Tag's the way (I like it)!

I've been book-tagged by Prachi. Nowadays, with so many sports events on the TV, I have not been reading much. I was never a "voracious" reader, as they say. As a matter of fact, I started taking interest in reading during college. Before coming to college, I read very few novels; "Godaan" was among them. Once I came to Bangalore, I started pampering myself by buying loads of books, many of them rest in the shelves, waiting to be read. Of course, this doesn't stop me from buying more books.

I enjoy light reading most of the times, mostly sci-fi or humor. But I don't restrict my reading to these topics only, infact the books which touched me deeply were neither sci-fi, nor humorous. The content impresses me more than the lingual jugglery, with the exception of P.G.Wodehouse!

I am tagging Vivek Kumar, Pankaj Jain, Himanshu Agrawal, Seema & Satyajit Jha.

Total books I own -
Must be around 100 between three of us in the apartment.

Last book I bought -
21 Dog Years : Doing Time @ Amazon.com
Startup
Money Masters of Our Time

Last book I read -
A History of India : Volume 1

5 Books that mean a lot of me -
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time : Really heart-touching story, narrated brilliantly.
The Catcher in the Rye : I could connect so well with the central character, Holden Caulfield. I felt for the first time that I've some company :)
Delhi: A Novel : I like Khushwant Singh's work for many reasons. What makes this book extra-ordinary is the innovative idea of narrating the tales using the common men of tumultuous times.
Startup : A story of a failed startup. Deals beautifully with all the anxieties & excitement of working for establishing a startup. Explains the process in depth.
"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character : This one's for all the curious characters out there. This book constantly reminded me of my first year room-mate, Nikhil Sethi.

My Unfinished book -
Currently reading Startup but I'm not going to leave it unfinished. I started Catch-22 but left it unfinished because it got repetitive after a while and wasn't very interesting after that. The Fountainhead & The Lord of the Rings are not yet completed, but I plan to complete them, perhaps not in the near future.

Jaane Kahan Gaye Wo Log

Public memory is quite infamous for being very short. You can't really blame the common men, they already have their business to mind. This post is about those people who shot off to fame few years back. Their descent was also almost as fast as their rise in the public attention. Now that their names are off the public memory, my curiosity got better of me and I did little research about their current whereabouts. I've managed to cover very few of such people; Please feel free to suggest more names (I've loadsa free time nowadays ;-)).

I've used Google extensively for the research work and have picked up content, rather shamelessly, at times, all because the motive was to spread awareness not to display my mediocre writing skills.

Rakesh Sharma (Only Indian to go to space) "Saare jahan se accha, Hindustan hamara" - The second most popular utterance of these famous words of Iqbal was done from outer space, by Rakesh Sharma. Squadron Leader Rakesh Sharma (later retired as Wing Commander) was the first Indian (We've had only Kalapna Chawla after him. She was American citizen though) to go into space. In 1984 he became the first citizen of India to go into space when he flew aboard the Russian rocket Soyuz T-11. During the flight, Squadron Leader Sharma conducted multi-spectral photography of northern India in anticipation of the construction of hydroelectric power stations in the Himalayas. Sqn Ldr Rakesh Sharma was awarded the Ashoka Chakra, for the successful completion of the Space Mission. As were his Russian companions Malyshev and Strekalov. This is the first and the only time, the Ashoka Chakra was awarded to foreigners. Retired with the rank of Wing Commander, Rakesh Sharma joined Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) as a test pilot. He was based at the Aircraft & Systems Testing Establishment (ASTE) in Bangalore and worked on the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft program. Current status - Retired. Sadly, the website of ISRO doesn't provide much details about his historic flight or his whereabouts! Links: 1, 2.

Rajeev Goswami (The poster boy of anti-Mandal agitation, 1990) His burning body on the cover of India Today became the emblem of the student agitation against the Mandal commission report during '90. He started the series of self-immolation incidents all over India in protest of V.P.Singh's decision to implement reservation. Goswami himself never got a government job despite no hike in reservation due to agitation. Many uncharitable stories were floated by Mandalites regarding Goswami's motivation. It was claimed he had been paid heavily and his family assured a life of luxury in case he succumbed to his burns. Apparently, the dirty tricks department of the Congress was out to avenge V P Singh's humiliation of Rajiv Gandhi and no money was to be spared to bring the government to its knees. Others asserted Goswami was intoxicated beyond any self-control and prodded by some people to attempt an entry into history books. Yet others said his self-immolation bid had little to do with Mandal and more to do with intra-college gang rivalry. None of this, however, washed with youngsters across the country who seemed to have been electrified by his symbolic sacrificial act. V P Singh was reported to have instructed the Safdarjang Hospital authorities not to let him die under any circumstances. The few brief reports that have appeared after Goswami's death suggest that the overdose of medicines administered to ensure his life in 1989 took its toll over the years as his liver and kidneys were damaged beyond repair. The outburst against the Mandal order marked the revolt of a new generation that demanded opportunities; they demanded an environment in which they could pursue their aspirations. Looking back, Rajeev Goswami's attempted suicide can be said to have been a turning point in contemporary Indian history. It marked the cusp between old politics and the new. He died, rather low profile death, in Delhi in February 2004 after a prolonged illness at the age of 33. Doctors attributed his death to failure of his liver and kidneys. He is survived by his wife and two children. Links: 1, 2, 3.

Tathagat Tulsi (Youngest Post-Graduate, Guinness Book World Record Holder) This boy from Patna was making headlines in various newspapers across the nation during the late 90's. Tathagat can boast of being the youngest post-graduate in the world! But the path to this success wasn't an easy one. He had to move to the Supreme Court to get special permission to appear in class 10th exams at the age of 9 years. He completed B.Sc. Physics Honors at the age of 10 years & 6 months! He finished his master's degree in Physics in 1999 at the age of 12 years. India Government sent him to Nobel Prize winners' meeting held in Germany during Jun.25-29, 2001. Events took a depressing turn here. He was suspected to be a fake by media. He was labeled as "the programmed genius" by media. But soon after this controversy, he silenced his critics by snatching an admission at IISc Bangalore in their coveted doctoral program, at the age of 15! Now, he is a senior Research Fellow at IISc (his webpage).

Contemplations & cerebrations

I think, I'll not like a girl if she likes a guy like me.

Does it make sense to you? Nandu feels it displays lack of self-esteem. But who knows one better than himself or is it being too hard?

Brush with the eternal hush.

This Sunday's Shivasamudram trip was enkindling in many ways. Firstly, it has started the itch to go out of the city on every weekend. But more importantly, it has aroused an eerie kind of spirituality in me. It started with us getting into the adventurous mode. After finishing bathing at the fall, we decided to descend our way to the lake below the fall. We didn't know the way & it wasn't going to be easy. After a while, I reached a place and just ahead was a steep fall about 40 feet down. I had nothing but a weak branch of nearby tree to hold to, so I did. I was trying to step into another little groove below, when my floaters gave way to the pebbles and my brief skid resulted. I was saved by that weak branch, but for which I would've landed straight on the rocks, some 30-40 feet below. May be I would have escaped with a few minor bruises or perhaps a broken leg or elbow, but the possibility of my death can't be ruled out entirely. This shook me totally! The realization that I could've died, just like that, was startling. I had never felt the same ever before in my life. Death was always a certainty but in a distant thing. It was always what happens with others. "This can't happen to me" was the general feeling. This incident broke all the illusions. I'm just as vulnerable to the dark shadow of death as any dog crossing the road!

This sparked the line of thought about what would have happened had I died there. Yes, it's morose, but that's how it is. It would've been very tough to get the corpse out of that jungle! Jha & Nandu would've faced stern scolding, perhaps fine too, from the authorities for not complying with the warning sign. The product release at my office would've not suffered much. All my code is complete and free of major bugs. The rent would've felt a bit too much to Jha & Rg, since it would have to be divided among only two instead of three. May be Vyas would've moved in. I didn't handle my finances well. The benefactor, my father, wouldn't have known about all my bank accounts and investments. The LIC policy I got done, would've yielded mega bucks (hell, I paid so much for it in the last two years!).

Not many would've missed me. My parents, few closed friends would've remembered me & felt sorry for me. Some relatives, who always talked of me as role-model to their kids, would've clucked their tongues and perhaps said "Honi ko kaun taal sakta hai". My parents would've been devastated! They would've remembered me as their small & sharp kid, always with a question, always demanding Five Stars, always in front of the TV. I didn't heed much to their advice to try for UPSC exams, still I think they would've been reasonably proud of me. They wouldn't have known how I changed in college. I hate this about hostels, they separate you from your folks, establish an invisible wall of formalness. You get to visit them for about 20-30 days in a year. I absolutely hated in when I got treated as a guest in my own house, I was the attention hogger because I was there for only such a small time.

My college mates would have remembered me, atleast for a while. Many would've thought of me as bawdy, some as witty. Few would've thought of me as a thoughtful guy, most of them would've dismissed me as a looney without any focus or direction (Com'on! He died in a jungle trying to climb down a straight rock!). People would've remembered my caustic sarcasms, my baseless debates, my clueless arguments, my hasty decisions, my I-care-a-damn attitude towards academics, perhaps for my innovative dance steps in our batch treats or for innovative acts during those treats. Perhaps they would've remembered how I ruined many movies with them with my supposedly witty comments.

My colleagues would have had a split perception about me. Some would've thought of me as a shy person, some as arrogant, some as outrageously outspoken. No one would've said I was very efficient or very sacrosanct about work or deadlines. Anyway, they would've have remembered me for more than one day or one week. Perhaps a few good friends I made in office would have, but who knows?

Would mine be a restful soul? I can't say! I did have very comfortable life compared to many, but as Ghalib said "Kabhi Kisi Ko Muqammal Jahan Nahi Milta", it wouldn't have been perfect had it ended that day. During the hedonistic existence of 23 years, I didn't have any burning passions or definite focus. I like traveling and I did well there. Not brilliant but not bad either. I would have had a few regrets, some things I would have wanted to change by going into the past. I would have had some unfulfilled desires (Smashing an acoustic guitar, asking for a lift from a lady two wheel driver, etc.) & some grave failures. Looking back, I see a mixed bag -- I've been lucky, I've been unfortunate; I've been proud, I've been humiliated; I've been elated, I've been depressed. But, when I see the big picture, everything cancels out. I've done okay, or may be even good. But perhaps it's not satisfactory!

Recently I came across the commencement speech given by Steve Jobs at Stanford. Following part impressed me most:

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything,– all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

I read this after my little adventure at Shivasamudram. It's amazing how I wanted to convey the same thing in this post. Till now I never thought about the possibility that I could die this very moment. And now when I've seen the possibility in the eyes, whole perception about life has changed! I would urge you too to give a thought to this.

God Bless!

Busy Bee-See

Yes, friends, mates and fellow country men, I've been absolutely loaded with work. My heart yearns for those days when bugs were nothing more than tiny crawlers, easily stompable & always scurrying away for their lives. Alas! Those rosy days are over, just like all good things. Nowadays, bugs are perhaps the single most dreaded entity in entire software cosmos.

After a week full of crazy bug-hunting, it was expected from me to work on weekend also. My free will-minded heart revolted against the authoritarian mind & defying all logical arguments, I left for Shivasamudram with friends. Right, I could've gone to office on Saturday and worked, but I didn't. It was very tough only to keep awake during the day full of intermittent rains & heavy winds, I decided it'll be much better to stay home. Sunday was entirely dedicated for Shivasamudram.

Perhaps I would write a detailed account of the trip some other time, I had a great time & learnt a lot too. Right now, I just want you to visit my photoblog, I shall be updating it with the pictures from the trip.

Software Engineers and CAT

(The following lyrics are inspired from Jefferson Airplane's - Somebody to love. You see, I don't poetize, I make parodies! Here I go, again.)

When the job isn't paying you enough cash.
No plans to send you to videsh.
Don't you want to take the CAT?
You better decide to take the CAT.

Last addition on your resume was your new phone number,
Do crosswords all the time in office, still going dumber!

When graduation was in the last ice-age.
When your cubicle looks like a gorilla's cage.
Don't you want to take the CAT?
You better decide to take the CAT.

ISB, GMAT and foreign things are just too pricey,
MBA from IIM seems just irresistibly spicy!

When You just want to spend life as a lad,
But your relatives can't just wait to see you wed.
Don't you want to take the CAT?
You better decide to take the CAT.

Yes, This year I want to take the CAT.
Don't you read this, my office mate!

Don't you want to take the CAT?
Don't you need to take the CAT?
Wouldn't you love to take the CAT?
You better decide to take the CAT!

Indian-Rajasthani-Hindu or Hindu-Rajasthani-Indian

Today's TOI contains excellent piece of writing by Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar under Swaminomics. It says:

Mahatma Gandhi once declared that those who want religion and politics to be kept separate do not understand either religion nor politics.
...
Some secularists still say that politics and religion should not be mixed. But, as Gandhiji pointed out, this is impossible. People define themselves in terms of group identities, including religion. People think of themselves in terms of religion, ethnicity, region, caste, class, and other such group characteristics. Politicians cannot ignore this. So secularists find they have to appeal to identity politics of some sort, and communal parties find they have to appeal to secularism of some sort.

I totally agree with Mr.Aiyer on his point that it's difficult for a politician to not mix religion, ethnicity, region, caste, class, etc. with politics. Infact this was exactly my point while discussing a similar topic with Jha few days back.

BJP and the Sangh have been playing on the hindutva line for quite a while now. Their politics reached its peak in '90s when they won elections comfortably and ruled the nation in center. The combination lost the last election because hindus were finally disillusioned from them and their government could not do enough to counter the anti-incumbency factor. Majority of the Indian population is hindu and the religion politics doesn't appeal much to the gen-next of the hindu part of the nation. The next generation appears to be more tolerant and indifferent towards religion. Infact, it's speculated that in next 100 years the population in India will get very homogeneous pertaining to inter-caste/inter-religion marriages. I'm hoping with the time, the kind of ugly mix of religion and politics which we see today, will cease to exist.

If the religion mix is going southward, another kind of "separationist" activists are getting into politics. Consider following incidents:

• Huge agitation and controversy in Bangalore over the issue of non-Kannada students appearing in CET to get admissions in colleges in Karnataka.
• Major controversy in Karnataka over screening of non-Kannada films in the state. The association of Kannada film producers get a rule in place which forces a moratorium of 7 weeks for non-Kannada movies.
• Bihari applicants are beaten up by Shivsena members in a Army recruitment drive in Bombay. Few trains are looted and passengers beaten in Bihar as a repercussion.
• North Eastern students are treated as second citizen in the capital. The girls often find themselves facing abuses.

All these cases are indicators of the uprise of regionalism. Well, it's not a new thing; Tamil Nadu witnessed a huge "Anti-Hindi" or "Pro-Tamil" movement in the 60's. With resources getting scarcer and growing "floating" population in search of better living, the number of clashes based on regional identities are likely to rise. Bangalore is taken to be among the most cosmopolitan cities in India. The question, "Whose Bangalore is it?" is being discussed on various online forums for quite some time now. This took a real face during the Kannada film controversy. Non Kannada (Tams, Mallus and Northies) were labeled as outsiders and other languages' movies were understood to be the main reason behind the dying Kannada film industry. North Indians also have some strong prejudices against south Indians (Our packer, a sturdy lad from Haryana, said "Yeh chaval jyada khate hain na, isiliye inka dimag nahi chalta" (?!!)).

It won't be long before political parties will start to cash this division. Shiv Sena is already working on this formula for quite a while now. They once launched a movement called (I think) Mi Mumbaikar, which was basically a drive to move non-marathi people out of Mumbai. Later they said that all non-mumbaikars should leave Mumbai. Now, Mumbai - the city of dreams, has a huge influx of "outsiders". Thankfully the movement backfired on Shiv Sena and it lost the power, but this bias remains close to the heart of the party.

It's quite possible that as the anticipated downfall of religious politics, the regional politics will also lose it's charm between the voters. The youth is getting over this issue also, because of the globalization and increasing opportunities to interact. But this will not happen until we finally grow out of these boundaries and start to consider us Indians first, hindu/muslim/sikh or marathi/gujrati/bengali later. It might be impossible to separate communal identities from politics, but it doesn't give any party a right to cause friction between sections of the same nation and derive benefit from it.

Like a fish.

(The general structure of the system)

From IsraCast:

An Israeli Inventor has developed a breathing apparatus that will allow breathing underwater without the assistance of oxygen tanks. This new invention will use the relatively small amounts of air that already exist in water to supply oxygen to both scuba divers and submarines. The invention has already captured the interest of most major diving manufacturers as well as the Israeli Navy.

Amazing invention! From the time Israel came into existence, their scientists have earned great respect in various research areas. Despite the political crisis and feeling of insecurity, their universities are engaged in various cutting edge researches. India, on the contrary, is finding it hard to get some decent researchers. The despair among the science fraternity in India can be seen clearly in the recent interview by Dr. C N R Rao (recently received the prestigious $1 million Dan David prize). Dr.Rao lists various reasons for this sad condition: " The main problems are: Declining or vanishing interest in science amongst the young, partly due to parental/societal pressure and undue importance to certain venues and sectors; sad state of our universities wherein they are no longer contributing significantly to scientific efforts; and bad bureaucratic practices and absence of sufficient incentives like competitive salaries, proper work atmosphere etc. "Coming from IITB I can relate well with his point. Not many IITians stay in India to pursue their research interests. Most of the IITians who stay back, work and have minimal contribution to the research work. If we see it by their point of view, India has very little to offer them. Almost all of them who opt for PhDs in US universities have the solid financial backing in the form of various allowances & scholarships. Once they complete their respective PhDs, I'm told, the companies are very acceptive & it's not very difficult to grab a teaching position or a researcher's job, both with fat paychecks. Situation is very different in India. Industry have fewer positions for PhDs and moreover PhDs from Indian universities, with few exceptions, are not rated at par with the ones from top US universities. We need to revamp our university structure & encourage student towards scientific research. It should not be tough if proper incentives, in the form of well paying jobs and faculty positions can be ensured.

What is most sad & embarrassing is the level of ignorance & false pride in glorious but distant past. We Indians love to relate every new technology to the mythological devices present in vedas, Geeta and Ramayana, etc. Nuclear bombs are new-age Brahmastra, aeroplanes are pushpak vimans, and God knows what else. It would be interesting if some of the Hindu scholars lay claims over this invention also. After all, puranas are filled with mermaids & underwater human life (Duryodhan once threw Bheema in a river after intoxicating him. Under water people sent him back with added powers and their blessings). This attitude is not limited to scientific inventions, Amitabh Bachchan was recently quoted in Bangalore Times saying (link): "Even Hollywood filmmakers copy Bollywood films. There is a man in SpielbergÂ’s studio who makes it his sole business to watch Hindi films and remake them. Now theyÂ’re even remaking Munnabhai MBBS. George LucasÂ’ Star Wars series is nothing but a take off on Ramayana and Mahabharata. So why are we blaming the Hindi film industry for copying?". Now this is stretching it a bit too far! What next, Matrix was Geeta Saar? Duh!

Glamourizing the Gutter

This weekend we went to see "D". Thought we went on only the second day of the movie, most of the crowd at the Innovative Multiplex was still drew in by "Bunty and Babli". This post isn't a review for the movie, that should take another post I guess. This post is about the image bollywood is presenting of the underworld. I'm not criticizing the movie here, the movie was "entertaining" but I'm not sure if I would say it was "meaningful". Basically, I'm real sick and tired of all these gangster movies; glamourizing the deeds of sick minds like Dawood Ibrahim & Chhota Rajan.

Firstly, these movies try to portray the gangsters like real bravehearts. "Is line mein experience nahi, daring ka zaroorat hai" -- uggh! How to define braveness? Where is the courage in shooting unarmed people, hiding bombs in markets/buses/cinema halls to kill innocent masses, bullying businessmen to pay hafta?! Beats me big time! In my opinion, gangsters are plain sick people, who don't have enough balls to sweat their way up. Now, the circumstances are highlighted following which the boy-next-door got transformed into real lead-pumping, chest-thumping, dance-bar-regular don. There is this silly notion that "Koi apni marzi se is line mein nahi aata". Bullshit! It's their criminal psyche and lust for easy money that drives people into underworld. Almost all of these movies start with a boy with a humble background (and an ugly stubble). Some event or the other pushes the boy to take the road less traveled leading to the dark alleys of the underworld. Once inside the game, he starts to ride up the ladder because of his work-ethics (??!) & hard work (??!) and of course, daring. Now, don't we all just love this lower middle class rags to riches story, but I seriously don't think this is the case in reality. Most of the bigshots in the underworld started as small pickpockets or hafta-vasooli goons. Everyday thousands of souls land in Mumbai with a dream to make a decent living; if all of them get recruited by the underworld, just like the movie-wallas love to believe, the city will literally go to the dogs!

Next, the movie-wallas are totally in love with the Robin Hood image of our friendly don next door. If Raghu helps his old neighbour (because the don used to steal his hens), it must be taken as bigheartedness on his part. What about all the families which got shattered because of their shootouts, bomb blasts, cold-blooded murdering, etc.? Moreover, some dons, like Arun Gawli, like to patronize particular localities, which helps them later to nurture their main-bhi-politician dream. In "D", taking up the underworld is portrayed as just another career choice for Deshu. Just as natural as anyone taking up medicine or engineering. Verbatim from the movie -- "Normal log gangsters ke baare mein jyada jaanta nahi. Hum log bhi apna kaam karte hain. Koi doctor banta hai, koi engineer; Main gangster hai." Whaaaadd? Is this the real world of Ram Gopal Varma? If some people, typically from the lower middle class, like to color their hands red to sate their itch for power & money, is it to be taken as another career option?!

I don't want to enter in another effects-on-young-minds debate, my main crib is about the obvious attempt to glorify the gore. Why can't Bollywood come up with a film about middle class dreams of India; about a message boy on trading floor rising up to be big name in the equity market; about an engineer from humble backgrounds making worldwide splash in software scene; about a sporting talent making big against all the odds? More importantly, would these movies make big bucks just like the gangster movies do? Is this the verdict given by the audience? Oh My God!! What kind of society is this!?!