Sometimes I wish my life had a erase/rewind button

Friday, April 27, 2007

Test of Vote

Bundelkhand region, a place rich in history and tradition, has suffered a lot from apathy of political classes. The place had terrible education in most of it, hardly any industries tho some parts of it boasts of impressive agricultural production (Jalaun famous for it's mustard production also has the highest tractor density in India) but large parts of it are very poor . The reasons may be many and it also does not help to be parts of two different states (UP and MP) which ensured weak political representation in state capitals. So most of the region just about chugged on, mired in lack of education and industrial opportunity and bad politicians.
However in a delicious irony, the same supposedly illiterate masses have put up a test for vote seeking election candidates. Candidates need to take a written test that asks them about their awareness of local issues. The unkindest cut of them all being the candidates are expected to not merely rattle off facts but have to give their own analysis of the issues too. Heck our universities often do not expect analysis :). Boy that gotta hurt.
This is the kind of change that we want to see across India. People finally realizing the impact of their votes on their own lives and putting a value to the same. There are winds of change blowing across India. And contrary to what these retrogressive leftists and arm chair intellectuals may hold, the wind is not just rustling the top 0.2% of population, it is blowing through the long neglected hinterlands of India.
We still have hope.

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Innocent Villager and Monk: In conversation

Innocent Villager: O saintly one, tell me my future.
Monk: Why the sudden urge brother?
IV: I was taking a nap in the fields yesterday after lunch. I dreamt that I was digging and I found a pot full of gold buried in ground. It must be God telling me to go and find that treasure. Day dreams are always true. So tell me the future O S 1.
Monk: Get up brother. Future says tomorrow the Sun may rise again
IV: O S 1, tell me will I strike a buried pot when I did my fields tomorrow? Better still tell me where I dig to strike gold?
M: Brother dig the entire field, gold will be everywhere?
IV:How O S 1?
M: Just call me brother, brother? Do as I tell u and you'll get gold.
IV: Yes brother * eyes lit up like a child's on sight of a saucer of ice cream *
M: Take your best plow?
IV: Plow brother? not a spade?
M: Brother a spade does hit deep but you can dig only so much at a time?
IV: * wildly nodding * yes brother let me dig a lot
M: Hitch the plow to your sturdiest bull.
IV: Yup bro, I see light I can overturn the entire field
M: Yes brother, see that you get the tip in the ground at least 6 odd inches. Keep a watch on the thing, if there is an obstruction, immediately take your spade and have a look for a pot.
IV: Thanx bro
M: Wait, God has a wickedly funny sense of humor, many times you'll find stones, dig them out and since you've done that, use it to cement the water lines.
IV: Yup bro
M: Plant roots go deep into soil, grabs the pots and so when u pull them out, u can make out from the root if it was in soil or if it was clutching a pot.
IV: where is the plant if I've dug the field
M:patience brother, whats a few minutes of wait to a lifetime of misery?
IV: Tell me brother how to find this pot
M: Yes so after you have dug up the field, drop a few grains of mustard in the field?
IV: MUSTARD bro!
M: Yup mustard.
IV: * a bit disappointed * as u say bro
M: Then put some water in the field so that the seeds go deep, that ways the roots will be deeper. Then when the plants are a bit big, have a look, weeds are strong indicator of wealth. pull them out completely and check their roots. If no sign of pot wait till the mustard ripes, then harvest and see the seeds. Ever look at a mustard field in bloom? Its like gold strewn over.
IV: :O! Bro, thats months of hard labor. My dream didn't have months of wait in it.
M: Brother, u will get the gold, just after you sell the mustard, buy gold and bury it in the field and dig it up a few minutes later.
IV: Bro u jest!
M: Brother if u take naps during sowing time, the only place god can catch u is in your dreams. What God meant was that the gold in your life will come from tilling the soil. There alas are no shortcuts in life.
IV: Bro so many people have found buried gold so I heard. You just don't want to tell me where to dig.
M: Bro if I knew where all God is buried, why wld I be sitting here?

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Abbot and Monk: In conversation III

Monk: Master the way of the world is tough
Abbot: What makes you feel so son?
M: Master there is so much sadness/cruelty/deprivation around. It is tough to be happy outside
A: And son if its sad outside should you be happy in the monastery?
M: Master now that you open my eyes yes its as tough here
A: So son you realize that the search for truth cannot come as an escape from the world. You have to live the world outside while still being in search for truth.
M: So master how do I reconcile my happiness in search of God to the sadness at misery around?
A: Is it immoral to be happy while being surrounded by misery?
M: I do not know. It sure looks selfish to be happy when around you are not.
A: So a poor child dancing with a puppy is essentially immoral?
M: Master it should not be so, its just a child
A: But a child is also human?
M: But it is innocent of the world. Its natural state is to be frolicsome
A: While innocence of the world may be a logical point, the misery for it is real. What is important is a natural state. Happiness is a state of mind, not of affairs. If you prefer being happy, be happy
M: Master, indeed I contemplate God and am filled with happiness.
A: Those moments you blank out the fog and get introduced to yourself. The way to happiness is to look inward.
M: will not people take it as a license to be selfish?
A: There is no harm in being selfish. But that is not the point that I make. Inward means that happiness need arise out of a 'cause'? Its the joy of life. Its about being one with yourself.
M: So I can be, climbing out of a chasm I fell into and feel wondrous joy at being able to come out. What if I am not able to come out and know it?
A: It can still be joy at being able to try climbing.
M: And if I am not able to try?
A: If there is no hope there is no happiness. He that has lost hope has lost it all.
M: Master I see light and it is joy.

Prescience or Pattern recognition?

Recently finished reading the God Emperor of Dune. An interesting idea of a God emperor. Why a God? Leto II has collective memories of his ancestors. Also a startling measure of prescience. Will a startling degree of prescience project an image akin to God on rest?
Somewhere I read (It might be Sherlock Holmes stories or one of the countless other books I keep getting into) that future is essentially a combination of events already happened. In the sense that our collective memories should throw enough patterns that most of future events can be said to have been following one or the other pattern.
So then will someone who has immense collective memory, processing large enough to see patterns and draw projections based on similar patterns in past, achieve a degree of prescience also? Now I ain't saying that its the plot of the book. Just another thought that should such a trait occur, will we be considering the entity as someone in God mode.
Its unlikely that a human brain will achieve that kind of recall and processing, but some quantumesque computer sometime in future may. While maybe not creating events in physical world, such an entity may be able to very accurately forecast a lot of future events. All it will need is some acts and derive the patterns. Will it be a passive God to some or many?

Pune traffic Axioms

1. Vehicles in left most lanes will turn right 80% of times
2. Vehicles in right most lanes will turn left 80% of times
3. 70% of times you will find a vehicle coming onto you when lights are green for you.
4. Traffic cops are mostly bystanders
5. You will get challan'd by a cop only if you stop for him.
6. Concrete road dividers if more than 6 inches high will have people standing on it to come across your vehicle
7. Concrete road dividers less than 6 inches high will have both bikes and people standing on it to come across ur vehicle
8. Any one way bridge will have at least 1 vehicle coming from the wrong direction.
Corollary: Every one way road has traffic in both directions.
Corollary 2: If a 1 way road has only a single vehicle plying, its coming the wrong way.
9. A railway crossing will have vehicles facing the crossing on both the incoming and oncoming lanes on both sides of the crossing
10. Bikes overtaking you will cross over straight in front and will then immediately brake (30% probability).
11. Any road more than a lane wide at a crossing will have only 1 lane available after the crossing. Vehicles from the other roads will occupy the rest of the lanes while waiting the signal to go green. Corollary: at least 10% of vehicles waiting in other roads will get in the cross way while its our turn to cross.
12. People who refuse to be late by 3 seconds by being behind the vehicle standing at a red light (or a railway crossing) will happily spend 15 minutes in a jam created by their being stuck in the oncoming traffic.
13. Bus stops are merely location indicator. You have to stand in the front 2 lanes to actually wait for the bus.

In other news Indian army is planning to introduce an upgraded anti-insurgency course. To train its commandos in the art of always being alert and on lookout, batches of them will be given bikes and let loose on Pune roads. They have to clock minimum 100km of ride everyday. The program is believed to impart that crucial edge of operating in civilian situations with minimum collateral damage while being fully ready for avoiding enemies out to kill you.

Monday, April 23, 2007

ENews

I must say TV has gotten really entertaining of late. No I don't mean the soap operas. Let me clarify, I don't refer to the drama serials. Its the news that takes the cake.
Come Cricket World cup and we had this leading channel helpfully instructing us - this you see is the Indian restaurant where some of the Indian crickets came previous night to have dinner. Yuvi/Zaheer/x/y/z the names were rattled. They had Indian food, and the 'newsman' then rattled off each dish each of our cricket had. Yuvi order butter chicken with tandoori roti , 2 in nos. 37.21 gms of it was left. He had water in a tall glass which he held in his left hand at 11:21 pm and took 2 sips exactly 3 seconds apiece. While some of this is mere creative license, the fact that a leading 'news' channel has to rattle off what each player ate the night before in a restaurant speaks volumes for the kind of stuff we pass for news.
Similarly the recently celebrated "AbhiAsh' wedding. The media was not invited but decided to camp anyways. Well one can't fault them on dedication and page 3 is a money maker. Whether the entire paper should only be page 3 is an interesting question. I'm sure page 1 and 2 will have something to say and so might page 4, interesting though it be to have a paper with only 3 sides speaking in a mathematical sense.
So there is this 'reporter' who dutifully records the interesting fact that while the media is not invited, Mr Bacchan did send some water bottle and food for the campaigning throng. But the real interesting nugget came from the News anchor in the studio. He said it is good to see common decency in place. As if not giving food and water to uninvited trespasser is the new indecency!
I wonder if there is really a demand for such over saturated people worship? But then we are a nation of 840000000 Gods. Whats another 11 or 3 Gods more?

Monday, April 16, 2007

Musings

Ever wonder we teach our kids in school - Napolean's campaigns in Europe, Mayan civilization, Calculas, Newtonian mechanics, predicting reactions of H2SO4, calyx and corolla, Tuglaq...
What we do not teach kids in school - how to drive safely in school, how to change an electric fuse, how to test for adulteration in milk, how to get rid of pesticide in vegetables by washing, how to prevent abuse, how to identify genuine currency...



Kids end up learning all of whats taught in school and lot more data in coaching/tuitions.
Kids never end up learning the surviving skills not by teaching/not by self analysis.
Mayday?

Updated 16Nov2007. Apparently the officialdom has finally realized that school education can serve some purpose in making life better. They are planning to teach good road habits in school now.

Psyche Unraveled

I've often wondered why is India the way it is? Why are authorities often so venal, systems so unfriendly?
I don't know where, but something trigger a thought. It might have been a program on TV or more likely some fragment of a book. The idea expressed was something like that in a democracy people choose the people that they wld have liked to be be. Interesting. That triggers a chain of thought.
So why do we end up choosing mobsters/corrupt guys with such an unfailing regularity? So much so that if any big boss is ever arrested/extradited to India, u can rest assured that he'll be in the fray next election and if not win will probably get decent number of votes.
It strikes me that thousands of years of slavery/despotic kings have so made our psyche that we cannot come to terms with the facts that now we are all equal, all rulers and all subjects as it should be in a democracy. Look at our elections. UP - the state with something like 1/4 of total country's electoral power. and what are the issues. Party ruling in center has a "leader" whose sole aim in life seem to be preaching how his "family" is the only one which can "rule" in India. and mind u his "family" is ruling india. the Current Chief minister has his brother as no 2 in cabinet, son as the future CM. Main center opposition is lead by someone who is in fray and well as his son and daughter in law. A dynastic rule. from Kashmir to Tamil Nadu its the same. and people do vote for the families so it is not an aberration, it is even a demand from a large number of people.
This ingrained thought of still that ruler/serf mentality is what probably comes across as babudom. Look at a normal guy. Dress him in Khaki and he will begin to behave like a ruler. Look at a traffic cop or a normal constable. The guy will behave with normal public like a king. Even with people who should they have chosen too, become IAS/IPS etc, his bosses boss bosses types. He is not a Sarkari Naukar, he is "The Sarkar". The government himself - the sovereign.
Same is for anybody else in power. Heck a few years back a teller in state bank of India used to behave like your master, talking to colleagues, being rude to customers, keeping em in line while he'll do whatever he want to do. and this with people whose money pay his salary. Rules and tax paying serfs. they probably still do just that I stopped going to SBI.
But why do we vote for people who are to be voted. Because inherently we are still rulers and serf. the poor have accepted it as their karma, they are bonded serfs. those who are educated, want to be rulers someday and hence will never challenge
Its all in psyche.

Friday, April 06, 2007

Seattle Sojurn

This past year has been the year of travel. Managed to travel from Delhi to Lucknow via Uttaranchal all by bus. Then a trip to Bangalore, 2 trips to Hong Kong, 3 trips to Lucknow, Trip to US, Charlotte, New York capped by a visit to Seattle. Its a miserably long flight from Charlotte to Seattle. When planes take 6 hours to get you from coast to coast its then that one realizes the sheer size of USA. So there I am, mere 4 days after freezing in New York, in balmy Seattle. First the cabin crew announces some security breach and tells us that subway aint running, then tells us we can't disembark! after arnd 20 min of drama on the craft, sitting on asphalt we are finally let off.
Ah coffee. Now that Seattle is the town for coffee is something I learnt a bit later (tho why??? I mean why shd coffee and Seattle be connected. Columbia - Ok, Indonesia ok, why Seattle???). While waiting for sis dear to come and pick me up I manage to grab a coffee and loose my credit card. Arggghhhh!!!!
Anyways, a little while later I was introduced to this quaint little place called the Fishermen's market. I've noticed this thing about US. They do manage to take quaint places and make it quainter. This market is essentially a trinkets/food market with insane crowd. There is a lot to eat! There is also the first Starbucks that opened here. It was too crowded for me to venture inside so I had to forgo my usual capucino. Ah a bulb blinks inside my head. So thats why Seattle is called the coffee place!
Out of the teeming places and we hit to the space needle. Funny name but the building is quite striking. Did I mention this was an extended weekend? Nah I didnt, so well what do u expect on an extended weekend but crowds? We hence plonked into this museum nearby and that of all the places turns out closed! Museums anyway are a long drawn affair. After generally lolling about the place, we finally hit home.
Next day I managed to get to another place which had a Now I've seen a lot of waterfalls, many quite high and once in Langkawi, even swum a bit in the pool below - try fresh water swimming if you haven't, its quite fun; it was the first time that I had a water spray hitting me while being above the fall itself. Awesome!
Like most places American, the fine folks had made nice pathways to generally mess around and we duly did that. Localites, please note, make me run a few kilometers everyday, I can do with more stamina. I do miss those chaiwallahs that you get at every corner in India. Here we are on a wet day, sitting next to a fall and no tea in sight. Gaah. "Kabhi kissi to mukkamal jahan nahin milta...". I think it'll work wonders if we can send like 20% of our population to US. They get the critical mass for these and we get some breathing space.
Anyways so we generally roamed around, spending quality family time. Seattle is the kind of city that you need to live in to appreciate. No I don't mean coming to terms with the rains. Rather the charm here is really in the museums, the marina on lake Washington, the city spaces and so, things you can't really do in a rushed holiday and enjoy. So if you really want to enjoy Seattle, spend a few days here, pick up a job with good stock ops, laze on the Marina and life will be good. Amen