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.

Click here to see the complete report.

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.

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.

Mobile

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.”

Laptop

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.

iPad

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.

A Humble Suggestion

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.

Verdict

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.

RSVP for Cochin Twestival

For those of you who don’t know what a Twestival is…

On March 24^th, 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.

Twestival Global

Venue

Cochin Twestival 2011 will be held at Kochi Gymkhana Club, Vytilla. For more details, go here

The Program

• Introduction to Twestival
• The Twestival Video
• Talk about Make A Difference(MAD) – @makeadiff
• Twitter Malayalam by VK Adarsh
• Pradeep Kumar(All India Radio Programme Director) – Malayalam Blogging
• Rock Show by Kaav and Frozen Flames.

The Cause – Adarsh Chartiable Trust

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.

Cochin Twestival Details

• Date: 24 March, 2011 – 5 onwards
• Venue: Kochi Gymkhana Club, Vytilla
• RSVP: Here
• Highlights: Music show by Kaav and Frozen Flame
• NGO Supported: Adarsh Charitable Trust
• Website: Cochin Twestival
• Twitter: @cochintwestival

Registration

You can register for the event in the Event Page.

For More Information…

• See you all @ #cochinTwestival 2010 #kerala
• Tweeters get together for a cause
• Cochin Twestival 2010
• Twestival is back, this time for a new cause
• Cochin Twestival Local 2011

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!

Wrenz United will be having music labeled as International Indian Rock. It consists of Roney R Philip on vocals, Baiju Dharmajan on Guitars, Biju James on Bass and Nirmal Antony on Drums.They released 3 Eps as their debut album which they call is just an invitation to Wrenz, By the moonlight, God’s own country and King and Pawn.

The first song I heard is By the moonlight, in which the first thing attracted me was obviously those mesmerizing riffs by Baiju. I didn’t like the vocals on first listen as my subconscious was expecting him to sing like Suraj of motherjane. Roney have a different style of singing and his powers are different! Eventually I found the beauty.

The next song, God’s Own country is a song about Kerala and you can feel that from the music itself. At some point Roney sings “Ohohoho” That was really captivating and the fans are going to sing that along! If I’m right the Kerala traditional percussion instrument, Idakka has been used which adds to the flavor. As motherjane use Chenda, Wrenz should at-least use an Idakka, Shouldn’t they? Nirmal did an amazing job with his drums where the beats are powerful and have a touch of tradition. Its quite surprising that he is the same guy I saw in the Big Band show on Asianet, playing with Baiju, the Karnatriix bassist Josy and the famous violinist, Balabhaskar.

The final one is King and Pawn, which I’ll rate good but I like the other two better. Did I forget to mention someone? Yep, the BIG guy! Biju (not to be confused with Baiju) the bassist. In all the three songs we can feel his strong presence. He backs it very well and shows the skills in the portions where Baiju and Roney are silent. Wrenz now released two of their videos, God’s own Country and King and Pawn. Videos are having similarity with those of motherjane. Especially, the way God’s own country is shot is similar to Fields of sound of motherjane. Videos could have been more creative, but music fills all those gaps!

Overall, Wrenz United is a good team with potential, professionals who are having great expertise and amazing talent. All the best, Wrenz! Keep rocking!

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is on fire!.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 2,700 times in 2010. That’s about 6 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 12 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 15 posts. There were 41 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 8mb. That’s about 3 pictures per month.

The busiest day of the year was August 10th with 71 views. The most popular post that day was Motherjane to do OST for Anwar!.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, twitter.com, google.co.in, en.wordpress.com, and motherjane.in.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for motherjane, vinnai thandi varuvaya, yamaha f310 cs, yamaha f310, and tribes of babel lyrics.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

Motherjane to do OST for Anwar! August 2010
2 comments

Yamaha YZF R15 Competition White coming again? July 2010
37 comments

Syllabus for B.Tech Part-time Degree Course Restructured! June 2010
10 comments

The Tribes of Babel March 2010

Yamaha F310 CS Review (Casual) December 2009
2 comments

IRCTC like India is a democratic website. Here the one with the slowest internet connection and the one with the fastest internet connection can book only in the same speed. The “Service Unavailable!” page makes this possible by randomly displaying it after every user action. So, as you are now ready to book a tatkal, now the time is 7.45 AM, 2 days before the journey. Do the following steps.

1. Try to access http://www.irctc.co.in
2. If you get the page “Service Unavailable!” or “Page cannot be displayed”, don’t give up, refresh (press F5) until the page gets loaded.
3. Log in with your user name and password.
4. Press quick book if you know the train number. Here you can directly fill the data and proceed to payment. but sometimes the calender in that page won’t load and you can’t set the date. In that case go to the previous page, enter data in “Plan my travel” page and press “Find trains” button with the current date. Select the train you want and click on the radio button for the desired class. Now you will see the availability of current date as well as the next two days. so click “Book” corresponding to the journey date and continue with payment.

Tips

• If the calendar loads properly in quick book page, that’s the best option.
• While doing any of these steps or after processing the payments. “Service Unavailable” page may/will come across. refresh the page until it gets loaded.
• If irctc shows some error, press the back button in your browser and start from the previous page that loaded properly.
• Never log in again in any situation. only retards do that and use “back” and “refresh” buttons instead.
• Try not to waste the time looking at ticket availability. We will check that after booking.
• Be fast. It will jump to waiting list in half an hour.

I know that there is a cool option of booking a normal ticket months before. But we can’t always do that, can we? Tatkal ticket booking as I experience as of now is a tough battle where the fastest or the smartest will survive to get their tickets. But I seriously can’t believe that they are turning of their servers after 10 PM and starting the same daily at 8 AM like office. Happy ticket booking!

Update: Today when I tried to book a tatkal ticket, page didn’t load after money transaction and I lost money like this two times. I will get a reimbursement from irctc and I lost money not because of following any of these instructions, I’m sure of that. But this incident is making me think of inserting a disclaimer.

Disclaimer: The tips and instructions provided above is based on my personal experience and it is only my personal opinion. It holds no warranty. I will not be responsible for any kind of settlement for any kind of loss as a result of following the above instructions.

If one who plays the guitar is a guitarist, Then I am! Been studying western classical guitar for one and a half years along side the young kids, where a fifty percent are forced to achieve it as a career goal by their parents. Sometimes It is annoying. Yet its really fun out there getting a chance to express and be curious like a kid. As the title says, my battle is with a fat aXe, not a fat a**e which makes it a matter of attitude and an inability to quit. I’m highly fortunate that I’m blessed with the latter even though that isn’t the only stuff required.

The fat aXe mentioned here is neither a normal acoustic guitar which we see people playing chords while singing or an unplugged concert, nor an electric guitar that is used to rock! It is the classical guitar. Yes the name explains it well. A western classical instrument. I’m not a fan of a western classical music. I’m just a normal guy having a weakness on anything that’s good or things that attract me at the moment. I was really late to experience the rock culture and music. I got attracted to a band called Motherjane in early 2009 and one of their tracks “Broken” was the first self-acknowledged rock song that I heard and fell in love with.

The rock culture and music will not be a passing fancy when one realized its value. I’ll say that rock music is the one that relates more to the reality than any other genre of music. However I must say that I took some time to become compatible towards the aggression. Actually it is not a matter of compatibility. It is rather an ability to differentiate aggression from noise. It took a lot of time for me to come closer and appreciate some of the master pieces. Even-though rock flies high worldwide, its still in its childhood in my country, India. Bollywood stands like a deep rooted eucalyptus tree that can care less to give enough water for near by trees to grow. Its not just Bollywood actually. There are so many “woods” here that have little similarity with the original one that produces a handful of watchable movies. So basically it was after my teens that I could literally break the “woods” and embrace rock.

By this time, I joined a music school in Trivandrum in-order to study guitar. One specialty about this school is that they start with normal acoustic guitar with pick and slowly moves to classical guitar. At first my teacher thought I may not continue this for long and suggested me to buy an acoustic guitar, when I asked him about buying one. He expected it to cost less in-order to decrease my loss. But the fate was different. I bought a Yamaha F310 CS which cost about ten thousand rupees. This embarrassed him slightly and the only advice he could give me is to remember its price when I feel like quitting! After some days picking with plectrum, he introduced me to the fat axe! Yea, the classical guitar. I don’t need a pick anymore. Have to learn the finger picking style. At first it was a hard nut to crack, but eventually I managed to get things under control. Sore fingers became regular as I had soft fingers and the steel string of my acoustic guitar which I still play in finger style added to the pain.

I passed the grade 1 trinity exam with some difficulty. Now Grade 2 exam is also passed with ease. Now the problem is a growing frustration. I’m facing difficulties playing normal songs other than the pieces that I require to perform in grade exams. I get stuck somewhere in middle when I start to learn a popular song. So My confidence level is not very high as it will be difficult to prove myself if I declare I’m a good guitarist. I love rock and recently started shifting my interest to metal and other powerful genres of music. I equally love music that is sweet. But the wish to play the music I love is growing stronger in my heart and the inability to do that is the root cause of frustration. When I consulted, my teacher explained me with examples that continuing like this is the right path to achieve what I want. Yes, He might be right. A man with an experience of a lifetime can’t be wrong.

I recently became a proud owner of the very brilliant, Yamaha R15. It’s been a month since I bought it; the first service of my bike is over. I must say that it enthralled me with its performance and head-turning effect. Of course there was some kind of worries about properly caring my baby. So I began to wash and wipe it regularly. You know, that’s what happens when we have something new!

Eventually something started to annoy me constantly. Well, it was about the amount of water that stayed in between the lid and the fuel hole of my fuel tank. A lot of water started to stay there and it wasn’t drying up easily. Every time I open it, I could see water ready to spill into the fuel tank with even the smallest shake. I carefully wiped it, removed the water and brought the situation under control for the moment. I was really disappointed to see some amount of rust in a corner where the water stays mostly when I park the bike on side stand.

Main problem was that even after riding in a slight rain, there will be water inside it. Finally, I decided to contact the service center, called a couple of times to them as they were really busy. The person who attended the phone could easily understand my problem, and he asked me to check that portion of the tank for a hole to drain the water from the area. I couldn’t find a hole, but I could find a rubber cork. Yea! That was it. There was a cork blocking the hole, which created the trouble. It might probably be done before painting the bike in order to prevent the paint from getting into the hole which results in the closure of the same when the paint stays and gets dry. So the problem was solved!

P.S. This post was meant to my fellow R15 owners who are likely to meet with the same problem! Happy and Safe Riding!