'Why suddenly the Amritsar Deputy Commissioner has become the darling of all schoolchildren of the town'- by K.J.S.Chatrath

If you want to know why suddenly the Amritsar Deputy Commissioner has become the darling of all schoolchildren of the town, then please read the article "Jaitley to visit Amritsar, schools to remain closed"- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Jaitley-to-visit-Amritsar-schools-to-remain-closed/articleshow/48062278.cms.

I remember how thrilled we all used to be as school children when the schools used to get closed suddenly, as it meant 'chutti'.

As an ex- civil servant, I look at the implications of what is happening. Now that Amritsar has shown the way, where ever the Hon'ble members of the Union Council of Minsiters go, the schools would be closed for the day (Precedence hai Sirji). And soon the demand would be for the schools to be closed when the Hon'ble Minsisters or the Parliamentary Secretarys of the States go on their numerable visits.

The school children have never had it so good.

Baccho ache din aa gayay hain....Chutti hai....

"Achhe din aane mein 25 saal lagenge (It will take 25 years to bring achhe din)," BJP president Amit Shah said on Monday- news

Lo kal lo baat!

Charchay wohi rahengay, afsos hum na hongay!

'The Pluto fly-by today' by K.J.S.Chatrath

Today is the Pluto fly-by day.
I am so excited.
May be signs of some alien life...
Oh I wish so...

'Smart cities- the dissenting viewpoint' by K.J.S.Chatrath

100 smart cities to be set up in India...Wow. It sounds so good and uplifting. But does one fully understand what is a smart city and the requirements of setting up such cities.

I came across a simple and informative article on this subject: "Smart cities for smart people: Plan them as small working districts for entrepreneurs' by Prof. S.K.Sharma.

'Smart cities', he cautions, 'will be suitable only for smart people, who own smart phones and smart gadgets with a 24-hour access to high-speed data and have financial resources to own smart apartments and appliances'.

You may like to read this dissenting viewpoint at: http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/comment/smart-cities-for-smart-people/99712.html

Chandigarh railway station to be made of world airports standards- news....totally skewed priority

The main task of the railways is to transport people (and goods) from one place to another. The crucial operation is the running of trains. Trains need to be (i) clean, (ii) should be safe, and (iii) run in time. In my view these are the aspects which need to be addressed first. Beautification of railway stations can wait. And making the railways stations look like foreign airports, developing of shopping malls can very well wait.

Chandigarh railway station, and for that matter a large number of railways stations across India are fairly neat and functionally adequate.

Planning is about prioritization of spending of scarce public resources on works as per need. Please dont waste public money on so called beautification of Chandigarh railway station. Let us concede that Chandigarh has no historical heritage and let us not try to look important by spending crores for 'beautifying' railway station.