LETTERS : MISCELLANEOUS

Admission Trouble (3/7/06):
(appeared in Deccan Herald)
Recently few final year B.A.students from Bangalore University had to forfeit admissions to a Master's course in a university in a neighbouring state inspite of being selected after entrance tests and interviews! Since the final year examinations of Bangalore university were held very late, they were not able to produce certificates needed by the university they wished to join.The timing of the final year examinations are very important for the student and the university should have held such examiantions much earlier. Further, the admission of these students would have been possible if the Bangalore university had the academic machinery to issue projected marks cards as some of the other universities in the country do. Apart from the fact that the Banglaore university needs to be more concerned about the future of its students, the UGC has to issue proper guidelines for a better coordination between the various universities of the country.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

6-11-2004

Dear Sir/Madam
Re: USA elections

A little arithmetic and a hard look at the recent election map show that there are essentially two distinctly separate Americas: The first with 55 million voting population ( 47.5 % of the total) preferring Kerry to Bush by 55:45 and the second with 60 million population preferring Bush to Kerry by 57:43. Further, both these can claim to be independent countries since the 29 states of the second group are almost contiguous while the second group with 20 states are from 3 well separated regions but with each region containing contiguous states within itself- the upper east coast , the greatlake states and the whole of west coast. This division seems to be also blessed by time since the voting pattern has not changed significantly in the past few decades. It is a tribute to the democratic traditions of USA that even such sharp divisions have not torn the country asunder!

24-8-04

Dear Sir,
Re: WHAT IF

If partition had not taken place, we would have had a civil war within a decade,
not just because of language differences. Also Nehru would have come to power even
if initially Patel had become the PM.WHAT IF the great man had listened to the Bombay economists at the at the time of the 2nd five year plan instead of Mahalanobis ?They
dissented and wanted stress on mass consumer goods and agriculture instead of heavy industries. Incidentally, this is supposed to be the Chinese model which has been
very successful!

Letters: Media Misdemeanours

15/3/2004

Sir/Madam

You ought to have thought twice before splashing the headlines " KARACHI CAPTURED " in the newspaper. This ' war cry ' is totally irresponsible considering that the two countries are trying to get close !

31-10-2002
Re: Castewise classification of the award winners ?
Thank you for the castewide breakup of the rajyothsava award winners. It would be more interesting if you can get hold of the names of the Rajyotshsava award winners of the last 30 plus years and did a similar grouping. Even more interesting would be if you did a similar breakup of the poeple who work in your esteemed newspaper. Why blame politicians for exploiting caste? The leading newspaper of the country is doing a better job than the politicians ever did.
Yours sincerely

25-10-03

Dear Sir/Madam

Re: Heliocentric theory etc

I do have to point out a glaring error in your article: The subject matter under
Renaissance.. is correct but unfortunately the captions are not. Galileo used the
telescope first in 1609/10 for astronomical purposes. Copernicus was dead by
the time Galileo was born. Therefore there was nothing like a Copernicus telescope
, let alone him demonstrating it. About Arya Bhata etc; A Greek thinker called
Aristarchus in 2nd century BC came out first with the idea of a heliocentric
universe. However the idea never became popular. Copernicus acknowledges
Aristarchus. Also Erasthones again from the same period first measured the
diameter of the earth. Arya Bhata's idea of heliocentric universe never caught on
even in India. It seems Brahmagupta and Varahamihira did not accept them

Yours Sincerely

Letters: Phileas Fogg and the Indian Railways

18-4-2002

During this 150^th anniversary of the Indian Railways, it is interesting to recall the momentous journey of Phileas Fogg. Mr. Fogg, an Englishman with a resolve to go round the world in 80 days , left London on 2^nd October 1872, sailed through the Suez and reached Bombay on 20^th October at 4.30 P.M. At 8 P.M. on the same day he caught the Great Indian Peninsular Railway from Bombay to Calcutta via Allhabad. In the words of his biographer Jules Verne : “ The train had left on time…At the station of Kalyan, it left on the right the branch that goes down to the south east of India via Khandala and Poona…During the night, the train crossed the ghats and came to Nasik… at 12.30 P.M.the train stopped at Burhanpur.. toward the evening into the passes in Satpura mountains” . Mr. Fogg’s train journey was interrupted on the 22^nd morning 65 miles before Allhabad because the track had not been completed. After covering the distance to Allhabad on an elephant during which he rescued an Indian princes from Sati, he resumed the train journey to Calcutta which took him through Benares and Burdwan. He reached Calcutta at 7 A.M. on 25^th October. Thus the whole journey, except for the elephant walk, took almost 58 hours. The venerable Mumbai – Howrah mail via Allhabad ( till recently the famous “4 Down” ) still traverses almost exactly the same route ( a total of 2156 kms) but in about 40 hours. While it may be a folly to trust timings given by a Frenchman, it is said that Mr. Fogg, who is said to have lived by the clock, himself scrutinized the first draft of his biography. Monsieur Verne while describing the whole journey bemoans the fact that the subject of his biography had no eyes for either the beautiful Indian countryside or the flow of the heavenly Ganges!

P.R.Vishwanath

Letters : An Indian in Ann Arbor in '60s
31 jan 2005

Re:THEN AND NOW

The middle ' India connection' by ..... took me back to the days when I was a graduate student in the very same town (Ann Arbor, Michigan). When I began my studies there in the winter of 1968, thre were about 200 and odd Indian (and some Pakistani) students in the university who came together once a year for a Hindi film.The only authentic Indian meal we could get was when some of the married folks took pity on us. We had learnt to make do with whatever was available in local A and P grocery stores. While we did miss India, we were busy soaking up a totally alien culture. There was a pioneering spirit in us but the culture shock also was too much claiming at least two victims in a period of 6 years. Everything in America - The huge supermarkets, the campus life style, the bitter cold etc - was new to us . Added to it, those were also the times of the hippies, vietnam and watergate ! It certainly was ' not like home ' as ....... finds! Alas, Globalization has taken away adventure out of life in alien lands!
P.R.Vishwanath

Letters : The Great Dane
23/3/05

While Hans Christian Andersen is certianly a Great Dane, one would like to submit that there are greater Danes: (1) Niels Bohr, the great physicist of 20th century,who gave the first full atomic theory and decades later tried to curb the proliferation of atomic weapons and who was also known as alter ego of Albert Einstein (2) The Prince of Denmark, who lived and died in Elsinore !
P.R.Vishwanath

Letters : Bumsteads' anniversary party (29/10/05)

It seems like that there is not much time left before
the Bumstead anniversary party. I request you to use
your influence to procure an invitation for a
diehard fan like me. It is almost 55 years ago that
one started browsing your newspaper. And the
cartoon strip by Chic Young was the first thing one
impatiently waited for while the elders took their
time reading the paper. Dagwood and Blondie ! Happy
Anniversary!
P.R.Vishwanath

Letters : The many 'A' s in a name 23/2/06

As for the 'A's in a name, it is quite possible that the name Anantanarayanan with 7 'A's is somewhere on top of the list. The American writer John Updike was so fascinated by this name with so many ' an 's that he even wrote a poem about it. Incidentally, the word Aryan has also an ' an ' in it!
P.R.Vishwanath

Letters : Colin Wilson (8/8/06)

Sir/Madam
Just like Sri Sreekumar Varma, I was also ifluenced by Colin Wilson.. It was in the early '60s that I came across a book called 'The Outsider'. That PAN publication ( original publishers) changed my life in two definite ways: (a) That was the time my identity crisis had begun and I found companionship in Colin Wilson's heroes! And they had theraupetic effect on me (b) It opened the doors of literature and history to a student of science who never knew such beings existed. Wilson introduced me to people like Sartre, Camus, Lawrence, Van Gogh,Hesse, Nietzche , Nijinsky, etc and soon I was reading all types of books. A pavement book seller on DN Road in Bombay specialised in ' existentialia' and kept feeding me such literature. However Wilson's later books did not make much impact on me.
P.R.Vishwanath

Letters - Gandhi and Einstein
15/9/2006
Reg B.R.Nanda’s article on Einstein and Gandhi, it is probably more charitable to characterize the first half of the last century not just as a preparation for the atomic bomb but as the time of a great intellectual revolution in physics. It also happened to be the time that our planet was doubly blessed by having two colossal figures of history at the same time who headed great revolutions in their spheres of activity. The great moments of modern physics and those of the Indian non violent movement did run parallel. In 1894 Gandhiji founded Natal Indian congress and a year later Roentgen discovers X-rays, the first important experiment in modern physics. 1905 was the year of Einstein’s great papers and Gandhiji’s satyagraha in South Africa started in 1906. .In 1913 the atomic theory of Rutherford-Bohr is born; Gandhiji’s march with 2500 people also took place in Natal in the same year . 1919 was the year of the first artificial transmutation of atom by Rutherford and of the first Hartal (which later gave raise to the Civil Disobedience movement) in India. !930 was the year of the Dandi march whereas in physics the first two years of that decade had great discoveries including that of neutron by Chadwick.. The first nuclear chain reaction was achieved in 1942; 1942 was also the year of the Quit India movement. While more parallels could probably be found, it should be noted that among all these events the nuclear chain reaction was the only deliberate attempt towards the bomb.
P.R.Vishwanath

Letters - Liberate Nobel Prize
16/10/2006
LIBERATE NOBEL PRIZE FROM MONETARY CONSIDERATIONS

It is time that the Nobel Prize be detached from its financial aspects. This would lessen extraneous considerations in awarding the prize. Saraswati ( the Indian goddess in charge of education andother academic activitites) can have her choice of a nice saree with some money for repair of her Veena. She does not need the opulence symbolized by Lakshmi (the Indian goddess of wealth) !

P.R.Vishwanath

Many Letters : Bangalore Traffic
woes
1/12/05

Sir/Madam
The recent reports about the so called improvements in trafffic in Basavangudi clearly show the callousness of the planners.As a recent editorial in the Indian express put it, Indians are an impatient lot. Prime examples are the vehicle owners in this city who consider zebra crossings and even occasional signals as nuisance ! By concentrating on making the traffic smooth for the vehicles, numerous pedestrians in this essentially residential area are put to further hardship.Crossing roads in this area (for eg, Gandhi Bazar main road, B.P.Wadia Road, Netakalappa circle road etc ) is a nightmare for young and old alike.Gandhi Bazar traffic management is a shame for this supposedly enlightened consitituency which ironically spends so much for various festivals(Basavangudi habba, ganesh habba, deepavali etc) but cannot get a simple traffic light installed in the circle! The planned flyover in Tagore Circle will make the situation worse for pedestrians crossing Bugel Rock road. The need of the hour is not fly overs but automatic signal lights which cost comparatively very less. Such lights installed in the last one year on busier roads of Koramangala and Madivala have reduced the problems for pedestrians. Bangalore is known as the most unfriendly city in the country for pedestrians. Let us not make it worse.

19-8-2004
Appeared in TIME

Sir/Madam
Re: Traffic in Bangalore

Having relocated from the relatively orderly city of Mumbai to the chaotic city of Bangalore, I feel that that one of the main reasons for traffic disorders is the lack of proper public transport in Bangalore. It is something like the difference between NewYork and Los Angeles area. I remember waiting for a long time for buses in Irvine in Orange county ! Lack of public transport increases the number of vehicles which in turn reduces the amount of public transport! . It is indeed a viscious circle ! Bangalore traffic is so bad that , well, a chicken dare not cross the road here !

Dear Sir/madam

Killer spots (3/8/04)

Let me first thank you for doing a wonderful job identifying the bad spots in our city. In my daily sojourn from Gandhi Bazaar to Madivala/Koramangala(partially by walk thro Lalbag and partially by bus), I face several problems. Before I go into it, I want you to give a do and dont to your readers for zebra Crossings. The public has to be educated about these Crossings. Most motorists and two wheelers have absolutely no regard for these lines which are meant for pedestrians to safely cross the road. The sanctity of the zebra lines completely vanish when there is no policeman or traffic light in sight. The biggest problem of this city is that 2 wheelers are a law unto themselves! Having come recently from Bombay I cannot help reiterating what many out of towners feel about Bangalore:The most unfriendly city for pedestrians.

Difficult places for pedestrians to cross:

In Gandhi Baaar area

(1) The intersection of K.R.Road and B.P.Wadia Road is very difficult

(2) The Gandhi Bazaar circle is totally chaotic.

Both these places very badly need traffic lights. Policemen , even when they are there, are just not enough

Lal Bag Main gate:

In your first article you rightly mentioned this problematic place. It is very difficult to cross in front of the Lal Bag Main gate. There are no traffic lights. The situation is made worse because of many private buses stopping there for few minutes to canvass for passengers. The result is that City Bus drivers stop wherever they want resulting in chaos

It is the same story in front of the Wilson garden Crematorium

Near St Johns

There used to be a service road (parallel to Sarjapur road) in front of St Johns hospital. It is now tarred. The result is this narrow stretch of road is used by fast two wheelers giving no room for pedestrians to walk. The 2 wheelers enter this ex-service road from Sarjapur Road in front of St Johns and get back to Sarjapur Road near the Water tank intersection. It is really scary to walk this stretch.

The Hosur Road crossing near Madivala Bus stop has a zebra crossing but no policeman.

Thank you for your efforts

25/11/03
Sir/Madam :Zebra crossings

Most of the Bangaloreans seem to have no idea of the purpose of zebra crossings. The vehicles totally ignore these crossings and some of them even accelerate when they see the crossing! The intersections near the Madivala Masjid and the Koramangala water tank are manned only in the peak hours. After the inaguration of the Hosur flyover, it has become very difficult to cross the road near the masjid. The civic administration has to realize that traffic lights are as (or more ) important as fly overs. Coming from Mumbai, I find that this hitech city treats pedestrians as second (third?)class citizens. And the two wheelers are the most promiscuous vehicles! I am not exaggerating when I say it is really scary to cross the streets in this city!!Please put some public service ads telling the use of zebra crossings! Thanks

P.R.Vishwanth
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------