Trrrrrrrraffic Jam!!!

News (24/8/2010): Thousands of vehicles were bogged down in a more than 100-kilometre (62-mile) traffic jam leading to Beijing that has lasted ten days and highlights China's growing road congestion woes.


Flashback (24/8/2007): Me and my friend Leo started from Pingyao to Beijing. Pingyao is a small city in Shanxi province retaining its city layout from Ming and Qing dynasties, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Beijing, about 700 Kms from Pingyao, was the final destination of our month long backpacking trip.



Old streets of Pingyao


We left the travelers' hostel around 2 PM and walked right away to the bus station.We didn't have a chance to have our lunch as we couldn't find any vegetarian restaurant nearby. There was a bus to Beijing around 3 PM. Each ticket cost 150 Yuan and we had money in Chinese Yuan just enough to buy our tickets. We looked around and found that there were no banks or ATMs in that small place. We could only buy two bottles of orange juice with the small change we had. The person who issued the tickets said that the bus will reach Beijing around 9 PM. So, we thought that we can have some dinner once we reach Beijing.

The bus started right on time. Everything went well till we were about 80 Kms from Beijing. Suddenly, the bus stopped and we just found that we are stuck in a traffic jam. There were a lot of vehicles ahead and in no time, there were a lot behind us too. We couldn't really see the starting point of the traffic jam and we didn't know the reason either. The only thing we knew is that we are stuck in the middle of nowhere.

There was no sign of vehicles moving for a long time. We just watched the movies played in the bus, listened to some songs in the MP3 and slept. It was already 9 PM and the bus didn't move an inch. With no money and in the middle of nowhere, we had no choice but to starve.

Finally after some 7 hours, the bus moved slowly. We found that there was a toll gate and of all the 8 lanes, only one lane was open and a guy issuing tickets to the vehicles passing through the only open gate. The bus reached a bus station around 3 AM next day. We jumped down the bus and found that the bus stopped in a bus station out of Beijing and the place was not even in the map. Having no money to hire a taxi, we had only one option - wait for the first bus by 5 AM.

It was my first and only experience until now to sleep in the street. We took the first bus and reached the city center. It took us some time to find the hostel we were planning to stay. It was good that the hostel accepted US Dollars. But, we still had to wait till 9 AM for the bank to open.



In the lobby of the hostel we stayed in Beijing

It took us time to take a shower and get ready. We walked through the streets near the hostel we stayed and the smell of the food from the street vendors attracted us. But, our pockets were empty and had to wait till we change our US Dollars to Chinese Yuan. We looked into the map and walked towards the nearest bank.

There was already a decent crowd when we reached the bank. We had to wait for an hour or so to get our job done. Oh, with the money in our hands, we wanted to find a decent vegetarian restaurant nearby. We found one in the map and it was not so far from where we were. So, we walked to the place. But, the shop was moved from that place. Too tired to walk around, we took a cab and went back towards the place we stayed. Finally, we found a restaurant across the hostel which served some vegetarian food (Though the restaurant was not completely vegetarian). We had some pasta and some other stuff to finish our one and a half day long starvation.

Altogether, it was a whole new experience and though it was tough that time, it now remains as a memorable experience.

NOTE: Just when I tried to write this down, I found that the date (24/8/2007) of this incident and the date (24/8/2010) the news about the recent traffic jam appeared in the newspaper which made me write this are the same.

Iru Vizhi Unadhu...

Some songs really sound good and will be in our play-list for some time and then another song ll replace it and so on. But, there will only one (or very few) songs that remain very close to our heart. One such song is "Iru Vizhi Unadhu" from the movie "Minnale". Its a short and sweet song composed by Harris Jeyaraj and sung by Devan.

The reason for this song being close to my heart is not just the music or lyrics. It was the time I joined college, this movie came out and this song became one among my favorites. Christmas was nearing and we had a game in our class, "The secret friend".

The idea of the game is that the names of all the classmates will be written in small sheets, rolled and put in a box and each person should pick one name from the box. The one who picked the name will remain as a "secret friend" of the person he/she picks. The secret friend will pass messages to the person through some classmates. Most messages/requests will be asking the person to perform something (Like singing, dancing, saying a joke etc) before the class. We can either accept or deny the request. This game will be played during lunch time and other breaks and after a month, the secret friend will reveal himself/herself to the other person and will give a gift.

One afternoon, after lunch, I received a small sheet with a request "Please sing a song" from my secret friend. I was a bit shy but my other classmates sitting near me encouraged me to sing some song, atleast for fun. Though I sing reasonably well, I was quite nervous to sing amidst my classmates. I didn't want to sing a lengthy song and so decided to sing this one, "Iru Vizhi Unadhu".

Well, I should say that It came out to be my best performance till date. Something very close to my heart. All my classmates appreciated me and I have sung that song atleast a few times for them. It really helped me to get some good friends in my class and later I sung the same song to get a chance to sing with the college band for our "Tech Day". I don't know whether singer Devan, who sung this song in the movie, attained some popularity by singing this song, but I got a lot of friends and much more.

Pedestrian power for a greener future

Any one point on a busy street can receive up to 50,000 steps a day, so imagine if you could take all that foot traffic and turn it into something useful – like energy! A new product developed in the UK by Pavegen systems can do just that. With a minuscule flex of 5mm, the energy generating pavement is able to absorb the kinetic energy produced by every footstep, creating 2.1 watts of electricity per hour.

Every time a rubber Pavegen stone is stepped on, it bends, producing kinetic energy that is either stored within lithium polymer batteries or distributed to nearby lights, information displays, and much more. Just five slabs spread over a lively sidewalk has the ability to generate enough energy to illuminate a bus stop throughout the night. But applications are not limited to the street. Extended into other public and private spaces the system has the potential to power lights, computers, automatic doors, ticket machines, refrigerators, shop signs, microwaves… Depending on the usage, the payback period could be as little as one year, and each Pavegen stone has an estimated system life of five years of use, or 20 million steps.

Constructed from marine grade stainless steel and recycled materials, the surface (which comes in a variety of choice colors) of each slab features the rubber from old tires, and the internal components are made from recycled aluminium. Whenever a slab is stepped on it emits a glow (which only uses 5% of the total energy produce – this not only informs the passerby of their contribution, but also reinforces a sustainable attitude and an increased awareness of the energy that is continually created and expended by each individual.


More information about this can be found here:
http://www.pavegensystems.com/about.php