River Linking – II

“Monsoon Rains Displace 400,000 People in India”:http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2003/2003-06-17-01.asp
bq. With some railway lines submerged, transport links to the district have been disrupted forcing people to use makeshift boats and rafts of banana leaves and bamboo to get around. The International Red Cross says its volunteers are also using such rafts to distribute relief supplies to those who have been affected, including food provided by the government.
This is an annual phenomena. While one part of the country is submerged under water, other parts of the country would be reeling under the heat wave without any water. In his book “Ignited Minds”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0143029827/jksobservat-20, APJ Abdul Kalam writes on his visit to Tezpur University in Assam.
bq. When I finished giving autographs I faced two interesting questions. One was: “Why cannot water from the Brahmaputra, which is in flood much of the time, be diverted to Rajasthan or Tamil Nadu which are starved of water?”
And his reply to the student was that India needs to connect its rivers across state boundaries. The present Government has started the “river linking project”:https://varnam.org/archives/000074.html under a directive from the Supreme Court.

Sulekha Weblogs

Last week I visited the offices of Sulekha.com in Chennai. I have been a regular “columnist”:http://www.sulekha.com/columninfo.asp?cid=113166 there for almost two years now (with occasional six month breaks). This was the first time I was seeing the human beings with whom I had interacted via e-mail over the years. One piece of information I got while I was there was this – Sulekha has launched a weblogs section. Please “take a look”:http://www.sulekha.com/weblogs/ and send your feedback.

How Globalization can eliminate Bandhs

“How BPO is changing India”:http://www.sulekha.com/redirectnh.asp?cid=311406
bq. One Bangalore bandh over Cauvery waters sent shock waves through the industry (a call centre should normally never close down), bringing forth so many queries from clients that chances are the political class will in future decide never to have bandhs.
Yet another evil of globalization. You will have to change your work culture, else due to the “democratization of finance”:https://varnam.org/archives/000117.html, the investment meant for your country can easily go to another country. That was why the IT minister of Karnataka told this to the Nasscom BPO Summit, “We will accept whatever your recommendations are and adapt our policy to the changing times”.

Monsoon

Andhra was the state that was badly hit by the heat wave. More than 1000 people died there. Now the south-west monsoon which started in Kerala on June 8th, has covered Karnataka and reached Andhra.
“Monsoon sets in over Andhra Pradesh”:http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/jun/16ap.htm
bq. Meteorological Centre Director C V V Bhadram told rediff.com the monsoon has covered the Rayalaseema region, most parts of Telangana, except Adilabad district, and south coastal Andhra Pradesh up to East Godavari district.

Back in L.A

I am back in Los Angeles. Since we had four pieces of luggage British Airways decided to leave two of them at Heathrow. They will be delivered at home tomorrow (within 24 hrs, that is the promise). This was the first time I travelled by British Airways and still I think Singapore Airlines is the best in terms of overall professional service.
Chennai airport has a new International Departure terminal, which is very spacious and has polite policemen.
Yesterday I was in Chennai, and it rained. The day I landed in Chennai from LA, it was the hottest day in 100 years. Now there is nothing more to see in life.
Blogging will resume in full swing from tomorrow.

Finally..

Finally it poured — the South-West monsoon. The first rains came on the morning of the 8th. It was a real good downpour. Today the whole day it did not rain, but a weak shower has started now at 10 PM here. The Met dept after watching the rain yesterday predicted that monsoon would hit the coast yesterday. After seeing that the rains were weak, it also added that the rains were weak.

Updates from Kerala

I have been travelling extensively in Kerala, both to the North and South. Everywhere there are posters asking people to boycott American and British products. There are also posters saying that we don’t need globalization. There is no poster which tells what Kerala needs.
There was an extensive and violent campaign against Coke and Pepsi. Today I read in “The Hindu” that for the first time, since its entry into India, Coke has registered a ‘modest profit’. So the only benefit of the Communist campaign has been that, lots of poor people who made a living selling Coke, Pepsi and other soft drinks, lost their daily wages for some time.