Irrelevant Opinions and Stories

Unfair Banking Practices

noreply@blogger.com (SKY) — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 14:41:00 +0000

Banks in India can be divided into two broad groups. The first is the set of all nationalized or old school banks which includes the likes of SBI, Syndicate Bank, Canara Bank etc. The second set includes the new and what I like to call the "page 3" banks like ICICI, Citibank, HDFC Bank etc.

The new banks were supposed to set new standards in customer service and efficiency in Indian banking. Unfortunately for their customers, they have instead set new standards in fleecing them.

I have an account with Citibank and here are two examples from just this one bank.

1. I deposited an outstation cheque (drawn on a Syndicate Bank branch in Mysore) for Rs.500. Quite a few days later, I see that there is a credit of Rs.387.64. Surprised, I look at the detailed transactions and find out where Rs.112.36 of my money has disappeared.
- Rs.100 towards Outstation Cheque Charges
- Rs.12 towards a 12% service tax on service charges of the above Rs.100
- Rs.0.36 towards an education cess of 3% on the service tax of Rs.12 on the service charges of Rs.100

I guess we customers should be happy to receive only 78% of our money most of the times. What a great return!

2. A cheque for about Rs.8000 drawn on a local bank was deposited two weeks ago at the same Citibank. One would think that in this age of electronic clearing houses money would quickly transfer between banks. One would also think that since one day was the absolute upper limit in the days of our old nationalized banks when there was no electronic clearing available, things would be better these days. However, one would be wrong. Very wrong.

You see, these new banks in their zeal for "efficiency" like to take their own sweet time to deposit the money into your account. A two week delay is a two week loss to my interest on that amount, and a two week gain for Citibank since they get to invest the money for that duration. Talk about playing the "spread". Not only does Citibank not have to pay my interest, they make money on top of it! If this isn't a cynical manipulation of customers I don't know what is.

I have had other dealings with ICICI and they are no better. It appears as if the Reserve Bank and Finance Ministry have completely given up their responsibility to the people to ensure fair banking practices.

Karnataka Elections

noreply@blogger.com (SKY) — Sun, 25 May 2008 13:07:00 +0000

So the BJP won, and I am sure they are very glad to have 5 uninterrupted years to loot the state. After all, they waited a long time for the opportunity didn't they?

Unlike in the coalition government last time around, where each party had precious little time to recover it's "investment", BJP now has the chance to plan their "take" properly. We therefore might not see them gorging on the opportunity. They will partake of the sumptuous spread in leisure. Think of it as eating a quick lunch at a darshini versus a nice sit down 7 course meal. The stomach however, is full at the end of both.

ನಗರ

noreply@blogger.com (SKY) — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 03:58:00 +0000

ನಾನು ಬೆಳೆದದ್ದು ಮೈಸೂರಿನಲ್ಲಿ. ಶಾಲೆ ಮುಗಿದು ಬೇಸಿಗೆ ಬಂತೆಂದರೆ ನಾನು ನನ್ನ ತಮ್ಮ ನಮ್ಮ ಸೋದರತ್ತೆಯರ ಮನೆಗಳಿಗೆ ಹೋಗಲು ತವಕಿಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದೆವು. ಹಿರಿಯ ಅತ್ತೆ ಇದ್ದದ್ದು ಚಾಮರಾಜನಗರದಲ್ಲಿ. ಕಿರಿಯವಳು ಬೆಂಗಳೂರಿನಲ್ಲಿ. ಬೇಸಿಗೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ನಗರಕ್ಕೆ ಹೋದರೆ ದಸರಾ ರಜೆಗಳಿಗೆ ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು - ಹೀಗೆ ನಮ್ಮ ವ್ಯವಸ್ಥೆ.

ನಾವು ಚಿಕ್ಕ ವಯಸ್ಸಿನವರಾದವರಿಂದ ನಮ್ಮನ್ನು ನಗರಕ್ಕೆ ಕರೆದುಕೊಂಡು ಹೋಗಲು ಯಾರಾದರೂ ಇರಬೇಕಾಗುತ್ತಿತ್ತು. ಈ ಹೊಣೆ ಹೆಚ್ಚಿನ ಪಟ್ಟಿಗೆ ನನ್ನ ತಾತನದು. ನನ್ನ ಅತ್ತೆಯ ಮನೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಫೋನ್ ಇಲ್ಲದ್ದರಿಂದ ವ್ಯವಸ್ಥೆಗಳೆಲ್ಲ ೧೫ ಪೈಸೆಯ ಪೋಸ್ಟ್ ಕಾರ್ಡ್ ಮೂಲಕ. ಎಂಭತ್ತರ ದಶಕದಲ್ಲಿ ನಮ್ಮೆಲ್ಲರ ಜೀವನ ಬಹಳ ಸರಳ.

ನಗರಕ್ಕೆ ಹೋಗಲು ನಮಗಿದ್ದ ಎರಡು ವಿಧಾನ ರೈಲು ಮತ್ತು ಬಸ್ಸು. ನಮಗೆ ರೈಲೇ ಆಗಬೇಕು. ಆವಾಗ ಮೈಸೂರು-ಚಾಮರಾಜನಗರ ರೈಲು ಉಗಿಬಂಡಿ. ಆದರೆ ನಮ್ಮ ತಾತನಿಗೆ ರೈಲು ಆಗದು. ರೈಲಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಹೋಗಬೇಕೆಂದರೆ ಅದನ್ನು ಕಾಯಬೇಕು. ಬಸ್ಸಾದರೆ ಘಂಟೆಗೆ ಹಲವಾರು ಇದ್ದವು. ಜೊತೆಗೆ ನಗರದಲ್ಲಿ ರೈಲು ನಿಲ್ದಾಣ ಊರಿನಿಂದ ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಹೊರಗೆ - ಅಲ್ಲಿಂದ ಮನೆಗೆ ಹೋಗುವುದು ಅನಾನುಕೂಲದ ಮಾತು. ಇದರ ಮೇಲೆ ನನ್ನ ಅತ್ತೆಯ ಬೆದರಿಕೆ - "ನೋಡ್ರೊ, ಶನಿವಾರದ ಡ್ರೈವರ್ ಸರಿ ಇಲ್ಲ್ವಂತೆ. ಒಳ್ಳೆ ಇದ್ದಲನ್ನು ಮಾರ್ಕೊತಾನಂತೆ. ಕಿಟಕಿಗೆ ಮುಖ ಇಟ್ಟ್ಕೊಂಡು ಬಂದ್ರೆ ಆ ಕೆಟ್ಟ ಮಸೀನ ಉಜ್ಜಕ್ಕೆ ನಂಗಾಗಲ್ಲ. ರೈಲು ಕೂಡ ನಿಧಾನವಾಗಿ ಓಡತ್ತೆ."

ಕೆಲವು ಬಾರಿ ನಾವು ಈ ಕಾಳಗವನ್ನು ಗೆಲ್ಲುತ್ತಿದ್ದೆವು. ನಮ್ಮ ಆ ರೈಲು ಪ್ರಯಾಣ ಎಷ್ಟು ಸುಖಕರ! ೬೦ ಕಿಲೋಮೀಟರ್ ಹೋಗಲು ೨ ಘಂಟೆ ಆಗುತ್ತಿತ್ತು. ನಾನು, ನನ್ನ ತಮ್ಮ ಕಿಟಕಿಗೆ ಮುಖ ಹಾಕಿಕೊಂಡು ಬೀಗುತ್ತಿದ್ದರೆ, ನಮ್ಮ ತಾತ, "ಅಯ್ಯೋ ಪಾಪಿಗಳಾ, ಸುಮ್ನೆ ನೆಟ್ಟಗೆ ಕೂತ್ಕೊಳ್ಳ್ರೋ!" ಎಂದು ಹಲ್ಲು ಕಡಿಯುತ್ತಿದ್ದರು. ಆ ಹಸಿರು ಅಥವ ಹಳದಿ ಮರದ ಸೀಟ್, ಕಪ್ಪು ಫ್ಯಾನ್, ಮುಚ್ಚದ ಕಿಟಕಿ, ಮೀಟರ್ ಗೇಜ್ ನ ಮೇಲೆ ಬಹಳ ಅಲುಗಾಡುವ ಬಂಡಿ, ಉಗಿಬಂಡಿಯ ಸುವಾಸನೆ. ರೈಲು ತಿರುಗಿದಾಗ ಮುಂದೆ ಇದ್ದ ಹೊಗೆ ಉಗುಳುವ ಎಂಜಿನ್ನನ್ನು ಕಂಡರೆ ನಮಗೆ ಎಲ್ಲಿಲ್ಲದ ಖುಶಿ!

ನಗರ ತಲುಪಿದಾಗ ನಮ್ಮ ಇನ್ನೊಂದು ಡಿಮಾಂಡ್ ಕುದುರೆ ಗಾಡಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಮನೆಗೆ ಹೋಗಬೇಕೆಂದು. ಮೈಸೂರಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಜಟಕಾ ಬಂಡಿಗಳು ಹೆಚ್ಚಿನಪಟ್ಟಿಗೆ ಮಾಯವಾಗಿದ್ದರೂ, ಚಾಮರಾಜನಗರದಲ್ಲಿ ಇನ್ನೂ ಹಲವಾರು ಇದ್ದವು. ಬಸ್ಸಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಹೋಗಿ ಇಳಿದಿದ್ದರೆ ನಮ್ಮ ತಾತ, "ಗಾಡಿ, ಆಟೊ ಏನೂ ಬೇಡ ನಡಿರೋ. ಮನೆ ಇಲ್ಲೇ ಹತ್ತ್ರ ನಡ್ಕೊಂಡ್ ಹೋಗೋಣ." ಎನ್ನುತ್ತಿದ್ದರು. ಆದರೆ ರೈಲು ನಿಲ್ದಾಣದಿಂದ ನಡೆಯಲು ಅವರೂ ಹಿಂಜರಿಯುತ್ತಿದ್ದರು. ಜಟಕಾದವನ ಹತ್ತಿರ ೧೫ ನಿಮಿಷ ಚೌಕಾಶಿ ಮಾಡಿದ ಮೇಲೆ ನಮ್ಮ ಸಾಮಾನನ್ನು ಗಾಡಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಹಾಕಿ, ಒಬ್ಬ ಮುಂದೆ ಕುಳಿತು, ಇನ್ನೊಬ್ಬ ತಾತನ ಜೊತೆ ಹಿಂದೆ ಕುಳಿತು, ಬಡಪಾಯಿ ಒಣಗಿಕೊಂಡ ಕುದುರೆ ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ತಿಣುಕಿಕೊಂಡೇ ಹೊರಡುತ್ತಿತ್ತು. ಹೋಗುತ್ತ ದಾರಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಊರಿಗೆ ಇದ್ದ ಒಂದೇ ಪೆಟ್ರೊಲ್ ಬಂಕ್, ಭ್ರಮರಾಂಬ ಟಾಕೀಸ್, ಹೊಸದಾದ ಬಸವೇಶ್ವರ ಟಾಕೀಸ್ (ಊರಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಮೊತ್ತೊಂದು ಸಿನೆಮ ಕೃಶ್ಣ - ಇದ್ದದ್ದು ಮೂರೆ), ಸಿರಿಕಲ್ಚರ್ ಇಲಾಖೆ, ಜೆ ಎಸ್ ಎಸ್ ಶಾಲೆ ಮತ್ತು ಕಾಲೇಜು, ಪಿಡಬ್ಲ್ಯೂಡಿ ಕಾಲೋನಿ, ದೊಡ್ಡ ಬಯಲು, ಮತ್ತೆ ಕೊನೆಗೆ ಮನೆ.

ನಮ್ಮ ಅತ್ತೆಯ ಮನೆ ಒಂದು ಚೊಕ್ಕವಾದ ಬಿಳಿಯ ಮನೆ. ಅದಕ್ಕೆ ಕೆಂಪು ಮಂಗಳೂರು ಹಂಚು. ಮನೆಯೆದುರು ಚಪ್ಪರ. ಮನೆಯ ಸುತ್ತ ಒಪ್ಪವಾದ ಒಂದು ಹೂತೋಟ. ಮನೆ ಸುತ್ತ ತಂತಿಯ ಬೇಲಿ, ಅದರಲ್ಲಿ ಕಳ್ಳಿ ಗಿಡ. ನಾಲ್ಕು ಮೂಲೆಯಲ್ಲೂ ಒಂದೊಂದು ತೆಂಗಿನ ಮರ. ಎದುರು ಎರಡು ಹೊಂಗೆ ಮರ, ಪಕ್ಕದಲ್ಲಿ ಸೀಬೆ ಮರ ಮತ್ತು ಸೀತಾಫಲ ಗಿಡಗಳು. ಮತ್ತೊಂದು ಪಕ್ಕದಲ್ಲಿ ಜಾಜಿ ಮತ್ತು ಮಲ್ಲಿಗೆ. ಮನೆಯ ಬಾಗಿಲಿನವರೆಗೆ ಸೇವಂತಿಗೆ ಹೂ ಪೊದೆಗಳು, ಹೂಕುಂಡಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಕ್ರೊಟಾನ್ ಗಿಡಗಳು. ಮನೆಯ ಪಕ್ಕದಲ್ಲಿ ಬಾಳೆ ಗಿಡಗಳ ಒಂದು ಗುಂಪು, ಮತ್ತು ಅದರ ಪಕ್ಕದಲ್ಲಿ ನೆಲದ ಸಮದಲ್ಲಿ ಒಂದು ತೊಟ್ಟಿ. ನಗರದ ಒಣ ಬಿಸಿಲಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಆ ತೋಟವನ್ನು ಜೀವಂತವಾಗಿ ಇಟ್ಟಿದ್ದ ನಮ್ಮ ಮಾವನ ಶ್ರಮವನ್ನು ಮೆಚ್ಚಬೇಕಾದ್ದೆ. ಮನೆಯೆದುರಿನ ಚಪ್ಪರದ ಕೆಳಗೆ ಒಂದೆರಡು ಬೆತ್ತದ ಕುರ್ಚಿಗಳು. ನಮ್ಮ ಭಾವಾಜಿ (ನಮ್ಮ ಮಾವನನ್ನು ನಮ್ಮ ತಂದೆ-ಚಿಕ್ಕಪ್ಪಂದಿರು ಹಾಗೆ ಕರೆಯಲು ಶುರು ಮಾಡಿದಾಗಿಂದ ಅವರು ಎಲ್ಲರಿಗೂ ’ಭಾವಾಜಿ’) ಬಿಳಿ ಪಂಚೆ, ಬಿಳಿ ಬನಿಯನ್ ಅಲ್ಲಿ ನಮ್ಮನ್ನು ಸ್ವಾಗತಿಸಿ, ನಮ್ಮ ಚೀಲಗಳನ್ನು ತೆಗೆದುಕೊಂಡು ಒಳಗೆ ಹೋಗುತ್ತ, "ಇಂದಿರಾ, ಬಂದ್ರು ನೋಡು" ಎಂದು ಕೂಗು ಹಾಕುತ್ತಿದ್ದರು. ನಮ್ಮ ಇನ್ನಕ್ಕ (ನನ್ನ ಬಾಯಲ್ಲಿ "ಇಂದಿರಕ್ಕ" ಹೊರಡದೆ ಇದ್ದರಿಂದ ಅದು "ಇನ್ನಕ್ಕ" ಆಗಿತ್ತು) ಹೊರಗೆ ಬಂದು, "ನಮ್ಮಪ್ಪನ್ನ ತುಂಬ ಗೋಳು ಹೋಯ್ಕೊಳ್ಳ್ಲಿಲ್ಲ ತಾನೆ? ಸರಿ ಬನ್ನಿ, ಆ ಮಸೀನ ಮುಖದಿಂದ ತಿಕ್ಕಣ" ಎಂದು ಹೇಳಿ ಬಚ್ಚಲಿಗೆ ಕರೆದುಕೊಂಡು ಕೈ, ಕಾಲು ಮುಖ ತೊಳಸಿ ಬಟ್ಟೆ ಬದಲಾಯಿಸಲು ಹೇಳುತ್ತಿದ್ದರು. ಒಳಗೆ ನಮ್ಮ ಮಾವನ ತಾಯಿ ದ್ರೌಪದಜ್ಜಿ ನಮ್ಮನ್ನು ನೋಡಿ, "ಅಯ್ಯೊ ಮುಂಡೇವಾ, ಎಷ್ಟು ಬೆಳೆದುಬಿಟ್ಟಿದೀರ್‍ಓ!" ಎಂದು ಸ್ವಾಗತಿಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದರು.

ನಮ್ಮ ತಾತ ಸಮಯವಿದ್ದರೆ ಅಂದೇ ಮೈಸೂರಿಗೆ ಮರಳುತ್ತಿದ್ದರು - ಬಸ್ಸಿನಲ್ಲಿ. ಅಷ್ಟು ಹೊತ್ತಿಗೆ ನಮ್ಮ ಅತ್ತೆ-ಮಾವನ ಮಗಳು ಸುಮ (ನಮಗೆ ಸುಮಕ್ಕ) ಮನೆಗೆ ಬಂದರೆ, ನಮ್ಮ ಗಲಾಟೆ ಶುರು. ಸುಮಕ್ಕ ನನಗಿಂತ ಹತ್ತು ವರುಷ ದೊಡ್ಡವಳು, ಆದರೆ ನಮ್ಮಿಬ್ಬರ ಮಧ್ಯ ನಮ್ಮ ಕುಟುಂಬದಲ್ಲಿ ಬೇರೆ ಮಕ್ಕಳಿರಲಿಲ್ಲ. ಜೊತೆಗೆ ನನಗೆ ತಮ್ಮನಿದ್ದನೇ ಹೊರತು ಅವನು ಇನ್ನೂ ಬಹಳ ಚಿಕ್ಕವನು (ಎಂದು ನನ್ನ ಅನಿಸಿಕೆ). ಸುಮಕ್ಕ ಮತ್ತು ನಾನು ಕುಳಿತುಕೊಂಡು ನಮ್ಮ ರಜೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಏನೇನು ಮಾಡಬೇಕೆಂದು ಪ್ಲ್ಯಾನ್ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಿದ್ದೆವು. ಮೈಸೂರಿನಲ್ಲಿ ನಮಗೆ ಪಿಚ್ಚರ್ ನೋಡಲು ಅನುಮತಿ ಇರುತ್ತಿರಲಿಲ್ಲ. ಸುಮಕ್ಕ ನಮ್ಮನ್ನು ನಗರದಲ್ಲಿ "ಲಯನ್ ಜಗಪತಿ ರಾವ್" ಅಂಥ ಕ್ಲಾಸಿಕ್ಸ್ ಅನ್ನು ನೋಡಲು ಕರೆದುಕೊಂಡು ಹೋಗುತ್ತಿದ್ದಳು.

ನಮ್ಮ ಮಾವ ಜೆ ಎಸ್ ಎಸ್ ಶಾಲೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಇದ್ದರು, ಜೊತೆಗೆ ಅವರಿದ್ದ ಬಡಾವಣೆ ಜೆ ಎಸ್ ಎಸ್ ಅವರದ್ದೆ. ಹಾಗಾಗಿ ಅಲ್ಲಿದ್ದವರೆಲ್ಲ ಜೆ ಎಸ್ ಎಸ್ ಶಾಲೆಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಟೀಚರುಗಳು. ಪ್ರತಿ ವರುಷ ಅಲ್ಲಿಗೆ ಹೋಗುತ್ತಿದ್ದೆನಾದ್ದರಿಂದ ಅಕ್ಕ ಪಕ್ಕದ ಹುಡುಗರೆಲ್ಲ ನನಗೆ ಪರಿಚಯ. ಎದರು ಮನೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಕಾಂತ ಮತ್ತು ಬಾಬು ಎಂಬ ಅಣ್ಣ ತಮ್ಮಂದಿರು. ಕಾಂತ ಚಿಕ್ಕವನು - ಸುಮಾರು ನನ್ನ ವಯಸ್ಸಿನವನು. ನಾವಿಬ್ಬರೂ ಇಡೀ ರಜೆ ತಂಟೆಗಳನ್ನು ಒಟ್ಟಿಗೆ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಿದ್ದೆವು. ಕೆಲವು ಮನೆಗಳ ಆಚೆ ಜೀವನ್ ಮತ್ತು ಅವನ ತಮ್ಮ ಚಂದನ್.

ನಗರಕ್ಕೆ ಹೋಲಿಸಿದರೆ ಮೈಸೂರು ದೊಡ್ಡ ಊರು. ಎಲ್ಲಾ ರೀತಿಯ ಸೌಲಭ್ಯಗಳೂ ಇರುವ ಜಾಗ. ಆದರೆ ಹಿತ್ತಲ ಗಿಡ ಮದ್ದಲ್ಲ ಅಂದ ಹಾಗೆ, ನಮಗೆ ನಗರ ಮೈಸೂರಿಗಿಂತ ಶ್ರೇಷ್ಠ ಜಾಗ. ಅಲ್ಲಿನ ಜನರ ಸರಳತೆ, ಒಗ್ಗಟ್ಟು, ಹೃದಯವಂತಿಕೆ ಚಿಕ್ಕವರಾದ ನಮಗೆ ಸೂಕ್ಷ್ಮವಾಗಿ ತಿಳಿಯುತ್ತಿತ್ತೋ ಏನೊ!

ದಿನ ಬೆಳಗಾದರೆ ನಾನು ಎದ್ದು ಮೊದಲು ರೇಡಿಯೊ ಹಾಕುತ್ತಿದ್ದೆ. ಯಾವುದೋ ಕಾರಣಕ್ಕೆ ಅಲ್ಲಿ ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು ಆಕಾಶವಾಣಿ ಮೈಸೂರಿನ ಆಕಾಶವಾಣಿಗಿಂತ ಸಲೀಸಾಗಿ ಬರುತ್ತಿತ್ತು. ಅಂಥದ್ದೆ ಒಂದು ಬೆಳಿಗ್ಗೆ ನಾನು ರೇಡಿಯೊ ಹಾಕಿದಾಗ ರಾಜೀವ್ ಗಾಂಧಿಯ ಹತ್ಯೆಯ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಮೊದಲು ಕೇಳಿದೆ. ತಕ್ಷಣ ಎಲ್ಲರನ್ನೂ ಎಬ್ಬಿಸಿ ಸುದ್ದಿ ಹೇಳಿ, ಬೇಗ ಮುಖ ತೊಳೆದುಕೊಂಡು ಕಾಂತ, ಬಾಬು, ಜೀವನ್ ಅವರುಗಳಿಗೆ ಸುದ್ದಿ ಹೇಳಲು ಓಡಿದೆ. ರಾಜೀವ್ ಗಾಂಧಿ ಎಂಥ ಮನುಷ್ಯನೋ ಏನೊ, ಆದರೆ ಸಣ್ಣ ಊರಿನ ಜನಕ್ಕೆ ಆ ಸುದ್ದಿ ಸರಿ ಸಮಾನವಾಗಿ ದಿಗಿಲು, ಆತಂಕ, ಸಂಭ್ರಮಗಳನ್ನು ತಂದ ಹಾಗೆ ಇತ್ತು.

ಇನ್ನಕ್ಕನ ಅಡುಗೆ ನಮ್ಮ ಮನೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಎಲ್ಲರಿಗೂ ಪ್ರಿಯವಾದದ್ದು. ಅವಳ ಮಸಾಲೆ ದೋಸೆ, ಪೂರಿ ಸಾಗು ಅದ್ಭುತ. ಅದರೆ ಅವಳ ಅಕ್ಕಿ ರೊಟ್ಟಿಯ ಸಮಾನ ನಾನು ಇನ್ನೆಲ್ಲೂ ತಿಂದಿಲ್ಲ. ನಾವು ಇದ್ದಾಗ ಪ್ರತಿ ದಿನದ ತಿಂಡಿ ಊಟಗಳ ಬಯಕೆಗಳನ್ನು ಚಾಚೂ ತಪ್ಪದೆ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಿದ್ದಳು. ಅದಕ್ಕೆ ಬೇಕಾದ್ದ ಸಾಮಗ್ರಿಗಳನ್ನು ಅಲ್ಲೆ ಹತ್ತಿರವಿದ್ದ "ಚಡ್ಡಿ" ಅಂಗಡಿಗೆ ನಮ್ಮನ್ನು ಓಡಿಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದಳು. ಅಂಗಡಿಯ ಮಾಲೀಕ ಯಾವಾಗಲೂ ಚಡ್ಡಿ ಧಾರಿ. ಹಾಗಾಗಿ ಹೆಸರು.

ನಂತರ ನಾನು ನನ್ನ ತಮ್ಮ ದ್ರೌಪದಜ್ಜಿಯ ಪ್ರಕಾರ ಪೋಲಿ ಅಲೆಯಲು ಹೋಗುತ್ತಿದ್ದೆವು. ನಮಗೆ ಆಟವಾಡಲು ಇದ್ದದ್ದು ಧೂಳು ತುಂಬಿದ ರಸ್ತೆ, ಒಂದಷ್ಟು ಹುಡುಗರು, ಒಂದು ಚಂಡು ಅಥವ ಟೈರ್. ಅದೇನೂ ಇಲ್ಲದಿದ್ದರೆ ಹತ್ತಲು ಹಲವಾರು ಮರಗಳು. ಮನೆಯಂಗಳದಲ್ಲೇ ಇದ್ದ ಸೀಬೆ ಮರ ಹತ್ತಿ ಅದನ್ನು ಅಲುಗಾಡಿಸಿ ಹಡಗಿನ ಮೇಲೆ ಹೋದಂತೆ ನಟಿಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದೆವು. ಮಧ್ಯದಲ್ಲಿ ಓಡಿ ಬಂದು ಊಟ ಮಾಡಿ ಮತ್ತೆ ಹೊರಗೆ ಓಡುತ್ತಿದ್ದೆವು. ಕೆಲವು ಬಾರಿ ಸುಮಕ್ಕ ಅವಳ ಗೆಳತಿಯರ ಜೊತೆ ಎಲ್ಲಾದರೂ ಹೋದರೆ, ನಾವೂ ಬಾಲಗಳಂತೆ ಹೊರಡುತ್ತಿದ್ದೆವು. ದೇವಸ್ಥಾನದ ಹತ್ತಿರದ ಪೇಟೆಯೇ ಸ್ವರ್ಗ! ಪಚ್ಚಪ್ಪನ ಹೋಟೆಲ್ ನ ದೋಸೆಯೇ ಅಮೃತ!

ಸಂಜೆಯಾಗುತ್ತ ವಾಪಾಸ್ ಮನೆಗೆ ಬಂದು ಕೈ ಕಾಲು ಮುಖ ತೊಳೆದುಕೊಂಡು, ಹಾಲು ಕುಡಿದು ಹೊರಗೆ ಜಗುಲಿಯ ಮೇಲೆ ಕುಳಿತರೆ ಕಾಗೆ ಗಾತ್ರದ ಸೊಳ್ಳೆಗಳ ನಾದಸ್ವರಕ್ಕೆ ಬಡಾವಣೆಯ ಹಿರಿಯರ ಪರ್ಯಾಯ ನಡೆಯುತ್ತಿತ್ತು. ಹರಟೆ-ಪುರಾಣ ತರುವವರಿಗೆಲ್ಲರಿಗೂ ಒಳಗಿನಿಂದ ಕಾಫಿಯ ಸರಬರಾಜು ನಮ್ಮ ಕೆಲಸ. ಅದು ಮುಗಿದ ನಂತರ ಎಲ್ಲರೂ ಮನೆಯೊಳಗೆ ಕೆಂಪು ನೆಲದ ಮೇಲೆ ಕುಳಿತು ಊಟ ಮಾಡಿ, ಸುಮಾರು ಒಂಭತ್ತರ ಹೊತ್ತಿಗೆ ದೊಡ್ಡ ರವಿ ವರ್ಮನ ರಾಮ-ಸೀತೆಯರ ಚಿತ್ರಪಟದ ಕೆಳಗಿದ್ದ ಆಪ್ಟಾನಿಕ ಕಪ್ಪು-ಬಿಳುಪು ಟೀವಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಅಂದಿನ ರಾಷ್ಟ್ರೀಯ ವಾರ್ತೆಗಳನ್ನು ನೋಡುವ ಉತ್ಸಾಹ. ಆವಾಗ ಇದ್ದದ್ದು ದೂರದರ್ಶನ ಒಂದೇ. ಅದರಲ್ಲೇ ಎಷ್ಟು ಸಂತೋಷ!

ನಮ್ಮ ಬೇಸಿಗೆಗಳು ಹೀಗೆಯೇ ಬಹಳ ಬೇಗ ಓಡುತ್ತಿದ್ದವು. ಮೈಸೂರಿಗೆ ಮರಳಿ ಹೋಗುವ ಸಮಯ ಹತ್ತಿರ ಬರುವಾಗ ನಾವಿಬ್ಬರೂ ನಗರದ ಅಷ್ಟೂ ಬಿಸಿಲನ್ನು ಮುಖದ ಮೇಲೆ ಹೊತ್ತು ತೆಗೆದುಕೊಂಡು ಹೋಗುತ್ತಿದ್ದೆವೇನೋ.

ಶಾಲಯಲ್ಲಿ ಮೇಲಿನ ತರಗತಿಗಳಿಗೆ ಹೋಗುತ್ತಿದ್ದಂತೆಯೆ ನಮ್ಮ ನಗರದ ಪಯಣಗಳು ಕಡಿಮೆಯಾದವು. ಆಮೇಲೆ ಇನ್ನಕ್ಕ-ಭಾವಾಜಿ ಮೈಸೂರಿಗೇ ಬಂದುಬಿಟ್ಟರು. ಹಲವಾರು ವರುಷಗಳ ನಂತರ ನಾವೆಲ್ಲರೂ ಒಟ್ಟಿಗೆ ನಗರಕ್ಕೆ ಹೋಗಿ ಹಳೆಯ ಗೆಳೆಯರನ್ನು, ಪರಿಚಯದ ಬೀದಿಗಳನ್ನು ನೋಡಿಕೊಂಡು ಬಂದೆವು. ಇದೇನಾ ನಮ್ಮ ನಗರ?

"ನಗರ ತುಂಬ ಬದಲಾಗಿದೆ ಅಲ್ವೇನೊ" ಎಂದು ಭಾವಾಜಿ ಕೇಳಿದರು. ಸುಮ್ಮನಿದ್ದೆ. ಬದಲಾದದ್ದು ನಾವಲ್ಲವೇ?

SEZ - The Logical Way

noreply@blogger.com (SKY) — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 14:31:00 +0000

We have seen the deeply polarizing effects of SEZs or Special Economic Zones. These are usually set up on agricultural land by governments so that other industries can move in and enjoy tax and other benefits. The idea is borrowed from the success seen by these SEZs in China among a few other countries.

I have always felt that politicians who go about promoting SEZs look a bit foolish. They are in effect admitting to their lack of influence over their administration, needing to set aside a small part so they can provide the services to business they should be able to anywhere.

While the involvement of politicians naturally politicizes the issue of SEZs, the idea of SEZs also naturally attracts politicians. With huge amounts of money at stake and lots of people involved, it is not surprising that politicians are drawn to SEZ issues as sharks are to blood.

Between money, power and rhetoric (pro business or pro farmer) no SEZ has seen a peaceful start. Until now.

A group of farmers led by a local has decided to set up their own SEZ in Avasari Khurd village near Pune, Maharashtra without any involvement from the government. The person leading the effort is affiliated with the Congress, but thankfully doesn't seem to be a career politician. Most residents of the village are shareholders in Avasari Khurd Industrial Development Pvt. Ltd. in proportion to how much land they gave up. There is a socialist twist here in that landless residents are also given shares for a cash investment.

I have long believed that governments should get out of the business of acquiring land for SEZs - or any other purpose for that matter and that includes factories, highways, airports etc. Let the market do what it does best, and people are smart (and opportunistic) enough to take advantage of what they have. If this SEZ takes off, everyone is the winner - the companies which get concessions, the local economy for employment, and the farmers who get all the returns from their investment. More importantly, there are no losers.

It is interesting to note that there has been very little opposition to the plan in the village. This makes sense given the prospects for agriculture in some parts of our country. I sincerely hope petty politics that our villages are riven with doesn't torpedo this whole idea.

No development is sustainable unless the vast majority of people are bought into it. The Co-operative movement in India didn't take off because it was an inherently socialist model. Individual people are capitalists - and the villagers of Avasari Khurd probably have shown a way for the rural Indian to play in this new game in a uniquely Indian way.

Article on Kendasampige

noreply@blogger.com (SKY) — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 04:29:00 +0000

"Kendasampige" is a new Kannada web-magazine/blog run by Abdul Rasheed, a budding writer/journalist who previously worked at AIR. His thumbnails about everyday people that we see past everyday are crisp and touching without being melodramatic.

I wrote an essay on a trip to Lake Tahoe which is published there. I am honored.

Tailwheel Pilot

noreply@blogger.com (SKY) — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 02:30:00 +0000

I am finally tailwheel endorsed. That means I can fly the airplanes that were made in the old days when "conventional" (so called because that was the only way they were built for the longest time) landing gear meant there were two wheels in the front and one on the tail. Since the center of gravity in these airplanes is close to the main gear (the front wheels), the airplane naturally wants to go backwards if the tailwheel, center of gravity and the direction of motion are not in a perfectly straight line. The other problem is that one has to land on all three wheels simultaneously. Land on just the front two at low speed and you will just bounce up. As a result, flying these airplanes is challenging to most pilots who learn to fly in a tricycle gear airplane i.e. with one wheel in the front and two behind. The stuff that looks like this.

Someone at some point figured out that this geometry is much easier to land. The geometry ensures that the nose wheel wants to keep going in the direction of motion. In other words, this geometry makes a pilot much more sloppy in landings with the added benefit of making the pilot seem much better than he/she actually is. In conditions which require precise landing and take-off skills like very short fields or dirt strips, someone who has no idea of the limitation of a tricycle gear is likely to overestimate their ability in it.

All old school pilots think that new students should learn to fly in taildraggers or at the very least get an endorsement in one after getting the license. For airplane owners, a tailwheel endorsement ensures lower insurance rates in some cases since it is proof of enhanced skill.

My instructor belongs to the old school and because of that he taught me to land tricycles the right way i.e. being very precise. It therefore didn't take too long for me to get the new endorsement in his personal Cessna 140 (similar to one in first picture) - a plane that was built in 1946 and flies better than most new airplanes in its class.

Kannada in Bengaluru

noreply@blogger.com (SKY) — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 12:46:00 +0000

I was in for a pleasant surprise on my trip to India. In the space of one year, it seems like corporate India in general has discovered Kannada and Kannadigas.

Let me explain. Until 2003 when I left India, I heard no Kannada on the FM stations. I saw no Kannada on advertising hoardings that sold mobile phone plans, and no Kannadigas in the English newspapers. A call to a mobile phone number that was switched off would result in the nice lady telling me the same in English and Hindi. No one spoke Kannada in ICICI, Citibank or Pizza Corner. People who frequented MG Road were all non-Kannadigas. Obviously I saw no sign of Kannada anywhere on shop signs in the Cantonment/East Bangalore. Bengaluru was still Bangalore. Global companies selling anything from cars to computers ignored local markets outside of Bangalore and made no effort to tap them.

Last year there were noises of Bangalore becoming Bengaluru. But I still saw no other signs of Kannada anywhere else in the city.

This year was a huge surprise. Most people I overheard talking on MG Road spoke Kannada. Every shop sign had Kannada on it. FM Radio stations seemed like they were always playing Kannada music with Kannadiga RJs. Small town Karnataka was being marketed to in Kannada by the Toyotas, Reliances and Airtels of the world. I even saw a Kingfisher Airlines hoarding in Kannada! A visit to my old employer where I could name all Kannadigas out of about a 1000 back in 2003 revealed that at least 60% were Kannadigas now. My uncle who still works there now and my old colleagues confirmed that, and also the fact that many senior managers were also Kannadigas. I heard nothing but Kannada songs playing in Planet M! On Brigade Road! The store employees all knew Kannada and were knowledgeable about old Kannada film music and bhavageetes. My family rented a car from Avis which I picked up at the Oberoi on MG Road. I expected the employees there to speak Tamil as all service sector jobs seemed to be locked up by Tamilians. Besides, the place is next to Halasooru. They were all Kannadigas. And the Tamilian who checked the car out knew Kannada! I about had a fit.

What is going on? Where is the Bengaluru that I love to hate? My single biggest complaint with the city was that I couldn't make do with Kannada everywhere. I have no option but to hate it less now.

How did this happen? Is this a result of some of the anger among Kannadigas, most expressed by the likes of Karnataka Rakshana Vedike? Or is it that an aberration has righted itself naturally?

Government Flying Training School

noreply@blogger.com (SKY) — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 22:21:00 +0000

The GFTS in Jakkur airfield is quite old. However, it has been active for only a fraction of its age. It is the Government FTS.

The school is not short of resources. It has a reasonably large fleet, its own airfield (Jakkur airfield and the school are owned by the state government), a hangar and 33 staff excluding the instructors to take care of the airplanes.

I had a chance to walk around the hangar and talk to a maintenance technician called Reddy.

The GFTS hangar had 7 airplanes 5 of which were airworthy. The inventory as I could see it
1 Cessna 172
2 Cessna 152 Aerobats (one of them made by Reims)
2 HAL Pushpaks
1 Aeronca Chief
1 NAL Hansa

One of the Pushpaks (the Pushpak is based on the Chief) and the Aeronca Chief were "condemned" according to Reddy, presumably for parts for the airworthy Pushpak (VT-DYF). The condemned Pushpak (VT-EHZ) was apparently the prototype built by HAL which they donated to the school.

This airworthy Pushpak was powered by a Rolls Royce engine!

I had read a lot about the NAL Hansa and this was the first time I saw one in person.
It looks strange and the wing looks downright weird. It had tiny vertical stabilizers sticking up from the middle of the surface. The cowling is all metal (heavy at that) and the wings are composite. The engine is apparently a Rotax though there are other examples flying with Lycomings and Continentals. The cockpit looked roomy when I peeked under the cover. Reddy recommended that I not fly in this plane if I had the opportunity. This plane made its debut flight almost a decade ago and has yet to see production. NAL, has tried to win customers by giving them away to flying clubs across the country. No one wants to buy them.

All aircraft were well maintained from what I could see except for the pigeon droppings. I asked about ADs and service bulletins and Reddy said every single one of them have been complied with.

So who flies these airplanes? Nobody. The school does not have a single instructor, and without an instructor, they can't even rent them out. The last instructor resigned and left more than a year ago (probably to an airline - there is a huge shortage of pilots in India), and the government has been looking for a new one ever since with very generous pay (Reddy said they were offering Rs.150K per month). That's equivalent to a $150K per annum salary here in the US (not in direct conversion but in the kind of lifestyle it can support). No one is biting because the airlines pay extra generously.

So what do the 33 maintenance staff do? They come in every day, check oil and fluids, run up the engines once in a while, and generally shoot the breeze. All of them have also become so familiar with the airplanes that Reddy claimed he could tell the Rolls Royce from the Lycoming from the Continental, and which magneto was on which (he listed out a few makes of which I could recognize only Bendix) and which one was weak all only by sound. If something was misfiring, he could tell which cylinder, and which plug from a few seconds of listening. I'm not surprised. What else do they have to do?

It is really a sad state of affairs. CFIs here in the US make minimum pay partly because there are so many of them. I am surprised no US based school has opened Indian operations in a big way. Students from India come here to learn flying. Reddy himself had sent his son to New Zealand to get his CFI (for microlights) ticket and he was going to open a school himself on his own private field! He is going to target mainly the leisure flyers. But there is still a huge demand among people who want to fly for a living.

If I had money and time to get my CFII quickly, I would do it and go apply for that job at the GFTS!

Flying in Bengaluru

noreply@blogger.com (SKY) — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 20:55:00 +0000

I just returned from a trip to India. This was my first trip back home since I got my PP and was very keen on flying there. I knew of Bangalore Aerosports when I lived in India. They offer flight training in the X-Air microlight which is made in Bengaluru. They had recently moved to Mysuru. Since the renovation of the Mandakalli airport (VOMY) was in full swing, they had temporarily moved back to Bengaluru's Jakkur airfield (VOJK). I emailed them and set up some time to fly with one of their instructors.

I showed up at Jakkur just after 8am on Tuesday Oct.3oth. I used to be a frequent visitor to the airfield when I flew RC. However, I was struck by the absence of traffic, conditioned as I was to Salinas (KSNS) and other airports near here (like Watsonville and Hollister). There is one paved runway and an associated taxiway. The rest of the airfield is really just a field with no paved ramp. The hangars are lined up to the west of the field and airplanes taxi around on the dirt which is well compacted. It had just rained continuously for the last few days, but the field was pretty well drained.

I drove past a Cessna Caravan owned by Jindal Steel and which is normally based at Toranagal near Bellary as I entered the field.

I went up to the Jupiter Aviation hangar which is where the X-Air was temporarily hangared. I could see a Beechcraft King Air and a Partenavia P68C inside.
The most intriguing aircraft however was in the back of the hangar. It was a very sleek looking red experimental which I could not identify. I asked one of the guys working on the King Air about it and he said it was built right there in Bengaluru.
It was apparently a good flier and was currently grounded because of some problem with the landing gear after a hard landing. I went over to take a closer look and the engine surprised me. The cowling said "Turbo Diesel" so I asked the same maintenance guy what it was. It was a Tata Sumo engine! Talk about extreme car engine conversions! From what I could gather, it was a one-off conversion. The airplane also had an opening near the tail (seen in the pic) through which I could see a hydraulic pump and pipes emanating from it. I couldn't quite figure out what it was for.

In front of the hangar was a Bell helicopter that belonged to VSL Industries owned by the Lad brothers of Bellary. They are also MLAs and all the big politicians of the state are frequently seen in that helicopter. As I was waiting for my ride, some big-shot and his family came up in a Mercedes Benz, hopped into the chopper and the pilot took off. One of the lineguys asked me not to take pictures of the chopper or the people in it.

At about this time, Vineeta who was going to be my instructor taxied up to the hangar after a flight. I had seen the X-Air before but this was the first time I had a close look at it. All fabric surfaces on a tube frame. The "fuselage" has a fiberglass nose and plexiglass windows. It is powered by a Jabiru (I was told 100HP) engine.
Vineeta gave me a brief overview of the systems and we got in. I sat in the right seat because the only toe-brakes were on the left. The instrument panel had a standard six-pack but not in the standard place because of the shape and available area on the panel. A center stick took care of the aileron and elevator controls.

Start up was straightforward. We taxied to runway 27. The airplane is very sensitive to rudder inputs on the ground because the nose wheel and the main wheels are so close together. I had a hard time keeping it straight for the first minute or so.

The throttle was set up so that even small movements in the stick (between the seats) resulted in large RPM changes which I didn't like. It was difficult to make smooth power inputs. Full power and a couple hundred feet later, we were airborne. I was impressed by this especially since the airfield elevation is a little over 3000'.

Jakkur has the Yelahanka Air Force Station just to its north and the HAL Airport (Bengaluru International) to the south so its airspace is rather restricted to 1000' AGL. Climbing beyond it required clearance from either the approach for VOBG or the Yelahanka tower so we stuck to 1000' AGL. As an aside, the new Bengaluru International Airport coming up in Devanahalli is further north of Yelahanka so that would make four airports in the city from north to south. Five including the one inside the IISc campus.

We flew around for some time while I tried some turns. Compared to the LSA that I usually fly, control response is very sluggish, in fact more sluggish than the Cessna 172. The aircraft trims well, but it never gave the feeling of positive control by the seat of my pants. Maybe it takes more experience in the type. It takes barely any rudder input for coordinated turns and maintaining altitude is a breeze.

It was a hazy day with an overcast layer at about 1500' AGL.
I turned back to fly over the airfield once before entering a right pattern.
Apparently pattern entries normally are done on the upwind leg which I thought was weird. But then there is hardly any traffic here. Jakkur does have a tower (more like a "permanent" temporary tower) but it opened at 9am, just when we were landing.

Approach speed is about 90 Kmph but I was too high on the first attempt. We went around. I let Vineeta take charge on the second attempt but forgot about that just as we were about to roundout. Vineeta had to yell for me to let go of the stick. Slightly embarassing! The landing was smooth and uneventful and the roll out very short. We taxied to the Government Flying Training School (GFTS) and shut down.

I was thrilled that I finally got to fly in my hometown. Apart from the actual flying, I saw quite a few interesting aircraft including a few Zodiacs in the NCC hangar. I then walked over to the GFTS which is a whole another story in itself.

What it takes to fly

noreply@blogger.com (SKY) — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 13:06:00 +0000

In response to a comment for a previous post, here is what it takes to take flying lessons and become a pilot in this country.

1. Make sure you have the correct visa for it. H1B status is OK. F1 is not. Ask USCIS just in case.

2. Research the kinds of pilot certificates (not licenses) that are available and determine which is the best for you. I went for Private Pilot but that might be overkill for some. There is a new category called Sport Pilot license that is becoming popular which is sufficient for most recreational flyers and requires only half the instruction of the Private. For someone who wants to fly for a living, going all the way to commercial and then getting the Instrument and Multi-engine certificates is the only way to go.

In short, define your typical "mission". If you don't know, a Private gives the most options for later.

2. Find a flight school near you. Almost every county in the US has at least one airport if not more. This is the home of general aviation in the area and will be home to several "FBO"s i.e. Fixed Base Operators who offer airplane rental and instruction services along with fuel, airplane repairs, tiedown (i.e. parking) etc.

3. Go talk to flight schools and take an introductory flight. These flights cost less than $50 each. Don't be bashful about asking questions. Evaluate the instructors and see if you can learn from them effectively. The one you pick will be stuck with you in a small cockpit for about 15-30 hours of flying. That is a very long time if you don't like him/her.

4. Once you make the decision to enroll, before actually enrolling ensure that you can fly at least 2-3 times a week. Anything less and you will spend more money to recall what was taught in the previous class. It is important that you find a school that is as close to you as possible. The farther away it is, the less the inclination to fly when you are feeling even a little bit lazy. My airport is next to my office which is less than 10 mins from home.

5. If you have significant others, ensure that they are bought in. If you have families that worry too much, feel free to follow my example. Keep in mind that it takes quite a bit of commitment to follow through with training and can be compared to taking an additional 2 graduate level courses in addition to your regular work.

5. Go to the school and enroll. Your flight school will then help you (if you are a foreigner in this country) to open an account with the friendly TSA. You will have to go to some nearby location and submit fingerprints which the TSA will use to do a background check. You cannot begin flight lessons until you get the clearance. This takes less than a month to come through. You then have to get a medical certificate. A 3rd class medical will do. People of good health should have no problems getting a 3rd class medical. You can wear glasses and fly. Again, your school should tell you the local physicians who are approved by the FAA to issue these certificates.

6. Contrary to popular perception, there really isn't a big problem for people of color to fly. Use common sense and watch what you say especially in the beginning. You will soon get a feel for the environment at your airport. Most pilots are very friendly and honestly want to share the experience of flight with others. There are less than 500,000 pilots in the US so they are a minuscule part of the population. This causes two kinds of behaviour - pride to be part of an elite group, and a mild paranoia about the extinction of the species. Both are good if you want to be a pilot.

7. Enjoy your lessons, and keep on top of the study materials. You don't need to be some kind of a genius to be a pilot. Heck I am one. Double heck, Rajiv Gandhi was one. F***, even Sanjay Gandhi was one. Rajesh Pilot, Biju Patnaik.....you get the picture.

8. The US is an incredibly beautiful place. You will know that from the first flight. What better way is there to experience another country? As an aside, this has prompted me to arrange for an introductory flight in Bengalooru when I go there in a few weeks. I want to fix in my mind the image of the beauty of my land so that I am never too wowed by this one. Might be difficult with the pollution in Bengalooru.

I have not talked about costs because they vary widely between regions and even airports. You pay as you go i.e. you pay for every hour you fly. I have not added up my total costs. I don't want to because I wanted to be a pilot no matter what. But I know it doesn't cost more than an old used Toyota Corolla.

Enjoy.

Flight Video

noreply@blogger.com (SKY) — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 02:31:00 +0000

Airport in Hasan

noreply@blogger.com (SKY) — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 15:54:00 +0000

This article in The Hindu talks about a fairly ambitious airport development project in Hasan.

I am all for promoting aviation. And this project includes setting up flight training centres in the new airport so it is even more encouraging. However, a few thoughts came into my mind when I read this.

For a project being encouraged by the first family of Karnataka politics, where is their concern for all the land that farmers will lose in this project? Is their concern only for farmers everywhere except in their own backyard? So land use for infrastructure development everywhere is to be condemned whereas the same in their constituency is for generating employment and economic growth?

Or is it that the only "farmers" affected are the self same family, and they can afford such a big sacrifice for the good of the region? A huge payout from increasing land values nearby would help no doubt.

Also, as with all things in Karnataka, I foresee the aviation academies being swamped by ambitious young men and women from all over India while our own grandsons and great-grandsons of the soil are content sitting back and complaining about the invasion of foreigners. I am ashamed to say this, but we are a very unenterprising lot.

Of vegetarianism and word play

noreply@blogger.com (SKY) — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 00:22:00 +0000

The current saga of Michael Vick, an American Football star who has been caught up in a huge controversy over “brutal” dog fighting is frankly amusing to me.

Let’s back up a bit. I am a vegetarian. That is more for reasons of my upbringing, religion, health and preference in taste than any concerns of cruelty towards animals. I gladly wear and use leather and do eat many things that might have animal products (including dairy) like cheese (did you know that some cheese include stuff from inside the stomach of calves called rennet?), jelly (made from bone gelatin in most cases) and Indian sweets with the silver film on them (those films are made by beating silver sheets in between cow hides and guts which ends up transferring blood and other particles to the silver). I eat it not because I like that stuff, but sometimes there’s just no way to make sure that I am not eating non-dairy animal products.

I therefore have no ethical stances on vegetarianism. People need to eat and they happen to eat animals.

What cracks me up however is that in Western countries, people indulge in a lot of sophistry to define cruelty towards animals. While there are huge meat processing plants that butcher millions of animals every day, these are supposed to be done in a “humane” way. Excuse me, but I think if you can stomach (pardon the pun) killing an animal for eating it, you shouldn’t feel outraged if an animal is killed for sport. Or any other reason. Just because your steak comes from a cow that you didn’t see being killed doesn’t mean your conscience can be clear if at all it is a conscionable act.

The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that this “humane” business is more about people feeling better about themselves than animals not suffering.

Western culture has also sought to make eating meat ethically acceptable in other ways. Notice that animals killed for food are not “killed” but “butchered”. And who does it? A “butcher”, who happens to be a human being! You take the guilt out of the act by humanizing it, in this case by naming the fellow the same way. How’s that for sophistry? Or the mass killing of deer for example (to control populations) is really “culling” and not killing.

I therefore like the terms that are used in Kannada. There are no allusions to moral correctness (or wrongdoing for that matter) in my language. When people want to eat mutton, they “chop” the goat or sheep and eat it (kaDidu tinnu). Simple!

I am a pilot

noreply@blogger.com (SKY) — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 04:34:00 +0000

OK I admit it. I have been taking flying lessons for the past many months. I passed my exam a little over a month ago and I am now officially a licensed Private Pilot (as opposed to Commercial etc.) here in the US. I can legally fly an "ASEL" i.e. Airplane (i.e. not a glider, helicopter etc.) Single Engine (not multi-engine) Land (not sea i.e. airplane that can operate from the water). I am a PP-ASEL.

I didn't disclose it on this blog because
a) I didn't want my mother to know about it and wanted to surprise her when she came to visit me
b) isn't the above a good enough reason?

I deliberately didn't inform her when I started my lessons because I knew of her objections
a) It is too dangerous
b) It is too expensive

I am glad to say it is neither, but then my family wouldn't say I understand the concept of danger anyway. I don't know if they think I am a responsible spender either. I therefore decided to present this as a fait accompli.

I had told my father and my brother, the former with the same outlook towards "dangerous" activities as mine and the latter who is generally eminently disinterested in such matters. He'd much rather build a successful website.

My mother however did find out about it. I scanned my new license and emailed it to my father and brother forgetting that my mother is usually the one who checks my father's email. One day of arguing, and two days of not talking later, I finally convinced my mother that this was nothing to be ashamed about. I am glad to report that she finally thinks I am a decent human being, though just barely.

What is it like to fly? I believe I am normally an articulate person. However, words fail me for the most part when I describe the feeling of flight. The result is another blog that hasn't been updated in a long time. I will give up trying because one poem - a classic in aviation circles - tells you everything. It is beautiful for those who are earthbound, and it is sublime for those who fly for they have felt these verses.

High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth

of sun-split clouds, —and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of—wheeled and soared and swung

High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,

I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung

My eager craft through footless halls of air....

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue

I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace

Where never lark nor even eagle flew—

And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod

The high untrespassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

- John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

It is true, I feel a peace when I am flying that I have never felt so far.

It is also true that this has turned me, generally a cynic, into an incurable romantic that embarrasses even me sometimes.

With that, I don't have to explain to anyone why I fly. I wish God gives me the strength and the means to do it until my body fails.

Earthquake!

noreply@blogger.com (SKY) — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 01:09:00 +0000

At about 1pm today, I felt the office building picked up slightly and dropped back on its foundations. I was in a reverie contemplating such heavy matters as credit losses when I was literally jolted out of it. I immediately stood up and looked around and I felt the floor shake a little more. It was my first California earthquake! I was curious to see if anyone went under the desks as the emergency procedures say but no one did. A lot of my colleagues are hardened Californians and a piddly 4.3 earthquake probably just relieves some back ache.

I was pretty excited and asked the guy next to me to confirm whether it was indeed an earthquake and he deadpanned, "Eh, no big deal". None indeed.

Bomb Scare

noreply@blogger.com (SKY) — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 20:06:00 +0000

Salinas is nothing less than London or Bristol. We are after all the salad bowl of the US and you bet we will take things seriously.

Just kidding.

ಅಯ್ಯೋ ರಸಂ ಅಲ್ಲ ಸಾರು!

noreply@blogger.com (SKY) — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 04:23:00 +0000

ನನ್ನ ಚಿಕ್ಕಂದಿನಿಂದ ನನಗೆ ಪರಿಚಯವಿರುವ ಹಲವಾರು ಹೆಸರುಗಳು ಇತ್ತೀಚೆಗೆ ಕಣ್ಮರೆಯಾಗುತ್ತಿರುವಂತೆ ತೋರುತ್ತಿದೆ. ನನ್ನ ಬಾಲ್ಯದಲ್ಲಿ mummy/daddy ಒಂದನ್ನು ಬಿಟ್ಟರೆ, ಸುಮಾರಾಗಿ ಬೇರೆ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ನಾಮಪದಗಳೂ ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಸರಳವಾಗಿ ಜನರ ಬಾಯಲ್ಲಿ ವಾಸವಾಗಿದ್ದವು.

ಆದರೆ, ಈವಾಗ ಎಲ್ಲವೂ ತಮಿಳುಕರಣ ಆಗಿಹೋದಹಾಗೆ ಇದೆ. ಉದಾಹರಣೆಗಳು.

ನಮ್ಮ ಮನೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಅಚ್ಚುಕಟ್ಟಾಗಿ ಅನ್ನ, ಹುಳಿ, ಸಾರು, ಪಲ್ಯ, ಮೊಸರನ್ನ ಊಟ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಿದ್ದ ನನಗೆ ಈಗ ಜನರ ಬಾಯಲ್ಲಿ rice, ಸಾಂಬಾರ್, ರಸಂ, curd rice ಹಾಯಾಗಿ ಹೊರಳಾಡುವುದು ನೋಡಿದರೆ, light ಆಗಿ ಮೈ ಪರಚಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವ ಹಾಗೆ ಆಗುತ್ತದೆ. ಹುಗ್ಗಿ ಮತ್ತು ಹುಣಸೆಹಣ್ಣಿನ ಗೊಜ್ಜನ್ನು ಈವಾಗ ಪೊಂಗಲ್/ಚಟ್ನಿ ಪಕ್ಕಕ್ಕೆ ತಳ್ಳಿದೆ. ಹೋಟೇಲುಗಳಿಗೆ ಹೋದಾಗ ಬಿಸಿ ಬೇಳೆ ಭಾತ್ ಹುಡುಕಿದರೆ ಕಾಣುವುದು "ಬಿಸಿ ಬೇಲ ಬಾತ್". ಅದರ ಹೆಸರು ಆ ರೂಪದಲ್ಲಿ ಇದ್ದಾಗ ಹೊಟ್ಟೆಗೆ ಇಳಿಯುವುದು ಕಷ್ಟ. ನನ್ನ ಪ್ರಿಯವಾದ ದೋಸೆ "ದೋಸಾ".

ಇಷ್ಟೇಕೆ. ರಾಮನಗರ ರಾಮನಗರಂ ಆಗಿದೆ. ನೂರಾರು ಬಾರಿ ಮೈಸೂರಿನಿಂದ ಬೆಂಗಳೂರಿಗೆ ಹೋಗಿ ಬಂದಾಗ ಕಾಣುತ್ತಿದ್ದ ಊರು ಮಾಯ! ಬೆಂಗಳೂರಿನ ಬನ್ನೇರುಘಟ್ಟ/ಬನ್ನೇರ್ಘಟ್ಟ ಇಂದು ಬನ್ನರ್ಗಟ್ಟ (ಇಂಗ್ಲೀಶಿನಲ್ಲಿ Bannargatta). ಹಲಸೂರು ಯಾವಾಗಲೋ ಅಲಸೂರಾಯಿತು.

ದುರಂತವೇನೆಂದರೆ, ನಮ್ಮ ಜನಕ್ಕೂ ಇವೆಲ್ಲ ಬೇಡವಾದ ವಿಶಯಗಳು. ಪರರು ನಮ್ಮತನವನ್ನು ಪಕ್ಕಕ್ಕೆ ತಳ್ಳಿ ಅವರ ಹೆಸರುಗಳನ್ನು ನಾಮಕರಣ ಮಾಡಿದಾಗಲೂ ಅಕ್ಷತೆ ಕಾಳನ್ನು ಚಿಮುಕಿಸುವ ಜನ ನಾವು!

The God Delusion

noreply@blogger.com (SKY) — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 15:53:00 +0000

I am just about done reading Richard Dawkins' "The God Delusion". It is an entertaining read, and certainly informative in parts.

For those who don't know Richard Dawkins, he is an atheist crusader. I choose these words carefully. He has the same zeal in spreading atheism that some fundamentalist missionaries have for their religions.

The central theme of the book is that reason and rationality should take all people towards atheism. And it goes without saying that he believes reason and rationality to be superior to faith. I have no problem with this. Every belief of every person is superior to that of another person, or that belief would not have been chosen.

Dawkins picks up individual ideas from the arguments of people of faith and goes about demolishing them. He tackles topics such as evolution and intelligent design, morality etc.

His arguments for morality and why they don't need a religious framework are sound. I agree with him for the most part in that area. This is because he tackles this subject mainly within the framework of human society, but also compares similar behaviors across species. The central idea here is how what we take as "morals" are actually mechanisms to sustain and propagate our species and it works well.

Dawkins however falters in other arguments. His take on intelligent design is one such piece that exposes the inadequacy of his atheism. For a person who harps on reason, rationality and logic, Dawkins displays a surprising lack of all of them in those passages where he takes on intelligent design. He ends up taking a position as indefensible as the one of the Creationists.

Dawkins is harsh on those who support Intelligent Design, and it makes for entertaining reading when he rips apart the core "Irreducible Complexity" idea that sustains Intelligent Design. This idea goes as follows: As we trace the building blocks of life, you will at some point reach a component that cannot be traced to an origin. While you can trace the parts that make it up, you cannot understand how they came together. For the proponents of Intelligent Design, this is where God steps in.

It should be fairly obvious to a rational person (and one who understands probability and chance) that there is no such thing as irreducible complexity.

This is where Dawkins and I part ways however. Dawkins seeks to explain the irreducible complexity i.e. make it reducible. He argues that this is the great goal of science - the continuous digging away at the frontiers of knowledge so that irreducible complexities fall away and new ones appear. He makes two fatal flaws in logic here that makes suspect his foundation of his own atheism.

One, he assumes that the ability to explain the unknown is the cornerstone of atheism. The unstated assumption is that people of faith are unable or unwilling to explain, and hence their belief in God.

Two, he makes the same flaw in argument that people of religion make - that humans are somehow endowed with the mastery of their environment, that we have the ability to explain everything, and that we can speak for all of nature.

Some more exploration of the two flaws is warranted. The argument that atheism has to be founded on reason and science is somewhat bogus. While faith is a belief in a supernatural God (or an unexplainable power), atheism strictly speaking should be a belief in nothing! One can see where this is going. Richard Dawkins' brand of atheism is based on a belief in science. While it is an old position of people of faith that science cannot explain everything, my position is that belief in science itself (whether or not it can explain anything) is a belief! Ergo, there really isn't a true atheist for even science relies on a belief that there is stuff out there to be explained and that is what keeps it going.

The second one is more fundamental, and for me exposes Dawkins' claims as hollow that he is an atheist. He is in fact so deeply influenced by his Christian upbringing that he doesn't even realize it.

The main position of people of religion (mainly the Abrahamic faiths) is that humans are different from other animals and nature because we have an intellect and a God. We have used our intellect to create language, civilization, science, art etc. which the other lowly animals have been unable to. So that makes us special, and somehow superior to the dogs, cats, birds, trees, plants, rocks etc. It is therefore up to us to exploit, protect, nurture and explain this universe that we live in. This is the "White man's burden" at the level of species and just as arrogant. I call it the "Noah's Ark Syndrome". Dawkins says that we are able to explain everything, and that this ability to explain is something that is unique to humans, and therefore, we need not believe in God. The problem here is that if at some point we cannot explain something, his whole argument falls flat.

There is another way to look at this. Humans like all other things on this planet and in the universe are a product of a long process that continues to this day. Darwin called it natural selection. Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his "Fooled by Randomness" gives a wonderful analogy which is apt here. Let us assume there is a coin tossing competition (where you "win" by guessing right and you "lose" by guessing wrong). Many people participate in it. It follows a knockout pattern until the end where there is an eventual winner. Here are the questions. Did the winner have any special skill that led to the win? Can he explain his win?

It would be a fallacy to claim that the winner was somehow endowed with more skill than the others. It would be downright foolish for the winner to hold forth on what it took - the effort, the practice, the "technique" - to win. To the extent that the winner studies this probability, it is a useful exercise. But if he assumes that because he is the winner, he is "better" than the people who didn't win, he is - in Dawkins words - deluded.

Every animal, plant, tree, rock etc. that we see around us is the "winner" of such a coin tossing competition. Including us humans. As they say in aeronautics, a good airplane is one that flies well. Not one that flies fast, or flies high, or carries a lot of passengers, or has tremendous range. Applying the same philosophy to life, it is apparent that there is no superior life form. Humans are well suited to our environment. We needed language and art and science and sundry other things to succeed in life and propagate. The ant required six legs, a maniacal sense of duty and discipline to succeed in its life. Is it really possible to compare the two and judge which life form is superior? Dawkins seems to think so, and that is a very Christian view of life. The ants don't need art and literature, just as we don't need to spray formic acid from our behinds. If an ant were to judge us, it would deem us very useless indeed and think that it was "superior".

There is another analogy that I think is useful to know. I don't quite remember where I got this from, but it has stuck with me. There is a little worm in a potato, in a sack full of potatoes, which is lying among hundreds of such sacks. All these sacks are in a cargo hold of a ship which is tossing about in a stormy ocean. Would this little worm comprehend and visualize the ocean and the storm the same way the ship's Captain does? Does it need to? We are limited by our senses, and every sophisticated instrument that we make to look beyond ends up being a proxy for the self same senses. I had a lesson in English I think in primary school. A man stumbles into a remote valley where all the people have been blind for many generations. He tries to explain the concept of "seeing" to them, and they in turn think he is a madman. How exactly do you explain what it means to see? Or hear? Taste? How do we know that other animals don't have some other form of "sense" that connects them to the universe that hasn't explained to them this environment in ways that we cannot even imagine? Does it make us any inferior? Or superior?

I digress. The bottom line is that Dawkins atheism is strongly influenced by his Christian roots. He makes the same errors in logic that people of faith make. He too is bound by his "belief" in these fallacies. Dawkins therefore is not a true atheist.

There is however one sentence in the book that totally demolishes Dawkins' credibility. While making the case for the superiority of science and reason, he says that if people of science had never asked the fundamental questions, we would still be living in the dark ages. Fair enough. He then goes on to tackle the old distinction that people of faith make between science and religion. The distinction is that science can answer the question "How" whereas religion answers the question "Why". He says that this distinction is bogus. As to whether the questions "Why does the universe exist? Why does XYZ happen? etc." need to be answered, he offers a gem. He says that just because one can make a grammatically correct question does not mean it needs to be answered.

So I guess if our ancestors saw lightning happen and asked "Why does lightning occur?" and Dawkins' ancestor had offered up the same gem, we probably wouldn't have any of the answers we have now. For in that age, those questions must have been as fantastical as all the current "Why" questions. Rejecting a question as not worth answering would negate the need for science too!

A good read, but totally unconvincing. Richard Dawkins is a typical missionary.

Mandakalli Airport

noreply@blogger.com (SKY) — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 15:13:00 +0000

I just read this news report about Mandakalli Airport in Mysooru (yes that's what I am going to spell it from now on if I can remember it). I am all for getting an airport. My brother and I used to go to Chamarajanagara in the summers when we were very young to spend time with my aunt. The route takes one past the airport, and I remember one year seeing an airplane parked there. It was a Dornier from the short lived Vayudooth service that ferried passengers to Bengalooru. Since it stopped, I have been aware of this issue coming up in the local media with studies on how many seats the city can fill and to which destinations.

So this is a good development. What I don't understand however is why the airport project took more importance just because of the IT industry. The story quotes some numbers on the exports of the IT industry, but surely tourism (including the yoga tourists) brings a lot more to the city? And it has for far longer than IT has?

Maybe I am touchy about this, but I don't want IT to be associated with Mysooru the way it is with Bengalooru. Whatever made Bengalooru, it is lost in the din of IT. It is a good thing that infrastructure is developed under whatever pretext. But it is extremely misleading to outsiders, and damaging to the image of a city that there is nothing else important enough about it that warrants an air service other than IT.

Also, why should it take so long for the airport work to complete? December 2008? Excuse me, but as someone who knows about airports a little more than the average person, I don't think there is any reason why paving two runways and associated taxiways, ramps and aprons should take two years. Contrary to popular perception, there is nothing special about building an airport. The runways are just heavy duty roads. Granted that land acquisition is an issue, but in Mandakalli the majority of the land is already there. The terminal building is just another building and requires no special engineering. And for the kind of traffic that Mandakalli might see, there is no need for a control tower or radar. Watsonville Municipal Airport which is near here handles the same amount of aircraft movements in a day as the current Bengalooru International Airport. And it doesn't have a tower.

But when the airport is done, I hope it is not named after Ganapati Sacchidananda.

Thimmakka

noreply@blogger.com (SKY) — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 15:08:00 +0000

Thank God someone had the good sense to cover this story. Hope Thimmakka gets better.

Indians and Others

noreply@blogger.com (SKY) — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 14:06:00 +0000

Two new people joined my team in the last week and one more will be joining in the next few days. It takes up the strength of the team to 9 of whom exactly 3 are Americans. Of the rest, there are 5 Indians and 1 Russian.

This is the general pattern in my company - most teams and lower management levels are filled by Indians (and Chinese to an extent). Middle management is all American, and the very top management is British.

Add to that the many analysts who are on deputation from the India offices in Bengalooru (I know no one uses that name, but I'd like to) and Mumbai (there, that's why I use that name) and the place is literally little India.

This was the case at my previous company too, and I know that other companies have the same situation. Not that I am complaining, but how do these companies get away with it? Any company in India hiring a bunch of say Sri Lankans over Indians would have been stoned at best.

Brilliant Site

noreply@blogger.com (SKY) — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 14:02:00 +0000

.....shameless plug.

http://www.justsamachar.com

The testament to a son's love for his mother whose annoyance at pop ups drove him to do this. No it wasn't me.

S.L.Bhyrappa

noreply@blogger.com (SKY) — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 15:00:00 +0000

The raging debate/name-calling that is going on in various media on the topic of ಆವರಣ, S.L.Bhyrappa and U.R.Ananthamurthy had so far failed to elicit any response from Bhyrappa himself. He has now however given an interview to the blog churumuri.com

Bhyrappa is very eloquent which is not unusual for a writer. The man is also very earnest in his speech and mannerisms which rivets the listener to his words. This interview is no exception.

I had the chance to observe him at the AKKA Sammelana in Baltimore last year. I never saw him smile once in all the three days. Indeed, he has a rather dour demeanour. He kept to himself, eating alone and sitting at a distance from everyone if he could help it. This in sharp contrast to the likes of Chandrashekhar Patil who would not be seen without his entourage. Or Lakshminarayana Bhatta who being such a pleasant and friendly person always had people around him.

I also observed that Bhyrappa is usually reluctant to volunteer his opinion on anything. Sometimes though, someone would say something that provoked his sensibilities so much that Bhyrappa would squirm in his chair fighting the urge to say something, fret some more, and then finally stand up and say it like it is. And when he spoke, people listened. He also has a way of putting his arguments that tells us it is the last word. URA is probably right in calling him a ಚರ್ಚಾಪಟು for he certainly knows how to debate well.

His spoken Kannada is tinged by his roots and gives a quaint intimate feel to his scholarly speech. For example, he says "ಇಟ್ಟ್ಕಂಡು" instead of the city standard of "ಇಟ್ಟ್ಕೊಂಡು", and "ಮಾಡ್ಕಂಡು" instead of "ಮಾಡ್ಕೊಂಡು". I remember a few letters that the late Govinda Pai had sent my grandfather which I found in his stack of correspondence. He had used the word "ಮಡಗಿದ್ದೇನೆ" instead of the more standard "ಇಟ್ಟಿದ್ದೇನೆ" which brought immediately the picture of a gentle grandfather instead of the professorial image I had of him.

I doubt however if anyone would describe Bhyrappa as endearing. For some reason, every time I think of him, the image of Sardar Patel comes to my mind. Both are no nonsense types who didn't tolerate idiots all that well. Both of them got bad press for a variety of reasons. And both of their fields of work would be remarkably empty without their respective contributions.

Cabbage, Cauliflower and Broccoli

noreply@blogger.com (SKY) — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 18:25:00 +0000

I visited a family friend in San Jose yesterday, and had the unique experience of eating broccoli tambli.

Though tamblis are one of my favorite foods, I had never imagined it could be made with broccoli. In the course of my conversation, I was told that broccoli in fact is a hybrid variety of cabbage and cauliflower, and that it wasn't a species in itself.

That stumped me. And being a nerd, I decided to find out more about it from the god of information - Wikipedia.

Sure enough, it turns out that not only broccoli, but cauliflower too is a hybrid variety of cabbage! Cabbage is the grand daddy of them all!

The words for cabbage and cauliflower in Kannada (ele kosu and hoo kosu) actually do suggest that they have the same root, but I don't know if that knowledge led to the terminology in Kannada. Fascinating!

Arun and Liz Nayar (or Nair or Nayyar)

noreply@blogger.com (SKY) — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 16:32:00 +0000

Here's an interesting piece of a not so interesting story as reported in the Indian Express. After Liz Hurley's father-in-law Vinod Nair publicly disowned the couple, Liz Hurley allegedly went ballistic. The beauty however is the part in bold - how she raised the family's standing in India. This would have been hilarious stuff if not for the reek of the "typical" British attitude towards Indians.

From the Indian Express:
A spokesman for Hurley was unavailable for comment. But the source told the tabloid: "Liz was furious and went absolutely ballistic when she found out what Arun's family had been saying about her. She feels that what was the happiest day of her life has been tarnished and doesn't understand how after everything she has done for them-raising their social standing in India through the roof, for example-they could do this. But quite frankly she is also a little bewildered by all of this and was totally unaware about the extent of their grievances. Liz feels she made every effort to be a part of their extended family and fit in."

This is rich coming from a failed actress more known for just being known.

Ramachandra Guha noted this patronizing attitude - although in a different age - in his recent column in The Hindu. Oh yes, there is a final flourish to the story.

Again from the Indian Express:
It has also emerged that the couple offended Indian relatives after issuing guests with a bizarre set of do's and don'ts , advising them to ' bring bacterial wipes and not give money to beggars'.

I am sure she meant anti-bacterial wipes. The full story can be found here.

Drawing dangerous conclusions from insufficient data is usually enjoyable. But this fits into a larger trend - that of the West cherry picking aspects of Indian (and other) realities that they like and ignoring others. So elephants and palaces are acceptable as long as those darned beggars are not around. Yoga is excellent for a sexy butt and not much else. IT and BT boom is great as long as one is chauffered through those filthy slums and can pretend they don't exist.
Ever notice that all those modern Indians who are celebrated in the West are the natives who have gone native?