According to an article in TOI,

“At a time when oil is the most precious commodity in our planet, fuel worth Rs 1,000 crore is wasted every year in Delhi by vehicles idling at its 600 traffic signals. If all drivers were to switch off their engines wherever the stoppage time exceeds 14 seconds - which would hold for, perhaps, all signals - the country would be richer by that amount, not to speak of cleaner air in the city.”

The article cites a study by the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), an Indian govt. affiliated research body, that points to the fact that each car owner can save about Rs 3,100/- by turning of the engine at a traffic light if they need to stop for more than 14 seconds. While, I’m sure that readers will be skeptical of the benefits versus not being able to restart the vehicles in time - something common with the much older vehicles. We looked around to see other resources out of the des that could shed some light.

CNN has a report here, dated May 2007, that somewhat concurs with the TOI report.

“Restart your engines

It’s probably a myth that goes back to the days when cars were equipped with carburetors, but many drivers believe that starting up and turning off your car repeatedly is a fast way to drain your gas tank.

But because of modern fuel-injection technology, drivers actually save gas by turning off their engine than letting their car needlessly idle, says Consumer Reports’ Paul.

Granted it’s probably not sensible shutting down the engine every time you get stuck in traffic, but if it looks like you might be at the drive-thru for more than 30 seconds to a minute, it’s worth turning off your car, says Paul.”

There are other important tips too. Also Edmunds.com has a few proven methods of saving gas, because they actually tested the myths for evidence, and they come up with some strong recommendations.

“Test #1 Aggressive Driving vs. Moderate Driving

Result: Major savings potential

The Cold Hard Facts: Up to 37 percent savings, average savings of 31 percent

Recommendation: Stop driving like a maniac.”

And finally To A/C or not to A/C. [CNN]

There’s no question air-conditioning makes extra work for the engine, increasing fuel use. But car air conditioners are much more efficient today than they used to be. In around-town driving, using the A/C will drop fuel economy by about a mile a gallon.

Meanwhile, driving at higher speeds with the windows down greatly increases aerodynamic drag. As speed increases, drag becomes more of an issue, making A/C use the more efficient choice at high speeds.

What do readers think? Are the suggestions practical, effective and relatively well known? Or, are you a step ahead and do you get 50 mpg or more through the controversial and possibly risky technique known as hypermiling?

Fuel saving tips - Über Desi

The first sketch is of the driver and the second of an accomplice and they used an light colored Oldsmobile Alero as the getaway car. Investigators think that the suspects were scanning the property looking to rob someone and when Komma walked into Allam’s apartment, the suspects probably followed Komma.

LSU is closed for Christmas and this is hampering the investigation, according to another report I read earlier today.

LSU murderers sketches released - Über Desi

Sree’s advice includes valuable links for information on lifestyles and resources, tips for students to stay in touch with their family and culture, residential choices available, student-teacher relationships in the US and most importantly, food! Among the list of valuable links Sree mentions pop-culture blogs like Sepia Mutiny, Ultrabrown and … ahem …. UberDesi. Appreciate the uber plug, Sree.

Sree has the unique perspective of having been all - a student, a professor and a dean. From experience, some personal, some anecdotal, a lot of his words ring true:

when international students come to the US, they are reluctant to seek out folks in positions of authority.

My American students are always dropping by, asking questions and seeking help ………… But my students from India rarely come by on their own — so I have to seek them out.

Please be sure to use the campus resources. Through tution fees, you’re actually paying for them. Plus, that’s why administrators get paid — to help you.

Having been a FOBulous student myself, I can vouch that I was guilty of some of that stuff, especially the part about being “reluctant to seek out folks in positions of authority”. But at some stage I realized that America is not just the land of opportunities, it is also the land of missed opportunities.

Just to give a simple example: when you’re having dinner at an Indian household and someone is serving you food, when you say “NO” that translates to a reduced portion of the serving instead of an entire one. Sometimes if you have been identified as the eater with largest gastro-intestinal capacity, you get served the remainders just to ensure there are no left overs. Again I speak from experience of being the guest with the largest gastro-intestinal capacity.

On the other hand, when you’re having dinner in an American household and someone is serving you (assuming someone does), “NO” means “NO” more half servings or quarter servings. Any more dumping of food on the plate will be frowned upon. Left-overs are for lunch tomorrow.

Americans having lunch in an Indian household should not be offended when their “NO” is met with yet another serving of baingan bartha and Indians having dinner in an American household should not be shocked when their polite refusal results in them missing out on the wonderful piece of apple pie or key lime pie.

The food example is just my way of displaying the subtleties between the two cultures. Each one is right (or wrong) in it’s own way. Point is, in the US you get what you ask for or, more precisely, you have to ask for something to get it. Refusal, however polite or non-intentional, will be taken at face value.

Uber tip for students to the US: Be in good standing with your professors, TAs and other staff, and don’t hesitate to approach them for help. Network with your peers. Don’t get caught plagiarizing. Connect with the locals and learn and enjoy their customs and way of life without forgetting yours. You will turn out just fine.

And this is not restricted to the academic field, it also holds true, in most instances, in the professional circuit and, if applicable, dating.
Anyone else have any interesting stories, insights or experiences to share?

Sree Sreenivasan’s advice for US-bound desi students - Über Desi

When the world around you changes, you adopt to it. Right?

The second week into engineering school I faced one of the weirdest situations I had till date. Little did I know that this would be the first of a zillion more I would for the next four years.

“Could you ask her for her notes?”

I turned around and for a second figured I had heard him wrong. How could a grown man not talk to a woman?

He repeated it, “Could you ask her for her notes?”.

I shook my head, walked over and 10 minutes later, I ended up with her notes and her friendship for the rest of my life.

Classmates thought I was arrogant, cocky, flirtatious and very very confident. But I had been doing this all my life, I just knew how.

Over time, I figured from the exercise, that besides talking to women, I also knew about how to treat them. I did not put them up on a pedestal or look down on them from where I was standing. I addressed them like I would address a guy friend, I spoke to them as an equal.

This also led me to believe that me and my friends had one thing in common which my other classmates did not. We had met, spoken to and tried to understand women way early in life. I grew up with women who were not family, fought with classmates of the other sex and some of them even ended up being informants to my parents.

The opportunity to interact with women came via my co-ed school, situations outside school were limited. All this interaction spilled over to my social life early on. Birthday parties, marriages and even at the temple, I would always meet parents who loved me for the fact that I treated their daughter well and they had no qualms expressing this to my parents.

As cultures intertwine, technology finds its way into everyday life, something has to let go.

This does not seem to bode well with a few people, who are making news. Someone decided to issue a fatwa against Co-Ed schools.

Muslims I went to high school with and their parents never seemed to have a problem with this.

The weirdest part of this story is this one paragraph

The fatwa was issued last week following an e-mail from a follower asking whether Islam allows a female to attend coeducational institutions after reaching puberty.

The seminary routinely receives e-mail queries, especially those pertaining to the Islamic way of life. It did not disclose the name of the sender of the e-mail.

A seminary that uses modern technology does not realize the benefits of a co-education system?

To their credit, many Indian Muslims have spoken against the fatwa.

In a country where women have enough trouble to deal with from the second they are born, do we need to add more? Do we need to keep men and women on different sides of the aisle that when they finally are on the same side, men look at women as objects?

Something has to let go. A fatwa against Co-Ed schools? - Über Desi

Picture from si_si_ay.

Having been a proponent of antiquated rules in the Indian school system for a long time, the latest news comes as no surprise to me.

Two high schools in Mumbai have banned pupils from holding hands, kissing or touching on campus, warning that they will face disciplinary action if caught, officials said Monday.

The schools justified the move by saying that these acts, which are increasingly being shown by the local entertainment industry and emulated by the students, were contrary to traditional Indian values.

Although uniforms are a hot button issue in the west, it had my support from the day I understood why. And as much as my friends would like to believe, I am not talking of the adult film industry getting a lot of mileage from it, but the fact that in a uniform you could not identify the social class of a person. Insanely rich or otherwise.

Every single school I went to, be it my Kindergarten convent that had a disproportionate Anglo Indian teaching community, where teachers wore these beautiful dresses or my high school that enforced Hindus to wear some kind of sacred ash on their forehead, there was never a time when I attended a school that did not require a uniform.

Coming back to the topic, One of the items that was added to the list of contraband in my high school was wrist watches. The reasoning was simple, students kept looking at their watches, which was construed as students indicating “when will this class be over”, which pissed the teachers off and the next day morning, a blanket ban on wrist watches.

The parents did not care, but the students found ways to circumvent the rule. One of my brothers friends began brining his old book bag back to school to fight the ban. How you ask, it had a HUGE clock on the back. Another student, who happened to be the top scorer in the class, decided to wear this watch on his arm under his shirt. He got patted by the teacher and ended up getting suspended for a week.

The point I am trying to make is that when you institute rules and take things away, students will always find loopholes, some even if they are academically strong (students who people assume would seldom break rules).

Besides all this, I think the schools are approaching this the wrong way. Kids will try to emulate people on screen. The smoking ban would not make sense if this were not true. So if the schools really have a problem with students holding hands or kissing, they should approach the problem the right way or get with the program.

Not in Indian schools you can’t. - Über Desi

Coca Cola.

The execs at Coke have come up with a very novel and long term strategy to combat its pesticide tarnished image in India. How? By starting a university. Sorry, No typos here.

According to sources, with the growth of modern trade, Coca-Cola would be developing a unique concept of a retail university. It would also teach kirana shop-owners some tricks of modern selling and storage techniques.

While the company is keeping its cards close to its chest, sources say the university is expected to come up in a year or so. When it does, it would be a combination of virtual and brick and mortar classrooms.

Will this plan work?

It very well might. Education is one of the top priorities for Indians. A global brand like Coke will look good on one’s resume, opening avenues to students. Besides Coca Cola is one of the most recognized brands in the world.

Experts feel that Coke will have new ways of getting into the consumers head

For instance, perhaps some of the most powerful advantages are derived from the marketing possibilities that a corporate university offers. There are opportunities to develop a university name, a logo, print publications, Web sites, degree or certification programmes, faculty and guest faculty designations and communication vehicles.

What waits to be seen is how Pepsi punks coke on this one.

Coke’s new avatar in India? - Über Desi

Original Post:

In a chilling development, a gunman shot and killed 32 (and counting) and injured around 25 (and counting) 29 people at Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Virginia, almost 10 years to the day from the infamous Columbine massacre.

At this time, there is no word on the names of the victims but the two shootings occured two hours apart, one in a dorm that houses close to 900 students and the other in the Engineering Department, which consists of a large population of International Students including desis.

Even though we may never grasp the enormity of this tragedy, having attended an U.S. University and living in a college town, we fully empathize with what the students and residents are going through and our thoughts and prayers are with them in this difficult hour.

The Massacre at Virginia Tech: The day of - Über Desi

But on March 23rd 2007 a new bill was introduced in the House of Representatives by Luis Gutierrez and Jeff Flake with support from a bipartisan group of co-sponsors.

Commenting on the bill dubbed the STRIVE (Security Through a Regularized Immigration and a Vibrant Economy) act, an immigration attorney Carl Shusterman said

is clearly a political compromise between those who want tougher border and interior immigration enforcement, and those who maintain that our immigration problems cannot be solved solely by increased enforcement.

The part of the bill that applies to most South Asians is the incorporation of the DREAM act and the AgJobs bill which wants to increase the number of H1-B visas to 115000, which still falls way short of the number of applications received by USCIS. The relevant section of the bill can be found here.

Since we have a personal stake in the issue, you can count on us to keep you updated.

Good news on the way? Some relief in a recently introduced immigration bill. - Über Desi

There has been a palpable sense of pride with the way she has dealt with what is widely seen here as racist, foul-mouthed onslaughts from her clearly under-educated, boorish English companions.

Danahar obviously refers to a very important part of this whole debate. Although the subcontinent countries such as India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh come from a market economy that is still catching up with the west, our public education systems are far ahead of the British counterpart. It is interesting how Danahar refers to Shettys companions as “.…under-educated, boorish English companions.”

Goody and the target of taunts, Shilpa Shetty, appear to have made up.
Photo: AP Via The Age

The “Britishers” are no longer the bogeymen they used to be because India is no longer suffering from the inferiority complex it used to have. India no longer feels the need to dwell on past injustices because it’s too busy getting ready for what many predict will be its future greatness.

I read the above paragraph with interest and intrigue. It is interesting how Danahar compares the past to India’s present reaction. I am not sure if India ever had an inferiority complex? Can you compare years of abuse to an inferiority complex? However it is intriguing how he focuses on the current state of India; the subcontinent just does not have time for bullshit. Danahar is correct in stating, “India no longer feels the need to dwell on past injustices because it’s too busy getting ready for what many predict will be its future greatness.”

One English commentator noted after the row erupted that “Shilpa Shetty has taken the supposed British virtues of civility, articulacy, reserve and having a stiff upper lip and shown that.. we lack them”.

This is an awesome paragraph. I never thought this event will bring out the arrogance of British public or the western culture. However I am not sure if this has to do with just being plain uneducated and stupid, or being arrogant?

Whoa this is a strong statement. But don’t we find this even here in America? The feeling of being superior to any brown or dark skinned person while sounding absolutely stupid and dumb, basic frustrations that I for example, face on a daily basis. This controversy brought to light some basic underlying issues between the west and the east. And by all senses the east came on top.

Ms Goody articulates in her crassness the fact that your average English-speaking Indian (most of who have been through private schooling) is a lot better educated than your average English person. And by the way there are probably more than 100 million of them.

If you’re British then Shilpa Shetty in all her well-mannered educated politeness is a lot more scary that Jade Goody could ever hope to be.

Thank you brother!!!! Remember the old mantra our parents always tell us. A good education is the best source of happiness. I did not believe in it but I knew all along how superior our education was compared to the BS they teach in the west. However Shetty’s behavior and mannerism has a lot to do with cultural values we south asians learn from the day of our birth. Shetty gave the British and example of how to be composed and graceful. Goody on the other hand sounded and acted like a brat and utterly classless. In my opinion how your average western adult or kid would behave. All I have to say is, the western culture needs to step up to the plate and raise it’s standards. This is done at home, not by a teacher in some third rate school. Maybe it’s time for the west to learn from our South Asian parents.

Big Brother row points to mature India

Shilpa’s Knock Out Punch to the West, A Mature India talking to the Immature British. - Über Desi

Even Russel Peters has a popular “somebody’s gonna get hurt” joke.

Thanks to Al-Gore and the rapid disemination of information the Tamilnadu State Government is getting the ball rolling. A new order was issued to remove Rule 51 from the Tamilnadu Educational Rules that permitted corporal punishment in schools under specified circumstances.

Corporal Punishment in Indian Schools
Image from The Hindu

The Hindu reports

The rule said: “Corporal punishment shall not be inflicted, except in a case of moral delinquency such as deliberate lying, obscenity of word or act or flagrant insubordination, and it shall be limited to six cuts on the hand and administered only by or under the supervision of the headmaster.”

Politics and slow processing times have finally resulted in this verdict.

A high-level committee chaired by retired School Education Director A. Muthukrishnan was appointed on November 14, 2002 by the previous government to prepare an education manual for the department. The committee submitted a report to the government in 2003. After over three years and several untoward incidents, the present government appointed a team headed by retired School Education Department Joint Secretary B. Vincent to take a fresh look at the recommendations of the Muthukrishnan Committee. The newly appointed team endorsed the recommendations.

Although this seems like a good idea and has been hailed by many Educationists, I have my own doubts about the effectiveness of this system.

What do you think ?

Smack that, all on the floor, Smack that, Not anymore - Über Desi