Christmas 2009

You can’t write off any Indian politician, you can’t write off my blogging instincts either, can you?. The revival spirit didn’t come through a hunger strike or media attention, but probably because I got up unusually earlier on the Christmas long weekend and didn’t know what to do on a laptop with a Time Warner proclaimed “hi-speed internet”.  And of course, few days back, a cousin of mine, extremely considerate not to hurt my feelings, fleetingly asked “you don’t blog these days?”. Thanks bro!, here you go with another dose and hope you don’t go banging your head somewhere

Did anything interesting happen after I posted my last entry (that was 298 days back)? Hmm..Let me think..7 train failed miserably twice, I got to visit India twice, fell sick twice and till now it had snowed twice in NYC.  Ya, also one of my RECT (or now NITT)  seniors is coming up with his book soon (best wishes sidin!).

Let us now come to more profound observations, questions of the season, Christmas 2009. A rogue snow storm with precision strike dumped some good amount of snow last weekend along the east cost. NYC got its share of inches while eastern long island got its feet. It was fun watching snow and walking in it “only” when it’s actually snowing. It gets deadly calm unlike during splattering rain as snow flakes don’t make human audible sound. I feel rain is of the impatient lot while snow is his patient,silent but notorious cousin. Some how that weekend, I didn’t get any sleep and around 3am, I just saw some bright orange light outside my window. Visibly irritated, I got up to pull down the shades,  but what did I see….The whole night sky was orange in color that gave me a spooky feeling of some impending Armageddon. I rushed to the laptop to check if some unusual activity was reported that night  and didn’t find anything meaningful. Retiring back,  I got up the next day when the snow finally relented to find people already working on their  favorite past time “shoveling the snow”.

Snow is light but as days pass, it could freeze and become the evil ice. You could see the municipal snow removers removing the snow from the street and dumping to the side walks while residents, shovel it back on the road. After this relentless war, people continue to walk over the snow and do what it hardly deserves. Make it super dirty and as the days pass by the city wears a shitty look with piles of brown snow or ice.

That got me thinking, why isn’t there a good snow remover yet built? Shoveling just displaces the snow, blowers also do the same and eventually everybody relies on the Sun God to melt the hearts of ice. But you all know, how adamant  ice is, like a super snobbish  girl who constantly turns down her suitors.  Believe me, an effective snow removal mechanism would have immense market demand. Just think of the savings which the health care system will achieve, no more “Doctor, I have a sprained ankle, back, broken foot etc..” (I hope the health care reformists are listening!).You could think of a cost-effective device suited to individuals or a more elaborate one which municipal corporations could afford and do the needed for the common good.

So what must an ideal snow remover do? Remove snow before it becomes ice. Heat based melting could be energy intensive (and not green), how about some sound based devices. High frequency waves, breaking ice blocks and melting them. But you don’t want broken car windows as the municipal ice exterminator moves through the streets. And yes, the snow needs to be picked like garbage and not left to rot. So how do you transport it or coming back to the previous point, melt it and allow it to drain through the city storm water drains as it happens during rains.Or with all the mobile devices emitting tonnes of cancerous radio signals, how about we all “tweet” the snow to its death?

So are you all ready to join Mr.Snow Van “Damn” to take on the creepy hollows of the Snow dark lord? He is waiting to hear from you guys from his “anti-freeze den”. (ps: he reads comments on my blog)

Mr.Snow Van “Damn”