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.

History and its Teaching

One of the most boring subjects in school (right up there with Geography) was History. Well except the chapters that dealt with Shivaji beating his rival kings with a variety of tactics.
Even the ones that dealt with India's freedom struggle were generally Ho Hum , the dates meant to be memorized and forgotten the next year.
It is only now that i realize that this was a mistake and History can actually be quite interesting. But it is only so when the dry history of chronological events is combined with the view points and emotions of the person recounting that History.
And that is what i think makes the difference. A history of India is not as interesting as reading the discovery of India. India's freedom struggle is not as interesting as My experiments with Truth.
And to conclude with a quote
The lesson that History teaches us is that History often teaches the wrong lessons

Shwaas

Its when you see movies like Shwaas, you wonder about all the things that movies can be and all the things that they are and the vast gulf between the two.
Shwaas has a simplistic storyline , designed to be a tear jerker. A boy needs an eye operation which will cause him to be blind for the rest of his life. The movie shows how this incident will affect everyone else around him , especially his GrandFather.
Its wonderful this affinity that grandchildren seem to have for their grandparents. And we'd know this even if the two characters werent being played by excellent characters.
The Helplessness of the Grandfather , his inability to tell his grand child what a life of blindness would mean to him , preferring to pass this burden to the doctor and a medical social worker(perhaps the only unrealistic character) and his final redemption in taking the child out for one last time, to show him whatever he has not seen is wonderfully portrayed.
It ends with hope. The boy is blind but he still laughs and claps.
It is said that Shwaas is based on a true story. If so i hope that the kid has achieved whatever he wanted to , blindness or no blindness

Holi

Where does a person's right end and the other person begin?(Your right to throw a punch ends where my face begins). This is especially true for festivals like Holi. I do NOT like getting wet or being coloured but i know that if i set foot outside my house this is the fate that will befall me.
Proponents of this festival will point out the deeper significances of Holi and that a few rowdy hooligans should not take away from the beauty of the festival as a whole.
There is however no such a thing as a festival by itself. It will always be judged on the basis of what the people celebrating it do. Like religion. Like a Country.
And so far the people who celebrate Holi do not pass this test with flying colours

Terry Schiavo

The courts have decided that Terry Schiavo's feeding tube is to be removed, a sort of euthanasia.
I have always been on the side of the pro lifers(and this includes abortion,euthanasia,against death penalties , wars ). This is to do with the fact that all decisions to the contrary are irreversible. If say for e.g. you agree to pull the plug on a brain dead persons life support system because you have no cure today you can't take back the decision ever. There is also the question of misuse. Because i dont know the right answer, its better to play safe.(A similar argument was offered by Carl Sagan to do with Protecting the Environment , Nuclear winter etc. He said that you always err on the side of caution)
The only time this belief was shaken was when i read Carl Sagans article on Abortion and The Slippery Slope. Its shaken because i can come up with no logical and rational argument to counter what he says other than I dont think its right. I tend to laugh at people who offer me similar arguments based on faith and belief.
And so to quote Mike Carey via Michael in Lucifer
"Justice is Gods prerogative, The rest of us can only do what we think is right"
Here's hoping that all the people involved in Terry's case do what they think is right , and for that reason only.

Mental Health

The British Government is going to reassess its downgrade of cannabis because use of it may cause mental health problems. I think they confuse cause and effect. Use of such drugs demonstrates the presence of mental health problems

Weekly Roundup of News

The Sting Operation on Bollywood *ahem* stars has caused much discussion. The consensus among colleagues is that if you call someone like Shakti Kapoor to your room at night and get him drunk "what do you expect?". Much of the debate is centered around Invasion of Privacy and how it must be stopped. Unsurprisingly most of this debate is by the film stars who would like the print media to only see what they want it to see and publicize only what they want made public. However all things considered , discussions on what is public and what is private may not in itself be such a bad thing(Remember Big Brother is watching!). The one thing that I do notice is how little the discussion is on whether the casting couch exists. I think this has to do with two reasons. A) It is much more comfortable(!) to watch a Hindi film without wondering about how the heroine/supporting actress has landed her role. B) Everyone has already made up their minds that women are routinely harassed (sometimes its quid pro quo) in the film industry (among others) and therefore theres no point stating the obvious.

Narendra Modi has been denied a US visa. He has positioned this as an insult to India(I hate people who think they can speak for an entire country,state , community or whatever). Well students who want to study further are denied visas. Qualified Professionals are denied visas to work . No one considers that an insult though the people being denied are much more qualified individuals. He also raises the question whether India should deny visas to Americans because of the war in Iraq and for once he's right . I don't want to see George Bush granted access to India and this has nothing to do with a tit for tat gesture. And I for one would like to see Mr Modi go to America. With a one way ticket of course.

Sachin Tendulkar has missed another opportunity of a century , this time the victim of an incorrect umpire decision. Debates have been sparked again of the need of more 3rd umpire interaction. However when Sachin was declared not out and went on to make 94, no one made anything more of it other than a passing mention. I guess fairness should not be applied when it comes to cricket.

A Canadian judge has acquitted the people accused of the Kanishka bomb attacks on two planes. Im not quite aware of the details of the case. What interests me is the reaction of the people who claim a travesty of justice. A similar program on AXN had shown close relatives of victims reacting to sentences (of either acquittal or reduction) and most of these ended violently.
When does a person lose the right to live? And who among us can decide ? I myself have given conflicting answers to these questions depending on how much the incident under consideration has affected me.
And of what use are the courts if we cant believe their judgment
And how much do I really believe in Innocent till proven guilty

Drinks and Drunks

A treatise on the various types of drinkers i know

a. The Knowledgeable Drunk - He is able to spin various anecdotes about the origin of the particular types of alcohol, the various combinations.

b. Loosens my Tongue - Is normally discreet, but a little bit of alcohol is all that is needed to get this guy to pour out his lives problem. Unfortunately sometimes he may pour out others problems as well

c. The Disgusting High/Low - People who belief that the time before you throw up or the time before you urinate(after you have drunk a lot of beer) are incredible highs. Then proceed to demonstrate said beliefs. Ugh!

d. My stomach is a bottomless Ocean - can imbibe huge quantities without being affected by any of it. Normally has a beatific expression on face while drinking

e. To Boldly go where no (wo)man has ever gone before - Will insist on trying new varieties or exotic sounding labels. This is inspite of the fact that in most cases the after effect immediately or next day are not going to be pretty

f. The Connosieur - Will drink only a particular brand and be a tee totaller otherwise

g. The More we are together - Gets other to drinks while managing to down all of a quarter of a peg in the whole evening. And gets drunk on it as well.

IQ tests

While reading I. Asimov i came across the chapter on Mensa where the author states that there were two reasons he didnt want to give the Mensa IQ test - The first being that he was scared . Its a loss - loss situation for him and the second that such tests are set up to judge one facet of your intelligence by people who are good at the same facet of intelligence and ask questions which only judge that facet.
While i share the first fear ( I have never taken an IQ test , and of the two interviews given on the campus i flunked one and got shortlisted for the other, though i think that was more to do with my engineering grades than any of my answers) I dont think the author goes far enough in the condemnation of such tests.
So whether cream is denser than milk(true/false) Or Asked while cooking if you too much salt how do you recover the dish , which do you think takes more intelligence? or
How many days will it take for all the blue eyed people to jump into the ocean(given a complex set of rules) or how do you get a six year old who is more interested in the TV to read books?
or
given a set of geometrical shapes and asked to predict the next shape from a. b. c. or d. Or how do you get people to stop believing in the illogicalities of religion?
You can of course go on and on of the thorough uselessness of the Mensa - Ish questions

Irony

In todays Times Of India a photo which shows Congress *Gandhians* Re enacting Gandhiji's Dandi March with the person leading the march a likeness of Gandhiji. (The March or Time Mar 13 2005)
The Backdrop of the photo is the promo of the film Fun with a Bikini Clad Payal Rohatgi's assets prominently displayed. The promo is split into two by the Indian Flag.
Note I do not say whether this is good or bad , merely amusing
On the subject of ironies , a Muslim kid has won the VHP organised Ramayan parichay yojana.

Internet Filters

I had to look up some data on the internet to find out ways of converting an xml/html format to PDF. Over the weekend i had narrowed it down to JasperReports , iText or docBook. So on what was a holiday(today) i decided to go to work download the code and try out samples.
http://www.docbook.org is blocked from my work place. As far as i know This is the location of DocBook - The definitive Guide . Still searching for samples on docbook , i found selfdocbook. When I went to download the sample xml - blocked(the rest of the site worked!). Finally iText I clicked documentation - no luck blocked again. At which point i shutdown my machine and went Home
So herewith a criticism on the Insidious Practice of Internet Site Blocking in vogue at most companies these days
These are the reasons i have heard from various people why this must be so
a) Prevent your employees from wasting time in non work related activities
b) Prevent virus attacks
c) Prevent Objectionable content from being read
d) Prevent distribution of inappropriate materials
e) Prevent illegal activities (like downloading mp3s)
f) Saves Bandwidth by restricting access to sites
So here goes
You cant prevent a) no matter what you do. If your employee is not sincere no amount of policing is going to make it so.
We have an on access virus scanner so if its upto dateno one should be infected . If it isnt the case then the internet via a browser is not going to be the only way to infect the machine.
c) is laughable since no one defines what Objectionable is .
The internet is not the only way for d) and nothing is done of the rest of the ways .
I would say its obvious that e) shouldnt affect the employer but such is the state of our laws.
f) We have had strict policies in place and it hasn't improved the speeds (as perceived by me) one bit.
Arguments about punishing the majority for the sins of the minority fall on deaf ears.
Repeated demonstrations that sites needed for work are being blocked have met no success only trite quotes like 'sometimes business needed sites will get blocked' you just have to tell us we'll unblock it. the fact that it sometimes takes days doesnt seem to concern these representatives of efficiency.
It was interesting to read a debate published by an Indian newspaper about an argument for and argument against restricting internet access to employees. the argument for was made by the security head of my company. The argument against was the CEO of some other indian organisation. At the end the CEO looked like a young dynamic liberal guy whose company seemed to be a cool place to work at, where the employees are trusted. The Security Head came through as an Old fashioned Police Havaldar . The type who looks at a mouse and wonders what new fangled contraption has been invented now
The bottom line is i have one less reason to continue working for my company

The Company of Children

I think the one thing guaranteed to cure boredom or to lighten an otherwise dark mood is the company of children. being behind a deadline ,working on a weekend and being poorly paid for it are all forgotten in the happy activity of punching holes on a sheet of paper with a 2-3 yr old and then blowing the remnants in the air to watch them glide down to the dustbin
or helping them scribble on the whiteboard with markers or watching some cartoon with them.
I think that one of the gifts i have is that i can till now still play with chidren who are a tenth of my age and be like them albeit for a brief period and for that im thankful

Sins

As expected the movie Sins has caused controversy(disclaimer i havent seen the movie) with a section of the catholic community protesting the depiction of a preist having an affair with a woman and a subsequent abortion
It has given rise to comments such as "what will school children think of their principals now" , "all my years as an educationist have gone to the dogs"
Ironically there are also statements such as "in these intolerant times showing movies such as these will only increase hatred towards missionaries"
So here goes ,( i was born into a south indian hindu family schooled in a jesuit school and currently dislike all religion)
I wonder what exactly the nun was teaching if a movie can make all her education go to the dogs
In these intolerant times it is necessary that the normal person be as tolerant as possible.
I think no less of my school principal , whichever movie hollywood/bollywood makes and will make(Yes Father Joe /Father Edmund /Father Aran i will always have respect for you though we may choose irreverent nicknames for you like eddy - monty).
And if you really think this movie does you harm , just go look at the number of priest accused and convicted amidst allegations of molestation

Perhaps one of the good thing hinduism as it was practised before(my memory is hazy and this may be a case of seeing the past with rose tinted glasses) did not need its people to affirm it. Christianity and Islam came and all Hinduism said was bring it on and it survived. That is off course no longer the case. The practisers of hinduism these days believe that they must shout its virtues from the rooftops and feel obliged to respond to provocations in kind and sometimes be the chief provokers themselves.

The Bombay Times

I can only lament on the state of our newspapers today.
Case in point The Bombay Times . Feb 27 2005
Page 1 An article about toursim in kashmir,an ode to dilip kumar, A question and answer on the mill lands by a sangarsh samiti representative and the views of some film personalities about the due budget
Page 2 and 3 devoted exclusive to celebrities. Though perhaps celebrities is too strong a word. sample the names of the people do you even know what they do ?
ashwin deo,dj aqeel,archana,gul panag ,harmeet gulzar and shefali jariwala,shonali shroff,shravan shroff,zulfi sayed
Page 4 ah the comics strips. something worth reading at last
page 5 news about the british royals prince charles wedding. Oh no i thought i had escaped then when i returned to india from london!
Page 6 and 7 cinema ads though page 7 has more celebrity interviews some western some local
Page 8 full page cinema ads
Page 9 interviews with vishal bharadwaj and shah rukh khan
Page 10 full page ad
And no this is not a Sunday Special. The only feature of note is the Question on Answer on Page 1 and the comic strips
Perhaps Bombay Time should rebrand itself as Bollywood Times.
Now i wonder how do i get an email of to malavika sanghvi

Slum demolition

There is recently a furore against the BMC's drive to clear Mumbai of its illegal slums (but only those after the year 2000). Evidently this drive is not humanitarian and the governement should not be going out demolishing the slums without providing them free alternative housing.
I find myself on the side of the demolitions.
It is simple the slums are illegal. By providing free housing/land whatever we are encouraging more slums. It is akin to catching a thief and on hearing his sad life story saying go ahead rob me and heres the keys to the neighbours house as well. The maid in our house , herself homeless but whose son lives in an illegal slum tells us how her son pays 4000 a month to a corporator. Poor indeed. It is also heard from the same source how these people sell the home they have got and go back to live in the same slums till the next time they are given another home.
Which is not to say that we should kick these people out and do nothing else . The skewed development in India has to be halted. It is silly that so much wealth is concentrated in so few places. And Mumbai is one of those places. We have to develop other places so that the people there do not feel a need to migrate to Mumbai to earn their living. We must do something about our population. While it continues to increase at this rate no amount of development will serve any purpose. And finally we must stop allowing politics and politicians to interfere in all our public bodies.

The times they are a changing

I just finished reading Tamas by Bhisham Sahni
It is a sign of how much India has changed that i do not think such a book could be published today .Or a TV serial made. There would be protests , probably the producers office would be burnt and the matter referred to the courts . Complaints from all the communities that they are portrayed in a bad light (How do you portray communities participating in a riot in a good light?). Complaints that this will stir feelings of hatred to various communities. And so on and so forth. Over the years we have become less tolerant towards fiction/art/literature. The rise of people who feel that they should choose for us to places of power where they can actually do so is troublesome.
And i now know the answer to a question
"India is not secular it is multi-religious. And I do not know whether that is a good thing or a bad thing"
The answer is No it is not a good thing. The tragic part is this were it any other way , it would not be India.

Secure Festivals

Two days ago was bakri id. While travelling to work on the company bus, we have to pass a masjid near teli gully. Opposite it were the cops in full force some 10 or so. The same arrangement I had observed near bandra station. Im not sure i had noticed this during my younger years(or do the old days always seem to be the good old days?). And you realise that we are currently living in uneasy truce. To celebrate any religious festival we need complete police protection. That the facade we put on of all religions living peacefully in India is just that - a facade.
And to quote BusyBee India is not secular it is multi-religious. And I do not know whether that is a good thing or a bad thing

A Dental Appointment

Have you ever noticed that everyone waiting in a dentists reception area have grim expressions writ large on their face. And it isnt necessarily because they have a tooth ache. Parents accompanying their children are also suitably mournful. And you can feel the collective grimace when the door opens and you can hear the dentists drill. The previous dentist waiting area was air conditioned with a peculiar smell that felt like you were entering the morgue. or at least this is what i think it should feel like when you enter a morgue.
This is one my irrational fears that try as i might i cannot get rid of. And i dont seem to be the only one. The world can be divided (like the lord of rings) into the people who are afraid of dentists and those who are yet to visit them. The dazzling array of sharp instruments .i always shut my eyes , in the mistaken firm belief that what i cant see cant hurt me.
And of this particular appointment the worst possible result.
An excruciating one hour wait. One filling . And an appointment for next week

On Countries

Religion. Language. Caste. Class. Race. Skin Colour.
People who discriminate or state that certain individuals are better or worse on any of the above criteria will be immediately branded as racist, bigots or some other suitable adjective by most people who can think for themselves.
However when it comes to countries this discrimination is almost universally encouraged. From the God Blesses America to saare jahan se accha hindustan hamara. People who believe that their country is superior to every other country are generally called Patriots (One who loves, supports, and defends one's country though this meaning does not hold in these times)
You have to respect any symbol remote connected to the country(e.g. anthem,flag, language etc.). You have to profess the opinon that your country is better than any other country (except if you are an NRI). You have to pass laws to protect your people, workforce, industry against those other people who are trying to immigrate to your country , trying to steal your jobs
You have to vociferously support your army , irrespective of the cause its fighting for. Anything less is the sign of a traitor. You have to overlook every problem that your country is facing because its still great.
Any problems in the country are always caused by a troublesome few , the vast majority are always good, honest god fearing people.
But i digress.
What is a country ?
Perhaps Another way to distinguish one set of humans from another (not that humanity has any shortage of ways to do this). Only this time the criterion is where you were born , what country your father belongs to or the amount of time you have spent in a place.
Who determined what the borders are
For my country it was

• Some kings from all over the world
• The British Empire
• Some Wars(still ongoing) with the neighbours

Im sure its the similar for other countries.

Who determined the symbols that will represent the country?

Individuals , sometimes committees , elected(sometimes) representatives

All in all this is not a state of affairs im particularly happy with. It offends me that if say i want to see the niagra falls , i need to get the canadian governments permission. Who can decide unilaterally whether it will allow me , and if so for how much time. The same of course holds for all countries.

really idiotic

Jana Gana Mana

The first time i read this i laughed till i read it in another couple of places and realised that Mr Sanjeev Bhatnagar was serious. Evidently he does not like the fact that the word 'Sindh' which as per Mr Bhatnagar represents the place and not the people, does not belong to India anymore and so should be replaced by some thing else (like kashmir?!) in India's national anthem the Jana Gana Mana.
My initial knee jerk reaction was that 'either use a different national anthem that satisifies your warped sense of patriotism , dont mess with someone else's poem'
After careful thought i have revised this opinion to 'I dont care'
That however does not prevent me from adding my two cents.
The supreme court has ruled asking Mr bhatnagar to take up his problem with the Government.
From the Times Of India these are Mr Bhatnagars views (or my interpretation of them)

1. Sindh is now a Pakistani Province and hence the use of it in our national anthem violates our constitution(Article 1 , Clause 2)
2. According to Tagore himself the word *sindh* represents the province and not the culture nor the people
3. Sindhis shouldnt be hurt as they should be calling themselves indians and not sindhis
4. There is no big deal changing a national anthem as the russians have done it , the germans have done it, and the situation now is different from 1911
5. That he is apolitical and would prefer to see saare jahan se accha as the national anthem of india
6. That our current national anthem is not a patriotic one ,there is controversy over who the vidhata is

The one good thing that has come out of all this is that i have finally looked up the translation of the Jana Gana Mana. I remember laughing at the corporators who could not recite the national anthem and i realise now that i was no better than them, i had only learnt the words , i did not understand what they meant just that standing at attention and repeating the words somehow made me a patriot.

Anyway more on that later. The reasons for my initial reactions were

There are numerous examples in Hindi Film entertainment and in our politicians deeds where someone else's idea's of patriotism is forced down our throats. This seemed to be another example. But for the points Mr Bhatnagar raises

1. Sindh is indeed part of Pakistan. I am not well versed in Article 1 Clause 2 so i do not know if it indeed is a violation.
2. If you read the poem the translation states that 'Thy name rouses the hearts of ........ Sindh' so i dont think Mr Bhatnagar is correct in stating that the poet intended the place and not the people.
3. His third point shows an astonishing naivete in understanding the Indian psyche even though technically he may be correct.
4. Other People do it cannot be used as a point for or against an argument
5. And Vande Mataram would be preferred by some sections and each and every song or poem that we chose would have its share of detractors.
6. A matter of interpretation. I would say that there is no doubt that Bhagya Vidhata does NOT refer to King George V

The Sindhi Community has reacted as expected ,that were treated unfairly in the partition(is there anyone who was treated fairly?) , that sindh is more than a geo political entity , it is a people, a culture, a civilisation. That Sindhi hearts glow with pride every time they hear the sindh word in the Indian National Anthem.

And all of the above leads to me my final views on the matter , I dont care what happens ,India is more than an anthem , a flag ,a language or a community.

Conflicting Criteria

Since the topic of my marriage keeps coming up and everyone has some advice on the qualities of the woman i should choose , herewith a list
The woman should be employed , self sufficient. Who knows what may happen in this world
The woman should be a house wife , that way she has plenty of time to look after you
The woman should be well educated . You can then have intelligent conversations with her
The woman should not be well educated. It would be hard to get your own way with such women
The woman should be city born - city bred. You should atleast have this much in common
The woman must be village bred - village born. What do these city girls know. They cant even cook to save their lives
The woman must be working in the IT industry. Only she will understand the hectic life
The woman must not be in the same industry. Otherwise you will both be working late hours never meet each other
The woman must be pretty. You should want to go out with her.
The woman must be smart. All the pretty ones are dumb
The woman must work in the same company as you. How else will youll spend time together
The woman must work somewhere else. How else will you make excuses about work without getting caught

Me i have only one requirement. She must be (you know who).

Indian Gods

The blind faith of people in the various gods and goddesses never ceases to amaze(and disappoint) me. Or let me rephrase that, The Blind faith of people in self proclaimed representatives of the various gods and goddesses never ceases to amaze. Case in point , when I visited a temple in Kollur (the mookambika godess) , all men had to enter her presence bare chested. There is of course no logical reason for this , but faith doesn't need any logical reason. Surprising the previous day we visited some other temple and of course there was no such restriction there. All the temples in India (or atleast in the south) are becoming increasing commercialized. There is a list of pujas with suitable prices attached varying from the Rs 25 to the Rs 2000. The gods (or their idols) are locked up at one end of a long dark passage and all one can do is peer at them from afar. Though that doesn't prevent thousands of devotees from prostrating themselves. The tirupathi temple earned a revenue in crores and is considering increasing the price of the puja's to well, earn more.
Indians seems incapable of differentiating between gods and between a priest/brahmin/mullah/bhatr who claim to know more than the rest, who claim to be closer to good and are able to put in a good word for the rest of us. perhaps we should give up the pretense and worship them instead.

The Reborn Rooster

An interesting village tale
I visited my uncles place in mangalore for the Christmas holidays(a village called tones in mangalore). Its a typical village and my uncle has a rooster and some hens. It seems that one day the rooster was caught by a fox which took it to its den. The villagers chased the fox to the den and presumably killed it.However the rooster was lying dead on the ground. They left it there, but the next day someone passing by heard the rooster making crowing sounds. It of course hadn't died yet. Someone returned the rooster to my uncle but the rooster was in a state of shock and refused to eat anything. It supposedly was given glucose(intravenously?) and is now fine.
I thought only cats had more than one life!

The second most durable species

I was reading 'The Tunnel Of Time' - R. K. Laxman's autobiography which had a quote which was something like
"Politicians are the most durable species"
And of course i could not help but make the inevitable comparison with my own profession that of a software engineer. Though perhaps not as durable as the politician we probably qualify as the second most durable species.

For example

Most of the projects / products delivered are late and over budget and buggy. And these are the successful ones. There are the spectacular failures that no one has heard of.

Everyone associated with the failed project moves on to better and bigger things (perhaps in a different organization). I haven't heard of anyone getting a demotion for his role in a failed project. Instead the person has more experience( a valuable commodity in the software industry). The fact that the experience is in screwing up projects is of course not considered

Both the techies and the managers have a ready excuse list why the failure was not our fault and how a combination of circumstance, other people, client etc.. was the cause of failure. Like the teflon coated politicians nothing sticks to us either

We make a living of the fact that the things we have delivered do not function correctly. (The maintenance cost of projects almost always far exceed the initial design and development costs).

We state it as a known truth that all projects/products will always have bugs. we are in fact quite proud of it.

We come of with fancy terms (e.g. refactoring) to cover our inadequacies and incompetencies. See for example XP.

• Fact software engineers are too bored/lazy/incompetent to keep code and documents in synch.
• Solution come up with catchy phrases like 'The code is the documentation'

• Fact it is really hard to design systems which are flexible and predict the future requirements.It is really hard enough to come up with a design that covers the current requirements.
• Solution come up with a cool acronym like YAGNI(you aint gonna need it)

We love repeating our mistakes. we love repeating other peoples mistakes. Just look at the number of substandard open source projects and the number of downloads they get.

So am i disillusioned with this industry?

Lazing at home vs work

Its ironic , everyone feels how i(city dweller) must be bored sitting in the village away from work with nothing to do and that i feel how nice i have nothing to do.
The Art of Doing Nothing is not easily acquired.