Mufasa's Den

Musings

2007-04-07T10:13:00.000-07:00

Interesting events. The great protector of Tamils announces reservation for Muslims and Christians in TN. I'm not sure if this is in addition to the already existing 69% reservation or would it be part of it. This is in spite the fact that a similar proposal was deemed unconstitutional in Andhra Pradesh. One thing is pretty much clear in Indian Politics, India doesn't need any external forces to destabilize it. It's a miracle that the country has survived for so long with such divide and rule tactics.

On the cricket front, Chappell has submitted his resignation. Two events are worthy of mentioning. One was an interview by Virendar Sehwag's father and the outburst from Sachin. Sehwag Sr. interview was very childish, juvenile and a typical Indian dad doting on his Son. His statement that his son shouldn't be blamed when Sachin Tendulkar failed was really, well, kind of confusing. I think it's the typical subcontinental shift the blame.

The next event is Sachin Tendulkar's outburst against an SMS from Greg Chappell about how Senior Indian players are not allowing younger players to bloom. I'm completely with Greg Chappell on this one. And it's not just in Cricket. In all spheres of life in the subcontinent the oldies try to garner as much as they can, even when they are way past the prime. Whether it is politics or movies or sports or your workplace examples of seniors ganging up and not allowing young performers to share the limelight is all well known. Sachin Tendulkar's burst only confirms this attitude.

Any coach would love to start with a good young team and nurture it. That's what they are tasked to do. When you have Sachin, Dravid and Ganguly in the team his task becomes demanding as there is nothing that these guys can be coached in. Not to mention that these guys are way past their prime. The look on Sachin's face when he was bowled in the Sri Lanka match speaks volume about his commitment. Sachin, please retire when u still have a lot of respect left.

27% Reservation in IITs, IIMs and AIIMS Stayed

2007-03-28T22:57:00.000-07:00

by the Supreme Court and rightly so. They questioned the data which is 75 years old and have asked the center to define what OBC is. I hope they also squash the Schedule 9 under which states like TN implement 69% reservation.

Indian Cricket's next step

2007-03-26T18:46:00.000-07:00

While many a bloggers have taken vows of not following Indian Cricket any more after their disastrous 2007 WC attempt, for me it is the most interesting moment. Yes it was disheartening to see the way the guys performed or rather underperformed but what is showed the BCCI administrators is that some drastic changes are needed. It's always interesting to see how organizations react to extreme situations. IMO this is really an extreme situation for India Cricket. Now rumors are swirling about the following changes.

1. Greg Chappell's contract will not be extended. Sandip Patil is rumored to be the next coach.
2. Dravid, Sachin and Sehwag will be dropped.
3. Yuvraj might be made the captain.
3. There will be 2 teams, India Blues (???) and India Jr. Based on performance the Indian team will be selected from these two list of players.

My thoughts are as follows.
1. I'm neutral on Greg Chappell. If he is changed I would rather prefer Tom Moody or Dave Whatmore. Sandip Patil has done a good job with the Kenyans so may be we can take a chance with him if he is available. Coaching while important is not going to win the matches.
2. Wholeheartedly agree with dropping the seniors. Given the ages of Dravid and Sachin, I don't even want them to have another chance. I would want players from 21 to 28 selected and lets stick with them.
3. Yuvraj is a good choice for captaincy. Let us give him a chance and a team of his choice.
4. I'm not sure about this arrangement though. How are they going to keep India Jr. engaged ? Will they keep India Blues and India Jr. play matches when there is not international engagement. Let us wait for the details on this one.

No No I'm not picking on Mumbaikars

2007-03-24T08:48:00.000-07:00

but they seem to not know when to retire. From Lata Mangeshkar to Sachin Tendulkar they want to look like the Energizer bunnies even after their usefulness for the team was over long time ago. Heck why talk about usefulness when their presence is real harmful. I'm not belittling any of the personality mind you. I adore Lata's voice (of the 70's and early 80's) and I can sit and watch Sachin Tendulkar opening for India in Australia way back in 1995-1996 the entire day. But blessed are those who realize that they are way past their peak performance and allow others to take their place and limelight. It takes a special mindset to do it and I do think prominent Mumbaikars lack this basic etiquette.

Judiciary on fast track !!!

2007-03-23T20:20:00.000-07:00

That too in India. I'm pleasantly surprised as to how the Manjunath case has progressed. Within 1.5 years of his murder, the case was solved, accused arrested, charges filed and a verdict has been reached. All the 8 accused have been found guilty and we should know the punishment by tomorrow. Its a very welcome development IMO.

Lasith Malinga - a Chucker ????

2007-03-23T13:33:00.000-07:00

I think he is trying to model himself after Jeff Thompson but his actions clearly show that he chucks the ball. He literally throws the ball with his hand going sideways. Apart from this guy's dubious action Lanka deserved the win today. Did you watch Sachin getting rattled by the thick edge. I've lost count of the times he has done this to himself. Dhoni took longer to come to the crease than he stayed there. All in all a poor performance by India and a complete waste of $199 for me.

Changes I would like to see in the current lineup. I want the following players chucked out
1. Uthappa
2. Dhoni
3. Agarkar
4. Harbhajan
5. Sachin

The only players who have kept or redeemed their status as a good cricketers are Rahul, Saurav and Yuvraj. Zaheer and Munaf did do a good job of bowling. I know I'm forgetting one man but at this point it doesn't really matter.

Most annoying moment of the worldcup telecast

2007-03-21T20:11:00.000-07:00

in US has gotto be the ads for Statefarm insurance.... Has a pathetic BGM and guy talking nasally the following words
"The world cup is great
Statefarm insurance is great too. Please call your nearest statefarm insurance agent...."

I think I have given much better ads during my college days (remember during the annuals most colleges will have tournaments where u create ads etc)...

2007 World Cup Cricket thoughts

2007-03-20T20:30:00.000-07:00

If Pakistan's exit from the 2007 WC was shocking then the fate that befell their coach was even more shocking. May his soul rest in peace. He did a wonderful job with the Proteas, his tenure with Pak was kinda mixed but that was more due to the internal politics within Pak Cricket than Bob's coaching.

Someone had commented on another blog about India and Pak going home early and starting a one day series. That would be truly comical but the reality is that ICC's worldcup would lose half its viewership. The news is that if India also exits the worldcup corporates would stand to lose Rs.250 Cr. Now can we say that some fixing would indeed happen ? Or may be it might seem too obvious so it may not happen and India may indeed get out and the corporates have to eat up the loss.

I was really surprised that I could only see advts of Hero Honda and LG dominating the field. I'm pretty sure no one outside India or may be the subcontinent would know about Hero Honda, Honda may be but not Hero Honda.

Some bloggers had commented about irresponsible Indian youth damaging the stars property in India. I'm not sure I agree with the bloggers. Emotion is part and parcel of Indian society. Losing against Bangladesh is ignomity that ordinary people cannot digest. The cricketers think that they hit a century in a match and are fully deserving a plot of land and a palatial house on it. How many of the fans can really afford this ? But it is exactly these fans that make the BCCI and cricketers see money. We make heroes out of them when they perform and villify them when they don't. There's nothing wrong in it. If the cricketers know they are out of form why can't they step out of the team by themselves. I was aghast at seeing Ajit Agarkar in the team. I think may be the fans should be targetting the selectors home.

Now if the same had been a premeditated distruction then that constitutes crime. Not everyone can be Brutus and by the way Brutus never achieved anything. Those who have emotions are the ones who will strive and achieve things closer to heart. Unfortunately the way India played that emotion was utilized negatively. I will never blame the poor fan, after all he wanted India to win against Bangladesh. But what he did not realize was that the Banga Bandhus played for the country where as the Indian elephants have already had their Scorpios and BMWs and Plots and houses not to mention all the advts money and don't have a need for anything else.

And then there will be some who will point to the teams performance against Bermuda. Was it a blemishless performance ? Heck no. Sehwag started shakily was dropped a couple of times. This Uthappa guy is only good for eating oothappams I guess. I would like to see his Ranji records. Dada also struggled against the Bermudans initially. The amount of inspiration and enthusiasm I saw on Leverock's face was more than the collective inspiration of the Indian team. I'll leave my thoughts there. Ofcourse my position is that India should not be playing Cricket at all. That'll be a seperate discussion.

Wearing Chennai, Tamil on their sleeve

2007-03-20T20:25:00.000-07:00

Of late some prominent bloggers just keep putting mundane posts about how Chennai is ignored or how Chennai is not given its due share or how some form of rating has rated Chennai the top Indian City etc etc. Am I the only one to find such posts irritating ? Is it real City patriotism or just insecurity or plain playing popularism ? Anyway I am quite sad to see these bloggers lose their prominency in my mind because of such single minded strawman pursuit.....

The sledging bastards that they usually are....

2007-03-17T20:21:00.000-07:00

Hey apparently they don't mind being called bastards and I didn't say that. I'm quoting the great Allan Border, the man who took them to a world cup victory way back in 1986.
Here's the quote “While a cricketer on the subcontinent or the West Indies may find an Australian bowler’s remark to a particular batsman of ‘you lucky bastard’ offensive, to players in other teams it’s not,” taken from here.

So my question to all the Aussies out there, if u fucking don't want others to take your sledging so seriously why the hell do you take Sunny's remark so seriously. Gavaskar had mentioned David Hookes as an example of what would happen in the bar if they used the same language as they used in the field. It's the truth and truth hurts real bad mate. You are sledger on and off the field. You are rally your country's press to undermine a visiting team and you don't hestitate to plan a body line and why do you expect others to respect your dead when you don't respect the living ?

And I fully agree with Sunny. The greatest cricketers so far have been the West Indians under Clive Lloyd. I will pay Million $$$$ (hehehehe when I have it) to see Viv Richards come out with just a cap and chewing his gum and hit that six as if it was a child throwing a pebble. Or the run up of Malcolm Marshal of whom Krish Srikanth once said that all he could do was to swing the bat aimlessly in the hope of making a connection. Now they never sledged but they won the worldcup twice consecutively. They won the cup purely based on their talent not. Now try to focus on doing that you dumb Aussies not pick on Sunny for his remarks, if you can.

Away for too long

2007-03-17T19:45:00.000-07:00

What to do, important Operations Research project that my Company's Chief Operating Officer had me do as part of my academic coursework took the toll. Not to mention the health problems that my family is having. Lot of things have happened in the meantime.

Judges are having a hard time in sub-continent, one in Pakistan unceremoniously kicked out and charges filed against him and another in India had some harsh letter sent to him. If these things can happen to Supreme Court judges I shudder to think what will happen to common folks.

Well the unthinkable has happened, Bangladesh squarely defeated India and Ireland trounced Pakistan. As one commentator put it the neighbors were competing with each on mediocreness in all aspects of the game. As for as India is concerned I think it is good India lost to Bangladesh. I think India should also lose to Bermuda. Cricket's popularity should wane in the country. I would rather see Hockey, Soccer and other such games which are more exciting and waste much less time gain popularity than this mundane and boring (what else can u expect from a sport invented by the Brits) game.

Vishy Anand gained #1 status in the Chess world. I never saw any congratulatory message from any of the Indian leaders. I guess if it had been a Muslim or a Dalit or an OBC or even a eunuch all the politicians would have rushed head over heels to congratulate and allot him a parcel of land and not to mention some lakhs of Rupees. But unfortunately Vishy doesn't fall in to any of the categories.

Last week I watched the movie "Rendu" starring Madhavan and before that week I watched Kamal's Vettaiyadu Vilayadu. I'm quite convinced that I will not be watching any more movies from Kollywood. The movies were so graphical it would be put GTA to shame. Especially VV, not at all expected in a Kamal starrer. Same with Rendu. Madhavan's movies are usually soft and offbeat but the violence in Rendu had me shut the TV off. I don't think I'm going to see Paruthi veeran or any other recent movie as their reviews themselves are scarring to read.

This is in stark contrast with the way movies were made in yesteryears. Do you need such graphic display of violence and bloodshed to be a blockbuster nowadays ? I am just going to stick with movies from PrakashRaj stable hereafter. I liked his Azhagiya theeye and I'm seeing really good reviews for Mozhi.

Anyway that's all for now, Happy Worldcup watching.....

Why don't the politicians learn ?

2007-03-08T23:55:00.000-08:00

So George.W.Bush was basking in the glory of 1991 Desert storm victory and his mammoth coalition of nations and was thinking that he could win the presidential election in 1992. But then a charismatic Governor from Arkansas stole the limelight with a simple slogan "It's the economy you stupid"....

The lesson from that election was that if you took care of the people's bottomline, people will take care of your bottomline (it won't be a rocking chair). But politicians don't ever learn a lesson. Take for instance P.Chidambaram. I agree that guy has got some brains but his latest "Put Social responsibility over tax concessions". So he promised jobs for 1,00,000 jobs for the physically handicapped. Mr.Idiot can you first pass a law that makes Govt. offices accessible to all these physically handicapped people ? Can you start doing something over which you have control over instead of forcing the Industry on some perceived utopian principles.

Every now and then just when the Indian Industry seem set to take on the world, the Govt. gets an itch to show the Industry who the real boss is. This year's budget was just a slap in the face for everyone. BJP lost the election last time because their pace of economic reform was not fast enough to reach everyone. Some of his statements are just purely jestorly. Like this one "India Inc. needed to take care of that half of India which had no access to water, community toilets, sanitation, electricity, education and health, instead of insisting on repeated tax concessions."

I thought all those that were mentioned above were the responsibility of a Govt. I guess being the minister incharge of the buck, he can easily pass it on.

Puri Jagannath Temple's UnGodly Action

2007-03-05T19:48:00.000-08:00

When I first read this
I was shocked to the core. I cannot imagine, in a nation where scores go literally hungry and that too Orissa which till recently was in news for hunger deaths, such a shameful act can be committed.

For those who are wondering what the issue is, the priests in Puri Jagannath temple in India, decided that the food cooked to serve the devotees was defiled and desecrated due to the entry of an American inside the temple. Now this is fine, they could have sent it outside the temple to other needy people or orphanages etc. But what they did with this "uncleanse" food is shocking. They dug a pit and threw the food down in that pit. ToI says that the food is worth 3Lakhs INR or 300,000INR. Even if the value of that food 1p it is still a shameful act.

How do you juxtapose this act with the country's aspiration of being a global superpower in 2020 ? Will this superstition stymie the growth or will the growth overpower such superstition ? I ferverntly hope for the latter to happen.

Market correction

2007-03-04T08:51:00.000-08:00

The much anticipated Market correction happened last week, though it's not clear if we have corrected enough. No one can tell that as the markets are based more on psychology than on economic conditions. Sometimes there can be an avalanche, like what happened last week, other times the markets will just get up, dust themselves and start the climb up.

US stocks normally do not face the same volatility as Chinese or Indian stocks. But the looming housing bust in US might derail the stock market advances. This should give savvy investors opportunity to get in to good stocks. Right now I'm still in the market, though lost a quite a bit of gains last week. Opened some new positions and still waiting to see what will happen this week. Options might be a safer play if one doesnt want to commit money in to stocks. But remember options decay really fast in their values.

The decline in Gold prices is also good news. Almost all the asset prices have gone beyond the reach of common man and this is true throughout the world. It is high time that these prices come down to the ground and as they do they will create great opportunities for those savvy investors.

Air beats Water

2007-03-04T08:41:00.000-08:00

No silly, I'm not talking about that stupid movies from Deepa Mehta. This is more about Overclocking. I got the Thermaltake Bigwater 735 kit from Newegg. For a start it was missing a nut to tighten the tube connection to one of the outlets. But still I decided to take the risk, remember a liquid cooled system means there's quite a bit of liquid flowing around your electronic components, and test the system out.

So out went my thermaltake bigtyphoon vx and in came the Bigwater 735. The setup was quite easy even though my ThermalTake Shark case wasn't ideal for connecting the components. But all said and done, the temps on my processor actually went up by about 6c. That's quite a bit of let down. Also due to the absence of fans over the PWMIC and Chipset their temps were also reaching 58-60c. Dismantling this setup was a mess though. Once your system is completely filled with the liquid you have to be carefull while uninstalling. With some spills and splashes I was able to dismantle the setup and was able to setup an RMA with newegg.

Now I'm back to aircooling. I'm convinced now that chips are cooled better by having a good airflow through the case. When the YateLoons arrive next week I'll have replaced all the stock fans with the YateLoons and these fans should move more air through the case than I'm doing now. My goal is to get this Opteron OC to 3.0Ghz. I'm at around 2.8G with a voltage supplied to the core, vcore, being 1.5V.

So there u go folks. Air beats Water

Chennai - Detroit of India ??

2007-02-28T23:12:00.000-08:00

I don't want our Govt. to do excellent forecasting and attract good Industry that can survive various economic conditions (read biotech, nanotech etc etc), but they can atleast look back and stop calling Chennai, the Detroit of India considering the state in which Detroit finds itself in.

Overclocking

2007-02-28T22:26:00.000-08:00

My current obsession is with overclocking. Overclocking simply means to run a processor at a speed greater than the prescribed one. AMD Processors (Athlon, Opteron etc) are well known for their overclocking ability. My current chip is an Opteron 165 that is rated to run at 1.8Ghz (remember its a dual core). I'm currently running it at 2.8Ghz which is about 60% Overclock.

It's great fun to assemble your computer and then mess around with the bios, tweaking the voltage to your proc, the FSB to your memory etc. But you have to be really careful with this overclocking thing. There are great many photos on the net showing fried CPUs, those that couldn't take the voltage supplied by their masters. An important part of OC-ing is to keep your processor cool. So if you up the voltage to the core of your processor the proc. temperature will go up. Therefore OC-ing through voltage raising should be the last resort.

The amount of OC-ing also depends on the MotherBoard (MoBo) you have. I have a DFI Lanparty CFX-3200-DR/G that's literally an OC's dream board. I can change a lot of parameters for the memory modules I use.

You overclock a processory by increasing the FrontSide Bus speed. This speed for my opteron was 200Mhz. Then there's the FSB multiplier which is 9. Therefore the speed for my proc was 1800Mhz (200*9). So the best way to OC is to increase the FSB. But if you increase the FSB you will face a limitation by the memory. Most DDR memory are rated at 200Mhz and will work well up to around 220Mhz. Therefore you are looking at a max OC of around 1980Mhz.

This is where the MoBo comes in. If your Mobo allows you to have steppings then you can change the FSB and set the stepping in such a way that your memory is run in it's stated speed. Now theoretically you can change the FSB and the memory stepping to achieve greater lengths of OC-ing. For the combo I have I was able to change the FSB to 300Mhz and change the stepping in such a way that my Memory ran at 225Mhz.

The FSB trick lasts only so long. Then you have to apply small increases in voltage to both your memory and proc to achieve further OC. This is where I'm stuck. My core temp goes up to 64C (core voltage,vcore, is 1.5v and FSB is 318Mhz). To keep the chip cool airflow in your case is very important. I have changed my setup so many times now. I had Coolermaster Centurion, then Antec P180B and now finally the setup is in a Thermaltake Shark. The processor is cooled by Thermaltake BigTyphoon VX. Great cooler by the way and it's huge. I mean literally huge. But one heck of a cooler. My core temps are around 39c at idle. But when at full load, running a program called Prime 95 to test the stability, the temp shoots up almost by 25c. I suspect the airflow in case is the problem.

To proceed further with my OC efforts, I have ordered a Thermaltake water cooler from newegg. Should arrive tomorrow. I have also ordered some 120MM fans to improve the airflow with in my case. I think the hot air is not removed quick enough (stock fans on the rear). I'll try with more fans and see if I can go past 320Mhz FSB. If not I have to go with Water cooling.

Microsoft - Not an innovator ?

2007-02-25T09:08:00.000-08:00

On a daily routine I read all kinds of jokes about Microsoft such as Congress should legislate that Innovation and Microsoft should never appear in the same sentence etc. Recently some of my friends got together, an usual weekend samosa, tea chit-chat that is so common here, and started discussing stocks which later meandered in to an heated discussion about Apple and Microsoft. Now I'm not a big Microsoft fan even though every computer product I have is from the Microsoft stable (I know you all crying hypocrite). I hate the sheer size of the company, a slumbering dinosaur. I love the nimbleness of the Linux developers, their cooperative attitude and commitment to sharing of knowledge. This aside, I was surprised to find myself defending Microsoft against Apple.

Many people consider Apple to be the epitome of innovation. Far from it, Apple was the first stealer on the block. Yeah you heard it. Apple was the first to get inspired from someone else's innovation (very much like our own desi music directors...). The real innovators behind the first Apple computer were not the people of Apple but the people in PARC (Palo Alto Research Center). PARC was funded mainly by Xerox company (talk of a company that gave rise to , Computer, Ethernet, Adobe etc but still did not make a single dime out of any of these innovations). Steve Jobs was visiting PARC, saw the computer there with a seperate monitor, mouse and keyboard, came back to Apple and created his version. So why do people fault Microsoft for doing what Apple did, getting inspired ?

In my opinion Microsoft and Apple are two completely different companies. They just cannot be compared on innovation. Microsoft was the first to create an online travel company and spin it off (expedia.com). Now how many companies has Apple spun off ? Apple Ipod is to mp3 players what Windows is to the OS-es. It's not the greatest thing but has a big marketing muscle behind it. There are much better players from Creative and other companies. Let us accept the fact that Apple failed to capitalize on its head start in the computer area. Much like how IBM closely guarded OS/2 and lost out to Windows, Apple was very protective of its computer where as Microsoft openly embraced OEMs and gave away it's operating system.

Another point that was raised was the competitiveness displayed by MS. Heck that's the same type of competitiveness that Intel exhibited against AMD. This is a tough business world. You either eat or get eaten. We should be glad that a company like MS is not in Larry Ellison's hand. He is the worst of the breed. He is a kind a guy who would rather pay the fine and land his aircraft in San Jose airport after the airport is closed because it's closer to his home.

On the question of innovation, MS has innovated a lot more than any companies in question. Could it have done more ? May be. But you should consider that this company competes with everybody on this planet. It competes with Yahoo, Google, IBM, Oracle, SAP, Sony not to mention the innumerable Linux companies. Who does Apple compete with ? With Microsoft and some PC OEMs like Dell, Hewlett-Packard on the computer front and with some lesser mortals like Creative in the mp3 world. Now they have MS in this arena. Given the level of competition that Microsoft has it will be big challenge just to survive. Even with such competition it has put out some wonderful products like XBox, Visual Studio .NET and the office suite of products.

There's a wonderful field called Operations Research in this world. This field owes its existence to Microsoft Excel. I have worked in both IBM's Websphere application development (WSAD) and .NET. I'll tell you I'll never go back to WSAD. So much so that the consultant who recommended Java to our company as a standard (which we did adopt as standard) started using VS.NET after he left our company.

Comparing Microsoft and Apple is well not an Apple to Apple comparison. Let them all innovate, compete and fight against each other. Finally the consumer will win.

Gharib Rath (Chariot of the Poor)

2007-02-23T18:40:00.000-08:00

So I watched M.Karunanidhi flag off another train from Chennai to Delhi or Hazrat Nijamuddin. Express trains like these usually have catchy names, TamilNadu Express, Rajdhani express etc. So I thought it was some kind of joke that this train is called Gharib Rath, translated to English it means Chariot of the Poor. But no that's really the name of the train. I was literally shocked. Is this a cruel play on the nation's poor. I wonder how many poor petitioned Lalu and Mu.Ka to enable them travel from Chennai to New Delhi in a AC coach for cheap.

Is there no limit to such farceness in this nation. Contrary to the perception that IT has lifted the living standards back home, I still find the nation in the grips of poverty where farmers commit suicide, states fight over among other things on water, where good infrastructure doesn't even come in dreams let alone be reality and honesty will be usually priced with your life (Manjunath). I bet the people in TamilNadu would rather have Gharib paani, Gharib hawa and a Gharib Makaan rather than a Gharib Rath.

Mera Bharath truly a Mahan (we call people mahan usually when they die which is so apt here).

P.S. How come M.Karunanidhi is now flagging a train named in Hindi. Did we not come from a lineage that revolted against Hindi imposition and opposed anything that was not Tamil. I guess he has turned a full circle in his life what with his vegetarianism, yoga practice, Sai Baba and Mata Amritandamayee friendship. Accepting Hindi is what we call parinaama valarchi, some people would like to call it andhar balti.

No alternative in Tamil ?

2007-02-21T21:03:00.000-08:00

If Hindi can call Rose as Ghulabi why is it that tamil just calls it roja ? why do the tamil scholars not take time to coin words for such commonly used items ?

Mella tamizh ini saagum....

What are you

2007-02-19T08:00:00.000-08:00

when you hate holidays because the stock market is closed ?

Unity in diversity, is it practical ?

2007-02-11T19:52:00.000-08:00

One of the founding principles of Union of India is the notion of Unity in Diversity. This is one of those utopian principles of Jawaharlal Nehru. It's a different story that Morarji and Shastri debunked this principle and tried to impose Hindi in the southern states which then fueled the rise of the kazhagams in TN. But my question is this Unity in Diversity concept really workable ?

When Mayflower docked in the Eastern Board, the first thing that the immigrants to the new land did was to ditch their previous identity. Many of the last names like Johnson, Richardson etc were created on the fly because the new land required them to do so. These immigrants did not try to keep their Italian roots or German roots but rather exerted extra efforts to blend in the society. Many of the biographies of famous first generation Americans would have stories about how their parents forebade them from speaking the language of the land they came from but rather encouraged learning of English. Clearly here we have a group of people who thought the best way to build a country is to leave their roots, forget their ancestry and join the melting pot. These immigrants were mainly responsible for the development of United States and its subsequent ascendence as a super power.

This same country is now in the throes of new immigrants hopelessly clinging on to their old culture. Not only does the Govt. encourage the preservation of "culture" it also encourages a multi-linguistic scenario by making spanish and other such languages as medium of instruction in schools as well as the language of choice in governance. Will this departure from insisiting on shedding ones identity and joining the mainstream to encouraging one to keep their distinctiveness cause the slow decline of this country ? Is this another experiment in Unity in Diversity ?

My personal point of view is that it is a mistake on the part of US govt. to encourage such multiculturism. History has proven that the survival of any nation state depends on its citizens feeling culturally bound to the land as well as to its other inhabitants. Multiculturism certainly is desirable by all and that's why it is gaining popularity but it will be a drag on this country a generation or two down the road.

Judiciary under attack in Tamilnadu

2007-02-04T20:36:00.000-08:00

Arcot Veerasamy, very famous for Re.1 per bag of rice and Re.1 per unit of current scams, has launched a frontal attack on the judiciary by claiming that judges are not superior to democratically elected Govt. What else can we expect from rowdies and hooligans who masquerade as ministers in today's TN. Government. They don't even understand that Judiciary is a seperate arm from democratically elected legislature and the officialdom known as the executive.

For him the world is just purely hierarchical where him and his fellow hooligans are at the top of the world because the mob elected them. When justices find the mob guilty of rigging the elections they start questioning the judges and their basic functions. The real reason for an Independent judiciary Mr.Veerasamy is to keep hooligans like you in check and even with all these you succeed in circumventing all rules and regulations 99.999%. Hats off to Justice Khalifulla who found the 99 corporators of having rigged the elections to win it. I would have given him another hats off if he had passed a law saying those corporators cannot stand in the re-election.

Kathiyindri Ratham indri udhdham onru nadakkudhu...

2007-02-04T10:24:00.000-08:00

1. India vs USA
2. NRI vs RI
3. Northie vs Southie

if u know of more online wars please let me know and I'll add them to the list.

Failures of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

2007-02-03T08:13:00.000-08:00

He is known as the Father of the Nation, he taught the masses the power of Satyagraha and enunciated the principle of Ahimsa. He inspired leaders like Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King who in turn liberated Millions of their ilk from slavery and apartheid. But what he failed to do was to leave progenies who are worth carrying his last name. It is a duty of every citizen of this world and each one of the countries to leave behind Sons and Daughters who in turn are good citizens and he failed miserably in that crucial task. All he left behind was a bunch of no-gooders who still survive, no scavenge, on his own life and still worse his death.

The latest such attempt is by his Grandson Tushar Gandhi through the book "Let's kill Gandhi". Tushar in his book is quoted as saying that the Brahmins wanted to kill Gandhi because they wanted to maintain their leadership on the hindu community. The Grandson of the Mahatma has swooped so low that the only common thread that he can see in all the killers is just that, a thread. They are all males so a similar extrapolation would result in all males wanted to kill Gandhi because he was women's rights. Or he could have as well said that Pune-ites wanted to kill Gandhi or gone a bit more and said Mahrattas wanted to kill Gandhi but all these won't cause ruckus and sell his book.

Mr.Gandhi, I am very sad to say this but the stinging truth is that while you may be a mahatma your offsprings are just plain scumbags.

Stable 1, Horses 2

2007-02-01T18:44:00.000-08:00

Tatas are the most respected and venerable industrialists in India today and they have been that way for about a century now. JRD Tata was a pioneer in many fields and those were very varied and contributed to the overall growth of the community, country and his own wealth and that of his shareholders. It is only fit that Ratan carry forward JRD's legacy and the latest acquisition by Tata Steel of Corus Group of UK is a standing testimony of the groups resolve to be independent and be able to deliver to the shareholders.

But this post is more about comparing 2 companies from the Tata fold that are viewed so diagonally opposite way by their employees. The two in question are Tata Steel and Tata Consulting Services (TCS). While Tata Steel has been praised for it's employee friendly initiatives which includes constructing the town of Jamshedpur and running it efficiently, institution of Employee Provident fund when there was no such concept anywhere in India, instituting an 8 hour work day way before the Britishers passed law to create a 12 hour work day etc, TCS has always been accused of exploiting it's employees including paying them pittance, imposing bonds and other such semi-legal measures to prevent attrition and even getting back their tax-refunds.

How come 2 companies from the same stable, adhering to the same corporate principles of governance be so different ? I think this will make up a good topic for a PhD student in Human resources. But I've been thinking about it a while and some facts stand out between the companies and it's employees that might be the reason for such behaviour.

In case the Steel arm, it recognizes that skilled labor is very essential for its survival. Even though many will view steel workers as just manual labor, the crucial difference between a successful steel venture and an also ran is the efficiency which in turn depends on the skill of the workforce. Therefore Tata Steel's survival dictates that it keeps attrition very low and workers happy.
On the other hand for TCS even though the labor is termed highly skilled is still available in abundant quantity. There's no real reason for it to play nice with it's employees because they can be easily replenished. Infact TCS will do well to manage their operations with green people as they can be paid less than the more experienced folks.
Looking at the other part of the equation which is employees themselves, Tata Steel workers know that they are skilled but they also know that the skill they have acquired is not something they can use at another place down the road. So the plant needs their skill and their skill needs a plant. A nice and happy dovetail.
Coming to our IT guys, from what I've seen, many would just jump ship at mere Rs.10k difference in salary. I know of instances when Infosys, Wipro and CTS used to poach people from one another. The employee feels no commitment to work for the company just like how the company feels no real compulsion to retain them. So it's a perfect market economy in the IT industry. TCS wants to extract the maximum by paying the minimum whereas employees want to spend minimum time and escape as quickly as possible.

So basically the skills required and it's availability dictates the level of employee friendliness in these two companies that share the same brand name. Contrary to the belief IT Skills are not high tech at all. Infact I don't know why IT companies recruit B.E. degree holders first and then go on to other skillset. Many in US who have risen to good positions including my own former team leads and project managers never had anything more than an associate degree which is like our SSLC. Whereas a steel worker might just have some vocational training as his educational qualification but his experience is something that is invaluable. I don't think any amount of degree can compensate for the lessons these guys would have gained on the job. Hence TCS recruits B.E. degree holders but treats them like an SSLC passout while Tata Steel hires SSLC passouts and treats them better than degree holders. Samjhe....

Alaska to Virginia on a ....

2007-01-31T19:27:00.000-08:00

Imagine driving from Alaska to Virginia on a ....hmmm.... lawn mower. Good luck to this guy attempting just that along with his dog. Do you call him crazy or a guy with great perseverence ? In any case I just wish that he reaches his destination safely.

The great citizenship conundrum

2007-01-29T20:20:00.000-08:00

When we R2I next year my family will face a very unique problem. The parents are Indian Citizens but the kids are US citizens. Citizenship rules in India and US are structured in a way that such dichotomy in Indian families working in USA will become more common. Here's how it works.

US Side:
Anyone who was born in US soil is a US citizen. USA allows you to hold multiple citizenry. Anyone born in USA is not eligible for any type of visas as by default they are citizens. One must be atleast 18 years of age to renounce US citizenry. So those are the basic ground rules as for as US citizenship is concerned.

India Side:
India does not recognize dual citizenship. Either you are an Indian citizen or not. Ofcourse there's the usual mayajal type of schemes like OCI(Overseas citizens of India) and PIO(Person of Indian Origin). If you have parents who are Indian citizens and your citizenship is acquired involuntarily (which is the case for all Indian kids born in USA) then you can claim Indian citizenship after living in India for 5 years continuously. Those are the ground rules for Indian citizenship.

While these rules are structured in a way that makes sense for their national interest, it really doesn't work well in today's flat world. There are hundreds of thousands of Indians working in USA. If they are going to bite the bullet and go through the horrendous employment based immigration process (which is hopelessly broken) and finally get US Citizenship then they are fine. But if you are like me who is frustrated with this process to such an extent that we are R2I-ing early next year you face the interesting problem of parents being ICs and kids being USCs.

The problem arises because neither India nor USA have taken in to account the changed scenario in international travel where people visit other countries on temporary purposes and such temporary purposes can be even for a decade or more.

So a child born to ICs in USA automatically and involuntarily assumes USC. But if the parents decide to relocate to India, due to any reason, neither the parents nor the child can officially renounce the kids US citizenship in order to acquire Indian citizenship because the child needs to be atleast 18 years to make a conscientious choice. Very good thought behind this rule but another case of practical realities leapfrogging those ancient laws.

Celebrating Fidel's death ?

2007-01-29T16:33:00.000-08:00

MSNBC reports here that Miami officials are going to celebrate Fidel Castro's death. Now this is not a plan by Cuban people settled in Miami but by the City itself. The celebrations are being planned by City officials. I think this is part of a new "Shock and Awe" tactic against, well, commoners like me. I mean Fidel Castro might be your sworn enemy but the way things are going Fidel is being treated as an Infidel and America is behaving like Al-Qaeda. But having survived innumerous attempts on his life and his rule I think Fidel has the last laugh. Even in death all that the narrow minded officialdom can do is celebrate his death outside of Cuba.

Such official sanction of macabre celebrations is a new low for civilized society which is something that Americans really claim themselves to be.

I know too many posts for today but this will be the last one...

2007-01-28T19:55:00.000-08:00

This post is on the concept of money management. A 3bdrm flat in Ashoknagar costs 65L. The same flat can be rented for 12K per month. I'm struggling to convey to my father why one should rent that flat rather than buy it. But I guess the concept of owning a property and the thought that property prices will always go up has been ingrained in people psyche (and this is not just in India but also in good old USA) that people want to buy it inspite of cold money management logic advising against it. God only knows where this real estate bubble is going to land people in India.

Our old Friend USSR

2007-01-28T19:25:00.000-08:00

Recent visit to India by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was also bestowed the honor of being the chief guest at the Republic Day parade, was marked with a stark sense of pragmatism from both ends. With recent overtures between India and US over nuclear issues, I did expect some kind of expression of dissatisfaction from the Russians but the Russians seem to have outdone the Americans by actually signing up a memorandum for 4 more nuclear reactors at Koodankulam.

After the breakup of Soviet Union, Russia has gained pre-eminence only now under the leadership of Putin. Putin has had a long and historic friendly relationship with India, right from his days of being a major public figure in St.Petersburg (known as Leningrad at that time). While Boris Yeltsin did not have much use for India and infact I.K.Gujral and Yeltsin had some worldly spats when they were the premiers, Putin understands the strategic importance of India.

Putin has also used Russia's energy abundance to chilling effects including threatening European Union as well as other central asian countries like Georgia and Ukraine. If there's a nation on earth that would be the envy of every other nation it has to be India. Forget the internal strife we have and the lack of infrastructure, the image of India in the minds of both US and Russia is one of a responsible nuclear state with a functioning democracy. The last piece of information is of no relevance to Putin and ofcourse US only pays lip service to democracy but those two words really speak a lot in international relations.

Sometimes it seems like India and Russia probably played the Americans by signing up a nuclear agreement with America but handing over a majority of nuclear work to Russia in exchange for energy resources in Russia. Who could fault either country if it really comes to this. America is not couring India without it's national interest in mind. It needs a good counter measure to the rising dragon. The year 2007 appears to be very promising for some interesting events in the foreign policy frontier for India. Let's watch and enjoy.

RIP OP Nayyar

2007-01-28T18:49:00.000-08:00

May his soul rest in peace and his music continue to liven up our lives.....

Windows Vista clamp down

2007-01-28T18:32:00.000-08:00

Reports from arstechnica seem to indicate that the old trick of clean install from an upgrade disc seems to be a thing of past with Windows Vista. This is a big bummer for people like me who buy the upgrade disc and use it for a complete and clean install. Ofcourse we have a legitimate copy of the previous windows operating system. Another instance of corporate greed and blatant use of monopolistic power ? Supporters would say that Microsoft is just asserting what should have been done long time ago. When you buy an upgrade it is implicit that you already have a version of the software installed. But Microsoft and all other software vendors are aware of how their upgrades work and how people actually use them, to do a clean install rather than a crappy upgrade that results in a bunch of odd files from previous OS still out there causing headaches in some obscure events.

Since I bought Windows XP Professional recently I'm eligible for Vista Premium (frankly I forget how many different variations of Vista is available) upgrade. I'm going to see if this report is indeed the truth and if so then Ubuntu will be the way to go for me.

Is India safe for kids or not ?

2007-01-28T14:41:00.000-08:00

I have great admiration for Sundar and his blog. In the post titled "Dazed and Confused" he talks about his daughter sitting in an auto and the auto driver not realizing this (or did he know about it...) took off but others in the auto stand recognized the kid and brought the kid back. All's well that ends well right and one would have thought Sundar would have some nice words for the autodrivers who looked out for him. But no Sundar says and I quote
"India is nowhere safe for kids (most of you must be familiar with what is going on in the Capital)!"

This is in reference to Nithari Killings. I feel that his all encompassing verdict that India is nowhere safe is just too ridiculous. Of all nations India is still one of those where people are always on the look out for one another. Heck Sundar and his wife grew up in India, albeit safely right. Or is it that when one is accustomed to the heightened safety measures in America, life in the normal lane looks so unsafe ?

Reservation for Dalit Christians and Muslims

2007-01-28T14:15:00.000-08:00

The national commission of Scheduled Castes in it's recent decision has declined to extend the benefits of reservation to those dalits who have converted to Christianity or Islam. Infact it's oxymoronic to call someone Dalit Christian or Dalit Muslim because those religions do not have such concepts. The rise of these religions in the subcontinent has been mainly based on universal brotherhood for Christianity and a similar concept called Al-Umma for Islam. Therefore a person who converts to Christianity sheds his earlier branding of Dalit. Well that's how the Dalits are brainwashed before they get converted. Christian agencies, with their foriegn donation, do such a wonderful job of brainwashing. But the reality is that once you are a dalit you are always a dalit in Indian society. It does not matter which religion you choose to practice. While the call of dalit christians and muslims is reasonable I still think it was a right decision by the commission. Rather than besieging the commission for such perks, the dalits who have converted and hence are no longer dalits, should try to work for their rights within their new setup. They should rather target those individuals and organizations who promised them heaven and earth after conversion and make them pay their dues.

If they still persist in wanting to have such a reservation then they should boldly declare that dalit is not confined to Hinduism alone. On the one hand the deride the religion for having instituted such an inhuman practice and at the same time they claim that their new religion also treats them at the same level. Such a declaration will throw the entire reservation in to question. No longer is reservation a bane of just one religion but is the bane of Indian society. Which questions the very notion as to whether Brahmins in Hinduism were the ones to have instituted this practice because there are no Brahmins in Christianity or Islam but the practice still continues. Which again will question the entire reservation on caste system because caste belongs to Hindu religion alone but there exists documented proof that part of non-casteist religions also suffer from discrimination. So if the dalits who converted to christianity or islam be considered for reservation then the entire reservation along caste line should be dismantled. Now who would want to do this.

Long Hiatus

2007-01-27T17:35:00.000-08:00

Not that anyone noticed but it serves to help one rejuvenate a bit. Let's start the year 2007 with some news events worthy of my comments.

Ofcourse MK meeting SB and MA and sharing the dias with them has officially driven the last nail in the no-God, anti-hindu coffin in TN. In the traditional and famous tamil philosophy of no-sand-in-my-moustache-even-though-I-fell-down, MK asserted that
1. SB is a true God-man as opposed to so many other God-men.
2. his yellow shawl is more of a Buddhist tradition than a Hindu tradition.
3. there is nothing wrong in his close family from falling on the feet of Godmen.
and finally
4. Even though he doesn't believe in the existence of God, he does believe that service to manking is service to God. huh !!!

hmmmmm.....

Now here's an interesting news article about British MPs demanding 'justice' for Afzal. Afzal as we all know, well if you didn't know then know it now, is accused of planning the attack on Indian Parliament and has been tried in a court of law and is facing death sentence. The MPs belonging to Britain are still in a delusionary state of mind I think about Raj or they probably skipped their History class that talked about India's independence. Oh btw these MPs belong to a country where they shoot a person before asking him any questions (remember the Brazilian shot in front of scores of people in a train....)...

Well that's it for today..

Russian Mafia beats Al Qaeda

2006-12-01T17:26:00.000-08:00

So when the whole world is obsessed with second guessing Al Qaeda, the Russian Mafia or the Govt. beat them in the dirty bomb game. The death of the Russian spy in London due to Polonium intake is nothing short of a dirty bomb. It's aftermath includes 5 BA planes that tested positive and 2 of them grounded and more 30,000 people who took trips in those plane. If this is not a terrorist attack in London I'm not sure what it is. A terror attack does not necessarily need to be at just 1 place or a series of connected places that kills xxx amount of people. Such covert attacks are also terror attacks. A famous London hotel, a well known sushi bar, passenger aeroplanes and cutting across multiple nations this is the stuff that would make a novel writer feel proud. I always considered Mossad as the kings of covert operations but I'm going to watch out for the Russian gangs.

Vote by Mail.

2006-11-05T12:14:00.000-08:00

I live in the state of Oregon and this state has a peculiar voting system called vote by mail. Basically every eligible household gets a big voter pamphlet containing all the measures that have been authorized to appear in the elections. What are measures you ask ? Measures are initiatives that individuals or organizations sponsor to be made as laws. One of the law in this year's election is the campaign finance measure that will limit the contributions made by companies to the election campaigns. If you have a good idea that you think should be made in to a law you gather signatures from other people and submit it to the secretary of state (similar to the post of Home Secretary in Indian states). The secretary of state then verifies that the signatures are valid and certifies your idea as something that can be put in the ballot for the public to vote on.

This year there are many such number of measures that Oregon public will vote upon. In addition this also the year when Oregonians will vote for a new Governor. The incumbent Ted Kulongosky (I call him Kulothungan) is up against republican Ron Saxton. Ron Saxton might be affected by all that is going around the republican party including sex scandals, graft charges and not to mention Iraq war.

And all these measures and governorship elections are conducted via mail. The voters get the booklet which clearly explains the for and against for each of the measures and the voters then pick their choice and drop it in to the mailbox. If the voter chooses to mail their vote last Friday was the deadline so that the vote can reach the county office by Tuesday. Otherwise they can drop off their vote at designated places by Monday 8:00PM. Apparently this system has been working fine that other states are catching up.

Now do you think such vote by mail is even possible in the Mobocracy practised in India ?

Democrats poised to win ??

2006-11-05T12:04:00.000-08:00

The conservative world is falling apart in the United States of America. Just when the Reps. thought they got the Dems when Heinz Kerry opened his mouth with that bad joke about Iraq, their world sunk further with the revelations about Ted Haggard. For the uninitiated Ted is one of the leading lights of the conservative world in USA. He is also a high ranking official in an anti-gay coalition inspite of the fact that he himself was engaged in gay activities.

Almost all the leading lights of the conservative in USA have seen their share of hyprocisy. Ted Haggard joins an illustrious group that includes Rush Limbaugh, Mark Foley, Jack Abramoff etc etc. In all these cases republicans have come across as sheer hypocrites, saying onething in public but in reality being the exact opposite. The most prevalent view here is that Dems will take the House and there is a high probability they'll take the senate also. The Dems will do good if they kept their mouth shut and talk sensibly. It's just 2 days away now.

Kids resources on the web

2006-11-05T10:01:00.000-08:00

While the web is a great resource on any subject matter under the Sun and on stuff on the Sun itself, it woefully lacks resources on kids matters. I have a hard time finding out at what age kids should be proficient in some matters like say addition.My daughters are 3.5 yrs old and I think they should be versed with addition by now but my wife feels that addition is suitable only at age 5. They are very good with numbers and can count and write numbers, alphabets and 3 or 4 letter words but they just have a hard time with addition. Granted that every child is unique but a general guideline as to what you can expect from them at what age would be still a very good resource. It is surprising that there is not that many websites that guide you as to what you should expect from your child.

If you do find such good resources please leave those URLs in the comment section. TIA.

Scoop of the day

2006-11-02T20:23:00.000-08:00

The deans of Harvard Business school, Stanford and Wharton are locked in a grand battle to recruit Shri. H.D.Kumaraswamy, present chief minister of the Indian state of Karnataka, to head their new department called the Department of Brand Demolition. HDK's this single feat makes these deans and billions of others to fall at his feet. Mr.HDK opined that this single act would liberate the yoke of British imperialism that was hanging over his proud state and left for London to woo British Petroleum, British Telecom, British Rail and British Airways to open their backoffice in Bangalore ooops Bengalooru....

Now that Bangalore is no longer used by that city, I'm seriously thinking of auctioning that name on Ebay. The highest bidding city will earn the right from me to rename themselves as Bangalore.

Google doc doesn't support Opera ?

2006-11-02T20:03:00.000-08:00

Opera is one of the most standard compliant (not complaint) browsers. And it's a shame that google cannot support the browser for spreadsheets and such. Why ?
Why do these people establish standards like W3C and not write programs that confirm to it. It's a great mockery.

How should India view China ?

2006-11-02T19:38:00.000-08:00

Granted that both the countries fought a war in 1962 in which India dearly paid for, for not using it's superior air power, the question that always ring in my mind is whether India and China are competitors ? Each nation is so different. China is undoubtedly the manufacturing super power and India the knowledge super power. China is trying to encourage knowledge based industry and India is also trying to bring world-class manufacturing capability.

The two countries have a population of over a billion, almost 4 times that of USA. With 300M people if USA can create such a big economy, can India and China not create a humongous economy by themselves ? Heck why should they create it. It already exists. The only real fact is that much of that economy is not measured by any modern statistical means that can be verified.

Leaving the economies aside, the countries are culturally unique and divergent. Except for border area disputes that the two countries are quite successfully negotiating, there appears no military threat per se from China or from India to each other. So why do people keep comparing the growth of China to the growth of India ? It certainly gives an appearance of another attempt by western countries to keep the asian superpowers seperated so they can divide and rule at a much larger scale.

China and India have coexisted peacefully for thousands of year and have contributed to each other's cultural wealth. They have traded Tea for Tao and have had distinguished literary figures in each others courts. They also have a number of internal problems that leave them little time to play games with each other. Yes they are going to compete for the same dollar or yen or pound available for investment but they are no way near cannibalizing each other.

Yes China is communist and India is democratic, at least on paper. That makes no difference whatsoever. Each country has to choose the best method of governance. Chinese governmental actions especially with respect to business will make Lenin and Stalin squirm in their grave. China's communism is practiced with iron hand to maintain so called calmness and stability in the country. How long will it last, Will the Chinese people riot and over throw the communism and have the necessary will power to establish another model of governance is all a big IF and has no bearing on it's relation with neighbors. IMO, China and India are complimentary. Its no secret that China has a lot of puppet politicians in India that only shows Indian politicians decadence rather than Chinese machiavelliness.

As the famous politician said, Hindi-Chini bhai bhai should never become Hindi-Chini bye bye....

Written under duress by a slave,

Women, Commute, Makeup - Now and Then

2006-11-01T16:55:00.000-08:00

Today as I was driving down to work from Beaverton to Portland I noticed that the middle lane was quite slow compared to the left and right lanes. As I drove past what seemed to be the delay causing vehicle, I noticed it was a one of those cheap sports car that goes by some name Porsche or something like that. Surprised at this car going slow I looked at the driver a bit more and then it dawned on me. It was a woman driver and she was busy applying makeup to her face oblivious of the fact that the entire lane was being slowed down by her actions. Now this is not the first time I'm seeing women applying makeup while driving but this is the first time I'm blogging about it.

This actually triggered some of my memories going back to 1990. This phenomenon of women applying make up while on the move is not a US phenomenon alone. In 1990 I used to travel from Tiruvallur to Perambur for my Higher Secondary education. Sometimes I used to catch the Jollarpettai express at TRL whose next stop after TRL is Perambur. The moment the train stops at TRL all the women folk in the train would start their daily make up routine.

For those who don't this express, it's the daily commute vehicle for many from Jollarpettai, Katpadi, Arakkanom to Madras. I believe it starts from Jollarpettai at around 4:50AM or so and reaches Chennai Central by around 9:00AM. I could be off a little at the timings but you get the idea. When it reaches TRL at around 8:00AM the folks from Jollarpettai and Katpadi would have finished their morning sleep and get ready for their office. Hence the makeup mayhem in the train. Trust me there were hundreds of people who make this daily commute of 5 hours from Jollarpettai. Similarly the return journey will start at around 5:30 or so and reach Jollarpettai at 10:30PM.

Till this day I wonder how those folks managed to go home after 10:30PM and get up to catch the train again at 4:50AM. Not much time with the family right !!! While makeup while commute is a necessity for these folks, what can I say about the woman in Beaverton. I just wish she was driving in India where an angry lorry driver would have taken her out, hey it's just one nature's selection process in action, one less not-so-desirable gene out of the gene pool. Yeah I know I'm not being nice.....

An email from Mainframes regarding Mainframe job !!!!

2006-10-30T21:17:00.000-08:00

It was a pleasant surprise to receive an email from Mainframes (wow not just 1 but many of them I suppose) for some mainframe openings. See the pic on the left....

The concept of Moksha

2006-10-30T09:22:00.000-08:00

Hinduism calls it Moksha, Buddhism calls it Nirvana. These two concepts, very similar to each other, separates the eastern theology from the western theology. The two major western theologies, namely Christianity and Islam, have the concept of heaven and hell. The idea there is that if you do good in this life you go to heaven and if you do bad you go to hell. Quite a simple concept to understand. More like a commercial transaction. But what they fail to do is explain where Heaven or Hell is located ? Is it on this planet or is in Mars or Jupiter ?

But Hinduism and Buddhism have really tried to explain what life is all about. They both recognize that there's no physical existence of Heaven or Hell. For an individual any living moment could be heaven or hell. You don't have to really die to experience Heaven or Hell. Heaven is happiness and Hell is sadness. When we exclaim that "I feel like being in heaven" it really means we are in heaven. This is more a state of mind. But what is Moksha then ?

Moksha refers to the balance you attain with respect to your environment. Is this attainable only when you die ? Not necessarily. But it is very difficult to attain Moksha when you are alive. For the simple reason that human mind is very difficult to control and satisfy. You could be married to Aishwarya Rai or Milind Soman but you are tempted to think about another man or woman. There's nothing wrong with it for a human. It's the nature in play. Every life form in this planet is tuned to attract and get attracted. Or you could be disturbed by something happening in your neighborhood, a new construction or a new thing bought by your neighbor. Everyday happenings around you make you feel to want something. This want will prevent you from attaining moksha while living.

It is for this reason that the sages and rishis essentially chose forest to go and meditate. In a forest you are one with the environment. Here its not the forest that is important but the environment that is important. Moksha is attained when you are in tune with the environment. The rishis could have and have chosen other places to meditate like Mountains or snowy caps or even desert regions.

When you attain balance with the surrounding environment you don't feel that you deserve anything special. You are happy with what you have. You are not aware of the concept of haves and have-nots. Whatever comes your way you accept it as it is. You do not crave for anything because you are unaware of its existence in the first place. Craving happens only when you know something exists and you are aware that you do not have it in your possession. It is very difficult to suppress the craving when you are aware of it. Therefore the Rishis and sages simply determined that "Ignorance is Bliss".

So is going to the forest the only way to attain Moksha ? This is where Hinduism and Buddhism starts to differ. Buddhism vehemently believes that Nirvana is achievable only by sages. But Hinduism believes that Moksha is attainable by ordinary morsels too. And it says that one can achieve Moksha by following any of the following paths
commonly called Yogas.
1. Raja Yoga
2. Karma Yoga
3. Bhakti Yoga
4. Gyana or Jnana Yoga.

Every Individual in this planet is involved in one of the four activities defined by the ancient varna system. Some of us are rulers, some of us are warriors and businessmen, some of us are artisans and some are involved in the pursuit of knowledge. Hindu philosophy says that depending on your personal level of tolerance you can follow any of the four Margas or Yogas to achieve Moksha.

Raja Yoga involves Physical techniques to attain Moksha. It involves physical practices that teaches you the concept of Sathya, Ahimsa and Concentration. It is highly suited for leaders, kings and rulers. Are you one who is always leading the charge then this is a good method for you to attain Moksha. The philosophy is simple, when you practice Raja Yoga you imbibe the qualities required of a true leader that gives your mind peace of mind. When you achieve this peace of mind you are in balance with environment which is nothing but Moksha.

Karma Yoga involves action or duty. There are set prescriptions for this technique. It's mental jihad that you have to wage within yourself to do the best in the job you have undertaken. Yes I did use the word Jihad and am fully aware of it. Jihad in its pure form is a battle that you wage inside yourself but unfortunately it is being used in the same meaning as a crusade nowadays. The other important highlight is that it is a job that you have undertaken. It's not a job that's handed down to you. Majority of us feel so vexed with our work because it's not our choice. Karma Yoga applies to all sorts of people. It's a very expansive in its definition.

Bhakti Yoga is what was practiced by Saints like Sri Thyagarajar. Some schools further split Bhakti Yoga in to Natya Yoga but to me they are essentially the same. A soulful rendition of the Lord's attribute, love that makes the performer lose himself. One another important aspect of Bhakti Yoga is that it not only affects the performer but also those who are watching the performance. This is the effect one gets when one listens to Shrimati M.S.Subbulakshmi in the morning. Not only has she given herself to that rendition she draws us in to it too.

Jnana Yoga is that is what practiced by sidhdhars, munis, rishis and sages. If you are inclined to doing research this is your path. Sri Ramana Maharishi who dedicated his life in to explaining the philosophies to hundreds of thousands of his disciples is a great example of a person following this path. Now should this be just some kind of metaphysical phenomenon alone. I don't think so. Are you in biomolecular research, then you are involved in the expansion of Jnana and you are practicing Jnana yoga.

The key to achieving Moksha is to essentially understand that it does not require any extra effort on your part. The truth is we put extra effort in weaning ourselves away from Moksha. If we believe that what we are on the path to Moksha by doing what we enjoy doing and doing it the best possible way, we will achieve the balance with our environment. Let us strive towards that and Good luck in your effort.

Hypocrisy of the media

2006-10-30T07:23:00.000-08:00

When the Church apologizes for its crusade or its annihilation of native tribes in Latin America through inquisition, the true number of killed is unknown, the media rejoices about the magnanimity of the Church. That is for the media, a mere nod from the Church accepting their mistake is time for some cause celebre. Make no mistake, this is not the first mistake that the Church or its members have committed. Only a few years ago the Church recognized the helio-centric theory of the universe. In other words Church's official belief till a few years ago was that the Earth was the center of the universe. Not to mention the killing of scientists who challenged the Church's so-called scientific belief. With such a track record the Church manages to get an unproportional benefit of doubt from the media.

In contrast when RSS meets with a dalit leader or when Panchjanya calls for Dalit priests it is always accused of wolf in sheep clothing. RSS definitely had elements within its rank who were against Dalits, no doubt. But every action of any other RSS leader shouldn't be seen through the lens of those elements. Every organization will have hawks, moderates and the doves. While for the Church the Doves always get highlighted while for RSS it is always the hawks. Isn't this hypocrisy on the part of the media ?

Donation dacoity at Safeway

2006-10-29T18:15:00.000-08:00

Today I was shopping in Safeway and my bill came to $7.19. The cashier while ringing me up asked whether I would like to donate 81c to Breast-Cancer research. What do they expect me to say ? No ? Infront of 20 other customers standing there ? This is a new way of donation dacoity. Already life in US is so full of donations,
1. there's the fire and police department donation that comes to your house
2. there's the UnitedWay campaign in the office
3. there's usually the cookie donation in the local school
not to mention the boy scouts and such like that.

Now this is a new way of making people donate and I don't know why they have to resort to this. In order to avoid this I would rather avoid Safeway and take my business elsewhere instead of saying No to their "Do you want to donate....." question.

Ciao

Dalit Christians !!!!

2006-10-29T10:00:00.000-08:00

Now as a Brahmin growing up in TN, I'm just a totally brainwashed chap who thought my forefathers and ancestors inflicted so much pain and agony on the rest of the unsuspecting populace, thanks to DMK, PMK and other MKs (including the sottai thalaiyan). Infact because of this I took it upon myself to exile myself from the sacred India and I have 4 more years to go in the usual 14 years of Vanvaas.

Due to this extreme torture many of the dalits converted to Christianity, Buddhism etc. Now you would think that they escaped casteism right ? Apparently not. It looks like that the religion you practise has nothing to do with how the general populace will treat you, if you are unfortunate enough to be born as Dalit. I'm shocked. I am tempted to call up Ramadoss, M.Karunanidhi and ask them what's going on. I'm pretty sure Christianity doesn't have Brahmins and so why is this happening to the poor folks who were converted to Christianity with fake promises ?

In other matters of casteism and reservation, MK voiced his concern over the reported activeness of the Supreme Court in reviewing the 69% reservation law which is protected by Schedule 9. Any law under Schedule 9 cannot be reviewed by the Supreme Court and so the legislators in India passed all kinds of law under this schedule. This schedule 9 was originally created by Mr.Nehru to protect land reform laws. In his defence of the 69% reservation Dr.MK has said that casteism has been in existence for thousands of years enforced by HINDU religion and so 50 years of reservation is not enough to eradicate it. The interesting point is that it's the Hindu religion that enforces it according to MK. But obviously the previous news item tells me that it really doesn't matter what religion you belong to. Once a dalit you are always a dalit.

Casteism, Mr.MK, is not because of religion. It's a psychological thing. Its a result of people wanting to differentiate themselves from the crowd. It's a result of showing one as above the rest. It is not going to be solved by reservation which in my view will only exacerbate it. A poor upper caste will get more respect in many parts of India than a rich lower caste and that is the truth. The battle against casteism should start targetting people's heart rather than targetting superflous things like Jobs and Education...

Ciao,

Return of the Goondagiri

2006-10-29T09:32:00.000-08:00

in TamilNadu is so unnerving that even constituents of the ruling coalition like CPM have asked the sottai thalaiyan party to hold back its goondas. Democracy was once described as rule of the Mob which is the reality as for as India is concerned and TN in particular. PMK is now accusing DMK of breaching the alliance "dharma". Sometimes I seriously think why these protectors of Tamil resort to sanskrit words like dharma... Oh wait they'll then take the help of people like Michael Witzel and prove that dharma is indeed Tamil and will go on to prove that Sanskrit came from Tamil.

So I hear that this is another year of rain and havoc in TN. Pictures of marooned houses come up in The Hindu and other newspapers. If at all the rain does help it will be in identifying the areas you want to avoid when buying a house, if at all you can afford to buy one now. I think the affordability index in Chennai should be much less then the affordability indices of major US cities (the lower the index the less the city is affordable).

I read an interesting news piece about Buddha's remains being interred in Mumbai. Apparently the remains came from a stupa in South India and was excavated in 1920. The breadth of history of India continues to amaze me in ways more than uno. The sheer amount of history while amazing really craps out when compared to the way we fail to market it. This one piece of history itself is enough to invite millions of Buddhist pilgrims from Far East. That same news piece gave an interesting tidbit about Satish Chandra, Zee TV's head honcho. Apparently he is a Buddhist.

The other news that piqued my interest was the nationalization of King Birendra's asset in Nepal. It's a welcome step towards Goondagiri in that country I suppose. Instead of one Goonda now the Nepalese have to put up with thousands of Goondas.

Well so much for my weekend rant. Ciao.

The drama at Mysore, New Delhi and so on so forth

2006-10-28T15:34:00.000-07:00

Of late Police in India seem to be catching terrorists with as much ease as Madrasis swat mosquitoes. It's as if the Police has a magical lamp to which these terrorists are drawn to, the reason for this deadly attraction can never be cracked.

How else can I describe the success that the Police force shows when two terrorists are arrested in NewDelhi just after they got off from a train. Not only was this arrest significant but the Police went on to say that these guys came to Delhi to meet some of their co-conspirators. If they knew that then shouldn't they just put these terrorists on survellience and catch those co-conspirators ?

The arrest in Mysore is much more dramatic and raises more questions than it answers. These guys were arrested after an encounter but the photograph that the Police Chief released shows them with no injuries. They were arrested with all kinds of incriminating documents and explosives etc. Make no mistake, if these arrests were genuine and not staged there will not be a happier person but all these arrests in such quick succession raises more questions about our Police force or about our border security. Either way some one is just sleeping in their job.

All about Bubbles

2006-10-22T12:01:00.000-07:00

No I'm not talking about the cartoon character but real bubbles. You know those that seperate people from their hard earned money. Yeah I know fools and money should never mingle but bubbles are quite extreme in that even non-greedy folks fall a prey. There are bubbles and then there are bubbles triggered by bubbles. At present there are 3 bubbles in my view

1. Outsourcing bubble: This has certainly assumed the proportion of mega bubbles. Outsourcing to India has assumed a great proportion but the fact is that only a few of those outsourcing deals really benefit the outsourcer. In my own place of work we have outsourced a part of our IT work to India. Well they are cheap around $20/hr or so but they take 10 times as much time to do the work as $100/hr American worker. When I meant American worker I don't mean white caucasian male, that term means anyone who is under direct control of our team and whose activity can be monitored by us. The bane of outsourcing is not their lack of talent but more a lack of control exercised by us. Anyway this bubble has not yet been recognized in the offices of the concerned. For these people it's the $/hr that matters not how many hours it takes to get things done.

2. Housing Bubble in India: Just yesterday I was talking to my friend who tells me that a 6-acre property near Coimbatore went from 32Lakhs to 60Lakhs in 2 weeks. If this is not insane then we need to find a new word for this phenomenon. This housing bubble is definitely driven by the outsourcing bubble. People working in IT have hit pay dirt what with their annual salary being near 15-20L for experiences ranging from 5 to 10 years. Where should they invest this money ? In tangible assets ofcourse. Not to mention the fact that interest on their homes can be tax-deductible. This new found financial flexibility empowers builders to offer the insane money for properties that could be developed like I noted in the first sentence.

3. Housing Bubble in USA: This one has started to fizzle now. The gas has started escaping from underneath. Prices are actually falling in once bubblicious areas like NOVA, SoCal, Miami, LV etc. While I'm not much concerned about the 3rd bubble I'm highly concerned about 1 and 2 as my exposure to those are greater.

The next 2 years will tell us whether 1 and 2 are bubbles are a new plateau. If they do become a new plateau I'm afraid that this tectonic shift will leave a lot of people in the lower plane and result in social upheavals.

Till next post CIAO

300 million

2006-10-17T15:14:00.000-07:00

That's the magic number for America today. By official estimates it is believed that USA's official population is now 300M. But judging by media reporting it sounded as if it was 3B. There were radio programs dedicated to bissecting how this nation will feed, shelter and cloth the burgeoning population. As usual the Anti Immigrationists were voicing their opposition to Immigrants of all sorts. If you need some laughter all you have to do is tune to CNN or read through the so-called national newspapers and listen to radio stations. USA now stands behind China and India. I guess this association is kinda dubious to Americans, an axis of evil of sorts in hosting human beings may be. Wonder what the reaction will be when they reach 1B, yeah the real 1B.

So Infoscions really read blogs

2006-10-14T14:25:00.000-07:00

Couple of days ago I posted my exasperation with Infy's website, particularly about the contacts page whose email address bounces. Today I see that I have a visitor from Quincy, MA and that too through a corporate network. Incidentally Infosys has an office in Quincy, MA so I am going to make an educated guess that that person was from Infy. Infact he went to the URL directly (not sure who linked it or who sent him the link). Hope he does something about it.

In other matters, I stumbled upon this google analytics. Well I had known about it for quite some time but never really took time to see what it is. I always wondered how people especially bloggers can tell what search criteria leads to their blogs or from where people read their blogs etc. Now I know how they do it. Infact if I remember I had asked a couple of prominent bloggers how they did it and them being very prominent I guess my questions were considered not so important. The google analytics is kinda really cool. I hope that Google monetizes it, if its not doing it already, like their enterprise search appliance. An online analytics for corporate intranets should be a blessing for corporations. I know that my own company struggles with finding out usage statistics on webpages and applications.

Well till my next post, CIAO

Mohamad Yunus, Grameen Bank and Nobel Peace prize

2006-10-13T21:27:00.000-07:00

First hats off to him. But shouldn't he get a Nobel prize for Economics or rather Micro-Economics rather than Peace. Not that it really matters. Even being nominated for a Nobel prize is apparently such a great honor in itself. Grameen bank might be new to millions of westerners but the concept has been there in Bangladesh for a long time now. It's based on a simple assumption that common people just want to live a decent life and if you provide them with the required loan at an acceptable rate then they will be more than happy to pay for it.

Day before yesterday when I read the possible nominations Mohamad Yunus did not even figure in the possible nominees. There was the Finnish President or PM who worked on Indonesia's peace deal with Aceh province and then there were others. Now Nobel committee never releases the names of those nominated to any of the prizes either. So it's all a guess work.

Heartfelt congratulations to Mohamad Yunus, his creation and his millions of customers who made this possible.

DJIA, NPR, GWB kadamba kootu

2006-10-13T21:04:00.000-07:00

Okay so DOW broke the record 2 weeks back and ever since then even one point gain a day it will break another record. I'm so tired of these TV channels and radio shows crying hoarse everyday about this record breaking. C'mon folks it's not as if it went up by like 300 points and yes such days do happen although very rarely. So yeah let's just settle down to the fact that the DJIA is showing signs of life and is slowly climbing up. What worries me is that the much broader S&P or NASDAQ hasn't reached the same position as that of DJIA.

Talking of radio shows I really look forward to weekend radio shows on NPR. Right from Michael Feldman's "Whad'ya know" to Garrison Keillor's "Prairie home companion" it's an auditory treat. Check out Michael Feldman here and Garisson Keillor here. I'm pretty sure they are available live thru their internet radio as well. So even if you are in India make an attempt to hear them and you won't be disappointed.

While talking about public radio, Oregon Public Broadcasting or OPB, appears to make some half-hearted attempt at covering Oregon soldiers death in Iraq. It's as if it does not want to be seen ignoring it. Now I don't want to learn of each and every death but they do inform the listeners of every soldier hurt or dead and then follows the usual "He was loving and showed extreme leadership skills and was always there for his friends and sisters and brothers" crap. This is what pisses me off. I've been noticing it for the past year or so. Everyone gets the same cliched quote from his/her highschool teacher or friend. If they really want to do a good job they should stop doing this naamke vaaste coverage and do a good job or else just let them be one another statistic. I think the soldiers deserve more than what OPB thinks they deserve. Now this is from a person who is morally opposed to the war.

Since we have touched the Iraq war, it logically leads to the political drama taking place in this country. Who would have thought that the republicans of all would have a homosexual scandal amongst their midst thanks to Mark Foley. Foley's folly might as well land the control of congress and senate to the democrats which is good in a way. They will atleast be proactive and pass the comprehensive immigration reform that might help longtime permanent residency process sufferes like me and hundreds of thousands of others.

Being a person who likes conspiracy theories, I sometimes think the recent drop in gasoline (Petrol) prices and the rise in DJIA are somehow connected to the November elections. But being holed up in "Where the hell is a planetary body called Sun" city called Portland, Or, What do I know. Not much !!!!!

Infosys - Where is thy QA analysts ?

2006-10-12T07:36:00.000-07:00

The name Infosys is revered in India and probably by some in USA. It's the leading offshore technology company and no doubt changed the landscape of IT service providers that even IBM couldn't think off. It's stock has been the darling of Wall street and Dalal Street so much so that Infy has replaced Reliance as the most influential stock in Bombay's Sensex.

But under all this glitter, it's a shame that its own website has no quality control. I am planning to move back in March 2008 and so I thought it might be a good move to join companies such as Infy or CTS here and work as an architect or some kind of manager, whatever they see me as a fit for, and then move back to India. So here I'm a naieve 31 year old going to Infy Careers section to see their contacts. They instruct prospective employees to email their resume. Well I did email it to "careersquery@infosys.com" as stated in the webpage and guess what it bounced. I'm really amused. India's premier IT servicing company has its website screwed up. Ain't matter if it's just one page it happens to be the "Contacts" page. The page that's the window to the outside world to have a look at you. I wouldn't cry shame on Infy but I do wonder about their quality now !!!!

Google's new product

2006-10-11T07:28:00.000-07:00

I think one of the test to be employed at Google is how many factories of Boost or Horlicks you drank. Otherwise how do these guys get the energy to release product after product, so much so that their operations department has apparently put brakes on new products. Any company will love to have such a problem at hand. The latest doing buzz rounds is the online office document management. While Google buying Writely and coming out with Google spreadsheets was an old news, the current buzz is about how the two are integrated in to a simple looking URL (http://docs.google.com/). We should probably rename simplicity as googlicity. These guys do it simple and elegant. Check it out here.

Irundavan kannukku therinjadhellam Pei

2006-10-11T07:15:00.000-07:00

Dear Verizon FIOS

2006-10-10T15:33:00.000-07:00

Thanks for sending me a nice marketing letter all the way from New Jersey and that too by UPS next day air service. The UPS guys were really nice, they gently placed the letter at my doorstep and rang my bell. I was indeed surprised to see this letter. Infact I thought USCIS took pity on me and sent me my Greencard and was going to buy 108 coconuts to my kitchen-vaazh pillaiyar. But on opening it I saw that it was a nice marketing mail from your marketing department.

Well thanks for remembering this guy who is residing in a nook of place in the when-will-I-ever-see-SUN Pacific Northwest. Thanks for pointing out all the gigantic download speeds that you have. I'm amazed at the 15MBPS download speed that you offer and I'm ecstatic that the latest Fiber Optic technique is available at my neighborhood. The marketing pitch was just too good to pass up.

But you know what I'm just wondering why you are wasting a lot of time on a guy who already has the service for the past 10 months ????

George Bush - An Ironic specimen

2006-10-09T20:21:00.000-07:00

So North Korea goes nuclear. At the time I write this post it isn't clear if the test was successful or not but what is clear is that the 2 of the axis of evil states have shown the middle finger to USA and I'm pretty sure the hand that propped that finger is the most trusted ally in USA's war on terror, Pakistan.

I don't think life can be any more ironic for George Bush. I mean on the one hand his foreign policy his undermined by his own chosen allies and on the other hand the republicans and their mouth pieces are caught again and again in crimes of moral turpitude. This is all the while when GoP is known to champion family values and all such moral high horse variety.....

Polickaaran paiyan thirudan, vaathiyar paiyan makku....

Dear Tamil TV Serial Producers,

2006-10-09T20:02:00.000-07:00

Can you even think of creating some light hearted comedy serials at all ? All the serials you take some woman either wrecks another woman's life or extracts revenge or whatever. How about some Friends type of sitcom involving say some BPO or IT youth. I mean IT is no longer the fringe industry it used to be 10 years ago. Imagine following the lives of 5 or 6 youth who meet each for the first time in their workplace and rent a place together. Their work place drama, personal life dramas heck even their first visit to US/Europe drama etc would make such a hillarious and down-to-earth sitcom.

Why are we not thinking creatively such but just keeping churning out one woman after another? No no I have nothing against Selvi, Kasthuri or Lakshmi personally but they've just become trite to say the least..... What you say eh !

Sycophancy is alive and kicking in TN

2006-10-07T21:20:00.000-07:00

Sun TV had a 2.5 hour program today (and it will continue tomorrow). The program is about the honor given my Tamil Film Industry to the self anointed kaavalar of Tamil, Mr.Karunanidhi. Forget about the chikun-guniya disease that's spreading throughout the state, the politicians wants to be feted, wined and dined. Tamil Film Industry, whose members are rich and powerful were given more at the expense of common man by way of tax incentives if they named their movies in pure tamil which resulted in JoK becoming SoK. What a grand standing. The only way Tamil can be encouraged in TamilNadu is through money.

Well coming back to the program, the same film industry took out a big function honoring Dr.J.Jayalalitha just over an year ago. What is the need for such pomp and show? Even Radhika who is officially in the opposite camp was praising this grand old vazhukkai thalai. Sycophancy at its best. Nothing more to say.

The brouhaha about Afzal Guru

2006-10-07T20:25:00.000-07:00

I don't understand the violence and various political maneuvering about this guy. He attacked the Indian Parliament and he was given due judicial process and sentenced to death. While I wish we could be like the Amish people who have already pardoned the killer who killed 5 of their children, I'm afraid that such show of magnanimity will be taken as pusillanimity. He is part of a terror group and there should be no iota of mercy to these mercenaries.

The way people react to Afzal Guru issue will clearly show what their position is regarding the unity of Indian state. I hope Dr.Abdul Kalam will not waver and uphold the death penalty against this traitor.

India the next super power ?

2006-10-06T07:21:00.000-07:00

I'll be glad if it doesn't become a super powder... First of all I've been kinda lagging in my blogging because of studies and my new job as BI Technical Lead. Lots of new technology to grasp. Though technology is just technology, moving bytes of data from one database to another it does take time to learn the standards, convention and most of all the bureaucratic meddle that IT organizations find themselves in thanks to SOX.

Anyway I'm saddened by the increasing cases of dengue and chikun-guniya diseases. My own household in chennai have had their customary visit from the guniyans. Newspapers are reporting that Manmohan's Dussehra visitor is Dengue. We can have 10 Infosys, TCS, CTS, WIPRO etc but what matters is the attitude of people and govt. towards cleanliness and civic responsibility.

I don't see any campaign on TVs from the Govt. encouraging people to take actions on cleanliness. I only see the old man karunanidhi and his awards from tamil film industry. what a shame !!!!

Happiness

2006-09-13T20:54:00.000-07:00

is just a state of mind.....

Got Ubuntu ?

2006-08-15T21:47:00.000-07:00

I have always admired the open source attempts, especially Linux. I have tried my hands in installing different flavours of this operating system on my machine often leading to disastrous results that would sometime require a complete wipe out of the disk and reinstallation of windows. But try I did many times, starting with Redhat 3.0 or something like that to the latest Fedora version and Mandrake and SuSe etc.

But I never felt very comfortable using them. There are many reasons
1. I don't know any command line commands.
2. Installing programs is just so much hassle (what with ./configure and make and make install etc)
3. Absence of programs to burn data on CDs so I can back up
4. Absence of printer support
5. Unfamiliar file system
so on and so forth. I think linux would be a success when ordinary folks like me can install it on a computer and be able to never think of needing windows machine. I don't need the computer to run the latest game or the latest application builder. I just needed it to some basic things, wireless, printers, java programs, money management etc.

But of late, I began to hear a quite murmur in the linux community about a distro called ubuntu. This distro has been quitely creating some ripples in the linux ocean. I do not know why but I am reading about ubuntu more nowadays even though it existed before quite long. So I decided to try this ubuntu thing as my latest technology intrusion.

Last Sunday I downloaded ubuntu, partitioned my Dell Inspiron 6000 and installed it. I first ran it using the live CD and was instantly hooked. I was able to connect to my wireless router and was able to surf the internet just using the live CD. Although I had to downgrade the security setting from WPA-SK to WEP on the rMy tryst with Linuxouter, I was quite happy that it was able to connect to the wireless.

Emboldened by this success I decided to go ahead and fully install ubuntu in the laptop. The ubuntu software came up with an impressive array of programs and its control center is quite well organized. It came with Firefox browser. I downloaded Opera and installed it (was a gui install I think) and opera immidiately appeared in my Applications menu system.

I had some trouble installing a good media player. But now I have both mplayer and VLC installed. While VLC is very stable mplayer is quite unstable. When I play chandramukhi the video lags audio by quite a bit while VLC plays it good. Installing Java was a good adventure. I need java so I can run the trader webstation from Interactive brokers. If I could get up in the morning and start trading on my linux machine, that's my definition of luxury.

After quite a bit of false starts and numerous read of wikis on installing java, I finally did install it and was able to run the TWS successfully (with a bit tweaking that will probably be quite boring to explain....). And so far I've not logged on to windows in the past 3 days and I have not found a need to. I installed Samba and was able to connect to the windows network that my other computer is on. Ubuntu even comes with a Terminal Services Client that allows me to remotely logon to my windows desktop. Way to go folks.

Things to try before I can completely chuck windows out of my life are to install GnuCash and port all my money details to it, test out printer support and burn CDs and backup DVDs. If everything works then I'll just uninstall windows and be a full linux convert. May be I'll start learning application development on Qt after that. Needless to say that this post was created in Opera running on Ubuntu....Now the question Can U-buntu ???

Total Blabberings

2006-08-15T20:38:00.000-07:00

This is going to be a long winded post about everything and nothing. Well u get the drift anyway.

Nature has a kind of uniformity around it. It's very apparent that what appears to be a total chaos has an aura of uniformity clamped on it. And uniformity in turn is surrounded by total chaos. Right from galaxies to atom, the uniformity is pervasive. Planets revolve around a star and so do protons and electrons around a nucleus and so do nations around a powerful nation.

Scientists often peer in to the universe to catch the light waves emitted by galaxies that are just forming in order to understand how Milky way originated. What it tells us is that nature has a way of revealing its secrets. We just have to apply ourselves and look for signs and symbols. Now if by studying how galaxies are forming now we can deduce how our Milky way formed, we should be able to predict what will happen to our galaxy by studying another galaxy. The problem being we don't know which one we should be looking at. Let us leave that problem to the scientists.

With the above thought, that nature has uniformity and nature has solutions to every problem, being at the back of our mind let us turn to our society in general. In this planet we have nations that have existed for thousands of years if not more, and nations that are quite young. Now can the young nations reflect on what happened with the older civilizations and steer clear of possible causes of downfall. George Santayana said "Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it".

Four years ago, in my company, when a user needed some IT assistance on systems he can pick up the phone and call my boss who will then ask me or one of my other colleagues to solve the problem. It might be a new program or an old one that needs to be changed. It could be plain old COBOL or the brand spanking new, atleast for us, Visual Basic.

Fast forward now, the company has instituted processes and procedures. The user must call the helpdesk, who will create the ticket and assign it to a Business Systems Analyst and who then would sit with the user trying to understand the problem. His/Her interpretation would then come to the programmer for coding. There's process everywhere. Processes to identify broken processes and processes to fix such broken processes. We call it Paralysis by Analysis.

Again nature shows the way. Apparently its not in just my company. I look around and I see Intel struggling with identifying the next big thing, Microsoft struggling with their next version of OS, Dell floundering on who to sell their computers to. There's something common across all the strugglers. They probably instituted more processes. Steve Ballmer at Microsoft essentially created a big bureaucracy there so did Intel under Craig and Dell under a-later-Michael Dell.

What it points to is as the company matures it wants to organize it's desk and no one has perfected the art of organizing. Chaos is essential to come up with new ideas. Inventors are impatient folks. That's why we see Google's star ascending because, as for as I know, it lets its engineers to work on what they like. Google Labs is structured so that engineers spend 80% of their work on their own pet projects.

The process paralysis doesn't affect companies alone. Even nations are not immune to this desire to organize and suffer because of such organizations and processes. An organization has a clear hierarchy, a clear chain of command that makes a nation vulnerable to enemies. You manage to kill the top of the pyramid and the bottom portion runs helter skelter. That's why we see Hezbollah holding strong against Israel, Al Qaeda still on the loose. They have people coming in to the organization taking the place of people who have been hunted down by law.

Society suffers the most because of such organization. Again America is a prime example. The chaos four years ago was a nightmare for my management but we solved problems and users were happy. Now management has control but we are seen as ineffective department. Similary as society gets older it tends to settle down along some class lines. Today America is a young society. Anyone can become anything provided they have the desire and willingness to go thru the required pain. So was India thousands of years ago.

From being a totally chaotic society, India also started organizing. They created the varna system which identified and codified the people according to their occupation. Apparently people were free to change their occupation and hence the varnas. But as time went along this type of coidification solidified resulting in the caste system monster that it faces today. Is America today the India thousands of years ago.

I know people will laugh if reading the last line of the previous paragraph. How can a nation that is so advanced in every field that you can think of, be a microcosm of an decaying nation. But that's what nature tells me. Yes USA has great weapons, advanced science, a great university system etc etc. But remember Indians wrote kamasutra, built huge temples and other such architecture when the founders of USA were eating raw meat and never heard of the art of metals.

History repeatedly tells us that societies that prosper, be it Roman, Chinese, Egyptian or Indian has to fall down. What makes them fall down is the topic here. 2O years down the road will America be still looked upon as the land of opportunity and free, where ideas can be freely articulated and executed. The recent banning of stem cell research by the Govt. is a prime example of the codification that is taking place in this society.

For a society, to prevent itself from becoming a settled society with set societal rules, to be inventive it needs new ideas. New ideas are borne by people who want to come up in life. These are usually the immigrants. It appears that USA is now slowly closing its door on immigrants. The country no longer welcomes them, whether legal or illegal doesn't matter. For a stock market to keep going up needs fresh infuse of money in to it. Its gotto be new money. Similary for a society it has to a fresh infusion of thoughts. But the leaders of the current generation want to restrict immigration for whatever reasons which tells me that the nation has committed the first sin in it's decline from the top. It has already stopped fresh ideas from coming in.

Second is the takeover of society by backward thinking people. These are the people who swear by religious edicts and fundamentals. As pointed before banning stem cell research is not a loss to stem cell research. Its a loss to this society. The other big debate about evolution vs creation is another big harbinger of what is to come. Even in India, even in a remote village in India, a village will gladly accept that man came from primates. His religion doesn't dictate him to resist science. But in the so-called advanced nation science is a victim of religious brain-washing. Do you think the current strengths of this nation will help it to weather future downfall?

I have lived in this country for 10 years now, from 1996. The sprightlyness I used to encounter in people is missing. My bosses have changed over years and as they change I see a difference in their attitude towards everything. My first boss was like my father. We used to go fishing up in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was educated only till the 12th. When I moved to Portland, OR, my boss here was a graduate. But still he was one of the best in the company to work for. Even though he took great interest in my life and my family he maintained a distance. Of late I have worked for bosses who probably don't even know my name. Their only aim is to keep their job. They would even lie in your face to get things done and will not hesitate to fire you.

That's just not my personal experiences. What we consider good qualities namely loyalty, honesty, caring etc have been given a go-by in this society. Therefore the current material wealth this nation enjoys is just that. Its material. India thousands of years ago had the same material wealth that was considered as wealthy at that time. But that did not stop the society from getting in to a morass.

Now go back and read all that I blabbered about how nature has uniformity and solves problems. Here right now nature is showing USA, the prime example of how codification and desire to control people through organizing and bureaucracy has destroyed a nation. So what is the ideal amount of control that should be exercised to keep the creative juices flowing and to maintain the required amount of superiority for ever? I do have an answer and I will tell you if you can bring me the elixir of youth. Do you get the hint :-0)

Adios....

Move over Kiruba, Centhil et all

2006-08-07T08:30:00.000-07:00

Here comes the ultimate blogger. Mahadevan Ramesh is really well known in the NRI "literary" circles especially those who used to frequent SCI (Soc.Culture.India). He went AWOL for awhile and I just discovered him thanks to Nilu (yeah yeah I do frequent his scented pukings). Mahadevan Ramesh is already climbing the charts with 26 comments for his 3rd post. Watch out for this guy. The exploits of Ajay Palayavanteeswaran are quite well-known and hilarious. He also has a website here.

Welcome Ramesh, Oh Please can u do some shorter posts frequently rather than a loooooooooooooooong one every month....

Dumm Dumm Dumm for Surya and Jo !!!

2006-08-06T13:45:00.000-07:00

NewIndPress reports the good news here. My best wishes to the couple and they have set a very good example to others. The D-date is September 11th.

Blogs - MySpace or Self Promotion

2006-08-05T22:36:00.000-07:00

Why wouldn't India progress ? Just read through this and you will know.

I have no idea why this guy had to puke about Kiruba. I mean by posting this he is not saving this world from communists or capitalists or whatever. I have read thru Kiruba's blog and I have my own opinion but that's another story.

But read thru the comments. There's pro-Kiruba, then there's anti-kiruba well you would expect that. But then suddenly there's an Anti-TamBram out of nowhere. So what's wrong u ask ? I have no idea. I am not a shrink but I just found it odd that out of nowhere we can bring in caste. I mean caste reigns supreme on our minds more than sex. What kind of nation is this ?

As for as this controversy regarding whether Kiruba is #1 or not, frankly who cares

Here's an old S.Ve.Sekhar joke.
A Tamilan, an American and a Chinese were stranded in an Island. God appeared before them and said he will grant them each a wish.
The American said in order to establish peace in the world he has to bomb some countries so he has to go to America. So God sent the American to USA.
The Chinese guy said he wanted to preach about population growth in China and so he has to go to china. So God sent the Chinese to China.
Namma Tamilan salaichavana.
When his turn came Tamilan turned towards God and said, It's so boring without the chinese and american so please bring them back.

For long I suspected this blog thing has some gang structure like how we have in schools. You know there would be a group of cool kids who form a group and if you are not part of the group you ain't cool. That's exactly what's happening. Blogs have degenerated from being a place on the web for your thoughts to being some kind of popularity contests.

As I said in my previous post, democratization of media has dangerous side effects. Especially when it is available to kids who are probably better of eating ice creams than blogging.

2006-08-05T18:23:00.000-07:00

We Didn't Start the Fire - Made up video

Awesome Man Awesome....... I have mixed feelings about democratization of media but I think it's great when you find some great professional efforts like these. I still think one has to go thru much shaff to find the wheat but it's all worth it.

Now back to Strategic Dynamics4.1, 4.2 and 4.3...

2006-08-05T18:19:00.000-07:00

Billy Joel- We Didn't Start The Fire!

Whoa, the fire is still raging in 21st century and Billy Joel sang about it in 80s. Thank you tube. The video is kinda sarcastic about how the normal folks just go about doing their daily jobs as all the things that Billy is singing about is happening...

Guess who has a new blog

2006-08-05T15:35:00.000-07:00

Yeah this company called Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle has a new corporate blog. Oh yeah they are popularly known as Yahoo!. Check out the cool video tour of their headquarters in Sunnyvale here

Middle East - Being Lebanon

2006-08-05T15:00:00.000-07:00

Many bloggers have blogged about why Israel could bomb Lebanon and why India cannot do the same to Pakistan. I'm definitely not an expert in foreign policy but the thought that comes to my mind is that to be immune from such attacks a nation has to be
1. powerful enough to protect itself.
2. useful enough to be protected by another powerful state.

It's as simple as that. Lebanon has both Muslim and Christian population. Therefore whatever it does to identify itself as an Arab nation (Arab Liberation Army for instance), the Arab states do not fully recognize it's Arabianness. Due to it's affliation with Syria it has also come in US crosshairs.

But our beloved Pakistan is different. Now we don't know whether they can protect themselves or not but they are proving useful to the USA and hence any action by India will sure invite retribution from the Global Policeman.

Being Lebanon in Middle East is a great tragedy. Hezbollah is supported and trained by Syria and Iran but those countries are not being bombed. Lebanon is a great example of a nation whose leaders, in their quest to attain power look for support from outside. The outsiders then install puppet govts. and use the country for their own needs.

The current Lebanese Govt. is made up of a large number of Syrian supporters. Independent Lebanese thinkers and politicians have been murdered. Rafiq Hariri is a great example. His assasination was followed by large demonstrations and calls for the Syrian army to quit Lebanon which they did but Hezbollah was already entrenched.

In a way Lebanon is not Pakistan. Lebanon is Afghanistan. Just like how Pakistan used Afghanistan to train Kashmir and Punjab militants, Syria and Iran used Lebanon to train Hezbollah. Now we see the result. Ultimate sufferers are the common people.More so women and children.

BTW, who cares about common people. All it takes is a minutes action and 9 months wait to create one of those suckers aint it :-0).

I need data

2006-08-05T14:44:00.000-07:00

If you have links to articles on Linux market share data please share it with me. My team and I tried googling around it's so obvious we suck in it. As part of our master's project work I need to Linux marketshare in Servers and Desktops. If the data includes growth trajectory it would be wonderful.

2006-08-01T22:39:00.000-07:00

Sweet Dreams are made of these....

Well it's about 10:35PM and the best one can do is wish everyone else Sweet Dreams....

Lebanon - Israel's quagmire and lessons for India

2006-07-30T13:06:00.000-07:00

The war that Israel started in Lebanon has entered it's second week. Hezbollah is proving to be much tougher than the collective Arab states were when they started the 6-day war. So much tough that Israel had to withdraw from a Hezbollah stronghold in Lebanon. It's clear that both Israel and Hezbollah had overplayed their hands in the current imbroglio. That being said, what are the implications of this crisis to India.

Time and again Indians look to Israel as their role model and wish India's Govt. dealt with militants and terrorists much the same way. If Israel inspite of being tacitly supported by US cannot dislodge Hezbollah, which is being supported by Iran and Syria, can India afford to conduct hot pursuits in PoK ?

For India to contain terrorism, the best approach would be to enlarge the economic pie and increase it's influence in Indian Ocean. While Israel is confronted by religious fanatics, India's fanatics are because of it's bad economic policy that has driven poor people in to the arms of Maoists, Naxals and Islamic fanatics.

Punjab was much the same way throughout the 80s and early 90s. Economic revival in that state combined with tough internal security measures turned it around. External aggression will never achieve the goal that an introvertive plan could. Simply because the enemies of India have the whole world to train their mercenaries. Can we afford to do hot pursuit everywhere ? If it's not PoK, it will be Nepal or Bangladesh or Bhutan.

The point is to make India an ally to all these countries. And the best way to do it is promote a form of governance that is seen legitimate in the eyes of the population of these countries. India almost lost Nepalese confidence in the way it dealt with the internal unrest recently. Mr.Karan Singh, who was sent as an emissary failed miserably to convince the King. India was seen in Nepal as helping out the King against the wishes of the people. A kind of hypocrisy where it crowned itself as the world's largest democracy but doesn't want democracy in it's neighborhood. Much the same as USA's policy in middle east. India must avoid such an image.

India's strategy in dealing with terrorism has to be purely strategic and diplomatic. Enemies can be defeated thru military battles but our goal should be to win over them. The strategy should be

1. Isolate Pakistan.
2. Help neighboring countries and increase it's ability to influence policies in these countries.
3. Enlarge the economic pie internally.
4. Strengthen internal security by empowering police.
5. Above all, political parties must put forward persons who are seen as nationalists and have a clean record in governance. This alone will go a long way in enhancing our pride which inturn will make our population vigilant.

Self proclaimed Tamil culture protectors

2006-07-30T07:24:00.000-07:00

So "vaigai-puyal" Vadivelu has joined the army of so-called tamil culture protectors. His recent bashing of the movie "Uyir" at movie "Thambi"'s 100 day celebration as reported by Kumudam is what I'm referring to.

I watched Uyir and I liked it. May be because as a male I'm attracted to such strong-willed females (J plese note). In that movie the "anni" character asks a pointed a question on why a man can marry his wife's sister after wife passes away but a female cannot do the same.

I guess questioning status-quo is against tamil culture.

The other incident involves S.V.Sekhar whose maiden speech in Tamilnadu legislature questioned the 95Lakhs granted to the maker of the movie on Periyar. In his speech he wondered if such royal benevolence be bestowed upon movie makers making movies about Rajaji et all. I find nothing wrong in this observation but apparently the suya-mariyadhai fellas got irked.

Leading the pack as usual are Ki.Veeramani and actor Sathyaraj. Instead of answering S.Ve.S's question all these fellas can do is to attack Rajaji. Infact one of the joker even pointed out that Periyar cried uncontrollably on Rajaji's death. Doesn't it make it much more worthwhile to fund a movie on Rajaji then. But again I'm talking logic to whom ?

I find this Dalitistan folks really hillarious. Every now and then they'll take up the position they are all sons and daughters of night-soil removers who were forced in to the profession because of their caste and the entire brahmin community alone was responsible for it. The night-soil removers were never there for thousands of years. It was a profession "invented" in the early 20th century as cities developed and people started having toilets inside their house. It doesn't exist anymore atleast in TN. While the profession is abhorable, the society as a whole agreed to the existence of it not that the brahmins imposed it on the society. So why blame a particular community. Oh well I'm talking logic to whom ??

Time and again I ask my Dalit friends proof of instances where the brahmin community met and decided to subjugate them. They will immidiately go back to Mahabharata and site the example of Eklavya and Drona. In the same breath they'll dismiss Mahabharata as some fictional story. So a fictional story is the source of their belief. But again I'm talking logic to whom ?

Another important observation is how these same folks support Kannagi, the quintessential mother of all tamils. When being pointed out the whole story of kannagi was subjugation of women etc, they'll conveniently hide the story in the realm of time. The usual excuse is that you cannot judge the happenings of that age with the societal rules of today. Well agreed.... How come such rules don't apply when it comes to casteism ? And the funniest thing is when this lady burnt Madurai, she made sure that Brahmins were not included in her vengeance list. One has to wonder why ? But again I'm talking logic to whom ?

Casteism was practised for thousands of years and apparently everybody were happy. Now we find such an arrangement abhorable and why can we not work amicably in going about dismantling it. Is blaming a particular community going to be the answer. But again I'm talking logic to whom ?

WTF is an

2006-07-26T17:55:00.000-07:00

item number ? I hear this all the time nowadays. Any etymology on this one ?

AIIMS events

2006-07-26T08:24:00.000-07:00

I guess Dr.Anbumani Ramadoss has been given a bloody nose by GoI which withdrew the removal notification against Dr. Venugopal. Looks like Anbumani is hell bent on proving that Jayalalitha's views on him are true.

While Dr.Anbumani can project this as only a temporary hurdle, it is still a nosecut for him as GoI has accepted that proper rules and procedures were not followed with regards to dismissing Dr.Venugopal. I would rather see Mr.Anbumani kicked out of the office for failing to follow his own ministry's procedures.

His allegation against Dr.Venugopal that he supported the strike against reservation on the basis of providing the striking students with shamiana and fans are ridiculous. As the head of AIIMS, Dr.Venugopal is responsible for the well being of the students. Just because the students have a view that differs from the management doesn't mean that the management can deprive them of their rights to express themselves. Nor can the management deny them use of AIIMS facilities.

If Anubumani's line of thinking is extended then one would have to protest against TN govt. outside Tamilnadu and if you want to protest Indian Govt. action then one has to go outside India. Geez what kind of jokers are these ministers.

Dr.Anubumani might do well to turn the pages of history back on the vanniyar porattam and how it wa

Global warming ?

2006-07-25T16:09:00.000-07:00

Weather of late has been kind of topsy-turvy. Colleagues here tell me that Portland, Or has never witnessed such high temperatures. California is recording 118 F in some places. Brazil is experiencing such a drought that a world famous falls has been reduced to a trickle. Is this Global warming and is human kind responsible for it ?

As much as I love nature, I find it quite difficult to side with the environmentalists who say that human species is responsible for Global warming. Industrial revolution started in the Mid-19th century and we've been burning fossil fuels at a dangerous rate in the past 100 years. But Ma Earth came out ice-age 12000 years ago.

I believe that Earth has it's own cycles. It's just that we are unable to record the events for ever and pass it on to our future generations and so we don't know about these cycles. While not destroying nature is a good thought, isn't man's curiosity, the very cause of nature's destruction, a work of nature ?

Also the notion that by controlling our habits, we can control nature aka Global warming appears kind of snobbish to me. As if we are the only ones who do any activity on this planet. It's kinda hinting that we control nature. BS. Don't ask for scientific proof but IMHO man's activities are just too insignificant in the overall scheme of things.

This planet has it's own way of balancing. When the mantle becomes very hot it makes the volcanoes erupt, the ashes of which block the sun which results in the surface cool down. The currents in the ocean also play a big part in distributing the heat and when they are disturbed the resultant reaction will make sure that balance is restored.

So let's stop talking about this Global warming and how humans are so powerful in causing it and let's switch on the AC and relax by reading from dead Amazonian parchments.

Creamy layer defined ????

2006-07-19T19:28:00.000-07:00

Deccan Herald reports here that GoI has defined the creamy layer for OBCs. Remember the creamy layer should be excluded from the 27% reservations implemented as part of Mandal commission. Whether this layer will be excluded from the current reservation proposal for institutions of higher learning is yet to be seen.

The list seems to be quite over arching covering almost all categories of wealthy OBCs. I hope that this creamy layer section doesn't indulge in fraud to wiggle out of the exclusion (will definitely happen in India). But this is definitely a step in the right direction.

You're Fired

2006-07-19T19:10:00.000-07:00

Close on the heels of blog-blocking in India, here's another story of a secretary getting fired because she blogs....

Blog Block update

2006-07-18T22:06:00.000-07:00

Times of India reports about the blog block here

Here's an interesting piece from the above article for those who don't want to click and read.

" By Tuesday, it became clear that the government had in fact asked for all of Blogspot to be blocked. As things turned out, it was an obscure blog on the Blogspot network that government was targeting as part of its regular drive at censoring unpleasant voices.

Internet Service Providers who received the directive, though, simply banned the entire network. Fortunately, technology can circumvent censorship....."

Pissed at Indian bloggers

2006-07-17T19:16:00.000-07:00

So now there's this huge brouhaha about how blogger.com is banned in India. Even established bloggers are writing about it without realizing that it's just a temporary blackout and not a blanket ban.

Let us just consider some statistics.
What's the population of India - 1.25 Billion
How many from India access blogspot.com - Probably less the number of people who have died so far due to terrorist attacks in Kashmir and it's offshoots. Let us say about 10000 people may be.

So the population affected by blocking blogspot.com is infinitelysmall. So which is more important, a Govt action to trace certain blogspot users who are considered terrorists accused of killing 100s of people or the ability to access blogspot 24 x 7 to these other bloggers ?

These same bloggers will then write about how Indian govt. is fucking sleeping when terrorists are exploding bombs right and left. Unfortunately they are India's face on the web. They are the ones who will quote Bharathi's "Thani oruvanukku unavillaiyanil jagathinai azhithuduvom" everytime a terrorist strikes India. Won't u think they would think twice before they slam the Govt. Alas no. Bloggers have failed India.

Just because they can write and they have an avenue for writing they think they can write anything and everything. Comparisons to Taliban and China are totally unwarranted but have been made. The same people who rile against sensationalism in CNN-IBN, TOI and IE are now sensationalising a trivial issue. Everyone thinks that the ability to say, write anything is a God given right. Even fundamental rights can be denied when there's enough cause. The blocking/temporary banning of blogger.com is a trivial issue except for these thousands of people.

Now you know why India can never be an Israel. An average Israeli welcomes missile attacks from Hezbollah. An average Indian cannot even understand the compulsions behind banning a website. Sometimes it pains to be an Indian. Birthplace of philosophy my foot.

I follow news items in US and India. Let me tell u something. Indian Intelligence officials always seem to have stuff years before American intelligence. Right after 9/11 samachar.com had news items where in an Indian Intelligence official said that terrorists were running camps in Oregon (I was quite curious because I live Portland, Or and so I remember this very well). About 6 months or so after that there was another news item quoting intelligence sources that talked about Islamic terrorists communicating using Jpeg images.

Fast forward 3 years, a radical islamic is arrested and charged with trying to setup terrorist training ground south of Portland, Or. American Intelligence officials also confirmed the use of images by terrorists to communicate. Indian Intelligence, believe me, is one of the best. Yes it's going to the dogs but still is a dog of a high pedigree.

With the advent of cellphones the terrorists thought they could communicate easily uisng throw-away sims and such. But Indian police and intelligence were still able to track them down. And so the only reliable mode of communication between those inside India with the planners outside India is thru satellite phones or thru internet. The cheapest being Internet.

According to mutiny Govt. has instructed ISPs to control access to blogspot.com. If the ISPs execute this policy incorrectly why should the Govt. take the blame. All the bloggers are crying as if the Govt. has taken their daily food away and are starving them to death.

Give our Govt. a slack. All these guys have talked to only their ISPs for whom blocking a blog has no personal repercussions. Heck the guys wouldn't even know what a blog is. He would have just put *.blogspot.com in their filtering software.

One approach would be to use the Freedom to Information act that was recently passed to see the GOs. Ofcourse be prepared to face a rejection on the grounds of national security and one has to understand it. Govt. wouldn't want to publicly disclose which blogspots were in the list for obvious reasons.

I appeal to the Indian blogging community to trust the Govt., to find out the truth about the GO and then comment on it.

We are doing a great disservice to the nation by comparing ourselves to China and giving fodder to the Anti-India propaganda machine all over the world.

Now u see the real danger of allowing everyone to express themselves. Half truths and untruths will be taken as a bible because it's published on the web.....

Chidambara Rahasiyam

2006-07-16T22:47:00.000-07:00

Another controversy that's slowly assuming big proportions is the refusal of Chidambaram Dikshitars to allow recital of Thiruvasagam by a group of Tamil scholars at Natrajar temple.

Personally, I don't have much respect for the Dikshitars. If you read tamizh thatha U.Ve.Sa's suya sarithai (autobiography) you might have known that the Dikshitars destroyed so many tamizh manuscripts by burning them. That's just totally barbaric. Why did they do this and what's their agenda is something that I'm not clear about ?

Anyway coming back to the problem at hand, apparently a district judge had agreed with the dikshitars and passed an order prohibiting the recital. Being in USA, I am not able to ascertain the details behind this controversy. Due to the non-involvement of actors like Jayamala, this is not getting the kind of press real estate as the Sabarimala controversy is generating.

Just like how I hate Tamilnadu Govt. interfering with Hindu temples and on the language of worship, I also hate when people like the Dikshitars disallow people from worshipping in their language of choice. As with everything in Indian society, there's always more to them than that meets the eye. I doubt if the group wanting to sing Thiruvasagam have some political ambitions other than just singing Thiruvasagam.

Temples like Chidambaram are quite wealthy temples and controlling them gives you enormous clout and wealth. May be that's one of the reasons for the Dikshitar's refusal to allow this group inside. Waiting and hoping for good tidings here....

Casteism in India

2006-07-16T22:13:00.000-07:00

For a long time I wanted to pen down my thoughts on this topic. Many people will tell you that casteism is the cancer of Indian society. I differ slightly. Casteism is not the cancer, it's the way it is used to stifle people's thought and it's unrewarding nature that's the cancer.

Let us be practical and take any nation on the face of earth and see if they are really class and caste free. In USA and UK, the most cited xamples of egalitarianism there does exists class lines. You can especially see it in east coast. Japan, China and the Koreas have their own version of caste system and untouchables. A cursory search in google will yield u tons of information on how those societies mirror somewhat similar to Indian society.

Let us look at the history of caste in India. The word caste itself is from Portugese. Portugese, as you may remember, were the first of the europeans to land in India for trade in spices. At that time the vedic form of Hinduism was entrenched in India. There's a reason why I deliberately say vedic form of Hinduism. Allow me to dwell on that reason for a bit.

Even though the predominant religion in India is Hinduism, the word itself is not found in any of the vedas or upanishads or even the Gita. India was a polytheistic society where Vedic practioners and their offshoots were living in harmony (or so) with other practioners including Tantriks, tribals etc. Outsiders clubbed all of them together and called them Sindhus (those who live west of Indus) and from that word was derived Hindu.

The first sociological problem that the residents of the land had was when the term that was used to refer to them based on the land they lived was transformed in toa religion. A religion typically should have a central God and central scripture. But Hinduism defies these rules. We have many Gods and Godesses and even though majority accept Gita as a central scripture it really is not. We cannot point out any scripture as our Bible or Quran.

The transformation of the word Hindu from a geo-political entity to a religious entity screwed up the varna system of the vedic practioners. Now they have to accomodate others who really don't believe in Vedas in to their structure. Now let us look at the varna structure in little detail. As we know there are 4 varnas.

Brahmanas - Priestly class, supposedly learned. They should concentrate only on learning vedas. They were not WEALTHY nor did they wield any POWER.
Kshatriyas - Warrior class and rulers of the land. They were not really wealthy but the wielded lot of POWER.
Vaishyas - Businessmen and traders. They held the WEALTH in the society.
Shudras - As opposed to the derogatary meaning this term takes today, Shudra really means formula. A shudra is one who knows the formula for creating day to day essentials. This included farming, blacksmith, iron smith, jewellers etc etc. They had the skills.

The key to note is that in order to maintain a balance each of the group is deprived of some qualities. The Brahmins were deprived of wealth, power and skill, the kshatriyas of wealth, knowledge and skill, vaishyas of Power, knowledge and skill and shudras of knowledge, power and wealth.

Note the difference between skill and knowledge. It's the same difference between a researcher and an implementor in today's societies. Brahmins were supposed to study astronomy and other sciences that could predict the climate, weather and such things. Shudras take this knowledge and decide when to sow the seed etc.

This societal structure was based on division of labor and not on any basis of discrimination. The real problem was how to accomodate the non-vedic society in to this varna system.

We'll see about this in a later post....

Sense and Sensibilities

2006-07-16T22:02:00.000-07:00

No I'm not talking about that movie but about movies in general. Yesterday I watched KingKong for the first time. Yeah yeah I am quite slow to catch up on these things. So in the first hour of the move when the movie crew lands in the island you see all the natives who are barbarians. Nothing wrong here. But all the people are colored black. Now this triggers my thinking. Why is that in any hollywood movie, such barbarians are associated with black/brown color ?

Have the caucasians never been barbaric ? Who were the vikings and Huns ? Heck how about the Spanish Inquisitors who tricked and massacred millions of Mayans and other natives of latin america.

On the same note some time back I watched a PBS program on Jesus Christ. Precisely on how he might have looked. We all know that Jesus is portrayed as this caucasian dude with a flowing blonde hair and clean shaven face. In actuality, it appears from research, that he was brown, with not so well defined features and stubbled face.

Such potrayals may appear to be really minor in general but they have a sub-conscious effect on the looker. Barbarians are usually black/brown, Caucasians are the all forgiving messiah etc etc are indirectly and incorrectly conveyed by such potrayals.

On the contrary, the natives of India had the foresight to amalgamate all the population appearances in their pantheon. Vishnu and his Krishna avatar are said to be dark colored. While Kartikeya/Skanda/Muruga is supposed to be fair. Now if only we can cut across caste lines and allow everyone to take part in festivities of temples we would be a great nation.

Aatha Naan Paasayitten

2006-07-13T20:11:00.000-07:00

Melpadipukku inga poga poren.....

More Rumbles in Sabarimala

2006-07-11T22:32:00.000-07:00

Apparently actor Jayamala and the guy who did the Prasnm know each other. As much as I want to believe in the powers of Prasnms etc, it's just a bit too much of coincidence when such a Prasnm detects "dirty" acts and someone immidiately raises their hand as guilty. Do I smell politics here ???

Threat from passive terrorism, More real and dangerous

2006-07-11T22:18:00.000-07:00

While the term passive terrorism could be an oxymoron, I use it to refer to various ways of betrayal a country, community could face. While terrorists have openly taken arms and are quite easily visible as them, enemies, the people involved in various acts of betrayal are generally our own, neighbors, office clerks and such who would make us not believe if we are told that they are agents of another country. But it is true.

Reading the history of India, one can time and again see that a major reason for the fall of armies defending the country is treason/betrayal by commanders guarding crucial points of the forts. This has been our history right from the time Somnath temple was sacked.

The recent events including the Navy war room leaks, escape of RAW officer to USA thru Nepal, greatly underlines the effectiveness of foreign agencies in infiltrating India's National security apparatus. That such an infiltration could take place in just 8 years either speaks volume of CIA's honey traps or our own fraility. Remember CIA failed to predict our Nuke tests back in 1998 and were in a state of disbelief and denial that we could conduct such a test with so much secrecy.

How come that wall of secrecy was breached so quickly ? In case of terrorist acts like what we witnessed in Mumbai, the Govt. can only be reactionary. Occasionally we do have success like the way the attack on RSS headquarters was foiled. Our effectiveness is measured by the reaction to such attacks.

But breaches in national security groups like IB/RAW are totally preventable had the Govt. paid attention to what is happening. Here reaction is bolting the door after the horse has left the stable, that too with all the secrets. I can only hope that the central govt. wakes up and establishes stringent security measures to make sure such breach doesn't happen in the future.

As they say, the enemy is always with in....

T

Salaam Mumbai !!!!

2006-07-11T19:22:00.000-07:00

Will Reader's Digest please go and survey Mumbai's humanness again !!!! Salaam Mumbai. You scored where you have to. The reports that appear about Mumbaikars resilience, helpfulness and resourcefulness makes me more confident about our country.

Maavadu alias Vadu Maangai aka tender mangoes

2006-07-09T11:48:00.000-07:00

My wife bought the Priya tender mangoes from the stores yesterday. But what we saw inside cannot be termed as vadu maangai. They were really full mangais.

Creating tasty maavadu is a big process. My mom will buy vadu maangais by the padi (an ancient India way of measuring stuff). These are tender mangoes that fell due to wind (see we manage to use anything and everything). Then these maangais will be washed and immersed in brine with appropriate chilli powder in jaadis. Every day she will open the peengon jaadis and mix it religiously so the contents are exposed to the ingredients uniformly. This process will happen for atleast 2 or 3 weeks and only after that the maavadu will be released for consumption. But what a yummy taste.

Contrast that with this Priya maavadu. It's just so hot(too much chilli powder), the mangoes are big. But I guess being in USA, it's the next best thing available.

Happy maavaduing.....

2006-07-07T10:04:00.000-07:00

Microsoft iPod

News : Microsoft to challenge Apple IPOD with it's own player. We have inside view of Microsoft's design process....

Business Intelligence Tech lead

2006-07-07T07:57:00.000-07:00

Soon I'll be transitioning from being a Senior Analyst to Tech lead for the Business Intelligence (oxymoron) team. Will have to deal with Informatica, Cognos blah blah. Sounds interesting. We'll see what's in store.

ImmigrationVoice

2006-07-05T20:34:00.000-07:00

The topic of Immigration has been discussed ad nauseum in this country of late. Much of the discussion and law making efforts have mainly centered around the undocumented/illegal immigrants. No one gives a damn about hundreds of thousands of skilled immigrants and their spouses in this country who are waiting for their permanent residency process for the past 5 or 6 years.

I came to this country in 1996 and applied for my GC only in Nov. 2001 and I haven't gotten it yet. Many of us work in well established companies that does everything by law, with the result our processing is doubly delayed. If u are one of those 80/20 consultants or 90/10 consultants you can probably get labor substitution and get ur GC fast.

Anyone who wants to immigrate to this country through employment-based categories should familiarize themselves with all the processes and the time it takes to complete the same. Simply put there are 3 stages

1. Labor clearance
2. Petition to Immigrate
3. Adjustment of status

I'm not going to go in to details here but it appears that 1 and 2 have been speeded up for new applicants. But for applicants in 2001/2002/2003/2004 even step 1 has not been completed (the famous backlog elimination centers (BECs)).

Anyway, there's a grass roots organization in USA made of such legal immigrants. The group is called ImmigrationVoice. The group is mainly composed of Indian skilled workers but there are lot of members belonging to other nationalities also. I would like fellow bloggers to spread the word about this organization and galvanize the immigrant community for a fair and speedy process.

Ciao till next...

Mad Money

2006-07-04T13:51:00.000-07:00

No I am not talking about Jim Cramer's program on CNBC. You will see what I'm talking about after a few paras. In this day and age where one has to have the latest car, TV in their house, all paid with over stretched credit cards, it is a delight to meet people who manage to live within their means. While extravagant spenders fill up one extreme end of the spectrum the penny pinchers of sorts fill up the other extreme. These are the people who drive 10 miles to save 2c on a gallon of gas. But I never really had any idea about how extreme this extreme end of the spectrum is until I met him.

He will put any of those penny pinching, coupon clipping, their own hair-cutting stingers to shame. He fits the definition of pushing things to the extreme. He defines the human nature. This fellow recently joined the place where I work as a contractor. I met him during lunch and he happened to be a perfect desi. A desi conversation usually has the following questions
1. How long have u been in states ?
2. Do you have a green card or where in the process are u in ?
3. How many cities in US have u visited ?
4. How one hates any city other than Bay area etc etc....

A desi
will be nosey
else he is a
pardesi....

Anyway so the talk turned towards marriage and I'm narrating the conversation.
Me: So are u married.
He: No I got engaged in January.
Me: So u must be preparing to go to India for ur marriage now.
He: Oh no the marriage is only in December.
Me: Man that's quite a break between engagement and marriage. Is she still studying or what ?
He: No man. The girl's parents were ready to conduct the marriage in June - July. But I asked them to conduct it in December.
Me: (with puzzled look) why man ??
He: Arey yaar. If I get married in December and bring her here, I am not spending anything on her but can take advantage of her by filing taxes as married filing jointly. Otherwise one has to spend on food, cosmetics blah blah....
Me: (totally shocked) !!!!

Welcome to Gen-Z....

R(ea)(u)der's Digest ??

2006-07-04T10:11:00.000-07:00

So Reader's Digest comes out with their rudeness Index and not surprisingly our biggest Metro, Mumbai, comes first (remember it's rudeness Index). And all hell breaks loose in the blogworld, newspapers and letters to the editors. Anyone who has an avenue to express themselves have decried the digest's methodology, recounted their own tales of helpful mumbaikars and so on.

This is all amusing to me. I am curious to see if other countries will react the same way if they were judged last in such made-to-loose contests/surveys etc. We seem to be afflicted with this disease called Foreigners-have-to-praise-me Syndrome. We also seem to be afflicted with another disease called It's-All-About-Me syndrome.

I, for one, cannot find one reason why we should even bother with RD's survey. I mean it's not going to stop any commercial activity, it's not going to stop any future investment in the country. Why are we so self-centered that it doesn't take much to light our short fuse ? Our nostrils flare and eyes redden in an effort to justify and defend our nation from the foreign onslaught.

I accept India is the rudest place of all to those people who expect doors to be opened for them in establishments.
I accept India is the rudest place of all to those people who expect a thank-you for giving someone business.
I accept India is the rudest place of all to those people who expect others to pick up books/papers that they dropped on the road.

So be it. I don't have to defend our ways. I don't have to find an excuse for our ways. Our ways are our ways and I'm proud of it. If we want to change we will. We have changed before (hell how do u think we've survived for 3000 years) and we will in the future out of our own volition.

But let us stop pandering to these silly surveys and so called notions of rudeness. We can be rude but just let us not lose our humaness. For to be rude is also part of being humane. Will someone rate the cities on humaneness index please?

No more Archana ???

2006-07-03T20:50:00.000-07:00

Archana seems to have disappeared out of Sun TV's comedy time. Any reason ? Is she expecting a child or was she asking for more moolah ?? Let the rumor mills start churning....

BTW the new one is just so-so. Sorry Sujatha(that's her name) but I have to be honest...