Commuting in our cities

Any Indian city news paper or magazine have/had a series like this?  It’s a brilliant write up and left me wondering when downright crap such as TOI or DC or HT or even The Hindu will do something like this in their city columns rather than the useless junk they are filling it now with?. I would love a similar series for any Indian city. Just imagine how good a similar series can be written for our cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai or Bangalore(!!) ?

Although our public transport infrastructure is pathetic it’s better that residents of the city learn how their fellow people commute. It’s high time we make people aware about existing public transport networks in each city. Many people don’t have any clue about public transport modes and all they know is their own bike/car. I have seen people residing in Chennai for quite a period wondering  when i say that suburban trains can take you around 15km in about 30mins in peak hours for which they are spending around 1-1.5 hrs now in their bike/car. I agree that all people can’t use public transport due to lack of network or their own convenience. But people who live in areas which are covered by public transport can at least give it a try. You will know that it’s not that much bad. For example, It’s good to hear that Velachery – Chennai Beach MRTS service via IT corridor has picked up some good reception and i believe its the best mode to commute if you live along its network.

On a side note, all Indian news papers’ websites looks crap. Just check NyTimes.com and TimesofIndia.com. Publishers, plese try to give us a site which is at least half good as nytimes.com and which will give us a feeling to read your content.

Apple. Are you here?

No. I’m not writing this post praying  for earlier launch of Apple iPhone,i’m writing this because of the age old iPods. I recently searched in Google for “Apple store India” and this is where the first result took me to.After some more digging i found out that Apple Store-India page is down for a long time .

You have to look at that Apple store page. Its awful and in much contrast to Apple’s brand name. Information saying “Sorry for Inconvenience” is in English and Chinese(or may be any other) . Chinese? Yes. Apple, Wake up!!! (Eventhough it is  Apple-Asia Pacific site the page is of India’s store ).

 I also found that there are no exclusive Apple stores at all in India.(even in Metros).All it has is some resellers and dealers. India may not be an attractive market as like U.S or U.K but it has enough potential buyers conisdering its population(it may  exceed some present markets of Apple). iPod is a global brand name and Apple need not spend a great effort on marketing  it. All we need is a trusty place to buy ,a service to support and  a little marketing(I have never seen an Apple ad in TV or magazine in India. Anyone?).  Such stores will also benifit existing iPod owners(like me)  who are in need for a support. 

The only thing i could foresee to fail for Apple is if it decides to launch an India customised iTunes store.(Is it the reason?)

Steve, Here lies a vast market to tap. You can’t ignore India for long .

Hoping this news to be true.

P.S:- Can anyone tell how I can send my iPod to Apple to replace battery or for any repairs if needed?

Mumbai Misery & Mumbaikars Spirit

Mumbai is always in the news for past one month.First news appeared that Mumbai was rated as one of the worst worst mannered city in the world by Reader’s Digest(my opinion oppose).Then it appeared that another rain will deluge and drain the city.But God gave the people a relief.Then for the past one week shiv sena recklessly shut down shops and protested for defacing the statue of Shivsena supremo BalThackeray.Now more saddening is that yesterday serial blasts ripped thru the city killing atleast 140 people across the city commuting by suburban trains.The suburban train which is the lifeline of the city is made target once again for its crowd and for high victimisation.The one thing which contrasts every city in the world with Mumbai is that Mumbaikars are the most spirited people than any other.During 7/7 London bombgs the London people feared to travel out of their home for atleast a week.But Mumbai people can recover 4m this blasts with a night sleeping in their apartment.They spring back to action in the next morning to carry out their jobs.But if this blasts had happened any other city in India they cud hav been completely paralised.These terrrorist activities will surely affect Indian economy if any other city being the financial capital of India.We all should learn from Mumbaikars to fight this terrorist world.

Boom and the Bust!

The King of Dalal Street,BSE had been in news for this past 1 year breaking old indices and achieving new crests.But the situation had turn around.The SENSEX and NIFTY had begun to
move southwards b4 1 month and it had not stopped its run till now towards the south.It now
achieved records such as largest intra-day falling,largest 1-week surge etc,etc..Whats
happening the market?Really those who trade shares and stocks should be genius to monitor
these movements and act accordingly.Ah…saying about stock market we could not ignore
Warren Buffet(Hathway).What a genius he should be?Hmmm.Mayur always tell that he has an idea to buy shares.I think he had missed the golden period which prevailed these past few
months.I too,induced by him sometimes thought of investing in stock market.Let I first
earn,then I can decide about my investings and savings.

Team India Rocks!!

Team India in its tremendous form I had ever seen has uprooted England in all the four matches in a way that made Galleries rock.I am astonished with the changing face of the modern Indian cricket.Its a good news that India cud win matches without sachin,veeru(temp out of form).In srilanka series Dhoni was the talk of the town and now in this series Raina.

          This man cud turn a losing match to win.In the second match the match was played b/w Raina and England.And atlast RAINA WINS.Yuvi is also in a nice form and Team India is determined and moving towards WC-07.Maybe this team cud achieve wat the Saurav headed team had failed to do.

          Yesterday my Caritor friends(mayur,mullai,tiru) gave a rocking treat to all of us.The bill came around  2.5K INR.We enjoyed the treat there and ate some items i had hardly heared b4(all veg.) ordered by Balaji.Expecting another one like this!

Telecom Wars in India

Its mobile everywhere!from Kashmir to Kanyakumari(actually Port Blair),Kutch to NorthEast.It’s happening in India.A country known by west as country of snake charmers and poverty before 2 decades has the second largest growing market of mobiles now.(1st ofcourse is china.).Telecom wars are raging throughout the country.Attractive plans,Life time cards,VAS,,Free msging etc…Now customer is the king here.If he dont like one service he is moving to another which is not possible b4 8 years when the market is monopolised by state-owned DOT(Dept.Of.Telecom.).More than dozen operators are operating in the country making the customer’s options wide.

        At first the war happened for licenses and now its happening for bandwidth.The country is divided into two groups GSM oprs(airtel,hutch etc.) & CDMA(reliance,tataetc) and they are fighting each other for alloting spectrum to 3G services from TRAI.GSM’S 3g service called EDGE and its equivalent in CDMA called WCDMA provides contents of multemedia for which they need a higher bandwidth.They are fighting for 1950Mhz(not sure) spectrum allocation.Now both operates in 800 and 1600 MHz spectrums and 3.5G services demand 2300-2600MHz spectrums.For lay users its nothing but value for him is going to increase and he is going to get better content in his mobile itself.I’m reminding “Customer is the king here”.

CWG@DELHI

For India,the CWG-06 in Melbourne went out different.Anju diasppoints,a new guy Samaresh Jung strikes 5 gold.He was awarded the best athlete of CWG-06 truly a glittering performance.Sharath won gold in TT.India eventhough won 30 gold in previous edition in Manchester,06 differs.In Manchester India bagged most of its golds in Weightlifting and Shooting.Now in this edition Weightlifting rules has been changed and on;y one medal for all categories.India put its effort in every field it participated.The fact is that it cant transform it into medals in olympics(even in shooting).2008 Olympics will be more better for India.

Regarding CWG moving to Delhi in 2010 it could be the right,first step towards hosting Olympics!The Organisers are promisin’ that it would be better than Melbourne.It could  refresh the sporting enthusiasm(leave cricket) in India.It provides best stadiums,infra,never b4 practise for players etc.This could be a real achievement if we conduct it successfully.It could make India pride among atleast Asian nations.