AntiDespondent's Blog

Press Conference for IMD 2011

2011-11-22T17:51:00.001+05:30

Press Conference at Press Club of India, Mumbai on eve of International Men's Day celebrated on 19th November, covered on DD Sahyadri

They take dowry. Excellent! Fascinating!

2011-11-19T01:00:00.001+05:30

The title of this post might seem repulsive for many people. 'They take dowry', this statement would definitely unsettle people who see taking dowry as a heinous act. Many people would cringe at the regressive thought of pursuing a medieval tradition like dowry. The dowry seekers will be looked down upon and instantly sympathy would be, in favour of the victims. 'The victims must be helped. The greedy perpetrators indulging in such uncivil nature of forging relationships - that monetize the sacred bond of marriage in materialistic terms - must be booked and made to pay a price' would be the reaction of the majority of the people.

Imagine if someone reacts in an exact opposite nature. Imagine someone saying, 'They take dowry' and follow it up by the words 'Excellent! Fascinating!'. One would be curious to know if such people could be booked under criminal law. One would hope that they are penalised severely for encouraging it. The disgust that someone would feel on hearing such a statement would be understandable, more so, if the statement is made out by educated, urban, intelligentsia. Naturally taking dowry represents a kind of bullying that the dowry seeker is subjecting the victim upon. Such kind of domination will have its extension into the victim being abused further,after the marriage and many would suggest to not go for bonding such relationships.

All this while, when you have been reading the above two paragraphs, the image in your mind might be of a newly wed bride being harassed for dowry, or family members of the groom demanding hefty sums of money or expensive commodities as dowry for getting their son married to a girl. Without batting an eyelid, in the image, the abuser is the male and his family. The victim is the girl and her family. There are laws which will deal with such acts. The laws can arrest everyone from the husbands family, whoever have been named by the victim (the girl in question). There are also laws that will book people who say, 'They take dowry. Excellent! Fascinating!' for encouraging it...

BUT...

If there is a role reversal, in the image that has been formed in your mind, the flow of justice stops in its course!. If the dowry seeker is the girls family. The victim is the boy. If the boys family gives dowry to get him married to a girl, which by extension means he is being exposed to being further abused by the girl, then there is no provision in law to handle this situation.

The first reaction, a false one at that, would be such instances don't happen at all.

Let me introduce you to a tweet by a columnist who reacts as 'Excellent!' to the news that men give hefty dowry to marry a girl. He is only joining the cheers of a noted journalist, who calls this news as, well what else, 'Fascinating!'

The tweet can be accessed here - https://twitter.com/#!/pragmatic_d/status/124116480978726912
The news item can be accessed here - http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/12/us-india-bachelors-idUSTRE79B1UV20111012

Here he is talking about the article which says, "The situation has also led to another reversal in custom, with some women and their parents asking for a lot of money from men to allow men to marry them, an inversion of the usual dowry system in which the woman's family has to pay the man's."

He gives an elated reaction of triumphalism. This reaction wont be restricted to any one person only. Our society has been conditioned to believe that any wrong happening with women is harassment, while a similar trouble for men is their weakness.

So, in short, a male seeking dowry is a criminal act. But if the dowry is being demanded by a female, then its termed as Excellent! (progressive?)

Ideally, the reaction should have been of the similar disgust as anyone would feel if the victim was a female. But since we are far off from the Utopian ability to perceive situations in a balanced manner and consider agony of men, the reactions usually smack of indifference to men's issues. The general misandry in the society stops us from genuinely addressing men's issues.

In this reaction, lies the gist of the movement of the 'Save Indian Family Foundation'. I am a member of the 'Protect Indian Family Foundation' which is an NGO under the umbrella organisation of SIFF. We alongwith Indian Family Foundation and M.A.S.H.A.L had organised a press conference at the Press Club of India, Mumbai on 18th November 2011 on the eve of International Men's Day being celebrated globally on 19th November every year. The press conference dealt with Men's Rights Movement highlighting the abuse of men. The main demand - that will take care of all other needs - being that men need a 'National Commission for Men' and a 'Ministry for Welfare of Men' .

Wishing you a Happy Men's Day!

Kiran Bedi's speech: War of perception through Media

2011-08-27T10:29:00.003+05:30

In the ongoing 'agitation against corruption' after 10 longs days of protests, agitation, fasting and difficult diplomatic and arm twisting parleys between the govt. and Team Anna, yesterday was a comparatively low rabble-rousing headline day.

The media is playing out to the gallery, be it in favour of Team Anna or against it. Yesterday was a day when in the game of media perception ping pong, Team Anna was targeted.

Apart from Rahul Gandhi's speech in parliament - which itself was directionless and added to confusion, rather than offer a solution - there were not much visuals to relay in a loop and still keep viewers interested.

Kiran Bedi's speech and Ompuri's speech were targeted as being, what else, 'unconstitutional, vituperative, against democracy, etc; *yawns*

What they said was nothing new nor was it a feeling held by a few, but their bad luck the nitpickers got a chance to pick on them on a 'low breaking news day'.

It is interesting to see how a single speech is presented in two different forms from two different media houses, showing its an all out media war in a large proportion.

First, is a highly emotional Kiran Bedi talking about how MPs have only extracted money out of the people and a frustrated organizer's outburst at the inaction of govt. in response to a 74 year old's 11 days of fasting.

This is from The Times of India and shows her talking about the MPs. It has been edited to not show the elements that might be deemed embarrassing for Team Anna.

Second video is from NDTV.com, it naturally being as always in favour of the ruling dispensation has put only the parts that seem embarrassing to Team Anna.

The truth is a combination of both these videos. The crowd has been awaiting for a long time now for some action. The wear out of a prolonged protest was setting in and Kiran Bedi just tried to keep the crowd amused in a manner that would keep them interested, but alas the 'disconnected-from-reality-intellects' expected her to speak always with a stiff upper lip.

Time these guys just woke up... A 'Jaago Re' campaign required for the intellects now?

What detractors of Anna Hazare's campaign need to know

2011-08-20T21:16:00.003+05:30

Detractors of Anna Hazare's call for a 'protest against corruption', might have been shocked with the disconnect they had with the reality.

I am not talking about the political parties which dragged themselves down with their self-destructive rhetoric nor the ones that have flip-flopped between supporting 'India against Corruption' on the streets but opposing it within the parliament.

A few 'intellectuals' had predicted that Anna Hazare and his team - lets not call them civil society as it was only one of the many terms they could have used- would be largely disappointed when they go ahead for their protest on 16th August.

Some people say the protest gained prominence when the govt. shot itself in the foot by arresting Anna and putting him in Tihar Jail, the same one which is housing Raja, Kalmadi and Kanimozhi - all major role players of recently unearthed scams.

Anna would have become a phenomena with his fast, irrespective of his arrest. His April fast had evoked strong reactions as well, without he being arrested. What happened with his arrest was that the govt. dragged itself further down on credibility index.

The protest would anyways have been a success and Congress could have gained some credence if it had still agreed to table both the versions of the Lok Pal bill. But seemingly, the recovery of election expenditure, coupled with lost opportunities for postings within organisation and government have made the political managers of the Congress lethargic, over-confident or arrogant or all of the above, which resulted in committing political suicide and getting alienated from the masses. The blunder that Congress allowed to happen is that it became an almost Congress vs Team Anna war. If it had allowed opposition parties also onboard the Drafting committee, the damage inflicted upon itself could have been reduced.

The other point that is being made out by 'intellectuals' is that people generally do not vote; they wont even know the names of the municipal corporators of their region; protest is being seen as an alternative to voting, as things can now be seen to be done by organizing protests, etc;

I would disagree with most of them. It is true that middle class is the one that shuns itself from voting and the poor sell their votes and rich buy politicians, leaving out an exasperated middle class whose delusion keeps growing at its helplessness. But it is not to be generalized that all of poor sell their votes or all of middle class is indifferent to elections.

The ones who vote are the ones who will come out to protest. The indifferent class is neither represented nor is active enough to bother to protest. While the ones who would bother to come out to protest peacefully would be the ones who go to vote and would be further interested in the political process because frankly there is no alternative to it. A fight against corruption and protests of such magnitude are not a regular occurance nor can anyone mobilise support with regularity, even Anna for that matter. For anyone to think they will have policies in their favour by simply protesting would be naive, which the people are not.

It is neither undemocratic nor tyrannical for the electorate to propose changes in laws or give constructive feedback about how they want them to be. The govt. takes opinion before formulating any laws and keeps constantly acting on the feedback while making amendments. There is opposition to this bill because they are directly going to be hit due to this bill and want to get only their version out.

It is misplaced to say that a failure to see a magic wand ending corruption, would distance the middle class from the electoral process. If anything, it would imbibe confidence that things can change, because the agitation has already brought a change of stance from the govt. It wont be the hope that would die, but the general cynicism about politics that would decrease. NOBODY is looking at Lokpal to cast a magic spell and end corruption.

This agitation is at crossroads, how it shapes from here doesnt rest upon the Team Anna nor the people who are protesting, but the political class and think tanks who have to now reciprocate. It can be utilised positively by the intelligentsia to make the youth more politically literate and let the nation gain by their active participation or dismiss this gathering of disgruntled agitators as a jingoistic blip that would disappear with the next national distraction.

Moreover, the trajectory moving forward with Team Anna is already present in the form of

(a)Right to Reject - rejecting all the candidates and choosing none of the above option making a re-election compulsory;

(b)Right to Recall - constituents can recall a misgoverning MP between elections too and a candidate cannot visit his constituency only once every five years;

These are the electoral reforms that might have a massive bearing on the electoral process.

The critics were there when RTI was being debated. The cynics were fighting tooth and nail to get the file notifications out of the purview of RTI. But now the same intellects have used it for their advantage. The same govt. is advertising it as a medium of transparency.

If past record is anything to go by, with RTI and other laws that Anna's agitations have bought, it could be safe to say, Janlok Pal or Right to Reject and Right to Recall can only strengthen the democratic set-up with accountability becoming a prime virtue.

Walk your talk - I did my one bit, now your turn

2011-08-16T23:31:00.007+05:30

By now we have all gone through the ritual of watching the comparison between Lokpal bill and Jan Lokpal Bill.

By now it is clear to most of us that Govts. Lok pal bill is nothing but a sham.

We might have reservations about Jan Lokpal in its totality, i.e. all the clauses might not be in the best interest of the nation in case a corrupt bigoted person becomes a Lokpal.

We have seen the consequences of assuming the people chosen to do a job will do that job honestly. We might need better checks and balances, before giving as much power to a single authority as proscribed by the Jan Lokpal Bill.

But... what we all need to agree upon is that the current system has failed to maintain propriety of public office and additional checks are required to arrest the onslaught of corruption on our society.

One point worth mentioning is that neither corruption is new nor post-independence phenomena, it is as old as the famous oldest business in the world - prostitution. But that doesn't mean we let prostitution become mainstream and allow it unabated. Similarly, corruption in such a massive scale and as destructive as much as it is dragging our country's progress, development and success cannot be accepted with a sense of cynicism. When we strive for zero tolerance will we achieve something acceptable. Indifference wont work.

Sense of cynicism is all prevalent when a change is sought. The same people who are saying, 'Kuch nahi honewala' had kept saying 'Kuch nahi honewala' when Anna Hazare and his team had fought for RTI (Right to Information Act). Today UPA itself is advertising RTI. RTI has helped in unearthing a lot of scams. RTI is helping people get their jobs done which previously would have been impossible without bribe.

The experience with RTI activism could be a benchmark for the Jan Lokpal to take shape. Indians have unequivocally slammed indifference and lethargy by supporting Anna Hazare. This is India's turn to shout back that we wont take the crap thrown at us quietly anymore.

I visited Azad Maidan today albeit for a brief period, but yes the sense of having contributed is giving me a pleasant feeling. The atmosphere was electrifying, something that cant be explained. But something you would want to narrate to your grandchildren. You MUST be there to experience it.

Here are some pics...

People were getting arrested and were being put in police vans. There was a queue of police vans to arrest people.

BhArat MAta ki jai! Vande MAtaram were the slogans that filled the air. Most people couldnt talk on their cellphones. As the sound of sloganeering was quite high.

Raghu Ram of MTV Roadies fame was present at the stage. Music director Vishal of the Vishal-Shekhar duo also addressed the crowd.

People were queuing up to court arrest. The police was arresting people and taking them to a place far off and dropping them off. Police vans made several rounds like this. The arrested people - young, old, children, men, women, able, handicapped - all were returning to the queue to court arrest.

Police Commissioner Arup Patnaik wanted to reach the stage but just could not find his way amongst the sloganeering crowd. He was then surrounded by the press and electronic media. He returned to the gate and held an impromptu press conference.

Yours Truly.

The permission at Azad Maidan is for 7 days and make your existence count. Give even a half hour to the cause and help yourself...

I wouldnt want to gloat about it nor sermonize but frankly although I could easily do more, I feel I have walked my talk, did my one bit. Now, its your turn...

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Update :1 Thanks to Shakti, who commented here and asked for my permission to publish this blog in DNA, this blog has appeared in print in DNA Mumbai edition in the 'Around the blog' section on page 6 on 22nd August 2011.

http://epaper.dnaindia.com/newsview.aspx?eddate=8%2F22%2F2011&pageno=6&edition=9&prntid=147741&bxid=30573726&pgno=6

Pre-independence Map of India

2011-06-30T00:11:00.002+05:30

Map of India before independence under British Rule

It is interesting to see how the names were changed.

Rajputana lost its centuries old name and became Rajasthan.

United provinces were renamed as Uttar Pradesh.

Central Provinces became Madhya Pradesh

What is more interesting is that the British did not directly control most parts of India, they were still under royals and monarchs earning the name princely states. The effect of divide and rule is prominent when we see almost 60% of India not under direct British rule but still they managing to rule a populace of 30 crores with a strength of 55,000 Britishers dispatched from Great Britain.

We must value this independence and not take freedom for granted.

Initiatives towards responsibilities do bring results.

2011-06-28T21:26:00.011+05:30

Through this post, I would like to share a recent experience I had, about what we could achieve with a little alertness from ourselves. In our country - with attitudes where, helping a blind person to cross a road is considered as a social work or activism - we are far too much engrossed in our own lives. Activism is something described as an action taken to make a change. With our duties we wont attempt to make changes, but to fulfill our responsibilities towards our society. The activism of 'India against Corruption' and 'Bharat Swabhiman' in the recent weeks have had a profound impact on me, at least to not shy away from a social responsibility if confronted with. This post wont be about sermonizing nor about bragging, I am as much guilty of the things mentioned as any average Indian would be.

Time and again we keep reading about instances where the India map has been compromised with. Most nations and publications world over show the Pok as a part of Pakistan and Aksai Chin as part of China. A few years ago Bajaj Allianz group had put up this map on their website and were riled for it. At the height of our complaints about racism in Australia, we found that their maps were all depicting our country wrongly and we found one more reason to blame their attitudes. The maps were there before too, but yes pointing at them at that time gave us brownie points and we shamelessly used them to twist a few arms.

Last year, we had to publish a few India maps for our company brochure and bingo I found out why it could be such a big deal for publications to make such mistakes. We needed a 300 DPI or higher resolution image of the map and our foreign counterparts published the map found in UN and elsewhere in the world, except for India. On our objections, we were assigned the task to get the right maps. We were unable to find a suitable one. I understood that it is not an easy task to find a good resolution, politically correct map of India. We did find one and published it, but the experience remained with me.

A few months ago our whole media was up against 'The Economist' magazine's arrogance. It had shown a map with Pok as part of Pakistan with the real borders, not the textbook ones. It had anticipated trouble and had written at the end of the article that censorship in India - which according to it was more stringent and suppressing freedom of speech than Pakistan or China - might leave Indian readers deprived of viewing the map. This had caused outrage in the Indian media.

This incidence might make us believe we are very strict about our territorial boundaries and take our own publications seriously. But in reality it is not so. I was travelling Jet Airways and saw that the June edition of Jet Wings magazine, specifically designed and distributed for domestic flights, had enlisted and marked places for all the important music festivals in India. You guessed it right, the map they had shown was not the politically correct one.

Just a day before I saw the maps, reports were all over media how a few Indian politicians had complained to National Geographic's maps of India in offices of foreign countries, world over. It was implausible for me to believe the same set of gentlemen would not have seen the maps in Jet Wings. I registered my objection with the magazine on their site and I got a reply from them saying the illustrator wont be employed again, it was his mistake. I pointed out to them that the purpose was to educate people that national boundaries have to be taken seriously, snatching someones employment might not be the solution.

I pointed out this to Mr. Rajesh Kalra of Times of India. He put it on his blog post on The Times of India website, to highlight the fact that while we would want to take to task others on matters seemingly important to us, we dont follow the rules ourselves. He attributed the initiative to me on my Facebook profile, although I must thank him for pursuing the issue.

Then something happened that I had not anticipated, Jet Wings editorial team replied to the blog and the reactions it evoked. It was put up by Rajesh on his next blog post. Jet Wings had decided to take out the page containing the map from all the magazines on board.

The effect of my initiative was felt when I was travelling Jet again last week. The torn page from the magazine is in one way a trophy for me as well as a symbol inspiring me. As if crying out loud saying, you never know what results your small innocuous initiative might bring. This was even more overwhelming when there were reports of informal deals with Pakistan vis-a-vis Kashmir. As long as the official line is that Kashmir is an integral part of India and Indian territories mark it as her own, we need to be vigilant against making any other version an accepted reality.

For, disintegration starts in the mind, be it an individual or a society or a nation. We have a duty to fulfill towards others and our society and it really wont demand much from us.

Hope we can all remain vigilant and contribute!

___________________________________________

Update1: Jet Wings has added a corrigendum in its July issue apologising for the mistake in representing the Map of India :)

Wikileaks, Rahul G and Diggy Raja

2010-12-20T13:33:00.005+05:30

The times that we are living are indeed interesting, as any time ever when anyone has lived in, would have been. Only the manner of surprise changes, but shocks and surprises have always kept times interesting. We become shock proof or fail to be surprised at events that no longer remain a rarity. Bomb blasts were a HUGE thing in the late 80's for Mumbaiites. Now multiple blasts, make people to go through the motions - check for your kith and kins' whereabouts and once you are sure they are safe, display robotic emotions and get on with your work.

Should it be a surprise that in the age of internet and digital information, top secrets should become public information in the manner which Wikileaks is taking out TOP SECRET data on the net? Every thing transmitted over the net becomes a public property. It might be protected now, but over time it will be dug out with advanced tools and utilities. Rest assured of that! Wikileaks was waiting to happen and this wont be the last time secret info passed over internet is made public. Although, in this case, it does make the lives of informers and diplomats difficult and risky.

Wikileaks is making US diplomats scurry for cover and to cover whatever leaks come out. The situation US diplomats are in is like that of a family, whose 'good-for-nothing' nephew is giving out innermost circle secrets to other relatives and friends. The question that comes is what would a family do in such a case? Will it not try to preempt to tell other friends the information that would be given out later by the 'traitor'.

This idea makes the connection between statements given out by Congress spokesperson Digvijaya Singh few days ago, about he having spoken with ATS chief Ajit Karkare on 26/11, when the ATS chief confided in Diggy that Hindu fundamentalists have threatened his life. Now for any honest police constable too, threats to life are a common occurence in India. Diggy failed miserably to explain how Karkare confided with him such a matter and why. But not getting into that debate, the question that arises is, Is US administration making its own version of leaks to preempt loss of face for its allies, friends and 'elusive contact of the past, who are now clearly interested in reaching out to the US admin- Read Rahul Gandhi (Praise Be Upon Him)'?

A week after Digvijaya Singh's 'revelations', Wikileaks put up the damning conversation Rahul G had with US Ambassador to India, Timothy Roemer that India had a bigger threat from Hindu fundamentalists than Lashkar-e-Toiba.

Considering how every statement, is calibrated to suit the approaching uncomfortable event and how every new move is an attempt, to deflect attention from a previously uncontrollable circumstance, it should not be any surprise either, that UPA2 knew exactly what is coming out of Wikileaks.

So try to 'preempt' what will be the news in TV in the evening, based on what headlines you read in your newspaper on that morning.

Ayodhya - Ram Janmabhoomi Case

2010-09-30T18:47:00.006+05:30

The verdict is out in the Ram Janmabhoomi Case, Allahabad High Court Bench has decided Ramjanmabhoomi Nyas, Sunni Wakf Board and Nimrohi Akhara as party in the ownership of land and divided it amongst them. The verdict has been a victory for the liberal democracy propounded by our Constitution. Debates and verdicts like this - and the NYC mosque - can come up only in liberal democracies like India and US. In nations like Saudi Arabia there will never even be a debate about such issues. For that and for the verdict having passed out peacefully in the entire nation, we all Indians deserve credit.

Now the next step will certainly be the building of a grand temple at the site, if the Sunni Wakf board doesnt appeal in the Supreme Court against the HC decision.

What should be taken into consideration that a Grand and functioning Mosque will also come up at the site on the land awarded to the Sunni Wakf Board where the non-functioning mosque was demolished. After having dealt a sensitive issue with patience, we should be careful not to make the place an epitome of oneupmanship.

Hope there would not be a contest amongst the temple and mosque designs to make one 'more Grand', 'more magnificent' than the other.

Hope there would not be a contest to make the minar and shikhars taller than each other.

Hope there would not be a contest on the decibel levels emanating from prayers from each shrine.

Hope the approach road to the site is made a little more logically accessible.

Hope devotees visiting the shrines are careful enough to have better civic sense.

Hope after another 60 years, history records the site as a once disputed but no longer contentious piece of land.

Rupee gets new Symbol

2010-07-15T12:12:00.014+05:30

New Rupee Symbol

Today heard that Rupee has got a new symbol as shown above.

A five-member jury chose IITian D Udaya Kumar’s design and forwarded it for Cabinet approval.

Kumar’s symbol represents the Devanagari ‘Ra’ and the Roman capital ‘R’ as visualized by the FM. “We intend to formalise a symbol for the Indian rupee which reflects and captures Indian ethos and culture,” Mukherjee said in his Budget speech this year.

As is the wont in India, with no other important and relevant issues to fight for, imagine a ruckus for not having a Dravidian 'Ra' representation. There are other languages, but most language chauvinists would not mind a Devanagari representation considering it closer to Sanskrit, the root of all Indian languages. The most opposition, if any at all ever comes, could come only from the Dravidian region.

Keeping in line with the demand, also cross-checking again the no. of MP's that UPA depends from Dravid land, a new symbol might be proposed as follows:

New symbol acceptable in Dravid Land

This covers 'Ra' in Roman, Dravidian and Devanagari. It takes a lot to make everyone happy and the symbol is open for further distortions(errr... improvements) from offended parties who have sizable no. of MP's in the parliament

Truth about Paul, the Oracle Octopus!

2010-07-13T15:32:00.005+05:30

Truth behind Paul, the psychic Oracle Octopus' accuracy in correctly predicting the results of 8 games out of 8 in the recently concluded FIFA Football World Cup 2010.

And you thought this is a psychic Octopus?

CRAZY!!!

Are you consulting the neighbourhood Popatlal for your stock trading?

2010-07-07T21:26:00.001+05:30

What Vegetable Are You?

Spinach

You are well accomplished in your field and are sufficiently secure and proud of your individuality. You think about alleviating the pain and sufferings of mankind. You wish that people who waste their time talking about Joel Stein raised their voices and acted against the banes of our society such as, illiteracy, hunger, poverty, war, torture, which are prevalent even after so much advancement in science and technology

Fun quizzes, surveys & blog quizzes by

India's loss at Twenty20 World Cup

2010-05-12T04:16:00.005+05:30

There have been different reactions all around after the drubbing of Indian team in Twenty 20 World Cup. Many blame it directly to the IPL. I found a hilarious image describing how monetized performance in IPL dilutes players commitment to the national teams cause.

Caste-based Census, Disaster in the making

2010-05-11T00:16:00.004+05:30

Parliament is all set to adopt the column of Caste in the next census which has already began for 2011.

There could not have been a more regressive step at this stage when India is trying to usher in its struggling populace into the global stage and is spreading its wings on its flight towards prosperity.

History will definitely judge, this as being in no small terms any different than Pakistan's Shariah Law by Nawaz Sharif. This negates all the efforts by nationalists to bring in social equality. Right from the time of Mahatma Jyotiba Phule, Raja Rammohan Roy to Veer Savarkar and Mahatma Gandhi, all visionaries have strove politically to eliminate this menace. Post-independence too India has had many heroes for this cause. Similarly, there have been no dearth of religious saints who have advocated social equality. But caste lurks back. Like a hydra headed monster, now we have different spectacles of castes. We have Dalit Sikhs, Dalit Christians, Christian Brahmins, etc;

There is a good piece by Swapan Dasgupta in ToI 'Face it, India is all about caste'. He refers how India had always taught its children that the British had used divide and rule and how vilified they were. Ironically, the same tactics are being used by the politicians of present day.

He mentions about Valentine Chirol who attributed Hinduisms failure to conjure up a nation to the fact that 'the vital structure of Hinduism negates everything that can constitute a nation, namely caste system.'

Caste system is so deep rooted and prioritized, that a person is first loyal to his caste, then his nation. This pulled down any nation building and invited foreigners to make merry.

Chirol stands vindicated, when after 60 years of nurturing, a supposed modern, democratic, educated society falls back on a concept whose annihilation was once predominantly the goal of a modern India.

Here we are, trying to be the next super power and then we are bringing back the divisive element to the forefront. In the race to the bottom as opposed to the Sanskritization of earlier decades, may be each caste will win and squeeze more than its deserved share, but India will lose.

The Khap panchayats demanding that honour killing cases be pardoned and Inter-Gotra marriage be disallowed by Hindu Marriage Act is just the beginning of the avalanche that this approach will bring.

Politicans being truthful to their tribe, Navin Jindal - yes the futuristic, American educated Congress MP, who fought for the common man's right to hoist the national flag on behalf of all Indians - has met the Home Minister to lobby for the Khap Panchayats. Om Prakash Chautala of 'Indian National Lok Dal' has pushed further, for a ban on Inter-Caste marriages as well!

Not surprisingly, Rajdeep Sardesai and Barkha Dutt have advocated the caste-based census. They had to justify it, its the Congress which is bringing this law!!

Rajdeep Sardesai says, it is hypocritical for the people to oppose caste-based census when we have pages and pages of Caste-based matrimonial adverts. Great Rajdeep, so go ahead now justify the Khap Panchayats demand. Someone whom you were showing as the villains of 21st century until last week. You find yourself standing together with them now. Support them or call yourself a HYPOCRITE!

This is all only to include the OBC - Other Backward Class category, in the census, to know their actual numbers, so that in future we can have more and more debates, push and pulls for reservations.

Apparently, an OBC person earning less than 4 Lakh Rupees per annum is considered poor, while all General Category people are considered rich by our nation. Disaster in the making. By all means caste-based reservations for which this whole exercise is being taken up only looks to replace the elite from one supposed caste to another set of people from a different caste.

What we needed was a count on the no. of poor people, not the no. of people belonging to a particular caste.

As Swapan has concluded "Chirol was right and we may as well acknowledge it."

When we dole out incentives to the winners of the 'Race to the bottom', we are treating, a seeming to be in pitiable state as a virtue, rather than treating someone who is actually pitiable.

We might try hard to forget our caste, but the politics and reservation policy will not let us forget it.

Ajmal Kasab - Held Guilty!

2010-05-04T22:58:00.007+05:30

Finally, Kasab has been found guilty of the crime which we all saw in horror. I had blogged about Kasab and how we are making a mockery of not making a good example out of him, in 'Of Kasab, civility and the criminal justice system'

Kasab, we need to get rid of this guy, not cause it will help us to stop other terrorists, but for the fear of Kandahar - II, at least that. We dont want to see him languishing in jail for long, munching on tax-payers money and then some fine day being exchanged for a few patriots.

When we send him to his old, fat and ugly virgins, we need to make it look foolish for him, to have had joined these organisations. So that he isnt made a martyr amongst his people, the people who use a sewage canal as a swimming pool ,as is reported to have been the case from his village, where he was used to enjoy the fun and frolic of pushing others into the canal. Any chance of him being considered as a martyr and the whole exercise of going through judiciary and the agonizing wait and patience endured by the people of India will be lost.

We had a good chance to make an example out of him. Hope we make a good example. If we make his death heroic, then may be next terrorists would be praying, 'Jannat bulane se pehle, EK baar Mumbai police se pakadwa de'

When there were reports that an entire ward was being cleared off for security reasons in the J J Hospital, Mumbai where he was supposed to visit for his hernia operation, it seemed as if he had gained more after getting caught than even joining the morbid ideology. It should be made clear that he is paying a price for his deeds and is not enjoying the hospitality of a wannabe civil society. If the wrongdoer is not getting his dose of punishment and the message doesnt go across that 'you mess with us at your own risk' then all talk of being an advanced civil society smacks of futility.

Beyond that, we comfortably forget that his handlers are 'safe and sound' plotting the next attack. We cannot consider to have moved much if they are let free. Why Hafeez's or Lakhvi's, we couldnt even nail the other duo caught in this case. The judge ridiculed at the evidence saying, Google could give better maps than those found with the two guys. They are acquitted and signs are that their cases wont be appealed against in higher courts.

If this is the condition of our legal retribution to people caught attacking us, then we could be fooling none but ourselves in rejoicing about this being as a victory over terror and a triumph of our judiciary.

Imagine if Hawaldar Ombale had cared for his life a bit more and had killed Kasab when Kasab attacked him. No Lakhvi's or Hafeez's name would have ever been out.

Saying that I guess we achieved only that much, getting the names out of the plotters of the attack, nothing more.

Kasab's death was a surety once he pulled that trigger at CST. How he dies is of not much consequence in the larger context of fight against terror.

Maya's Malajaal

2010-03-20T22:33:00.004+05:30

So Mayawati is again in the news and being derided by the national media for her Garland of Rs. 1000 notes. Such brazen display of wealth is shameful and dangerous for the country, especially to the impoverished economically and socially backward classes that she claims to be representing. She could very well be named Malawati after she accepted the second garland of Rs. 18 lakhs the next day.

The only poor or backward class in her Mega-garlanded Mega Rally, to mark 25 years of the Bahujan Samaj Party and 76th year of Kanshi Ram its founder's birth anniversary, were the audience who might have come from all parts of country for the free food, lodging and money paid to them. But something is wrong in this whole saga.

It is clear, that, the Congress is highlighting its competitors in bad light through immoral means by pursuing its agenda through a section of media.

I dont mean to support Maya or her janjaal or any politicians for that matter. Although cannot overlook the fact that, Congress backed by a section of media is desperate to get hold of UP, since it throws the maximum seats in LS, which means more power to them. First it was the SP now the BSP. Hence, the lapses by these parties were being highlighted diligently.

Congress' General Secretary and man in charge of Uttar Pradesh Digvijay Singh, who visited the houses of terrorists caught in the Batla House Encounter to offer condolences, put the figure of the amount on garland to Rs. 22 crores odd lakhs.

But think of it, IF it has to have 22 crores then it needs 220000 notes of Rs. 1000. This means even if we consider each note to weigh 1 gram - the threads tying them not being accounted - then the garland was weighing 220Kgs easily, held up by 4-5 arms.

This is Impossible! Congress is misleading the country.

I can dislike Maya for her blatant display of corruption, but it does not seem moral to charge her for propaganda spread in a biased form.

My video

2010-02-22T15:50:00.003+05:30

JK Rowling: The fringe benefits of failure | Video on TED.com

2010-02-15T19:52:00.002+05:30

JK Rowling: The fringe benefits of failure | Video on TED.com

J.K. Rowling Speaks at Harvard Commencement from Harvard Magazine on Vimeo.

There is an expiry date to blame your parents for your failures and for steering you on the wrong course!!!

Subroto Bagchi's speech to IIM-Bangalore Graduates 2006

2010-01-13T12:29:00.002+05:30

Go Kiss the World - Subroto Bagchi
This talk was delivered to the Class of 2006 at the IIM, Bangalore on defining success by Subroto Bagchi, CEO - MindTree.

I was the last child of a small-time government servant, in a family of five brothers. My earliest memory of my father is as that of a District Employment Officer in Koraput, Orissa. It was, and remains as back of beyond as you can imagine. There was no electricity; no primary school nearby and water did not flow out of a tap. As a result, I did not go to school until the age of eight; I was home-schooled. My father used to get transferred every year. The family belongings fit into the back of a jeep – so the family moved from place to place and without any trouble, my Mother would set up an establishment and get us going. Raised by a widow who had come as a refugee from the then East Bengal , she was a matriculate when she married my Father.
My parents set the foundation of my life and the value system, which makes me what I am today and largely, defines what success means to me today.
As District Employment Officer, my father was given a jeep by the government. There was no garage in the Office, so the jeep was parked in our house. My father refused to use it to commute to the office. He told us that the jeep is an expensive resource given by the government- he reiterated to us that it was not ”his jeep” but the government’s jeep. Insisting that he would use it only to tour the interiors, he would walk to his office on normal days.. He also made sure that we never sat in the government jeep – we could sit in it only when it was stationary.
That was our early childhood lesson in governance – a lesson that corporate managers learn the hard way, some never do.
The driver of the jeep was treated with respect due to any other member of my Father’s office. As small children, we were taught not to call him by his name. We had to use the suffix ‘dada’ whenever we were to refer to him in public or private. When I grew up to own a car and a driver by the name of Raj u was appointed – I repeated the lesson to my two small daughters. They have, as a result, grown up to call Raj u, ‘ Raj u Uncle’ – very different from many of their friends who refer to their family driver, as ‘my driver’. When I hear that term from a school- or college-going person, I cringe.
To me, the lesson was significant – you treat small people with more respect than how you treat big people. It is more important to respect your subordinates than your superiors.
Our day used to start with the family huddling around my Mother’s chulha – an earthen fire place she would build at each place of posting where she would cook for the family. There was neither gas, nor electrical stoves.The morning routine started with tea. As the brew was served, Father would ask us to read aloud the editorial page of The Statesman’s ‘muffosil’ edition – delivered one day late. We did not understand much of what we were reading. But the ritual was meant for us to know that the world was larger than Koraput district and the English I speak today, despite having studied in an Oriya medium school, has to do with that routine. After reading the newspaper aloud, we were told to fold it neatly. Father taught us a simple lesson.
He used to say, “You should leave your newspaper and your toilet, the way you expect to find it”. That lesson was about showing consideration to others. Business begins and ends with that simple precept.
Being small children, we were always enamored with advertisements in the newspaper for transistor radios – we did not have one. We saw other people having radios in their homes and each time there was an advertisement of Philips, Murphy or Bush radios, we would ask Father when we could get one. Each time, my Father would reply that we did not need one because he already had five radios – alluding to his five sons.
We also did not have a house of our own and would occasionally ask Father as to when, like others, we would live in our own house. He would give a similar reply,” We do not need a house of our own. I already own five houses”. His replies did not gladden our hearts in that instant.
Nonetheless, we learnt that it is important not to measure personal success and sense of well being through material possessions.
Government houses seldom came with fences. Mother and I collected twigs and built a small fence. After lunch, my Mother would never sleep. She would take her kitchen utensils and with those she and I would dig the rocky, white ant infested surrounding. We planted flowering bushes. The white ants destroyed them. My mother brought ash from her chulha and mixed it in the earth and we planted the seedlings all over again. This time, they bloomed. At that time, my father’s transfer order came. A few neighbors told my mother why she was taking so much pain to beautify a government house, why she was planting seeds that would only benefit the next occupant. My mother replied that it did not matter to her that she would not see the flowers in full bloom. She said, “I have to create a bloom in a desert and whenever I am given a new place, I must leave it more beautiful than what I had inherited”.
That was my first lesson in success. It is not about what you create for yourself, it is what you leave behind that defines success.
My mother began developing a cataract in her eyes when I was very small. At that time, the eldest among my brothers got a teaching job at the University in Bhubaneswar and had to prepare for the civil services examination. So, it was decided that my Mother would move to cook for him and, as her appendage, I had to move too. For the first time in my life I saw electricity in homes and water coming out of a tap. It was around 1965 and the country was going to war with Pakistan . My mother was having problems reading and in any case, being Bengali, she did not know the Oriya script. So, in addition to my daily chores, my job was to read her the local newspaper – end to end. That created in me a sense of connectedness with a larger world. I began taking interest in many different things. While reading out news about the war, I felt that I was fighting the war myself. She and I discussed the daily news and built a bond with the larger universe. In it, we became part of a larger reality. Till date, I measure my success in terms of that sense of larger connectedness. Meanwhile, the war raged and India was fighting on both fronts. Lal Bahadur Shastri, the then Prime Minster, coined the term “Jai Jawan, Jai Kishan” and galvanized the nation in to patriotic fervor. Other than reading out the newspaper to my mother, I had no clue about how I could be part of the action. So, after reading her the newspaper, every day I would land up near the University’s water tank, which served the community. I would spend hours under it, imagining that there could be spies who would come to poison the water and I had to watch for them. I would daydream about catching one and how the next day, I would be featured in the newspaper. Unfortunately for me, the spies at war ignored the sleepy town of Bhubaneswar and I never got a chance to catch one in action. Yet, that act unlocked my imagination.
Imagination is everything. If we can imagine a future, we can create it, if we can create that future, others will live in it. That is the essence of success.
Over the next few years, my mother’s eyesight dimmed but in me she created a larger vision, a vision with which I continue to see the world and, I sense, through my eyes, she was seeing too. As the next few years unfolded, her vision deteriorated and she was operated for cataract. I remember, when she returned after her operation and she saw my face clearly for the first time, she was astonished. She said, “Oh my God, I did not know you were so fair”.. I remain mighty pleased with that adulation even till date. Within weeks of getting her sight back, she developed a corneal ulcer and, overnight, became blind in both eyes. That was 1969. She died in 2002. In all those 32 years of living with blindness, she never complained about her fate even once. Curious to know what she saw with blind eyes, I asked her once if she sees darkness. She replied, “No, I do not see darkness. I only see light even with my eyes closed”. Until she was eighty years of age, she did her morning yoga everyday, swept her own room and washed her own clothes.
To me, success is about the sense of independence; it is about not seeing the world but seeing the light.
Over the many intervening years, I grew up, studied, joined the industry and began to carve my life’s own journey. I began my life as a clerk in a government office, went on to become a Management Trainee with the DCM group and eventually found my life’s calling with the IT industry when fourth generation computers came to India in 1981. Life took me places – I worked with outstanding people, challenging assignments and traveled all over the world.
In 1992, while I was posted in the US , I learnt that my father, living a retired life with my eldest brother, had suffered a third degree burn injury and was admitted in the Safderjung Hospital in Delhi . I flew back to attend to him – he remained for a few days in critical stage, bandaged from neck to toe. The Safderjung Hospital is a cockroach infested, dirty, inhuman place. The overworked, under-resourced sisters in the burn ward are both victims and perpetrators of dehumanized life at its worst. One morning, while attending to my Father, I realized that the blood bottle was empty and fearing that air would go into his vein, I asked the attending nurse to change it. She bluntly told me to do it myself. In that horrible theater of death, I was in pain and frustration and anger. Finally when she relented and came, my Father opened his eyes and murmured to her, “Why have you not gone home yet?” Here was a man on his deathbed but more concerned about the overworked nurse than his own state. I was stunned at his stoic self.
There I learnt that there is no limit to how concerned you can be for another human being and what the limit of inclusion is you can create.
My father died the next day. He was a man whose success was defined by his principles, his frugality, his universalism and his sense of inclusion.
Above all, he taught me that success is your ability to rise above your discomfort, whatever may be your current state. You can, if you want, raise your consciousness above your immediate surroundings. Success is not about building material comforts – the transistor that he never could buy or the house that he never owned. His success was about the legacy he left, the memetic continuity of his ideals that grew beyond the smallness of a ill-paid, unrecognized government servant’s world.
My father was a fervent believer in the British Raj . He sincerely doubted the capability of the post-independence Indian political parties to govern the country. To him, the lowering of the Union Jack was a sad event. My Mother was the exact opposite. When Subhash Bose quit the Indian National Congress and came to Dacca , my mother, then a schoolgirl, garlanded him. She learnt to spin khadi and joined an underground movement that trained her in using daggers and swords. Consequently, our household saw diversity in the political outlook of the two. On major issues concerning the world, the Old Man and the Old Lady had differing opinions.
In them, we learnt the power of disagreements, of dialogue and the essence of living with diversity in thinking.
Success is not about the ability to create a definitive dogmatic end state; it is about the unfolding of thought processes, of dialogue and continuum.
Two years back, at the age of eighty-two, Mother had a paralytic stroke and was lying in a government hospital in Bhubaneswar . I flew down from the US where I was serving my second stint, to see her. I spent two weeks with her in the hospital as she remained in a paralytic state. She was neither getting better nor moving on. Eventually I had to return to work. While leaving her behind, I kissed her face. In that paralytic state and a garbled voice, she said,
“Why are you kissing me, go kiss the world.” Her river was nearing its journey, at the confluence of life and death, this woman who came to India as a refugee, raised by a widowed Mother, no more educated than high school, married to an anonymous government servant whose last salary was Rupees Three Hundred, robbed of her eyesight by fate and crowned by adversity was telling me to go and kiss the world!
Success to me is about Vision. It is the ability to rise above the immediacy of pain. It is about imagination. It is about sensitivity to small people. It is about building inclusion. It is about connectedness to a larger world existence. It is about personal tenacity. It is about giving back more to life than you take out of it. It is about creating extra-ordinary success with ordinary lives.
Thank you very much; I wish you good luck and God’s speed. Go! kiss the world.

Larry Ellison speech at Yale University Graduation Ceremony 2000

2010-01-13T12:11:00.011+05:30

This is Oracle CEO Larry Ellison's speech to the Graduates of Yale University 2000 Batch. He got dragged out of the stage before he could end it. Makes excellent and thought-provoking reading!

Graduates of Yale University, I apologize if you have endured this type of prologue before, but I want you to do something for me. Please, take a good look around you. Look at the classmate on your left. Look at the classmate on your right. Now, consider this: five years from now, 10 years from now, even 30 thirty years from now, odds are the person on your left is going to be a loser. The person on your right, meanwhile, will also be a loser. And you, in the middle? What can you expect? Loser. Loserhood. Loser Cum Laude.

"In fact, as I look out before me today, I don't see a thousand hopes for a bright tomorrow. I don't see a thousand future leaders in a thousand industries. I see a thousand losers.

"You're upset. That's understandable. After all, how can I, Lawrence 'Larry' Ellison, college dropout, have the audacity to spout such heresy to the graduating class of one of the nation's most prestigious institutions? I'll tell you why. Because I, Lawrence "Larry" Ellison, second richest man on the planet, am a college dropout, and you are not.

"Because Bill Gates, richest man on the planet -- for now, anyway -- is a college dropout, and you are not.

"Because Paul Allen, the third richest man on the planet, dropped out of college, and you did not.

"And for good measure, because Michael Dell, No. 9 on the list and moving up fast, is a college dropout, and you, yet again, are not.

"Hmm... you're very upset. That's understandable. So let me stroke your egos for a moment by pointing out, quite sincerely, that your diplomas were not attained in vain. Most of you, I imagine, have spent four to five years here, and in many ways what you've learned and endured will serve you well in the years ahead. You've established good work habits. You've established a network of people that will help you down the road. And you've established what will be lifelong relationships with the word 'therapy.' All that of is good. For in truth, you will need that network. You will need those strong work habits. You will need that therapy.

"You will need them because you didn't drop out, and so you will never be among the richest people in the world. Oh sure, you may, perhaps, work your way up to No. 10 or No. 11, like Steve Ballmer. But then, I don't have to tell you who he really works for, do I? And for the record, he dropped out of grad school. Bit of a late bloomer.

"Finally, I realize that many of you, and hopefully by now most of you, are wondering, 'Is there anything I can do? Is there any hope for me at all?' Actually, no. It's too late. You've absorbed too much, think you know too much. You're not 19 anymore. You have a built-in cap, and I'm not referring to the mortar boards on your heads.

"Hmm... you're really very upset. That's understandable. So perhaps this would be a good time to bring up the silver lining. Not for you, Class of '00. You are a write-off, so I'll let you slink off to your pathetic $200,000-a-year jobs, where your checks will be signed by former classmates who dropped out two years ago.

"Instead, I want to give hope to any underclassmen here today. I say to you, and I can't stress this enough: leave. Pack your things and your ideas and don't come back. Drop out. Start up.

"For I can tell you that a cap and gown will keep you down just as suredly as these security guards dragging me off this stage are keeping me dow..."

Although this makes for a good satirical reading, it is just that, a satire from 'Satire Wire'. Here is an analysis of what actually happened. Yes, Larry Ellison was never present at the '00 Graduation Ceremony.

Steve Jobs: How to live before you die

2010-01-04T20:08:00.000+05:30

This is one of the Best Stuffs on the Web!

Ryan Lobo: Photographing the hidden story | Video on TED.com

2009-12-18T13:30:00.001+05:30

Ryan Lobo: Photographing the hidden story | Video on TED.com

Myths and Cultures role in building them

2009-11-20T14:10:00.003+05:30

DEVDUTTPATTANAIK talks in TEDIndia about the myths that define our beliefs.

Pranav Mistry speaking at TEDIndia-MYSORE

2009-11-17T12:22:00.004+05:30

Another proof that Indians have arrived!

Pranav Mistry delivers lecture at TED India about his gadget 'Sixth Sense'.

I had seen his presentation, first when 'Sixth Sense' was introduced to the world through TED - Ideas worth spreading.

This Indian Lad talks of how he approached to make the gadget, which will change the way we live. He had developed it initially in India and further took it forward during his stint at MIT.

What more he also intends to keep it open sourced so that people can make as much use of it as their imagination permits them.

HATS OFF to him!!!

Role of media and its lethargy

2009-11-17T12:04:00.002+05:30

I stumbled upon a report by a renowned media man arguing that we get the government that we as a polity deserve. In the same way we get the media reporting that we as a society deserve. He has to sell his product at the end of the day to remain in business, thus justifying the maddening reportage of Page 3 Celebrities, instant celebrities and general degradation of the news reports and news presentation.

If in a free-society the general perception is that the governing community is doing exceptionally well and people are so charmed by the leaders that they do not see their follies, then it is the duty of the media to - using a cliche - 'wake up the masses'.

Media cannot keep churning out gossips and ignore the misgovernance citing the excuse, that the people like the leaders, since they do not know they are corrupt and hence we show gossip or else we will have to shut shop.

Media is selling ideas, thoughts and future of the nation. It is not dealing with peanuts here. When an author writes rubbish and is successful in diverting the attention of the nation from the priority issues, then he is doing disservice to the nation and his profession. Media is not without reason called the fourth estate or the fifth pillar of democracy.

If making money is the reason why journalists are here, then better start hawking chaats or sell balloons at the traffic signal.

If a nation is losing its focus and media is unable to direct the focus on the important issues then it is the failure of the media.

Media, which is supposed to be unbiased, if goes on singing paeans after paeans of one party and ignoring their failures keeps influencing its readers favourably towards a select bunch of corrupts, is no longer fulfilling its duty. Readers can see through it and if they skip the front page due to this, then they land up on the Page 3. Media then cannot blame their readers of having an inferior taste of prose.

As we get a government we deserve and media reports what we deserve to read. The FDI-bought media also gets readers that it deserves. The mirror would show the media men their true face

Viewers might soon find Doordarshan news more interesting - although it churns out sarkari farmaans - rather than the breathless, nonsensical and pure sensationalised news channels.

Role of Human Rights activists and their impunity

2009-11-06T13:21:00.005+05:30

India mourned on the 25th Death Anniversary of Indira Gandhi's death on October 31. She died when her security personnel opened fire upon her. Her death had bought about a devastation unseen before. Sikhs were massacred with impunity and India failed to protect their lives. Rajeev Gandhi after a fortnight famously quoted 'When a huge tree falls, earth shakes!'

The perpetrators of the massacre were never held accountable and Indian society as a whole failed to uphold the rights of its very own citizens. The perpetrators would always want to be left unscathed for their crimes, but what failed more, was the society at large - the media, judiciary, politicians - to get justice for the victims and their families. This failure is something on the lines of busting the myth of a democratic set-up, right in the face of us, Indians.

In fact the impunity or lack of accountability extends to the self-proclaimed human rights champions too.

Arundhati Roy for example denounces - and rightly - the violent Sri Ram Sene kinda outfits, but in the same breath, she talks of support for the Maoists. True that the tribals need more rights and need to be taken care of, in terms of economic prosperity. But violent revolution does not compliment any human rights fight. There are rights of the dead policemen too. To mean that the all the poor tribals are picking up guns would be a sham.

Thankfully for majority of the 450 million poor people sanity prevails and only 20000 of them have picked up guns.

But how can Arundhati Roy denounce Sri Ram sene/SIMI/ Indian Mujahideen but embrace the Maoists? All of these claim to be marginalised, some ideologically, some politically, some economically. All of them need to be brought to the mainstream. Its a binding responsibility for every Indian.

We need better, rational and unbiased Human Rights Activists. NGO's and activists have given the nation RTI, they wield lots of power. After all, the Congress has been allowed to get away with 1984, only because of the stony silence of the true do-gooders.

We need more of them.

Jamiat-e-Islami-Hind and Deoband issue fatwa against singing Vande Mataram!

2009-11-05T19:20:00.004+05:30

Jamiat-e-Islami-Hind and Deoband Seminary organised a conglomeration of Muslim organisations and passed a 25 point resolution. One of the most important and controversial points of the resolution was a fatwa for Muslims against singing the National Song "Vande Mataram".

The sickening fatwas of this kind only go on to aggravate the issues of minority. When A R Rahman said 'Maa tujhe Salaam' was he less Muslim?

Deobandis should have been smarter by now. Jinnah used them as fodder to get power pre-independence and left them with people whom they had vehemently opposed. Same happened with them post-independence when politicians would arrange grand iftar parties but would turn a blind eye to the progress of the community.

This is a political gimmickry by politicians who want to gain power in UP, which would ensure them of, victories in ensuing LS polls for the coming decade.

Bankim Chandra Chatterjee had written the 'Anandmath' novel describing hermits revolt against an oppressive British regime. The Britishers censored the novel and forced Chatterjee to depict the revolt being against the Mughals by the hermitage. Thereby, sowing the seeds of opposition to the song.

When Subhash Chandra Bose included the song for his INA. Even Rabindranath Tagore advised him against the idea of worship and Bose kept only the first two stanzas wherein, there was no mention of worshipping anyone else, but salutation to the mother. The same song was adopted by the constitution. Many freedom fighters be it Muslims or Hindus had romanticized martyrdom with this song.

It is not a show of patriotism to sing this song. But not singing this song and imposing other 'followers' to not sing it, shows an attitude and mentality of opposition to assimilation with the culture This attitude of maintaining an isolation is the one that needs to be addressed.

PM's security denies a patient entry to Hospital. Patient dies!!!

2009-11-04T17:39:00.004+05:30

A man with kidney problems and renal failure died, due to overzealous security guards, during PM's visit for a function at a hospital in Chandigarh. The family had arrived to Chandigarh from Ambala 45 kms away and was turned around from entry points after entry points for 2 hours, since all routes were sealed for the PM's security.

The PM has written to the family of the deceased in Chandigarh, expressing his deep regret over the incident and has moved on! He might compensate monetarily and thats it. The next function he attends might snuff another life, we all move on. THANK YOU very much!

To avoid such a scenario, precautions could be taken. It is preposterous to believe that entry into a HOSPITAL is restricted since a VIP is arriving there! How can we celebrate success and anniversaries of Health centres, with this kind of attitude?

As much as the VIP's, the guards themselves too hate being grid-locked in traffic and would want to fly-past the lesser beings.

VIP cavalcades have caused lots of heartburns to the commoners over the years. There should be, to start with, a no-VIP time during the peak rush hours for the commuters. Say daily from 6 to 7 no traffic would be held up for any VIP.

VIP's can leave early or stay put in their offices for the duration. For extremely-urgent-immediate-attention-deserving-armageddon kinda events they can use helicopters. All of them bundled into one or two and leave.

Nothing more needs to be spoken upon the topic. Since there is actually NOTHING to debate about it. We have cultivated a VIP culture in our lives and we alone are responsible for it.

Cut the commandos to the VIP's and use them for better jobs. Its an insult to their ability to surround these VIP's.

After elections are over aam aadmi is expendable. He, unfortunately, becomes a JAAM aadmi.

A ROBOT Dog! A must see

2009-11-03T12:57:00.003+05:30

ROBOT Dog!!!

This is a Robot designed by researchers in Boston Dynamics. This seems to be as good as a living being or may be even better.

Globalisation: What it has brought to us and us to?

2009-10-27T18:51:00.003+05:30

Globalisation was a term much dreaded by the middle class folks and was introduced by our current PM and then FM Manmohan Singh in the early 1990's.

He is credited with opening up the economy and is regularly lauded by Congressie sycophants. Although it brought about a huge change in the way India was seen as a market by the world, it was more of a compulsion than a choice.

India did not have enough Foreign Exchange to survive for another 15 days and ONGC had famously not bid for a contract in the Far-East since the government could not lend $7000/- as the bidding fees.

Under these circumstances the IMF had put conditions for India to open up before asking for any loans. India got loans and then had to open up.

It brought a change and change is always uncomfortable for humans.

Globalisation has definitely opened up more avenues than our earlier generations had. The feeling is summed up in the statement that 'I am doing what my father would not even had dreamt of'. This is more or less applicable to every successful person in India today.

What our earlier generation did at the age we are today, is quite different from what we are doing and quite possibly, they may not even had dreamt of a lifestyle like ours.

But then we are counting upon a little percentage of been-there-done-that's. There is a heap of talent unsourced. A good 25% of India which is below the age of 25 years and has its own aspirations. Oppurtunities for all of those is very important or we are sitting on a time-bomb of criminalisation of society.

The trickle down effect, that was so widely believed would happen, has just been busted. The wealth from the top just does not seep until the bottom.

It was advocated that the market economy would make rich people gain wealth, which would be distributed locally which would make prosperity reach the rural part of India.

But when we think of this, another event is reminded when Mukesh Ambani led Reliance had made huge profits owing to the high oil price which had driven profits to the petroleum products made by his group.

Mukesh Ambani had visited the PM and Congress President Sonia Gandhi in relation to a constitutionally valid tax that he was supposed to pay. It was called a Windfall Profit Tax which a businessman has to pay in lieu of a humongous profit acquired by his organisation. Ambani had made a request to relax that tax.

What happened to his request, the media did not highlight nor was reported anywhere. But if we are allowing businessmen to pay lesser tax, then what is the use of the whole trickle down theory?

We are breeding terrorists in the form of Naxalites and Maoists. The have-nots in India are far more in percentage than the 'have's'.

No wonder we had 28% people below poverty line in 1991, now we have 38%

Praful Patel takes over as AIFF President

2009-10-27T18:40:00.002+05:30

OK, first the news...

Poor Priyaranjan Dasmunshi, the multi-time Congress MP suffered a heart attack and is recuperating in a hospital in Delhi. My thoughts are with his family and I pray for his fast recovery. Praful Patel, ex-vicepresident and the current acting-president has taken over the responsibility of taking 'care' of football in India.

Now the issue to be discussed.

Priyaranjan Dasmunshi presided over All India Football Federation as President since 1988. That is before none of the under-19 footballers were born. Although, I feel bad for his family concerning his health, but what did he achieve in the past two decades on the helm of affairs of AIFF? Did he not feel ashamed in any way in his tenure for sad state of the sport? My take is if he had really loved the sport he would have quit long ago.

A change in guard is always a refreshing breather. But Praful Patel has presided as acting President and was Vice-president since long enough. Praful Patel for the sake of football in India should come out with his 'master plan' to make the popular sport a successful venture in India.

Give a guy a roll of paper and some space and few moments alone. Next thing you would see that
he has rolled the paper into a ball and is kicking it and dodging imaginary players and is smiling about kicking the ball in an imaginary goal post. The sport needs no introduction or need not be popularised. What needs to be popularised is that it is being managed well enough for people to take it as a career option.

Considering the 'good work' that Praful Patel has done with Air India, one can only hope that the breather that Praful Patel brings does not turn out to be a case of bad breath.

THIS IS IT! Michael Jacksons song recorded before his death

2009-10-12T15:35:00.005+05:30

THIS IS IT!

This is the video of the song THIS IS IT! recorded by Micheal Jackson just before he died.

Barrack Hussain Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize!!!

2009-10-09T19:53:00.002+05:30

Surprising that Barrack Obama has got the Nobel prize for Peace. It is definitely over the top to give it to a person, who until now has not even been able to, get a fair majority to pass a bill about health care which will be in favour of the poor and needy of America. He has not served enough in his tenure to make significant impact.

He has merely mentioned to reduce the stockpiles of nuclear weapons.

In that case Atal Bihari Vajpayee should be given the Nobel Prize for Peace, since he was the one to declare as soon as India conducted the nuclear tests that India would support dismantling of all nuclear weapons in the world.

And Atal Bihari Vajpayee did not even send troops to other nations to continue to fight a fanatical war. He took the risk of releasing prisoners of national importance for the sake of a few hostages.

There would be many suggestions as to who deserved the Nobel Prize more, but one thing is sure Obama doesnt seem to be deserving it at least for now. His time would have come in future, for its no mean achievement to break the racial barriers and win the presidency.

But, What one does with power is more important than achieving it.

This will do more harm than good for Obama's PR. It will only add more pressure upon him in making policy decisions.

Anyways, CONGRATULATIONS BARRACK HUSSAIN OBAMA on winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

Naxalism, Maoism - Biggest Internal Threat to India

2009-10-09T19:40:00.002+05:30

Maoists behead a police officer Francis Induwar. Naxalism has given way to the more brutal and inhumane Maoism, which is Communism in its darker form.

It is true that it has breed due to the lack of development in rural India, but it is equally true that violence of any form cannot be ever justified. The 'liberated' areas are no better than when they had state apparatus working for them. It is a huge industry.

The people who support, supporters of killers, of people like Francis Induwar should be ashamed of themselves. This is no definition of being secular in any which way. In fact Naxalites should be brought into the mainstream as quick as possible or they will go the Babbar Khalsa way, where the ISI would be too gleefully rubbing its hands to help them carry more murders.

This calls for more reach within the villages, NREGA should be implemented without its current glitches. At least it would be a good start to wean out its short-comings.

Money should reach villagers, it will have direct effect upon the reach of Maoists. Rural India badly needs an alternative to Maoists.

I&B censored Nehru's relation with Edwina

2009-10-05T19:19:00.005+05:30

The Information and Broadcasting Ministry is censoring the script of a film by a British filmmaker, Joe Wright, who wants to focus in his film on the intimate relationship that India’s first Prime Minister, Jawahar Lal Nehru, shared with Edwina Mountbatten.

The government has cut the script short and has asked the director to stick to an approved script. A govt. official will be present on the sets of the film to make sure the order is implemented.

This brings us to the question, if it is an insult to the legacy of Nehru that his private life is made public, then pity the party workers who think that his credit of building our nation is so fragile that it could crumble under weight of his personal choices.

Nehru's relationship was ensuing during the most tumultuous period in recent history of India. If anything it should only highlight his endurance to have built the nation under extreme emotional duress.

If India had been cut into pieces or had gone the Pakistan way, with a celibate sage at the helm, would the moral apologists be happy?

Every country be it Turkey or Pakistan has a legacy of haloing the personalities of their founding fathers. Information & Broadcasting Ministry is following the much traversed path of broadcasting information by withholding most part of it.

PITY!

Yugratna Srivastava Climate Change UN speech

2009-09-23T14:21:00.015+05:30

Yugratna Srivastava, a 13-year-old girl from Lucknow, India addressed the United Nations Climate Change Summit in New York on Tuesday. Yugratna’s speech was cheered on by world leaders including UN General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon. The girl exudes tremendous confidence in her speech. The video could not be uploaded due to some problem with blogger as well as Youtube. I managed to get this grab on net.

Summit on Climate Change

22 September 2009
Speech of Yugratna Srivastava

Respected UN Secretary General Mr. Ban Ki - moon, Honourable Dignitaries and August Assembly.

I am 13 years young Yugratna from organisation Tarumitra,
meaning Friends of Trees, which is an NGO of 1600 high
schools and involved in promoting environmental awareness.
I feel privileged to represent children and youth, 3 billion of the
world’s population in this Summit on Climate Change.
I am so much concerned about climate change because
I don’t want our future generations to
question us just as I am questioning

the need of more concrete action on climate change today.

The Himalayas are melting, polar bears are dying, 2 of every 5
people don’t have access to clean drinking water, earth’s
temperature is increasing, we are losing the untapped
information and potential of plant species ,

Pacific’s water level has risen,
Is this what we are going to hand over to our future generations?
Please…….no!

We received a clean and healthy planet from our ancestors and
we are gifting a damaged one to our successors?

Is their any justice in this?

Honourable Excellencies, we need to call for an action now. We
have to protect the earth not just for us

but for our future generations.
If not here then where, if not now then when and

if not us then who?

Please listen to our voices.

The future needs strong vision and leadership!

One month ago, we had a TUNZA International Children and
Youth Conference in Korea.

The 800 participants and several thousands online developed

a statement requesting you as leaders to:
Agree on a more fair, just and action oriented post-Kyoto
agreement adopted and implemented by all countries
Not just formulate policies but also enforce them by
translating them into actions.

1. Please stop the people who are making Mother Earth Cry.
2. Why cut the oxygen generating forests

to create CO2 generating industries?
3. Include carbon and ecological footprint information in products.
4. Adapt to a green economy and sustainable production.
5. Develop a multi-national climate facility to monitor
climate response strategies.

The high tech. society and currency deposits in bank are of no
use if we don’t have a compatible biosphere.
In the awareness, it is not just about
solving an environmental problem….

but it is exclusively about changing the mindset and
attitude of people!

Educate students about the climate change by making
environmental education mandatory at all the levels of learning.
To get a sustainable Earth, we don’t need to stop the
developments. The need is quest and expansion of affordable
eco-friendly technologies available to common man like Energy
Efficient Campuses, Bio-fuels and Renewable energy sources.

I just want to ask all the world leaders two questions:-
1. Do environmental problems recognize any geographical or
political boundaries and age groups? My answer is certainly no.
This is why, we have the UN to talk each other about these
issues. I request you to please include the voices of children and
youth in all your decisions.
2. If national security and peace, and economic growth are
priorities, than why not climate change?
I know that you all are great leaders but overall we all are
humans. We all have a kind heart. I am sure that UN
negotiations at Copenhagen this year will end with
recommendations for good of humanity…and they have to.
Whatever has happened in the past is over.

We just have present and future in our hands.

Let’s act in the present to secure our future.
We have one Mother Earth: Care it and Share it.

Respected leaders, when you all make policies, please think of a
child suffering in greenhouse heat and

think of the species craving to survive.

Mahatma Gandhi said “Earth has enough to satisfy everyone’s need but no one’s greed"

A bird can fly in air, a fish can swim in water,

a leopard can run far faster,

But we the humans have been supernaturally gifted with mind….

a capability to think, change and reform ….

so come on let us all use these abilities to save our birthplace….
our home…. our mother earth!

Thank You !!!

The complete speech is taken from UN archives.

Pace of life: Forever accelerating

2009-09-22T10:08:00.003+05:30

As life moves fast, situations we deal with, change faster. 'Yesterday' has long been forgotten, 'tomorrow' has been extensively planned with Plan A and backed up with Plan B, C and D with 'today' falling a casualty to the insecurity of future.

Everyone wants to pack as much as possible within one life span. Everybody wants a bigger garden and better plants and trees. But alas, most forget to pause and smell the proverbial 'roses' from their own garden.

This is not unique to the present generations only. Our forefathers too complained of life picking up pace and so will our future generations. It is important for an individual to figure out the priorities in life and follow them. That would be living life to the fullest.

I remember my collegue talking to the father of my ex-boss. The septuagenarian was complaining of how todays generation has lost its focus on any one issue and keeps fiddling around multiple things at the same time and how people have become overall less attentive and more greedy with an ever increasing list of wants. My collegue the articulate chap that he was, asked the old man, 'How long the people used to live in earlier generations?' His answer was 'Very old, 100 years was not uncommon back then.' THATS WHY!!! my collegue said, now we no longer are gonna live 100 or even 60's are unsure of and so we need to pack as much as possible within the short lifespan we have.

With the advent of service industry and burgeoning population, my take is that our earning lifespan is even more reduced and 50's might be the new 60's. So is it wise to earn now as much as possible and save maximum for the later part of our lives or stick to the traditional route? TAKE YOUR CALL! but in either case do not forget to count your blessings and do smell the roses in your own garden!

Last day of man before dying

2009-09-19T17:47:00.003+05:30

Last Day Dream [HD] from Chris Milk on Vimeo.

This is a good video. It shows the events that one would remember as one lays on the death bed. The thoughts that would flash through your eyes as you are just about to close your eyes.

Congressie obsession with trivial issues - Shashi Tharoor

2009-09-17T17:01:00.004+05:30

Congress is whipping its technocrat-turned-politician super diplomat Shashi Tharoor. The whipping is not due to some faulty policy decision or a governance related issue. Instead this time he is being held responsible of insensitivity towards the party diktat of austerity. His tweet which was in a response to a fellow bloggers question whether he will join the austerity drive was "Yes, I will travel cattle class in solidarity with the holy cows."

Some think the holy cow was Rahul Baba. So Jayanti Natarajan lambasted Tharoor as being insensitive. Tharoor had a problem with his tweeting earlier too, when a circular had asked government employees to not use internet from their offices. Security threat you see?

I wonder why the neta's are so paranoid about Tharoor tweeting that they are out to "out-tweet" him.

Shashi Tharoor's tweet does display his arrogance or in a way shows that he considers himself to be above the 'cattle class' It might have been an unintentional or misunderstood tweet. The limitations of 140 character speeches and brevity, one could say.
Congress on the other hand can only trip over by blowing this non-issue into a national debate. This speaks of the push-pull politics within the Congress too where in a technocrat is fawned upon by the seasoned neta's who have toiled hard in a different manner than Tharoor or Montek or Nandan.
This trivial issue has brought into focus the sameness in the difference between BJP and Congress. What a paradox :)

Misplaced Austerity drive a complete HOGWASH!

2009-09-17T11:35:00.004+05:30

Ha! The austerity drive kick off is completely misplaced. It is not something the ministers need to do only during recession or drought period. They can continue doing it even in good times a la George Fernandes or Mamta Banerjee, who never made headlines for their austere living.

Neta's and their entourage are taking these drives only to the states where elections are due. This indicates a lot of unsaid things about the intent of the drive. I wonder why the change in heart has come at the very end of the recession. Or may be they wield so much power that once they started their drive, the recession has turned around and global stock exchanges have started to boom again!

They drive with their secretaries and black cats and sycophants in their Pajero's and Mercedes, then take a part of their travel in AC first class railway compartments and project as if have made a huge sacrifice. Such tokenism is a bigger insult to the masses who are reeling under drought and starvation. In Mahatma's land, a tokenism of this kind is a big insult to his teachings and his followers.

The arrogance of Sharad, Shashi and Sharma - for following simple ways of living alike their other billion plus cousins in this country - underlines the attitude with which the politicians look at the cattle class that we all form. They forget it is the cattle class that pays for their AC accommodations. Just as the cattle's are reared and used unabashedly, but worshiped intermittently, so is the case with people who are entitled to only vote not get them.

We have a law to restrict the number of cattle that can be put in a railway bogie while being transported. Alas! I hope the austerity drive helps somehow to get a law for the restriction of number of humans packed in a bogie as well. My challenge to Rahul Baba, take a train in Mumbai during peak hours in the direction of the rush in a Second Class compartment. Then your Dalit night-outs will have more legitimacy.

Abhishek Singhvi has sung paeans about Sonia Gandhi and is a perfect example of a sycophant. Sonia Gandhi would do good by cutting her entourage shorter. It will save a lot of money from the exchequer. The difference between business class ticket and economy class ticket is insignificantly miniscule compared to the wealth politicians have amassed from the exchequer.

One question we all seem to miss is, since Independence the Nehru Gandhi family has earned only the salary meant for the MP's or the salary of a Prime Minister. Even if we take into account that amount cumulatively. How on Earth can they spend on education abroad for all and still each claim to have crores and crores of 'White money' declared in their pre-election wealth declaration?

Although the act by Sonia Gandhi is a deviation from the norm, it does not deserve to be sung out in the form paeans and paeans of her 'sacrifice'. Other issues of importance should make headlines rather than this example for the projection of GOP as a peoples party.

Cosmetic tokenism is hogwash, true performance is the acid test. May be Congress knows where it stands in the elections after the consistent farmer suicides. So all these things follow.

_ || GANAPATI BAPPA MORAYAA!!! || _

2009-09-01T16:23:00.008+05:30

वक्रतुंड महाकाय सूर्यकोटिसमप्रभ।
निर्विघ्नं कुरु मे देव सर्वकार्येषु सर्वदा॥

This is the video of the first Aarti of Ganapati Bappa at Lalbaugcha Raja which means 'King of Lalbaug'.

Lalbaugcha Raja started by the local fisherfolk has grown leaps and bounds into a major festivity. It is said that prayers offered to Ganpati Bappa at this place do not go unanswered. The collections are famous for anonymous contributors who deposit wads of crores of cash and sacks of jewellery in the Dakshina Peti or collection box after their wishes have been fulfilled.

The Lalbaugcha Raja Organisers conduct an auction of the festive deposits of fruits, coconuts, jewellery, Lords jewellery, etc; at the end of the festival, which staunch devotees are said to drive to humungous prices. A Coconut costing Rs.15/- offered at the festival and then auctioned by the organisers goes on to fetch thousands of rupees. The faith that the people have in this magnanimous festival is exceptional. The Organisers transparently, use the money collected from the festival towards charitable organisations and for helping the poor and needy.

'Lalbaugcha Raja' is a crowning glory for the Ganesh Festival in Mumbai.

For more details visit http://www.lalbaugcharaja.com

SATYAM, MAYTAS and ASATYAM

2009-08-31T19:07:00.004+05:30

MAYTAS Infra has been declared as loss-making and the Raju's have virtually lost the hold over the company. The wheels of destiny have come full circle for Ramalinga Raju. Whether he is punished by law or not, nature has taught Raju lessons the hard way.

Satyameva Jayate... true.

But it is a fact that it took a recession and a fall in land prices, to trigger the avalanche in Satyam, for the truth to come out.

What lessons have we as a society learnt from this episode? What lessons has the regulatory body and the government learnt from this? What are we doing to avoid future Satyams from happening?

Are we sure, Satyam is the only company that has indulged in this practice? If we are not, then are we awaiting truth to prevail according to its own convenient time for other Satyams or are we waiting for another recession to throw the skeletons out of the other cupboards?The regulatory body needs to learn a lot from this.

The faulty system has shown how ill it is. Satyam was a symptom of a larger malaise. Where we take the issue from here, depends upon us.

Raju's of the world would want to create another Satyam. Its our job to not let them do it.

FIA, Force India and India

2009-08-31T16:46:00.004+05:30

FIA or the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile, has had its plans for India disclosed long ago. They desperately wanted to make the sport popular in a country like India. F1 is big money spent and big money earned. Even if the Indian audiences in multi-millions watch the sport on TV, then it amounts to a huge revenue.

Chandrababu Naidu had almost finalised an F1 track in India near Hyderabad before he lost the state elections. Maharashtra government under Sushilkumar Shinde had jumped to the idea of having a F1 track near Mumbai-Pune expressway but that was during the lock-in period FIA had with Andhra Govt. Next it is known that Sushilkumar Shinde had to deal with the impending elections in the state. Finally Delhi also wanted to be the host to it. Narain Karthikeyan was included in F1 amid all these circumstances. This clearly shows the sports body's intentions to make a place in India. They added China also in their calendar during the same time.

Team Force India indeed could have been called Force Kingfisher, but let me be a cynic and I want to believe that having India in the name of the team maximises the reach of the sport. This might be a more driving force in the 'naming' rather than, love of the owner of the team, for his country.

As soon as the Sports Minister of India, talks of not allowing the sports company to have soft loans amounting to some Rs. 550 crs from RBI, the very next race is won by Force India after standing nowhere in earlier 30 races.

Mr. Mallya, how about having all the athletes of Indian Olympic team endorsing your brand of Kingfisher and you spend a fraction of the money on them rather than what you spent to put FORCE INDIA on F1 map? It is a sure shot recipe for more glory for India in Olympics.

F1 needs a huge infrastructure which will not even be used the year round. With airports for huge Cargo planes which carry the teams and the cars, hotels for the teams as well as the spectators visiting, et all.

When our ex-sportsperson are driven to prostitution, a few bucks from a "true sports-loving and patriotic person" like you should better go for them. SAY WOT, Mr. King of 'only(?)' Good Times?

Sri Lankan Armed Forces involved in extra-judicial killings

2009-08-26T14:05:00.002+05:30

Water scarcity and rain-water harvesting.

2009-08-25T18:39:00.004+05:30

By many a projections, it is described that 'Water is going to be the Oil of 21st century.'

But what makes the situation more grim is that there can be an alternative for oil, but not for water.

Water wars are already not unimaginable. We have had states fighting for Water from inter-state rivers. It is only a matter of time that this goes international. Water and food-scarcity are far more urgent issues than the importance they are given.

Environmental refugees due to the lack of availability of natural resources are going to be huge challenge for policy-makers the world over in the not-so-distant future. For a billion plus population like India Roti, Kapda, Makaan, mobile can take a back-seat.

Potable water will be an alarming issue. No amount of distillation processes of sea-water will be able to replace fresh water resources.

To start with, rain-water harvesting facilities could be made a compulsion for new constructions along with earthquake resistant designs. In a country with a large experience of earthquakes and water scarcity, these things do not need Einsteins to give a thought. Ah! I wish the people who heed only to 'phoren babas' information get such a solution from them, our netadom & babudom will then grab it with both hands.

Mohammed Ali Jinnah and India

2009-08-19T16:56:00.009+05:30

A lot has come out in the media about Jaswant Singh's book on Mohammed Ali Jinnah. It is an undeniable fact that India needed to demonise Jinnah, so that Nehru could bask in the post-independence glory.

Jinnah's grandfather was a Hindu trader who converted to Islam. Jinnah as a student, had fought a case against the British Raj for Lokmanya Tilak in the Supreme Court at London. Tilak was unable to fund his trip to London and could not find a lawyer to help his litigation there. Jinnah, then as a foot soldier of Congress, had helped Tilak but lost the case. Jinnah was more an Indian leader than a Muslim leader before Gandhiji embarked from South Africa.

Mahatma had worked in the media in South Africa. Being an editor of a newspaper, he knew the power of media. What Gandhiji wore, where did he go, what did he do were the stories carried by the media when he settled in India. He used the media to feed the masses and make a cult out of himself. He has to be credited of being successful in invoking a mass awakening like no other leader could do. The same media blitzkrieg is followed even after independence for the congress leaders. Most recent being to show where Rahul Baba spent a night, when he wants to get married, how he blushed, etc, etc;

The cost of Mahatma Gandhi's rise was that other leaders - Jinnah, Savarkar, Bose, Annie Besant - were gradually marginalised. Gandhi arrived in 1915 in India and the Muslim league and RSS were formed in the 20's. This was a result of the power struggle which the other leaders were subjected to take for the second position after Gandhi's Congress.

Jinnah had left for London in the 1930's and returned only in early 1940's when the Quit India Movement failed and there was a sense of the British actually leaving India due to WWII.

Jinnah had wanted a more federal republic with three tier administration - a Centre, a group of provinces and the provinces. While Nehru was against the idea of group of provinces. He wanted a more centralised system - the Centre and the provinces. This admonition of the group of provinces was seen by Jinnah as Nehru's unwillingness to share power, which finally led to a brutal and inhumane partition.

Ill-prepared partition was a mistake for whom Indians would love to put the blame upon Jinnah solely, but truth cannot be more farther from this. Both the sides were signatories to it. It is said that, it was not until 1946 that the idea of a partition took root. But there are reports of Muslim League propping up the idea of Pakistan from 1940.

Congress acted under the duress of 1946 'Direct Action' (known as Calcutta killings - Calcutta was governed by Muslim League) which had led to widespread rioting and killing by the Muslim League. Congress was subjected to accept the 'Two Nation Theory'. If it had not accepted then there was a threat of Direct Action being repeated wherever Muslim League came in power. Neither Nehru nor Jinnah had envisioned the bloodbath that took place due to partition and both had later acknowledged it as a mistake.

In Indian context, the whole responsibility was put upon Jinnah. One thing to be noted here is that "HISTORY IS WRITTEN BY THE WINNER". Raja Vikramaditya Hemraj becomes Hemu; Hitler is the villain, when there are reports of US and UK looking the other way when they had full knowledge of the concentration camps; US is absolved of its nuclear bombings; the only truly secular society in the Arab world is destroyed - the act being claimed as liberation of Iraq - and it ends up as a chaotic polity; and there are many more examples. Jinnah's case was similar.

Jaswant Singh has made a good observation that the partition has turned out to be futile. It has not served its purpose. Most importantly, he cites history, refers to the reservation introduced in 1906 which are comparable to the Sachar committee report. He cannot be held completely wrong in his conclusion that, another partition cannot be ruled out if we keep following the same path.

In its quest for power, BJP could have lapped up the scholarly and well-researched article. This would only have made the Congress a little defensive, since any lessening of the saintly Halo around the Nehru-clan would have had gone in favour of the BJP. Alas, they did not milk the opportunity, while they also lost one of their least rewarded most deserving loyals, by expelling Jaswant Singh who worked for 30 long years of his political life for the party.

In another perspective, BJP by rejecting to admonish Nehru and Patel have exercised a higher moral and ethical practice, so very rare in present day politics. It also suits them the best.

Kothi Raju or "the Monkey King"

2009-08-12T14:06:00.004+05:30

Kothi Raju which literally means "The Monkey King"

This man seems to have amazing acrobatic skills. Now if only his skills could be used for better representation for the nation in international arena. Hope the system wakes up to utilize the abilities of this man. He can definitely do similar to, if not better than, the famous Spiderman from France, Alain Robert.

Swine Flu

2009-08-11T15:46:00.007+05:30

The Swine Flu or the H1N1 influenza seems to have become a major epidemic in India now.
At last count the no. of deaths has been 10 with the most no. of people being of the age below 14 or above 50.

There are various sites which talk about the do's and dont's for it. One parent site is www.swinefluindia.com This is supposed to have the latest information.

I just dread of the time when the virus enters the public domain. I fear for the people traveling in our over-crowded buses, trains and other public transports. For the people living in the slums and off the roads; the poor labourers in cities and the already impoverished farmers in rural Bharat, people already distraught due to the drought; people who already dont have minimal requirements of life having been fulfilled. Once the pandemic starts to have its victims, the number will only grow exponentially. The WHO seems to be of the view that about 33% of Indians will be affected by the flu. That makes a very bad 30 crore people. Even if 0.1% of that amount is fatally affected, then the toll would be about 3 lakh lives. Not to consider the other 50 lakh that would be psychologically affected.

The flu had not come out as a full blown up epidemic in India until now, which can be attributed to the warm summer season that just passed off. The northern plains have not reported much of the flu cases, again due to the delayed or mostly absent monsoon. Western countries reported the flu just before the start of summer for them, then the numbers has not risen dramatically. When the winter season slowly takes over the second wave of the flu attack will be felt. Pray to God that it doesn't cause much damage. The only way to beat this menace would be to observe better hygiene. WASH YOUR HANDS, REGULARLY. That is if there is enough water after the bad-monsoons.

But before panicking just consider this information. More people die in India due to tuberculosis, malaria, dengue, leptospirosis than the more hyped diseases like AIDS, H1N1. In fact more people die due to accidents than the total toll of swine flu globally.

Observe Caution YES! Panic NO!

There are reports that a few people are selling off masks procured for free from the Govt. hospitals to slum-dwellers for a handsome charge of anywhere between Rs. 50/- to Rs. 200/-

Now, isn't there a thing known as conscience for these people?

Sharda Temple - Shardadesh. Present day PoK

2009-07-19T20:05:00.007+05:30

Sharada Peeth was the famous temple of goddess Sharada (Saraswati) in Kashmir - also called Kashyappur named after Rishi Kashyap - on the banks of NeelumKishenganga river (known as Kishenganga in India). Its ruins are now in the Neelum District of Azad Kashmir, Pakistan near the Line of Control(LOC). Kashmir was sometimes called Sharada Desh because of this temple.

It was a centre of Hinduism and eminent Sanskrit scholars of India. It is at this temple that Sri Sankaracharya received Sarvanjyapeetham chair. It was once a celebrated center of learning. It was a centre of great Sanskrit scholars and was a famous centre of Hinduism.

Sharda, Takri (from which gurmukhi is derived) and kharoshthi scripts are said to have originated at Sharda.

The great Jain scholar Hemachandra requested grammar texts preserved here so that he could compile his Siddhahemacandra grammar.

The great Vaishnava saint Swami Ramanuja traveled all the way from Srirangam to refer to Bodhayana's vritti on Brahma Sutras preserved here, before commencing work on writing his commentary on the Brahma sutras, the Sri Bhasya. Gotheng Brahmins are the traditional priests of Sharda Peeth.

Kalhana mentions that in Lalitaditya's reign (8th century AD), some followers of a king of Gauda (Bengal), come to Kashmir under the pretence of visiting the shrine of Sarada.

The temple was last repaired by Maharaja Gulab Singh of Kashmir.

The Sharada idol at Shringeri Sharadamba temple was once said to have been made of sandalwood, which is supposed to have been taken by the Sankaracharya from here.

NOW THESE HOLY TEMPLES ARE BEING USED AS TOILETS AND BUNKERS BY THE PAKISTAN ARMY.

The pic was taken down originally from this link.
http://www.pbase.com/hgharib/shardatemple

Babies rapping their way to Fun - Evian Ad

2009-07-14T16:33:00.003+05:30

An excellent advertisement from Evian. Babies having fun, skating and rapping their way out.

Joke : Let's talk

2009-07-10T10:46:00.007+05:30

This is an excellent joke I got in an email.

Let's Talk

A stranger was seated next to a little black girl on the airplane, when the stranger turned to her and said, "Let's talk. I've heard that flights go quicker if you strike up a conversation with your fellow passenger."

The little girl, who had just opened her coloring book, closed it slowly and said to the stranger, "What would you like to talk about?"

"Oh, I don't know," said the stranger. "Since you are a Negro, do you think that President Obama is doing a good job?" and he smiles.

"OK", she said.

'That could be an interesting topic. But let me ask you a question first. A horse, a cow, and a deer all eat the same stuff - grass.

Yet a deer excretes little pellets, while a cow turns out a flat patty, and a horse produces clumps of dried grass. Why do you suppose that is?"

The stranger, visibly surprised by the little girl's intelligence, thinks about it and says, "Hmmm, I have no idea."

To which the little girl replies, "Do you really feel qualified to discuss President Barack Obama... when you don't know shit?"

Michael Jackson's Last Rehearsal Video

2009-07-03T11:22:00.006+05:30

Michael Jackson's Last Rehearsal Video footage at Staples Center. This was a complete dress rehearsal on Tuesday 23rd June 2009, just two days before his death. On Wednesday Michael rehearsed, but it was reportedly only about formations and choreographs and not much dance.

This video has been released by AEG Live which also has documentary footage of 100's of hours of the rehearsals.

The series of 50 stage shows 'THIS IS IT' in London's O2 Arena would have been a fitting culmination to the career of the Legendary King of Pop... but alas Life had different plans stored for him...

MJ
R. I. P.

Bandra-Worli Sea Link or Rajiv Gandhi Setu

2009-07-02T12:11:00.023+05:30

Bandra- Worli Sea Link had been mired in controversy since the word go. BJP MLA Nitin Gadkari had proposed it in the late 1990's and was opposed by environmentalists and fisherfolk equally for the viabilities of this bridge. Ever since its conception, it was imagined to be a wonder creation, which would become a landmark for Mumbai.

The day of its inauguration dawned and it did become a great engineering marvel unvieled for commuters, who could cut short their trip by a good 40 - 45 minutes and skip over a couple of dozen traffic lights. The hype around the bridge was justified in this sense. The construction of the bridge too involved a meticulous approach with engineering teams from a host of countries contributing to it. The amount of steel involved in the construction is supposedly equal to the circumference of earth.

The following are some of the features of the bridge:

•8-lane-wide
•Sea link length- 5.6-km, 3.8 km over the sea
•Cement used- 90,000 tons
•Save Rs 100 crore a year in vehicle operating costs

No surprise when UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi was inauguarating the bridge. An infrastructure milestone for our country like this, should have been dedicated to the country by some official of the Indian Government, the Prime Minister or the President of the country? Oh, the UPA Chairperson is more powerful than them. OK...

Although the bridge was delayed a good 4 years and the cost escalated to Rs. 1634 crores from Rs. 350 crores, I was feeling a sense of pride on looking at the images of the bridge. It is after all, the first over-the-sea bridge in India.

As an anti-climax to the event, the sense of pride gave way to a sense of disgust by the evening of the inauguration when it was announced that the Sea-link would be named as Rajiv Gandhi Setu.

OMG! Union Minister Sharad Pawar, whose NCP sees existential problems and who wants to make a comeback to the Congress, proposed this idea during the inauguration and it was picked up by Maharashtra CM Ashok Chavan. So the name of the bridge is being sacrificed at the altar for helping Sharad Pawar to rejoin Congress. The opposition jeered at it and Shiv Sena wanted to name the bridge as Veer Savarkar Setu or something else. Fair enough!

But haven't we got enough of this Gandhi surname in India? Institutions and roads named after the"Gandhi" family?

Shakespeare did say "Whats in a name?" and he did put his and only his name under that very statement, but may be if he sees the dizzying, ever growing list of Gandhi-parivar dedicated projects, then he might think over his statement. After all the name 'Gandhi' carries a lot of weight for sycophants.

Following is the list of some of the Government schemes and projects named after three members of the Nehru Gandhi family, Rajiv Gandhi, Indira Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, which has been submitted to the Election Commission by the eminent journalist A.Surya Prakash as an Annexure to his complaint.

This list includes most of the projects, schemes and institutions funded by the Union Government and the Governments in the States. Although, I do not expect anyone to go through the whole list.

1 Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana;

2 Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission;

3 Rajiv Gandhi National Crèche Scheme for the Children of Working Mothers, Department of Women & Child Development;

4. Rajiv Gandhi Udyami Mitra Yojana;

5 Indira Awas Yojana

6 Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme;

7 Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission

8 Jawaharlal Nehru Rojgar Yojna

9.Rajiv Gandhi Shramik Kalyan Yojna;

10 Indira Gandhi Canal Project, Funded by World Bank

11.Rajiv Gandhi Shilpi Swasthya Bima Yojana

State schemes:

1 Rajiv Gandhi Rehabilitation Package for Tsunami Affected Areas,

2.Rajiv Gandhi Social Security Scheme, Govt. of Puducherry

3.Rajiv Ratna Awas Yojna;

4 Rajiv Gandhi Prathamik Shiksha Mission, Raigarh;

5 Rajiv Gandhi Shiksha Mission, Madhya Pradesh;

6 Rajiv Gandhi Mission on Food Security , Madhya Pradesh;

7. Rajiv Gandhi Mission on Community Health, Madhya Pradesh;

8 Rajiv Gandhi Rural Housing Corp.;

9 Rajiv Gandhi Tourism Development Mission, Rajasthan;

10 Rajiv Gandhi Computer Literacy Programme, Assam

11 Rajiv Gandhi Swavlamban Rojgar Yojana, Govt. of NCT of Delhi

12.Rajiv Gandhi Mobile Aids Counseling and Testing Services, Rajiv Gandhi Foundation

13.Rajiv Gandhi Vidyarthi Suraksha Yojana, Maharashtra;

14 Rajiv Gandhi Mission for Water Shed Management, M.P.;

15Rajiv Gandhi Food Security Mission for Tribal Areas, MP

16.Rajiv Gandhi Home for Handicapped, Pondicherry;

17 Rajiv Gandhi Breakfast Scheme, Pondicherry;

18 Rajiv Gandhi Akshay Urja Divas, Punjab;

19 Rajiv Gandhi Artisans Health & Life Insurance Scheme, Tamil Nadu;

20 Rajiv Gandhi Zopadpatti and Nivara Prakalpa, Mumbai;

21 Rajiv Arogya Sri programme, Gujrat State Govt. Scheme;

22 Rajiv Gandhi Abhyudaya Yojana, AP;

23 Rajiv Gandhi Computer Saksharta Mission, Jabalpur

24 Rajiv Gandhi Bridges and Roads Infrastructure Development Programme;

25 Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Niwara Prakalp, Maharashtra Govt

26Indira Gandhi Utkrishtha Chhattervritti Yojna , HP;

27 Indira Gandhi Women Protection Scheme, Maharashtra Gov;

28.Indira Gandhi Prathisthan, Housing and Urban Planning Department, UP

29.Indira Kranthi Patham Scheme, Andhra Pradesh ;

30Indira Gandhi Nahar Pariyojana, State Govt. Scheme;

31 Indira Gandhi Vruddha Bhumiheen Shetmajoor Anudan Yojana, Maharashtra

32.Indira Gandhi Nahar Project, Jaisalmer, Govt. of Rajasthan

33.Indira Gandhi Niradhar Yojna, Govt. of Maharashtra;

34 Indira Gandhi kuppam, State Govt. Welfare Scheme for Tsunami effected fishermen;

35 Indira Gandhi Drinking Water Scheme-2006, Haryana Govt.

36.Indira Gandhi Niradhar Old, Landless, Destitute women farm labour Scheme, Maharashtra Govt.

37.Indira Gandhi Women Protection Scheme , Maharashtra Govt.

38.Indira Gaon Ganga Yojana, Chattisgarh;

39 Indira Sahara Yojana , Chattisgarh;

40 Indira Soochna Shakti Yojana, Chattisgarh;

41 Indira Gandhi Balika Suraksha Yojana , HP;

42 Indira Gandhi Garibi Hatao Yojana (DPIP), MP;

43 Indira Gandhi super thermal power project , Haryana Govt.

44 Indira Gandhi Water Project, Haryana Govt.

45.Indira Gandhi Sagar Project, Bhandara District Gosikhurd Maharashtra;

46 Indira Jeevitha Bima Pathakam, AP Govt;

47 Indira Gandhi Priyadarshani Vivah Shagun Yojana, Haryana Govt;

48 Indira Mahila Yojana Scheme, Meghalaya Govt

49.Indira Gandhi Calf Rearing Scheme, Chhattisgarh Govt.

50.Indira Gandhi Priyadarshini Vivah Shagun Yojana, Haryana Govt.

51.Indira Gandhi Calf Rearing Scheme;

52 Indira Gandhi Landless Agriculture Labour scheme, Maharashtra Govt.

Phew! Please forgive me, for my inability to do justice to all the the other remaining thousand names of roads, ports, parks, etc; that have been left out. But, please do help me to understand the justification of 'Shri Rajivji's' contribution towards the infrastructure program in Mumbai during his rule(governance?). Readers interested to know a more detailed list of the names of a few other projects/institutions/roads/parks/awards/etc; upon the trio's name should log on to http://asuryaprakash.com/annexure1.html

DANGEROUS MJ - King of Pop... a Legend

2009-06-26T12:00:00.010+05:30

In the morning, I got to know of the sad demise of the King of Pop... MJ - Michael Jackson was no more. He died of Cardiac Arrest...

Like a gush of wind all the memories of my childhood snapped in front of my eyes...

I remember when Abhijeet had first shown me a pic of MJ when we were at Carter Road... the first song that I had known of him was Black or White, that was when MTV had just started to take roots in India and Cable television was in its infancy.

Black or White, Remember the Time and the best of all THRILLER... the videos of these songs transformed the choice of a generation from Bollywood Hindi movie song buffs to Pop music followers. These songs with the videos of MJ's moonwalk and turnarounds brought break dance to the living rooms and bedrooms of many. I remember how Abhijeet, Rekir, Saurabh and myself used to pour talcum powder on the marble flooring at Abhijeet's house and attempt moonwalk. I remember how much I have tried to practice the turnarounds, which later brought the "chakkri"(bending down and circling on one foot) step, then the wind-mill that Abhijeet taught me.

Those were from a different era altogether. I remember how I used to discuss with Shomu about the dance steps for a dance competition. Then the dance on Black or White, I remember how I used to dance with Vinit and Vin'da on MJ's songs. I remember how I had written lyrics of the Earth song writing line by line listening from my old tape recorder. I remember how proud I had felt when Vinit was called the Michael Jackson of Dombivli, although the audience was anything but a pop culture audience.

I remember how although, we had a XII semester exam the next day, I had declared to my friends that I am getting down at Andheri to try and have a look at MJ while he is entering Andheri Sports Complex for his concert. I remember how Kalpesh and Anil joined me and how Rajkumar had also agreed. We waited for hours together trying to search each car and van for Michael. We got to see a host of Bollywood celebrities, but it was a huge dissappointment to leave after poor Rajkumar got his pocket-picked.

There are a few select mood-changers that I had and MJ's songs were one of them. Anytime to uplift my gloomy mood, MJ's songs were the best prescription. BAD, Beat It, Billy Jean, Earth Song, History, Stranger in Moscow, Blood on the Dance Floor, Ghost .... man oh man... what a contribution to Pop music that MJ has had.

To his detractors, he was all his life ….
a Male with a female voice
a Performer than a singer...

a Black man with a white skin…
a Father of a purported child with child molestation allegations…
a Pope for the masses although without a church…
a Rich man with a neverland ranch, but was bankrupt which drove him to Bahrain…
a Christian who converted or had to convert to islam...

He had his share of misfortune as well. But, which celebrities agonies are not amplified over and over through and are not caused due to the media? He had his bad names and times too, but to remember him for anything less than music would be a disservice to music itself.

Here is a joke about MJ that I recollected. It was a stand-up comedy performance by Johny Lever at a Film Fare awards function.

Jab Michael Jackson Bombay mein aayein…
Airport se jaate hue zopadd patti mein utare aur bachhon ke saath khelne lage….
Zopadi ke log unhe maarne ke liye daud rahe thhe…
“pora palavnaari party aalii re” chillate hue (kidnapping party has arrived)

Phir unka show thaa andheri sports complex mein….
Main baahar khada thaa tabhi ek dadiji ne mujhe poochaa…
“kya siddhivinayak ki line yahaan tak aayi hai?”
Maine bola nahi yahaan ki line siddhivinayak tak gayi hai…
“Kyun koi baba aayein hai kyaa?”
Main bola haan Michael baba aayein hain…
Woh boli "unhone koi chamatkaar kiya hai kya jo itne log aayein hain?"
Haan maaji chamatkaar kiya hai.. pehle kaale thhe ab gore ho gayein hain….
Phir main andar gaya toh dekha jo ladkiyaan patli see andar gayii thee pet fulaa ke peeche khadee thee…

Maine poocha kya hua itni jaldi?… woh boli “TOIL E T….. :(”
Itne logon ke liye toilet kahaan hai… TOILET nahi hai.. :( :(

Phir dekha Michael jaise hi stage pe aaya toh ladkiyaan…

"M-I C H A E L - I LOVE YOU" chilla ke behosh ho gayii…
Maine kaha arre itni badi fan? Dekh te hi behosh?
Uski friend ne kaha "kahaan ki fan? Doopahar se kadhee thii, khaana nahi paani nahi kuchh nahi… chakkar aa gaya…"

Tab maine bhi socha apna bhi koi Pandurang Dhumal Lezhim leke America jayegaa,
Lezhim bajate hue…. Woh gayegaaa…

Jee Ji re Jee ji Re Jee Jee ji (Johny lever sang a song with a lezhim music)
toh wahaan ki ladkiyan bhi bolengi…

PANDU I LOVE YOU…

I L O V E Y O U, P A N D U

To end the post what better than the Gem

"Heal the World"

Theres a place in Your Heart

And I Know That It Is Love

And This Place Could

Be Much

Brighter Than Tomorrow

And If You Really Try

You'll Find

There's No Need To Cry

In This Place

You'll Feel

There's No Hurt Or Sorrow

There Are Ways to Get There

If You Care Enough

For The Living

Make A Little Space

Make A Better Place...

Heal The World

Make It A Better Place

For You And For Me

And The Entire Human Race

There Are People Dying

If You Care Enough

For The Living

Make A Better Place

For You And For Me

Inside the cockpit of a plane meeting Captain Saudamini

2009-06-19T19:37:00.009+05:30

The year was 1995 and I had just appeared for my SSC exams. The results were awaited, vacation had been enjoyed thoroughly and plans were being made upon how to approach the colleges for collection of forms.

My Dad's company Mahindra and Mahindra, had arranged a career counselling session by an educationist from Mumbai University. During the whole discussion, the counsellor had been extrovert, motivating and persuasive. She had made a passing remark while talking to girls saying "Do you want to be like Saudamini Deshmukh, who is one of the few women pilot's in India and keeps travelling?" That's it. That's all I remember. But, somehow the name, SAUDAMINI DESHMUKH had registered in my mind. I would recall the name everytime I would see column's on career counselling in newspapers. I would wonder what would be the purpose of me remembering that name.

It was 15th June 2009, earlier this week. I was scheduled for a flight from Mumbai to Bangalore at 8:30pm. With the usual melee that happens when I am leaving Mumbai, I got late again and got stuck in traffic again and the missed the flight... yeah this was a first - missing the flight.

Scheduled in a flight the next day, I was all belted-up to take-off and the PAS announced the name of the pilot Captain SAUDAMINI DESHMUKH. I decided to take a shot at trying to meet her. Thinking all the while that probably this is the purpose the name had registered my mind and all. I waited until I had to disembark from the flight and approached the Flight Stewardess asking if the Captain is the same SAUDAMINI DESHMUKH who writes articles and was one of the first few women pilot's in India. They replied in the affirmative and asked me to wait for a while until everyone alights from the flight, so that they could arrange a meeting with her.

The flight got empty of passengers and the air hostess conveyed to the Captain saying a passenger wants to meet you. I had thought she might just decline or might be preoccupied to talk much to me. I was waiting for her to come out of the cockpit.

But Voila! I was escorted inside the cockpit, I went in, spoke to Captain Saudamini for a few minutes introducing myself and thanking her for being an inspiration to many. She was very warm in addressing me and her enthusiasm was particularly contagious. Although I was jaded with the long wait at the airport and the flight, I felt freshened up and excited. After the niceties were exchanged and she enquired about me and how I had come to know of her, I thanked her for the meet and left the cockpit. The actual gravity of event hit me after I was out. I had just ENTERED THE COCKPIT OF AN AIR INDIA - AIRBUS A320 FLIGHT!!!

Wow, I felt, although the experience was not an unique one nor the Captain would be known to many people, but I guess these small things about life is all that we need to celebrate. Someone whose name had amusingly registered in my mind for years together and whom I would remember for as unrelated thing as career counselling, gave me a chance to enter the cockpit and talk about the details there.

As they say it was a double whammy for me, meeting Captain Saudamini and entering the cockpit of a plane although being just a passenger. For once I could not stop thanking the traffic for my missed flight earlier.

Belief...

2009-06-04T12:57:00.005+05:30

Without 'Belief' human kind might have been an uncontrollable beast..

Belief is what makes a human a person. The definition of a person would be in the 'belief's' he has.

Belief characterises a person's character, determines his identity and shapes his destiny.

Everything that has been constructed or has been destructed has one common thing, the belief of the doer. The doer believed in what he did.

Different humans will naturally have different beliefs. All seems well, until the different beliefs infringe upon other's belief's and clash with each other. However noble or divine or perfectionist the belief's might be, the clashes make them seem ugly and rotten and useless and absolutely imperfect.

It would be idealistic and Utopian to have a 'Belief' that there would be a world order, wherein humankind will have a common belief and better sense would prevail in humans which might help them to live in 'harmony with each other'.

Belief, until that time will have different forms and we need to wait for 'that' Utopian scenario, when all will be held together under an umbrella of a common belief.

It would not be wrong, to say human kind started with having one common belief and when there were aspertions cast upon it, then migration away from that belief would have happened, which led to more diverse belief's and ultimately concluded in having altogether different and contrasting belief’s.

But that sort of a conclusion is not an end in itself.

Humankind is again moving towards a common belief, since that would be the product, of transforming the world into a global village. As communications increase and indifferences cease, a common belief will take shape and that would be the UTOPIAN society we are looking forward to. But such a thing, will again be a temporary situation, since humankind will again evolve into finding newer pastures, probably out of this earth and forming newer beliefs.

UTOPIA it can be said,
more than being an Utopia,
is a temporary situation,
to give birth,
to another hope,
of another Utopia,
by humankind,
as he continues to evolve,
in his insatiable quest,
towards UTOPIA!

Bihar's Super 30: 100% success in IIT-JEE again

2009-05-27T14:25:00.011+05:30

Professor Anandkumar at his Ramanujam School of Mathematics

Super 30 is unique and an extremely noble concept.

This is an arrangement where in the extreme poor students from the margins of society can make their way into the prestigious institutes of India like the IIT's.

The main architect of the concept is Anandkumar from 'Ramanujam School of Mathematics'. His efforts in bringing out the best from his students and uplifting them from extreme poverty are commendable. He alongwith an IPS officer - Bihar's Additional Director-General of Police Abhyanand, who teaches physics at the institute brought this concept into a reality.

The Super 30 works in this way:
Students after their 11th standard are supposed to appear for an entrance exam, the team of teachers from the 'Ramanujam School of Mathematics' screens and shortlists a group of 30 students. The students who are extremely poor but have a promising virtue to study and clear IIT-JEE are selected.

He then nurtures the students with his coaching and provides them with free food and free lodging. Yes, he takes care of the students for free! The students stay in his house and his mother cooks for them from the start of the course in September until the exams are over in April-May.

While his brother chips in with funds, still the burden is largely shared by Anandkumar who generates income from the school where other students from affluent family attend classes. He had to teach in the past in other teacher's classes too to make money for the Super 30.

The results have been astonishing. Super 30 started its journey in 2003, 18 out of 30 students were successful. The next year, the number of students successful went up to 22. In 2005, it improved further to 26. Continuing the trend, 28 students made it in 2006 and 2007. However, in 2008, the result was an amazing 30 out of 30.Super 30 had hit the bull’s eye. It was ‘a dream come true’ for Anand and his team.

Super 30 has done it again in 2009. It has been 30 out of 30 for the second year in succession.

The team also has got contributions from their past students who completed engineering from IIT's. The set-up has given out hope for the children of the marginalised, like the children of the carpenter, brick-kiln worker, labourer, rickshaw-puller etc who have made it to the prestigious institute of IIT.

Anandkumar had been an enthusiastic student of Mathematics in his days. He was studying in the Patna Science College and had taken huge strides in his field as a student. He got a chance to study in Cambridge, but could not follow up his dream due to lack of funds. Being brought up in penury after the death of his father and having lost his date with destiny, Anandkumar had nurtured the dream of coaching poor students to glory.

The team had its moment of well-deserved adulation when many a documentaries were made about it by foreign crews. Discovery channel had a specific interest in the story and had tracked a team for one full year. The documentary created by the channel had won prestigious awards all over the world.

We come across many a distressing stories about our country, but reading about Super 30 and its founders Anandkumar and Officer Abhayanand makes one feel proud about their contribution. Instead of mingling into mindless politicisation of the upliftment of poor and affirmative actions, if the law makers of this land encourage and endure more Super 30 groups, India will make strides in progress.

The official website for Super 30 can be reached at http://www.super30.org/

Update1:

Bihar's Super 30 in Time magazine best list
PATNA: Super 30, Bihar's free coaching centre which helps economically backward students crack the Indian Institute of Technology-Joint Entrance Examination (IIT-JEE), has been selected by The Time Magazine in the list of The Best of Asia 2010.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Bihars-Super-30-coaching-centre-in-Time-magazine-best-list/articleshow/5931582.cms

My Shooting Experience in Germany

2009-05-25T12:56:00.003+05:30

This is my first shooting experience in April 2007 at a firing range near Meitzendorf, Sachsen - Anhalt, Germany.
In the first shot visible I had hit the target, so the people were applauding it goes upto the second round in the video...I missed the target the second time.

RACISM IN AUSTRALIA!!! Update7 Attacks now seem like a backlash

2009-05-21T14:19:00.026+05:30

Seven youth brutally attacked Indian student Sourabh Sharma, on a late night Werribee train and took "delight" in what they were doing, according to police.

Sourabh Sharma

These are a few images caught on CCTV in a train in Victoria State, Australia. The CCTV footage shows a group of guys beating up Sourabh Sharma. The recording of the bashing makes it clear, that the assault was unprovoked and thoroughly mischievious on the part of the group that thrashed the hapless student.

The complete CCTV footage is available here.

The footage shows Sharma, 21, being repeatedly punched and kicked in the head by the gang, who stole his phone and backpack containing $650.

The Federation of Indian Students of Australia say they know of 60 serious assaults in Melbourne in a few years. Many go unreported.

Update -1: There has been another case, where in, four students from Andhra Pradesh have been thrashed in a racist attack in Melbourne.

The students, who were bashed up in the racial attack, were away to the hospital when more horrifying situations unfolded. Unknown intruders broke into their houses and stole everything available. "They have no clothes or anything left in the house and the students are really feeling insecure and unsafe," said Gautam Gupta, President of the Federation of Indian student Association (FISA).

Meanwhile, the condition of the 25-year old Shravan Kumar, who is fighting for life in a hospital, remains critical and doctors are "not very optimistic" about chances of his recovery.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Houses-of-assaulted-Indians-burgled-in-Australia/articleshow/4588083.cms

Update-2:

Another Indian student Baljinder Singh, 25 was attacked on Monday night when two men carrying weapons approached.

The attackers demanded money and as Singh was searching through his bag to hand over his wallet he was stabbed in the abdomen. Singh screamed for his life, his attackers laughed and fled the scene.

"I bent down and one guy stabbed me," Singh said adding "I just wanted to save my life and yelled "just don't kill me." "They just laughed when they stabbed me in the stomach. They laughed at me...I was screaming 'don't kill me, don't kill me'."

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Another-Indian-student-stabbed-in-Australia/467468

Now, it seems that the news of the attacks is spreading around and there are oppurtunistic attacks against Indians in particular.

Update-3:

The attacks have now reached increasingly alarming proportion. A fresh attack has been reported upon an Indian student Rajesh Kumar.

Rajeshkumar, age 25, suffered burns after a suspected petrol bomb was hurled at him in his home in Sydney. Rajesh Kumar was quickly covered by a blanket by his flatmate after the attack yesterday, an act which saved him from further injuries.

The ghastly attack took place when Rajesh Kumar was sitting on his bed in the front room of his rented house. An unknown person reportedly threw a small petrol bomb through his window. The explosion and the ensuing fire burned 30 percent of Kumar's body.

Another student Baljinder Singh, stabbed by two attackers early this week, has been released from hospital today.

http://www.ptinews.com/pti/ptisite.nsf/$All/727FC4DC54228872652575C5001A6942?OpenDocument

Update-4:

Five teenagers have been charged for two separate attacks on Indian students in Melbourne.

A 17-year-old male from Glenroy was charged with attempted murder over the attack with a screwdriver - by gatecrashers at a party in Hadfield, in Melbourne's north, on Saturday night -upon 25-year-old Sravan Kumar Theerthala who is battling for his life. An 18-year-old man from Heidelberg West was also questioned in relation to the attack, but has since been released.

The police have also charged four minors from Melbourne's west over the brutal bashing of Sourabh .

The teenagers have been charged with offences including affray, intentionally causing injury, recklessly causing injury and robbery. However, Deputy Commissioner Kieran Walshe said there was no indication that a rise in assaults and robberies against Indian students in Melbourne's west was due to "race hate".

He said there was a perception that Indian people were weak prey for criminals. "We think they are vulnerable, we don't think it's racial, we think they are a weak target," Walshe told The Herald Sun.

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/000200905291331.htm

Update 5 -:

Shravan kumar seems to be out of danger now and has moved his limbs. But, Doctors are unsure of his complete recovery.

Update - 6:

The spate of attacks on Indian students continued, when Nardeep Singh a student from Ludhiana who arrived to Australia just a month ago was attacked on Tuesday morning by miscreants when he was on his way to college. He is a nursing student at the Chisholm Technical Institute, Melbourne.

The group of 5 people reportedly asked him for cigarettes and when he said that he did not have any, they asked for money and on again being refused, one attacker stabbed him in the chest. He managed to escape and reported to a Police Station.

Nardeep's friend said that he was bleeding excessively and is being treated in Melbourne Hospital.

Update - 7 : Now, this is seeming like an extended backlash from the White-Supremacists or the opportune thugs. Attacks on Indians are just increasing by the day and with all round media coverage, the effect is just being magnified.

A 23-year-old Indian student was beaten up for the second time in a fortnight by a group of youths in Melbourne, the 11th person from the community to be assaulted within a space of a month in Australia. Another students car had been torched by drug-addicts reportedly late Saturday night.

Tampered EVM's in LS Elections? a genuine threat?

2009-05-19T14:44:00.009+05:30

This has been a shocking result for the victorious as well as the losers. Congress had been busy trying to forge alliances even before the results without an inkling of how well they would do, or did they just seem to show off the urgency? Here are a few references I thought were interesting.

Producing doctored EVMs is child’s play: Computer chips that control the EVMs can be easily programmed to do all kinds of improper manipulations. For example, after a certain number of people (perhaps hundreds) have voted, the rest of the votes may be channeled to a chosen candidate. This is just one among many mischievous tricks possible.
Control-units keep track of votes by recognising them only by their serial number on the list of candidates on the poll-units on which people vote. So any tampering of the control-unit chip has to be done only after the serial number of various candidates in the list of candidates appearing on poll-units have been assigned.
Normally returning officers declare the serial number assignments after the last day of withdrawal of nominations, which happens about two weeks before polling. ROM chips with mischievous codes can be readied within hours after the candidates’ serial numbers are known. During the two weeks before polling, the malicious ROM chips, or the motherboard, or possibly the whole control-unit, whatever appears easier, may be caused to replace the original ones. Would it be wise to assume that officials in charge of the EVMs, and/or those guarding the machines, are incorruptible?

The writer Satinath Choudhary is president, Better
Democracy Forum, The Bronx, New York. He is a retired professor of computer
science.

The article can be found at http://www.indianexpress.com/oldStory/45296/

Retired computer science professor Satinath Choudhary has filed public interest litigation over India's new electronic voting machines (EVMs) in India's Supreme Court. Dr. Choudhary is a 1964 graduate of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology and has also taught in the United States. The suit is due to come up for hearing immediately. In the petition, a copy of which was
uncharacteristically released publicly over the tech lists in India, Dr. Choudhary cited news reports of problems with the EVMs in some parts of the country, and said: "In my public-interest litigation (PIL) I have asked the Supreme Court for directions. I hope it will give a direction to save democracy in India."

http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/7561

Second and final phase of voting in Orissa is witnessing voters’ wrath against polling officers in most of the booths as till now, i.e.noon, the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) are not working.

The EVMs are high-tech machines created with excellent technical know-how and carry certificate of faultlessness on the basis of meticulous testing. They should not have shown such defects in normal condition; but they may develop defect only if tampered with, suggest techno-academics that we contacted.

http://orissamatters.com/2009/04/23/1389_evm/

There were doubts about how a Electronic Voting Machine can be proceeded for recounting. Basic electronic knowledge professes that if an action is carried out by a computer any number of times with the same inputs then the result should be reproduced identically each time. So how does one explain the recounting process for some candidates close to the 'elite' in the ruling coalition (P.Chidambaram, Maneka Gandhi)?

The answer lies in the clerical error that the polling officers are bound to do when the votes are counted.

The 'rounds' of counting takes place by checking the result for total votes for each candidate with the specific serial number in each EVM. The number is manually entered on a chart in the presence of the polling agents of candidates all the party's contesting. Simultaneously, it is entered in a computer in the counting room after each EVM is read or after each round of counting. The total of all the no. of votes is calculated on the chart as well as the computer and submitted to the presiding officer. The officer tally's both the nos. to confirm that the voting has come clean. In case of the recounting that has happened, the nos. did not seem to match and the manual error was rectified, which led to the respective candidates victory.

So can we say that the elections would have been completely fair? Yes, I can say without being completely convinced, when there is a window of oppurtunity for sabotage. Professor Chaudhary gives and excellent temporary remedy for the matter.

Instead of declaring the serial number of candidates two weeks in advance of polling, the serial numbers may be decided at each polling booth by random draws by the presiding officers in the presence of the polling agents of various parties just an hour or so before the poll opening. Thereafter their names may be affixed on the poll-units in appropriate order in the presence of the poll-agents. All that will need to be done by the POs is, paste them on the poll-units in proper order by the time the poll opens. This entails different serial orders for candidates in different booths.But that only improves fairness towards the candidates, distributing the chance to be at the top or bottom of the list more evenly.

Increasing the sense of responsibility of the presiding and polling officers at polling booths, could also be considered, by officially declaring all of them to have equal powers, with instructions to try to make decisions with unanimous consent, as far as possible.

Another interesting theory, which I could not verify was that Congress has done extremely well after the Phase II, i.e after Navin Chawla - the CEC , whose appointment as CEC was controversial after he was supposedly known to be closer to the Congress - took over from former CEC N. Gopalswami.

With all these doubts about the process, it would be better for our democracy that the process is made as foolproof as possible, for ultimately the victory should be for our democracy, rather than anything else.

JAI HO!!! INDIAN DEMOCRACY!!!

UPDATE - 1 : Some more references that have sprung up in recent days. These can be considered as losers moan's, but since we have a loophole in the system every doubt becomes a case for investigation.

MDMK leader Vaiko alleged on Tuesday that the DMK and Congress had won the
just concluded Lok Sabha polls in Tamil Nadu using money and muscle power.
He alleged that his defeat in Virudhunagar constituency was due to
irregularities and manipulation of the EVM. "There was a difference in votes
polled and counted, clearly indicating that EVMs was manipulated," he said.
"Similar was the case in Sivaganga constituency, where AIADMK's Raja
Kannappan lost by just over 3,500 votes to Congress' P Chidambaram," Vaiko
said.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/DMK--Cong-won-using-money-power--alleges-Vaiko/462476

Gujarat High Court will held further hearing on a petition filed by BJP’s Kheda Lok Sabha seat candidate Devusinh Chauhan demanding a recounting for Kheda Lok Sabha seat on 8th June. BJP’s Devusinh had lost an election to outgoing Union minister of state for petroleum Dinsha Patel by 846 votes.
On May 16, the results were kept on hold for a few hours after a technical snag developed in an EVM, which had 686 votes of a minority-dominated booth of Dholka. While Patel was leading with 305 votes by that time, after the machine was rectified Dinsha was declared elected with 2,84,004 votes in his favour against Chauhan’s 2,83,158 votes.

http://deshgujarat.com/2009/05/20/foul-play-in-dinsha-patels-victoryhigh-court-hearing-on-8-june/

Man in arena and the critic

2009-05-19T12:44:00.008+05:30

I came across a few very forceful and deliberate words expressed therein a piece of article.

They are from a speech made by the 26th President of the United states of America, Theodore Roosevelt in 1910 at the Sorbonne in Paris -

‘It is not the critic who counts ;
not the man who points out
how the strong man or where the doer of deeds
could have done them better.

The credit belongs
to the man who is actually in the arena,
whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood ;
who strives valiantly ; who errs,
who comes short again and again,
because there is no effort without error and shortcoming;

but who does actually strive to do the deeds ;
who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions ;
who spends himself in a worthy cause;
who at best knows in the end
the triumph of high achievement,
and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring
greatly,

so that his place
shall never be with those cold and timid souls
who neither know victory or defeat.’

Simply marvelous. One does not need to elaborate any further.

Jerly Lyngdoh, The 'Man-Baby'

2009-05-15T15:02:00.014+05:30

Jerly Lyngdoh, the worlds oldest baby, has Doctors and Pediatricians scratching their heads.

Jerly Lyngdoh is an adult trapped, perhaps forever, in a baby's body and mind.

Born on March 29, 1983, in Meghalaya, Jerly has not grown beyond 84 cm which is the normal height of a two-year-old baby and weighs about 10 kg. His features and head circumference are that of a small child. He also has the mental capacity of a child that age, making him, quite literally, the worlds oldest baby. His parents still dress him in baby clothing. He cannot communicate and needs his mother's help for any normal activity. In fact, the only sign of adulthood in him is his denture, his milk teeth having been replaced at the right age.

Jerly's mother said she did not notice any abnormality when her son was born but when he was about four months, she noticed some kind of an epileptic disorder. Too poor to afford proper treatment, she had relied on a traditional healer after Jerly became 15 years old, but to no avail.

Lyngdoh has a rare pituitary condition known as pan-hypo pituitarism, which causes limited secretion of growth hormones from the pituitary gland. His condition is the opposite of progeria, or advanced ageing.

Although ,Jerly's six siblings from the same mother are normal, his mother, had to battle family prejudices and endure neighbours' derision to keep her son surviving. Once, she recalled, Jerly's grandfather had labelled him as a curse on the family and even advised her to throw him away.

Now, I know a few people who would have preferred to live like that always and still do behave as if they are perpetual toddlers.

But, if you think you had quite a burden of problems upon your shoulders and feel life has been cruel to you and that things are quite 'abnormal' always with you, just spare a thought upon this poor 'man' and his mother, who does'nt know what normalcy is.

DE - MOCK - CRAZY

2009-05-11T11:22:00.010+05:30

Now, that is what is called a splendid gimmicking of the electorate...

DE-MOCK-CRAZY you see !!!

First time in world history, fasting only for 4 hours and that too with an AC …….
This is the comic situation of the year 2009….

Fasting starts after breakfast and ends before lunch. Interesting one! ! ! ! ! !

Doesnt that say everything??

A temple in Cuddapah where Sir Thomas Munroe is worshipped.

2009-05-08T16:04:00.014+05:30

Sir Thomas Munroe — yes, the Governor remembered in the statue in the middle of Madras’s Island is worshipped in a temple in Cuddapah, Andhra Pradesh. There was a time in what were called the Ceded Districts when Munrolappa was not an uncommon local name.
This is an interesting article I read in 'The Hindu'

It was dark. Cuddapah was still quite far away. The gently sloping road ahead seemed to go on and on. “There is a temple on the way,” said one of our companions. “We must stop there. It is a small temple but a temple with an interesting story.”

The legend was that as Ram and Sita made their way back from Lanka to Ayodhya, Hanuman went ahead. He would search for a good place for the royal couple to stop and rest on their journey home. Not far from where we were was one such place. Hanuman had chosen a cave by the side of a river. To mark the spot, Hanuman hung a golden rope across two hill tops. So that from a distance the rope could be seen. The story continues. Ram and Sita did indeed stop at the cave. Grateful for Hanuman’s efforts, Ram etched a picture of Hanuman on the stone walls of the cave.

Centuries later :
Hundreds of years later, in British times, Sir Thomas Munroe was the Collector of Cuddapah. Travelling through the hills, late one night, he saw a gleaming rope of gold stretched from one hill top to another. “What is that” he asked his companions. “Why is there a golden rope hanging from one hill top to another?” There was a long silence. No one among Munro’s companions spoke. No one could see the rope that Munroe was referring to. No one had the courage to speak.

Finally, an elderly man spoke up. “He who can see the golden rope is blessed. But he will die in a few months.” Thomas Munroe looked at his companions in disbelief and put the story aside as superstition. But it must have stayed with him. It is said that he even wrote about this incident in his diary. In a few months time, Munroe was dead.

We stayed silent. We could not see any golden rope over the river. The dark hills passed us by. Our thoughts going back and forth: the mythical story of Hanuman and the unlikely fate of Munroe. In some time we came to the temple. A small glow of light in the darkening night. There were hardly any people in the temple. A few priests were conducting the evening aarti.

It was easy to walk right into the inner sanctum of the temple. There was a carving of Hanuman on the stone walls as described. Parts of the carving had been covered in silver. Till today, Hanuman’s service to Ram was being acknowledged, celebrated and worshipped.

Out in the main hall, a few people sat on the floor listening to the aarti. High above on the walls were framed pictures. Most were of gods and goddesses. In the centre,
prominently displayed was one of Ram and Sita. The glass framing the picture had
been smeared with holy ash, haldi and kumkum. There was a garland of fresh
flowers encircling the frame.

Right next to Ram and Sita was a framed picture of Sir Thomas Munroe. Like the gods and goddesses around him, he too was covered in haldi-kumkum and crowned with flowers.

Another article about Sir Thomas Munroe is even more interesting and this had happened before the above incident occured. This might give a believer's insight into why Sir Thomas would be the chosen one for such a divine experience.

When Sir Thomas Munroe was the Collector of Bellary in 1800, the Madras Government ordered him to procure the entire income from the Math and Manthralaya village. When the Revenue officials were unable to comply with this order, Sir Thomas Munroe visited the Math for investigation.
He removed his hat and shoes and entered the sacred precincts. Sri Raghavendraswamy emerged from the Brindavan and conversed with him for
sometime, about the resumption of endowment. The Saint was visible and audible only to Munroe who received Manthraksha.
The Collector went back and wrote an order in favour of the Math and the village. This notification was published in the Madras Government Gazette in Chapter XI and page 213, with the caption "Manchali Adoni Taluka''. This order is still preserved in Fort St. George and Manthralayam.
All the priests in the Math were much annoyed about the incident, because in spite of their long and sincere service, Sri Raghavendra Swamy had not given them darshan. That night, Swamyji appeared in the dream of the chief priest and told him that as Prahaladha, he and Munroe were class-mates in Kritha Yuga and he was destined to perform this noble deed of solving the Math's problem. Hence the unique privilege.
UPDATE - 1 : This is an excerpt from another article on the web.
Sir Thomas Munroe, Governor of Madras Presidency, who believed he was cured of acute stomach pain by the grace of Lord Venkateshwara, created an endowment by gifting the village of Kotavayulu in Chittoor District, for a daily offering of a gangalam (still known as the Monroe gangalam) of pongal.

Bangalored to Buffaloed...

2009-05-06T13:00:00.004+05:30

"Look towards Buffalo, not Bangalore" seems to be the new mantra of the Obama Administration. The new administration of President Obama has been holistically and surprisingly following what had been promised by the Candidate Obama in his elections manifesto. He has not only gone about seriously trying to de-nuke the Earth, by sincerely extending the idea of destroying all nuclear weapons to Russia - and surprisingly, has been responded by them positively - but also, he is going ahead with the seemingly impossible task of disallowing tax breaks to US companies that outsource jobs to cheaper locations.

'Bangalored' was a term recently made famous in US by Unions and activists trying to highlight the plight of workers who lost their jobs to people from locations where in the salary is cheaper than in US. Bangalore, being the epicentre of IT revolution in India and leading from the front as a destination for outsourcing has been associated closely with job losses in the western countries. Although the term 'Bangalored' has been in use since before the World War I - having got a torpedo blast named as Bangalored which was invented in the city and also the term being recently used in the film Saving Private Ryan - currently it is an epitome of someone losing his job to a fellow worker across the globe, deep into the regions where the dollar is being traded as a high value commodity.

The recession has had its effects already on the economy of Bangalore, with lesser sales and order bookings for companies and mass layoffs. Now, Obama seems to have hit the last nail in the coffin by going ahead with his plan for taxation. He proposes to end the Tax Breaks that American companies have enjoyed for a while now, if they outsource jobs out of the US. He seems to suggest that getting jobs done in Buffalo would be a better idea for the 'by now foundering' US economy. So will we see a flight of jobs in the reverse direction now? Shall we start coining the new term 'Being Buffaloed'?

To start with, having jobs done by Americans and paying for their salaries makes a US company less competitive. Say if an IBM and an Infosys are bidding for a client, then IBM to pay their employees and to recover the overhead costs will be bidding much higher than Infosys. So, as a matter of fact US people will gain employment but not orders. They will have jobs, but not work. May be working in an Indian IT company and retaining your jobs will not be all that difficult in this scenario.

Looking at the other side and the more worrisome situation of an employee from a US based company. If a company decides to shift the jobs back to the US only due to the new taxation policy, then how much does the company gain?

Let me take an example of a software developer who is drawing $20000 per year. With the new taxation policy, he is costing his company 35% more that is his new cost would be $27000. A rise of $7000 overnight, without he getting a penny of it. The average salary of a software developer in the US is said to be around $60000 per annum. So even with a conservative estimate and taking into consideration the reasons for which an American employee would be preferred over an Indian employee sitting far off from the office, still the Indian employee is far more cheaper than the American one. This sentiment should not be forgotten, when you are worrying for your job. There is less likely a chance that US company's will shift jobs back enmasse.

The times do seem quite tough for everyone, but we just need to tighten up our seat belts more for the rough ride ahead of us. And yes, also pray that the rupee doesnt climb up substantially against the dollar.

Of Kasab, civility and the criminal justice system

2009-04-30T10:20:00.000+05:30

The headlines in our media are reverberating with the news of the most important and expensive terrorist caught in the history of Independent India - Ajmal Amir Qasab, the lone terrorist caught in the brutal attack on humanity. Nothing more is left to be said about the Barbarian attack and nothing would ever suffice to describe it. It shows the ugly side of being human. Something we as a human race have subjected, only the meek and feeble race amongst us. The same treatment was being meted out that night, in culling of the human emotions and human flesh alike.

It does not make a difference that the 10 "jihadis" had not ever met a Jew in their life, but had been indoctrinated so viciously about Jews that for them, it had become a duty towards the Almighty, to kill them in Chabad House. So much for a set of 72 virgins? What if they found that the virgins were all Fat, Old and Ugly I ask?

Currently, the news is about how the most guarded terrorist in the country is smiling in the trial courts or for that matter his "demands" about having a stroll out in the verandah to maintain his mental stability or he wanting toothpaste and "perfume"... PERFUME?? did he ask for? FUMES my conscience...

Did he ever think of what is happening to the liberty and the mental status of the family of the numerous people he butchered that night? So many families destroyed and so many more people having lost their mental stability forever in the loss of their loved ones, bread winners or upon whom they were complete dependents?

The question that comes to my mind is, Is this required? What do we prove and to whom? To ourselves that we are a civil society and would uphold the justice system even for our most staunchest enemy? Or to save the blushes we had to incur as in the case of Mohammed Afzal Guru, the terrorist who admitted that he had plotted the parliament attack, who later argued that he had not been "tried" in a trial court in India, so he should be pardoned off the death penalty awarded to him? Or are we trying to show the world that we are a civilised society and the whole process of criminal justice system has been followed in nailing down the terrorist to his damned death, judicially?

How long the case would go on we are not sure. On the other hand, how much time did the Iraqi court take to hang Saddam Hussein? Justice delayed is justice denied, isn't it? Isn't the justice system supposed to do what its stands for, that is delivering justice? Isn't this exercise a futile one at that? Isn't it making a martyr out of a chap, who just went about getting influenced by anyone who promised him a bread and then wielded a gun to spray bullets upon any soul crossing him, be it any innocent citizen or an innocent policeman?

The ethics of practicing the legal system seem to be making the lawyer Abbas Kazmi take up the case and fight tooth and nail to pin down the arguments against his client. Now, upholding the virtue of truthfulness isn't an ethic that needs to be followed in the legal system? Isn't it included in the duties of a lawyer? Why do lawyers want their clients to win, using every loophole in the system that they can think of rather than in helping the truth to be out? Qasab is a juvenile and should be tried in the Juvenile court was an argument. Thanks to a medical conclusion that said he is 21, he will be tried as an adult... what if he had been 17? Would he have been meted out with the maximum of 3 years imprisonment as in all cases with regards to juvenile criminals? So much for killing people mercilessly... ???

No one deserves hatred in this world and least of all a guy who is being used as a pawn in a larger game of politics and religion. But, going through the complete judicial process, which leads to a petition for Presidential Pardon in the later stages and the media highlighting how comfortable our enemy is, while being held for leaving us in discomfort, only adds to our frustration.

A speedy trial and a balanced reporting by the media is all that is a must in this case. Instead of making him a celebrity and reporting which side he has been scratching, the media needs to focus on the hardships that he is going through. How he is defeated in all his purpose and most importantly how he has been used by his Masters in Pakistan and has been hastily abandoned. Denying even an acknowledgement of him being ever inside Pakistan, how he is all alone now. This would help in discouraging future Qasabs. THAT IS, actually, the need of the hour. That is what justice supposedly is for, to discourage future occurrences of a crime. Alas, it seems we are still asking for too much from the sensational-news starved media.

I do not care how he smells or whether he has bad breath or if he has been relaxing his leg muscles after a stroll outside and I DONT WANT TO CARE! What I care is how the string-pullers in Pakistan would be discouraged, when the other "jihadis" look out at the example of Qasab and discover how useless an ideology is being sold to them.

We had an excellent chance to make an example out of Qasab, but sadly we have made a wrong example out of him. At least until now.

Election Day pleasure and absence of No-Vote option

2009-04-23T22:46:00.000+05:30

It is early hours in office and the commute to office has been immoderately pleasant. Less of the traffic and less of the rush. The reason for this benevolence from the denizens of the Garden city upon me today? ohh it is the Election day. Hurray!!! Another holiday for most office-goers, a legitimate one which they might have to compensate by working on a weekend or may be not.

I was getting a glimpse of how Bangalore would have been a few years ago or may be a decade ago. I couldn't stop to think about how Mumbai would have been about 60 yrs ago. It would be less crowded for sure without the infrastructure amenities. But hey, any day I would trade the amenities for a peaceful ride to office - provided I get to do the same job. The ride was pleasant in the sense that it felt as a shorter trip too. A good 40 minutes less to the office.

Now only if the TATA's had built a Rs. 3 Lakh bus rather than the Rs. 1 Lakh "nano" i thought. More public transport, better connectivity and better behaviour from the bus staff... am I asking for too much? Naah, says the eternal optimist within me, "Its still possible to save our home from becoming a hell".

Coming to the Election day discussion, the eternal misnomer about the no-vote option available in the Indian Constitution. The Article 49-O which allows the voter to choose the none of the above option and enforce a re-election in the case of a majority of "no votes". This is false. There is no option available to the Indian voter to vote for an enforced re-election.

Although Rule 49-O, stated in the The Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961, affirms that the person's right not to vote would be recognised in the total vote counting process, in no case would there be a re-poll. As of now, what rule 49-O will do is register the person's signature, or thumbprint. This would also require the voter to reveal their identity, which goes against the system of secret ballots. And even if 49-O votes are more than the winning candidates' votes, it would not negate the result.

There is no judgment as yet on the implications of 49-O toward the upcoming elections, and the barring of candidates from a re-poll. A PIL is pending in the Supreme court to decide about such an option where in, if the no. of "no votes" are more than the no. of votes the winning candidate draws, then the election is considered null and a re-election with new set of candidates has to be conducted. This rule is present in the British Constitution and not in the Indian Constitution.

Our EVM's do not have such an option, nor is there a blank vote option. The only place they had this option was in Maharashtra a few years ago, but it was for a completely different purpose.

So, all my Good Fellas, who went to the polling booth thinking of booting the candidates available, would have been for a rude shock and will have to wait for the next elections, if by then the Supreme court decides upon the PIL.

The good news is, if the Supreme Court decides upon the PIL positively and such an option is made available, then your chance might come sooner than later, since most Election pandits or psephologists, as they like to be known, have "predicted that there can be no prediction" about who will win the elections and a hung parliament is most likely.

In that case, get ready to vote on a date sooner than 2014 with or without the none of the above option. And, yes I would like to savour the lesser traffic and the shorter commute to office on that day too. Looking forward to it desperately.

Story of Boom, Growth & Speculation

2009-04-18T17:55:00.000+05:30

Once there was a little island country. The land of this country was the tiny island itself. The total money in circulation was 2 dollars as there were only two pieces of 1 dollar notes circulating around.There were 3 citizens living on this island country.

A owned the land. B and C each owned 1 dollar.

B decided to purchase the land from A for 1 dollar. So, now A and C own 1 dollar each while B owned a piece of land that is worth 1 dollar.
The net asset of the country now = 3 dollars.

Now C thought that since there is only one piece of land in the country, and land is non producible asset, its value must definitely go up. So, he borrowed 1 dollar from A, and together with his own 1 dollar, he bought the land from B for 2 dollars.
A has a loan to C of 1 dollar, so his net asset is 1 dollar.
B sold his land and got 2 dollars, so his net asset is 2 dollars.
C owned the piece of land worth 2 dollars but with his 1 dollar debt to A, his net residual asset is 1 dollar.
Thus, the net asset of the country = 4 dollars.

A saw that the land he once owned has risen in value. He regretted having sold it.
Luckily, he has a 1 dollar loan to C. He then borrowed 2 dollars from B and acquired the land back from C for 3 dollars.
The payment is by 2 dollars cash (which he borrowed from B) and cancellation of the 1 dollar loan to C.
As a result, A now owned a piece of land that is worth 3 dollars. But since he owed B 2 dollars, his net asset is 1 dollar.
B loaned 2 dollars to A. So his net asset is 2 dollars.
C now has the 2 notes. His net asset is also 2 dollars.
The net asset of the country = 5 dollars. A bubble is building up.

B saw that the value of land kept rising. He also wanted to own the land.
So he bought the land from A for 4 dollars.
The payment is by borrowing 2 dollars from C, and cancellation of his 2 dollars loan to A.
As a result, A has got his debt cleared and he got the 2 notes. His net asset is 2 dollars.
B owned a piece of land that is worth 4 dollars, but since he has a debt of 2 dollars with C, his net Asset is 2 dollars.
C loaned 2 dollars to B, so his net asset is 2 dollars.
The net asset of the country = 6 dollars; even though, the country has only one piece of land and 2 Dollars in circulation.

Everybody has made money and everybody felt happy and prosperous.

One day an evil wind blew, and an evil thought came to C’s mind. “Hey, what if the land price stop going up, how could B repay my loan. There is only 2 dollars in circulation, and, I think after all the land that B owns is worth at most only 1 dollar, and no more.”

A also thought the same way. Nobody wanted to buy land anymore.

So, in the end, A owns the 2 dollar coins, his net asset is 2 dollars.
B owed C 2 dollars and the land he owned which he thought worth 4 dollars is now 1 dollar. So his net asset is only 1 dollar.
C has a loan of 2 dollars to B. But it is a bad debt. Although his net asset is still 2 dollars, his Heart is palpitating.
The net asset of the country = 3 dollars again.

So, who has stolen the 3 dollars from the country ? Of course, before the bubble burst B thought his land was worth 4 dollars. Actually, right before the collapse, the net asset of the country was 6 dollars on paper.

B’s net asset is still 2 dollars, his heart is palpitating. B had no choice but to declare bankruptcy. C as to relinquish his 2 dollars bad debt to B, but in return he acquired the land which is worth 1 dollar now.
A owns the 2 notes, his net asset is 2 dollars.
B is bankrupt, his net asset is 0 dollar ( he lost everything ).
C got no choice but end up with a land worth only 1 dollar.
The net asset of the country = 3 dollars.

End of the story

There is however a redistribution of wealth.
A is the winner, B is the loser, C is lucky that he is spared.

A few points worth noting -
When a bubble is building up, the debt of individuals to one another in a country is also building up.
This story of the island is a closed system whereby there is no other country and hence no foreign debt. The worth of the asset can only be calculated using the island’s own currency. Hence, there is no net loss.
An over-damped system is assumed when the bubble burst, meaning the land’s value did not go down to below 1 dollar.
When the bubble burst, the fellow with cash is the winner.

The fellows having the land or extending loan to others are the losers. The asset could shrink or in worst case, they go bankrupt.

If there is another citizen D either holding a dollar or another piece of land but refrains from taking part in the game, he will neither win nor lose. But he will see the value of his money or land go up and down like a see saw. When the bubble was in the growing phase, everybody made money.

If you are smart and know that you are living in a growing bubble, it is worthwhile to borrow money (like A ) and participate in the game. But you must know when you should change everything back to cash.

As in the case of land, the above phenomenon applies to stocks as well.

Elections? What about bogus voting...

2009-04-17T16:28:00.000+05:30

Elections have already started in the profoundly famous and supposedly largest democracy of the world.
Democracy is celebrated as the leveller and a fair way of governance, but the question still remains is this form of governance actually fair and neutral to each of the inhabitants of a country.

Most of the 700 million expected voters will not vote. Naah, you might say usually the voting percentage is juz about 50%. But hang on... you know a phenomenon known as bogus voting? which is rampant in each and every constituency? No single constituency can deny it and policians honest and crooked definitely would go for it without paying heed to thier conscience if at all one exists for them....

It comes in many forms not only booth capturing or forcefull voting...
Voters are pressurized that if a certain candidate isnt voted to power, " then we will see what has to be done".
A list of probable voters who might be absentee's or perpetual abstainers is made beforehand by the sycophants of the crooks...
These votes are cast without any issues. Most of the times the rival candidates too might know about it, but wouldnt do anything except sulk that the "#$%%^" got the cookie before he could get it.
There is an unsaid rule that is followed, never report these stuff. And of all people about your rivals since the candidates themselves know that the skeletons within their own closets are all too very well known if not to their own closest of supporters then "may be" to their rivals...

This seems a gross generalisation, but unfortunately not many constituencies could boast of not having this mess with a clear conscience.

Hoping that the "best way known" of governance throws up some actually good people to power and the buck gets evenly divided to the billion plus populace.

Ok, OK retracting the last sentence.... Hoping that the "best way known" of governance throws up some actually good people to power and the buck gets "more" evenly divided to the billion plus populace....

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