Lets follow the due process of Law

I am saddened that in their zeal to show their patriotism, some parties and many people have forced lawyers not to take on the cases of Kasab. Infact many bar associations have been guilty of such misplaced enthusiasm. If memory serves me right after the Nithari case too, UP bar association passed a resolution asking lawyers not to defend the accused.
A cardinal principal of rule of law is that accused be given a chance to defend him/herself and when lawyer associations of all try to force its members to go against it, its sad. A lawyer does not merely try to save a client, (s)he is an officer of the court charged with helping a court reach the truth and deliver justice. Let a lawyer serve the man and let the court decide how to punish.
Rule of mob, politicians, emotions will only make us stoop to the level we accuse these terrorists/Taliban of falling.

Why don't we still act

Yet another attack more vicious than before in Mumbai and we will hear the same platitudes. While the brave policemen are dying why don't we prosecute that clown who goes as our home minister for criminal dereliction of duty?
Its time the President sacks this government for failing to execute its prime duty of protecting the life and liberty of citizens. Heads of IB chief and those responsible for preventing such attacks should roll for such brazen incompetence.
28/11
IB needs a thorough revamp. Its top brasses should all be sacked for incompetence, not just the head. Same goes for RAW for if the attacks emanated from Pakistan, RAW should have been tracking it. The NSA needs to explain what was he doing all this time before being summarily dismissed.
Its easy to blame Pakistan and probably ISI did help these guys. But lets separate Pakistan from its army and more specifically ISI. If ISI indeed this play a part, we must now declare it a terrorist organisation and work to have other countries like USA/UK/France/China also do so. If that happens Pakistan army will be forced to disband ISI since well army only exists because US etc gives Pakistan huge aid and arm which the army corners.
Everytime there are attacks and same old platitudes by those who matter. Its time we see some very tough action. And if Manmohan Singh is not courageous enough to act, let him be dismissed too.
The NSG always airlifts from Delhi? Why cant super important cities like Mumbai/Chennai can't have permanent NSG units? Why did NSG come so late? I remember watching a Discovery/nat Geo program on an earlier plane hijack where the local police (and it was a very well trained Punjab police then) wanted to storm the plane but were asked not too since NSG is the units trained to handle such situations. And it took 3 hours for NSG to come to Amritsar where the plane was parked. Meanwhile the hijackers forced the plane to leave which eventually landed in Afganistan and India release many terrorists in ransom. And the NSA in charge then who took these insane decision one Mr Brijesh Mishra never had to answer for his idiocy and went on being a celebrated think tank for BJP!
Apparently we have not learnt those lessons as yet as we never do because our rulers are kings ruling by divine right and they can never be wrong. At this rate though sooner or later patience will break and people will take justice in their own hands ala the movie Wednessday. The clown going as the home minister and his minders are apparently great scholars. They do well to revise their history of French revolution for if the public patience breaks, that'll what it be and he and his minders the Mary Antoinette.

Race to Bottom

These reality shows it seems are more about race to bottom rather than finding real talent. What happens in most of these is that participants gang up to eliminate the good contestants earlier so that they get rid of potential threats soon. In shows like MTV roadies the participants keep telling the camera how they will vote out people not from their city and those that are strong. So the quality actually deteriorates as the show progresses. Why then do such shows allow participants to vote out other participants?
That is why its such a pleasure to watch shows like "So you think you can dance". There is not team voting, judges select the people getting eliminated. And it shows in the quality of talent where each subsequent shows is a bigger treat to watch since the least talented keeps getting eliminated. Alas in Indian reality shows there seem to be very few such formats except in case of some music shows where too having the audience vote often allows regional plays to override. and the judges too are sometimes of dubious quality.
Recently also came across the 'Last comic standing' which seemed another good talent show. Compare that to the Indian humor shows where the only contestants that actually get a laugh are the Pakistani who by and large do not end up being too crass and so are forced to be somewhat funny. Otherwise its the totally inane Sidhu's laugh at jokes that should force any humor loving guy to look for the nearest exit! We Indians just don't get humor. Look at our own telly. So few real good comedies that have come. Same for movies. Its all becoming a race to the bottom.

Demise of the wallet

How long before wallets exit from our lives? A modern mobile can scan visiting cards, make micro payments, keep notes, store pictures. Cash does have benefits of anonymity but soon there may be services that can make anonymous micro payments?
Then why will we need wallets?

सुट्टे पे ban: collateral damage

सुट्टे पे ban लग् गया
कोने पे बैठा पनवाडी lower middle class से गरीब हो गया

ps: its bad to smoke, for your health and for those nearby.

May You Live in Interesting Times

I have been thinking about the great game being played in Asia (Yeah Yeah I know I have too much time on hand!). The ascendancy of China to a regional and global power status and India's potential to be one. No wonder the US offered India a strategic alignment deal and a civilian nuclear deal. All the protestations to the contrary make no mistake, US and India and strategically aligning and it may not be a bad thing.
If one looks at the power equations of today and next 50 years the real economic powerhouses are the US, the European Union (esp Germany), Japan, China and India which is sort of breaking into the club. Japan is a bit of anomaly since while it is the 2nd biggest economic superpower, it does not have a military to match and that is mostly out of choice. However the Japanese navy is big and the nation is technologically advance enough to become a military power very rapidly. Again the same history probably holds it back from arming itself more so since its rearming might make its neighbors (not just China) very very nervous which is not a good state to be in.
European Union is primarily a trade union and does not seem to be heading in any sort of a military coalition (well there is NATO but that derives its strength from US). There is Russia which has inherited the mantle of erstwhile Soviet Union. Russian economy has picked up steam but its unlikely it will catch up with China or India anytime in foreseeable future unless energy prices do wonders to it. But as a military it is again becoming a potent force. That leaves the US, China, Russia and India as the possible players. US is the most powerful military nation in world history and will stay so for the near future though China will bridge the power difference quite a bit.
So there are 3 possible military alliances. US-Japan-China, US-Japan-India, India-China-Russia. I think it is unlikely if Russia will join US in any coalition unless China threatens Russia which is unlikely though there are some border issues in far east between the two. But the legacy of cold war and the inroads of NATO in what Russia considers its own backyards will probably keep US and Russia apart.
US-Japan-China is again unlikely since the rise of China will threaten US and Japan the most and while making friends with a competitor is sometimes a good idea, I find it a bit hard to believe that China will really be content with being a 2nd grade power to US in Asia. Japan again will make China nervous and of course Taiwan is a great irritant. US will not let Taiwan join China if it can help it and Japan will also hold the same view. Taiwan with US listening posts allows US and Japan to keep tabs on China Navy and that is too much of a strategic advantage to lose. Of course a Taiwanese groundswell to join mainland China will be a different issue and that could complicate the situation. It is in India's interest to also maintain that status quo since if Taiwan merges with China and Chinese navy then becomes a real blue navy then India is also threatened.
Russia-India-China nexus while the brainchild of Russia is not really a starter. Post cold war, US-India relations have really improved and unlike China, India has not real dispute with US. This is manifested in the warming of strategic ties with US post cold war and US pronoucement to help India become a 'great power'.
That leaves US-India-Japan as the most feasible nexus and it has great advantages to India too. US help can transform India, the former's technology and scientific lead enormous over all others. All 3 are democratic countries and have no real reason to hate each other. also the political nature of the 3 ensures that there can be no sudden course changes with will reassure the other alliance partners. Japan can contribute a lot with its own financial and technological prowess to India and India offers a great oppurtunity to Japan to increase its own economic growth rates. So this seems a natural alliance and this probably is why India suddenly seem to be getting such good deals like US military co-operation and by all indications a very favorable nuclear deal.
This also creates great opportunity for India but at the same times drags it into a great strategic game which can also be a potential liability. Hence the title. China feels like it is being encircled by US and India falling into US game plan will hurt the most. But then India has even more legitimate concerns of being encircled by China. China has setup listening posts in Myanmar, is fishing in Bangladesh and Nepal. China's play of Pakistan of course is of immediate concern. China gave nuclear bomb designs to Pakistan, gave it equipment and by some accounts actually gave it tactical nuclear weapons and military hardware post the Parliament attack buildup. That charge is a very very serious charge and if true it basically meant that China was joining Pakistan in a war against India were that to happen.
Therefore it is clear that India can take Chinese words on peaceful friendly neighborhood only with a fistful of salt. It has been Chinese policy to ensure peace while they develop their economy. An excellent policy since it has allowed them to grow their economy without distraction. It was also their policy to encourage Pakistan to not allow India the same luxury. Economic power is a precondition for being a great military power and Pakistan's shenanigans have ensures India wasting a lot of time and resources on maintaining peace without India. It will not surprise me if the recent increase in terrorist attacks in India are not entirely co-incidental since they come at a time when India seems to be busy sewing up agreements internationally and they distract from governance at a critical time.
Still India will not like to get into competition with China. The difference in economies are huge with the Chinese almost 3 times as big and India and that difference will not bridge in any foreseeable future barring natural or political calamities. At the same time India cannot simply play a peaceful neighbor not doing anything to anger china (aligning with US or Japan will anger China) since if India does not take US-Japan help it will be too insignificant militarily to do anything once China does become a superpower in 50 years or so. Indeed interesting times.
Can India then join a US-Japan understanding and keep China-India grouping too? Unlikely but not impossible. The trouble with China is understanding them. Its is not infrequent to see Chinese words and actions being opposites. Will an understanding like, we will not build up against you if You let Indian ocean to us and we let Pacific ocean to you. Indian Navy can escort Chinese ships from straits of Malacca to Africa and Mideast and China can do the same to Indian ships in pacific. Obviously India's very strategic location means that it is India's navy which will be escorting more. Still it does offer China a way of of getting into competition with India. china as of now considers India insignificant and its eyes will mostly be on US and Japan. So its not a terrible deal for China. The trick might be developing that trust between us.

To be continues

The Pen ceased its journey on paper

Passing away of Ahmed Faraz has taken away one of finest masters of Urdu poetry of our times. Pakistan will also mourn the loss who like Faiz also championed the cause of their own political ideology often at odds with the oppressive political order.
There are so few of the great Urdu poets left that one at times despair of the cause. The great subcontinent tradition of social and romance poetry will certainly miss his genius.
So long and thanks for all the gems of Poetry

ProtoLife, LHC and the End of the World Mad Scientist Party

What an interesting week this. First Wired reports that scientists are on the verge of creating a new life form synthetically. There have been earlier attempts but they used some existing cell as the base machinery. This seems to be completely synthetic.
Then the big one. LHC goes live today. Not the big bang that its expected to perform but the first scaled down run to test systems happen today (might have actually happened - slow net here so not in a mood to open too many sites). The world's biggest physics experiment starts today. LHC (thats a machine that 'accelerates' particles to near the speed to light) in CERN (a lab in Switzerland build by European countries. it was one of their scientist who built the "www" you see in internet to easily share documents) turns on today.
LHC will if all goes well in the full trial today, swing a beam of protons in an underground 27 mile long circular tunnel cooled by 2000 superconducting magnets and another in the opposite direction. If that goes well, they will attempt to do it many times eventually reaching very very high speeds and then collide the two protons. What will result is interesting. It will be like a billionth of a second after big bang (theory that says universe was created in a sudden instantaneous explosion creating mass and energy). Then they'll check for many things among which is a particle called colloquially the "God Particle" or Higgs Boson, something that is postulated but not proven. It is what is supposed to give a mass to every other things.
Apart from the sheer engineering there is also a lot of controversy on the experiment, one of which is that the collision may create a microscopic black hole that may eat up the world. Apparently many such microscopic black holes are produced also in upper atmosphere due to collisions with solar radiation and our atmosphere but they "evaporate" since they are so small they can just go through everything without actually bumping into anything (most of an atom is just empty space) so the world in majority opinion is safe. Another view is that the microscopic black holes created by cosmic radiations are created at near speed of light and so have the escape velocity while those created in LHC may be too slow to escape Earth's gravitational pull and may stuck around like bad guests.
Time to call for a End-Of-The-World-Mad-Scientist-Party?

CLASSIC PRESS CUTTINGS

While searching for something came across this page on BBC Radio. Read the CLASSIC PRESS CUTTINGS section. Have a cheery day or night

Synaesthesia - 5th dimension Movie

Synaesthesia - where the senses mix so you might end up hearing a picture or seeing a sound(read the BBC article here)? Remarkable thing if only moviedom could harness it.
Imagine a drug or a method that causes this temporary condition for say a couple of hours while u watch a movie (or play a game). Each of us will then sample the movie the way (s)he wants it. And no lousy audio systems to mess the pleasure.
You hear scene, taste a dish on the screen, feel that car lurching!

Question of Allegiance

Left Front chairman in West Bengal and Politburo member Biman Bose on the Somnath Chatterjee controversy as quoted in Indian Express
" He was following the Indian Constitution but we have to follow the party Constitution.” (link). So the Party Constitution is in conflict with Indian Constitution? And for members Indian Constitution does not matter if the Party lays a path in conflict? Interesting indeed.

Where is the inflation?

The prices of potatoes and onions may be rising but hey the MPs are coming cheap! I mean a mere crore to save a government? Its shocking I tell ya. Never have we sunk so low.
Now all we need to do is to include bribe rates in computing the rate of inflation. Its an essential commodity for most indians (for 'gifting'). These falling corruption rates will get the inflation rate down and generally create a feel good factor that might re-elect the government!

Its a Billion? 100 Billion? Its a Potato!

Zimbabwe introduces a 100 billion dollar bill! Hard to imagine that. Why not simply re-designate the 1 dollar bill to be equivalent to 100 billion dollar and save some paper? Given that the new bill will not even buy a loaf of bread it really makes me think how do business decide on price. If the 'official' inflation at 2.2 million percent is anything to go by, what you charge today will be too cheap tomorrow so how do you decide on a price?
Why not peg your prices to say a kilogram of say potatoes? While it will surely be comic to write on the plaque - this building costing a billion potato was dedicated to the glory of revolution by President Mugabe, it will also serve a reminder to future how an incompetent government can quickly ruin a rich country. A reminder we in India can do with. It might help us who are fortunate to live in a much more stable economy (at least as yet) to make sense of prices. And bring the much needed recognition to the veggie that has staved starvation for many.
Incidentally its a shame that the world has not done enough, a UN resolution being blocked by two of our own best friends Russia and China. I wonder why do votaries of morality in international politics that so eagerly jump on each Indian move with US as evil don't comment on that?

Updated Jul 30.
Apparently their reserve bank thought so too. They have introduced a new currently where 1 new Z$== Z$ 100 Billion of old. (Read is here on BBC). Potato has been denied its own currency

Why the farce

The farce being played out over the Indo-US nuclear deal while having huge entertainment value, is also instructive in its causes. The primary reasons I think on this is Congress's political incompetence matched by monumental hubris with another that we'll also discuss.
Hubris because as far as I can see, I saw no real effort in Congress trying to reach out to opposition (SP leaders even said it in so many words) and build a consensus over its merits. The same argument that goes that Left is guilty if they vote with BJP just because its BJP probably was at play or not. Lets assume both Left and BJP here have no hidden agenda and seriously think the deal is severely detrimental to Indian interest. So should the Left vote for the deal merely because BJP is opposing it even while fully believing that a party with national interest in mind will oppose it? The argument is dangerous in extreme. So if the only reason Congress did not talk to BJP overtly is this than God help India. Here you have 2 parties that together have been given more than 1/2 of all votes polled in India not talking even on matters of supreme national interest because of some new untouchability? This is both incompetence on Congress's part and monumental hubris if they thought that opposition's views never matter.

That is what comes of Congress's Durbari culture. Those who matter in the party are not those who understand politics or have talents useful to nation. They are there because they swear undying loyalty to the family. No wonder they seriously overestimated their hand and seriously underestimated the play of parochial interest that is so in our genes. But that is not the only juvenile political decision. Last year when the difference with Left first came out in open all the commentators were saying call the left's bluff and go for the kill. If Congress had actually gone in for the deal then they would have in all probability got a much bigger deal.

The fact is that the international momentum over the deal has largely fizzled out. Last year India would have had an upper hand in negotiations, now the government if it survives will still be perceived as a weak government that can fizzle out. Furthermore given the politics over the deal the impression is that plenty in India want to kill it which will give fodders to those opposed to deal internationally. Domestically the economy was doing very well, things were under control.
As the conventional wisdom says economic policy decisions take around 3 years to reflect in numbers. The good run till last year was more because of good fortune of favorable global outlook and earlier policies. Inflation of today is because of unfavorable global outlook and the supreme inaction of an emasculated government that had no substantial reform happening. Global outlook is out of our control but Manmohan Singh should have figured out that lack of reforms will come to haunt at some time.
Congress should have realized last year that BJP will not want an election while the economy was blazing and a feel good mood was around. Further more BJP as a party was moribund. left just had had Nandigram and Singrur and they would have hated an election even more. Granted Karat has never fought an election and hence doesn't care about public opinion but the Left governments in states do. They might have just backed out.

Congress has also been grossly incompetent in not emphasizing the various facets of the deal. It because for Left- a strategic alliance with US - which it is but its only a part of the whole, for others it was about energy which is also extremely important for a power starved India. But the deal is more than just that. For one, its about gaining entry to nuclear commerce club where US is not the only country. More importantly it opens doors to all sorts of dual use technologies. Indian scientists and engineers will be allowed to study such technologies in top foreign institutes. Dual use things like special alloys, fertilizers, space tech, military tech, doors will open to all sorts of collaboration with various leaders in the fields to India. Top talent can come over from abroad and work in Indian firms that will help raise the standard of cutting edge in India. Where is the even mention of all these things by the government.

The 3rd reason is BJP's own petty chagrin. As an MP in the Lok Sabha debate so eloquently put it the BJP's opposition is not because of substance of the deal, its because Advani's signature is not on it. There are reports in media of NSA and Manmohan briefing key leaders of BJP and those leaders accepting that the deal is very well done. Yet BJP chose to oppose the deal because of petty reasons.

The very fact that a party that has its base in urban India (arguably the future India) has nearly killed the deal that it itself started and knows is in national interest merely to score points, deserves itself being sent into political oblivion. The fact that I who hated the dynastic culture of Congress now hope that BJP is voted out humiliatingly should be a lesson to such parties. Those who are sent to parliament are supposed to work for the nation. If they are willing to sell out the nation of a mere red light on an antiquated car, they have no place in public life. And more than Congress which is mostly incompetent in this saga, it is BJP that acted evil and deserves to be taught a lesson.

Updated: Sometime later in the day:
A news report said that Ajit Singh and Dev Gowda have commented that Government seems to be winning and so they cannot predict how (their) voting shall go. Dev Gowda apparently has asked for Sonia's time later today. These leaders where in discussions with Both Government and opposition had publically gone anti government. Now that govt seems to be carrying the motion they are thinking of switching sides.
Translation: Sorry we made a wrong move but doesn't matter. You can hand over your money to us now.
Boy T20 wasn't half as much fun as this.

I wonder

I wonder if BJP might secretly be wishing for the Congress to win the confidence vote? That ways they will not have to make good their promise to 'renegotiate' the nuclear deal with USA. At the same time they can claim to have fought the deal if anything goes wrong in future!

PS: Amar Singh says SP now supports Congress on the nuclear deal since the deal is in national interest. He also says that 'communalism' is a greater threat to India than the nuclear deal hence supports Congress. Just wondering if the second biggest threat to nation can be in national interest?

Musings on a trip to a religious place

Its amazing the amount of violence devotees happily inflict on other devotees pushing and punching, jumping over ropes delaying those who actually wait in queue to get a darshan of someone who preached love and devotion!

PS: Those planning to go to Shirdi from Pune, the most convenient route is to follow the Yerwada road (if coming from Boatclub, get down the bridge and take a right. Just follow the route keeping always on left till Ahmednagar and there ask for directions to Shirdi.

Pesticide Free Vegetables?

So if you buy some fresh veggies and find insects, larvae etc alive on some, is it a good sign? A sign that its not doused in Pesticide?

Indian Museum of Human Development?

NYTimes has a report about an impending auction of some artifacts of science history. How I wish one of our Indian agencies/corporate buys up some of these and makes a science museum. Its such a pity that the land that gave the world such wonders of science like the decimal system, the zero, had plastic surgery during the time of Sushruta in 6th century BC does not have a decent science museum while we spend millions on statues year on year.

We can start with a nucleus of such a manuscript library and slowly build it up (hopefully adding few remaining Indian manuscripts on science etc. It might rekindle the scientific spirit in some of its wonder struck children visitors.

Training for Nirvana?

Came across this speech at NYTimes blogs. A brain scientist gets a brain strokes, recovers and talks about it.
One of the points she mentioned was that with her controlling the body part of brain shutting down she had almost a euphoric sensation for a while. She is detached from her own body- viewing it as some separate machine.
I've always wondered what do these yogis, mystics talk about when they talk about dhyan and euphoria and detachment from physical world. Is it that what the meditation unwittingly unlocks is a switch that shuts the rational mind off for a while leading to such an experience we often talk in terms of 'revelation', out of body experience, communion with God etc?

Maybe this time they will investigate

Jaipur was hit by serial blasts. An event that would have shook the nation wildly but for the fact that its become a regular occurring event. All politicians are playing the blame game. States blame center, center blames states, BJP blames Congress, Congress blames BJP and people will die on.
Meanwhile our VIPs will continue playing the give me more security game. The status of a VIP is rated by how many security personnel they have. A lowly one gets like 18! policemen, higher ones may get more than 100! How does sheer number helps doesn't make itself clear to me but apparently the Kings know it so they keep increasing their security detail numbers while blaming lack of policemen for crime investigation and prevention.
After all the government will get time to pay attention to citizen deaths once the ministers get time from writing letters to other ministries to corner government largess for the family, or after settling the burning issues of cricket. It seems every state's cricket body is headed by a minister or erstwhile minister. J&K has Farrukh Abdullah, Bihar has Laloo, Sharad Pawar is the head of BCCI.
But there may be a silver lining here. Today's TOI mentioned that many Australian cricketers were planning to return back post the blasts. That'll deal a blow to T20 which is cricket's latest money spinner. We know that politicos in India care only for money and cricket. So it might be a double whammy for them. This might just about make them try and work on prevention of such activities, at least in places important to cricket.
We can dream.

Sham Democracy

Manohar Joshi, the ex Lok Sabha Speaker in an interview post his book "1B" launch mentions that often passengers were too scared to talk to him when they realized that they were sitting next to a Shiv Sena MP. An MP (speaker of House of representatives no less) is feared because of which party he belongs to and that party is a registered political party! Speaks volumes about how our democracy has degenerated.

Another MP, cabinet minister and in charge of "human resources including education" swears that he pledged his loyalty to the family and will remain true to it and that is how he is judged. Please not, he does not mentions he pledged to constitution or to safeguard India's interest but of the "family". Does no one finds it odd that loyalty to a "family" and its rewards being ministerial births a slapping insult to democracy? Was this why people shed blood to liberate this country, why Patel and and Nehru worked to get the kings away from deciding citizen's destiny? If this is not an insult to us and our constitution than what is? But I am sure we will vote in the same people who will reward his subversion of democracy with more power.

Then we have our ackowledged security experts, our scientists (and those not dependent on political masters to continue in job) touting the nuclear deal, other defense agreements, oil pipelines only to have the political masters (including one who traveled in a Jet to Taliban, gifted them mangoes and lots of freed terrorists) citing Kalam's competence to judge the nuke deal? or left who opposed India's nuclear program but support's Iran and want India to support it no matter what the political costs?

Or Das Gupta of CPI who said Dalai Lama has insulted India by being political when the gentleman says he is not against China owning Tibet but want cultural genocide to end? His party and its ilk actually compared Tibet to Kashmir. As far as I know India is not illegally occupying Tibet tho China does have parts of Kashmir ceded to it by Pakistan. As far as I know Kashmir does not let rest of Indians buy land there while Tibet is probably now Han majority? Will the communists allow India to follow the same policy in Kashmir as China in Tibet (after all these are similar cases as per dear commies of India)?

The Earth Day Special: Cleaning up broken CFL

I have now replaced almost all incandescent lights with CFLs. Did you know there are yellow CFLs too, a bit more expensive but if like me you like the soft yellow lights, they are great. Hopefully LEDs will become cheaper soon when I'll move to LED lights.
What many of us don't realize is the CFLs contain mercury and such rather dangerous elements (do you know that mercury is dangerous for health? ). India rather helpfully doesnt even have such information publicized on the CFL packs and our recycling efforts are joke. While ultimately our toxic trash might still end up in some landfill untreated because there are no recycling centers at least we can ensure that we do not poison our living spaces. So here are some tips on how to handle a CFL breakage.
Now that you know how to handle CFL waste, go ahead and replace incandescent with CFL. And don't worry while more CFL means more mercury around, it is still less than the mercury our coal fired power plants put into air to power the incandescent lights.

State of Hindi Publications and What can We do About It.

I often keep searching for Hindi magazines to read. As it happens Pune does not really have good outlets keeping Hindi books barring the occasional Premchand, lot less magazines. So the only option is to search online. I came across this very well written piece that talked about the current state of Hindi Publishing.
It is indeed sad. I remember the time I was still a middle school boy, there were Dharmayug and Saptahik Hindustan that carried great pieces in Hindi. Alas both folded up. I was surprised to read that Dharmayug was printing over 4 lakh copies a month during those days. It was a pity that the very rich Times of India group and Hindustan Times group could not manage to keep these two periodicals running.
Most of the few remaining Hindi journals have an monthly print of 5000 copies or less. Its sad to see that Hindi state governments can spent crores every years in erecting statues and like but cannot spend a couple of crores in subscribing to these magazines that preserve a whole culture and provide for intellectual dynamism of the masses.
This is one thing that I admire about Maharashtrians (its also there is south from what i hear but I know about Maharashtra since I now live here). Average educated Marathi takes a lot of pride in sustaining the Marathi cultural pursuits like literature and theater etc. And its not just some notion of philanthropy that makes them pay money. The fact is that people genuinely enjoy the local art forms.
Hindi heartland probably suffers for its poverty. The big towns has its literary minded citizens reading English. and the small towns probably find the whole trouble to getting writers to contribute, print and distribute a quality magazine too expensive for its general public. I think there is also a lack of certain awareness. I and many of my friends would love to read Hindi magazines of literary kind. And I do spend money buying books so yes given a quality periodical, I would buy it. Same would go for so many of people like me, people in cities like Pune. Bombay, Bangalore, Hyderabad, California and New York.
There is a surprising lack of online presence of these magazine. This especially comes in way of expats, a lot of whom feel nostalgic about the literature and culture back home. An online - subscription and/or ad based magazine I am sure will find takers. We already have Hindi Newspapers seeing very healthy circulation. So a large group like HT or TOI should find restarting a web based Hindi magazine maybe chump change.
There are I am sure lots of writers who still write in local languages. If these online periodicals start accepting stories online getting submissions may not be tough. There could even be some sort of a view + ratings based system where all submissions are up for view and those that cross a viewership/rating threshold gets money proportional to the number of views. To get around the usual moronic vandalism that happens on online sites, maybe a submitter needs to open an account with the site for say INR100/- so only serious authors get online and INR100/- is so low that any author will be able to sign up.
Similarly deals can be made with corporates to buy a few copies for reception areas, schools for libraries. Language schools teaching Hindi could be another target demographics. In short I think embracing new technologies, newer channels of distribution should easily allow for another 50000 a month copies for a quality journal. Even at that tiny volume, a small profit can be made.
Another idea could be that some of these magazines can even double up as literary agents. Yes there can be certain amount of discomfort with this idea but maybe a separate marketing function can take care of it. So a magazine can hook up with say a TV producer so serialize a story or have a story and episode kind of format. Both the existing publisher and the author can share the royalties from it.
Lets see if any of this is realized. Who knows one day if I have some money I might start some venture of my own. After all dead of a language is too painful to be allowed.

Driving me crazy

Since the theme this month seems to be ads, a few more thoughts have to be foisted here.
First that IPL and more so KolKatta Knight Riders (KKR). There ads are more ubiquitous than stink in a roadways loo. You can have 10 min of peaceful channel flipping without running into these days. I suspect if the IT department were to investigate the costs incurred on ads, we may be able to avoid personal income tax imposition at all.
Coming back to ads IPL ads (and 99% of which are KKR) all show a contest where there is a winner but each one of the contest has a winner winning by a means other than cricket! Sometimes its dance, sometimes it some ball game involving kicks, sometimes shouting. Sign of times? This circus promises to be everything but cricket if the ads are any indications.
There is a BSNL ad that has a babe agreeing to a good match till she discovers that the prospective in-laws place has no landline! I mean hello couldn't the ad agency pick a more plausible reason than equating a BSNL landline with identity?

Then there are those good ads. The new Vodaphone ads are typically cheeky and fun and the theme goes well with the target audience of teenagers.
-- to be continued (when I can recollect the other ads, KKRs carpet bombing has pretty much left no ad space left for other folks).

Another recent ad I like is from a plywood firm. The ads shows a couple of lawyers arguing about a case with the judge hammering the desk (made of plywood) to adjourn the rather comical debate. And the debate goes on. While being fun it is also a powerful satire on the justice system where a simple case goes on long enough for an adolescent to be a creeping old.
Similarly there is that ad from a radio station that has someone inside a manhole singing a happy song with a message that our listeners are always happy. Simple, yet conveys the message that its channel that will play fun songs.

Is it debate, Is it poetry? Sounds like Abuse to Me :)

The old timers got many things right. I came across this - an impromptu abuse session in a paper today. Abuse as an art form! Come to think of it why not. In colleges there used to be "creative abuse" contests which were well very creative at times.
Satire as an effective form of commentary on social conditions or happenings has been in existence for long. But "abuse" as a commentary on social conditions and happenings I found rather novel. If we look at our modern day politics, so much is about abusing the others. Now at least these leaders can claim to be artists. So folks doncha worry no barbarians at the gates any more. Its an infestation of art spirit.
On a more serious note, yes there is something in satire/abuse that often brings out the creative best in people. Why not have this as a form of creative expression and let off steam? Since these are public events often with neighbours/friends in attendance I doubt if the sessions would degenerate into crass name calling - which the participants insist is not there. Then it seems more like what they call in Hindi as 'Haasya Kavi Sammelan' - humor poetry session. and such sit down social events can only lead to more fraternal spirit. The only difference is that one is allowed to retort to an 'abuse'. A debate in poetry format - what fun!
This is a model I'd like to see happening on a bigger scale.

Non resident resident

There is a recent report of an MP involved in some controversy in delaying an aircraft. What I find interesting is that the said member of Rajya Sabha (the upper house of Indian Parliament) is apparently an NRI based in Dubai.
Isnt it an eligibility criteria that the candidate for a RS seat be a 'resident' of the state? How is a non resident Indian a member of a house of parliament meant only for residents of a state. While it may be legal because he is a citizen, isn't it against the spirit of the house?

The future is advertising?

The future is advertising? Going by the almost universal demand on everything on internet being free,- just look at emails/chat etc, it stands to reason that ad supported free sites will only go on. Now there are paid sites that also use ads, and some of them pretty obtrusively too and they are tolerated. I foresee eventually every other site will have heavy ads. But lots of ads itself does not help much. What the advertisers will of course like, are ads that are effective. Ads that actually interest the viewer and here comes in the success of sites like Google and all that do a lot of data mining and come up with targeted ads based on certain well researched assumptions of the user interest.

Even non internet ads – especially those that rely on broadcast media do a lot of research based on the preferences of the target audience before deciding on the exact ad message. Recently there was a report in Guardian of UK that talked about neuro-research driven ads. Here the advertiser actually map a sample’s brain waves/cell conditions in response of specific types of ads and based on the ad that generates a more suitable mental reason, come up with the campaign.

In some distant or not so distant future once net connectivity is ubiquitous so that broadcast networks can actually have appliances in user homes which can feedback data and receive targeted content (esp. in case of ads). This is not far fetched since cable modems already have capability to feedback data to the service provider. Such a setup can have a sophisticated sensor that can actually sense the brainwaves from a distance. Or maybe there is a headset based system that may be able to capture brainwaves while projecting a 3 dimensional image of the programming directly onto the retina. What prevents us from then say putting an ad for a similar whiskey on the screen when the hero in that flick is swishing a stiff one and the viewer indicates a similar wish?

Interesting case would be when instead of a headset, there is just one device in the room and all see ads based on whichever person it focuses on. Imagine a set of conservative parents and some interestingly iconoclast adolescent sitting together and the unit latching onto some of the viewers randomly?

Or a case of a hall full of people with a large TV set (like in sports bar and all). Might be quite some fun to speculate who trigger that ahem ad!

Olympic torch in India and Tibet protests

India does have a delicate balancing act in the whole Tibetan - China issue that is right now taking the world's center stage. While justice demands that we strongly oppose the cultural annihilation of Tibet being conducted by China, real politic demands that the government conducts itself with India's best interest in mind and not being guided by emotions.
That said as a genuine democracy India must not repress any peaceful protest against China or the Olympic torch. Democracy as the most participative of the current political systems needs to emerge a winner here. So all the security and all being planned for the torch relay into India is fine, let no harm come to the torch that is a symbol of human athletic achievements.
At the same time nothing should stop us from letting peaceful protests happen in background. What is the harm is allowing black armbands? Or people staging plays depicting the concern in the backdrop of a torch and our TV covering it? Will China like it? Of course not. But so long as the torch is not harmed we must be firm. No one respects a lap dog, a lesson many of our senior politicians and powers to be will do well to realize. Yes China will fret and fume and that is their right. And it is our right to show how a competent democracy works and how people are free to do their will in India so long as they do it peacefully,.
China will respect a confident India and not a groveling India.

Equal society or Tyranny of the Clique?

Judging from what the fine intelligent patriotic intellectuals in our left politics (and across the globe) say about communism being the best politico-economics system that really fosters equality and liberates mankind from tyranny, I wonder why all communist countries so heavily repress their own people?
And to those who counter this by saying that no they don't its merely the pro capitalist media that spreads disinformation I'll ask if that is true why do countries like China have so much state control over media, do not allow foreign journalists (or human rights workers since journalists apparently are all rabidly pro-capitalist) to freely interact with people?
Why are communication channels so heavily controlled (China has a state firewall that actively screens content)? If all are so equal why do only communist party members have only real power in such countries?

Dynasties in Democracies

Some of my earlier posts may indicate my distress at the dynastic politics. Now Now I am not changing my attitude here. Dynasties especially in politics which is all about power are especially bad since they embody essentially the earlier dynastic monarchy principles.
Dynastic tendencies are apparent in so many other spheres. Privately held companies often suffer from a "business in family" syndrome. Professions especially those related to "brand for life" based on personal relations like medicine, law especially and some pure clientele list based like architects and all also have dynasties. In law and medicine its because its very easy to inherit clientele while in other cases its because a certain amount of trust builds over time of the brand and unless the progeny does something to tarnish the brand its usually simple to merely continue with the business relationships.
Politics on the other hand is not such a personal thing. A politician essentially takes decisions that affect everyone within that control group (some say most politicians these days work in a way that affects everybody else within the control group, but i digress). In the days of hereditary monarchy, well all the lines bad? Depends really. In case the empire was strong you might often find some rulers ascending that were not so good. But usually the very nature of earlier system was that if the dynasty didn't mend itself, soon someone will replace it. Hence some amount of natural selection was always in play.
Even India's caste system with its brutal suppression of individual will, still saw some spectacular works when in came of skill based castes. The Gupta period arts and architecture is a tribute. Why would it happen? The key apparently lied in the fact that since the poor kids had no choice of profession left, they picked up the parental profession. And the parent put their heart out in teaching their children their craft since more skills often meant more money (or your only chance of a full square meal). Go to one of those craft villages in Rajasthan and all and you can find very young children churning out great pieces of furniture/paintings etc. again because the activities are happening around them all the time and once kids start playing with tools they master it very fast.
Can it be that in the same ways politics run in family because well at top level the kids see master politician at work all the time and learn much better than an outsider that have to figure out things on own? Its also a critical help that the network for politico kids is already made ( a key reasons lawyer families do so well). So is dynastic politics good? By vilifying the dynastic politics are we actually denying the freedom of choice for politico-kids?
My real issue with the Congress brand of politics is not that the sons and daughters and wives and daughter in laws get into politics. Its with the ways and motives it is done. No one really grudges Indira Gandhi her ascendancy to power some years after Nehru. The reason is because in her case she was already active in politics and her claim to power came after she had build a base of her own. Compare that case to Mrs Sonia Gandhi. She was offered the congress presidency after her husband's tragic murder. and she has 0 political experience in terms of public life (no one knows if she was not advising Mrs Indira Gandhi nee Nehru and Mr Rajiv Gandhi over dinner table, but she had done no work as a congress worker). Similarly Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi were talked as future prime ministers of India without even a college election to their name forget any sort of grassroots work.
Here a demonstrated ability was not the key to success. it was pure name. That happens only in powerful dynastic monarchies. A lawyers has to pass exams, become a member of the bar before getting into father's (or mother's practice). A doc spends an exuberant youth buried in books before being allowed to see a patient. Where is a similar demand of proving one's skill to able hold power and mobilize people in these political dynasties?

ITIs and not IITs are the answer

Read about this interesting proposal in Outlook India. I have been wondering about the same issue for some time now. Based on my own experience of trying to hire software engineers I can say most colleges including some of the very popular Engineering colleges in the country are totally clueless about teaching real skills. Most guys can't think of solving simple problems, while they may regurgitate a perfect textbook answer stumbled when acted to apply it to simplest of real world problems. And we are talking some of the countries top engineering (except maybe the IITs and some erstwhile RECs) colleges. I can only imagine the level of engineering education in the small town colleges.
Again my own experience of studying in the major University has not been the most pleasant. Baring a few teachers, more didn't know how to make a topic interesting and almost none could relate theory to practice. No wonder we are a nation of mere drone workers and not of researchers. There is an understandable worry also reflected in media now about and impending skills shortage while millions remain unemployed and unemployable. But while we see a lot of jaw jaw happening on skills shortage in IT and such high skilled vocations not enough attention is being paid to a lack of training into vocational courses for the real poor.

Agriculture still employs like 60% of India. No amount of poverty alleviation programs will work unless we address such a skewed number. Most of such workers I guess are mere labourers who well having no other vocational skill work on pure manual labor. Meanwhile construction industry in India (again among the largest employers of real poor Indians) finds an acute shortage of skilled labour like plumbers/carpenters/electricians. Try getting someone skilled to do any sort of repair work at home and you'll realize that lack of training is a real concern. If we can train even 10% of this segment in the next 5 years that will mean something like 30 million people who end up trained skilled labour! That also means 30 million less people dependent on pure agriculture jobs (though many might end up working as pump repairers, tractor repairers etc which will add a lot of value to that sector too and actually generate a lot of employement for rural folks).
Currently there are only about 5000-6000 ITIs in India. And numbers don't tell the true story. A look at statewise figures reveal that the industrialized states like Karnataka, TamilNadu, Maharastra have almost double the number (range of 600-800) ITIs than the most populous states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar (300 and 98!) respectively. No wonder UP and Bihar mostly yield only unskilled labour since the training institutes simply don't exist. While I could not find average student intake in ITIs, some information mentioned a batch of 10-20 students for some specialized courses. Digging deeper there are around 50000 industrial units associated with the ITIs and since industrial apprentiship is a mandatory requirement if we assume 10 trainees an year per unit that gives it around 1/2 a million industrial graduates an year. For a population of 1 billion where 600 million are still dependent on land this is too small a number.
Why cant we have another 10000 IITs especially in areas that have been left behind the industrialization curve? There should be atleast 1 ITI per district headquarter. Infact a lot of big manufactoring and many service firms especially related to construction sectors can easily give apprentiship to such trainees. If some sort of contract to work for say 2 years at decent wages can be enforced a lot many might even fund the studies of poor students.
Judging from the IT sector experience the firms are already bearing the pain of skills shortage. Other sectors must also be experiencing the same. And wage inflation must be surely worrying the industry brasses. In such a scenario the need for better trained people hardly needs selling. My own take is that the industry might be happy to actually fund such training not just in terms of direct money contribution but in terms of course content and even faculty. Software - again as an example, already has top firms investing heavily in training facilities for freshers. Many firms have also started sending experienced professionals to colleges to conduct some workshops. The same idea can be implemented for ITIs too.
So the industry can actually pay for course and facility upgradation which can either be offset by some tax breaks or is simply taken in as a cost of business that slows down wage inflation - not a bad deal for many. As an added incentive the industry can offer paid education in return for a job contract - not a new idea since many firms do make freshers sign job bonds citing the training costs. Once such institutes and job contracts are in place, industry might even be willing to locate in areas currently low in development index because the skills supply is assured.
At the same time with more Indians being able to get into organised sector the whole issue of "unreported" economy can also be better tracked. Plus organised sector will enable rolling out of social security net across to people who need it the most.
Lets face it, we will not be able to eliminate poverty unless we address the basic employability issues staring in the face of majority of Indians. And the time to do so is now.

Indian War of Independence - Unfinished Business

My maternal grandfather, a M.Sc in chemistry in times when someone who passed 10th class in India was considered highly educated, did not join the industry as some hotshot. While manufacturing ink and chalk to sustain family, fought the British masters for Indian independence, went to jail, hid leaders at his places during times of British crackdown and then when Independence was achieved, gave up all, not using his friends in freedom struggle now big shot in Delhi politics, back to a simple family life. The struggle he maintained was for freedom, of mind, body and soul and not for being rulers of self. So once achieved he shunned all trappings of politics, not even to the extent of registering as freedom fighter which on those state controlled times would have made government jobs for his successors easy.
Turns out he was wrong. There was a time when clubs had signs - "Dogs and Indians not allowed in". The sign are back up these days. "Dogs and North Indians not allowed" or "Dogs and (Kashmiri) Muslims not allowed" or Dogs and Northeast Indians not allowed" Or "Dogs and Kannadigas not allowed" or Dogs" and "Tamilians not allowed" depending on which part of India you are in. We have changed one set of "rulers" for another.
Did Tilak fight for Independence of Pune only? Did Gandhi gave up his lawyer practice, endure hardships for independence of Porbandar only? When Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev put the noose on their neck singing "Desire of sacrificing our lives is in our hearts, /Let us see how strong are the biceps of the murderer." Did they die just for Punjab? I guess not. We spent 1500 years in slavery because we never stood up as a nation against foes. It was either caste or region or a village which was the max we were willing to look after and paid the price.
Today when Raj Thakre and his ilk preach such narrow bigotry, they are playing the same game that rulers in India played earlier inviting foreign invaders to come in and attack the neighboring kingdom so that they can annex it once the invaders go back home. Pity they never went back home. And its not just this Thakre who is committing what for me is treason. There are many.
That Kashmiri student in train who told me that how can he think fondly of India when his classmates in the engineering college call him a Pakistani just because he is a Muslim and from Kashmir which has a separatist movement? Or Tamilians beaten in Karnataka and Kannadigas beaten in TamilNadu when Kaveri issue flares? Or the Biharis killed in Assam and the Assemese woman dragged from a train and raped in Bihar in retaliation? How can we call ourselves a nation when such brazen acts of hate crimes take place and nothing happens?
Why are leaders calling for hate crimes against fellow Indians from a different group not tried for sedition and treason with its full impact?
We need another war of independence. This time from bigotry and hate. We shed blood to get rid of British. We need to shed more blood to get rid of our prejudices

Lessor Crime?

The Times of India has this excellent piece by S A Aiyar that one must read and understand. To all those troubled by the fact that sometimes very illiberal parties get voted by educated people even is because the others are equally illiberal in India.
When the choice is between a murderer and a rapist who do you think has committed a 'lessor' crime?

India tour of Australia: The bad, the ugly and the stupid

The whole cricketing row is amusing and at the same time disheartening. This is what happens when sports folks become page3 'celebrity items' and 'socialites' (all politicians are) start running the show.
To be honest if Bhajji really called Symonds a monkey, it was a monumentally stupid thing to do even if not intentionally malicious. As a page3 item boy Bhajji must have been aware of the rukus a act of a spectator in India making monkey action at Symonds caused. If after all the rukus (and probably justifiably - racism in any form cannot be condoned) Bhajji had the stupidity to use it without meaning harm he is a fool of top order who deserves to sit out for the same.
One can argue that Australians probably must have also hurling abuses and knowing Australian team on cricket, I'd be very pleasantly surprised if they were not be viciously/criminally abusive on field so why not pay them back. Agreed. The way to do that is to report every such incident and use our financial muscle in ICC to then punish them severely. If ICC still ruled that its all part of the game THEN use the same abuse words back at the Aussies and their well wishers. Since Cricket Australia and ICC would have already ruled those terms acceptable- Indians couldn't be faulted.

Learn from Tennis. They have introduced a challenge system where a player can contest a decision of the chair umpire when TV replays etc are called into picture. Simple format and no reason why it can't work for cricket? Alas our clueless politician manning the BCCI spend so much time chasing the glamour they have no time to think of making the sport less error prone. Equally likely they are simply too incompetent to think of such simple measures.
A recent piece is papers also suggest implementing some pay cut feature against obviously wrong decisions on the umpires. Again such a system will act as hindrance to malicious incompetence. Given the financial stakes involved, there is simply no excuse for incompetence in the sport any more. Instead of fighting over issues by threats, its time to reform the sport. Otherwise it will simply degenerate into mud slinging exercise.