Mexico Subway Failure

 Why the Mexico City Metro Collapsed

Car Hacks You

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/12/17/what-does-your-car-know-about-you-we-hacked-chevy-find-out/

Delhi To Bhutan Border Journey -Via Hashimara

https://youtu.be/hoAS1v-UuUA

After The Spate Of Accidents, Plan By Indian Railways

http://www.financialexpress.com/industry/after-spate-of-accidents-indian-railways-speeds-up-safety-plan-check-out-the-massive-task-and-big-numbers-involved/844454/

Why Are There No Paan Stains in India's Metro Stations

http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/H0txA6aMRKB0cOqbpj5IjN/Why-no-paan-stains-in-our-Metro-stations.html

Quote from the link: 

Human behaviour experts have always studied the impact of physical surroundings on human behaviour. They have established that physical locations are some of the most powerful cues to behaviours. As Wendy Wood, professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University, puts it, “ Even though people think they’re making choices, many of our repeated behaviours are cued by everyday environments”. Humans are like chameleons who have the ability to change their colours to suit the surroundings. We speak softly in libraries, we are boisterous in stadiums.

Most of our Metro stations are at a physical level that is different from the rest of the surroundings. Metros are either elevated or they are underground. A Metro station invokes a ritual of stepping out of the ordinary world into a “sacred” space. The same level difference (and the accompanying effort) adds to a feeling of exclusivity and spirituality to our places of worship too. "

Kinda strange. And yet true. That our behavior is somehow modified based on where we are. If we wanted to change someone's behavior, place that person constantly in environments where a different behavior is expected. What happens when the person returns to his "home" environment?

Another interesting thing I realized is that each of us creates an environment around us, an aura. We carry ourselves in a particular way. That is what tells people whether we are a cowshed or a metro station. And people treat us accordingly.

Train Pals

I read this article (http://m.thehindu.com/life-and-style/society/article2447009.ece/?maneref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fm%3Fhl%3Den%26gl%3Dus%26client%3Dms-android-fih%26source%3Dandroid-launcher-widget%26action%3Ddevloc%26q%3Dtravel%2Bpals%2Bhindu). 

I was reminded of the days when I used to travel to work regularly by train. I saw then that the same set of people traveled by the same compartment in the same train each day (well almost, don't expect me to spot them in a police lineup). Well imagine the train compartment meant to carry 50 seated passengers. It would carry a total of 150+ passengers. Some would be singing bhajans, some groups would be playing cards. Playing cards??? Yes..  Groups of 4 would be playing cards. Many times I would not be able to look at my watch because my wrist was somewhere else and not easily accessible. I would try to glance out of the window to see which place we were passing by and that would give me an approximate (+/- 3 minutes) indication of what the time was.

There was many a time when I had a hand in each of my trouser pockets. And then I would panic. Because one of my hands was holding the rod above for support. How then were TWO hands in my two pockets? Which hand was alien? Well in a few minutes I would get the answer. I would get off the train with only my hands, but with my wallet missing (or in case the pickpocket was a nice man, he would leave the wallet and some small change for me to get home).

Those were the days!

Incidentally I found that this Mary Hopkins song was copied from a 1967 Russian song.

 Published on

9/13/11, 11:56 AM

India Standard Time

Metro Across And The Hooghly In Kolkata

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/metro-rail-tunnels-under-hooghly-set-a-record/article19143405.ece

So now we can go from Sealdah in the North East to Howrah in the West in Kolkata by Metro cutting through some of the most crowded parts of the city and then under the water. Impressive. Wonder when I will set foot on the train.

Premium Tatkal and Train Running Status

Premium Tatkal Trains

• List of trains. See this list also.
• What is premium tatkal
• http://www.services.irctc.co.in/betadoc/salient%20features%20of%20pt%20quota.pdf
• http://www.irctcstationcode.com/book-premium-tatkal-trains/

Seems trains like Delhi-Chennai Duronto (12270), TN Express (12622) don't have premium tatkal.

Find Train Status:

• http://www.railyatri.in/NRAS/m/12270?p=1&d=2014-12-20
• http://enquiry.indianrail.gov.in/ntes/
• http://etrain.info/in#!STATION=NZM

Find PNR Status: http://www.indianrail.gov.in/pnr_Enq.html or Dial 139.

Additional reading:

• http://calmisc.blogspot.com/2014/12/hazrat-nizamuddin-to-parathe-wali-gali.html
• List of Duronto trains: http://www.indianrail.gov.in/duronto_trn_list.html
• Tatkal: http://trains.ind.in/tatkal

Published on

12/20/14, 6:53 PM

India Standard Time

Journey On Indian Railways

I read this (http://www.timescrest.com/life/journey-on-the-indian-railways-4893. Note that you have to register in the site to read the full article) today. A bunch of people traveling across the length and breadth of India braving the food served in the railways, the water in the railway stations.

But if you can brave these, this kind of travel is amazing in India. Travel is cheap by any standards. The varieties of people and landscape and climates and food that you come across, its amazing. I strongly recommend it, provided you have a strong constitution.

Published on

2/27/11, 3:47 PM

India Standard Time

Indian Railways - Ticket Status 101

Nice article on status of tickets on Indian Railways http://www.indiamike.com/india-articles/indian-railways-rac-and-indian-railways-waitlists/

Bijli Mahadev - Himachal Pradesh

One way to reach Kulu is to take the narrow gauge train from Pathankot Junction to Joginder Nagar, (JN near Mandi). The rail journey takes about 9 hours to travel distance of about 164km. The schedule is here. Details of station is here.

JN is about 100 km from Kullu. As per Makemytrip, one could take a taxi from JN to Mandi and then take a bus from Mandi to Kullu.

Details of homestays at Mandi here. Inder Vatika seems interesting.

Hotel Uhl seems like a good place.

About Bijli Mandir (temple)

1. http://www.go2india.in/himachal/bijli-mahadev.php
2. A photoblog of the trek here

Additional reading:

• Spiti: http://www.frontline.in/other/travel/spiti-beckons/article7961967.ece
• http://Calmisc.blogspot.com/2012/11/shiv-mandirs.html

Interesting Site On Indian Railways

http://www.irfca.org/ - Don't come to this site if you want to book tickets or check your PNR status. Come to this site if you are looking for a just plain reading or browsing pictures of trains.. This site is like a railway museum.

And some interesting articles here - predictably this is largely a men only forum. There are as many women here as there are men in a site for cooking recipes. Here is a nice one on fruits from Afghanistan for my enigmatic friend.

Additional reading:

• Life (Time) Magazine Photos: http://time.com/photography/life/
• http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2014/04/going-on-trip-tips.html

Humsafar Express Upgraded

http://www.financialexpress.com/photos/business-gallery/718322/humsafar-express-upgraded-15-new-features-in-indian-railways-all-ac-3-tier-affordable-luxury-train-service/

This is the description of Humsafar express trains: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humsafar_Express

Among other Humsafar trains there couple from Jammu Tawi from Sealdah and Tirupati, one from Trichy to Ganganagar, one from Chennai to Ahmedabad and one from Bangalore to Kamakhya.

RTO Districts In Kerala

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_RTO_districts_in_Kerala

Cycling In Goa

https://goacycles.wordpress.com/you-asked/

Get Schedule Of Public Transport Between Two Places

https://www.google.co.in/maps/dir/vasco/margao/@15.3348565,73.8991327,11z/data=!4m8!4m7!1m2!1m1!1s0x3bbfc7f3635e9997:0x5f896b7ce330450e!1m2!1m1!1s0x3bbfb3e651007787:0x17665ce1d538c84a!3e3 - this is a useful utility from Google Maps

Strong Railway But Do We Care

http://www.thehindu.com/society/Strong-railway-strong-India.-But-do-we-care/article17102277.ece - another nice article by Biswanath Ghosh of Hindu newspaper

Travel From Asia To Europe

https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/180308-First-Silk-Road-freight-train-from-China-arrives-in-London: China to UK by freight train

WheelChairs And Battery Operated Cars In Railway Stations For Senior Citizen And Disabled Persons

http://www.irctcstationcode.com/book-battery-car-railway-station/

http://www.irctc-logins.in/2015/11/irctc-e-wheelchair-booking.html

Air Traffic Control Video

I got this video recently.

The following is a description that was there along with the video.

Amazing video to be watched of World Airlines Traffic. In this video you will see, air traffic around the world for 24 hours, taken from satellite and compressed into one minute video. The yellow dots are airplanes in the sky during 24 hours period. Stay with the video and you will see the light of the day moving from East to West , as the earth spin's on its axis. Also, you will see the flow of aircrafts traffic leaving the North American continent and traveling at night to arrive in UK in the morning. Then you will see the flow changing, leaving UK in the morning and flying to the american continent in the day light. Notice the entire USA and Europe shining with the yellow dots. Europe alone has its local 30,000 flights per day. Similarly observations can be made on aircraft traffic in others parts of the world. Most people aren' t aware of the work that goes into managing and safely guiding aircrafts through our skies. This visualization is created to highlight the complexity of that work of air traffic controllers. Hats off to engineering.....