Shopping vegetables in Bishkek - RESPECT

It is summer here in July. Went to buy some salad leaves. I don't speak Russian. So, the routine is like select the item and show signs to the vegetable vendor. An old lady had some shop on the street-side and I purchased some tomatoes from her.

The last time I was here, Tomatoes went for about 250 SOM's per kilo. It was winter then and tomatoes had to be imported into Bishkek. Since it is a land locked country, items go through multiple customs payment, so they were quite expensive.

Now that the summer is here, they have grown tomatoes locally presumably due to which prices have fallen to as low as 20 SOM's per kilo. I did not know that, so I gave a 100 + 100 SOM's. The lady was quite nice and sort of told me it is too much and took just 20 SOM's and gave change.

So, here is what I conclude: She was honest.The vendor sitting adjacent to me took the cue and showed the rate in a calculator. Usually,vendors or taxi drivers tend to take advantage of foreigners and over charge them. But in Bishkek, I found the Vegetable vendors quite honest.

RESPECT

This country is relatively new and they have their issues. I am sure such honesty will take them forward and in a couple of decades from now, they will do very well.

Amazing how connected we are

Google talk enabled me to call India from Bishkek (for that matter from anywhere in the World) for 0.02 USD per minute. My credit ran out while I was on call. I went back to Google for re-charge. Google had stored my card number, so I had to just click a button and the account was instantly recharged. I got an e-mail and received SMS regarding the credit card payment in my mobile phone with Indian number. The SMS got sent to the Indian number and then got routed to the roaming connection in Bishkek; all almost instantaneously

Amazing how connected we are... The Future looks bright and well quite inter-connected

Bourne Legacy and Oslo

I have been keeping with Movies recently. Watched Bourne Legacy a couple of days back. The movie revolves around the Bourne character without actually touching the character. Matt Damon I read had some issues with the Director Gilroy or the script or whatever. The lead actor Jeremy Renner who acts as Aaron Cross is actually quite good and I liked him much from the movie 'The Hurt Locker", where he plays the role of a bomb specialist working for the US Army.

I am a big fan of the first two Bourne movies. It is fast, action packed and quite thrilling.

However, I did not find the latest movie as good. IMDB rating summarizes that somewhat well. Bourne Ultimatum scored a 8.1 vs. the Legacy film which scored just 6.7.

There was a time, I used to be up to date with the top rated movies, both commercial and art films. Nowadays, time is not there. It is important to watch movies to keep up with the trend and also learn about different cultures.

Watched the movie Oslo sometime back. Good, practical film. Having living in Scandinavia for sometime, I liked the movie and sort of understood the movie quite well. I can associate with the Scandinavian talk quite easily; given that I lived there during formative stages of my life.

Disappointed with the Aussie cricket

I really thought Aussies had their cricket worked out and it is the Indians who are bad in managing transition. Remember the days when Aussie cricket asked Ponting to walk out of the team and Indians hung to the age old seniors. When the Indians failed in Australia and England, I was quite critical of the Indian team management.

Now, looking at the way Aussies are loosing to England and other teams, I see that transition management is quite a challenge which even the Aussies have not really worked it out.

BCCI seem to have managed it better. I read somewhere that it was the team lead by Srikanth who screwed it up. Now, the new selection committee headed by Sandeep Patil seems to have done quite a good job.

I really like Dhawan followed by Kohli and Jadeja. I am now developing a liking for Dhoni as well; the way he takes on people. Although I am not sure taking things one-on-one till the last ball is really the way to go in a team game. But then, when the team mates are not really doing that well and it comes to Dhoni to handle it one-on-one and he comes on top to save the team; it is simply remarkable.

Reservation policy and its impact on Indian Rupee

Just learned there is reservation policy in IIT's also and there are plans to introduce reservation for faculty in IIT's (fantastic... way to go).

Interacted with friends and colleagues. A score of even 95%+ is not adequate to get admission in good colleges. General opinion among the studying population is to borrow money from Banks and go abroad to study. At least the admission process is well laid down. SAT score is SAT score.

It costs about 60-70,000 USD to study abroad. Why pay the approx. 10-12,000 USD management fee to private owned colleges, which are anyway not at all good.

Hey, wait a minute, did I read that Rupee is under pressure. Why won't it be considering that lakhs and lakhs of people travel abroad to study converting Rupee into foreign currencies for doing the same. 

How this reservation policy and lack of good quality educational systems has impacted this country is a subject absolutely worth researching. I know it has century long history etc., it is worth spending 2-3 years to research and write a book on this subject.

Hindu Nationalist

Read the news today that BJP has put up hoardings with Modi's photo and the Statement "I am a Hindu Nationalist". Indeed, the statement has a religious tilt. Such a statement could potentially back-fire and certain segments of BJP such as Yaswant Sinha certainly do not prescribe to adoption of the religious view. Instead, they believe that BJP should fight purely on the dire economic situation Congress party has brought this country to.

Modi, though known as an efficient administrator, is definitely a Hindu Nationalist as proclaimed. This combination is so ingrained in him that it will not be possible to separate the two. So, you either get both or nothing.

I am quite impressed by Arvind Kejrwal, but his party is just taking off. It will take about 10 years for him to expand his party across India and reach to the National level. What to say but India is a very big and complex country.

Congress on the other hand is doling out free stuff and Finance Minister comes out and says that we will take extra ordinary initiatives to collect tax so Fiscal deficit can be managed. Also, Congress projects itself as the face of Secularism. Congress criticism of BJP as a communal party won't have the same sting now given that BJP itself projects the "Hindu Nationalist" tag line.

So the game is set and the positions are getting clearer. I for one am quite keen to see how the people will vote.    

AAM AADMI PARTY in Bangalore

Received a mail from Aam Aadmi Party stating the following:

1. The party has collected donations of 3.28 Crores against the supposed target of 9.8 Crores (14 Lakhs per assembly set x 70 seats) for running in Delhi election
2. That they have volunteers in 20 out of 30 Districts in Karnataka 
3. A team is getting formed in the State of Karnataka 
4. AAP will use the money to purchase office equipment, printing of pmaphlets etc, venue charges and SMS charges
5. AAP will not use the money unlawfully for electoral mal practices such as horse trading, black money, bribes etc. 

In my opinion, there is nothing in what AAP says one can really dislike