“Bangalore South is not as Brahmin-dominated as you think”, Rajeev Gowda had told me about two years back. “There are an equal number of Vokkaligas here. So I do have good chances of winning”. Unfortunately for Prof. Gowda, Basavanagudi, where he lives, is currently represented by former mayor K Chandrashekar, another Congress Vokkaliga.
Continue reading “BJP in Bangalore part two – Karnataka elections coverage part three”
If reports earlier in the day by TV 9 are to be believed, the BJP has finalised its candidates for the 28 constituencies in Bangalore. On the whole, they seem to have done a decent job of it, though it was widely reported that there was a lot of infighting and lobbying. The chief cause for concern, however, is that a number of realtors have been given tickets.
Continue reading “The BJP in Bangalore – election coverage part two”
Starting today, i hope to write a series of posts on my blog covering the Karnataka elections, which are scheduled to be held on May 10, 16 and 22. What makes this elections more interesting is that they are going to be held according to new constituencies which were drawn up by the Justice Kuldip Singh Commission. The Congress tried to push the elections to November, claiming that it would take time to prepare the new rolls. However, the EC figured that they would be able to hold the elections before May 28 – which is 6 months after the last assembly got dissolved, so elections will be held next month.
Continue reading “Karnataka Elections: Part 1 – Redrawing Constituencies”
There have been several experiments where they test the behaviour of people with respect to fairness. A popular test is that person A is given 100 rupees to divide among himself and person B. Now, B can either accept this division, in which case both get the amounts that A proposed, or he can reject it, in which case both get nothing.
Logically, even if B is paid 1 rupee, he should accept it since he’s better off with the rupee rather than without. However, numerous studies have shown that B rejects the division when he thinks it is “unfair”.
Saw a version of this yesterday. Typically at busy intersections, you would do well to follow the rules and wait for the green light. The cost of the wait is typically less than the cost of a potential jam (there’s a limiting case wrt traffic, of course; hence you see that there are more signal jumps when traffic is thin). However, it seems like fairness is important.
It was fantastic to watch, and even participate in it though I knew what I was doing was wrong. West had waited for five minutes at the intersection (a long time by that intersection standards) and when the policeman decided to ignore them to give Green for a second consecutive time to south, the barrier breached. As if acting on a cue, everyone on the west side breached the signal and caused a traffic jam.
It was fantastic. People were really patient for the first few minutes of the signal. No one even attempted to jump it. The policeman, they thought, was doing his job and they did theirs. After the jam been caused, once again, people were remarkably behaved and listened to the policeman as he helped clear the jam. It was only when the policeman acted “unfairly” that they didn’t behave. It was as if at that moment the crowd had lost trust in the signal system and decided to breach.
I ultimately ended up spending some 20 minutes at the intersection (i was part of the side that was “unfairly treated”).
Let me know if you have observed anything else that is similar.
i’m becoming way too restless nowadays. Not able to concentrate on anything. I’ve become a compulsive multitasker. And sometimes I’m reading so many things at the same time that it can get maddening. Even as I write this, my mind is on some six other things and i’m listening to music and trying to overhear some colleagues.
I think I need to start playing blitz chess again. With a human (I’ve been playing with a program, but in that case it’s easy to get distracted). And either using a chess board or blindfold. No computer screens please – there again I can get distracted and not concentrate properly. Also it’s important that it’s a blitz (< 10 mins per player) game. If I have a longer time to think there's the danger that I might take my mind off the game, which can defeat the very purpose.