Been so long...

Too many unfinished posts has meant that this place hasnt been updated for some time now...

Hopefully, I will get back into the groove soon.

26/11

Oh my god...

Democracy - Equality and Liberty

Central to the idea of democracy are the twin concepts of equality and individual liberty. Equality is often taken to mean that all citizens of a country are equal in some basic respect. When all individuals are taken to be equal then it is obvious that one person can not decide for the other. Therefore all need to be given the same rights and meted out the same treatment. Of course, a look at history suggests that the right to equal treatment has not been
given to all. It was initially based on sex, wealth, age. Today in a democracy the right to equal treatment is shared by all citizens of a country over a certain age. Equality becomes critical during decision making. Equality aims to guarantee participation and thus avoid a situation where one party decides to disobey the decision because they were not allowed to participate in the decision making process.
Liberty has just as many connotations as equality and they again affect expectations of democracy. Experts suggest three set of ideas for liberty - republican,liberal and idealist. The republican view measures liberty in terms of a free political community. The liberal view is more concerned with individual freedom to do as he/she pleases. In between these views is the idealist view where the individual has the freedom but also the sense to make the right choices or demands.
But obviously a nation is more than an individual. Therefore it is the manner in which individual freedom interacts with the group that ties liberty to democracy. As individuals don't live in isolation, it is important that an individual's freedom of action does not infringe the freedom of others. Some experts see this as the only role for the state. Anything more and they see it as a threat to liberty.
It is this mix of individual rights and being an equal participant in decision making collectively that causes the tension between equality and liberty. A classic example is the desire to bring about economic equality. This can lead to a collective/majority decision to tax the rich more than others, thus infringing the right of the rich to spend their money as they choose. In such a situation, self rule is cited as a way out...and how self rule is to be achieved marks the major division between various forms of democracy.

At one extreme is what is known as Participatory Democracy. At the other extreme is the idea that people are willing to be ruled by a set of people chosen by them periodically [Representative/liberal] which often is the layman's definition of democracy. In between lies various shades, an example for which is people voting on an issue of national importance[Referendum]. Also, in order to restrain unchecked majority rule, an upper chamber is often recommended which will consist of meritorious experts in different areas.

So clearly it is difficult for a society to define what their expectations from this philosophy is. This fine balancing act gets more difficult when you start adding riders to the two opposing yet required forces. These riders include reservations, different laws for different sections of the society, etc.
Is it surprising then that our in-competent members of the legislature have done away with these goals of democracy and reduced it to a power game.

Violated...

So Delhi bleeds again, whats new? We have already seen the same scenes in Ahmedabad and Jaipur and B'lore and Hyderabad and Bombay before...the list is getting longer...
In fact, there are more terror strikes in India than any other nation(except Iraq and that's not much of a nation right now)...and we have ambitions of being a World Player???? How??

Will resign when Sonia ji asks to leave: Patil
Mr. Patil our home minister...the lesser said of his work the better (http://blogmia.blogspot.com/2007/06/india-burning.html)...but resigning if Sonia ji asks? Wasn't the cabinet selected by the PM, hmmm?

A quick check of course tells us that this government is headed by some one who has not won an election...now i don't want to get into whether its people's loss that he is not a member of the Lok Sabha, for he is surely one of the cleanest leaders we have...but not having obtained mandate is unacceptable all the same. Sonia ji of course is just a member of the parliament - but as the convener of UPA she enjoys cabinet status....and therefore the right to select the cabinet?

And yes, Mr. Shivraj Patil lost his Latur seat in the elections...

5 David Gilmour guitar solos

Boring bus journey home...made better with Pink Floyd :)

• The closing solo in Comfortably Numb from the live album The Delicate Sound Of Thunder
• Time (right after "...you missed the starting gun") from the album The Dark Side of the Moon
• Closing solo in High Hopes from the live album P.U.L.S.E
• Shine on you Crazy Diamond from the album Wish you were here
• Money from the album The Dark Side of the Moon

I know a lot of people complain that David Gilmour is too mathematical with his guitar play but what do I know...I just like the bluesy feel that they have...

10 metre air rifle

India's first event.

Anjali Bhagwat and Avneet Kaur fail to qualify. Both did ok but not enough to get through the last 10.

Anjali Bhagwat - 99, 99, 97, 98 = 393 (finished 29th)
Avneet Kaur Sidhu - 98, 100, 96, 95 = 389 (finished 39th)

396 was the minimum required to go through...

In men's competition as well it was a less than satisfactory performance...with Samaresh Jung finishing 42nd out of 48 :(

Samaresh Jung - 92, 95, 96, 98, 96, 93 = 570

581 was the minimum score to qualify...

Olympics - 2008

With a magnificent opening, the 2008 Olympics are under way. On the greatest sporting stage athletes from around the world try to earn glory for their nation, their people.

India of course have never been able to make a mark in this event. This time round there are 56 sportsmen taking part from India. Will anyone rise to the challenge? Since hockey team is watching the event from home, the other medal hopes are mainly in shooting and some experts feel boxing...Time will tell...

and it still continues to rain...

3 hours of torrential rain...
3 feet of standing water...
3 hrs to get home...

WTF

Although I am sure plenty of ink and bytes have been wasted on the farcical trust vote that happened the other day, I couldn't stop myself from writing about it.

Our politicians sure have a habit of surpassing all expectations of the people and are the role models for today's generation. Just when we think that things can't go any worse, that surely we have hit the rock bottom of morality and ethics they snicker at us and prove us wrong.
And we all know the names that cross voted...so why isn’t there a IT raid at their homes and why arent their accounts being scrutinized for any shady transfers...wouldn't these be the best candidate to start the investigation on?

Now that the vote has been won, the government is being pressed to fulfil the promises made to get the support...so the government that talks about the nuclear deal as necessary for the advancement of technology also claims that Ram destroyed the setu on his return from Lanka...when I first read that, I was ready to puke...I mean who are they trying to kid here?....and I really want to know who has such fantastic imagination!!!

Seriously we are in desperate need of an over haul of our system...this is beyond crass;beyond repulsive.

The power of language...

It often surprises me when I look at the strong bond that most people have with their mother tongue - especially in our southern states. I for one have hardly ever enjoyed Hindi (coz I could never quite get my vowel signs correct) nor I have ever gained any remote command over Punjabi...but maybe thats just me...

Anyways this is not the purpose of the post...right in the heart of the city is a funny sounding institution - Potti University. It happens to be among the few universities in the country that is devoted especially for the cause of languages and its training. Hmm...but why the name?

It turns out that the university is named after one Potti Sriramulu. Its a name that is probably forgotten outside AP but one that should have remain prominent. He is after all the primary reason on why states based on languages were created post independence...the government at the time was not in favour of any further regionalisation - based on any cultural grounds anyways. A large region of what today is AP was once part of the presidency of Madras a truly massive region.
Telugu is spoken by more people than any other Indian language besides Hindi and has a rich literary/cultural history. While India was still under British rule, the Andhra Mahasabha had worked hard to cultivate a sense of identity among the Telugu-speaking people of the Madras Presidency, whom, they claimed, had been discriminated against by the Tamils.
After Independence, demands for a Telugu region started gaining support. But the government was unimpressed. On October 19, 1952, Potti Sriramulu began a fast-unto-death in Madras - a strong follower of Gandhi he was determined that the fast will be carried out till the end, or until the Government of India relented.
Six weeks went by and there was scant recognition of his demand from the centre. As his ordeal went on, support for the cause grew. Strikes and processions were taken out...trains were stopped...On December 12, Jawahar lal Nehru relented - he wrote to C. Rajagopalachari (the CM of Madras), suggesting that the time had come to accept the Andhra demand. But the formal announcement was delayed, and Sriramulu continued his fast. On the 15th Potti Sriramulu passed away - his fast had lasted 58 days. There after the situation went out of hand - mobs came out on the streets and there were clashes with the police; several protesters were killed in police firings.
On the 16th, Nehru made a statement saying a state of Andhra would come into being, but its boundaries would be decided by an independent Commission. In March 1953, the Telugu districts of Madras were identified for separation; later, these were joined by Telugu-speaking areas of Hyderabad to constitute the present state of Andhra Pradesh.
Soon after the states of Gujrat, Karnataka, Maharashtra and others followed...
And no one seems to know about him...

Hiatus

As it generally happens, I keep disappearing from here only to return a few months later...And now I have returned again...
It almost seems unreal to think that almost half the year is already through...thanks to this stupid project that I have been entangled in...
With finally a net connection at home after what seems like ages, hopefully I will be able to add a few more bytes to these pages...

Men Who Changed the World - Thomas Midgley

...the world today wishes he hadn't!!!

An engineer by profession, Thomas Midgley took deep interest in chemistry. In 1921, while working for GM Research institute, he found that tetraethyl lead can help get over the problem of engine knocking.
The automobile industry lapped it up and by 1923 the world was beginning to get used to leaded petrol - this in spite the fact that lead was known to be poisonous.
Lead is a neuro toxin and if it gets into the system in sufficient quantities can wreck havoc on the nervous system. But it was many decades later that leaded petrol was finally banned. So what was once found only in traces in the atmosphere is now easily available to breathe in and since lead hardly de-generates, it will be around more or less forever.

Buoyed by this success, Thomas Midgley decided to devote his energies to killer refrigerators - which at that time used poisonous gases. He decided to develop a gas that was non-flammable, stable and safe to breathe - tada we have the CFCs (Chloro-Fluoro Carbons). CFCs don't like Ozone too much - basically annihilating it as it comes in contact. To add to their reputation, CFCs are amongst the worst green house gases out there...
So together these two inventions can compete for the prize of the "Worst inventions of all time".

Hmm, I wonder how many of the inventions being made today will be looked at by contempt in the coming generations...

UN Millennium Development Goals

...Why arent more people talking about these?? Especially in countries like ours...all governments whether at the centre or the states should be measured against these...

In September 2000, at the Millenium Summit of the UN, 189 leaders of their respective countries came together and adopted a set of 8 goals to make Earth a more welcoming place for the future generations...Of the 8 goals, 7 are time bound and measurable and the 8th is an ideal goal for our society.

The goals are -

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. The targets under this are -
• Reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than one U.S. dollar a day.
• Reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.


2. Achieve universal primary education. The targets under this are -
• Ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling.
• Increased enrollment must be accompanied by efforts to ensure that all children remain in school and receive a high-quality education.


3. Promote gender equality and empower women. The target under this is -
• Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015.


4. Reduce child mortality. The target under this is -
• Reduce the mortality rate among children under five by two thirds.


5. Improve maternal health. The target under this is -
• Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio.


6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases. The targets under this are -
• Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV AIDS.
• Halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases.


7. Ensure environmental sustainability. The targets under this are -
• Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes; reverse loss of environmental resources.
• Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water.
• Achieve significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers, by 2020.


8. Develop a global partnership for development. The targets under this are -
• Develop further an open trading and financial system that is rule-based, predictable and non-discriminatory. Includes a commitment to good governance, development and poverty reduction—nationally and internationally.
• Address the least developed countries’ special needs. This includes tariff-and quota-free access for their exports; enhanced debt relief for heavily indebted poor countries; cancellation of official bilateral debt; and more generous official development assistance for countries committed to poverty reduction.
• Address the special needs of landlocked and small island developing States.
• Deal comprehensively with developing countries' debt problems through national and international measures to make debt sustainable in the long term.
• In cooperation with the developing countries, develop decent and productive work for youth.
• In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries.
• In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies - especially information and communications technologies.
  
  

कोशिश करने वालों की हार नहीं होती

लहरों से डरकर नौका पार नहीं होती,
कोशिश करने वालों की हार नहीं होती

नन्ही चींटी जब दाना लेकर चलती है,
चढती दीवारों पर, सौ बार फिसलती है
मन का विश्वास रगों में साहस भरता है,
चढ़कर गिरना, गिरकर चढ़ना ना अखरता है
आख़िर उसकी महनत बेकार नहीं होती,
कोशिश करने वालों की हार नहीं होती

डूबकियां सिंधु में गोताखोर लगाता है,
जा जा कर खाली हाथ लौटकर आता है
मिलते नही सहज ही मोती गहरे पानी में ,
बढ़ता दुगना उत्साह इसी हैरानी में
मुठी उसकी खाली हर बार नहीं होती ,
कोशिश करने वालों की हार नही होती

असफलता एक चुनौती है, इसे स्वीकार करो,
क्या कमी रह गई, देखो और सुधार करो
जब तक न सफल हो, नींद चैन को त्यागो तुम,
संघर्ष का मैदान छोड़कर मत भागो तुम
कुछ किए बिना ही जय जय कार नहीं होती,
कोशिश करने वालों की हार नहीं होती

I heard this poem in school once and then in a movie...finally found it on the net. It is by Suryakant Tripathi 'Nirala'. Sad really that I know so little about our own literature - sadder still that I had to use http://www.google.com/transliterate/indicto get the spellings right!!

This will look all messed up in Firefox, you will need to install a plugin to see devanagari script properly in Firefox - one more tick against Firefox.

Going on a different tangent, I would really like to see more content in Indian languages with their English translation on the net.

Apocalypse Now

Sitting in a cafe, I was about to type in a few keywords in google, when I saw the drop down list of previous searches - and now I am blogging about that instead of the search I was planning to do.

They were a mixed bag - inquisitive, sleazy but mostly innocent and hilarious. I guess some day a search engine would be able to answer the question "What job I should apply?" but until then sample some of these keywords -

• american bank career fresher
• Beach owners
• benetton & colman, toi
• celine dion contact number
• chief editor of newspaper Times of India
• editor in chief of Time os India (some one really wanted to know)
• friend.finder.com
• google :)
• How to own beach
• IS JB INSTITUTE OF ENGG A REPUTED COLLEGE?
• POSITION OF JB INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY ALL OVER INDIA
• RANK OF JB INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY ALL OVER INDIA
• sony ericsson 700i hands free cost
• Times of India
• What job I should apply?

60 yrs and counting...part II

Well I thought I will break the post...

I saw "Gandhi my Father" last night...but this is not about the movie - though in a line the movie is good. What this post is about the few grainy scenes near the end of our PM making that historic speech. The speech that a lot of people know about without having ever bothered to read it - Jawahar lal Nehru's speech made in the Constituent Assembly, on the eve of India's Independence.

I once asked a few friends about the speech. Three of them gave me this WTF kind of look...asking me what is wrong with me...:), two others said it is the greatest piece of oratory everrrrr...and when I asked them if they have read the speech they said they hadn't. Some others were at least aware that the lines they hear the most often are all part of just the first paragraph. Its a long speech so I wont copy it here, those who want to read can do so here - Tryst with destiny .

When you read it, it makes you realize the job our first PM left us. The dream he outlined for the country that he and millions others together envisioned. I thought I wouldn't put it here but I can never put it better than this...

"Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially... It is fitting that at this solemn moment, we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity."
...
...
...
"The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of opportunity to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us. Are we brave enough and wise enough to grasp this opportunity and accept the challenge of the future?"
...
...
...
"And so we have to labour and to work, and to work hard, to give reality to our dreams. Those dreams are for India, but they are also for the world, for all the nations and peoples are too closely knit together today for any one of them to imagine that it can live apart"
...
...
...
"The future beckons to us. Whither do we go and what shall be our endeavour?... to fight and end poverty and ignorance and disease; to build up a prosperous, democratic and progressive nation, and to create social, economic and political institutions which will ensure justice and fullness of life to every man and woman."

"We have hard work ahead. There is no resting for any one of us till we redeem our pledge in full, till we make all the people of India what destiny intended them to be...And to India, our much-loved motherland, the ancient, the eternal and the ever-new, we pay our reverent homage and we bind ourselves afresh to her service."

I think it is not difficult to judge how far we have come and how far we need to go. Is it??

JAI HIND.

60 yrs and counting...

India as we know it will turn 60 soon...pretty young considering so many people who were there when we gained independence are still around. What an occasion that must have been - especially for those who were closely associated with the movement. But it was a time of mourning as well for most of the people in Punjab and Bengal - people who were caught up in the sectarian violence; people who were uprooted from the place they called home. It seems our country has been perennially caught in the middle...happiness accompanied with sorrow.

I am today reminded of the book "Freedom at Midnight" - filled with little stories of ordinary people amidst the main plot of India's independence. The story I remember the most is that of two brothers - Yakoub Khan and Younis - both part of the then undivided Indian army. Yakoub, the elder one decided like so many other Muslims that his future was in Pakistan. He broke the news to his family. The mother was left shocked. She couldn't imagine moving away from a place where they had lived for at least 200 years. The younger brother too had decided what he wanted - he was going to stay. The arguments were futile though, Yakoub had made up his mind - he was sure that once all the things had settled, it would be easy to move between his two homes...he left the next morning, with his family and his two Hindu servants biding goodbye to him. He promised to visit soon - but that's not what was in store.
A few months later, Yakoub Khan was leading a battalion of the Pakistan Army on a slope in snow bound Kashmir, going on an offensive against a position held by men, who a few months earlier had been his mates. One of these men was a Muslim, unaware that his elder brother was the one he was trying to thwart. The battle that ensued was fierce and then they met - one mortally wounded. Younis rushed to his elder brother and broke down. Yakoub consoled him, saying that they both did what they should have and asked Younis to tell their mom not to think bad of him...

Was it worth it??

Sometimes

The simplest way to say I am around...but I noticed these for the first time today...

"Sometimes I know, sometimes I rise
Sometimes I fall, sometimes I don't
Sometimes I cringe, sometimes I live
Sometimes I walk, sometimes I kneel
Sometimes I speak of nothing at all
Sometimes I reach to myself, dear god"

Sometimes by Pearl Jam from the album No Code (but I am not writing any these days...sorry bad joke)

...am feeling bluesy today...Clapton anyone??

"If you got bad news, you wanna kick them blues; cocaine.
When your day is done and you wanna run; cocaine.
She don't lie, she don't lie, she don't lie; cocaine."

Cocaine is a powerful psycho-stimulant. It induces a sense of exhilaration in the user primarily by blocking the re-uptake of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the mid-brain.

Dopamine is commonly associated with the pleasure system of the brain, providing feelings of enjoyment and reinforcement to motivate a person pro actively to perform certain activities.

I knew it was a pointless post...but I still need more dopamine!

Done and over with

It was a strange impulse that made me call up the bookstore and book the book a day before its release. Some how I wanted to join all the many (millions as it turned out) people who were going to open a book at the same time (roughly anyways). I mean more than the desire to read the book it was the desire to be part of that massive gang. I guess that's what the people marketing the book wanted too...but I would like to believe that I didn't fall for the marketing bit (coz I would have read the book later anyways)...but it doesn't matter now.
So I rushed from office straight to the store, and with minutes left booked my copy. I was told that the store is opening at 7 in the morning to accommodate the people who had pre-booked. Of course I wasn't going to get up that early on a Saturday :). So I reached at around 11, took my copy...I was interviewed in the process, which was funny, and i was off to McDonald's to munch on something while I scanned the first few pages...and then it started happening - first the table in front of me, a foreigner walks in with the book; then the table to my right got occupied, then a table further up...as excited people started opening their copies. A couple of them looked at me and smiled in acknowledgment.The cacophony of "I wish I could read the end right now..." and "you just wait....this is going to happen...", etc filled the air. The excitement was contagious...really. Then I came home and bought some junk to keep me going when I felt hungry. I started reading and it was all over by Sunday morning...

And in the end the book wasn't bad either. I had started reading the books when the 5th one came out and I was so bugged to find that I ll have to wait 5 years to finish the story. In fact I chided my friend who initiated me into this for initiating me too soon :). But I am surprised that I waited and reread the books in the meantime...lol...anyways I am not getting into the merits of the book or how much of it has been inspired by "The lord of the Rings", I just know that I enjoyed reading all 7 of them and that for some of my friends, this is the only book that they have ever read.

Oh yes, most of my gut feelings came true - though I would have really preferred if Fred hadn't died. And of course I won the race.

My Predictions...

Everyone is making them, thought I will also join the fun :)

1. The big question...will he or wont he die? I think he will.
2. He is the 7th Horcrux.
3. Snape is on the good side.
4. Snape will die helping Harry.
5. Hagrid might also die in the final battle.
   
6. R.A.B is Regulus Black.
7. One of the Weasleys...probably Molly will die.
8. Bellatrix will die.
9. Voldermort of course will die.

Never mind the love angles.

And I am going to start reading in a few hours time...coz I have a race to win ;)