Thekkady boat tragedy - follow up post

As mentioned in the comments section of my previous post, here are couple of "Jalakanyaka" pictures from my collection - on occasions when the seating / standing should have been regular / uniform (Note: click on pics to enlarge )

1. Difficult to say from this angle, but still if one focuses on the backside..... is there an in-born tilt visible ?

2. The ill-fated boat is the green one ( second one ). Do we see an extra dip on its right side ?

Waiting to happen

A post after about three and half months - its not-so-happy a thing that its about a tragedy.. but yet, can't resist putting out certain unhappy truths that I faced --- thankfully for me, those did not transform into unhappy experiences, but unfortunately not for the victims of the third boat tragedy in Kerala within about seven years

Less than a month before the Sep30 tragedy, U2 and I have been on a trip there - an extended Onam vacation and much more... A few things ( which have probably been now reported in the media) was glaring during the boat trip ...

1) Right from the ticket queue, there is no guidance whatsoever of how things work ( for example you realize that one person can only take max 2 tickets, only when you reach the end of the queue ) , which boat to board, choice of upper deck/lower deck ( or may be those choices are already sold out for "black" or to those with influence)

2) Once you are in the boat too, there is nobody controlling the seating arrangement - I don't think our ticket was ever checked once in the boat, or to see if proper people are seated in the proper deck (So even if more than allotted people stay in upper deck, "nobody" knows .

3) They supposedly issue a stipulated number of tickets for each boat.. but except one time when our boat appeared overcrowded and seatless, nobody asked people to board the boats which they are supposed to ( which if you see closely on the ticket is printed somewhere on the ticket, but you don't know that its the name of the boat until you see the boat)

4) There were no instructions ( like don't crowd on one side), or what to do in case of a problem etc etc.... In fact an old man who was late to board the boat did not get a seat, and so he was seated in the driver's cabin - and alas, the fellow was non-stop lecturing about kerala politics (in Malayalam of course) ALL-THROUGH the journey to the drivers assistant and the latter listening most of the time, occasionally replying or giving him the next topic to talk about

5) And for lifejackets - i was curious to see if there were any - and they were, a few of them, stacked up nicely and tied up in the drivers cabinet...

The travellers were just focused on the joy of the ride and no hardly ever complained. At one point when at the end of the trip, there were elephants on one side ( haaaa... some "wild life" after such a long wait), people did crowd to one side and our boat "Vanajyotsna" did tilt to one side a bit , but I kind of said aloud semi-jokingly ( the other half with the intention that people notice) that the boat is tilted to one side... - ours did not reach a danger level tilt at any point.

Among the theories of the boat collapse, all ultimately lead to neglect of authorities as root cause
If it were overcrowding on one side, couldn't have been avoided by not allowing more-than-capacity and instructing people not to do that ? Also "boat design not suited for all crowding on side" When it says "60 people capacity", shouldn't it be sand-bag tested with all possibilities including this one-side possibility ? And nothing more to say about the possibility of mistake by the inexperienced driver.

I leave this post with some picture of the boat in the accident - Jalakanyaka - taken by chance while on Vanajyotsna .

The pic above shows the case elephants on one side, and people moving towards that side - and you can see the boat tilted a bit. Whether it is within limits or not, I am not an expert to comment. Notice also one fellow hanging out of the boat, quite clear that there is nobody to control

And here is another one... ( click pics to enlarge)

Rite and Rong

The relationship of editor to author is knife to throat. (Quote: Source unknown )

News that is a bit old, but worth reading for two reasons.... - readers can guess both

http://www.thetimes.co.za/PrintEdition/News/Article.aspx?id=1005194

Ashtanga yoga’s founder dies at 93
Published:May 24, 2009

Krishna Pattabhi Jois, a prominent and influential yoga teacher who drew a global following, which included Western celebrities like Madonna and Sting, died this week at his home in the southern Indian city of Mysore at the age of 93.

Known to his followers simply as guruji, a term of respect for teachers, Jois had an ulcer in his throat , according to Sharath Rangaswamy, his grandson and the director of his yoga institute.
In the late ’30s, long before yoga studios sprang up in malls and gyms , Jois began teaching yoga at the Sanskrit University of Mysore , according to a biography on his website. He eventually opened his own school, the Ashtanga Yoga Institute .

The son of a Brahmin (priest) and astrologer, Jois was inculcated with ancient Hindu teachings from an early age. He was first exposed to yoga when he was 12.

Jois popularised the school of yoga known as Ashtanga, characterised by fast-paced exercises that involve pronounced, but controlled, breathing while holding varying postures.

Jois’s first exposure to the West came through the 1967 book Yoga Self-Taught. Since then, Westerners have sought him out in their hundreds.

Although he was not fluent in English, Jois knew enough to make himself understood to his students. —

© 2009 The New York Times News Service

secularism definition

Note: contribution from U2 :-) ... among the many forwards in the IT field... So after all its not as passive within the ITites !

Look who is with the Congress !

1) Nagma - Nagma to campaign for Congress even if denied ticket

Born of a Muslim mother and a Hindu father, but the real connection is In 2007, she finally accepted Christ as her Saviour ... The anomaly of a Hindu man marrying a Muslim lady has hence been compensated for ... Amen

2) Azhar - Azharuddin to bat for Congress in Moradabad

In addition to the infamous match fixing betrayal of Nation, his claim to fame is having divorced his wife and married ( and converted ) a Sindhi.... and lol.. ex-girl friend of Salman Khan

which brings us to

3) Salman - Salman urges people to vote for Congress

Like a Salmon his migratory ( read as one woman to another ) skills are well knows, and is quite an epitome of al-taqiya ( sans the compulsion part..... well, biological compulsions, may be )

vinaasa kaale vipareeta buddhi ?

CNN-IBN opinion poll http://ibnlive.in.com/news/alliance-needed-suitors-contact-upa-nda/86007-37-p1.html predicts NDA is behind UPA.. Well all their recent predictons about State elections had gobne awfully wrong. In fact after Gujarat election results were out , the hyper Rajdeep (Cong)ras-desai along with the just-jumped-outta-d-zoo Yogendra Yadav tried to explain why their survey was 'slightly off mark", by making a big map of Gujarat, putting some saffron and white ( I think) colored cubes on the map, ( apparently each of those cubes representing 5 seats each it seems) .. and then moving them around here and there, and telling - aha, thats were we missed... Frankly, I don't remember having seen such a nice comedy show on an Indian channel anytime recently

But this time, not because its a CNN - IBN poll, in fact in spite of it being a CNN - IBN poll, I tend to agree with the numbers in the present state of affairs . ( See my earlier post with the numbers.. the two people needed for NDA - Rajanikanth and Chiranjeevi - have not yet obliged, and even the alliance with ShivSena seems shaky) . Among the possible secnarios, 2 are in favor of UPA ( "possible", "strongly possible" ) 2 in favor of NDA ( both "not impossible") , and the last in favor of a third alternative... The last says CNN - IBN is highly unlikely

Methinks that the chances are the last is quite likely( though may not exactly be a Mayawati)... I believe that history will repeat itself.. Like VP Singh-Chandrasekhar..... like Deve Gowda-Gujral (do people even remember these jokers ?)...... India, unfortunately may have to go through a really bad perios ( not that UPA coming back to power is any majorly better, but atleast not another third front I hope).... Extrapolating that scenario further, such a regime won't last more than 2 years, and there may be a general election, may be in 2010 or 2011

I am no political expert. Though I hope it doesn't come to that, this is what I feel may happen, After all, its said "vinaasa kaale vipareeta buddhi.." ( kind of like "wrong decisions at the time of adversity")

Rajnikanth, Chiranjeevi and the future of (I)nd(I)a !

Nope, its not the BJP's performance in the falsely-termed semi-final elections ( note: the Indian-English Language Media - the ELM - did so much more after the results than before it, you guess why !!) that makes me say this... and I hardly ever did election predictions on this blog.. but simple math tells me - the NDA in its present form , with the BJP and allies is NOT going to reach anywhere close to the "thoo-seventhee-thoo" mark in the general elections scheduled, mostly for sometime in April-May 2009 !!

And here is my nowhere-near-perfect, yet you-give-me-a-better-calculation chart. This includes the list of states where BJP or its current NDA allies ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Democratic_Alliance_(India)#Past_and_Present_Members ) have any significant presence.. So for example, Punjab is included because of SAD+BJP, but Kerala is not, u-know-why .. And the min and max are at best based on guess and at worst (!) based on recent elections/state anti-incumbency/local considerations, and the underlying assumption is that there is no Ramjanmabhoomi like wave favoring the BJP anywhere

(Ignorance is not always a bliss... that I donno how to put a table on the blog makes this chart a little worse than ugly, doesn't it ? )

State...........................Seats.................Min..............Max

Assam ........................ 14 .................... 5 ................. 10
Bihar .............................40....................10................. 25
Chattisgarh...................11.....................4....................7
Delhi............................... 7......................2....................3
Goa..................................2.......................0....................2
Gurjarat..........................26....................10.................18
Haryana..........................10......................3....................6
HP......................................4......................1....................3
Jharkand.........................14.....................5...................9
Karnataka.......................28....................10................18
MP...................................29.....................12.................22
Maharashtra...................48.....................24................36
Orissa................................21......................7.................12
Punjab...............................13......................5..................10
Rajasthan...........................25.....................8..................13
Uttaranchal........................5........................1.................3
UP.......................................80.....................5..................15

Total.................................... NA ............... 112.............. 212

On a side note, its glaringly obvious that losing UP has been BJP's biggest problems ... with no hope of regaining lost ground any time soon

If its anywhere near the minimum, then one might simply see the end of BJP in a few years, unless may be "NaMo" takes the "center"stage ... Even in the best case scenario, it only adds up to 212 ...... May be some more smaller allies and a seat here and there and a few independents - add a 10 more, and its still only 222 ... Wonder where the bulk of the rest of the seats are gone ? Well, thats where AP with 42 and Tamil Nadu with 39 seats come into play .. It is quite obvious that whoever rules the center next , will have to have won the majority of seats in either if not both of these states ... Well, nothing new, for that is indeed the case at present u wud say with the Congress in AP and DMK and allies in TN... True, I am just stating that fact once more, with an emphasis that the NDA simply cannot think of ruling India without significant number of seats from these two states.... thats all

So now, what going on in these states ? Lets take TN first .. Quite likely the DMK and allies will continue with the Congress .... even otherwise teaming up with the DMK will be counterproductive for NDA due to state anti-incumbency .. AIADMK has already tied up with the left . So the only hope for BJP is if Rajanikanth ( Rajinikanth/Rajnikanth ) joins or actively campaigns for BJP ... Will he ?! Time is simply running out for BJP ....

And coming to AP , though Chiranjeevi (who, I am told will surely have an impact ) prefered the left ( "Allu Arvind wants BJP But Chiru leans Left" .) , the fact that he is strongly oppossed to both TDP and Congress, and that the left already went with the TDP means a PRP-BJP(-TRS) alliance is still a possibilty ... the big question again is, will he ? ... And unlike in the Rajanikanth case, Chiranjeevi has one more option of going it alone at first and supporting NDA from outside post-poll if it helps......

So, like it or not, here is a scenario, where the future of India will depend on what two super stars of South Indian movies will decide !!!!

Brahmin by Karma... vidyaa vinaya sampannee ...

Thanks Ranjith for sending this news item ..... For those who can't read Malayalam, the gist of the article is that Kerala Kshetra Samrakshana Samithi has trained 24 children , from all backgrounds and "castes" , including 7 "adivasis" (tribals) in being priests ... Well, not really a new thing as the news items at the end of this post would reveal ( readers are invited to post more such relevant links and news in the comments section)

Before that, a few relevant Gita shlokas ... { transliteration and translation c & p from net for ease :-) , so excuse the possible minor errors }

Gita 5:18

vidya-vinaya-sampanne brahmane gavi hastini
suni caiva sva-pake capanditah sama-darsinah

The humble sages, by virtue of true knowledge, see with equal vision a learned and gentle brahmana, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a dog-eater

Gita 18:41

brahmana-kshatriya-visamshudranam ca parantapa
karmani pravibhaktanisvabhava-prabhavair gunaih

Brahmanas, kshatriyas, vaishyas and shudras are distinguished by the qualities born of their own natures in accordance with the material modes, O chastiser of the enemy.

( The next 4 shlokas talk about those qualities and natures)

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Item 1: an old piece - http://www.hindunet.org/srh_home/1997_5/0052.html

---------Youth from all sections of the society, particularly the scheduled castes, came forward in a large way to become temple priests and lead the Hindu masses. VHP organised special training camps f or them. Till now more than 1000 priests have been trained.

News Item 2 : ------------------http://news.amritapuri.org/41/sreedharan-tantri-to-receive-amrita-keerti/ Sreedharan Tantri is the founder and chairman of Sri Narayana Tantrika Research Vidyalayam, a charitable institute in North Paravur, Ernakulam District that trains children, irrespective of caste and creed, in Kshetra Tanta Vidya.

News Item 3:
---------------------------- Forwarded message ----------To: panchaamritam@yahoogroups.com / from: vskchennai@gmail.com
PANCHAAMRITAM 120
THREE

A silent revolution is on in the Vayanad region of Kerala (Bharat), thanks to the Kshetra Samrakshana Samiti (Temple Protection Committee) functioning under inspiration drawn from the ideals of RSS. The Samiti has conducted Poojari training course for the vanavasi (Scheduled Tribe) boys of Vayanad. Of the 29 boys who participated in the course 28 were from vanavasi families. The Samiti had sent out an appeal to all major temples in Kerala inviting applications from boys of any caste willing to join the Poojari training course. Over 70 applications were received. 29 were selected with the permission of parents. All boys were given initiation and guidance in performing Sndhya Vandhanam to begin with. Their daily routine has ben designed so that they do the daily duties like any temple poojari. The boys on their part evince enthusiasm in abundance.

RASHTRA DEV, Hindi fortnightly brought out from Bareily, Meerut and Dehradun; dated September 30, 2007.

of predictions and reductions

By no means am I an economic expert, nor do I understand whats happening right now
And neither do I claim that the dip in oil prices is a creation of the US presidential election....

but what I do know is that I did predict a situation where the oil prices may reduce big time, around the US pres election time ( after a sharp rise a few months before that) - I had based it purely on my experience in 2004.

See my post http://drisyadrisya.blogspot.com/2008/04/tip-of-iceberg-or-end-of-it.html

Whatever be the real reason, it seems to be heading the same way in 2008 too with just weeks left for the US election
----------------------------------------------

Meantime, here is a video that has been circulating and in which the speaker makes some predictions about the US economy, and more importantly tries to put things in a common mans language... he is a columnist in rediff, and the video is uploaded feb 10, 2008

black cat or white cat ?

Tata says "tata" to Singur and West Bengal - I am utterly confused as to whom should I laugh at

* At Mamta Banerjee who is day dreaming that she can capture the erstwhile communist votes by doing what they used to do a few years ago ?

* or At the "ruling" CPM themselves, who responded to the pull out with their dogs-tail-never-gets-straightened strike call - Tata must be releieved

As ET reports that "Gujarat and Karnataka has emerged as the two top contenders" for alternate location, the situation is even more irritating for the CPM in Kerala. On the issue of SEZs in Kerala, in its slow but steady progress towards realizing "I don't care if it's a white cat or a black cat. It's a good cat so long as it catches mice" , the CPM faces its biggest roadblock from its supposedly less radical ideological counterpart - the CPI

It must the the great "revolutionary" training that our comrades receive that helps them have not even a pin prick on their conscience while practising the highest hypocrisy . Here are some samples

* While criticizing the central govt, the CPM govt in Kerala has recently hiked water price, milk price, auto/taxi price - God knows what not. In fact two years when I came to India, the minimum charge on bus was Rs 1.75, and now ist Rs 4/- in just 2 years ( not that it maked the Central govt any better, but right now we are just talking about the commie hypocrisy )

* The same commies who are now pained that the Central govt is making India lose its right to test nuke weapons, were the ones who oppossed it so much when India tested in 1998

* And guess from whom the Kerala CM is facing oppossition while he tries to oust the realtors who built resorts on encroached govt lands ? None other than the district CPM committee

Recently "Surya TV" apparently launched a Malayalam channel exclusively for comedy - but one has to subscribe to some Sun-Direct to get the channel. methinks that its a bad business move - who will ever pay money to watch comedy, when the commies have free shows running everyday

i am back

That I now have some one else in my life shall explain the long gap, I hope.. For reasons known to some of us - those who know her name and know Malayalam and Hindi, she shall be mentioned as "U2" on this blog

So, among our travels the week after marriage, was a trip from Shimla to Kalka on the toy train ( ask google mama for the curious ones) ... 2.20 pm from shimla was the passenger train, supposed to reach Kalka at 8.15 pm, more than enuf time left for our Kalka-Delhi train supposed to leave Kalka station at 11.55 pm

The narrow guage train had a few general compartments , two reserved second class, and a reserved first class- well the first class had one section with 3 seats and another with 5 .. Seeing the general full, I got our general ticket changed to first class ( which is the only place where the seats were left) - for the first time I was travelling Indian Railways on a class greater that II SL ... - may be thats why I was destined not to complete the journey


The route was scenic, the enthusiasm dampened only by the incessant rains that had been pouring for over 20 hours by then ( a record of sorts say the locals) - and thats the excuse I shall give for not getting nice pictures.....

Come 5.30 ( half way into the journey) , a big boulder fell onto the compartment right behind us with a big sound - to one of the II reserved ... Thankfully it fell onto the door, so none got injured ( the stone was big enuf to kill 1 or 2 ) ... 2 hrs they tried breaking the stone and letting the train move, but hearing that there were further landslides ahead on the route, the railway - yes the railway arranged for taxis for the first class passengers upto Kalka ... as we were leaving I heard them say "Let the first class people go first - we will take care of the rest after that". Leave it to u for ur own comments and conslusions abt IR :-)

Here are coupld of snaps I took of the stone - but with all the rain and the darkness by then, I could not do much justice ...

On the road trip too ( the taxi), at one stage there was a big tree fallen on the road and blocking traffic - the driver was smart enough that instead of waiting for the Army ( !!) to come and clear it which could have taken 2-3 hrs , he took us through an alternate route , and safely got us at Kalka an hour and half before midnite ... quite a trip that was !!

Mission Kashmir ?

Bangalore and now Ahmedabad - the latter on the Kargil (Victory) Day (July 26) . Allah and a few of his "slaves"(footnote-1) alone know how many more to come soon !!

Off late the target has been BJP ruled states, perhaps either to prove that " BJP and even Modi can't stop us" or to put a fear in people's mind not to elect BJP in their states and may be even in the Center ... ( By the way Advani claims that BJP governments in Rajasthan and Gujarat has been waiting for years now for a clearance from the Center on a tougher terror law) ...

Lets not talk about the whole p-sec crowd that are going to come up with their usual nonsense - time for India lovers to ignore them completely, and focus on action ahead ... Time to make Hindus more aware of the dangers of Islam - just make them read the Qoran in the least, any sensible Hindu will be able to correlate the blasts to the book !! And then, for every blast in future, we should have atleast 10,000 Muslims in India leave Islam and embrace their ancestral religion . Sure enought that will provoke the Islamists to have even more blasts, and that should make 20,000 leave Islam - like it or not, thats the ONLY solution to prevent India from becoming like Kashmir in the near future

footnote1 - The root word for Islam is “al-Silm,” which means “submission” or “surrender.”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
post script: from rediff

Following is a chronology of some recent major bomb blasts in the country:

May 13, 2008: Eight blasts rock Jaipur in a span of 12 minutes leaving 65 dead and over 150 injured.

January 2008: Terrorist attack on Central Reserve Police Force camp in Rampur kills eight.

October 2007: 2 killed in a blast inside Ajmer Sharif shrine during Ramadan, in Rajasthan.

August 2007: 32 dead, 35 hurt in Hyderabad 'terror' strike.

May 2007: A bomb at Mecca mosque in Hyderabad kills 11 people.

February 19, 2007: Two bombs explode aboard a train bound from India to Pakistan

September 2006: 30 dead and 100 hurt in twin blasts at a mosque in Malegaon, Maharashtra.

July 2006: Seven bombs on Mumbai's trains kill over 200 and injure 700 others.

March 2006: Twin bombings at a train station and a temple in Varanasi kill 20 people.

October 2005: Three bombs placed in busy New Delhi markets a day before Diwali kill 62 people and injure hundreds.

after the circus......

Cartoon courtesy: keralakaumudi . Caption in Mallu says something to the effect of the arc of Manomoha .. and Manmohan is saying, in Mallu :-) , what in French is the famous Apres moi, le deluge - after me, the deluge

So what did the whole excercise achieve ?

* Divert the attention from all of government's failures - price rise, a weak response to terrorism, Ram Sethu issue, Amarnath issue etc etc - quite a master stroke Mr PM

* Now, the govt will try to show off some "reforms" and say that "we could not do all these because of the left"... oh yeah .... what a realization after completing more than 80% of its term

* Open talk by politicians about money.. its like the public have gotten so used to it, that nobody is shocked when money of the order of 25-30 crores are offered to vote one way or the other - and MPs who openly admit they know nothing about the N-deal ... They know only about the M-deal. Who exactly is funding such huge amounts of money ? Atleast 10 MPs were bought to vote for the deal or abstain - so that 250 crores minimum ...

* In comparison to open admissions of horse trading, statements like "My only interest is the development of my party" made by this JD-S "Member of Parliament a.k.a servant of the Nation" , can be pardoned

Congratulations Mr MMS and the lady MMS ( Madam Maino Sonia ) - together you have achieved so many things with just one deal