The Golden 80s

If you think air pollution can be controlled by maintaining the status quo, then you are probably mistaken. Pollution is linked to our day-to-day activities. It is the stark reality. In Bengaluru, the primary reason behind air pollution is that there are lots of vehicles on the road, especially during peak hours. The more vehicles that you add to the existing number, then the air pollution will keep on increasing.  Air pollutants do not vanish overnight. They stay in the air and they will react with other chemicals to form toxic compounds that create eye irritation and respiratory issues. If night temperatures are less, the chemicals trapped in dense air will disappear next day only.  To reduce air pollution in Bengaluru, do the following: Reduce the number of vehicles This is the saddest and the most controversial solution that nobody will agree to. There are over 83 lakh registered vehicles in Bengaluru, says a report in the Deccan Herald newspaper. The city has to reduce i...

It did rattle all of us on a hot afternoon on May 20. There was a loud sound, like a thunder, and the doors rattled. I was waiting it to repeat, but nothing happened after the first boom. On checking, there were messages galore on Twitter. I was sceptical of posting a tweet, but then I retweeted one of them that reported the mysterious boom 16-20 km away. It was later confirmed by IAF that there was a sonic boom. It was caused by a routine IAF Test Flight involving a supersonic aircarft, said NDTV . "The sonic boom was probably heard while the aircraft was decelerating from supersonic to subsonic speed between 36,000 and 40000 feet altitude", said the NDTV report. After months of political row, Kerala government cancelled the agreement with US-based firm Sprinklr for collection and analytics of Covid-19 patient data, including those quarantined in the state. According to a report , the state government, through an affidavit submitted to the Kerala high court, sai...

Bengaluru was known as 'Garden City' because of its greenery, tree-lined avenues and parks. Officially there are 1247 parks and many 'undeveloped' parks. There is a park right opposite to my house. There are trees with bushy crowns, small trees, benches, and play area for children. In the mornings, I can see people of all ages walking, running, jogging. In the corners, lovers cuddle, pinch, squeeze, kiss and hug their emotions. In the evening the park gets noisy as children go wild, as expected like an unknown script. But the nights are dangerous. As the yellow streetlights are switched on, lumpen youth get in. in the dark corners, they scream, smoke and drink and smash the liquor bottles. Youth gone wild. The bottles, cans, and plastic covers are thrown around the trees and benches. A few are thrown out directed at someone's cars or bikes outside. Some are really creative: they throw the bottles under parked cars. Planting or destroying evidence. The re...

The India media's expertise is primarily on politics, cricket, entertainment, and business. Their forte is not on science, unlike other well-known publications like The Guardian or the New York Times. When I read the headline, Mandya's lake man to build 15th pond with award money , I was not all surprised. I was sure that normal readers may not find the words, Lake and Pond, that intriguing. A discerning reader or someone who have studied Ecology will notice that there is something wrong here. A lake and a pond are not the same thing strictly from an ecological science point of view. Of course, they are static water bodies of varying sizes. But there are obvious ecological differences. One is there are man-made lakes and there are lakes borne out of natural phenomenon such as volcanic eruptions, retreat of ice sheets and earthquakes. Technically, there are differences in the structure, energy flows, ecological stratification, flora and fauna, and so on. There is an intere...

Yeah, what caused the fire in the polluted Bellandur lake in #Bengaluru? Let us look at what the media reported: "...Fires are often sparked by deadly effluents in the lake, but this time, it was a pile of burning garbage that caused the scare." said Deccan Herald.  The Hindu newspaper quoted unnamed firemen and said " the fire originated in the thick layer of hyacinth in the lake". "...But they are clueless on what set the hyacinth on fire," added the newspaper. The New Indian Express in a report titled, Bellandur lake spews fire , named the reasons as methane from industrial waste, solid waste and rise in ambient temperature!  At least the editorial teams must have checked how and from where a gas called methane is created.  The Financial Express went ahead and made it even worse by saying that the entire city choked because of smoke. Is it? I was feeling better yesterday after a few days of allergic rhinitis , which is common in Bengal...

There were two lifts in that building. In front of one of the lifts, there was a blue chair, that cheap plastic variety I would have bought if I were a slum dog. The chair was facing the lift as if they were engaged in an infinite conversation. The other lift seemed to be working and a yellow flash of light showed that it was coming down. The lift opened, I said second floor to the lift operator, went to where I wanted to go, and climbed the stairs down as the lift had no buttons. The only sure destinations were the top floor and the ground floor. As I made my exit, I saw a man lying on a tree branch. The tree did not have much leaves and the trunk was dark. I thought of cutting one of the branches, or simply pushing the man down. Then I decided to walk towards the left from where a strong smell of fried fish was wafting in.

Real estate: According to real estate honchos, India should grow at 8% (including environmental clearances), to grow economically and to create jobs. But for whom is this real estate growing? Not for the middle class or the poor. Definitely not. But a big yes for the filthy rich. Just see the apartments, duplexes, and penthouses on offer. They are just five-star luxury suites packaged for the rich in India. These are not the typical Indian homes that we all grew up and would want to live in. These Rs 6-10 cr luxury suites can be bought by the rich and those with black money. Or those who are willing to pawn their entire life to the bank and the real estate company. In the early 90s, it was alleged that the IMF and World Bank would enslave all Indians and herald the second colonization of India after the British. Even the World Bank miscalculated the potential of Indian businessmen. And in the 90s, we said so many things. We don't remember most of them. Youth : As a youth I als...

We, three kids, were not good in solving mathematical problems in school textbooks. There were no outside help, and  we were happily "stuck" with our inability and hereditary weakness in solving the problems. After a while, we never bothered to revisit why we were "stuck". But we never "struck" anyone. We were simply "stuck." And in the last few weeks I heard "struck" again, as the developer was finding it difficult to fix a "small" issue. So, developers will also get "stuck" somewhere. Candid admission anyway. "Struck" is the past tense and past participle of the verb Strike . As a noun, stuck meant "something causing delay or difficulty." Next time, when your tongue inserts an unnecessary "u" in before "r", just strike it off. Otherwise, you will be"stuck" like a door that got closed when the dog was half out of the door. And nobody held the door ajar for the...

From Garden City to Hospital City , said a headline. In an year, Bangalore will get around new 3000 hospital beds, claims the news story. Yes, Bangalore indeed requires lots of hospitals and hospital beds. May be, in a science fiction like scenario, people will even be living in hospitals or medicated glasshouses or skyscrapers in Bangalore. Servants will be replaced by nurses who take care of the permanently ill or disabled citizens in the city. Such a bleak or black scenario is possible because of the following reasons: 1. The city has crossed its carrying capacity and is reaching its breaking capacity. 2. Alarming rise in air pollution because of the arrival of 200-300 (unofficial) vehicles per day on the city's roads and no effort to control the situation. 3. Reckless lifestyle celebrated by people of all ages. Drinking, smoking, doing drugs, and unsafe sex are all fashionable, trendy, and even "normal" in this hyper-America of India. Those who cannot practice...

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh lamented the other day that Indian science lagged China and promised increased GDP outlay for science and R&D. When every child is brainwashed to become an enginner, doctor, or software engineer, and then settle "abroad" earning crores, who wants to be a scientist in poor and undeveloped India? Also, the establishment and the media still consider "satellite launches and Solar Eclipse" as the biggest science stories of the day! "There is not only an absence of big ideas backed by political conviction, but there is also an intellectual vacuity," says an editorial piece in D eccan Herald . It is not just in politics, in all spheres of Indian life there is a big hole. All we are bothered is how much skin has an actor displayed on our websites.Our media is hell bent to ensure we also have beauties who can expose just like Western beauties. Just like that! Cannot help from saying that this is an excellent intro: ...

The last one month has been the month of Mullaperiyar , a dam in the Idukki district of Kerala. Keralites, especially the politicians, are sure that frequent earthquakes will break the dam and kill lakhs of people. Tamil Nadu is sure that nothing will happen as the water will "simply" flow to the Idukki dam and rest there. Era of disaster porn and empty jingoism .  Indians will wake up in New Year to the amended Lokpal bill which will "undoubtedly make India the only place in the planet with zero corruption. Just like Kareena Kapoor 's size zero. No soul in India will dare to be corrupt because of Lokpal. Just say the word, Lokpal; the corrupter will shudder and pee in public. Religious rules sometimes create trouble for certain self-styled intellectuals . Rules are rules.  I cannot agree more with fashion designer Julie Kagti's remarks that fashion in Bangalore is getting more influenced by Bollywod. In a city where everybody on M G Road, Brigade Road, o...

Cops relax timings for cafes, eateries , said a headline in one of the Bangalore newspapers. At first, I did not bother about the headline. A little later I wondered what exactly is the difference betweeen a cafe and an eatery. The Oxford Dictionary I have says that a cafe is a small restaurant selling light meals and drinks. In North American English, it also means a bar or nightclub. Eatery, on the other hand, is an informal expression for "a restaurant or cafe." So, why did the newspaper use this headline? The news report has another word " eating houses". A little research did not show any discerning difference between the two words. Which means this is bad sub-editing. The only explanation for the error is the need to fill the 'white space' for the two-line heading. It is a fact that the quality of English in Indian newspapers are really pathetic. While it's not my case that newspapers should follow Strunk and White, it is really sad to see lack of...