India as Indians(?) want it

Neo humanis, Terrorsim and educaiotn

2008-12-01T19:41:00.000-08:00

These are extracts from some of the articles in the US:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Editorial/Jihads_True_Face/articleshow/3781351.cms
1. One lady writes "if, as now seems likely, last week's terrible events in Mumbai were the work of Islamic terrorists, that's more bad news for India's minority Muslim population."
She is afraid of the repurcussions of the attcks.Nothing surprising, right?
Well she is afraid not of further attacks but, the treatment that woudl be meted out to In dian Muslim youth - she feels that they would be rounded up and edetained without any inquiry and discretion. She further deplores the "inhuman" Hindu terror acts sagainst Indian muslim - does she mean the Godhra carnage (conveniently forgetting what happened before that?) But what about the Mumbia blasts and hijacking (when Masood Azhar got freed)
She goes on to say that this is same as the neo-racialism going on in the US (post 9/11).
2. There is another gentleman (has to be as he is a US citizen), who points out - "the Mumbai catastrophe underscores the importance of vocabulary". That terror be treated only barbarism and not war. True, though it doesn't much change the effect and loss.
Now let us look at his reason (and for those of you preparing for GRE and GMATs be very attentive):
"The former implies a cause: a national or tribal or ethnic rationale that infuses a sacrificial action with some group's view of heroism; the latter is an assault on civilised values, everyone's. ... To the degree barbarism is a part of the human condition, Mumbai must be understood not just as an act related to a particular group but as an outbreak of pent-up irrationality that can occur anywhere, anytime. It may be true that the perpetrators viewed themselves as somehow justified in attacking Indians and visiting foreigners, particularly perhaps Americans, British and Israeli nationals. But a response that is the least nationalistic is likely to be the most effective."
So very enlightening (more about his "unfeeling" character, and ) thoughts about English. And he further that the retaliation shouldn't be based on nationalistic would be most effective.

But has she forgotten that this is not new in India, we were terror targets since long before US acknowledged the existence of the word in the dictionaries. Or as is more probable, she must have felt that if her country doesn't believe that India is abeing "terror"ised then that alone can be the truth. Which US citizen would have/does care for any other country, anyway? If this is what humanity is alla bout, then I think we need a new word to describe the selfeless souls who sacrifice themselves for the sake of others, and not just give armchair comments.

And dude tell me what would be your reaction, if your kids were shot at point blank range when they went out for lunch? And u think the reaction shouldn't be nationalistic? Would India have to wait for a UN force to come? And let the loss of life continue? Can you get any more meaningless than that?

And the pity is these two are professors at University of Chicago and Princeton. What sort of effect would people like this have on the taught. Be liberal, no one says it is wrong, but don't be hypocritic. And the greater pity is Indian students line up for these Universities - and many people in India still find it easy to believe that the education standards there are better, all round personality devolopment they say - Under such teachers? Well a generation that venerated the West is ruling us, and the effects are clear. When will we change, or will we?

When Blue turns Red

2007-10-09T01:09:00.000-07:00

Its amazing how forgivingly short our memories are, how apathetic our Government is and how indifferent and unconcerned the wrong-doers and watchers are.
Before I start here's a slight digression.
As per the Hindu religion (or culture?) blue is the color of Vishnu, the protector - an apostle of wisdom, a God whose calmness and "no haste" policy has been well written about by many. And red is the color one associates with more fiery deities like Goddess Durga, Kali and the like. The very impersonation of anger. They(esp. Kali) are usually depicted with a "blood-dripping-severed-head" of a demon in their hand and in a dance pose that incites fear more than devotion. The very opposite of Vishnu except for the fact that both are divine.
Now, to the present. It was something that Delhi-ites probably couldnt have done without. It was the was one the major public transport services - the "BlueLine". And I use was, intentionally. Till 4 years ago, as far as I know, it was doing good, if not great, service to the "too-busy-to-care-for-their-neighbors" Delhi-ites (I feel that's how people are throughout the world now).
But before the earth could go round the sun once, the "BlueLine" has begun to leave "Red" trails.
In a country where blue and red are represented as above, just look at the irony. It has killed 93 people in e ;at one year, that is roughly 1 in every 4 days. ( just Google for the data). As my friend asks has the Lord of Death sent them as his agents?
And yet people make a demonstration only when a lives are lost, and the Government, like the true Democracy that India is, makes a noise (read asks for a detailed on "dont-know-and-dont-care-for-what" report to be submitted in 2 days) and then along with the public keeps quiet and the whole cycle repeats - it has been since the last one year at least. (Just imagine the permit of the Bluline buses have been revoked 15 times in a year)
And then comes the icing - the mob beats up the driver and destroys the bus, without even pausing to think that it has given the money for the bus through tickets and taxes. The Government is not be let behind, it announces a compensation of 1 lakh to the family of the deceased, what is it aiming to do by this, washing its hands off? Will the 1 lakh suffice? In a country like India where last rites are as important as any other occasion of life you could well end up spending more than that amount in the "13 days" .
But then all said and done, who cares? For the people its the Government that should work. and for the Government its the people that it employed. Its a cycle where everybody blames everybody and nobody does anything.

Who needs IT?

2007-09-25T21:50:00.000-07:00

This is place for some really serious stuff. Keep out unless you are very sure. Might appear to be biased and may not seem to be objective. But believe me I try my best to be unbiased, rational and objective.
That's it.

Every one's heard of the IT boom. And many were and are a part of it. But how far is it successful and useful in the long run. Come to think of it, even I was a part of it.
I was one of the few(namely 30 of 50) who were hand picked (read selected for no cause) by an IT giant(to name it would be politically wrong, pick any firm - they are all the same) to augment its highly skilled and motivated workforce (of 60K+? ).
Do you get the irony? If you don't just read on, if you do, well, read on again.

In the campus interview conducted - the cutoff was a whopping 70% (in Andhra University this was deemed an almost impossible task for most branches except - it wasn't the problem of students - its a problem of the establishment , more on this later). Now in my college with roughly 700 Engg. pass-outs per year, there weren't even 300 who had cleared all papers on the first attempt (prob being the afore-mentioned). Then of the remaining hardly half managed the cutoff, so on the whole 200 students took the test. Of this the top 50 were selected (and we were told they had no upper limit for the intake, then why only 50?).

An then stage two: The training was supposed to be in Trivandrum in a facility built exclusively for training - but the few hand picked numbers were so high that nearly at least 4 more training centers had to be used. But Indians being what we are, no one was much concerned about this inability of an IT Giant. After all if a government can fail what is an IT firm in comparison?

And now the posting: How can anyone in a sane mind believe that a firm with 60K+ employees boast of a highly skilled, motivated and-all-the-good no great adjectives workforce? The firm then would be the country's very best and just think of the country - if really 60K people were so gifted wont the country be very different from what it is? But then this is India and we are Indians in an era of Globalisation, a time when and a place where everyone speaks of themselves in the best possible superlatives - people have been forced to lose their modesty - you have to boast of your "achievements", even if it is only a class-third in a 2 student when you were in your third grade.
Unfortunately the so called IT boom has given a variant of this "boast" and "gorilla style chest thumping" virus to the academic world.
That is the only contribution the IT boom has done to India. Otherwise, it has been pretty lack-lusture performance.Lets try to read between the lines of the IT claims:
1. High salary: Can't be maintained in the face of an appreciating Rupee - are they partly responsible for keeping the Rupee down? Might be.
Ask any IT firm employee - (s)he would vouch for the low pay to work ratio.
2. Skilled workforce: Every Tom, Dick and Harry (or their Indian counterparts) can get into these firms by hook or crook. Definitely skilled they must be in using loopholes of the law.
3. Add to the country's economic baseline: And those who are not of this set are the really skilled ones. But by their so-called high pay and career development these people are lured away from places which really take not just the country but humanity forward (thank the IT firms for not recruiting doctors and surgeons)
And finally what is it that they do - they just maintain some old code and provide support to applications coded by someone else - really a very demanding and mentally challenging task for all their "skilled workforce" (satire intended if you don't get it)
To conclude - some things are better left to imagination.