What now???

Its one week from my the time i posted my last post and its time for the next one and i swear i am dried out of topics. I was pre-occupied with many things last week that there was no idea that sparked out. இப்போ தமிழிலும் ப்ளோக் செய்யலாம் :). ஆனால் இப்படி செய்தால் தமிழ் மறந்து விடுவோமோ என்று தோன்றுகிறது.

சீக்கிரம் மீண்டும் சந்திப்போம் .

Proposal...

The following is a proposal writing i had to write in an hour for a competition at my office. There was actually a day, but i was able to give only one hour to it.

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The terrain was very rough. Each step spelt danger. One wrong move and you are deep down into the valley. Ramesh moved very cautiously. The dawn had not broke still now. The temperature did not wish to rise above the zero level. The gun firings which had started the day before had not stopped. He heard few hours before that, the enemies had been marching continuously and they more and more troops had been deployed on heir side. Trying to throw away the memory of all his family members, the chillness that was boring down into his bones, the death that awaited on the deep valleys on one side and the enemy bullets on the other side, he bravely marched ahead, to chuck the enemies out of his country.

The train entered the station smoothly. It was the Delhi Metro, an engineering marvel even in the 21st century, executed in time and within the allocated budget in spite of the red tapism in the government. An alternate, affordable, pollution free, fast transport was developed with the efforts of a lot of people from engineers to workers under the leadership of Sreedharan. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has bought in many “Best Practices”, even to the high performing private sectors in India.

In a village in Kerala, as the kid reached the school, he was surprised to see a small TV there. One can easily count the number of times he would have seen a TV, and he never expected to see one in the class. As the class began, a lady whom the boy never saw in his village appeared and started teaching him. It was a very new and exciting to him. It will still take him few years to know, how the efforts of scientists at ISRO and other organization has started making impact on the education in India.

The old man tried hard looking at the photo. It was very easy to spot him among the big chunk of people, who had gathered to visit the “Exhibition on Wheels” organized by the Indian Railways to celebrate 150 yeas of “Revolution of 1857”. The expression in his face told that, he still remembered those times. He was wearing a White Khadi shirt with white Khadi Dhoti. As he walked along the compartments of the train, it showed that his will power and love for the country has not aged with him.

The man felt the stone for one more time. He had always loved them. It all started from a visit to the Brihadisvara temple at Gangai konda Cholapuram in TamilNadu. He would have never thought that he would be spending most of his life in this temple with the beautifully carved stone structures. As an officer in the Archeological Survey of India, he was posted at the same temple, where his love for old temples began. He was responsible for maintaining the temple, the temples which are the living proofs showing the ingenuity of Indians.

“I love you ‘my country’. I love you ‘the people who love my country’”

Metro..

December 2006

The building stood 100m away. Never did I think it concealed something amazing. It was a very small building and can be better called as a structure. I had just come out of the New Delhi railway station and as I approached the building, I could see the fluorescent signboard; a circular one with two horizontal chords and a forward slash connecting them. It was the sign board of the now famous Delhi metro. Though the metros all over the world have signs of similar sort, I do not know if there is one which is exactly similar to this. The entrance was quite normal, typically Indian with pan spit over the walls, but as I descended down the stairs, I was magically transported to another world, without a 9 3/4 platform or the Hogwarts express; ahead of me lay a neat platform; bright advertisements on both side; Kajol was smiling at me with her tata indicom phone. With bright displays guiding me at all places, I think I never stopped at any place looking for directions; I walked as if I was a regular commuter there.
I passed the uniformed persons at the ticket counter and the security persons to reach the platform (Check out the station photo that I took @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/sharishkrishnan/331001132) . The train entered smoothly and I was transported to my destination within a quick time frame, in a time that’s not possible in the fumy roads of Delhi.


January 2008
As I was browsing through the list of Padma Vibushan awardees, one name struck different. Most of them were famous personalities in different fields. But this name sounded familiar, but I was not able to relate it with anybody. I read the name once again E. Sreedharan. Then from some corner of my mind, I recollected him as the Managing director of Delhi Metro. A quick search in wikipedia gave away his resume (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._Sreedharan). It reveals the strong personality and integrity of this person who has executed some biggest railway projects within the stipulated time and budget, given the red tapism in the Indian government.
The Delhi Metro is one among them. It had made lakhs of people happy just like how I was that day, and it still continues to do so.
Hats off to that gentleman. India needs more Sreedharans in the future.