Shreedhar' s Weblog

Mumbai's still the same yet changed a lot

After three years, I recently visited Mumbai, my native city. Having heard of the stupendous boom in India over and over again over these years, I was expecting to see some impact on Mumbai after these few years. Things have changed quite a bit, but then things have not.

What has changed:

People have snazzier mobile phones than here in the US. The cell plans cost a lot less than here (even after not considering the currency effect).

I did not see many iPods though and the dog ear'd look with headphones on (whether the device is playing or not). 

Technological inroads through high speed internet is just beginning to happen. The internet cafe's are flourishing, also meaning that majority homes may not yet be hooked to the internet boom.

The real estate skyline has changed dramatically. New buildings look like gigantic townships placed in the middle of wiry thin streets.

The local Government is playing catch up by trying to complete long delayed infrastructure projects such as flyovers that would have addressed needs of people ten years ago. Already,  the new flyovers look unable to address future needs of the city. And with the vehicle market boom, the impact will be felt more acutely and faster than ever.

Also, given the size of the residential buildings, I doubt if the city planners have provided for expanding the city's water and sewage infrastructure.

Pollution levels have dropped from three years ago as the auto-rickshaws and taxis and public buses have moved to Compressed Natural Gas. Trucks continue to spew venomous fumes.

There is a huge chain of malls coming up in Mumbai at various suburbs and these are as trendy and flashy as the ones in the US. In fact, we found the equivalent of all that you get here in the US for almost every item. And the prices were fairly reasonable. Added to that are the nice fast food joints within large stores offering cleanly made food.

The local McDonalds had the Indian variety of burgers and a nice set of menu items and it was an absolute treat. Way better tasting than the stuff you get here. Why dont McDonalds open country themed restaurants here in the US with country specific cuisines? After all, the US has a pretty diverse population and people like to try out  other ethnic cuisines.
Pizza Hut had Indian Curried Toppings on the Pizza and these were fantastic.

There is a retail boom going on in India and several new and innovative products are being introduced.

What's not changed

The around-the-corner cobbler repaired my umbrella and did not take a dime from me for it. His response "For this small job what can I charge you?". Only in Mumbai do you still find this spirit.

Pot holes continue to happen and be filled the same way as before. There is no technique change or technology change. One can sense corruption here through repeat contracts to patch after doing a bad job earlier.

Dumping of trash on the roadside or small empty spaces between buildings continues unabated. The hygiene and health risks are known but then its the municipality's job to clean up, apparently!

Slums dot the airport's runway and many other parts of the city with no possibility of proper housing and hygiene amenities. This is indeed a huge challenge for this city for many years.

Online life is still fairly low although its picking up in the sense that people don't usually just say go to this website for this information, Or I bought this online at this site, Or just google this... :)

Mom and pop grocery stores and pharmacies are around every corner and are such a huge convenience especially when one is sick. They even deliver home based on a phone call without any extra charge. This is good old Mumbai's spirit or rather I should say, this spirit is prevalent almost throughout the country.

Ah, the traffic disorder. Its almost part of the Mumbaikar's identity. The first day, I was actually scared out of my skull sitting in the taxi as the driver moved right in front of a speeding public bus as the bus was moving from our right side to the left. Cordially, the bus slowed rapidly inches away and allowed the taxi to go and life just moved on from then. Almost everyday, I experienced the orchestration of a moving set of sheet metal amidst the narrow roads and helpless signal lights. Road signals mean very little as the impatient traffic on the other side inches into the oncoming traffic's way and then eventually a gridlock happens. Somehow, it resolves itself after some waiting in the muggy weather conditions but there's this unspoken understanding between drivers to put up.

Crowded trains are still the same and getting worse. The system somehow works wonderfully and when it fails it does miserably. One wonders why the surrounding seas around Mumbai have not been used to construct freeways as in other countries to cut down distances. After all, thats good for the economy and people's productivity.


In sum, the city is undergoing growth pangs but people are accepting newer lifestyles gradually and gracefully. Culture continues to play a major role in people's lives and I could sense that life is not as mechanical and robotic as it is here.

Posted at 05:59PM Sep 28, 2006 by Shreedhar Ganapathy in General  |  Comments[0]

Java EE/J2EE Web Hosting: Your view as an ISP (web hoster)?

The web hosting landscape comprises a percentage of providers who offer Java EE / J2EE based hosting solutions. We are interested in hearing some feedback from web hosters.

If you are a Java EE /J2EE web hosting provider,

1. what do you look for in an application server product?
2. Specifically, there are features and facilities that you look for that would allow you to maximize your resource usage
   at the lowest possible cost. What are those?
3. What drives you to offere a particular application server product?
4. What support arrangements do you make with appserver vendors or support providers in order to keep the server environment up and running for mission critical apps of customers.
5. What choices and type of hardware and OS environments do you typically offer for customers?

Needless to say, this is an attempt to understand the web hosting segment landscape and generate feedback from both Web Hosting providers and users of such services.

This will help us to come up with functionalities that would address your requirements with the ensuing releases of Project GlassFish.

Posted at 09:50AM Sep 27, 2006 by Shreedhar Ganapathy in General  |  Comments[2]

GlassFish Extras Page has moved to the new GlassFish Wiki site

The GlassFish Extras page which used to reside here has moved to our new GlassFish Community Wiki site at http://www.glassfishwiki.org.

On the front page of the wiki is a section on GlassFish Extras that points to specific categories of interest such as Frameworks, Applications, etc. The main page for GlassFish Extras is located here.

As earlier, we encourage your contributions of pointers to any application, framework, tool or other technological enablers that works with GlassFish. Our goal is to spread awareness on these fronts and thereby increase adoption.

Posted at 01:17PM Sep 26, 2006 by Shreedhar Ganapathy in GlassFish  |  Comments[0]