Railway employee to the rescue

I have seen people always cribbing about the inefficiency and apathy of railway officials. Government working today has become very very efficient and this i could know only when i worked in the railways.Yet the public perception is that they are inefficient, unintelligent and never offer help.

Yet one man's actions might change this perception to some extent. I am talking about railway announcer zhende whose actions at CST on the night of attack saved a lot of lives. Read this news article from ndtv.com

" The indiscriminate firing by terrorists at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) in Mumbai took many lives. However, many other lives were saved because of one ordinary Mumbaikar who announces railway timetables for a living.

It was a usual evening shift for VD Zhende, making announcements of suburban train arrivals and departures from his small office room, overlooking the CST in south Mumbai when two terrorists entered near the main line and started firing at the passengers.

VD Zhende says, "I heard a loud explosion and then I saw public running. So, we started announcing for the government railway police (GRP) and the railway protection force (RPF)."

However, the police for some reason did not appear on time.

“Only when public started coming with blood all over, I realised that there was some gunfight happening. So I started announcing that all passengers go out from platform 1 and not go towards the main line, recalls Zhende.

Bullets were fired at them .The announcer and his colleague only hid from the gunfire after the platform was completely evacuated .

Co-worker Shekhar says, “They (terrorists) were standing right in front of us for half an hour. They had huge guns and grenades.”

When the terrorists reached the suburban line, a platform generally milling with people, was already evacuated.

The presence of mind of one man saved hundreds of lives on the evening of November 26."

Hope this sensitizes the people to the humane side of the government employees to some extent atleast.

Nuggets - Human mind :)

"Foolish and clever, mean and almost saintly, diversely unhappy- they are all dear to my heart; it seems to me that i do not properly understand them and my soul is filled with an inextinguishable interest in them. Many of them whom i knew are dead; i am afraid that except me there is no one who will tell their story as i would like to do and dare not; it will seem as though such men had never existed on earth at all....."

"The people i am most fond of are those who are not quite achieved; who are not very wise, a little mad, 'possessed'. The people of sound mind have little interest for me. The achieved man, the one perfect like an umbrella,does not appeal to me. I am called and doomed, you see, to describe - and what could i say of an umbrella but that it is of no worth on a sunny day?"

"A man, slightly possessed, is not only more agreeable to me; he is altogether more plausible, more in harmony, with the general tune of life, a phenomenon, unfathomed yet, and fantastic, which makes it at the same time so confoundedly interesting."

MAXIM GORKI "Two Stories"
The Dial, 1927, pp 197-98

An imagery of chess !!

Mikhail Tal - Mad Maverick
Piercing Gaze - Used to set the board on fire
Always felt " perplexed & stunned" while analyzing his masterpieces !!

The legendary Polgar sisters !!!
Now and then :)
I have only studied Judit Polgar's games.. the others are good but i never felt inspired by any lady GM's games ....... always felt unsure of the standards

A Chess Float at the Women's World Chp currently underway
Great idea !! Never even thought of it before !



The opening ceremony continues - so spectacular !!

The picture says it all !!
GM Wang Yue (China, 21 years) coming out of the tournament hall after hanging on to a draw in a lost position against legendary 87 year old Viktor Kortchnoi !!
Tournament - Rising Stars v/s Experienced event in amsterdam, 20-30 aug 2008

The last time i saw Wang Yue was in 2003 in Malaysia. He is a very energetic player and his mouth chewing a gum moves faster than his hand during time pressure. He is a product of the chinese dragon sports culture initiative which uses military like discipline to bring up players.



Would love to have such a chess set :) Saw one such set in a store opposite Petronas towers, Malaysia ... it was around 2000 ringitts which converts to around Rs. 25000



The real way to enjoy a game of chess
Be in one !!!

No No - Why So ?

U r a real no-nonsense woman
sitting in ur no-where land
making all ur no no plans for nobody

Don't u have a heart to cheer
know u not what u r missing dear
aren't u too a bit like me?

Food for Thought !!

I had read this article in Mahindra & Mahindra office during my summers....pasted on a wall :)

Saw this circulating in mails too....nice article to share :)

It's been said that God first separated the salt water from the fresh, made dry land, planted a garden, made animals and fish... all before making a human. He made and provided what we'd need before we were born. These are best & more powerful when eaten raw.

God left us a great clue as to what foods help what part of our body!

God's Pharmacy! Amazing!
A sliced Carrot looks like the human eye. The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye... and YES, science now shows carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes.
A Tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart has four chambers and is red. All of the research shows tomatoes are loaded with lycopine and are indeed pure heart and blood food.
Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell and all of the research today shows grapes are also profound heart and blood vitalizing food.
A Walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums. Even the wrinkles or folds on the nut are just like the neo-cortex. We now know walnuts help develop more than three (3) dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function.
Kidney Beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exactly like the human kidneys.
Celery, Bok Choy, Rhubarb and many more look just like bones. These foods specifically target bone strength. Bones are 23% sodium and these foods are 23% sodium. If you don't have enough sodium in your diet, the body pulls it from the bones, thus making them weak. These foods replenish the skeletal needs of the body.
Avocados, Eggplants and Pears target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female - they look just like these organs. Today's research shows that when a woman eats one avocado a week, it balances hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight, and prevents cervical cancers. And how profound is this? It takes exactly nine (9) months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit. There are over 14,000 photolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each one of these foods (mo dern science has only studied and named about 141 of them).
Figs are full of seeds and hang in twos when they grow. Figs increase the mobility of male sperm and increase the numbers of Sperm as well to overcome male sterility.
Sweet Potatoes look like the pancreas and actual ly bal ance the glycemic index of diabetics.
Olives assist the health and function of the ovaries
Oranges, Grapefruits, and other Citrus fruits look just l ike the mammary glands of the female and actually assist the health of the breasts and the movement of lymph in and out of the breasts.
Onions look like the body's cells. Today's research shows onions help clear waste materials from all of the body cells. They even produce tears which wash the epithelial layers of the eyes. A working companion, Garlic, also helps eliminate waste materials and dangerous free radicals from the body.

Summer stint at M&M

Craving for the summers to start

Restlessly i waited so long

In line was a stint at Mahindra

The will to perform so strong

Nothing was sure or structured

Every challenge though a treat

The freedom to have a free hand

Freely flowed thoughts upbeat

Our whole lives we long for moments

When people will herald our thought

The fight is always to put across

The essence of the idea never sought

But Ideas & suggestions were valued

Passionately pursued in earnest

Always on my toes did i feel

Getting ready to tackle the next test

Good things, they say, come to an end

Can they really? Do i ask

Memories so sweet, learning’s to cherish

Craving again for a new task

Which side of your brain is dominant?

Which side of your brain is dominant?
Left or Right?
Find out here with this simple test !!!





If u see it moving
Clockwise – u r right brained
Anti-clockwise – u r left brained

Since we use both sides of the brain, if we concentrate & use the other side of the brain, we will be able to see the figure moving in the opposite direction

I am right brained :) When i tried to think of the solution to some logic puzzle, the figure started moving anti-clockwise....but after that again clock-wise. It is said that more number of people see the figure anti-clockwise.

Left Brain Functions	Right Brain Functions
Uses Logic	Uses feeling
Detail Oriented	"big picture" oriented
Facts Rule	imagination rules
Words & Language	symbols and images
Present & Past	present and future
Math & science	philosophy & religion
Can comprehend	can "get it" (i.e. meaning)
Knowing	believes
acknowledges	appreciates
Order/pattern perception	spatial perception
Knows object name	knows object function
Reality based	fantasy based
Forms strategies	presents possibilities
practical	impetuous
safe	risk taking

Prisoner's dilemma , iterations and analogies

The basic Prisoner's dilemma model:

Two prisoner's are lodged in different cells.They can't communicate with each other. They were partners in some crime. The police interrogates. The situation is like this....

IF both say they aren't guilty, both will get 3 years imprisonment due to non-cooperation.

If one says he is not guilty, but if the other accepts that he is guilty then the second person will get a lighter sentence due to cooperation with the police and the first person who pleaded not guilty would get a longer sentence.

So the thinking process of any prisoner will be that if i say i am not guilty but the other prisoner doesn't support then i will get a heavier sentence. And the other person will definitely not say guilty for fear of the first pleading guilty."Trust" is not trustworthy. So ultimately it boils down to the fact that both will say that they are guilty and both will get a longer term than had they both pleaded that they aren't guilty.


This might be child's play for everyone to understand.....but this can be made more exciting.

Say for instance that there are several iterations where in both the people are allowed to remember each other's responses. Then how will the game proceed. Say for instance, in the above example both Dave and Henry have pleaded guilty according to our explained thought process. It was too early for them to trust each other in the first round itself.

In the second or some later round, say Dave starts thinking. He thinks that we both know that pleading not guilty together is best for us. Is there any chance of cooperation from the other prisoner? I am a logical person and so is he. Both want our terms to be reduced. So if i plead not guilty, will he say not guilty too. Lemme take the chance since it seems we are starting to understand each other.

But all human beings are different. Trusting someone might be easier for someone and not so easy for others. So say DAVE says not guilty. Henry has still not gained so much trust of Dave. He pleads guilty. Dave is the loser in this case

In the next round, both again start thinking. Dave is smarting from the non-cooperation. Henry feels a bit guilty for letting down his partner in crime. He wishes that he had shown more faith. Henry pleads not guilty. Dave has two options. He might plead not guilty and both achieve the best outcome. This is very much possible since people think in many ways. For our case let's say he doesn't trust Henry so much now. He is unsure. He says guilty. So now Henry is the loser.


In the next round Henry thinks that Ok .. Dave didnt support me. Maybe it is my own fault. I had let him down. So he was not sure whether to trust me. Also he knows that now i have had a change of heart. So there is a possibility that he too pleads not guilty. So Henry says "not guilty". Dave thinks so too...that there is a change of heart of Henry and there is a possibility of a best outcome. So he will say "not guilty"

And the best outcome is achieved.

We can see that at some point in time, trust starts building. And in the long run, both achieve the best outcome due to cooperation with each other.


This is what happens in real life too. Consider our formative years. Children are referred to as gifts of GOD. Maybe it is true....but definitely not in the sense of virtues. Truth is that they are the most selfish of all human beings. Just look into ur childhood. Most of us will have so many images which we know shouldn't have been so. In a multiple environment, we see and observe...and learn to trust more people than our near ones. We start cooperating. And we start growing literally and figuratively. In the long run, the selfishness may remain in some part of our heart...but the awareness of need for behaving in a particular way in situations to benefit the society is cemented in our minds. Some sort of balance is reached. And the society functions in harmony.

This is not to say that selfishness is bad. Selfishness has its own virtues. Take a family for example. The mother is said to be the bonding locus of control. She is the one who binds the whole family together and makes it a proper home. She has a natural nurturing nature. She thinks these are my children. And this feeling is so strong that she wants to protect them from all possible harm. Think a bit earlier. She is part of a new family. Her husband is the most important for her in that family. She has left her home of years to come and stay with this person. Everything is strange and new. Her husband is the main comforting factor. Secondly, her old house is no longer her house. This is her house for ever now.

These feelings ..... my husband....my house....my children....all these "my's" contribute to the selfishness. Care is a natural corollary. This selfishness creates the happy home we are talking about. Here selfishness is not bad because we are not trying to gain anything by snatching from others. Life is not a zero sum game.

Adam Smith had said that the best result will come when everyone in the group thinks what is best for himself and acts so. He says that individual efforts contributes to the growth of the whole. Might be so in the short term. But in the long run, best result will come only when all individuals think what is best for themselves and for the group.

Short Story

This is the tale of a 5 year old girl and her dad. One day the girl was waiting at the door for her dad to return from work. He returned very tired and saw the girl at the door. As soon as she saw him, she asked him how much he earned per hour. He was irritated by this. And quite angry. Yet somehow he regained his composure and replied that he earned Rs. 300 per hour.

She asked him whether he could give her 250 rupees. This really irritated him. He had not even set foot in the house and his daughter was pestering him. He shouted at her and told her to go back to her room. After some time, when he had calmed down, he went to see his daughter. She was awake.He gave her the 250 rupees she had asked for earlier.

Then, reaching under her pillow she pulled some crumpled notes. Dad, seeing that the girl already had money, started to get angry again.


The little girl slowly counted her money, then looked up at her father. "Why do you want money if you already had some?" the father grumbled.


"Because I didn't have enough, but now I do," the little girl replied.


"Daddy I have Rs. 300 now. Can I buy an hour of your time? Please come home early tomorrow. I would like to have dinner with you"

Aamchi mumbai in early 1900's

Train coming out of Parsik tunnel in early 1900’s. It is the first rail tunnel of India. Near thane.One entry exit point is at mumbra.I travel thru this everyday !! It is 1.3 km in length and is in the sahyadri range. The hills are known as Parsik hills
__________

Gowalia tank- grant road, Mahatma Gandhi gave the call for Civil disobedience movement here in 1942. Also famous for “Simon Go Back” i.e the August Kranthi
__________

Marine Drive 1930
_________

Bullock Carts in Mumbai !!
__________

Ballard pier in South Mumbai had a railway station !!!
___________

Frontier Mail chugging out of Ballard Pier Railway Station
_________

Churchgate Railway Station, 1930
__________

Churchgate railway station 1910
__________

A Tribute to Bobby Fischer - the Chess Legend

The chess maverick and legend Bobby Fischer died this month (on 18th jan 2008) in Iceland at the age of 64.

The US-born player, who became famous for beating Cold War Soviet rival Boris Spassky in 1972, died of an unspecified illness.

He became a US chess champion at 14 and then the youngest grandmaster a year later. He achieved world fame after playing a world championship match in Iceland in 1972, beating title-holder Spassky.

The so-called chess "match of the century" came to be seen as a proxy for the Cold War, as the Soviets had held the world title since World War II.

Mr Fischer, the individual who had triumphed over the might of the Communist system, became an American hero.

The 1972 match made chess fashionable beyond imagination. Every person ,be it a chess player or a layman, seemed to know who Fischer was and how the match went about...especially Fischer's eccentricities.

He lost the world chess crown in 1975 after refusing to play against his Soviet rival Anatoly Karpov and retired from chess when he was at his peak possibly bcoz he didnt find any player worthy enuf to challenge him.

He was an extremely reclusive personality and lived undetected in Japan for a number of years. US tried to extradite him to US to punish him for illegally playing Boris Spassky in a return match in 1992 in Yogoslavia an alien country for US at that time.

BORIS SPASSKY HIMSELF WROTE A LETTER TO THE US PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH IN 2004 REQUESTNG TO PARDON BOBBY FISCHER.

What can be a more fitting tribute than ur sworn opponent praising and fighting for u? REPRODUCING THE LETTER HERE.

"Appeal to President Bush from Boris Spassky

Mr. President,

In 1972 Bobby Fischer became national hero. He smashed me in the match in Reykjavik. The Soviet chess hegemony collapsed. One man won against a whole army. Soon after that Fischer stopped playing. He repeated the sad story of Paul Morphy. At the age of 21, legendary Paul had beaten all leading European masters and became unofficial champion. He stopped playing and finished his tragic life at the age of 47 in New Orleans in 1884.
In 1992, twenty years after Reykjavik, there was a miracle. Bobby resuscitated and we played a match in Yugoslavia. But at that time there were sanctions against Yugoslavia forbidding American citizens any sort of activity on the territory of Yugoslavia. Bobby violated the instructions of the State Department. He became the subject of a warrant for arrest issued on December 15, 1992 by the US District Court. As for me, as a French citizen since 1978, I did not get any sanctions from the French government.

Spassky vs Fischer during the match of the century in Reykjavik in 1972
Since July 13, 2004, Bobby has been detained at Narita airport on immigration violations. Further events have been described by media.
It is clear that the law is the law. But Fischer’s case is not usual. I am an old friend of Bobby since 1960 when we played in Mar-del-Plata and shared 1-2 places. Bobby is a tragic personality. I realized this at that time. He is an honest and good natured man. Absolutely not social. He is not adaptable to everybody’s standards of life. He has a very high sense of justice and is unwilling to compromise as well as with his own conscience as with surrounding people. He is a person who is doing almost everything against himself.

I would not like to defend or justify Bobby Fischer. He is what he is. I am asking only for one thing. For mercy, charity.

If for some reason it is impossible, I would like to ask you the following: Please correct the mistake of President François Mitterand in 1992. Bobby and myself committed the same crime. Put sanctions against me also. Arrest me. And put me in the same cell with Bobby Fischer. And give us a chess set.

Boris Spassky10-th Chess World Champion08.07.2004 "

He was granted Icelandic citizenship in 2005 as a way to avoid being deported to the US.This was the same country where the historic Fischer- Spassky match 1972 had happened. Bcoz of this match Iceland became hugely popular and this was a great way to repay Bobby Fischer.

His cult book " My 60 Memorable Games" is a source of inspiration to each and every chess enthusiast . Like his book , Bobby Fischer will be etched in my memory for ever.