By: Harshad Oak
As per construction rules in cities, all buildings need a certain parking capacity to be approved by the corporation. Although even these standards seem inadequate to handle the traffic mess in Pune, builders have found a way to make it appear as if they are conforming to the law without doing anything of that sort. They just convert the parking potential of the public road into a private parking facility.
One of the most striking things about Indian culture is that we rarely resist. For hundreds of years we have been ruled by the Mughals and the British, but apart from the independence struggle early in the last century and in 1857, there’s not much record of resistance from the masses. A few rulers did resist foreign rule but those weren’t people’s movements.
My letter published in the newspaper Sakal Herald dated 29th Sep 2006.
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“MSEB or whatever it is known as these days issues these expensive ads every week announcing that it will switch off power for several hours every Thursday for so called “maintenance activities”. Puneites also
seem to have accepted these Thursday cuts as a fact of life. No resistance either from the people or the people’s representatives.
I have been using Skype for a long time and recently started using Yahoo Voice as well.
Considering that both Skype Out and Yahoo Voice are paid services, thought I would blog my experience. Maybe it will help someone decide which service to buy.
Iqara Boradband recently changed its name to You Telecom. Unfortunately the name’s the only thing that has improved with Iqara.
I have been using Iqara / You Telecom for a couple of years and here are some quick observations:
Microsoft has announced the pricing for its new Windows Vista operating system.
A few days back I heard that the PYC Gymkhana located in the Deccan Gymkhana area in Pune has stopped serving alcohol. This came as a pleasant surprise and compeltely against recent trends in Indian cities.
Pune Youth Club (PYC) Hindu Gymkhana was formed in 1934 and for over 70 years has been a sports organization. PYC was once about cricket, badminton, table tennis and tennis.
Sometime back I blogged about the dispute about Paud Road – Senapati Bapat Link Road from the Pune Hills. The supporters of the road had declared victory following a decision from a lower court. However the matter is still very much open for debate.
If you are an Iqara / You Tele customer, please note that all calls made from Pune to their customer support call center are STD calls as the support number is Mumbai based. I have repeatedly compalined about this to customer support as well as the Pune office, but nothing is done in the matter.
