Snow!! @ Macro mode

A closer look at snow lingered over a branch, somewhere in the shadows of Alps

Rain Rain go away! Mumbai potholes are here to stay!!

(PC:http://www.mid-day.com/articles/repair-roads-before-monsoon-hc-to-mumbai-civic-body/17173154)

Last couple of days it is raining incessantly in Mumbai. As much as we love this heavily down pouring rain of Mumbai, we equally hate the water logging situations and the worst ever possible conditions of the roads. Well, may be because of the topography of the city, it is difficult to curb the waterlogging situations in pressure situations like heavy downpours. But, how can we not improve the quality of roads to sustain such heavy rains plus heavy traffic on it. It is totally a man made thing, which can be prepared as per our requirements. Now, Mumbai rain and Mumbai traffic are no new things which changes in every monsoon. While the traffic situation continues to grow as always, the rain here also show similar nature in every monsoon. There are few bouts of heavy and constant rains for couple of days across four months. Rest of the days, either it does not rain, or it is controlled showers of 15-20 minutes at a stretch.

If we know so well the pattern and intensity of the rain, why is it difficult to take measures and make roads which can sustain this level of rain. Are we saying that, the heaviest ever kind of rain happens only in Mumbai and nowhere else? If it rains like those horror days of July 26, its a different case. But present day rain is no where close to that and still the situation is at the worst.
I happen to cross a small patch of road near Wadala bridge every day. Believe me, that patch is the best example of patched up road. It has everything. It starts with partly made cemented road. In between there is I guess Tar road. And to make up, at some places you will find patches of paver blocks, which at most places have come out. This patch has been dug across the length many a times (atleast 6-8 times) in last 1-1.5 years for some pipeline work by the work. It goes without saying, once dug, it remains in that situation for atleast 3-4 weeks. Once this pipeline work is done, the patch work done to so called levelling the road is just an another addition to all ready present patches. Crossing this patch is no less than taking an experience of trekking on the roads or driving on those wild life safari roads.

Today morning while reading newspaper, I went blank on reading "पाऊसच एवढा पडतो, त्याला पालिका काय करणार?" ( http://www.loksatta.com/mumbai-news/shiv-sena-chief-uddhav-thackeray-back-bmc-over-pothole-issues-1514074/) a quote given by Present Shivsena Chief Uddhav Thakrey. I wonder, is it the same person, who is instigating us through his editorial columns in Samaana to attack Pakistan and finish it once and for all? You sound helpless in front of a regularly occurring phenomena of rain, and how do you plan to attack and conquer a nuclear weapon owning country! I have no more words to add  to it. There is no positivity in his words or seem no intention to overcome this issue. All they can do is to fill up those potholes and be happy with that. They don't seem to have any plan to eradicate this whole problem of getting potholes itself. I wonder, if we can find and elect people who actually have a solution to the day to day problems of common man.

Rain - refreshing once again

The rain is back in the town. And so am I. Ofcourse, I was in the town all this time, but I am trying to back in the blogging world once again. It is so difficult to be consistent here. No matter, which so ever, I plan to be persistent, I consistently fail to be so. I sometimes envy people  like

http://isharethese.com/wordless-wednesday-457-captionthis/

or

https://joshidaniel.com/2017/07/17/rooftopping/

or

http://karvediat.blogspot.in/2017/07/military-ethics-then-and-now.html

or

http://magictravels.blogspot.in/2017/07/what-we-did-in-lucknow.html

or

http://www.mono-live.com/2017/07/intel-working-on-new-chips-to-compete.html

and few more like them, who are exhaustively consistent in this space. I follow them and try to take inspiration to be consistent, but all my efforts go in vain.

I have this efficiency meter installed on my blog in the form of IndiRank and Alexarank, which kind of tell me how badly I am doing on my blog.

I am not sure how exactly Indirank function, but at time I have touched upto rank 88 there, and then I dropped down to as low as 30. If we remove the quality quotient out of it, mostly the drop is related to my inconsistency in posting here.

Alexarank is something, I try to improvise sincerely, whenever I am regular here. So, while I was consistent to post, I could improvise it to touch the mark 100,000 rank, and at times, I am hardly logging in to my blog, the rank shattered down to as low as 2, 38, 87, 958th rank or something of that level. Now, again it has come below 1,00,00,000 mark.

That kind of made me take a few steps to rejuvenate the blog. I am not sure, how successful I would to keep it running in coming days, considering a very schedule for next few months, but still, am making an attempt.

So, here, I am positing an old photograph already posted, but would fit well again to the situation. Just like the monsoon has become active once again, after a gap in Maharashtra, I too am trying to get active in this space. A refreshing start is all that we want for the reason. So, a snap of a beautiful flower just bathed in the light rain, taken sometimes back in the backyard of my Paris home , is what I am offering you today.

Have a look and enjoy your day.

Justin Bieber: gracing India for 4 days !!!

PC: https://www.editplatter.com/beliebers-rejoice-justin-bieber-brings-purpose-tour-india/

What is the talk of the town today? Its Justin Bieber.
The kind of words we are hearing about his India visit, I guess, were previously heard during Michael Jackson's visit. Back then, probably it could be justified, because he was "The Michael Jackson". He was the king in his field. His songs made an impression on people's mind. It was pretty much like a revolution. Who can forget his Moonwalks.


I frankly speaking did not follow him. But one day, when I reached my office, some of my people were very sad, almost on the verge of crying. On enquiring, I came to know, that Michael Jackson died. I was little shocked to hear this, but that made me realise, how deep impact he and his songs had on his fans. My colleagues were talking for hours that day about him and  about the philosophy behind his songs. That made me check on youtube all the songs available, and I really found them intriguing. Whether it be "Black or White" or "They don't really care about us". All those songs were making statements, which I believe revolutionized a generation.
So, when such a person arrived in India for the concert, the way arrangements were made for him, I could justify it. He was no less than god for many around.

In contrast, here is a 22 years old Canadian singer, who rose to the peak as a YouTube sensation. Once again, frankly speaking, I have never followed him or his songs. But, I do use to watch Ellen DeGeneres show, where he has been a frequent visitor. I actually know more about him through memes, which frequently keep emerging on social networks. I only once tried to listen to his songs, but his "Baby, baby, baby" chant pushed me away very soon.
Now, had he arrived in India, did his concert and left, it would not have really mattered. That would have been usual. But, what is garnering attention, are the unusual demand list he has produced. Surprisingly, the organizers are leaving no stones unturned to take care of his wish list. I am amazed at this. I tried to read through his wish list, and had to leave in between, because even going through that list was too much for me. Security concerns are fine, but whats all about changing the over all interiors of the suite as per his requirement. Living in a five/seven star full AC hotel and asking for some specific kinds and large number of  drinks makes no sense. How much is going to drink, to keep himself healthy? I wondered the most, about bringing in a female masseuse straight from Kerala completely dedicated to his services for four days. I am not sure, how much of this is true, but a lot has been written about it all over. Check this:
http://allindiaroundup.com/news/justin-biebers-list-of-demands-for-his-purpose-tour-of-india/

Well, he has the rights to put his demands. What awes us is the way, Indians are ready to fill in any sort of demand coming their way. And why won't they? Apparently, a single platinum ticket costs around Rs. 79,000, with the lowest value of the ticket being Rs. 5000. The organizers are going to make loads of money, so, they won't mind to listen any kind of your demand, provided, you make money for them. Rest of the things doesn't matter.

Smiley in the bucket !!

Today morning started on a very good note. I accidently came across this unexpected smiley face in the bucket. Guess, its an indication to have a good day. So, sharing it with all of you. Have a good day all of you.

IPL-10, a matured version

Its almost three weeks that the tenth version of IPL has started. At a point, it may feel like this post is little too late. But, the point of view, I am addressing is more of a kind of realization after its three weeks experience.

Almost ten years back, when IPL started, things were different. It was more like a new born baby, who brings all the excitement in home. No matter, who does what in relation to it, it feels good and exciting. So, an advertisement mentioning prayers being said in Pakistan for Sehwag and what not made us feel good. In real sense, there were followers for a team. There was a huge fan following of KKR back then, because Dada was their captain. Considering his captaincy skills, plus the kind of treatment he had received from Indian cricket team, KKR was a big hit. This was followed by Mumbai Indian, of course because of Sachin Tendulkar. In addition, there were some teams like RCB, DD,CSK, KXI which were again famous because of the players and sometimes because of the people associated with it. It was a big hit.

 Then as IPL started progressing, it went through many phases. We saw, how even big shot players become vulnerable, on and off ground. How priority for players change suddenly. A face of the team player suddenly becomes a load to be relieved. It was just the beginning of professional face of IPL, coming across us. While we were cheering for a team, being carrying our city name, suddenly, it had no local representation.

A major change that happened was the absence of Pakistani players from the successive IPL series. Initially, it was widely discussed. The absence of those players were strongly felt. How every one was missing Shoaib Akhtar and Sohail Tanvir and all the lot. But sooner, those memories too faded. Now, no words of it are ever heard.

While the professional face of IPL hurt the senior players, it also brought up another angle. IPL can make or break players carrier. It introduced us to very young and talented emerging players. IPL made them big in just couple of matches time. All of them started dreaming of a chance to play for their respective countried, especially the Indian players for India.

But with the new season of IPL, suddenly those set of players were replaced by another set of players. Do you remember a player from Kings XI Punjab, Paul Valthaty ! He emerged as a sensation in 2001, probably IPL4 season. But now where is he? Nowhere. Infact, I took a long time to recollect his name and search for him. There is a big list of such players, who  don't exist anywhere. Take another example of Saurabh Tiwari. I guess just 2-3 seasons back, he was a find for the Indian team. He even played a couple of matches for India. But today, I don't see him in any team. Atleast, I couldn't find him. Another face of professionalism of IPL.

One black spot on IPL is of spot fixing. This was the phase when IPL was like in its teenage. There is not end to enthusiasm. And when there is no barrier, sometimes its difficult to understand, whether the act done is wrong or right. Something similar happened here too. Being a hub of big money, people got attracted to IPL not just for the cricket, but to make money too. If not by right manner, then any other means available. This put players like Sreesanth, Chandela in trouble, who tried to make quick bucks through spot fixing. Forget players, even the owners of the teams got entangled in betting. Result, teams like CSK and RR got barred from the new seasons of IPL.

All such things happened in last nine years. Probably the players, owners, media, viewers learnt a lot from all different kinds of experiences. This is the tenth year of IPL. Even after  three weeks of game being over, no such issue has emerged as yet. Players seems to behave responsibly. Owners are minding their business of just investing and really participating in actual cricketing act. Media also knows what to highlight to get more TRP. A new formula has been developed where cricket is just another dish on the platter, other than dance and fun and so called cricketing discussions. Even the past cricketers have learnt to dance and speak some couplets, shayris to attract the audience. And most importantly, the viewers have learnt not to get unnecessarily engaged with any team and just enjoy the game.

All in all, IPL as of now seem to have got matured itself and every body around it. Of course, even matured people will sometimes act foolish. So, we do expect some kind of funny turns as IPL progresses ahead. But, I am pretty happy with its present shape and enjoying cricket in its present status.

Early morning fog layer

An early morning sleepy residential area enveloped under a fog layer, across Old Pune-Mumbai Highway