Kaushik Krishnan's Blog

Ironic

2011-12-23T13:09:00.000+05:30

After reading the article on the multiverse, I see this.

The Accidental Universe

2011-12-22T15:04:00.001+05:30

If the multiverse idea is correct, then the historic mission of physics to explain all the properties of our universe in terms of fundamental principles—to explain why the properties of our universe must necessarily be what they are—is futile, a beautiful philosophical dream that simply isn’t true. Our universe is what it is because we are here. The situation could be likened to a school of intelligent fish who one day began wondering why their world is completely filled with water. Many of the fish, the theorists, hope to prove that the entire cosmos necessarily has to be filled with water. For years, they put their minds to the task but can never quite seem to prove their assertion. Then, a wizened group of fish postulates that maybe they are fooling themselves. Maybe there are, they suggest, many other worlds, some of them completely dry, and everything in between.

An interesting article on the multiverse.

Finals

2011-12-22T11:42:00.000+05:30

Are over. Oh man.

New York City

2011-12-19T18:30:00.001+05:30

Is gorgeous. Even through a measly camera phone.

Right to Fishing Without Interference

2011-12-11T12:16:00.001+05:30

The case Moore v. Moore recognized the husband's right to `fish without female interference'.

Click for more.

Euler

2011-11-20T20:38:00.000+05:30

Euler's eyesight worsened throughout his mathematical career. Three years after suffering a near-fatal fever in 1735 he became nearly blind in his right eye, but Euler rather blamed his condition on the painstaking work on cartography he performed for the St. Petersburg Academy. Euler's sight in that eye worsened throughout his stay in Germany, so much so that Frederick referred to him as "Cyclops". Euler later suffered a cataract in his good left eye, rendering him almost totally blind a few weeks after its discovery in 1766. Even so, his condition appeared to have little effect on his productivity, as he compensated for it with his mental calculation skills and photographic memory. For example, Euler could repeat the Aeneid of Virgil from beginning to end without hesitation, and for every page in the edition he could indicate which line was the first and which the last. With the aid of his scribes, Euler's productivity on many areas of study actually increased. He produced on average one mathematical paper every week in the year 1775.

Wow.

Richard Stallman's Eating Habits

2011-10-27T21:05:00.001+05:30

He does not eat:

avocado
eggplant, usually (there are occasional exceptions)
hot pepper
olives
liver (even in trace quantities)
stomach and intestine; other organ meats
cooked tuna
oysters
egg yolk, if the taste is noticeable, except when boiled completely hard
many strong cheeses, especially those with green fungus
desserts that contain fruit or liqueur flavors
sour fruits, such as grapefruit and many oranges
beer
coffee (though weak coffee flavor can be good in desserts)
the taste of alcohol (so I don't drink anything stronger than wine)

[link]

The space shuttle is dead

2011-07-09T09:38:00.004+05:30

Long live the space shuttle.

A picture history.

News

2011-07-05T15:44:00.002+05:30

Recently returned from Kuari Pass in Garhwal. So many pictures, so little enthusiasm to prune. But, here is one from the trek:

Salvaged Pictures

2011-04-02T07:35:00.003+05:30

Most of the Ladakh photos are still lost, but I managed to unearth these:

Sunset at the last camp before the pass

On our way to the pass

More at the Flickr page.

Ladakh 2010 - Skiu to Markha

2010-12-29T00:16:00.004+05:30

Route

Chilling to Skiu (Roughly 7 km). GPS Files - KML, full trek route (GPX)

View Larger Map

The blue line is the GPS trail.

Back Again

Hello world! I am back, but I probably won't be able to finish this series of posts. It's been many months since I last posted, and I am paying the price for a disorganised file system. I can't find the rest of my pictures. I'm cleaning through more than 1 TB of files, and I hope they'll turn up sometime. If not, this is the last post on the trek (which is a pity because the best parts were after this point).

Skiu to Markha

Skiu to Markha was probably the longest walk on any day of the trek. The GPS stats show that we walked a little over 22 km (this seems fishy, but it would be tough for a GPS to make it up) in 7 hours. I certainly remember it being the most grueling. It was the second day of the trek, and we were still getting used to climbing through the day. By the time we reached Markha, we were all exhausted and either lay on the grass or sat quietly under the glaring sun tending to burning shoulders or bruised and blistering toes.

The mountainscape is stranger but even more beautiful.

The route from Skiu to Markha is mostly along the river, either at the valley floor or along a mountain face. The mountains continue to look alien and absolutely barren. The river is narrow and winds through the valley creating little islands of greenery. But as we continued on, even the greenery on the islands grew drier and whiter.

Occasional reminders that others have been here before us.

There are frequent river crossings on this leg of the trek, either by bridge or, when the river is narrow enough, by hopping across. Once, we had to take our shoes off and walk through the water to the other side.

Shroffie shows us how it's done.

The flowers seemed to be brighter as we walked along (perhaps because the background grew starker) and the few trees that grew had twisted bark that looked like the thick braided cables that are used in construction work. My journal entry for this day is short and mostly describes how painful it was.

Markha seen from the eyes of an exhausted walker.

The Markha campsite itself is a large grassy plain. It boasts of more amenities than Skiu. It has not one, but two closed huts where you can relieve yourself in privacy and without fear of the biting wind. As you go higher, and the enclosures disappear, you will miss them sorely.

General Points

The Markha campsite is the only place where you can make a phone call. There is a hut, not far from the campsite where you can call at reasonable rates.

Pictures

My Skiu to Markha set on Flickr.

Behind International House

2010-10-03T01:13:00.003+05:30

No time for write ups I'm afraid, but maybe this will interest you.

No? Maybe this one then?

No? Rats.

Click on either photo to see the rest.

Tilden Park

2010-09-06T01:26:00.004+05:30

After moving to California, I've had zero time. I finally managed to get out to Tilden Park, which is just behind where I stay, this morning.

New ways to do boring work

2010-07-24T19:22:00.006+05:30

Laziness, not necessity, is the mother of invention. No new posts because I was busy doing this. Now, with gpxburst, I can churn out Ladakh posts much faster!

Problem 1: The Weekly and Monthly Reminder

Everyone has weekly tasks. No one likes to do them on the same day of the week. Don't waste time trying to make a time table that lets you do weekly tasks on different days.

Instead, just get remind. Then, use my shuffle_weekly and shuffle_monthly commands to do the work (Right-Click and choose `Download link as...' to save the files). All you need is to put all your weekly and monthly tasks into $HOME/Reminders/weekly.rem and $HOME/Reminders/monthly.rem respectively. Add both paths to $HOME/.reminders, and add shuffle_weekly and shuffle_monthly to your crontab.

Read in-line documentation to make the necessary changes before putting these scripts in your $PATH.

Problem 2: Lossless Music on Your iPod

Don't waste time using ffmpeg to convert FLAC to ALAC. Instead, just replace your iPod firmware with Rockbox! It works with most iPods and other media players.

Problem 3: Organised Music

EasyTAG lets you rename files and folders using tag information, fill in tag information using file and folder names, and bulk edit tag information. It's really quite perfect, and has saved me hours of time.

Problem 4: Messy GPS Files From Treks

Garmin GPS files for multiday treks are often messy. It's often nice to have one clean GPX file, and individual trek files for each day of trekking (as I've used in my recent posts). Use gpxburst to do just that.

Syntax:
gpxburst [INPUTGPX_FILENAME] [OUTPUT_FORMAT]
Eg., if you have a 5 day trek file called Trek.gpx,
$ gpxburst Trek.gpx kml $ ls Day1.kml Day3.kml Day5.kml Trek.gpx Day2.kml Day4.kml final_packed.gpx

Note: gpxburst needs gpsbabel installed.

Ladakh 2010 - Chilling to Skiu

2010-07-08T21:48:00.003+05:30

Route

Chilling to Skiu (Roughly 7 km). GPS Files - KML, full trek route (GPX)

View Larger Map

The blue line is the GPS trail

Clearly, the village of Skiu according to Google Maps is some distance from the Skiu camp site.

The Trek at Last

You may have been wondering if and when we ever started trekking. The answer is Day 5! We collected our packed lunches from Gezmo in the morning, and headed over to Windhorse to meet our guide and cook. I already told you about our cook, Ishe. Our guide's name was Norbu, and his assistant's name was Gurmit. We packed into a Qualis and headed out of Leh, towards Chilling. The road stops and you begin on foot from there.

On the Way to Chilling

Norbu showed us two very spectacular places on the way to Chilling. First, is a hill called Magnetic Hill, which is supposedly magnetic, and pulls metallic items up its slope towards the peak. For example, if you leave your car out of gear, at Magnetic Hill, it appears to roll up. However, as the wiki page points out, Magnetic Hill is an example of a gravity hill and the effect is only an optical illusion.

The second, and easily more beautiful sight, is a little beyond the village of Nimmu. It is the confluence of the Indus and Zanskar Rivers. The Indus ranges from emerald green to blue and the Zanskar is brown. At the point of their meeting, the two colours do not mix when seen from above.

The Indus and Zanskar meet near Nimmu

When you can see the Indus and Zanskar meet, you go off the highway, down to the valley floor and across the Indus, and later the Zanskar. This part of the Zanskar seems to be a popular destination for rafting and kayaking. The rapids didn't seem very big (though I can hardly tell) and the crowd seemed to consist mostly of families. As you get closer to Chilling and leave the rafters behind, the river gets more violent and so does the landscape.

The hills along the way are deep red and dark green. At some point, you enter the Hemis High Altitude National Park. The whole Markha Trek is within the National Park. It is a biodiversity hot spot. You are not allowed to pick up anything you find, kill any animal, fell any tree, or litter inside the area. For the most part, you are completely unsupervised, but please do not litter anywhere along the way. Often times, I would see loose plastic packets at resting spots, and I assure you it's not a pleasant sight. The Park is home to yaks, snow leopards, marmots, blue sheep, ibex and many other animals and birds. It's not outside the realm of possibility to spot these animals during the trek, so bring a nice wildlife zoom lens if you own one and keep your eyes open. Entry into the Park for students and teachers is Re. 1. The rest of the world has to pay Rs. 25!

Starting out on Foot

The first thing you encounter when you get off at Chilling, is the river. It must be crossed via a rope way. There's a little cart on a pulley that goes across the river. People beginning or ending their treks will be at either side and help pull you across (you can do this while sitting inside the cart, but it'll exhaust you). When you get to the other side, return the favour and help others across instead of letting the horsemen and guides do it for you.

Crossing the river in a box

The first day, like on all treks, is a bit slow as your body isn't yet ready. For a first day, the route is ideal. There's a small climb at the beginning which you will pant your way through. By the time you reach the apex, your body is already warming up. Around the time you reach the apex, the river beneath turns perfectly emerald green! From up here, villages look like little island oases in the vast rocky expanse of the upper Himalayas. The rest of the journey is mostly level ground. You can break for lunch near the Kaya village, but don't forget to pick up all your trash. Kaya is one of the villages that provide the majority of Leh Berry. Sadly, we weren't there during season.

Just minutes into the trek and the landscape is already fantastic

The entire Markha Valley route, through Gongmaru La, is an ancient trade route. You will find relics from this route like prayer stones littered on the track. This also explains the abundance of little buddhist shrines along the way. While you walk along, make sure to try some fresh apricots off the trees. When we passed through, they were small and sour, but it's still fun.

People look really small against mountains :-)

Camp

The Skiu camp site is impossible to miss. Just before it is the Skiu homestay and a large tent where you can rest, have something to drink and buy provisions. The camp site itself may be crowded since this is a popular trekking route with the foreigners. We had a Frenchman going solo and an Indian woman with a guide to share the campsite with.

In only a few minutes, Ishe had already whipped out tea and was preparing dinner. Food in the mountains is always good. Food made in the mountains by the people who live in the mountains is better. Food made in the mountains by someone from the mountains, while on a trek is the best. If the someone happens to be Ishe, then there is no superlative on Earth that can describe it. Ishe magically produced soup, dal, rice, curry, tea, a whole chicken, pineapples and more for dinner. We knew were in for a good time.

The little islands in the valley are everywhere

The sun sets late during Ladakhi summers. However, it happens very quickly, so don't stray out too far from the campsite past about 7.15 p.m. without a flashlight. If you have a cloudless night, look up and be amazed. The Himalayan nighttime sky is better than anywhere else I have seen. Stars cover every square inch of the sky. You can see shooting stars and satellites blinking in orbit every few seconds. It really is something else.

Even at only a 30 second exposure, you can click a few stars. The real night sky easily had more than triple this many

Our Group

The people who came with us on this trek will be mentioned in almost every blog post about the trek, so you should get to know them. Norbu has been a guide for over 8 years. He works freelance like most guides in Ladakh. He lives near Nimmu (where the confluence of the Indus and Zanskar happen), has 2 sisters and a brother. He studied Tibetan philosophy at university and is fluent in English, French, Hindi, Nepali, Tibetan and Ladakhi. He also knows a smattering of Kannada.

Ishe, our cook, is the undisputed star of the show. Ishe comes from the Zanskar region in Ladakh. This is one of the most difficult regions to live in, and people who come from here are very very fit. Ishe smoked at least a pack of cigarettes a day and drank probably a liter of the local brew. Despite that, he not only runs up the mountains when he gets bored, he also sings while he does it. Ishe knows the same set of languages as Norbu. He might not appear as well spoken, but he has many years of trekking experience more than Norbu. He's done some of the most difficult treks in the region including up to Camp 2 of Nun (the highest mountain in the Indian part of the Himalayan Range - roughly 23k feet).

Gurmit is Norbu's assistant. This is his first trek, but you wouldn't guess it. Being Ladakhi, he's as fit as the rest of them. The two horsemen, are brothers from Tibet.

General Points

The commercial name for the medicine that prevents altitude sickness is Diamox. It's useful to have on hand.
Homestays are on the trek route all the way up to Hangkar, just before Tachung Tse. From there, it's a long walk to the pass, but it can be done. So effectively, you can do this trek through homestays. They cost about INR 450 per night including meals.
This is an obvious point, but cell phones stop working somewhere before Chilling.
I've mapped out the whole route by GPS. Click on the links at the beginning of the post for the data. You can safely go solo in the summer, with a GPS and this data.

Misc

Sorry for the delay in posting. When I converted my GPX files to KML, they were full of lots of garbage that I had to remove manually.
Shroff has pointed out that our driver's name was not Rafiq, but in fact Shafi.
Sroyon describes his experiments with buddhism.

Pictures

My Chlling to Skiu set on Flickr.

Ladakh 2010 - Leh

2010-07-06T18:01:00.004+05:30

Do not be Gama

Day 4 and we're finally at Leh. Since we drove up and had half a day to rest on Day 3, we didn't need to stay indoors to acclimatise. However, you should pay heed to the strange, mystical warning put up by Project Himank of the BRO (the people who build roads in Ladakh) and the Army - `Drink plenty of Water. Do not try to be Gama in place of Lama' (see Number 2 below).

Photo credit - Sroyon

It confused and amused us as much as it is probably confusing and amusing you. We spent a lot of time wondering what it could mean.

Is `lama' the animal (misspelt) or the priest?
What the heck is `gama'?
Does `in the place' mean literally `in the land of', or `in place of' as in a substitute?

Being the first night at our new accommodation, we were in no hurry to irk our hosts or display our ignorance. Therefore, the first thing we did on Day 4, was to go into Leh town and find out what it meant. Google searches throw up

trip reports titled `From Gama to Lama', that don't tell you what either term means
A person named Gama Lama (who clearly violates the Holy First Tenet of Ladakh to not be Gama)
Photos of more signs that say the same thing
Tantalising fragments of a thesis by Col. N. Shukla, at the College of Defence Management titled `Gama in the Land of Lama'
The answer to what rhymes with gamma

But nothing that would explain the mystery. We were so in awe of this mighty rule that we chanted it throughout our time in Ladakh hoping that someone would tell us what it means, but it wouldn't be till much later (many blog posts away) that the answer was revealed.

Rainy Leh Day

Day 4 was a rainy day, and we were worried about how the weather might affect the trek. On rainy days, Leh opens very late. So we spent most of our time in a cyber cafe checking up on Gama Lama, checking weather forecasts, e-mail and the status of Rohtang Pass (our plan was to drive back down Rohtang, and it still wasn't open). After a bit, we began to explore Leh. It's a small town, and nothing is very far away from the Bazaar Road (which seems to be the main road).

Dogs peacefully protesting against the rain

We first tried to explore Leh by randomly walking around. We found some pretty neat stuff, like a baker who had just made small, round, fluffy buns and sesame biscuits, and a pretty, blue door.

Yum

The heavens conspired to prevent the immediate apparition of a little girl, shily twisting a lock of hair into her mouth or a crinkly old man, smoking a pipe in front of this door, which would have completed this picture

Windhorse

The man in charge of organising our trek was Namgyal, from Windhorse Expeditions. We had to go speak with him about setting out the next day. After certifying our gear, Namgyal told us that we might not be able to climb the Gongmaru La (~ 18k ft) because the rain at Leh meant snow at Gongmaru La, and that was bad. Our guide would have to take the call, the day before the planned ascent. He also introduced us, to our cook, Ishe (pronounced `Ee-sh-ay'), who turned out to be the strongest and most deeply profound man in Ladakh. More on that later.

Food

After Windhorse, we went looking for food. We found it at the Pumpernickel German Bakery and World Peace Cafe. All restaurants in Leh seem to have cuisine for travelers from around the world. World Peace had Israeli, Japanese, Korean, Italian, Indian and some general stuff. We stuck to Israeli for the most part, and the results were quite good. The prices are cheap, but service is terrible. It takes ages to get your food. We later realised that this is the case just about anywhere in Leh. What takes less time and are really good, are the deserts at Pumpernickel Bakery. While we were there, I overheard a German saying to another traveler that it has the best desert in India. I wouldn't go that far, but it's definitely good. I had a banana pie, that looked and tasted amazing.

Warm banana pie - Yum II. Note, warm banana pie is infinitely superior to cold banana pie.

The Palace

We headed towards the Palace after Pumpernickel. The walk is interesting, so keep looking around. There are signs all over Leh that are strange and funny, like these ones:

The distance to 118A Ferndale Road, London SW47SE is 3917 miles. Now you know.

And other funny signs

The short cut to the Palace is a little steep but shaves a lot of time. As usual, Indian citizens have to pay close to nothing (INR 5) while the rest of the world has to pay a bit more (INR 25). When we went, the Palace seemed to be in the middle of being restored in some parts. Sroyon mentioned somewhere that he read that `restoration work is ongoing, but it is debatable whether the rate of restoration is greater than the rate of decay' (possible Lonely Planet). This is almost true. The restoration is tacky and unintelligent. For example, many walls have been restored using cement!

The Palace is good for a few things. One, it provides nice views of Leh below.

Leh below

Two, it has some nice terraces. Three, there is a prayer chamber that you can enter only if you take off your footwear. It's worth the effort. It's old and musty. It also doesn't get very many visitors so you can play out your fantasy of being a monk, like Sroyon. Sroyon has an interesting history of pushing the limits of the Buddhist faith, but it's best if you ask him about that.

His Holiness, Sroyon, experimenting with Buddhist chanting and complex, non-standard time signatures

The Even Higher Palace Like Place

There's an Even Higher Palace Like Place above the palace. It's big, and it's on a hill. You can't miss it. You may want to climb up to it, like Sroyon, Vinayak and I tried. Before you do, make sure you ask someone if it's open. It closes early, and we only found out half way up.

Update: Sroyon tells me the official name for the Even Higher Palace Like Place is the Namgyal Tsemo Gompa.

Book Lovers

Our last stop of the day was at Book Lovers' Cafe. It's far up in one corner of Leh and is a 15 minute walk from the Main Road. Book Lovers' has a nice terrace to sit at. They play decent music, and it isn't so loud that you can't have a quiet conversation. It was the first place where we ordered Ginger Lemon Honey Tea, and instantly fell in love with it. Their food is also quite nice. They have a large-ish collection of books, but most of them are books that you won't feel like reading, so bring your own book along. You can pass a lot of time (we were there for a few hours) there, and they don't throw you out as long as you're ordering something every once in a while. Nothing is very expensive, so that's not a problem. If you don't like being on breezy terraces, drinking Ginger Honey Lemon Tea, reading books and talking to your friends, do not go there. If you like making lots of noise, please do not go there unless there's no one else there.

General Points

Most restaurants are nice and will let you use their restrooms (which are mostly clean), if you eat there.
When you come down from the Palace, just blindly head in the direction of the lowering incline and don't worry about which road you're on. We tried that, and it seems that all the paths going down from the Palace filter either onto the Main Road, or the immediately parallel road. This way down will save you a lot of time and will take you through parts of Leh that aren't on the tourist map (though, sometimes for good reason).
Gear is very cheap in Leh. You can get everything from sleeping bags to crampons and much of it is very cheap. For example, I purchased a pair of very sturdy hiking boots for INR 2500. Prices are low and so are the margins, so haggling won't take you very far. Ladakhis are a very honest bunch, for the most part, so you shouldn't worry too much about being ripped off. If you want, you can even rent gear for a trek, but buying it probably works out cheaper for people who travel often.
Pharmacies open late, only in the second half of the day, on Sundays.
If you're leaving on a trek or day trip the next day, you can order packed lunches a day in advance. We did this at Gezmo Cafe, where a packed lunch costs INR 90.
There is a taxi stand a little below the main road, from where you can get taxis to go wherever you're staying. The rates are fixed and there is no bargaining.

Pictures

My Leh set at Flickr

Megan Fox and Skittles

2010-07-06T16:49:00.003+05:30

What's common between Megan Fox and Skittles? I have no clue, but Facebook says that many people who like Megan Fox like Skittles. I'd say that's bang on for me; I do like them both. What a bizarre correlation. I wonder if it's true outside the world of Facebook.

Ladakh 2010 - Kargil to Leh

2010-07-05T16:29:00.003+05:30

Route

Kargil - Leh (204 km on NH 1D)

View Larger Map

Kargil in the light

It wasn't until the sun rose on Day 3, that we realised what Kargil looked like. We were in for quite a surprise. Just after Kargil is a bridge. After the bridge, the right turn takes you back on to NH 1D, and you climb a few hundred meters. Nestled in what seems to be the center of the mountains with slopes rising all sides of it and the river snaking around it, Kargil is truly breathtaking.

Kargil below

We also noticed that gradually along the route, you can literally see the shift in racial features of the local people. As we moved closer to Leh, the people looked increasingly Mongoloid and less Central Asian. You still see women with the same intense, dark eyes, but living at such high altitude, their cheeks are sunburned, and they all seem to wear red or deep blue sweaters.

The locals

The Alternate Route Along the Indus

I mentioned that you hit NH 1D after the bridge if you go right. Earlier, the left turn would have eventually taken you to a soldier who would tell you turn back. But recently, the Army opened up this alternate route that leaves Kargil and joins NH 1D at Khalsi. The road goes up north, closer to the Indo-Pakistan border until it hits the Indus river, and then comes down south till Khalsi. I was told that this route is beautiful beyond your wildest dreams. It also takes you through the Batalik sector, which saw heavy fighting during the Kargil War. There's another reason you might want to do Batalik, which you'll certainly get to know about once you're on the road. Trust me, if you can, you should really do it. Sadly, Rafiq refused to do it claiming his car couldn't handle it (more likely it had to do with money). The detour will set you back by about 3 hours, so prepare accordingly. However, if you can plan this in advance and get your driver to agree, you must do it.

Deserts up here?

The beginning of the road is mostly climbing, but you often fall down into the valley as you approach a settlement. Inside these valleys, we were enveloped on both sides by the same windswept, folded mountains with streams running through the bottem. The grass is tall and chlorophyl green. There are small yellow mustard flowers everywhere. The trees have cracked, fresh bark and the little stone houses have little stone fences.

The greener part of the journey

As you climb higher you will see that portions of Ladakh are a high altitude desert. The entire place is bone dry (by which time, you stop going into the valley), and the peaks are nothing more than heaps of tiny stones and rubble. Like after Sonamarg, the transition happens within a very small range, and it's alarming how quickly you find yourself in a dustbowl.

And suddenly, everything gets dry

The route keeps climbing till Fotu La (13,478 ft), after which you drop quickly into Khalsi. Somewhere between Fotu La and Khalsi, I gave up trying to capture the best sights on camera. It just can't be done. The sheer grandeur of what you see is impossible to get in a picture. Whole mountain faces of green and red rocks, soaring into the air; sudden drops and valleys that reveal the layers of the Earth to look like rings of bark; alien shapes that look like canyons on Mars. You just have to go there to experience it.

Prayer flags at Fotu La carry away prayers into the wind

The roads here, are beautiful and more comfortable than you might imagine. They snake and hairpin their way down, and can clearly be seen going down all the way into the horizon. You'll continue to see the now usual troop movements.

Roads snake their way down, sometimes full of military vehicles

Khalsi to Leh

Khalsi to Leh is the last component of the journey. You rise again briefly, but it gets very dusty! At some point, the land flattens out, the road is perfectly tarred, and the Earth drops away behind the mountains on both sides. This part is the best part of the entire journey. It can't be explained and should not be slept through!

Some of the best pictures of the trip were caught while searching for secluded places to relieve oneself, like this one at Khalsi - Fields swaying in the wind behind the Khalsi bus terminal

The best, most alien and most comfortable part of the journey is the blitz towards Leh through a perfectly flat, well tarred, stretch of land

General Points

Lunch is likely to be only at Khalsi, which is quite some distance from Kargil, so have a good breakfast
The route is very very dusty at parts
Go through Batalik, if you can
If you like clouds, look up whenever you can

Pictures

My Kargil to Leh set on Flickr

Ladakh 2010 - Srinagar to Kargil

2010-07-04T11:43:00.003+05:30

Route

Srinagar - Sonamarg - Drass - Kargil (201 km on NH 1D)

View Larger Map

Srinagar

Day 2 and we woke up to even more security nightmares. Our plan was to pick Sroyon up from the airport and head to Kargil, but it was foiled by Srinagar Airport's strict security regulations. For starters, all our bags would have to be inspected manually on our way into the airport. Second, unless we had tickets out from Srinagar, we were told that only one person can accompany the driver for a pick up. This meant that we had to deposit ourselves and our luggage at some convenient place outside the airport while one of us went in to rescue Sroyon. Our driver, Rafiq, dropped us off at a restaurant near the airport where we could have breakfast and wait while Prateek (the Chosen One) went with him to get Sroyon.

We asked our friendly Kashmiri waiter what there was for breakfast. He furrowed up his eyebrows, and after a minute said that he would have to go check. He later reported that buttered toast was available. There were four people who ordered buttered toast, but only one person who ordered tea (me). This confused Mr. Waiter even more. 'Why not 4 teas?', he asked us. We told him that the other three wanted Kawa at the end of the meal. 'Why not Kawa at the end of the meal and milk tea with the bread?' he replied. His concern was serious and not motivated out of a desire to part us from our money. We replied that the other three just didn't want any tea. This was too much for him to handle, and he huffed away to get our bread and (one) tea looking and surely feeling as if he was the victim of a cruel joke.

The bread arrived and it had been buttered to the point that each slice weighed probably thrice its pre-buttered weight! Our love for Kashmiris was exponentially rising. After our bread and (one) tea, we asked if he had gobi paratha. He would have to check again; yes, it was available. We asked for 4. He saw 4 of us. No problem. He can handle this. Many minutes went by and no parathas in sight. Prateek had to go to the Airport now to get Sroyon, so we told him that we'd save his paratha. More time passed. Then, we were served massive pizza parathas. Oh boy, oh boy! These parathas were hard and crisp, and broke sharply as you ripped pieces off. Inside, was a centimeter thick layer of perfectly mushy filling. Not bland and watery, but full of flavour. The parathas themselves were laced with methi and plenty of butter. They gave us curd that was cold, thick, and garnished with more methi and some brown powdery stuff. Needless to say, we finished off Prateek's parathas as well, but asked Mr. Waiter for another. Squeezed-up forehead time again for him. How did three people finish off the parathas for four people? Why did they need one more? H'm... This will not go down well with Cook. Sure enough, Cook protested at this gluttony and refused to serve us any more parathas.

Some time later, Prateek arrived with Sroyon. Turned out our advice was wrong. Not even one person extra was allowed into the airport, and poor Prateek had to wait outside (presumably staring down the barrel of automatic rifle). We told them that the restaurant wouldn't serve us any more food. Prateek dolefully bought himself a roll of unspecified stuffing and we left Srinagar for Sonamarg.

Pizza Parathas! (Parizzas ?)

Srinagar - Sonamarg

To get to Kargil from Srinagar, we had to cross the Zoji La (11,575 ft.) The entire route from Srinagar to Leh is built and maintained by one defense outfit or another, and the Indian Army goes to great lengths to make sure that the route is safe and motorable for civilians. The route is open for longer than the Rohtang Pass (normally), so this is an alternate way up to Leh in case Rohtang is closed. You can find out if either Rohtang Pass of Zoji La are open by clicking here. The Army is constantly moving its soldiers in the region through this road, so you will see plenty of Army trucks on the road.

We first entered Ganderbal District, which is still part of the lower valley. Rice and mustard fields stretch out on one side, while old, knotted trees and the foothills are on the other side. You continue to see the same beautiful women that Srinagar is full of - dressed completely in perfect white (along with headscarves) which add so much creamy warmth to what would otherwise look like pale faces. The faces themselves are either a bit rounded or sharp, but always with the same intense, deep, dark eyes.

Moving through Ganderbal, the mountain tops were already getting shrouded in thick, puffy clouds. The ascent is very different from other mountain roads. Despite the tremendous height gain, the road seems to climb very gradually. We would come across entire streams running down mountains that had frozen in their tracks, which were the only giveaways of our actual height.

Streams frozen in their tracks

Despite assurances that the road to Kargil was open till 8.00 p.m., Rafiq insisted that it closes much earlier (4.30 p.m.), so we blitzed at top speed to the last checkpoint before the pass, a little after the town of Sonamarg. If you miss the window and find the pass closed, Sonamarg is your night halt. As we passed Kangan (the town before Sonamarg), snow capped mountains began to come into view, but as we got closer to Sonamarg, we dipped back into the lush green valley. From a distance, all the mountains look large but benign and peaceful, manageable even.

The landscape up to Sonamarg

Making the journey during the window seems to be a prime concern of all and sundry in Sonamarg. We stopped for lunch, and our waiter came running to take our orders screaming 'Jaldi! Jaldi! Pass bandh ho jayega!'. He ran away to give our orders to the kitchen, ran back with empty glasses and shouted, 'Jaldi! Jaldi!'. He ran back again with water to fill the glasses and screamed, 'Jaldi! Jaldi!'. By the time the food arrived, we were so terrified of being slow that we slopped everything together and ran out before he could scream at us again. We jumped back into the car and rushed past the checkpoint.

Now that we were safely past the last checkpoint, we could take a breather and look around a bit. Past Sonamarg, the scenery changes dramatically. As we cross the tree line, the landscape begins to look wild and beautiful. You can literally see that the mountains are still growing. They creak, fold and push onto each other as they climb upwards, and their faces aren't worn down by years of erosion, but are fresh, jagged and sinewy. Most roads are made by flat surfaces into the rock, and the blast scars reveal the inside of the rock, which gleams and reflects in hundreds of shades.

The new landscape past Sonamarg

Occasionally, we would come across shepherds herding their sheep along the road. This is a fairly common sight. Sometimes, the shepherds take their sheep on paths on the mountain face that are above the road, in which case you should watch out for rocks that have been kicked loose by the sheep. Sometimes, the shepherds take their sheep below the road, and sometimes the sheep like to rest.

A herd of sheep resting, oblivious to the tilt of the mountain face

Another sight on most trips on this road are traffic jams! Often, trucks are overloaded with more goods than they can carry. That's fine when you have the inertia of movement carrying you forward. But if one of these trucks stops, it can't get moving again because of the load and the steep incline. The only way out is to wedge stones behind the truck's tires so that it doesn't roll back down and step on the gas and pray. This seems to work well enough, but results in the random pile up. Sometimes, you have shepherds moving in with their flock through one of these pile ups. Add to that, military vehicles coming in from the other side and you have yourself a real fix!

Traffic on Zoji La

Gumri and Drass

Beyond the pass, are the towns of Gumri and Drass. Drass is the second coldest inhabited place in the world. That's not hard to believe when you see the road cuts perfectly through walls of sheer ice. A little after Drass is Tiger Hill, the highest peak in the Kargil sector and the one that Pakistani forces briefly held during the Kargil War. The Army has played an important role in this area, and has by and large, maintained its large presence in the area very well. Unlike in other parts of the country, the heavy military presence is looked at by many people in the region as between benign and positive. Drass to Kargil was done mostly in darkness, so we didn't see very much.

Random vista a little beyond Drass

General Points

The journey from Srinagar to Leh should cost you INR 12,000 for a large 4x4

Don't be alarmed by the heavy military presence in the area. The road is completely safe from a human threat point of view

Trust your driver. He may seem to be going too fast, but he will normally know what he is doing.

If you get pulled over or have to deal with security personnel, be kind and patient with them. It's their job to keep these roads safe, and you'll see that it's not at all easy.

Leave Srinagar early to make sure you cross Sonamarg with plenty of time.

The journey from Srinagar to Leh cannot be done in a single day. Don't believe anyone who tries to tell you otherwise.

Pictures

My Srinagar to Kargil set on Flickr.

Ladakh 2010 - Srinagar

2010-07-03T14:24:00.004+05:30

I went for a trek in Markha Valley in Ladakh in June 2010. Our journey began from New Delhi on 10 June and ended back in New Delhi on 21 June. Below is our trek route:

Our trek would begin near Leh. To get there, we chose to fly to Srinagar and drive up to Leh, rather than fly straigtht in. This was partly to avoid altitude sickness which can be quite debilitating, and partly because the drive up is supposed to be breathtaking. We spent a day in Srinagar waiting for all the members of our group to arrive.

The Adventure Starts at Home

Only a few minutes after boarding our plane to Srinagar, we were told that all passengers had to disembark for 'operational' reasons. We were shepherded into a bus that did a U-turn (total lateral displacement about 5 m) and dropped us off at the entrance to the airport complex. We later found out that someone from Ratlam (that sleepy town known to every law school student) called in a bomb hoax. At around the time we were supposed to reach Srinagar, we took off.

Do not fall asleep during your flight because you might miss the approach into Srinagar, which is to die for! Even before you breach the clouds, you can see white peaks out in the distance on both sides. As you descend, the landscape unfolds beneath you and you see large green hills and mounds with brooks that shine in the sunlight roll along until you reach the airport.

Because I've landed in cities so often, landing in Srinagar really took me by surprise. The view outside is so immersing, that you descend for a long time before you suddenly realise that you're awfully close to the ground and there doesn't seem to be civilisation anywhere. Then, even more suddenly, the airstrip bursts into view beneath you, just in time to land.

Srinagar

The city of Srinagar is unlike any other city I have visited. There are security forces at every turn and this is probably meant to be as imposing and in your face as possible. Driving down roads, you will find a security barricade every few minutes with a gunman training his sights on you until you go through. Srinagar is a city that seems to routinely erupt with violence and its citizens have learned to live with it for the most part. For example, the place we were staying at was supposed to be near the Tourist Reception Center. Turns out the Tourist Reception Center was blown up three years ago. Well, that's life.

Because we were in Srinagar only for half a day, there wasn't too much we got to see. We drove along the Dal Lake on Boulevard Road towards a garden called Cheshmashahi. The lake is beautiful. It's so large, that at times you feel that you're driving along the bank of a very slow river. The water and sky are so clear, that you can see the mountains reflected in the lake. Parts of it are dotted with house boats and shikaras which frankly look more beautiful from a distance than close up.

If you have less than a day in Srinagar, Cheshmashahi and the Dal Lake may be all you can do. If so, do Cheshmashahi first. The view from the garden, of the lake beneath it, is fantastic. The garden itself is full of bright yellows, pinks, purples, greens, reds everywhere. Sadly, it is also full of loud children running around the place.

Dal Lake

Boating on the lake cost us Rs. 400 for an hour. The shikaras are a bit too comfortable. Sit on the wrong side, and you won't feel like getting out for anything. Unfortunately, the shikara pilots have an arrangement with the house boat shops on the lake to shepherd all tourists in that direction. As the Sun set, the other side of the lake (empty except for small islands and fountains) looked much more tempting. Instead, we were pushed into a shop that sold Kashmiri textiles, where we bought excatly nothing, and our shikara pilot grumpily brought us back to pier and disposed of us.

Pictures

My Srinagar set on Flickr

Interesting Beginning

2010-06-26T14:12:00.002+05:30

The most boring question to ask about religion is whether or not the whole thing is "true." It's a measure of the banality of recent discussions on theological matters that it is precisely this issue which has hogged the limelight, pitting a hardcore group of fanatical believers against an equally small band of fanatical atheists.
We'd be wiser to start with the commonsense observation that, of course, no part of religion is true in the sense of being God-given. There is naturally no Holy Ghost, spirit, geist or divine emanation. Dissenters from this line can comfortably stop reading at this point, but for the rest of us the subject is henceforth far from closed.

source

From 25 ideas to Change the World.

HT: Chriss Blattman.

Clouds 365

2010-06-07T18:28:00.002+05:30

The Clouds 365 project is a year-long photographic experiment shooting clouds everyday. No points for guessing what my latest RSS feed is :-)

Kerala at Last! - Silent Valley Walk 1, Sairandhri

2010-05-04T10:18:00.003+05:30

The trip so far

Kerala

Exams are almost over and I no longer have an excuse to be lazy! After Tamil Nadu, I entered Kerala to see Divya Sara George become Divya Sara Mammen, at Cochin. Cochin is a fantastic city with amazing things to do, but I didn't get a chance to see any of it during the wedding. I did see a lot more of it when I returned to the city some weeks later, but that's a later story. Kerala is a fantastic, amazing, beautiful state with kind people and lovely food. During my journey through the state, I bumped into so many people who have fallen as madly and irreversibly in love with the state as I have.

Post wedding, Hemant, Menon, Amoo and I headed off to Silent Valley National Park, in Palakkad District. Silent Valley is famous for being the tropical rain forest through which the Kunthi river flows. It made headlines 3 decades ago when the government attempted to dam the Kunthi, which would have effectively destroyed the entire forest had it not been for the Save Silent Valley movement. Today, the area is a declared National Park and is one of the few intact tropical rain forests in the country.

Getting to Silent Valley

We headed out on a train from Cochin to Palakkad Jn. (there are trains going to Palakkad around the clock). The journey is too long to survive in the general compartment if you're carrying things you don't want stolen, but too short for anything more than just a regular sleeper ticket. The heat may get to you, but the view will keep you awake. We got off at Palakkad Jn., caught a bite near the station and hopped onto a bus headed for Mukkali, our final destination. To do so, we first caught a bus to Mannarkad, and from there to Mukkali.

We were unlucky and didn't get much place to stand (let alone sit). The journey to Mukkali is long. The bus drivers are suicidal. The population in the bus might occasionally break out into song and/or dance, resulting in the bus swaying heart poundingly from side to side. The road is, for the most part, fantastic, and because it is Kerala, there is always so much to see as you blitz through. From personal experience, the best way to travel on these buses is to stand / sit on the platform of the rear entrance to the bus. If you have bags, tuck them into the seat in front of you. People will often jostle for this coveted place and the way for you to keep it is by opening and closing the rear door as the bus approaches bus stops. This must be done with the appropriate amount of conviction and authority to convince those who greedily eye the top spot that you are a regular, and not one to be messed about with. The only downsides to being in the Top Spot, are two. First, you will eventually freeze to death. Second, on longish journeys like this one, you tend to get a little tired near the end. This is not advisable. We did the ascent from Mannarkad to Mukkali in darkness. Not night, darkness. Think no street lights, no streets, no towns, no people. Just a bus rumbling up winding hill roads at the same breakneck speed as the daytime driving through flat plains. In such situations, dosing off can be fatal. The road gets bumpy up there, and I saw more than one passenger's phone being flung out the window and into the wild.

If you travel as I did, you will arrive at Mukkali frozen, a little tired, certainly sore, worried about the safety of your material possessions, disoriented and hungry. Make haste to the guest house (no lights anywhere again, so carry flashlights) by getting on to the tarred road perpendicular to the main road on which you disembark. Walk straight on past some shops and jeeps and will come to a hostel, which is cheap, and a guest house a little further up which is more expensive, but certainly worth it. The guest house costs somewhere around Rs. 200 a night, per person and is reasonably comfortable. If you want food, the only place to eat that's open late at night, is all the way back near the bus stop. The shop sells beef, more beef, rice, and some more beef. Get a good night's rest because you should head out early in the morning into the forest.

Walk 1 - Sairandhri and around

The next day, we went in a jeep early in the morning from the guest house into the core forest. The drive is 2.5 km but takes a long time as the road is dirty and bumpy. However, you will not bother to notice, since you will finally have entered the forest, and boy is it something!

The drive into the forest - click any image to see the entire gallery

At the point where the jeep finally stops, is a clearing atop a hill. On the clearing is a massive watchtower that overlooks a large portion of the range. The view from there is of the Kunthi river winding through the hills, which are lush green tropical rain forests. It was up there, that I finally understood what a rain forest is. The rain forest is like nothing you've ever seen before. Any other jungle would seem like a children's park compared to this.

The view from up on top

The variety of life is spectacularly breathtaking. There are trees of thousands of different colors, and exotic animals and plants.

Trees literally of a thousand different colors

Everything in the forest is big. Flowers are the size of your palm, mushrooms that grow on trees are large enough and strong enough to be footholds to climb up.

Foothold mushrooms

The trees themselves are massive, and fade into the light above the canopy as you crane your neck upwards to take in the whole sight.

After spending time on top, you are taken into the forest and down to the Kunthi. For those of you who are entering the forest for the first time, remember that you are not supposed to touch anything, pluck anything, wear bright colored clothing, talk loudly (preferably, do not talk at all), bring cellular phones / food / drinks / cigarettes with you into the forest, or try flash photography. If you have children with you, make sure they're well behaved / have their mouths cello-taped shut. This is for your good as much as it is out of respect for the ecosystem around. The areas that you walk through are fragile and sensitive and you should remember that your presence in them is only as an outsider. You should leave no trace of your ever having entered the area, and should leave it having changed as little as possible. It is also for your safety that you do this, because the forest is vast, unknown and potentially dangerous. On our walk, our guide pointed out a small plant to us and told us that its leaves, if touched, are enough to knock you out. He told us the elephants sometimes eat the plant, and ingestion is strong enough to make them mad (we saw how one such tusker had bored both its tusks straight into the side of the mound we were crossing). Elephants are notorious and the last thing you want to do is attract them with food / noise / bright colors, so be smart and stay quiet.

Dense, inviting but unknown vegetation

The walk down to the Kunthi river is magical. Make sure you know either Tamil or Malayalam or have someone with you who knows either. Your guides will normally have spent most of their lives in some part of the forests that they take you through and will always have interesting stories to tell. Be sure to get your share.

Our first view of the Kunthi

As you come level with the river, you begin to realize that all the effort to save this part of the world from a hydroelectric power project was worth it. Walk all the way down to the little suspension bridge that spans the river and stare out onto both sides. Like most places that I feel are worth mentioning, it is impossible to describe. On the other side of the bridge is the part of the forest that visitors cannot enter, and you have to do everything you can to stop yourself from madly dashing across the bridge and running into the forest.

The bridge

The walk takes about an hour one way, and another hour up. Wholly worth it.

This is part of a trip I did between December 2009 and January 2010. For all posts on the trip, click here.

Apologies

2010-03-25T19:00:00.002+05:30

I have a painful story. I manage all my photos using Apple iPhoto. The last few weeks at Kolkata have been really hot and the only place nearby that is air conditioned is the library. I haven't yet posted the next entry because the album that comes next was really big and needed pruning. To do this, I sat down in the air conditioned library today with my laptop, external hard drive (that stores my iPhoto library) and a spike buster. As I pruned away, the unthinkable happened; my hard drive lost its power supply and failed. iPhoto crashed. When I plugged back the hard drive's power and restarted iPhoto, all my pictures were missing. I tried reloading the iPhoto library and then iPhoto refused to even start up.

So does my story end prematurely? No. Thankfully, I have backups of everything. The bad news is that all the pruning I did over the last few months with my new pictures has gone away (since my latest backup was some time ago). This means that the next post will be more delayed that I had wanted. The good news is that now, I'll finally be forced to prune through a lot of old albums that I had left untouched. (Yay?)

Manimuthar and Upper Kodayar

2010-03-21T14:27:00.002+05:30

The trip so far

Manimuthar

On our way to Upper Kodayar, we stopped at the Manimuthar Falls. This is where you go if you're too old, too lazy or too ignorant to go to Banathirtham (read about it here). You can bathe in Manimuthar, but it doesn't come anywhere close to Banathirtham.

Bathe here only if you don't do Banathirtham - click any picture to see others in the set

Beyond the waterfall, there is (another) dam at Manimuthar. It's fun to drive over and presumably fun to take pictures of, but I couldn't get out of the car to get any. In any case, we were traveling to another dam (below). At the Manimuthar falls, as everywhere else in India, you should watch out for those evil monkeys.

Evil monkeys

Upper Kodayar

After Manimuthar, we drove on (and on (and on)) until we finally reached the TN Electricity Board Guest House in an obscure part of the world that sits somewhere near the Tamil Nadu and Kerala border. To get there, we drove up into beautiful tea gardens, across little bridges over inky, cold streams and through sudden vast green meadows that looked like perfectly manicured golf courses until we finally reached our destination late at night. We were in the least TamilNadu-ish place in Tamil Nadu. It was so cold that we actually needed heaters

One such inky, blue stream

I'm not lying about the heaters

The next day, I woke up to fog so thick, that you couldn't see more than 2 feet ahead of you. The thick fog is the product of the two large dams (The Kodayar Dams) that help generate power for a large part of Tamil Nadu.

The morning fog is really thick

It's thickest right above the dam

We headed out in the fog to a winch. Yes, a winch. We were told that the most exciting thing to see in all of Upper Kodayar was a winch. What did it winch? No one seemed to know, but it performed some complex, technical and life-saving function as far as the dams were concerned. To get there, we ploughed (in a Toyota Innova) through decreasingly well tarred roads, and then through untarred roads, and then through bits that weren;t roads as much as they were less thickly vegetated than the rest of the forest. We grumbled for being woken up early in the morning, for having our backs realigned with the deadly accuracy of a drunk ex-serial killer turned chiropractor, for being swamped in stupid fog, for having discharged iPods, and for putting up with all this to see a winch. Yes, a winch.

The road gets better as you finally reach the winch station

The winch station sticks out of the fog

And how wrong we were. The engineers who built this winch decided to push it into the most remote and difficult to reach part of Tamil Nadu for a reason. We waited at the winch station for what seemed like hours for the winch to be sent up. After getting in, we descended; and as we did, the fog cleared and our jaws fell open. Getting to Kodayar may be difficult. Getting to the winch may be even more difficult. But if there is any way you can, I suggest you do it.

Cutting through the fog

The landscape

When not walking around the area, the weather is perfect to devour books, sleep, eat, write, listen to music, or anything else you may think of. Closer to where we were staying are some paths that lead to nowhere in particular. Following them will take you there. I can't blame you if you don't feel like walking back.

Little forest islands growing inside the dam look eerie - You're likely to see this on your walks around the area

This was the last part of our Tamil Nadu trip. From here, we went to Tuticorin and caught a flight to Chennai. I spent a few days to Chennai and then headed to Kerala on my own.

This is part of a trip I did between December 2009 and January 2010. For all posts on the trip, click here.

Kallidaikurichi and Kallakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve

2010-03-13T23:25:00.003+05:30

The trip so far

Bombay (1, 2)

Bangalore

Tamil Nadu

Kallidaikurichi

We went to Kallidailurichi to see the house that my great grandmother lived and grew up in. The village is like any other little village in Tamil Nadu and has some houses and lots of rice fields. Like the Meenakshi Amman Temple and the Nellaipuram temple at Tirunelveli, Kallidaikurichi also boasts a 1000 pillar mandapam, but I had already seen 2000 pillars too many by then.

The rice fields stretch on (and on) - click the picture to see more

Kallakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve

Our next stop was the Kallakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve. Unlike other reserves that I have been to, this one is less conducive to nature enthusiasts. They don't seem to organise safaris through the jungle, but let you take your car through the tarred roads that criss cross the reserve area (you can take a guide along if you want). The core reserve is completely cut off and no one is allowed access.

Like all reserves, this one has monkeys! I met some of the most fearless monkeys here. So much so in fact, that the guest houses are grilled up to prevent them from getting inside. At night, we went in our car to spot some wildlife, but were mostly unsuccessful. On our way back from the forest to our guest house, a Landcruiser was parked in the middle of the road ahead of us. One of its passengers walked up to our car and said that there was a leopard up ahead. The driver (Anbe), the guide and I got out to see. A few steps forward, and we saw a huge leopard sitting in the shrubbery just off the road, staring at the Landcruiser's headlights and yawning. This is the closest I have ever been to a live big cat outside of a zoo. Up close, you can see how powerful these animals are, even when they're just sitting down. Before I could go back to the car to get my camera (we had to walk really slowly), the leopard got away. The guys in the Landcruiser got an awesome video,though :-(.

The KMT Reserve also houses a massive irrigation project. It contains a big dam called the Papanasam Dam which drains into a lower feeder dam called the Lower Karrayar Dam. The larger one, Papanasam, is truly massive and is beautiful to visit early in the morning. Given how breathtaking the place is, I think the rest of the story deserves to be told mostly in pictures. Click on any of the pictures below to see the whole album.

Birds flying over the dam in the morning

There's lush green forest all around the dam, and it makes for one of the most beautiful backdrops that I have seen.

Boating is allowed on the dam. It's a little chilly, so try and carry something warm.

The boats take you to the Banathirtham water fall and let you roam around for about an hour. You can bathe under the falls, and I strongly suggest you do. Our otherwise stern and silent driver, Anbe, stripped down to his undergarments and squealed like a little child. There is nothing else in the world quite like the feeling of a waterfall thundering down on your back (the roar of the water is thrilling). The best massage showerhead that you may have used will feel like a leaky faucet compared to this. All you can do is stand under the falls and hold on to the railing as the water pounds away at your back and head. But that's fine, because that's all you'll want to do for the rest of your life. Bathing under the Banathirtham is certainly one of my top 5 experiences on this entire trip.

My only request to travelers who may visit in the future is to not haul your toiletries with you when you bathe. I've seen this happen to too many beautiful spots and I would sincerely urge you to respect the beauty and fragility of the ecosystem around you. No one likes to see soap duds and shampoo sachets in the middle of a reserve forest.

Bathe under the Banathirtham for too long and you may need a chiropractor to realign your back

What really takes the cake is the view while you stand underneath. When you finally get used to the pounding and open your eyes, you are greeted with a breathtaking sight. In front you, you see the lake, the forests and the hills. Then, you close your eyes again and enjoy the roar. Then, you open your eyes, and everything's still there.

The view completes it.

Posted on both my blog and Piktcha. This is part of a trip I did between December 2009 and January 2010. For all posts on the trip, click on the WinterTrip09 tag below!

Tirunelveli and Cheranmadevi

2010-03-12T22:24:00.003+05:30

The trip so far

Bombay (1, 2)

Bangalore

Tamil Nadu

Madurai (1, 2)

Ettayapuram, Panchalakuruchi, Tuticorin

Krishnapuram

Tirunelveli

My plan was to post one day's traveling each day, but I stupidly did not keep track of dates in my journal entries till I entered Kerala. Hence, I will arbitrarily clump places together that I think I saw on the same day. Don't worry, my journal at least tells me the sequence.

My notes for Tirunelveli just cryptically say 'Nellaiappan and Kantimati Ammal Temples' and I have no pictures from there, so I can only guess that there was nothing I felt that was worthy of being remembered. I'm sure I just didn't get a chance to look around enough.

Cheranmadevi

This place has the most beautiful government bungalow I have ever seen. If there was one reason to join the civil services, postings to places like this would be it.

Polite conversation between grandparents - click the picture to see more

Posted on both my blog and Piktcha. This is part of a trip I did between December 2009 and January 2010. For all posts on the trip, click on the WinterTrip09 tag below!

Krishnapuram

2010-03-11T22:24:00.004+05:30

The trip so far

Bombay (1, 2)

Bangalore

Tamil Nadu

Madurai (1, 2)

Ettayapuram, Panchalakuruchi, Tuticorin

Krishnapuram

Krishnapuram has a small temple that has lots of very well maintained sculptures. The temple itself is also pretty well kept. Not too many people come to visit.

Empty stone temples with sculptures = happiness :-)

The temple - click the picture to view the whole set

A sculpture

On both my blog and Piktcha.

Ettayapuram, Panchalakuruchi, Tuticorin

2010-03-10T18:16:00.003+05:30

The trip so far

Bombay (1, 2)

Bangalore

Tamil Nadu

Madurai (1, 2)

The next day was spent at Ettayapuram, Panchalakuruchi and Tuticorin.

Ettayapuram

Ettayapuram (wiki) is the birthplace of Subramanya Bharati (wiki), a Tamil poet and freedom fighter. Bharati was an early reformist against caste divisions and advocated a strongly anti-Gandhian, forceful overthrow of the British. We visited the house in which he was born.

Trivia: Bharati Nagar in New Delhi, is named after him.

Panchalakuruchi

Panchalakuruchi is the area that was ruled by a local Raja named Veerapandiya Kattabomman, during British occupation. Kattabomman is known for having been one of the Rajas who fought and held out against the British for some time, in opposition to their tax collection. He was eventually killed, along with most of his army, by the British.

What remains of his fort is hideous. They (I don't know who exactly) broke down the actual structures that existed within the fort complex, and have rebuilt cement bunkers with minarets that are supposed to tell you Kattabomman's story. It deserved no pictures.

Tuticorin

Tuticorin is the anglicised spelling of Thoothukudi, a port city in Tamil Nadu and the district headquarters of the district by the same name. This is not really a tourist destination, and there isn't anything terribly interesting to do here.

The District Collector's house in Tuticorin is on as prime a location as you could find in the town. It faces the sea on three sides and I'm sure it would be a great place to live. Beyond that, there is a lighthouse and a beach. I got to try a little low-light photography while I was there.

Click the picture to view the entire set

Cross posted on my blog and Piktcha.

Other Things to Do in Madurai

2010-03-08T22:28:00.004+05:30

The trip so far

Bombay (1, 2)

Bangalore

Tamil Nadu

Madurai (1)

Some other Madurai Things

Other than the Meenakshi Amman Temple, two other places you may consider visiting are the Naikar Palace and the Azhagar Kovil.

Naikar Palace

Naikar Palace has been restored by monkeys who don't know the difference between restoration and renovation. What is likely to have been a beautifully decrepit palace today if not for the creative interference of some government body, is today an ugly, distempered, evenly and blandly painted, large hall. Its function these days is to serve as the venue for what is likely to be an even uglier `light and sound show' (I didn't wait to find out). Despite that, there are a few quiet moments

Click the image to see the whole set (only one more picture)

The few nice things about the Naikar Palace are some well preserved sketches by the Daniels (An earlier post on them) and a room about the evolution of Tamil. I find it intriguing that the earliest Tamil script greatly resembles the modern day Roman script.

The early Tamil is the bit that begins in the top middle of the image, after the bold and boxed white text (the stuff that corresponds to 3 B.C., if you can make out the numbers in this image)

Azhagar Kovil

Azhagar Kovil is a crowded temple near a hill. That's about it. What you should look out for is a tiny and broken down portion of the original temple that still remains a little beyond where the modern temple is today. Nobody visits the broken down one because all that remains is a little of the facade. It's tucked a little into the woods and is great fun if you enjoy ruins as much as I do. Only one very shaky picture because the light was bad by the time I was able to get there :(.

Shaky picture, but you can see that it's got some charm

Up the hill from Azhagar Kovil is Pazhamudhircholay. It has a tiny spring where hundreds of devotees jostle to bathe. The path up to the spring is very dangerous because of the fearless monkeys that will snatch anything that you have in your hands. Do not openly carry food or cameras on your climb up. I saw both be snatched by the devils (the camera was ruthlessly smashed to bits). There's really not much to see unless you intend to go here for religious purposes. I definitely do not suggest it for any other reason. There are too many people and there's nothing really beautiful that you would want to remember.

Cross-posted on both Piktcha and my blog.

Meenakshi Amman Temple, Madurai

2010-03-07T16:44:00.005+05:30

After the long break, I'm finally getting around to typing out the rest of my trip in January. After Bombay (1, 2) and Bangalore, we left for Tamil Nadu.

Our first stop within the state was Madurai.

Meenakshi Amman Temple

Click on the image to see whole set on Flickr.

Meenakshi Amman Temple (wiki) is arguably the most famous temple in Madurai. After years of decay (I remember it being quite ugly when I visited over a decade ago), the temple is now seeing some restoration. The temple itself was elaborately designed and most of it, being stone, is intact.

I've visited more than my fair share of temples, but this is one of the few temples that are still active, that I enjoy visiting. The temple has some truly fantastic architecture and sculptures. It has long, dark corridors that swell with devotees as the temple authorities send everyone through the temple in waves. The temple is best enjoyed in the few minutes of almost complete silence and emptiness that linger after each wave passes. In many parts, the restoration has turned ugly, like the tasteless painting of the gopurams (towers) in harsh pastel colours, and thousands of fluorescent lamps that light many of the corridors. Despite that, the temple is still a treat if you're patient with it and look in the right places.

Some portions of the temple are still being restored.

Once inside, the first thing that strikes you is the painstaking detail of the roofs of the temple corridors. Of course, all the colour is new, but it's been painted into the stone designs that lie beneath.

Anyone who studied history in school in India would remember reading about how these temples used to be sites for people to come together not only to worship, but also to talk, meet, shop etc. This can be seen in many parts of the temple. Corridors frequently open up into large halls that can accommodate several hundred people. The biggest of these halls, at the entrance to the temple, still serves as a market place today and is abuzz with activity everywhere. Careful where you step though, because the whole place is a little dark.

Two things you should certainly try and see when you visit the temple are the recently restored kalyanamandapam (wedding hall) and the Aayiram Kaal Mandapam (thousand pillar hall). The initial wedding mandapam had a roof with a teak inlay. After more than a century, the roof has been fitted with new wood and looks very impressive. Sadly, I couldn't get any pictures in that part of the temple.

The thousand pillar mandapam is an amazing hall that houses some even more amazing sculptures. It's a massive hall with 1,000 stone pillars. Many pillars have small and intricate carvings. Many others provide support to life size sculptures of dancers, demons, lions, and other mythical characters. Several of these sculptures have quirky, unique elements. One that my mom found, is a sculpture of a dancer holding a small stone drum. The drum produces an astonishing range of notes, and you should go play when you visit, as you explore the other sculptures.

In short, this temple still performs the function that it was no doubt meant to perform when it was first erected. It impresses and leaves visitors awestruck with admiration for the men and women who were responsible for designing and constructing such a massive complex that is full of curious little messages and toys. Make sure you visit when go to Madurai next.

Cross-posted on both Piktcha and my blog.

Borivali National Park, The Route to Tulsi Lake, Mumbai

2010-02-06T14:04:00.002+05:30

This is an old album (August '09) that I had forgotten about. Borivali National Park is no more than a few hours away from wherever you may live in Bombay. It houses the Kanheri Caves and is a great place to get away for a weekend hike. ANS and I walked to Tulsi Lake and back.

P.S. My SE Asia trip is over. Expect pictures and trip reports soon!

Cross posted on Piktcha and my blog.

Intermediary Liability and the Information Technology Act

2009-12-30T16:17:00.001+05:30

My two cents on it at Spicy IP.

Magic Lemon Juice at Maruthi Restaurant

2009-12-29T23:43:00.003+05:30

Tonight, I dined at Maruthi Restaurant in Tirunelveli. Being a classy place, its menu has over 100 items, many of which are North Indian dishes. The menu has undoubtedly been prepared by good Thambis (Tamilian fellows) and many of these dishes are attractively spelled. After trying `Mexican Pineapple Cheese Enchilada' once in a Pao Bhaji shop in Vile Parle, I have been going easy on the experimentation. But here are some of the items on the Maruthi menu.

Dhall makhani

Aloo mutter

Thduka dhall

Mint parotta (?)

Softy parotta (?!)

Beshwari naan (presumably, `Peshawri naan')

Dhum Aloo

Veg sai kurma (?)

Pine Apple juice

Magic Lemon Juice

Kaima parotta (could be `Keema', but this is a vegetarian joint)

Five taste oothappam (!!)

Maruthi fruit trifle (easy to prepare)

Babycorn lolly pop (!)

This reminds of the time when some long lost Tamil relative tried sending a letter to my home in New Delhi. I live in Chanakyapuri. Through an inter-state game of Chinese Whisper, the final address on the letter read `Sanna Kai Puram', which would literally translate from Tamil into `The place of small hands'. Amazingly, the letter reached us!

BTW, Maruthi's has a great new year's bash for just Rs. 250! The sad bit is that the timings are from 6.30 p.m. to 11.30 p.m. on New Year's Eve, so you'll have to do the bashing elsewhere.

I have taken hundreds of pictures, but have had no internet access till just now. Expect them to be uploaded soon!

Structured Procrastination

2009-12-26T09:06:00.001+05:30

Nithya pointed me to John Perry's (wiki) Justice Diet.

There, I found an essay on `Structured Procrastination', of which this is a perfect example.

Bangalore

2009-12-25T23:45:00.003+05:30

My trip so far:

Bombay

Bangalore

Bangalore has no pictures (and this post is hence, not on Piktcha). But, there are some shocking developments that need urgent reporting!

The trees have all gone. I drove past the Bangalore Golf Course, and the lush green vegetation opposite the Windsor Manor Hotel is all gone, so that a traffic roundabout could be built. The Bangalore Metro has uprooted even more trees.

The plane at Minsk Square is gone! When I told people this, they did not know what Minsk Square was or what plane I am talking about. Minsk square is a patch of garden with a statue in it, that is next to Chinnaswamy Stadium (on the Vidhana Soudha side). In it, stood Ajeet, a single-seater interceptor with a secondary ground-attack role. It was developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, and used from March 1975 to 1991 (source). I remember passing it all the time since I came to Bangalore in 1997. It was the coolest plane in the world.

Minsk Square has an interesting history. Ajeet was grounded in 1991, which is the same year that Belarus (of which Minsk is the capital) became independent. In fact, Bangalore is a sister city of Minsk (though I am not quite sure what that means). Minsk also has a Bangalore Square, which is the only place where public meetings are allowed (source)!

Bombay - Day 2

2009-12-22T17:28:00.001+05:30

Did I mention that I love Bombay?

Porcupine Tree finished their set in something like an hour and a half. No matter - my neck is stiff anyway.

Smartest cat in the world is camera shy, but the others are posers.

One of the sisters plonked herself on my lap despite knowing that I'm allergic to her (and all other cats). She is pure evil. Don't be deceived.

Cross posted on Piktcha and my blog.

My Journey Begins - Bombay!

2009-12-21T08:59:00.003+05:30

I start my long journey from Bombay down to Kerala and then to South East Asia today. I landed in the most amazing city in the world tonight. I see one my favourite bands live, tomorrow. I meet the smartest cat in the world the day after.

Life is looking good :-)

The Bombay set here.

Cross posted on Piktcha and my blog.

Is Delhi Safer Than We Think?

2009-12-10T07:30:00.001+05:30

Poor young males in America turn to sex and violence to vent their energy and aggression, but Delhi is such a conservative culture that it’s very hard for young men to engage in the former. The city’s economic gulf is incredibly wide and incredibly visible, like Ferraris-driving-past-pavement-dwellers visible. And the hardships of the city — heat, cold, traffic, pollution, water shortages, high population density, insults and indignities — are overwhelming even to people who can afford to overcome them... Most cities would be torn apart by these social forces. But not Delhi.

But after eighteen months in the city, during which our only brush with crime was four scary six-year-olds, our question is this: why isn’t there more crime in Delhi?

Pretty

2009-11-27T21:54:00.000+05:30

Nike has great ads.

Adam's Peak

2009-11-12T08:50:00.003+05:30

Visit the top of Adam’s Peak in Sri Lanka and you’ll see a striking sight — at sunrise the mountain’s own shadow is caught in the morning mist before you.

- Futility Closet

I read about Adam's Peak in Fountains of Paradise which any sci-fi buff must read. It looks just like the description in the book!

Cross posted on Kaushik Krishnan's blog and Pik-tcha.

My 2 Favorite Things in Simla

2009-10-20T10:03:00.004+05:30

The drive down from Simla to Kalka

Maria Brothers:

Maria Brothers is a shop almost at the end of Mall Road. Inside it are the most amazing antique books, maps and drawings I have ever seen. The prices are very high; I spotted a travelogue called `The Other Side of the Lantern: an account of a commonplace tour around the world' by Sir Frederick Treves. The book was written in 1905 and the copy at Maria Bros is a 1906 edition. The price of the book was INR 9500! I found the book online for free but it's nowhere close to the real thing.

I also saw a 1793 drawing by Thomas Daniell. Thomas and William Daniell were an uncle and nephew pair who travelled around India doing sketches, drawings and paintings of what they saw. They were eventually commissioned by the East India Company to do a series of works. The largest collection of their works is at the Victoria Memorial in Kolkata. Anyone who goes to Kolkata should see them.

I love

2009-10-17T09:37:00.000+05:30

the alt-text on this one.

Delhi Heritage Walks

2009-10-06T11:15:00.002+05:30

The Delhi Chapter of INTACH organises heritage walks through parts of Delhi every Sunday. See this month's schedule.

Here are the ones in this month:

Nizamuddin - 11 October

Mehrauli Archaeological Part - 24 October

Lodi Garden - 25 October

Hauz Khas - 31 October

iPhoto on an External Hard Drive

2009-10-05T14:41:00.005+05:30

My Mac is an ancient iBook G4 with a tiny hard drive which had all but filled up with music, movies and pictures. Moving the music and movies onto an external hard drive was easy enough, but the pictures became a problem.

I use iPhoto to store my pictures. If you have iPhoto set to copy items to the iPhoto Library (which makes sense for me since it takes care of the headache of organising), then all your photos will get stored in username/Pictures/iPhoto\ Library/ under the folders Originals and Modified. To move your photos out and have iPhoto still track them, follow the steps below.

Create a folder on your external hard drive (let's call it `Ext') called `iPhoto'.

$ cp username/Pictures/iPhoto\ Library/Originals /Volumes/Ext/iPhoto.

$ cp username/Pictures/iPhoto\ Library/Modified /Volumes/Ext/iPhoto.

Now you've got copies of your iPhoto directories on your external. The next task is to tell iPhoto to look in Ext rather than the default folder.

$ ln -s username/Pictures/iPhoto\ Library/Originals /Volumes/Ext/iPhoto/Originals $ ln -s username/Pictures/iPhoto \Library/Modified /Volumes/Ext/iPhoto/Modified

Now, move the Original and Modified folders from username/Pictures/iPhoto\ Library to Trash.

Fire up iPhoto. You should still see your folders intact.

Empty Trash.

iPhoto is now set to look into your external to find your pictures! When you import new pictures, they will still go into username/Pictures/iPhoto\ Library/ so you'll need to move these folders out periodically. For the rest, you're set!

IIC Festival of the Arts

2009-09-28T13:43:00.006+05:30

IIC is organising a Festival of the Arts from October 8 to October 14. A lot of it is films and photo galleries about rivers which don't excite me very much. They do however have some food and music. Here's what's in store:

Friday, 9 October 2009:

8.00 p.m. - Food Festival: From the Banks of the Nile

Saturday, 10 October 2009

6.30 p.m. - Mississippi Blues and Jazz from New Orleans

8.00 p.m. - Food Festival: Cajun Food of the Mississippi

Sunday, 11 October 2009

10.30 a.m. - The Music of Banaras - Thumri, Dadra, Chaiti and Kajri

6.00 p.m. - Confluence of Cultures: Flamenco Gala

8.00 p.m. - Food Festival: Food from the Mekonh, Thailand

Monday, 12 October 2009

6.30 p.m. - Songs to the Kaveri - Carnatic Vocal

8.00 p.m. - Food Festival: Dining Along the Kaveri River

Admission to all the cultural programmes are free of charge. Dinners are on payment.

Vote for Project 10 to the 100th

2009-09-28T10:30:00.002+05:30

Google launched Project 10¹⁰⁰ in October last year. The goal was to give away USD 10m to an idea that can change the world. It took them almost an entire year to go through the 150,000 ideas sent to them and they've finally brought out a shortlist. You can vote on the final shortlist till October 8.

ASCIIpOrtal

2009-09-23T11:56:00.003+05:30

There's a text based game similar to Portal (one of the best games I've ever played).

It's got the portal gun, the spooky computer voice and everything.

Ahoy there!

2009-09-19T21:40:00.002+05:30

Damn ye, yellow-bellied sapsuckers, I'm a better man than all of ye milksops put together

- Blackbeard

Today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day.

India gets 3

2009-09-18T20:25:00.002+05:30

out of the 50 best foods in the world and where to eat them (places 24, 35 and 48). Personally, I know better places than Sagar Ratna.

How do I manufacture missiles using iTunes?

2008-09-05T07:31:00.003+05:30

After reading about Google Chrome's EULA which had a clause which required users to "give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and nonexclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services", I decided to pay closer attention to License Agreements.

I was updating my iTunes software today and found this in the License Agreement:

10. Export Control. You may not use or otherwise export or reexport the Apple Software except as authorized by United States law and the laws of the jurisdiction in which the Apple Software was obtained. In particular, but without limitation, the Apple Software may not be exported or re-exported (a) into any U.S. embargoed countries or (b) to anyone on the U.S. Treasury Department's list of Specially Designated Nationals or the U.S. Department of Commerce Denied Person’s List or Entity List. By using the Apple Software, you represent and warrant that you are not located in any such country or on any such list. You also agree that you will not use these products for any purposes prohibited by United States law, including, without limitation, the development, design, manufacture or production of missiles, or nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.

The Magic of the Internet

2008-05-22T07:51:00.002+05:30

As a test, I saw the finals of American Idol today and kept the wikipedia pages of both the finalists, David Cook and David Archuleta open. I wanted to see how long it would take between the results being announced by my clock at 10.10 p.m and the wiki entries on these topics changing. By 10.11 p.m., the wiki article on David Cook had been updated to reflect this. In fact, according to the history, this change was made at the same time (10.10 p.m.). In contrast to this, the earliest mainstream News Agency to report this was the L.A. Times at 10.13 p.m., after it came on Wikipedia.

The American Idol article has been edited 6 times between the results being declared and this article being posted. David Cook's article has been edited 6 times since the results and 25 times on the day of the finals. This is the magic of the internet, collaborative content and Web 2.0.

Equal Globalisation

2008-05-14T23:04:00.002+05:30

Back in the pre-liberalisation days, India was shunned for not opening its doors to the World Economy. When its own economy collapsed, it was forced to change the way it did business before it received any help. India opened up its markets slowly. We're still a long way away from having free, competitive markets in every field, but we are more connected to the World Economy. What does this mean for everyone involved? At one level, for us, it means that we are more affected (for better or worse) by what the World does. For the rest of the World, it means that they will be affected by what India does, if it makes a big enough impact. almost 2 decades later, when we look back, we can see that the World has worked well for us. Being connected to the World Economy has led us to better and more robust financial sector, more employment and more movement of both goods and people. India and China have (and continue to) reap the benefits of the World Economy.

India was forced to compete with the best across the World and her people did well. Now the World, has to compete with what India produces. The most apparent manifestation of the World Economy, is the USA. Today however, the people of the USA, who not too long ago cried out for liberalisation and integration of India and China into the World Economy, now cry that India and China are the reason for its poor performance. Because of better quality and cheaper manpower, India and China are more favored than the US for many jobs.

It hurts me when I read Americans talk about how India and China are taking their jobs away from them. All I can say to these people is `Welcome to the competitive World Economy'.

The reason for this post can be found in two op-eds by Larry Summers in FT on April 28 and May 5. In response to these articles is an op-ed by Arvind Subramanian, Devesh Kapur and Pratap Bhanu Mehta.

Apart from this, I was upset by a blogpost on PrawfsBlog a while ago along similar lines.

A good, neutral counter to this sort of skewed logic is by Alex Tabarrok at Marginal Revolution (link found in comment by James Grimmelman to the Prawfblog post).

Reforming the Indian Banking System

2008-05-13T00:40:00.003+05:30

Raghuram Rajan delivered the The Nand and Jeet Khemka Distiguished Lecture Series "Reforming the Indian Banking System - Why It Is Important and What Can Be Done" [video]. He headed the Committee on Financial Sector Reforms. It's draft report is out. Ajay Shah has more useful links on it.

Save the Turtles

2008-05-06T18:19:00.002+05:30

Greenpeace has taken up the cause of the Olive Ridley Turtles who are threatened by Tata's new port at Dhamra. Watch the Greenpeace video here. It's nice to see how the Internet is used in India to shape popular opinion and voice protest and dissent.

The Internet Changes the Music Business (Again)

2008-05-02T01:14:00.004+05:30

As I'm sure most people know, Radiohead released its newest album, In Rainbows on the Internet. You could pay how much ever you want or even download it for free. Tim Hartford thinks that this is just a stunt for `a band widely thought to be past its prime'. I wrote about it with Ajay Shah earlier. This is nothing new, but I bring it up for 2 reasons.

Imitation

It's spurred other bands that have enough money to do the same thing. Nine Inch Nails is now offering its music for free. Coldplay is now offering a single titled, Violet Hill from its new album, Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends. It is rumored that Metallica is planning to do the same thing.

You may not like these bands, but don't be fooled. They represent the biggest names in music today. Metallica is the 7th biggest selling act in America today, Radiohead has sold more than 23 million records, Coldplay has won many Grammies and was rated Best Artist in 2003 by Rolling Stone and NIN featured on Rolling Stone's, 100 greatest rock artists of all time[link].

Remix

Second, Radiohead launched a massive contest where entrants can buy parts of the song, Nude, and remix it. The contest began a month ago and closes today (May 1 2008). It has received 2246 remixes as of now (May 1 2008, 4.24 PM EDT). While the remixes' use by entrants is limited, Radiohead promises not to sell any of them without permission. This contest has propelled Radiohead into the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time in 12 years and is giving it some revenue through iTunes. Why is this important? As Wired puts it, `If there's another way to get people to create 2,239 remixes of your song in a month, we have yet to hear about it'.

Follow-Up

Nine Inch Nails just released its latest album Slip for free as well. - May 5 2008

Is there a connection between Public Interest Litigation and Fundamental Rights?

2008-05-01T01:47:00.006+05:30

My daily ranting on PIL continues with an interesting question. Is Public Interest Litigation related to Fundamental Rights? My gut feeling was `No'. One should be able to file a PIL whenever there is a public interest that needs to be addressed. There doesn't have to be a violation of a specific fundamental right. Isn't that the whole point of PIL?

Today, I came across a few interesting cases. The first one is Janata Dal v. H.S. Chowdhary ((1992) 4 SCC 305). The operative part of the judgment is:

It is thus clear that only a person acting bona fide and having sufficient interest in the proceeding of PIL will alone have a locus standi and can approach the Court to wipe out the tears of the poor and needy, suffering from violation of their fundamental rights, but not a person for personal gain or private profit or political motive or any oblique consideration. Similarly, a vexatious petition under the colour of PIL brought before the Court for vindicating any personal grievance, deserves rejection at the threshold.

What I understand from this is that there needs to be a violation of a fundamental right, for a person to approach the Court in public interest. This seems to be the dominant theory in the Court for a few years.

Then I saw BALCO Employees Union v. Union of India where the Court says 'Such a litigation [PIL] cannot per se be on behalf of the poor and the downtrodden, unless the Court is satisfied that there has been violation of Article 21 and the persons adversely affected are unable to approach the Court'.

The strange thing is that the Supreme Court seems to have just quietly gone from allowing PILs only when there is an accompanying Fundamental Right infraction to allowing PILs even without Fundamenal Right infractions. The only case I can find that shows that the Court has moved away from its earlier position is Ashok Kumar Pandey v. State of West Bengal where the Court says:

A person acting bona fide and having sufficient interest in the proceeding of public interest litigation will alone have a locus standi and can approach the Court to wipe out violation of fundamental rights and genuine infraction of statutory provisions

To prove this point, I did a search for the term `public interest litigation' on Manupatra and then a search for the same term applying the field as 'Constitution'. If all PILs were relating to Fundamental Rights, then all PILs should fall within the Constitution field. But the number of search hits for the two are different with the first being greater, showing that PILs are not necessarily for the enforcement of Fundamental Rights.

This raises some important questions? Is there a connection between Fundamental Rights and PIL at all? The answer to this seems to be that there was a connection that somehow eroded with time. It would be interesting to see when the Court changed its perspective and how this has influenced the volume of PIL the Court handles.

Direct Cash Transfers

2008-04-29T23:37:00.005+05:30

Devesh Kapur, Arvind Subramanian and Partha Mukhopadhyay have written a piece in the April 12, EPW in favour of direct cash transfers to the poor. They say that at present, through India's central sector schemes (PDS, fertilizer subsidies etc.), India spends more than Rs. 1,00,000 crore. It's well documented that `most of the resources in these programs fail to reach their intended beneficiaries'. While there have been efforts to make this situation better, it's still pretty gloomy.

The Problem

They say that most CSS suffer from

targeting efficiency (inability to reach the poor)

leakages (the non-poor benefiting from this)

participation costs and

large administrative costs

All these are very real problems with all centrally sponsored distribution programs.

They say that the two principal reasons for the failure of CSS are:

a deeply ingrained culture of immunity in public administration that is yoked to

a local public administration with weak capabilities

Their Solution

The simple and elegant solution suggested by the authors is `Why bother giving goods? Just give cash'. If the amount spent on CSS was distributed equally among every family, each family would get a monthly transfer of Rs.2,140. As they rightly put it, this in itself, is more than the poverty line income for a huge portion of households.

Their two-pronged soultion is:

a scheme of outright transfer to individuals

a quantum increase in flow of funds to local governments

The Problem(s) With the Solution (?)

I have a few doubts about such a clear cut solution.

How do you know the money will be spent well?
When you provide hard cash instead of goods, there exists a high chance that the drunk father or negligent mother will use the money for all the wrong things like alcohol or tobacco. Yes, this can happen even with goods such as rice or kerosene (by selling the goods for money), but being given hard cash makes it so much easier for you to misuse the benefits

People Forging Poverty
When the government merely gave kerosene or rice to below poverty line (BPL) people, the incentive for a person above the poverty line to claim BPL status is lower than when the government gives money. Money, being usable for anything attracts more people than specific goods do.

Identification
A problem that exists with all distribution systems of who to target doesn't get solved by this approach. Instead, it gets compounded due to the added number of people who now crave this support.

Non-linearity
The authors suggested that Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) would help make these distributions schemes less linear. There has always existed a problem that there will be 100 people just above the poverty line (who make just a rupee more) who cannot avail of these benefits. The authors suggest that PRIs can help decided at a local level if there are some deserving families who just miss out. This is great in theory. In practice, a decentralised, village level, discretionary decision making body will always attract corruption.

Suggestions

I agree with one of their suggestions. Use smart cards for distribution. Smart cards will reduce accounting errore where money/goods are siphoned off. The other huge advantage is cost. You can produce smart cards cheap. Real cheap. Smart Card World, a smart card production company will give you smart cards at <$0.36 (~Rs.14) a card. Card readers will go at Rs.1000 a piece. Even the fixed costs of operationalising this system are so low that they will be recovered within their first year of operation (as opposed to before smart cards).

One way of making direct transfers work (pointed out to me by Dr. Subramanian) would be by including a no-buy list. There are some items that can't be bought by smart cards. You can buy anything else. This would prevent the drunk dad from buying Rs.2000 worth of desi-alcohol.

While there are theoretical ways for operationalising this, there are as many ways of finding faults with a system like this. No matter how many checks and balances exist, I have faith in Indian ingenuity to find a way around them. Direct cash incentives are too attractive. The scope to misuse is too high. I suppose in that regard, my fundamental point of disagreement is with a few lines in their conclusion:

Yes, the poor will ``mis-spend'' some of the money receive. Giving them automnomy inevitably implied this. But, who does not- and will not - make mistakes?

Follow-Up (30 April 08)

Direct Cash based programs aren't as bad as I make them out to be. The Indian Government has decided to provide cash based incentive programs [link] for the girl-child based on the success of a similar program in Bangladesh [Hat-tip: Varun Gauri].

Too much PIL?

2008-04-29T23:14:00.004+05:30

I am doing a fair bit of work on Public Interest Litigation these days. I sit and read many PILs a day. I am a vocal critic of PIL and you'll see why by the end of this series of posts. Hopefully, you'll agree with me as well. One of my biggest concerns with PILs is passing orders that are utterly un-enforceable. Here is a case that came to the Supreme Court that both started at the Rajasthan High Court. As you read through the order, keep a few things in mind.

Was the Rajasthan HC the best forum for this grievance? Wouldn't it have been better if this was taken to the Muncipal Council, which has funds and knows the ground realities of Jodhpur?

Are these orders really enforceable? Did the HC bother to check whether the Municpalities have the funds/people/infrastructure/time to implement this scheme?

Does this read like a judicial order or more like a law that was passed by the State Assembly?

Is this what a High Court should spend days upon days on, when it could have decided, say, 15 murder cases or 10 dowry cases or put even one rapist behind bars? Wouldn't it have been better to pass this burden over to the Legislature and Executive?

Was this decided on the basis of existing law (adjudicated) or by creating new law (legislating)? If it was through new law, is that what Courts are supposed to do?

Milkmen Colony Vikas Samiti v. State of Rajasthan (AIR 2007 SC 1048)

This case came before the Rajasthan High Court through A.226. It was for the relocation of the dairies in Jodhpur. The Rajasthan High Court sided with the filers of the PILs and passed the following order:

The Municipal Corporation, Jodhpur shall make every endeavour to shift dairies from the city and have them relocated with the assistance of the State to the outskirts and periphery of the city or beyond the city limits.

The Municipal Corporation shall relocate stray cattle from the roads to Gaushalas or institutions made for providing shelter to stray cattle including the institutions at Pawapuri.

For the removal of stray cattle, bulls and dogs from the roads and for their relocation to shelter etc. the Municipal Corporation shall press into service sufficient number of persons and vehicles for impounding and relocating animals.

Cattle and animals located in Jodhpur City shall have a tag number tied around their necks. The tag numbers should be indicative of the name and address of the person to whom the animal belongs so that there will be no difficulty in tracing their owners. This direction shall be carried out by the person(s) owning the cattle and animal(s). The enforcement of the condition shall be made by the civil authorities.

Prosecutions should be launched under the various penal provisions against the owners of such cattle and animals which are found on the streets and roads unattended.

The Municipal Corporation shall employ sufficient number of persons to catch stray cattle and animals found on the roads and streets. Once they are caught, they shall be impounded and may be released to owners on pay of fine of Rs.500/- each and subject to other directions mentioned herein

The vehicles which are used for carrying impounded cattle and animals shall be fitted with ramps in order to avoid the chances of injury to them.
The transit and handling of the stray cattle and animals will be in conformity with the laws providing for their safety and prevention of injuries to them including Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960.

Electric supply to unauthorized dairies which are operating in the city shall be disconnected with immediate effect

The direction of serial No. (ix) above shall also be applicable to the organized and unauthorized dairies located within the city in the event of their failure to shift out of the city within the time allowed to them by this order. The place to which such dairies are to be shifted shall be earmarked by the competent authority within three weeks.

The Municipal Corporation, Jodhpur shall file statements detailing the fine(s) collected by it in terms of directions given at serial no. (vi) above.

The roads of Jodhpur City shall be made free of stray cattle bulls and roaming animals by 31st March 2003.

Periodical progress report shall be submitted by the Municipal Corporation by 15th of each calendar month.

The State Government shall assist the Municipal Corporation, Jodhpur in securing the implementation of the aforesaid directions. This will include financial assistance, which would be required by the Municipal Corporation of Jodhpur to carry out the directions contained in this order effectively.

The Chief Execution Officer of the Municipal Corporation, Jodhpur shall nominate two officers, who shall be responsible for carrying out the directions of this Court.

Judges Cannot Joke

2008-04-26T00:14:00.006+05:30

Today, I stumbled on Dattaraj Nathuji Thaware v. State of Maharashtra (AIR 2005 SC 540). It's a public interest litigation filed by a lawyer who was actually trying to blackmail the other party. Justice Pasayat says that PIL has now become `Paise Income Litigation'. This is when all the lawyers in Court laugh for their Lordships' pleasure. However, Justice Pasayat makes an important point. PIL is an abused concept that has outlived its usefulness. Today, PILs are being filed for completely private interests. The few times when there is a genuine interest, the order is inevitably unenforceable. There has been a raging debate at Law and Other Things about PILs:

Is SC against whistle-blowers who use PIL?

Justice M.Katju on his changing perspective on PIL

These are two fairly recent posts on PILs at the blog. There are many more on the blog. I'll soon be posting more on individual PILs that should have never happened and why PIL is not all its cracked up to be.

Follow-up: (29 April 2008):
Justice Pasayat says that PIL can also be `publicity interest litigation'! (I love this guy) - Dr. B. Singh v. Union of India

Follow-up 2 (30 April 2008):
Justice Pasayat says that PIL can also be `politics interest litigation'! (I really love this guy) - Ashok Kumar Pandey v. State of West Bengal

Prominent and Attractive Akshay Kumar

2008-04-21T19:13:00.002+05:30

I came across a case named Godrey Phillips India Ltd. v. Ajay Kumar (decided on 1 April 2008 so there isn't a citation yet). It was an appeal filed in relation to a suit originally filed by a smoker to restrain a company from selling Red & White Cigarrettes. The company had used Akshay Kumar as its brand ambassador. These advertisements were made prior to the Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003 coming into force. The legal outcome of this case is not important. Neither is anything that happened.

What had me on the floor, clutching my stomach was the holding of the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission that `Seeing comparative size of the letters etc. the statutory warning in our view loses its prominence which is usurped by more prominent and attractive Akshay Kumar et al and is sufficient to detract the attention of the viewers from the statutory warning to the image of Akshay Kumar with the slogan indicating smokers of Red and White cigarette could be super actor performing all the film stunts without duplicates'.

Incidentally, the National Commission is the highest body of appeal for cases regardin the Consumer Protection Act. It is the Supreme Court of the consumer case world.

Gutsy Gibbon

2007-10-20T16:43:00.000+05:30

The latest version of ubuntu (v.7.10) is out. wired reviewed it. gutsy gibbon is making heads turn. find out why.

I.R. Coelho summary

2007-10-20T16:30:00.000+05:30

Surprisingly, the latest Supreme Court pronouncement on the basic structure, I.R. Coelho v Union of India (2007) 2 SCC 1, is only 112 pages long. However, if you still want a nice little summary of the judgment, you can get one here

Webdesign Colors

2007-09-09T01:29:00.000+05:30

Choosing colors for your website can be tough. The W3C has in fact, come out with a nifty algorithm to help you get your colors right.
This has been made even simpler by Snook's color contrast checker which shows you how your colors will look and whether they meet the W3C constraints.

P.S. An easy way to find out the hex code of a color (which you need to define the color while using CSS) is to look it up on Photoshop or the
color contrast checker

MCA21

2007-06-04T00:02:00.000+05:30

How many times have you heard people say that the Indian Government is miles behind other countries when it comes to automation of processes? How many times have you heard them praise the electronic paper-less database systems that are used abroad? How many times have you heard the same people crib about how the information the Government has, just isn't accessible to the common man?

I think the Ministry of Company Affairs has got the right idea. As of September, 2006, the Ministry implemented its electronic database, in collaboration with TCS, on all registered companies in the country. This database, titled MCA21, has electronic records on every one of the (over) 820,000 companies registered across the country. I recently had the opportunity to meet the Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Company Affairs, Mr. Y.S. Malik and the system administrator of MCA21, Dr. Saini and used MCA21. I was surprised to find that it was as good as its promoters claimed it is.

As of now, every company registered in India has to make filings only electronically. All documents are filed with Digital Security Certificates. You can now track the status of any eForm that has been submitted as well the status of your payments to the Ministry. The database also allows you to apply for certified copies of the documents. The best part of MCA21 is that it is not maintained and run only by the Ministry for its internal purposes. This database is available on the internet for public access! All documents are publicly accessible and are available for public inspection. You can use the website to find the CIN (Company Identification Number), which is a unique identification number for every company registered in India. Investor grievances can also be made using the system.

While MCA21 is still in its beta stage, the Ministry is currently back-dating the database so that it will soon have every document filed by any company in India. What this means is that MCA21 will have every statutory document such as the annual report that is filed by a company as well as all event based documents such as the appointing of a new director.

Mr.Malik and Dr.Saini have told me that the Ministry is also working hard at increasing awareness amongst people about MCA21. They have set up "Facilitation Centers" in over 20 major cities in the country where people can be trained on how to use the system, free of charge. Some documents can only be accessed after paying a processing fee of Rs.50 per company which can be paid online using your credit card. This amount is a fraction of the amount one would spend in going to the regional Registrar of Companies where the company that you are looking for information on is registered. They also tell me that after the system came online, the workload on the RoCs across the countries has reduced. They have introduced the concept of Straight Put Through Forms which are purely procedural documents that do not require any vetting by an RoC. There are totally 16 forms that are Straight Put Through Forms and they account for almost 90% of all forms that used to go through RoCs before the system came up. With the removal of the burden, the RoC can now concentrate on the more important task of regulating.

As with any system, MCA21 also has room for improvement. Firstly, the data is currently being verified to check correctness and authenticity. Secondly, it is still not completely backdated. Thirdly, it does not work on Mozilla. Fourthly, it could have been better structured. For example, it contains the annual return documents, which have in them the names and shareholding of all shareholders of the company. This data should be put into the database as separate entries so that a person does not have to scan through annual return documents to find this information. For example, if one wanted to perform a search to see how many companies have Dalit Directors, then each annual return of each company would have to be manually scanned. Fifthly, the public cannot yet make intelligent searches using the CIN. Each CIN is coded to indicate whether the company is listed or not, what its primary field of activity is, which State it was registered in, whether it is a PTC or a PLC, its year of incorporation and finally, a unique ID. A search based on any of these criteria would not be very difficult to code since it would only be a search of the CINs to find those that match. Sixthly, there is no provision that has been made for bulk searches that an NGO, academic institution or a private equity firm might do. If data on (for example) the activity and year of incorporation of every company were to be done, it would cost Rs.410 million.

Regardless of these shortcomings, I think that this is definitely a step in the right direction. MCA21 is just the sort of system that Dr. Ajay Shah speaks about in his paper titled Improving Governance Using Large IT Systems. It increases efficiency of the government agency. It is the perfect model for the implementation of a transparent and secure electronic solution in a transaction intensive, high discretion system. It has succesfully brought down costs and time per transaction. More than being just another example of a government agency jumping on to the computerisation band wagon, the Ministry has implemented a carefully thought out system that effectively uses the advantages of an electronic system to improve information symmetry and speed. I foresee this system having a huge impact in Indian capital markets if implemented properly. This database can now give a prospective investor a much better idea about the company that he might invest in. It will be especially useful in companies that are just about to go public. This is the blueprint that should be mimicked by other governmental authorities for automation of their systems. A public-private partnership with the private player (having core competency in IT solutions) developing the system with oversight and planning provided by the governmental agency is the answer.

BSE can't waive its liabilities away

2007-05-19T20:25:00.000+05:30

The Bombay Stock Exchange has a little link that says Disclaimer right on the bottom of any page on its website. It's quite scary. One part of it reads that the BSE does not guarantee "the information or contents of the Website, in terms of the accuracy, reliability, completeness, currentness, functionality, performance, continuity, timeliness or otherwise". It also "disclaims any and all liability, current or future, for any error made or omission committed with respect to the transmission of such data, information or material available on this Website." Then, the user "waives his or her right to any claim based on the detrimental effects or results of any reliance placed by the user on any information or data available on this Website". After this, "the BSE shall not be liable for any claims or losses of any nature, arising directly or indirectly, from the use or application of the data or material accessed from this Website or unauthorised access to this Website or otherwise, howsoever arising". The disclaimer then says that any person who accesses the website submits to the jurisdiction of Mumbai courts in deciding disputes. The clincher is the second last line which says that "nothing contained in the Website or this Disclaimer may be construed to create a privity of contract between the user and BSE".

I have two points to make. Firstly, that the disclaimer is a contract whether the BSE says it is or not. Secondly, the disclaimer should not and cannot stand. As far as the first part goes, the question I ask myself is how can a user of the website be bound to accept the jurisdiction of a particular court without the existence of some legally binding relationship between him and the person who imposes this condition? Thus, there has to be some legally binding relationship, and this relationship is a contract.

Now dealing with the second part, here's why this disclaimer can't stand. Look at the BSE listing agreement. Clause 49 deals with corporate governance. Clause 49(V)(a) and 49(V)(b) says that the CFO of a company that is listed on the BSE is responsible for the accuracy of the data that it provides. Then, Clause 49(IV)(G)(ii) of the Agreement says that the BSE is bound to put up the disclosure data of listed companies on its website. Now, when there is a statutory obligation upon the Exchange to put up information on its website, is it logical to assume that while it is compulsory for it to put up the information, it is not compulsory to put up factually correct information? A disclaimer regarding the accuracy of data goes against the spirit of a provision that requires the same data to be published. Another angle to this is that when the CFO of a listed company is responsible for the accuracy of his data, is it fair that the exchange that lists his company isn't?

Apart from the Listing Agreement, there are accepted principles in law generally regarding the validity of certain contracts and disclaimers. In intellectual property jurisprudence, it is an accepted position that a disclaimer does not waive liability that arises out of trade mark infringement. This position has been upheld in cases such as Peshawar Soap and Chemicals Ltd. v. Godrej Soaps (90(2001)DLT289) and Godrey Phillips v. Girnar Food ((1998)9SCC531).

The same line of though has been applied to cases regarding the internet. Cases such as Yahoo! v. Akash Arora and Satyam v. Siffynet Solutions have held that even if you have a disclaimer on your web page regarding your affiliation with any other company (in the first case, Akash Arora had a website called YahooIndiaTravels which was held to infringe on Yahoo!'s trade mark).
Also, there have been cases that have held that if there is not an immediately visible notice of terms, then those terms cannot be said to apply. Look at cases like Specht v. Netscape which is a 2001, US 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals case and 1800contacts v. WhenU.com for more on this.

Thus, based on the law on the subject, it is my view that a small disclaimer button that waives just about any liability for accuracy of data put up by a body that is supposed to make sure that there is correct information out there for prospective investors, is out right ridiculous. You just can not wish your liability away just by adding one extra web page that basically says, "Look, I know I'm supposed to make sure that you get correct information. And yes, you're probably going to inject your hard earned money into my exchange on the basis of the information that I give you. But hey, mistakes happen".