Married Wisdom - 1

This is the first post in the long awaited (from my end that is :D) series on marriage; and what you get to learn out of it. This is just a process of making notes along the way to serve as documentation (to me and to that rare person who thinks I'm sensible) and that being said, let's move on to the "What's not said is not understood!" chapter.

Usually, I'm a big fan of abstract expressions and implicit communication. Even in the movies, I love shots that implicitly convey something as opposed to the ones that dramatize the whole thing. Unfortunately, that's the last thing a married man should do. Until you are married, you are like a pet. Free to wander and permitted to do what you want to do, no questions asked, unless it's something incredibly stupid or irritating. The hope there is that you will return home no matter where you wander and you will be in the vicinity no matter how long you keep wandering. The moment you are married, you are expected to be responsive and responsible. Your best friend, your immediate surrounding and even your parents start believing that your life would change drastically after marriage, whether that happens to be true or not. So staying out of touch, forgetting to call, avoiding touchy-feely dialogs are strict no-nos. Unless you say "I love you" nobody is going to believe that. Unless you call, nobody is going to believe you are interested in their welfare. Unless you express, nobody is going to understand you!

So rule 1 in short, if you want to say something, say it instantly and explicitly without the the least bit of ambiguity or abstraction in it.

(To be continued... ;))

Blogging after a break!

I still remember the days when I used to wonder what good a blog could do. I mean, what's the whole point in writing some random stuff online without knowing who is going to read it or without having any kind of guarantee whatsoever that it's going to matter at all. But over the years I realized that blogging, unlike FB, Twitter or any of the "cool" trends, serves like a real vent. Even better, I have an indexed, searchable diary that tells me what I've been thinking on a specific date, with no respect to the years that might've passed in between. To a person like me, often getting lost into thoughts, this for sure is a boon and that's how I get back to blogging irrespective of the breaks that I take in between. This is kind of like a marriage - the initial days you are so expressive, never stay apart and the instinct to be with each other is overwhelming. Over the years, all the superficial things vanish; but the bonding is so strong that you kind of grow into each other.

Speaking of marriage, which is the biggest event that happened in my life quite recently, I've always contemplated and blogged over the topic in general; but nothing would be as realistic as experiencing it, right? I recently realized that I didn't ponder much over one important aspect of this social system - what it does to people. I mean, I've thought about what expectations the couple and/or the parents might be having before marriage, how important it is to ensure that all parties are happy when the couple get engaged, how important it is for the couple to stick to each other, to be flexible/understanding, etc. But the post-marital changes in people related to the couple, is a topic that I never thought of and quite honestly, that comes to me as the most surprising part. I guess I'll try to record these steps and changes and thoughts through my good old, trustworthy, faithful companion - my blog! So in case this sounded the least bit interesting, stay tuned! :)

You better die...

Recently, I heard a news or rather a rule that instantly got on to my nerves. In India, a kidney transplant isn't legal unless the donor belongs to the same family. I'm pretty sure this would be the case with other organs as well. Let's take a moment to think about the implications...

People who have kidney failures have three options - first one, obviously is to die; second - to do dialysis on a regular basis and almost everyone will know the cost involved in the process (which means a poor man will have to resort to option 1). The third option is to get the kidney transplanted from a dead/brain dead patient; and the best part about this is that every hospital has about 1000 kidney requests in queue. You know what's even better? Every hospital has a tentative "wait time" for a request. In other words, they have their own mechanisms of guessing when 1000 persons would die! Looking at this matter from the other side, this is actually a survival race where every patient is waiting for another to die! How pathetic!

The scope for social evils is another point to be considered. Reminds me of a dialog in "The Untouchables" - "People are gonna drink! You know that, I know that, we all know that, and all I do is act on that." Anyone with a survival instinct will try to get the organ transplanted at any cost. Then what is the whole point in making it illegal and opening a black market? The only logical counter-argument could be that this prevents the poor and needy from selling their organs for money. But there is no way to prevent this from happening illegally! Is there?

Hail Democracy!

Well... I'm not sure how to start this one, to be honest. I just couldn't digest the fact that India has chosen THE WORST party to the nation one more time. 60+ years of independence and the nation has moved from good to bad to worse; completely under the spell of this party; with the heights of its impotence reached on December 26th, 2008. No development whatsoever is possible under (pardon my language here) a bunch of old brats lead by an Italian!

I can keep writing pages and pages about this without any reduction in my irritation; but let me share a few points that are quite interesting and annoying.

1. Election malpractices reached a historic high this time; including rigging, bribing the voters and rejection of electoral rights for lame reasons. For instance, in Madurai (my home town), Tamilnadu; the polling % was 70+ when many of my friends and acquaintances didn't get to vote; and out of that Azhagiri (the corruption king's son) won by a margin of 2 lakh votes (the entire constituency has only 7 lakh voters). Further every home in Madurai was given 500 Rs per vote.

2. The polling % in Mumbai was in the lower 40s. Probable reason - Long weekend; and everyone planned trips to Goa and other nearby spots. In one simple sentence 'Shame on you Mumbaikers'. It's not sufficient to just talk and compose sentimental emails about blasts, insecurity and the loss of lives. What did you actually do to save your butt? Nothing! Even worse, Congress has won all the Mumbai constituencies; while the home minister shrugged his shoulders and told you that he has no idea about the nation's security.

3. I can't think of any improvements in the past 5 years; and in my view this was one of the worst Governments India ever saw. Corruption was at its peak; and in Tamilnadu alone thousands of crores were swallowed by MK and co.

4. Rahul Gandhi, except for his surname has no business whatsoever in Indian politics. IMHO there are a million other deserving youngsters fit to rule India better than him.

5. This is an illustration of how stupid the system of democracy can get. Reminds me of Hitler's lines in Mein Kampf where he says democracy will never allow a great person to raise up to power, purely because of the impedence mismatch between the brilliant few and the masses. This result just testfies every word of that sentence.

In a nutshell, I sincerely hope that the sanity of the Indian masses improves in the future; and that they get out of this silly sentiments of electing a party just because it has been ruling us for a long time. My dad's history book read "India is a developing country" and mine did too; but even if my son's book doesn't read "India is a super power"; let it not read "India is an underdeveloped, poor nation in the clutches of hunger". May God bless Indians and save the country from this destructive path. Jai Hind!

P.S: The ONLY thing I like about this election result is that the commies have got a nasty blow; and they've been castrated this time. At least one news to be happy about. :)

Elections...

Elections - One term that will be lingering in Indian hearts (at least in those of the politically active/responsible citizens) for the past month or so. With the final phase of elections happening today, the fate of the nation for the next few years would be decided in a few more days.

I'm not a political expert per se; and given that I'm in US now (and that the Indian Govt provides no options for people like me to cast their votes), I don't even have my name in the electoral list. But I just wanted to share a few thoughts about the way things are poised; and I'd also like to take this chance to cross verify my ability to analyze political strategies depending on the similarities/differences between my analysis and the actual proceedings.

Congress doesn't have anything to boast of as an achievement save the fact that a puppet PM compelted his term and that they signed the nuclear deal. Whether the deal is good or not in itself is a mystery and a highly debatable topic. That said, the Govt has a lot of negatives against it, primarily lack of internal security and absolutely no development whatsoever. In Tamilnadu, its allies (DMK) have taken corruption to a new level and they are setting role models for how one family can loot thousands of crores of taxpayer's money by controlling and distributing power among its members.

So does that mean the BJP will sweep the polls? Definitely not. Several reasons can be attributed for this fact. 1. Single party majority is almost becoming out of question in the current decade. 2. National parties, though known across the nation, aren't particularly strong in all states. Classic example being Tamilnadu; where the the Dravidian parties take the lead role in controlling politics. 3. The pseudo secular media (almost all the Indian news channels are under this category) and parties have always tried to portray BJP as some Hindu fanatic organization that will gun down everyone from the minority if it comes to power.

Personally I feel (1) is going to be the deciding factor in this election. BJP doesn't have a real strong alliance in the southern parts of India; and almost in all four states save Karnataka (where BJP actually commands some vote bank) BJP is almost deserted. In the north, I feel BJP will do quite well especially in states where it is in power. Even otherwise, there isn't anything that prevents people from voting for BJP; unlike congress that has a bunch of negatives tailing it. So assuming that the BJP does well in the north, all it needs is some solid support from the southern states; and I believe they have a plan in place - the third front. The third front in my view, is more or less like a short term parking place and honestly speaking, it has absolutely no sense in it because the parties cannot contribute to each other in anyway! So the whole point of the third front is to get some MP seats and then trade them on either sides depending on individual interests and profits.

That said, ADMK in TN and TDP in AP are likely to join the NDA; and the notable point there is BJP didn't even contest in many constituencies just to make sure that the anti-congress, anti-DMK vote is not split. With ADMK+ winning a large number of seats in TN; and TDP winning at least 50% seats in AP, added to the fact that BJP itself will get something out of Karnataka, the party doesn't really need to struggle very hard to cross the magic number. If at all my assesssment is right, Advani has taken this political game into a new level of post-election competition, which is kind of new to our setup. The party is seemingly very weak in the south (encouraging the opponents and giving them a relaxed mindset); and down the line when everything is finalized, all the silence might pay off and the lotus might bloom in the center. Let's wait and watch :)

Earth hour!

One of the most hilarious things about west is the way they come up with these days and hours... No no... I don't mean they 'make' days or hours; but they name them one thing or the other, while completely forgetting the ultimate solution. For instance, they broke the close-knit family system long back and now celebrate mothers day, fathers day, brothers day, sisters day and so on... But not once do they attempt to get back to a close-knit system... They just can't stand it.

Now this earth hour... Oh man... Give me a break! In Tamizh there is a famous saying -- "Padikkiradhu Ramayanam... Idikkiradhu Ramar kovil" which means that the activities and preachings are just the opposites of each other. That'd apply excellently well to the west. You should look at their consumption of power... It'd leave an Indian dumbfounded... When the homes in India remain in darkness because of want of power, empty parking lots here have dozens of flood lights turned on all the time. No no... I'm not this communist conservative who cannot stand anyone living prosperously; but just a neutral onlooker awestruck by the hypocrisy. Below are a couple of snaps from my workplace... I'm not going to mention which city or which company, for that is not my intention! But just imagine the level of stupidity/hypocrisy it reveals...





(This was on a Saturday and I was the only person in the office for some urgent work)

Am I a 'West bashing racist from Asia'? No! I'm not that either.People say that Asia accounts to most of the world's pollution; but isn't that logical given the fact that 1/3rd of the world lives in India and China alone? What I'd like to see is a lot of pollution free vehicles being introduced in India and the subcontinent; and as much as this is happening at a gradual pace these days (pollution free buses, BSIII standards mandated for new vehicles, etc) there is still a lot that India and Asia could do towards establishing a greener environment. But given the greatly functional political system there, there is nothing good that one could ask for. Things will happen when they ought to unless a lot of political activists chip in and change the system for the good.

The Recession Effect...

Ah... Sometime to blog after a short break. Time is a required condition to blog; but it's in no way sufficient. I mean you could have a whole day of free time, but you might not feel like writing anything at all. Off late, there have been quite a few instances like these that reduced my blogging frequency and also put our movie script on hold for a while. (Did I tell you about the script? If not, I will... but in another post :))

There used to be days when every Indian street had at least 10 Government officers... These days, there are at least 10 people from every Indian street currently residing in the US and this is true at least in the metros and cities. So quite naturally, news about US easily sells and has a lot of demand too. For those from the previous generation who still feel computers are too tough to cope up with, news papers and magazines combined with TV news makes their breakfast, lunch and supper. The magazine editors have noted this demand perfectly, and they make it a point to publish some news about the trend in US. When there is no news to publish, they make up one! :) Man... These days, the second part of it is getting slightly overboard and as much as it irritates me, it's funny on the other side. Now that clouds of recession are surrounding the US the news that they come up with become all the more interesting and hilarious! A few interesting headlines that I could remember:

"Mortgage industry topples in US... Houses available for 1000$"
(Mind voice: Err... Did you mean dog houses?)

"Despite reducing prices to 500$ none is buying a home"
(M.V: Will you please give me a call when you find one such 'real' house?)

"Obama has planned to ban H1B employment"
(M.V: Are you by any chance the secretary of state? :))

"Giving privilege to citizens and workers is against business ethics."
(M.V: EKSI. Had this been India and there are so many foreigners employed; while millions of Indians are jobless, we would've gone on an indefinite strike! That is democracy but this is Bureaucracy?)

The most interesting part of this is the attitude of 'ponna petthavainga' (parents who have a girl ready to be married). Sometime back I wrote a short story (since this is my blog, I take the liberty to call it a short story :D) on how computer engineers were considered hot cakes in the matrimonial market. Now that there is some level of instability in the US market, the trend has completely reversed. "Software Engineers excuse!", "Prefer Indian groom" and statements on these lines aren't too tough to hear and see. If there's something that pisses me off big time, it is this attitude from the Indian parents. I mean somehow they tend to lose their rationale and end up in this extremely conservative outlook. IT is not the only sector that is affected by recession and not all persons from core departments get work in their respective departments. IT companies have a lot of civil, mechanical, textile and production engineers too... At the same time, if someone is working in some other field it doesn't mean that he is inferior (as they thought before) or superior (as they are thinking now). It's just a question of the individual's potential, aspiration and interest. I sincerely hope that the parents who pressurize their kids, to choose a branch of their choice and always go with the popular beliefs to get a groom for their child realize their mistake and let their children live!

P.S: Recession is indeed threatening a lot of jobs in the US. The Govt is in the process of enforcing the regulations as much as possible; causing a lot of desis (specifically manavaadus) return home. Most of them would've been here under the banner of a non-existent company or a staffing agency in the name of a company. There are many others whose projects came to an end and had no choice but to return to India; but hey... that's the way the system was supposed to work. If a foreign national who came into the US for work, lost his job and couldn't find an alternate job in 2 weeks time he is supposed to go back to where he came from. Till date, these rules were taken lightly and now it's being enforced thoroughly. That's what the difference is!

Traffic jam!

I'd been going around places over the past few days and too many things caught my attention, resulting in a complete traffic jam on my top floor. Let me try to throw some light on the top 3 topics so that it gets freed up a bit.

Poverty in US:

I'd once blogged about how old people run shops in Florida to win their bread and I've seen drunkards sitting by the roadside with some cardboard that says they need help/they are homeless, etc; but for the first time I saw a kind of poverty that really reminded me of Diwali times in India. Anyone who grew up in India, specifically in Tamilnadu would know how poor families struggle to put up smiling faces on the festive day. When some guys get crackers for about 10 grands, this poor father will be taking his son to the busiest street in the city/town with a few hundred bucks in his pocket and a few tons of heaviness in his heart; and he'll fake a smile and get him loads of cheap stuff that would create an illusion of excess to the kid. I saw the Americanized version of that poverty yesterday when I was renting a car. The African American guy had three daughters and he would be in his middle ages, perhaps 40 if my guess is right; and he had come over with his family for the holidays. He was trying hard to put up a smile but duplicate seals could be seen all over it. The girls were constantly complaining about something and he was telling the rental car agent about the nasty trip they had just to save some money. I was almost done with my paper work and just when I was about to start with the GPS that I had rented along with the car, he rested his glowing eyes on it and asked the agent "Is that a GPS?". The agent promptly tried to make business out of it and asked "Yes. Would you like to get one too?". With a dejected smile, yearning heart and a mind fighting to conceal his emotions, he said "No thanks! We know where we are going" in a shaky voice; and at that moment he almost caught me in tears.

Seven pounds:

After a really long time, a movie that I watched in a theater made me feel happy to have chosen it. Seven pounds is an amazingly simple, yet touching story that really creates an impact in us. Except for the never changing reaction of Will Smith, everything about the movie was awesome; and I'd say it's a must watch movie. The scenes where an old lady explains her sufferings to Will and the scenes where Will uncontrollably falls in love; were simply beautiful. A special mention has to be given to the cameraman who has done an excellent job in composing the shots. The irony is that me and my friend went to the night show around 10 PM and it was funny and interesting to see the restlessness in my friend when trying hard not to sleep :)

It's pay time:

2 months of vacation and almost 2 months of pay-lessness... At last I'm back into a job and I hope and pray this one goes well.

World Aids Day - Let's spread the awareness

Thanks to the media, the education system and the efforts put forth by various non-profit organizations, AIDS is not an unknown term anymore; and almost 80-90% of the population, I believe, is aware of the deadly disease and its implications. But a recent news that I came to know, dumbfounded me. "More than 250,000 are estimated to be HIV positive and not know it" says a survey and the primary reason stated for this is the failure to undergo HIV tests.

Further, even people who are completely aware of AIDS are not in a position to think when they are 'high' and drug abuse leading to the usage of unhygienic needles or unprotected sex is considered to be the greatest channel for this dangerous disease. The worst part or rather the nightmare is that if these people who are ignorant about HIV in their blood, get married to someone else and give birth to a child; then it triples the number of AIDS patients in a short span. From an Indian's perspective, I feel that medical reports should be examined as carefully as the horoscopes during a marriage and that would be of great help in identifying these ignorant folks and prevent the dissemination of the disease - two birds in one shot. Let's all unite to make the world HIV free.

Mumbai attacks - time to wage a war?

First of all, my heart felt condolences for those who were killed or injured during the inhuman attacks carried out at Bombay.

Everyone who has been following Indian affairs for a while would be aware that terrorists trying to instill fear in Indians is nothing new and that these attempts have never been successful. But this time, the attacks have taken unusual dimensions including firing on the streets, setting hotels/luxury spots ablaze; and every act of terror that people would've seen only in action movies. Quite naturally, this has given way to a lot of discussions; and I felt that this topic deserved a second post.

I felt a bit annoyed to see this post in one of the blogs that I landed upon. I completely agree that the situation is grave and anyone who was on the venue of the demonic activity, would be upset to the core. But is leaving the country a solution? Isn't that called escapism? Our country is like our body... Just because some virus attacks it, we don't shed it or run away from it. If finance is your problem and you are really finding it hard to make some good money at home, you may explore the possibilities outside and plan to come back at a later point. But giving reasons like 'life if too busy' in my opinion is BS. If that's the case, one can always opt to settle down in a second tier city where life is peaceful and they get the space and style of life they need. When we fight for abstract things like community, language, religion, etc why don't we fight to eliminate the pressing problem of the locality? Running away from problems is never a solution! I hope and pray these people understand that...

Next is the attempt to attribute these attacks to 'Hindu terrorists'!! I was tempted to write a post on that one, but this post saved my time and words. Hats off to the author.

The last and the most important part that I wanted to talk about was about the motive of the attacks. As I said in the beginning of this post, this attack is completely different from what India has seen before. This could mean one of the two things...

1. The Indian Intelligence, Police, Government and all single security enforcement official are really, really dumb.

2. The scary alternative - the Government/intelligence planned it.

I'm pretty inclined towards taking up the second option as the more acceptable version because I don't believe that Indian security has become so bad that terrorists holding ultramodern rifles can wander on the streets as if they are in some Cuban Naxelite camp. Before you say WTF you mean the government planned it, let me explain why I feel so.

I believe that the strongly convincing videos in Youtube about the involvement of FBI/CIA/US Govt on the 9/11 attack would've got your attention. In case you are completely unfamiliar about this, please visit this site. I'm not dumb enough to say that India did this because US did that; but I had some points in my mind that got me into this suspicion and it's up to you to decide if that's worth considering or sheer crap!

1. The operation on the whole is highly sophisticated. We have never seen such an orchestrated terrorist attack involving ultramodern weapons in the history of Indian crimes.

2. Everyone seems to be surprised including the Intelligence. The incidents that happened before were carried out on a large scale with trivial hand made grenades; which sounds practical. But AK 47 in public and the intelligence being clueless?

3. India's recent stance with the US. I'm not sure if our intelligent Congress men are borrowing some wicked ideas from the US.

4. In the current state of affairs, congress has absolutely no scope to win the upcoming elections and a war on Pakistan could be a life line for them.

5. The opposition parties have not made any great issues out of this incident. Perhaps BJP doesn't want to stop a war against Pakistan?

6. Pakistan expresses its condolence as if this is the first terrorist attack on India.

7. Police cars being a part of the gun fire. Where did the terrorists get the chance to seize a Police car? They just ran out with their guns, shot a senior official and took the jeep?

8. The particular interest shown on the foreign nationals staying in the luxury hotels and the way it is projected as a matter of importance to the US and the UK too!

9. The ATS head who was shot, as reported by media was not targeted; but he was caught in some random firing! An expert not knowing how to hide from bullets?

10. The news was the cover story today in almost all leading news channels in the US; and at least to my knowledge they don't give so much importance to news completely unrelated to the US. And on top of it, US extends its 'Support' to all decisions taken by India.

I could go on stating my suspicions but I don't know how true these could be or even if I'm putting up a sane argument. But this is what I strongly feel at the heart of my hearts. Iff (mathematical notation) this is true, I feel it's a really bad political stunt from the Indian government. After all, we've been having problems for a quite long time; but we were always in a position to say 'Meraa Bharath Mahaan' with pride and complete spirits. Let's settle our issues between us and our enemy; and let us not allow the hypocrisy of the west to enter our veins. Jai Hind!

Mumbai blasts - Shame on the Government

Statement 1: India is the 3rd most popular foreign investment zone in the world.
Statement 2: On 26th November, a bunch of goons opened fire at public and pulled off granades. They showed particular interest in the cozy areas of Mumbai and their special interest was in threatening foreigners.
Statement 3: The Govt of Maharashtra and the Govt of India are on red alert about attacks on major cities

Logical inference: There has been a plot to spoil India's reputation; and the non-functional state and central Governments have let innocent public and foreigners suffer because of their ignorance and inefficiency. Hail Congress!

The part that disturbs me the most in such attacks is the victimisation of public. After all, what does a commoner has to do with political issues and why should s/he punished for no fault? At least in the future, let these dirty political games be played on a humanitarian basis.

The end of IT era?

Following the trough in the US economy, the much sought after IT sector faced/faces a great blow in India. Many companies stopped promotions, started indirect firing, reduced the pay to benchers and indicated their economic vulnerability in a lot of ways; and this brought a few interesting questions to my mind. How stable is the IT industry? If $ falls tomorrow (after all they are all paper bills and carry no real significance), will the IT industry still survive? What will happen to the 'elite-society' of today?

Honestly, I feel if $ falls, it's surely going to take down IT with it. We all know there are projects outside US... Indian market itself is worth billions of dollars and all that crap. But US plays a very significant role in keeping the industry alive for two reasons - 1. As with any other commodities, they are THE consumers of IT services. There are other consumers too but relying on them for minting money isn't going to work because their volume of consumption put together, is not even 1/10th of US and 2. The profit margin is not going to be as high. The exchange rates might be better than USD but considering the volume of operations, it is going to yield only insignificant profits. Perhaps reason 2 is a derivative from reason 1. The industry will not obviously vanish; but maintaining the lion's share is out of question.

The worst nightmare for the Indian government would be the day this happens. Imagine thousands and thousands of educated jobless youngsters in the society. Perhaps 10% of them might be smart enough to switch fields or start their own business or do something that works to survive. But what about the rest? It reminds me of my high school days when I used to write civics exams where the most common question would be "What are the economic problems of India" and point #1 would be population and point #2 would be unemployment. We never gave upon #1 but #2 might take a new dimension if IT goes for a toss.

Pudhiya thatthuvam 100020: Kannaa vaazhkai oru vattam maadhiri... Innnaikki maela irukkuravan naalaikki keela iruppaan... Innaikki keela irukkuravan naalaikki maela iruppaan! :D

It's time to see the moon! :)

Every patriotic Indian would be extremely happy today as India's mission to reach the moon is a success and the tricolor flag now adorns the moon. It is a moment of pride to the Indian scientists and quite obviously another feather in the cap to the subcontinent.

Without a greatly organized Government, without the state-of-the-art infrastructure, without getting much help from other countries, India has crossed this milestone which in my view is a remarkable achievement. Let the success story continue and let the 'developing' crap come to an end bringing us to the dawn we have been expecting for years together. Jai Hind!

Economics

For a change, I'm not going to write a lot today. I saw this interesting video on world economics... I'd reserve my opinion for now and let you enjoy the speech...

Srilanka...

"Munnai itta thee muppuratthile
Pinnai itta thee thennilangayilae
Annai itta thee adivayittrilae
Yaanum itta thee moozhga moozhgavae"

The pyre that I lit is in front... The flames that were started by a tail; are back south in Srilanka (an excrept from Ramayana)... The flame of separation lit by mother is glowing inside me... Let the flame I lit, engulf this body!

-- a famous Pattinatthar song that was plagiarized by Kamal/Vairamuthu for Alavandhan, speaks about the pain of a son cremating his mother, requesting the God of flames to engulf the body. Flames and SriLanka have been having such a close relationship that it hits the mind of a poet and fits into a metaphor on flames. For a long, long time; Srilanka has been in the clutches of war and it's been a seemingly never ending problem that has been on for quite a lot of time now, consuming hundreds or thousands of human lives.

"The Sinhala government is trying to crush us and refuse the rights to Tamizh people in Srilanka. We need to make sure that the Tamils are given their rights and India needs to interfere in this matter to speed up the process." -- LTTE, Tamizh politicians in Srilanka and majority politicians/press reporters/actors/etc in Tamil nadu.

"LTTE is a terrorist outfit trying to ruin the peace in Srilanka by exploiting innocent Tamils. India should help us crush them as a personal victim that lost a Prime minister in a bomb blast organized by the LTTE." -- Srilankan government, Sinhalese, a few politicians in TN.

"LTTE is exploiting us and I was forced to take a gun against the Srilankan army" -- a Tamizh boy in a video.




"It is an internal affair of Srilanka and India cannot really get into it" -- Indian Government.

"Several including two Indian engineers were killed as the LTTE bombed the Srilankan communication centers" -- News.

As Al Pacino says in "The Scent of a Woman", I'm not a judge or jury to really assess who is right and who is wrong here; or what is true and what is not. But the fact is that a lot of innocent people are dying day after day and beyond the layers of politics, international affairs, exploitation, misunderstanding and grudges; there is something called humanity that is supposed to rule every human's heart. Somehow I feel that it's been totally forgotten in this issue and unless humans replace the fabricators, soldiers and politicians involved; I don't think a solution would be possible!

LHC and India

The Large Hardon Collider (LHC) has been the talk of the town for quite a while now, at least among the educated mass. An extremely simplified explanation of this experiment is that it is an effort by a bunch of nerds to identify ('try to identify' to be more precise) what has been happening after the big-bang. So what the hell is big-bang? That is the way most of these nerds would like to explain how the universe came to a state it is in, today. One particle of extreme energy and density exploded (the explosion is called the big bang) and poof came the elements in this universe. Text books that were prescribed to me back in the higher sec days used to tell that this theory is intended to explain the creation of the universe. But actually there is no theory till date that explains how the universe was created! These theories rather assume that 'something' existed to begin with and then they explain what could've happened in that 'something' that resulted in the evolution of this universe. Okay... enough on the theories part! Let me get to the point that I wanted to get to... :)

As much as I appreciate the efforts by the scientists to really know and understand what happened/happens in this universe, IMHO these experiments eat up way too much funds. When millions of fellow humans are dying out of hunger, poverty, thirst and malnutrition every year, spending billions of dollars on experimentation and research seems really weird. People who were ready to spend so much money just to know how universe was when it first came into existence are not ready to spend as much to make sure none in the world dies for the want of food. In a way, aren't these 'developed' nations responsible for the underdeveloped status of African and Asian countries? Isn't their past jingoism responsible for the extreme underpricing of the African, Asian currencies in the international market today? But I'd partly agree with people who say "Yeah! It's my buck. I decide how to spend it" because as much as it doesn't make sense in the humanitarian view, it does make sense at least from a commercial and practical point of view. So let me set aside the countries with surplus budgets for now.

India as everyone knows has never seen a surplus budget in the recent past and when I see that India has offered 1000+ crores (1 Crore = 10 Million) for this LHC, I was dumbfounded to say the least. We don't have sufficient power to keep our houses bright. We have a considerable chunk of the population that earns well below 10K a year. We are running deficit for the past 50+ years. The infrastructure is horrible to say the least. But we are offering 1000+ crores to know how the universe was when it came into existence!!! Reminds me of a comic quote in Tamizh - "Pullayaarae perucchaali la paoikirukkaaru... Poosaarikki bullettu kaekkudhaa!!". I guess you could make out what that could mean based on the previous statements! :)

Black swans?!

"There is no culture out there", "They don't value relationships", "What kind of a living style is that" are some common phrases that one could commonly hear from Indians who have never been out of the country. If you are wondering whom they are commenting on, it's none but the westerners which in Indian dictionary means US for about 75% of the time and UK for the rest. Trust me... the world map has only a very few countries in the Indian perspective :)

But let's see how much truth is contained in the aforementioned opinions... Perhaps these opinions are based on the "My kids and your kids are playing with our kids" part of the western life. A few days at the Indian metros would clearly indicate that this culture has started spreading its wings in India too! With the traditional Hindu culture vanishing pretty quickly especially in urban India, we are no longer the source of the beautiful and unadultrated cultural light. That apart, do we have any great plus points that we can boast of?

Suspicion, lack of respect for others, fraud, needless hurry and so many other flaws can be easily spotted in us but still we claim that westerners lack culture. People might object this view especially mentioning that it's subjective but to be honest, I've seen the proportions blowing out in our people than the others. Hindu mythology says that a swan can extract just the milk out of a milk, water cocktail; leaving behind the adulteration. It is often quoted as a sign of being selective; and selective in a positive manner. But I strongly feel that we are being negative selectors just getting what we aren't supposed to get and forgetting what we need to get. Physical fitness, empathy for others, discipline, honesty, harmony and a lot of other qualities are out there in the west for us to learn or rather re-discover. But in reality we insist on seeing the black dot on a white sheet.

If we fail to understand our culture or their culture completely; and get into this coccoon of artificial cultural supremacy, we are not too far from facing the bitter reality and when we do, the impact would be much more negative than we expect it to be.

Bomb Blasts - The Bigger Message

As Al Gore mentioned in his speech that I saw earlier today, technology on one side contributes to the development of the human community but on the other side, it has led to some of the most destructive and suicidal inventions that question the existence of the human race! Certain inventions leave us puzzled and we often wonder if they are really boons or banes; and to me explosives are the most hypocritic inventions of mankind. While they are extremely useful in 'destruction for construction', they also contribute to the 'non-constructive destruction' that is illustrated at Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Turkey, Sri Lanka and a lot of other places where people are killed and massacred just so that some senseless group communicates its message to the world! But the real message that is being communicated by every bomb that goes off is just one - the death of humanity!

No one is going to live forever. We don't even know if we would be alive tomorrow; or for that matter if earth would be existent 100 years down the line. Then what is the point in fighting over abstract concepts and killing each other in the most undiplomatic fashion? What sin did a two year old kid waiting for her dad's arrival do; to have her innocent and affectionate father permanently taken away from her just so that someone else communicates a message to the Government?! Where would we end up after killing each other in the name of religion, caste, creed, race, nationality, hatred, greed, politics and a million other ways we have invented to divide ourselves? Do we really want to stare and stay away from every other human being, fearing if there is a belt of RDX that surrounds him/her? Is this the kind of insecurity that we would like our kids to have? Do we really want the next generation to live like rats fighting predation day after day? Nobody would be left even to fight if we keep killing each other at this rate...

Anything good will not prevent a man from valuing another human life and anything that makes a man ignore the value of another life cannot be good. The world is our home and the least help we can do to each other is to ensure peace to our neighbors and fellow human beings. Let's join hands, awaken the humans in us, make this world a better place to live in and let humanity live longer!

Gandhiism - Will it work today?

The reason behind the topic is a movie again but I didn't want to write a hat-trick review and the movie (Aayudham Seivaom) didn't deserve one either... :)

Let me put the story in a nut-shell before I start with my view of the whole thing... A rowdy who believes in violence to get things done, meets a staunch Gandhiian and develops belief in that ideology. He starts his fasting to get justice in a murder case that has no evidences whatsoever and he gains public support due to the course of action he has taken for the struggle. This becomes such a huge issue that in the end the villain himself realizes his mistake and surrenders. Ahimsa wins...

My question is, is this an accurate prediction? Is Ahimsa a great weapon in itself today too? Let us see...

First and foremost, Ahimsa is a beautiful concept in itself and it'll surely make this world a much better place to live in. Hinduism considers this as one of the highest virtues that a human being can possess. So ahimsa as a concept in itself is beautiful and if everyone follows it, nothing like that.

Now that said, let us come to the applicability of Ahimsa as a weapon. Let me refrain from talking about Gandhiji for a moment here and talk only about Ahimsa, since my views on Gandhiji as a person have been quite controversial. All said and done, at least as a father of my nation, I have to respect this man and so will I.

Hinduism believes in one basic concept. The dharma or the rules that govern people will differ between the Yugas (the eras) and what is applied in one era will not be completely suitable in the other because of the changing human attitude and the (negative?!) evolution that humans undergo. In the same way, if we are talking about the 1800s or the early 1900s, the Indian society was extremely different and people led a liesurely life where they had time to cooperate and coexist with each other. In that kind of a setup if a person goes on fast, the news spreads and people become concerned about the person and may be they will help him accomplish his mission, depending on the validity in it.

Let us look at the India today (don't ask me which publication of the 'India today' magazine :)). Population has literally exploded and people have become more and more self-centered. You cannot blame them for that because they have the basic need to exist and survive in the maddening crowd. In this setup, if someone tries to follow ahimsa to get his justice, he wouldn't even be noticed no matter how long he sits on the street. And if it is a protest against someone in power, a sniper would aim the guy's head as shown in the movie but unlike what happens in the movie, the bullet wouldn't hit his shoulders but the center of his forehead.

If everything could be done in the Ahimsa way, why does Indian Penal Code (Section 302 if movies are right :)) have capital punishment as its integral part? Quite equally violence is not the answer to everything and it is disastrous. The answer to this question comes from Chankya in one simple line "Saama, Dhaana, Baedha, Dhandam". Try to talk... If it doesn't work, go for bargains... If bargains don't work, try to divide and conquer... Only when the entire sequence fails go for punishments. To me, this is the only rule that can be universally applied to any problem and any situation.

Achievements and Needs!

When I was in the first year (first semester to be more precise) of my 4 yr Engineering course, English was one of the papers in curriculum. It was a class full of guys and needless to say nothing was taken seriously and the classroom was loaded with fun. When material physics, industrial chemistry and engineering papers were ignored, English naturally went for a toss. However, I remember one topic that our English professor threw in as a topic of debate - "Should great scientists necessarily be eccentric?". Even though we didn't have a serious debate then, I remember thinking about the topic once in a while, though with a slight variation. I used to think about the great achievers who revolutionized their field and what it took...

To summarize my observation in one simple word that I'd call the reason behind their achievements, I'd say 'despair'. My favorite lines from the book 'The Art of War' keeps echoing in my ears.

Never make your enemy desperate. Always leave a room for escape; for desparate soldiers fight for their life and it's tough to match them in a combat.

The way I see it, great achievers have been pushed to the corner of their lives and made desparate by the society and back they came with a bang. At least from the limited knowledge that I possess, I don't find too many traditionally rich people revolutionizing things. They make better profits and perhaps contribute to some charity but there it ends. But the urge to do something out of the box, the urge to invent, the urge to make a difference; has all been driven by crisis and helplessness.

Today, I see quite a few people who are not so happy with their jobs (including me) and some of those go to a level of losing their sleep because of this restlessness. But the fact is that there is a convenient working option in hand, giving you the money and the status quo that you badly need and unfortunately we've always been trained to think - "A bird in hand is worth two in the bush". Unless we are really desparate or atleast start believing we are desperate, I don't think there is a way out of the self-constructed prison made of golden bars!