Uttaranchal: The Horror Story – Part I

“The land of Celestial Beauty Blessed with magnificent glaciers, majestic snow-clad mountains, gigantic and ecstatic peaks, valley of flowers, skiing slopes and dense forests, this Abode of Gods includes many shrines and places of pilgrimage. Char-dhams,the four most sacred and revered Hindu temples: Badrinath,Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri are nestled in the Mighty Mountains.A picturesque state, with a breathtaking panoramic view of Himalayas, Uttaranchal promises its tourists a visit full of fun and unforgettable moments. “

That’s how the Website of the Dept of Tourism of the State of Uttaranchal describes itself. All of the above is true but for the fact that the state needs to go a long way in improving its prospects if attracting tourism in the long run and delivering a quality experience to them.

This Blog is in continuation to the last posting a few days ago when I had mentioned that I was about to proceed on a much needed Power Break.

Well all that I can say is that the first half of the journey was as uneventful as it can be. But it really got interesting once I started moving from Delhi to Nainital. Actually, just to rewind a bit I reached delhi on the Thursday and had a series of meeting including one with a good friend. The last of the back to back meetings was at 2030 Hrs in the office. Option was to either stay back and leave in the morning or leave immediately for Nainital. Thats where one hits the first challange. Transportation related information between Delhi and Uttaranchal is not very detailed and options are frankly limited to 2 trains which leave at Nights and half a Dozen Tourist buses which leave “Delhi” in the evening. What is clearly lacking is any information on the Government recognised tourist bus operators or even the State Transport Services.

Prudence told me that its always safer to travel by day then by nights. Consequently, I checked out of the hotel on Saturday morning and left for the Interstate Bus Terminal. Here, I was told that there were no Buses to either Nainital or Haldawani for the next 2-3 hours and was therefore left to the mercy of Private Bus operators. That’s one of the biggest cardinal mistakes that I committed. The Bus took nearly 8 hours to reach a place called Rudrapur and then prompty had a engine problem. We all ended up as abandoned passengers with little or no recourse to any remedial action.

“LESSON NO 1. :- NEVER AND I REPEAT NEVER TAKE ONE OF THE TOURIST BUSES THAT IS PARKED NEAR ANAND VIHAR INTERSTATE BUS TERMINALS”

These guys are cheats and will in all likelihood cheat you and never deliver you to your destination.

Its at Rudrapur that I finally boarded a UP State Transport Bus for Haldawani. The conductor prompty charged me INR 16 for a journey of nearly 40 KM and safely delivered me to the base camp for the final destination “NAINITAL”. Unfortunately all of my highway adventures had meant that I reached Haldwani after 2100 Hrs, by which time the last State Transport Bus had left….

That again meant that I had to submit to the will of another Privateer from Uttaranchal. This guy charged me nearly INR 600 for taking me on a 40 Km journey from Haldwani to Nainital. This was frankly the last straw on the camels back and has left a permanent bitter taste in the mouth. I took a oath that day that never will I ever revisit this state as a Tourist until the current state of affairs changes for the better. The Hotel experience of my in-laws a couple of days earlier had also not been worth writing home about..

The rest of the journey was more or less unevently, but I guess I had had my fair share of bad experiences.

I have travelled many a places in my life, but never ever have I had such a horrifying experience. I guess the state needs to decide on whether they want to make money in the short run and face a Tourist Boycott in the long run or they want create a sustainable and growing tourist industry. Natural beauty and Nature has always attracted people but one thing that figures high on a average travellers mind is safety on life limb and money.

BTW also had some good experiences on this journey and will write about it in another post. Till then watchout this space.

Cheers

Pushkar

Power break

Hi all,

Its been a hectic month to date and have been feeling sort of drained off due to some work pressure over April and May. Desparately need to take a Power break.

Fortunately, Priti has this offsite in Delhi over the weekend and so will get an opportunity to spend some quality time with my son. I am sure it will be fun for the both of us. Come Thursday next week and work will start with the right ernest once again.

I will continue to blog over email if connectivity is available else my next post will be mid of next week.

Cheers till then,

Pushkar

Power break

Hi all,

Its been a hectic month to date and have been feeling sort of drained off due to some work pressure over April and May. Desparately need to take a Power break.

Fortunately, Priti has this offsite in Delhi over the weekend and so will get an opportunity to spend some quality time with my son. I am sure it will be fun for the both of us. Come Thursday next week and work will start with the right ernest once again.

I will continue to blog over email if connectivity is available else my next post will be mid of next week.

Cheers till then,

Pushkar

Some Random Thoughts: Mandal – II

Some Random Thoughts: Mandal – II

Check out this Blog Folks

Mandal – II

The agitation continues.. As Delhi burns our Nero continues to fiddle. Personally I have been a great admirer of the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. So its some time difficult to imagine this quite and well meaning Gentleman being made to handle the mess that has been created by his peers. But I think he is a survivor and will come out of this challange much stronger. The time has come for Congress (I) to implemented Kamaraj Plan II. These old not so functional leaders who have provided great service to the nation need to be asked to retire and go home (and do some party work).

Only time will tell how things will turnout but I hope the students don’t give up. They are our only beacon hope. Have been monitering the blog these people have put up and whats interesting is the diverse reactions that have been coming from folks. Also surprising is the stony silence that is being maintained by both Youth for Equality and the Government. Is something cooking. Maybe the next few days will reveal that. In the mean time its a wait and watch game.

Mean while the pro-reservation groups have also started getting their act together. If the two groups clash things can turn bloody. If it continues as a prolonged conflict who knows what dimension it will take.

I am hoping for a early resolution, but at the bottom of my heart one knows this is going to be a big long march. Its better that one conserves energy and uses it judiciously.

One also hope that the Old Man Manmohan does all that is needful to reverse reservations. We still trust him but really don’t know how long the same will last, hope he does not loose the faith of the youth. It may not matter to him, but to me it will mean loosing faith in a Hero. That will be painful for a Young people who are full of hope aspirations and a dream of a truly Modern India.

Cheers for now … and lets hope that things move the way we want them.

YOUTH FOR EQUALITY

Hello everyone,

I want you guys to visit this webblog its known as YOUTH FOR EQUALITY. This blog is important to me since it represents an valiant attempt by the Indian Youth to preserve a society where access to growth and personal growth is based on an individuals Merit.

It also calls the Bluff on the Indian Goverment’s claim to India being a country where people get an equal opportunity to grow and improve their lot. Folks this movement is not on the lines of the KKK. If this fails then the next step will mean that Private Sector and the Multinational Companies in India will not be able to employ people of their choice. And instead will have to choose their employees based on a policy of job quotas based affirmative action.

Cheers for now

Pushkar

Just another snap that was taken some where in europe. If I am not wrong in Paris.

 

Just another snap that was taken some where in europe. If I am not wrong in Paris.

 

Holiday

Spend the day updating my other blog (http://pushkarbhat.blogspot.com). In fact wote a cool article on one of the books I have read recently. Sort of a critique of the same.

Rest of the day was spent in housekeeping activities. Plan to take my wife and kid out today in the evening.. Let hope that the little one gets up in time.

Have been coming across a lot of mails on Anti-reservation protests in the last two weeks. Having experienced the Mandal-I agitation its surprising how a lot of action and organising has sponteneously moved online over the last couple of years. I guess Indian democracy runs on the basis on which side can get maximum number of people on the street. The net has however changed that. Petitiononline a petition website has collected independently verifiable petitions from over 1,000,000 people online in the lastr couple of days and all this with out brigning people to the streets. Guess Arjun Singhji will have to spend a huge amount of moneis to get that kind of mob on the streets of Delhi. IF he manages it then god save India because they will be able to bring the country to a standstill in many ways..

Had ready the world is flat some months ago. Guess the level playing field which had been tilted away and against the GREAT INDIAN MIDDLE CLASS by the powers to be has been levelled again..

Have fun and take care till you hear from me the next time.

Kargil By Gen. V P Malik

I have lately been reading a interesting book “Kargil” written by Gen V. P Malik. This book primarily focuses on the series of events that lead to the Kargil War between India and Pakistan and beyond.

The book is a well written piece of litterature, which for the first time provides a insiders view to the Indian side of the war. It also allows us a small peak view to the Military Doctrian with in Indian Armed forces.

Two very significant things that emerge from the book are the complete isolation of the military from the process of formulation and execution of the Strategic Foreign Policy and the difference of opinion amongts the military leadership on the purpose and nature of deployment/use of each of the armed forces.

To elaborate the points meentioned above:

1. One of the sour points that Gen Malik keeps mentioning is the lack of information on the “Track 2” diplomacy gathering pace between India and Pakistan in the buildup to the “Kargil War”. The point clearly beings out the extent to which, the Indian Defense Forces are kept out of the Strategic Policy making processes.
2. It also brought out the aparent inability on part of India to leaverage a combination of Economic, Political, and Defense posturing to attain its Foreign Policy objectives.
   In the years to come if India was to become a regional power then the capablity to leaverage its Economic, Political and Military capablities will become paramount. Only a coordinated and combine use of these three tools will allow us to achieve successfully the objecitves of our foreign poilcy.
3. The second point that emerges from the book is the difference in opinion between Army and the Air Force on the use of the Indian Air Force during the course of the “Kargil War”. This again brings us back to the different views that are held by the Doctrine commands of the Indian Army and the Indian Air Force. While the Indian Air Force (IAF) views its futuristic role as a means of strategic force projection by India. The Army Doctrine however continues to view the IAF as a tactical force subservient to the Army and essentially playing the role of Air Based Artillery. This difference in the doctrine becomes clearly evident when the original request for Air Support forwarded by the VCoAS was turned down by the Air Chief ACM Tipnis. The final and formal request for the same had to be finally personally conveyed by the CoAS and ratified by the NSC before the AirForce deployed it Combat Elements.

I guess the rest of the book is more about the cronology of events as they occured and allows for rapid reading.

The book is otherwise good for a single read. I think it would have been interesting if Gen Malik would have also used the book to share his thoughts on the use of Defense Forces as a means of Foreign Policy. But I guess that would and may be the topic of another book authored by him.

Author : Pushkar Bhat

Date : 20th May 2006