I am back

The days are going good, though a bit hectic. Placements are done, CG is out and the term II mid terms are approaching and in between all this we also have to work on European Nite as I am part of International Student Exchange Committee of IIML. So the time is really a scarce commodity, but still somehow I am able to manage it. I will be updating about my trips to Miller brewries, Kohler and Singapore soon.

And yes the good news is Dada is back as the captain of KKR....

My Date with the History of Motorcycles

Milwaukee is famous for two things, first its home of Harley Davidson and then its also home of one of the finest breweries of America. So during my stay in Milwaukee i decided to take the opportunity to visit the base of Harley Davidson. First of all it was amazing to see their power train operations but the real glamor of the trip was the visit to Harley Davidson Museum.


It was great to see the history of motorcycles along with illustrative models to describe the working of engines, interactive system to tell about the complete product life cycle right from the concept stage, all the engines of Harleys in working condition and an interactive system, with which you can listen to the patented sound of various engines. It was not my first trip to a motorcycle factory, but still the experiences could not be compared with any other thing. And at the end of it all, I was allowed to configure my own Harley, and then it was sent to me by e-mail (unfortunately only the photograph).

It was nice to see the bikes built through the past 105 years, with the oldest ones resembling closely with Hero Jet kind of bicycles. with just an engine on the frame and guess what all the controls were on the top of fuel tank. You look at the photograph and you will end up saying.. oops that's an Harley, but once one goes through the whole range, s/he will realise that its not just the living creatures that followed Darwin's theory of evolution.

Just look at the stand of the bike, It would have been difficult for sure to the bike on stand.

And guess what a bit modern bikes in 1910s were even used for motor sports including Motor Cycle Polo (well you replace horses with Bikes) and racing.

It was amazing to see the way American Industry responded (might be it was an obligation) to the requirement by the nation at the time of war. During both the world wars Harleys played significant role and for some years even civilian models were completely blocked to dedicate all the capacity for defence production, and if some capacity still remained that was utilized to produce bombs. Even at Kohler, the scene was same, I wonder how a ceramic products factory can produce bomb shells but it has happened.

After the end of World war II, Harleys were back in action amongst the common people. and then started the era of experimentation with the bikes, and I tried capture a few of them I found most amazing. I have seen such bicycle with a couple (or more ) paddles but a motor bike with two engines and even two fuel tanks is a bit too much.

And then a tiny Harley, I still remember the tiny Rajdoot, but the size of this Harley was good enough to qualify it for children, which can fit in the back of a station wagon, but it was made of fully grown people.

Following I am not sure from which angle gets the qualification to be called as bike, with an engine as big as Tata Mini truck.

Then is the one which is a tribute to the long standing relations between Pakistan and America. You can compare it with pakistani trucks, looks like the designer was deeply impressed with the visual appeal of those trucks but I have enough reasons to believe that the experiment was not successful. (Actually this was done by some one who was supposed to stay home as he was ill)

Finally the engine room, which had all the Harley engines till date. I will post the videos later, which contain sound of Harley engines. The section also had very good illustrative models to explain the working of a four cylinder engine, gear box, fly wheel (and its gyroscopic action, which contributes to stability of bike). I think this would have made the Internal Combustion engines subject easy for us way back in 2002.

After all that gyan, I finally get a chance to sit on a modern looking bike made by the same company with Buell Brand.

You can see other photographs at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/ashutosh.chandel/HarleyDavidsonMuseum

I am visiting Miller Brewers this Saturday and will update you all about the beer making.

CBI-The Congress' Bureau of Investigation

If I can make out anything from the recent actions of the CBI, it is very clear that congress is finding it impossible to come back to power and before loosing hold of CBI they just want to clear the names of the people like Tytler, Sajjan Kumar and Quatrocchi. To my astonishment the attorney general and now the prime minister calls the Red corner notice against Quatrochchi (now taken off) as the embarrassment to the government. I am not sure what embarrassment are they referring too, probably they feel embarrassed after Interpol asks them why are you helping Quatrachchi in packing his money (Hansraj Bhardwaj helped during an official visit), when you are asking us to crack him down. Other then that I can not understand any kind of embarrassment a government has to face for the fugitives.



Why Mr. Manmohan Singh and company are so embarrassed by the fact the Mr Q is required by Interpol, is he some relative of Ms. Super PM. Or if he feels after failing to -plead successfully to bring Mr Q back from Argentina, then why is he not feeling embarrassed with the fact that his government is sitting on the capital punishment order for Afzal by the supreme Court of India, or for that matter thousands of Indians who are in jails waiting for their trails to begin. Why Mr. Manmohan Singh is not embarrassed by the fact that partners in his government are openly praising and accepting friendship to the killers of India's former PM (that too from his own Party and a friend of Mr. Q). Why is Mr. Manmohan singh is not feeling embarrassed with that fact the Interpol website carries numerous Indian wanted with confirmed addresses in places like Canada, UK, Middle East and Pakistan. And Why Mr. Manmohan Singh is not embarrassed about the fact that Interpol website does not point to CBI website properly (http://www.interpol.int/Public/Wanted/Fugitives/Links.asp#10).



This case of embarrassment is like a person a person, first opens his car and screws it up and instead of taking to proper mechanic calls it an embarrassment to keep such a thing and sells it. Here first the central Minister asked London bank to de freeze Mr. Q's accounts as they supposedly did not carry bofors money (why such an affection for an accused that Mr. Bhardwaj himself travelled to make the request). Then CBI faults big time with a new arrest warrant instead of the original one. Now Mr. PM says since we have faulted in the past its better to leave Mr. Q alone. I am not sure why is the congress party so adamant about not bringing Mr. Q back to India. Probably Mr. Q in India can provide some info against SPM. But at least they should use better arguments or methods to hide such things, calling it embarrassment because of your past failures is not a thing that can be digested. The Interpol website itself says that accused until proven guilty in the court of law can not be assumed guilty, then whats wrong with keeping a person as wanted until he appears before the court and court decides.

Here we must keep in mind that with the revocation of red corner notice Mr. Q is a free bird and can be assumed not guilty, even thought Indian courts did not get even hold of him, thanks to CBI.

Warne the Magician and Dada the great

I am happy... both the matches go as I wanted, first a thrilling win to delhi and then a loss to Kolkata with Dada proving his worth. In the second match, no one would have thought the way warne thought to defend a moderate total of 150. To block Gayle and McCullum, warne brought Yusuf and that appeared to be a well thought decision and then when they were almost done by the heroics of Dada, he took the things in total control.

When KKR required just seven from the last over, he put the new guy Kamran, who has never played even a ranji game, I was not able to stop myself from comparing Kamran's performance with that of Dilhara in IPL 1.0 RR Vs MI. Dilhara has loads of experience of international matched and he was not able to withstand the pressure of last over whereas now this new guy successfully restricts the opponents.

I wanted Warne to beat his ex coachie, who thinks of himself another Sun Tju. There are certainly big problems going in KKR camp thanks to Coachie, it was evident by the newcomer Yashpal was ignoring Dada'a advice. This guy Yashpal seems to be very arrogant or may be is on high with the closeness to new order in KKR. That guy got two catches and both the times his reactions just shown the arrogance. But at the end of it I am happy for Dada, who made blistering 46 to bring his team back into the contest, which I believe is just a start to make Vinnie and Coachie realize the real worth of Dada as a player. Also the Sun Tzu's bet on Mendis was so foolish that even a rookie like me told my friends before the super over that he will be butchered by Yusuf, who is particularly good against spin.

But there has been something not good yesterday and that was not blog from fake ipl player. I am worried about the guy, is he caught or he has just taken a break to escape the high levels of scrutiny. Whatever it may be, I am desperately waiting for his new post to know more about the happening after yesterday's match. Or if he was caught, I am eagerly waiting for the insider news about the identity of that guy.

The New Age Jaichands

Prithivi Raj chauhan's campaign against against Mohammed Ghori's repeated attempts came to an end when Jaichand decided to take personal revenge by helping the forigner.

When Sonal Shah was appointed in the Obama’s transition team, some Indian-Americans expressed their concerns about her VHP and RSS Links. A big news was made of this, however I still fail to understand why someone having links with RSS can raise concerns among Indians living in USA, after all RSS is not a terrorist organization. Obama has links with church and no one makes an issue of that, then why should someone having links with VHP be considered a problem by Indians. Same way congress and its supporters living in US make it a point to lobby strongly against the visa to a democratically elected CM of Indian State.

I do not know really how brutal it was in Kandhar, but the way it was portrayed it just looked like another holocaust. EU expressed its concerns for the safety of cristians in India, why because of some people in India sitting and reporting and making it another holocaust. It might have been bad, not as bad as was reported. I know a few people, working in MNCs, who applied for immigration to European countries on grounds of threat to their lives in India. Then there are NGO who have to sell such things to get the money.

Coming to the report of SIT, which was appointed by Supreme Court, that says that NGOs actually cooked up the events in Gujrat after Godhara. SIT clear points out that people like Teesta have actually tutored the witnesses. The role of media can also not be denied in this, people might remember the sting operation done by Tahlka just before the last Gujrat Elections. Are the people like Teesta are doing it just get some extra money, which casts India to be ranked among the countries not safe for minorities.

I think all such people, who just for the sake of some personal rivalries or some money go all out to malign the image of India, are more dangerous then one Jaichand. If such people are not controlled, I fear India might be just getting closer to another partition (Current population break up of India is pretty close to what it was in 1947). Anyways the experiments like Ulema Council have already began, which if work out the bad days are around.

The New Emotional Atyachar- Juta

When Raj Kapur sang the song "Mera Juta hai Japani", he would have never imagined that the Juta is going to be one of the most pronounced ways of expressing one's anger against the mighty people. The most powerful person alive on the earth was probably the first among them, then the list just keeps going on and the latest addition is Naveen Jindal.

Even a few people tried using some other substances like custured(In UK) in place of Juta, but I am sure nothing can meet the emotional power of a Juta. If the trend carries on may be the Netas, before coming out in public will ask the the audience to come barefoot and I know for sure Madam Mayawati will be the first amongst them, who already imposes a curfew on roads when she moves around. May be the union home ministry will come up with a new Z-Boot category of security for the possible targets and most importantly the commandos guarding them wont also be allowed to wear the Juta (as people still remember Indira was killed by her own security guard). May be for them the dress code will include the black painted toes (as was done by the participants of one Indian reality show). Also may be a new act on the line of NSA will be devised to protect the lawmakers, by putting any shoe hurler behind the bars for at least one year without bothering about bail. Or may be a Juta in hand can be included in the Arms Act (Sanjay Datt's one).

However once ready with all the acts and agencies to act against Juta Hurlers, the union ministry will carry out an assessment to decide the category of threat. I think that assessment should include past and present acts of screwing up the people. If I was to come up with the assessment my list will go like this: threat level max at top

1. Mayawati
2. Karunanidhi & Vaiko
3. Amar Singh
4. J Jayalalitha (The leaders from tamil nadu may do the task themselves)
5. Lalu Yadav
6. Mulayam Singh yadav
7. Shivraj Patil
8. Raj Thakre
9. Narendra Modi
10. Rabri Devi
11. Mamta Banarjee
12. Prakash Karat
13. Arjun Singh (For OBC reservations)
14. H D Devegauda
15. V.S. Achutanandan (Kerala CM)
16. Narayan Rane
17. Shalman Khan
18. K. Chandrasekhar Rao (TRS guy)
19. Ram Muthalik (a surprise entry, thanks to our media)
20. Om Praksh Chautala

However even after blocking all the Jutas, there might be other even more deadly weapons like the undergarments (Not sending by post, actually some one might remember Kangna Ranut doing the act in Woh Lamhe http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIHLeulXRTI).

# Even though I tried to be as unbiased as our Media is, however my perception might have caused a couple of name not included in the list. However I want to make it very clear that these are not the people who I want to target, but simply I think they might be targeted.

Others are free to put their additions and omissions for the list.

Diversity and freedom

We have a President who insists on covering her head and wearing long sleeves even in the height of summer, a Prime Minister who wears a turban, a Chief Election Commissioner who proudly displays a caste mark, and Parliamentarians who make a practice of sporting unconventional apparels which ensure that their caste, community or region is easily identifiable. I personally feel, that to build a harmonious, integrated society in modern day India, it might be wiser to try ironing out differences in society, instead of going out of the way to reinforce the angularities.

I recall the advice to the Parsees by the ruler of Sanjan, Jadi Rana, back in the eighth century. The Parsees, who fled religious persecution in Persia, landed in Gujarat and requested asylum. Jadi Rana allowed them to settle on certain conditions. The Parsees were told to give up the Persian language and speak the local lingo. They were also asked to dress like the natives and respect and observe the customs of the majority community. They could practise their religious ceremonies in private. The king's advice was sound. This minority community prospered in its adopted land by melting easily into the mainstream, even while maintaining its identity for over 1200 years.

The achievements in the 60th yr of Independence

I consider following as the major achievements of the country in the last one year:

1: Tatas take over of Corus.
2. The growth rate of 9.4 % for the financial year 06-07.
3. Sentences to 1993 blasts culprits.
4. Indo US nuke Deal.
5. Sensax Crossing 15000.
6. A lady president.
7. An Indian Satellite carrying an Israeli secret payload.

६० साल कि आजादी: क्या खोया क्या पाया

Today India completed 60 years of the Independence, with that came some different interpretation of the 60 years. Some said "now India becomes a senior citizen" & some said " India at 60 is Sexy". The second statement itself reflects the change in the culture & the attitude of the society.

Today I read a very good comparison on various measure of the India in 1947 & India in 2007. the statistics were great & gave a sense that we have grown a lot indeed. Defiantly we have grown a large extent, from the era of movies like "Sant Tukaram" to the era of movies like " Cheeni Kum". In 1947 people believed in gods & saints. They also had one alive saint to worship at that point of time. The saint died & came the era of an charismatic leader, who took initiatives to establish the county in the International stage & also tried his best to establish the Industry & the Institutions, which took the country forward. the 50s & 60s were not good but still the people were happy, as they were not having much of the glimpse of the developed world & remained happy being a third world country. The movies of that time were also showcasing same happiness, some sorrow & sometimes the society as reflected in "naya daur".

Then came the era of the great Indian middle class, the India made of the clerks. People had to stand in ques for even the basic amenities. With that came the anger against the system, the system which deteriorated considerably. People were unhappy with the redtapism, unemployment & the quotas. The society found its reflection in an "angry young man", who portrayed the anger of the great Indian middle class.

With the advent of MNCs in India after India adopted a liberal economic policy, the country started to use global brands. The same way evolved the angry young man, who now is an very happy old man and plays a sexy sam. No more we are bothered about the old moral values & the ethics. In the same manner grew the Indian middle class, whose children now work for IT companies instead of trying to become "babus". The good old "Buland bharat ki buland tasweer" no more produces Chetaks, it now has a different tone, which represents the today's youth. A population, which is happy in itself.

Also at the same time there was a part of that old Indian middle class, who were not able to catch up with the development. They fell back, but still part of that great Indian middle class. The Middle class has grown & has grown its range. People living in metros, who spend there holidays abroad are middle class walahs & at the same time the families living on 1500Rs a month in UP & Bihar consider themselves also to be from the middle class.

India has grown and will grow with good pace, but what has to be ensured is that every sect of the society participates in this growth.

Stronger Rupee = Stronger India

Let me ask a question first.

What type of economic strength is preferable to India?
A) A strong Indian economy fueled by its cheap labor due to a weaker rupee against dollar, where the Indians end up working in shifts, late nights, whole nights and what not… only doing low profile jobs which foreign companies want to offload to India, so that they can concentrate on high end works and become even better. For instance in IT field, providing BPO services, support and maintenance work for products…

OR

B) A strong Indian economy fueled by its strong innovations and products, no matter whether the rupee is strong or weak against dollar.. where Indians work only in regular office hours of 9 to 6, developing cutting edge technologies and solutions, selling our world class products both inside and outside India. For instance in IT field, imagine operating systems, compilers, databases etc all coming out of India..

I do not deny the fact that the IT boom in India came to a large extent because of (A). Well and good, we have had the benefits of our cost being cheap in western markets due to a weak rupee against dollar.. We have had our share because of this advantage in the past 2 decades..

But at the same time doesn't it make sense to move towards (B), instead of crying foul against rupee becoming stronger against dollar?

What a pity! Indian IT companies are feeling bad because rupee is becoming stronger against dollar! Reason, their profits will go down when the value of rupee is stronger, as every single dollar that comes into their account now means lesser rupee than earlier..(if for instance earlier they used to get 47 rupees for every dollar that comes in, but today its about 40!)

But isn't this a matter of celebration? Our rupee is gaining importance internationally and is becoming stronger again.. How many of us know that in 1947 when India got independence 1 Rupee was 1.2 US dollars?

These Indian IT companies instead of relying on a weaker rupee for their profit should now look at coming out with innovative products and technical solutions. What have these companies done in the arena of core system products? Why don't we have any operating systems, compilers, database systems, development platforms etc coming out of India? Why don't we develop tools like photoshop or flash? We have talent, but they all are working in American companies on these products.. Cannot our Indian IT companies setup at least small teams to develop such products?

Instead they are planning to make their employees work on saturdays too ! So that their profits can increase due to extra hours the employees put in.. As if India doesnt have any other option other than cheap labour, workaholic labor!! Are there no brains in India who can setup companies developing products and make money just by printing out more serial numbers and burning their product DVDs?

If Indian companies continue to depend on its weak currency, then how would Indian economy survive in a world where all currencies have equal value? Survival of the fittest.. Only greater innovation can help us in that case..

We need to have knowledge and technological advantage if India wants to become a superpower, not low cost based cheap labor advantage! Let the Chinese do it..

I hope that rupee becomes more and more stronger so that Indians are forced to use their brains and come up with innovative products and next generation technologies, than to provide low end services…

We need to create a situation where other countries line up to buy our F-16s, to buy our operating systems, to buy our mobile phones and I-pods, to buy our Boeing, to buy our Mercedes…

A stronger rupee means we can easily afford foreign trips!

"A stronger rupee means Indians can buy things anywhere in the world on par with developed economies! We dont have to spend crores of rupees then to buy a Boeing! We don't have to pay tens of thousands of rupees for international air travels! A stronger rupee means greater international exposure! There wont be a difference between buying a Maruti and buying a Mercedes! One can go on a trip to the Grand Canyon just like the way one goes to Ladakh or Nepal ! How do you think american citizens are able to tour all over the world? Because they earn more? No. But because their currency USD is stronger.. and this is where a strong rupee will lead us to!… "

I am not saying providing low end services is wrong .. It gave us a very good start in the 90s. But that should definitely not be the bread and butter fueling our economic boom indefinitely in the future.. For the simple reason that it can't continue to do so any longer.. other low cost destinations, cheaper than India are already coming up in the world… Let us move ahead… become more innovative.. the journey has just started… This is just the beginning of all the beginnings…

My first experiment with electro Magnetic waves...

I remember little about the time we had a black & white television. That was in 1994. Cable must have just about. Maybe at the time I didn't even have enough sense to think about getting a cable connection. The television used to be kept in a room on the first floor of the house. I was sitting alone watching it. At the time b&w televisions didn't have remote controls, but perhaps now they do. Sitting all by myself, I thought why not twist the television's ears and change channels. Thought to myself that just like the transistor catches radio and FM waves, maybe television will catch some of the cable channels. Twist by twist, I reached one such channel which was showing a film. I thought why not try and move the wire around a little to see if the image clears a little more. But the image didn't change. I thought something must be done so I can watch cable. The cable-guy's satellite was just five steps away. The wires were tied to an electricity pole in front of the house. All that separated me from them were the electricity wires to the pole, and the breadth of the lane. I cast a glance at the rooftops in the market. They had tied a speaker, the rim of a cycle and a magnet to the antenna on their roofs.

I thought, something has to be done. I went to the kabari (scrap dealer) shop in my lane and bought a cycle rim. Then, went up to my roof, removed the wire from the antenna and tied it to the cycle rim. Back downstairs to the TV, I saw cable (transmission) was clear. When mummy came back from her vegetable shopping, she was surprised to see a new movie on television. She asked me, "There is a new film on the television?" I said I made it happen with my brain. Mummy said, "What did you do?" I told her to go up and see for herself. I was sitting downstairs, watching the film. Mummy quietly went up and removed the rim from the antenna. I thought maybe there is some problem from the main transmission. Mummy came back down and said, "Go return this rim to wherever you got it from." I asked her why she had removed it. Mummy said, "When your father returns from duty today, we'll get a cable connection." I replied with an 'okay'.

Papa came back in the evening. I asked him to get a cable connection. He said we'd get it done the next day. But I was restless for cable. I sneaked Raju into the house and started to think about a new plan.

And this is what I did - I took the TV antenna wire, removed the insulation, and pulled out the strands of wire one by one. I told Raju, "I'll keep peeling off the insulation, you keep winding it up." Two hours passed. We estimated the length of the wire would be enough to reach across now. I said to Raju, "You go stand on the roof opposite, and throw two small stones from the window." The window didn't have a grill.

I was on the second floor, and just below me was the electricity wire. Raju threw in the stones. I tied the wires I had peeled, the thickness of which was microscopic, to these stones. Then I threw them across. But they got entangled in my hand and landed straight on the electricity wires. The shock I got then! For a second I thought I was dead and gone to heaven. But I didn't relent, and threw the wire once again. Raju was quick. He caught them and quickly swung up his arms. I ran up to that roof, and simply tied the wires to the joint in the cable. I came back to find the transmission was smooth and clear.

Next day, papa said, "Get a cable connection today." I thought, who wants to give a hundred and fifty rupees every month. I said, "Let it be. What's the need."

Jugad

I am not able to recall exactly when I heard this term "Jugad" for the first time. It might have been in my childhood days, when I wouldn't have even been able to speak. Every thing in India works on "Jugad".

Jugad: which I believe literally means something out of the way, but has several other meaning as well in common language. The other meanings can be alternative arrangement, source, approach, close associates, well known persons, an attempt to get a thing done, source of livelihood. This is also one word which changes its meaning very often depending upon the speaker, circumstances & the context. But why am I writing about this great word today……

I believe that this is the one thing which has been most influential thing the life of Indians. We are grown up in a jugad culture, where we are accustomed to find out the out of the way solutions for our problems.

The jugad cycle starts with the birth of the child. First the parents have to have some jugad(approach) in the municipal office to get the birth certificate (Jugads also need cash). Then to get an admission in good school, to get a job………..even to get a space for funeral pier you need to have jugad in our country. We are so absorbed in this way of work that we even don’t want to explore the solution available………I need a driving licence, so what a jugad will do….People searching for jobs can often be found out asking for jugads in the offices…..My electricity meter is running fast..so what if I have a have jugad(Close associate or a known person), who can open the meter without disturbing its seal…through some jugad(alternative arrangement) & then slowing down the speed through some jugad…..Its the era of jugads….n that approach only has slowed down our development. Instead of looking for good solutions we always set some jugad(shortcut), We don’t try to fulfill our duties….n then a jugad can save….

Some times you search for a jugad to get the money….i paise ka koi jugad karao…n if it works then jugad fit ho gaya….its not always negative of out of the way. It may also refer to an arrangement…ghar ka jugad hua kya.

Jugad has also given a lot of things to our society….Its the root of innovation. If you ever happen to visit some villages in UP/Haryana/Rajasthan, you will find out a vehicle named jugad……a bullock cart where the bulls have been replaced by a diesel engine.....(even Ferrari can’t think of such a thing)…It has a flexible capacity….I myself have witnessed a jugad carrying around 30-40 ppl….

Then upon reaching the village you can easily spot cycle rims with some wire connected to it on top of the homes……..This is a jugad TV antenna….I am not sure about the innovator but this is absolutely great….n provided an easy access to DD…I am desperately waiting for the day when some jugad will be available to bring DTH services as well. I am sure that the great jugadis of India will certainly do that some day…. A bullet motorbike used for a tractor to plow…..some used cell giving electric power with the help of cow dung & sun…and a lot others…

I believe if these jugadi’s were given a chance, could have earned some nobles for India..

Some ourkutian also started a jugad community….n there’s a website too http://jugad.livejournal.com/

I belive we can’t live without these jugads….Long live jugad…

My Jugad tip: You can use your headphone as microphone….if required, sound quality may not be that good but it can work it the times when no other option is available….

Basically the funda of a Mic is same as that of a speaker….Just plug the headphone jack in to the place for mic & place the phone near to your mouth…Sometimes only one earplug will catch the voice…but better headphones can even record stereo sound just record the sound from right earplug & play it…it will play only on the right speaker of your comp. So next time when u don’t have a mic n got friend on gtalk, just plug your earplugs in to the mic socket……