Yellow Mellow !

 

What’s in a yellow colored public carrier, have you ever thought ?

There is some relation, apparently Yellow or its related colors, gets attention very fast and more than other colors that we usually see. Its said, that we will notice yellow objects first amongst a lot of others. According to science, "Lateral peripheral vision for detecting yellows is 1.24 times greater than for red." So during misty conditions or in low visibility, drivers will spot yellow cars or any moving vehicle fairly well.

This is probably why, we have a School bus in Yellow color. Indian Govt very recently made it mandatory for all school buses to be Yellow in color… we sort of caught up with what was started in North America during the late 1930’s. These days you find school buses yellow and also many machines that are used in construction like Bulldozers, JCB, Cranes etc.. just to make it easier to spot the danger that comes with these machines

So if its a Yellow then be mellow !

Supply & Demand

 

India is on a race to be the most populated country in this world. Its literally an Abundance …err.. of people though. Most HR people will only be more than happy to see more heads around

Last week i had to take a print of some documentation and since my home printer wasn't working, had to get the prints from a cyber cafe. The dingy little place and its smaller cubicles was least to say crowded. Many youngsters waiting for their turn… privacy was lost for some and i could see a lady jeering at a person standing beside her. The best thing i liked about this cafe was that, all their PC’s were so outdated by looks, but the Operating System was the latest Windows 7. The monitor was a 14’ CRT … 100% of zoom on the screen made the fonts look huge size on them. I finally managed to get my hand on a PC after about half hour wait, my prints were fired onto a printer that was connected to the WLAN (!), the printer was a HP Laserjet. Print per copy was charged only at Rs 3

As i was walking out of the shop, i was thinking to myself the way population has outstripped supply in this great country of ours ‘India’. A railway station, bus stand, auto / taxi stand.. .its all filled with people. Railway stations even in a cosmo city like Bangalore are far short of space for the crowds that it was meant to operate with. A city bus is something that you cant step into during peak hours… well you may think the Volvo buses that are operated on premium by the bus corporation has space… no longer are they spacious, regardless of the premium fare collected on them

The cyber cafe when it started was meant for those who knew computers only… now there is hardly any grown-up person who doesn't know computers, so you will find this place always crowded. That's the way India has grown… we have absolutely lost our handle on the resources that need to be to support such a large population

Will a we 2 ours 2 revival help ! ?

Train to Subhramanya

Couple of railfan friends from bangalore undertook a trip to the famous Sakleshpura ghats. A route of about 55 km filled with tunnels and bridges through the serene .. thick forests on the western ghats

                                   

Oh yaaro ! an ear sore

 

Oh yaaro, yeh India bula liya ! thats the theme song of the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth games. The noise that Suresh Kalmadi and Co built up was so much that i was very anxious to hear it. ‘It would even beat waka waka – said Kalmadi. Finally it was launched on Aug 28th again at a gala event because money is in no short supply for the CWG organizers – they repeatedly are proving this. The launch was no short of any political gimmicks with both Haryana & Delhi CM’s throwing their support behind the messed up organizers

My expectation were belied when the song was presented and by Rahman himself. It lacked any kind of genius music that this man is so capable of. Oh yaaro, sounded like too much of hindi and mix of some pop and loud guitars, in short a convoluted song… not amusing that so far the organizing has been nothing short of confusions and corruption. I would have imagined a theme song to give some patriotic feeling to the host country at the same time convey a message of oneness, pride, motivation & bonding to the athletes above all energy !!. It should’ve contained more of music atleast.. rather than those jarry tones. Given that the launch of this song was delayed and more changes requested by the organizing committee in its first review, rahman saab should’ve put in more work.

Oh yaaro…do you know, it cost 5 crores for this theme song. This is why we call our desh mahaan

puncher angadi

 

Long before the dawn of tubeless tyres and stickers that took no time to stick up a punctured tube, there existed on the roads of Bangalore city small shops that used to do the repairs of punctures. many a bangaloreans would remember them to be the puncher angadi;s { puncher is Puncture and Angadi is Shop }

We don’t find them anymore and i would imagine, its yet another roadside easy trade that has been eaten away by the developments in technology. These shops used various mechanisms to ready a damaged tube. Let me just step them out…

1. Remove the tyre from the vehicle [ any vehicle ]
2. Separate the tube from the tyre
3. Fill the tyre with air to spot the puncture
4. Soak the tube into a bucket of water, then turn the tyre its complete circumference
5. Use a chalk piece to mark the spots from where air leaks and produces bubbles in the water
6. Dry the area marked out on step 5
7. File the area to create a rough patch
8. Application of the puncture fix [ different types ]
• Cut a small tube piece that will fit the size of the puncture, apply a gum / solution onto the area and stick the cut piece. Which is then kept under a vice and a small fire lit under the vice’s base to heat up the solution and enhance the sticking
• Stick the ready-made sticker
9. Check the tyre for the object that caused the puncture, remove it and then spray some powder [most often its the common talcum powder] into the tyre
10. Fit the tube back into the tyre, fill it with air up to the specified pressure

In 8a the vice plates later on started coming with a electric heated plate. In 9 the air filling used to be with those pumps that had to be operated with the leg, which then became motorized

The shops operated in dingy spaces on the road and were almost dark in color with all the fire and its smoke… these days, you find the MRF’s tyre center which are much posh but more or less doing similar activities and are more machine dependant… yet costly