Girish's Blog

The UPA government announced an austerity drive in September this year, with all overseas travel on hold, five star bookings a strict no-no and local travel only by economy class. One should realize that the politician is in a class of his own – no morals, no ethics just pure thick skin – hence it wasn’t long before it was noticed that travel used to happen economy class with a compulsory upgrade to business class, five star bookings continuing but in proxy names and so on. There is always a slip between the cup and the lip - for our home grown politicians hypocrisy is a way of life – how many people do you know who can lie with a straight face and also think that they do so for the greater public good! Very few I am sure, unless of course you are fortunate enough to have politicians amongst your social circle! Not content to make a mockery of the so called austerity drive, the UPA government has surpassed itself by passing the air travel bill for Ministers. This bill was probably one ...

The countdown to the SCMM is under way with just 24 days to go. The biggest and most loved sporting event in Mumbai’s sporting calendar is just round the corner with an expected participation of more than 30000 people from all over the world. I am sure all the amateur participants for the half and full marathon have been training very hard these past four months or so. The idea of participating in this grand event is two fold – to find out one’s own endurance level and to see how much one can help the under-privileged by raising money for their welfare. There will be a lot of celebrity participants adding glamour to the event along with pageants and fun-loving peopke in the Dream Run category adding color and joy to the event. This year the half marathon and the full marathon will start at the same time – 6.45 am on January 17, 2010. The full marathon will commence from CST and terminate at CST and will go over the newly constructed sea link from Worli to Bandra and back. The half mara...

It is a well known fact – though spoken in hushed tones – that illegal construction in Mumbai goes on with the complete blessings of the political class and the underworld financiers. The need to post this blog has arisen with the Honorable Bombay High Court ordering the demolition of 17 illegal floors of a twenty four storey structure built at Kandivali. This building had the BMC approval for only seven floors but went on to construct seventeen additional floors. This raises a lot of questions which need to be answered and which I feel the Honorable High Court should also take into account for passing strictures against those responsible for whatever has transpired. I am sure that the BMC, the ward officer, the executive engineer at the ward were fully aware that illegal construction activity was going on – why was it not stopped at the stage when the 8th floor was being constructed? Why did the concerned officials wait till seventeen more floors were built – I am sure they were not b...

This post will probably highlight the state of our roads, the apathy of the BMC, the quality of drivers to whom driving licenses are given, all of which leads to traffic congestion and in many cases road rage. This morning the traffic was particularly bad on the way to office, and the car had not moved from 9.05am to 9.20am on the road approaching the traffic signal on the Andheri Kurla Road near Hotel Kohinoor International, so I decided to walk the half a kilometer or so to office. As I weaved my way through the cars and motorbikes zigzagging between cars and the pedestrians, I realized the reason for the massive traffic jam. There was a huge depression on the Andheri-Kurla road at the traffic junction with water seeping out of some damaged underground pipeline. The Versova-Ghatkopar metro is being constructed on this stretch which may have contributed to the damage. The BMC “constructs” roads to perpetuate their right to make money through contractors for road repairs, hence shoddy ...

Friends -this is one article which I wish to share. We have the developed countries trying to arm twist the rest of the world for economic benefits without any scientific backing. Makes interesting reading...enjoy... Climate change campaigners: 100 reasons why climate change is natural and not man-made - UK Express, Tuesday December 15,2009 HERE are the 100 reasons, released in a dossier issued by the European Foundation, why climate change is natural and not man-made: 1) There is “no real scientific proof” that the current warming is caused by the rise of greenhouse gases from man’s activity. 2) Man-made carbon dioxide emissions throughout human history constitute less than 0.00022 percent of the total naturally emitted from the mantle of the earth during geological history. 3) Warmer periods of the Earth’s history came around 800 years before rises in CO2 levels. 4) After World War II, there was a huge surge in recorded CO2 emissions but global temperatures fell for four decades afte...