Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Premium SMS Cheating

I have seen a lot of people getting seduced by News and other Television channels, into sending SMS's to their online polls about who is the ugliest of all for example. People do not understand that by sending an SMS they are putting money into the pockets of people like the Mobile companies, the Channel itself and others if any in the chain.

RANDHIR VERMA, president of the Chandigarh Telecom Subscribers Association, is all set to take on telecom operators over what he calls the 'premium SMS fraud.' A premium SMS costs anywhere between Rs 3 to Rs 6 - unlike Re 1 for a local one, and Rs 2 for a national- and the cost is shared by the cellular operator and the media channel. "Kaun Banega Crorepati", for instance, generated 58 million SMSes over three months. Assuming a charge of Rs 3 per SMS, a total of Rs 174 million was shared by the TV channel and the cellular opera- tor So who is losing out? The consumer

The above appeared in a leading newspaper last week. This got me thinking about the umpteen SMS polls that these channels run every day (sorry make that every hour). The amount of money they must be generating from these campaigns must be an astronomical figure. Moreover, its a fraud being perpetrated everyday on the viewers who get emotional on the human interest stories being shown at Prime-Time slots, or even the polls during such idiotic stories like cars running without drivers etc.

Even reality TV shows like Indian Idol etc make a mockery of the voting of talent by using online SMS polls. I wonder if anybody cares or is there any regulating body who can intervene on the viewers' behalf and put a stop to this practice.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Manmohan losing Sleep

So our learned Prime Minister is unable to sleep. He was disturbed because he saw the faces of the family members of Mohammad Haneef - the person being held in Australia for his suspected role in the failed UK bombings earlier this month.

... But the PM can sleep easily seeing people committing suicides in the countryside, he can sleep while knowing that the relief sent by the Prime Minister's Relief Fund does not reach the widows of the victims because the cheque bounced.

... He sleeps easily while knowing that millions of Kashmiri pandits who are refugees in their own country suffer the indignity of living in camps daily.

... He sleeps like a log while his partner in governance UP CM can evict people out of their homes giving them merely 5 hours notice.

... He sleeps peacefully knowing fully well that there are people who put their hard earned 100-200 rupees in a Bank, that was setup in the name of the Presidential Candidate that he has put up, do not have access to even that money while the Bank's founder president is going to become the first woman President of the Republic.

I wonder for the sleep pattern of our Genius Prime Minister.

Saturday, July 07, 2007

PMO cheque bounced

Its matter of great shame for every citizen of this country that a cheque issued by the district officials from the PM's relief fund has bounced. Are we to believe that the Pirme Minister's Relief fund does not have even Rs. 10,000. Now that seems a bit improbable so it must be that some one some where messed up big time.

Now the usual blame game will start - PMO has already said we had delegated the money disbursement to the state government, state government will say - district officials are to be blamed. The collector will put the entire blame on a poor accountant who actually made the cheque on the orders of the people above.

I think this time someone should lose his/her job for this blunder, mere suspension and then re-instation will not work - and SHOULD NOT WORK.

Let's see what happens

The TAJ madness

Every headline screams.... SAVE TAJ send SMS to blah blah....


It seems to me that if we don't send the SMS the Taj Mahal might be transported out of Agra as we were not considerate enough. The gullible were seen religiously sending those SMS's feverishly on every chowk and gullies of the country during the last week or so. What these people do not realise that like everything else these days, this was also a big marketing stunt foisted on the people by someone who owned the site new7wonders something something...

What this guy did is that he brilliantly marketed his website. The popular media latched on because it also saw $o much money in this and conveniently forgot to mention that even UNESCO has refused to back this...

I am surprised that even the Indian government - OK not the government, but our Minister for Tourism agreed to back this as an Indian citizen. If that is not a travesty then I wonder what is...

In the meanwhile I can tell you with pride that I did not send the SMS and I am proud of the fact. I even hope and pray, for the sake of Taj Mahal itself, that Taj does not make it to the list of New 7 wonders of the world...

Visit to Heaven and back - II

Next day was a new day. The plan was to visit Manikaran near Kullu in the Parvati valley. A famed Gurudwara and an ancient Shiv Temple sit majestically on the banks of the Parvati river.

We left kullu quite early in the morning with the plan to have breakfast on the way in one of the many eateries lining the road. For going to Manikaran from Kullu we need to head back to Bhunter which is downhill from Kullu towards Chandigarh. Bhunter also has an airport which serves the entire tourist circuit. Anyway we left Kullu and turned left at Bhunter. After crossing the Beas we started the climb towards Manikaran. Now the road to Manikaran is not at that good if you compare to the NH-21. It is very narrow at places and also damaged in many stretches. The climb is also very steep and as we found out very soon into the drive it is dangerous too.

What happened was that a Bus and a truck coming from opposite sides had tried to negotiate a naroow stretch which was nogt made for crossing to two vehicles. The result was that they were now in a position where if anyone of them moved the windows of the Bus were definitely going to shatter. We plains people thinking high of our driving skills were still debating what to do, when a simple man from a nearby village cam and took charge. He asked volunteers to place a large rock under the back right wheel of the bus and then asked the bus driver to inch ahead and climb the back wheels on the rock. What this did was to tilt the bus (It was very scary) away from the truck and the truck easily managed to come out of the jam instantly.

This gave me an important lesson... whenever heading for the hills never drive yourself - hire a professional instead - This might be a life and death decision.

After driving through such treacherous roads we reached manikaran. I had heard of the Gurudwara and the temple as well as about the hot springs - but nothing had prepared me for the scene I saw as I entered the Manikaran town - Signboards in HEBREW... I saw Israeli settlements with many israeli youngsters moving about in their Harley-Davidsons and even local contraptions. Our driver told us that these guys come here for Hashish and other drugs which are available in this area. And because of the constant coming and going of these people an Israeli township has grown here.

Anyway, back to the task at hand. Manikaran proper is a typical Indian pilgrimage town with hordes of shops selling 'prasad', religious audio cassettes, flowers, 'kadas' and many other knick knacks. We also bought prasad from one of the shops which incidentally was advertising facility for the safe keep of your 'jodas' (shoes) and the prasad and other things were a bonus.

Both the Temple and Gurudwara are built side-by-side and each one is accessible separately from outside as well as connected from the inside too. We entered the Temple first. The first thing to notice is the smell of Sulphur which is predominant. I instantly had a recollection of the Chemistry laboratory in school when we did experiments with H2S. The next sensation is the intensely HOT floor. I had to carry my 5 year old in my lap as she just could not bear it. Even I had difficulty in walking on the floor. The heat was probably due to a combination of Sun beating from the sky and the hot spring water bubbling below. Although the authorities have put jute carpets all along the pathways, but the heated marble was too much even for that.

After we did our darshans we went to the back of the Temple and saw a very beautiful site. Water from the hot springs was draining into the Parvati river alongside the Temple and steam was hssing at the confluence. The hot water had infact corroded a big stone at the spot where it met the gushing water of the Parvari tumbling down the mountains. We had an extended photo session here . In the verandah of the Temple another site greeted us and that was of the food being cooked in the same hot water springs. We could see food utensils inside the bubbling 'Kund'. Incredible site!!

Afterwards we entered the Gurudwara from a small and narrow connecting path. It was also very hot and when we entered the Gurudwara we saw a small room where pilgrims actually take a bath in the hot-springs. It is supposed to cure many diseases. But since we were hale and hearty and more importantly did not have the courage to enter a pool of boiling water we let go of the urge for ablutions and entered the sanctum-sanctorum of the Gurudwara. Now whenever I go to a Gurudwara - apart from the salvation - the thing that attracts me is the selfless devotion with which the people do the 'Seva'. I could see well-to-do people brooming the floor, managing the show rack outside, serving food in the 'Langar'. It is really a humbling experience. After getting the 'Karah Parsad' we went to the 'Langar' to partake food in the community kitchen. Speaking of Karah Parsad - My wife has tried to make Karah many times at home but I have never eaten what you get in a Gurudwara... I have come to the conclusion it is virtually impossible to get what you get in here, because there are some ingredients here which you cannot get in your own kitchen at home. Even the Langar food is something which is very simple - 'Karhi-Chawal' - but is the tastiest I have ever eaten anywhere.

After the darshan was over we crossed a bridge on the Parvati river to start back and we had a few snaps on the bridge itself...


After this we started back towards Kullu passing through the same scenery and some more OOOOOHS and AAAAAHS. On reaching kullu the plan was to go straight to Manali which is about 50 kms from Kullu. But we decided to stop on the banks of the river Beas and just laze around. The water was very cold - infact minutes the water made my legs go numb. There is a facility of white water rafting there - but it requires something called GUTS which all of us were running low on so we decided to give it a slip and just gaze at the others doing it. We also saw a local dredging the river bed for sand.
After sometime we left for Manali which was reached promptly in 1-1/2 hours. As we were going in the peak tourist season we were a bit apprehensive about getting accommodation in Manali. But surprisingly we got a good bargain in the very first Hotel we tried. More about our adventures in Manali and beyond in the next post...

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Visit to Heaven and back - I

This summer we had a brush with heaven... no literally we visited heaven on earth. People cry hoarse how Kashmir is THE HEAVEN on earth but I beg to differ. I haven't visited Kashmir so I may be wrong, but this place is also up there with the best. I am talking about Rohtang Pass in the higher reaches of Himachal Pradesh. In fact, if you ask what is this place? Then frankly speaking the answer would be - Its a portion of the Leh-Manali Highway linking the hill states of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu Kashmir in Northern India. This doesn't sound very exciting, but it is this simplicity of the place which attracts thousands of tourists every year to this desolate place (Not so desolate with the milling tourists that throng it...).

We left Bhopal on the 30th May 2007 on the Bhopal - New Delhi Shatabdi Express in very high spirits. The ride till Delhi was pretty ordinary with the usual trappings of Shatabdi travel, In fact did you know that Shatabdi Express is the fastest train in India - It reaches speeds of above 150 km per hour in some stretches of the journey. Anyway, we reached Delhi at about 11 pm about 1/2 an hour late and reached the house of my Brother-in-Law (Raghubir) whose family was accompanying us in the onward journey. It was decided that we will take a SUV as it would be comfortable as well as a safe vehicle. But as luck would have it Raghu's contact in the taxi trade was unable to provide us with a suitable vehicle at a suitable rate... So we consulted my uncle staying at Panchkula - He told me not to take vehicle from Delhi and asked me to reach Chandigarh by any other means and then take a Chandigarh vehicle for the trip. This I believe now in hindsight is the best decisions we took. Actually, the drivers from Delhi - although experienced in hill driving - tend to be less adept at mountain driving than those in the areas near the hills.
I know this won't please many a Delhi readers, but according to my experience and also the pleasant journey we had in this trip - this is a fact.

Anyway we left Delhi at about 4 AM to reach Panchkula in the fore noon. Our ride was there promptly at the designated time. I must tell you about our driver a young lad of about 20 named Suraj. His driving skills made me envy him at the various bends and turns throughout the journey. Anyway... we left Panchkula and drove through Chandigarh city towards Manali on the National Highway 21। The highway is mainly in the hilly region but encounters the plains of Punjab in the initial few kilometers। The picture you see on the left is that of a canal feeding the fields of Punjab from the Bhakara Nangal Dam located on he Punjab-Himachal Border. The flow of the water in the canal has to be seen to be believed. The Punjab-Himachal border falls on the town of Kiratpur, till then we needed the comfort of air-conditioning as it was very hot (what was I expecting on 31st May). But as soon as we started our climb beyond kiratpur, the temperature cooled and it was very pleasant.

The first big town that we encountered on the way is known as Bilaspur. I had only heard about this place earlier and had no idea about its location. For the un-initiated in Indian Geography, this town is located on the banks of the Man-made Gobind Sagar Lake created after the Bhakra Nangal Dam was constructed on the River Sutlej. It is one of the highest gravity Dams in the world, if not the highest. The lake formed due to the Dam extends into the hills of Himachal Pradesh. The lake is shaped zig-zag following the contours of the hills and valleys. A
s we sauntered through the town of Bilaspur we could see the Gobind Sagar Lake below in the valley. It was said by my father - who grew up in the period that this Dam was built - that even if the water in-flow increased mani-fold the Gobind Sagar Lake would take it easily. I could see why he said so. The hill sides have plenty of expansion margin for the lake to grow. As you can see in the photograph, Bilaspur is at the very end of its catchment area. Beyond Bilaspur the lake fills only in the case of severe flooding in the river sutlej and its tributaries.





After we left Bilaspur we were firmly and positively in the Hills. The zig-zag road was one indicator of this as also was the frequent stops we had to take because of the nausea felt by some in our entourage. The hills have this effect on some people. My advice then and also now is not to think about the feeling as it is exaggerated by a persons constant thinking about it. We also encountered a brief spell of rains and squall on the way and we had to buy a piece of plastic to cover our luggage stored on the vehicle's roof.

The next major town was Mandi, which is a beautiful place located on both banks of the river Beas. Beyond Mandi river Beas ran alongside the road throughout our journey till Manali. There are many places around Mandi town which deserve a mention but we went to a quite little place on our way back, so I will tell you about it when we reach Mandi in our return journey. There is another town just before Mandi known as Sundernagar. The main attraction of the town which I saw during my 5 minute passge through it was the beautiful canal of the Bhakra-Beas Management Board. Actually it is the balancing canal of the Beas-Sutlej link canal. The drive through town is sheer pleasure because of the canal on one side and lush greenery on the other.

As we went up the road from here onwards there was an appreciable drop in the temperature and the unbearable heat of the plains left behind was forgotten. The road beyond Mandi becomes treacherous as the mighty Beas follows the road. The traffic was heavy, and the road was narrow. At some places the mountain had to be cut for making way for the road. At Aut we come across a 3 km long tunnel dug by the Himachal Pradesh Electricity Board near the Pandoh Dam. This tunnel is a well ventilated structure with a four-lane road. The Aut Tunnel as it is known is the gateway to the Kullu valley and there is a further drop in the temperature as we emerge out of the tunnel. Now there is a appreciable chill in the air and you feel that finally the heat of the plains is behind you. The Pandoh Dam on the Pandoh river is another of the micro-hydel projects that dot the Himachal Pradesh landscape. We stopped near this place to capture some of the beautiful sceneries alongwith the pictures of the Dam itself.

We somehow managed to drag ourselves away from this wonderful spot to continue our journey as it was already 6:30 in the evening. We also stopped at a smalltime dhaba as our driver Suraj, was
feeling a bit tired and we also wanted to have some tea. The place where we stopped was a beauty, In the backside of the dhaba we could see the mighty Beas river flowing in full glory and the rapids in the stream were just amazing... There was an amazing piece of local engineering nearby. The locals wanting to cross such rivers/streams (which are many here) use a contraption which is simply a trolley hanging on a wire strung across the river. The person wanting to cross has to pull the strung wire with his bare hands to pull the trolley across. We could not gather our wits to make a crossing, but it was a terrifying site seeing a man make such a crossing in front of us.


Soon we reached Kullu at about 9:30 in the night. We had a reservation in a local lodge to spend the night as we had plans to move ahead - first thing in the morning.