4thelayman

The year gone by

2010-06-26T13:52:00.000-07:00

One year of MBA and that too 2900 Km away from home would give you a small preview of what real life is all about. Even though I knew that life is not going to be a bed of roses, didn’t expect it to be this scary.

A friend of mine used to tell me that it’s always better to have worked before doing an MBA. Not that it’s going to make one more knowledgeable, but it gives one an idea about the tricks of the trade. In other words how to manipulate your environment to get what you want. My response to this was “bull shit”. I stand corrected now. I guess he knew better.

Whatever might be the profession, one is in for cutthroat competition. It doesn’t matter if one is your superior, colleague or subordinate, all are out there to get rid of you. Given a task it’s your responsibility to get the job done right, irrespective of what your boss or colleague says. The professional environment is all about getting the maximum out of others and do not be surprised if the same happens to you. Nothing is going to be given to you in a platter. If you want to survive, it’s up to you to ensure that you get everything you need to get the job done even if people who are supposed to support or guide you turn out to be the hurdles. As one the employees in the company I interned put it, “only when you perform you would be valued, else no one would give a damn about you”. If you do not know how to play the game, there is no way that you are winning it.

The scary part is that professional life is not half as scary as ones personal life. As a kid, Stone Cold Steve Austin always made sense to me when he said “don’t trust anyone”. You find a whole new meaning of the phrase when you see friends who can turn into foes within seconds. Oh wait, were they even your friends in the first place. May a time, when you lie down and look at the ceiling; you realize that not many give a rat’s ass about you.

Often reminded by what another friend of mine told me once, “Should have caught them young”. When you look around you realize that what you want you cannot have and what you can have is not what you want. I think the more valid question is, “Am I even worthy of it?” Many a days, this gives me a bad feeling inside.

The good thing about the 1 year is that, unlike previously I do not sit and morn about failures. Each failure hurts my male ego big and makes me want to prove them wrong rather than cry.

5 cool things about hostel

2009-08-29T04:50:00.000-07:00

1. The Bitch club – We have a secret cult in our hostel. Membership is restricted and what happens inside the cult stays inside the cult. The objective about the cult is to bitch, bitch and bitch. We critically analyze and dissect individual’s personal and professional characteristics. No matter how busy we are, assignments, tests, none of them matter. It’s mandatory for members to attend the daily meetings. The president of the cult has assigned code names to all its members which range from Chennai slut to mad bull.

2. Frustrated boys – The hostel is filled with frustrated boy (w.r.t girls). It’s quite fun when likeminded people come together and express their feelings. I was pretty amazed with the level of frustration that exists here. All my misconception about metros being free and open has been cleared.

3. The ladies – The place is loaded with pretty ladies, may I add rich, pretty ladies. There is a park nearby where you would find most of them, jogging, walking or working out. As it came to me that it’s high time I got into shape, I have started to jog in the park daily (well I try to, but I fail most of the time). Let’s hope that I succeed in my endeavor.

4. The lover boys – Well as of now we just have one here, there could be more but this one is the most prominent. Now I have never seen a guy like this before. All of us know that he has fallen for this girl hook line and sinker but he won’t even admit it or for that matter deny it. He answers questions in the same way as Pakistan when asked about its links with terrorism, ridiculous and irrelevant. The answer for his every questing starts with “sala”. And he has a not so subtle way of changing the topic. If you are reading it, get some balls and own up :-P.(to us ie). Any way teasing him every night help us sleep at night peacefully.

5. This place is filled with people who talk utter crap. Especially 2 guys who live vertically opposite to each other. One guy comes to me and tells me that I am the man every 3 seconds and enquires about a girl. I am pretty amazed with the way in which he comes out with different praises for me (sarcastically of course). Another guy prefers to start every sentence with a word which starts with the letter ‘M’. It’s not like others do not talk carp, but just that these guys stand out. The thing that scares me the most is that some of these guys are going to manage thousands of people in the future :-P

John Mayer - Comfortable

2009-08-21T09:25:00.001-07:00

Just got adicted to this song !!I can even feel the pain in his voice

I just remembered that time at the market
snuck up behind me and jumped on my shopping cart
And rode down aisle five
you looked behind you and smiled back at me
crashed into a rack full of magazines
they asked us if we could leave.

Can't remember what went wrong last September
though i'm sure you'd remind me, if you had to

Our love was, comfortable and
so broken in

I sleep with this new girl I’m still getting used to
My friends all approve, say “she’s gonna be good for you.”
They throw me high fives.
She says the Bible is all that she reads.
and prefers that I not use profanity
Your mouth was so dirty
Life of the party,
And she swears that she’s artsy,
But you could distinguish Miles from Coltrane
Our love was comfortable and so broken in.

She’s perfect
So flawless,
Or so they say.
Hey and
Say, Heyyyyy.

She thinks I can’t see the smile that she’s fakin’
Poses for pictures that aren’t being taken.
I loved you
grey sweat pants
No make up
So perfect
Our love was comfortable and so broken in.

She’s perfect
So flawless
I’m not impressed
I want you back

No, no, no, no I want you back.
Want you back.
Back.

That you were my first love
Is just dumb luck.
A technicality.
You were ahead of me.

That you were my first love.
Is just dumb, dumb, stupid luck.
A technicality.
You will always be ahead of me.
Oh, oh, tell me.
Why I have to practice on you.
Why I have to practice on your heart.
Oh.

Some more bitching about life in hostel

2009-08-04T03:21:00.000-07:00

Too many peepers: I would be sitting in my room, minding my own business, chatting with my friends, showing the pictures of my life in Delhi, telling them which girl I have an eye on and so on. Out of nowhere some random idiot pops into my room and starts staring at my screen. They yell out the name of the person to whom I am chatting to and start reading out my conversation as if they are doing me some favor. Well some are more discrete, they just peep silently, without commenting. I do not know if it’s something which only I experience or if it’s something experienced by hostilities across borders. It’s quite awkward when a third party comes in and reads stuff about a person he knows:-P. Some would argue, as a solution to this problem one should lock the door, but that is not something which is practical here :-P

Studying is not something that can take place there, at least for me. It’s impossible to study there. In our course we learn that to get the maximum productivity, the environment in which work is being done should be conducive for working. Someone needs to tell that to the person in charge of the 1^st year boy’s hostel. You have this small room with a bed in it. How can any one study when they see a bed in front of them! And the chair that they have provided has a stupid design. Whenever I open my book I fall asleep.

Now enough bitching about the hostel, in the next post will write all the good things about it.

Crazy habits of my roommate

2009-08-04T03:09:00.001-07:00

I am a person who believes that music is meant to be played out loud. Unfortunately, due to certain activities of my roommate it’s not possible me for do so. When I play some thing, he starts singing it out loud. Now if someone is a decent enough singer and he sings along, its bearable, but this guy unfortunately is bad! He tells me that he is not that bad a singer. Now I know that American Idol is all realty (when it comes to bad singers believing that they are good). Now the singing part can be pardoned, but freaks me out is his dancing. He has this weird/ridiculous dance moves. He is a tall, thin guy and very elastic in nature. All his elasticity comes in play when he dances. The worst part is when he combines both these so called talents that he has. It is quite a sight!

The next thing is actually quite funny or some might say it’s a little scary. At times my roomies takes time out of his busy schedule to watch some movies or sit com’s. When he does so, he gets all pumped up. He starts laughing like anything, start talking to himself, clapping and so on. The fact that he is doing all this while he is wearing his headphones gives people viewing the scene the impression that he is a total lunatic. I am planning to upload a video of him doing the same so that people can actually relate to what I am saying.

This is all that I can come up with now. Overall he is quite a decent roomie, who keeps himself clean and is not a thief :-P

Things my roommate would hate about me

2009-07-20T02:25:00.000-07:00

· I am a bloody mess. It’s something that has been given to me from god since birth. My room is always a bloody mess. Before I left for Delhi, my mother would tell me that she feels sorry for my “would be” roommate. I would like to think that I am not as messy as I was when I was at home. At home I admit that I was a total mess. After a shower I would just walk out of the bathroom dripping water all over the place, or when I change my cloths I would just put them in the floor and let it dry for a few days. Here I am only moderately messy. My books would be all over my side of the room, you would need to be an expert explorer to get something from my table and don’t get me started on the way I keep my cloths. Even though my side is a mess, I am considerate enough to ensure that it doesn’t spill over to my roomies side.

· I have weird sleeping habits. Fortunately for my roommate, he has only witnessed only a few till now. Now I am a big guy and most normal beds won’t fit me. I prefer to sleep in a diagonal manner and I am used to sleeping in that way. Unfortunately when you have a roommate who is 1/5^th your size, this habit becomes a problem. I think every night he fears getting crushed by me! Apparently the poor guy begs me at night to give him space and surprisingly I oblige.

· I love to have ventilation in my room. Unfortunately at our hostel, if you get ventilation you get a lot of blood thirsty insects with it. I hate staying in a room with no ventilation; I rather get bitten than get deprived of oxygen. Now my roomie gets all emotional when it comes to insects. He jumps up and down, screams like a girl when he sees one. To avoid all this he keeps the doors and windows close, which is not something I would agree to and in the end we both get bitten by bug and get ridiculously huge and disgusting scars and he blames all that on me!

· This is kind of a secret. I am not sure if he knows about it or not. He has this liquid soap which is so convenient to use. I tend to steal it at times. Well who am I kidding; I use it at every possible opportunity that I get.

· Now this is a very emotional issue for my roommate. I sometimes like to indulge in gay humour and he gets all sensitive about it. I have spread the word that all the scars on my arms and legs are not insect bites but have come as a result of certain things that he did during night. The guy doesn’t have any sense of humour to takes these things as a joke and would go all emotional.

There would be plenty more things which would drive my roomie crazy, which I believe he would let me know loud and clear in the days to come. But as you can see, one should be blessed to get a roommate like me, who has only a very few bad qualities:-P

Hostel Life

2009-07-19T09:23:00.000-07:00

This is the first time I am living in a hostel; so naturally, I would be very “bitchy” about it. The thing I hate most about our hostel is the Indian toilets that we have. Goodness gracious me, we are bloody MBA students in the 21^st century and we have to forcibly do squats every morning! As I recently found out tummy trouble and Indian closet do not go hand in hand. Sitting in a crouching position for more than 30 seconds is not the most comfortable thing in the world. Getting up after 30sec for some pain relief aint the most comforting feeling either. I could go on, but to maintain some order its better if I stop now. Ah one more thing, there is no bloody ventilation inside the toilet! When you are sick it’s not the best place to be in.

Next in line would be the room. It’s too bloody small. There isn’t enough space to move around or even keep my books. There is proper ventilation but the problem with the ventilation is that, when it’s there, all our insect friends come in. I have insect bites all over my body and it’s pretty nasty. The insects in Delhi are quite mean. They are out to kill you! My arms and legs are filled with disgusting and painful sores.

Now something that is very close to my heart, food! We are served garbage here. Its filthy and tasteless every day, well let me be fair, some days it tastes good. I seriously doubt if they wash the plates. The way the people who serve the food play around with it using their hands arises a special feeling which cannot be explained. The bloody food is same on most of the days. These people are obsessed with potato and chappaties!! They give you lassies which taste like water! On the rare days they give us sweets, its pretty good. I had never thought that a day would come where I would eat just for the sake of eating! And don’t get me started on the quality of water I get. I get the feeling by the time I pass out; I would get familiarized with all the water born diseases.

The worst part of the hostel is that it’s about 2km from the college. So a whole lot of fun is lost. Regardless of all these atrocities, it’s pretty cool being in a hostel, one gets to have a whole lot of fun. The birthday celebrations where “Happy Birthday” is sung by boys in the worst possible way, getting to know about the swear words in different languages, sitting at talking about girls late at night, all the “brotherly love”, wacky roommate with whom you would have stupid differences with, etc are things which you won’t get if you stay at home. So over all life in the hostel is fun and one would just ignore all the crappy things around and have a good time.

Vote for the party

2009-04-15T08:35:00.001-07:00

Its election time and the question that came to my mind is if one should vote for the candidate or the party? After thinking for a while, it was pretty clear. In a parliamentary system like Indian, for the central elections, one should always vote for the party rather than a candidate.

Let’s get the facts straight. The voters are voting for a government that is supposed to rule the country, not their state or district. One has to think of the larger picture rather than what will the candidate do for a particular constituency. I do believe that MP’s have a responsibility towards their constituency but more than that I believe that it’s the state government’s job to take care of the state. National elections are more than just about ones constituency. It should be based on national issue not local issues.

From the little understanding that I have of a parliamentary democracy, I find that the party is god. In the parliament, even though every MP represents his constituency rather than a party, an MP cannot act against his party (and still be an MP). The job of the central government is policy making at the national level and not what the MP’s can do for different parts of India rather, what the party(or alliance) can do for the nation as a whole. I strongly believe that we need to vote for an ideology rather than “a particular candidate”. The central government decides what the foreign policy of the nation should be, they dictate the defense policies and in fact everything that will affect us as a nation is government by the central government. Do we really want to see a government which refuses to talk to America or refuses to make defense deals with Israel?

Now I agree that MP should bring funds to his constituency and all, but its not done just by the MP alone. All work an MP does is with the help of his party. No MP can go against his party and get anything done. I seriously believe that we got our priorities wrong when we vote for central elections. Left may or may not be good in kerala, but when it comes to central elections we should see if they would be good for the country. What we see now is that for national elections, people vote for local issues, which is totally wrong.

This is how regional parties have gained power. All they have to see is that their region is satisfied. They wouldn’t look at the nation’s interest at large. On the other hand, a national party would take a more considerate view of things.

Issues such as foreign policy, reservations, defense expenditure, expenditure on agriculture etc should be the issues, not why isn’t there water in my taps, where is the fly over. These issues should be left for the state elections rather than central elections. I believe that the job of the voter is to vote for a party which they believe would take India forward. So vote for the party !!!

Wasted opportunity

2009-03-29T00:21:00.000-07:00

I had a GD/ interview last week in a certain B school. After the GD was over I thought that I did exceedingly well. The topic was “freedom of expression, shouldn’t there be limits”. Even now, if you compare my performance with that of the group, I did exceedingly well. Now later when I reached home, I was thinking about how well I had done the GD and the kind of points I brought in. I was telling to myself that I should be getting full marks for the GD. Then suddenly it struck me, the things we said in the GD were utter crap. Even if it was not crap, we had a very narrow view on the topic. All of us were talking about freedom of speech and things related to it. None of us talked about freedom of expression in movies, paintings, cartoons etc. None of us talked about the nude paintings of various goddesses and how certain right wing groups are totally against it, none of us talked about various movies which gets banned or on the content of various movies. We didn’t mention about the Danish cartoonist nor did we mention about writers like Salman Rushdi or Taslima Nasreen. In short we didn’t do any justice to the topic. I started off the discussion and I guess I would be getting maximum blame for the sorry state of our GD. I would be blamed for not taking the group in the right direction.

Had I brought in all the points I just mentioned here, my selection to the institute would have been more or less certain. Yet again I missed the bus. What’s the point in having all this freaking knowledge if you can’t use it when it matters the most. You will get only one chance and you have the grab the opportunity. That’s what winners do. Getting all these points after the GD is over is immaterial. There is absolutely no use. You will be judged on what you said during the GD and there is no way that the panelist could find out how much knowledge I have.

It could be said that it’s not just my fault that all these points weren’t discussed. Other people in the group should have brought these points. To a certain extent, the group in which you are matters, a good group can make your performance look even better, more points would come up and the panelist would have a good impression about the group. But in gd’s even though team work matters, individual contributions plays a huge role. Just because others didn’t bring various aspects of the topic doesn’t excuse you from not bring them, even if you had brought a lot of points on your own.

Performing when it matters the most is a trait of winners, something which I seem to lack. There isn’t much difference between some one great and some one ordinary. Great people grab opportunities with both their hands where as ordinary people lets some slip. I let this particular opportunity slip, now all I can do is to wait and hope that I get in.

Obama the visionary?

2009-03-17T00:07:00.000-07:00

Since the time when Barcak Obama came into the limelight, we in India were full of praises for him. We would look at our politicians in contempt and would say that the world and the US need such visionary leaders. Overlooking the fact that the speeches made by him were just campaign speeches we would say that, he truly is a statesman.

It has been a while since Mr. Obama took office and even though its too early to comment on him, from that little that I have seen of him, the only conclusion that I can come to is that he is no statesman but just a politician. He had made a lot of noise about Mr. Bush’s policies, but most of his present policies are just a logical continuation of Mr. Bush’s policy. Agreed, Mr. Bush was a horrible president, he was in fact a shame for the nation. Obama was a breath of fresh air, the much needed “change” that the US and the world were looking for. To be honest, any one who could form a sentence properly would be a breath of fresh air compared to the previous president of the US.

To be honest, the kind of issues Obama talked about during his campaign was what all US presidential hopefuls talk about. Just like in India, every election politicians talk about free TV, building a temple, rice for Re 1, etc, politicians in the US always have been talking about the state of the health care system, problems with higher education, unemployment, etc. In content I do not see anything unique about Obama’s campaign. The way he said it, the timing (when people were fed up with Bush) and all mattered a lot.

The fact that strengthens my argument is Obama’s view on immigrants. Clearly that’s a knee-jerk reaction to please the public. Even though the technicalities ensures that all the hype about immigrants loosing jobs and end of outsourcing, remains just a hype, the point here is the kind of perception that Obama is giving out. If he was truly a statesman he wouldn’t give out such crowd pleasing statements without addressing the complexities of the issues (what a sentence :D ). If he was really a statesman he would have considered the implications of what he is doing once the recession is over. His views on nationalism, buy only American also isn’t a sing of a visionary leader. It’s not just about the immigrant issue, most of his issues are just an extension what Mr. Bush’s policies.

The only reason why he could unite a huge majority of America is that all of America speaks one language, English. That is the reason why we don’t see such leaders in India. The fact that majority of the Indians still live in villages, the fact that its next to impossible for a person to communicate with all the Indians, is one of the main reasons why we don’t have a national leader. The thing that went in favor of Nehru was that, the sprit of freedom struggle was still alive back then.

I feel that we are being unfair with our politicians. Politicians all over the world are the same. Not that it’s a good thing, definitely we need to change that, but to say that only our politicians are bad is really unfair. All politicians at present think just about the next elections.

Am I always a little too late?

2009-03-14T05:28:00.000-07:00

I usually take pride in the fact that I am a kind of person who doesn’t get bogged down by failure or setbacks, who always learn from his mistakes or who never regrets anything. I usually come up with statements like "that is what I thought right in that point in time so can’t regret the decision". If you really look at it, these statements are a way to save once face. It’s good to learn from mistakes but the fact that one is making many mistakes isn’t a very good thing. To have the feeling that what you did in the past need not be the best way to go about things, that too often is kind of disturbing.

I sometimes get the feeling that I am always a little too late. It’s not something recent, it has been there in my mind for quite some time. I feel that quite too often I realize the importance of something only after the opportunity passes.

Now I feel that I should have been more ambitious when i was in school. Should have taken part in various competitions, should have improved my oratory skills and also my interpersonal skills. Any way since I was gonna get into engineering; I feel that I should have put in the effort and prepared for IIT's or NIT's. I feel that in the kerala entrance exam that I had taken, I should have attempted more number of questions, I knew many questions and didn’t attempt them because i was scared of getting them wrong, doing so would have gotten me a better rank.

In college I feel that I should have studied some subjects much harder, many of the subjects no matter how hard had I studied wouldn’t have been of much use, but certain subjects had I studied much harder would have done better in college. I regret the fact that I wasn’t a friendly person and didn’t get to know my juniors or seniors well, for that matter even my batch mates. I feel that it was stupid of me to be hung up over a girl for a ridiculously long period of time, I can understand being heart broken, but my case of simply ridiculous. I feel I should have been a more proactive person, should have taken part in a lot more competitions, should have done something for the society. I had 4 years with relatively not much work, should have utilized it better. Not regreting what I didnt do, but I wonder, why is it only after a situation passes, I think I could have done better

There is of course a positive side to every statement that I made. There is more that meets the eye. It was not like, I just didn’t do it. There were many times I was up against the odds and tried my best to handle the situation But I feel that one should at times be cynical to themselves. My whole argument can be countered by just saying a few things like, destiny or since I didn’t know what was right at that point in time how would i know what to do or there is a time and place for every thing. Having said that, I wonder if I missed the bus one time too many. There is definitely not gonna be an answer to the question.

Red+pink=bad

2009-03-09T09:47:00.001-07:00

Even the though of the “Third front” having a good chance of winning the coming elections is a cause of concern. First of all the way the alliance was formed was wrong. Their USP is that, they give a third alternative to the people of the nation, the chance of a non congress, non BJP lead government. This was exactly what the BJP did to come to power and quite frankly it’s getting a little old. Even though the other main national parties do not have a proper national agenda(other than the life long dream of the BJP to build a temple and the congresses never ending endeavor to give reservation to every caste that exists in India), the formation of the third front just magnifies this fact.

Another problem is that the third front doesn’t even have an excuse for an ideology. The only ideology that I can see is that they don’t want either the congress or the BJP to form the government. The problem with this is that, once if they come to power, there is nothing holding them from staying together. The same dislike they have towards the 2 national parties will crop up among each other. We all were displeased with the way the present government got its numbers in the house. The third front will be much worse than that. It is an alliance of people who are hungry for power and have suddenly found a short cut to get it. It is a mixture of various regional parties. All of us know what kind of trouble the regional players create for the national parties when they are in power. Imagine the situation if all these regional parties were in power together. We would have the supposed Prime Minister building her statues all over India, people jumping up and down opposing anything that is not Russian Chinese or Iranian, various other groups asking for more funds for their respective states and so on.

The situation of having many regional parties ruling the nation is quite scary. The congress and the BJP at least want to be all over India and hence would work or say that it will work for the development of all regions in India. That hope is also trashed with the arrival of regional parties. On the bright side, the third front is a pre poll alliance and we all know what happens after the election results are announced.

The formation of the third front from the beginning was a bad news (just look at their Prime Ministerial candidate). The only thing that they are going to bring to the nation is instability. A country run by regional parties would never be able to please the nation. When there is no head to control and no excuse of an ideology to go by, god save us if such a situation happens. Even though I do not think that the third front will come to power in this election, the fact that regional parties are getting to have a major say in national politics is a cause of concern. Its up to the national parties to ensure that they remain as the 2 major national parties and do not let some sorry excuse for an alliance to gain momentum.

2009-02-27T22:44:00.000-08:00

Top story, a child actor from the movie slumdog got slapped by his father. This was the tops story in one of the news channels. This happened when one thought the media couldn’t get any lower. Come on, give me a break, I have been beaten up far worse by my father many a tome and no one gives a damn about that. Children in India get abused a lot and no one reports it and when something happens to a child actor its breaking news. On this incident the whole family was interviewed. The child was like dad loves me so hit me. Mother was saying there is plenty of love in the family. Dad was like it was just because he got angry at that point in time. Come on!! I don’t think I need to say anything more on this issue to highlight the utter absurdity of the whole thing.

A news report that caught my eye was the feud between ICL and BCCI. I knew that BCCI didn’t like ICL but only came to know about the ridiculousness of the whole issue recently. Sachin and Karthick were pulled out of a charity match because in that match there was a player who had once played in the ICL( who is currently not playing). Can the BCCI get any more childish? It’s like saying the players under BCCI won’t have fun if the people who are even remotely associated with ICL are part of the fun. Can it get any more stupid? Laxman was not allowed to play for a county because that particular county had players from the ICL. If you look at it in a rational manner whose lose is it? The BCCI won’t have this authority for long. They appear as an insecure dictator who will soon loose its power. Not allowing people to play in a charity match is condemnable. I can understand not allowing players from the ICL playing in BCCI events, I don’t see what the problem is if players under the BCCI play along with ICL players (not under ICL). This is modern racism and shouldn’t be allowed.

What the F***?

2009-02-13T09:33:00.000-08:00

For the past few days in various news channels every 2 hours debates, discussions, stories about whether Valentines Day should be celebrated or if it’s against Indian culture. Various groups getting hold of various arms to suppress people celebrating Valentines Day. Women getting hold of kitchen utensils, men deciding to proclaim people as husband and wife, people enacting what will happen if Valentines Day is celebrated. On the other hand you have the pro Valentines Day group. They also have come up with various innovative ways to tackle this issue. For a developing country with too many problems to count, aren’t we spending too much of our time and other resources on such a ridiculous problem? To celebrate Valentines Day or not? Is that even a real problem

The turn of events is absolutely disgusting and appalling. Why on earth is any “sena” spending this much effort to tackle the “problem” of Valentines Day? Various sections of society across religions and castes are marginalized in India, why can’t these religious fanatics champion their cause? Farmers take their life because they don’t have money to buy the food that they produce and all we get to see is a documentary once in a blue moon. Ridiculously high numbers of children are not getting elementary education and no one give a damn. Women get raped, college girls are forced into prostitution because they can’t pay their fees, parents sell off their children so that they and their children can have a meal and do we ever get to see the real depth of the issue? Ridiculously high number of children and elderly sleep without a roof over their head, and scores of them die every year because of extreme cold or heat strokes. Do we give a rat’s ass about them? Family’s die of thirst and hunger because neither water nor food is available to them even though tons of food gets spoiled in various go downs, but why should we care? If we start to write down the problems we as a nation is facing, that list will never get over.

Celebrating Valentines Day or going to a pub, is that really an issue. We have the Women and Child development minister and the health minister going hammer and tongs on this issue. Agreed, beating up of the women was the job of a few sexual sadists and they should be trashed but why should a minister directly get involved in such incidents? Even though I know the answer is “Politics”, still, it’s appalling. In a country (in general) where women are tortured for not providing dowry, where women cant get out without the fear of getting molested or raped, is it right on the part of the minister to give her complete attention on ensuring that Valentines Day goes on or the working of pubs are not disturbed. I am not saying what she did was wrong, but I am hurt with the kind of emphasis that this issue got. If such hype was there around various other issues we would have been a developed country 10 yeas ago.

It’s not just about the people who support Valentines Day. Don’t the so called “protectors of Indian culture” have anything better to do? Is Valentines Day or Pubs the major cultural problem that we are facing? I agree, it’s important to protect Indian culture and heritage, but having agitations for such petty things is nothing less than school boyish. Throw stones at the government for the status of the holy ganga or the appalling condition of the various temples in our country. Of all the things Valentines Day? I don’t care if its politics or anything else, its simply ridiculous.

To ensure that such things don’t happen, I guess we should be the change that we want to see. This much hype for such an issue is not justified, at least in my humble opinion. It’s high time that we as a nation set our priorities right. Issues like poverty, hunger, exploitation, death might not be as fancy as celebrating Valentines Day or going to pubs but its high time that the former issues get hyped more.

Any eye for an eye

2009-02-05T21:06:00.000-08:00

As per latest reports, a certain so called cultural organization will go on a rampage on Valentines Day. They will either forcibly marry off couples or ask them to wear rakhi. Come on!! Are people allowed to make such threats publicly in India? I know the various political implication of taking strong action and how it’s hard to crack down on cultural groups in a country like India. But come on! This is getting out of hand. Any organization with more than 20 members can threaten to create havoc or create havoc and get away with it. Its happening in the congress ruled states as well as the BJP ruled states. After a while it’s really frustrating. Any Tom, Dick and Harry can do anything if he does it in the name of Indian culture.

The problem lies in the fact that as a nation we are not that courageous. I feel that if 50 odd people come and start enforcing their own law, the rest of the citizens should mob up and trash the living day lights out of them. That is the only solution to the problem. Even though doing so is also taking law into ones own hands, what this does is that it will act as a deterrent for people who want to make a name for themselves through hooliganism. I strongly believe that this is the way forward. If 10 “sena’s “come and attack you, 20 of you should gang up and beat them up. Even though this is a highly uncivilized way of going about things, I feel that we are running out of options.

Another thing that I have noticed is that, the media will go all hammer and tongs about leaders committing crimes and let off on bail and allowed to speak to the public freely. The absurdity of their concern is that the same channel, who cries foul about the accused allowed to talk to the media, is the media to which the accused is talking to. Such incidents make you believe in a lot of conspiracy theories. Another thing that I have noticed is that how media gets to all the place well before the police gets there. And if the accused is hiding, the media is able to contact them from an undisclosed location! Is there a tie up between the police and the media? Is there a tie up between the culprits and the media? Are all the 3 parties in it together? Or is it just coincidents? Now I understand why the Americans come up with various conspiracy theories.

What ever may be the truth, I feel that people are getting more and more frustrated. If such incidents are not controlled by the authorities, the unrest will increase and it could turn real nasty

Do we need more, younger politicians?

2009-01-29T23:01:00.000-08:00

I was listening to the usual rhetoric of a certain right wing extremist/ fundamentalist chief minister from a certain state in south India. It made me wonder if we needed more, younger politicians. Most of the political leaders we have are above 70. There are only a handful of young political leaders emerging. Then I thought about the various “elderly” politicians and realized that not all of them a maniacs. There are sensible ones and there are the insane ones. There are religious extremist, people who bring out regionalism, people who play cast politics. On the other hand there are many who are quite modern in their thinking, pro development, against fundamentalism.

Young or old, people are the same. Even among the youth there are extremist, fundamentalist. Good and bad are not just restricted to the old politicians. The same traits that are seen in the old politicians are seen in the young politicians, across the political spectrum. There are many examples of various young politicians create havoc against the so called “modern” life style of people. India is a unique country. Left, Right and Center, you have it all here.

So does the age of a politician really matter? I feel that age is a psychological thing, after all the whole world runs on sentiment. Perception matters a lot. If some one can instill confidence, it can make a world of difference. So when one sees a old guy who is about to collapse, heading a government, naturally confidence level of the people won’t be high. It can also affect how others view the government. On the other hand, if a young person with a lot of energy is heading the government, there will be a lot of positive energy surrounding him and it can rub off to others. Even if both the old and young do the same thing, a fresh face can make a lot of difference.

I believe that even if young politicians come, there will be extremist and religious fanatics among them. The only way such evils can be eliminated is though education and a change in mind set of the people. Even if a lot of young politicians come up, as there is illiteracy, poverty and various other issues, many of them would be tempted to exploit their sentiments for obtaining power.

In my book, young or old, it really doesn’t matter. It’s the person that matters. If a person can radiate energy, be sincere to his job and do the right thing, age wouldn’t really be a problem. Well to answer the question, “do we need more, younger politicians?” well of course we do, but youth doest necessarily mean, abracadabra and every thing is perfect.

A month is a life time in politics

2009-01-29T01:54:00.000-08:00

I remember a month ago saying how the congress is going to have a tough time in the coming elections and how the BJP is going to get a clear cut advantage. A month has gone by and the tables have turned 180 degrees. It seems that the congress is making all the right moves and the BJP is jumping from one mistake to another.

The people associate with the BJP all the right wing groups that are present in India and its justified. Unfortunately for the BJP many of these right wing groups with or without the BJP’s consent are creating havoc. The response the various chief ministers of BJP ruled states give isn’t helping matters either. Many instance of violence by right wing extremist have been witnessed in Karnataka for the past few months. In other words since the BJP came to power in Karnataka, a lot of right wing extremism has emerged. The various statements that the “esteemed” chief minister and the home minister of Karnataka have made, made me conclude that those two are right wing extremist and religious chauvinist. Well what else can be expected from a person who takes decisions on the basis of what his poojari says?

These incidents of right wing extremism do not help the cause of the BJP for the coming elections. People’s memories are very short and all these incidents are happening just before the elections, one can easily imagine what the out come of these incidents will be. On the other hand take the case of the congress. Last December inflation was at record high, prices of basic commodities are off the roof, the Mumbai attacks, and people were questioning the competency of the government. The situation has changed drastically. Fuel prices have come down by more than 7 rupees, prices of commodities are slowly coming down, inflation is supposed to hit 2% by March, the government is being very proactive while dealing with terrorism and Pakistan. The UPA government is making all the right noises. Credit must be given to the new home minister P Chidembaram. He might be doing the same job as what his predecessor has done, but his is able to connect with the masses. People get the impression that work is being done. He has managed to change the perception of the people to a certain extend. Even the Prime Minister looks twice as strong as he was couple of months ago.

General elections are going to happen in little over 2 months time. As we have seen for the recent events a lot can happen in 2 months. At this point I do feel that the UPA has an edge in the coming elections but then again 2 months is a long time. Any thing can happen. No one with full confidence will be able to say what the next government will look like. In fact I believe that even after the results are declared it will be quite hard to predict the core of the next government. As the saying goes there are no permanent enemies in politics.

The value of life

2009-01-28T02:17:00.000-08:00

I was watching the various award ceremonies that took place around the republic day. Various gallantry awards were given by the government and various other organizations. What I saw was that most of the awards went for the heroes of the Mumbai terrorist attacks. It was good that these heroes were given some recognition. Even though nothing can bring back to life the gesture of appreciation was good.

This incident made me wonder. Are these people getting all the recognition and respect just because they literally died in front of us? Every year many Jawans die protecting our borders and yet we don’t seem to give them half of the recognition that we gave to the people who died in the Mumbai terrorist attacks. These Jawans also gave their life protecting the country, why should their death have any less value. I also have heard that all the people who died during the Mumbai attacks were not given the same recognition by the government. Some got a “higher” awards where as others got a “lower” award. How can one value one death more than the other. I am not saying that jawans who die in the border don’t get any recognition but many don’t. The terms of the awards they get are also different.

Indian after independence had decided that all titles such as Sir would not be permitted in India as it will cause division in the country. Can’t a similar approach be taken on these gallantry awards? Surely the basis on which one classifies which person should get which award depends on the perception of the adjudicators. Is that necessary when it comes for people giving their lives for their country? I can understand various film awards, as it can be considered as a marketing gimmick. Is that needed for our gallantry awards? I am strongly opposed to putting a value on different lives. Doesn’t matter if it’s a constable or the head of the police department, nor does it matter if its fighting terrorist in Mumbai or Kashmir, the bottom line is they died fighting for the county. Even if a person didn’t die fighting for the country but put himself under danger, he should be given the same recognition as the martyrs. Even though these awards wont hamper national integration or anything similar, symbolically it looks bad when patriotic deeds are being rated.

In a related incident I heard the pugilist who went for the 2008 Olympics were crying foul when they were not given the Padma awards. Personally I do not think they have any right to feel dejected. Its not as if they have been performing for a very long time and they are not getting recognized. True, they did the country proud, but surely they can’t be compared to a Abhinav Bindra. Bindra has been performing consistently for around 10 years or even more. I surely hope that they don’t think that they are as good as or better than Bindra. They also brought in the angle for the government being biased towards cricket. Even though harbajan might have had a few problems this year, he has been performing consistently since 2000. Other sports need encouragement, but lets not just be lenient on then just because they are not cricket.

Slumdog Millionaire

2009-01-26T21:09:00.000-08:00

You might say I was a little prejudice about the movies even before I saw it. If a movie is good rarely you see its cast and crew running around in circles going here and there. People will not go on yapping about the movie if it’s a master piece. So I was really circumspect about the movie. 30mins into the movie I felt completely justified.

If many people tell you that a movie is good, then it has to be good! If you say its not then you are not normal. I get the feeling this might be one of the reasons for the popularity of the movie or they might have paid the critics off. The western audience can be excused. They might have been under the impression that this was an “ethnic Indian” movie and we all know what purchasing power those two words have.

The problem I have with the movie is that for a realistic movie it chooses to be realistic when it pleases. I do not have any problem with the showing of the slums and slum life and the various atrocities surrounding it. If we want to be a developed country we need to address these issues. It could well be an eye opener for many. The thing that moved me the most was the love story in the movie. The lead character was in love with a girl who was literally raped by his brother and who was a full time prostitute, kind of put things in perspective for me.

I couldn’t understand what’s so great about the movie. The story isn’t that great. I do agree that India has many problems but it’s not as screwed up as the movie shows. Will any host mock his contestant about his life, in public? Will an overburdened Indian police officer even give a damn about a person who “ALLEGEDLY” cheated in a TV game show? Had it been made by some Indian director the critics would have definitely tore the movie apart. But as its not, it has to be good. God knows how the Hindi speaking children in the slum all of a sudden speaks English with an accent. It would have been much better if they had spoken English from start itself. The whole rise form the slum life was quite ridiculous.

The thing that bugged me the most was a line in the movie where a conversation broke out on the real Indian and the real America. That was way too condescending. I know that all of India is not developed but since when did the slums of Mumbai represent the real India? Am I also a part of India, aint I real? Don’t get me started off on the “real America”.

I have never understood why we Indians feel that if anything is remotely associated with India, it’s Indian. The movie is not an Indian movie. We have many good Indian movies, embrace that. Are we that desperate that we have to find ridiculous connections and adopt non Indian movies as Indian? I wouldn’t say that this was an American or a British movie but it was more of an international movie. I hate it when Indians make something which is remotely associated to India as Indian. We are much better than that.

The movie is definitely a good watch. Lets not over hype it!

Compromise or being realistic?

2009-01-25T11:11:00.000-08:00

I have always wondered what is the difference between being compromising and being realistic or practical. We all say that one should never compromise in life, but what is a compromise? Consider this example; I say to myself that the next girl I sleep with should be Priyanka Chopra. Now if I sleep with another girl, am I compromising? Or am I being realistic and practical as I have a better chance of becoming India’s Prime Minister than sleeping with Priyanka. The reason why I chose this example is to emphasize on what is realistic and what is not.

In life there are many occasions where we have to take decisive decisions. One of the main things that creep into our mind while taking a decision is whether we are compromising or not. Most of the time, as the narcissists that we are, we forget what is a compromise. Compromise happens when we set standards for ourselves and we fail to meet those standards. Now what if the standard we set for our self is too high? Now there is a point of view that nothing is out of reach. Now even if it’s true is it practical in this world. Is it viable for one to stick to a particular path, no matter what, even though there is another path which is more reachable? Even if nothing is impossible should one spend way too much time than normal to get there? Doesn’t the amount of time spent chasing the dream make any difference to the dream itself?

The answers to the above questions, I don’t know. The reason that these things came to my mind is because I am in a predicament. I had set a certain goal for myself (short term) and was not able to achieve it even after taking twice the "normal" or the preferred amount of time. Was my goal too unrealistic for me or should I postpone my goal or should I lower my expectations, well these are questions to which I guess there is no correct answer. Am I compromising if I alter my goal? Was my goal too unrealistic to be achieved at this point in time?

People will have short term goals and long term goals. Short term goals might be the various steps that are required for reaching ones ultimate goal. A person might plan out on how he will reach his ultimate goal. I feel that the ultimate goal is more important than the various intermediate steps taken to reach it. The ultimate goal that a person has is the meaning of that person’s life. Ultimate goal may or may not be achieved, even if it’s achieved it will be towards the later part of ones life. To enhance ones chances of achieving his/her ultimate goal, I feel that too much unnecessary time and importance should not be given to various intermediate steps that are to be taken to reach the goal. If there are two ways of doing a task and if the first option doesn’t work, we should always be open to the second option (as long as there is no drastic decrease in standard) instead of spending more than the necessary time on the first option.

Whether the conclusion I came to is right or not, I dont know. I might change my point of view a couple of months down the road. I guess no one will ever have a correct answer to the question. I guess all must judge themselves honestly and objectively and have a measure of ones ability. Its one thing to aim high at every point in life, but at the same time one must be realistic also. I feel that going for a wild goose chase is pointless. I also feel that every dream should have a realistic time limit. If the time required goes beyond that, one should always seriously consider plan B or C. Now am I being pessimistic or realistic is a topic for another debate.

Modi the great ?

2009-01-19T01:54:00.000-08:00

I have been hearing a whole lot of crap about Narinder Modi these days. The whole story about how Gujarat has endorsed development. Modi’s modal of development etc. A whole bunch of industry leaders proclaiming Modi would be an ideal Prime Ministerial candidate. Well you can not blame them for kissing ass, as they need to get their work done.

I was sitting in a seminar organized by a MBA entrance coaching institute in Trivandrum. I was listening and all of a sudden I hear about Modi. How the custodian of Hindutwa demolished many temples for the development of the state. That was the last straw! When such statements come from people in authority definitely it will have an impact on the innocent minds sitting and hearing it.

Let’s get things straight. In Gujarat the BJP is ruling with a huge majority. So it’s much easier to get things done. Hence they don’t have to worry about staying in power. Next comes the temple demolitions. When any thing related to the Hindu religion comes up, like the demolition of temples, the main organizations that take up the cause are the VHP, RSS and the Bajarang Dal (BJP too ). Now we all know what relation do these organizations share with the BJP. The whole temple demolition was pure politics.

The BJP wanted to be seen as a pro development party before the general elections. They also wanted to send a message that they are willing to do what ever it takes for the sake of development. So they came up with an agreement with these organizations that a certain number of temples will be demolished, after that these organizations can start raising their voice, get a little melodramatic, and then a few more temples will be demolished, then a few meetings will take place and in the end the demolition drive will be stopped. It’s a win-win situation. The BJP will be seen as a pro development party and the other organizations can take pride in that fact that they intervened in the matter.

Had it been any other party, I guarantee you that even before the first temple was demolished, these organizations would have created mayhem there. So let’s not give undue credit to people. I am by no means saying that BJP is the only party which does similar stuff. The same is true with the left in Kerala. When they are in power, the number of strikes is less and when they are not, strikes will be called for no apparent reason. For gods sake we had a strike when Sadman was hanged.

The problem with us is that we have a short term memory. Narinder Modi was responsible for the carnage in Gujarat. I do not care about the various state sponsored reports that give a clean chit to him. As the Chief Minister of the state he has to be held accountable for what had happened. Just because a few years have passed, it doesn’t mean that every thing is forgiven.

I do agree that a lot of work is being done in Gujrath. Let’s not blow things out of proportion. The reason why work cant be done in other parts of India is because of the opposition of various political parties. They oppose just because they are not the one who is implement it. Just take the example of the Ram Sethu project. The projected was initiated by the BJP and when they present government went forward with they, they had to face all kind of opposition.

The real problem is, various right wing and left wing organizations oppose everything that is not done by them and when they oppose they don’t hesitate in using any means that they can. So lets all have a reality check and think before jumping to conclusions.

The right decision !

2009-01-06T04:08:00.000-08:00

I have always wondered, is there anything such as a “right decision”. At different points in life, a person will have to make various choices. I often hear people saying, “that was the right move by him”, “it was a wrong decision”. Can anyone with complete confidence make such statements?

At various stages of life you will be forced to make tough decisions. You have to pick one way from several ways as the way forward. The way I see it, one should do what they believe is right. No one should feel any regret after doing what they thought was right at that point of time no matter what the outcome is. When I say choices, I do not mean to kill a person or not to kill a person. It’s more in the lines of which stream to choose after 10^th or which company to join or whether to ask a girl out or not. The reason why I believe that one should never regret a decision taken after listening to your hear and brain is because, we will never know what would have happened if we had gone for the second or third option. We might have ended up in a even worse situation had we gone for some other option. There is no sure shot way of telling if a decision was right or wrong. We certainly can not build a time machine, go back to the future, erase our memory so that we don’t remember anything that happened after we took the decision and then opt for the second option. There are far too many variables at stake. Even if a move you made turned out to be good initially, no one knows what will happen a year down. Never let any one tell you what is a good decision or what is a bad decision. One should definitely listen to what people have to tell, use your knowledge, weigh in the options and take the decisions in your best interest.

Once you take a decision you should stick to it. Good times and bad times will come and go. Life is full of ups and downs. We should always keep in mind that the main thing is to win the war not the battle. Tough time make a man strong. It gives us experience and confidence to come out of any situation. It will make you a stronger and better person. Do not regret a decision just because the going gets tough. Have faith in yourself and move forward. If the going gets tough, instead of mopping and regretting your moves, you should ensure that you do what ever it takes so that things work out in your favor. I would like to end by partially quoting one of my favorite sayings

If there is a problem and there is no solution for the problem, what’s the point worrying about it? If there is a problem and there is a solution for the problem, stop worrying and work towards the solution.

Hypocrisy at its worst

2009-01-04T02:06:00.000-08:00

Recently I heard the congress making a statement that if the LTTE leader is captured, they were looking forward for his extradition and charge him for the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. Hypocrisy personified!!

The main problem I have with this is that the congress government has been more or less silent about the whole LTTE issue.(the policy of other government were more or less the same, just mentioning congress because they were the one who maid the claim) They come out with the usual crap that only way to resolve this problem is through dialog, stop the violence etc. It might be true but India could have been much more proactive in dealing with the LTTE issue considering the fact that it revolves around Tamils. If they were seriously interested in capturing the people behind the LTTE and take them to task, India should have helped Sri Lanka a lot more in the form of military aid. Instead for narrow political gains there was constant diplomatic pressure put by India because of certain LTTE sympathizers in Tamil Nadu , whenever some action was taken against the LTTE. Of course, the government’s hands were clean as it was just “concerned” about the plight of the “Tamil Civilians” in Sri Lanka. Now when the Sri Lankan army has done all the hard work and the major LTTE strong hold almost captured we speak about extraditing Prabhakaran! Can there be any act more cowardly than this?

Let’s say that the Sri Lankan government due to some bizarre reason gives the LTTE leader to India, what are we going to do? Sentence him to death and keep him alive for no apparent reason like in the case of Mohammad Afsal, the man behind the parliament attack. The official explanation given my the government is that there are 27 or 26 people in death row and Mohammad Afsal is number 27, the President only after considering the clemency plea of number 26 can go to number 27. This may be true but it sounds absolutely ridiculous. A person who was the master mind behind the attack on the India parliament which epitomizes the India democracy is not punished because of a technicality. I do not think that the situation would have been any different had any other party were in power.

India as a nation has a lot of problems. Why do we want to add on to these problems? Say that we got the terrorist leader of the LTTE and we are serious about hanging him. I am pretty sure that within no time we would have added one more enemy to our list. Along with LeT, HuJI etc we would have to worry about LTTE and related suicide bombings, not to mention the mood of the LTTE sympathizers in Tamil Nadu. We lost our PM because of the LTTE, but if we were remotely serious of capturing the master minds we would have done it a long time back. I am absolutely clueless why this is being brought up now, may be for some political gains to show that UPA is not “soft on terror”. It’s always better not to get into unnecessary problems

The Patriot

2008-12-07T06:38:00.000-08:00

After the terrorist attacks in Mumbai I have been hearing a lot of voices of the so called “most patriotic” people in India about how all families should send one of their children to the armed forces. Laws should be made to make it mandatory for every family to send its children to the armed forces. Apparently by doing so people will become “more patriotic” and inspire patriotism in others. How one incident can bring out the insanity of people!! I respect the fact that people are joining the armed forces willing to give up their life for their country but I am sorry joining the armed forces is not the only way one can express or be called patriotic. Security threats are only one of the umpteen threats that a nation can have. Forget the fact that it’s impossible for the government can not take this many no of people into the armed forces.

I often notice that the families of the people who are in the armed forces have a false sense of the notion of patriotism. The people who are actually in the forces are quite sensible and know what exactly what patriotism is. Somehow when it comes to their family, they feel that they are being patriotic by having one of their family members in the forces. Sometimes I feel that they try and take credit for what the people in the armed forces are doing. I respect what they are doing and I know how important it is, but the families should not take it to their head. They have a sense that their definition of patriotism is the correct one and no one outside(armed forces) can differ with them (this need not be true with all but just that I have been hearing such an argument from many families in the armed forces for a while).

Defending the nation is very important but that’s not the only thing the nation needs. Joining the forces is not the only way through which a person can show their love of their mother land. Our nation needs help in various sectors like education, agriculture, energy, elimination of poverty, health care, etc. If a person chooses to work in any such field is no less patriotic than a person in the armed forces. Dieing is not that only action that defines patriotism. In fact if a person makes a change or does anything good for the nation, however small that may be, is a patriot. Helping the nation become a better place is as patriotic as joining the armed forces. There is a need for all round development and equal emphasis needs to be given to all aspects of the development, not just security. Each individual will be good at something and they should be let to do. Forcing people join the army is the last thing that we need.

For the people who have been affected by the terror attacks it’s a time of crisis. But in this time of crisis I hope people don’t lose their equilibrium. This is one of the many absurd ideas that have been floating around since the attacks. I do believe that this is a temporary phase and normalcy will return soon in every sense of the word. Emotional decisions never produce the desired outcome.

Mumbai 26/11

2008-11-27T01:02:00.000-08:00

The Mumbai terrorist attack is something that has not only shocked the entire nation but also the entire world. I believe this attack will have a huge impact in India .I agree that it’s not possible to prevent every attack. Our intelligence system can not be blamed. If a motivated person decides that he wants to cause some damage, it’s next to impossible to predict when and where he is going to attack. The problem with this attack is that, these terrorist came in via the sea, went about shooting people and then took refuge in various places and the whole process went about for quite a while. Even if one cannot predict a terrorist attack, but if terrorist go about shooting people, we expect the authorities to be able to handle the situation much quicker. I don’t know if it’s just me but 4 or 5 top police officers getting killed is not something normal. The people who are supposed to lead the operation getting killed, all at once is something really disturbing. The whole situation exposed the unpreparedness of our police system.

I was just looking back at the entire incident. Initially I was impressed by the way the politicians handled the whole situation. The Prime Minister and the leader of opposition seemed to be united. Well, I came to such a conclusion way to early. I felt the BJP made a lot of hypocritical statements. Today, for no apparent reason we see Narainder Moodi, who starts to cry when one asks him about the godhra riots which was “handled” by him, comes to Mumbai and has a press conference at ground zero as if he was some important national leader, while the encounter was still going on. I guess he forgot the fact that he is hated in most of India. It’s quite appalling the way in which the BJP handled the entire situation. Anything that the BJP has to say on terrorism can be termed as hypocrisy. All the terrorist attacks that happen in India are in one way or the other because of the BJP. Terrorist attacks in this form started happen only after the demolition of the Babri Masjid, which was pioneered by the BJP and its affiliated sorry excuses for cultural organizations. Who can forget the way they handled the communal violence in Gujarat and the Kandhar hijacking, which happened when the BJP government was in power. They released terrorist, who are responsible for almost all the terrorist attacks that happen around the world. So the BJP has no freaking moral right to preach about terrorism. These attacks would have taken place no matter who was in power. If the BJP doesn’t watch itself and tries to take too much political mileage out of this, instead of having a hung assembly after the elections, the BJP, like last time out, because of its arrogance would find itself sitting in the left side of the house. By no means am I defending the congress. They have to admit their failure but the BJP is making sure that a lot of hatred that the peopel will have for the ruling is shifted towards them.

I hope Raj Thakkare wont have a problem with the non Marathi NSG officers saving Marathi lives.

The notion of having newer terror laws is purely a political propaganda. These terrorist come out to die. No law is going to deter them. What we need is a well equipped police system. People should not be allowed to run around with guns firing at people. Even though our forces are doing a very good job in handling the present situation, I feel that a lot more needs to be done. The police forces need to get more training and should be well equipped. There is no way that we can eliminate terrorism in the near future. What we can do is be prepared for such attacks, Modernization holds the key.

Our intelligence system has been getting a lot a stick. I feel people are being a bit unfair to do so. The geographical position of India is such that it’s a miracle we have had only these many terrorist attacks. We have wonderful neighbors; Pakistan, Bangladesh and China. China is not directly involved in the terrorist attacks in India but their support to Pakistan is really hurting us and I believe that is something that they want. We have a humongous cost line. To patrol the entire cost line is not an easy task.

People might wonder why India has more terrorist attacks than say USA. USA is very far from Pakistan and Bangladesh. It takes some doing to travel across the world with weapons and create havoc. It because of our relative position in the world that we are facing this many terrorist attacks.

What this attack has done is that it has shaken us very badly. The Prime ministers address to the nation was very strong. He literally said that Pakistan was involved in the attacks in one way or the other and said that there will be serious consequences. The way the PM has handled the entire situation is quite commendable. For the first time he is acting like the Prime Minister of India. The External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukkerji, also had some strong words for Pakistan. Top officials of our forces have also blamed Pakistan. Now from what I have seen so far, there is a serious deterioration of Indo-Pak relations which in turn can lead to a war. The Pakistan officials keeping that in mind are constantly in touch with India. War at this point of time can cause India dearly (economically).Right now we are in a situation where its gonna be really hard for us to find a job, on top of that if we have a war or something similar, things wont be too good for us. I really hope that such a step is not taken. I honestly do not think that the present government in Pakistan is directly involved in terrorist activities that originate from Pakistan. Moreover a war will destabilize Pakistan more and the situation won’t be favorable for India. I hope we handle the whole issue wrt Pakistan cautiously. The way the Pakistan side is reacting shows the seriousness of the matter. You see people in the highest level giving press conferences every 30mins, and are willing to answer each and every question. They are not acting in a way heads of states are supposed to act. This shows that even they are aware of the Pak link. Sending the ISI chief to India, how often does that happen?

This attack has had a huge impact on our image. We are going through tough economic times and this attack will affect us very adversely at least in the short term. The attack depicts India to the world as an unsafe place. Our political and intelligence system have got a bashing in the international media. There has been a huge dent in our image in the international front. Above all that the attack has angered the Indian public. As a result of this attack many changes can be expected on the ground. This attack in a way has helped us see the loop holes in our system. Hopefully the sentiment won’t die off and we can get to so some solid steps.

These terrorist who looks like school kids, have managed to terrorize a nation for more than 50 hours. Two things can be inferred out of this. First, they are well trained and are damn good in what they do. Second it doesn’t give a “good impression” about out preparedness. One terrorist with no hostages holding up scores of NSG personals, I do not know what to say.

Another thing that came to my notice was the accolades that the employees of both the hotels got from the trapped tourist. They have taken customer satisfaction to an all new level. There have been reports of many hotel staff putting their life at risk to come to the aid of their guests. The tourist also had praises for our security forces. I was also pretty impressed with they way many news channels handled the whole issue.

Even before the terrorist attack it was quite obvious that if some one comes up with a gun and starts shooting anywhere in the country, the chances of the person being gunned down before causing soem damage is very low. But this incident just took it to a whole new level. I hope serious reforms are made and our forces made more equiped to handle such situations.

Tragic the situation is, but I believe that a lot of good is going to come out of this. My heart goes out for every one who lost their lives. I was touched by the brave relatives of the people who lost loved ones. When the going gets tough the tough gets going. This incident has proved that in a crisis all humas are tough.

Innocent until proven guilty?

2008-11-12T19:33:00.000-08:00

Better to let 100 guilty men go free than to convict one innocent man, Innocent until proven guilty. These principles epitomize Indian democracy. The freedom that all of us enjoy, the sense of security that we feel, is because of this principle. Unfortunately today, I feel that some parts of the media have made a complete mockery of this. I do agree that all news channels to certain extend support the alleged victims to a certain extend, but certain other channels find it their duty to play the role of judiciary. I don’t watch all the news channels in India, but from the few I watch I found that, the news channel "Times Now"" is ridiculously amateur, completely unethical and out right stupid. Most of the murder cases that get covered by the media, they decided to come to a judgment just on the basis of what the alleged victim says.

Recently a goa minister’s son was accused of committing a rape of a German minor girl. The son might very well have done it. From him looks and his fathers track record its very likely that the son was guilty. An average person on the street can come to such a conclusion and may be tell every one but news channels need to be more responsible. Media has a huge impact on the public. It shapes their views. To blindly come to a judgment is ridiculous. To move ahead without even considering the fact that the allegation could be false is utterly dumb. It could well be a political propaganda.

I have a problem with this news channel. My parents seem to love it. They say they get politically unbiased views from this channel. They might get a politically unbiased view, but the views that they get are utterly stupid. Its one thing to have your own opinion on issues, but to spread ridiculously stupid views to the entire country and there by misleading the entire nation is unacceptable. Watching this channel made me realize what the term "evils of the media" really meant. They blow things completely out of proportion. Sensationalize things to the core. Take what people said completely out of context and put the worst possible meaning into it. There have been instances where their reports have been found to be false. They like to play with the emotions of the public.

I do agree that we got a few good news channels here and if this channel follows the same path with its amateur reporters they would go bankrupt. I can understand spicing up the news but taking the soul out of the news, i.e. the truth, is showing disrespect to their profession. Don’t get me started with the way in which their editor talks. He takes ages to come to the point, stutters like anything and his questions are so dumb.

Any way coming back to the topic, the role of the judiciary should be left to the judiciary. The medias role is to ensure that justice is done and not to give out judgments. They should look into the hindrances in the justice system and not play the role of a judge. They should always respect the fact that there could be a 1% chance that the accused could be innocent and keeping that in mind should refrain from defaming the person. I believe the role of the media is to report objectively. They can show passion in their reporting but should have a sense of reality with that. News channels influence a lot of people and they should always keep that in mind

Realization

2008-11-12T02:26:00.000-08:00

The dog incident reminded me how things can change within seconds. The dog and his friend were simply walking around, playing and all of a sudden one of them gets hit by a car and is badly injured (not sure if it is dead by now or is still alive). Neither of the dogs would have ever imagined such a thing would happen. The whole incident shook me, it hit me like a bolt of lightning. The sense that I own my destiny, I am in control of my future, just got knocked out of me. It reminded me that anything can happen to any one, reminded me that life is full of uncertainties.

My grand mother used to tell me that the reason why we have sorrows or bad situations is that god wants to test our faith. Another version is that god wants to ensure that we are reminded that he controls every thing and we give him the due respect. The question of the existence of god is debatable and we can never have a final word in this issue. But I do believe that incidents such as the one I had happens so that we are brought back to the ground. Humans tend to have this false sense of assurance that every thing is under control. People tend to take for granted that they are going to live one second from now. People take for granted that nothing will go wrong. I believe that such incidents happen when one looses a sense of reality. To ensure that we get our feet back in the ground faith or what ever one wants to call it make sure that we get our feet back in the ground and recognize the fact that we are just insignificant mortals in the large scheme of things.

Its not a dogs world

2008-11-11T21:07:00.000-08:00

Our society is not very kind to our animal friends. Today as I was coming back home in my bike, a dog jumped in front of me and luckily I didn’t hit him. 2 seconds later, the dog runs across the road and gets hit by a car. I hear sounds of the dog crying, my dad who was sitting behind me was telling me, move on the dog died. Fortunately the dog didn’t die. On second look, I found that the dog was injured badly and it was bleeding. The immediate response of the people who were standing by was to drive that dog away. The dog ran away. It was in excruciating pain. The whole incident tells us two things. One that I am a faint hearted person and second, we as a society seriously should change in the way we treat our animal friends.

The dog got hit by a car, it was an accident. It happens very often here. But the sad part is, no one knows what to do with an injured animal. The kind of animal control that is popular here is the ones that are there to electrocute them. I do not know any place where one can contact to take care of an injured animal. Even if such a place is there it’s not popular enough. Animals unlike humans are so sweet and honest. They are pure at heart. If treatment and care is available for anti social thugs, shouldn’t these animals get some kind of help? There needs to be a place where people get paid to rehabilitate injured animals. They should have the resources to get these animals from the street and given them proper care. As the fundamentals of our economy are very strong I do not see any reason for not having such an organization or institute. To run such a place the help of both the government and individuals are necessary.

Taking care of animals is not an easy task. For starters animals don’t pay you. Like the many charitable organizations that we have, we need one for animals too, a place where animals are taken care of instead of being electrocuted. On my part, an animal shelter goes into my "things to do before I die" list. No animal deserves to die alone in pain.

Elections 2009

2008-09-25T23:09:00.000-07:00

General elections are around the corner and I was wondering about the strategy that various parties would adopt to fight the next election. What I have noticed is that the Congress party has seriously under marketed their achievements. Unless you are a really curious person and wants to know about the achievements of the present government and is willing to spend quite a lot of time searching google or news paper archives for the information, its most likely that one would be clueless about what the present government did(apart from the Indo-US nuclear deal which by the way wont win you any elections any where).

When the previous government was in power they used to have 100's of ads enlightening the people about their vision for India, India shining, golden quadrilateral etc etc. They had an excellent marketing strategy. They ensured that every single policy they had was highlighted. But after doing all that they lot the elections.

Thus the question arise, is marketing really necessary for wining elections? I started following various social issues only about 8-10 years ago and hence my knowledge about the stuff that happened before that is limited. I strongly believe that a right marketing strategy would be crucial for winning an election. A huge majority of Indian voters do not have televisions and cables. One of the main reasons why BJP's strategy did not pay of is that they just concentrated on the small minority of voters(people with TV and stuff, basically the people who belong to the middle class and above), another reason being that the people were appalled with their communal/ hate politics that they had adopted.

I haven’t seen any ads of the congress government, even if there are its very few. As the cable TV viewing public is a small minority of the Indian voters, even if they don’t come up with any ads it really doesn’t matter. The various debates that happen in TV will get the message through to the urban voter. What really matters is if they are getting their message through to the ruler voter who is going to make or break their election. 6 or 7 months back i would have said that the congress had no chance in hell of winning or even competing in the coming election. Thanks to the various antics of the BJP the congress is back in the running. People in India do not want violence and they certainly wont support any party that is the root cause of this violence.

Marketing remains the key in this election also. The mantra of marketing is politics is same as in the normal marketing. Identify your target customers (voters), ensure that your message is received by the loud and clear. I do not think that the congress is going to win this election with a majority no matter what they do now. What they can do now is ensure that their policies and vision publicized in the right places. The congress came into power on the votes of the aam aadmi and they must ensure that the aam aadmi would trust them and believe in their policies once again for coming into power

I had completely ruled out the left from the 2009 elections but thanks to the trinamool unfortunately that is not going to happen. The happenings of the past few months have ensured that a clear winner won’t be there after the elections. What happens in the coming months will be very crucial. History has shown us that Indian elections are unpredictable. This one will be no different.

I am sooo happy

2008-09-25T01:53:00.000-07:00

Today the High Court has termed Raj Thackery and MNS as terrorist. It had a few harsh words for the police and the Maharashtra government. That just made my day. Finally better sense has prevailed. The icing on the cake would be to arrest Raj Thackery on the charge of disruption of peace and inciting communal violence, attempted murder and may be hindrance to national unity as well and put him behind bars for the rest of his sorry life and to that ban MNS as an organization citing national security reasons. Its shame that such creatures as Raj Thackery are allowed to move around freely in India. Gonda rule should not be allowed. People who are affected by his sorry excuse for an ideology should get together and beat the living crap out of these guys.

The whole purpose of me writing this is, hate politics should be dealt with extreme hate. People who think that they can do whatever they please and get away with it should be taken to task. In fact laws like POTA should be there to deal with such antisocial, antinational excuses of a human being. In a country in which the media is very dominant, where the people will always have the last say such creatures shouldn’t be allow to live freely. We should nip such behaviors in the bud itself. Frankly speaking if the "sorry excuse for a human being" continues to be arrogant and adamant and violates the Indian constitution one more site, a shoot at site order should be given against that "sorry excuse for a human being". This is ridiculous. I really hope next time when I hear about news about any violence caused by the “sorry excuses for a human being” its followed by the news of him being dead in an encounter or a news of his arrest followed by him getting a life sentence

Jai Hind

The Third world war

2008-09-15T03:48:00.000-07:00

It has been said or I may have made it up my self that the third world war is going to be fought over resources. With every passing day the thought seems to be coming closer to a reality. In fact we even have instances where battles have been fought for resources. I believe at this point of time humans are the only living creatures that does not follow(at least to a certain extend)Darwin’s "survival of the fittest" theory. When it comes to humans, the weakest are given the at most care. This is soon going to change. Its a fact that the resources in our planet are fast getting depleted. The time is not far from now when humans would have to fight for their survival. We can try and slow the process but it’s going to be inevitable. Too many people competing for too little resources.

Had humans followed Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest all the problems that we are facing now would never have occurred. Only the strongest would have survived and there will be plenty of resources for all. I believe all the natural and unnatural calamities are nature’s way to restore balance. As medical science has advanced so much that chances of one dying has been reduced to a great extend the scope of nature’s survival of the fittest policy.

A time will come when each country would have no choice but to attack other countries to get the resources it needs. That is why people say that the third world war will mark the end of the world. A war for resources will finish only when all the resources are depleted. (at a later stage people will fight against each other for resources).

Man is known for his resilience and innovations. We have faced all sort of atrocities and invariable have come on top. Since we are known to get going when the going gets tough, our only hope is that before such a situation happens or even after it has happened, man will come up with some innovations which will ensure the supply side shortage is overcome. I do believe that there is a limit to what man can do. Unless human being evolve into something that can live on land, air and water and can adapt to what ever is there in the world even if the world doesn’t end, Homo-sapiens as we know now will get extinct(Technically if man evolves into something else homo-sapiens will end there itself).

The fall of Lehman Brothers

2008-09-15T00:32:00.000-07:00

As I was watching the news i was shocked to hear that Lehman Brothers were going to file for bankruptcy. Even though this has not officially happened yet, its said that its just a matter of time. I am not sure if people saw this coming but I definitely didn’t. It was something like a wake up call for me even though I am in now away (at least directly) affected by the fall of the company. Naturally when a company files for bankruptcy the future of its employees won’t be that bright. That’s one of the reasons for my shock and fear.

Lehman Brothers is an old and a really big company. It’s a company which is supposedly trusted by many and till now in the wildest of my dreams i never expected this to happen. I have no particular liking for Lehman Brothers but the fall represents a bigger issue. Till today morning I was under the impression that if you have a good education, if you are reasonably smart the chances of you going broke is very little. Even though the people associated with Lehman brothers will or may get settled in various other jobs this is a reminder that anything can happen to any one. I never thought that the employees of the company would ever have to worry about such a situation arising. This shows that no one is safe in this day and age. Even if you are the richest, most established company in the world you could go bankrupt in the blink of an eye(at least form an outsiders point of view).

I don’t know if the bankruptcy is a part of a greater fraud or anything, but it has opened my eyes. Even though I have always have heard people say always reinvent yourself, innovate, never relax etc, its now that I am getting tangible evidence for the need to do the same. It tells us that we should never let our guard down.

What will happen to the employees? I don’t know. This has given me a harsh reminder on how harsh the private sector can be. Other companies have fallen before, but most of the times we always used to see it coming. Even though Lehman Brothers is not the first company to surprise the world by declaring bankruptcy, it’s not going to be the last. The number of such established companies going broke is rising alarmingly. Is this a part of the cycle where after a period of robust economic growth and security the depression starts which in turn will lead to another period of economic growth? I got absolutely no clue. What I know is, the resources in this planet is being used up at a rapid rate, unless there are some big time innovations the situation in the future is going to be very bleak. The concept of survival of the fittest will be taken to a all new level

Singur issue - The big picture

2008-09-14T06:33:00.000-07:00

What is happening in Singur is the left getting a taste of their own medicine. It was a kind of project that the left would have opposed any time. The whole Singur issue has given me a new found respect for the left. Its well known that the left often holds various issues for ransom(they hold the country at ransom), but they wind up their agitation in a decent way. Either they would have gone for a compromise formula or they would have got a promise of a compromise formula. Either way the damage they cause compared to what Mamatha Banerjee has caused is insignificant. What she has done in Singur is illogical. If she had done the whole agitation in a proper way, she would have got maximum political mileage from it. Unfortunately for her she overdid it big time. Rite now a part of West Bengal and India is very angry with her. This was a golden opportunity for her to get maximum seats in the coming Lok Sabha elections and other future elections and she blew it in the sense, the kind of advantage she had a couple of months back has reduced. Holding a state for ransom and not even thinking about the notion of a compromise is socially, politically and economically unacceptable. I do agree that the farmers should get a fair deal but what she has done is quite insane.

Apart form the politicians there are a bunch of environmentalist and social workers who are against this project. I am a person who is deeply concerned with global warming, soil erosion and other environmental issues. But nation has to progress and its far more better economically and environmentally to give farm land instead of forest land for setting up industries. Comparatively a large area in our country consists of farm land and it’s high time that we focused more of intensive agriculture. The environmentalist will always have a rigid stand and they have valid reasons for it, even if some of it is paranoia, we need such people so that we are reminded about the hazards of irresponsible industrialization. I believe any more deforestation is unacceptable and the only way out her is to give farm land.

Now coming to the bigger issue. The seizure of land by the government for development is something that will happen. The entire land belongs to the state and the state has the right to take the land for its citizens for the greater good of the society. The state is expected to pay compensation to the citizens but to expect "fair" compensation is unrealistic simply because the state doesn’t have enough money. "Reasonable" compensation is what should be expected. I agree that when it happens to you one would find it really unfair. Unfortunately for the development of the state such things are required. Without such seizers there wouldn’t be national highways, rail roads, airports etc. For the greater good of the society such things are bound to happen in the future. To keep on agitating and causing violence each and every time this happens is ridiculous. The only solution to this problem is all political parties coming to a consensus which is something very unrealistic. Hence my only hope is, even if there are agitations it would not be taken as far as what Mamtha Banarjee did.

PS: When Mamatha Banarjee was the railways minister she has misplaced many people and the kind of compensation that they got was equivalent to pocket change compared to what people in Singur are getting. This incident again proves to us all that politicians are hypocrites

Where are we heading to

2008-09-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

Yet another bomb blast in India, that too in the national capital. Is our national security that hopeless that no Indian can feel safe in their own home? For a country which is as big and great as India is the security situation here is pathetic. We compare our selves with China and in this front we lagging far behind. Instead of concentrating on state specific anti terror laws we should spend a major share of resources in counter terrorist units, terrorism prevention etc. As we are facing terror attacks after terror attacks and most of them are not being solved, the terrorist have an invincible feeling and for good reason. I am fed up of hearing politicians condemning these acts. It’s time for action.

We can solve this problem in two ways. Do the unthinkable, bring in the military into the country and destroy all the naxals, terrorist and various antisocial, anti national pieces of crap. Bringing the army into various parts of the country will have its side effects. The army will be ruthless and the normal life will be affected for sure. This will be very fast and will have political, economic and social fallouts (consider the example of Indira Gandhi and the Sikh issue). This will be a very effective method of solving this problem but is unlikely to be implemented. Military is only called upon if every single possible alternative has been thought about, implemented and failed.

The second way is a long and permanent way to solve the problem. We got to improve our intelligence system(even though we get intelligence on various bomb threats, we need to have more specific intelligence reports as where the bombs will be detonated), have a system through which each and every person in the country can be identified (some kind of ID card), much more security in our borders and various such steps should be taken. A central agency like the FBI should be there to prevent and investigate such attacks. We need to have experts in this field to ensure that our country becomes much safer. We need to improve our cyber crime prevention unit. There are so many hackers/crackers in this country and the government needs to utilize them in the most productive way possible. We need to intercept various communications so that we can prevent such acts of terror. Unfortunately to implement anything we need funds, which is something we lack.

The Home minister and the government have to take certain portion of the blame for such terror attacks. It seems that every state in India is a soft target. The problem that I have is that the government is not taking any concert steps. Even though I do not think BJP or any other party would have done anything better as the congress is ruling they should take responsibility for these attacks. I remember when I was small my parents used to tell me do not take anything kept on the road (like plastic covers or anything) as they could be bombs. There were various movies which showed various ways in which terrorist plant bombs. When ever we saw a cover or anything a bomb alert would automatically go in our minds. I believe its time that the present generation children got such training.

Can anything be done to monitor such a vast and diverse country like India? I don’t know the answer. But what the government can do is show the people what it is doing to prevent such acts. Give the people as sense that the government is doing what ever it can to ensure the safety of its citizens. The government needs to prove to the people of the nation that it cares. Every other week we see news reporters taking bombs into various sensitive areas and exposing the vulnerability of our system, which is very unsettling.

Another main issue which the government have to watch as a by product of these attacks is communal violence. The terrorist are not doing the Muslims in the country any good by these attacks. All attacks are done in the name of Allah. If the attacks keep on continuing the chances of communal violence in India is really high. Naxal attacks are a totally different issue all together.

Where do we go from here? I don’t know. What I want is very simple, strong and concrete action from the government. Instead of saying sorry (as the Home minister has just said) I want to know what the government is doing so that terrorist cannot plant bombs as easily as a child plants trees. I agree that all terror attacks cannot be prevented but the frequency with which these attacks are happening in India is alarmingly high. This is a time when the people of the nation are feeling unsafe. In a way these terror attacks are a way through which a nation which is deeply divided can find a common ground through which it can unite. The government, law enforcement agencies and the people of India should unite and tackle this problem together. Mutual cooperation is the only way through which India can get this messes of terrorism under control and move forward

The Nuclear drama

2008-09-04T21:45:00.000-07:00

Why on earth is every one in this country concerned over a letter that was circulated in the US rather than the actual 123 agreement which is legally binding internationally. The whole racket made by the opposition is on the issue of our right to test. They are still hung over by their "India Shining" campaign. They see India 10 notches above from what it actually is. Now about the issue, what will happen if we test? There will be sanctions; US might stop supplying after a year of negotiations. Is this something new? 123 agreement or not, if we test there will be serious consequences. Why on earth would the US want to keep on supplying to a country nuclear material to a country which tests nuclear weapons, it goes against the principle of nonproliferation.

At this point of time we are in nuclear isolation. The chances of us moving forward without the deal (wrt nuclear technology) is next to nil. The text of the 123 agreement has been made public and that’s what all of us should be concerned about. India has the right to test and the US has the right to withdraw supplies. I don’t see what is so dastardly about this. I still cant understand (other than simple politics) why the BJP is opposing this deal. It was during their regime that Indo-US relations started to improve.

I really do not believe that India should be concerned by a leaked letter. What is legal between India and the US i the 123 agreement. What happens inside US should not affect India and vice versa. In both countries the deal will be presented in a way which is politically right. There has been a lot of noise made over the nuclear deal by various sections the whole nuclear deal has been blow out of proportion. Majority of the noises about the nuclear deal is very vague. Without a proper understanding of the text, using certain words and phrases certain sections are tiring to make this into a larger issue. The text of the deal is public, stop worrying about some letter which is being circulated in some other country. If you look at it in a purely innocent way, Manmohan Singh is for the deal, APJ Abdul Kalam is for the deal. I would trust these people over Prakash Karat and Yashwant Sinha any day.

Another reason why there should be no more "left" in India

2008-09-02T04:02:00.000-07:00

After the trust vote as the left kind of went into political hibernation, I was getting used to not hearing outrageous/ridiculous statements(from the left). Unfortunately that was to last till today morning. In an interview to a Malayalam news channel, the Industries minister of Kerala was saying that if the industrialist had a realistic approach, no one will encounter any losses as a result of the hartals that prevail in Kerala. They should take into account the possible no of hartals that might occur every year and set targets accordingly. He even enlightened the viewers with an example of KSRTC's profit making mantra:|:|.

It is because of such ridiculous thinking, I feel that for the sake of the nation, the left should never have any say in politics. The left wont do anything for the development of the state and they wont let others do anything either. For the sake of a few the fundamental rights of the majority are violated. Hartals should represent the unity among people not fear. The most ridiculous part of a hartal is that it never produces any outcome. The reason for that is the people who call them have a different agenda. They do not want to find a solution but what they want is popularity. If a hartal is aimed at solving a problem, then instead of working on the fear of people the organizers would try and get the support of the masses. What we see today is disrespectful to the law and the people of the land. The only outcome of a hartal today is the disruption of normal life and loss of millions of rupees.

Most of the communist leaders in kerala are uneducated, unintelligent and more or less useless. Most of them are thugs. Instead of trying to bring peace and normalcy to the state they are trying to ensure that a state whose financial situation is one of the worst in the country becomes even worse. Hartals may or many not be right but for the minister of industries to give such an idiotic solution/explanation is unacceptable. I am not completely against the communist ideology as such, but with the kind of misguided leaders that the left has, who have no clue about what communism is and the party as a whole banking on power and fear to get more supporters it just a matter of time before my sweetest dream come true, THE END OF THE LEFT IN INDIA.

Ashamed of being an Indian?

2008-08-27T21:08:00.000-07:00

This is in reference to two major incidents that is taking place in our country. First is the insanity that is going on in Maharashtra. Even though the municipal corporation ( Maharashtra) had decided to make it mandatory for all shows to have sign boards in Marathi, Raj Thackery and his party works decides that its his moral responsibility to forcible, by causing a lot of destruction, instill fear in the minds of people and make them change their sign boards. I am fed up blaming Raj Thackery so I am not going to do that now, instead I blame the police for its failure to do its duty. If the police cant protect citizens, the god help us all. No wonder why terrorists target our country so often. If people can get away with various crimes in broad daylight then there is no chance in hell that any one will be caught if things are done in a planned fashion. I can understand a riot happening once in a while or disruption of peace occasionally, but the MNS is a party that is causing harm to the citizens of India time after time. Its a shame that neither the election commission nor the law enforcement agencies nor the judiciary has done anything to stop this madness. The situation is setting a wrong precedent. Every single organization would think that to achieve its goals violence is the best way forward. Its a shame that the citizens of India have no guarantee of their security. This issue needs to be addressed as soon as possible before it gets out of hand.

The second issue is the communal violence that is happening in Orrisa. The VHP leader was killed and I dont know who killed him. But the killings done by the VHP is absolutely dis speakable. If they are so damn sure that some christian works killed them, why couldn't they have killed the works who committed the crime instead of going after innocent people. Burning a nun alive! what kind of country do we live in. After committing the crime VHP leaders are defending what they did. I would have had no problems with them had they killed the people responsible for the murder of their leader. This is just plane insane. One of the problems that lead to all this is the religious conversion which take place in Orrisa. The people who get converted are the poor and the downtrodden. Why are the Hindu organizations getting anxious about them only when they get converted not when they are need of help. The BJP is a party which if affiliated to the VHP and many of its top leaders are active members of the VHP. If the VHP justifies the killings then so does each of its members. Defending a crime and provoking people to commit crimes should be punished.

All these communal riots shows the weakness of our society. People don't even have the slightest of fear in taking the law in their own hands. There is no use talking sense with these law breakers because they have a very different agenda from what they preach. We should have stricter laws. The problem with our democracy is that too much power is there in the hands of the people, at least people with political backing. A serious introspection is needed and a solution needs to be found or else the whole nation will be burn in no time

War should be in the mind

2008-08-19T04:07:00.000-07:00

When i was in school my history teacher was telling about the wars India had with Pakistan and the blunder which he thought Nehru had committed when he didn't capture Islamabad. At that time and even till few months back i did believe that what Nehru did was stupid. Recently I had a change of heart. If Nehru had captured Islamabad then India would have been bombarded with unprecedented acts of terrors. I am not talking about the Pakistani army getting resurrected and fighting wars against India, I am talking about rouge elements in Pakistan trying to get revenge by various acts of terror on civilians. Even though at this point of time India is facing lots of acts of terror, this would be nothing compared to what would have happened if we had captured Pakistan. Right now only a small minority in Pakistan have hatred towards India. The situation would have been much different hadn't Nehru done what he had done. There would have been a huge anti India sentiment and it would have been extremely easy for the extremist and the fundamentalist to exploit this feeling and plot against India. War by rouge elements in a country is much dangerous than a war by military forces. In a military war civilians are generally not targeted where as terrorist would not refrain from doing anything. Hence I believe what Nehru did was in the interest of the country.

Now the bigger issue," the war on terror". I got this point of view from a RC passage in some AIMCAT. Even if the US destroys Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Sudan and various other countries, they(or the world community) would never win the war on terror. When there is a war and innocent people die, the hatred towards the nation causing all the damage would sky rocket. Hence even if all the terrorist camps are destroyed its just a matter of time before new ones crop up. As people would lose what ever they have and are left with nothing to live for, naturally their only aim would be to make the country who caused them all the pain pay big time.(there are lots of examples, on of the most damaging on is the military action that Russia conducted on Chechnya, and the innumerable instances of innocent civilians killed by Chechnian terrorist as their response to Russia's military action) A terrorist to cause damage does not have to destroy an entire nation, all he/she has to do is target key locations and any nation would bleed. Even if no acts of terror are conducted, the mass hysteria that terrorist creates is even more dangerous than the terror acts. People feeling unsafe, various propaganda being circulated, the panic and fear the stays in peoples mind are various examples.

The only way to win the war against terror is in the mind. Only if we change the mind set of people can the war against terror be won. When people are reformed the chances of them turning back is very less. The only thing which any war can achieve is an exponential increase in hatred. Governments should take steps towards changing the mind sets of people. They should ensure that people are not lured by the terrorists. The various conditions such as poverty, illiteracy, hunger, which are the main cause for people to turn into extremist should be addressed by governments. No community should feel left out or discriminated against. Only when such a state is attained we can win the war against terrorism. Simply bombing and destroying countries wont do the trick.

Helpless!

2008-08-13T02:39:00.000-07:00

These are times in which one feel absolutely helpless and hopeless as an Indian. It makes one give up the hope of seeing a developed and prosperous India. I am talking about the absolutely unnecessary events that are taking place in Jammu and Kashmir and the even more unnecessary events that are taking place at various other parts of India as a result of the violence in J&K.

Mahatma Gandhi would be banging his head on the walls in heaven on seeing the consequence of his idea of "peaceful" protests\agitations taken to a all new level. What Gandhi did was necessary for getting India's freedom. Unfortunately total people are misusing the idea of satayagrah for their selfish needs. Right now in India the answer to any problem is to block roads, damage public\private property and injure civilians. I do not know what term can be used to describe the recent events in J&K. The protests and violence is no more about the Amarnath Land deal. It has become personal. It has become a fight between Jammu and Kashmir. The worst part is that people are falling for the separatist and other anti social groups in the region and causing violence.

The situation in Jammu is very volatile and communal. The thing that makes me so fucking angry is that when a region is divided and when the division is communal, the way parties and organizations such as the BJP, VHP, Shiva Sena behave. For getting a few votes/supporters they are willing to risk the national unity. In politics people will have different ideologies but its really sad to see that there are political parties in India which justify violence and are even willing to kill for getting more supporters. I remember L K Advani in an interview saying that, rules which are broken in political agitations cannot be considered criminal. This was his reaction when asked about the various deaths that occurred as a direct result of the various communal agitations that BJP and its affiliated groups have caused.

Today one person died as a result of the strike called by the VHP. This person was ill and was being taken to the hospital. His vehicle was not allowed to go by the VHP protesters. There are plenty of times when i feel patriotic and want to do something for the development of the nation, but at times like this I feel its much better if i migrate to some other country. In India violent protests occur for no reason at all and the more often than not the aim of the protest and destruction is to let people know about the party conduction the protest. Violence in Mumbai because at places they use the word "Bombay" or because of English sign boards at shops.

The recent so called agitations by the VHP and various Hindu hardliner groups is something which is to be condemned using the hardest possible words. The sad part is many people join these groups and believe what they are doing is right. The BJP is dilly dallying with being secular and communal. According to its convince it chose to be secular or communal. 61 years ago when the freedom fighters fought for India's independence they had one thing in their mind. An united India, an India where all its citizens are given equal rights, an India where people can follow any religion that they choose and have the freedom to express themselves. The problem with India is that we don't give enough importance to the constitution. Each and every individual should be made aware of his/her constitutional rights and then the situation here will change. The only difference between the Muslim extremist and Hindu extremist is that, Muslim extremist kill through out the world and the Hindu extremist kill just in India.

Protest are good and is essential for a democracy. But what is happening in India is not good, its an exploitation of the constitution. Citizens of India should do what ever it takes to ensure that its constitution is not violated. We should fight against all the groups which try to divide this nation on the basis of religion. India wont be India if its constitution is violated this often.

Why not us?

2008-08-12T08:07:00.000-07:00

After Abhinav Bindra won the gold in the 10m air riffle in the Beijing Olympics we all were in seventh heaven. The whole nation was celebrating. One of the first questions that popped up in my mind was, should we be jumping up and down when we got just one gold medal. A country with a population of more than a billion getting 1 out of the 1000 odd medals up for grabs, is it really something that deserve comments like, "we beat the Chinese"? At first my answer was a big NO. After a while the NO changed to " who am I kidding, as a sporting nation we are hopeless, celebrate every little success you get in the world stage."

After a while when i was watching TV, I heard a reporter asking, "is this medal the spark that India requires for being a world leader in sports?" The sports person in the panel replied, this is what was said about the silver that India won in Athens. All the hype and glory will died out within an year and everything was back to normal.

What he said was true and there was a good reason for that. The problem with these Olympic sports in India is that, after the Olympics is over, the telecast of such events is almost nil. So for people to follow various Olympic sports is quite hard and hence its natural the interest levels of people will dip after the Olympics(not that its over the roof during it). Another problem that we have is the role sports play in our lives. In the US and the various other sporting countries Olympic events are given a great importance in the grass root level ie the schools. A student can chose sports as a way of life. Achievers in various sports are given scholarships in all the universities and hence sports becomes a way of securing ones future. Unfortunately in India the people who take up sports and fail to reach the top are left with no option other than to beg. The sports people neglect their studies and pursue their dream and if it fails they are left on their own on the streets. Hence parents and children will have to think twice before getting into sports(excluding cricket).

For India to become a sporting power house, its not enough that we build thousands of stadiums and give people easy access to the facilities(I am not saying that we have thousands of stadiums fit for athletes to train properly). The government and various universities and schools should take steps to make sports a way of living. Even though we have sports quotas in colleges, a better plan needs to be there so that the people who step into sports feels save about their future. The problem with Indians is that we are afraid to take risks. Its quite hard for some one to do something which is a bit different. We copy a lot of stuff from the west, its high time that we take a leaf out of their book and implement a better sporting culture in our country. You can invest as much money as you want, but to get consistent results in sports you need a solid sporting culture.

Some of my favorite ads -PART 1

2008-08-09T20:10:00.000-07:00

The first ad that comes into my mind is the ones released by Bank Of India with the tag line "rishton ke jamapoonchi"(excuse spelling). It conveys a message that even though one can get every thing done without physically visiting the bank, it doesn't mean that the customers shouldn't visit them. They try to portray the bank and the customer as a part of a family.

There is one more ad that I liked, I could not find it now, will be uploading it as soon as i get the video

Its official - I AM HUMAN

2008-08-06T21:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday night as I was reading the flaws in Barak Obama's election campaign in my grand dad's house, i got an sms from a friend saying " our joining date came, August 28th, Chennai". At first I was like, ok cool. After a few seconds I got this really sick feeling that i am losing something thing. After another few seconds I was back to being cool. Called my friend up, talked about leaving and stuff, as my cell phone didn’t have much charge couldn’t talk for long. Before leaving home for my grand dad's house I saw that my cell didn’t have enough charge, but as I don’t get that many calls I decided not to take my charger. As luck would have it, I got the most no of sms's and phone calls yesterday since I took my cell.

After hanging up, I read the remaining part of the news paper, did some math and by 1:30 decided to go to sleep. After a few seconds, I couldn’t believe it. Me, Ken John Koshy, of all the people in the world. Mr. Tough guy, Mr. No Emotions, the person who always thinks in a logical fashion, who knows about the uncertainties and realities of life, who is realistic to the core, started to weep like a child who can not find its parent. I hadn’t cried like this in a long time, In fact I haven’t cried for that long a time that i forgot how to stop crying. I couldn’t breathe; water couldn’t stop falling from my eyes. Apparently this went on for more than 2 hours. I think the fact that so much violence is happening in India these days might have added to my sorrow.

After a while I was happy that I cried. I never had I thought that I would cry because a friend is leaving, after all it’s an eventuality. I always thought of my self to be emotional detached but from the information collected till now, I am the only fucking person who cried till now on this issue. The feeling that I got yesterday was a feeling I always wanted to get. It proved that I was a human being with feelings.

When I thought about this, this person was a friend of mine from the start of college. We had a love hate relationship, more of hate in the early years and more of love towards the later part. Never in the wildest dreams had I thought that I would be so said about the person leaving that I would sit and mop for 2 hours. She has given me many new experiences (nothing naughty), and this is the latest one. I have never in my life cried because I would miss something so badly. I am not sure how I will be passing my free time after 28th. When people in my college said they would miss college life and their friends, I was like; I won’t be missing any one. It’s a reality; we all have to part ways. Such feelings are either childish or artificial. Today I am saying I will miss all my friends :-<:-<:-<:((:((:((:(( What the fuck is wrong with me:((:((

Indian Politics

2008-08-04T04:14:00.000-07:00

One of the things I do not like about India is the Indian political system. I am not talking about the corruption and various other evils within the system; I am talking about the basic system itself. We have a multiparty system here in India, which means there is no limit to the number of political parties that can be formed in India (of course, there are certain rules for forming a new party). There are pros and cons for this type of a system. The main advantage is that the people of the country will always be in power. As there are many political parties they would try their best to ensure that voters vote for them and hence nothing that will adversely affect the general public will be or can be done. The disadvantage is that no work can be done in the parliament.

As there are too many parties representing different parts of the country, the chances of a single political party getting the majority and forming the government is next to impossible. Hence the new formula in Indian politics is "coalition politics". A few parties which will have a few ideologies in common will join hands and fight elections. The disadvantage of this system is that there will be too many egos. The various parties that form the government would want a share of power. Since these political parties who join hands have only a few set of ideologies in common, when it comes to the remaining issues there will always be confrontation. As a result political stability can only be ensured if the political parties find a middle path for all the issues, which is not always good.

Unlike in the US, where the leader of the country is directly elected by the people and is the most powerful person in the country, here the leader of the country is elected indirectly and is far less powerful. In the US the people elect a person and give him the authority to lead the country. As a result the president is directly responsible for the decisions that he/she takes. Here to get a bill passed is next to impossible.

The main advantage of our system as I mentioned earlier is that people will never lose power. The disadvantage is that the people views can be manipulated by various political parties so that the people will turn against the government. There is far less stability in the government when compared to countries which directly elect their leader. The term "dirty politics" is magnified here. It’s very easy for the opposition to mislead the nation. The constitution of our country is taken for granted. According to the convenience of the people they follow and break various sections of the constitution.

Even though our present system has quite a few merits I feel that very soon the demerits will over weigh the merits. Just consider the recent things that happened in the parliament. Now changing the constitution so that more stability can be attained in the country is not going to happen. I believe that serious studies and debates are needed about the political system in India and a solution needs to be found so that we can move ahead and be one of the leading nations in the world. Without political stability the prospects of development is dim.

Private Investment Crucial

2008-08-02T02:37:00.000-07:00

The only way that Indian can develop is if more and more private players invest in the development in India. Private players can range from big institutions to individuals. To depend on the government alone for development is hoping for the impossible to happen. Its simply not possible, especially for a vast and culturally diverse country like India. Even if the attitude of the investors is not to do good for others, at least for their selfish needs they have to do so. Our country is faced with rising inflation, lack of resources, lack of infrastructure, reservations and various other problems. The only way that we can solve all these problems is by tackling it at the root, and to do that we must all pitch in to develop our nation. The various sectors that come into my mind where we can pitch in are

Agriculture
Non conventional sources of energy
Rain water harvesting and various other recycling processes
Education
Public Transport
Health Care
Protecting national monuments and natural wonders

The main crisis the world is facing is the shortage of food. 62% of India's population is employed in agriculture. Unfortunately this 62% contributes only to 18% of our GDP. Our farmers still use less efficient methods of farming and they lack the proper marketing skills to sell their product. Private players should introduce scientific methods of farming to the farming communities. This should increase the productivity and profits of the farmers. They should be introduced to efficient methods of irrigation, cultivation and harvesting. I had read an article somewhere about organic farmers having to sell their products for low prices because of lack of marketing. I believe the farming sector should work like a proper organization with finance, marketing, HR, operations and various other sections.

Another important crisis that India and the world is facing is the shortage of energy and the harmful effects the production of energy has on the environment. We should use our large terrains to help reduce this problem. Private companies should invest in solar and wind mill farms in the desserts of Rajasthan and various other places. The farmers in Rajastan face a serious energy and money shortage. This can be eliminated by using its natural resources to our advantage. Private investors should explore funding various other sources of energy. They could even use these energy sources for their private use.

"Reduce, Reuse and Recycle ", it should be made the new hip thing to do. When i look around I see people burning their wastes, throwing it on the ground etc etc. The whole waste collection system should be made more organized. Awareness should be given to the people ensuring them that the small amounts of money they pay for recycling will benefit them in the long run. A more scientific approach to waste collection should be done.
Rain water harvesting is another important issue. In a country where every year we face droughts, it crucial we don’t waste a single drop of water. Implementation of water harvesting in houses and public places such as roads should be looked into more seriously.

Education is the most crucial sector in terms of development of a country. It is a breading ground for a new generation of inspired people who would do what it takes to make a change. Private players should try and give free and quality education to the poorer sections of the society. Even though government is trying to do its best to do so, they can not ensure that the students get quality education. Lack of funds should never be a reason for a student quitting his studies.

Public Transportation is a very efficient way through which the congestion in roads as well as fuel consumption can be reduced. Having an efficient, reliable and a comfortable public transportation system ensures that more people would use it. Public transportation also reduces the pollution level in cities.

Health care is something that India tends to over look. Private investors can invest there money into R&D for the cure of various diseases. They can also ensure that more hospitals are built with proper facilities and ensure that a person should not die because he cannot afford treatment. Enough no of ambulances and various other services should be provided so that emergency calls can be attended in time

Tourism is a way through which the private sector can make money off directly. They should try and take care of the various monuments in the country and various other tourist spots. They can have there products advertised in the region and even charge a small entry fee for the visitors. They could open up stalls near the place, have some food stalls, and do what ever that is necessary to get some returns, without damaging the tourist spot. By doing so we are ensuring that our national heritage is preserved at the same time the tourism industry gets a lift.

The sectors in which the private players can invest/contribute to is endless. When I talk about invest here, it is more or else giving money to ensure that our nation develops. As a token of appreciation, the government should give tax exemptions to the private players and various other perks such as giving priority in various tenders etc. After all it cannot be just one way traffic. People who earn more should give something back to the society so that their children or for that matter they themselves can live a more peaceful and less problematic life, with less inflation and adequate amount of resources.

There is an editor

2008-08-01T00:16:00.000-07:00

The "cash for vote" scandal was caught on tape with the help of the TV news channel "CNN-IBN". Even though when the MP's flashed currency notes in the Parliament, the channel refrained from showing the sting operation on television, instead handed over the full evidence to the Speaker. The channel later gave a press statement saying that the reason for not showing the footage was that, there were loops holes in the video, the evidence they had on tape was not concrete enough to prove that MP's were offered money. They also said that they did not want to sensationalize the issue which was, to their assessment not 100% credible, at such a critical juncture.

The way the channel handled the entire issue was commendable. The respect I have for the channel has increased because of this decision. At a time when news channels do not even think for one second before airing a report, trying to over hype/sensationalize issues without even getting the entire facts right just to have a slight edge over other rival channels, without thinking of the consequences of their action, CNN-IBN truly stands out. If they had aired the footage, the whole nation would have been watching their channel and the audience for other news channels would be next to nil. The brave decision took by the channel shows that ethics in journalism is not something of the past. It shows that there are still editors who think about the larger picture instead of short term gains.

If they had aired the footage people would have got influenced for sure. Even if the scam was later on found to be a scam, the reputation of the ruling parties would have had irreparable damages. I do not think any other news channel would have taken such a bold decision. At times when news channels enact stories about which it has no information about, god only knows what they would have done if they had got a story with little information in hand.

All news channels should take a cue from the actions of CNN-IBN, especially the Hindi news channels and channels like Headlines Today and Times Now. Journalist should understand the consequence of their actions. They should understand that any report aired will impact the entire nation. Far too often we have seen the above mentioned news channels air reports and few days down the line we find them to be misleading or false. I do believe that these news channels when they air such reports, they just want to make a name for themselves and do not have any other bad intention in mind. It's high time they started to act more responsibly. They should understand that what ever they say the nation will believe. The job of any news channel is to bring the truth to light and I believe all news channels are working on that principle. If there is the slightest of chance that a story can be false or misleading I believe that news channels should pull it off keeping in mind the larger interest of the nation/humanity. If news channels do not start to self regulate themselves in a more organized way they government would be forced to step in, which is not something any one wants

Irresponsible politics

2008-07-30T12:28:00.000-07:00

Recently Sushma Swaraj of the BJP said that the terrorist attacks that happened were part of a conspiracy of the congress to shift the attention of the people from the "cash for vote" scandal. That was an absolutely irresponsible and uncalled for statement from a relatively senior politician. That was a kind of statement that could create communal violence.

Well I am not going to question the validity of her accusation. It may or may not be right, but come on, give me a break. I don’t think any political party in India would put the citizens of the country at harms way for such an insignificant matter. With only a few months left for the parliament to conclude the chances of that scam to be solved/settled were very less. The reason why I felt that the comment was so outrageous was that, the logic behind that was so stupid and ridiculous. If she had said that the congress is behind the attacks because it wants to undermine the BJP lead state governments so that it can win the upcoming elections, it would have looked a bit more viable.

I am pretty sure that she didn’t mean to start any communal riots with the statement of hers. It was just plane old dirty politics to get more votes. People from the BJP have been making similar volatile comments in the past and party had faced a lot of criticism and embarrassment. I remember either Venkayya Naidu or Arun Jaitley saying in a press conference that the population of Muslims have increased a lot and the Hindu population has not increased correspondingly and hence Hindus should try to increase there population so that normalcy can be maintained. Similar outrageous statements were made by L K Advani on the Babri Masjid, and how can one forget Narendra Modi. The one positive that I found among these people were, even though they had done crimes for which they can never be forgiven, they have learned from their mistakes and have refrained from making statements that could lead to riots.(not included Sushma Swaraj). Even if Muslims still face a hard time in Gujrat, Modi is doing all that he can to clear his name and ensure that he is taking a comparatively more secular stand.

The antics of the BJP is nothing compared that to what Raj Thackery and the Shiva Sena do in Maharashtra. They have this obsession with the word "Mumbai" and everything Marata. They take up insignificant issues such as valentines day or westernization of the state and act as its moral police. Right now Raj Thackery is over shadowing the Shiva Sena in terms of violence caused. His aim is simple, to get more and more marata votes and for that he will use any means necessary, including violating the basic human rights and the Indian constitution. To a certain extend I can understand his point about Mumbai getting overcrowded with non Maratis, but Mumbai is what it is now because of such a culture. Not quite sure why he doesn’t have much of a problem with outsiders occupying other parts of Maharastra. Him being adamant over the word "Mumbai", ordering all films not to use the word "Bombay" and asking Bombay dieing to change its name to Mumbai dieing is quite outrageous and unconstitutional. The kind of hate he is spreading misguides his supporters. Even though i agree that the "marata" cause is important, to cause violence in that name is not acceptable. Raj Thackery is trying to eat into the Shiva Sena vote bank and for that he is creating all this havoc.

Getting voters on its side is what all political parties should do, but to adopt any means to do so is not right. Just like business ethics is given a lot of importance these days, lot of emphasis should be given to political ethics. I believe that the Indian voter get more mature and reject all unethical, immoral ways political parties use to come into power. Its quite sad that in the land of the Mahatma people find that only violence is the answer to any problem.

AIDS in India

2008-07-28T03:40:00.001-07:00

I was watching a public awareness ad on TV regarding AIDS. A boy wanted to get some action with a girl and the whole theme about the ad was surrounded around saying no to sex. The girl was saying I am young but not stupid, you should have the guts to say no. Even if that was not an exact description about the ad it is more or less what they were trying to say. Even though they were trying to do a good thing, I believe the way AIDS awareness is being handled is wrong /inaccurate(in India).

Go and ask a 10th standard student about how AIDS spread. The answer that 90% of the students will give will be either it spreads to sexual contact or it spreads if you have multiple sexual partners. Even though this answer seems right its only half the truth. In fact its incorrect. AIDS does not spread if you have sexual contact nor will it spread if you have multiple sexual partners. It will only spread from one infected person to another through various ways including sexual contact. I do not know how other countries and going about informing people about AIDS, but in India, as we have a conservative culture I think people are trying to use the fear of AIDS as a way through which they can prevent premarital sex.

Having premarital sex may or may not be right, but to give false information and have things done your way is not right. I asked a few of my classes mates how AIDS spread. Quite a few of them actually thought if one had sex with many partners they will get AIDS. They were under the impression that you were supposed to have sex with just one partner. If engineering college students think like that god knows what the rest think.

Even in schools, in exams when they are asked the question how AIDS spread; the students write "through sexual contact" and get full credit for it. Luckily I had a good science teacher who corrected us when we wrote the same response for the question.

Most of the AIDS campaigns surrounds around not having multiple partners or not having premarital sex. I believe in doing so the public is getting misguided. You won’t get AIDS if you have premarital sex nor will you get AIDS if you have sex with multiple partners. You won’t get AIDS if you have sex without condoms with a person who does not have AIDS. AIDS is a dangerous disease, but people must get their facts right. Because of such misguided campaigns people are afraid to have premarital sex and have other false information about AIDS.

More importance should be given to the actual ways in which AIDS can spread. The fact that it can only spread from one infected person to another should be stressed upon more. Use of condoms is a good thing, but even if you do not use it when you are with a person without the virus you won’t get the disease. As getting AIDS through sexual contact is under our control, more importance should be given to it.Students in schools should be informed properly. All the ways through which they can get AIDS and ways through which they cannot get should be explicitly stated to them and not left to their interpretation of various sentences.

Getting AIDS through infected needles are being reduced by the way the syringes are being made. Getting it through blood transfusion is not exactly in ones control. Hence I believe that the Ads (prevention of AIDS) are made with a good intention but unfortunately they sometimes tend to mislead the public. If the school teachers are trained to properly inform the students I believe a lot of misnomers will be gone. The only way that people will get accurate information about the disease is that they get it in the grass root level.

PS: Just to clear the air, I do not have a girl friend nor am i writing this because some girl refused to have sex with me. Thought that people are getting their facts wrong :P

Am I doing the right thing ?

2008-07-20T05:45:00.000-07:00

Even though I had promised myself that I won’t be writing any personal blogs, after getting loads of advice and opinions from concerned well wishers and bystanders, I thought that I should contemplate my decision here.

I just finished my final year of engineering and hopefully I wont have to write anymore exams under Kerala University. Last year I attempted CAT and after the exam was over I knew i got screwed or i screwed it up big time. The answer I gave when people asked me how did it go was that, I got gang raped over and over and over again for 2 hours 30 minutes. When the results came, I felt that to say that I was gang raped was an understatement. I was expecting the worst and what came was worse than the worst. It was like getting AIDS, herpes, gonorrhea, and various other STD's after getting gang raped and then finding that I would be the first male to give birth to a child. In the various other exams i fared decently. Not good enough to get into a good B school but was quite ok.

Now I had 3 options after passing out, join a software company or repeat my MBA exams or do both. Joining a software company and just settling down was not an option for me. Almost all my seniors who joined companies have told me 2 things. One that they are fed up of their lives, second that "MBA its now or never". Even if I ignore the second statement the fact that most of them hate their jobs and me being in that position was not something that I was looking forward to. To work and prepare for my exams seems quite impossible. It’s like trying to be good at two completely different and complicated things at the same time. I would reach home by 6 then be all tired and you know the rest. So I logically came to the conclusion that I got to repeat my MBA without going for any job.

Now is my decision right or wrong? People have been telling me, its a huge risk. if you do not get this time what are you going to do? You did not perform well last time what makes you think you can do well this time out? If you have work experience you will have an edge during the interviews. My parents were worried at first and I think they still are but are not showing it out.

The fact that I want to do an MBA shows that I got brains in my head. I know what i am doing is a huge risk. I know that there is absolutely no guarantee that I would get into a good B school this time out. Going for a job would be the easiest thing to do right now. You don’t have to study anything, you get paid for the work you do. You can party, do all kinds of stuff. I decided I did not want the easy way out. The fact that I am in touch with studies at the present moment and I would be more or less totally blank 2 years from now kind of went in favor of me repeating. The whole situation is filled with if's. If I go for a job I might grow roots there and would never do an MBA or 2 years down the road I might quit my job and prepare for MBA. Either way what I am doing now seems far less risky than the other options that I have. If you are wondering what all the fuss is about MBA to just clear the air, for having any kind of success in the corporate world you need an MBA, unless of course you are an exceptional person, which I might be but am not willing to bank on that.

Now I have taken a decision and there is no going back. Is my decision right? I do not know and do not think that any one can tell that. No one can ever know what would have happened if i had gone for the job. I might have become a millioner in a year or I might have quit and went for sanyas in the Himalayas. I have taken a decision and I got to stick by it. I may or may not get into a good B school. What i have got to do is give it my all. After that things are not in my hand. I do not want to be in a situation in which I would say to my self, if only I had done that.

So in general I would like to say. Take your own decisions, be responsible for it. Never regret any of the decision you have made for your on interest (by this I do not mean that if you think killing a man is good for you, you should do that). Do not worry too much about failures, better have them now than 20 years from now (you got to learn from them though :P). As they say failure is the stepping stone to success. Individual failures will be insignificant when you look at the larger scheme of things.

Population 436

2008-07-18T22:46:00.001-07:00

You could consider this as a creepy movie. You can not consider this as a horror movie as such as there are not many seens which will scare the living hell out of you.
The story is about a village whose population always remains a constant436. A census officer goes there to update the records and gets into all kind of trouble. He tries to figure the customs of the village and gets to know how screwed up that place is.
This is one creepy movie. Its definitely worth a watch

The declining state of Indian media

2008-07-18T08:48:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was surfing through the news channels; saw a report on headlines today about a man in an accident. A rod had passed through the man and he was still alive and breathing. I have seen a similar story in Replies believe it or not. Even though I d not have much of an impression about headlines today, I thought that showing it was not such a bad idea. Most of the other channels did not feature this report and to an extend it was an interesting piece of news. Then on every time when I stopped at headlines today while I was surfing the channels I found that they were showing this report. At night they even went to the extend of reenacting the whole incident.

You could forgive the fact that this particular news channel has amateur reporters if they at least tried to report something sensible. A main stream news channel should be clear about its purpose of being a news channel. Its job is to keep the public informed about important matters that affects the public. It should bring to light issues that require the attention of the government and the general public. Other than the main stream news channels we have sports news channels, entertainment news channels, various entertainment channels and the job of these channels is to entertain the general public. News channels should not try and take the place of these channels. I remember Cyrus Broacha's comment when he was asked about the various innovations that cricket channels are bringing in during its match analysis, the idea of adding spic into cricket. What he said was when he watches the analysis he wants to know about the technical details about the match said by some cricketer, not what a beautiful 20 year old woman has to say. Channels like MTV are there to give the viewers beautiful women and spice. Cricket channels shouldn’t try and do that. I agree with every word that he says.

Similarly news channels try and dilute its content. The content that headlines today present is appalling. The 50 odd days in which Mr Rajesh Talwar was in jail, each day they used to enact the murder and do all kinds of non sense. Rakhi Savent is another of their favorites. Every day when you switch the channel one ridiculous thing or the other will be there. The madness is endless, breaking news about Saif and Kareena fighting, controversy about Bipasha and Ronaldo kissing, the ridiculous stunts that they pulled when Harry Potter was released. The list goes on and on. Not to mention their ridiculous "sting" operations. One could argue that if I have that much problem with a channel I should stop watching it. But that’s not the point here. I do agree that news channels should do what it takes to get more TRP, but to steep to this level is not acceptable. Showing such news reports once in a while is nice, but to over do it and make that the only thing that is shown in the channel is quite a waste.

I am quite sad that channels like headlines today are forgetting why they came into the news business on the first place. Each channel will have a set of audience and the channel should ensure that it keeps its viewers well informed about relevant matters. Channels like headlines today are failing to do the duties of a news channel. Labeling them as news channels is a disgrace. I really hope that the channel goes bankrupt. Their reporters are worse than teenagers amateur reporters, the content nothing but distasteful and their ad which takes a hit on most news channels is quite unethical and immoral. All journalists belong to the same group and should have mutual respect. I really pray to god that it goes off air sooner rather than later. I do admit that it has many viewers; even my parents sit and watch it. The question you go to ask yourself is that, are they really showing the news?

Nuclear deal text

2008-07-17T01:48:00.000-07:00

Link to the full text of the 123 agreement between India and the US given in the official website of the ministry of external affairs

CLICK HERE

The link takes you directly to the MEA website

Indian and the world

2008-07-16T04:12:00.001-07:00

My 10th standard History teacher was teaching about world history ( something that happened 6-7 years back). NAM(Non Alignment Movement) came up. NAM countries , founded by Nehru of India, Sukarno of Indonesia and Tito of Yugoslavia(mainly), are countries which during the cold war period did not support either the USA or Russia. This does not tell us about the entire working of NAM but a part of the motivation of NAM was to have a set of countries which were independent of USA and erstwhile USSR. After saying this, he added. I will tell you a secreat, do not tell any one. Even though India was a NAM country it secretly supported USSR and some other country supported the US(not quite sure which country it was ). I mentioned this to stress upon the relationship between India and USSR.

India and Russia/USSR were virtually allies since India's independence. USSR provided us with technology and other military equipments and a moral support in all international matters. On our part we provided them with food. Russia is a country with which India has had an excellent relationship with. Russia has always supported every international endeavor of India. We used to buy military equipments from them. One thing which any sensible person will tell you is that, never leave a friend for another friend nor never pay less attention to an old and faithful friend when you get a new friend. Russia is our old friend. We should not try and improve our relations with US at the cost of Russia. Even though Russia is currently not as big a supper power as it used to be, Russia still has a big say in the world. If not anything its ethically not right on our part to ditch an old and faithful alley of ours for a new one.

The recent pro US statements by various Indian officials can be considered equivalent to backstabbing. Bilateral relationship with Russia is at an all time low. We have been neglecting Russia for a getting a better deal with the US. Its not just Russia that we have neglected. We have always had a good relationship with Iran and Iraq. Unfortunately because of our fascination with the US those relationships are also getting weak. India is trying to achieve an impossible balancing act. India wants to have good relation ship with all the countries. India is trying to take political diplomacy to an all new level.

From personal experience and various global events, its next to impossible to be a friend to all. 999 times out of 1000 if you try to have such a balancing act the result is going to be that most countries would think that India has a weak foreign policy and its only aim is to prosper using other countries. India should have a strong foreign policy. It should not change according to India's needs. Either India should go with the US, and when i say go with the US it should have a similar relation with the US as NATO or she should have a neutral relation with the US at the same time re kindling its old ties with Russia and various other countries. Its quite hard to have an ally like relationship with both the USA and Russia.

I agree that USA is a great country. Its the current super power. The reservation I have with having a close relationship with the US is that it will be like a traditional Indian marriage, with India being the bride and the US the groom. India will be forced to dance to the tune of the US. That's the impression that I get when i look at the present situation between the US and its various allies. US is a super power and it will do everything it can to ensure that it retains the title for as long as possible. Hence we should be really cautious when we go in for strengthening ties with the US even though it might be the need of the hour.

Strengthening ties with other countries is far less risky. The whole situation is like making an IPL team. Should you spend large and go for the big guns or should you be selective and chose utility players. Its a very tricky situation and is one which needs a lot of thought. The only thing i have to say that we have to ensure that we do not do anything to upset out old friends at the same time should make sure that India does not lag behind when compared to other countries in the world.

Indians and NRI's

2008-07-14T22:19:00.001-07:00

What is it with Indians and the people of Indian origin who live in other parts of the world? When ever a NRI or a person who is 1/512th Indian does some thing remotely significant, the entire Indian media goes gaga about the person. Since the media goes gaga it’s just a matter of time before the Indian public goes gaga over them. You can see various shows on the person. How a person of Indian origin achieved this and that. When I see the entire nation going gaga over some person whose only relation to India is that his great great grandfather was born in India and stayed here till he was 8 months old, one question comes to my mind. Are all of us out of our minds?

I can think of two logical explanations for this phenomenon. One is that we want to inspire the Indians. We want to show them that Indians can do anything. As a developing country we need to inspire the nations so that we can become a developed country. But do we really have to inspire people with stories about people who are 1/512^th Indian. Countless examples come into my mind. Sunitha Williams, Kalpana Chawala, spelling bee winners in the US, sports men in other countries, etc. I think there are plenty of Indians who live in India, whose stories can motivate us. Why makes stars of people who has got nothing to do with India. I am by no means downplaying their achievement, but it has nothing to do with India and hence I believe a bit too much importance is given to them. If the media searches inside India they would find plenty of examples of inspirational stories.

The second reason that I can think of is that we what to shout to the world that we are no less than any one. We want to tell them we are good in every field and we are a force to be reckoned with. It’s high time that we stopped doing that. We have been telling the world about ourselves for quite some time now. We should ensure that instead of ourselves bragging about India, the world must talk about us.

I do agree that NRI’s at one point of time was directly or indirectly related to India. But to be quite honest I don’t believe that we had anything to do with their success. It’s like a person donating sperm, finds out who bought his sperm, and then finds out that the grandchild of the child that was born using that sperm has won the Noble and the sperm donor taking credit for the success of that person. In short it’s quite ridiculous. It gives one the impression that we don’t have any successful person in India and we are so desperate that we try and look at all the successful people in the world and if they are related to India in one way or other we would try and take credit for it. (I remember a story during the 1999 or 2003 football world cup about Michele Oven being an Indian). My humble request is that don’t make act like fools. Be proud of being an Indian and of the success of other Indians. Do not try and take credit for matters where we don’t deserve any credit.

Secular Communal Divide

2008-07-10T05:49:00.000-07:00

Since the previous elections the main election issue of the UPA and the left is "to ensure that the communal forces do not come into power". I know that the BJP follows the hindutwa ideology. Supporters might argue that hindutwa is not a religious ideology, its a way of living or something in these lines, but to be quite honest, as a non Hindu, I have the impression that hindutwa represents a Hindu religious ideology and fear the fact that there will be religious intolerance if the BJP comes in power. Even if the BJP and their supporters disagree with me its there job to ensure that I feel safe with them being around. With their past track record and their carefree press conferences they have done themselves no favors.

I agree that the BJP has a "communal" image. Most of their elections have been fought on the basis of its Hindutwa ideology, but is it right/wise on the part of other parties to make all elections a competition between the communal forces and the secular forces? Personally I believe that it will start a dangerous trend. Even if the BJP wants to be a secular or a party whose main ideology is not hindutwa they wont be able to do so as a major chunk of its vote bank are the Hindu hardliners and if they try modifying their ideology to a more secular one the hardliner vote might get diverted and the secular voters who already have a bad image of the BJP wont vote for them.

I personally believe that if not for their stand on hindutwa BJP is quite a good party. Unfortunately the BJP is left with no choice but to follow that path. Most of the secular/ non Hindu vote goes to the UPA/Left and various other parties, the only people in India with not much political representation are the Hindus which the BJP target. If the political parties separate BJP as a communal party they would have no choice but to fight election on the basis of religion. Even though this is happening now, the danger of this communal secular divide is that it will force the BJP to take a harder stand on its hinduwta agenda which will be quite bad for the country once they come in power.

I hate the current political situation in India. Parties just know to oppose each other and their focus is on belittling the opposition not the betterment of their constituency or country. I am not saying that the BJP does everything in a moral way. I just felt that there was too much emphasis given on this "communal secular divide". Making religion as an election statement is never good. If you consider all the political parties as companies selling their products, the UPA and the left are saying is that, the reason why people should buy their product is not because its good but because the BJP's is bad and that’s not a good way to market your product.

For India to progress many thinks need to happen and one of those things is that political parties should be more responsible and work for the development of the nation rather than coming into power. Even though we are the largest democracy in the world we need to learn many things from other democracies. The situation here is not hopeless but there is scope for improvement, which is need for us to become a super power.

The Invasion

2008-07-09T06:03:00.000-07:00

Are we being invaded? Recently I have been reading/viewing reports of Russians settling in a particular region of Goa, and these Russians have a strong link with the Russian Mafia. There are reports of Bangladeshis occupying various parts of India and living in colonies. So are Nepalese, people from various other countries and these people have strong links with the mafias of various countries. Goa and various other tourist destinations in India is turning out to be a major hub for all the bad things.

As an Indian should I be concerned about people from various countries migrating into India? After all we can find Indians all over the world. I do not mind if people from other countries settle in India. The problem arises when they settle as groups. The same is true for Indians also. If the settlement is on the basis of some religious or nationality, then trouble is just around the corner. Take the example of the US, there you can find places where the migrant population has taken over various parts of the country. There are pockets where the Italians are strong and of course with the Italians there would be the Italian mafia. Similarly there would be Russian (Russian mafia), Chinese, Mexican, Colombian pockets. There are places where the blacks are more in number (no racism intended). These regions account for a large majority of crimes that happen in the US, ranging from drug trafficking, prostitution, extrosion, murder etc. The locals wont be able to enter these regions nor will any one from another group. There will be intra and inter gang wars which always leads to bloodshed. Right now the situation there is much better. In the early 70's and 80's the US government had absolutely no control over these people and the area they occupied. Only after a series of crack downs could they bring some normalcy. The situation is not still ideal there. Various diplomatic issues will arise when the police crack down on these pockets. America can be viewed as a country with many mini countries inside it. People in different groups consider each other to be enemies. In short there are many wars going on within America.

Allowing people to make groups and live is asking for trouble. People would be forced to live like animals, they would have to mark their territory, outsiders will try and control the territory and the Alfa males in the territory will defend it till they die. I believe that India should take note of what has happened in other countries and take appropriate action. I don’t think we should restrict people from settling here because we do that all the time and there is no need for that. What we need to ensure is that mini nations are not formed inside India. Many mini nations have popped up mainly in Goa, Jammu and various other tourist destinations. Handling this is a tricky situation but for the national interest we should so something about it. One possible solution is that our immigration department should be as strict as it is in other countries. Most of these foreigners are illegal immigrants. So for a start we should try implementing various laws that we have in this country. If this is done the chances of colonies popping up is reduced to a great extend. Various amendments can be made to the existing laws to prevent this from happening.

Living on the basis on certain ideologies is a dangerous thing. We have seen many riots because of this. If there are communal riots, Hindus will burn down a Muslim village and vice versa. Lot of these burnings could have been avoided if there was no separate village for the Hindus and Muslims. We can not stop the Hindus and Muslims or for that matter Indians of the same religion from living together as a group as the constitution gives the citizens on India to live where ever they want to. On the other hand we have more control over the settlements of the immigrants. Hence we should do every thing that we can to avoid various foreign mafias to take over various pockets in India. Various mafias having a stake in India is not good news. Until now we had to only deal with the Naxils, Mumbai's underworld and a few other groups. Just with these groups our police and various other security agencies are running out of ideas to tackle them. Even the notion of military intervention has been going around. Imagine the situation if along with these groups we have to deal with various highly organized mafia who are known to be more lethal than the underworld. This issue currently is not in the limelight. The sooner we realize the seriousness of the issue the better it is for the country and its citizens.

jane tu ya jaane na

2008-07-07T09:52:00.000-07:00

Before going to any Hindi movie, I lower my expectations and brace myself for a new low in cinematic experience. The same happened with this movie. This movie is not as stupid as most Hindi movies are. The chance of you getting bored or feeling like running way is very less. Most people wont have any difficulty sitting through the entire movie. It is quite entertaining. Unlike the various "comedy" films in bollywood one would definitely have some laughs here.

Coming to the story. Well its nothing new. The whole movie has been copied/"inspired" from various other movies. The whole naration of the movie by the friends of the leading characters to an outsider has been copied from at lest two movies (if my memory is right, chalte chalte). The whole concept of a boy and gal cant just be friends is the backbone of most movies in the Hindi film industry. The whole story looks quite a lot familiar to a Malayalam movie called "niram". Every thing in this movie is very predictable, which is how it should be in these types of movies. People see these movies to rekindle their dreams and the movies is supposed to make its viewers wish their lives would be similar to the ones of the characters in the movie. I thought that the role played by the Khan brothers was quite wasteful. It felt like the write was short of ideas and to make the movie long enough they were added. There are numerous other flaws in the film, but you will tend to forgive that because of the whole innocent nature of the film. The ending was horrendous though. About a 100 police officers chasing Imran Khan around an airport, under the impression that he is a terrorist, and not shooting at him with the 100's of guns they had. I could go on saying about that damn ending but it will never be enough. The whole seen was very distasteful, again it seemed like something to just give the movie an appropriate length.

I found the actors in the movie to be quite decent. They could give the present set of actors a run for their money. Most of them are relatively new hence I do not think they did a bad job. All the guys can only get better from here.

Coming back to the movie, I wonder why people make movies which are the exact copy of other movies or bits and pieces of other movies. It is just a waste of resources. It would be better off seeing the original. This movie is a good example of a lack of creative talent in the Hindi film industry. I would say, if u are just looking for a few laughs go for the movie. There is nothing creative or new about this movie, very predictable, just the same old friendship/love story. There is nothing that you can take back after you see the movie. Unfortunately this is one of the better Hindi movies that has been released in this year, which tells something about the industry.

NUMB3RS

2008-07-06T01:02:00.000-07:00

Its my time to be a critic now. I always wanted to do it. I am not much of a movie watcher but I watch a lot of English dram and sitcoms. So let me transform my wasteful habit into something productive.

Numbers, directed by Tony and Ridley Scott, tries to tell us about a new concept in crime solving. Here the FBI solves crimes with the help of Maths. The series revolves around an FBI agent Don Eppes who along with his team solves various crimes with the help of his brother Charley Eppes who happens to be a genius in Maths. It tries to introduce a new concept in crime solving to its viewers but i find it being done in a lackluster way. I do agree that mathematics can be used to solve crime to a certain extend but the way in which its depicted makes us believe that a mathematicians job is very simple. When ever a crime pops up, Charley has a magic algorithm put in place or or just gets an algorithm out of thin air within hours. The sheer magnitude of various mathematical problems are hidden from the viewer. The set of various databases they have is kind of absurd. It gives us the impression that crime solving is very easy. I guess most such TV shows are like that.

Along with the crime solving emphasis is given on the various interpersonal relationships. Its not an "in your face " kind of drama, but an effort is made to mix drama with crime solving. In certain episodes FBI agent Colby gets emotional with what happened to him in Afghanistan, which i think is quite needless. There are many needless ethical issues raised in various episodes.

With all its drawbacks Numb3rs is not by any stretch of the imagination a bad series. It is an entertainer. I would say a time pass. Even though its quite hard to find out the direct link between advanced maths and crime solving one can view it as any other crime series. Its sure worth a watch. Its neither critically acclaimed nor does it have a huge fan base. I would rate it as an average series which is quite watchable.

Break the rulz!!

2008-07-04T21:32:00.000-07:00

I am from Kerala and hence this post is mainly based on what goes around in Kerala. I am not too sure what is the situation like in other parts of India but from what I hear it’s much worse. I would like to start off by asking a simple question. If rules are meant to be broken, then why have them at all?

There are numerous rules in India/Kerala, some may not make any sense at all and some might be very meaningful. Regardless of the sensibility of a rule, the rule has been formed so that people abide by it. The punishment that can be given out for breaking a rule is given along with the rule. I do not know what the problem of the police is, but they just do not care if rules are followed or not. I am not talking about major crimes like murder or rape. The lesser crimes, breaking of traffic rule and various other rules. Even though these rule are not that serious, they are broken the most and maintaining them is essential for the smooth functioning of society. After all because of lack of implementation of these rules all of us have suffered a number of times. All of us have been stuck in traffic because of a car parked in a no parking zone, or how many accidents have occurred due to over speeding or breaking traffic rules and dont get me started on the transport buses and they way they stop at different bus stops. Its not like people bribe the police so that they do not get caught. A bribe will cost more than the actual fine that they have to pay.

There is this helmet rule in Kerala, even though its absurd, because the law thinks the life of the person sitting in the front is more important that that of the person sitting on the back, but having said that, a law is a law. Same is the case with the seat belt law. The police come out once in a blue moon and checks and selectively catches people. There are so many traffic violations happening in Kerala. People park in front of no parking signs, break the traffic signals, overtake from the wrong side, over speed etc etc etc. Why is the police so reluctant to charge these rule breakers?

Most states in India are virtually bankrupt. The police to people ratio in India is horrible. By getting fines from the rule bakers, every state can open 100 new police stations. More officers can be added. Even if the money does not go to the government, with that money lot of development can be done in the police force. They can buy new firearms, vehicles, shields, etc. Why do they have this much hesitancy in fining people. I can understand if they are getting bribes to do so, but they are not.

If you have a law makes sure you implement it. There are laws in Kerala which prohibits smoking in public places; another law prohibits spitting in public places. Should these laws be there is a totally different question. When a law is made, the law makers should make sure that the people are informed about these laws and the punishment for breaking these laws through various mediums. Once that is done with they should implement these laws strictly. If they have no plan to do so then why make the law in the first place? Making a law just for the sake of making new ones is very useless and waste of the tax payer's money.

This is one of the main difference between the west and us. There the traffic laws and various other laws and implemented properly. They have enough police officers for the implementation of these laws. Here even if a fight breaks out it will take ages for the police to get to the seen and even if they get there, they will be completely out numbered and they wont have any proper protection/equipment to handle the situation. There are not enough police officers patrolling the streets. When you venture out at night its quite hard to find a police jeep patrolling the streets.

If these laws are implemented properly the situation in our country will improve to a great extend. There will be lesser traffic accidents. The roads will be much more safer. In general there will be greater order in the cities. Hence i believe that law enforcement agencies should be more alert and do their job with greater efficiency. What more motivation does one need than a better and highly advanced working environment, better pay and better safety?

Twisted Justice??

2008-07-04T02:33:00.000-07:00

I really do not understand the justice systems prevailing in various countries. The whole judicial system is based on the principle that once an offender has committed a crime, he is send to jail so that when he comes out of his jail term he becomes a better person and can lead a normal life. I am not saying that the concept is right or wrong, but that’s the concept. That’s why people are sent to jail. That is one of the reasons why people are opposing the death penalty. But is the whole system hypocritical?

In the US and in most countries, finger prints, DNA etc of the convicts are stored and if at another crime seen if any trace of a former felon is found, then he/she would automatically be the prime suspect. If some crime happens and if a formal criminal is present in the neighborhood, then regardless of the evidence he/she becomes the prime suspect. In the US all sex offenders are registered. They are not supposed to live anywhere within 1000 yards of schools and other places where children can be found. When they move into a new locality all the neighbors would be notified about him. If the judicial system is do damn sure that if a sex offender comes any where close to a child, its almost certain that he would take advantage of the child, they why release the offender on the first place? To ensure that the police force doesn’t get bored! Aren’t jails and other centers constructed so that they can keep in trouble makers and make it outside world a lot safer?

If that’s the case I find two things wrong with the judicial system. First the judicial system works on the assumption that when a convict is freed, the chance of him committing another crime is very high. Hence I believe that the quantum of punishment and the severeness of punishments should increase. If you vandalize property, you would be given a hefty fine, which for most people is pocket cash. If you rob a bank, you would be send to 3-5 years in jail, which the appropriate time to plot another bank robbery. Unless a punishment acts as a strong deodorant there is no point in having the punishment. The punishment should bring a sense of fear in the minds of people. What people lose by getting caught should outweigh the benefits the person gets out of the crime by a huge margin.

The second problem I see with the judicial system is that even after a person pays his dues to the society, the tag of "criminal" still remains with the person. Like in the case of a sex offender, he has to go through a lot of formalities before he can do something. Many posts require its holders, not to have any criminal record. I can understand people preferring a person with no criminal over some one with a record, but I don’t understand the logic behind disqualifying a person because of his criminal record. That just downplays or overrides the whole purpose of achieving reforms by sending a person to jail. To say that a person is send to jail so that he can rectify his mistakes and then when he comes out he can have a new beginning and then when he comes out take away most of the person’s normal life is quite hypocritical.

I know that changing any system is next to impossible. I am not saying that the judicial system should be changed. I just do not get the whole idea of the various punishments given, the reason for giving punishments, the life of a person after his term ends. People say that after a jail term is over, the person is given a second chance to live. Life becomes very hard for them. In fact the present circumstances encourage former convicts to step into bigger crimes. I am just a confused person trying to make sense of the judicial system

The Nuke deal

2008-07-01T08:42:00.000-07:00

We are hearing a lot about the nuclear deal between India and the US these days. The left pulling support, BJP calling for no confidence motion, the Prime Minister getting emotional, Sonia Gandhi looking for a compromise, this that and what not. I am not going to get into the technicalities of the deal, as a lot have been said about the deal and I am not too sure about the entire details about the deal. I am just going to say what I feel is happening and what I feel should happen.

Is this deal good for India? Well right now India is struggling to meet its energy demands. Almost all the state run electricity boards are almost bankrupt and most states do not have the resources to buy power from the center. There are private players in this sector and they are working in a satisfactory manner. Our energy needs can’t be met with these alone. The future lies in nuclear energy and without which there is no way in hell that we can move forward. To have a double digit growth energy is vital.

The present nuclear deal between India and the US is the best that India can get. It’s basically now or never. If the deal slips through two things are likely to happen. One, India's credibility in the world will be tarnished, which in turn will affect other international deals. Secondly the next US government would not be as kind to us as the present US government. They would at the very least make modifications to the deal or scrap it all together. So if people are expecting a better bargain then they are living in a world of their own.

If the deal is good why are the political parties all up in arms against it? The answer is very simple. Politics! Had the BJP been in power they would have gone through the deal with out any hesitation. The left, well they got serious issues. The communist in India are confused about their ideology. So as of now, their strategy is to oppose anything that is related to the US or the west, or any price rise without thinking about the need or benefit of the issue. So there is no surprise that they are opposing it. The little vote bank that they have in the country they are trying to retain it with an anti US stand and other ridiculous tactics.

In a democracy, the job of the opposition is to oppose and that’s the only reason why many parties are against the deal. This is the sad truth about the Indian democracy. This is the best system that we have and have to live with it until we find a better solution. The opposition will oppose anything that the government puts forward without thinking about the larger consequence of their actions. Our Democracy lacks strong men/women who would set politics aside and do what is best for the nation. There is no way that there can be any compromise when it comes to the nuclear deal. It’s way too late for that now. Even if the opposing parts believe in the nuclear deal, they can’t change their stand now as it will have severe consequences.

What’s the way forward? Right now I am pretty much neutral in terms of politics; do not support any political party as of now. If the congress goes ahead with the deal, and there is a strong chance of that happening, I would definitely be supporting congress in the next elections. It will give the congress a strong character, which quite frankly it lacks now. So according to me the congress should have a, screw the left kind of attitude, and move forward with the deal. The alliance with the left was a disaster waiting to happen from the beginning. The left will have to withdraw support. They won’t have any other choice. It does not matter if the elections happen in November or when the term of the government finishes, the congress is not going to come in power next time out, nor will most of its alleys. I do not see the government bringing down inflation in this term and I guess they know that too. I would not say that they have done a bad job, but they are a party which was at the wrong place at the wrong time. Early elections or late elections, the left is screwed any way. The only reason why the left had this much power during this term is because of their performance in West Bengal and Kerala, which this time out won’t come any way close to last time. It will certainly lose out in West Bengal and the congress will gain a few more seats than last time out in Kerala. Hence the timing of the elections won’t make much of a difference to the people in power.

So the Prime Minister should go ahead with the nuclear deal. He personally believes it’s good for the country. If not anything, we should give a person of Manmohan Singh’s stature the benefit of the doubt. As different permutations and combinations are being worked out by various political parties, for the sake of our nation I hope the deal is passed.

Austerity - its now or never

2008-06-27T13:42:00.000-07:00

Recently our Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, after the increase in the prices of petroleum products, addressed the nation. His message was about austerity measures, the steps each citizen of India should take to tackle the out of control inflation. The response from the people was mixed. While some welcomed the Prime Ministers suggestion others thought it was a desperate last resort effort by the Prime Minister, who is trying to shift the blame of rising prices from the policies of the government to the people.

Personally I believe that the Prime Minister’s speech is 2 years too late. To be quite frank, it doesn’t matter if the congress is in power or the BJP or any other party. Inflation would be the same irrespective of the government in power. The only reason why the opposition and various news channels are screwing the government over this issue is because it’s their job to do so.

Talking about austerity, I believe it’s high time that all of us understood the seriousness of the issue. The reason for the rising inflation is lack of supply. To put it very simply we are running out of goods. When we were in our schools (talking about the people who are in their 20’s) we used to learn about renewable and non renewable resources. We were taught that petroleum and other non renewable resources would get over in the next 1000 to 2000 years and the renewable resources would not get used up as the rate at which it is generated is much more than the rate at which it’s being consumed. Unfortunately the scientist miscalculated the rate at which countries such as India and China would develop. Something which we thought would not happen even in our great great grand children’s life time is only a few years away. We are running out of resources and that too at a very rapid rate.

We had a false sense of safety till now. The rate at which the world is developing has ensured that the dooms day prediction which was 2000 years ago, has been advanced by more than 1800 years. Rising prices is a reality and there is absolutely nothing any government can do about it. If there is not enough oil there is nothing any one can do to bring its price is down. If there is not enough food, no one can say hocus pocus and bring its price down. Right now we are at a critical point. What we do now will determine the future of mankind.

There is a need for alternate source of energy but we need to give the scientist some time so that they can develop and implement it efficiently. There is a serious shortage of fuel, food, power, water and various other resources. I agree that the answer to these shortages is to improver the technology we use. Until that happens, we the citizens of earth should ensure that we don’t run out of these resources. We need to take steps to decrease our consumption. I do not think that there is any reason for panicking and going psycho about conservation, but each of us can take small steps to ensure that the supply - demand imbalance, the cause of inflation, is rectified by decreasing the demand. If the demand is reduced, then the rate at which prices are rising can be reduced to a great extend. The only way to do so is to cut down on our expenses.

There is a general feeling among people that why should any one tell them how to spend their hard earned money. The answer to that is we live is a society and for its smooth functioning we need the cooperation of every one in it. Price rise is a serious issue which affects every one. Prices are rising not because people want to make profit but because they don’t have enough goods to supply. So to ensure that inflation is under control we have to reduce consumption. If we handle the situation properly now there is still hope for our future.

Certain steps which one could take to reduce inflation include:

Decreasing fuel consumption buy reducing the leisure trips which we take, buying more fuel efficient vehicles, use bikes when ever possible, car pooling when ever possible, turning off you engines at traffic signals and when ever you stop your vehicle (a vehicle consumes more fuel when its stationary than when its moving), walk or cycle short distances, reduce the use of AC in cars, use public transport if possible, avoid traveling by planes for short distance.
Avoid buying stuff just for the sake of buying.
All the grand parties and weddings, a little decrease in the grandness would be nice
Conserve water and various other natural resource, at lest don’t waste
Conserve power by doing simple things such as switching off the fans and lights when no one is in the room, stop using the bulb, instead of switching off the tv buy the remote, turn off the switch, reduce using AC’s and heaters.

The whole austerity issues looks like an advertisement for global warming activist. At this moment both global warming and inflation are interrelated.

The ways through which we can reduce consumption is endless. Each one of us should try and set an example for others. Do we want a future in which when we are 80 years old, tired and worn out and we need to pay a fortune for electricity or we need to pay Rs 5000 for a 2km ride to the hospital? This sounds like exaggeration right now but this is going to be the harsh reality if we don’t take care of our resource now.

So I urge all of you to reduce consumption, be a responsible citizen, set examples for others, and spread the need for austerity so that we can have a tomorrow in which we don’t have to spend our life savings to get from one place to another, or feel cool in summer. If we act now we could still have all the little things that we take for granted tomorrow. Instead if we ignore all these warning, we would be having an uncertain future. Do we want our children, or for that matter ourselves, to live a life in which only if you are among the richest in the world you would be able to enjoy basic necessities such as electricity, food etc? If not, for your sake act now.

In the words of Captain Planet “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle “

Mathamillaatha Jeevan(Jeevan, the casteless)

2008-06-25T22:03:00.000-07:00

For a while now I have been planing to blog. As i am through with my exams, thought it would be a nice way to kill my time. For days I have been writing about various topics, but just could not seem to finish them. Today after a long time started to read the news paper. While i was going through the editorial of "The Hindu", saw an article on the text book controversy in Kerala. Even though it had been going on for a while now, I only paid attention to it today. After reading it felt like it would be the perfect topic to restart my blogging.

The whole issues surrounds around a class 7 Social Science text book. Apparently a lesson in the text book "Mathamillaatha Jeevan(Jeevan, the casteless)" is meant for propagating communist ideology. The extract from the lesson is given at the end of the blog and you decide for your self.

I am by no means a communist. In fact i believe that the only way India can move forward is if the communist have less or basically no power.( "If the Left have a future in India, then India has no future left" just felt like quoting this, heard it on TV, don't quite remember who said it). But in this case i am strongly behind the education minister and the communist government. After going through the text one question came to my mind. What the fuck? I found the text to be extremely harmless. The reason for introducing the lesson was to promote religious tolerance and give the children a different perspective on the matter of religion. They just wanted the child to think.

Various religious groups and the opposition have been protesting about the text for a while now. Don't these policy makers and leaders of our state have any other job rather than reading class 7 text books? Even if they had read it, i can understand them creating havoc if there was some basis in their allegations. It just gives the student a different take on religion. Is their religion so weak that, if their children get anything which questions it, their faith would go? I know that religion is very important and sacred for many people, but does that mean that one should eliminate everything that questions it? The thing i love about the Indian constitution is that it announces India as a secular country and gives us freedom of speech. Just because a particular view is not agreed upon by a few doesn't mean that it should be suppressed (as long as no law is broken by the view)? Even though our constitution gives us the freedom of speech, I find that these days people cant use it as freely as they should. I think people should be more flexible to different views. I believe that India is a better country than China just because of the freedom that Indians enjoy. I do not think that we should take that for granted and ensure that it is not taken away from us.

I know the job of the opposition is to oppose. The communist did it when the UDF was in power and now they are giving it back to the Left. But of all the issues to make noise they pick this one(this is quite true with all oppositions). Our states economy is in shambles, there is a serious lack of infrastructure, crime is increasing, there is water shortage, power shortage the list goes on and on. But the opposition thinks that a text book is the most important problem in Kerala.

I see no reason for the text to be withdrawn, nor do I seen any communist ideology in the lesson. All text books will contain different kind of ideologies. I do not think text books will change the way a child think as much as real life situations does. All this is a vicious cycle. I could go on and on about the advantages of freedom of speech and the drawbacks of politics in India, but it would be quite pointless. I believe each individual should try and do something, as little as it my be, about the stuff he/she wants to change.

Irrespective of the government in the opposition such ridiculously issues will often pop up. I believe its high time that the political parties act more selflessly . Oppose something if they truly believe its wrong. They should put the countries/states interest first rather than their own selfish interest( i know i am asking too much of them).

This is the controversial text(source - The Hindu 26/6/2008)

After seating the parents, who had come with their ward, in the chairs before him, the headmaster began filling the application form.
"Son, what's your name?"
"Jeevan"
"Good, nice name. father's name?"
"Anvar Rasheed"
"Mothers name ?"
"Lakshmi Devi "
The headmaster raised his head looked at the parent and asked:
"Which religion should we write?"
"None. Write there is no religion"
"Caste?"
"The same"
the headmaster leaned back in his chair and asked a little gravely:
"What if he feels the need for a religion when he grows up?"
"Let him choose his religion when he feels so"