Train runs over 3 sleeping on railway track ~ the story of Dalmiapuram / Kallakudi

Indian Railways have a very vast network…. Once in a while, you will read of instances of people ending their lives by jumping before the train or placing their head on the rails to be killed by a passing train… One cannot ask ‘what is in a name’…. heard of this small township around 40 kms near Tiruchi…. Kallakudi, a political upheaval that took place changed the fate of Tamil Nadu taking away the rule from Congress to others.

Sure, you have heard of Dalmia Group of Companies, which are in existence from 1930s.  Founded by the late Ramkrishna Dalmia, with the assistance of his younger brother Jaidayal Dalmia and his son-in-law Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain, the group has its presence in multifarious industries with main emphasis on Cement, Chemicals, Sugar, Jute and more…  The Group’s greatest contribution to national development was in the emergence of the Indian cement industry.  It has set up  cement factories  in Bihar, Haryana, Punjab, Tamilnadu, Karachi, Sawai Madhopur and ……  In 1943, the Group established the Bharat Bank Ltd., which on the basis of authorised capital, became the biggest bank of its time.

The Dalmia family traces its roots to a town in Rajasthan, known as Chirawa. Traditionally, the Dalmias belong to the community loosely known as Marwaris, a term commonly used to denote businessmen hailing from the Shekhawati region of Rajasthan and neighbouring districts of Haryana. Though Marwar is a geographical region and former kingdom in Rajasthan, the term Marwaris gained coinage as a description of the business community from Shekhawati rather than an indication of geographical origin. Dalmia people later spread to many regions of India and abroad. 

Early this year, there were reports of Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Ltd planning to invest Rs 1,800 crore for expansions over the next two years. It was reported that Coy. Ws set to invest Rs 1,300 crore for its upcoming 2.5 million tonne greenfield project at Belgaum, Karnataka, and go in for Rs 500 crore  capacity expansion. It strengthened its base in East by acquiring Meghalaya-based Adhunik Cement with an investment of nearly Rs 560 crore; also increased its stake in Calcom Cement in Assam.

In 1960s, it was a different incident… it was the rail-roko that was staged at Dalmiapuram – a small town between Ariyalur and Lalgudi on the Madras-Trichy rail route.  Reason: - North Based Dalmia Cements were setting up a cement plant near Ariyalur and the protest was to prevent the entry of North based/Non TN based companies setting up a factory here...Congress was in Power at the centre and Mu  Karunanidhi  spearheaded the agitation that was to launch him in to higher pedestals later. Mr Karunanidhi was arrested and  sent to Palayamkottai Prison

That the small almost non-existent town rose to greater heights due to the setting up the plant, providing employment to many in the region is a different story altogether.  Because of the plant, the  town/station were to be called ‘Dalmia Puram’. Decades later when DMK was in power, the station was rechristened 'Kallakudi Palaganatham'

While people putting end to their lives before electric trains is heard of, this particular news in TOI dt 20.5.13, triggered some of the above thoughts……. ‘Train runs over 3 persons sleeping on railway track in Tamil Nadu’

It is reported that three persons were on Monday run over by a train when they were sleeping on a railway track at an unmanned crossing gate near here, police said. The tragedy took place when the Nagore-Bangalore train was passing through Tiruvarur-Mayiladuthurai-Nagapattinam section at Athipuliyur at 4.30am, police said.

But what made people sleeping on the railway track!……. Very eerie indeed.

Regards – S. Sampathkumar

21st May 2013

revolutionary charger - only 20 secs required ... Esha Khare wins Intel Award

Teenager Esha Khare would soon be hailed, remembered and appreciated everyday…

With every technological advancement, problems also galore.  Mankind contrives to have fresher trouble. How soon people forget that in India a couple of decades ago, there was no mobile phone…… only landlines ~ not all had or could afford a telephone at their residence… in Office, people called – the intended recipient may not be at desk – may have gone out, still people communicated, work was indeed happening at a fast pace.

Then came a techno marvel called ‘pager’ ~ can you imagine that the basic model was only numeric i.e., one can convey only numbers – the advanced version was alpha-numeric – it was never as luxurious as the modern day SMS – there were service providers. One had to call the service provider and tell them the message that is to be paged – they would record and send the message to the recipient – much like a telegram but delivered electronically – and naturally one had to be short.  The pager was a dedicated RF or radio frequency device that allowed the pager user to receive messages broadcast on a specific frequency over a special network of radio base stations.   History has it that the first pager-like system was used by Detroit Police Department in 1921; officially patented in 1949 and came to India much later in the 1990s.  

In those days of letters, telecalls, trunk calls and STDs – people were still happy. Now some carry more than a single handset – there are handsets with multi SIMs – people are connected all the time, many do not remove the plugged wires even when walking on the road, driving ….~ and while travelling – many prefer to carry laptops, I pads, tablet pcs and more…………….. in a recent tour – a pilgrimmage – observed that many felt too constrained as they could not charge their mobiles – for some there is no life without mobiles and hence in travel, everywhere they are on the lookout for opportunity to charge their mobiles, rather than enjoy the atmosphere, food, or the place of visit……  now you have a new generation of impatient people, who huddle around an electric point to have their mobiles / laptops and other electronics charged….. it is common sight at Airport / railway stations / inside the train / hotels and even in small eateries – people who come in, ask for the power point – reach it brushing aside others to have priority ‘charge’…

Here is an interesting report from Daily Mail of a revolutionary device that has the potential to charge a cell phone within just 20 SECONDS…

A California teen has attracted the attention of tech giants Google for her potentially revolutionary invention which charges a phone in 20 seconds flat.The super-fast charging device has been dubbed a supercapacitor by 18-year-old Esha Khare, of Saratoga - as she took home $50,000 from the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, which took place in Phoenix this week. The device will make waiting hours for a phone to charge a thing of the past and the gizmo packs more energy into a smaller space than traditional phone batteries and holds the charge for longer.

Eesha Khare, 18, of Saratoga, Calif., received the Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award of $50,000 for the invention of a tiny energy-storage device. The supercapacitor is flexible and tiny, and is able to handle 10,000 recharge cycles, more than normal batteries by a factor of 10. So far, Khare has only used her supercapacitor to power a light-emitting diode or LED - but she sees a bright future that one day will see her invention powering cellphones, cars and any gadget that requires a rechargeable battery. Heading to Harvard, Khare told CBS San Francisco that this is only the start and that she will 'be setting the world on fire' from here.

'My cellphone battery always dies,' she told NBC News when asked what inspired her to work on the energy-storage technology. Specializing in nanochemistry allowed Khare to reduce the size of her invention. 'Really working at the nanoscale to make significant advances in many different fields.' Google have been in contact with Miss Khare to explore how she plans to change the makeup of cell phone battery life. 'It is also flexible, so it can be used in rollup displays and clothing and fabric,' Khare added.

'It has a lot of different applications and advantages over batteries in that sense.' The supercapacitor is flexible and tiny, and is able to handle 10,000 recharge cycles, more than normal batteries by a factor of 10. How an 18-year-old girl has managed to figure out something that multi-national corporations have not has led to her being flooded with offers for her amazing leap forward.

So, now you can travel more with assurance that ‘charging your mobile’ is not going to as difficult as it has been

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

21^st May 2013.

Photo and charger news courtesy : www.dailymail.co.uk

Remembering Rajiv Gandhi ~ IPL - CSK meets MI today....

In a Nation, where you need not have to travel to find poor, some hoard currencies in bags and boxes…. As you travel on Mathura road from Delhi, comes the sleepy small place called Palwal, which is also in news….

Before that today, is May 21……… it was on this day in 1991 the religious town of Sriperumpudur had blood stains… yes, the brutal assassination of Rajiv Gandhi while on a campaign trail took place and the Nation pays homage to the leader who was brutally eliminated …

Palwal is known for its cotton trade and for long cotton gambling has been part of life of punters……… The local tradition identifies Palwal with the Apelava town mentioned in the Mahabharata, which was later restored by Vikramaditya. Today, TOI reports that IPL scandal moneytrail led to recovery of  Rs.20 lakhs from the kit bag at the house of Chandila’s aunt….. Ajit Chandila was little known prior to his hattrick last season and now his infamous act has made him hit the headlines.  The psyche of real follower of Indian cricket is damaged ~ but does anybody including the administrators really care for that poor spectator… !!!!

Today, after 72 league matches ~ some mismatches, IPL 6 has moved to the next leve…….  CSK plays MI today… CSK have been there before in fact all the 5 earlier occasions ~ have had more success than failure…….   they're the only team to progress past the league stage in every edition of the IPL so far, losing once in the semis, finishing runners-up twice (including last year), and winning the title in 2010 and 2011. Of the 10 playoff matches they've contested, they've won seven. They will go into the first qualifier knowing just how to win these big games, and with the cushion of having a second chance at making the final should they need it - both huge pluses. MSD is an icon, has still some players who have not played thus far but can make a huge impact, if given a chance – foremost being Faf du Plessis.

For MI, sling Malinga has not been the threat he used to be… Mitchell Johnson swung and bowled great in a couple of matches; Bhani, Ojha, Dhawal Kulkarni have all been steady… They  demolished Super Kings' line-up once this season, rolling them for 79 - the tournament's lowest total - at the Wankhede; but will that really hike their psyche ?  Rohit Sharma will continue to be most appreciated ~ will he ever perform at the hour of need while Dwayne Smith has struggled to make runs. Their most valuable purchase Glenn Maxwell was given a couple of chances but has come a cropper and is most unlikely to leave any impression. If Tendulkar is fit, Mumbai will have to take a tough call - his replacement, Aditya Tare, has made two handy contributions, scoring rapidly as opener for a team that has got off to slow starts more often than not. On Saturday, Malinga became the first bowler to 100 IPL wickets.

Meantime, RR has suspended the contracts of all three of their players who were arrested on allegations of spot-fixing. The three players had already been suspended by the BCCI soon after the controversy came to light. The franchise has also filed a complaint against the players with the Delhi Police, and said that additional security has been allotted for the team for the playoff stage of the IPL. Aakash Chopra, the former India batsman, writes lot of sense and has now said that any player found guilty of spot-fixing should have his records expunged completely, an idea that is believed to have been raised at Sunday's BCCI working committee meeting in Chennai where it received a favourable response.

Meanwhile, a public interest litigation was filed in the Supreme Court seeking a stay on the four remaining IPL matches and an investigation into spot-fixing and other alleged irregularities. The petition, by Lucknow resident Sudarsh Awasthi, has made all IPL franchises and the BCCI party in the case, along with the federal government.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

21^st May 2013.

Deepika Kumari wins 2 silver; ... rule changes in Wrestling

Even at this juncture with so much on match-fixing, IPL still hogs all the limelight while this news got drowned in the dins………..

Jharkhand was carved out of the southern part of Bihar on 15 November 2000.  The land of forests is currently under President’s rule.  When it celebrated its 10th anniversary of the formation, the State Govt issued full-page advts with 2 personalities – one was Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the other was this Arjuna Awardee……..

If you have recognized her immediately,  great… that is Deepika Kumari, archer.  She won gold medal in the 2010 Commonwealth games in the women's individual recurve event. Kumari qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, where she competed in the Women's Individual and Women's team events, finishing in eighth place in the latter.  She was conferred with Arjuna Award and this is the photo of her receiving the award from Mr Pranab Mukherjee.

 

The good news [actually not so good !] is she won 2 silvers in Archery World Cup, being slightly off the mark and missing the gold.  IANS reported that India had to be content with two silver medals as they finished on the losing side in both finals at the World Cup Archery – Stage I in Shanghai on Sunday.   Promising Deepika Kumari was done in by some sheer class of more experienced opponents as she settled for two silver medals, including one with Jayanta Talukdar, to help India finish fourth in the Archery World Cup Stage 1 that concluded in Shanghai.

Pitted against Ok-Hee Yun, a team Olympic champion and individual bronze medallist in Beijing 2008, Deepika took a 4-2 lead but the Korean showed amazing resilience to win successive games and seal the issue 6-4 for her third World Cup gold in Shanghai after 2006 and 2009. In the recurve mixed team final, the US duo of Brady Ellison and Khatuna Lorig outplayed Talukdar and Deepika 154-146 as India ended their campaign with two silver and one bronze (Women's compound team). A 10 in her final shot would have clinched a gold medal and a nine forced a shoot-off, but the Indian only managed an eight.  Earlier, India had opened their account  with a first-ever World Cup medal in the compound women section when Trisha Deb, Gagandeep Kaur and Lily Chanu P beat their Italian opponents in the bronze medal play-off.

Congratulations and wishes to Deepika for bringing more laurels to our country.  Understand that Archery World Cup is held in 4 stages  in Shanghai,Antalya, Medellin and Wroclaw and the finals would be held in Paris. 

There appears to be more winds of change as wrestling rules are overhauled, Indians will have to quickly adapt to new scoring system.  Daily Mail reports that the sweeping rule changes in wrestling may put Indians at a disadvantage and they would have to quickly adapt to the new system, feel coaches. In an attempt to address the concerns of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and save the sport from being dumped at the 2020 Olympics, International Wrestling Federation (FILA) came up with a slew of changes to make it more attractive for spectators. The new set of rules was approved at the FILA Extraordinary Congress in Moscow on Saturday where Nenad Lalovic of Serbia was also elected as the new president of FILA.

The point system has gone through major overhaul. Each bout will be of two periods of three minutes each and cumulative points will be taken into account to decide the winner. Also, a wrestler will concede points for passive wrestling. Earlier, there were three periods of two minutes each and the winner was decided on the basis of number of periods won. The changes would encourage attacking wrestling, and simplify the sport for the spectators. 'Indian wrestlers are slow starters. They need to ensure that they do not concede too many points at the start because then it will be difficult to recover as now the total points would be counted,' national coach Vinod Kumar told Mail Today. 'The three-period system suited our wrestlers. Here, if the wrestler opens a good lead at the start, it would be difficult for his opponent to comeback,' he said. 'In the last couple of years, our wrestlers have been attacking more and they should be able to adapt to changes,' Vinod added.

There will be only one bronze medal in each category. London Olympics silver medallist Sushil Kumar said that the dynamics of a bout would now change. 'We have to be on the attack right from the start. The whole system has been designed to make the sport faster and more attacking,' Sushil told Mail Today. 'Now the focus will be on how fast you can attack, on speed and agility. It will test the physical stamina as well. The wrestler cannot afford to wait to strike. A combination of factors will come into play,' he added.

The sport has been one of India's biggest success stories at the Olympics. Sushil's bronze at the Beijing Olympics spawned a new era for wrestling. It touched a new high at London where Sushil returned with a silver and Yogeshwar Dutt a bronze. The changes will be implemented with immediate effect. With the World Championships scheduled in September (16-22) in Budapest, the wrestlers will not get much time to get used to the new scoring system. Hope Indian wrestlers adopt to the changed rules and keep the Country’s flag flying high

With regards – S. Sampathkumar                                                                            20th May 2o13.

Supreme Court fixes time limit for auto fee structure in Chennai ... and this auto driver at Trivandrum

The name Rajnikant sells and the characters that he plays – makes that profession popular… said a fan. Saw the final match of this IPL6 at Chepauk – between CSK and DD….

In my recent Kerala divyadesam trip, had this very pleasant experience in Thiruvananthapuram…. It was mid afternoon – I had wandered from our place of stay to the main entrance of Shri Ananthapadmanaba Swami temple  - saw this old person driving the auto – approached him for a drop… he spoke Tamil and  asked me  whether it was 1^st lane or 2^nd lane and told me that the two were slightly different places.  For a second I felt insecure ~ I told him that I know the place and perhaps the route [though some other road could perhaps lead to that place in a short cut]…… his name is Mr Basheer..

Those of us in Chennai know this too well…….. the auto-rickshaw drivers ask a very high price… as you near your destination and start telling him which road to take ~ one would mutter that this place is farther than what was indicated and would ask for that extra … to be paid……

This elderly gentleman was totally different…… first he asked for Rs.20/- for drop ……. I could not believe my ears…… it appeared too measly… never in Chennai would an auto ply even to the next road for that… we winded our way to my intended destination ~ upon reaching, this man got down and said – ‘Sir, this place is far nearer than what I thought ~ and hence pay me Rs.15/- only’…. I was struck by his honesty or whatever-else you could name it.. I offered him a small gift, which he took with great reluctance and I am happy in taking a photo of him and posting it here….. a small act ~ but you require a person great at heart to perform…. Long live his tribe…….

People of  Chennai, Tamilnadu and most other places are too well aware of auto … the ubiquitous three-wheeler – the commonest means of public transport… a great contraption that can virtually plough through the traffic and turn at any angle..  

One of my friends [hailing from another State] told that me that it is nightmarish haggling with the autowalah on landing at Chennai Central. In Chennai as also in most other places, it is a  male-dominated profession – though have seen a couple of women drivers too……… On that night when we came out of Chepauk stadium after the IPL match between CSK and DD, there were hundreds of autos lined up – and the fare to different destinations were astronomical.  Chennai is sort of disliked for its lawless autos; those autos who seldom use their fare meters.  Successive Govts have been able to regulate this sector.  Fares have been revised from time to time, but is exceptionally rare to find somebody who would turn the fare meter on and take that amount. In Ernakulam, from Railway Station to the place of stay, it was Rs.45/- and the automan promptly returned the balance Rs.5/- 

At places like Chennai Central the pre-paid system failed miserably and one can easily see people struggling to strike a decent deal. True that petrol prices keep spiralling up, but… still, the way the rates are fixed arbitrarily keeps one feeling that one is getting fleeced.  There sure is other side of the coin ~ autorickshaw drivers are the ones who come readily for help, especially for road-accident victims; at places they do help when suddenly the traffic goes bust. Many of them are uneducated and find it tough to run their families with whatever is earned…….. still there can be better way as shown in cities like Mumabi, Ernakulam, Bengaluru among others…..

Today’s TOI reports that the Supreme Court has given the Tamil Nadu government time till July 6 to fix a fare structure for autorickshaws, implement it and file a compliance report before the court. The 'final' opportunity, extending the ultimatum by two more months, was given by a bench comprising Justice R M Lodha and Justice Kurian Joseph, on a petition filed by Chennai-based advocate S V Ramamurthy, on May 6.

While acceding to the pleas of Tamil Nadu's additional advocate general for more time to frame a fare structure and implement it, the bench had said: "In the interest of justice, we are inclined to grant further time of two months to Tamil Nadu to finally consider fixing of new fares for autorickshaws." Holding the chief secretary accountable for the compliance of the order, the judges further said: "The chief secretary of Tamil Nadu shall file an affidavit that the order dated December 3, 2012 has been complied with." However, the order was not implemented till May 6, when the present order was passed. "I produced the front page of The Times of India dated September 4 (the day TOI launched its campaign to bring back the autorickshaw meter) to highlight the present day position of autorickshaw fares in Tamil Nadu," Ramamurthy said.

Baasha is a 1995  super hit movie directed by Suresh Krishna, starring Rajinikanth, Nagma, and Raghuvaran. Rajni plays the role of an auto driver and the title song ‘naan autokaran, autokaran’….-music of Deva was a great hit. 

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

20^th May 2013.