Some news...Some Views - 10

In a way, I was much relieved to see that the thrid Satyagraha was a flop. Though I am a big fan of Anna, the way he and his team mates advocate for making laws in the streets does not augur well for our country. Let the Parliament decide everything for us -good or bad. Let the social activists and the Civil society make all efforts to influence the decision of the lawmakers without crossing the bounderies.


Lokpal bill may take time to take the final shape, but the Loop-hole bill is passed by the citizen of India much before. No one has any complaint about exclusion or inclusion of minorities or any other sections!! India is united irrespective of religion, caste or economic status in using Loop-holes.



No Bills or rules may not usher in good behaviour to the people. Look at the punishment for murder. Lifer is guaranteed if not capital punishment for murder. Still people kill just like sipping a cup of tea.


Let the umpteen number of netas, social activists, intelluctuals, superstars and human rights activists work towards this reformic the public mindset. Religions and their leaders, instead of spreading hatred and violance in the society, shall first read their own religions texts and understand their real meaning and then preach it to the followers.


Let us also teach our children how to be honest, be whatever be the cost of it. Most importantly, let us learn ourselves and teach our children Bhagavatgita, Bible, Quran, Guru Granth Sahib and so many other scrpits before the perverted and unbalanced minds, pretending to be champions of reliogion and Gods, do it for us.


Let everyone be exempted from the purview of the Lokpal but not the Chennai autorikshaws. There is no limit for the autorikshaw drivers' demands in Chennai. A two kilometer ride may cost anything near rupees hundred in Chennai. Meter in the autorikshaw became a showpiece long long ago. No one insists on meter and no authorities are interested in fixing fare for this commonman's taxi. If this is not corruption, then we shall sit up and change the definition of corruption first


Interestingly, travelling by hired taxi cars is much cheaper in Chennai. We will be paying at least rupees fifty less than what we pay to the Autorikshaw to reach our destination . There are so many Call Taxi operators in Chennai who give good service with fairly good punctuality. They run on electronic meters and issue receipts. So, if anyone happen to be in Chennai and need to travel, do never go for autorikshaws. Just pick your phone and dial the taxi operator. Have a cool ride without hassles.


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Recently three engineers from Mali, Africa had visited Chennai. The purpose of visit was to witness tests on one 220KV Circuit Breaker at the manufacturer's test facility in Chennai. There was another engineer from the Indian client and I too joined as the representative of the third party inspection agency. There were five engineers around an equipment to witness the tests. Look at the manpower and money waste involved here


It has become the order of the day. Customers depute third party inspectors to carryout inspections and then assigns the role of the inspectors themselves. The colssal losses in terms of manpower and money do not seem to have any takers anywhere...

Some news...Some views -9

Rose by any name smells as sweet. The same is applicable to gold too with minor modifications in the wordings. 916 gold, pure gold, beauty meets quality...the eulogies are lined up and the superstars of sports and the tinsel world are more than happy to promote gold. Does gold really need a superstar to boost its sale? There is room for doubt about the purity of the gold these super stars promote. If the gold mecheants were selling pure gold, they would never have needed such a seamless advertisement blitzkrieg.


Energy drinks manufacturers claim, if we feed their products along with milk, our cheldren will grow double fast. Their stamina multiplies by three fold and their sharpness becomes double fold. Even the Demi God of cricket does not find it uncomfortable in telling such a blatant lie to his millions of fans in our country that a particular energy drink is the secret of his energy.


All these supertars of cricket and films must learn from Kamal Hasan Yesudas. They  never promote any of these fake products. They rather appear in advertisements that promote social awareness. They show much more social commitment than all these money minting stars


Now that sports stars also will be considered for Bharat Ratna, we can hopefully expect that the prospective "Ratnas" will stop telling lies about  gold, energy drinks and soft drinks to his fans simply for money

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What will be the fate of Lokpal. Still not clear. However, Anna is constantly being linked to RSS by Digvijay Singh and his fellow partymen. I only pray, people like Digvijay campaigns for his party in the coming state elections. The party does not need enemies if it promots people like this man.


Supremacy of parliament needs to be protected. In my considered opinion, Anna can wait till the lokpal bill is discussed in Parliament. In a democartic country, laws can only be made in parliament, not in streets. Let the law makers come out with their form of the Lokpal law. Then, if it does not his requirement, Anna can go on satyagraha

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Frighteneing news is coming out from Egypt. Was this all that the citizens of Egypt gained by ousting the dictator Mubarak a few months back? Army took over from the dictator and they became another tyrant unit. Only the Almighty knows what will be the end of all these. Now that hardline religious outfits are gaining majority in elections, the picture is still becoming murkier by the day.

One of the national dailies, while writing editorial about army crackdown on women, mentioned the colour of the bra this woman wears! How insensitive it is to add an adjective here!

Appooppanthaadi -30

Look at the picture on the right side. A red ribbon on a 135 Mega Watt Generator! This generator, during inpection gave out a lot of wrong results. The vendor struggled hard to get it through the inspections. At lest, before offering this equipment for the final inspection, they tied a red ribbon on it


A red ribbon, according to the Chinese belief, fetches good luck. We can see so many cars on the roads with red ribbon tied to their wheels. Red is their traditional colour. They decorate the entrance of their houses with red colured paper. Superstions are present worldwide in different forms. Some are funny, some are obnoxious and some are objectionable


The Chinese send money to their dead ones. Once in a year, most likely on the occasion of the death anniversary, they burn peices of paper in the public places - mainly on the road sides. These papers are believed to be money, that may be required in the heaven for their near ones to meet the expenses!


There are many shops that sell paper currencies.  Though, nothing can be taken along when we leave this place, we can arrange everything we need!! It will be interesting to know who receives the money in the Heaven and how he/she distributes it to the recipients...


Let me show another picture. The image on the right side was taken from my  Hotel Room in Harbin. Everything is at hand's distance. Just reach out and have unlimited fun. No raids. No papirazzi reports. Only fun and nothing more.


One night, as I was about to hit the bed at 1 o clock, the room bell had started ringing continuously. Taken aback by the sudden sound, I hesitatingly answered the call. There stood two girls- of course skimpily dressed- who too were taken aback upon seeing me! They mistook the person and disppeared from the scene in a jiffy...


Look at this. Chairman Mao's image on the backdrop of palatial apartment complexes and magnificient express Highways. This was a picture I captured while I visited Hunan Province.  Occupants of those posh abodes will certainly not be the people for whom the Chairman fought for in his life time... Confusing...perplexing...mind boggling...


Hunan province is where Mao was born and worked for long. The driver of the taxi, pointing at this image told me in pure Chinese and with some actions that Mao is like a God for him. Like this young driver, there are millions in China who consider Mao as god.


 During various interactions with many young Chinese, I could make out one thing. They do not harbour any deep rooted ill feelings against the autocratic communist regime in their country. In fact, like those 'drugged' tigers in the Siberian Park, the citizens of this country are just living their life enjoying discoteques, pizza huts, Walmarts, never caring for what's up in the political scene. 



Most of the vehicles, unlike in our country do not hang a religious symbol in the front. Still, there too we can see several vehicles, especially cars with images from Buddism. Interestingly, Budha was against idol worshipping but his disciples made His own idols to worship. I too have a Budha idol in my showcase that I bought from Colombo in 2004.



This image is from the backyard of the well constructed cities. Behind all pomp and pageantry we see in the cities of China, there are secenes like this which we will not miss even in the much celebrated city like Shanghai.

There are motor vehicle workshops  and Bicycle workshops right on the footpaths of the roads.  These scenes are nothing better than those we have in our ciuntry.


Of course, town management and discipline by the citizens of this country can never be compared with ours.

for more photos : Images from the road sides

Appooppanthaadi -29

The major difference I find in these four years is that, in 2007 we could freely access facebook, orkut, picasa and any number of community portals and blogspots in China. (four years back, I stayed in Tianjin, one of the biggest cities in China after Beijing and Shanghai)  Now, at present, none of these websites and portals can be opened. There are strict monitoring and blocking of many a portal that may cause inconvenience to the ruling deispensation in Beijing

Still, there are loopholes. Internet is flooded with proxy websites. Many proxy sites are payable. They help people access all blocked sites and portals for a price. Just pay USD 5 per month through Paypal, the entire internet is unblocked for you. I too used one of the proxy sites to keep my blogspot ticking. There are a few free proxies too, which, many are using for opening Facebook.

Media is under government control. All television programmes are aired after getting government’s nod. People are allowed to watch what the government decides. It reminds us of the period of 1970s and early 80s in India.  In the age of internet, people has many other alternatives to get the news. But, I am afraid, the citizens of that country may not dare peep into any stuff that is presumed to be anti-government.

There are so many Chinese television channels on the air. Whereever we go, we can only come across such channels. CCTV, the government owned 'Doordarshan' looks to be as boring as the latter one. People may not hae any choice but to be content with what they get. They learnt the art of being cintent. Ask no quastions. This is what even the genaral public loves to tell us.

CCTV has an English News channel. There they always air the government propoganda besides the news about protests for democracy and enonomic equality elsewhere in the world. Anna Hazare's fasting, Egyptian and Libyan unrest and the Occuppy Wall Street dmonstrations were all found prominant place in the news channel. We can hardly find any news about a protest being taken out on the Chniese streets. We do not even know that the Jasmine Revolution that started in Tunisia an year back had repercussions in China too. Inconvenient news items cannot penetrate the iron curtain so easily. The Chinese version of the Jasmine revolution was nipped in the bud by the authorities.

The coconut chutney...

No one can resist the temptation of having a couple of hot idlis drowned in delicious sambar. Imagine coconut chutney (thenga chammandi) is accompanying this heart stopping combination! A ship can easily float in the mouth now, isn’t it? I can see it from here, from this desert.

The homesick, expats of India always long for this. In their yearning for being in the company of their much cherished traditions, they definitely recreate whatever they followed in their beloved home in India. Many a time, these acts of re-building the tradition do not go beyond symbolism, to put it with a little displeasure.

I have a very funny story to tell about the coconut chutney or otherwise called in Malayalam “ thenga chammandi”. Let me take you to an innocent childhood. A childhood that has been cared and showered with affection by a rustic, down to earth old woman with the help of another equally old woman.

Grandma is the best thing on the earth that was ever created by God. Like everyone else, I too had a woderful grandma. She was very sincere in her love and very serious in our up bringing. Of course, the ignorance and innocence of a village grown woman was evident in her too.

She could never help us in our home work. She could never even read a word in Malayalam, because she was illiterate. Interestingly, the only home work I used to do in my lower classes were copy writing. Malayalam copy writing in two lined book and English in the four lined book. But, still, luckily, we had a good Brother to compliment grandma’s ignorance. He took over the responsibility of educating us well. He did his job the way a brother is expected to do. Not even a day passes by in my life without remembering him.

Ask no more. These were the words the care- taker of the orphanage used to tell the inmates in the famous Dickens story  Oliver Twist, while disbursing the gruel. Oliver twist recollects those stories so vividly in his “memoirs”. I can never draw a parallel with any of the incidents that happened to Oliver Twist in my childhood days.

I just quoted those infamous words, only to tell you that my grandma too used to utter these words in disgust when she runs out of our favourite thenga chammandi. But for the similarity of the words, there is no comparison possible between any of the people in the strory and my grandma.

We two brothers, ie the one who is just elder to me and myself used to consume a lot of chutney while eating idlis and dosas. We sit together always for the food sessions. Laced with a lot of love and affection, grandma serves us idlis with delicious chutney. But, she innocently utters the words ‘ask no more’. She receives an immediate response from both of us. We needed a lot of chutney to eat each idlis. Making a big quantity of chutney was very difficult, because we did not have a mixer at our home. Meenakshiyamma makes the chutney on the crushing stone. She could make it for us. She never gets tired of serving us. Even a half part of a coconut was not enough to satisfy our needs.

We two never left her. We sit at the table itself, making all types of nuisance to her. Disgusted grandma shouts the same words many times - ask no more. We are unmoved. I tap the plate with spoon or hit the plate on the table. My brother even turns violent sometimes. He throws the plates and spoons. We have some bent spoons at our home even now! Still she had never beaten us nor even uttered a word that might hurt us.

She used to wake up at 4 in the morning along with her aide, and prepare all our breakfast and lunch by the time we get ready for school. She considered it her solemn duty. This spirit deserves a salute indeed. The commitment was unconditional. The attitude was unmatched. The love was no holds barred.

After a long battle of nerves between grandma and the two of her grandsons, grandma surrenders. Coconut is ground, made chutney and served. Meenakshiyamma never complained about the extra efforts for our sake. It could be very difficult for the two elderly women to cook food as they have to depend on crushing stone to crush the coconut and cook in primitive wood stove. We had no gas stove or a mixie at that time. We quietly consume the extra chutney and leave the scene quietly. This was a regular scene in our house for a long time.

Recaling those events now makes us a little embarrassed, though it evokes laughter at times. Whenever we remember our grandma, we could never help reminiscing these incidents. With a sense of apologies to our loved grandma, may I offer a few petals of gratitude in her memory

This story taught us a lesson too. Never say no to a child. Whenever little Govind demands something, which I can not meet, still I say yes and then, slowly divert his attention from his objective. This saves a lot of our energy. We need not fight with him, make him cry and then patch up with him.

I get another opportunity to remember my beloved grandma and of course our Meenakshiamma when Govind fights for the things he needs! Perhaps, while enjoying the best facilities at the Heaven, grandma must be rejoicing the events that unfold here. The hunter is now hunted!

Some News..Some Views - 8

Hillary Clinton hugged Aung San Suu Kyi very tightly. Of course, it was a spontanoeus display of affection and awe towards a lady who stood by her struggle to liberate a country that is reeling under an autocratic dispensation from 1960s onwards. The military junta had already pulled the nation at least a century backwards.


In 1990, Suu Kyi's party won the general elections with convincing majority. The military rulers struck down the results. She remained in house arrest from 1989 to 2010. Though a free woman now, she is largely confined to her home and is watched by the strong men of the government.

Dawn of democracy in Myanmar is still far. US may not show much eagerness in taking the country to the end of the tunnel. Myanmar does not seem to have any strategic importance to them, at least in the near vicinity, though they are wary of Myanmar's drifting towards China.


Why don't we Indians usher in such a rule in our country? There are so many people in our country who are increasingly vocal against democracy and the politicians. I used to counter their arguments in favour of military rule or autocratic rules by pointing out the happenings in our neighbouring countries.


Never mistake. There is no alternative to democracy. If anyone is not convinced, just ask that lady- Aung San Suu kyi... She paid her life for it...


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The government bites the dust, yet again. It has become a standard operating procedure (SOP) for the government to first introduce the bill in parliament and then consult others to get their support. In the case of FDI too this has happened. Even the government's alliance parters were not consulted before introducing the bill in favour of FDI in parliament.

Let them hold it, for, there are so many other business to be transacted in the parliament. Walmarts and Carrefours can wait till the antagonists comes to power. They will allow 100% FDI!!! Relax and watch it for the time being...

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She is out on bail. Is it the end of the story? Perhaps yes- very sadly. Let us only hope that the long arm of law will definitely catch up with her. When she arrived Chennai the other day, her party accorded a rousing welcome. The entire route from the airport to her residance was dotted with so many welcome banners and party flags. How many crores she would have taken as "loan" to arrange this welcome?

Appooppanthaadi -28

There are more reasons for the flat belly and fit body. The Chinese mostly eat semi cooked vegetables and meat. They use less oil and more sausages.


Almost all food items are cooked and many other meat based dishes are fried directly over the fire. This probably avoids a lot of fat getting accumulated

Another interesting thing  about the Chinese food habit is that they take supper as early a six in the evening. By six in the evening all eateries will be full with customers. They sit out on the walkways in groups to have their dinner.


At home too, the dinner will be over before seven o clock. It is a common sight on Chinese roads scores of people sitting on the foot paths and having their dinner on summer days.  Intake of food much before they go to sleep help digest the food before all the organs slow down during sleep.


They eat rice with every meal. Chiense rice, unlike ours becomes sticky while boiling. Boiled rice comes off to the chop-sticks like lumps that is put into mouth with ease.


Most of the Indians living in China mastered the art of using the sticks. I was a miserable failure however. Till the end of my stay there, I had to depend on fork and spoon. Many of the ordinary restaurants never keep spoons, fork or knife. They serve only sticks with the meals.


Every meal is accompanied by a few bottles of beer. Everyone takes it over their food. Beer is cheaper than water, it looks. A 4% concentration beer has a price of 1.8 yuans for a 380ml bottle. A water bottle of same volume costs a little more than this


There is another interesting story to tell about food. Last time I happened to read The China Daily, an English News Paper that is rarely seen in China. There were two prominant articles in the daily. One was about killing dogs for meat. In some parts of China, dog meat is widely used as a delicate food. Now animal activists are campaigning against this traditional food in China.


The another article was about gutter oil. It was reported in the newspaper that, used oil in restaurants are collected by some people, recycled and then reused in restaurants. This oil is called gutter oil. Authorities are taking strong measures to force restaurants to let the used oil down the drain.


One of the Chinese engineers I met during my stay there told me that he never gave the local milk to his baby for fear that it may be synthetic. There are many cases of milk being adulterated. He buys milk that is imported from Europe. Though the imported milk is much expensive, he wanted to avoid risk

Some News...Some Views -7

Of course, we must dicuss FDI. Nation as a whole is dicussing this at present, putting the issues of corruption and terrorism in the back  burner- at least for the time being.


Almost all major opposition parties in our country are vehemently opposing Government's decision to allow 51% Foreign Direct Investment in multi brand retail outlets. Why do they make so much of noise against this?


From a commonman's point of view, FDI in retail sector is a welcome move. In our cities there are already big desi retail outlets exisiting alongside the small retail shops. I do not think FDI will make any big difference in the present scenario.


Giant retailers like Walmart or Carrefour is not going to affect the small kirana shops next door in a significant way. We have to depend on the small shops still to get one washing saop or a packet of chilli powder for the immediate use.


Look at the local kirana retailer. If we ask for a soap, he hands out a soap that benefis him the most. We are never given a choice. If we need a packet of salt, he gives the salt that fetches the maximum commission from its manufacturer. In comparison to this, a big departmental shop allows us to pick and choose what we need. They offer home delivery too


In short, foreign direct investment in the retail market will benefit the general public. These outlets will never alter the game here. In  fact the local retailers will be forced to improve their service when faced with quality service the customers are promised to get through the new move.

One of the several Carrefour outets in Harbin, China

In the Harbin city of People's Republic of China, I could visit five Walmart shops. There, we get things at a cheaper rate than from any other shops. I bough a few items from there. For many of the Indians visiting China, Walmart is a preferred shoping destination. The Chinese too patronise it to a great extent. In most of the China cities, Walmarts and the French retail major Carrefour are common sight


Why anything that is good for the goose is not good for the gander?

BJP, as expected opposes the government. They will implement the same if they are in power. Leftists as usual take double stand. In fact they do not have any fixed stand on any issue.
Earth will not shake if FDI is allowed in India. Also, erath will not shake if FDI does not come to our country. It may help improve the quality of service in a way. Let us support the Government on this issue

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Appooppanthaadi-27

Like any other cities in China, Harbin too has so many high rise buildings. Wide roads and so many fly- overs make the city travel so effortless. Cars ranging from Audis to Volks Wagon to the state of the art Chinese ones occupy lion’s part of the roads.


Though German cars are preferred by people in China, no car manufacturer has clear dominance in the market. Nissan’s models as well as Chinese cars along with umpteen numbers of Audis can be seen on the roads.

The black coloured Audis are a rage here. The proud owners of these sedans are not from the upper strata of the society but the people who draw a monthly salary in the range of 8 or 10 Thousand Yuans (1 yuan is approximately equa to 7 Indian rupees).

People take loan from the banks to buy big cars that will be repaid in fifteen to twenty years.

The common perception about Chinese is that they use bicycles extensively. Perhaps it is time we changed this. Bicycles face extinction here, well almost. People pedaling cycles are increasingly becoming a rarity here. Majority of bicycles we can spot here have batteries to run them.  Still, there are places like Beijing where bicycles with pedals are widely seen.


The sight of scores of men and women pedaling their way to their work place and back home was a delightful scene to watch during my stay in Tianjin city four years back.


Now, even the separate cycle lane is hard to see here in many of the cities. In Shanghai ,Shenyang and Harbin, there are cycle lanes on some of the roads, but there, people park their cars.

The countdown display near Tianenmen Square in 2007

China was giving the final touches to their preparations to host 2008 Olympics when I visited this country last time. They show-cased the nation’s growth to the outer world. Beijing looked much more than a European city. The Beijing Olympics 2008 was dominated by the Chinese is a history now...

This picture was taken in 2007 at the back drop of the
Olympic Stadium in Beijing

No wonder if the Chinese are a dominant force in the sports arena. They deserve it. They give a lot of importance to physical fitness. It is hard to see a person irrespective of the gender or age walking with a big tummy or a fat body.

A park where old men and woman are seen doing exercise

Everyone, boy or girl, woman or man all sport a trimmed body with a flat belly. They spend at least a few minutes everyday to do some exercise. In so many public places, facilities are avaialbe to do soft and hard exercises. Eeven old men and women use them extensively .

The play ground inside the Harbin electric Company campus

At work places, workers are allowed to take breaks in between and come out to do exercises. Especially after taking lunch, they occupy the play grounds with so many sporting activities.

I often felt so embarased to flaunt my tummy in public. The only saving grace was that, most of the Indians here do have the same "asset"! We all nurture  a fat body and a big tummy after attaining a certain age.

Is it not true that a man is not complete without a pot belly? The olden age concept of a perfect man includes, among many other requirments, a pot belly too.  So we shall take heart- we are more manly than the Chinese...

For more photos click : Images from the road sides of China

Some news...Some views -6

Sowmya killer gets death sentence. The judgment is most welcome. More important and heartening fact in the entire episode is that justice is delivered in just six months after the incident took place. The culprit has been arrested, charges framed, tried and sentence pronounced at lightning speed. 


This is a beauty of our justice system. Though we blame on our system more often, if there is a will, cases can be disposed of in a matter of a few months. A beggar like Govindachami has people behind him including a government doctor. Now his supporters are taking the case to the higher courts.


 If all the higher courts endorse the sentence, government shall execute the punishment with top priority before some interest groups or any state assembly stands up in unison to demand clemancy to this killer. We are living in a world where the terrorists and murderers get more support and Human Rights privileges than the victims.


Sowmya’s tragedy sends a very strong message to the parents of girl children in our country, especially in the God’s Own Country. Send your girl children to martial arts classes. Physics ,Maths and Dance Classes can wait. Self defense is most important. Had Sowmya known a little bit of Karate or Kung fu, she would never have died such a horrible death at the hand of a one handed beggar. Remember, arithematcis and algebra had never helped her there, sadly….

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PPF and Post office savings will fetch more interest from December 1, 2011 onwards. That is really a good news. In the present scenario, investing in schemes like PPF is wiser than going after mutual funds and share markets.


Maximum of Rs 100000 can be deposited in Public Provident Fund (ppf) in an year. The minum amount to be deposited every year is just Rs 100 in order to keep the account live. Our savings can be deposited to the ppf account any time like in a savings account. PPF account can be opened in a State Bank of India branch and we can deposit money through internet banking also.


"The government today decided to increase the interest on Public Provident Fund (PPF) deposits to 8.6 per cent from 8 per cent, and raise the annual investment ceiling to Rs 1 lakh from Rs 70,000. The new rates will be effective December 1.


The finance ministry has also reduced the maturity period for Monthly Income Scheme (MIS) and National Savings Certificate (NSC) from 6 years to 5. The rate of interest paid under Post Office Savings Account is up from 3.5 per cent to 4."


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Another theory in Physics is poised to crash. Till now we have been taught that no particle in the universe can travel faster than light. Now, the latest experiments reveal that thare are particles that can travel faster than light.

The particles, the scientists call Neutrinos travel at a speed of ...meters per second that that is 60 nano seconds fatser than light. Scientists in France and Italy are re-confirming their finding and it is a matter of time the century old Einstein's theory is corrected.


"The neutrino news came from a group of physicists based at the Gran Sasso underground laboratory in Italy and doing business under the apt acronym OPERA. The neutrinos, they reported on September 23 in a paper and at a special symposium at CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research, had beaten a metaphorical light beam from CERN to Gran Sasso, a distance of 457 miles, by 60 nanoseconds."


Let us hold our breath. E = MC² may not remain the same in the near future

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Appooppanthaadi-26

Harbin is located in the north east part of China. It is just 200 KM away from the borders of Russia and North Korea. The present temperature there at present is -7 degree celcius. The maximum temperature reaches -7 degree and the lowest in peak winter reaches   -30 degree celcius.

Look at the map of china. All the major cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Hongkong are situated on the Eastern and North Eastern parts of China. On a closer look, sadly, even our country's map is disorted. It looks China is arbitrarily taking ownership of many parts of India that are integral part of our country

Harbin is the city where Camp 731 was located. Camp 731 was a Japanese Medical Laboratory established to conduct mindless medical experiments of human beings. During the world war-2, Japanese invaded parts of China. One part among them was Harbin. They conducted unimaginable cruelties on the prisoners of war in the form of experiments. More on this is available on the internet.

"Unit 731 was based at the Pingfang district of Harbin, the largest city in the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo (now Northeast China).

More than 10,000 people—from which around 600 every year were provided by the Kempeitai—were subjects of the experimentation conducted by Unit 731.

More than 95% of the victims who died in the camp based in Pingfang were Chinese and Korean, including both civilian and military.The remaining 5% were South East Asians and Pacific Islanders, at the time colonies of the Empire of Japan, and a small number of the  prisoners of war from the Allies of World War-II

According to the 2002 International Symposium on the Crimes of Bacteriological Warfare, the number of people killed by the Imperial Japanese Army germ warfare and human experiments is around 580,000. According to other sources, the use of biological weapons researched in Unit 731's bioweapons and chemical weapons programs resulted in possibly as many as 200,000 deaths of military personnel and civilians in China."

More on this is available on the internet if we search by typing "camp 731". Click Unit 731 - Wikipedia to read this in wikipedia. The pictures in the web are so disturbing.


The Chinese still hate Japan. The very reference to camp 731 makes them so unnerved and upset. It is quiet surprising and shocking to see that the Japanese, known for their hospitality and courtous behaviour could commit such heartless violance on human beings.

Appooppanthaadi-25

Chiense people are notorious for spitting. They spit in every public places. Not ony in public places, they spit even inside the lifts, train compartments, on the shop floor of the factory and even inside the airplanes . (The other day the man who sat by y side on board an aircraft cleaned his throat so loudly and spit into the vomit bag provided for every seat)


They do one more thing. After making horrible sound while cleaning the throat and discharging on the train compartment, they use their shoes to spread it on the floor! So nauseating. They don't mind even if anyone sits in the next seat. Now in the bone chiling cold in many parts of China, these dirty things on the raods are more visible as they are solidified!(so obnoxious, isn't it?)

There is no  age difference . Young or old, all are addicted to spitting. Still, on a happier note, I should admit that young and looking to be modern guys and gals do not often spit in public places. Hope more and more exposure to the outer world makes changes in their habit. One more news that is more comforting is that they do not use ghutka or panparag. Had they been using these vices too, then the entire China streets would have turned into red long time back! But, we should wonder aloud, why they do not use ghutka and pan parag, instead they are so fond of cigarettes


Now it is winter. In addition to the throat cleaning, they have one more thing to clean. The nose. In winter, everyone tends to have running nose. I too have while walking in the cold conditons. We have to often clean the nose. We do it quietly, without causing inconveniece to others  They do it right in the middle. Like we Indians, no one uses handcurchiefs. Everyone uses tissue papers. The fluid from the nose is deposited in the tissue with a loud noise and kept back in the pocket.


If you happen to travel in Europe in winter, we can come across this dirty act in public enacted by the people who are hailed as cleanest in the world. Many times, on train, I used to feel so irritated to hear the howling noises of nose cleaning. They do it irrespective of the place they are in - in can be even a restaurant. There too, they use tissue papers for this purpose.


One day, on the way to frankfurt on plane, the English speaking lady by my seat had been sneezing profusely and cleaning her nose incessantly. After a few minutes, she asked me if I could speak English. When I said yes, she started explaining to me of her ailment. She apologised for any inconvenience caused to me and informed that hers was a harmless common cold

Appooppanthaadi -24

They sell from lingerie to Laptop to Generators to us and nukes and missiles to Pakistan. We in turn sell our country to them. I type this with a heavy heart on a laptop made in China!



Indian market is flooded with all types of goods. We make a beeline to the China market to get the things cheaply. The situation has come to such a pass that without China, we cannot exist

Tonight, there were fifteen people from India at the client’s guest house to take dinner. They all came from the different parts of our country to visit Harbin Turbine Company, Harbin Boiler Company and Harbin Electric Company.

Some are with a mission to look after the quality, some the delivery schedule and others to finalize the documentary parts. Needless to say that most of the visiting dignitaries sit with the vendor for a big dinner party upon their arrival. The other agenda for many of them is to see the mystery called China. 


( Lion's share of the China's production is aimed at Indian market. For them, India provide bread and butter. Still, when we ask the locals why their country is more friedly to Pakistan than India, they have no answer. But they accept that China must be more friendly with India)

Indians are pouring in to Chinese market. They have placed purchase orders worth millions of US Dollars. Still, sadly, most of the customers never insist on a standard quality plan, drawings and technical data sheets or raw material test certificates before placing the orders or even at the time of conducting the final acceptance tests on the shop floor of the manufacturers.


Whatever documents the vendors offer during the time of our inspection is the final one. Every tests and inspections are taken place based on the vendor documents that was never reviewed or approved by the buyer.


The seller sets the standard and the buyer accepts everything he offers. Though the visiting quality control engineers have a general compliant that Chinese products are not of good quality, so far, in my experience, no one could find any major technical flaws in the Chinese products though there are rejection of products during quality inspetions by the Indian engineers.


It needs to be appreciated that on the shop floor while carrying out acceptance tests, unlike in our country, vendor does the tests without any manipulations. To be more precise, that is what an inspection engineer like me was given to believe.



If the pressure of hydro test stipulated in the vendor document is 10 MPa, the test is done exactly at 10 MPa and if the voltage to be applied is 14KV, it is applied sincerely without providing a bye pass in the circuit. I am sure, most of our engineers will accept this fact, even grudgingly.



How can China make and sell products at such low prices? This is a question, everyone asks here. I too asked this to many Chinese Engineers here.


They say, the main reason for low price is the low cost of production. Everthing is produced in learge quantity. Salary paid to the employees is much less that what other countries, including India are paying to the employees. Above all the speed of production.

Harbin Electric Company, so far in this year, produced twenty numbers of 600Mega Watt Generators. To any international standard, this is a big achievement. A 600 MW Generator can be readied in six months if all raw materials and componants are available.

The entrance of the Harbin Electric Company

The manufacturing facilities of the Generator, Turbine and Boiler Companies are very vast and they apply modern manufacturing facilities. One more very important thing we have to note -in China, in front of any manufacturing facilities, only one flag flies – the National Flag.


In addition to the state run companies in Harbin, there are huge manufacturing facilites in Shanghai and Dongfan which are also run by the government.

We have to agree to some extent that it is not the low quality materials that reduces the price but the high productivity and low cost of manufacturing that do the trick. And, remember, with the cost of an Ambassador car, no one would expect a BMW car…



As a foot note, I should state this too. When I returned from China after my first visit in 2008, I took a pressure cooker and an induction cooker. Both of them are working without giving any complaint so far.

Aathmavil Oru Chitha (A Pyre in the Soul)

Indian squad was unstoppable. IM Vijayan and Baichung Bhutia were tipped to be the deadliest duo much before the tournament started. True to their reputation, in a clinically precise operation, IM vijayan gave the ball to Bhutia that never went waste. India are the world champions!

Victory lap was exciting.  As the Cup was lifted by Vijayan, flood gates of emotions were opened. Every Indian felt they  were on the top of the world. The victory lap by Vijayan and his team had started. It was a welcome relief from the stranglehold of the octopus called cricket. This cricket octopus is no Paul, the oracle. Cricket, for long has been a reason for the death of all forms of sports in our country including the national game called hokey. 

Suddenly the cup broke with a thud. I was jolted out of my nap in front of the TV. As the final match spilled over to the extra time and even after 26 minutes of extra time did not produce any result, I had just slipped into a snooze, and that ushered in a ‘dreamable’ dream. I wish it had happened that way!

Holland was my all time favourites. This time too, I rooted for them. Twenty years back also, they had an unbeatable team.  The team with Ruud Gullint, Marco van Bastian and Frank Raijkard  were capable of conquering the world. In our trust hostel of TKM college, few trusted their potential. Among  that few,  I was one. Most of the guys either supported Germany or Brazil.

As the 1990 world cup progressed, Holland team lost steam somewhere on the way and were sent home. I quietly slipped over to the Argentine bandwagon. Maradona, though in his colourless form was doing well. He brought the team to the finals too. Though, he could not win the trophy second time for his country, the match was exciting. Germany took away the cup with a lone goal.

We had a television in the trust hostel. There was no facility at home to watch the live telecast. Those days, televisions were just making their presence in India. In a village like ours, it was too early to have a TV. We missed the 1986 world cup. The only access to the happenings was through the radio. The government controlled radio provided live commentary of the matches only for semis and finals. We enjoyed the finals sitting in front of the Akashavani. Maradona won the cup in 1986.

I did not want to lose any of the live telecast in 1990. So, I decided not to go home from June 10 to July 10. It was celebration time in our hostel. Different guys supporting different teams and the taunts against each other  produced a lot of joy. It was one of the cherished  parts of our hostel  life. I still remember how I was taunted in the night Dutch team crashed out of the game.

Germany  took away the crown. Maradona, the God of Football was a disappointed man. So was I. The day has passed. Another football gala became history.

Next day was another day for all of us. It was Monday. So, it was college time. As usual we all went to our classes. Afternoon, we had Electric Machine lab. As I have been with the ABB machines in our lab, there appeared two of our childhood buddies in front of the lab. I was surprised to see them.

They explained to me that my father had developed severe pain in the hands  and the state is a little critical. I could see them struggling to hide the fact. Still I did not want to imagine the worst. We immediately rushed home by the car they brought from our village. They had to travel all the way from the village, since there was no other medium available there to convey  the message. To make a phone call, we had to depend on the post office. To get me online we had to depend on the phone in the hostel. There were no mobile phones or internet those times. The technology leapt like a giant in the recent time.  It reached out to the unimaginable horizons within a span of twenty years.

As our ambassador car rolled in to our village, I could sense the danger. When the car was stopped in from of my home, the picture was clear. I could not control myself. There laid dead my beloved father. He left us even before seeing me an engineer. He could not  see my elder one a doctor. In fact he could not see any one of his children stand on his/her feet by the time he bade adieu.

I am still wondering how the boat that was badly rocked on that day sailed though to safety. Perhaps the almighty executed his unflawed progam without fail. Everything happened as He willed. With a chill in the spine, I still remember that scene. The dead body that lay on a plantain leaf. The tunnel we have just entered. The future of our studies.

We could sail through all our difficulties, thanks to our resilient mom, our eldest sisters’ husband and of course babuchettan. By god’s grace we never faced any difficulty till we finished our studies.

Twenty years went by. Whenever a world cup final passes into history, the images of the 1990’s final day come to  my mind. The pyre that burnt on the following day of the WC final is still simmering in my soul. Good bye my dear papa. I am sure you are occupying a place very close to God. We are all happy here. I enjoyed this edition of the WC also to my heart’s content….

Some News....Some Views...5

The next moment, the lethal weapon in his hand would have fallen in the neck of that black creature in front of him! This is a scene from the compound nearby the Gadhimai Temple in Nepal that is situated around 150KM away from Kathmandu. 




Hundreds of people watch this horror from atop the compound wall of the killing ground. The ritual is enacted once in every five years to please the presiding deity of the temple. Tens of thousands of buffaloes, goats, cocks and pigeons are killed in two days there

 

The scene on the right side is of a camel being readied for killing in connection with Id celebrations. Hundreds of Thousands of animals are sacrificed on the Bakrid day all over the world. 

Animal sacrifice is not so uncommon in most of the religions.
I do not wish to utter a word against or for these rituals. Commenting on religion and Gods is always fraught with violent reactions from the protagonists. I only pray to the Almighty, who has also created these animals, to give them a painless death at the hands of His/Her devotees

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