They were launched with much fanfare six years ago, and were touted to be the next big thing in easing Bangalore’s transport problems. “This is the way buses are run internationally”, politicos and bureaucrats proclaimed. “Why generally waste resources on a conductor, when the driver can do his work also?”
the airport conundrum
Those of you who would’ve flown recently would’ve noticed Continue reading “the airport conundrum”
rebuilding relationships…
at several points of time in life, you end up in the unpleasant situation where your relationship with someone has hit the pits. there is a cold war on, and you haven’t spoken to him/her for a while. and you want to try and re-build the relationships. a few pertinent observations related to that…
1. You are uniformly better off by being friends with someone (irrespective of who it is) than being not-so-friendly.
2. The downside of rebuilding a relationship is capped – the relationship is probably already pretty screwed up so you don’t have much more to lose. So you better try.
3. Re-building a relationship takes a considerable amount of effort and heartburn for both parties. You should be prepared for that
4. If you initiate proceedings, be prepared for the thing to get off to a Ravi Shastri-level slow start.
5. There might be a chance that the counterparty may not be very responsive. Think of it this way, “if he/she responds, good for both of you; if he/she doesn’t care, he/she most probably doesn’t desrve your friendship”
6. The joy of having successfully rebuilt a relationship is tremendous. And you will usually end up at a higher plane than just before the misunderstanding.
And yeah, the fact that i’m sayin so much about rebuilding must also mean that i’m quite good at screwing up relationships… 🙁
Reservations issue…
So the cabinet seems to have cleared the bill paving way for reservations for OBCs in central universities (including IITs, IIMs). Thankfully there is some sense in the cabinet and they have said (at least on paper) that the implementatino would be in a phased manner.
I was watching “Face the nation” on CNN IBM late this evening, and in that Rajdeep Sardesai pointed out that according to some survey, more than 50% of Indians want reservations.
This brings us to the issue of the number (rather the percentage) of people who have been classified as “backward”. I don’t have the figures with me (and I’m too lazy to get them) but I believe more than half of India is classified as “backward”.
Taking a further step back, I’m wondering where Mandal drew the line to classify castes as forward or backward. He could’ve been driven by his own caste (I think Mandal is a SC surname, so he didn’t have an incentive there; but he could well have been under the diktats of someone who might have benefited directly or indirectly (in terms fo vote banks)). Alternatively by drawing the line where more than 50% of the population would “benefit”, the reservations would automatically have “popular mandate”. Another reason could be that if Caste A were in and Caste B out, politicians of B would oppose the implementation of the recommendations. But A has to be included for “strategic” reasons. So include B, and C and D also.
On an unrelated note (this is an impromptu post, so i’m meandering), I remember a certain group taking out a demonstration in Madras the other day asking to be classified as “backward”! I won’t be surprised if, in the near future, the oxford english dictionary were to redefine “backward” as “privileged” or something…
Students in Delhi have said they’ll revive their protests tomorrow. My best wishes are with them.
Update 1
I forgot to add this yesterday (thanks for reminding me) – a number of numerically and politically dominant (and not really backward) communities are classified as OBCs. For example, in Karnataka the two dominant communities – Lingayats and Gowdas are classified as OBC. In the North Jats are OBC.
Update 2
tells me that Mandal was a Yadav. Explains a lot of things.
left…
For a change the left seems to be talking sense. They are opposing the proposed amendment to the Right to Information Act. And the BJP is also opposing the move (this is pleasantly refreshing considering that the NDA government was held responsible for stalling the initial passing of the act).
The Congress has reacted saying that they will have a meeting with the left today or tomorrow in order to make them see sense. For a change, I hope the left doesn’t budge from its hardline stand.
probability distribution of terrorist attacks
Following the planned terrorist attacks 2 days ago on UK-US planes, security has been beefed up majorly all over the world. I reached Mumbai airport at 5:15 for a 6:20 flight to Bangalore and I boarded the flight on the last call. Procedures have been intensified, there are multi-colored stamps on the boarding pass, and all such.
I’m sure these intensified measures will be in place for a couple of months or so after which they will die a slow death. In a few months’ time, things will be back to normal.
Now, I would like to try and figure out whether the “process” of “terrorist attack” is Markovian. Whether the fact that there was a foiled attack a couple of days ago increases or decreases the probability of an attack today.
On one hand, terrorists might have planned a series of attacks all around the world in a short period of time, and hence if it were in London on Thursday, it could be in Mumbai today. For example, the Mumbai blasts last month were serial – the first blast was followed by seven others in an hour.
On the other, having tried to attack 2 days back, terrorists now know that there will be heightened security today so they are more likely to attack next month than attack today.
The net effect could be that the two things (and many more such factors) cancel out, and indeed make the distribution of worldwide terrorist attacks markovian. Can someone provide me the necessary data with which i can test this?
As an aside, due to the strict enforcement of the “one handbag per head” rule today, there was plenty of space in the overhead cupboards on board today.
cricket cribs….
yeah this post is late by 2 days but never mind…
on tuesday night i wanted to catch the fall of wickets in the England-Pak test match; and some highlights of the SL-RSA match. unfortunately no channel was showing either!
most of the sports news (and also other news) on all channels was dedicated to deano and his terrorist remark. he made the remark, right. he was sacked for that, rightly so. he apologized, rightly so. and the bearded one accepted, rightly so. now why should sports editors of sundry channels in india (i’m not sure of their background in sport) generally bombard the poor guy with some really arbit questions? more importantly, why should we be subjected to such stuff, when we have better things to watch such as two subcontinental Englishmen cutting through the paki lineup like a hot knife through butter!
and then hype about the champions trophy probables list. dada was the issue, i understand. every conceivable channel and newspaper made a huge issue of it even before the meet happened. they ran bets and polls on the strength of the probables list. they came out with their own lists and some of them (like the TOI) made the “probable probables list” the main sports story!
we don’t want no controversies or debates. bring on the cricket, i say
last day…
today is my last day on this job. it was supposed to be yesterday, actually, but since yesterday was a holiday i’ve come today to wind up. have got a list of things to return. have to talk to the fin guy (i just found out that i haven’t been paid my july salary… grr) and get all the tax stuff and the PF stuff settled, and of course get my money.
there will be the usual round of goodbyes. not too many people in office today, most seem to be at clients’. i’ll probably send out a mail saying “it was nice knowing all of you. add me on orkut and stay in touch”. and maybe add “read my blog sometime next week, i’ll bitch about all you bitches on that. of course, it’ll be a friends only entry so you get LJ IDs and become my friends”.
there’s so much to do in the next couple of days – return my phone card, make some N phone calls to people, return this laptop to my firm (and delete all saved passwords on it before i do so), try sell my washing machine, try get back my house rent advance, and many other such random stuff…
saturday early morning i’m off… this stint in bombay will be over… i’ll be going back to bangalore, and take up a job as an “assistant cook” at my house. duties might also involve sweeping the floor and running sundry errands. don’t hope to do that job for too long though.
let’s see how things pan out! jai!
Bitching about your firm…
yesterday i was telling Fart that nobody likes to bitch about his or her own firm because that would reduce their personal brand equity. Fart responded that it is rather the function of how dependent your personal equity is upon the equity of your workplace.
now my argument is that most graduates of premier B-schools end up with firms which are big brands in themselves, and which go a long way in defining them. which implies that they would rather not bitch about their firm and pull themselves down.
“It has something to do with confidence”, says Fart. “A confident person, irrespective of his/her firm’s brand equity, won’t hesitate to tell the truth about his/her job”. Linking this with his other statement, I am wondering if there is any implication involved. Is it that being confident de-links your personal brand from your firm’s brand? Or is it that having enough other things than your workplace that define your brand makes you confident? (hope i got that right, i’m sorry for the extremely long and confusing sentences)
The practical deal here is how do you actually know whether a firm is a great place to work? Ask an average guy working there and he is likely to be someone whose brand is defined by the firm’s brand – and he praises the firm sky high. It’s not always that you can find people who are willing to tell the truth. And you find that out the sad way, after you’ve joined!
The drink of the gods…
It was in 1997, I think, around the beginning of the technology boom that V G Siddhartha started his first coffee shop on Brigade Road in Bangalore. He offered a variety of premium coffees, along with a number of dessert offerings. As an added incentive, he installed a few computers with internet in the shop, and allowed people to browse the web on a per-hour charge.