Commercializing Indian Snacks

Observation:
How many of us love to eat at McDonald's? Or at KFC's? These 2 names are currently considered synonymous with Fast Food, with a "Happy Price Menu". But is the menu truly Indian? I wouldn't say so. Burgers / Wraps are not of Indian origin. I am not doubting their taste, or their nutritional value, but these dishes are not traditionally Indian. Not everyone would relish a burger. It is a possibility that its only their "Reduced Price" that titillates many and not the burger itself!

Traditional Indian snacks on the other hand gel with the peoples taste-buds. With adequate masalas and a tinge of spice, they are especially well suited for the people of this sub-continent. The Indian snacks menu is amazingly long! Be it our very own Samosas, Bhel Puri / Chaat Puri, or an assortment of Pakodas, the list is endlessly delicious, mothwatering, and to top it all, quite filling.

Sugestion:
What we are missing though, is a Brand value attached to it. What we need is somebody to start a chain of multiple, small outlets, with a "BRAND", that caters to quick service with delicious and hygenically prepared food. It could be intially started as a take-aways, and later expanded. What we require is giving a "Name" to our desi snacks and promoting , commercializing and making them available to all at extremely affordable rates.

A recent successful example for this would be our very own Jumbo-King, which have taken our very desi "Vada Pav" under its wings and given it a different value all together, all at the cost of Rs 5 per Vada pav.

Hopefully India too can sell its own set of Samosa / Bhel brands and prepare the wonderful delicacies for the world to Eat and Enjoy!!!

Spitting and Defecating in Pulic

Spitting or expectoration is the act of forcibly ejecting saliva or other substances from the mouth. It is normally considered rude and a social taboo in many part of the world, though spitting can still be occasionally observed in some places. It is possible to transmit infectious diseases in this way.

Observation:

It is difficult to comprehend how people like to spit. Be it cough, paan, chewing-gum or plain saliva, some people just love to think that the roads are their own property, or rather, not their property and hence are free to spit wherever they please. The same goes for defecating, specially urinating. Boundary walls and tree trunks are a special favourite with most.

This not only spoils the envirmonment, making it highly unhygenic and dirty, but also spoils the beauty of a place and is taboo for any city wherein its residents are not concerned about the impression they give others. The trade-mark red spit of "paan" is omnipresent. Be it platforms, subways, boundary walls, inside local trains, bus stops, it can be seen almost everywhere.

Suggestion:

What can we do to put an end to this? Education is one major area that everyone can look into. But it definitely is a long process. Fining those who spit/urinate in public is another, but deploying more personnel to keep tabs is a costly propostion.

One way that I can think of is to arrange for 'SPIT PANS', especially in public places such as railway platforms, subways and bus stops. This would at least encourage a few people to spit there. However,am sure most would not!! And there is no stopping these kind of people, who don't seem to have any conscience. Thus, the best way to improve the looks of the public buildings would be to 'colour about 2 feet of the walls from the base to match that of the paan-spit'. In that case, even if these people were to spit, it at least wont be visible, making the environment look much cleaner and better. If we can't put an end to spitting, at least we can MASK so that the city looks much cleaner from an aesthetic perspective.

Sweeping Machines

Observation:

I'm sure all of you have at some point of time noticed the waste strewn all over the roads, platforms etc, and wondered why this is not being cleaned. In this age of technological advancement, ever thought about the "Sweeping Machines" instead of the "Sweeping Humans"?

Suggestion:

The self propelled, ride-on type machine models are designed and adapted to work on Indian road conditions / dust load.Traditionally, manual labour is deployed for sweeping the roads, station premises. During manual sweeping, more than 50% of the dust gets air-borne and the same settles down again on the roads.this impairs the cleaning efficiencey substancially and continues to be a nuisance due to vehicular and wind movement. In effect, the cleaning job remains incomplete. Further, the air-borne dust poses health haards not only to the cleaners, but also the the common passerby.There is also a tendency on the part of the sweepers to push the litter / dust on the railtracks, drains or leave them in one heap on the roadsides. While the roads and the platforms in the process appear clean, the drains become choked, and the railway tracks, a breeding place for most rodents.

The use of sweeping machine has lots of benefits:

• It is a faster means of cleaning.
• The collection of dust and litter is easier, operators of machine are not tempted to push the waste and dusts on the tracks / drains.
• The dust that is air-borne is much less leading to fewer health hazards to cleaners and passerbys.
• The collected material can be dumped or re-cycled at specific places.
• The sweeping speeds of the machines are much faster as compared to manual sweeping ranging from 4-12 Kms per hour.
• The same number of people employed to sweep the roads can cover a larger area ensuring better cleanliness throughout the city.
• The container capacity ensures that the machine is not required to be emptied at the dumping point frequently.

If the state governments and the Municipal corporation purchase these kind of sweeping machines , it would result in a much cleaner and healthier city!

Kudos to Radio!

Did anyone get stuck in a gargantuan traffic jam in Dadar / Andheri / Vashi ? Or are you simply fed up of the constant bickering of your companion on phone or the endless honking of the Buses, cars and Auto-wallas? Radio ,iPods amd MP3s are the answer to most of your problems!

For the daily middle-class commuter, who makes use of the Public transport for commuting, the journey can be really harassing and energy sapping. Constant exposre to lound noise can take away a person's peace of mind, rendering him blank!! It disturbs a person emotionally and mentally making him more irritable.

Thanks to the technological revolution, we have a few devices in which we can store songs of our own choice and listen to them whenever we want to. Radio specially is an amazing thing that happened to this world, since radio stations play not only songs, but also have a steady flow of conversation related to a chosen topic. This leads every individual to at least "think" about that topic, even if they don't call up the radio station to express their views publically.

Not only this, it provides emplyoment opportunity to many, and can often be used as means to unite people for a common cause. With a wide spectrum of Radio stations coming up, targetting different age groups / causes, everyone can find at least something to their liking. I, as an individual, feel that the city's RJs are doing a great job, and are instrumental in bringing a smile on thousands of people's faces everyday. Kudos to them!!

Some facts :
There are twelve radio stations in Mumbai, with eight broadcasting on the FM band of which two are by AIR, three stations broadcasting on the AM mediumwave band (all AIR) and one on the AM shortwave band (also AIR).Navi Mumbai is also covered by these stations. The list is as follows:

1. Vividh Bharati Online Radio Radio City 91.1 FM
2. BIG 92.7 FM Red FM (India) 93.5 FM
3. Radio One 94.3 FM
4. Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM
5. AIR FM Gold 100.7 FM
6. Fever 104 FM
7. Meow 104.8 FM
8. AIR FM Rainbow 107.1 FM
9. Radio MUST 107.8 FM (Mumbai University's fun-filled edutainment radio, 7-9 am,1-3 pm & 7-9 pm, transmitter at santacruz)

Re-location of Railway Workshops of Mumbai

Observations:
There are 6 major workshops catering to overhauling of coaches and wagons, both for Central and Western Railway in Mumbai. These workshops are almost 100 year old. They employ around 25,000 people which in turn support almost 1 lakh people directly (assuming a family size of 4)

They occupy huge prime space in Central Mumbai. Run-down coaches (after every 12 months) and locomotives (after every 6 years) are brought in for over-hauling. These coaches and locomotives are stripped and generate large amount of scrap. New material is then brought for replacement, mostly from outside Mumbai. Thus, there is a huge amount of cross movement of material, consuming large amount of fuel and leading to congestion on the roads.

As these workshops are very old, their lay-outs are primitive, and productivity, extremely low. Railways are planning to spend almost 600 Crores to renovate these. This will only lead to spending "good money" after "bad money".

Suggestions:
What is required is: construction of modern workshops in areas that need industrialization and use this prime space for re-development from which Railways can easily generate 5,000 - 6,000 Crore rupees.

The new workshops can be developed along with township so that the staff / workers can be re-located. In case those who do not want to move out, they can be given VRS / option for employment of their children. This will be a WIN -WIN situation.

Almost 1 Lakh people would get re-located to a better quality of life. No more old dilapidated caches / locomotives will have to be stabled in the yards occupying huge spaces. It will increase line capacity and release space for maintenance and running of commuter trains.

This will help both Indian Railways to increase the productivity of their workshops and also help Mumbai in becoming a better place.

Violence in Daily Life

Obervations:

Normally violence is associated with physical violence. This is just one aspect of the total violence that all of us suffer in our daily life specially so while living in a Metropolitan city. If we look around, the type of violence that we are subjected to can be many : due to noise - audio violence, ugly sights - visual violence, bad odor - olfactory violence, dirt - pollution violence, rush - crowd violence and many more to go apart from the physical and mental violence.

A common man suffers the consequences of all the above, and it reflects in their stressed lives and response to fellow humans. All of us have a role to play in reducing the "Violence Quotient" (VQ) of a city.

Suggestions:

Since local trains are considered the "lifeline" of Mumbai, it has a pre-dominant role to play in reducing this VQ. By improving these locals alone, a lot can be done to reduce this "Violence" and making train travel an enjoyable experience for the daily commuters.

Some of the suggestions for reducing the violence that a commuter is subjected to in Mumbai are:

• Frequent painting of the interior / exterior of the coaches to present a pleasing appearance.
• the noise level of the fans, power car, track noise etc.
• Improved public address system to make the announcements more comprehend able.
• Improved signages inside the trains as well as on the station premises.
• Providing garbage bins inside the coaches to prevent people from littering on the tracks.
• White-wash the boundary walls of the corridor of tracks.
• Painting the over-bridges.
• Provide additional cross-over bridges.
• Involve private sector /industries in maintenance of the platforms.
• Give awards for 3 "Best Stations" to recognize the contribution of the sponsors.

I would request the viewers to give their suggestions and contribute in any way that would make this world a better place.