Sagarone....

Wahi Dhanush Wohi Baan

2009-11-04T11:56:00.011+03:00

"Manushya kadi balwaan nahi, Samaya sub se balwaan
Kaabe Arjuna lutiyo, Wahi dhanush wahi baan"

Men (people or nations) are not forever dominant. A time will come when neither the unbreakable Gandiva, nor the inexhaustible quiver and their owner, the invincible warrior Arjuna, will be triumphant. and he will have to bear the ignominy of being robbed by a common outlaw.

India had to bear the shame of having the RBI ship planeloads of its gold reserves to London to get emergency IMF loans in 1991, when India was virtually bankrupt because of the economic policies followed by first Jawahar and then his daughter Indira. It was after this debacle that India seriously started opening up its economy and although the process is not yet complete, look where it has brought us.

India recently purchased 200 tonnes of gold from the IMF at a record average price of $1045 per ounce, spending USD 6.7 billions of its forex reserves and thus sending gold to its highest ever price recorded in open markets. India has also become the first asian giant to express its loss of faith in the USD by officially and openly diversifying from its USD assets.

Prior to this purchase, the RBI ranked at 14th place among official government holders of gold bullion with a total of less than 360 tonnes as of September 2009, which put its reserves of gold relative to other assets at less than 4%. After the latest addition, the RBI now has 6% share of gold to other reserves and a total tonnage of gold at 560 tonnes. It's ranking now as a government holder of gold has moved from 14th place to 12th place (Source: World Gold Council).

It is estimated that the Indian population now privately holds a total of over 15,000 tonnes of gold, which is an amount 27 times that held by the Reserve Bank of India.

No point in talking

2009-09-25T14:52:00.003+03:00

Pakistan wants unconditional talks with India according to Pakistani Foreign Minister Qureshi. He has also threatened that India's decision not to continue efforts to resolve issues like the Kashmir problem through the composite dialogue would have "consequences".

In the meantime, Pakistani Punjab IGP Tariq Saleem Dogar has said that the mastermind of Mumabi 26/11, Hafiz Saeed has neither been arrested nor put under house arrest, rather the police is providing an extra security cover to the Lashkar-e-Taiba’s (LeT) founder leader.

When will we learn that there is no point in talking with these people?

The Brides of Death

2009-09-14T12:43:00.002+03:00

A 12-year-old Yemeni girl, who was forced into marriage, has died during a difficult delivery in which her baby also died, a children's rights organisation said on Sunday, demanding action to stop Yemeni men taking child brides.

Raised in an impoverished family with a father suffering from kidney failure, Fawziya was forced to drop out of school and was married off at the age of 11. Such marriages are widespread on Yemen's Red Sea coast. Since young girls fetch a good bride-price, almost half of all little girls and teenage females are married(sold) off before the age of 15 in rural parts of Yemen, one of the world's poorest countries despite its proximity to oil-rich Saudi Arabia.

Last year, a Yemeni court granted a divorce to ten year old girl whose unemployed father forced her into an arranged marriage with a man 20 years her senior, because of the bride price she fetched, but later saying he feared she might otherwise be kidnapped by the would-be spouse.

Zana Muhsen was a 15-year-old English schoolgirl of Arab-British descent when her Yemeni father sold her in England in 1983 for $3000 to a countryman as a wife for his 14-year-old son. Her sister, Nadia, also 14, was sold for the same purpose and bride price to another Yemeni, whose son was 13.

The two sisters were detained against their will in Yemen for eight years with husbands they did not want, having babies they did not want, before diplomatic pressure and assistance from the international media finally freed Zana. Nadia stayed behind because of her children, who, due to the bride price, always remain with the father in case of a divorce.

In her best-selling book, Sold: A Story of Modern-Day Slavery, Zana outlined the two British sisters’ years of suffering, physical abuse and primitive living and working conditions in Yemen.

This is the 2007 UNICEF photo of the year representing the plight of the millions of girls sold as child brides every year.

Karachi surpasses Mumbai

2009-09-07T12:05:00.000+03:00

Mumbai has lost out to Karachi and handed over the crown for hosting Asia's largest slum. Orangi township in Karachi has surpassed Dharavi in Mumbai and now has the dubious honor of being Asia's largest slum.

Perhaps an aspiring film producer striving to be the next Danny Boyle, should now visit Karachi and portray Orangi Township in all its splendor!

China unilaterally cancels OTC derivative losses

2009-09-02T22:02:00.001+03:00

From Jim Sinclair:

All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved.
--Sun Tzu

Reported Chinese actions to unilaterally cancel OTC derivative loss debts held by state corporations whereby they purchased hedge contracts written by major American OTC derivative manufacturers and distributors is legally a unilateral novation. A novation declares an item to be invalid. Invalid means not valid. A contract which is not valid infers a form of a fraudulent contract.

Actions by the Chinese tend to follow and can be understood by learning the tenets of the teachings of Sun Tzu.

Had the West acted exactly this way rather than financing them to pay the winners when the hedge fund, Long-Term Capital, failed on OTC derivatives, there would have been financial problems but this event today would only be a modest recession and not a catastrophic depression.

MOPE has blacked this event out while titanic pressure is being brought on the US to fall into line and pay off the winners in New York.

What happened here will pave the road of the future.

This is the most important economic event since the fall or shove into bankruptcy of Lehman.

The demise of Chandrayaan

2009-08-30T18:53:00.004+03:00

No need to be disheartened, India. The premature end of the Chandrayaan mission has come as a huge disappointment to eveyone. But Rome was not built in a day. All major space powers have faced a long series of setbacks before they achieved their successes. What we should focus upon is what has been achieved. The Indian space program has demonstrated its capabilites with this mission not just in launch technology but in many other crucial areas. It is time to build upon what has been learnt and take the next step. Because perhaps space is one of the only last frontiers available for India to explore and benefit from. As a nation of over a billion people, India just cannot ignore its responsibility to build a credible space program to take advantage of The Last Frontier.

India in Antarctica

2009-08-27T17:34:00.004+03:00

One of the really good things that Indira Gandhi did was authorize exploratory expeditions to Antarctica in 1981. Forget about the scientific hoopla surrounding these expeditions. Those are just side benefits. To me, Antarctica is the last unexplored continent with abundant mineral resources.

Mrs. Gandhi did right by laying the foundation for India's claim for a stake in a future scramble for the vast uninhabited continent's riches. This is an investment in the future and it is heartening to see that India is mounting another expedition to the Antarctica. The 230 crores to be spent for this is a good investment for India's future generations.

Identity Crisis

2009-07-21T12:31:00.007+03:00

My maternal grandparents hailed from Karachi and my mother and all her siblings were born there. They had to flee Karachi in the wake of the partition in 1947, leaving behind a comfortable existence and had to start a new life, struggling to make ends meet in a new place amongst strangers. My mother was just entering her teenage years during that time and her memories of her childhood and those years is vivid and I have heard a lot of stories about those times from her. My father was working in Karachi at that time as well and he too had to leave Karachi and find his fortunes elsewhere. The tales that my parents have told me over the years have made Karachi hold a special place in my heart.

I stumbled onto Karachiwali's blog a couple of days back. Her posts about the Mumbai incident and the comments by her and her fellow bloggers were painful to read. I left a comment for her requesting her to revisit what she had written earlier and to her credit, as of now she has taken down all Mumbai related posts and comments off the blog.

Yesterday I watched Bhowani Junction on the telly which talks about the identity crisis of the Anglo-Indians and realised that the Muslims of our subcontinent are facing a similar identity crisis. Sooner or later they will have to decide who they are and where they belong. Are they expatriate Arabs, Iranis, Turks, Afghans or Mongols, living in a land conquered by their forefathers? Or are they the sons and daughters of the soil of this subcontinent? Do they wish to regain the lost glory of their ancestors and rule over the infidels, or do they want to be citizens of a modern nation having a stake in the stability and prosperity of this area? Most Muslims can trace their ancestry back to a Hindu ancestor even if they tend to hide it and glorify their Arab or Middle Eastern origins. They have to accept their origins and dispose of their victim mentality. Because the Muslims too have a hand in the mess that the subcontinent is in today. Taali kabhi ek haathse nahin bajti.

Edit: I think it is more of an identity confusion than an identity crisis.

Windows 7 - first impressions

2009-06-28T23:57:00.003+03:00

According to the official Windows 7 website, Microsoft's newest operating system is due to hit the stores on October 22.

But the release candidate is already available for free download with free product keys, which will remain valid till June 1, 2010. This is a good opportunity for the consumer to test drive the new offering and get used to it. While it provides Microsoft with an opportunity to further fine tune the operating system and take care of any last moment glitches.

I have installed the release candidate on my main desktop a few days back and am really impressed with both the installation and the stability. I did not have to go through driver-searching hell and everything just worked out of the box. And Aero is a breath of fresh air, improving usability not just appearance. My only gripe is about IE 8. I still do not like it. I prefer firefox with my favorite add-ons like ubiquity and adblock plus.

I am sure there will be quite a few changes between now and the release to market. But after the Vista debacle, I think Microsoft has learned from its mistakes and improved this new version.

What's Love Got To Do With It?

2009-05-20T10:51:00.003+03:00

It's a second hand emotion, as Tina Turner so rightly crooned.

But really, what's love got to do with it? It is an unduly overrated emotion. We are talking about a lifetime here. A lifetime of commitment, of compassion, of caring for each other and of going through testing times and emerging stronger with the support of your partner by your side. We are talking about raising a family and gracefully growing old together.

The English language is constrained because it has just one word 'love' to go through the entire gamut of relationships and emotions. Context is needed to differentiate among various types of love.

People your age would take love to mean as the 'butterflies in the stomach' or 'love at first sight' feelings. But most of the time it is just a hormone-induced chemical reaction which is mistaken for love. Remember this is nature's way of ensuring that at the right age, evolutionary pressures propel you towards propagating the species.

Stop waiting for love to happen. As a sentient being, it is time for you to take off your romantic glasses and take a practical view regarding marriage. This is a lifelong commitment. Try to define the type of person you would want to spend the rest of your life with and raise your children with. Think of this as a 'Swaymvara' where you get to pick and choose. You have a vast pool of potential suitors to pick from, thanks to this age of the internet. All you need to do is discover your priorities, narrow down your choices and find someone you feel comfortable with. Don't worry about the butterflies, you may or may not get them. After you commit yourself, make an ongoing investment in nurturing that relationship. Because you gotta put in more than what you expect in return.

A few decades down the line, when you look at your partner with fondness and remember all the trials and tribulations that you went through together, you will finally understand what love is all about.

India and China want IMF to sell all of its gold

2009-04-21T00:45:00.004+03:00

The IMF holds a staggering 3200 tonnes of gold in its reserves which is sitting idle while the world's poorest are facing the fallout of the global economic crisis and the IMF itself is facing a liquidity crunch.

A report in the Financial Chronicle says that draft papers have been exchanged between Delhi and Beijing proposing that the IMF sell off its huge gold reserve which is an idle asset with a book value of $9.3 billion. But which would fetch close to $100 billion at current prices. Both countries are proposing that this amount be used to improve IMF's liquidity as well as to help the world's poorest countries tackle poverty. An earlier announcement after the G20 summit in London, by IMF, to sell gold to raise $6 billion, caused gold prices to slump. Now this proposed sale is going to be 16 times bigger than the earlier proposal.

This might seem bearish for the price of gold in the short term, but it is being proposed that the sale be staggered over a two or three year period. And if this sale comes to pass, most of this gold will never enter the retail market. Central banks of China, Saudi Arabia, Russia and India will use their dollar reserves to buy it off and increase their gold reserves. This will be a wise step towards a future where the USD will be vacating its seat as the world's reserve currency. One or some or all of the above countries, with some sort of understanding amongst them, may provide an alternative with a partially gold backed currency.

This sale if approved by the member countries of the IMF will improve its short term liquidity and will remove the pressure on both China and India whose economies have grown substantially in the recent past, to finance it.

Creative thinking and education

2009-04-18T11:33:00.006+03:00

I had the pleasure of interacting with a young educated couple during a train journey recently. The husband was working for a BPO, while the young lady had done her masters in history and was studying towards getting a Ph.D.

What was disturbing was her reason for pursuing a Ph.D. According to her, she was doing it to get a job teaching history to undergraduate students. What was apparent was the clear lack of critical thinking on her part. She had accepted everything that had been taught to her unquestioningly during her studies earlier and was doing the same with the preparation of her doctoral thesis. Especially with a subject like history, which is very subjective and open to different interpretations according to the ideological leanings of the interpreter.

Our current education system encourages regurgitation of prescribed information and discourages critical thinking. Compare that to the objectives of an Australian school that I received in an email from Sanjeev.

"We want our students to become lifelong learners who are reflective, creative thinkers, as well as responsible and active citizens."

He has further proposed that the following is included in FTI's education policy:

"FTI believes that school education policies should ensure that all school students in India become lifelong learners who are critical, reflective, creative thinkers, as well as responsible and active citizens."

What will be required is the complete overhaul of the education system to ensure that not rote learning or cramming but creative thinking is rewarded. This is the best possible path to create a better citizenry for the future. And this process will have to begin with the educators, not the students.

Towards a Great India, the FTI magazine

2009-03-15T03:54:00.003+03:00

Excerpts from the Message from the Team

Contradictory though it might sound, India is in many ways an overdeveloped, not an underdeveloped country – somewhat like an over-ripened fruit. Our history has fostered great complexity and conflict which needs to be reviewed and redirected. We need to freshen up India for a new journey that lies ahead.

India (as a conglomeration of hundreds of kingdoms) was one of the world’s greatest free markets in the past. And 2500 years ago it allowed, even promoted, wide ranging philosophical discourse. But Dark Ages overtook this openness with the rapid entrenchment of the caste system which excluded large sections in India from educational opportunity. Rigid practices grew strong and freedoms declined precipitously. Our mind grew full of fear – of authority.

The consequent societal decline made India vulnerable to foreign attack. Things did not change after power shifted to Islamic kings, since many of them similarly imposed rigid worldviews (albeit different) and displayed little interest in new learning – for Islam had lost its early spurt of intellectual vigour by then. Since everyone in India believed that everything important had already been said and done, no one bothered to think any more.

While India still remained technologically advanced compared to the rest of the world, its tradition-bound approach made it extremely vulnerable to the new kid on the block - the British: a people freshly groomed in the ideas of freedom. The British had been groomed on the ideas initially thought up by St. Thomas Aquinas who reconciled pagan Greek thought (once shunned) with Christianity and made it possible to think once again. Invention, innovation and technological breakthroughs poured from the West, soon shifting the world’s balance of power.

Unfortunately India remained reluctant to imbibe this new spurt of freedom. After all, Indians thought: what did these barbaric pale-skinned beef-eaters know?

It is true that India must look backward, but only to rediscover the great vigour and freedom that launched our great career 2500 years ago. Once we have found that freshness of approach, we must add to it the modern ideas of freedom and scientific inquiry, and re-assert our thought leadership in the world.

Freedom means the freedom to trade, freedom to think, freedom to innovate. Freedom means building governance mechanisms compatible with human incentives. The Freedom Team of India (FTI) is determined to rejuvenate India through new freedoms to think critically, without fear.

Join the Freedom Team, and ask your friends and relatives to do so.

To subscribe to this magazine: http://groups.google.com/group/towards-a-great-india.

Gone with the Wind........and happy with it!

2009-03-14T18:10:00.003+03:00

I will be traveling in Northern India for the next three weeks starting tomorrow and will be visiting seven cities and towns this trip. I have never traveled with a laptop on my earlier trips because I believe in traveling light and the iBook I have, weighs close to 3 Kgs. On hectic travel schedules like this, it is always better to forget about being connected than lugging extra weight around.

Couple of days back, I happened to chance on an MSI Wind Netbook u100 at the local mall superstore going for $315. They had a few pieces in stock and I checked out its amazing specs at this price. It is powered by an Intel Atom processor at 1.6 MHz, has 2 GB of RAM, 10" screen and a 160 GB hard drive, with bluetooth, wireless and a built-in webcam. It weighs just slightly over 1 Kg with the included 3 cell battery and feels amazingly light compared to my iBook. Even the keys are good sized and the keyboard does not feel cramped although it is an ultra portable laptop. The only minus points for it was that it is shipped with a SUSE linux operating system and the 3 cell battery lasts for just an hour and a half.

I went back the next day and was told that they had just the display piece left, all the others were sold out. So I took the plunge and brought the Wind home, loaded it with XP with the help of the amazing guides provided at the Wind users forum and will be going for a 6 or 9 cell battery later. It came with a carrying case and the small size factor means that the carrying case with the Wind inside, fits easily into my wife's shoulder bag! So we will be taking it with us on this trip and hopefully will be able to connect when and wherever possible.

Dev D. review

2009-03-11T11:52:00.005+03:00

I know, I know. I am quite late in coming up with this review, but I just got to watch this movie and this is one of those movies which need to be taken note of.

Anurag Kashyap has not reinvented the wheel, but he surely has redesigned it. This is the dark story of a young man who wanders through life hell bent on self destruction. Who doesn't recognize A Good Thing (TM) when he sees it, one who believes that the world exists for his gratification and one who just believes in enjoying his perceived rights without giving any thought to his responsibilities.

Now this story has been told many times on the silver screen by different people with different takes. Most of them have romanticized the hero, what Anurag Kashyap has done is presented him in the raw, the way he is. And left it up to you to decide whether you sympathize with him or not. Most of us in real life come across people who have the characteristics of Dev in varying degrees. I sure have and I remember them for the damage and the heartburn they have caused in their wake.

Abhay is good but Mahi and Kalki are even better and they have done complete justice to what the director and the script required. This film tackles many taboos head on and is a path breaker in many respects. The sexual content and dialog might be offensive to some but it is in tune with the times we live in. This is the story of Devdas as it would have happened in this age.

The music is good. The only gripe I have is about the length of the movie. With tighter editing, the movie could have been brought down to around 120-130 minutes and then it would have been a pleasant experience.

Definitely a must watch and perhaps another watch again.

Log kya kahenge........

2009-03-09T13:49:00.003+03:00

This story was forwarded to me in an email. You might have read or heard it earlier, but it still is good for a laugh every time you come across it!

There was this village pastor who entered his donkey in a race and it won..

The local paper read: PASTOR'S ASS OUT FRONT.

The Bishop was so upset with this kind of publicity that he ordered the Pastor not to enter the donkey in another race.

The next day, the local paper headline read:BISHOP SCRATCHES PASTOR'S ASS.

This was too much for the bishop, so he ordered the pastor to get rid of the donkey.

The pastor decided to give it to a nun in a nearby convent. The local paper carried this headline the next day: NUN HAS BEST ASS IN TOWN.

The bishop upon reading this fainted. He informed the nun that she would have to get rid of the donkey, so she sold it to a farmer for $10.

The next day the paper read:NUN SELLS ASS FOR $10.

This caused the bishop a minor heart attack. He ordered the nun to buy back the donkey and lead it to the plains where it could run wild.

The next day the headlines read: NUN ANNOUNCES HER ASS IS WILD AND FREE.

The bishop was buried the next day.

The moral of the story is . .. Being overly concerned about public opinion can bring you untold grief and misery!

A Close Shave

2009-03-06T12:53:00.003+03:00

2008 TC₃ was a meteoroid that entered Earth's atmosphere on October 7, 2008, at 5:46 a.m. local time, over the skys of Sudan and burned up before it reached the ground. It exploded tens of kilometers above the ground with the energy of a thousand tons of TNT, causing a large fireball in the early morning sky.Very few people inhabit the remote area where the explosion took place; however it has been reported that the explosion was so intense that it lit up the sky like a full moon and an airliner 1,400 km (870 miles) away reported seeing the bright flash.

Last Monday, another asteroid 2009 DD45 buzzed past the earth at just twice the distance of telecom satellites and a fifth of the distance to the moon. This was an asteroid the size of the one that caused the Tunguska event which is estimated to be equal to 10-15 million tons of TNT. It was a near miss in terms of cosmic events. "This was pretty darn close," astronomer Timothy Spahr of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said Wednesday.

Life on this planet we call home is fragile and humanity now has the capability to develop counter measures and early warning systems to stop an extinction level event from happening. But for that to happen, we have to get rid of our blinkers and adopt a wider view of where we as humans stand in the design of this universe.

Rape 'harmless fun' says lawyer

2009-03-04T18:29:00.004+03:00

This is a verbatim news report from today's Gulf Daily News:

THE alleged abduction and gang rape of a woman was dismissed as harmless fun by a female defence lawyer in a Bahrain trial yesterday.

Three men accused of the attack should be acquitted because young people often commit crimes for "fun", without criminal intent, said lawyer Fatima Al Hawaj.

The men, aged 19, 20 and 21, are accused at the High Criminal Court of snatching a Filpina off the street as she walked home from work at night, last September.

They allegedly drove her to an isolated area in Askar, gang raped her and then abandoned her, after stealing her mobile phone and purse.

All three deny abduction, rape and theft.

Ms Al Hawaj told judges that her clients were youngsters and that "minors' often committed crimes for fun, without ill-intent.

"It is general knowledge that youngsters commit crimes for the fun of it and not with the intention to harm others and I request the court to take that into consideration and clear my clients of the charges," she argued.

The 24-year-old woman failed to show up in court yesterday for cross-examination despite knowing about the session.

Attorney Mohammed Al Mutawa stepped in mid-session, saying he represented her and pledged to bring her to the next hearing.

"I am representing her in this case and she knows about the hearing, but couldn't make it due to personal reasons. I pledge to personally bring her to the next session," he told judges.

The woman was allegedly walking home from the hotel she works in Manama when the men, who were driving a rented car, followed her.

Prosecutors claim they grabbed her hands and dragged her into their car, drove her to a secluded area in Askar and gang-raped her.

The men then allegedly stole her mobile phone and purse, which contained cash and dumped her in the middle of the desert. She later managed to identify her abductors' car and the rape kit results were positive for the defendants' DNA, said the prosecution. Judges adjourned the case to April 12, to summon the woman for cross-examination.

Welcome to stories from Wonderland!

P.S. Coolred 38 has already written about this here.

Provocation.........

2009-02-28T21:13:00.005+03:00

Indian Home Maker has written a thought provoking post on provocative dressing here. And Nimmy has written a post in reply here.

Universally, society sets the norms for acceptable behavior. All the individual can do is try to raise awareness and contribute towards changing how a society deals with issues. Even in the west, emancipation and equal rights for any underprivileged section of society, whether women or blacks, has been won one small step at a time.

Here is a story from today's Saudi Gazette. A 23-year-old unmarried, gang-raped woman was awarded a one-year prison term and 100 lashes for committing adultery, getting pregnant and trying to abort the foetus. The judge was considerate enough to postpone the lashes to be administered after the child is born.

I have read somewhere that a society is judged by the way it treats its weakest members. And I guess this society has a long way to go before it can be called compassionate or just or civilized.

The Lure of the Gulf

2009-02-28T12:48:00.005+03:00

Visit any Gulf country and you will see Indians laboring away industriously in all types of jobs, from the menial jobs that no local would want to do, to the highly sophisticated ones which require professional qualifications. Most of these migrant workers are from South India and a great percentage of them are from Kerala. This has led to the saying that most people from Kerala are more familiar with Dubai than they are with their own Trivandrum.

Southern India has enjoyed a historic trade relationship with the Arab world with Arab settlements in almost all notable coastal cities and ports of Kerala. The current outflux of workers to the Gulf began in the seventies with the price of oil skyrocketing and the Gulf economies starting to enjoy an economic boom. Most of those workers migrate on bachelor status, leaving their families behind. They live in cramped accommodations, segregated from any interaction with the opposite sex for long periods of time. This results in a host of social and psychological problems both among the migrant population and the population left behind in the home country.

Most of those migrant workers work hard and long hours and remit their savings back home for their families to enjoy a comparatively good standard of living. This influx of Gulf money has proved unhealthy for Kerala. Because it has not generated any lasting development back home. Instead, it has made the local economy even more dependent on exporting its human capital for the purpose of earning remittances.

But things are changing. It is not only monetary considerations these days which come into play when a highly qualified professional decides to migrate to the Gulf. Nowadays for the Muslim professional from the subcontinent, migrating with his family to the Gulf is a chance to enjoy the best of both worlds. Because they get all the material benefits and the infrastructure of the first world, while living in an Islamic state and retaining their own cultural heritage and identity. So they get to live in the West, but without its decadence. Plus they are close enough to the home country to be able to frequently travel and visit their relatives back home. While for other non-Muslim migrants looking for a better life and looking to escape the madness that is the subcontinent, the Gulf is the first step in their trajectory of ultimately migrating to the West.

Dhiren's Tag

2009-02-26T12:39:00.005+03:00

The first computer I purchased for home use was for my son back in 1992. It boasted a 25 MHz cpu and a 50 MB hard drive and the OS was Windows 3.1. The internet was not yet available for public consumption and I soon grew tired of the new toy.

Our next PC was bought in 2000 as a gift for my daughter and was internet enabled from the very first day. Its specs were a 350 MHz cpu and a 6 GB hard disk which was eventually upgraded to a 1 GHz cpu and 20 GB hard disk within a couple of years. The internet was a fascinating and liberating experience and soon I took over as the primary user of the PC at home!

I don't usually do tags, but Dhiren's post here made me respond. So here are the answers to the questions:

Question 1.) How did you start Blogging ? When did you start Blogging ? What led to it ? In short – How come you are here…

I am not a very good speaker but I think I am good at writing down the message I wish to convey. I initially took up blogging to communicate with my grown-up and growing-up kids and then I found a larger audience. So that is how I came to be here.

Question 2.) How badly are you addicted to this ??

Not addicted at all. I do not blog very regularly. Only when I feel there is something important to be talked about. Although I am very much addicted to the internet :)

Question 3.) Are you technically savvy ? Totally comfortable with this ?

An emphatic yes!

Question 4.) Do you earn out of your blog ?

No. Never thought about that. This is too personal for me.

Question 5.) Have you ever spent money for your blog ? (bought a gadget or header or something ?)

Again, no.

Question 6.) Do you think you will stop blogging ? That this craze will wane eventually ?

For me it is not a craze, so I think I will keep on blogging till I have something to say.

Question 7.) Have you made friends here ? Are they for real ?

I have made quite a few friends here in the blogosphere. But I am an introvert at heart and so those friendships have not extended into real life. But who knows, it might happen in the future!

That is it. I suppose I have not revealed much but that is the way I am. :)

Pakistan on the brink, again

2009-02-25T18:17:00.004+03:00

Open war has been declared between the Sharif brothers and Zardari and Pakistan's civil society faces chaos and a potential bloodbath again. Interestingly all parties to this dispute are 'baniya's at heart and are masters at the art of compromise. So why weren't they able to reach a compromise on this issue and share the spoils in whatever remains of Pakistan's civilian government?

Had Benazir been alive, perhaps we would have seen an unfolding of events where the Supreme Court judges might have been reinstated. But with her violent demise, things changed. Zardari came to power on a sympathy wave while the Sharif brothers and even the Judges issue was marginalized. Now, the ground reality is that Zardari has no reason to remove a pliable Supreme Court in favor of known trouble makers. So why should he do that? What advantage is there for him or for his party in doing so?

Things are getting interesting. After the current Supreme Court ruling upholding the ban on elected office for both brothers, Shahbaz Sharif must step down from the Chief Ministership of Punjab.

Nawaz Sharif has made the allegation that Zardari had offered a deal to resolve the issue last month in a meeting with his brother. "You give up your campaign against the judges and they will rule that you are eligible," Mr Sharif said his brother was told by the president. Mr Sharif said his brother immediately refused the offer, but "we choose to keep it secret till now". While Mr Zardari has made no comment yet on the allegation, Sharif has called for a nation-wide protest tomorrow, Thursday.

Interesting times ahead for Pakistan and it would be really interesting to see what the Pakistani Army makes of all this.

Jai Ho............

2009-02-23T10:47:00.005+03:00

Amidst a raging controversy over 'Vande Mataram' in 2006, while there were fatwas being issued in the name of Islam against singing or performing it, A. R. Rahman came out with his version 'Maa Tujhe Salam'.

His version eventually won the Channel [V]'s Viewer's Choice Award and at the ceremony, when asked, Rahman unflinchingly sang Vande Mataram and took a stand. That proved to me that he was my kind of Indian.

Yesterday, I happened to listen to the dialogues of the ending scenes of "Guru" where Gurubhai addresses the AGM of shareholders in his company and asks them amid jubilant shouts "Shall we show the world that we have arrived?"

Well, Rahman, you have done just that. With the Oscar you have shown the world that we have arrived and you have made every Indian proud. This is a win not just for you but for everyone who believes in the idea of India.

"Jai Ho".

The end of Swiss Banking as we know it

2009-02-19T17:37:00.004+03:00

It was five years back. On Black Monday, 17th May 2004, after the defeat of the NDA government, the Indian stock market went into free fall and lost 15% of its value in a single day. It was marginally able to recover some losses and closed the day at 11% down. Trading had to be frozen twice for three hours and about 2 lakh crores of market capitalization was wiped out in a single day.

Exactly a year later, the SEBI clamped down on UBS Securities and barred it for a year from issuing or renewing participatory notes accusing it of unfair trade practices and helping cause the crash on Black Monday.

UBS is a major Swiss bank and is a diversified financial services provider and has a presence in 50 countries worldwide. Like other Swiss banks, it also specializes in private wealth management which is a fancy name for secret Swiss bank accounts. It is a major player in the US financial markets and the US Justice Department has been relentlessly pursuing it to divulge names of US citizens who have offshore accounts with it for the purpose of tax evasion.

Yesterday UBS admitted having conspired to defraud the U.S. Internal Revenue Service by providing its clients a venue for tax evasion and agreed to pay $780 million to settle a sweeping U.S. investigation into its activities. At the same time it also agreed to provide names to the investigators of American citizens with offshore accounts with its Swiss parent for the purpose of tax evasion. This is the end of secretive Swiss banking dating back to hundreds of years.

I wonder when India is going to pursue the Swiss banking industry to make public the names of Indian individuals who have secret bank accounts there? There is a rumour going around that Indians are perhaps the largest unofficial depositors in Swiss bank accounts. Or is it perhaps too much to expect this, since there has to be a political will to do this and since as they say "is hammam main sab nange hain."

Regulating Conversions?

2009-02-18T01:32:00.003+03:00

The preamble of our Constitution guarantees every Indian the liberty of thought, belief, expression, faith and worship. Further, Article 25 of the Constitution says that all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practise and propagate religion.

The right to propagate religion creates controversies every once in a while. Because propagation naturally leads to conversion sooner or later. Mass conversions always give rise to allegations of coercion and bribery. Even individual conversions are not always above such accusations.

Should the religious sector be regulated? There is a school of thought which believes that there should be a 'cooling off' period required under law to protect the rights of all vendors and consumers. Vendors in this case being the various religions vying for the individual's soul and the consumer being the individual, who should be protected from making vital decisions in the heat of the moment, or under the influence of bribery or coercion. Thus giving all religions an equal opportunity to present their case during the 'cooling off' period, before the individual takes a final decision on whether to convert or not.

There is another school of thought which believes that the state should not take part in any such exercise, but instead insist upon all religions putting their minds together and coming up with a regulatory body to oversee conversions. A self-regulating body formed by all religions, which sets up the code of conduct for conversions, is the best answer to this perennial question according to them.

And then there are those who believe that the state should not do anything at all and let things continue as they are. Because they believe that any regulation would be an encroachment on individual liberties. Why question only religious conversions, why not political ones as well, and then what about career changes by professionals? They too are conversions of a sort. Sooner or later, they feel you will be asking the state to regulate what to cook on which day too.

Should the state just be concerned with maintaining law and order, or do we need some sort of regulatory mechanism to oversee religious conversions? I would like to hear your thoughts on this.

In the arms of another woman

2009-02-17T00:55:00.006+03:00

A popular motivational speaker was invited to give a speech to a sales team. And he was very good at his craft. He was trying to explain to them the importance of grabbing the client's attention, even if that meant using unconventional methods. The audience was getting bored and started fidgeting in their seats and whispering amongst themselves.

In the middle of his speech, sensing the audience's lack of interest, the speaker declared: "I have spent the best years of my life in the arms of a woman who wasn't my wife!"

There was pindrop silence in the hall and the speaker had everyones eyes and ears glued on him.

And then he casually added: "And that woman was my mother!"

Laughter and applause. The sales team really appreciated what the speaker demonstrated with his powerful example.

A week later, a salesman who had attended this training session tried to crack this very same joke at home. He was slightly inebriated after a couple of drinks.

He said loudly to his wife, "The best times of my life were spent in the arms of another woman."

The wife went purple in shock and rage and turned her full blinding glare on her husband.

The salesman fidgeted for half a minute under her stare and grew nervous trying to recall the punch line.

"Well.............." the wife prodded.

The salesman finally blurted out "... and I can't remember who she was!"

Moral of the story: Don't start what you can't finish!!!

The Attack of the Killer Rabbit

2009-02-16T12:07:00.005+03:00

It was a long time back, but I first heard the story of the killer rabbit attack on President Carter in 1979 or 1980, and how he fought the rabbit back. I found it hilarious then because I, and everyone else believed rabbits can't swim and that rabbits do not attack people. I always thought that this incident was a figment of his imagination. That was that and I did not read much about that story later. But the connection in my mind had been made. Talk about Carter and in my mind the story of the killer rabbit attack would resurface. He was either the peanut-lover or the rabbit-attacked in my memory.

Well, it turns out that one particular species of the rabbit can swim. The swamp rabbit is a skilled swimmer. And that this particular incident had been photographed. But this photo was not published until the Reagan presidency. This is the photograph which is in the public domain now, courtesy of the Jimmy Carter Library

You can see the rabbit swimming away on the far right.

The moral of the story is that one should take care in dismissing anything out of hand. We evaluate things according to the information available to us at the time and that truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.

Billu Barber Review (no spoilers)

2009-02-15T01:38:00.005+03:00

The youngest one hasn't been feeling well the last week, due to a viral infection which got exacerbated by a dust storm here and so she had to be cooped up at home for the last few days. Since the dust storm has cleared and the weather is much better, decided to go watch Billu Barber last night at the local multiplex, to give her an outing.

Take away the item numbers and with some tighter editing, the movie would have been really powerful. Though I understand the compulsion of commercial cinema and the requirement for the glamor quotient. Even with the item numbers, the movie is the right length at 135 minutes. A shorter film would have had viewers complaining, although a few people might have appreciated it more.

Irfan Khan is just brilliant and Priyadarshan is very good at his craft. This is not an SRK film in spite of what you might have heard. He is just playing himself and does not need to do any serious acting till the end of the film. Even though this is his home production, SRK has given Irfan Khan the whole canvas instead of trying to dominate the movie. And Irfan has performed exceptionally well the character he was supposed to play. The director could have portrayed Billu as a man with a heart of gold with some minor tweaks, but he decided to paint him as just another normal human being, with all the uncertainties and confusion that one faces in life, and Irfan shines through.

Definitely a must watch.

The Recession, Commodities and Gold

2009-02-13T10:54:00.005+03:00

There is a myth that an average US recession lasts for 14.4 months. But recessions are like kids, each one is unique. You can't lump all of them together and talk about an average. Each recession is different in terms of its causes and effects. How long a particular recession lasts depends on many more factors than it did in the past. It is a much more globalized world nowadays with the domino effect more severe because of complex interdependencies. In the past, recessions were largely localized phenomena, restricted to a few countries or regions, because the world economy was not as intertwined as it is today.

This is the second recession since the beginning of this century to hit the US. The previous recession that the US faced was in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and lasted well into 2002. That recession did not cause a worldwide effect because it was largely a localized phenomenon.

This particular worldwide recession that we are experiencing now is one which originated from the US whose economy peaked and started declining from December 2007 onwards. Obama is perhaps looking at the average length of US recession cycles when he says that a few more months of decline and then the US economy will start recovering again. What he is missing to point out is that this one is the most severe since the Great Depression of the thirties with unprecedented asset destruction across the board in the financial sector which has been an important engine of growth. My personal opinion is that we will have to wait till the next year to see signs of recovery which will be slow and gradual.

Both the US Dollar and Gold have remained strong so far because of their safe haven status. While other commodities and even Silver have declined so far from their peaks experienced last year. Oil has been particularly hit plunging nearly 75% from its highs of around 145 dollars last year. The decline in commodity prices is due to reduced future consumption expectations. But this will be reversed when we start getting out of the recession on the road to recovery. That will be the time when investors will become more adventurous and start withdrawing from safe havens to invest in the economy at large. Commodities will start climbing again and both the US T-Bills and Gold will start declining.

Ready to drive

2009-02-10T08:01:00.003+03:00

Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal is a business tycoon from the ruling family in Saudi Arabia with business interests spanning across the globe. One of his wives, Princess Amira, talking to Al-Watan said that she was ready to drive if the authorities allowed that. She holds an international driving license and drives cars in all countries she visits, except her home country.

All women are legally barred from driving in Saudi Arabia. Families of women who require mobility have to hire drivers or depend on their male relatives to drive them around. In 1990, with the influx of foreign troops in the country at the height of the Kuwait crisis, 47 Saudi women in Riyadh, took to the streets driving their brothers' or husbands' cars to protest against the social ban on their driving. The religious authorities strongly condemned this move and these women were jailed for a day, their passports were confiscated, and those who were working lost their jobs, most of them were socially ostracized. Their move led to the social ban being turned into a legal ban.

King Abdullah has in the past said that he thought a day would eventually come when Saudi women were allowed to drive. But change will be difficult in this ultraconservative society, where women are still considered and treated as chattel.

India: Constitutionally Socialist

2009-02-07T16:07:00.003+03:00

According to Sauvik here, "There should be a liberal party campaigning for Liberty, Free Trade and Free Markets – but that is not allowed by legislation." This was news to me and so I enquired with him as well as with the Freedom Team of India members if this was indeed true. And this is what I found out:

If you are a political party in India and want to be recognized by the Election Commisssion, you have to declare that you subscribe to the tenet of socialism. You do not have the right to dissent on this issue.

A liberal democratic party has been denied its right to participate in the elections because of its refusal to accept socialism, as its creed.

Sharad Joshi of the Swatantra Bharat Party swears allegiance to socialism, but under protest. Immediately upon gaining entry to Parliament, Sharad Joshi proposed a Private Members Bill in the Rajya Sabha to get this offending clause scrapped. Read his bill here. That would not have shifted the constitutional reference, but still would have been a good start. Naturally, all political parties distanced themselves from it. The full debates are here. The following are some excerpts:

SHRI SHARAD ANANTRAO JOSHI:
"While socialism may be perfectly good, may be perfectly ideal thing to have but I must have the right to dissent. I am not taking any anti-socialist position. I am not taking a position that the preamble is wrong but I should have the right to change the preamble, if necessary. We decided to form a political party. We got a reply from the Election Commission saying that you will have to sign a register, or, have a clause in your memorandum of Association that you subscribe to the tenet of 'socialism.' Now, this is something which is alright for those with a pliable conscience. The problem is for the honest people who do not want to make a false statement."

SHRI RAM JETHMALANI:
"To oppose socialism is a very unpopular thing. The strongest point that Mr. Joshi, has made is that socialism is one of the many economic doctrines that have arisen in this world throughout the core world's economic history. To say that you are bound down to a particular economic doctrine, is to curtail the liberty of a speech, and which is inconsistent with democracy. Therefore, Mr. Sharad Joshi is absolutely right that democracy and socialism cannot be equated, because democracy itself means you are right to say things which others do not accept. In spite of all things, he has no chance of getting this Bill passed through this Parliament. But, certainly, in the Supreme Court of India, he is bound to succeed on the constitutionality of the provision."

THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF LAW AND JUSTICE (SHRI K. VENKATAPATHY) intervening in the debate, said:
"In the Indian context, there is no role or scope for a political party, which does not have faith in socialism as reflected in the Directive Principles of State Policy."

SHRI SHARAD ANANTRAO JOSHI replying to the debate, said:
"As a liberal, I stand for democracy and secularism. All that I am saying is that as you are being pluralistic in the matter of secularism, religion and faith, why are you not becoming pluralistic even about the economic doctrine? Socialism may be right, and probably, what you are doing is right. But, do I have not the right to say that I do not believe in socialism?"
"If you are socialist remain socialist. But please give me my right not to be a socialist."

The Motion moved by Shri Sharad Anantrao Joshi was negatived.

Why the chicken crossed the road

2009-02-06T02:48:00.002+03:00

As answered by politicians and other famous folks

Barack Obama: The chicken crossed the road because it was time for a change! The chicken wanted change!

John McCain: My friends, that chicken crossed the road because he recognized the need to engage in cooperation and dialog with all the chickens on the other side of the road.

Hillary Clinton: When I was First Lady, I personally helped that little chicken cross the road. This experience makes me uniquely qualified to ensure - right from Day one - that every chicken in this country gets the chance it deserves to cross the road. But then, this really isn't about me.

George W. Bush: We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road, or not. The chicken is either against us, or for us. There is no middle ground here.

Dick Cheney: Where's my gun?

Colin Powell: Now to the left of the screen, you can clearly see the satellite image of the chicken crossing the road.

Bill Clinton: I did not cross the road with that chicken. What is your definition of chicken?

Oprah: Well, I understand that the chicken is having problems, which is why he wants to cross this road so bad. So instead of having the chicken learn from his mistakes and take falls, which is a part of life, I'm going to give this chicken a car so that he can just drive across the road and not live his life like the rest of us chickens.

Pat Buchanan: To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.

Ernest Hemingway: To die in the rain, alone.

Grandpa: In my day we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough.

Aristotle: It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.

John Lennon: Imagine all the chickens in the world crossing roads together, in peace.

Albert Einstein: Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?

h/t: Spartacus

The Omid, the Chandrayaan and proliferation

2009-02-03T16:41:00.004+03:00

On the 14th November, 2008, which happened to be Nehru's 119th birthday, India became the fourth country to place its flag on the surface of the moon. The other three are the USA, the erstwhile USSR and Japan. The satellite carried instruments for both the NASA and the ESA as well as the capability for carrying out its stated objectives of preparing a three dimensional atlas of both the near and far side of the moon and mineralogical mapping of the entire lunar surface at high spatial resolution.

More than fifty nations have space programs currently but very few have the ability to plan and execute their own missions. India was hoping to join this elite space club just a couple of years back with the launch of the INSAT 4C on 10 July 2006. However the GSLV carrying this satellite veered from its projected path and had to be self-destroyed over the Bay of Bengal. Finally its replacement INSAT 4CR was successfully launched on the 2nd September 2007 and was placed in geo-synchronous orbit on the 15th September 2007. With this success, India became the sixth country after the USA, Russia China, Japan and the European Union to have the ability to plan and execute its own space missions.

Prior to this, India had to depend on other space powers to put its satellites into orbit. Our priority was to develop the technology for building remote sensing and communications satellites and not to focus solely on developing launch vehicle technology. What is to be noted here is the fact that our objectives were not military but for the peaceful use of space technology. And it took us more than 30 years to arrive at this stage.

Yesterday night the 'Omid' or 'Hope' was launched on a Safir-2 launch vehicle and placed in orbit according to the Iranian news agency. It is Iran's first domestically built satellite and its launch has been made to coincide with the 30th anniversary of Iran's Islamic Revolution. This feat has been achieved while Iran has been under years of western sanctions over fears that it wants to develop nuclear capable missiles.

“Dear Iranian nation, your children have placed the first indigenous satellite into orbit,” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a televised message. He is also reported to have said that the satellite was launched to spread "monotheism, peace and justice" in the world. The launch has caused alarm in the West as well as in the region because of fears the technology could be used to make long-range missiles, possibly with nuclear warheads.

A powerful Iran causes unease amongst its western and southern neighbors most of whom have unresolved issues with it.

In October 2005, a Russian rocket launched Iran's first satellite, the Sina-1, which carried photographic and telecommunications equipment. And in February 2007, Iran said it had launched a rocket capable of reaching space, before it made a parachute-assisted descent to earth. Last August, Iran said it had successfully launched a rocket capable of carrying its first domestically built satellite.

The blistering pace at which Iran has been able to develop its launch vehicle technology points to just one conclusion. There is no doubt that the proliferation of nuclear and missile technologies and the help provided by rogue regimes have enabled both Pakistan and Iran to acquire such technologies and helped make their regions more unstable.

Banning the VHP, the Sena and such......

2009-01-30T19:43:00.010+03:00

India is a conglomeration of nations, of ideas, of religions, of beliefs and of ways of life in constant flux. The very act of trying to define what India stands for, destroys the idea of India. Because any definition would be just a snapshot in time, from a particular point of view, of an evolving organism.

Various movements try to define India according to their own viewpoint and try to influence the rest of the population with the ideas that they personally espouse. Some of them try to bring about change with peaceful means while others resort to violence and hooliganism.

As long as you hold a belief and are using civilized democratic means to spread it, I have no problem with you. But when you use violence or hooliganism to enforce your point of view on others, I would want the law and order machinery to track you down and penalize you to the full extent of the law. I would expect the government of the day to prevent you from violating the liberty of others, but I would not want you banned.

What does banning an extremist organization achieve? Are they reformed overnight by a ban? From a practical point of view as well, banning an organization would just result in sending it underground and resort to furthering their cause through clandestine activities. I would rather have them above ground and monitor their activities and try to counter their arguments in a civilized way.

I am against banning any organization whether it is SIMI or the VHP or lately the Shri Ram Sena of Mangalore fame. I would not deny them the liberty to preach their ideas and viewpoints without resorting to violence.

Voltaire is credited with the saying 'I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to death your right to say it.'

Talibanisation of our society

2009-01-27T23:50:00.008+03:00

A government's first and foremost duty towards its citizens is to provide a secure and stable social environment in which they can freely carry out the 'pursuit of happiness'. The recent incidents in Mumbai and Mangalore have proved that both state governments have failed in this respect.

Rule of law as a basic principle of governance has to be upheld by any government, otherwise that particular government loses its moral right to govern. If a government can not govern according to the laws in force, it should either resign or be brought down. No political party should be allowed the temerity of indulging in selective governance. If you can not uphold the constitutionally guaranteed basic human rights of citizens regardless of their gender, religion, preferences or beliefs, you have no right to govern.

Hooliganism and vigilante culture if tolerated by society, carries with it the risk of destroying society's pluralistic nature and its tolerance of alternate lifestyles or points of view. This would lead to the distorted extremist beliefs espoused by a few to dominate society and culture. Talibanisation is not too strong a word to describe this phenomenon.

What is even more worrying is that the victims are afraid of speaking out fearing reprisals. That shows the degree of faith they have in the state apparatus to protect them. All of us who want our society to retain its pluralistic nature, have to raise our voices so that the governments in question are forced to make such hooligans face the full fury of the law and not get away with a slap on their wrist.

FTI Press Release and website launch

2009-01-26T00:41:00.005+03:00

PRESS RELEASE

26 January 2009

On the important occasion of the Republic Day, the Freedom Team of India has released its new website (http://freedomteam.in) and an eight page brochure.

The Team, established in 2008, aims to provide a forum for policy, strategy, and leadership development. It aims to find at least 1500 outstanding leaders in India to contest elections in the coming years under the banner of freedom and world-best policy.

The forty leaders and observers currently on the Team used this occasion to call upon all potential leaders across India to come together to achieve real freedom for India. Doing so will involve launching a systematic assault on bad governance through the democratic channel of elections.

As a Team member said, “It is perhaps high time that our educated classes finally woke up from their deep slumber of sixty years. If America can re-invent itself even after 230 years, then surely India, a much younger country – but with the wisdom of eight thousand years of civilisation – can do much better. We have the capacity and power to change India so that no one has to ever sleep hungry, or feel discriminated or disenfranchised. We want an India where, in the words of Tagore, ‘the mind is without fear and the head is held high’”.

The Team’s approach differs from that of others in three distinct ways. One, the Team is focused purely on equal freedom as a philosophical stance. Thus, no half-way compromises with freedom are acceptable, such as reservations and caste-based preferences of any sort, or subsidies for religious occasions or religious organisations. This clarity of philosophy does not allow any bad policies. For instance, the Team does not accept socialism, casteism, or mixing religion with politics, unlike most existing political formations in India.

Second, everyone on this Team is an equal. We do not have official roles like President or Secretary. Members work as a team (each with independent opinions, which are welcome) and take the lead on projects where they can contribute most.

Finally, FTI members will (mostly) not contest elections until they are fully prepared and organised for it, with sufficient time devoted to the communication of the Team’s message to the people. The Team will, in this way, guarantee high quality candidates under the banner of freedom at the hustings in the coming years.

If you can’t join us at the moment, then please support us by passing this media release around.

Jayprakash Narayan

2009-01-22T00:23:00.005+03:00

I witnessed the Nav-Nirman Andolan of 1973 first hand. I was studying in Ahmedabad at that time and saw the government of Chimanbhai Patel topple as a result of this agitation. It was started off in hostels and universities by students to ultimately envelope the entire state. Jayprakash Narayan was considered by the leaders of this agitation to be their guide and mentor. He was 71 years old at that time and was a veteran of the Indian independence struggle. He had already achieved the status of a senior statesman and was on his way to become the Lok Nayak. He was posthumously awarded the Bharat ratna in 1998.

When I first heard about Dr. Jayprakash Narayan's Lok Satta Party, I was intrigued by the similarity in name and that was one reason why I decided to investigate further . And I have to say that I am pretty impressed. Anyone who is against kleptocracy and wishes to promote the cause of liberty and better governance is a good guy in my book. A rural development model similar to Dr. Atanu Dey's RISC model, about which I have written earlier, also finds a place on his agenda. The party has fielded candidates in by-elections in Andhra Pradesh and has managed to get about 13% of the popular vote. This party has also held internal elections which is an anomaly in Indian politics!

I am disappointed with their website and content. Because I believe that any political movement that wishes to reform the prevailing system, has to reach out not just to the grassroots voters but has to attract potential leaders as well. And the internet is a crucial medium in this day and age, if you want to attract high caliber, young professional leadership material, as JP obviously wants to do.

He has managed to create a huge profile without the help of existing political parties or their infrastructure and should be commended for that. From what I am hearing, his party is planning to participate in the national elections this year and I wish them all the best.

I think his approach so far has been to create a grassroots movement, with the belief that good honest leaders will automatically emerge from the movement at the right time.

The Freedom Team of India is another movement which has similar goals. But their approach is to find enough honest, like minded leaders first and gather critical mass before contesting elections.

Revisiting Words, Swords and Gold

2009-01-20T18:06:00.007+03:00

In this post we will talk about a sect which has used all instruments at its disposal, the Sword, the Word and Gold to achieve its dominance over other lines of thought.

In the year 1740, the ruler of a small town in Arabia and an Islamic scholar, both of whom were ambitious and visionary, entered into a pact. The ruler undertook to support and promulgate the vision of the scholar, while the scholar undertook to accept the ruler and his descendants as temporal leaders of the movement.

This partnership has been one of the most fruitful of all times for both parties concerned. It has impacted the lives of people in every part of the globe and changed the course of history as well as the nature of society and culture in many parts of the world.

The partnership endured and after quite a few ups and downs, by the early 20th century, most of Arabia was under the control of the Saud family with the help of the Wahhabis. The Wahhabi movement in turn was provided with a state and assumed power to dictate religious behavior in the kingdom.

With the discovery of oil wealth and the influx of itinerant workers in the region, the movement found itself with a source of funding as well as a pool of people to influence and convert to its way of thinking. The converts, when they returned, further influenced and converted their communities back home by constructing madrassas and mosques with their newly acquired wealth, preaching their new doctrine. With time this movement came to dominate the Muslim communities of the subcontinent.

I would like to end this post by quoting Iqbal :

cheen o arab hamaraa, hindostaaN hamaara,
muslim hain hum, watan hai saara jahaaN hamaara

and

tayghon key saaye meiN hum, pal kar jawaaN huwey haiN,
khanjar hilaal kaa hai, qawmi nishaaN hamaara

The Word or the Sword?

2009-01-19T20:42:00.006+03:00

My last post was about a sect that depended solely on the Sword to propagate its version of Islam. This one is about another sect which is diametrically opposite and believes that the time of the Sword is over and the Word has to be solely relied upon to achieve Islam's objectives.

When a Muslim citizen of Pakistan applies for a passport, he has to sign a declaration which states the following:

1. I am a Muslim and believe in the absolute and unqualified finality of the Prophethood of Hazrat Muhammad the last of the Prophets.

2. I do not recognize any one who claims to be a prophet in any sense of the word or any description whatsoever, after Hazrat Muhammad or recognize such a claimant as a prophet or a religious reformer as Muslim.

3. I consider Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadiani to be an impostor nabi and also consider his followers whether belonging to the Lahori, Qadiani or Mirzai groups, to be non-Muslims.

I have been interested in Mirza Ghulam Ahmed for a long time because one of my children shares her birthday with him. He was the founder of the Ahmadiyya movement and declared that he was the “Promised One” of all religions, fulfilling all messianic prophecies found in many major world religions. He gave up the Jihadi Sword and forbade carrying out physical Jihad, either for the sake of religion, or against a government which gives freedom of religion. According to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, their motto is “Love for All Hatred for None”.

The contributions of the Ahmadiyya community to Pakistan have been conveniently forgotten. A case in point is that of Dr. Abdus Salam, who not only happens to be the first Muslim but also the first and only Pakistani to win a Nobel Prize. Instead of celebrating his achievement, he has been conveniently forgotten in Pakistan because of his belonging to the Ahmadiyya sect. Under Zia-ul-Haq, Pakistan embraced intolerance and declared Ahmadiyyas to be non-Muslims and since then their persecution has been going on in that country.

The Assassins: Words, Swords and Gold

2009-01-16T11:42:00.006+03:00

Sam, dam, dand and bhed are legitimate tools of state policy according to our very own Chanakya. Sam and bhed are Words while dam and dand are Gold and Sword respectively. A state should utilize all or any of the above to protect itself against any real or perceived threat as well as to expand its power and territory according to him. It would be foolish for us to expect our enemies to not indulge in the same activities that we consider legitimate when used by us.

It is possible to bring about change with the help of the Word, the Sword and Gold as it has been amply demonstrated throughout history. The Cult of the Assassins, established in the 11th century by Hassan Al-Sabbah, used assassinations of political and religious leaders as a way of bringing about change. It depended more on the Sword than either the Word or Gold to attain its objectives. Most historians credit this cult with being the first to use assassinations as a tool of state policy to bring about social and political change. They grew in power in Persia till the arrival of the Mongols led by Halaku Khan, when they were defeated and their power base was destroyed.

This cult aimed to achieve the social and political supremacy of the Nizari sect of Shii'te Islam. As fate would have it, this sect today has no geographical location to call its own and is scattered around the world with the Aga Khan as their spiritual leader. Perhaps the lesson here is that what is gained by using the Sword alone is of temporal nature.

Why War and At What Cost?

2009-01-07T21:10:00.014+03:00

"yūnān-o-misr-o-romā, sab miṭ gaye jahān se
ab tak magar hai bāqi, nām-o-nishān hamārā"

When faced by the onslaught of the invading armies in the eighth century, both the ancient cultures of Egypt and Persia were completely wiped off the face of the earth, while the Hindu culture somehow survived. Surely there is some redeeming quality in our culture which other civilizations lacked.

The above couplet is from the well known tarana-e-hind by Allama Iqbal, penned years before he changed his mind about co-existence with infidels.

A lesser known fact is that Pakistan's first national anthem was written by a Lahore based Hindu, Jagan Nath Azad who later migrated to India when his personal safety could no longer be guaranteed by his Muslim friends and well wishers. The interesting thing is that Jinnah himself insisted that Pakistan's Qaumi Tarana be written by a Hindu. This was in line with his view that with time, Pakistan would mature to become a secular nation. Those were his exact words: "Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the State."

The Pakistan that exists today has receded back to the mentality that pervaded the various invaders of our subcontinent throughout the last 1400 years. This is not the Pakistan that Jinnah envisioned. The entity which exists today and calls itself Pakistan is one which thinks in terms of Jihad and Taqqiyah.

We are not concerned with how this came about. What we are concerned with is that this state will and is using all available options at its disposal to first weaken and ultimately dismember our nation. We are at war, whether we like it or not, and neither the battleground, nor the tactics are of our choosing.

The terror spree at Mumbai is just one facet of the war that is forced upon us. The other facets are evident in our troubled North-Eastern States and the Sikh unrest of the eighties which was armed and funded by Pakistan as well as the constant trouble in Kashmir.

Our much maligned father of the nation is on record as saying that "I WOULD risk violence a thousand times rather than risk the emasculation of a whole race." and "I do believe that, where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence... I would rather have India resort to arms in order to defend her honor than that she should, in a cowardly manner, become or remain a helpless witness to her own dishonor."

The question that we are faced with now is when we are at war, whether declared or undeclared, should we retaliate or not? I think Mahatma Gandhi has answered that question for us. And this is no ordinary war, it is a war of survival because the enemy’s sole objective is to destroy us as a nation and dismember us.

The political climate in our country is not conducive for a war at the moment because we are headed for a general election soon and the army needs a few months to prepare for a sustained war anyway. Our diplomats too need time to build up international opinion. So I expect the war to be a few months away, when the army is fully prepared and if there is a willing coalition at the center.

This war has to be taken to its logical conclusion of forever eliminating the threat that we face, by dismembering Pakistan. because there is no middle way left. We simply cannot fool ourselves by talking about coexistence. It has to be a sustained war till our objectives are achieved. There is a high possibility that there will be heavy casualties and not just military. The civilian death toll is going to be high as well. Because when it finds itself in a corner, Pakistan is bound to use its nuclear arsenal. But should that deter us in our duty to eradicate the threat to our way of life and to our right to exist as an independent nation? I would say that no price is too heavy to pay when it comes to that.

The whole essence of the BhagvadGeeta for me is summed up in this shloka "karmanye vadhikaraste ma phaleshu kadachan..." which translated in English would be:

"You have a right to perform your prescribed action,but you are not entitled to the fruits of your action.
Never consider yourself the cause of the results of your activities,and never be associated to not doing your duty."

What New Year?

2009-01-03T23:47:00.003+03:00

New Year?

What new year? It is just a rehash of the same old stuff going on everywhere around the world. Nothing has changed, there will just be more of the same.

On another note, whose turn is it going to be next? Rajkot, Raibareli, perhaps Raipur, or maybe Ranchi? And is it going to happen on the 13th of January?

Jaipur, May 13, 2008
Ahmedabad, July 26, 2008
New Delhi, Sep 13, 2008
Bombay, Nov 26, 2008

Which city next?

Voter or Taxpayer

2008-12-30T01:23:00.003+03:00

The issue is indirect taxation.

In India, we have become so used to indirect taxation that we have lost sight of the fact that each and every Indian is a tax payer. No one is beyond the scope of the tax collector. It is just that we don't know it. Even the poorest of the poor, who buys a bar of soap or any manufactured goods is paying a lot of indirect taxes without realizing it. And since we do not realize that we are paying taxes, we do not expect anything in return. Perhaps that is what the system desires.

On one of the post 26/11 TV debates, actress Simi Garewal heatedly put forward the suggestion that taxpayers should stop paying taxes to a government that can not provide security. By taxpayers she perhaps meant those who pay income-tax. But then she does not know that in reality the bulk of the Government coffers are filled through indirect taxation. Direct tax payers constitute a very small part of the Government's income. It is the various excises and duties and surcharges and service taxes and VAT and this and that which account for the revenue.

Every February end, we see the spectacle of our Finance Minister juggling the various excises and duties on consumables, increasing it on some and providing relief on others, but basically succeeding in increasing the governments revenue by increasing indirect taxes.

Indirect taxation is immoral in the sense that it does away with the idea of accountability of the Government to the taxpayers. As well as creating apathy amongst them who are just reduced to being voters to be approached only at election time. In the mean time they watch uninterestedly while the Government squanders away their hard earned billions on Loan-Melas and other unproductive expenses.

Indirect taxation should be reduced till it approaches zero and direct taxation should be encouraged. The counter argument is that no-one likes to pay direct taxes and this is true to an extent. No one wants to part with his hard earned money right before his own eyes. And if this happens, then one would want to find out exactly how it is going to be spent and whether one is getting value for it. That would usher in an era of a more pro-active and a more responsible and a more awakened citizenry, demanding better governance. Perhaps that would lead India to a better future.

Water as a tool of war

2008-12-29T00:33:00.005+03:00

The time has come to use whatever powers and advantages we have at our disposal in order to win the war that has been forced upon India. Because conventional war is out of the question and diplomacy can only go so far with a two-faced adversary like Pakistan who says one thing, means something different and ultimately does what it intends to do.

The Indus Waters Treaty was signed by Nehru and Ayyub Khan in 1960 with the World Bank as the third signatory. It gave Pakistan exclusive use of the Indus waters as well as its tributaries, the Jhelum and the Chenab. While India was allocated the Ravi, the Beas and the Sutlej. But India also has a right to 'run of the river' projects which do not disrupt the flow of water to Pakistan. One such project is the 450 Mw Baglihar hydro-electric dam project across the Chenab in Kashmir. This was inaugurated earlier this year amid strong protests by the Pak Government.

In 2005 Pakistan had sought the World Bank's intervention to stop construction of the Baglihar dam and the hydroelectricity power project, but Bank-appointed experts had cleared the project while asking India to restrict the overall height of the dam.

Earlier India had to stop construction of Tulbul Navigation Project on the River Jhelum on account of objections raised by Pakistan. While India maintained that the project was designed to improve navigation, especially during the winter when the water level recedes, Pakistan said that it is a storage project which will affect the flow of water. Work on the project has remained stalled for 20 years.

The Indus Waters Treaty is in fact the only treaty which has withstood all Indo-Pak wars, Kargils and the various terror attacks that we have witnessed lately. And this has been due to India's taking a moral stance and not using water as a weapon of war.

The Tulbul Navigation Project was one of eight issues under discussion in the stalled Pakistan-India Composite Dialogue process. Now is the time to use this to our advantage and restart its construction unilaterally, to send a strong signal to Pakistan.

The Lost Decades

2008-12-28T01:25:00.003+03:00

Kanhaiyalal Maneklal Munshi is one of the forgotten titans of the era which saw great personalities like Nehru, Gandhi and Sardar Patel leaving their mark on the Indian polity as well as history and geography. He was a prolific writer and thinker as well as an educator and an eminent lawyer.

Post independence, Munshi served in the central cabinet in a ministerial capacity and as governor of Uttar Pradesh, from 1952 to 1957. He was a staunch supporter of personal liberties and freedoms and a proponent of free market economy and capitalism. Disillusioned by the ongoing erosion of personal liberties and individual freedoms by the state under Nehru's misguided socialist policies, he left the Congress Party and joined the liberal Swatantra Party in 1959. He has outlined his reasons for doing so in this document.

Nehru was one of the greatest sons of India, there can be no doubt about that. But what happened under his stewardship was that independent thought was stifled and a coterie of yes- men gathered around the centers of power, intent upon increasing the state's powers at the expense of the individual. And this legacy was furthered by Indira Gandhi. It was not until the nineties that India finally started breaking free of this Nehruvian legacy of socialism which has resulted in two generations of the Indian people being held back from achieving their full potential and migrating away from the stifling atmosphere prevalent in India. India lost its most promising and brilliant minds to the 'Brain Drain' during this era.

'Breaking free of Nehru' is a book by Sanjeev Sabhlok. You can download half of the book from this link and go thru it. If you feel what Sanjeev has to say is relevant, you can also purchase the book, which is available in print now. I highly recommend you do that and find out for yourself what Sanjeev has to say about why India has lagged behind the world in almost all spheres and what should be done to remedy that.

Capitalism and the current financial crisis

2008-12-23T07:54:00.003+03:00

Does the current financial crisis mean the end of the idea of capitalism, free trade and globalisation? Because it originated from a country that was the strongest proponent of capitalism and those who are spared from its worst effects are sheltered economies which follow mixed or socialist fiscal policies. It has the world in financial turmoil and the worst is yet to come. In its wake, capitalism, free trade and globalisation have suddenly become dirty words.

To me, the attractiveness of a system depends on the amount of freedom which it provides to the individual. The more freedom a system provides to the individual, the more attractive it is. And the more the state wants to control your freedoms and the more it wants to make decisions on your behalf, the less attractive it is to me.

The current financial crisis has led western governments to take steps which reek of socialism and I think that was the wrong thing to do. Because immediate pain might have been avoided but a bad precedent has been set.

Capitalism is the only natural system which allows individuals the freedom to realize their full potential and enjoy the fruits of their hard work. But with freedom comes responsibility. The old adage of 'Buyers Beware' is as applicable today as it always was. And whoever did not do their due diligence before getting into the fray to make some quick money, deserved to feel the pain and the losses and to die a natural death to make way for another more responsible entity to take its place.

Two worrying news items

2008-12-16T00:23:00.003+03:00

This is a worrying development. Anyone who is accused of a crime committed on Indian soil has a right to legal counsel according to our constitution. Denying Ajmal Amir Qasab the right to representation will only delay the legal process and will not actually achieve any meaningful result. What is even more worrying is that this has been resolved by the Metropolitan Magistrate's Bar Association. In the same vein, if he is diagnosed with a life threatening disease tomorrow, perhaps the doctors should deny him treatment and break their Hippocratic oath?

And then, this one is even more horrifying. If this attitude is taken up by real estate agents all across the country, it will help the creation of ghettos everywhere. And further divide the country along communal lines. What is needed is integration, not division, if we wish to rid ourselves of the malaise of mistrust, alienation and hatemongering amongst ourselves. Because that is the mother lode that throws up terrorism of domestic origin, and aids foreign sponsored terrorists. If India is to emerge as a strong unified nation with its secular credentials intact, we have no option but to encourage integration of our people and condemn anything that seeks to further divide us.

1984

2008-12-09T11:42:00.003+03:00

She made me proud to be an Indian in 1971 and again in 1974. I was in my teens then, but in 1975, she lost my respect by declaring emergency and disgusted me so much that I actively worked to help defeat her in the general elections in 1977.

And then, like a phoenix she rose from the ashes and came back to power in 1980. Her third term as prime minister was not like her earlier stints. This was not the same person, perhaps she had lost direction, or perhaps personal tragedies had somehow changed her. Then came Operation Blue Star in 1984, and her subsequent killing by her Sikh bodyguards.

She had been a part of my existence during my formative years and I still remember the sense of loss that I felt when I received that news. The pain and hurt transformed into anger at some point. And for a long time after that, every Sikh, in my eyes was a criminal and somehow responsible for the atrocity. I had heard about the resulting riots and killings of Sikhs in Delhi but never realized either the magnitude or the brutality or the senselessness of it all. Perhaps I just trivialized it as something bound to happen after the murder of Indira Gandhi.

I was trying to educate myself about what happened in 1984 and came across Mai's blog. Reading her account as well as others brought the horror of what transpired in 1984 to life.

I do not know if Mai and Suni were lucky in that they hailed from Canada and left India soon afterwards. The Indian Sikhs had to pick up the pieces of their lives after suffering the losses of their loved ones and facing economic hardship. As well as fighting for justice within a system that was unsympathetic towards their plight.

Justice, however late, is the only solace that we can offer them and I sincerely hope that the Sikhs do receive it.

Prank call that could have led to war

2008-12-07T00:13:00.007+03:00

Sounds like a scene straight out of a Bollywood movie. At the height of the Mumbai incident, when feelings were running high, Pranab Mukherjee calls up Asif Ali Zardari late in the evening and threatens him with dire consequences unless he cooperates fully in acting against the terrorists who masterminded and carried out the Mumbai incident.

But this really happened. Someone posing as the Indian External Affairs Minister, actually called up Zardari. And someone in Pakistan, overwhelmed by the gravity of the situation, bypassed the usual checks and verifications and passed the call directly to the Pakistani president. The caller introduced himself as Pranab Mukherjee and, while ignoring the conciliatory language of the president, directly threatened to take military action if Islamabad failed to immediately act against the supposed perpetrators of the Mumbai killings.

This set into motion a frenzied round of political, military and diplomatic activities in Pakistan, bringing the military to a heightened state of alert, which resulted in the US sending out Condoleeza Rice to the region to avert war.

A breakdown in protocol turned into an embarassment for the Pakistani establishment. But while it may sound hilarious now, India and Pakistan were on the brink of war for the next 24 hours.

Both India and Pakistan are nuclear armed neighbors, and are at odds with each other. Just imagine the consequences of such a serious lapse in protocol.

You have blood on your hands

2008-12-05T18:31:00.007+03:00

Holding candlelight vigils and marching in protest against terror......... You are kidding me.

Do you think those candle lighting events and protest marches are going to have any impact on the menace that we are facing? What they do, is give your conscience a momentary satisfaction of having done something to help the fight against terror. And then you revert back to what you have been doing all along.

When was the last time you stopped yourself from bribing an official to get a shortcut out of a situation? You keep on bribing everybody from the lowly traffic cops to high officials to get your work done. YOU are the one who has helped poison the very moral fabric of this nation. When you buy a property, do you not agree to pay a certain amount in black? Where do you think this money goes?

Do you think that the Mumbai carnage would have been possible without the collusion of the local underworld? I feel that some factions of the underworld must have provided logistics support in either planning or the actual carrying out of this incident.

If you have ever paid protection money or if you are a celebrity and have danced to their tunes, you have blood on your hands. If you have used recreational drugs you have blood on your hands. Because guess who benefits from the trade in illegal drugs? The same people who helped carry out the carnage in Mumbai.

Those showcase events are not going to change anything. The short term measures have to be taken of course, but the long term solution lies in beginning at the grassroots level. With you and me. And by doing the right thing. Take a moral stance, even if it is detrimental in the short term. Instill the correct values in your offspring. Start taking an active role in finding solutions to existing problems and be prepared for a long tortuous journey ahead. Because only WE can help bring about change.

Shades of grey

2008-12-02T01:17:00.004+03:00

I have been numb for the past few days. I have been staying away from the TV and the computer trying to make sense of the world around me. Partly because of what has been happening in Mumbai and partly because I happened to witness a racist incident yesterday. Which is not too uncommon in this part of the world and happens to almost everyone living in this country, sooner or later.

And then today I decided to sit down and watch a movie on the telly and I thank my lucky stars that I happened to stumble on to Crash. By the time it was over, I was overwhelmed. The movie makes you realize that people can not be classified as either good or bad. That there are no completely black or completely white characters in this movie or life in general. That there are many shades of grey and that sooner or later, people get a chance to redeem themselves. That there is latent goodness in everybody and that all it needs is a nudge from your conscience to do the right thing. And that there is latent evil in everybody as well. That the victims are guilty of the same crimes that they accuse others of and that they too participate in perpetuating racism.

A very good movie that makes you identify with what is going through the hearts and minds of the characters and definitely worth a watch.

Mumbai's Mahabharat isn't over yet

2008-11-27T13:54:00.004+03:00

Are you feeling angry and frustrated at what is happening in Mumbai? Yes? So, what are you doing about it? Some of us are writing angry blogposts while others are venting their anger on the government.

Well, here we are. In the midst of a war. On the killing fields of Kurukshetra, and it is incumbent upon us, the Indian people, to pick up our Gandiva and fight for what we believe is right. Fight we must, because embracing defeat is unacceptable. We have to plant our feet firmly on the ground and fight for what we believe in, to leave a better legacy for our progeny than what was left to us by our predecessors.

How does an ordinary Indian like you or me take part in this war? Remember most wars are won not on the battlefields but in the minds of the participants. The first step to be taken is to realize that this is our war and that if we forfeit our responsibility, no one is going to do our job for us. It is time to stop blaming the government or our politicians, because who put them there? You and I, by either participating or not participating in the political process. If you voted them in, you should now understand that it was a mistake. And if you did not take part in the election process because of apathy, it is time for you to make amends.

I strongly urge all of you to read B. Shantanu's earlier posts, here, here and here. And decide for yourself if you are also sick and tired of bad governance and sick policies which have led us to this stage. If you agree, then the next step would be to check out the Freedom Team’s Google Groups. Or perhaps you can seek out some other group of people who are aggrieved with the current state of the country and are trying to find a remedy. The thing is, you have to become active, because this is your war as much as it is anybody else's.

India at war

2008-11-27T00:19:00.003+03:00

Mumbai is a city cursed by the "T"s. If it is not the Thakres, it is the terrorists who want to keep it in the news. Even as I type this, the encounters are going on and every news channel is devoting all its airtime to covering this event unfolding at various locations around the city.

And they have succeeded. They have proved that India is a soft state and that they can strike at will, whenever and wherever they want to. They have shaken us out of our stupor and made us realize that we are at war and that they have the prerogative of choosing the battlefield.

How did we arrive at this juncture? Why was the Indian socio-politic entity divided and subdivided on the basis of language, ethnicity, religion and casteism? Where did our forefathers go wrong in their thinking? There is no unity in diversity for us, it seems. Why can't Indians in general, not rise above their perceived petty identities which tell them that they are either Hindu or Muslim, or perhaps Marathi or Bihari, or Upper or lower castes, and just think of themselves as Indians?

Who is the enemy here and what can we do to defeat its ominous intentions? Is it a foreign power? But then how can a foreign power succeed in wreaking so much havoc without the active help of some of our own Amichands and Mir Jaffars? Should we start distrusting segments of our society because of what has been happening?

Does the answer lie in accepting a reduction in our own liberties and freedoms? Should anyone under investigation, be presumed guilty till proven innocent? I am afraid that might be the temporary answer if we as patriotic citizens, are concerned with the safety and security of our fellow citizens and wish to prevent further such attacks from happening. There is no alternative but to strengthen the hands of our investigative agencies with wide-ranging detaining powers and allowing them to work independently of the political establishment.

But that is just a temporary solution. The permanent solution will lie in reversing the damage done by the follies of our forefathers and removing all discriminating laws, and the social, political or religious entities which accentuate our differences. Because our Indian-ness has to dominate over our religious or regional identity, if we wish that our children and their children,do not have to deal with the same issues.

Extinction Level Event

2008-11-26T17:38:00.012+03:00

If you have watched the movie 'Deep Impact', you know what an E.L.E. means. An Extinction Level Event is a sharp decrease in the number of species in a relatively short period of time. The last E.L.E. 65 million years ago, wiped out the dinosaurs as well as a lot of other species and paved the way for the mammals to be the dominant land based species. There seems to be evidence that this particular E.L.E. could have been caused by a large asteroid or comet impacting the earth, causing megatsunamis and other severe climactic changes, and wiping out entire species in the process.

While India keeps on debating over the virtues and vices of the three 'M's, Manmohan, Mayawati and Modi, space experts have been briefing UN officials about the threats posed by near earth objects and are calling for an international decision-making and early warning system to be set up to counter the threat posed by such objects.

The seriousness of this threat can be guaged by the devastation that occured in Tunguska in the last century. The power of that explosion is estimated to be about 1000 times that of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Over 80 million trees, covering an area about 2000 square kilometers were knocked down as the result of that event. This happened in an uninhabited, isolated region. Just imagine what the scope of casualties would be if it had happened over a densely populated area or a meteropolis.

Life on this planet is fragile. Just a few degrees of shift in the temperature, or a slight change in the quality of our atmosphere would wreak havoc and may cause the death of quite a few species. This has happened quite a few times during the evolution of our planetary home and has left a fossil record of widespread destruction.

The technology and resources available to mankind today allows it to plan for contingencies. The survival of this planet we call home, and of our species, is paramount to any other considerations. Let us see some serious steps taken to ensure an early warning system and counter measures put in place at the earliest. Collaborating in such a venture would be beneficial to India not just in terms of technology improvement but also in establishing itself as a space power.

Being a lone wolf or a team player

2008-11-25T01:59:00.007+03:00

What would you rather be, a team player or a do-everything-on-your-own individualist, that is the question. If you had a multi-faceted job at hand, what would you rather prefer to do? Some people would want to do everything by themselves and would give up control only under duress or extreme fatigue or when they finally realize that they need more resources than they themselves can muster.

Delegating responsibility is a management technique for not just businesses but also mundane day to day affairs as well as in organizing elaborate social functions. Including people in the decision making process and providing them with information as it becomes available, gives them a stake in the affair and makes them a part of your team. Some people adopt the policy of disseminating information on a need to know basis. Unless there is a good reason to do so, withholding information and being secretive just leads to rumor-mongering and creates unnecessary animosity.

At times, this is just a result of the clash of strong egos. Perhaps you may be angry or hurt at somebody and you want to show them that you can manage without their help. But think about what this will mean in the long term. Side stepping anyone will make them feel left out and dejected. What you end up with is creating unnecessary grudges and further complicating your already mangled relationships.

Grandstanding

2008-11-23T17:38:00.003+03:00

Zardari is at it again.

I have written about this earlier here. And I still believe that he is just playing to the international media and trying to mollify his western benefactors by uttering platitudes. The fact remains that he has no control over either the Pakistani Army or the ISI which are the defacto policy makers regarding Pakistan's policy towards India.

Remember the Pakistani Army waging a war in Kargil without authorization from the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif?

For the record, India has already declared its nuclear 'no first use' policy, under Vajpayee. What Zardari has said is that he favors it, but has not declared it as state policy yet. Perhaps because he does not have the power to do so, or perhaps because he is just testing out the feelings this might invoke in his own country. Because how can one end the hatred for India, which is the raison d'etre for Pakistan? This hatred is the unifying factor that Pakistan relies on to exist as a viable state.

Maritime Piracy, then and now.

2008-11-18T23:19:00.004+03:00

A couple of centuries back, the shores of the Southern Arabian gulf were known as the piracy coast. Merchant ships passing through the narrow Straits of Hormuz, plying between Mesopotamia and India, were prey to those pirates who would dart out of hidden coves and raid merchant shipping.

Till one day in early January 1820, when a strong sea and land expedition by the exasperated British succeeded in defeating the pirate stronghold at Ras Al-Khaimah. And led to the signing of a truce between the British and the Arab chiefs, which virtually eradicated piracy in the Gulf. The piracy coast came to be known as the Trucial coast after this truce.

With the passage of time, the Trucial Coast transformed into the Trucial States and in 1971, the seven tiny sheikhdoms which comprised it, federated into the United Arab Emirates. Today this part of the world is enjoying an economic boom and prosperity fueled by oil, trade and construction.

Vela International Marine Limited is a fully owned subsidiary of Saudi Aramco, which is based in Dubai in the U.A.E. It is engaged in the business of transporting crude oil and refined products manufactured by Saudi Aramco, to the rest of the world. It owns several Very Large Crude Carriers or super tankers as they are called. The Sirius Star is a VLCC with a capacity of carrying 2 million barrels of oil and it was yesterday hijacked off the Somali coast by pirates and has been taken to the Somali port of Eyl which is the pirates stronghold. Negotiations are reportedly underway for the safe release of the 25 crew members as well as the ship.

The Somali pirates are doing this just for the money. They have latched on to a cash cow and will not give it up easily. The failed Somali state makes the task of prevention next to impossible. India has already started playing a role in protecting our shipping, but it needs to be enhanced and co-ordinated with other friendly naval powers. Because after all, what is the purpose of a navy if it can't afford protection to merchant shipping? That is one of the primary functions of an armed force, protecting civilians. And piracy is just another form of terrorism.

How the financial markets actually work

2008-11-13T16:59:00.003+03:00

It was autumn, and the Red Indians on the remote reservation asked their new chief if the winter was going to be cold or mild. Since he was a Red Indian chief in a modern society, he couldn't tell what the weather was going to be like.

Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, he replied to his tribe that the winter was indeed going to be cold and that the members of the village should collect firewood to be prepared.

But being a practical leader, after several days of contemplation, he got an idea.

He went to the phone booth, called the National Weather Service and asked 'Is the coming winter going to be cold?'

'It looks like this winter is going to be quite cold indeed,' the meteorologist at the weather service responded.

So the chief went back to his people and told them to collect even more firewood.

A week later, he called the National Weather Service again. 'Is it going to be a very cold winter?'

'Yes,' the man at National Weather Service again replied, 'It's definitely going to be a very cold winter. '

The chief again went back to his people and told them to collect every scrap of wood they could find.

Two weeks later, he called the National Weather Service again. 'Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be very cold?'

'Absolutely' , the man replied. 'It's going to be one of the coldest winters ever. '

'How can you be so sure?' the chief asked.

The weatherman replied, 'One of the key components of our forecast model, The Red Indians, are collecting firewood like crazy. That is how we deduced that this winter will be the coldest ever.'

And that my friends, is how the financial markets actually work!!!

h/t RamSarit

You get what you deserve

2008-11-11T11:52:00.005+03:00

The USA has to be lauded for having a political system which can land a relatively unknown quantity like Obama to the ultimate job. Who had even heard of him a couple of years back? The US electorate got a chance to scrutinize him on the election trail and liked him and brought him to power. While In India, we are stuck with a stupid system where you have to spend decades greasing political palms and earning brownie points with those who matter, before you can even be considered for a minor position. And if you are not from a political dynasty, you can forget about making a difference. The most you can achieve is land a secondary or tertiary position and enrich your own coterie with favours. Thus perpetuating the system.

The Indian blogosphere is abuzz with quite a few searching for India's Obama. I have a question for them, when was the last time they went out and voted in a general election? Did they ever take part in the political process? Do they feel that there is something wrong with a process which constantly rewards corruption and divisive politics? Do they consider themselves good citizens and fulfill their civic obligations?

It is good to seek change when one is sick and tired of the rot that one sees all around. The answer is not in seeking out a single leader who might or might not fulfill our aspirations, but changing ourselves and the system so that this becomes a constant process which rewards virtue and weeds out undesirable elements. Remember that the cost of maintaining a good political environment is constant vigilance on the part of the electorate. The problem is that most of us have become indifferent and disillusioned with politics as it is practised in India today.

So we want to be spoon-fed Obamas, right? Like chicks in our cosy nests, we look upwards with beaks open, waiting for some imaginary mama-bird to provide us with an Obama. Well, I have news for you. You are not baby-chicks any more. Our democracy is 60 years old. And it is YOU who has to work towards making it better. If you don't do that, you get what you deserve.

For Obama the election is over, the task has just begun

2008-11-05T17:20:00.003+03:00

Let the euphoria die down. Now this is a fact. the USA has its first black president-elect, who will be taking on the presidency come january 20th, 2009.

Obama will be inheriting a few wars and the stupendous financial mess that is still unfolding. The world and the US public in particular have to tone down their expectations a little bit. Obama simply can not perform miracles. He will need time and his own space to tackle each of these problems one at a time, in the manner he sees fit. The world at large has been mesmerized by his personality, watching him daily on the election trail. But that is what he is good at, motivating people. Transforming it into action is a completely different ball-game. And he will need time and perseverance to prove himself good at that as well.

What Obama's election has done is that it has broken all glass ceilings and shown the world that the US electorate can rise above all prejudices to let the better candidate win. Translating that into our own situation and asking questions like 'When will India get its Obama moment?' is foolishness. The answer is when a candidate of that caliber presents himself/herself. I have faith in our democratic system that when the time comes, it will rise to the occasion and catapult the correct candidate to the post, irrespective of his religion or caste or gender.

But, for the time being, let us start treating Obama as the human he is, instead of the symbol that he has become. He will have a tough time anyway, without trying to live up to people's raised expectations of his presidency.

Redistribution of Wealth

2008-11-03T23:32:00.004+03:00

Cartoon from the Augusta Chronicle. Not much fun when it is YOUR wealth getting spread around.

Obama's Change, Good or Bad?

2008-10-30T15:47:00.008+03:00

Barack Obama, in 2001:

You know, if you look at the victories and failures of the civil-rights movement, and its litigation strategy in the court, I think where it succeeded was to vest formal rights in previously dispossessed peoples. So that I would now have the right to vote, I would now be able to sit at a lunch counter and order and as long as I could pay for it, I’d be okay, but the Supreme Court never entered into the issues of redistribution of wealth, and sort of more basic issues of political and economic justice in this society.

And uh, to that extent, as radical as I think people tried to characterize the Warren Court, it wasn’t that radical. It didn’t break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution — at least as it’s been interpreted, and Warren Court interpreted it in the same way, that generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties: [It] says what the states can’t do to you, says what the federal government can’t do to you, but it doesn’t say what the federal government or the state government must do on your behalf.

And that hasn’t shifted, and one of the, I think, the tragedies of the civil-rights movement was because the civil-rights movement became so court-focused, uh, I think that there was a tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalitions of power through which you bring about redistributive change. And in some ways we still suffer from that.

A caller then helpfully asks: “The gentleman made the point that the Warren Court wasn’t terribly radical. My question is (with economic changes)… my question is, is it too late for that kind of reparative work, economically, and is that the appropriate place for reparative economic work to change place?”

Obama replies:

You know, I’m not optimistic about bringing about major redistributive change through the courts. The institution just isn’t structured that way. [snip] You start getting into all sorts of separation of powers issues, you know, in terms of the court monitoring or engaging in a process that essentially is administrative and takes a lot of time. You know, the court is just not very good at it, and politically, it’s just very hard to legitimize opinions from the court in that regard.

So I think that, although you can craft theoretical justifications for it, legally, you know, I think any three of us sitting here could come up with a rationale for bringing about economic change through the courts.”

Just read the above quotes, hear to them again, and let them sink in. What is actually being proposed here is not the creation of wealth and certainly not the creation of opportunity, but simply taking money from the successful and hard-working and distributing it to those whom the government decides “deserve” it. Now that’s just garden-variety socialism, which apparently is not a big deal to many American voters. But then think about what he is saying about the US constitution.

The United States of America leads the world economically, militarily, scientifically, and culturally and by a spectacular margin. Any one of these achievements, taken alone, would be cause for enormous pride. To dominate as it does in all four arenas has no historical precedent. That it has achieved so much in so many areas is due in a large part to the structure of its civil society as outlined in the Constitution of the United States.

The entire purpose of the US Constitution was to limit government. That limitation of powers is what has unlocked in America the vast human potential available in any population. It has empowered the common citizen to achieve his full potential in any endeavor.

The first quote tells us that Obama believes in the redistribution of wealth and the second quote tells us that he thinks it should be brought about by the executive branch. Barack Obama sees the limiting of government as a fatal flaw, which should be corrected.

And this is not just a flashback, even on the campaign trail, Obama has talked about his preference for wealth distribution.

I do not think that in recent history, as far as I can remember, the US has ever had such a presidential candidate who so completely and openly opposes the idea of limited government, which is the absolute cornerstone of what makes the United States of America unique and exceptional.

Had I been a US citizen, this is perhaps the most challenging election I would have voted in. Why didn't the Republicans come up with a better choice? The US voters deserve better than Mc-Palin.

The 'Uttam' face of Indian Health care

2008-10-28T16:26:00.007+03:00

The existing public health care system is not viewed favorably by its potential users in India. There are a number of reasons for that, quality and availability being the foremost. In both urban and rural areas, people prefer to pay and seek personalized services provided by private physicians, with a human touch, rather than use free treatment at public health centers. Simply because they lack faith in the system and the way it deals with them and if capable, would rather pay for availing health care.

This is where the R.M.P.'s step in. Registered Medical Practitioners outnumber certified medical doctors, especially in small towns and villages, where qualified doctors are loathe to set up practice. And it is easy to get registered. So easy in fact, that Uttam, who could barely read or write, got his registration and started his practice, with all of us, his friends, chipping in to get him started.

Uttam's house was on the same street as ours. His father had died while he was still a toddler and his mother had single-handedly raised him. But even she departed while he was entering his teens. Uttam had dropped out of primary school and had been through several odd jobs until he finally landed a job at a doctor's clinic and learned a few tricks of that trade.

To make a long story short, in a few years, Uttam managed to register himself as an R.M.P. and started his practice in a neighboring village. He would commute daily on his lucky bike, the same one which he rode for his baraat, but that is a tale for another day. He was very good at interpersonal skills and his practice grew quickly. He used to steer clear of trouble by dispensing innocuous medicines and referring complicated cases to qualified doctors, mostly using the placebo effect to cure his patients and build up his reputation.

But all good things come to an end. A couple of years later, he had an aged lady die in his clinic while waiting for her turn to be seen. And although it was not his fault, his dispensary was ransacked and his bike was mangled up and he himself was badly beaten up by the relatives.

This incident shook up Uttam so badly that his next couple of years were again spent doing odd jobs till he finally mustered up enough courage to set up shop once again, but in town this time and only specializing in skin related ailments. Because, he reasoned, no one dies of skin diseases.

He has done nicely ever since. He built a large house for his growing family and a few years back, his daughter graduated from dental college and is now a practicing dentist.

By the way Happy Diwali to one and all!

Does the Euro have a future?

2008-10-25T00:59:00.009+03:00

The current financial crisis rocking the world economies has cast a rather unfavorable shadow on the perception of the euro as a viable, strong currency.

European financial stocks, and hence stock markets, were hit hard in recent months by the growing problems with mortgage-backed debt. There is a perception that European banks’ exposure to bad mortgage debt (both US and European) is much worse systemically than US banks’ exposure, which is rather ironic since the sub-prime mess originated in the US. So European investors aggressively liquidated European bonds and stocks and sought a temporary refuge to weather this storm. And that safe haven was sought in US treasury bonds.

Globally, short-term US Treasury bonds are considered the safest debt investment. The US has long had the largest, strongest economy in the world. And because Washington can use the Fed to create endless US dollars out of thin air, the US Treasury can never default (unless the US government is overthrown in a civil rebellion or conquered in an invasion, neither likely scenarios).

Since the US is a single sovereign nation, as opposed to the often-fragile federation of competing sovereignties that is the European Union, foreign investors still have more confidence in US Treasuries than other government bonds.

Now, the US dollar, like most currencies, exists as a result of nation-building, while the Euro exists as a step towards nation-building. The European Union is not yet a state in the full sense of the word. The member states control their own fiscal policies. More importantly, they see themselves as distinct nations. And different member states are growing at varying paces which creates uneasiness and discontentment. Especially the southern four member states, namely Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain are feeling the strain of the high-priced German-centric Euro on their national economies.

The governors of the European Central Bank have been following the traditions of the German Central Bank. Fighting inflation is their primary goal. That works for a strong, stable economy like Germany. But such economic policies during a downturn might prove too much for the Southern states to bear, presenting them with a Cornellian Dilemma. Leaving or staying in the European Monetary Union, both with ugly consequences.

The Euro was floated in 1999. In its short history so far, it has remained a viable currency but that was during good times. How it fares during the current recession will decide its future. With widening divergences between the EMU’s member states, the pressure on it could become intolerable during a recession. And ultimately this could lead to its breakup. Two possibilities, every nation charting its individual course, or perhaps a Nordic Euro, with the Southern four breaking away.

I wonder if China has already begun formulating a strategy on how to deal with and perhaps take advantage of this possibility.

Marriages are made in heaven

2008-10-24T01:14:00.003+03:00

Different societies have different perceptions regarding the institution of marriage. In Islam, marriage is a solemn and sacred social contract between two willing parties which is not irrevocable. While in Christianity, Catholics believe marriage is a sacrament, but protestants do not.

In Hindu cuture, a marriage is traditionally viewed as a sacrament and not a contract. The bond between the partners is supposed to extend across many lives. It is supposed that these souls are enjoined in marriage because of their intertwined Karmas, Which need to be resolved in order for both of them to attain mutual salvation, i.e. Moksha.

Nita's post made me think about my marriage. Ours was an arranged marriage. And we will be completing 29 years of blissful married life in a few days. Sure, we have had our ups and downs and our disagreements, but they were on minor issues which resolved themselves in due course. And whoever was at fault, accepted that gracefully and both moved on with life. No lingering bitterness as far as I can look back.

It was a combination of factors. We were both mentally prepared for marriage and were ready to work towards making it click. Being from the same community and sharing similar backgrounds, outlooks, expectations and goals helped, of course.

Now, when 29 years later, I look at my wife, I feel in my heart that she has become a part of my existence. I can not imagine a life without her. And I know that the feeling is mutual.

Rafta Rafta Wo Meri Hasti Ka Saman Ho Gaye

Crashing Commodities

2008-10-23T01:10:00.004+03:00

This is a chart of the CRB commodities index which shows that all price gain by the index, for the past two years, has been wiped out.

Isn't this a little weird? I mean, it wasn't that long ago that the world was on the brink of a fiscal disaster, and is perhaps still trying to find its feet. Shouldn't commodities be booming? And considering that both crude oil and the CRB index are dollar denominated, where and how did the USD find such strength?

It all started with carry trade unwinding. Carry trade is the name given to the practice of borrowing a currency (yen) with low interest rate, converting it to a higher interest paying currency (USD) and depositing it in banks with high credit ratings. So basically you make money, using your line of credit, by taking advantage of the difference in interest rates.

These funds then make their way into the interbank lending market in euro or risky dollar assets. But the plunging securities and equities markets have triggered a reversal. Credit limits have been tightened to compensate for the losses in other markets. Which has brought about the unwinding of the carry trade. This, in turn, means less liquidity all around and therefore lots of players running after the dwindling supply of the USD, pushing it higher.

Trillions have been lost across the world's crashing stock markets. Which has meant a reduction in the money supply available to the world at large, either in terms of credit, or cash valuation of share certificates held. Even the massive cash injections by the world's central banks are not sufficient to offset this loss to the world's financial system. And so, the liquidity crunch continues.

Shrinking credit markets leading to shrinking liquidity results in a reduction of financing available to the real economy. This leads to an onset of recession, first in the US and then followed by a chain reaction leading to recessions all across the world.

The US is the world’s largest consumer. And the first country to suffer the full negative effects of a US recession is likely to be China, being its largest trading partner. The Chinese economy is heavily dependent on exports to the US and a recession in China will mean a slump in its huge demand for natural resources and commodities. Now, this Chinese demand has been one of the major forces behind the previous boom in those markets. The current decline in commodity prices is perhaps a reflection of the realization of this fact.

As the saying goes, when the US catches a cold, the world gets the flu. The reason is that the entire global financial system is set up in such a way that the US effectively controls global money supply and all other countries are, like it or not, hostages to the US currency.

But that may change in the future. This could perhaps be the the first step on the path to a new world order.

Moving towards Bretton Woods II?

2008-10-21T19:55:00.003+03:00

In Germany, Koehler, a former head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has called for the staging of an international conference along the lines of the one held in Bretton Woods in 1944 that helped draw up the post-war financial order. "I'd like to see a Bretton Woods II," he said when discussing what should be done to tackle the financial crisis. "I think the crisis is manageable. It's in our hands."

Germany's Foreign Minister Steinmeier says he wants to see a body comprising an expanded Group of Eight industrial nations to discuss a new financial order.

Sarkozy, the French president, met with President Bush over the weekend. They agreed to a series of summit meetings in the next few months to discuss common strategy for the global economy. Mr. Sarkozy is clearly pushing for a change in the way capitalism is practiced.

And what kind of capitalism does he believe in? The answer is a highly regulated state capitalism,most probably involving a global regulator for all international banks, including U.S.-based.

Bush has agreed to a series of summits, which will apparently start in November. No word on what the exact dates are, but they are likely to involve most developed and many developing countries.

A consensus is slowly building up among world leaders that some sort of regulatory watchdog has to be set up to ensure that one nation's financial woes do not plunge the whole world into economic chaos ever again.

The foundation of the original Bretton Woods agreement was a shared belief in capitalism. But the system collapsed in 1971 because of the US's unilateral refusal to honor convertibility of the USD to gold. The world is going to be weary this time around. And the US will have to open up its economic and fiscal policies to international scrutiny, that is for sure.

The RISC model for rural development

2008-10-20T22:29:00.004+03:00

I am no rural development specialist or economist. But I can appreciate a good plan when I see one. The RISC concept is one such good plan and when I compare it with PURA, I can see the advantages it has over the latter.

I respect Dr. Kalam and his idealistic approach to bring development to the doorsteps of millions of rural Indians. But, when you think about it, he is not a specialist in this field. And although you may have full faith in the abilities and intentions of a lay-person, would you allow him to perform open-heart surgery on you? The answer is obviously no. You would seek out a specialist surgeon for the job. You would want a plan which is not only feasible, but which achieves its goals with economy and provides spin-off advantages as well.

When you think about it, the RISC model by Dr. Atanu Dey presents a chance to realize the development dreams of a large chunk of the Indian rural population, within one generation. The spin-offs would be even more impressive. Well-planned urban areas with infrastructure in place and room to develop. It would reduce the pressures on the already shaky infrastructure of the present urban areas.

And just imagine the magnitude of the boost to the economy this challenging concept will provide. The construction of hundreds of new and viable, well-planned, cities-in-the-making. This could be the chance for India, to properly plan out the urbanization of our rural population and to bring to them the fruits of development, within the foreseeable future.

Because no matter what, people are going to migrate from rural to urban areas. You can provide them with a planned urbanization, like what the RISC concept envisages, or take the path China has taken. But you can't keep them in the villages by trying to provide them with all amenities at their doorstep.

Those days

2008-10-19T13:26:00.006+03:00

I remember the good old days of my childhood.

We lived in a house on the edge of the town on a road which was shaded by regularly spaced, huge banyan trees. There was no other house on the road, beyond ours. Just the high school placed about 50 meters inside from the road and then open empty spaces, till the fields and the orchards began. We used to play in the open grounds and come back home to the smells of a great meal and listened to the radio for half an hour or so before going to bed. Those were the days of Apollos to the moon. And watching 'Purab Aur Paschim' at the only cinema hall in town. When families ate together and lived together. The days of peace, love and happiness. Those were my good old days.

But for our offspring, the present is the good old days. These are the days they will remember when they grow up. The days when they were young and free. The days when they were happy and didn’t know about any problems in their little world. The days when they come home and play with their toys or watch their favorite program on the TV. Or spend hours chatting with their friends on the phone or the internet. The days when small sorrows can bring about a flood of tears, but a moment later, a small joy can bring a wide smile to their faces. The days when they can fall asleep in their warm cosy beds and dream of another beautiful tomorrow. These are their good old days.

I visited my childhood home earlier this year after a gap of about 20 years. All the banyan trees had been cut down and the road was lined with shanty dwellings. Even our childhood home was in a dilapidated state. There were no open spaces left. A slum had sprung up and taken over every available piece of land. But to me it made no difference, because my memories are more associated with the people I grew up with, than the places where I grew up.

One day my children will grow up and revisit the good old days of their childhood. I hope and pray they remember the people and not just the place they grew up around.

Getting it right

2008-10-18T23:47:00.006+03:00

Here is a snippet from a letter by Casey Research:

Imagine you’re in America, back in 1970.
Richard Nixon is president. The Beatles have announced their breakup. And the average weekly wage is around $170.
Out of your $170, you’ve managed to save $35, and you want to invest it… but you’re not sure of the best place to put your hard-earned money.
And then, in 1971, Richard Nixon takes the country off the gold standard…
… which means the dollar is no longer tied to the price of gold.
It also means the price of gold is no longer fixed, and can go up according to demand.
You recognize what this change means. So you take your $35 and you buy one ounce of gold.
That’s in 1971.
Thanks to worries over the stability of the economy, and inflation galloping along at around 15% annually… by 1974, your single ounce of gold has risen from $35 an ounce to $195.
That’s a 557% return in just 3 years.
Then, in 1979, the price of gold more than doubles in 12 months – to $400 an ounce.
By 1980, it more than doubles again, to $850… before settling back to $627.
Your $35 has gained 1,719.42%, in one decade.

At the end of 1980, you sell your gold…
… and you’re looking for a new place to invest your money.
One of the things you’ve noticed over the years is that something odd is happening to the balance of the world economy.
You noticed that in the ‘70s, the people who did the best during the oil crises of ‘73 and ’79… were the Japanese car manufacturers. Their smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles were quickly becoming more popular than the heavy, gas-guzzling American cars.
You also notice that everywhere you look, people are listening in on a new kind of personal stereo… the Walkman… made by Sony.
Confident that Japan is the place to put your investment capital, you invest your $627 into the Nikkei Index in Japan… in 1981.
In the early ‘80s, the Nikkei more than doubles – bolting from a 1975 high of 4000… up to 8000.
From 1983 to 1985 - the Index jumps again, from 8000 to 18,000.
You get the feeling that you should strap yourself in well for this ride, because it’s only going to get more exciting.
And indeed it does.
From 1986 until early 1989, the Nikkei catapults from 18,000 to 28,000…
… and reaches its peak on December 29th, 1989 – at a whopping 38,194.
The $627 you originally invested into the Nikkei is now worth $3,548… that’s an increase of 565.86%.
You jump out of the Nikkei market at the end of 1989 (just before the market collapses, losing 63.5%)… and look around for a safe place to land.

It’s now 1990… and there’s another market starting to make a lot of noise.
In the early ‘90s, there’s a lot of talk about bio-tech companies, and scientific and medical-device firms that are promising to do everything from cloning humans to curing cancer in our lifetime.
Most of the companies at the center of this talk trade on the smaller, electronic stock market called NASDAQ… and you like what you hear.
So you take your $3,548 and move it all into the NASDAQ Index.
The NASDAQ exchange is doing okay – but in 1994, the computer age takes firm hold… and soon after that, the Internet revolution takes the market by storm.
In 1996, the NASDAQ is sitting at 600.
On March 10th, 2000, the NASDAQ peaks at 5132.52.
Your’ $3,548 is now worth $35,105.

But you’re hearing a lot of talk about the Internet and the “New Economy,” and how the old business models are no longer applicable to the new Internet age… recessions and market corrections are a thing of the past…
This “irrational exuberance” makes you nervous… so you take your money out of the market – just before the meltdown.

Now what?
You look for another vehicle, and realize there is only one place to put your money for the new millennium… and you set your sights on energy.
Specifically, crude oil.
This final investment of your four-decade adventure proves to be one of your finest.
The crude markets are fairly tame in the early part of this century…
… but we all know what happens next.
Your $35,105 invested in crude oil gives you one of the great moon-shots of all time…
That humble $35 you began with originally in 1970 – has ballooned to $159,591.

Here’s how it would look all laid out on a chart:

That’s a return on investment of 455,971%.

Provided you get it right four times in a row and entered and exited the market at the perfect times. Which is just not possible for average Joes like you or me.

Show me just one example of someone who has succeeded in doing so and I will show you a million failures.

Though, I have to say, it looks good on paper!

Transport in ancient India

2008-10-17T01:35:00.004+03:00

My last post was about the Nilgiri Mountain Train, which was built essentially to transport tea produced on the hills, down to the railhead at Mettupalayam. From where it was transported by rail and then shipped to destinations around the world. But have you ever wondered how and in what manner, cargo was transported in ancient India, before the railways were built by the English?

According to Ashraf Khan’s ‘Dakshin Bharat’: “In the regime of KrishnaDev Rai in South India, every thing was brought in Vijaynagar laden on oxen. Daily 2 thousand oxen used to enter the gates of Vijayanagar with goods laden on them”.

This was the mode of transport in ancient India. The Banjaras had almost a monopoly on this trade and were trusted and sought after to supply armies during wars as well as carrying out normal cargo transport during peacetime.

All kings and warlords in ancient times needed the logistics support provided by the Banjara tribes and understood the need to maintain good relations with them. Chhatrapati Shivaji reportedly came to meet Aurangzeb at Agra in 1666 with 500 oxen and 100 Banjaras. He also employed Banjaras with a huge herd of oxen for transporting the loot from Surat in 1664 and 1670.

The Banjaras became rich and powerful plying their trade and they are mentioned in almost all folklore of that era. The Sagar Lake around which the city of Sagar in Madhya Pradesh is constucted is reputed to have been built by one Lakha Banjara.

The Banjaras were on the move with their pack herds of oxen, nine months a year and only returned to their villages or 'tanda's to spend the monsoon. The advent of the railways spelled an end to this community's nomadic way of life and it took up various trades and professions including agriculture for its livelihood.

You can find more information about this nomadic tribe here, if you are so inclined.

'Chhaiyya Chhaiyya', the Nilgiri Mountain Railway

2008-10-15T12:07:00.003+03:00

The Nilgiri Mountain Railway yesterday completed 100 years of its rich history. We were lucky enough to travel on it in August this year and I would recommend this trip to everybody. It leaves early in the morning from Mettupalayam and takes slightly over four hours to complete its 46 km journey thru the verdant hills and tunnels to finally reach Ooty at around mid-day. A steam engine pushed us upto Coonoor, from where it was the turn of a diesel engine to make the final stretch upto Ooty. What was interesting was the fact that the steam engine which initially huffed and puffed to take us up to Coonoor was built in Winterthur, Switzerland according to the inscription on it!

Here is a picture taken at one of the stops along the route:

What irritates is that this train has come to be known as the 'Chhaiyya Chhaiyya' train as if that were its only raison d'etre. In spite of the fact that three years back, UNESCO has awarded it world heritage status.

Unlike the Darjeeling Mountain Railway, which is run by an autonomous body, the NMR has no administrative set-up — it is just another maintenance assignment of the Salem division. "Unless a separate administrative team, delinked from the Southern Railway, is set up and a special officer appointed to exclusively look after the NMR, it will continue to be neglected," says a senior railway official.

A really sad state of affairs. We as Indians have to learn how to look after our own heritage and the NMR is a part of it.

Mrs. Born vindicated

2008-10-14T01:07:00.005+03:00

Long Term Capital Management was a hedge fund established in 1994 with over a bilion dollars in capital and controlled assets of over 100 billion dollars in its heyday. It had two Nobel-prize winning economists on its board. And yet it suffered huge losses and had to fold up, with its capital wiped out by losses, in early 2000.

Did anyone have a clue, at that time, that this was possible? The answer is no, but a qualified no. Because LTCM was heavily into derivatives and as far back as in 1997, Mrs. Brooksley Born, then head of the CFTC , warned in congressional testimony that unregulated trading in derivatives was a serious threat to the regulated economy and could bring about its downfall and asked for greater transparency.

George Soros is on record saying that he avoids derivatives as he does not really understand them. Warren Buffet, five years back, called them weapons of mass financial destruction.

But, Mr. Greenspan still has unshakable faith in those. His argument is that it is not the derivatives themselves but a lack of integrity in the financial community which has brought about the current crisis. According to him, those peddling derivatives were not as reliable as “the pharmacist who fills the prescription ordered by our physician.”

But then Alan Greenspan was the one who has fought against regulating this sector for as long as one can remember. He was instrumental in getting Mrs. Born silenced in 1997 and eventually getting rid of her. He has been telling every congressional committee trying to put reins on a wild west type derivatives market that it would be a mistake to regulate those 'highly specialized' markets and to let the specialists do their work without any government supervision or stifling regulation. And look where that has brought the world's financial system to, on the verge of collapse.

In hindsight, had Mrs. Brooksley Born's warnings been listened to, back in 1997, and proper regulatory mechanisms put in place then, we wouldn't be facing this financial turbulence now.

Final Solution

2008-10-13T16:34:00.004+03:00

If you haven't been able to watch this documentary yet, go ahead and find a copy, download it via bittorrent or just watch it on google video. Especially if you are a Gujarati, like I am, this is incumbent upon you, to watch it with the advantage of hindsight.

I recommend this documentary, not because I agree with the film maker's objectivity or interpretation of what transpired in Gujarat in 2002. But because I feel that no matter how you interpret it, what happened was very wrong. And that watching some of it through your very own eyes will perhaps make you realize the horror of what happened.Perhaps it will make you pause and reflect on how this ghastliness came to pass. And think about what WE can do to ensure that this does not ever happen again.

Because we can not change what has happened but we can work towards eradicating the causes that led us to this shameful chapter of our history. And because, just maybe, it will make some of us shy away from the politics of hate and work towards finding other solutions to our age old problems.

And mostly because 'those who forget history are condemned to relive it'.

Education is the key, or is it?

2008-10-12T13:25:00.003+03:00

James Michener has been one of my favorite authors thru the years. I have read most of his novels. I love the way he builds a story around that which has permanence, the place, not the people. Although the characters he develops are vivid and grip all your attention in their journey thru their lives. The only gripe I have against him is that he perhaps developed a dislike for Indians during his days in the South Pacific, specifically Fiji. And this prevented him from learning or writing about India in particular.

It was while reading his novel 'The Covenant' that I actually realized that education was the key for uplifting the disadvantaged classes of a society. The University of South Africa is a distance learning institution. And because of its nature, remained open to all throughout the dark days of apartheid. Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, and Robert Mugabe are just some of its notable alumni who made their mark on history.

Reading 1conoclast's post here made me realize something else. That the powers that be would stoop to anything to perpetuate the status quo benefiting them. It doesn't matter to them if they are trampling on the human rights of children. It doesn't matter to them if what they are doing is against basic human decency. In fact, they have become so used to this caste based profiling that a principal of a municipal school says: “We have been writing sub-castes on progress cards for over 30 years now. We have chamars, bhangis, vankars and wagri children, among others. What difference does it make whether we write their castes or not? We anyway know each other’s castes.”

If you start sowing the seeds of discrimination at such an early age, can you expect your next generation to remain free of caste based prejudices? In fact, I have to question your very motives for doing this.

1conoclast is correct in saying that this is not what our founding fathers envisaged for India.

I too feel nauseated.

The Sum of All (economic) Fears

2008-10-11T11:04:00.006+03:00

The FIIs are withdrawing money from India because they need it to meet margin requirements back home. This demand for the USD has meant a weakening in the INR-USD exchange rate, which is actually good for the Indian economy. Because they are getting less and therefore are repatriating less bucks for their rupees.

The Indian economy is not as export oriented as China's or South Korea's, and that is why perhaps we will not experience the full impact of the US recession that those economies will. The US system has so far been able to stave off the worst, yet there is still a chance that the worst case scenario could be realized. Here is a snippet of a crisis scenario from the September 19 Martensen Report:

Day 1: Four major banks are suddenly revealed to be insolvent, and money begins to be withdrawn from these banks at increasing rates. That night, foreign investors quietly begin to retreat from a stricken US banking system, and the withdrawals spread beyond the four stricken banks. As bank servers begin to log more and more withdrawals, alarm bells go off, and late-night emergency meetings are convened.

Day 2: The next morning, US government and banking officials assure the world that everything is fine and that a new program has been put in place guaranteeing the solvency of the US banking system. Behind the scenes foreign money continues to flee as wealthier individuals and institutions with a better view of the real state of affairs retreat to the safety of their home countries.

Days 3-7: The expatriated money is converted into anything other than dollars, resulting in a dollar slump that confuses all but the most astute of observers. Simultaneously, US interest rates begin to climb, as US bonds are sold off in preference for non-US assets.

Day 14: Fearing a massive run on the dollar and a collapse of the capital markets, the US imposes an emergency order, requiring a 2-week delay in money flows out of the country. This is, of course, nothing more than a capital control, a favored but ultimately inflammatory tactic of countries suffering a currency run. Around this time, a growing proportion of domestic bank account holders realize that, because of the interlocked nature of the banking system, simply moving money from one bank to ‘a better one’ is not a fool-proof strategy.

Days 15-21: Over the next week, cash is demanded with increasing frequency, exacerbating the troubles of an already beleaguered banking system. A cash shortage rapidly develops, leading the Treasury Department to make a high profile show (on television, of course) of armored trucks pulling up to banks with large bags of cash. Assurances are made that everything is fine and that there is enough cash for everyone. Commentators on television make snide comments about the people lining up for cash, suggesting that they are over-reacting. But the Treasury is caught off guard, and even a 24/7 printing regimen cannot keep pace with cash withdrawals.

Day 25: Currency controls are announced over the weekend, limiting cash withdrawals to no more than $250 over every 48 hour period. A few days later, the government announces that the US banking system, and, by extension, the US stock markets, will be closed for a period of two weeks while the situation is “evaluated” and solutions are identified.

Day 50+: A month later, the markets finally open up again, with the Dow down several thousand points, the dollar worth 50% of its pre-close price, and people everywhere suddenly trying to convert their cash holdings into things. Rampant inflation ensues. The dollar continues to fall.

Remember that this is a worst case scenario. The chances of this actually coming to pass are remote. But if it does happen, the shock waves will be felt around the world and people everywhere will be affected.

P.S. Gold had a trading range in excess of a hundred dollars yesterday, 10-10-2008, breaking all previous records.

Drenched in Bangalore

2008-10-10T14:51:00.003+03:00

It is exactly six weeks today to this incident and now I can look back at it in a more rational way. So this is how it happened:

We are outside the Forum mall in Bangalore and trying to hire an auto to take us back to our hotel. I enquire in broken english and hindi if the auto driver can take us to *** hotel in ShantiNagar.

'ShantiNagar? OK, OK.'
'*** Hotel, ShantiNagar.'
'OK, OK. 60Rupees, OK?'
'OK.'

And so we get into the auto and after about 20 minutes of maneuvering, the auto stops at a cross roads and the driver inquires the shopkeepers around there where the *** hotel is located. He finds out that it is about a kilometer and half away from where we are standing. So he informs me:

'Forty rupees more, Sir, very far.'
'Why? I told you I wanted to go to the *** hotel right from the beginning.'
'This ShantiNagar. Sixty rupees here only.'

So we started arguing and I got out of the auto just as a heavy downpour started. Both of us kept on arguing heatedly through the downpour and got fully drenched. In the end, the auto driver requested me to get back into the auto as it was raining heavily. But would I budge? Of course not, I wanted to make a point. So I located a traffic policeman on duty and brought him in to solve the problem. After listening to both sides, he dispensed justice and told the auto driver to drop me back exactly from where he picked me up and told me not to pay him anything. He was getting drenched as well and immediately ran away to find shelter. Leaving me fuming.

Did I want to go back to the Forum Mall? After pondering on this for a few minutes, I got back into the auto and told him to locate the hotel and drop me there, which he did. I paid him the full 100 rupees that he had been asking for. He was actually surprised as he was not expecting this and thanked me profusely before driving away.

This incident raises two questions. Why can't Bangalore autos ply according to the meter? Every auto seems to have one. Perhaps people have grown accustomed to bargaining for the fare in advance, instead of relying on the meter. More importantly, why did I make such a fuss if I, in the end, paid him what he had been asking for?

The Vijaynagara Empire

2008-10-10T07:01:00.003+03:00

The love of reading has to be instilled in children at a very early age. And the best way to do this is by providing easy access to books. My father was an avid reader and he had a good personal collection of fiction as well as non-fiction, all in Gujarati. That was how I was introduced to the world of books.

Sandeep's post about the Vijaynagar empire and Madhava Vidyaranya instantly took me back to my childhood. Because I remember reading the Vijaynagar series of historical novels by GunvantRai Acharya. Harihar, Bukka, Madhav and Sayana are larger than life characters for me. And I have always been fascinated by the lone Hindu Empire that sprung up in the south and defied the Muslim conquerors constantly trying to expand their foothold in the south, for two and a half centuries.

What is even more remarkable about this empire is that although it sprang out of a need to protect the Hindu way of life, it was not intolerant of its Muslim subjects. And in fact, quite a few were employed at the courts and in the armies, especially of the later rulers.

Is this it?

2008-10-08T11:13:00.007+03:00

Jimmy boy has shouted 'this is it' so many times that the warning has lost the impact and the urgency. Still it is time we took stock of the current market situation especially regarding gold, the king of commodities.

"There is only a relatively small group of investors who very seriously believe that there is a high level of risk that the (financial) system could break down. You only need a relatively small group to believe this to move the price of gold. In other words, the metal's price behavior reflects the trivial obsessions of a discredited fraction of investment opinion." -Alan Greenspan

And just what is happening out there? Rumours are flying around that Comex might default on Gold contracts and settle in cash instead of physical delievery. Further weakness being signalled around the world financial markets and rumours of a bank holiday to give the markets some breathing space. Bernanke signalling rate cuts in an effort to calm down US markets and yet they tumble. The UK pumping 50 billion pounds into its fiscal system to shore it up and Hong Kong and Australia slashing rates to increase liquidity.

'Extaordinary' and 'Historic' are the words being used by Gordon Brown and Ben Bernanke in describing the current state of the financial system.

In the gold market if the buyer is paying the effective interest rate for committing the trade, the market is said to be in 'contango'. The 'basis' is the effective interest rate being paid. The shrinking contango and the persistent fall in the gold basis is a measure of the vanishing of gold into private hoardings according to Fekete. Well, the bad news is that the basis has taken a beating in the last few days. His arguement is that when the basis approaches zero, it is goodbye time for the world's fiat currency system.

Gold could see an exponential rise in price in case of an actual meltdown in the financial markets, due to a flight to safety by panicky participants in the world's exchanges. Because, after all, gold is the world's ultimate reserve currency.

Zardari loves India

2008-10-06T01:17:00.005+03:00

Don't be fooled into believing that we will be seeing a sea change in Pakistan's attitude towards India, just because Zardari says so. Do not even think for a moment that the Kashmir problem can be solved just because Pakistan changes its public persona. That is exactly what he is, Zardari is the face that Pakistan presents to the world community at the moment. He does not have any control over the army, or the ISI, which are the actual policy-makers with regard to India.

And look at the context in which he is saying all those sweet nothings. Pakistan is in dire economic straits and Zardari is asking for a $100 billion aid package. Do not forget that he is the original Mr. 10 per cent. Of course he will be excited at the prospect of billions and of his personal cut from it. I am sure that is why he has that glint in his eyes. He must be wringing his hands in glee, mentally calculating his personal windfall from the aid package which Pakistan's friends are bound to come up with. He sure can say even sweeter things so that they can part with that money with a clear conscience.

After all, doesn't Pakistan have all those nukes, and can the world and especially The Friends of Pakistan let it slide into anarchy? Who said that nuclear weapons are, at best, deterrents? In the case of Pakistan, they have become a tool for blackmailing the entire world into coughing up aid and supporting a failed state.

Sic Transit Gloria Americani

2008-10-04T12:05:00.006+03:00

The 700 billion dollar financial bailout plan has been passed and the money will soon be available to the system to purge it of toxic assets. But is that going to be enough? And what effect will it have on the world at large? And even if it is, how long will it take for the world's financial system to recover? And what are the long term ramifications it will have on America's superpower status? It is time to take a look at the larger picture.

The cause of the current financial crisis lies in the US's lack of proper financial regulation and monetary policies which have driven up inflation and sent the price of commodities skyrocketing. The US will pay the price by going into an economic recession which has already started. But this will have a domino effect on the world at large. Poor folks around the world in pursuit of a better life are already feeling the pinch and will have their dreams shattered if the world plunges into recession.

The days of a unipolar world are over. Economic might is as much essential to being a superpower as is military might. Don't get me wrong. America is going to remain a superpower and the major player on the world stage for still some time. But what has transpired in the past few years has decided its fate of being relegated to a less prominent role in the family of nations.

The US has a lot of critics and enemies around the world. And that is expected since it took on the job of the world's policeman. What has made things worse is the current meltdown in the US financial system and its reverberations being felt throughout world economies. The financial rot has spread throughout the global financial system and people the world over are feeling the pain. Vladimir Putin and German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck have lashed out at the US for its greed and for its irresponsible policies which have led the world to the brink of a global recession.

The current bailout plan will lead to an increase in money supply and would be inflationary in nature. Which will in turn lead to an erosion in the value of the US currency. This would lead to a long term bull market in commodities and will perpetuate the inflationary cycle. Because a currency's value in today's economy is decided by the faith the foreign holders of that currency place in it, the USD will not face a drastic weakening but a gradual reduction panned out over a long period of time.

In the long run, this will lead to the USD being replaced by a basket of currencies in major financial transactions. The USD has been the world's reserve currency and the US having the power to print as many of those as it wishes, has enjoyed economic superpower status. When it no longer has that status, its financial regulatory regime and economic policies will have to be answerable to the world at large and this will mean an end to its superpower status in the military and political sphere as well. Instead of seating at the head of the table in the family of nations, the US will have to learn how to behave sitting at a round table, where all have an equal say.

Memories....

2008-10-01T16:33:00.004+03:00

I remember the first time I held you in my hands. You were looking at me with your tiny unfocused eyes trying to make sense of the new world around you.

And then we had to live apart for a few years. When I came to receive you guys at the airport, I remember that three year old kid asking your mum who I was, and in my mind, I made a promise to myself that we would never again stay apart, because I wanted to be around while you guys were growing up.

I remember the defiant child about to step into teenage, always testing the limits of what was allowed and consequently my patience. And I still vividly remember the dream I had of you falling of a roof and me waking up soaked in sweat.

I also remember the teenager telling me in a fit of rage, that she did not have a single happy memory about me. It really hurt. I guess it is the traumatic moments that are burnt more deeply in memory.

But I also remember you asking me for help when you needed it. And the moments when you made me feel proud. Those I will cherish till the day I die.

You have grown up and are now ready to take on the world on your own and I wish you all the best in life.

I just wish it could have been a bit different. You did not have to remove the pedestal from beneath my feet. "The job is over, thank you for your services and you may retain the title." We could have parted as friends. Instead of this pain that all of us have to go through now.

The Hindu Republic of Gujarat

2008-09-28T18:27:00.005+03:00

We, Indians, are an inherently hypocritical nation. Wait, Did I say nation? We are not even a nation.

To define us as a nation, we have to have some sort of common binding thread running through all or at least most of us. It could be a shared history or shared aspirations or shared language or perhaps shared values. But that is not the case. We are just a conglomeration of peoples who share the same geography but have disparate aspirations and languages and do not even share the same history. One man's hero is another man's tyrant and oppressor. Our historians have been fooling with history, presenting facts in a manner that fits in the larger scheme of things according to their ideology and serves their particular agenda.

And our aspirations are divergent as well. Some of us want to turn this country into a dar-ul-islam while others are clambering for a hindu nation.

Talk about languages. We have a multitude of those. Someone from Sonepat would have a hard time in Mettupalayam getting about his daily business and vice versa.

Hypocrites, because racism runs in our blood. We look down upon dark-skinned people and tend to classify people according to their origin or language. We classify people according to their social status, the region they are from, their sex, their caste or/and their religion and treat them accordingly. Yet we cry foul when we are at the receiving end of discrimination.

We bow humbly before powerful or privileged people anticipating favours and take advantage of the powerless and the under-privileged without any compunctions.

We are a subcontinent of contrasts. Female deities are revered and yet no one desires a girl-child. Women are routinely discriminated against in all walks of life.

This is the India that I left in my youth. And the mentality is still the same, except that the fringe hard-liners have grown in numbers and are slowly encroaching into the mainstream.

I own a residence in Mumbai and was dreaming of spending my retirement there after a lifetime of staying outside India. But lately Mr. Thakre and his goons have made me realise that I will not be welcome, just be tolerated.

I guess sooner or later, I will have to take up residence in the Hindu Republic of Gujarat and will perhaps require a visa to visit Mumbai.

A true story

2008-09-27T00:43:00.005+03:00

Once upon a time there lived a man who had two grown up sons. The elder son had an argument with his father on some minor issue which might have seemed really huge at that time and the son stopped communicating with his father and the rest of his family.

Years passed by and the man grew old. And with old age came ailments. The old man had a series of strokes and lost first his motor functions, then his speech and ultimately became bed-ridden. The younger son stood by his side during this traumatic period, helping as much as he could, while the elder son did not care enough to even inquire about his father's health. Perhaps because he had become stuck in that moment in time, when he had that raging argument with his father. That was the picture of his father that he carried in his mind and his anger had perhaps still not subsided.

One day, the old man died. As everyone does, sooner or later. At the funeral, what was surprising was that the elder son was weeping uncontrollably, while the younger son had not even a tear in his eyes. Later, when someone inquired why this was so, he said 'I have watched my father die a little everyday for the past few years and have already grieved for him, while for my elder brother, his death came as a shock.'

Relationships are an evolving phenomenon because you need people for a relationship and people keep evolving. If you had a falling out with someone today, are you doing the right thing by putting the relationship on hold and by going katti with him or her? Especially when it is family? Because you can't choose your family. You are stuck with them for the rest of your life. Because there will be a lot of pain and heartache that you will have caused in the meantime, by your being incommunicado. And because no amount of remorse can turn back the clocks. Does it really matter who was right and who was wrong, in the long run?

Zuma took a shower

2008-09-24T11:45:00.004+03:00

When you say South Africa, Nelson Mandela is the name that instantly comes to mind. He was the face of Black Africa and under his wise guidance, the ANC came to power in 1994. And it has been downhill ever since.

Jacob Zuma is the current leader of the ANC, after Tabo Mbeki's resignation. And what kind of a person he is, can be gleaned from the fact that he was accused of rape and admitted during the trial of having sex with a woman less than half his age, who happened to be the daughter of a family friend and who he knew was HIV positive. What does it tell you about the intellect and the morality of a person who says that he took a shower after that because that "would minimise the risk of contracting AIDS".

Democracy throws up some weird characters to the highest positions of power, but ultimatley this is a reflection on the electorate's morality and intellect. Otherwise, how can we explain Narendra Modi's and Mayawati's re-elections in spite of what they have done, or rather not done?

Why you earn what you earn

2008-09-22T13:55:00.002+03:00

Some years ago, three brothers left the farm to work in the city. They were all hired by the same company at the same pay. Three years later, Jim was being paid $500 a month, Frank was receiving $1,000, but George was now making $1,500.

Their father decided to visit the employer. He listened to the confused father and said, "I will let the boys explain for themselves."

Jim was summoned to the supervisor's office and was told, "Jim, I understand the Far East Importers has just brought in a large transport plane loaded with Japanese import goods. Will you please go over to the airport and get a cargo inventory?"

Three minutes later, Jim returned to the office. "The cargo was one thousand bolts of Japanese silk," Jim reported. "I got the information over the telephone from a member of the crew."

When Jim left, Frank, the $1,000 a month brother, was called. "Frank," said the supervisor, "I wish you'd go out to the airport and get an inventory of the cargo plane which was just brought in by Far East Importers."

An hour later, Frank was back in the office with a list showing that the plane carried 1,000 bolts of Japanese silk, 500 transistor radios, and 1,000 hand painted bamboo trays. George, the $1,500 a month brother, was given identical instructions. Working hours were over when he finally returned.

"The transport plane carried one thousand bolts of Japanese silk," he began. "It was on sale at sixty dollars a bolt, so I took a two-day option on the whole lot.

I have wired a designer in New York offering the silk at seventy-five dollars a bolt. I expect to have the order tomorrow. I also found five hundred transistor radios, which I sold over the telephone at a profit of $2.30 each.

There were a thousand bamboo trays, but they were of poor quality, so I didn't try to do anything with them."

When George left the office, the employer smiled. "You probably noticed," he said, "that Jim doesn't do what he's told, Frank does only what he'd told, but George does without being told."
__________________
h/t: darsh1994

Take a nap....

2008-09-19T23:52:00.008+03:00

A bear was walking across Rainbow Bridge (Old Hwy 40 at Donner Summit, Truckee) on Saturday when two cars also crossing the bridge scared the bear into jumping over the edge of the bridge. Somehow the bear caught the ledge and was able to pull itself to safety.
Authorities decided that nothing could be done to help Saturday night so they returned Sunday morning to find the bear sound asleep on the ledge.
After securing a net under the bridge the bear was tranquilized, fell into the net, lowered, then woke up and walked out of the net.

There is a moral to this story, you know; this old bear made a wrong move and found he was hanging by his nails. Somehow he was able to pull himself up onto the ledge where he saw he was in a very bad, impossible situation and what did he do? Yep, he took a nap and sure enough the situation took care of itself while he was asleep.
The moral of the story is that when confronted with a bad situation sometimes the best solution is to take a nap....

H/T: Jump

R.I.P. BraveHeart

2008-09-19T20:14:00.009+03:00

Senior Police Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma succumbed to his injuries sustained in line of duty and died in the evening today.

Heroes like him put their lives on the line so that common people like you and me can have a normal existence and go about our daily business in peace.

He had been injured earlier in the day, alongwith head constable Balwant Singh, while leading a raid on a terrorist hideout in Delhi's Jamia Colony in the morning. They were greeted with gunfire and at least 30 shots were fired from both sides, resulting in the death of two terrorists and two officers injured.

What really irritates you is the negation being spewed forth by so called residents and local Muslim leaders on the TV and other media. But that should not be surprising considering the long history of negation and obfuscation that those people have been leaning on. Someday I intend to write a lengthy post on this, outlining the history of this negation and the genocide that has been conveniently forgotten.

The United (Socialist) states of America

2008-09-19T20:14:00.008+03:00

Okay. Capitalism and 'free market economy' are officially dead as of today.

President Bush and Treasury Secretary Poulson announced a plan 'that would cost hundreds of billions of dollars' to shore up the ailing US financial system. This was necessiated by the fall of Lehman and Merril Lynch and the resulting loss of faith in the system by investors. The US Federal Reserve had to pump 85 billion dollars earlier into AIG, the world's largest insurer, to keep it afloat.

Where is this extra money going to come from? Of course by printing more of it and increasing the money supply. And what else does that lead to if not increased inflation?

In a true free market economy, sick entities would be allowed to die a natural death and others would learn from their mistakes and avoid the route to disaster. But with government handout programs like this, you can be sure that if you are big enough, you will come to no harm, no matter what you do.

India at 61: here's looking at you, kid!

2008-09-19T12:33:00.004+03:00

Antara, daughter of Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, sensationalizes and uses worn-out cliches in her article about how India is faring.

What she fails to mention is that India and ordinary Indians have achieved so much in spite of all the negatives mentioned in her article. Most of what she writes is true and I have to agree with that. But in spite of all the negativity, it is no mean feat to have become and remained one unified country thru those turbulent 61 years.

Looking at India as if it were some sort of homogeneous idea or country is another of the article's failings. India is not homogeneous but a conglomeration of various peoples and faiths and cultures, most of which have disparate histories, speak different languages and have different aspirations. The reality that those various entities have been able to co-exist and thrive as a single political unit, under a democratic form of government, has to be appreciated.

A First for Gold!!!

2008-09-17T19:54:00.008+03:00

Gold has had a 70 dollar range today so far! This might have been unthinkable a few years back but with the increase in volatility in the financial markets worldwide, we will have many more of these in the days ahead.

There are various theories floating around as to how this unexpected rise happened. Most analysts and traders were expecting Gold taking a dip below 700 and this was a very welcome surprise for goldbugs. That Jim Sinclair guy has really proved himself dumb this time! He has been predicting $50 and $100 up days since quite some time now. Cheers and wish everybody many more of those ahead!

Edit: Gold made a high of $865.5, so it has been an over $90 day!

One fine day

2008-09-17T13:23:00.003+03:00

It was 1975. Indira Gandhi had imposed emergency rule in India. The beureaucracy had unlimited powers and the common man had not much recourse against the excesses of the beureaucracy.

It was a fine day in September. The sky was a bit cloudy and there were fleeting showers. There were these guys at a college in Agra. Kid#1 was of the 'bhailog' sort and had his own coterie of chamchas who were ready to join him in any mischief. Kid#2 was from a poor Sindhi family who had migrated after the partition and were trying to build a new life in a new land. Kid#3 was an out-of-state student. #2 and #3, being outsiders, were usually at the receiving end of the mischiefs thought up by #1.

Since it was really a fine day and none of the students was in the mood to go to class and study, #1 took the leadership and exhorted the students to ask the principal for a holiday. The mass of students was milling around in the college grounds instead of going to their respective classes.

When the principal came to know of this, he was enraged. The usually mousy principal, who had been emboldened by the powers bestowed on him because of the emergency, ran out into the grounds. It was obvious to the students that he was in a fury. He demanded those students who wanted a holiday declared, to raise their hands.

#1 hissed, 'Don't do it. He can expell us.' He and his group all stood there silently, with heads bowed. Only two hands went up and you can guess whose. The principal immediately ordered those two to leave the college and the rest to go to class. And no further action was taken agaist these two later.

One incident can provoke different reactions from different people. #1 had a new-found respect for #2 and #3 from that day onwards. Quite a few teachers and students approached them later and praised them for their courage, while others thought they had acted foolishly.

#1, Ajay Dixit was working for Indian Airlines at Delhi, the last I heard of him. #2, Khub Chand, I have no news of, after we finished college and parted ways. #3, yours truly, blogged about it 33 years later.

There are a few defining moments in your life, when you are required to plant your feet firmly on the ground and take a stand, regardless of the issue or the consequences and this was one of those.

Nero and his fiddle

2008-09-16T18:06:00.003+03:00

While Delhi was reeling in the aftermath of the recent bomb blasts, Indian home minister Shivraj Patil was busy changing dresses for his various media appearances that evening. When questioned about this, he said "I live in a clean, neat manner".
One can't really blame the guy. After all, he had nothing new to say. Better say it in a new set of clothes every time, might make a better impact.

Life is easier, if you don't speak up.

2008-09-16T01:57:00.000+03:00

Life is easier, if you don't speak up.

The movie, A Wednesday

2008-09-14T01:31:00.003+03:00

This is embarassing, but I have to confess to it. I just stumbled into this movie today. And it proved to be even more rewarding than what names like Anupam Kher and Naseeruddin Shah could promise. The movie has a rating of 9.0 with 385 votes, including mine, at imdb and if you ask me, it is well deserved.

No spoilers here, you will just have to watch the movie to appreciate it. The two protagonists, Anupam Kher and Naseeruddin Shah provide a balance at both ends of the sprectum, one a keeper of law and order, while the other the extortionist. The tight action packed thriller was surprisingly short for a hindi film, with no songs or dance sequences. Although I would have been happier with less drama and more realism at the end of the film, I will be watching out for other movies from Neeraj Pandey, the debutant director.

Acts of Cowardice

2008-09-13T18:16:00.004+03:00

It keeps on happening.

And the usual reactions keep coming from the political leaders. Sonia Gandhi has condemned it as 'an act of cowardice'. And I suppose the perpetrators do not agree with her. I suppose it is brave on the part of the Indian people to become victims of terrorist incidents.

“We are fighting a proxy war and people, government, media, opinion makers, etc should come together to create awareness and work together to fight this war,”

There are certain rules of a war and if we do not fight, then terrorists will continue to attack us,”

That is Narendra Modi for you. We are at war, whether we like it or not, and we have to take steps to ensure the safety of our citizens. Even if that means a reduction in the amount of civil liberties we have been enjoying. A state at war has to recruit each and every means at its disposal to fight and win, especially against a faceless enemy.

The tragedy is that the ruling coalition enjoys being in power because of their main electoral plank — the repeal of POTA. It would be too much for Indians to expect that the Congress-led coalition would jeopardise its future poll prospects by introducing legislation which would empower the fight against terrorism. India has to wait for another government with the political will to bring about change. Till then, suffer India.

Come September

2008-09-13T13:15:00.002+03:00

This movie has been my all time favorite. I have watched it countless times and yet it always entertains me. Especially the one-up-manship between Bobby Darin and Rock Hudson.

Every new generation thinks it is smarter than its predecessors. And is in a hurry to pass judgment on issues that require deep understanding. The tragedy is that most of the time their judgment is filtered by their own limited exposure to those same issues. It is easy for them to deride people who do not hold similar views to their own. What upsets me is their insensitivity to the people around them. How can you share a table with vegetarians and recount an anecdote where a vegetarian colleague mistakenly ate meat and was so revolted, he rushed out to buy a tongue cleaner? I did not find it humorous in the least. My own younger brother M, in his teens, mistakenly ate meat and was so repulsed that he vomited it out and was emotionally overwhelmed and then fasted for three days.

The thing is that this is not just about eating meat. It is about a belief system. And people hold their beliefs in high regard. You should be sensitive to how other people would feel to what you are saying. Do not ever joke about anyone's beliefs. And remember that empathy is a virtue which enhances the human experience.
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Tying up loose ends

2008-09-12T13:52:00.004+03:00

Condoleeza Rice visited Tripoli on Sep 5 in the process to normalize bilateral ties between the US and Libya. What led to this visit was a remarkable agreement reached earlier in August.

The US-Libyan agreement established a mechanism to compensate the Lockerbie and La Belle disco victims of Libyan state-sponsored-terrorism. It also included a provision to compensate the Libyan victims of the US counterstrike on Libya, in response to the La Belle disco attack. This puts the actions of Gaddafi and the US counterstrike on Libya on an equal footing. That is a high moral price to pay for normalization of relations. Now let us wait for a US-OBL agreement to compensate the victims of 9/11 and the victims of the resulting US strikes on Al-Qaeda. Because the principle is the same.

This leads to the question, is the Bush administration in a hurry to tie up loose ends before the end of this presidency?

Human Resources Manager

2008-09-10T18:10:00.003+03:00

(h/t RamSarit)

One day while walking down the street a highly successful Human Resources Manager was tragically hit by a bus and she died. Her soul arrived up in heaven where she was met at the Pearly Gates by St. Peter himself.

"Welcome to Heaven," said St. Peter. "Before you get settled in though, it seems we have a problem. You see, strangely enough, we've never once had a Human Resources Manager make it this far and we're not really sure what to do with you."

"No problem, just let me in," said the woman.

"Well, I'd like to, but I have higher orders. What we're going to do is let you have a day in Hell and a day in Heaven and then you can choose whichever one you want to spend an eternity in."

"Actually, I think I've made up my mind, I prefer to stay in Heaven", said the woman

"Sorry, we have rules..."

And with that St. Peter put the executive in an elevator and it went down-down-down to hell.

The doors opened and she found herself stepping out onto the putting green of a beautiful golf course. In the distance was a country club and standing in front of her were all her friends - fellow executives that she had worked with and they were well dressed in evening gowns and cheering for her. They ran up and kissed her on both cheeks and they talked about old times. They played an excellent round of golf and at night went to the country club where she enjoyed an excellent steak and lobster dinner.

She met the Devil who was actually a really nice guy (kind of cute) and she had a great time telling jokes and dancing. She was having such a good time that before she knew it, it was time to leave. Everybody shook her hand and waved goodbye as she got on the elevator.

The elevator went up-up-up and opened back up at the Pearly Gates and found St. Peter waiting for her.

"Now it's time to spend a day in heaven," he said. So she spent the next 24 hours lounging around on clouds and playing the harp and singing. She had great time and before she knew it her 24 hours were up and St. Peter came and got her.

"So, you've spent a day in hell and you've spent a day in heaven. Now you must choose your eternity,"

The woman paused for a second and then replied, "Well, I never thought I'd say this, I mean, Heaven has been really great and all, but I think I had a better time in Hell."

So St. Peter escorted her to the elevator and again she went down-down-down back to Hell.

When the doors of the elevator opened she found herself standing in a desolate wasteland covered in garbage and filth. She saw her friends were dressed in rags and were picking up the garbage and putting it in sacks.

The Devil came up to her and put his arm around her.

"I don't understand," stammered the woman, "yesterday I was here and there was a golf course and a country club and we ate lobster and we danced and had a great time. Now all there is a wasteland of garbage and all my friends look miserable."

The Devil looked at her smiled and told...

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Yesterday we were recruiting you, Today you are an employee!!!

Two stories

2008-09-10T17:46:00.003+03:00

Have you ever seen people trying to get into a crowded bus in Mumbai? The people already in the bus will resist your trying to enter and once you are in, you will become the same. You will complain about other people trying to board an already full bus and reducing the space available to you.

SJ was a friend I had known for a long time. He carried a British passport because he had spent his youth in Aden and after the troubles there, had gone to the UK and gained the right of abode there. He had a good job here and used to visit the UK once in a while. Every time he returned, he used to complain that Indians were literally invading London and it was not livable there any more. His complaints grew in magnitude with every visit till he finally shifted residence there and we lost touch.

The other story is about a niche mall where we had opened shop. Since the mall was not fully occupied, people who had already taken up tenancy there would paint rosy pictures to prospective tenants. So that the mall may fill up and start doing better, eventually benefiting all tenants. We were also guilty of taking this approach.

So, the moral of those stories is that if it is good, you don't want to share it with others. But if it is bad, you want others in.