Grace wanted to return

“Here you go, Ma’am. You can board your flight from Gate Number 2 on the first floor”, said the airline staff, handing over the boarding pass. Grace left quickly without looking at her. She hated forcing a smile without a reason. Besides, that lady had already irked her by asking whether she was pregnant. “Why do you ask?”, Grace had replied. “Ma’am, our new policy requires us to know whether a female passenger above thirty is carrying a child. We would require your consent on a form”, the staff said. Grace threw a cold “No, I am not pregnant!” and reflected back at the topic on which she had been questioned so many times over the last few years that the doubts had, at least partially, transferred from her ‘well-wishers’ to her own brain. Forget about having a child, Grace had not even thought about getting married! Right after completing her education, she took up a job. And boy, she knew she was good at it! There had been no looking back since then. Slowly and steadily, she climbed every step she could, and now she had reached a position where she was indispensable for her firm. She did not get it by chance, or by favours; she had to earn every bit of it. This was the only thing she was good at and the only thing she could possibly do all her life! She was aware that all her friends or girls of her age in the family were, by this time, well-settled, married, and busy raising children.

Grace had been, after all, brought up in a close-knit Indian family. It is not that she looked down upon such ideas or did not value them; she simply did not consider these as her priority because she was ignorant in a way, perhaps a little stupid and mostly so much engrossed in her work that she did not have time to let these ideas invade her thoughts. Her relatives, though, left no stone unturned to remind her of the duties she was supposed to do. When the ‘tradition’ card failed, they tried to go the logical way and emphasized on the importance of companionship. Grace knew that companionship, if gone wrong, has the potential to ruin a person’s life. She had, hence, learned this ability to turn blind. The only thing which she trusted, which never failed her nor will ever leave her, which has truly awarded her every time she has put in efforts towards it, was her work. In her own small mind-palace, her work gave her the joy of ruling the world. And who would want to give up ruling the whole world for building a petty little family? It is not that she hadn't pondered upon the idea that she may not be very normal, but Grace never realized when such issues stopped mattering to her. She really had grown up.

“We request you to please store your luggage in the overhead bins or beneath the seat in front of you”, the cabin crew announced as Grace took her seat. She liked an aisle seat, and always preferred boarding after everyone else. Standing in a queue repelled her.

This was a low-cost-airline flight. Not something Grace would choose; but this assignment was of a new kind and it involved going to places which were not popular flight destinations. This was the only direct flight, and Grace did decide for this travel pretty late. After she was seated, she saw a woman take the seat on the other side of the aisle. She was an elderly lady, in a wheelchair, travelling with her middle-aged son who sat on the middle seat right next to her. Even with the help of the airline ground staff, it was fairly difficult to transfer her from the wheelchair to the seat as she could barely walk or balance herself on her feet.

Grace’s already pestered mind got saddened at the sight. Why do people grow so old that they can’t help themselves? She would never want to get into such a situation herself. Never, ever! She remembered how her grandmother was bed-ridden for a long time and she suffered so much! With this thought, a sudden gush of cold air blew past Grace. She almost skipped a heart-beat! Her grandmother!

The only human being whom Grace could lend a piece of her heart to, was her grandmother. Her love for Grace was unfathomable, and Grace also knew that her grandmother could be the only source of peace if everything else in this world had lost its meaning.

It was a warm summer night two years ago; Grace had to finish a work assignment in two days’ time. She had left her hometown for her job long back, and by this time, her frequency of calling home had reduced to once a week or so. She had, by then, also developed the habit of taking alcohol during long hours of work. It increased her efficiency, and helped her forget everything else. Often, she would work from home, with a bottle of hard liquor for the night, and work like nothing else existed. She worked like a dog for that project. In the foolishness of it all, she did not step out of the house for some days together, and had not even checked her phone which ran out of charge. By the time she could gain her sanity back, it was too late. She rushed back home, only to see her father return home after performing her grandmother’s last rites.

There are some griefs that turn a person’s whole world topsy-turvy. And then, there are sorrows which simply and quietly turn a person cold. In Grace’s case, it was the latter. It slowly, but surely, dampened her emotions and she became neutral to every thought that came to her. At one point, she would hold herself responsible for not being able to see her grandmother one last time. At another, she would loathe the fact that she had allowed herself to be so attached to her grandmother’s love that it pained. At times when she would want to recollect the last time she saw her grandmother, she remembered nothing! She would close her eyes forcibly and from deep inside, die to see her grandmother’s smiling face for one last time! She could see nothing! It was as if some reaction inside her brain had wiped out the last trace of her grandmother’s memories. Or, was her grandmother so cross with her that she would not want to come to her, even in her thoughts? And all this while, there was only one thing which would reciprocate Grace’s coldness with solidarity, and she clutched onto it with all her might. It was her work!

“I need to use the wash-room”, the aged lady told one of the flight attendants after she boarded the flight. “Ma’am, we are taking off now, I will get back to you after the take-off is complete”, the flight attendant replied and went back to her seat. The flight was quite crowded. The idea of proximity to so many people for a considerable 4 hours of travel had put Grace off, but she had no option. The lady looked at Grace and smiled. Grace could understand that she was in discomfort, but she said nothing. She desperately wanted to put her headphones on, but since no electronic devices were allowed at that time, Grace simply closed her eyes and pretended to sleep, to ward off any conversation that could likely have started.

“Ladies and gentleman, we have completed the take-off, however, due to turbulent weather, you are requested to remain seated with your seat belts on”, the crew announced. Grace felt somewhat worried. She knew how difficult it was to control nature’s call at such an old age. But why would she need to worry about a stranger when her own son was beside her? Grace dropped the idea and started listening to music. Several minutes later, the turbulence had reduced and the crew started their on-board sale of food items and merchandise, while the seat belt sign was still on. What? Did they forget that the old lady had asked for their help? In a momentary impulse, Grace did something very unlike her. “May I help you, Aunty?” Grace asked that lady. “Oh, that’s sweet of you, but I have already informed the crew, they will come”, she replied. “They have moved ahead with their cart of merchandise, Aunty! I am not sure when they will come. Here, let me take you to the wash-room”, Grace offered, almost involuntarily. She did not realize why she was doing it.

Grace got up from her seat and started helping the lady. Her son on the next seat, like most people on this flight, was fast asleep. This was an early morning flight and the passengers clearly had not had enough sleep the previous night. For Grace, staying up two nights in a row had by now become a regular habit, so she did not realize any difference. She opened the lady’s seat belt, and tried to pull her up. The old lady gave in the best effort she could give, and stood up. Slowly she could move one step, with Grace’s support, and then another. Finally, they reached the wash-room. Grace helped her with her clothes, and made her use the closet. This came as a surprise to Grace herself. She was usually very fussy about using the toilet properly, and when she would see her friends cleaning their childrens' wastes, she almost felt like vomiting. If motherhood entailed doing that, she was way better off the way she was.

But look at Grace, now! She was helping an elderly adult, a stranger, and literally doing what a mother does to a child! And after the old lady was done, she slowly brought her back. It was very tough and tiring for her, for Grace was not very well-built. The flight attendants had reached closer to their seats by this time and offered their help to place the lady back in her seat. The old lady had made tremendous efforts to stand and walk on her feet, as much as she possibly could and she was tired, too. Grace realized that this lady was not a person who liked to depend on others, but she had to do it as she had no other choice. “Thank you!”, the lady said in a very soft voice, looking at Grace after she was placed back to her seat. “You are not related to her? Oh, thank you so much for your help, Ma’am”, the cabin attendants looked surprised, and obliged. They realized that they had forgotten about the lady’s call for help since no call-lights were still on, and when they had seen Grace help her, they could not join as they had already moved ahead with their large cart full of food and merchandise. Grace placed herself on her seat, put the seatbelt on, and looked at the old lady. A smile lit up on Grace’s face. It was an unforced smile in years! She turned her head and closed her eyes. It was silent all around, and all she could now see was a very bright light and a smiling, aged, wrinkled face that she knew too well.

-Arpita Mondal (CIVIL)

The story behind the stink – IISc’s recycled water system

“When the well is dry, we know the worth of water.” – Benjamin Franklin (1746)

While I was once watching an episode of Satyamev Jayate (Amir Khan’s talk show on social initiatives) on poorly managed water resources in the country which was aired back in 2013, my neighbours in Dollars Colony happily let their overhead water tank overflow for more than half an hour. When I went and asked them to stop their pump, they looked at me as if it should be none of my business. Often, the complacence of education is worse than the lack of it. Grudges apart, what can we do to make the best use of what is available to us? As part of the country’s best in research, is the Indian Institute of Science able to lead by example? Well, apparently, yes!

IISc has set-up what can be called the first domestic waste water recycling plant to be established in an educational institute campus in India using state-of-the-art Submerged Membrane Bioreactor (SMBR) technology. Yes, it is the same place whose stink might have bothered you on your way to the new Biological Sciences Building from what-used-to-be-our-beloved Faculty Club Canteen.

The plant has been operational since December, 2010 while the recycled water has been made available through a high-pressure distribution system since October, 2011 which ensures reliable availability of water 24 x 7. At present, it produces more than 5 lakh litres of recycled water per day which is being used for toilet flushing, gardening, car washing, and floor and road washing in different parts of the campus including a few departments, both of the new hostels and the residences. The SMBR technology is able to prevent the presence of all bacteria and most of the common viruses.

Pestered by recurring problems and complaints on water issues in the campus, the institute set up its first Water Committee (WC) comprising of seven professors and the Registrar in 2008. The WC, with the help of hired consultants, completed the rigorous task of preparing a comprehensive Geographical Information System (GIS) of the campus water infrastructure. Apart from setting up the recycling plant, groundwater monitoring was carried out in and around the IISc campus; a water body was created in the Jubilee Garden pond to collect storm run-off for groundwater recharge and a rainwater harvesting initiative was taken up in the new E-type quarters area. The Center for Campus Management and Development (CCMD) had worked with the WC in implementing these measures.

Since IISc buys water from the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) at an industry rate of about Rs 70 per kilolitre, the WC thought that it was important to re-use the domestic waste water for non-potable uses. The cost of treated water at the recycling plant, including power supply is about Rs 9 per kilolitre. Although the plant and the distribution system were built with a staggering capital investment of more than 4 crore rupees, the economics of it, as worked out by the WC, promise a payback within approximately four years. In spite of the fact that considerable fractions of the total water consumption in the campus come from groundwater and localized private buying of water from tankers, the total BWSSB water bill of the institute has indeed been reported to come down from the 2012-13 amount by about one crore rupees in the present assessment year.

How useful is the recycled water for the campus? When asked, Prof P. P. Mujumdar, who was the Chairman of the WC when the plant was set-up, answered “almost all the gardening in campus is now being done with recycled water. Some departments also use it for toilet flushing. The setting up of the treatment plant was given to highly reputed multinational companies on a ‘design, build and operate’ contract. Not just that, the entire collection system of domestic waste water was geared up. We understood that just an island of hi-tech is not going to help. We wanted a very high level of service as far as complaints pertaining to water and waste water systems are concerned, which is why a 24 x 7 water helpline was created. The whole idea of an additional source, as far as water availability is concerned, is to build a resilient system.”

On being asked whether any problems were faced in the design, execution and maintenance of the recycled water system, he replied,
“Creating the distribution network for parts of the campus across the bus-route roads was difficult. To SID and the Gymkhana
grounds, pipelines were established over the ground along the pathways. Even inside the main campus, we did not want to dig up the main roads, for which the expensive trenchless technology had to be used. The WC’s aim is to bring out notices prior to expected
shut downs of the plant, though accidental failures are difficult to avoid and do happen. Other than that, there had been some problems like theft of valves from the taps, too”. Now, in a country where lawlessness and corruption have gotten into our bloods, the last one is not a surprise though.

Prof Mujumdar also informed that a similar plant is being planned in the eastern part of the campus behind the Swimming Pool with the intention to create another 5 lakh litres of recycled water per day.

How are the end users reacting to the recycled water system? An ardent lover of nature, Mrs Shubha Bhat, a resident of the E-type quarters, is very happy and satisfied with the supplied recycled water which has helped her rejuvenate the garden beside her house. When I visited her house some months ago, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that she is able to provide shelter to many rare birds! In big pots in her garden, she also rears fish which kill the mosquito larva.

“Earlier, I had to re-use my kitchen waste water and house cleaning water for the plants here, but that was not enough. On the other hand, I was scared to use the potable water that is supplied to the houses for gardening purposes. The recycled water supply has come like a boon to me. Now I can watch beautiful birds take a dip in the water right from my kitchen while I am cooking food. In fact, last winter, migratory birds had also come to the tree beside my house”, she said. “Initially, I was somewhat skeptic about whether they add chemicals into the waste water to treat it, but when I visited the plant, I got to know that it is a membrane that they use. I feel very proud that such a thing has come up in the Institute. Our kids also should see the treatment plant, they should also know about it”, she added.

The Inorganic and Physical Chemistry (IPC) Department also uses the recycled water extensively, not just for the gardening of its lawns, but also for toilet flushing. When I went there to inquire about the benefits or disadvantages of the recycled water system some months ago, Prof. A. G. Samuelson, the then Chairman of IPC had said, “We have been consistently using the recycled water for the last few months for toilet flushing, and for a month before that too, for gardening. Earlier, we were buying tankers at the rate of one to two tankers per week, which means about 10,000 liters on an average, every week. Since the time we have started using the recycled water for the toilets,
we have not bought a single tanker! This is a big improvement for us, because, other than saving water, it is saving us a lot of trouble.
We are very thankful to the administration for making this effort because I think in a sense this was long overdue for a campus of this size. This is a great step!”. Prof. Samuelson had, however, also mentioned that using recycled water for laboratories might entail a little more and the reliability has to be 100% for that.

The IISc Director Prof. Balaram, too seemed positive about this initiative. “The residents are definitely using the recycled water for gardening and car washing”, he said. On being asked whether the recycled water will be further treated to make it suitable for drinking, he jovially replied “I did offer to drink this water. I said, you can then watch me for a week, to see whether I am still coming and going regularly, and at the end of it, take a call”. He emphasized that the water quality parameters are being measured and the water is indeed supposed to be potable. “If you take a scientific view, water is water; and, if every harmful contaminant in it can be measured and quantitated and found to be within the accepted limits for potable water, then it is potable. You see, after all, you do not know what water is supplied in those tankers”, he said.

Why is it then that all the Departments are not using the recycled water? When I had posed this question, Prof. Balram had replied, “This is what the IT-people call the last mile connectivity. Sometimes it is just not there. I think the residents on campus automatically use the water simply because there is a tap there and they can get hold of the water and use it for washing the car or gardening but the
apartments have not taken it with the level of enthusiasm that one might have expected”.

In several laboratories, this treated recycled water can be used; especially in the laboratories where treatments like distillation of water are anyways performed in-situ, there is no reason why recycled water cannot be used. Other than that, recycled water can be used for cooling purposes too. Huge amounts of water can be saved if all the construction works in the campus are carried out with recycled water, given that the amount of constructions, as opposed to the greenery in the Institute, is monotonically increasing. But perhaps, we have yet not realized that the well is dry. One step ahead at a time will take us a long way ahead. The good thing is that a small step has been taken, which will perhaps show the way to others. There are several other campuses and places in Bangalore City where interested people are ready to take up such similar initiatives. Thus, while my neighbour may feel irritated when I ask him to stop wasting water by letting
it overflow, I am sure the next time he does it, he will think twice. And the next time you walk past the recycling plant, you might bear the stink without much ado.

If we humans are responsible for exploiting the earth’s resources with the help of our intelligence to smoothen our lives, I am not ready to believe that we will prove ourselves to be foolish enough to not restore the earth back to a state that is favourable to nature. We must show the way, leading by examples so that our future generations with their paramount intelligence will be able to differentiate between need and greed.

Arpita Mondal
 

The Fart of Living

(Based on a repeatedly circulated advertisement in the IISc community)

Is your body filled with unwanted products of food metabolism? Are you waking up with a bloated stomach? Are your neighbours complaining about the nuisance you are creating? Your days of embarrassment are over! You are invited to the Fart of Living Relief Program.

• Come, unlock and release the gas that is already within you
• Overcome inhibitions and negative comments from people who fart only in private
• Improve your relationships by not farting at critical times (for example, while you are discussing your research problem with your adviser)
• Bring back a smile to your gut!

Empower yourself with our patented® Sanchalan Kriya, a powerful farting technique to enhance your ability to throw away unwanted metabolic by-products. The Sanchalan Kriya has been taught in 150 countries around the world and has benefited millions of Dolphins. And now it is a proven fact [1-2] that practicing farting techniques (may not imply Sanchalan Kriya, though!) improves your gut function. Even Har Bar Medical School recommends 15 minutes of farting daily. It is necessary.

“I do it first when I wake up” – Jennifart Aniston
“It helps me keep a balance between pooping and farting” – Madu Rai
“…it’s been far-tastic!” – Oprah Window
“I have so much to accomplish today that I fart for two hours instead of one” – Mahafart Gandha

De-stress with us and discover the joy of farting, deep within you. All are invited, and it is NOT free!

References
1.      Funny, D. Journal of Farting Technology, April 1, 2012, Voluminous.
2.      Hilarious, R., International Conference on Fartology, April 1, 2014, Fartland.

Arpita Mondal (CIVIL)

The Forgotten Children of IISc

IISc is, by nature, dynamic. The institute, over the last century, has evolved continually, trying to keep up with the needs of the country. As it evolves, its landscape changes too. Buildings come and buildings go, the old making way for the new. For this cause, toil many migrant workers, hidden within the tall Aluminium sheets covering the four flanks of their work site, playing their role in the growth of the institute. Not far from their work places, their children play away under the afternoon sun. And therein lies the stark irony. Living within an institute that is revered as a temple of knowledge, these children may never see the inside of a classroom.

A large part of the workforce employed by the contractors to work for the construction projects in the Institute, are migrant labourers hailing from other states. They go where their work takes them, often with their families staying with them near the sites. When asked till when their stay in the institute will last, the most common reply from the labourers was “When the work here ends”. Sadly their children suffer the brunt of this. Many can never attend the same school for an entire academic year as their parents rarely stay that long in one place. Some wish their children to have a permanent roof over their head, instead of a nomadic existence. “I will send my children to stay with their grandparents back in our village, soon”, said Shabaana*, a labourer, busy wetting the newly laid concrete at a construction site near the new Aerospace Department. Those who stay with their parents near the work site, however, are left to the care of others in the temporary tin roofed settlement as both the parents have to work at the site to make ends meet. Ramesh, a project manager with the Ramky Group who is in-charge of the construction at that site, said, “Indeed! We would love to send these children to pre-school. That way, we don’t have to worry about their safety because a construction site is an unsafe place for little children to loiter around”. He remembers there being a Balawadi centre within the campus a few years ago. And he is right.

A Balawadi centre is a pre-school specifically aimed for children in the age group of three to five years belonging to the underprivileged section of our society. The aim of such initiatives is to ensure universalisation of pre-schooling. It is believed that this will improve the rate of enrolment in primary education. Not too long ago (late 2007) the students and the Administration had been instrumental in setting up a Balawadi centre in the Institute for the children of the construction workers working in the Institute then. Sadly, as the construction projects got over and the workers left, the centre was closed down. According to some workers Voices spoke to, the place near the Water Recycling Plant where a new canteen is coming up is the place where this Balawadi centre once stood.

Back at the construction site, the site in-charge seemed oblivious to the presence of the little ones in the settlement right next to the site. When prodded further he admitted their presence, “Yes, there are children, but they are all small, some three or four years old. No one is older than six”. He said, “We are ready to even sponsor their school uniforms and books, but the parents are not interested in sending their kids to school. They stay for no longer than six to eight months.” He has been in the institute for 7 years. When asked about the old Balawadi centre, he admitted he didn’t know there was one. “If they open it again, I’ll encourage my labourers to send their children there. I’ll also arrange a vehicle to take them to school and bring them back.” He mentioned the tens of thousands of rupees they donate to a school nearby, the management of which approaches them for donations, on a yearly basis. One might wonder, if true, how the management could miss seeing the children that play on the path that leads to their generous donor’s office.
The people behind the Note Book Drive initiative too, were at one point, keen on making sure these children get primary education. When asked about their view, they said, “We started ‘Reach and Teach’ 3-4 years back; aimed at the children of construction workers but we had lot of difficulties in taking the initiative forward. The main difficulty we always faced was the shorter time duration for which they were present in the institute. The labourers mostly used to change. Also, once Prof. Prabal Maiti (from the Physics Department) started discussion with the administration to have a permanent crèche for those kids in IISc , but the administration never really responded ”. Even after repeated attempts, the Voices Team could not get any response from the administration in this matter .
“It would delight us all if these children could go to school”, said Babu, a bachelor new to the settlement. “Would you like to go to school?” he asked little Ismail. He nodded a quick “No!”. And everyone around laughed.
One of the elders near him smiled and said “No, my boy, be a good kid and go to school.” Indeed, who, among those who live in India’s premier research institute, would know better the value of educating the young, than the ones who were denied it in their youth.
*All names have been changed to protect identities
Excerpts from the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Central Rules, 1971:

“A Creche should be located within 50 metres of every establishment where 20 or more women are ordinarily employed as contract labour. While the Creche should be conveniently accessible to the mothers of the children accommodated therein, it should not be situated in close proximity to establishment where obnoxious fumes, dust or odours are given off or in which excessively noisy processes are carried on… Accommodation in the Creche should be on a scale of at least 20 sq. ft. of floor area per child. There should be a shady open air play-ground suitably fenced for older children…The Creche should have first-aid equipment kept in proper condition. Every child should be medically examined before admission. There should be medical check-up of the children once a month and their weight recorded once a month. A record of the periodical medical check-up should be entered in the record of medical examination of each child kept at the Creche…”
Sources: http://labour.nic.in/upload/uploadfiles/files/ActsandRules/Service_and_Employment/TheContractLabour1970.pdf
http://www.lawsindia.com/Industrial%20Law/c_036a.htm

with Arjun Shetty (ECE) & Ranjith Warrier (AERO)

The Third Civil Engineering Annual Student Symposium: A report

The Civil Engineering Department organized its third in-house Annual Student Symposium on Aug 26-27, 2010. An outcome of the enthusiastic initiative of the students of the Department, the first symposium was held in 2008-2009, the Centenary Year of the Institute. Under the umbrella of the Department comes three divisions – Structural Engineering, Geotechnical Engineering and Water Resources and Environmental Engineering, and a centre – Centre for Infrastructure, Sustainable Transport and Urban Planning (CiSTUP).
Forty Six students, from all the divisions, presented their research work over these two days under four broad themes: I. Analytical and Numerical Modeling, II. Laboratory Testing and Experiments, III. Uncertainty and Stochastic Modeling, and IV. Other themes. There were 10 sessions of presentations, all chaired by senior research students themselves.
Five student volunteers under the supervision of Prof. Madhavilatha managed the event. Breakfast, lunch and tea on both the days were provided by the Department. All the student presenters were gifted a watch and an Institute bag.
“The idea with which the Annual Student Symposium was started is to increase the interactions between the students from the different divisions, who would otherwise be oblivious of each others’ research initiatives, and to enhance the academic vibrancy in the Department and I think we have been successful in achieving that feat” remarked visibly contented chairman Prof. P. P. Mujumdar after the completion of the event. “It is truly a technical feast, in which we celebrate our academic energies” he added.
There was a wide range of topics covered varying over different spatial and temporal scales. Some works focused entirely on theoretical research while some were staunchly application oriented. While some presentations portrayed technical work at large depths, some were preliminary studies or literature surveys. Even the freshly admitted students could benefit from such an exposure to the wide spectrum of research going on in the Department.
This year there were two awards adjudicated by a jury of three judges – Prof. Srinivas, Prof. Debraj Ghosh and Prof. Tejas Murthy. The award for best technical paper went to research student Asha Nair, and research student Guruprasad bagged the award for the best presentation.
The professors also pointed out suggestions for improving one’s content and style of presentation. Sticking to time during presentations was particularly stressed upon. Students were also invited to offer constructive feedbacks. It was an informal exchange of ideas all throughout. The ceremony was concluded by felicitating the volunteers and the judges.

Arpita Mondal (Civil)

A Friend on Your Path

Most big cities to which the so-called ‘brain-drain’ from India is directed, have one thing in common – their public transport is exceptionally well organized and there are websites which can guide you wherever you want to go, literally giving you instructions at each step with precise estimates of times which would be followed to perfection in real time. Obviously, for such a thing to happen in India it would take a while, specially to build transit models that can compute paan or biri breaks for drivers or bus stoppages during rush hours for the conductor to come out of one gate and enter through the other to make sure no one gets down at the next stop without paying the fare (or lesser fare in exchange of no tickets to fill the conductor’s pocket). Let us not harp on faults in the Indian systems and give you some good news instead. Change has started.

The Center for Infrastructure, Sustainable Transport and Urban Planning (CiSTUP), Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore now offers you ‘Maargamitra’ – a friend on your path. Launched on the 23^rd of July, 2012 the Maargamitra website (planyourtrip.civil.iisc.ernet.in/Bangalore_PIS/) is an interactive interface that can help you plan your trip within Bangalore before you step out of home.

Funded jointly by CiSTUP, Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India and IISc, the interactive web-based interface will not only display the best path (based on minimizing the combination of walking time, travel time, waiting and transfer time) over a map and as text, but will also tell the approximate travel time and fare and number of transfers involved (if any). Other than the best path based on minimum total travel time, the trip planner also gives best path based on a unique concept of ‘generalized cost’, in which the best path is obtained based on a weighted combination of walking time, travel time, waiting time, transfer time as well as fare. Generally, it is a natural tendency of a public transport user to attach differential importance to various legs of a trip. For example, a person might perceive waiting time at terminals as uncomfortable and would attach higher preference to a route on which the waiting time is less or minimum. Similarly, an elderly or disabled person may not like to walk more to reach a bus stop or train station and thus will prefer a route that has less walking time, while planning a trip. Some users may prefer direct routes as compared to routes involving transfers, even when the direct route involves higher in-vehicle travel time. All these considerations relevant for Indian conditions can be imitated in trip itinerary planning, by considering the generalized cost approach during shortest path analysis for finding the optimum route through a multi-modal public transport network.

To keep it simple at the beginning, the system has used default weightage values based on an initial study, however, in coming months the trip planner will be updated to allow users to provide their own weights. At present, Maargamitra covers Big-10, Vayu Vajra, Vajra, and Metro Reach-1 services since data on all Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) buses is not available with BMTC either. Within the next year or two, most of the public bus routes and Metro routes will also be covered. Other than this, future plans to improve Maargamitra include providing k-shortest paths instead of one best path that is presented currently, increasing user choices and customization by giving option to the users to provide the maximum number of acceptable modal transfers and their own weights for different legs of the trip as input, as well as refining the travel time modeling further to improve the travel time predictions for pre-trip planning. Using Google Maps, C#ASP.net, TransCAD (a Geographical Information System based transport modeling tool) and C# windows.net, it has taken about two years to build the interface.

So what is so unique in Maargamitra that sets it apart from Google Transit and other similar applications? When asked, Dr Ashish Verma of CiSTUP, who has headed the project, replies: ‘Most of the other applications predict travel time based on an average travel speed of 15kmph, whereas we have developed travel time models for better estimation of travel time and which is used for pre-trip planning. Moreover, Maargamitra is the first public transport trip planner developed in India.’

As part of IISc, that does make you feel special, doesn’t it?

Arpita Mondal (CIVIL)
(With inputs from Dr. Ashish Verma, Asst. Prof., CiSTUP)