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
Friday, March 18, 2005
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Drinks and Drunks
A treatise on the various types of drinkers i know
a. The Knowledgeable Drunk - He is able to spin various anecdotes about the origin of the particular types of alcohol, the various combinations.
b. Loosens my Tongue - Is normally discreet, but a little bit of alcohol is all that is needed to get this guy to pour out his lives problem. Unfortunately sometimes he may pour out others problems as well
c. The Disgusting High/Low - People who belief that the time before you throw up or the time before you urinate(after you have drunk a lot of beer) are incredible highs. Then proceed to demonstrate said beliefs. Ugh!
d. My stomach is a bottomless Ocean - can imbibe huge quantities without being affected by any of it. Normally has a beatific expression on face while drinking
e. To Boldly go where no (wo)man has ever gone before - Will insist on trying new varieties or exotic sounding labels. This is inspite of the fact that in most cases the after effect immediately or next day are not going to be pretty
f. The Connosieur - Will drink only a particular brand and be a tee totaller otherwise
g. The More we are together - Gets other to drinks while managing to down all of a quarter of a peg in the whole evening. And gets drunk on it as well.
Saturday, March 12, 2005
IQ tests
While reading I. Asimov i came across the chapter on Mensa where the author states that there were two reasons he didnt want to give the Mensa IQ test - The first being that he was scared . Its a loss - loss situation for him and the second that such tests are set up to judge one facet of your intelligence by people who are good at the same facet of intelligence and ask questions which only judge that facet.
While i share the first fear ( I have never taken an IQ test , and of the two interviews given on the campus i flunked one and got shortlisted for the other, though i think that was more to do with my engineering grades than any of my answers) I dont think the author goes far enough in the condemnation of such tests.
So whether cream is denser than milk(true/false) Or Asked while cooking if you too much salt how do you recover the dish , which do you think takes more intelligence? or
How many days will it take for all the blue eyed people to jump into the ocean(given a complex set of rules) or how do you get a six year old who is more interested in the TV to read books?
or
given a set of geometrical shapes and asked to predict the next shape from a. b. c. or d. Or how do you get people to stop believing in the illogicalities of religion?
You can of course go on and on of the thorough uselessness of the Mensa - Ish questions
While i share the first fear ( I have never taken an IQ test , and of the two interviews given on the campus i flunked one and got shortlisted for the other, though i think that was more to do with my engineering grades than any of my answers) I dont think the author goes far enough in the condemnation of such tests.
So whether cream is denser than milk(true/false) Or Asked while cooking if you too much salt how do you recover the dish , which do you think takes more intelligence? or
How many days will it take for all the blue eyed people to jump into the ocean(given a complex set of rules) or how do you get a six year old who is more interested in the TV to read books?
or
given a set of geometrical shapes and asked to predict the next shape from a. b. c. or d. Or how do you get people to stop believing in the illogicalities of religion?
You can of course go on and on of the thorough uselessness of the Mensa - Ish questions
Irony
In todays Times Of India a photo which shows Congress *Gandhians* Re enacting Gandhiji's Dandi March with the person leading the march a likeness of Gandhiji. (The March or Time Mar 13 2005)
The Backdrop of the photo is the promo of the film Fun with a Bikini Clad Payal Rohatgi's assets prominently displayed. The promo is split into two by the Indian Flag.
Note I do not say whether this is good or bad , merely amusing
On the subject of ironies , a Muslim kid has won the VHP organised Ramayan parichay yojana.
The Backdrop of the photo is the promo of the film Fun with a Bikini Clad Payal Rohatgi's assets prominently displayed. The promo is split into two by the Indian Flag.
Note I do not say whether this is good or bad , merely amusing
On the subject of ironies , a Muslim kid has won the VHP organised Ramayan parichay yojana.
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
Internet Filters
I had to look up some data on the internet to find out ways of converting an xml/html format to PDF. Over the weekend i had narrowed it down to JasperReports , iText or docBook. So on what was a holiday(today) i decided to go to work download the code and try out samples.
http://www.docbook.org is blocked from my work place. As far as i know This is the location of DocBook - The definitive Guide . Still searching for samples on docbook , i found selfdocbook. When I went to download the sample xml - blocked(the rest of the site worked!). Finally iText I clicked documentation - no luck blocked again. At which point i shutdown my machine and went Home
So herewith a criticism on the Insidious Practice of Internet Site Blocking in vogue at most companies these days
These are the reasons i have heard from various people why this must be so
a) Prevent your employees from wasting time in non work related activities
b) Prevent virus attacks
c) Prevent Objectionable content from being read
d) Prevent distribution of inappropriate materials
e) Prevent illegal activities (like downloading mp3s)
f) Saves Bandwidth by restricting access to sites
So here goes
You cant prevent a) no matter what you do. If your employee is not sincere no amount of policing is going to make it so.
We have an on access virus scanner so if its upto dateno one should be infected . If it isnt the case then the internet via a browser is not going to be the only way to infect the machine.
c) is laughable since no one defines what Objectionable is .
The internet is not the only way for d) and nothing is done of the rest of the ways .
I would say its obvious that e) shouldnt affect the employer but such is the state of our laws.
f) We have had strict policies in place and it hasn't improved the speeds (as perceived by me) one bit.
Arguments about punishing the majority for the sins of the minority fall on deaf ears.
Repeated demonstrations that sites needed for work are being blocked have met no success only trite quotes like 'sometimes business needed sites will get blocked' you just have to tell us we'll unblock it. the fact that it sometimes takes days doesnt seem to concern these representatives of efficiency.
It was interesting to read a debate published by an Indian newspaper about an argument for and argument against restricting internet access to employees. the argument for was made by the security head of my company. The argument against was the CEO of some other indian organisation. At the end the CEO looked like a young dynamic liberal guy whose company seemed to be a cool place to work at, where the employees are trusted. The Security Head came through as an Old fashioned Police Havaldar . The type who looks at a mouse and wonders what new fangled contraption has been invented now
The bottom line is i have one less reason to continue working for my company
http://www.docbook.org is blocked from my work place. As far as i know This is the location of DocBook - The definitive Guide . Still searching for samples on docbook , i found selfdocbook. When I went to download the sample xml - blocked(the rest of the site worked!). Finally iText I clicked documentation - no luck blocked again. At which point i shutdown my machine and went Home
So herewith a criticism on the Insidious Practice of Internet Site Blocking in vogue at most companies these days
These are the reasons i have heard from various people why this must be so
a) Prevent your employees from wasting time in non work related activities
b) Prevent virus attacks
c) Prevent Objectionable content from being read
d) Prevent distribution of inappropriate materials
e) Prevent illegal activities (like downloading mp3s)
f) Saves Bandwidth by restricting access to sites
So here goes
You cant prevent a) no matter what you do. If your employee is not sincere no amount of policing is going to make it so.
We have an on access virus scanner so if its upto dateno one should be infected . If it isnt the case then the internet via a browser is not going to be the only way to infect the machine.
c) is laughable since no one defines what Objectionable is .
The internet is not the only way for d) and nothing is done of the rest of the ways .
I would say its obvious that e) shouldnt affect the employer but such is the state of our laws.
f) We have had strict policies in place and it hasn't improved the speeds (as perceived by me) one bit.
Arguments about punishing the majority for the sins of the minority fall on deaf ears.
Repeated demonstrations that sites needed for work are being blocked have met no success only trite quotes like 'sometimes business needed sites will get blocked' you just have to tell us we'll unblock it. the fact that it sometimes takes days doesnt seem to concern these representatives of efficiency.
It was interesting to read a debate published by an Indian newspaper about an argument for and argument against restricting internet access to employees. the argument for was made by the security head of my company. The argument against was the CEO of some other indian organisation. At the end the CEO looked like a young dynamic liberal guy whose company seemed to be a cool place to work at, where the employees are trusted. The Security Head came through as an Old fashioned Police Havaldar . The type who looks at a mouse and wonders what new fangled contraption has been invented now
The bottom line is i have one less reason to continue working for my company
Sunday, March 06, 2005
The Company of Children
I think the one thing guaranteed to cure boredom or to lighten an otherwise dark mood is the company of children. being behind a deadline ,working on a weekend and being poorly paid for it are all forgotten in the happy activity of punching holes on a sheet of paper with a 2-3 yr old and then blowing the remnants in the air to watch them glide down to the dustbin
or helping them scribble on the whiteboard with markers or watching some cartoon with them.
I think that one of the gifts i have is that i can till now still play with chidren who are a tenth of my age and be like them albeit for a brief period and for that im thankful
or helping them scribble on the whiteboard with markers or watching some cartoon with them.
I think that one of the gifts i have is that i can till now still play with chidren who are a tenth of my age and be like them albeit for a brief period and for that im thankful
Sins
As expected the movie Sins has caused controversy(disclaimer i havent seen the movie) with a section of the catholic community protesting the depiction of a preist having an affair with a woman and a subsequent abortion
It has given rise to comments such as "what will school children think of their principals now" , "all my years as an educationist have gone to the dogs"
Ironically there are also statements such as "in these intolerant times showing movies such as these will only increase hatred towards missionaries"
So here goes ,( i was born into a south indian hindu family schooled in a jesuit school and currently dislike all religion)
I wonder what exactly the nun was teaching if a movie can make all her education go to the dogs
In these intolerant times it is necessary that the normal person be as tolerant as possible.
I think no less of my school principal , whichever movie hollywood/bollywood makes and will make(Yes Father Joe /Father Edmund /Father Aran i will always have respect for you though we may choose irreverent nicknames for you like eddy - monty).
And if you really think this movie does you harm , just go look at the number of priest accused and convicted amidst allegations of molestation
Perhaps one of the good thing hinduism as it was practised before(my memory is hazy and this may be a case of seeing the past with rose tinted glasses) did not need its people to affirm it. Christianity and Islam came and all Hinduism said was bring it on and it survived. That is off course no longer the case. The practisers of hinduism these days believe that they must shout its virtues from the rooftops and feel obliged to respond to provocations in kind and sometimes be the chief provokers themselves.
It has given rise to comments such as "what will school children think of their principals now" , "all my years as an educationist have gone to the dogs"
Ironically there are also statements such as "in these intolerant times showing movies such as these will only increase hatred towards missionaries"
So here goes ,( i was born into a south indian hindu family schooled in a jesuit school and currently dislike all religion)
I wonder what exactly the nun was teaching if a movie can make all her education go to the dogs
In these intolerant times it is necessary that the normal person be as tolerant as possible.
I think no less of my school principal , whichever movie hollywood/bollywood makes and will make(Yes Father Joe /Father Edmund /Father Aran i will always have respect for you though we may choose irreverent nicknames for you like eddy - monty).
And if you really think this movie does you harm , just go look at the number of priest accused and convicted amidst allegations of molestation
Perhaps one of the good thing hinduism as it was practised before(my memory is hazy and this may be a case of seeing the past with rose tinted glasses) did not need its people to affirm it. Christianity and Islam came and all Hinduism said was bring it on and it survived. That is off course no longer the case. The practisers of hinduism these days believe that they must shout its virtues from the rooftops and feel obliged to respond to provocations in kind and sometimes be the chief provokers themselves.
Sunday, February 27, 2005
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
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.
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.
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.
Sunday, January 23, 2005
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
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
Sunday, January 16, 2005
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
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
Sunday, January 09, 2005
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
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)
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)
- Sindh is now a Pakistani Province and hence the use of it in our national anthem violates our constitution(Article 1 , Clause 2)
- According to Tagore himself the word *sindh* represents the province and not the culture nor the people
- Sindhis shouldnt be hurt as they should be calling themselves indians and not sindhis
- 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
- That he is apolitical and would prefer to see saare jahan se accha as the national anthem of india
- 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
- 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.
- 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.
- His third point shows an astonishing naivete in understanding the Indian psyche even though technically he may be correct.
- Other People do it cannot be used as a point for or against an argument
- 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.
- 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).
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.
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!
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.
"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.
The Art of Doing Nothing is not easily acquired.
Monday, December 27, 2004
BusyBee
I have been reading the busybee collected works and reliving the memories that those articles contain. These articles have been inspiring me to write as well. After all if such simple writing can be so much fun to read , i should be able to write like this as well. Fame fortune here i come!. The above statement is of course a fallacy.
Its much harder to write simple humour with just a dash of sarcasm. If busybee were alive today he would have written something about the arrest of baazee.com's ceo. something along the lines of 'the chief has asked me to interview the server on which the bid was hosted'. Here all similarity between busybee's writing and mine ends. He would of course have written up the interview with a punch line. I cant think of what comes next. Being a software engineer means i can only come up(read copy) with jokes that would make sense to the software fraterntity making the entire article a damp squib.
ah well back to reading best of busybee for 1996 -97
Its much harder to write simple humour with just a dash of sarcasm. If busybee were alive today he would have written something about the arrest of baazee.com's ceo. something along the lines of 'the chief has asked me to interview the server on which the bid was hosted'. Here all similarity between busybee's writing and mine ends. He would of course have written up the interview with a punch line. I cant think of what comes next. Being a software engineer means i can only come up(read copy) with jokes that would make sense to the software fraterntity making the entire article a damp squib.
ah well back to reading best of busybee for 1996 -97
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