The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 4,900 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 4 trips to carry that many people.
Before starting with this post let me say this. I or we have great respect towards Tamil people for various reasons. We depend on you for our food (Raw materials including 70 per cent of our vegetable requirements) and lot other things so there is a situation that we cannot live without you guys. As Tamil is the mother of Malayalam which is the mother-tongue of Kerala, There is no regional or lingual reasons for hate. Also racially (I hate to say this word) we are all Dravidian.
I live in the western part of Thrissur district, Kerala. My blog has been carrying a badge you can see on the left called “Re-Build Mullaperiyar Dam” for nearly two years. When I thought about putting this up in a blog, I never knew even the place I and my family resides is also under threat. The reason why I put it up was like… hmm well, I don’t know, but it definitely wasn’t for testing the WordPress text widget.
Now a days, I can feel that things have changed. The recent tremors and the predictions for the coming ones are making us more aware and worried. A protest that has been going on in Mullaperiyar area demanding a new dam has passed 2000 days. People in social networks also trying their part to get the attention of national media. A few celebrities like director Ashique Abu, actress Rima Kallingal, rock band Avial also came forward for this cause. It should be noted that none of these protests are against Tamilnadu or Tamilians, but for one of the fundamental rights given by the Indian constitution: “the right to live”.
Here from what I could understand, the main problem is the worry over the updates in cost of lease if a new dam is to be constructed. If it is to be constructed my Tamilnadu, you can get rid of that, but will have to spend money for dam construction and hence not interested in that. Fine, no offense! Now, When Kerala build a new dam, even a committee from Tamilnadu cannot fix a lease agreement as absurd as the previous one and everyone is aware of that. So its not basically about Tamilnadu being denied of water, but a fear of having to pay more than current value when a new dam is constructed.
What if Kerala is to agree on a similar lease agreement for the new dam? Will you allow us to build it? How much time does it take to build a new one? I don’t think a new dam can be built by keeping the water level like that in the old one. So during the period of constuction, Tamilnadu may lose a portion of water which it might get. But TN government must understand the fear of 3 million people living downstream. The supreme court’s verdict can take time. It might be difficult to get a clear technical statement on how secure the dam is. But nature has its own ways. It won’t do any paper work or consult any of these technical or legal experts before its action. Even if the chance of a crisis is 1%, that is a strong reason to worry. I hope you can understand our situation by reading this together with the risk of Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant you face and I want to let you know that same is our sentiments regarding Mullaperiyar.
Tamilnadu can argue in the court that its taking measures for strengthening the dam by doing some cosmetics, demand stays and stretch the whole thing a lot further. But remember that if you are milking a cow when it is sick, you are killing it. Take all our water, but find some alternatives until we finish the new dam. After that, its all yours. Do us a favor and help save our lives and your water.
When you take the Indian railway portal (irctc.co.in) you can now see a message on right side which says “Please do not take printout of E-Tickets, Travel with electronic tickets”. The “slide show” continues to say “Save Paper, We can save 3 lakhs of A4 size paper everyday”. three hundred thousand? Well, good move! Late though. Better not think about the paper wasted in last 2-3 years. I really wanted something “like” this. But does the new “innovative” attempt by Indian Railways going to work? Before starting analysis, lets take a look at their detailed explanation.
Electronic Reservation Slip (ERS) – The printout in standard specified Performa containing reservation particulars, and instructions for use which can be used by the passenger along with the relevant authorized Identification, as travel authority for performing the journey.
Virtual Reservation Message (VRM) – A screen-shot of the e-ticket displayed through laptops/palmtops/ Mobile phone is referred as Virtual Reservation Message (VRM).
ERS/VRM along with any one of the eight prescribed ID proofs in original and the indication of the passenger(s)’ name(s) in the Reservation Chart will authorize the passenger to travel.
VRM combined with valid photo-id in original will be treated as an instrument on par with the ERS.
ERS/VRM along with one of the eight prescribed proofs of identity in original will also authorize the passenger to enter the platform on the day of journey and he/she will not be required to purchase platform ticket. ERS/VRM along with original id proof will be required to be produced on demand of Ticket Checking Staff on the platform.
Reference : Railway Board Letter No.2008/TG-I/10/P/SMS dated 20.07.2011
So, they are calling the new thing VRM: Virtual Reservation Message as opposed to ERS: Electronic(irony?) Reservation Slip. It says,”Carry your ticket in electronic mode using mobile, laptop, ipad”. As they used 3 words, lets split the scenario to 3 scenarios.
Most cellphones in India may not be having “proper” internet facilities ( minimum of 3G is required for irctc.co.in to load.). But most might be having a facility to display an image and a data cable. so they take a screenshot from somewhere and copy it to their cell. Here the best case is an iPhone or equivalent where we can use the touch screen to zoom it. But majority of phones need to do terrible stuff to get it zoomed if the TTE (travelling ticket examiner) requires you to. The following might happen most likely in this case.
Passenger taking a cellphone from his pocket and says: “Here is the ticket”
TTE: “Where? I cant see a thing.”
There is an image that comes to my mind when I think about flipping opening my laptop while trying to get up from the upper birth of a sleeper when the TTE wakes me up.
It would be nice if traffic penalties are as simple as this (?)
For facts about the photo, see: The Case of a Dumb Email Forward
Hope that says it all.
This might work, as it can display a ticket fully and somewhat easy to carry. But how many people have it? Personally, as I have a laptop and an iPod Touch, I don’t have a use for something intermediate and I’m not going to buy it for sake of carrying VRMs.
Trees can be saved better. Think about why are we taking an ERS. What information is getting verified there? Probably the PNR number. One cannot argue that the irctc account in which the ticket is booked is verified against the ID Proof. According to IRCTC policy, Any one of the passenger can show ID proof. So its about the PNR number. If feasible it would be nice if a passenger is allowed to carry the PNR number ( any form say as an SMS draft, note etc) and the ID proof, which simplifies verification like never before.
This is a good “attempt” from IRCTC and should be appreciated. But as a final verdict, I should say, “Try this at your own risk!” You can satisfy the TTE in train. But an RPF personnel or a cop at a train station may not be aware of this and he might demand ticket in hard copy and if you don’t have it, there is a great chance of unnecessary trouble.
The Second Cochin Twestival(2011) is at Kochi Gymkhana Club, Vytilla on 24th March, 2011. Starts at 5 PM and ends at 9 PM. If you are in Cochin and active in Twitter, Cochin Twestival is a must attend event for you.
For those of you who don’t know what a Twestival is…
On March 24th, 2011, people in hundreds of cities around the world will come together offline to rally around the important cause of Education by hosting local events to have fun and create awareness. Twestival(or Twitter Festival) uses social media for social good. All of the local events are organized 100% by volunteers and 100% of all ticket sales and donations go direct to projects.
Cochin Twestival 2011 will be held at Kochi Gymkhana Club, Vytilla. For more details, go here
Cochin Twestival aims at supporting Adarsh Chartiable Trust. They lend more than a helping hand to children who have been diagnosed with brain-developmental-disorders such as Cerebral Palsy, Autism, learning disorders which in most cases forces the children to drop out of or never attend conventional schools at all. They have grown from a modest institute looking after 7 children to an inspirational one helping over 230 children from all communities. It is a work of great proportion, and the numbers involved can definitely be increased if we pitch in with support. Adarsh encourages children from the ages of 6 months to 12 years to be brought to their school for therapy and training, where they would be relegated to the care of trained therapists and medical consultants from various disciplines, and provided counseling. It does not end there – the children are also made to feel completely at home and equally like anyone else, by maintaining the atmosphere of a normal school, with uniforms, time-tables, assembly, competitions, excursions, etc.
The sponsors for the event are HOPE(Home of Perfect Education), ITnetInfoCom, Grand Palace Hotel Qatar and Centipair. Thanks a lot to the Sponsors for helping us move forward confidently to make Cochin Twestival a success.
You can register for the event in the Event Page.
I don’t know whether it is when they started their website or when I heard it in one of the youtube video. This track is the one I waited for long. Yes guys, Avial is back! “Fortunately or unfortunately” (phrase courtesy: @nehasnair 
) I got this news from one of my favorite blogger @vadakkus via twitter and he already did a nice post about the same in his Upperi! But you know, I promised a link to my post to Neha who currently sings with the band! Wait, no I lied! That’s not the primary reason (I can’t write it as primary as she might read this). I wanted to post about this first, but he overtook me! I’m not ready to blog down the order. I’ll do with one down.
First of all, before writing my opinion, let me post one comment from my colleague when I downloaded and sent him the teaser.
Kidilam ketto! Nice slow Music. Just play the song in loop. There will be a silence at 1.04 and the song will restart. Loved the silence. Thought it was a part of the song. Just saw that it is finishing and restarting.
Apart from the sweet arpeggios and chords from Rex, bold bass-lines from Binny, and yes good stuff with that single drum( don’t know what its called) without drum sticks from Mithun, What surprised me is the vocals by Tony! He was a victim of criticism only for singing the debut tracks like “nada nada” where everyone compares him with the previous vocalist Anand. But this time, I must say that he rocked!. Nice and neat singing and I think if he can reproduce the same on gigs, he will no longer be a “sad excuse for a singer” as someone said. Seriously I can’t wait for the original version (both acoustic and rock), I think they are planning to release it along with their second album which is expected to include another song called “Aanakkallan”, which they did for the Malayalam movie Salt ‘n’ Pepper.
Here is the lyrics as I could hear:
Oridatth oridatth oridatth anganoraaLunde…
Nerum neram pokkum ariyatthaaLunde…
Malakal thaandi maRicchu nadakkanoraaLunde…
Nadikal piLarnnu muRicchu nadakkanoraaLunde…
Ayyo! kaNNil kaaalam katthaNu.. ellaamellaam eriyunne..
Ayyo! Paavam paadi nadakkaNu.. ellaarum onnalle…-OR-
ഒരിടത്തൊരിടത്തൊരിടത്തങ്ങനൊരാളുണ്ടേ..
നേരും നേരമ്പോക്കും അറിയാത്താളുണ്ടേ…
മലകള് താണ്ടി മറിച്ചു നടക്കണൊരാളുണ്ടേ…
നദികള് പിളര്ന്നു മുറിച്ചു നടക്കണൊരാളുണ്ടേ…
അയ്യോ! കണ്ണില് കാലം കത്തണ്.. എല്ലാമെല്ലാം എരിയുന്നേ…
അയ്യോ! പാവം പാടി നടക്കണ്.. എല്ലാരും ഒന്നല്ലേ…
Visit avial.in to download this launch gift!
