A Rage For Perfection

McEnroe

John McEnroe
"Needed to lose head to play good"

named his autobiography "A Rage For Perfection." As Harsha Bhogle recently quipped in an informal talk here, perhaps he was the only player who needed to lose his head to play better. I'm on hunt for the book, if you find one, don't think twice before dispatching it to me :-)

Anyway, the title got me thinking. Quite recently I've realised something about myself - I don't have the "rage for perfection." This is not to say mediocrity doesn't bother me, but competition surely doesn't. I'm not someone motivated by the vision of the accolades reserved for the highest achiever. Even from the very start, in school, I was never pushed for the first place, by me or by my folks. I was among the toppers, but rarely "the" topper. During my preparation days for JEE, I didn't use to think in "top 10, top 50" terms. Till the results came out, I thought anything in top 500 would be cool. Then in IIT, I let it go loose. Even afterwards, in my job, I never aspired to be the best or whatever. I wasn't bad, mind you :-), just not the best!

Does that mean achievements don't matter to me? My proudest achievement in recent times has been my success (however miniscule) in photography. I started with absolutely no credentials and did reasonably well. Many, many people have looked at my flickr account and praised my work. Nothing makes me more proud! Same for my blog; I started as another anonymous blogger. Now after some 1.5 years, I've got more than 50,000 hits. No mean feat :-) And mostly I have written whatever fancied me. Not for the readers, just for me.

So the way I've explained it to myself is that may be competition doesn't push me, but once I set my eye on some job and if I really enjoy doing it, then I do it well. And so well that, often I would emerge decently placed in the competition!

Just wanted to tell someone.

An Appeal

Couple of days back, one student at IIMC met with an road accident and after about 1 week in the ICU, succumbed to the injuries. It was shocking, disturbing, but more than anything else, it was unfortunate. I personally didn't know the guy, but it disturbed me. "Could've-been-me" feeling! The guy was riding a motorcycle, without a helmet and possibly under the influence of alcohol. He crashed with a bus and hit his head on the road. Pity. Foolishness? Waste!

Kolkata road accidents data.

Couple of years back, I would've put the entire blame on the foolhardiness of that guy, but somehow it doesn't seem right anymore. Most of us aren't aware how easy it is to lose our lives. Just a little misfortune and there's no tomorrow! Most of the time, most of us don't give any thoughts to such possibilities and the consequences. I had my own little face-off with it once, about an year back. And it sets you thinking. One of our professor, whose tongue can sting at times, said,"This is perhaps the most mindless way of dying." And I couldn't agree more.

More fortunately than unfortunately, early in my biking days, when I was still a noob, I had a little accident. I was learning biking and it skidded. I landed safely and absolutely no harm was done. But that incident never left me, it's always there at the back of my mind. Result: I developed as an extra cautious biker. Of course, I've had my moments of madness. Fortunately, I survived all of them.

There isn't much to say. The sad incident can end up being just a statistical data point, unless we take a lesson from it. Sincere appeal to all bikers - please get a helmet!

Skeptic Youth vs Confident Veterans

The panel discussion I mentioned in my last post turned out to be quite an interesting one. The topic of discussion was - "100 Indian MNCs by 2020." The panelists were -

• Mr Sandipan Deb : Chief Editor, Financial Express
• Mr Hemant Kanoria, Managing Director, Srei Finance
• Mr D K Chaudhuri CEO , Skytech
• Mr Barun Das, Exide, Company Secretary

Sandipan started with his views, which unfortunately didn't look very well prepared. However, he was lucid; talked much without saying much. Rest three had solid experience in industry, extending the operations at the world stage. They talked with more authority and shared their experiences. All of them were very sure that the dream of 100 Indian MNCs by 2020 is well within the reach and sort of underrated. It was quite inspiring hearing their first hand experiences.

Like all good panel discussions, this one too ended with a Q&A round by audience. Like all good audience, lots of questions came out after a little prodding. What was most interesting to note was that the crowd - comprising the leaders of tomorrow, yada yada yada - was quite skeptic about achieving the goal! There were questions about the government and its ineffectiveness, about sustaining the current wave of growth, about population & literacy, about infrastructure & investment - all of them showing how improbable this goal seems to be. On the contrary, the panel maintained its stand that India will have to do too bad to miss this one!

Their settling argument was that India has reached this stage even with the kind of government & stifling regulations we've had, so there is every chance that now that the condition have improved a lot, India will bloom even more. The post-lib generation hasn't seen those days, when Infosys almost died as an infant after frustrating experiences trying to work for global client, mainly due to the policies in 1989!

What will happen remains to be seen, but this skeptism in the youth of the nation, crème de la crème, worries me. Not like OMG-India-is-screwed-now worry, just a little concern.

PS: Just a small note, reply to Jeet's comment on my last post where he said, "I don't agree with Sandipan's only one answer theory.. I don't know about comp. sci and engg. but Civil Engineering was all about evaluating multiple correct answers and 'choosing' one of them." Still, you'll find the management education a whole lot different than engineering. CS is mainly about optimizing; space, speed, transfer, safety.. So in a way, you are confined in your pursuit of the answer. You can say that A is better than B and like that. Civil, as I understand, does have an element of subjectivity to it. In the managerial world, I'm told, there are many situation where nothing's universally better or worse. It all depends on what you decide.

MBA vs Engineering

One among various good things about IIMC is that it provides you opportunities to interact with various leaders from different walks of life. I attended couple of presentations from top consulting firms, basically pitching consulting as a career to us students. They had sent IIMC alumni, who were placed at top positions. It's definitely inspiring; sets you dreaming.

Tomorrow, that is Sunday, we've Sandipan Deb (Managing Editor, Outlook magazine and editor of Outlook Money) coming over to the campus for one panel discussion. He happens to be an IIMC alumni. Sometime back he was interviewed by the alumni magazine. Couple of interesting points he made:

We came from a very closed quantitative engineering system, in the sense that engineering education inculcates the philosophy of one right answer to any problem. That if you follow the flow chart, if you follow the algorithm, if you do the steps properly, there is only one answer possible. I think I gained hugely from the exposure that IIM gave me to - economics, sociology, political science, psychology, behavioral sciences etc. It really broadened my horizon.

That is exactly what I'm going through. But it isn't all rosy; atleast for me it's little tough to adjust. It's easy to think that it's much easier to give gyaan on such subjects, it's not! I guess, I'll take some time to get used to it. Sandipan further added:

Our batch was quite an exceptional batch. There were about fifteen of us in the same wing H2-top and I was very fortunate to have these people to interact with. We had toppers and we had bottomers. We had brilliant bottomers, we had people who slogged, and we had people who never went to class. They were also extremely talented. In those two years, most IIM Calcutta teams-quiz, debate, drama, music etc-had representation from our wing and we won almost every festival that we went to. So that made my two years totally worth it.

That is so true! You learn a lot even outside the class, among such a great gang of selected few. I've had the same experience at IIT Bombay and I guess I'm in for good two years in Calcutta too.

PS: Not getting much time to read/write. Hence this inactivity at the blog.

The Campus

The IIM Calcutta campus or Jokaland, as we call it, is almost like an island amid lakes.

The IIM Calcutta campus, courtesy Google Earth.

As it's evident from the Google Earth image, there are three major man-made lakes surrounding the academic block, the campus KV and library. Our hostels are along the lakes on the outside. The setting gets more clear in the Wikimapia image, as it has proper labelling too.

Compare it to the IIT Bombay campus and you'll find many similarities. Both the campus have the serene presence of beautiful water bodies and dense greenery. Right now the similarities get thicker, since the Calcutta weather nowadays is quite like Mumbai monsoons; it stays cloudy with frequent short showers. Due to the lakes, it stays humid at the campus and if it's not windy, it can get really stifling. The IIMC campus is much smaller than IITB campus, and obviously since IITB is meant for much bigger number of junta. It used to house 4 BTech batches, each of roughly 500 plus huge number of MTechs and few PhDs too. Here at IIMC there are just two batches at a given point of time. My batch's strength is around 310 and that's the largest number they've ever had.

One thing paining me is the distance from the downtown Kolkata. Last night I enquired about ordering pizza and I got to know that the minimum order they take is something as obscene as 6k!! That's because the nearest outlet is at Camac Street or like that :-). But, the food in the mess & (almost) 24 hrs canteen in the hostel is much better than IITB. But eating out is still an issue. Nearest Metro station is some 100 bucks away from IIMC and there aren't many options to reach there. I guess things would get brighter once my bike reaches Kolkata.

Today I took some pictures at the campus. I've uploaded them at the Flickr page. Most of them need little bit of postprocessing, which I plan to do soon.

Kolkata Chapter Begins :-)

This would be the longest stretch when I didn't blog, since I started blogging, but it's like that, and that's the way it is. First I was stranded, disconnected at Jaipur for a while, which now seems like pretty comfortable setting.. sigh. Then, once I touched base at Kolkata, things got hectic, and I didn't have a computer for a while. Now that things have more or less settled and I've bought my self a rather sleek Compaq Presario v3000, it's about time I resume blogging.

First things first, Kolkata and the neighbourhood, looks totally amazing from air, after first few days of showers. From my SpiceJet flight, I was gawking, spellbound, at the marvellous view below.. lush greenery, numerous big & small canals and all! Then we hit the ground (pun intended). Let's just say, for someone new to the city, it's not very tough to not like the city, going by the first impressions. The IIM Calcutta campus is good 90 minutes from the airport! The area neighbouring IIMC, it's called Joka, is rather unimpressive to say the least. However, the campus is breathtaking with its 7 lakes and lush greenery. My hostel room, I found is more comfortable than the room I had in IIT Bombay. It's bigger, better planned and it has a balcony which opens to the patch of jungle behind my hostel. I haven't clicked snaps of the campus, but I intend to do that pretty soon. The downtown Kolkata, essentially Park Street area, is light-years away from the campus and it takes huge effort to make it to there. Till now I've been there only once, and even then it was disappointing as we couldn't catch any movie! The movie buff in me is still very pleased to be here; the LAN is virtually full of movies! My new 250 GB external HDD might getting full to the brim, is looking like a possibility.

The academic load looks manageable. I have five courses, all of them interesting. Especially the Organisational Behaviour course, which has interesting mix of Psychological studies in it, pretty impressive! Then there is Indian Economic and Political History, which is also pretty interesting to study. Midterms are still (just?) 2 weeks away and things are chill (as we say here).

I guess, I'll start with such banal posts; it should take time to get back the flow for blogging :-)

Back to Home

Reached Jaipur on 5th morning. Since then, life has been laid back. Sleeping late, waking up early (!!), going for morning walks and sleeping again after that. Eating a lot and having long siestas during hot afternoons. Lots of TV - cricket & tennis. Soccer should start in some time. Meeting with lost acquaintances, uncles & aunts; explaining everytime what I was doing and what I am going to do. Taking all the insinuations about my marriage & elbow-in-ribs jokes from middle-aged uncles with a straight poker face.

Not all rosy, but closer to it. I'm loving it and praying it to end soon :-) Bundle of contradictions, eh?

Leaving for Calcutta on 23rd. Taking SpiceJet this time, after vowing to never take an Air Deccan flight again. That's a long story, some other time.

Be Good people,
- Varun

Closing the Bangalore Chapter

16^th July, 2003: I reached the company guest house in Jayanagar, wet, tired & hungry. Things could've gone only better from there.

And how well things turned out to be! As the time for me to bid adieu to Bangalore is sneaking close, a mix of melancholy & nostalgia is setting in. When I first came to Bangalore, I was a fresh out of college, wide-eyed kid of 21; tired of scraping my time for the degree & bumbling with anticipation towards the corporate world. Coffee machine & the biscuits in the office pantry excited me, so did the free stationary (I did build up a mini ball pen collection of my own) & the wall-to-wall carpet in the office. I already had some of my closest buddies working in Bangalore then and later on I made many more good ones, at work. Sadly, many of them are no longer in touch. Not everything was as rosy though; coming from the soggy & warm Mumbai to wet & windy Bangalore, messed me up bad and I was in-n-out of viral fever for about one month. Then I guess, I just got used to it. The rains in Bangalore, though no lesser in the vigor, don't last for as long as those in Mumbai and they have assuring surety of schedule, unlike the ill-tempered rains in Mumbai which visit at the most inappropriate hours.

In last three years, Bangalore has given & taught me a lot. I have changed jobs twice since my first company and finally acknowledged that this is perhaps not what I would want to do all my life. The software industry, with all its lures & charms, failed to excite me for long; but it wasn't just the job. I was feeling a bit jaded for a while, by the city, by its people, by the mundane routine. Almost all the people I know in general, have one tiresome similarity - all of them are software guys! And the city, it has perhaps the greatest weather in India, but I think I've had enough of Bangalore. Nothing against the city, but I guess I would relish the change right now. Incidently, Bangalore is the city where I've spent the second longest continuous spell of my life (After Mumbai, where I spent four years of college. So much for being a Jaipuri :-) ). I guess, the wanderer in me is still not ready to settle. At the same time, if Calcutta wouldn't have happened, I guess I would've stayed back in Bangalore for another year or so, and happily. Who knows?

Change comes with a price tag; you need to get out of the comfort zone and go through the ordeal of settling up yet again, in a new rhythm. To accomodate new people, you need to get away from the existing friends; to venture new places you first need to leave the comforts of your home. Ironically, often we seek change to get rid of the monotonous rhythm only. It seems contradictory, but such is life.

There is just less than a week before I fly out of here, and yet the feeling isn't sinking that I'm leaving Bangalore. I guess it would start settling once I leave the city & its heavenly weather, to get roasted in the ruthless Jaipur summers :-) So here's me, off to yet another new city.

Prelude to Hell

All hope abandon, ye who enter here!
- Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy

I'm reading Snapshots from Hell currently and it looks like an interesting book. The very first page quotes Dante, establishing the analogy between life in a prestigious B-School (Stanford in the book) and Hell. I picked this one up expecting insights & musings over Hell as I would be joining IIM Calcutta, another B-School, pretty soon myself. Entering the gates of Hell, so they tell me.

Some of my closest friend just graduated from IIMC and I've discussed with them about life there. We've also got a mailing group active, involving most of my would-be batchmates & few seniors. I've been gathering information, anticipating & gauging all the time. Though I have got a few contradicting bits, mostly what has settled in is -

• It's not going to be easy. No where near the breezer we had in Engineering.
• It's not going to be that tough either. Most important is to strike the right balance.
  
• It's important to learn things, but most important are the grades.
  
• You learn as much or perhaps more outside the class, then in the classroom. This much I understood in my stint at IIT Bombay.
• Finally, it's all about how you sell yourself.
  

These are the starting points I'm taking with me. Back to academia, more matured & experienced this time, hopefully. It's rather tough to not get nostalgic about the last time. I didn't do particularly well in my under-graduate course at IIT Bombay, I think mostly because I didn't apply myself, at all. As per the reputation of B-Schools go, they bury you under so much work, that you don't get many choices. And choices, given to a feckless mind, can sum up to disaster. So it's good in a way.

The feeling of exclusiveness eludes me, again. Exclusiveness, among the peers and not the entire population. The biggest group at IIT Bombay was of Rajasthanis, mainly from Kota, mostly from one particular coaching. I was the member of every big ruck. After finishing B.Tech. I joined one huge software firm and become another bit in the Indian silicon valley. Bangalore made me feel very another-brick-in-the-wall-ish, if I may. I writhed and tried to break the shackles, but I was caged in the jargon & the keywords. I was stamped - "Java/J2EE developer, CSE IITB." And I hated that. Going to IIM Calcutta, things haven't changed much. IIMC has a tradition of admitting engineers in big numbers. The batch of 2006 had 56% engineers plus 28% IITians. My herd is defined, I guess.

There is comfort in groups, they say. Along with comfort, there is conformity & submissiveness. I think we all (taking the refuge of groups, again) yearn our undivided & exclusive spot, in life, in history. Make our mark on the sands of time. Need not be Einstein-like, but we all long to be distinguished from the herd. That, my friends, is the core dream I'm carrying with me to the Joka-land. I might end up taking up the beaten path, lured by the riches & comforts. You never know.

PS: I was travelling for a while, hence the break in blogging. However, I shall leave Bangalore in another week and that would mean another silent period for this blog. Regular blogging shall resume once I reach Calcutta, hopefully.

IITs: The Selection-Effect Institutions

The archive of the articles Malcom Gladwell wrote for the New Yorker is full with his profound insights on various interesting topics. Recently, I was reading his article on the social logic of Ivy League admissions; the strategies they apply and used to apply, the kind of profile they seek and all that. I think the article is also relevant in the current discussion over the reservation in education issue, go ahead read it. But a certain part caught my attention and got me thinking about JEE & IITs. I quote:

Social scientists distinguish between what are known as treatment effects and selection effects. The Marine Corps, for instance, is largely a treatment-effect institution. It doesn't have an enormous admissions office grading applicants along four separate dimensions of toughness and intelligence. It's confident that the experience of undergoing Marine Corps basic training will turn you into a formidable soldier. A modeling agency, by contrast, is a selection-effect institution. You don't become beautiful by signing up with an agency. You get signed up by an agency because you're beautiful.

IITs are definitely selection-effect institutions. This is to say that almost all the students who make into IITs are excellent at problem solving & analytical thinking. The time spent in the IITs, though contributes a lot towards the holistic development of the individual, doesn't add that much extra value. Of course, the teachers are good & the facilities are better, but if say an entire batch of IIT would be swapped with the batch of students from say another lower ranked engineering institute, would that affect the bigger picture? I would like to say here that success (the way we define it in the materialistic sense) depends on a lot more than mere ability. You need to apply yourself, persist in tough times & keep on proving yourself again-n-again. So, would that make the original IITians less successful? I'd dare say no. Now, is it the IIT brand name which makes the students, or vice-versa? What makes the IIT brand? The placements, or the quality of students, or the rigorous academic schedule of four years?

In my opinion, its the JEE exam. It makes sure that only the students with great IQ make it into IITs (of course, it isn't exhaustive). This fact is reflected in various other facts, the average GRE & GMAT scores (at least in the analytical section) are much higher in IIT as compared to other colleges. IITians do relatively well at exams like CAT where your analytical abilities are put to test. Recently, most of the software companies & lately, financial firms too, go to various IIT campuses and pick up coders/number crunchers for their work, irrespective of the branch the student studied in IIT. Of course, the coursework at IITs doesn't inculcate the required abilities in the students; they came in with them. I remember, during my very early days at IIT Bombay, the dean once addressed us "freshies". Amidst all the gyaan, he told us that its the five pointers, who go ahead to become millionaires. Of course some of us took this as a cue and went ahead to bask in the notion that they've just got to get a 5 to become a millionaire, but that's not the point. The point is, even the students who constitute the lower half of the class are observed to do very well later on in their lives, enjoy success. Doesn't that say that the contribution of IITs (as in the learning inside the classrooms) in making them what they went ahead to become, was not much? Of course, bad grades mean those students did not apply themselves and have a tendency to lose the focus (if we assume the focus should be on academics).

So what would happen if this quality gets diluted, by let's say, 50% reservation? That would mean that half of the class is made up of the students who didn't do as well in the JEE as the other half. Roughly, it can be said that this would mean that their analytical skills are not at par with their general category colleagues (I say roughly, because I'm seen many exceptions. But in the end, that's what they are, exceptions). It might kill the brand in the longer run, the companies wouldn't get what they pay for and thus would shun IITs. But another outcome, which seems more likely to me, can be a fractured student society at IITs. Since its mandatory to declare that they are from quota at the time of placement, if would divide the placement scenario in two tiers. Different for general quota & reserved quota students. There are only about 10% of students from the SC/ST quota in the IITs, so no such phenomena is observed and they too are benefited from the IIT brandname. But if their percentage gets something like 50%, it might actually affect their chances adversely.

What's the solution for that? Reservation in private sector? To cover up their incompetence? To me it looks as if the government is standing with its back to the Sun. Instead of going in this direction, they should try and provide better education & better access to the primary & secondary educational institutes. If equal opportunities are provided at that level, I don't have any doubt that it will reflect at the tertiary educational level.

Sadly, the logical things almost never fetch the votes.

First week of Photophilic

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Thursday, May 11, 2006

Friday, May 12, 2006

Saturday, May 13, 2006

Sunday, May 14, 2006

Monday, May 15, 2006

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

My new photoblog, Photophilic, is now one week old. The first week has been quite satisfactory one for me. I got Jha to comment twice, without taking him at gunpoint :-) Though he still have to comment on his own pic, two comments within a week is *huge* success!

I'm trying best to maintain the quality there. Last week I posted some pictures from our recent Ooty trip, some from the Goa trip at the new year's. This week I'm concentrating on portraits. Jha's stunning "Vijay Dinanath Chauhan" pose has already captured the fancy of many. No wonder that picture tops the number-of-comments chart with 12 comments so far :-)

Please take a tour. If you like the stuff, you can always subscribe to the RSS feed, or bookmark it. Keep visiting & commenting on the pictures. Also, please spread the word among your friends and all :-)

Chalo fir,
- Varun

Euphoria Mehfuz. Really?!

Zindagi hai dhuan to kya

Too little, too late.

Bujh gayi har subah to kya
Rootha mujhse khuda to kya
Ho gaye hum juda to kya

Faasle they hazaaron darmiyan,
Waqt ke they hazaaron imtehaan

Fir bhi ban ke nishaan,
Tere honthon ke kisi kone mein,
Hansi ke tarah, main mehfuz hoon

Teri aankhon ke chipe dard mein
Aansoo ki tarah, main mehfuz hoon

Bewajah har wajah to kya
Begunahii hai gunaah to kya
Beasar hai dua to kya
Ho gaye hum juda to kya

Raaz gehre hazaron bepanah
Lafz thahare hazaaron bejubaan

Fir bhi ban ke nishaan
Tere honthe ke kisi kone mein
Hansi ki tarah, main mehfuz hoon

Tere gesu ke ude pannon mein
Yaadon ki tarah, main mehfuz hoon

Teri aankhon mein
Mehfuz hoon
Teri yaadon mein
Mehfuz hoon
Teri baaton mein
Mehfuz hoon
Tere baalon mein
Mehfuz hoon

Faasle the hazaron darmiyaan
Waqt ki thi hazaron aandhiyan

Fir bhi ban ke nishaan
Tere honthon ke kisi kone mein
Hansi ke tarah, main mehfuz hoon

Tere kaandhe ke chipe til mein
Vaadon ki tarah, main mehfuz hoon

- Lyrics for "Mehfuz" from "Mehfuz (Euphoria)"

The curly haired medico with a guitar, is back! As is typical of Euphoria, their new album - Mehfuz - has some good ones, piled under some really mediocre stuff. I am not particularly against their music, I loved Maeri and before that, when they came out with Dhoom Pichuk Dhoom, I was very impressed with their authentic Indian sounds. But, just like almost all Indian bands (Silk Route, Aryans, etc.), they gave us very few and very rare good ones. I initially thought that here are some Indians who might give Pakistani Junoon a run for their money. Now even the comparison looks ludicrous. I will never forget the night Euphoria played at Mood Indigo; when their originals couldn't hold the high-energy crowed, they resorted to playing Bon Jovi and Bryan Adams! That night they lost whatever respect I had for them. A career span of almost a decade and all they've given are less than half a dozen good songs! Duh-de, Paki kid bands can kick their butts! IIRC, they jammed with Junoon once, where Junoon sang Maeri and they sang Sayonee. It was really embarrassing to see them butcher the Junoon classic.

Coming back to their latest album; I liked the title song - Mehfuz. It has the best lyrics in the album (produced above) & has slow soulful music. Palaash Sen's voice suits such slow songs better. Though he can sing well at high notes & fast songs, his voice has a hint of shrillness which doesn't really gel well there. Soneya is the song whose video is being aired these days. I liked the day-to-day conversation like lyrics & energetic music, but the song doesn't really capture your fancy. Out of playlist, out of mind types. Polly-Ghami Bewafa starts with beautiful shers, but then descends fast into mediocrity. Other than these few, there are some mediocre ones and some real crappy ones.

I could not understand what audience are they targeting. Its worth applauding that they have tried various different stuff in their album, but in that attempt the album has lost the direction. It doesn't have any signature style, not much in common between the songs. They are singing Punjabi & Dohe & English & Guitar Solos .. what kind of stupid musical cocktail is that! And of course, they aren't that versatile to pull it all off well.

All in all, the album is a disappointment, if you really had some expectations from Euphoria.

P.S.: If you want the lyrics for their other songs, you should check here & on their official website (which surprizingly has some mp3s too!).

Photophilic is up!

Check it out at Photophilic.blogspot.com. I have copied the template I developed and tested here and started posting pictures. Should you be interested in subscribing to the atom feed, its available here. I have also put up a Creative Commons license, which basically says -

You are free:

• to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work
• to make commercial use of the work

Under the following conditions:

• Attribution. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor.
• No Derivative Works. You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.

Bookmark it, be a regular, keep commenting, yada yada yada. I have decided to not put any tracker or anything there to keep the worries about traffic and all away. Comments would be the only way to know if there's anyone checking the pics out. That doesn't mean I wouldn't advertise it per se :-D. Now you know what would be my status message for coming days ;-).

Though I would try to post daily, I have decided to not compromise on quality for this. That is to say, if someday I don't find any picture worth posting in my stock, I shall give it a skip. Two things, this should keep me clicking more often & secondly, who doesn't like a "quality" photoblog. Of course, I define "quality" here.

Everything set. That leaves us with one question - who's gonna be my model? Send mugshots, fast.

Photophilic

I have designed a template for the new photoblog. Please have a look at Photophilic. Suggestions are most welcome. I have yet to put this into "production" mode, but I'm more or less pleased with the look & all.

And oh, I wanted to name it "Pixellaneous" but sadly that one's taken. "Photophilic" though was my second choice, looks cool to me. Suggestions for the name are also requested.

Update: With everything else, now Photophilic has the functionality implemented to display the image EXIF information when mouse hovers over the image. Just check out the first image by hovering over it. Is that cool or is that cool? B-)

Why Isn't Socialism Dead?

Even after the grave failures of many socialist experiments, why isn't socialism dead? Why is it still growing in the Southern American countries? I got hold of one excellent article over this, and since my understanding isn't very deep, I'll just quote from the article. Read the full piece here, its intense but extremely interesting.

[..]The Peruvian economist, Hernando de Soto, has argued in his book, The Mystery of Capital, that the failure of the various socialist experiments of the twentieth century has left mankind with only one rational choice about which economic system to go with, namely, capitalism. Socialism, he maintained, has been so discredited that any further attempt to revive it would be sheer irrationality.

[..]When Hernando de Soto asserts that capitalism is the only rational alternative left to mankind, he is maintaining that capitalism is the alternative that human beings ought to take because it is the rational thing to do. But what human beings ought to do and what they actually do are often two quite different things. For human beings frequently act quite irrationally, and without the least consideration of what economist called their "enlightened self-interest." And it is in this light that we must approach the problem, Why isn't socialism dead?

The Role of Myth

[..]In short, revolution is not a means to achieve socialism; rather, the myth of socialism is a useful illusion that turns ordinary men into comrades and revolutionaries united in a common struggle -- a band of brothers, so to speak.

Sorel, for whom religion was important, drew a comparison between the Christian and the socialist revolutionary. The Christian's life is transformed because he accepts the myth that Christ will one day return and usher in the end of time; the revolutionary socialist's life is transformed because he accepts the myth that one day socialism will triumph, and justice for all will prevail. What mattered for Sorel, in both cases, is not the scientific truth or falsity of the myth believed in, but what believing in the myth does to the lives of those who have accepted it, and who refuse to be daunted by the repeated failure of their apocalyptic expectations. How many times have Christians in the last two thousand years been convinced that the Second Coming was at hand, only to be bitterly disappointed -- yet none of these disappointments was ever enough to keep them from holding on to their great myth. So, too, Sorel argued, the myth of socialism will continue to have power, despite the various failures of socialist experiments, so long as there are revolutionaries who are unwilling to relinquish their great myth.

Can Socialism Die?

[..]It may well be that socialism isn't dead because socialism cannot die. As Sorel argued, the revolutionary myth may, like religion, continue to thrive in "the profounder regions of our mental life," in those realms unreachable by mere reason and argument, where even a hundred proofs of failure are insufficient to wean us from those primordial illusions that we so badly wish to be true. Who doesn't want to see the wicked and the arrogant put in their place? Who among the downtrodden and the dispossessed can fail to be stirred by the promise of a world in which all men are equal, and each has what he needs?

[..]The shrewd and realistic Florentine statesman and thinker, Guicciardini, once advised: "Never fight against religion...this concept has too much empire over the minds of men." And to the extent that socialism is a religion, then those who wish to fight it with mere reason and argument may well be in for a losing battle. Furthermore, as populism spreads, it is inevitable that the myth of socialism will gain in strength among the people who have the least cause to be happy with their place in the capitalist world-order, and who will naturally be overjoyed to put their faith in those who promise them a quick fix to their poverty and an end to their suffering.

The piece also talks about the theory of Scientific Socialism by Marx - "Capitalism, he argued, had been a good thing; a necessary step that mankind had to take to advance forward; but, according to Marx, capitalism would eventually suffer from an internal breakdown. It would simply stop producing the goods. Like feudalism before it, capitalism was inevitably bound to pass away as a viable system of social organization, and then, and only then, would socialism triumph." With the current capitalistic tendencies, its not very hard to see that the gap between the rich & poor is widening. Laissez-faire would most be one extreme of free-market economy, which would crush the poor totally, hence we need government to make policies to control the market forces. But what if the goverments aren't up to it? As the number of have-nots would grow to be manifolds of haves, wouldn't the utopian dream of a socialistic society catch their fancy? That's what I think is happening in the South America.

Pixel Blues

Clicked this one at the Leela Palace hotel. I like this frame, mostly because the inclusion of the leaves makes it look like the "God of Small Things" cover design.

It's almost a year since the photography bug bit me hard. I was always interested in clicking, but not really deep into it. It started with the Pune-Bombay trip with Jha & Rg. Jha had bought the beast named Canon Powershot S1 IS and the train journey was just long enough to get me interested in the camera. After that, I clicked a lot using Jha's camera; on weekends, during lunch hours, at nights. I even started a photoblog on blogger and started posting an image daily. The photoblog got reasonable success. Then I bought myself a bigger & better beast - Panasonic DMC Lumix FZ 20. By this time, I was majorly into photography & photoblogs. I learnt mostly using online resources. My first ever entry at the PhotoFriday.com challenge got me a podium finish, but since then I haven't been lucky.

Then something happened I had always feared. Don't know where exactly it started, but I guess sometime around the start of this year, my interest in the art started to wear off. May be it was the job change, the new job demanded a little bit more than the last one, or the pantry in office which made it unnecessary to have the lunch outside, or the rising temperature. I shut down the photoblog and even the uploading at my flickr account (which went pro, courtesy Rg & Jha) reduced to a trickle. I lost the inspiration and my photos stopped to excite me.

Now, I'm pushing myself hard to get going once again. Ooty wasn't a big success, with the bright glaring sun. I went to the good ol' Leela Palace and clicked some good ones. Soon I'll be moving to Calcutta, which is one city that excites many renowned photographers. The IIMC campus is quite picturesque in itself, I'm told. Right time to start it all over again. Thus, I have decided to revive the photoblog. Though I did write some Javascripts to implement some of the essential functionalities (like the "previous" & "next" links), I'm not very happy with the blogger.com photoblog. They're really lagging behind in this, they should provide some decent templates for photobloggers too. But sadly, other than Blogger.com there aren't any free blogging services which provide better support for photoblogging. At least, I haven't came across any. I have to read more about Pixelpost, but AFAIK they need some online space to work with and that would mean doling out some bucks. That wouldn't be the most prudent thing to do before plunging once again into the student life.

So, if you guys come across some easy solution, puhleeeeeez let me know. In the mean time, I'll carry on some experiments with the blogger templates to make it look something as simplistic, yet cool like this or this. And yeah, I'm also kinda looking out for someone who won't mind modeling for me :-D

Comment on "Quota Raj Cometh"

Someone anonymously posted a comment on my blog about the reservation in IIT/IIMs. I would have liked to have a name associated with it, but anyway, I think the comment deserves a reply as a post (at least half as big as the comment :-). A search on Copyscape showed that someone with name Shylock is spamming the blogosphere with the same comment (here). It raises some arguable points though. The comment-

We must investigate the term "merit".Is "merit" just a score in entrance exams at age of 17?

Take the claim of "merit based" entrance to all IIMs and dozens of other institutes.

The CAT exam is based on the SAT exam in the USA . It has been proved beyond doubt that the SAT test is culturally biased . Blacks and hispanics do poorly at it year after year .

If a student who is eligible for admission to IIM on the basis of his CAT score, were to take the same CAT exam in which he/she cleared in a language that he/she did not understand then he/she would be at a disadvantage compared to someone who was schooled in that language . Not knowing that language does not mean you lack the capacity to clear that exam.

Approximately 25 % of CAT test is about English! Another 25 % is about English Comprehension!!!! There you are !!!! About 50 % so called aptitude test is a hoax for someone who is from a non-english speaking background .

This is how the CAT like the SAT is discriminatory .

See the full form of SAT - Scholastic Aptitude Test . The problem is aptitude testing is not so simple . There is no test on earth which can reliably tests aptitude .

Aptitude tests such as the SAT have a historical tie to the concept of innate mental abilities and the belief that such abilities can be defined and meaningfully measured. Neither notion has been supported by modern research. Few scientists who have considered these matters seriously would argue that aptitude tests such as the SAT provide a true measure of intellectual abilities.

It was found that people could be coached to better their scores at SAT . The name SAT - Scholastic Aptitude Test could not be correct . So under such valid criticism the name was changed to Scholastic Assessment Test, since a test that can be coached clearly did not measure inherent "scholastic aptitude", but was influenced largely by what the test subject had learned in school. Even the College Board which conducts the SAT has beaten a hasty retreat.This was a major theoretical retreat by the College Board conducting SAT, which had previously maintained that the test measured inherent aptitude and was free of bias.

About ten years back , however, even the redundancy of the term assessment test was recognized and the name was changed to the neutral, and non-descriptive, SAT. At the time, the College Board announced, "Please note that SAT is not an initialism. It does not stand for anything."

The framers of these SAT tests assumed that intelligence was a unitary inherited attribute, that it was not subject to change over a lifetime, and that it could be measured and individuals could be ranked and assigned their place in society accordingly. The SAT evolved from these questionable assumptions about human talent and potential.

More and more people are questioning the validity of SAT . In the past MENSA used to accept high SAT score individuals . For the past decade it has stopped accepting SAT scores .

The whole exercise of deciding merit based on CAT scores discriminates against those from lower socio-economic status.

Though many non-IIM institutes have started accepting CAT scores, the application fee of these institutes is still inexplicably high.

The CAT is primarily an exam of Math and English. Logical and Analytical Reasoning is nearly absent (except for some verbal reasoning which again depends on knowing English well!!!!).

CAT is a clever way to keep those from lower socio-economic strata away Institutes funded with tax payers money .

So claims of '“Merit'” based on CAT scores is hollow and discriminatory against those of lower socio-economic strata.

Dhirubhai Ambani had a poor command over English . He would not have made it through CAT. So what "merit" are we talking of?

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1. Merit, as I understand it, is the quality of being worthy & better equipped for some thing, in this case the chance to study at the coveted IITs & IIMs. Note that, merely being better equipped doesn't ensure the success, it simply increases the chances. So, if someone has done well at the JEE, it shows that s/he is good at problem solving and is more likely to succeed at the undergraduate level.


2. Like it or hate it, but you can't deny it that English is the language of business in this new world global economy. A clarification though, you can take JEE in various regional languages, but the medium of instruction at IITs remains English. CAT stresses on English comprehension, and rightly so, since for the managers, its almost indispensable. Dhirubhai Ambani was a genius, but even he didn't take any chance with it and sent his sons for the best education.


3. Both the entrance procedures are biased towards those who had quality education in their schools. If you see the crowd at IITs, most of them are from the urban centers. Rural kids lag behind because they didn't get good education at the school levels. They either have to move to bigger centers to study, or lose out to their urban counterparts. This is the place where the government should concentrate if they really want to eradicate the bias. Curing the symptoms, by allowing them back door entry, isn't going to cure the ailment.
   


4. The logic government is giving behind the reservation system is that this should be done to compensate for the centuries of discrimination against these castes and tribes (Although Ambedkar himself thought that 10 years of reservations should level the ground.) I personally feel that it would make more sense to provide help to those who are in a disadvantageous position today. Thus, reservations & financial help for those belonging to economically challenged families would be more appropriate.

I Resign

Drafting an appropriate resignation letter can be a headache. You want to sound honest, but not rude. You want to sound polite, but not wishy-washy. It takes a lot of jargon and b*llshit to get the perfect resignation letter.
Right?
Wrong!

Is the resignation letter holding you back from resigning?
Are you googling your nights away for that perfect letter?
Are you begging your friends for that ultimate template?

Voila! Not anymore. Because I-Resign.com is here.
Yes, I-Resign. Say it proudly, say it loudly -- I Resign. Tell your manager, tell the HR -- I Resign.

"But whaaat it eez?"
I-Resign brings you the most suitable templates for all kind of situations. Going for further studies? Leaving for the fatter paycheck? Or even leaving to have a baby? They've got it all covered! Just check out this page. You can even customize the templates according to your details and download the letter as word document!

---

I used the website. Check out the letter-

Dear XXX,

I write to confirm that I am resigning from my position as Software Engineer.

I have decided to realize my professional and personal goals by accepting a formal offer to study for an MBA in IIM Calcutta. This was not an easy decision and took a lot of consideration but I believe it is an exciting step forward and one that I hope you will understand and support.

My contract of employment requires me to work here for a further month from the day I give notice. Hence I request you to release me on June 2nd, which would complete the notice period. Please be assured that I will do all I can to assist in the smooth transfer of my responsibilities before leaving.

I wish both you and YYY every good fortune and I would like to thank you once again for having me as part of your team.

Yours sincerely,

Exquisite! This you won't find on the website. I thank Reshma for this wonderful piece.

Lament

शिकायत है, शिकायत है,
मुझको दिल से यही शिकायत है,
जो उसको मिल नहीं सकता,
क्यों उसकी चाहत है?

A movie a day: The way to live

I've vowed to watch one movie a (working) day till the day I leave Bangalore (That day is fixed BTW, I'm flying out on 4th June. So, now my days are numbered.. har har har). This week, I've watched four movies till now and I'm set to watch another this night. I don't think I can add more to the tally during weekend as we are planning to visit Ooty during the three day weekend. Anyway, I'm putting up my comments about the movies I watched this week. Check out - Water, Grave of the Fireflies, Pyaare Mohan and Memoirs of a Geisha. Warning: Spoilers ahead.

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Water: Water for me is a movie of what-ifs and could-have-beens. As her reputation goes, Mira Nair Deepa Mehta has taken up a strong script and made a thought-provoking film out of it.

Lisa and John: The Weakest Links?

The story, set in late 1930s, is clearly the best part of the film. The film starts with excerpts from Laws of Manu, according to which a widow must lead a life devoid of all worldly pleasures. The film makes a good case against the treatment of widows in the traditional hindu society of 1930s. The hypocritical dysfunctional society, where the dominant males used to interpret the scriptures according to their likes. In one scene, an old decadent Seth says,"Brahmin kisi ke bhi saath so sakta hai. Is mein bhala us aurat ka hi hai." (A Brahmin can sleep with anyone he likes. Its better for that woman too.) The film covers many such iniquities prevalent in the society that time. Of course, many still are, and that makes the film relevent in today's times too.

Now some shortcomings of the movie, had Mira Nair Mehta gave the casting a more serious thought, it could have been a masterpiece. Acting is probably weakest part of otherwise a very good film. Seema Biswas is one seasoned actress and its very difficult to find any fault in her work, but other than her, their are not many strong performances to carry the film. Lisa Ray has shed some weight after "Bollywood-Hollywood" and is looking absolutely ravishing, but she just can't act! John Abraham tries, but even after that he can't create the charm Saif Ali Khan created in Parineeta. John simply could not convince me as a nationalist in the turbulent 30s. Perhaps his image was a hinderence, but I'm not sure if he was the best choice for the role. The hindi dialogs too are banal at times. With such a strong script, equally sharp dialogs could have added much more. Not the mention the poor delivery by Lisa Ray!

The film has many heart-touching scenes. When the old Bua, pining for sweets but not getting any, lets out the final breath after Chuiya gets her a laddu. Or when the Pundit, stuck between the pity for Seema Biswas & the religious diktat, asks her if she feels close to moksha (salvation) and she says if moksha means vairagya (insularism), then not. Another one, when Biswas and John are mourning Ray's death and Biswas asks him why are they (widows) forced to live there (ashram), to which John replies,"Ek bistar bach jata hai, khane wala ek munh kam ho jata hai.. aur koi kaaran nahi hai." (It saves an extra bed, reduces the number of eaters .. there is no other reason.)

The irony with the movie is, it tells a story with which not many among the multiplex crowd would be able to relate. And this movie is not going to be released outside the multiplexes, if at all it arrives in India. I guess, its an insulting movie to our great Indian culture, hah!

Get a DVD. Watch the movie.

Rating: 3/5

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"The best film you would never want to watch again."

Grave of the Fireflies (Hotaru no haka): Some user has described this movie at IMDB as "the best war movie you would never want to watch again." I don't think anything more profound can be said about the movie. As the tradition of Hollywood war movies go, they are more concerned with the heroics and the win. What about the price which has to be paid, by both winning and the losing sides? This film captures the plight of two small children, Seita & Setsuko, stuck in the second World War Japan. Their father is already fighting for the navy & they lose their mother to an air-raid. To survive in the war torn Japan, with rationed food and scarcity & fear spread all over, is one challange the children fail to tackle. Despite every possible effort by the brother, he could not save the little sister. For Japanese people, their pride means a lot, but in those miserable times, the brother had to steal food for both of them. It's never enough for them anyway. He even risks his life by running to the city under bombing, to steal whatever food or valuables he can find in the deserted houses.

The story is as simple and as heartbreaking as any real life story can be. This film is based on the novel with the same name by Akiyuki Nosaka. Nosaka lost his younger sister during the war to malnutrition and blamed himself for her death. I had reservations about the movie since it's an anime movie. But that doesn't holds the movie back in any way. The emotions and the predicament of the characters, be it the siblings or their grumpy aunt or the hopeless farmers, come out very well.

Another good thing about the movie is that it doesn't take any side and doesn't point fingers to anyone. It doesn't say that those kids are suffering because of Americans. It doesn't waste time in establishing good & bad sides and heros & villians. I'd keep this along all time best war movies, along with "Life is Beautiful".

Rating: 3.5/5

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Pyaare-Mohan: Avoid.

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Too alien a story for me.

Memoirs of a Geisha: My understanding of the Japanese culture of early last century is very limited. Samurais are perhaps the only funda I know. Hence, Geisha.. was an eye-opener of sorts. The movie is based on a novel which covers the life on a small girl, who grows up to be a hugely popular Giesha, in the pre-war Japan.

The movie is well made and definitely worth watching. But I could not relate well with the Giesha concept. They are escorts, trained in music, dance and the art of conversation. They aren't prostitutes, still they'd auction their virginity. It gets a bit confusing.

The story is good. It starts with a father selling his two daughters, for medication of his ailing wife. The two sisters are seperated at the okiya and follow their destinies to become Gieshas. Chiyo, the younger one fails to join her sister in their plan to run away. Now she is doomed to live as a slave. That is until an celebrated Giesha, Mameha, takes her under her wings to train and make her the most celebrated Giesha. Chiyo turns into Sayuri, a bundle of mystery & charm, and enticing the rich & successful in Japanese society. But in the deepest part of her heart, she desires to be with no one but the Chairman. She has been in love with the chairman since she was 9 and accidently bumped in to him and he bought her an ice-cream.

This angle about a precocious girl in love with a man, thrice her age and the chairman loving her back, is a bit too much to digest for me. The chairman asked Mameha to take Chiyo under her and train her to be a Geisha, so that he can be with her .. uggh!

The presentation and the execution of the movie are brilliant, though. The acting is flawless and utmost care has been taken to get the era presented rightly. Just that I couldn't relate much with the story.

Rating: 3/5

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Chernobyl: 20 years of disaster

26th April 2006 marked 20 years of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant accident, which remains world's worst nuclear disaster.

On 26 April 1986, at 1:23:44, reactor no. 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power station exploded. One hundred times more radiation was released than by the atom bombs dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki

The sequence of events according to Chernobyl.info:

The accident in reactor no. 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power station took place in the night of 25 to 26 April 1986, during a test. The operating crew planned to test whether the turbines could produce sufficient energy to keep the coolant pumps running in the event of a loss of power until the emergency diesel generator was activated.

In order to prevent the test run of the reactor being interrupted, the safety systems were deliberately switched off. For the test, the reactor had to be powered down to 25 per cent of its capacity. This procedure did not go according to plan: for unknown reasons, the reactor power level fell to less than 1 per cent. The power therefore had to be slowly increased. But 30 seconds after the start of the test, there was a sudden and unexpected power surge. The reactor's emergency shutdown (which should have halted the chain reaction) failed.

Within fractions of a second, the power level and temperature rose many times over. The reactor went out of control. There was a violent explosion. The 1000-tonne sealing cap on the reactor building was blown off. At temperatures of over 2000°C, the fuel rods melted. The graphite covering of the reactor then ignited. In the ensuing inferno, the radioactive fission products released during the core meltdown were sucked up into the atmosphere.

For more, go to National Geographic's documentary and an excellent photo-essay by Pixel Press. The accident is very well covered on the Green Peace website too.

Inevitability

अंजाम अवश्यम्भावी

ज्यों कोई ताज़ा कली किसी मज़ार पर,
अधखिली, कोरी, कुँवारी,

ज्यों फैले हुए ओस के आखरी मोती,
सिमटते हुए पुराने पत्तों पर,

ज्यों कोई नाउम्मीद सी आवारा सुगंध,
फैली हो बयार में,

युँही सब खत्म होना है,
और पीने की प्यास में,
झुलसाती इस धूप में,
तमतमाती गर्म हवा से टकरा कर.

Hindi unicode doesn't get rendered well in FireFox. If you're having problem with the text (garbled text, obscure symbols) read the poem in this image file.

Anchalia's Death Covered In The Media.

British journalist, Onnik is keeping a close eye on the issue along with his Armenian colleague, Hasmik. Please visit Onnik's blog for detailed coverage on this issue. I quote from his latest report, Indian Students Carry On Protesting:

On Saturday the students walked to Republic square to hold a peaceful demonstration there. The Police and Red Berets were again there and looked pretty much tired. They were really surprised by the persistence of the Indians and other international students in attendance.

Indians say they will stay here until evening and will be back tomorrow, the day after that and every day until the rector resigns although they were less confident than two days ago, slightly confused and disorganized. Now, on the question of what they will do then if it doesn’t work, their response is that they don’t know. “We’ll see,” is the most frequent reply.

However, many students prefered to stay in their rooms instead of coming out to protest. Perhaps they had lost hope.

I must admit I'm very proud by the way those students have protested. It was through Onnik's blog that I got to know that The Telegraph has covered this issue.

The Indian embassy in Armenia had called up the family on Church Road here last evening to give them the news, said Pankaj, Prashant’s elder brother. “They said it was suicide, but we don’t believe it. We suspect he was murdered.”

“No official intimation has as yet come from the university even 24 hours after the incident,” he added.

[...]

Pankaj and his family suspect that Prashant’s roommate in Armenia could have had a hand in his death.

“He (the roommate) had borrowed a few hundred dollars from my brother and did not return it. It’s quite likely that Prashant had an altercation with him over this. My brother was not the type to commit suicide,” Pankaj said.

[...]

Prashant’s father Parasmal said his family has written to the President, the Prime Minister and the Lok Sabha Speaker asking them to intervene.

Let's hope this would work. Perhaps if more of the mainstream media players would cover up this news in details, the increasing awareness would pressurize the government to take some steps.

(Plea For Help From Indian Students In Armenia, Indian Students Protest In Yerevan, Armenia)

Plea For Help From Indian Students In Armenia

Reproducing the statement from Nanyaar's blog, Does it concern you??:

To Whomsoever It May Concern

This is to hereby inform that a tragic incidence of an Indian national’s death has taken place on April 20, 2006 at 1:00 pm in Yerevan Armenia .Which to eyewitnesses appears to be due to medical negligence. There were 4 eyewitnesses of Indian nationality and six witnesses of Armenian nationality and three witnesses of Syrian nationality. According to all Indian and Syrian national witnesses, the demised was alive and communicating, requesting help for at least 45 minutes and breathing his last. All the witnesses affirm that the ambulatory service arrived too late to help him in any form whatsoever. Following this unfortunate incident all Indian students demanded clarification for the Rector (equivalent to Vice Chancellor) but were given no satisfactory explanation. Students who were agitated by this act decided to go to Armenian parliament. During the protest march, when all Indians were moving towards the parliament there was no Indian official present from the Indian embassy in Armenia. It is more than 48 hours now as this application is being written and there is no official statement from the Indian embassy in Armenia yet on the sad incidence. We nationals of India studying in Armenia demand from the Indian embassy to give an official statement on the incidence and the results of the investigations which have taken place , who is in charge of the investigations and what are the requests which the embassy has made to the government of the republic to Armenia to avoid occurrence of such incidences in future. We Indian students in Yerevan state medical university, Yerevan, Armenia request the authorities to protect our civil rights as Indian nationals and enlighten us .Being the largest Indian population living on the Armenian land we hope that our pleas would be considered. Oblige us by acting, we all are Son’s and Daughters of India.

Requesting help
All Indian students
Yerevan State Medical University
Yerevan, Armenia

To say the least, I'm very disappointed by the way the Indian Embassy has dealt with this issue. The least they could have done was to back these students. Young boys & girls, living in an alien culture, don't deserve this kind of cold treatment by the official representatives of their own community.

This is my sincere request to all, if you have some contacts in the Indian media, we need to pick this issue up with them. It doesn't look like a big issue from our comfortable lives here in India, but please spare a thought for those kids stuck in that horrible situation. We atleast need to support them if nothing else!

(Anchalia's Death Covered In The Media, Indian Students Protest In Yerevan, Armenia)

Prakash Jha, showing the way.

According to this report, film-maker Prakash Jha has offered to build a four-lane super express-way between Hajipur and Muzaffarpur.

Filmmaker Prakash Jha, known for his bold allegorical films, has offered to construct a four-lane highway in Bihar - a project no private company wants to execute due to the prevailing poor law and order condition.

[...]

When a tender was floated for the Rs.4 billion project in 2004, no private bidder applied for it. Government officials admitted that private construction companies were not willing to take up the project due to a perception that Bihar was India's most lawless state.

I have always loved the way Jha's films depict the rustic India. But with this, respect for him, as a person, has gone many notches up.

Jha campaigned for Nitish Kumar in the last elections. What good this pair can do for Bihar, will be known in some more time. I just hope they stay sincere & keep up the good work.

Indian Students Protest In Yerevan, Armenia

Sometime in 90's the trend to go to Eastern European countries for Medical degrees started. How useful this practice has been to the students, is yet to be seen, but the trend hasn't slowed down. Armenia is one such Eurasian country, bordered by Turkey to the west. At present, about 800 Indian students are studying in their Medical Colleges. On April 20, one Indian student, 21- year-old Prashant Anchalia, fell down from his hostel's sixth floor window (He was a student at Yerevan State Medical University, which is the recommended university according to the website of the Indian Embassy in Armenia). The reasons to that are yet to be known. What followed can only be described as criminal apathy, from the university's dean - Anna Sargsayn, even after being a Doctor, refused any first aid to the student and warned any other student against helping him. Although, it happened in a medical college, the ambulance arrived about 45 minutes late, that too without any basic life saving equipments. Anchalia succumbed to his wounds on the way to hospital. The students, mostly Indians, enraged after this shameful display of indifference, gathered in the dean's office demanding an explanation. The newly appointed Rector Gohar Kjalyan, responded in totally outrageously manner. Without any context, she referred to Indian girls as prostitutes, and showed the students the middle fingers of both her hands!

One Indian student from Armenia, Nanyaar, has blogged about this incident (Its bye, We protest for justice). I was skeptic that he might get a bit too much biased about the incident. But then I found some articles by one Armenian journo, Hasmik Hovhannisian & his her British colleague, Onnik Krikorian, adding credibility to the news. I quote from We Protest for Justice, Nanyaar first hand account of the events :

We could see that he (Anchalia) was finding it hard to breathe and had to put him in the recovery position, against the hostel warden’s shouting. His breathing became better, the pulse steady but he was fighting for his life. His legs were broken, a deep cut in the forehead from which a pool of blood was forming, and also occipital bone seemed to be cracked. He definitely had to have fallen in a sitting position.

The dean for foreign student arrived, a doctor herself, and did nothing but watch his helpless bodies fight against pain.

The ambulance arrived; 40 minutes later, by now a crowd had been formed. I was told later; that 3 minutes after the ambulance departed he had passed away.

[…]

He was a quiet guy. Never spoke much, confided to his room, small circle of friends and I remember the bargain he had got on an old yellow Armenian guitar on which he used to practice. Just today’s back he had asked me if I was going to sing this time at the Garoon (spring) festival, and that he was planning to. The media had portrayed him as a drug addict and a psychologically affected person which he definitely was not.

[…]

The death comes in as a surprise and the news of the ambulance reaching there after 40 long minutes and the negligence of the hostel warden and dean makes the Indian student body to meet the Rector, Gohar Kjalyan. Students refuse to meet her in the Red hall and demanded for an answer to be given right there, she walks away and then seconds later walks back, abuses the Indian girls to be prostitutes and shows both her middle fingers.

[…]

Finally at 10pm it was decided that they will be meeting in the University Red hall. Questions were raised which only resulted in diplomatic answer by the Vice chairman of the NA. The education ministry tried to come on stage and give a politician’s speech by quoting “don’t you want to know what really happened to your friend?” But all we needed tonight was for her the rector to resign and actions to be taken on the dean who as a doctor did nothing to see her student dying in front of her.

The Rector apologized at 12 midnight, and she still could not understand what we wanted, while she thought she could just walk away. All Madam Ambassador did was to sit next to the VC and give him tips on what to talk.

What is the Indian Embassy doing to help the students. Apparently nothing. I quote from Hasmik Hovhannisian's report:

The Embassy representative, Mr. Bali, advised the students to disperse and let them settle the matter the diplomatic way.

The Embassy told the parents of the dead boy that he had committed suicide, without even waiting for the investigation to be concluded.

The students do not believe it was suicide.

“He was a balanced person. He had many plans for the future. He could not have killed himself,” they said.

The four-person delegation came back from the meeting with Tigran Torosyan and said that Torosyan had asked them for two days to get acquainted with the matter and decide what to do.

After that, Torosyan met with the Indian ambassador, Rina Pandei.

Meanwhile, Anchalia's body was flown back to India on 21st April.

(Plea For Help From Indian Students In Armenia, Anchalia's Death Covered In The Media)
(Thanks Namit, for the tip. Cross-posted at DesiCritics.)

Important: I see loads of traffic coming to this particular post through some mail (various email-clients). Could some one please forward me the email at vasingh[@]gmail[.]com, please?

Imran Pakoda on JAM Mag

Quite some time ago, I wrote one farcical post on equally farcical dude, Imran "Gobhi Pakoda" Hashmi. Much water has flown under the bridge & Hashmi has kissed many more babes since then. Today I found out the link to the article on the JAM Mag site. Actually their editor, Rashmi, wanted to publish it in their Valentine's Day issue (for reasons unknown to me). Later, I got to know through a friend that it was published. It just skipped my mind. Today, I finally googled it out.

Though my article is quite openly mean & jealous towards Hashmi's tryst with luck & his lips' tryst with ... anyway, I should thank this dude, however grudgingly. That post brings maximum traffic to my blog via google. Numerous people from various places (India, Pakistan, Malaysia, USA, UAE, Venus, Pluto, Kryptonite, et cetera) google him out and many of them land up on my post, expecting news/accolades for their idol. I do feel a tinge of sadness for them, majorly because Hashmi is their idol (how pathetic can one get?).

Meanwhile, Hashmi dude would be least bothered. He is into the big league finally. The news channels were showing that he is getting about 80 lakhs per movie nowadays. This sudden raise is due to the rumours that the kissing scenes in Brokeback Mountain were performed by Hashmi, acting as a "lip double". He is supposed to lick the Hollywood soon! However, the Brokeback Mountain adventure has got his folks a tad worried. Just after he got back from Hollywood, they got him engaged, even before he could put on his lip-gloss. Of course, this doesn't hold him back from screen kissing, till it's just plain hetro stuff. His parents' worries are quite justified, when you see that his forthcoming movies are mainly multi-hero stories. And one of them is named "Good Boy, Bad Boy" (How gay can you get!). Looks like simple ladayi-shadayi pyaar-vyaar eshtory, with apna lemur faced Tusshar Kapoor. Hashmi has set the bar reaaaal low or what? They are also planning a hindi remake of Brokeback Mountain - "Chalo Pahad Ke Us Paar", with Hashmi and Ashmit "Wooden" Patel. Hindi version will have many more kissing scenes than the original, mainly because Hashmi can't do anything else and director doesn't want Patel to open his mouth. Just like the original story, two heroes would get stuck together and Patel would be talking in his stones-talk-with-more-emotions mode, and Hashmi would have to kiss him just to stop the verbal diarrhea. .. Aur Pyar Ho Gaya.

There, got what you were searching about Hashmi?

Absurd are the ways of our government.

Last time when I was waiting in the queue for security check at the Delhi Airport, out of curiosity, I checked out the list of VIPs/VVIPs who are exempted from security checks at all the domestic airports in India. All of the entries were posts and not individuals, like President, Vice-President, Prime Minister, former PMs, Speaker, CJI, Leaders of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, CMs, Ambassadors, et cetera, but for the last two entries. At number 22, the list had Nobel Laureate, His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The last name on the list surprized me - Shri Robert Vadra. The entry added, almost apologetically, “while travelling with SPG (Special Protection Group) protectees.”

Why O' whay O' whaay O' why? No one's got a damn clue. I googled for the list of VIP who don’t have to go through a security check, but the Indian government hasn't put any such list on the net. But I did find an Indian Express report about this issue (link, dated November 13, 2005). I quote from the report:

Son-in-law of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Vadra’s name was added to the list on September 28 in a circular issued nationwide by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) under the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
...
As husband of Priyanka Gandhi, who is an SPG protectee like her mother and brother Rahul, Vadra does get SPG protection when he travels with either of them. But no other spouse or family member of any SPG protectee has been so named in the list.
...
Why is he the only spouse named in the list? BCAS Commissioner S R Mehra declined to comment despite a faxed questionnaire sent five days ago. On November 10, when The Sunday Express contacted his office, Deputy Commissioner R D Gupta said: “We have no official reply. BCAS just took out the order as advised by the Ministry. Please talk to MCA Under Secretary L Haokip for clarification,” he said. When contacted by this newspaper Haokip refused to comment.

Just taking out the orders, aren't we. Incidentally this issue has been discussed in the Supreme court too, according to this Hindu report (link, dated January 23, 2006).

The Bench, therefore, asked Mr. Vahanvati to find out "why Mr. Vadra has been granted this exemption. Tell us which other spouse is given this exemption."

In its SLP, the Centre said exemption from pre embarkation security checks was not only based on the Warrant of Precedence but also based on compelling factors such as level of government security coverage on the dignitary which would virtually preclude the possibility of any prohibited/dangerous items from being introduced on board an aircraft through dignitary, his or her baggage.

Whatever that means! Some serious bullshit being thrown around here. I've very little doubt that this exemption would create a serious security threat, but 1) why should this favour be extended to Vadra, and 2) Why only Vadra? Is he really what Congress-wallahs love to think - Damaad of the nation? Why not give such immunities to people who deserve it many times more, like Amrtya Sen? Didn't the Sarkaari airlines give golden pass to Amrtya sen?

Absurd are the ways of our government!

P.S: I so badly want the photograph of that notice. If anyone of you is going to fly soon & has a camera-phone, do me a favor and get me a photo. Ye ehsaan main marte dum tak nahi bhoolunga :-)

English, August

I'm reading Upamanyu Chatterjee's profoundly absurd book, English, August. Chatterjee's writing style is totally engrossing; his grip on the language impeccable & his descriptions brilliant. If you liked The Catcher in The Rye, you'd like this one too. Some would find some similarities with Catch-22 too. The blurb of the book says - "Agastya Sen is a young civil servant whose imagination is dominated by women, literature and soft drugs. As the novel opens, he has been posted to the small town of Madna. English August is a funny, wryly observed account of Agastya Sen's year in the sticks."

I could relate very well with the confused soul, Agastya. Though he does get a bit condescending at times towards almost everyone around him, which gets irritating & seems snooty, most of the time he just can't get less interested. He is really bored with his life and doesn't really know what he wants to do. He has made it to IAS, which is of course dream of millions, still he can't really fit into the life style, however hard his father and peers try. I'm yet to finish the book, perhaps I'd write a detailed review, perhaps I won't. Meanwhile, following is one extremely profound excerpt from the book; I really feel like this some time! Do get hold of the book, ASAP.

In his state of mind marriage was awfully remote - like a death in a road accident, it was something that happened to other people. It was inconceivable, sharing his room in Madna with someone unknown - perhaps a twenty-year-old girl with an MA in English, and getting stoned in front of her to read Marcus Aurelius. While Manik chatted with Pultukaku and elicited from him a few misanthropic monosyllables, the familiar feeling of the absurd, as much a part of him as his names, overwhelmed Agastya, and he wondered whether, when married, he would be able to exercise in front of his wife, and what he would do if, just when he was lunging for a push-up she were to say, For someone who exercises so much you're in awful shape. And suppose she stole his money? And the all-important subject of kinky sex - she might not like sharing each other's used underwear, then?

Eventually, he knew, he would marry, perhaps not out of passion, but out of convention, which was probably a safer thing. And then in either case, in a few months or years they would tire of disagreeing with each other, or what was more or less the same thing, would be inured to each other's odd and perhaps disgusting ways, the way she squeezed the tube of toothpaste and the way he drank from a glass and didn'’t rinse it, and they would slide into a placid and comfortable unhappiness, and maybe unseeingly watch TV every evening, each still a cocoon, but perhaps it would be unwise to be otherwise. And his once-secret life would be entombed in a mind half-dead to an incarcerating world, and he would remember, with a sense of bemused embarrassment, and in epiphanies flashes, brought on by uncontrollable jolts to his memory through a smell of some unexpected sight (perhaps the view from a train or an ad on TV), his this experience of Madna, that once the restlessness of his mind had seemed the most important thing in this universe, and that he had once been shaken by the profundity of an ancient Hindu poem.

Incidentally, this would be my second book by an bureaucrat, after We Weren't Lovers Like That by Navtej Sarna. Upamanyu Chatterjee, born in 1959 at Patna, Bihar, joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1983. In 1998, he was appointed Director (Languages) in the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.

Geeky love!

Geeks are quite infamous to be aloof towards the softer emotions in life. But there are some really buttkicking geeky ways to confess your love. Take a look at this amazing thing! Apparently, some dude (possibly some dudette) painted this on some roof in Queens, NY. Quite possibly, when it was covered by Google Maps (see link), he/she would have mailed the link to the lucky one. Alternatively, he/she would've rented a plane/baloon to surprize the love interest. Seriously, how can someone say no to this :-)

Hail the geeks because the geek shall inherit the Earth :-)

LICK-ed

Hold your dirty minds! The IIM results were out on 12th. I was in a train from Mumbai to Kota, Jha called me up to tell me that I made it into IIM Lucknow, Calcutta, Indore & Kozhikode (LICK ;-). Right now I'm at Jaipur. Will reach Bangalore on 16th night. Details later.

chalo then,
- Varun

The Times They Surely Are Changin'

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
- "The times they are a-changin'", Bob Dylan

Friends getting married. Friends fathering babies. Of course, this is all very good and all that, but along with all the excitement & joy, it makes me feel old. Rather older than my mental image of myself. You know, you would think its just a few years ago I got out of school and one fine day, while filling some form, you see that you completed class 10th nine years ago. Nine years?! Yeah, that sinking feeling. The sand of time slipping out of the fist, and all those clichés. ".. And accept it that soon/You'll be drenched to the bone."

Another one of the torchbearers of bachelorhood (no pun intended) has bitten the dust. Close friend & wingmate from hostel days, Amit Jain, is getting married in Kota on 13th. I shall be there to see the stone sink. Should be back to Bangalore (and blogging) on 16th. By then, IIMs results are expected to be out. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

..Main Hoon Kaun?

I'm positively bored with "Lies, Damned Lies & Blogs". Its funny (punny) in someways, but not really related to me in anyway. When I chose it, I didn't want to keep blogging suspended just for a name, so I chose this one. Just like that.

I'm not really narcissist kinds, so there go all the "Mogambo's Den", "Dr. No's Lair" and likes. This blog is not deeply related with any topic, like Bollywood or cricket or politics; the name should reflect that too. Above all the name should represent me well.

I'm hunting for some thing more quirky, more appropriate. Any suggestions? Do drop in a line or two.

Update: Some very interesting suggestions -

• War-un Xing: I used to sign emails with this name for a while in college. Incidently, this is also the name of the central character of Vivek's best-seller coming out on Diwali. Which year, I don't know.
• Blogivision / Prime Time Blogivision: Pun on television
• Don Blogsco: Punny, very punny :-)
• The Boy Who Cried Wolf: The title I earned in college

I got few other suggestions too. Thanks a lot bhai log, for your suggestions. I'm feeling kinda ashamed, but I still haven't found the best fit. :-( May be I'll leave it as it is, what's in a name anyway.

The DNA Article.

Regulars here would remember that I talked about DNA publishing my photos, in my IIM Calcutta interview. Actually, their editor had contacted me asking for some photos and some inputs on the changing face of Jaipur. Apparently, he got to my blog via Google. So, I provided him with some photos & a write up. I was under the impression that they are interested mainly in the photos.

The article was published on Friday, March 3 (Page 14, DNA Mumbai), but I got hold of the article just now. As it came out, they have published just one of my images, but have given my write up an entire column. Excelente! Here's the article -

Here's the entire page -