Growing Urban Centers in India – Challenges Ahead

[I will update and organize this writing in next sitting. When I don’t know?]

Challenges of urbanization are enormous. Inhabitants of an urban center realize these challenges when they are stuck in traffic jams or they have to push many other fellow passengers to board a public transport or they don’t get the sufficient water and power supply or reasonably acceptable medical facilities become unaffordable and the list goes on. Over a period of time, when majority of inhabitants of an urban center start behaving like machines then for sure not all is well there in that urban center – either urban planners judgments went wrong or the master plan executing agencies messed it up while building infrastructure or the enforcement agencies became lenient in implementing the master plan effectively or rules were broken to maximize the unsustainable economic gains.

Urban challenges frustrate inhabitants. So what! Do these frustrated inhabitants leave for better urban center? No. Why? Are alternates available to them? Options to earn comparable living hoods are severely skewed. Present inhabitants of an urban center are stuck in dilemma – to leave or not to leave. They keep compromising with the present conditions and hope for the better future – positive dreams. In the meantime many more, in hundreds or in thousands, are added to their urban center making urban challenges even graver and infrastructure more strained. Overly strained urban centers are reaching to their boiling points – divide between the original inhabitants and migrants has increased to a level of discomfort to each other. They don’t like each other eye to eye. New political outfits are born to exploit the challenges of urban centers. Veteran political parties are also no exception.

Most of the time, urban civic bodies are unable to exercise their due authorities and stuck in managing day to day challenges. These civic bodies are left with restricted options with lot of constraints to bring in some positive change.

Is there a solution to such grave challenges? YES. In todays materialistic world where the language of economies are best understood, there is a need to build a web of sustainable urban centers and highlight the economic & social gains. Let the new industrial houses understand the benefits of sustainable development and let them appreciate ‘inclusive’ growth model developed by certain veteran industrial houses or even government sectors in past. Visionaries in past built self sustainable urban centers or townships in isolated areas and did roaring business from remote places. India already has scores of success stories of such urban centers. Haven’t we noticed the sustainable townships built around steel factories [Jamshedpur/Jagdishpur] or power stations [Jhansi/Korba/Bhabha Nagar] or even the defense settlements [Cantt areas in many cities across India]? One will find good environment, pleasing landscapes, cleaner roads, excellent schooling, easy availability of daily needs, sources of entertainment and what not! These townships have everything what is required for a respectful & affordable living. Why not successful models of these townships are scaled to larger urban centers?

Discuss But Don't Argue

There are some personalities that can be labeled as argumentative and that shows in their behavior and relationships. Arguments can be avoided and a lot of heartache prevented by being a little careful. The best way to win an argument is to avoid it. An argument is one thing you will never win. If you win, you lose; if you lose, you lose. If you win an argument but lose a good job, customer, friend or marriage, what kind of victory is it? Pretty empty.
Arguments result from inflated ego. Arguing is like fighting a losing battle. Even if one wins, the cost may be more than the victory is worth. Emotional battles leave a residual ill will even if you win. In an argument, both people are trying to have the last word. Argument is nothing more than a battle of egos.
If one wants to accomplish great things in life one has to practice maturity. Maturity means not getting entangled in unimportant things and petty arguments.
What are the Difference Between an Argument and a Discussion? An argument throws heat; a discussion throws light.
· One stems from ego and a closed mind whereas the other comes from an open mind.
· An argument is an exchange of ignorance whereas a discussion is an exchange of knowledge.
· An argument is an expression of temper whereas a discussion is an expression of logic.· An argument tries to prove who is right whereas a discussion tries to prove what is right.

Tables Information from an ACCESS database

Many a times, we need infromation to get number of tables listed in an ACCESS database. There is a hidden table which contains this information. Query to get this information from ACCESS database is as follows:

SELECT NAME from MSysObjects where TYPE=1;

Hyphenation: Do you Really Need IT?

I was working on a large document and I found lot of words getting split at the end of the line to the new line. Somehow that was irritating to me. See following picture with red boxes…

I knew from past experience that this hyphenation is something which can be get rid of. See following picture with green box…
But I was not finding the way to do that. After struggling over the net and bothering peers for the solution, I could not make any headway. I googled using 'split word at the end of line', 'drop hyphen', 'remove dash' and some more weird options.

But I love challenges, and with time to spare, I didn't allow one small irritating stuff go. I took headon. And the solution to get rid of hyphenation in MS WORD 2007 is …

Increasing System Performance - Clearing Clipboard

Many a times when we are doing lot of data processing job which involves cut and paste from one document to another, our system performance starts degrading. One may encounter some funny & unrelated messages popping up. What to do? One small bit is to clear the clipboard. This is the place which keeps record of all copied information.

Best way to clear the clipboard is to create a shortcut for it. How? Here are the steps –

1. Right Click on desktop. Select New->Shortcut.
2. Copy C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /c "echo off clip" in the location of the item. Press Next.
3. Name it as Clear Clipboard. Click Finish.

Voila...

When system is slow, double click this shortcut. Surely you will experience better performance.

Convert SHAPE File to DWG File

Steps to perform:
ArcToolbox
-Conversion Tools
--To CAD
---Export to CAD

I was very close to Dalai Lama [Physical Distance Wise]

I was strolling around the streets of Copenhagen during the last week of May, 2009 when I saw scores of people all of sudden gathering at the entrance of one Hotel, which is famous among top dignitaries. I became curious. I thought there must be some POP star or a big political dignitary arriving to check in.

During this time of my guess work, I saw a MERC coming to the building only with a pilot police car. To my surprise, I saw a very humble person, Dalai Lama, coming out of that MERC. There were some people whom I saw literally crying in silence after seeing their religious leader. Beautiful & young girls in traditional attires welcomed Dalai Lama and Dalai Lama waived his hands politely and then disappeared in the Hotel.

See a picture of Dalai Lama clicked barely few feet away from.


I am signing off with a thought from my childhood friend who SMSed me “PROGRESS has little to do with SPEED, but much to do with DIRECTION”