narahariv

Fascination for Bovines!

2010-06-21T10:47:00.002-05:00

The cliché refuses to die! It is quite often that in a foreign land, when an Indian during a casual conversation, is queried whether there are still cows on Indian roads. It usually does not require a response as the answer is already wired in the mind of the poser. But most Indians hurt and bruised, nursing their just busted ‘fastest growing economy’ ego blurt that it is not the case anymore. They go on to justify saying that it is more like expecting cow boys still giddy-apping on their horses in Houston or California still witnessing a McKenna's gold type of rush or mobs still running loose on Chicago streets.

It has not happened to me for the first time. My manager at Toyota used to frequently poke fun at cows strutting on Indian roads and I would staunchly oppose that saying that it is a way of life and it may not meet the standards westerners or easterners may have set. But it so happened after a brief hiatus, I came upon a presentation today from a colleague of mine who had been to India on a field visit. And lo behold! The very first slide had a picture of a cow casually taking a stroll on one of the roads seemingly nonchalant about traffic or people. What is with foreigners and cows! Maybe it has got something to do with the gastronomic connection. Alas, I will always wonder.

For any Indian, this is no unnatural sight. Most of us treat cows as a sacred animal. It is worshipped in divinity and clothed with pure obeisance. People reared cows in India as it served primarily as a milk producer and thus being a money spinner for the family. It was (is) also used for transport (eco friendly way) since there were (are) no cars or any mechanized means of transport. It also served as a tiller during farming since the affordability and availability of tractors was (is) still beyond the reach of a common farmer. The utility of cows was so enormous that no wonder families treated it as a family member as it not only earned the bread for the family but also worked hard for the family.

Being an agrarian economy with the 8% odd GDP growth still festering only in the cities, much of rural India still has not had the whiff of industrialization and hence cows are still reared for all the above mentioned purposes. To purport a cow roaming on Indian roads as a sign of amusement and ridicule is deeply hurting. More so because when we do not think it is anything backward and retrograde. At least I do not think so. I agree that cows hinder free movement of traffic. They can leave a mess in unseemly places. It seems to be out of place and out of sorts in a bustling world where everyone seems to be in a hurry and the cow with its pendulous movement of the butt seems to be cocking a snook at one and all. But cows being used a sense of ridicule is always teetering on being offensive.

As a self-priding Indian, I would naturally want India and its villages to be developed and modernized as Western countries are. One should not forget that India is a new republic and we are still unclenching ourselves from our colonial grasp. Yes, we certainly could have done better but we have not done that bad either. Development and industrialization shall happen and is quite an unstoppable phenomenon. India has tasted the fruits of globalization and there is no turning the clock back. But it should be done on our own terms. It should be done the ‘Indian way’.

A part of me laments that in our current development model, we seem to be paying heed to similar bovine sensitivities of our western counterparts. If they come out with a comment/ report ridiculing something that is out of place in Indian society, then we have a knee-jerk response trying to set things about right. I am not saying that we do not have anything to learn from our occident counterparts, but we should still maintain our individuality and develop the Indian way of things. We should not lose a lot of things that defines us being Indian. We should develop and move forward imparting the best practices of the west and east but carefully without aping the same. Cows on streets fall into one such category. Moo!

De-criminalization of Politics

2009-03-20T19:19:00.000-05:00

"UP outlaws to aid Maya realize poll ambitions" screamed the headline on IBNLive's website. As I read through the article, I sauntered to the third paragraph, which went as follows: "Mukhtar Ansari and his notorious brother Afzal are both contesting on BSP tickets are accused of murdering a BJP MLA Krishnand Rai."

Not many may remember the heinous and gruesome murder of the BJP MLA Mr. Rai. But I remember it very well. At that time when I read the news, I was deeply saddened and aghast at the plummeting standards of Indian politics. Little did I realize that I would be involved with this piece of news more than just musing upon it. The deceased MLA's son became my room mate during my final months of graduate studies.

Hearing him outline the tragedy was so very heart rending. I came face to face with the collateral damage inflicted upon by Mukhtar Ansari and his henchmen. Little do people realize the tragedy that unfolds on the family when something so ghastly happens. My friend does an excellent job hiding his anger. He vowed that he will never join politics. His mother, whom he literally worships, won the election immediately after Mr. Rai's death but she subsequently lost the election succumbing to the caste, money and goon politics. My friend is deeply hurt. He believes that not only a promising, honest person was lost to Indian polity, he lost a very inspiring, caring and loving father. The murderers have still gone unpunished and they are standing for elections! That adds more fuel to the fire. I cannot imagine myself being in my friend's shoes and being patient at the same time.

What I am trying to say is that we as Indians have to say "Enough is Enough". No criminalization of politics should be allowed. With impunity the law should be above everyone else including the law makers.

Measuring Experience...Stoichiometrically

2009-03-18T21:37:00.005-05:00

As a young kid, I always wondered how I could get those creases that my father sported whenever he frowned at one of my capers or expressed surprised at the antics that I pulled off. But whenever I tried to emulate his creases, I was immediately chastised for hastening the “wrinkling” of the skin.

My sister would say that a time would come when I would not want to sport the crease and yet nature would get the best of me. I have begun to see the work of nature unfold. At 28 years, I now sport a tender crease on my forehead whenever I lift my eyebrows up. Although when I do relax my forehead muscles those creases do not leave any wrinkles, indicating that my skin is still elastic and the collagen in my skin is helping it revert back to its original shape.

It is often said that as we grow older, we grow wiser. I know that is debatable. No scientific data has ever been able to establish an empirical relationship between experience and age. But side stepping the debate, it is an accepted axiom in human relations and often serves as a fodder for an argument between an adolescent and a demanding parent.

So as we grow older, we develop creases and as we grow older we also tend to get wiser. So extrapolating the transitive relationship, so do the creases on the forehead act as a visual indicator…a barometer…a measuring jar for experience?

So if experience can be likened to water, then with age, it gradually fills up leaving behind the creases on the forehead akin to a rising water meniscus seen during a filling up exercise of a measuring jar.

So next time you are looking to consult someone about a problem or looking to hire someone with experience, side glance their resume and remember to count the number of creases on that person’s forehead! It should serve as a good experience indicator.

Prosthetic Care

2009-02-20T20:58:00.004-06:00

Recently I had a bout of flu (or more medically terming it, influenza). Although I had never been affected by flu before, this recent bout has already made me have enough of it. Anyway I shall not digress as to how I struggled coping with the unwelcome visitor in my body and how tired and harassed I was from the virus.

But I shall digress as always to the philosophy of the ailment. I should say that I am blessed with a malady. Hmm...a paradox. Maybe I should re-phrase that sentence stating that I am cursed with a malady. Anyway I, unnaturally, always tend to see things through a very complex prism that has a refractive index of morals, ethics, emotions, logic, human melancholy, anthropology etc all mixed very disproportionately. Much as the virus tried to cure my malady, by tiring my body and mind with feverish temperatures of 103+ degrees, the malady magically as it may seem, became stronger, as though it was fueled by the futile machinations of the virus!

On Monday, even as I dragged myself to work, all my sinews screamed for mercy and the comfort of my warm bed. But as obstinate as I am, I showed up haggard and ill at ease to work. Much to my obstinacy and discomfort, the virus began to gradually take control over my body and just 2 hours into the day, I realized that I cannot pull a fast one over this virus. I decided to go home but decided to resist for a while. And then the downpour started...

As people passed by my cubicle, concerns about my failing health were galore. There were people imploring me to go home, take adequate rest, get to a doctor, stay warm etc. I am usually a skeptic of human sympathy (barring those expressed by near and dear ones). I was pleasantly surprised to see the care and attention that I was getting. I began to feel nice about my sickness. I thought at least this way I get to see the softer, comforting side of the people. People in general are nice and caring. The steely exterior that most show at work is just another piece of attire that they wear along with their formal clothes every day in the morning when they show up to work. Otherwise deep down, there is a fleshy pulsating organ in every person. And then the reverie shattered...

Just when I was gloating about my species, a man walked by and spoke those words that defined my next few "flu days". He said that I should go home lest I should infect him and everyone else. The comment is fairly honest and I abide by the logic. But what betrayed him was his eyes and shining steely armor. There was no emotion, the spasmodic vibrations behind his sternum was hardly visible. What came across was a very selfish homo sapien who basically cared about his own well being and him not getting sick. It was not my discomfort that put him ill at ease nor my shooting temperatures that concerned him. What concerned him was "HIM".

Should I blame my prism which sees more than what I should see? It is like a photo mosaic telescope that pieces a given incident into a complex picture which is multi-dimensional. I began to see the decadence of man kind when he is putting him before the other. But then now after much of the virus having flushed out of my system, I see this picture and think whether I am right about that emotion or not. Had the virus actually overpowered my malady? I really hope it had.

Petition for Absentee Voting in Indian Elections Petition

2009-01-05T20:06:00.000-06:00

Petition for Absentee Voting in Indian Elections Petition

Petite bourgeoisie

2008-12-23T09:45:00.005-06:00

Over the past few days, it is very interesting to see a tennis match going on in the international arena. The two players on either side of the net are India and Pakistan. The referee is the US and the rest of the world is a mutely unabsorbed spectator. The most horrifying thing about this match is that it is happening on the blood stained grass on the center court.

Emulating John McEnroe, India is playing hardball with the referee. India is ranting and raging as the calls are made. India is outraged that the call is made in favor of Pakistan even when the ball is clearly outside the line. Although enjoying a comfortable two set lead, it sees that this set is slipping away. It at least expected crowd support with the usual cheers of encouragement but the apathy is clearly demonstrated.

Mumbai attacks - if I should say, has done two things: It made India more vocal and it helped peel the layer of farce off Pakistan's support on war against terrorism. But unfortunately it has stopped there. India has cried foul over and over but at the very least it has not got a patient ear. US, very surprisingly has been forceful dealing with its "ally" but yet it is not enough. Rest of the world, read UK, China and the EU, deeply immersed in their economic woes and Christmas cheer has conveniently side-stepped all the news. Even in the US, barring Bush administration officials who are in the sunset of their stints, the response has been tepid.

But one might wonder, why is India clamoring for world's attention? Why can't it be just the same way as the world stood with the US after 9/11? The world chose the option of "being with the US" and "not being against them". Why India has to struggle to have its voice heard although it is on the right side of the argument?

It all brings down to clout and power. One might have seen that the rich and famous (and politicians) wield all the power whereas the meek and the petite bourgeoisie clamor for attention. This can be an accurate representation of India's middle class. But it also shows that India is in the middle class of the world politics. The rich and the mighty G-8 head held high (despite the economic travesty) stomp about mightily.

India, I believe should continue to respond as it has done with Mumbai attacks. Be vociferous, loud and remonstrate. It should not posture or threaten wars or attacks with our neighbor. Long gone are the days when two armies stood face to face in a battle and at the end of a brief spell, one army stood vanquished and the other army victorious. The stakes are too high for wars. The 21st century shall herald economic battles, price wars, import/ export regime protectionist controls, currency rate hedging etc.

India should continue on the path of economic prosperity. This is what will give India the bigger say in this world. It should emerge as the force that cannot be just whooshed away. It should channelize the aspirations of a billion plus people. It should accelerate economic liberalization, bring about rapid growth in infrastructure and emerge as a leader in science and technology. It should become an export giant with a monstrous internal consumption. When India emerges in such a fashion, it is when our bonds with rest of the world get much stronger. Economic bonds are stronger than diplomatic bonds. India should build itself up on its own feet. This is often said of a person but India and its Indians should work hard, toil and sweat it out for their country. For it is us, Indians, who are bestowed with the capability of taking India to new heights. India has graduated from a below poverty line country to an average middle class country. But there should be a push to become rich. Richness brings with it might and power. Imagine that having in these times...

Excellent Article - Janaagraha

2008-12-16T19:54:00.001-06:00

In the summer of 1993, I was in a student programme on architecture & planning in Denmark. One of our site visits was to a Co-Housing development, a little outside Copenhagen. This was a concept that was taking strong root in Denmark and spreading to other parts of Europe, a deliberate fostering of community spirit through shared facilities and responsibilities - transport, child-care and kitchens.

We had to write a report on our visit afterwards and I still remember what I wrote – for the reason that it was so far removed from the reality of what India is today. I wrote that in India we didn’t need community enclaves because the spirit of community exists in every one of our neighbourhoods, keeping our children safe and allowing us to lean on each other for any support. Since our return to India these last ten years, I have seen little evidence of this romantic view of India’s community and can only attribute it to a hangover of childhood innocence.

The Mumbai strikes have brought with it the loss of innocence for millions of urban middle class. Because this is the first time we feel vulnerable. It is the first time government inertia and bungling cannot be countered through private means. Our response is fear and anger. The question everybody is asking now is, “will the intensity of emotion remain. Will it even carry into the New Year?” Or will it dissipate like the morning dew, allowing status quo to triumph once again? And if it does remain, can it be channelised to catalyse constructive change?

I believe that if we let our emotions dissipate, we do so at our peril. This threat of terrorism is a new urban reality that we all need to come to grips with, because terrorists strike big cities - the heart of a nation’s wealth and power, and they have been striking repeatedly around the world. With the reach of the naxals gaining new ground in India we face growing terrorism both from within and from outside. And we have little reassurance that we will be better prepared to prevent and respond the next time.

The new fervour for accountability therefore, is important and needs to be relentless. It is bringing into sharp focus the quality of our political and bureaucratic leadership, and the delivery by our state apparatus. It has already put politicians on a rare back-foot, and galvanised intelligence and defence discussions on improving operational efficiency.

But while it is important to demand accountability from our leaders, it is paramount that we ask it of ourselves. I keep hearing the refrain “we need somebody to come and take charge, like a Gandhi” and it puzzles me. I have come to the conclusion that we look for heroes to deliver us either because we lack faith in ourselves, or because this conveniently allows us to focus on the priorities of our own lives. I am also struck by the “instant nirvana” impatience. There seems a lack of appetite to invest the time it takes to build a strong foundation for our democracy. This is not Maggie noodles - there is much work to be done all around.

Our anger must first be directed towards individual introspection. A paucity of public principles and civic virtue has seeped into the very bones of our society. We need nothing less than a civic renaissance. We need three resolute pillars to build the foundation for this renaissance- citizenship, volunteerism and community.

The spirit of volunteerism and of community has been an integral part of our society in the past but needs resurgence. Citizenship however is about developing our political identity, which we have never invested in.

Engaging in the politics of our city, state and country, is engaging in nation building. Yet most Indians prefer to stay away from politics, viewing it as a vehicle of corrupt power and crime. Mahatma Gandhi said, “the virtues and vices of a government are not inherent in government but derived from those of its people”. Like it or not, we are in a representative democracy, and yet we the middle class don’t vote for our political leaders, know them or demand delivery from them. If we must interact with government, we prefer to interact with the bureaucrat babu who seems more “people like us”. Most of us have never met a politician in our lives. We disconnect from the political process with pride as if it deserves a badge of honour. In the absence of investment in our political identity or ideal, our lamentations have become stale – “they are all the same, all corrupt”.

And yet when credible candidates come along we don’t support them. Jayaprakash Narayan in Andhra Pradesh is a case in point. He has cast his hat into the political arena on the plank of honest politics, but rather than rallying to his support we are cynical about his chances. Instead we stand by as movie stars and political scions are voted in, never mind that they have little experience in governance or development. We can’t change politics from the outside - as customers or commentators. So building the first pillar of citizenship requires individual commitment to be part of the political process from each and every one of us.

The second pillar of volunteerism is not a new concept in traditional India. Villages had common assets that the community took collective responsibility for – temples, tanks, streams. But in modern India, government has taken over the ownership of all public assets without providing political structures for community volunteerism. Bereft of opportunities, the outlet for volunteer energies has been stymied or diverted to culture and religion or into NGOs.

Many of the post 9/11 actions of the US government have been questionable, but the investment in nurturing social capital in their country is remarkable. When the US went through 9/11 the citizens rallied resoundingly. Elysa Batista wrote, “a wave of volunteerism swept through the country right after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. From giving blood to becoming involved with community service groups, Americans turned out in droves to make a difference”.

Even most recently in rare bipartisanship, both Obama and McCain passionately supported a comprehensive volunteer system that creates new opportunities for citizens to serve each other and their country. Robert Putnam in his theory of social capital suggests that the level of volunteering is an index to measure the health of a democracy. Between 2006-07 there were more than 60 million Americans who volunteered for civic service, which is about 26% of the population. Imagine that. An entire country with one volunteer per family. This concerted drive to encourage volunteersim is in stark contrast to the complete absence of formal systems for volunteering in India.

My guess is that a measure on urban Indians’ giving today- of either volunteer time or money –wouldn’t bathe us in much glory. We need to re-cultivate volunteerism values in our cities by creating formal structures for volunteerism. We could revive our tradition of “shramdaan” here in India. A formal shramdaan programme could open up opportunities for serving in a civilian reserve military programme, or in civic programmes for volunteering in hospitals, education, libraries, social service organisations, etc. Such promotion of volunteerism is an end in itself. But it links citizenship to public service while also addressing the demand for human resources.

Let me give an example. Consider our police count, a total of 10,32,960 or 1:1000 for our one billion population. We need to expand this at least three times in our cities. In Mumbai city this would mean an addition of about 25,000 to our forces. One way to do this is to beef up the police force at the state level. An alternative approach could be to initiate a joint community-policing programme covering every neighbourhood. Volunteers from within neighbourhoods would be recruited and trained. This second approach decentralises the system of policing, inculcates values of citizenship and provides volunteering opportunities. Encouraging such decentralised initiatives will bring back relevance to community action and empower citizens.

The third pillar of community takes us closer to home, in our own neighbourhoods. Unfortunately, most of us these days are free-riders, taking without giving. Most of us have never met our neighbours nor know anything about them. We have no idea who moves in or out of our small neighbourhoods – owners, paying guests, tenants, watchmen or house-help. We have no idea who our local policemen are. The truth is that today’s neighbourhoods have become socially fragmented.

Terror has a geography – it originates, breeds, organises and strikes somewhere. All these terrorists had to be laying in wait somewhere in our cities, had to have local networks, often inserting themselves right within our neighbourhoods. How then do we not know about them? Sociologists use the term “anomie” for the feeling of not belonging, of isolation, of disconnectedness. The level of anomie is on the rise in our cities. The gaping hole in our security is our disconnectedness from what goes on in our neighbourhoods. We need a resurgence of community.

These are the three pillars upon which a civic renaissance is possible. It will require a sea change in our collective mindsets. But when this happens, we will find ourselves stopping to help the next time we see an accident, or a fallen tree, or a suspicious stranger in our neighbourhood, or an unusual object. When this happens, the next time a terrorist lands on our shores and we ask them what they are doing, we will not take “Mind your own business” as an answer. We will have the ownership to say, “It is my business”. This transformation in our mind-sets is not going to come easy. It will first of all require government to step back and make room for communities, and for citizens to step up and whole-heartedly embrace their role.

So while we express our angst with protests, petitions and candles, let us also invest in important long-term outcomes. Let us move beyond the romantic idea of democracy and put our shoulders to the hard work of building our democracy - through values of citizenship, volunteerism and community. A country is made strong by its citizens. They build a resilient society that rallies with courage and leadership during times of crisis. The best response to the Mumbai strikes would be an epochal civic renaissance in India.

The "Exchange Rate" reaction

2008-12-14T22:17:00.004-06:00

The title that I chose to name this blog can be described as bizarre and quite ghastly. But let me explain what I intended to say in my title. Read on...

My wife and I decided not to travel anywhere during this Thanksgiving and how should we know that we shall be consumed by one of the most horrific terrorist attacks on the free world. Day in and day out, hour after hour and minute by minute, CNN and other various Indian channels could not show enough of the carnage as they kept up the ante. The tickers kept scrolling informing the viewers of all the latest updates. Reporters jostled and media networks scrambled as they strove to get the exact number of people killed in the blast. It changed from the teens in the beginning all the way to the 90s, midway and then it hovered somewhere around the 150s by the time carnage ended (according to most reports the carnage totaled around 212).

Even the very mention of these numbers makes me feel so very bad. One should remember that every number there is not just a number but it is a life...a family...with several intricate emotions behind it. It is not 212 lives but 212 times the several indelible connections that all of them had in their mortal existences.

I believe that India and the Indian people do not value lives. Being an Indian myself, I hate to say this but I believe it is very true. If we were to loose a few dozen people in a bus crash down the Himalayan ravines, a few hundreds crushed in a temple stampede, a few hundred people washed away in a flood or earthquake, does not affect us psychologically. It was only the magnanimity of the carnage, the International (Al Qaida, Pakistan, ISI) angle and should I say the impeccable job of present day media that helped drive the point home. India has a large population and is ranked second to the mighty dragon. Although this population is now touted as an asset, the value of the same is meager and should I say trivial at its very worst.

Can you imagine the loss and the response of a single American, British or any other occidental power citizen's life lost in some other country due to whatever reason it may be? It is swift. This is because they value the life of the person who has lost his life and also value the sentiments of the relatives and friends of the dead.

In India, we seem to have lost the sensibility for that life. We treat it with scant respect. I am culpable as well. Whenever I read a newspaper, I tend to skirt over the "loss of lives", "killed", "scores dead" articles. This is because "we have own worries to think about". But this attitude is not correct...naturally.

It takes probably the lives of 50+ people in India to evoke some sort of media coverage or a "oh" reaction from the public as opposed to a loss of a single life in the Western world. It almost seems like an "exchange rate" reaction that we all have towards loss of human lives.

People should respect others and remember that others are important as themselves. When we stand in queues, when we pray at temples, when we go through a crowded market or see some sort of mishap having occurred on the road, we should always show respect towards the other fellow human being. Let us not forget that we could be in that situation some day. As someone once said, "Do unto others what you expect from others."

An Excellent Article in NYT

2008-12-08T20:28:00.000-06:00

AS an open, diverse and at times chaotic democracy, India has long been a target for terrorism. From the assassination of Mohandas Gandhi in 1948 to the recent attacks in Mumbai, it has faced attempts to change its national character by force. None has yet succeeded. Despite its manifest social failings, India remains the developing world’s most successful experiment in free, plural, large-scale political collaboration.

The Mumbai attacks were transformative, because in them, unlike previous outrages in India, the rich were caught: not only Western visitors in the nation’s magnificent financial capital but also Indian bankers, business owners and socialites. This had symbolic power, as the terrorists knew it would.

However, I recently saw a televised forum in which members of the public vented their fury against India’s politicians for their failure to act, and it soon became apparent the victims were poor as well as rich. One survivor, Shameem Khan — instantly identifiable by his name and his embroidered cap as a Muslim — told how six members of his extended family had been shot dead. Still in shock, he said: “A calamity has fallen on my house. What shall I do?” His neighbors had helped pay for the funeral. Like most of India’s 150 million Muslims, Mr. Khan is staunchly patriotic. The city’s Muslim Council refused to let the terrorists be buried in its graveyards.

When these well-planned attacks unfolded, it was clear to anyone with experience of India that they were not homegrown, and almost certainly originated from Pakistan. Yet the reaction of the world’s news media was to rely on the outmoded idea of Pakistan-India hyphenation — as if a thriving and prosperous democracy of over a billion people must be compared only to an imploded state that is having to be bailed out by the I.M.F. Was Pakistan to blame, asked many pundits, or was India at fault because of its treatment of minority groups?

The terrorists themselves offered little explanation, and made no clear demands. Yet even as the siege continued, commentators were making chilling deductions on their behalf: their actions were because of American foreign policy, or Afghanistan, or the harassment of Indian Muslims. Personal moral responsibility was removed from the players in the atrocity. When officials said that the killers came from the Pakistani terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, it was taken as proof that India’s misdeeds in the Kashmir Valley were the cause.

These misdeeds are real, as are India’s other social and political failings (I recently met a Kashmiri man whose father and sister had died at the hands of the Indian security forces). But there is no sane reason to think Lashkar-e-Taiba would shut down if the situation in Kashmir improved. Its literature is much concerned with establishing a caliphate in Central Asia, and murdering those who insult the Prophet. Its leader, Hafiz Saeed, who lives on a large estate outside Lahore bought with Saudi Money, goes about his business with minimal interference from the Pakistani government.

Lashkar-e-Taiba is part of the International Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders (the Qaeda franchise). Mr. Saeed’s hatreds are catholic — his bugbears include Hindus, Shiites and women who wear bikinis. He regards democracy as “a Jewish and Christian import from Europe,” and considers suicide attacks to be in accordance with Islam. He has a wider strategy: “At this time our contest is Kashmir. Let’s see when the time comes. Our struggle with the Jews is always there.” As he told his followers in Karachi at a rally in 2000: “There can’t be any peace while India remains intact. Cut them, cut them — cut them so much that they kneel before you and ask for mercy.” In short, he has an explicit political desire to create a state of war between the religious communities in India and beyond, and bring on the endgame.

Like other exponents of Islamist extremism, he has a view of the world that does not tolerate doubt or ambiguity: his opponents are guilty, and must be killed. I have met other radicals like Mr. Saeed, men who live in a dimension of absolute certainty and have contempt for the moral relativism of those who seek to excuse them. To achieve their ends, it is necessary to indoctrinate boys in the hatred of Hindus, Americans and Jews, and dispatch them on suicide missions. It is unlikely that any of the militants who were sent from Karachi to Mumbai — young men from poor rural backgrounds whose families were paid for their sacrifice — had ever met a Jew before they tortured and killed Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka, who was several months pregnant, at the Mumbai Jewish center.

America’s so-called war on terror has been, in many respects, a catastrophe. In Pakistan, it has been chronically mishandled, leading to the radicalization of areas in the north that were previously peaceful. Yet links between the military, the intelligence services and the jihadis have remained intact: Lashkar-e-Taiba is merely one of a number of extremist organizations that continues to function.

The prime solution to the present crisis is to force the closing of terrorist training outfits in Pakistan, and apply the law to those who organize and finance operations like the Mumbai massacres. Hafiz Saeed and other suspects should be sent to India to stand trial. The remark by Pakistan’s president, Asif Ali Zardari (a man whose history of shady business dealing makes him demonstrably unfit for high, or even low, office), that he did not think the terrorists came from Pakistan would be funny if it were not tragic.

The United States gives around $1 billion a year in military aid to Islamabad; that is leverage. It does the people of Pakistan no favors for Washington to allow their leaders to continue with the strategy of perpetual diversion, asking India to be patient while denying the true nature of the immediate terrorist threat. I received this e-mail message recently from a friend in Karachi: “Nowhere can get more depressing than Pakistan these days — barring some African failed states and Afghanistan.”

Patrick French is the author, most recently, of “The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V. S. Naipaul.”

Contibuting to Governance?

2008-12-04T07:44:00.007-06:00

Being an educated and an aware citizen of India and I, having been in America for the past 5 years, has given me a rare perspective on India. Although my educational and professional interests lured me to this land, the umbilical cord with the motherland, if anything, has only strengthened. Seeing the disaster unfold in Mumbai from an uniquely "Indian residing in America" perspective has not only hurt me but made me feel very guilty. Guilty? I feel educated and well informed citizens like me should contribute to public governance. Having been in the corporate world for 3+ years has taught me the nuances of facing all the hurdles and challenges in an organization. I feel that I can use this intellect and acumen in bettering my country and benefiting my fellow Indians.

When I read through John Wilson's article ("Failure of Indian intelligence: The buck stops nowhere!" which featured in the newspaper Deccan Herald on Saturday, 29 November 2008.), it immediately initiated in me the different ways to structure an organization, that which I have very briefly done but experienced more being in the corporate world. What I lament is the fact that our politicians and bureaucrats have sadly never experienced the experiences of today's youth aka worked in a corporate world. I do not know how and maybe I am sounding quite not coherent, but in some way I would like to contribute actively in the shaping of India's public governance system. If you should loosely term, in the much hated word, that I am wishing to become a politician...so be it. A politician who does not play politics but pursues politics for the betterment of his people and in chugging the wheels of the country forward.

Having followed the US elections closely and having wondered open mouthed at how an young boy living on food stamps can eventually climb to the highest political office in the country, a flame of passion has ignited in me. I am pretty sure I am not alone in my thoughts. If I should summarize all that I have said above, my plain speak question is how can I contribute to India's public governance system and probably change it!? Any thoughts??

My response to NY Times Article

2008-11-29T16:42:00.004-06:00

Dear Mr. Kristof,

Being an Indian residing in America, I should say at the very outset that America has come a long way in acknowledging India’s problem of terrorism. India has long endured acts of terrorism and has suffered more than probably any other country. 24 hour coverage on CNN and such dialogues and commentaries on NY Times front page is truly heartening to see.

But what peeves me the most is the presumptuous all knowing view of Western commentators. I should venture to say US strategy in Iraq failed because there was no “US strategy”. US failed to understand the underlying framework of the Iraqis (Kurds, Sunnis, Shias etc) before they took Saddam Hussein out. Now they find themselves in a quagmire that they are trying to dig themselves out of. The parallel between Iraq and India-Pak relations is that most western commentators though may have followed the conflict closely for many years, cannot identify the underlying crux. I would not blame you people for having a distorted view simply because "you have not been through the experience". If I were to draw an obnoxious analogy, it is like air-lifting a native African or an Asian suddenly into the US and asking him to comment on American football. He may pick the tenets of the game but to understand the ethos, one needs to go through many years of superbowls and NFL’s before he/she gets the hang of it.

The very tone set here in your commentary is very conciliatory in nature. Indians have just endured a 60 hour televised drama of terrorism. You are suggesting prudence and watchfulness to them. Can you imagine doing that on September 12, 2001? As President Bush then said, “You are with us or against us.” No one ever spoke about mis-policies of the US in Afghanistan then. No one spoke about how we can educate Afghans and induce economic prosperity so that such future attacks would not take place. How US could promote stability in the region by resorting to peace talk? Then why should India approach this solution? India and Pakistan have spoken "peace" for the past 60 years. The problem is not India but it is Pakistan. By meaning Pakistan, I do not mean its people or maybe its present dispensation. I imply the underlying ethos in the government framework. You should remember that Pakistan was formed by first proclaiming its hatred towards India. US should realize that the best people to resolve the issue are the two countries involved in the same.
— Narahari Rao

Power of Volunteerism

2008-10-07T12:29:00.000-05:00

This article was published in the India Today(October 6th) edition entitled: Transforming India - Great Ideas.Great Minds.

The edition covers 30 ideas that can transform India. Swati writes on volunteerism and spirit of service amongst youth.
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The ongoing Presidential election in America is an extraordinary run on many counts, charged with emotions of race and gender. "Change is coming", both candidates promise and the most visible change is the record participation of the youth, thanks in large measure to the Obama phenomenon. The youth turnout in the USA almost doubled to 17% this election in comparison to 9% in the 2000 elections. Over 6.5 million young people under the age of 30 participated in the 2008 primaries and caucuses - in a nutshell, the youth there have been politically inspired and reversed a declining trend of youth voting.

Contrast this with the youth involvement in politics in India. The 2004 Lok Sabha elections had a total turnout of 56%. The break-up between rural and urban voter turnout is about 60-40. In the absence of reliable youth data on voting, I have used small sampling studies and extrapolated to arrive at our young urban voter turnout - between the ages of 18 and 30 - in the 2004 elections. The number works out to approximately 6 million, which doesn't seem so bad, until we look at it as a percentage - a mere 9% of the urban youth eligible to vote. This political abstinence by our youth, in a country with 47% of our population under the age of 20, does not bode well for the future health of our young democracy. We are in danger of creating a permanent and large constituency of non-voters.

Engaging in the politics of our city, state and country, is engaging in nation building. Yet most Indians - young and old - prefer to stay away from politics, viewing it as a vehicle of corrupt power and crime. Engaging with government is anathema to most Indians. Faced with a choice, we prefer to go over, under and around government - anything rather than engage with government. While we do volunteer for causes, the average Indian feels that he or she has little political or social impact beyond the occasional power trip to the ballot box.

Looking towards the US again, volunteering is considered a bedrock of community building, inculcated through schools and colleges. In his campaign speech, Barack Obama promises a $4000 tuition credit for students who commit time to community service. More than 60 million average Americans commit volunteer time. Youth volunteering in the USA is estimated to be 36% between the ages of 15 to 25 and more than half of those volunteering firmly believe that they can make some difference to the community where they live. The youth that volunteer in political organizations -13% - believe that they can make a difference on various social or political issues. Studies in the US indicate that youth are twice as likely to volunteer, engage in politics or vote, when they grow up in a household where someone volunteers.

I could find no reliable statistics on volunteering in India, but my modestly informed guess is that we are nowhere close to those numbers. The good news is that volunteerism as a concept is not new in our society and is deeply embedded in social structures, building a stronger sense of community and trust. We continue our social networks and support structures in our cities, but these networks are not concerned with politics.

The reality is that we cannot do away with politics if we are to solve our overwhelming social issues - poverty and crime, to name two. Consider this extract from Jack London's People of the Abyss, "The 'Abyss' is an economic pit of despair, one into which pours a flood of vigorous strong life that perishes by the third generation. The city is a large maw into which tumble down the exploited millions, who eke out their lives in misery, dumb desperation and filth." He refers to London circa 1900. Similarly, crime and pork barrel politics were rampant in Chicago and New York not too long ago. Yet, the USA and UK are today considered amongst the most mature democracies of the world. This didn't happen overnight, nor did it happen without the continuing investment towards a political ideal by both government and the people.

In India, we have long been used to a relationship of patronage - ruled by feudal lords, Rajas, and the Raj. We have yet to embrace the power of the citizen in a democracy. We are a billion voices with the power of a billion votes at our command. Our right to vote is the privilege of our democracy and a civic duty.

Yet we have reduced our role to that of complainant and critic of our governments. Most of us do not invest in our political identity or political beliefs. In striking contrast to what we are currently witnessing in the US presidential election, average citizens and students in India do not campaign for political candidates, or attend public meetings, or concern ourselves with public policies. We see our role of "citizen" through a limited lens - paying taxes, obeying laws. Our political identity of "voter" is supremely undervalued. We are comfortable forming networks to engage in music, religion, business, rotary, social service, but are uncomfortable about engaging in politics. We shun politics with an unusual righteousness and starve our youth of civic role models.

Undoubtedly voting for individual candidates with charisma - a Clinton, Obama, or Palin - is so much more inspiring than voting for parties. In India, we are denied the opportunity to vote for our Mayors, our Chief Ministers, our Governors or our Prime Ministers. We are constrained to vote for parties that decide for us who will occupy these positions, effectively shifting the power equation from the people to the party. But this is insufficient reason to disengage from defining our politics.

The protestation that corrupt candidates turn us off voting has become something of a convenient copout. Perhaps we do not have good enough candidates because there are not enough good voters that care enough to bring out the vote for these candidates. Clearly our change is not going to be led by individual messiahs. But do we believe that one billion voices are powerless? Let's not get trapped into a nirvana fallacy, waiting for the perfect conditions before we are willing to play our role in India's political journey.

We need somebody to play centre-forward. Our youthful demographic dividend has been hailed as an economic positive. Let's also consider it a democratic positive. Turning 18 can become a milestone not just because it allows you a driver's license, but also because it allows you the license to vote. Will the youth lead our one billion voices out of political indifference? This could be the small step towards citizenship and a giant leap for our democracy.

We live in a country that demands so little from our citizens. Over twenty countries including Australia, have introduced compulsory voting for its citizens. Singapore enrolls all male citizens upon reaching 18 years, to a mandatory two years in National Service under the Singapore Armed Forces. Jury duty is mandatory in the USA and can be deferred only twice. During times of war, all able young men have to register for the draft. We demand absolutely nothing of our citizens, of our youth, for the privilege of citizenship.

The spirit of service is what drives tall leaders around the world to do great things and average citizens to commit to causes of common good. It inspires individuals to look beyond themselves and empower others.

But in order to empower others we must be empowered ourselves. Let's begin with the simple act of voting.

How the US Financial Crisis unfolded?

2008-09-28T15:59:00.001-05:00

I am an avid news reader and follower. I feel that my understanding of the world is shaped better by knowing and learning the things happening around me. Also I feel that the events happening around us have a lesson or a moral to teach us and it is my duty to learn from them. One thing that is hogging the headlines these days is the US Financial meltdown. Everyday over the radio and television waves, there is much bad news of corporations and Wall Street firms sinking. But I never understood the fundamentals as to how the US dug itself into this crisis. Hence I did some research and needless to say I found it very exciting and riveting. I thought I should pen the things that I have learnt and read in a very simple and easy to understand way so that a layman like me can understand it. So here it goes…

The current US financial crisis has several starting points. Without delving too much into philosophy of debt and man’s greed, let me jump right into the crux of the crisis.

There was a lot of free available money in the market. This money generally is from countries which have huge cash reserves (large savings/ retirement accounts, oil money etc) and are looking for avenues to invest and proliferate their already burgeoning accounts. Also countries like China, India, Brazil and Saudi Arabia due to their growing economies have a lot of pent up money. These investments needed a steady growth i.e. these savings needed to be invested somewhere so that at the end of their maturity period can yield benefits to investors (global and domestic) who could be retirees, small income families, large corporations etc. Traditionally this type of money has grown with financial instruments like bonds and securities issued by the governments of stable countries. Needless to say, the US treasury based securities and bonds were most sought after financial instruments and every country in the world wanted to have a share of this pie. But these instruments were boring. With just about 1% interest rate, the rate of return was low but they were risk free. This huge pool of money investors were looking for some low risk-high return investment (an oxymoron!). The US housing market was a treasure trove. The interest rate on a typical mortgage was hovering somewhere between 5-10%. This coupled with the fact that the US housing market is very stable and extremely risk free led this pool of money to be invested into the US housing market.

But the pool of money could not connect to individual home mortgages. They needed bridges. The bridges were provided by Wall Street firms (Lehman Bros., Bear Stearns, Morgan Stanley etc). These as their portfolios say are investment bankers. These people were in turn connected to mortgage firms like Countrywide Financial who bought large bundles of the mortgages from small banks and sold it to Wall Street Firms. The banks were in turn linked to brokers who finally established the link with the home buyer himself (or herself).

Initially the tide of mortgages was low. Only secure loans and mortgages began funneling its way up the chain. The return was too good and the investors were thrilled. They wanted more. With increasing pressure (read greed) from this pool of money investors, the pressure transmitted to the lower rungs of the ladder. And that was when the rot started.

As the investors wanted more, brokers and bankers at the lower rungs began hunting for more mortgages. Although they had initially started off with secure mortgages, slowly with increasing peer pressure from fellow brokers and bankers, every tom, dick and harry loans were being sucked up by the brokers and banks. They were under the solace that even though they are soaking up few bad loans here and there, eventually it is not going to be owned up by them. It is going to be owned up by someone one level higher up in the chain. People at the higher end of chain did not care for a few bad loans here and there because the rate of return on the rest of investment was too good and offset the bad loans.

This in turn fueled the housing market. The interest rates went further down as more and more people jostled to give out loans and mortgages. The terms were lowered, income statements were not checked, and the fine print was made finer. The returns were too large and profitable for anyone to stop and think their actions. People who basically could not even afford to buy a car were offered with outrageous home loan rates. The American Dream of owning a home began shaping up for a lot of people. And for those people who had prime lending (good loans with secure interest rates) were offered equity line of credits (basically loans on their current homes) to pay off their mortgages or any other debt that they needed to resolve.

This sucked in the sub-prime market lenders as well. In short, a sub-prime loan is a loan which is given out to people with bad credit histories, poor repaying capacities and those who do not have a sound source of income. Quite unbelievable that such a loan system even exists. But the rates of return on these high risk loans are too good to pass it up. They have hidden interest rates and fees which seek to compensate the risk that the people are taking to lend these loans. The sub-prime market began to fuel the gargantuan thirst for more and more mortgages demanded by Wall Street firms.

Eventually as the housing market expanded with more and more buyers jumping in due to low interest rates and easy credit, the investors at the top of the chain bloated with joy. At every stage in this chain, people were making profit, in essence defying the laws of conservation. And to disguise the whole issue, the housing prices also started to go up owing to speculation. This is because there were far too many buyers in the market with very less supply to meet the demand. The house prices started going up and everyone thought that they had made a killing on their investment. And that was when the bubble burst.

Since the housing prices had almost increased four fold, this discouraged the first time buyers. Also the market began to saturate. Although the prices of the homes themselves grew, the median price of homes across the US stayed the same. This began to create doubts in the minds of people. This led the home prices on a downward spiral.

First, the house prices fell which triggered panic in all sections of the chain. There was a lot of panic selling which further brought the home prices down and leading to increase in interest rates. This led to many buyers not being able to afford the mortgages leading to foreclosures. Since most banks had lent money to these homeowners, they lost all their money. The banks could not find any buyers in the market. Additionally in the whole chain, there was a lot of money locked up in assets which were severely overpriced but due to the meltdown, all assets were worth not even a penny. The lower rungs bore the brunt as most banks and brokers lost a whole deal of money. Though they were willing to sell it off at throwaway prices, there was none to buy them. This is how unstable the market had become.

But if the big investment banks were to go down, then the whole economy would crash. This is because for the rest of the banks that are still holding up, would need credit to drive their investments. Since the investors with a lot of money are not willing to invest anymore in the US financial system, the credit has literally dried up. If there is no credit system, our payrolls would not work, people cannot go ahead and buy anything on their credit cards even if they are willing to pay it back by the end of month, cars or homes cannot be leased or bought: essentially the entire system will collapse.

Hence the federal government is injecting this $700 billion into the market to i) show investors that the US government is stepping in to handle the crisis. Ii) infuse tax payer dollars to benefit the tax payer themselves.

The flip side to this is as many people believe that this means the people who committed the sin of greed are allowed to go scot free. Also the taxpayer dollars are being invested in companies that are almost on the verge of bankruptcy and have no investor confidence.

Essentially I believe that the government is doing the right thing albeit a bit too late. However post this crisis, the government should tighten money lending rules and also I believe that the savings interest rate in banks should be hiked. This would at least encourage American’s to save and not spend everything they earn. America should turn from a debt economy to a savings economy. Until then…this crisis shall rear its head in different forms. Little do most people understand the full extent of this crisis. Only time shall tell how bad it is.

Pluralistic View

2008-06-30T22:51:00.003-05:00

I embark to write this blog with an intention that this should be my smallest blog entry. It is way past my bed-time and I really need to sleep but I did not want to pass up the chance to comment on an observation that my wife made today.

Today my wife and I were watching television after a long boring day's work. During the commercial break, an ad about Febreze happened to feature. The cartoon ad featured a female elephant eulogizing the need for fragrant homes and how much she uses the timed fragrant mode to ensure she keeps her home smelling fresh and clean. She also went about to say that in case of dire need, the bottle has a mechanism in which you can induce a burst of fragrant spray and she demonstrates the same by opening a closet full of smelly shoes which belongs to her centipede husband! The ad is quite funny and quite efficiently nails down the point.

But what caught my wife's attention was the ingenuity or rather I should say the pluralistic view of showing a female elephant married to a centipede. Maybe she was reading too much into this but she felt that America, in this regard, is so liberated in its thinking. Probably a normal ad in some other country would have featured a female elephant talking about how her male elephant husband stomps around the home after a good hot muddy bath. But this ad espouses the view that an elephant can be married to a centipede. If you were to extrapolate the logic, then maybe a person of American origin could marry an African, Asian or of some other race. And the division may not be race. It could be gender, caste, ethnicity or sexual orientation.

This sort of thinking is what should liberate today's world. Irrespective of the mold that person has been type-casted since his birth, one must see-through for what he/ she is worth and not prejudice ourselves. A simple ad can bear testimony to that.

Travails of a movie buff

2008-06-29T21:59:00.005-05:00

It seems quite ironic to write about myself as being a movie buff. I have always liked to watch movies but my appetite was only vetted by the rationed (and censored!) movies on Doordarshan, the national broadcaster for India। So when my friends who had satellite television then rattled off names of famous Hollywood stars like Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Kevin Spacey, Nicholas Cage etc., the very least I could, was gape and imagine how these reel life heroes would look like.

Change I did, when I came to America for education. For those deprived of this otherwise "educational" experience, watching movies with friends over unending weekends is one of the caveats that need to be satisfied to be called a graduate student. It was then all hell broke loose. From a petite-bourgeois movie watcher who lived on rationed and orchestrated supply of movies, I was now exposed to a plethora of movie genres and tastes. Although I have largely restricted myself to English and Indian language movies in my pursuits, the sub-genres under these languages have broadly been explored by me. I have watched enough movies and some movies enough number of times to remember them with their dialogues and the scenes that would follow next. Yet I know my memory is ephemeral and my movie watching spree shall continue and proliferate as time passes by.

During one such spree, I ventured to watch a Tamil movie called Dasavatharam. Much coaxed and cajoled by a close friend, I subdued my skepticism and expectations and dared to watch the movie. I will not go into the specifics of the movie nor will I discuss how the screenplay or maybe the entire movie could have been better handled. Instead, I will concentrate on my own thoughts and that may lead the reader, succinctly, to the trappings of the movie itself.

I grew up hearing about Kamal Hassan. He is a well known actor in the south Indian cinema circuit and he has many classics to his credit. A true perfectionist and a very talented artist, his movies have largely been unparalleled in its content. He began his acting career at the age of six and truly he is a superstar in his own right. He is pan-language, pan-genre and pan-character personality who much of India knows as a fine actor.

When he was due to come out with this movie, amidst the bonfire of suspicion and mistrust, lay a small flame of hope that maybe some of his magic that he so much has shown forth in his earlier movies may be replicated here. But after watching the movie for a whole 180 minutes with bare minimum of air circulation in the theater hall, it truly left a bad taste in my mouth. Barring some few brilliance's here and there, it looked like Kamal Haasan was trapped in a time warp. An actor who once could read the audiences’ mind so well seems to have gotten it all wrong. But this is not the first time that one of his movies seems to have lost sync with the public.

He steadily over the past half a decade has been eroding his illustrious past. His movies have lacked soul and ethos. It looks like he seems to be at conflict with himself as he tries to seamlessly weave his illustrious past to the modern present day genres but in the process he seems to ending up head over heels. Also in this confusion, he seems to have lost his audience. There are sections of the movie when you can literally see the fire burning bright inside him and yet in some places he seems to be sinking in his self-created quicksand.

Although I was not much disappointed with the movie since I had very little expectations from it, yet there was that hollow feeling as to how great people in their quest of retaining their greatness sometimes end up denting that very image that they so dearly hold aloft.

After watching the movie, I happen to watch the making of the movie and it is then you see the wisdom and knowledge shine forth as he speaks about the making of the movie. Then you began to wonder whether we were being harsh by being judgmental about his latest creation. But then a thought sobers me down. No matter how judgmental I am about someone or someone’s work, great people continue to move on gathering all the praise on their way to reach their goal and spilling and leaving all the unhealthy criticism they can. Are they being blind-sighted in their quest? Hmm…only great people can answer that.

Pralaya - The beginning of the end

2007-09-13T22:46:00.000-05:00

Often in most religions, there is an 'end of time' event defined in which the world would crumble down to a miserable end and in which all its inhabitants have degenerated to such an extent that there would be no sustenance of life form and it is that precise moment of time, that God descends down and relieves all of us of the bondage of suffering and pain.

In Hindu mythology, it is termed as "Pralaya", the beginning of the end. That is the title of this blog of mine and henceforth I venture to travel through the narrow bylanes of present events in the process nudging and jostling some mythological facts.

Yesterday I happen to read in the newspapers that the Government of India has submitted an affidavit in the Supreme Court of India (precisely the Archaeological Survey of India) that categorically denies the presence of Lord Shri Rama, the Hindu God who was a incarnation of Vishnu, descended on this earth to free the earth from the evil machinations of Ravana, the king of Lanka. For those who are not aware of the undercurrent of India, Rama occupies probably the highest places in minds and hearts of all devoted. He is personified and epitomized as the ideal person and his rule being the most just rule (Rama rajya).

Personally I believe when man begins to doubt the very seed from which he has germinated, then I feel we are on our path to destruction. Of course the critics can call me as being biased since I am a staunch believer in Lord Rama. But the present dispensation is presenting a falsified argument saying that the Rama setu (Rama's bridge to Lanka) was not constructed by him and the whole concept of Ramayana is a concoction. We as humans are so structured in our thinking that if we are not able to prove something, we say that is does not exist. If someone says that there is no record of Rama having existed, then please can you otherwise prove to me that Rama did not exist? Can you disprove all the religious texts written about Lord Rama, can you explain the presence of Rama artifacts in Ayodhya, can you disprove the Sanjeevani mountain, a part of the Himalayan range, found in Sri Lanka now? I would say if the government dares then let it undertake a very detailed investigation analyzing all the facets of this case. But of course not.

What we cannot see means it does not exist? IR and UV rays are not visible to the naked eye. Much of the universe is invisible to us. We needed Chandra X-ray telescope to see the hidden glory of our universe. Maybe in all of us we do not have the "eye" to see God. As of now we can feel the rays. IR rays are "heat" rays. UV rays causes lacerations on the skin. Similarly God is felt in the minds of the people. Can someone quantify it? Of course not. Our thinking is so structured that what we do not see means it does not exist or it is not true. Frankly it is otherwise. We just do not have the faculties to see the same.

Needless to say such an affidavit is laced with political shrewdness and oneupmanship. Unfortunately India, the only country in the world where Hinduism exists, itself is questioning its own past. I wonder would anywhere in the world would governments would have th courage to question something as fundamental as our Gods. Although I just cannot but cease to wonder at the intensity of freedom that we have in India but being unjustly misused.

Aishu's Dream

2007-08-28T18:50:00.000-05:00

For those of you familiar with the more famous Aishwarya of Bollywood, my niece Aishu needs very little introduction to those who know me quite well. Naughty and mischievous , she is full of energy. It is writ large across her face. Anyway the point of this article is not for me to speak but for my niece to speak. She sent me an article (her first...kudos) in which she describes her dream. Her command over the language with out any doubt can be frowned upon but for all those who are well past the mid-twenties, shed that grown-up image for a second and read this article with the innocence of a young kid, I promise you that you cannot help but smile at the end of the article. Here it goes...
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Aishu story

Once upon a time a village was there In olden days called Devanahalli In that village one man called dev ,he has done many sins . One day the God of snake called naga snake appeared before him and said, that you have done many sins now you have to die, but the man told him that before I die I have to tell my son something ,ok the God of snake told , but the man told that you have to give me one day time before die ,ok said the God snake . In the morning the man said to his son that I am dieing today ,so the son cried so the man told do not cry ,ok I wont cry said the son. Then the man told the son some secret that is next to our house one pink flower plant is there dig that plant and you will get a naga idol,ok said the son so the father died the son cried very loudly . what did father told him the secret he forgot.After the olden days which is called malleswaram

A family called there names are Deepu, Nethra , Aishu , Usha , Indira and Vital rao .They byed that place and one day when aishu was walking near that pink flower and she touched it and said that and said it is very nice when she was saying the flower came out and cried that her mother would scould her and took out that mud and saw a snake idol she was scared and ran to home ,but in the night she got a dream that you can ask me anything said the naga in the dream . So she went in the morning to that place and blessed that tommrow there is my final 4TH standed test please make me to come first in class , so she got up and went to school and she came first in class ,so she told thank you for making come first in class .So she took out the mud and one fire fountain came and in the middle a paper was there she took and sawed it ,she read it and was surprised because in that, please do not take out the mud because I have many powers If anyone see they can ask me money that means I they ask for money I have to give because If I did not give them god will kill me.So please put me back, ok then Aishu put it back .

ONE day again aishu went to that place and took out that plant and again the naga said do not ,but she I will take you safely and again I will again dig you in the mud, ok said naga ,she then took to home then did pooja and again dugd.

THIS IS THE END OF THE STORY.THIS IS THE REAL STORY THAT IS COME FOR ME IN THE DREAM.

Lighten your life

2006-11-14T22:46:00.000-06:00

It is not often that I get time to sit and pursue my passion of writing. Not that I am busy as is most said by working professionals but maybe I am bit too disorganized. Nevertheless this blog is not my usual rambles about the "time keeper" that I am.

"I am a simple devout guy" goes my description on one of these social networking sites. I did not how to describe myself (hope no interviewers are reading this!). Devoutness is a quality that I cherish but do not brag about. It is something inherent and intrinsic to me. I strongly believe that what I am now and what I will be tomorrow is all a grace of the almighty. Fine...let me go ahead and issue my Blog Warning...the subject content henceforth shall be extremely philosophical (sigh) and may not mean much to some of those who are reading this piece of writing...as it is highly profound!

I light a couple of lamps everyday in front of god along with the incense sticks. A very typical Hindu religious practitioner would not find anything unusual with this. Today as I was sitting in front of god having lit the lamps...suddenly it struck me...and here goes my pearls of wisdom.

The lamp has two essential ingredients that cause combustion, ghee and the wick. I often in equal measure put ghee in each of the two lamps. The wicks are of the same size. I light them almost simultaneously yet I see that it is one lamp that outlasts the other. Scientifically the rates of combustion are different although the initial conditions are nearly identical.

I guess this is something like life. All of us have everything given to us in equal measure by god so that we can light the path for ourselves and for people around us. Yet there are some who burn brighter than others, some longer than others and some steadier than others. The similarity between life and a glowing lamp is very striking.

The incense sticks...the lamp all that is used to worship god has a finite time period before they burn off. We as human beings should just be like them. Burn bright and steady and spread the light of goodness and inundate the atmosphere with the fragrance of kindness: for we all have a finite existence.

Maybe the lighting of lamp and incense sticks are a stark reminder to us about our mortal existence and of how we could live our lives.

Cricket...the gentleman's game?

2006-08-24T23:48:00.000-05:00

The following article is written by Harsha Bhogle, a sports commentator for the Indian Express.

Cricket desperately needs a voice of reason before it sinks deeper into quicksand, into a lethal mix of emotion, pride, honour, neither of which is much good in law.

There is only one issue that confronts Pakistan, the ICC and Darrell Hair and that is whether or not Pakistan wilfully tampered with the cricket ball in the fourth Test against England. And as far as I know the on-field judge has passed his verdict and the appeal has not yet been heard. Everything else skirts the issue and dare I say, everything else weakens Pakistan’s case greatly.

They now have a lawyer who says they have a good case. He must. Would you be surprised if the same lawyer said exactly the same thing to the ICC on exactly the same issue?

Cricket has long been governed by a set of laws but teams have been expected to conform to (though no one consistently does!) convention and tradition as well.

Necessarily therefore, the governance has been loose, anybody could find loopholes in it. Even today the umpire needs offer no evidence in an lbw decision. Can you imagine a fine lawyer deliciously digging his teeth into the quality of evidence the umpire analysed before deciding a player was out lbw?

All sport requires instant on-field decision making and no game can survive unless the decision maker has full power to make those decisions. Decisions can be flawed, that is the inherent nature of instant, unscripted drama.

If we started bringing lawyers into on-field decision making, sport would die an instant death. Indeed, one of the reasons sport is such a great builder of character is that it teaches you to come face to face with adversity. And that includes on-field jurisdiction. That cannot change.

I know we all speak with the benefit of hindsight but it would have been so simple for Pakistan to play on, win the match and, since they are so certain of their honesty, win their appeal as well. They would have won a cricket match and they would have won the moral high ground.

There can be no more resounding victory than honour questioned and vindicated. But Pakistan chose to sit out and I’m afraid that was a huge failure of management. They needed a calm, shrewd mind in the dressing room and they were let down. The captain has to bear the brunt for that, but so must the manager. Now, even if they win the ball-tampering issue, they stand to lose much more for their subsequent action. Inzamam might even have to miss the Champion’s Trophy and that would be a shame.

By all accounts Inzamam is one of the game’s nice guys. He looks relaxed, at peace with the world, is respected and is one of the better batsmen the game has seen. Some of those are fine qualities for a leader but there are others too.

A leader has to see the larger picture, has to be completely conversant with the laws, he has to keep his head while all others are losing theirs. He cannot get carried away. When the dust settles on this one, Pakistan will have to find another leader and leave Inzamam alone to charm the world with the quality of his batting.

In terms of likeability Darrell Hair is at the other end of the scale. In our part of the world we don’t like him at all and we need to be careful while offering reasons for it. I have heard the word ‘racism’ come into it and that is sad. We use it too lightly, it is our first shelter now. But even racism has to bow to achievement and the more we achieve in our part of the world, the less relevant racism will become.

That doesn’t mean Hair’s attitude is acceptable. He is domineering, rude and uses his authority like it were a fly-swatter. Rather than saying “lets not get there” he is liable to say “if you get there this is what I will do to you...” An umpire cannot be a tyrant. The law makes him witness, policeman and judge and that is a rare combination that good men wear lightly.

An umpire, like a good doctor, needs to calm people not provoke them and Hair is provocative. Maybe the ICC needs to have an Umpires Code of Conduct like it has one for the players!!

But is that good enough reason to condemn him in this case? We haven’t seen the ball, no journalist has, no columnist has. If Hair is indeed wrong, he will be condemned but what if he is right? I think we need to hold our judgement till a verdict is arrived at.

And I think international sportsmen should spare us the “honour” bit. One of the most disquieting things about sport in recent times is the realisation that virtually everybody cheats. The World Cup of football was full of it and I know of no cricket team in the world that doesn’t go up in appeal in a wonderfully convincing manner when they know a batsman isn’t out.

If that isn’t cheating, then nothing is. Sportsmen abuse each other, their families, their culture, their religion and no dictionary includes that alongside the word “honour”. If you cheat, you have no honour to defend.

The earlier we get on with the game the better it will be for everybody. A protest has been made, a protest will be heard and till it is resolved let us re-discover the great joy of bat on ball.

"X = X + 1" Syndrome

2006-06-21T11:48:00.000-05:00

Nice Read...

The "X = X + 1" Syndrome

When an Indian professional becomes a 'Non-Resident Indian' in the United States, he soon starts suffering from a strange disease. The symptoms are a fixture of restlessness, anxiety, hope and nostalgia. The virus is a deep inner need to get back home. Like Shakespeare said, "The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak." The medical world has not coined a word for this malady. Strange as it is, it could go by a stranger name, the "X = X + 1" syndrome.

To understand this disease better, consider the background. Typically middle-class, the would-be migrant's sole ambition through school is to secure admission into one of those heavily government subsidized institutions - the IITs. With the full backing of a doting family and a good deal of effort, he achieves his goal. Looking for fresh worlds to conquer, his sights rest on the new world. Like lemmings to the sea, hordes of IIT graduates descend on the four US consulates to seek the holiest of holy grails - the F-1 (student) stamp on the passport.

After crossing the visa hurdle and tearful farewell, our hero departs for the Mecca of higher learning, promising himself and his family that he will return some day - soon!

The family proudly informs their relatives of each milestone - his G.P.A., his first car (twenty years old), his trip to Niagara Falls (photographs), his first winter (parkas, gloves). The two years roll by and he graduates at the top of his class. Now begins the 'great hunt' for a company that will not only give him a job but also sponsor him for that 3" X 3" gray plastic, otherwise known as the Green Card. A US company sensing a good bargain offers him a job. Naturally, with all the excitement of seeing his first paycheck in four-digit dollars, thoughts of returning to India are far away. His immediate objective of getting the Green Card is reached within a year.

Meanwhile, his family back home worries about the strange American influences (and more particularly, AIDS). Through contacts they line up a list of eligible girls from eligible families and wait for the great one's first trip home. Return he does, at the first available opportunity, with gifts for the family and mouth-watering tales of prosperity beyond imagination. After interviewing the girls, he picks the most likely (lucky) one to be Americanized. Since the major reason for the alliance is his long-term stay abroad, the question of his immediate return does not arise. Any doubts are set aside by the 'backwardness' of working life, long train travel, lack of phones, inadequate opportunities for someone with hi-tech qualifications, and so on.

The newly-weds return to America with the groom having to explain the system of arranged marriages to the Americans. Most of them regard it as barbaric and on the same lines as communism. The tongue-tied bride is cajoled into explaining the bindi and saree. Looking for something homely, the couple plunges into the frenetic expatriate weekend social scene compromising dinners, videos of Hindi/regional films, shopping at Indian stores, and bhajans.

Initially, the wife misses the warmth of her family, but the presence of washing machines, vacuum cleaners, daytime soap operas and the absence of a domineering mother-in-law helps. Bits of news filtering through from India, mostly from returning Indians, is eagerly lapped up.

In discussions with friends, the topic of returning to India arises frequently but is brushed aside by the lord and master who is now rising in the corporate world and has fast moved into a two garage home - thus fulfilling the great American Dream. The impending arrival of the first born fulfills the great Indian Dream. The mother-in-law arrives in time: after all, no right thinking parent would want their off-spring to be born in India if offered the American alternative.

With all material comforts that money can bring, begins the first signs of uneasiness - a feeling that somehow things are not what they should be. The craze for exotic electronic goods, cars and vacations has been satiated. The weekend gatherings are becoming routine.

Faced with a mid-life crisis, the upwardly mobile Indian's career graph plateaus out. Younger and more aggressive Americans are promoted. With one of the periodic mini recessions in the economy and the threat of a hostile take-over, the job itself seems far from secure.

Unable or unwilling to socialize with the Americans, the Indian retreats into a cocoon. At the home front, the children have grown up and along with American accents have imbibed American habits (cartoons, hamburgers) and values (dating). They respond to their parents' exhortation of leading a clean Indian way of life by asking endless questions.

The generation gap combines with the cultural chasm. Not surprisingly, the first serious thoughts of returning to India occur at this stage. Taking advantage of his vacation time, the Indian returns home to 'explore' possibilities. Ignoring the underpaid and bureaucratic government sector, he is bewildered by the 'primitive' state of the private sector. Clearly overqualified even to be a managing director/chairman he stumbles upon the idea of being an entrepreneur.

In the seventies, his search for an arena to display his business skills normally ended in poultry farming. In the eighties, electronics is the name of the game. Undaunted by horror stories about government red tape and corruption he is determined to overcome the odds - with one catch. He has a few things to settle in the United States. After all, you can't just throw away a lifetime's work. And there are things like taxation and customs regulations to be taken note of. Pressed for a firm date, he says confidently 'next year' and therein lies our story.

The next years come and go but there is no sign of our McCarthian friend.

About 40 years later our, by now, a old friend dies of a scheduled heart-attack and it so happens that his last wish was that he be laid to rest in the city he was born in India. So our friend at last returns to India for good. But by now the people who were so looking forward to see him return to his homeland are no more.

In other words if 'X' is the current year, then the objective is to return in the 'X+1' year. Since 'X' is a changing variable, the objective is never reached. Unable to truly melt in the 'Great Melting Pot', chained to his cultural moorings and haunted by an abject fear of giving up an accustomed standard of living, the Non-Resident Indian vacillates and oscillates between two worlds in a twilight zone. Strangely, this malady appears to affect only the Indians - all of our Asian brethren from Japan, Korea and even Pakistan - seem immune to it.

Youth For Equality, Chennai

2006-05-30T21:37:00.000-05:00

Youth For Equality, Chennai

Researchers day out

2006-03-28T21:56:00.000-06:00

An interesting event does occur once in a while at Texas A&M. I am not being sarcastic but I yes am being candid! Today was the day of Researchers!! As in, it was the Student Research Week here on campus. The objective was to showcase those long unwilling hours of dimly lit laboratory research wrapped in a candyfloss cover to those gullible judges and the muted audience and garner those brownie points and not to forget the nice T-shirt and maybe those elusive accolades. I am not in any way being cynical but guess I am being harsh. I have no moral right being cynical on these researchers after all once upon a time I was in their shoes not that I am not in one right now...but yes I have overgrown them.

Anyway not digressing much I happened to be in the Civil Engineering students research presentation and a strange thought crossed me. I felt that Civil Engineering struck the best note with today's world. More often than not I have found research in Mechanical Engineering...yeah yeah...the discipline that I belong to...to be more mathematical...or to put it more succinctly....detached from today's world. The research projects that people showcased there were so natural and intuitive but still contributing to the society in a positive way. Not that mechanical engineering did not contribute any....those automobiles...those gas turbines...those huge earth movers are a by-product of the most ever green branch but somehow...maybe it is my perception that it has lost a common touch.

A guy talked about improving the efficiency of pumping while another lass talked about improving vegetation cover along highways to prevent polluntants running off to the water table. While another person I endear for many reasons talked about bio-degradation of some harmful pollutants...whilst another person rattled about a water audit system for a large city. These projects are no doubt very intuitive but that is what I guess that is what the society needs...amelioration of human life. Simple yet meaningful projects. Or is that how Civil Engineering is defined? I have a lot of admiration for civil engineers...a facet so lost in my home country.

Civil Engineering in India, where it is most wanted, is a pariah. In my undergrad years, people flocked away from civil engineering to other "greener" branches akin to a mass exodus from a tyrant ruled state. Least did these people realize that in the folly of joining the bandwagon were missing out on one of the most essential engineering branches and depriving the country of some valuable brainpower. Guess who does engineering for the sake of it...it is all about money and a plush lifestyle.

Also I felt a strange sadness...watching all these very talented civil engineers displaying their epaulets of research warfare...made me realize that these people are more needed in the land they all come from. A miniscule percentage of these "civies" would make a huge difference to the burgeoning civil infrastructure back home. The brain loss is unforgiving. This country which has all the right resources could do without all these people...but yes my country would require every square inch of their gray matter to make it the best place to live on this planet. We mechies need be no different...not only we mechies...the softies...the hardies...the archies...the aeropies...every one else need to contribute if not in the same measure but atleast in a lesser measure. One can actually realize the difference that we all could make if every Indian who is here in this country put his Masters'/ PhD research into actual practice in India. I can imagine!!

Not that I am asking us "engineers" to deport ourselves (nothing could be better) but maybe sometime in our lives we should realize that we need to give back to our motherland for what it has given us..."us".

E-warmers!!

2005-07-22T12:35:00.000-05:00

In olden days, it was quite natural for people to group around a small bonfire, maybe, outside their homes or in a community place during those chilly months when mercury just seems to be dipping into the chasms of its glass confines. People derived heat by spreading their hands in front of a crackling fire and maybe re-telling an old fable or maybe the gossip of the town. A hot cup of coffee was not too far away trickling its way down the alimentary canal.

Seems quite archaic yet quite exciting! Then the focus shifted to homes with fire kilns to keep houses warm. Although this became quite restricted to plush homes who could afford to have a fireplace installed and also had the necessary real estate, decoration of fire place with maybe actual hunting prizes became quite a cliché in many movies. The fireplaces played host to a number of horror movies and murder mysteries.

Today with the advent of heaters and air-conditioners, fireplaces are just moribund. A simple turning of the knob has hot or cold air blowing out through the vents thus enabling temperature changes within our homes at the click of the button! Maybe the pagan worshippers can derive pleasure from the simulated experience of God within their abodes.

As such I work at an Open Access Lab at my University. This, for starters, is a computer lab for the student’s usage. Situated in the basement of one of the Engineering Research Centers on campus, it is deprived of warm sunshine streaming through its windows. Necessarily the temperature is not all that high in spite of the otherwise oppressive Texan weather. The air-conditioners are programmed to maintain a constant temperature throughout the year notwithstanding any change in weather from summer to winter or vice versa. And since the summer is on the more uncomfortable side, temperatures in the lab are necessarily low.

Since it is a lab primarily for engineering students and faculty based in and around the Research Center, it is not always populated. Population always stems from the undergraduates for whom this place is quite alienated. Since much of perspiration, body heat and tension due to pending homework’s and projects is absent, this lab is left much too cold most of the times.

Enjoying the travails of a graduate student, during the months of summer to escape from the torrid weather outside, I work for close to 40 hours in the close confines of this quite a claustrophobic lab!! (I am speaking through my hat here!)This entails sometimes close to working 6 hours at a stretch. The Helpdesk and the Print Room counter are quite inconveniently situated below AC vents. With cold air to the tune of 65 F blowing right at you for close to 6 hours leaves you cold and shivering. Carrying a jacket does not make sense as temperatures outside are hovering close to 100 F. People would think I am crazy.

So I frequently visit the back room in my lab meant for my supervisor. Not that it is shielded from the cold winds but it has a unique device that is akin to the fireplace and bonfires of the yore. I give it the name "E-warmers". In this electronic age, it is quite natural to append an 'e' before almost anything. But e-warmers, what are they?

Okay...here I let out my little secret. They are the servers and routers that are actually controlling the 100-odd computers in this lab. Just like any other computer, these are equipped with heat sinks and fans to cool the internal components from getting overheated. They blow out the hot air generated as result of the heating of the components thus carrying away heat from the system. Although this hot air is given scant respect, it serves me as an oasis of hot air in this cold desert.

It is quite ironic as to how dependent that we have become to technology (read computers) and even to keep us warm computers are coming in handy here. Pray that no Frankenstein version of Deep Blue were to take over this world. Else we would be made pawns in the larger game of our existence on this planet.

Rolled' over

2005-07-06T11:49:00.000-05:00

Hmm...Where do I begin? Ok...let me start from the beginning...

It all started with a phone call. My school pal who currently is body shopped to Maine from Infosys called me after, maybe, four years. I responded with a small conversation. I complained to him during that conversation that he never told me that he was coming to US (not that I would have done anything but still...) and this call was prompted by the innumerable offline IM's that I had left on his messenger.

That was close to 7 months ago.

It was close to 15 days before that he called me up expressing his interest to visit me in Texas over the long weekend. I was needless to say quite surprised. As in although there were periodic small conversations in between...a sudden decision to come over to meet me came up quite unsuspecting.

I was quite overjoyed to have him here. I managed to finish up quite a bit of my research work much before he came. I planned up the trip and also went ahead with renting the car. Our e-mail communication and itsy-bitsy phone calls before the proposed trip did nothing to clarify the nitty-gritty of the trip. But as heuristic in my approach that I am, I was not too bothered about not planning the specifics.

It started off on a bad note. I had messed up his booking on ground shuttle...a ferrying service between College Station and Houston. I had booked from College Station to Houston instead of the reverse. On that Friday, it was particularly too busy and hectic for me at work. Not only was I pressed with time but just 4 hours of sleep the previous night did nothing to better the situation.

I eventually finished up with my work and collected the car from the rental company and headed home. I had a peaceful cup of coffee over watching FRIENDS. At about 7PM, a call came in over my already pressed with lack of minutes mobile. I got the cue and headed out waited for him.

He had not changed except that he looked taller and slightly more sophisticated but it was still my old friend. I took him inside...had him drink some water. Meanwhile we had planned for that ever longing trip for all us Poor Indian Graduate Students to Wal-Mart and I along with my roommate, his friend and my friend decided to rendezvous with "food".

The evening was particularly uneventful with having dinner following the visit to Wal-Mart and then a drive to my dear Physics friend's place at a nearby apartment complex. A couple of beers and vodka down the throat of my friend and others led the evening to a sleepy end.

Clarification: I am a teetotaler.

My friend was too eager to maximize the trip. Coupled with some prodding by our local junta, I did that trip to Northgate, our local downtown. A mere walkthrough of about 20 minutes and we were headed home. Over the drinks, my good friends here strongly advised me to skip the long proposed trip. But we seemingly disregarded it.

Next day, a Saturday, which otherwise would have been a lazy day proved to be quite industrious. Haircut akin to Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump and my usual communication to India filled up the first half of the day.

Then my friend and I decided to start the "fateful" trip. We went to HEB and bought some groceries for the trip. Then we hopped onto McDonalds' to grab some late noon lunch and then we headed to our rental company to add my friend also as a driver as covering those miles only by myself would have proved to quite too much.

We set off for San Antonio. A slight error in reading the exit and the journey took longer by 25 minutes. We arrived at San Antonio. Walking through the entire perimeter of the river walk on either banks with the ever oppressive Texas sun and humidity took the toll on me. I had to resort to frequent stops. It was quite a detailed tour of the city and I eventually saw many things that were new to me as well. We then headed to the $5 parking lot where we had parked the car and then began charting our course to I-10 which would eventually snake into Big Bend National Park. 10 full minutes of cartography and small deviation in plans (skipped Austin to save it for the return trip) saw us on I-10 within few minutes. 100 miles on this interstate and a growling stomach saw us take a pit stop at a supposedly closed Subway. I grabbed onto some muffins from the gas station grocery store and then gulped a huge bottle of Starbucks Frappucino. My friend had meanwhile offered me to drive the rest of the way as he wanted to save myself for the return journey. I took up the offer.

Drive on I-10 was a 210-mile journey with absolutely no traffic. No glances were ever cast on the speedometer and the calm drive led me to be my usual talkative self. Finally all the talk in me ran out and the rationed CD’s that we have on us saw us listening to the same songs over and over again. My friend asked me to grab a wink or two.

Although I neither get sleep when I am traveling in car and was quite averse since we were just the two of us, I could not resist the temptation. My on-campus job entails a very strict regimen and previous two nights were in no respect relaxed. The exhaustion threw all caution to wind and I began to doze. Meanwhile the floored accelerator and empty highway saw us take the I-387 to Big Bend National Park (hereafter BBNP). Although I slept it was not that deep sleep. Frequent interruptions to the tune of 15-30 minutes kept me informed as to our geographical location. Nevertheless the cumulative 15-30 minutes sleep relaxed me a whole lot.

I-387 weaves through some forest cover. As I dozed my good friend had 2-3 rabbits taste the experience of being run over by a car traveling at a fair speed.

It was 7 AM and the day had just broken. We were two miles from the visitor center. Screech! Screech….Oh Shit! Thud! Thud! Thud! Crack! Crack...I don’t know what end of the world feels like but I guess it won’t be far different from this. My slumber was rocked as the vehicle rolled over the edge of the road 3-4 times. My friend who was driving that time had misread the road and loose gravel and the previous night thunderstorm and of course the fatigue of driving for close to 350 miles with lack of sleep had done it. We veered off the desolate road into a four feet deep shoulder and careened off 25 feet with more than a couple of flip-overs’.

The car had come to an upright halt amidst cacti undergrowth and long overgrown desert grass. We had had a rollover accident in the midst of a desert National Park. It’s quite strange to note here that as a part of my research in my graduate studies, I understand the dynamics of rollover stability in automobiles!

The roof had caved in, the front fender was ripped, all panes stood shattered, vehicle was deformed in every angle, the roof had caved in, tires were burst…in short the vehicle stood pulverized. Magically and I am still reliving the magic that both my friend and I were unhurt. We were unhurt to the tune that neither of us had a scratch from the glass shards or a bone fracture…absolutely nothing. I had a sprain on my neck (technically due to the whiplash effect) and that was it. His side of the door was stuck while mine gave in very easily. Fortunately for me I had reclined the seats so that I could sleep with some ease. Since the vehicle rolled over onto my side, the roof had caved in my side. But as lucky as I was, the roof just touched my head and had not proceeded further. I got out only finding my friend virtually shaking. Quite understandable! He had done an accident.

Surprisingly, calm and coolness dominated me and I began to pack the strewn stuff. We did not want to leave all the food stuff and maps back as we had a highly unpredictable day ahead. My bag was thrown 15 feet away and I am ever thankful that apart from us there were none in the back seat because people in the back seat generally do not wear seat belts and if the were present that moment, they would have faced the same fate as my bag had…thrown away.

We collected all the stuff and left nothing worthy of note in the car. Taking the car key with us, we climbed up the shoulder and started our 2-mile trudge to the Visitor center at BBNP. Fortunately for us our sojourn was truncated by a Samaritan couple who offered us a ride hearing our plight. I guess one is never far from good people.

We alighted down at the visitor center and we turned down the offer of the elderly couple to stay with us till the logical end since we knew this was more than a couple of hours task. I called up 911 from the local phone there and we were immediately re-directed to the BBNP dispatch division. Steve was 10 feet away from us. A tap on the window and quick directions to the back door of the office saw us explaining our entire story to us.

Texans in general are amiable and we saw a wonderful demonstration on that distressful day. He immediately called up the Forest Ranger who also doubles up as a medic, David Yim. Meanwhile I requested Steve for a phone call to our car rental company. Although it is against federal rules to use office phones, he was quite willing to let me use it albeit for a brief period.

Cody, the intern at our rental company answered the phone. A quick rundown of events and we had already confused him and taken him beyond the confines of his measurable intelligence. He said that he would get back to us and that took him 4hours. Meanwhile Steve called up the nearest town 150 miles away and offered to tow the vehicle. He also called up the Midland/ Odessa division of the car rental company. Tony another Samaritan who eventually saw us through this ordeal was very helpful. He said that he has a tow truck and a car ready but he needs a nod from the division of the car rental company where we rented. Cody was pestered every few minutes and all we got was that his area manager was not picking up her cell phone and all we could do was wait for his phone call. We were meanwhile interviewed by David asking us the details of the accident.

BP, heart rate, eye and throat examination with checks on bone fractures were immediately conducted on both of us and we passed through it. My friend was gifted a federal ticket of $50 for his Sunday morning prowess.

Endless hours of wait with no hope marked our stay during the entire afternoon at BBNP. We could neither tour the NP as it is too big to walk on foot and neither could we leave our present positions as Cody was supposed to call in anytime. We waited. Sprite, Chips Ahoy and bananas constituted our breakfast and lunch.

BBNP is absolutely desolate. It is every driver’s worst possible nightmare. Miles and miles of treeless land with absolutely no sign of civilization is what greets you at this place. We decided that we would hitch a ride to Midland from the traveling visitors there. Midland was 5.5~6 hours from NP.

The effort was futile. Neither we got a ride and in the process ended up sun-burning ourselves. Temperatures peaked to 110 F and it showed no sign of abating. Water at the fountain was boiling and the saved over Sprite was needless to say hot. Fatigue and hopelessness with still scars of the crash dominated us. We were waiting for that phone call from Cody. Meanwhile a couple of dollars were spent in trying to call taxi services and Greyhound to ferry us from Alpine, the nearest town to Midland. Everything proved to be futile. With cellular service non-functioning in this desert, we were left to the mercy of the NP phone service. Meanwhile Steve took matter into his hand. He called up Cody and gave him piece of his mind. All we did was to take a stroll a radius of 100 feet from the visitor center trying to take in the landscape that eluded us that day.

Eventually the tow truck came in at 4PM and painstakingly long talks by the old man in the tow truck to some old pal of his saw our patience wear thin. Nevertheless for the first time in the day we set off to exit the BBNP. A lot of thank-you and deep appreciation to all the staff at BBNP saw us end our stay at BBNP.

We took the two mile trip back to the car. The car crash looked worse than it looked in the morning. Putting the car on that tow truck was the toughest thing that I have ever done. With temperatures of 115 F, a little more than 2 hours in the sun and lack of water and food since morning saw me feel dizzy and the ever helpful Ranger David had me sit in his car and feed me with some cool air from the vehicle AC. He kept enquiring as to how I was doing. The excruciating heat and the seemingly unknown that lay in front of us led me to a state of absolute despondency. The car was eventually towed. The rest of the journey was quite uneventful save for the US Border Patrol who stopped us for verification of our passports. Even they knew of our rollover crash!

We finally got to Alpine and all efforts to get to Midland by 11:00 PM were futile. We just were stuck. Thankfully my cell phone service returned and propped by the comments of the desi owner of the inn, I called up my rental car company and lambasted them for their intransigence in this ordeal. They were quite apologetic and they said that we first needed to get in some hotel and grab some food and get some much needed sleep. I said I would do that except that they have to pay me back for it. She accepted it (only to be denied later).

Alpine Inn is where we rested that night. A quick dinner at Penny’s and a phone call to the local taxi guy saw us end our day. We had decided that we would take the taxi to Midland and bill the rental car company. But the morning call brought in a surprise.

Cody was back. He said that they would not pay up for anything. And we needed to pay ourselves. I really lost my temper and said asked him what the hell could I do? I demanded in spite of the fact that I had taken up highway helpers, they have absolutely not done anything. The point was driven. He said that he would talk to the Midland ownership and have the car driven up to us. We needed to sit tight for 3.5 hours. We shunned our plans of taking a taxi and also an All American Transit service and waited.

Redemption time at 2:00 PM. We got the car and in the meanwhile we had charted our course back. We thanked the owner and we set off back on our 600 mile journey. I drove for something like 500 miles with my friend pitching in the middle with a 100 mile burst. The drive was uneventful. Around 9:30PM we came back to College Station only to find the rental car company closed early that day on account of July 4th. My friend expressed willingness to see fireworks at a local place here and eventually I dropped my friend back home leaving him to pack for his return flight.

I drove back to the Easter wood Airport to pick my friend as she was flying in from NYC after a whirlwind tour of Manhattan. I headed back home only to find things still unripe. I helped him fill up some claim forms as is needed by the car rental company. We got our directions to Houston and a quick late dinner saw us leave for Houston at 00:30 hours. The car rental company had told that his presence is not solicited and hearing that my friend decided to press ahead with his 6:30 morning flight. He said that I must have been tired from the 500-mile odyssey and he offered to drive to Houston. Barely 10 minutes in to the drive and he got pulled over by a cop for speeding at 76 on a 65 mph highway. Tough luck! He reached Houston and my friend and I bid him goodbye only to find ourselves seeking the comfort of our beds at 5:05 AM.

Two hours later saw me returning the car to the car rental company. They said that even though that we had complete insurance, they need to investigate. I hate the capitalistic mindset of this country. I hitched a ride back home only to be glad that the long weekend had finally ended.

A City of Hard Knocks and Hardwood

2005-06-26T14:14:00.000-05:00

Detroit

THIS city, which has endured its share of doozies, had nonetheless seen better days than May 5, when the credit ratings of General Motors and Ford were reduced to junk status by Standard and Poor's. Conventional wisdom says that when G.M. gets a cold, Detroit gets pneumonia.

The rating announcement prompted my father - who worked for years at shops that did subcontracting work for G.M., making our family prone to the periodic case of the sniffles - to buy 500 shares of Ford stock. "I like that it's a family company," he said. Hard upon his purchase, the stock rose a quarter a share. "You just made a killing," I told him.

Bad news abounds. G.M. is planning to shed 25,000 workers and wants to re-negotiate the United Auto Workers contract. The city has a budget deficit in the hundreds of millions of dollars, and the possibility of receivership looms. Things are so bad that the mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, threatened to cancel the annual fireworks display, which draws a million people to downtown, a spot not overburdened with foot traffic the rest of the year.

Detroit's rate of depopulation is such that the possibility of turning vacant tracts in the city into farmland has been floated, if only half-seriously. Michigan's unemployment rate is the nation's highest, its economy the nation's weakest. Gov. Jennifer Granholm, by way of warning, has taken to waving a copy of "The World Is Flat," by Thomas L. Friedman - the thesis of which is likely familiar to readers of this page.

So, for the two weeks they lasted, the National Basketball Association Finals were a blessed distraction from our woes.

Basketball as a metaphor - the games gesturing beyond themselves to something larger - first occurred to me during the late 1980's, when I was in my early teens and the Detroit Pistons were still unable to get past the Larry Bird-led Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals. It seems clear what those Celtics and their great triumvirate of Danny Ainge, Kevin McHale and Bird represented to me, correctly or not: white suburbia. As a white city kid, I lacked sympathy for such folk, and the Celtics struck me as smug, powerful and deeply deserving of a comeuppance. I cheered when I saw fans holding signs that said "I Hate Danny Ainge."

Bird broke my heart repeatedly, never more so than in Game 5 of the 1987 Eastern Conference Finals. Do I need to mention The Steal? Isiah Thomas inbounds, and then Bird - but I can't go on. I was a Catholic schoolboy, and I swore like a sailor. That night, like my savior at the tomb of Lazarus, I wept.

That was 18 years ago, and my battle with both the suburbs and the Celtics is long over. The suburbs of Detroit now have more than three million residents, while the city itself has less than a million. I have contributed to this imbalance.

Before Game 3 of this year's NBA Finals between the Pistons and the San Antonio Spurs, the announcer Al Michaels provided the national TV audience with the lay of the land: "We're here at the Palace of Auburn Hills, about 30 minutes north of downtown Detroit." These days, everything in Detroit is 30 minutes north of Detroit.

Though I still read the sports section first, I have developed a grudging interest in the global economy - about the increasing market shares for Toyota and Nissan, about Chinese factory workers, Indian computer whizzes and Polish plumbers. For these past two weeks, however, I was primarily concerned with the San Antonio Spurs and their mercurial French point guard, backed up by a Slovenian point guard; their sometimes dazzling Argentine shooting guard; their MVP big man from the Virgin Islands, backed up by a guy from Slovenia. (Aren't any of these guys from French Lick, Indiana?)Though the composition of professional sports teams bears no necessary relationship to the city they represent, these Pistons - a blue-collar, African-American team with no marquee name - are a perfect fit for Detroit. The Pistons have tried to internationalize, taking the Serbian Darko Milicic with the second pick in the 2003 draft. But Milicic, as Al Michaels put it the other night, is "a human victory cigar": he plays only during mop-up time. We just can't tune in to the flattening world around here.

Last Saturday, with the series tied 2-2 and the Pistons resurgent, I went to John King Books in downtown Detroit, about 30 minutes south of the Palace of Auburn Hills. It's hard to imagine anything more Old Economy than a four-story brick business covered in peeling paint and specializing in used and rare books. For every hour I've spent at King's, I've heard the same three-word phrase repeated to customers a dozen times: "We're not computerized." The staff is unfailingly polite as they jot down the title and author before searching the shelves. Like any inefficiency owned up to, the store's not being computerized becomes a source of strength - a selling point. There are treasures here, but you have to do some digging. This is true of much of Detroit.

From King's fourth floor (Plays, Philosophy, Death & Dying), one can see, looking east, the peak of Detroit's tallest building, the Renaissance Center, a blue-and-white G.M. logo affixed to its top. Visible to the west, in the direction of the Ford Rouge plant - once the planet's largest industrial complex - are mile after mile of downriver smokestacks.

Someday, perhaps, Toyota's name will be on a Detroit skyscraper, and a Nissan smokestack will be visible in the downriver distance. What's good for Toyota, Mr. Friedman implied recently, is good for America. He argued for G.M. to go bankrupt, and for Toyota to buy it out. On my way home, driving along Jefferson Avenue, I passed the Chrysler plant - now the DaimlerChrysler plant - that builds Jeep Cherokees. Maybe this is all a good thing. The Spurs' Frenchman, Tony Parker, and their Argentine, Manu Ginobili, seem like fine fellows. Their accents are charming, and lend their complaints to the referees an endearing air of immigrant pleading. I certainly found these Spurs more likable than the Celtics of yesteryear.

Even the Japanese car companies seem more companionable than they did in the Buy American 1980's. Toyota and Nissan record huge profits and pay workers well, without any unions demanding that they do so. Detroit's way in the world is fading, which is bad enough. Worse is the thought that it's hard to dislike those pushing us into the twilight. An air of inevitability has crept in. What are you going to do? We're not computerized.

When the Pistons lost Game 7 of the N.B.A. Finals on Thursday night - down in a state, Texas, to which Michigan continues to lose population and House seats; in a city, San Antonio, where Toyota will open a $800-million plant next year; in an arena, the SBC Center, whose very name bespeaks New Economy greatness - I didn't swear or weep. I won't even hold a grudge against the Spurs.

It wasn't always thus. In the early 1990's, after the Celtics dynasty had been dismantled - Ainge, for his part, had moved on to Phoenix - a reconstituted Celtics team came to town. Up in the nosebleeds, a Pistons fan who couldn't let go held a sign: "I Still Hate Danny Ainge." A beautiful sentiment, born of simpler times, back when basketball, at least, was still round.

JKTIMES

2005-06-19T11:59:00.000-05:00

JKTIMES

Hmm...Another dig into myself

2005-06-19T11:42:00.000-05:00

I guess I should have been an archaeologist! Pray why so must you be thinking?? It is quite often that I indulge in digging into myself! And the more I unearth the greater the depth that I see in me.

Life is very strange. It is through life that we all mould and shape ourselves. Life is the greatest teacher...seems like an old cliche. But let me tell you it is certainly a great teacher. Life makes you go through tough times, tough as it can get only to reform us.

We perceive quite often so many problems that threaten to snowball into huge conundrums. But we fail to realize that these problems are the practice problems that are found at the end of a chapter in the book of life. One chapter rolls into the next one and similarly at the end of that chapter we find another set of problems to solve. Sometimes we get to see worked examples as in seeing similar tribulations that other people may experience in their life. These "worked examples" may help in solving some of our end of chapter problems. Never despair at life.

Hmm...as usual I find myself weaving into those unlit paths for which I have no answers. And invariably I end up getting more confused! But atleast I am making an effort to tread those unlit paths of life and trying to decipher the larger meaning of life.

Most of my blogs tend to be very serious unlike how I wish them to be. I surely am signing off with the conviction that my next blog entry would, if not comical, would not alteast be so serious. But as all great actors say that it is sorrow and grief that brings out the best in them. Hardly to our memory that we can strain by reminding ourselves of a movie that ended being comical and funny and landing in a large amount of accolades. It is sadness, unfortunately, that brings out the best in everyone and hence we should not shy away from troubles. For it is these that make a human "complete".

Death lays its icy hands...

2005-03-17T13:28:00.000-06:00

It’s one of those days you know that you sit back and then stock of the things that’s happening around you.
Today incidentally I got the news that my grandmother died. She was in her late eighties. May her soul rest in peace! The news, although I was kind of expecting nevertheless shook me. How mortal all of us are! Yet we fail to realize in our everyday life. But should we fret about all of us being mortal daily? No...I do not mean that. Mortality is something that is inherent to all of us and there is no use brooding over something that is inevitable and subsequently procrastinating our normal mundane routine. As the Lord says in the Gita, that "doing karma" is our basic responsibility.

But what I wish to convey here is that in spite of the accepted fact, we do not reform ourselves. We indulge in immoral activities, try to connive against people, always indulge in a game of one-upmanship, being very self-centered...egotistic. All we need to do is lead a simple life replete with actions that improve us but does not harm the others around us. We should always strive for self-improvement, betterment of your near and dear ones, and if possible amelioration of the people around you. Even if you could not possibly help someone that’s fine...but never harm anyone because what goes around comes around.

Leading a simple life is not all that difficult. All it needs is little seasoning of fervor towards god mixed with a batter of clear conscience and a heart that is warm. Sometimes we tend to miss the big picture and later on we repent on spilt milk.

It’s my first time that I am posting something so personal on my blog. Maybe it is because I wished to express myself or maybe it is that I wished to convey something to the people who would read this, whatever may the reason be...May you never 'con' your conscience else you are conning yourself.

I do hope that my grandmother soul rests in peace and let her memories continue to cherish and maybe inspire all of us.

Obituary: Spy who captured Eichmann

2005-03-05T20:03:00.000-06:00

Malkin was an explosives expert, a safe-cracker and a painterThe Israeli spy who captured Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann approached him in a Buenos Aires street with the words "one moment, sir", before bundling him into a car to be smuggled to Israel.
The operation, which had involved months of preparation, was over in 20 seconds - twice as long as Peter Malkin had planned.
As an SS officer, Eichmann oversaw the logistics of the Holocaust, in which six million Jews died.
He was put on trial in Jerusalem and hanged in 1962 - he remains the only person ever to be executed in Israel.
The daring operation eventually made Malkin, who died on Tuesday in New York aged 77, one of the Mossad intelligence agency's most high-profile agents.

He was buried in Tel Aviv on Friday.

'Secret warrior'

Known as a technological wizard, artful safe-cracker and master of disguise, Malkin rose through the ranks of Mossad in a 27-year career, serving as the chief of the operations unit until retired from active duty in 1976.
He was also an internationally exhibited artist, a martial arts expert and counter-terrorism adviser.
"He was an extraordinary secret warrior," Israeli journalist Uri Dan, a close friend, told Reuters news agency.

Eichmann's capture led to his trial in Jerusalem in 1961

Malkin, born Tzvi Milchman in 1927, left Poland for Palestine with his family in 1933. His older sister, Fruma, stayed behind. She was killed in the Holocaust, along with many other relatives.
Accounts of his childhood depict his taste for excitement and talent for petty thievery.
Malkin joined the Jewish underground in British-ruled Palestine at the age of 12 and became an explosives expert as well as a talented safe-cracker.
In 1950, he was recruited to Shin Beth, the internal security service. On the application form, under "reasons for applying", he reportedly wrote: "I like adventure."
It was after moving over to work for Mossad that he was tasked to lead the operation to capture Eichmann.
Kidnapped
The Nazi officer had escaped to Argentina under a false identity, and was living with his wife and children while working in a Mercedes-Benz factory.
According to Malkin's account in his book, Eichmann in My Hands, published in 1990, previous operatives sent to Argentina to observe Eichmann committed "gaffes almost beyond invention", including spectacularly crashing a car in a quiet neighbourhood.
Malkin undertook three months of surveillance, under the cover of a working artist, then decided to confront Eichmann alone near his home to avoid attracting attention.
There were six million pairs of eyes on me... I had to succeed
Peter Malkin
Wearing gloves to avoid touching him, Malkin tapped him on the back with the three words of Spanish he knew: "Un momentito, senor."
Eichmann paused, upon which Malkin went for his throat, the two men falling to the ground. Another agent sprang out of the getaway car, grabbed Eichmann by the legs and helped bundle him into it.
He later told his friend, Mr Dan: "There were six million pairs of eyes on me... I had to succeed."
The Mossad team held Eichmann in a safe house for 10 days before smuggling him out of the country, drugged and disguised as a airline steward.
'I got information'
Only a designated interrogator was allowed to speak with the prisoner, but Malkin had a series of conversations with Eichmann which he later recounted in Eichmann in My Hands.
At one point, Malkin told Eichmann he was responsible for the death of his sister Fruma's son.
"He was just your son's age. Also blond and blue-eyed, just like your son, and you killed him," Malkin told Eichmann.
"Genuinely perplexed by the observation, he actually waited a moment to see if I would clarify it," Malkin recounted. "'Yes', he said finally, 'but he was Jewish, wasn't he?'"
Among his other achievements were the capture of a high-profile Soviet spy and an operation against Nazi nuclear rocket scientists working for Egypt.
His taste for adventure endured. Once, it was reported, he snooped on an Arab conference by hiding under the table.
"I never killed anybody in my life," he told the New York Times. "I helped get information."
He moved to the US after his retirement.
During the Eichmann operation, he filled a 1960 South American guidebook with paintings and drawings, including a portrait of Eichmann.
The guidebook was reproduced in The Artwork and Memories of Peter Z Malkin.
After his retirement, he devoted himself to painting, keeping his hand in with private consulting on counter-terrorism methods.
He is survived by wife Roni and three children.

MY AMERICA- An Article by R K Narayan

2005-02-07T11:07:00.000-06:00

At the American Consulates the visa issuing section is kept busy nowadays as more and more young men seek the Green Card or profess to go on a student visa and many try to extend their stay once they get in. The official handles a difficult task while filtering out the "permanents" and letting in only the "transients". The average American himself is liberal-minded and doesn't bother that more Indian engineers and doctors are swamping the opportunities available in the country possibly to the disadvantage of the American candidate himself.

I discussed the subject with Prof. Ainslee Embree of Columbia University who has had a long association with Indian affairs and culture. His reply was noteworthy. "Why not Indians as well? In course of time they will be Americans. The American citizen of today was once an expatriate, a foreigner who had come out of a European or African country. Why not from India too? We certainly love to have Indians in our country."

There are however, two views on this subject. The elderly parents of Indians settled in America pay a visit to them, from time to time (on excursion round ticket), and feel pleased at the prosperity of their sons or daughters in America. After a Greyhound tour of the country and a visit to Niagara, they are ready to return home when the suburban existence begins to bore them whether at New Jersey, or The Queens or the Silicon Valley neighborhood of California. But they always say on their return, "After all our boys are happy there. Why should they come back to this country, where they get no encouragement?"

EXASPERATION

Our young man who goes out to the States for higher studies or training, declares when leaving home, "I will come back as soon as I complete my course, may be two years or a little more, but I will definitely come back and work for our country, and also help our family....." Excellent intentions, but it will not work that way. Later when he returns home full of dreams, projects, and plans, he only finds hurdles at every turn when he tries for a job or to start an enterprise of his own. Form-filling, bureaucracy, caste and other restrictions, and a generally feudal style of functioning, exasperate the young man and waste his time. He frets and fumes as days pass with nothing achieved, while he has been running around presenting or collecting papers at various places.

He is not used to this sort of treatment in America, where, he claims, he could walk into the office of the top man anywhere, address him by his first name and explain his purpose; when he attempts to visit a man of similar rank in India to discuss his ideas, he realizes that he has no access to him, but can only talk to subordinate officials in a hierarchy. Some years ago a biochemist returning home and bursting with proposals, was curtly told off by the big man when he innocently pushed the door and stepped in. "You should not come to me directly, send your papers through proper channels." Thereafter the young biochemist left India once for all. having kept his retreat open with the help of a sympathetic professor at the American end. In this respect American democratic habits have rather spoilt our young men. They have no patience with our official style or tempo, whereas an Indian at home would accept the hurdles as inevitable Karma.

The America-returned Indian expects special treatment, forgetting the fact that over here chancellors of universities will see only the other chancellors, and top executives will see only other top executives and none less under any circumstance. Our administrative machinery is slow, tedious, and feudal in its operation, probably still based on what they called the Tottenham Manual, creation of a British administrator five decades ago.

LACK OF OPENINGS

One other reason for a young man's final retreat from India could also be attributed to the lack of openings for his particular qualification. A young engineer trained in robotics had to spend all his hours explaining what it means, to his prospective sponsors, until he realized that there could be no place for robots in an over-crowded country.

The Indian in America is a rather lonely being, having lost his roots in one place and not grown them in the other. Few Indians in America make any attempt to integrate in American cultural or social life. So few visit an American home or a theater or an opera, or try to understand the American psyche. An Indian's contact with the American is confined to his colleagues working along with him and to an official or seminar luncheon. He may also mutter a "Hi!" across the fence to an American neighbor while lawn-mowing. At other times one never sees the other except by appointment, each family being boxed up in their homes securely behind locked doors.

After he has equipped his new home with the latest dish-washer, video, etc., with two cars in the garage and acquired all that the others have, he sits back with his family counting his blessings. Outwardly happy, but secretly gnawed by some vague discontent and aware of some inner turbulence or vacuum, he cannot define which. All the comfort is physically satisfying, he has immense "job satisfaction" and that is about all.

ENNUI

On a week-end he drives his family fifty miles or more towards another Indian family to eat an Indian dinner, discuss Indian politics, or tax problems (for doctors particularly this is a constant topic of conversation, being in the highest income bracket). There is monotony in this pattern of life. so mechanical and standardized. In this individual, India has lost an intellectual or an expert; but it must not be forgotten that the expert has lost India too, which is a more serious loss in the final reckoning.

The quality of life in India is different. In spite of all its deficiencies, irritations, lack of material comforts and amenities, and general confusion, Indian life builds up an inner strength. It is through subtle inexplicable influences (through religion, family ties, and human relationships in general). Let us call them psychological "inputs" to use a modern terminology, which cumulatively sustain and lend variety and richness to existence. Building imposing Indian temples in America, installing our gods therein and importing Indian priests to perform the puja and festivals, are only imitative of Indian existence and could have only a limited value. Social and religious assemblies at the temples (in America) might mitigate boredom but only temporarily. I have lived as a guest for extended periods in many Indian homes in America and have noticed the ennui that descends on a family when they are stuck at home.

Children growing up in America present a special problem. They have to develop themselves on a shallow foundation without a cultural basis, either Indian or American. Such children are ignorant of India and without the gentleness and courtesy and respect for parents, which forms the basic training for a child in an Indian home, unlike the American upbringing whereby a child is left alone to discover for himself the right code of conduct. Aware of his child's ignorance of Indian life, the Indian parent tries to cram into the child's little head all possible information during an 'Excursion Fare' trip to the mother country.

DIFFERING EMPHASIS

In the final analysis America and India differ basically, though it would be wonderful if they could complement each other's values. Indian philosophy lays stress on austerity and unencumbered, uncomplicated day-to-day living. On the other hand, America's emphasis is on material acquisitions and a limitless pursuit of prosperity. >From childhood an Indian is brought up on the notion that austerity and a contended life is good. and also a certain other- worldliness is inculcated through the tales a grandmother narrates, the discourses at the temple hall, and through moral books. The American temperament, on the contrary, is pragmatic.

INDIFFERENCE TO ETERNITY

The American has a robust indifference to eternity. "Visit the church on a Sunday and listen to the sermon if you like but don't bother about the future," he seems to say. Also, "dead yesterday and unborn tomorrow, why fret about them if today be sweet?" - he seems to echo Omar Khayyam's philosophy. He works hard and earnestly, and acquires wealth, and enjoys life. He has no time to worry about the after-life; he only takes the precaution to draw up a proper will and trusts the Funeral Home around the corner to take care of the rest. The Indian who is not able to live on this basis wholeheartedly, finds himself in a half-way house; he is unable to overcome the inherited complexes while physically flourishing on the American soil. One may hope that the next generation of Indians (American-grown) will do better by accepting the American climate spontaneously or in the alternative return to India to live a different life.

--- Late Shri R. K. NARAYAN

History's 10 greatest entrepreneurs

2004-11-01T13:24:00.000-06:00

History's 10 greatest entrepreneurs

They excelled in spotting a market opportunity and as a result changed the way people live

By Philipp Harper

How many entrepreneurs have there been in the history of the world? Millions, certainly, probably even billions. These are the men and women who take capital -- their own or somebody else’s -- and use it to beget more capital. Some fail, some succeed, some excel.

With so many candidates to choose from, any list of the 10 greatest entrepreneurs of all time will necessarily be somewhat arbitrary. It will also be top-heavy with Americans, just as a list of great chefs would be disproportionately French or of great eccentrics dominated by the British.

Business is what America does. If that sounds chauvinistic, get over it.

Here, without further ado but with tongue occasionally in cheek, are history’s 10 greatest entrepreneurs.

1. King Croesus. A pick by our veterans committee, Croesus, who ruled the Asia Minor kingdom of Lydia in the sixth century B.C., is owed a huge debt of gratitude for minting the world’s first coinage, thereby creating in a single stroke the lifeblood of every business: liquidity and cash flow. Moreover, his opulent lifestyle has given entrepreneurs throughout history something to shoot for. Is there a greater distinction for the commercially inclined than to be deemed “as rich as Croesus”?

2. Pope Sixtus IV. Sixtus gets the nod for realizing that the “wages of sin” meant more than unpleasant repercussions. There was money to be made in damnation, and Sixtus mined it by opening up a new market -- the dead -- for the indulgences the church had been selling for years. Relatives of the deceased quickly filled the Vatican’s coffers with payments intended to lessen the time their loved ones spent in purgatory. In 1478 Sixtus “grew his market” by authorizing the Spanish Inquisition, which swelled purgatory’s ranks by 100,000 souls in 15 years. He also was the first pope to license brothels.

3. Benjamin Franklin. In a real sense, Franklin was America’s first entrepreneur. Unlike other of the Founding Fathers -- the hypermoral Washington, the prodigiously intellectual Jefferson -- whose virtues and attainments are seen today as anachronisms, Franklin truly was a model of what many of us would become. Beneath the statesman’s mantle resided a popular author, a printer, an inventor (the lightning rod, bifocals) and a very savvy businessman who knew how to commercialize the fruits of his fertile mind.

4. P.T. Barnum. Americans have always loved a good scam and Phineas Taylor Barnum took the art to new heights. He played on our fascination with the bizarre and freakish with sideshow acts ranging from the midget Tom Thumb to Jumbo the giant elephant. In between was a host of more dubious curiosities. He created the Barnum and Bailey Circus as a showcase for all this wonderment, and dubbed it “the Greatest Show on Earth.” Along the way he invented modern advertising and became rich. For the record, he never said “There’s a sucker born every five minutes,” but he left behind plenty of other bon mots. Among them: “Every crowd has a silver lining.”

5. Thomas Edison. What do you say about the man who gave the world the electric light, the phonograph, talking motion pictures and more than 1,300 other patented inventions? That he was the world’s greatest inventor, certainly. But he was also able to exploit the profit potential in his creations, an entrepreneurial bent that asserted itself when Edison was a teen-ager, printing a newspaper in the baggage car of a rolling train and then selling copies to passengers. His impact on the way people live was and is pervasive. As a combination of inventive genius and entrepreneurial flair, he stands alone.

6. Henry Ford. Ford also fundamentally changed human lifestyles by making available a vehicle, the Model T, that vastly extended people’s range of movement. The automobile would allow America’s masses to fulfill their Manifest Destiny to populate every corner of the continent. But his more profound impact was on industry. The moving assembly line he designed to build his cars was the signal breakthrough of the Industrial Age. Appropriately, Ford earned the seed capital for his enterprise by working as an engineer at the Edison Illuminating Company in Detroit.

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7. Benjamin Siegel. Known as “Bugsy” to his friends,Siegel was a notorious mobster with a touch of the visionary. Legend has it that he single-handedly invented Las Vegas, and that’s a stretch. But he was the first to see what the town could become: a lush oasis of pleasure where gambling was just one of the attractions. He also proved adept at attracting other people’s money to build his iconic resort, The Flamingo. Trouble was, some of those other people belonged to an outfit called Murder Inc., and Siegel was gunned down in 1947 amid rumors he had stolen from his partners. But give the devil his due: Before there was the Bellagio, there was Bugsy.

8. Ray Kroc. Nothing says entrepreneur like persistence, and nothings says persistence like Ray Kroc, the kitchen wares salesman who in 1954, at age 52 and in poor health, had his imagination hijacked by a family-run restaurant in the desert outside Los Angeles. Once he had bought out the McDonald brothers, Kroc proceeded to take their concept of a limited menu, fast service and low prices and expand it nationally, in the process creating the fast-food industry and dramatically affecting America’s lifestyle and, sadly, collective health.

9. H. Ross Perot. Within every entrepreneur lurks a touch of the cowboy, and there’s no better example of the strain than Perot, the diminutive Texan who has become best known in recent years as a political gadfly. Before that, though, he was all business, using a $1,000 loan from his wife in 1962 to launch Electronic Data Systems. Perot’s winning idea was that large corporations and organizations needed data-processing help if they were to take full advantage of computer technology. When in the mid-’60s he won contracts with two new federal health-care programs -- Medicare and Medicaid -- EDS was off and running and Perot was on his way to being one of America’s richest citizens.

10. Jobs & Wozniak. Apple Computer’s two Steves weren’t the first Silicon Valley entrepreneurs to launch a billion-dollar business from a Palo Alto garage -- Hewlett and Packard were there before them -- but they were the first to democratize computing by creating a machine whose use was so wonderfully intuitive that even technophobes embraced it. Combine the elegance of Wozniak’s operating system design with Jobs’ marketing savvy (remember Apple’s “1984” ad?) and the result was a true phenomenon. Yes, the Apple was eclipsed by the PC, but only after Microsoft (behind the vision of two other notable entrepreneurs, Bill Gates and Paul Allen) developed Windows to ape its rival’s ease of use.

Philipp Harper is a freelance journalist living in south Georgia.

© 2004 MSNBC Interactive

Physics Hit Parade

2004-10-27T13:23:00.000-05:00

The physics hit parade

Einstein makes the list
You could almost call it Equation Idol - readers of Physics World have voted for their favourite equations of all time. But what do they mean?
Deputy editor of Physics World, Dr Matin Durrani, offers an idiot's guide to the top five equations of all time.

1. (JOINT 1st) CLERK MAXWELL'S ELECTROMAGNETISM THEORY
∇.D=p

∇.B=0

∇xE=-∂B/∂t

∇xH= ∂D/∂t+j

Where D is the displacement field, E is the electric field, B is the magnetic-flux density, H is the magnetic-field strength, p is the free charge density and j is the free current density.

These were written down by the great Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell in 1873. They describe how an electromagnetic wave - like a light beam, an X-ray or a microwave - varies with time and position in space.

What is interesting about the equations is that they showed that electricity and magnetism - two forces that scientists previously thought were unrelated - are actually linked to one another. Since then, physicists have also gone on to link electromagnetism with two of nature's other forces - the "weak" and "strong" forces that act inside the nucleus of an atom.

The resulting theory is known as the Standard Model of particle physics. The big challenge is now to find out how nature's fourth fundamental force - gravity - is linked to this model. So Maxwell was essentially the first physicist to start unifying the forces of nature into a single theoretical framework.

What good is it to me? Maxwell's equations are used throughout the telecoms industry - for example, to design the antenna on your mobile phone

1. (JOINT 1ST) EULER'S EQUATION

ei p + 1 = 0

This was joint top with Maxwell's equations and was discovered by the Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler in the 18th Century. Physicists like this equation because it has nine basic concepts of mathematics - once and only once - in a single equation.

These include, p which is the circumference of a circle divided by its diameter; i, which is the square root of minus one; and e, which is the number 2.71828. The other six concepts are: multiplication; plus; equals; one; zero; and the "exponent operation". The exponent operation describes what you do when you multiply a number by itself a certain number of times: two squared, for example, means 2x2, while two cubed means 2x2x2.

What good is it to me? None. Euler's equation is a purely mathematical construct with no obvious practical relevance, although it is what some physicists might call "beautiful".

3. NEWTON'S SECOND LAW
F=ma

This describes the fact that if you give a force, F, to an object with a mass, m, it will have an acceleration, a. It was derived by Isaac Newton in the late 17th Century and forms the basis of his second law of motion.

What good is it to me? Newton's second law could be used to work out how fast your flashy new Mini Cooper will accelerate from 0 to 60mph.

4. PYTHAGORAS'S THEOREM
a²+b²=c²

A classroom favourite, Pythagoras's theorem explains how the lengths of the sides of a right-angle triangle are related. If a and b are the lengths of the two shorter sides and c is the length of the long side, then all you need to do work out c is to add up the squares of the other two sides and take the square root of the answer. It was devised by the Greek scientist Pythagoras in the 6th Century BC.

What good is it to me? Pythagoras's equation helps in the process of "triangulation", which can pinpoint the location of someone using a mobile phone simply by bouncing signals off three different phone masts.

5. SCHRÖDINGER'S EQUATION
HΨ=EΨ

This was devised by the Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger in the mid-1920s. It describes how tiny sub-atomic particles like electrons behave and forms part of the theory known as "quantum mechanics".

With particles like electrons, it's impossible to say where exactly they are in space or how fast they're moving; all you can do is give them a probability of being in a certain place at a certain time. The symbol in the equation is called the "wave function" - it describes the probability of the particle being at different points in space.

What good is it to me? Schrödinger's equation has applications in electronics: it is, for example, being used by a Cambridge firm called Quantum Beam to build a laser-based system that will let your home computer connect to the internet without any wires.

6. EINSTEIN'S EQUATION
E=mc²

This is Einstein's famous equation that shows that mass and energy are not separate but are actually related. What the equation says is that an object with a mass m has an energy E = mc², where c is the speed of light. Since c is so big - light moves at 300 million metres a second - even a tiny mass has a huge energy.

Equally, energy also has mass. You can expect to hear a lot more about the equation in 2005, which marks the 100th anniversary of its discovery by Einstein as part of his special theory of relativity. Events will be held around the world as part of what has been dubbed by the United Nations as the "International Year of Physics".

What good is it to me? E=mc² determines how much energy is generated when atoms are split in your local nuclear-power station.

Strife between Shias and Sunnis

2004-10-20T13:12:00.000-05:00

Deep roots

Differences between the majority Sunni and minority Shia Muslims date back to the very earliest days of Islam.

They are directly linked to the issue of succession following the death of Prophet Muhammad.

The Shia believe that after Prophet Muhammad's death, his son-in-law, Ali, should have been given the reins of administration.

They still regard him as the first imam or spiritual leader.

The Sunni, however, believe that the appointment of one of the Prophet's companions, Abu Bakr, as the first Caliph was correct.

The Sunnis also respect Ali as the fourth Caliph of Islam.

Schism In AD661, Ali was murdered and his chief opponent, Muawiya, became Caliph. It was the death of Ali that led to the great schism between Sunnis and Shias.

Muawiya laid the foundation of family rule in Islam and he was later succeeded by his son, Yazid.

But Ali's son Hussein refused to accept his legitimacy, and fighting followed.

It is not yet clear who carried out the Multan attack

Hussein and his followers were massacred in battle near Karbala in AD680.

The deaths of both Ali and Hussein gave rise to the Shia cult of martyrdom and sense of betrayal.

Even today, Shia all over the world commemorate the killing of Hussein with vast processions of mourning in Pakistan and other parts of the Muslim world.

'Messianic faith'

Shia Islam has always been the rigid faith of the poor and oppressed, of those waiting for deliverance.

It is seen as a messianic faith - awaiting the coming of the "hidden imam", Allah's messenger, who will reverse their fortunes and herald the reign of divine justice.

Today, the Shia make up about 15% of the total worldwide Muslim population.

In Pakistan, as in most Islamic countries, the differences between Sunni and Shia were initially confined to academic debate, and violent incidents were extremely rare.

However, the situation took a dramatic turn in the early 1980s.

The change in the regional environment, and the emergence of a political, albeit violent, Islam, introduced a new phenomenon of sectarianism to Pakistan.

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan brought funding from the US and Saudi Arabia for (mostly Sunni) Islamic radical groups to fight against Kabul.

Shia-Sunni divide

The Islamic revolution that ended the monarchy in Shia Iran ushered in a new wave of Shia radicalism in the region.

And when the then Pakistani military ruler, General Zia-ul-Haq tried to introduce his own concept of Sunni Islam to the country, a bloody conflict broke out.

Radical groups like Sipah-e-Sahaba and Tehrik-e-Jafria have their roots in the policies of those days.

Many believe that during this period, Pakistan became the battle ground for a proxy war, a stage on which different countries and organisations belonging to various schools of extremist Islam supported members of their faith and belief.

The phenomenon of the Taleban also fuelled this violence, as a number of Sunni extremist groups found both a refuge and a training ground in Afghanistan.

The violence continued in different forms even after these countries stepped back.

In the last few years, new, more radical groups have emerged, and they target each other with venom.

Between the era of General Zia and General Musharraf, successive political governments tried to tackle the problem, but without much success.

Analysis of Beslan Tragedy

2004-10-18T10:15:00.000-05:00

President Putin has drawn a line in the mountains of the North Caucasus beyond which Russia will not withdraw.

Putin under pressure but not compromising

His insistence that there can be no surrender to demands for independence for Chechnya is based on a number of factors which include:

a fear of further chaos on Russia's borders in the region

a feeling that Russia must not make any further territorial concessions anywhere

a belief that the Chechens were offered and threw away the chance of responsible independence before.
Mr Putin has also added into this complex mix the spectre of international (by which he means Islamic) terrorism and an accusation that unnamed foreign countries want to break bits off Russia.

It must also not be forgotten that he has staked his own reputation on his policy and that therefore he is reluctant to change it.

Russian policy can be grouped under the following headings:

Geo-political

The argument is that if Chechnya, a troublesome republic on Russia's southern border, broke away it could provoke demands for independence elsewhere in the region.

Map of the North Caucasus

Enlarge Map

Chechnya has to its east the Russian republic of Dagestan which is multi-ethnic and where there has been unrest between some of its peoples.

To its west is Ingushetia, to which Chechnya was once joined and which is largely Islamic. The Ingush in turn have fought with the North Ossetians who are Orthodox Christians and whose children were the victims in Beslan.

And all this is close to the energy-rich Caspian Sea and on Russia's southern flank.

Terrorism

The Russian fear is that terrorists have taken over the Chechen opposition and that if Chechnya becomes independent, they will take over Chechnya as well. They might then begin to spread their influence outwards.

Mr Putin has alluded to Russian claims that Islamic terrorism is linked to the attack on the school and other incidents.

He implies that Islamic terrorism not Chechen nationalism is the real enemy.

Economic

An oil pipeline from Azerbaijan used to run through Chechnya, but it was by-passed after earlier fighting and now goes through Dagestan.

There is oil and gas to be developed in the Caspian Sea and Russia wants a stable area through which to pass supplies.

Territorial integrity

Mr Putin spoke nostalgically in his address to Russia after the Beslan tragedy about the days when the borders of the Soviet Union were protected.

He and others regret the loss of so much territory in the break-up of the Soviet Union and want to stop any further territorial erosion.

Necessity

The Russian president argues that after 1997, when then President Yeltsin gave Chechnya autonomy, with independence to be discussed later, the Chechens responded by failing to develop a stable republic.

In August 1999, radicals led by the man believed to be behind the school siege, Shamil Basayev, invaded neighbouring Dagestan.

Putin does have a geo-political case. It is open to question though whether his chosen means have the slightest likelihood of dealing with the problem

Professor Margot Light, LSE
Chechens were blamed for blowing up Russian civilian targets, including apartment buildings in Moscow. Mr Putin led the move to re-invade Chechnya.

Elections were held there recently so he claims that he has done all he can and that his present policy is therefore one of necessity.

Western Russia watchers, like Western governments, have some sympathy for the Russian dilemma but many doubt if Mr Putin's approach is the right one.

Professor Margot Light of the London School of Economics said: "Putin does have a geo-political case. It is open to question though whether his chosen means have the slightest likelihood of dealing with the problem.

"He has to start talking to the people he says he will not talk to, like Aslan Mashkadov who was the Chechen president until the 99 invasion.

"Mr Putin's reputation is on the line. It is extremely useful to argue that this is international terrorism and that outside countries are involved. Frankly this is rubbish. Any involvement by al-Qaeda to train or fund the Chechens post-dates the conflict."

Professor Light, however, also suggested that Russian fears of chaos on its border in that region could be exaggerated.

"Russia could afford the loss of Chechnya. Talk of other republics leaving the federation is far from the truth," she said.

Nicholas Redman, Russia analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit in London commented: "Oil is an issue but it is not the main issue. If there was oil Russia would still be determined to hang on.

"The North Caucasus was a hard-won region and Russia sees itself as a civilising influence there. The loss of other republics in the area, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, makes it even more important that it should lose no more.

'Where do you stop?'

"There is a just a fear that if you unravel, where do you stop.

"The problem is that Putin's tactics have to be questioned. Russian policy has encouraged divisions among the Chechens and there is nobody who can glue the factions together."

Western governments have not so publicly questioned Mr Putin's policies. Even a hint of criticism by the Dutch government (currently holding the European Union presidency) provoked outrage in Moscow.

The West has generally left Moscow to its own devices in Chechnya with occasional and ineffective mutterings about human rights.

This is despite a private view among some Western diplomats that Russia, having lost so much of the old Soviet Union, would not be affected by the loss of Chechnya.

The reality is that many western governments have their own war against terrorism to fight and do not want to jeopardise Russian cooperation by making adverse comments about Chechnya.

It all adds up to a Putin policy of, for the moment, no change

Business Euphemisms!!

2004-09-10T13:14:00.000-05:00

Have you ever witnessed a presentation that sounded impressive, but left you wondering what it all meant? Have you marveled at a colleague's ability to deliver a discourse consisting entirely of recycled phrases that sound brilliant but say nothing? Want to wow a potential employer with your "understanding" of today's workplace?

Irksome as office buzzwords can be, you've got to admit the ability to string them together (while tossing in a few "mission-criticals" and "customer-focuseds" for good measure) is something of an art-form. Even if you don't think you can use them with a straight face, just knowing these buzzwords can come in handy when you want to deflate a pompous consultant, impress a "buzzing" interviewer, mask the absence of substance in a report, or are simply at a loss for words but need to sound authoritative.

Corporate jargon and clichés are so pervasive that their use - or abuse - has yielded a buzzword of its own: "Deja Moo" (the feeling you've heard this bull before). Here are 25 of today's most popular buzzwords and euphemisms making the rounds in boardrooms and cubicles everywhere.

Air Cover

When a senior manager agrees to take the flak for an unpopular decision, while someone lower in the chain of command does the dirty work. As in: "The CFO will provide air cover, while you reduce staff by half." (A term borrowed from the military.)

Alpha Pup

A market research term referring to the "coolest kid in the neighborhood." As in: "If the alpha pups go for it, we'll sell millions of them."

Bleeding Edge

Beyond cutting edge. So new, its creators aren't entirely sure where it's headed.

Business Ecosystems

When companies in the same markets work cooperatively and competitively to introduce innovations, support new products and serve customers.

Chips and Salsa

Refers to computers. Chips = hardware; Salsa= software.

Co-Evolution

A theory that a company can create new business, markets and industries by working with direct competitors, customers and suppliers.

Cookie Jar Accounting

An accounting practice where a company uses reserves from good years against losses that might be incurred in bad years.

Defenestrate

A 17th century word, now back in fashion, that means to throw someone or something out the window. As in: "Let's defenestrate this marketing strategy."

Dial It Back

To tone down. As in: "Your sales pitch is too aggressive. Dial it back."

800-Pound Gorilla

A company that dominates an industry short of having a complete monopoly.

End-to-End

Used largely by technology vendors to imply that whatever they build for one part of your organization will work with whatever they build for another.

Future-Proof

To create a product that won't be made obsolete by the next wave of technological advancements.

Ideation

Brainstorm session.

Living Document

A document intended to be continually revised and updated.

Market Cannibalization

When a company's new product negatively affects sales of its existing, related products, i.e., it eats its own market.

Optics

How things appear.

Pain Points

A favorite of consultants used to describe places where an organization is hurting due to poor operating structure, technology or inefficiencies.

Pockets of Resistance

Another borrowed military term that describes a person or group that attempts to stall, block or kill a project.

Reaching Critical Mass

Having enough customers or market share to become profitable.

Repurposing

Taking content from one medium (books, magazine, etc.) and repackaging it to be used in another medium.

Reverbiagize

To reword a proposal with the hope of getting it accepted by people who didn't like it the first time around. As in: "It's the same concept, we've just reverbiagized it."

Tszuj

(Pronounced "zhoozh") To tweak, finesse or improve.

Value Stream

Six Sigma term that encompasses every step in the process of producing and delivering a product or service (whether it adds value or not).

Value Migration

Used in industries where there is little market growth, the term refers to the movement of growth and profit opportunities from one company to another.

White Space Opportunity

New high-potential growth possibilities that are related to but don't quite match the capabilities and skills of the organization.

Bangalore'd!!

2004-07-21T13:19:00.000-05:00

At 1:18 PM, Narahari said...

WASHINGTON: July 21, 2004

Bangalore may have become only the second modern city in the world to be turned into a verb – after Shanghaied, a word that broadly means to force –thanks to the outsourcing controversy.

An online anti-outsourcing website is marketing a T-shirt with the legend "Don't Get Bangalored," a term suggesting losing one's job to outsourcing. The T-shirts, in two separate designs, are priced at $ 15.99.
The word has already found a place in online discussions. "I am a software developer who is about to be 'bangalored.' Fine. I am not going to pout about it," a participant in the forum Technewsworld wrote this week. "The media writes that we are in a global economy so deal with it. Okay, I will."

If the word sticks around, then it will quite likely make the annual addition to various dictionaries. Although there have been other geographical places that have been turned into words (called toponyms; eg Frankfurter, Marathon, Balkanization, Finlandized, Detroit), few cities have taken a verb form.

Bangalore itself is already associated with a torpedo which was devised by a British army captain in 1912. Bangalore Torpedos were used to clear barbed wire entanglements in World War II, especially in the D-Day landings, and are in use even today.

But Americans are being ribbed even while trying make a few bucks of the outsourcing controversy. On a separate forum, an Indian named "Harish" joked that $ 15.99 was too high a price for a T-shirt and suggested the manufactured be outsourced.

A separate website of American info-tech professionals sells an even pricier T-shirt ($ 19.99) that reads "My Job Went To India And All I Got Was A Stupid T-Shirt."

The T-shirt flap aside, Bangalore has certainly entered the American lexicon.

Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry recently suggested at a meeting that he wanted American cities to be wired like Bangalore, perhaps not realizing that for all its vaunted reputation, the city has dismal connectivity.

9/11 Preliminary Commission Report

2004-07-10T14:31:00.000-05:00

I happen to see the video of the 9/11 commission commenting on the air defences of the US prior to 9/11 and how chaotic it was...here is the transcript from the website and the link to the video can be found on the BBC website.

"US air defence was disastrously unprepared for the 11 September 2001 attacks, a special commission has said.

A report for the 9/11 inquiry panel concludes fighters had no chance to intercept the ill-fated aircraft, much less shoot them down.

The document, released at a public hearing on Thursday, says unprepared officials had to improvise a response.

"On the morning of 9/11, the existing protocol was unsuited in every respect for what was about to happen," it says.

Gen Richard Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has been giving evidence to the commission on Thursday, the final day of public hearings before the final report comes out next month.

"We fought many phantoms that day," Gen Myers told the panel.

He noted that false reports of car bombings and other attacks spread confusion in the hours after the attacks in New York and Washington.

What ensued was the hurried attempt to create an improvised defence by officials who had never encountered or trained against the situation they faced

The 11 September attacks killed nearly 3,000 people when members of Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network flew three hijacked planes into New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon, with a fourth crashing in Pennsylvania.

The preliminary report - the third one released by the commission this week - summarises the response of the military, Federal Aviation Administration and other agencies to the attacks.

"What ensued was the hurried attempt to create an improvised defence by officials who had never encountered or trained against the situation they faced," it says.

The commission questions whether a better co-ordinated reaction by various agencies including the North American Aerospace Defence Command, or Norad, might have meant one of the hijacked jets could have been shot down, preventing it from striking the Pentagon.

Instead, it says, a long-delayed emergency order from Vice-President Dick Cheney to shoot down the hijacked jets arrived after the final plane had crashed into a field in Pennsylvania.

Civilian officials were late to alert the military to the evolving attack, and response efforts were hampered by difficulties in tracking the planes after the hijackers turned off their tracking transponders, the 29-page report says.

It also describes how President George W Bush continued with a reading session to schoolchildren for five to seven minutes, even after his chief of staff told him: "A second plane hit the second tower. America is under attack."

Plot vetoed

The commission, drawn from both Republicans and Democrats, published two separate preliminary reports on Wednesday.

One report revealed that al-Qaeda originally planned to crash as many as 10 hijacked aircraft in the US, and that it was still working to carry out chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear attacks.

We have no credible evidence that Iraq and al-Qaeda co-operated on attacks against the United States

Report on al-Qaeda
The White House, the Capitol, CIA and FBI headquarters and sites in California were the original targets, the report says.

It says Bin Laden vetoed the plot in favour of attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

The planning for the attacks was reportedly done in al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and may have cost al-Qaeda about $500,000.

The other report describes the roots of the militant network and its activities.

It found no "credible evidence" that Iraq helped al-Qaeda militants carry out the 11 September attacks, contradicting remarks by the US vice-president about Saddam Hussein's "long-established ties" with al-Qaeda.

Iraq's alleged links with al-Qaeda were part of the justification the Bush administration gave for invading Iraq.

The commission is due to publish its final report on 28 July. "

Pulse Racing

2004-07-02T18:39:00.000-05:00

From the BMW Motorsport Press Site:

About man power, man hours and more
02/07/2002

- More than 400 employees in Grove, England, and 220 in Munich are involved in the Formula One project.
- At the trackside at a Grand Prix the crew totals around 100; 70 from WilliamsF1, 20 from BMW, and another ten responsible for such tasks as running the merchandise stand or organising the hospitality facilities.

- At a test with two cars the average size of the crew totals 60 people - 40 of them from WilliamsF1, up to 15 from BMW, another five taking care of the catering.

- 22 men are involved in a pit stop during the race:
Twelve mechanics (three per wheel) replace the tyres,
one operates the front jack,
one operates the rear jack,
one has a special jack in case the car arrives with a damaged nosecone,
two check the pressurised air for the pneumatic valve drive and top it up as necessary,
three carry out the refuelling,
one stands by with the fire extinguisher,
the so-called lollipop man has a board signalling to the driver 'Brakes', 'Gear' or , when raised, indicating that he can leave the pits and is the only person in radio contact with the driver.

- WilliamsF1 transports around 25 tonnes of equipment to each Grand Prix. This includes spare parts, tools, around 170 wheels and pit equipment. The three chassis are in addition to this. For the European races the payload is carried by two transporters, which stay in the paddock, and a motor home.

- BMW transports a total of six tonnes of equipment to a Grand Prix. This generally includes a minimum of ten engines, tools and spare parts. BMW has a transporter, a truck for the technicians and a motor home.

- The team uses 16 desk top computers and 26 notebooks as well as 100 radios with head-sets at the trackside.

- The BMW WilliamsF1 Team needs 500 meters of cable for data-processing and 300 meters for power supply in pits and padock.

- It takes 250,000 man hours to build the car from initial concept to completion.

- The WilliamsF1 Design Office produces some 600-700 drawings to get the car into production and by the end of the year will have probably completed about 1,200 drawings.

- The WilliamsF1 factory produces over 200,000 components each year.

- The cars are totally rebuilt between each race - they are stripped down and subjected to over 200 diagnostic checks.

- Around 200 engines a year leave the Formula One factory in Munich. But not all of them are new. Whereas for races only engines with entirely new parts are used, during practice and testing revised engines come into play.

- The P82 consists of almost 5,000 individual parts, around 1,000 of them different.

- The car running at 360 km/h and the engine producing 18,000 rpm mean within just one second: 300 engine revolutions, 1,500 ignitions and 9,000 speed measurements. The pistons cover a distance of 25 metres, 450 litres of air are aspirated, 150,000 engine and vehicle data measurements are recorded and processed. The car would cover 100 metres and the wheels would turn 50 times.

- A Formula One driver burns up on average 600 calories during a Grand Prix. The average weight loss of a Formula One driver during a Grand Prix is approximately two kilos.

- At a hot circuit, a driver is likely to lose somewhere in the region of 1.5 litres of body fluid.

- Cockpit temperatures reach 50 degrees centigrade on average.

- A driver's heart rate can peak at 190 beats per minute during a GP.

- The drivers can experience forces close to 4g when cornering, meaning that they effectively weigh four times their body weight.

- A Formula One car can accelerate from a standing start to 120 mph and then brake to a standstill in less than seven seconds.

Hi all

2004-06-14T18:58:00.000-05:00

Just created my blog...for further details to all those who have not heard what a blog is...give a google search...

I am building my website and this blog would be a link to the same... please post your views here...

Thanks

NV