Ramanathan Palaniappan

When was the last time you did something for the first time?

2011-12-05T06:25:00.000-08:00

Approximately a month back I did something I thought I had not even a wee bit of inclination towards, even in the wildest of my dreams. Cook! Yes, this writer finally managed to gather enough courage to go to the kitchen, pick up a few utensils and cook himself a decent meal.

In order to ensure that there were no disappointments, I started off with something easy namely Pudina and cocon

ut chutney with Dosa. The coconut chutney was easy to prepare with very minimal actual cooking involved. It was the Pudina which presented a little bit of a challenge and frankly it did give me a few jittery moments.

When my mother narrated the method of preparation over the phone, I just religiously jotted it down without questioning her. But when it came to the practical session, I started feeling a little wobbly. How else would an amateur cook react when the instructions read like ‘handful of this’ and a ‘pinch of that’? But as time went by, I realized that cooking is not an exact science but rather an art of approximations and it is this that made cooking an exciting and innovative exercise.

Having been emboldened by the results, I wish to try my hand at more complex recipes. Chicken Chettinad and Mutton Keema, here I come. Moreover, I realize that my scope of television entertainment has widened. All of a sudden, shows like ’MasterChef’ and ‘Highway on a plate’ seem more relevant and appealing.

While we are still on the note of food, my project mates and I went to a premium restaurant for a quarterly dinner. The place is called Premier Inn and it is located in the Whitefield area of Bangalore. It is actually a hotel with a restaurant in the ground floor. The restaurant was spacious, well furnished and had customizable seating options. The waiters were generally courteous and helpful (apart from the time we kept asking for repeated starters!). The buffet spread was ample and did cover a good number of Indian cuisines, both vegetarian and non vegetarian. And you get discounted ‘you-know-what’ during the happy hours….:)

Mumbai so far...

2011-07-31T05:13:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

Self is back in this space after a really looooonnnng time. I have been busy with searching for & eventually switching jobs. As part of my new assignment in a new organization, I had to move to a new city namely Mumbai, the city of dreams [or so they say]. And move I did, from the pleasant confines of Bangalore to the bustling & uncertain atmosphere of Mumbai.

My journey across the great Indian Deccan plateau had to happen via the air route given the tight time frame I found myself in. Not that I am complaining. Much to my surprise, the flight departed on time and managed to get me to Mumbai in one piece. For those not familiar with Indian conditions, this by itself is a major accomplishment! The air journey was reasonably comfortable and the pure rush of adrenaline that courses through your body when the plane is taxiing down the runway & preparing itself for takeoff is worthwhile for the thousands you pay for the hour or so ride.

The joining went off smoothly. It was other related incidents which I wish to elaborate on here. I was prodded on by a fellow joinee to take the notorious suburban railway back to my hotel on the first day of induction. I reluctantly agreed but had a bad feeling about it from the word go given that it was just the third day of my landing in Mumbai. To top it off, I was linguistically challenged. The only Hindi I knew then (and prob. even now) was “Hindi nahi maalum hai” (I don’t know Hindi).

At the train station, a mass of humanity had gathered and was anxiously waiting to be my fellow passengers. The train arrived and there was a sudden increase in activity. People started pushing & shoving mercilessly. It was as if I did not exist. I got a little peeved by all this and “lost precious time” (according to my friend) by which time the train was impossibly full. The next train arrived a few minutes later and this time I doled out the same treated that was meted out to me earlier on. I angled & scuttled my way across to board the carriage. My friend was suddenly all praise for me and even commented that my initiation (read into a Mumbaikar) had begun. My friend continued to enlighten me on various aspects of rail travel in Mumbai.

The 2nd day of induction was equally eventful but this time for all the wrong reasons. Another fellow joinee offered a motorcycle ride back to my hotel and I gladly accepted especially after the “sardined” train ride the previous day. But it seems, as always, God had other plans. The bike I was riding on didn’t have the usual mirrors. The ubiquitous traffic policemen, deployed strategically at various traffic signals, gleefully stopped us and fleeced us accordingly. I felt bad for the poor guy who lamented that till that day hadn’t been caught and that too twice in a single day.

I have also witnessed my first terrorist attack. With the frequency with which bomb blasts are happening here, I guess everyone must add terror to their list of firsts when they are narrating their experience in Mumbai. People have been just reduced to statistics and terrorists are striking with such audacity and certainty every 2 years that you get confused if the authorities here are really in charge and have things under control.

So, there you have it. This is how my Mumbai sojourn has been so far.

My cousin's grad day ceremony

2011-03-29T11:17:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

I attended my ultra genius cousin’s graduation day ceremony last month, 26th Feb 2011, at the Bangalore Medical College & Research Institute [BMCRI]. The event was graced by the Mr Bharadwaj, Governor of Karnataka, several eminent doctors & the entire brass of BMCRI’s faculty. The media was in attendance too, hoping to get good sound bites and capture some picture perfect moments.

The atmosphere was vibrant and alive. Overjoyed students, proud parents and relieved (!) faculty members. It was like a throwback to my own graduation almost 3 years back. Like all typical Indian ceremonies, this one too started off late. We are like this only, yaar!

The governor arrived with much pomp and gaiety. After the usual welcome address, a string of speeches commenced. [more on this later]. Then came the awards distribution. Everyone, especially the parents, was in awe for the prize winners and that’s when I realized this country’s craze for academic prowess never vanishes. Call it a middle class disease. This was followed by the ceremonial Hippocratic Oath, a rite of passage for medical practitioners. Finally, much to the pleasure of the graduands, the degrees were handed out, but not before mentioning some suave qualities about each and every one of them.

Most of the speeches, save the one by the Dean, were interesting and note worthy. There was a doctor who was prescribing competition with self being a much better challenge than competition with peers. Another one which proved statistically that having more doctors per capita will not solve the medical problems we are facing now. That was a real insight to me. A bureaucrat was detailing the state of hospitals and medicine in general in Karnataka. But the one who caught my attention the most was an eminent doctor who gave up his great career to work with tribals in interior India. He was narrating the appalling conditions in rural India and that it only takes a little bit of resolve to address the challenges we are facing. This man was austerity personified, dressed in just a formal shirt and pants while most of other invitees, probably rightfully so, had their coats and suits on.

The day ended with a sumptuous lunch, loads of photo taking and a cultural event which was actually an excuse for the graduands to let their hair down. I was overwhelmed by how the guys and girls danced as if nobody was watching. There were even some who might have put Prabhu Deva to shame! That was when I realized how many of us, self included, were/are so coiled up in life that we don’t we even realize how to have fun anymore. I remember telling my aunt how un-inhibitive these kids were. To all my friends and well wishers, self has taken a leaf or two out of the books of the graduands and is evolving. Effects will be visible soon

Pic courtsey: My cousin, fifth from the left

Modern Revolution for Dummies

2011-02-22T03:43:00.000-08:00

Folks,

The winds of change are blowing across the Arab World. As the rest of the world watches on with jittery nerves, unprecedented events are unraveling on a daily basis. Regimes across the Arab world, thought to be ‘stable’ till now, have either fallen or are facing a real threat of collapsing like dominoes. By the time this post reaches it’s Holy Grail [i.e. my blog site…:)] it would have been more than a week since the autocratic Egyptian government fell and more than a month since the Tunisian regime found its rightful place. Bahrain, Yemen & Libya are witnessing sustained protests and it’s any body’s guess on what will happen there.

Now, I don’t really want to go into intricacies of these revolutions and give a blow by blow account of what transpired there. I am sure most of you would have got daily fix from watching the news. I rather want to concentrate of the characteristics of a modern revolution.

What creates/sparks revolutions?

1. Pent up frustration - Long years of autocratic rule just creates one thing: Pent up frustration. A pressure cooker like situation where people are just waiting to explode. Even in so called democratic countries (like erstwhile Egypt), lack of true political reform and imperceptible benefits led to the turmoil we witnessed.

2. Iconic Images – Remember the ‘Tank Man’ of the Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing, 1989. The image of the man, who refused to give way for a tank to pass, still flashes in our minds and must have been a great rally point for protestors then. It must also be noted that the more recent self immolation of a vegetable seller in Tunisia was what started this unrest in the Arab world.

Indications that a revolution will probably be successful:

1. Relatively peaceful - If there is something the Egyptian revolt has proven, it’s that non violence is still relevant and a potent force to be reckoned with. [yea, Chak De Gandhi]The protests were not without their share of violence but given the magnitude of the protests and the competing interest of various parties involved, violence of much greater scale was expected. But, thankfully, that was not to be. Egyptian protestors were so responsible as to set up ‘check points’ and swipe down the fellow protestors to ensure weapons didn’t find their way into the protest area.

2. Participation of Women - Women power was out on display during the protests. There were mothers, housewives, sisters singing and chanting out on the streets with their children in tow. Women change the dynamics of any protest. Unlike men, who are just looking for an excuse to turn violent women, women have more pressing domestic concerns and for them to disregard that and turn up and mix with the crowd is a phenomenal thing. [It indicates to how much and how far the rot has spread.] All this in a region where women, apparently, are treated more like cattle than human beings!

3. Social Media - It would be safe to say that the revolution in Egypt would have come up to nothing if not for social media like Facebook. In social networking sites, people connect on a personal basis and this ensures that news is actually appreciated rather than just viewed, as we do it on TV. The fact that the internet was shut down just days after the protests broke out in Egypt reiterates the critical role of the internet and more importantly the social media.

A different journey

2011-01-31T05:21:00.000-08:00

2 weeks ago, I experienced a different kind of journey, one that I am not much used to. The journey was an eye opening one so much so that I had made up my mind to write about it while travelling itself.

So this is how the story goes….I was scheduled to travel from Trichy to Bangalore in XYZ travels (name concealed intentionally) after commemorating Sankrati with my kith and kin. But the bus I had booked was starting off from Karaikudi and passed through Trichy on its way. So, just to be on the safer side, I called up the travels several times to confirm my seat and the boarding point. Everything seemed fine till the bus actually arrived. To my utter shock, all the seats were already full!

I was enraged to say the least and consequently an argument broke out between the travels operator and me. But it was as if the guy was programmed to do one thing and one thing alone…shout at the top of his voice and turn a deaf ear to anyone arguing with him. After a couple of minutes, I realized that I was up against a sleazy, conniving bloke who was part of a gang that was in the business of making a quick buck with scant regard for professional and ethics. With no other viable alternative, I reluctantly accepted the ‘conductor’s seat’ that was offered to me in return for the overbooked seat.

The first hour or so went off well with me striking a conversation with the bus driver. He whined about pot holed roads and the powerful head lights of incoming Lorries. It was nice to hear, feel and see, literally, things from a driver’s perspective. I felt a sense of adrenaline rush every time he accelerated and these fleeting moments of excitement were the only saving grace of the otherwise arduous and unpleasant journey. I even managed to sleep for about 1.5 hours, sitting up straight in a tiny weenie seat while swaying in circles the whole time due to incessant braking and accelerating. I got to know of some trivia while interacting with the driver during the last leg of the journey from Krishnagiri to Bangalore. The toll charge for a bus for a round trip from K’giri to B’ lore is Rs 300. There is a CCD in the outskirts of K’giri. I arrived in Bangalore early in the morning, feeling groggy, sleep deprived and absolutely relieved to have got off the bus.

But there are some nagging points in my mind even now. What is the grievances recourse that misled passengers have? Who do we have to approach, how do we initiate proceedings etc. Or should we just brush off the incident as a random one. This kind of behavior [overbooking of seats in my case] smacks of the crony capitalism which led the global economy to the worst ever recession in recent times. Why have we let ourselves be blinded by money rather than being guided by principal and ethics…?

Democracy in India: A farce?

2010-12-30T06:09:00.000-08:00

Hi All,

I write this post with great disappointment and an even greater wrath at our elected representatives. An entire session of Parliament has been washed out due to the utterly reprehensible and irresponsible attitude of the ‘honorable members of parliament’. The session concluded with not much business done and the bitter acrimony between the government of the day and the opposition is showing no signs of abating.

Slowly but steadily, my confidence in our democracy is diminishing. This is how the scenario looks as of now: We have MPs who don’t even bother to be present during the session. There are some who will only ask questions in the House when they are ‘paid to do so’ [Cash for questions scam]. For a whole chunk of them, the quantum of money paid is the only consideration for voting on a certain bill. Barring a few exemplary members, almost of all of them love converging on the well of the house to chant slogans and disrupt proceedings. I pretty sure I have missed out at some of the negative traits of our MPs [as it’s a never ending list] but the above instances should suffice to show the state of despair of democracy in our country.

We can keep on with the chest beating that we are the world’s largest democracy. Mr. Obama might say we are a beacon for many nations in the world. We can go on with the humongous carnival of over 600million people exercising their franchise every 5 years. But we must ask ourselves, what does it mean to the poor labourer who is unsure of his livelihood? What does it mean to the farmer who sees no end to his misery? Democracy must work for these people for it to be proclaimed as a mechanism of support and redressal of grievances.

Needless to say, democracy has worked the world over. It has forced society to listen to the voices of the poor and downtrodden, share their burden and more importantly ensure their social and economic uplift. Unfortunately the same concept doesn’t seem to be reaping the desired benefits in our country. The question here is why isn’t democracy delivering for us? Is it really a problem with the system? Where have we gone wrong and what do we need to do to put the house (pun intended) in order. As usual, we find ourselves in a situation where we have more questions than answers.

P.S. Apologies for a rather somber post during the holiday season. But just thought that it might be good to discuss this. Happy New Year 2011 to one and all...

Season of scams

2010-11-28T08:54:00.001-08:00

Hi folks,

Yes, it’s official now. We are in the middle of the season of scams. The sums involved this time make your eyeballs gouge out, literally, and put even the biggest of past scams to shame. Right from the land we live in to the air that we breathe, there seems to graft everywhere. In this post, I don’t wish to zoom into specific cases, for the fear of sounding like a mundane news bulletin, but rather focus on how we have responded to scams that have been unearthed in recent times.

Our polity has a new found addiction, the ‘moral high ground’. Find anyone of your party members in a compromised position? No problem. The accused individual will step down upon the request from the party high command and that absolves the individual and the party of all guilt! The loss to the exchequer and the taxpayer is conveniently overlooked and negative sentiments generated by the scam and their consequent effects are not even debated. This kind of circus goes on only in India and goes to show the moral bankruptcy of our political class.

The reaction from the great Indian Middle Class [IMC] has been along expected lines. The latest scams notwithstanding, the IMC has always looked upon the political class with despair and contempt. We couldn’t care less as long as we got our daily dose of Saas Bahu serials and cricket matches. We didn’t see any mass scale upheaval that naturally would have occurred in any other country. But this doesn’t surprise me as IMC knows very well that there is much more to come and will certainly be bigger in magnitude than the scams that have been unearthed.

The only consolation in this whole tamasha has been the fourth estate, the media. This section of our society has toiled hard to ensure that corruption is exposed and that the culprits are brought to justice. The electronic media, in particular, has gone into a tizzy covering the various scams. Official government reports on various scams appear first on television channels before they are even tabled in parliament. The media’s role has been so crucial that it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the government would not even bother acting on these scams if it were not for the relentless coverage and as such credit must be given to the media for precipitating change. [Of late, we have been hearing that some journos from the mainstream media were actually in touch with a dubious lobbyist. But we should be careful here not to paint the entire media with a single brush.]

Graft is a cancer that will certainly destroy us from within if we do not address it immediately with as much willpower as we can muster. As of now, I can safely say that we have not even initiated this difficult task.

P.S. While we are at it, why don’t we also turn the heat on petty corruption?

Rajni...is he really that good?

2010-10-24T08:04:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

I have been off this space for quite some time now. It’s the usual suspect which is to blame...work. During my absence from blogosphere, Mr Rajni seems to have scorched the box office with this latest release Endhiran(Robot in Hindi & Telugu). Mr Rajni and Endhiran seem to be ubiquitous... the internet, TV, newspaper and everywhere else. We have fans going out of the way to welcome the favourite star’s movie to the big screens, we have the media that has gone on an overdrive to promote the movie and when there is so much hype how could the internet be any far behind.

I don’t really want to go into the merits or demerits of such fanatic fan following and media coverage for an ageing ‘super star’ and his movies which can be best described as contorted sci-fi action films sprinkled with female subordination and a good dose of Indian masala. In this post, I am more concerned about the demi - god status that has been accorded to Rajni and why he might not deserve that. Now let me just present the facts as they are and explain why I (and probably many others) feel this way about Mr Rajni.

Let’s accept it; Mr Rajni is not the best of actors. Rajni is high on style but not equally loaded on substance. His dialogue delivery is still poor and his diction is downright bad, this after spending more than 3 decades in the Tamil film industry! His comedy tracks are rather monotonous, revolving around slithering snakes and wandering ghosts. His versatility too is in question. For the past decade or so, Mr Rajni could only been seen acting in one genre, commercial mass movies. Minus his style and Mr Rajni is nobody. Rajni will soon find himself getting a good run for his money with loads of teenagers, who are just as good in delivering style, entering the movie scene these days.

Now let’s get down to Mr Rajni as an individual. Be it regional loyalties or his secular identity, Rajni always seems to be in a state of confusion and inaction. Rajni keeps harping about how he will forever be grateful to Tamil Nadu and her people for his current status and fame but has nothing much on record to prove his gratefulness other than the odd charities run by him and his fans. With his influence and clout, Rajni could easily been a harbinger of change to the society he is living in but choose to take the beaten path by appealing to the crass and mediocre. His films usually have ‘arrogant female characters’ whom he ‘tames’ and eventually manages to make them fall at his feet. Mr Rajni has only recently moved away from pandering to male chauvinists after sensing the poor reception to such silly & childish tendencies.

They say charity begins at home but that’s not the case with Rajni. Mr Rajni’s most controversial brush with women’s rights came when infamously proclaimed that ‘more the girls stay in the house, the better while it is the reverse for the boys’. The last time I checked, Mr Rajni had two extremely successful and enterprising daughters who obviously could not have ‘stayed at home’ as their father seems to prescribe for the rest of the population. Now, let me be clear here. Rajni is free to bring up his daughters the way he likes it but at the same time he has to preach what he practices.

It is a no brainer that Rajni has thousands, if not lakhs, of fans belonging to the minority community. But he mercilessly broke their hearts when he visited and received the ‘blessings’ [read political patronage] from the leader of a political outfit which has often openly professed its hatred to select communities and rejected the idea of India as a secular society. Again, Mr Rajni is free to visit whoever he wants but he cannot act as an angel and at the same time have dinner with the devil.

Let me provide clarification here before I sign off. I am NOT a Rajni basher. I have relished watching many of his movies. I liked and even loved his style and I do accept he that he is among top rung of actors in South Indian cinema. But Rajni certainly doesn’t deserve this much attention and fanfare and certainly cannot be regarded as the best actor of our times. Yes he may be one of the best but nowhere close to being the best, either professionally or personally.

P.S. Now all the above might and probably will apply to many actors in India. But I have intentionally narrowed down the scope to Rajnikanth, the ‘super star’...:)

My 4 days in Chennai

2010-09-17T05:46:00.000-07:00

I had wanted to go to my sister’s place in Chennai for quite some time now. The Janmashtami holiday on Thursday, 2nd of Sep seemed to fit bill just nicely. Apply for leave on the 3rd and voila what do I get? Four days of freedom. With my project undergoing a lean phase, there was every chance of my manager approving the leave and little probability of getting recalled due to production issues or the likes. Absolute bliss! What more could a techie ask for? So off I went to Singara Chennai. [Beautiful Chennai, I know...what a joke... :)]

Day 1:

Arrived dead tired at my sister’s, after having travelled in local trains and
standing in the wrong bus stop for almost 30 minutes before realizing that the bus stop has been shifted! The usual Indian-family-reunion-emotional drama ensued. With my mother having come over from my place there was no dearth of affection. Add two cute little kids to this potent mix and I was in an exalted state for the most part of the morning. The late morning and the whole afternoon went mostly as it does for me when I am on vacation...deep slumber... :) It was in the evening that all the action started. An array of games was on display and we were not sure which one to play. My nephew was hankering for Business (Monopoly), my mother was for Chinese checkers and my 2 yr old niece wanted us to do colouring along with her! Finally, we settled for a couple of games of Chinese checkers.

Day 2:

I managed to find my way to Wipro Sholliganallur Office. What took me back was the ticket fare. No, it wasn’t because the fare was exorbitant. In fact it was the other way around. I stared at the conductor in total disbelief when he issued a 4 rupee ticket. Did he hear me wrong? In Bangalore the same journey would have easily cost anywhere between Rs.11 to Rs.13 [Depending on the conductor’s mood and at ease with which you speak Kannada.]

Met loads of my friends in CDC and played catch up. Returned home with a box of cookies for the kids...they couldn’t have asked for a better mama, could they?

Day 3:

My friend Balaji and I had decided that we would allocate a day for hanging out in some mall. Since I hadn’t been to Spencers Mall (a crime by Chennaites standards), we decided that we would spend the day there. After having a sumptuous meal at a nearby restaurant I entered the vast unknown territory called Spencers. We probably spent an hour there. The mall was a great let down after all the hype I received/heard from my friends and family. We moved on to next place on our itinerary which was the newly built swanky Express Avenue mall.

The mall was quite big or at least much bigger than Bangalore’s Forum Mall. We were sauntering in and out of shops and our throats were parched in no time. We went in search of a watering hole and found a Cafe Coffee Day outlet. I reluctantly browsed the menu card for some cheap drink only to find one in the low 100s! There was a greater shock waiting for me when the deceiving cashier spit out the bill amount. It came to close 340 for just two drinks. He had added the some silly toppings to the drinks. Given my scorched state, I was in no mood to protest. Moral of the story, always have water bottles filled up to the brim before stepping out of your home.

Another notable incident was when I spotted an old friend of mine in Odyssey. I really wanted to go and connect with her but my silly inhibitions prevented me. Good going dude, with this attitude and at this rate your glorious list of girl-friends [which currently stands at 0] is going to skyrocket!

After having purchased some books and window shopped to our heart’s content, we came to the entrance of the mall and stuck into small talk. It was during this time that I realized that my friend Balaji was really perturbed by something. He was quite concerned about the dressing sense of some of the women there. I was having a gala time though, feasting my eyes on the fairer sex... :) Why do we always see women as the sole custodians of morality and culture?

Day 4:

Woke up only in the afternoon. More games, food and then it was off to Bangalore again.

Freedom…what it means to me

2010-08-25T23:12:00.000-07:00

Freedom

Freedom can mean a multitude of things to different people. To a bubbling toddler freedom from the physical clutches of his ever protective wards, to a raging teenager it could mean relaxation on the much hated ‘time restrictions‘. Freedom is clearly a subjective word but there is a clear convergence in all the instances. Freedom is liberating and makes one feel unrestrained, a feeling parallel to none other.

To me, as an individual, freedom is the ability to chart my own destiny. It is an endowment to practice, without fear or compulsion, a religious ideology of my choice. It is the liberty to lodge democratic protests against the state on policies which I sense are inappropriate and the free will to work in institutions that I want to work for. Overall, freedom on an individual perspective means the ability to decide and implement what is best for oneself.

As a citizen, freedom has been a significant factor in nation building and a feeling of oneness. It refers to the ability of my nation, India, to hold her head high and assert herself in the comity of nations. Additionally, freedom has been a causative factor in the empowerment of the downtrodden and under privileged. Subservience, a by-product of lack of freedom, has proliferated access and opportunities denial in our nation for many centuries. Its absence, thankfully, is slowly but steadily creating inclusive growth.

Bertrand Russell quotes “Freedom in general may be defined as the absence of obstacles to the realization of desires”. This probably captures the essence of freedom in its totality. Freedom is to humans what oxygen is to the lungs, a vital component for survival. To sum it up, freedom has been and will be a cornerstone of human development till humans exist on this planet.

Jai Hind!

P.S. I had submitted this write up for the ‘What Freedom means to me’ creative writing competition held for Wipro employees. The word limit was 300. So you can see that i was really constrained for words. The competition is over now and i didnt win…:( So thought that i might at least share it here…

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas…A Movie Review

2010-08-19T05:12:00.000-07:00

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is a movie about the Holocaust and is based on a book by the same name. The movie is set in the backdrop of the World War II, when Nazi Germany was on rampage in Europe and killing innocent Jews in the disguise of nationalism. This movie stands apart from the rest of the Holocaust films as it portrays a perspective of a son of a Nazi commander rather than narrating the gruesome discrimination and humiliation meted out to Jews, as other movies’ do.

The movie starts off with the Bruno, a happy go lucky 8 year old, being forced to shift from the Berlin to the country side as his father, a Nazi commander, has been posted take charge of a Jew extermination camp. Obviously Bruno’s father utters nothing related to the camp and successfully convinces him that the country side home will be as good the current one.

Bruno’s adventure seeking instincts get the better of him in his country side home. He discovers ways to kill time by playing in his favourite swing, the house servants and even exploring the backyard that leads him to the ‘farm’. It is in this ‘farm’ that he chances upon Shmuel, an 8 year old Jew inmate. The friendship between the two boys blooms over time but at no point does Bruno realize that the ‘farm’ is actually an invidious Nazi pogrom and that his own father is at the helm of things there.

As the film moves on, Bruno encounters several incidents during which reality is laid out thread bare. But Bruno, being an adventure seeking innocent 8 year old, refuses or probably is just too young to understand the gravity of the situation around him. His naive attitude tugs your heart. You get emotionally overwhelmed when he laments about ‘How adults cannot make up their mind’, an obvious reference to a Jewish servant whom he thinks gave up his medical profession to become a potato peeler! His enquiry about the same servant’s return after a lethal thrashing, doled out by his father’s Nazi underlings, buttresses his innocence and cements the idea that this boy has no idea whatsoever of what is going on around him.

I am going to leave out the climax, intentionally. Try to grab a DVD copy of this movie.

Disclaimer: Emotional disturbance guaranteed!

P.S. What are the other Holocaust movies which you liked?

Are we turning into an INTOLERANT society?

2010-08-09T06:30:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

Gone are the days when intolerance was considered repulsive and divisive. Intolerant people being labeled extremists and frowned upon are things of the past now. Welcome to a 'new', 'united' India where intolerance is a way of life and anything counter doctrinal is treated as blasphemy and equated to slaughtering the sacred cow. Be prepared to get labeled as 'anti-national' if you dare to criticise the blatant wastage of the CW games. The same fate awaits citizens who question the anti-Naxal strategy of the government. Except this time the tag attached is that of a ‘Naxal Sympathiser’.

It doesn’t take rocket scientist to figure out where all this is leading to. Tolerance is slowly but steadily getting shunted out of our polity. Intolerance is glorified as the new ‘Unity’. ‘You are either with me or either with them’ syndrome is ominously looming over us and is threatening to make us an intolerant society which refuses to take any constructive criticism and goes even to the extent of condemning varied viewpoints as anti-patriotic.

Offhand I can think of a few reasons why this new attitude has crept in. This intolerance is largely due to the fear arising out of failures and wrong doings. So if someone speaks out against you, label him a terrorist, an anti-national or better still a traitor. Rally popular opinion against him and bury his credibility. Additionally, this serves as a potent warning to anyone who might dream to take this path. There is also a fear among us that diverse, non-homogenous views perpetuate divisiveness and hence we need herbicides like intolerance to weed out divergent views. I feel the final one is the most dangerous of all and needs immediate attention.

I guess this trend is a cause of concern for all of us. Why are going down this path and where is all this leading us to? How do we put an end to this self destructive journey? I am hoping some of you out there might throw in some answers.

Five things i have learnt from my Mama's 60th

2010-07-26T04:48:00.000-07:00

Family functions have always been events that I have cherished and loved to participate. The congregation of so many people at one place is by itself a rarity these days, given our fast pace of life. Coupled with serene village atmosphere, where these functions are usually held, you get a carnival with ever lasting memories.

I was fortunate enough to be a part of my MAMA’s [uncle’s] 60th birthday celebrations last week. I observed/ realized a few things which were compelling enough to pen down.

1. Late night work is a good way to bond

Family events are synonymous with work. There is always a mountain of it and the more you think you have completed the more seems remaining. But when done in the right atmosphere, work can be conquered. I found this out during continuous late night ‘shifts’ I had with my cousins. Dwelling over the past or sharing the present was such a great experience. Catching someone whose eyelids just can’t keep open was equally fun.
[To all those naughty ones who were smirking after seeing the first point, put a leash on your thoughts. What were you thinking? ]

2. Make your presence felt

Be everywhere. Do everything. Don’t say NO. NO is taboo in public functions. Learn it if you don’t know it already. Or at least fake it! Move around, raise some eyebrows if you have to and run some errands for that distant relative of yours. (Whom you will be meeting for the first and the last time) Make sure the overall effect is one which raises your profile.

3. Be prepared to cope with totally unanticipated scenarios

Be it when asked to do some urgent work when nature’s call becomes more than just a request (!)or when someone catches hold of you and narrates a long winding story of your antics, be prepared. Have a smile on your face. Reciprocate the warmth and you will soon realize that the chance meeting is actually mutually beneficial.

4. Take advice in the stride

Advice, like alcohol in a beer fest, will be free flowing. The usual ones will be “Get married early”, “Focus on your career”, “Why don’t you consider part time studies in lieu of a full time one?” What else do you expect when you are surrounded by people twice your age and ten times your wisdom? Take it your stride. Put across your points and have a healthy discussion. After all, learning from other’s experience is smarter isn’t?

5. Education's importance is finally being realized

My mama had, for the sake of convenience, outsourced the cooking department to a well known chef. The usually busy chef happened to be a little free on one of the nights and we had a chance to interact with him freely. He was gloating with joy on how his daughter had got a good score in grade 12 examinations and how she has proceeded to pursue her engineering. He had specific details of her ‘cut-off’ and how she might manage to eke into this college and probably not into another, which just goes to show how involved he has been in the entire process. All this for a man who might have barely cleared grade 10(sorry Mr Chef if I have underestimated your academic qualifications). The news was all the more sweeter as he was willing to support his girl child to the hilt which normally would not happen in a rural setting.

Do you fear excellence?

2010-07-01T03:49:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

I am coming back to this space after a long time. I had some hurdles to cross and they required my undivided attention, hence the prolonged absence. While overcoming the above obstacles, I experienced a certain strange feeling which I thought I should share with everyone.

I fear excellence. I fear perfectness. Let me get myself clear here, I don't fear PEOPLE who are brilliant or near to perfect. I fear perfectness as a virtue. While surmounting the obstacles, something in me was telling not to go for perfectness. It’s not achievable. Or worse still, it’s a sacred cow which was not to be slaughtered. It’s better left untouched.

This feeling could have stemmed from the fact that I am more pessimistic than I am optimistic. But I have reasons to feel that this might not be the only reason for the peculiar sentiment which I was undergoing. I have always wanted to be among the top. I have always wished to be showered with laurels. But at the same time, I have also dreaded the academic limelight. At those times I did not know what was making me feel in such a way.

But now I have understood it. I am frightened by excellence. I am not sure if this is restricted to academics or extends to other spheres of life as well. I am equally confused as to whether this might be as bad as it looks or could actually be a blessing in disguise as excellence, which I consider to be an unachievable virtue, keeps pushing me further and further.

So what are your thought on this? How do view excellence and how do you deal with it?

IPL Mess...who would have thought?

2010-04-28T02:15:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

During the past two weeks, we have seen so much controversy involving cricket, politicians and business houses that it promises to thrill no less than a typical Bollywood film. We have encountered controversies in the past [we live in India!] but this one seems to be a lethal mix of money, politics and patronage.

The IPL’s fall from grace surprised many. [To be frank, I am still a little perplexed] After all, this was touted as India’s answer to other major global events like the EPL and the UEFA Champions League. Some even brazenly equated IPL’s introduction to India finally arriving on the global stage and claiming its rightful place in the comity of nations. With a dynamic commissioner, cash rich franchisees, raving media and crazy fans who were waiting to lap up everything that was thrown at them, the IPL had everything going for it. But it was not to be. Not when you have somebody from the inside who decides to blow the whistle and bring down some really powerful people along with his imminent exit.

As the puzzle untangles, we are led into a world of murky business dealings, proxy owners and shell companies. What is even more shocking is the global angle to all this mess. The IPL truly seems to have taken globalization to a whole new level. Suddenly we have Mauritian companies trading with Singaporean ones for media and distributor rights for IPL. So much for countries that don’t even have a significant cricketing viewership or for that matter a significant population to start with!

Now leaving all the politics aside, I am starting to wonder what’s coming the game’s way. With so much negative publicity, IPL’s image has surely taken a beating. What’s next for the IPL, the teams who have invested millions and the players hoping to rake in some money before they retire and the fans who have shown so much love and affection for their favourite teams?

What happened to the other sports?

2010-03-24T05:54:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

Let’s be honest...we are primarily a one sport nation. We virtually eat, sleep and breathe cricket. [And many other un mentionable actions...:)] It seems that if you are born Indian then your default sport is cricket. Your sports icon is Tendulkar and sports entertainment means watching cricket in channels dedicated for cricket!

So where did all the other sports go? Just offhand any one of us can probably count 5 other sports which are so popular globally but are barely included even in small talk in India. So why is cricket so disproportionately popular? Who is to blame for this anomaly? And more importantly how can we rectify this lopsidedness?

As for apportioning blame, I guess it has to be shared among various sections. The administrators of various sports who haven’t really been aggressive in promoting their respective sports, the viewers who simply refuse to even temporarily shift loyalties to other sports and even to some extent history! The British Raj left a long lasting impact on us in the form of cricket.

Before proceeding further, I wish to reiterate that I am making a conscious effort to follow different sports. These days’ hockey and tennis are regulars in my sporting menu. I am also anxiously waiting for the world cup in SA later this year. [Now I won’t have hypocrite tags thrown at me...:)] Regarding the question of making other sports popular, I was thinking we must incentivise patronage. So prizes, money and possible fame will lead our masses to new sports. Government support for non cricketing sports will also help.

I am sure you must have heard about 2 new teams which are going to be added to IPL 4. What might(actually must) have shocked you more is the staggering amount of money the winning groups are willing to pay to own these teams. The IPL mopped up more than 3000 Crore Rupees for the 2 newly auctioned teams. [Wow...how many poor kids can that amount of money educate/feed/clothe....anyways let’s leave that discussion for another day...I wanted to focus primarily on sports in this post...]

Rampant consumerism

2010-03-05T01:16:00.000-08:00

Accumulated agony from my weekly visits to a mall located close to my residence led me to write this post. My roomy and I usually like to shop for our weekly necessities during the weekend at the mall. Every visit of ours just reiterates one point. Consumerism is increasing and this trend is here to stay.

Consumerism drives the economy, say the economists, as it’s the demand for goods and services which actually keeps the economy running. It creates jobs, generates wealth and provides robustness to the economy. All well and good. But it can get to your nerves when it becomes obscene or ostentatious. After all, too much of anything can never be a good thing.

It’s as if necessity has been sacked and greed has taken total control. Nowadays it doesn’t seem to matter it a certain commodity is actually required or not. Let’s just get it seems to be the attitude. As long as it’s affordable and within one’s reach, it’s deemed to be required. [What happened to our ability to discern between what is a necessity and what is not?]

This trend is especially discomforting in a nation like ours where millions go without a square meal a day. It’s just not fair that some have so much of everything while many don’t even have little of some thing. Nothing ticks me off these days like a rich (often FAT) kid spoilt for choice and deciding to get whatever falls within his eye range! I don’t wish to pursue further down this track as my original intention was to highlight the trend of consumerism and the rich poor divide in our country.

My roomy feels the same about this trend but sometimes dismisses these thoughts as ramblings from a poor bloke who just can’t afford to be part of the ‘consumerist gang’. I am confused though, am I reading too much into this trend or is it actually that bad.

India win; only on paper

2010-02-22T20:46:00.000-08:00

Hi All,

Sunday's clash between India and South Africa went right down to the wire and till the last ball it was still anybody's game. Even after the last ball was bowled, spectators had to wait with bated breath for the verdict from the third umpire. Apart from the nail biting excitement the match brought to me, I felt something else which I thought I should pen down and share with everyone.

A drawn result would have been more comfortable with me, for the kind of character that the South African lower order showed and for the not so extraordinary performance displayed by India. Before I get branded as a traitor, let's get something clear here. South African top order, sans Jacques Kallis, did collapse and probably deserved to lose. But help came from unexpected quarters and how. From about 180/7, the lower order ensured that the match went down right to the last ball.

The temperament shown by the SA batsmen especially Wayne Parnell is applaud able and worthy of a lesson for any lower order batsmen. The way he stood up to the challenge and nudged his team almost to the finish line will probably live in our memory for some time to come and serves as a constant reminder to the unpredictability of the cricket. Indian batsmen could take a leaf or two form Parnell's books.

P.S. Yesterday's MOM Ravindra Jadeja was also the same man who lost the match for us against Australia last year when India were chasing a huge total and Sachin made 175 and almost single handedly won the match for India.

Tall leaders...?

2010-02-10T03:52:00.000-08:00

Hi All,

We all know a political veteran passed away last month. Condolences came in thick and fast from every corner of the country and leaders, across the political spectrum, heaped praises on him and his ability to connect with the masses. Before I go into the topic, let me clarify that this post is not about this man.

Watching this spectacle made me ask one question to myself....how does one measure a leader's effectiveness. Who should be called a good leader and who is the rotten one.Should the number of years a person spent in politics be a figure of merit? Or should we take into consideration his/her volume of supporters after all ,as the phrase goes, there is strength in numbers...

I have observed that we Indians tend to get confused when asked to rate a leader and in good old Indian fashion play it safe and brand him a great leader. Especially when he is above his 60s at the time of death and had had a good fan following in his heydays. The media, for its part, starts to go on a sympathy overdrive for the very man they thrashed a few days back. And bingo....we have a 'great leader' who has just passed away. How sad...

So should we finetune the standards that are used to measure a leader's effectiveness and success. Pour in your thoughts....

Frivolous Ads...

2010-01-18T02:34:00.000-08:00

Hi All,

Something has been ticking me off these days. The ubiquitous irritant is delivered through the idiot box right into my living room and the only way to avoid it, is probably to switch off the box altogether. Yes, I am talking about ads. The little messages which come in between your favourite shows, the ones that television channels broadcast when you are on the edge of your seat and biting your nails not knowing what will happen next. It makes economic sense for them as ads are the revenue lifeline for them.

Let me get something clear from the start. I don’t have any issues with ads across the board. Most are ok and some are even revolutionary, innovative and way ahead of their time. My sticking point is with the ones that are misleading, stereotypical or just downright disgusting.

Take for example the ‘Pond’s Age Miracle’ ad- the one that shows a husband going out of his way to woo his wife to marry him ‘again’ just because she applied the stupid cream and looks younger. Repulsive isn’t it? Since when did husbands start disliking their spouses just because they have grown older and have a few wrinkles on their face? [At least this is not case in India and hope it remains that way.] The ad also denigrates women who would, I believe, wish to be judged and liked by their content of character and not by their appearance.

The other one is the ‘K factor challenge’ ad which promotes the eating of cereals to lose weight. The problem is the way in which it does it. The mother consumes the ‘magic’ cereal hoping to tone down and fit into that ‘red dress’ upon her daughter’s request. [Just petty at its best, I would say.] Have more ads like this and the time won’t be far away when every kid in the block is going to place unreasonable demands on the physical appearance of his/her mother.

So what do you people think about these ads. What can we do to ensure that young impressionable minds are not influenced by these seemingly naïve ads?

Copenhagen

2009-12-24T01:22:00.000-08:00

Hi All,

I am back after quite a hiatus. I was watching skeptically the circus going in a faraway land called Copenhagen and as if God had implemented my thoughts, the conference ended with no solid result to show. After all the attention and hype this conference received, we certainly deserved better, much better.

We had expected some sort of a legally binding agreement which would mitigate climate change and incentivise migration to greener technologies. Something that would put the brakes on development that damaged the environment irreversibly. Something that would scorn on usurping resources without any consideration for sustainability. But that something never came. If the leaked draft is to be believed, it is never going to come either.

So at the end of Copen[Hope]Hagen, what we have is loads of world leaders who had a gala time at the expense of taxpayer's money and worst still emitted tonnes of pollutants during their stay. [Limousine rentals companies were on a roll during the conference period, so much so that some had brought in cars from other cities.]

As I suspected Copenhagen became an exercise of geo political influence, convenient acronyms[BASIC...Brazil, SA, India and China!] and wasted time. Rich countries intentionally flaunting their wealth, the powerful arm twisting their meek counterparts and the poor hoping to grab whatever is thrown at them.

So this is what I saying. Let’s have more of these useless conferences. Let’s keep fighting among ourselves. Let’s come up with some arcane law which exists only on paper. Lets have more of these silly acronyms[How about RACE, Romania, Afghanistan, Canada, Egypt]. Let’s ignore the fact that we all share the same environment. Let’s keep polluting our environment and consuming natural resources as if there was no tomorrow. Let’s put the onus of fighting climate change on our children, who will pass it on to their kids. [Hey there are just following our diligent footsteps!]

The Kingdom...a compelling watch

2009-12-04T03:21:00.001-08:00

Hi All,

I had watched the movie 'The Kingdom' on TV a couple of weeks back and since then I have been itching to write a review/post about it. The movie started close to midnight and went on well past 1 am. The fact that I was glued to the idiot box all that time and didn’t even dare to switch channels, lest I miss a few seconds of the film, should be sufficient to convey the intensity of the movie.

'The Kingdom' is based on a semi fictional plot on the bombings of the residential quarters of foreign workers in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The blast leaves the many dead and several more injured. The America Diaspora is devastated and furious. It doesn’t help that the atrocity was carried out by men masquerading as Saudi policemen. The monarchy, understanding the gravity of the situation, promises action but at the same time utilizes ambiguous laws to prevent American sleuths from investigating this carnage.

But remember this is an American movie and the Americans always win...:). So in comes the FBI with all their men [and women] and their gear only to find that the maximum role they will be allowed to play will be that of mute spectators to the whole spectacle. During a dinner with the Saudi prince, the FBI lead successfully persuades the prince to allow them to play a more proactive role. From this point onwards, the team realizes apart from the burden of collecting and deciphering evidence they also have become soft targets themselves.

The movie is action packed pretty much throughout the entire duration. The car chases are pretty exhilarating and will certainly ensure adrenalin courses through your body the same way blood does. Exchanges with terrorists are decent enough to satiate the goriness quotient of any typical Hollywood movie.

The film doesn’t leave you wanting from the emotional aspect as well. The scene where a father narrates to the visiting FBI team on how his son was trying to put back his mother jaws using a band-aids tugs your heart and touches the sorrowful aspect of terrorism. For a moment you are able to relate this to the loss of innocent lives as 26/11 unfolded. The film also smacks the conservative attitude of the monarchy through the example of a female character being denied invitation from the prince due to her gender.

The movie ends with promise of more revenge from both the sides. I would certainly recommend this movie any weekend watch.

P.S. I have taken the liberty to describe a good portion of the film in this post as it was released 2 years back and hence any description would not amount to a 'spoiler'.

My 2 cents worth on ‘2 States’

2009-11-26T05:28:00.000-08:00

Hi All,

I recently finished reading Chetan Bhagat’s [CB] latest book ‘2 States’ and boy it has been one good read. Chetan in his typical style has rendered yet another book in first person narrative. This genre of writing is usually considered not as interesting as third person narratives. But Chetan has repeatedly proven us wrong.

The book is by and large a realistic account of what lovers have to go through in India (Though I am not one myself, I have enough friends who vouch by this book). So I really liked the realistic tone of this book. Many conversations between key characters are very much stuck to the ground and showed how typical Indian family conversations would be.

CB has taken the liberty of dramatic license and exaggerated the gimmickry performed by the lovers to convince their other half’s parents but still he has been careful enough to keep it within conceivable reach of imagination. From taking tuitions for his lover’s brother to preparing business proposals for her father, our hero seems to be doing everything and anything to win over the bride’s family. His lover proves she is no lesser when she ensures the smooth function of her lover’s cousin sister’s marriage.

But many arguments among key characters are not taken to their logical conclusion. CB has ,intentionally i believe, shied away emotional outbursts of older characters which you would normally expect given the gravity of the situation the characters find themselves in. Probably he has done this keeping in mind commercial considerations, after all he is writing for a young audience and we dont want to read about oldies crying and screaming at each other.

Overall, a good book to read and ponder over.

There is no I in TEAM

2009-11-06T00:16:00.000-08:00

Hi All,

Last night's ODI match against Australia was just electrifying to say the least. We saw fortunes fluctuate within a span of few overs which again reminded us that the ODI format of the game can entertain us just as equally as the slam - bam T20. (I am digressing here.) It was a run feast for the spectators and they lapped it up in typical Indian style; by drowning out the stadium with their sonorous chanting.

We also witnessed the master blaster Sachin in one of his best displays of batting prowess and genius. The end result was disappointing nevertheless but there are lessons to be carried away from this outing.

The most prominent lesson we can learn is that there is no 'I' in team. A team needs each and every member to fire on all cylinders. Yesterday Sachin was in his elements, scoring boundaries at will and running sensibly between the wickets. But it takes 2 hands to clap and likewise it takes a team effort to overcome a humongous total of 350. While Sachin was making every possible effort to take India to the finish line, his own compatriots were sabotaging him in every way possible. The famed Indian top order collapsed like a flimsy cardboard structure. Wicket after wicket fell and we were almost half down before Sachin could find a reliable partner in Raina. So it's clear, even a great like Sachin can't win matches single handedly. We need the whole team to give their best.

Another take away for the Indian team....Temperament is important in crunch scenarios like the one yesterday. The nerves started showing when Raina got out. Jadeja was trying to scamper across for every delivery when there was clearly no run in it. It came as no surprise that he was run out, mostly due to his own undoing. As if we have had not enough of run outs, the nerves showed up at the fag end of the match with an unnecessary 2nd run which eventually led to India's demise. The match was still winnable even with just one wicket in hand but lack of temperament did us in.

Alas, the jinx still stands....whenever Sachin gets a ton India tends to lose...:(

P.S. It took a couple of hours for me to digest India's loss yesterday esp. after seeing such a magnificent batting display. This post is dedicated to the world's best batsman, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar

The cult of James Bond movies

2009-10-28T03:40:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

I recently read an article about the demise of an actor who played the villain character in Dr No. That triggered me to start thinking about how even villain characters played in James Bond films become so famous...( I know some of you might be tempted to argue with me that villain characters can be equally popular but let’s leave that argument for some other day)

James Bond movies have become a cult in the big screen space in modern times. At many times they were considered mile stones for the entertainment industry. They showcased to the world what the future held for the audience. From the gadgetry to the swanky sea side villas, JB movies really transported the viewers to another world. It was the vicarious thrill of watching Mr. Bond shoot down the baddies and romp around with damsels which captivated the attention of the common man.

The ever increasing arsenal at Bond's hands created an aura of anticipation among the viewers in every consequent film and more importantly sustain interest in the series. This demand was to a large extent quenched by the producers of the movies. But in recent times, this trend is being reversed. Bond is increasingly being shown as a character with deep emotional connections with his companions and the emphasis on his gadgetry seems to have been given a miss.

We all grew up watching James Bond as the ultra high tech guy with great guns [pun unintended...:)] and driving swanky cars in dangerous curves[again pun unintended]. The latest JB movies had an element of absence in them. Or at least that’s me. How do you guys feel about this latest trend?

China: Is the dragon just breathing fire?

2009-10-14T06:17:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

China’s recent protest to Indian PM’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh (AP) sparked off a flurry of diplomatic activity in New Delhi. The Chinese ambassador was summoned to clarify his government’s stand and to understand India’s position on the issue. Indian ministers also wasted no time in asserting that AP was an ‘integral and inalienable’ part of India.

In light of this incident and various others that have happened, I just wonder what is China’s ultimate aim in claiming territory that is clearly not hers. It also puzzles me where does this atrocious claim lie in the ‘peaceful rise’ strategy that China is purportedly following.

A few nagging questions remain…

1. Is this claim a ploy to keep India ‘under check’?
2. Is it advisable to maintain relations with people who threaten your own existence?
3. With the military option being ruled out by our own armed forces chiefs, what other alternatives do we have?

We should try to find answers to the above questions; the faster the better!

Are we being PENNY WISE and POUND FOOLISH?

2009-09-14T08:20:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

The government's recent directive to all its ministers to shed luxury and lead an austere life jolted most ministers out of their comfort zones. Some gave defiant interviews while others just twittered away. But when the message was reinforced, one by one fell into place. Suddenly, being austere became the latest fad. Minister after minister 'voluntarily' gave up all of his luxuries. Flying economy became the order of the day and taking Re 1 salary was just something that was ordinary. Now for those of you who haven’t been watching the news and wondering where this is all happening guess what. It’s all happening right here in India. [No I am not kidding...:)]

As comforting as it might sound, the government's latest directive may not really make any difference. I read an article on CNN IBN today which showed in numbers that a Key Figure is just saving Rs10000 by flying economy. Considerably nothing! I would say this directive is mere tokenism; to avoid the wrath of the people at a time of severe drought and mind boggling rise in prices.

It would be wiser to indulge in real cost cutting measures like weeding out government schemes that stink of wasteful expenditure. Removing subsidies from quarters that don’t require it will help as well. Government ads in newspapers every time a power station or a bridge is christened are a gross waste of taxpayer money and have to be stopped if the government wishes to give its latest directive any real credibility.

So what do you people think of the government's latest austerity drive. Is it just mere tokenism or something concrete?

Class 10 exams optional

2009-09-10T05:32:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

The decision to make Class 10 exams optional has caught most of us by surprise. After years and years of practically stagnant educational policies, we finally have something that at least smells of change and that too refreshing at that. Though I tend to agree with this decision on the policy level, I am a little anxious on how much actual change is there going to be on the ground. Moreover, the proposed change itself and the consequent discourse has been very urban centric.

First, this decision applies only to CBSE students. One wonders what happens to large swathes of students who are affiliated to other boards esp. the state boards. There is no talk about a similar arrangement for them. Why doesn’t the central government want to bat for these kids too? Paraphrasing the education minister, don’t these kids deserve to be de-traumatized as well?

Apart from making exams optional, other venues of making education more enjoyable and stress free could have been ventured. How about a greater percentage of classes conducted using audio visual aids? Or even tweaking the examination pattern to make assessments application oriented rather than ones that test memory power. How about incorporating achievements in extracurricular activities into the core system so that more children will be encouraged to take up these activities?

As we all know government schools in this country are in a pathetic shape and can be best described as tokens of government presence in the education sector. If the government was truly interested in revolutionalizing education, then it should pour in more money for constructing AND maintaining primary and secondary schools.

So for the reasons mentioned above, I feel that the proposed changes will only benefit a section of the society and will not bring out the real and necessary changes in the existing system.

Inner party democracy, anyone?

2009-08-31T02:49:00.001-07:00

Hi all,

We always pride ourselves with the fact that we are the world's largest democracy. Every five years when we go out to vote, we leave the rest of the world in awe. We make them wonder how such a staggering exercise is being conducted without major hiccups. The statistics alone is sufficient to rattle any planner and put him/her out of sleep for days.

For all the chest beating that we indulge in, there is a darker side to our democracy that we usually don't visit that often and would certainly like to keep it under the wraps from prying outsiders' eyes. Probably you would have guessed what I am talking about right now.

Inner party democracy has not been on the agenda of many political parties for a long time. They, conveniently, forget the fact that charity starts at home and that being propagators of democracy also means that they themselves have to practice it both in letter and in spirit first. Most of the political parties today somehow give inner democracy a miss. Dynastic politics seems to be the order of the day. If not that then it is a single strong man whose whims and fancies decide who and how the party is run.

Is this what democracy is all about? We all know it wasn't meant to be this way. Why are our political parties behaving in a manner that can be best described as being devoid of democracy? And whose responsibility is it to put the house under order? Where do we draw the line between democracy and indiscipline? Should academic exercises like writing a book come under the purview of a party's ideology?

p.s. I didn't want to get into the gory details of dynastic politics and strong men who control their parties with an iron grip...we all know it too well don't we...:)

So What?

2009-08-18T04:56:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

A national calamity has befallen our nation. We have been wronged and humiliated. Our existence has been questioned and eminent citizens of our country, all of a sudden, suffer from trust deficit.

This would be the conclusion anyone would have come to if he/she had watched the media coverage following SRK's 'detention' at Newark Airport on Saturday. It was as if his detention was as important,if not more, as the day itself. Clippings of Independence day celebrations took a back seat to SRK's 'ordeal' speech! As all of you are aware the issue is still raging on with some celebrities and many politicians coming in support of SRK while the rest dismissing it as yet another publicity stunt for his latest movie. (Coincidentally(?) his upcoming movie also deals with similar incidents).

Now let me come straight to the point. I am angry and disappointed in equal measure with the media and the person in question,SRK. The media went into frenzy mode when the news first broke out and many channels started airing voice clippings of SRK speaking out on the issue. The constant barrage of the 'sufferings' of SRK made me feel obnoxious enough to switch off the idiot box and let the dust settle. After portraying SRK as a fallen hero, now some sections of the media wish to occupy the moral high ground and question the reactions subsequent to SRK's detention and ask what is all the fuss about!

SRK on his part did all he could to make this incident into that of racial profiling and garnered, to a great extent, lots of sympathies from the general public who probably saw this as yet another attempt of humiliation of one of their kind. To make matters worse, he even disclosed the reasons provided by the authorities for detaining him knowing fully well that these very reasons could flare up emotions back home. The least he could have done, in my opinion, is to downplay the incident and brush it aside like Abdul Kalam.

Now i ask, SO WHAT? So what if SRK is questioned. So what if he made to sit in a room for a couple of hours and made to answer a few uncomfortable questions. Is he above the law? Couldn't he have been the one of those randomly chosen people to undergo further screening? What about all those Indians who have been subject to outright profiling? Why hasn't the Indian media spoken up against this practice,with the same amount of intensity shown for this incident, in the past?

I wish to clarify that i am not condoning racial profiling. On the other hand, like all good people of this country, i condemn it outright. But we(media, public and the concerned persons) should stop reacting in a knee jerk manner every time an Indian is questioned or frisked and put all sorts of theory behind the incident. Rather we should look at it objectively.

Media’s role during troubling times

2009-08-14T04:39:00.000-07:00

HI all,

Love them or hate them, you just can’t ignore them goes an adage. This couldn’t apply more to the media than anything else today. Print, electronic or any other form of media pervades every aspect of our life; informing us and determining, to a reasonable extent, the formation of views and our response to developing situations.

The ongoing Swine Flu Pandemic has highlighted the media’s role yet again in informing, educating, spreading information and awareness among the masses. In fact, I reckon, without the proactive media we have today in this country, the flu could have posed a much bigger threat than it currently does.

Having said this, there are proponents of the argument that media is primarily doing this for the sake of TRPs. Undoubtedly there is great public interest surrounding this flu and media outlets just want to cash in on this frenzy. They point out that we experience greater numbers of mortality just due to preventable diseases like malaria etc. So where was the media all this while, they ask. Fair argument by any measure!

So what are your thoughts on media’s role in this pandemic and in troubling times in general?

Amendment to the 'Public Office Act circa 2009'...:)

2009-08-06T09:13:00.000-07:00

Election Commission [EC] Circular:

The following 'rules' have been added to the already existing criteria for filing nominations to run for office.

• Ability to shout down opposing views. It is mandatory that prospective member clear the prescribed 'decibel-o-meter' test with flying colours.

• Should be strong enough to yank the speaker's microphone out in case the speaker asks you to stop speaking or says anything that is not in your favour.

• Ability to fall asleep while serious discussion is going on. Candidates with snoring that amounts to just a whisper will be preferred over the rest.

• Compulsory absenting on Fridays so as to take an extended weekend holiday. Punitive action will taken against members who insist on attending sessions on Friday.

• Ability to smuggle in wads of currency notes and display it in the well of the house at the most opportune moment in the full glare of the cameras. Conceiving unique smuggling ideas will attract incentives such as 'black money limit' extended to 10 crores and relaxation in the 'less than 5 years' in prison rule by another 2 years.

• Asking ONLY questions for which members have been paid for. Extra questions will be charged at 420/question.

P.S: This post was never meant to demean anybody or any country... :)

Reality TV...taking it too far?

2009-07-28T23:50:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

There has been a huge uproar in Parliament over the controversy generated by reality shows like Such Ka Saamna [Face the Truth]. While this session of Parliament is for debating the budget, our politicians are doing what they do best; digressing from arcane and not-so-people related topics to ones that can be easily identified by their constituents. While their actions are not pardonable, they seem to have raised a valid point.

Reality TV shows in general seems to be catering to our dark sides. From encouraging people to 'voluntarily' disclose sleazy facts about themselves to blatantly showing how different individuals feel about each other(and in the process getting them to spew out a few vulgarities!) to clearly placing the participants in harm's way, anything goes for reality TV. It is this perversion for catching as many eyeballs as possible is what has seemed to create all the furore.

Now big question is where do we draw the line and who does it? Who should be the regulator? What should he/she/they do? What should be considered as matters within the private realm and what can be made public/aired? We find ourselves in a familiar situation. So many questions and so little answers.

I am personally for self regulation. The onus of restricting what should and what should not be shown should lie on the broadcasters themselves. In fact, I am sure that this is what these organisations would want too. Now that they have been used to so much freedom, they certainly would not like 'Big Brother' looking over their shoulders, would they? [Off course these organisations would be dead set against even self regulation but somehow we have to convince them that it is the way forward] Moreover, i am certain that there will be at least one good human being among the thousands in those organisations whose wiser sense will prevail and sanity restored with respect to content of reality TV. This will also encourage responsible content generation and will pave the way for a independent yet responsible broadcasting.

Off course, the government could take the role of a 2nd class regulator and step in and take on these broadcasters if things go too far. Or we could have a independent body, consisting of all sections of the media, play regulator. But the downside of this is that vested interest might creep in and play spoilsport.

What are your thoughts on this?

Kargil: 10 years on....

2009-07-26T22:50:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

It has been 10 years since the Kargil war (skirmish?). So I thought it would be nice to have a post to commemorate the 10 yrs and pay our respects to the men and women who laid down their lives to protect the territorial integrity of India.

To those martyrs who laid down their lives and their bereaving families, no amount of consoling words will be sufficient and no amount of financial compensation will be enough. Loss of live will always be hard to reconcile and we all sincerely hope that those families, in the past decade, have reached closure.

It has been 10 years and it is time to move forward, both for the individuals and the country as whole. We have to learn our lessons from the past and not commit them again. Even a slight lapse of vigil might be enough motive for intruders to attempt Kargil2.

That said and done, i strongly believe that dialogue is the way forward for resolution of any conflict, ours in no exception. Too many lives have been lost and too much money, time and energy have been expended on fighting. We should engage in military conflict only if it thrust upon us (like Kargil). Continuous engagement of neighbours, to resolve disputes, through composite dialogues will help rather than contemplating military solutions for them.

What are your thoughts on this....

Craziest/Wildest thing you have ever done?

2009-07-09T21:53:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

This one isn’t my usual type of a post, where I discuss serious issues related to society. It’s just one of those posts that is meant to send you down the memory lane and recollect the wildest/wackiest/funniest/craziest things you have ever done in your life. It could have been an intentional action or more of an accident. An event when you were a kid and consequently narrated by your family members when you grew up. Anything goes, people.

As for me, I have had my share of doing crazy things. For starters, my mom used to tell me that I used to stare into the holes found in the back of TV sets hoping to find people inside. And when I couldn’t find any I would go and ask her how come they are not there but they appear on screen. Hiding biscuits in boxes and totally forgetting where I kept them or forgetting that I had hid them in the first place!

So what are your funny moments...share them here....

Direct Cash Transfer

2009-07-03T05:17:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

Direct Cash Transfer(DCT) is a term that i came across in Nandan Nilekani's Imagining India and it has caught my imagination since then. It refers to the practice of government placing some amount of cash, based on requirement, into an individuals bank account in order to help him/her tide over a certain difficulty or to offset the removal of government subsidy that had been in place till then.

DCT has been experimented ,with varying levels of success ,all around the world and on the whole the beneficiaries of this concept have given it a big thumbs up. DCT tends to have a whole lot of advantages associated with it. I will state some of them here.

1.) Targeted Subsidies - Only a fraction of the subsidies today actually reach the intended audience. With DCT, subsidies can be targeted and made to reach only the people they were meant for. For ex. LPG cylinders being supplied to rich households are subsidised to the same extent as the ones beings sent to middle/poor households. This clearly doesn't make sense.

2.) Massive Savings- Apart from making perfect logic, DCT will also translate into good savings for the government. The cash transfer is going to be made only to families which need them and not to everyone by default, which is how the present system works.

3.) Responsible/Reduced Usage - Because DCT will only compensate for a finite amount of resources consumed, it will encourage beneficiaries reduce their usage of these resources. For the sake of continuity, lets again take the case of LPG:

Actual cost of one cylinder - 550

Cost to consumer - 350

Subsidy - 200

If the government sets the cylinder limit at 8/family/year then it would need to deposit 8*200=1600 into the accounts of the families and carry on and sell each cylinder at actual cost price.

Advantage 1: Subsidy provided to people who don't need it(read Ambanis' and the likes) will be eliminated.

Advantage 2: If families use more than their stipulated amount of cylinders, they would have to do so at actual cost of the cylinder.

Now that we have seen the merits of this system, i would like to highlight the challenges this system poses.

1. Mammoth Task - Creating bank accounts for millions of house holds across India will be no easy task and will require many changes/simplifications in the procedures for account creation. Orientation and acquaintance courses must be held to make the masses more familiar with banking terms/formalities etc.

Silver Lining - The banking system in this country is quite strong and that banks and their ATMs are spread across the width and the breadth of India.

2. Unwillingness - People might not be, initially, so receptive to the the idea of universal subsidy being removed and a more targeted system being brought in to replace it. Stiff resistance might be encountered from families which are large in number(5 or more) as they certainly would need more of these resources.

Silver Lining - This concept is politically "sell-able" due to its obvious benefits. Some Indian politicians were even making some noise about this in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections. So for once, we can actually confide in our politicians to get the convincing job done!

So what do you guys think about this concept of subsidy delivery. Please share your thoughts.

Imagining India: A good read

2009-06-22T03:19:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

I recently finished reading the book called Imagining India, written by Nandan Nilekani. To be frank, i took a couple of months to read it and moreover i was "two-timing" the book with my favourite English fiction authors..:) But at the end of it all, i must say the book made for a compelling read.

As Tom Friedman rightly points out, Nandan is a great explainer. Arcane issues are discussed threadbare and in a manner that even lay men can understand. Issues have been separated into broad categories and solutions have been suggested both at the macro and micro level. The ideas are fresh, innovative & even sometimes revolutionary. So revolutionary that,as Nandan himself agrees, it is going to take quite a bit of political will to implement the tough measures that this country so needs. It must be noted here that he has also dealt with the most thorniest of topics and given recommendations on how to go about solving them.

Something bizarre struck me after reading this book. We should make all our politicians read this book to make them realize the dire straits our country is in now and how to work towards making our society more progressive and peaceful. In fact we must have a test based on this book and many others of this ilk. Only if they ace the tests, should they be allowed into Parliament!

Coming back to the book, i certainly recommend this book for anyone regardless of your exposure to issues affecting Indian society. I also sincerely hope that the predictions Nandan has made in favour of India come true ASAP.

SriLanka: Battle Won, the war lost?

2009-06-21T03:12:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

I am sure you would have heard about the recent events in SriLanka and how the war against rebels came to an end and the developing humanitarian crisis got countries world over anxious. The general secretary of the UN has described the scenes he witnessed of the war ravaged regions as "appalling".

I don't wish to take sides in this recently concluded battle. My post here is to highlight the plight of the civilians who were caught between a ruthless militia claiming to fight for their rights and an equally brutal military hell bent on "freeing" them from the clutches of terrorists. The blame for the heavy civilian casualty must be placed on both the government and the rebel forces. But i believe the SL govt must be apportioned a greater percentage of blame than the rebels.

The govt forces were using heavy artillery even at the fag end of the war knowing fully well that the rebels were using civilians as human shields and that the tigers were in no position of bouncing back. The government, even now, is restricting access to humanitarian agencies wanting to go into the war savaged areas. Close 2 hundred thousand civilians have been put under 24 hours of armed guard into a space that
is meant for a fraction of that of population .

While the SL might have won the battle, the fear is that it might have lost the war.
It has failed to cease the opportunity to impress upon the Tamil population that they have been "freed" from the hands of the LTTE. If recent events are any testimony to what is to come, I wouldn’t be surprised if an armed uprising, god forbid, is in the offing.

I am back...:)

2009-06-21T02:54:00.000-07:00

HI all,

I know it has been a long time and I would pardon you if you had thought I was dead or something. No, I am very much alive and kicking!

A couple of delightful things happened over the course of this month. The 9th being my birthday and 11th was the day of our house warming. Though the events were spaced just two days apart, they offered me completely different experiences. I celebrated my birthday for the first time, with ONLY in the company of my friends (Really missed my mother's tasty vadai's and sweets). The house warming, on the other hand was held in the presence of a swarm of our relatives and well-wishers.

We (read my colleagues and I) were in attendance at the Lemon Grass, Bangalore on the evening of the 9th. Dinner was on me and Swapnil, colleague and friend on mine (His b'day was on the 6th...so we decided might as well give the b'day treats together.save some money..recession time u see). The customary cake cutting preceded the sequence of events for that evening. After helping myself and others to generous portions of the cake, we laid our hands on the gastronomic spread and i particular showed lots of commitment[read gobbled up food..:)]

Thank you Jagan, Anu and Prakash for the evening...

Inequality: A neccessary Evil?

2009-05-25T05:05:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

Inequality has been a phenomenon that has been plaguing mankind time immemorial. It has crystallized into violent revolutions in the past and is threatening civil society in many countries today. India seems to be no exception to this trend. Our politicians seem to be hell bent on abolishing inequality, at least on paper. Great thinkers rue the fact that it still exist in our society and keep warning us on the continuance of inequality in civil society.

Though i couldnt agree more with the above mentioned people for the need of eliminating inequality, i ponder what a “inequality-less” society will be like. Why would our house maids work for us if they had the same amount of resources, opportunities as us. Why would we be working for our present employers if we have what they already possess. As you probably would agree with me, it is the inequality,in a perverse way, that keeps society ticking.

Combine that with human desire for continual improvement, we have a human populace that works for each other makes us all interdependent and paving the way for a more unified society. All well and good unless you are at the receiving end of the inequality you would say. Again i couldnt agree more.

But what if even at the receiving end, people had reasonable access to education, employment, affordable housing and nutrition. Would that kind of inequality be such a bad thing after all? So what if a small minority among us are filthily rich and probably having earnings multiple times as the rest of the population as long as the majority can survive and sustain better modest lifestyles.

Instead of viewing inequality as an evil, we should probably have fresher perspectives on this issue.

Religion

2009-05-10T08:29:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

Religion has been an issue that has evoked eternal debate and it is this issue that i wish to talk about. There have numerous discussions on religious extremism, communalism etc in this space and elsewhere. But what i wish to discuss is something different and distanced from the above mentioned.

Something about religion has irked me quite a bit. It is our brazen display of our religious affiliations that leave me perturbed. Be it the kumkum on Hindu women or the white cap on Muslim men or the turbans of Sikhs, we seem to have no qualms about wearing our religion up our sleeves and other hand we seem to be proud of displaying these religious articles.

Before you pounce on me and accuse me of being an atheist, i must say that i am in fact far from one. It is just that, i feel, displaying our affiliations in the open doesn't augur well for a harmonious society. We keep harping that religion should not pervade our society but keep doing the exact opposite. Why cant we just restrict our religious practices to the confines of our four walls? Is it necessary to openly display our religious faith to be counted among the faithful? Even if there is a minuscule chance that stopping these practices would in fact augment our chances of a more harmonious society, wouldn't it be worth a try?

Trip to Kanchipuram

2009-04-30T10:21:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

I am back and i have a good reason for not posting for such a long interval. The waiting period for a posting location just seems to get loooonger and looonger every passing day and it seems like my training got completed ages back. Its not just the depression from the waiting but also a rather excruciating throat condition that has prevented me from doing what i want do.

Anyways, i paid a visit to my sister’s place during the extended Good Friday weekend and we went to Kanchipuram to buy some silk sarees for the women folk. As you would have guessed, i tried to sneak away by providing some lame reason but as fate would have it i was not even given a choice.

So off we went…. me, my mother, my sis her two kids and my bro-in-law. It was quite a journey taking almost an hour and half and the bad roads not making the situation any better. Once we had reached there it was hospitality at its best. Greetings flew thick and fast and within minutes we had a salesman allocated to us and the onerous task of choosing the best sarees started.(That was approximately the time i opened the HINDU which i had brought along anticipating a long session)

As my mother and sister (terror duo )started sifting through the seemingly endless collection, i was deeply engrossed in the political happenings which were extensively covered in the news paper. I occasionally sighed a heave of relief when the duo finalised a saree.

The sales man, i must admit, was an epitome of patience. He displayed every saree that was requested by the terror duo and gave some additional “tid bit” information about each saree. When the duo rejected a saree after examining it for what seemed like an eternity, he folded it back and displayed a new one. WOW! Hats off to this man and thousands like him who suffer at the hands of women every day.

After two complete readings of the HINDU and fetching my nephew to the toilet a number of times, it was all over. It had taken just over 3 hours to choose 7 sarees and the bill read close to 30K. When i had lamented to my mother about the delay, she chided me and added that she was much better comparatively!

Ayan -Watchable(No spoilers!)

2009-04-05T23:34:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

I watched the Surya starer Ayan this weekend with my cousins and it made for a good watch. Initially, me being the lazy bum i am, i refused to go to the movie. But my cousin's persuasive skills and the fact Surya has a lot of female fans(who would surely be present in the theatre) compelled me to change my mind...:)

Deva(Surya) is a college going student who works for Doss(Prabhu) in his "ship works" company which is actually a cover for his assorted criminal business. With Vijay TV fame "Nandu" and comedian Karunas as his accomplices, Deva works rather faithfully for Doss and finishes his tasks with commitment.

The problem arises when Doss's competitor's son gets a little too greedy and wants to rule the roost. Things get a little too personal as the movie moves along and how Deva tackles villain constitutes the rest of the story.

Surya has been working out as his six pac abs would tell you and he seems to be maturing as a actor. It was heartening to see that he did not indulge in heroism that much and moral policing was absent as opposed to his earlier movies like Aaru, Vel etc. Surya has attempted at creating comedy which is a welcome change from the fare we get from typical comedian's like Vadivelu. The stunts were awesome and kudos to Surya if he did not use a double to perform them.

Vijay TV "Nandu"(don't know his real name) plays a significant role in the movie and has done a commendable job. His screen presence is second only to the villain and he has justified every minute of it. Tammana is ok for a heroine but, as with most lady leads these days, must work her on lip sync. Karunas, surprisingly, plays second fiddle to the newbie "Nandu" and makes you wonder why he was not roped in to the up the laughter factor.

The songs , save one, have been a great let down. None of the songs are actually hummable and the lyrics gets drowned in the background music. The picturisation of the songs was good though and in fact the director attempts to show you the corners of the world in every song. Some of the songs have been ill timed and should have been slotted at a more opportune time in the story line.

Apart from all the fun and frolic, the movie tries to convey a message by portraying the dark underbelly of the drug smuggling world. It shows to what great extent people would go to smuggle drugs across borders and how they would put themselves in harm's way just to earn some quick money.

Overall, Ayan is a movie that you can watch with your family and friends and when it is all over make you feel that it was worth every rupee you spent for it.

Space Exploration

2009-03-31T06:14:00.000-07:00

Hi all,
I am back at home for the extended weekend and it feels great. Before i carry on, a happy Ugadi to one and all!

I always wanted to discuss this topic…space exploration(SE).Is it really necessary?. So i thought it would be good if i could raise this topic in this space and elicit views of the Wiproites.

The case FOR SE is pretty simple and straight forward. SE(unfortunately) represents a country’s prowess in scientific advancement. It has, over the years, come to indicate a country’s clout in the international arena. Moreover, proponents of SE, claim that many aerospace technologies are spin offs from the research time and money spent on SE.

The case AGAINST SE is as follows. We all know how much countries around the world spend on SE. The expenses of preparing the basic infrastructure for SE is humongous to say the least. Then there is the cost of the space vehicle and not to mention to the high tech gadgetry inside it that transmits back data to the ground centre, the fat pay cheques for the scientist and technical staff working there.
The other thing about SE is that it tends to be impractical. We all know that other than the earth there is no planet that is hospitable for human existence. No planet has the right set of “ingriedients” for humans to reside in it. So what the probes we sent to mars managed to find water in it. Mars’s atmosphere still doesnt have the right composition for humans to live in. Then how about the soil..who is going to make it cultivatible.

Last but not least, the planet that we are all living in can accomodate all of us. I read somewhere that we can fit into a texas in groups(read families) of 4 with a dwelling and a garden for each group. So there is enough space for everyone and there can be(with proper policies) enough food and opportunities for each and everyone of us.

I have intentionally not stated my position in detail here so that it will not influence you people. I hope to have a debate on this issue. Waiting for your comments and replies

Catch 22 Situation

2009-03-16T20:44:00.000-07:00

Hi bloggers,

Is child labour really being tackled in our country…is there a concious effort to eradicate that scourge from this land…i doubt it…let me narrate my experiences….

I am currently staying in a paying guest accomodation just opposite to Electronic City phase 2. There is a popular hotel in the main road(i don’t wish to name this hotel…ppl from blore must have at least seen it, if not gone into it) which employs child labour in the form of cleaners. I was appalled at this sight and one of my friends even asked the boy how old he was and the reply was a big big lie….”i am 18“….we only could laught it away…but that incident lingered in my mind long enough for me to write about it today…

One of my friend justified the boy working there saying that if he didnt work there, probably he would die of hunger…then what about schooling i asked and as u would have guessed all i got was giggles…the boy was too poor to go to school or even if he could afford it there were some other compelling domestic reasons to abandon school and start working at this rather tender age.

This is not the only place where i have witnessed child labour…and i am sure there have been other places you would have bore witness to the same…why is it that even after 6 decades of independence, we are not able to put our kids into schools….why is that we tend to turn a blind eye to work places that employ children…why is our noon meal scheme not working…what happened to the free textbooks schemes, free uniform and the list goes on and on….

I am sure as an individual i cant make much of a change…may be i could stop frequenting that hotel…and if a number of us decide to do the same then the boy will probably get fired as a result of the hotel closing[bcos the place is surviving bcos of ppl like me…:(]…a perfect catch 22 situation….

Home sweet home

2009-01-25T05:48:00.000-08:00

Hi all …I am back home (where I am in my elements) and it feels great. It has been just about a month away from here but I started feeling terribly home sick already. So this three day weekend was a godsend for me. Long live Republic day...he he…

The journey home wasn’t a pleasant one and that is what I wish to write about in this post. I was travelling in a SETC bus that was plying from Bangalore to Trichy. The bus arrived late at the pick up point, typical of any government bus. (Though we anticipated such a possibility, we arrived at the spot way before the pick up time).

Everything was on course for the next two hours. After dumping my luggage, mostly consisting of unwashed clothes…, into the luggage compartment and anywhere else where I could I find space, I broke into a random chat with my eternal friend Balaji. Before we knew it, both of us had dozed off. As if this irked Miss Bad Luck (who has the habit of following me everywhere and interfering in whatever I do), I was given rude wake up call. The bus started jumping every second or so and this seemed to be happening only on the rear side of the bus.

The driver brought the bus to a halt and by then a significant number of co passengers had been jolted from their sleep. Balaji, always being the curious one, got down from the bus. Being lazy and unwilling to get out of the comfort zone, I voluntarily suppressed my curiosity and went back to sleep. The next time I woke up, the bus was moving or at least trying to.

The jerk, unfortunately, had not gone away and this time the whole bus was awake and the few who knew what had happened were enlightening the ignorant rest. There had been an accident and the bus driver had not seen the stones used to demarcate the accident site and drove straight into it. Though he managed to evade most of the stones, one stone had got stuck in between the rear tyres.

From then on there was one trick in the book the conductor and the driver failed to attempt. But all their efforts were in vain as the stone refused to budge even an inch. The option of pushing on wasn’t on the cards too as the stone simply went in further and threatened to tear the tyres. What puzzled everyone was why didn’t they try to loosen the tyres. Upon enquiry, we came to know that the bus neither had a lever nor a spare tyre. Hence the reluctance to push on or to loosen the tyres.
After an hour of frantic searching, we finally managed to convince one of the many “24 hour” mechanic shops to help us. The conductor got into action in a flash and started loosening the tyres, with the help of the driver. The fateful stone was finally pried out and we were on the move in a few minutes.

The stone had set us back by more than two hours and it left all of us irritated to say the least. What was rather shocking was why didn’t the bus have a set of levers to tackle such an eventuality and what happened to set of mandatory tyres that were supposed to have been kept somewhere in the bus. I don’t intend to pursue this matter, for the obvious reasons, hope this is first and the last time I have to experience something like this.

Life in a PG

2009-01-25T05:43:00.000-08:00

The rumblings start early on and when i mean early i mean really early(at least for me...how else would 5 am be to a compulsive sleeper). Though the turbulence isint enough to dislodge you from your bed, the unmistakable stench of the toilet permeates the room and is sufficient to trouble your nostrils to an extent that you rather wake up than snug under that blanket of yours.

Welcome to a daily morning routine in a paying guest(PG) accommodation in Bangalore, the IT capital of India. The abode of thousands of non locals, PGs are the home away from away. The home tag might be a little too exaggerating, especially for those like me who have been residing in PG for just over a month now but i guess its better than sleeping in the streets and shivering to death.

Ok i am deviating now..back to my shoe-boxish room...my room mate and long time friend Balaji wakes me up..”dai palani...dai” and i slowly start to realize i have woken up to yet another monotonous day of work. Contrast this with home..mother comes along..tells me to wake up and my response is way too obvious to be spelt out. Chances of me waking up for the next ten minutes is so low that mother doesn’t even bother to come back and allows me to get out of my sleep(slumber?) on my own terms. God, i miss those days.

Its not all over when u have just woke up, in fact the ordeal has just begun. Somebody is stepping on your heels all the time. Get prepared to be screamed at if you take that extra minute to complete any of your morning chores. You will always be burdened with the thought that even a small lapse on your part can screw up your roomies day. Frankly it took me some time to get used that.

After getting all decked up for work, i pay a visit to Maaji Sagar along with my friends. Its the only decent restaurant you can find in this side of the electronics city where i am residing. We have been to that restaurant so many times now that the waiters there make that customary salute to us whenever we enter. Though the food there is eatable it doesn’t even come close to my mother’s cooking. Those super soft idlly’s , the mouth watering dosais she makes beckon me everyday.

Weekends are not weekends anymore. They are just part of the week, days when u wash your clothes, catch up with the outside world and more importantly study for those frightening online assessments that crop up periodically. Gone are the days where i used to dump my clothes into the laundry basket and expect them to come back clean and folded and smelling of jasmines(jasmine flavour detergent...:))

Television and the internet are luxuries now, something i would have taken for granted just a few months back. Limited access to the internet makes you sick and probably forget why u wanted to go online anyway and shared television means that you have to watch what the majority wants to.

Working life is so much different from that of college. It certainly reminds me of the much clichéd “life on the fast track” .PGs are instruments that facilitate that fast life and will remain so for many more years to come.

First day @ Wipro

2009-01-11T04:44:00.000-08:00

After being in hibernation for the past six months, it was more than a rude shock to me. The hustle and bustle of the place reminded me of video snippets i had seen of times square. People were rushing/ scrambling towards entry points manned by security guards(who were working for more than what they have been paid for ...i will come to that shortly). The incessant flow of buses, cars and bikes was proving to be a more than a handful for the traffic regulators, but they seemed to be doing a good job nevertheless.

There i was, standing in front of a section called EC 4. The bevy of buildings inside the fenced zone left me stunned for the initial few minutes. The facade of one of the buildings was awe inspiring. I had been to places where development was the by word and had witnessed magnificent structures first hand. But this was the first time i was going to part of it, the first time i am going to be in the thick of things and after a looong looong time i genuinely felt elated.

I slotted myself into the queue which was winding for almost 50 yards from the entry point and within a minute i found myself being scrutinized by a couple of security personnel. One of them crooned his neck to inspect my temporary id card and found fault at once. It was lop sided and he had a problem with that! I didn’t really understand what was so wrong with that but complied nevertheless. As if this wasn’t enough a second security guard wanted to examine a couple of books i was clinging on to. Hello guys ...do i look like some fanatic who just crossed across the border with the sole purpose of decimating EC 4 wipro.

With the rather annoying security checks completed, i made my way, with the company of close friends, to the assembly location. It wasn’t that difficult a task given the fact that whole lot of wipro placed students( or should i be calling them colleagues) had the same joining date. The entire walk from entry gate to the assembly venue was pleasant to say the least. Landscaped gardens, well laid platforms and organized movement of both vehicular and homosapien traffic was pleasing on the eye and was in stark contrast to the chaos that reigned outside.

The familiar faces inside the auditorium was a reassuring sight. It was also the time when many of us exchanged pleasantries and caught up with friends whom we had not seen for some time. Usual lectures followed and then it was time for some surprises.

A small group (which included me) was severed from the entire lot and escorted to labs. A stocky man came along and gave the clichéd “due to business requirements” reason for allotting us to the different stream than the rest of the batch. Most of us weren’t even listening to what he was trying to convey and probably had anticipated that we would be divided into small chunks and that was when the real shock came. We would be facing the much feared FRP test (which had sky high minimum threshold) in just a week. There was pin drop silence when we heard that the much dreaded FRP test was due in just about a week. Adding insult to injury was the fact that FRP was waived off for rest of the batch.

The rest of the day was interspersed between coaching periods and coding programs for generating sine series and recursive factorial programs! It was 8 at night ( 8 isn’t exactly evening is it) when i left for home and it will be a day i cherish in my memory for some time to come.

State election results, terror politics..etc..

2008-12-14T07:40:00.000-08:00

Hi All,

With the results of the 5 state election out, one thing is clear...Terror doesn't yet strike a chord with the electorate/ppl don't vote based on who "tackles" terror better...or do they?

The 5 state elections were dubbed as mini general election of sorts and pre poll predictions showed that BJP would win hands down in at least 4 of the 5 states..price rise, continuing farmer suicides and more importantly security issues(esp after the Mumbai attacks) were some issues where the Congress seemingly failed miserably in. But that didnt happen.

BJP was puzzled by the results..So much so that its president noted the results to be a "surprise". It had retained power in Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh but lost power in Rajasthan and failed to recapture Delhi. The voter had not rejected the BJP outright but neither did he accepted it with warm shoulders. The reasons for the rather unexpected result were quite simple. The electorate is more concerned about bread and butter issues than some vague issues like the nuclear deal or internal security(though i seriously think security is an important issue what is it to a villager living in a serene village going about his life in a peaceful manner...agree?)

The BJP desperately tried to cash in on its "zero tolerance" attitude towards to terror, post 26/11. It presumed that the voter out there would be swayed by its strong anti terror message, one it had propagated all along, and simply oversee the local issues that had bothered them the most. But they have been proven wrong. Then why did they win in some states? The reasons are the same. CMs in those states, that the BJP won, were strong figures with clean images and the governments that they led were reasonably efficient as compared to previous administrations. These factors were primarily responsible for their re elections and not some "iron image" that the BJP hoped for.

To be frank, I was pleasantly surprised by the results of the state elections. I had expected the results to be more in favour of the BJP especially in the aftermatn of the Mumbai Attacks. The way the BJP tried to scare monger the voting public, some even thought that the electorate would be cowed down tirade of advertisements.

But the election results spells good news for both the major national parties(both the Congress and BJP) and to the common man too(finally we have come into the picture..phew!)...It clearly shows that ppl wont tolerate corrupt administrations and expect efficient leaders who work for their progress...and what matters more are the local bread and butter issues...

Having said all this...the same yardstick wont apply for the general elections..ppl tend to associate security issues with the central government..so they might favour the BJP for the Lok Sabha elections...unless they decide to throw another surprise...:)

p.s. it is not of my personal opinion that the BJP is better equipped to tackle terror. its just the common perception out there. i believe that no party can simply prevent terror attacks by just being in power. we need solid measures coupled with sensitized citizenry to fight terror...

Finally....

2008-12-10T07:40:00.000-08:00

HI All..

I know it has been more than a month since i last posted..and i have a good reason for doing so...i have not been in the best of spirits...Wipro failed to call me in the tentative month that it had allocated to me and with the job climate as it is any sane minded person would be worried...

ok i guess enough of justifications...this is the deal...i will be joining Wipro on the 29th of dec at bangalore..reporting on the 23rd...training and posting both in bangalore..

finally i can sleep peacefully tonight knowing that the job offer in hand has finally materialized into something constructive and that i will be joining soon...i must thank a lot of my frens out there(esp those placed in other companies) who have stood with me during these diff times...thank you guys...:)

Why Obama would be better for India....

2008-10-29T10:51:00.000-07:00

With less than a week to go for the mother of all presidential races, the air is thick with speculation of who will be the next president of the USA. If we go by most polls, Obama has a significant lead but certainly not a decisive one. Though the race is primarily about who will be the commander in charge of America for the next four years, it will also decide on America's relationship with many other nations including India.

I have been an Obama supporter since day 1(ya i know...i have no business supporting anyone one of the candidates...but its just that way..). Obama, to me, represents a resurgent African American community that is fully integrated into American society and is ready to take on anyone, without playing the race card for evoking sympathy. Obama has never campaigned on the platform of race which clearly reflects his confidence on his own credentials. Contrast this with the race situation 4 decades back and u will surely agree with me that African American community has come a long way since then.

Ok i am digressing now. Coming back to the point, i feel that Obama would be a better choice as president from India's perspective than McCain. The reasons are aplenty. I will make a brief mention of a couple of those reasons.

1. India-Top Priority....Obama mentioned in an recent interview that India will be a top priority as far as foreign affairs is concerned. We can trust Obama's words to a reasonable extent because of the general opinion in the US that China has become too big for its own sake and that its growing economic and political clout might shadow that of the US in the coming decades. There is bi partisan support for creating a counter weight in the region. With a little push from the developed countries(lead from the forefront by the US), India could prove to be just that. So India has a greater chance of improving, or should i say upgrading, ties with the US with Obama at the helm.

2.Pakistan.....Obama has promised to reduce military aid to Pakistan drastically(read cut off). As we all know, Pak hasn't been using the money for fighting terror rather it was utilising it for better preparing itself against a possible confrontation with India. This action, as clearly pointed out by Obama, is destabilising the region more. Obama has also promised that he will go after militants hiding in Pak's North West Frontier Province(wooohoooo!) without waiting for Pakistan approval. Obama is clear about one thing..America's number one enemy( coincidentally India's too) is Osama Bin Laden...Its him that America has to hunt down. And stop draining American dollars on a quagmire that is Iraq.

I do understand that Obama has made statements in favour of restricting outsourcing. But we have to understand something here. Outsourcing is an emotive an issue as reservation is in India. No American politician can afford to say that he supports outsourcing and hope to win the race to the white house. The Obama plan says that the tax breaks will be transferred to companies that keep jobs in the US. Off course this will cut into the profit margins of these companies and consequently might lead to some setback to employers here. We MIGHT see some retrenchment on the low skilled labour front( ie..BPOs) . But that should be it.

But somehow i feel that Obama might bark about this issue but wont bite..because many economist agree that outsourcing is more beneficial to the outsourcing country than it is to the country at receiving end. Moreover with the kind of freedom American enterprises have been enjoying all these years, the least we can expect from these big corporations is a violent (not MNS style though) protest against any legislation that curtails their lateral movement.

Freedom of Speech?

2008-10-25T09:27:00.000-07:00

I am sure that u guys have been watching the news coverage on Raj Thackeray's provocative speeches and the consequent rampage his supporters went on against North Indians appearing for Railway exams in Mumbai. Appalled and distraught, i just hoped that the long arm of the law , at least this time, will put him behind bars for good. As it turned out, he is out on bail again, free to speak his mind, ready to play with fire and stroke up linguistic passions...all at the state's cost. (8000 state police men were put on duty on the day of Raj's arrest to prevent any untoward incident...imagine that 8000...to me that sounds more like the entire population of a cluster of small villages..what a drain of resources...)

Now i don't wish to debate whether the gag orders on this man in particular is long overdue..because if u are double minded on that, then u r taking the issue of free speech too far. What appalls me is the state of society. Why have we become like this. Who is responsible for the rise for extremist(like Raj) into mainstream political scenario. How do u tackle pests like Raj without according him too much media attention. How do we sensitise our people to shun outfits like MNS and whats the threshold limit for a total black out of a organisation. How should the media react to gross violators like Raj

As usual we have more questions than we have answers. I do agree that this protecting the Marathi manoo and the likes are all about political posturing than it is about anything else. Our politicians will take a long time to wake up, address and debate the real issues like creating employment, reviving the farming sector etc. Until then they will be harping on totally irrelevant issues( to the common man that is) but politically sensitive ones...

While our political class gets is sense right(and this might take years), what tickles me is why we are allowing them to talk their mind. As we know its hard to get anybody pinned down on accounts of violation of free speech. A token arrest at the max is the only thing these errant politicians have to face. A bail is waiting for them and the cases filed against them go on for years and years and only serve to keep government lawyers busy. Now if this is all it takes to gain a lot of political mileage, why wouldn't any politician do it. It makes perfect political sense, corner the extremists among the masses while u make these provocative speeches and cry foul of political vendetta when u get arrested and serve a 1 day "jail term"...

It is widely accepted that if the general public tends to ignore a certain issue or a school of thought, then the chances of political leaders taking it up will be extremely low. Raj was talking(blabbering?) what he was talking bcos there were a sizeable no. of people who turned up for his rallies and probably an even greater number who sat at home and followed his speeches through the print and electronic media. Now i say if we drain politicians of these kind of listeners/ followers/ supporters then chances of them championing these "causes" would certainly reduce.

This is what i propose...a serious discourse on free speech across the nation with people from every spectrum of life participating and chipping in. A consensus cant be that difficult to reach bcos after all every one would want to live in a peaceful society and hence would propose ideas that propagate peace. .so tell me whether u agree with me..is it time we showed our political class how we want them to behave ..how we want them to take up sensitive issues...how we want them to tackle problems to eradicate them and not just pay lip service...IS IT TIME WE SHOWED THEM THE WAY?

Tagged...:)

2008-10-23T06:38:00.000-07:00

I have been tagged by my blog friend Preethi The tag: Two questions in each category answer them and then tag your friends from the blog-o-sphere. (Simple enough right) Leave a comment on their blog letting them know they have been tagged and you are all set.

Your oldest memories

1.On a serious note...

Date : May 1994
Place : Singapore Airport

There i was, standing at the majestic foyer of Singapore Airport's 2nd terminal. I was almost 9 years of age then and i had just undertook my first flight journey. Somehow i wasnt feeling comfortable at all. The air conditioning system in the flight had been overpowering and what could poor little me do other than to shiver..oh god, i could still remember one of my uncles rubbing my thighs to make me feel warm... or may be my uneasiness emanated from the fact that i was in an alien country, knowing little english and having to blend into a system that was totally new to me..

There i was...on a journey that would influence my life forever and impact my decisions even to date.. excited about the future and too young to understand the consequences i would have to face for the actions i undertook... too short sighted to see that the glitzy lights of Singapore were glamourous only for the night and from then onwards i was there on a mission...an academic mission to be precise, to continue my studies from where i left off in india..puzzling as it may sound i did go to singapore to continue my education after finishing 4th standard in India(pardon me if i made it sound like "degree"..bcos thats what normal people do...lol..)

As they say the rest is history..i stayed there for about 10 yrs..the period was a rather tough one with lots of hurdles to overcome.. and i was back in india to pursue my professional education in may 2004...for the record...i thank all those who made my stay possible there and promise to live up to ur expectations..:)

2. On the lighter side...

place & date: same as above

i was exiting the airplane and making my way to customs..no no i wasnt doing it alone..dont worry...i had some pleasant looking female companions (though i couldnt really differenciate between the good and the ugly ones then)to get me thru the all the intimidating immigration procedures...the embarrassing moment came when we had to enter a box like thing and the doors closed after that..the box zoomed up ...i had never seen those before and was curious to know what they were...

i just spurted out my curiosity without even considering what kind of response it will attract from them. I still cringe when I think about how they stared at me after I had blurted out my mind. It was as if they were wondering whether i had been in a civilization at all. Then both of them just looked at each other and giggled till they handed me over to my guardian. Over the course of time I realized that those “boxes” were called elevators and that their primary purpose was to transport people vertically…:)

3.What were u doing ten years ago?
I was about to complete grade 7(called Secondary 1 in that part of the world)…Secondary school(grades 7 to 10) was a welcome change from the rather restrictive environment of Primary School(grades 1 to 6)..We were introduced to an array of subjects as opposed to primary school where it was the usual Languages, Mathematics and science subjects that ruled the roost. Basically I had more fun in class..Interaction with neighbours was, for once, encouraged. I made some good friends in Secondary with whom I am in touch till date..

Today

1.Your first thought in the morning….

“WHEN WILL I GET MY CALL LETTER FROM WIPRO”…The caps should amply reflect my desperation and my frustration with wipro…I will not dwelve into this further as it is self-explanatory and also because of the fact that I do not wish to feel depressed during this Diwali…

2.If u build a time capsule what will it contain
A computer with broadband connection, newspapers and magazines covering politics and economics, lots of food,

3.This year
Has been an eventful one. I completed a project which many people ridiculed from the very beginning, something even our own staff adviser washed his hands off and at one point even indirectly told us to abandon.
I graduated from SASTRA University..Obtained my driver’s license… Turned to blogging to kill time and pleased that I did..always wanted to pour out my mind and what better platform to do so than blogs…

Future...

1.What do u see urself doing 14 years now?
I would 37 plus then…should be married by and having a couple of kids(?? Sorry had to state this…societal obligation..) and trying to strike work life balance ....Hope i would still be blogging then, in touch with my friends i made till now...

Vicky's Sis Wedding

2008-10-20T06:56:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had a great get together with my friends (read Wipro et al placed Sastra students who are vetti) on the occasion of my friend Vignesh’s sister’s marriage. The timing could’t have been better for the meet. With all our “other” friends toiling it out in their training programs, here we were chatting away as if there was nothing much to do in life and that Wipro would draft us in tomorrow.

The day started with me waking up at 5 in the morning (or was it 5 15)...Hmmm...Don’t know how many times I snoozed the alarm in my cell phone. Nevertheless my mother said she was profusely thankful to the wedding as a whole, as there was no way in hell that I woke up that early in morning on any other given day. After a hurried completion of all the necessary facial modifications followed by a soothing hot water bath, I was all set to rock and roll.

Just when I thought all was going well, this time it was the time that presented the shocker. Ah spot on! Classic Palaniappan’s life…nothing goes well...even if it seemingly does then something will pop out at the last minute and spoil the party. A quick glance at the clock…6 30 am … I clearly realized that I am not going to make it on time for the Muhurtam which had been fixed to be around 7 in the morning, which was just half an hour away.

My father, as always, took pity on me and gracefully agreed to drop me off at the Ramji Mahal, the venue of the wedding. The foyer of the building didn't even remotely resemble the picture that i had conjured up in my mind. A few kids were playing with balloons and vehicles were parked at the side. But somehow that festive spirit was missing or so i thought till i climbed up the stairs...

The air was thick with expectation. The stage was flooded with lights from video cameras, the stage wall adorned with huge drawings of a godly couple(couldn't really make out who they were but my gut feeling was that it was Perumal and his wife)..Closed circuit television sets were placed at strategic points in the hall. Streamers were hanging down at the sides of the hall and finally i was convinced that i was at the right place at the right time..

Scanning the assemblage i spotted my friend Sri Ram lazing at the back. With relief i zoomed my way to him and eased myself into the scheme of things. Within minutes i was surrounded by a sea of friends and we were catching up with old times. Sea of nostalgia hit me over the course of time and i was pretty pleased that i had made the rather strenuous effort of waking up so early...:)

After a tasty and filling breakfast, we made our way back to the marriage hall and anxiously waited for THE moment. The TVs were of great help as we couldn't jostle our way to the front of the stage to get a view of the marriage proceedings. The iyer(priest) got charged up suddenly and then it was as if everything was on auto pilot. The nadasuram people made that characteristic noises and then Mapillai tied the thali.

Handshakes and congratulatory sounds flew in the air. It was as if utopia had been established! (i always thought that it was all over when two families decide that they are going to get into an alliance!) And then it was all over. A couple had tied the knot for the rest of their lives...:)

LONG LIVE THE COUPLE!!!

Prank Message!

2008-10-16T07:31:00.000-07:00

A couple of days back i decided to send some prank messages to my friends who are eagerly awaiting,if not more, call letters from Wipro. I picked my good friend G to be the recipient of my prank message, whom i presumed would be the most vulnerable to fall for the message.

I picked up my cell phone and carefully worded my message. "i have got it da" . The message had to hazy but still attract attention. I sent it to G and as an insurance cover forwarded the same message to Ramu, knowing fully well that the probability of him falling for it was in exact contrast to that of G.

The initial minutes of waiting were tense, in fact even nail biting. This was my first attempt at trying to con someone and i didn't want to start off on a losing note! My eyes refused to stray away from the phone screen. The steady buildup of adrenaline was inching towards the threshold limit and there was only one event that could stop the accrual.

"GRRRR GRRRRR" off went the phone and i fumbled to grab it so as to view the number. My face sulked as i saw some strange number flashing on the screen, as if i needed some bloke from some corner of Tamil nadu asking me "Andipatti ah"..(frankly i never understood the logic behind asking the location of a mobile bcos the number doesnt change despite being carried around...hell that why its called a mobile!)

On pressing down the accept button, i was in for a sweet surprise. It was him!

G: "Dai machan unnaku vanthiricha"(Have you got it?)

Me:"Loosu...how long will u take da"

G:"Sollu da(Tell me)"

Me:"Yes da i got it"

G: "What is the date and where have we been posted?"

Me:"dai i got the current supply back da!"

G: "@#$%%#@"

After the phone call i narrated the whole incident to my mother and we had a good laugh over it...:)

Saroja...watchable..(with minor spoilers)

2008-10-05T07:50:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

Just minutes after i woke up,rather reluctantly at around 12 30 in the afternoon, i received a call from my friend/neighbour inquiring my desire to accompany him to the movie Saroja. Needless to say, i got animated and commenced my preparations for the impromptu outing.

We managed to get the tickets with considerable ease and were quite stunned by the turnout. It was Sunday afternoon all right but for a movie with a not so impressive star cast and a relatively new director the turnout itself spoke volumes about the visual treat that was impending.

The movie moved rather slowly for the first twenty minutes or so centering mainly on the lives of the quartet, who's misadventures form the rest of the movie. The director was creative enough to bring in seemingly unrelated events and rope them together to make a movie out of them..

Premji Amaren starts to tickle your funny bones from his very first scene. His style of comedy is so different from the comedy doyens of the industry and its refreshing to see some one try something different and get acclaimed for it. Charan comes across as a typical middle aged man with mid life blues and certainly many married men watching the movie would have found something in his character they can relate they can relate to..let it be the way he tries to lie his way out, how he tries to get cosy with his wife or even when he is frantically trying refuse his friends' suggestions ,quoting his married status as an excuse,that he should try to have as much fun as possible.

Charan's younger brother Vaibhav is the typical macho hero (or at least looks like one..)that u find in any Tamil movie but again this is where Venkat Prabhu shows his class and casts him as one who is recovering from love failure..Vaibhav's friend Shiva is the flamboyant opportunist who makes his living by acting in (much dreaded)soaps.

The gang sets out to Hyderabad to watch a cricket match and this is where all the action starts. The excitement quotient picks up gradually and reaches its peak,naturally, towards the end of the movie. But never does the comedy track lose its intensity..if its Premji then some one else chips in to give u another reason to have a laugh.

I couldn't really find obvious loopholes in the screenplay, or may its just me. Some of the fight sequences could have been filmed with more light as it keeps you wondering who is bashing up who! The songs had a modernish tone to them and the screen choreography(apart from one song) was pleasant. Unfortunately, i could never bring myself to hum even one of the songs..somehow the lyrics got drowned in background music..moreover i could swear i heard a woman whisper to her friend that she found some of the dance moves in one of songs, in the second half of the movie, vulgar..and i did kind of agree with her to some extent..

I would certainly recommend this movie to those who are contemplating on what to watch in the theatres in the coming days.

SHOCKING!!!

2008-10-04T05:13:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

I am angry..umm actually flagrant if that is sufficient to express my scorn for the Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit..how could she have said that..how can a leader in such a lofty position make a nincompoop statement..it shocked the guts out of me..

For those who have been not watched the news, allow me to enlighten you. A tv journo was murdered in the wee hours of the Monday morning while she was driving back from work. The incident was initially believed to be an accident but after the initial reports came out, an FIR was filed for murder.

Now these kind of incidents are nothing new in our country and certainly a daily occurrence in the national capital(!) and Soumya's work could have placed her
directly in the line of fire. Being Indian citizens, we have reconciled to the fact that we are not entitled to safe environments and that if we don't hole ourselves up after six in the evening then "we are at our own risk". Now what has come as shocker is the bureaucratic apathy for these incidents..When asked about this gruesome incident, this is what Delhi cm had to say.."all alone at the time of the night..is adventurous on her part"

The statement evoked outrage among the masses with many questioning whether a CM can and should have made such a statement. Now a number of questions arise

1. Is it a government stand that women cannot be alone at certain part of the day/night.

2. Would women being alone be classified as dangerous/adventurous and hence the law of the land not applicable in those cases..isn't this tantamount to giving a license to the baddies..

3. Is the CM trying her hand at moral policing..esp with Delhi state assembly elections around the corner she probably figured that she could corner some conservative votes by trying to play moral police...

The police department is at its vintage best and till now has no clue or whatsoever to who are perpetrators of this heinous crime.Lets all hope for an obfuscation free investigation and trial for this hard working woman who was "too adventurous"

Attacks on religious instituitions are also TERRORISM!!!

2008-10-03T05:52:00.000-07:00

HI All,

I am sure u have heard/read/listened/seen news relating to the attacks on religious institutions in Orissa and Karnataka...No doubt the incident appalled me but it made me sit up and ask myself something...should we just view these incidents as religious intolerance alone or should we tag something more sinister to it..

i was watching a show on one of the domestic news channels the other day and a speaker pointed out that if the Delhi blasts were acts of terrorism then so are the church attacks..this immediately struck a chord with me..

no body has a set definition for terrorism. but we commonly accept that killing of innocent civilians by anyone by any method as terrorism..having said this somehow strangely we tend to associate terrorism with a certain religion and restrict ourselves to bomb blasts and the likes as incidents of terror...

now there is an obvious contradiction to how we define terrorism and how we actually perceive it....why is this the case..isint killing people just because they are subscribers of different ideologies equal to the mindless acts of terror that we have been witnessing in our cities recently...our politicians while prescribing tough laws for "terrorism" somehow (may be conveniently) dont have an solution for putting a full stop to attacks on religious institutions...why dont they club these incidents with the conventional "terrorism" and propose draconian laws for all of these dastardly acts..

we know all too well that the roots causes of terrorism are hatred and deprivation..these attacks are sowing the seeds of terrorism and if this continues in any form or format then our future generations would be fighting extremism all over india..and we wouldnt have anybody else but ourselves to blame for our predicament then...

Ticket Allotment and Debates...

2008-09-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

I am sure that you must have heard of the upcoming presidential race in the USA.. I have been following the race and the events leading up to it..Actually i had been doing so since the last time round when Bush and Kerry went head to head but i wasn't into blogging then...So i decided that i should write about a couple of things that have gotten my attention esp the allotment of tickets to the candidates and how the presidential candidates woo voters thru debates...

Ok coming back to the point..i was quite impressed at the level of transparency and the professionalism with which the primaries were held..candidates aspiring to run on the party ticket announce their decision and form a camp and run around the entire country to convince the party faithfuls that he/she is the right candidate for the party ticket...they can do so regardless of their gender, age, financial status, years of association with the party and its top leaders etc...

compare this with india..political parties go into a huddle months before election is announced..nominate ,mostly, the party leader as their primemisterial candidate and in case one is not available ..try to search a candidate with a good credentials(knowing fully well that they wouldnt be able to find one)and finally settle for one who is old, is the least tainted, "close" to party elders and acceptable to other coalition parties..could somebody tell me what happened to "suitability to the job", "leadership skills", "team playing abilities" "awareness of issues concerning the common man" etc...

u see there are compromises at every step...every compromise pushing the most eligible candidate further and further away and giving way for dynasty politics, nepotism and cronyism ...

now coming to the point abt debates...this one astonished me even more and completely won me over...what a way present the varying views of the candidates to the voter and let him choose who he wants...and if u had watched how the 1st debate transpired probably u will spit in the faces of Indian politicians who use their lung power to get their point home when they participate in shows like 'face the nation' and the likes...such was the decency and mutual respect for each other..when one was talking the other had his mouth SHUT...and if there was anything to rebut they just jotted it down and stated it later when given the opportunity..i guess i dont have to tell u abt their knowledge on issues..having spent months running around the country explaining their stands on various issues they certainly would have no problems in that regard...

the bottom line of the entire presidential exercise in the US is that if a candidate wishes to become the next president of the united states then he has to work for it.. meet the people, learn the issues, take appropriate stands and be prepared to justify his stand...this exercise ensures that only people who are willing to sweat it out will enter the fray and not just any tom dick and harry...and there is no place for political rhetoric..i.e.no "thanga thalaiva", "anja nejun" and crap...no place for political smears/dirty politics...

Arghhh....

2008-09-29T04:49:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

I am still waiting for that stupid call letter from Wipro to call me once and for all and put an end to the misery that i am going thru right now...

Finished my course and doing pretty much nothing at home u might be excused to think that i am having the time of my life...But that couldn't be further away the truth..

With every passing day, the insinuations of neighbors is getting unbearable..'why don't u try for some other company', while some others stretching further said i shouldn't even bother with Wipro as the IT industry is slowing down and should rather think about employment opportunities in my own area of expertise...(enna koduma sir ithu...as if i had any technical knowledge in the first place.. if only somebody could tell me where i could get it )

Suddenly my mother is starting to act as if she is the Taliban of Trichy(sounds rhyming doesn't it?)..u shouldn't do this and that..learn this..talk like this..walk properly..behave and watch your language when in the company of women..blah blah blah...My father was not very far behind and is pestering me to learn yoga, sleep early etc..

How can cousins be far behind.."send me ur reference number i have frens in Wipro and they can give u an idea of the exact date" ,"CCNA can keep u occupied"...They might as well have said i am VETTI..

As if this multi pronged attack wasn't enough, now i getting due panned by fellow bloggers. All over a cartoonic woman donning tight tops or huge "u know what" and as a result i have started questioning my own morals..what is vulgar and what is acceptable..have i really changed..what happened to my conservative self...why do i start finding myself in the "wrong" side of the divide...

Wipro...pls put me out of my misery asap...call me before i go mad...pls....

Long long time no see

2008-09-25T22:03:00.000-07:00

Hi all,
It has been ages since i wrote my last post, i think almost 2 weeks ago. The usual culprits being my laziness, procrastination et al.:)

But it was not as if i was sleeping the entire period, though it figured prominently in the list of things that i was into. Hmmm did i say a list of things... let me see...no better downgrade it to a number of things ... list sounds tooo big..

Movies, courtesy of Ramanathan and Arun, pretty much become my staple diet. I watched close to 15 movies in this time frame. The Shawshank redemption, vantage point just to name a few. So of them really moved, others kindled my gray cells and yet others questioned conventions. English movies, as i have always believed and still, move out of the mundane love stories and demi-god worship that our own movie fraternities are obsessed with. But i guess we cant completely credit American directors and belittle our own ones because of one simple fact...Audience taste or preference or whatever u wish to call it..thats us! So we should take a fair amount of blame when it comes pedestrian presentation of movies..

{But all is not lost as our industries are waking up to changing preferences of audiences esp the urban ones and are making movies that are good, realistic in their own right)

Apart from movies, typing has been keeping me busy. Allow me to indulge in some self patting on the back.:) I always wanted, even desired, to be type fast and accurately but never really got myself to do it. The extreme boredom (read vettiness)of the past two weeks allowed to learn typing at my own pace.(without which i wouldn't be able to learn any new skill)

Thats all for now folks. See u soon...

Long time no see...

2008-09-17T07:31:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

it has been almost a week since my last post and i have used one reason or the other not to post and conveniently giving in to my lazy self. Finally i managed to get my hands to type this post though i am still pondering what am i going to post about today.

hmmm...oh i got it..i got it...the credit crisis..

you must have heard of it. it has been for the better part of the week and it has had far reaching ramifications though fortunately India hasn't been at the receiving end as much as other countries..this is how it all started...

Interests rates in the US have been cut on a quarterly basis for the past 3 yrs or so to stimulate growth. What low interests rates do is encourage people to borrow and spend, termed as consumer spending which has traditionally been the biggest driver of growth. Low rates also make it easier for enterprises to draw credit and start new businesses.

Buoyed by low interests rates and some favourable legislations on home ownerships, people started buying homes without considering whether they needed it or not(and more importantly whether they could afford it or not). This sudden surge in buying artificial rise of prices of houses and made other potential home buyers to sit up and take notice. A feeling of "now or never" pervaded in the minds of these people and forced them to extend loans( most of these loans were sub prime loans..i will get to this later) which they otherwise would have never taken. Consequently, many of them entered the property market at totally unrealistic prices hoping that the rising property prices will keep rising.

Sub prime loans are loans given to people with no or poor(!) credit history. This means that the banks,mortgage firms and other lending instituitions lent money to these people knowing fully well that these people are not solid on financial ground and probably will not repay back the money in full. I guess these guys were figuring out that even if the loan wasn't paid off, the property was in the bank's name and given the way at which property prices were sky rocketing it doesn't really matter whether the loan was paid or not.

Obviously these sub prime loans were not paid back to these lenders, as these people were never in the position to repay such huge installments in the first place. But the title deeds are still in the possesion of these lensers, so why worry u might ask.

At one point in time, the prices of houses crossed the threshold limit and finally some sense of sanity prevailed among the general public. People stopped buying and homes prices tumbled and it was "declared" that the housing bubble had burst. Unable to recover the loans and unable to sell the properties for which the loans were given, many companies have now gone under. With these companies going bankrupt, there has been something called a credit crunch. i.e. not many people out there either having money to lend or the lack of willingness to lend the money they have.

I can go on and on...but i think i am going to stop here and let u draw ur own inferences on how this has affected global economies...

7 years on...is the world a safer place to live in today than it was then?

2008-09-11T09:22:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

Today is the 7th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, an event that has down done as the Pearl harbour of the 21st century among the American audience(and western countries in general) and as an incident viewed by the outside world(esp the Arab world) that America used as a cover to fulfill its imperialistic designs.

The perceptions may vary, as they always do, but the hard fact is that more than 3000 people belonging to an array of nations lost their lives to a mindless act of terror, billions of dollars were lost in matter of seconds and Islam's image took a severe beating. So before i venture into my self imposed question, i would like to send my condolences to those who lost their near and dear ones and sincerely hope that they are in the advanced stages of recovery.

Seven years have transpired and it makes me wonder whether the world is really a safer place to live in after the all the "affirmative action" undertook by America since the fateful incident. Two wars were waged with America leading from the front. One with almost 100 per cent consensus and the other can be best described as American arrogance. Let me dwell in the details now.

The 1st war, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and lots of sympathy towards America from even unusual quarters, was waged to uproot the Taliban from the erstwhile safe haven of Afghanistan. The military assault was sanctioned by the United nations and more or less the whole world was on Afghan soil in just a matter of days, after the meek resistance put up by the Taliban militia caved in. The purpose of this war was very clear and the stated objectives had been partially achieved by overthrowing the fundamantalist regime.

A puppet government was installed in power but America, and the international community as well, stopped right there and conveniently forgot about Afghanistan altogether. They failed to provide any real support to the government of the day so that it could augment its capacity as an executive. Many summits and conferences only served as lip service to the humongous problems faced by the crumbled nation. Uncooperative neighbours( read Pakistan,our all time favourite enemy) coupled with monetary and administrative constraints further exaggerated the problem and only served the cause of the Taliban.

As months and years passed, the Taliban has resurfaced and has come to haunt Afghanistan again. The Taliban is back in business and is doing what it does best..terrorize people and spread its sick and totally distorted interpretation of Islam. All this after millions spent on uprooting these very people a few years back and billions more allocated for defence budgets by countries world over!!!

So that was the 1st war for u.. now lets move on to the 2nd one. This one was much more controversial than its predecessor. The Iraq war was waged under the pretext of the world being in danger because of Iraq possessing weapons of mass destruction(WMD). Arab World came out in strong protest against the very preparations for the war. Demographic giants like India toed the same line and warned US,and its allies, of the consequences the world will have to face due to this unilateral action.

Though the war was won rather swiftly and collateral damage was within acceptable limits, America didn't have a plan for the day after. Saddam Hussein was thrown out of power and was forced into hiding but so what...Lawlessness and chaos reigned in Baghdad was probably the whole of Iraq. Essential utilities were disrupted for months, oil supplies were interrupted and over and above all a sense of fear and insecurity loomed ominously over Iraq. Just as the opponents had predicted America and its little cronies had chewed more than they could swallow.

But what is more disturbing is that moderate Muslims who were finding their voice post 9/11 have been stifled yet again and this time America has no one to blame but herself. Fundamentalists in many Muslim countries have regained their ground and yield as much power as they had pre 9/11.Moreover, the sympathy America had immediately after 9/11 has all but vanished into thin air and there is only distrust that's left to savour.

A justifiable war with improper and insufficient post war rehabilitative support followed by a totally unnecessary one has in my opinion left our world in no safer postilion than we were before 9/11.

OS RE-INSTALLED

2008-09-09T08:13:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

Thanks to some misadventures (namely installing an anti virus which was way out of the league of my system's capabilities) that i was up to after my visit to my friends house and what i was left with was a corrupted OS and lots of frustration and agony.

Impatient as i am, i let the anti virus to scan my computer immediately after installing it. My friend had warned me to read the "readme" file before venturing into the functions of the software. I guess i don't have to tell you whether i heeded his warning or not...

Every application i tried to open came up with unique ways of denying entry..for some it was "application not found" for others it was "open with" which is usually associated with unknown file formats and for yet others there wasn't even a response (leaving to click a couple of more times)

To solve the problem my well wishers suggested i re install my OS.Ramanathan, whose house was the genesis (hope Ramanathan does not read this blog..but even if he does i confessed to have self created this problem..so i guess no body is going to get red faced after reading this post))of the problem, offered help and came armed with a pirated version of the Windows XP on late Monday afternoon and in the process waking me up from my deep slumber.

Without much ado, we sprung into action but everything came to a grinding halt minutes after it all started. Ramanathan had forgot the all important key that was required to continue with the installation. Without boring those who are reading this..i did finally manage to install the OS and get back a some amount of normalcy in my life..

I am very grateful to Ramanathan for providing me with the installation CD and karthik for his timely suggestions..

Hurray...NSG Waiver

2008-09-07T06:24:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

I am sure most of u would have read/heard/seen the news about India getting a clean unconditional waiver from the NSG. (I heard the news upon reaching my friend's house whom i was visiting to get pen drive and DVD load of softwares, movies and songs and thereby leading myself to a lot of misery...i will tell u about it later..)The leaders of the nation, except those belonging to the Left and Opposition parties, have hailed the waiver and have said that its a historic day for India.

What this waiver effectively means is that India can perform trade with respect to nuclear fuel,rectors and technology(know-how). This translates into more nuclear fuel available for starving reactors, ready made reactors that can be imported and technology transfer which will ensure that we can build reactors on our own in the future.

More nuclear reactors-> more power generated->more growth(i guess i don't have to explain this part in more detail than what i already have done..its a no-brainer!)

In case India engages in nuclear technology proliferation(it hasn't in the past and probably wont in the future as well) then the NSG will convene a meeting and decide on future course of action which probably will mean that NSG will ask its members to stop nuclear trade with India.

This waiver has to been seen in different light than the one of the 123 agreement. 123 agreement is an agreement exclusively between US and India and it deals with nuclear trade between India and the US alone.(However for the deal to go through, a waiver from the NSG was warranted and that's exactly why India approached the NSG).

So as of now, we can perform nuclear trade,even tomorrow, with countries like Russia and France while we have one last hurdle to cross as far as the US is concerned. A congressional approval is required for the deal. But that shouldn't be a problem because there seems to be wide bi-partisan support for the deal...:)

Hmmmm

2008-09-05T08:05:00.000-07:00

Hi guys,

i have come across a number of phrases,one liners etc...

Rub the wrong side of the shoulder
Push the envelope
Win hands down
Nose for nostalgia
Junket-obsessed
Cusp of change
Pay back in the same coin
Bang for the buck

Now a channel dedicated solely for comedy

2008-09-04T07:45:00.000-07:00

The Sun group, or should i say conglomerate, is planning to start a new television channel solely dedicated for comedy along the lines of Sun music and KTV which are dedicated music and movie channels respectively.

I must say this is another master move of the Sun group. Comedy has become a mainstay in almost all commercial films today and has become and is an essential commodity for success of these films. Moreover comedy shows have become a rage these days with the general public.Taking these factors into consideration, it only makes economic sense to commence a entirely new channel that concentrates on comedy and give the audiences more than they ask for.

We must view this in light of new political developments. Sun group has been DMK's mouthpiece since time immemorial but a few months back a ugly spat btw them saw DMK distancing itself from the Sun group and even starting a new TV channel on its own. A Raja, a DMK leader close to Karunanidhi, replaced Dayanethimaran who was the Information and Technology minister since the UPA government assumed power in 2004.
There would(in fact must) have been political pressures by the DMK to the government at the centre to stall this new channel. Despite this Sun group has come out on top. Kudos to the Sun Group!!!

Forged notes

2008-09-03T08:14:00.000-07:00

Ok i am going to try to squeeze a quick one thru. the time now is 8 45 pm and by 9 there will be that horrifying mandatory power cut.

i saw in the news the other day that the 500 rupee notes belonging to the 1996 and 2000 series are prone to counterfeiting..relax..not all of them are forged..but the security features in them are inadequate to prevent forging..RBI has said that the new series of notes are counterfeit safe..well we would have to see about that..bcos this printing and counterfeiting seems to be a cat and mouse game..its just a matter of time b4 the counterfeiters catch up(going by past experience)

RBI has added that it will withdraw the 1996 and 2000 series 500 rupee notes in a phased manner from January 2009. so u guys out there just be a tad careful the next time u encounter a 500 rupee note...

Presence of Leaders,Celebrities in disaster zones..

2008-09-02T04:54:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

I was reading the Paul Krugman column in today's Hindu and found that he had raised a valid point which resonated with me. He scorned the scheduled visit of John McCain to the areas ravaged by the tropical storm Gustav.

He stated that presence of leaders and celebrities would result in channeling of resources, energy and time from the victims, who obviously need it the most, to these people. He provided a couple of examples like the one where George bush visited the fire fighters who were helping out Katrina victims( just wondering... why are fire fighters involved in all this..isint it out of their purview..and aren't they always busy trying to put out the Californian wild fires that somehow seem to go on and on..)

I must also state that Paul is Bush basher and hence the article could be biased ( the "could" can be replaced with "should"). Moreover politicians wouldn't want to be seen as playing golf when millions are in distress and would obviously want to score brownie points by being in ground zero...

Now the challenge is what is the right solution to this predicament...hmmmm

Singur Standoff

2008-08-31T23:17:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

I have been feeling quite disturbed by the recent developments in West Bengal viz the protests against the Nano project.As most of u would have known by now Mamata Banerjee has been protesting, rather vociferously and in some instances violently, against the setting up of the Nano car project plant from the very start. After much struggle the plant did come up and production commenced although it is now in its nascent stages.

The problem now is about 400 acres of land that had been "forcibly" acquired by the government from the farmers for the location of ancillary units. The high court of the state had ruled that the land was acquired by proper means and in accordance with the law of the land.

Now what puzzles everyone is why

1.are the farmers who had sold the land and obtained the compensation provided by the government protesting now.

2. Mamata who was protesting against the entire project is now limiting herself to the return of only a section of the land.( is it a ploy to save face bcos now that the plant had come up and she could do nothing about it?)

Mamata is saying that she is fine with 600 acres of land in which the plant had come up but not with the rest of 400 acres of land in which the ancillary units are coming up/supposed to sprout..But we all know that that doesn't make any economic sense as placing the vending units away from the plant will only hike the costs of production.

Industry champions like the Naranya Murthy and the likes have come to the rescue of the Tatas and have called for restraint from Mamata. Even the usually reserved Governor of west bengal has written to Mamata on the agitation and has called for neutral mediators to resolve the issue.

With the agitation entering a rather tiring 8th day and support waning, Mamata now is trying to find herself new enemies. She has planned a rally against organised retailing giants like Reliance Retail(which belongs to the older Ambani brother). Digging deeper u would find that there is a little bit of politics in this. Mamata was joined by Amar Singh, a close associate of the younger Ambani brother, on the 1st day of her agitation and it looks like she feels this is her way of paying back
( u friends enemy is also ur enemy..make sense?)

At the end of all this its indian industry and the its image thats taking a battering. If Mamata and her cronies are really concerned abt India and its ppl she should call of the agitation and let work resume at the plant.

is it my mistake...?

2008-08-30T07:45:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

a thought crossed my mind when i was well...leave it..what matters is the thought...

So many of us,engineering graduates, from various streams have been placed in primarily one sector..i.e the IT sector..we have jumping from heaven to earth since we have got placed and even go around boasting about our placements..we haven't even spared a thought whether such a trend is a healthy one..

i am not suggesting that we should have flatly refused the offers from these IT companies bcos being employed these days seems to matter more than being alive..but it still irks me whether i have done the right thing or i wasn't even a player in the scheme if things...

Now its Water...Arghhh!!!

2008-08-30T07:10:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

After electricity, the Tamilnadu government and more specifically Trichy city corporation has decided that water is going to be the latest tool that is to be used against the toiling masses.

yet another pipe crack that fetches waters to the residential areas from the reservoirs means that Trichy residents have to go without water for at least 2 days and god knows how many more...

i just don't understand why the pipe cracks every few weeks...if it is broke FIX THE F@@KING thing once and for all...and why is no body standing up and claiming responsibility for this...what happened to accountability...

and what happened to alternate arrangements that should have been put in place by the govt to make mends for its mistakes...

now i find long queues outside private water distributors..and they are making a killing out of the current situation..so much so that they don't even have time to dispense the cans in our place( which is the normal practice)...

Power Failure

2008-08-28T10:14:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

The state government, finally, came out with an open statement that load shedding is in fact going on and stated the exact no. of hours each region will be experiencing power failure. But, as we have slowly started to realize the announced power cut is only half that of the real one....horrendous...

A number of bloggers, esp from the southern states, have highlighted this issue which goes to show how widespread this problem is.Nobody knows whether a solution is in sight and if there is one whats the time frame.. Unlike in other countries where heas would have rolled by now, our electricity minister seems to be only growing in power...

Attention Seekers

2008-08-28T09:32:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

A friend of mine had written a thought provoking article on education in India(my view could be biased) a few days back and received very harsh criticism from a particular blogger. The criticism was all the more surprising bcos the rest of the comments( read readers) were flowering praises on him.

After the rather scathing remarks made on him, my friend did try to reason out with him but to no avail. The blogger came back with yet another nasty reply.

The reason why i have highlighted the above incident is that i feel some bloggers out there are just want the lime light for themselves..by spurting out nasties at someone u r guaranteeing urselves of a reply and consequently attention( case in point jade goody)...

if the blogger had tried to argue on platform that had been equal then there would have been a healthy discussion going on but i guess thats exactly what the blogger didnt want...and what hurts me the most is that its hard to shrug off callous ppl like the guy mentioned above..leaves a bad taste in the mouth(but make no mistake here i welcome criticism with open arms but it MUST be constructive)

Engineering Seats Vacant

2008-08-27T07:29:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

I read in the news that more than 8000 seats are still lying vacant despite the 2nd extensive rounds of counseling. With this as the status quo i keep wondering some times why the regulatory bodies are still sanctioning new engineering colleges esp in Tamilnadu.

may be its time we focus on the existing ones and ensure that these have relevant and sufficient infrastructure in place and that coaching and assessment levels are up to the mark. In short we should be aspiring to make every engineering college in our country to the level of IITs

Power Cuts...

2008-08-25T08:21:00.000-07:00

hi All,

i have been experiencing power cuts quite frequently these days and today was really horrible. There were a total of 3.5 hrs of load shedding, way above the govt specified 2 hours for tier 2 towns such as Trichy.

These power cuts can be quite annoying esp when u meddling with ur system cos then u gotta save what ever u r doing and switch off the system and all this in record time. [ probably u would have gathered an idea abt my UPS's capability by now...:) ]

After the initial minutes of irritation that i experience, i start to find myself cursing my country for pushing me, forcefully, into the stone ages. How can we still not have found a solution to the power problem till now. Why hasn't capacity been augmented till now. Could we have brought more private players into the picture. Or how abt more active procurement of power from the national grid esp given the current political dynamics where the central govt is heavily dependent on the ministers from Tamilnadu for just staying in power.

At the end of the day, we only have un answered questions and agony. I guess thats something we have to bear with for being born in this country...

So its Destination London

2008-08-24T08:11:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

As i write this post, the Olympics Games is just coming to a close at Beijing. Laurels have been showed on China during the run up to the games and while the Games themselves. But the biggest one of all came from the IOC Chief who said China has set a new standard for conducting the Games.

The Olympic flag was brought down, in an usual ceremony, that marks the end of the Games at the National Stadium which is also affectionately called as the Bird's Nest. The London Mayor was in attendance at the ceremony to accept the Olympic flag as his city hosts the next Games. He seemed quite excited and was all smiles when the flag was handed over to him.

But what he probably doesn't know/ didn't want to show was that preparing London for the games will be an uphill task. He will be studying every minute detail/aspect/process that China took care of during the period it played host to the Games and make sure that he and his city at least live up to expectations and if possible outlive them.

Relief

2008-08-24T07:53:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

To my great relief, the amount that was wrongly debited from my account got credited back...:)

But doesn't wash off the wrongs of the railways committed against me. Three days of absolute mental torture on the "lost" money, an exercise of convenience turning out to be one of nightmare, screwed up travel plan, insinuations from all around and much more...the past 3 days have been ones that i would do best to forget...

I hope the railways wakes up to the numerous complaints it receives every day and act in a manner to negate unfortunate incidents,like the one that happened to me. I would even argue further that accountability must be brought into the picture and that some heads must roll(not just for what happened to me but for similar incidents also)...

The Day After!!!

2008-08-23T07:14:00.000-07:00

On reading the title u might think something colossally evil,along the lines of 9/11, occurred to me. I would pardon u for thinking in that fashion for what did happen to me is almost in that degree.

The morning after the day i had been "conned" of my money by IRCTC, i rushed to the railway station to get a good explanation from the railway authorities. I was all pumped up, partly from the agony of being pushed around by the IRCTC website, partly from the sister, for whom i had planned to book the ticket for, and mostly from my parents for being 'lazy' and not opting for the conventional option of booking tickets. With so many shareholders in causing agony, visualizing my state of mind wouldn't be that difficult and even before i had set foot in the railway station, i had a clear plan in my head and the i ran over it repeatedly so that i wouldn't goof up when it mattered the most.

My crusade started off at the reservation centre at the Central Railway Station. My eyes scanned the huge hall and instantly deviated to the a small enclosure at the side of the hall that read " Chief Reservation Officer". Just as i made my way, an officer inside the air conditioned room spotted me and beckoned me to come inside. As i explained my predicament to him uncanny smirk developed across his face which troubled me quite a bit. I stopped my blurting and waited as if expecting him to continue from where i left off. He gave me plain straightforward reply. It seems he was responsible for tickets reserved at the reservation counters only and not for internet bookings. For all other queries i could contact the Station Master.

So it was off to the Station Master's room which was embedded right in the middle of the station. A middle aged man with reasonable build was seated there and seemed to be in serious discussions with his colleagues seated across the table. My interjection was not very appreciated by the people across the table though the man himself didn't really seem to have any problems with it. [ As they the cronies usually make the most noise...:) ]

The master gave me a patient hearing and then explained in detail why he couldn't be of help to me. The railways reserves some amount of seats in each train and class for the IRCTC and the IRCTC is simply an agent for the railways. There was no way the railways could access the database of the IRCTC and extract the PNR number i had requested. However he gave me a couple of numbers to reach the IRCTC. After storing all the numbers, i left the station rather dejectedly for not being able solve the problems that eclipsed me from the day before.

The scorching sun and the crowded bus were some features of my return journey and they only made my futile attempt that much worse. I promptly called the IRCTC and say it in short... due to technical reasons the ticket did not get booked at all and the debited money would get re credited back to my account within five working days.. NOW I AM STILL WAITING FOR MY MONEY...

Indian Railways sucks to the core!!!

2008-08-21T09:02:00.000-07:00

I tried to book tickets online( e ticket to be more exact) for a journey from Trichy to Chennai, today at around 4 in the afternoon. I used my SBI atm cum debit card to make the online payment. I clicked on the "pay" button after confirming the details that i had provided. Much to my shock a blank page loaded save the solitary sentence that read like a half URL(I tried clicking it, pasting it even modifying it but to no avail)

During the booking process, i was informed by the server that only waiting list was available. So i wasn't expecting a ticket number but rather a PNR number. But there was nothing in the screen to satiate my expectation(s).

I logged in to the SBI internet banking account and saw that the fare amount had been deducted from my account. So now i had a situation in my hand where i had paid the money but no way to make sure that it had been used for the purpose that i desired.

After several frantic attempts, i managed to get hold of a telephone number for contacting the relevant authorities. But the website, being an Indian one, lived up to its expectations by providing me with a 6 digit number. We all know that it has been eons since a 7 digit telephone number had been introduced in trichy and many other parts of Tamilnadu. Though i managed to get the line by appending a 2, it was quite appalling to find that the contact number had not been updated. You might say this is a small mistake on the part of the Indian Railways, but this callous attitude towards customer service reflects elsewhere too. If anybody tends to think or justify this blunder is actually encouraging the railways to be more insensitive towards its passengers. There are no to ways about this.

I grabbed my phone and called the number and a bloke picked by the phone..the conversation was in Tamil but i shall try to reproduce it in english as realistically as i can..

"hello is this the railways?"
"huh?"
"hello is this the railways enquiry number?"
"huh?"
hello is this the railway enquiry number?"
"so what"

i was so cross at this point that i nearly cursed him. He could have acknowledged that it was indeed the railways when i asked him initially. Even in my 3rd attempt he didnt answer my question, as u can see.

He spurted out a number, as if a some external force commanded him to and told me to call that number. Even before i could jot that down he almost hanged up the phone. My phone was back in action as i tried to call the number provided by the rather mechanical officer. And this is what i got..

"This number is busy...please try again later..."

ARGHHHH!!!

Encouraging Sports

2008-08-21T08:05:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

I thought i would use this post to elaborate on how sports can be promoted and how we can create a sporting culture in our country.

There was a brief mention of the wrangle that we are finding ourselves in when there is a even the very mention of sports in my last post. The problems are clearly deep rooted and hence the solutions will certainly not be simplistic and if they are then we only are digging the grave,that we are finding ourselves in, even deeper.

1. I would like to see sports being encouraged right from the primary school level. This rule should be enforced on all schools regardless of their status i.e. both govt & private schools. A system must be put in place to ensure that students' achievements in sports somehow find their way to their report cards. This sends a strong signal to the society at large that energy and resources spent on sports is being appreciated. [ it is an open secret that most middle class Indian parents want their wards to become doctors or engineers. By changing this desire, we can create a greater pool of athletes.]

2. Scouts from relevant sporting bodies must scour the entire country in order to find young talent and in deserving cases provide scholarships to these students to continue their education in special schools that channel their talent and energy to more meaningful purposes. i.e. "Catch them young"

3. A new government policy on sports is the need of the hour. it must be a policy that provides incentives, subsidies and tax breaks for anything that is even remotely associated with sports. This will ensure that the much needed infrastructure is created..like stadiums, running tracks, courts etc. The policy must also address issues such as cronyism. Strict rules must be enacted and implemented so as to make sure that the only consideration in selecting candidates for major sporting events is based purely on merit and nothing else.

4. India, as most would agree, in a one-sport nation. Cricket enjoys demi-god status in every nook and corner of the country. Somehow over the years we have lost the plot and started to think that the only sport in the world is cricket. This shallowness can be justified by the modest successes/glory the sport has brought for India in recent times. Its time we regain our senses and look at the broader picture. We as a society must evolve and learn to accept and embrace other sports as well. Though the government can play an active role in this, for the most part it is we who have to change and move on from cricket.

Olympics..again..i know..

2008-08-20T08:35:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

i came across a post in one of my friends blog and though i only had a fleeting glance(pardon the redundancy) at it, it struck a chord in me almost instantly

he was lamenting about the poor show of India in the Beijing games and consequently in the medals tally as well. allow him to quote him here.." while in other countries it will be news if their athletes lose events, over here in India the media goes nuts if a athlete wins a medal"

the current context couldn't have been put more aptly...such is the certain belief of losing rather than winning...and i guess we cant blame the media or the public at large for this bout of low confidence..such has been the sorry state of affairs of sports in India.

we never had an integrated and comprehensive training programme for our athletes, absence of incentives for athletes to immerse themselves in their desired sports, government policy encouraging sports in schools has been only of lip service and serious investment in sports infrastructure has not even been heard of..

despite all this shortcomings, its an absolute miracle that we even have athletes who , by hook or by crook, manage to find themselves in the scheme of things..hats off to them..

i will try to explore what can be done to improve the general sporting atmosphere in India..bye for now..

Arghhhh

2008-08-20T08:03:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

I guess i have broken my promise again... i promised that i will publish two posts on Monday the 18th of august...but managed to do post only one..which leaves me with three post due (1 for Monday, 1 yesterday and the 1 today)...

Publishing 3 posts in single day, or should i say one night, can be an uphill task..esp for a super duper lazy person like me.. but i am going to give it a shot anyway..no harm trying..:)

while contemplating what should be the contents of this post, i thought it would be appropriate to discuss my erratic nature in updating my blog.. consider this..i had promised to update my blog with one post everyday..as u know i never kept the promise though i intended to..

a certain thought has refused to go off my mind for a few hours now...is it all right if u compensate for ur pending work both in terms of quality and quantity...?
case in point me..i have 3 posts pending..lets just say i manage abt 3 posts today( we all know that it almost equivalent to hoping the sun will rise from the west tomorrow )..but lets just consider that for argument sake..

so will my action make it all square or my failure to post at regular intervals still matter..i dont have explicitly state my opinion bcos u probably know it by now..i would love to know ur stand on this...

see u all in a few minutes..hopefully...:)

Old habits die hard!!!

2008-08-18T05:58:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

another classic example of an old bad habit refusing to go away. i forgot,probably the 3rd or for the fourth time, to publish a post yesterday. I will try to make up for it by posting one now and another one a few hours from now.

it has been almost been a week since i got my tentative month of joining from Wipro. The whole family scrambled to the computer screen to see what would have been a message that was never expected before October. So when i screamed thru my lungs about the arrival of the email, the rush was more than that of what i anticipated.

I, in my usual style, started scrutinising the email. My mother succumbing to her impatient self skimmed thru and pointed to a word which was in bold and in quotes. My eyes followed her finger movement and found the word or should i say the month "november". I searched in the vicinity for some exact dates but was left disappointed when i realized there was none.

A few minutes later, after going thru the entire mail, it dawned on me that the email had just provided a tentative moth for joining which was nothing close to our expectations. All our faces suddenly turned long and dull. I cursed Wipro, probably for the ten thousandth time, for delaying our appointment. All the hype and excitement had come crashing down in just seconds and i now i had to wait for another 2 months before i could start thinking of my transisition into the corporate world. Whats worse was that the stated month was tentative and was subject to change. I reverted to my usual word rather dejectedly( which usually means juggling btw playing re-volt, a racing game, and surfing the internet aimlessly)

A few days after the arrival of the email i realized that i was rather lucky,comparatively. The rest of the enginnerring college students who have been place in wipro had received their tentative month of joining as jan 09 and in some extreme cases march 09. I heaved a sigh of relief that mine wasn't that late.

ok guys thats all for now...

China...perfect olympics..?

2008-08-16T09:03:00.000-07:00

hi all,

China had promised that it would provide a green,hi tech Olympics that the world has never seen. That statement was never taken lightly by the IOC, or the international community for that matter, bcos it came from where it came from and we all very well know that the chinese will go any length to keep their word.

Critics were made to bite their own words upon seeing the controls China brought in to the run up to the Olympics and the opening ceremony was just awe inspiring.

or was it?

A Chinese official has gone on record saying that the fireworks on the opening day was actually prerecorded feed. It was always disclosed that, much to the shock of the entire world, that the singer was actually miming and the beautiful voice was prevented from making an appearance simply bcos she had improper teeth. A couple of days back the Team USA management made its displeasure clear about the alleged underage of the Chinese gymnast girls team. Another controversy that has cropped up is that not all of the representatives of china's 56 cultural groups had carried the flag to the opening ceremony, as the Chinese govt had claimed...

These events have raised a question of whether this olympics is as perfect as China claims. But i read in today's paper about the real and its copy. The article claimed that if the copy is as good as the real, or even better, then does it mater whether we should be presented with the real or the fake. Off course goody goody ppl may argue this is no justification for the cheating. True Enough. Point taken.

One thing is for sure. The world at large will forget these controversial events/ news in just a few days and carry on with life. They will always remember China as a nation that raced ahead with its construction of stadiums so much so that the IOC had asked it cool off a lil to prevent a major embarrassment to Athens(which was struggling till the last day). China will also be remembered for the marvelous show it put up during the opening ceremony( and probably the closing as well). This olympics will be remembered for how china managed to bring its people together and also how it managed to provide a safe olympics.

NOT
1.for how china managed to use the olympics as a cover to crush dissent regardless of whether it sabotaged the olympics or not..
2. for how china managed to reassert its claim over tibet
3. for conducting labour camps with no regard to human rights

So ppl wake up and feel the real world...what matters is the end product...

As promised...)

2008-08-15T05:24:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

i am back as i promised yesterday..though i have no idea what to write today..hmmmm..how abt independence since we are celebrating India's 62nd independence day today....

independence..a very subjective word...to a child it means the ability to scatter away from the books and rush to that neighbourhood playground and drain himself of all the energy he had. to a teenager it means the freedom to socialize with who he wants, do the things that he desires rather than what his wards wish for him, to a house wife it means autonomy from her husband, to a husband it means freedom from his nagging wife....

but the common denominator in all the above mentioned scenarios is that the individual in question feels happy or should i say elated...and this is the very essence of independence...it empowers,emboldens,excites,delights the individual experiencing it. its probably a feeling that has to be experienced rather than narrated!!!( which goes against the cause of this very blog and blogging in general..haha)

now let me indulge in some soul searching and tell u what independence means to me.. to free myself of financial dependence on my parents[read to have the liberty to spend the way i like...:)], to face challenges in life using my own ability rather than incessant inputs from my parents, to walk around as a ADULT free from the shadows of elders and the list goes on...

in retrospect, the above may sound as a wishlist..but i guess to me its all the same..

see u all tomm.

Giving procastination a whole new meaning...:)

2008-08-14T07:47:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

I am back and probably by now u would have realized that i am one of the most irregular and erratic bloggers the blogging world has ever witnessed. Some how i seem to want to post something everyday but someone/something comes in the way of this noble pursuit...but make no mistake about..my absence of daily posts does not in anyway mean that i am busy and occupied with more valuable tasks...NO I AM NOT BUSY AND I AM TOTALLY JOBLESS THESE DAYS....:)

Reg the post i promised about the solutions to terrorism in India, i decided that the solutions were pretty much obvious and could be derived by the reader simply by the reading the post and did not warrant a new post on its own( or u could take this as a reason i utilized to procrastinate and further the cause of my laziness..i don't mind...)

Bye for now

Olympics: JUST a sporting event?

2008-08-10T08:07:00.000-07:00

Citius, Altius, Fortius (Faster, Higher, Stronger)

Though the Games have been a quadrennial event that were supposedly said to bring nations together, which would have been other bickering about land, resources etc, it is an undeniable fact that the Games are more than just about jellying nations (and consequently their peoples). In the course of this write-up I will try to explore the political interference that reared its evil face over the history of Olympics

The political interference in Games has been, unfortunately, as old as the modern Games themselves. In 1936, Hitler used the Games for showcasing Germany as modern nation capable of constructing colossal stadiums and providing the corresponding logistics to match. The rather infamous Nazi salute featured in the Olympics too. The Games were close to being boycotted by the Americans due to the overt anti-Jewish stance of the then Nazi government. In 1972, another political drama played out but only that this it was in Munich. Palestinian militants abducted Israeli athletes and then killed them for avenging the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Later on in 1980, when cold war was at its peak, the Games were held in Moscow. The Americans boycotted the event simply due to the venue of the Games. The Soviets returned the favour in 1984 when the Games were held in Los Angeles in 1984.

The games since then have been free of controversies and political statements, barring some minor incidents, ever since. But the Beijing Olympics brought us back to the days that we thought were history. China’s rigid stand on Tibet as an integral part of China has been a sticking point with many countries esp. the Western ones which feel sympathetic to the Tibetan cause. Couple this with poor human rights track record of China and bingo we have yet another global sporting event that was potentially to be swallowed up political diktat.

Tibetan cause came to the fore when Tibetan monks went on a rampage earlier this year. World nations went into a huddle and revived their call for Tibetan independence. Some even threatened a boycott along the lines of the Moscow and LA games if China tried to use disproportionate force to quell the protest. The torch relay for the Beijing Games was not spared either. Tibetan activists made their presence felt when the torch went around the world, a usual ritual organised by the host nation and the IOC. In some cases the Olympic flame was extinguished, an incident that is considered to be an insult to the host nation in this case China. Tibetan activists managed to lodge their protests right in the Chinese capital as well by hoisting the Tibetan flag at Tiananmen Square. On his the part, the Dalai Lama has said that he never opposed China hosting the Olympics and that in fact China deserved to host the reputed event. He has asked his supporters to refrain from violence in any form. China, on expected lines, condemned the protest but never found fault with the nations for not providing fool proof security for the torch relay. Beijing probably didn’t want to bite more than it can chew!

India: A soft target for terrorist?

2008-07-29T08:50:00.000-07:00

The recent string of bomb blasts has raised some serious questions. Has India become an easy prey for terrorists? Are we as a country become too numb to terrorism?

The answer to these questions seems obvious and it is a big fat YES! India has become a terrorist’s hotbed with terror activity increasingly exponentially over the years. Over the course of this discourse I will try to elaborate my views on the problem.( The corresponding solutions will be posted in my next post)

1. Law Enforcement Agencies

A. Ill Equipped
Let’s be honest with ourselves and stop the barrage of attempts to lionise of our police force or even the CBI for that matter. Our agencies are one of the most impotent forces in the world. From weapons to technology to connectivity, name it and u will be able to find fault with our agencies. Modernisation, too, has been on the back burner for quite some time now and has only aggravated the troubles of the already badly armed agencies.

B. Corrupt and Demoralized
Corruption has been a never ending problem that our agencies have been facing for time immemorial. Even our top officers have a price tag and it goes without saying that those at the lower rung do fancy their chance of striking gold by looking the other way when it matters the most. Motivation seems to be in dire need in our agencies. Lack of enthusiasm in our agencies stem from facts like a below par leadership, negative perception at workplace and the likes.

C. Lack of coordination
India was split of linguistic lines and that division hasn’t seem to go away even a wee bit. Coordination of law enforcement agencies between various states is still pathetically low. Why hasn’t it dawned on them that they are fighting an enemy who has links across states and even countries and that the least they should to do is effectively coordinate with their counterparts in other states in more ways than one.

D. Political patronage
It is a known fact that law enforcement agencies have become a tool for political vendetta. The interference levels of the ruling party/alliance has reached intolerable levels that these agencies have by proxy become the nodal points for implementation of these parties political designs. How many times have we seen that the entire police force in our states being turned upside down when a new political is sworn into power. There have also been innumerable numbers of times when federal agencies, like the CBI, have been used for witch hunting to “take care” of the prime opposition party or the political rivals of allied parties. So it is clear that these agencies are fully occupied with “tasks” given by their political masters and have little time, energy or resource which can be dedicated for combating terror.

E. Questionable Practices
Witness harassment has been a mainstay in our agencies and this has been a major stumbling block in the general public coming forward and assisting these agencies in their investigations. Lack of a clear witness protection policy also plays in the minds of witnesses when contemplating providing help to these agencies. Our agencies have been accused with another shady practice, that of unjustified arrests. Under pressure from various quarters, our agencies make arrests that are usually totally unrelated to the case. A classic example I could point out off hand would be the detention of hundreds of Muslim youth after the Hyderabad blasts. This not only lowers the image of these agencies but more importantly gives ample reason for terrorists to further propagate their devious means.

2. Leadership

A. Lack of political will
Our leaders have been always unwilling to bring issues relating to terrorism to the common man. They fear that people will perceive this is a sign of weakness of the government and hence they might lose popular appeal. A school of thought also pervades in our political class that anti-terrorism laws/ discussion is against a specific society (read Muslims). Appeasement policies aren’t helping the cause either and in fact might be working against it. If certain section of society needs to be told off, then it must be told off. No point in trying to be nicey nice.

3. The General Public

A. Apathy
Our general public is too caught up with its own bread and butter issues that it barely has the time or willingness to confront the problem of terrorism. I guess they can’t be blamed or their apathy because one’s own problems are as important as national ones. Moreover, the general public has become too numb to these terrorist as they we hear about terrorists practically everyday in the news.

B. Lack of confidence in the system
The inordinate delay (it takes almost a decade for reaching closure in criminal cases) in criminal cases has simply eroded the confidence people had on the legal system. This combined with corrupt law enforcement officers have totally repelled away the general public from even remotely participating in important cases.

Convocation

2008-07-29T08:48:00.000-07:00

A day to remember and to forget!

The day was July 19th 2008. A day I had been anxiously been waiting for. A day that I wished would be etched in my memory for the rest of my life. I turned out to be just that but for reasons not entirely pleasant.

I had a bad start for the day and my perennial habit of waking up late struck yet again and it never hurt like it did on that day. (And this too after persistent tries from my mother to some how wake me up) Squinting my right eye to see what the time was, from my mobile phone, was enough to send a sliver of shock down my spine. The display showed 9.20 am. I sat up as if I was a told to do so by some external force. My mind suddenly turned hazy apparently in jolt that I had received from waking up late. Thankfully having faced these situations before came in handy and I planned, or should I say played, out my moves in mind. Take a quick bath, skip breakfast and beg my father to drop me in a Pal Pannai (a bus stop on the way to college instead of going to the main bus stand.)

The 1st task was easy primarily due to the fact that I never stayed in a bathroom for more than 5 minutes max. There was a moment of humour in the bathroom when my thoughts drifted back to the day before. I had planned to attend driving classes and even visit the hair dresser before proceeding to the convocation ceremony. The 2nd one seemed the right thing to do in a crunch situation and my usually rumbling stomach didn’t complain much for being refused its daily kick start fuel.

The 3rd task was usually the toughest thing to do but given the gravity of the situation my dad gracefully agreed and off I was to Pal Pannai. The ride was a rather bumpy one but I wasn’t complaining one bit because this was the best shot I had to meeting the 12 pm deadline for registration. The Thanjavur destined bus didn’t take too long to come and I scrambled up the foot board in an attempt to secure a seat and found my efforts were probably unwarranted as the bus was eerily empty. It was a Saturday alright and the absence of the working passengers could be excused but where were my fellow graduands. Only then did it strike me that I was not just late but extraordinarily delayed.

Repulsive thoughts coursed through my mind…how some of my seniors were refused to entry to the ceremony hall simply because they didn’t meet the deadline for registration and consequent verbal duel between the wards’ parents and the college administration, how sad my parents will be realizing that I couldn’t graduate not because of not being able to clear my papers but rather due to the fact that I didn’t have the enough discipline to wake up early on the day that mattered the most.

Thankfully those thoughts came crashing down when a couple of equally charged fellow graduands boarded the bus. The most logical thing to do then was to initiate a conversation with them and I did just that. Minutes into our chat, we managed to reach a decent level of comfort and I figured that was probably because we were finding ourselves in the same dire circumstances. SMSs screamed from our mobiles to our respective friends regarding the status of the registration process and contents of the reply SMSs were duly shared.
It was 11.45 am when the bus halted just in front of my college entrance and I sprinted to the registration venue, which was almost 400m away from the spot, like there was no tomorrow. I halted only to hand over my belongings to my friends who were waiting en route.11.55am was the exact time when I had step foot into the registration room. A mere 5 minutes had separated me from being allowed to participate in the gradation ceremony and from my worst fears. The registration did go off smoothly and I came out of the room as if I had achieved something significant in my life.

From then to 4 pm (the time the ceremony was scheduled to begin) was used to catch up with old times, recount experiences of extreme boredom and to put the Digi-Cam of ours to some good work. It wasn’t long before the clock struck 4 and the much clichéd phrase ‘time flies when you are having fun’ suddenly made so much sense. We were made to form rows of four so that we could be led into the ceremony location by none other than our vice chancellor and this was when my second round of misery began.

There was a distinct distinction between the other graduands and me. I didn’t have the compulsory yellow gown that every one else seemed to be sporting. By the time I had registered, the gowns had run out and I was told that if there were any extras then they would be provided to me. I had to beg borrow or steal a gown some how before I would be allowed to get onto the stage and receive my degree. My pursuit of a gown did turn out to be harder than I had anticipated. None of my friends were willing to lend me their gown, even after my relentless pestering. A slew of suggestions came in from all corners and one of them did sound enticing enough to try out. Since the degrees were awarded department wise, my other department friends could afford to lend me their gowns. As if by default, I messaged Balaji (my all weather friend) and he generously consented. I heaved a sigh of relief as yet another hurdle was crossed.

The ceremony began on a rather hostile note with organisers persuading parents, who had occupied the seats that were reserved for the graduands, to move out of their seats which effectively meant that the parents had to exit the hall as there was not even an inch of space left inside. The emcee only made matters worse by giving a rather boring elucidation our journey for the past four years, the obstacles we had to overcome and sacrifices we had to make. Frankly not even a soul was listening, even for courtesy sake. But this didn’t seem to even bother the emcee a wee bit and she carried on as if she was on a narrative crusade.

Our department’s turn came after an excruciating 2 hour wait. I was all geared up with the newly received gown and there was a general excitement that pervaded among my clique. My heart skipped a few beats when some degree folders got mixed up placing some of my friends were in a spot of bother and thereby energising my ever pessimistic mind; what if the same happened to me, how would I react, what should I do.

Ramanathan Palaniappan was the call from the micro phone and it was loud enough to bring me back to reality. Pacing a few steps to where the vice chancellor was standing, I extended my hand to him and in stead of a handshake I got a degree folder. I had heard that the vice chancellor was a tireless man and that statement made a lot of sense then as even after a 1000 hand over’s, this man didn’t seem to be objecting at all. I winked to my parents, who were gleefully watching the events unfold from the visitor’s area, as sign of victory or may be even for reaching closure.

A still shot frenzy ensued and we scuttled to get every possible millimetre of space to capture the essence of the ceremony. I had a few shots taken of me and parents. But if u thought it was all over, then u couldn’t be more wrong. I still had to report back to the same place I had registered to receive the refund for not being provided the gown. It was only when I reached the designated room that I realized the enormity of the task. At least 50 people were milling around the refund counter and a hundred more were waiting for their turn. Jostling, pushing, shoving and every other possible related verb was carried out to outmanoeuvre the rest and receive the refund at the earliest. It took nearly a good 30 minutes for me to get back my money and by then I was completely drenched in my own sweat and the life squeezed out of me.

After a couple of drinks to reinvigorate my tired body I boarded the bus back home in the company of Ramanathan, another good friend of mine. Overall the ceremony was one that I would relish for many years to come.