Ram Bhamidi's Blog

I could have died!

3rd December 1984. Bhopal. 7 am.

It was a chilly Monday morning. The school bus, which was actually an improvised Shaktiman truck, was parked in its usual place in Sultania Infantry Lines.  The kids, including me, had boarded the bus and it was ready to go.   The driver counted the number of school kids who had boarded, quickly checked his list and closed the door.  It was just another day with the school bus heading towards Kendriya Vidyalaya near Flour Mills.

…except it wasn’t just another day. This was different.  There was nobody on the streets, not even one person.  It was cold but it was unusual not to see anybody at all.  After a while, I saw a cow sleeping on the pavement.  And then another one.  But not a single human soul.  The bus kept going and reached our school.  We all got down from the bus only to be told that the school was closed.  We didn’t know why but there was a sense of childish euphoria about it.  Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India had been assassinated only a  few weeks ago and the school was closed for a couple of weeks before it was reopened.  Nobody complained about another day off though.  It was always welcome.

We were all huddled back into the bus and were brought back home and I saw a bunch of parents discussing something seriously. I was told that there was a gas leak in the night. It didn’t make much sense immediately but within a few hours, TV and radio stations were abuzz with talk about the Bhopal Gas Tragedy.  The Union Carbide factory leaked Methyl Isocyanate gas overnight which led to over 15,000 deaths and hundreds of thousands of people were affected ( see this ).  It was the biggest industrial catastrophe mankind had ever seen.

Thousands died.  Several others were suffocating, vomiting, had burning eyes or even went blind.  Trains coming into Bhopal station were bringing dead bodies as the passengers had died.  It was hell.

Fast forward 26 years.  June 7, 2010.

Seven ex-employees including the former chairman of Union Carbide India were convicted in Bhopal of causing death by negligence and sentenced to two years imprisonment each.  They were all released on bail within a few hours.  Reacting to the judgment, the U.S.-based company said neither it nor its officials were subject to the jurisdiction of the Indian court as they were not involved in the operation of the plant, which was owned and operated by the Union Carbide India Limited.  Warren Anderson, chairman of the U.S.-based Union Carbide group, who was named an ‘accused’ in the tragedy, was absconding throughout the trial period. Interestingly, the court did not mention his name on Monday.

I almost cried as it brought back memories from 26 years ago.  People are still suffering in the streets of Bhopal from the aftermath of the disaster. What kind of justice is this?  Would the judgment have been the same if this had happened in USA?  Why is the cost of a life in India considered so cheap?

My thoughts are with all those who lost a loved one.

I realized that the cows on the pavement were actually not sleeping.  They had died.  I lived only a mile away from the Union Carbide factory.  I could have died!

View all 4 comments

RK

Definitely disappointing & undeniably shameful proceedings by our powerless judiciary system. Ram, the way you have expressed your thoughts is ...

8 June 10 at 15:10

Ram Bhamidi

Unni and Anirudh, I agree with you. The Indian government is as much to blame as anybody else. ...

8 June 10 at 22:51

Raajneeti – Victory at any cost

“Raajneeti mein murde kabhi gaade nahi jaate. Unhe zindaa rakha jaata hai …. taaki time aane par woh bolein”

I saw the latest Bollywood thriller Raajneeti yesterday at Safari cinema in Harrow.  It’s a “heavy” movie but I thoroughly enjoyed it.  It was fast paced and action packed with solid performances by most of the actors.

As I watched the movie, I could see characters from Mahabharat come alive in a modern setting.  There’s Kunti who gets pregnant before marriage and her son is disposed off in a boat  (Karna = Ajay Devgan) to be picked up by a Dalit couple.  There’s Arjun (Arjun Rampal) who is encouraged by Nana Patekar (=Krishna) to kill unarmed Karna (Devgan) citing how Arjun’s father was not killed in a battlefield but mercilessly murdered while he was unarmed. There are several more but I will leave it to you to figure out.

Raajneeti is a story not only about state politics but also about politics in the family.  There is only one truth in Raajneeti – victory at any cost.  As it turns out, the cost is a bitter and violent fight that disintegrates the whole family and leads to the loss of several lives. It makes you wonder if all this was really worth it.  The ultimate prize goes to Katrina Kaif who was forced into the battlefield due to circumstances.  It was a pleasant surprise, though, to watch her speak Hindi without her usual accent.

If you haven’t already seen it, I’d encourage you to go and watch it.  It is definitely “paisa vasool”. This one’s sure to bag several awards. Here’s the official trailer -

Suresh

I can't wait to watch Raajneeti.

6 June 10 at 14:21

UK Elections

I have received more election leaflets in the last one month slipped under my door than pizza delivery leaflets in the last one year. It is no surprise then that the reason is that they all want my vote on the 6th of May.

There’s David Cameron on a glossy pamphlet urging me to vote for Conservatives to help change Britain. “We can’t go on like this”, says David. There’s this interesting smear campaign projecting David Cameron as two faced.

Two Faced Cameron

Then there’s Gordon Brown’s message about how his leadership will get us through these tough times. Conservatives have launched a marketing campaign surprisingly with Gordon Brown as the primary face. See below

I doubled the national debt

With elections just a week away now and the third and final prime ministerial debate going on Telly right now, I am scared that one of these clowns will be the Prime Minister come next Friday. God Save Britain.

But then, there’s a scenario even worse than that – a hung parliament

Hung Parliament

Is iPad just an iFad?

Everybody’s talking about the iPad which has just launched in the US. The product definitely looks great. Apple says that the iPad will revolutionise the way people browse the internet, check email, run apps and read books. To me, it looks like an oversized iPhone without the ability to make phone calls or take pictures. There is no video on the iPad yet which is also very disappointing. At $499, the basic entry level model sounds expensive too considering the fact that you need to fork out another $200 for a 3G modem. It is also a challenge to work on spreadsheets and powerpoint presentations and without the ability to multitask and no enterprise level security features, it will not be an enterprise solution in its current form. The iPad could potentially find some uses in presentations which require a rich multimedia experience.

When the iPhone was launched, we were told that this was the only device we would ever need! Now we have an iPad which apparently fills the gap between the iPhone and the MacBook. There is a long queue of people waiting to lay their hands on the iPad but I am in no hurry. I will just wait and watch till the product goes through a couple of rounds of improvements before I make up my mind.

Google, China and the freedom of speech

Google is planning to pull out of China if the Chinese government doesn’t allow Google to display uncensored results. When Google launched in China in Jan 2006, it did agree to censor the results as per the rules put down by the Chinese government. So is this pulling out of China just a drama or is there any meat in it?

Google has a 43% market share in China compared to Baidu’s 56% ( see this ) and China is the largest country in the world in terms of Internet Penetration. So what does this mean for Google? Google is taking its fight for freedom of speech head-on with the Chinese government and there are really only 2 options – 1) The Chinese government comes under intense pressure from the world and agrees to let Google display results without censorship or 2) Google loses the battle and pulls out of China.

The biggest social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook and even YouTube are already banned in China. Although foreign news websites like BBC and CNN are no longer restricted, they have been subject to more controls. It looks unlikely that China will let Google get away with its uncensored results although I would like to be proved wrong on this. Google has reviewed its operations and it appears from their official blog that they are willing to continue their operations in China only if they are allowed to operate an unfiltered search engine.

Google does stand to lose financially but it has taken the right stance. Yahoo and Bing have an insignificant share in the Chinese market and it would be interesting to see if they support Google in this crusade or use the opportunity to grab market share in China.

As far as the average Chinese Internet user is concerned, I can only wish them luck !

BTW, there is an interesting case of a small company in Mumbai apparently inspired by Google which sells “Golas” or slush puppies. Their logo is not only a cheeky spin on the Google logo, they also use a gmail address. I wonder if Google is doing anything about this?

Solar Eclipse on 15 Jan 2010

I predicted that the period between 1st Jan and 15th Jan would be turbulent. There were cold waves and unprecedented snow in UK. Average temperatures recorded were one of the lowest since records began. This was also the case in several countries around the world.

An earthquake of magnitude 7.3 on the Richter scale struck Haiti devastating the capital Port-au-Prince. Upto 200,000 people are feared dead. If you would like to donate, please do so at the Red Cross website

Earlier on this month, a suicide bomber was responsible for the killing of over 100 people in Pakistan.

And to top it all, Gordon Brown launched his election campaign and UK started the year with a budget deficit of £178 Billion. I wonder how many zeroes that has !

I also said earlier this month that Mercury goes forward on 15th January on the day of the solar eclipse. Here is an interesting video on the solar eclipse.

This indicates new beginnings and improved communications. If you haven’t made your new year resolutions, now would definitely be a good time to make them as you are more likely to be able to stick to them.

I have an eye on the stock market and will come back with an update later.

London colder than Antarctica

I picked up a copy of the Evening Standard on my way home today. Apparently, London is colder than some parts of Antarctica as temperatures plunged to as low as -10C overnight. The Telegraph had a similar article

Look at this satellite image. Britain is completely covered in snow, the heaviest in 50 years.

Plunging temperatures have caused major problems with trasnsportation as grit supplies run low. Apparently, half the workers did not go to work on Wednesday due to the heavy snow. Unfortunately, I had to wade through a foot of snow and it took me a few hours to get to work.

I was hoping to find a sunny Gibraltar next week when I am there but it appears that I am not having great luck with the weather. Well, as I said in one of my earlier posts, the period between 1st Jan and 15th will be turbulent and unfortunately, that seems to be true.

Tenerife Sunset

I was amazed at how quickly the sun was setting in the Atlantic. I managed to capture the last 20 seconds or so. This video has not been edited.

3 Idiots and Five Point Someone

I have been reading with some interest the controversy around the script for the latest Bollywood blockbuster “3 Idiots” and its adaptation from the popular Novel “Five Point Someone” (FPS) written by Chetan Bhagat in 2004.

Chetan wrote in his blog yesterday that the film-makers claimed pre-release that the book is based loosely on his novel with only a 2-5% resemblance.  Chetan wrote – “The setting, characters, plotline, dramatic twists and turns, one-liners, theme, message – almost all aspects that make up the story are from FPS. Yes, there are some changes, any adaptation requires that – but it is no way an original story. Leading movie critics have privately admitted to me that the film is 70% the book”.

Aamir Khan has hit back at Chetan Bhagat accusing him of trying to take away the credit from the film’s writer Abhijat Joshi who has worked hard on the script for the last 3 years.

Chetan has challenged his blog readers to read the Novel, see the Film and make up their mind about the truth.  This is one challenge I know I am up for.

Let Truth prevail. Satyamev Jayate.

Happy New Year 2010



Let me start off by wishing you a very happy and prosperous new year 2010. As Oprah Winfrey once said – “Cheers to a New Year and another chance for us to get it right”


2009 was a long year but things seemed to be picking up towards the end.  The economy will continue to grow although it will be a very slow process.  The London stock market rose 22 percent in 2009, the highest since Labour came to power in 1997.  India, on the other hand, saw the stock markets rise by 81% in 2009.  If you were lucky to have invested in the stock markets in early 2009, well done !


Unemployment continues to grow and is expected to peak at 2.8 million in 2010 before it starts going down.  Property prices have been steadily, albeit slowly, increasing in the second half of 2009. It remains to be seen if this trend will continue in 2010.


2010 will be a year of new opportunities and old challenges.  It is strange that the year started off with a lunar eclipse on the night of 31st December in several parts of the world.  Eclipses are usually a good time to make new beginnings but with Mercury retrograde and a solar eclipse on Jan 15th, I expect the period between 1st and 15th Jan to be turbulent and prone to communication issues.  Mercury turns forward on 15th January on the day of the solar eclipse and this should bode well for new beginnings.


It is still not too late to make your new year resolutions.  As Mark Twain said – “New Year’s Day… now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual”.


Have a fantastic 2010 !