Violence

I am a firmly believe in the ideology that "Violence always begets violence". Anybody who has gone through the history of middle east clubed with jewish history will agree.


Here is an interesting article related current scenario of Israel -Lebanon conflict.

Still...

" At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life ..."


Well they say people like me are still sleeping.

But here's the good news there's a new bookstore in Vadodara,huge,almost three times as big as crossword which was the only one till date.Real feast I must say,got myself "War and Peace " by leo Tolstoy and "Made in America" by Sam Walton.


In case I forgot to mention I didn't die in floods.Because we make a tryst with destiny every new day.

If only I knew

If you would be in my shoes you would understand that most exasperating and hillarious thing in the world is to have sudden sporadic mild strokes of alzheimer's disease.Imagine staring the computer screen,rather flat computer screen after opening blogger window because you have forgotten what you wanted to write.

I wanted to tell you about ghettos,my experience with them,of why I believe ghettoism is most detrimental thing to happen to versimilary united India.

I wanted to tell you about, "The arguementative Indian" and the veritable ingenuity in Amartya Sen's approach to focus on the argumentative tradition in India in his writings on Indian culture and history, away from the banal and trite religious approach.Infact I was really suprised to read about Caravaka,the atheist school of thought in ancient India.I was absolutely ecstatic after reading this line in the book,a quote by Raja Ram Mohan Roy.

"Imagine how terrible the day of your death would be,when people would go on speaking and you wouldn't be able to argue back"

And atlast about the magic Gregory David Roberts aka Shantaram can create with his literary prowess.
But I am in no mood right now,I have come to realise that just as success after hardwork can be the most beautiful thing in the world to happen to you,failure after the same can be the most bewildering thing in the world.

CNN-IBN

Rajdeep Sardesai's CNN-IBN has come of age, just a year after its launch and it has not only created space for itself in this multitudinous 24 hr news broadcasting but also seized some from others biggies like NDTV and Headlines Today much to their chagrin,while Aaj Tak still reigns supreme among Hindi News portals when it comes English News I think CNN-IBN is name worth reckoning. A clear story of how entrepreneurial leadership can do wonders.

It has very well designed website may be something that it has inherited from its parent CNN.More recently I came across CNN-IBN blogs.

Rajdeep Sardesai's Blog:Width of article is really commendable.Width as in area of discussion

Here are some which I found worth reading

1.No goal for India

2.My Friend, Mr Mahajan

3.Sonia's "Sacrifice

Sagarika Ghosh's Blog: The Cosmic Ceiling is surely worth a read.

Here's another interesting story.

Why Rajdeep Sardesai quit NDTV

Another channel India TV which was launched way back in 2004 is still struggling to find terms I guess.Sting'y' Journalism, chintzy and spicy stories can never be a long term strategy.

Holocaust Heros

The Holocaust saw many heros scripting great stories of courage, comradery and altruism.Here are some of them.

Oskar Schindler:Easily the most famous of them all courtesy Speilberg's brilliant movie 'Schindler's List'.He saved around 1200 jews by having them work in his enamelware and munitions factories.


Nicholas Winton:Often called the Schindler Of Britain,he rescued 669 czech children from Nazi death camps.


Raoul Wallenberg: A swedish diplomat who saved many Hungarian jews from the holocaust.Often called the 'Hero without the grave' because he went missing after WW -II


Ruth Gruber: An American journalist who secretly escorted a group of 1000 jewish refugees from Italy to USA.

Alexander Pechersky:Hero of the sobibor rebellion

They are many more ofcourse but these are the stories I found interesting.

Here are some other interesting links:

1.WW-II Resistance movements.

2.The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority.

Women,the extinct species

[Again one my posts on a orkut community]

For the past few weeks TOI has been carrying a news feature on dropping sex ratio in Gujarat and other states of our country. The problem is not as grave as title suggests. (Though if you would ask me skewed ratios are considered a problem of national importance in engineering colleges)

On a more serious note as they say the litmus test of a utopian society is the status of women in it.
The dropping ratios, a result of female foeticide, a pestiferous act, have led to several other crimes against women.

India is often called the land of "sanskars”, of values and of rectitude, an ostensible insignia if you would ask me, has had a social structure which is harsh on women. Why do we in this modern age still continue commit atrocious crimes like female infanticide?

Finally do you believe banning ultrasound procedures can be a solution? Personally I believe banning anything is never a solution. Defaulters always find a way. The number things that can be done illegally in our country are a stark example.

The problem is far deep-rooted than this.

Cindrella Man

I had downloaded this movie last year.Just saw it.I guess i saved it for the right time.Truly inspired

[sounds like a telegram message..]

Cindrella Man at imdb.

James J Braddock at wikipedia.

Gandhi

This post is a copy of one my posts on an orkut community.

Here are some interesting articles I came across

This article is Nathu Ram Godse's defence speech in court. I know its almost blasphemous to discuss this here but as democracy demands let us lend an ear to all.

This article will also show you how fanaticism using communication can seem so convincing.Bending words to justify irrationality. After all hitler also had supporters.



Below are two articles part of a special series of "What If" carried by Outlook.These are articles are essays basically exploring past the if gandhi had lived on.The articles require online registration which is free.

1
2


I hope you find them interesting.

More on this later.

Superman

Now here's deeply confounding a question that just struck me..

Why does superman need that red robe?

a) You miserable physics student, thats there to help in the aerodynamics.

b) It comes in great help when needs to blow his nose.

c)It matches with his underwear.

d)All of above.

Now I almost 1.5 hrs surfing through askmen.com today ,one of those very few sites which are informative , interesting and a pleasure to eyes.:)

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Mr. M Karunanidhi!.Please I want a Television too, for my hostel room,its great fun to watch history channel these days. Sadly I was born some 20 years ago else a nice gold ring would have been a wonderful birthday present.Not to forget the Rs. 2/kg rice, wow such revelry all we need is some wine now.

It seems Tamilnadu is headed back to the age of kings,the 83 year old magnanimous monarch is distributing presents in his kingdom. Please do tell me if there would be some belly dancing too!.Such Fun

Some days back Mr Omprakash Chautala,tainted CM of Madhya Pradesh was in news for having undisclosed property assets worth 1400 crore. Rich Kings with poor citizens.

Destiny

"Stones in destiny's wall are mortared with small and heedless complicities."

--Gregory David Roberts in Shantaram.


This was compelling enough for me to post again,so officially this is my last post from CF-8.

My last post from CF-8

Actually I could not find a better title, for this post is supposed to cover a gamut of things and as I am writing I am not sure of what they would be; but one thing that I am sure of is that this might well be my last post from CF-8.

Placements: Officially the zero phase of placements in our college is over now. The only word I can find to describe the placement process is ‘tragicomic Drama’, with more of comedy and less of tragedy.

I finished gone with the wind after a long time as I had to leave it in between due to exams. It is I believe one of the best books I have ever read. I don’t promise myself of writing a review because I have been more guilty or lazy in fulfilling them. But I hope.

I have not read the print paper for last 15 days, and I now realize the perils of it. The ennui is taking its toll on me and unusual as it seems but life starts getting a bit dreadful when people around you start leaving along with the money in your pocket and bank accounts.

Piracy: This was the issue I was discussing with one of my friends before an exam. He believes in buying original books and novels irrespective of their cost. It was all a matter of ethics according to him,I was obviously on the wrong side.

I believe piracy is here to stay and today it is almost in us, talking about any normal college student like me.

Piracy in simple terms is unauthorized copying. In dictionary terms it means; the unauthorized use or reproduction of copyrighted or patented material.

Piracy mainly affects software, music, movies and books the mainstays of my life at least. I am not going in to the issues of ideas or Intellectual rights as of now. In short anything that relates to creativity is normally copied.

99 % of percent of computers owned by students in this college, except for a few branded laptops here and there, are running on pirated versions of windows and I have no qualms in accepting that same is the case with mine.

Our college LAN I believe right now has around 118 movies; most of these movies have been either downloaded from net or copied from pirated CD’s. Same is the case with music. Though music piracy is the case more addressed by society. Now if you think downloading stuff was legal, I am sorry to say you are wrong. Copying content and selling or spreading it is illegal.

I am sure in one or other way we use pirated goods in our daily life.

There are two basic reasons why I believe piracy is here to stay. In long run if you analyze piracy affects the distributor or brand creator much more than the content creator. In simple terms if I like Kishore Kumar I like his music irrespective of means by which I avail it. The content creator is always assured of his royalty and in fact is more pleased and benefited if his work reaches the masses even though through piracy.

Main and most obvious reason is cost, I am not stating all the exorbitant price differences but just to give an example Windows XP original version can cost more than Rs. 3000 and pirated CD may cost less Rs. 100.

By all this I don’t condone piracy anyway, it sure is execrable, but the fact of the matter is that market rules and distributors have made it more difficult for us to abstain from buying pirated goods. Unless they find a way to fill the lacuna in cost prices or we find some technological innovation to stop copying, piracy I believe is here to stay. Technological innovation is not the easier way according to me, because most locks in this world have keys or should I say product keys.

On a slightly different note here's something funny,odious and frightening. Arjun Singh's interview on CNN-IBN.

P.S: Tone of above the post I believe must hint you abt the hurry in which I wrote it.

I am an

International Barking Machine. Thank you IBM for taking me.

While They were studying

...I was minesweeping.I think any score under 60 would be excellent,while 69 was tough if would ask me.Let's see if I can manage it before the exams finish.

Btw click on the pic to enlarge ,its intermediate in 69 seconds.

Money

"There's just as much money to be made in the wreck of a civilization as in upbuilding of one"

-Rhett Butler, Gone with the wind.

Absolute brilliance I must say. It all depends on your buccaneering prowess. Philosophically speaking,however grim the circumstances be,there's always a way to take advantage of the situation.

As the Gita says," All that happens ,happens for good."

Update:Rhett Butler seems to be the master of nuggets and aphorisms,here's another one

"Marry for convenience and love for pleasure."

Well quite true, because if you think logically,marriage as an institution originated mainly to set inheritance boundaries and social structure. But that does not mean that marriage is just a societal obligation. More views on subject later.

I expect more aphorisms from Rhett,as I read on.

K.K Soap

Imagine you were introduce a soap against the mighty FMCG companies like P&G and HLL.How would you invade the consumer mindspace.

Lifebouy:Germ Killer
Lux: Beauty Soap
K.K: ?

We had this discussion in one of our G.K lectures at PT,some of the taglines that I remember from cornucopia of ideas that came out are...

K.K: A Soap which serves as mosquito repellant
K.K: A Soap which gives you confidence
K.K: A Soap that strengthen your muscles.

It's all about obtaining that precious little consumer mindspace, and do it without much advertising while competing with giants like HLL is not an easy task.Here's a story of someone who has done it.

C.K Ranganathan the CEO of CavinKare has scripted a very inspiring success story.He was awarded the ET entrepreneur of year award in 2004.Another morsel of story is of Karsan Bhai of Nirma who made life tougher for HLL.

Congenital Indian Inefficiency

Indian governments have a congenital inefficiency; they are extremely inefficient when it comes to implementing laws. I say congenital because this has been going for more than 50 years. We are often besmirched with calumnious statements like we are laggards when it comes to taking decisions. We are like cows that we worship, capable but slow. Indian government to Indian judiciary anything that is state owned suffers from this malaise.

Reservations is one those policies which has had a mildewed effect for if Mr. B.R. Ambedkar was to be believed we should have done with our reservation policies before 1960's. Increase in quotas now only caveats the fact they have not had been successful.

In Times debate today, taking a counter view, Mr. Amrith Lal says

Quotas aren't anti-merit. Merit is a category that is influenced by social and economic hierarchies.

I think he still clings to old shibboleths of education and societal status, today the people who benefit the most from reservations are the ones who least need it, people who albeit being SC/ST/OBC are economically sufficient. Most of these families have a generation which has already reaped on the quota benefits. I think the reservation benefits should be limited to only one generation. But again we are known to make most perfect laws and implement them with resplendent imperfections; hence the repercussions are always unknown.

Although a 125% increase in reservations is exorbitant I think it was inevitable, the fact that this bill was passed 379-2 in the Lok Sabha speaks profoundly of decadent attitude and ethos of our leaders.

Often such cases are followed by page-3 aspirants sallying into action,calling for protests or giving 'I-know-english' type of comments to the local reporter.Last couple of years since my college has gained quite a bit of media importance I have been able understand media quite a bit by being close to such page-3 aspirants.I think I will post about it someday.

At same time protests like Hunger-strike,and other revolutionary measures are not only futile but also a blantant display of temerity.

The best way to deal with situations like these is first to create awareness and then garner some resources , file a PIL and fight it in the court of law. The strong alumni of the ivy -league institutions and the student community can financially support the court proceedings

On a more personal note the increase in reservations filled me with consternation initially but my tenacious optimism as always rescued me and I could laugh it out with this...

As the Old donkey says in Animal Farm

"Donkeys live a long time,none of you has ever seen a dead donkey"
well so do humans and dogs.

Sorry a bit of PJ(personal Joke) but i found the above quote very apt to the situation.

War

Just realized this while reading "Gone with the wind"

"War with all the foolishness that it surmounts to,invites most astute wisdom."

-Anubhav Agarwal,5/4/06

The Independence Hangover

“At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom”

"The world was not sleeping; it was for example 2.30 in USA"

- Hazaron Khwaishyein Aisi.

Yes, the world was not sleeping galloping rather. I somehow had come to believe that Nehru, his commanding heights theory and his “temples of modern India” were all to blame for India’s poor economic growth post independence. Also, I hail from a faction that has always believed that Sardar Patel would have been a better prime minister and Nehru with his ostentatious lifestyle and his deep rooted socialist believes was a mistake. Although I always believed that Nehru was a wonderful leader and a heartthrob of millions, I always doubted his capabilities as an administrator and a decision maker. A lot reading recently has changed my views slightly, though I still reckon he was not the best decision maker around.

One of the many things that we normally level against Nehru is that we had a shunted economic growth courtesy the PSU’s and his central planning concepts that finally bogged down to license raj and hindered the economic growth, in all his socialist views.

As MJ Akbar very profoundly puts it

“I think that's very very unfair. Every 'ism' is basically a reflection of the moment. There's no permanent ism. The only permanent ism can be faith -- like Hinduism or Islamism.”

Very true, Nehru did almost what most of his contemporaries did, at that time to lay out a proper an infrastructure the only way out was state intervention. As Manmohan Singh once said in an interview,

“Let me say that I think the economic history of the last 150 years clearly shows that if you want to industrialize a country in a short period, let us say 20 years, and you don't have a well-developed private sector, entrepreneurial class, [then central planning is important].”

But as somebody once remarked, “Business of the state is to stay out business”, I think after laying initial infrastructure government should have backed out. As Judith brown puts it,

“…the problems lay in the late 1960s and 1970s when the groundwork had been laid for development and the State could have stood back.”
“..Yes, I think he should have given up some time in the late 1950s.”

Actually most of the problems due to socialism that we attribute to him came during Indira Gandhi’s reign. As MJ Akbar says,

“Much of the Socialism that we attribute to him actually came during Indira Gandhi's time, when under the advice of certain people whose names are best forgotten, she went to the point of once even proposing that the wheat trade in the country should be taken over by the government. This is all post '69-70, when politics took over economics.”

Yes, that is when the draconian FERA and MRTP came, when we build walls around us. We prevented ourselves from the Coca-Colaism and Pepsism, although that execrable feat is normally attributed to George Fernandes, the foundations were actually laid with FERA. This was the same time, when Deng Xiao-ping, revered as the greatest Asian administrator, opened the floodgates for FDI in China.

Lets consider socialism as an experiment that failed, but an experiment that was perforce at the initial stage of developement after independence.

As Upamanyu Chatterjee puts it in his usual acerbic candor,

“Has socialism been good for anybody but the socialists?”

On a lighter note I just realized, while typing the above paragraph in MS Word that Deng Xiao-ping is actually a word in its dictionary and Indira Gandhi is not. Looks like Bill Gates, has same feelings for Mrs. Gandhi as Henry Kissinger.

Coming back, another issue surrounding Nehru’s leadership is that he committed an epochal blunder by referring the Kashmir issue to the UN. I am more inclined to believe that Pandit Nehru was culpable in this regard. Claude Arpi gives very strong arguements to this in his article,along with an anecdote redolent of Nehru' s incapabilty of taking decisions in imperious situations ,by Sam Manekshaw.

On the final front of Indo-China war, which finally became his Nadir, one of Nehru's personal weakness was to blame.According to Judith Brown,

[..]problem lay in the fact that he a. was his own foreign minister and b. there was no powerful counterweight of an external affairs establishment or minister to challenge his views.

[..]His inability to delegate -- gathering so much power to his own person as prime minister that he stifled opposition and failed to nurture those who might have challenged him

So, who do you think was a better choice, Nehru or Patel. Nehru was surely more suitable for the international arena albeit it is difficult to explain his grievous foreign policy blunders.

Supporters of Patel say that if he would have been PM , he certainly would have driven the tribesmen right out of India by never agreeing to ceasefire and there would'nt have been an entity like POK.


Alam Srinivas once wrote in the outlook, arguing that such a step would have created an international furore and embroiled Indian realtions with UN.

Although I find it hard to swallow this arguement after all that has happened in Kashmir,I must say that even if we employ inumerable casuistries in our essays we will remain as much vunerable in predicting the past in differnt frame of events as we are in predicting in future.

Bad

I have seen good times. I have seen bad times. I wrote ‘scraps’, people called them ‘craps’. Bad. They derided my jokes saying that they were even below Uganda’s poverty line. Bad. Snide remarks from presumptuous kids became quite frequent. Bad. I stopped visiting blogs of my friends. Bad. They stopped visiting me. Bad. I became extremely irregular with blogging.Worst

22 days after 1^st anniversary of my blog I announce that in future I will try to squeeze a post every 1.5 weeks. Apparently I forgot the anniversary. Thank god blogs do not have a sex.

On 13^th march 2005,in my first post I wrote about one of the Indians I admire the most, M.K. Gandhi, today, I will write about his successors.

One of my teachers once asked me who do you think represents brand India or is the most popular Indian?

What would be your answer?

Aishwarya Rai

Amitabh Bachchan

My answer is Mahatma Gandhi, what’s yours?