One ‘Hella’ number

Earth churns about 43 thousand Giga bytes of data per day - so claimed a recent advertisement by IBM in newspapers. In another Symantec CEO Enrique Salem says that data organized around the world is growing at 60% a year and unstructured data is growing exponentially. 

I tried to figure out how much this works out to and after a bit of number crunching I got a number measuring 1.5 into 10 raised to power 4384 bytes of data churned in a year. I said to myself ‘one helluva of a number‘ and started to see if there were any scales to measure such dinosauric proportions.

Trudging through the standard International scale of Units i came across some fancy sounding names that currently stops at Yottabyte (10to the power 24), prior to this you have Zettabit (10*21), Exabit (10*18) and Peta (10to the power 15) and so in that order. But soon there could be one more number to this lexicon- Hellabit (10*27).

‘Hella’ - a Y generation word that probably has connotations to the American slang has been taken up as a petition with the International system of units (SI) to describe 10 to the 27 zero number. Hella is supposed to take care of measuring inter-galactic distances, wattage of sun or may be some day the online storage capacity of facebook servers.

However all these fancy name calling reminded me of one venerable Ms.Centillion (1 followed by 303 zeroes). This gal stuck in the minds of a few star struck FBNO*s who not long ago had named a wannabe financial services BPO this far fetched name. But soon all its zeros went scurrying for cover leaving the poor 1 behind. And true to its numbers it had become a ‘one’ year wonder.

*fly-by-night operators

Moping Redux

How are fat girls and mopeds alike? They're both fun to ride until your friends find out. So goes a college joke but on a serious note the joys of moped riding ( or what I call Moping) on congested city riding dawned upon me in recent years and it was more by chance than design.

A decade or so back, I had sold my one & only two wheeler; a veritable Hero Honda CD 100 (in pic below) and had switched over to a car since . That Bike had been steadfast with me through my college days & early job period. A staid & steady Japanese bike of 1985 make it was among those types which were initially assembled in India. This bike took enough beating under my driving so much so that it had to suffer one major heart transplant (i mean engine reboring) during its tenure.

But about 11 years back I replaced it with a Indica V2 to take up my commuting needs & followed it up with Santro Xing in 2003. Thereafter my driving routine changed , and I resigned myself to the dull & drab driving of city car commuting. Then one day this happened, I had to go somewhere & the car was at the service centre. So invariably I turned my sight on this lean machine. At first sight it did not please me, a small fragile frame & hoi polloi looks put me off but the commuting majboori of the moment made me to ignore all that & give it a try. And lo! behold before I could try more expletives, the moped was revving smartly through bangalore’s congested roads.


Einsteins theory on the relative motion of bodies struck me hard when I realized my relatively better new found acceleration . Commuting through the dense Bangalore traffic like a hot knife wading through the butter, it made driving a breeze and I reached my destination much faster . So life suddenly seemed to be on the faster lane, relatively speaking that is .

This TVS Super was a bike that Laxmi fondly brought to Bangalore after it had dutifully served her in the hill town of Manipal. I guess the bike may not have exerted much there , for the distance between her house (a staff quarter allocated to her father who also taught there) to her alma mater, the MIT (Manipal Institute of Technology) where she later taught must have barely been 150 meters. I fondly named it Laxmi’s dhanno , inspired by Basanti’s mount in Sholay.

And Dhanno found its true calling on the bustling roads of Bangalore. Not only could it could zig zag its way through unruly traffic with remarkably agility, parking was an added convenience and real bonus. This was a minor pleasure in itself. Now I could thumb a finger at all those rogue motorists who gave me a nightmare in the car. And of course the bike could squeeze through the tightest of openings in parking lots as also those dense standing traffic awaiting the green light nirvana. It brought down the commuting time on my designated routes by almost 50% - no scientific tests but simple funda, this 2 wheeler of a widget could simply wriggle its way through traffic , either standing or slow moving , so much so that it always ended up at the front of the traffic signal or near about . This gave a lot of leeway in bringing down the commuting times as the queuing length decreased & the frontal traffic dint slow one down.

So every time I venture out with this machine and take a look at the ever increasing traffic on Bangalore’s congested roads , I may be subconsciously murmuring ‘Chal meri Dhanno’ .

Golden Blooms Amidst Concrete: The Vanishing Splendor of Bangalore's 'Tree of Gold'

The Spectacular Yellow Blossoms: A Morning Drive through Bangalore's Streets

Imagine cruising along Queens Road or gliding over the Windsor Manor Bridge towards Mekhri Circle on a serene morning. Nowadays, you simply can't overlook the enchanting spectacle unfolding around you. There's a mesmerizing explosion of bright yellow, as the 'Tree of Gold', known in the realms of botany as 'Tabebuia argentea', originally hailing from the lush landscapes of South America, puts on a breathtaking show. These trees, almost naked of leaves – perhaps shed during the winter's embrace – are now adorned with vibrant yellow blossoms that stand out in a spectacular fashion. Each morning, these golden blooms present a sight so spectacular, it feels like a dream. I've managed to capture a few glimpses with my mobile camera while navigating these roads, but let me tell you, the actual scene is infinitely more majestic.

The flowering season of these trees, I've learned, is quite brief, adding to their allure. It's a natural extravaganza that one should endeavor not to miss, especially considering the ongoing challenges faced by our city's green warriors. In the name of progress – road widening, and metro constructions – we are slowly losing not just our rich green tapestry but also these crowning jewels of nature.

Urban Development vs. Natural Beauty: The Struggle of Bangalore's Greenery

A response to a recent RTI filing revealed a startling fact: since 2007, the BBMP has cut down 2,123 trees for road widening and the Metro Project, and these are just the official numbers. S Sivasailam, MD of the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd, indicated that the elevated section of the metro, spanning 32 kilometers, would result in the felling of around 2,000 trees, while the underground section of 9 kilometers might consume about 1,100 trees.

Amidst these developments, a poignant question lingers – how many of these mesmerizing flowering trees have we lost in this pursuit? It's a thought that tugs at the heartstrings of anyone who has witnessed the golden bloom of these trees, a reminder of the delicate balance between urban development and the preservation of nature's masterpieces.