It may be termed as Havana appeasement or Dr. Singh’s Stockholm syndrome, but after reading statements like…

If the joint mechanism between India and Pakistan to tackle terrorism does not produce results, then New Delhi will have to think of winding it up, reliable sources said on Monday.
[source: IBNLive]

… it just seems that this trial and error diplomacy is all about putting up Indian citizens as cannon fodder for terrorists!

This vile, self-serving and rudderless foreign policy just lurches from terrorist strike to terrorist strike… disregarding the simple fact that “results” in this case are human lives at stake, not hypothetical outcomes of hare-brained schemes of some foreign policy academic!!

Observed in Pune…

Condition of roads + (Lack of) traffic sense = Hell

I do not believe in heaven or hell, but if ever such places existed, driving in Pune would definitely be a close approximation of what is termed as “Hell“.

The huge craters on Pune roads are beyond the ambit of the term “potholes”. The stretch of Ganeshkhind road from Pune University towards Shivaji Nagar is an excellent subject for test runs of a lunar rover, should India feel the need to test one ahead of its lunar mission! And as if the roads weren’t bad enough, the abysmal lack of traffic sense and road discipline is enough to drive one up the wall.

Much has been written and spoken about Mumbai’s potholes and the BMC/MMRDA inaction. And all this resulted in a judicial rebuke which at least got the authorities started in the right direction. I wonder if there is such activism being pursued in Pune. Left on their own, the relevant authorities would rather indulge in blatant corruption with unscrupulous contractors. And this would be seriously detrimental to Pune’s image as a haven for industries… engineering as well as IT.

I think another thing which contributes to the mess is the absolutely pathetic public transport in Pune. This loads the roads with more vehicles than necessary leading to the degradation of the road surface and multiplies the bad-driver effect! Come to think of it, this has been the bane of most of the Indian non-metro cities which have experienced an IT boom in the recent years. Investing in better public transport will go a long way in preventing people from experiencing “Hell” before they actually get there! ;-)