How to have an easy train journey everyday

Make your body accustomed to 3 - 4 deg C during winters

I feel very uncomfortable when the heating is switched "ON" in the train carriage. This winter when we had snow in December and early January, I made my body and my skin accustomed to the warm 3 deg C or 4 deg C temperatures inside the train carriage. Suddenly when I find the heating is switched "ON" in the carriage, I feel like I am in a sauna. I don't want to get all sweaty and sticky when I reach office. I would rather die of frost bite in the train than have the heating switch "ON".

Build relationship with the train drivers

I get very bugged when the train reaches Liverpool Street on time. You see it is a nice 1 hrs 10 minute journey every day from Cambridge to London Liverpool Street. But the driver understands that it is not enough for me to have a nap. And so we finish the journey every day in 1 hr 30 minutes or so. The driver always has reasons to tell to the other passengers

• this train will be delayed as we have dew drops on the track, the tracks are slippery
• the other driver didn't unlock the coupling
• the train doors are locked, please wait inside
• signalling problems
• overrunning weekend engineering works throughout the week
• (because one of my passengers wants to have a long nap)

The train drivers help me take a longer nap on the train journey. But when the train does reach on time, which is once every 2 weeks, my boss asks me "why so early?".

Lose some weight if you want to get in the underground

I generally don’t need to take the underground train in London but if I am working out of Canary Wharf office (which I did a lot last year) I make sure I plan it months in advance. The underground is very crowded every morning (between 8 AM to 9:30 AM) and when I do have to take an underground, I start losing weight months before the journey. This helps me squeeze in the 3-4 inches of space available on the overcrowded carriage on the Northern Line. And yes “mind the gap”.

I can also lose weight by

• Walking up 300 stars - Escalators works on the Bank station will go on till July 2012 and start again in September 2012.
• Walking more on the Bank station - Lifts will not work during peak hours on the Bank station, so please take the longest route, to exit the station.
• Walking a bit more - Take the longest route to reach the Northern line when I reach the King’s Cross station from Cambridge.

Be ready to pay just an extra 6 % every year

Now that I have made my body accustomed to near freezing point temperate in the carriage and to the long train journeys, how about showing some gratitude for the extra comfort? So from 1st of January 2011, I decided to pay 6% more than what I paid the whole of last year. Well they haven’t left me with any choice; I love the journey so much that I want to show my appreciation by paying a little extra every day.

And stop complaining about the weather!

When do I get scared?

When my wide says "hmmm okay do whatever you feel is right!"

I am fine if she says "no you will not" or she says "I think it would be good if you don't do that", but sentences like "hmmm okay do whatever you feel is right" make me very tensed.
Last week I wanted to play a game of hockey and also umpire a match, I knew that would take around 7 to 8 hours of my day, I asked my wife "if she has some other plans in the afternoon? If she didn't have any plans then I wanted to umpire because there weren't many who were ready to go away to St Ives and umpire, so I would have to go."
Her answer was "do whatever you think is right!" I went mental & still went.

Rest you all might understand what was the music when I reached home at 5 PM.

Here is a list of things "what she actually means" when she says:

1. Hmmm do you really want to do that? It actually means "no don't do that"
2. Hmmm if you think so what can I say? It actually means "Do as I say, don't use your brain"
3. Ok so you think this is correct? It actually means "you are wrong"
4. Do whatever you find is right. It actually means "you must not do that, because i don't like it"
5. Hmmm hmmmm hmmm that is fine. It actually means "that is not fine" (the three hmmmms mean NO NO NO)
6. Just think about what you have done. It actually means "you have pissed me off and you are a dead meat now"
7. I am not hungry. It actually means "she's just recalled what you had done 6 months back and although you have apologised for that, there is still scope for few more apologies"
8. She gives you single syllable answers. It actually means "she's just recalled what you had done 6 months back and although you have apologised for that, there is still scope for few more apologies.

CDS

Can someone explain

1. How is Credit Default Swap different than gambling?
2. How is Credit Default Swap different than insurance?

Kashmir's freedom fighter's are India's terrorists?

शाहीदों की मज़ारों पर लगेंगे हर बरस मेले,

वतन पे मिटने वालों का बाकी निशान होगा.

Carnivals will be held on our graves every year,

That's all that will be left of us, when we die for our land.

Kashmir's problem cannot be solved with guns and talks. The Indians, Pakistanis and the whole world knows about it.

India says, "The problem is created by terrorists who have come over the border". But when we see photos of Srinagar, Anantnag, Baramulla & Kupwara on the internet; why do we always see boys between the age of 15 and 25, fighting on the streets with stones in their hands against the Indian Army with guns in their hands? I can hardly believe that it is just a cross border issue. We need to understand "what does a Kashmiri want?"

A Kashmiri doesn't want freedom from India or Pakistan, all he wants is the security to live peacefully in his land and the right to earn his bread. He doesn't want to live in the fear of a terrorist or an army. Kasmhir doesnt want to be with India or Pakistan, Kashmir wants land for all Kashmiris where everyone can live with pride. Where is the pride today?

The Indian army has special rights in Kashmir and can call in anyone for questioning, then interrogate without any report and the special rights to the army allows it to get inside anyone's house without any warrant. How different is the Indian army in Kashmir when compared to the American Army in Iraq and Afghanistan?

How can we have different law for one state in India and a different law for the other state? If Kashmir is part of India shouldn't we have a single law everywhere? Why can't other state origin people buy land in Kashmir? Now when someone protests either they are taken in to custody or are killed or are labeled "terrorists". Terrorists or Freedom Fighters?

I am not against the Indian army, they are just doing their duty. I am against the Indian Government's policies of having different law for Kashmiris and different law for rest of India. I am totally against the law which helps / protects / terrorizes / threatens one specific set of people. The government creates a divide and when a Kashmiri youth, mother or father protests about it, they are labeled Terrorists or Vandals or Anti India Violent Actors.

In the last 2 weeks 75 people have died in the Kashmir valley and if India wants to blame Pakistan for it then shame on India, Indian Government, Kashmir Government and the Indian Army. And calling the kids as terrorists because they were throwing stones at you is disgrace!!!

May be only a revolution in Kashmir can change the way we look at the Kashmiris.

Book Review - Between the Assassinations

This is Arvind Adiga's 2nd book and it is as dark, sorrowful, true & full of imagination as his first book. It is a collection of short stories based in a small town in South West of India; starting in 1984 & with the the last story ending in 1990. Hence the name of the book "Between the Assassinations of Indira Gandhi & Rajiv Gandhi".

The stories have nothing at which someone can smile or laugh at but yes very imaginative. (I like reading happy books). If you come from a very small town in India (which is in one of the "beemaru" (sick) states of India) then you can relate to the plights of the people shown in the book. Few of the things shown with great imaginative power of Adiga are

• How the people of this town struggle to buy a piece of bread everyday but still want to live with pride
• How people from villages come here, sleep on streets, work as bus conductors and pray to become big one day
• How a teacher wishes his student can win a medal from the president of India which he missed
• How a political party worker remains loyal to his party's work for many years and falls in love when he is in his middle age

Few things which Adiga missed and as an Indian reader I would have liked to see in the book are

• The impact of Indira Gandhi's death to the small town
• Impact of the congress victory in 1984 elections
• Impact of The Bofors scandal
• Impact of the rise of terrorism in Punjab & Kashmir
• Impact of the civil war between LTTE and Sri Lankan government. Failure of IPKF.
• Impact of Janta Party's victory in 1989 elections

Yes Adiga does mention few of these in the book, but I was thinking if this book is between 1984 & 1991, then a terrorist would come and hide in this town and would become a driver or gardener of a landlord. Or the political leader of this town would get caught in the Bofors Scandal and that would bring immense pressure on his family.

I mean it lacked that punch but then that is me. You can buy it from Amazon where 2nd hand copies are being sold for as less as £1. (And that is also me!)

10 rules England must follow to win the 2018 world cup !!!

1. Win the bid

We are bidding for the 2018 world cup & after all the controversies, FA should go ahead and bid for the world cup. Our best chance to win the world cup is when we play at home, that’s what the statistics say. We have the richest league on the planet and some of the players too, we should use all these resources to become the host country. Good Luck!

2. Enjoy your football

English footballers need to play football without any pressure. Media or personal pressure should be zero when they walk on the field. They should go out there and enjoy the sport. Forget about winning or losing; just play because you love the game.

And Wayne Bridge, get over it, Terry was having an affair with your ex girl friend not your girlfriend. It all comes down to the lady, is it not? The WAGs will spoil the party even if they are not invited! That’s how powerful the WAGs are…

3. Learn to dive at the slightest touch

If Andrés Iniesta had not dived, Heitinga would not have been sent off, Netherlands would have been 11 men and Iniesta might not have scored the goal. But he dived at the slight touch on the shoulder….

Sometimes it is SMART and not CHEAP when you dive and get a penalty and win matches. The world will not remember what you did but your fans will remember that you got the penalty. Drogba, Ronaldo & Rivaldo can be our coaches.

4. FA must abolish the crappy league tournaments

Carling Cup? Who cares about Carling Cup these days? FA must understand that there is no need of increasing the number of games these players play. Football Clubs should also try and save the player’s legs. Asking players like Lampard, Rooney, Gerrard to play around 60 games in a year is just too much. And if a player like Rooney is carrying an injury you give him injections and send him on the field. That’s just ridiculous. Don’t kill the players please.

5. Do not touch the ball when you are not 100% fit

The players & managers should decide if that player is needed for just 1 match or for the rest of the season? If a player is injured he should take rest & nurture his injury, so that he can come back. Rooney broke his foot and was back playing for United against Byren Munich in a week. Too much pressure on the body will make it crack. Don't kill players, make them play when they can.

6. Increase the number of English players playing in English clubs

There are too many foreign players playing in the top English clubs. Arsenal, United, Chelsea & Liverpool have around 80% of the players from foreign countries. (AC Milan didn’t have a single Italian in the 11 when they won the This doesn’t help the English players. The English players will learn from the best players from the world when they play against them and not sit on the benches when the foreign players fight out for the English Premier League. There should be a rule to have a maximum of 4 foreign players on the pitch from a club.

The Spanish team had 7 players from Barcelona & 4 from Real Madrid in the starting line up of the finals. Now we have players from teams as low as 17th in the league (Green & Upson from West Ham United) & our best goalie is from the team placed 20th in the league.

Cant we have more players from the top 3-4 teams? We cannot because the top 3-4 teams have foreign players. :-(

7. FA must ask the players to relax from 15th December to 15th January.

No football. Stay with your family. Well its Christmas & new years’ time; so stay home with your kids. Relax, take time off from football. Go on a vacation to some hot place for a week and then come back early January and start training again. This will recharge the batteries and small injuries will get some rest. But with players playing 38 matches in Premiership, FA cup & Carling Cup, where is the bloody rest?

8. The top two leagues Premiership & Championship to be broken down into three leagues

The top two leagues Premiership & Championship have around 44 teams in total. Make it 3 leagues with 15 teams each. The new leagues - 1, 2, 3 will become more competitive teams. The standard of game between the best & the worst teams will not be miles apart.

It also means that the players will have to play 28 matches in the league and that gives them more time to rest between games, a longer summer break & a 1 month winter break. I really think that is the need of the hour.

9. Ask Capello to remain as the coach

Yes please. He has done wonders with the players, team discipline, WAGS, media personnel & helped England qualify easily for the 2010 world cup. I would also say this easy qualification added to the pressure on the players. May be he wont be able to do wonders in 2018, but if he stays for another 2 years, he might bring good culture in the dressing room which will help character building of the English players. So FA stick around with the Italian.

10. Pray on the night before the match

Well it might not help the performance of the players on the field but you never know. I guess there was some divine intervention when someone flashed the camera light in the referee's & linesman's eyes and Lampard's goal was disallowed. May be the German's did pray.

BP, Oil, America & Other blah issues

BP's been spilling out oil since past few weeks and we have a village festival all across the shores of Mexican Gulf. According to data on Wikipedia there have been bigger oil related accidents in history.

Why is it that this oil spill has been made as if we have the third world war has broken out and we have all the multinational companies on one side and the rest of the world on the other side?

What I think this disaster is different than one of the other recent disasters (say in last 20 — 30 years) is that those disasters were not close to the American Borders; America wasn't directly profiting directly through it?

Also I feel that the media today hypes up everything. News is made and sold these days. Create a controversy, run behind it for days, then when the person retaliates you say "how dare he!" that's where you bring in all the cameras and journalists. Who killed Lady Diana? Accident?

I also think that the Environmental groups have too many rights and they act as if the environment is run by them. GreenPeace might say this tomorrow, “This is how much the earth's temperature must be”, “This is the amount of CO2”, “There must be these many number of trees” and “the oceans must have these many gallons of water and this many kilos of fish”. The Green people decide everything. Not the sun or moon. It was the coldest winter in Britain, blame China, North Korea, Iran & yes now add BP to that list.

Why is OPEC telling the world how much oil must be pumped out of earth every day? I say pump out as much oil as you can, when the oil gets over we will have new source of energy to run our cars and bikes. They said that “the world’s electricity will get over if coal gets over”, we found Hydro & Nuclear power to generate electricity. Why ration oil? That has made the world thirsty for more oil. Every news and war is now fought over, “I want more oil”. The sooner we get over with all the oil in the world the better!

Coming back to the BP & media issue. Today, we have so much information in our hands that it is very easy to make you feel bad; so feel bad o humans.

Accidents happen. Don't beat your chest about it. Don't blame the British Government & American Government for it. First things first the American Government should

1. Ask BP to stop the oil
2. Save the shores.
3. US Government should support BP in all ways to stop the oil flow
4. Once the oil flow has been stopped
a. Tell them to compensate the fishermen
b. Tell them to follow rules. If needed make new ones for companies which have broken the rules before.
What about the people who died? Will the insurance company pay them? Or does BP have obligation towards them? What about people who were injured? What about people who were just shocked? They might have nightmares every day for next 10 years. They might never want to work on an oil rig, what about their jobs? Do you still tell them, "no work, no pay"?

These are more difficult questions to be answered than just shout slogans against BP.

BP might just say "with every project there is an insurance company involved don't blame me. I want to pump oil, for any compensation go talk to the insurance people", but instead it is now trying to stop oil flow and avert a disaster. I think this kind of accident never happened before and BP is learning a lot of things by going through this.

Does standing with banners outside every BP petrol station help the cause of the worker on the oil rig? That won't help the moral of the poor guy who works 12 hour shifts at the petrol station.

Just fed up with how countries and organisations fight with each other. The world has now become like a school playground and every kid loves fighting with the other.