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….

* * * * *                   

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."


* * * * *

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

*                            *                                *                                      *                                *                              *

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

*                              *                                  *                                     *                                   *

The 7 Billion Warning...

World population touched 7 billion . Global warming, Water and air pollution, ice melting, sea level increasing....warning bells are ringing louder and clearer day by day...but no one seems to be listening

The scene on the right side is  from a railway station in Bangladesh. Though I have not yet been to Bangladesh, I have certainly been to Mumbai. Mumbai's world famous suburban trains also run almost like this, well almost. There are maddening crowd in the platforms. In every two minutes an EMU comes to the platform with overflowing crowd on it and stomach to have another thousand more!

The Mumbai train

People scramble for a place to squeeze in. Commuters inside the EMU get ready in combat mode to disembark well before two stations to their destination.

As the EMU slows down on the platform, the commossion starts. Before the train comes to a halt, people start jumping out of the train and those who are waiting outside, jostle each other to gain entry. One need not really make any effort to disembark or board the train as the anxious (unruly is more apt) crowd does this work.

The Chatrapathi Shivaji Terminus

There are three lines in the sub urban network. One along the Western Line that starts from Churchgate and ends at Virar. The other one starts at Chhatrapathi Shivaji Terminus (formerly and famously known as Victoria Terminus) and ends at Kalyan or Dombvily. There is another line -Harbor line. Lakhs of people even from remote places to different parts of city travel by the suburban trains. The central and western lines meet at Dadar


Mumbai comes to a standstill on the days these EMUs (Electric Multiple Units) stop running. Heavy rains in Mumbai during South West monsoon  creates floods in the entire city, thanks to the civic sense of the public and the indifferent municipal authorities that jointly ensure that the entire drainage system in the city is choked with garbage.  


During those watery days of monsoon, that brings the toilet water to everyone's door steps, the rail tracks too get inundated. These are the days Mumbai comes to a halt- well almost...


In peak hours even gaining entry into first class compartments is impossible. Interestingly, anytime is peak time in the sub urban trains there!


Though ticket rates on first class is many fold higher than the second class rates, there is no less crowd on these coaches too. But one graceful thing I must say about first class is that people who stand, sit on first come first served basis, when anyone vacates his/her seat.

 
The most unbearable thing apart from the suffocating rush is the smell of pan and ghutka. Invariably in first and second class coaches, there are so many commuters who chew all types of tobacco items and spit from the widows. The smell these chewing tobacco produces sometimes makes us feel like vomiting.



The entire rail tracks near the platforms of the stations look red in colour due to incessant discharge of salaiva mixed with pan.



Though, for the onlookers and the new travellers,  it may look like a frightening and impossible task, those who travel regularly look to be enjoying this journey. After travelling on these trains for a few days, anyone can learn the tricks that may make the entry and ejection to and from the compartments so smooth.


In the near future, it will not be an exaggeration, if I say, even on roads and inside our houese we will see such big crowds. One has to be really smart like a Mumabi rail commuter to survive in the coming days. It is better we get a feel of the rail travel in the mega city. So, all of those who have never seen the sub-urban rails in Mumbai, please head to Dadar....right now