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