And this is for 2011…

1. What did you do in 2011 that you’d never done before? Changed jobs.

2. Did you keep your new years resolutions, and will you make more for next? I dint have one, but I have one for 2012.

3. What date from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? August 31st, left Pune.

4. What was your biggest achievement of the year? What did I achieve?

5. What was your biggest failure? Finances!

6. Did you suffer illness? No!!!! Wow, finally!

7. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed? Idiots :) Always!

8. Where did most of your money go? Food, Stock market

9. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Hyderabad!

10. What song will always remind you of 2011? The One That Got Away, Fireworks, Rolling in the Deep, Saibo

11. Compared to this time last year, are you happier or sadder? Happier.

12. What do you wish you’d done more of? Playing badminton

13. What do you wish you’d done less of? Eating!

14. Did you fall in love in 2011? Yes. With Roshnai all over again :D

15. How many one night stands? None :|

16. What was your greatest musical discovery? Adele.

17. What did you want and get? Good city to live in, oh, and new friends !

18. What did you want and not get? International travel.

19. What was your favourite film of this year? Shor in the City

20. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I had sushi with Roshnai :) I was 26.

21. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Certainly, a trip abroad!

22. What kept you sane? Photography!

23. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011. Stop wasting time with people who do not matter!

24. Which new places did you visit in 2011? Purushwadi (Sahyadris, India), Hyderabad (India), Udaipur, Kota (Rajasthan, India), Hampi (Karnataka, India)

25. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year -
Do you ever feel already buried deep? Six feet under screams but no one seems to hear a thing…
Do you know that there’s still a chance for you, ‘Cause there’s a spark in you?

After 5 pm, kids of almost all ages would be playing in the compound, and games could be anything from hide and seek to cricket. Outside the compound, a few street kids would often play marbles, or just make a lot of noise beating sticks on to empty cardboard boxes. Today there weren’t many. He had a few toffies in the pocket of his shirt, that he had got to give to the little ones playing around. Today, they stayed in his pocket, oblivious to the few kids running around.  Ankit, on his way back from school, peeped from the entrance archway of the building and saw him sitting on the porch. He walked gracefully all the way with his heavy school bag hanging down his shoulders, and with a little smile on this face.

“Hello Dadaji, how are you”, he greeted with a larger smile, which was striking against his un-tucked shirt, and open shoe laces. He had probably rolled down a muddy football field in school, and that made his cream coloured shirt look caramel flavoured.

“Shall we go?”,  saying that with widened eyes Dadaji got his back erect with stick ready to walk. That day Ankit was late in coming back from school, he perhaps had an extra hour of sports. It was already getting dark with the sun having gone below the visible horizon.

“Ankit, will you come down to play?”,  one of the smart chaps swinging a cricket bat asked him as they were about to go upstairs.

“Lets play on the floor in half an hour”, saying this he slowly escorted Dadaji to the elevators.

Please note: This story is part 2.1 in continuation of Melody of Life

This post was shamelessly inspired by the The Marriage of Symphonies

The above photos capture what you can expect to find in a typical market on the streets of old Hyderabad. The Charminar, and the Chowmahalla Palace have been intentionally left out. You can find them in heaps on the internet.

Hyderabad is great for old buildings, jewellery, antiques, traditional medicines, spicy food and some random things… Enjoy!

Please excuse me for making this post too long, this is the shortest I could make it!

My friend Sagar filled my brain with thoughts of Hampi, the Vijaynagar Kingdom and Krishnadevaraya to be precise! Hampi was the capital of the once flourishing Vijaynagar Kingdom, that was ruined almost completely by an alliance of the Deccan sultanates. It never recovered from that, and what we see today in Hampi is remnant of the same. It is like travelling back in time, and the only questions which remained in my mind after the trip was ‘what did the people look like back then – and what did they eat?’.

The Virupaksha temple, seen above, is perhaps the best known landmark of the place.

The people of Vijaynagar Kingdom were very religious. This is evident from the hundreds of tiny temples all over the place. Also seen are scores of statues of deities, such as the monolithic statue of Ganesha (above).

Many relics got buried deep under layers and layers of mud, that went on to become soil for farmlands, only to be excavated in the late 20th century by ASI.

Few carvings have been preserved as well as the Shiva’s family (above).

Most of the Virupaksha Temple survived the attacks. The paintings above are from the ceilings of the main chamber of the Virupaksha Temple

Of the many surviving monuments, is the Pushkarni, or the Stepped Tank.

Overall, the place provides huge volumes of history and along with that a number of awesome captures…

The awesome Tungabhadra river…

The awesome lush green landscape dotted with awesome pre-Cambrian rock structures… (pic taken from top of Anjeyanadri Hill, believed to be the birthplace of Hanuman)

Awesome crowds…

Awesome guest houses…

Awesome food!!!

Awesome us

Awesome roads…

And our awesome dear Figo…

All in all, an awesome destination, combined with 800 km of driving pleasure (well, almost – apart from the Telangana trouble in Mehboobnagar), good food and nice crowd…! Hampi is definitely a must visit place in India, but make sure you visit after November and before February!

I spent a little more than 3 long years in Pune, the city that I had come to love so much. I am definitely going to miss the beautiful monsoon in the Sahyadris, the awesome drives to Panchgani, Lonavala and other tiny places nearby. I will miss the lovely cool climate of Pune, and the lush green cantonment area.

So, how is Hyderabad? Fortunately, it is one big city in South India, where you can do without knowing the local language! Thankfully I can abuse in Telugu, but on a serious note, I am not planning to learn the language this time. I had always created an image of this city in my mind based on my interactions with the Gults in college. But I guess I was wrong. Hyderabad is a very cosmopolitan, and a convenient place to live in. It has the features that any big city should have (except public transport). I like big cities that are not too crowded – and Hyderabad is just that. I have heard it gets really hot here, but summer is still two quarters away!

Looks like Hyderabad is a photographers’ haven. Pune was almost blank, but this city is a historic place – plenty of forts, palaces and other structures in and around the city to click. City lights are good as well :) Hopefully, I will take more than a few months to explore all places within Hyderabad. Having said that, I am a bit disappointed with the fact that there really is nothing around Hyderabad – at a convenient drivable distance. Bangalore, Goa, Vizag are all at a distance of 10-15 hours. Being centrally located, the only option one has is to take a flight from perhaps the best airport in India! I am however looking forward to our drive to Hampi sometime in the first week of October :)

To capture it in short, it is not even a month here for me, and I have already been a part of an adventurous drive in the dark, and Lucky Ali concert – the concert was mediocre, but it was fun and we got free audio CDs too ;)

Little do most people know what the bill means for them and for the state in general, and the extent of corruption widespread in India in specific. What most people know is that it is a means to remove corruption, what most people know is that the media and social media in particular are supporting it. What they also think, is that since they are active users of Facebook and Twitter, they represent the general typical middle class population on whom and for whom this country runs. 

So what is the Lokpal or the Jan Lokpal Bill?
Go read the the Wikipedia article on the Jan Lokpal Bill or visit Anna Hazare’s website and you will get a fair idea about both. In short, the Lokpal bill or the Jan Lokpal bill permit a probe into complaints of corruption, and prosecution of corrupt officials. The only differences between the Jan Lokpal bill or the Government’s proposed Lokpal bill are the differences in power and prosecution. For over 4 decades, the Lokpal bill has failed to become a law.

What is my understanding of corruption?
As one of my friends correctly points out, corruption is not just the wrong use of power, but it is moral impurity. Corruption of various forms end up being called by different terms such as fraud, nepotism or even perversion. Today we see all of these in the society, at all levels of the society including within ourselves.

Corruption in India is deep rooted. It is not just the superficially visible form of corrupt government officials, but even high degrees of nepotism at organizational levels and perversion at individual levels. I will explain:
Have you never requested to get a discount on a product just because you are related to someone in the store?
Have you never let your friends into the office if they have forgotten to get their ID cards?
Have you never gone to your child’s school to defend him, when he has obviously hit someone with his geometry set?
Have you never tried to find loopholes in an organizations rules to get as much money reimbursed as possible?

I bet you have done all that and much more. Why? Because you see short term benefits out of such acts. You are selfish. Period.

The fact is that we are all corrupt from deep within, our entire society is corrupt. What gives us the rights to blame government officials and people in power of corruption and what gives us the rights to prosecute them? Have you ever been caught by a traffic cop for either not wearing the seat belt, or talking on the phone while driving, or for not possessing a license or a PUC? Have you always lawfully paid the default amount and moved on? I bet No! If the fine for breaking the rule was Rs 500, you would rather pay Rs 200 without a receipt and get off – you get a deal, and the cop gets to earn the entire Rs 200 (none of it goes to the government if he does not generate a receipt). I do not have the statistics, but most of the times it is us, who ask the policemen if they can pay a bit less in lieu of no receipt and get off. It is not the policemen who give that option to you first! Similarly, it is us, who are ready to pay under the table to an officer to get our papers moving faster, it is not always them who initiate the action. Some of you will deny this – you would argue that the government officers intentionally sit on our papers and not process them quick because they know the potential to earn some money. But here – I beg to disagree (read my later points).

Corrupt officials or corrupt systems?
I have not travelled all over the world and I cannot for sure say that I have seen the world, but I have definitely been to a few nations that have got things right, and systems in place! I have always believed and will always believe that it is not the people who are corrupt, it is the ill designed archaic systems that give rise to the whole concept of corruption. Take the example of paying a traffic rule violation fine in the United States (no, I am not comparing US vs India, this is one specific example) – In the US, if you break a traffic rule, the following might happen – either the cop will chase you down, or your violation will be caught on an intelligent system such as a CCTV. In either cases, you will be presented with a piece of paper which will ask you to go and pay the fine (either online or at a specific office). You may contest the fine if you feel that you have not violated any laws, but only in a court. The cop does not take away the keys of your car, or your driving license till you accept your mistake and pay the fine – you get to keep them and even drive on. On top of that, you do not negotiate or pay any money to the cop – the only transaction you do is mostly online – directly to the traffic authority.

How does that compare to what happens in India? You break a rule and the cop calls you to stop by the side of the road. Depending on the cop, he may pull out your car keys and even take away your license. He will then ask you to pay a certain amount of fine. If he has a receipt booklet, he will collect the fine and give you a receipt and your license back, if not, he will ask you to go to the nearest police station and pay the fine and then take back your license. In the interest of time, and due to the fear of getting blacklisted, you do not wish that your license number is noted down and hence start negotiating with the cop. You know, negotiating with the cop will mean that he will let you go faster and you will have to pay lesser, and on the top of that, you will not end up defaulting as there will be no record of your offence. You clearly take the easier option out.

This points to corruption in the following descending order:
1. Corrupt systems 2. Corrupt you 3. Corrupt officials

Various other such examples of corrupt systems and corrupt you can be compiled into books that would run into volumes. What we need right now, are Technology enabled systems that make life easier for the common man to do something as elementary as say:
1. Paying a traffic violation fine
2. Getting a passport
3. Setting up a shop

Did you know – the Four Seasons hotel in Mumbai needed as many as 165 licenses:

Bureaucracy and a shortage of skilled workers make building hotels difficult – the opening of the Four Seasons was delayed by at least two years. The hotel needed 165 government permits – including a special license for the vegetable weighing scale in the kitchen and one for each of the bathroom scales put in guest rooms.

Now each of those 165 licenses were hotspots for bribery and corruption. In the end only the 165 officials would come into the newspapers, but what we really need to blame is the archaic British Raj systems and licenses that make little or no sense today. Reducing those 165 licenses to merely a handful would have helped Four Seasons open up to the customers faster, and offer rooms at much cheaper rates! Plus, it would have eliminated almost a hundred and fifty visible corrupt officials :)

Anna’s methods of fighting to set up a Jan Lokpal Bill:
Enough has been said and seen about Anna Hazare and the entire mass movement on the Jan Lokpal bill in the last few days. But what exactly is wrong in the way it is moving? Surely, Anna’s intensions are not bad, nor are yours!

The fact that the Facebook and Twitter junta believes that they represent the India of today is bizarre and baseless. They do not even correctly represent the middle class population of India and most of India is still in the upper lower or lower middle class. Where were you guys when issue of reservation in educational institutes was brought up? Where were you guys when Nooriya Havelivala killed an innocent cop on duty while driving under the influence of alcohol? Why are you so selective in what you want to band up against? Just because the media is giving limelight to Anna you want to join the band, no? If tomorrow he stands up to completely ban tobacco and tobacco products manufacture, sale and import in India, will you stand by him in the same numbers?

Again, I am not against Anna Hazare, and to a big extent I am happy that you guys are taking up the cause and supporting an honest fighter – I really am. But the fact remains that you are selective and at times even ignorant. On top of that, what are you doing in support of Anna?

Just yesterday I was travelling back from Mumbai to Pune. In Navi Mumbai, a group had organized protests against the government, and was mobilizing large crowds. The crowd was filled in trucks and tempos all moving towards a common destination. But the crowd was not mature adults who understood the importance of the bill, the crowd comprised of poor little kids mostly in the age group of 12-18 years. And what they were doing was pretty shameful – Anna would have ended his protest then and there had he seen that. The kids and a few grown up adults were doing the following:
1. Shouting and screaming from the trucks
2. Littering the streets with bits of paper and snack pouches
3. Pouring water from moving trucks onto the roads
4. Splashing water on passersby
5. Some were even throwing water bottles on busses and other vehicles on the highway

All this to support a peaceful protest by Anna Hazare? All this to fight corruption? Clean your corrupt minds first young men and then identify where lie the roots of corruption in India – is it the high ranking government officials, the archaic treacherous systems of the license raj or ourselves!

And do read this by a dear friend… “An anti-corruption herd” where she says:

Legislation fails catastrophically (what lawyers like to dismiss as implementation problems) when it doesn’t account for incentives. India is known for fantastic legislation and implementation failure. However, implementation failure, like other forms of market failure, are signalling devices. They’re telling you something. They’re saying, for example, systems where clerks are under-paid sustain systems where bribes need to be paid. Systems where accountability is not structurally built-in allows for large-scale corruption…

That’s all folks!

At the start of every long drive, I get the tyre pressure checked at the petrol pump near my place. That day however, its air pump was not working. I decided to move on, thinking I would get it checked somewhere on the highway. We drove on and soon were on the highway. A few kilometers on, I suddenly remembered that tyres need to be checked and we stopped as soon as we saw a local puncture repair shop with a few tyres hanging outside a shady shack. I asked him to fill 36psi in all four tyres. After he is done, he turns up to me and informs me that the front left tyre is punctured. Now my car has tubeless tyre,and I sincerely do not know how punctured tubeless tyres behave. So I asked him what made him say so, and he replied saying that the pressure after filling air was 0. And he showed it to me. I was suspicious as I could not see the tyre flat.

Next, obviously, I told him to repair it. Though I was suspicious, I did not want to take risk on a highway. He suddenly asked me if I had a jack. I told him that I did not have one as it would have required me to remove all the luggage in the rain. He said that he did not have a jack, but will manage somehow. Suddenly one of his men came and started unbolting the wheel quickly. I stopped him and said that I would not go ahead with the repair if he did not have a jack. My suspicion only grew stronger and asked him to abort. Clearly, he was pissed. He put back the wheel and I drove off, wondering how I will drive on with a punctured tyre.

A few hundred metres ahead, I saw a petrol pump and decided to get the tyre checked. The guy there checked all the tyres and surprisingly all of them had low pressure (about 25 psi)! I was shocked. He filled up air in all four and was convinced that the tyres were fine. The front wheel had 25psi when the previous guy showed me 0psi using his mechanical device. I drove on, still wondering if my tyre was really alright. Reached Mahabaleshwar and had a wonderful drive in zero visibility and infinite rains. On the way back to Pune, we stopped at a Petrol Pump in Wai to get the tyres checked again. After 100km+ of driving with 300kg+ of load in the car, the pressure would surely have gone down if the tyre was punctured. Surprisingly, it was still the same and maybe even a couple of psi more! I relaxed!

Had an awesome trip, some anxious moments and definite lessons learnt!

1. Always check and fill your tyres at a petrol pump, preferably your everyday/trusted petrol pump.
2. Never stop at a local puncture shop, unless your tyre is absolutely flat and you do not have tubeless tyres.
3. Follow the above two rules religiously!

And btw, pics coming up soon. Not too many but certainly worth a dekko!