A load of crap from an idle brain

1. Completed my MBA. Finally.
2. Went Bangkok for Valentine’s day
3. Visited Velankanni church and fulfilled a long pending desire of mine.
4. Celebrated our first Wedding Anniversary at Hyderabad among friends and family.
5. My brother got married.
6. Moved my blog from WordPress to a self hosted domain.  Went with the WordPress recommendation of Justhost as the service provider; and their service has been superb.  Havent had any issues with them yet.
7. Completed 5 years of blogging. Non-stop.
8. Completed 9 years in Singapore.  Never believed i would last so long here.
9. Increased my investments in the stock market. Took the crash in the begining of the year as an opportunity to buy into some good stocks at cheap.  And when the market recovered a bit, i was into profits already.
10. Didnt fall sick even a single day the whole year.  Thank God for small mercies. Hope it stays that way.
11. Wifey joined me here in Singapore.  Loving it.
12. Started off slow, but in the last 2 months of the year, read 4 books.  Hope to continue into the new year.
13. Watched almost 150 movies in the whole year. Managed to document only around 120 of them in the Movies page

In 2008

A small tea shop somewhere on East Coast Road

Travelled on this bus from Chennai to Velankanni

Masala Dosa anyone?

The bus station at Velankanni

The main church at Velankanni

Shrines at opposite ends of the street

Back side of the church

Shrines at opposite ends of the street

A small chapel at St Thomas Mount, Chennai.  Its believed that St Thomas, a disciple of Jesus Christ who came to India to spread Christianity was martyred here.

A cross at St Thomas mount.  A lovely small chapel at the top of a small hill.  A great view of the Chennai city as well as the Chennai airport’s runway is visible from here

A statue of Jesus after crucifixion

Some engraving at the entrance of the church at St Thomas mount.  I guess the language could be Latin.  Anyone can confirm?

An extension of the above engraving

A 150 year old banyan tree in the courtyard of the church at St Thomas mount

A wind chime swaying in the wind at my home in Hyderabad

A flowering plant at home

The new Hyderabad airport

McDonalds at the new Hyderabad airport

A view of the airport village from the departure level at the new Hyderabad airport

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First a trip to smelly and dirty Chennai, then a trip to equally smelly and extremely dirty pilgrim town called Velankanni (with the famous shrine of Mary) and finally to an extremely clean, cold and windy Hyderabad.

Chennai was sweltering hot, i sweated buckets.  Coupled with that the scarcity of water and a city that is used by its citizens as a garbage dump.  You wonder where the municipal workers of the city are?  If at all they are doing the work.  Whether you are the middle of the city or at the outskirts, one thing that defines Chennai is the consistent crappy smell in the air.  The air stinks in Chennai and uniformly so.  Dont know why and how.  This is in addition to the dirt and filth all around.  Wonder which moron decided to name it a metro.

Velankanni was equally dirty.  For a piligrim town with such a potential for tourism, there are hardly any good lodge/hotels.  The only good ones are the dorms run by the church, but they too offer you rooms for the next day only.  And if you are the ones (like me) who just drop into the town with no reservations, hoping to stay at some hotel, be disappointed with the kinds of rooms you get there.  As for the restaurants, stay away if you dont want to come down with some extreme case of food poisoning or diarrhea.

If you have any plans of going to Velankanni, stay at Nagapattinam, a town near Velankanni.  Take a bus in the morning to Velankanni, see around and come back to Nagapattinam.  This was advised by my friends after i did my trip much to my exasperation.

Took a train from Chennai to Hyderabad.  Was travelling by the Indian Railways after more than 11 years and loved the experience.  Reached Hyderabad early morning around 6am on the 14th (our 1st wedding anniversary).   Was amazed at how clean the city of Hyderabad was at 6 in the morning.   Either the roads were swept clean or at some places the cleaners were hard at work.  Kudos to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and the people who work for them for keeping the city reasonably clean.

It was drizzling all through and there was a nice cool breeze.  Loved it. Since we were tired, we preferred to rest.  There was not much celebration for the anniversary as all plans were for wifey’s birthday which was 2 days later on the 16th.  Had a get together at home for friends and family for wifey’s birthday.

Later on in the week, went to the new mall in town, GVK-1.  Good place to hang out, but there was something lacking in the place.  I prefer Hyderabad Central or City Center.  Also the mall is pretty new and the shops are only coming up.  Maybe it will be good once it fills up.

Saw the movie New York.  Not bad i thought.  Better than the crap that Yash Raj is famous for churning out. Saw the movie at the new INOX multiplex at GVK-1.  The seating is good and so is the sound system.

Travelled back to Singapore via Chennai again.  From the superb airport of Hyderabad to a garbage can called Chennai Airport is a perfect example of what the private sector can do to our economy while at the same time, the Chennai airport run by the inefficient babus of Airports Authority of India have really screwed it up.

There were no seats at the international departure.  They simply disappeared.  For someone who’se flight is yet to start check-in, they simply have to stand there waiting for the counters to open.  Can you believe that?  What about the elderly and the people who need to rest?  Have the airport authorities ever thought about their comfort?

And the cafe’s selling stuff in Chennai airport are nothing but daylight robbery.  Tea is sold for Rs 30.  A samosa / aloo bonda costs Rs 60.  Whereas you get a good Cafe Coffee Day coffee at the Hyderabad airport for just Rs 15.

I can go on and on about the pathetic situation at Chennai airport, but its a waste of time.  Its a perfect example of why the airport needs to be handed over to a private player so that they can do a better job of the same.  Anyone with doubts can look at Hyderabad, Bangalore, Delhi and Bombay airports and compare them to the ones run by AAI.  There is simply no comparison.

Back at office and a mountain of work stares me in the face.  Time to get going.

Chennai picture courtesy: I’m seeing green ;  Hyderabad tank bund and NTR gardens picture courtesy: Hyderabad

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Will be traveling to…

Chennai

and then….

Velankanni

and finally…

Hyderabad

This trip is gonna be a bit hectic so don’t think i will be online.  Will be back in Singapore on 21st July. Adios and be good

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The long winding IPL 2009 finally comes to a close this weekend.  The semi final line up is ready.  Deccan Chargers take on the Delhi Daredevils in the first semi final today (Friday) and tomorrow (Saturday), the Chennai Super Kings take on Bangalore Royal Challengers in the second semi finals.

Go Deccan Chargers Go 

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Double Standards

While the Indian government, political leaders and businessmen have no qualms berating Obama for setting up protectionist barriers towards American companies that ship jobs abroad. The same can’t be said about these same Indian politicians who deny the basic education, jobs to people who are not of a certain caste, religion etc. The caste based reservations have caused havoc in the way seats are assigned for professional courses and jobs. Its one place where the Government of India balantly discriminates against its own citizens just because they are born in some other caste. But they will go hammer and tongs at the American government for doing something to protect the jobs for its own citizens.

At least the American government doesnt discriminate against its own people as the Indian government does. In terms of transparency, the Indian economy is ranked 123 in the Economic Freedom World rankings whereas the USA is ranked 6th.  That just goes to show how protectionist the Indian government and its economy is. What then gives the politicians the moral authority to rail against Obama and his team for trying to deny tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas? Obama is elected by Americans. He is responsible for their well being. The Indian politician also claims that the protectionist measure he espouses is for the well being of Indians.  Then why the double standards?

Isnt it time we set our own house in order before throwing stones at others?

Greed

A few years ago there used to be 3 airlines that flew between Singapore and Hyderabad.  They were Silkair (a subsidiary of Singapore Airlines), Indian Airlines and Air India.  Both Indian Airlines and Air India merged to become one entity.  As the passenger load factor between the 2 cities increased, the greedy Singapore Airlines (SQ) replaced Silkair with SQ and jacked up prices (from approx SG$ 600 to approx SG$1070).

Mysteriously, Air India also stopped flying between the 2 cities citing rationalising of routes leaving travellers at the mercy of the high priced SQ.  I quit using SQ and stared flying by Tiger Airways to Chennai and took the domestic Kingfisher Airlines.  In spite of the round trip, it saved me more than SG$500 (approx 15,000 rupees) per trip.

As the recession set in, people started flying less.  It started to tell on the SQ passenger load factor.  They started to fly almost empty.  Slowly SQ reduced its frequency between the 2 cities to just 3 trips a week.  And, now they have announced that once again SQ will be replaced by Silkair and that it will fly between the two cities 5 times a week starting June 15th.

The excessive greed of Singapore Airlines in wanting to make as much money from the paying public with its ridiculous pricing has made sure that it has lost many customers.  I for one, have sworn never to fly SQ again.  I also advise all my friends and relatives to avoid it as much as possible. Not only on this sector, but everywhere. I advise them to fly Thai, Malaysian, Sri Lankan, Emirates, Cathay Pacific….. anything, except SQ.

The only way we, as the paying public can bring all these high flying business establishments who try to screw us with their peak pricing and monopolistic business practices is to hit them where it hurts them the most.  At their pockets.

I did. And am happy to see SQ lose business and now start to fly its low fare subsidiary, Silkair between Singapore and Hyderabad.  Hope at least now SQ will realise that greed does pay in the short run, but over a long period they will only lose business and alienate their customers forever.

Hope this recession teaches all the businesses some valuable lessons.

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The mouthwatering contest between the Chennai Super Kings and Deccan Chargers went into the final over as DC beat CSK by 6 wickets in their 4th match.  Thus establishing their firm control at the top of the table and keeping a clean slate.

Above picture courtesy: Cricinfo

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The PSLV-C12, carrying 300-kg Radar Imaging Satellite (RISAT-2) and 40-kg Micro Satellite ANUSAT lifted off from ISRO’s Satish Dhawan space Centre here on Monday morning. At the end of the 48-hour countdown, the 44-meter tall four-stage PSLV-C12 blasted off from the second launch pad with the ignition of the core first stage.

PSLV C-12 at the launch pad early morning today

The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, weighing 230 tonnes at the time of launch, soared into a clear sky at 6.45am(local time) from the spaceport here, about 90 km north of Chennai. This is the 15th flight of ISRO’s workhorse PSLV, which had launched 30 satellites (14 for India and 16 for foreign countries) into a variety of orbits since 1993.

The launch vehicle carries two payloads – RISAT-2 (with all weather capability to take images of Earth) and ANUSAT (the first satellite built by an Indian University to demonstrate the technologies related to message store and forward operations).

The ANUSAT satellite made by the Anna University, Chennai

The rocket would place both the satellites in their orbits around the earth shortly. The SAR, developed by Israel Aerospace Industries, gives RISAT defence capabilities.

ANUSAT is the first satellite developed by an Indian university (Anna University), which would demonstrate the technologies related to message storing and forward operations. University sources said scores of students and faculty from different streams had worked on this satellite for the last six years.

ANUSAT is a store-and-forward communication satellite that will help transfer confidential academic materials, including exam question papers, to prevent question paper leakages. It will also help monitor drought and wasteland, urban planning and other studies.

Above news from: TimesofIndia & pics from ISRO

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