute decided to confer the M.S. on him simultaneously along with the B.S.
• He later went on the write 3 volumes of "The Art of Computer Programming" series. These books (in 1999) were named among the best twelve physical-science monographs by the American Scientist in the same league as "Dirac on quantum mechanics, Einstein on relativity, and Einstein's collected papers".
• On the comment's to these books, Bill Gates had announced that if one truly read the books completely and understood them, then the reader should him a resume (to be entitled for a job at Microsoft).
• Knuth has a peculiar style of rewarding readers who point out mistakes in his books: he offers them a reward of $2.56 per mistake found. The 2.56 figure is because 256 pennies make a hexadecimal dollar.
• Version numbers of his TeX software approach the number π, that is versions increment in the style 3, 3.1, 3.14 and so on. Version numbers of Metafont (another system developed by him) approach the number mathematical constant e similarly.
• He has stopped using email since 1990; he claims it helps him to concentrate better. In his own words,
  

"Email is a wonderful thing for people whose role in life is to be on top of things. But not for me; my role is to be on the bottom of things."

• Besides all this, he is an accomplished Pipe Organ player; he has a custom-built pipe organ in his home (with some pipes of the organ being more than 8 feet tall).
  

For more on him or his achievements and the numerous awards that he has won, one could refer to his 35-page CV here.

Masters of Rhythm

When it comes to rhythm, few can match the caliber (and *sound* understanding) of the complexities of rhythm music than Indian classical musicians. (The one that comes a close second would be the African rhythm players.)

Everyone (every "commoner") acknowledges the mastery of Ustad Zakir Hussain (and his late father, the great Ustad Alla Rakha). But, few know that Pandit Shivkumar Sharma was a tabla player prior to taking up santoor as the chief instrument. Because of his background, Sharma can play very complex structures - very few Indian instrumental musicians and singers understand the rhythm aspect - their forte is tone and tune. It is well know that Sharma and Hussain play "nested talas" - that is, a tala within a tala (e.g., a 7-beat tala within a 10-beat tala framework).

That was until I read about Palghat Mani Iyer (now late). Palghat (Palakkad) Mani Iyer had such a mastery of the mridangam (South Indian drum) that it seems he would choose the artiste whom he would accompany, rather than the other way around. Such was his mastery that he could play separate talas simultaneously one with each hand (as mentioned toward the end of this this article). Now that is something...

Truly, masters of rhythm.

End-sem exams over

The end-sem exams for this semester are now over. I can now move over to other things that I've been long postponing...like reading some books, learning some (computer) languages like TeX, visiting the UBL (Hubli) diesel loco shed (he, he...UBL has a stock of WDP4s - this is the currently the fastest running loco in India). Or buying that bicycle...:)

Many posts are languishing in the "draft" stage on this blog...maybe I'll find the time and interest to post some of them too.

Time to buy a bicycle? Time to celebrate?

The news comes in a year late, but better late than never. After last year's attempt at admissions to the M.Tech. programme at IITB, I had applied again this year...and it seems (from the website) that I have been offered a "direct admission" (that is, without further written tests and interviews) to the M.Tech. programme. Maybe the guys had some pity on me (eh...in one of the part-time diploma courses (subjects), we had the same paper as the M.Tech. guys and I was the topper among all students).

That should put me into celeberation mode, but it also puts me in a big dilemma. I had always put off for later thinking about whether I should get into this or not - the logic was simple - let me first get the admission and then I could decide. No point in thinking about the chickens until the eggs hatched. There is also the question as to what happens to the diploma course that I had enrolled for in the same institute.

Unfortunately, there is not much of a time to do the thinking as the fees (the ones that confirm the admission) need to be paid by May 3rd. With end semester examinations looming on both sides of May 3, it is unlikely that I will find time to think about this.

The plan then, is to confirm the admissions and then pull out, if need be. And if I do end up joining, then it would be the right time to buy a bicycle (as "motorized vehicles are not allowed on the campus except for emergency purposes").

Just to make it clear: the admission that I am supposed to have got is in the KReSIT (School of IT) and not the CSE department. I know CS is different from IT (ya, ya...we always thought that IT was for the intellectually less capable guys who didn't get into CS). On the other hand, after working for so long in the industry, plain CS no longer seems that attractive to me the way it used to be (I've still not been able to read "The Art of Computer Programming" by Don Knuth).

The annual ritual is now over

Mumbai's annual ritual for inconveniencing commuters is now over. The annual B.E.S.T. strike has been called off by the union. Life (and traffic) can now go back to normal. Over the last decade, I cannot recall a single year without B.E.S.T.'s strike.

This year was no different...private bus operators and autorickshaws and taxis made a quick buck overcharging commuters wherever possible. I travelled by one such private bus paying Rs. 10 for a journey that would cost Rs. 4 by the B.E.S.T. bus.

For maximum effect, these strikes are typically organized during important days of the year (for example, during S.S.C. examinations or during Diwali, etc). So, this year it was a surprise that it was held in the month of April when most school and college students had finished their examinations. Maybe dear Sharad Rao's (union leader's) children are in S.S.C. or H.S.C. this year...or maybe his children go to school / college by car. I remember when there was a strike by B.M.C. (again led by Sharad Rao) a newspaper had reported how his apartment in Goregaon still had water supply 24 hours a day, while all the other areas in Mumbai had to suffer.

Like some of the other years, this year's strike was also declared as "illegal" (since public transport is regarded as an "essential service"). However, no action would dare to be taken against the striking workers...Sharad Rao had threatened to "shut down" the city if any action was taken against them. Hmmmm...there could be a law violation there...how long before Mumbaikars shut that guy up.

Bharat III

Its been quite a while since our B.E.S.T. undertaking introduced the new Ashok Leyland-made "Bharat III" buses into their fleet, but its only a few weeks back that I got an opportunity to travel in them. I observed the following things:

• The first thing that one sees (as one is boarding the bus) is the huge springs at the rear of the bus. Though the height of the seats above the rear wheels have been increased, the ride itself seems to be quite smooth. One can actually feel the bus riding over Mumbai potholes and other such obstacles quite nicely.
• The noise of the engine is reduced drastically (and the engine seems to purring rather than roaring). This might be due to some heavy-duty sound mufflers placed over the engine (near the driver's seat).
• The windows can be half-closed (as in the train coaches)...there is a simple "latch-and-hole" mechanism to keep the window either fully open or half-closed. But one needs to see how long these "fragile" latches would last.
• One of the most annoying things about the old buses seems to have been fixed. The horizontal rod (bar) used by standing commuters seemed to end much before the first seat. As a result, I used to sometimes be without support in the tossing and rolling bus until I travelled down the aisle a bit further to the driver's seat - this is a very dangerous situation to be in since one might actually be thrown off if the driver brakes suddenly. This rod has now been extended right to the place where the stairs for alighting start.
• One of the peculiarities of the bus seems to be the use of a "turbocharger". There are clear instructions to the driver (in Marathi, of course) to idle the engine for 3 minutes after start and before turning off the engine. The reason given is because "the turbo charger revolves at 100,000 rpm".
• Another one is the horn of the bus; the sound from the horn (unfortunately) resembles the horn of a small vehicle like a motorbike. As one can imagine, this would convey a false sense of feeling to vehicles on the road as the beast (devil - its red and it kills people) approaches them from behind.
• The split-mirrors are another source of complaint by the drivers themselves. The split mirrors, it seems, confuses them as mentioned in this article.
• A power-steering has also been added, but given the way the bus swerves sometimes, one gets a feeling that the drivers are yet to get used to it (the drivers are made to drive different types of vehicles on different days).

Free, at last...but only temporarily

Killer deadlines had kept me busy the whole of last week and Monday. I finally managed to beat the deadline (all courses, all deadlines). After frantically churning out code, I guess I may have barely escaped RSI (Repetitive Stress Injury) resulting from strenuous typing at the keyboard and long hours on the chair.

With end-sem exams coming up, however, this less loaded schedule is only temporary. I will have to hit the books again soon.

Busy, busy, busy...

The Paris trip (and its preparation and subsequent associated workload) has been a real sap on my resources and time...enough to cause a backlog on the academic front. This week and the next week is going to be a race against time what with all the project and assignment deadlines.

No more posts until then...

The Emperor makes its run

"Shahenshah" chugged down the Western Railway line as planned.

I had decided that Andheri would be a nice place to catch it in action. Accordingly I had done most of my preparations...charging the batteries of the digital camera, ensuring space for the pictures to be taken, etc. Unfortunately, some work that cropped up at the last moment ensured that I had to rush to Andheri station. There were huge queues (I thought I needed a platform ticket) at the ticket vending windows. Every ticket counter I visited was full of long snaking queues. I decided to act wise in the interest of time and simply used a coupon in the CVM (Coupon Validating Machine). I do not know if a coupon can be used as a platform ticket...but I thought what the hell.

With great enthusiasm I rushed to the platform number 1. There were a lot of announcements being made related to change in the platforms for the regular local trains. I saw a couple of guys enter the Station Superintendent's office...they seemed to have a compact camera with them...I followed them and the guys in the office told us that the Heritage train would be passing through platform 4. I rushed to platform 4 to find a hell lot of people out openly with video cameras and other photography and videography equipment. Accompanying kids were also their parents.
I debated mentally what would be a good position to be at to take a good photograph. I decided to go to the very southern end of the platform since that is where the train would be seen first and there would be very little obstructions.

The time was about 11:20 a.m. by then. I suddenly realized that in all the haste I had forgotten to load a film in the SLR camera...I had thought I would buy it from some stall near the station. Unfortunately, it was a catch-22 situation...I wanted to go and get the film, but then the guys at the Station Superintendent's office had stated that it would be there in about 5 minutes. I thought of asking some guys with cameras if they could "sell" me an extra film roll they had. Then, I dropped the idea.

The crowd was growing restless every passing moment. Suddenly, at about 11:45 a.m., one could hear the Railway Police being very active and trying to keep a check on the people's movements (warning them not to go very close to the edge of the platform, etc.).

I could spot the loco coming in through the SLR camera lens (I was using the lens as a binocular). The loco was whistling (just for fun) and there was a lot of steam as it passed by. However, there was no "clagging" (no black thing coming out of its chimney). As it went by, passersby waved at the people in the train. Every coach had an attendant that was dressed in superb uniform...

As it passed by, some people ran along on the platform hoping it would stop...it didn't. Tired but happy spectators then started making their way back out of the platform. Within 2 minutes, there was a diesel loco (a Ratlam WDM3A #18707) with a most stunning livery on the same line. I guess this loco would be pulling the Heritage rake back to Mumbai Central.

I contemplated if I should go to Borivali and try photographing the stationary thing there. I dropped the plan partly because of the long queues...and returned back home.

The return of the Emperor

"The Emperor" is going to run down the "ramp". No, this is not about the useless fashion shows being held in New Delhi.

"The Emperor" is the "Shehanshah" (pics here)...a mighty old (1947 USA-built) steam locomotive that will be participating in tomorrow's heritage run organized by Western Railway to celebrate its 51st railway week. The loco will travel in style all the way from Mumbai Central at 11 a.m. to Borivali. I hope to capture it from some station en route to Borivali both on the film SLR as well as my digital camera. Obviously, railfans would be out with all kinds of equipment to capture its run. I won't be surprised to find some nuts running along to get a view of the loco.

Of course, there would be a lot of waste of water and coal for no apparent gain...but then it might be the last time one sees such things working.

Note in the above pictures (especially this one) that the shed has been painted as "Bandra". I think that is a temporary paint, since the loco was reported in some newspapers as belonging to Rewari in Madhya Pradesh.

Other pictures are to be found on the IRFCA site. See this link.

The hypocrisy of science

The recent bird-flu outbreak revealed once again the boundaries (and the hypocrisy) of the so-called scientific knowledge. Hundreds of birds had to be culled for fear that the disease may spread. But the point of this post is not that the birds were diseased or that one should give up eating meat. The point of this post is to show how the so-called scientific community makes clever use of words in trying to fool people.

But, first I must give you the background:
Obviously, because India is filled with so many illiterate and fearful people, and because people have a choice of eating pure vegetarian food here, as soon as the news of the bird flu spread, many people simply gave up eating chicken for a few months. Some still haven't started eating it. This bird flu thing is not supposed to infect human beings, but no one wanted to take a chance. This caused a big problem for the poultry business...one must understand that this is a very big industry in India. Some farm owners had to sell chicken at Re. 1 a kg. That was an incredible hit they were taking. Naturally, they went into top gear trying to alleviate the fear from the people's minds. I do not know if they succeeded completely or not.

Now, the real point of the post:
One fine day the newspapers were filled with how safe it is for people to eat chicken, etc. But, sample the words used in the news articles:

1. There is no known case of bird flu infecting human beings - only stray cases have been reported so far. Only 100 people have been reported to have died of this in other parts of the world. And, these were people who were in direct contact with the infected birds.
   
2. The bird flu virus has not yet mutated to start infecting human beings.
3. It has been found that the bird flu virus does not survive above 70 degrees Celcius...so chicken that is cooked well should be fine.

The first thing is that all the statements above are just nonsense...they do not present anything that is conclusive. Note the use of words like "yet" and qualitative words such as "cooked well" in the above statements. For example, do they expect people to put a thermometer inside the deepest parts of the meat to see if it has reached 70 degrees Celcius?

The second thing is that there is NO SCIENTIFIC PROOF for all these statements. The funny part is that no one is bothering to ask these people either. These are just some observations made on SOME of the samples in a laboratory environment.

Generally, medical science is always like that...if it is seen in all the samples in a laboratory, then it is true for the entire universe. Note again there is no proof...as in a mathematical sense or as it is for physical phenomena.

Yet, of course, these same people will ask for proof when ancient Indian wisdom is talked about. That is the hypocrisy.

News or a movie?

On one of the very rare occassions when I watched televison these days, I happened to watch a popular news channel (Aaj Tak). There are now about tens of such channels in various languages and regional variations. What I could fail to understand is why they were using background music (like in the movies) when they were showing some news clippings. In the movies, such music is woven into the sound track to create the pshycological effect to convey the desired effect. For example, for building up suspense, movies would use a different music than for conveying happiness or sorrow.

While watching the channel, some such similar music was being played in the background. Gone are the days when we were told that news is to be conveyed to the people "as is", without any hint of emotion or any addition / modification. In fact, in those days, news readers were told not to exhibit any emotion for any kind of news. Doordarshan news readers were quite expert at these things.