One of the most boring subjects in school (right up there with Geography) was History. Well except the chapters that dealt with Shivaji beating his rival kings with a variety of tactics.
Even the ones that dealt with India's freedom struggle were generally Ho Hum , the dates meant to be memorized and forgotten the next year.
It is only now that i realize that this was a mistake and History can actually be quite interesting. But it is only so when the dry history of chronological events is combined with the view points and emotions of the person recounting that History.
And that is what i think makes the difference. A history of India is not as interesting as reading the discovery of India. India's freedom struggle is not as interesting as My experiments with Truth.
And to conclude with a quote
The lesson that History teaches us is that History often teaches the wrong lessons
Saturday, March 26, 2005
Shwaas
Its when you see movies like Shwaas, you wonder about all the things that movies can be and all the things that they are and the vast gulf between the two.
Shwaas has a simplistic storyline , designed to be a tear jerker. A boy needs an eye operation which will cause him to be blind for the rest of his life. The movie shows how this incident will affect everyone else around him , especially his GrandFather.
Its wonderful this affinity that grandchildren seem to have for their grandparents. And we'd know this even if the two characters werent being played by excellent characters.
The Helplessness of the Grandfather , his inability to tell his grand child what a life of blindness would mean to him , preferring to pass this burden to the doctor and a medical social worker(perhaps the only unrealistic character) and his final redemption in taking the child out for one last time, to show him whatever he has not seen is wonderfully portrayed.
It ends with hope. The boy is blind but he still laughs and claps.
It is said that Shwaas is based on a true story. If so i hope that the kid has achieved whatever he wanted to , blindness or no blindness
Shwaas has a simplistic storyline , designed to be a tear jerker. A boy needs an eye operation which will cause him to be blind for the rest of his life. The movie shows how this incident will affect everyone else around him , especially his GrandFather.
Its wonderful this affinity that grandchildren seem to have for their grandparents. And we'd know this even if the two characters werent being played by excellent characters.
The Helplessness of the Grandfather , his inability to tell his grand child what a life of blindness would mean to him , preferring to pass this burden to the doctor and a medical social worker(perhaps the only unrealistic character) and his final redemption in taking the child out for one last time, to show him whatever he has not seen is wonderfully portrayed.
It ends with hope. The boy is blind but he still laughs and claps.
It is said that Shwaas is based on a true story. If so i hope that the kid has achieved whatever he wanted to , blindness or no blindness
Holi
Where does a person's right end and the other person begin?(Your right to throw a punch ends where my face begins). This is especially true for festivals like Holi. I do NOT like getting wet or being coloured but i know that if i set foot outside my house this is the fate that will befall me.
Proponents of this festival will point out the deeper significances of Holi and that a few rowdy hooligans should not take away from the beauty of the festival as a whole.
There is however no such a thing as a festival by itself. It will always be judged on the basis of what the people celebrating it do. Like religion. Like a Country.
And so far the people who celebrate Holi do not pass this test with flying colours
Proponents of this festival will point out the deeper significances of Holi and that a few rowdy hooligans should not take away from the beauty of the festival as a whole.
There is however no such a thing as a festival by itself. It will always be judged on the basis of what the people celebrating it do. Like religion. Like a Country.
And so far the people who celebrate Holi do not pass this test with flying colours
Friday, March 25, 2005
Terry Schiavo
The courts have decided that Terry Schiavo's feeding tube is to be removed, a sort of euthanasia.
I have always been on the side of the pro lifers(and this includes abortion,euthanasia,against death penalties , wars ). This is to do with the fact that all decisions to the contrary are irreversible. If say for e.g. you agree to pull the plug on a brain dead persons life support system because you have no cure today you can't take back the decision ever. There is also the question of misuse. Because i dont know the right answer, its better to play safe.(A similar argument was offered by Carl Sagan to do with Protecting the Environment , Nuclear winter etc. He said that you always err on the side of caution)
The only time this belief was shaken was when i read Carl Sagans article on Abortion and The Slippery Slope. Its shaken because i can come up with no logical and rational argument to counter what he says other than I dont think its right. I tend to laugh at people who offer me similar arguments based on faith and belief.
And so to quote Mike Carey via Michael in Lucifer
"Justice is Gods prerogative, The rest of us can only do what we think is right"
Here's hoping that all the people involved in Terry's case do what they think is right , and for that reason only.
I have always been on the side of the pro lifers(and this includes abortion,euthanasia,against death penalties , wars ). This is to do with the fact that all decisions to the contrary are irreversible. If say for e.g. you agree to pull the plug on a brain dead persons life support system because you have no cure today you can't take back the decision ever. There is also the question of misuse. Because i dont know the right answer, its better to play safe.(A similar argument was offered by Carl Sagan to do with Protecting the Environment , Nuclear winter etc. He said that you always err on the side of caution)
The only time this belief was shaken was when i read Carl Sagans article on Abortion and The Slippery Slope. Its shaken because i can come up with no logical and rational argument to counter what he says other than I dont think its right. I tend to laugh at people who offer me similar arguments based on faith and belief.
And so to quote Mike Carey via Michael in Lucifer
"Justice is Gods prerogative, The rest of us can only do what we think is right"
Here's hoping that all the people involved in Terry's case do what they think is right , and for that reason only.
Sunday, March 20, 2005
Mental Health
The British Government is going to reassess its downgrade of cannabis because use of it may cause mental health problems. I think they confuse cause and effect. Use of such drugs demonstrates the presence of mental health problems
Friday, March 18, 2005
Weekly Roundup of News
The Sting Operation on Bollywood *ahem* stars has caused much discussion. The consensus among colleagues is that if you call someone like Shakti Kapoor to your room at night and get him drunk "what do you expect?". Much of the debate is centered around Invasion of Privacy and how it must be stopped. Unsurprisingly most of this debate is by the film stars who would like the print media to only see what they want it to see and publicize only what they want made public. However all things considered , discussions on what is public and what is private may not in itself be such a bad thing(Remember Big Brother is watching!). The one thing that I do notice is how little the discussion is on whether the casting couch exists. I think this has to do with two reasons. A) It is much more comfortable(!) to watch a Hindi film without wondering about how the heroine/supporting actress has landed her role. B) Everyone has already made up their minds that women are routinely harassed (sometimes its quid pro quo) in the film industry (among others) and therefore theres no point stating the obvious.
Narendra Modi has been denied a US visa. He has positioned this as an insult to India(I hate people who think they can speak for an entire country,state , community or whatever). Well students who want to study further are denied visas. Qualified Professionals are denied visas to work . No one considers that an insult though the people being denied are much more qualified individuals. He also raises the question whether India should deny visas to Americans because of the war in Iraq and for once he's right . I don't want to see George Bush granted access to India and this has nothing to do with a tit for tat gesture. And I for one would like to see Mr Modi go to America. With a one way ticket of course.
Sachin Tendulkar has missed another opportunity of a century , this time the victim of an incorrect umpire decision. Debates have been sparked again of the need of more 3rd umpire interaction. However when Sachin was declared not out and went on to make 94, no one made anything more of it other than a passing mention. I guess fairness should not be applied when it comes to cricket.
A Canadian judge has acquitted the people accused of the Kanishka bomb attacks on two planes. Im not quite aware of the details of the case. What interests me is the reaction of the people who claim a travesty of justice. A similar program on AXN had shown close relatives of victims reacting to sentences (of either acquittal or reduction) and most of these ended violently.
When does a person lose the right to live? And who among us can decide ? I myself have given conflicting answers to these questions depending on how much the incident under consideration has affected me.
And of what use are the courts if we cant believe their judgment
And how much do I really believe in Innocent till proven guilty
Narendra Modi has been denied a US visa. He has positioned this as an insult to India(I hate people who think they can speak for an entire country,state , community or whatever). Well students who want to study further are denied visas. Qualified Professionals are denied visas to work . No one considers that an insult though the people being denied are much more qualified individuals. He also raises the question whether India should deny visas to Americans because of the war in Iraq and for once he's right . I don't want to see George Bush granted access to India and this has nothing to do with a tit for tat gesture. And I for one would like to see Mr Modi go to America. With a one way ticket of course.
Sachin Tendulkar has missed another opportunity of a century , this time the victim of an incorrect umpire decision. Debates have been sparked again of the need of more 3rd umpire interaction. However when Sachin was declared not out and went on to make 94, no one made anything more of it other than a passing mention. I guess fairness should not be applied when it comes to cricket.
A Canadian judge has acquitted the people accused of the Kanishka bomb attacks on two planes. Im not quite aware of the details of the case. What interests me is the reaction of the people who claim a travesty of justice. A similar program on AXN had shown close relatives of victims reacting to sentences (of either acquittal or reduction) and most of these ended violently.
When does a person lose the right to live? And who among us can decide ? I myself have given conflicting answers to these questions depending on how much the incident under consideration has affected me.
And of what use are the courts if we cant believe their judgment
And how much do I really believe in Innocent till proven guilty
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Drinks and Drunks
A treatise on the various types of drinkers i know
a. The Knowledgeable Drunk - He is able to spin various anecdotes about the origin of the particular types of alcohol, the various combinations.
b. Loosens my Tongue - Is normally discreet, but a little bit of alcohol is all that is needed to get this guy to pour out his lives problem. Unfortunately sometimes he may pour out others problems as well
c. The Disgusting High/Low - People who belief that the time before you throw up or the time before you urinate(after you have drunk a lot of beer) are incredible highs. Then proceed to demonstrate said beliefs. Ugh!
d. My stomach is a bottomless Ocean - can imbibe huge quantities without being affected by any of it. Normally has a beatific expression on face while drinking
e. To Boldly go where no (wo)man has ever gone before - Will insist on trying new varieties or exotic sounding labels. This is inspite of the fact that in most cases the after effect immediately or next day are not going to be pretty
f. The Connosieur - Will drink only a particular brand and be a tee totaller otherwise
g. The More we are together - Gets other to drinks while managing to down all of a quarter of a peg in the whole evening. And gets drunk on it as well.
Saturday, March 12, 2005
IQ tests
While reading I. Asimov i came across the chapter on Mensa where the author states that there were two reasons he didnt want to give the Mensa IQ test - The first being that he was scared . Its a loss - loss situation for him and the second that such tests are set up to judge one facet of your intelligence by people who are good at the same facet of intelligence and ask questions which only judge that facet.
While i share the first fear ( I have never taken an IQ test , and of the two interviews given on the campus i flunked one and got shortlisted for the other, though i think that was more to do with my engineering grades than any of my answers) I dont think the author goes far enough in the condemnation of such tests.
So whether cream is denser than milk(true/false) Or Asked while cooking if you too much salt how do you recover the dish , which do you think takes more intelligence? or
How many days will it take for all the blue eyed people to jump into the ocean(given a complex set of rules) or how do you get a six year old who is more interested in the TV to read books?
or
given a set of geometrical shapes and asked to predict the next shape from a. b. c. or d. Or how do you get people to stop believing in the illogicalities of religion?
You can of course go on and on of the thorough uselessness of the Mensa - Ish questions
While i share the first fear ( I have never taken an IQ test , and of the two interviews given on the campus i flunked one and got shortlisted for the other, though i think that was more to do with my engineering grades than any of my answers) I dont think the author goes far enough in the condemnation of such tests.
So whether cream is denser than milk(true/false) Or Asked while cooking if you too much salt how do you recover the dish , which do you think takes more intelligence? or
How many days will it take for all the blue eyed people to jump into the ocean(given a complex set of rules) or how do you get a six year old who is more interested in the TV to read books?
or
given a set of geometrical shapes and asked to predict the next shape from a. b. c. or d. Or how do you get people to stop believing in the illogicalities of religion?
You can of course go on and on of the thorough uselessness of the Mensa - Ish questions
Irony
In todays Times Of India a photo which shows Congress *Gandhians* Re enacting Gandhiji's Dandi March with the person leading the march a likeness of Gandhiji. (The March or Time Mar 13 2005)
The Backdrop of the photo is the promo of the film Fun with a Bikini Clad Payal Rohatgi's assets prominently displayed. The promo is split into two by the Indian Flag.
Note I do not say whether this is good or bad , merely amusing
On the subject of ironies , a Muslim kid has won the VHP organised Ramayan parichay yojana.
The Backdrop of the photo is the promo of the film Fun with a Bikini Clad Payal Rohatgi's assets prominently displayed. The promo is split into two by the Indian Flag.
Note I do not say whether this is good or bad , merely amusing
On the subject of ironies , a Muslim kid has won the VHP organised Ramayan parichay yojana.
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
Internet Filters
I had to look up some data on the internet to find out ways of converting an xml/html format to PDF. Over the weekend i had narrowed it down to JasperReports , iText or docBook. So on what was a holiday(today) i decided to go to work download the code and try out samples.
http://www.docbook.org is blocked from my work place. As far as i know This is the location of DocBook - The definitive Guide . Still searching for samples on docbook , i found selfdocbook. When I went to download the sample xml - blocked(the rest of the site worked!). Finally iText I clicked documentation - no luck blocked again. At which point i shutdown my machine and went Home
So herewith a criticism on the Insidious Practice of Internet Site Blocking in vogue at most companies these days
These are the reasons i have heard from various people why this must be so
a) Prevent your employees from wasting time in non work related activities
b) Prevent virus attacks
c) Prevent Objectionable content from being read
d) Prevent distribution of inappropriate materials
e) Prevent illegal activities (like downloading mp3s)
f) Saves Bandwidth by restricting access to sites
So here goes
You cant prevent a) no matter what you do. If your employee is not sincere no amount of policing is going to make it so.
We have an on access virus scanner so if its upto dateno one should be infected . If it isnt the case then the internet via a browser is not going to be the only way to infect the machine.
c) is laughable since no one defines what Objectionable is .
The internet is not the only way for d) and nothing is done of the rest of the ways .
I would say its obvious that e) shouldnt affect the employer but such is the state of our laws.
f) We have had strict policies in place and it hasn't improved the speeds (as perceived by me) one bit.
Arguments about punishing the majority for the sins of the minority fall on deaf ears.
Repeated demonstrations that sites needed for work are being blocked have met no success only trite quotes like 'sometimes business needed sites will get blocked' you just have to tell us we'll unblock it. the fact that it sometimes takes days doesnt seem to concern these representatives of efficiency.
It was interesting to read a debate published by an Indian newspaper about an argument for and argument against restricting internet access to employees. the argument for was made by the security head of my company. The argument against was the CEO of some other indian organisation. At the end the CEO looked like a young dynamic liberal guy whose company seemed to be a cool place to work at, where the employees are trusted. The Security Head came through as an Old fashioned Police Havaldar . The type who looks at a mouse and wonders what new fangled contraption has been invented now
The bottom line is i have one less reason to continue working for my company
http://www.docbook.org is blocked from my work place. As far as i know This is the location of DocBook - The definitive Guide . Still searching for samples on docbook , i found selfdocbook. When I went to download the sample xml - blocked(the rest of the site worked!). Finally iText I clicked documentation - no luck blocked again. At which point i shutdown my machine and went Home
So herewith a criticism on the Insidious Practice of Internet Site Blocking in vogue at most companies these days
These are the reasons i have heard from various people why this must be so
a) Prevent your employees from wasting time in non work related activities
b) Prevent virus attacks
c) Prevent Objectionable content from being read
d) Prevent distribution of inappropriate materials
e) Prevent illegal activities (like downloading mp3s)
f) Saves Bandwidth by restricting access to sites
So here goes
You cant prevent a) no matter what you do. If your employee is not sincere no amount of policing is going to make it so.
We have an on access virus scanner so if its upto dateno one should be infected . If it isnt the case then the internet via a browser is not going to be the only way to infect the machine.
c) is laughable since no one defines what Objectionable is .
The internet is not the only way for d) and nothing is done of the rest of the ways .
I would say its obvious that e) shouldnt affect the employer but such is the state of our laws.
f) We have had strict policies in place and it hasn't improved the speeds (as perceived by me) one bit.
Arguments about punishing the majority for the sins of the minority fall on deaf ears.
Repeated demonstrations that sites needed for work are being blocked have met no success only trite quotes like 'sometimes business needed sites will get blocked' you just have to tell us we'll unblock it. the fact that it sometimes takes days doesnt seem to concern these representatives of efficiency.
It was interesting to read a debate published by an Indian newspaper about an argument for and argument against restricting internet access to employees. the argument for was made by the security head of my company. The argument against was the CEO of some other indian organisation. At the end the CEO looked like a young dynamic liberal guy whose company seemed to be a cool place to work at, where the employees are trusted. The Security Head came through as an Old fashioned Police Havaldar . The type who looks at a mouse and wonders what new fangled contraption has been invented now
The bottom line is i have one less reason to continue working for my company
Sunday, March 06, 2005
The Company of Children
I think the one thing guaranteed to cure boredom or to lighten an otherwise dark mood is the company of children. being behind a deadline ,working on a weekend and being poorly paid for it are all forgotten in the happy activity of punching holes on a sheet of paper with a 2-3 yr old and then blowing the remnants in the air to watch them glide down to the dustbin
or helping them scribble on the whiteboard with markers or watching some cartoon with them.
I think that one of the gifts i have is that i can till now still play with chidren who are a tenth of my age and be like them albeit for a brief period and for that im thankful
or helping them scribble on the whiteboard with markers or watching some cartoon with them.
I think that one of the gifts i have is that i can till now still play with chidren who are a tenth of my age and be like them albeit for a brief period and for that im thankful
Sins
As expected the movie Sins has caused controversy(disclaimer i havent seen the movie) with a section of the catholic community protesting the depiction of a preist having an affair with a woman and a subsequent abortion
It has given rise to comments such as "what will school children think of their principals now" , "all my years as an educationist have gone to the dogs"
Ironically there are also statements such as "in these intolerant times showing movies such as these will only increase hatred towards missionaries"
So here goes ,( i was born into a south indian hindu family schooled in a jesuit school and currently dislike all religion)
I wonder what exactly the nun was teaching if a movie can make all her education go to the dogs
In these intolerant times it is necessary that the normal person be as tolerant as possible.
I think no less of my school principal , whichever movie hollywood/bollywood makes and will make(Yes Father Joe /Father Edmund /Father Aran i will always have respect for you though we may choose irreverent nicknames for you like eddy - monty).
And if you really think this movie does you harm , just go look at the number of priest accused and convicted amidst allegations of molestation
Perhaps one of the good thing hinduism as it was practised before(my memory is hazy and this may be a case of seeing the past with rose tinted glasses) did not need its people to affirm it. Christianity and Islam came and all Hinduism said was bring it on and it survived. That is off course no longer the case. The practisers of hinduism these days believe that they must shout its virtues from the rooftops and feel obliged to respond to provocations in kind and sometimes be the chief provokers themselves.
It has given rise to comments such as "what will school children think of their principals now" , "all my years as an educationist have gone to the dogs"
Ironically there are also statements such as "in these intolerant times showing movies such as these will only increase hatred towards missionaries"
So here goes ,( i was born into a south indian hindu family schooled in a jesuit school and currently dislike all religion)
I wonder what exactly the nun was teaching if a movie can make all her education go to the dogs
In these intolerant times it is necessary that the normal person be as tolerant as possible.
I think no less of my school principal , whichever movie hollywood/bollywood makes and will make(Yes Father Joe /Father Edmund /Father Aran i will always have respect for you though we may choose irreverent nicknames for you like eddy - monty).
And if you really think this movie does you harm , just go look at the number of priest accused and convicted amidst allegations of molestation
Perhaps one of the good thing hinduism as it was practised before(my memory is hazy and this may be a case of seeing the past with rose tinted glasses) did not need its people to affirm it. Christianity and Islam came and all Hinduism said was bring it on and it survived. That is off course no longer the case. The practisers of hinduism these days believe that they must shout its virtues from the rooftops and feel obliged to respond to provocations in kind and sometimes be the chief provokers themselves.
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