The empire strikes back.

Is it just me that wonders how come all of a sudden Indians and Indian organisations have
become so aggressive on the business front ? The dust had not yet settled on the purchase of
Arcelor (Europe's steel giant) by the very-Indian-but-based-inUK Mittal Steel group,
when the Indian Steel giant Tata acquired another big name in steel "Corus".

And now, we hear that Tata has picked up the luxury automobile marquees "Jaguar" and
"LandRover" from American auto-major Ford. Being an auto-enthusiast, I am glad that an
Indian company owns such world-renowed brands. But at the same time, I am not really
sure how Tata is going to add value to these brands, which have been bleeding for quite some
time (which was why Ford put them up for sale, in the first place).

As far as making steel goes, the Tatas are renowned, having been in the business for
decades. But their car manufacturing arm is pretty nascent and their cars have always
been plagued with minor niggles and even serious issues, unlike the awesome reliability of
Japanese cars. Anyway, all the best to the Tatas to make a success out of this acquisition.

Europeans could not (and many have still not been able to) reconcile to the fact of the brown man buying a white company, especially one that is as renowned as Arcelor (supposedly a
jewel in the EU's crown). The Arcelor chief even tried to have a Russian company buy (atleast
ownership stays white, eh!) them instead of the Mittals and there were quite some racist
comments floating around during the deal-making.

The same feelings would surface again with this deal inked by Tata, only to be replaced by
acceptance of the changing world order. From what I read in the papers, the unions were
actually happy that an Indian company was buying them, because they felt Indians would
be more humane in the treatment of workers and not follow the hire-and-fire policy which
is so common in the west.

As if to confirm their belief, Ratan Tata (head of the Tata group) announced that all the
workers would be retained and no lay-offs are planned post-acquisition.

So, hopefully we should be seeing Jags and LandRovers on the streets of India soon. Waiting
for the day.

Destroying some common myths about Indians.

Kerala Tourism started the trend of having awesome visuals/videos for its ads, which literally

lured tourists (both Indian and foreign) to the picturesque state of Kerala, on the shores of the Arabian sea.

Slowly, other states like Tamilnadu, Orissa, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh etc saw

the potential in having more people visiting them and followed suit with ads that were drawn

up to lure visitors.

Apart from these state-wise promotions, there is the "Incredible India" campaign, which works to project India as a whole, to the world, as a great tourist destination. Given below is

a clever ad from India Tourism, with awesome copy to match the striking photo.

Make your own road - the Jeep & Gypsy way.

As I guessed (so rightly), Chennai was back to its normal hot weather on Saturday. There
was no sign at all of the rains and good weather that we had had for the preceding 3 days.

But that did not deter us (a group of 30 guys) from doing the long-planned road trip. We met
at 12PM (hot, hot sun) and then drove down on the East Coast Road (known better as ECR - runs along the sea) to a secluded beach which the off-roading gurus deemed as a good place
for off-roading.

As the 10-odd cars turned spectators to a sport that they cannot even think of doing in their wildest dreams, the 2 Suzuki Gypsys (known as the Suzuki Samurai in other parts of the world) and the 2 4WD Jeeps took over, mesmerising the audience, most of whom were seeing offroading for the first time.

There was nothing that deterred these beasts - they ran over shrubs, jumped into pits which were like 3 feet or more deep (and came out easily), drew circles on the beach sand and even climbed wild inclines. In short, They made their own road. See pics below.

1. The beasts set off for some fun on the beach.


2) The Gypsy did get stuck once when it bit a little more than it could chew - see below. But
then the Jeep came to the rescue with its winch and steel cable.


3) The Gypsy is not deterred by a failure and tries again. But does not succeed.


4) The Jeep does make it (on the 3rd attempt though). But then it has AWD.


5) I have loved the Gypsy from childhood and after this, I am smitten. Check out this pic.
Looking as if it is coming up from the sea. A la Halle Berry in that Bond movie. :-)


6) The other Jeep - I liked the open looks of this one.


7) The cars at the restaurant parking.


8) Some wild shrub with flowers, on the beach.

9) The Jeep making its own road.

By the time we were done with this and reached Mahabalipuram for lunch, it was like 4PM. Everyone was hungry and thirsty and tired - more so because all the action was under the

hot sun. But all was forgotten as soon as the Kingfisher beer bottles came out. :-)

As the tagline for the beer goes, "The king of good times".

P.S.: If you happen to find yourselves at Mahabs, the Moonrakers restaurant is a good place

to go to, if you like seafood (nice calamari) and beef. And ofcourse, nice chilled Kingfisher to

wash it all down with.

The weather God is being kind on Chennai.

It is mid-March and at this time of the year in Chennai, the sun should be giving a preview of how the summer is going to be this year. Well, no suspense in how the summer is going to be.
It will be same as last year and the year before and so on - BLAZING HOT.

But wait a minute. That is not how the weather has been for the past 2-3 days. It has been generally cloudy, not much sun and surprise of surprises, we have had rains (brief though)
in March.

I don't know how much this has to do with Global Warming, but I am noticing a welcome
change in the Chennai weather pattern. Years ago, rains were something that you got during
the months of Aug-Sep only. But over the past couple of years, we are getting occasional
showers all round the year.

Mind you, these showers cannot be called real rain (rain as in what we get in Kerala), where
it rains not cats and dogs, but pigs and sheep. The duration is also different. In Chennai, the
rains come in suddenly, catching everyone by surprise and ofcourse drenching them and after
a few minutes, the sun is shining bright, as if nothing happened.

In Kerala, you get warnings, in the form of the sky slowly darkening and when it rains, man,
it will rain for quite some time. During monsoon, it will rain for days. And this is almost all year round, except for a couple of months when there would be no rains at all.

I am loving the weather and all I hope is it remains like this tomorrow also. Actually it would
be great if it rains like hell tomorrow because me and a group of friends are driving down to Mahabalipuram (50-odd kms from Chennai) for a lunch + some go-karting and then some
off-roading on the beach sands.

There are not many things that can rival the pleasure of driving a car in the rains on the highway. But, knowing Chennai, I won't be surprised if it is back to hot weather tomorrow.

And you thought this happened only in India ...

Take a hard look at any political party in India and you can see the leaders grooming their kids
to take their place. And for those that don't have any kids, there are always some relative or
the other to be propped up in positions of power.

You don't have to be a genius to figure out how it has worked in the Congress party, which has practically been a family fiefdom to be passed on from one generation to another. Starting with Jawaharlal Nehru to daughter Indira Gandhi to her son Rajiv Gandhi to his wife Sonia Gandhi. Ofcourse, they only had control of the party all these years, while actual power did slip to other parties during many terms when the Congress lost elections.

And ofcourse her son Rahul is already being groomed for the top job, and daughter Priyanka is waiting in the wings. Rahul is not married yet, but Priyanka has a couple of kids. So the next generation is already ready.

Add to this list the other heirs in the Congress party viz. the Pilots, the Deoras, the Prasadas etc etc

Coming to other parties, take the DMK down south in Tamilnadu (TN), where Papa MK has son Stalin almost annointed as Chief Minister and daughter Kanimozhi as his representative in New Delhi. And ofcourse elder son Azhagiri is the chieftan in the southern districts of Tamilnadu.

The PMK, which is another party in TN has a heir ready in the form of Anbumani Ramadoss,
son of the party chief Ramadoss. The AIADMK is kind of different as the head honcho Jayalalitha has no heirs, having never married (though marriage is not required to have progeny). And it would be interesting to see the succession battle after she is gone. But then she is not that old and so there is quite some time before we reach that stage.

Kerala is no different. We have the wily Karunakaran trying to make his son and daughter biggies in the state politics, though as of date, he has not seen any success. Same with Karnataka (the Gowdas), Andhra (Reddy's), Uttar Pradesh (the Yadavs), Bihar (again the Yadavs and here the chief has 10 kids - so a full cabinet is available readymade), Punjab (the Badals) etc etc.

The right-wing parties are no different as seen from Uddhav taking over the Shiv Sena from Daddy Thackeray, leaving cousin Raj in the cold. Ofcourse Raj promptly floated a new party,
which will also go to his heirs.

The only ones that seem different are the Communists. Atleast I cannot recall any progeny trying to follow their communist parent's footsteps. But I might be wrong also.

Is it because they want to serve us, the people ? You must be kidding. Not really. Having experienced the fruits of political power and wealth, they want to make sure that their progeny also enjoys it, and thus remain above the hoi polloi.

All this time, I was thinking that this is a pure India-specific (or even Asia-specific, if you include the Bhuttos and the ladies in Bangladesh) thing. Looks like I am wrong, as this article by Nicholas D Kristof in the Asahi Tribune newspaper (also available on his blog at www.nytimes.com/ontheground) indicates.

As he observed correctly, since 1989 (ie. for the last 20 years), the US has had Presidents only from 2 families (Bush and Clinton). If Hilary becomes President, and also manages a second term (which should not be tough because if someone like Dubya can get a 2nd term, any duffer can), that would make it 28 years of American presidency from just 2 families.

Like him, I also doubt whether there is any democracy in the world, which has had the top post held by members of 2 families for such a long period of time.

This is not all. Check out http://bushclintonforever.googlepages.com/ where they already have the successors listed down far into the future. LOL.

2009 - 2017 : Hilary Clinton
2017 - 2025 : Jeb Bush
2025 - 2033 : Chelsea Clinton
2033 - 2041 : George P Bush (Jeb's son)
2041 - 2049 : Chelsea's husband OR an adopted son/daughter of Clintons
2049 - 2057 : Jenna Bush

Ofcourse, if Obama lands the Democratic nomination, then the calculations go for a toss.

Intruding even into a dialogue with God.

Yesterday morning, I was at our parish Church at 9AM for the Sunday mass. Over the years, while still remaining a believer, I have sort of detached myself from the rituals, especially the
routine of attending mass every Sunday. Instead I prefer to drop in at times when the church
is empty (say late evenings) and spend a few minutes in conversation with the power above.

But, when I am at Kerala, I cannot skip Sunday mass, because my parents would like me to
make it. Also because, the church, after Sunday service, is the place to be present, to catch up
with friends, relatives etc.

And as is my usual practice, I prefer to stand outside the church building for the duration of
the mass, instead of being inside the church. There is a mango tree just in front of the church,
whose shade gives some respite from the sun, to those who prefer to stand outside.

The priest's sermon is over and the mass is almost halfway through and is at the main part of
any Catholic mass - the blessing of the body and blood of Jesus, which is a re-enactment of the
Last Supper. As the priest raises the bread (symbolic of the body of Jesus) and the goblet of
wine (symbolic of his blood), everyone bring their hands together in the universal gesture of
prayer and bow their heads. For women, it is required that they also have their head covered
with either the pallu of their saree or dupatta of their salwar-kameez or some cloth.

A little away from where we are standing, on the left side of the church (the church is laid out
in the shape of a cross) stand some women. Women usually stay inside the church during the
duration of the mass. But those with small babies step out when the kids start bawling. The
priest is blessing the bread and wine and I have my hands folded in prayer and my eyes closed.

A few seconds later, I open my eyes and I see a woman with her head veiled and hands folded.
Nothing unusual about this, except for the fact that she is facing away from the church, which
is strange. Whatever be your religion, if you are praying near a place of worship, you would be
facing the church/temple/mosque/gurudwara/pagoda, not away from it.

Since it is quite strange, I continue observing her. And it is only then I notice that her hands
are not exactly together - while one of them is near her chest, the other is against her cheek and partially covered by the dupatta of her salwar-kameez.

Ha, now I get it. She was not actually praying, but talking very discreetly on the mobile phone. Like it has taken over other public spaces, the dimunitive mobile phone has invaded places of worship also. Not even God or the time spent communing with him is immune to being taken over by it.

A tough (and strange) problem calls for tougher preventive measures.

This happened last Thursday evening. Around 5PM, my colleague comes and tells me that
his car is not starting and could I please have a look ? He had driven to work in the morning without any issues, but while leaving for home, the car won't start.

We go to the basement of the building, where the car is parked. Its just a 1-year old car and
except for one time when the battery got drained after the car was left overnight with lights
on, this was the first issue he has faced with the car. I crank the engine, but car does not start.

I can see from the way it cranks that the battery is fully charged - so battery issues can be
eliminated. I check the Fuel Gauge and it is at Empty. Ask him if there is fuel in the car and
he says that he had put 10 litres of petrol the night before, after which he would have done
only maybe some 10kms. So, where did the rest of the fuel go ?

We discuss possibilities of someone stealing fuel at his apartment complex (it is not possible
to steal fuel from cars at the office parking). Since it looks like a problem due to lack of fuel,
I send him out to get a few litres of petrol. He comes back with 2 litres fuel which we pour
into the fuel tank. We try starting the car, but still no success.

After this I am lost. I know a little bit about carburetted cars, having had them at home for
more than 2 decades and with whose innards I am quite familiar with. And I can do some basic debugging as far as fuel lines and filters are concerned. But this is MPFI (ECU controlled) and the engine bay looks entirely different.

So, we give up and call the breakdown service, who send their man with the repair van. He comes, identifies the problem & fixes it in like 15mins and is gone. Any guesses as to what could have been the culprit ?

A rat had chewed the fuel line and also the signal wire indicating the fuel in the tank, resulting
in no fuel to the engine and fuel-gauge showing Empty. Actually the mechanic mentioned
that when he was looking at the lines from the fuel tank, he saw the rat jumping off. :-)

And when I mentioned this incident on the car forum that I am a member of, it seems many
had had this type of issues with rats. And that set me thinking about our cars in Chennai and Kerala. In Kerala, I have noticed a few rats running around in the yard, where we stock firewood. The garage is not far from there and there is quite a possibility of them invading the car. I see a plan forming in my mind.

Chennai is different, because the rats here are huge. I mean, as huge as the cats that are also
around. I have never seen the cats chasing the rats and I think they are just shit scared of
these monsters.

Anyway, I decide to tackle the smaller pests first. Last weekend, at Kerala, I went and bought
a rat trap, made of wood and steel wires. Cost me all of 45 bucks (a dollar). Got some dried
fish which I set as bait and placed the trap near the firewood storing area.

It seems there is a psychology involved even in this seemingly simple act of catching rats. If
you were to keep the trap in an open area, the rats would not even touch it. It seems you have
to keep the trap hidden, so as to attract their attention. Maybe, they do not go for it, if there
is no element of adventure involved.

Quite similar to human psychology, I guess. We want those things that are forbidden for us
or which is kept away from us. A child never gets attracted to the fruits on the dining table.
Instead he tries to get cookies from the jar placed away from his reach.

Anyway next day morning, I check the trap and yes, I have baited the first rat. Now comes
the difficult part of killing them. Drowning is the usual method used and I get an old unused
bucket, fill it with water and drop the trap (with the rat inside) into it. Put a brick on it to
keep it submerged. When I check out after a minute or so, Mr.Rat is looking as fresh as if
he just had a refreshing shower.

So, in he goes again and this time for 3-4 minutes. I bring him up and see that he looks dead,
but still there is some faint movement seen. In he goes again for another 5 minutes, after
which he is truly dead. Take him to the yard and bury him in a hole that I dig up.

Put the trap again that night and the next day, we get another little rat. And yet another one
yesterday night. So, 3 rats in total. Not bad for a total expenditure of 45 bucks. Maybe there
are more out there, but we are not stopping till we have eliminated the whole family.

Ofcourse, I still have not decided what to do about their bigger cousins at Chennai. They won't
fit in the trap and even if their limbs get caught, they would just walk away with the trap. :-)
I would have to try out some rat poison for these chaps, I think.