Copycats

I am writing this entry just as an observation. Remember the song tu hi meri shab hain from the Hindi movie Gangster? Well, that was sung by KK. There is a song called my heart is beating from the Telugu movie Jalsa. It is a song that one would say has been 'inspired' by the former. This song has also been sung by KK who in turn a Malayali. The music director might have thought that if he were copying the song, he might as well use the same singer :P It's a beautiful song though, both lyrics wise and tune wise (kinda different from the original, not a total ripoff :) )

This is the Telugu song.

This is the Hindi song.

This is an article on KK.

Update: From my cousin, Gayatri - this is the 'inspiration' for tu hi meri shab hain, Oliver Shanti & Friends - ‘Sacral Nirvana’.

Disrespect or Survival Requirement?

I am writing this entry after seeing a Kellogg's ad on the TV. This company has been trying to change the breakfast habits of Indians for quite some time now, as per my knowledge quite unsuccessfully. As a South Indian I used to have rice for breakfast. South Indians also have items like idly and dosa for breakfast. A North Indian can have paranthas and the likes. This is quite a healthy breakfast and a filling one too. But the company is adamantly fixated upon trying to change the Indians' eating habits.

Does this indicate a disregard or disrespect towards the local culture? Is the company trying to impose American culture just so that it can make money? India is a huge market no doubt. I have nothing against a company entering the country. I do not buy the argument that what the company is doing is for its survival. There is this item called muesli, which is a mixture of quite a few things (cereal, oats, dry fruits etc depending on the combination, read this for more details). I discovered this while I was working in Kolkata in my old job. I liked it quite some. But I preferred to have this as a snack, and not necessarily for breakfast. Why does not the company explore options like this instead of trying to impose corn flakes as a breakfast option? It might also find more success.

WTF are they thinking?

Pardon me for the language on a public forum. I cannot but say this as I see the things that are unfolding in Andhra Pradesh right now. Who does KCR think he is? Does he even have enough seats in either the Assembly or the Parliament to claim to be a representative of the Telangana people? I have heard a report which says that ancestrally he himself is from the Vijayanagaram district (coastal AP or the so-called Andhra).

Who the hell are these people to hold an entire state to ransom? Do they realize the toll the current situation is taking on the health and image of the state? The state road transport corporation was apparently just limping back to good health when this tragedy struck. Had it been a private company by now probably quite a few people would have lost their jobs. Fortunately or unfortunately this is not happening. I wonder what will happen if the RTC does stop paying salaries because of the current situation. Will there be public pressure on the RTC or on the protestors to give up their stand and let life return to normal?

It is easy to stoke the emotions of students. I am one, I can probably be depended upon to know this. Do they realize what they are doing? Every year in Osmania University, by this time the exams are over and some students are also placed. This time, the exams have been postponed twice already, and no company has yet come to recruit - it would be probably need to be stupid if it wanted to come. An NDTV reported asked a student about this. His reply was that there are jobs, but these are being occupied by people from outside. Does he realize the stupidity of what he is saying? If a person is not free to move around in his own state and in his own country, can the country said to be really free?

Telangana 'leaders' are saying that people from the other parts of Andhra Pradesh need not fear if Telanaga is formed. That however, does not seem to be the case. There are already demands for people to 'go back'. How can one expect a family that has settled there to simply pack up and move? Do they realize the kind of nonsense that they are talking?

There was some Congress guy who interacted with the media after talking to Sonia Gandhi. He expressed confidence that she would take the 'right' decision. If she decides that there will be no Telangana, will this person still be willing to take it lying down? There are calls for an indefinite bandh if the state is not formed soon. Did not the Supreme Court or some other court prohibit bandhs? Is the government wearing bangles and sitting in a corner (no offence to the fairer sex)?

For thebandh tomorrow 165 trains have been cancelled. One can only hope some sense prevails soon and that things return to normal.

A Coconut Shredder from Metal Junk

Take a good look at these two pictures. At first look this is a coconut shredder. Now I will tell you about the interesting part as my dad pointed it out to me.

The shredder is made out of recycled engine parts, yes, you read that right. See the arch in the first photo at the bottom? Now look at the other arch in the handle in the second photo. These two form a circle in which the crankshaft fits. If this is not innovation, what is?

Is Andhra Burning?

"Is Paris burning?" was a question Hitler had put to his chief of staff Alfred Jodl. He wanted Paris to be destroyed before it fell into the hands of the Allied Forces. Today the title of the post can be a question put to each other by anxious Telugus all over the world.

I am an Andhraite and I am fiercely proud of it. One very if not the most irritating questions that can be put to me is whether or not I am a Tamilian when I say I am a south Indian. And when I say Andhra I do not mean the coastal part that is referred to by that name by some people of Telangana and Rayalaseema. Instead I refer to a united Andhra Pradesh. I am from the city of Visakhapatnam. But I have also stayed in Hyderabad and to me, the city and region of Telangana is as much a part of the state of Andhra Pradesh as any other part of it.

Potti Sriramulu was a freedom fighter and Gandhian who gave up his life so that Andhra Pradesh could be formed. He went on a fast for the formation of a state for the Telugus, separate from the Madras Presidency that was in existence at the time of independence.

Nehru felt that the consolidation of an independent India was more important and he refused to accept the initial requests for the formation of a separate state. Even as Sriramulu's health was deteriorating he steadfastly refused to accept the demand for a new state. Finally after a long fast Sriramulu passed away and then all hell broke loose. A lot of public property was destroyed and quite a few people were killed in police firing. This was the background against which the state of Andhra was formed in 1953 much like India which had its independence marred by communal bloodshed. Later on Hyderabad was liberated from the Nizam's rule and thus in 1956 the present day Andhra Pradesh was formed.

Andhra Pradesh is divided into three broad regions - Telangana (north), Rayalaseema(south) and Kosta (coastal part). There has been some anger in the Telangana region that the region has been unfairly exploited and that people from otside the region have been coming in and taking away the jobs of the locals.

Now we come to the person at the centre of the whole issue, K Chandrasekhara Rao or KCR. He was part of the Telugu Desam Party or TDP, which was founded by N T Rama Rao. NTR is credited with giving the Andhraites a separate identity away from the Madrasi tag that is attached to all south Indians. KCR was part of the first government set up by Chandrababu Naidu. He was not given a ministerial berth in the second government, which was formed in 1999, but was made the Deputy Speaker. In 2001 he quit the party and set up the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS). So I now ask the question, where was Telangana when KCR was part of
the government?

There seemed to have been a broad consensus during the recent Andhra assembly and parliamentary elections about the formation of Telangana. The TRS performed quite badly and the Congress won pretty impressively. The late Chief Minister YSR was against the formation of a separate state. He in fact made a statement that was widely condemned saying that if the TDP-TRS combine came to power people from one part of the state would need a visa to visit another. Yet he was a person that was against the bifurcation of the state for whatever reasons he had. Today had he been present the situation might have been different.

So in my personal opinion the real reason behind the demand for a separate state is suspect. I have heard that if Telangana is formed it will not be KCR but his nephew or someone who will stand for the Chief Minister's post. But then, have we not heard about the concept of the power behind the throne? Also, how many times have puppet CMs not been put in place? The argument is that the region cannot develop as long as it is 'under' Andhra Pradesh and that it is being exploited. I am surprised by the student agitation to be honest. But is bifurcation the answer to all ills? Are there no other means to develop the region? Politicians generally go for solutions that pay immediate political dividends and may genuine interests be damned. Stoking student passions and demanding a separate state is an easy answer. Today there have been protests in Maharashtra about 'outsiders' encroaching on the jobs of the 'locals'. In AP these so-called outsiders are not even from outside the state. If the Maharashtra argument is stupid, the AP argument is beyond stupidity.

The Congress does not want to be seen as a party opposed to the formation of Telangana. In addition to this, fearing a law and order situtation the government has given in to KCR's demand, at least to an extent. If I remember right the Supreme Court had commented on a particular state government's inability to maintain law and order, saying that it was its responsibility and if it could not do so, it could very well resign. But the fact of the matter, do we have leaders who have such spunk in them today?

As I write this, 136 MLAs have resigned from the state legislature and protests have been going on in Rayalaseema and Kosta against the division of the state. The city of Hyderabad is another bone of contention. The argument to make it a UT or a joint capital does not exactly make sense as it is not practical to govern a state from a capital that is quite a distance from the state's border (which is what will happen if AP is bifurcated). The pro-Telangana camp is adamant that Hyderabad has to be part of Telangana. The brand equity of Hyderabad as a safe investment destination might actually come under a cloud now.Now the Congress is caught on two fronts. It cannot reject the demand outright. On the other hand its own MLAs are resigning in protest of the decision.

I personally do not want the division of a state that was meant to provide a separate identity for the Telugus for purely political reasons. The government can declare a special package for the region if it is indeed true that the region has been neglected. What is needed right now is effective leadership and a genuine concern to address the issues facing the region if not the state.
There was an article I once read which mentioned how the Andhraites were experts at dividing themselves into groups. In the US there two separate Telugu associations were formed - Telugu Association of North America (TANA) and American Telugu Association (ATA). The Telugus went all that distance away from their homeland and still found ways to divide themselves. I can but pray the state stays united peacefully and that better sense prevails among all sections of the society.

Death Knell to Mobile Banking?

The Finance Ministry has shelved plans to introduce greater mobile banking facilities in the country. The Reserve Bank was opposed to greater freedom as it felt that funds flow would be outside the banking system where it cannot be monitored. The Home Ministry is against the measure due to security fears.

A lot of people cannot access banking facilities as they are simply not available. Mobile banking can actually improve things in this direction. Instead of a general ban on the practice, it would be much better if strict regulations and controls are put in place (and implemented). For how long can we postpone implementing forward-looking practices fearing for our security. I also wonder what impact this decision will have on Nokia and its plans to roll out its Money service in India.

Also, the telecom sector is seeing a price war right now. Mobile payments and similar value-added services can act as differentiating factors in such a scenario. What will happen to these?

Proliferation and China

It has now emerged that the disgraced Pakistani scientist A Q Khan wrote in some notes that Pakistan was helped by China in its nuclear program. He has written that China had actually supplied that Uranium required. If that is not admission of China's help in nuclear proliferation, what is?

But now will the US do anything? At the most they might issue a statement saying that this is being investigated or they might condemn this. Beyond this they cannot do anything. China is too important for American survival today for them to even contemplate taking any action against it. President Obama seems to have cancelled his meeting with the Dalai Lama (George Bush, the earlier President had met him I believe) in order to avoid angering the Chinese.

Are we seeing the emergence of a new global superpower? Shall we have a new concentration of power in the near future? China has either already overtaken or will shortly overtake Japan to become the second largest economy in the world. China has been increasing its power through various means - diplomacy, economic means and military means also. A Chinese intellectual had recently written that India seems to have forgotten the "lessons of the 1962 war" when it allowed the Dalai lama to visit Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh. What should India do in such a scenario? What are the Indian leaders' reaction to this changing situation? One can only wonder.

Customer satisfaction in a networked world

A batchmate of mine saw a movie recently. I had come to know that she was going to watch the movie and so I asked her how the movie was after she came back. She said that it was boring, only the songs were worth watching, and these too could be downloaded from the Internet. Hence there was no point in wasting my money.

This got me thinking. Both of us were in our respective rooms. Our conversation was via Gtalk. If I decide to take her advice and download the songs I can do that via YouTube or some mp3 download sites. The rate at which word-of-mouth reviews can travel now (and the ease with which I can pirate the songs) seem to put some kind of pressure on companies (film producers and directors in this case) to make products of better quality. Now whether or not this will actually happen is a different matter altogether. There are websites like mouthshut.com where prospective buyers can get feedback about products they wish to buy.

Companies also are trying to tap the benefits of social networking. There was one article I read some time back where an example was mentioned. A technology company can put up a forum where its customers can interact with one another to solve their issues. This actually reduces the costs incurred by the company in maintaining a customer service department. This is a double-edged sword though. If there is some problem the negative reviews can also spread quite easily.

To quote Douglas Adams, the author of the Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy, "Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws." (http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/33023.html)

If I come back to a simple issue, will Bollywood (or the Hindi film industry if I don't want to anger the purists) ever produce a consistent series of 'good' flicks or is there too wide a range of audience's tastes for films to be of uniform quality?

Synergy between Wikipedia and Google?

I was sitting in class today when this thought suddenly occurred to me. Google is the phenomenon it is as it has been able to satisfy the need of people to search for information that they need. Probably very few people had anticipated the importance of search to the end users. Wikipedia allowed people to become part of the process. There are occasional goof-ups like this. But on the whole I can probably assert that Wikipedia has proved to be immensely popular.

Now I come to my actual point. Previously when I was required to do a project Google was probably invariably the first place I would go to. I still do that but now Wikipedia has reduced the amount of search required. Information from a number of sources (if occasionally the authenticity is suspect) is now present at a single location thus reducing the amount of work (sic) required. In a sense Wikipedia is complementing (even supplementing?) Google today. Now does Google look at Wikipedia as a threat? Wikipedia does not make the user pay anything. Take a look at the mission statements of Wikimedia Foundation (who runs Wikipedia) and Google.

WF - to empower and engage people around the world to collect and develop educational content under a free license or in the public domain, and to disseminate it effectively and globally

Google - to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful

Notice the similarity? If I can take some liberties in saying so, both primarily aim to make information that is useful to users available to them without charging them. Thus there seems to be a convergence of philosophies here. So is Google interested in Wikipedia? Are Larry and Sergey listening?

An Obsession with English?

Students in Andhra Pradesh were punished in a bizarre manner for speaking Telugu in class. Read this.

A large English-speaking workforce is said to be a big reason for India to be an excellent outsourcing destination. There is also what is called Indian English. But one has to wonder if we have taken our obsession with the language to weird heights.

I have to confess that a person who speaks English better makes a much better impression than a person who can't. I myself seem to be an example for India's English obsession. This is a country which has 22 official languages and thousands of dialects. It seems unjustified that one language and that too what is essentially a foreign one should be given so much importance.

There are people on the other extreme also. I think there was a plan in Tamil Nadu a little time back to stop teaching English in school or something on those lines. That is plain stupid. You can maintain your self respect and identity without resorting to such extreme measures. The solution as always lies in finding a middle path, one of moderation.

India funds the Taliban!

This really takes the cake. Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik has accused India of funding the Taliban. Read this.

These are the very people who have been helping the Taliban. I believe there was an Afghanistan minister who said that there was an ISI hand in the recent Indian embassy bombing there. Pakistan is a state where the intelligence agencies and armed forces which are supposed to function under the executive have been exerting undue influence historically. The situation now is no different. Our first PM died in office in his seventeenth year in office. The first Pakistani PM was removed in a military coup. These are the people who are accusing us of funding the Taliban.

Funding the Taliban to destabilize Pakistan is something that could actually be done. Of course the source of the funding would probably have to be disguised from the Taliban (note the italicization of probably, one has to wonder if trigger-happy bigots differentiate between sources). However we might be creating a situation like the US did. It is a strange twist of fate that the terrorists that US had to "fight" have actually been created by the US itself, directly or indirectly.

They had created and armed the Taliban to fight against the Soviets during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. They were the people who created Osama bin Laden! The US supported Saddam Hussain against Iran before they decided he had to go in their quest against "weapons of mass destruction". The US is not exactly pro-Iran to put it mildly. The Islamic Revolution was directed against the Shah of Iran. He was put in place after a democratically elected Prime Minister was ousted with the help of the CIA. So one hopes that India will not repeat such mistakes. Some mistakes have habit of coming back to haunt you. In ancient India there is the tale of man feeding and taking care of a snake to only end up being bitten by it.

karpoora dhooli rachitaalavaalah kastoorikaapanka nimagnanaalah
gangaajalaih sikta samoola bhaalah sweeyam gunam munchati kim palanduh

Unless I am mistaken the meaning goes something like this - Even if it is coated with camphor, even if it is immersed in musk, even if it is washed with the waters of the Ganga will an onion give up its natural quality? I rest my case.

Gender Empowerment

We had a class today on the Indian economy. It was a pretty good lecture and the teacher, Dr Amir Ullah Khan seems to be a good one. There was one point where he mentioned that there has been seen to be some correlation between economic growth and gender empowerment, or something along those lines. He did not clarify.

I was reminded of a Sanksrit poem from school. So I am putting it down here.

yatra naaryastu poojyante ramante tatra devataah
yatraitaasu na poojyante sarvaah tatraaphalaah kriyaah

The basic meaning - Where women are worshipped (or honoured) there can be found the various gods. Where they are not worshipped, all works there are fruitless.

Probably an example of the regard in which women were held in India in the past, not a bad thing to emulate.

The Issue of Naxalism

The Home Minister has been calling for some tough action towards the Naxals and one does feel it is warranted. The Lalgarh case is taken as an example for the kind of action needed - flush out the extremists by force and hold the area for some time. However some basic things also need to be looked at.

First of all, the Naxalite movement started out against the unjust land holding situation in the country and had its origins in a sound reason. Now the government needs to see if this issue has been addressed. The actions of the Naxalites can't be justified per se, but if the basic reason for their agitation is addressed one can hope that some kind of sense will prevail. A second issue is the question of funding. Where exactly are the Naxalites getting the money to do whatever they are doing? Some of the avenues could be kidnapping ransom and protection money. Thus this is another area that can be addressed. You can surround an enemy fort, but a very important action that is needed is to cut off the enemy's food supply. The weakened enemy HAS to surrender to avoid death from starvation.

What the government wants to address right now seem to be the symptoms not the cause of the disease. The local population is already fed up with Naxal violence. In Gadhchiroli where Naxals had surrounded a police station and killed a number of policemen a number of casualties were members of the weaker sections of the society, the very people the Naxals claim to represent. Public disenchantment is also evident from organizations like the Salwa Judum. Now the government needs to address the basic reasons for Naxalism to have arisen and the sources of financing to curb this menace.

Update to a previous post

In my post Remixes and Ripoffs, Anyone I had wondered if the song dhan te nan from Kaminey was a ripoff. I have since learnt that the song was from a serial that was directed by Vishal Bharadwaj himself. Hence I don't think it is :)

Disclosure

Pakistan is in a mood for confession? Some time back the President Asif Ali Zardari admitted that Pakistan has used proxy war against India as a state instrument. Now Musharraf has admitted that US aid has been diverted to be used against India? I think AQ Khan has also admitted that Pakistan has helped Iran in its nuclear ambitions.

Are these confessions aimed at hitting back at someone, are they aimed at projecting a changing face of Pakistan, or are they genuine confessions? I am confused

Yet Another Racist Attack

In another attack that smacks of racism 3 Indians have been attacked in Australia and this time by a mob of 80 people, including women. These attacks have happened in spite of the assurances given to the External Affairs Minister, SM Krishna when he visited Australia after the last spate of attacks. What credibility has the Australian government left?

India has been protesting against these attacks. But there does not seem to be much changing on the ground if the latest attacks are any indication. The latest attack cannot be wished away as a random attack where Indians happened to be incidental victims, as some previous arson cases have been. This is a clear cut case of racism as the mob was actually asking the 3 to "go back to India".

Unless I am mistaken some of the first Westerners to live in Australia were English convicts. The country has come a long way from those days. But now it seems to be intent on reclaiming the 'heritage' of its ancestors! Imagine what would happen if we pelted Englishmen with stones asking them to go back for what they have done to our country. It would seem stupid, would it not? What has happened to the 'enlightened' Western mind? Is globalisation good only as far as they Westerners the benefits? Don't they understand that this is a world of give-and-take, and not simply take-and-take?

The reaction of the Indian government needs to be examined this time. It would be nice if India actually takes some strong action this time. Issuing demarches to the Australian High Commissioner is okay, but this time probably recalling the Indian High Commissioner from Australia would put a little more pressure on the Australians?

A Few Thoughts on Black Money and The Commonwealth Games

The amount of money that Indians has allegedly stashed away in secret Swiss bank accounts was an important issue during the general elections. Advani had talked about this. Manmohan Singh has promised to bring back this money within hundred days if he was given a chance to form a government again.

For good or bad, the people of this country have brought back the UPA to power. Apart from occasional noises on this issue there does not seem to have been any concrete action on this issue. Does the Prime Minister accept the fact that he has been unable to deliver upon his promise? Was that simply a poll gimmick?

Now the Swiss banks have said that no data exists on Indian black money in Switzerland. In fact the country does not provide country level breakup of holdings in its banks. It has said that the article on which the entire debate was based was actually a fabrication and never was released officially. Is this the danger of trusting today's media blindly? So is there or is there not Indian black money stashed away in Switzerland? Will we ever know?

On a sidenote, probably based on media reports of unpreparedness the Chief of the Commonwealth Games Federation has written a letter asking for an audience with the PM. Mr Suresh Kalmadi is supposed to facilitate this meeting. I myself have seen a few sites for the games where no activity seems to be taking place. An added complication could be the occasional hiccups being faced by the Delhi Metro. This Mr Kalmadi has been in charge of our Olympics Association (and now the Commonwealth Games) for quite some time now. What has this guy been doing? I think it would be nice if we had a kind of performance appraisal for this chap!

Mr Manmohan Singh, get back all the black money immediately and spend it on the Commonwealth Games. We shall see how they will not start on time :P

By the way, the italicization of the word 'allegedly' in the first line is a take on the ToI's habit. This glorified tabloid which calls itself a newspaper has this habit of inserting this word in its articles. Very frankly I find this practice very irritating. This is a tribute to the paper and its editors.

Beware the Chinese Dragon

I read an NDTV article where it is mentioned that China has plans to 'dominate' India. India was the country which negotiated the Panchsheel agreement with China only to be backstabbed by it shortly. We have a general policy of maintaining friendly relations with all countries. Some countries unfortunately do not seem to believe in the principle of peaceful coexistence.

China has been working with India at quite a few levels. Recently a Chinese company CNPC offered India's GAIL a stake in a gas pipeline that it is building from Myanmar. India and China have agreed to work together at international forums like the one on climate change so that their common interests are served. There has also been an interest expressed in settling the long-standing border dispute.

At the same there are worrying issues. China is arming and training militants in the nort-east, especially in Manipur and Nagaland, I think. China has been a supporter of Pakistan in various ways. The Chinese have been making incursions along the border with India. There is also China's interpretation of the Tawang area in Arunachal Pradesh as part of China.

Today India and China are emerging Asian economies and thus are also competitors for the world's natural resources. China has already made enormous strides in Africa in its efforts to secure raw materials. Probably because of the government structure and the pragmatism of its leaders China has stolen a significant march over India. It is time for us to awaken to this situation. China seems to be a country which will cooperate with India as long as it is to China's advantage and then fully intimidate/explot the country. This is a factor that has to be taken into account in any kind of negotiations/dealings where China is involved.

A Dysfunctional Government

The government in Andhra Pradesh is literally at a standtill. Ministers, loyal to the erstwhile CM YSR and his son Jagan are refusing to work under the current CM Rosiah. Meetings called to discuss the flu situation and rising prices saw either muted or no participation from the ministers. The ministers' primary responsibility is towards the citizens of the state. Then come the loyalties to politicians. Sadly this is a forgotten issue. The Congress is notorious for its sycophancy. While this has been generally observed in favour of the Gandhi family this time it is being observed at the state level.

The Congress high command is a worried lot and has asked the chief supporter of the Jagan-for-CM campaign KVP Ramachandra Rao to stay put in Delhi. The fact of the matter is that quite a few of the ministers were chosen by YSR and hence their support for Jagan is a matter of survival as much as or more than their loyalty to YSR. However as usual the victim in this entire drama is the common man. Article 356 can be imposed if there is breakdown of Constitutional machinery in the state. I believe the current situation is a prime example for this, and for an internal emergency. But which party in power will use this power against its own government.

Also I think it is within the CM's power to recommend the removal of the non-functioning ministers to the Governor. But then again, who has the guts to do this? I don't think Rosiah can dare to do anything without the Congress high command's approval, for though he is a CM, he is but a member of a national party, where the major power is vested at the central level.

On a sidenote a recently released McKinsey report says that even if India maintains an expected 7.5% growth rate over the next two decades, it will still be among the most energy efficient economies of the world. On one side we have this kind of India just waiting to take its position among the great powers of the globe and on the other we have our politicians doing their every bit to further their self interests with no regard for the consequences of their practices.

Till when will this drama in Andhra continue? In a bigger sense till when will India be held hostage by politicians?

It is a Tragedy but...

Andhra Pradesh is in mourning after having lost its Chief Minister in a helicopter crash. Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh will be attendees at the funeral. All of this is ok, but I was thinking of something.

YSR was a CM. P V Narasimha Rao was a Prime Minister. When he died a few years ago, I am sure there were no Congress heavyweights at his funeral. In fact he was not given a Delhi funeral and his body was brought to Hyderabad. Today there is probably one road in Hyderabad somewhere that is named after him. On the other hand everything else is named after either Rajiv Gandhi or Indira Gandhi - health missions, airport, housing schemes and what not.

So what are we to understand? Only a person who is close to the Gandhi family gets the affection and respect of the Congress? I am not trying to belittle YSR. PVNR was a scholar who knew 14 languages. He was the person who gave India its first stable government after Rajiv Gandhi died and was the person responsible for bringing Manmohan Singh onto the political arena. There was a huge controversy after photos of his incompletely cremated body were published in Eenadu the day after his funeral.

So my question stands, respect and affection for only those who are followers of Madam and her family?

All is Fair in Recession and Boom?

There has been a newspaper report about the government asking all ministers to travel by Air India only to help it tide over recession. When the government allows multiple carriers in the Indian skies how justified is this action? This means directly giving the national carrier an unfair advantage. These are probably the kinds of things that make organizations uncompetitive - they know that they can look forward to government bailouts.

The private sector airlines had threatened not to fly and promptly received stern warnings from the government about the same. I am not supporting this act by the private airlines. But by giving out such orders what image is the government exactly trying to portray of the competitive arena in India?

This is just one point. Another is the wasteful expenditure incurred because of our ministers. The newspaper report said that this order is expected to generate revenues of 2000 crores!!! Why exactly are our ministers flying around so much? This is money that you and I pay as taxpayers. I would hate to see my money being wasted on the whims and fancies of our netas.

Remixes and Ripoffs, Anyone?

Dhan te nan from the movie Kaminey has made quite an impact. The music is undoubtedly catchy and the lyrics are peppy too. There was one review where Gulzar was praised for his hand on the pulse of the younger generation and Vishal Dadlani was complimented for having sung the composition of another music director. I felt that the background sounded like the Pulp Fiction title theme. Then I found this video. So is this a remix/ripoff?

Remixes are good in the sense they make you aware of songs you never knew existed. I loved the sayyan dil main aana re remix. I like this over the original actually. It gets irritating when people remix songs that are dance numbers already, prior to being remixed. I am sure there is at least one remixed version of dard-e-disco from Om Shanti Om. That, my dear people is irritating.

It is also nice to acknowledge another person when you use his/her creativity to your end. Pritam has been accused of ripping off songs quite a few times. The same has been said of Anu Malik too.

Still, at the end of the day, dhan te nan rocks! I must compliment Vishal Bharadwaj for having ingeniously mixed the original song with the theme from Pulp Fiction to produce a rocking number.

The Arcane Mysteries of Research

There was a newspaper report I saw recently which said using social networking sites like Facebook can decrease workforce productivity by 1.5%

This is a similar article. But hark! I recalled another article (in the newspaper I think) which said social networking is good to an extent! Read this.

Now who are we supposed to believe? Are the benefits (or ills) of using social networking sites different in different countries?!

First of all a disclaimer. I am sure that there are devious minds in my audience who will immediately ascribe the scenes described below to me. They are requested to kindly resist the temptation failing which they might be made aware of an uncomfortable sensation in the nether regions of their physiology.

Our hero, Hamesha Romeo goes to college and promptly falls in love with Pehli Juliet. He blithely proposes to her when she piously informs him that she is committed to someone else and thus Romeo is heartbroken.

A few days pass and he falls in love with Dwitiya Juliet. He confides his love to a friend who assures him that she knows for a fact that Dwitiya is also committed.

Now our hero begins hating the word committed. He is confused as to why the English language uses the same word to describe a person admitted to a psychiatric care institution (aka mental hospital) and also to describe a person in a relationship with another human being (of either the opposite or the same sex).

Along comes Tritiya and our hero once again loses his heart (the mind was missing in the first place). He proposes to her and she tells him with a shocked expression that she felt they were only friends. This incident, my friends gave rise to Romeo's habit of occasionally banging his head against the nearest wall that he is notorious for.

After a few months Hamesha is mad about Chaturthi Juliet but she resists all his advances to the maximum extent possible and refuses to acknowledge the very existence of our hero.

Now Romeo is enraged. He had decided long back that he would marry only out of love and that arranged marriage was below his dignity. So now he decides that he shall no longer pay any attention to any girl from his college.

Now his thought process goes along these lines. Ahha, he is single and free to mingle! The world shall be his hunting ground! Okay, the world is a little beyond his scope. India shall be his hunting ground. But wait, he can't leave this city. This city shall be his area of pursuit. Oh God, he does not have time to go to the nearby market. He shall have to restrict himself to his college.

Ah, finally a target market! Now he shall concentrate on a consumer. After market research, focus group discussions and expert interviews the final target consumer who is single and meets his criteria turns out to be Chaturthi. But wait, why is this name familiar? Scenes of scornful laughter and happy ignoring fill his mind as he is reminded of Chaturthi.

The last we saw of our hero, Hamesha Romeo, he was running for a rope.

Update

I have decided to save myself some effort. I had another blog. I have decided to copy some stuff from it for future entries (if I have not done that already). I am not putting the name up for obvious reasons!

The Half-Century

This is my 50th post on this blog. I first of all thank all the people who have read my posts and also read them now.

I was slightly confused about what to write in the 50th blog. Then I decided to write about human relations in a different sense. Don't ask me why. If everything had a logical reason would there have been emotions in this world?

First of all, you never know how a person will get to know what you did. I am reminded of a tee shirt a friend of mine wore the other day. He had done his summer internship with Mahindra & Mahindra. The tee shirt said "Ask me what I did this summer", in all probability a take on the movie "I Know What You Did This Summer". Well, I do not know about summer but one can get to know about people from weird quarters. This my dear readers, is a small world.

Picture the following situations

1) A guy I know had this huge thing for a girl but things ended pretty badly. One fine day a classmate at his b-school comes up to him and asks him about the girl. He is shocked for a few seconds. Then she tells him that she knows a person who is supposedly going out with this girl as they were interns at the same place!

2) A person who was your senior in engineering college, a person you never spoke to, is your batchmate now, and becomes a great friend of yours. To top that a family friend of the said senior who was your super-senior joins the same b-school in the first year when you have reached the second year.

3) A family friend of an ex-colleague of yours is your batchmate in a PG course.

4) A person you always had certain impressions about turns out to have a different side (may or may not be desirable) that kind of surprises you.

5) You get to know what is happening around you behind the scenes and that KNOCKS the breath out of you.

5) You are sitting on the fifth floor of a building and are just gazing out. You chance upon a guy who just spat on a clean wall soiling it. I do not want to sound paranoid but what is the guarantee that someone tomorrow is not observing you from some corner (even if it is a coincidence) without your knowledge?

Maybe I can go on and on. I cannot reveal the identities of the people I talked about for obvious reasons. The last one is totally hypothetical by the way. I made it up just for the sake of illustration.

A Moving Song

I was translating this song (I did a sad job, I have to confess) from a Telugu movie called Mooga Manasulu which literally means Dumb Hearts. The male protagonist (Akkineni Nageswara Rao) is in love with the female protagonist (Savitri) and vice versa. The supporting actress (Jamuna) is also in love with ANR. There is this song which she addresses to him in the movie. The lyrics (Acharya Atreya) are absolutely beautiful and so is the tune (K V Mahadevan). I felt this was a nice thing to share with everyone, hence this write up.

By the way this movie was remade into Hindi starring Sunil Dutt and Nutan as Milan.

First the Telugu lyrics.

maanu maakunu kaanu
raayi rappanu kaane kaanu
maamoolu manisini nenu
nee manisini nenu

naaku oka manasunnaadi
nalgurila aasunnadi
kalalu kane kallunnayi
avi kalata padite neellunnaayi

pramidanu techchi vattini yesi
chamurunu posi bema choopeva
inta chesi, yeliginchenduku
yenaka mumdulaadeva

manisi toti yelakolam
aadukunte baaguntaadi
manasu toti aadaku mama
virigipote atakadu malla

Now the translation (forgive and forget the errors).

paed paudha nahi hoon
patthar to hoon hi nahi
main seedha saadha insaan hoon
tumhara insaan hoon

mera bhi ek dil hain
sab ke jaise aasha hain
sapne dekhne waale naina hain
wo vichalit hote hain to aansoon hain

diya laa ke, baati rakh ke
ghee daal ke, bhram dikhaya kya tumne
ye sab kar ke, jalaane ke liye
aage peeche kar rahe ho (hichkicha rahe ho)

insaan ke saath mazaak karna achcha lagta hain
dil ke saath mat khelna
toot jaaye to judega nahi

Gullibility on the Internet

Many must hav heard of phishing and also the Nigerian Fraud. For the uninitiated the latter is a kind of email fraud where someone contacts you to transfer a large amount out of a certain country (not only Nigeria). Scott Adams says in a Dilbert book that people are stupid. Occasionally it does seem so. If spam and the likes still survive it means that there are people who read these mails and act upon them.

Recently I received two mails on my college email ID. One was from ynotmarry.com, which I think is a marriage agency. The sender's name was Shalini and I actually have a batchmate at IIFT by that name. I was non-plussed for a few seconds as to why she sent me the mail. Also I first thought that the website points out why we should not marry! The other was something on the lines of the Nigerian fraud. But this time it was from a person claiming to be one of a pair of orphans. They wanted my help. Since when have people started believing in orphans personally going online and asking for help!

I have attached screenshots of the two mails.

Saare Jahaan se Achcha

There will probably be very few Indians (at least from the northern part of the country) who will not have heard of the song, Saare Jahaan se Achcha by the poet Mohammed Iqbal. It is widely considered to be a patriotic song in praise of India. But how many people know that the poet proposed a separate nation for Muslims which became the Pakistan concept and that he later disavowed the song? Also Iqbal is the national poet of Pakistan. Maybe understandably, the song is little known in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Read this article.

This country is weird in its inclusivity. Accusations have also been made against our current national anthem that it is in fact a song of praise addressed to the British Monarch. Tagore himself acknowledged that he was asked to pen something in praise of the emperor, but he ended up addressing it to God and not to the British monarch as this was something that he could not do.

Remember the controversy some time back to change the lyrics of the national anthem as Sindh is no longer a part of India? The final verdict was that Sindh refers to the people and hence the word need not be removed. Thus India has consistently been a mixture of people - tolerant and zealous/bigoted. When will all Indians finally understand this and live amicably with one another?

Worrying about other people's opinions

This is an email forward that I got from an ex-BITian - Nirbhai Chadha. I found it to be awesome, and it also reflects my attitude in general, especially when I ask questions. No offence meant to anybody. Read on.

A pastor entered his donkey in a race and it won. The pastor was so pleased with the donkey that he entered it in the race again, and it won again.

The local paper read

PASTOR'S ASS OUT FRONT

The Bishop was so upset with this kind of publicity that he ordered the pastor not to enter the donkey in another race. The next day, the local paper headline read

BISHOP SCRATCHES PASTOR'S ASS

This was too much for the bishop, so he ordered the pastor to get rid of the donkey. The pastor decided to give it to a nun in a nearby convent. The local paper, hearing of the news, posted the following headline the next day.

NUN HAS BEST ASS IN TOWN

The bishop fainted. He informed the nun that she would have to get rid of the donkey, so she sold it to a farmer for $10. The next day the paper read

NUN SELLS ASS FOR $10

This was too much for the bishop, so he ordered the nun to buy back the donkey and lead it to the plains where it could run wild. The next day the headlines read

NUN ANNOUNCES HER ASS IS WILD AND FREE

The bishop was buried the next day.

The moral of the story - being concerned about public opinion can bring you much grief and misery, and can even shorten your life.

So be yourself and enjoy life. Stop worrying about everyone else's ass and you'll be a lot happier and live longer!

'Power' Cuts

Today I had my dinner and went to this market in Katwariya Sarai, a 5-minute walk from IIFT. As soon as came onto the main road I saw that the traffic was at a standstill. So I assumed that either an accident had taken place or someone was taking a turn and blocking the entire traffic. It turned out the people living in the area had blocked the road to protest against a power outage that had been going on for more than two hours. The Adhchini-Ber Sarai road (New Mehrauli Road) is a pretty busy stretch and there was chaos on the road.

Who is to blame for this situation? The people don't realize that emergency services can be affected because of such acts. There are a number of hospitals in and around the area. Mercifully one ambulance was allowed to pass. I saw a Delhi Police Qualis too, but I don't think they actually did anything. But can we place the entire blame on the people? What has the government been doing to remove power shortages. It can hide behind the fact the rainfall this year has not exactly been plenty. But is this situation going to continue every year? Power is probably one of the sectors where there is a dire need for reforms. The current power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde supposedly had a lacklustre performance in his last stint. Yet he has been brought back to the same ministry. Why?

The nuclear deal is supposed to help in securing India's energy future, but the results of the deal are quite some time away from bearing results. The netas will not realize the suffering the common man undergoes, especially in the heat Delhi was reeling under till today afternoon. I am pretty sure the political elite of India do not experience any power outages (imagine the uproar if such a thing were to happen in Lutyens' Delhi or the loss of face if it were to happen in the diplomatic corps' area). Remove the power for these people so that they will gain an understanding of the aam aadmi's plight. Campaigning in the name of the common man is not enough. Does the government have enough will to actually do something?

MBA Classes

There are some things in this world that are logical and there are some that are beyond it. I am ranting about the timings used in Indian MBA colleges (ok, maybe not all, but definitely some). However good a lecturer might be, what is the point in having classes for more than 1.5 hours or so?

If one seriously thinks, what is the probability that the students won't get bored out of their heads after the aforementioned time period. Imagine sitting through two consecutive sessions (which is four hours in IIFT, though I should confess there is (are) breaks in between).

The formula seems to be to stuff as much as possible in the brains of the students in as little time as possible. The question is, does that actually work?

Gay 'Pride' and Rights

I am writing this post after this NDTV article.

First of all, a disclaimer. I am not homophobic. If someone wants to be homosexual it is his/her prerogative (I wonder, has anyone tried to invent new grammar for a gay guy and a lesbian female?). The thing that in a way amuses me is the gay 'pride' that is spoken about. I do not go about proclaiming I am proud to be heterosexual. Are the gays saying they are better than others with previously accepted sexual preferences? They are welcome to fight for their rights. The choice of words I feel is something that can be changed.

Article 377 according to which homosexuality is a crime might be removed. Understandably the gay community is happy and the religious community (or right wingers) is not. The Church feels that this is against society, I fail to understand why. The VHP is against it. Some Muslims feel it will lead to sexual anarchy. I wish to tell these people that just because homosexuality is legal people are not going to change their sexual preferences. The VHP said there will be a spread in diseases. If protection is used, why should there be such an increase? The AIDS prevention campaign in India focuses a lot on condoms and this was especially true in Andhra Pradesh under C B Naidu's government. Instead of asking people to use protection, the government should tell the citizens to remain faithful to their spouses (this point was actually raised by a BJP member).

If the religious leaders think homosexuality is a sin, let it be so. They should realize that according to their views, these people will suffer. The gays and lesbians will anyway not listen to your sermons and change. So stop persecuting them and let us accept that we live in a free society. As long as one does not provably harm the society why should we indulge in persecution?

On Arindam Chaudhuri

I was reading an article on the web forwarded to me by a friend of mine on the (in?)famous Indian Institute of Planning and Management. There is spirited defence of the institute by a person who seems to be an alumna of the Mumbai branch of the institute. The comments made by some of the non-IIPM people though possibly understandable were unforgivably not exactly impersonal or gentlemanly. I also browsed through a Wikipedia article. By the way I hope I don't get sued by the institute for writing this blog!

Then I went to Arindam Chaudhuri's personal site. I am not judging the college or claims or quality of the institute in this article but the man frankly seems to be obsessed with himself. Check out the page and every link is His this and His that! He is claimed to be a management guru, an economist and a philosopher. I should actually call him The Philosopher Who Drives His Bentley (if you get my drift). I have come across a term called personality branding in the course of my Introduction to Marketing course. This guy is probably the best example for that!

A Wikipedia critic's delight

I came across this gem (refer to the text in the encircled area) when I wanted to look up Lamborghini, the automobile manufacturer. This is one reason why Wikipedia faces a lot of criticism - anyone can enter anything. I wonder why it has not been removed. Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, the sarod maestro passed away on the 18th of this month and this has already been updated on the site. It is people who do stuff like this who bring disrepute to wonderful projects like Wikipedia.


It struck me later that I myself could change it and I did make a change. :)

On lipstick

From what I have read, red lipstick was used by women originally to signify that they were ready to mate/good mates. It was supposed to mimic the sexual/reproductive organs of a female. It was later used by prostitutes and the Church had banned it for some time too (now that is anti-feminist). Today I saw a woman wearing black lipstick, I assume to match with the dress she as wearing. I wonder what the ancients would have interpreted that as a signal for?

The confusion of languages

This is a (maybe slightly modified) story re-told. I first read this many years ago in a then already-old version of Tinkle.

There was an Englishman named Key. The children in England used to tease him sayin, "Mr Key, where have you lost your lock?" Exasperated he decided to leave the country and moved to Spain (I remember it as Spain, but Italy would probably be more accurate). He moved into a nice house and soon got a name plate made to be displayed in front of his house. Now the Spanish (or Italian) word used to indicate respect was don. Hence the name plate was Don Key.

Angrier than before he packed his bags and moved to France. Now the French word was monsieur. The name plate maker shortened it to mon. So our Mr Key becomes Mon Key. Finally giving up, he decided to move back to England and lived in peace once he came to sportingly accept the children's teasing.

Freedom of speech, anyone?

I have written earlier also about this. This particular post was prompted by an article I read.

When will people learn to develop a slightly thick skin and stop issuing fatwas and running to courts? This practice is not related to any one community. I will say this before anyone brands me anti-any community. Remember the Hindu right-wing attacks against M F Hussain? Okay, painting some nudes might not exactly be the best idea but attacking his studios and not allowing an old man to come to his native land is sheer barbarism. By the way, Hussain was not exactly a favourite of Muslims either. There was a song in his movie Meenaxi which caused protests and led the artist to withdraw the movie from theatres. The complaint? The word of the lyrics (Noor-un-ala-noor if I am not mistaken) are used in the Koran to refer to Allah, and how dare these be used in the movie in that setting!

There was a guy some time back who created a 'work of art' called Piss Christ. It was a photograph of a crucifix submerged in the artist's urine. There was obviously a huge controversy over this. But the work also won an award and there were calls to maintain freedom of expression.

However I also have this to say - 'artists' must keep basic common sense if not religious sentiments in mind before they create anything. After all, is it so difficult to use your thinking ability? But then again it is said that common sense is not something that is common.

The concept of competition

Why am I writing about, of all things, competition. The idea for this article arose when I was reading a Wikipedia (I am a big fan of this site and can spend hours on it) entry on India's Chandrayaan mission. Obama's reaction to the launch - "We are reminded just how urgently we must revitalise our space program, if we are to remain the undisputed leader in space, science, and technology". He has been regularly pointing to India and China to frighten the Americans into wirking harder and increasing their talents. Are the days gone when people talked about collaboration? Is competition and the need to be on top the all-consuming desires of the day?

It'll be a cliche to say that we live in a competitive, dog-eat-dog world. No doubt, that is true. But the question is what kind of competition have we given rise to? Take the Indian education system for instance. Suicides are a regular feature after any entrace exam. People who write graduate entrance tests commit suicides, students in school commit suicide. All of this is because of the premium we put on academic excellence (reservation is another bogeyman for the students).

There have been proposals to remove marking systems and introduce grading systems in our schools. I confess I do not know where this proposal stands as on date. This competition extends into all spheres of life. Take my life till date for instance.

My admission into my first school was because of my mother's connections (I think). So I was lucky at that stage. I think my entry into the second school was based on my performance. My third school admitted me in spite of my less-than-required scores in one entrance paper because of my father (as told to me by my mother when I joined). In my defense, I did perform well in all three schools and was always present in the top 5 (maybe all the time).

Now the struggle starts. First came my tenth boards. Then came the Intermediate (11th and 12th classes in the Andhra Pradesh board). Then the graduate entrances (EAMCET, IITJEE, AIEEE, NDA, IIIT-Kolkata and maybe two others). I got into BIT Mesra where owing to my summer internship and PPO I did not have to sit for the placements (or rather was not allowed to). Then I worked for two years and all this time was writing PG entrances (CAT thrice, never with any respectable preparation, GRE, IIFT once successfully and a few others). I got into IIFT. Then there was competition to get a summer internship and come December 2009 competition again for placements (I am literally praying for the situation to improve). From what I have observed placements time is akin to war time. I have heard tales about friends not behaving like friends (ahem, is a friend supposed to sacrifice his potential job position so that you can get it?) and such tales. This is inevitable. God only knows what my future holds for me.

However, I also want to talk about competition in a larger sense of the word. I confess that one of the very, very few things I envy others for are their higher marks! Why? Is this because of my upbringing in a society which places a premium on good academic performance? I honestly cannot say. There is this small whatever-you-wish-to-call-it which says that a person was happy that he had no footwear till he saw a person who had no legs. I say this is still not a great thing to do - comparing yourself to a less-privileged person. There is the danger of complacency. Satisfaction is good, not complacency. Gautama Buddha asked us not to compare ourselves with others and said that this is a path to misery. There was a swamiji (maybe Chinna Jeeyar Swamy) who mentioned the concept of atma-spartha. Atma means (with) self and spartha means competition. I liked this concept a lot. Don't compare yourself with another person for the sake of competition. Set your own benchmarks and constantly strive to exceed them. Compete with yourself. This is a nice concept, I don't know how many people can actually implement this successfully. Coming back to Obama, I want someone to tell him to please motivate his countrymen, frightening them might work but why choose that way?

Dilbert and MBAs

I came across these recently on Scott Adams' Dilbert site.

http://www.dilbert.com/strips/

Scott Adams' take on MBAs, not exactly very flattering! :P

What does this government hold in store?

There was initial relief that the left is no more part of the government. That has been shortlived as there are apparently worse forces at work. The government needs money. One way to get this is to remove the administered pricing mechanism (APM) (not exactly sure about what this exactly is, but it is primarily the reason why our fuel prices did not shoot up even when international crude prices did). Enter Mamata di. There are some elections (assembly i think) coming up in Bengal. Raising prices before elections is anathema! I hope it happens at least after the elections. I know, no one likes higher prices. But that way at least usage will come down and more people will opt for public transport or will pool vehicles (message to the government - improve public transport, fast). Btw I think Mr Karunanidhi is also dead against raising fuel prices. I think these two will more than make up for the left's absence in the present government. Even after the APM is removed prices of LPG and kerosene will still be regulated - this was the plan. An interesting piece of trivia. Kerosene is cheap because the government provides a subsidy hoping the poor will benefit. Where does a lot of this go? Into adulterating petrol (and/or diesel, I am not sure).


A Raja who apparently has cost the previous UPA government 60,000 crores (yup, crores) in revenue because of the opaque way he allotted 2G spectrum is back as the IT minister. TR Baalu who has supposedly demoralised the entire ministry of transport is also back. Raghuvansh Prasad Singh of the RJD who supposedly did some good work as rural development minister has not been allowed by Lalu to join this government (talk about sour grapes!). I am not casting aspersions on the man's abilities but I am still confused as to why SM Krishna has become the MEA.


What is going to happen to this country?

Immodest self praise

There was an article I saw on the website of the Economic Times today.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/US-inflation-risk-may-affect-Indian-investors/articleshow/4620080.cms

I had asked a similar question a few daya back.

http://idiadi.blogspot.com/2009/05/solving-fin-crisis-or-creating-new-one.html

So all my thoughts are not necessarily unproductive, now that's a reassuring thought ;)

Vishing

Apparently there is this new form of defrauding people and it is called vishing. The word is a portmanteau word formed by combining 'voice' and 'phishing'. In phishing, a fraudster can create an email id or a website that seems to be legitimate while it is not. Do a similar thing over a phone and you call it vishing. Sounds like such an innocuous word! Here is more on this.

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-303175.html

Financial Year

There was a recent discussion on Facebook about the financial year. So I thought I might put this up for more people to see.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=512720983&v=feed&story_fbid=106382850983

The initial doubt was about the US financial year. In my previous company it is followed from October to September. Google follows it from January to December, coinciding with the calendar year. So after a lengthy discussion and some googling(!) I have finally decided that the government has a fixed financial year. It is upto the business entities to decide whether or not they will follow the same. The following links can also be checked for further reference.

http://www.govtalk.gov.uk/gdsc/html/frames/UKgovernmentFinancialYear-2-0-Release.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiscal_year

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/financial-year.html

The Indian Elections and Their Aftermath - Part 2

Also what does the future hold for the opposition? I got the following tidbit of information from a TV channel, maybe IBN7 - in 2004, the NDA had an ultra-positive campaign in India Shining, this time it was ultra negative in Bhay Ho, neither worked. In 2004 the NDA was a poor loser stalling Parliament proceedings. I hope they behave better this time round. It is surely going to be a sorely demoralized lot. Advani has already said he is not interested in being the leader of the opposition.

I am also curious about the next general elections, which will hopefully be held only in 2014, not before that. Who are going to be the key players? Rahul Gandhi is declining a ministerial post right now. The Congress is (in)famous for its sycophants, one among who had once declares "Indrira is India". It is not beyond the 'Gandhi family loyalists' to exhort him to stand for the PM's position the next time round (he will be 43, Rajiv Gandhi became PM at 40). Manmohan Singh will probably be as old as Advani is now but will the Congress choose him over a member of the Gandhi family then? So it would seem advisable for Rahul Gandhi to take up a ministerial post, as we are sure that he will one day become the PM of this nation. But what about the opposition? Advani will not be in the picture. Modi does not have national acceptability now, I am doubtful about his acceptability in 2014. Is there another leader today in the BJP who has a mass appeal? I don't think so. There are potential candidates like Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Shourie (a friend pointed out Yashwant Sinha and Jaswant Singh) but I cannot say for sure that there will be anyone who can compete against Rahul Gandhi, except Modi. And we are back to square one.

And what is up with Andhra Pradesh? I cannot claim to have followed even decently what has been happening in AP over the last five years. But from what I heard there was widespread corruption everywhere, missionary activites atop Tirumala hill (for the uninitiated Tirupati is the town and Tirumala is the actual hill where Lord Venkateswara's temple is located and the CM is a converted Christian) and rampant nepotism. Rajasekhara Reddy's (the CM) son has become an MLA this time round. He is a controversial figure in his own right, owns a paper, I forget its name. It has a pro-Congress tilt (obviously) and I beleive it was started to take on Ramoji Rao's Eenadu, which was highly critical of the COngress govt and which is pro-TDP. Another thing that I am aware of is that anything and everything is being named after either Rajiv Gandhi or Indira Gandhi, whether it be Hyderabad's new international airport (a Visakhapatnam-Hyderabad flight takes about 45 minutes, it takes an hour to get into town from the airport), a housing scheme or a health scheme. Someone please tell the CM that there were other leaders in the Congress leaving out those two. There is not even a mention of P V Narasimha Rao (maybe a stretch of a Hyderabadi ring road has been named after him) and this was the person responsible for giving us Manmohan Singh, for bringing India out of the risk of sovereign default and for providing the first stable government after Rajiv Gandhi's assassination.

There was Chiranjeevi with his Praja Rajyam Party. I do not say he would make a great CM but at least there was an opportunity for a change. There was the ex-civil servant Jayaprakash Narayan with his Lok Satta Party promising clean governance. There were huge turnouts at Chiranjeevi's rallies. It was the same when Balakrishna (NTR's son) and Junior NTR (Balakrishna's nephew and NTR's grandson) campaigned for the TDP. Where were these votes? The TDP and the Communists had formed an alliance. The people ignored all of these and voted for the COngress! My father quipped that people get the government they deserve.

Forget for the moment the next general elections. What do the next five years hold for us? I would describe myself as an Andhra middle class liberal Hindu right-wing citizen of this nation, and these are my anguished thoughts.

The Indian Elections and Their Aftermath - Part 1

This is going to be a lengthy post, hence it is in two parts. The elections are over. What is up with the Indian electorate? I have not exactly understood why the UPA govt has been voted back to power and that too with such widespread support. One theory I have heard is that Muslims have voted unitedly for it this time which has caused this swing. But, does no one hold the government responsible for the spate of terrorist attacks that took place over the last 2-3 years? Or is everybody hoping that Manmohan will work his magic on the economy and bring it out of the slowdown? Do people believe the NREG scheme and the nuclear deal are wonderful examples of the UPA government's achievements? I don't know.

One question we have to ponder is that what is happening to us as far as terrorist incidents go. When the Mumbai attacks took place, there was national outrage? I do not see any manifestation of it in the electoral outcome. Have we become resigned to the situation? Do we believe we cannot do anything about this? South Mumbai where the attacks took place saw a voter turnout of 47% I think. What is happening here?

One good thing with the electoral results is that the verdict is not fragmented as it has been in the past couple of years. Regional parties do not seem to have a strangle hold over the govt that is to be shortly formed. So we can hopefully look forward to a decisive govt (consider the irony, the BJP was giving ads about a decisive govt). Now it remains to be seen if Manmohan Singh can stand by two promises he had made. Unless I am mistaken he had said in an interview that he would get India out of its slowdown in 100 days if the UPA came back to power. He had also said the same thing about bringing back Indian black money stashed abroad. Will he stand by his words or has he also learned the art of realpolitik? Will we have more farm loan waivers (God forbid)? Apart from the effect on the fiscal deficit of the country, I hate seeing the money that I as a middle class member pay going into farm loan waivers. I am all for helping farmers. But do it properly. Improve irrigation facilities, consolidate land holdings, improve seed quality. Sharad Pawar seemed to be as (or maybe more) interested in the BCCI as he was in the agricultural ministry. Will there be a repeat of this? Whatever one might say, I am happy that it is Manmohan Singh and not Sharad Pawar, Mulayam Singh Yadav or Mayawati that is becomming the PM.

The stock markets seem to have given a thumbs up to the UPA's victory, so much so that trading had to be halted! Does this portend good times to come?

freedom of speech

We pride ourselves on being the world's largest democracy, though we are far from being a mature one. Freedom of speech is a very important requirement for a democracy to function effectively and I am not sure how far along that road we have come when compared to let us say the US (to be fair, the US has had a long time to mature since it became a democracy, we got our independence only in 1947).

The reason I said this how anyone can lampoon anyone in a cartoon or in an artistic manner and get away with it in the US. If a similar thing happens in India, there are immediate threats of defamation suits (jadu ki jhappi anyone?) Watch American comedians and you will understand my point. A case in point is given below.

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2009/05/10/tim-geithner-the-never-ending-target/?mod=rss_WSJBlog

Outsourcing and the nuclear deal

Yashwant Sinha says the BJP will link implementation of the nuclear deal to outsourcing decisions by the US. He says why should India provide jobs to Americans who make nuclear reactors when Obama is taking away outsourcing jobs from India.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/BJP-to-link-N-deal-execution-to-US-outsourcing-move/articleshow/4492192.cms

Even if India goes in for serious expansion of nuclear power, I seriously doubt the number of jobs that would be generated in the US because of making nuclear reactors for us, at least when compared to the number of outsourcing jobs in India. The reason is that I believe the nuclear reactor manufacture is highly technology-intensive with not very huge labour requirements. Also, there are non-US players like Areva who are also possible manufacturers.

Also it is WE who need the energy. India's growing energy requirements demand newer or at least bigger sources of energy. So Sinha's reaction is like cutting off the nose to spite the face.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutting_off_the_nose_to_spite_the_face

Obama's move might not be very palatable for us but still it is justifiable. A recent newspaper report mentions a KPMG senior management guy saying that even after the proposed tax measures on US outsourcing companies are implemented, it will still make business/monetary sens to outsource. If Obama decides to actually impose additional (or punitive) taxes on outsourcers, that is when we have to seriously worry. The US economy is in a bad shape. So Obama's measures are understandable. Are these issues so ununderstandable to the former civil servant who has been a former finance minister as well as foreign minister of the country, or is this simply political posturing?

Solving the fin crisis or creating a new one?

This was a doubt that I had a few days back. Everybody (at least central banks) has been trying to infuse 'liquidity' into the world markets. Governments are pumping in billions of dollars to infuse cash into the market. Also nobody was lending to one another not because of lack of monet but because of a lack of trust.

My doubt goes like this. The world was awash with liquid money some time back. Because of the sub-prime crisis, assets esp. property have lost value. This only means that the realizable amount a house owner will get if he sells his house has gone down. But there is already money in the system which must be locked somewhere. Now we are trying to infuse extra cash into the system. Some time in the future confidence will return and people will start lending normally and engage in transactions as before. Will the cash being pumpd in right now not add to the cash already existing in the market? Further - right now there is no inflation as such, so the need to pump in more money to counter the loss of value is not there; also no cash is being 'physically destroyed', so what is to stop inflation from arising in the future because of the money being pumped in right now? Can anyone clear this up for me please?

India's elections

The EC set up a voting booth for just one person in Gujarat. This was for a priest in the Gir region.

http://www.hindu.com/2009/05/01/stories/2009050157680100.htm

This is probably what is meant by following principles/rules in spirit and deed! On the one hand we have our election commission which tries to have free and fair elections. On the other we have well, our own political parties. As I have mentioned earlier once somebody defined politics as "poly means many and tic are blood-sucking insects". One can only wonder at the power-hungriness and unprinciples nature of politics and India is a case in point. Next door in Pakistan we have an absence of democracy while here it is abused.

A lot of voters are poorly informed. A few years back a magazine carried a report. An old woman in some part of te country said she was voting for Indira Gandhi. She did not even know the woman was dead! Then there is general voter apathy. Appeals by film actors and the Mumbai carnage did not bring out voters in Mumbai. We curse our government all the time, are we not responsible for that?

http://www.ndtv.com/news/india/2611_little_impact_on_voters.php

Finally we have our politicians, the less said the better. I have a confession myself though that I did not vote. I am registered in Hyderabad and I am in Kota. I am not Amir Khan to fly back to Hyderabad to cast my vote (like he came back from the US to India). I think some kind of provision must be made for people like me (if there is one, I do not know of it). A lot of people keep moving around for various reasons - job, education etc. Some provision should be made to allow these people to vote also. If I am not mistaken we need a postal ballot system like the one for the US military personnel stationed outside the US, or something along those lines.

Time travel and foreign exchange

I had some random thoughts in our finance class today. All the fin gods are requested not to kill me after they read this. Remember the Grandfather Paradox in time travel? You go back to the future and kill your grandfather before your father is born. What will happen? This is an argument against time travel.

I thought up of another, actually what I came up with proves that you can't use time travel to your exact benefit (for e.g., know the outcome of a match so that you can bet on it). The limitation of my theory is that it cannot explain the example I just gave, but as I said, some random thoughts.

Theory: In hedging, you consider the futures rate of a currency and decide whether or not to hedge. So I take a time machine, go to the future, find out the spot rate and take a position accordingly. Now I think I have benefitted. But the very act of me taking that particular position has affected the futures price of the currency, thus effectively negating the gains.

This theory proves that to gas around, you can even know absolute bullshit and seem knowledgeable (probably this is one reason for the present economic crisis, too many people like me out there :P). Tell me if the theory made any sense to you, I am not sure it did to me!

India and the Oscars

The whole country went ga-ga when Slumdog was nominated for the Oscars and when it won various other awards. My question is, is all the hype justified? Rahman has won two Oscars, that's fantastic and there was Pookkutty for the sound mixing. But is the general hype justified?

As Ustad Amjad Ali Khan has said, this is not Rahman's best music. The movie is not Indian (remember, the movie got the best movie award, not the best foreign language film). The day we get the latter, we should really be proud. What was showcased to the western world was India's poverty and conditions in the slums. The movie did not even do well in India. What are we patting ourselves on the back for (other than Rahman obviously)?. A friend of mine put up his status message as Rah-maniac...that is one thing that actually seems justified :)

Another point to be noted. This movie was made in India with an Indian (and of Indian descent) cast. But the director was not Indian. Smile Pinki (forgive me if the spelling is wrong) got another Oscar, the film maker was again not an Indian. So what does this prove? We have the potential to make good movies, we just wait for somebody from outside to make use of that? Aishwarya Rai and Mallika Sherawat landed miniscule parts in The Pink Panther 2 and The Myth respectively, but then again there was a lot of hype.

One one hand we have the hype and on the other we have people who think we should not hanker after western approval but should concentrate on making our own brand of movies. Both make sense actually. So we have to decide which path we have to take!

So media, stop hyping everything that can sell! Maintain some standards for god's sake! Today's Delhi Times (I detest that paper, it's a tabloid disguising itself as a newspaper, but yes I still go through it at times) was full of stuff about the movie. Let this movie actually act as an awakening call to our government about the appalling conditions of our slums and of street children. There was an NGO that came to our campus recently. The person in charge spoke well, but ended up grossing us out bygiving us certain details which could have been avoided. When will the government awaken to this situation?