VIZAG matters - Sohan Hatangadi's Blog

Please visit the GVMC web site link: http://www.gvmc.gov.in/ Here is how it looks This site appears to be made more for the Corporation themselves rather than for the public for whom the corporation exists.  GVMC collects tax from us and is supposed to serve the citizens of Vizag. The GVMC web site should therefore be informative and designed to help the public. While the site does have some important information it is buried deep and difficult to find. For example  these questions are not easily answered: 01. What is the postal address of GVMC? 02. What is the phone number of GVMC? What is the Customer Service Number? 03. Who is the sanitary inspector for my ward? 04. Who is my Corporator? 05. Which number should we contact for garbage removal? 06. If my neighbor is throwing garbage on the road - who should I complain to? 07. Which number to contact for Water Problems? 08. If a water line is leaking on the road whom should I cont...

Further to my post about CII's magnanimous attempts to develop Vizag. Here is a typical "Development" story adapted from Oren Ginsburg's presentation courtesy "Survival International". Prequel : When I travel - and someone asks me where I am from - and I say "Vizag" - and they say "wow, heard its a great place" - I say "its a lousy place - don't bother visiting". This is a defense mechanism. I am doing my part in reducing influx into Vizag. For God's sake - why can't they leave us alone to enjoy our city? Do your bit - don't go around telling folk from elsewhere that Vizag is great. _________________________________________________________________________ O nce upon a time two management gurus decided to "develop" Vizag. They made their way into Vizag's heartland with their laptops and suits.  They wanted to do a survey. After a while they came to a beautiful habitation in Viz...

Hi, Saw this news report in the Hindu on 20th April and thought to myself -  we are in deep trouble . The "development" brigade is marching again , Vizag is already over populated, over industrialized, over polluted, over loaded with traffic and over exploited. Vizag is bursting at its seems and in a constant state of chaos. There are no pavements that a pedestrian can use. All over the city small, school going children, scurry across the roads between traffic. Our beaches - one of the few recreational spots we have - is packed to capacity.  There is complete absence of public sanitation facility. Thousands urinate and defecate in the open everywhere. Look outside your window now and you will spot a a few on the job. Every gedda is choked with plastic waste. Our sewage system, serves only 30% of the population and that is already overloaded. Garbage overflows from municipal dustbins.  None of our pristine hills ...

Vizag's half baked tourism ruins the famous Bora Cave

Water comes to a hamlet near Lambasinghi

Goli Galata - The Marble Contest

Tourism for Vizag   “This city is so beautiful” the wise men said "The news of its charms, we must spread" The IAS boss of the town announced “someday… Vizag will be just like Mumbai” We must get the crowds here they declared For this a tourist hub must be prepared So they held a big tourist fair And officials came from everywhere "Infrastructure is required!" they stated And a very pretty picture they painted Businessmen licking their lips Looked forward to tourists in planes, trains and ships The leaders of Industry, And Vizag’s upper gentry, The rich and the famous Talked of structures quite wondrous "This CRZ laws must go" they thundered "Our environmentalists have all blundered" We need more beach resorts in our city And let's get rid of the damn fishing community The air travellers association Sold the benefits of increased av...

The science of urinals The high urinals Have you noticed how high urinals have become? Walk into a men’s restroom and look at the urinal. You will find that it is perched high on the wall, challenging your ability to deliver your stream accurately into it. I have seen it in offices, restaurants, cinema theatres, bus stands, railway stations and umpteen public places. In the old days even our airports had these high mounted urinals. Now with better standards the new airports and multiplex toilets are built to international standards and they have the urinals at the right height. I have been wondering why the urinals are built so high so I interviewed some urinal attendants, plumbers and contractors. Here is what I found Their logic goes like this...  The urinal must be high because if you delivered a stream into a low urinal it would somehow splash out of it on to your trousers and chappals. Instead if you delivered it high, it would only wet your shirt T...

28 March 2012 What tourism experience means to me Someone asked me what tourism meant to me. “If you were coming to Vizag on a short vacation how would you like to experience Vizag?” I have been an ardent tourist most of my life, always mixing a little sightseeing even when I travelled on business. Having travelled in India and abroad extensively, I tried to visualize what a good tourism experience would be for me. I took the best experiences of several destinations and put them all together as a sort of wish list. Here is how I imagined a good tourism experience at Vizag. I have several friends in Vizag and decide to take a weekend break there with my wife. We fly into Vizag; walk through a good air-conditioned aerobridge into a modern airport. The toilets are clean and for once in the gent’s toilet the urinal is at the right height, the sink tap works and there are enough paper towels napkins on the basin counter. Our luggage comes quickly, we load them into a smoo...

  Carl Sagan   QUOTES BY CARL SAGAN Carl Sagan died in Dec 1996. When in Chennai (then Madras),  during the 80's, I used to watch his TV programs on my 14" B&W TV. Freaked out then and still do. A great thinker  and someone who worked tirelessly to spread a scientific temperament. I found these quotes on the net and wish to share them with my friends. A celibate clerg y is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism.   All of the books in the world contain no more information than is broadcast as video in a single large American city in a single year. Not all bits have equal value.   But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus , they laughed at Fulton , they laughed at the Wright Brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.   For me, it is far better to grasp the U...