When BSY took oath with a clear mandate , it looked like there was hope for Bangalore again. Things did move, there was the Metro which was put back on track, there was some clear plan for infrastructure development around Bangalore, the NICE corridor was at allowed to open and collect toll.
Now the wise-guys Reddy brothers have done it again. They put the CM on notice and what this means is all the governance is going to take a back seat and survival will be of paramount importance. Good luck Bangalore !
Monday, November 9, 2009
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Ek Din Hong Kong mein ...
There was a time when people had to travel to Chennai from Bangalore to take a flight to the US. This is not too long ago, maybe 10 years back. Last year with the introduction of Dragon Air /Cathay Pacific connection from Bangalore, we can travel to the US especially the West Coast, with a single stop over at HongKong. On the way back the connection is even better. The travel time is around 22 hours ... in case you get the afternoon flight out of San Francisco. If you don't , you get to spend 18 hours in Hong Kong .
But you get to see Hong Kong if you are not lazy , jet lagged or tired !
Most flights from the West Coast arrive at Hong Kong around 6:00 AM and the flight to Bangalore or Chennai leaves at 10:00 PM .
Immigration is easy. Indian nationals get a 14 day visa on arrival ( as long as you are not planning to work ). You would need to fill in a form and show your boarding pass for the onward connection ( to India) and that's all !
Hong Kong International Airport is designed in a way that arrivals and departures are separated into two different levels. The lower level is the arrival and the upper one is the departure level. All transiting passengers are asked to got through a security check and proceed to the upper departure level and await their connection. However, if one wants to go out to the city then , they should clear immigration at the arrivals level itself. One is not allowed to come back to the immigration once they have cleared security and gone to the departure level.
The big question is what do you do in Hong Kong for the next 12 hours or so ? Well, you could go sightseeing, go around the city just to get a feel for it or shop ! What is mentioned here is what I did and is a suggested trip for people who have about 12 hours to spend at Hong Kong. This involves sightseeing , getting a feeel of the town and some shopping at where else but the appropriately named Ladies Market !!
A good idea is to start early say around 8:30 AM from HKIA after getting through immigration , having a wash /coffee etc and getting currency exchanged. In case your carry -on is something that you would rather not lug around in Hong Kong , there is a cloak room kind of arrangement in the Arrivals Hall in the Airport where you could leave the bags for a fee.
The main areas that I covered are
The Ngong Ping Monastery where there is the largest bronze statue of Buddha . Take a bus S1 from HKIA to Tung Chung and from Tung there are two choices . One is to take a bus from the Ting Chung Bus station to the top over winding roads and some scenic drive. The other is to take a the cable car. Unfortunately when I went the cable car was out of operation. It opens at 9:00 AM on weekends and at 10:00 AM on weekdays. You could take the bus back to Tung Chung or try and take the cable car.
Back at Tung Chung I ( we) took the MTR ( metro rail ) to Hong Kong island. The train drops you at Hong Station of MTR which is below the IFC1 ( International Finance Centre 1 ) building. Once you come up from the MTR station, you reach the IFC mall where you could shop or window shop ( depending upon what you want to or can buy ) . You could certainly catch up with some food here. There are some decent restaurants here. More of that later.
At this time you are in the downtown of Hong Kong and the next destination is The Peak.One could take a bus or take the Peak Tram. The Peak Tram is more exciting since it goes up at 45deg incline. I walked from IFC1 to the base of the Peak Tram station. The walk takes upto 15 mins in the hot and humid Hong Kong weather and then you realize the value of an AC in climes like that of Hong Kong. Hong Kong feels a lot like South Bombay ( well that's my opionion ). The walk to the Peak Tram station would take you through the iconic HSBC tower and the Bank of China building. A good thing about this walk is that there are signs to guide you to the Peak Tram station. All you need to do is to get the Connaught Road from IFC. There are skywalks with good signage , so that should not be too hard.Once at the Peak , you have a choice ( yes again ! ). You could get a good panoromic view of the city from either Sky Terrace which is a building on top of the peak , on whose terrace is a vista point. Or , you could simply walk a little bit along the trails and get a view. Needless to say , the natrure trail is free and the Sky Terrace is not. The two photos are attempted panoramic shots from the Sky Terrace and the nature trail and I will leave you to figure which one is what ...
The next stop was the Star Ferry Pier at Central ( which is quite close to the IFC ). I took a bus down from The Peak ( I think it was 15 ) , and this gave me a good trip through parts of the Hong Kong Island. The bus was a double decker and I got the front seat which gave me a better view than what I would have got being seated elsewhere in the bus. The bus comes via the downtown and it was quite an experience seeing the traffic being managed so effeciently in the crowded business district. The bus drops off passengers at the Central Ferry Pier and the Star Ferry Peir is a shot walk from there. Once the at Star Ferry peir board the ferry to Kowloon Island. The Ferry ride gives a good view of the Hong skyline. Once at the other end, one could take a walk to the Clock Tower and get a better view of the skyline from the Kowloon Public Pier.
The next stop is the Ladies Market ( for the shopping afficiandos ) , and to get there , one needs to take the MTR from the Tsim Tsa Tshui station to Mong Kok . The Tsim Tsa Tsui station is walkable from the clock tower and one can walk through parts of Nathan Road. There is a lot of scope of window shopping here too. It also adds to the 'city-experience' . At Mong Kok station , there are signs which guide you to the correct exit to take you to the Ladies Market. The name of the street is Tung Choi street, but I think its better known as Ladies Market. The Ladies Market is a place where one can strike a good bargain and as is wont with such places, one can get cheated as well. Hence my advice is be careful. My personal favourites are fake handbags, scarves, and silk novelty items like cell phone covers. Its advisable to carry Hong Kong dollars in change.
By this time , it should b
e nearing 5:00 PM , if one has gone to all the places mentioned above. Depending upon when you want to be at the airport, you could head back or go around Hong Kong a bit more. To head back to the airport , take the MTR from Mong kong towards Tsen Wan and change to the Tung Chung line at Lai King. Once at Tung Chung you could explore the shopping complex at the Tung Chung MTR station or head back to the airport on bus no S1.Once at the airport, you would need to go through immigration security and then you back at the departure level.
Here is a Google Map representation of the trip that I have described above. This should give a better picture of where you are headed and how long it could take.
View Hong Kong Trip in a larger map
Food ? I found that there were not many choices for vegetarians in Hong Kong. The IFC Mall has a few good places and I found Pret-A-Manager to be good. Its a soup and sandwich place and I liked it. There are Burger Kings and McDonalds as well. A good idea would be to grab some cakes/coffee or sandwich at StarBucks.
In case you want to do more or something on your own , there is the Hong Kong tourism board website which is quite useful. What you want to do and can do is a function of what your enthusiasm level is, how well you feel after a 14 hour flight and the weather in Hong Kong of course. My recommendation is do not over do it !!
There is also a Symphony of Lights show which is supposed to be a big deal in Hong Kong as far as tourists are concerned, but that happens at 8:00 PM and that cuts too fine with the time needed to come back to the airport and catch your flight back to desh !
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Why I am unhappy with the BJP
Lets face it. Here is a national party that is yet to get its act together. We are a month away from elections and here are these folks without even a clear agenda on what they are contesting on ?
Its been a known fact for the last 4 years or so that its USP AB Vajpayee would no longer be the PM candidate and it had to be Advani or someone else. The someone else was never discussed. It was to be Advani which is fine. Then, you need something beyond a PM candidate , and that's not a hate speech by a candidate who is known to come from a background of dissent and divisiveness. Neither is it a sulking senior leader who refuses to attend a meeting because a tent-wallah had been elevated to the same pedestal that he occupies.
Here is a party that claims and probably in most way represents the urban and sem-urban middle class, which
is now totally lost on what its fighting on. It should be issue and not people !! Here is a list of issues that I can think of
1. Slow pace of infrastructure development ( the NH progress is an example)
2. Instability posed by smaller regional parties
3. Simple change !!
4. Lesser tax and more accountability in spending !
5. Power situation ??
Its been a known fact for the last 4 years or so that its USP AB Vajpayee would no longer be the PM candidate and it had to be Advani or someone else. The someone else was never discussed. It was to be Advani which is fine. Then, you need something beyond a PM candidate , and that's not a hate speech by a candidate who is known to come from a background of dissent and divisiveness. Neither is it a sulking senior leader who refuses to attend a meeting because a tent-wallah had been elevated to the same pedestal that he occupies.
Here is a party that claims and probably in most way represents the urban and sem-urban middle class, which
is now totally lost on what its fighting on. It should be issue and not people !! Here is a list of issues that I can think of
1. Slow pace of infrastructure development ( the NH progress is an example)
2. Instability posed by smaller regional parties
3. Simple change !!
4. Lesser tax and more accountability in spending !
5. Power situation ??
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Pub Culture
The good thing about technology and working in technology is that you get a set a specifications on how a particular technology can be used or implemented, and what is in scope and out of scope. Not only that we also have versions of these specifications , so that we can say that this is out-dated and that this is in.
Unfortunately , there is no such thing for culture. And, I guess that is the problem that our "Senas" are facing. There are no specifications on what our culture is , and what is our culture as far as women are concerned. As an example lets say there was a specification for Indian Culture numbered CSR ( Culture Specification Request ) 2000-02 wherein there was a chapter 11 named Indian Women and there was section which said the following :
11.1.2 : The women MUST not drink in a public place and any such instance of women found to be drinking shall be followed by the throwing of punches ( see Chapter 9 on Raising Exceptions and Errors )
How simple would that be ... We would have no debates on what is Indian Culture and who should protect it. Jokes apart, I am amazed at the response of some of the people in executive positions on this incident.
Sample this :
There was an incident in Kerala , wherein policewoman got drunk in a party and puked !! BTW, this happened not far from Mangalore. Was she not a woman or not an Indian or maybe she is outside of the purview of culture.
In every second or third hooch tragedy there would be an instance of a woman also dying.
Wonder , why that is OK ? Is it that these women do not wear jeans , T-shirts ( markedly western or urban wear ) and speak in English ( again markedly urban ?? ). Is it really about culture or is it about an excuse to "teach those city people a lesson" ? I think its the latter, and the irony is that the perpetrators would love to be one of the city folks and are probably doing everything to get there !!
Unfortunately , there is no such thing for culture. And, I guess that is the problem that our "Senas" are facing. There are no specifications on what our culture is , and what is our culture as far as women are concerned. As an example lets say there was a specification for Indian Culture numbered CSR ( Culture Specification Request ) 2000-02 wherein there was a chapter 11 named Indian Women and there was section which said the following :
11.1.2 : The women MUST not drink in a public place and any such instance of women found to be drinking shall be followed by the throwing of punches ( see Chapter 9 on Raising Exceptions and Errors )
How simple would that be ... We would have no debates on what is Indian Culture and who should protect it. Jokes apart, I am amazed at the response of some of the people in executive positions on this incident.
Sample this :
There was an incident in Kerala , wherein policewoman got drunk in a party and puked !! BTW, this happened not far from Mangalore. Was she not a woman or not an Indian or maybe she is outside of the purview of culture.
In every second or third hooch tragedy there would be an instance of a woman also dying.
Wonder , why that is OK ? Is it that these women do not wear jeans , T-shirts ( markedly western or urban wear ) and speak in English ( again markedly urban ?? ). Is it really about culture or is it about an excuse to "teach those city people a lesson" ? I think its the latter, and the irony is that the perpetrators would love to be one of the city folks and are probably doing everything to get there !!
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Long Hiatus ...
Its not that I did not have anything to write about, its more of I did not have time. Should be back with a blog soon.
I have had the chance to travel around a bit , so trip report are in the offing ...
Monday, June 25, 2007
Trip Report Part2
Changi is a city that bustles to life as soon as the early morning arrivals start coming in, bringing in people for a transit. I got a coffee and a croissant for breakfast , got a nice foot massage in the electro-mechanical massagers that have been provided by OSIM in the transit lounge. SQ16 was deperating from was E4. I headed towards the gate to find quite a bit of a queue at the gate. The flight was full, not suprising for SQ16, which is one of the main links between India and SFO !
After a quick security check, I was waiting in the lounge trying to catch some photographs.
I could not help overhear a conversation between a lady and a co-passenger. It appeared that lady was an American citizen of Indian origin, and it appeared that she was returning back after letting out her property for an astronomical sum of Rs 1 lakh a month. I figured she must be one of the contributors to high rents in India, and the "poor" software engineers get blamed for it !
Now the 777-300ER with SQ is a new "product" as they call it ! The interiors were different and more brighter and with bigger PTVs ! You just got to travel in one of them to experience it !
The cabin !
The bigger PTVs ... check the resolution out !
Word processing program on the PTVs. Did you get the USB keyboard and USD pen drive today ?
Take off happened at 9:30 or so and we took off to the south, took a 180 degree turn and then flew over Changi !
Overflying Changi again !
The fight to Seoul ( Incheon ) was uneventful and we landed on time ...
The terminal at Incheon is one of the best that I have seen ! Its spacious and unlike HongKong , they have not crowded it till the ceiling !!
SQ16 at Incheon .. note the length of the 777-300
777-300ER
We took from Incheon at around 6:00 PM local time and the much publicized "mood-lighting" concept was in use ... It was evening !
After dinner I slept off and woke at about 3 hrs to go to SFO. After breakfast , I opened the window shades to see if it was clear outside. It was not ... which was not surprising. I was hoping to catch a glimpse of the Point Reyes and Golden Gate while we landed ! It cleared up right before we flew over land !
Golden Gate ! Wish I had a better angle...
SFO downtown
Landed at SFO !
I could have taken more photographs, but airhostess did not want a digital camera to interfere with the plane's electronics ! I paid heed to her advice :-)
We landed at 12:10 PM 30 mins ahead of schedule. Immigration was a breeze and I grabbed some lunch at the food court and headed off the rental car counter to get my car ...
After a quick security check, I was waiting in the lounge trying to catch some photographs.
I could not help overhear a conversation between a lady and a co-passenger. It appeared that lady was an American citizen of Indian origin, and it appeared that she was returning back after letting out her property for an astronomical sum of Rs 1 lakh a month. I figured she must be one of the contributors to high rents in India, and the "poor" software engineers get blamed for it !
Now the 777-300ER with SQ is a new "product" as they call it ! The interiors were different and more brighter and with bigger PTVs ! You just got to travel in one of them to experience it !
The cabin !
The bigger PTVs ... check the resolution out !
Word processing program on the PTVs. Did you get the USB keyboard and USD pen drive today ?
Take off happened at 9:30 or so and we took off to the south, took a 180 degree turn and then flew over Changi !
Overflying Changi again !
The fight to Seoul ( Incheon ) was uneventful and we landed on time ...
The terminal at Incheon is one of the best that I have seen ! Its spacious and unlike HongKong , they have not crowded it till the ceiling !!
SQ16 at Incheon .. note the length of the 777-300
777-300ER
We took from Incheon at around 6:00 PM local time and the much publicized "mood-lighting" concept was in use ... It was evening !
After dinner I slept off and woke at about 3 hrs to go to SFO. After breakfast , I opened the window shades to see if it was clear outside. It was not ... which was not surprising. I was hoping to catch a glimpse of the Point Reyes and Golden Gate while we landed ! It cleared up right before we flew over land !
Golden Gate ! Wish I had a better angle...
SFO downtown
Landed at SFO !
I could have taken more photographs, but airhostess did not want a digital camera to interfere with the plane's electronics ! I paid heed to her advice :-)
We landed at 12:10 PM 30 mins ahead of schedule. Immigration was a breeze and I grabbed some lunch at the food court and headed off the rental car counter to get my car ...
Saturday, June 9, 2007
Been Away ... Trip report Part 1
I have been busy and away for a while now. But I got to do something that I like to do, fly ! And guess what , that too in a Boeing 777-300ER
WARNING : For those folks not interested in a trip report/planes/and what I did ... here is your chance to move away !
Trip details :
BLR->SIN SQ 529
Dep 7May 23:15
Arr SIN 06:20+1
SIN->SFO via ICN SQ16
Dep SIN : 8May 09:15
Arr SFO : 8May 12:30
With a hectic weekend preceding my travel , I was a bit relieved as we travlled towards the airport in Bangalore wading through the traffic. Online check-in for international travel seems to have caught up and Singapore airlines too has a fairly good site to check you in. They do not let you print boarding passes yet, but you can at least get a seat allocated.
Now, most the "window" people like me ask for a window when we book tickets and that leaves very little room for seat change when you actually checkin. In addition, you can only checkin seats for the segment of flight which is less that 48 hrs away. So that means you need to start checkin in 48 hrs before your next flight. The website does not clearly indicate that ... A better user interface would be useful here ! I had checked in for my SQ529 and not Sq16 , because of a website glitch. Hence I wanted to be early so that there are no issues.
Now Bangalore International , is an apology for an airport. It has grown so much with little space at its disposal, that planning becomes very important ! That's something that the airport management missed out ! I arrived at 19:15 for a 23:15 flight and was asked to wait outside the airport till 20:15 ( when the counters opened ) . The waiting area between the parking lot and the airport doors was a no mans land , and , was not exactly upto international standards , actually was not even upto Indian standards !
Finally at 20:15 we were let in and I was one of the first people to check in ... As my luck would have it I walked upto a trainee. Checkin in BLR for Singapore airlines is handled by AAI-HAL-JWG ( Ya ! Airports Authority of India, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd Joint working group ). Most of the staff is quite effective, but this guy was quite at sea and was unable to find me a seat that I wanted for SQ16 and also took 25 mins to check me in. This inspite of the fact that I had entered my passport details.
Checking done, waved a bye to wife , went upstairs had my dinner , went through immigration which was a breeze and went through security to the departure lounge. BLR has two gates, and the holding area looks pretty much like the holding area in a "Tirupathi queue" holding area.
There is a Cafe Coffee Day that does good business and it exemplifies the phrase "captive customers" given that its the only coffee shop inside the security hold!
SQ530 arrived, and it was 22:45 - time to start boarding ! SQ tries to board passengers as per row numbers , but that does not help here... there were quite a few people crowding near the gates. Now that is something I find hard to understand ... you have allocated seats, you are asked top board in such a way that it causes minimum inconvenience to others and yet people feel a bit insecure about getting on the plane !
Time passed, people got in , I got in ,settled in my seat . I wanted to take photos , but was not allowed since BLR is a not a civil airport and besides the light was not great ! A Thai Airways A330 came in and parked next to us. Push back happened at 23:20 or so and we were off to the Marathahalli end for a take off roll. We took off over Challagatta took a U turn towards east and were headed off in the direction of Chennai ! Bangalore does look cool from the air !
I turned my attention at the inflight entertainment system and decided to listen to some music. Supper was served at around 00:45 , and I must say that I was a bit hungry. As I normally tend to do, I did not consume all that was served ... Supper past midnight with 24 hrs of travel ahead of you is not my cup of tea ( pun unintended ). I slept off for two hrs and was woken up with the announcement that we were descending into Singapore. We descended through some clouds and I could see the entire expanse of Singapore . We landed at around 06:10 local time and it was still dark and taxied to a gate (e20). I got out out and Changi was bustling pretty much like a town coming to life in the morning !
I took a stroll to excercise my feet and went for a coffee . The sun was rising
The sun rises at Changi. Photo taken from Terminal 2 Transit area.
WARNING : For those folks not interested in a trip report/planes/and what I did ... here is your chance to move away !
Trip details :
BLR->SIN SQ 529
Dep 7May 23:15
Arr SIN 06:20+1
SIN->SFO via ICN SQ16
Dep SIN : 8May 09:15
Arr SFO : 8May 12:30
With a hectic weekend preceding my travel , I was a bit relieved as we travlled towards the airport in Bangalore wading through the traffic. Online check-in for international travel seems to have caught up and Singapore airlines too has a fairly good site to check you in. They do not let you print boarding passes yet, but you can at least get a seat allocated.
Now, most the "window" people like me ask for a window when we book tickets and that leaves very little room for seat change when you actually checkin. In addition, you can only checkin seats for the segment of flight which is less that 48 hrs away. So that means you need to start checkin in 48 hrs before your next flight. The website does not clearly indicate that ... A better user interface would be useful here ! I had checked in for my SQ529 and not Sq16 , because of a website glitch. Hence I wanted to be early so that there are no issues.
Now Bangalore International , is an apology for an airport. It has grown so much with little space at its disposal, that planning becomes very important ! That's something that the airport management missed out ! I arrived at 19:15 for a 23:15 flight and was asked to wait outside the airport till 20:15 ( when the counters opened ) . The waiting area between the parking lot and the airport doors was a no mans land , and , was not exactly upto international standards , actually was not even upto Indian standards !
Finally at 20:15 we were let in and I was one of the first people to check in ... As my luck would have it I walked upto a trainee. Checkin in BLR for Singapore airlines is handled by AAI-HAL-JWG ( Ya ! Airports Authority of India, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd Joint working group ). Most of the staff is quite effective, but this guy was quite at sea and was unable to find me a seat that I wanted for SQ16 and also took 25 mins to check me in. This inspite of the fact that I had entered my passport details.
Checking done, waved a bye to wife , went upstairs had my dinner , went through immigration which was a breeze and went through security to the departure lounge. BLR has two gates, and the holding area looks pretty much like the holding area in a "Tirupathi queue" holding area.
There is a Cafe Coffee Day that does good business and it exemplifies the phrase "captive customers" given that its the only coffee shop inside the security hold!
SQ530 arrived, and it was 22:45 - time to start boarding ! SQ tries to board passengers as per row numbers , but that does not help here... there were quite a few people crowding near the gates. Now that is something I find hard to understand ... you have allocated seats, you are asked top board in such a way that it causes minimum inconvenience to others and yet people feel a bit insecure about getting on the plane !
Time passed, people got in , I got in ,settled in my seat . I wanted to take photos , but was not allowed since BLR is a not a civil airport and besides the light was not great ! A Thai Airways A330 came in and parked next to us. Push back happened at 23:20 or so and we were off to the Marathahalli end for a take off roll. We took off over Challagatta took a U turn towards east and were headed off in the direction of Chennai ! Bangalore does look cool from the air !
I turned my attention at the inflight entertainment system and decided to listen to some music. Supper was served at around 00:45 , and I must say that I was a bit hungry. As I normally tend to do, I did not consume all that was served ... Supper past midnight with 24 hrs of travel ahead of you is not my cup of tea ( pun unintended ). I slept off for two hrs and was woken up with the announcement that we were descending into Singapore. We descended through some clouds and I could see the entire expanse of Singapore . We landed at around 06:10 local time and it was still dark and taxied to a gate (e20). I got out out and Changi was bustling pretty much like a town coming to life in the morning !
I took a stroll to excercise my feet and went for a coffee . The sun was rising
The sun rises at Changi. Photo taken from Terminal 2 Transit area.
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