Elections are now over in the world's biggest democracy. And now, the most exciting time is about to come when the results will start rolling out and the new government formation will take place. But let me address the big problem which we all seem to talk about : Our elections are run on trivial issues and has nothing to do with development. If I have to comment on this problem, I would say: Trivial issues in elections are not a problem for me and neither for our country. In this blog, I will try to justify my stance. It's not required that you all agree with me.
Let's just start with one of the dumbest issue started by Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav when he stated that he will ban English and computers if he gets a role to play in the next government. As soon as this statement was made, large number of people rebuked this by saying that discarding English and computers will make us even more backward. Somehow, I do not agree with both the opinions. I would really have agreed to Mr. Yadav if he would have promised that he will ensure that all the people in his state get at least primary education in Hindi. But he didn't.
I would have agreed to other people's views if they could justify how english and computers make us pro-development and how is it going to help in a state with 40% illiterate population. I am not saying that computers can't help. But there is lot more we can do without using computers. Even if we use computers, don't you think it would be of great help if the applications are built to help large population who speaks Hindi and can not read and write any language. Of course, we can have mobile-based applications working on Hindi speech recognition which can help anyone. Of course, we can have IT services in Hindi in govt organizations to increase efficiency and transparency.
I do realize that English is going to play big role in our country as it is going to be the unifying language among states with multiple languages. But in UP, I won't fight for English when it lacks primary education. Surprisingly, none of the supporters of English argued of it as unifying language for India (where national language Hindi failed). Everyone supported it for it being a global language as if everyone in our country has to do some deal with Americans!
Anyways, it was just an introduction to a trivial issue: you can be pro or against it. It does not really matter in long run. Now, let's come to why the trivial issues don't have a role to play in long run.
After becoming almost open economy, we have realized that people do operate by the concept of profitability ( can be called as greed by some). Our political parties, regional or national, have been trying to behave in the same ways by capitalizing on issues which are not really developmental in nature. For example, the big complaint of most urban population is that none of the parties say anything in support of development of urban India and they ignore urban areas in favor of rural areas. The reason behind this was that our constituencies were marked on the basis of 1970s population census which was rural in nature. Hence, the bias was towards rural areas for winning elections. This year, we had demarcation of constituencies based on year 2000 census where urban population has edge over the rural population. And be sure of this that by the next general elections, the issues are going to be biased towards urban areas. That's the political capitalism! That's how political parties win.
Moreover, parties may have the most ridiculous agendas while fighting elections but when they are in power, they have to work for development or else they would lose the opportunity to make money! If you have observed the economic policies of NDA and UPA govt, you would have noticed that they are almost the same towards liberalization. And yet, it's the dance of democracy that prevents rural India from being neglected.
Now, let us see how government functions on development issues. There is big open document by Planning Commission of India which identifies the problems and goals for next few years in future. One of their focus area is to increase literacy to maintain sustained economic growth. And we see that the expenditure on education has been increased by the government to a level which was not seen before. According to document, there is going to be huge migration of population from rural areas to urban areas in next 20 years. This shift in population is going to be so big that it required setting up of Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission. Large number of cities have already started benefitting from these funds.
While most of us fight over urban-rural bias, the Planning Commission document paved way for 'Golden Quadrangle' project and other projects to widen highways to improve urban connectivity. While at the same time, commission was already working for rural road connectivity program. These programmes might be slow due to efficiency issues but they do exist and are meant for both urban and rural India.
The statement I want to make using all these planning commission jargon is that "Elections are fought on trivial issues but government is run on agendas identified by bureaucrats sitting in Secretariat. It's just the way how parties present it." Thus, election issues only determine which party wins elections and not how the government functions. If that was not true, we would have had Ram Mandir in Ayodhya during NDA regime or all industries and banks would have been nationalized during UPA regime.
Finally, I am not sure how many of us agree but the pace of development has increased in the last decade. It is true that is not as rapid as that of China. So, I might not be in a developed India when I turn 40 but I will definitely be in a developed India when I turn 60. And my dream of being in developed India will become true irrespective of what issues are chosen for contesting elections.
GhAntAdhAR
P.S: I know you might be tempted to argue over English and computer issue. Honestly, I don't care!
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Parate ji and the Kerela Trip with Friends
Labels:
Humour
You know what, I have spent quarter century of my life on this planet. And I think that I have seen and experienced at least some of the things in life. And I have seen people who seem to be too social with lots of friends and acquaintances in society and yet, they still miss something called 'real friends'. So, they go on with their quest for true friend by becoming even more social.
On the other hand, I belong to a category who is not highly social because my quest for true friends is already over. It's not that my friends are great. It's just that when you are with them, you lose all your hopes from the humanity. And you just decide to accept your fate and decide to be with as limited a number of human beings as you can. And when you reach that stage, you share all your happiness and grief with them.
The Kerela trip that we had in January was one such trip which was all about sharing. So, me and my friends, who all are wisemen, started planning for the great trip way ahead of January. Being the wise persons, we all are exploratory in nature. The reason we are exploratory is because we haven't taken anything from ancient wisdom and hence, we need to see things through our own eyes to learn every new detail.
For instance, when we planned to go to Kerela, we treated Kerela as a single precise meeting point. And everyone was so happy that we all are going to meet at that single precise meeting point on the earth. But it was after two weeks of careful planning, somebody accidentally opened Google Maps and zoomed in on Kerela. He made an important discovery and decided to tell this to all other wisemen about it. The discovery was-
"As opposed to what we thought, Kerela is not a single point. Infact, it's a big state with infinetely many points. Now, we need to select the point from all those points where we all can meet."
This discovery was not at all good for us. Now, it took us two more weeks to decide on the meeting point. After all, selecting one of the infinitely many possible points is a difficult job. Anyways, we decided on something called 'Ernakulam'.
But this time, another wisemen pointed out: "We all wanted to go to Kerela to see things. I propose that we explore anything within 100 kms radius of Ernakulam on Day 1. On day 2, we go 200kms south to watch waterfalls and backwaters. And finally on day 3, we go further 200kms to explore the beaches."
The idea would have been great but somehow, the patience of one wiseman broke down and he said,"***, अबे यह क्या मज़ाक है? रोज़ रोज़ २०० किमी चलावाओगे क्या? मैं ऐसा करता हूँ की मुंबई लोकल में बैठ कर मुंबई के ३ चक्कर लगा लेता हूँ, केरल जाने से तो अच्छा ही होगा। मुझे एक दिन अपना दुखडा शेयर करना है ॥ मैं और कुछ नही सुन रहा। " Of course, everyone wanted to share their life. So, this led to some changes in the plan.
However, being the visionary among all the wisemen , I could observe things beyond this argument. I observed that the distance from Bangalore to Ernakulam is 450 km. And there is no way, we could cover that distance walking at night. So, I made the following suggestion, "Why don't we make a reservation by train to Ernakulam? If we leave at night, we will reach there by morning!"
That was a great suggestion and I received lots of appreciation for that. After that, we were all set to go to Kerela. The night arrived and we all were on the train. And that's when I realized the biggest mistake I made while making the suggestion. "Have we booked the return ticket to Bangalore?"
"No. You didn't ask us to book the return ticket. But we have learnt this important lesson now, always book the ticket to return back to origin." With this great response, the great adventure of wisemen to god's own country was about to begin.
We played poker throughout the night on train. We laughed and got excited about the trip ahead. And in the morning, one wiseman pointed another mystery to solve, "You know what? There are more than one stations in Ernakulam. Where do we get down?"
"Let's get down at the first station", another wiseman solved the problem! The station arrived; all wisemen got down with their luggage. All had amazingly superb breakfast of idli, dosas and sambhar-vada. And that's when another wiseman said, "Leaving on streets for three days does not sound like a good idea. Have we booked an hotel?"
The answer was no. And on the new year's eve, we all started search for a place to stay which were all occupied due to tourists flocking for new year and in a state, where people talked only in "god's own language: Malyalam" . We pretended to understand Malyalam and tried to get information from local people. But all we could get was "Bangadam Mangadam".
It was a difficult job but we managed to get a place to stay from person who didn't speak a word of Hindi or English. We had no taxi booked, but we managed to get one everyday. We covered Kochi, backwaters, waterfalls and beach as planned in a three days time. We managed to fight with a taxi driver in Malyalam (ok, it was he fighting in Malyalam). We even celebrated new year on the streets with local families and young people dancing and shouting. People offered us sweets and drinks at the stroke of 12. We did everything we could!
Kerela was truly beautiful and provided us with great experiences and joy. But the most important thing in that trip was the time, I spent with my friends, sharing all the happenings of my life. It is one thing to boast about friends when you are 20 and are in college. It's another when you can praise about your friends when you all grow up and each one is on the way to become more mature, taking important jobs or getting married.
I might be among the very few people on this planet who can say that he has got very good friends numbering in two digits. And I can say, I don't really feel the need to socialize to know more people when I am with them. And yes, it is because I have lost faith in humanity. I know, there cannot be more gems than what I already have!
GhAntAdhAR
On the other hand, I belong to a category who is not highly social because my quest for true friends is already over. It's not that my friends are great. It's just that when you are with them, you lose all your hopes from the humanity. And you just decide to accept your fate and decide to be with as limited a number of human beings as you can. And when you reach that stage, you share all your happiness and grief with them.
The Kerela trip that we had in January was one such trip which was all about sharing. So, me and my friends, who all are wisemen, started planning for the great trip way ahead of January. Being the wise persons, we all are exploratory in nature. The reason we are exploratory is because we haven't taken anything from ancient wisdom and hence, we need to see things through our own eyes to learn every new detail.
For instance, when we planned to go to Kerela, we treated Kerela as a single precise meeting point. And everyone was so happy that we all are going to meet at that single precise meeting point on the earth. But it was after two weeks of careful planning, somebody accidentally opened Google Maps and zoomed in on Kerela. He made an important discovery and decided to tell this to all other wisemen about it. The discovery was-
"As opposed to what we thought, Kerela is not a single point. Infact, it's a big state with infinetely many points. Now, we need to select the point from all those points where we all can meet."
This discovery was not at all good for us. Now, it took us two more weeks to decide on the meeting point. After all, selecting one of the infinitely many possible points is a difficult job. Anyways, we decided on something called 'Ernakulam'.
But this time, another wisemen pointed out: "We all wanted to go to Kerela to see things. I propose that we explore anything within 100 kms radius of Ernakulam on Day 1. On day 2, we go 200kms south to watch waterfalls and backwaters. And finally on day 3, we go further 200kms to explore the beaches."
The idea would have been great but somehow, the patience of one wiseman broke down and he said,"***, अबे यह क्या मज़ाक है? रोज़ रोज़ २०० किमी चलावाओगे क्या? मैं ऐसा करता हूँ की मुंबई लोकल में बैठ कर मुंबई के ३ चक्कर लगा लेता हूँ, केरल जाने से तो अच्छा ही होगा। मुझे एक दिन अपना दुखडा शेयर करना है ॥ मैं और कुछ नही सुन रहा। " Of course, everyone wanted to share their life. So, this led to some changes in the plan.
However, being the visionary among all the wisemen , I could observe things beyond this argument. I observed that the distance from Bangalore to Ernakulam is 450 km. And there is no way, we could cover that distance walking at night. So, I made the following suggestion, "Why don't we make a reservation by train to Ernakulam? If we leave at night, we will reach there by morning!"
That was a great suggestion and I received lots of appreciation for that. After that, we were all set to go to Kerela. The night arrived and we all were on the train. And that's when I realized the biggest mistake I made while making the suggestion. "Have we booked the return ticket to Bangalore?"
"No. You didn't ask us to book the return ticket. But we have learnt this important lesson now, always book the ticket to return back to origin." With this great response, the great adventure of wisemen to god's own country was about to begin.
We played poker throughout the night on train. We laughed and got excited about the trip ahead. And in the morning, one wiseman pointed another mystery to solve, "You know what? There are more than one stations in Ernakulam. Where do we get down?"
"Let's get down at the first station", another wiseman solved the problem! The station arrived; all wisemen got down with their luggage. All had amazingly superb breakfast of idli, dosas and sambhar-vada. And that's when another wiseman said, "Leaving on streets for three days does not sound like a good idea. Have we booked an hotel?"
The answer was no. And on the new year's eve, we all started search for a place to stay which were all occupied due to tourists flocking for new year and in a state, where people talked only in "god's own language: Malyalam" . We pretended to understand Malyalam and tried to get information from local people. But all we could get was "Bangadam Mangadam".
It was a difficult job but we managed to get a place to stay from person who didn't speak a word of Hindi or English. We had no taxi booked, but we managed to get one everyday. We covered Kochi, backwaters, waterfalls and beach as planned in a three days time. We managed to fight with a taxi driver in Malyalam (ok, it was he fighting in Malyalam). We even celebrated new year on the streets with local families and young people dancing and shouting. People offered us sweets and drinks at the stroke of 12. We did everything we could!
Kerela was truly beautiful and provided us with great experiences and joy. But the most important thing in that trip was the time, I spent with my friends, sharing all the happenings of my life. It is one thing to boast about friends when you are 20 and are in college. It's another when you can praise about your friends when you all grow up and each one is on the way to become more mature, taking important jobs or getting married.
I might be among the very few people on this planet who can say that he has got very good friends numbering in two digits. And I can say, I don't really feel the need to socialize to know more people when I am with them. And yes, it is because I have lost faith in humanity. I know, there cannot be more gems than what I already have!
GhAntAdhAR
Saturday, April 04, 2009
Parate ji, When are you getting married?
Labels:
Humour
Thanks to the pleasant weather of spring, I am back in the mode of blogging. It had been a while since I blogged regularly. This entry is a fresh start and is more about the question that is tormenting me now-a-days.
"Which college are you going to join?"
"How many girl-friends do you have?"
"Where are you working? How much are you earning?"
"कोई लड़की पटाया या नही?"
"Did you have sex?"
"When are you getting married? कोई गोरी से तो शादी करके नही आएगा वापस?"
The above are some of the questions which I found myself being asked by others at different stages of my life. The first question was asked when I was in Class XII. The second was asked after I joined college, as if my college had infinite supply of girls. Everytime I was asked this question, I would tell them that my college had a sex ratio of 17 boys : 1 girl. So, relevant question to ask would be "How many guys have a common girl-friend?"
Then, I went to the next phase of life doing job. And the question changed to "How much are you earning? When are you buying a car?" And I was like a helpless person praying to the god to save me from these question. But sooner than I realized, the question changed to "Ok, you had a bad sex ratio in college but now, कोई लड़की पटाया की नही?" Somehow, I was fired by this question every now and then. And when I got over it and came to US. Something bad happened.
I feel that it's really a bad thing to happen to a guy like me. And that bad event was: I turned 25!! Age of 25 is considered to be the end of 'brahmacharya ashram' in Indian Vedic System. Now, it's time to get married. Suddenly, it seems as if everyone is getting married. Every now and then, I would come to know about a cousin or a friend from school or college getting married. As the society as a whole is very sadist entity, everyone wants me to get married as well. In the last two months since I turned 25, almost everyone seems to be so concerned about my marriage now. Be it orkut, be it g-chat or be it a telephone call, this question seems to be hauting me, floating in space, waiting for the right moment and as soon as I feel relaxed, the question strikes : "When are you getting married? Are you bringing a white woman when you come back to India?"
And this question takes me back to the good old days of college when my friend Sharma ji would come back from the library and announce his biggest finding of the day "अबे! आज लाइब्ररी में एक लड़की मिली (Guys! I found a girl in library today!)". And then, all my friends will gather around him to know more about his discovery: A beautiful girl in a library!
Sharma ji would continue his story then:
She was sitting in the second floor. I saw her for the first time. I went to her, sat in front of her, looked at her eyes and said, "Hey, What are you reading?"
She smiled and said, "I am trying to understand this concept in my mathematics text-book Kreyzig".
Kreyzig? That means the girl is from first year, I thought in my mind and said to her, "Oh! I am good at anything from that book. I can explain any concept to you."
The girl got really excited and said, "Oh, can you please clear some of my doubts? Please, please". She pleaded.
But I am a cool guy and said to her,"Hmm... only if I can take you out for the coffee and explain it to you there." The girl smiled and said "ok". We both left and had a nice time.
End of the Story.
Well, that would have been a believable story if the college I studied at, was not IIT-K and moreover, Sharma ji was not that a cool guy at that time. Infact, any variation of the story like girl got furious towards the end of the story is not possible.
Honestly, even though all my friends would gather around Sharma ji, he would never really have anything to tell. Except the fact that he saw some girl from some astronomical distance similar to what is between sun and earth. And with his powerful specs-ridden eyes, he could observe the girl reading 'Kreyzig'. You may agree or not, but for me, it was a big feat to observe something from such a distance. And the happiness for doing this could be compared to what Mr. Edmond Halley would have felt at the time of finding Halley's comet.
Anyways, things have changed. The time when a slight glimpse of girl was enough to the time when I am supposed to have one with me. Things are changing. Somehow, the changes look much more rapid now.
Still, I think I should answer the question. . I will get married in year 2013 when I am done with Phd.
GhAnTAdhAR
"Which college are you going to join?"
"How many girl-friends do you have?"
"Where are you working? How much are you earning?"
"कोई लड़की पटाया या नही?"
"Did you have sex?"
"When are you getting married? कोई गोरी से तो शादी करके नही आएगा वापस?"
The above are some of the questions which I found myself being asked by others at different stages of my life. The first question was asked when I was in Class XII. The second was asked after I joined college, as if my college had infinite supply of girls. Everytime I was asked this question, I would tell them that my college had a sex ratio of 17 boys : 1 girl. So, relevant question to ask would be "How many guys have a common girl-friend?"
Then, I went to the next phase of life doing job. And the question changed to "How much are you earning? When are you buying a car?" And I was like a helpless person praying to the god to save me from these question. But sooner than I realized, the question changed to "Ok, you had a bad sex ratio in college but now, कोई लड़की पटाया की नही?" Somehow, I was fired by this question every now and then. And when I got over it and came to US. Something bad happened.
I feel that it's really a bad thing to happen to a guy like me. And that bad event was: I turned 25!! Age of 25 is considered to be the end of 'brahmacharya ashram' in Indian Vedic System. Now, it's time to get married. Suddenly, it seems as if everyone is getting married. Every now and then, I would come to know about a cousin or a friend from school or college getting married. As the society as a whole is very sadist entity, everyone wants me to get married as well. In the last two months since I turned 25, almost everyone seems to be so concerned about my marriage now. Be it orkut, be it g-chat or be it a telephone call, this question seems to be hauting me, floating in space, waiting for the right moment and as soon as I feel relaxed, the question strikes : "When are you getting married? Are you bringing a white woman when you come back to India?"
And this question takes me back to the good old days of college when my friend Sharma ji would come back from the library and announce his biggest finding of the day "अबे! आज लाइब्ररी में एक लड़की मिली (Guys! I found a girl in library today!)". And then, all my friends will gather around him to know more about his discovery: A beautiful girl in a library!
Sharma ji would continue his story then:
She was sitting in the second floor. I saw her for the first time. I went to her, sat in front of her, looked at her eyes and said, "Hey, What are you reading?"
She smiled and said, "I am trying to understand this concept in my mathematics text-book Kreyzig".
Kreyzig? That means the girl is from first year, I thought in my mind and said to her, "Oh! I am good at anything from that book. I can explain any concept to you."
The girl got really excited and said, "Oh, can you please clear some of my doubts? Please, please". She pleaded.
But I am a cool guy and said to her,"Hmm... only if I can take you out for the coffee and explain it to you there." The girl smiled and said "ok". We both left and had a nice time.
End of the Story.
Well, that would have been a believable story if the college I studied at, was not IIT-K and moreover, Sharma ji was not that a cool guy at that time. Infact, any variation of the story like girl got furious towards the end of the story is not possible.
Honestly, even though all my friends would gather around Sharma ji, he would never really have anything to tell. Except the fact that he saw some girl from some astronomical distance similar to what is between sun and earth. And with his powerful specs-ridden eyes, he could observe the girl reading 'Kreyzig'. You may agree or not, but for me, it was a big feat to observe something from such a distance. And the happiness for doing this could be compared to what Mr. Edmond Halley would have felt at the time of finding Halley's comet.
Anyways, things have changed. The time when a slight glimpse of girl was enough to the time when I am supposed to have one with me. Things are changing. Somehow, the changes look much more rapid now.
Still, I think I should answer the question. . I will get married in year 2013 when I am done with Phd.
GhAnTAdhAR
Monday, March 23, 2009
Parate ji and The Sexual Orientation on Orkut
Labels:
Humour
This article is meant only for those who are 18 or above. This is regarding the bug in orkut that I reported recently.
It was a really calm pleasant evening and I was loitering at the downtown of my sweet little village called 'Amherst' in Massachusetts(MA). May be I was out of mind, but then I decided to enter the pub. It's foolish to enter pub in the evening for variety of reasons. But let's not talk about that. May be I should have seen it as the sign of forthcoming dreaded incident about to happen. But I didn't and then, I did the second foolish thing of the evening, I ordered a beer!
'Hi, How are you doing?', were the words that fell on my ear-drums. I was shocked and when I turned back, I saw a beautiful girl checking me out and approaching me who caught me having a damn beer! Next thing I remember is I am in bed all sweating.
For god sake, please... don't misinterpret sweating! I just came out of horrible dream. Well, you might be thinking what was so horrible about it. First of all, girls are only allowed to check you out but it should be the mighty man who should approach them and not the vice-versa. This has been the tradition in human history and we ought to respect that. Secondly, 'Real Men drink Scotch' and not 'Beer'. Thus, you should never get caught having beer in front of a girl. With these thoughts, I decided that next time I have this dream, I am going to give this girl a lesson to respect this tradition evolved over the history of mankind.
It was a really calm pleasant evening and I was loitering at the downtown of my sweet little village called 'Amherst' in Massachusetts(MA). May be I was out of mind, but then I decided to enter the pub. It's foolish to enter pub in the evening for variety of reasons. But let's not talk about that. May be I should have seen it as the sign of forthcoming dreaded incident about to happen. But I didn't and then, I did the second foolish thing of the evening, I ordered a beer. 'Oh god! This should be the same dream again!'
And this time, I was all ready to give the lecture to the girl who approaches me. 'Hi, How are you doing?', were the words that fell on my ear-drums. I was shocked and when I turned back, there was a guy standing in front of me. Next thing I remember is I am in bed all sweating. I came out of a horrible dream! This dream is one of the consequences of living in a gay-friendly state like Massachusetts. But thankfully, it was a dream.
But this dream made me to think, "What if the sexual orientation in my orkut profile is accidently set to something other than 'straight'?" And that's when it led to the greatest discovery of all time. All the friends in my orkut friend-list were listed as 'gay'!
Well, recently, orkut had come up with the option of setting your display language as 'Hindi'. And as soon as you do that; all your friends suddenly become 'समलिंगी' or 'gay'. Actually, with Hindi as language, orkut provides you with following choices - gay, bisexual and bi-curious. No option for being 'straight'! And by default, it makes everyone gay. I reported this bug to orkut with following message-
"when I change the display language to Hindi, the sexual preference has the following options- homosexual, bisexual, bi-curious. But it does not have 'straight' as an option. Please, for the sake of ever decreasing minority of 'straight' users, provide the option of being straight :)"
You can check the responses here. The bug was not fixed as on March 23, 2009.
There is one more interesting thing about the options: bi-sexual and bi-curious. How do you differ between those two? Is it like if you have not consummated your relations, then you are bi-curious or else you are bi-sexual? Shouldn't they have an option of 'hetero-curious' then? Keep wondering :)
GhAntAdhAR
It was a really calm pleasant evening and I was loitering at the downtown of my sweet little village called 'Amherst' in Massachusetts(MA). May be I was out of mind, but then I decided to enter the pub. It's foolish to enter pub in the evening for variety of reasons. But let's not talk about that. May be I should have seen it as the sign of forthcoming dreaded incident about to happen. But I didn't and then, I did the second foolish thing of the evening, I ordered a beer!
'Hi, How are you doing?', were the words that fell on my ear-drums. I was shocked and when I turned back, I saw a beautiful girl checking me out and approaching me who caught me having a damn beer! Next thing I remember is I am in bed all sweating.
For god sake, please... don't misinterpret sweating! I just came out of horrible dream. Well, you might be thinking what was so horrible about it. First of all, girls are only allowed to check you out but it should be the mighty man who should approach them and not the vice-versa. This has been the tradition in human history and we ought to respect that. Secondly, 'Real Men drink Scotch' and not 'Beer'. Thus, you should never get caught having beer in front of a girl. With these thoughts, I decided that next time I have this dream, I am going to give this girl a lesson to respect this tradition evolved over the history of mankind.
It was a really calm pleasant evening and I was loitering at the downtown of my sweet little village called 'Amherst' in Massachusetts(MA). May be I was out of mind, but then I decided to enter the pub. It's foolish to enter pub in the evening for variety of reasons. But let's not talk about that. May be I should have seen it as the sign of forthcoming dreaded incident about to happen. But I didn't and then, I did the second foolish thing of the evening, I ordered a beer. 'Oh god! This should be the same dream again!'
And this time, I was all ready to give the lecture to the girl who approaches me. 'Hi, How are you doing?', were the words that fell on my ear-drums. I was shocked and when I turned back, there was a guy standing in front of me. Next thing I remember is I am in bed all sweating. I came out of a horrible dream! This dream is one of the consequences of living in a gay-friendly state like Massachusetts. But thankfully, it was a dream.
But this dream made me to think, "What if the sexual orientation in my orkut profile is accidently set to something other than 'straight'?" And that's when it led to the greatest discovery of all time. All the friends in my orkut friend-list were listed as 'gay'!
Well, recently, orkut had come up with the option of setting your display language as 'Hindi'. And as soon as you do that; all your friends suddenly become 'समलिंगी' or 'gay'. Actually, with Hindi as language, orkut provides you with following choices - gay, bisexual and bi-curious. No option for being 'straight'! And by default, it makes everyone gay. I reported this bug to orkut with following message-
"when I change the display language to Hindi, the sexual preference has the following options- homosexual, bisexual, bi-curious. But it does not have 'straight' as an option. Please, for the sake of ever decreasing minority of 'straight' users, provide the option of being straight :)"
You can check the responses here. The bug was not fixed as on March 23, 2009.
There is one more interesting thing about the options: bi-sexual and bi-curious. How do you differ between those two? Is it like if you have not consummated your relations, then you are bi-curious or else you are bi-sexual? Shouldn't they have an option of 'hetero-curious' then? Keep wondering :)
GhAntAdhAR
Friday, October 24, 2008
Wake up Asian elephants!
Labels:
Economics
My outlook towards current economic situation!
Markets plunging and diving down everywhere in the world with a falling rate in double digit everyday. Markets seeing the new lows that they had not seen in years. Everything looks so gloomy from North America, Europe, Asia to lesser mentioned Latin America and Africa.
The economic crisis began when the biggest economy in the world thought that it is an intelligent move to give loans to people who couldn't afford it. Not just this, the lender themselves were not in a position to afford giving such loans. But then, there were even more intelligent people in other parts of world (read banks in countries like Iceland and other countries in Europe), who thought that it's great to lend money to these lenders. But soon this bubble bursted and started sinking the world economies. And sadly, it has effected other countries more than the United States itself.
While everything may look gloomy but one must realise that US is no fool and with reforms and corrections, it will bounce back to normal state in few years. Nobody is going to take away its status as a developed economy. US will once again lead the way and we hope even Europe will come back to normalcy. However, by the end of this period, there is going to be one big change. The reliance of world on US economy will decrease and US will not have the same global dominance as earlier.
But who is going to steal the show? Western Europe is still struggling to find its golden era when it had edge in all the technology. Whereas Eastern Europe has acquired the upper middle income economy status but with its limitations of resources (both natural and human), it can only grow by specializing in some distinguishing area. They cannot compete in labor intensive areas.
Africa is yet to become mature enough to takeover other economies. Latin American countries are focussed on extremely leftist policies making them less of contributor to world. Once they were the most capitalistic countries of world but they faced repetitive economic crisis, instability and crashes due to their unsustainable consumption promoting economic policies. Probably, Brazil is the only country in South America which has maintained the right balance between regulation and freedom to support sustained growth with stability. In order to have stability, Brazil even decided to satisfy itself with relatively lower economic growth even at times when it could have easily afforded more. Brazil is likely to be important.
Latin American economies are full of paradoxes. They can always sustain themselves as these countries are the world's bread baskets. Most of them have the potential to be self-reliant in food and oil. And yet, petroleum companies have not been able to take advantage due to the unfavorable policies. All these countries belong to the exclusive club of very few countries in world with upper middle income status. Still, all these are economies with unmatchable income inequality. For example, Mexico being one of the top 10 economies in world is responsible for much immigration in US due to widespread inequality in Mexico. Moreover, in the last 30 years, Latin America's GDP share in world remained at 5.7% whereas for Asia it rose from 18% to 29%.
So, that leaves us with Asia. I like to call them as Asian Elephants rather than Asian tigers due to their huge size and population. These are the economies with huge potential and resources, have uncaptured but still developing markets. These are the countries which can fuel the growth by developing their own markets and decreasing reliance on developed countries for the same. Due to the low income status of many of these, it's not advisable to develop market for fancy items like ipods or other high-end sophisticated consumer items. Such development would lead to income inequality and would be unsustainable. Asia still has to develop market of basic requirements which can help them in long run.
Though Asia is likely to steal the show in this century, it is still a distant dream to remove poverty from this region. Even after the economic growth, it seems unlikely that poverty can be eradicated in next 20 years. Let's hope that India and China work together for the wholesome development. Both of these countries can do so. In India, it's democracy which will make government to do something for income distribution. On the other hand, in China, it's the will power of government which can achieve this. If they can regulate news and information, they can easily achieve equal income distribution if they wanted.
Let's see what are the outcomes of ASEM meet in Beijing. Till then, I can only say-
Come on Asia! Wake up! World needs you!
Ghantadhar
Markets plunging and diving down everywhere in the world with a falling rate in double digit everyday. Markets seeing the new lows that they had not seen in years. Everything looks so gloomy from North America, Europe, Asia to lesser mentioned Latin America and Africa.
The economic crisis began when the biggest economy in the world thought that it is an intelligent move to give loans to people who couldn't afford it. Not just this, the lender themselves were not in a position to afford giving such loans. But then, there were even more intelligent people in other parts of world (read banks in countries like Iceland and other countries in Europe), who thought that it's great to lend money to these lenders. But soon this bubble bursted and started sinking the world economies. And sadly, it has effected other countries more than the United States itself.
While everything may look gloomy but one must realise that US is no fool and with reforms and corrections, it will bounce back to normal state in few years. Nobody is going to take away its status as a developed economy. US will once again lead the way and we hope even Europe will come back to normalcy. However, by the end of this period, there is going to be one big change. The reliance of world on US economy will decrease and US will not have the same global dominance as earlier.
But who is going to steal the show? Western Europe is still struggling to find its golden era when it had edge in all the technology. Whereas Eastern Europe has acquired the upper middle income economy status but with its limitations of resources (both natural and human), it can only grow by specializing in some distinguishing area. They cannot compete in labor intensive areas.
Africa is yet to become mature enough to takeover other economies. Latin American countries are focussed on extremely leftist policies making them less of contributor to world. Once they were the most capitalistic countries of world but they faced repetitive economic crisis, instability and crashes due to their unsustainable consumption promoting economic policies. Probably, Brazil is the only country in South America which has maintained the right balance between regulation and freedom to support sustained growth with stability. In order to have stability, Brazil even decided to satisfy itself with relatively lower economic growth even at times when it could have easily afforded more. Brazil is likely to be important.
Latin American economies are full of paradoxes. They can always sustain themselves as these countries are the world's bread baskets. Most of them have the potential to be self-reliant in food and oil. And yet, petroleum companies have not been able to take advantage due to the unfavorable policies. All these countries belong to the exclusive club of very few countries in world with upper middle income status. Still, all these are economies with unmatchable income inequality. For example, Mexico being one of the top 10 economies in world is responsible for much immigration in US due to widespread inequality in Mexico. Moreover, in the last 30 years, Latin America's GDP share in world remained at 5.7% whereas for Asia it rose from 18% to 29%.
So, that leaves us with Asia. I like to call them as Asian Elephants rather than Asian tigers due to their huge size and population. These are the economies with huge potential and resources, have uncaptured but still developing markets. These are the countries which can fuel the growth by developing their own markets and decreasing reliance on developed countries for the same. Due to the low income status of many of these, it's not advisable to develop market for fancy items like ipods or other high-end sophisticated consumer items. Such development would lead to income inequality and would be unsustainable. Asia still has to develop market of basic requirements which can help them in long run.
Though Asia is likely to steal the show in this century, it is still a distant dream to remove poverty from this region. Even after the economic growth, it seems unlikely that poverty can be eradicated in next 20 years. Let's hope that India and China work together for the wholesome development. Both of these countries can do so. In India, it's democracy which will make government to do something for income distribution. On the other hand, in China, it's the will power of government which can achieve this. If they can regulate news and information, they can easily achieve equal income distribution if they wanted.
Let's see what are the outcomes of ASEM meet in Beijing. Till then, I can only say-
Come on Asia! Wake up! World needs you!
Ghantadhar
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Can there be a heaven?
Labels:
Ponder
This is probably the first serious entry in my blog. It's a result of some random but logical thoughts I had. This is not humorous like other entries.
It was Thursday evening. While I had been busy all day, the nature was playing its own game at that time. It rained that day. Though it reminded me of the monsoon rain after a period of hot weather, it was nothing like monsoon. The weather had been cold for last few days and no body wanted rain at this time. There was no pleasing scent of dry-parched land getting wet for the first time after summers. Yet, it invoked so many feelings inside me. And I decided to visit the small park at very small downtown of my village.
I was just sitting there on a bench alone. Enjoying the blowing warm breeze. While I was sitting there, my mind pondered "What was my idea of heaven few years back?".
Lushed greenery. Green grass everywhere. Beautiful, scenic and natural place. Calm and serene. A place where flowers grow naturally all around during spring. A place which shows thousands of colors during fall. A place where you have rains to clean and revive every lifeform. A place with a beautiful snowfall in winters.
That was my idea of heaven. And here I was living in a village with every attribute of heaven I thought of. It has everything which convinces me that this is the place where everyone would be happy and productive. Which means that I should be really happy all the time. But am I happy really?
And then came the revelation or the real truth. Probably something close to what Gautam Buddha might have learnt while sitting under a tree.
God had given me the opportunity to live in my heaven but I was not always happy. In fact, no body can be happy in their heaven. It's the human nature. If you get what you want and you stay with that for long, you will long for the change. Hence, even if you are in heaven, you will develop some different idea of heaven with time. Which simply means that there can't be a heaven!
This revelation was strong enough to believe that there can't be a heaven. So, does that mean humans are bound to suffer? And that is when the idea of attaining nirvana came into my mind. Heaven is simply state of mind when you are happy with everything around you no matter where you are. On the other hand, hell is another state of mind when you want everything that is not available around you. I was simply amazed with this thought. This non-materialistic idea of heaven had been in sanatan dharma for so long and we ignore it so often.
Next Morning
I can call it a coincidence. But it was strange. I was sitting on stairs to my house while basking sun in the morning, two persons wearing black suits approached me and said to me "Sir, do you want to live forever on this earth?". They were from some church. I said to them, "Only if you can convert earth into heaven".
And then I gave them my idea of heaven as a state of mind and also about nirvana. They listened carefully and said, "It's sad that lot of christians dream of going to heaven and this idea became more popular after Jesus. The god never intended to have different heaven. That's why he made Adam and Eve immortal to live on earth forever but they committed the sin. That's what I wanted to tell you heaven is everywhere."
It was interesting to talk about it. So, there is one more religion which has somewhat non-materialistic vision of heaven. I wonder if Islam has any such idea of heaven.
Ghantadhar
It was Thursday evening. While I had been busy all day, the nature was playing its own game at that time. It rained that day. Though it reminded me of the monsoon rain after a period of hot weather, it was nothing like monsoon. The weather had been cold for last few days and no body wanted rain at this time. There was no pleasing scent of dry-parched land getting wet for the first time after summers. Yet, it invoked so many feelings inside me. And I decided to visit the small park at very small downtown of my village.
I was just sitting there on a bench alone. Enjoying the blowing warm breeze. While I was sitting there, my mind pondered "What was my idea of heaven few years back?".
Lushed greenery. Green grass everywhere. Beautiful, scenic and natural place. Calm and serene. A place where flowers grow naturally all around during spring. A place which shows thousands of colors during fall. A place where you have rains to clean and revive every lifeform. A place with a beautiful snowfall in winters.
That was my idea of heaven. And here I was living in a village with every attribute of heaven I thought of. It has everything which convinces me that this is the place where everyone would be happy and productive. Which means that I should be really happy all the time. But am I happy really?
And then came the revelation or the real truth. Probably something close to what Gautam Buddha might have learnt while sitting under a tree.
God had given me the opportunity to live in my heaven but I was not always happy. In fact, no body can be happy in their heaven. It's the human nature. If you get what you want and you stay with that for long, you will long for the change. Hence, even if you are in heaven, you will develop some different idea of heaven with time. Which simply means that there can't be a heaven!
This revelation was strong enough to believe that there can't be a heaven. So, does that mean humans are bound to suffer? And that is when the idea of attaining nirvana came into my mind. Heaven is simply state of mind when you are happy with everything around you no matter where you are. On the other hand, hell is another state of mind when you want everything that is not available around you. I was simply amazed with this thought. This non-materialistic idea of heaven had been in sanatan dharma for so long and we ignore it so often.
Next Morning
I can call it a coincidence. But it was strange. I was sitting on stairs to my house while basking sun in the morning, two persons wearing black suits approached me and said to me "Sir, do you want to live forever on this earth?". They were from some church. I said to them, "Only if you can convert earth into heaven".
And then I gave them my idea of heaven as a state of mind and also about nirvana. They listened carefully and said, "It's sad that lot of christians dream of going to heaven and this idea became more popular after Jesus. The god never intended to have different heaven. That's why he made Adam and Eve immortal to live on earth forever but they committed the sin. That's what I wanted to tell you heaven is everywhere."
It was interesting to talk about it. So, there is one more religion which has somewhat non-materialistic vision of heaven. I wonder if Islam has any such idea of heaven.
Ghantadhar
Friday, February 29, 2008
Parate ji at IBM IRL and the social man
Labels:
Characters,
Humour,
IBM IRL Life
Some funny anecdotes from my life at IBM Research Lab.
As the legendary story goes, Once upon a time at IBM IRL, there arrived a man, who came just out of his reputed college in Bangalore. He came with a small bag hanging on his back. The bag contained all the important things needed for the survival. When he opened it, there it was: the most important thing, the bottle labeled "Old Monk", the most favoured rum in India. No doubt that this guy believes in "Reality is an illusion caused by lack of alcohol"
Well, being few years younger, I missed the opportunity to join the arrival party of this legendary guy. However, I had the opportunity to join his farewell party from IRL. And that's when I met another guy from office, the social man, the man with whom I expanded my social circle or rather "Reality is an illusion" club.
As we all are computer scientists, it is in our habit to measure everything. So, I thought of scaling the sociability. And on this scale, our social man has score "Smoked ciggarettes with atleast 40 IRL members (including Managers) , Got drunk with atleast 40 IRL members (including Managers) and X-Y-Z".
Yes, IRL was such a place where you can measure sociability by counting "with how many IRL members, a person smoked or got drunk". And if you know our social man, he was indeed the most social person by this criteria. He was the person who smoked with persons ranging from a colleague to a senior manager. It just happened that our directors didn't smoke or drink ... otherwise it wouldn't have been possible for them to escape from our friend.
Interestingly, his sociability didn't end with IRL members. At some occassion, he tried to extend it to X-Y-Z by smoking in presence of the kid of some IRL member. And the result, "Mummmmmmyyyy... he is smoking cigarette.....:( :( Ask him to throw his ciggarette". I don't know what social man felt but I was thinking, "Come on, kid. I am not asking you to throw the chocolate you eat. Then why are you disturbing my dear friend?"
But you know that kids are the most illogical creatures on earth. Probably, even girls are comparable but I will rather not say it. So, this kid was adamant on his behavior. And Mr. Social had to put back his cigarette. And before the kid could ask to throw the entire pack of cigarettes, we decided to leave the place. Well, that was the first time when I saw social man to fail in extending his sociability.
But he has many winning stories. And one such story is the farewell party of Mr.Legend. There we were, the social man, the legend and myself. Well, I am not that cool or person with high capacity when it comes to alcohol. But being in front of Mr. Legend, I had to act cool. Though I started as stranger to the social man that day, I was pretty sure in few minutes that he had huge potential for alcohol. Not wanting to behave in awkward manner, I decided to join the flow of glasses of Chivas Regal, Jack Daniels and Smirnoff. Surprisingly, it seemed to me that the fun is not going to end today. And then, I did the mistake. We ordered for three jugs of beer!!
Hmm... So, there were three full jugs in front of us. We kept staring them for a while. The continuously rising bubbles in beer make it a very interesting thing to watch. It feels like it will definitely do something good to the body when taken inside.
We looked at each other and laughed. While the other two laughed for they were so happy and sure of finishing their part, mine was just a choked smile as response to their laugh. It is pretty easy to imagine my situation, I was not even able to wipe out that smile from my face. I kept on smiling and kept on staring at my jug and the rising bubbles. While the other two were drinking merrily, I kept my eyes fixated on the jug.
And that's when Mr.Iqbal, our host at restaurant, came into the scene. He said to me, "Sir, we are about to close. Please, finish your drinks quickly".
"Quickly? What do you think am I? A tanker or something?", I thought. And yet, I was not able to wipe my smile away.
Mr. Iqbal continued to convey the information to my friends. I was getting tensed. But I didn't knew that I have saviour in the social man. Well, the social man did what he is best in. He socialized with Mr.Iqbal and said to him, "Mr. Iqbal. I am so happy with you. From now, we are friends and I want to give company to you. We are not in hurry. You don't worry about anything. Today, we will stay here and go out with you only when you are done with all your work. You won't leave for home alone today." And now, the situation was in full control.
"Wow! That was awesome. I could never have thought of that", I said to myself. The social man just bought me sometime to finish my part. I got excited and started. I couldn't finish by the time we left but it was satisfying that I finished atleast some of it.
Now, it was time to get the auto-rickshaw for home. Unbelievingly, I was able to walk steadily for a while and I went upto auto-rickshaw and negotiated with the driver for ride upto our place. He agreed upon the fare of Rs.40. My friend, the social man, being unaware of the deal, came to auto and said to driver, "Bhaisahab, the fare for our place is Rs.18. If you double it, it becomes Rs.36. But I am going to give you Rs.40. Are you taking us to destination?".
The driver agreed ofcourse with same deal being repeated. The social man was happy with his feat as he made the offer that driver couldn't refuse. But then, I told the social man that the deal was already done for Rs.40. This was something not acceptable to social man and he said to driver ,"Bhaisahab, now you must take us for Rs.36 only. You must listen to me." Somehow, the driver agreed for Rs.36 fare.
We reached the destination but the socialization of our friend was not yet over. He said to driver," Bhaisahab, you have been very kind in agreeing for the fare I demanded. I want to offer you Maggi in the maggi shop." The driver appreciated the gesture but said that he had to go. We bid good bye to the driver and moved on for more adventures that were to come with the social man.
So, this was the story with social man, the best friend I made at IBM IRL at some farewell party. And when I left IRL and it was time for my farewell party, he made sure that I had not just one but multiple parties :)
This article is a tribute to the social man who recently left IRL and whose farewell party, I couldn't attend.
Abhinav Parate "GhAntAdhAR"
As the legendary story goes, Once upon a time at IBM IRL, there arrived a man, who came just out of his reputed college in Bangalore. He came with a small bag hanging on his back. The bag contained all the important things needed for the survival. When he opened it, there it was: the most important thing, the bottle labeled "Old Monk", the most favoured rum in India. No doubt that this guy believes in "Reality is an illusion caused by lack of alcohol"
Well, being few years younger, I missed the opportunity to join the arrival party of this legendary guy. However, I had the opportunity to join his farewell party from IRL. And that's when I met another guy from office, the social man, the man with whom I expanded my social circle or rather "Reality is an illusion" club.
As we all are computer scientists, it is in our habit to measure everything. So, I thought of scaling the sociability. And on this scale, our social man has score "Smoked ciggarettes with atleast 40 IRL members (including Managers) , Got drunk with atleast 40 IRL members (including Managers) and X-Y-Z".
Yes, IRL was such a place where you can measure sociability by counting "with how many IRL members, a person smoked or got drunk". And if you know our social man, he was indeed the most social person by this criteria. He was the person who smoked with persons ranging from a colleague to a senior manager. It just happened that our directors didn't smoke or drink ... otherwise it wouldn't have been possible for them to escape from our friend.
Interestingly, his sociability didn't end with IRL members. At some occassion, he tried to extend it to X-Y-Z by smoking in presence of the kid of some IRL member. And the result, "Mummmmmmyyyy... he is smoking cigarette.....:( :( Ask him to throw his ciggarette". I don't know what social man felt but I was thinking, "Come on, kid. I am not asking you to throw the chocolate you eat. Then why are you disturbing my dear friend?"
But you know that kids are the most illogical creatures on earth. Probably, even girls are comparable but I will rather not say it. So, this kid was adamant on his behavior. And Mr. Social had to put back his cigarette. And before the kid could ask to throw the entire pack of cigarettes, we decided to leave the place. Well, that was the first time when I saw social man to fail in extending his sociability.
But he has many winning stories. And one such story is the farewell party of Mr.Legend. There we were, the social man, the legend and myself. Well, I am not that cool or person with high capacity when it comes to alcohol. But being in front of Mr. Legend, I had to act cool. Though I started as stranger to the social man that day, I was pretty sure in few minutes that he had huge potential for alcohol. Not wanting to behave in awkward manner, I decided to join the flow of glasses of Chivas Regal, Jack Daniels and Smirnoff. Surprisingly, it seemed to me that the fun is not going to end today. And then, I did the mistake. We ordered for three jugs of beer!!
Hmm... So, there were three full jugs in front of us. We kept staring them for a while. The continuously rising bubbles in beer make it a very interesting thing to watch. It feels like it will definitely do something good to the body when taken inside.
We looked at each other and laughed. While the other two laughed for they were so happy and sure of finishing their part, mine was just a choked smile as response to their laugh. It is pretty easy to imagine my situation, I was not even able to wipe out that smile from my face. I kept on smiling and kept on staring at my jug and the rising bubbles. While the other two were drinking merrily, I kept my eyes fixated on the jug.
And that's when Mr.Iqbal, our host at restaurant, came into the scene. He said to me, "Sir, we are about to close. Please, finish your drinks quickly".
"Quickly? What do you think am I? A tanker or something?", I thought. And yet, I was not able to wipe my smile away.
Mr. Iqbal continued to convey the information to my friends. I was getting tensed. But I didn't knew that I have saviour in the social man. Well, the social man did what he is best in. He socialized with Mr.Iqbal and said to him, "Mr. Iqbal. I am so happy with you. From now, we are friends and I want to give company to you. We are not in hurry. You don't worry about anything. Today, we will stay here and go out with you only when you are done with all your work. You won't leave for home alone today." And now, the situation was in full control.
"Wow! That was awesome. I could never have thought of that", I said to myself. The social man just bought me sometime to finish my part. I got excited and started. I couldn't finish by the time we left but it was satisfying that I finished atleast some of it.
Now, it was time to get the auto-rickshaw for home. Unbelievingly, I was able to walk steadily for a while and I went upto auto-rickshaw and negotiated with the driver for ride upto our place. He agreed upon the fare of Rs.40. My friend, the social man, being unaware of the deal, came to auto and said to driver, "Bhaisahab, the fare for our place is Rs.18. If you double it, it becomes Rs.36. But I am going to give you Rs.40. Are you taking us to destination?".
The driver agreed ofcourse with same deal being repeated. The social man was happy with his feat as he made the offer that driver couldn't refuse. But then, I told the social man that the deal was already done for Rs.40. This was something not acceptable to social man and he said to driver ,"Bhaisahab, now you must take us for Rs.36 only. You must listen to me." Somehow, the driver agreed for Rs.36 fare.
We reached the destination but the socialization of our friend was not yet over. He said to driver," Bhaisahab, you have been very kind in agreeing for the fare I demanded. I want to offer you Maggi in the maggi shop." The driver appreciated the gesture but said that he had to go. We bid good bye to the driver and moved on for more adventures that were to come with the social man.
So, this was the story with social man, the best friend I made at IBM IRL at some farewell party. And when I left IRL and it was time for my farewell party, he made sure that I had not just one but multiple parties :)
This article is a tribute to the social man who recently left IRL and whose farewell party, I couldn't attend.
Abhinav Parate "GhAntAdhAR"
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