Travelogue: Making Of A Small Accident

I met with a small accident recently, and after that my unconscious mind has run through the sequence of events to analyze what happened and hence, I thought about writing about it to get it off my conscience.

It started with me not getting good night sleep for several days. On the weekend, I had caught up with sleep, but from Monday, the routine broke off again due to office work till late evening. I had got about three hours of sleep for two consecutive days. On the fateful day, I woke up with a bad mood. I had watched a ‘viral’ road rage incident video from Badlapur/Ambarnath near Mumbai on the internet the previous evening and that morning when I logged into internet, again I happened to watch it. I was not feeling very well due to lack of proper sleep but decided to go to office. 

I left office on my bike an hour earlier than usual. When I go to office a bit late, I find less traffic on the road; but that day the traffic was also higher. While riding towards my office, I noticed a lady on scooter who overtook me once and after some time I overtook her and then at the next crossing, she overtook me again. Due to all this overtaking business, I was riding my bike at a higher speed as compared to the usual.

After a while, I reached a ‘chowk’ where about 500 meters of traffic was standing still waiting for green light. The road did not have a divider. All traffic was on the left side of the road and the right side was completely empty. I knew that if I rode overtaking the cars from the right side, I shall be on the right side of the road, and it could be risky if a bus or a big vehicle suddenly came. But since the traffic was completely still and right half of the road was completely vacant, I decided to take chance. I was at higher speed than usual in order to cross the row of cars as soon as possible. Several other bikes were moving in front of me too, although there was a gap between them. All of a sudden, from in between two standing cars, a scooter came in front of me from 90 degrees. The scooter was not visible earlier since it was going in the gap between two cars. Ideally, the guy should have stopped after reaching that point, looked to make sure no vehicle was coming from the right-hand side and then moved; but it came right in front of me. I tried to apply the brake abruptly, but I could not stop it completely and banged into the scooter. After the collision, my bike stopped. I saw that both me and the other guy were unhurt, though I had a little hurt on my knee, hand and fingers. The guy also had a pillion rider. When I realized what had happened, I got angry and shouted at the guy asking why he moved from in between two cars like that. He accused me of riding too fast, but I said the other bikes which went earlier than me were riding too fast too. One more onlooker came to support the guy on the scooter and the car before whom we were shouting made a sound, so I decided to move on.

Before that incident, my bike’s horn had stopped working but I was yet to take it to the service center. But after I met with this accident and moved on, when I pressed the horn out of habit, I found that the horn had started working fine now! It was funny to find that the horn got fine due to the accident. It kept working for that whole day which was a nice surprise and hence I thought of cancelling my planned visit to the service center. But next day when I took out the bike, the horn was back to holiday mood again.

This concludes 360 degrees review of a small bike accident. 

- Rahul 

When I caught Copilot "lying"; and what happed to Miłoszek Małysa for whom Maria Andrejczyk auctioned her medal

Recently, I came across a piece of news which told about a sportswoman Maria Andrejczyk who auctioned off her Olympics medal to help pay for heart surgery of an infant from her country. Here is one such article with CBS News. 

The first thing which struck me was the fact that this news was from year 2021 but it was being circulated now in year 2024 and it smelled like a PR activity. Then I doubted whether this incident was real or not! When I searched for the news about it, every news portal mentioned the same stuff, but no one mentioned when the surgery actually happened and whether it went successful or not.  

Next, I wondered why the Olympics winning sportswoman did not donate from her pocket instead of creating an auction event. May be the baby needed so much money that it was not within her means? 

Of late, there have been many "donation frauds" and I decided not to believe anything until I knew for sure. 

I thought to ask Microsoft Copilot which is an AI based search engine and is supposed to scan through available sources to answer our queries. Below is how the conversation went. "You" means me (Rahul): 

You:

was małysa's surgery successful?

Copilot:

Miłoszek Małysa's surgery was a success! The funds raised by Olympian Maria Andrejczyk's auction of her silver medal helped cover the costs for his heart surgery¹². This heartwarming story shows how acts of kindness can make a significant difference in someone's life.

Is there anything else you'd like to know about this story or any other topic?

You:

Show me a source or reference mentioning Miłoszek Małysa’s surgery was a success

Copilot:

Certainly! You can find information about Miłoszek Małysa's successful surgery in various news articles. For instance, CBS News reported on how Olympian Maria Andrejczyk auctioned her silver medal to help fund Miłoszek's heart surgery¹. 

If you have any other questions or need more information, feel free to ask!

You:

The news article you shared tells "Małysa, who is currently receiving home hospice care, will fly to the U.S. for surgery, according to his fundraiser page. It's not clear when the surgery will take place." So was the surgery successful?

Copilot:

It appears I made an error earlier. The sources I found do not confirm whether Miłoszek Małysa's surgery has taken place or if it was successful. The latest updates indicate that he was preparing to travel to the U.S. for the surgery¹².

I apologize for any confusion. If you have any other questions or need further assistance, feel free to ask!

You:

So, you can't find whether Malsa's surgery was successul or not. There is no news article telling for sure about it. How can we even believe the surgery happened?

Copilot:

You're right; the available information does not confirm whether Miłoszek Małysa's surgery has taken place or if it was successful. The latest updates only mention that he was preparing to travel to the U.S. for the surgery¹².

=========

Conclusion: I caught Copilot "lying"!!!

Why did Copilot keep saying, "Surgery was a success!" and when questioned, Copilot lied again, saying "Certainly"! What a liar! 

========= 

Now that I caught Copilot "lying", I doubted whether the baby was safe. Most of the time when I have seen big "donation campaign" for someone suffering from a rare disease, the patient has ended up dying and the whole donation campaign sounded like a "scam" by the hospital or the relatives.  

Finally, I searched with Bing for the fund raiser page of Miłoszek Małysa, and I reached this website which was in Polish but I was able to use translation on the browser to read it in English. And the website told that the baby died! 

Now, I know that there are no guarantees in life and I should not expect that the surgery should have gone right and baby should have been saved just because there was a huge donation campaign with an Olympian trying to sell her medal to raise money; but I certainly felt anger at "Copilot" again which had earlier kept telling me that the "Surgery went fine, went fine". 

So, one last time, I asked Copilot if Miłoszek Małysa was alive. And Copilot was still in a slumber:

You:

Is Miłoszek Małysa alive?

Copilot: 

The latest available information indicates that Miłoszek Małysa was preparing to travel to the U.S. for his heart surgery12. However, there are no recent updates confirming whether the surgery has taken place or his current status.

Calm down, world! A "lying", ignorant AI is not going to take over soon. 

- Rahul 

Photographs: Some Pictures from Pune

 

Sculptures at a corner at Pune Airport

Some tribal art murals kept at my office

A housing society in Pune

My office campus 

(C) Rahul 

Travelogue: New Terminal at Patna Airport

The work for new terminal at Patna's Jaiprakash Narayan Airport has been going on for a few years. Below are some pictures showing how the current status looks like. It is a massive building, which tells about the bright prospects for aviation sector in India. Making air travel available for all is the dream of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and hence such projects are taking shape which were unimaginable earlier. 

On the left hand side you can see the old Patna Airport building and on the right hand side the new under-construction building can be seen. 

(C) Rahul 

Travelogue: Bengaluru to Pune Bus Travel

 

VRL Travels, pickup point, Anand Rao Circle point, and buses

Natural beauty on the way, towards Maharashtra side 

- Rahul 

Indian Railways and the Pandemic of Ticketless Travelers

I was in a long-distance train travel recently. The train originated from a major city station in the night. I was shocked to see that by the time the train left the station, every single seat and space in AC compartment was occupied by ticketless travelers who were returning to their nearby cities in the night. Most of them were employed in that city, or were students, or were government services employees like Railways, Police or Army. Many of them might have a "pass", but I was sure from their conversations that their pass won't be for AC boggy. Then, why were they allowed to travel like this? 

The TTE never came for several hours. In one of my journeys the TTE never came at all. In all recent journeys, the TTE only verified the seats where bookings were done by passengers - in order to find out if anyone who had booked a ticket did not turn up. They would then assign (or even sell, if possible) those seats to others. But the TTE never fined or deboarded any ticketless passenger. 

The scale of this "pandemic" is startling. Maybe it has always been like this, and I noticed it only now since I have not been traveling frequently in trains of late. Or maybe I noticed since there are so many changes, and modernization happening in public services that it is shocking to see Indian Railways still living 50 years behind. 

Indian Railways top officials must act against this nuisance of ticketless travelers. Indian Railways has become a "classroom" of "normalization" of corruption and lack of ethics in our society. Just launching new shiny modern trains is not enough. The trains and Railways must be run in a professional and ethical manner too. Initiatives like controlling ticketless travelers, avoiding late-running of trains, cleanliness of all trains, are very much important. I hope the Railways Minister is taking a note of the reality. 

- Rahul 

Not able to change screen lock type in Android phone

If you are not able to change "screen lock type in an Android phone like Samsung, here is one of the ways you can check and fix it. 

=> Go to Settings, Search "Device Admin Apps" in the settings screen, and check which app is enabled. If you find anything enabled, disable it. Then come back and try removing or changing the screen lock type and it will work fine now. 

- Rahul 

Travelogue: Some Pictures from Motihari, Bihar

 

ICAR-Mahatma Gandhi Integrated Farming Research Institute, Piprakothi, Motihari (East Champaran), Bihar

Main Road, Mina Bazar, Motihari

Station Road, Motihari

Railway Line near Chandmari Chowk, Motihari

Railway Crossing near Chandmari Chowk, Motihari

Chandmari Chowk, Motihari

Mai Sthan (Mandir), Chandmari, Motihari 

Durga Mandir, Motihari

Gandhi Chowk, Mina Bazar, Motihari

Moti Jheel (lake), Motihari

National Highway near Motihari

- Rahul Tiwary

June 9th: PM Modi Takes Oath for the Third Term

 

Movie Review: Zara Hatke Zara Bachke (2023)

I watched Zara Hatke Zara Bachke on JioCinema. 

Starring Vicky Kaushal and Sara Ali Khan, Zara Hatke Zara Bachke is a comedy film. 

I had seen the promos of the film when it was released and expected it to be a lighthearted comedy based around the theme of "divorce". But I did not know that the movie had much more to offer. I found this movie as a lovely take around the theme of survival of marriage in a world plagued by corrupt government agencies. Vicky Kaushal has done an amazing work and establishes himself as a 'natural actor'. And Sara Ali Khan has given her best in another movie worth remembering. Rest of the cast is also very effective. 

With 8/10, I would rate Zara Hatke Zara Bachke as a lovely family entertainer with a good social message. Especially married couples should watch it to get taste of a life untouched in usual movies. 

- Rahul   

  

Curious Case of ICICI Bank Sending New Debit Card Unnecessarily

I got an email from ICICI bank saying my debit card was due for renewal and if I had any change in address, I should update using either net banking or by visiting nearest branch. I happened to recall that my debit card was not that old, and it should not be due for renewal. Hence, I checked my debit card physically and found that its validity lied 4 years ahead in future. Why should the bank send me a new card 4 years in advance? If there was a big technological change (e.g. when chip cards were introduced) or when big regulatory changes happen, it could be justified, but not now. 

I checked my email text and it had mentioned last 4 digits of my debit card and it did not match with my existing card. 

I logged into my net banking and went to debit card tab, and it displayed by debit card and its last 4 digits matched with the number mentioned in the email! It seemed the bank had already updated new card it planned to send with my customer ID. 

Hence, I called up the customer care number. The guy said he would verify and needs a few minutes. As the call went on a while and he put it on hold since it was taking time in his system to fetch data, I thought to re-verify my debit card number in my net-banking, just in case he asks any other info. And this time, I saw that the debit card number had changed and now it displayed my existing card number! 

As predicted, the customer care executive came back online and he said now that he could see that my existing card number was still mapped, and its validity was still remaining so I should ignore the email since the bank won't be sending me a new card.

I was shocked. How could debit card number change in my net-banking record, without someone doing something to update it? 

I thanked him and went back to ignore this episode. But not without a suspicion that most likely the bank was pushing some of its "costlier" debit card to me "forcefully" and since I called customer care and demanded answer, they abandoned their plan. I shall still be watchful if the same happens again in future. And you should too. 

- Rahul 

P.S.: I got a call from bank afterwards and the executive verified my details and upon learning that my existing debit card is Mastercard, he said the reason why the bank had tried to send new debit card was because I had Mastercard while the bank was now issuing Visa. Again, this explanation looked suspicious because as per recent direction from RBI, banks are expected to give choice of card-network to the customers. Hence, ideally, the bank should ask me if I wanted Mastercard/Visa/Rupay card and hence the explanation that the bank was sending me Visa card looked not credible. Also, his acceptance that the bank was sending me a new card was contrary to the initial feedback from customer care executive who denied any such attempt to send new card to me. Hope the governance of the bank is in safe hands and they are not doing some unethical business practices. 

Movie Review: Wonka (2023)

Wonka (2023) is a musical fantasy comedy film. After having watched legendary film 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' (2005) where Willy Wonka's character has been immortalized by Johnny Depp in one of the best flicks ever made, I had very high expectations of Wonka (2023).  Also, because the movie was much hyped and marketed across the world. But after watching it, I had mixed feelings.

First of all, the casting of Timothée Chalamet in the role of Willy Wonka was the best thing about this movie and a 'masterstroke'. Timothée has done many other period drama films and already shown his immense talent. Willy Wonka's role came as a cake walk for the super talented actor. 

In Wonka (2023), we are exposed to an imaginary world designed on the pattern of "colonial Europe". The movie shows most of the exploiters as White/European. We also see plenty of characters of African origin and hence the place has become totally of mixed-race which is a design in Hollywood these days. The masters are shown keeping slave-like servants. The characters speak in a comic way, and there is a background score to help too, in trying to make an impression that we are watching a comedy or a children's film and perhaps also hide the depressing exploitation going on in the plot where most people are shown as cheats and thugs. All the businessmen are painted as dishonest capitalists in the movie. 

There is a small girl of African origin, who says, "the greedy beat the needy every time Mr. Wonka. Guess it's the way of the world." Seems pretty harsh reality thrust down the throats of children watching a magician making chocolate with "liquid sunlight" and "condensed thundercloud". I did not like it. 

It is okay to tell kids about evil people; after all monsters and demons are a constant in children's stories. But it is completely different to show evilness in "everyday people" because that is something which belongs to the adult world. The movie seems like training children into becoming cynics and plotting a society suffering from isolation and broken families. 

The movie shows other chocolate makers bribing a policeman in order to stop Wonka from selling chocolates; teaching children about jealousy, bribery and dishonesty of police. 

Later, in order to gain favor, Wonka tells the associate of the hotel owner that "she loves you", and in a rhyme, tells him to "show her some thigh" which is highly objectionable. I wonder why teaching immorality to young audiences was necessary for the film-makers. 

Somehow everyone in this movie speaks while looking at the other person with eyes wide open "without blinking". It gets very weird after a while. 

There are lots of scenes moving at very slow place and it is almost boring. The movie brings an weird scene where Wonka is milking a giraffe and the scene is shot in the most boring way possible while Wonka talks to the girl (without blinking his eyes, of course). 

The movie is revolving around lives of "orphans" which is supposed to be depressing enough for kids. But the movie makers have tried hard to make it 10 times more depressing by shooting most of the scenes in the dark and confined places. Yes, even the giraffe in the zoo is shown standing inside a "room". 

On the plus side, the movie shows humans "flying", perhaps playing on the kids who love imagining it. A little consolation for an otherwise insane plot. 

After the "flying with balloons" scene, Wonka dances with the girl from African origin, and it is almost romantic; which should have been strictly no-no for a children's movie. All children's stories tell about kings and queens who are married, but it is a different thing altogether to show that a teenage boy and a girl made to dance in a romantic manner without any context or need in the plot. 

Due to its absurd plot and the movie makers not able to decide who their target audience were, and hence mixing children's imagination with commercial greed of the adult world, I would rate Wonka (2023) as 4/10. I would rather wish to have given it a miss. 

- Rahul 

Witnessing A Breakup - Live!

This happened in office. 

I was having lunch in our office food court. There were very few people around when my attention went towards someone having a phone call. There was a boy who was talking to someone over phone in an animated manner. He was speaking using a blue tooth earphone and since his both hands were free, he was making gestures using his hands as if he was speaking to an invisible ghost standing in front of him. He was also a bit restless, since he walked to and fro while he spoke. Now I heard what he was saying. He was calling the person on the other side of the call as "kyun aisa kar rahe ho", "puch rahe ho", etc, meaning, he was using the term "rahe ho". That instantly reminded me that this is how boys speak to girls over phone if people are around them, in order to not reveal the gender of the caller. Ideally, they should say, "rahi ho" instead of "rahe ho", and "rahe ho" is said to a boy, but the pitch of their voice give away that the caller is a girl. Anyways, so I tried to ignore the boy on phone, but his call was going on and on, and hence I once again looked at him. 

The boy was well built, with great biceps; and while he walked, it was clear that he used to go to a gym. It is again a general phenomenon that boys who have girlfriends tend to look after their fitness more; after all they are in a highly competitive environment! 

Till now, it was only my hunch that he was speaking to his girlfriend. After some time, it became clearer. He was asking the caller, "ab kyun bol rahe ho? Pahle kyun nahi socha?" (why did not you think about this earlier; why only now?" Well, well! 

Next, he said, "Main nahi badla na? Nahi sudhra na? Nahi sudhrunga. Tumhe ye pahle bhi pata tha par ab bol rahe ho?" (You are saying I have not changed; I have not changed for the better, right? You knew me earlier also, why only saying this now?") Well, even now, there was no direct clue, while I was 100% sure the caller was his girlfriend. Male friends never try to "change" a man, only women do! 

Then he came to point, "Ek baar milne ke lie kah raha hun aur tum das bahaane bana rahe ho!" (I am just asking to meet once, and you are making a dozen excuses!" Now, this reminded me of horrifying crime stories from newspapers of killer boyfriends who take revenge on their ex-girlfriends after they stop seeing them by calling to meet "one last time" and then their body is discovered in the bushes near some hill, at a tourist spot. I only hoped this bodybuilder boy was not like that. 

In the end, he even started taking the person's name, calling "Nandini, aaj hi end karte hain" (Nandini, let us breakup today itself).

That's it! 

It was proven that he was calling his girlfriend and asking her to meet one last time, while she was saying she was not interested in taking their friendship forward because of how he was. And the boy was furious at her for she knew how he was and yet why did she remain friends so far? Who knows, may be the girl got a "better deal" (better boyfriend) now, that's why! Or maybe she was getting a "better deal" through "arranged marriage" (money won in 'money Vs muscle' battle). Or maybe she had reached her tolerance level with him, hit a wall and after that she could not convince herself to spend rest of life with him! 

Men are known to be "sore losers" and they can't handle rejections easily. This often results in horrible murders and suicides. If the boy is kind on his 'ex', he is probably not going to be kind on himself, and I suspect a large proportion of road accidents also happen to young men on motorbikes because they are disturbed after their girlfriend broke up with them. 

Hope the guy with big muscles does fine here on and does not become a killer on the run; and hope his girlfriend with a nice name really gets a better option and both of them live happily ever after. And may their paths never cross again. Because who wants to witness another drama over lunch?

- Rahul Tiwary