Don't repeat past wrongs

The recent earthequake that hit Kashmir(both Indian and Pakistani parts) has caused enought devastation on the Pakistani side to make the Pakistani President complain about the rate at which international monies are pouring for rebuilding and reconstruction. His estimates of $5 billion will not draw any challenge from me. What I'd like to say however , is that India must avoid the temptation of rushing in with any commitment for the reconstruction effort. I'd take an educated guess that any money we give Pakistan will be used to buy weapons to be used against us and to fund their unholy war(How any war can be holy escapes me). Humanitarian supplies is one thing , money is a whole different thing. A nuclear power state should have the wherewital to generate resources for its own reconstruction. One thing is for sure, that money is'nt coming frm the US, already stretched by Iraq,Afganistan and Katrina. Lets see wether they can maintain their aggresive postures while their countrymen live out in the open this bitter winter.

A typical Indian Riot

I was reading reports about rioting in the North Indian town of Mau. One thing that struck me , was the description. "Violence erupted between two communities". talk about stating the obvious. In their effort to be politically correct the reports end up looking ridiculous. When there is a riot in India, everybody with half a brain knows its between hindus and muslims. What we don't know is who started it. I concede such information can be deemed inflammatory, and can be suppressed . But for heaven's sake don't insult our intelligence by giving us the "two communities" spiel. My solution, look up the same report in a foreign paper, they are not burdened by any such considerations and usually call a spade a spade.

Katrina and the Quake

A friend pointed out lately, a large number of natural disasters have hit various parts of the world. From the Tsunami to hurricane Katrina and now the Earthquake in South Asia, it would seem that nature has unleashed its full fury on us. How do we deal with the level of destruction and loss ? We try and rationalise in our own inane ways.
If there is one thing that stands out, nature's fury spares none. Niether religion nor color niether caste nor creed assuress any protecton from the elements at their worst. If anything we must realise the larger challenges we face as mankind do not leave us the luxury of our "civilisational struggles".
Unfortunately common sense is not as common. When i first heard about the devastation casued by the earthquake mostly in Pakistan occupied Kashmir(or as the pakistani's call it Azad Kashmir) my first reaction(I am not proud of it) was hmm how come I don't hear any Al Quaeda spokespersons attributing the earthquake to divine retribution as they had Hurricane Katrina?
How wrong was I. Ofcourse the Jihadi's are saying that the Earthquake is punishment for pulling back from the brink in confronting India. Such justifcations however twisted will find supporters in a populace that has been radicalised for years. The Jihadi organizations have been at the forefront of providing relief to the victims of the earthquake. If they have such regard for human life , why do they then show such ruthlessness and singlemindedness in erasing it when they cross the border into India? Sadly it because they view non-muslims as unworthy of considerations they would extend to fellow muslims. I know moderate and forward looking muslims will condemn such radicals. But thats not enough. You don't treat cancer by condemning it.
Its time for all of us to stop pussyfooting about a problem we all know exists.

I find that odd..

Most would have read about the earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale that struck the northern reaches of the Indian state of Jammu and Kasmir and The Pakistani portion of Kashmir. The quake had its epicenter at Muzaffarabadd the capital of the Pakistani part. But considering the proximity of the area to the India part I find it rather odd , that the toll reported from the Pakistanis side is rising on a daily basis now said to be 30,000+ dead, whereas the Indian side has kept the figure under a 1,000. Surely one of the sides is being economical with the truth. So who is it? The Indians? But then what to they have to gain? The pakistani's ? More relief materials maybe? Something does'nt add up.
POK (Pak occupied kashmir known to Pakistani's as Azad Kashmir(a misnormer if there waws any, since Azad means free. Kinda reminds u of Operation Iraqi freedom don't it)) is known to house a lot of the terrorist training camps. Wonder what impact that fact has on the way things pan out in the next few weeks or months.

Not a bad neighborhood

 
 

This happens only in India

Most people are hypocrites, its only natural. Howvever its certainly a question of degrees. There is nothing that gets my goat worse then hypocrisy. Just as the Government of Maharashtra was busy shutting down dance bars when they should have been unclogging the gutters in Bombay, now we have the TN government clamping down on a Hotel where some idiot journalist snapped a couple kissing. For a second consider the newsworthiness of a lip lock between 2 random people. Now ask yourself wether there are'nt other important matters that the government has to attend to. Whatever your opinion on diplays of affection in public, surely you see the futility of such reprehensible moral policing. What kind of society do we want to live in. One where the police determines what show of affection is appropriate? One where girls are made to feel sinful just to be seen with a guy. If the moralists have a way to live let them preach it, let them convince people. But let them not coerce. Coercion should have no place in a democracy. And oh yeah we know what sex is how do u think we got to a billion, singing songs , or letting the birds and bees do the job for us?

That's Funny ..

I had a ACL reconstruction surgery Sept 7th. I'll write in detail about the recovery later. I have been on crutches and a brace(that is locked when I walk) for the last couple of weeks. In that period people have mostly asked questions like what happened and the like. Most have made sympateitc sounds as you might expect. But the funniest thing that anyone has said to me was "Run Forrest Run".

Who should be captain?

Indian cricket is going through a rather rough patch right now. Part of it has to do with the captain coach controversy ongoing between Saurav Ganguly and Greg Chappel.
A lot of this has to do with the unique position a captain enjoys in cricket. In most other sports major decisions are left to the coach on the sidelines. These range from strategic decisions to team composition. Cricket up until now has been different since the captain has such an on field role in terms of bowling changes , field placements etc. However players with on field ear pieces being given instructions by the coach can remedy that. The arguments in favor of this are many. Why burden a singlre individual with so much responsibility when he is also responsible for his own play. Not every captain suffers a slump in personal form on taking over the captaincy mantel. But there are enough who do , to warrant this change. Maybe Hansie had it right along. This will allow each team to always present thier most balanced side rahter than worry about wether they were making a long term change each time they felt tempted to leave out the captain for a lack of form.

Damn it when did u get so slow

For those struggling with an ever slower computer, my suggestion is fork out the dough and buy a new one. But till that glorious day arrives u can get by on these tips.

Speed Up your Comp

The Trump solution

I am sure The Apprentice is an extremely popular program. I could never actually bring myself about to watch however. donald Trump whatever his many successes never struck me as a truly visionary, business leader of any kind. And finally my gut instinct was proven by the Don homself. His take on the high gas prices after Hurricane Katrina. The Saudi's are pushing up the gas prices on us. They are laughing at us. We are'nt sending the right people to negotiate with them. Since they depend on us we must be able to determine oil prices. This line will get u a few claps on a talk shows but Donald economics 101 if u had taken it would have told u price is a consequence of demand and supply. The Saudi's owe America enough to be pumping away the best they can. So will anyone else who has the capacity to exploit the prevailing high oil prices. Unlike in the 80's no organization has stepped in to curtail world oil supplies. Its just that we are getting whats available and it isn't enough. But Don the world is laughing at the US. Its laughing at its SUV's.

Do not call us we'll call u

Starting Sept 1st telemarketing companies can call on ur cellphone.To prevent this from happening u can call up the do not call list and register ur number. I just did it today after a colleague of mine recieved a call from some company
the number is 1-888-382-1222.

So that where the quota went

I got this of the INS website FAQ page.
What is an H-1B?
The H-1B is a nonimmigrant classification used by an alien who will be employed temporarily in a specialty occupation or as a fashion model of distinguished merit and ability.

Off to Atlanta

I am off to Atlanta this long weekend to have the pleasure of paying $5 for a gallon of gas. I am going to attend a friends reception. And hopefully have a ball the other 3 days as well. I get all worked up about such holidays and want to take so much stuff with me , making so many plans not nearly half of which materialize. Well this time I am targeting the Health club,swimming pool and tennis(in addition to whatever sight seeing/night life/outdoors we can do as a group. Hope Airtran is spending enuf on the upkeep of their planes since this is the first time I fly airtran.
I'll be going in for my ACL surgery the very next day after I am back. So no sports for a long time after that.

And here's some evidence.

In an earlier post I drew a tenous link between bush , global warming and katrina. For whats its worth here is some proof.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/09/01/katrina.warming.ap/index.html

The NFL can only spare a lousy 1 million

The NFL no doubt one of the richest sporting bodies in america has announced a lousy 1million $ in aid for the victims of the Hurricane Katrina. I am not privy to the numbers, but surely thats even close to 1/2 % of what they make a year. Surely for their sheer visibility they should be seen to be making more of a contribution. Their small mindedness has been exposed by the Yankees announcing a similar contribution. Hopefully the rest of the sporting community i this country wakes up and realises the social burden they should be bearing , a small price to pay for all the money, love, motion and attention the people lavish on them.

Hurricanes and Gas prices rising ... Its Bush's fault

This might sound very leftist, but its probably true. Bush when he came into power, and as a consequence of 9-11 had an opportunity very few have had before him. A country that was united behind him and an international community that would fall in line.
Bush chose to use this consensus by setting aflame the mideast by invading Iraq. Not only is the United States paying a price for his decision in terms of men and material , but the whole world pays a price. The uncertainty of world oil supply and terrorist violence means that speculators are having a field day in imposing a "Uncertainty premium" on the gas we buy.
throughout the Bush administration has taken decisions that seem to defy common sense. Rejecting the Kyoto protocol being one such thing. Greenhouse gases are everyone's problem with the US having to take a major portion of the blame.
Does anyone remember the tax rebates on Hummers?
There has been absolutely no movement (At least in his first 4 years) on moving towards reducing the US domestic consupmtion on fossil fuels. An as if the oil companies are not doing well enuf now they have been given a package to subsidise additional refining capacity. So Mr Bush
if $4 gas becomes a reality( http://money.cnn.com/2005/08/31/news/gas_prices/index.htm), its ur fault.
And oh yeah Mr Bush , There is such a thing as global warming, and it is supposed to accompanied by dramitic climatic changes. So wake up and do something before we run out of sexy names to give these hurricanes.

Planning for the future.

I have always wanted to do an MBA and from a top univ. I always belived that any job I got would fund that. Now the thing is once u have a little money u get used to certain crature comforts that are not available to a poor student. As a student u don't have the security that u will have a decent pay cheque in the bank at the end of the month. Almost as if to confirm my own doubts, A recent article in Forbes (magazine), highlights how more and more working professionals preffer a part time MBA to a full time one. It then goes on to make a compelling argument about the cost + lost earnings of a full time being way more than a partime(factoring in salary increases).
To that end I realised , maybe its time to start saving rite now for education but under a different head. After one google search I stumbled upon the 529 plans(vary from state to state) . generally benefits include tax deductions to tax credits. U get levied a 10% penalty if ur withdrawal is for non-educational purposes. But its definetly worth a dekko.

Inspiration?

One of the aspects of living in America is a lesson on how hard people can work. I know that Indians/Chinese asians in general have reputations of working extremely hard. What we tend to overlook is how far the average american would be willing to work. So what allows one to be a success?(I know its a very realtive term, but bear with me while I build my argument ) I bet, hard work mixed with a dose of dreaming .
There are two most interesting individuals who brought this across to me, in vastly different ways.
One is an Indian immigrant who spent his adolecent days in the US. He works as an engineer and yet drives his family taxi on saturdays. I know no one else doing that. The very least I can take from this is work hard and play hard because he does both.
The second was a podiatrist I was visiting. When he heard that I was a s/w programmer , he told me that he himself was a computer buff and he was working on some hardware product with a company in China. Doctors in US are the closet u have to sahibs, yet the man has the time and will to work on something that is quite likely a dream. Again a lesson learnt. U should never be too busy to pursue ur dreams.
Hats off to both guys. I am not sure how long it will last, but I am inspired rite now.

Why Ganguly Why

My very first blog posting has been brougth about in a fit of ire at the performance of the Indian cricket team in the third and final test in Bangalore. I wanted to see some admission of guilt or accountability from the players. There was none. No serious reprimands from the administrators or harsh critiques from the 'pundits' either. They are all scared of losing their access to the all powerful 'greats' in the Indian team.
But then when you think about it why should cricket be any different from the way the rest of our country is? Lalu ruled Bihar for 15 years and looks good for another 5 despite runnning the state into the ground. Kargil we are told was not an intelligence failure. Or at least no heads rolled. Whoever concieved Op Parakram is not suffering any serious after affects . How many of our politicians are in jail for corruption that we know exists. This is our interpretation and rendition of democracy. We are all equal. So equal that no one can be pulled up for anything.
So coming back to Ganguly. I feel sorry for him. That he is out of touch is as clear as day. In any other sport he could have taken a break. Recharged his batteries. Not in cricket . He knows that selectors are notorious in forgetting about dropped players. He knows that Kaif and Yuvraj and whole host of others are sniping at his heels. So all he can do is suck it up. Try to present a modicum of a respectability(and confidence) to the media, and hope that his place saving century is a single knock away.
The selectors wont drop him cos you would have a situation where ganguly would be in the one day XI playing along side Dravid who would presumably become test captain.
Lets look at remedy no 1 . Get Rid of Ganguly. Will we become world beaters? I wish. The malaise lies deeper still. After Sehwag lost his wicket. In came Rahul Dravid . India's hero and collosus. The man who had set up so many Famous test victories. How he played would set the tone for the Indian response. He did not become the force he is today by defending for his life. He got here by adding another dimension to his batting ie attacking the bowling.
What followed from over no 23 to lunch ie 33 or 34 was totally inexplicable. India pottered on at close to 1 rpo. This set the stage for the mayhem later in the second session. No one can escape the blame. Thats whats the most troubling aspect. Kaif and Yuvraj might not have half the talent of Tendulkar or Ganguy(take this with a pinch of salt) but they have loads of heart. Heart that was sorely missed in India's second innings performance. I know just as surgeons get used to losing the occasional patient so do players get used to losing, since losing is a part of playing. But surely there must be some shred of decency in our stars thats gnawing them and asking uncomfortable questions. My heros stand in front of me disgraced. Dismiss my criticism if u may. But what is pertinent is something more than a mere game has been lost today. Donno wether I should call it honor. I don't much care that we lost to Pakistan. We really lost to ourselves.