Friday Morning

Personal

In a foul mood on a Friday morning.

No electricity in office. Courtesy, Pune's infamous four-hour load-shedding schedule.
Computer is on, which is good, but the fans and ACs are off.
Is this a way to save money in office?
There may be some reasons, but if they're earning xyzee USD per day, what prevents them from spending 10% of that on a generator set!

Pune' infrastructure needs improvement.

Thank God Bangalore is the Silicon Valley of India and not Pune. With the kind of roads, power situation, and infrastructure that Pune has even a 40% increase in IT companies will result in the city stopping in its tracks.

Pune's roads - 4 on 10
(It's summer. In monsoon it is 1 on 10)
Pune's traffic sense - 4 on 10 (outsiders give a 0)
Pune's load-shedding - 2 on 10
Pune's traffic policemen - 2 on 10

There's a 4-hour power-cut at fixed times in the city. If the power-cut is during morning peak hours, the signals are off, and at that time there are no traffic policemen in sight.

Pune needs to cultivate traffic sense (like Bombay has). Hyderabad's traffic density is more, but it has the roads. Pune doesn't have the roads and the traffic is burgeoning.

There's road concretization going on in our area, Nagar Road. One-half of the road is under construction, 10% of the other half is covered with construction material and the remaining part of the road takes 200% of the evening traffic and the streetlights are always off, without any dividers. People don't say anything, because that's the way work is done here, and we're all used to it, and it's matter of time before the construction activity will end, and there will be a smooth, wide, and concrete road.

A suggestion for Pune's traffic police force.
Everyone knows the police force is underpaid, overworked, has low self-esteem, and a high sense of arrogance and power. Why not make policemen accountable?
A drastic suggestion would be to reduce their working hours (yes, actually reduce the time they work), make it a six-hour shift for them and expect them to work for that time in a selected area. Then choose the best areas with traffic sense and reward the traffic police for that.

Pune's people are to be blamed too. If Bombay, where each minute counts has the traffic sense to let the lights turn from red to green, why can't we in Pune wait till the traffic signal countdown comes to zero and then start. Anywhere in Pune, as soon as the traffic countdown timer reaches 11..10..9..8 people start their bikes and zoom off. This chalta hai (This is the way it is) attitude makes us so complacent and is the downfall of Pune, which is one of the best cities in India, except for the traffic, roads, infrastructure, and power shortage—all of which can be addressed by the authorities.

Technorati Tag: Pune