Quick update

A major lack of updates over the last week has been due to major activity at the workplace together with being in the midst of moving houses; its been a pretty busy time. But I had to take a few minutes off to inform the world about an incident that happened with my dad when he was in this part of the world a few days ago.

My dad was travelling to Indonesia on work, and had a multiple entry visa for Indonesia. His company had applied for this visa a few months ago after he had travelled there on a single entry visa for an urgent issue. Now he had flown down from Chennai to Singapore, spent a few hours at his Singapore branch with his colleagues who were flying out to Jakarta with him, preparing for their presentations. He flew to Jakarta later the same day, and at the immigration at Jakarta airport, his passport was confiscated, and he was informed in no fewer words that he was "in custody" and would be "deported back to Singapore" immediately - the reason... his visa is not valid because he hasnt used it within 90 days of it being issued. Yes, it does state this requirement on the visa itself, but to be honest, its one of the few details that is not bolded on the visa, and is hidden in the middle of a long paragraph of text.

Now, the reason I find this ludicrous is that Indonesia only recently announced 'visa-on-arrival' for Indian passport holders. And what I cant understand is why would any country have such a condition saying "I will allow you to enter my country how many ever times you want within one year, provided you come here within 3 months" :-s I would not have expected this sort of condition with any visa, least of all with Indonesia, which to be best of my knowledge doesn't have any problems with illegal immigrants overstaying their welcome.

Modernising the Game

Until last week, pretty much every Cricket follower would have agree that Cricket ODIs had become repetitive & predictable. Then the Bangla boys drop-kicked the Aussies. A once-in-a-blue moon occurence no doubt, but still a break from the monotony of the game. The twenty-20 version of the game is steadily gaining ground in many parts of the cricketing world - England (having pioneered it), South Africa, Pakistan & Sri Lanka, with even Australia grudgingly playing a Twenty-20 game as warmup for their tour of England.

My point here being that ODI Cricket as such takes an extremely long time and is losing to other sports (except in the Indian subcontinent), mainly soccer. And thats where Twenty-20 has come in to make the game quicker, and more adrenaline pumping - where the batsmen can come and go bang-bang all over the place.

The other way to increase (or retrieve) the interest in the game, is by attempting to remove the monotony of the game - and this the ICC is trying by accepting the suggestions to allow soccer-style player substitutions and allowing the fielding captain to decide when to use the fielding restrictions. This I believe will make the game lot more interesting... atleast I hope so.

Going to the Beginning

It used to be not so long ago that after I watch a movie, the immediate next few hours would be spent savouring it, or ruing it... and the next day, life would go on as it did the previous day. But now, the very 1st thing I do after catching a flick is to come up here and type out my thoughts on what I jus saw. Its almost as if the world would stop if I didn't. Huh!! Why risk that happening... here's my take on the beginning of Batman.

This rather cautious review of the movie by Sushil earlier today is rather flattering in itself. What I got from the movie was rather below expectations. And mind you, I went with almost none. I went for the flick at the insistence of a friend, added to a curiousity in me, having grown up watching the Batman cartoon-serials. (I call it cartoon-serials because in the middle of each episode, cartoon figures would come up during the fights with placards saying 'Bang', 'Booom', and my favourite 'Kapoww'). But yeah coming back to the point, the movie's storyline is weak to say the least. The League of Shadows that has been 'saving' cities from corruption over the years is hard to sell, and the movie makes a rather pathetic attempt at it.

Anyhow, given the plot, the movie does go deep into how Bruce Wayne develops the fighting skills that make Batman who he is, and that is one of the better parts of the movie. Having decided the plot, they do stick totally to it, and I give them credit for that. So once you can buy the plot, it is quite entertaining.

As an ordinary viewer, a major disappointment was the action scenes. They were in plenty, but in an attempt to make Batman appear extremely quick, fast camera movements are used in dark settings, and this tended to leave a dazed appearance on me. I mean you knew that Batman was beating the living daylights out of the henchmen, but you needed to imagine a large part of the fights because you couldn't really see his action all the time.

But personally, they made up for that by the primitive Batmobile. It is mini-tank with all the features that one expects in the Batmobile. But the one thing that won it for me, was the firing mode of the car, where the drivers seat turns down such that the driver ends up with his stomach lying on the bottom of the car (still strapped in the seat ofcourse) and can see directly in front through somewhere around the radiator, with his 2 arms holding guns/weapons around the headlights. I'm finding it difficult to describe, but maybe its best to say that it appears like a robot shaped like a car would :-s And the car-action was good. (I'm a sucker for high speed chases by the way)

I've avoided mentioning the plot at all here to give anyone planning to watch the movie a full chance to enjoy the movie, and its 'climax'. But in closing, all I'd like to say about this movie is that if you don't watch it, you wouldn't be missing much. Having said that, I wouldn't go to the extent of telling anyone not to watch it. It may still be worth the ticket price.

Flying King Size

Vijay Mallya's Kingfish Airlines just became India's 1st airline company to order the largest aircraft thus built - the Airbus A380s. While that is impressive and good news for the Indian aviation scenario, it does indeed surprise me that Mallya would take up such an expense barely weeks after the airline's launch. It could well be a gimmick, but its a damn pricey one, for 2 reasons.

One, an A380 would be an absolute waste for domestic travel - the volumes would simply not add up; so lets assume that the A380s are for Mallya's plans to fly abroad. But, given the amount of lobbying Jet and Sahara had to do before being permitted to fly international, I wonder how & why Mallya thinks that he has that covered - that too in India, where there is no guarantee of who will be in power when the time does come.

But more importantly, no Indian airport can take the A380 as yet, and as far I know, none of the airports have come up with concrete plans or schedule to upgrade to support the flying giant. So Mallya seems to be way ahead of time with regards to the A380 in India.

The point to be noticed though is that the A380s are scheduled to be delivered only starting 2010 - perhaps Mallya is confident that he can puch for Mumbai or Delhi airports to be upgraded by then, and also that his political clout (he is involved in active politics in Karnataka) would be strong enough to get his take his airline international by then.

Does Customer Care?

I read this article in today's Today on the train to work, and one of the totally mindless conversations that my friends and I have had during the years in NTU came to mind. That conversation was where we compared customer service in India & the same here in Singapore. It was unamimous - Singapore is no place to expect any care as long as we were customers. An analogy used by the author in the Today article was so apt:

Take the example of a chess game. The King may not have the sweeping power of the Queen or the long-range ballistic aggression of the rook and bishop, but its safe existence is essential to keeping the game alive and the other pieces in the game.

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Therein lies the quintessence of the relationship between a service provider and the customer: Without buyers, sellers cannot exist.

As the article goes on to point most people in a position of customer service in Singapore are either unhelpful, disinterested, or outright rude. This is one area where I honestly believe that India has much to offer to Singapore. Indian companies really take their customers seriously, and usually go out of the way to make them feel wanted & important - basics that can help a business retain their customers. Let me not include IA and AI in this, as they are but exceptions to the norm - they seem to hate any person who flies with them, and I should know... having flown them 7 times in 4 years. But, thats another story for another day.

My theories were reinforced tonight, as I was waiting for my take-away dinner at Pizza Hut. I asked the girl at the counter if my dinner was ready. She responsed "Let me check", and walked away, straight to a table to take an order, and from there to the next. And I was still waiting for her to check for my dinner.

I'm not saying all Singaporean companies have a don't-care attitude, there are many who do go out of the way to keep their customers happy. Like, for instance, this article later in the same paper:

"So when it rains, potential customers who need to cross over may be hesitant. By providing the shelter, we hope that not only people who intend to shop, but also people passing by, will come into our store."

OG @ Orchard Point offers an umbrella service for people crossing the road, helping them to the sheltered walkways across the street. Usually when I'm out, and it starts to rain, my thoughts are "s**t, what a pain". With potential customers in such an attitude, to make an impression is easy - the slightest of actions can go a long way, and this is what OG is doing, and in the process convinced CentrePoint to do as well.

Way-to-go OG. With more like you, Singapore may yet become a customer paradise.

Google Me!

In a narcissistic bout, I Googled for myself (Aye Kay) to see where I stand -> and guess what!!! My blog's numero uno in the Google list. Me, myself and I find a mention in 5 out of Google's top 10 in this search.

Here are the occurences as of 00:00 hours on 15-Jun-2005
#1 -> Ultimate Enigma (Link to main page)
#2 -> Ultimate Enigma: Rakesh et Vimmi.... aka Bunty aur Babli (Link to one of recent blogs)
#3 -> Blogger: User Profile: Aye Kay (Link to my Blogger profile)
#6 -> nimbupani | l33t... (Me during one of my more ignorant times on Divya's blog)
#7 -> nimbupani | Kuala Lumpur Diary Day One (Me again commenting on Divya's blog about her KL trip where I had met up with her & Deepak)

And yeah, if anyone decides to mention that 'Aye Kay' isn't common, so its very easy to get to the top of Google's list.... well DON'T :-p. It ain't my fault I don't use my actual name to blog :-p.

And yeah, since I am on my vanity spree - my blog reached 1000 over hits. Wait thats not the best part - it started from 0 (zero) only on May 15th. So its 1000+ hits in less than 1 month.

Again, if you want to point out that every page refresh increases the count and that free counters aren't always reliable.... well again DON'T. (:-p)

PS: Congratulations & bouquets are welcome. **gives a shy, modest grin**

Ramayan - Mickey style

Just got this sms from a friend about a minute ago, and it so appealed to my PJ-senses that I simply had to put it up. So here it is. Njoi -

Donald had a fight with Mickey, and banged him against a wall. Micky began reciting the Ramayana. Why?





Answer: Because he became WallMickie.

hahaha. lol. rofl. hehe. (I actually wanted to add the sound effects here, but this will do)

A MacRitchie Walk

On the Sunday just past, I decided to take a trip to MacRitchie Reservoir and take a look at the HSBC Tree Top Walk. I had vaguely heard mention on this in one of the pamphlets that regularly found their way to our flat mailbox from the building's management office. A few weeks ago, a colleague mentioned the same having spent a saturday morning there. After planning for 5 weeks, with the plan being cancelled every weekend due to some or other engagements, I finally had a weekend morning with absolutely nothing planned. I planned to wake at 8am, hoping to leave by 8.20 and reach the edge of MacRitchie by 8.45. After delaying to skip the rain, I reached MacRitchie Reserve Park an hour later than scheduled.

I enter near a dam and walked along the shoreline and saw beautiful streched of greenery all around. Walking further away from civilisation, there was a section of the sea protruding into the land where small turtles swam around, came on shore as though curious at those big things with a shiny front that gave out flashes of light at irregular intervals (cameras), and would rush back into the water as soon as they noticed sharp movement of any kind.

After spending a few minutes enjoying the open sea and the calming effect of the complete greenery, I made for the path towards the Tree Top Walk (TTW). Signboards indicated that the Walk was 5.2kms away. I started out briskly carrying only camera, walking through a canopy of rain forest plants. It was so beautiful to walk under the trees with the sun's rays not shining directly down at any point. And for a change the path was not concretised, but was left the way nature had made it - stones and mud (which was not helped by the fact that it had been raining less than an hour ago) - but that just added to the fun.

I enjoyed walking along the trail, stopping ever so often to take pictures of all and sundry. For the 1st time in Singapore, I heard birds chirping away to glory in their melodious splendour. And each step seemingly taking me further away from civilisation. After the 1st kilometre, the shore could no longer be seen from the trail, and I assumed that I was infact heading inland deeper into 'the last rainforest of Singapore' (yes there are boards all over asking people to preserve the last rainforest of Singapore)

After walking for almost 4km, there was light at the end of the tunnel, and I assumed that I was nearing the end of the trail to Tree Top Walk. I walked towards the end expecting to be in the middle of no-where. Instead found myself at the entrance to an extremely huge, Golf Country Club. The wilderness I was enjoying suddenly gave way to a paved road which appeared to be frequented by vehicles.

Just as my disappointment was starting to push its way through, I found a family pointing at bushes along the side of the roadand talking about birds. And in my mind, I was thinking 'poor souls, its only in Singapore that common sparrows would be such an attraction'. But as I walked towards them, I saw that infact just beyond the bushes there were a large number of monkeys hanging from trees above. Yes, real live monkeys, doing their monkey things, and not stuck in behind cages in a zoo, and in Singapore at that - a country which 'prides' itself in not allowing even a crow to fly around. It was a pleasant surprise indeed.

Anyways, the walk through civilisation was short enough - a few minutes at most - and the last km to the TTW was along an uphill road that was among the most steep roads I've encountered anywhere outside of the Ooty hills (then again, I haven't really travelled that much, so it isn't really a big thing). But this last km took more out of me than the previous 4.

Anyhow I made it to the Tree Top Walk in 1 piece and found out that this was a long (250m) suspension bridge stretched across 2 hills, at a maximum height of 25m above ground level. Oh the view was exhilarating. You could see for miles, and is definitely one of the more thrilling sights I have seen. But as I reached around the mid-way of the suspension bridge, it became apparent to me that the middle of a swinging suspension brige high above the ground is not the place to be alone for someone who suffers from a fear of heights, albeit a minor fear.

Anyhow, I did make the other end quite successfully (the bridge is quite narrow, so the Singaporean efficiency had forced the walk to be one-way, meaning that there was no turning back for me), and even stopped to take photos of monkeys calming looking at the wierd folks who kept pointing and staring at them :-)

There on began a long downward journey to the base of the opposite hill, the whole stretch from the start of the TTW till the base another approx 4km. Once on level gorund, I had the option to walk back the way I came, or continue in the other direction making a circular route around MacRitchie. I chose the latter, mainly because there were direction signs pointing to something known as Jelutong Tower, and I was keen to find out what this was. So on I went until I reached this wooden structure that was 7 storeys high. Braving the fear of heights yet again, I walked to the top to get another breathtaking view of the rainforest all around.

The walk back from first went past stretches of golfing greens, followed by trails along the shoreline. The shoreline trail was quite empty and at numerous times I had the feeling of being in some Hollywood movie, marooned on some deserted island with the sea on 1 side and forested land on the other. A couple of times, a propeller plane even flew over the sea adding to this effect :-)

Along this final stretch, I saw 2 monkeys... one which was striding confidently towards me along the trail, and when I paused to take pictures, it slowly swung itself over the edge of the trail into the water, and swam across to the opposite bank - the 1st time I've seen a monkey swim. I wonder then why in zoos they keep monkeys behind water-filled moats if monkeys can infact swim. I wonder... The 2nd monkey I saw was one that came out of the trees on my side, picked up a discarded potato chips packet and put its hands into the packet looking for food. It was quite hilarious to look at, and almost human infact. :-)

By the time I made it back to civilisation, I was tired and exhausted, having walked almost 15kms in just over 3 hours - walking nonstop except when I paused to take pictures, and to catch my breath after cimbing the 7 storeys of Jelutong Tower. I was dead tired by the time I took the bus home, but it was worth it. I thoroughly enjoyed the trip through nature's splendour, and all of a sudden, Singapore felt a much nicer place to be in than it was earlier that day. The tragic part of the story - for the last 1 year, I've been staying 10-minutes away from MacRitchie, and I discover the beauty of the place a few days before I shift my residence. Damn, why didn't I pull myself to go there earlier.

I will put up a few pics (nothing great) on flickr over the next few days when I an find some free time.

PS: I'm not sure who would read such a long blog :p thanks for spending time for those who actually reached this point ^_^ :-)

Animal Trouble

A couple of news snippets that caught my attention, and thought I'd share them with the world :-p

~ Holy Cow?? More like killer cow. And its getting what it deserves. A mad cow in Nigeria has been arrested on charges of murder after it ran into a guy on the side of the road, doing what men do on the side of a road.

~ Kitty waste gets a whole new meaning, as a couple of cute li'l kittens burn down their owner's house.... after they shortcircuited a fax machine by strategically urinating on the electrical printing components. And after the incident, firefighters have informed the public that their cats & dogs should be more careful when they decide to relieve themselves.

~ A Scot was the fastest to shave. An Aussie was slightly slower, but far smoother, and therefore, overall better - he beat competitors from over 27 countries in the World Championships. And after that the Scot says that he can go faster back home, but in Aussieland the hair is thicker, and skin softer. Well, shearing 12 sheep in 15 odd minutes isn't too bad either.

~ And finally, a Spiderman who does not have a history of spider bites - a Frenchman climbed 62 stories of a Hong Kong building with his bare hands, and no ropes. And no, he didn't use the staircase :-p.

A pessimistic hit at GoI

The Government of India is probably the most infamous government in terms of starting off on huge projects that end up either never getting completed, or getting being so late that it gets outdated by completion. Here's my take on a few 'high-profile' activities in progress, and being planned.

1. The Golden Quadrilateral Project
An ambitious project to link the 4 metros by 5,846-kms of 4-lane expressways is something that I have been trying to follow in the news regularly. It has been my opinion for a while now that this is a project, if completed, that will help improve the transport infrastructure in the country, and atleast place it at level not too far below the developed countries. But a look at the official status of the stretches under construction indicated the Indian lethargy in action- almost all the stretches shoul have been completed by end of 2005, and already most of them have been delayed by upto 18 months. And I'm pretty sure that as we get closer to these 'estimted completion dates' these dates will be further pushed back.

2. River Linking Project
Another project that if implemented will help the whole country tide over various natural disasters. In our country where 1 part of the country can be facing drought even as another part of the country faces ravaging floods, the linking of rivers can help take the flood waters away to the drought-affected regions. That the government takes this project very seriously is reflected in this speech by the Secretary for Water Resources A. K. Goswami. The UPA Government of Manmohan Singh also indicated an eagerness to keep this project flowing. This project has come about as a directive from the Supreme Court to be completed by 2012, but already the GoI has indicated that the earliest it could finish is 2016. I'm willing to bet that there will be further delays.

3. SWAN Project
Standing for State-Wide Area Network, this is a new initiative that GoI has nodded for - a Rs. 30b project to provide citizens with a eServices outlet for various activities required with the government. The tentative plan is to provide every citizen and business in India with a unique number (equivalent to a login) for these eServices. Now after the fiasco in delivering of the voter id-cards (which I believe is something that has still not been completed all over), I would believe that the government has learnt that such things aren't as easy to do as simply stating the plan. How long do you think this project is going to take?

Changing face of Indian businesses

On a pet topic of mine - airline travel in India, Air Deccan has kicked-off a battle on Indian streets to take on the war in the skies. Now all you need to do to buy a ticket on Air Deccan aircrafts is fuel your car. Rediff has more on Air Deccan's plans to sell tickets via HP petrol pump outlets across the country.

Still on the Indian aviation industry, Jet Airways has been accused by an American company called Jet Airways Inc as being funded by Al Qaeda. In return, Jet (India) has found that the President & CEO of Jet Airways Inc has a history of litigation and debt non-payments and are suing the US company for libel. Jet Airways' official press release further talks about litigation over the patent violations in using the same name.

On the business front, a good sign is Bank of Baroda - they've been in the news offlate for various good business reasons. They have recently announced Rahul Dravid as a brand ambassador, redesigned their logo to reflect their new brand-name, and also plan to start 24-hour services. They followed that up with an annoucement that they plan to setup an arm in Mauritius, and have also been permitted to expand to Hong Kong and Leicester in UK. Its great to see Indian national banks come to terms with modernisation and build their global image. And all this comes within weeks of BoB announcing a 35% dip in profits for the last quarter. As the saying goes, better late than never.

Staying with the finance sector, the GoI is all set to approve the merger of the rural regional banks of 6 different nationalised banks - again in an attempt to put the economies of scale to use in the evolving/modernising markets

Indian politics - inconsistency at work

Indian politics are abound with examples of 'leaders' making about-turns, corrections to their statements, and even totally denying what they may have said in front of a video camera. Sometimes I cant help but think how these flip-flop (borrowing the term coined by US Prez & his cronies) gentlemen & ladies can ever lead our country anywhere but backwards. Nevertheless, I guess the nation has greatly been supported by a few strong leaders who stand head & shoulders above the rest - if not for Atalji, the NDA government would never have been formed, much less survived a full term. And with his retirement imminent, and Advani all set to take his place as the leader of the NDA alliance, it begs the question if the huge number of parties that make up the NDA would ever be able to provide the sort of unequivocal support that Vajpayee had, and to Advani at that.

Which brings me to what triggered off my line of thinking - Advani is known nation-wide - probably the world-over - as a staunch Hindutva leader. The numerous yath yatras over the years, fighting for the temple over Babri Masjid, plenty of anti-Pakistan statements (though this has definitely reduced/ceased over the last 6-7 years, not unrelated to the fact that BJP was in power. Yet, in Pakistan last month, he makes statements like 'Babri Masjid was the saddest day of his life' and statements praising the secularity of Pakistan father-of-nation Jinnah - the very same Jinnah whom India & Indian history books credit with the partition. But let us set aside the latter for now, since this is a question of history, and history can never be proven, and it is easily rewritten. But that still leaves the 1st statement on Babri Masjid - the statement coming from a guy who brought heated up the atmosphere at Ayodha on the D-day some 13 years ago, the guy who for legal reasons claims that he asked people to stop, but for pratically purposes just murmurred 'stop' with no intention of making anyone 'stop', the same guy who in the 5-6 years following the D-day held many rath-yatras from different corners of the country, all culminating at Ayodha in an attempt to stir the Hindu public into action.

An huge turnaround from this person who probably had the biggest role to play in the nation's biggest 'disaster' since Independance. That one incident has probably pushed the country further back than any other incident - and this in every walk of life. But 1 thing you must credit this guy with is that because of him, and his tactics in Ayodha, he managed to cultivate a strong Hindutva following, large enough to finally give the Congress a run for its money. And continuing on the same, he has now had to make about-turns to make himself appear secular enough to be the PM of India - a post which is most likely to be his if NDA can pull back a victory 4 years from now.

When IA and AI lose airtime

For ages everytime a Hindi or Tamil movie (I cannot talk for any of the other languages for lack of exposure to them) have wanted to depict someone travelling to or within India by air, they've always used an Air India (if they wish to show an international arrival) or an Indian Airlines (for domestic arrivals) aircraft landing at the airport runway. AI and IA have been the sign of India airtravel literally for ever.

But 2 of the newest movies that I've seen are possibly showing a changing trend. Both Banty aur Babli and D have used Jet Airways aircraft - in B&B, Jet is the aircraft shown to transport the Reserve Bank of India's gold; while in D, a Jet Air taking-off symbolises Desu's wish to migrate to London.

Hmmm, perhaps a clear sign to our national carriers that they gotta pull up their socks pretty fast...

Its 'D' movie to miss

The 2nd weekend in a row, I ended up at a Hindi cinema to watch a new release. After last week's entertaining Banty aur Babli, 'D' had a lot to live upto - which it didn't even come close to.

For anyone who has seen 'Company', D would be like a total remake of that - but a poor one at that. While D does have the expected gundaa style, the action of a typical Mumbai-don blockbuster, it doesn't stand out. The acting in Company was much better, and the music such as Khallas & Ganda He lingered on after the movie. D was average entertainment - though it was quite fast moving. It ends rather abruptly as well which was another let down.

Not withstanding the fact that 2 movies follow an almost same storyline, the characters depicted in the 2 movies are what can be termed a generation apart. While Company is expected to portray the lives of, and the falling apart of, Mumbai-don Dawood Ibrahim and his protégé-turned-rival Chotta Rajan. D, on the other hand, is supposedly a fictitious story. Deshu (the lead character played by Randeep Hooda) is the poor son of a police constable, and his gang became known as D-Company -> far too consistent with the life of Dawood Ibrahim. The movie ends when Deshu eliminates his mentor Hashim-bhai's gang after a fall-out.

Having said this, if anyone is really interested in seeing Mumbai dons smoking, drinking, shooting and simply aish kar-ing, then go watch this.... This will be the last real don movie coming out of India for a very very long time.

A full-time south Indian

As the saying goes, you can take a tamilian out of south india, but you cant take south india out of the tamilian. Well it doesnt go exactly like that, but something there about :-p

Anyhow, the reason that this came up: what do you expect your diet to be if you travel to Iceland? To be honest, I have absolutely no idea. But i definitely didn't expect to have what our Prez Kalam-saab had - hot vadas and sambar. Yup, he is in Iceland and enjoyed his meal of vada-sambar so much so that he recommended it to others around.

Full story here.

All that thinking about vada-sambar had made me crave for the times I've sat at home and had mom's piping hot vadas. :'(

Its all about batteries!!

Who invented the battery? Who coined the term 'battery'? Which is the most common type of battery used in space technology?

Try your hand at these, and a couple of other battery questions at Rediff's battery quiz.

Rediff regularly comes up with these so-called 'quizzes' where they pick up 5 interesting multiple choice questions. Their range of topics are quite varied ranging - in the last 10days they covered topics from from indian budget airlines to the origins of credit card to the history of Adidas. Inevitably makes for some good (*interesting*) reading.