'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 ;)