Ideas and tips on any subject

Your new flat has no resale value!

My friend Mr. Pandaw told me that his nephew has decided to return to India from U.S. and wants to purchase a flat in Mumbai. He wanted to consult me on that matter. I am always consulted by my friends on any matter before they commit in them and so I told him to come any day and we shall sort out as to how to go about that. Actually the issue of purchasing a new flat in a new building should not be an issue for any consultation; I thought, but when we sat to discuss the details of the subject it was found to be a very interesting a matter, I want to share it on this blog posting with all my readers.

My friends nephew is a civil engineer and had worked as that in many countries on deputations by his American employer for almost twenty years. His experience in the matter was by that standard quite authoritative and so I wanted to learn from him his style of working on such topics. I mean how he thinks about selecting a flat and all those things. It came out to be a very out of the ordinary.

As planned Mr. Pandaw, accompanied with his nephew Mr. Harshal, his highly educated wife Snehal Agnihotri came to my house, and we after preliminary introduction sat to work on the topic. Harshal told me that he would like to know the average life expectancy of buildings built now in the city before we begin the discussion. I told him that the Mumbai Municipality expects that it should be around 40 years.

“That means the structure maybe not be serviceable after that period and that the building as has become not suitable for occupation shall be pulled down by the builder and a new building will be built on the site. Considering the environmental conditions in this city, moist salty air having excessive percentage of corrosive gases with high humidity, iron corrodes much faster and so the reinforcement within the concrete members of the building such as columns, beams and slabs become short life.

I know technically cement concrete is recommended for places where ambient temperature is around 15 to 20 degrees C and at Mumbai and most of the places in India ambient temperature is always far exceeds this limit. That implies high temperature of the atmosphere causes cracking of concrete exposing inner steel reinforcement to the corrosive air and that accelerates corrosion of the steel reducing its size eventually making the structure weaker and vulnerable to forces such as gravity, volcanic and other vibrations due to surrounding sounds.   

Harshal told me; that is the practice in the western countries, and quite often even seemingly good constructions are also pulled down by the authorities. I remarked that we are now copying western ideas in almost every matter and so it is quite possible that the same practice will be working in due course in Mumbai also.

Here for the first time Snehal, wife of Harshal spoke; suggesting that in such a situation the price of the flat should be in relation with this small life of the structure. If it is not; then it is not worthwhile to purchase the new flat. She told me that in old times as we all know normal life expectancy of structures was about a hundred years and the costs were considered from that. I told them that as per my knowledge at present the costs of flats are more decided by the location and carpet areas and this short life expectancy is hardly considered by people. This remark surprised the couple.

What are other options available was the next point for discussion. I told and Pandaw concurred that other option in case they want to stay in the city is to make a lease agreement or a rental and pay the rent. When both of them made some calculations and found that if they take a loan from the bank as bank loans are readily available, then the monthly EMI comes to the same as the plausible rent for that flat. That automatically suggested that it is better to go for rent than for purchase. We worked out other calculations and eventually came with values those showed that it is by all standards advantageous to go for rental than take the trouble of paying stamp duty and then other hustle and bustle to keep that short-lived flat.

Snehal inquired if there is any protection for the flat owners in case when the building is pulled down and new structure is made, she meant to know if flat owners have any right to a flat in the newly made building. I phoned to one of my other friend who is a part time estate agent and he told me that as yet; there is no such protection to previous owners of flats. That clearly shows that a flat owner is on the street as the old building is pulled down. All the money he has spent and the troubles undertaken to buy that flat are in vain! He is back to square! That means the price he pays is for only 40 years of holding and after that period, his right is automatically canceled.

We worked on other aspects of the concept of owning a flat in the city. Many points came up when we together decided to compare owning verses rental and to my surprise we dug out quite a few points that showed very clearly that owning a flat in this city is not worthwhile. Let me give you our finding.

When owned a flat you are stuck up to that locality and even if you want to leave that place for better location that you may discover at latter time, it is not possible easily. You keep paying for the flat installments and by the time you have finished paying the installments the life of the building is already less than half and so if you want to resale it; may be you will not get the correct compensation and the whole deal will prove to be a loosing proposal. Later on to dispose the flat is not easy unless you are ready for compromise as the structure is now old and may be needs frequent repairs which you have to do as you are the owner (temporary) of that flat! Other troubles related to the society matters of the building are not any less annoying.  

Structures made before 1980 were made to last 100 years by putting appropriate extra steel in the reinforcement but after that as the local body decided that life expectancy need not be more than 35-40 years, builders are making structures of poorer reinforcements. Ready reckoners declared by the government also do not take into consideration this short life of the structures and so the complete affair seems to be dubious. By definition, the costing method must take into consideration three measure factors and they are cost of actual construction, location of the flat, life of the building. Sorry to say, that is not happening, life of building is not considered at all.   

As for rental you can leave the place after the lease period to any better location and there is no trouble. It is often found that many flat owners like to retain a tenant who is paymaster and so in case you want to continue the flat owner is very ready to accept to extend the lease. At any given time a tenants is better positioned than the flat owner. The present law gives fabulous protection to tenants than the owners and so the option of rental is at any time better than to take the trouble of purchasing the flat, particularly in view of the fact that the building in which you are going to buy the flat is not going to last more than just forty years!

While making lease agreement one should make it for as long a period as mutually possible and that makes this option far better than owning a flat. At present builders insist that people buy the flats but if all become wise about the short life of the flats they make; a time will come when builders shall be ready to lease the newly built flats.

We also studied the clandestine methods builder these days indulge in to cheat the gullible, innocent buyers who take loans from banks and pay the money to the builder, pay the first few installments to the bank, and then come in trouble as the builder did not complete the building. In such eventuality the borrower is at risk while the builder is safe! Present law does not hold the builder any responsible for the loan; both the bank and the borrower are in trouble. One more incidence was discussed in that a borrower took loan from the bank and was paying EMI regularly but by bad luck he lost his high pay job. He had to stop payment to the bank and the bank confiscated the flat, all previous installments he had paid were lost and he was literally on street nowhere to go! Many such cases were sited. As for rental the flat is all ready and no troubles of this nature are possible, you are absolutely sure of getting the possession of the flat. As of the legal protection to the borrowers, better say nothing, the delay tactics of our judiciary almost kills the complainant.

Finally the couple, Mr. & Mrs. Agnihotri decided to go for rental and the meeting concluded on even note.

You are requested that you inform your friends who are likely going to buy a flat in new building in this city of Mumbai; you may ask them to log on this blog and read it. My intentions are very clear; I do not want simple ordinary people like me and you to be in any trouble just because we are not well informed. The very purpose of this blog is to entertain and with that to enlighten.

Adieu

          You may contact me on my Email ID given below,

ashokkothare@yahoo.co.in

ashokkothare@gmail.com

I invite you to visit my other blog if you are interested in stories.

Ashok Kothare’s Blog

You may visit, Freedom of Expression for intelligent discussions.        

Barrack Obama and the Bhagwatgita

I know you are all wondering about what is all this, talking of the US president and the holy book of the Hindus in one breathe. There is a solid reason for that. Let me explain it to you. When president B. Obama was awarded prestigious Nobel price he reiterated the policy of sending armed forces to the Afghan-Pakistan border to contain iniquitous AlQaeda resurgence.  

He was given the price for peace and while receiving that if he proclaims the importance of violence to reach peace some may feel it is incoherent however, those who know the teachings of Bhagwatgita will only appreciate the move of the president of the US! I do not know if this gentleman, at all knows, any thing about the teachings of this book of the Hindus.

Barrack Obama is often associated with names of M. K. Gandhi and Martin Luther King and both these persons were known for their non-violence. In view of this, it is fairly appropriate that this comment of Obama on the occasion of the award distribution ceremony rather perplexed his admirers. I do not know if Barrack has had read Gita but I feel very strongly that it is only remotely possible that he has read this book. We know Barrack Obama is only a smart politician and not known for any pedantic background or scholarship.     

How Gita came to be; we shall see first, before go into the contents of that Holy book. At the commencement of the great War of Bharat, Arjun was in two minds about whether it will be appropriate to fight this war and kill so many people he knew and with whom he was related. He requested his friend and Guru Lord Krishna to explain as to how it is proper to kill all these people. And there, the great teaching of Hindu philosophy, Bhagwatgita came to be.

Lord Krishna told Arjun that to get lasting peace one has to destroy evil at its roots and that is possible only by a war of destruction! Particularly if evil forces are in the hold of rule and in addition to that it also has judiciary in its control, it is impossible to manage and manipulate that evil. No amount of negotiations can ever be of any substantial effect and under such condition the only alternative left is to destroy that evil by killing it. Kauraw, the cousins of Pandaw, were in ruling authority and were holding judiciary of the kingdom and so to win over them by any peaceful negotiations was next to impossible. In Mahabharat many instances of such peaceful negotiations are given and it is shown that they all had gone unsuccessful. After many attempts, the choice of going to war was taken and so, now to retreat was not a sagacious decision. After Lord Krishna explained the true path, Arjun fully satisfied was ready for the violence and a great violent war took place.

There is a universal dilemma between path of peace and that of violence. Some philosophers such as those in Jainism insist on peace without compromise while Hinduism proposes the equilibrium. Gita the prime work of Hinduism explains in detail the exact principle and method behind the compromise to make peace work successfully. Cosmos is driven by some laws and Gita refers to them and suggests; when violence is to be used and when not. Evil continues to thrive when peace is taken for granted. If violence is kept ready to eradicate evil, evil keeps at the lowest intensity and life becomes worthwhile. We may say, the tower of peace is supported by the columns of violence since, evil is the force that keeps on pulling it down like gravity.  

It is like having a police around. Knowing that police is ready for action criminals keep low and crime is avoided but if there is no police presuming as suggested in the Jainism that everything is alright; evil doers crop up their head and the society is in trouble. Americans are posing as international police and so it appears that Barrack Obama is doing all this in the capacity as a police to eradicate evil in Pakistan. We often see police rushing in affected houses to save the victims, at times without formal permission; this act of US government is more like that, if I am right!   

In present time at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border the situation appears to be more or less similar. AlQaeda are not negotiable people. They are bent on killing their rivals and so, either they or US, was the choice. If AlQaeda is not killed at their hiding place, they are going to kill more of the US. Barrack Obama and his administration have now realized that they have no choice but to kill this outfit at any cost. It looks apparently; there is similarity in the two situations, one at the Mahabharat war and the other at Pak-Afghan border.

History of the birth of AlQaeda says that US created it to stop Russian onslaught on Afghanistan and as the problem was resolved in favor of the US; by definition, one may say that this outfit, AlQaeda should be closed down. But things did not happen that way. AlQaeda continued to grow since it was based on the evil principle of hatred! Any thing based on hatred and jealousy, are not easy to contain, they keep on growing like weeds in the farm. US is facing the devil it created to destroy others. Now the devil is bent on destroying its creator, United States of America!

Barrack Obama feels confident that his army can hold and even destroy this evil force but many observers are of the other opinion. Looking to the fragile economic condition of the US the chances of it wining over this outfit are remote. Particularly when we know that Pakistan does not want to destroy AlQaeda. The fight may go on but I feel as many do that the Vietnam episode is repeating. US may succumb in this fight.

Lord Krishna said in Gita; evil that is in power and also at the judiciary, cannot be contained unless destroyed but to do that the other force has to be virtuous. Luckily in case of Pandawas they were virtuous and so the message applied aptly in their case but here in case of US and AlQaeda we cannot say surely that US is virtuous and AlQaeda is evil. Looking to the way US has done damage to many simple and innocent developing and under developed countries by using tools like World Bank and IMF one cannot say that US is a virtuous force. It is as evil as the AlQaeda in its own way. Some Pakistanis say; AlQaeda is nothing but the evil face of US itself! They ask; can one destroy its own face.

So what we are going to witness is the fight between two evil forces; Pakistan posing as a cunning referee and poor Afghanistan as helpless onlooker and any one wining is of no advantage to the good of the world.

All evil forces always proclaim themselves as virtuous, so does US on one side and AlQaeda on the other side. Finally we can say that even though both situations look alike, in actuality they are not exactly alike! As such, message of Gita is not exactly applicable in this situation.      

You may contact me on my Email ID given below,

ashokkothare@yahoo.co.in

ashokkothare@gmail.com

I invite you to visit my other blog if you are interested in stories.

Ashok Kothare’s Blog

You may visit, Freedom of Expression for intelligent discussions.        

Corruption or co-operation ?

I had some really telling experience on 21st December at Vadala station on harbour line of Mumbai at about 5:15 pm. I was waiting at Chembur Station to go to V.T. and there came one Vadala local. I thought better move to Vadala and there to then get another train from Vadala to VT. I alighted on platform three and to reach platform four I walked up to the staircase. There I realize my problem of knee pain and decided to walk over the track to go to platform 4. We senior citizen find it difficult to climb the steps and particularly to climb down is very difficult particularly if you are also suffering from height vertigo. As I reached the platform one policeman in plain dress stopped me, reminded that crossing track is not permitted, and requested me to follow him. I followed him along with other one more policeman with two more similar young offenders. We reached a small room where we were asked to wait. After sometime the other two boys were called and then as they were released I was requested to enter a small room where one man quiet hefty and looking like an inspector but in plain clothes was sitting on one side of the table, two policeman occupied other two sits and I was suggested that I may sit next to one police who was holding some papers gripped together by a clip. Some names were already written on that. My name was asked and that was added then he asked my age and as I told him I am 68 they looked quiet pensive and told me that the mistake I have done should cost me 1200/- rupees and they were about to prepare the slip of the amount. Then one of them said if I wish may talk in the court tomorrow and explain if I have any objection to the charge. I after going through this told them that I do not carry so much money and it will be good if they can settle the matter mutually as they do always. They knew that I shall ask for that and were almost ready to negotiate. The officer sitting in the front told me to pay 400/-. On that I told him that I do not have that much money but I can pay 200/-. They looked to each other and decided to accept my offer. I paid them the amount and go out. I was a free man once again!

During this interlude, we had some conversation and that was very interesting. Let me share that with you. While negotiating one of them, without my asking, explained to me that the money they take is not all going to them but it is shared by the whole department. Not only that but the money goes up to the chief Minister Ashok Chavan and Home Ministers R. R. Patil. They said, R. R. Patil was a poor man but after becoming home minister in the last term he turned out to be a crorepati. I was told that Ashok Chavan has set a quota to be collected for him by police. They also told me that the laws are made in such a style that people cannot honour them and so they have to finally do some adjustment so that old people like me are spared some arduous punishment for as simple a mistake as crossing the track! This taking money should not be taken as corruption but as co-operation to people by the police! I appreciated the explanation. This explanation gives new dimension to the practice of taking money by the government people to relieve people from stupid laws that government has been making! He further told that if the penalty was kept as low as rupees 10/- for crossing; that would earn the government some revenue; instead this money goes elsewhere.

I told him that I cannot climb these steep stairways of the railways due to my knee problem and also I am suffering from shakiness. So while climbing down I feel giddiness and that is why I am tempted to cross the track in place of climbing up and climbing down the steep stairway on the platform. There was no train in the sight and so I should be excused but they refused. I told them that railways should provide a ramp so that old, pregnant women, heart patients, people on wheel-chairs can climb in the platform. They remarked that it is useless telling them anything worthwhile since they are only police and have no concern whether the system is correct or not, their job is to simply catch the erring individuals.

In this context I want to give my concept of the ramp, let me explain it here.

 Given here is a schematic view of two methods of providing stairway to the platform. In the first one we see regular stepped staircase as usually used. In the next is ramp way. This has low steepness and so easy to climb for ailing people such as old and others just mentioned earlier. While the stepped one could be the main passage, ramped one can be provided as optional for the concerned people. And so it may be not very broad but could be as wide as just four to five feet. This ramp way should be positioned at the middle of the length of the platform. Ramp length will be about thirty feet for the climb of 6 feet. This will give reasonable comfort for the ailing people.

I suggest that this can be developed through sponsorship by companies who will be allowed to put their ads on it to recover construction cost and maintain it. So that it will not cost railways any expenditure. First this ramp be built on busy stations and then on other stations where ever they are needed. There are many charitable institutes who will come forward to build such ramps and so I see no difficulty in doing this and help ailing and old people. One thing important and that is; railways will put a notice board on the entrance of the ramp-way clearly mentioning that the ramp is intended for specific people as mentioned here. So that people like me can be relieved and shall never be tempted to cross the track!         

You may contact me on my Email ID given below,

ashokkothare@yahoo.co.in

ashokkothare@gmail.com

I invite you to visit my other blog if you are interested in stories.

Ashok Kothare’s Blog

You may visit, Freedom of Expression for intelligent discussions.       

Oxygen Replenishment

Encouraging diatom farming on sea and other large water bodies

a concept study

We talk of carbon dioxide increase in the atmosphere and it is mostly due to increased use of fossil fuels. As we burn more and more of this fuel increase in the percentage of this warming gas is inevitable. The corollary of this, increase in the percentage of this gas, is that percentage of Oxygen gas is reducing almost in the same percentage. One record shows in the nineteenth century that carbon dioxide was 325 ppm in air, which was considered as standard for further calculations, and now we find that this share is 389 ppm in 2008. That means, oxygen depletion is of the order of 64 ppm over the century and that is mostly attributed to the fossil fuel burning. This gradual reduction in Oxygen is yet not independently investigated so far but to my mind further lowering of this life giving gas may be responsible for many health problems so far not directly blamed on it. Another reason for increase in the percentage of carbon dioxide is generation of large quantity of cement. While producing cement calcium carbonate is roasted to get lime which simultaneously fuses with clay and makes the cement. This carbon dioxide is also released in the atmosphere. In this process no atmospheric oxygen is consumed. Ever increase in this warming gas is a concern of all the environmentalists today.

I want to publish this paper to give general idea about how the new concept of diatom farming or more properly may call it oxygen farm; in the ocean or any large water body can help solve this problem and at the same time offer large employment. But that is not all; in addition to that this concept if properly exploited can offer large number of products made out of this algae and similar other varieties of phytoplankton. By exploiting this concept properly, we can control gradual loss of oxygen, which is the main concern of all environmentalists.     

Primary concept

By the natural effects as it is, this variety of life keeps growing in the ocean and other large water bodies and at present, it is the principal source of oxygen to atmosphere. When we were searching the principal source of oxygen to atmosphere, found that plant organism in the process of carbon fixation due to photosynthesis releases some oxygen and that way nature is replenishing the lost oxygen and maintains the balance. However, on further investigation found that during 24 hours, quantity of oxygen consumed by respiration is much more, than released during photosynthesis during day light and that means in effect large or multicellular plants are not true suppliers of oxygen to the atmosphere. Finally, we found that unicellular plants such as diatoms and that type of variety produce more oxygen in sun light than they consumed for respiration during 24 hours. Oxygen released in this way dissolves partially in the water in which they grow and if the plant is surfacing on water, some part of such released oxygen is discharged into atmosphere. This variety of plats grow very rapidly and they proliferate profusely continuously releasing considerable quantity of oxygen in air and that portion of oxygen they release in water is used by water plants and other life in that water however, when the portion of water on the surface evaporates oxygen held in that is also released to air. In this way, a continuous supply of fresh oxygen is maintained keeping atmospheric oxygen percentage at constant level.

Nature has an innate capacity to replenish continuously consumed oxygen and the process was going on until now when human interference has exceeded this limit. As human consumption of fossil fuel has increased, atmospheric oxygen level is reducing at the same rate as increase in the level of carbon dioxide. I presume hypothetically that the natural rate of plankton or diatom growth no more matched by the rate of increase of carbon dioxide due to this excessive consumption of oxygen by fossil fuels. Now I suggest time has come for human being to help nature increase the production of plankton by undertaking diatom farming or oxygen farm in the ocean or such large water bodies particularly in temperate zone where they grow more effortlessly. I have also suggested ‘inland’ farming at the end of this article as an alternative to ‘on ocean’ farming.

Farming technique  

When this diatom grows naturally, observation showed that supply of Carbon dioxide to them for photosynthesis and oxygen for respiration and other nutrients such as silica and phosphorous when available they grow well. That means, in artificial diatom farming, take care to see that supply of these things is proper to them. Diatom begins to grow in the water but as their need of Carbon dioxide for photosynthesis and oxygen for respiration increases, they rise up at the surface for adequate supply from atmosphere. However, when Carbon dioxide for photosynthesis and oxygen for respiration supplied by bubbling air in the water body by some arrangement, such as windmill, to run the air pump, they may grow well even at slightly close to surface and not on the surface. Keeping water cleaned, of dead diatom and other waste material that may come in that place, by frequent filtering and to this power supply from the same windmills is possible. Offering support material for the diatom to hold on, I found rice husk and charcoal ash, a suitable medium since it supplies silica to diatom as they grow on it; rice husk and ash both is consumed in the process of growth of diatom. Some mechanical device such as hauler provided with filter mechanism periodically removes fully developed diatom colonies and removed for further processing on mainland. Filtered water recharged back to sea. Use of windmill makes power readily available and that way the complete unit becomes self sufficient in power. This cleaning of algae bloom from time to time is required to keep water as transparent as possible so that sun light can reach up to lower level where diatom colonies begin to grow. This also helps in keeping the farm from attracting big fish such as whale and shark.

Expected difficulties

This diatom and other plankton varieties we may grow; is food of many fishes including large ones such as whale and shark along with many smaller species. Obviously, we must understand that when large quantity of diatom is regularly grown in a particular place in ocean these fishes are most likely be visiting there. To avoid they scoop out the yield before the farmer do; only possible way is to remove the developed diatom colonies at quick frequencies; say on daily basis. Even then, some small fish is going to get a part of it. Whale and other big fish may visit only if the colonies are very large and by experience, one can know at what growth these fish is attracted and after careful study, the farmer shall keep the growth in suitable limit to avoid big fish. Other difficulties are, drifting of the farm due to waves in the ocean, storms, heavy rains on the ocean, and accidents due to ships colliding on the farm. A suitable lighting arrangement using power from the windmill may solve the last mentioned difficulty.  

Fencing

To keep the diatom farm drifting from the allotted place a fencing of drums is the suggestion. Drum fencing, commonly used to keep in control oil spills at present, is by far the most suitable suggestion until now. Similar arrangement may be used and if better arrangement is invented, that shall replace it. 

Possible places and countries to participate

Almost all countries bordering on ocean in the temperate zone are possible contenders. All seas near most of the countries such as USA, China, Australia, Canada and Russia are probable contenders. Growing diatom colonies in warm waters have not shown very promising results but there are some varieties on which scientists may do experiments and if that comes out successful, such oxygen giving diatom farms can grow almost anywhere.  

Random calculations

While deciding the size and other parameters of such oxygen farm; first variable to consider will be quantity of oxygen to replenish. For number of molecules of oxygen consumed same number of molecules of carbon released in the form as carbon dioxide. In the reverse process of releasing oxygen, we will have to see that number of carbon molecules fixed to release same number of oxygen. Other values used to calculate are as given here, 14C = 16O2, C = 30% dry weight of algae produced; with these values calculations show that for releasing 100 tons of oxygen in air approximately 68000 tons of wet algae or 3400 tons of dry algae is produced. To produce that quantity of algae we need a farm of size roughly 50 hectors if the requirement is on per week basis. However, actual values we will find only by real time method. These values likely changed; depending upon variety of diatom, availability of nutrients, other factors such as predatory interference, storms, scooping method, and frequency of scooping and high wind will change the final production of oxygen from such farms.

Every nation will have to find out how much oxygen it consumes on fuel and that will decide the obligation for that country for investing in such oxygen farms. 

Present work on similar concept

Even though no farm concept worked on at present to produce oxygen, we see that similar concept to produce large quantity of algae to produce fuel oil are under experimental stage in Australia. A glimpse of that may help understand what will be possible when worked on this project.

In a recent project funded by the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation, Dr Jian Qin, of Flinders University, investigated the use of a well-studied green alga known as Botryococcus braunii, or Bb for short, as a supplier of biological hydrocarbons. Bb is a colonial alga of lakes and reservoirs, where it blooms into large, green, floating mats – and it is a remarkably oily little plant. Up to 75% of the dry weight of this particular species is a natural hydrocarbon that can be converted into petrol, diesel or turbine fuel or other liquid or gaseous hydrocarbons. In addition to producing this it also releases quantity of oxygen in air and that is an additional factor in its merit.

Dr. Jian Qin says in his paper that the research phase is almost completed and regular production run is likely undertaken soon. Steve Davidson adds, ‘We’ve finished the initial stage of this research funded by RIR&DC. Biotechnology Company SQC Pty. Ltd. has developed a Partnership with Flinders University to seek more funds through public and private sectors to further our research.’

 Pollution Control - other options in view

Much of the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere comes from the burning of fossil fuels. With concerns over global warming, new methods for the thorough and efficient capture of CO2 being sought out. An alternative to Carbon capture and storage, by attaching an algae pond, or photo bioreactor to any fuel burning plant, the carbon dioxide produced during combustion, first cooled by using heat exchanger and then fed into the algae system. Nutrients sourced from sewage, thus turning two pollutants into resources for the production of oxygen with biodiesel as derivative, with a land requirement much smaller than other crop sources. Carbon Capture and Storage in the form of algae residue can help control global warming considerably. Such oxygen farms expected to solve the problem of oxygen depletion at the factories such thermo power plants. Cement plants produce carbon dioxide as calcium carbonate breaks into calcium oxide and carbon dioxide and due to burning of coal powder to produce heat.

Carbon dioxide from the flue gases of the industry first cooled to normal temperature before feeding on the controlled atmosphere of algae growing photo bioreactors. Oxygen generated released to air free. Algae product sold; as manure to farmers and some quick revenue earned to pay for the expenditure of running this bioreactor.

Carbon Credit - Oxygen Credit

This project deserves admission in Carbon Credit convention. Moreover, should be included in the Kyoto protocol, so that farmers of this project will benefit and that may make this concept even profitable.

Inland farming

We see that when this farming done in sea; predators such as whale and shark are the menace in addition to that other hazards such as storms, drifting due to waves and heavy wind are difficult to control. In this context, I suggest use of otherwise unused large land mass available in plenty in places such as Siberia, Australian dessert, Canada, US and many others for this type of farming. For that, shallow lagoons made not more than 40 cm deep, seawater pumped in it, and all other process kept same. Here also windmill will supply the power for all operations. Even though there will be no danger of predators and even small fish to eat away the yield; periodical scooping recommended maintaining the freshness of the final yield of algae. Seawater pumped in the lagoon and from some other suitable point removed back to sea; this action may help keep the quality of the water constant. 

Other prospects - Feasibility

While suggesting a new concept one should also consider the economic viability of such concepts; otherwise, this concept will prove to be only of academic value. Oxygen even though the main product is by obligation given to nature free and that means, we have to find out what other products will yield to make such projects feasible economically. We shall now see other prospects of this concept in this context. In this part, I suggest how to use the algae scooped and collected on regular basis.

Special types of diatoms such as Bb, that can give good quantity of fuel oil are exception but for other diatoms other uses for example, suitable for producing protein or as food for human being is also possible. If nothing, else, all algae are suitable as fishmeal, bird meal and manure and that use is of much importance. Side products like, grassland developed using this algae-manure can be useful for rearing deer. I specially recommend that, such oxygen farm if developed on prairie and in the surrounding region deer farm also developed, will work as the most profitable proposal. This has been proved that goat farming is less profitable than deer farming and that is because deerskin is almost twenty times more expensive and meat is five to ten times more expensive than mutton. Food to weight-gain ratio of deer is far better than that of goat and ram. Proliferation rate of deer is far better than that of goats. Per se to improve viability of this project deer farms will prove better than goat farm.  

In due course, more profitability factors will become noticeable when actual implementation of this concept is taken in. 

You may contact me on my Email ID given below,

ashokkothare@yahoo.co.in

ashokkothare@gmail.com

I invite you to visit my other blog if you are interested in stories.

Ashok Kothare’s Blog

You may visit, Freedom of Expression for intelligent discussions.         

Mosquitoes, houseflies and the city barber

This happened some forty years ago when one of my friends was doing his PhD; for that he had taken up the work of finding capacity of different known insects as disease spreaders. Commonly we consider that mosquitoes and housefly are the insects that spread dreaded diseases like influenza, dengue, malaria etc. While he was collecting data for the work he accidentally happened to collect some samples of my hair fallen on the ground as my Barber used to visit my house to cut my hair in those days. I wondered why he did it but it was an accidental act on his part but as the investigation proceeded we felt that it was a god wished act.

Next day he went to his lab, washed the sample of hair in distilled water, put the drop on a glass strip they use to observe microorganisms under the microscope, and began to observe. He found some very horrible things on the sample and took a back. Immediately he phoned me and called in the lab. I could not believe what he was talking about the sample of flock of hair he had collected at my place. What he had discovered was a new insight for every body because he had found that my hairs were infested with microbes of as many as seven contagious diseases. While I was not suffering from any one at that moment. I really do not remember names of all of them but one I remember is tuberculosis referred to as TB. This made me think about the instruments my barber was using. I decided to contact that barber and told my friend my qualm. Next day, I went to barber’s place, told him that my friend, whom he also knew, wants to take a few samples of his instruments, and that evening we reached his home to take washings of all the instruments. There we took washings of all the instruments including the towel he uses to cover the body while cutting hair. There were about six samples in all; two of combs, one of razor, one of scissors, one of the mirror and one of the towel. All the samples were put under microscope and found no microbes on any one sample! This put both of us in a quandary. Some thinking was required to understand the situation and so we spent time imagining about various possibilities. That evening I went to my barber’s place, and enquired about his daily routine. He told me that he begins his day at about 7:00 am, and goes about visiting places for work; he returns home by about 1:30 pm, and takes his meal and midday sleep, gets to work by 3:00 pm, and continues until evening, returns home by about 7:00 pm. Takes a wash and at that time he cleans his all instruments with some antiseptic liquid like detol, wipes them clean dry, that was his routine. There I remembered that when we had gone to his place he had already cleaned the instruments and also the towel we took washing was already washed and kept for use for the next day. This explained the doubt we had and so we told him that we want to take sample wash once again and that will be immediately as he reaches home. One final question I asked him before we left his house, I asked how many heads he does on an average? He told, about thirty to forty.

Next day both of us went to his house and waited until late evening but he did not return; that was a catchy situation and we maintained our calm and kept on waiting. Finally he came and we finished taking samples, thanked him, he surreptitiously attempted to find out what was all that we were doing; I assured him that it is merely an academic exercise and he need not worry about this things. The samples of the washing were put to test and my theory came to be correct. We could detect as many as six microbes on the samples. They all were dangerous and if could infect any weak person would make him sick. This clearly shown that this barber is collecting these microbes from places and people whose hair and shavings he makes during the day. They remain on the instruments until he cleans them at the evening by that antiseptic liquid; again next day he collects new samples of similar disease causing microbes and moves with them virtually working unwittingly as a carrier of diseases; helping to spread the disease, and all this without the slightest idea of what he is causing. On enquiry it was found that at haircutting saloons, no washing of instruments is done at the end of the day!

Our further study on this subject revealed that the number of such microbes depends upon how many heads and beards he cuts. As this number increases the possibility of variety of microbes increases.

One doctor told me on hearing the finding that, if this is the case, a city barber is more dangerous than a housefly and a mosquito.

Can we do without a barber? I became all the more baffled but soon found way out; you know what I did? Well, you may not agree with me for this suggestion but I really accepted it. I began to cut my hair; shaving I was already doing as all men do these days. It was a very comic experience, cutting your hair all by yourself, indeed but about that we shall chat some other time! I have been doing my haircuts since then. 

To save your health and particularly health of your children, who are less immune to such contacts, had better do their hair cutting at home. I would suggest that we should develop a practice by which members of the family will do cutting for each other, for example, wife will do haircut for husband and for children, and sister can do it for her brothers, brothers can help each other and so we may be able to avoid going to this haircutting saloon and save ourselves from diseases such as aids (this may be spread through razor used to cut beard and moustaches. A very small drop of the blood of the patient can cause the spread of this disease to the next person getting his beard cut! This can happen, for the reason, that while shaving with a razor microscopic cuts on the skin are unavoidable! I am afraid a large number of aid cases may be due to barbers!), TB, common cold, swine flue and many more!

Next time you visit your choicest barber and on returning if you sneeze be sure you are in for it! My intentions are not to frighten you but only caution; BEWARE OF YOUR BARBER!!               

You may contact me on my Email ID given below,

ashokkothare@yahoo.co.in

ashokkothare@gmail.com

I invite you to visit my other blog if you are interested in stories.

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Origin of Khoja community

There are many versions of the origin of this community. Since, we did not have a regular practice of keeping records there always is a wave of controversy about almost all the matters related to history. We have to depend on either unfounded information carried by mouth and to that added are the references of some old books such as puranas and other ancient literature such as a poetry or a drama. Some people who claim to be authority on such matters come with many other references such as travelogues by foreign travelers. In spite of all this there always is a wind of some controversy about the acceptability of all these theories propagated to explain origins of communities. Today we are going to discuss my findings about the origin of this very important community of Khojas.

Sassanid Empire of Iran was the last Zoroastrian kingdom and the explosive growth of the Arab Caliphate coincided with the chaos caused by the defeat of Sassanids in wars with the Byzantine Empire. Most of the country was conquered between AD 643 and 650 with the Battle of Nihawand marking the total collapse of the Sassanids. Arabs defeated Persians and other Iranians and introduced their religion Islam.

Yazdgerd III, the last Sassanid emperor, died ten years after he lost his empire to the newly-formed Muslim Caliphate. He tried to recover some of what he lost with the help of the Turks, but they were easily defeated by Muslim armies. Then he sought the aid of the Chinese Tang dynasty. However, the Chinese help did not avail and Arab Muslims ultimately defeated the Chinese forces in the battle of Talas, a century after death of Yazdgerd III. The Umayyad would rule Persia for a hundred years. The Arab conquest dramatically changed life in Persia. Arabic became the new lingua franca, Islam eventually replaced Zoroastrianism, and mosques were built. Most of the Zoroastrians went into hiding to avoid conversion to Islam and those who could not were forcibly converted. 

In 750 the Umayyad were ousted from power by the Abbasid dynasty. By that time, Persians had come to play an important role in the bureaucracy of the empire. The caliph Al-Ma’mun, whose mother was Persian, moved his capital away from Arab lands into Merv in eastern Iran. Almost all people were converted to Islam and in the process a large number of foreigners who were traders from India were also forcibly converted to Islam and in that two communities, from Gujarat of business, called Bhatia and Lohana were involved. During those days Indian businessmen of these two communities were carrying a lot of import and export business with Iran and through that place they were doing trade with other countries up to Greece, Turkey and Rome.

Conversion was an extraneous effect but as they came to India and told the gory tales of what was happening in those countries they casually told about the so-called conversion to Islam of them. Actually nothing particular had happened and the matter could have been canceled out but unfortunately things did not happen that way. The Mahajans of Bhatia community of Gujarat took it in the most erroneous way and told these Bhatias that they are thus excommunicated henceforth. They were a few hundred of them, these innocent people with their families had to accept the foolish verdict of those Mahajan and after that they began to stay separate from the usual colonies of the Bhatias. It is believed that the same fate befell the converted Lohanas who were converted almost during the same period. It is guessed that this happened around 8^th century. The people who were only apparently and not actually at mental level converted were per force made to accept that they are no more Hindus but Muslims, however, in these Bhatias only men were converted and their women and children were still Hindus and as a result they considered themselves as only half Muslims and half Hindus. This attitude of this very proud community gave it many interesting facets in the later period. Even until recently many Khoja ladies continue to worship their chosen god lord Krishna! These converted Bhatias did not accept the idea of Islam that woman is nothing better than a pet and be cared for as that and used as that; this is why most of them still believe that their women are Hindu even though the men are Muslim! Many Khojas used Muslim names in the Muslim countries while in India they still preferred the Hindu names. Over all relations between the Hindu Bhatia mahajans and Muslim Bhatia was not very bad since they still had many common relations. Their relations continued to be cordial. Over the period however, it changed and after a few generations the relations were almost completely severed. This was mainly attributed to the fact that these converted Bhatias had intermarriages with new relations in the Iran and Turkey. Other important reason was that in the mean time the Hindu Bhatias accepted Vaishnava sect of the Hindus and became vegetarians and stopped meat and flesh eating which was their original diet. There is a set of arguments given by some to explain why in those days Bhatia Mahajans accepted Vaishnava cult and that is; during Muslim rule Muslim Bhatias progressed enormously and that began to attract more and more Hindu Bhatias towards them. To save the community from being totally converted to Islam the Mahajans converted the community to the Vaishnava sect. Whereas the Muslim Bhatias were changing in blood and habits at the same time. In spite of all these; one thing remained constant that they were always very proud of their whatever Bhatia pedigree. They did not intermarry with lower class people but insisted that they marry with the people of proper standard only. That way these people continued to maintain their blood quality almost on per with their Hindu counterpart. Bhatia word means warrior or Kshatriya. Bhatias are considered as the most high class amongst the Gujarati people.      

After this very unfortunate incidence these Bhatias continued their business activity in great strength because the Muslim aggression was ever increasing and the success in conquering lands made them all the more important to the new order of rulers. Bhatias became principal suppliers of valuable merchandise to the new Muslim rulers and in that one item was the women!

Amongst many items one item that these people traded in was human slaves! These people would buy slaves and sell them after ferrying them to the markets of proper trade. Amongst them were many women slaves sold by their family to make money. These slaves were mostly sold to the rulers and the nobles from the Muslim community. Very often the sultans and the Khans from these communities would order for good and beautiful woman for their harem. Muslim masters had a very special interest in their harem, they would proudly tell their guests the number of beautiful women they had in it! Since according to Islam a woman is like a pet, not supposed to have any freedom of choice, and will be looked after as that, this practice was very common in those societies as it is understood that this religion is meant for only men and women are to be taken care of as pet, like cats and dogs and nothing more! As pets are well taken care of but still they have a belt or chain in their neck so that they do not escape; similar attitude was found towards women by the men of Muslim communities. It was considered proper and so no body ever objected to that practice. In India we see amongst Brahmins similar attitude towards women and that is explicitly shown in their book, Manusmruti. Bhatia traders would satisfy their clients and for that they were moving places mostly in Afghanistan, Turkey, Iran, and Azerbaijan also some east European countries since the most beautiful women were found in these countries and that too very easily and cheap! They after purchasing these girls would train them to be able to live in their master’s home comfortably. Quite habitually they would buy sisters and one may be sold to a sultan for a good price while the other sister may be accepted by the owner Bhatia as his consort! That way this community came to be related to many rulers. This new relation gave them additional power on the business. The noble bearing and kindheartedness of these people often made them help even their Hindu counterpart since a Khoja never forgets that he is a Bhatia first in fact. The business grew together in that Muslim period for both Bhatias. As these people quite frequently preferred to marry the beautiful slave girls who were very nice to be their wife the community slowly changed in its looks. These converted Bhatias became more decent and beautiful looking and fairer than their Hindu counterpart. As a rule we find that these people are normally good looking, their women are worth watching at, well behaved and kindhearted. A perfectly and highly civilized community indeed. The cruelty of other Muslim groups such as Arab, Pathan, Turk, Tajik and Iranian is not seen in them even though they have their blood in them due to intermarriages. They are mostly Shia but over a period some took to Sunni sect for better business opportunity in that Sunni Muslim world. This is by all standards a perfect business community though; lately we do see some of them taking to career in big businesses at executive level. Such changes are unavoidable.

Why called Khojas?

This name to this community came to be in vogue when they took to supplying wives to the sultans and sardars of the Muslim kingdoms. To search means Khoj in the Persian and so these traders were nicknamed as Khojas meaning those who do the search for the best girls! They were considered as expert in the business. Later on that became the real name of the community. I was told that the Sulemani Khojas are the most original amongst all the Khoja communities. The chief of them is called Agakhan! Interestingly this person never marries in the community because all Khoja women are supposed to be his sisters! This way the blood of this family has already almost completely changed from the original Bhatia strain. I was told that at present the Agakhan is more a European than Indian, also prefers to stay in France.

Lohana community who were converted had similar fate but because their trading items were far removed from those of the Khojas they were called memon. Similar things might have happened within them; and to protect Lohanas from being converted to Islam their Mahajans preferred to convert to Vaishnava sect; and become vegetarians. Originally Lohanas are vaishiya, meaning traders.

In Gujarat three important business communities are found and they are, Bhatia, Lohana and Bania. Bhatia and Lohana were mostly in import, export, and big business since ancient times while Bania are always in the local trade, mostly shop and such small business. In later period as Jainism spread overriding Vaishnava cult, Banias converted to that faith.   

You may contact me on my Email ID given below,

ashokkothare@yahoo.co.in

ashokkothare@gmail.com

I invite you to visit my other blog if you are interested in stories.

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You may visit, Freedom of Expression for intelligent discussions.      

Wonder Economics of Pakistan

This is an incident happened almost thirty years ago. In those days I was working and for some work I had gone to a place called Bhendi bazaar in Mumbai. While I was standing on the road near a shop and talking with the shop keeper I saw two boys and one of them was mercilessly beating the other boy. The other boy was almost bleeding from his mouth and shouting for help. To my surprise no body in the vicinity was bothered about that. While I was watching I saw that a decent Parsee gentleman was passing by and at that moment the other boy who was bleeding approached him crying and asked him to help him. The Parsee gentleman intervened and stopped the other boy; on enquiring he came to know that the boy being beaten owed the other boy some 25 rupees and unless he gets that he was going to hit that boy. On hearing this story the Parsee gentleman took out his wallet and took out 25 rupees and giving that money he warned the boy not to hit him again. The other boy promised not to hit him since he got his money. The Parsee fellow went away and then to my shock I saw both the boys smiling to each other and playing as if nothing had happened; then they shared the booty. I could not understand the whole affair and so I asked the shop keeper what is this all. He, with a mischievous smile, told me that it is the way of fooling people and these boys make some 100 to 200 rupees in this way every day. In the meantime, I saw they had again started the game but this time the boy who was getting beating was now beating and the other boy was getting the hammering. On enquiry I was told the names of the boys were Abdul and Yaasin.

Bhendi bazaar is called mini-Pakistan of Mumbai. Now I remembered it because when we read of the clash of so called AlQaeda and Pakistan forces fighting each other and the US intervening and offering help in billions of Dollars; I saw some resemblance in the two instances. Abdul is AlQaeda and Yaasin the Pakistani forces and the gentleman Parsee is the US government, and I got the shock of my life to understand the game. Well, it is the same game they are playing these days in Pakistan which the two boys were playing some thirty years ago at Bhendi bazaar or mini-Pakistan. 

Friends, have you got the idea of the Pakistani wonder economics? No, not understood! No problem, I shall explain it to you. Here it goes; pretending to the world that AlQaeda are fighting in Pakistan for nothing sensible but fighting and killing some ordinary people on the street. Occasionally exploding bombs to kill innocent people and in that to kill if possible some foreigners and in this way to create a picture of great commotion. At that Pakistan will begin to shout about the great danger of AlQaeda possibly taking over the region and by that to make US and those allies keep worrying about the peace in that region. When the impression is properly created stupid US diplomats come to offer 100 billion Dollar or more in help to surmount the problem! Pakistan gets the help and the game is over for the time being! After some time again the trouble begins under some other pretext again Pakistan starts to cry aloud and redeemer US comes with some more billion Dollars to Pakistan. I was told that by this method Pakistan has almost made at least one thousand billion Dollars so far.

To earn this money any country would have had to do so much of manufacture and so much of marketing efforts and so much of infrastructure building no body can imagine of! Pakistan is earning this money just by killing some useless and worthless Pakistani citizens, occasionally destroying some building by some powerful bomb blast the cost of which is very small; since the cost of life of any number of Pakistani nationals is zero, and the cost of broken house could be around some few thousand rupees. So the total investment, liability and risk in the venture are very small and as against that small investment Pakistan is getting a lot of Dollars and over and above that great sympathy! So that the same game can be played over and over again and again to make money - free money! So friends, how do you like this new wonder economics of Pakistan. I am overwhelmed! Hats off to Pakistani economist who invented this method of making quick money.

Yes, what about the last part of the game, mischievous smirk of Abdul and Yaasin after the Parsee went away? Of course, both AlQaeda and Pakistani politicians must be enjoying the last laugh on the stupid US diplomats; sharing the booty!

Pakistan playing innocent to the US, crying hoarse against India as if India is doing all the bad things on earth and US like a real permanent fool keeps on believing that drama of Pakistan; this is going on for many years and I feel it will continue like that for some more time until some really intelligent man comes to take over and replace the present idiot government of USA!

China needed a quarter century to earn one thousand billion Dollar reserves; India is struggling hard to get near this figure but in vain; whereas Pakistan has earned it in just about a few years, ten or so! If this game goes on like this a time will come when Pakistan will be a rich nation without any industry or any sensible development plan of any value.

Some times I wonder how these US diplomats are being fooled by this Pakistani game; then I feel some US officers may be getting commission from Pakistan to continue this money making game! I am sure it is a big racket. Making ruler-class of Pakistan very rich while the gentry remaining as poor as anything. I feel no economist in this world has ever thought of this unique method of making quick money. We know various types of economic schools but in none this method is explained. I christen it ‘Wonder Economics of Pakistan’. 

You may contact me on my Email ID given below,

ashokkothare@yahoo.co.in

ashokkothare@gmail.com

I invite you to visit my other blog if you are interested in stories.

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You may visit, Freedom of Expression for intelligent discussions.      

Maldives can be saved

This time we are thinking about a serious problem, one of our friendly nations and a member of SARC countries, Maldives is facing.

President Mohamed Nasheed of Maldives government announced last year; plans to look into purchasing new land in India, Sri Lanka and Australia, due to his concerns about global warming and the possibility of much of the islands being inundated with water from rising sea levels. Current estimates place sea level rise at 59 centimeters (23 in) by the year 2100. He said;

“We do not want to leave the Maldives, but we also do not want to be climate refugees living in tents for decades”.  

To resolve this problem I suggest following remedy. I do not think that they will have to shift anywhere if they raise the ground level by method given below. Before we read my suggestion let us first know some basic information about this archipelago, in Maldivian language Atoll.    

Basic information about this archipelago

The Maldives consists of approximately 1,190 coral islands grouped in a double chain of 26 atolls (a Maldivian language word, meaning ‘a ring shaped coral islands’), along the north-south direction, spread over roughly 90,000 square kilometers, making this one of the most disparate countries in the world. The atolls are composed of live coral reefs and sand bars, situated atop a submarine ridge 960 kilometers long that rises abruptly from the depths of the Indian Ocean and runs from north to south. Only near the southern end of this natural coral barricade do two open passages permit safe ship navigation from one side of the Indian Ocean to the other through the territorial waters of Maldives. For administrative purposes the Maldives government organized these atolls into twenty one administrative divisions. The largest island of Maldives is Gan, which belongs to Laamu Atoll or Hahdhummathi Maldives. In ‘Addu Atoll’ the westernmost islands are connected by roads over the reef and the total length of the road is 14 km.

The Maldives holds the record for being the lowest country in the world, with a maximum natural ground level of only 2.3 meters (7 ft 7 in), with the average being only 1.5 meters (4 ft 11 in) above sea level, although in areas where construction exists, this has been increased to several meters. The reef is composed of coral debris and living coral. This acts as a natural barrier against the sea, forming lagoons. Other islands set at a distance and parallel to the reef, have their own protective fringe of reef. An opening in the surrounding coral barrier allows access to the calmer lagoon waters. The barrier reefs of the islands protect them from the storms and high waves of the Indian Ocean.

A layer of humus 152-millimeter (6.0 in) -thick forms the top layer of soil on the islands. Below the humus layer are 2 feet (0.61 m) of sandstone, followed by sand and then fresh water. Due to high levels of salt in the soil near the beach, vegetation is limited there to a few plants such as shrubs, flowering plants and small hedges. In the interior of the island, more vegetation such as mangrove and banyan grow. Coconut palms, the national tree, are able to grow almost everywhere on the islands and are integral to the lifestyle of the population.

Climate

Two seasons dominate Maldives’ weather; the dry season associated with the winter northeast monsoon and the rainy season brought by the summer southwest monsoon. In Maldives, the wet southwest monsoon lasts from the end of April to the end of October and brings strong winds and storms. The annual rainfall averages 2,540 millimeters (102 inch) in the north and 3,810 millimeters (158 inch) in the south. Because of eight months of rainy season potable water is not a serious problem. Proper storage of water makes the country suitable for hotel business. Waste disposal to avoid environmental hazards will be done by first compacting the waste material into pressed cakes and then those cakes will be lowered in the sea within the region of the coral reef.

Environmental issues

Over the last century, sea levels have risen about 20 centimeters (8 in); further rises of the ocean could threaten the existence of Maldives, being the lowest country in the world, with a maximum natural ground level of only 2.3 meters (7 ft 7 in), with the average being only 1.5 meters (4 ft 11 in) above sea level. However, around 1970, the sea level there dropped 20–30 centimeters (8–12 in).

To resolve this problem, Basic concept details

After knowing the basic information of the island we can work out the plan to raise the ground level of this archipelago. Fundamental method that will be used is to first build a barricade of large sized boulders (average weight 200 kg.) on the periphery of each island. Height of the boulder wall will be about 20 feet and width also about 20 feet. after placing boulders in position using cranes the gaps in between the rocks will be filled by concrete mix. Top will be finished with stone slabs and the sides will be plastered with concrete rich in cement (water proof) no steel will be used in the construction of this wall. A gap of 40 feet is kept between the actual shore and the wall out side surface like a terrace. This will be filled with heavy boulders (average weight 500 kg.) to make a buffer so that the thrashing water waves will be arrested and the wall will be saved from the ravaging effects of the waves.

We expect that the coral shall grow in due course on these rocks and the wall; build the natural binding to make them last long; that means no special measures will be required to maintain this buffer.

After the barricade is completely built, the surface of the ground which is naturally coated with humus is scraped and kept in heaps on one side. The opened sandstone ground surface is now filled with imported sand and soil up till one foot below the top level (20 feet) of the bordering barricade. The fillings are compacted by rolling. After the compacting sand and soil filling, original top soil of humus which has been removed and kept, will be spread over it; again roller pressed and the ground is created. After this bore well are done to get the rain water that is stored within the sandstone below. 

How to get material

Indian coast is the near most and so primarily we can say that Indian main land material will be sold for the purpose. This will save the cost of ferry. Indian contractors from Kerala and Mangalore will do the work. If proved cheap, sand filling may be brought from the Arabian Gulf and soil from Sri Lanka (Ceylon).  

How to finance

According to one estimate the total cost could be about 120 billion USD. Maldives government can issue bonds in the international market; each bond of 100 USD. At the interest suitably calculated. To pay back the loan money Maldives island nation will have a few options,

• To encourage tourism,
• To encourage free port market economy on the line as Dubai,
• To develop economy based on casinos like Monaco at France.

All these three can be encouraged and that will earn enough revenue to repay the loan with interest. In view of the fact that, all the three options suggested here are prone to damage basic cultural values of this country it is recommended that these activities shall be allowed on certain islands where local people do not regularly live. Connecting these islands by a regular yatch ferry service so that local people will be going to work on the islands but will not stay there. This will help keep the privacy of the people intact. If free port market economy is encouraged a few important jobs will have to be done by foreign people, they will stay on those islands and they will not stay on islands where local people are living. This will help avoid cultural pollution of which particularly Islamic societies are wary.

I expect the work will take at least 20 years to complete the barricade and land filling and repayment may be completed in about 60 years hence.

You may contact me on my Email ID given below,

ashokkothare@yahoo.co.in

ashokkothare@gmail.com

I invite you to visit my other blog if you are interested in stories.

Ashok Kothare’s Blog

You may visit, Freedom of Expression for intelligent discussions.    

Profitable wars

War and human history are intimately related and there will not be a single event in the history of any human society without a war. Today we shall be considering economics of war. You may wonder what I mean by that; as we know that all activities of human society are controlled by one element and that is economics. Per se, even a war cannot be considered without its economics. In consequence automatically factors like profit and loss or even, come up to explain the exact results of the war. I mean to say, a war is either profitable, loosing or even. Even means neither profit nor loss. When the wars are profitable the kingdom who wedges the war on other kingdom prospers; when looses the war, it declines. When the war is even, usually they have negotiation to settle the issues that caused the war.

Other aspect concerning a war is; how to finance the war. Napoleon had said that, an army walks on its stomach. This was other way to suggest that a war is an expensive bargain. In this we find after studying many examples of wars that the finance of a war is a very important issue. A well-financed war is seldom at loss. Almost all the loosing wars are found to be not well financed. One example is that of war at Panipat wedged between Abdally of Afghanistan and the Marathas of Maharashtra. Marathas lost the war to Abdally and by record, one can say that it was end of the Maratha supremacy in India. That war was very expensive and it was a big problem for the Sadashivrao the commander of the Maratha army to arrange the finance. The local moneylenders from Delhi did not give money to Sadashivrao at the request of the East India Company. He offered the expensive ornaments he was carrying to them as surety but even after that they refused him the credit. As a result Sadashivrao had to hire services of local inexpensive garrison made of untrained and ill experienced combatant. They were fighting against the well-prepared and experienced forces of the Afghan king and the result was evident, Marathas lost the war. It is said that if the Maratha army had proper finance they would hire services of the best Maratha soldiers from nearby Maratha kingdoms and the results would have been otherwise! In many wars fought all over the world we find that many coalitions amongst the groups are essentially based on the finance and not on any other principle such as nationalism, patriotism and self-respect.

When I was studying economics of East India Company, who subdued all Indian kings and finally took over the seat of power in India very honorable by the expressed consent of defeated kings, I find that almost all the wars played by this company were not financed by any money from England but that they were financed by Indian money lenders! Not only that but the army who fought for the Company were mostly Indian soldiers, well paid out of the borrowed money from the Indian Money lenders and as a result they were winning everywhere. East India Company was very well known to Indian moneylenders for prompt repayments and without any hassles. Other Indian rulers were at times very nasty and dangerous with these moneylenders on loosing the war. Some Muslim rulers were so bad that they would even kill the moneylender on his demanding the interest on the loan they had taken to finance the war. Many kings would either avoid or delay payments; all these things had made Indian financers weary of Indian Kings both Hindu and Muslims. We know the event of Shivaji, The founder of the Maratha dynasty, having looted Surat city; that was because moneylenders from that place refused him finance for the war! Those moneylenders were not sure of his creditability! Shivaji could not convince them of his good intentions may be due to lack of relationship. For them nation and freedom were not the concern, they were merely interested in return, who ever paid them well, they favored! May be the concept of freedom, of Shivaji, was not understood by them due to ambiguity. Some historians say the concept of nationality and “to be proud of your nation” were absent; probably they were introduced in our people after we learned western ideologies! Moreover Shivaji was an alien king to the Gujarati traders who had very good rapport with then ruler of Gujarat who was brother-in-law of Aurangajeb! Concept of freedom from foreign rule was also not well understood by those people from Surat and all these things caused non co-operation from these moneylenders. The concept of India as one nation was also not known to these lenders, because all these modern ideas were introduced in our people only after the British taught us the western concept of nationalism, patriotism and political freedom. Until that time India was only a geographic entity and had no political connotation. One other reasoning proposed is that these moneylenders were confident that this Shivaji will not be able to succeed against the Mogul rulers and so they refused the money. Finally, Shivaji attacked Surat, looted it; and that gave birth to the permanent animosity amongst the Gujaratis and the Maharashtrians until today! Shivaji could finance many battles with that money and finally built his kingdom! It is believed that most of the skirmishes done by Maratha warriors were profitable wars; each one earned fabulous wealth making Shivaji a worthy conqueror in the end.   

Some Maratha kings would prefer to give away portion of land to the moneylenders as against the interest and the principal amount; those lands were very uncomfortable to the lenders because those lands were either far away or not suitable to hold. All these things were not done by the Company and therefore most of the lenders were very happy with the Company. I can say with some confidence that this was one very important reason for the success of this East India Company in India; they were honest with the moneylenders! In Calcutta, it is seen that there were competitions amongst the lenders to finance the Company! A large part of the loot Company army would do after the conquest was used to repay the loan and interest. The policy of the Company was simple, they held the rule so that they could tax the people and make profits for the posterity. The moneylenders had no disapproval to that looting as they knew the return of the loan is done out of that loot! Many a times they recommended looting their opponents in the conquered region! Economics of war was different in those days; it was more guided by above given views of return and repayment of loan, since the concept of economics was very different in those days. Nation, patriotism all these ideas were alien to them. All wars were considered as private wars and theory of national war was not known.

Wars financed by the country to enslave itself were a very surprising and astonishing findings, I had made during the study. One more interesting fact that became very clear to me was that, even army who fought to subdue local rulers were made of local mercenaries. Most of them were fighting on contract with the Company. Company paid them well and also allowed them to loot the conquered province freely. That way the mercenaries were doubly compensated. All these policies of the Company made the wars very profitable! The Company on winning the country changed its attitude towards the mercenaries who were prone to do the looting everywhere, they were declared criminal tribes and banished them! Soldiers or Sipoys were recruited on meager salaries, one record shows that a Sipoys was paid only rupees 18 per month while the European officer drew 1800/- Rupees per month. India was drained of its wealth gradually. One more interesting thing to be noted is that the local rulers were paying only Rs. 4/- to their soldiers! One can understand why the Company was winning all over.    

I studied other wars financed by the warring party by its own money; they were found to be less profitable particularly, if they were fought by the army of the same party and not hired local mercenaries. In many such self-financed wars the defeat was terminating the kingdom permanently. When local mercenaries fought, only those who survived, were paid and the rest who died had fought for free! This made war finance all the more profitable. As for salaried soldiers, even after death some payments were made and that added to the cost of the war.

I concluded after my study that the grand success of the British in India can be attributed to this policy. Today wars are not financed that way and so they are becoming very expensive. Wars are no more profitable to the subjugators and so they are talking of peaceful negotiations to settle the issues. Nevertheless we are going to keep army and other forces, since that is the need of the situation.

A new concept of war called economic wars and economic aggression are developed by countries like US to hold sway over the world. In this new concept MNC are important to work as arms of that government. World Bank and IMF are other handy tools to support the MNCs. These concepts of economic empire are mooted by US. Presently what we see going on in the world is connected with this activity. Profitability of economic wars is dubious. In conventional wars two parties are clearly demarked whereas in this economic war that is not possible. To make it possible we often see that all US, MNCs insist on governmental protection to their entry in an alien country by making various so-called international obligations compulsory (structural adjustments, Conditionality) on that country to which, US based MNCs want to loot by trade agreements. Utilizing local laws to protect US interests; it is somewhat similar to using local mercenaries to fight local power! The British formula in modifies form!

Recently a unique war affair has been noticed and that is between Saudi Arabia and US. I have discussed it in my article “Saudi designs in Pakistan to fool US”. This war affair is unique in the sense; it does not kill people or financially destroy them or even does not destroy property. This war affair devastates minds of the opponent party. We may call it psychical war; Saudi diplomats are fighting this war via Pakistan with US for many years. Involving US forces and war equipment in fighting so called AlQaeda insurgents. I consider this is by far the most remarkably efficient method of war to finish the opponent. Such wars will be always profitable since the monetary involvement is at the minimal and risk of causality and loss of property is nil. This war affair is based on the principle that human activities are guided and monitored by the minds and if the mind is weak the activity is weak and so can be overcome. Warring nation equipped with the best arsenal and other paraphernalia but not mentally prepared to war can be defeated by other nation with lesser quality arsenal and paraphernalia but fully geared to fight. That means the fight is at the mental level; more important than actual physical fight. In the example of Saudi versus US we see Saudi initiating it on US without US knowing about it. A perfect example of psychical war.

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Saudi designs in Pakistan to fool US

Considering the present position of Dollar we know that Dollar will never be able to come to that previous position to serve as standard international currency for exchange. The news of US government wanting to print clandestinely, additional 5 trillion dollars to overcome present problem and the fear expressed by China, at G20 meat at London, about the falling real value of US Dollar the problem of medium of exchange for international trade is going to be a serious one. Many economists are working to find out how this problem can be resolved successfully. 

There are two possible solutions, out of them one is to get US Dollar its previous position and the other option is that the world accepts new currency of strength as international exchange medium. The first option is all that every body concerned is hoping for; but the news we get about the manner in which US government is trying to do things it is becoming all the more clear that the overconfidence which has caused this dismal state of affairs for Dollar has not abated a little bit. This shall ultimately make all nations in the world including allies of US to abandon any hopes of revival of US Dollar. The other option is not any difficult to accept and for that we should begin to survey various currencies and get to the one which has strength. I have done my individual study and in that I came to know some very interesting and encouraging facts. Here I wish to share them with you.

I am of the opinion that Dinar of Saudi Arabia could serve as a suitable alternative. The strength of Dinar is very good and it is very stable amongst all the currencies of the world. Before we review the possibility of Dinar to replace Dollar we should take a note of the clandestine activities of Saudi in Pakistan to weaken US, economically. This inquiry is important to Indians because, that concerns power balance in the Middle East and the subcontinent.

If you remember a few weeks ago I had published my dialogue with four Arab businessmen. They were from Saudi Arabia. While talking with them I came to know quite a few things; in that they elaborated how Saudi are manipulating things in Pakistan and Afghanistan region to keep US government engaged in a Machiavellian trap to reduce its strength and develop in it a feeling of uncertainty about its capacity as a superpower! I am telling hear what the trap is.

Really speaking the trap is very deep and planned to hold US in a fix so that it can not move much. To understand the plan we should know a little about the recent history of things happening in that region. We know that alQaeda was primarily developed and encouraged to fight USSR forces in Afghanistan by US diplomats. After that war was over, immediately, Saudi diplomats entered the scene in the masquerade as Islamic revolutionary with Laden as the front man. Every body knows that Laden was a hand of Saudi kings men, even though they often pretended to be opposite; just to fool US intelligence (?). If one carefully studies the activities of this so called Islamic outfit, some things become very clear and one of them is that; how is it that in a totally Islamic country an agitation in the name of Islamic revivalism is at all possible? Another one point to be noted is that all the fights of these people are confined to a certain area in the region and that is the province of Waziristan bordering on the two countries and the surrounding region of Swat. We seldom hear about these fighters going in other provinces like Punjab, Multan or Sindhh in Pakistan. Waziristan province is known for such fights since time immemorial. The Waziry and Pashtun tribes take pride in keeping on such fights to show that they are resistant to opposition and also to show valor. It has nothing to do with Islam; they have been doing this since the pre-Islamic period. The only difference is that presently these fights, which are essentially local skirmishes, are getting international publicity as ‘AlQaeda resistance’ and that makes people all over the world think that something new is happening!

Saudi plan goes this way, Pakistan to show to the US politicians that these skirmishes are done by AlQaeda forces; so that US continuously keeps bothered about it. That way clever Pakistan keeps on extracting as much as possible military aid from US. Very little or none is used in these fights. Obviously since these fights are not to bother about, they are a usual occurrences in that region. Recent confession by the earlier president of that country, that the aid from US is mainly used to strengthen Pakistani army on the borders of India. Pakistanis and their mentor Saudi are having laughed at the way US is bothered about these phony AlQaeda fights. All the information to US intelligence is primarily supplied by Pakistani intelligence, US does not have independent espionage activity in that country to give unbiased information; as such Pakistan can fool US easily. A few journalists prodding that region were killed to stop any genuine investigation that US papers may do.

The Arab businessmen told me that the so-called AlQaeda militants are just a decoy! They are good friends of the Pakistan government and by arrangement they are to pretend to the world that they are fighting for Islam! Occasionally a few people are killed and that too by the US air attacks and not by Pakistani forces, but then that is the part of such political games everywhere. Pakistan always pretends to be fighting against these people but in actual they do not. Most of the killing is being done by the US forces. This arrangement is keeping US totally engaged in the warfare in that region, having telling effect on present US economy. They told me that this show will go on until US understand the conspiracy however at present we see that US diplomats have up till now not got even the slightest idea that this is a trap to keep them engaged in that region and that it is set by Saudi!

Why should Saudi? I asked, what is the advantage to Saudi in that matter?

Saudi wants their powerful currency to replace Dollar so that they can establish Arab Supremacy on the world commerce; at present US is not allowing anybody to substitute Dollar. By exhausting US in such skirmishes they hope to achieve that!

Simple method of exhausting the superpower.

Saudi want to get rid of US clutches on it and wants to have the freedom to sell their oil in the open market, they also want proper price for the oil, which is not possible at present. Saudi are not militarily anywhere around this US power and so this method is used to exhaust its stamina and also kill its confidence that it can beat any body in this world. As far as military competency is concerned it is debated that in ancient times Mongols were the most untiring fighters after that the Pathan, who are part of this region are rated as the most untiring fighters. In India Maratha are known to be similar as recorded by both Mogul and British conquerors. Americans are least capable of sustained fights and so this plan; to keep the American soldiers at fight until they are exhausted physically and mentally. The plan is very well made and is based on study of human capacities as warriors. At present we see that Americans are using automatically working planes to target the places but soon these tribal people shall learn to blow apart these fighter planes and that training will be imparted to them by none other than the Pakistan army! For that Pakistani army will first learn the short comings of the gadget. Keeping US intelligentsia at bay!   

After that what?

Saudi are good friends of all the important Pakistani politicians and actually they work for the Saudi interests in their country. Those who genuinely opposed Saudi influence in Pakistan like Mrs. Bhutto are done away with the way Bhutto was killed. Bhutto’s husband is good friend of the Saudi and so he is doing well.

Unluckily for the US, present time is not favorable. Their economic condition is, day by day in stead of improving, declining. Recent meeting between the Federal Bank of America chief and the President Obama has established this fact. In that, this unwanted fight in an alien country where US has no immediate concern at all. But it has become a prestige issue for the US. The way they retreated in Vietnam, if they do now the world will scoff at it and that this very proud country will not put up with.

To thwart this foul play of Saudi, what US should do.

Well, since it has become a prestige issue it is very difficult to withdraw military presence in that region unceremoniously. Notwithstanding, US can openly declare that it is the problem of that region and they should handle it the way they want and withdraw forthwith. My Arab friends told me; that is unlikely due to many commitments US has towards NATO and such other international agreements. One more sensitive thing they told me and that is concerning our India, they told me that US in collaboration with Pakistan has done many clandestine activities to disturb peace and stability in our country just to appease Pakistan. If in future US threaten to withdraw their involvement in that region under whatever pretext, Pakistan will blackmail US to continue or else all those covert activities against India particularly related to counterfeit currency printing will be exposed to the world; destroying position of that country in the world society. Since Pakistan is already known to be a thug country to the world it has nothing to loose in the process. US cannot afford to accept that and so they told me that America will have to continue its involvement in that region until it is fully exhausted and finished. Saudi’s are confident of their plan. American military experts have asked for more troops of armed forces to be deployed in that region to combat the AlQaeda. That means more innocent young US men will be killed like real idiots at the hands of political jokers of that country! More young widows and more orphans and resultant demoralization of that society; and all this for what??

I suggest, if it is difficult to withdraw unceremoniously then US president should hold opinion poll as they did at the Viet Nam war and American people preferred to withdraw and the withdrawal took place; similarly as situation is more or less similar now again president should go for opinion poll. I am sure people will vote in favor of the withdrawal.    

I was all appreciation for the way Saudi’s have made the plan to subdue US indirectly using Pakistan. We all were enjoying the game Saudi were playing with US and laughing whole heartedly. Saudi has made US a big joker; I said to them and at that, they all enjoyed it, we were cutting comments and that was good fun. Saudi is obviously wedging a silent war on USA via Pakistan.

Pakistan will as well use China as excuse to frighten US and out of that fright we expect, US shall continue its involvement in that region, which is the plan of Saudi diplomats. Earlier Pakistan had used USSR as excuse to frighten US and it worked! All these things clearly indicate that US is not mature enough to handle the problems of the old world. Pakistan, a very poor and ordinary country, appears to be smarter than US. 

In spite of the Arab opinion I am still of the view that if US withdraws from Pakistan the way I said and also stop giving monetary help under any pretext to that country; Saudi will realize that US are smart and not fools; that will help US control their downfall. As for alleged involvement in, counterfeit currency printing, any accusation from Pakistan can be destabilized since the world knows that Pakistan is a country without any position, a thug, as mentioned earlier and so that will not matter at all. Another important point is that counterfeit currency within the country does not destabilize the economy of that country.  

Lastly I can say one thing, US has great scientists but stupid economists and childish politicians (I call them American jokers); what the society of scientists gave to that country, these silly economists and childish politicians are going to squander and ultimately loose. May God bless this unlucky country and save it from the hands of those economists and politicians on this auspicious occasion of Diwali!

You may contact me on my Email ID given below,

ashokkothare@yahoo.co.in

ashokkothare@gmail.com

You are invited to visit my other blog if you are interested in stories.

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You may visit, Freedom of Expression for intelligent discussions.