The cellphone has now become the most helpful tool for cops investigating any sort of offence. They could crack several cases by building up leads from the phone. So, I’m sure the first thing that would be on the minds of the sleuths on the trail of offenders could be to get hold of a SIM belonging to them. Once they are able to lay their hands on that marvel of technology, the case starts getting cracked. They next call the cellcom and ask for the complete call history for that number. This leads them to facts such as where the caller was at a particular point in time, who did he call, who called him etc. Invaluable leads.

Sure, criminals, whether habitual or not, also now know this all too well. So, we can expect them to leave fewer cellular trails, by limiting the use of mobiles. However, the police still has the advantage of asking cellcoms. Even if they are unable to trace the SIMs, they can right away ask the cellcoms to get the number of the guy, by his name, and track his calls.

The cellphone trail helped the police nab even abductors, by identifying their exact location, based on the GIS capabilities of cellular networks. You are always watched by a cell tower or a couple of them and that is the end of it. Quite a few criminals or offenders, unaware of this, walk straight into the police net.

Yes, the phone has turned out to be most valuable, efficient aide of sleuths. Move over, Dr.Watson !

But, there is a dangerous flipside, from the citizen standpoint. If you hold a cellphone, you could be tracked, theoretically. We don’t know if they are doing it anyhow, already. This is apart from the actual eavesdropping into phone calls, which has been there even in the plain-old-telephone (POT) days. The government has a small army, mostly of women, whose only job is to monitor the airwaves. They are equipped to snoop on any call. Yes, no wonder India got the ‘distinction’ of being ranked 10th on the list of highly surveilanced states.  The Big Brother is watching you.

The new Indian government in New Delhi has made a record of sorts by stuffing it with blood relatives. DMK’s Karunanidhi, from Chennai,  got practically every member of his family, who became a member of the Indian Parliament to boot, inside the ministry. So did Faroukh Abdulla from Jammu & Kashmir. Then, there are all second generation ‘young turks’, such as Sachin Pilot, who have made it mainly as political heirs to their parents.  The Gandhi family now stands poorly represented, unless Rahul Gandhi joins the cabinet.

Yes, they have managed to assemble a kitchen cabinet. Regional parties, which thrive purely on the pull of the founders or the reigning satraps, have got their pound of flesh. Simply because these satraps have been able to bully the majority Congress into submission.

Tamil Nadu had a few important ministers in the previous cabinet. They went about raining largess on the home state, in the form of power plants, road projects or what not.. at the same time, feigning that they have no business outside of their home states, while being Central ministers. This is the kind of distorted development that dynastic politicians engender.

Been to a book-launch a few weeks back. Well, the book and the author need an intro.

First, ‘Vedasannidhiyil” (“In the Realm of (Rig)Veda”)  is not a book, in the strict sense of the word. It is an anthology or a compilation of published articles, an effort by his children. The author, who passed away more than a decade ago, was a brilliant Vedic scholar, particularly of Rig Veda, apart from being a Hindi expert. He lost his sight and hearing around the time he was 30. But, he kept on learning, with the help of aides-his children, or anyone else. His intellect remained sharp as ever, and got better with age. He was like a search engine: ask of  him any query related to Vedas, and out comes the answer, without even the need to say “er”.., or “let me think”…

At the launch, my uncle, his contemporary and an author himself, recalled a few interactions with him. My uncle was researching for his new book and wanted to know how the Vedas dealt with the topic of death. He got the answers in the next few seconds of asking, a thought that left him spell-bound , even after so many years!. His intellect was so spell-binding.

One of the speakers, a writer and a so-called intellectual himself, left me gasping. His most striking recollection about the author was rather contorted and weird. He was wondering about the starkness of the contrast: “How could such a grotesque creation of God could also be the seat of such extreme intelligence?”. The late author was born with certain undiagnosed health condition, which gifted him with long limbs and a wiry frame, with an unwieldy gait. By his late thirties, he couldn’t sit down, get up or walk without help….Did he deserve this statement?

Coming back to the anthology, it is not meant for everyone. Every chapter is a gem, a rare voyage into the mighty ocean called Vedas. Some of the chapters, for instance “Rigveda Ghatana” (“The structure of the Rigveda”), could be considered seminal works in those areas, and could potentially spawn a few hundred Ph.Ds ! There is, coincidentally, a chapter titled “Kuppayile Manikyam” (The Ruby on  a Rubble) – which best describes the late author, who lived in extremely poor conditions. And died, unsung, uncared for.

While having food at my usual restaurant, I was watching with interest the goings on between a bike-born traffic police pair and a hapless guy selling helmets by the wayside, just across the road. I could sense that the cops were on their ‘beats’ – to collect cash from all and sundry pavement vendors, shopkeepers and similar small fry. The helmet seller was holding some cash in his hands, but apparently, the cops were not biting – surely, he was not paying their ‘rate’.  The cops soon moved on, no transaction done, and probably with a warning to the helmet seller. They inched forward and stopped by the guy selling fresh citrus juice. No transaction. Move on.

Now, about the helmet trader. He may be selling 2 or a max 3 helmets a day. Which could mean that his daily sales could be around Rs.1000 or so. He is most likely selling someone else’s stock, which I guess is the story with most of the street vendors. So, he may pocket Rs.150-200, for standing on a chocking, exhaust smoke-filled street. Our cops are asking for a share in that…

Later in the afternoon, I had stopped my car just ahead of  a bank, which is a ‘permanent outpost’ of the traffic cops. Well, they remain in hiding, a couple of feet away from a rather busy traffic lights. They are like spiders, waiting for the catch. I used to think that they catch all those who jump the signal. To my surprise, I watched the cop waving a biker to stop, but the biker refusing and speeding off ! The cop returns to his base, rather sheepishly. Another biker, the cop is more ‘physical’ now, trying to hit the rider. He dodges and speeds away…Tough is a traffic cop’s life..!

Even to us Indians, this land would appear to be chaotic and rule-less. Take the road traffic, for instance. Or, the crowd at the railway station. But, we are so used to this chaotic system, we are able to thrive in it and find  ingenious ways of even profiting from the system.

Surprised you would be, but India is now being recommended as a model for self-organizing environments. Researchers are finding it interesting to study how our society organises itself.

Here are some interesting reads

http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/9/4/3.html

http://www.slideshare.net/rhappe/the-naked-ceo?type=powerpoint

That morning, three days ago at my usual restaurant, my plate of  steaming hot idlies was laid out on the table, with a liberal spread of spicy, hot Sambar over it. As I took the spoons in my hands to go at the idlies, I noticed a rather strange thing on the idly – a dead, probably cooked, honey-bee! I showed it to the cashier, sitting alongside. You must’ve seen his reaction: there was none ! “hey, go for Dosa, or Khara Bath or Puris…” was his advice (read: hey, we’ve even seen fully-grown crocodiles in our dishes…you, dimwit !)

I thought I’ll go elsewhere. But, I was asking myself: sure, you are so upset, since you saw it. In most cases, you never see.. so, what’s the big idea?. Well, I always have a more horrifying experience at another, more upmarket location in Bangalore, that restores sanity instantly in such situations: there, the toppings on idlies were…excuse me, rat droppings!

Yes, you don’t know what to expect in the food served at our restaurants. They don’t give a damn about hygiene. Neither does the administration…The day is not too far when they will start charging extra for the non-veg stuff, and would call it a marketing trick! Thankfully, I’ve not yet come across a Harward-educated ‘Darshini’ (these are restaurants, with an open kitchen. you can see the cooks in action, without even a glass barrier) restaurateur over here…

In the sweltering summer heat, comes news from a corner of Kerala, that political parties have launched drinking water supply schemes in certain dry localities! They are setting up micro water supply schemes, that can serve 3-4 households.

Are the politicians changing for good? you bet! The people are not complaining, and are uncontrollably happy to be helped by the much-maligned political tribe.

Well, having got wind of it, I didn’t want to be left out of the race for designing a symbol for the Indian Rupee. It has none now and is variously written as Rs., INR etc. I’m not sure which bureaucratic brainwave the idea was, it did sound great to me.

Initially, I thought I’ll get it designed by my friend Pramod, who runs a design shop. However, he could never bring himself to the task of doing it, as I was fast nearing the deadline of April 15. I had found the symbol; I only needed a fancy graphical work for it. Now, desperation creeps in.

Finally, I sent in my entry, minus Pramod’s design. Curious to know what that is ? It is the Greek letter ‘PHI’,Φ(caps) φ(small). You can type it using these hot (?) keys:

Alt-03A6
(0934 decimal
in HTML) – for Upper Case

Alt-03C6
(0966 decimal
in HTML) – for Lower Case

Yes, that is its beauty. You can bang it down on your keyboard, without making any software changes or using any absurd overlay or installing any bit of software.Set up a windows character map, and you are done.

How did I pick this symbol? Well, it is actually based on the design of a Taxila Coin. See the radiating sceptres? I liked them and thought each sceptre looks like PHI, and could make a powerful symbol for INR.

As I wait for the final verdict, read up more on the Golden Number. PHI is one number that has equally baffled and excited mathematicians for ages.

Here’s the Wikipedia gyan about Indian Railways.

Indian Railways has one of the largest and busiest rail networks in the world, transporting over 18 million passengers and more than 2 million tonnes of freight daily.^[3][4] It is the world’s largest commercial or utility employer, with more than 1.4 million employees.^[5][3] The railways traverse the length and breadth of the country, covering 6,909 stations over a total route length of more than 63,327 kilometres (39,350 mi). As to rolling stock, IR owns over 200,000 (freight) wagons, 50,000 coaches and 8,000 locomotives.^[3]

What is less known about this massive rail system is that it provides primitive toilets in ALL those 9000+ trains: all human waste gets discharged down on the rails. Now, do you get the frightening scale of things? Railways distributes the waste from 18 mn. people, well almost, across the length and breadth of the country. The waste is never cleaned up and is allowed to get washed off by rains into rivers, lakes and other water bodies or contaminate ground water. Most of it dries up on the tracks and get blown across the neighborhood. That means, if you are living near a track, the air you breathe is charged with this stuff, apart from the heavy dose of diesel fumes from the locos.

Is the Indian Railways aware of the gravity of the matter? Read these excerpts from a Planning Commission document for the Eleventh Plan (2007-2012)

• Railways will also endeavour to provide Controlled Discharge Toilets in trains that permit discharge only after the train has attained a minimum speed after a certain number of flush cycles having been performed. This arrangement will enable prevention of discharge near bigger stations/densely populated areas as trains generally pass such areas at relatively slow speeds. This toilet design thus prevents direct discharge of waste at stations. It is proposed to fit approximately 1000 such toilets every year at approximate cost of Rs.20 crores per year (Plan head 53).

• (install) environment friendly coach toilet systems in 4000 new coaches. Appropriate technology options such as “biological degradation” type or “vacuum retention, storage and evacuation at terminals” will be considered.

Ah!, all is not lost. But, just look at the priority given to a national shame! Rs. 20 Crores ($5 Mn) a year, and that too, only to ‘control’ the distribution of  s**t . .. Get the point? If, as the planning commission document says, new trains are going to be fitted with more hygienic toilets, we only need to worry about the existing stock.

It is very clear that nobody has yet told the Railways that all this is too much c**p.  Until Supreme Court orders them, that is if somebody sues the Railways, they will never bother to fit hygienic toilets on the existing trains. Guaranteed.

Railways could very well consider partnering organisations like Sulabh International, which have been doing pretty good work in the area of sanitation and hygiene.  It is high time too that we raised our voices against this national shame.

There is something else that I want to say about Indian Railways. But, that should raise the hackles, as it directly affects passenger safety. But, note, our Railways have managed to improve its safety record considerably.

” We make the things that makes customers to be happy”

This is the tag line (sic) of a firm that makes awnings for store-fronts.

A simple, yet powerful mission statement. I’m not sure how well the firm has been able to satisfy its customers..But, pause for a moment: what really makes a customer happy? That she could find the stuff that she was looking for? Or, she got it cheaper than elsewhere ? Or, she found it better than others? Or, simply that she liked the salesman/salesgirl’s interaction? There could be a combination of factors. How much do our businesses – those small-time shopkeepers or small businesses – know what makes a customer happy?