don't lEavE homE

it seems like Murphy's law and air travel go hand in hand. If you don't think so, well it surely does go hand in hand in my case. i am a staunch believer of Murphy's law and it is for real good reasons. here is one.

it was my day of return from the American dream. i was on my way back to the land of the normal and abnormal, land of shattered dreams, India. for the first time since long, it snowed (practically ice but I'm taking some artistic liberty) in Dallas and i managed to reach airport just in time. i got the boarding passes but not after i shelled out 50 bucks (DOLLARS not rupee) for the over weight luggage. at the airport security check, i don't know why (may be because i am a young man in the right age to blow up things or may be i was brown) i was taken through some intensive security checks, no complaints as it ensures some false security in our palpable minds.

at the new york JFK airport i had a 5 hour wait and finally when the boarding time dawned, emirates showed the true Asian spirit. they came around 2 hours late after all the defrosting the plane and length check in process to board the mega airbus a-380. needless to say, for the first time i saw snow (no artistic liberties here) in my life. to blow down the joy of seeing snow and having wonderful food and movies on board the behemoth, the flight landed in Dubai 2 hours late and the painfully long time to get out of the 380, oh man Murphy was laughing at me saying I told you so...

i ran breathing my lungs out through the Dubai emirates terminal number 3 and when i finally reached the gate, it was closed (no surprises here). then i contacted the transfer desk and they were able to find a flight leaving to Bangalore 5 hours later. thank God, at least i have a flight. i waited endlessly and sleepily until the hour struck and was soon on my way back to the garden city (cliche accepted).

do amEricans cElEbratE Christmas?

Of course dummy they do. That will be the first reaction of any normal human being. After all they are one large conglomeration of Christians and of course they ought to celebrate it.
OK, now let me explain my stand on this. Americans do CELEBRATE during Christmas. Wait a minute, I said, celebrate DURING Christmas. Hmm I smell a rat. In fact what I meant is Americans don't spare the celebration during Christmas, but what they seem to celebrate is question worth asking. Well, the time from Black Friday to Christmas is the biggest shopping season in the US of A. So what? During these 30 days or so, in the name of Christmas they spent a hell of a sum shopping for gifts and other such items of colossal waste not to mention the parties and boozing during Christmas. All this to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ who, despite being son of the God, opted to be born in a humble manger outside the rich & prosperous quarters of the city. In celebrating Christmas as a giant shopping season they are destroying the name of the Christ and the path that he asked us to follow, one of humility and service to others.

The way Christmas has been contorted is so evident that the main character during this season is Santa Claus. The picture of Santa that I had was one of a priest who led a pious life and helped the poor and needy of his society and who never took or wanted to take credit for any of his work. Claus has been turned into a gargantuan of consumerism and capitalist awkwardness.

It seems, Americans are taught from childhood onwards to be big spender and they reach the pinnacle of this during this season. How else can you explain the greed and selfishness that surrounded the black Friday trampling of a security guard in one of the wal-mart stores during this year’s black Friday? I heard that the Wal-Mart was temporarily closed because of this sad demise but they customers demanded that the store be opened. All this from a supposedly high cultured society that wears this mask of courtesy and pretence.

As Gandhiji once remarked, if the Christians acted like the Christ did, then all world would be Christian and peaceful. By jumping into this madness of consumerist bandwagon, pride, arrogance, selfishness and greed they have denounced the teachings of Christ and no longer credits themselves to be called Christians. But they quote God for all the wrong reasons like going to war and attacking helpless civilians and destroying nations.

The only silver lining seems to be the fact that the name of the Christ is associated only with the name "Christmas" and as years go by this time of the year will be called something like mega shopping season or festival of shopping.

tExas sizEd

There is a saying in Malayalam which I can roughly translate like this; when you are in the land of people who eat snakes, eat the centre piece itself. I would rather say this is the mallu ideology that has kept them going to all corners of the world and help them survive and thrive in entirely different cultures. to further nail down this point I will say that if you look into any overseas mallu community you will find that they are the ethnic group that have merged the most into the mainstream culture more than any other immigrant cultures. These mallus have embraced the alien culture as their own and by the time their second generation is mature, apart from the skin color, you don’t have anything to distinguish them from the mainstream populace. I have that mallu blood in me and that kept me going without any hassles in this land of Texas, us of a where I find many of my non-mallu Indian friends struggling with food, culture and anything conceivable American.

I should'nt have told all these for a silly matter as writing a blog about Texas. Well that’s the truth (about me and mallus), I always add extra to whatever I do.

Texas is the largest state in the American mainland (Alaska is the largest among all the states in US). By large I mean LARGE. Everything in Texas is huge. From the state, stores, population, roads, cars, trucks, people and even kids. There are vast stretches of open roads connecting big cities. People drive big trucks which consume big oil and eat foods which make them big fat. Texas is like a cruel joke played by the gods to make a state full of obese people. I will explain my conclusion. The state is too big for its already big population (unlike India). Stores are so huge so that you can measure their floor area in acres. And they live faraway from one another lest their big appetite may eat their neighbors. Residential areas are far away from all these commercial areas. So walking from one store to another and to home is impractical and unthinkable. So people move around in their cars. Besides according to American standards the food is cheaper and you get more food per penny. So naturally people eat a lot. No work and all eating make a Texan a fat boy. Thus Texas has one of the largest concentrations of obese people on the planet. No wonder...

In order to take on the vast stretches of roads and for outback riding trucks are the best here and in this land of plenty gasoline is the last concern and voila they have huge gas guzzling trucks and SUVs. After all these driving around and lazy life the only real work that they have is fornication and voila, u has the second largest state by population in US of A.

No wonder, they call something of enormous proportions, Texas sized...

changEling

Today I saw the movie changeling directed by Clint Eastwood. I am a big fan of Eastwood's movies (those he acted and directed). My immediate reaction was "wow", this is a wonderful bizarre and powerful movie. In fact the best movie I have seen so far after coming to the US. It is a depression era story about a mother whose son went missing and the police who wanted to shove another kid into her life as if that kid is her own son. The one-line plot summary may not look exceptional but the narrative sure does. I looked at it not like an abduction and violence themed drama but as a an opening into the struggles faced by the commoners at the hands of the establishment.

The establishment says we decide who your child is and who you are and you have to accept it. If not you are insane. There is a scene in the movie where the mother is in a mental asylum and she is given a choice; accept that you were wrong in accusing the authorities and you can go free, or else you will stay here for the rest of your life. It may sound as total nonsense to us in these times. But look at the bigger picture. They says look there are terrorists over there. OK, says we and they go after some hapless souls, destroys their family, livelihood and even a nation. People are guided into a false pretext of safety so that when they feel safe, sound a threatening alarm and then whatever you give them they will quite happily accept it. so that they can continue with their mediocre and carefree life inside the box. This element has gone so deep into the human psyche so that they hardly see or think outside the box and those who do so are framed insane.

For example look at the police encounters which happened in India. All these years we were told that they were terrorists. Thankfully a lot of them were. But what about the others? Political dissidents or personal enemies were portrayed as insane, crazy, wild enemies of the states and then the state machinery took care of them. What an ingenious way to get rid of one's enemies! As a matter of fact, labeling someone as insane is the best option to silence him. People no longer pay attention to them. How can you prove yourself sane once you are assigned the status of an insane? They say denying insanity itself is the best sign to identify an insane person. You will be doomed for eternity.

All these things again make me reiterate the prediction that governments get to gain more control over their people. Perhaps future will be inside Matrix, may not be the exact one we saw in the movie.

socialism in frEE markEt ?

if not then tell me whats happening in the US, with all the government bailout of big banks and probably the auto giants? i would like to see the staunch proponents of free market speaking out against this "ghastly" act of state intervention in the market. i once read about this guy who told that markets have the ability to correct itself and the big companies will always act in the direction favorable to consumers so that they wont lose the market. but what happened now will hopefully give Keynes the rest he deserved. After the financial institutions were bailed out of their misdemeanor its the turn of the big auto makers who are begging at Washington for financial assistance. Assistance for what? Flying back to Detroit on their private jets? or for a cocktail party at some posh golf course to celebrate the "victory"? Why should they be appreciated for mis-management and for the beleif and actions which was on the line that the American way of gas guzzling vehicles will go on for ever? and i don't see any difference between government owning industry or government intervening in industry whether it be a bailout or an emergency loan. What is this? A freaking subsidy to the big conglomerates from the same government which is pressurising the third world to cut down on subsidies that they give for their less-than-a-dollar-a-day farmers?

It seems that the anti-socialism running in the veins of those neo-cons is outright hypocrisy. Those who are unwilling to pay more tax so that his neigbour may have good health care is, shelling out his money for the big companies. This is all crap.

With the last fortress of "freedom" (the free market) also intervend upon by the government, what is left in the land of free? Already the various federal agencies are prying into citizens life. i wonder what kind of free speech it is in this nation, if someone expresses a different political view, he is spied upon. all these make me predict that governements all around the world , however freedom they may proclaim on paper, will cut down on freedom as humanity evolves and finally mankind will reduce itself to some vegitative state or Matrix itself may become a reality with machines and the governement machinery (if ever there will exist one) feeding and controlling the lives of hapless victims of civilization.

i'm hoping that these things wont happen even though the future looks bleak.

My first Overseas Trip

This must be the peak of procrastination; my first overseas trip and I took this long to write this down... Come on man, put yourself together, kill this procrastination thing. That's the message I got before putting my a^%$ on the table to add another feather to the list of posts.

Well this could be the perfect example of how far your first trip outside the country can be screwed up and this could be a study case of almost all problems that you can encounter on your journey.

My idea of getting out of the boring and monotonous work life in Bangalore was to go on a random trip on a weekend with all the planning (I don't like to do that, and I aint saying I plan but the only plan will be to find a seat in a bus or train) done on Wednesday. That is how I get out of the monotonous life and find some adventure. But this one trip really scared the living daylights out of me. This is nothing like the previous trips that I had taken. This is to America, most powerful nation, land of opportunity, American dream and stuff like that. I was asked to come over to the US for a few weeks and man, it was super fast. I was told about this on Wednesday and in a jiffy, I was flying on Sunday.

I was flying to Dubai, then to Houston and finally to Dallas. My first flight was at 4.30 am from Bangalore. I was there much early, Saturday 11.30pm itself, of course I was nervous. and I had good reason to be.
After waiting for a long time, finally the check in process started and when my turn came in, the first boulder on the way (or shall I say, disturbance), my flight from Dubai to Houston was CANCELED. What?, well hurricane Ike had left a bad devastation on Houston and Galveston and Emirates was not flying there. Well WHAT? I dint hear a thing. I went blank for a few minutes. My first overseas trip and this was screwed up at the first place itself. I collected myself when the Emirates officials was frantically (or should i say routinely) searching for alternate travel arrangements. I waited and waited and finally when the last passenger was checked in and we they were about to board the flight, one of the officials came to me with alternate travel arrangements. Well I was flying on Sunday itself. But it will be Sunday evening. This time I will be flying Emirates to Dubai, then to New York and Dallas.

I returned back to my home, caught the sleep I badly missed and got back to the airport on time so that I get this plane on time. This time it was piece of cake. But as a matter of fact I was still nervous with all those flights ahead of me. This time every process went well and in short time I was sitting on the Emirates flight to Dubai. After 3 hours of flight I landed in Dubai. The aerial view of Dubai was beautiful, the entire coastline was all lit up and the airport was huge. we were taken to the transit terminal with over 150 gates (when Bangalore has only 10-20 gates you can understand how huge is Dubai). I had a transit time of 5 hours in Dubai. Most of that time was spent walking the entire length of the huge transit terminal. And there was the famed duty free stores. The flamboyance was breath taking. and finally when it was the check in time and wen i reached the officials, then there it was, for the second time i am having some problems. well this time it was solved by the emirates officials., thanks a lot to them.no wonder they are on of the best (even though they give me some tough time).

The flight from Dubai to New York was really enjoyable. The flight was almost empty (or should i say one third occupied). The air hostesses were very nice and the service was superb. I got to watch a lot of movies and the food was also superb. The plane was so empty that i used the 4 seats in my row to have a good sleep stretching myself a little. When i pulled up the window shades I was flying over Boston and then new york. And after this long trip finally i landed on American soil. after the immigration check, i collected my luggage and went on to proceed to delta airlines' terminal. this is another huge airport that has air trains to transport people from one terminal to another. I had to wait another 10 hours in JFK to catch my next flight to Dallas. it was only at 7pm. after the long wait or should i say boring (coz the airport is so empty, with very less people and attractions).

And finally when i went for the check in the final problem came up. the delta staff required some proof of my alternate arrangements. emirates made the alternate arrangements and the delta required some document for these. i was again caught up in another problem. if it was not for one of the delta official, i would have been really screwed up my trip. thanks a lot to that person who helped me a lot. i was able to get the reared doc from emirates and finally made it to Dallas on the delta airlines. I should say compared to emirates or even Indian carriers like king fisher or Deccan, the service was extremely poor. the air hostesses acted like the passengers were taken free for a ride on a delta courtesy. they didn't even gave a bottle of water. no complaints, coz i was to tired and went to sleep immediately after.

Finally after 2.5 hours of good sleep and flight i landed in Dallas fort worth. i collected my luggage and was on my way to hotel. the place was a little hard to find, but after spending $70, i managed to get to the hotel by 12.15am on Monday morning and no time spent went directly to sleep.

I don't remember whether i had any dreams or what, but to this day i was procrastinating or working at office to spent some serious time writing this blog. Ohhh, finally i finished it.

This must be the peak of procrastination; my first overseas trip and I took this long to write this down... Come on man, put yourself together, kill this procrastination thing. That's the message I got before putting my a^%$ on the table to add another feather to the list of posts.

Well this could be the perfect example of how far your first trip outside the country can be screwed up and this could be a study case of almost all problems that you can encounter on your journey.

My idea of getting out of the boring and monotonous work life in Bangalore was to go on a random trip on a weekend with all the planning (I don't like to do that, and I aint saying I plan but the only plan will be to find a seat in a bus or train) done on wednesady. That is how I get out of the monotnonous life and find some adventure. But this one trip really scared the living daylights out of me. This is nothing like the previous trips that I had taken. This is to America, most powerful nation, land of oppurtuniteis, ameriacan dream and stuff like that. I was asked to come over to the US for a few weeks and man, it was super fast. I was told about this on Wednesday and in a jiffy, I was flying on Sunday.

I was flying to Dubai, then to Houston and finally to Dallas. My first flight was at 4.30 am from Bangalore. I was there much early, saturday 11.30pm itself, ofcourse I was nervous. and I had good reason to be.
After waiting for a long time, finally the checkin process started and when my turn came in, the first boulder on the way (or shall I say, disturbance), my flight from dubai to houston was CANCELLED. What?, well hurricane Ike had left a bad devastation on Houston and Galveston and Emirates was not flying there. Well WHAT? I dint hear a thing. I went blank for a few minutes. My first overseas trip and this was screwed up at the first place itself. I collected myself when the Emirates officials was frantically (or should i say routinely) searching for alteranet travel arrangements. I waited and waited and finally when the last passenger was checked in and whe they were about to board the flight, one of the officailas came to me with alternate travel arrangements. Well I was flying on sunday itself. But it will be Sunday evening. This time I will be flying Emirates to Dubai, then to New York and Dallas.

I returned back to my home, caught the sleep I badly missed and got back to the airport on time so that I get this plane on time. This time it was peice of cake. But as a matter of fact I was still nervous with all those flights ahead of me. This time evry process went well and in short time I was sitting on the Emirates flight to Dubai. After 3 hours of flight I landed in Dubai. The aeriel view of Dubai was beautful, the entire coastline was all litup and the airport was huge. we were taken to the tansit terminal with over 150 gates (when bangalore has only 10-20 gates you can understand how huge is Dubai). I had a trasit time of 5 hours in Dubai. MOst of that time was spent walking the entire lebgth of the huge trasit terminal. And there was the famed duty free stores. The flamboyance was breath taking. and finally when it was the checkin time and wen i reached the officials, then there it was, for the second time i am having some problems. well this time it was solved by the emirates officials., thanks a lot to them.no wonder they are on of the best (eventhough they give me some tought ime).

The flight from Dubai to New York was really enjoyable. The flight was almost empty (or should i say one third occupied). The air hostrses were very nice and the service was superb. I got to watch a lot of movies and the food was also superb. The plane was so empty that i used the 4 seats in my row to have a good sleep stretching myselves a little. When i pulled up the window shades I was flying over boston and then new york. And after this long trip finally i landed on american soil. after the immigration check, i collected my luggage and went on to proceed to delta airlines' terminal. this is another huge aiprot that has airtrains to transport people from one terminal to another. I had to wait another 10 hours in jfk to catch my next flight to dallas. it was only at 7pm. after the long wait or should i say boring (coz the airport is so empty, with very less people and attractions).

And finally when i went for the checkin the final problem came up. the delta staff required some proof of my alternate arangements. emirates made the alternate arrangements and the delta required some document for these. i was again cought up in another problme. if it was not for one of the delta official, i would have been really screwed up my trip. thanks a lot to that person who helped me a lot. i was able to get the reuired doc from emirates and finally made it to dallas on the delta airlines. I should say compared to emirates or even indian carriers like king fisher or deccan, the serivce was extremel poor. the air hostesses acted like the passengers were taken free for a ride on a delta courtesy. they didnt even gave a bottle of water. no complaints, coz i was to tired and went to sleep immediately after.

Finally after 2.5 hours of good sleep and flight i landed in dallas fortworth. i collected my luggages and was on my way to hotel. the place was a little hard to find, but after spending $70, i managed to get to the hotel by 12.15am on monday morning and no time spent went directly to sleep.

I don't remember whether i had any dreams or what, but to this day i was procastinating or working at office to spent some serious time writing this blog. Ohhh, finally i finished it.

Indo US Nuclear Deal (Part-III)

Our Potential and Our Plans

Worldover there are three main accepted methods of fuel generation through nuclear fuel cycle. The fuel transformation in these three methods occurs as follows;

• Enriched Uranium-232 after fission produces plutonium as the by product.
• Plutonium obtained as by product is converted to Uranium-233 and enriched plutonium. (Fast breeder technology)
• Uranium-233 is to be converted to a reusable form. Research is undergoing the world over for perfecting this technology.

Through the deal we plan to import light water reactors (LWR) and plan to use the spent fuel in this stage to launch fast breeder reactors. The deal also provisions for the import of Uranium as India is running short on Uranium resources (ref. Part 2).

The indigenous research going on in India attempts to use the nuclear fuel in three consecutive stages thereby providing more efficiency and is called the three-stage program. India's three stage program plans to utilize the vast thorium resources that we have (approx. 225,000).

According to DAE chairman Anil Kakodkar, the highest breeding ratio in FBRs is achieved with Plutonium-Uranium based metallic fuel is used in the core and Uranium as a blanket. The strategy advocated by the DAE scientists is that of introducing a thorium blanket in the Pu-U fuelled FBR. But Kakodkar says that this has an adverse impact on the doubling time, which will have an adverse effect on the growth of the installed FBR capacity in the initial part of the second stage.

An essence of Kakodkar's proposal is as follows, Since the slow growth based on Pu-U breeders using Plutonium derived from the small indigenous PHWR base of 10GWe would leave an unmet demand of 412Gwe by 2050, the plutonium obtained by reprocessing the spent fuel of the imported 40 GWe LWRs should be used to launch another series of metallic Pu-U breeders whose exponential growth, starting as it does from a larger LWR capacity base, will be able to meet this energy deficit by 2050.

But when is the indigenous breeder technology using metallic fuels expected to mature? Kakodkar says it will be after 3 decades after the introduction of metallic fuel FBRs by 2022. Therefore thorium based technology will have to wait till 2050. It is thus planned so that by 2050, the supply demand curves would have intersected and then we will have ample time to go for thorium based technology as the demand-supply curves will be drifting away much slower once the gap has been closed.
Or in the extreme circumstances we may be self sufficient as much as to abandon the indigenous program.

A differing voice can be heard from Placid Rodriguez, former director of Kalpakkam Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research and a key player in India's development of breeder program. He advocates an early introduction of thorium cycle. The scenario envisaged by Rodriguez is that of deploying both second stage fuel cycle and third stage fuel cycle involving thorium in parallel. This will give a combination of Pu-U breeders (that breed only Pu-239) with Pu-U breeders having a thorium radial blanket in the second part of the second stage (that breed both Pu-239 and U-239) and of U-233 thorium breeders (That will breed U-233) with heavy water if other thermal reactors that use thorium (like AHWRs) towards a self sustaining U-Th cycle in the third stage. This ensures both good growth potential as well as energy security without being tied to imported fuel for lifetime of reactors.
The strategy advocated by Rodriguez, is based on studies conducted by SM Lee of IGCAR. He had looked at four (fissile/fertile) fuel combinations: Pu-239/U-238, Pu-239/Th-232, U-233/Th-232 and U-233/U-238 in the core and using either U-238 or Th-232 as blanket in each of these combinations. Lee showed that on the basis of the 10 GWe PWHR base, launching thorium based FBRs with advanced metallic fuels in parallel with thorium-less U-Pu breeders or with a little lag would achieve the requisite energy growth.

The statements by Kakodkar, who is identified in public mind with India's thorium utilization, that thorium which has all along been hailed as the panacea for our energy security and independence is suddenly found to have nuclear properties that do not allow fast growth in power generation capacity seems like an alibi for Indo-US nuclear deal.

Indo-US Nuclear Deal (Part-II)

An Energy Hungry Nation & its Nuclear Energy Scenario

Let’s start with a look at how we obtain our energy today.

India’s Total Installed Capacity: 1, 45,000 MW

Atomic: 2.9%

Coal, Hydrocarbons & Non-Renewable: 64.6%

Hydro power: 24.7 %

Renewable: 7.7 %

Our long term energy policy requires us to find 1300 GWe of energy by the year 2050. According to DAE, if we do not go ahead with the nuclear imports as envisaged by the Indo-US deal, we will be running up a deficit of 412 GWe by 2050. This huge gap in demand will have to be sufficed by additional coal imports which will come up to 1.6 billion tonne. According to a group of scientists of Department of Atomic Energy headed by Anil Kakodkar, if we add up another 40 GWe during the period 2012-2020, this energy deficit could be completely wiped out by 2050. Suppose if we delay the introduction of Light Water Reactors by a decade and import 40GWe during 2022-2030, then by 2050, we will be running up a deficit of 2050. The additional coal imports required will be 0.7 billion tonne in 2050.

Our Reactors

Since we are looking at Nuclear Energy in particular, lets see from which all facilities we obtain our nuclear power and how much.

India's operating nuclear power reactors:

Reactor	Type	MWe net (each)	Commercial operation
Tarapur 1 & 2	BWR	150	1969
Kaiga 1 & 2	PHWR	202	1999-2000
Kaiga 3	PHWR	202	2007
Kakrapar 1 & 2	PHWR	202	1993-95
Kalpakkam 1 & 2 (MAPS)	PHWR	202	1984-86
Narora 1 & 2	PHWR	202	1991-92
Rawatbhata 1	PHWR	90	1973
Rawatbhata 2	PHWR	187	1981
Rawatbhata 3 & 4	PHWR	202	1999-2000
Tarapur 3 & 4	PHWR	490	2006, 05
Total (17)		3779 MWe

Also let us have a glance at the ongoing projects.

India's nuclear power reactors under construction:

Reactor	Type	MWe net (each)	Commercial operation
Kaiga 4	PHWR	202 MWe	end of 2008
Rawatbhata 5 & 6	PHWR	202 MWe	end of 2008, 3/09
Kudankulam 1 & 2	PWR (VVER)	950 MWe	9/2009, 12/09
Kalpakkam PFBR	FBR	470 MWe	2010
Total (6)		2976 MWe

Our Resources

So the immediate doubt will possibly be how India supplies fuel for the currently operational reactors. The combined requirement for all these reactors is 600 tU per year. Our uranium resources are modest, with 54,000 tonnes as reasonably assured resources and 23,500 tonnes as estimated additional resources in situ. Mining and processing of uranium is carried out by Uranium Corporation of India Ltd, a subsidiary of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE). The main areas of our uranium deposits are located at the following locations.

India's uranium mines and mills - existing and announced

State, district	Mine	Mill	Operating from	tU per year
Jharkhand	Jaduguda	Jaduguda	1967 (mine) 1968 (mill)	175 total from mill
	Bhatin	Jaduguda	1967
	Narwapahar	Jaduguda	1995
	Bagjata	Jaduguda	2008
	Turamdih	Turamdih	2003 (mine) 2008 (mill)	190 total from mill
	Banduhurang	Turamdih	2007
	Mohuldih	Turamdih	2011
Meghalaya	Kylleng-Pyndengsohiong (Domiasiat)Mawthabah	Mawthabah	2012	340
Andhra Pradesh, Nalgonda	Lambapur-Peddagattu	Seripally	2012	130
Andhra Pradesh, Kadapa	Tummalapalle	Tummalapalle	2010	220

As of mid 2008 Indian nuclear power plants are running at about half of capacity due to a chronic shortage of fuel (as is evident from the over utilization of Jadugada mines. It is currently running at 240tU per year).

Indo-US Nuclear Deal (Part-1)

There is much furore and fan fare among the great Indian middle and above classes (who are not affected by rising inflation & food shortage) and at the government level on the Indo-US civilian nuclear agreement. It led to many repercussions like the left withdrawing their support to UPA, a photo finish win at the trust votes and easy job for media houses and readers as the central government machinery had to focus only on this issue. As a concerned citizen always interested in India’s strategic movements and an avid observer of the nuclear agreement itself, I have come across a lot of information (and also misinformation) on various aspects related to the agreement, its clauses, IAEA, NSG, 123 agreement, Hyde act, David Mulford, Ronan Sen and his chickens inside and outside the parliament, IPI pipeline and so and so and their implications upon our nation. Needless to say, the bulk of the media are propagating half-truths, partially baked stories and see only one side of the coin. Last week, when I met with my friend Ajay, we had a chit-chat on the issue and his extensive research in the topic clarified many of my doubts and shattered certain misconceptions. Here I would like to explain some of the topics like IAEA, nuclear energy, the 123 agreement, the Hyde act and the likes which are having major bearings on the deal. This is not intended as a debate on whether the deal is required or not, but an explanation of certain technical jargon that may come up in various discussions (so that we know what we are going to speak about before we open our mouths).

Part-1: IAEA & Safeguards Agreement

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is an international organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy and to inhibit its use for military purposes. Though established independently of the United Nations under its own international treaty (the IAEA Statute), the IAEA reports to both the General Assembly and the Security Council. The IAEA has its headquarters in Vienna, Austria. It was established as an autonomous organization on July 29, 1957. The current head of the organization is the Egyptian Mohamed ElBaradei. As of now, there are 144 member states in IAEA. The Board of Governors is one of two policy making bodies of the IAEA. The Board consists of 13 members designated by the outgoing Board and 22 members elected by the General Conference (conference of all member nations).

What concern us about IAEA, is its safeguards. Before we understand what the safeguards are, let us understand the definition of Nuclear Weapons States (NWS) and Non-Nuclear Weapons States (NNWS). NWSs are those nations which conducted their first nuclear test and amassed the weapons technology before 1968, and they are the US, UK, China, France and Russia (or USSR). They are the only nations publicly acknowledged by the world to have nuclear weaponry. NNWS have conducted their tests after this year. Since India conducted her first test in 1974, India is not NWS or she is theoretically NNWS. Now coming to the safeguards agreement; there are three kinds of safeguards, which are;

a. Voluntary safeguards applied to nuclear facilities of NWSs under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). For your information, India is not a signatory to NPT citing arguments that it does not provide for arms reduction by NWS and does not curb further tests by them but severely restricts NNWSs.

b. Comprehensive or full scope safeguards system (embodied in the IAEA document INFCIRC/153) for NNWSs under the NPT.

c. Facility/Material/Equipment specific safeguards system (as set out in INFCIRC/66/Rev.2, Sept.1968) for the facilities of non-NPT signatories brought under safeguards either unilaterally or under some bilateral or multilateral agreement.

The implications of these three types of safeguards are respectively as follows;

a) NWSs can classify their reactors as civilian or military and put the civilian reactors under the safeguards as and when they want.

b) All facilities of NNWSs will be under safeguards for perpetuity. Besides these the technology used in these facilities also should be transferred to IAEA for their thorough inspection and study of safety. Everything happening here is accountable to the IAEA.

c) This agreement concerns non signatories of the NPT and any agreement, bilateral or multilateral signed between the states will contain the list of facilities that can be placed under safeguards. These facilities and their technology will be transferred to the IAEA inspectors and the reactors will remain in perpetuity under the safeguards.

The safeguards agreement that will concern India is the third one as we are not a signatory to the NPT. We have three of our reactors under this sort of safeguards- the twin Rajasthan Atomic Power Station (RAPS) according to a bilateral agreement with Russia, Tarapur reactors and the upcoming Kudankulam reactors (again as part of an Indo-Russia agreement).

As part of the Indo-US agreement, both parties are speaking of an India specific safeguards agreement which will be based on the INFCIRC/66 template. The major deviation from the INFCIRC/66 is that this India specific agreement seeks to bring not just one but a set of facilities unilaterally identified by India as civilian, under the safeguards. Further facilities could be annexed to the safeguarded set later.

OK, so much for the safeguards. Now questions time.

1. Why should India add her facilities to the IAEA safeguards when we have many facilities successfully running without being under the safeguards?

The Indo-US agreement is civilian in nature. The fuel/technology/equipment supplied as part of the agreement could only be used for civilian purposes. It should never be used for military (weapons) purpose. To ensure this the facility should be under the safeguards agreement, which will make it in turn answerable to IAEA’s inspection which will/may thwart any attempt to divert the fuel/technology/equipment for non-peaceful purposes.

2. We have nuclear weapons, but why are we still not a NWS?

Theoretically the answer should be; according to the definition NWSs are those that conducted their nuclear tests and amassed nuclear arsenal before 1968. But the actual reason can be- NWS status confers high powers and rights upon us which the other nation(s) might not want us to have. They may even lose the leverage they have on us. Besides it may set a bad precedent as other NNWSs with nuclear weaponry may also demand NWS status.

3. Once a facility of NWS is added to IAEA safeguards, is there any way to pull it out of safeguards?

As of now, after referring all the IAEA, documents, the answer is NO. Oops, there is one. IAEA and host country can jointly determine that the nuclear/non-nuclear material, equipment or component in question has been consumed, is not longer usable for any nuclear activity relevant from the point of view of safeguards or has become practically irrecoverable. In short, that means, the IAEA safeguards wear off once the facility has been decommissioned.

Since there are no further questions that I can conceive of right now, I have decided to move on to the next part. Part-II will deal with India and her rising energy needs.

References:

1. IAEA on Wikipedia

2. Frontline; July 19- August 1, 2008, Volume-25, Number 15

Dasavathaaram - Some avathars are quite avoidable

I felt embarrassed for being in a self proclaimed league of those eagerly waiting for Kamal Hassan's new movie, Dasavatharam. In his new Avathar, Kamal painfully tries to fit into 10 characters who live (extra)ordinary life in seemingly unconnected spheres. In some strange twist of fate, their lives get mingled. This will feel like another Amores Peros or Crash or Syriana or Babel or many other hyperlinked films increasingly dotting the realms of World cinema. But for the normal, formula driven Indian audience it is an entirely new experience; but I suspect whether the bang was too much for them. I say this because, the theaters didn't portray that enthusiasm which a big budget movie ought to highlight, the reason might be that the target audience was too intelligent a target for this particular style of narration. However this multi-threaded approach is quite new to the Indian commercial film diaspora and should be considered a treat for the avid viewer, sans its pathetic special effects and mediocre make-up. Film makers these days, are trying to blow up a fortune taking films. I just can't figure out where the proclaimed 80 crores have been spent since the special effects don't create the magic effect and the makeup makes the characters plastic. In fact if Kamal's objective was to give a message rather than immaculate himself with 10 roles, he could have done his job significantly better with lesser roles and much lesser crores.

Anyhow, the film moves something like this. Rewind to 12th century and here we have a temple priest how sacrifices his life because he was not willing to betray his belief to his deity. Kamal excels in this role. The king (Napoleon plays the role of the villain perfectly) gives command and the priest is mercilessly thrown into the depths of the ocean tied to the deity and perishes there. Fast forward to December, 2004, few days before the Indian Ocean tsunami. A scientist (played by Kamal. No makeup and wonderful role), who is also the protagonist, at some biological facility in the US develops a weapons grade microbe. There is an American ex-CIA villain (again played by Kamal to perfection, barring the overdone makeup) who wants to lay his hands upon the new weapon (somehow he didn't chose an "Al Qaeda" for this role). Then its a cat and mouse chase which then moves onto India, where we meet the police officer who is inclined in catching the villain at any cost (Kamal, once again, plays this role of a inept police officer to perfection). There is also the role of the environmental activist played astonishingly good(neglecting the overdone makeup). Kamal proves his mettle again with the role of a Sikh singer. Rest of the characters like President Bush, the Old lady, the extraordinarily tall guy and Kung foo master were not up to the mark and could have been better if avoided. Finally, when the villain is conquered, to make the hero's task difficult, he swallows the microbe and he is infected with it thereby increasing the chance of spreading the microbe. The only agent that can act again it is NaCl or salt. Then the famous Tsunami comes in and everything is cleansed.

Towards the end of the movie, the message what Kamal tries to give is God has a plan for the entire world and seemingly unrelated people and events may be very closely related. So whatever happens is the action of Gos and it happens for good.

Overall an average movie, with glitches like bad graphics, a weak narrative and poor makeup.

clEaning up

"Procrastinate, don't put it up for later".

Yeah, I did just that over the weekend. This was one weekend where I got whole two days in hand after so many weekends of endless travels and escapades.

Just another boring weekend. Yeah really. I wanted to accomplish everything under the sun and perhaps somethings above it too. I'm quite unwilling to fill up my blog with junk. I've been tinkering around with ideas for my next blog. Thing's like state of education in India, the shoddy "software power" of India, US interventions around the world and so on the list goes on. After my dear buddy cum guide Ajay's resignation in pursuit of happiness (civil services gives him, his share of happiness), the weekends as well as weekdays are a matter of just pushing the hours. The only thing I voluntarily does tends to NULL on weekends (really, even food, call of the nature, washing, calling up old pals, going for a religious visit, even writing this blog have all become things done out of some sort of obligation).
To have some change to this mediocre, monotonous routine, I decided to clean up everything. As somebody always puts it, a healthy mind in a healthy body and a healthy body in a healthy atmosphere, I decided to clean up my life. Oh I'm not being philosophical. Just that I decided to clean up my room. First of all the debris in my room. I took up almost 2 hours. After that I felt it was worth it. Just then I remembered how important is my online avatar is and quickly decided to clean it up like remove unknown friends, communities in which I'm inactive or they are and such stuff. While I'm writing up this blog, I'm doing just that.

So let me getup and continue my cleaning. Dedicating today to clean up my life....

Thats all Folks...

Hampi (Last part!!!)

Whoa, I read my last post. It was too much man. Even me myself got sick of it. It was all long and boring...I have decided to make my posts very short. Writing essays is not my idea of great literature. I have always inclined to making my points clear in as short words as possible. In fact I can write a few hundred pages on how to convey your ideas in a few words...

As a result of the decision I have taken, I plan to tell the story of Hampi in as short sentences and limited words as possible.

OK, here it is...

Hampi is a very good place to visit during any time of the year (only if you are an Indian, because mark my words, I visited the place in April, the Indian summer and it was not that hot as anticipated). Another big thing is if you wanna see beaches, lush green forests and fauna, stay in a luxury hotel, play in the snow, blow money or wanna get drunk this is not the place. Also you need to be oriented historically ( I mean , interest in history) to understand and enjoy this place.

We (me and my friend Ajay) stayed at Hampi for 1 1/2 days and thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it. The first day we took a tour guide (an auto rickshaw driver, the decision we regretted later) and visited the places far away (>1Km) in his auto rickshaw. Sunday morning we visited the places of attraction closer to Hampi.

By 12pm, we bid adieu to Hampi and set off for Hospet (the nearest town, railway station etc). Since my friends train was at 3pm and we had plenty of time to kill, we visited the Tunga Bhadra dam, a few kilometers (~5km) from Hospet. We stayed there for (say) 2hours. In fact photography is prohibited there. So not much photos of the place. We met a few local workers and had a little chat in all the Kannada we learned during the 1.5 year stay in Bangalore. There we were drenched by the sudden drizzle which turned out to be a heavy rain.

We got back to Hospet and I saw my friend off to his journey further (to Andhra Pradehs). Since my train to Bangalore was scheduled at 8.30 pm, I took a nap in the guest room. Finally my time to say farewell to Hospet came and I huddled into my swecond class sleeper silently, as I contemplated a warm send off my Krisha deva raya and Tenali Rama... (just to be a little poetic).

Hampi - Where Vijayanara sleeps in ruins...(Day 1 Part I)

Ah, alas; it was a trip to Hampi where the ruins of the medieval kingdom of Vijayanagara lies in ruins .Why is it that I feel sad, is it because of seeing the wonderful kingdom of Vijayanagara now wearing a deserted look. No dummy, it is because it is probably my last picnic trip with my beloved friend and room mate, the one and only Ajay Joy. Is he gonna die??? Of course not, he has left me and the wonderful house and friends of, the Asha Nilaya our Bangalore abode for pursuing an IAS (yeah, the Indian Civil Services). I'm not unhappy at that thinking about the great benefits from an IAS friend. Of course all my support and goodwill go to him (and the rental advance he paid stays with me, ha ha ha).
It was as a sent-off tour he planned for a pilgrimage to the untapped wealth of the Southern states of India and to understand the greatness in them. So me being his room mate and friend, decided to jump in and pack my bag to Hampi, the first of his pilgrimage location. I being an employed young man couldn't get enough time to taunt him for the rest of his journey.
So we booked two tickets for the Hampi express (departing Bangalore Central at 10.30 pm and arriving at Hospet on 7.00am). Hospet?, yeah thats right. Indian railways does not run services directly to Hampi, Hospet is the nearest railway station. The train journey was as uneventful as any and we reached Hospet around 8.00am. As soon as we got out of the train, we were taken in by surprise by a fast Hindi (we both don't speak that good Hindi, in fact me none) speaking auto rickshaw guy. We were taken in by his marketing skills and lo, we agreed to a Rs.850 paid, full day tour of Hampi and its ruins (including the auto fare to Hampi). That was the biggest mistake in our entire trip. The best way to see around Hampi, is by motor bike or on bicycles (if you have enough time). Hampi is not that a big city, just a small village whose entire length and breadth won't be more than 1km. The auto rickshaw driver turned out to be a very good guide, well versed in all the nuances of the ruins in and around Hampi (he ought to be, after all thats his livelihood). There were quite a few places on the way to Hampi (from Hospet, better get one of the many state run KSRTC bus to Hampi) which commanded attention like the water supply well and the tombs of Muslim invaders.

Hampi is around 14km from Hospet and we reached there within 1hour (counting the time spent at the above said locations). First thing, accommodation. There are a lot of make-shift hotels and small lodging places dotted in and around Hampi. If you are well versed in Kannada or at least Hindi and have got a little bargaining capacity go for it and a room will come for as low as Rs.200. We got the room for Rs.400 (i.e, we are very poor bargainers). It was not that great room, but there we had an incessant supply of water and the beds were provided with mosquito nets and the windows were covered with mosquito nets. After a shower and refreshments we started the tour. Speaking on refreshments, no alcoholic drinks are served in Hampi. The nearest place to get them is 4 km away at a KTDC run hotel (i forgot the place name, how can I).

As the first section of the tour started, we visited the great Narasimha statue and the adjacent giant Shiva linga near by. The statue had a Lakshmi in its lap which is missing now, so is the sealing for the statue. The place looks very similar to my home state Kerala with its banana plantations, paddy fields and brook. It is said that the brook is perennial and it flows around the giant linga. The linga is close to two meters in height from its base. Both the linga and the Narasimha statue (close to 4 meters in height) were made from monolithic rocks.

After this we went to a temple location which was actually dug up from the ground (yeah, it was eaten up by the earth). On the way there was a magnificent view where two huge rocks were kept in a slanting position on againt the other. IN fact the magnitude of these rocks cannot be perceived from this picture. You need to be there to understand this wonder. The dug up temple site is a wonderful location. Thanks to ASI, it is kept in a very good state with wonderful gardens and lawns. The only problem is that once it rains the temple location will be flooded. Even at that hot part of the season, there were 1 foot deep water puddles inside the temple. The stone works were marvelous. Some of the works on the stone seemed like those of Buddhist monks. We also found a nest of bats inside the least treaded paths in the temple.

From this place, we went to the site of Maharani's palace (there is nothing much left of it, only the basement) and the nearby elephant lair (don't worry, there are no live elephants, only memories). Needless to say, it was also very beautifully kept and it is one sight to watch. There are also two museums at that location, one of statues and other one of daily use items like pottery, jewelery and such. Already exhausted by the hot climate (if you are used to Bangalore's climate, it is not that hot either. but we were on empty stomachs) and the sun (we plan to sue the sunscreen manufacturer; of course if you wanna keep your skin color, use sun screen lotions liberally) we took a short snap. There we also met with a Chinese professional photographer (guessed by his attire and costly gears) and illusioned how he could be a Chinese spy...

How tired we were? Thinking about that I am tired even now. Thats why I'm skipping some of the less important places that we went to. Let me wound up the first part here. The second leg of the remainder of our journey will come in the next post. Till then good bye...