The Last Mile of travelling

There was a time when Bangalore did not have any one-ways. But still the traffic was not mentioned in any news. Now with so many one-ways its still in the news.

When the number of commuters increased, the public transport (BMTC) did not wake up. People started buying and using their own vehicles. Now it has woken up and introduced very nice services. But people are not going to change because:

• We have gotten used to the convenience of using own vehicles.
• We can now afford to buy/run/maintain own vehicles, despite increasing fuel and steel prices.
• We don't have time to walk the last mile of polluted streets after getting down from a bus.
• The buses are never on time. Thats because of the amount of traffic.
  

I was very happy when BMTC introduced Volvo buses. I hate driving in Bangalore and would love to go by the Volvo.

But there is a major problem. The nearest volvo bus stop from my home is 2kms away and the nearest volvo bus stop from my office is 1km away. I tried going by the normal BMTC buses to cover for that distance. But the timing is always not right. I've to wait for a normal bus near my house and then wait for the volvo bus. Too much time wasted in waiting. I even tried walking the 3kms.

They had introduced the YI services for some time. It would show the current location of the bus you are interested in by SMS. That way you can plan your travel to the volvo bus stop. This service has been discontinued now :(.

BMTC had also introduced Gramantara bus services. They were minibuses which would go to remote and less populated areas. The advantage was that they could go through narrow and winding roads of villages. Now I see very few of those buses.

That did not work out and I'm back at using my two wheeler :(.

I read an article in the newspaper today (22nd Dec) that BMTC is introducing taxi services for those going to the new Bangalore Airport. The taxis will pick up the passenger from the house and drop at the nearest Vajra bus. Vajra (volvo) buses are being planned to pickup/drop commuters from and to the new airport to different locations in Bangalore. They are planning to use GPS to synchronize the taxis and the buses.

Now that is a brilliant idea. That covers the last mile of traveling to the airport!

If they could introduce something like that for local transport as well....

Sahasi Arjun - Kannada Comics

I was fascinated by Sahasi Arjun when it appeared on a Kannada Weekly Taranga. Artwork is ok-ok. But the story line is what impressed me.

This comic was created by T.G. Shetty and was printed from 1st Sept 1991 to 31 Jan 1993. Only two stories were printed by Taranga.

According to this comics, all the mythological stories (Ramayan, Mahabharat etc) are true and they were actually super humans. Earth had a huge earthquake+flood. They left earth and settled in a very distant solar system called Apoorva. Here their race grows to occupy multiple planets in their solar system.

There is a war going on in the Apoorva Solar System and the good guys are loosing. The princess of the good guys sends a robot, Wamba-2c, to earth to recover a Vajra. Wamba-2c is accompanied by Oshira's (a yogi) spirit. The Vajra (diamond) belonged to their leader Indra, which they had to leave behind when they left earth. This Vajra had enormous power which can help them to win against the bad guys. Wamba-2c lands on earth and meets Arjun. Wamba-2c, Oshira's sprit and Arjun hunt for the Vajra.

I had never heard of T.G. Shetty before or after. I don't know who this cartoonist is, how many comics of Sahasi Arjun did he create or if he created any other comics.

I was very dissapointed when the comics suddenly ended. I don't know why. Probably the idea that all the gods and mythological characters were highly advanced humans rather than gods itself was not acceptable. Or maybe T.G. Shetty ran out of ideas.

I had saved most of the comics pages out of Taranga. Here is the first clip out of it:

My mother bound all the pages into a book. I lost the book in my mother's collection of compiled books all these years. I recovered it a few months back and read it again.

I'm still impressed by it!

Aesthetic Pollution

What is Aesthetic Pollution?

Spoiling the visual beauty. Its also called Visual Pollution.

Advertisements on buses, bill boards, overhead wires, buildings etc, cause Aesthetic Pollution. Its hard to define what causes Aesthetic Pollution as beauty is in the eyes of the.. err. spectator .. observer.. .. whatever. Ask the company which put up the bill board and they'll definitely tell you that the bill board is adding to the Aesthetic Beauty. Of course, its the money speaking. Isn't it always the money which is speaking? How many businessmen (or customers!) have ever heard of Ethical Business Conduct?

I remember there was a plan to build a larger building next to Taj Mahal. It came up in the news, became a controversy, some blame games and then all news channel fell silent. The point raised was that it'll spoil the beauty of Taj Mahal. Valid point. Apparently the project was dropped.

One of my friends recently visited Badami. He says, as you enter the town you can see the beautiful and ancient caves and buildings along with three mobile towers in the background! That totally spoils the beauty. No photos taken!

Why don't we think of beauty being spoilt in our city or in our neighborhood? I was just reading another news: São Paulo has banned outdoor advertising. Many other cities around are considering the same.

Can we do that in our cities as well?

Well, we don't even have decent roads or footpaths. For the last one week, Times of India has been showing pictures of bad roads all over Bangalore and nothing is being done. We have garbage dumped all around the bins. Nobody throws wrappers in the dust bins. I don't see a sense of cleanliness itself.

I saw an ad of a property developer which said something like "are your neighbours spoiling your happy moments?". The accompanying picture has a cute little girl in a fairy dress posing for a photograph and somebody is fixing a dish antenna in the balcony of the flat of the adjoining building in the background.

People take a lot of care of their house, their personal looks, their cars, their 'happy moments'. Its just a mater of extending the same concept a bit more....

We have to first understand the importance of Aesthetic Pollution. Its a new concept around here and it'll take some time before people accept that its not a nice thing. It'll take even longer to take any action.

We definitely have a long way to go....

Deepawali Crackers

I'm against crackers. Its over 10 years since I burst any crackers. Reasons are not very difficult to guess: Noise pollution, air pollution, soil pollution, dirty roads, child labour, unhealthy and unsafe manufacturing practices, careless bursting without any considerations for others.... Thats enough reasons I guess?

Apparently not!!

I just read the news about 7 children dying at an illegal cracker factory in Hyderabad. Another news said forced child labour is used in many such factories. The prices of these crackers are sky-rocketing! Surprisingly, so is the demand for them!!

I have told my friends why I'm against crackers. Everybody agrees with my reasons. But nobody is ready to give up bursting them!!

We celebrate Deepawali every year. Its one of our major festivals. We do pooja, hang up the Deepawali lantern, decorate the main door and mainly light up the house with diyas!

Why can't we celebrate Deepawali by showing some social responsibility?

Celebrating at others cost

I pass through a market area everyday while on my way home from my office. The market road is a bit less than 1km. It takes less than two minutes to cross it as its always busy with people and there is a bus stand as well.

Its a very busy road. I would say around 150 people in different vehicles (bus, two-wheelers, cars, autos etc) would cross this road every minute during the peak hours.

Today, it took around 20 minutes to cross this road!

They have put up a pandaal and some people are occupying half of the road and beating drums. Well, its festival season and everyone has the right to celebrate it. But it has caused a huge traffic jam there. The road is completely blocked for the entire stretch. It was just the beginning of the peak hour. Imagine what would be the state during the peak hour!

There were less than 200 people there celebrating the festival. I didn't find it reasonable to inconvenience thousands of people just to entertain a couple of hundred.

I do understand the feeling and the excitement to celebrate any festival. Its perfectly justified. But it should not be at the cost of other's inconvenience. There is a large ground available quite close to where these people were celebrating. Why not use that?!

So many vehicles spewing out smoke. Such a waste of petrol. Such a waste of time.

Code For Freedom

Sun Microsystems has launched Code For Freedom contest for students in India. The above link has all the details about this contest. My earlier blog has some tips on how to contribute to OpenSolaris. This contest has four other open source projects: Project GlassFish, NetBeans, OpenPortal and Apache Derby. But I can't say much about these technologies as I work only in Solaris.

This is a good opportunity for the student community to build their knowledge and show their talent. It also a stepping stone for them to build their career.

Child Proof Computer Table

I have been searching for a computer table. I have visited many furniture shop and online furniture shops as well. But I have not found any that meets my requirement.

One of my main requirement is : The computer table must be child proof!

I have a one and half year old hyperactive kid in my house. Currently, I spend a lot of time keeping the kid from destroying my computer and the accessories.

About the tables I saw at different furniture shops, everyone tells me the same thing: "these computer tables are imported (from Malaysia) and we just assemble and sell it". I wonder who designs these computer tables. They are highly non-ergonomic!

• The keyboard tray must hold both the keyboard and the mouse. Many of them say, keep the mouse on top of the table.
• Some models have the monitor at an angle to the sitting position. You have to keep your head turned at an angle to look at the monitor.
• Many of them do not bother about the wirings and cables. They show the printer being placed at the top, but there is no provision to run the cable to the computer. The assumption is that the computer table should be placed two inches away from the wall and you can run the cable behind the table.

We take so much care in ergonomics for our office tables and chairs. But why don't we think about this for our home tables? Surprisingly, all the furniture-walas say, their computer tables sell like hot cakes!

Well, I spend considerable time in front of the computer from home. Most people use it just to browse. Well, I wouldn't want to settle for a poorly designed table just for browsing.

Well, you don't require a very creative brain to design an acceptably ergonomic, child proof computer table. I designed a couple of them myself. I decided to hold off when I found that the custom made tables cost more than 3 times the assembled ones...even if they use same amount of wood.

I don't know what to do...