Friday, October 30, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Automation is for weenies
Automation is not such a great thing in Indian context. It is cheaper to employ someone than to use machinery to automate the work. Neither is self service such a favoured concept. Employment generation is what we do.
There are examples of this everywhere around us. BBMP officials once bought, rather imported a few road sweeper trucks, probably influenced by what they saw in some foreign country in one of their educational junkets. However, due to the pressure from everyone, they had to keep these trucks un-operative, left to rust and die unceremoniously so that these don't threaten employment of the road sweeping crew. In my office there is a door that doesn't close properly. There is a security guy stationed at the door, whose only job throughout the day is to close that door if it is left open by someone!! I sometimes think it is commendable that bank ATMs became popular in India. It could very well have been a human sitting in a little counter throughout the day!
Going against this trend, BESCOM, the Bangalore Electricity supply folks, set up an automated kiosks for paying bills at their JP Nagar office. Anyone could pay bills all through the day at these kiosks. Quickly, there were a number of people who either did not want to or could not read the instructions and started getting frustrated that the machine doesn't work. I think we Indians are notorious for our inability to read instructions and maps. Further, the machine does not accept worn out notes. It took a long time for people to pay bills through this kiosk. Usually, a number of people would surround the machine, discuss about the right way of using the machine and curse BESCOM.
I had been there some time last year and I saw a change. Now there was a BESCOM employee whose job was to operate the machine on behalf of bill payers. This was kind of defeating the purpose of automated kiosk, but speeded up the operation for users and improved customer satisfaction.
I went there again last month and I saw that this concept had gone even further. Sure, the operator was there, but now there was another person, a cashier, who sat with a cash bag on a chair near the kiosk. The operator collected cash from us, exchanged old, worn out notes for crisp ones from the cashier and fed them into the machine. This was to ensure that the operation goes on smoothly. Now there are 2 humans to help out with a process that is supposed to be fully automated. Hail automation! Hail self service!!
Contrary example where self service has worked very well? Sukh Sagar, Adigas, etc.
There are examples of this everywhere around us. BBMP officials once bought, rather imported a few road sweeper trucks, probably influenced by what they saw in some foreign country in one of their educational junkets. However, due to the pressure from everyone, they had to keep these trucks un-operative, left to rust and die unceremoniously so that these don't threaten employment of the road sweeping crew. In my office there is a door that doesn't close properly. There is a security guy stationed at the door, whose only job throughout the day is to close that door if it is left open by someone!! I sometimes think it is commendable that bank ATMs became popular in India. It could very well have been a human sitting in a little counter throughout the day!
Going against this trend, BESCOM, the Bangalore Electricity supply folks, set up an automated kiosks for paying bills at their JP Nagar office. Anyone could pay bills all through the day at these kiosks. Quickly, there were a number of people who either did not want to or could not read the instructions and started getting frustrated that the machine doesn't work. I think we Indians are notorious for our inability to read instructions and maps. Further, the machine does not accept worn out notes. It took a long time for people to pay bills through this kiosk. Usually, a number of people would surround the machine, discuss about the right way of using the machine and curse BESCOM.
I had been there some time last year and I saw a change. Now there was a BESCOM employee whose job was to operate the machine on behalf of bill payers. This was kind of defeating the purpose of automated kiosk, but speeded up the operation for users and improved customer satisfaction.
I went there again last month and I saw that this concept had gone even further. Sure, the operator was there, but now there was another person, a cashier, who sat with a cash bag on a chair near the kiosk. The operator collected cash from us, exchanged old, worn out notes for crisp ones from the cashier and fed them into the machine. This was to ensure that the operation goes on smoothly. Now there are 2 humans to help out with a process that is supposed to be fully automated. Hail automation! Hail self service!!
Contrary example where self service has worked very well? Sukh Sagar, Adigas, etc.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Eighth wonder of the world
Quick: What's the eighth wonder of the world (Even before we uncontroversially finalize the first seven wonders of the world)?Clue: It isn't Rakhi Sawant.
Answer: It is "Samruddhi Maharaja Bath Stool". Ah, this was easy, wasn't it?
Applications for the ninth and tenth wonders are now being accepted.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
This Poori is not very active
I don't mind "Chille Vada" and "Onian Pakoda", but I totally hate it when my Pooris are idle.
Friday, October 09, 2009
Monday, October 05, 2009
An incomplete trip (Part 2 of 2)
Hampi has improved quite a bit since I visited long back, but I think a lot more can still be done. This is a UNESCO world heritage site for god sake and the main approach road to this place is filled with potholes most of the way. There are no good restaurants and no petrol pumps in Hampi.
The rain was pouring steadily and quickly, low lying temples like the Prasanna Virupaksha underground temple were in 1 foot of water.
Carrying an umbrella in one hand and a hyperactive two year old in the other is not the recommended way of seeing a vast spread of outdoor monuments. By afternoon we had managed to (sort of) see most of the 'highlights' in Hampi. Hampi's temples don't have carvings as intricate as the ones you see in Belur and Halebidu. That's because the carvings in Belur/Halebidu have been done in soap stone, which is much softer than granite used in Hampi. A striking feature here is that while the lower levels of all buildings are done with stone, top portions, including the gopuras of temples have been made with bricks. Hence the top portions of many buildings has eroded in rain in all these years. Seeing Hampi is depressing to me. Nowhere else I have seen such a wonderful place being reduced to ruins by fellow humans at such a scale.
By evening it was still raining and we were at the Tungabhadra (TB) Dam was full to the brim and water was being let out from all it's crest gates. As per my plan we were supposed to drive to Bijapur the next morning. That's when Ananth called. I have accepted a piece of good advice from my close circle of friends from time to time, more often from Ananth than anyone else. He told me the devastation rain was creating in Bijapur and Bagalkot districts and asked me to reconsider my decision to head North. Within the next couple of hours I had received a few more phone calls asking me not to go towards Bijapur. The news being churned out in TV channels clearly showed the horror caused by rains. It was one of the worst floods in the history of these places and I had planned to head straight into this mess. Weather reports predicted more rains on 1st October. Hence it was an easy decision to cancel heading to Bijapur. One other thought that was floated was visiting Mantralaya before heading to Bangalore. I took a close look at my Santro. It neither looked like a helicopter, nor like a motor boat. Considering the amount of water being let out of the TB dam in Hospet, going to Mantralaya was going to be extremely risky, so I backed out. I had to thank my decision later, considering the whole of Mantralaya, including the Raghavendra temple, got submerged in 10 feet of water that day. I only lost a chance to be on the news, though ;-)
I started driving towards Shimoga on 1st Oct. While most of the journey was easy, I had to pass through a stream of water running on the road at one place due to a nearby lake overflowing.
A passer by assured me that it was safe to cross, but he also cautioned me to have my car in 1st gear and accelerator pressed. He then casually mentioned that he had just driven his M800 across the stream, did not take enough precaution, water had gotten into some parts of the engine and was waiting for it to dry!!! While I absolutely did not want my car to get stuck in a water stream in some remote area of Davanagere district, I surely did not want to drive back 20KMs on a bad road either. After having watched the situation for a few minutes and having seen a couple of other vehicles making across safely, I too set out into the water and made it across safely. Rest of the journey to my wife's place in Shimoga district was eventless, considering rain was no more an event by now. It rained non-stop till the morning of 3rd October. I drove back to Bangalore on 3rd and luckily the rain gods finally showed some mercy on me and made my drive easy.
The rain was pouring steadily and quickly, low lying temples like the Prasanna Virupaksha underground temple were in 1 foot of water.
Carrying an umbrella in one hand and a hyperactive two year old in the other is not the recommended way of seeing a vast spread of outdoor monuments. By afternoon we had managed to (sort of) see most of the 'highlights' in Hampi. Hampi's temples don't have carvings as intricate as the ones you see in Belur and Halebidu. That's because the carvings in Belur/Halebidu have been done in soap stone, which is much softer than granite used in Hampi. A striking feature here is that while the lower levels of all buildings are done with stone, top portions, including the gopuras of temples have been made with bricks. Hence the top portions of many buildings has eroded in rain in all these years. Seeing Hampi is depressing to me. Nowhere else I have seen such a wonderful place being reduced to ruins by fellow humans at such a scale.
By evening it was still raining and we were at the Tungabhadra (TB) Dam was full to the brim and water was being let out from all it's crest gates. As per my plan we were supposed to drive to Bijapur the next morning. That's when Ananth called. I have accepted a piece of good advice from my close circle of friends from time to time, more often from Ananth than anyone else. He told me the devastation rain was creating in Bijapur and Bagalkot districts and asked me to reconsider my decision to head North. Within the next couple of hours I had received a few more phone calls asking me not to go towards Bijapur. The news being churned out in TV channels clearly showed the horror caused by rains. It was one of the worst floods in the history of these places and I had planned to head straight into this mess. Weather reports predicted more rains on 1st October. Hence it was an easy decision to cancel heading to Bijapur. One other thought that was floated was visiting Mantralaya before heading to Bangalore. I took a close look at my Santro. It neither looked like a helicopter, nor like a motor boat. Considering the amount of water being let out of the TB dam in Hospet, going to Mantralaya was going to be extremely risky, so I backed out. I had to thank my decision later, considering the whole of Mantralaya, including the Raghavendra temple, got submerged in 10 feet of water that day. I only lost a chance to be on the news, though ;-)
I started driving towards Shimoga on 1st Oct. While most of the journey was easy, I had to pass through a stream of water running on the road at one place due to a nearby lake overflowing.
A passer by assured me that it was safe to cross, but he also cautioned me to have my car in 1st gear and accelerator pressed. He then casually mentioned that he had just driven his M800 across the stream, did not take enough precaution, water had gotten into some parts of the engine and was waiting for it to dry!!! While I absolutely did not want my car to get stuck in a water stream in some remote area of Davanagere district, I surely did not want to drive back 20KMs on a bad road either. After having watched the situation for a few minutes and having seen a couple of other vehicles making across safely, I too set out into the water and made it across safely. Rest of the journey to my wife's place in Shimoga district was eventless, considering rain was no more an event by now. It rained non-stop till the morning of 3rd October. I drove back to Bangalore on 3rd and luckily the rain gods finally showed some mercy on me and made my drive easy.
An incomplete trip (Part 1)
I had taken off the entire last week to go on a trip to North Karnataka. I had planned to visit Chitradurga, Hampi, Bijapur, Badami, Aihole, Pattadakal, Hubli and so on.
We set out on 29th Sep to my first destination, Chitradurga. The road to Chitradurga from Bangalore (NH4) is excellent and I could drive at more than 100kmph most of the time. A very pleasant cloudy weather welcomed us at Chitradurga fort. The fort is in a very good condition considering the battles it has withstood centuries ago. Fort walls are mostly intact and the ASI has done a good job of preserving it. Seeing the fort was not an easy task though... carrying a 2 year old around is not very easy.
One interesting aspect of visiting Chitradurga fort now-a-days is watching Jyoti Raju scale the walls of the fort with utmost ease. He has now become famous enough to appear in all news papers and magazines. Here is a video of him I captured.
By noon it was raining cats and dogs in Chitradurga, so we decided to proceed towards my next destination, Hospet. The road from Chitradurga to Hospet (NH13) is in a deplorable condition most of the way. The road has a heavy traffic of trucks from the mid and North India heading towards Bangalore. The 2-lane road is filled with potholes and when it rains it is hard to say how deep a pothole is. Generous scraping of car's under belly resulted.
The next day I woke up to realize that the rains that began last afternoon had not yet stopped. The town of Hospet, while not very nice to tread on in the best of weather, was a terrible slushy mess during rains. My plans of watching Hampi was under serious threat now. The cozy confines of my room in Malligi hotel was tempting me to just curl up in my blankets and sleep off. However, having travelled all this long I was going to ensure I get my money's worth. Armed with umbrellas we set out to see Hampi.
We set out on 29th Sep to my first destination, Chitradurga. The road to Chitradurga from Bangalore (NH4) is excellent and I could drive at more than 100kmph most of the time. A very pleasant cloudy weather welcomed us at Chitradurga fort. The fort is in a very good condition considering the battles it has withstood centuries ago. Fort walls are mostly intact and the ASI has done a good job of preserving it. Seeing the fort was not an easy task though... carrying a 2 year old around is not very easy.
One interesting aspect of visiting Chitradurga fort now-a-days is watching Jyoti Raju scale the walls of the fort with utmost ease. He has now become famous enough to appear in all news papers and magazines. Here is a video of him I captured.
By noon it was raining cats and dogs in Chitradurga, so we decided to proceed towards my next destination, Hospet. The road from Chitradurga to Hospet (NH13) is in a deplorable condition most of the way. The road has a heavy traffic of trucks from the mid and North India heading towards Bangalore. The 2-lane road is filled with potholes and when it rains it is hard to say how deep a pothole is. Generous scraping of car's under belly resulted.
The next day I woke up to realize that the rains that began last afternoon had not yet stopped. The town of Hospet, while not very nice to tread on in the best of weather, was a terrible slushy mess during rains. My plans of watching Hampi was under serious threat now. The cozy confines of my room in Malligi hotel was tempting me to just curl up in my blankets and sleep off. However, having travelled all this long I was going to ensure I get my money's worth. Armed with umbrellas we set out to see Hampi.
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