“And I thought that I loved”- My entry for the get published contest

The Idea -

The narrator is a typical modern generation young professional always on the move. 

The story takes the narrator on a journey where he starts to find the meaning of love in his own life through the love lives of people that he encounters on the way, all in the most unexpected quarters and from the most unexpected people. 

When the narrator has lost all hopes to find peace with himself, more than with the girl he loved most and when the mental turmoil even forces him to leave his job to find another in the city where he hopes for a chance of reconciliation with love lost, the love story of the cab driver who was driving him from the guest house to the company makes him doubt his attitude towards love. "Is it just infatuation I'm killing my peace with? The cab driver earns nothing if I compare his salary to mine. He goes for all the hardships just to ensure that one day he will be able to afford to live together with his love in this expensive city, whom he married but still have to live apart. And I leave jobs." The narrator starts soliloquising.

In the office while waiting for the HR he strikes conversation with the security guard. And lo. Behold. Another love story. 

The whole universe has conspired to lit a spark inside the narrator's heart. Whether to rage higher passions to intensify the narrator's motivation to win his love back or to enlighten shades of love not yet felt within him, slowly unfolds in the story.

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What Makes This Story ‘Real’  –
This story is based on conversation with people that we encounter everyday on the journey of life. Most of these people are those who have to take all kind of hardships just to make sure that they and their family are well fed. Their lives hardly look interesting, not to talk of their love stories. But that is what people perceive on the surface. Strike a conversation and the most interesting stories crop up from their lives, including love stories. This story is a tribute to all these people interactions with some of whom have made them uncredited contributors to this story.
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If you like the idea and think of taking the narrator's journey to find the meaning in his love worthwhile please head over to http://www.indiblogger.in/getpublished/idea/543/  and "like" this post by clicking on the heart.

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Endnote: This is my entry for the HarperCollins–IndiBlogger Get Published contest, which is run with inputs from Yashodhara Lal and HarperCollins India.

The Great Game continues

Starting from the geopolitical struggles between Russia and England in the 19th century over Afghanistan to the current day scene post Operation Enduring Freedom, the play of events have been nothing but a few feathers more added to the history of the Great Game.

It is called so because of the geo-strategic location of Afghanistan in the heart of Asia. Control it and you find a strategic location to wield influence in Asia to the South, West and East.

The turn of events in Afghanistan can hardly be called as a victory for USA as Taliban could not be curbed, farcical differentiations between Good Taliban and Bad Taliban were propounded;current government is termed by many as a puppet government. Democracy seems a far cry in Afghanistan.

USA is set to withdraw its armies from Afghanistan by 2014 leaving Afghanistan to its uncertain future. Even Taliban has now compared this act of USA to Another Vietnam when USA has followed the strategy of Declare Victory and Run.

Gender equality paradox

This documentary has some fine points uncovered about gender equality comparing developed countries and developing countries:

Commonality of Articles

Some Articles with same number have leaked (as Salman Rushdie might have liked to refer to) into different constitutions and charters with almost the same content or at least the intention. Article 14 ad 19 each find two instances:

Article 14:

Indian Constitution: The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.

Japanese Constitution: The constitution guarantees equality before the law and outlaws discrimination against Japanese citizens based on "political, economic or social relations" or "race, creed, sex, social status or family origin".

 Article 19:

 Indian Constitution: Right to freedom of speech and expression etc. - total 6 freedoms mentioned.

 UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

There could be more. A curious point of beginning to research more commonalities.

Butterfly Effect

A butterfly flaps its wings in Africa and a hurricane formation takes place in Asia.

The Butterfly Effect theory proposed by Edward Lorenz could probably be applied equally to geopolitical turfs and economy.

GMR Infrastructure company from India was stripped of a development project in the small island nation of Maldives last year. India cried foul and talks have been going on since then about the legalities of this event and other things associated.

India, in retaliation has mooted to make visa compulsory for Maldivian medical tourists which was not so till date. The result - medical tourism in India is going to suffer for a non-related distant infrastructure project loss at a distant time in an island nation in Indian Ocean.

The Halal Facebook

It refers to the social networking portal in Pakistan, alternative to Facebook that came up as a response to ban on Facebook by judiciary after complaints of blasphemous content on Facebook against Islam.

The ban was nothing but an example of curbing freedom of expression, as in other parts of the world including India, of entire population and blocking all content. If some content of a social networking portal or book or something of that sort is against larger social code of conduct harming other people's sentiments there is every reason to get that particular content removed.

But it does not mean that this small portion should lead to curbing an entire social networking portal which benefits individuals and society in many other ways as well.

Probably better sense prevailed and later on the ban was removed keeping individual pages containing blasphemous content blocked.

This case is not one in isolation. In China there is Weibo which is alternative to blocked Twitter. In China divulging any information outside China itself is blasphemous. Every other social network is closed within China or blocked or heavily monitored and censored.

Back home the Jinnah Book case of Jaswant Singh, M.F. Hussain case and so on fall in a sort of similar category.

Direct Cash Transfer

Government is almost acting in haste to implement Direct Cash Transfer (DCT) scheme before 2014 Lok Sabha elections. For this reason the scheme has been symbolized by many to be a populist measure.

The scheme is not without merits in its intention - to curb leakage of subsidies, to make it reach to the actually targeted people, less maintenance cost and better administrative efficiency,  finally to benefit lesser privileged and reduce poverty. However, there are certain problems in implementation popping out such as absence for Adhar enabled bank account for all, technical issues like fingerprint detection and so on.

These problems can definitely be sorted out in due course of time. For the same reasons, rather than implementing the scheme at once in all districts DCT was taken as pilot scheme in 51 districts first to get feedback from field.

However, there are suggestions that there should be a change in approach itself in implementation. An example is of SEWA model where subsidies were not at once replaced with DCT but were done gradually in incremental manner. It had two benefits - First, implementation process was gradual and smooth. Second, none of the beneficiaries suddenly found themselves in an uncomfortable zone running for such things as opening bank account to get DCT rather they had enough time to adopt the change.

Peace across the Northern Limit Line

Northern limit line is the maritime boundary between North Korea and South Korea in Yellow Sea. Often there have been clashes between two near the boundary, though symbolic of only a larger rift between two countries.

While North Korea has dictatorship South Korea has democratically elected government. North Korea is almost a nation in separation as it has kept a closed economy and minimal interaction with the world other than China which accounts for most of its trade and other relations. The communist ideology has also kept it hostile to its neighbor South Korea.

The dispute between the two Koreas is a hangover from cold war era. North Korea saw the change of leadership last year (Kim Jong-Un) and South Korea will have new President  Park Geun-hye from 2013.
Both the leaders have shown their inclination towards normalizing the relation between two neighbors. And this what that had been missing till now that may see start of a new relation between the two, better for the whole world.

Stock broker with $5b US bonds

Tax authorities have put this catch in Tamilnadu single handed equivalent to all catches in last two years. In India legal limit for such foreign asset possessions is $200000.

The case smacks of all sorts of linkages to it the stories regarding which may or may not be unfolded in future. The case is more interesting because the bonds can not be cashed to rupees in India.

What is in a name

Noted author, columnist and Minister of State for HRD Shashi Tharoor has suggested disclosing the name of Delhi gang-rape victim and naming the anti-rape law after her. The suggestion has stirred a new debate.

There is legal hurdle as it is unlawful to disclose the name of rape victim under IPC article 228-A.

Until now the name has been symbolic - Damini and Nirbhaya. Shashi Tharoor argues what are we gaining from not disclosing the name.

Mr. Tharoor's suggestion has ample weight. We need to charter new ways to change the thinking. Even now rape victim is stigmatized and her family is ostracized if she fights against the rapist in court. Many keep mute for this simple reason.

Disclosing name and even giving her name to a new anti-rape law will be more symbolic of ushering in a new thinking where women truly become Nirbhaya, where deterrence and justice is the word and not stigmatization.

What's in a race

There has been hue and cry specially by Asian-Americans over the App Make Me Asian demanding its removal from Google Play Store, calling the app a symbol of racism.

The App customizes you into a stereotyped Asian.

Just a thought that Whites never complain when so many of brown people aspire so much to be like them, even a whole lot of fairness cream industry thriving on this aspiration.

No conclusions drawn. No racism supported in any form. After all we are from the country of वसुधैव  कुटुम्बकम . But an idea lingers on this page - what about the App Make Me Angrej.

Teachers - now Students - of Gun

The Newtown massacre in USA has seen the arms debate rekindle - whether to put more arms in people's hand to safeguard themselves or to make them scarce for everybody.

The debate seems to be more loaded in favor of putting more arms in people's hand, thanks to gun lobbies. Teachers in schools are being taught to handle gun in case they find themselves in a situation again , god forbid, like Newown.

A visionary departs

Ratan Tata retired from Tata Group after taking it to new heights in his stint of twenty years.

The path of company under him during last 20 years also incidentally coincides with the globalization story. It was in the same year 1991 that Ratan Tata joined and India chartered out the path of LPG (Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization).

Cyrus Mistry has stepped into Ratan Tata's shoes now.

Old enemies : new issues

Cold War era hangover keeps on taking various form of tussles between USA and Russia, even though erstwhile USSR disintegrated way back in 1991 and the world transitioned from bipolar to unipolar to multi-polar power equations.

Recently Russia adopted an anti-adoption law which doesn't allow USA citizens to adopt Russian children. It is said to be in retaliation to a USA law adopted to sanction Russians accused of human right violations.

In the past Russia has also accused American citizens not treating the adopted children from Russia humanly. There have been cases where child has died or has been abandoned by adopted parents.

India's longest railway tunnel

The trial run for India's longest railway tunnel cutting through Pir Panjal  range in Kashmir was done successfully amid an applauding crowd.

This will connect Baramula to Qazigund, integrating Kashmir valley to Jammu region. This will be a boon to people of Kashmir valley by keeping transport connectivity open throughout the year, even when snowfall blocks roads.

Compare prices of books to buy online in India

www.kbooksearch.com turns out to be a very useful website to compare price of books across various e-commerce websites in India.

A sample search:

Fiscal cliff

The term is used to refer to tax increases and spending cuts to be applied automatically from end of this year in USA.

The deal has become a necessity after the downhill economic condition of USA. It has acquired huge debts post the adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan. The rest was taken care of the world financial crisis.

However there is disagreement between democrats and Republic over the income ceiling above which tax increase will apply.

A culture apart: policing in Stanford

The culture of policing in India is a debated topic where the 'police' word raises similar thoughts as in colonial times in the minds of most of the people.

It contrasts with police culture in developed countries where police is not only to enforce laws but for service to the people. 

A case in point is the Stanford police. It is based on the values that police has to consider every person as their child even if they are going to arrest them. Even a person with overdose of alcohol is taken care of police by first admitting them to hospital.

Values like these no doubt infuse massive sense of confidence among the public about the police.

Not man but woman as well

The patriarchal mindset in India finds voice in insensitive remarks on women not only in men's voice but in women's voice as well.

A woman agricultural scientist in Madhya Pradesh even left many bigwigs behind in such remarks when in a public function she remarked that in the Delhi case the woman should have just surrendered when six men confronted her to rape. Then her physical condition would not have been in such bad condition as in now.

Another insensitive comment was by none other than President's son Abhijit Mukherjee, an MP from West Bengal, who said the protesting women as dented-painted.

A long way to go for behavioral and societal change.

The war of states at NDC

NDC (National Development Council) meeting, convened to discuss 12th plan paper (2012-17), saw different states showing their displeasure in different manners to their alleged dominating attitude of central government.

The most prominent display of displeasure was by Tamilnadu CM Jayalalithaa when she walked out of the meeting after bell rang at the end of ten minutes of her lecture when she still had to complete 18 more pages from her speech. 

Jayalalithaa described ringing the bell as utter humiliation and stifling the voice of Chief Ministers.

Gujarat CM Narendra Modi raised a question mark over attainability of 8% growth rate in 12th plan.

Bihar CM Nitish Kumar raised the demand for giving Bihar a special status again in the meeting after it was rejected by Planning Commission and an Inter-ministerial Group formed after that.

Project Chirag

The project has been true to its name bringing light to the lives of many.

Project Chirag is a n initiative by students from Mumbai to bring solar power to rural landscape. From a humble beginning it now comprises 12000 volunteers who have helped in lighting 4000 homes in 106 villages across 4 states where electricity supply still eludes them

It is supported by donations from corporate.

One of the stories of good work done:

Asteroids for future space missions

NASA plans to turn near earth asteroids orbiting in space into space stations. The idea is to capture these asteroids through a launched rocket from earth, then carry them to a gravitation neutral spot to keep them stationary. 

A possible course of action:

Being closer to moon these can be used easily by space scientists based on moon in 2020s. Besides the purpose of launching Mars missions and so on these can also be used to mine water and break them into hydrogen and oxygen to be used as fuel in future space vehicles.

New frontiers of speed in China

China has set another benchmark in putting in place the longest high-speed rail line between Beijing and Guangzhou . 

The move has led to shortening of journey time for 2298 Km to 8 hours as compared to 20 hours earlier in eastern part of China.

However, people are being assured about safety measures in place as they are apprehensive since the bullet train accident in 2011.

This line is finally planned to be connected to Hong Kong.

Time for India to take a leaf from this.

IITs : External peer review proposed

None of the Indian universities including IITs have figured in top 200 in international rankings, the most recognized rankings being Times Higher Education and QS World University rankings.

At the same time we lack any such ranking being done for higher education institutes by recognized bodies at national level, except rankings done by some magazines like India Today from time to time. These factors have led to external peer review being proposed for IITs by eminent people from academia and industry. 

The reviewers are proposed to be selected through a process involving IIT Council and Board of Governors of various IITs.

Besides an internal audit has been proposed before external peer review. The audit is proposed to be for all departments to judge their standard.

Cable TV Digitization : deadline and bottlenecks

The latest in a series of bottlenecks being faced after Central government made digitization of cable TV compulsory is opposition by West Bengal government.

The digitization move was taken so as to give maximum choice and best quality to the customers, and at the same time facilitating accurate viewership data collection so as to avoid events like NDTV vs Nielsen Kantar viewership data tampering case.

The deadlines since announcement of first deadline of 31st October have been extended due to various bottlenecks like row between MSOs(Multi Service Operators) and Broadcasters over tariff. Broadcasters are various channels while MSOs are the link between them and viewer. Other issues include shortage of set top boxes (STBs) etc.

In West Bengal the move is being opposed as STBs are still not installed in all homes. MSOs have been instructed by state government not to go digital overnight.

The MSOs are in a catch-22 situation where on the one hand they face the situation of their licenses being cancelled by central government if not adhering to digitization deadline, on the other the state government is apprehensive about any law and order situation arising out of sudden digitization. WB governement wants to buy more time.

The lost tribe from Israel

800 BC. Bnei Menashe, a tribe descending from Jews, is banished to India. Since then they live in the states of Mizoram and Manipur in India near the Myanmar border.

This historical incident was given the approval of stamp by Chief Rabbi of Israel in 2005.

Since then this group has been given visas to Israel and many among them have been allowed to settle there.

However, some sections in Israel don't agree about the historical claims and equate it to nothing but their flight from poverty in India.

'Newsweek' goes digital

Newsweek is the second largest news weekly magazine in USA. Its print version could not hold ground in an era brought about by online revolution.
The last print version is out and it's now going completely digital. The move speaks of the reading behavior changes brought about in an entire generation. The comfort of internet is more preferred to read news than the print now.

The pirates of Somalia

They don't make headlines everyday but neither are they wiped out from the blue waters of Arabian Sea to rest in history pages. The politically unstable Somalia is a heaven for breeding and sheltering these pirates.

It is said to have formed a kind of organised business by syndicates operating as pirates, giving employment to youths, taking hostage of ships plying near Gulf of Aden, and extorting from their owners. This has led to increased insurance costs of ships and world trade has suffered.

Recently it was only 32 months after a ship MV Iceberg 1 was taken hostage by Somalia pirates that the crew members have been rescued, including 5 Indians.

Two things about T20 last evening

First, the Christmas day T20 India-Pak match played in Bangalore was symbolic of improving bilateral ties between India and Pakistan. Pakistan played a match in India a long time after the last world cup semifinal in Chandigarh. Cricket diplomacy was the natural next thing to do after bilateral trade ties improvements, Track-1,2 meetings, in addition to initiatives by civil society  like 'Aman Ki Asha' et al.

Second, Indian cricket saw the debut of an extremely talented fast bowler in Bhuvneshwar Kumar. His bowling stat of 4-0-9-3 was a testimony to his skills, especially in swing.

Curious case of Delhi Police

Delhi turns out to be a unique case in Police administration where it has maximum control by the Central government and the NCT Delhi government has less control, to say in simple terms. Often there are cases of overlapping and blame game between the two governments starts, mostly by NCT government when it thinks it is becoming handicapped in law and administration matters.

Incidents in recording the statement of Delhi gang rape victim where SDM alleged undue influence by higher police officials in carrying out its duty is another such case. Delhi CM took the matter to Home minister in the central government.

Santa never brings gift to me

Another Happy Christmas! The world is not over and the wait is not over. I share the pain of Daniel B George -

Time to contribute

The government has appointed JS Verma Committe to suggest amendments to criminal laws relating to safety and security of women. The suggestions to the committee can be sent by anybody to the email address justice.verma@nic.in, as per the advertisement appearing in Papers - 

Harvard Business Review has 8 Indians among top 100 CEOs

The CEOs include -

1. Y. C. Deveshwar (ITC)
2. Subir Raha (ONGC)
3. Mukesh Ambani (Reliance)
4. AM Naik (L&T)
5. AK Puri (BHEL)
6. Sunil Bharti Mittal (Bharti Airtel)
7. Navin Jindal (Jindal Steel)
8. VS Jain (SAIL)

Thik Hai

Lazy editing of PM Dr. Manmohan Singh's address to the nation to calm the protesting nation post Delhi gang-rape incident led to much furor among the masses specially netizens as the Twitterati show soon erupted after the speech. The culprit was the unedited 'thik hai' at the end of the speech that was addressed just to the cameraman, as was clarified by the recording news agency ANI later on.

Opium, cannabis and all those stuffs

There are only three kind of people involved in these in order of the supply chain- Growers, Sellers and Users. The User category is not a water-tight compartment. It spreads across all three kinds. Some grow for their own use and become Users as do the cultivators in Arunachal Pradesh. 

Other parts of India that cultivate them substantially are Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal. However, as per the norms of NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances ) Act,  in force since 1985, most of these cultivators will fall into illicit category. The Act has also provisions for jail terms for drug sellers and buyers. Non-medical uses are strictly banned. However, since the inception of the Act the sale and purchases have only increased.

The solution suggested to fight against this menace by Mr. Romesh Bhattacharji(Former Narcotics Commissioner, India) is to apply successful Portugal Model (being also taken note of by USA and UK) to punish/jail only the sellers and not the users. That way the law enforcement can concentrate more efficiently on catching  lesser number of drug sellers in less time thus quarantining the vital link in the supply chain.

 Nonetheless, The fans of the Danny Boyle's 1996  movie Trainspotting would suggest this movie to be shown to drug users for rehabilitation. This cult movie in the first half almost entices the viewers into using drugs the second half aptly follows the downfall of the heroin addicts Renton, Spud and Sickboy in Edinburgh. Here goes the trailer in case you have not watched it - 

CERN gets observer status at UN

UN General Assembly has granted CERN an observer status. It is the first physical science laboratory to be granted so.

CERN, located on the foothills of Jura mountain on the border between Switzerland and France, deserved it well because of the path breaking contributions to the science that has benefited all of mankind. It is from this lab that WWW originated. Cutting edge research has been done in molecular biology and particle physics in this lab and the results have been made available free of cost to be used for human progress.

CERN caught the imagination of common people more after the gripping novel Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. Successful LHC experiment in search of the God Particle has further put CERN among the most well known innovative scientific organizations.

Becoming a part of the most important international organization should empower the organization more economically and morally to churn out future advances in Science and technology.

Happy Decade Delhi Metro

The most important contribution of Delhi Metro was in integrating the Delhi NCR region more closely. Another was to give people freedom from riding the rowdy buses. It is because of Delhi Metro that today people travel as far as from Noida to Gurgaon to attend office daily. 

The punctuality, efficiency and standard has been at par the best in the world. The metro stations have been well maintained and the personnel are friendly to commuters.

The irony is that on this day itself Metro has to keep 9 stations closed, taken as a measure to tackle with the protests against the Delhi gang rape incident. Delhi Metro has been a symbol of progress in Delhi. Probably in a way today the protest for cultural progress in Delhi has also been linked to the Delhi Metro, though may be in an odd way.

The tale of two Sudans

The fight for the two Sudans started much earlier than on 9th July, 2011 when South Sudan separated from Sudan to become the latest entrant on the map of nations. The tale of these Sudans is not much different from  the rest of Africa when comparison is made either in contemporary times or historically.

Africa has diversity and the diversity of tribes is one of the aspects. Each tribe has tried to carve their own territory or nation as we call in modern times. 

But the roots of the current state of chaos across Africa,including warring Sudans, whether Mali crisis or Eastern Congo crisis or disputes over Western Sahara territory or Senegal et al, no less owe their origin to the 1884-85 Berlin Conference whether an arbitrary division of territories was done to carve out nations to be divided among the COLONIAL masters.

No account of the diversity of tribes, their trend of dwelling places et al was taken into account. Post independence of these African countries in mid 20th century, the result in the long term has been similar, if not resulting in the same consequences but at least damaging stability, to what ensued after drawing arbitrary Radcliffe line through Indian during partition.

There are warring factions, warlords, fiefdoms, guerrilla fighters spread across Africa each fighting to claim some piece of Africa as their own. The 1994 genocide in Rwanda was a result of clashes between Hutu and Tusti tribes (a good piece of movie "Hotel Rwanda" made on this - )

Further, these chaos are fueled by drug trafficking, arms dumping, human trafficking et al in which vested political and economic interests from other parts of the world too play a role. "Lord of War", though fictitious in account, the movie is almost a bird's eye view of  how Cold War led to arms dumping, how together with gun running, drug traffickers and blood diamond the chaos spread across West Africa sparking feuds among warlords. The trailer can be watched here -

Though Sudan was separated to meet demands of different rebel groups, the peace still eluded the people. All the oil had gone to South Sudan but the pipe to export oil went through Sudan to the Red Sea. An agreement however was reached in this regard between two in August. However, territory disputes on border areas still continue. 

Two Sudans continue to be skeptical of each other as well as rebel groups. The mutual suspicion might be the cause that a recent UN peacekeeping mission helicopter was shot down in South Sudan for mistaking it as enemy plane.

That time of the year

That trains and flight have started to get delayed by fog warn me against travelling in these modes of transport for a fortnight or so, they also bring the urge to be cosy. For more adventurous types it is the time to plan for skiing in Gulmarg or such other places. For those staying put in Delhi, Google takes me to the following weather prediction (in.weather.com - which in the recent past I have found to be close to nature) for next 5 days :

Take a bow, the Master retires

Deeds themselves speak for great people. For Sachin the statistics speak in no lesser terms. But what stands apart Sachin in the Cricket fraternity or for that matter in sports fraternity is his humble, down-to-earth attitude. Whether that might be the reason for a long successful career of 22 years 91 days in ODIs or not, it sure has created the largest fan base for him across all ages in India and other cricket playing nations, earnign him the sobriquet of 'God' of the religion called Cricket.

Sachin Tendulkar has retired from ODIs with precedents set which will keep on inspiring other cricketers to raise their bar from time to time. Achieving the records of 18,426 runs, 49 centuries, highest score(200), most runs in world cups (2278), most runs in a calendar year put a stamp on the long-term consistency of the giant. 

Mere presence of Sachin in the drawing room of  Indian Cricket team was said to inspire confidence and tempo in other players of the team. Youngsters in the team looked upon him as role model. 

Sachin's retirement from ODIs will leave a void, symbolic of no less than an end of era in Indian Cricket. The Master Blaster will continue to inspire forever.

Gun Laws in USA

The tragic mass shooting at Newtown was another reminder to reconsider the gun laws in USA. Guns are easily and legally available over the counter in this country and their possession is enshrined as Constitutional right in 2nd Amendment.

As per statistics (http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/mass-shootings-map), at least 62 mass shootings have taken place in USA in last 30 years with legally procured weapons. Probably the highest in the world.

People often when in rage lose their thinking and in the heat of the moment may do something horrendous and regret only later. And if you have a gun right there available like a toy bought from a shop something worse than swearing and shouting can trigger.

Gun control laws have always been in debate in USA, more so after some mass killing. After the Newtown school mass shooting, parents and citizens alike have been protesting the gun law. President Obama as well has talked of gun control laws. At the same time, Gun lobbies like NRA (National Rifle Association) are in favor of 2nd Amendment, the logic being fed that to counter a bad guy with a gun you need a good guy with a gun. 

Means -  don't control sale of gun but sell even more guns. However, a simple reality check tells that so may of mass shootings have been there because there are so many guns easily available around stamped legal. More than to be used as self defense they have been used as outlet for one's outrage and frustration in mass killing.

Such incidents as another aspect are also mirror of the broken social fabric and more so of the broken families in USA.

More guns can't increase the sense of security among citizens only enhanced social fabric can.

Lasik : An Indian behind it

The well known Lasik Surgery procedure to correct vision was invented by none but an Indian scientist Mr. Rangaswamy Srinivasan back in 1983. Recently he was awarded prestigious National Medal of Technology and Innovation by President Obama for his groundbreaking work. Great honor for such a honorable work.

No Barfi from Oscars

Barfi is out of the race from the Oscars. Sooner or later it had to be. As they call them inspired movies in the Bollywood, it was copied from various sources. So, some credits due that were missing in the movies go  to Notebook (Nick Cassavetes), Koshish (Sanjeev Kumar) and many Charlie Chaplin movies.

Probably juries could not digest so much of very visible deja vu inspiration when there must be many other original creative works in line from all over the world.

In fact, there were some other movies which could easily score over Barfi even if not worth sending to Oscars - Chaalis Chaurasi, Kahaani, Vicky Donor, Gangs of Wasseypur, Gangs of Wasseypur 2, OMG Oh  My God, English Vinglish etc. And that is only Hindi Cinema. Scores of good movies are there in regional cinema as well.

India has no dearth of stories. Bollywood needs to look around the real India itself for inspirations.

Delhi rape: A reminder to introspect and find solutions

The recent heinous rape incident in Delhi stirred the consciousness of the masses in India. Men and women alike are out on the roads, protesting and asking for answers from those who are in charge of maintaining law and order. The answers have been sought from time to time as rape, sexual assaults continue to be perpetrated. Low conviction rates and slow trials are often non-deterrent. In addition, very often in these cases the first question mark is put on the morality of the victim discouraging women from reporting such cases.

The solutions are not one-shot and neither one-dimensional nor one-time. They require huge effort in various quarters over a period of time, but they are worth it. This post will go into the premises of underlying problems, ongoing efforts in solving them and further efforts needed.

Solutions to any real world situation are of two types - preventive and curative. Or in other words pro-active solutions(before any such situation occurs) and reactive solutions(after the situation). Both are not unrelated though. Pro-active solutions are the best. Reactive solutions suddenly come into face when pro-active solutions were not thought of and sometimes become necessary as situations evolve with time.The Delhi incident has given us the blow to think of both in comprehensive way. 

Preventive solutions are as much intricately related to the social thinking pattern about gender equality, respect for women and so on as to the laws of the country. If a society thinks in regressive way about  women, debases their rights as equal human beings such heinous crimes as rape and assault will be taken as another symbol of male jingoism/domination. Further, weak laws in this regard make such perpetrators of crime even bolder.

Changing the social thinking pattern can not be done in one day. It requires huge effort. Other crimes like female foeticide, dowry deaths etc are an offshoot of the same thinking pattern. The effort requires sensitization of the society on these issues. Initiative in this regard has to be taken by the leaders of our country, our intellectuals, media, NGOs, civil society, schools, colleges and so on. A generation as well as their parents need to be sensitized right from their school texts about these issues. In India, unlike West, even now family is the smallest unit of society and so efforts are needed at family level. Equal need is to sensitize the police system.

Coming to the laws in this regard, IPC 375, 376 have been present since beginning but have not proved to be deterrent. Maximum sentence is life imprisonment.  In other countries for instance in Singapore, strict laws in this regard automatically imbue a sense of security to women who don't feel unsafe on road even at 2 in the night.

A rape is an attack on the very consciousness of a soul. Strictest punishment can't bring back a piece of soul lost. No wonder, government is also considering death penalty in 'rarest of rare' rape cases.

However, tough rape laws are on the anvil. There have been some bills in this regard pending in the Parliament. Once passed in right format they can help to be effective deterrents. These bills are - Criminal Law Amendment Bill, 2012, Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace(Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Amendment Bill, 2010 etc.

Strict punishments as chemical castration are in place in countries such as USA, UK, South Korea, Israel etc.Death penalties are are also not uncommon, though being opposed by activists the world over for being inhuman. It is high time that we take a leaf out of the laws of the countries where women have sense of security and apply them here.

However, they are good to be deterrents, for a real turnaround first we need to change our thinking in society about women.

2G lingers on

The political overtones in the 2G affair right since the CAG's famous loss estimates have never been in disguise. Politics survives on issues. The issues unfold from various quarters, then are molded into the puddings of their liking as the taste suits the particular political interest.

Earlier 2G affair gave the strength to hue and cry by opposition parties and was the beginning of a nightmare for the government to save its face. The game has not become one-sided though.

CBI is soon going to launch prosecution against the telecom secretary of NDA regime of 2002 for alleged irregularities in allocation of additional spectrum, in addition to Airtel and Vodafone.

The affair continues.

A good watch for fans of exceptionally talented Piyush Mishra -

The mindset inherited

While discussing some topic in a TV debate politician Sanjay Nirupam commented on the politician-turned-actress Smiriti Irani that sometimes ago she was just a dancer on the screen (.. and now she has come face to face to discuss public issues with a politician?).

In the heart of the country, in Delhi there was a brutal gang rape a few days ago. The girl is still struggling with life. There is huge public outroar, protests and marches.

What is common with these two incidents?

They both are results of a mindset inherited from Patriarchal society where alpha-male, male ego, hyper masculinity or call whatever other name prevails. Until that changes at behavioral level, social level and national level these incidents can only be prevented by tough laws and even stricter implementation though debatable(http://www.corpun.com/awfay9405.htm).

Just the last evening, in the Delhi Metro a guy refused an elder lady the seat meant for ladies where it was written in clear words 'ladies only'. The lady told him about how all the protest and the marches people are taking up to show the solidarity with the rape victim and how the girl might live or die and after a few days no body will care. Until and unless the mindset changes.

The Sanskritisation of a tradition continued

If you thought that chair throwing, collar grabbing, slogan shouting, challenging opponents in plain Hindi/English/others, porn watching and so on in the Parliament/Assembly was enough, there were full range of expletives hurled by Punjab deputy CM in Assembly which went viral on youtube. The opposition grabbed the opportunity and even went on to show the recorded video on a screen in sector-17, Chandigarh.
The interesting thing was that the speaker suspended another member from opposition with whom the clash of the deputy CM had started and almost nothing was heard from his mouth though his lips were moving as well.
It seems the tradition of creating mayhem in Parliament/Assembly has been ingrained into the accepted culture inside these temples of democracy meant for discussion and debates.

The Sin Tax

Interestingly, this is the name of the new tax that the government plans to put on tobacco and liquor, in order to finance the health budget in 12th Plan(2012-2017). At the same time it is being argued that it will reduce instances of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, cardiovascular diseases etc. as there will be less smoking and drinking.

The Sin Tax experiment has been around for quite some time in other countries as well. There have been oppositions as well. One of the criticism is that it is regressive in nature as the rich will continue to smoke and drink, the poor will have to shell out more share from their meager income. The underlying assumption being that increasing tax will hardly be a deterrent.

Talking of deterrence, we first put statutory warning on the cigarette packets - "smoking is injurious to health". Nobody cared. Then we put an image of an infected lung of a smoker. Still nobody cared. 

Each of us loves to Sin. But wait! There is another aspect of smoking -

The bottom line is the tax increase, for the least, can help fund health improvement/investment on others.

Accreditation, Education and Nation

The quality of higher education in our country is hardly a match with the quantity - myriad number of engineering and medical colleges running on their own whims. In most of the cases the standards are lacking, fees are exorbitant and so on, except a few dozen good colleges. 

This state of affair of higher education has been actively under debate in media as well as been close to the heart of  young generation, intellectuals and writers alike, for instance in 'Revolution 2020' by Chetan Bhagat. One important aspect for this sad state of affairs is not so strict accreditation rules for colleges. Currently accreditation is voluntary.

Ministry of HRD has decided to make the accreditation of all higher educational institutes mandatory from 2013. A new 'Indian Board of Accreditation' is to be setup under AICTE, in addition to already existing 'National Board of accreditation'.

This should be a good first step. However, it's just one of the multitudinous steps that need to be taken to reform not just the higher education system but the whole education system from top to bottom. 

The system needs to be reformed from bottom to top and top to bottom so as to link it up with preparing a generation to lead the nation building.