Vote 09

We voted for the Parliamentary elections this year in the Bangalore Rural constituency, formerly Kanakpura one. Candidates wise, there was nothing to choose from really. So using an elimination based on their credentials and their misdeeds, I picked one. I had trouble finding my name in the voters list. Finally I got a list which was completely in Kannada, which I cannot read. But I traced my name by my apartment number which was the only legible thing on it. The whole process is pathetically immature for a country that has been going over this process for more than 60 years.

It was also really strange that there were absolutely zero campaigning here - at least some workers approached us for votes, but this time no one seems to care. Comparing with my earlier constituency Kannur in Kerala, where a hot battle was on between CPM and Congress, this was a damp squib. It was easy to know who was contesting in which constituency by just driving across Kerala, but here you would have to look up the candidate list at the polling booth. While the domination of non-locals in a city like Bangalore could be one of the reasons, I also think some of the basic metrics about the population also might be at play.

The percentage of literate folks are 77.8% here, it is at 93.3 in Kannur and most of the literates in Bangalore may not have voted either. Another telling metric is the Infant mortality rate which is at 39.1 in Bangalore rural whereas just 7.2 in Kannur. Definitely it talks a lot about the electorate. [All the metrics are from Google India Election site http://tinyurl.com/dexyf6]

I also looked up metrics of Amethi from where the Gandhi scions have been winning for ages - infant mortality is at a whopping 82.7 - it is amazing that Congress with the Gandhi family at the helm most of the time couldn't do much about this basic measure about the lives of the people in the constituency. It also talks about the ineffectiveness of the whole democratic process in my opinion. Literacy at 63.9% and with just 13.9% household with electricity !! Telling numbers about the efficacy of the whole democratic rule in this country. I believe the infant mortality rate of the country compares to that of some of the poorest African countries.

Where did we go wrong after 60 years of indepedence ? Does anyone bother about the basic amenities of the common people in this country ? Independence and democracy hasn't helped surely in my opinion.

For those who can't run

As usual I am planning to raise some funds during the Sunfeast 10K Bangalore 2009for those who can't run via my charity partners, Association of People with Disability(APD) Bangalore. This time I don't really have any real targets, but having been able to collect around Rs. 50K last time, I am hopeful of collecting something around that figure.

There are many ways to contribute for those interested.

• Click on the Donate button on the right of this blog and directly contribute - you don't really need a middleman.
• Or if you are in Bangalore, you can pay a visit to APD campus at 6th Cross, Hutchins Road
  (Off Hennur Main Rd), Lingarajapuram, St. Thomas Town Post, Bangalore 560 084 (Karnataka) INDIA - you don't need to mention my name:)
  
• Send me a check payable to "Association with People with Disability" to 12/303, Mantri Residency, Near Meenakshi Temple, Bannerghatta Road, Bangalore, India 560076
• You can transfer directly to my HSBC or ICICI or Canara Bank accounts - I will let you know the details if you want to go this route. Send me email at p_jayadeep at yahoo dot com
• You can give me cash if we can schedule a meeting before or after the run. Just let me know your intent to contribute.

To give you an idea of what this money could do, it could educate 10 poor, disabled children for a year for Rs. 50,000/= or train 10 disabled youths to get a job and earn their livelihood for Rs.80,000/- OR provide wheelchairs to 10 disabled person so that they can acquire mobility and pursue their dreams for Rs.70,000/-.

I would also encourage you to participate in the run if you are in Bangalore and continue running for life and raise funds or volunteer for charity.

Bangalore-Kannur(via Sultan Bathery, Mananthavady)

Image via Wikipedia

It was a vacation to our hometown Kannur in the sweltering hot summer time. This time we drove without any long breaks and descended the western ghats via Mananthavadi ghat roads which were in pretty good condition being inside Kerala border. Karnataka Government has no incentives to keep the Ghat roads to Kerala(Perumadi ghats) in good shape.

We hit the road at 7am from Bangalore via the latest and really nice NICE road that is just 3KM off from where we live. Except for the toll booth stops, we were at Mysore road in no time and it felt like we were driving in a western highway. Whatever criticisms that you may have against NICE, they have done a fantastic job in building the peripheral road. Creating free-way routes like this around the city may be the best way to ease traffic within the city. But there are still rough edges around the infamous Gottigere changeover at Bannerghatta Road and at Kanakapura road overpass. The toll collection also is a bit haphazard, which I guess would improve once the intersections are completed. While I am no big fan of big city based development, if you are going that way, you need interventions like NICE expressways. Unfortunately it would encourage travel by personal vehicles which I believe has shot up already. So now it is easy to get out of the city except towards Hyderabad on NH-7.

Mysore road was clogged with holiday travellers which we covered in about 2.5 hours. There were many road humps that seems to have sprouted on the highway near most of the villages which may make sense because there is access to the highway for the public. Hopefully, the NICE expressway would materialize some day. Same was the case with Mysore-Ooty road.

Gundelpet-Sultan Bathery was a quiet and easy ride, we were at Sultan Bathery at around 12 noon and reached Mananthavady at 1pm. Drive towards Manathavady from S.Bathery was not that easy comparatively, but was still good. We had to stop at many places to ask for directions, but being in a green country, it was enjoyable as well. We had lunch at Centry Hotel, Manathavadi - food was ok, except for sighting some fish in the vegetarian sambar which gave us some ideas for a new recipe!

Image via Wikipedia

Descent down towards Kuthuparamba was a bit shaky with our 1-year old girl having ghat-sickness and throwing up a couple of times. She was asleep last time when we went up and down the ghats, but this time it was her play time and she was up most of the time. But having a Paediatrician in the car was a lot of help. May be we should have let more fresh air instead of depending on the aircondition in the car. We reached home by 5PM, which made it a 10 hour, 400KM drive from Bangalore. An earlier start from Bangalore.

It was also a drive without any colas and bottled juices for me. I stocked up tender coconut water and stopped over before Gundelpet to refill the bottle with more of it. But tender coconut is not easy to find in the coconut country unless you can climb a coconut tree. Coconuts are meant for serious business maybe. The other thing I carried was a peanut cake in jagri, which kept the fatigue away.

We took the same route back, but I wasn't well hydrated the day before which seemed to have caused some trouble for my bended knees after 300KMs on the road. But the baby slept during our climb up and she didn't have any problems except that it was tough to keep her in the car seat later. Mysore road was traffic free and NICE road was awesome at the end of a tiring drive except for the last mile problem at the Bannerghatta Road junction couple of kilometers from home where we were stuck for 30 minutes.

While the drive up and down was pretty good, it kind of blew away the carbon I saved by my car free commute for the past 3 months

A sprained neck and two Doctors

I had a sprained neck which I suspected on the new stretching and core building exercises last week. So I went to the nearby "Asia's Best" hospital with certificates from John Howard Medical Institute - unfortunately the Doctor I wanted to meet was busy with some operation and I met the one that was available. He checks my neck and doesn't ask how it happened or what I was doing etc. and prescribes an x-ray(Rs. 460/=) and declares it a neck sprain by looking at it. And prescribes a pain killer that is not compatible with another medicine I am on - he didn't ask that question nor did he check my file which had that information. So I didn't buy the medicine except the gel. Wasted Rs.810/=. In fact this was the same guy who couldn't diagnose my Computer Related Injury(CRI) earlier.

Being very unsatisfied with this diagnosis I went to a Sports Medicine Specialist, Dr. Rajat Chauhan of Back 2 Fitness which is also organizing the 10K running training that I am part of - he is 13KM away from where I live and hence I didn't go to him first. He spent more than 20 minutes checking my neck and trying to give some massage that could ease the trouble. I was wondering why was he not stopping the analysis and doesn't he have other patient to look at ? Diagnosis before you prescribe stupid! He didn't want to see the X-ray also. But at the end of it, I was feeling better already. He recommended a wheat bag to do some hot or cold massaging - but the bags were a bit expensive, so I thought I could do without it. Rs.500/= for the consultation and a very good experience at it! Worth every paisa!

Car free commute

I realized the other day when I had trouble starting my car that it has been more than 3 months since I stopped using my car for commuting to work and other errands. Fortunately, my office is just 2KM from my home which makes it pretty easy. I started commuting by BMTC buses and later on started cycling 3 days in the week on my latest and greatest acquisition. I make an additional trip for lunch using BMTC buses which has pretty good frequency of services on this route.

Cycling on the main road is a new experience and not so bad and this stretch is not so congested at this point of time though it is becoming worse by the day. I usually beat the rush hour by leaving before 8am and returning before 6pm. But it is a bit short for a good ride because it ends before you start especially if there are no buses blocking my way in the 3 bus stops on the way. But cycling is not that dangerous as I thought it to be - but it is a very subjective thing.

Even if you don't want to risk cycling, bus services seems to have improved a lot recently. There are plenty of new services including Air conditioned Volvo Vajra, Suvarna and the latest BIG-10 series of buses in addition to the normal services. You can easily catch one of these buses during any time of the day in 10-15 mintues.

If the auto rickshaw services were a bit descent, I could have easily got rid of my car. I also think it is worth moving near your work to avoid the long commutes which can be used in other productive ways. Especially, avoiding the frustration of driving across the city choking points every day.