Is Delhi taking its toll?

I have been commuting frequently between Noida and South Delhi off late, and taking the DND Flyway is really convenient. Apart from the little stop at the toll plaza, the drive is smooth and enjoyable, the distance is shorter and it saves a lot of time. I always thought that the DND people were doing a nice service to the nation, even though they charge a little exorbitantly. They actually made a Net Profit of 659 Lakhs in the quarter ending December 07, which is up more than 100% year on year. Great. They even publish a code of ethics and stuff on their website. Nice.

My opinion about the company however took a U-Turn following 2 observations. I was driving towards Delhi, and nearing the Toll-Plaza when I saw an Ambulance approach in the same direction, with its siren blazing and emergency light on. Now, I have noticed that in the last few years, people have become conscientious enough to give way to Ambulances, even at the cost of slowing down or stopping on the side. Most of the cars did just that, they tucked the cars into the extreme side of the lane, and gave enough space for the ambulance to proceed to the Toll Plaza first. Then, at the toll plaza, the guy handling the booth decided to have a lengthy conversation with the ambulance driver, and this lasted atleast a minute. It takes a normal car about 10 seconds to pay and pass.

I was obviously not pleased with the conduct of the guy incharge, and I chose to vent my anger at the guy handling the booth in my lane. This is the conversation that ensued:

Me (Angry) : "Bhaiya Ambulance se bhi paise lete ho kya?" Do you even charge ambulances?
Booth Guy : "Sir Patient hota hai to nahi lete.." Sir we don't charge them when there is a Patient inside.
Me : "to itni der kyun lag rahi hai" Then why is it taking so long.
Booth Guy: "Sir gaadi ka number note karna hota hai" Sir, we have to note down the registration number of the car.

I pay and leave, as disgusted as can be.

The next day, while going to office, I see this:


a new redlight has been put up for turning right towards the new toll plaza meant to service the Mayur Vihar area. NTBCL made sure that the traffic was smoothly controlled when the overbridge was being made over the toll road, and none of their customers was inconvenienced. They even waited long enough for everything to be perfectly complete (in their area of course) before opening passage in this direction (The opposite direction had been opened earlier as it did not require the ovebridge). Net effect: A new red light on Noida Link road, in the narrowest (2 lane) part. I had been expecting a traffic jam at the light the day it opened, and that is just what happened. Unfortunately, drivers in Delhi have a habit of forming 2 lanes to turn right. This leaves just one lane on the extreme left for cars to move towards Noida. Moreover, 007's will take the leftmost lane and cut across to wait infront of the 2 right-turn lanes, and stick their ass out to block all traffic. POOF.

Now, there should have been a slip road in place before opening the traffic. Turns out that there is a plan to make that slip road, and I'm not sure who is making it. There is a large concrete wall in place that will most probably hold the landfill in place. But who is doing it. If NTBCL is doing it, why were they allowed to open traffic before completing the slip road. If MCD/PWD is making it, why were they napping all this time?

End result, the DND Flyway is causing some nasty traffic snarls outside their territory. I hold them responsible!

And are toll roads the answer? Anyone who has travelled to Gurgaon on the new toll road recently (after the opening of the toll plaza) will probably give you a nice long lecture about how useless it is! Do images speak louder than words? I'll leave you with this image..





It takes upto 1 hour to cross this toll plaza. Delhi to Gurgaon in 10 mins?? I guess the absurd toll of 16 rupees is to blame. How can you expect people to shell out 16 bucks and move on quickly. Why is it not 17.25 then?

Labels: Economics, Life, Politics, Society, Travel

Dwarfed

I never noticed that I was actually visible in this snap.. just did :) Wasn't meant to be I guess.. So here we are, DJ and I, dwarfed by the Architect of the universe.

As far as I can remember, DJ was chaining his bicycle to a stand, and Uday was enjoying the view.. and i was.. well.. enjoying the pulse of the city...

Labels: Life, Travel

Ingenuity

There is no lack of ingenuity around India. What we commonly call Jugaad is a raw form of untapped intellect. Some of it does get tapped though, literally :). I came across this little foot operated device somewhere near the Govind Sagar. Its quite interesting, hygenic, probably manages to conserve more water than the expensive sensor laden taps increasingly visible these days.


The foot pedal is connected with a metallic chain to the tap arrangement in the pipe. The other end of the tap rod is connected with a heavy weight. There is no need to balance the torque, the weight can safely be heavy, because the chain with the foot pedal is just long enough to shut the tap tight when the weight pulls down. So as soon as you remove your foot, the water stops flowing.

So, maybe you should consider this in your house. Save money on jazzy mixers, more importantly save water, and more importantly still, hands free! (Should be called bluetooth tap.. ummm bluefoot tap!)

Labels: Travel

Brothers in Arms

Do we ever feel strongly about any social issue unless it affects us directly? I went to protest with my peers when students protested against the Reservation bill. Our presence there was a sign of solidarity with the idea, with the people who were leading the movement. We went to reassure them that we were there to support them. Yet, I lay in bed watching the news when MCD sealed the shops of so many people in Delhi. Their shops were their only source of livelihood, and yet, I was not concerned.


I remember when I visited the 'War Memorial' in Seoul, I went around admiring the realistic reconstruction of war scenes and the Viking style warships, the guns and everything else on display. It was like a pleasure trip for all of us. We visited the souvenir shop and I bought a Korean army Dog Tag (Which was later stolen by the infamous Kleptomaniac of DCE!), and a little medallion with the War Memorial building on one side and a figure of 2 men hugging, on the other.



We went on to have a sumptuous lunch, something I have to write about in detail someday, and moved out of the complex, and started taking pictures. There I noticed a huge statue of the 2 men hugging each other, complete with their accouterments. Won (Our guide, not the currency!) told us that the statue represented a real life incident, wherein during the war between North and South Korea, two brothers from opposite armies met on the battlefield!
Suddenly, the war memorial meant a lot more. I stood and admired the statue, the position of the two men, the way their bodies leaned on each other, as if their knees had given way, their grief apparent by the mere position of their bodies.
The globe on which they stood was cracked from between them, symbolic of their world torn apart. We even caught hold of a little terrified (by us!) kid wearing a 'be the reds' t-shirt, and made him pose with us in front of the statue :) . Apparently, quite a few of us felt the same way about the war between the two parts of Korea. I say this because that night we came back to the university and laid out huge sheets of paper and left messages of peace.


We signed our names, made India's flag, and wrote a peace message in Hindi and in English.

Sometimes you just need to be in the eye of the storm to realize its futility. I felt the same way at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin. The wall obviously wasn't there. Just a slight depression in the ground where it once stood, and panels with photos and descriptions of the time it was there. It's really hard for me to explain, but I'll try. Potsdamer Platz is now a wide open area right in the centre of Berlin's business district. The DB building, all the financial giants, Sony center are all a stones throw away. The Berlin wall divided this area right through the center into half. It would have been like dividing the heart of a city. Train tracks were blocked, the city was divided into half and walled. There was a little ramp onto which people were allowed to climb to see the goings on on the other side beyond the wall. I stood there with one foot on either side of the wall, and took a snap. Then I just strolled around the place feeling the pulse of the city. Among all the cities I visited in Europe, Berlin was the one that was 'Alive'. It was exciting just to be there, just to walk along the streets. Something or the other was always going on.


It felt great just to be able to cross the places where the wall once stood, especially at the Brandenburg Tor. There was also a photo exhibition depicting the Tor after the world war, in a rather debilitated state, and we took snaps there and 'Crossed' the Tor to head toward the Live 8 concert going on between the Siegesäule. Just to think that you would have been shot down if you tried to cross the place 2 decades ago.

The only image of the Berlin wall I ever had before this trip was the one created by the Scorpions music video, "Wind's of change". In the last part of the video, there are images of the Berlin wall being brought down. After I returned from Germany, this song had an entirely new meaning for me. Having talked to people who were present at Potsdamer Platz when the first piece of the Wall crumpled, and also people who hid in their house for days fearing some sort of riots would break out, the Wall was not what it used to be anymore.

Some parts of the world are not as fortunate as Germany though. Back home, I went to watch the gate closing ceremony at Wagah recently, and after the ceremony, people are allowed to walk around the fence, touch the border post, and at one point, Indians and Pakistanis are a couple of feet away, separated only by 2 cords of barbed wire. Its amazing the way you feel looking at people across the divide. There is no ill-will, no enmity, just a weird feeling, like we are caged. They probably felt the same way. I held the gaze of quite a few people, longer than necessary, just to see how their expressions changed, but they didn't. There was no trace of malice in their eyes. They were looking at us in an incredulous manner, just as we were looking at them I'm sure.

We drove back to Amritsar discussing that maybe the aggression apparent in the gate-keepers actions should be toned down a little. There are two sides to the coin as always. At one end, we are trying to spread a feeling of mutual trust and understanding, and this demands that these proceedings be toned down. On the other hand, it is a rather good location and setup to instill feelings of nationalism in people. Gradually, the discussion changed to where our next meal should be. Incidentally, in Amritsar, all you manage to think about is food! Having tried all the street food on offer, and all the famous dhabas, we settled for Crystal, which was recommended by the owner of the Jutti Shop my mum and sister ransacked.




I kept toying with the thought that maybe someday cars will be allowed to cross the Wagah, and we will be able to go to Lahore and eat a better preparation at the Food Street. Someday soon perhaps.

Labels: Food, Life, Politics, Travel

The Chocolate Bar

Its Valentine week!! Love is in the air! Sheesh.. I don't know how many of you got this mail, but I did recently. Check this list out

7 Feb Rose Day
8 Feb Propose Day
9 Feb Chocolate Day
10 Feb Teddy Day
11 Feb Promise Day
12 Feb Kiss Day
13 Feb Hug Day
14 Feb VALENTINE’S DAY
15 Feb Slap Day
16 Feb Kick Day
17 Feb Perfume Day

It seems as if the sulky perfume companies did not like being left out, so they were added to the list as an afterthought. So, gloomy as I was, not having received any roses or proposes, trying to enjoy the weather, I did manage to wrench out a chocolate from someone special! I won't go into the details of how it happened, but it did manage to brighten my day, and toss me into a nostalgic mood.

It was a chocolate coated cereal bar that I got (its not her fault, thats the only interesting thing the cafeteria had on offer, I'm sure). Cereal bars are a recent addition to the Indian confectionery list, and have pervaded the markets recently. What this bar did, was it took my thoughts back to a little camping site known as Königstein, Saxony (Sächsischen Schweiz), on the Germany-Czech border, close to the city of Dresden, where I remember having my first cereal bar.


About 40 university interns from all over Germany, studying in universities all over the world came for this camp. Initially I was a little skeptical, I didn't think our conversations would last very long. They would ask us if we lived in huts or on boats in India, and we would have a hard time explaining things, but that was not the way things turned out...

I'll actually skip the details and start from day 2, breakfast, or maybe a little before breakfast. There was a proper arrangement of showers with hot water, however, these showers were paid. 50 Cents for 2 minutes if I remember correctly. Yeah, they still worship Hitler in some parts and do their level best to realize his dreams in whatever little way possible. The bloody showers were timed! And the inn-keeper refused to buy back extra tokens. So you had 2 options. Either you could buy extra tokens and play it safe, or you could try saving some money and risk being stranded with soap on your face and no water to wash it with. No guesses. To make things worse, we didn't realize on the first day that the 'timer' was tied to the tap. So, if you turned the water off, the timers stopped too! I know, it doesn't sound like Archimedes needed to take a bath there to figure that out, but in my defense, most people were busy making a fuss about the facilities (specially the Americans!), and no one bothered to find a way around the problem. So, after the fastest-and-most-expensive-running-water-shower of my life, I headed for the meal area, still groggy from excess of free beer the night before.

The breakfast was a lavish display of the do it yourself type. There were an array of breads, spreads, cold cuts and non-alcoholic drinks. We were told to eat as much as we could, and we were also given zip-lock bags to pack something for the trek, because we were going to be in the jungle for the next 10 hours. So, we made ourselves elaborate sandwiches, layered with what not.. and then, in the corner I noticed a little bag full of something that looked like chocolate bars. They were in fact cereal bars.

If you think I have anything to say about cereal bars, you are wrong. That is not what this post is about :) In fact I myself don't know what it's about! So, lets carry on. We were divided into 4 groups and we set out for a trek. You can see snaps of this camp here. We ended the trek and were welcomed back at base with cheap 2 Euros to a litre wine cartons!

All I really had to do was to say, thank you for the chocolate, I really appreciate it, more than you think!

Labels: Travel

The Riders of Plenty

On a hot summer afternoon in June of 1922, Franz Xaver Kugler, the owner of a Gasthaus high in the Deisenhofner Kugler-Alm in Bavaria realized that he did not have enough beer to accommodate all of his guests for the day, both bicyclists as well as mountain hikers. Hence, he decided to offer his remaining beer, as a mixture of beer and lemon-lime soda of which he had an ample supply, and thus he nick-named his newly-found drink after the bicyclists, the "Radler" ...

I first tasted this amazing drink in Munich. How I got there is another long story...

I was on my way back from Vienna, and I initially wanted to stop over at Salzburg, but when the train got there, it was raining, and clouded. So I decided to stop over at Munich to enjoy my remaining weekend. On the way from Salzburg to Munich, an American father-son duo got on the train and entered my compartment. Weirdly, I was all alone until they entered. Infact I slept in the same train all night when it was stationed at Vienna.. ok.. I'm digressing now. So, this grumpy-pringles-eating-couple hated Salzburg, and could not stop complaining. Initially I was happy that I didn't get off as these people were saying it wasn't worth it. Later I realized that they were just being American. I tried to keep a conversation going with them for as long as I could, and I finally decided to take a nap. (Couldn't tolerate them anymore!)

Unfortunately, when I got to Munich, it was raining there too!! This time I had no alternate plans. I knew of just 2 train schedules to get back home. One from Salzburg, and another from Munich! So, Munich it was. I got off, and took out my newly acquired thin plastic rain coat. It made me like a cross between a giant packed watermelon walking around on his own, and a mobile advertisement for a communication company, but it kept the rain out nevertheless.

So, my agenda as usual was to roam around the streets aimlessly, and give myself 2 hours before departure to find my way back to the Bahnhof. I also wanted to see the
Frauen Kirche, the landmark church in Munich. On my meal agenda again as usual was the local delicacy, weisswurst, with sweet mustard. I wandered aimlessly, and cluelessly following whatever little part of the track was visible from inside my plastic cocoon, and I reached the city centre. Now weekends are boring in Europe, its a sleepy place, and all the shops are closed, there is no one out on the roads, and the entire place looks rather desolate.

I didn't exactly know what to do next. I wasn't hungry and I could see the twin towers :) of the Frauenkirche in the distance, so I started off in their general direction. To cut a long story short, they were rather disappointing considering even the most arbitrary churches in Germany were breathtaking.

Back to my story, so I walked back to the city Markt Platz, and entered an old Bier Garten,the kinds they show on TV during Oktober Fest. Long dark wooden tables, huge glasses of Bier and Plump pink waitresses! Here I ordered Weisswurst/senf and a Radler to go
with it. This drink completely overshadowed the food! It was amazing, almost sweet, and yet it had the distinct taste and body of beer. If it werent so expensive, I would had a few more, but I just decided to wait to get back to Siegen and get myself some bottles!

In Siegen, I tried the Radler from the local brewery, Krombacher. This I distinctly remember did not taste as good, for reasons unknown to me. Some part of the taste was lost owing to my humble lodgings, but the taste itself was a bit different. There is another story about the Krombacher brewery, but I'll leave that for another time..

Some internet sites have some rather innovative recipes for making Radler at home. The original recipe ofcourse contains one half sweet lemonade, but some sites recommend sprite and what not. Although I have never tried mixing it for myself, I feel that mixing lemonade into pre-carbonated beer will end up making the concoction flat. Sprite may be a better option. I'll quote some of the recipes here:

You can make your own Radler by mixing 1 part German beer to one part lemon-flavored soda such as 7-Up.

or

1/2 Beer
1/2 Sweet Lemonade (I suggest using soda)

If however you can get your hands on bottled Radler, in any of its forms, you must try it!

Labels: Travel