Gandhi, Bihar and Mumbai

Rahul Gandhi suddenly realized the injustice in Mumbai. Isn't it such a wonderful coincidence that this epiphany came just before the Bihar elections?

This proves just one thing, that sending poor people to Mumbai has always been and will be the agenda of winning governments in that sorry state. Instead of giving impetus to industrialization which will create jobs for poor illiterate labourers, Congress feels it right to make people think that immigration to Mumbai is the solution to the hapless land's problem.

Lets face it, Mumbai is a city which reeling under the weight of its huge population. Add to this the inefficient infrastructure (world record passenger/hr/km density of the Churchgate Virar local, largest slum in Asia, 2 hours traffic jam between to signals placed a kilometre apart etc etc are not the things which we should be proud of, even if we rattle them off to others proudly). It is a city which cannot tolerate more. It is better if we do not discuss the security against terrorist threats. Under such circumstances putting a man in the city with no money, no place to sleep, no fixed job (the man is not a tax payer) is not a good idea after all.

The city which gives India more than 70% of the tax money certainly deserves more. The central government owes good shelter, good security and better overall standard of living to the people of this city which is probably the face of India in the outside world. If it cannot provide that to people coming to Mumbai, it should ask them to wait until these facilities are provided.

Beating up poor, helpless men is not and will never be the solution. The problem in Mumbai is grave and unique one faced by our country which is relatively young. The solution cannot be found by rattling lines from the constitution. Such unique problems demand a unique, 'never thought of before' solution. I have realized this problem after I started studying in Surat. Life in other cities is much more easy and it reflects in the fact that average age of Mumbaikar's is one of the lowest in the country. The stress caused by poor facilities ultimately kills people living in Mumbai. What we need is the urgent improvement in facilities or otherwise a moratorium or a strict protocol on migrating to Mumbai. If you cannot give them a good life here, do not bring them here to create chaos (and also a vote bank in the hapless state).

I am deeply saddened by this attitude of the ruling party towards my city. When it comes to eating the political pie, everyone recognizes the injustice the Thackeray's (little brother, cousin brother and uncle) do to migrants. But no one ever realizes the injustice done to Mumbai by the centre.

Interesting blog

All of you guys who like technology should take a look at my eccentric friend Khushraj's new blog Mathematics behind Technology (pardon the huge name). It is an interesting blog which gives you opportunity to brainstorm over seemingly simple things we have studied.

I always wanted to start a technology blog of my own. But I never had the will nor the concrete idea of what I would be discussing in that blog. This blog comes pretty much close to the kind of forum I would have liked to create.

So guys, check it out regularly.

Peak Year

This has been my peak blogging year so far. More number of posts than my firts two years put together.

I am loving it

Statuses

People keep all kinds of stuff as their status update in google talk. Some is to the point update on whether they would like to be disturbed or not, eg 'dnd', 'at work' or the simple 'away'.

However people also like to keep so many other things like lyrics of their favourite songs. (I honestly feel they would like if an option of streaming the video song was made available as the status). Some people put random quotes as their statuses. It is this which sometimes amazes me.

Some excerpts from statuses which my friends have put right now!

1. Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.
2. I love you, not for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you.
3. "Right and wrong do exist. Just because you don't know what the right answer is — maybe there's even no way you could know what the right answer is — doesn't make your answer right or even okay. It's much simpler than that. It's just plain wrong.

Like it!!!!!

Baroda

I went to Vadodara a couple of days ago. Actually I had to go to Anand for some stuff. After that I decided to spend time in Baroda to meet my folks there whom I wanted to meet ever since I started staying in Surat.

I am not yet used to my mobile-phone camera and it did not occur to me that I could take shots of stuff while I walked past it. Yet somehow the beauty of this made me remember about the gadget I had and I snapped a pic of it.

Also my Anand job was nice and I realised at its end that I do not have any visual memento of my outing. So these photos were clicked at Anand station. Do not mind the quality of photo which have me in it as poor Manik was more interested in the chick standing next to us than clicking my pic.

Avatar

Avatar is a great movie. Must see for every regular movie-goer and also for the average guy like me who judiciously chooses which movie to watch and which to chuck. James Cameron might be the most brilliant man in the history of film making and his written scripts may blow the mind of one and all.

I am seeing posts after posts, blogs after blogs going on how Cameron has commented on the oil war in the middle east by drawing parallels with unobtainium and how 'green' a movie Avatar is. People have somehow conferred upon this movie the title of the 'most awesomest movie' ever. And someone or the other is constantly digging into the storyline and trying to point out how this movie is actually a comment on the current international political scenario.

Chill guys. This is just a great great piece of entertainment. Nothing else.

TED Mysore

This thing is AWESOME. Must watch it. For every guy who is into technology.

TED Mysore - Pranav Mistry.

The guy Pranav Mistry is an IIT alumnus and currently a PhD student at the Mecca of engineering (MIT).

He was speaking at TED conference in Mysore, India, 2009.

Really good ones

I have come across quotes which strike the mind after a long long time.

Only the mediocre are always at their best.
- Jean Giraudoux

This is so true. Everyone wants to be above average but do not understand that for the term "average" to exist there should be equal number of people below it. No one is at their best all the time.



Let is take things as we find them; let us not distort them into what they are not. We cannot make facts. All our wishing cannot change them. We must use them.
- John Henry Cardinal Newman

Now I liked this one. I have been listening to people say shit about what should be ideal and that the ideal solution is only the ideal solution without accounting for reality. This quote just reflects and emphasizes what I want to say.


And this one is just too cool:-

The governments view of the economy can be summed up in few short phrases; If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, regulate it.
- Ronald Reagan

Pamuk

I want to read Orhan Pamuk

Gen. A. S. Vaidya

Fonseca, in a letter to the Lankan president, mentioned about an Indian army general we might have never ever heard the name of. General Arun Sridhar Vaidya. He was the one who planned operation bluestar and got us rid of militancy in one part of the country forever. The price he paid for this was his life. Terrorists pumped 8-9 bullets in his head and neck after he retired. Fonseka feared that he might have the same fate and might be killed by the remnants of LTTE.

What is similar and should be noted that these men, inspite of knowing the perils to their life, put the country at the highest priority.
And also that people like Vaidya are forever remembered by people who know the value of his contribution, by acknowledging him 23 years down the line in some country other than his own.

The True Ultra Nationalist

"I strongly believe that Sri Lanka belongs to the Sinhalese, but there are minority communities and we treat them like our people. They can live in this country with us. But they must not try to, under the pretext of being a minority, demand undue things."
- General Sarath Fonseka (CDS of Sri-Lankan defence forces and a beloved war hero for the Lankans)

General Fonseka , in my opinion truly resembles the ultra nationalist who is one of the rare few who have a vision for their country. Even if this statement clearly displays his racial bias against the Tamils, he looks like the person who knows what should be done and has the power to do whatever should be done to lead his country into being a successful one; one with equality and justuce for people of all races.
Fonseka wants to quit the army and serve the nation in some other capacity, that of the president. May he become that and may we have everlasting peace in atleast one of our neighbouring country

3 years to live

What would you do if you had only 3 years to live your life to its fullest???

Rediff posed this question to people and I decided to dig deep into the answers 3 men came up with.

Man 1 says(name withheld to protect privacy although you can google this article up and find who the fuck he is)

1. I shall travel all the world by plane.

2. I shall date as many girls as I can.

3. I want to kiss Aishwarya Rai.

4. I want to taste non-vegetarian food to see how it feels, because I am vegetarian.

5. I shall leave my job and go home to live with my family in my village.

6. I shall stop doing everything else and give all my time to my wife and daughter.

7. I shall go to gambling bars and play upto such a time that I have either nothing left to lose or win so much that I go to sleep right there.

8. I shall attend the marriages of all my relatives, which I used to miss when I had my job.

9. I shall buy a car and drive it for as long as I can.

10. I shall play cartoon games so as to remain happy upto the end of life.

See the order of the highlighted answers.

Also see Man 2:

1. Keep reducing my extra weight and get slim before I die.

2. Have sex for 1-2 weeks.

3. Resign from my job and spend time with my parents.

4. Spend time with disabled children.

5. Fly a fighter jet (getting permission to do so somehow).

6. Roam extensively around India to all religious places.

7. Visit the most haunted place in India.

8. Tell the girl I love how I feel and ask for a date.

9. Eat the most exotic vegetarian delicacies in India.

Again he got the order wrong.

Man 3 is a little less pervert

1. Spend most of the time with my wife and kids.

2. Visit America's Las Vegas.

3. Liquidate all my investments.

4. Slap all my foes.

5. Fall in love.

6. Throw a party and invite everybody in town.

7. Fly a fighter plane.

8. Stop going to work.

9. Dance will all good-looking girls.

10. Die near water, holding my kids' hands.

You can clearly see that men love sex more than anything else!!!!!

Harlots

I remembered this while posting the last post... has anyone heard Charlot the Harlot? or 22 Acacia Avenue?

For the guys who haven't, I strongly recommend it

:-D

Quote

If you would not step into the Harlot's house, do not go by the Harlot's door.

- Thomas Secker

I do not know why I liked this one. But somehow this makes sense.

Now what?

After this clarification by Mr. Santhanam, I think the issue is pretty much clear. I wonder what the defence ministry has to say. It should be accepted that we do not have a H-Bomb. And that we wasted 11 years when we could have acted upon the failure and set things right. We have become a laughing stock for our adversaries. Our scam has been exposed. The Pakistanis will be stupid if they let us strong arm them and the Chinese will be stupid if they do not strong arm us.

A political failure which threatens to build insecurity in people's mind will only lead to instability and a weak government which will result in more patronizing of us by our not so friendly and also friendly neighbours.

A 'no first-strike policy does not have any meaning if you do not have the weapons, forget the capability for a second strike. When we developed nuclear subs and water-to-land misiles and displayed them with pride to showcase our second strike capability, we somehow chose to ignore the fact that we do not have enough and effective warheads to be mounted on them.

India won't be allowed to get away with this hollow exposure of national security. Isnt it is a strange co-incidence that the number of incursions by China from across the border and mischief from the Pakistanis at the western border increased manifold since the day Mr. Santhanam brought the nuclear program out of the closet?

The NDA which prided itself on being the government which carried out the Pokhran tests should hang their heads in shame. The Congress more so because it did not correct the failure of the past when they could and for dismissing things so obivously visible instead of accepting them and making future plans to achieve nuclear capability.

For the first time in my life of 20 years, I feel insecure about India's integrity in the future. Hope someone is listening and has balls to do the right thing.

Curiousity

Seize the moment of excited curiosity on any subject to solve your doubts; for if you let it pass, the desire may never return, and you may remain in ignorance.

- William Wirt

I have come to believe in this statement in my pre-final year of engineering. And I enjoy doing this. I wish I had known this earlier.

good one

Think twice before you speak, and then you may be able to say something more insulting than if you spoke right out at once.
- Evan Esar

Muzumdar leaving home

Muzumdar is leaving 38 times Ranji holders Mumbai this season for minnows Assam. See here.
I do not to agree with his decision to leave Mumbai. His argument that playing for Assam will help reinvent himself as a batsman and captain seems inadequate. In Ranji Trophy cricket, earning a Mumbai call up is equivalent to earning the baggy green in Australia. I believe any player if given the option would like to be the 12th man wearing the baggy green than be the captain of minnow side. There is surely more to this than meets the eye.
As an ardent Mumbai cricket fan, I am deeply saddened by the prospect of not seeing Mazumdar in the starting line up this next time when Mumbai step out on Wankhede to defend their title and to earn their record 39th title. Although batsmen like Jaffer, Rahane and Sharma will ensure that batting department is looked after well, the abscence of Mazumdar is bound to be felt. He was the Prodigal son of Mumbai cricket and we fans have always looked upon him to deliver the goods when the time had come.
Although his role in the lineup was similar to Dravid's role in the Indian team, I will not call him as 'The Wall' or 'Dravid'of Mumbai. It was due to sheer luck that out of Dravid and Muzumdar, both batsmen of immensely great talent, Dravid got the call ahead of Muzumdar. Dravid capitalised on his goods and Muzumdar never got a look in later. God knows had Muzumdar got a call before Dravid, he would have ended up being the Wall. He is probably the best example of the abundance of talent in Mumbai cricket. He was the batsman who sat padded up for 3 days continuously in the dressing room because Tendulkar and Kambli were out there scoring a record 350 partnership in the school league (they all were schoolmates and played for the team). He is probably one of the few players in the world who could have warranted a place in any international side in the world. Ironically he is also one of the rare few of them who did not get to represent any.
He is 31 runs away from being the all times highest run scorer in Ranji Trophy history. I pray that he achieves this record at the earliest and hopefully sometime in the future retrns to play one last time for his home - Mumbai

Good one

During periods of relaxation after concentrated intellectual activity, the intuitive mind seems to take over and can produce the sudden clarifying insights which give so much joy and delight.

- Fritjof Capra, physicist

Dhammapada

Travel only with thy equals or thy betters; if there are none, travel alone.

- The Dhammapada