Revisiting the voters' dilemma or What Exactly Was That ?

Voted yesterday.

There were 3 EVMs with nearly 3 dozen candidates for Bangalore Central, the constituency for which I was supposed to pick a candidate to vote for. I was familiar with a couple of the candidates, and knew a lot more about the parties themselves.

For a while I was unsure of what to do. Picked the least uncertain choice, and felt extremely illiterate about the entire exercise.

Here's a bunch of questions I have about the whole setup of State Assembly vs Lok Sabha candidates and elections:

• Whats the "impact" of choosing candidate X to the Lok Sabha. To the State Assembly ?
• What are the candidates rights, duties and scope of influence ? What issues can they raise/influence ?
  
• Is the specific candidate even relevant for the Lok Sabha polls ? Why ?
• Do candidates even have a voice within their parties during the functioning of the Assemblies ? Why is the concept of a "whip" permitted in a democracy ?
• What mechanisms/ground realities exist for these elected representatives to engage with their constituency before they participate in debates and vote on issues in the Assembly ? Does the concept of the "whip" render this idea impotent ?
• Should not candidates clearly pick and spell out specific agendas and causes they intend to pursue - obviously from those that are within their spehere of influence depending on whether they are representing the constituency at the centre or in the state ? Should they also not be working for these issues "off duty" - i.e. even when they are not members of the Assembly etc ?
  
• If the possible local impact of a Lok Sabha candidate is low, whats the big deal about a candidate "from my constituency" ? I'd rather pick someone - irrespective of where they are standing for election from - based on the attractiveness of their thoughts and leadership qualities on issues that impact the nation or policy making, as a whole.
  

I am totally confused about the candidate vs party, and a little cynical about the inner party democracy in all outfits - if all decision making is decided centrally, with little consultation at the constituency level, its hardly important who the candidate it. In fact, you don't really need "people" representing you if there's little dialogue or impact possible - you can vote for the symbol/party directly.

Perhaps I've got a lot wrong - perhaps there's just a lot of information gap. But to me, right now, it does look like the the mere exercise of franchise does not make for a healthy, functioning democracy on its own. There's definitely much more to it, and I cannot imagine too much of it happening around me as it exists today.

Anyhow - good first step - maybe the next set of changes will start to happen soon. Staying positive.

Haralur Road's Speed Breakers - or why "Only Our Needs Matter"

I get more and more cynical about the Great Indian Middle Class that I also belong to.

Here's the latest trigger: folks who use one of the roads that passes close to our house complaining about the numerous speed breakers that were added to it.

Background : this was till recently a rural road under the panchayat. Its primary purpose was to connect Haralur Village to Sarjapura Road. Obviously not a very wide road, it served the needs of numerous who walked along it, or cycled, to get to school, catch a bus at the main road, or buy provisions, etc.

All of a sudden it got "discovered" by the ever growing city, and a bunch of apartments and layouts, including ours, came up off it. So we got the road improved. Next, people discovered a short-cut to Hosur Road using a network of roads leading from this to the next village and the next. It saves more than half an hour, and lots of fuel! So far so good.

The traffic on this increased - and speeds started going northwards too after the road was improved and even widened! Being a narrow road used by mutiple modes of transport and pedestrians, the panchayats rightfully saw reason to enforce some sensible speeds and civic sense since fellow drivers obviously were not managing to use enough common sense of their own accord.

So the GIMC did what it does best - protest something that causes it "inconvenience" - in this case defined by slowing down for speed breakers and never getting to get up to speed, on a road where speeds are downright dangerous. [Enough drivers manage to still speed in between speedbreakers, btw] Anything that we start using automatically becomes a resource that is subjugate to our requirements and must bend to what we think is right.

I'm really wondering if the current trend of get-up-and-vote is a healthy thing for the nation. The signs aren't always healthy since this set of people rarely seem to be able to see things beyond their own noses.

Your Own Little Space ? Update ...

Some more details are available.

Likely location: Carmelaram - about 2.2 kms off the Sarjapura Road - the left turn before the railway track. Nice serene location and not far from the ORR, or Whitefield, or Sarjapura Road. The connections to Hosur Road make Electronic City a quick drive as well. The road that leads to the place has beautful old trees on both sides, and given campuses with Churches and associated buildings, is unlikely to get too urbanized too quickly. Sarjapura Road in the vicinity has all the creature comforts including stores, restaurants, etc. There's a couple of convenience shops in Carmelaram as well. The Carmelaram railway station is less than a km away, and hopefully Bangalore will have a train service someday ;)

What: About 30 homes - between 1300-2000 sqft in size. Land lots between 1500-3000sqft. A 2 acre campus overall. Some goals:

• Build less, and not with too much concrete showing. Lots of open, community spaces.
• Be as carbon neutral and energy efficient as possible
• Rainwater harvesting
• The area is the starting point for numerous jogging and cycling trails :)
• Develop a natural waterbody in campus. If the finances work out, a small pool as well.

Pricing: Should be between 45-65L for various options. This is indicative, of course, and will keep interested folks updated. Given lower than market pricing, there will be a certain amount of "seed funding" for the project.

If you know folks who're looking at homes in the area, let me know - numbers will make this dream a reality. You can drop me mail at get DOT sameer AHT gmail DOT com.

Update:

Here's a presentation with some early details. Nothing's frozen yet, and the idea is to iterate over the needs with those who're interested.

Skoda : Skeletons in the Closet ?

This is probably a good read for potential Skoda buyers, and auto enthusiasts generally.

The original string of problems and the subsequent responses, and even a threat from Skoda's representative!

Its amazing how unprofessional the entire response has been. On the other hand, as one story after another starts to surface about parts exchanged, inaction on Skoda's part when faced with consumer complaints against dealers, it starts to make one wonder if all is well. There are potentially some systemic issues that need to be set right, and Skoda has an opportunity to either come clean, or potentially face a severe drop in consumer confidence.

Our e-port card so far

Having become more "enlightened" citizens, we've been trying to reduce our footprint as much as possible. Here's a few things achieved, and a few more to go.

+ I cycle to work 90%+ of the time
+ We reuse the "waste" water ejected by the RO filter
+ The automatic dryer is strictly for emergencies - not switched on for ages now
+ Try and aggressively avoid "standby mode" for TV/Home theatre/chargers - still left on 30% of the time tho :(
+ Determined to do fewer kilometers on the car. Working out very well, thank you!
+ Been trying to promote cycling in our circle of influence, and beyond. Decent success.

- Cannot seem to reduce geyser usage. Love warm water, and attempts at minimizing time switched on have failed.
- Have not revived attempts towards en-mass adoption of solar heating in our apartment complex
- Have failed in attempt towards getting apartment to optimize usage of diesel for backup gensets
- The Standby Switchoff is only a partial success - needs more work
- Plastic usage is still not low. There's so much that comes packaged in plastic from the stores :(

Overall, pleased - but there's scope for improvement.

Silent Majority

They came first for the Communists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist;
And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist;
And then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew;
And then . . . they came for me . . . And by that time there was no one left to speak up.

Most recent trigger for the above - a biker got beaten up on the flimsy premise of his attire. The mailing list on which I read this got into a debate about the off-topic-ness of the story and reactions to it!

Overall, the spiritual leaders forgot to speak out strongly against the association of weapons with religion. The political leaders at the top got into marriages of conveniences with the terrorizers of local populations for short term "gains". We stay shut on the roads when there's a brawl, or a woman gets beaten up by some neanderthals.

None of my business. Thats what it is all boiling down to.

Your Own Little Space ? Read on...

If you've been thinking about a house, don't like living in the heart of bustle and traffic, want a good community, do not like the run-of-the-mill builder version of creating living spaces and were priced out of the market, this may be of interest to you.

What: A smallish comuunity - bet 12-25 homes (depending on costs, configurations) with potentially homes/condos/row-houses thrown in. Very green. Lots of open spaces.
Where: Off Sarjapura Road. Options exist between the area near the Railway Line and a little before Sarjapura Town. Beautiful green places, decent connectivity, emerging hotspots (hopefully a little in the future so we can have some peace and quiet)
How Much: Want to keep it in the affordable range - so maybe as much as a decently priced 3#BHK apartment.

Honestly, not all the details have been worked out. But I trust the guys who're ready to execute this. I've seen their work in the past, and saw something they're developing now only yesterday. The entire campus there needs just 7.5KW of electricity, which is completely supplied using a combination of solar and wind generation! In addtion there's a bio-mass unit, and rain water harvesting takes care of most of the water needs. And the construction style is concrete-minimum, and very energy friendly, yet pleasing.

Ok, that almost sounds like a sales pitch. Perhaps it is. The idea is to have like minded folks living in the same place, running a sustainable community without breaking the bank. If you're curious or keen, lemme know. There are 5-6 people on board already, and we could think in terms of an "expansion" of the plan in terms of the area/number of dwellings, but ideally don't want too much of built space.

Amen.

BCycle: B the change :)

Oh so cool. Will this work in Bangalore? Need someone to try this out. Whatsay ?

Engleash

Some I've noted. No its not irritating etc - just amusing how many have used these "incorrectly" and I'm guessing the latter won't even be true in another decade or so - quite like "prepone".

• loose/lose
• voila/viola
• off the mark/of the mark (and similar contexts) [ The Outlook's latest issue has this too! ]
• advice/advise [ of course used interchangeably :) ]
• consist of/comprise [ I've been corrected to "comprise of" instead of comprise, in a doc! ]

If you know more - comment maadi.

The one thats become popular already, and does get my goat :

• my bad (my bad what ?)

Then there's the very Bangalorean

• by the by

which is both a little irksome and a little cute.

[ Oh well, I'm probably just getting old :) ]

Seriously, language is a dynamic, living organism. Nothing proves it like these changes as more populations adopt one. So Messrs Wren & Martin, stop turning in your graves.

Edit:

Part of the reason (the more recent trigger being the Outlook) was this thread on BikesZone, where I added:

Advice for Advise ?
Which the Verb, which the Noun,
"Stadiums" reprimanded
"Prepone" gets a frown!
Ah the English Nazis march,
Hup-one-two-three
Love Queen's Desi tho
Want to break free.

Slow down your life, and all that jazz

Nice video:

Culture-vulture and all that

Culture. Hmm, deep one.

Ok, I'm trying to find my own personal answer to this. What is culture. Is there a "definition" ? Whats the "list of things" we can arm ourselves with to respond to the Selvams and the Muthaliks of the world ?

Well, here the definition (I like Wiki's combination of the more common ones, so quoting that)

Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning "to cultivate")^[1] is difficult to define. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions.^[2] However, the word "culture" is most commonly used in three basic senses:

• excellence of taste in the fine arts and humanities
• an integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for symbolic thought and social learning
• the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution, organization or group.

Part I is something I doubt occurred to Muthalik or Selvam or their ilk when they repeated what they've heard so often from others who wanted to use it as a blunt object to beat other people on the head with, or stop from this or that.

The second/third: Wow, those are deep and complex. What's the "pattern" for India - land of extreme vegetarianism as well as cannibalism, country of the devout and the atheist - not just now but in recorded history and given an appropriate place in the texts as well, social behaviour that stresses on idealism, is pragmatic about politics and corruption, includes in its ambit both polyandry and polygamy, and proudly tells tales of ferocious gods, and more human kings who started out bloodthirsty but overnight became persistent role models for peace mongering ?

Is it the rigid rules in the Vedas that define us, or the moral strictures, or our codified caste system, thats been handed down to us as collected knowledge ? Is it the subtle sarcasm in the extremely open minded Upanishads that define our philosophy, and the tradition of tark-vitark and recorded accepted disagreements ? Was there a reason for a personal God for every Indian, while the texts simultaneously speak of "inclusive monotheism, which acknowledges a personal form of God as the Supreme God, with all other forms of God as plenary expansions or aspects of the Supreme" (source) ?

Are we trying, too often, to define our beliefs, religions, culture and traditions by what is disallowed (often for a convenient truth in a political or social power struggle), illegal and considered profane ? Are these not better defined by their positives - what they enable, what they help better/improve ? Is culture not a concept that aims to define some set of ideals that works towards a more refined, tasteful goal ? Is that served well by fear, and a demand to adhere, or else... ?

To me, India and its culture is about not just tolerating, but embracing and adopting the strange and new, respecting the different even if one doesn't necessarily understand it, and celebrating life in all its myriad forms. What its never been, certainly, is homogeneous, or a one "best" thing to do, to follow. Gods, clothes, customs, traditions, beliefs, philosophies - we have numerous cores, and even more forms of packaging of each. Like a Buddhist Lama explained to me when I wondered about the gazillion sects of what started as a simple message - different folks accept the same truth presented differently. Its the same end goal. That, to me, was Indian culture. Be what you are, be comfortable, and expect to be comfortable with your truth though there are others who have a different truth and a different take on things.

Often this exists at an individual level as well. The west and western trained minds consider it hypocrisy - our extreme politeness with folks known to us, yet some very crude/rough edges in our behaviour with strangers, our patience in certain contexts when we cannot even queue up for a bus - but its the same comfort with multiple truths and acceptance of opposing concepts that co-exist simultaneously - that defines our culture.

If there's any one thing its never been about - any one negative you want to define it in - its rigidness. India is an old, mature adult who's seen it all, and is pragmatic yet pious, comfortable with its blemishes and revels in its grace. It certainly does not seek to define itself narrowly, or through intolerancle of this set of beliefs or that. And certainly not intolerance of tongue, or attire, or faith.

[ The song from "Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani" captures it quite nicely :D ]

Will ride better

The Well-Tempered Cyclist | Momentum - The Magazine For Self Propelled People!

No more "riding past" along with pedestrians - get down and walk if one has to use that. Bangalore's riders are a new lot, and we gotta establish the rules and the riding culture here.

Lets make Bangalore Hotter

There's a power cut right now. I'm at home, and last year we'd taken a call to not start the gensets between 10am-5pm if the electricity was out.

Its in the lower 30s right now - and thats out in the sun. This being Bangalore, the breeze is still pleasant, and its perfectly tolerable indoors, unless you've grown up in the Upper Himalayas or the Arctic or at least Canada. But there are mails about the unbearable heat, asking for backup power to be restored immediately. The power cuts are shorter these days, and surely we can afford this!

Can we ? Our apartment complex uses 2x180KWh generators to keep the backup power going. At peak loads, utilization has rarely exceeded 40%. During the day its worse - with most people at office. Can we really afford to keep making Bangalore hotter, and crib about the heat, and keep running gensets longer as we strain the power supply with a larger and larger demand for energy to keep our airconditioners running perpetually?

Yes, we've got so used to keeping airconditioning running all the time at work, in the cars, that the lack of it makes it unbearable? (Honest, its in no way hot as I type this. My daughter's here too, and not even close to complaining about the heat).

What can we do ? There's been talk of trying to connect both gensets and try and reduce the diesel consumption to a minimum. But the action's been slow, and I fear will die out once the gensets are back on fulltime. There's also the aspect of redefining what "need" is and the things we "cannot live without" as a society.

We in the middle class blame the government a lot for most stuff. Lack of roads, lack of electricity supply, lack of public transport, and everything else. Often rightly so. But my observation in the recent past also leads me to believe that we're quite insensitive and focused on our short term needs, even at a huge cost to our long term benefits. The craz.y salary spiral, the real estate bubble, the growing use of cars even for basic grocery shopping, the string of excuses for not using public transport, etc - these are all symptoms of a common malaise -"let me solve that little bit of an issue and who the hell cares if the cost is huge - I didn't create the problem after all". We keep giving in too easily, to too many "necessities", at too large a cost. I really have nothing against convenience, but we could start showing some level of sensitivity towards ensuring the footprint these cause is reduced as much as possible. Monetarily, we can surely afford that.

Fair enough. Sure, I'm probably over-reacting and hyper-ventilating, but then I'm also despairing.

Edit : just noticed the Google Ads on the side for this page - both hilarious and depressing. Commerce, ah.

Whither Bangalore ?

The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Gangs attack women in ‘western attire’

Horrible - and while I'm trying hard to not be biased, such elements seem to have been emboldened under the present government. I was optimistic when the government had changed and we'd gotten rid of the Gowda family and related uncertainty - but given their silence and inaction on these kind of issues makes me less certain Bangalore will continue to be as friendly as civilized under them. Its really a fringe element of society/polity, and it'll be sad if they're allowed to terrorize and radicalize a friendly place like this.

This entire outside/insider cr@p these guys rake up, and then proceed to target lone women for, is such a fraudaulent issue. This has been my home for 13 years now, including the coffee, people, weather, and the adjust maadi comfort one gets here - and its scary to see these lumpen narrowminded allowed freedom to roam the streets and tell people where they should live, what they should wear, who they're permitted to meet and what God they can and cannot pray to. Mangalore seems to have been under this terror for a while now, and I guess they want their influence to spread. Unless the good folks of Bangalore (or even Mangalore) stand up and resist - and the report doesn not inspire confidence wrt that - we'll just let these louts take over completely.

Mr. Yeddiurappa, whose side are you on ? Loud and clear, please, for once.

The Standard of Living Problem

This was sent on the Bangalore Bikers' Club group. Someone also noticed the mention that in the 70s, 71% of passenger trips were made on bicycles! He also commented that "It was better than Copenhagen."

So Bangalore, and in fact most of the country, did have a bike culture - ? Except it was hardly a culture - but more of a lack of choice. Our species is so governed by defined and accepted "standards" that we soon got hit by technology, and all that. And as affordability/incomes improved, there was only one path that spelled "progress" and we took to our Vespas and Lambrettas like there was no tomorrow, licence raj notwithstanding.

And so on and so forth. The used Ambys, Padminis, the landscape changing 800 and Gypsy for the braver souls, and in more recent part the plethora of options with more and more features becoming 'standard' and airconditioning becoming the only visible way to battle the noxiousness this progress brought into our lives.

The argument given, usually, is that this is the "price" of development and economic progress.

Really ? Are we so dumb that there's only the whole of one of two or three models to be picked from ? Nah, we just never bothered to define our own report card and terms of progress.

So its someone else's "standards" we're trying to catch up with - consumption of electricity, fuel, goods leading the march. Upsizing, a "standby" mode for everything at home, western WCs, zippy long expressways to merely get to work - all are symptoms of this affliction.

These "standards" have started to interfere with the "living" in a big way. Gotta evolve beyond the aping we've gotten into. Gotta be smarter than the species has been in the last 30-40 years or so.

Cars move cars, not people!

Amazingly good read about the inherent inefficiency of private transport, why trains work better and why cities should be defined by a 20 minute walking radius!

You might initially not find the ideas practical, or even digestible, but give it another read, and start asking "why not". For too long we've not questioned the way of life, the form of economics and the attributes of progress that have been defined for us and that we're expected to pursue and strive for.

Excerpt:

The real problem is, though, cars don’t move people, cars move cars. The average car or light truck is two tons or so: 4000-plus pounds to move 200 pounds of people. OK, everybody out of the SUVs and F-150s and into a nice, green Prius. However, the curb weight of an unladen Prius is 2765 pounds, which means a ton and a half around to get you and a bag of groceries home. Not good.

Someday a generation will wonder "How could they? Did they not pause to think, or did they have no brains or foresight?"

Ride The Bus! CBD Bangalore HOHO Service.

The BMTC has launched a Volvo service in the central business district which connects all the hotspots in 2 circular routes, at a low, convenient fare of 10/- for an all day pass! Just hop on and hop off wherever you need to go. All the major malls, intersections are covered, and you'll get to walk and discover the pleasures of Bangalore's happening zone too.

Thsi service is called the Kendriya Sarige (just ask for KS, eh ?) and you're guaranteed a bus every 5 minutes or so! Another service - the "Big10" (2 routes start today) connects the entire city using regular (10 minute frequency!) buses on the major arterial roads.

Here's a map of the routes and a list of stops on both the Blue line and the Orange line.

































I'm very very impressed with Namma BMTC and will definitely make use of Namma Bus :)

Bangalore, do try and not take the car to CBD - ride the bus instead! Saves fuel, pollution, congestion and encourages the city to think of more progressive options. Public transport options have been a chicken and egg story for a while, but BMTC has taken the first steps forward. Now its upto us to use it or lose it.

Update:

The Big10's are starting on 2 routes today - E-City and ITPL. Fromt next week, they'll start on the Sarjapura Road-Viveknagar-Brigade Road route too! Yay - it'll probably pass my office too :)

Hazards of being a bl**dy do-gooder

As is wont with the more enthusiastic bikers in Bangalore, Rohan and a bunch of others were at Lalbagh some time ago trying to spread the word and do their bit to create a mindset change towards cycling.

Look what they got from some senior citizen, and some official!



I remember a guy trying to pick a fight around the same place earlier too when we'd gone there for the first Critical Mass. Fine, you have a different point of view - but whats with the animal behaviour, morons ?

Cycling benefits illustrated

[ From the Mumbai Bikers' Picasa Pics ]

Freewheeling Bangalore

Ananth Ranganathan - Freewheeling

View more presentations or upload your own. (tags: ignitebangalore2 ignite)

I'm praying this comes to fruition, real soon. BMTC has some amazing plans too - if it all works out Bangalore would've taken a major leap forward.