CULTURAL QA 01-2023-29 BEING A COMPILATION THERE MAY BE ERRORS
Q1 Why do American trains have"noses" at the front of the locomotives but European, for example,don't? A1 Jay Snead, retired researcher, amateurphilosopher Jan 21 American trains are typically longer and wider toaccommodate more freight, while European trains are shorter and narrower to allow for more nimblemovements and quicker acceleration. European railwayshave tighter curves and the tunnels and bridges have smaller clearances. Likewise,American locomotives are longer, taller, and wider than their Europeancounterparts. TheAmerican locomotives have much greater distances to travel, and are pullingmuch heavier trains than their European counterparts. The hood on American Locomotives is there because thelonger frame has room for it. Engineers like having some crumple space in front of thecab in case of collisions with vehicles and other trains. The shorter European trains seldom have the length needed toadd this safety measure. For the same reasonmost American semi-trucks have a hood, while most European trucks do not.European cities have tighter turning requirements and require a shorter truck. My note- I recollect buses in Kerala had the hood infront, difficult to read the destination, petrol engine and many could get vomitingsensation, when I was about 7-10. We used to call it Mookranchi Q2 What foods did potatoes replace whenthey were brought to Europe? A2 Matt Riggsby, MA ArchaeologicalStudies, Boston University Wed They didn’t reallyreplace anything. That is, there’s nothing peoplestopped eating because potatoes were available instead. That said, potatoes grew into a niche leading to a relative decline inthe consumption of some other crops.Notably, whereas before the introduction of the potato most people got most oftheir calories from starchy cereal grains like wheat and barley, potatoes movedinto that niche, with some people getting most of their calories from potatoesand many getting a substantial portion of their calories from them, accompaniedby grains. Human consumption of turnips probably declined somewhat,but it was usually a food for the poor anyway. It just sohappens that potatoes started to come in around the time Europeans startedusing four-field crop rotation techniques, which involved growing more turnips, which were fed to livestock, so therewas something of a shift in turnip usage, but not necessarily because of theintroduction of the potato. Q3 What is the reason that the maximumcooling temperature of air conditioners is 17°C only? A3 Pradip Chandra Bhattacharyya,PhD inMechanical Engineering, University of Strathclyde (Graduated 1977)Updated 3y In 1963, the ASHRAE - KSU sponsored project at theInstitute for Environmental Research, KSU, US, studied thermal comfort levels for clothed sedentarysubjects. Results showed thatfor such subjects comfortable situation ranged from 16.7 to 36.7 deg C, (62 to 98 F). This mighthave motivated the AC manufacturers to adopt the lowest temperature level as 17deg C. This standard hascome to India as well, like many other things. My LG split AC hasa setting range of 18–30 deg C only. Q4 How much has Chennai transformed inyour lifetime? A4 Kadambi Seshasayee, Lives in Chennai,Tamil Nadu, India (1962–present)Jan 14 I have been in Chennai since 1962 till now, with someabsences for 12 years. The absences only highlighted thechanges since I had left. Let me break this up into two parts: The city’s place in India andthe world, and a personal view as a Chennai-wasi. Chenai’s place in the world: In the 60’s and even the 70’s, Chennai was the leadingmetropolis of the south. Bangalore was still a retiree’shaven, a PSU factories location, and fairly compact. Chennai had the only international airport, hadconnectivity by sea to Singapore, Malaysia and Sri Lanka. It was also a place where most (say 90% ?) of all southern movies wereshot in all southern languages; Very conservative but influential on the national scene. The first migrants to US had started, and IIT Madras (along with IISc)was the premier engineering institution. most of whose students made abeeline to US. Those days, people referred to the four metros- Bombay,Delhi, Calcutta and Madras. Since2010, Chennai has been losing its mojo and its premier place among southerncities.Bangalore has pushed it to the second place in the south. It is no more in apredominant position- people refer to the three metros- Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru. Inpopulation too, it lags behind Bangalore. At the center, Tamil Nādu has lostany influence it had before, and it is basically ignored. International flights now take off from about eight cities in thesouth, and Chennai with its thrid-rate airport lags far behind Bangalore. But, Chennai, alongwith Tamil Nādu overall, leads on many fronts- GDP, Civic consciousness andcleanliness, still-bearble traffic ( Approximately one in two persons inChennai owns a vehicle, and still it is not subject to horrendous traffic as inMumbai and Bangalore, but it is catching up…) Industry-wise, it is among the top preferred locations inthe country. It is a major center of Automotive and EngineeringIndustries and one of the leaders in IT. Chennai from the individual’s point of view: In the 70’s. Madraswas a peaceful, quiet and highly cultured place, where the individual had a lotof space to achieve and shine. As a student and young engineer, I had a great time- greatfood (Buhari's was a great example); A cabaret where we would blow up our earnings-it was that costly (but not indecent); Many theaters showing English movies; The peaceful beachand India’s first malls and hypermarket ( Alsa Mall and Spencers)even the first multiplex (Safire with its three screens and the only non-stopmovie house- walk in anytime and keep watching the movie as long as you want) .Importantly, we were treated to visiting musicians and Theater from abroad-jazz from USA, Symphonies from Germany etc. What not to love ? Now, Chennai is a large, cosmopolitan city. Itboasts on many 5-star deluxe hotels, world cuisine- from Mediterranean,Singaporean and Japanese to Korean (The largest number of the last two inIndian cities) apart from the usual Thai, Chinese and ‘Pan-Indian” restaurants.You have a lot of expats and a whole ecosystem catering to them and pushing upprices (Restaurants again, Americal chain hotels, boutiques, high-endresidences etc., ) like the other metros. In spite of the vehicle and human population it stilldoes not feel like a hurried metro like Mumbai or Bangalore. Thehospitality and kindness to strangers and newcomers has not gone down a bit. Leisure activities are manymore- from the usual mall-hopping to high-end resorts on the East Coast Road. A few major issues persist- the local airport, the onlyone of two under Government control-and that is telling- is easily the worstamong all Metros. Long before, Hyderabad and Kochi were far superior , and nowMumbai and Delhi and recently, Bangalore have joined them. But local transport is great- threetypes of trains- Metro, local ‘electric train’ that after 90 years carries alot of traffic, and the MRTS. Even bus transport that can surelyimprove, provides basic service to people. The multiplexes are many, big and far cheaper than Mumbaior Delhi-prices controlled by the Government. Medical care istop class- from the hospitals catering to the poor to the high-end onescatering to foreigners, NRIs and expats. But for all this,it somehow feels provincial and lacks the glamour and feel of the other metros.But, there is greatcultural and communal harmony, and a visitor or newcomer is madewelcome. All in all, a verylivable place. Q5 Why have Mumbai trains been overcrowdedfor so many years, and why is the government not doing anything about it? A5 Navnit Sourirajan,MURP inTransportation Planning, CEPT University - School of Planning (Graduated2017)Updated 5y Your question has 2parts and so my answer shall also consist of 2 parts Part 1: Since you mentioned “so many years”, I will takethe last 4 decades. Let’s look at Mumbai’s population growth. 1971: 5,970,575 1981: 8,227,382 1991: 9,900,000 + 2,600,000 (Thané) =12,500,000 (Greater Bombay) 2001: 16,368,084(Greater Mumbai, incl. Thané) 2011: 18,394,912Greater Mumbai, incl. Thane ) Mumbai has grown phenomenally in terms of population andis one of the most densely populated areas in the world today.Sodemographically it is a one of a kind place. Now predominantly its a linear city in terms of its shape.The island city is long and runs from north to south, This makes commuting verysimple. You either go up or down, for the most part. This means that all the people either go up ordown the city everyday and there is nowhere else to go, unlike Delhi. So the trainservices were running in the same direction, and it got people close to theirjobs, with simply two or three routes, again unlike other cities, where peoplego everywhere and the city needs many different routes for trains/metros. Now, almost theentire city travels up and down just these 3 lines everyday. And as the city expanded so didthe length of the lines, servicing more and more people. Naturally it gotcrowded. Part 2: Contraryto your belief, the Railways has been doing its best to improve it. First it increasedthe duration for how long the trains ran, today they run almost round the clock. The last train ends its run at 2in the night, while the first train departs at 4 in the morning. Then they increasedthe number of services, and today it runs 2500 trains each day. This meant a gap of 3 minutesbetween trains. This can’t be decreased, due to the signalling system andsafety issue, so as to maintain the minimum gap between trains. They have alsoincreased the speed of trains, and the latest trains can do a top speed of 110Kmph. Siemens rake fit and running at 100kmph since 2007. Bombardier rake fitfor 110kmph and already running at 110kmph between Virar and Dahanu rd. Then they increased the number of coaches in each trainfrom 9 to 12 to 15 in some cases. They could not gobeyond this because the platforms are not long enough to accommodate thetrains. What else can bedone ? They can’t build new lines, because the demand is along only theselines. So can’t we increase the number of tracks ? That would be very difficultas that would involve acquiring land. (Considering Mumbai, i feel its almostimpossible) So are they not doing anything ? No. This is the CRsrecently developed control room. This enable a control to monitor the entirenetwork at any point of time. And even more recently a new scheduling andsignalling program is being developed with IIT Bombay to reduce the frequency of the trains to 90seconds. All this will reduce the crowd to some extent, until morepeople move to the city and start using the service, and it becomes just ascrowded. It is the world’sbusiest urban public transport system, except for shanghai.And remember it is one of the oldest as well. Country’s first train ran betweenRoorkee and Piran Kaliyar in 1851 while train between Mumbai & Thane ran inyear 1853 .Unless there is a complete over haul(which is practicallyimpossible) the crowds will remain. The Mumbai metro’s Line 3 , which is being built fromColaba to Seepz, when opened, will take a little burden of the locals, but thatis as far as it gets. We can do all thatwe can, but Mumbai will remain Mumbai. All the above QA are from Quora website on 28-01- 2023. Quora answers need not be 100% correct answers . Compiled and posted by R. Gopala krishnan on 29-01-2023 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/1242560303.537799.1674959804678%40mail.yahoo.com.
