Degree Confluence project - a primer

The Degree Confluence project is an all-volunteer web-based project which aims to have people visit each of the integer degree intersections of latitude and longitude on Earth, posting photographs and a narrative of each visit online. The project describes itself as "an organized sampling of the world".

The official website states: "The goal of the project is to visit each of the latitude and longitude integer degree intersections in the world, and to take pictures at each location. The pictures, and stories about the visits, will then be posted here."

The degree confluence project was started by Alex Jarrett in February 1996. The country-wise confluence points and their visit information are available on the website. Also lots of cool facts available regarding most visits, highest visits, etc.

[Image above shows the confluence points in Bhutan: 27N89E, 27N90E, 27N91E, 27N92E and 28N90E]

We first heard of the confluence project when our scholarly former CTO and quizmaster posted this as a double jeopardy question during an intra-organization quiz contest sometime in late 2011. Ever since then me and a couple of like minded friends were keen on to visit a confluence point. 

The "thrill" factor being arming ourselves with GPS receivers and wandering off to locate the integer intersections akin to making our very own discovery of a new land, place, people and culture.

Gubbu gang being Gubbu gang, under the tutelage of Gubbu, planned to make our first confluence visit in Maharashtra during August 2012. The usual suspects: Omkar, Vishal, Sourabh and me did manage a very successful visit of not one, not two but three confluence visits in our very first attempt.

We made several confluence visits:

• Maharashtra IN, 2012
• Madhya Pradesh IN, 2014
• Gujarat IN, 2016
• Maharashtra IN, 2017 

I will be writing up more details of each visit soon.

Mumbai - MCGM and municipal elections

        With Mumbai municipal elections round the corner I set out wrapping my head around what, how, when, why questions about the Municipal corporation that I had.

I am going to write the same in Q&A format.

Q. What is the MCGM?
A. Originally known as the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), now known as Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) is the civic body that governs the city of Mumbai established under the Bombay Municipal Corporation Act 1888. It is responsible for the civic infrastructure and administration of the city and suburbs of Mumbai. Greater Mumbai as Mumbai is made of two districts - Mumbai City and Mumbai Suburban district. 

Q. What are the roles and responsibilities of the municipal corporation?
A.

• The Municipal Corporation is responsible for the creation and maintenance of roads and flyovers, including the cleaning and lighting of roadways.
• It is supposed to maintain sanitation and health; in this connection it manages hospitals, garbage collection and disposal, the sewerage, and the water supply. As part of its duties related to public health, it is responsible for the prevention of epidemics. The BMC must register births and deaths, and holds authority over all crematoria and cemeteries in the city. 
• It is the office of record for urban property and is also responsible for setting up and enforcing building norms. 
• Its duties include the maintenance of parks and public spaces, including beaches, and the provision of coastal safety in the form of lifeguards at beaches and lighthouse maintenance staff.
• The jurisdiction of the BMC runs over the full island city: from Colaba in the south to Mulund and Dahisar in the north. It maintains toll stations (check nakas) at these two northern entry points to the city.

Q. What is the organisation structure of the municipal corporation?
A.

• The head of the municipal corporation is the Mayor of Mumbai. The mayor is the first citizen of the city but the role of the mayor is merely titular. 
• After the Mayor comes the Sheriff (optional) followed by the Commissioner of Municipal corporation. The Sheriff is a distinguished citizen with a term of one year. Duties of the Sheriff are mainly ceremonial.
• The commissioner is in-charge of discharging the functions of the corporation. Under the commissioner are the Assistant Municipal Commissioners (one per ward) followed by an array officers.

Below image shows the organisation structure within a ward. Image sourced from karmayog.com

P.S. Arthur Crawford was the first municipal commissioner of Mumbai.


Q. What are wards / divisions?
A. The city and suburb are divided in to smaller units for better governance called wards and within a ward are further sub-wards called divisions. Currently there are 24 wards and 227 divisions. There are 227 corporators / councilors who are responsible for overseeing that their constituencies have the basic civic infrastructure in place.

Below image shows the wards and divisions.

Q. How are the Mayor / Sheriff / Commissioner / Councilor elected?
A.

• The Mayor is elected form within the ranks of the council. The party that wins the maximum number of seats holds an internal voting to decide the mayor. 
• The Sheriff is an officer of the High Court and the nominal Head of the High Court Department which carries out the orders. The post of Sheriff is apolitical. 
• The Commissioner is a IAS cadre officer appointed by the Maharashtra state government.
• The Councilors (Corporators) are democratically elected representatives.

The date for Mumbai Municipal elections (for next term from 2017-2022) is 21-Feb-2017. The results of the same will be declared on 23-Feb-2017.

I appeal to all fellow citizens to go and vote.

I am also crowd sourcing content for my next blog. Please write to me on issues plaguing your ward/locality. I will try and make sure your concerns reach the intended representation.

Let's make Mumbai great again.

Let's also hope that POTUS doesn't have copyrights on the above tagline. :P 

SCMM 2011: first half marathon

My experience of running my fist half marathon.

I participated and completed the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2011 in the Half Marathon category.

I had kept my participation as secretive as possible due to self doubt.

It wasn't an easy job by any means to pull a near 90+kg body over 21 km and it become even more difficult after getting a blister, the size of the moon, mid-way through the race. 

Quiting never crossed my mind though, thanks to Lance Armstrong's* following motivational verse:

"Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever."

I did complete the run.

Also the song that kept me going was Livestrong by Wideawake on loop.

At the end, all that mattered was that I finished this feat in a little under 04 and half hours.

Though not competitive by any means, it was a personal feat.

* - Lance Armstrong had not come out with his infamous cheating revelations till that point & was an idol.

TIL #2: Indic language classification

Taxonomy is a dear subject to me. So also is study of language families and classification. Up until now I found it very cumbersome to link what I had read so far. Recently though with the help of @drawio and online sources I was able to do a small classification.


The task I undertook is very minimal and only covers some branches of the vast language families in question.







 P.S.: This is not the complete classification.

TIL #1: Western Art Music

#TIL is a very popular hash tag on twitter short for "Today I Learnt".

On the same lines I have decided to write short blog entries on various topics of interest to me that I have learnt something on.

The first one I am writing about is the different eras of Western Art Music or Western classical music. The content has been sourced online.

Era	Approximate Timelines	Characteristic	Notable Musicians
Ancient	Pre 1100 CE
Medieval	1100 CE - 1400 CE	Church music comprising of chants. Mostly written in Latin.
Renaissance	1400 CE - 1600 CE	Music written in the musicians mother tongue "madrigal". Instrument music and voice wouldn't overlap.	Gabrieli, Lasso, Byrd, Palestrina, des Pres
Baroque	1600 CE - 1750 CE	Opera music. Instrument and voice combined.	Johan Bach, Vivaldi, Handel, Corelli, Monteverdi
Classical	1700 CE - 1800 CE	Modern Ensembles. Development of Symphonies. Defined in structures and phrases. Some of the structures were used up to 200 years later.	Mozart, Haydn
Romantic	1800 CE - 1900 CE	Orchestra. Programmatic music as part of story telling.	Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Strauss, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Brahms, Mahler, Tchaikovsky, Bruckner, Faure, Sibelius
20th and 21st century	1900 CE - present	Many different styles. Serialism, American post-war, Modernism, Neo-classicalism, Minimalism, Post-modernism	Too many to list.

Before this short study I had heard only Mozart, Beethoven and Chopin - discovered almost accidentally. You would remember the Titan advertisement music (Mozart) or the MS Windows sample mp3 file (Beethoven). Chopin was a pop culture pickup from Dexter - Detective Frank Lundy.

I have been latching onto whatever little art works I get from any of the above era and compiling them. From what I have heard so far, I can only say it's going to be a splendid journey ahead. Keep listening. :)

My short love story

It began when one of my friend prodded the idea of touring Madhya Pradesh on a motorcycle. It must have been sometime in Mid-2013. The seed was planted. By October 2013, I was sold on the idea and started urging my dad to let me have this life experience. A dismissive nod and I started short listing bikes.

My objectives were simple: The bike should cost less than Rs. 1Lakh, should have a decent fuel economy rate and should be able to do triple digit speeds. The options were limited. RE Electra (delivery after 6 months … no chance), Yamaha FZ/Fazer (found it comfy but underequipped and underpowered) and the Bajaj Pulsar 200NS (my pick). KTM Duke 200 was a costly option to consider.

I test drove the Bajaj Pulsar 200NS at Bajaj Sai Service Borivali outlet and inquired about the specifics of the deal. Armed with all the information I went home and pleaded with my father for giving the green signal. Sometime in December 2013, we completed the formalities and I took delivery of my love on 28-Dec-2013.

The date of my MP trip were finalized, 04-Jan-2014 departure. I was running short on time to complete the run-in period and 1st service before the long trip.

The very next day 29-Dec-2013 (Sunday), I rode out on to the NH-8 highway. Holding the engine in the tall 6th gear at a constant 55-60 kmph range. I had underestimated the winter morning and the cold kept my adrenaline in check. I couldn’t ride fast even if I wanted too.

That day I clocked around 250+ km. My first ride of solace with my love. Nothing between us. Just man, machine and the beautiful sound of the engine.

On the morning of new year 2014, with only 3 days before the trip, I set out once again on the NH8 highway to complete the required distance of 500 km before the first service interval. This time I did have to open it up at a couple of places to overtake slower moving trucks and it was really difficult for me to keep the speed under the mandatory 60 kmph. 

By noon, I had completed 480+ km and dropped my love for her first service. The guys at the service centre were taken aback that I had completed 480 km in just 5 days. Serviced and shining, my ride was ready for the MP trip.

From 04-Jan to 11-Jan I rode through Maharashtra and MP and my love for the bike just grew with every passing kilometer. I will write in detail about my MP trip. Watch this space.

Post MP, I rode my love to many short and medium trips: Nashik, Pune-Lavasa, Igatpuri, Tansa, Harihareshwar, etc. Not to forget the many sprints up and down the NH8 with friends on Sunday mornings.

But as time passed I wasn’t able to keep up the same fervor and for many months my bike lay still. The maintenance required to keep my love looking new and time I should have given to maintain it dwindled. It was slow and painful. And one fine day I decided that my bike deserved a better caring owner. With a heavy heart I bid adieu.

The memories from all the trips, the smiles from every kilometer is something I'll hold in my heart for a long time.

(Almost) Everyone's first car … M800

The humble and diminutive Maruti 800 made its presence felt in India a little before I was born. It was a no-brainer for thousands of Indians for it to be their first car. All through my family, relatives had owned the Maruti 800 at some point in their lives.

When I finished studying and got to work, I needed my own personal transport for commute. Buying a  new car wasn’t an option so I went to the second hand market looking for, no guesses, a Maruti 800. I got it for a lowly price.

The commutes were the stated reason but deep down I knew I was going to be doing many road trips in this car.

There is an unexplained pleasure in experiencing first hand the open roads and sights of new lands . With the humble Maruti, I too had my share of trips.

My first ever self-driven road trip was when I and my father drove down to NH17. It was a night drive during the winter months. 400kms of Konkan serpentine bliss.

The next trip was to Shirdi and it was EPIC. It has been chronicled here.

The monsoons and the madness in Lonavala with friends. A couple of trips and I had most of Lonavala mapped in my head.

The final trip before I upgraded the car was to Ellora via Shirdi. Loads of fun, a couple of missed exits and a midnight race against time to Bombay (courtesy Golu).

What the Maruti 800 lacked in creature comforts it made up for in character. Simple and Brilliant.