Highway Project

Sunil ordered masal dosa for himself & one plate roti-curry for Priya without even asking her preference. More than 20 months of closely knit friendship helped them understand each other & some of these minute details went without saying. Sunil and Priya were working on Digital IIR filter project as part of their 5^th semester completion in BTech course. Sunil liked each single moment of being with Priya and he had in fact already proposed her around 3 months back. On the occasion of her birthday, he gifted a latest version of iPhone and its wallpaper contained the text “I LOVE YOU”. She didn’t turn down his proposal, but wanted some more time to think, leaving him in an extended pause mode.

It was quarter to 10 when they finished their day’s work which included a procedural dinner and got ready to leave. Being off semester days, there was no college transport, forcing them to take some other public transport. As they left the campus gate to get a cab, there was a gentle collusion of their little fingers, a display of friendship, yet to blossom as love. They wouldn’t have waited long for getting an auto and they commenced their auto journey back to hostel. Even after boarding the auto, Priya’a conversions were on IIR filters project and she was narrating the huge advantages it had over FIR filters. Sunil had to try a little hard to make her break the topic and discuss something outside college & project. Just when he felt successful about his feat, a bitter surprize awaited them as the auto ran out of fuel. Criticising the auto driver for his inefficient professional conduct, Sunil had to pay part fare and wait for an alternate mode of transport.

The hour hand in the screensaver clock of Sunil’s iPhone was leisurely drifting from 10 & he enjoyed the blessing in disguise of being with her all alone in that highway. The auto driver had already left carrying a 2 litre bottle to get some petrol before the bunk closes. Multiple thoughts ran in his mind by the virtue of the loneliness and freedom that night offered. Every passing second seemed like a preciously carved fire bed for Sunil. Sunil was staring at her which was promptly face-read by her making her to respond with blushing eyes. It was not a planned event, but Sunil made use of the stage well set under the amorousness of new moon and proposed his love once again. Unlike the previous occasion where he had proposed, there was no element of surprize or shock in Priya. There was a brief smile in her lips and heads went down a few degrees to hide the shyness that had crept in.

Not allowing much time for any romantic move to happen, a MUV passed them and halted. It was a transport cab contracted to Macrohard Technologies for offering pickup  drop to its employees. These kinds of chartered cabs carrying general public during off duty hours were a common sight and it supplemented the already existing transport options. Learning that the vehicle was headed towards to the vicinity of their hostel, Sunil & Priya found it convenient in boarding it rather than waiting for auto. The vehicle already had 4 people in it, presumably other passengers wanting to reach their homes at the earliest. Having settled in their seats, Sunil looked at Priya whose face seemed glowing even in the vehicle’s darkness. Within the next few minutes, their hands got intertwined, as an off-shoot of the re-proposal from Sunil few minutes back.

The silence of the romance filled cab journey was interrupted when Sunil noticed that the vehicle was going in a different direction. He immediately alerted the driver that he was taking a detour, but he didn’t bother to heed to the concern raised. Ultimately, it was another passenger who responded, but his trajectory of concern was entirely different. This inquisitive passenger turned towards Priya & enquired whether she was comfortable in her tight outfit made up of tees & jeans. Surprized to note some unknown stranger commenting about her, Priya started howling at him for his indecent behaviour. Irked by her reaction, one other person who was in the cab quizzed her decency levels when she was prepared to roam around in the night with a boyfriend. The person who spoke this was none other than the auto driver with whom they travelled few minutes back. Sunil & Priya were shocked to see him in the cab and smelled some foul play going on.

Before even they could realise what was going on, the vehicle came to a stop in a corner of that remote road and a hand from back started pulling Priya’s pony tail hair. Realising the trap they got into and in the intention of protecting her, Sunil prepared to get down along with Priya. As he kept his hand in the side door, it was forcibly stopped & a cricket bat landed with an impactful blow on his head. To add to the blow, he was overpowered by them and wound to the rear seat restricting his movement. When Priya tried to reach out to her mobile to call for help, her phone was plucked and they targeted her to perform what they had planned for the evening. It was a very quick plan that was triggered when they got a call from their auto driver friend around an hour back, who called them on seeing a young couple in the highway.

In a matter of few minutes, the young couple were under siege and Sunil was unable to display any kind of protest. In the midst of this high drama, Priya suddenly started shouting “Kavey Inimicum” repeatedly. The perpetrators of crime started laughing and wondered whether the girl they caught was a lunatic in modern dress. Sunil has heard this word and it was a magical spell appearing in Harry Porter series, used to strengthen an enclosure from enemies. Sunil was also puzzled whether Priya was expecting some magical power to some and save them. When Priya got exhausted and stopped shouting, her phone started ringing. The enemies in the cab who had then finished their laughing at her lunatic behaviour didn’t care about the ringing phone and got ready to make the most of their time. Sunil was almost drowsy due to the violence leashed out on him while Priya was protesting to her level best to protect herself.

It was exactly 7 minutes after this commotion when a siren sound was heard from a distance. Assuming the siren sound as that of an ambulance, the perpetrators concentrated at attacking their prey. The vehicle came closer and it happened to be a Highway patrol police vehicle. Half a dozen armed police guards rushed out and broke open the MUV cab to halt the mishap that was almost in its final stages. Sunil and Priya were rescued from the vehicle and taken into safe protection by the police personnel. The 5 molesters in their early twenties were arrested and they couldn’t believe at the sudden turn out of events. They had selected this place as it was a remote area and out of complete reach of public or police. The police inspector called the control room and proclaimed that a major crime had been successfully averted.

Back in the hospital where Sunil and Priya were taken for treatment, their condition was termed to be safe. Admitted in nearby beds, Sunil apologised to Priya for not being able to help her. Priya smiled and uttered that it was him who had actually saved both of them. Continuing her smile at Sunil’s confused face, she explained that the saviour was the SOS app that came in-built in the iPhone 9 he had earlier gifted. A pair of words can be coded in the app, which when uttered 4 times continuously will send SOS messages to police control room. She had coded the Harry Porter spell “Kavey Inimicum” as the code word. The app working in background had GPS facility as well to transmit the phone’s exact coordinates for directing the police to the spot. The 2012 Delhi rape episode had become a sensational event prompting Apple to come up with this SOS app in close tie-up with law enforcing agencies across the globe. Sunil was thrilled to hear all these and more importantly, at her presence of mind. Beaming with pride, Priya stretched her hands and gave the phone to him. The first thing that Sunil noticed in the phone was its background image. It was not the one which was there when he gifted. It now read “I LOVE YOU TOO”.

RIP Rape

Hue & cry everywhere for a speedy trial in the Delhi gang rape issue. Inspired by the film she last saw (The life of Pi), apparently the victim tried to overcome her fate, but in vain. Everyone wants the 6 accused to be shown gallows asap. Quite interestingly, the Chief Justice of India has commented that a speedy trial should not be at the cost of fair trial. Government is fully convinced of a fast track court to complete the trial & to ensure justice for Amanat alias Nirbhaya alias Damini. Ajmal Kasab was able to lead a high profile, costly life for about 4 years, but we shall not give even 4 months for these accused.. No doubt that whatever she underwent is unimaginable & simply barbaric. But, will convicting & “killing” all the accused ensure similar incidents will not recur?

Aren’t we missing the bigger picture? Shouldn’t we put in systems & checks to avoid a repeat of what happened?

1.  After watching the film, the duo couldn’t get any public transport to reach their place. It was not a very odd time in the night & they are in the country’s capital. In our country, public transport is a meant only for the poor. When will government make public transport a preferred mode of transport & a reliable one?
2. They couldn’t even get an auto-rickshaw to reach their place. Whatever autos that came also, didn’t agree to take them. As per the registration conditions of an Auto, the auto driver is supposed to ply to any place within the registration limits at the prescribed tariff (guess, off-duty is the only exception). But in our country, we need to request the auto driver & we are at his mercy.. When will government concentrate on implementing their rules, rather than just spending time in passing?
3. Chartered bus – some of you may not know what it means. If a vehicle, say bus or maxi cab runs for a company, the vehicle will get something called “Private Service Vehicle” permit whereby it can only run for that company. If it is for general public, it will be termed as contract carriage & regular route buses will get Stage carriage permit. To maximize their revenue, it is a general scene that in almost all cities, chartered buses which are supposed to run only for their customers will take general public during off duty hours. This practice is so rampant & they are so cold-blooded to solicit passengers even in front of traffic police. Leave aside the huge revenue loss the government incurs in this out of road tax, permit fees, income tax, loss of revenue to government transport corporation etc. Safety, insurance etc are totally missing in such transport modes. In our rape case, this was the major reason & no one even seems to stop this menace of chartered buses taking general public. This issue is linked to point 1. Since the government is unable to provide adequate public transport, people go for other modes. If the accused had killed both of the victims & disposed off their bodies, maybe the deaths would have got added to the numerous “non-traceable” cases..
4. Just before the rape episode happened, a carpenter boarded the same bus & was looted. Am not sure whether he reported it to police or not. If he hadn’t reported, doesn’t it show the lack of confidence he has on the police? If he had reported, shouldn’t the bus be caught in the next junction? The bus had crossed so many police check posts before the entire rape scene was completed. More than speedy trial, isn’t speedy prevention of crime important?
5. Beyond all, what makes the culprits to commit this heinous crime? Are they psychopaths? NO. Are they habitual offenders? NO. It is not that a person who is committing a crime is ok for 7 years rigorous imprisonment & not okay for death penalty.. Should we blame it on our education system? I don’t know. But, we all will definitely agree the growing economic disparities between the powerful few & the disgruntled majority. Highly indirect effect, but nevertheless the future looks quite dangerous..

An item which is so abundant will not have any value & same is the case of people’s lives in our country. Being the second populous country, value for human life has become so cheap. Value for human life is not displayed by sending her to Singapore for treatment, deploying thousands of para-military men for security & by having VVVVIPs waiting in the airport to receive the body. Our Indian cities score much poor in the global liveability report published by various agencies (one solace is that the points are on rise, & score better than our east & west neighbours). Are our politicians & bureaucrats goaled on items like livability index, safety quotient, crime incidence, corruption levels etc? Didn’t our forefathers advocated democracy to ensure all of these stuff?

For the “Breaking news” hungry & competitive media, it was a good opportunity to increase their TRP & circulation. Just like the Anna Hazare episode, this too shall end after couple of months. Many of you will remember the fire incident in a school in tamil nadu where some 40/50 children were burnt to death & the carton towers fire in Bangalore, kolkatta market fire etc.. Are the reasons that caused these incidents addressed now? There are handful schools even in my own locality, which are not so safe, but what can we do? We choose to apply probability and say “it won’t happen to me”. We fail to address the root causes after these kind of issues & switch over to the next topic when we get bored. As usual government’s job is to make rules & our job is to flout them by feeding the hungry power holders. Maybe the accused may eventually say good bye to the world, but when will we be able to say good bye to rape incidents & other forms of crime?

I want to end this note with a highly controversial topic. What is rape? It is some kind of bodily pleasure which a person of 1 gender finds in the other against the wishes of the victim. Normally the person who motivates someone to perform a crime should get tougher punishment than the person who actually commits. The entire action of raping is due to god gifted hormones that gets added to the person’s ill-laden mind. Thus, is the crime having the urge to have sexual pleasures or the action of having forceful sexual pleasure? Definitely the latter, as the former is nothing but nature. So, if there are legal ways to satisfy the urge, wont it avoid the crime of rape? If you give rice or wheat at a cheap price, why will someone want to steal? May look indirect, but is very much direct. There is a positive correlation between legalising prostitution & reduction in incidence of rape. You may check in goggle about this, but believe me, it is a fact. My point here is to have prostitution in a controlled & legalised manner, which in addition to reducing rape cases will also help overcome spreading of STDs. Inspite of having rules against prostitution, we all know that is happening everywhere & we also know who is gaining out of that. Instead of having ineffective rules, we can as well slightly relax the rules & enforce whatever is really possible.. (when I spoke this topic with my wife, she was totally against it & I guess so many will do the same)..

Cheers,

Gowrishankar.

Territorial Army

I just finished the written exam for Territorial Army 2012 in Bangalore and thought of sharing the blueprint for the benefit of others. I'm not going to say anything about Territorial Army, rather on the blue print for its exm. I only hope this is not against any of the rules of the Army, definitely nothing which am aware of. In case you feel this infringes any IP or conidentiality, kindly let me know so that I can delete the post.

Format of the question paper..

The whole paper is divided into two parts -
Part I - 40 marks - To test your english skills and essay writing.
Part II - 60 marks - Objective type, a mix of questions from all topics - Maths, logical ability, science, history, geography, current affairs, corporate, politics etc.

To clear the exam, you need to get a minimum of 40% in each part - 16 marks in Part I and 24 marks in Part II. Further, you need to take an agreegage of 50% - 50 marks in total.

Part I (40 marks)

a. Essay for 25 marks iou- There will be an essay to be written in about 300 words and you'll get ample choices to choose from for this essay. I got topics like Lokpal bill, AFSPA act in J&K, Aids, computer education etc..

b. Fill in the blanks in a paragraph - 10 marks - You need to read a short paragraph fully and fill in each of the 10 blanks with the right english word. You'll have 4 choices for each word and this exercise will test your english grammar and understanding capacity. I got an essay on stag which fees proud about its beauty, but sad about its lean and bony legs, the para goes to end stating that beauty is not important..

c. Meaning for words - 5 marks. You'll get 5 words and you need to mark its meaning which is closest to it. I got words like tedious, paucity, pacify etc..

Part II (60 marks)

You'll get 60 objective type questions from various streams. Unless you are strong in current affairs, little bit of GK, politics, sports etc.. a. 10 questions among this 60 would be on logical ability like patterns, number sequence, word sequence, odd man out etc. Last 10 questions will be fill in the blanks..

Some of the questions i got and which i could remember. all these have 4 choices

1. first individual olympics gold medal winner of india.

2. where will 2016 olympics happen?

3. who is the author of saare jehan se acha

4. currency of banglaldesh

5. when does lunar eclipse happen?

6. manometer is used to measure what?

7. which indian state has border with myanmar?

8. nokia belongs to which country?

9. to whom does lok sabha speak render resignation

10. who is the chief commander of armed forces?

11. how are rajya sabha members elected?

12. who heads planning commission?

13. what is the highest award for military service?

Will update more when i remember..

Some of the Questions i got in fill in the blanks category.. remember there is no choice, you need to fill of your own..

1. Who is wikileaks founder?

2. Space launch vehicle used by ISRO in Apr' 2011

3. 193rd nation which was formed on 09.11.2011

4. shanti niktan was founded by?

5. what carries blook from body parts to heart?

6. how many permanent members are there in UN security council?

7. first governer general of bengal?

8. thein dam is on which river?

9. who got padma vibushan award for trade & industry in 2011?

10. one more i forgot.

General guidelines.

1. You should reach the venue at least 30 minutes prior to the start time. Normally it starts by 10, so you need to reach by 9:30.
2. They provide drinking water, but it is advisable for you to carry water bottle, to avoid the walking time.
3. Carry a cap or hat so that you can escape from the sun when you make you sit in any of their army school's play ground.
4. Keep your mobile phone in switch off condition and keept inside your bag.
5. You can write in either pen or pencil, but the essay is best written with pen. Do carry some pencils for rough work.
6. It is better you mark the answers in pencil and then make it fair by writing in pen. They say mark wont be award if there are any erasures or over writing.
7. No negative marks, hence you can make your own guesses.
8. To prepare for the exams, keep yourself updated on latest trends and most of the questions will be based on the last 6 months to 1 year events.

ALL THE BEST..

My Valentine

Feb 14th - today’s date is a very important date for most people, undoubtedly in my life too. Whatever way I lived so far is different and this day is going to be an important turning point in my life. I don’t know how my parents & friends will react to this, but I think I’m very clear in what I did so far. Maybe I also don’t know how to handle it further, but let me see. Sail by the tide unless a shore or a bigger tide embraces you. Devayani IPS, the title behind my name and the strength it brought to my personality are of no use for the feelings that are now running in my mind and the turmoil I currently go through. After all I’m also a girl and the toughness I possess is just an adopted quality, not an inborn trait.

The ultimate cause for what I go through today is him – The great Manuraj Gupta, the smart chap hailing from Gujarat who got into the academy by securing a double digit rank. His talent and charisma was admired by all, maybe even the panel in UPSC which made them grant him the task of administering the wealthiest state in India. He could have got posting in his home state itself had be opted for IPS, but he was more keen in becoming an IAS & became one. Thanks to the honorable British souls who designed the initial days of training as a common one to all Civil Service pass out candidates. It made my soul realize that the controls I subjected to myself couldn’t withstand the naughty smile he carried and the striking weaponry of his eyes. All these are things of the past and the tension I carry with the letter in my hand will keep increasing till I could hand it over to him. No doubt, Love is so powerful making a person infected by it unbecoming oneself.

The aroma of the hot breakfast served by the orderly couldn’t do anything to reduce my mental trauma. I tried reaching him in his mobile, but his favorite Macarena caller tune never stopped. They say troubled minds can’t think logical. It is turning out very true in my case; I forgot that he doesn’t carry his cell phone when he goes for jogging. I know it’ll be a matter of minutes before he comes and relives me of the pain the letter in my hand is causing to me. The wait for his arrival to breakfast table ignited thoughts of our initial days when I used to intentionally delay my arrival to the breakfast hall so as to eat with him. I don’t want him to return with anyone accompanying him as we should be in private when he reads this letter.

I didn’t count how many times I would have read it myself, but am sure it might not be anything less than 20. A girl’s handwriting is definitely appealing to read, but for a letter in this circumstance, it is nowhere near consideration. Each time I finish reading it, I wish some miracle to happen to salvage me out of this situation and do something to make Manuraj feel the way I want. Whatever he had in his mind so far, I pray God to conquer his mind and make him take a favorable decision after reading it. I always used to wonder regarding how difficult it could become for a keralite mother and a north indian Brahmin father to get a spouse for their children. I felt as though the letter in was laughing at me with the rudimentary question “Don’t you think it is slightly immature to worry about it now?”

Going by all theories of love and romance, he should not be surprised seeing this letter, rather he would have anticipated it expecting for the same just as I do. He could have closed off things long back, but maybe his IAS ego didn’t permit to take the first step. I waited and waited for him to act all these days, but ultimately the time for the inevitable is today. I myself don’t know whether it was coincidence or purposeful that the day chosen is Valentine ’s Day. One more question I ask myself is why letter? Why could this stupid girl’s heart not have the courage to speak it out? Is it the fear of failure or the fear that things might take a wrong turn if it was not put properly? Anyway, there is no reversal of what has happened and I need to face it out straight. Building courage is difficult, but once built, there is no going back. In this instance, I somehow feel like practically experiencing the theoretical lessons my IPS course tried to seed in me.

The agonizing wait is about to come to an end, am able to see his charming figure in close vicinity. In any other circumstance, I would have been admiring his stellar figure and athletic body, but today is different and I was only thinking about how well to structure the unfolding of events. As soon as he saw me, he was swiftly filled with his trademark smile, the intangible culprit that rendered the IPS officer into life term imprisonment. Each and every advancing foot step of his had the impact of striking blows into my heart. The heart which was conquered by him long back is now beating fast unsure of his reaction and the outcome in the next few minutes.

Not wanting to give the letter straightway, I waited for him to settle down. Is he also in some tension like me or was it just the normal pant due to jogging? I originally wanted to give a buildup before handing over the letter, but alas, all my planning went haywire. I bluntly gave the letter to him and directed him to read, just by eye contact, not pronouncing any word from mouth. His face immediately bore astonishment with a sigh that purports to probe the contents of it. Would he know what it contains without even reading it? Or maybe he wants to know how the message is structured.

He took a full 3 minutes to read the letter, quite high for his standards which made me think whether he read it more than once. I don’t care the number of times he reads it or in what speed he reads it, but only want to know his reaction after reading it. When he lifted his head after reading, the reaction I saw was nowhere near to what I expected. Based on the investigating techniques & face reading methods I was familiar with, he showed anger mixed with disappointment. As though the damage was not enough, he squeezed the letter throwing it off and walked away without speaking any word. With full of tears in my eyes and totally devastated with the turnout of this Valentine ’s Day, I picked up the squeezed letter to read it one more time.

“To my dearest parents,

After putting in all possible efforts to convince Papa, I finally realized it is never going to happen. By the time you read this letter, I would be very far from both of your jurisdictional limits. Being the only daughter of a happy successful couple, my marriage is also going to be a love marriage like yours. I’ve decided to commence a new life with Manish who in all respects is the best match for me. I should only consider myself unlucky for all the conflicts Papa has with Manish’s dad, but what can we do for it? When we got into love, neither did we know about these problems nor had the thought of running away like this. This decision is taken only to protect Papa’s reputation and professional career and not to cause any damage with my marriage. Though I’ll be married to Manish this Sunday, I’m always the proud daughter of Manuraj Gupta IAS & Devayani IPS and would like to be so ever.

Seeking both of your blessings and looking forward for an early joyous reunion. Bye.

With kisses & loads of love,
Anitha Gupta.”

my QUEST for your CHEST

Everything is going on well as per plan till now. The beard I’ve been growing for over half a year is staying well with my otherwise south-indianised face. I could remember growing this big beard only once in my entire life time and that was during my 2nd year BE. That beard was propelled by Sheena’s rejection of my proposal and I still remember her not having patience to even cross the first page of my well-drafted 3 page love letter. More than 18 years have passed since then; many more sheenas crossed my life in different names, races & sizes before I ended up with this permanent one popularly known as Madhumitha (popularity not by fame, but by volume of words). But now, it is for a totally different purpose for which I’m growing now. My general knowledge said all Sikhs will definitely have beard and the Sikh identity I currently camouflaged into was decided after months of research. The tummy benevolently bestowed upon due to my 4 decade existence, the turban (Dastar) and the beard aptly made me a real Singh. It was by mere coincidence that the readymade turban I bought suited the task I was involved. It resembled Chand Tora Dhamala, a warrior style turban generally worn by Nihang Sikhs and meant for those going into battle. The only issue with my costume was the iron bracelet (Kara) which was little loose for my wrist and it was purposely kept so for ease of removal.

It is about 2 years from the time I got this thought and at that point of time. It started as a joke and I was asking myself why shouldn’t I do something different and memorable in life and have the thrill of seeing it through completion. After securing a seat in the Engineering course, I will only term it as my fore-fore-father’s virtue that I somehow managed to clear all papers at least with a second class. If someone had told that I’ll become a banker when I cleared my Electrical Engineering degree that would have been the best ever joke of my life. But after three and half years of job search, I saw the Grade II clerk job in National Bank as a yummy bone in the eyes of a stray dog starving for days together. It was only when my bank arranged a high tea party and gave that Apple IPod for completing 10 years, I realized my life has been wasted without any useful stuff. It is not the Apple IPod that demotivated me, but only that it was not able to satisfy me much. In the dinner I had with my wife Madhumitha & my 9 year old son Mukesh that evening, I decided that my life shouldn’t end with whatever accomplishments possible in the normal course of life. Later in the night, I couldn’t sleep until about 3 am worrying about what I decided, why can’t I do something which will make me feel triumphant & prove my worth to this world? Then came this novel thought, which I myself didn’t approve in the initial days. I wished to do a cold blooded murder with my own hands and come out of it crystal clean. Correction in my statement – not a cold blooded murder, why use the usual phrase – just a simple murder to prove I too can do something which a normal person cannot do in life. My intention was to loot money or take revenge on someone whom I dislike (as a matter of fact, there is none whom I dislike), but it is just a sort of thrill & more importantly, what I wanted in life – Accomplishment!!!

Though my plan had the possibility of feeling triumphant & accomplishment once it is executed, I had lot of reservations and aberrations in my own mind. Having been a vegetarian all these years, I wouldn’t even approve of killing of animals for food, but this thought had strangely occurred in my mind. So, the point is, am not a villain of the regular order you see in films, but it was just a game in life, in which the opponent is the society at large. I had made my own rules for the game – (a) no financial gain from my action should accrue to me, (b) the victim should not feel any pain or suffering, (c) the victim should be a person unrelated to me and there shouldn’t be any reason for me to kill him & (d) more importantly, I shouldn’t get caught at the end of my game.

It took more than a month to commence the selection process of identifying the victim. This is not like selecting people to invite for a family function, come on, the person will die if I succeed. So, I needed to be very careful and my treaded approach yielded the best possible result in just 2 months of search. Like any other office goer, much part of my productive time is spent in office & it was quite obvious that I had to select from my bank. The one who came bright in all my selection criteria making my search bit easier was Aneesh. Hailing from Kerala, he was working in the currency chest department doing some computer based security stuff. Though we work out of the same office, my work was in no way related to him, still I had to know basic things about his job and it was really boring. He was one of the specialized staff managing the security of the currency chest in our bank’s local head office located in the city center. All branches in our jurisdiction will need to park excess funds above their designed thresholds into the chest & withdraw as required. Nearing 30s, his family consisted of mother, two younger sisters waiting for marriage all based out of Kerala. This guy had lost his father few years back and was staying alone in a 1BHK house somewhere in a suburban residential area. He didn’t have many friends and was always literally locked inside the access protected chest cabin. I learnt that he was the sole breadwinner of the family, leaving aside the petty salary drawn by his first younger sister from her teacher job. It was also understandable that the task of getting his sisters married was this person’s responsibility with very little family savings.

After firming upon the target, my next few months were spent in knowing him better. I spent more time thinking about him than what I used to spend on my wife or son or even myself. I suddenly got a sense of meaningful involvement in life and as though there is a mighty task ahead for me to complete. Point (c) of my rules was fulfilled with this guy – not related to me & his life or death wouldn’t make any difference to me. Being in the bank for so many years and well acquainted with its compensation benefits, I was also aware that he will get a sizable amount due to his death which could help his family & his sisters’ marriage. He didn’t seem to be involved in any affair as his marriage can happen only after his sisters’ and thereby, no problem of his lover getting into a state of despair after his death. I should be proud of myself that I indirectly induced a life insurance agent to make him subscribe for a hefty life insurance policy.

Next stages of my planning process involved deciding the modus-operandi. To ensure item (d) of my golden rules, I had to find a way in which there is no trail or evidence left behind. Amid the bunch of people who frequented cyber café to do voice chats & to see porno sites in privacy, I used to be busy in learning ways to kill a person. I avoided browsing such sites neither in office nor home. There were lot of good techniques (I know, good is an oxymoron in this context) but they had the intensity of causing pain to our poor Aneesh thereby contravening with rule (b). Only then I realized that my father’s hard earned money in making me study Electrical Engineering is not being put to use. It couldn’t help me get a decent job, but it suggested that the method has to be high voltage electrical shock in his chest. This seemed to be an adorable option which might give the impression of heart attack to the external world and me, the perpetrator can walk scot-free. I selected Defibrillation as the method for execution which is nothing but the shock treatment shown in films to resurrect the dead hero and make him re-appear with a new getup. The voltage has to be in excess of 360 joules of energy to hinder the heart rhythm and causing fatal end. With some electrical appliances that were available in my home and by selectively purchasing distinct items from multiple distributors, I assembled my own unit for triggering the shock. Thanks to Larry Page, the internet became my free tutor and I found how true the film “A Wednesday” was in telling one can even make bomb with internet articles. The unit came out as a masterpiece for my game capable of causing quick & strong vasovagal shock to the vagus nerves. It was well-designed to result in the target’s death without any sort of pain whatsoever, the highlight being cause of death will still appear to be a normal heart attach for the external world.

What next? This is what my mind was thinking during the next few weeks. I thought since I had come to this level, a fool-proof blue-print was required to explain the probable sequence of events for the ultimate execution. Yes, it is going to be a real execution. As usual, I took my own time to think well and to come up with a game plan. I need to undertake a personal trip to place at least 400 – 500 kms away and return by a late evening train. After having boarded the train, I should detrain and catch a flight and reach in the shortest possible time. Since I will be carrying the electrical unit, I should have it checked in and not get caught during hand baggage security check. I should get into the Sikh costume on my way from airport to Aneesh’s house so that there is no eye-witness left behind. However, when Aneesh sees me, he should see me in my normal attire. I need to then tell him that I came to visit some friend in the nearby area and my car broke down while returning. Since I remembered the existing of your house in the vicinity, I parked the car there and thought of spending the night here, provided it doesn’t trouble you. In the morning, I shall get some mechanic to repair the car and drive back home. Once he gets to sleep, my unit will do the trick and I should safely get away from his house after ensuring the game is over. While returning, I should against disguise myself back into the Sikh costume so that it will put the suspect as some unknown Singh. I’ve to then shift 2 / 3 vehicles and reach the major railway station just before the one I was originally supposed to get down.

During this sequence, I should have relinquished the Sikh identity prior to boarding the penultimate vehicle and in a place where no one can see me. By doing all these, I’ll get down in the railway station where I was originally supposed to detrain and make my presence felt in the CCTV of the destination station. There were few things I need to do to ensure my presence will be felt in the station where I’ll get down – (a) as per railway rules, all tickets issues need to be collected at destination and an entry of such collected tickets should be maintained. By surrendering my ticket to the Ticket Collector at gate, a record of me passing the gate is established. (b) Since all major railway stations have Closed Circuit TVs, I should walk casually in front of that to show my face (I only wonder the CCTVs work & are not victims of yet another scam) (c) I should book a prepaid taxi giving my name and mobile number and also my address of residence to have a record that I actually travelled in the train and taxi. This plan was gone over umpteen numbers of times and all the loop holes propped were amicably fixed to my satisfaction. A key element for success was the month and date of this operation as it should be appropriate enough to ensure there will be less traffic & Aneesh will be in home for sure, and more especially, alone.

When I thought I had almost crossed the well in my planning, came this major blow. Aneesh got transfer orders to his home-state near his native as the bank was setting up a currency chest in that city. If Aneesh leaves, what will I do with my unit, should I use the unit on myself? But it was not required to ask that question for more than 10 days as I was rewarded with the good news that Aneesh requested for cancellation of his transfer order. Since I worked on the principle of “not believing myself” in the whole episode, I was eager to know as to why he took this decision to reject the transfer. It made complete sense for him to take this transfer as his native was just couple of hours’ journey from the place of posting. They say the whole world will appear blue if you were blue glasses (I tried once while watching a film in my college days!!). So, I wondered whether he was making some plot to kill someone else like me. But everyone in the world will not be as crazy like me, will they? Little bit of CBI work into the reasoning behind his decision revealed that the whole purpose of his action was to complete the CISA course he had enrolled for. Infact, he hadn’t completely refused to go on transfer, but had only requested for its postponement by a 6 months period. If I had funds I would have built a temple for this CISA, which I later learnt was the abbreviation for Certified Information Systems Auditor. The whole episode of transfer order issuance & Aneesh deferring only gave additional strength to my plan and reiterated my resolve to see it to completion.

But for this brief hiccup, planning process resumed from where I had left. Since my plan contained the element of me visiting his house, it became imperative for me to get acquainted with his house. I spruced up a situation to visit his house and the whole plan went on well. I was able to visit his house, inspect the area, neighborhood and what’s more, had a good glance inside his house also. This visit would definitely help me on the day of execution as the playfield will be already known.

Eighteen months from the time I got the original thought, I was in a reasonably comfortable situation with a confidence that I’ve adequately planned it with perfection. Only the date and time was to be decided and the last minute logistics. With the various factors that were to be considered, I chose the night before Diwali as the most preferable option. On the day of Naraka Chaturdashi, I planned my killing, in which ironically neither Aneesh was Narakasura, nor I Lord Krishna or his wife Satyabhama. I booked train tickets for myself with my credit card to leave out of station two days prior to Diwali and return journey on the night prior to Diwali. An air ticket was also booked for returning, it was by cash through a travel agent so as to fly down few hours after the train departure. As decided earlier, my plan was to show my ticket to the TTE (stands for Travelling Ticket Examiner, not TTR as widely referred to) and make an entry of my travel in his chart. The return Air ticket was booked from a place few stations after departure and in place where the airport was close to railway station.

The “D” day finally came. After the planned events of train journey, and boarding flight in between, I landed in the airport with a 25 minutes delay from the scheduled time. My planned itinerary was able to accommodate even a 90 minutes delay and 25 minutes didn’t cause any dent. My luggage was so light and it just contained the Sikh costume which I changed in the airport rest room and the apparatus I devised for Defibrillation. This ends the 2 year long story of how a vegetarian, married guy with a son, Engineer turned banker appearing in a Sikh costume is sitting in a prepaid taxi with a single hand baggage and proceeding towards a house in the outskirts of the city.

When I got down from the taxi, the time was 35 minutes past 12. The day of Diwali had already started, but people around the city were yet to wake up. In some dark place close to his house, I easily removed my Sikh costume and put in the bag I was carrying. The bag contained one other item – the apparatus I had designed for put together for generation the high intensity shock. When I was turning from a north-Indian to south-Indian, I ran through what I should tell Aneesh when I meet him. Somehow the car breaking down story didn’t seem to go well with the situation. Bingo, I got a totally different plan which seemed quite splendid for the situation. Slowly I moved toward Aneesh’s house and pressed the calling bell. Did I see the light glowing inside his house, not sure, it could be a reflection of moon’s light through the windows also. Each second passed like hell and he took hell a lot of time to open the door. As expected there was shock in his face when he saw me, not knowing he is going to get greater shocks little further. I unleashed the revised plan to explain the reason for my presence there at this point of time. I told him that I was supposed to reach well before 8 pm, but that my train got delayed due to Telengana related strikes. I further added stating that I had plans to go to native which was around 200 kms away along with family for Diwali, but due to the delay, my family was forced to leave alone. The story continued - only after detraining, that I realized I didn’t have the house key and since I remembered Aneesh’s house being in the vicinity, thought of spending the night with him.

My story seemed to be well received by him and was greeted by his trademark smile. But I somehow felt he was not very much comfortable with my appearance at this point of time. He offered me to sit in the sofa placed in the hall. I said I’ll just rest myself in the sofa itself as it was just matter of hours before I could leave. He assented to it and took leave and went inside to bring some dhoti for me to get changed. I once again replayed the plan I had in mind. After couple of hours, say by around 3 AM, I should connect my apparatus to power and barge into his bedroom. Its protruding ends should be kept in his chest for 2 minutes continuously till the pulse level drops and becomes nil. I should ensure I don’t touch anywhere or leave any trail signifying my arrival, here. Sitting in the sofa, I had to turn back for a cursory scan of his bedroom, the same bedroom in which he was trying to fish out a dhoti for me. There was couple of plug points placed conveniently near the bed room door, which are going to assist me in finishing the game. He took bit more time than I expected to bring the dhoti and that delay was disgustingly increasing my heart beat as I was in a hurry to stop his.

Suddenly came a loud noise from behind and I felt something entering my head from back. I started feeling some sort of pain in my head, by when one more loud noise came. My neck became wet with some red fluid flowing down my chest and I fell in the sofa. Aneesh was standing behind me with a gun in his hand, two shots from it already fired into my head. I found it hard to keep my eyes open and the nauseating pain had now spread to my entire head. With half eyes open which were also slowly closing, I could see Aneesh inject one more bullet and this time, in my chest. I felt as though I lost entire control of my body but the pain was dying down, in fact I didn’t even feel that I had a body. I couldn’t see anything, but was able to hear what was going on around and I heard Aneesh telling “Hello” and speaking with someone in his mobile.

Aneesh: It’s all over. I shot three times with the gun you gave for my safety. And before shooting, I ensured no one came with him. Even the gun sound won’t make any difference as it would have sounded like a Diwali cracker.

PAUSE

Aneesh: Ya, after having planned all these months to loot the currency chest, I was shocked to see him in my house. That’s when I called you immediately in the pretext of going to the room to take dhoti. We selected this day for breaking the chest considering the Diwali sales collections that will get deposited in bank and the bonus payout of companies. He said all sorts of things – train strike, no key etc. and my mind was only thinking about the 416 crores we all secured in my bed room few minutes back. I thought the transfer order I got was the major unexpected hurdle in our plan which I was somehow able to defer, but this turned out to be an even bigger one.

PAUSE

Aneesh: Ok, I’ll wash the blood and pack his body. You bring the vehicle as soon as possible and we can carry him along with the money. xxxxx

I gathered that Aneesh had stolen money from our bank’s currency chest, but I was losing all senses, including the voice of Aneesh and slowly, everything turned total blank.

******* ******* ******* ******* ******* ******* *******

New paper article few days later….

416 cr. Bank Robbery – Involvement of Insiders - Body of Bank staff identified

An interesting twist has happened in the recent Rs. 416 crores bank robbery. The body of a bank staff who was working in the same office where the currency chest was broken open and stolen was identified. With this, involvement of insiders along with external parties has been established in the multi-crore theft. Police feel quarrel between the parties in sharing the money which could have led to firing of the bank staff who helped them. A bag accompanying the body was also recovered by the Police which contained a Sikh costume, possibly used to disguise him and a sophisticated electrical apparatus, alleged to have been used in the robbery. The theory of police version was supported his absence in the bank on the day of the incident. Madhumitha, the deceased person’s wife has been arrested on suspicion and is currently being interrogated by police officials. Eight special teams have been formed to investigate the robbery that shook the whole banking system in India.

Life after death

Some 3 weeks back, one saturday morning at around 7:30 am I got a call from my boss saying that our colleague is dead.. and he is dead bcoz of heart attack..
I couldnt believe this news as the daybefore, he was very active and barely 12 hours back he had spoken to me... I immediately rushed to the hospital where his body was kept.. On the way to the hospital, I wanted to arrange for his eyes to be donated, so that 2 ppl can get their eye sight back..

On reaching the hospital, some other colleagues had also come. He had died at around 5:30 am & it was only some 3 hrs later i was there in the hospital. His eyes were a perfect choice for donation as he didnt have diabetics, sugar or any other disease. (It was really unfortunate that he aged around 42 yrs had a silent attack and nobody could save his life).

His wife had already left and 2 of his relatives were there for the formalites. Due to my previous experiences of handling mortuary cases, I assisted them in other procedural things.. Regarding this eye donation, i asked one of my colleague as to whether we can take this up and ask their relative for their consent. He told it wont be nice for us to ask.. So, I also kept mum though i very much wanted to take this up.

A day later when i again spoke with the same colleague who told not to ask abt eye donation, he felt that we could have spoken abt this to their relative. One, anyhow it is going waste and it can be used and Two, their relatives can be happy abt the fact that atleast his eyes atleast are still living. The same thought was vouched by some other friends also.. But, the time was too late.. Due to my lack of initiative, two people somewhere in this world lost the opportunity of getting their vision back..

Friends, thanks for reading until this.. What I request you from this is...
If you are in such a situation, kindly dont hesitate, please take this up with their relatives.. Dont worry they will think bad about you, certainly they will at that moment, but they will definitely understand u later.. .

In this type of situation, the consent has to come from the relatives.. No person will be like my close friend, who lost her husband when she was just 25 and in spite of being in such a despair, offered to donate her husband's eyes.. We, who are there attending somebody's death as friends should accept the task and need to start this topic of eye donation and get it done...

Thanks again .....

Middle East Travelogue - Part V (Final)

I had been on an official trip to Saudi Arabia (Al Khobar) and UAE (Dubai) and to Oman (Muscat) on the way returning back. This trip was on behalf of my employer - Wipro Ltd and it was between 25th of March 2007 and 12th April 2007. I wrote my travelogue in 5 parts and it is now available for your reading.
Here goes the travelogue Part V (Final)....

Welcome to one more of my "time-swalloer" mail.. Right now am travelling in a taxi in dubai back from office.. Forgot 2 tell u abt the price of petrol in dubai.. its more costly than saudi, around 2.5 AED (1 aed = 12.5 inr) per litre.. here it is sold in gallons , where 1 gallon is around 4 litres.. u know what, the taxi driver next 2 me is a tamil person.. this is not something strange, as 50% i meet only pakistanis as drivers and balance indians - either malayalam (mostly) or tamils.. this particular driver is the person who drove me home some 2 days back also.. and am meeting him again. indians, pakistanis & the bangalesh person persons are considered as slaves / low profile people here. they are sometimes even treated badly.. whereas US, and europeans are treated with respect & given all concessions right from visa rules till what our customers pay for the consultants. even if an indian & a us person does the same work, they will pay the us person 2 times / 3 times wht they pay to the indian if he has a US passport.. You cant find any localite doing a common low graded work in UAE / Saudi.. Whereas in Oman, the population of oman people is huge & you can find lot of local people doing these normal jobs like waiters in hotels, in shops etc..

when i told abt huge high rise buildings in dubai, mention should also be given about the multi acred estates & bulidings coming up in teh sea. I got the local map of Dubai, there were 3 locations given as under constructions and one more is coming in the shape of world map. u can travel from the mainland only thro water, its a man made (to be made) island..

when the petrol fare is low, shouldnt the transport cost should be less? that is not the case both saudi & uae (hope the same in other gulf countries also).. in Dubai, the taxi fare starts at 3 AED (this is the starting fare - fixed cost) and 1.5 AED is the cost of each km.. you know what, everyday i spend about 100 AEDs to go to office and come back, in indian cost its around 1200 Rs. So, why they charge this much? in UAE, the answer i got (& of course saw, experienced) was the value of the service provided. In Dubai, all cars are AC cars, cars are not like our Ambassadors or Tata Indicas. They are Toyota Camrys & other luxury cars. The model of operation is there are only 3/4 major carriers - one govt owned (about 3800 taxis) & other private ones (with about 500 - 3000 taxis each). So, they are easily some 10,000 taxis running daily in the city. Still, I struggled 2 get taxi in the morning 2 go to office. Thats the demand of this wealthy & costly city.. The govt operated taxi is called Dubai taxi, it has got all the latest features - automatic gears (no clutch will be there), gprs enabled screen, which will the interactive map of dubai, u can see where u are currently, & all high funda stuff.

As I told you earlier, Dubai traffic is terrific.. A six lane road called Sheik Zaeed road, one of the key roads in dubai with 5/6 lanes on each side, but still the traffic is piled up.. In this condition, wont the taxi operations get a hit because of the slow journey. They are following a tariff plan where the customer is screwed bcoz of the traffic. If you board the taxi, there are 2 ways in which you are charged, one in running mode & the other in waiting mode.. If you travel below 15 kms, u are called as travelling in Waiting mode. Once you board a taxi, 10 minutes is allowed as waiting time.. More than that if the taxi is held up in traffic / going slow, you will be charged @ 1.5 AED for every ten minutes..thats why i give around 42 AED in the morning & around 55 AED in teh evening..

Then what else noteworthy in Dubai - Dubai museum , a good place which will say everything about the tradition and history of UAE & dubai, sheik saeed house, gold souk. Ah, this gold souk - meaning gold market.. A big 5 km diametered place with lot of shops in a place in dubai called gold souk.. All shops are gold shops - gold gold everywhere, all wonderful quality gold..and without fail you will also our marwadi brotherns shops - "xxx chand jewellery" types..other than this big big shopping malls, camel race, horse race, dubai rulers had lot of high quality horses..arabian horses.. I forgot 2 mention.. There is no rail system in the gulf (or atleast the countries where i had been) but in saudi they've just started. In dubai, to arrest the traffic conditions, the construction of metro rail system is going on (on land & over head, not underground) & expected to be finished by 2009.. As usual, funds for construction is not an issue and its planned that it will b finished even b4 that..

One more important tourist attraction in Dubai is something called Dessert safari - a 6/7 hours journey to the desert land near dubai.. the features in the saffari is sand duning in the desert, (a ride in the desert with vehicles also going upside down and in all different angles), sand skiing, falcon show, camping in the desert with the group, model dressing for male & female in arabian costume, shisha (the arabian hukka), belly dance & dinner. while you might know other things, falcon show is an age old traditional sport cum hunting activity of the arabs. A falcon is trained by the trainer and used for hunting birds.. A rope is tied to its legs, and its made to fly targetting other birds, it will catch them and bring it to the hunter. The hunter will wear a leather glouse in his hand for the falcon to land without hurting his hands.. To train and tame the falcon is a skill..

I also want to mention about one problem i faced here, particularly in Dubai. You would knw that the traffic is "Keep right" here..But in my senses, its deeply rooted that vehicles will come in the left in the road. so bcoz of this, while crossing roads, i did mistakes in estimates the vehicles arrivals & also in traffic signals. infact, in one place a vehicle was about to hit me when i crossed the road seeing the other side...

My flight from Dubai to muscat, on that particular day when i wanted to travel was cancelled and hence i needed to travel from dubai to bahrain the next day morning and then to muscat after some hours.. Since i had to spend one last night in dubai, i decided 2 go for an english movie. theaters in UAE are only multiplexes with even 10/15 screens in one theatre.. you might appreciate the fact that this trend of multiplexes is also growing in India in a big way through Inox, PVR, Innovative multiplex etc.. Have you wondered why these are seeming 2 be a copy-cat model.. Reason is there, what are the things you will see in a multiplex, lot of restaurants, shopping centres, hefty fee for parking, some activites and also theatres, So revenue comes in all these modes.. You know what, It is said, in India, that even 30-40% occupancy in multiplexes is enough to breakeven. & the customer (film watchers) dont mind paying a huge amount (say 150,200 even 500) to watch a film in that ambience..

Would wish to put a few words on oman also.. the county is Sultanate of Oman, with capital Muscat, currency Oman Riyals, valued @ around 115 INR, the lowest form is Baisa , where 1 OR = 1000 Baisas. Again, a US ally, but not that well known, a quiet country with high levels of secularism. In fact i heard that during the babri masjid issue, the sultan ordered arrest of pakistani people who attacked hindus on Oman.. Oman's economy is not built only on oil, but also on other manufacturing & other things.. instead of deserts, u will find lot of hills and the famous caves here..(though i couldnt have the chance the caves, sea and hills in Muscat)..

So, before i close my travelogue, thanks for listening to my boring mails.. before i close, i invite you to spare some time in thinking about why India, having all the resoruces - natural wealth like agriculture, iron ore, minerals, oil reserve, wind, water eneregy etc, highly trained english speaking manpwer, very old traidion and civilisation history, big manufacturing & consumer base, world class defence equipments & soldiers, huge land area, still a developing whereas smaller countries in europe, americas and even asia are developing fast?? I found three reasons -
1. Lack of proper infrastructure,
2. Huge population & lack of measures to take care of the masses & their problems like unemployment, health & educational facilties;
3. Lack of projects and developments activities with a vision...
Just wanted to write this as whatever i saw in these countries I travelled, in my first international trip, I only compared them to my home country India and felt bad.. But, whatever it is there is no match to India.. I used to long for a foreign travel, & now I wish to come back to india asap and see my lovable chennai & bangalore...India can be sleeping for 300 years of modern history. But not more than 10 years is needed for it to grow like USA or UK or any other country and pluck the status of World super power from USA....This is possible only if the above 3 things are taken care of at the earliest. Dont you also thing so?