Recently I have been going out with S for lunch because we opted out of the office lunch and have nothing to bring from home unlike R and M. When we are out, we generally talk about lot of things which most of the time will be about politics. Today when we had a breather between bashing bengali communists and discussing advantages of taking lunch outside office, I wanted to tell something to S but made a mess of it. I blabbered, I jabbered and went very far from the point. After I came back to my desk, I tried to reconstruct what I wanted to convey. Here it is.

In my case, Change in political faith is one example which has demonstrated the difficulty one faces to deny the beliefs inflicted and nurtured by one's up-bringing. My clan had always been under the flag of congress or more precisely the Gandhi family and my view has always been limited by my father's own political side. So it was all congress till Mamata Banerjee decided to come out. In that way she demonstrated her calibre as a leader who never compromised on her values.My father did come with Didi and very soon we were part of an alliance which included BJP. So now logically I should support BJP. But I was always happy when something went in favor of the Congress party. Then after sometime I would check back and feel horrible that I still couldnt come out of Congress' shadow. This also shows that I might blow my liberalist drum very loud but deep down I am as conservative as a typical Tam brahm.

T    h    i    s     L o n g weekend!! Thank god its gone. I read Bill Bryson. I read The Economist. I watched Malaamal Weekly second time. On Sunday I had three rounds of 12 rotis with the same curry by 12 in the noon. Dont drop because I came to know from reliable source (actually straight from the horse's mouth) that my maid doesnt take breakfast at all and devours 12 chapatis everyday for lunch at 1 everyday. Its literally "horse's mouth" because we "sort of" speak using sign language. All I know by now is that she is from Chennai. Her name is Parmeshi. She stays downstair with another ten call girls(they work in call centre) who for some reason look at me loathingly. Come on! I cant hit at 10 girls at a time. They should understand that. And after all I am a married guy living a life full of celibacy i.e. shit. Anyway, one of these girls is called Latha. For some reason she thought I am not going to eat her and decided to say hello when I said hi. Thats how I roped in Parmeshi with a proper agreement. Though Lata speaks Kannada only.

I also went with Papanda and his beloved tigress wife on Saturday.

Coming back, I came to know that the president of Belarush stinks according to the Economist. Naples stinks (literally) according to Bill Bryson and Kopenhagen is great. Medha Patekar is taking the world by storm. Mr. Narendra Modi is still pursuing a carrer in drama. Aamir khan will be screwed by BJP and Congrass (rare threesome). Salman Khan went to bail from jail. West Bengal is going to polls today. Samuel Beckket wrote the End Game. Slovodan Milosevic was a guy who was commited to his wife till he died in a prison cell in Hague. The monarchy in Nepal is in grave danger (probably for the last time. "Tell me, Mr. Anderson... what good is a phone call... if you're unable to speak? "). Mumbai Police heaved a sigh of relief after the ban on dancing bars was lifted by higher court.

And here is what I liked,

• Life is fun if you can treat it with lots of impulses - Bill Bryson (not in exact words.)
• Boldness is the key-note of Vedanta. The message of Vedanta is fearlessness, soul-force and unity of conciousness.-Swami Sivananda
• Fearlessness is the gateway to success. One should therefore shun all kinds of fear... One can rectify the mistakes made in the past with the help of fearlessness and patience. -Rig Veda

Problem description

Bainan is a not-so remote village situated at 60 km north of Kolkata. The nearest railway station is Bagnan which is 5km away from Bainan. For a long time, the only conveyance available to reach Bainan from Bagnan was bus. And bus-walas never cared for the passengers. Recently-from around 1995-autoricksaws and treckers (which are nothing but Mahnidra jeeps) have entered into the market. From around the end of 2004, bus owners are facing stiff competition from these two alternatives.

A Trecker

Buses, like the autos and treckers, are privately owned. A bus can carry 50-60 people when an auto can carry 8-9 people. A trecker can carry around 20 people. The route for the trecker is a little different. There are 2-3 neighbouring villages on the Bainan - Narit road and the trecker takes the Narit-Bainan-Bagnan route and does cater to some more passengers.

An Auto

Now the situation is such that almost nobody uses bus service. The used-to-be-overloaded bus now goes empty, even waits at bus-stands till it gets one or two passengers.

When asked, people of Bainan said that a bus ticket costs 4.5 rupees when an auto costs 5 rupees. People these days doesnt care for this much difference. Every half an hour you get a bus while autos and treckers doesnt have any fixed time. But in all probabilities you are going to see atleast two autos in 15 minutes and 2 treckers in 25 minutes. Besides buses are irregular.

Some more suggestions we got

1. Buses are not profitable in short distance route.
2. Why dont they start bus service till narit? it requires a permit

Please suggest some measures to revitalize the bus service in this route.

misc

• Is Maldives = Malayasia?
• When you say "i dont think this can be blah blah", dont you really THINK?
• How useful it is to read business magazines?