Terrorism, Piracy and Federal Structure

These are 3 issues which have been tormenting me for the last few days and for reasons which I’ll explain, have been reluctant to post on them before someone else takes the lead.

While I’d love to post the actualities (or rather my editorial perspective) on these issues, and by the nature of blogging it says that one should be early (rather the first), to blog about it, I have been sort of backtracking for one simple reason. 

While I’d love to have a thousand hits, getting out and posting on the issues involved, I am not sure that all the 1000 readers will have the political maturity and mental stability to confront the truth.  I’ve no wish to be dragged into the courts for being the first to post and have been waiting for someone else to pop the questions.

Thus the future posts, as early as tomorrow, will be on:

Terrorism:  The NCTC controversy and how various Chief Ministers have been reacting to it and its repercussions - now that the eminent lawyer Dushyant Dubhe has talked about it today on NDTV.

Piracy on the Seas: The shooting of the 2 Indian (Tamil) fishermen by Italian sea marshals, its repercussions and the idiocy behind the original action of introducing weapons into a sterile environment, where a former Merchant Marine Captain has stood his ground on Times Now, today.

The Buffoonery of Federal structure of India:  This entangles with the Terrorism/NCTC issue and how the quasi-federal structure in India differs with the Utopian federal concept envisaged by the opposition parties - for the first time breached by the Congress spokesperson Renuka Chowdhry on NDTV today.

And they will not be in the same order or may even be earlier, if I can’t catch sleep.

>:->

A Shinkansen cannot stop at every suburb

Whoever has heard of a Shinkansen which stops at every station in a metro line?  If it does, it cannot be a Shinikansen, isn’t it?  A Shinkansen or a ‘Bullet Train’ is supposed to offer a high-speed rail connectivity between cities, not serve as a transit system within a city.  A Shinkansen is a ‘inter-city’ rail connection and not a ‘inner-city’ rail network.

If we do not understand the purpose and service orientation of a high speed inter-city rail connection, we should never try and operate one.  But back home in India, we are least bothered about such clarity of purpose.  Every city wants a fast non-stop rail connectivity, but wants every fast non-stop trains between other cities which pass through, to stop at their station. 

It doesn’t matter what the train is, or which part of the country it serves.  If a fast, non-stop train runs through my city, it has to stop to pick me up, at my city.  I don’t want to travel 50 or 100 km to the origin city to jump on the fast, non-stop train.  The train has to stop at/for my convenience.

Thus:

• In the West, people grouse that Chandigarh-Amritsar Duronto Express will not stop at Ludhiana.  (Distances: Chandigarh to Amritsar ~230 km;  Chandigarh to Ludhiana ~ 95 km)
• In the North, Indian Railways agrees that the Lucknow-New Delhi Shatabdi Express will stop at Tundla, in addition to existing Aligarh & Etawah stations.  (Distances: Tundla to Aligarh ~96 km; Tundla to Etawah ~100 km; Lucknow to New Delhi ~475 km)
• In the South, they agree that Trivandrum-Nizamuddin Rajdhani Express will also stop at Quilon and Alleppey, in addition to Cochin (Ernakulam) station.  (Distances: Quilon to Trivandrum ~65km; Alleppey to Cochin ~60 km;  Trivandrum to Nizamuddin ~2,800 km)
• In the East, people agitate demanding Guwahati-Delhi/Chennai Express trains also stop at Sarupathar, in addition to Furkating and/or Dimapur stations.  (Distances: Sarupathar to Furkating ~34 km; Sarupathar to Dimapur ~36 km; Guwahati to Delhi ~1957 km; Guwahati to Chennai ~2745 km)

The reason that people subject the Indian Railways to these type of headaches is because it is damn inconvenient to travel 50 or 100 km by road in India, to be in time to catch a train, plane or attend a meeting.  Thus they repeatedly question, ‘Why can’t the train stop here for 2 minutes?’

Under such circumstances, keeping in view that construction of a 4-lane highway capable of smooth, fast road traffic would be cheaper (estimated at Rs. 10 Crores [100 mn] per km), than building another railway line to inter-connect these cities (estimated at Rs. 21 Crores [210 mn] per km*), one would think that the GoI would plan on building Highways. 

Mind you, the rail option would also require additional investment in rolling stock and more running expenses by way of fuel and manpower.  In case of road option, all those - cars, buses, fuel, manpower - are on the heads of the users, and not public (govt) investment.

*Note:  The Praja CRS Plan referred for rail construction cost estimates Rs. 150 mn @ 2007 prices; allowing for inflation of 7% as per Business-Standard article referred for road construction, I arrived at ~210 mn in 2011.

And that the GoI would aim to keep existing and planned highways as Highways -

• where people commute between cities or towns, as a fast clip and
• not allow those highways to turn into another arterial road, congested with pedestrian and leisure traffic.

But what do I know!  The Ministry of Highway bureaucrats endowed with foresight and wisdom have proposed that the Highways Ministry permit Residential projects along existing/proposed Highways.

8-0

I can just hear Dastardly and Muttley snickering around somewhere.

My Thoughtful half thinks aloud, ‘BTW what would be the total time lost if a Train travelling at an average speed of 100 km/hr is made to stop at a station in between for 2 minutes?  For eg., the case of Lucknow-New Delhi Shatabdi Express, made to stop at Tundla!’

Hell, looks like it will need a lot of research and information, like weight of train, its weight when fully loaded, the capacity of its engines, acceleration and braking capacity and what not.  Not for today!

Leopard’s day out is on Saturdays

For the last couple of months, every Monday morning I pick up the newspaper expecting to see the news of a Leopard attack somewhere in India over the weekend.

I am not joking.  Starting with Spot the Leopard and Shaken or Stirred last year, there seem to be a spot of bother (no pun intended) with the Indian Leopards almost every weekend.

• In July 2011 alone, there were 3 other attacks in various parts of the country
• Christmas weekend had the famous Leopard attack in North India caught on camera
• New Year brought the 3 hour rampage in Guwahati which killed one man and scalped another
• End of January, 3 people inside their house were attacked by a Leopard in West Bengal
• In February two men were attacked in separate incidents on a single day, in Uttar Pradesh
• In Garhwal district this weekend (yes, the Garhwal of Jim Corbett fame) a leopard carried away a 4 year old

So are the leopards being let out of some wild cages over the 450weekend?  Or have the leopards made a collective decision that they’ll let down their hair (and also that of humans), come weekends?

LOL

The reason more likely is the human activity, noise and disturbances naturally start to wind down as the weekend approaches.  This reduction in noise, lights and movement, which probably scared and kept away the leopards during the week, encourages them to explore the areas seemingly ‘vacated’ by the humans.

However, the areas have not been ‘vacated’ by the humans.  They’ve simply reduced their cacophony and stay put, lying low.  When a leopard stumbles into such a ‘low lying’, the howling starts, panic sets in and one or the other or both get hurt.

My Naughty half natters, ‘ So, what is the solution?  Party!  Party during the weekend guys, and don’t let the leopards have the weekends out.’

:-P

On greeting with a Hello!

Over the last week, my mind has been occupied with how people greet, meet or like (and unlike) each other.  It doesn’t matter what is the relationship between the concerned people is.  They can be mother and son,  two friends, or colleagues, even class mates, ship mates, a senior officer to a junior, a man and woman, uncle and nephew or a master to servant or just two people who live nearby - neighbours.  It doesn’t matter who the two persons in question are.

What matters is how one of the people mentioned above wishes, likes to greet the other.  There are people -

• whom you cannot wait till the morning to meet;  you just go out in the night to keep looking at or talking to,
• for whom you wait for the morn with eager,
• whom you wish to see, sight or hear as early as possible,
• whom you wouldn’t mind coming across in the day,
• whom you would try to avoid in the morning, day or evening, and
• whom you wish never, ever appear in your life ever.

For a large number of people, I’ve slipped from the first 2 places.  For almost everyone I’m in the middle 2 phases.  After the colourful life I’ve had, count exactly 2 who’d treat me in the 5th category.  And exactly 1 who doesn’t want to see me - the man would either run away in terror or try to kill me on sight.

I’ve been so fortunate because whenever a problem occurs, especially when they are of personal - meaning person to person related - I always put myself in both the positions, that is, think from both sides of argument or differences, and try to arrive at a solution.  With that attitude in life, I’ve -

• exactly 1 in the first category,
• dozens in the next two,
• scores who are in the 4th,
• exactly 2 (not the terror/killer guy, but a neighbour man and wife) who I try to avoid like plague, and
• none in the last.

Events over the last few days have made be think about these relationships.  This is the first time I’ve tried to categorize the perceived relationship or friendliness like this.  Because someone made a comment yesterday ‘when you see someone, you should feel eager to talk to them’ and not feel like ‘OMG! I’ve no other way out, but to talk to them.’

In all my years, I haven’t heard a truer word spoken.  While I don’t want to be loved and hailed by everyone, I would positively abhor the day when people try to avoid me like plague.

As said above, I always try to put myself through the other side.  If people do try to avoid me, what does it say about my goodness?  I mean, how ‘mean’, cheap, selfish, uncouth, uncaring, flimsy, rotten, evil should one be, if people would prefer not to meet them any day, for ever?

But if that is the criteria I’ve to adopt, I see another 4 or 5 who’d qualify.

LOL

I think I’d take rather take Pete!