The Safe Road’s Awareness Project

I thought i would write what we discussed today so that we can stay on the same page. The Safe Road’s awareness project is all about one thing. Making people realize the importance of safe and quality roads. Roads are a critical component of our public infrastructure. Roads are fundamental to our everyday survival. No matter who is in power, what government is ruling, the requirement of safe and usable roads is a fundamental need.

Sadly, as far as Chennai is concerned we have seen our roads deteriorate big time, especially post the last rainy season due to the floods. What’s more ironic is the effort that we see from the government body(s) to repair and restore such roads which is hardly visible.

Even if roads are repaired the quality of the repair is so bad that it makes little difference. An apt example would be the brand new road leading to NIFT and IT Expressway from Ascendas. The road has been laid recently but its not flat, there are so many variations on the levelness of this road and major drainage lines which are risen above the road level and the new tar laid over it to accommodate it leading to a huge hump like a mountain that is dangerous when driving in the night, since streetlights don’t work consistently here.

So what can we as small timer citizens do about this? Well, for once we can get our act together and make people vote. We can highlight this issue to everyone on the roads and make them approach their zonal/ward office to lodge a complaint about the poor quality of roads. We need to capture the attention of the common man to make him act.

So how can this be done? The idea is simple but is not without risks:-

1. Get a can of red paint/paint spray.
2. Spray a circle around potholes, road problems, ditches, uncovered manholes, illegal speed breaker… you name it.
3. Take a picture of this.
4. Have an exhibition of these images.

The red paint will get people to notice the problem. It acts as  deterrent and people can stay away from potholes and other problems on the road. Flyers can be handed out to educate people on what they can do, where they can lodge a complaint, when we paint the roads.

Sounds as easy as it may, as good as our intentions are it is not without problems we can do this. The law may find the red circles as a nuisance issue. More importantly, this may bruise the ego of politicians/govt. which may lead to potential issues/problems.

No process is without its risk, change does not come easy. Our forefathers died in the process of getting us freedom from the British. I think its just to say we can risk being yelled at or be questioned for mischief if we can change our roads, make them safe and create awareness.

We will have a meeting to discuss this on the coming Saturday 21st of march, 2009 at "The Madras Terrace House" at 6 PM.

Fully Hyd Steals…

I thought one was enough and one incident was the end of it but then it looks like the indian media is not done with me yet.

Today my friend Archana pointed out that a picture of hers that i took and posted on flickr was stolen by www.fullyhyd.com and used on their website without my permission. I was not asked about this picture, i was not paid, nor was i credited for this image. My work of art, lifted off my flickr photo portfolio and used, sigh!

Here is the webpage, there is a section called "The Voices of Town" and you gotta keep refreshing it. You will see a picture of a cute girl smiling, its inside a santro car. I took that pic.

Here is the Original.

Here is the stolen image on the website.

Someone is looking forward to a nasty copyright infringement lawsuit. Good Luck, FullyHyd.com. You are just about to realize that you just messed with the wrong guy.

Flickr Copyright Meetup at Mocha

Off late we have been extensively hearing more and more of the Indian media flicking images from flickr and not agreeing to compensate or even provide credit in almost all cases.

I would like to organize a peaceful human chain, possibly hold play cards too for display and let the people know what is happening. I’m confident the media will not cover this but even if we can get one news channel to do a small piece on this or the local community free news papers like say "mambalam times" or "t.nagar talk" to write about us, we could reach out far and wide.

I’m also planning to file a "Public Interest Litigation" in the high court against the rampant press abuse of copyrighted flickr work and lack of clause in copyright laws from the dimension of internet and technology as well.

I would like to schedule a meeting this sunday at 3.30 PM at Mocha in Khadar nawaz khan road, nungambakkam. Please attend this meeting. This will be an informal start-up to get this moving and we intend to discuss everything. Right from the human chain event to the PIL to our rights in terms of copyright.

Sorry if you are outside chennai. I would love to see some of you if at all you are travelling to chennai this sunday. I will keep my blog updated and keep you out of chennai’ers posted on this.

Vaiko Meets Obama, makes pictures to prove it too!

Photo Credit: Shekhar Krishnan

Apparently Vaiko thinks none of us read the newspapers or do not know who Barrack Obama is. Its either than or he was smoking ACID when he asked for this posted to be printed.

For my dear Caucasian, African-American, Latino, Spanish, French, European, Hispanic and whatever the race from you are and if you do not know who Vaiko is, take it from me with faith. He is an asshole. For starters he supports the LTTE and then the list is endless.

Apparently vaiko met obama in Chicago when he was in one of his official visits to the US of A blowing our indian middle class tax money. Now the trouble is, indian people are hard to convince on some of this shit and hence vaiko did the obvious. Guess what? Yes, he made the picture himself.

Blasphemy

A Fancy slytherin talks to eve, fruit of knowledge she does steeve,
Adam shares an innocent bite; mankind tumbles down the night,
Thunder clouds, rumble and roar, yahweh’s voice callously soar,
Plague, demon’s, fire and storm, sins draw you into harm,
Mankind falls with all its might, doltish eve, adams delight.

Omnipotent, truth and love, mercy, kindness, all above
Maketh us in his dough, needless reason in us he plough,
Set out rules on how to pray, live the day and how we lay,
He foresee and knows all things, did he set out what we’d bring?
For all he made and what he gave, none of us had done a thing.

Knowing all and doing all, what made him let the serpent loose?
Sugary words and simple truth, logic, reason, made us choose,
Playing fair, he does not dare, bend at will and pay his fare,
Watchful eyes, from up the skies, Abraham can kill his mice,
Blood, agony, pain and vice, by his name all is nice.

Moral values, right and wrong, women cannot wear a thong,
In his name shall you fight, keep the virgins, it’s your right,
For all that know by lying with man, kill the clan, yes you can,
Reason, Logic, if thou seek, it all so sounds lame and meek,
Ye shall not tell nor ye yell, call it blasphemy in a nutshell.

Blasphemy

A Fancy slytherin talks to eve, fruit of knowledge she does steeve,
Adam shares an innocent bite; mankind tumbles down the night,
Thunder clouds, rumble and roar, yahweh’s voice callously soar,
Plague, demon’s, fire and storm, sins draw you into harm,
Mankind falls with all its might, doltish eve, adams delight.

Omnipotent, truth and love, mercy, kindness, all above
Maketh us in his dough, needless reason in us he plough,
Set out rules on how to pray, live the day and how we lay,
He foresee and knows all things, did he set out what we’d bring?
For all he made and what he gave, none of us had done a thing.

Knowing all and doing all, what made him let the serpent loose?
Sugary words and simple truth, logic, reason, made us choose,
Playing fair, he does not dare, bend at will and pay his fare,
Watchful eyes, from up the skies, Abraham can kill his mice,
Blood, agony, pain and vice, by his name all is nice.

Moral values, right and wrong, women cannot wear a thong,
In his name shall you fight, keep the virgins, it’s your right,
For all that know by lying with man, kill the clan, yes you can,
Reason, Logic, if thou seek, it all so sounds lame and meek,
Ye shall not tell nor ye yell, call it blasphemy in a nutshell.

Destination Unknown

Planet X you are the real truth
Planet X you are lovely too
Planet X we are a new race
Inhabiting you with a lot of haste
After all of earth we had to waste.

Planet X the crystal maze
A brilliant gem in the sea of space
Now bound for the human race
Destruction swift, so much pace
From after earth’s disgrace

Planet X our plant and trees will take root
Our animals and bird’s you will give food
Give us shelter, livelihood
Make us feel nice and good.

Planet X you are just a means
You come to us only in dreams
We really don’t know to find you where
After all we did to earth was much unfair

Killing the blissful, fine and rare
And now we long form you is your share
Your absence will mean more despair
Planet X, will you be there?

Destination Unknown

Planet X you are the real truth
Planet X you are lovely too
Planet X we are a new race
Inhabiting you with a lot of haste
After all of earth we had to waste.

Planet X the crystal maze
A brilliant gem in the sea of space
Now bound for the human race
Destruction swift, so much pace
From after earth’s disgrace

Planet X our plant and trees will take root
Our animals and bird’s you will give food
Give us shelter, livelihood
Make us feel nice and good.

Planet X you are just a means
You come to us only in dreams
We really don’t know to find you where
After all we did to earth was much unfair

Killing the blissful, fine and rare
And now we long form you is your share
Your absence will mean more despair
Planet X, will you be there?

Blood Sport

China and Olympics, Tibet and Human Rights.

Whose side are you on mate? Read no further if its China, rest of you realistic people please feel free to use the images below on your blogs, websites, email footers, t-shirts, mugs, whatever…

Spread the word, fight for peace.

Blood Sport

China and Olympics, Tibet and Human Rights.

Whose side are you on mate? Read no further if its China, rest of you realistic people please feel free to use the images below on your blogs, websites, email footers, t-shirts, mugs, whatever…

Spread the word, fight for peace.