And hence I proclaim myself to be an atheist.

Benazir Bhutto, the most rational voice in Pakistan, has been silenced.

The most ridiculous fight between two communalist parties in Gujarat, each arguing how one is secular and the other not, has ended. One party won, the other lost.

Nandigram is still burning. Communist Party of India are no more Communists than George Bush's America.

Taslima Nasreen is in Exile a second time. This time from a Hindu Majority State and Communist Government could not stop the fundamentalists from destroying public peace as protest against her so called blasphemy. Here the secularity of Communists was safely bundled and buried.

Christians are being attacked. May be for monitory induced conversion. May be for indulging in separatist attitude. May be for pure social work.

MF Hussain's paintings are being attacked again.

And worst of all, media condemns Modi's pro-hindu strategy while blindly condoning Congress, CPI and other's for pro-Muslim, Pro-Christian policies.

Tony Blair, till recently PM of Great Britain, officially embraced catholicism. With that he is now not only anti-war (which is good), but also anti-abortionist, anti-evolutionary, and for that matter anti-science also.

And I better not talk about USA and the right wing Christianity. Where more than 50% people don't believe in Evolution, a theory with100 years of proofs, does not even merit a mention.

And hence I proclaim myself to be an atheist. Not agnostic. But an Atheist.

Marathi Bana: An apt Epitaph for Marathi Culture

Yesterday I watched "Marathi BaNa" in Deenanath in Parle, Mumbai. Its a beautiful and well presented play both from choreographic and content wise. It managed to depict the variety of Marathi traditions in a concise yet detailed form. It concluded with lamentations towards how the traditions are being lost even in rural India. The director/producer declared that No action is being taken to prevent the traditions from receding into oblivion.

Now the question I asked myself was: "What are traditions? What is culture?". It is something which helps us in being a good citizen and good member of society while providing the entertainment. The traditions of Vasudev and Bharud engrained in the marathi society was to spread the moral discourses far and wide and self sustain the tradition. In the age of information technology and widespread education, the importance of 'word of mouth' spread of moral discourses have become somewhat irrelevant in the cities. And it is bound to become more and more irrelavant as time passes even in rural India. Instead of lamenting and spending effort into saving a now worthless tradition, it will be better to spend the same effort to include the same messages in our schooling system. Improve the quality of education. That will serve Maharashtrians and India better in the long run.

The society is moving away from animal dependence to machine dependence. Importance of Cows and Bulls, Sheep and goat is reducing day by day. So is the importance of all traditions celebrating the interdependence between animal and human.

Girls/Ladies and become more and more independent, working and getting more freedom in the society. They are able to meet their freinds/relatives without the need to "supported traditions" like Haldi-Kunku, Mangala-Gaur etc etc. And hence the reduce importance of these functions/puja in Urban India.

Agriculture is a thing of past. From now on more and more people will move out of dependence on agriculture and allied fields into more urban style of work environments. Today, with advent of electric machines like mixer-grinder old equipments like "jaata" etc are obsolete. And that is true in all walks of life.

Traditional 'koLi' is being replaced by Trawlers. Tribes are getting educated and moving into urban environments. Children find 'Foreign' games like Cricket more attractive.

Now do we need to lament the lost traditions? And is it worth while to spend the effort to support the traditions? At best we can achieve the traditions on life-support. Their is no way we will be able to make the system self-sustaining.

I am happy to let go these traditions. Others are sure to disagree, there is certain nostalgia attached to each and every thing. Everybody hates change. But this is the price to pay for all the conveniences we receive. Watching a "Marathi BaNa" in an AC hall, eating Vada-pav, drinking Pepsi is not the best way to show your support and cannot be more ironic. I wonder how many people clapping their hands off even have time to teach their children Marathi. Clap for the performance. Applaud the effort and creativity. But clapping in support of "lamentations of lost traditions" and "Lets save this culture" is ridiculous at best and laughable in general.

A new Intelligent Idiot box

A group of friends, sitting on park bench and staring at it,
A group of adults, discussing while the child stares at it,
A couple walking hand in hand, and talking on 'it' all the time.
A mother and son sitting in a restaurant, and son playing games on it.

A group attending a funeral, and everyone on 'it' half the time.

What about knowledge sharing, learning from elders, enjoying each others company and sharing of grief? All lost in one thing. The Mobile.

Greed

In the eye of the Gold Shopper,
And in the eye of Green Card hopeful,
Also in the eye of MBA Aspirer,
So also with Electronics Lover.

The basis for Capitalist Society,
And about Skin Deep beauty.
And Year long Green House Summer,
sad childhood, ruined youth and many a murder.

[Regarding Book] Games Indians Play: A prejudiced view without proper analysis

This is not a book review, but my impression of the book after completing 1/4th of the 200 pages. Games Indians Play is a book by V. Raghunath.

This book is supposed to explain the 'Why we are the way we are". It starts of with saying that we as Indians have typical characteristics which is not found anywhere else in the world, be it developed or developing or under-developed countries. The traits like: Jumping the Red light, Being late and untrustworthy, keeping the surroundings unclean, bribing and corruption, jumping the queue and being insensitive about needs to elderly etc. It has a foreword by none other than Mr. Narayan Murthy.

I completely agree with him that all the traits are completely valid and true. We see them day in and day out. But where I disagree is that these traits are special to Indian genes and are not found anywhere else. Having been to many countries and interacted with people of many different nationalities, I find this completely ridiculous. Here are my personal experiences:

1. The bus I was waiting for in Nice, France was 20 minutes late. The driver was unapologetic and kept chattering with a person sitting next to him all the while from Airport to my bus stop, many times taking his eyes from the road. All of these are supposed to be typical Indian characteristics.

2. People honk of impatience at traffic lights in Italy. I have seen them taking a shortcuts which are not exactly legal. So impatience on the road is not "India only trait".

3. Uncleanliness is quite rampant. Dog owners dont lift Dog-Shit from roads in Germany, they litter the downtown in most US cities, China is as dirty as India.

4. Taking advantage of a unsuspecting tourists is quite common in China, Italy, Greece etc. A friend of mine lost his Wallet in China and another friend lost his laptop in Rome, both incidents happened within Airport premises. My colleague was ripped off 3 times the normal fare in Beijing, China.

5. And if bending the law is typical Indian attitude, I cannot account for piracy of movies and music. And how can we take into account the Enron's and the Worldcom's? And china is not much better than India when it comes to bribery.

Overall this may be a good book from analysis perspective, but has been twisted for the sake of publicity. People tend to buy more if it is related to India rather than a generic behavioral science book. But this is unjustifiable when book shows India in negative light without any reason just for the sake of publicity.

I hope nobody buys this book and make success out of anti-Indianess.

Luck

And people say I am lucky
What do they know how much
I tried and what I left for luck
- Kavi RSV

Kavi RSV

Yesterday was cloudy and rainy,
Tomorrow will be damp and cold
But today I have decided
Decided to be jolly and bold
-- Kavi RSV

Alice in complicated land

It was a bright day with the big white clouds floating around in the nice blue sky. Alice was lying down under an apple tree and trying to make out which cloud looked like which animal. The last one was a horse, like a big stallion galloping at full speed. The next one was sheep with a small little nose and lots of wool. With the third one she was amazed, it looked exactly like a puppy and not just any puppy but the one with dreamy eyes and slight smile too.

She suddenly decided to get herself a cute little puppy.. and where else to go but to the wonderland with lots of friends to help. She was sure with so many friends she will be able to get the best puppy in the world. But...

There she was staring at the first puppy of the day. It was not exactly as she had seen in the sky.. but it was cute in its own way. She had almost picked it up, when the cat appeared.. first its teeth (all 32 of them) and then the body.
"Wait, Did you count the number of teeth the puppy has? You would not touch it if you knew it had only 31" said the cat.
'But how does it matter? It can chew as well as you do.." said Alice.
"You fool, last time a girl of your age took the puppy with 31 teeth.. and do you know what happened? She fell down and broke her hand."

Its Ok, thought Alice, I will find one with 32 teeth.. not more nor less.

Next she saw another puppy which was perfectly white like a fairy. She picked it up and the puppy immediately made a sweet little sound. "Common Alice" said the cat. "This one is not for you.. Did you see under its paw? It has a black patch. It will not be able to adjust with you".

And so came the third puppy. And went too.. because its age was exactly divisible by the age of Alice. "How in world you could even look at it, Alice" was the comment.

And so Alice roamed around the land looking at one cute puppy than another. And the cat got happier and happier. If the cat let Alice have the puppy, why will she think of him? She will be too happy with the puppy.

By making the life complicated, the cat ensures that people remember and offer it fruits daily. Not that the cat liked the fruits that much. But the adulation people gave was good enough.

So, will Alice be able to find her puppy? Lets wait and see.

--
~RSV

Two Lives

Part-1
It was a bad day. It started with a headline in the newspaper. 'H1B visa quota exceeded in 1 day'. "What the hell, we work so hard here and America doesn't even have consideration to let us live our lives peacefully" thought the Vimla. She had been eagerly waiting for the new year so that she could restart working. It had been a long wait, but worthwhile now that their son was in school and she had free time to start thinking about supplementing the family income. She had even managed to get a sponsor for the H1B after long process, even agreeing to drive 2 hours one way to work. And now all the hopes were dashed. She was cursed to this wait-for-husband-and-kid routine for one more year. And over that, the plans of buying a new car will have to be postponed.

But what wretched life this was. She could not work. Ram could not change his job. The expenses were rising. And the forever illusory 'Green Card' was taking forever to be granted. She had just heard that the backlogs were enough to last 5 years. And this was going to increase with time. Without the green card, they could not settle in life, could not buy a house, get scholarships for their children.

The archaic laws were forcing them to lead a life of relative poverty and was unsettling. Why was that happening to them. Most of her friends in the US had got their green card, bought a house, sending the children to best of the schools and now even planning for a second home. She took another dose of anti-depressent, hoping that she will be well by the time her son returns home, cursing the US and its weird laws at the same time.

Part-2
It was a bad day. It started with traffic snarl in the morning. The maid had taken another day off without informing. Vimla was already late for the office. So many problems. The new home they had bought was farther than her office and road worse than thought earlier. It would have been so nice had her husband Shyam took up the job offer in US. She would have a comfortable life like her sister Bimla. How nice it would be to be out of this traffic and cruising on a free-way. It was year since she had started working again after a long break. Now with the new job of Ram and the additional income she was earning dint heart in any way. They had a bigger home, sending their son to one of the most expensive school in the city, and also managed to buy a new bigger car. But still the heat was killing her. The car she was driving dint have an AC and the roads were jammed. Why did India has so much population. Why did Shyam ignores her nagging. It was such a comfortable life her sister was leading. And she took an anti-depressent from her purse and drank a bit of water. Cursing under her breathe, she started honking hoping that the additional noise will clear the traffic.

Modern World

What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

-- from "Leisure," by W.H. Davies

Microsoft

Microsoft is dead, Long live Microsoft

Haiku: The Great Indian Game

Drunk Captain, Fallen team
Murdered Coach, Missing diary
Big Billion Wins, Gentelman's game

Note: This was written before end of Srilankan innings.

The 2 Indias

Here is the story of 2 Indias. 2 sides of the same coin. 2 extremes of injustice.

All of us know and expect that the mail/blog will be about the difference in standard of living. The rising income of the city dwellers while the poverty and debt ridden village farmer. But expect the unexpected.

This is from a different perspective. From the Casteist perspective.

City is where the "other" castes are empowered. They know the power they hold. It is the place where the injustice of thousands of years is vindicated. They get the reservations in education institutions and jobs generations after generations. May be the first person in each family deserved some concession. But this "Chalta hain.. waise bhi IIT mein admission mil hi jayegi" attitude lowers the performance of the individual as well as the country.

This is the place where the employees make false complaints against their bosses, falsely alleging casteist comments. This is the place where they form unions and monopolize several businesses. This is the place where they get loan and freedom to not repay however rich they are.

And this class of people are the main cause for opposition to reservation in the minds of the upper caste.

And then there's the other India. They dont even know what freedom is. They dont have access to water, toilets etc. They have to get up from the seat in government bus if an upper caste person enters. And the administration is not with them. Hardly any lower caste IAS officers/Police commissioners want to work for the upliftment of these people.

And these are the people who deserve the reservation more than any one else. And they get nothing. No dignity. No opportunity.

Miles to go before I sleep.

On climate change..

After warm ice free winter in Europe, Frosty California, over cold east coast, string of typhoons in US and finally a big storm raging across most of Europe the developed world finally woken up to the ultimate truth, that of global warming caused by the "Waste is development" philosophy led by US and followed by most of the developed world.

This is the first time in many years that the common man in Europe and US is being directly affected by the effects of global warming. After trying to stifle the voice of scientist on global warming for years, the American administration has not be able to completely eliminate it. And now the public opinion in the countries that matter is totally in favor of reducing the environmental impact.

A few hours of watching BBC and CNN will show the amount of change in the perception of media:
1. Toyota ad with tag line "aiming for zero emission" is broadcasted multiple number of times per day
2. Number of advertisements from many funds advertising the projects they undertook to reduce emissions.
3. US Congress rejecting the multiple billion subsidy and stating that the money is better used for renewable technologies

World is changing. But are they doing enough to save the world from catastrophe?

The new and emerging manufacturing powerhouse China, still does not care about the environment as long as it gets to manufacture and sell cheap products. And the materialistic world will not care how a product was manufactured as long as it is cheap and desirable.

India with its population is not much behind. As the affluence increases the consumption, we dont care what is the impact on the world.

Just guessing how many million deaths will be needed to actually open the eyes of the world.

And how feasible is it to save the earth as we know today from the conflicting and competitive citizens of the earth.

[Book Review] Guns germs and Steel by Jared Diamond

A "brief history of last 10000 years" is what the book promises. And we get much more than that. A complete paradigm shift of how and why civilizations developed only in Europe-Asia region, while people of Africa, Australia and Americas lagged behind.

Book starts off with an anecdote when the author, a naturalist, is roaming around in the jungles of New Guinea with a local tribal as a guide. As they prepare to cook dinner, the guide gets some mushrooms as food. The author is afraid as he knows the quite a few varieties in the jungle are poisonous and even experts in the field cannot distinguish between the poisonous and edible ones. However when the guide realizes the real reason behind the skepticism to eat mushrooms, he starts listing the varieties available not only in that jungle, but also in the whole island, and their uses and their characteristics. This anecdote is used to make a point that the reason some tribes dint civilize is surely not due to lack of intelligence. All the native tribes in the world have complete knowledge of their environment. If there was anything to be discovered, the natives would have discovered. The author proves convincingly numerous reasons leading to civilization in Eurasian region. And none of them depends on the intelligence of the local tribes.

Reason 1: Availability of appropriate plants and animals
The golden crescent, one of the three areas where agriculture was first developed, has some unique characteristics. 5 out of 7 grasses with largest seed size are found in wild in this area. Also it has an unique topology of mountains and plains due to which the olden day tribal could sustain agriculture throughout the year. Similarly the lack of domesticable animals in Africa, Americas and Australia led to continuation of "Hunting based" lifestyle of the natives in those places.

Due to the surplus created due to agriculture/domestic animals, professions like philosophers, soldiers, doctors etc could be sustained and which are necessary for development of civilization.

Reason 2: Axis of the continent
The reason for development of civilizations across Europe and Asia is the East-West Axis of the land mass. The east west axis provides a conducive environment for spread of the newly developed crops as for example the crops which grow in Mediterranean face similar climate 5000 miles across in China. Compare this to the north south axis of Americas. Every few hundred miles, the climate changes drastically. For eg. The Day length variations in US/Canada border is significantly different that one found in the Mexico US border.  This hampers the spread of plants from one place to another.

Thus the book conclusively proves that no-other tribes residing outside of Eurasian land mass had any chance of development. May be they would have reached the same level of advancement in technology, had they got enough time to progress. But clearly they were not supposed to get the required time.

And hypothetically, if the American continents had the environment and conditions which we have in Eurasia, the history might have been very different. American Indians would have been the ones who would have discovered Europe and Asia. And they would have wiped of all the natives of Europe and Asia and would have Ruled the World.

Overall, this book provides an excellent insight into the factors influencing the development of human civilization and the significant role natural resources and environment played in the development. This is quite contrary to the "casteist" belief held by the conservatives across the world. And this book provides a refreshingly new outlook of looking at things.

--Rahul