Of Human Bondage

To tweet or not to tweet

2009-09-22T16:33:00.003+05:30

Shashi's thoughts as he waited outside the Madam's chamber:

To tweet, or not to tweet: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the flight to suffer
The cramped confines with the cattle class,
Or to take arms against a herd of holy cows,
And by tweeting end them?

--------------------------------------------------------

My innocuous, laconic tweet
Has created a furore so bitter;
Am amazed at vehemence of those opposing it
I now rue of i had ne'er signed on Twitter.

Netas should work for aam aadmi, avoid 5-stars

2009-09-10T09:10:00.003+05:30

In the last few days, there has been much brouhaha about two cabinet ministers staying in 5-star hotel suites in the Indian capital. I beg to differ from those preaching morality to the ministers. What is wrong in public display of private wealth? Politicians have every right to pamper themselves on the money earned by them legally and they ought to be judged on the merit of their work.

Is staying in a 5 star suite very different from staying in the palatial bungalows lining the Lutyens' Delhi? Or being part of the herd mitigate the "sin" of flaunting one's luxury in the face of so much misery.

By the same logic, the humungous amount of money being spent on providing security to our VVIPs and VIPs should also be withdrawn. The harangues about showing solidarity with the aam aadmi depict our moral hypocrisy. If we are so much pained by the plight of the common man on Indian streets, then better start living and behaving like a Mohandas Gandhi.

Terrorist Threat

2009-06-26T03:50:00.004+05:30

Came across the figures pertaining to Terrorism related fatalities in India from 1994 to 2005. Pretty scary!

Whenever there is a major terrorist attack, there is a lot of talk on combating it with a heavy hand, but then things are conveniently forgotten. Why we still do not have a comprehensive anti-terrorist policy in place? Our Police force, in its present avataar, is too weak and inefficient to face the threat of terrorism.

I am not an expert to suggest what ought to be done to tackle the scourge of terrorism, both internal and external. I wish and pray that our country's policy-makers wake up from their slumber before it is too late.

Next level of Social Networking

2009-05-12T09:46:00.003+05:30

Get Glue is a meta social network that helps aggregate the recommendations and comments of other social networks.

This is an early example of how social media will further mould human behavior. Although this is presently focused on media, movie, music, gadgets etc., but it's a matter of time when it's scope will expand to include various services, websites, products.

This application requires a Firefox plugin to be enabled. So all you mozilla fans who are active in social networks can right away start using it to know what your friends are recommending or rejecting.

For marketers this is going to be another tool to sense the pulse of their target audience.

Welcome to the Brave New World of the Social Web?

Twittering a Prayer

2009-05-05T10:32:00.004+05:30

The Coming End of YouTube, Twitter and Facebook Socialism

Reminds me of my blog entry of Are "user-generated" video sites sustainable.

Enjoy, while it lasts!

Scaling new heights or sinking to greater depths?

2009-04-07T16:27:00.004+05:30

The nation is in the grip of election fever and everywhere I hear passionate debates about whether this candidate is bad or that candidate is worse; whether this party is rotten or that party stinks. Everyone seems to think that her viewpoint is the best and that by not agreeing to it others are committing a sacrilege. My advice to all these well-intentioned guys - ‘is haram mein sab nange hain’, so do not take politicians of this country seriously.

One doesn’t need IQ of an Einstein to decipher how successive governments have taken citizens of this country for a ride. Blinkered vision, shallow agendas and unfathomable depravity of our politicians have eroded the very ethos which our founding fathers dreamt of. We keep deriding the British for their “divide and rule” policy, but have not our politicians been following the same policy and dividing people on basis of caste, language, religion, etc.

Nation building is a daunting task and should be in the hands of the competent and conscientious. Even after 60 years of independence majority of our countrymen do not have assess to the basics of human existence. What a shame! Is it the “foreign hand” to be blamed for this even? Or is it the collective greed without individual accountability of those entrusted with power to govern us? You decide.

The Great Indian Burlesque

2009-03-02T18:53:00.004+05:30

Finally the poll dates have been announced for the 15th Lok Sabha elections. Once again the hoi-polloi of this land will be subjected to the inane rhetoric, dramatic promises, malicious propaganda and ludicrous platitudes of players from across the political spectrum. Media pundits will have a field day analysing and predicting various possible scenarios and later contradicting themselves once the results are out. Astrologers will be much sought after to assuage maleficient planetary effects; so will be the local goons, gun-makers, arrack-sellers, nubile nymphets and other fringe actors in this grand tamasha.

As per Centre for Media Studies, Electing the 15th Lok Sabha would cost at least Rs 10,000 crore — more than the recent US presidential polls. BTW, this amount is equivalent to the 2008-09 budgetary allocation for the union Ministry of Civil Aviation. Hope this kind of expenditure will help ensure a smooth take off for the next government.

Whether the destiny of this land will be written by the (in)visible hand under the light of a lantern or the elephant will lift the lotus with its trunk, no one can predict at this juncture. Hence, dear friends :

Watch unfolding of this drama
with a sense of glee or despair -
Each party projects its own 'Obama'
So vote with caution & care!

SATYAM SCAM - POLITICS, MEDIA & LIES

2009-02-25T15:02:00.002+05:30

Kudos to Ahmed Ali for his incisive and scathing writing on the sham surrounding Satyam scam.

Koli and Pandher get death in Nithari case

2009-02-13T17:50:00.003+05:30

At long last, justice has prevailed. But i will heave a sigh of relief once the sentence has been carried out.

But what needs to be pondered over is whether it was the real hard evidence or public outcry that forced the judge to give the verdict? After all, the CBI had neither found any evidence against Pandher nor it sought death sentence against him. CBI had even stated that he was not even in India at the time of the murder. But fortunately, the judge decided to frame charges against Pandher independently and subsequently found him guilty as well.

IMO an enquiry should be initiated against the officers handling this case, and if found guilty, they should be given an exemplary punishment.

Of Moral Policing

2009-02-04T09:22:00.004+05:30

I feel this debate over Moral policing is bunkum. A clever journalist must have coined this term and some of our politicians & socialites seem have taken a fancy for this phrase and are using it ad absurdum to prove their point. Result is that they are now contradicting themselves and making a mockery of the proceedings (Centre trashes NCW's Mangalore pub attack report).

In my opinion, the Mangalore Pub incident is a law & order issue and the perpetrators of the crime should be brought to law. You cannot change the mindset of Mr. Muthalik or others of his ilk. In a democracy they have a right to their opinion. But they do not have any right to impose their own views on others.

Morality is something that cannot be universal, hence binding on everyone. What one deems highly immoral may be a way of life of another. Friction arises when we try to impose our moral standards on others. Government's duty is to reduce chances of such friction to arise and when it does, to deal with a firm hand.

P.S. : Wasn't Lakhman's cutting of Surpnakha's nose (in Ramayana) an act of moral policing? He didn't approve of her advances and wanted to teach her a lesson.

Bombay Burns

2008-11-28T22:23:00.003+05:30

Those who are trying to undermine the very essence & ethos of this city, nay, this country need to be identified and brought to law. But the enemy is not only without, but within. This is dangerous; since one can legitimitize killing an invader with a bullet, but how to deal with the leeches in the system who are thriving on that what sustains them?

My heart bleeds for those who have died/got injured during this sordid drama of terror. Let peace & sanity prevail!

Am Back

2008-08-21T15:23:00.002+05:30

After a hiatus of ~2 years, i am back to the world of blogging. Watch out this space for more of 'tauisms'.

Kite Power

2006-10-17T08:29:00.000+05:30

Flying kites are a metaphor for soaring ambition, while a "kati patang" connotes aimlessness, dejection, and defeat. [Remember that song by Lata from Rajesh Khanna classic--"na koi umang hai..."] In many cultures around the world kite-flying is a favorite pastime for growing boys; and on special days/festivals the young and the not-so-young get together to indulge in this sport. The sight of colorful kites silhouetted against the sky makes me feel as if I'm in a garden filled with fluttering butterflies.

So much so for the poetry. Scientists in Italy are using kites to harness wind-power for generating electricity. Despite its appearance, the Kite Wind Generator, or KiteGen for short, could produce as much energy as a nuclear power plant! Unbelievable, but conceptually true. Read on: Generating Power From Kites

Farmers' Friend in Need

2006-10-10T12:57:00.000+05:30

Not even the makers of Google Earth could have anticipated such a use of their service. Read on Google Earth, farmers' best friend

Terrorists are cowards

2006-10-04T23:19:00.000+05:30

ਦੇਹ ਸਿਵਾ ਬਰੁ ਮੋਹਿ ਇਹੈ
ਸੁਭ ਕਰਮਨ ਤੇ ਕਬਹੂੰ ਨ ਟਰੋਂ ॥
ਨ ਡਰੋਂ ਅਰਿ ਸੋ ਜਬ ਜਾਇ ਲਰੋਂ
ਨਿਸਚੈ ਕਰਿ ਅਪੁਨੀ ਜੀਤ ਕਰੋਂ ॥

[O Lord, give me these wishes
May I never shirk from doing good deeds
Never shall I fear when I go to fight the enemy
with surety I shall attain victory]

A religion which is based on such a strong foundation, cannot be affected by the hollow threats of those who do not understand what their own religion conveys. [Read on: LeT threat to blow up Golden temple]

Blowing up temples/gurudwaras/churches/mosques won't shaken the belief of millions in a 'higher power' that guides their lives. The terrorists/extremists ought to understand that 'means justify ends.' Evil begets evil; and good begets good.

"Cobra Garba"

2006-10-02T09:20:00.000+05:30

What would be your reaction if you noticed that your garba dance-partner is holding live snakes instead of sticks? A family in Band village of Barmer play their garba with snakes as props and not sticks. Scary sight!!

Read on Garba with snakes as props in Barmer

Who owns the content?

2006-09-30T02:55:00.000+05:30

In early September, a Belgian court ruled that Google could not reproduce certain copyrighted titles and summaries on its Belgian Google News Web site. [BW: "Google in Tussle for Digital Rights"] This case could easily be dismissed as a minor incident in a small European market, but it definitely questions the basic premise of online news aggregation, and even search indexing.

Google contends that it observes "fair use" practices and that copyright law allows for snippets of text to be published. Any publisher not wanting to be indexed in Google News can opt out, or use a tool called robots.txt, a widely accepted standard that allows publishers to block items from being indexed. But not being in Google implies loss in traffic coming to their sites. Publishers seem to be perplexed by this conundrum.

The growing concern among publishers is that they're getting eyeballs but little or no revenue from news aggregators. But the end-customers seem to be happy with the likes of Google News. One gets the best news from different sources on a single site. Saves time!

Since Copyright laws aren't harmonized across the world, and what constitutes "fair use" not clearly spelt out, it is a matter of time before there is a showdown between the publsihing world and the world's largest search engine. Will the courts then view Google News as no different from a library's card catalog or consider it as a usurper of someone else's IPR, is something that will determine who owns the content?

I wonder how can laws written decades ago deal with challenges that face businesses in 21st century. There has to be a paradigm shift in how we view the issues facing us in a "flat world".

Satyagraha of a different nature

2006-09-14T10:45:00.000+05:30

In what is being called a "strike of crossed legs", supported by the Pereira mayor's office, the wives and girlfriends of gang members have said they will not have sex with their partners until they vow to give up violence.

Read more about this novel form of peaceful resistance on Mathaba News Network

I am not sure if the hardened criminals can be lured into submission by the denial of sex but it would be interesting to see which of the two basic human instincts --- sex and violence --- wins this battle.

Wish You Enough.......

2006-09-13T01:02:00.000+05:30

Came across this beautiful anecdote on a blog. Thought of sharing it with those who visit here.
Recently I overheard a mother and daughter in their last moments together at the airport. They had announced the departure. Standing near the security gate, they hugged and the mother said, “I love you and I wish you enough.”

The daughter replied, “Mom, our life together has been more than enough. Your love is all I ever needed. I wish you enough, too, Mom.”

They kissed and the daughter left. The mother walked over to the window where I was seated. Standing there I could see she wanted and needed to cry. I tried not to intrude on her privacy but she welcomed me in by asking,

”Did you ever say good-bye to someone knowing it would be forever?”.

“Yes, I have,” I replied. “Forgive me for asking, but why is this a forever good-bye?”.

”I am old and she lives so far away. I have challenges ahead and the reality is - the next trip back will be for my funeral,” she said.

”When you were saying good-bye, I heard you say, ‘I wish you enough.’ May I ask what that means?”.

She began to smile. “That’s a wish that has been handed down from other generations. My parents used to say it to everyone.”

She paused a moment and looked up as if trying to remember it in detail and she smiled even more. “When we said , ‘I wish you enough’, we were wanting the other person to have a life filled with just enough good things to sustain them.”

Then turning toward me, she shared the following as if she were reciting it from memory.

I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright.

I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more.

I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive.

I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger.

I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.

I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.

I wish you enough hellos to get you through the final good-bye.

She then began to cry and walked away.

Are "user-generated" video sites sustainable?

2006-09-05T11:35:00.000+05:30

Does Starbucks sell coffee? Obvious answer is that Starbucks provides an expensive and comfortable environment so that people will buy overpriced coffee. The same business model is being pursued by websites that host user-generated content such as personal blogs, photographs and amateur videos, which can be uploaded and watched on sites such as Blogspot, Flickr, Google Images, YouTube, Google Video, MySpace, Guba, Veoh and Metacafe. By offering a setting for free interaction, such sites provide the online equivalent of comfy chairs found in Starbucks. The trouble is that, so far, there is no equivalent of the overpriced coffee that brings in the money and pays the bills.

YouTube, the clear leader in its category by audience size, is casting around for a business model for sustenance. Some estimates put YouTube's current loses at more than $500,000 a month. Afterall there are the costs of running such a site—--video requires a lot of bandwidth and storage.

YouTube and the other video-sharing sites face another big hurdle---infringement of copyright law. I've seen almost entire Bollywood movies being uploaded on YouTube. Now this is serious matter. Though the sites promise to pull pirated content when asked to do so, but it is only a matter of time before one of them is hit with a big lawsuit.

Since users do not like advertisements inserted at the beginning of video clips, YouTube has announced two experiments with advertising. One idea is for “brand channels” in which corporate customers create pages for their own promotional clips. The second experiment is “participatory video ads”, whereby advertisements can be uploaded and then rated, shared and tagged just like amateur clips.

Another concern for the advertisers is putting paid-for advertisements alongside amateur video clips, perhaps based on keywords or tags. Many firms will be cautious about letting an automatic system—such as, say, Google's AdSense—place their ads next to user-generated clips of unknown provenance and with potentially embarrassing contents.

Another revenue source can be a combination of advertising plus the sale and rental of commercial video material. Guba.com offers both free amateur videos and paid-for content, including films from Sony and Warner Brothers. Google Video allows content owners to charge for video. This suggests that internet-video sites are on a collision course with DVD-rental outfits, such as Netflix, which are moving towards the delivery of films via the internet, rather than as discs sent through the post.

Another strategy that can be adopted by the 200-odd internet-video sites can be to woo and be bought over by media conglomerates instead. Recently Sony, which has a large film studio and lots of video to promote, bought Grouper, a small video-sharing site, for $65m. And News Corporation, Rupert Murdoch's media conglomerate, is turning MySpace, its popular social-networking site, into a challenger to YouTube.

It will be interesting to see whether the enterprsing spirit that gave birth to the concept of user-generated content sharing would be able to come out with novel revenue generation model as well or will it be the same old story of big sharks eating smaller fish.

Source: The Economist

Aanewala pal jaane wala hai.......

2006-08-28T09:50:00.000+05:30

Hrishida is no more! By no means was he the typical glamorous Bollywood director, yet Hrishikesh Mukherjee was one of the most popular and beloved filmmakers in Indian cinema. His biggest assest lay in weaving a cinematic magic through simplicity and warmth of characters and their settings without relying much on glamor or largeness so often associated with Indian cinema.

He began his career in 1951 as an editor and assistant director to legendary Bimal Roy, participating in the landmark Roy films Do Bigha Zameen and Devdas. Though his first directorial venture, Musafir (1957), was a disaster, but producer-director Raj Kapoor was so impressed by his talent that he strongly recommended Hrishida as director for Anari (1959). Starring Kapoor himself and Nutan, the film was a critical and commercial success.

1960 saw his next film, Anuradha, which got him the President's Medal Award. But the decade of 60s was not a succesful one for Hrishida and his films were not particularly distinguishable, barring Asli-Naqli (1962), Anupama (1966), Aashirwad (1968), and Satyakam (1969).

Then came 1970 and that year saw Hrishida's masterpiece Anand, one of the best movies ever made in Bollywood. This classic film saw scintillating performances by Rajesh Khanna, then a superstar, and Amitabh Bachchan, then a little known aspiring actor. The music by Salil Chowdhary was soul-stirring, the songs unforgettable..... "zindagi kaisi hai paheli....."; "kahin dur jab din dhal jaye...."; "maine tere liye hee saat rang ke sapne.....". Anand was dedicated to Raj Kapoor, whose joie de vivre had inspired the central charatcer.

It was an auspicious beginning of the 1970s, for that time proved to be an exceptionally good time for Hrishida as he gave the popular and excellent films like Guddi (1971), considered as Jaya Bhaduri's debut film; Abhimaan (1973), that saw the Bachchans' greatest ever performance together; and Chupke Chupke (1975), a comedy par excellence. These films gave an extremely skilled and detailed look at the middle-class mentality. Very few Bollywood writers and directors have touched the inner chord with the Indian middle class the same way Hrishida did.

Hrishida was a profilic director and writer. Few other gems to have emerged out of his oeuvre include: Bawarchi; Golmaal; Naram Garam; Namak Haraam; Bemisaal; Sadma; Jhoot Bole Kauwa Kaate.

Hrishi Da's Quotes:

"It's more difficult to portray simple emotions on screen than complex ones. And that's why I try to delve more into such themes."

"I try to make my films like sugarcoated messages, but the sugar should not exceed the medicine."

Did Gandhi bat for N.Y. Yankees?

2006-08-26T16:15:00.000+05:30

IBN-CNN reports: Mahatma Gandhi played baseball during a top secret visit to the USA in 1933—hold on! this is not historical fact but the fiction of a film.

Gandhi at the Bat shows the Mahatma playing for the New York Yankees, but US President Franklin D Roosevelt ensures that the trip is kept secret in national interest. However, long after the visit, baseball historians are intrigued by stories about a mysterious pinch hitter.

The film, touted as a mocumentary, has been made by Los Angeles-based Alec Boehm and Stephanie Argy and comes from the production house Mental Slapstick.

The filmmakers plan to take the film to the festival circuit and it can also be found in the Web site www.gandhiatthebat.com .

So we can now watch the Mahatma as he gets on the baseball diamond in sepia tones and flickering motion. And Gandhi, though in real history went to bat with great success for India. But, as a person with a great sense of humour, he probably would also have enjoyed the spoof.

Is this fair?

2006-08-24T17:15:00.000+05:30

George Orwell in his hard-hitting satirical novel Animal Farm wrote: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." It seems history has turned a full circle and now it's the leading US companies, driven by unbridled greed for market dominance, who are bending over backwards to appease the autocratic regime in China. So, for Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Cisco and Wal-Mart there is one set of rules that applies to everyother 'animal' and another set created exclusively for the 'Red animal'.

Google: Does not offer email, chat rooms, or blogs in China, but only Web search, image search, local search, and Google news and that it censors these programs so that Chinese customers cannot search for "democracy," "Falun Gong," and other topics that China wants to shield its people from.

Yahoo: Provided information about one of its Chinese customers that led to his arrest and a 10-year prison sentence for political activity.

Cisco: Sold equipment to the Chinese police that assists them in monitoring dissidents.

Microsoft: Is not allowing the Chinese version of its Web portal, MSN Spaces, to use words deemed politically sensitive by China's Communist Party.

Wal-Mart: Wal-Mart with 1.6 million employees in 16 countries and regions, has a tradition of not allowing trade unions in its outlets. The CPC-backed All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) has forced the Wal-Mart to allow the establishment of labour unions in its branches.

American Leadership's hypocicy in dealing with China is legendary; and now US MNCs seem to be emulating their politicians. I don't have any objection to that, provided, the US and these companies stop preaching ethics and values to others. At the same time, China has shown the world how vulnerable these powerful MNCs are. One can make them dance to ones tunes provided they get double digit growth figures in bargain.

Pluto --- from Persephone's Paramour to a Pesky Planet

2006-08-23T07:11:00.000+05:30

In the past few days enough heat was generated among scientific community about the International Astronomical Union (IAU) voting outcome on a draft definition of what distinguishes a planet from lesser space rocks. The fuss over Pluto's planethood started a few years ago when astronomers began to discover large, icy bodies in the outer solar system, some of them not much smaller than Pluto. A committee of 19 astronomers set up by the IAU in early 2004 failed to reach a decision over the issue of defining a Planet. A smaller committe of 7 members, set up to look into the matter, came out with a "new" definition of planet which would have increased planets in our solar system to 12, and probably many more. Finally, astronomers could be homing in on a definition of the word planet. On 22nd Aug., after much public bickering in Prague, followed by negotiations behind closed doors, the latest draft resolution was greeted with a broadly friendly reception. The terminology is still ambiguous but the proposal currently under consideration is least controversial. If accepted on Thursday, it would be bad news for Pluto, which would no longer be a full-fledged planet.

Eversince its entry into the family of solar system, Pluto has faced stiff opposition to its inclusion. Now it will no longer be part of the family of Zeus. Poor Pluto!

Ustad Bismillah Khan--- a genius musician

2006-08-21T12:09:00.000+05:30

With the passing away of Ustaad Bismillah Khan in the wee hours of 21st August, 2006, an illustrious chapter comes to an end in the annals of Hindustani Classical music. The legendary shehani maestro was born on 21 March 1916. His ancestors were court musicians in the princely state of Dumraon in Bihar and he was trained under his uncle, the late Ali Bux `Vilayatu’, a shehnai player attached to Varanasi’s Vishwanath Temple. He brought the shehnai to the center stage of Indian music with his concert in the Calcutta All India Music Conference in 1937. It was Khan Sahib who poured his heart out into Raga Kafi from Red Fort on the eve of India’s first Republic Day ceremony.
Where others see conflict and contradiction between his music and his religion, Khan Sahib saw only a divine unity. His namaaz was the seven shuddh and five komal surs. Even as a devout Shia, Khan Sahib was also a staunch devotee of Goddess Saraswati. He once remarked, "Music, sur, namaaz. It is the same thing. We reach Allah in different ways. A musician can learn. He can play beautifully. But unless he can mix his music with religion, unless he strives to meet God, he will only have kalaa (art) but no assar (mystical union). He will always stand at the ocean and never reach the heights of purity." Khan Sahib poured his soul into the music he played and could elevate the listeners to the ethereal heights of mystical plane.

He was a simple man, a man of tenderness, a gentle private man, yet given to unbridled display of emotion. With a princely beard and eyes which glint with boyish mischief, he was a 'Suron ka Badshah' who made money but spent it just as fast. His only "bad habit", was smoking Wills cigarettes which he puffed with obvious relish. It was Khan Sahib who composed that magic Lata number 'Dil ka khilauna hai toot gaya' for the film Goonj Uthi Shehnai.During his long and fruitful career as an artiste, Khan Sahib enthralled audiences at performances across the globe. Ustad Bismillah Khan was the third classical musician after Pt Ravi Shankar and Smt M S Subbulakshmi to be awarded Bharath Rathna. He was also honoured with the Sangeet Natak Akademi award, the Tansen award as well as the Padma Vibhushan.

Khan Sahib lives on in the hearts of millions of his fans.

Mosaic of Indian Fabric

2006-08-14T22:34:00.000+05:30

VANDE MATARAMHAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!

N.B.: Kindly click on the photos above & enlarge them to have a clear view.

How Long Will the World be at War?

2006-08-11T09:24:00.000+05:30

Man is the most violent of all living creatures--- he kills other living beings for food, pleasure, research and he kills fellow humans in name of religion, caste, ethnicity, nationality, ideology. Right now, while you are reading this post, someone somewhere is being killed by another human! With eight "major wars" underway right now and with as many as two dozen "lesser conflicts" ongoing with varying degrees of intensity, it seems the world is on fire.

GlobalSecurity.org has this to say, "Most of these are civil or "intrastate" wars, fueled as much by racial, ethnic, or religious animosities as by ideological fervor. Most victims are civilians, a feature that distinguishes modern conflicts. During World War I, civilians made up fewer than 5 percent of all casualties. Today, 75 percent or more of those killed or wounded in wars are non-combatants.

Africa, to a greater extent than any other continent, is afflicted by war. Africa has been marred by more than 20 major civil wars since 1960. Rwanda, Somalia, Angola, Sudan, Liberia, and Burundi are among those countries that have recently suffered serious armed conflict.

War has caused untold economic and social damage to the countries of Africa. Food production is impossible in conflict areas, and famine often results. Widespread conflict has condemned many of Africa's children to lives of misery and, in certain cases, has threatened the existence of traditional African cultures.

Conflict prevention, mediation, humanitarian intervention and demobilization are among the tools needed to underwrite the success of development assistance programs. Nutrition and education programs, for example, cannot succeed in a nation at war. Billions of dollars of development assistance have been virtually wasted in war-ravaged countries such as Liberia, Somalia, and Sudan."

India has been haunted by the scourge of both internal and external wars eversince its independence. Apart from the wars India has fought with Pakistan and China, a series of conflicts mostly involving ethnic groups seeking independence or autonomy from the central government. These are in addition to the Kashmir Rebellion, which rates as a major conflict.

o Hindu-Muslim Sectarian Violence—(1947-Present): Since independence from Britain in 1947, Hindus and Muslims in India have engaged in periodic outbursts of violence against each other. The latest mob violence in early 2002 in the state of Gujarat claimed 800 to 1,000 lives.

o Hindu-Sikh Sectarian Violence-(1980s): The brutal killings of the innocent by militants; two-times Army action at Harmandir Sahib, the Holiest of Sikh shrines; the assassination of Indira Gandhi, the then PM by her bodyguards, and subsequent Anti-Sikh riots in various parts on North India. It was one of the ugliest periods in history of Punjab that threatened to tear the communal harmony among Hindus & Sikhs.

o Naga Rebellion—(1952-Present): The Naga ethnic group seeks independence from India. A cease-fire took effect in 1997, though some Naga groups continue to oppose the government.

o Mizo Rebellion—(Feb. 28, 1966-Present): The Mizo National Front (MNF) seeks independence from India for the Mizoram region.

o Naxalite Guerrilla War—(May 25, 1967-Present): Beginning with a peasant uprising in the town of Naxalbari, this Marxist/Maoist rebellion sputters on in the Indian countryside. The guerrillas operate among the impoverished peasants and fight both the government security forces and the private paramilitary groups funded by wealthy landowners. Most fighting takes place in the states of AP, Bihar, West Bengal, Chattisgarh, MP, & Orissa.

o Tripura Rebellion—(1979-Present): Tripura, in Northeast India, is embroiled in a separatist rebellion as several rebel groups fight for independence.

o Assam Rebellion—(1980-Present): The United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) formed in April 1979 in response to an influx of non-Assamese from Bangladesh and parts of North East India. This movement seeks to evict those "foreigners" and seek greater autonomy from the Indian government.

o Bodo Rebellion—(Mid-1980s-Present): The National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) is fighting for a separate state within India. They feel that their ethnic group is persecuted by the Assamese and Bengali groups which dominate the region.

Source: The History Guy

All this information sends a shudder down my spine. When will mankind learn to live in peace with one another? I hope and pray that such a day dawns soon.

"Perpetual peace is no empty idea, but a practical thing which, through its gradual solution, is coming always nearer its final realization..." IMMANUEL KANT

Sourav makes a century everyday

2006-08-06T08:18:00.000+05:30

Most of us blame external circumstances for all that is wrong in our lives and lament lack of good opportunity to advance our career. Little do we realise that all that we took for granted as a child -- a reputed school, crisp notebooks, immaculate uniform et al, is an unfulfilled dream for millions of children. But many of these children do not give up despite odds and continue their education. Here is a real-life story about a young boy's dogged perseverance and indomitable will. [Newspaper vendor's son in news]

Beginning his day at five in morning and cycling around Kolkata's posh Salt Lake area before school is not what Sourav Bodak does out of choice.

The money that he makes from distributing newspapers to 100-odd households along with his father takes care of his school fees and other basic needs. A tough life one would think.

But Sourav, who has topped his school this year with 92.4 per cent, in the secondary exam, sees no reason to complain. "I don't ever feel bad about distributing newspapers. Whenever I wanted something and didn't get it I told myself that there are many people who have struggled more to gain education. So why shouldn't I?" Sourav Bodak says.

Hats off to Saurav's courage and determination! All the best to him and countless like him whose struggle against poverty continues. Such 'stories' make me feel humble and at the same time increase my resolve to help in whatever small way I can to make a difference in lives of at least few children who are deprived of proper education for the want of resources.

A Ray of Hope

2006-07-31T19:17:00.000+05:30

In the past few days, there has been more depressing news than good ones--- "Butcher Doctors in Delhi & UP" ; "Jaswant's Spy Tale". But my heart brimmed with joy when I just now read about an Indian winning the prestigious Ramon Magasasay award. IIT alumnus wins Magsaysay award

Ramon Magsaysay Award Citation for Arvind Kejriwal states:

"The brazen corruption of the high and the mighty may grab headlines, but for ordinary people it is the ubiquity of everyday corruption that weighs heaviest. And that demoralizes. Arvind Kejriwal, founder of India’s Parivartan, understands this, which is why his campaign for change begins with the small things........
In electing Arvind Kejriwal to receive the 2006 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership, the board of trustees recognizes his activating India’s right-to-information movement at the grassroots, empowering New Delhi’s poorest citizens to fight corruption by holding government accountable to the people."

The Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership honors “individuals, forty years of age and below, doing outstanding work on issues of social change in their communities, but whose leadership is not yet broadly recognized outside of these communities.” An Award in this category was given for the first time in 2001 under grant from Ford Foundation.

Kudos to Mr. Kejriwal! You are a source of inspiration to the youth of India.

Dabbawalas embrace technology

2006-07-26T07:45:00.000+05:30

We all know about Mumbai's legendary lunchbox carriers, popularly known as Dabbawalas or tiffinwalas. There are 5,000 of them and they deliver ~200,000 tiffins/day. With a unique blend of teamwork, efficiency and punctuality, they are an integral part of the city's ability to function as a dynamic financial metropolis.

Now, in an attempt to boost awareness about their service they have gone a bit more high tech. They have set up a website and an SMS service to increase customer numbers. Manish Tripathi, a software engineer, has built the new technology for them, and has been adopted as an honorary dabbawala. [http://www.mydabbawala.com/]

Burka-clad models?

2006-07-19T16:49:00.000+05:30

The First Post, British online magazine, reports: "Women's faces are being painted out of billboards across the city of Peshawar in northern Pakistan after local government officials threatened to take action against advertisers." Welcome to the Dark Ages!

In India too there is no dearth of such male chauvinists who vandalise shops & threaten couples on Valentine's Day. I think it is a sense of insecurity that makes men try to subjugate women in name of religion and tradition. Let the feminine power grow, its good for the world.

Generally speaking, women are as capable of performing any job as their male counterparts are. So, why stifle their growth? Let them blossom and I'm sure they shall, if given free reign, make this world a happier place to live just as their very presence changes a house into a home.

Stifling the netspace

2006-07-19T14:45:00.000+05:30

After the recent Mumbai blasts, a Government of India order had directed all ISPs to block access to certain websites which were spreading “extreme views” using their blogs. [IBNLive: 'Are we heading towards another Emergency?']. But the ISPs have gone a step ahead and blocked all the blogs in India, giving technical reasons about their inability to selectively block few blogs. Bloggers in India have not taken kindly to the government's high-handedness in trying to muzzle their right to freedom of expression and have been exchanging angry mails about this incident.

In my opinion this knee jerk reaction is not going to yield desired result. Do we ban books just because some writers try to incite communal passions? Democratic governments don't, can't and shouldn't control citizens' right to think and express. Internet is a wonderful medium of communication and by trying to manipulate it Indian govt. is only following the footprints of totalitarian states. I pray it soon realizes the futility of its authoritarian attitude and quash the order given to ISPs.

Gabbar thunders in Sanskrit

2006-07-16T11:27:00.000+05:30

Who says Sanskrit is a dead language? IBNLive reports: "...the umd_samskritam group, comprising students at the University of Maryland and young professionals from the area, have adopted to promote spoken Sanskrit in daily life. The group launched their web site this July 11"

The group of young Sanskrit enthusiasts aim to:
1. Gather in one place all resources related to Sanskrit
2. Act as a facilitator to link all Sanskrit related activities around the world
3. Provide a platform to discuss and promote Sanskrit through forums and blogs

Checkout the website www.speaksanskrit.org, if not for the online resources on Sanskrit, then for the fun of watching Sanskritised versions of Sholay & Kya Bolti Tu [THE "WORLD FAMOUS" VIDEOS FROM SPARSH]

Narayana Murthy, a true Karam yogi

2006-07-13T07:11:00.000+05:30

India Inc.’s corporate leaders provide a strange melange of diverse personalities - flamboyant Vijay Mallya, mild Narayana Murthy, disciplined Azim Premji, visionary Ratan Tata, astute Ambanis, focussed Kumar Mangalam Birla - to name a few. But one thing they have in common is that they are world-beating leaders whose reputations precede them wherever they go. Very soon, on August 20th to be precise, one of the most respected among the Indian business leaders, Mr. Narayana Murthy will be embarking on a 'Corporate Vanaprastha' (if at all there is any such phrase). Mr. Murthy belongs to that rare breed of entrepreneurs who have an unflinching faith in their vision and pursue it with dogged perseverance. No wonder that his brainchild, Infosys, is today one of the leading companies in its field of expertise. Under his able stewardship, Infosys has grown from its humble beginnings quarter century ago into a $2 billion plus software giant. At its inception Infosys had only 6 employees and has now more than 58,000 on its payrolls.

Mr. Murthy served as CEO of Infosys for twenty years, and was succeeded by co-founder Nandan Nilekani in March 2002. He is the chairman of the governing body of the IIIT, Bangalore and the IIM, Ahmedabad. He is a member of the Board of Overseers of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School; Cornell University Board of Trustees; Singapore Management University Board of Trustees; INSEAD's Board of Directors and the Asian Institute of Management's Board of Governors. He is also a member of the Advisory Boards and Councils of the William F. Achtmeyer Center for Global Leadership at the Tuck School of Business, the Corporate Governance initiative at the Harvard Business School, and the Yale University President's Council on International Activities.

Mr. Murthy is an independent director on the board of the DBS Bank, Singapore. He also serves as a director on the Central Board of the RBI, as the co-chairman of the Indo-British Partnership, as a member of the Prime Minister's council on trade and industry. He is an IT advisor to several Asian countries. The list of awards and honors conferred upon him are endless.

Mr. Murthy is known not just for building one of the biggest IT empires in India but also for his Gandhian simplicity. He has voiced concerns about corporate governance in India. He was the Chairman of the Committee on Corporate Governance appointed by the SEBI in 2003. He once suggested, if my memory serves me right, that the highest-paid executive of a company should not earn more than 15 times the salary of the lowest-paid employee of that company. That's a very noble idea, but I wonder if it has been implemented within his own company.

Now that he has decided to quit active management role in his company, he has also ruled out the possibility of venturing into other sectors like pharma/biotechnology. But the Board of Directors at Infosys has resolved to appoint him as an Additional Director of the company from August 21, as also the Non-Executive Chairman and Chief Mentor. So, his association with his company continues.

Wish Indian politicians were as visionary, altruistic and dedicated as Mr. Murthy is.

Mukesh Ambani, man with a Midas touch

2006-07-11T14:37:00.000+05:30

It is heartening to see Mr. Mukesh Ambani feature on the cover story of Newsweek's international edition. [Bigger, Faster, Better] Reliance Industries, is now India's largest private-sector enterprise by any measure: revenue ($20 billion in 2005), profit ($2 billion), share of Indian GDP (3.5 percent). Currently, Reliance is India's biggest company by market cap (about $35 billion).

But Mr. Ambani is not one to rest on his laurels. He has already announced his plans to invest more than $11 billion over the next decade to build two new satellite cities outside Mumbai and Delhi. "He foresees these metropolises emerging within just four years, each with a population of 5 million people making $5,000 a year, on average (or seven times India's norm), and hosting top multinational companies."

His other mega vision is to metamorphose India's farming and retail sectors. "Ambani plans to invest $5 billion by 2011 to put both the farms and the stores on the road to modernity, connect them through a distribution system guided by the latest logistics technology, and create enough of a surplus to generate $20 billion in agricultural exports annually."

But this will be an uphill task given the disorganized supply chain and poor infrastructure. Experts say that due of a lack of storage, refrigeration and transportation, some 40 percent of India's fruit and vegetables spoils before reaching market.

"To transform Indian farmers into quality suppliers for his new retail chain, Ambani plans to create 1,600 farm-supply hubs across India, providing technical know-how and credit, selling seeds, fertilizer and fuel, and buying produce. He also plans to build some 85 logistics centers to move food to retail outlets and to ports and airports for export. Reliance is gearing up to train tens of thousands of new employees in the next six to eight months to do everything from erecting prefab warehouses to transporting fresh produce."

That's a splendid vision! Best of luck Mr. Ambani!!

Of Military Prowess and GFP

2006-07-09T18:30:00.000+05:30

India's indigenously built, surface-to-surface nuclear capable intermediate range ballistic misslie (IRBM) Agni-III with a range of 3,500 km was test-fired from a range off the Orissa coast on Sunday with much fanfare. Later it developed a snag and the test-firing was described as unsuccessful. [Agni III testfiring unsuccessful]

These two events, which occurred in quick succession, made me ponder over India's military preparedness vis-à-vis other nations. I googled to get more information in this regard. I came across an interesting website, GlobalFirePower.com . It tries to predict the military might of a nation based on a composite average of various parameters like, Finance-related, Military Personnel, Armaments inventories, Logistics, and Key resources. "GlobalFirePower (GFP) provides a unique analytical display of information based on sources from all over the globe....Naturally a list such as this is designed to be subjective so there is room for disagreement as to its accuracy (or inaccuracy)."

A partial ranking of the world military powers:

1 United States of America
2 China
3 Russia
4 India
5 Germany
6 France
7 Japan
8 Turkey
9 Great Britain
10 Brazil
11 Italy
12 South Korea
13 Indonesia
14 Canada
15 Iran
16 Spain
17 Egypt
18 North Korea
19 Australia
20 Pakistan

"NOTE: Nuclear weapons, military experience, unit training and equipment quality are not taken into account."

If such a ranking using similar parameters had been designed in 1930s, India & China would not have even figured in top 20. Germany & Japan would have led the rankings for obvious reasons. GlobalFirePower website has this to add: "If history has shown the observer one thing, it is that war is a part of life. Strange as that may sound, documented records report only 300 years of known peace on our planet, leaving the rest to wallow in the path of war. What that statistic tells us is that there has been some source of conflict between two or more parties on our planet for thousands of years."

Hopefully the mistakes of last century will not be repeated in this century too. The very idea of a large scale war sends a shudder down my spine, but we can't ignore it either.

India 12th richest nation in 2005??

2006-07-09T06:11:00.000+05:30

It is heartening to see India's GDP surge to newer heights. IBNLive reports: "India has emerged as the 12th wealthiest nation in the world with its GDP touching $785.47 billion (Rs 35,34,615 crore) in 2005, calculated by the World Bank." Now this report can kindle a sanguine hope in the heart of a billion plus Indians, but it is not prudent to be taken-in by the GDP figures alone. GDP only reflects national income and tells nothing of how that income is distributed or how that income is spent. Though India is ranked 12th in terms of its GDP but it ranks very poorly on parameters such as GDP per capita, infant-mortality rate, literacy rate etc.

Another form of statistical tool used for measuring a nation's overall growth is the HDI -- Human Development Index. "It is a summary composite index that measures a country's average achievements in three basic aspects of human development: longevity, knowledge, and a decent standard of living. Longevity is measured by life expectancy at birth; knowledge is measured by a combination of the adult literacy rate and the combined primary, secondary, and tertiary gross enrolment ratio; and standard of living by GDP per capita (PPP US$)." Check for yourself the HDI data and see how well India fares. The UN Millennium Development Goals website also provides very useful and insightful data.

I am neither being cynical of India's economic progress in recent years nor am I pessismistic about our reaching the goals envisioned by our founding fathers, but all I'm trying to emphasise is that jubilation at GDP figures is pre-mature. India has a long way to go before it can be in the top league w.r.t. all the socio-economic parameters.

Some of the key challenges before us are:
1: Extreme poverty
2: Illiteracy
3: Gender & social inequality
4: Infant & maternal mortality
5: HIV/AIDS, malaria, TB and other diseases
6: Environmental sustainability
7: Poor infrastructure

The task at hand may seem onerous but it is not impossible to achieve. What is needed is strong a political will and visionary leadership. Is it expecting too much in present day India?

Of IMF and GDP

2006-07-06T08:26:00.000+05:30

Alarmed by the rising trend in vices around the globe, IMF (International Morality Federation), a motley group comprising the puritans and zealots of various hues and leanings, has included in its recently published annual report GDP (Gross Depravity Parameter) to measure how different countries fare on moral report card. IMF has taken into consideration the efficiency and efficacy of the moral police in a particular nation to arrive at their rankings. Some of the criteria used by IMF for preparing the report include: curtailing freedom of expression of citizens; number of books banned, fatwas/threats issued against artists, writers and cartoonists, raids on night clubs/dancing bars/massage parlours, movie posters burned, the extent to which women's freedom was curbed, forceful disruption of Valentine's day celebration......the list goes on!

Afganistan, Pakistan, Myanmar and Zimbabwe are among the top rankers. India too has improved its ranking this year to 17th from 22nd last year. Denmark has fared very poorly in IMF's ranking for lending support to its cartoonist's freedom of expression. In fact, there has been a stern warning to the nations which are pursuing liberal policies towards women, artists and homosexuals.

IMF giving a clarion call to raise the MQ (Moral Quotient) of every person in the world, has urged the governments to follow the example of Singapore [Massages to go public in Singapore!] which has an excellent record in controlling "vice activities" in its society.

Indian Judiciary: Credibility at stake

2006-06-30T18:22:00.000+05:30

The primary duty of a nation state is to give justice to its citizens. The preamble of Indian Constitution reads: “We, the people of India resolved to constitute India into a Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic and to secure to all its citizens: Justice…., Liberty….., Equality….., and ……Fraternity assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation.” But anyone who had a first hand experience of dealing with the labyrinthine Indian judicial system would attest to a wide chasm existing between what is enshrined in the constitution and what is the ground reality. It takes aeons before judgements are passed and in the process one has to face corrupt officials of the lower courts. The Economist reports: "This week, the government's press department reported that the number of civil and criminal cases pending before India's courts has exceeded 30m, up from 20m in 1997. Among the reasons are a shortage of judges—just 11 for every 1m people, compared with 51 in Britain and 107 in America..... Cases are not assigned to a particular judge for their duration, and are often adjourned. Advocates may take several briefs on the same day, not turning up for some, causing yet more adjournments. " At this rate, as per some calculations by experts, it would take some 360 years to resolve these cases at the current rate of disposal.

This is time for the Supreme Court and the Law ministry to do some deep introspection and take quick remedial actions to clear the backlog of cases. I know it is not an easy task, but then great nation states do not evolve easily. I am not competent to proffer suggestions in this matter, but am sure the experts in the field will have some solutions in mind. They say, 'justice delayed is justice denied'. So, let not the Indian citizens suffer denial of justice.

I am reminded of Swami Vivekanand's words, which are applicable to an individual as well as to our government: "We are responsible for what we are, and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves. If what we are now has been the result of our own past actions, it certainly follows that whatever we wish to be in future can be produced by our present actions; so we have to know how to act. "

What India needs: a PM or a CEO?

2006-06-29T09:20:00.000+05:30

It has been a much debated topic that a nation ought to be run like a business. No doubt there are plausible reasons in favour of such a notion but we should remember that a business is all about making profits whereas a government cannot be run on such a parochial dictum. What is needed is an amalgamation of sound politics with astute business sense.

Indian government has recently announced a meeting with the chief secretaries of all states in early July, where drastic changes in the way the Government and the public interact will be incorporated. [Coming soon: CEO, Government Inc] This is easier said than done. I don't want to cast aspersions on government's motive behind this initiative, but lot of sincerity is needed before such an effort fructifies. It is high time that our leaders realize that beneath a thin veneer of India's economic marvel lies a cesspool of corruption, poverty, and callousness. It is their bounden duty to help extricate Indian masses from this cesspool. Sooner the government implements policies to ensure efficiency, transparency and accountability in administration, better it would be for democracy to flourish in India.

Towards a less corrupt India

2006-06-25T21:55:00.000+05:30

In one of my previous posts I had written about the 'Institutions: Their Role in shaping societies'. I had further written that: Douglass C. North, the '93 Nobel prize winner, who has done seminal work in the field of Economic Performance through Time says, "Societies that get 'stuck' embody belief systems and institutions that fail to confront and solve new problems of societal complexity.

India, since Independence has been a strange case of one step forward and two steps backwards. Today if you ask an honest Indian what is the single obstacle in India's road to glory, she/he is bound to answer -- CORRUPTION. [btw, India fairs poorly in the Corruption Index formulated by Transparency International (an anti-graft watchdog)]Corruption, institutional and individual, has been sapping the vitals of our society. We could have been a different nation altogether but for this malady.

But not all's lost. It is heartening to note that "a group of top former bureaucrats, police officers and officers from the armed forces have come together to form a group called the India Rejuvenation Initiative (IRI). Their aim is to tackle corruption." [Read on IBN-CNN The Rising: Corruption watchdog on the prowl]

Here's wishing this group every success in their endeavours to contain corruption in India.

Mahatma Gandhi: A youth idol?

2006-06-20T08:02:00.000+05:30

Read with interest the newsitem "S Africa wants Gandhi to be youth idol" on IBN-CNN website. It is heartening to note that Mahatma's life and teachings are considered relevant even today. I would recommend to those interested in the subject Youth, Nonviolence And Gandhi, a short essay by Dr. Savita Singh.

Will an Indian make it to the top post at the UN?

2006-06-16T07:32:00.000+05:30

India on Thursday nominated UN Under Secretary General Shashi Tharoor for the post of the UN Secretary General. Mr. Tharoor, given his long & successful association with the UN, is a good choice for the top post.

Wikipedia informs: "Since 1978, Tharoor has been working for the United Nations, serving with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, whose Singapore office he headed during the "boat people" crisis. Since October 1989, he has been a senior official at the United Nations headquarters in New York, where, until late 1996, he was responsible for peacekeeping operations in the former Yugoslavia. From January 1997 to July 1998, he was executive assistant to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. In July 1998, he was appointed director of communications and special projects in the office of the Secretary-General. In January 2001, he was appointed by the Secretary-General as interim head of the Department of Public Information. On 1 June 2002, he was confirmed as the Under Secretary General for Communications and Public Information."

Born in London in 1956, Shashi Tharoor was educated in Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi (BA in History, St. Stephen's College), and the United States (he got his PhD at the age of 22 from the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University). Tharoor has written numerous articles, short stories and commentaries in Indian and Western publications, and has won several journalism and literary awards, including a Commonwealth Writers' Prize.

But it won't be a cake-walk for Mr. Tharoor. There are other able candidates in the fray.

Announced Candidates:

* Shashi Tharoor

* Ban Ki-moon, a South Korean diplomat

* Jayantha Dhanapala, Sri Lanka's official candidate

* Surakiart Sathirathai, Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand

Unannounced Candidates:

* Jose Ramos-Horta, Foreign Minister of East Timor

* Kemal Dervis, a Turkish economist and politician

* Niranjan Deva-Aditya, Sri Lanka's Ambassador-at-Large

Here's wishing Mr. Tharoor Goodluck till the final decision on the candidate for the top UN post is announced in October.

Faster than the speed of Light!!

2006-06-13T17:22:00.000+05:30

If your Physics books told you that nothing travels faster than Light then better brush up the facts. Prof. Boyd of University of Rochester has "recently showed how he can slow down a pulse of light to slower than an airplane, or speed it up faster than its breakneck pace, using exotic techniques and materials. But he's now taken what was once just a mathematical oddity—negative speed—and shown it working in the real world." For details read on, Light's Most Exotic Trick Yet: So Fast it Goes ... Backwards?

As Boyd is eager to put Einstein to the test, we must remember what Robert Oppenheimer once said, "There must be no barriers for freedom of inquiry. There is no place for dogma in science. The scientist is free, and must be free to ask any question, to doubt any assertion, to seek for any evidence, to correct any errors."

Will India ever be able to Fly?

2006-06-12T07:40:00.000+05:30

We have been reading a lot about the ongoing controversy about Indian government's proposed hike in the reservations for OBCs. With both the advocates and opponents of this policy engaging in rhetoric to prove their repective points, it is difficult to sift facts from make-believe. I am not against depriving someone of education or employment on the basis of caste, but I strongly object to India's reservation methodology. A better and more effective program/policy ought to be envisaged and based on it an affirmative action be taken to alleviate the misery of those living on the fringes of society. Our wily politicians have been using reservation as a tool to swell their vote-bank. This is what ought to be condemned.

Go through Karan Thapar's interview with Mr. P. Chidambaram Reservations have helped OBCs rise: Chidambaram. It's painful to see an intelligent person like him trying to defend government's wrong policy. When will India be freed from the clutches of the unscrupulous and sham politicians?

Amartya Sen on Indian Democracy

2006-06-09T15:52:00.000+05:30

Here below are excerpts from Amartya Sen's Contrary India, which appeared in "The World in 2006".

“The frustrating thing about India”, I was told by one of my teachers, the great Cambridge economist Joan Robinson, “is that whatever you can rightly say about India, the opposite is also true.” This will continue to apply in 2006.

Is India a successful democracy? Certainly. Its multi-party democracy with free elections, free speech and civil liberties has been functioning well, and it has had fine side-results such as the elimination of famines (a frequent occurrence in British India—the last, in 1943, was just four years before independence). But no, it cannot have been entirely successful, since democratic rights have not eliminated undernourishment, ill health and other deprivations. Is the Indian economy doing very well? Yes, it is growing fast and there is a lot of new income around. But poverty is still very grave. Is Indian education a great success? Yes, of course, India has a large, well-educated and highly trained population and it provides skilled labour for academia, for science, for technology, for literature, for music and the fine arts, for administration, for management, for medicine—both within India and across the world. Yet nearly a third of the population is still illiterate.......

Indian commitment to democracy is sometimes attributed simply to the impact of British influence. And yet if that were the primary reason, it would not be clear why such an influence should not have worked similarly for a hundred other countries which also emerged from the same empire on which the sun used not to set.

Democracy is, ultimately, the practice of public reasoning in the broadest sense. Voting is part of a much larger process which includes open public discussion and uncensored criticism. Traditions of public reasoning exist across the world and are not a monopoly of the West or of any other civilisation or culture. But India has been particularly fortunate in having a long and powerful argumentative tradition. Some of the earliest open general meetings in the world aimed specifically at settling disputes, through discussion between holders of different points of view, took place in India, from the sixth century BC onwards, in the series of so-called “Buddhist councils”, where adherents of different points of view gathered together to argue out their differences. Emperor Ashoka, who hosted the largest of these councils in the capital city of Patna in the third century BC, also attempted to codify and promote what must have been among the earliest formulations of rules for public discussion......the first systematic public discussions in the world between holders of different religious views were arranged by the great Moghul emperor Akbar in Agra in the 1590s, at a time when the Inquisitions were still going on in Europe.

Democracy is already doing more in India than is sometimes acknowledged.....There is some significance even in the fact that a country in which more than 80% of the electorate happen to be Hindu has chosen a Sikh prime minister (Manmohan Singh), a Muslim president (Abdul Kalam) and a Christian leader of the ruling Congress party (Sonia Gandhi).

Important as public reasoning, political liberty, civil rights, consolidation of secularism and prevention of disasters (such as famines) are, democracy can, and must, do a lot more still, by bringing persistent inequalities and deprivations more into effective public discussion. This is beginning to happen, but it must go much further. It is in the public commitment to democracy and its extensive use that India—as it finds its feet in the world, and the world pays some attention—has something really important to offer to contemporary global ideas and practice.

India unshackled?

2006-06-04T09:07:00.000+05:30

Editorial in The Economist's latest edition laments, "Despite its huge potential market of 1.1 billion people, despite its wealth of English-speakers and democratic institutions, despite its vaunted 15-year-old reforms, India has been a daunting place to do business, its entrepreneurs chained down by the world's most bureaucratic bureaucracy, lousy infrastructure and lousier Fabian economic ideas." Even after 15 years of following liberal economic policies & five decades of independence, more than half our population is poor by any standards and does not have access to proper housing, sanitation, electricity, drinking water, medical facilties et al. "It takes eight days, including 32 hours waiting at checkpoints and toll booths, for a lorry to crawl from Kolkata to Mumbai."

India presents a queer contrast between the 'privileged' & 'underprivileged' at all levels and every govt. at the centre is pursuing the wrong policies [i.e., subsidies, quotas etc. of various hues] to bring in socio-economic equity. I sometimes wonder as to why our political leaders can't sense things that are so obvious and keep raking up non-issues when the entire nation's energies ought to be focussed in realizing its true potential. The government must work towards providing basic standard of living for all its citizens not for the sake of getting a permanent seat in the Security Council nor to be labelled as developed nation but because this is what each & every Indian deserves and that is the primary reason a politician is elected for. Indians have put up with apathy of the political class for long; now is the time to assert the collective angst against the usurpers and the unscrupulous. The Ed concludes, "India has taken off. Just think how high its people could fly without all those chains."

A dubious lineage

2006-05-31T07:22:00.000+05:30

In Indian society, lineage can be traced to a particular sage/rishi, like, Bhardwaj, Kashyap, Gautam, et al. Even to this day, marriages are not solemnised within the same 'gotra'. But imagine the plight of someone who, upon intense search, comes to know that he is a direct descendant of Genghis Khan

"Tom Robinson, a Florida based accountant, had long wondered about his family tree. He knew that his great, great-grandfather had come to the United States from England, but beyond that his research drew a blank. So the fourty-eight-year old turned to the burgeoning field of "bioarchaeology" having his DNA tested to see what it revealed about his origins. He was in for a surprise. According to a British geneticist who pioneered the research, Robinson appears to be a direct descendant of Genghis Khan."

Can you see the similarity?? If, God forbid, Mr. Robinson commits forgery or homicide, you have to blame it on 'his genes'!

Researchers have identified a Y-chromosomal lineage present in about 8% of the men in a large region of Asia (about 0.5% of the men in the world). The study suggests that the pattern of variation within the lineage is consistent with a hypothesis that it originated in Mongolia about 1,000 years ago. The authors propose that the lineage is carried by likely male-line descendants of Genghis Khan, and that it has spread through social selection. In addition to the Khanates and other descendants, the Mughal royal family of India are also descended from Genghis Khan (Babur's mother was a descendant). No wonder the Mughals exhibited barbaric traits akin to their infamous ancestor.

Mohanlal: the Complete Actor

2006-05-26T09:27:00.000+05:30

Read with interest an interview conducted by IBN-CNN journalist with the legendary, Mohanlal (Being Mohanlal: Kerala's pride). Born on May 21, 1960, Mohanlal Viswanathan Nair is known by the stage name Mohanlal, and had acted in about 300 films in a career spanning 26 years. His contribution to Malyalam cinema is phenomenal. He along with Mammooty are the superstars in 'God's own country'.

He has won critical acclaim for his work in off-beat but challenging roles. Who else could have done better justice to the role of a Kathakali dancer in Vanaprashnam? It is Mohanlal's genius that he could act in a two hour long Sanskrit play despite not knowing the language! In more than two decades of his cinematic life he has portrayed the entire gamut of human emotions in both mainstream as well as parallel cinema. A critic on Wikipedia notes, "His art [is] noted for its versatility, understated intensity, emotional depth, comedic timing, and the ability to portray characters that embodied the Malayali ethos.....Preferring the art of restraint, probably the most under appreciated quality in Indian cinema, he tries hard his to be just another character onscreen."

The Hindi movie fans got a flavour of Mohanlal's screen persona in Company as a Police Commisioner in hot pursuit of the dreaded D-gang. The role was short but Mohanlal did full justice to it and received the Best Supporting Actor award for it. But Kaala-paani, about the freedom struggle, received cold response from the Hindi cinema goers. Now he has agreed to essay the role of "Thakur" in a remake of Sholay. This role has been made memorable by the inimitable Sanjeev Kumar. Since RGV's Sholay also has Amitabh, who is donning Gabbar's role, therefore, expect some splendid 'acting fireworks' when the two Titans clash on screen. Let's wait and watch.

Crime and lemony?

2006-05-24T15:03:00.000+05:30

You often read about men devising devious plans to lure someone of opposite gender in order to satisfy their carnal desires, but this one takes the cake. Lemony crime in the garb of exorcism

What surprises me more than the fiendish ingenuity of the accused is the stupid credulity of the victim. But then Manjaiah forgot that he was in Singapore where one cannot get away after commiting such crimes. "Manjaiah has been sentenced to nine months in jail and three strokes of the cane" by a court in S'pore on charges of molestation. I think it is not the prospect of spending 9 months in jail but the thought of getting 3 strokes of cane (kodde) that made him sob loudly when the sentence was read.

An existential dilemma

2006-05-23T15:53:00.000+05:30

When I read a Wilde's poem on Sheru's blog and find Arun dabbling in free verse on his blog, how can I resist the temptation to share one of my poetic expressions. These days I hardly read & write poetry. Management is too 'dry' a subject and suffocates the tendency to appreciate the nuances of nature. While going through various management models & strategies, I long for the 'company' of Rilke, Shelley & Whitman.

Steps being watched covertly
by an enigmatic stare
a silent gaze
of an unseen face

Shocked

by the stoical expression
nothing moves
all is still
but dreams and clouds

Surrounded

in a hall of faces
prostrating before the dead
painful heart
empty stomach

Dreamed

of love unborn
and passion abundant
helpless intelligence
lifeless creativity

Laid

to rest in mangers
with sick and demented
tight lipped
defiantly conscious

Ossified

like an extinct volcano
a moss covered crater lake

Is Economics Hot?

2006-05-22T20:43:00.000+05:30

Yes, if you happen to be Joey Cheek. For the full story,"The real reason I went into economics".
I definitely agree with Joey. After all Economics is all about MICRO (I know what your mind is wondering....) & CURVES (stop your naughty thoughts....)

DV's fastpaced delivery

2006-05-19T21:55:00.000+05:30

I was pleasantly surprised today when Mani showed me the latest issue of Business World's Mega B-School Guide. It contained an article "Creating Leaders in Asia Pacific" by Sandeep DV, a dear friend and co-participant in the MBA program at NBS.

The short essay about his experience at Nanyang will go a long way in increasing awareness about our school amongst Indian students and Businesses.

Kudos to DV!

In defense of Management Science

2006-05-19T09:37:00.000+05:30

Matthew Stewart in his essay, ‘The Management Myth’, poses a polemical question: “Why does management education exist?” He then assiduously builds the argument to prove his point that having a degree in philosophy makes a person better equipped to handle the challenges of business than an MBA would. To accentuate the impact of his proposition, he uses two examples which I believe today are of only historical significance to the field of management.

Now I have little defense to offer in support of the management theories (I am myself a bit skeptical of the methods and techniques that go into making them) but I would certainly dispute Mr. Stewart’s outright denunciation of the discipline of management studies (MS). It is one thing to challenge the assumptions made and conclusions drawn by management gurus but quite another to disparage whatever goes into making of an MBA graduate. No doubt the information deluge thrust upon B-school students does not impart a deep understanding of any one topic; but to pooh-pooh MBA education as only providing a “generic framework for problem solving…..[that] can lead you to solutions, but cannot make you think” tantamount to alleging that MBAs are pedant in blinkers at best and herders at worst.

We all know that Philosophy is the fountainhead of every branch of human knowledge. Pythagoras, Newton, J.S. Mill and William James were first and foremost philosophers and only later were they labeled as a mathematician, a physicist, an economist and a psychologist respectively. Every branch of knowledge in its infancy grows under the wings of philosophy but once it learns to stand on its own, it breaks free. The problem with MS has been that in its overzealousness it attempted to become a science at its inception: trying to challenge the limits of its boundaries without even assessing properly the subject matter and the environment it was operating in. In a way, management science has become a Don Quixote----ambitious but without definitive purpose.

But not everything that goes in the name of MS is bunkum and irrelevant. The management thinkers do try to apply scientific rigor to test their hypothesis but the predictability and reproducibility of their inferences cannot be as accurate as an experiment in the field of natural science. What Mr. Stewart lampoons as an inadequacy of MS is equally true of any other social science like sociology, psychology, political science etc.

Again, why single out MS as “capable only of soaring platitudes” and plagued by fads which surface from time to time? If the management thinkers have been rehashing the stuff propounded earlier by their predecessors, then Mr. Stewart can kindly inform me as to how many philosophers have come out ‘original’ answers to centuries’ old philosophical questions? Any student of history of philosophy would easily point out that over the centuries philosophical debates have centered on a handful of propositions; but what have changed are the context and the argument. Similarly, the moot questions with which MS started haven’t changed over the past one century; but the methodology, the analysis of these issues have definitely become rigorous over a period of time.

Yes, a management graduate would be better equipped to handle the complexities of business if she gives proportionate amount of time reading the thinkers alluded to by the author. Such an endeavor would enrich her analytical skills besides giving a better perspective of ethical imperatives. I would say that such an exercise would prove salutary for the intellectual development of students from any stream. So, why not teach philosophy to engineers, arts students and scientists too?

To sum up, I do agree with the author that MS as a discipline needs a serious reexamination and revision. It is a young branch of knowledge but has tremendous impact on society. Since it attracts some of the finest talent therefore it should assist young minds “to think” and not merely provide heuristic framework to base their action upon. Academics associated with the field of management would do a great service to their discipline, the students and to the businesses worldwide by paying heed to Mr. Stewart’s pragmatic advice.

P.S.: I received Mr. Stewart's essay from Prof. Ashish Lall, who has honed my ability to think systematically and make arguments coherently.

Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself"

2006-05-13T13:33:00.001+05:30

Walt Whitman, arguably America's most influential and innovative poet, was of the first generation of Americans who were born in the newly formed United States. He alongwith Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, Thoreau, and Emerson laid the foundations of American literature. His seminal work, "Leaves of Grass" was a conscious attempt to define the American experience; an attempt by the young Whitman to answer Emerson's essay, "The Poet," which called for a truly original national poet, one who would sing of the new country in a new voice.

Spirituality is a mixed bag for Walt Whitman. Although he takes a great deal of material from Christianity but his conception of religion is much more complicated than the beliefs of one or two faiths mixed together. I find in his 'Song of Myself' the strains of sweet, soulful music that the seers of yore must have heard and later encapsulated in the form of the Upanishads for the posterity to savour. The flashes of metaphysical perspicacity juxtaposed with lyrical sensuality of his mystical verse remind me of Sufi poetry.

Here below are a few gems from Whitman’s ‘Song of Myself’, which I find as an abundant ocean of life’s wisdom. Reading them will give you an insight into the mind of America's venerated poet and humanist of 19th century.

Swiftly arose and spread around me the peace and joy and
----knowledge that pass all the art and argument of the earth;
And I know that the hand of God is the elderhand of my own,
And I know that the spirit of God is the eldest brother of my own,
***
There was never any more inception than there is now,
Nor any more youth or age than there is now,
And will never be any more perfection than there is now,
Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now.
***
Clear and sweet is my soul, and clear and sweet is all that is not my soul.
***
All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses,
And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.
***
Have you heard that it was good to gain the day?
I also say it is good to fall, battles are won in the same spirit in which they are won.
***
In all people I see myself, none more and not one a barleycorn less,
And the good or bad I say of myself I say of them.
***
And whether I come to my own today or in ten thousand or ten million years,
I can cheerfully take it now, or with equal cheerfulness I can wait.
***
The pleasures of heaven are with me and the pains of hell are with me,
The first I graft and increase upon myself, the latter I translate into a new tongue.
***

Future of Computing

2006-05-07T08:18:00.000+05:30

In the current issue of The Economist, under the Science & Technology section, there's an article about the latest research in the field of quantum computing ("One qubit at a time"). The scope of this avant-garde technology, though in its nascent stages of development, is awesome. For eg., "A quantum computer with two qubits could run four calculations in parallel.... A 1,000-qubit device could process more simultaneous calculations than there are particles in the observable universe." Now, this would be a tremendous help for scientists grappling with gargantuan data.

In the past few decades, computers have become more compact and considerably faster in performing their task, but the task remains the same: to manipulate and interpret an encoding of binary bits into a useful computational result. We all know, that a bit is a fundamental unit of information, classically represented as a 0 or 1 in a digital computer. Herein lies a key difference between a classical computer and a quantum computer. A quantum computer is a device that harnesses a qubit which can hold a one, or a zero, or a superposition of these.

Source: The Economist

Quantum computation is not a recent idea. It was explored for the first time during 70s by Richard Feynman among others physicists. He produced an abstract model in 1982 that showed how a quantum system could be used to do computations. He also explained how such a machine would be able to act as a simulator for quantum physics. Since then promising advancements have been made in this field but "...so far only small-scale devices have been demonstrated, and many of these need to be kept in strictly defined conditions. One reason for this sensitivity is that qubits can maintain their quantum superposition only if they do not interact with other objects. They must thus be isolated from their surroundings." Another challenge is to produce 'Quantum hardware': an enviornment that is conducive for quantum computing.

So far the research has been in the right direction and it's a matter of time before "quantum computers will emerge as the superior computational devices at the very least, and perhaps one day make today's modern computer obsolete." (The Quantum Computer by Jacob West). I am wondering how will the Intels, the Microsofts and the IBMs respond to this 'disruptive innovation'? What exciting uses will emerge from this new technology? Who will be the winners and who will be the laggards? Only time will answer these questions but I won't be surprised if my daughter uses a 'quantum computer' by the time she's in her college.

Lalu P. Yadav: From a Maverick Politician to a Mentor Minister

2006-05-05T10:22:00.000+05:30

Just read the headlines at the IBN-CNN website: "Lalu's train on right track, chugs into IIM books". It's not a small feat to turnaround a loss-making PSU into one with Rs 13,000 crore worth internal resources as also surplus revenue of Rs 11,000 crore.

As per the 2006 budget, Indian Railways (IR) earned Rs. 54,600 crores. Freight earnings increased by 10% in the previous year. Passenger earnings, other coaching earnings and sundry other earnings increased by 7%, 19% and 56% respectively over previous year. Its year end fund balance is expected to stand at Rs. 11,280 cr. Compare it with IR's performance in 2001 when it had deferred dividend payment, its fund balances had reduced to just Rs. 350 cr and about which experts had started saying that it is enmeshed in a terminal debt trap.

IR has come a long way since 16th April 1853, when the first passenger train service was inaugurated between Bori Bunder, Bombay and Thana covering a distance of 34 km. Today it is world's largest and busiest rail networks in the world, transporting ~ 5 billion passengers and almost 350 million tonnes of freight annually. IR is the world's largest commercial or utility employer, with more than 1.6 million employees. Not a mean achievement!

Let's compare IR with its Chinese counterpart. Goods hauled by Railways (Tons-km billions in 2002) for China was 1508.7 and for India 333.2. According to the IR’s own figures, moving one passenger one kilometre made a loss of 15 paise. Shifting a tonne of freight made a profit of 16 paise. As a result, the ratio of passenger fares per person-kilometre to freight rates per tonne-kilometre is among the lowest in the world: about 0.3, compared with 2.2 in Japan. China (between 1994 and 1998)raised passenger fares by 75%, lifting the passenger fare to freight-tariff ratio from 0.9 to 1.2.

IR still has a long way to go to be the world leader in rail transport. It needs to address the safety issue, both in terms of accidents as well as attacks by naxalites/dacoits on moving trains & railway property. There is the humungous task of track, signalling mechanism and engine modernisation. With increasing competition from road network & Low-cost airlines, IR has to act fast to set its house in order lest it loses its loyal clientele.

I would ask dear Mr. Yadav to take a long term strategic view for IR even if it entails forgoing petty political gains in short-term. Now, that's an acid test for Lalu the Maverick Politician before he can be labelled a Mentor Minister! He needs to live upto his own words [quoted from L.P.Yadav's 2006-07 Railways Budget speech]

“Hum bhi dariyaa hain, apnaa hunar hume maloom hai,

jis taraf bhi chal padenge, rastaa ban jayega.”

Problem of Self

2006-05-02T00:21:00.000+05:30

Ever since my childhood I have heard my father play a harmonium, an old piece which was bought by my grandfather in 1940s. My father had a strong sentimental value attached to the instrument and used to handle it very carefully. Due to decades of use, its keys had worn down. When I was in teens, I accompanied him to a harmonium maker in Old Delhi to get its keys replaced. He was advised by the shopkeeper to sell it off but my father could not bear such a thought. So, the old harmonium now had brand new keys, providing a contrast similar to shining dentures in a withered body! Years passed and the harmonium was still in use. Then one fateful day, someone dropped the harmonium while placing it on a stool. And the dear old harmonium was broken. My father was very sad on that day. We tried to join the broken outer wooden case by using fevicol, but it didn’t work. Ultimately, my father and I took the broken harmonium to the same shopkeeper who had replaced the keys. This guy announced with an air of finality that nothing could be done to fix it; so we better purchase a new one. He, in fact, showed a few good pieces. But my father’s heart was still fixated on his old instrument. So, I asked the shopkeeper if the reeds in the broken harmonium could be put in a new case. The shopkeeper said it was possible but it would cost us nearly the same as a brand new harmonium. My father was happy with my suggestion, so we told him to do exactly what we asked. Next week we collected the “new” harmonium from the shop.

I’ll stop here. The purpose of narrating the above incidence is not to take a walk down memory lane; but to ask a fundamental question: Is the “new” harmonium different from the previous one? Again I’m sure the shopkeeper would have used the keys and other material to build a different harmonium. You know how smart these fellows are. So, if he did make another instrument using broken harmonium’s material except the reeds, then which of the two is the “original” one? Are there now two new identities from a single harmonium?

If the above example can be used as a metaphor for human beings then one is left wondering as to what is the real “us”? Is it the physical attributes, which constantly undergo change, or the ego/self, which again undergoes metamorphosis as one undergoes varied experiences? (This debate some other time)

But we all notice that in the entire episode of one’s life, there is continuity, which is beyond the physical or intellectual attributes. John Locke, the 17th century British philosopher, called this continuity as self-awareness. He was of the opinion that this unique ability of human beings provides a ‘psychological thread through one’s lifetime’. That’s why we remember our past as well as the present, though the former does not exist. Memory grows and then atrophies with passage of time but we still maintain our self-identity with ease.

What if there is disconnect in our self-awareness? Say, in case of schizophrenics, or those suffering from Alzheimer’s. Do they still remain what they were before the ‘psychological thread’ broke or are they now different personalities?

I’ll try to explore the ethical dimensions posed by these metaphysical conundrums in my subsequent posting. Till then, keep mulling.

Of Passion in writing

2006-04-28T10:50:00.000+05:30

Yesterday, at the fag end of a drinking session, a dear friend lamented that postings on my blog were sans ‘passion’. They were too “balanced” or “politically correct”. I tried to reason with him but his refrain was that “the person writing [the blog] is more interesting than the writings” (I felt flattered!). I don’t know whether to take his counsel seriously and splash my blog with inanities that pass as interesting conversation or to stick to my ponderous style in writing short essays on my blog.

Most of us are good conversationalists. We can discuss a plethora of topics with ease. We have opinion about everything and we seldom hesitate to thrust it on others. We may lack consistency in our arguments; we may lack due insight on a subject; we may be throwing logic to winds while arguing our point, but it doesn’t prevent us from believing that ours is the most cogent and perspicacious view-point. We try to mask the shallowness of our knowledge by putting forth our point passionately. The lack of logical appeal in our arguments is more than compensated by our vociferous assertions. Thus we carry on with our prattle, all the while nurturing the delusion that we are rational and thinking persons.

Now, I am ok with all this sham when participating in small talk. But when expressing myself in writing, especially when it is in public domain, I’m a bit conscious. I deliberately purge my postings of missionary zeal. When writing my main objective is not to impress or incite but to present an objective analysis/argument in the best possible manner I am capable of. At the same time, I am aware of my limitations as a writer, and know I’ll never be able to match Hemingway’s lucidity. Mine is an humble attempt to share my thinking framework, howsoever naïve and flawed it may be, with others.

Hence, my dear friend, my blog will continue to lack passionate appeal but it will never be blinkered and myopic---at least this much you can be assured of.

Mob mentality

2006-04-26T09:04:00.000+05:30

The word mob has been derived from Latin root, mobile vulgus, ‘excitable crowd’. In modern times this word has come to be associated with "a disorderly or riotous crowd of people ... bent on or engaged in lawless violence." (Random House) In recent times there have been increasing incidences of mob-violence around the globe--- be it the student agitation in France or the Muslim around the globe protesting against the publishing of derogatory cartoons hurting their religious belief or the Nepalese demanding restoration of democracy or the anti-WTO protests in HK last year or the rampage caused by Late Raj Kumar’s fans in Bangalore after his demise. All these and many more similar incidents are indicative of a deep-rooted malaise afflicting human mind which finds a vent in such senseless mob-frenzy. Psychologists and sociologists may try to ‘deconstruct’ mob-mentality, and bring forth fancy theories explaining it, but the fact is that so far no one has been able to find a solution to it. The rich and the poor, the educated and the uneducated, the religious and the heretics have been seen to exhibit wanton and reckless behavior when part of a mob.

But Random House offers a secondary definition of mob as "the common people; the masses; populace or multitude”. And it is not as if we do not have examples to support this definition of mob. Gandhiji’s Satyagrahas involved thousands of volunteers but none resorted to violent means despite provocations by the British; Narmada Bachao Andolan activists have been holding peaceful agitation for a fairly long period; many a large religious procession across the world are carried out peacefully.

So, it is not as if mob is always a negative force in a society. It is only when a mob is rudderless in the absence of an effective leadership, or when a small group within a mob plays miscreant, that the herd mentality replaces individual rationality. How to isolate this group within a mob, and tackle it lawfully is a challenge before all of us. We cannot absolve ourselves of the responsibility by saying "I don't care", "It doesn't matter to me". Who knows tomorrow we or a loved one may be the victim of a rampaging mob? And nothing could be worse if the state decides to take away our right to assemble in the name of curbing mob frenzy. Just imagine how scary such a situation would be? Better we ask ourselves these questions and not derive vicarious pleasure when a city/a nation & its denizens or a particular group are branded as mob crazy.

Mind & Matter

2006-04-22T15:39:00.000+05:30

Thinkers, both eastern and western, have long argued about which one is supreme---mind or matter. The proponents on either side of the debate have passionately argued their case with analytical and speculative arguments. Still the ‘matter’ is far from being resolved.

Sir Bernard Williams, late English philosopher, argues that “we identify more closely with our bodies than our minds”. To test our intuitions about the self, he says, let’s assume an imaginary scenario. We are at the mercy of a mad scientist who has planned to give us intense physical torture the next day. In a moment of generosity, the scientist gives us the option of wiping our memories and replaces it with those of Napoleon. If memory is the seat of self, then we would have nothing to fear for the next day’s torture. However, how many of us would really buy this argument? It is crystal clear to us that despite memory-replacement experiment, we would still suffer from the pain inflicted by the scientist.

Take another example. We have all seen the famous ‘transporter’ machines in Star Trek, which supposedly take a person apart atom by atom and create him/her anew in a different place. But if such a machine is possible then it means that our memories survive bodily disintegration, which amounts to death. Is it not a scientific validation of transmigration of soul?

Now, it’s another thing that many of us who oppose euthanasia (calling it a form of suicide) are in a way condoning it by approving of the Star Trek’s concept of ‘transportation’. A far-fetched logic, but cannot be overlooked.

Institutions: Their Role in shaping societies

2006-04-21T16:39:00.000+05:30

Yesterday, Prof. Lall gave a lecture on Institutions, their relevance to a nation's prosperity and why some of them are critical in the overall progress of societies. Since all activities---economic, political, social, etc., involve human interaction therefore it is pertinent to have set of rules which can "structure incentives in human exchange". It is in setting these incentives that societies differ. Hence the differential performance of nations.

Setting up institutions entails costs---of formulating, of monitoring and of enforcing them. Again, various organizations within a society compete with one another to have institutions/rules favoring activities that help them fulfill their objectives. Since not all organizations (within the political, educational, social or economic gamut) share a common set of objectives, there is bound to be friction within them. Institutions help minimize this friction, since it cannot be eliminated, keeping in mind the socio-economic interests of the society at large. An important point to bear in mind is that "institutions provide a stable and not necessarily efficient structure to human interactions".

Institutions and organizations have a symbiotic relationship and influence each other's evolution. Both in turn are affected by the prevalent norms in a society. It's another thing that institutions work towards changing the acceptable norms by changing the incentives. For eg., attitude towards slavery, women, untouchables, homosexuals, et al are the offshoots of institutional intervention.

But what is most puzzling is that why institutions don't follow the Darwinian principles of evolution? It's quite logical to think that inferior institutions ought to give way to better ones, albeit, in an incremental manner. But the economic historical data does not support this fact. May be it has to do with the norms, beliefs and culture evolved in a particular society over a period of time. Douglass C. North, the '93 Nobel prize winner, who has done seminal work in the field of Economic Performance through Time says, "Societies that get 'stuck' embody belief systems and institutions that fail to confront and solve new problems of societal complexity."

As societies around the globe grapple with the complexities arising out of "complex interplay between institutions, technology, and demography in the overall process of economic change," it necessitates an analytical understanding of the way economies evolve through time.

Ref.:
Prof. Lall's lecture notes
http://nobelprize.org/economics/laureates/1993/north-lecture.html

What is Success

2006-04-21T00:22:00.000+05:30

To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people
and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics
and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty;
To find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better,
Whether by a healthy child, a garden patch
or a redeemed social condition,
To know even one life has breathed
easier because you have lived;
This is to have succeeded.

The above definition of success by the immortal American philosopher, Emerson, has left an indelible impression on my mind. I would be happy if at the sunset of my life I would have come somewhere near his definition.

The way we describe success has undergone tremendous change in the past few years. I've no grudge against the present yardsticks about success and failure, materialistic and ephemeral as they turn out to be, but I do not subscribe to them. That's it.

This blog is an attempt on my part to reach out to like-minded people. Those who believe in the simplicity of conduct despite complexity of thoughts. Those who acknowledge the supremacy of spirit over matter. Those who do not feel circumscribed by 'the human bondage' of their earthly existence but do feel the palpable undercurrents of love in various relationships. Those who know that a meaningful existence is not possible in vacuum but in relation to those around us.