Groping at Gandhi Ashram

I have to say it was very comforting to read the news about a foreign tourist being molested by drunk youngsters at the Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad, in the morning paper. Ironically they were viewing the photographs of the Indian freedom struggle when they found found themselves struggling for their dignity.

Well what happened was totally against Gandhi’s dreams and what followed was violence. One of the youngster damaged Gandhi’s photos and was later beaten up(castration could have been better), the pther escaped. No complaint was lodged keeping in mind the sanctity of the place.

Is Gandhism dead? Doesn’t his principles and teachings hold no value any more? Was He just meant to liberate us from the British Raj so that we could freely molest our women? Why is Indian Youth forgetting that they are the pillars or the country?Is bad parenting to blame?

He dreamt of an India safe for women, and what did we finally deliver? Strip teasing women in public and marry off couples in public(thanks to Bajrang Dal the whooping marriage cost is avoided). Celebrating Gandhi Jayanthi would be more insulting now.

Ask anyone if Gandhi’s teaching hold any value and 90% will say Yes. But does it really? Ask yourself…

Cricket Virus

A game that is nowhere gets a whole page of news. A foreign Tennis player gets half a page when he is victorious. Yet the Indian pair of Bhupathi and Sania just gets less than quarter a page. They represented India, and they were beaten in the finals. If we can create a huge fuss about Indian cricket loosing then we can celebrate their near title miss. I have no idea. Leave all that how many knew that they made it to the finals of the mixed doubles at Australian Open

Over the days i have come to hate Cricket. It has become the single most inappropriate game that the Indians pursue these days. Its no less than a masala flick from a skimpy clad bollywood actress. There is nothing that you can define which is worth to be defined as memorable or a truly historic. I can hear people shout out what about the win at Perth? What about the lack of sportsmanship that was displayed by the mighty Aussies. I say damn all that. It was all as good as the wardrobe malfunction at fashion shows - you got to see something that you generally don’t see.

A racist remark, umpiring errors, a whole nation roars against that, a dramatic decision by the governing body, gentleman behavior by the captain - i’m asking do we need all these hype. Do we need cricket to survive. With cricket we no longer consider our neighbor as the arch rival anymore, its an island, miles south. The nation is celebrating victories and is doing injustice to other sports.

I dont care if the team loses or wins. The media makes sure that news reaches me even if i dont want to read it. Its in the front page of every news paper, flash news on TV. get out on the road, every one speaks about that, at work place the screens will have the score board open and local commentators shout out updates. I’m sick of this. Cant we just have some other sports take the center stage.

Does anyone care about what is happening to the other players. May be the media should dedicate time for other sports as well. At least report on the pitiable conditions of the other players. May be it should just avoid reporting in cricket. They are not GODs. They don’t deserve so much of attention.

Indians wake up, its just a game. F**K cricket. Its not really worthy of any praise now.

07 - India - 08 Report

2007, India turned 60 and yet She has the vigor and sensuality of a 16 year old. She still has the tenacity and the power to indulge herself in anything. Indians have grown at a tremendous pace in the last 5 years.

2007 bids good bye with the threat of another election looming at large. The Nuclear deal with US is proving to be a bit costly for the Indian National Congress lead UPA Govt. With Gujarat and Himachal polls suggesting that Congress rule at the center is loosing steam, they cant afford to go on an early election. BJP did it and they lost. The question of aam aadmi, is likely to prove costly for INC. There are enough over-the-teacup discussions on politics, lets move on..

In the name of GOD, still proves to be a hindrance in development process, with politicos going to the extend of deliberately forgetting the fact about a Secular state. Wounds of past events are kept fresh. The sad part is that, even the highly educated people fall for such roadblocks. Education is still not able to curb the differences. Yes the literacy rate is up for the Nation from approx 52% in 1991 to 65% in the 2001 census. But yet we heard about infanticide in some of our modern cities.

US Conspiracy behind Bhutto’s Assassination?

Is there a US funded conspiracy behind Benazir Bhutto’s assassination?

Well thats why we call it a conspiracy. The attack has been said to be an Al Quaida has been already blamed for it and like any other suicide attack, this one too will end up in Al Quaida’s backyard.

So is there as US mastermind behind the killing of the prolific leader, who was greeted by 3 million supporters on her return in 1986. Though she claims that the military was trying to ‘eliminate’ her, it was more or less brushed aside as allegations.

Look at US. Post 9/11 saw a major sympathy towards the US and when they attacked the then Taliban ruled Afghanistan, the world was with them. Bush had the sympathy of his people, people forgot about Vietnam and supported him. US’ earlier crusade on the Gulf soil against Iraq, on the pretext of helping Kuwait had mixed support. With the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) backing US and providing them a base, they won the war, drove away the invading Iraqi soldiers and were Heroes overnight. Enough to save their face and a step closer to build allies in the OIL rich Gulf. But what people didnt see that the war expenses that the US put forward for Kuwait. The oil rich nation could only look on hands tied as their only wealth was being taken away to foreign soil in the pretext of the war expenses.

Look at the allies for US in Asia. We have South Korea, South-east asia was almost a failure with Vietnam, South-asia has India (who forgot the ties with Iran and Iraq and supported US in every deal to some Nuclear deal that looks no where near), Pakistan (their long time ally), KSA (their only friend in the Muslim gulf for a long time, pumping out oil for them) and Turkey in the far west. Lets rule out Turkey as its Europe.

So if you see US doesn’t have a really have many strong allies in Asia. Russia in rags is against them, China is not and that is a power to be reckoned with.

Benazir on the other hand, was sure to come into power and with the current US international affairs had only half the chances of supporting them. Mush was always in love with Bush. He let his backyards burn when he supported the US attack on Afghanistan.

So the only way any one could have really touched Ms. Bhutto, with the kind of protection that Mush had provided, was with his knowledge. Pakistan had the backing of US and any impending attack on Ms. Bhutto would have made the US Intelligence alert the Pak Security and in effect forced Musharraf to alleviate that.

If you see the patter of the initial reports - “…Suddenly, there was an explosion and Bhutto’s bodyguards immediately bundled her into a SUV and attempted to move out of the area…Just then, two men rode by the car on motorcycles. One of them blew himself up and even as Bhutto came out to see what had happened a sniper pumped five bullets into her neck and chest…”[IBN Live]

Rediff reports it as - “…Benazir was shot at by a sniper rifle from close range and a few moments later a suicide bomber created the blast to make sure that she is assassinated. It was a determined effort. They made sure she doesn’t survive the attack. She died due to the injury in her neck…”

So clearly the attack was planned with the notion of how the security was going to react and the timing was impeccable. If i’m sure, when even high profile leaders, especially leaders who has already been a target of suicide attack, travels the security is so tight that no one stands a chance to even approach them.

Definitely MUSH loves BUSH … look at them cuddling…

Benazir Bhutto Assassinated

The former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto was assassinated earlier this evening. She was attending a campaign rally. Reports of the attack go like this :

Suddenly, there was an explosion and Bhutto’s bodyguards immediately bundled her into a SUV and attempted to move out of the area…Just then, two men rode by the car on motorcycles. One of them blew himself up and even as Bhutto came out to see what had happened a sniper pumped five bullets into her neck and chest.

The news reports -

IBN Live Reports : BENAZIR BHUTTO ASSASSINATED and Benazir’s day began in triumph, ended in assassination

BBC Reports : Benazir Bhutto killed in attack

Rediff News : Benazir Bhutto assassinated

Its a sad state of affairs. Yes, we need to shoot the politicians, but this is not what we had in mind. Pakistan was in chaos, now it is … and God forbid, but it seems like its going to be in more chaos. Musharraf is failing in keeping the only few ties that was helping him build a democratic nation that he promised. Or may be its was his idea to keep the coup running and keep the power.

Well after all what happened, this is what the leaders had to say -

“The subcontinent has lost an outstanding leader who worked for democracy and reconciliation in her country,” said Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh

US President George W Bush condemned a “cowardly act by murderous extremists who are trying to undermine Pakistan’s democracy”.

UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband said “extremist groups… [could] not and must not succeed”.

What ever the result may be or how ever we say she was, indeed its been a loss beyond any repair for Pakistan and the world has lost another charismatic leader.

SPIT Zone India

We Indians are developing with a tremendous pace. We are all set to even concur the moon. But inspite of all that we just cant kill the habit of - SPITTING

We are just oblivious to the fact that ‘Spitting in Public Places is a Punishable offense‘. But who cares, look at our tradition. We have been traditionally a pan-chewing-spit-anywhere-you-like community. So we carried our tradition to the 20th and now to the 21st century, not to mention that we infected the Britishers too who left after 400 years.

When will we ever stop this? We pump out more and more gutkas and pans. Something like the BJP lead swadeshi movement against Wrigley’s chewing gum. Chew!!! Indians chew!!! Spit and make every place red at first and then maroon. Or may be they are just trying to make India a communist state.

Who prompted this short post? - the guy who was with me at the railway station this morning. He would just walk in circles and spit all round the place. As if he is tired he would come and sit occasionally and then spit every where in a 1 meter radius. I have never seen a much more disgusting fellow in my life.

“Leave Strike” - Strikes Again

Gandhi taught us the path of Ahimsa and Non-violence. We Indians took it to the next level of not-so-peaceful Hartals and Bandh; And new-age office goers took it to the next step.

Remember the times when you took leave from your company just to make a point clear to your manager. We do it all the time. Take a leave and let the manager know that you mean business. But say for the unfortunate few who got thrown out, we all have been lucky. We got what we wanted sometimes a hike, sometimes a release from the current project. The unfortunate ones you are our dear Martyrs.

Even Kiran Bedi resorted to this age old tactic. The reason - “apparently to put pressure on the government to take a decision on her application for voluntary retirement made a month ago“.

Complete article at Manorama : Kiran Bedi to go on ‘long leave’.

Hungry and Starving??? - EAT Technology

By this time i hope that every one would have known about the One Laptop Per Child Project. The promised price of $100 laptop for every unprivileged child by Nicholas Negroponte. Well at first i found the project as one that was very thoughtful of Nick. But like every other thing, its supported and opposed and suddenly i find myself not in consonance with OLPC.
Are they providing fresh water? No. Food? No. Shelter? No. Laptop? YES!!! Ohh its going to make so much difference for the child.
Now with his ‘$100 laptop’ which comes for $200 as the ‘introductory price‘, he order food online, munch through the online junk, drink the filtered out SPAM and look at the fat kids in US with out laptop and say how unprivileged they are.
Now thats the way i see the OLPC vision as…
Look at these fact from the World Hunger Site.

Every year 15 million children die of hunger
For the price of one missile, a school full of hungry children could eat lunch every day for 5 years
3 billion people in the world today struggle to survive on US$2/day (i should stop complaining about my salary and consider myslef lucky)
Every 3.6 seconds someone dies of hunger

Now as a good will justure, they have the Give One Get One offer - you buy a laptop for $400, one goes to a child who is dying of hunger and another is for you as a gesture of your good will.
Many a times i dont get the point - Stars come together for some relief fund raiser program. Put up an elaborate show like the 24Hr concert for saving the earth, where they wasted a lot of electricity for earth (obviously they dont know the idea of SWITCHING-OFF), ask people to spend money and join in for a cause. Aren’t these stars filthy rich, may be at least a 10? Cant they just donate what they get for a month in the from of endorsements. That could have helped the world a long time ago. But we are there too see our Stars, who cares about the dying child 3000 miles away???
Related reading -  One Laptop per Child Doesn’t Change the World - John C. Dvorak

Literacy can be a PIA…

PIA is Pain In Ass and not Pakistan International Airlines.

Being a Mallu or Malayali (not being offensive in any way by calling myself a Mallu), i’m proud that when it comes to literacy we are doing fairly good as a state. So when this article came to my attention - 300% increase in violence against women in India’s most literate state - i did feel very bad. Being literate we were supposed to be as a model for others to follow and we all together portraying a wrong picture here.

But the i saw the other angle of that. They reached that statistics coz women in Kerala realized the power of law and that there are laws that protect them from domestic violence. They approached the law when in need. The clause that caught me is - “cases files”.

So all those state that say that there is only a marginal increase in domestic violence or that the stats have fallen, RETHINK!!! It could be because that people dont know about the law. Tell them about the law and then lets see.

Even though the report said all that about Kerala, it still quotes this -

But change could happen fast in Kerala, thanks to high levels of literacy. Greater awareness, redressal mechanisms, etc. could help women move forward, as has been seen in recent times.

Thats why i say Literacy can be a real Pain in the Ass at times …

An innovation that ‘Kicks Balls…’

Innovation that doesn’t serve the purpose is like and over sized underwear; You have no other go but to wear it and you know you are comfortable without it.

Thats all that i have to say about the automated kiosks that have been installed by the city authorities of bangalore. Yes! its the Silicon Valley of India, where police check traffic violations using PDAs and common people no longer burns ordinary BMTC buses, but target Volvo buses. Apparently thats how they fight globalization.

Last night i went to the kiosk near my home to pay the water bill. Well if it was long queue in front of a ‘human operated pigeon hole kiosk’, i would have reached home earlier. It took me 10 min to make it accept each of the ten 100 bills that i had. Apparently it has an aversion towards money and even if its kind enough to accept the money, it would rather prefer an old bill than a new one.

If u may argue that the human factor is avoided and automation lets it run 24hrs. Hold on, i say! Apparently the then Hutch now Vodafone, introduced the same for billing systems. People were strugling to get the money in. So guess what they did? They posted a guy at that location, 2 guys in fact one for the morning and one for the night shift. At the end of the day, they end up paying 2 guys instead of one.

The only good thing about it is that if you want to make payment by cheque or with a credit card its faster. That means if u dont have a credit card, stay in the line for hours just to pay.

The fact is true that you can pay any time of the day, 7 days a week. But they just forgot the usability factor in that. Another loose underwear!!! The technology was supposed to kick ass, but it now kicks you balls and it hurts real bad.