if you have been around people who apply for rti’s for themselves or organizations you would realize that it has almost brought down an iron curtain though there are miles to go.

but in all this there is an irony that crossed me recently, the mtc in chennai keeps denying gps feed information in some pretext or the other but the police makes the list of security cameras installed across the city available in public domain for an rti query!

should it not have been the other way round! are not traffic / security cams hidden eyes? even in the recent dey murder case, why does the entire nation have to know via which cam they were traced? deterrence argument is always well taken, but why pin point the locations?

another thing that came up recently was when i was looking at my school website (kv hvf). i could see what teachers get paid. in a corporate world were these are probably the best kept secrets why would you want to release salary information like that!? on open public domain.

the cbi is kept outside the purview of lok pall bill and maybe rightly so! you never know what damage a harmless rti request can do in the hands of the wrong person!

The section on tamil was very interesting. Sadly it makes you think as a Tamil, we appreciate it lesser than the analyzers who are mostly not native!

The religious influence and their period of influence brings along a train of historic mind screen. It is obvious that religious classification is something that has been in our system for years, the placards saying ‘Hindu house’ ‘Syrian Christian house’ helps you appreciate such diversity, but also makes you think about the invisible barriers?!

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Some houses made you feel as though you are in nagercoil. Doing pottery is fun and so is block painting. We were kind of late so missed on some of the sections.
I am sure the company that you take there, like all cases makes the trip memorable.

Chennai Auto Rickshaw

You can ask almost anyone and they would go on and on! about the conspiracy that these men wield! presumably! Before we all blame the manifestation lets understand why it is so: Even thought getting an Auto permit costs only around INR 300-500 the street price for the same is around 1.75 lakhs. So much so because fresh permits have been almost hard to come by since 2002! And most of the permits are in the hands of pawn brokers! So even before your auto driver starts driving his auto rickshaw for you, he already has an overhead of 1.75 lakhs! plus interest and the rest of the financial nitty grit-ties that spiral him down further. To add to their woes is the introduction of Share autos, no doubt a pleasant relief for the consumers, but an unplanned move by the relevant authorities.
So the next time you take an auto, talk to him before you start hating him right away! and for all you know, you may end up wanting to pay him more.

Note: As on 2005 there were around 37000 auto’s running in Chennai. That’s around 1 auto for every 1650 people. A very low ratio. This prevents competition and also keeps the demand for the less number of autos to remain high and creates a huge lapse in the demand supply ratio.

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i wanted to write this post for a long time, but after a discussion at work, decided to pen it.

The guy in red is the trainer (also my trainer Mr Jegan) and the guy in blue is actually pulling weights. If finally took 2 people to get the weights in position for the guy in blue! (didn’t get his name )

He was pulling about 250 kgs! One of those metal men in the gym!

Think a lot before you put on weight! You may have to spend many times over to loose it!

But here is the good side! Endorphins have surely changed things!

They charge INR 12400 for the annual package and around INR 6900 for the quarterly package. Crazy differential prizing though! There are more trainers than people who workout! The best part of the place is the view it provides of almost half of Velachery By pass Road!

North Korean situation is getting better, India – China are working to sort their differences. Africa is having greater say in Human rights council. African issues are being taken more seriously than ever before. 3 countries with good banking practices have moved out of recession. J & K is being handled well of late in-spite of the shortcomings. India is giving serious thought to Population control. Countries have brought in Green House regulations! Mexico is giving all its got on drug trafficking!

Yes it is true that some changes are also happening that are not desired. But what is intresting about the changes initiated is that the readiness with which the change is being accepted and embraced and supported like we all wanted it!

Even in my life there seems to be a great forward boosters! The light at the end of the tunnel!

In many ways this election is important because the winning coalition would have to handle a couple of issue immediately:

1. Handle the cascading effect of the global credit crunch on the Indian economy
2. Handle the volatile Pakistan situation
3. Handle the Srilankan crisis
4. Decide on the NPT that the Obama administration is likely to force India to sign
5. Kickstart manufacturing and agricultural output

Like they say in the US, Tamilnadu ha been the booster state for many years, meaning the we always give a clear mandate to one of the major dravidian parties! This helps them align with greater bargaining ability at the center and henceforth the benefits our state reaps. But this time around it seems we might just end up giving a hung mandate! Not sure how much of a good that’s going to do to us!

You might have already read this is various other sources but then for the novices like me! here is it as a baby would learn it!

Chennai which has three parliamentary constituencies this time around has a much larger coverage area compared to last elections and also has had some reshuffling of zones since the last elections.

The three constituencies are:

1. North Chennai
2. South Chennai
3. Central Chennai

But the service was very intresting, and for the first time in my memory a service was like a movie, delivered in an engrossing way with multimedia and all animation.

The topic of the sermon was ‘Unanswered Prayers’ and the biblical charater in analysis and comparison was Elijah.

Note: I attend the Good Shepherd Church Velachery and the sermon is part of a series of lectures, so i do invite if you can make it.