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Staycation / Quarantine / 14 day stay in Sri Lanka to USA

This is a guide for those who are affected by the US travel ban. The ban applies *not* against Indians per se, but to certain categories of people irrespective of nationality who have in the past 14 days stayed in India. Please note that there is eligibility to travel to Sri Lanka only after 14 days of the 2nd dose of covid - 19 vaccine. It does not matter if you have taken Covaxin or Covishield or Sputnik or Pfizer or Moderna. Proof of both doses of vaccine and 14 days after the 2nd and final dose is mandatory! Currently, as of Sep 17th 2021, many affected Indians are considering countries such as Mexico, Maldives, Qatar, Serbia, Egypt for locations to stay 14 days before their onward journey to USA / Canada. Currently, Sri Lanka is in lockdown till Sep 21st and perhaps this maybe extended or relaxed. There is food shortage - but essentials like south indian vegetarian, like idli, dosai etc are available, albeit a bit costlier than usual. Situation could ease out in the following days
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VMD for Bangalore

VMD - Vehicle of Mass Destruction Our own car lobby would destroy Bangalore. Wonder how? Well here are some facts for thought: Ratan Tata's Tata Motors plans to introduce Tata Nano on Indian Roads by March 2009. Bangalore has 4 million two-wheelers and 450,000 cars. According to the India Infrastructure Report 2006, a two wheeler occupies 10 times more road space than a bus, in terms of per capita road space utilisation.  A car, not far from that, occupies about 7 times more road space than a Bus. Ratan Tata plans to have atleast 10% of the two-wheeler users shift to Tata Nano. For Bangalore, that would mean an additional 400,000 cars on top of the 450,000 that we already have. We will have more nightmares than we can imagine!
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Bengaluru Vs Hyderabad - we have a winner!

After Mr Ramalinga Raju's "true lies" or whatever, it is clearly emerging that in the battle between the two cities of the Deccan, my home city, Bengaluru is a clear winner.  Only, in this battle - the winner will take it all. Hyderabad has virtually logged out of the "global supply chain" as Tom Friedman, the famous NY Times columnist, would like to term the global economy. Pentium chips could not withstand the heat of Bhagyanagar cooled by the Hussain Sagar lake! Yet, our humble Bellandur kere (lake in Kannada) seems to be at peace with Electronics City. And it deed, it is the pleasant climate of Bengaluru thanks to existant lakes like Sankey's, Bellandur, Agara lake which is directly contributing to the peaceful and largely fraud free corporate life. Bengaluru Inc needs to thank past regents like Kempe Gowda of the 16th century and recent ones like Nalvadi Krishnarajendra Wodeyar.  In school text books and innumerous excursions we are taught to marvel the
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Say goodbye to Sankey Road - or Stand up for it

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Sankey Road - streching all the way from Cauvery Theatre Junction to Yeshwantpur Circle Junction is going to go the same way as Race Course Road did - widened beyond recognition. Original Story:  http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Jan212009/city20090121113747.asp " On condition of anonymity, a BBMP Executive Engineer of the Road Widening Committee, said, “The entire stretch of road from the Cauvery Theatre Junction till the Yeswanthpur will be widened as part of 91 arterial roads expansion project. The Road Widening Committee has already placed the plan, as this road is the crucial connecting road to NH 4 (National Highway). Based on the priority, the road will be demarcated and widened as scheduled”." Capt Naveen Chandra, once remarked that widening roads is like trying to control obesity by switching to larger sized pants! Widening of roads in Bengaluru does not benefit anyone. The money just fills the pockets of BBMP / BDA officials and the Contractor-Official Nexus Mafia
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Bangalore Transport 2020 plan - Flawed in fundamentals

I have always appreciated the efforts of Shri Rajeev Chandrashekar towards development of Bengaluru. With all due respect, i find the fundamentals of his plan for Bengaluru transportation quite ridiculous and very short term in sight. Here is why: The Plan's basic assumptions are: * Have Signal Free Roads on "Arterial Roads" * Increase the number of Buses But the flaws are that not having signals adequately itself is a big problem. In Bengaluru, we have Vehicle Actuated Signals; More on that here:  http://praja.in/node/249/subscribe The point is quite simple - Adequate signalling and queing leads to better capacity utilisation, read in simple man terms - better flow of traffic. A junction or circle needs to be used by traffic flowing from all directions  and even pedestrians (It is another matter that this category is forgotten in Bengaluru!) Second - Increasing the number of buses. Buses in Bengaluru are literally the lifeline of this city. If it was not for BMTC buses,
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