(Pic Courtesy: Outlook India)

Oh snoopers of the world UNITE! I was always told that if you snoop around–you would never find anything nice. It’s a great thought, but that hasn’t stopped me from being sneaky–snooping around without a care in the world, facebook stalking, email checking, and being alarmingly insouciant about the things that I find.

While I snoop for pleasure, a recent article in Indian magazine Outlook had an (unintentionally) hilarious piece about more and more Indians employing private detectives to snoop on potential partners. It’s like “Mumbai PI ” minus the moustaches! By now, the whole world and its aunt knows about our ancient tradition of arranged marriages, where eligible girls are sent on blind dates by their parents with suitable boys.  The couple, usually, bond over a cup of coffee and traipse back to their folks to report on the date. If they like each other, they eventually end up getting married. So far, millions of couples have married into this system–often with great success and enduring love and respect for each other.

But now, because we are a shabby generation–spending time endlessly on the internet or wasting away in a movie hall watching Bollywood movies, our standards have changed. For a lot of youngsters opting for the arranged marriage route (not everyone in India has an arranged marriage, it’s perfectly normal to marry your boyfriend or girlfriend), their expectations of a partner have changed. When, once upon a time, it was more than enough to hope for a guy with a decent family and job, these days  the criteria has been expanded to include what brands a person wears, where he/she lives and who they hang out with–things that a person would normally find out if they went out on a couple of dates with the potential partner. But, because the norms of arranged marriages don’t really allow for that–Outlook reports that families are employing private detectives to conduct background checks.

• Phone records, pay slips, credit history and medical records are dug out
• Household help, dhobhi, kirana store owners are discreetly quizzed for ‘character verification’
• Relatives, family members, friends may be questioned undercover to confirm family background
• Spycams are used in extreme cases, and if the client demands hard evidence
• Most frequently, clients want to know the prospective groom/ bride’s job profile, financial status, family reputation, lifestyle habits, sexual preferences, medical history, previous marriages if any, whether they’re having an affair

For a fee of Rs. 15,000-25,000 ( from $350 to less than $500), you can get your own PI. According to Outlook, the PI will snoop and report back on anything that is burning in the client’s mind. Is he in a relationship with another woman? Or worse, a man? Is he impotent? Does he live well enough for my needs? Is he only after me for my Canadian citizenship? Will she be able to adjust to our ‘lifestyle and culture’? Does she drink? Has she lost her virginity? Does the family have a history of dowry harassment?

Fair enough. After all, it is a leap of faith to randomnly marry someone you’ve just met. While, I am sure that the PIs ( the “snoopers”)  do a great job on getting the stats on the number of friends the potential partner ( who shall, henceforth, be referred to as the “Snoopee”)  has and the status of the family, I wonder how one really finds out if the snoopee is impotent or is a virgin! Hmmm. Maybe the Snooper sleeps with the Snoopee. And then, presents the evidence.

Oh, thousand-year-old tradition–how you have been besmirched!

I just moved to Mumbai and as you can all imagine what that might be like. Exciting, exhausting and completely chaotic. But I promise to have more updates…including posts about life in Mumbai plus a few book reviews.

What struck me most upon my return is the increase in the number of Indian authors. There are whole shelf-fulls of young, upcoming Indian authors and I would love to read a few of them. I can’t say I am going to read a lot of the chick-lit that is out there, but I will try my best to get a sense of who is writing what and WHY!

But here are some initial impressions on coming back to the motherland after a brief stint in the States.

Having been in New York during the big financial bust of 2007-08, it’s quite  a change to see the news coming out of India. While  newspapers, blogs and news programs in the States still continue with news of gloom and doom–the story here is entirely different. The growth story continues unbounded–the GDP numbers came out the other day–the economy is growing at a rate of 7.2 percent, auto makers are churning out new cars, bikes for a hungry domestic market and Karnataka has just hosted a global investor’s meet to attract more cash into the State.

While business looks buoyant, it’s politics as usual in the country. Nothing has changed–same old, same old and I hate to say it angers me to see clods like Trinamool Congress’ Mamata Banerjee as the Railway Minister.

Violence in India also continues unabated. While it was terrorism two years ago, this time internal Maoist-fuelled attacks are on the rise.  Within the last three weeks, I have read reports of buses with civilians being bombed, trains derailed and attacks on security forces being carried out by the naxalites who have a beef with the government over the taking over of farm land for development (Think Avatar and the Na’avi). Hundreds have died. The Government has just announced that it is considering the possibility of deploying the Army to deal with the Maoists. Booker Prize-winning author and activist Arundhati Roy said she sides with the Naxalites, but thinks that we need to rethink development outside the purview of just Communism or Capitalism.

It’s still hot, sweaty, and dusty in Mumbai. We are all still waiting for the monsoons.  I am not looking forward to it.  Neither the heat nor the rains will make the squalor in this city bearable. The slums are everywhere; there is no end to the poverty in sight.

There’s a lot going on in India. You’ll hear about it–a LOT.

Nanda Devi looking west from Chandrashila (Pic: Bibek Bhattacharya)

Trying to find good trekking and topographical maps in India is somewhat like the proverbial head meeting the proverbial wall. My year of looking for the perfect set of maps- primarily of the Indian Himalayas, but also of other places- has yielded rather interesting results.

I love travelogues, especially those dealing with mountains, specifically the Himalayas. Now, due to the range’s monumental hold on generations of visitors, there’s no short supply of great books or essays on this subject. But for an obsessive like me, what’s the fun in reading about these grand places without a good map to locate them on?

The most commonly available maps of the Indian provinces of  Uttarakhand and Himachal are the Nest and Wings maps, which are a combination of various sources, including the Survey of India trekking and topographical maps, and others. Now, these are generally quite good, with towns, cities, villages, passes, roads, lakes, trails etc mentioned in impressive detail. For the longest time, they were enough for my needs.

A section of the Nest & Wings map of Uttarakhand

But with a deepening interest came the urge to collect better maps, which would chart out valley systems, topographical features, ridge lines, peaks and approaches better. Now, this isn’t an unfair thing to expect. Look up any mountainous region in the world where travelers are wont to venture, and you’ll find some excellent trekking maps- not the meagre ones that our government issues, but more on that later.

My search began in earnest last summer, after a visit to Tunganath and Chandrashila in the high Garhwal Himalaya, a place with views that make you want to sink to your knees and weep with rapture. Faced with the dramatic panorama of the Himalayan crest on the northern horizon, and the lower hills and then the plains far away, I was burning to lend nomenclature to all that I was seeing. Thanks to Nest and Wings, I had a general idea of the regions I was looking at- e.g. I could trace roughly the line from Bedni bugiyal via the high distant ridge of Kuari Pass in the west and below it, the deep cleft of the Alaknanda gorge.

Nanda Devi looking west from Chandrashila (Pic: Bibek Bhattacharya)

Where mid-day clouds covered the horizon, I expected the western arm of the Great Himalaya, containing the likes of Trishul, Nanda Devi, Dunagiri, Hathi Parbat, Ghori Parbat and Kamet, to name a few.

In front of me, just beyond the end of the ridge running north from where I was, the cairn strewn summit of Chandrashila, loomed Chaukhamba. It is also known as Badrinath, after the Dham, and these four pillars of snow, ice and granite held sway over the imagination of Garhwal.

On its northern face it formed a cirque of peaks at whose feet arose the Gangotri glacier. Further north west ran the line of the southern faces of a host of well known peaks that cluster around the Gangotri Glacier.

An overhead screenshot of the Himalayas in Uttarakhand province

It was impossible, however, to be sure of the names of the peaks- apart from those of Kedarnath and Chaukhamba- at least for me. Having recently discovered Google Earth, however, I was hopeful of finding out the names.

Google Earth was quite brilliant, visualizing the peaks for me, but they weren’t named, at least the vast majority weren’t. In this case, Nest and Wings was useless (To be continued…)

Bibek Bhattacharya is an avid traveler and writer. He is currently the Editor of Business Today’s lifestyle magazine -MORE.  Bibek blogs at bibekbhattacharya.blogspot.com

At a packed community council meeting on Tuesday, deputy inspector Paul Vorbeck of the 114th Precinct and his colleagues briefed the community on steps taken to curb the growth of crime in the area. Revealing the year-to-date crime figures, Vorbeck stated that overall crime in the area was down less than one percent, while rape was down 30 percent. Grand larceny had dipped 17 percent, but he noted that there was an increase in burglaries — which had spiked to 32 percent.

Vorbeck told residents not to be alarmed by the statistic and reassured them that having more police on the Astoria beat would help curb the rise in burglaries. He also cautioned residents to be aware of their surroundings, not to leave their rear entrances unlocked, and to report any suspicious activities in their area.

Citing success capturing suspects in connection with recent incidents, Vorbeck reported that Jesus Fernandez, a 23-year-old suspect who attacked an 81-year-old grand father on 47th Street and Broadway to steal his car, was apprehended by the police. Fernandez, allegedly robbed Mayer Behmoiras just outside the door of the fifth-floor apartment, viciously beating the man and fracturing his skull. Behmoiras was admitted to the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Center at Mount Sinai Hospital and was reportedly unable to walk.

In another case, a livery cab driver was murdered by two other men in Long Island City. Suspects Gregory Johnson, 32, and Auther Latten, 22, were charged with murder. “They thought they could just get away with the crime,” Vorbeck said.

For residents in Norwood Gardens, who saw a rash of car break-ins and stolen GPSs, there was some good news too, as the man suspected of stealing the instruments had also been nabbed. Gary Yergarian, 29, was charged with a felony and several misdemeanors for stealing GPS units from two vehicles.

The police, however, are still seeking the public’s assistance in finding two suspects wanted for robbing a Dunkin Donuts located at 33-26, 21st St. on April 22. Both suspects entered the store in sweatshirts, armed with a handgun and demanded money. Vorbeck said anyone with any tips should call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS (8477) or text 27437 (CRIMES) followed by TIP577. All calls are confidential.

For residents around 30th Avenue who have been complaining about the increase in noise and fights in the bars around the area, Vorbeck said their concerns regarding deteriorating quality of life will be addressed. He said that establishments that have been particularly troublesome will be scrutinized further as they renew their liquor licenses.“We can’t have people shooting and fighting in these bars,” he said. “We will review their licenses. We can’t have such establishments in the area.”

The deputy inspector said he had enough officers in his precinct to deal with any crime. Countering Councilman Peter Vallone Jr.’s concern that Albany’s budget cuts would hamstring the local police force, Vorbeck stated he had about 200 cops at the precinct. “Sure, I’ll take more cops if they give them,” but he pointed out that there was no statistical relation between the number of officers on the streets and the amount of crime.  “Many years ago, there were cops in the precinct, but there were more crimes too,” he said.

Police officers from the Transit Authority too, made a brief presentation on subway safety. They urged passengers to be wary of the electronics they use on the subway, “not have their heads buried deep into their phones,” and not to use their iPhones by the subway door, as they risk being snatched by someone outside. The officers also reminded passengers to be wary of other riders and keep an eye out for pick-pockets.

Several residents at the meeting said they were satisfied with the officers’ presentation, saying overall they felt safe living in Astoria. Vinne Marsanico, a resident of 47th Street said while Behmoiras’ assault “shook him up a little,” he felt the area where he lived in was “pretty quiet.” “The 114 does an outstanding job,” he said. There are cops everywhere. You can see them go up and down the street. They respond very quickly.”

That sentiment was echoed by Daniela Mastrogiacomo, a resident of 37th Street who said that while she avoided walking alone at night, Astoria was still a safe place. “Of course, these events make me concerned,” she said. “I don’t want to be on astreet by myself when something happens,” she added.

Agnes and Vincent Maniace, who have lived in Astoria for more 80 years, remarked that while their neighborhood had changed over the years, they felt comfortable in their area. “We have nice neighbors; we have known each other for years,” Agnes Maniace said. “I call and tell a friend if I am out. They keep an eye out on the house for me then.” Commenting on the reported rise in crimes, Vincent Maniace added, “No matter where you go, there will always be break-ins, always be crimes.”

This piece first appeared in Queens Chronicle

The bullet shattered her kitchen’s upper window and narrowly missed her son, who had just risen from the table. “It sounded like a bomb,” Peters recalled, adding that while no one was hurt, the entire family was shaken.

“My five-year-old grandson kept throwing up all night, saying ‘I don’t want to be shot nanny, I don’t want to be shot.’”
Peters was one of the 50 residents that showed up at a rally on Thursday at Latimer Gardens Community Center, to protest the rise in gang activity that led to the shooting, drug dealing and prostitution in the area that is bordered by 34th and 35th avenues, Linden Place and Leavitt and and 137th streets.

Longtime residents milled angrily outside the newly renovated community center whose top window too had also been blown out in the April 3 shootout.

The apartment complex was built in 1970 and consists of four 10-story buildings with more than 400 apartments and 700 residents. The residents stated there had been a “360-degree change” in the amount of crime in the complex. “What a change it has been,” said resident Joan Snowden, who has lived in the complex for four decades. “It was a beautiful place, nobody would bother you. But now, no one can even go to the playing area.”

Snowden’s sentiments were echoed by resident Lorna Dotson, who said that shootouts like the one Peters experienced were becoming increasingly common. She claimed residents heard gunshots as often as twice a week. Others like Carol Pagan alleged it is not just gang activity outside, but that people also regularly break into the building’s main lobby. She said prostitutes in the area come in and use the hallways and elevators as bathrooms. “The prostitutes make a mess all over,” Pagan said. “And the building takes a long time to fix it.”

Another resident complained that 34th Avenue is unsafe once the sun goes down, adding it is very easy to get caught in the gangs’ crossfire. Others said that a new hotel built right outside the complex also made matters worse as the prostitutes often use it as a base.

With the drug dealers, prostitutes and increased gang activity, more than one resident compared the current situation at Latimer Gardens with the movie “New Jack City” — a 1991 crime thriller in which drug lords convert an entire apartment complex into a crack house.

Latimer resident Donald Wiggins, who helped organize last week’s rally with Councilman Peter Koo’s office, said the police are investigating the April 3 incident, adding the incident is “not unusual and not unexpected either.”

At the rally, residents complained to Koo and asked for increased police patrols in the area. “We need them to come and walk the premises,” Dotson said. “They say we are a low-crime area and that we don’t need protection. But we do.”
Residents allege that illegal occupants in the building deal drugs, causing a lot of strangers to troop in and out. “We have kids here, running around,” said one resident. “Do we really want them to see all this?” she asked, referring to the drug activity.

Currently two officers from the 109th Precinct patrol the area, but residents say they still feel unsafe; asking instead for protection from the Housing Authority. They said complaints to NYCHA and the precinct often go unheeded.
Koo, meanwhile, said he is going to petition NYCHA to install security cameras in and around the buildings, explaining that “security cameras would discourage gang activity. It won’t solve the problem, but it will discourage troublemakers.”

He added that building residents also should take greater responsibility and in some cases, stop harboring troublemakers. “Drugs and prostitution are not good for any area,” Koo said. “We want role models, not drug dealers.”

The 109th Precinct did not comment on the issue, despite repeated calls.

This piece first appeared in Queens Chronicle

A photo composite showing various break-ins over the past few weeks in Astoria (Credit: Donnelly Marks)

Residents of Norwood Gardens in Astoria have been advised to keep a close check on their cars and GPS, after a rash of auto break-ins has made them nervous about leaving anything valuable in their cars.

Residents report that areas around 35th, 36th and 37th streets at 30th Avenue have been the worst affected, with the Norwood Neighborhood Association estimating that there has been at least one break-in per night over the last few weeks.

Residents point out that the crimes spike over the weekends, when an influx of outsiders crowd bars and restaurants in the busy 30th Avenue commercial area.

Pearl Thomas was affected when her boyfriend’s parents’ luxury 2007 Audi was broken into. “You know, it’s embarrassing,” Thomas said. “I’ve lived in Astoria for the last seven years and they’ve [the boyfriend’s parents] visited us before and nothing happened. And now, we move into this area and the car gets broken into,” the 36th Street resident said.

The Audi was parked on 36th Street between 30th and 31st avenues when the incident occurred in the last week of March. Luckily for Thomas, the perpetrators didn’t walk away with too much, except for a beloved CD with a collection of sheet music.

Thomas thinks thieves were probably looking to steal the car’s GPS, but couldn’t get their hands on it, as the instrument is built into this particular model.

However 24-year-old John Wagner wasn’t quite so lucky. The photographer who works in New Jersey had his brand new Toyota Corrola broken into twice this year. “It was the first day of my job,” Wagner said. “I had come back from the weekend and get into the car. I keep a few granola bars in the car and I found they were all strewn on the passenger seat,” he said. This is when he noticed his GPS was gone. The next month, his car was broken into again.

Norwood Neighborhood Association’s Donnelly Marks says while these incidents continue to rattle residents, they don’t get reported enough to police. “People need to call 911,” she said, adding that it normally took the cops 40 minutes to get to the scene as it isn’t a high-priority crime. “People are usually in a hurry because it’s a workday — so it doesn’t get reported,” she added.

The break-ins also go unreported, said Marks, as auto insurance doesn’t normally cover the damage. She estimated that the crime rate in Astoria was higher than reported due to unreported break-ins.

While residents have been urged to be more vocal in reporting the misdemeanor crime, some Norwood residents have taken to protecting other cars from a similar fate. Wagner gathered a few other neighbors to form the 36th Street Crime Fighters, a crew that patrols the streets and puts fliers on cars that look like they might be vulnerable to being broken into repeatedly. Cars with prominent GPS on display get notices first. “If you have any evidence of GPS showing on your dashboard, your car will be broken into,” the fliers warn, urging drivers to take their GPS, holder and charger with them each time they leave the car. “We want [Council member] Peter Vallone Jr. to put up security cameras in the area,” Wagner said.

Vallone has said that while the wait for security cameras may be a long one, residents may add cameras to their private properties. “Nobody should leave GPS or any indication that a GPS exists, in their cars,” Vallone said. “I discussed this issue with Inspector Vorbeck at 114th Precinct and we’re encouraging residents to put up more private cameras, take more care with their GPS and cooperate with the police; and allow them to take fingerprints when the car is broken into.

“Often people are in a hurry to leave for work and they say they can’t wait around.” Vallone added that while the police promised increased patrolling of the area for now, Albany’s budget cuts might prohibit that. When asked who might be behind the break-ins, Vallone said he was skeptical that 30th Avenue revelers had anything to do with the rise in crime, saying people who wanted to enjoy a dinner out weren’t likely to be stealing GPSs.

This piece first appeared in Queens Chronicle

Within 24 hours of the rerouting, Beijing has clamped down, restricting mainland users’ access to the uncensored content on the Hong Kong site. Mainland Chinese users on Tuesday could not see uncensored Hong Kong content because government computers either disabled searches for objectionable content completely or blocked links to certain results [The New York Times]. Earlier, the Chinese government described Google’s move to redirect users to the Hong Kong site as “totally wrong.”

The clash comes two months after Google and China began a bitter standoff over internet censorship on the mainland. Instead of exiting the country entirely, Google has taken on Beijing by defying its censorship controls and sending mainland users to its Hong Kong site, where censorship rules are more lenient.

While the move seemed provocative, Google’s founders at first seemed to think that this redirection would be acceptable to the Chinese government. “We got reasonable indications that this was O.K.,” Sergey Brin, a Google founder and its president of technology, said. “We can’t be completely confident” [The New York Times]. Google said that while the search operations were being redirected to Hong Kong, it would continue to host its maps and music search service in China. However, it now seems that the company misjudged the Chinese government’s mood.

Read the rest of my post for Discover Magazine here.

But the big question is who is going to buy it? Sure, there will be the fanboys and Apple maniacs who’ll stand in the cold pouring rain to snap up the latest shiny toy offered by His Royal Steveness. But apart from this demographic, who else is eager for an iPad. No one seems to know. Not even Apple, according to The Economist.

In its new technology blog, Babbage, The Economist wonders if the iPad is aimed at road warriors–people who spend a lot of time travelling for work. You can already access email, Facebook and the iWork suite on the new gadget, but in the absence of video-conferencing abilities, it’s hard to see why businessmen would want to switch from a laptop or Macbook.

So is Apple trying to use the iPad to entice grandpa and grandma to get online? For several people past a certain age, operating a computer is like trying to activate a nuclear reactor–complex and incomprehensible. So, with its touch-screen technology and easy navigation, the iPad would be the perfect tool to launch oneself into the great online vortex. Also, the iPad could serve as a great educational tool in developing nations.

Already, Apple has seen close to 190,000 pre-orders for the iPad. But once the fanboys are out of the way and the initial enthusiasm fades—it would interesting to see who finally goes home with the gadget.

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After months of party wrangling that culminated in a Sunday night political spectacle, President Obama has finally managed to push through far-reaching reform to the country’s health care system. The House voted 219-212 for final approval of the legislation, and on Tuesday the President will sign the bill into law.

The new law would require most Americans to have health insurance, would add 16 million people to the Medicaid rolls and would subsidize private coverage for low- and middle-income people, at a cost to the government of $938 billion over 10 years, the Congressional Budget Office said [The New York Times].

Here’s a primer on what some of the biggest changes will be in the current health care system. While some changes won’t come into effect till 2014, there are some things that will affect your insurance this year.

Immediate Changes (2010)

These are the changes that Obama and team call the “early deliverables,” because they would kick into effect as early as six months after the bill is signed into law. Here are a few.

• The uninsured can finally get coverage: Adults who have been denied coverage because of preexisting conditions will be able to sign on to a federally subsidized insurance program that is due to be established within 90 days. This stopgap insurance program, whose coverage isn’t expected to be comprehensive, will expire once new insurance exchanges start operating in 2014.
• Coverage for everyone: Insurance companies will not be allowed to drop people from coverage when they get sick, nor can they make health plans vastly more expensive for people with preexisting conditions. Lifetime limits on the amount of health care an insurer will pay for will be eliminated, and annual limits will be restricted.
• Coverage for kids: For parents with a sick child, there’s some relief—companies won’t be able to drop kids under the age of 19 from coverage because of pre-existing conditions. Parents can also keep their kids on a family plan till they turn 26 or get a job that offers them benefits.
• Closing the doughnut hole: An estimated 4 million Medicare beneficiaries who hit the so called “doughnut hole” in the program’s drug plan (the gap in coverage which currently begins after $2,700 is spent on drugs) will get a $250 rebate this year. The cost of drugs in the coverage gap will then drop 50 percent next year, and the hole will be closed entirely by 2020.
• Tax credits for small businesses: For small businesses with fewer than 25 employees and average wages of less than $50,000, the government will provide a tax credit of up to 35 percent of the cost of healthcare premiums so that they may provide coverage to their employees.

Read the rest of my post for Discover Magazine here.

Even as Google takes the high ground in China over censorship, the authorities’ high-handed behavior over another case, titillatingly called “The case of the Karaoke Singer” has managed to get the Press, Activists and indeed Chinese talking about censorship.

It all started when a reporter for the commercial affiliate of party newspaper People’s Daily asked the Governor of Hubei province, Li Honzhong, a question that would pass as probing in Western news conferences. The reporter, believed to be Liu Jie, asked the Governor outside a conference chamber at the Great Hall of the People for his thoughts on the case of the 21-year old karaoke waitress who had fatally stabbed a local party official when he and his friend tried to force her into sex. The New York Times reports that despite official efforts to suppress the scandal, the waitress’s arrest on murder charges incited online fury, drawing worldwide attention and turning the waitress into a national hero. The charges were reduced, and she was freed without serving a prison term.

However, on hearing the question on the prickly scandal, the Governor erupted at the reporter, asking her to identify which paper she wrote for. On hearing that she wrote for the party mouthpiece, People’s Daily, he charged at her and grabbed her recorder and left, according to the independent Beijing magazine Caijing. The report on Caijing’s website lasted less than 24 hours, before being pulled off by Chinese authorities. However, a protest letter about the incident has been making the rounds, garnering more than a 1000 signatures–calling the legislature to investigate the Governor’s actions and ask him to resign. However, experts are skeptical of any harsh punishment being meted out to one of the party’s own, writes The Times.

The fate of the reporter too is unknown. The Times writes that prior to the meeting at the Great Hall, the Communist party handed out a long list of topics–off limits for reporters. The list included ‘not publishing bad news on the front page,’ staying away from reporting on the poisonous cowpea incident in which cowpea poisoned with toxic pesticide was shipped for use across China and more importantly, also placed the case of the Karaoke singer off limits.

Guess the reporter never got that memo.

But one can presume Google did and refused to drink the kool aid.