Jim Corbett National Park

I had the opportunity to spend a couple of days for a retreat near the Jim Corbett National Park.

It takes 7 hours of uneven road travel to reach the Park area in the Uttaranchal State. The road from Delhi is part highway, part dusty tracks by the side - lots of dust I should say. Infrastructure cries for redemption all over India, and this area is no exception. Except I expected a better infrastructure around Delhi than in any other part of the country ! With heavy trucks, lorries, buses, cars, vans, tractors, bullock carts, and cycles (apart from the occasional pedestrians trying to cross the road risking their lives), it requires heavy concentration and ability to brake rather very quickly to manoeuvre the highway.

Nevertheless, Jim Corbett is worth a trip. Though it is rare to sight any tigers (I didn’t), or elephants, I managed to see deers and monkeys. I guess one has to spend considerable time within the forest area in order to be able to see anything more significant. There are procedures to be complied with while gaining admittance into the park. Like most publicly maintained facilities in India, there is confusion while going in - they ask a lot of questions and delay the entry while checking a series of documents, including driving licenses ! It is never smooth, coordinated, easy entry for tourists who have taken the trouble to come all the way.

However, finally one gets in on a four-wheel drive - the Maruti Gypsy. It’s a rough ride all the way, and people with back problems better be careful. The ride can’t be made smoother, there is no proper road inside - it is a dirt track all the way. The drivers are quite rough and push the vehicles to extreme performance while ensuring a rocky ride to the passengers. But, you tend to ignore all that, in the hope of seeing some wild animals.

Suddenly, the driver stops the vehicle and shuts down the ignition, and cautions all of us to be silent. We look around carefully, holding our breath. Voila, there comes a deer ! We raise the cameras, and it appears frightened. However, we manage to capture some shots……the driver now explains it would be better to go along the river stream to see the elephants, but alas, no such luck.

Here are some photos, some more in the next post :

DSC08394.JPG, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

Jim Corbett National Park

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Road leading to Jim Corbett National Park

DSC08374.JPG, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

A poor shot of the deer…….from a moving vehicle

DSC08377.JPG, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

Gypsies at the parking lot

DSC08407.JPG, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

A view of the river stream

DSC08406.JPG, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

River Stream at Jim Corbett

DSC08390.JPG, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

A dirt track in Jim Corbett - one can see the big pebbles on both sides of the track

DSC08381.JPG, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

Lunch with the Tigers, anyone ?

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Periphery of the Park

DSC08393.JPG, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

A view of the dirt track inside the National Park

Hope you relished the pics, though nothing great. Make the Jim Corbett National Park as one of your “must-see” places.

Some of the relevant links for your further read on Jim Corbett are as follows :

“Corbett Park”

“Jim Corbett (hunter) - Wikipedia”

“Jim Corbett National Park - Spectrum Tours”

Have a great weekend

Cheers

Vijay Srinivasan
12 April 2008
Mumbai

Classmate at Chembur

This weekend, I decided to finally take the long trip from Malad to Chembur to visit one of my IIM-B classmates who has been living at Chembur for many years. This visit was long awaited, my classmate always telling me that it has been many months since I had moved to Mumbai and we should visit him as early as possible. It was a pretty long ride of 80 minutes or so for a distance of around 20 KMs or so ! But that is Mumbai and its traffic - one has to be mentally resigned to its impact on one’s timeline and schedules. I decided to keep shooting some photos enroute to avoid sleep. Here are some snapshots (dates on the photos is incorrect - I forgot to set the date correctly).

IMGP0073, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

IMGP0072, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

IMGP0070, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

The sign boards are as good as one can see anywhere. But don’t look down on the road ahead below the sign boards if you are not driving ! It is simply too action-packed to the hilt !! One has to close one’s eyes occasionally, or pinch oneself, when the distances between lanes drop down to inches, or better still, centimeters. People walk across wide roads in between vehicles to reach the opposite sides - there is simply no choice when the signal crossings are faraway, and there are absolutely no overhead crossings.

One has to be an amazing driver with fabulous dexterity to manouver through this sea of vehicles of all kinds.

The road gets slightly better as we enter Chembur.

If you are interested to know more about Chembur, please follow these links - “Chembur Portal” and “Chembur in Wikipedia”

Well, after some serious guidance from my classmate friend, we managed to find his house in a quite neighbourhood with hardly any traffic. Mumbai always has some quaint areas like this one - very interesting. Away from the maddening crowd, so to say !

We had a long chat about all the latest happenings in India and elsewhere. Being in the financial services industry, the discussions turned towards the markets. Not surprising. What was indeed surprising was the extensive discussion that followed about the inner peace that my friend has achieved by following Isha Yoga methodology. Please follow these links to understand “Isha Yoga” and the purpose of “Isha Foundation”

It is truly amazing - the challenge is to find the time to commit to this noble activity in life. I am going to try.

Best Regards

Vijay Srinivasan
13 Jan 2007
Mumbai

Bangalore Experience

I was visiting Bangalore yesterday on a personal trip.

This visit is after a period of just six months from my last visit to the city.

I am not able to describe well the deterioration in traffic congestion which has befallen the city. I started my career in Bangalore in 1982, and in those days it was a pristine, green city with hardly any vehicular traffice. I used to whiz around in my Bajaj Chetak Scooter, and most of the vehicles on the road were two-wheelers. The air was pure, and though the parthenium plants were growing in certain outskirts of the city, it did not have much impact on the people. People with Asthma used to have some trouble, I recall. But the city itself was a nice place to live, and probably retire. The weather was fantastic, with daily average temperature in the region of 23 - 26 degrees Celsius.

All that is gone now for good. Thomas Friedman said that the world is indeed “Flat”. They seem to have completely flattened Bangalore, with dusty roads and irregular, uncontrolled traffic. There is too much of construction activity going on, and people with respiratory problems seem to be having tough time. There are some crowded malls and couple of nice hotels, but that apart, the city is a nightmare to live, commute and work.

The world’s ways are inscrutable though. Bangalore is still the cynosure of the IT and BPO/KPO companies from around the world. I don’t understand why. The only reason could be the availability of qualified and experienced manpower. But, what is the great use of employing someone who is constantly looking out the door, and what is anyway the great charm of a place where average salaries of experienced project managers with just 8 years of experience is just about exceeding half of U.S. salaries for comparable managers - from where it was just 10 to 15% of U.S. salaries just 4 years ago. It is only upto the investing U.S. and Indian companies to figure out the economics of the same, combined with rising real estate prices. I heard during my trip that some new properties coming up near Lavelle Road in the heart of the city are being priced at Rs 12 Crores, nearly USD 2.75M dollars !

This in a city where when you hit the road you do not know what hit you.

Laughable, to say the least. But, wise men continue to plough the field and wait for their day. The masses and classes continue to buy what excites them in a temperamental fashion. Not me, and not some of the people that I know. It is ridiculous to expect Indian IT industry growth rates to accelerate from where these are at present. Attrition and costly pay increases can be a thing of the past if the cheaper destinations could provide some comparable quality. I hope they do so soon. The economics of the society is completely skewed and you can witness the same in ample measure both in Bangalore and Mumbai. A whole section of the society is left far behind, while the million workers in IT and BPO industry are splurging. Evidence is all over the place, you need to just walk into any mall or a real estate project being launched !

Bangalore has just become the worst city to live in, atleast based on what I saw. Very rich and Super-rich people would not have much complaints. They get what you could probably get elsewhere in the world, and they do not worry about customs duties and the like. But, for the common man, Bangalore has become a harrowing place to lead a life. Water supply and power problems plague the city. Roads are not being maintained. Dangerous vehicles ply the road. People do not value human life (as it is in Mumbai as well).

Well, I should say here that I did meet very smart people in Bangalore, but that is to be expected. There are no surprises here. People who have made it in Bangalore, continue to thrive though they complain sometimes in a light-hearted manner over a beer about the government. I also realised one thing - India seems to be having smart people all over the place, all across the country. It is like seeing what you would choose to see sometimes - these are the folks who we would encounter in business and industry today in India. No wonder India is on an acquisitive mode around the world. Smart people with big ambitions are chasing big dreams.

Well, Bangalore is what it is today because of some of these very smart folks. Kudos to them. But the collective conscience of Bangalore is pleading for the return to the seventies and eighties. I am part of that conscience, having worked and studied in Bangalore.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Best Regards

Vijay Srinivasan
2 December 2006
Mumbai

Apologies and Diwali

There has been no posting for the past couple of weeks. I have been reminded of my journalistic duties by several regular readers. Sorry about the lapse.

It has been the first Diwali after a long time with sound and music. We enjoyed the Diwali Crackers the most - it was now possible to launch rockets from home ! Singapore does not allow bursting of crackers - Diwali is normally a sedate affair with temple visits and long dinners with family and friends. We dropped the temple idea here at Mumbai - does not seem to be the practice anyway - and focused on adding waistlines and launching bombs and rockets.

It was good - only that the security people in the condominium came up several times to ensure that we are behaving properly ! “Please clean up” !!

We went up to the 18th Floor Terrace, and the city was bursting with joyous colours. Environmental fanatics may not agree with the pollution generated by crackers. The socially conscious refute the whole notion of cracker usage, since child labour is used in Sivakasi, a town in southern Tamil Nadu State, to manufacture crackers. My eldest daughter does not seem to be approving of the environmental damage caused.

Well, we all enjoyed the day - it is after all “destruction of demons”, “destruction of evil with lights and fire”, et al. Good finally overtakes evil.

Well, friends, have a wonderful and relaxing Sunday - will catch up soon with some of my new exploits in and around Mumbai soon ! The camera is in full use now, and I am going to upload pictures finally soon.

Best Regards

Vijay Srinivasan
29 October 2006
Mumbai

Clubbing at Mumbai

Mumbai has such a hectic pace, even more so than Singapore, that there is hardly any time to stop and think, or make an attempt to rejuvenate. People from New York tell me the same about NY City. I have personally experienced the pace of Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Seoul. Compared to all of these cities, Mumbai comes out tops !

But I have to say here that the pace is all the more tiring due to the poor infrastructure, which adds to the adrenalin when you are trying to negotiate the bad roads to go to an important client meeting. I am very conscious of timings of appointments, and now I have come to realise that it is worthwhile to add another 30 minutes to the most conservative estimate of travel duration to reach a meeting destination, which has worked out better as I just about manage to arrive almost on time !

Well, the buzz is in the air, and people seem to be ignoring all the traffic woes and infrastructural woes. It is really amazing.

After working for all of 15 weeks, I decided to take a club membership to network and relax. After visiting a few places, I chose The Club at Andheri - you can view their well-designed website at “The Club”.

This place is an oasis in the middle of chaos. Very well laid out, and meticulously maintained, it is a place you would like to go to during weekends. I played bowling this evening with my family, and it was sheer fun. I lost to my wife, which is always the wisest thing to do. We went for dinner at the “Oriental Wok”, which had good Chinese and Thai food, though with strong Indian accent. I prefer the pure Chinese food in Singapore. The greens were not as good, and the mushrooms had too much masala stuff on it. Indian spices on Chinese food do not deliver the wholesome impact one has come to expect of, during the past decade of living in South East Asia. I had always disagreed with the flavours of Muthus’ Curry types - fish is better eaten in its purity with garlic or soy sauce. Unfortunately, Cod fish is not in favour in India, you always get Pomfret or Becti fish. Though my Chinese friends like the Indian Chinese food, I am a complete convert to purity in food tastes. I am off to Beijing next week, and let me try to seek out and get “diced chicken with the full flavour of natural red chillies”, and Chinese greens, apart from my favourite dim sums.

Well enough of food, now I want to share the downside of driving to The Club from my home. It is exactly 6 Kms from my residence, but took almost an hour when we returned home around 10 PM. There was such a massive traffic jam at key intersections that cops were deployed to hold traffic at green lights. How can this place become a global city, keeps me wondering all the time. Discipline on the roads is a reflection of peoples’ character. I am reminded of my own blogpost on this topic, which I wrote on 19th February of this year “Cars, Road Rage and Character”.

Well, life goes on, but the more we attempt to contribute, even by expression, the better it would be ultimately to the cause of society. Many a time, I get an urge to get out of the car and fix a thing on the road, which is ignored by all road users, such as bricks thrown in the middle of the road for unknown reasons, an overturned dustbin, or, stop old people and children crossing the roads oblivious of the oncoming dangers. A society would not have attained the full potential of its cultural heritage and thousands of years of historical learnings, if character and discipline has been lost in the rush towards material prosperity. Ofcourse, in this context, one can rarely see a country as worse off as India in terms of its economic disparities. You may be reminded of Mexico or The Philippines. The gap between the haves and have-nots is huge. Well, that is for another blog post.

Have a good long weekend (Monday, 2nd October, is a holiday in India, being the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi).

Best Regards

Vijay Srinivasan
30 Sep 2006
Mumbai

Urban Decay and Squalor

Mumbai !

I have been visiting Mumbai for the last 15 years, and now I am living in Mumbai for the past couple of months.

One thing that I have observed in my business life out here is the professionalism and drive of the people that I came across. They seem to always want to get things done and move on with business and life, quite purposeful, like what I had encountered in Singapore or Hong Kong. That makes me proud, a confirmation that India has arrived at the crossroads of successful business models which have helped South East Asia thrive over the past decade or so. Atleast as far as Mumbai is concerned.

However, when I go around Mumbai, it makes me feel indeed sad to observe the total breakdown of the physical environment. There is decay everywhere. Mumbai is incredibly dirty. While I don’t really like to travel around within Mumbai, given the traffic conditions, sometimes I do have to go – not happy to be on the roads even in airconditioned comfort. It is unnerving when I look out and see people moving around totally oblivious of their environment. Or, they really do not care, having known for long that no one is going to take any action to correct the environmental problems or traffic situation.

I went around the Western suburbs of the city. Let me tell you – I do not wish to publish the photographs – it is just beyond belief. Publishing photos of this type, I believe, will only aggravate the perception of a total breakdown of Mumbai. It is not a good feeling, and one should avoid propagating the negative. However, anyone with a modicum of civic consciousness should spend sometime thinking about the urban decay all around.

Andheri, Malad, Kandivili, Borivali – these are some of the suburbs of Mumbai. On any given day, you can see overspilling dust bins (actually, these are “wells” – big in diameter) which are left in the open, sometimes in the middle of a lane – which have huge amounts of waste and food items thrust into them. Many a time these spill over into the road, and the traffic goes on top……terrible to think of the squalor. Over and above this, you can see poor folks trying to dig into the waste and pick out stuff – this in the world’s largest democracy which had food surplus over the past few years. A most unfortunate breakdown of governance and responsibility towards the people. And a most unfortunately indifferent crowd of people who are only bothered about themselves and their pockets.

On the road to Kandivili suburb from Malad side, you can see there is a wide open expanse which is a rarity in Mumbai, and the road has fortunately, two well-marked lanes. On one side, you can see cows taking up about 40% of the right lane, feeding on the dust bins, and men defecating on the side, in complete sync with nature and animal kingdom. On the other side, you can see a long line of auto rickshaws parked, taking up about 35% of the left lane. Any driver needs to be extremely conscious while navigating such roads, but the Mumbai drivers having been trained for ages in blind driving, shriek their horns and rush into the mayhem.

While I was shopping for an umbrella in Spencers’ at the Inorbit Mall (which is touted to be the biggest mall in terms of area in Mumbai), I had to cross over from Hyper-City side to the Mall side. Since it was raining heavily, I was walking slowly, avoiding a huge pool of water on the road. But the drivers were impatient, and continued to horn while I made the crossover (this is from one building to the adjacent one, along the pavement, which crosses the entry points of both buildings !). There was absolutely no other way I could have crossed, and there was no need to horn. But, Mumbai drivers score for discourteousness close behind Delhi drivers. Though they look well educated, well dressed, and prosperous, I found that almost 90% of Mumbai drivers have no driving sense. I also noticed that most cars do not have drivers, rather the owners who were driving the cars. This told me that culture was lacking in the commercial, financial and fashion capital of India. Will blog about this more in future postings.

Will Mumbai ever become a Shanghai ? As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh desires ? My call is that it will not. There is no determination, either in the minds of the government officials or the populace, to make amends, fix things, and move on towards greater prosperity by attracting the world to a cleaner city with a better infrastructure. Just fixing the airport won’t do. Just completing couple of technology parks, or couple of highways here and there will not do. India would need the determination of a China to make things better for its citizens. And, if it can’t be done in Mumbai, where else can it be done ? The people of Mumbai are probably the best business and business-like people in all of India. If they can’t drive their government and civic bodies to fix their own problems, I doubt whether they can make their city Asia’s leading financial centre – like a London, or a Singapore, or a Hong Kong. Let alone Shanghai, which gleams like a brand new city despite its past which is probably as long as Mumbai’s.

Have a wonderful weekend folks, and think about urban squalor and environmental destruction, for a change.

Vijay Srinivasan
5th August, 2006
Mumbai