Discovering Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore , our very own Leonardo Da Vinci. Poet-Laureate, musician, painter, science writer, first Asian to win the Nobel prize, the man who gave Gandhi the title "Mahatma" and our nation, its national anthem. Tagore was instrumental in keeping the left brain of the nation active and kept creative traditions going in India, when most of the nation and Gandhi & Nehru were busy with the movements and politics of Freedom.

I hadn't read any books by Rabindranath Tagore until recently. I kept "encountering" him at various places in the country during our travels. A well travelled man, between 1878 and 1932, Tagore visited thirty countries on five continents including countries such as Peru, UK, Switzerland, Iran, Iraq, Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, Italy & Mexico. During his travels he met several notable persons of his era - Benito Mussolini!!, Henri Bergson, Albert Einstein, Robert Frost, Mahatma Gandhi, Thomas Mann, George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells, Subhas Bose and Romain Rolland.

"Discovering" Rabindranath Tagore (and other great people) in several places across India and the world during our trips has been an enlightening part of our travels. Descriptions of places by greats such as Tagore, Mark Twain, Rudyard Kipling and their ilk, helps us mere mortals see places in a new light. Here's a list of places where I discovered Tagore!

Karwar - Karnataka

I first discovered him in Karwar (other than school history books) on Rabindranath Tagore Beach and on the welcome sign as we entered Karwar "a place that inspired Rabindranath Tagore"! The place that inspired him to pen his first play in 1883 and write "The sea beach of Karwar is certainly a fit place in which to realise that the beauty of nature is not a mirage of imagination but reflects joy of the infinite and thus draws us to lose ourselves in it." His second brother was a judge posted in Karwar and Tagore spent a few years of his life there (aged 20) where he wrote many plays, poems and short stories.

Darjeeling

A taxi ride up to Tiger Hill at 4:00 am to watch the famous sunrise over the Kanchenjunga. Around 5:00 am, the sun rises and we don't quite get to see the first rays over the Himalayas. Too many clouds and probably too many people! Trudging back to our taxi, we have our sympathetic, Nepali driver ask us "Dikha nahi na shaab? Shaab, Bura mat mano, Rabindranath Tagore, hain na? Che (6) baar Darjeeling aaya, Kabhi sunrise nahi dekha". As if to say, "if the great man didn't see it, how would you?" Don't know if Rabindranath Tagore ever went to Gangtok, we saw the sunrise over the Kanchenjunga from our hotel window!

Jallianwallah Baug - Amritsar

During our visit to Amritsar, we saw as a part of the exhibits at Jallian Wallah Baug a famous letter by Rabindranath to the British government, returning his title of knighthood after the massacre by General Dwyer's troops in 1919. This protest inspired the nation to rise up against the British and launch a sustained campaign and freedom struggle until Independence.

Dalhousie - Himachal Pradesh

As we went on a early morning walk in the upper parts of Dalhousie, we chanced upon a sign that pointed towards "Tagore Bhavan", a place where Tagore spent a few months of his life in 1873 (aged 11 years). There, Tagore read biographies, studied history, astronomy, modern science, and Sanskrit, and examined the classical poetry of Kalidasa.The mighty Himalayas of the Dhauladhar range, inspired him to become what he did later in his life.

Argumentative Indians

Amartya Sen's aptly named book, that describes India's age old traditions of democracy promoted by several religions, kings and dynasties including Buddhist monasteries, Ashoka, Akbar, Vijaynagar empire and others has several references to Rabindranath Tagore and his life and work. Interesting comparisons between Gandhi and Tagore, their arguments, discussions and meetings is an interesting part of this book. Tagore, comes through as the more liberal, rational and the one with the scientific temperament, characterized by his disapproval of Gandhi's description of a earthquake in Bihar as "a divine chastisement sent by God for our sins — in particular the sins of untouchability".

Children's Stories

Looking for books for my children, I discovered a volume of short stories, poems and plays written by Tagore (Selected Writings for Children - Rabindranath Tagore edited by Sukanta Chaudhuri) when he himself was a child and his writings for children later in his life. This book is an interesting collection of poems and stories by Tagore that will make your children "think", providing no answers, raising questions and letting children ask many more! Great to stir the imagination of your kids on the stars, flying machines!, tigers, birds, and about siblings, if you can get today's kids to read his books!

Holidaying or Chasing Brands?

In a recent article, titled "Goodbye India, Hello World - by Priyanko Sarkar, TOI, May 26th 2008", Priyanko questions the increasing trend of Indians flocking to foreign and "branded destinations" for their holidays. A welcome trend, where Indians are replacing the Japanese & Europeans in being the world's most frequent travellers. Where are they going to however? Visiting "city countries" such as Singapore, Hongkong, Dubai or Thailand. And if its in India- Goa, 10 times over!

Isn't travel supposed to broaden horizons?

Over centuries, travel to faraway lands had a sense of adventure and romance associated with it. Travellers intermingled with the local cultures, learnt something from them and gave back something from their own, to create new cultures. Travel is supposed to broaden horizons and expose people to new ways of thinking, new cuisines, customs & cultures. I once met a German teenage couple on a Frankfurt-Delhi flight - teenagers out to see India. They wanted to "explore life around the Ganges" and were travelling on a shoe-string budget (partly sponsored by their parents), without any specific agenda. They told me of a European custom where parents give their 18-19 year old children whatever money they can afford to so that their kids can "go see the world" for sometime! How romantic? A whiff of fresh air, when increasingly, people seem to want to travel within their "comfort zones" and to "branded destinations". Is this travel at all?

The Resort is the Tourist Destination!

Notice how people describe their holidays these days? "We went to a Club Mahindra Resort" or the Taj Exotica! The place they went to follows (if its a brand!) and they are completely stumped when you ask them what they saw, ate, experienced. I always wonder what people do when they go on a week long trip and stay at one resort especially in India where covering a radius of 200+ kilometers to see all the sites around is quite tiresome travelling out from this one "resort". So they stay back in this resort most of the time and come back after seeing the resort and eating Punjabi food, Pizzas or bastardized versions of local dishes (at those "colourful" buffets). All this, while they laugh at the poor old 60+ folks who take their once in a life time trip to Europe with SOTC with the comfort of maharaj-cooked Indian food.

Ask them what they saw and they would have missed out on some of the most memorable places in the area, because they thought it was passe or nobody told them about it. If its a vacation overseas, they may tell you quite excitedly about some malls, casinos, cars, airports that they saw, about "shows" in Las Vegas but nothing about The Grand Canyon nearby!

Aren't brands too common now?

We are a gregarious and vane species. We love to talk about the elitist things we did! Is going to a Club Mahindra Resort elitist anymore, or is it egalitarian now? Or visiting Disneyland, Goa or Singapore? How about trying some obscure locations, hotels and cuisines that you can "talk" about? Want to talk about a hotel, then stay at some of the great properties of the world once in a while (even if its for one night), high end Oberoi properties, Four Seasons, The Mt. Kenya Safari Club or The Royal Livingstone at the Victoria Falls.

Visit some obscure places, try the local cuisine and you'll hold your audiences spell-bound talking about it. Try Angkor Vat in Cambodia, Lake Naivasha in Kenya, Lapland Area of Finland and the 8 waterfalls in the Karwar region, Panhala, Arunachal Pradesh or Ladakh. Try foie gras and oysters in France, reindeer meat and salmon in Finland, crocodile and ostrich meat in Kenya and duck feet in Hongkong. In India, try out Chettinad food, Nethli fish fry, vathakulambu in Tamilnadu, Sarson Da Saag in Punjab, Mirchi Ka Salan in Andhra and you would at the very least make your audiences think about the shitty holiday they just had in Singapore where they did nothing!

Infrastructure in India sucks, but are we checking out infrastructure?

Ask people why they don't checkout "Incredible India" and pat comes the reply "Whats there to see in India? The infrastructure sucks, the Delhi Punjabis are rude!, whats there in the Himalayas and my kids want to go to Singapore?" Agreed, infrastructure sucks in India and it will take at least another decade for it to get better. Surely a country that is a microcosm of a whole continent with its 5000 year old history, its varied traditions, architecture, cuisines, natural sites and its varied geography does have something to offer for a vacation.

Having shown your kids the superb infrastructure of Singapore & Hongkong, its probably time to see India and show your kids too, so that they don't need to see it when they retire and come back at the sunset of their professional careers in the US (getting back to their roots), to see what their parents never showed them!

Telecom: Number Portability: Does India need it now?

Here are some of my views on Number Portability, based on my experiences of the many years I spent delivering IT solutions to Telecom Service Providers around the world. One of the much talked about effects of the 1996 Telecom Deregulation Act in the US, was the creation of CLECs (Competitive Local Exchange Carriers) and ILECs (Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers). Forecast to be as far reaching as the breakup of AT&T into Baby Bells that created the earlier Telecom Revolution in the US, it created a flurry of activity amongst Telecom Service Providers and Telecom Solution Providers alike.
Local Number Portability (LNP) introduced various business process engineering projects and formalized the process of handling customer requests through Preorder, PostOrder, Billing and Maintenance processes. We, at a American MNC that I worked for at that time, earnestly went to work putting together a LNP solution. My team was responsible for putting together a solution around a Business Process Engineering platform that could help manage complex Interconnect OSS Business Processes. We started work on this and spoke to several CLECs and ILECs in the US and put together a solution that we thought would also be adopted all over the world. After about 2 years (by end of 1998), the project was abandoned since no carriers were implementing any solutions and the LNP mandate was postponed several times, to be finally implemented by carriers in a basic form @ 2004. In the process, carriers and solution providers in the US and around the OECD countries, spent upwards of $10B, without much success in driving the intent of LNP. There were several delays in implementation, fierce resistance and shoddy implementation. In the mobile world, MNP was finally (rudimentarily) rolled out in the US @ 2005, 9 years after it was first mandated.

Is Number Portability really required now?
TRAI in India, has already had a few false starts in mandating Number Portability in India. After initial discussions in 2001 it was decided to (rightly) wait a few years before mandating LNP in India after telecom penetration has gone past 20%. Here's whats been observed in LNP implementations around the world.

• LNP implementations worldwide have shown prolonged delays in execution, plenty of money spent without real benefits to end customers. Hog wash implementations, through simple "call forwarding" from incumbent networks to the new networks, customer switches have been taking close to a month, as compared to the mandated 24 hours.
• In places such as Hongkong, Norway, UK which implemented LNP, it was found that subscribers switch service providers in the first 6 months after LNP is introduced and stop! Most of these have been Pre-Paid customers who would have switched in any case, with or without MNP.
• Most "decent" national footprint telecom service providers, provide similar levels of service, with customers experiencing similar problems with their new carriers after the honeymoon period is over. Great deal of churn is all that has resulted due to unfair practices by carriers to "buy" customers by helping them switch in to them.
• Most Subscriber Private Phones, these days, remain just that, "private". Most are not even listed. Likely callers to a number are informed of the number on a "need to know basis". Informing a list of 50+ colleagues and acquaintances of a change in number is not very difficult and wont happen too often.
• Most Business Numbers - are tied to a larger nationwide carrier. Free choice from amongst multiple carriers, already ensures that the corporation that's getting a set of numbers selects their carrier based on levels of service and range of services carefully surveyed before connecting up.

Power of the Contact Book
Most mobile phones (and increasingly land line phones as well) have contact lists and subscribers rely heavily on them, often not "remembering" any of the numbers that they have stored away. Once a number is stored away, it can easily be updated with a changed number when the subscriber changing his/her number informs the Closed User Group (CUG)! of "need to know" people. In fact, the Contact Book has virtually created a social revolution in the way homo sapiens manage (and forget) phone numbers.

Google Search and Online Directories
Easily accessible information on the Internet, can help look up any changed numbers if its so required. Companies who change numbers (once in maybe 10 years) could even use it as an opportunity to do some PR and increase contact with their customers! Solutions such as Plaxo, with its centralized contact books can help disseminate changes to CUGs through a few keystrokes.

Future Technologies - Name Lookup a la Internet
I am sure LDAP and DNS like services as on the Internet will soon be available to lookup phone numbers and other "public" information about subscribers on the fly. This will soon make a number and its "need for permanency" meaningless!

Based on past global experiences, current social changes and future technologies, TRAI in India, would be better advised to spend its energies on better concepts that truly keep service levels high and protect customers. Enforcing service providers to maintain mandatory Service Level Commitments, RTI (Right To Information) on Service Order Processing and increasing competition in other ways may be the more productive and efficient way of protecting the consumer!

IPL & Changing Loyalties

IPL Cricket has caught the imagination of the Indian masses and how? Its well on its way to becoming one of India's (month long) annual festivals, along with its revelry, festive clothes and fireworks! Its appeal has swept away sports/cricket enthusiasts, women, teenagers and children alike and has affected the TRP ratings of Saas-Bahu shows on TV.

Subconsciously, its also changing the way Indians identify themselves with their communities around them. Regional chauvinism is giving way to "city chauvinism" and "opportunistic chauvinism"

Over the years, regional chauvinism has given way to a pan-Indianness that has taken root in the country (the various politically motivated regional chauvinism seen in every state every now and again notwithstanding). Some of the catalysts that have brought Indians together over the years, have been - the Independence movement, Indian Cinema, Idli-Dosa & Punjabi food, the Punjabi dress/kurta, Corporate India, travel/LTA, students studying away from home, inter regional marriages & Cricket!!

Regional Chauvinism in Cricket
Until a couple of decades ago, cricket, did its bit to fuel regional chauvinism. In "katta" discussions across the country, selection of the Indian team was always considered to be favouring the "other state/s". In the 70s & 80s the domination of Mumbai & Bangalore in the national team was resented and much debated in various parts of the country. Players still came from and belonged to a "state" and played for their Ranji Trophy sides. As state cricket organizations started asserting themselves, other states started throwing up national players from their hinterlands. Thus a Dhoni, grew up to captain the Indian side from less known Jharkhand.

Over to City Chauvinism - Or is it?
The IPL teams are based on individual cities - a more modern geographical entity that is easier to identify oneself with, encompassing all elements of the "cosmopolitan" and therefore its pan-Indianness. Many players in the League are playing for teams other than their domicile states and share the dressing room with lots more players from different continents. And the team captains? Dhoni from Jharkhand is the captain of the Chennai Super Kings and Shane Warne leads the Jaipur team.

What does this leave cricket followers with? Which team do they support ? or do they support their favourite players or icons. Indians seem to have taken this challenge in their stride and are already comfortable with this dichotomy. I myself found that I started with the Mumbai Indians as my favourite side since I have had an affinity towards Mumbai as a city and some of the Mumbai Indians were my favourite cricketers. By the time they had lost 3 matches in a row, I had dumped them and started backing the Rajasthan Royals since they were an unknown team that was surprising everybody. I came back to supporting the Mumbai Indians by the time they started winning their matches and when Jayasuriya cracked that quickfire ton that I was witness to live at the Wankhede stadium.
Surprised, at my changing loyalties I checked this out with many other followers of the IPL, including kids. Many had gone through a similar path (especially the guys from Bangalore who were previously supporting their home team).

Only Winners matter?

Loyalty towards a city team is a healthy trend, throwing away the regional chauvinism of yore and replacing it with loyalty for the more "cosmopolitan city". Moreover pride for a city will help make our citizens "city proud" and therefore build communities that take part in the improvement of our cities.

However is that all that we are doing, supporting a city? or are we backing only winners or perceived winners, others be damned? In this age of the Flat World, India is becoming flat too and all internal boundaries are disappearing- success, icons, celebrities and a iconic game! are the great unifier.

Military Tourism in India

As disposable incomes, spirit of discovery & adventure and most of all "Pride" rise in India, domestic tourism is taking off. From Tirth Yatras, visiting native places to LTA led tourism, its now - tourism in many forms, eco/agri-tourism, wine tourism, adventure sports, sports/cricket tourism (driven by IPL!!).

With India's large military, long borders, huge spread in "strategic" and often picturesque sites in the country, its time for Military Tourism. A family that we met at the Wagah Border festivities recently, had come all the way from Shillong, to fulfill their 8 year old son's wish to be there. Military sites and festivities are beginning to catch the imagination of kids, thanks to seeing these on TV. International tourist circuits have their own mandatory visits to War Hero Memorials & Memorials of the Lost Soldier in many cities of the world. War and its intrigues are such a big part of worldwide history that they generate considerable interest in military sites.

Here are a few military related sites that we have been to in recent years (including DRDO, ISRO sites) and a few others that can be a part of the military tourism circuit.

Bangalore "Aero India" Air Show

The Aero India Show held once in two years since 1996 at the Yelahanka Airforce Base near Bangalore has become quite an international event. It is one of Asia's largest exhibitions of civil and military aircrafts (Jaguars, MIGs, F-16s, Sukhois...) and other latest products from the Indian aviation and aerospace industry. With its display of several military aircrafts, aerobatic shows, fly-pasts, helicopter displays and huge aerospace and avionics pavilions, I last remember how all hotel rooms in Bangalore were sold out during this event in 2005 (last show was in 2007, next show is in 2009). A great air-show and watching a Sukhoi "cobra manoeuvre" has remained etched in my memory for many years.

Ladakh - Kargil and Leh

Kargil, Operation Vijay - The site of General Musharaff's mis-adventure. The conflict that was seen live on TV by all Indians and perhaps the only military conflict that has been followed by current generation of Indians. The site of Tiger Hill, the Leh-Srinagar Highway and the well developed and maintained Operation Vijay Memorial is a must visit for all Indians. The jawans at the site take great trouble to take you through the details of the conflict and the men involved in re-capturing Tiger Hill. Close to this site is the world's second coldest inhabited place with a record of -60 degrees Celcius on 9th January 1995.

Hall of Fame is a decent museum constructed by the Indian army on the outskirts of Leh. Displayed here are biographies of eminent defence personalities, images and weapons used during the Kargil war, Siachen and its heroes. Particularly interesting were the newspaper clippings, weapons and photos of the wars fought by India & the detailed exhibition of a soldiers life, tools, shoes and clothes used in Siachen.

The DRDO - High Altitude Field Research Laboratory has some interesting research labs around high altitude, cold desert agriculture and animal husbandry projects. The scientists at this lab showed us around the vegetable cultivation and horse breeding projects where the high altitude Zanskar pony is being cross-bred with other horse breeds to serve the high altitude needs of the army.

Khardung La Pass, the highest motor able mountain pass in the world @18,370 ft. and the scene of a few conflicts with the Chinese. The road makes you feel on top of the world even while seated in the Toyota Innova! The military stories of two!! Param Vir Chakra incidents involving Col. Chewang Rinchen, and the souvenir shop tells you a lot about the conflicts that took place here. A map and picture of the entire Himalayan range from Afghanistan to Arunachal gives us an idea of the "massive wall" that protects our country.

Wagah Border @ Amritsar

The festivities of the Wagah Border, now a popular destination, where 5000+ people gather every evening (10,000+ on weekends) to watch the BSF Jawans and the Pakistan Rangers mock the hostility between two armies. This site came into the limelight with the "Bus to Lahore". The one and half hour daily ceremony, is your best chance to get closest to the India Pakistan border. Pakistanis watching the spectacle from their side of the border just a few meters away, brings the experience close to a India-Pakistan cricket match at Sharjah.

Sriharikota

Ever noticed, the small notch on our east coast on a map of India @100 kms north of Chennai? This notch is Pulicat Lake, one of India's largest Salt Water lakes that opens out to sea. A bird sanctuary that attracts many flamingos, painted storks and a number of other birds. Situated on a small island at the end of this huge lake is Thumba or Sriharikota, India's satellite launch site. We "discovered" this when we took a trip out of Chennai a couple of years ago to see this lake. After several frustrating enquiries about this lake (still not knowing that's where Sriharikota is) we reached the lake to discover signs to the launch site. Since we got here on a Sunday we couldn't take a round of the campus. However we could see several large models of our past and current launch vehicles right at the gate. We could also see a large Rocket strapped to the launch building as we learnt that a launch was scheduled in the next few weeks. With a series of impressive satellite launches under its belt, ISRO's launch site would be a great tourist attraction.

Pokharan

Ground Zero and the explosions here as a part of Pokharan II, which generated considerable pride amongst Indians worldwide and became, arguably, India's greatest PR exercise of announcing that we had arrived. The pride and the internet message deluge about how American satellites had been fooled lasted several months after the event. This site should be an interesting tourist site in the Rajasthan circuit, although I am not sure if tourists are allowed to see this site.

India's Naval Sites
INS Vikrant once India's aircraft-carrier is now a Naval Museum Ship, that is docked in Mumbai harbour next to the Gateway of India, is open to tourists curiously only during Navy Week and a little later (Nov & Dec). Another interesting site at Goa, attached to the Navy is the National Institute of Oceanography, that I saw as a kid. Remember seeing the large under-sea exploration capsules that scientists use for exploration. This organization is best known for being the owners of the Antarctica expeditions.

Project Seabird, the huge naval site at Karwar, covers @ 26 km stretch along the highway NH-17. Five!! picturesque beaches in this stretch, the backdrop of the western ghats and the sea so close to the national highway is one of the most picturesque parts of the West Coast of India (picture says it all). Karwar port is perhaps the only port where ships are docked a few feet away from the national highway. I have seen the Operation Seabird site @ 7 years ago, while it was still under construction and I understand its all done now.

Republic Day Parade

Every kid in India, grows up seeing this on TV every year on 26th January. As all of us know, its a huge attraction and draws many visitors from in & around Delhi and is a virtual show-case of India's military might. Every NCC cadet's goal is to be part of this parade!! With a tradition to invite selected world leaders to preside over the parade every year, its probably already on the international circuit.

Whilst visiting a lot of these sites may seem to be out of bounds for citizens, you would be surprised to know that it is not entirely so. Most of these sites have PROs and actually welcome people and take them around or is openly advertised open for citizens at specific times of the year.

Military Tourism - would go a long way in inspiring youngsters to join the armed forces. It may well help reduce the shortage of officers that the army faces. Combine this with some elements of introduction to the armed forces lifestyle - Officers Mess, RSI Clubs and the hundreds of Golf Courses that the armed forces own in various parts of the country and it could go a long way in getting youngsters to join the Armed Forces again.

Arrogance of Imports

The recent, worldwide, inflationary trends in food prices, throws up a number of questions on the business wisdom of "core competency", "import if you cant make it efficiently", "outsource", & "insource" that has been much touted in the last 25+ years. Perhaps, these concepts have outlived their utility or at the very least need to be modified to suit the new "flat (but still real) world"
The developed world, mostly led by America, "discarded" a number of so called "lowly jobs" or in looking for doing only those parts of businesses that have scale, ended up importing everything else. Soon, an arrogance set in, where businesses thought that they could import or buy almost anything in the world (Build vs Buy decision heavily tilted towards Buying) and that they did not need to grow, build or manufacture anything anymore. Many of these earlier businesses, shut down due to their domestic inefficiencies and instead of "fixing" the inefficiences, the problem was solved through imports, without regard for its "strategic need" to fix it.

Is this, the right way forward in this multi-polar world, where many regions of the world are becoming wealthy and have huge domestic needs of their own? Whilst, its not a pointer towards going back to socialist ideals of "import substitution", we need to be aware of the following:

• Are imports, a solution to domestic inefficiencies? Growing 5 things well but importing 100 other (food) items all the way from New Zealand (or Mexico or Bangladesh), is not very efficient
• Food Exports will always be politically sensitive. Most countries will ban exports, whenever there is a perceived or real shortage of any commodities.
• Talking to an erstwhile mango exporter from the Dapoli region of the Konkan, it seems that mango or many other food EXPORTS are not lucrative anymore with the additional (cumbersome) work required, the weak dollar exchange rate and the 90 day payment cycles. Its getting more lucrative selling at comparable domestic prices and with Cash On Delivery!!
• Perishables (namely food), as is well known and as pointed out by Peter Drucker, dont transport efficiently. The cost per kg for transporting food is prohibitively expensive, especially in these times of high gasoline prices. Food just doesn't transport cost effectively! unless we cut out fresh produce and healthy food from our diets.
• The fact that food security is surely more important than Energy or External security. We could still walk if there was no gasoline or power, but what if we didn't have anything to eat?
• Importing Labour- Whilst labour always migrates to the place with the best paying jobs, and labour even works best away from home!! this would also be under pressure with stricter immigration enforced due to domestic pressure in the developed countries. Also labour would rather stay home if their home country has a booming economy.

Its an Efficiency, Social & HR issue
These problems of "throwing money at and importing solutions", need to be looked at as an "efficiency issue". There is a need to look at "real" sustained efforts at continuous improvement and solving inefficiencies of a strategic nature right at home. Give people the "right and hard" messages, that improvements are required through hard work and that no work is "demeaning". Is it possible to get people in America (or even the very many who are quitting farming in India) to get back to farming, when they were told all along that they could do better jobs?

Inspite of the "virtual, flat world", everyday life is still in the real world that needs to produce & transport food efficiently! Geography may be history now, but our stomachs haven't gone anywhere!

Look out for my next post on "Arrogance of Technology"

Delhi - Could it be an international tourist hotspot?

Delhi a city that conjures up images of power, political intrigue, the bygone eras of the magnificence of the Mughals and a city that has inspired many authors from Khushwant Singh to William Dalrymple. A city that most people in the corporate world visit during trade fairs (Pragati Maidan) or for meetings with the high & mighty babus of several ministries. My previous visits to Delhi used to be for the very same reasons, to our offices inside the IIT Delhi campus, to fly out of Delhi's international airport and to meet BSNL, Airtel, Spice officials for tie-ups for SMS messaging.

Love it or hate it, we just cant ignore Delhi. Known especially to people from Mumbai, as a place that carries its power & money on its sleeves (& every other visible part of the body and around it), Delhi has come a long way in being India's showcase of what could be done with its infrastructure. Seeing Delhi as a tourist, and soaking in its sights was quite different from "driving past" its many sights (& sounds)

India Gate & Rajpath

Intended to be the Gateway to India, this road in Lutyen's Delhi, from the gates of Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate, remains to be my favourite roads in the world along with the Champs Elysees in Paris & the roads around the seat of Power in the US at Washington DC. For sheer scale, size, its panoramic view and the remarkable buildings around it, this ranks high on my list of favourites. The number of domestic and foreign tourists that one can see in this area, suggests that this is indeed the case with many other people.

Gardens of Delhi

A couple of years ago, I had seen the Lodhi Gardens listed in Time magazine's list of 25 sites to see in Asia/Australia. I was curious to see it and it sure is an interesting garden laid out around the tombs of several members of the Lodhi Dynasty. The driver was a bit surprised that we wanted to see this garden, but quickly added that Delhi has more area under gardens than Mumbai's slums! He then listed quite a few. As we drove through Delhi we noticed many of these and including the huge gardens around many historical sites such as Qutub Minar, Humayun Tombs, Red Fort and Rajghat area, it sure is a city of gardens, a sobriquet that seems to be reserved by Bangalore with a couple of decent sized gardens and many much smaller ones.

Graveyard of the Mughal & Lodhi Empires

Delhi, seems to be one huge (impressive) graveyard of bygone eras. From the Lodhis to the Mughals (& the White Mughals), spread all around Delhi, are spectacular tomb-sites of the kith and kin of these two empires. Many of these including Humayun's Tomb, Lodhi Tombs, the Rajghat area are well maintained and there are many more forgotten tomb-sites in every side of Delhi. Humayun's tomb, now a world heritage site and restored and maintained with help from the Aga Khan Foundation, its locally called the "Red Taj Mahal". The Qutub Minar, though not just a tomb, is surely the signature monument of the city and it was interesting to see the remains of a half built tower that would have been double the height of the famous Minar that was never completed.

Museums & Art Galleries

Nowhere in the league of international museums such as the Louvre in Paris, the Smithsonian in Washington DC or even other smaller museums in other parts of the world, Delhi has its fair share of museums and art galleries. The National Museum is worth a visit to see the artifacts of our mother civilization (Mohenjo Daro & Harrapa), Ashoka's edicts and some other sections such as the the Miniature Paintings section. Other 25+ museums include the Dolls Museum, Rail Museum, Philately Museum, Natural History, Ghalib Museum, Crafts Museum and even a Police Museum! For the connoisseurs of art, check out the India Habitat Center, Lalit Kala Akademi, National Gallery of Modern Art & the Triveni Kala Sangam.

Gandhiji's legacy in Delhi

Gandhiji didn't spend too much time in Delhi, in his lifetime, preferring to stay away from the trappings of power. However his presence is seen in Delhi at Gandhi Smriti (Birla House) where he lived the last days of his life and was assassinated and Rajghat where his mortal remains were cremated. The freedom struggle is well documented at Gandhi Smriti and so is Gandhiji's life. Rajghat, that "must pay homage" site for every foreign dignitary visiting India is well laid out and thoughtfully designed to handle the large crowds that visit this site.

Temples of Delhi

Like most other cities and towns of India, Delhi has its share of excellent temples & mosques. The Birla Temple here is quite different from the marble edifices that other Birla temples in Hyderabad, Mumbai and other places are. Brown and ochre coloured temple with a simple elegance and a bunch of great paintings makes this a must see. The Bahai Lotus Temple and its famed, elegant architecture akin to the Sydney Opera House, is a major magnate for a number of foreign and domestic tourists as can be seen in the accompanying picture. The latest addition to Delhi's list of temples is the Akshardham Temple. Its huge complex, apparently the largest Hindu Temple in the world, is quite a garish complex of structures, albeit with a lot of very detailed and commendable work on its ceilings and pillars. Visit this temple to also witness capitalism at work in the Hindu temples, at its own Food Court!

Delhi Metro - what infrastructure can be?
The Delhi Metro, the showcase infrastructure project that has been executed by a mind-boggling corporation of just 30+ people, true to its reputation, was a symbol of efficiency, cleanliness and timeliness. Smart Cards/tokens to operate its entry and exit turnstiles, timetable, route map and other information booklets easily available and fast moving trains that help cover distances in 1/4 the time that it used to earlier. We took a ride from one of its underground stations in Connaught Place to Jhandewalan near Karol Baug. The ride took us less than 5 minutes and for the first time in India, we didn't have to ask anybody anything! The Delhi Metro is truly in the class of the Singapore MRT, including its cleanliness without having to restrict carrying Durians or Jackfruits on its trains!!

With Delhi's pace of high quality infrastructure development, its bold measures of CNG based transportation, BRTS, expressways to Noida & Gurgaon and showcase projects such as the Delhi Metro and its existing tourist sites and tourism services culture, Delhi could well be one of the tourist hotspots of the world quite soon. Just needs a few "modern", signature buildings to create a modern Qutub Minar and a distinctive skyline of its own to get there. (even the much maligned Delhi Transport Corporation, now has international street furniture and outdoor advertising company JCDecaux, managing 200+ international standard bus stops).

Hope the politicians, babus and the people at large let this happen!!

Touring Punjab & Himachal Pradesh - II

Himachal Pradesh, the state that has several valleys akin to the Kashmir valley, known for its apples and perhaps the state that introduced apple juice to the rest of the country through its HPMC outlets. Having seen the Simla and Kulu/Manali valleys earlier, we chose to holiday in the other lesser known valleys of Himachal - the Kangra Valley. Dalhousie & Dharamshala perched high in the Dhauladhar range of the lower Himalayas provide the better known backdrops to this valley. Away from the maddening crowds of the other two famous valleys of Himachal, the holiday was much relaxed without having to wrestle with other tourists at various places.

Parwanoo
Gateway to the Simla hills and a quick getaway for the residents of Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali, Parwanoo with its Timber Trail Hotel, perched high in the hills and connected to the lower part of the hotel through a state of the art cable car, was a worthwhile introduction to the rest of Himachal that we were to see later. The hotel is well worth a night's stay with its great interiors, location & its facilities. The restaurant, well kept gardens and tennis courts was an added attraction. The (working) cable car, its location and architecture and its Swiss style chalets are hopefully a sign of things to come in India's hospitality infrastucture.

Dalhousie - The Viceroy's View

High up in the hills, steep road climbs and thick alpine forests characterize this lesser known hill station. Steep mountains, deep valleys & distant backdrop of snow-clad peaks, gives Dalhousie a "Viceroy's View" of its surroundings. Quaint British era cottages, boutique hotels, seen amongst tree clearings still keep this place in Lord Dalhousie's era. Literally winding our way through the campus of Dalhousie Public School, we got the impression that it would be a great place for academics and solitude!! No wonder, Rabindranath Tagore who spent a few months here, when he was 12 and the surroundings inspired him to be what he became later in life!
Khajjiar, a golf course of yesteryears, is a nice meadow setting with a central lake surrounded by high mountains and thick alpine forests. A few interesting "tourist attractions" have been created here, including large transparent rolling balls that are rolled along the floor of the meadow with tourists strapped (or trapped) inside. Roadside snow from half melted mini-glaciers were the added attraction on the way to Khajjiar. Chamba valley, along with its quaint town and nice backdrop of snowclad mountains gave us a chance to taste local Himachali food - rajma+chaval & berry chutneys.

Dharamshala
Better known for the Dalai Lama's government in exile, along with its cantonment areas of Mcleodganj & Forsythganj, Dharamshala is quite a busy place as compared to Dalhousie. Not as high or narrow as Dalhousie, the Tibetan presence here is the main difference from other places in Himachal. Some usual view points - lake, snow and valley view points alongwith some temples, monasteries, churches, and other structures of the 1800s in McLeodganj give Dharamshala a unique "rural cosmopolitan" feel. The main market is full of artefacts from Tibet (grossly overpriced, with rude Tibetan owners who dont care even if nothing ever got sold). The seat of the Dalai Lama, the monastery is tastefully built and has been the focus of much worldwide attention following the Chinese crackdown in Tibet. Gory 20' posters of photos of Chinese brutality in the premises of the monastery!! reminded us of all the means being adopted to get worldwide sympathy and support. There has been much debate about this and I leave readers with their own impressions on the Tibetan propaganda from the photos here.

Kangra - Valley of the Arts

The Kangra valley has been known for years for its kings, forts and paintings. Around 20 kms from the hills of Dharamshala, this place is a home of temples, rural architecture (characterized by houses with granite tiled sloping roofs), paintings and the toy train. Kangra Fort with an exquisite view of its surroundings and the imposing backdrop of the Dharamshala ranges, has been well restored and definetely worth a visit. The kids undertook an interesting toy train journey from Kangra to Jwalamukhi Road (a half an hour journey costing Rs. 3/- per adult, as compared to Rs. 11/- for the same journey by bus - interesting pointers to Warren Buffet's recent interest in investing in the US railroads!)

Kangra Paintings - the miniature school of art with Rajasthani origins, is known for its details produced in a space of @ 10" x 5". We spent some time with Mukesh Dhiman, one of the 50 surviving artists in Himachal engaged in this art. The range of rather bold and varied themes of these paintings - nudes, love scenes, hunting scenes, detailed sceneries, points to a high level of free expression in these "rural" areas. He showed us the mineral & vegetable extract based colours that they use for their paintings, quite interesting not just as a tradition, but because the paints preserve and travel better than the modern chemical based "Camlin" colours. Mukesh, tells us that Mumbai, with active support from Tina Ambani's foundation is helping preserve and promote Kangra paintings, with many of them adorning the walls of many classy hotels and museums. We did our bit by picking up a couple of paintings from Mukesh. For those interested in this form of art, I would recommend a visit to the Miniature Art section of the National Museum in New Delhi, where we saw a decent and detailed collection.

Palampur - Tea Gardens, Streams, Para Gliding and Art

Palampur was perhaps the surprise of the Himachal trip. Added into the itinerary solely because it had tea gardens, it turned out to be a the most picturesque places of our trip. Staying at a simple, informal boutique hotel situated at Neugal Khad in the Bundla chasm, run by an ex-airforce pilot, Suresh Bhasin, we could literally get a great view of the snow clad mountains from our beds. Right along the roads were several small canals (created by the local rajas) to channelize waters of the melting snow and which irrigate lands upto 100 kms away. The main attraction of Palampur is ofcourse its tea estates. Verdant green plantations of the same strains of tea as that in Darjeeling and its tea factory give visitors a peek into the business of growing, drying, roasting and blending of TEA, the roasted bacteria that gives about 50% of the world its morning cuppa. The other attractions of Palampur are Bir and Pilling, apparently one of the best para-gliding sites in the world and an interesting 8th century temple of Baijnath.

Andretta, a community that was created by British Author Norah Richards and made famous by the Sikh artist Shoba Singh (who first rendered the Sikh Gurus in painting form) was an interesting place to visit. Shoba Singh's house-museum and Gurcharan Singh's pottery studio have created a small and unique community quite similar to few other communities such as the Cholamandal Artists village near Chennai.

Himachal, a land of the pahadi people, high mountains and river valleys. Abundant water & hydel energy, a power surplus state, with 100% of its villages electrified & having running water supply (its amazing to see electric lines going up to remote houses perched high in the narrow valleys). Its roads and incentives for industry, good law and order, scenic beauty and good governance make Himachal an attractive destination for industry as well as tourists. Is Goa with similar characteristics (small lightly populated state) an overly hyped tourist destination as compared to Himachal ??

Travelling to Himachal in spring was especially beautiful, with the various types of pines, silver oaks, rhododendrons, small valley and apple flowers in full bloom. Plan your next trip to Himachal or any other part of the Himalayas in Spring!!