Train Travel in India

Traveling by train sitting by the window has always been one of my favorite experiences in India.  I think trains are to India what the freeways are to the U.S. – a very well connected network (a piece of trivia: Indian Railways is the world’s largest civil employer with ~ 1,600,000 employees on its payroll).  

Train travel in India can be a mixed bag of experiences though – here’s a foreigner’s point of view on this system, very lucidly written with some funny anecdotes thrown in.  My favorite section in this article is when the author explains the process on how people “borrow” your newspapers and magazines: “For a newspaper the story is still more dramatic. If you are reading the news headline, someone will hold the middle papers and pull it gently! You are expected to release the tight hold so that he can pull out the middle section of the newspapers easily. This is treated as absolutely courteous! Here again the newspaper travel in loose sections and comeback to you after a well read tour. Generally people won't request your books for reading. If you are a "selfish" person keep your magazine inside your bag immediately after you read it.”

Interesting read.  

World XI vs. Australia Super Series

As I type this, the World XI have slumped to a pathetic 9/180 odd against an Australian total of 345 in the Super Series Test match.  I think blaming the World XI for their bad performances (in the one-day series and this test match) is a bit unfair – considering that they were promised a “World team” but the selectors unfortunately didn’t pick any Australian cricket players for this squad.  Had the selectors included a couple of Australian cricketers in this World XI squad, things could have been a bit better ;-), just kidding.  More seriously though, this just goes on to prove that team building requires much more than just bringing together a talented bunch of people.

Testing blogging via e-mail

My first e-mail blog...

I'm back...

Phew, what a silence from my side. My last post was exactly 6 months back. This isn't exactly called "blogging" is it :)? Of course, things have been busy and all, but anyways, hope to blog more often going ahead...

Finally managed to setup my wireless router with BSNL broadband, today. I have had BSNL broadband for a few months now, but didn't quite setup the linksys router all these days. It took a few hours - definitely much more than what I had expected, due to the router configuration and the specific sequence that I had to follow to get it working. Will post a separate article on it.