Here we go again

Serial Bomb blasts rocked the Indian capital taking 21 lives and leaving scores of others injured.
The ineptitude of the administration is borne out the fact that this blast follows close on the heels of similar blasts in Bangalore,Jaipur and Ahmadabad. If you go back further in fact no convictions have been obtained in blasts that happened in 2005.
So while the United States has found to its detriment, that invading nations under the guise of pre-emptive action or the Bush doctrine has serious drawbacks, one thing they can say in their defence is that there has not been a single attack on US soil since 9/11.
Not for a minute am I advocating the need for military action against some of India's neighbors who have no doubt harbored elements behind these blasts. However one has to point out the typical Indian response of condemning the blasts, pleading for communal peace, and breathing a sigh of relief when no riots take place, is not going to put an end to these blasts.
India's current woes have many reasons and I don't know that I'll have a chance to touch on all of them , so I'll list them as I go along.

Treatment of minorities:
One of the sad repercussions of the manner in which our independence was accompanied by a most bloody and brutal partition, is that there is a certain hostility towards minorities within sections of Indian society. That hostility has only sharpened in the recent past with the the rise of Islamic terror the world over.
Sure Hinduism preaches tolerance, but somewhere in the past 60 years relations between the two major communities has frayed. This has not been adequately acknowledged so the chances that this situation would be remedied anytime soon are remote.
Economically Muslims are relatively disadvantaged by a large portion of the population not having access to a modern education system. And the ones who have had educational opportunities have no doubt faced a subtle and sometimes not so subtle discrimination in the job market.
Recently I read an article of how certain housing societies discriminate against Muslim tenants and owners. For the life of me I can't understand how that would be legal or permissible. We aren't talking about some back room practice, but a widely prevalent practice.
We complain of ghettoisation while ignoring the causes.
None of the state police forces have adequate representation of the Muslim community, which makes intelligence gathering difficult.
The community often perceives the state as being partisan in going against its interests as it saw in Gujarat 2002.
Such issues cannot be solved by police alone. Reservations , I don't think will have the desired affect either. A more concerted effort to work towards integrating The Muslim community into the main stream is needed. More money has to to be spent on education in areas where Muslims reside. Laws that protect against discrimination in housing, education and employment must be invoked and enforced. Laws currently protect Scheduled Castes and Dalits from insults, slurs and atrocities in general. Such protections should be extended to the Muslim community.
So will all this fix the issue?
No , since the animosity amongst the majority community against the minority community has its origins in the way the community has been handled by the administration in general.
Uniform Civil Code , can't be forced down people's throats, however laws which are imposed in modern moderate Islamic Republics such as Indonesia should be fair game for us. There is no excuse for our personal laws being more regressive than an Islamic nation , when we are a "Secular" nation.
Subsidies for pilgrimages of any and all kind should be withdrawn.
Now all this can only be achieved in partnership with an enlightened Muslim leadership which actually believes that these steps are indeed directed towards the betterment of their community.
The message has to be sent out to the right wing loonies, that no re-jig of the partition is possible. Close to 15% of India's population is Muslim and there is no way they can alter that reality. So the only way in which we can move forward as a nation is together. Leaving behind such a huge chunk of our population is neither conscionable nor wise.

A demoralized police force and an overwhelmed judicary
The backlog of cases in Indian courts is stuff of legend. The police in most parts is feared but not respected. The quality and training of Police forces in India vary from state to state. However the mediocrity is frighteningly consistent.
Being a policeman in India usually means you are overworked and underpaid and defintely under-trained. Politcial interference means that the few in the force who are both capable and honest have very little scope for advancement.
Just recently Israeli Police interrogated their Prime Minister on bribery charges. Would this have ever been possible in India.
Most people go about their day today lives praying that they wont have to encounter the police or the legal system in any way, shape or form.
I just finished reading a book which basically applies the broken windows theory, to explain how crime in New York suddenly dropped off in the 90's.
So though you can argue(quite effectively) that the broken windows theory can't be applied to the bizzare logic of islamic terorism, surely there are things on this front that need fixing which will allow us to respond to law and order threats affectively?

Need to foster a give and take relationship with our neighbors
Like it or not India is viewed as a bully in the neighborhood.
And often enough its the small things that make a difference. I am not advocating the Gujral doctrine of buying love from the neighbors, but surely there are certain issues on which we can give without losing much.

I don't expect that Anyone of consequence is going to read this and sit up and take notice.
So dear reader its incumbent on you to pass on the good word, till it reaches the ears of those who matter.

And you have the right not to be .....

I read a story today about how the Supreme Court of India had to clarify that just because a woman had a past history of promiscuity, it did not give anyone the licence to engage in intercourse with her without her consent. I am not sure how to react. The Supreme Courts judgement though right calls into question how such a defence was mounted in the first place.
The Supreme court's intervention was required because the High Court acquitted the accused on the basis of the past sexual history of the victim.
We are not talking about some Kangaroo Court. That the High Court of an Indian state can pass such a judgement is appalling and outrageous and sadly betrays a very unenlightened view of a woman's role in society But more imoportantly it takes away a more fundamental right, a right not to be sexually assaulted under any pretext.

Irony if there was any

I recently read a story about Barak Obama's half brother who grew up in Kenya.
I wonder if only I am struck by the irony of Barak Obama's father , naming the son who was to grow up in Kenya George Obama, while naming his son who was to grow up to be canidate for President of the United States, Barak Hussien Obama.
Can't imagine little Barak had it easy in school, but it sure has payed of now. Barak is now uber cool, while George well, that name isn't doing to well right now, along with Dubya and Bush.

The democrats are coming!

I just finsished listening to Hillary's speech at the Democratic convention. The convention closed with a prayer from a Korean pastor from Colarado.
So now that the democrats have the Korean vote sewed up, now the heat is on for the Republicans!

Phelps is the greatest But .....

The Beijing Olympics is drawing to a close and depending on which country you reside in, each has a certain view of the story of the Olympics.
In the US , its been Phelps all the way with the 'Redeem Team' serving as a sidebar.
Now if the US men's basketball team had failed to secure the gold , then that would have garnered a lot more media coverage.
I hate being a sourpuss and at the same time, I do beleive that Phelps has done the unfathomable, But .....
It has to be said that the number of medals awarded in various discplines is disproportionate. Swimming is a case in point. They have medals for the free-style,butterfly,breaststroke,backstroke in various permutations and combinations of distances. Which basically allows a phenom like Phelps to have an almost disproportionate impact on the Olympics. Team sports such as Basketball,Hockey,Volleyball have one medal for their trouble.
And for those who don't beleive that medals don't count, well just repeat that to your self slowly in ftont of a mirror, and I guarantee you will burst out laughing.

Delusions of Granduer

Now this post is about the Olympics, and for once I couldn't think of an eye catching title that would say it all.
I have been following the Olympics though not as closely as others. Swimming doesn't exactly get my pulse racing as a spectator sport and that seems to have been the story of the Olympics, if you live in the States.
So while we were all collectively obsessing over Phelps, his feats his , his diet and his i-pod playlist, China has taken an unassailable lead at the top of the medal standings.
The thing is you wouldn't be able to tell, since most of the medal standings on American websites are sorted by total medals, rather than gold medals as it has been for the ages.
All you need to do is pull up a non us website and you see the truth for what it is, the winner in these games has been crowned. And it ain't U-S-A.

Father time comes calling

When life passes by at the rate if knots its often tough to fathom how we age.
But there are always somethings that remind you. Whether its the impeding retirement of a childhold sporting favorite, or the hearth throb who now plays mom roles in movies.
I can safely say that every Indian old enough to follow cricket from the early nineties, will collectively get that feeling about time having flown, when the inevitable happens, and India's favorite son Sachin Tendulkar retires from the game of cricket.
Indian crickets misery will be compounded by the fact that the rest of the Indian batting middle order is around the same age as Tendulkar. The firm of Ganguly,Laxman and Dravid have been eased out of the one day set up and the time approaches, when they we will no longer be able to delight in their exploits on the cricket field.
Test cricket played over 5 days expose the tiniest of weaknesses and can be a brutal to a young team. So the Indian administrators have the unenviable task of easing out these greats gradually, though individually , it might not be fair to set one and not the other out to the pasture.
The Indian in the past year or so have been nauseatingly following a familiar script, where the runs are scored by opener Sehwag and if the bowlers do well we win. If either or both these elements fail we end up on the losing end.
In the latest tour of Sri Lanka, the middle order has collectively failed. And to add insult to injury, the fielding has been unspectacular.
I am not sure who will draw the short straw, but to save Indian cricket the pains of losing a generation of its best at the same time, we have to do something very un-indian and show the door to a legend before his time.
I am not sure who that would be be, but its guaranteed to be painful.

Carbon Credits for air travel.

A while back I read that taking a single long distance flight was worse in terms of carbon emissions than driviing an SUV for a full year(for a single person).
And I said to myself, yeah right, what do you want me to do about that.
After all man has been travelling ever since we learnt to walk erect I imagine.
And which damn fool would be willing to shell out money on buying offsets after spending a fortune on a ticket. Well out of curiosity I checked how much it would cost me at this website.
http://www.terrapass.com/. Turns out its not the bundle I thought it would be.
A return trip from New york to Delhi would set you back by $40. Not exactly chump change. But possibly 1/30 the price of the ticket.

Afganistan Idol Ok, but no Dancing with the stars.

Not one nation questioned the American(coalition) invasion of Afghanistan.
Ridding Afghanistan of the Taliban seemed like a good idea to most.
Stories routinely came out citing how regressive the Taliban was, they banned music on the radio for , dancing on tv. They were intent on taking back Afghanistan into the Stone Age.
So most supported the notion that America had done the right thing.
Now almost 6 years later. Where does Afghanistan stand?
Well I'll keep it short.
Afghanistan's fledgling Parliament just passed a law banning dancing on television.
Need I say more?
As they say the path to Hell is littered with good intentions.

Dialogue the way forward in Tibet?

Tibet is slowly fading from the headlines but for those who have been following this topic, theo ne thing that must have stood out in the incessant invective being hurled by the Chinese administration at the Dalai Lama. Now I feel no personal sense of attachment to the Dalai Lama, but by all accounts he is a man of honour and doesn't deserve the constant abuse.
And whats the carrot that the Dalai Lama is after? Talks with China.
Even for the lay observer its not hard to spot why the Chinese will never negotiate with the Dalai Lama.
The world as a whole as given up the Tibetean cause as dead for a long time now. There is no violent insurgency raging. There is no external power actively using the Tibetean case against the Chinese. Hence there is no incentive to negotiate.
China resembles the USSR of old. A disparte collection of nations held together by an iron hand.
But the Chinese have learnt for the disintegration of USSR, and have certain that that would not happen to them.
Autnomy/self rule etc are all a pipe-dream for now. The CCP is not made up of humanitarians.
So then on what basis does te Dalai Lama seek negotiations?

Obama the champion of the round toss?

In terms of a Presidential canidate with charisma, Obama stands second to only Bill Clinton.
He certainly would represent an upgrade over the incumbent.
I can't positively say that Hillary is a better option either.
Then why am I a little hesitant at the prospect of him running off against John McCain?
Partly because its my considered opinion that America is still not ready for a Minority Community President.
And the second reason goes back to by school days in India.
We were a class of approximately 100(if I remember correctly). The girls were'nt hot enough to hold our ineterst and they were probably 20 in number. The one thing we could do in break time was to rush to the 3 ping pong tables. Now some 60 guys rushing for a 30 minute break to 3 ping-pong table made it a tough task for everyone to gain access to the said Shangri La.
So to decide who got to play, we Had a round toss.
Basically all of us going around the table keeping the ball in play. When you could'nt you were no longer in contention.
Now I wasn't particulary good at ping pong. But mastered the round toss. So I always got to play.
Coming back to Obama, my fear is he has mastered the primary round toss, but will he falter in running the nation?
I guess that kind of doubt can be directed at any canidate. But Obama of "Yes we can" has staked an awful lot on his likeability.
Well I guess only time will tell.

The Mahatma and Tibet

If you have read Tibetean writing on their affairs prior to thier forceful "liberation" by China, thehy make a convincing case for thier independence.
But is this thier ultimate aim? I mean they will be the first to acknowledge that China is not going to not just grant them independence, especially on moral grounds, in response to a non-violent struggle.
There is no military solution possible either, China is much too powerful militarily.
The Dalai Lama has often cited his admiration for Mahatama Gandhi and the non-violent means he adopted to secure independence from India from the British.
So it might be interesting to examine wether a Mahatma could have made a difference in the Tibetean struggle. Or wether the Dalai Lama can forge a resoultion with his current tactics of non-violence.
Mahatma Gandhi had at his disposal a nation much larger than their rulers and our sheer numbers were always wieghted in India's favor. Not so when you compare the 5.5million Tibetean population to the 1billion Chinese.
Geography was another factor, the British realised that it had become increasingly less profitable to run an empire long distance. Again Tibet doesn't have that luxury especially with the railway line China has built to Tibet.
At the time India gained its independence, Britain was a power in decline badly crippled by a war that ha claimed an entre generation of its best and brightest.
China on the other hand has been on a spectacular growth streak, that shows now signs of abating.
Finally the British had a free press and a parliament, and enlightened people who were capable of asking for the moral justification in running colonies when they had just fought of the Nazi's in a brutal war to preserve freedom, democracy and equality.
No such qualms on China's side either.
I have no access to a gallup poll, but I'll wager that a majority of Chinese, are in favor of strong arm tactics to put down demonstrations in Tibet. Well even if I was wrong, it not like there is free press in China to tell me about it.
So in the ultimate analysis , Mahatma Gandhi would not have been able to do jack for Tibet.

The Tibet situation Again...

Looking at the Chinese government's predictable reaction of "crushing" the unrest in Tibet, I am reminded of a story I read while in school.
The story was of the might oak and the reed. And this gist of it was that the oak stood firm and looked strong and was strong, the reeds on the other had were weak and swayed in the slightest wind.
And then one night in a mighty storm the Oak because it stood so firm was uprooted. The reed despite the buffeting, since they swayed, managed to survive.
So standing firm is not always the virtue its made out to be. Maybe once in a while a little swaying is in order.

A tale of two civilizations

The two civilizations that fascinate me the most are the Indian and Chinese.
Having lived in the states for a while and having had the opportunity to interact with some Chinses people I can say we have probably more in common then say and Indian and an American.
The histories of both nations follows a similar pattern too. Both were powerhouses(cultural,economic and scientific) in ancient times, ruled by feudal warlords for the most part.
Both were bullied by colonial powers before starting out their futures as modern nations at rougly the same time.
But something went seriously awry at that point. While India chose the path of representative democracy, The chinese went the way of the authoritarian communism.
Why repeat a past everyone is aware of?
Merely to point out the extent of the gulf that exists between these 2 neighbours.
While China has Tibet , India has Kashmir.
China as has been witnessed over the last one week, will brook no dissent for its rule in Tibet.
The population has no channel to vent, so occassionally you will see these bouts of violence.
The "cultural genocide" description used by the Dalai Lama is spot on. The Chinese government has shown no inclination in preserving Tibetean culture.
Tibeteans can survive as long as they are willing to accept their fate.
To be honest I can't see things improving for the Tibeteans. In todays world, there is not one nation who isn't wary of China at some level.
Now to come back to the comparison I was drawing.
Not many will know that There is a law that debars Indians from buying land in Kashmir.
So as an Indian citizen, I can buy land in preety much any part of the world, but not in my own country(a part of my own country ie)
Whatever the merits of this law, it was enacted to pacify the average Kashmiri and reassure him that he would not be over run by millions and millions of indians.
China has shown no such restraint with Tibet.
I can't expect the Cinese government to change the way it deals with its problems,
But really would it be so bad to give the Tibeteans a voice?
Whats a few peaceful demonstartions with no media coverage going to accomplish in the larger context?
Allow peaceful demonstartions will go some way in ensuring this does'nt turn into a violent struggle(which would just lead to more dead tibeteans)

Hillary vs Barak

I wont pretend to be anything more than a weekend analyst.
And none of the views expressed hence will can be entirely original given the relentless scrutiny that this face-off has received by the media and political pundits.
Let me start off by tackling the most sensitive question first.
Is America ready to have a black president? Or for that matter has this nation reached a point where that issue does not matter?
Its been an observation of mine, that no matter what we think about ourselves , we do tend to pre-judge people based on their origins their appearance etc. Which would mean we are all atleast a little racist.
I know , that nobody reading this will be thumping their desks in agreement (How can anyone be a little racist , its like saying some one's a little gay!!!)
Despite what we see in the Democratic primaries my feeling is that a country that's 70+% white is not quite ready to be run by a black man.
Now it would be a grave injustice to Obama to look beyond his credentials and go right for his race. After all he never appealed for votes on anything other than his credentials for the job.
Well he did'nt have to. based on some reports around 80% of the black vote in the primaries went Obama's way. Hillary on the other hand did'nt have the benefit of the "white" vote.
But then how do you explain the Obama victories in overwhelmingly white states?
My weekend analyst flippancy allows me to drag out this theory.
Obama's victories in white states has been due to superb organization and also the low overall democratic votes being cast. Not a whole of states Obama has won in the primaries are going Obama's way in a presidential election.
But what about Hillary?
She has won democratic strong holds like California and New York that would swing democrat no matter what.
So whom to pick?
Who can go toe to toe with McCain is the question.
McCain , has the independent anti establishment aura that is Barak Obama's turf.
So he will be able to attract a fair share of the independent vote.
His perceived weakness has been the conservative base of the party.
But nothing is more likely to bring out the conservative base to vote, if not for Obama running opposed to him.
My educated guess is that young educated urbane voter will plump for Obama.
But what of those with families and bleak economic prospects?
Ultimately ,it might just boil down to which democrat can win in Ohio and Florida , the 2 states that have time and again been responsible for electing a US president.
Bottom line don't read too much into Barak Obama's stunning primary success , this is a dog-fight and no matter who wins, a battered Republican party has chosen the right man maybe eight years too late.

With great power comes some responsibility

I got a chance to flip through a few pages of "The Walmart Economy" and a couple of things that tended to stick out were , Walmart had tremendous sway over its suppliers and that its margins were shockingly low(niether observation is earth shattering I am sure).
But it got me thinking about how Walmart could influence what the consumers bought.
Take the example of CFL's over regular light bulbs. Nations such as Australia are actually moving lesgislation in this regard(based on a quick googling effort)
Since CFL's use 66% less electricity then incandescent bulbs. Now figure that into the number of times the average individual forgets to turn lights off.
I am not trying to make the case for CFL's since I think this is a well beaten path.
Consider for a moment the propostiion that Walmart simply chose to stop selling incandescent bulbs in favor of CFLS's(In concert with other huge retailers)
Would't this go a long way in ensuring millions switch to CFL's?
Its all well and good to offer people choice and let them decide , but just as we have come to the conclusion that smoking is injurious by way of second hand smoke, why can't we agree that a individual's injudicious environmental choice affects us all?
So how about it Walmart? Would you be willing to discontinue one of your thousands product lines 3-4% margin for the greater good?
And how about it Target you think you can chip in as well?

The folly that is ethanol

I walked into a small bakery/deli and decided to get a muffin(non-fat and no sugar chocolate if you wanted to know, and as you can imagine it tasted nothing like what I would want it to taste like)
As I was paying, I noticed a sign by the register. It was a notice informing customers of a price increase due in a couple of days. The sign went on to explain that this was because the steepling input costs (sample this tripling of egg prices in 7months).
This brings me to a well known problem we are facing and will probably worsen in the immediate future.
With Iraq not looking particulary good and under fire on other fronts as well. In his state of union address in January 2007, bereft on any other big plans President Bush outlined the need to use ethanol as a part substitute for oil(used as an additive). Ethanol would reduce the use of fossil fuels and thereby reduce green house gasses, so that evolutionary, his ideas were'nt on the surface moronic. (a term one has used in context of the Iraq war)
But here is the catch, in a bid to get his conservative base excited he cast it as an attempt to reduce dependance of "middle eastern oil".
So America is supposed to produce corn based ethanol. So whats the problem you ask?
It requires more energy to produce ethanol from corn than would be produced by useing the ethanol so created.
Also corn happens to be a food crop that ties into the entire food cycle, its used to feed livestock and also feed us directly.
Bush's stress on ethanol without allowing for imports from efficient cane based producers of ethanol like Brazil is one of the major reasons basic food items are a lot more expensive in the US.
Now would'nt a tax on fuel at the pump that would be used to fund research into cleaner and renewable energy sources work better?
What would people preffer? More expensive gas or more expensive everything else,. Admittedly the choise isn't as stark as I make it out to be.
But what astounds me is people responsible for running this great country do not seem to think things through an old failing I might add.

The Indo-American nuclear Deal

I am cutting into seriously needed sleep time to post this. So forgive factual errors if any.
I just read that The UPA government has finally given into the presssure exerted by the Left Front and decided to 'go-slow' whatever that mine mean on the nuclear deal.
Let us first examine the facts at hand.
India carried out a set of nuclear tests in 1998 and in response the US and preety much the rest of the potrntial nuclear suppliers imposed sanctions on high-technology trade with India. After years of negotiaitions in which India was never in a position of strenght we got a deal which the Americans admit will not be offered to anyone else.
Circumstatial evidence I admit, but exhibit A , Pakistan asks for a similar deal and China cries foul. Sounds like the deal might actually be in India's interest after all.
Now last I checked we have a nation of a billion growing at a rate of 9%. Last I checked we were importing 70% of our oil requirement. So based on just those 2 facts we are a nation with a serious need for energy. Where does this energy come from? $80 a barrel of oil (mixed with kerosene in India) is an option. The third and most promising option is for someone to invent a way to harness energy from all the Hot air that the communists so ceaselessly generate.
Since the aam aadmi can't pay for the real price of oil,
maybe just maybe we can generate some nuclear energy(To be honest I am not comepletly sold on the environmental aspects of nuclear energy, But since this hasn't figured in the protestations of the left , we will let it be for now).

Not if the Left can help it though , they have put a spanner in the works based on something to do with India mortgaging its soveriegnity. This is rich coming from an organisation that critised the nuclear tests in the first place.
What galls me most is that the left hasn't pointed out anything inherently wrong with the deal.
So all it boils down to is another 'cholbe na' protest that has no rhyme or reason. Only this time it costs the entire nation.
Make no mistake , Indian communists , every time they have had a chance , have proved that they are guided more by outmoded ideology, than any sense of what might be India's national Interest. And here am being less than harsh lest I really reveal what I think of those idiots.

Gee Whiz!

This very much a "I can't believe I did'nt think of this earlier" moment for me.
I knew people have been touting electric cars over gasoline ones for ages. I understood that the vehicular emissions would be reduced, but would this really help? Since we were already burning fossil fuels to generate that electricity, not tkaing into account the generation losses.
So why/how then can we use electricity sensibly to power our vehicles?
Another fact that I was aware of leads the way, in this regard.
Electric plants produce a fixed amount of electricity over a day. And that electricty is put on the distribution cables(there is more to it I am sure). Now wether all that electricty is used or none of it is, the same amount of fuel was burnt to generate it.
Efficiencies of operating generation equipment dictate when and how many generators can be fired on and off.
All that really means in times of non-peak demand , there is a significant wastage of the electricity we generate. Why not plug in our cars at that time., to utilize the electricity.

Who wants to be president of India?

The perks of the job include being the titular head of a country of a billion people and the commander in chief of an armed force 1.7 million strong(I might be off a little).
U get palatial accommodation(that includes of all things a zoo and a veterinary hospital) and a presidential body guard.
A jet and a fleet of cars.
Your responsibilities include rubber stamping every decision that the government of the day makes , showing up to great foreign dignitaries and making trips abroad .
Sound good? How do u apply? It would help if u have never trod on any toes. It would help still further if ur Dalt/woman/Muslim or disadvantaged in any other way. Cos then we can say we are progressing We have a Muslim/woman/Dalt/Sikh president.
It doesn't matter what state the actual community is in , if one member of that community has done well for themselves , we can hold it up as a shining example that draws attention away from even more glaring failure.
Another prime qualification would have to be the complete lack of any spine/charisma or personality , which politician wants to be outshone by the ultimate sinecure , the President of India. And who wants to deal with a President with some spine who will actually voice his opinion against patently illegal ordinances that are so much in vogue with the government of the day?
So now that the presidency of one of the most admire men in India , Abdul Kalam
is at an end, its time to elect another 'minority' to the post. A political lightwiegth at best and a sycophant of the Nehru Gandhi dynasty at worst. Turns out that Pratibha Patil fits the bill.
Trust politician after politician to praise the 'wise' choice made by Sonia Gandhi, who is doing so much for the uplift of women by delivering all the comforts that tax payers money can buy to a career politician, who can scarcely claim to be known in the country let alone be admired.

Exercise Physiology page.

I have'nt had the time to go thru this toroughly, but seems preety comprehensive.

A funny analogy

Indian cricket's present predicament of being one of the weaker sides in world cricket but easily the financial life-force of cricket reminds me of a childhood analogy.
As a kid playing cricket in the neighborhood, there was always one rich kid (or one who had indulgent parents) who owned the bat/ball and stumps.
Almost invariably that kid was not as good as some of us who turned up with nothing other than a grin. No prizes for guessing which kid I preferred to be.
I wonder if Indian cricket has been reduced to the kid with the stumps while the others nations flash a grin at out predicament.

Coldplay "Fix You" lyrics.

Could'nt have said this any better.

COLDPLAY LYRICS"Fix You"
When you try your best, but you don't succeed
When you get what you want, but not what you need
When you feel so tired, but you can't sleep
Stuck in reverse
When the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you can't replace
When you love someone, but it goes to waste
Could it be worse?Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones And I will try to fix you
High up above or down below
When you're too in love to let it go
If you never try you'll never know
Just what you're worthLights will guide you home
And ignite your bones And I will try to fix you
Tears stream down your face
When you lose something you cannot replace
Tears stream down your faceAnd I...
Tears stream down on your face
I promise you I will learn from my mistakes
Tears stream down your faceAnd I...
Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you.

32 young lives extinguished

32 young lives extinguished,
with each died hopes and dreams of a future so bright,
32 families in pain, so much anger so much pain.

There will be prayers there will be candles,
There will be Talk of healing and moving on.
None of which can dull the anger or the pain.
Anger unlike pain is a funny beast,

Pain is far more private still.
Tragedy it is in many ways,
Whom do we question and who do we blame?
The madman who fired the shots ,
or the law that allowed the madman to have a gun?
Temples of learning and enlightenment,
turned to killing fields.
Whom do we question and who do we blame?
For all the Anger and Pain.

The anguish of the wooden spooner.

In India, (and amongst Indian's abroad) most can be classified as either in love with the game of cricket and those who don't care much for it. I'll stick my neck out to say, that "those who don't care much are in a minority.
So though I am slowly drifting towards the minority, I would like to articulate the anguish If I can the anguish of a billion people at their one great hope of getting some "Feel good" going for them.
The Indian Cricket Team with more combined experience than a few other nations combined , was unceremoniously dumped out in the qualifying stages of the Cricket World Cup yesterday.
I have a million things to do, but I find myself constantly scanning for news stories on the aftermath of this most ignominious exit.
The post mortem to follow will have the saner voices reminding us that its "just a Game" and that "Nobody died". They will caution us against "Overreacting" and "Chopping and Changing".
Dire warnings will be given with respect to the talent pool .
They will blame the media for raising expectations too high and the adulation of a billion fans as being unbearable pressure.
So 2-3 months from now we will see the same bunch of incompetents save one or two, doing duty for India. Murdering teams at home and doing just enough abroad to create "History"(how does a test win in Ireland sound?).
We react strongly when told of by the likes of Malcom Speed, about our lack of infrastructure for paying spectators , lack of an assemly line of good young players and a lack of results in major tournaments.
We react even morre strongly when Ricky Ponting rightly taunts us about our results.
But make no mistake excuses run their course after a while. No One wants to hear team India's sob story. They are not held to the same stanadard as the rest of us dimwits when it comes to taking home a pay check and delievering results.
Unlike professional footballs teams in the US or the european soccer teams. We have no draft or acquiring players with better pedigrees, to turn this ship around.
So after public anger has died down the same people who criminally spent millions to bring home a wooden spoon will be rehabilitated.
Our 34 year old triumverate who have failed so often in unision , you would believe they are joined at the hip will happily retire on the millions they have earned. Move one to braodcast journalism perhaps, and nothing will change.
This is not just a game and it never was. Those who put on Indian colors know it. On the positive side those in India will have a whole lot less sleepless nights than they had anticipated.

Poor little Rich kids.

So Fortune magazine has gone through its ritual of identifying the worlds billionaires.
Thanks to the ferentic pace of growth witnessed in India, 36 Indian billionaires find themselves on the list. 10 years back I would put this number at 3.
A lot of these freshly minted billionaires have come under media scrutiny as to how they spend to share their billions with the rest of the country for the greater good.
Naturally they have drawn comparisons to billionaires such as Warren Buffet and Bill Gates. Who have pledged their billions to Humanitarian efforts the world around.
No that this affects anyone in particular , but I find this comparison both illogical and unfair.
Warren Buffet and Bill Gates have Billionaires for the last 20-30 years. Their approach to philantrophy has evolved over the years. To expect the same of an Indian paper billionaire is foolhardy. Maybe charity has forever been a game of one upmanship. But for what its worth , its just that, charity - A voluntary generous act or donation to aid those in need.

His excellency The ambassador of a brand

Almost all of us , who have'nt been livign under a rock, have seen a celebrity endorsement of a product. Naturally if a celeb can use a product, its certainly good enough for me.
Maybe a decade back, I heard the term brand ambassador being bandied about. Usually it was to assosciate one celeb in particular with the brand, and the brands were usually premium brands(at least by Indian standards). The term ambassador, had to stand for something regal right? Wrong. I just read that Priety Zinta has been decalred a "Brand ambassador" for something as mundane as Rexona Deo.
For the life of me I can't figure out how a deo will make its way into a classy converstaion.
"Damn , have u heard of deo" doesn't count. Nor can I quite imagine anyone associating apreety lass like Priety with deo either. "God Priety makes a perfect ambassador for Rexona Deo, she sweats like a hound dog on a hot summer day , but u can't tell, cos she has a life time supplyy of rexona deo".
So marketing folks who make a lot more than I do, take a moment and maybe a breath or two, before u decide to get a brand ambassador for the next ,mousetrap.

Oh yes ! We made it.

I took 3 local flights within europe on "low cost" airlines.. And the one thing I noted in each case was that when we landed , people broke into frenzied clapping. As if they didn't expect to land.
Ah well we were flying budget can't be too harsh on them for clapping.

Welcome aboard Mr. Ottawa Dhulipala

I was on the last leg of my european trip flying from madrid to paris. Checking in at the Ryanair counter I handed over my passport over as identification. All this is routine so I did'nt pay any attention till I got back my boarding pass. As I stepped Away from the counter , I saw Ottawa very clearly written as my first name. The security environment at the airports being as it is I headed back to the counter to get this error fixed.
The clerk at the counter pointed to my US visa which had listed Ottawa as the issuing location right above my last name Dhuliapala.
I can't figure out whats funnier, the fact that he made thew mistake or thought that Ottawa was a fine first name to go with Dhulipala. I am sure Ivana Humpalot would have gone past his vast intellect just as easily.

Oh what tangled webs we weave

Wandering through life wthout a sense of purpose,
Stopping only when we see a treat,
Empathy is not for we
Oh what tangled webs we weave.

Walking through life as a child in a candy store,
Unsure of what we want, grabbing at what looks good.
Only to realise that it tastes not nice.
Oh what tangled webs we weave.

Searching for love searching for succour,
But how do we do that when we cannot trust,
Life is hard and we make it harder still,
The more we connect the more we are alone.
Oh what tangled webs we weave.

Conclusions you will not find in this languid,
little verse of mine.
Here's to hoping we find a resolution
To this game we call life ,
and if you don't just remember what a wise woman said,
Hate not the player when its really the game that u hate.

So why do we need God really?

A rather alarming title for a rather innocous piece( I can't help it, thats what I learnt from most newspapers).
Personally I have always believed in the presence of an almighty God , but then I also accept Darwin's theory. So how can I recncile these two ideas? Quite simply by acknowledging all the scientific proof in front of us points to there having been an Evolution. God on the other hand is an idea for which there is no proof, truly a matter of faith.
I have experienced highs and lows like most, and the idea that there was a God helped in the bad times by providing hope that times would improve. In good times it gave me a reason to be grounded. I have never been overtly religious since I don't believe that the idea of aGod , is dependant on any religion.
So now to come down to why I am writing this piece, a sudden realisation. The realisation that we need the comforting idea that somebody is watching over our actions(as well as those around us), so that no good act goes un-rewarded (in our case) and no bad act goes unpunished (in the case of the rest). Without that knowledge(somebody is watching) there is no incentive to do the right thing and in cases where u can get away wth it, no disincentive to do the wrong thing.
But wether u call it karma or "what goes around comes around" , nature has found its ways.

Why this is significant

Ever since i read this CNN article I have been on a forwarding spree. Seemingly displaying excitement beyond what one would usually reserve for studies such as these which are usually a dime a dozen. For every study that plumps for one intution, there is one that goes the opposite way. Starting with this healthy dose of cynisism, I will go on to illustrate why this study has me hopping.
The premise of this article for those who would rather not click out haha, is that greatness is a function of hardwork.(hardwork thats directed at generating continuous improvement).
Now this might be hard for most of us to accept , are'nt certain people born to greatness? Surely we have seen it in our own midst, some kids pick up things quickly while others struggle. There is one Tiger Woods and then there are the rest. Surely hardwork can achieve only so much.
It is these very statements that seem to be true , that the study debunks.
At birth we start a proces of learning that ebbs and flows with time. And ends only at death.
When we start something new , the learning always is fast in the beginning and then tapers off. Some of us keep at it while most of us are satisfied/bored enough not to.
No prizes for guessing who gets to be the best.
Now motivation to keep at it is something that we are either born with or not. But I can live with that, what I can't live with is somebody being better than me on the basis of birth.

So you must be from India

I look Indian enough, and sound Indian enough that I expect people to guess quite accurately where I am from. Now recently I was out with an Indian friend of mine meeting some people I knew. As we were introduced to someone neither of us knew, the guy in question guesses quite rightly that I am from India, but he is thrown off a little and guesses that my friend was raised here. My curiosity got the better of me and I asked him how he had come to that conclusion. He replied that it was the accent. rowing up in Bombay I was exposed to a whole variety of accented english(and hindi for that matter). There was the telgu,tamil,malyalam , north indian , marathi and gujrati versions, each distinct from the rest(all of which I can proudly imitate). Naturally it never dawned on me that I too had an accent. But why then did'nt I develop an imitation of the american accent after living in the states for 5years(trust me there are benefits to be had)?
Well quite simply it was this converstaion I overheard at Hyderabad airport between an Indian settled in the US with his born and raised in US daughters. That grotesque blend of the texan drawl with the telgu pechnant for appending "OOO" at the end of every word was all I needed to convince me that there was no way in the world I was speaking like that.

And the wheel turns a full circle.

The US open is in town and it brought to my attention a few interesting facts. Namely that the top women's tennis player(Maria Sharapova) makes more in endorsement deals than the top mens player (Roger Federer) for reasons that don't have anything to do with tennis ofcourse. Though my tone might indicate otherwise I have no issue with that. I mean if you are still wondering why thats the case, you have'nt seen a photo of Sharapova. The market has decided that Maria Sharapova is more saleable than Roger Federer and its as simple as that.
Then why am I writing this post? Well not too long back women won pay parity with men on certain Grand Slam events(I don't remember that all the 4 grand slam's implemented a pay parity) after a long and hard fough battle. For them the principle at hand was how could a woman be paid less to do a job , play tennis in this case than men.
Now Since my reading on this matter is not extensive I apologise for any holes. But to me it would seem a misplaced argument. Surely the men were getting paid more cos more people turned up to watch them. Wonder what those women who fought the good fight think now. Was it worth it? Since anyway now women are on top for the very same reasons the men got more prize money.

Strike now or forever hold your peace.

Those who have been following events in the Indian Sub continent, whould have realised the importance of recent developments namely the elimination of Balochi Nationalist(tribal warlord as per the Pakistani version) leader Nawab Akbar Bugti. Most of the material I have read suggests that this might prove a catalyst to the nationalist movement in Balochistan.
For India this would seem like a God sent.
For decades Pakistan has been exploiting the various fissures that exist within India. Not to say that India hasn't returned the compliment, but the sheer size and the disparate nature of its people means that there are a lot more fissures for Pakistan to exploit.
There will be those in the Indian leadership who will want to steer clear of this conflict. Their argument will be that India would lose the moral grounds on which it asks Pakistan to stop meddling in its aaffairs, stop arming terrorists etc.
To those people I have something to say. Make no mistake , all your moral posturing has yielded India no divedends. Insurgencies in India continue to rage along with regular terrorist strikes all which has happened with the Pakistani leaderships assistance. Even if geo-politically you do not see the case for an independent balochi state, do your utmost to exploit the situation.

Spare us the bullshit

I started blogging precisely for this reason, to vent theonly way I can against the idiocy that some people indulge in when they have the ability to have their opinions read by millions. One such idiot is Praful Bidwai. The self appointed flag bearer of secularism in India and beyond.
His article in Rediff is an abject piece by any standards . Most commentators intellectuals and common folk are appalled at the degree to which the Israeli war machine has been coming down upon Lebanon.
Mr Bidwai has the gall to compare that situation with India-Pakistan situation. Even to one with the thinking capacity of Mr Bidwai, it should be apparent that the presence of nuclear weapons in this region make the possibility of open conflict well nigh impossible.
But to think that peace overtures will stop terrorist attacks as Mr Bidawai seems to think would be possible only in Alice's Wonderland. We have been at the recieving end of a covert war, and circumstances have made it difficult to bring our conventional weapons superiority into play. We can't rely on the 'World Powers' to do anything, if the last 20 years has been any indicator. We need not accuse Pakistan of sponsoring terrorism, they have provided suffiecient evidence to the world about that. The only way we have left to respond is respond with a covert war of our own.
Just as our civilian populace has realised that there are no innocents to be spared in such a war, the same realisation must dawn on those who target us. Raise the cost of each strike to unbearable levels. Israel might not have stopped the attacks, but neither will w eif we stand by and do nothing.

The fighting in Lebanon

I guess what struck me at first about the fighting in Lebanon was how qucikly it pushed the Mumbai bomblasts off the frontpages of CNN.
Generally speaking on the intractable Israeli-Arab conflict I have always viewed Israel as the agressor, In fact I have always felt that Israel flouted international Opinion and norms with impunity knowing that big brother was watching theor back and Uncle Sam's was the only opinion that mattered. At times even that did'nt matter. Almost as if the world owe-ed them something. Even in this conflict there are signs of Israeli heavy handedness, wiping out Lebanons painstakingly rebuilt infratructure was neither necessary nor do I believe it will help Israel in any particular way.
Having said all that it must be unequivocally noted that the further continuance of the Hezbollah in its military avtaar wont contribute to peace in the middle east. Admittedly on their own terms, but if anyone has been making moves towards peace in the middle east its the Israeli's. They have a right to demand Hezbollah's disarmament. The Hezbollah is a group formed with the sole purpose of the destruction of the state of Israel, and Israel has a right and duty to see that does not happen. This is a fight between David and Goliath true, but can we really root for the underdog everytime irrespective of who is right.
The origins of the current fighting can be traced back to 2000 when Hezbollah captured 3 israeli soldier and managed to secure the release of hundreds of lebanese prisoners in exchnage of 3 Israeli bodies. Hezbollah tried a repeat of that tactic and this time Israel decided to take action.
It is not always possible to correct the wrongs perpeterated by history, the Arabs in the middle east who have not as yet reconciled themselves to the existence of Israel, are merely deluding themselves. A lasting peace can be achieved if and only both sides agree that they have an equal right to the land on which they live and die .

Bombay blasts , why those bleeding heart liberals are idiots.

Now by american standards I am a liberal(my pal megan might take issue with that). But then Americans have different standards.
World over there is a consensus that no cause can justify the the killing of civilians , there is also a consensus that all nations can and should co-operate to irradicate the scourge of terrorism. But when it comes to India all such consensus does not apply.
India has been shouting itself hoarse for ages about Pakistan sponsored terrorism , and yet nobody took it seriously.
Pakistan's complicity in Afganistan and in the supply of nuclear bomb making know how to just about every rogue state in the world have all been forgiven or atleast gone unpunished.
This however does not infuriate me, because the world will not change to suit India and why should it. Every nation does and should act in solely its interest(the folks at the UN will disagree but who listens to them anyway).
What does infuriate me is those idiot liberals in India, who after every major terror strike will trot out the same tierd list of excesses of the Indian state some real and some imagined.
Time and time again those idiot liberals have had the nerve to value the lives of Indian civilians and military personnel as less important than those of terrorists. I view this as a manifestation of the Stocklholm Syndrome, where an abductee identifies with his captor.
Admittedly there are things about the Indian state that need to change, but right after a major terror strike , to say anything other than that the perpeterators should be brought to book is flirting with treason. No terrorist checks the identity of those he intends to kill( true they target certain sections) but Mr/Ms Bleeding heart idiot liberal , you might be an unintentional casualty as well the next time you use public transportation, of wait my bad, you probably have an A/c car with a driiver no doubt paid for by an "NGO", so you can turn up after the next terror strike to berate the "heavy hand of the Indian state" that has "forced frustated young men to adaopt the path of terrorism".

 

Hee Haaw

 

Terror and our response

"Bomb blasts rip through crowded commuter trains at Rush hour" , this headline is from yesterday, but it could easily be from any of the preceeding years. Terror has been brought to Bombay almost as an annual feature.
Prior to these bomblasts there was in mind an event that was probably not unrelated. The bust of Shiv Sena chief Bal ThakerayLate wife was blackened. Predictably , Shiv Sena activists who are scrapping for a fight at the best of times, came out onto the streets in protest forcibly downing shutters and forcing the police to come out in large numbers to prevent violence.
Two days later you have these bom blasts, its no ones case that in the absense of a violent reaction form the Sena, these bomb blasts could have been prevented. But any thinking man is going to ponder on the timing.
How do we respond? Our ususal sabre rattling at Pakistan? Well that wont work , anayone remember OP parakram where half a million Indian troops spent a good part of a year on the border with Pakistan, and came back with absolutely nothing.
Should we target Indian muslims? Surely you cannot hold 200 million Indians responsible for the acts of a few.
So what do we do then. Give a chance for the Bombay police to run a proper investigation and determine who the perpetrators are , discover all apsects of the consipiracy. Then go after the killers by fair means or foul. Any Indian or foriegner , however big is fair game. Announce their guilt publicly, no courts no trials, let the Indian public take care of business.
What do u say , another Rang De Basanti script? Yeah I am working on it.

The head butt of the decade.

There is really no need to describe(or for that matter discuss) the Zidane head Butt on an Italian defender that ended in , France's greatest player(maybe all time with due respect to Platini) recieving a red card.
A lot of people including me immediately after the game , believed that Zidane had no business losing it, no matter what was said.
Is that entirely possible? Is it wise on the part of FIFA to come down hard on this offence when it has let so many others off?. When replays are available ther is a strange refusal on part of authorities to use them to administer justice.
I recall incidents in Australia where spectators who were found to be indulging in racial taunts against the visiting south africans were banned from the cricket, why apply different standards to the players themselves?
If Zidane's 'victim' did indeed use a racial slur(as is widely believed) he shouldn't be going unpunished. If the focus of this world cup has been on the reffereeing there is a reason for that. Instead of lamenting the fall in quality, FIFA would do better to apply more resources to see that games are played in the right spirit.

Bloomberg's Summer Party

 

Buffet's anouncement.

Not for the first time I am blogging about something that I have a very sketchy idea about.
So Warren Buffet has decided to give his considerable wealth to charity , changing his long held views on the subject.
We should all be breaking out the champagne . And yet I am left with a feeling of unease. Maybe its the realisation that dawned on Warren Buffet himself, he wasn't going to be around forever. All the shares he holds will be tranferred to charitable trusts(Bill and Melinda Gates mostly).
No doubt those trusts have very competent managers, but for all their competence they are not Gates or Buffet or any of those other remarkable men who will no doubt be thinking on similar lines.
History has taught us that the mightiest empires have stumbled when leadership changed hands from those who were great to those who were competent. Men like Gates and Buffet have been at the forefront of the prosperity that America has seen in the past few decades.
Fact is ownership brings with it an incentive to make things grow and improve. I am not convinced that will continue to be the case when such large business giants are run by charitable trusts.
On the flipside, this is the best shot we have of finding a cure to AIDS.

5"9+ faithful , dependable , music lover.

Today in the subway as usual I was listening to my ipod and nodding off. At Grand Central there is always a lot of people getting off and a girl got into the seat next to me. Immediately she whipped out a notebook and started writing what looked like a list. From the length of the list she had been working on it for a while. She proceeded to finish one A4 sheet and moved on to the next and made it all the way through the middle of that page.
I caught a glimpse of the lsit ofcourse. And these are the things I can reproduce from memory.
5 '9+ , faithful, dependable , music lover, successful.
Somehow I feel this wasn't a list to select a puppy.
To all guys out there, thats what we are expected to live up to. A list that spans 1 1/2 A4 pages.
Never mind that we'll still will always be no 2 after Brad Pitt. No matter that the list writer is no Angelina Jolie either.

A Better Angle, Self Maazine Workout in the Park.

 

Thats my backside , doing Masala Bhangra at Self, Workout in the Park.

 

I am getting bored of titling these pics

 

Trekking in Yosemite

 

Trekking in Yosemite

 

Golden Gate Bridge San Francisco

 

Yosemite

 

Beach in California

 

Mr Burns? Its a pleasure to meet you.

Recently I was able to obtain a one week free trial for this oh so great gym called Sports Clubs LA.
It costs excatly double of my current gym, but what the heck, I really wanted to see what the other half lived as.
The facilities on offer , justified the price. The space, the equipment the general opulence of your surroundings were amazing.
As soon as you enter, you are left in no doubt, what kind of people go there, the rich(and by new york standards) that means the really rich.
But one sideffect of being rich(with some honorable exceptions) is that you are usually a little older. I mentioned this to my friend as we were entering.
While working out I realised that they were playing Michael Jackson numbers from the 80's and thought to myself, this would make a great post for my blog. "They are so old they play Michael Jackson".
And then as I moved on to the bench press, I saw something that really blew me away. There was a guy who looked exactly like Mr Burns from the Simpsons , only older. Lest you think I am making fun of old people , I admire the guys drive to be in the gym, though I am not sure how it was physically possible.

Talk about ringtones

The cellphone is a wonderful device loved and reviled in equal proportion.
A lot of the hate directed towards the cell phone is thanks to ring tones that can range from the humorous to the ridiculous.
This year around January when Winter was at its peak, I changed my ring tone to birds chirping. I guess I was yearning for spring. That wheel has turned a full circle, i have managed to irritate a lot of people to the point that someone actually called me tarzan :)

The Vatican moves moves an inch .. oh well almost

Today morning on the subway I was actually awake enough to flip through the Time magazine I had brought along with me. I read an article about how the Vatican had not changed its stand on contraception. It was mostly about a move by the moderates in the Vatican to move towards a position which would acquience to the us eof contraception in certain situations such as "condom use in a marriage to prevent the spread of HIV" .
The article went on to talk about how this move was struck down by the conservatives who had earlier wrested control with the election of Pope Benedict.
I find it shocking that the Catholic Church or for that matter any other authority feels its competent to tell people how to fight a deadly disease such as HIV. I don't understand how you can preach to the rest of the universe when the Catholic Church has such a hard time keeping their flock in line. People in other spheres of life have been dealt far more harshly even if a hint of a charge of child molestation was brought against them.
Well what do I know I am destined to eternal damnation for not worshipping at the Catholic Churh anyway.

Workout in the park

I recieved a free pass from someone I know, so I'll be heading to the the workout in the Park.
Hope to keep up considering that it looks like a punishing schedule.

Narasimha Rao how should we remember thee

Like Nero, who fiddled while Rome burned if you believe the prevailing view in the ruling Congress regime. This article says the same.
I believe (maybe with a little bias), that he was one of the shrewdest politicians ever to walk this land.
In one fell swoop , he took away (or rather the BJP)the major issue that threatened to catapult the BJP to power. As was proved later, the BJP needed a, bumbling coalition that ruled at the center to capture powert for a year and a war against Pakistan in Kargil to propel them into power for a full term. The BJP's limitations stood exposed both after the demolition of the Babri masjid(they lost all the assembly elections that followed soon after) and a their rule over 5 years. Had the mandir-masjid issue stillbeen festering, the BJP would have still been making capital from it. Even now they are trying to revive the issue. Narsimha Rao might be unung, unloved and unwept in the upper echeleons of his party but then he led his life that was as well. So Mr Aiyar don't be too shocked when 30-40 yrs from now somebody writes a similar epitah for you.

A well written defence of Kavyaa Vishwnath

I have no sympathy for kavya's plight but I loved the way this piece was written.
article.

A day without illegal immigrants

May 1st has witnessed large scale demostrations in opposition to the new proposed laws which would make illegal immigration a felony. This is a sensitive issue requiring way more time than I have. One observation I'd like to make is that I wonder wether these protests might have the opposite of the desired impact. For many states that do not have a large illegal immigrant population, there was ample evidence of the magnitude of the issue.

Applying band-aid when surgery is required.

President Bush's recent pronouncements regarding the need to conserve Oil and general concern about gas prices have to be taken with a pinch of salt.
I know the late night comdedians and Senator Chuck Schumer have been holding Oil companies accountable for the spike in Oil prices , but the facts tell another story. Its simple demand supply economics were the same oil companies price gouging when Oil was less than $20 a barrel?
Well the one thing somebody coming in from abroad into the states notices, is the profusion of cars, as a boss of mine said "Only poor people take the bus". And since the republicans keep winning i am forced to think there are more rich than poor in the states. When gas was cheap, the SUV's did roaring business, supporting the American way of life, ie a huge house(meaning place are more far-flung) , life in the suburbs, 2 car families and soccer mom's putting in more miles than a union truck driver.
You can't lay all the blame on the suburbs , true. The political instability amongst the major Oil producer's has played a starring hand as well. I remember reading a national geographic article more than a year back about wether this was the peak Oil production that the earth was capable of. Well thats a hard question and natuarally there will be extremely intelligent people arguing oon both sides. Given the circumstances currently, we will be remiss in our responsibilities if we do not consider that possibility.

Reservations the topic of the moment

This is a topic that is stirring up debate in all speheres of life in India at the moment. The crux of the matter is notifcation issued by the Government of India allocating 27% for the Other Backward Castes(OBC's) in educational central(federal) educational institututions.
As Usual I am running short on time and need to rush thru such a complex issue simply because I have read way too many one sided and quite frankly poorly written pieces.
Going back, way back the hindu caste system was broadly classified as Brahmin, Ksyatria, Vaishya's and Shudra with Shudras being the bottom of the barrel. Power has shifted between the others while Shudra's (dalits) were widely acknowledges to have been oppressed and ill treated for centuries. Not much has changed over the centuries for this deprived lot. At the time of independence it was decided by the framers of the constitution to allocate quotas that were to lead to their social upliftment. However what was not wittten, rather implied was that these quotas should have some time frame, otherwise they would just create a new breed of privileged citizenery.
What the framers of the constitution did'nt realise was that mere laws in the books was going to do nothing for the uplift of the masses, instead they had set a dangerous precedent where political parties would grant reservations for all and sundry in order to corner votes. Nearly 60 years after Indian independence thats exactly whats happening.
Now infact we have a left leaning government that sees no harm in allocating resources to communities based on there proportion of the overall population. Wether they intend to or not, the message they are sending the people of India is that the only way to corner more resources is to grow your numbers. A decent education, hardwork , innovation are all passe. Everything flows from the numbers of your commmunity, the worst manifestation of democracy possible.
I have to add here that I am a bramhin, I have already been through our education system and I wont be working in a government organzation any time soon.
And yet what angers me is that the poeple behind this move to hike reservations don't give a damn about the people its supposed to benefit, and by extension the country. These are the very same people who would like the indian government to have a stake in every aspect of Indian life so that their patronage dispensing network is strengthened. Alll this vitriol is not going to change anything. Once the genie has been let out of the bottle, no political party can take a stand against reservations and risk losing the OBC vote.
So ladies and gentlemen this flight was good while it lasted , kindly fasten your seat belts , we shall be landing shortly.

What is a worthwile cause?

Of all things , a late night show on television provoked me into writing this particular post. the show in question detailed the various charitable pursuits of Hollywood celebrities. One particular segment was on a boy suffering from a rare form of cancer. His mother thanked the said celebrities for their support and stated matter of factly that her biy was being kept alive by the generous donations of many. Nobody talked figures and I found myself considering how many lives the same money would have saved in some god forsaken part of a third world country.
Which brings us to the question , Is it wrong to Use resources to save one life, when the same resource could have saved maybe a hundred lives somewhere else? Is one cause more worthy than another? Morally I am not sure. I know that you can't put off all other causes in the real world till the most important ones have been addressed. And yet I can't accept that one life can be conidered more important than a hundred.

Three Days of Rain

I had the pleasure of seeing Three Days of Rain yesterday, for a company sponsored charity event. My first Broadway Show and it was a good experience overall. I was 10 rows away from the stage. I guess whenever a major Hollywood Star such as Julia Roberts stars in a play there is bound to be a lot of buzz. So when she made her entrance the air of expectation was almost palpable. To an untrained eye she began rather nervously but got into it as the play rolled on.
But the performance that was designed to be a crowd pleaser was that of Bradley Cooper. He was funny and connected instantly with an audeience that could afford the Opening week tickets. And I know its a sports cliche, but he looked like he was having fun out there. What struck me the most about the dialouge was how choice of words were not the kind one uses while talking. More like while writing. The magnitude odf it all hit me when I stepped out and there was a throng of people waiting outside to catch a glimpse of Julia Roberts.

Parlez vous englais?

Yesterday a friend and me were walking back from the gym, we stopped infront of his house where I was finishing off a story. My firends an Indian born and bred in the states, me Indian born and bred in India.
A woman walked up to us and the first question she asked us was wether we spoke english. I replied ofcourse, and my friend probably more offended replied "What kind of question is that".
Now this woman was white in her 40's and seemed a little occupied. She started off with how she had left her purse in a taxi and she needed to get back to Long Island and she needed some help. I offered my cell phone for her to call someone, but she said she lived alone. Now since we were returning from the gym i knew my friend had nothing on him( Not that either was in a mood to oblige) . I told her, "We are on our way back from the gym and don't have our wallets".
The friend reiterated the same. Now she asked for a metro card, the only one I had was a monthly pass I bought day before worht $75. No way I could part with that and anyway we had come too far down our lie. If she had some out straight off and asked for $2 to take the subway i might have given it to her. Last thing she said was "You wont help" me and left.

This can only happen in a blue state

In a red state they would have pulled out their shotguns and sent the kitty to its maker.

Proof that a burger will cost you one way or another

Click the title for the story

Masala Bhangra II

Once wasn't enough so I had to go again. At the end of the first class of masala bhangra, the instructor asked wether anyone would go to the class thursday evening. Now this was a class conducted by the Indian lady who came up with this class originally. I had read about it in the newpaper at some point and was tempted to meet her. Now the catch was there would be a film crew shooting the class for some television show. I figured that my clumsiness would ensure a swift snip at the editors table so no problem there.
My knee however was feeling dodgy after a week where i went overboard working on my legs at the gym. I got over that by warming up and stretching more than usual.
So I show up at the class and not unexpectedly realise I am the only guy there. And immediatley the instructors points me out and says she is really excited to have an Indian guy in class. That was followed by a series of other friendly though embarassing references. The instructor for the first class showed up and recogniosed me , so I felt more at ease. And once the musice started , the adrenalin rush took care of the rest. What followed for the next 45 mins was the more excrutiatingly fun workout ever. No breaks mind you. I kept pace much to my amazement, but cudn't mouth a single "Balle Balle"

Palestine Blues

When I watch a movie, I watch for entertainment(has there ever been a more redundants statement?) . I don't demand to be intellectually stimulated or emotionally charged. I was lucky enough to see Palestine Blues since I usually would'nt see such a movie with not much entertainment value. And its not as if my opinions of the Arab Israeli conflict are half baked.
The movie focusses on the Israeli's withdrawl from the Gaza Strip and the Security Wall that they are building in its wake. The movie is shot by a Palestinian with an American passport so you know which side of the story it tells.The movie manages to be very objective however.
What I saw was a farming community being uprooted with nary a bye your leave. Families that had been nutured by their pristine farmlands for generations are suddenly uprooted and in a region racked by conflict there is seldom opportunity to start anew.
And we wonder what pushes people to blow themselves up along with innocent men women and children. The sorrow and helplessness felt by everyone affected by the tragedy would soon be replace by rage. And cycle of violence continues.
I allowed myself to drift , but coming back to the movie, the directors effort was most structured and I could almost see the movie as if it were a book .
Not much of a review but I feel lazy all of a sudden.

Masala Bhangra

I don't remember exactly when, but I remember reading about an Indian lady conducting this exercise class at NYSC called Masala Bhangra. Sounded like a lot of fun. At that time NYSC(new yorsk sports club) seemed like a lifetime away. Now, I have been a member for a good part of the last 1 1/2 years.
I started out running and lifting weights and graduated to taking pilates since I found that both running and weights without the necessary stretching made the body preety stiff. Admittedly it was awkward at first sinc there are'nt too many guys at exercise classes.
Now being too cheap to spring for a real dance class , I also decided I need to take up some dance based exercise class since I really wanted to be a little more graceful in any future exertions on the dance floor. But that would be even more embarassing, since such classes have steps that are way too girly(Yes I did one in Binghamton a fact that I'll never live down).
Bhangra can never b e too girly, so it fit into my plans well. so I went this week.
Trust me being Indian, did'nt give me the slightest advantage. I was still the worst in class. I was amazed at how good everyone was, and it was tonnes of fun, maybe a tad high impact for my liking. But, if I can , I'll go again.

Its a razor not a rocket

Am I the only one who finds gillete ads extremely irritating? Sure razors have come a long way. But Gillete would have you believe that they have rocket scientists making their razors, if you go by there ads. Very attractive women wearing glasses and studious looking gents in lab coats all granted access to a lab using body imagers. Come on give me a break. What happened to the good old, man shaves followed by some alone time with self and mirror, followed by mandatory blond caressing the face.

The Indo-US nuclear deal

The just concluded Indo-US nuclear pact has elicted reatcions that range from Euphoria, to caution and even outrage. It is a rather confusing issue but like most its a matter of choices. If India chose not to sign, our nuclear industry would continue on its way in complete isolation. Being a nation without readily eavailable uranium , we would have to wait for the promised Fast breeder reactor technology(which runs on thorium, yeah we got that in loads) before we could think of nuclear power as a viable source of energy.
The Indian nuclear industry has done exemplary work, excatly how exemplary no one knows due to the secrecy and the fact that their accounts are not audited(I migth be mistaken on this one). Our civialian energy reuqirements compell us to look at nuclear energy. That being the case this pact is the only option. The downside, we wont have as much fissile material to make bombs.
Now exactly how much fissile material we have is not known, but I assume its enough to meet our strategic interests for the Manmohan Singh government to cotemplate this pact. There is no way this information can be obtained in the public domain, so we have to accept it as a matter of faith.
But the aspect of the pact thats being overlooked, is the level of trust and mutual respect on both sides. This bodes well for India's future since even the "Cholbe Na" communists must realise that our strategic interests at this point in history, intersect with the Hyperpower of our times.

Sad as it is , we can't afford Bush to lose

Iraq hase been a powder keg on a short fuse for the last 2 1/2 years since the invasion euphimistically labelled as the liberation. Inspite of the seeming lack of progress in Iraq for a while the Bush adminsitration had things to cheer about , including the election in Iraq, the pro-democracy demonstartions in Lebanon, Sharon agreeing to withdraw from the West Bank, democracy flowering in Egypt etc. The administration could reason that the loss of american life, and Iraqi( who is counting really?) and the general destruction of Iraqi infrastructure was not in vain. For reasons best known to them, the adminsitration blustered their way into an expensive war. None of the explanations or justifications are offered any longer long since disproved.
Fast forwarding to the present, I think it would be safe to say that the shit has finally hit the fan with a Sunni-Shia civil war looming. Bush's first instinct would be to pull back troops to satisfy a restive public that no longer buys any of the justifications for the war. But if he does that , the last thing stopping a full scale civil war from breaking out would be gone.
There maybe many who will be sniggering at the United States plight. "U'r mess u clean it" seems to be the underlying theme. All those with such a view are not wrong by any standards.
But this sitiuation is way to dangerous to just walk away from it. Al Quaeda is a threat not just to the US but to the whole world. Just as the Soviet withdrawl in Afganistan, strenghtened the Islamists and made them set their eyes on bigger things, Victory for them in Iraq will unleash another attempt to at the very least terrorise and disrupt life in countries that do not subscribe to their world view. Just as Afganistan led to the disintegration of the 'evil' Soviet empire, Iraq will have a lasting affect on the role the US plays in todays world. Are we really ready for this tectonic shift in the world's geo-politics? This situation reminds me of a cartoon i used to watch as a kid. Insoector Gadget was the buffon, who was always bailed out of trouble by his niece Penny's pet dog brain. The best part was he never knew it.
George Bush is our Inspector Gadget who has blundered his way into a position between a rock and a hard place. The rest of the world has to pay the part of brain for the greater good.

It'll be a while

For the last 3 months I have been going to the gym religiously. I was intent ( I still am) of recovering from the surgery I had on my knee in September. I had help in the form of a gym buddy who was way more focussed and driven than me.
Naturally I like what I see in the mirror. Only today at the gym I was working out close to where one of the personal trainers was lifting weights. The PT in question has easil one of the better bodies at the gym. I looked at the mirror and for a brief instant thought "Hey! I am almost there, I look not much smaller than this guy". The moment came and passed. It passed when He picked up a 120lb dumbell. So now I have t revise my estimate, I'll be there but it will be a while.

Getting jiggy with it.

I have a couple of friends who have been telling me to try out Salsa. My roomate who is also an expert in a few dance forms was encuraing as well. In keeping with my cheap-ass ways I signed up for a 4 hour crash course($25 only!!) in Salsa on Superbowl sunday. I was scheming to be one of the few guys in class. ( who the hell would want to take a salsa class on Superbowl sunday?)
Turns out a lot of people think like me :( . Mommy I am not so special after all.
The class was packed beyond belief. We spent the next 4hrs doing a few basic salsa moves first with the instructor and then in pairs. I thought I was doing preety ok, till I had to pair up. Again I schemed my way to finding a partner who wasn't 60. I did preety ok considering that I ended up dancing with a gorgeous asian girl. I have never felt more intimidated in my life. Pairs dancing is a the very least a huge leap from all the gibber/jabber i had done till now. I guess she felt my fear cos she did'nt stick around.
I jiggled my ass like there was no tommorow for 4hrs. And i have a sore ass to prove it.
Salsa here I come (maybe)

Did the NFL want the Steelers to win?

During the AFC divisional championship game, with the Steeler's in the lead and time running out in the fourth quarter, Steeler's safety Troy Polamalu came up with what would have been a game winning interception. On a review, the Referee quite schockingly overturned the play. The Steelers went on to win, but the call left a bad taste in the mouth and drew allegations from people prominent amongst whom was Steeler's Linebacker Joey Porter. It was alleged that the NFL wanted the Colts to win.
It would seem the script was repeated in Super Bowl XL. But this time the beneficiary were the Steelers. No one expected Seattle to win. The tough as nails Steelers were going to ride roughshod over a team that had nohopers The Cardinals, the Rams and 49ers. But what happened was quite the other way around. Seattle managed to come out with the right mx of run and pass to dominate the first half. In all their wisdom the Ref's denied Seattle a touchdown for an absurd pass interference call. And the half ended at 7-4. Then there was the Ben Rothlisberger attempt at running in the ball that clearly did not break the plane.
So Joey Porter, was the NFL rooting for u this time?

Are we really That out of ideas?

A friend forwarded me an article on "Anger in the Muslim world on the cartoons of Prophet Muhammad" . This did'nt quite inspire interest in me quite as much as a headline, "Embassies torched in Syria and Lebanon". Western leaders have quite predictably reacted with Righteous indignation asking that the Muslim nations in question provide adequate security and deploring violence. In the middle of this we hear voices that pipe up to reiterate the importance of freedom of speech and press. To me its more a case of common sense. Living in India with a Muslim population that is second only to Indonesia and Bangladesh, I have grown up with the view That muslims in general are not going to take kindly to that kind of stuff(cartoons of the prophet etc.)
Its another matter that everyone in India would have heard stories of migrant workes to west-asian nations having their photos/idols of thier God's being snatched at the airport and destroyed.
I can't imagine that someone with half a brain would think that they could publish those cartoons without evoking the kind of reaction we see today. This controversy is needless to say the least. Freedom of press also carries with a certain responsibility of self censorship. Call the rest of the world primitive , but its not an entirely redundant concept to view God as Holy. So please think twice before u stick a photo someone else's God on a thong as was done by a certain fashion designer with Hindu dieties.
No to flip the coin over. The cardinal rule of getting respect is to give respect. So muslims of West Asia, it might not be such a terrible idea to be more accepting of other religions. Just like watching Brokeback Mountain has'nt made anyone gay yet(I am still not taking any chances)
, so to being tolerant of other religions wont dilute your credentials as Muslims.

The President as Quaterback

The two positions I am comparing have a lot in common. The president of the United States is easily the post celebrated post on the planet. And the Quaterback the most celebrated position in sports(Hey! the Superbowl is called the world championship like it or not).
Both positions require deft handling of resources, a fine understanding of strategy and courage under pressure. Ultimately there are many reasons to fail or succeed but the buck stops at your door.
With these things in mind lets examine George Bush's Quaterback rating.
Here are various talking points that the Bush Presidency has harped on.
George Bush is not a Washington insider and will the Job done. Which by the Conservative constituency, means reducing the size of Government. The size of government has actually gone up.
George Bush has made America safer. How is that If may query. Burying parts of the 9/11 commision report that pointed out the lapses that lead upto 9/11? By Invading Iraq and turning a large and oil rich nation into a haven and breeding ground for terrorists.
George Bush's tax cuts boosted the economy. This one I can't biff. But its sustainable economic growth that would be appreciated. The reasl estate and home sale biz that has been a major reason for growth is slowing on account of increasing rates. So whats the next boom area?
George Bush wants to usher in an era of Freedom and Democracry in the rest of the world. By selectively siding with dictators like Musharaff? The only good dictators are the one who listen to the United States.
I don't know enough to biff the "No child left behind" either. But echoing the views of others , this legislation has imposed stringent testing on schools, without necessarilly providing schools with the resources to deal with them.
Now that these talking points have been rubbished, The Bush team has fantastically turned to new ones. "We will reduce our dependance on foriegn Oil". Hmm. sounds curious coming from a Texan oilman who believes "Someday the synthetic oil generated from soya will be used to power drills in Alaska". Sorry I did'nt catch that. Did u say power or lubricate. George , are u really trying to prepae the grounds for the invasion of Iran and $100 oil ?
Oh yeah and one final talking point , Bush will bring a new era of accountability in public life. Wait a minute did'nt we just have l'affaire
Jack Abrahmoff and Tom Delay , Scooter Libby and Carl Rove, Katrina and Michael Brown, and the ongoing Iraq saga. Is it just me or is there a serious lack of accountability for George Bush's inner circle?
So lets add that performance up. Quite a few passes intercepted, a few sacks, no real yardage, preety much no touch-downs and u have a preety lousy passer rating. The funny thing is America does'nt need fancy Quaterbacking, just somebody who is competent and manage the game. Well the Presidency and Quaterbacking are preety similar after all, only the Quaterback can actually lose his job.