A world linked by rail network

China's ambitious plans to link all major cities in the world via a high speed rail network would not only make travel cheaper for the common man but also will aid in boosting commerce and trade between nations. Just imagine if one has to go to London from Delhi, the normal way is to fly and this would take about 24hrs and would cost around Rs 20000 for a one way trip. Now with this new high speed rail link in place the rate would drastically come down but of course the travel would take slightly longer. But the advantage being the traveller would get to see the scenic beauty all along and that too for a cheaper rate.

This ambitious plan if materializes would make the world a global village and would bring people from different regions together. There are a number of obstacles for this plan to succeed viz

1. Nations from different continents need to give their approval for this project and must make a thorough feasibility study.
2. How does one solve the problem of VISA? for example the traveller from Delhi to London would naturally pass through some major European cities like Paris, Berlin, Islamabad etc. Should he get the VISA for all these nations or only for the destination nation? If the VISA is only for the destination nation then what would happen if gets down in between?
3. How to prevent terrorists from taking undue advantage of this? Trains can be stopped, hijacked and rail networks sabotaged. How can countries prevent unlawful infiltration?
4. What about the stations? Would only the national capitals be linked or other major cities also in the international rail network line?
5. How would the maintenance of the rail network be done? Should an international body be formed or should individual nations maintain the network coming under their territory? If individual nations are going to maintain the infrastructure on their soil then the developing countries would come under pressure to maintain strict quality standards on par with developed nations. This would mean financial aid needs to be given for developing countries.

Linking nations between Europe and Asia is quite possible because these two continents are connected by land. What happens to nations in North America, South America and Oceana? There would be a need to build gigantic rail bridges over the mighty Atlantic and Pacific oceans. This would call for skillful engineering to put the infrastructure in place and which can withstand the vagaries of nature. Critics might object to this idea of linking continents via rail when air travel is available. They would deem this idea as irrational and a major disaster.

The good part of this ambitious project is the travel industry would get a major boom. If the national capitals are linked through this high speed rail network then the tourism in that country can be boosted by a 'hub & spoke model'. The capital of a particular nation would serve as the centre and tourists can travel to any other part of the nation by the available modes of transport within that country.

This project would seriously make the airline industry to rethink their business plans. A common middle class man would prefer spending less money and wouldn't mind spending a day more to reach his intended destination rather than shelling out more money for the same distance of travel. This of course doesn't hold true for the elite class of people for whom time is money.

The business plan behind this high speed rail network would be to make international travel cheaper for the each and every citizen in the world and also promote commerce between nations.

If all nations can pool in their resources and plan this project to the minutest detail, the high speed rail network would become a reality. For the time being China alone has come out boldly and has agreed to spend on the infrastructure in exchange for energy resources.

Superman TORRES to Liverpool's rescue

Liverpool 2 - Blackburn Rovers 1

This season ( 2009-2010) has been particularly a difficult one for Liverpool. The hope for a title challenge has long faded away and now even the place for the fourth spot seems to be a difficult one. Liverpool took on Blackburn Rovers this weekend at Anfield. Liverpool, confident from their win in the Europa League were looking back to be in winning ways in the Barclays Premier League. Blackburn were coming to Anfield with a good home record and sought to get anything out of the game.

Liveerpool's line up looked impressive with Gerrard playing in the centre middle role and Kuyt and Torres playing upfront. Liverpool had some nervy moments in the first half. Pederson striking the ball with mighty force but right into the hands of the Pepe Reina. Kalinic had another wonderful opportunity when he stole the ball away from Lucas, shoving him to the ground but failed to curl the ball past the Liverpool goalie. Pederson had another chance but once again Reina was there for Liverpool with a double save.

Liverpool steered by Gerrard went up by one goal during the first half. It was captain courageous who started and finished the move with a super cool finish. Minutes later Carragher made a mistake of handling the ball inside the box and giving away a cheap penalty kick for Blackburn. Andrews made no mistake in converting the spot kick. Blackburn was level and Liverpool were finding themselves once again in murky waters.

If Liverpool was to win the game then no other than Torres had to come up with something special. The Blackburn goalkeeper found himself in no man's land when Maxi Roriduez passed the ball to Torres who made no mistake in putting it into the empty net.

Liverpool no doubt won the game and at the end of the day it was the points that mattered. But the manner in which Liverpool won was not convincing enough. For a club with such rich history and reputation the match should have been a cakewalk, with at least three to four goals scored. Liverpool has often allowed opposition teams to come back into the game even when Liverpool has the lead. This has cost them points and more than that a top four spot at the moment.

Ofcourse football is a crazy game and nothing can be said until the last game is played. Fortunes can turn in and turn against any team's favour. Liverpool with 10 games in hand still has a wonderful opportunity to finish the League in the top four spot.

Go ahead Liverpool.

India- Challenges towards sustainable development

Sustainability comes from a multi prong approach like (1) Awareness at public and political levels (2) Urban transport and environment (3) Water resources and demand management (4) Risk of climate change- our big cities are all coastal.


India is a multicultural country. There are both urban and rural challenges that need to be overcome for India to maintain its sustainable development. Urbanization is taking a toll on both urban and rural development. Close to 30% of the Indian population is living in urban areas and this number is bound to reach 40-50% in the next twenty years. This means a large population has to be sustained in small pockets of high density areas. Now with more people moving into urban areas India is slowly shifting away from an agricultural economy to an industrial economy. This would mean a severe resource crunch. This would mean cities have to expand and agricultural land has to be given up to meet the basic need of shelter for people. But this again brings us back to square one, a vicious circle, because less agricultural land would mean less produce of agricultural products and a greater burden on India’s exports as far grain and pulses are concerned.

Another area where India might face challenges in the future will be in electricity generation to meet all her industrial and domestic needs. The 123 agreement between India and the United States of America equips India sufficiently with the necessary technical knowhow but keeping in mind the rapid progress that India is making and also taking into account her population size there would be some hurdles in meeting the electricity demands. First of all to go nuclear would entail a huge investment in infrastructure and this would mean cutting down budgets from other areas. Secondly international political issues come into the picture if India uses this nuclear technology for her defense tests because this would mean a termination of the 123 agreement and a complete cut in the supply of nuclear fuel from other nuclear powered countries like France, Australia etc. This would hamper India’s progress and would tend to be one of the major barriers in her sustainable development.

The urban transport in India needs a changeover. Most of the cities are choked with vehicles. With India becoming the preferred location for manufacturing of automobiles by world’s leading auto majors we can only assume that the number of vehicles on road would increase by a tremendous amount in the next twenty years. The need for India is to have a good public transport system that caters to the needs of the common man without hassles. Now more vehicles on the road would mean more pollution and this defeats the sustainable urban development program as far as environment is concerned. The challenge is how to encourage investment in the automobile industry in India and also simultaneously giving thoughtful consideration as to how to cater to the needs of a clean and green environment with such a large number of vehicles on road.

Even though India boasts of a long coast line and many rivers that run through her lands, she would lack in providing sufficient portable drinking water to its citizens. To take advantage of the large quantities of sea water available to us we need the right technology to convert salt water into portable drinking water. This needs sufficient capital investment in setting up of the technology and system, maintaining it and also closely monitoring it. A second solution would be to link all her rivers but this again would encounter local political situations where one state would not allow waters to pass freely to another state.

Sustainable development competes with many deeply entrenched values and therefore progress is slow. With a proper feedback mechanism, which includes monitoring, learning and adaptation we can strive to put in a procedure which aims towards creating a sustainable India. Many of the projects described above either would take a long time to get implemented if the government alone tries to pursue it. More public-private partnerships with foreign direct investment would help in speeding up the process of implementing things.

My First Trail Marathon- AUROVILLE 2010 14 Feb- #7 for me

I am a crazy guy whose passion is running and this passion took me all the way to Auroville (near Pondicherry) on the 14 of Feb 2010. Whoa what a way to spend the Valentines Day running around the forests of Auroville.

I was in Alwar till 5 Feb 2010 and thanked God for giving me some time to practice before the D day. But as luck would have it I was asked to pack my bags to Alwar again on 9 Feb. I thought Oh My God, I am going to miss this nice wonderful run. But I believed in myself and knew that God wouldn't let me down. I back on 11 Feb 23:45. I did some stretching exercises on 12 Feb and did a mild 2Km run 13 Feb.

Thanks to Shameek, one of the Chennai Runners who offered me a seat in his car for this 3 hour journey to Auroville. There were totally four of us in the car- myself, Shameek, Puro and Bharani. Myself and Shameek were doing the half marathon (21.097Km) and Puro& Bharani were doing their maiden full marathon (42.195Km).

The journey from Chennai to Auroville was a pleasant one, we covered the whole distance in about 3 hrs. Shameek had got all sorts of snacks that one usually doesn't munch on before a big run such as this. But we thought ' Chalta Hai' and also we were hungry.

Bharani is an amateur cyclist, slowly moving towards professional cycling. As myself and Bharani were sitting behind the driver's seat and the journey was going to take us close to 3 hrs we started chatting about cycling. I got some info on cycling, what sort of cycle to but, what apparel to wear for long distance cycling etc etc.

Finally we reached Auroville around 14:30 hrs and went straight to Visitor's Centre, the place where they were distributing BIB numbers. We got our BIB numbers and dinner tokens and left to find our respective dorms. 

The full marathon runners were put up in a hostel called Mitra, which was located quite close say about 2Km from the Starting point. We had no problems in finding it. Unfortunately the Half marathon runners from Chennai were put up in dorm called DANCE HALL. It was funny that no one in Auroville had ever heard about such a hall. We spent nearly 3 hrs finding our dorm. The name of the dorm was actually " New Creation Corner" near Basket Ball court. We were informed of this change after nearly 2 hrs of searching. Once we found our dorm we wanted to have some food as we did not have our lunch but no restaurant in Auroville was serving food (by food I mean rice, roti and solid stuff) at that particular hour. We were tired, hungry and frustrated. Bharani grabbed a packet fo masala biscuits form a bakery and all of us munched on this.

Finally we found a place called Georgio's Pizzeria and the good news was they were serving food. WOW we thought what a relief ! There was this old Japanese lady or may be of some other country but definitely of a Mongolian race. She was so sweet, she took down our orders and suggested which food would give us the strength to complete our runs successfully tomorrow. Myself and Puro had Spinach Pasta, Shameek had some other pasta with eggs, Bharani had the pasta with mushroom sauce.

After having our food at Georgio's we headed back to Visitor's Centre where we had our dinner again. Guess what Pasta again and salad. We retired to our respective dorms and prepared ourselves for the run tomorrow.

The full marathon runners had their run starting at 5:00 am, we- the half marathon guys had our run start at 6:00 am. It was cool in the morning and the run through the forest was amazing. The route being through forests was a little tough for me and I could not maintain a constant pace. This was because you had to be extra careful while negotiating your course else you would end up twisting your ankle or knee. In spite of that I tripped on a root of a tree around the 8 Km mark and went crashing to the ground. Thankfully nothing much happened but I ended up tearing my BIB from my shirt.

My goal was to complete the run in 2:06:00 hrs but this being my first trail run i completed it in 2:25:40 hrs. I was quite happy about the run and the friendly atmosphere at Auroville but a little disappointed with my timing. The Auroville run was superbly organized, hats off to all the members of the organizing committee. Each and every detail was taken care of with utmost care by the organizing team and it was really an enriching experience.

We had our breakfast after the run and got our t' shirts as compliments. Shameek finished with a timing of 2:07:31. I felt sorry for him. This chap was going to complete the run under 2hrs but just 300mts before the finish line he got cramps and went crashing to the ground. Saravanan was running with him and so kind of him that he helped Shameek back to his feet without thinking about his own timing. It is this attitude that sets apart runners from the rest of the crowd. We care for fellow runners without giving any second thoughts.

Puro and Bharani completed their full marathon in 4:21 and 4:29 hrs respectively. Kudos to these guys for a stupendous performance on their first maiden full marathon.

There were cyclists (mostly foreigners) keeping track of the runners, helping them out and encouraging them during the course of the run. The best part of Auroville run is that you get a nice massage after the run by wondeful ladies and this kind of soothes the pain out of your legs. I didn't go for it because I didn't experience any sort of pain in my legs and also I was feeling a bit awkward for a foreigner to massage my feet and legs. But damn I missed it. Anyways Auroville 2010 was a wonderful experience.

Arsenal end poor show at Emirates

Arsenal vs Liverpool (10 Feb 2010)

Luck was not favouring Arsenal football club of late. With a 0-0 draw with Aston Villa and consecutive defeats at the hands of Manchester United and Chelsea, the mood at Arsenal football club was morose. On top of that they had their mid week fixture with back in form Liverpool squad. The stakes were high and both clubs needed the three points.

Arsenal kicked off the first half and displayed some brisk football with deft one touch passing. They had a couple of chances to score and surge ahead but didn't convert any of them. The first one came from a Fabregas freekick, which was headed over the bar by Gallas. Arshavin managed to squeeze the ball to Nicklas Bendtnar who stroked the ball with vengeance but only to find it rising above the woodwork. Liverpool was playing Nogog upfront because Torres has not fully recovered. Liverpool did not get as many chances in the first half as Arsenal did but displayed some quality in their style. At the stroke of half time it was 0-0 at 'The Emirates'.

The second half had more action in it with Liverpool threatening to score on a break exposing Arsenal's vulnerability but some timely defending from Gallas saved Arsenal's day. Nogog had to do a better job upfront and this was a brilliant chance missed. Minutes after Liverpool's break Rosicky missed an easy chance at the other end. This time the fault was with Rosicky as had taken the ball far too ahead for the Liverpool goalkeeper to grasp it.

But Arsenal was not settling for a draw and scored the only goal of the match. A superb cross from Rosicky and a brilliant header into the goal from Diaby sealed Liverpool's fate. The lack of firepower upfront for Liverpool was evident. Babel tried his best but the ball rattled the post, denying Liverpool of any points from the game. Liverpool's final chance came in injury time when they got a freekick 30 yards outside the box. Steve Gee stepped up to take it but only to find the ball bounce off the Arsenal wall. Television footages showed that Fabregas had intentionally put up his hand to block the ball but bad luck for Liverpool that the referee didn't notice it. Liverpool sure should have got that penalty for the foul done by Fabregas.

Arsenal now sit at position 3 in the table, just 6 points behind league leaders Chelsea. Who might know Arsenal might walk away with the glory after all the hardwork done by Chelsea and ManU to claim the number one spot and the Barclays Premier League Title

Liverpool on recovery path

Liverpool vs Bolton Wanderers (30 Jan 2010)

Liverpool faced Bolton Wanderers at Anfield in their weekend fixture. Liverpool's season has been jittery with too many ups and downs, the latest being FA cup exit in which they lost to second division club Reading. Rafa Benitez had put up a side which has the skill and the ability but completely lacking in confidence. David Nogog replaced Fernando Torres upfront as the striker, partnering with Dirk Kuyt.

Liverpool began the first half, shooting at the KOP end. Bolton Wanderers' strategy was to pin down to Gerrard and Muamba was doing a pretty good job at it,shadowing Steve Gee wherever he went. Bolton got two excellent chances in the first half,one coming from Cohen who couldn't put the ball past Reina. Thanks to ever-dependable Carragher who didn't give Cohen enough room to take the shot properly. The next brilliant chance came from Chung Yung Lee who did a neat work of getting past the Liverpool centre backs and also around the Liverpool Goalie but last minute brilliant work by Krygiakos saved Liverpool from the agony of trailing Bolton at Anfield.

Liverpool was fierce in their approach whenever they came cloe to scoring but lacked the killer touch. Some brilliant moves by Gerrard were blocked off by Zat Knight, Kuyt was just a yard away from converting Insua's cross into a goal. Liverpool found themselves ahead just minutes before the first half ended- Courtesy The Dutchman: Kuyt. Even though the goal was scrappy it was enough to bolster Liverpool's confidence. Bolton's defender Steinsson could have cleared the ball off the goal line but the ball some how found its way back into the net.

A one goal lead always causes anxiety for the team who scored it. Liverpool could have sealed the game early in the second half when Ngog missed a lollypop chance from six yards, the ball bouncing off the goal post. Bolton didn't threaten Liverpool much in the second half. This forced the Bolton manager to bring in Ricardo Gardner, Weiss and Elmandor to step up the Bolton attack.

Insua's shot was deflected off Kevin Davies before rolling past Jaskeleinen for a second Liverpool goal. Rafa could now breathe easily given that Liverpool will not commit silly mistakes to refrain them from claiming all three points.

Even though Liverpool came out victorious they lacked the ability to finish Bolton off. Liverpool could easily have scored four to five goals, given the amount of chances they had in the match. Liverpool now sits fifth in the table with 41 points just one point behind Tottenham Hotspurs. Aston Villa is on 40 with a game in hand and Man City are with 38 points with three games in hand.

If Liverpool fail to qualify for Europe next year the club's financial situation may be in jeopardy and this could mean many of the top players might leave Anfield. Now that Liverpool has won three of their home games in a row their confidence is high and hope that they take their good form in the remaining games.

Mumbai Half Marathon- My 6th half marathon

The Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon was conducted on 17 Jan 2010 and this was the 7th edition of the premier event. Let me tell you why running in Mumbai is special. First of all you need to register way back in July of the previous year because the competition is tough and number of participants overwhelming. Secondly the Mumbai Marathon is given Gold status by AIMS.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/23092968

This was my first Mumbai Half marathon and #6 overall. I had booked my tickets in advance with Jet Airways and was all set for Mumbai 2010. I took the 7:15 flight on 16 Jan 2010 from Chennai and reached Mumbai at around 9:00 hrs. There were two surprises instore for me. First I met my colleague from Strategic Sourcing on the same flight. He was going to Mumbai for an official trip. Secondly I met a girl ( Archana ) from computer science dept from my college,my batch. I was 100% sure it was her but I didn't have the guts to talk to her because even though I was staring at her for quite some time, waiting for some reaction she didn't seem to recognize me.

I had a quick breakfast with my colleague at the airport premises and left for my uncle's house in Matunga. Now Matunga comes under greater Bombay and autos are banned inside Greater Bombay. My colleague dropped me till Kurla Gardens, from there I took an auto till Scion and hired a cab from there to Matunga Central. My aunt and uncle gave me a warm welcome and made me quite comfortable, making me feel at home. They after making sure that I was comfortable went off to office and I spent the rest of the time till lunch with their younger 8 year old daughter Aayushi.

We had excellent lunch, rotis and undiyo, dal and a sweetdish whose name I do not remember. I really liked the undiyo as it was very very tasty and makes for an excellent side-dish with rotis. After lunch my uncle took me to Cuffe Parade, where I collected my BIB no. 11182 and the goodie bag. My uncle wanted to make sure that I had the best time in Bombay and went of the way in ensuring that. He took me to Leopold's cafe. Does this cafe sound familiar? This was one of the places where the terrorists open fired on 26 Nov 2008, killing many innocent lives. I saw the bullet marks on the granite wall as well as on the glass windows. After having a drink at Leopold's cafe we went for '3 idiots' the most successful film in the history of Bollywood cinema so far. We returned home by 22:30 hrs, had dinner and went off to sleep.

It was the D day. I woke up at 5:00 and geared myself for the run. I had set a target of 2:11 hrs to crack the 21.09Km distance. My uncle made sure that Raju stayed overnight just for my sake and drop me in the morning till the starting point. I warmed up,doing my usual stretching exercises and waited patiently for the flag off. The route was amazing; part of it was on the newly built Rajiv Gandhi Sea Link. The sad part was there was no water points on the sea link and many of the runners were struggling because of that.

I did a nonstop run till 8km after which I coupled walking and running till the finish. I was motivated by the enthusiasm and excitement of the Mumbai crowd. The toughest part of the route was the Peddar Road stretch where the road is narrow and quite steep. But the cheering crowd kept the runners going. People went the extra step of providing refreshments for runners and this is something unique you can find only in Mumbai. Cheers to Mumbai on this aspect.

I completed my run in 2:24:39, this was my official timing. I was quite pleased with my performance and thanked God for giving me both the mental as well as the physical strength to complete the run.

After the run I took a train from Marine Lines uptil Matunga Road and from there a taxi till Matunga Central. As I didn't carry my cellphone with me my aunt and uncle were worried when I took a long time to return home. It was my mistake; I should have called them from some other mobile. But anyways I was treated by my aunt's garam parathas with an extra dash of butter. I enjoyed my meal and went off to sleep. After that I went on see my friends at SP Jain. I met Anoop, my high school classmate and spent about one and half hours with him before departing for Chennai. On the whole I had a great run.