Struggles with the RTO

I repaired my old scooter (a 2000 Bajaj Saffire, automatic trans, 100 cc engine, 6 hp) for general use in Bangalore. I will of course continue to commute to work by bus, but I wanted to have something else for mobility than my car which is both expensive and cumbersome to use in city conditions.

But before I could start riding it, I need a driver's license. My current driver's license is only for a car. So I decided to metaphorically kill two birds with one stone by taking the opportunity and obtaining a license for a geared motorcycle (Indian driver's licenses are valid for some ridiculously long time like 20 years!) which I could also use for my automatic transmission scooter. But I need to get a learner's permit first with which I would have to wait a month before taking the road test.

So I decided to go to the RTO (a Road Transport Office, our version of the DMV). Let me explain what this process entailed. First of all, the RTO is holed up in a building which is well, let's say weathered. As soon as you walk in, touts and middlemen of all sorts run up to you saying phrases like "Yes, boss, RTO?", "LL / DL?", "License, boss?", etc. My friend joked that someone would come up to you and ask "Yes, boss, LL / DL / fake passport?"

Who knows, if there was a Gujarati among them, they would even possibly ask you if you wanted a fake US visa. Apparently, Gujaratis are notorious for fake visa rackets (why am I not surprised), but that's for a different entry.

Anyway, after ignoring or brusquely pushing aside these middlemen, we went up to the RTO office. You have this teeming mass of humanity that is moving every which direction, I mean, there was at least one person moving for every one of the 360 degrees in a circle! I took with me all the documents and ascertained the correct line in which to stand. I am exempted from taking the oral / written test since I already have a driver's license for a car. But they still made both the people who were taking the tests as well as people like me in the same line.

About 15 minutes of standing in the line and moving forward, someone comes up asking each of our circumstances. Myself and two other people already had driver's licenses, so he sent us to a different desk. I was thinking, not bad, this thing is going to get done fairly quickly after all. Of course, before we could get to that desk, a middleman cut in line carrying some dozen license application forms in his hand. These were promptly attended to by the "public servant," knowing that the middleman would pay him a separate "commission" at a later juncture. When we did get to the desk, we were told we were in the wrong section and told to go back to the line we had just come from!

So anyway, we went back to the line grumbling at the person who had told us to leave in the first place and since we had no idea of where we had originally stood, we went to the back of the line. Anyway, another half an hour later, we finally got up to the desk where we had to give our forms and the same person who had originally sent us out of our line collected our forms and gave it to the official to sign! This was ridiculous. I still as yet do not know why he sent us to the line and I didn't ask him why lest he find some minor detail with which to deny my application (and since the application section of the RTO is only open on weekdays between 10 a.m. and
12 noon, I had to leave work to go there).

So I gave my application and they told me to come back the following evening between 4 and 5 p.m. That's a ridiculously long time to enter my application form info into the computer, print out a license, affix a photograph and stamp and seal across it, but whatever ...

The following evening when I did return, there was a large crowd of people around the desk, but I did get my license. However, despite taking a day and a half, all the optional information I had bothered to write down (blood type, etc) was omitted from the actual license. But regardless, I did get my learner's license and I got it the honest way without going through a middleman and thus paying bribes. And I guess India has improved somewhat (a lot actually) since six or seven years ago, it wasn't possible to do this. They would find some reason or another to deny you a license unless you went through a middleman. Now it is possible to do this, even if it takes ridiculously long and they quite literally make you run around in circles. So yes, that's something that's improving and that's good.

Now all I have to do is go back in a month for my road test. Once again, I plan to do it the honest and ethical way. However, that is even more of an obstacle because it is only conducted some once a week or something and at an equally inconvenient time. They are also equally eager to fail you, so you have to ensure that you don't make any mistakes. But anyway, more on that when it happens.

5-Star vs. Stand-and-Eat

Yesterday, my cousin's father-in-law had taken us to dinner at The Grand Ashok, a five star hotel here in Bangalore. I don't remember the last time I've ever (if ever) I had eaten at such a place. I know that everytime Drexel recruiters come to Bangalore, they treat the potential lamb ... er, students as well as currently enrolled Drexelites at the Leela Palace (a small sop before looting them out of thousands), which is either a five star or seven star hotel. However, I've never had an opportunity to go there because I am invariably on one of my tours of South India whenever the event happens.

Anyway, so what were my impressions? The food was good (although I've had equally good food for a fifth of the price) but the service was lacking. I would say the best service I have ever had have been at:

1) Vasudev's Adigas Foodline - A chain of self-service stand and eat restaurants in Bangalore, the best of the ubiquitous darshinis. As you're eating, there are workers moving all around carrying trays with glasses of water. No sooner do you finish one than a new one is kept before you. Considering the average meal is Rs. 25 (vs. Rs. 600 at Grand Ashok), it's absolutely amazing.

2) Big Wing Wong Chinese Restaurant - This tiny little restaurant is in Manhattan's Chinatown, i forget exactly where. Walking from the Canal St. subway station, you have to head east on Canal St. past the Little Italy street with Ferrara's bakery and then take a left on one of the streets. It's surrounded by more expensive looking restaurants and we tried it on New Year's Eve when we wanted something cheap and filling to eat before heading to Times Square. The average meal is $5-$8 (no small feat considering that you're in Manhattan and a McDonald's meal could cost you more than that) and the food was filling enough to sustain us on that one occasion from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. I've had food there later as well, but getting to the service, it was exactly as described in Adigas. The service was fast and courteous, but again it was the water that gave it the accolades. As soon as I finished my glass of water, there was a waiter refilling it. I was very impressed.

By now, you probably know why I didn't like the service at Grand Ashok. Yes, it was the water. I think at one point, I was waiting almost 10 minutes with an empty glass of water. It was filled only after we requested a waiter to fill it. Subsequent to our request, the fillings were fairly frequent, but the damage has been done. I think the most important part of restaurant service is the water. Anyone can come and give you food in a timely manner (after all, you've ordered it), but only the best establishments pay such attention to ensuring you always have a glass of water in front of you.

Internet Update: Ping, but No Reply

So how long have I been in India now? Ok, let me rephrase that question? How long ago did I apply for internet? Let's see, I applied online on the BSNL web site on Saturday, July 8, 2006. Today is July 25th. I've been trying to call BSNL and according to one lady I spoke to, the work order has not been issued yet. She gave me a different number to call and they routed me to yet another number. At this third number, no one picks up the phone. I've tried calling in the morning, afternoon, and evening.

I also stay slightly towards the outskirts of Bangalore, so most DSL service providers do not provide me with service there. If and when I do get in contact with BSNL, they may or may not provide service to my locality. That leaves me with cable internet, to which I'm pretty much guaranteed service and since I already have cable at home, it should take no more than a week to get set up. So what's the problem, you ask. The problem is that cable is ridiculously expensive.

There is a plan that offers "blazing" internet at 256 kpbs (as I said before, these people really need to realize what true broadband is before they start coining words) and it is for six months at a total cost of Rs. 1,500. This is great if it lasts for six months, but it has a 3 GB data transfer limit. So I have no idea how long 3 GB lasts since I never had a data transfer limit before. If it lasts for one month, then Rs. 1,500 is on the high side, but if it would last me for two months, then that's a great price. Well, I'm going to go to the BSNL office tomorrow morning and see what's going on. In almost all likelihood, I'll cancel my application (provided it's been accepted and recorded in the system in the first place) and I'll sign up for Hathway. At this rate, I'll be back in the U.S. before I get internet.

Did I say Verizon was bad? Verizon is great! No, actually they're not, they charged me $35 for DSL again this month and charging my roommate for the same service after we told them about five times that they're double charging us. They owe me something around $200 which they've charged me for a service that my roommate already paid for. But despite all this, we at least had internet and at a decent speed. But when I come back, it's going to be either Comcast or Earthlink. But for now, my battle with the state owned BSNL continues ...

China: A Marvel or a Cesspool?

I recently read an article on the BBC News Web site comparing India and China. The reporter spent a few days in New Delhi, after years of living in Beijing, and concluded that India was far from catching up to India in almost all economic aspects.

The reporter's observations may be accurate, but I cannot disagree more strongly with his conclusions. Let's explore a few of them.

"[In New Delhi] The streets groan under the weight of people. The air is filled with deafening noise and sumptuous smells."

Yes, that is true. But unlike China, people in India have human rights and come to the city in search of a better life than in the countryside. Authorities can't just sweep them away like one would dust under a carpet. It's easy to pick and transplant human beings in China where the military junta calls the shots, but tougher in a multiparty democracy (however flawed it may be) such as India.

"The hotel was expensive and bad. In my room I searched for a high speed internet connection, a standard feature in any hotel in China. There was not one.

Then with the night-time temperature still well above 30C (86F) the power went out.

I lay for hours soaked in sweat trying, and failing, to get back to sleep and wishing I was back in Beijing where the lights never go out."

China is far ahead of India in terms of information infrastructure because the government there set it up without any delay. Once again, that is quite easy in a military dictatorship. But India's chaotic democracy moves three steps back for every step it takes forward and any modernization here is solely due to private enterprise and human ingenuity (and this too was stifled with 44 years of socialism), so things will take time. And with power, India's biggest problem is power theft, which is once again a rampant problem in rural areas with the government turning a blind eye to it in order to gain rural votes.

These are all problems that India faces, and China doesn't face, because India is a democracy and China is an autocracy. However, I can say with certainty that we would not trade our freedom and human rights in exchange for materialistic prosperity, even at the risk of the likes of Mr. Ruper Winfield-Hayes, BBC China Correspondent, not having electricity at night the next time he comes to India.

And just in case you're tempted to say, "Well, Vivek, that's all well and good for an upper middle-class person like you to say, but what about the hundreds of millions of rural poor for whom autocracy may be a godsend?"

I have an answer to that as well. I remember showing Mani a news article on the BBC News web site about West Bengal's rural poor. In it, farmers in a village as well as a person lugging heavy sacks of rice who made $1 a day were asked if they would give up their vote if they could dramatically improve their living standards. Each and every single one of them said no, which surprised me greatly back then and which made both myself and Mani's respect for Indian villagers grow immensely. Showing extraordinary intelligence, all these uneducated farmers and daily wage laborers replied that if they had the vote, they could influence government to make things better.

The final paragraph of this article summarizes this blog post best.

"If the state's ruling communists do begin to follow China as they once followed the Soviet Union, their supporters - rich or poor - would draw a line on the Chinese formula of curtailing rights in order to create wealth."

India is not China and Indians will never sacrifice their human rights regardless of how wealthy they become. And who ever said that material wealth is the panacea of all problems? In case you haven't heard, China is the second largest consumer of fossil fuels in the world. It's highly inefficient factories and manufacturing processes are carrying harmful toxins and causing acid rain and all sorts of toxins in Korea, Japan, and even the U.S. West Coast. China's environment is excessively degraded with no ecological forethought going into any construction project, and this too in a society where the public have no method of redressal.

If the BBC China correspondent would be kind enough to leave the gleaming buildings within China's diplomatic quarter in Beijing, perhaps he would see the other side of China. He needn't even do that, all he has to do is read news printed by both the BBC News as well as the New York Times.

Figured it Out

Ok, I figured out how I can read my blog. I am using a third party web site to direct me to my blog. It's that simple, so much for the government ban. Hey, Manmohan Singh and Co., do you get it now? You can never ever silence the people's thirst for freedom, so don't ever try! Whew, that was a scary hour ...

India: A Totalitarian State?

Ladies and gentlemen,

For some reason, I was unable to read my blog or another blog that I commonly read since yesterday. I was unsure of what the exact reason was, perhaps Blogspot is down, I thought. It was very strange that I was able to still log on through (Blogger.com) and post as I am doing now. That was until this morning, when Mani informed me that the Indian telecom ministry has shut down the nation's blogs in wake of the 7/11 bombings.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/18/world/asia/18cnd-india.html

Can someone please pass me a copy of the newspaper where world's largest democracy became a totalitarian dictatorship like China, Pakistan, or Saudi Arabia? I seem to have missed that little tidbit of news. Excuse me for being naive, but I actually believed the following statements. They may as well have been imprints on toilet paper, I suppose. The Constitution of India says that, as of January 26, 1950:

"All citizens shall have the right-

• To freedom of speech and expression;
• To assemble peaceably and without arms;
• To form associations or unions;
• To move freely throughout the territory of India;
• To reside and settle in any part of the territory of India;
• to practise any profession, or to carry on any occupation, trade or business."

Hmm ... so I wonder, isn't this blog a living example of my freedom of expression? Since the Indian Government has not come out with why this action has been taken, I can only try to imagine the rationale behind this decision. I suppose the government has reason to believe that the terrorist groups that may have carried out the Mumbai bombings may have used blogs on blogspot to communicate or perhaps certain blogs are fanning religious tensions. So is the answer to block all the blogs?

As the New York Times article says, the same could easily done by procuring a domain name and posting a web site. So is the Indian Government going to go the way of China and hire thousands of people whose job it is to surf the net and block objectionable sites? What about print matter? Small local, vernacular newspapers could easily either communicate information to terrorists or fan religious tensions. So is the Government going to clamp down on the press as well? How about if I hold a meeting at the center of town and address gathered people. Is the government going to clamp down on the people's right to peacefully assemble, as is guaranteed by the Constitution referenced above. The terrorists may also try to move about the country, so it's probably best to stop all trains, buses, aircraft and set up military roadblocks on the highways. If the government thinks it's legal to block blogs, it's probably legal to do all of this, right?

I personally cannot imagine how people in China, Pakistan, or Saudi Arabia can live, but after just 24 hours of experiencing a real curtailment of my constitutional freedoms and one hour after finding out about it, I am incensed beyond belief. One thing is for sure, I am not taking this lying down. I have already written a letter to the editor to the Deccan Herald, my newspaper (www.deccanherald.com) and I will try to find out of what more I can do.

Until then, everyone please pray for a speedy return of democracy in India. Thank you.

A Monsoon Busride

Bangalore is unquestionably at its best during the monsoon months. It hasn't rained so far this monsoon in the city, but it did rain on two days. On one of those days, I had the privilege of witnessing it from a bus moving through the city's relatively quieter residential areas in the southwest. In order to get an idea of how beautiful it is, one first has to imagine the atmosphere at the time. It seems like a different place altogether during the monsoon rains. During the monsoon rains, it isn't uncommon to question whether you're at a mountain resort or in a congested city of 8 million.

On the bus ride home last wednesday, I witnessed among the pleasantest sights I have seen. Now I'm sure there are a lot of people who are reading this blog wondering why I refer to most of my experiences (bus ride during monsoon, hair cut from Tony) so superfluously. I am fully aware of my tendency to do this and I do it because each and every time I am experiencing a particularly memorable event, I am not able to imagine a better scenario. It goes along well with my optimistic, uncomplicated (Mani would prefer the term, "simplistic") personality. Anyway, back to the bus ride.

I don't know whether it's my imagination or whether it's because Bangalore is situated 1,000 meters (3,000 feet) above sea level, whatever the case, the clouds in Bangalore during the rains seem to be lower than any other city (thereby not including hill stations, etc) I've been in. I'm not talking about fog here, but actual rain clouds. Anyway, when a light or moderate, steady rainfall is underway, Bangalore's already salubrious climate (as I write this, the actual high temperatures for the previous day are as follows: Philadelphia, 38 degrees. Bangalore, 28 degrees) is made even more pleasant by a very cool, moist, and pleasant breeze.

The experience is best viewed from one of Bangalore's southwestern residential areas where the streets are wide, the houses are graceful and there are towering coconut trees from each nd every property. The view, of wide streets and swaying coconut trees, with a backdrop of low clouds give one a very tropical impression, but when supplemented by the cool, moist breeze that I've already talked about, one might wonder whether they are in heaven. Then the honking and chaos on the streets brings you back to reality. Nonetheless, at no time of the year is Bangalore more beautiful than on cool, rainy days and I'm distressed that we've had only a handful so far. It's raining everywhere in the country (as well as the state, all reservoirs are full and are releasing excess water) but here. This is a good thing since the last thing we want is nice rain in the city and drought in rural and catchment areas, but why can't it rain here as well. Oh, well, the peak monsoon is yet to come. I hope August and September will be better than July.

An Ode to a Barber

In every profession, there are two kinds of people, those who provide you a service for a charge and those who practice their profession and give it their all. An example would be a doctor who gives you a quick checkup and medicines versus a one who is genuinely interested in your life and looks as you beyond being just another appointment or insurance number. The same can be said about barbers and Anthony Cirillo certainly belonged in the latter category.

I had the pleasure of having Tony cut my hair for almost four-and-a-half years. A lot of people complained that he didn't cut hair fast enough or that he made more mistakes than others. The fact is, getting a haircut from this cheery, friendly, and downright nice man, who was in his late-80s, was one of the most pleasant experiences imaginable. His barber shop was a throwback to a bygone era, replete with Frank Sinatra music, really old rifles and pistols, a pennant from the year in the 1980s that the Philadelphia Phillies played in the World Series, and a cash register that was manufactured in the 1920s. His slow haircuts were always accompanied by nostalgic banter such as how the neighborhood used to be before the demographic shift in the 1960s and 1970s. He talked about how great it used to be, with fathers and sons coming in for haircuts together. Then there was the time when he talked about going to New York to be at Times Square at midnight for the New Year, in the 1950s! I would prefer his slow haircuts to the fast, sterile, almost mechanized haircuts that other places offer anyday and anytime.

As other people who have gone to him can attest, he was more than a barber. He was a friend who would listen to your problems if you had any and offer his priceless advice that could only have been gotten through decades of experience in simply living life. There was only a single time in which I've seen him not smiling brightly, that was the time when he learnt that both myself and my roommate were leaving Philadelphia after graduating. Of course, I can never forget his face when he was presented with a Christmas present from my roommate and myself. It was a canister vacuum cleaner with a long handle and we got it for him before he had said before that it was difficult to sweep up the hair from the floor. In this materialistic age we live in, everyone expects something and no one is really surprised. One rarely sees true gratitude and the look on Tony's face that day when we presented him with his gift was one of utter surprise and gratitude. I don't think I've ever received as true a heartfelt thank you as I did that day and I'm indebted to him for providing me that opportunity to see what true thankfulness was.

In short, Tony was one in a trillion. Sadly, he passed away on June 26 and I only found out about it today. My roommate had tried to make an appointment and discovered the phone disconnected and when he went down there, he had noticed flowers in front of the store which had blinds obstructing the view inside. The thought occurred to me to Google his name and that's when my suspicions were sadly confirmed. Perhaps what's saddest of all was that he had to work until literally the day he died. The pain that standing up and cutting hair caused him was apparent to all, so I am unable to comprehend why his children or grandchildren (who were grown up) didn't all chip in together to ensure he had a relaxing sunset of his life. When I told my mother this, she attributed it to the "greatness of Western culture" and on that part I had to agree. Despite all the harping on "family values," any Asian will agree that Western Civilization seems to have abandoned it. It's a society where children are ashamed to live at home after turning 18 and never look back. The "modern" nuclear family has no space for old parents. It's always amazed me how Westerners see their parents on holidays, but grandly have something called mother's day and father's day where they can send flowers or a mug. As one of my friends in India remarked, for us, every day is mother's day and father's day, not one day out of the year. Even if Tony was too proud to live with his children, it seems inconceivable to me that they couldn't together have figured out a way he wouldn't have to work.

Based on my own experiences, I know that he's done a lot of good and I am sure that his next life will be more comfortable than this one was.

07/11/06: The Aftermath

Yet another terrorist attack intending to break the indomitable human spirit has failed miserably. The terrorists may have destroyed a few train coaches and taken the lives of 200 people, but they have accomplished nothing tangible. In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, the people of Mumbai, like those of New York, Tel Aviv, London, and Madrid, have refused to let terrorists dictate how they will go about with their lives. It is encouraging that trains ran normally and businesses, schools and colleges were all open as if nothing happened, let alone one of the worst terrorist attacks on Indian soil.

The images of a Muslim man helping carry wounded passengers from the train, a Hindu man that donated Rs. 160,000 to a hospital so that it may buy medicines, and a Sikh man who maintained a 24 hour vigil outside one of the stations providing tea to survivors and their families goes to show that the terrorists' aim of creating interreligious tension has not succeeded. While there will undoubtedly be attempts by Hindu extremists to extract maximum political mileage from this, I do not think they will be successful.

That said, once the remains are picked up, the question needs to be addressed, how did this happen? It is clear that there was a massive intelligence failure. I've seen in the news that sometime in the recent weeks or months, hundreds of kilograms of RDX, the explosive thought to be used in the bombings, disappeared from a warehouse in Aurangabad. What have the authorities done since the bomb blasts in the temples of Varanasi a few months back? The current government of the United Progressive Alliance is, in my opinion, incredibly soft on terror. It seems that their main objective is preventing interreligious violence, which it should be, but having done this, they seem to consider the job finished. We see Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condemning terrorist attacks and urging people to remain calm. That's pretty much all we do see.

Consider the response by the previous National Democratic Alliance government. When Parliament was attacked on December 13, 2001, then Prime Minister Vajpayee mounted half a million troops on the Pakistani border ready to invade, and combined with international pressure, those actions forced the Pakistani government to crack down on terrorist outfits. It seems now that the UPA government's impotence in dealing firmly with terrorist threats is much appreciated by both President Musharraf, who is spared the unpleasant task of cracking down on and provoking Islamic extremists within his nation, as well as the terrorists themselves.

While some circles have called for the reenactment of legislation along the lines of the Prevention of Terrorism Act or POTA, the Indian version of the Patriot Act, it is unwarranted and extreme. Civil liberties certainly do not need to be curbed and we must fight against any such effort, however firm action needs to be taken. Pressure needs to be placed on Pakistan and Musharraf to do more. I know that no official pronouncement has been made as to who is responsible, but early leads point to Pakistani based group Lashkar-e-Toiba. Lashkar-e-Toiba is operating freely inside Pakistan. Powerful leadership is indeed needed at this stage and I am waiting to see if Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is up to the task of providing it.

There is perhaps no government better at protecting its sovereignty and its people than the government of Israel. Israel's steely determination in doing whatever is needed to safeguard its people, regardless of the insane motions and ramblings passed by the blatantly pro-Arab United Nations General Assembly, is a model that needs to be emulated as much as possible. Certainly, the Israeli government's actions for the most part have earned it my respect and admiration, even if Israel does occasionally go overboard and use excessive force against innocent Palestinians. If the Indian government had so much as a hundredth of the determination or patriotism that the government of Israel has, Indian jets would have bombed and destroyed the numerous terrorist training camps operating freely in Pakistan occupied Kashmir and sent an ultimatum to the Pakistani government to curb the terrorist activities.

Instead, we have had the following: innumerable bomb blasts in Jammu & Kashmir, the blast outside the historic Jama Masjid in New Delhi, the blasts in the holy city of Varanasi, and now the twin blasts in Mumbai and Srinagar. The blasts in Srinagar happened in the morning of Tuesday, about ten hours before the Mumbai blasts. They were aimed at tourist buses intending to once again derail a rejuvenating tourist industry, which is the mainstay of Jammu & Kashmir's economy. It is clear that the terrorists have no interest in the livelihoods or economic upliftment of the Kashmiri people. Despite a string of these attacks, aimed at Indians from all religions and backgrounds, what has the government done? Absolutely nothing and this is a matter for shame. The government of India is as culpable as these terrorists, and because of their failure to respond to the previous terrorist attacks, the blood of the 200 people who were killed in Mumbai plus those in Srinagar and those injured in both places are on the hands of Manmohan Singh & Co.

In the meantime, the people of Mumbai will not stop going about their daily lives and Mumbai will continue to be the unquestioned financial and entertainment hub of India, but as one person said on the BBC News Web site, this will be in spite of the governance.

The Northern Sky

One thing I have forgotten to mention is that since my arrival in Bangalore, I have consistently seen the sun in the northern sky. From April 27 through August 16, the sun rises in the northeast and sets in the northwest, being due north at solar noon. While this may not be earth shaking, it may be of interest to those situated at or further north than the Tropic of Cancer who never have an opportunity of seeing the sun in the northern sky for the entire day. From August 16 onwards, the sun will rise and set in the northern sky and be in the southern sky during noon. On August 16 and April 27, the sun is directly overhead in Bangalore. Between September 22 and March 22, the sun will rise in the southeast, be due south at noon, and set in the southwest. Once again between March 22 and April 27, the sun will rise and set in the northern sky being in the southern sky at noon. I just had to post this since I know all my friends will be missing my random weather and solar position talks so much.

Ancestral Pride?

I don't think any of us can say that all our ancestors were good and decent. White people have to deal with the fact that their ancestors launched the Crusades as well as the transatlantic slave trade. Arabs' ancestors subjugated entire peoples in the name of their God. Asian cultures divided people into classes or castes. Even the Native Americans fought one another and committed atrocities. So the question is, should we be proud of our ancestors? I think most people will easily say yes. Now how about if as recent as three generations ago, your family was subjugating and oppressing other human beings and consolidating their power base through religion? Would you still be proud of them? Of course not, right? Now you understand how I feel with respect to my own ancestors.

I got thinking on this topic when my father showed me clippings of newspaper articles written by my great grandfather (I guess writing runs in the family, even if ideologies differ). In this article published in 1926, my great grandfather was responding to a British man's column on Christianity and Hinduism. The British man, a Christian, made the allegation that Christianity was afforded man a chance to establish a relationship with a personal God in light of how men are sinners, blah blah blah, and thus was more "people friendly." In his response, my great grandfather said that Hinduism indeed purported that there was one, single personal God and how men were sinners and we had to offer our blessings in temples for grace. Everything he said is true, but that is just one school of thought of Hinduism and even that leads ultimately to Brahman. However, my great grandfather didn't explain any of that. As I'm reading this, I am wondering, am I reading the Bible? This isn't Hinduism! Hinduism's base is that God is omnipresent, within each and every thing, and ultimately, there is no God, just the ultimate Truth or Brahman. Sin and Virtue are opposite sides of the same coin and to become part of Brahman, one needs to detach themselves from both. I know this sounds a lot like Buddhism, but when you get deep down into it, that's pretty much what Hinduism is. Sure, we can make for ourselves a personal God if that would help us, but that's a far cry from insisting that there was a personal God and we are sinners looking for his grace.

My initial disagreement of my great grandfather turned to outright aversion when my father remarked how he did not like Mahatma Gandhi because of the Mahatma's "pro-Muslim" attitudes. Then it struck me. I am a Brahmin, the highest caste in the Hindu social order. Therefore, my great grandfather and his family was part of the ruling elite in India under the British. Mahatma Gandhi's ideas of social equality and egalitarianism threatened their grip on power (I'm not talking material wealth here, but rather social standing, which in India is often separate from and superior to material possessions). This is also the same reason why my ancestors would have promoted so fiercely the school of thought within Hinduism that stressed rituals and formal temple practices, because for these services, they held a monopoly by virtue of their birth, a monopoly which they did not want to give up.

It could also be argued that the masses are unable to pick up a philosophical religion and need a personal connection with God. This was all the more important under the onslaught of Christianity brought by colonial rule. So it could be argued that my ancestors by promoting a ritualized form of Hinduism were working to preserve the religion for the future. This may also be true. I do not know the reasons they had for believing what they did or writing what they wrote. However, I would be lying if I said I did not wish that my ancestors were true visionaries that worked for making religion more inclusive and empowering those groups that were marginalized. Unfortunately, my ancestors seemed to be quite ordinary in that they went along with the status quo and indeed tried to strengthen it. They were accomplished people, but this was expected of them and they didn't really change the world.

Following this contemplation, my respect for the likes of Swami Vivekananda, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Mahatma Gandhi, which was already great, has increased a hundred fold. They are a world apart from ordinary men because they truly realized what religion was and worked to bring it back from what it has descended to.

I will say though that, to a large extent, you can't blame my great grandfather and others for how they were. They were born and raised in that school of thought. Their ignorance is all the more pardonable when you consider that in today's day and age, with information all around us, some people still believe and insist should be taught in schools that the Earth is 6,000 years old and was made in seven days and evolution is not true. The purpose of my post therefore isn't to deride my ancestors. Rather, this post should be used to contemplate and realize just how great certain people are, such as the ones mentioned in the previous paragraph. When in spite of overwhelming social tradition and orthodoxy, those that reformed Hinduism for the better and to make it more inclusive and take power away from those trying to hoard it, those are the people to be truly respected and admired. They're the ones who were truly divinely inspired. The regular coming of such souls has kept the Sanatana Dharma ("eternal religion") strong and vigorous through all these millennia.

In answer to my initial question, I finally conclude that while I am not proud of my ancestors, I am not ashamed of them either. They lived their lives as how they were expected to, very ordinarily without doing anything spectacular. Therefore, with regard to my ancestors, I am ambivalent.

An Internet Update

An update on my internet situation. I went to the BSNL web site and actual broadband is available. In fact, BSNL offers 1 Mbps connections. However, it's prohibitively expensive, costing Rs. 3300 ($71.59) per month. I think I'm going to go for the 384 kpbs connection. It costs Rs. 740 ($16.05) per month. However, this connection has a 2 GB per month data transfer limit. I don't think this should be a problem since I will be at work most of the time and I only need the internet at nights and weekends. I'm not going to be downloading anything so the data transfer thing should be an issue. BSNL does very generously offer unlimited "night" usage, but their definition of "night" is 2 a.m. to 8 a.m. Hmm ... I think Jim Corbett described much of that time as that part of the night when even the jungle's carnivora go to sleep (midnight to 4 a.m.).

On the other hand, how much faster than 384 kpbs be than 256 kbps? I don't know, we'll see what I decide to get when I actually go down there. Now if you're wondering why I need to physically go anywhere to get a service, remember than I'm dealing with a state owned enterprise here. It may actually offer better deals than and provide better service than its private competitors, but it still is state-owned. Only in India can this happen.

First Post (s)

I've been meaning to start a blog in India to write down my experiences and any of my many random thoughts which may be of interest to others. Unfortunately, I still do not have internet at home and I have had to write down my blogs in notepad. So I will post several days' worth of blogs here, but I've separated them by date to minimize confusion. Hopefully, I can go to the BSNL office on Saturday (yes, I know, I'm going for BSNL. Despite my dislike for state-owned enterprises, in India, all the service providers are equally bad and BSNL actually offers "broadband" (in India, 256 kbps connection speed qualifies as broadband) at a very competitive price, about Rs. 640 ($13.91) per month. The service is comparable to and often better than many of the private service providers and one of the private providers, Satyam Infoway, charges Rs. 1000 ($21.73) for per month for the same service (256 kpbs, unlimited hourly usage, unlimited download). Anyway, so if I can get to the BSNL office on Saturday, they said it should be hooked up within 10 days. So until then, I'll post whenever I can make it into work early (like today) and access the net.

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Jun 26, 2006
Since my arrival in Bangalore, I've noticed that things really haven't changed much. Sure, gas prices have gone up by about 22 percent and almost everything else has gone up along with it. 100 rupees today goes much less further than it used to in 2004. Other than that, everything is the same. Technology is still the key word, people still drive without any road sense, infrastructure is still miserable, and poor people are still poor.

The very same night I landed in Bangalore, I experienced my first traffic jam. It all happened as in slow motion, um ... actually, it *really* did happen in slow motion. Basically, I took a right turn onto a one way street and I was surrounded by vehicles on all sides of my car and we slowly inched forward miraculously with no one touching anyone else. Similarly, a road that consisted of four lanes narrowed to about three-fourths of a lane to go under a brick/stone bridge and traffic flowed through it almost like a liquid, adjusting to the new shape, but filling literally every cubic decimeter inside that space. The invisible hand of traffic (much like the imaginary invisible hand of economics) directed two-wheelers, three-wheelers, and four-wheelers appropriately so that they filled the space within the bridge efficiently with minimal wastage.

That said, traffic sense in India is still ridiculously non-existent. People on the road are worried about where they are going and how fast they are going to get there, the other six million residents of this city be damned. There was the lorry driver driving his lorry on the Ring Road bridge leaving Krishnarajapuram towards Hebbal. Despite the fact that there are three brightly marked lanes there, one lorry driver is moving agonizingly slowly in the right-most lane (the fast lane, since traffic moves on the left in India) and the other lorry driver is moving exactly between the center and left-most lane, at an equally agonizingly slow space. The result being a traffic jam being created behind these vehicles despite the existence of world class roads. There are of course the numerous car and two-wheeler drivers who seem to think that lanes have no meaning in India and choose to ignore them. I won't pretend to say that I always stick within a lane since traffic conditions in India often require that you move frequenly between lanes, but I try to keep a lane as much as possible. It is my sincere belief that if everyone did that, things would be far smoother. One person may not make a difference, but the more individuals that decide to change their driving habits regardless of others, the more society as a whole will change.

Of course, how can I forget the ambulance that is stuck in a traffic jam at a red light. In the United States, an ambulance that enters a red light is still allowed to go through since the traffic that still has the green light comes to a stop. In Bangalore however, despite the presence of an ambulance and its frantic siren, the traffic policeman, either as a result of his infinite wisdom or the city's wise laws, decided to continue to wave traffic through from the other direction for a full 90 seconds before the side that the ambulance was waiting at turned green. Oh and don't make the mistake of thinking that traffic parted allowing the ambulance to go through. Some quarter was given, not much, and the ambulance moved forward only slightly faster than the speed of the traffic. However, the very fact that some quarter was given is a vast improvement from two years ago, although a lot still needs to be done.

I will undoubtedly be faced with the assertion that India is still a lot, lot, lot better than many countries. True, compared to many banana republics around the world, be they Uganda, Rwanda, El Salvador, East Timor, or Cambodia, India is comparatively like Luxembourg. However, they should not be India's peers. India is a potential superpower in the upcoming century and the peers need to be the United States and the European Union. India needs to compare itself to these two entities. Even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on his recent visit to Bangalore decried the dismal traffic situation and said that unless people started behaving in a civilized manner, the country would never become developed regardless of the infrastructure or per capita GDP.

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Jun 30, 2006
Living in the U.S., it is quite easy to be tolerant of different cultures, lifestyles, and religions. After all, isn't that what the United States of America is supposed to be about, openness and tolerance? Back in India however, even the most open minded and tolerant person will catch themselves thinking politically incorrectly because political incorrectness is all around us. It is ingrained in the social fabric of the society and is a part of daily conversation.

The topic of Muslims is an excellent example. Since my arrival in India, I don't think a single day has gone by where I have not heard an anti-Muslim comment from otherwise intelligent, tolerant people. I wouldn't judge them because I would have made far worse remarks a few years ago. I too am guilty of bigoted thought. As I'm sure a lot of people know, my current house is located near numerous mosques. While taking the family dog for a walk today, I heard a sermon being delivered in Urdu from the mosque loudspeakers. Unfortunately, the first thought that crossed my mind was whether the person delivering the sermon was trying to incite religious tensions. Later on, a Muslim man, accompanied by a head-to-toe veiled woman, who was looking at me weirdly didn't help too much either.

Fortunately, another event later on during the day drove these thoughts from my mind and my upbeat outlook on humanity is restored. I was taking an autorickshaw to a place from which I would catch the next bus. The autorickshaw driver was clearly Muslim judging from the Urdu he was speaking with his friends when I hired him as well as his license displayed within the auto which identified him as Parveez Khan. I had neither a positive nor a negative feeling with him. I needed to go from one place to another and he was getting me there.

The place where I wanted to be dropped off was at Hebbala Flyover Bus Stand, but to get to the next flyover, I would need to cross the flyover, then a set of railroad tracks to Bangalore's Ring Road and then take the next bus. After being dropped off, I paid him the previously agreed upon fare of Rs. 30 (about 67 cents), a pittance in today's India (especially considering that gasoline in Bangalore today is about Rs. 55 per liter or $4.62 per gallon) and started walking along the bottom of the flyover. At this point, he pulled up alongside me and asked if I wanted to be dropped further down. I said it wasn't a big deal, but he asked me to get in since he had to go that way anyway to make a U-turn. I accepted and he saved me about 200 meters of walking. I said thanks and he responded with a big smile.

I was pleasantly surprised since 1) he was an auto driver (a vilified group in Bangalore, most often rightly so) and 2) he was a Muslim (also a much maligned group, especially among the educated urban, Brahmin elite). So all in all, I still maintain that human beings are basically good and decent. There's also the bus conductor today who went out of his way to try and get me change when I paid him with a 20-rupee bill for a 5-rupee fare. Are these people exceptions. Both the auto driver and the bus conductor were extremely young. Are they doomed to become grouchier, less interested, and more likely to cheat as they face the rigors of Indian traffic, the corrupt officials and governance, and the living conditions that the lower-middle class of India faces? Am I looking at life in India through a western prism of materialism where annual income determines the quality of life? I don't know the answer to these questions but I certainly was touched by the thoughtfulness of the auto driver today (though he didn't lose anything, he could easily have not cared and continued onward). I certainly hope that we see more and more Parveez Khans on the road and in fact, all across India.

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Jul 4, 2006
I think for the first time in my life, I have gone through two entire workdays without wasting a single minute. I did not check my e-mail or log on to the net for anything. So this is what it feels like to do a job that you enjoy. So far, working with Wildlife Conservation Society-India has been awesome. I've been here two days and I'm realizing that we only touched the tip of the iceberg in Drexel. I spent much of Monday looking through photographs taken in the jungles of Karnataka from the camera traps and cataloging in an Excel spreadsheet the animals I saw. So far, the camera traps have taken shots of tigers, leopards, elephants, gaurs (Indian bison), chital (spotted deer), muntjac (a very small deer), small Indian civet, and porcupines. I've learned to tell tigers apart from their stripes which is fairly easy. Leopards are far trickier. Since we catalog animals based on their skin patterns, I certainly do hope that leopards never change their spots.

That was yesterday. Today, I learned, played around with, and did work on real data using the software DISTANCE. This software deals with distance samplings of clusters of animals. Basically, it's purpose is to use transects through the jungles to determine the density of certain mammals in the jungle as a whole. There's a lot of math involved. It's fairly easy to understand but extremely painful to carry out. Luckily the software program carries out almost all of the math. Playing around with different statistical methods is interesting and it's always fun to try and get the best interpretation of your data possible. I've learned enough from Biometry and Data Analysis to know that that's key.

The only downside of the job is the commute. The best way to commute is by bus, which follows a somewhat circular route which is about 30 kilometers. Now, you may be thinking, that's a shade under 20 miles, that's not too bad. Unfortunately, in Bangalore traffic, that takes about one and a half hours while going and about two hours while coming. It takes slightly longer while coming back since the bus takes an even more circular route. Including the time to walk to and from the bus stand to home and office and waiting times, it takes me roughly two hours to get there in the morning and two and a half hours to get back. Luckily, I have weekends to unwind, and to study for the GRE Biology subject test, and look into preparing an NSF grant proposal. However, the bus is still better than a car (extremely eco-unfriendly) or a motorbike (unsafe and stressful).

On the bus today however, I got started talking to a very kindly old gentleman who was sitting next to me. While the bus was passing near the airport, I got a perfect view of a plane coming in for a landing. It passed right over me and was a Thai Airways flight from Bangkok, as I could make out from the tail signage. I told the man this and this man, who I was speaking to in Kannada the whole time and I wouldn't expect would be the most well versed in global geography remarked, "I wonder how long it would take to get here from Thailand, two or three hours right?" Actually, it's about four hours, but close enough. The fact that an old man (although from his manner of talk he seemed at least decently read and educated) on the bus would know where Thailand is and how long it would take to get here from there is admirable and heaps even more shame on the average American's utter and complete ignorance of anything and everything outside their neighborhood.

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Jul 5, 2006
Those who have driven with me at least a few times know how I drive. When I feel like it (which is most of the time), I maintain about 15 miles over the speed limit (which translates to about 70-80 mph (112 to 128 kph) on most highways although I very rarely push 90+ mph (144+ kph) on the New Jersey Turnpike. However, if you've driven with me a few times, you also know that I have what I call a "mellow mood." In my mellow mood, I usually move over to the right lane and drive at a constant speed of about 55 to 65 mph (88 to 104 kph). The mellow mood usually happens when but isn't limited to night and when I've eaten a lot, and almost always during a combination of the two. However, it's almost impossible to drive at a mellow mood in India. While on the highways, which are usually two lanes without a divider, you always have to be on the alert for cows, dogs, peoples, slow moving road vehicles, farm vehicles, and oncoming traffic that drifts and stays on your side of the road during often mad passing encounters. Also in India, there is no concept of a dotted yellow / straight yellow line when driving (and even if there was, people probably wouldn't follow it anyway), so you have to look out for oncoming vehicles even on curves.

However, on a recent trip to Mysore about 144 kms (90 miles) away, I was pleasantly surprised. What was a nightmare two years ago has become a nice four lane highway with a divider throughout. A good thing too, since I was in my mellow mood whenever I was driving. I was able to maintain a constant speed of about 90 kph (about 57 mph) for the most part throughout the trip and including stops for food, we made the trip in two and a half hours. It wasn't absolutely smooth. There was traffic coming the wrong way on our side of the median in the center lane (one tractor and a truck) and there were areas where the four lane divided highway became a two lane undivided highway with little to no warning. There was also the sudden speed bumps that came up whenever the road passed through a small town on the way. However, for the most part, the road was good, the driving was stress-free, and people followed lane discipline fairly well. There were some idiots, but I used to see such idiots all the time when I used to drive into Philly on I-95 from the North when I would see a few cars racing at 100 mph (160 kph) zipping in and out of lanes during heavy traffic moving at 45 mph (72 kph). Anyway, I did enjoy the trip to Mysore and I was able to drive very well in a mellow mood. That's always good.

I also suspect that my friends in the U.S. are missing my incessant ramblings on weather, maps, and whatever else I usually talk about. They'll never admit it, but they do. So, in keeping with that spirit, I'll just comment on some weather details I've observed over here. It's monsoon time in India and there are massive floods on the eastern and western coasts (Orissa state and Maharashtra state (including the city of Mumbai) respectively. Bangalore, though has been dry as a bone. Every day, I see thick clouds overhead and think it's going to pour and they just disappear without a drop having fallen. I can even see the sun on almost every single day. I wonder what's going on. I know the monsoon has just started and traditionally most of the rain in Bangalore falls from mid-July through mid-October, but still.

The lack of clouds though has given me an opportunity to see the sunset and I'm pleasantly surprised to note that Bangalore too has long evenings around the time of the summer solstice. It's nothing compared to what North American summer evenings are like, but sunset is at 06:50 p.m. and it stays light till almost 07:15 p.m. Those of you who would brag about your 09:00 p.m. evenings I would like to remind that while it's pitch dark for you by 04:30 p.m. in December, it's light past 06:00 p.m. over here. It also gets up to about 27 C in December. So there you go. That's my ramblings on weather and what not for now. Hmm ... I wonder when I'm going to post all this since I still don't have internet at home and for the moment, I'm just writing my thoughts down and addressing myself on my own computer. Some might take this and conclude that I've finally lost it.