An Original Joke

Courtesy of Sanjay
We were discussing George W Bush and the topic turned around to how Bush has a DUI. And someone helpfully added that Bush used to drink a lot , before Laura Bush gave him an ultimatum which was "Either me or the drink" after which George cleaned up his act and gave up alcohol. To which Sanjay responded (with a typical mallu accent). Oh you know, George Bush is known for making wrong decisions!

If you believe in truth , fairness, balance, objectivity , there's nothing here for you, move on. Ms Coulter has written one long hysterical rant, for a set audience (rabid conservatives) and if you dont fall in that category , you wont like this book. According to Ms Coulter

1) The Republicans have all enacted successful policies, the Democrats have screwed up everything, and where they haven't its because they inherited the good work of the republicans and where the republicans screwed up is because of democratic policies previously enacted(e.g. 9/11 happened because Bill Clinton didn't act on the evidence he had).

2)Ms Coulter goes after the people the Democrats put up to state their case who cant be touched or criticized. e.g. The widows of the people who died in 9/11. The mothers of soldiers who have died in the war. She then proceeds to accuse these women of all sorts of things(like they did it for the publicity, they did it for the money, they took so much pleasure grieving for their husbands deaths) while repeating that nobody is allowed to criticise them. Leading to the obvious inference Ann Coulter = nobody.

3) Onwards to teachers who according to her are above criticism and nobody is allowed to criticise them or public schools either. So nobody i.e. Ms Coulter, than proceeds to do exactly that criticise public schools, bring out statistics to number of children abused by school teachers v/s number of children abused by priests. I'm not sure what she wanted to prove there.

4) Ms Coulter attacks evolution and brings up fact after fact that evolution cant explain. She evidently is of the school of thought that believes that attacking Evolution proves that Intelligent design or Creationism must be correct(a false dichotomy). She repeats her contradictory statement that Darwin made that shows that evolution can never be disapproved and how theories that cant be disapproved aren't science and then proceeds to write four chapters trying to disprove evolution. Which is it Ms Coulter?

The sad bit is , this book is a bestseller.

A Bachelors Recipe

If Recipes were written by single (albeit committed) bachelors then I guess they would look like the following
Moong Curry
Ingredients
Sprouted Moong (Mandatory) as much as you feel you can eat * number of times you want to eat it, Coconut(optional), Dhania Jeera powder(optional), Red chilli powder (or green chillies or red chilly whole), Turmeric powder(optional), 1 small onion (optional), salt(mandatory), curry leaves (optional), mustard seeds(optional), hing(optional),oil(mandatory)
Also a mixer and othere cooking utensils

Steps
1. Confirm recipe from mom.
2. Cross check with recipe site(e.g. food.sify.com)
3. Add the moong and salt to pressure cooker, and add enough water. Hint If the salt is less you can add more later, if the salt is too much you have to order from Pizza Hut.
4. Cover and cook for 2 whistles (slight hard) or 3 whistles(mush)
5. Simultaneously grind to fine paste scraped coconut(or frozen and defrosted ) , chopped onion, dhania jeera, red chilli powder and turmeric powder.
5. If in hurry cool the cooker under water else wait till the steam goes away. Ignore mom's tip that the skin of the moong will now be floating as a. It isnt and b. It is too much work.
6. Now heat oil in a pan (use in inverse proportion to your health consciousness). Add the paste (the coconut , not the overdone moong) and heat till you run out of patience (or till it starts sticking to the pan and makes you spend half an hour cleaning it later). Add the tamarind water. Damn forgot the tamarind. Quickly heat water and tamarind microwave till warm, squeeze out the water and add the tamarind water to pan.
7. Now add the moong(with the water it was boiled in). Keep stirring sometime , taste.
8. Separately heat oil , add mustard till crackle, curry leaves and a pinch of hing
9 Add to the moong , stir.

Cricket

India lose a match that they could have drawn and should have drawn but it wasn't to be. Australia go on to equal the world record and its a pity because they didnt deserve it. The Indians have no one but themselves to blame. But But But Australia didnt deserve it. It wasn't only the umpire's aiding and abetting some really poor decisions , but Ganguly being declared out is the worst. Why did the umpire ask Ponting? And why did Ponting ask Clarke? He has to say he didn't see it not that my player says he caught it.
It ironical to see how the word monkey is thought racist in western culture though it is an everyday insult(and sometimes even a god) in Indian culture. Having said that if harbhajan did call Symonds that he was probably using it in the racist sense. But the time that he said it , India were doing well. Its far more likely that the Australians needled him (as they always do when a batsman actually does well against them) and he responded. And it is a sad state for cricket that Harbhajan could probably have called symonds a f***er or an A$$0 or said he sleeps with symonds wife or fathered symonds children and got away with it (which the Aussies do all the time and such comments are even treated as classics - hows your wife, hows my children) but he can't call symonds a monkey. But ultimately its a matter of evidence. Its Symond's word against Harbhajan and whether or not you believe Harbhajan guilty , you need to show proof. Otherwise what the match referee is saying is I believe Symonds over Harbhajan which isn't a fair decision. By all means ban Harbhajan if proven guilty but share the evidence please.
And even more hypocritical is Mike Proctor hasnt banned Ponting for claiming a dubious catch http://www.rediff.com/cricket/2008/jan/07prem.htm while doing the same for Rashid Latif. Heck here's racism.
Oh and bye bye Mr Bucknor.
The only problem is that australia will win test number 17 and test number 18. Justice demands that they not win the next one , but as we have seen from this test , Justice is blind - even when there is a third umpire.

Evolution

Its quite funny reading the Intelligent Design folk's. Evolution cant explain some thing which clearly show a designer (to them). They do however stop short of saying who the Designer is. And then they wonder why people laugh at them. Here are my reasons.
a. Who is the designer. God(and which one?)? Aliens? Our descendants from the future? Fairies? Our duplicates from a parallel world? To be taken seriously the Intelligent design theory would have to make some guesses (including how to verify the guess) about the designer and his motivations. The utter hypocrisy where they stop short of saying the designer is the god of the religion I happen to believe in causes them to be the subject of much ridicule.
b. Who designed the designer? if he always existed or himself evolved then why is it so difficult to believe life evolved.
c. Why did so many species become extinct (even without man's interfering). Was some of the design flawed?
d. Why call it 'Intelligent ' design. Except for our brains, a lot of the other bits of human is not very intelligent. Why wouldn't you have designed man (who is made in god's own image after all) as someone who could tolerate extreme temperatures, be the fastest, strongest species? Why have human's vulnerable to most sickness? Why have two kidneys (when humans can get by with one) but only one heart and one brain? Why have the universe and then have humanity needing to breathe so that we cannot (without a lot of help) explore it? We seem to be as well designed as early version's of MS DOS!. Call it somewhat workable barely intelligent design if you will (we are talkign about an omnipotent designer so I assume the designer could have made us more efficient if the designer wanted that).

Atheists

Seeing a slew of youtube debates on Atheism and related matters. Primary Atheists being Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins. Those on God's side being Dinesh D'souza, The Reverend Al sharpton, Tom Haggard et al. Christopher Hitchens appears to come across as someone who is severly disillusioned with humanity and has now given up trying to convince other people and is satisfied insulting them and feeling smug and superior to them. It then quite surprising that I still find I side with some of his views than those opposing them , though Christopher is too extreme (and so are the people who oppose him).
I guess its something to do with the way debates are structured in the wester world. When they debate Atheist's v/s People who believe in God or Atheist's v/s Religion, they are actually debating Atheists v/s Christianity. Or to quote Richard dawkins - I just believe in one less god than you do(or 30,000 lesser if your Indian or a handful if your greek).Which isnt the same debate. The believer's also make the same point's which sound non-sensical to a believer in a non interfering god but not religion.
a. How can morality exist in the absence of God - Easy. Its called a brain.
b. How can you create something out of nothing(referring to the origin of the universe) -The same way in which God was created. There is no way to answer this type of question.
c. Religion has done good too - Oh of course. And it has done some bad. Why not to move towards some scheme that has the good and eliminates the bad? Religion is static(unless you create new ones like scientology - oh waits thats a cult or is it?) and doesnt account for changing culture and sensibilities!
d. Atheists have killed more people than religion (Mao , Stalin, Pol Pot and arguably Hitler) - Umm yes , and it proves what exactly? That some atheists are bad? I wonder why god created them! Free will of course. Oh and thats why we were handed down a set of doctrines?
e. My religion didnt do anything like this! - Umm yes thats kind of the point.
f. Science has been wrong before! Science doesnt know everything - Yes and it freely admits to it. Unlike extremists (on both sides) who claim to know everything. Only an idiot can be 100% certain of anything (Scott Adams). The difference is in ideal science , you question everything and you hope to improve from where you are today noting that tomorrow you may find that you were wrong today. religion on the other hand says its is eternally right, That questioning belief is not good (and for those who say , no way my religion believes that questioning makes the faith grow stronger , try asking these questions out loudly in public). As Isaac Asimov stated , when asked a question to which he doesnt know an answer to, He says as a rationalist he isn't compelled to answer. There are some things he doesnt know. Whereas an extreme religious person will always say it's because God wants it to be so.

It is also quite heartening and not very surprising to see the debates are of much better quality than political ones



One thing that really irritated me watching the Dinesh Dsouza - Christopher Hitchen's debate was Dinesh's assertion that even though his ancestor's might have disagreed , he's quite glad that the portuguese forcibly (in some cases) converted people to Christianity because that's why he's christian today, Its sort of like the British argument that India progressed only because of them , they laid down the trains tracks etc - so the looting and killing is quite acceptable.
There is of course no evidence that we wouldnt have managed it on our own.

Funny too seeing the Reverend Al Sharpton denounce mormon's in the debate with Christopher Hitchens and then try to spin the story to appear that he's not the one to blame. Americans politicians have lots in common with their Indian counterparts. They think their audience are fools. Unfortunately they are quite correct.

Belief

Reading The Miracle Detective, I wondered , if someone appeared before you and said he/she was God(or related to God), what would it take for you to be convinced?
Lets assume that any act (e.g. turning night into day, blossoming flowers in winter, levitation, teleportation) etc are performed by said entity at a snap of a finger. Would you believe?
And then I wonder suppose there is a devout Hare Rama Hare Krishna type who believes say Krishna is the only true god and also believes lets say the Bhagwad Gita as the literal word of Krishna. If the entity appears to him, says Yes I am Krishna , But the Bhagwad Gita are not my words , my teachings are actually closer to whatever Buddha(Or Christ or Mohammed) taught. Would the devout person believe? or would he think he is being hoodwinked by an Asur?
What if the entity says, yes the Bhagwad Gita are actually my(God's) words but Im not krishna Im actually Buddha(Or Christ or Mohammed) would the devout person believe? or would he think he is being hoodwinked?
And what if the entity says sorry , you chose the wrong gods neither the philosophy nor the god you believe in are correct. Would the devout person believe?
Note that any miraculous activity can be performed by said entity without any problem.
In most cases I think we'd only believe if the entity said exactly what we believed in before we encountered the entity.
I guess Mark Millar touched upon this topic in Chosen , before he chose the ending for shock value (oh what a book it would have been if Millar had chosen(pun) a different ending).

News Roundup

India wins the Twenty 20 Cup! Hooray , everyone's hooked into cricket again, Will we beat the Aussies? Let's hope so.

The Iranian president is called to Columbia University and is roundly insulted. I have no pity for the Iranian president , but still, he was a guest. What is it about American's that they feel they have to insult the other guy in order to show they disapprove or disagree?
Laughable really , the president's answer to how badly gays are treated in Iran , he said they aren't any gays in Iran , which caused everyone to laugh. Not a laughing matter and people should have been able to show lists of the people executed for their sexual preference in Iran. Sadly no one seems to go into a debate prepared.
Someone on the net had written. Ahmedijinad and Bush , a dangerous maniac and a nutcase. The only question is which is which.

Ram Setu. Sigh.

Hindu Muslim riots caused by Twenty 20 celebrations. Sigh.

It looks like there is nothing that a bunch of extremists cant spoil. The moral ground gained after the Pak captain's comments has been lost. Perhap's shah rukh khan should bring out a national integration movie after his success with Chak De! Speaking of which , its quite surprising how a cliched predictable movie can be quite entertaining.(Perhaps the company in which you watch the movie has something to do with it :) )

An interesting question raised by the high court. if various castes can be added to the list of Backward castes for reservations, how is it that none of the existing castes are dropping off from that list.? Speaks for the (lack of) success of caste based reservations, no?

I wonder if like Musharraf we can also deport most of our politicians to saudi arabia or someplace far away?

On Religion

I have been undertaking a particularly unpleasant task the past few days. Ive been reading various discussions that people have undertaken on topics that have been kicked off , directly or indirectly by Robert Spencer. See for example the discussions related to his books on Amazon or his website. Some have reviewed his book(s) unfavorably with a memorable line 'My God is better than your Allah nyah, nyah, nyah'.
Rather than commenting on the comments which truth be told leave a bad taste(by both sides), there are some general observations that can be made.
Religious right wing characters generally have no sense of humour. I wonder if this also implies that having a good sense of humour means a person wont be deeply religious.
The quality of debate on any controversial topic is extremely poor. Most indulge in ad hominem attacks. There will always be some people who believe that saying the same thing multiple times makes it true.

A question that bothers me about religion is whether it should be judged by what it preaches or whether it is to be judged by what is practised by it's followers. Earlier I believed that it is obvious that it is the latter. But what if the practice is not ascribed to religion?
e.g. If a person says he bombs a place for his religion is his religion to blame?
If a person says he bombs a country A because his country B is threatened by A and not for his religion , is his religion to blame?
What if the religion tacitly approves of acts of war ?
(If you believe that this religion is a euphemism for Islam, you haven't read the Bhagwad Gita or the Old Testament)
If I think about it, I believe that the problem is not with only due to religion. When a person gives up the right to think for himself, and lets other's choose his path for him, it has always caused problems. Someone will probably point out that the people doing the choosing are thinking for themselves and they cause the problem too. Perhaps , but if some leader say's kill those bunch of people who differ from us in X ways, and a mob goes ahead and kills them, who does the blame lie with more? The leader or the mob?
I'd currently go with the mob.
And religion does tell you that it will do the thinking for you. It will lay down the guidelines for you to follow. It will determine the right and wrong. It is perfect, absolute and the only way. There is no doubt, only faith, doubt is a sin.
History suggests that religion or atleast the followers of religion have caused many problems. History also suggests that man atleast is not smart enough to learn lessons from it.
.....
There was a time when i bought books that would be considered controversial , and usually i agreed with the views that the book promoted before i bought the book. Then i thought, what's the point , i already agree with the book. (e.g. Buying a Michael Moore book). Then i bought books which endorsed a point of view that I didnt agree with. but now I've decided , I shall not sacrifice any of my money on royalties to people who clearly dont deserve it (Ann Coulter , Im talking about you!). I almost bought Robert Spencer's book Why Christianity is a Religion of Peace and Islam isn't, till I saw Ann Coulter singing it's praises. The book was kept back in it's shelf.
Oh and does it matter if the religion is peaceful but the people who practise it aren't?

Thinking Americans

Reporter to Adlai Stevenson "Mr Stevenson , you have the vote of every thinking American"
Stevenson "Thats fine, but unfortunately I need a majority to win"
Its a pity the Americans voted Eisenhower instead , I think Stevenson would have been a better choice.

Critics and their choices

Funnily enough, i havent begun to write but I already dislike critics. Not because they are rude or cynical or seem to enjoy trading insults, but because even the material they praise has a sameness to it.
The times has a list of top 10 graphic novels and a self proclaimed Graphic Literature Library: 25 books from 25 years for smart, sophisticated readers.
And im struck by the lack of graphic novels as most graphic novels readers are aware of. I embarked on a course to read some of these from my friendly neighborhood library. And there were some truly amazing gems (Persepolis which made laugh and feel sad at the same time). But it looks like the critics here too want graphic novels to be exactly the same as the movies and books they rate highly.
Look through the top 10 list , There's Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns and Bone, stories that are imaginative and comic-booky. But the other choices?
I expected lots from Blankets love and religion collide (a topic i am intimately familiar with) but it was vaguely unsatisfying, perhaps because it is semi autobiographical, it didnt have a satisfying conclusion or indeed explanation.
The boulevard of broken dreams was a ho hum so so book. And no i didnt find the explores the nature of reality, the mystery of inspiration, the exploitation of pop culture and the redemptive power of art.
Onward to David Boring , its tempting to quip Boring!. Note the "truly novelistic approach to graphical storytelling" umm why not write a novel? But anyway the story wasnt that great , nor was the art and this cant be a top 10 can it?
Jimmy Corrigan , i was excited to get the book, because the last time I had someone(Rudyard Kipling) describe a book as the perfect short story it turned out to be Lord Emsworth and the girlfriend. And boy was that a perfect short story. But Jimmy Corrigan? Hard to read, difficult to comprehend, generally depressing and eminently forgettable.
Moving onto the 25 list , I wonder if the Golems mighty swing would make it to the list if it didnt have a jewish team playing. Its a good book but not a top 25 book. Louis Riel was ok , not knowing much of canadian history i guess i dont identify much with this story. Maus is a good book , but except for the bit where spiegelman shows 10 pages he wrote when he contemplated suicide, the rest of the book was , I felt vastly overrated. But anything related to the holocaust automatically gets praise. Just ask Steven Spielberg. Though Maus was definitely very good just not as good as all the critics say it is.
And then i lost interest in reading more of the critics choice.
Theres a common thread in most of their choices. 'Realistic fiction' , preferably depressing and dark, and mostly similar to work that is available in books or movies.
And I find that i dislike it. I think how many times humor comics or perhaps even books and movies have made it to say an award in their respective fields? Its so much easier to write dark , 'realistic' stories. (I always quote realistic because is there any writing that states the truth and nothing but the truth so help me god?)
Lets not go into why are Sandman, Lucifer, Swamp Thing, Fables, Y, V for vendetta absent from the list (I count collected paperback as graphic novels)
Lets not even go into why are pure superhero action books missing from the set A year one or whatever happened to the man of tomorrow
But no mention of Asterix and Calvin and Hobbes? Why are they not funny enough or is fun not meant to be an attribute of a book? In all my life i havent met anyone who has read Asterix and who didnt have fond memories of them(some preferred tintin but thats a different article). Indeed most would read them again. Oh and Calvin and Hobbes. But humor , making someone laugh, is not a good enough motive by itself. And so youll never see any of the books that make you smile ever on these top lists.
But then perhaps i should stop reading the lists compiled by others and go read Vol I - The complete Calvin and Hobbes
Its a magical world...

Presidential elections

The BBC covers the current US presidential candidates (current) opinions. And i want to see how i matched up. So here we go

a. The war : No one wins in a war, and it looks like only Obama realises this. Note John Edwards and Hillary Clinton say something to the effect that if I knew then what i know now I wouldve opposed the war. And so even though the entire world except Tony Blair knew this war was being fought on false pretenses these two claim ignorance! That should probably disqualify them from the election. More important is that they supported the war with incomplete and now incorrect evidence. The republicans candidates come of as fundamentalists with their we wouldn't have handled the war this way, yah right. I would never support or indeed vote for people who openly support war as a means of resolving a problem. People who dont give a damn for lives (both their countrymen in the army and those from the opposing side) shouldnt be allowed anywhere near a government. For those who see a broader context in the war i remember star trek's the original "the greatest good of the greatest number" to which the next generation responds with "how many lives does it take before it becomes wrong"
b. The economy : While i can claim almost total ignorance here, Mr Obama and Ms Clinton seems to recognise that education is important. The rest are all about tax cuts or spending cuts. its hard to think of any problem that cant be solved with an educated(as opposed to literate) population
c. National Security : Ms clinton military response suggestion is laughable. Attacks are not always by something that you can have a military response for. Almost everyone here supported the Patriot act, though Mr obama has criticised and reauthorised it thereby earning more negative points. Im surprised that no candidate has stated stop interfering in other countries affairs, we are not a global pandu. Stop patronising extremist states which sooner or later turn on you. That would reduce the need for extreme national security.
d. Illegal immigration : Im not sure why americans even debate this topic. "illegal" immigrants have to be sent back , at most you could say that we wont hold this against you if you apply legally. The broader issue is stupid and complicated immigrant laws. Note that my views that there should be no rules as to who can work where, as this earth is not (to put it in my native slang) "your father in law's or what" , would ensure that my votes tally would remain 0.
e. Health care : for the amount of taxes we pay , health care should be free for everyone. Its not practical till you consider how much money the US of A spends on arms and arms research and how many times over the armaments they currently have could destroy the earth.
f. Social issues : Abortion is one issue im totally conflicted with , the right of a woman to choose conflicting with the embryo/child not being given a choice. I'd rather they werent any (Except where the mother's life is in danger which is pretty clear cut) and that people were educated enough so there arent any , but i also think id not want a child to be born whose mother wanted to abort it but didnt do so because the government made it illegal. I dont think there is a right answer here so id have to settle for the parents can choose.
Was also one of the people who believed civil union is fine for same sex and marriage is between a man and woman till i read a republican (rudy) say the same and realised uncomfortably that i have also been told(indirectly) that marriage between two non catholics is a contract whereas between two catholics its a union of the souls, a union blessed by god, a sacrament (i quote out of memory). And i realised i am no different than the above person , i only draw the lines at different places and have subsequently changed my views to a marriage is whatever the people who are getting married want it to be.
I think my views are somewhat better off than the current presidential candidates, too bad US laws wont let me run. And when i read through the opinions of the current lot i think GW Bush wasnt so much worse after all. And that india is not the only place where you settle for the least worst of the lot.

Piracy

Dan Slott (comics writer) started a debate when he demanded that his fans buy the comic he writes rather than download it illegally. The series he writes seem to be well liked by those who read it , but sales are poor which might cause cancellation hence the challenge.
Scott Adams has also written about the topic of copyright abuse.
So herein my history.
I was first introduced to comics scanned and downloaded by folks when my friend from the states wrote half a dozen of CD's of comics we read. DC's aren't easily available in India and the prices are exorbitant(comparatively) and we didn't think much of it. It was a way to read books that weren't otherwise available and expensive to boot.
But after awhile i remembered the software piracy promise i had made myself( once i can afford it i wasn't going to pirate software) and then i thought was it really different?. And i haven't read any more pirated comics anymore(well except two below, pirated tech books is a different matter).
Lucifer(by Mike Carey) was one comic(a paradox) , for which i started buying single issues instead if the trade paperbacks because i sympathised with the low sales and i didn't want to see this series cancelled(it didn't , dont you love happy endings), and this was my contribution.
But when issues 74, and 75 were out and i desperately wanted to read the series end and the monthlies were available in UK but with no means to get them to India, i went and downloaded these issues. I suppose it was alright because i had bought those two issues already and they were in London. Oh yes i did download Nirvana and read, but it was the book was out of print and there was no way to get it. Back issues cost 75$ which was really ridiculous. Since then nirvana has been collected in the last trade , but to buy it i would have to buy the issues i already have , and so i haven't. Which is my entire comics book piracy history.
Having a collection of 2000+ comics, i don't think I've hurt the industry much :)
But the issues being debated are moral, ethical ones.
Analogies are being thrown about.
I remember seeing a software book license. it said that you could distribute the copy to someone else , free of charge , so long as you delete it from your machine (similar to if you lend a book, you cant read it yourself)
Overall though i think allowing people to scan books and distribute them to other people to read is good, especially for books from vertigo which have a low readership. and are actually very good reads. Because a lot of people (me for instance) , really detest reading from the computer screen. So if we like a book , we more often than not buy it. And we follow it , instead of waiting for the download to be available. We buy it as gifts for others, and we explore other books on the same theme, books by the same author, books about the same character.
That doesn't make it right however. Whether or not you disagree with copyright law, you have to follow it. Though i wish people would show some sense before passing absurd(e.g. American patent) laws.

Languages

These days im loath to learn a new language. Oh not french or german or even kannada , a programming language. While wondering whether i should pick up a scripting language (python , ruby or groovy .. perls out ) i noted the distinct lack of enthusiasm in myself. It was not always this way.
My first brush with a programming language was BASIC. This was in stanislaus , all i remember was not understanding algorithms or loops too well and getting by with my ever reliable memory to write out programs ad verbatim. The next time was PASCAL in engineering. It was fun. I did well , my programs were copied. Second semester it was the turn of C. Initially we all complained. Why in the world does C have to be so terse?. But within a month I loved it. No going back to pascal ever. And there began an affair with curly brackets. We discovered the world of graphics programming. We (irwin and i) won a programming contest. Us electronic engineers. Twice. And we should have won another (Quine mcluskey). and we didnt care. we had fun programming. Winning the contest wasnt important though the first one did give us lots of satisfaction. Then C++ even though it was out of syllabus. From trying to figure out what method should go into which class to a secret revealed by one computer science student. Everything is an class. The zen of OOP. Then out of college and into work. Time to use what we have learnt for four years . Time to program in Visual Basic!. Wow look i have a functional form in 2 minutes. Look intellisense . Look i drag and drop that table and the code is generated. To time to work on a project, lets put those VB skills to use in ASP!. Explain to me again, this Javascript thats client side, this vbscript thats server side ? To i dont care what you do , it should look good on screen. Time to polish up those CSS , HTML, DHTML skills. To sending messages over MSMQ using VC++ , to ATL and Raw COM and Office VBA. Whats that you know encryption? Your just the person we need for our java project. But i dont know java, thats ok everythings a class. To JSP and EJB and JDBC and JMS and an occassional servlet. To hearing oh XML is like HTML only better. To learning XSLT and XSD in spare time.
And then 7 years of work does take its toll
Ruby, Rails , Python , Groovy , Perl, C# etc etc. BAH! I have an application to deliver

Beliefs

I gave a online test about beliefs for fun , here are the results
Your Results:
1. Secular Humanism (100%)
2. Unitarian Universalism (91%)
3. Liberal Quakers (85%)
4. Neo-Pagan (77%)
5. Non-theist (74%)
6. Mainline - Liberal Christian Protestants (68%)
7. New Age (68%)
8. Theravada Buddhism (65%)
9. Orthodox Quaker (57%)
10. Taoism (53%)
11. Mahayana Buddhism (52%)
12.Bahai (43%)
13. Reform Judaism (43%)
14. Sikhism (43%)
15. Jainism (41%)
16. New Thought (40%)
17. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist)
18. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (35%)
19. Scientology (34%)
20. Seventh Day Adventist (30%)
21. Hinduism (28%)
22. Mainline - Conservative Christian Protestant (28%)
23. Eastern Orthodox (26%)
24. Islam (26%)
25. Orthodox Judaism (26%)
26. Roman Catholic (26%)
27. Jehovah's Witness (21%)
And though after looking up wikipedia, i am i agreement with secular humanists, it still has a problem. Which is that the beliefs are fixed. Which is a problem inherent in all religions. The beliefs were decided centuries ago and can't be changed even when the practices they encourage are outdated or no longer apply or are just plain wrong. Religion and change dont mix. And though my views may be a 100% match today for some set of beliefs, they may not do so tomorrow. And that is how it should be.

Superman Returns

Watched the first half of Superman Returns and am left with one question. What the hell?
Lois Lane does not marry anyone other than Clark Kent. What was the writer thinking? Poor Richard (her current husband) is destined to die in some other part (if he doesnt already do so by the end of this movie. The worst part is there's no way out other than richards death. Superman cant be a housebreaker. Its unfortunate that so many movie writers try to add soap opera storylines to super heroes. Clark kent loves Lois lane and they were always meant to be married. And so heres till the next round of superman movies wipes out this current history

No Goode

Theres an amusing controversy over some Virginia Republican , Virgil Goode , objecting to the first Muslim representative elected in the USA decision to use the Koran for his private swearing in ceremony. While there really should be no controversy over this, you can know what sort of person Mr Goode is by reading this question and answer
RUSH: Final question from David Asman. "Would you prohibit, Mr. Ellison -- would you prohibit him from bringing a Koran into that ceremony?"
GOODE: If the voters of that district want persons that are going to swear by the Koran, that's the choice of the voters of that district, but I believe that the overwhelming majority of voters in my district would prefer the use of the Bible if a book is used, and that is exactly what I'm going to do.
Source : http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_122206/content/stop_the_tape_2.guest.html
A simple yes /no would suffice :)

Million Dollar baby

Just finished watching Million dollar baby. Quite disturbing , but then euthanasia is a disturbing subject. Though since the movie revolves round boxing , its difficult to identify with as its a sport i detest. Hilary swank is good, morgan freeman and clint eastwood play themselves in their parts. I kind of expected more from this movie , but it seemed ordinary, (not so )young fighter loses her ability to fight and wants to die is helped by mentor who doesnt want to do it first. Ok so theres more to it , but i dunno , it wasn't that touching. Seems to have been overhyped. But the question of euthanasia remains as i suppose it will remain, unresolved.
On a side note,read somewhere, can people who smoke be arrested for attempting suicide?
I guess there are so many grey areas to euthanisia which is why it seems problematic. It doesnt help that the people who make the laws are prone to only secure their votes and no serious debate is held. And so i believe the same as i did before watching the movie. Life once gone cannot be got back so when in doubt preserve life

Random Stuff

India is doing well in a test , wait for it Overseas!. Amazing, unbelievable , may it last for more than one day. England on the other hand have shot themselves in the foot. An amusing article in the BBC said atleast the brit barmy army was more wittier than the aussie spectators. Ironically the barmy army isn't that witty and is more of a nuisance, but the British crowd who text in messages to BBC are funny, humorous , cynical and amusing as just the British can be. Mind your language anyone?
Watching khosla ka ghosla.It would be a better movie if it decided whether it wanted to be an emotional drama or a Not a penny more or less caper movie.
Read some bits of the Black Friday book. It takes some doing to write about this matter objectively. So far Zaidi succeeds. I wouldn't have and im not sure what's better.
Some article in the midday yesterday began on a brilliant note. The muslims panel of somewhere had a conference and said the community needed to look beyond reservations and fix their problems rather than clamoring for reservations. And also simply voting anti bjp was just not working
It did however go downhill from there with MP's Like Syed Shahahbuddin wondering how to circumvent the court order which capped the reservations. Its said that the places worse off for muslims are where the elected representatives are those who are the champions of the muslim cause. I wouldn't be surprised. Other people stating that OBC muslims are also OBC's and the discriminatory hindu law which states that obc's can only be of the hindu religion. If history serves me correctly some people converted from hinduism because there was no caste structure in christianity or islam. Ironic really that OBC is now a sought after status.
Laments from a pakistani about the lack of books and intellectual discourse in Lahore. Whats stopping you? Get rid of the dictator you'll have, stop worrying about other countries should do it.
Mr musharraf has offered to freeze the LOC and jointly administer kashmir.Im sure he wouldnt react kindly if India offer joint administration of pakistan.
Some joy for India at the asian games. Anyone watching them?
And shes back!

Religion

My girlfriend asked me what i was looking for when i told her that i was looking to read Chosen( a book that deals with the second coming of Christ and how people would react to it and whether anyone would believe it, with a nasty surprise ending). Considering that my favorite comic was Lucifer it was perhaps a loaded question to answer. But it did cause me to pause and think about my beliefs. When I was younger, I stayed with my grandmother, who other than lighting a diya at 7:00 p.m. sharp showed no other religious activities (that and making the dosa with the sweet milk and insisting we eat it at gokul ashtami). It was ofcourse more fascinating for me to watch the diya burn down. School was the first time i think i was exposed to a different religion. With the inherent curiosity of if we had moral science and they (look the religious divide begins) didnt , what did they do in that time?.Most friends were reluctant to answer what exactly was different or what they were taught. But Stanislaus was a good place. I remember a friend who carried one image of each religion he could find in his compass box, it helped him pass the exams he said. My first brush with the problems of religion came when The Satanic Verses were banned. I and everyone at home were against the ban and going up the stairs i casually remarked about it to a friend , who replied "rushdie should be kicked out of britain ,how dare he etc. etc" to which i kept mum. My friend was a muslim. It did make me think at that time is it better to treat every religion equally or to simply ignore it altogether?.But those days it was more important to run to the playing field at recess time than to ponder glumly over philosophical topics. We always went to bandra fair. And my grandmother leg got into problems because of a wound and she was diabetic. So instead of putting the two wax children as offering (meant for my brother and me) we also started putting a leg. My grand mother who would always have come with us , couldnt anymore , but she would say put the leg for me. I believed. I believed it would cure her. And i prayed as much as i could. It never occurred to me that i was praying to some other religion, God was one i knew. And then they were the TV serials. The never ending ramayana and its successor the dont take your eyes of the TV set Mahabharata. I guess i owe thanks to ramanand sagar for my profound dislike of the ramayana. I always wondered what was godly of some guy trying to rescue his wife from some powerful guy who wait for it is powerful because of boons granted by the other gods? Oh and before i forget all this to kick out his wife. It did start me thinking.It also raised the questions that if it was right in the mahabharata to go to war against relatives for kingdom why wasnt it right in the ramayana where instead banishment is accepted meekly? And how could a god say it was right to go to war , when it also means killing up 1000's of those rounded up extras in the shower of multiplying arrows? The Mahabharata was much more fun to watch. Its successor the bible ki kahaniyan however wasnt (more to do with the production quality than with the stories themselves). My knowledge of christianity however came earlier due to an amar chitra katha'ish comic bound up with phantom and mandrake and flash gordon which i read and was impressed and was angry that the hero died at the end. Islam was something followed by the people in the building. The ladies in the building didnt wear a burkha at home , but did when they left the house ,i assumed that was because they liked dressing up. It was strange for me because one set of neighbours were boris(burkha wearing) and the other werent. But noone cared. So i passed out of school with my feelings towards religions mostly of the sort , all religions are equal, you dont bother me , i dont bother you sort of attitude. And then i moved on from mostly detective mysteries to reading some scientific material, Asimov, Sagan and their ilk. Reading about the idealistic way to doing science, the continuous questioning of data, the rationalist thought and philososphy, The everything is a hypothesis , when you get more data either the hypothesis is reinforced or it is discarded. But a hypothesis it remains. It came to me that while science doesnt preclude faith, it does say that when you question it , the faith grows stronger or you have to discard or atleast change some aspects of faith when you find information that contradicts your faith. Whereas religion believes that if you question your faith , your faith grows weaker. You must just believe!.Supremely egoistic i believed that i had been given a brain so that i could understand god's plan than merely be a part of it. And given the choices i'd rather believe in the scientific way. And so i questioned everything. I wouldnt read an out and out religious book so i would only read something that dealt tangentially with religion which essentially meant that i would end up reading about matters related to Christianity. But it wasnt a problem. all religions are similar so what would apply to one should in someway apply to the other. So therein started the journey of "if thou shalt not kill doesnt it apply to god as well" "if an earthquake is god's doing why does it kill indiscriminately" "if we are to be judged eternally based on life spent on earth what happens to infants who die?" "if god is our father why would there be a hell even if we sinned" "how can god be most forgiving and condemn us to hell" "if god is all powerful then why do children suffer due to no fault of theirs" "why did god show himself 2000 years ago but doesnt do so (atleast not directly) anymore" "if god is in all of ours whats the need for holy places and holy men?" and so on.And then i realised that a lot of what we heard and attributed to "god" was really hearsay. Who says the ramayana occurred as it did?certainly theres lot of material saying that what we read is a cleaned up version. Same too for the mahabharata. Ditto for the old / new testament. Its then that i believed that religion is a man made structure and like every other man made structure it protects itself first and foremost. I also realised that while there may be a lot of good in all the religions , there is material that may be bad or atleast open to interpretation or illogical even if harmless (like the jains who cant eat onions). And that i would respect the brain i got and follow what i deemed was right. that i would pick and choose what i wanted to follow from any religion.So where does that tie in with the things i read?The ability to choose brings with it one responsibility. That you should make sure you have enough information to make that choice. And while im too old now to read the bhagvad gita or the bible or the torah i dont mind reading other peoples opinions of it. Its surprising sometimes how when the point of the story has religion only as a side issue , the observations you can make.In chosen the most important part is the writers conversation at the end. In it peter gross is asked by his 4-5 year daughter that if he draws stories about the bible , are the stories true or false? And he says he replied that it is the stories and what you learn from them that are important. Whether they are true or not isn't. And he says as a story teller , stories are his religion. Something to think about , found in an unlikely. Mike carey in lucifer makes other important statements.And heres the secret good authors write and it makes you think. That it may deal with religion is unimportant
So what am i looking for? A good story that makes me think and question my faith

Pride

It feels good to take some credit for the existence of this

Rickshaw corruption

One of the things that keeps occupying my attention these days is the price of a rick fare from my home to office , which should be about Rs 48. Occasionally some crooked rick guy would charge 55. But these were few and far between. These days however the situation is the opposite. More ricks show up with meters of Rs 55 and a few exceptional one’s Rs 60. The one’s which show the correct fare are now almost non existent. Perhaps the correct question is how come that there are still some ricks with the correct fare instead of how come everyone is becoming so dishonest. I think it’s a sign then of where we collectively as a city are going. The common man is not above cheating the other common men. The rich , well they always bent the rules. Its funny then seeing the various articles stating how Mumbai has had enough of people praising it for its resilience, they want funds and an end to the corruption that exists. It won’t.
Was this city always this way? Who knows.

Current Controversies

Its been a month for controversies starting with Da Vinci Code, Aamir khans comments and the subsequent banning of fanaa , the OBC quota, the pope’s comments on anti conversions laws. If you look at it closely almost none are debate worthy. All of the controversies above have a relatively straight forward answer and do not need any moral hand wringing. But controversies they are and the debate rages though everyone I know seems to have the same view and so does the media so who’s the debate against? That probably speaks more about the people I know than it does about the controversial aspects of the issues. So for the record
Da Vinci Code - Its fiction, free speech and all related stuff. If you don’t like the movie don’t see it, if you don’t like the book don’t read it. If your faith is shaken by the book then you don’t have much faith, if it isn’t then wheres the problem?. All the controversy does is increase the number of Mary Magdalene books that are popping up.
Free speech again. As Aamir has reiterated, the government must rehabilitate the farmers , that’s its duty. Everything else is silly ego battles
No reservations on basis of caste,religion,community ever. Economically backward or in other ways handicapped, reservations may be possible but cannot be a number (what is the meaning on 10 or 25%?)
The pope can say whatever he wants, free speech again. People should be free to choose always whether its what they believe , what they watch , what they do so long as it affects only them..
And it’s a wonder how in a so called democracy the peoples views are mostly ..irrelevant. Theres not a single party opposing reservations so that you could say , fine , next elections we shall show you. Why is there no liberal , progressive non votebank oriented party in India?. Ok fine for that matter the world?. What is it about the nature of governance that forces good people to become stupid? Or is it the nature of governance that attracts only stupid people to begin with? Did you also try coming up with a politician who is not stupid? Hard task right?

Reservations

The Government decides to have 27% reservation for OBC’s in IIM’s and IIT’s as well. Everyone has reacted as expected. The parties are all in favour. No one wants to lose out on the vote banks. The students and industry are in uproar.
The tragedy is that there our constitution writers screwed up. Reservation in any form was always bad. Reservation based on caste and not class is worse. Reservation once given cannot be withdrawn with the affected parties screaming murder, discrimination and the works.
I remember I had colleagues in engg way better off(monetarily) than I was but in engg thanks to SC/ST/Sindhi quota. And I wonder how reserving seats for already uplifted people is helping. Which is not to say that there aren’t people deserving of some concession (id rather it be in the form of scholarships and monetary concessions though).
Its not an easy problem. And perhaps the attitude of most Indians can be summed up by the answer of one student. “What can we do about it. I can only hope it will be implemented next year”
There doesn’t seem to be a single party in India which is capable of thinking beyond the next election.
The last time VP Singh, champion of the masses , champion of stupidity(it is disconcerting how often these are the same thing) imposed reservations , people died but the reservations remained. I hope it doesn’t happen this time. But I wouldn’t bet on it.

Rang de Basanti

For change there has to be a catalyst and sometimes the catalyst needs to be violent. Close your eyes and think who might say something along the lines. Now tell the truth did you think of bhagat singh? Or are you thinking of some more contemporary character probably holding a machine gun?And perhaps that’s the biggest problem with rang de basanti. Its based on a flawed premise. But brilliantly executed with a rousing score and with all the actors being top class. Of course there are the expected clichés , a bunch of teenagers college bunking , boozing , wild driving and ofcourse their hearts are pure gold. With a foreigner who along with the death of their friend awakens something in them.The movie is good and worth watching. The only thing negative is the end which is a very bollywood in style and the message that the movie tries to send out, is frankly out of place in these times. As always I think I could’ve done a better job , so here goes. Tone down the the young generation is always out having a party thing. Either the end has to have more of the diary or the character has to be dropped. You cant start out with emphasis on the brit female and suddenly drop her out of the picture. And enhance the lathi charge scene and end the movie there. For e.g. the bjp character meeting the muslim point is made as effectively in the lathi charge without needing the melodramatic holding hands and dying sequence. However the movie makes you think. And in these days such movies are few and far between.

Googling

Its quite interesting to see the current uproar against google for censoring its search results in return for being allowed in china. In a purely practical sense google is of course correct. The Chinese government suppresses information anyway (the great firewall of china), you can atleast make a buck this way. In idealistic terms this is a sellout. Especially after google took the moral high ground when the US government asked for its data. I remember msn took a lot of heat when it censored subject lines in msn spaces. What is right? Obviously telling the Chinese government to take a hike. China has a lot of smart people . Hopefully they’ll find a way to access the information they need.
Is it that easy? Obviously not.
Id guess id be much more comfortable if google cooperated with the us government and refused to do so with the Chinese government. Googles motto is Don’t be evil. Perhaps it is time to change that to Be Good.

News Round Up

This was meant to be an obituary of Indian Hockey. Playing a champions league match at home , after having already lost the first to Spain 2-1, India were down 2-0. The playesrs looked listless and had just wasted penalty corner after corner. And then the Indians struck. To level at 2-2 and finally in the last two three minutes the Indian struck the third and we had beaten Pakistan 3-2. Time for celebrations an Indian team showing grit to come from behind and beating arch rivals? Unthinkable!. But all is still not well with Indian hockey. The audience doesn’t support it. The game is run by an autocratic dictator and the same regionalism that dominates everything in Indian life is pervasive in Indian hockey as well. That India still manages to win some times is laudable. I wonder what we could do if sport was free from petty politics.
And Armaan Ebrahim finishes 14th in the A1 grand prix. You’d think with a level playing field we’d do better instead of just going up a couple of places because our neighbour from Pakistan knocks out a couple of cars?. Atleast narain had an excuse , his car sucks. But both karun chandok and armaan seem outclassed by most drivers. Perhaps because this is an exclusive sport. You have to be a rich mans son to have experience driving fast cars!.
Which is one of the beautiful things in cricket. Anyone can play it anywhere and does. We played in the small lane after almeida park. Football needs a proper ground. Cricket has no such restrictions (much to the chagrin of car owners and people with glass windows on the ground floor). And India has dragged Sri Lanka back thanks to Kumble and the umpires. It looks like a result is assured in this test match. And heres hoping that with the record out of the way the old Tendulkar will return. A brilliant 40-60 with the odd century rather than a painstaking labored gavaskarish 100.
And noone watches Ms World anymore.. yeah!

News Round Up

Well I was wrong (wasn’t the first time , wont be the last time). The mid-day has indeed published a know your candidates half pager. One bit about the hutments and slum , Priya Dutt supports protection of all hutments before 2000, Sarpotdar(who is shiv sena and not BJP as I thought, but there really isn’t that much difference I guess) all hutments before 1995. I wonder why the justifications of these mostly illegal dwellings stops at a particular date?. What next , all criminals with crimes committed before 2000 go scot free?. It is perhaps harsh to equate the people living in the illegal slums with criminals, but allowing them to essentially get away with it is not the answer. India needs a more balanced form of development where places like Mumbai etc do not grow disproportionately. And of course we have to do something about our population.
And Mr Thackeray wants to get back to cartooning. Its fortunate that hes built his fortune (I can still laugh at him when he says he is honest he only has Matoshri) using other means. Otherwise he’d starve.
And Jyoti Randhawa and Arjun Atwal are intent on shooting themselves in the foot. They have just run themselves out of the reckoning on the last day of the golf world cup after starting 1 stroke behind leaders. Typical Indian sport behaviour!
And heres hoping that the Indians win in Bangalore. South Africa are on the verge of breaking the Aussie record for unbeaten one day victories. So the law of averages and The choke factor should catch up with them. But India does have the better team I think (and the pitches ofcourse)
And now I can regularly solve SuDoKu. Wonder if theres any algorithm to solve it other than brute force. I remember the days when I tried to solve the Knights problem by recursion and almost cried when the program spat out an overflow after recursing12 times.
  

The wedding bells toll

ISchmuck is married (read the man from mars, or marsboy)
I wasnt there to witness the proceedings though XSchmuck was . Read it in his own words
Oh and i thought cigars were for when the kid is born , not on the marriage day!
I wish the couple Happiness and a Long Life Together

Votes

It was so easy when you were in school. There were rights and there were duties. The consitution gave every citizen the right to vote and it was every citizens duty to exercise it. You were taught the importance of voting in a democracy and as a student deprived of voting rights due to age constraints you looked forward to the day when you would be able to vote.
Fast forward to , your name is on the electoral rolls , the election is on saturday. Hmm who are the candidates. Uh well one's this lady who is asking votes in the name of her departed father, ably assisted by her brother who is under suspicion for possessing arms during the times of the blast. Atleast Ms Priya Dutt seems clean , though people say she does as she is told by the other MLA Baba Siddique. It would have been so much better if she could have said whats shes done and what her qualifications are rather than allowing her to continue to do the work her father started. On the other side we have Madhukar Sarpotdar, whose party disqualifies him from being considered by me, not because of their communal stance( all parties in India are either communal or casteist) but because of a certain Mr Murli Manohar Joshi who insisted on screwing with the educational system. Its one thing to incite grown men to riot, who are adults and must take responsibility for what they do, its quite another to force your version of history down an unsuspecting childs throat.
And should you vote for a person or for the party?
Who else are the candidates no one knows. Our esteemed newspapers would rather carry page after page of various society parties than publish these details. Who would read this after all?
I think id vote for Priya Dutt. If nothing else atleast the proportion of women in legislature would increase. Our parties who actively champion reservation seem to shudder when it comes to reservation of seats for women. Not that i support this form of reservation.
I remember this Busybee article of him going to vote. He made this list up of who/what qualities he would not vote. And concluded that if anyone remained after these eliminations he'd vote for him/her. I suspect that he probably didnt exercise his right.
I think it should be mandatory to have a I dont think anyone is worthy of my vote option in any democrarcy. I think politics should be made a profession where some minimum education / training is required. As long as this education/training is made freely available to all, it doesnt violate anyones right/. Its too much seeing uneducated thugs with no experience whatsoever being ministers. You wouldnt hire these guys as employees in any company, why do we feel they are fit to run our country.

Gender Inequality

In The Argumentative Indian , there is a chapter about gender inequality which reveals some highly upsetting figures. These figures concern the natal inequality present in India , i.e. the fact that foetus’ whose sex has been determined to be female are sometimes aborted , an act which cannot be appropriately described without using the choicest four letter words available in the vocabularies of multiple languages. There exists a South-East v/s North – West divide. With the north – west coming decidedly worse as ardent followers of this abhorrent act. Maharashtra unfortunately comes in the North West region. It should also be noted that this natal inequality may also be evidenced in the south particularly Tamil Nadu. What is equally shocking is that the average females born per 100 males is lesser in the urban areas than the rural (This is probably because the urban areas have the technology). And more so that is sometimes the mothers themselves who are responsible.
Yesterday was childrens day.  

Dev

Watched the end of Dev , and again the feeling that this could have been a great movie, but that in the end you come out feeling dissatisfied with the movie. Here’s what I would change.
The dialog between Om Puri and Amitabh has to be better. The scenes between them should be similar to Pacino- DeNiro in Heat. Or something like that. There has to be an underlying tension, which is only kept together by their friendship. There must be enough to make the audience think with whom they stand.
Om puri’s motivations and actions should be changed so that he isn’t an out and out villain. In the current script he is too much of a villain for you to feel any sympathy.
Replace Fardeen Khan with someone who can act and look vulnerable, not look drunk.
The realization that the Big B considers Fardeen his son , should come to Om puri gradually and by himself , for his suicide to make sense. Otherwise the suicide seems out of place. The end drinking scene is amazing and has to be kept.
The pace of the movie isn’t present in all places. That needs to be improved as well.

Intelligent Design

There is a recent ruling in Kansas to allow the theory of Intelligent Design to be taught in the classrooms, not just Darwins Theory of evolution. The theory is along lines the lines that Darwin’s theory does not adequately explain how a universe as complex as ours could have evolved and therefore needs an intelligent designer.
At first glance it looks like a victory for the Creationists, but it isn’t.
Science demands alternate theories to be considered and either proven or disproved. No theory is sacrosanct (e.g. darwins) and debate is good. Too often scientists fall for the trap of laughing at the alternatives suggested instead of simply producing proofs and letting people draw their own conclusions. This is of course not to say that I believe Intelligent Design is right. I don’t think so (and certainly the term intelligent shouldn’t be applied to any theories describing humans)
Carl Sagan had the same views when it was suggested that humanity was given birth by Alien races who intermingled with the whatever native species there were on earth(Highly liberal races I must say), and examples of old Indian tribes knowing stellar constellations. Sagan said most scientists simply laughed instead of proving that this theory was flawed(Broca’s brain is the book I think)
There were some funny cartoons though -God to a creationist, I gave you a brain , now use it!
On a related point I believe Stephen Hawking once said it didn’t interest him whether god created the universe or not, its only whether there was a choice. Could life have happened under any other circumstances (creator or no creator). Or if there was a god did he create gravity or is he bound to work within the boundaries of gravity?
Id say let the theory be taught so long as the alternatives are taught as well!. Otherwise we run the risk of becoming like the creationists!

Im Back!

So after a long hiatus, the internet connectivity is there and i have time on my hands to resume my quest to write 100 paragraphs. Does this count?
I think the last time i wrote was just before the floods hit mumbai. Speaking of which , everyone blamed the current government for the way it handled the floods, they seem to have forgotten we live in a democracy. we deserve the governments we get. And the newspapers gushed about the spirit of the average mumbaikar(As opposed to say a new orleans resident). I was stuck out during the floods and got to see 2.5 examples of goodness and 1.5 examples of harshness. Still its good enough i guess.
And the Indian team is back in everyones good books, though one lost game and the questions are already being asked again!
And it is ironical to wait and buy the special extended dvd edition of all three lord of the rings and fast forward to just see the war sequences.

On Writing

So i read this short story by a colleague (With the warning that i will tell her my truthful opinion about it but i wont criticise!). Luckily i wont have to lie , its pretty good and funny in places. Which brings me to my own works (Everything is always about me!). The first short story i wrote was in the 4th or 5th standard. It ran upto 42 paragraphs and was a detective story with such a twist that i feel embarrassed now. I think i felt embarrassed immediately after i read it and it was subjected one afternoon to the harsh flames of self criticism. Ashes to Ashes.
The second one was for TSEC's story writing event in Avalanche. You were given 4 titlkes and had to choose one and make up a story. I chose "And they lived Happily Ever After" and wrote the continuation of what happens after Prince Charming marries His princess. Including a brief look at their honeymoon, the princes refusal to slaughter any more dragon's thanks to their endangered species listing, and other events that gradually led to the prince becoming the beer bellied couch potato and the princess a middle aged nag. Oh yes I'm a cynic , but i still think that some parts of the dialog were funny. I won second place which was enough to please me , were it not for the fact that the organisaer came up to me and said my story was good was the one that won was far superior!. Sometimes i think only two of us actually submitted in the papers when the time was up.
I Then Teamed up with another (i)schumck we wrote an essay for the crime fighting vehicle of the future Dina -Mite ( which was basically a dinosaur chained to a bullock cart) with fearsome capabilities of excreting tons of materials to entrap fleeing felons, text by me , illustrations by my colleague.
Another attempt to participate in avalanches story writing competition came to naught. This time you had to spin a story around six words (treasure , princess ,sand, jewel) and i concentrated so much on the ending that i didnt such a poor job on the start and beginning that i almost didnt want to submit it. Didnt win any honours this time!
And so what makes a good story?
It should entertain
It should make you think
It should make you change your mind about an opinion you had (for the better of course)
Any writing that can do all the above is priceless.

Nature and Beauty

No this is not about Bhoomika or Gracy
A colleague once remarked to me , when i showed marked unenthusiastic for seeing the beauty of a waterfall , that i had probably not seen any.
Not quite true i think i have seen a couple, but that's not the point, the implication was i had no eye for the beauty in nature, whereas i was trying to make the point that nature is beautiful everywhere , and the waterfall is not so much better looking than say a tree on the roadside, though most people would not notice the tree. There is right outside my window a plain tree on which a crow has made its nest. The nest is probably ugly made of Long twigs haphazardly arranged. But its ugly only till you think of the effort and expertise that went into making it. The nest rests on a Y shaped branch and how The crow has managed to successfully balance the nest ill never know. Now a leaf flutters down from the tree twirling into the breeze before resting softly on the ground. The crow is joined by its mate. There don't seem to be any chicks but i guess they will be coming . I'd throw some food but I'M afraid my mother will shout that next the crows will be in the living room, so i resist(atleast till my mom's not present)
And i still wonder do i need to go to pune to see some natural beauty?

Opinions

If we assume for a moment that something called the right opinion exists, then does it also matter why we have that opinion? Is doing the right thing for the wrong reasons acceptable
What brings on this issue is a book im reading about the Srila Prabhu somethings views and opinions and included among them are whether we should be meat eating or not, abortion is right or not. Now the end result is the same, Im a vegetarian by choice and i dislike the practice of abortion(except certain cases like rape,or the mother's life being endangered). The srila whatisname has the same end opinions but the reason he has these opinions are very different from mine. It irks me to think that if it came to a debate , said specimen would be on my side.
But is he a lesser evil than perhaps those who would disagree? I think not.

Books and Movies

While reading Pather Panchali , I could not help but compare the average Indian Novel with the average Bollywood movie. Ok so average Indian book is a misnomer. The books are certainly not average. Perhaps I should be comparing Art movies with the Bollywood potboilers. Anyway the best Indian books by Indian authors mainly deal with typical Indian lives. Typical as the authors know it. But the books are almost always devoid of happy endings. The book normally ends at some point of the life of the major character with some things left unresolved. Certainly i can't remember a they lived every happily ever after ending. On the other hand , the movies almost always have a happy ending. The poor villager overthrowing the zamindars. The angry young man getting rid of the oppressors. Deaths of only minor or supporting characters. And while i accept unhappy endings in books, I know that i too would not accept unhappy endings in the typical Bollywood movie. The good guys must win and if it involves some fight sequences so much the better.

Giving the US the Middle Finger

I was reading Miss Indra Nooyi's remaks about the 5 continents being equivalent to the five fingers (lets leave aside the USA not being a continent , left to themselves Americans believe the USA is the entire universe) and stating the US is the middle finger!
The speech is somewhat humorous has some lessons , but of course it would be too much to expect Americans to think rationally or logically. They have reacted as expected, Pepsi Co. have published an apology , Miss Nooyi has made all the appropriate noises. So much for free speech.

Rat Killer

My first encounter with a Rat. A real one (not the ones you find in top management).
I like nature and i dont think i have any more right to existence than any of Natures creatures. So i find myself in a moral dilemma , an aluminium stick in my hand, the rat cornered behind a cupboard. Should i try to bash the rats head in? How do i justify this?
Or should i let it go.
I ask my Mom , she says bash it.
I think of the books that the Rat might potentially eat. And I make up my mind
I try shove the aluminium rod with all my force. i dont think I aimed right. Cornered the rat flees and hides under the bed , which is full with suitcases and i cant see it anymore
Conscience eased , I Put the rod back to its place.

Weekly News Roundup

The sad state of wildlife protection in India is revealed with the massacre of the tigers in sanctuaries and indeed all varieties of wildlife.
With the wild in their eyes It is they who must die , we who must measure the loss
With the wild in their eyes It is they who must die , we who will measure the cost
John Denver - You say the battle is over

Arsenal wins a match which they don't deserve to win (though i was supporting them over Manchester United ) in the FA Cup Final. But the thing that struck me is that most professional players (of all teams) are cheats. Blatant foul'ers, Divers, Arm across face , shirt tugging abusing etc. etc. And this is all accepted and encouraged behavior!. Heck if you played this way at recess in school , all the students would boycott you . In school you played hard but you played fair and admitted your mistakes. But I guess money does that to you. Winning at all costs.

And I can't help laughing at the chumps involved in the dance bar fiasco , best summarized by a dance bar owner who said he will convert his dance bar into a disco theque, charge a cover sum and dress his *girls* in party wear. Indian society is fast becoming a hypocritical one , though i think this has always been the case. Its just that its more obvious these days

And Ferrari are still screwed in F1. Yeah!!. Now if only we see Narain get a point. And hopefully Coulthard wont finish at the podium , he's promised to moon people. Ugh!!

And Greg Chappell is India's coach. I would have thought his under arm bowling advice should have disqualified him.

And i absolutely refuse to read books/ watch serials/movies where the writer/director/producer can't spell either their names or the serials /movies correctly. If you don't have enough faith in the content you have produced that you need the additional numerological hogwash , why the hell should I?

Cheated?

I was moving towards Platform 5 to catch the Churchgate fast, when a Man with a sleeping child on his arms asked me to spare two minutes and recounted how he was from some village and his pocket had been picked (aai shapat!) And how he needed 300 Rs to go back home and how some good person had already given him Rs 100 (aai shapat mi jhoot nahin bolto!). He pointed to his wife who was seated , a fat woman with a an expression of anger on her face, which looked to be directed to her husband, sometimes alternating with holding her head in her hands. I paid the Rs 200 and ran back to platform 3 where the 9:27 fast had arrived.
It is of course quite possibly a classic setup and even knowing that i paid the money. Why?
Well there are actually two options , the man is telling the truth, in which case i pay the sum quite gladly. Its better than paying it say to a beggar for whom next week it will be back to normal. Atleast this will make a difference
Or the man is lying in which case he wants to cheat the people actually willing to help him!. Its quite a paradox - The people you cheat are the ones who were willing to help. The people who get away are the one with no sympathy or compassion in their hearts. And i always have believed you will pay for such sins in this life. And the money is my contribution towards the same.

Taiwan

From http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=23042 TAIWANESE JOURNALISTS won’t be allowed in to cover the World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva later this month because Taiwan is not a state recognized by the UN General Assembly .... and ... but does say representatives of the People's Republic of China are "the only legitimate representatives of China to the United Nations"
And my gut reaction is to criticise this till i realise if i substitute Taiwan with POK or Kashmir and China with India, Im conflicted.
And a concluding line from the same article
Those still alive or uninjured obviously aren’t doing their jobs properly

Weekly News Round Up

The Labour Party has won its third term. The conservative party's Liar campaign didnt work and is best summarised by a journalist who says that 'Most people believe all politicians are liars. There is not much achieved by telling them that someone is a particularly effective one'The Sun's headline of 'A Kick in the Ballots' is also particularly funny. But this is not a vote for the War on Iraq. The conservative party too supported the War so the only alternative was the Lib Dems and no one seems to want to trust them with the running of the entire country
Irregularities in the NDA governments functioning are now being found (sale of the centaur hotels , the India shining campaign etc.) by the CAG. And what the hell were they doing till this time?.
The hunt is on for a Coach for the Indian Cricket Team. I think we are wasting our efforts. We should be searching for good players for the Indian Cricket team
More suicides by young students afraid of failures. I wonder what sort of parents these children had that they are so scared of failing an exam. And what a society we live in.
And the BAR team is banned from the race at barcelona. Now i can pray for another 7 retirements and maybe Narain will be in the points. But even if he isn't Best of Luck to him. And i laugh at Ferrari (master? strategists) and Michael Schumacher(greatest? driver). If nothing else the first four races have proved how much of schumachers greatness lies in the simple fact that the Cars he drove were better than everyone elses. And from what i can see of the last race he's probably going to win this season as well. And everyone will laud the greatest comeback by the greatest driver. Hmmpf!
And chelsea are out of the champions league. I was afraid of this, but perhaps it will be a good lesson for Chelsea to learn. Expect them to win next year.

Taxes

Just got my salary without TDS . There is a significant difference in this amount and the amount i normally get with TDS cut. I have no problem paying taxes. In India , Im part of an elite group. I have a job , It pays more than what a large percentage of Indians earn. I have a house to stay in and am mostly free of financial troubles. So i dont really mind the concept of a Tax. But and heres the problem , If the tax was used to improve the infrastructure , or fund some social schemes or feed some poor children , I'd be happy.
The fact that most of my money will wind its way into the pocket's of some politician or some businessman is what irks the hell out of me.
And there is nothing I can do about it presently

IIT

Read an article in the Times about the IIT's wanting to replicate their success and standards in institutions abroad. Disclaimer - I am not an IITian, I have never given the entrance exam for IIT , never studied for it, never wanted to study for it (knowing fully well I'd fail).
Lets see , we have a damn tough academic entrance exam , for which students cram for 2 years. After appearing for the test , the top 2000 or so students (top by marks obtained) are selected. Note that the IIT takes only those students who are academically sound to begin with , and dedicated enough to spend two years cramming for an entrance test simultaneously with their HSC in most cases.When they pass out of the IIT , these very students are said to be the best around. Isn't this a great achievement .. Hmmpf!
Lets not even look at the ragging practices in the IIT's. Lets not wonder that most IITians go abroad and live there , thereby representing a wasted investment.
If you could take a duffer , an average student , and a smart student , teach them and and at the end have 3 competent people , then yes thats an achievement.
Till then the IIT is a run of the mill institution

Proper Dress

After the recent rape of a college going girl, The Saamna (The shiv sena's or Thackerays mouthpiece) published a piece condemning the rape.
It also wanted Indian women not to wear revealing clothes. Im wondering what would keep Thackeray happy ? dress all the women in Burkhas?. religious fundamentalists are all the same. So are all male chauvinist pigs.
I have never bought the theory that if the man has *impure* thoughts on seeing a scantily clad woman, Its the woman who must be made to dress up. Id rather the man was blindfolded. Surprisingly enough my mother agrees with the Saamna's recommendations. This is one of the reasons i think women are mistreated in our country (indeed everywhere) - A majority of the women are not willing to stand for their rights. And till that changes things are not going to improve significantly

A for Arjun, B for Brahma

It seems that textbooks have been doctored in Jharkand and elsewhere , funded by Murli Manohar Joshi the time when he was education minister to include things like the title of this post.
If it wasn't shocking , it would be hilarious.
The catholics in the bible belt refuse to teach darwins theory of Evolution , preferring the Biblical theory of Creationism. The Madrasas teach , well i do not know what , but seeing the horrid state of poor muslims in India , the Madrasas cant possibly be teaching them anything good.
So this affliction of mixing education in religion is not restricted to India. However i wonder who is it these self styled champions of their cause are helping. It certainly cant be the people who follow their teachings. All they are doing is ensuring that their followers remain as stupid as sheep(with apologies to the sheep). Oh wait i get it.
My mother believes that Hindus will reject any such attempt to saffronise textbooks.
Me I'm always the pessimist in the family

How to Choose Your Next Book

There are times when you read a book and feel sorry it's ending(Currently this book is Lucifer) and at the same time the book is so good you cant wait to see what it's end is. But end it shall. And you are left with "What Next?"
Read everything that you can lay your hands on of the author you like. A lot of people I know are genre readers(I like Science Fiction, Hard Boiled Crime etc) . This is a mistake. Its far better to read all types of books from an author you like, rather than read every book of the genre you like. If that does not make sense try it out.
Read everything that friends recommend to you as good. Preferrably borrow the book from them rather than buying your own copy.
Trust your instincts when browsing in a bookstore.
Dont believe the professional reviews you read(for better or for worse). Where someone is actually getting paid to do a job.
Dont believe the award ceremonies(Like the Booker). Awards are neither necessary nor sufficient for a good book. This does not ofcourse mean that you shouldnt read these books.
Dont believe the top 10 booksellers list. Popular books are not necessarily good books

Ambanis

Is everyone as tired of this whole squabble?. Even as children we knew a riddle , how do you get two children to divide a cake equally ? .
You let one sibling cut the cake and let the other one choose.

A Catholic Wedding

I went to a catholic wedding the last week. The bride in question was my mom's good friends
daughter. I have only attended the church part of the ceremony once, for my friends sister's
wedding. This time i decided to pass the church ceremony. All these ceremonies are too solemn for
my liking. They are more reminiscent of funerals. In my more cynical moods i think i know why
that is so. We even used to joke that for my wedding , the schmucks would drive me to the wedding
in funeral casket. Anyway so i braved the Andheri traffic and reached the wedding reception. It always has struck me
how different a Catholic wedding reception is different from the varied Indian Styles. There is a
distinct effort made to have a good time , whereas the other Indian reception are a much more
formal effort with suitably grim expressions on the faces of the bride, the groom and immediate
family. Hmm bride's mother is looking suitably harried, I have to sit at a table with all my mom's ex
office colleagues. Unsurprisingly I'm the only one of my age group. Time to survey the
*surroundings* . Oh no not a pretty sight to be found. Ok maybe we are a bit early. People are
just starting to roll in , ah well all marriages are IST. Still not many sights to concentrate
on. I have sat in a bad location , have to keep performing the exorcist maneuver to look around. The host of ceremonies is a typical Goan Catholic gent , insists on making sidey jokes . Time to
gather round and throw confetti on the bride. Is this the bride? She looks different from what i
remember her to look like. Never ceases to amaze me how women can change their look and feel
completely. A different hairstyle , a different dress , a dab of makeup and voila new woman...I
think the surprise is writ large on my face ... Possibly the bride notices this and says 'Hi
deepak'. Ah just throw the damn confetti and get it over with. Hmm i thought it was supposed to
be rice...More bad jokes from the host. The cake is cut. The toast is uneventful , I don't take the wine .
Feel awkward as the only guy standing up without the wine glass in his hand. Time for the wedding
march . Always bring back (bad) memories of friends sisters wedding. Time for the first dance ,
the circle is all holding balloons. Moms colleagues ask why I'm not dancing with anyone. Yah right. The dance begins , I don't recognize the song. Balloons are released. Another powerful sight , The
balloons rising high to escape into the sky, why does it impress us so. Is it the silent yearning
to be free? Home the second best girl is decent looking. Another woman is red is decent as well.
Perhaps this is not a complete waste of a day. Time to rush to eat before the queue begins. Oops we have reached before the bride and groom .Have
to wait looking around like fools till they have sampled everything. Ok food is decent. Time to
go on stage. Meet brides mom with the good looking best girl. Her name is some hegde .. My community. Didn't know they made them this way in the shetty community except in the movies of course. Sudden apprehension of arranged marriage strikes me. I don't have to worry , the female seems to completely ignore me anyhow , nothing new there. Go on stage now . Pose for photograph. Yeah time to go home. Oh no it strikes the middle aged crowd they haven't had the ice creams. A brief debate ensues and the Ice Cream wins. I have a bad throat and cant partake. Someone brings up the topic of when my marriage is .Arrgh why is so difficult for people to understand that not everyone wants to get married when they are 27. Oh no this topic is now picked up by everyone. Oh wait for it now Inter Community marriages are brought up. My parents are probably paranoid about this anyway hoping that i wont follow in my brothers footsteps (though i have every intention of doing so)10 o'clock loudspeakers off. In two minds about this ban. Finally time to go home. Conclusion : Court Marriage is the only sane alternative.

Logic and rationality

I was reading about Ad Hominem which is a Logical Fallacy wherein you attack/defend the person making the proposition rather than the proposition do itself. We have all at some time or the other fallen prey to this fallacy.
What interested me was one of the examples
"Tobacco company representatives are wrong when they say smoking doesn't seriously affect your health, because they're just defending their own multi-million-dollar financial interests."
As the article also goes on to point out "It is important to note that the above argument is not irrational although it is not correct in strict logic"
I have i think always believed logic and rational to be synonyms of each other which as the above argument indicates is clearly NOT the case.
Given a choice I'd think I'd rather be logical than rational , though it is of course easier said than done

1984

The Home Minister of Maharashtra , RR Patil has decided to ban dance bars. The reason Dance Bar corrupt the youth and hence are a evil influence on society. My mother evidently agrees , also stating that 95% of the girls are illegal Bangladeshis. The Midday Newspaper which is trying desparately to ape The Sun style of newspapers runs headline after headline stating how x people will lose thier jobs , how the people are hardworking etc. etc. and so forth. An article in The Times (Westside plus) also takes umbrage at the politicians stating that most of them cant differentiate their elbows from their arse. I would have used face instead of elbow.
There is so much to comment on this sorry circus, but now i dont have the stomach for it so i'll summarize
My own views have always been , let the people choose whatever it is they want to do. If they want to spend their time visiting dance bars let them. if the women feel their only way of livelihood is dancing somewhere , let them.

But here's the problem , we Indians have chosen Democracy as our chosen form of governance. We have elected this government and thats it. We cant do anything about its policies. The best we can hope for is 5 years down the line we'll kick these guys out and replace them with the saffron brigade who will decide what we can wear and what festivals we should celebrate. And after 5 more years we will be back to this same government.
Ideally ofcourse the best form of governance is anarchy. But we have been so conditioned that if you think of a synonym for anarchy chances are you will come up with chaos. Anarchy is the absence of leaders (good ones or bad ones). People take responsibility for their actions. Our leaders will have you believe that this will lead to Chaos and Might is Right. Well then we will be no worse of than we are now.
Oh yes , Im all in favor of the theory that the single biggest corrupt influence on everyone not just the youth are our Politicians. And that we ban the whole lot.

Womens Cricket

How is it that the Indian men's cricket team can get thrashed yet we follow each word of their (lack of) exploits whereas the womens team can reach the finals of the world cup and no one raises a peep. There doesnt even seem to be live coverage on any of the television channels.
Talk about worshipping false gods!

Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin

The so called makeover of Jassi hasnt been well received by the audience. There are two things that bother me here.
What is it about the movies we watch , the serials we see,the Ads that are made that worship beauty? . The fair and lovely ads are especially offensive. In the case of JJKN, if the twist in the tale was to illustrate how people react differently to essentially the same woman and was meant as a social satire, it would probably be a groundbreaking serial. Sadly i think this is more the Kuch Kuch Hota Hain type of story, for a female to get her man she must be pretty (and after mariage wear only traditional Indian dresses). Plain Janes can only win best supporting actress.

And the hypocritcal audience. While we see this on TV , we'd prefer the underdog. When it comes to our lives we'd mostly ignore the plain and ugly. And prefer to stare at the babes.

The only question is which is the cause and which is the effect?

F1

A powerful red machine swerves and shoves a black vehicle from the racing line. The black vehicle is foreced to break , but this causes the yellow car behind to ram into it. The drivers get out and shake their fists at each other and hurl expletives. The Red machine is of course the BEST buses. The black vehicle is the auto. We do have the analogues of the minardi - the cyclers , destined to be overtaken or knocked of. There is of course one difference. In F1 the bravest guys are the drivers. In mumbai the bravest are the pedestrians.
If F! increased the number of cars to say 100 and had people racing in both directions (no lanes) Kartikeyan would win

Video games and Maturity

A colleague asked me for my copy of Xonix and Metal Marines and SuperBikes which brought me back memories of my ITP days. SuperBikes was *The* game of our training batch. Other batches prefferred Road Rash or Age of Empires or An an aeroplane fight game. This was of course played over the network in blatant violation of company policies. And we carried this habit when we were finally put on projects as well. In fact our proper introduction to one of the projects project manager was only complete when he joined us for a round. Sometimes we played snooker tournaments.
Somehow however we have stopped playing any games now. I cant quite figure out why. The company rules are the same now as they were before. We haven't matured. And we still look back at the good ol' days with fondness.
I suspect that time has had its affect on us. And the devil may care attitude has been dropped by most of us. We care much more of the consequences now than we did then. Is this finally a sign of the rebellious streak being behind us and now we are the staid members of society conforming to its every rule?

Teaching subjects

A follow up to the Teaching entry.
I wonder how students would receive an integrated training course.
Case In point wing's of fire. Let's say we rewrite this book (or publish supplements to it) which achieve the following
A. For every quotation which is excerpted , we have the entire poem (prose).
B. For say the rockets and satellites we include the physics behind it all (like perhaps what is a geostationary orbit - what is a geosynchronous orbit)
C. Since most physics includes mathematics we include the relevant bits
D. We trace the history of rocket science from the times of Tipu Sultan
E. We add section dealing with the right and wrongs of pursuing weapons development as opposed to the other ways the same resources could have been utilised. Include assignments like debates on the same
Which would cover science,maths, english, moral science,history.
You could of course do similar things with say A Discovery of India (though the range of subjects covered would probably substitute geography with science)
Would students prefer doing this? or do they prefer the disjointed way subjects are thought today ? You learn say Integration but you practically see its application(if at all) only two years later.
And which way is better?

Weekly Roundup

America has sold some F-16's to Pakistan and has offered some to India (F-18's maybe). I hope we aren't stupid enough to fall for this (or buying any equipment from germany,israel etc. as tit for tat). But i dont have much hope.

With the pope's decision to die in his room in the vatican (according to newspapers atleast) as opposed to full medical treatment in some hospital, i wonder what it says for the people who are champions of the pro -life cause ? since most of these people are pro lifers because of their (catholic) religion. (This is not to say there aren't exceptions - there is atleast one - me!).
Indian mythology i guess supports the right for a person to choose when he dies (Bhishma pitamaha , the various samadhis, the fourth stage in the vedas are for me equivalents) but Indian law does not allow it.

And so India wins the first one day. And one of the reasons is Ganguly's astute captaincy! And though i happen to think Ganguly is a good captain ( who can forget that he succesfully irritated steve waugh and rattled the australians) our newspapers (or rather the reporters) are amazingly fickle. Yes i know this isnt exactly news.

A good one in mindsport
Theres a problem set by a certain Mr VS tulpule. he says that the first two digits of his telephone number are 2 and 5. Of the remaining 6 two digits are repeated twice and two digits occur once. Different numbers can be made arranging these 6 numbers and the sum of all combinations is (excluding the actual one) is 119551923. And those who can figure it out can call him.
The first answer has an elaborate mathematical proof which figures out the answer.
The second one searched the telephone directory and got 3 VS tulpule's and only one has a number beginning 25
MS implies the second method needs you to say bye bye to your brains. On the contrary its a highly elegant, lateral solution.