Wednesday, November 25, 2009

THE RING ROADS OF BANGALORE

The ring roads of bangalore are something special. It has made transport much easier through the city and improved routing. The ring roads beyond doubt show the world that bangalore is a progressive city. The progress is so much that that these roads also seem to be insufficient. the construction of metro started in bangalore around 2007 which is more of an overhead system and not an underground system seen in some countries. I happenned to use the NICE road recently and the concept itself is impressive and so are the roads.

I remember using the ring road for the first time in the year 1997 between hebbal and ramamurthynagar. There were no vehicles on the road and it was a smooth passage. By the year 2007 vehicular traffic on these roads began to increase manyfold and the earlier importance enjoyed by the central parts of the city began to diminish. I think peripheral ring road is also under way which will circumscribe the present ring roads.


All areas around the ring road has seen rapid development. So much so that there are traffic jams at every junction. This is the scenario in 2009. Many unerpasses are coming up on the ring road to ease congestions.

Though the metro might solve to some extent the transport problems of Bangalore , I strongly beleive Bangalore as a city needs elevated roads in dozens linking various key points to others. I think the town planners have to think in this direction. Though the progress of work is slow on road development programmes but still many things are underway.

Monday, November 23, 2009

GRAPHITE INDIA

Near my house at the Doddanakundi industrial area in Mahadevapura is the company called Graphite India that makes graphite electrodes for the steel industry. I think this company was set up in the year 1973 by the Bangur group with the help of Great lakes carbon corporation of the US. Mr.Maniar was a key person in the setting up of the plant it is said. Mr G K Nambiar was head of marketing for many years.

Graphite is a allotropic form of carbon found in natural form; however it can be manufactured as synthetically using manufacturing procedures.The industry by itself is very dusty with carbon. Pitch and coke are used as raw materials.

I used to know A K Jain who was the general manager of the plant in 1992. He used to be very pious man and used to walk around the plant every day praying to the various deities. I came to know later that he died of brain tumour. He had met with an accident some where in 1992 when his white ambassador car collided with a truck when he was on the wheel near Lowry  School.

This company is a major consumer of electric power with a 66kv line entering the factory premises. Mr. Ashwathnarayana Reddy a local politician was union leader for some time. John P Sachs the President of great lakes carbon corporation visited the plant some time during the late 1980's.

The entire area looks quite different now especially after the itpl came up in its vicinity. This company pollutes the environment and the owners and well-wishers must find some method to control and reduce the pollution.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

CABLE BRIDGE NEAR VIJANAPURA

Some wher I mentioned about the bridge built of mortat and limestone that over looks the k r puram railway station built by the british some where in the mid 1800's or slightly later. This was a narrow bridge and could possibly take only traffic in one direction at one time. The bridge by itself was very very strong. Gradually the scenario became such that the bridge could not take the heavy load of vehicular traffic and became a bottle neck. Discussions were held at many levels of how to remedy the situation and have a new bridge in place.

What resulted is probably a master peice in its own right and bangalore joins the list of various developed communities in the world who have cable stayed bridge. If my memory serves me right the bridge construction commenced in 1998 and was completed in 2003. In the year 2003 the then prime minister atal bihari vajpayee inaugurated the bridge.

I remember watching the step by step progression in the construction of the bridge whenever I passed that way. The construction company was a consortium of the indian railways and a private party. The first step in the construction was the erection of two mega pillars which took quite some time to complete. The important feature of this bridge is that part of the bridge is cable stayed while the other part is a normal bridge. This bridge runs roughly for about two kilo meters. The lowry memorial school is clearly visible from the bridge.

Congratulations planners, executioners, financiers and all the workers of the bridge for having presented to bangalore such a master peice.

This place is also called vijinapura these days.

Monday, November 2, 2009

MY MOTHER GETS GBM

27TH of October 2009 will be a day that I can never forget. At 10:45 AM my illustrious mother
P O Vasanthi died of brain tumour. What a zest she had for life but everything came to an end from a disease that would never let go. It was like the grasp of a python and we saw her being sucked in helplessly.(It is 10:45 AM)

Two years prior to this date she was diagonised with Anaplastic Astrocytoma an aggressive brain tumour which later got converted into GBM meaning Glio Blastoma Multiforme. She was operated upon and survived barely for an year when the disease appeared again, this time to take her.

On 28th October her body was brought to our house from the morgue by my father , me, sunil and few other relatives. Her front teeth (incisors) were protruding outside a bit. Don the american legal head of caterpillar, Prema Bhaktavatsalam, the father -in-law of my sister Keshavan Nambiar and few other members of the Kerala Samajam were present. My brother and myself performed all the rites at home and we took the body to the crematorium which is off mysore road and I performed many rites as a faithful son of my mother and then she was sent into the furnace. I cannot forget the gesture of my younger brother Sunil who insisted that he should touch her feet before she was sent into the furnace. thus ended the life of our mother who fought a valiant battle through life.

I must thank the american company CATERPILLAR for bearing a sizeable amount of my mothers' treatment through medical insurance.

My grand mother was some sort of a divorcee. In her first marriage to a poduval she had a daughter rohini. Fom her second marriage to edakalon karunakaran nambiar she had three children namely padmanabhan nambiar, yeshodha and my mother. The relation between my grand mother and grand father seemed to have strained possibly due to negative influence of surroundings thereby making my grand mother the sole guardian of all the four children. This was a set back and was tough. The first daughter rohini died of mental illness somewhere in 1973. My father and mother were married in 1964 and since my father had a job in bangalore they re-located to bangalore. My mother had a good life in Bangalore largely enjoying many comforts. During the last days of her life she was housed in the ICU of the hospital for more than a month.

It is difficult to believe that my mother is no more. She could not get good formal education but was very important force behind the education of we three children. We expected a miracle would save her life but that miracle never happenned. We conducted all the ceremonies and on the 6th of december 2009; my father, myself , keshavan nambiar and my sister P O Supriya travelled all the way to srirangapattana and immersed her ashes at the sangam there. My mother is eternal in the waters of the kaveri river. My brother Sunil was not in station and hence could not accompany us.

Surviving GBM is a difficult and impossible task it seems. However people with such diseases should not loose hope. Please contact me and I could be of some help and advice.