Would you like to pay for your surf?

A normal professional's work day today begins in the morning clamoring to get to work. Once there, there is this cooling off period, although varying, but there for sure to begin to look at news, sports, email etc. A lot of websites are 'favorites' and browsers like chrome do put them up for your easy retrieval on a new tab. 

A basic assumption there is that most of this material is free. Yes there are those ads, but either we don't care about them, or we just install a browser plugin to remove all the ads from a page. And of course Google makes its billions from all the ad revenue you can think of.

And then recently New York Times announced that it will begin charging for its online content. Wall Street already has a subscription model around its online content, and we've been hearing all the stuff about  SaaS business models where everyone charges for everything they sell.

So is this the beginning of the end of free stuff? Is the advertising model kinda running out of steam? 

I think this is the next wave of evolution on the internet. This appears to be the common ground that the e-world would have to come to with the traditional world. A world where you get what you pay for. A world where money has to be earned. 

I don't have anything against the advertising model. I think it is great for a certain types of the websites, where the content is pretty much commoditized, and a subset of the internet population comes there.  But if a service is differentiated and there is a demand for it, the company now seems to be in a position to charge premium for it. 

A major reason for this is the huge growth in internet users from across the globe, and their increasingly varying needs from the internet. Going forward, Internet will begin to resemble our own real world. where some things are free, and some you gotta pay for. 

So I think its time for us to get ready to make that choice. Do you want to pay for your surf or get what you don't want to pay for? I'd say, brace yourself. The internet is evolving into a new more self aware beast, and there is no more free lunch...

Nice guys finish last

That's not true. Its not the nice guys, but the guys who thought they were nice, but realized mid way that they kinda caught the wrong train.

Now, catching train is something entirely dependent on you. You bought the tickets, you looked up the train name on the display, you misread the platform number, and you didn't check if it was finally the right train to have caught.

Now all this while you thought you could never catch the wrong train, and you were soo damn proud of it. Call it the law of mortality catching up with you. So now, even when you never had the intention of catching the wrong train, you pretty much laid your own trap. by doing the things you did.

Like Monica says in friends: "What were you thinking!!!" and I agree. What was the nice-guy-who-never-caught-the-wrong-train thinking when he actually himself caught the wrong train!?? There is no answer I think. I guess, he should have known better.

So even if he didn't want to, even if he never thought all along the way that this is what he is doing, he still did it! and the only person responsible for him landing up in the wrong train is him!!!

So whats the end result? he had to catch another train back, buy a new ticket, and return to the platform, and this time, at least try to catch the right train. And in the process, he finishes last.

Q.E.D.

Saamna: Another loong back written poem

पिछले कुछ दिनों से, नाजाने मुझे कुछ होने लगा है...

जब से पतझड़ का नाग मेरे सूखे पत्तों को डसने लगा है

तब से शायद मुझे कुछ होने लगा है...

यह शीश मेरा, जो पहले नादानी में सदा ही ऊंचा रहता था,

अब ना जाने क्यों उसके सामने झुकने लगा है..

हाँ... शायद मुझे कुछ होने लगा है..

वो सुबह के सूरज की लाली

वो रात के चाँद की चांदनी 

वो सागर के गहरे, नीले, विशाल रंग के बजाय

अब धरती का फीका भूरा रंग मुझको दिखने लगा है...

ज़रूर मुझे कुछ होने लगा है...

वो कागज़, जिसपर पहले सपनों के महल बना करते थे,

अब उसी कागज़ पे - कभी लाल, तो कभी पीली स्याही से

मेरे दिल का हाल बयान होने लगा है..

क्यूँ ऐसा मुझे होने लगा है?

लेकिन जब खेलने लगता हूँ इन्ही ख्यालों को गोद में लेकर,

तब समझ में आता है कि और कुछ नहीं, 

बस ज़िन्दगी से मेरा सामना होने लगा है...

हाँ... बस यही तो मुझे होने लगा है. 

Photo Album

This is a poem I wrote sometime back. I was inspired by the way Gulzar writes, and was trying his style. Ofcourse there is no comparison, but listen to it on its own merit :)

Vacuuming the house

Finally the weekend came when I thought I should get around vacuuming the house. Mine is a carpeted apartment. Grey colored... And you know what they say about grey right? That there are many shades of it. And every shade says something, shows something and hides something...

In fact, if you vacuum long enough, it will take you to forgotten stains and patches. Patches that you had at some time so painstakingly put into place. Just so that the carpet remains intact. Coz you see, replacing the carpet is a very difficult job, and usually it happens only when you move out of the apartment. Long after you are gone, and before the next incumbent steps in, the realtor takes care of that...

Back to the vacuuming. I began with my living room. This is the room I use the most, and naturally had a lot of dust around. As the vacuum moved around, sucking up the dust, the original color of carpet came out. And with it came a nice smell of the fragrance that I has sprayed on it long time back, but it had been suppressed by the dust that kept all the fragrance somewhere deep inside. And overtime I had pretty much forgotten about it too. within a few minutes, all the dust was gone and I had a neat smile on my face. As if I had regained my lost glory...

Excited now, I moved to my bedroom. I don't let many people in there, so its much more of a private place. The room itself is an absolute replica of what I am. Sort of untidy, but very functional. You will find anything you need on a daily basis. Not luxurious though; my bed is a very modest attempt at keeping me at 3 ft height from the ground, but there is a coffee machine, an over-the-bed table lamp, a study table, extension chord for power supply, wireless headphones, a small home exercise machine which can be tucked under the bed, full size mirror behind the door, etc etc. Basically everything to make you feel equipped.

I begin vacuuming there, and slowly slowly some stains begin to show up. These were not normal living room stains. They had some very special characteristics. Firstly, they were not normal dust colored. Some were slight transparent yellowish, some were sort of red, and some looked as if I had at some time tried very very hard to remove, but never succeeded, despite my sincerest efforts. Even the carpet showed signs of wearing off with my relentless rubbing, but the stain had stuck on... The dust had kinda hidden it from my daily notice. But now, here it was right there staring right back at me.

A little to the right of this stain was another thing. I didn't quite figure out what that was, but as the vacuum sucked away the covering on it, it too came out clear. It was a patch work. It had happened some time back when I had accidentally spilled coffee on it. And knowing that my mom would yell at me, I had tried beyond measure to remove that stain. But what a branded coffee that was! Not only the after taste remained on my taste buds for a while, but the stain it had caused never budged from its place.

And it was then that I decided to cut that piece of carpet off, and throw it away. Sad moment though, It was my bedroom's carpet! And I do like my bedroom! But be that as it may, I cut that piece off, and got another, rather unmatched piece of cloth to replace that. The carpet didn't quite look the same after that, but I guess it was worth it. I hated the patchwork. It looked ugly! it looked like some forced insertion of stuff that kinda didn't belong there. But as time passed, dust settled in, and gradually made the whole carpet look the same.

But that changed today. Vacuum cleaner made sure that all the stains and all the patchwork that had sort of faded away in my carpet, come back to life. And I was jolted back to the times when I had felt awful about putting those stains, and then tried to remove them from there.

And then I kinda thought, maybe it isn't the best thing to vacuum. Maybe I should have just let it be...

She

A naughty smile and pursed lips

in between the nibbles and the tiny sips

One white hair that clearly shows

A little out of shape, and this she knows

Forever wanting me to be there

and then plundering me with no stone to spare

Gifts costing her a fortune, or her priceless looks

or even when she is lost in between her books

Where ever I go where ever I roam

When I get back, she feels like home...

911 vs 100

Yes. I plan to compare the two numbers. There are many factors to look at, and I will try to sum them up as precisely as possible...

Ask any American, or watch enough Hollywood movies and you will see that 911 is something that Americans use very frequently, for things as small as sticking your hand to something very embarrassing (in American Pie) to something much bigger as in Die Hard... But you get the picture... as soon as there is any situation of any kind and severity, 911 is one of the first things they will think of. Efficiency of this system is so good that you are almost assured a response in minutes wherever you are in the country. There is proper research done while making roads, to ensure that any part of a city is reachable in 2-10 minutes from the nearest Police patrol ( my ex roommate was working for a firm that did this research)

100 on the other hand usually has a fleeting reference in the heads of Indians. Should something go wrong, the first set of people we think about are our neighbors, or friends. In some cases, we probably don't even want to get involved with the police. Like Hollywood in previous case, if you watch enough Bollywood movies, you will see that people do not usually want the police to get involved, or the police any how comes only when the hero has beaten the crap out of the villain, despite the absence of police. what I imply from this is that police is at least considered inept, or inconsiderate, or untrustworthy.

But if I think deeper about this, the differences don't just stay as mere facts and jokes as above... They begin to show the vast difference that exists between the two countries.

To implement a system like 911, a few basic things are needed. First it needs to be such a dependable system, that time and again, anywhere, anyhow, should there be an emergency, some help should be able to reach the victim. It is only then that a person will trust this 3 digit number so much to remember, and call, this number when their life is in danger. In addition, this number should be able to give you the warmth that you would have no inhibitions in trusting them for any situation of any sort. Third, the versatility of this number should be such that any kind and severity of situation can be handled by this number.

These are just a few components that go into making this system work. Any person in Process Management would tell you that this calls for operational efficiency, and that too of a very very high standard. Coz it deals with lives of people. Implementing this, even in a small society of 200 apartments is such a huge pain. I can tell you this by my experience in getting an electrician to fix a power cut in my apartment in Delhi.

Now imagine implementing this at the level of a nation. One of the world's biggest nations by land size and population. But this has been implemented here in the US. And everytime I think of this system, and dare to compare it to 100, I first get awestruck, and then get upset.

Why can't India implement a system like that? What's stopping us? Don't we deserve to have such a system to help us lead a better life? Must our loved ones die waiting for help to arrive? Or worse still. die waiting coz the PM is visiting the Hospital?

It needs will. Easy to say, much much more difficult to implement. Political, bureaucratic or whatever. Will. But all these are dependent on how strongly people ask for this, and make this (instead of speaking marathi in maharashtra) a political issue. And that comes from social awareness. That is VERY different from education, which is again VERY different from literacy... A nation of 1 billion, with most people not even knowing the significance/value of such a system. And I think the most critical role here is to be played by the middle class in India. I belong to it, and by having studied in US now, I know what we lack. There are many more middle class students who have been lucky enough to see and understand the difference between the two systems. Now that we are 'aware' we must pass this on, and strive to make everyone aware of this.

It is only when people are aware of this that leaders will rise, and take this issue further, and even take it on to them to implement this. And then we will have someone to vote for. Then we could also look at appointment of competent officers in implementing this system, and much more importantly, sustaining it.

The best way to resolve our issues is to move bottom up. And for that we need to be aware...

Indian Software Industry's pangs

If you throw a random stone in bangalore, it will either hit a dog or a software engineer...

This is what I was told in 2000 when I began my software engineering. It was a weirdly funny joke, coz I did laugh at it, but I certainly did not like our comparison with dogs. Not only because it is derogatory (similar to the lines of objections on slum'dog' millionare) but also because engineers are by the very definition of the term, very well educated.

umm well educated? but as soon as I say this, I see my head screaming out against it. So something has to be wrong somewhere...

Some engineers are downright called 'unemployable' by the multinationals. But lets face it, passing 4 years in an engineering college would atleast have taught them basic levels of coding. Although this was not quite true in my case ( I probably wrote my first respectable software program only at my first job, but that taught me a lot, and hence this post...), but I would say that most of the software engineers would at least know how to code.

So whats the problem? its like a student who knows the alphabets well, but has no clue about how to form sentences with them. On top of it, forming understandable sentences from it is mostly just a dream. As more and more Indian software companies claim to provide 'best in the industry solutions' to the world outside (through getafreelancer.com, rentacoder.com and what not), particularly the western economies, their cracks begin to show. For they claim to know how to make software, but they actually just know how to code. And the bubble bursts...

Bigger companies like Infosys, TCS etc charge the western world enough money to send these new s/w engineering grads to almost a year of training, which makes them at least employable. But people who don't/couldn't make it into these are basically 'let loose' out in the big bad world, having nothing more than a vague imprint of 'Let's C,C++ by Yashwant Kanitkar)...

The point being, there is a lot more to software engineering than just code.

To begin with, there has to be an understanding of the context in which this software is being written. Without this understanding of context (business sense in other words) a software engineer is nothing more than an automated code generator (and they are usually crappy). A lot of this happens purely out of lack of exposure to good business practices and incompetent business acumen. But both of these can be acquired; latter even quicker.

This has to be coupled with acceptable levels of communication skills. And communication skills DO NOT mean using a thesaurus on every word and writing the most impressive word. It is about CLEARLY stating what you want to communicate, and making sure that the reader/listener has understood it well, and then confirm it.

Third is diligence. Remember that your aim is to get the work done. Not to get money to procrastinate the work for as long as possible. The client is not a fool to let this go on forever, more so for smaller project based companies where lock-in is very minimal. If a software company wants to sustain its business for longer than a few years, it has to finish the work ON TIME. if not in time.

The basic point being, a lot of small Indian software companies are coming out as promising something and delivering something much below the acceptable standards.

One of the ways in which the problem can be fixed is by having both business and technical expertise in a company. Only a bunch of engineers running day to day business will be a bad decision. Hiring an employable Technology Management MBA could be a step in the right direction.

Its the system at fault... so what?

we say this every time something goes wrong and we are frustrated about it. Bombay attacks, power cuts, unsafe cities, irregular power cuts, bad roads and all that...

And yes it is the system as a whole that is wrong more than right, and it effects every one of us.

In its own little way, it makes us pay for its shortcomings, and we have to just adjust.

Of course everyone wants to change it, but how? and thats where it all gets stuck, we we take a deep sigh and move on, fighting among each other in a traffic jam, and cursing the govt for horrible roads and reduce our average life time... studies have shown that mumbaikars life is 7 years lesser than India's average.

So what do we do? keep living/dying everyday? maybe if we can start cleaning our own sub modules in the 'system', we could clean it up some day... make sure our sphere of influence is better day by day and we will gradually get out of this mess... after all, its our nation!

Percussions

Percussions... My latest craze...

Just jump into the world of beats.. small taps, kiss of chalk, a faint hiss behind your ear, sudued drums, sounds of tabla..

Just close your eyes and you will feel as if you are in the middle of the first rain of the season, in between woods, alive, fresh.. with eyes closed, you can feel these small drops dancing on your skin, taking it into a trance of its own...

Listen to Tabla Beat Science, Ananda Shankar and State of Bengal, Trilok Gurtu and others you find...

:)

Avial: A must follow band

The one thing that has hit me straight in the face after coming to (and living in) the US since fall 2007 is the emphasis on originality. There are many facets to it, but I will concentrate on the music scene for now.

I am at the University of Illinois. This is a place far in between the happening west coast or the progressive east coast. This is the mid west, as they call it. The point being that there is no sizable influence of any structured institution like Hollywood, or Disneyland or any such thing in between.

Maybe this is the reason that most of the music I hear here is mostly original. This is in stark contrast to what we used to do in our college in Bangalore. A good quality music piece among our friends was usually decided by how close we were to the original. Be it a college fest, where a vastly popular band will dole out well practiced renditions of GNR, Pink Floyd, and Dire Straits, or a quiet gathering of friends where one super guitar player will play any of those songs deftly.

Somehow it was given and accepted that there is no scope (or need) of originality. (You are welcome Anu Malik and Preetam). Not only does this reflect on our inability to think, but also on our appetite of accepting new ideas in general. No wonder we dont have too many inventions coming out of India I guess...

And then I came across Avial. A Mallu band that plays ROCK in something other than English! Not only that, their music is a mix of traditional folk songs in the rock avatar. And its not as if they anglicize the folk songs, they give it the Indian touch on rock music instruments.

Have a look at some of their songs here:

And this..

I think this is a band that somehow resonates with me and I can relate to it.

Lemme know what you think...

Code is poetry

Only a passionate programmer would know what I mean, and how does it feel to say that your code flows like poetry...

I recently found that written on a wordpress plugin page..

So when does code look like poetry? When its logic flows from one case to another in a seamless manner.. like a river, gracefully accepting whats thrown its way, making amends for them and happily moving ahead.

It doesn't happen always though.. I've written enough code to know when my code flowed like a calm river meandering through its path towards the ocean ... much like a poem..

Like my ex boss's car sticker said, mocking at the big bad world, "I'd rather code" ...

eBay's "Shop directly from USA" campaign

Have a look at this campaign from eBay:

Now isn't this a smart way of doing the following:

1. get rid of your redundant, superfluous inventory in one country
2. increase sales in another part of the world that is still growing at a great pace
3. use your resources (in terms of presence and supply chain infrastructure) to optimize profits

Maybe these guys made a new global warehouse somewhere in eastern europe or something that can service more countries etc..

what ever the case maybe, I think this idea of selling stuff from one country in to another totally rocks!

what do you think?

Tragedy of being the bridge between two worlds

I've realized lately that I have officially crossed in to the land of No Man's Land..

Well, is it a bird? is it a plane? hehe no its MsBA in Technology Management. And this is the tale of two lands.. Technology and Management and the narrow No Man's Land in between them

I have never been a purist. In fact ever since I learnt that Nature loves entropy, I never got around liking the idea of being a pure anything. No pure cricketer, No pure artist, No pure singer, No pure Guitar player ... and the list goes on till I came to this: No Pure Technologist, and No pure Manager.

So far so good. There are many types of me around in the world. Yes yes, I know what you are mostly thinking about. But keeping perverse sexual connotations apart, its good to be jack of all trades and master of being just that! Or so I thought till I visited the countries around my narrow strip of land.

Country: Technologasia

The citizens here usually looked just straight ahead. For them everything around them was an element of a list (or array, or set, or Class, or Struct) of equations, or data members, or neurons or digital signals. I visited the capital of this country called sillicity (pun intended). I walked up to the first person I saw the town hall, and here is the discussion I had:

me: Excuse me, do you know any good restaurants around here?
Sillicity citizen: I don't know. I am just follow this path to get to my place of work, and use my super brain to find the quickest route to my work place. So I don't have time to look around for restaurants.
me: Oh so you don't eat out at all?
Sillicity citizen: You silly man, I am a technologist. I eat drink sleep equations, gadgets, numbers, and circuits. (angrily) Where are you from?
me: (taken aback a little): umm... I am from Technology Managementsia.
Sillicity citizen: I've never heard of that school. I am sure its not ranked anywhere, and therefore I am sure you are a much lesser human being than I am. Why do you even need food! Your quota of food should be used to feed fish; which we eat to sharpen our brains!

And then he walks away.. on his Segway...

Saddened by this sudden indignation, I go to the next iPhone store, buy an iPhone and look up good restaurants. Enjoyed the food, and walked south (in some context, south of quad), and reach

Managementistan...

There were many people walking around, and they WERE looking everywhere. Dressed very nicely and had a fixed 8 cm x 5 cm smile on their faces. I walk up to a pretty looking citizen.

me: Hello, could you please direct me to a restaurant around here?
Manageristanian: (sizing me up) hmm. I know there is one somewhere here, but I don't know how to get there. It's a pretty nice place. They charge 5 times the price they do in Technologasia, and have exactly the same food! I love their standardized processes which they use to make the same food everywhere.
me: Oh but why would I pay 5 times the price for the same food?
Manageristanian: That's because they serve it in a very fashionable bright red plate. Thats very today you know... But since you ask such a dumb question, where are you from?
me: umm I am from Technology Managementasia you know, the... (She cuts me abruptly)
Manageristanian: oh yah nevermind, you coders. Never get the big picture of anything. Just find some food round the corner and satisfy ur hunger and try to learn from our existence... We live by example.
me: oh I am sorry to have bothered you..

I walk away, open my laptop, hack into a nearby store's server and get some free coupon codes and use them to get me a good suit for free. I similarly get a free coupon for the restaurant have the food for free, and ride my segway home...

The rot beneath the shining surface

I've always believed that India is moving ahead. I always believed that things are changing for good.

But when a friend of yours says that she doesn't want a girl child, coz the environment is not conducive to rear a girl child, you know something is fundamentally wrong. Thats what happened recently. One of my friends is about to become a mom, and she doesn't want a girl child.

The reasons are a plenty, two of them given to me are:

1) Indian society is any how aggressive to a girl child. I thought it was changing, but it seems the northern belt is not.
2) Delhi in particular seems to be the worst place to rear a girl child. because most parent dont want to have a head ache 24x7 about whether their daughter is being molested on the roads somewhere, or someone is following her..


I had no words to this.. do you really resign to this state? or do you fight this..?
India shining... India's new future and all such encomiums pretty much sound shallow.

maybe we need to remove the upper shiny crust to see the rot beneath ....

Now I do, Now I don't? what do I do?

This is about a new movie called 'Sorry Bhai'...

This is not a review, but the plot in the movie is really interesting to get me thinking. Well, if you haven't seen the movie, please first go and watch the movie and then come back and read this, coz I probably need to unravel the plot here. But it is a movie worth watching, if for nothing else, at least for the beautiful Chitrangada Singh.

The basic plot is this. A family with 2 sons, mom, dad. Elder son is currently in a foreign country ( I think Mauritius) and is about to get married. He calls the rest of the family to Mauritius to attend the wedding. This by itself is a little non Indian, and nontraditional. But then there, the mom (played by Shabana Azmi) doesn't quite get along with the bride-to-be (Chitrangada Singh), but they slowly try get closer.

The twist in the story comes when Chitrangada and the younger brother fall in love with each other, and end up having sex (while the family was attending this girl's wedding with the elder brother). The younger brother now resolves to get married to this girl (would-have-been-bhabhi -- are in in western Europe? :P ).

So far so good. The elder brother initially reacts violently, but then understands that there is no point in fighting this, and gets out of the way. But that's where I think logic ends.

The mother then goes to younger son and asks him to swear upon her that he won't marry the girl. Coz, "he cannot do such a disgusting deed". This is where I was hugely surprised. A mother asking her younger son to give away his happiness for her other son? There was also a scene where the mother talks to this bride-to-be about the fact that the elder son was her favourite. Whoa! what wrong did the younger one do?? If they weren't brothers, wouldn't they solve it man to man? (like the brothers anyhow did?)

Can moms be that way? Was she right in asking her younger son to give away sumone he was in love with? was she right in choosing a favourite? couldn't she be objective between her sons?

I think the mother was totally wrong, and unfortunately unmotherly like when she chose her favourite kid and discriminated against her younger one. Not only that, she didn't look at love the way even the brothers looked at it, where they practically said that u need to love the other person and 'stay' in love while getting married.

But there is a flip side of thoughts too. Where does a commitment to marriage turn in to a point of no return? I mean, if say, the girl and the younger brother would have fallen in love after the girl was married to the elder brother, what should be done in that case? should the existing couple divorce to allow for the 'freshly brewed' couple?

But then the argument remains the same doesn't it? you shouldn't marry (or stay in marriage with ) a person you don't love. I think it is (at least sometimes) natural to fall out of love in a marriage after a few years. So then should you divorce after that? But aren't divorces typically a bad thing? Also, what if they had kids?

I think either we need to look at marriage or at divorce from a new perspective. Maybe the way it happens in the west (not entirely follow that though) could give us some ideas... Should we move to a system where marriage is a permeable membrane that you can easily walk in and out of? But then what happens to the kids? And if not, should two people keep hitting their heads on the wall in a troubled marriage and spoil their lives?

what say?

The appaling state of affairs: Step 1 police reforms

watch this video





Here Ratan Tata says that Tatas will now have their own mechanism to handle terror.
In this action, I could see the desperation, frustration, and resignation of a very patriotic group (Tatas do one of the most wide spread philanthropy I think).

Today Tatas actually said that they could not trust the government machinery to protect them from terrorists. So now, they will have to enter a domain that is an additional strain on their pockets. The money that they would otherwise be using to grow further across the globe. This is a sorry face of Indian Government machinery.

Tatas might have the money to open an anti terror process costing crores of rupees. What about the common man? What about me? you( if you don't belong to Tata group). Are we going to be killed by the terrorists, or by carelessness of Indian Government? Do we all have to now fend for ourselves and carry guns with us every time we venture out?

The Police laws we have were written in 1861, around 4 years after the revolt of 1857. Not only were they written by the british, but they were almost undoubtedly written to prevent from uprisings like 1857 from happening again. Needless to say, not only were they tyrannical, but also are totally irrelevant today. I am told there is a law that prohibits opening of road side dhabas!

This set of archaic laws, and their much needed reforms have been debated for the past 30 years! And add to this the fact that Politicians (Yah I know u r thinking there he goes politician bashing) use the police as they deem fit (for security, even getting milk in the morning), because police and law and order is a state subject. Constant patronage to specific officers and punishment others

On the other hand, opposite systems create, and mismanagement of them, create similar problems. Delhi Police for example, is not under Delhi CM's. When the girl was killed in the early morning hours, she could not do anything. There are many other similar cases where total control, or absolute lack of control over police have led to deaths, serious loss to us, the common people.

And yet the debate goes on, coz it is not in any minister's benefit to let go of their control over police. To top it, there is very little awareness in public about this issue. Unless general public takes this as a serious issue no party will want to work on it against the wishes of their ministers.

One of my professors here in US, Indian by origin, left India coz he thought nothing could be changed there. I am not justifying his cynicism but there is a point there. Every time we talked about India, and he is as passionate about India as any Indian I have seen, he said two things.

1. We must have a good enforcement mechanism (read police) to ensure smooth functioning of almost everything a common man deals with.
2. A few generations of Indians need to die and wash away before we can see a new vibrant India.

We live in a society where a person thinks he can get away from police after a crime, be it high profile like Manu Sharma, or Biti Mohanty, or road side goondas-turned-politicians like Arun Ghawli, or even the goondas in the streets of lucknow, or corrupt government officials demanding bribes, or even lazy police themselves totally ensured of patronage. When anyone of us thinks that a hundred rupees (500 in some cases) can get us out of 'trouble', the backbone of an orderly society breaks down. This again comes back haunting us in form of delayed police in terrorist attacks...

I think through all that I've written, I have tried to bring about the urgency needed to have police reforms. It is the common man's interaction with a constable that needs to be perfected. And thats the best way to reform a society. From within. From the basics...


I found this article too have a look...

the comma called Bombay

First of all, the reason I wasn't blogging for a while was that I did not have anything to share. I actually started my job (no biggie), changed the city(no biggie), changed apartment (again, no biggie), went to relatives for Thanks giving (again)...

But then happened the stuff in Bombay (Mumbai for younger generations). 3 days, and the intervening nights like most other Indians I was glued to either TV, Laptop, or phone (while traveling) to get updates about the latest news. I was kinda sure that I won't have immediate relations involved (that was wrong), but the sheer fact that we were being killed was obviously a grim feeling. It was a feeling of helplessness, where we couldn't do anything but just sit and wait for this to get over, leaving us scarred forever.

Time magazine says that Indians shrug off a bomb blast like mosquitoes. Sad but true. 200 odd people were killed. sad but true. People from foreign land could come in and roam our cities in hijacked police vans, and fire on Indians. Sad but true. A normal Indian just walking on the road then would have his leg and arm ripped off. Sad but true...

But when Chidambaram says Indian security apparatus was faulty, that's inexcusable.
When BJP starts election campaign on it, that's inexcusable. When police arrives 30 minutes after the first bomb blast in Cama Hospital (Here), that's inexcusable.
When Deputy Chief Minister R.R. Patil says that this is a small thing, that's inexcusable.

The list will go on, and we will keep bleeding. After all, the status of Indian administration comes from Indian society, far too busy in earning their bread and if lucky, enjoying their movies, coffee at baristas, eating at Taj, or where ever. Most of the families I know have at least one of their relatives somewhere abroad. I meet some of my bangalore classmates in buses here in the US!. Many of my classmates(including me) are somewhere in US on 'Onsite' earning dollars, converting them to rupees, buying swanky houses, skodas, BMWs, fords (wrong company in current financial scenario).

One of my friends was kinda surprised when she learnt that I was very upset about Bombay. She asked me if I had someone related in that attack. I didn't know what to say. Do I only care about blood relations in India? Was every Indian Gandhi's/Bhagat Singh's relative? But most of us are that aloof from the area that exists beyond our offices and nearest malls. And unless a bomb blast or a gun shot happens next to our doors, we will always be listening to 'comfortably numb' (because we are) on our ipods, watching movies, and going on holidays on election days

A callous resignation. I guess that's the best way most of us can be described. If we can get away with a 100 rupee 'tip' to the traffic cop, we would (who wants to go to court). We all are fine with the world as long as we get our cup of coffee/beer and get to buy the cars we want.

What's wrong!!!! are we a bunch of random entities forced in to a box called India, when we'd rather be away from each other? Isn't there a value system that the whole nation could adhere to? are we all that cannibalistic?

We cannot stop foreign countries from hating us. We cannot stop a global recession. We cannot stop international politics against us. We can however work towards a collective response on it. We can create a social structure where locals don't help in such acts. We can create an environment where our state institutions work efficiently. Nehru in his book dreams of an India as great as it was in history where free thought, without any prejudice prevailed all over the country. Tagore mentioned the same in his work ('Where the head is held high...' remember?)

Just to clarify, I am not here to ramble on about the problems from a far away land. I have a bunch of action points too on it. This post has become far too long for that... I will put the problem from my perspective, and possible solutions, in my humble opinion, on it.

A bleeding fellow Indian.

MUSHKIL HAI APNA MEL PRIYE

read this poem... its long, but very much worth your time. take my word on it.

mushkil hai apna mel priye, ye pyar nahin hai khel priye,
mushkil hai apnamel priye, ye pyar nahin hai khel priye,
tum MA 1st division ho, main hua matric fel priye,
mushkil hai apna mel priye, ye pyar nahin hai khel priye,

tum fauji afsar ki beti, main to kisaan ka beta hoon,
tum rabadi kheer malai ho, main to sattu sapreta hoon,
tum AC ghar mein rahti ho, main ped ke neeche leta hoon,
tum nai maruti lagti ho, main scooter lamreta hoon,
is kadar agar hum chup-chup kar aapas me prem badhaenge,
to ek roz tere daddy amrish puri ban jaaenge,
sab haddi pasli tod mujhe bhijwaa denge vo jail priye,
mushkil hai apna mel priye, ye pyar nahin hai khel priye,

tum arab desh kee ghodi ho, main hoon gadahe ki naal priye,
tum deewali ka bonus ho, main bhookho ki hadtaal priye,
tum heere jadi tashtari ho, main almunium ka thaal priye,
tum chicken-soop biryani ho, main kankad waali daal priye,
tum hiran-chaokadi bharti ho, main hoon kachue ki chaal priye,
tum chandan-wan ki lakdi ho, main hoon babool ki chaal priye,
main pake aam sa latka hoon, mat maaro mujhe gulel priye,
mushkil hai apna mel priye, ye pyar nahin hai khel priye,


main shani-dev jaisa kuroop, tum komal kanchan kaya ho,
main tan-se man-se kanshi ram, tum maha chanchala maya ho,
tum nirmal paawan ganga ho, main jalta hua patanga hoon,
tum raaj ghaat ka shanti march, main hindu-muslim danga hoon,
tum ho poonamka taajmahal, main kaali gufa ajanta ki,
tum ho vardaan vidhata ka,main galti hoon bhagvanta ki,
tum jet vimaan ki shobha ho, main bus ki thelam-thel priye,
mushkil hai apna mel priye, ye pyar nahin hai khel priye,

tum nai videshi mixi ho, main patthar ka silbatta hoon,
tum AK-saintalis jaisi, main to ik desi katta hoon,
tum chatur rabadi devi si, main bhola-bhala lalu hoon,
tum mukt sherni jangal ki, main chidiyaghar ka bhaalu hoon,
tum vyast sonia gandhi si, main v.p.singh sa khali hoon,
tum hansi madhuri dixit ki, main policeman ki gaali hoon,
kal jel agar ho jaaye to dilwa dena tum bel priye,
mushkil hai apna mel priye, ye pyar nahin hai khel priye,

main dhabe ke dhaanche jaisa, tum paanch sitara hotel ho,
main mahue ka desi tharra, tum red-label ki botel ho,
tum chitra-haar ka madhur geet, main krishi-darshan ki jhaadi hoon,
tum vishva-sundari si kamaal, main teliya chaap kabadi hoon,
tum sony ka mobile ho, main telephone waala chonga,
tum machli maansarovar ki, main saagar tat ka hoon ghongha,
dus manzil se gir jaaooga, mat aage mujhe dhakel priye,
mushkil hai apna mel priye, ye pyar nahin hai khel priye,

tum satta ki maharani ho, main vipaksha ki lachari hoon,
tum ho mamta-jailalita si, main kwara atal-bihari hoon,
tum tendulkar ka shatak priye, main follow on ki paari hoon,
tum getz,matiz, corolla ho main Leyland ki lorry hoon,
mujhko refree hi rehne do, mat khelo mujhse khel priye,
mushkil hai apna mel priye, ye pyar nahin hai khel priye,

main soch raha ki rahe hain kabse, shrota mujhko jhel priye,
mushkil hai apna mel priye, ye pyar nahin hai khel priye.

Stumped!

Stumped! googlied! run out! (Inzamam Ul Haq style where u had no idea how could you get run out!) %^&*( %^&*( *()_+ ....>!!!!!

I mean, I am speechless it feels like I've grown in a Truman show where I was asked to believe in a particular world, and it turns out absolutely opposite!!!! OK. I will try to explain as much as I can, but beyond this I cannot do anything. Use your imagination, logic, background knowledge or what ever you want to use to get decipher what I want to say.

Hmm. clue number one. remember the moral science class? remember the course we covered? and remember the course we did not cover???

So the thing is, that the course we never covered was always assumed that we will cover by ourselves. Although, there were expectations all around you to know the course and score well in it, if there was a question asked.

Where were the questions asked? Right here!!! in real life!!!!!! God Damn!!! And what used to happen?? The questions were always ALWAYS out of course!!!! So there you are, who was not taught some particular chapters earlier, and then was indirectly told that everyone assumed that you knew the chapters and not only that, they also told you that every one in your batch knew the same stuff and therefore was expected to behave the same way. That was at least an assumption that you took with a sigh of relief, that the playing field is level.

5 years hence. You are in the real world with the education imparted to you at school, and home (most importantly), trying to find your place under the sun. To elaborate, now you are out there, (clue number two) trying to live your life socially, professionally, biologically, and ethically. And while you are trying to balance yourself on all the above mentioned ...ally's, you have nothing but those lessons you learnt in school.

So here is the meat. The lessons that you are using to balance your ...ally's with, include the lessons you never learnt in the first place!!!!!

So one fine day I am out in the big bad (really?) world, and I suddenly realize that other peers from my generation aren't even following the same rules!!!!! WHAT??? am I like the biggest C***** in the world to have believed what the 'others' wanted me to believe????

U know what it feels like? it feels as if u were fined a fortune by a traffic cop for having the wrong design of number plate (yes it happens), who later you found out was a fake!!!

I hope the clues helped you find out what I am talking about, or when u do find it out the hard way, lemme know... :(

A fellow late-realizer