Amchi Mumbai bleeds again

I woke up at 7’O clock on Thursday morning and picked up the paper to find the headlines “Terror rips apart Mumbai”. I was shocked to see this news and immediately turned on the TV to see the coverage on news channel. I kept on watching the channels for 2 hours and whole matter slowly started sinking in.
[Pic Courtesy: Rediff India]
I could not believe what I was watching. There were incidents of blasts in recent past but open firing on public is some thing new kind of terror. Of course these things were happening in J&K but not in other places. The attack was simultaneously conducted at many high profile places. There was also information that terrorists reached the hospitals where the injured people were being treated. As per today more than 180 people are dead and above 300 are injured. India also lost 2 NSG commandos, 1 Top ATS cop, 1 encounter speacialist, and 1 ACP of Maharastra police. Apart from human lives we also lost the Taj Heritage charm and the belief of foreigners regarding safety in India. This will surely affect the Indian tourism for a long time.

The prolonged operations to flush out terrorists happened at three places, Hotel Taj, Hotel Trident/Oberoi and Nariman House. It took almost 60 hours to neutralize the terrorists and secure these places from them.

I think terrorists plan was to cause terror and damage the image of India. They have succeeded to quite an extent in their plan.

I have few points to discuss related to our forces, intelligent and media.

Intelligence:

But how all this happened? Where is our intelligence bureau? The amount of ammunition the terrorists had brought for the operation is much more than enough to keep the Indian forces busy for two days. Is it this easy to bring ammunition of this scale to India and start operation? Authorities started giving justification that the terrorists came by the sea. But if this is a hole in the system then anticipate the possibilities and take some actions. This cannot be a lame excuse.

Local people should also support the intelligence bureau with the information. There was news that these guys came and stayed in Nariman House for past few days and made this house as base for all the operations. Local people also report that these guys have ordered for huge amounts of dry fruits, around 100kgs of meat and other food items. If there was no celebration and gathering then why would someone order this much? This information could be given to IB for some interrogation. But most of us see and forget the unusual things happen in our neighborhood. And there is one more dilemma even if I report the incident what action police will take. It could also happen that the person who reports more interrogated than the real culprits! This is where our whole system has flaw.

Media:

Thanks to our TV news channels I was getting the live update and of course the terrorists were also viewing the same update!! They had satellite smart phones and they were in touch with their mastermind. There was no issue for the getting the update about the action our security guards were taking to neutralize them!

Free media doesn’t mean broadcast whatever it wants. Media should act responsibly, not just to fight for viewer rating. When forces requested media not to show the live images, some channels stopped showing the live coverage but some still didn’t. The channels that stopped the live coverage started telling that they also could also show the live coverage but they were not doing it as the forces requested it. I just felt this statement as media is doing favor on the government! They should be made aware of the state of media in communist countries.

Another funny thing what I saw was terrorists called India TV and talked to them for 10 minutes. Without much listening to these guys’ questions he just kept on blabbering some nonsense. When reporter asked that what was the demand, they didn’t have anything in mind. Terrorists were discussing with each other. They tried to tell that they are from Hyderabad but they accent which they were using was Pakistani.

Government:

Just now I heard deputy CM saying that the plan was to kill 5000 people. But due to swift action from our police and Special Forces the toll is minimized. They have captured huge amount of RDX and live bombs.

Is it some kind of consolation? Or just to subside the casualties that have already happened?

Thank God, terrorist could not bring the amount of ammunition that they planned for; they lost some part in the Sea.

Other political parties:

This is time for solidarity than blaming government for each and every step it is taking. As there is polling happening in some states, surely these politicians will highlight this event to attract votes.

This whole thing should be made communal issue. That will create internal agitations which may be one of the terrorist intentions.

Police force:
Intelligence tells that it had informed Mumbai police that there would be some attacks carried out on Taj and Oberoi. Then why was no action taken there?

We need to note that when terrorists’ use advanced automated machine guns how do we expect our police constables to fight them with the traditional gun, which needs to be reloaded for every shot. If they try to engage the terrorist in firing, this would just be mere suicidal attempt. This could be the reason why we lost lives of our policemen.

Police force also should ensure they constantly maintain their physical fitness. For these kinds of operations they are expected to move and run as swiftly as the terrorists do. Terrorists get a rigorous training but what about police force (not NSG/ATS or any special task force). I guess the training provided to them is like install software and forget. There will be not updates available!


At the end of 60 hrs NSG/ATS/Police force has secured all the three places by killing altogether 9 terrorists and capturing one. My hearty salutes to these brave men who came to flush these hiding terrorists and save lives of innocent people. We will always be indebted to these guys who come and secure our lives by putting their life at risk.

Anyway I accept that, it is easier for me to sit and write blogs about this incident than face this personally. They people who were directly or indirectly attached to this whole incident only know how tough it is.

But I think there should be some action taken at least after this incident or else it will be forgotten like incidents. People tend to forget the mayhem after few days and life runs as usual until another incident happens. This short-term memory is very dangerous. Take example of US, after 9/11 there is not even a single attack on US. It is not that terrorists planning anything there, US intelligence foils all the bids for attack. We need such an intelligence team rather than highly trained police flooded everywhere. Normal life will not continue if you increase the security guards at every possible target. This will make the whole country as a terrified state!

We need to answer the root cause and we have to take stern actions at this level. The toughest steps have to be taken to clean up their bases. We also need a solid borders. There should be strong people identification and location system. We need to educate people to act responsibly. Now and then army/navy/STF cannot come to rescue, we need to strengthen our police force regularly to ensure they are capable enough to fight these terrorists. We also need advanced technologies to help our STF combat fast.

I also know these all things will not happen overnight but they should be initiated and followed. Someday we will see our system becoming more resilient to all these terrorists activities. Hope some Government implements all these and the opposing parties support this!!!

Jai Hind.

How to impress VCs (Venture Capitalists)?

I recently watched a video on TED talks site. It is a presentation given by David S Rose, who is a serial entrepreneur. The talk is about how to impress a VC with your presentation so that he right away invests in your business! This is a very good presentation with a lot of information useful to people who are trying to sell their idea. In this talk first he tells about the qualities a VC looks in you and your business. Second part is regarding how to impress VC with the presentation skills.

When someone presents his/her business proposition to VC for funds, normally one gets only few minutes to explain the business and the people involved in it. In this short period he needs to show how fruitful is the idea, what is the experience he has, how competitive is the product and most of all how passionate he is about his project. Basically David has listed 10 points, which a VC looks in the business.

1. Integrity
2. Passion
3. Experience
4. Knowledge
5. Skill
6. Leadership
7. Commitment
8. Vision
9. Realism
10. Coachability

Passion with skill is the basic formula for success. Passion is the desire, zeal and enthusiasm for one’s work. Passion brings sense of ownership. If one is not passionate about what he might not be doing it with interest. Experience is very helpful for business; even if he has failed earlier the experience will help not to make the mistakes again. Skill and knowledge about the business is bare necessity when a new venture is started. Knowledge includes the technical know how about business. Skills will include technical, marketing and management skills. Leadership is the ability to motivate the team from making the idea to concrete product. Commitment is one of the essential characteristics that VC looks in you. Passion brings commitment to your business. Commitment is creating own obligations to make the business successful. Vision caters to the long-term goals of the business. Realism, one needs to realistic in his goals. Coachability is the quality expected by VC, where you are open to learn from his experience!

In any business (not just to show the presentation to VC and get money!) one need to have the passion, knowledge, skill, commitment, vision and realistic goals to succeed.

I really liked the short presentation given by David S Rose. He is an angel investor in New York. You can get more information about his venture in the following sites
1. http://www.newyorkangels.com/default.html
2. http://www.rose.vc/

The presentation can be found on the TED website
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/david_s_rose_on_pitching_to_vcs.html

A Wednesday – Review

Last weekend I watched this movie. Simply, I would say it is a superb movie. It does not have those masala ingredients or zingy music formula to make it hit. In fact there are no songs at all. This movie also does not cast those frontline heroes or item girls to pull the crowd. Of course there is one item girl [J] but she has got a decent role. This is just a plain thriller that would glue you to your seat till the movie ends. Nasseruddin Shah and Anupam Kher performed the lead roles and they were brilliant. The support cast was consisting of Aamir Bashir, Jimmy Shergill and Deepal Shaw. I liked the role of Jimmy Shergill who plays ATS cop.

Caution: The next part of the text may reveal the story a little, which may act as a spoiler if you have not seen the movie. I am not going to write the complete movie review but some scenes in the movie were good and funny (to me at least) which I want to share.

1. Scene related to bollywood hero Arjun Khanna: The whole underworld call ends up to a crank call by local guys.
2. Scene related to Electric Baba: This is another sequence where director introduced Deepal Shaw as a news reporter. Here she is covering a person who is alive even after accidentally getting an electric shock for 15 minutes! The questions asked are “ How are you feeling now and how you were feeling at during the shock”!! Now days some of our new channels have become full time comedy channels.
3. Scene related to Taxi driver and Traffic police: Here Aamir Bashir interrupts the traffic police who is asking money from a Taxi driver as penalty. He finds that police has taken already Rs20. Now Aamir asks the police to return the money with extra 20 rupees from his pocket.
4. Scene related to Credit card call: There is pin drop silence in the investigation room and everybody is waiting for the call from the Terrorist. They get a call, but from some credit card sales person. This shows that even police commissioners are also not spared from these telemarketing companies!
5. Scene related to young hacker: Here police hires a hacker to crack the location and identity of the caller. When Anupam Kher asks the qualification of the hacker, the hacker tells with lot pride that he is college drop out by choice. In the later scenes it is shown that Naseeruddin Shaw is better than this young hacker!!

Don't miss this movie. This shows the agitated feelings of a common man related to terrorism. Also shows what a common can do to eradicate the unsocial elements. Kudos to the director Neeraj Pandey and its crew.

Trip to Chikmagalur - Part IV (Kalhatti Falls and Kemmangundi)

As the previous day we had covered many places we were very tired and decided to start late. But everyone was ready only by 10.00 am. Our agenda was to cover Kalhatti falls, Kemmangundi and Hebbe falls.

From Chikmagalur, we started straight towards Lingadahalli from where we have to take a diversion is towards the falls. The road was good but there were many curves. We took a small break at the junction from where we have to take a diversion in the left direction. The road from here was again terrible. This route takes us towards Kalhattipura village.

Here is some info about the falls. Total height of the fall is around 400 ft. The fall passes through the village Kalhattipura. This is a scenic spot filled with lush greenery and huge rocks. Between two rocks a present is a beautiful small temple dedicated to Veerabhadra swamy. The water falls right in front of the temple.

I was not in a mood to take bath as the water was too cold but Dara had already planned to take a shower in the fall! After a small hesitation we all joined Dara. There is a small platform for the ease of taking a shower under the fall. It was a good natural back massage for us! We saw many people climbing to the top of the falls through the rocky route but we were happy at this place itself.

Once we were done, we started for Kemmangundi, which was 13 Kms away from here. By now it was around 2.00 pm. The road was bad again. We were told that there is a canteen in Kemmangundi, so we thought of having our lunch there. We reached kemmangundi by 3:15 pm.

As we all were hungry we proceeded towards the canteen first. We found the place crowded by too many people. The scene at counter reminded me the scene of our town cinema hall ticket counter on the first show of a Chiranjeevi’s film. There was only one option available was Rice and Sambar!! That too we had to wait for 30-40 minutes as the food was over. With no option available we paid him and booked our meal. In the mean time we roamed around the place. There were many rooms which were part of the resorts maintained by Govt. The rooms were not clean and walls were totally in dampened state. Before going for the trip we were planning to book rooms at this place. Thank God we didn’t.
Finally we got our plate of Rice and Sambar after 40 minutes. When you are hungry and there is no option for you, everything that is available seems tasty! But even at 4 pm there were many people asking for food. Canteen people should think again and make a good business in the weekends.

After food, we planned to go to Hebbe falls. Private vehicles were not allowed to go to this fall, so people have to travel by the rental jeep. It takes around 45 minutes to reach to the fall. So we all decided to drop the plan to Hebbe falls.

So we planned to check what else to see in Kemmangundi. There was a rock garden, a fall and a route to Z-Point. We thought of going to Z-point. The vehicles can only go up to a walkable distance from the Shanti Falls.

The fall was very small and there was very less water. But it was looking beautiful. We had some photo session at this place. Then we saw people coming from the Z-Point. We asked them about the distance and the condition of the route to that point. We found that it was around 1.5 kms from this place and some patch of the route was slippery. There were also leeches in this route. So they did not suggest us to go to the point, as it was getting darker also. Still we thought of going to a little distance and check the scenery.

After going around 300 meters, I was the one who started cribbing to go back for numerous reasons. Kaustubh also joined me. Raghu and Dara were in some enthu to go ahead for some more distance. Anyway we all came back from that point.

This was our last leg our trip. So we headed back to Bangalore. This time we took the route

Route: Lingadahalli->Birur->Kadur->Arsikere->Tiptur->Tumkur->Bangalore

We had dinner at a Dhaba near Kadur. The route starting from Birur itself was good. This route is approx 20kms shorter than the one we took in our onward journey through Hassan.

Finally we reached Bangalore at 2.00 am in the morning.

This was end of our short trip to surrounding places of Chikmagalur. I cherish all the moments, which I shared with my family and friends during this trip.

Trip to Chikmagalur - Part III (Mullayanagiri, Bababudan Giri, Manikyadhara)

After the Belur’s Chennakesava temple visit, we proceeded towards Chikmagalur. After reaching Chikmagalur to make the most of the time available for that day we directly moved towards Mullayanagiri (aka. Mullangiri or Mullayangiri). This peak (6317ft above MSL) is supposed to be the highest in Karnataka. The road condition from Chikmagalur to Mullayanagiri was bad. The starting stretch from Chikmagalur to a junction where we have to take a diversion to Mullayanagiri is good but right after the diversion the bad road starts. The route is full of greenery and there are number of coffee estates on the way. Then after 10 kms there is again a junction with two routes, one towards Mullayanagiri and other towards Bababudan giri/ Datta peeta. Ofcourse we took the left towards the peak. After few kilometres we stopped for some break and to enjoy the viewpoint. The view was treat to watch. It was intermittently drizzling so whole atmosphere was enjoyable. After taking a small break we again started. Within few minutes we were at the top.

From this place one can see the beautiful green valleys through the clouds. There was also some fog, which made it more enjoyable. Till this point only vehicles can reach, there are some small hilltop points, which you have to climb yourself to view better view of the valley.

Through the fog we could see a hilltop to which there is step way. We could see people climbing up and down. Thanks to my optimistic friend Dara who motivated me to climb to the top. It took us approximately 15 minutes from down to the top. From wherever we see it looked like a viewpoint to us. I thoroughly enjoyed this small hike with my friends.

On the hilltop there is a small temple and there are some water taps. While browsing some sites I found the meaning of the name Mullayanagiri. The word "Mullaya" means Shiva. So it is Shiva giri. I could not see the Shiva temple but I saw a small Nandi on the hilltop. We took opportunity to click some snaps at this place.


People said there were some caves on the route in front of Nandi. But we were not in much of enthu to see the caves considering the route. Especially me. Dara was ready and Raghu was neither Ok nor Nok!! Once we finished our photo session we climbed down and reached to our parking place in 10 minutes.

We spent some more time at the parking place and then headed towards Bababudangiri. As we did not have lunch anywhere we all were feeling hungry. In the mean time we were done with our stock of snacks :)

I would like to suggest everyone regarding the food point. In these routes there are no proper restaurants or cafes. Have some proper meal at Chikmagalur or carry a good amount of food items with you.

After some 20Kms we saw a small waterfall on our right side. This was beautiful!! We stopped there. This place was Attigundi. Before checking the fall everyone gathered at the snacks stall and started munching. The stall guy kept on filling the jar with Buns! We tried almost everything that was available at his small stall.....:D

Attigundi Waterfalls
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=NBDIiSMwL2Q

Then we took the steps to reach the top of the fall. There has been some kind of wall constructed on top of which the water is falling. The water was too cold to enter. But after seeing others I also decided to get into the water. It almost froze me! The water looked very clean. We spent some time there playing with kids.
Then after few minutes we moved towards the Bababudan giri. There is a shrine at this place, which is worshipped by both Hindus (Dattatreya) and Muslims (Baba Budan). There are some stories about this Sufi sant who came here to spread the message of peace without discrimination of religion. Unfortunately the shrine was closed due to some renovation. It was already 4:30 PM.

After talking to local people we came to know that there was a waterfall at a 4 kms distance from there. So we decided to check that out. This place is called Manikyadhara. Again after reaching this point we got into a coffee stall first! We ate good number of Mirchi bajjis. These were very spicy as that guy used normal green chilli. There were steps towards the fall. This fall was okay as there was not much of water. We took some snaps and headed back towards chikmagalur. It was already 6.30 PM by the time we started from there. After reaching the town we checked in to a budget lodge and planned for the next day trip to Kemmangundi.