Atrocities - Monday, July 19, 2010 17:18 - 1 Comment
Indian Railways Disaster Facts
The Indian Railways network stretches across 64,000 KM, fourth largest in the world after the US, Russia and China. This fact makes me proud, but what follows are facts that can make any Indian’s head hang in shame.
Disastrous Numbers
- More than 1,000 accidents since 2004 alone.
- In 2008-09, the number of accidents declined to 177, down from 320 in 2003-04, and a shocking figure of 2,000 in 1960-61. Bet this was the year when they tried running the trains on the fields rather than the tracks.
- In 2008-09, over 200 people died in railway accidents. This year has already seen 200 dead, wonder what the count be at year-end.
- The railway safety fund has $3.6bn (£2.4bn) to make trains safer for the millions who use the rail network every year. Little surprised that most railway officials have palatial houses and luxury cars at their disposal.
- Nearly 17,000 unmanned railway crossings across India allow people to walk or drive through them without wasting precious time waiting for the train to pass. So what if every once a while they get hit by a train. Believe it or not, these have amount to over a third of all railway accidents since 2004.
I can write more, but what is the point? Accidents are not going to end anytime soon.
Forgive me for my pessimist views, but hey, this is what history has taught me. Just when we are about to forget about one train accident, another one happens.
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Tales from Hyderabad - Aug 9, 2009 0:02 - 3 Comments
A Box of Chocolates? No, you Dumb Ass it’s the Check!
As out time to leave Hyderabad approaches, we were keen to visit the ones that we haven’t visited till now. Dimple suggested 70 MM and that’s where we were headed, with Binoy and Nimmy who had agreed to spend thei5r Saturday evening with us. For the ill-informed, 70 MM is located on Necklace Road and is owned by the Ohri’s group of Hotels, who already have about 15 eateries in the city.
What welcomed us was a spacious campus which had the breeze from Hussain Sagar lake flowing through it. The Ohri’s management always likes to theme their eateries, 70MM was no different and it was based on the Bollywood theme. On stepping inside we were welcomed by a mannequin of Helen in her all revealing outfit, right opposite to an Amitabh Bachchan mannequin replicating that famous scene from “Amar, Akbar, Anthony” when he appears out of an egg shell. The walls were lined with posters from Bollywood movies of yesteryear’s.
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Guides - Mar 21, 2008 4:01 - 4 Comments
DIY Laptop Stands that Cost Nothing
I’ve never been too fond of laptops, but when my employer handed me a ThinkPad T60, I didn’t say no either. Soon enough I started experiencing the very problems that had always kept me off laptops till now; working on laptops can cause your neck to hurt like hell. This is because one has to bend the neck slightly to be able to view the screen. So unless I could find a way to to raise the laptop to a level somewhere close to my line of sight, constant pain was going to become the order of the day.
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Commentary - Jun 22, 2010 23:11 - 2 Comments
Up ahead: Commonwealth woes Start now
As part of the preparations for the Commonwealth Games, Delhi Traffic Police will begin blocking one lane of several carriageways across the city to test a traffic plan that will be in force during the Commonwealth Games in October. The restrictions will be in place for all 24 hours of the day and are likely to stay in force till and during the Games.
Doesn’t the Delhi Traffic Police know that the traffic in Delhi is as it is chockablock, that it now plans to further congest it? While this plan may help ease commuting for the Game participants, what about the public?
My office is in Gurgaon, and I drive down the 45 KM from NOIDA in about 90 minutes (if I leave office before 5:30 PM). Unfortunately, a good portion of the carriageways where these restrictions will apply fall within the route I take to office. So my travel time is bound to increase substantially. Don’t even want to think b how much!
Why isn’t the media talking about this and what about the already suffering public that is about to be hit with yet more suffering?
If someone doesn’t create a noise about this soon enough, countless motorists such as I are doomed. Especially, if you take into account how impassible Delhi roads become just after 30-minutes of rain, imagine what will happen when the monsoon hits us with full force.
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