You will get world-class roads for sure: Government

"You will get world-class roads for sure: Government" ! Times of India article says "

Just one year down the line, your ride on Brigade Road will be a smooth one. With potholed roads chipping away at citizens' patience, the government last year announced that it would make key Bangalore roads world-class

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Like to understand what is the definition of world class here ! If no potholes, there sure will be speed breakers at every 100-200 meters, and that is considered world class. If no potholes there will intersections that cannot be managed even with an army of traffic police constables (see this). Testing every day commuters patience is okay (anyway he/she is used to that !!), just imagine the plight of ambulances and fire force vehicles negotiating speed breakers at every 100-200 meters in a situation where every minute counts.

Improving traffic management and reducing congestion on roads is not just about widening the roads, after all how far you can widen the roads, you cannot keep on widening roads every time when the traffic on the road doubles. It need long term planning (Metro is a right direction I agree, but running a bit too late) and there are smarter ways to build the roads and manage the traffic better. We construct fly over on top of fly over, but never care to design the intersections for smoother flow of traffic. We widen roads and try widening further, but never think about building alternate routes for easing congestion. An example would be reaching from BTM/Jaya Nagar/JPNagar/Bannarghetta Road/Banshankari area to hosur road and electronic city side. There is already a road connecting these areas directly to hosur road other than the route through silk board. This alternate road goes through not so populated areas and upgrading it to a decent road (say 4 lines) is less of a task as compared to cost and effort (and the trouble for public) that is required to widen or build a fly over on already congested BTM-Silk board- Electronic city roads. Another example is the road which connects Sarjapur road to Hosur road which I would call as a lost opportunity with plenty of construction already happening in the area making it kind of difficult to upgrade, There are still alternate routes for sure, but who cares isn't it, until the roads are chocked with traffic and no room to move around ?

Our folks will never learn, but to visit countries such as US, Germany, China etc to make merry, to come back follow the same old stuff. And once in an year then there will be a week which is celebrated as "Road safety weeks", with big hoarding blocking signals and your view leading to accidents then and there only.

Bangalore's "world class" roads !

Not really a piece of modern art, but the junction I daily crosses to reach my office. A few months back there was a public outcry on the quality of Bangalore roads and the administration (State government, BBMP,BDA,NHAI etc)  folks were quick to point out that the road infrastructure they built for Bangalore is nothing less than “World class”. While I am not sure of administration's definition of “world class”, the picture below is a simple example of how the roads are designed in Bangalore. The arrows indicate innumerable possible routes one can take while crossing the junction and I might have missed a few I am sure. You can find at least 5-6 junctions like while traveling from Silk board junction towards electronic city on Hosur road. Service roads on either side allowing traffic both directions and 6 line highway in the middle. (There is another 4 line above the head which i am not considering now). With service road allowing traffic in both directions, traffic management in all junctions are a mess and I don’t see any thought applied on designing the road or how the traffic should be managed etc, instead the commuters are left to their patience to negotiate the junctions in whatever way they want to do it. 

Thinking of getting rid of the vehicle and try walking! Better to get little bit of training first, as the pedestrians are left to their acrobatic skills to cross the road. To cross the road pedestrians need to either walk 1-2KM or just jump over the fences on either side of the main lines and run across the road with speeding vehicles approaching. Pedestrian underpasses are there in one or two major junctions. While the pedestrians are denied with even the basic infrastructure such as decent foot paths, sky walks to cross roads (at least at busy roads) in the city; administration is spending money in developing gardens around the traffic junctions. Gardens are fine (after all Bangalore was a garden city once), but why not give priority to the basic infrastructure first. 

Talking about world class roads, I travel around 5 KM to reach to Hosur road on my way to office in electronic city, and just 30 speed breakers, that’s all I have to deal with. Haralur road is even better with 45 speed breakers for 6.5KM. Forget about common man’s daily commute (which is what our democratically elected administration does every day, "forget common man"), just think about the plight of ambulances and fire force vehicles trying deliver the services at the earliest.

Cut & Copy

Happen to notice Cut & Copy program in Reporter channel where Priyadarsan's Malayalam movie named Kakkakkuyil is compared against in original (?) version, an English movie called "A Fish Called Wanda". First thought was that, is this really a news ?, there are tons of such movies in Malayalam and other Indian languages which has one or the other thing copied from foreign movies and everyone knows that. And we never bother to acknowledge the fact that we are using someone else work, but boldly present it as our original work. For instance, I watched the successful Malayalam movie "Udayananu Tharam" by Roshan Andrews just after being in US for a few months where I was sharing an apartment with my colleague who happened to be a avid film watcher, who might have watched almost all the old Hollywood movies available in the near by library. To my surprise udayananu thaaram's last sequence where udayan and company is completing the movie taking the shots following saroj kumar unknowingly were the exact shots from the English movie by name Bowfinger in which Steve martin and Edie Murphy acted which I happen to watch while in US. Noticing this I kept a keen eye on television programs promoting the movie and I haven't noticed a single instance (in programs I happen to watch) where the director acknowledge borrowing the ideas from another movie. Nothing wrong in taking concepts or ideas from others after all we are social animals and we evolved by sharing things and thoughts, but none of our folks never even bother to acknowledge that fact which is very very bad.

Don't understand what is wrong with acknowledging a fact that some one has took some inspiration from some else work ? Being afraid of negative public response ? Negative public response will be there and I am sure there will be an equal number of people who appreciates some one telling the truth. Isn't that better rather than hiding the truth and having to defend it when people like Reporter TV brings it out.

In fact this is not just in cinema industry, but in every walk of life where creativity/innovation is involved. Best known example in recent times would be the success that Samsung is having with its Galaxy S-2 mobile which i believe is conceptualized based on the iPhone in its user interfaces and functionality. Forget about intellectual property rights, royalty payments and copy right violations, why not people show little bit of courtesy to  acknowledge the fact that they are using and benefiting out of some else hard work. While using others works, in academic world its kind o customary (yes, exceptions exists !) to acknowledge and is the same case in many other societies where intellectual rights more valued. With numerous examples around, (with the bloggers world only there are numerous examples i feel) "We Indians" doesn't care about this at all I feel. May be as a society we are not matured enough to expect such courtesy. In that sense I feel Reporter TV is doing a good work at least making (rather forcing) someone to think in the right direction.