Hitchhiking Life

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, after a second or so, nothing continued to happen. - DNA
Ramblings of a guy who is taking life as it comes.
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Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Queen of Hills

I spent the weekend at Ooty with my wife. It was sort of a delayed honeymoon for us. Ooty is a mountain retreat situated in the heart of the Nilgiris(Blue Mountains), a southern Indian mountain range. It is a nature lover's delight, with mist covered mountains, exotic flora and fauna. Every summer, hordes of tourists seek refuge here from the intolerable heat of the plains of Southern India. The entire economy of the area revolves around tourism.

We decided to take a KSRTC Rajahamsa bus to Ooty. These are advertised as Ultra Deluxe buses. But, luxury should be the last thing on your mind if you are planning to take such a bus to Ooty. The seats seem ok when you first settle in, but halfway through the journey your neck hurts like hell. Add to that the problem of less than ample leg space. If it rains you have had it, for these buses can leak like a bucket with bullet holes. Also the cabin needs more sound proofing and some more work needs to be done on the suspension. In line with my rotten luck, it was raining hard on the night we embarked on our trip. The Bangalore-Mysore highway looked more like a war zone than an intrastate highway. There were ditches all along the road and suddenly I got the feeling that the Karnataka government had been digging for gold there. There were occassional traffic snarls and by the time we reached Ooty it was 8:30 in the morning and we were 3 hours late.

The thing that strikes you most about the place is the air. Its light, cool and loaded with exotic fragrances. One whiff and I could smell Eucalyptus and the fragrances of a dozen flowers mixed together to form a curious but breathtaking mish-mash. The greenery was also breathtaking. All around us was greenery, not the fresh green kind, but the kind of mature green you get from plants when they have soaked up a lot of moisture. The tops of the hills seemed to be perpetually shrouded by thick layers of mist. After recovering from the initial shock, we got into an auto and asked the driver to take us to Hotel Lake View(dug up on the web). Autos in Ooty dont have meters but have an elaborate rate charge on their sides that documents the accepted fare from any place in the city to another. That way tourists dont get cheated. Halfway through the driver offered us to take us to some other hotels so that we make an informed choice before committing ourselves to some hotel. We looked at Hotel Darshan situated right over the lake but somehow didnt like it much. One piece of advice to prospective travellers would be to take up accomodation somewhere in the middle of the town, because Ooty doesnt have a good public transportation system. Living in some place away from town would work out to be more expensive due to an increased cost of commuting and also because you are restricted to eat at the Hotel's in house restora and thus cant get good deals on your meals. We finally took up a 550($11) a day double-bed room at Hotel Venus, situated right in the middle of the town. The same room is rented out for 1000($20) a day during peak season.

We then decided to make arrangements for sightseeing. We had four options. Taking a package tour, renting out a bike and driving around, renting out a car for a day or taking auto rickshaws from one spot to another. I was initially reluctant to take a package tour but gave in at the end because all the other options seemed either too expensive or too restrictive at this time of the year. I ruled against the bike(300 INR) option as it was the rainy season and the skies could open up any time. The car option for just two of seemed too expensive(650 INR/Day). The auto option seemed infeasible as autos in Ooty are not allowed to go to all the destinations. We got ourselves booked to a package tour run by the hotel for INR 125 p.h. The trip was to be of 7 hours in duration.

To be continued . . .

Friday, July 15, 2005

PILLigrimage

I chanced upon an interesting article in the Economic Times today. It explained how India was emerging as an attractive destination for buying prescription pills. After IT outsourcing, process outsourcing and health tourism, pilligrimage seems to be the next western fad. The phenomenon is mainly driven by the flood of generics in the Indian pharmaceutical market and the hassle-free availability of prescription drugs. Westerners are increasingly buying boxes of pills to give to their near and dear ones. Generic versions of Viagra are available at your neighborhood drug stores at prices that are nearly 35 times lesser than that in the West. For all Indian techies travelling to the West, this may turn out to be a Godsend chance to make a quick buck. :-)

Thursday, July 14, 2005

What B Schoolers are reading this Summer

An interesting article on BWeek.
Summer Reading for B Schoolers

Here are some books on the list:
  • The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005)
  • The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, Power, and Politics of World Trade (John Wiley & Sons, 2005)
  • The Kite Runner (Riverhead Trade, 2004)
  • Tempered Radicals: How People Use Difference to Inspire Change at Work (Harvard Business School Press, 2003)
  • The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time (Penguin Press , 2005)
  • A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age (Riverhead, 2005)
  • Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Scholastic, 2005)


Somehow all the books have something to do with Globalisation, Poverty and Harry Potter ;-). I think that all three are inextricably related. Globalization and poverty are definitely linked. And what better an example of Globalization than the fame of Mr. Potter's exploits. Imagine an Indian teen who has been brought up on a diet of Bhoots, Jadoogars and Rakshashas reading about an orphaned true blue English kid battling Sorcerers, Ogres and what not.

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Me in Outlook (wow)

An article about the project I was involved with earlier in Outlook(a leading weekly in India).
http://www.outlookindia.com/

Monday, July 11, 2005

Mugged again

I got mugged for the second time this year. Last time it was my digital camera, this time it was my footwear. I got up late(9ish) on Sunday morn. and had just finished my morning ablutions when one of my PG mates started searching for his leather sandals. The search took him to the main shoerack where the 10 of us keep our shoes. To mine and his amazement the shoerack was virtually empty, with all branded shoes missing. It took us a while to realize that we had been robbed early in the morning. What must have happened is that someone must have left the door ajar for an hour or so. Sensing the oppurtunity thieves must have sneaked in and made away with all our shoes.

Now whats interesting about the theft was that nothing else of value was touched. This points to the existence of theives who come in with the primary intent of selling shoes. The fact that no unbranded shoe was taken points out to the fact that the thieves are educated enough to distinguish between brands and are aware that branded shoes fetch a greater price on the seconds market. A little bit of asking around showed that shoe theft is very common in Bangalore. Now this points to the existence of a active seconds market in Bangalore or sorrounding areas where branded shoes are sold at great discounts. With rising income levels and greater purchasing power of the populace, people have started indulging themselves in high end footwear. Branded shoes have become a norm and have become a necessity for peer acceptance. Even the cheapest piece of branded footwear costs more than Rs 1000 (20$). Considering that the population of Bangalore is about 65 lacs (6.5M) and at least half of the population can afford branded shoes, the branded shoe market in Bangalore works out to 300 crores (60M$). Now, if 30% of the population is susceptible to footwear robbery, the robbery market in Bangalore is somewhere close to 90 crore rupees (18M$). If the robbed items are sold at a discount of 50%, the seconds market still is somewhere close to 45 crore rupees (9M$). Thats a lot of money to be made and criminal elements have realised the oppurtunity waiting for them.

What can be done to stop such thefts? People would suggest excercising extra caution, keeping footwear under lock and key and what not. None of them are viable solutions, the primary reasons being:

  • Footwear doesnt merit elaborate security measures to make them theft-safe.
  • Footwear thefts rarely get reported to authorities irrespective of the value involved.
  • Footwear is a replaceable commodity, and it hardly takes someone a month to replace stolen footwear.
  • Branded footwear is a necessity in a social context, especially among todays youth.
So is there something that can be done? Probably, but the ball is in the court of the enforcement agencies of the Govt of India. Rather than trying to stop footwear thefts, an effort can be made to track down the resell channels of such stolen footwear in Bangalore and sorrounding areas. Due to the lower value/weight(Rs/Kg) of footwear, they dont make ideal candidates for transportation over long distances. This means that all stolen footwear has to resurface in near shore markets. That should makes things easier for enforcement agencies. If the resell points are shut down then the incidence of such thefts will fall dramatically. Footwear is not edible. So no resell would mean no reuse and would consequently mean no value for the stolen goods.

Friday, July 08, 2005

Controversy.TV

I came upon an interesting piece of news today. Somewhere in the 2000's the small island nation of Tuvalu(never heard of it before) decided to sell its domain name that interestingly was the catchy sounding .tv to a Canadian based corporate. The corporate in question Dot-TV corporation started registering the domain names at exhorbitant prices (~$1000). This caused furore in the internet community, with the ICANN even going to the extent of threatening to invalidate the domain.

Tuvalu is a small nation of 10,200 people spread over an area of 27 square kilometers. Tuvalu's small size and almost total lack of exploitable resources suggest that most of the population will remain dependent on subsistence activities for the foreseeable future. The islands are too remote for development of a large-scale tourist industry. Since 1999, Tuvalu has been able to earn over US$5 million a year marketing it's Internet domain name through the Dot TV Corporation.

I checked out if any Indian TV channels have registered for the .TV domain. Strangely all the major Indian channels seem to have missed out on the .TV oppurtunity. In contrast all the major Western channels seem to have parked themselves in the .TV domain. I think Indian cybersquatters will have a bonanza when Indian TV channels wake up to .TV's existense.

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

A hectic weekend

This weekend saw me hauling my ar** to Hyderabad. I had booked tickets a week earlier and to my surprise, by the time I got to the station my WL 56 had magically transformed itself into a side lower berth. The journey was uneventful and I reached Hyd early in the morning. Home was such a sweet sight. After months of staying out nothing smelt sweeter. My wife had made some delicious pooris for me and after tearing apart a plate full of those I caught a nap for about an hour.

As soon as it was afternoon, my heart started to ache for some delicious Hyderabadi Biryani. Now, anybody who has lived in Hyderabad will have long stories to tell about the joys of devouring a Hyderabadi Biryani. Truly, one should taste the stuff to actually believe that it really exists. Long grains of Basmati rice cooked with a mild dash of spices. The grains are well cooked but strangely they dont stick to one another. And punctuating the surface of the rice will be pieces of mutton/chicken cooked on Dum. All this srved with raita and salan. Yummy!. We has Biryani at Hyderabad House and decided to get back home and catch some sleep(again).

Evening we decided to go out to Hyderabad Central and check up on the new PVR 5 screen multiplex that is supposed to open there. Sadly it was still under construction and we had to contend ourselves with some window shopping. At night we went to Anoop's place and found that he had an unopened bottle of Jack Daniels waiting for me. The interesting thing about Jack Daniells is that it is manufactured in Tenessee but can never be bought there. Thats because Tenessee is a dry area. After a large peg of Jack Daniells and a large portion of Arabaic Tandoori Chicken(ATC) that Anoop had ordered, we left for home. And thus ended day one.

Day two we decided to catch the morning show of Batman Begins at the IMAX. The movie was on a much serious note than the earlier Batman movies. It tried to showcase the evolution of Bruce Wayne into Batman. Strangely the new motto of Hollywood movies is the fusion of Eastern philosophy and Western technology. In the movie Bruce gains enlightenment in a monastery which if I am not mistaken seemed placed somewhere in the Himalayas. After that he gets back to Gotham and starts kicking some serious arse. Well, the movie was worth the money I spent on it. We got back home by 3:00 and rested ourselves. By 5:00 I was packing and by 8:30 I was on a bus heading back to Bangalore. Reached Bangalore at about 7:30 in the morning and was in office by 10:30. Phew! what a hectic weekend.