There are thousands of articles on the world wide web talking about getting maximum mileage out of your car. Just like the millions of car owners that wanted to get the most mileage out of their cars, I was reading through dozens of ‘how to’ articles on ‘hypermiling’. Hypermiling is a term coined by Wayne Gerdes, and hypermilers are those drivers striving to exceed the EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) fuel economy rating of their vehicles.

I’m not going to talk about the cars and their mileage efficiencies in the US and Europe, but in a country like India where one cannot exceed 35-60 kmph inside congested city roads. Also, enormous traffic jams that happen due to the callous..

No sooner I entered this place than I felt eternal bliss - relieving me from the heat, dust and noise pollution of Chennai. The Azhiyar reservoir is serenely calm, beautiful, well-maintained and very clean. I was amazed to see people suddenly becoming conscious about ‘not to litter’ around the dam, even in the absence of a ‘No Littering’ sign board. Wow! this place really has the capability to transform normal care-free humans in to civic-conscious citizens. In the picture, you can see a big house at the far end of the reservoir. Wish I had a house like that..far from the madding crowd. Just me and nature, and..

Well, this can be considered more of a rant (or a rant-laundry-list) than a creative post..but I believe many fellowmen concerned about the future of this country would second my thoughts..

1. Government servants - Respect your office and portfolio, allow your subordinates to do their duty and keep a check on them. Money isn’t everything, think about your future generations.
2. Revise the pay package for the people in secret services and the police.
3. Stricter laws against corruption - corruption may not be eradicated, nevertheless, can be made to stay at the top-most levels. Corruption starting from the bottom-most levels up to the top is not a..

A few days ago, the National Snow and Ice Data Center, Colorado, released pictures and data on the receding ice-line of the Arctic sea ice. According to the report, the extent of the sea ice reduced to 4.52 million square kilometers, which, even in layman terms, looks alarming. Environmentalists and industrialists around the world, who are already concerned about the many ill-effects of global warming, are innovating and inventing many new technologies and ideas that may help reduce the emission of green house gases into the atmosphere. I just came across an interesting article..

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguisable from magic” - Arthur C. Clarke. True, isn’t it? I’ve always marvelled at technologies such as the television (TV), computers, cellular phones, portable music gadgets, CD, DVD, Blue-ray, and so on, the list is endless. But never have I wondered about what happens to them, or where they go, when they become kaputt and obsolete. I came across a scientific journal on e-waste where it was mentioned that more than 45 million tonnes of electronic gadgets are discarded worldwide, well, eventually piling…

In India, still there are a few million people who look to TVs as general entertainment gadgets that can make you laugh or cry - by watching those good for nothing, anti-social mega-serials. These mega-serials corrupt your mind and make you think like a devil (or think evil?, coz there are good devils and bad devils too). There are exceptions though, but can they become rules!? NO. I would appreciate a lot more programs on sex and sex education, and people spending quite some time on these - may help control AIDS-spread/population explosion to a certain degree - ‘m not kidding!

From my vast experience of my encounters with dogs and traffic policemen, I never look at their eyes, and if I did, I’ve invited trouble already. One vague stare at a rabies stricken dog, it starts barking and comes running at you. It actually pains me to draw an analogy here, but…

The best way to start car pooling is among your colleagues. You’ll obviously know who’s coming from the same area as yours, and if you don’t try communicating using the internal messaging medium like corporate instant messenger or mailing groups. This is basically the trust factor, and it works most of the time; a colleague would be more comfortable traveling with you (or vice versa) than traveling with a stranger interested in car pooling. This principle applies very much to women who will not take the risk of commuting with a stranger who had advertised for car pooling.

I used to discuss with my dad and also with my friends that Tata would really deserve such praise from the international community if he had striven hard to bring us a cheap car that runs on alternate fuel, which sadly is not the fact. Well, I would say, Nano received just too much praise and exposure that it deserves.

When I was in Bengaluru, on my way to the International Technology Park (ITPL), I kept cursing the government for not laying proper roads and improving the infrastructure. It was all dust, smoke and pollution around the aesthetically designed ITPL buildings. Bad roads are not restricted to areas in and around ITPL, but also around most of the other IT parks.