India

We decided to do a packaged tour of Kerala, India. The tour included round-trip flights from Delhi to Kochi, a taxi for the full journey, and all the hotel stays. Day 1 - Kochi to Munnar While going from Kochi to Munnar, a three-hour drive, we first stopped at Valara Falls and then saw the Ayurvedic (herbal) medicinal and spice production at Greenland Spice Garden. Day 2 - Munnar We checked out the Mattupetty Dam and the nearby market. From there, we headed to Echo Point. While returning, we stopped at the Cowboy Adventure Park. I would highly recommend this park. Your driver probably won’t want to take you here since the price is too low to give him a kickback. We had to skip Eravikulam National Park since we spent too much time (~3 hours) at the Cowboy Adventure Park. Then, we headed back to Munnar and checked out the Tata Tea Museum. There isn’t much to see at the museum. In the evening, we ended up for a massage at an Ayurvedic Massage Centre. The center appears rustic, but the experience was excellent. ...

An interactive map of where all one can easily travel an Indian passport. I have added separate layers for those of you who have a Schengen, a UK, or a USA visa. Short link: bitly.com/visa-indians Data Sources: Wikipedia Another sheet Travel freedom via residencies

Indian doctor After having continuous hiccups for ~24 hours, I walked to a nearby doctor’s clinic. " Uncle kaafi der se hitchkiyaan aa rahi hai, iska…" (I am having hiccups for a long while, can something…) [interrupted] He replies in a loud voice, " Beta, hitchkiyoon ka koi ilaaj nahi hota, kai baar mujhe aati hai" (Son, there is no cure for hiccups, sometimes, I have them for days) The tone was part patronizing and part condescending. Total Bill: 0 ₹ Embarrassment quotient: 10/10 ...

“I need the address.”, the immigration official shouted at her, as she, a septuagenarian Indian woman, with her limited English, repeatedly, pointed to the paper containing the phone number of her daughter.

Getting Inside After getting misdirected once to 436 Hill St, San Francisco which is the old original address which does not exist anymore, I eventually reached 5 Wood St, San Francisco. It was the time of sunset, I knew I was late, but finally, it felt good to see a nondescript apartment marked “Gadar memorial”. Least, I expected locked doors. I did not drive 40 miles to stand in front of this locked door. There must be a way to get in, I contemplated, as I noticed an Indian woman walking upstairs towards me. “I am here to see Gadar Party’s office”, I asked as she stammered while replying in English. “हिंदी बोलती है आप ?”, I inquired. “जी हाँ”, she confirmed. “मैं आशीष, south bay से आया हूँ ग़दर स्मारक देखना था । “, I said, while pointing towards the building. “आपके पास consulate से permission है?”, she asked. “consulate से permission?”, I inquired. “consulate से बिना permission लिए यहाँ आना मना है । “, she confirmed. Even for bureaucratic Indian govt, taking permission from the consulate to visit a first world war era memorial is perplexing. I believe this is the only such Indian memorial in the western hemisphere. Of course, I was not ready to yield and drive back another 40 miles before paying the homage. We both stood there motionless with an awkward silence. Someone had to blink, thankfully, she did. “एक बार मैं अपने husband से बात करती हूँ । “, she said. She unlocked the door and went inside, and after some chatter, they both came out, and after some quick conversation, he allowed me in to visit the memorial. The rest of the discussion with them was pretty friendly. ...

Bureaucrats take the actions which are justifiable (by book or by order of their superiors), they care less about consequences (in case there are multiple possible actions, they let the politician decide the appropriate action). Technocrats take the actions which (according to their analysis) have best (long term/short term) consequences, they care less about how harsh the action could be on certain individuals and their logical thinking usually fails to take into account the law of unintended consequences like Cobra Effect. ...

Let’s start with a small exercise. Trying searching for the list of Sept 2011 victims or for the list of London Bombing victims. In each case, more than half of the results on the first page lead to a list of names along with the photos and life stories of those people. Now, trying searching for the list of Hyderabad blast 2013 victims, you would get a few results like this which lists the names of the people but where are their photos and life stories? ...

After the Delhi gang-rape case, there has been a sudden upsurge in traditional as well as social media over rape in India. As usual in such cases, the initial reaction is to find someone to blame. And in this case, the onus of the blame has been put on Patriarchal Indian Society - without realizing that more rapes happen in the not-so-patriarchal USA Indian masculinity - “who feel threatened by women asserting their identity” without realizing that rapes happen even with infants, senior citizens, visually challenged, mentally challenged and homely women in conservative villages of Haryana to Kerala. Indian Police - as if police officials are omniscient and should be present before the crime happens Honey Singh - I am expecting a petition against Vatsyayana next This blog post is a collection of thoughts about the same. ...

The book provides a nice summary of economic events of the recent past (~50 years) and builds upon the case for the coming 10 years.

The first episode of Aamir Khan’s show Satyamev jayate raised the issue of female foeticide in Rajasthan. While the show asked for stringent laws, it missed a few major reasons behind the same.