Sorry...table is reserved!

India has long ways to go when it comes to providing real solutions to real problems. The OBC reservation bill for instance...I think it is a mistake, a grave mistake. When this bill takes effect everywhere next year, 49% of the seats will be reserved. Students who don't get a reserved seat will have to try harder and be prepared to be disappointed and frustrated. Apparently, merit and hard-work don't matter as much anymore.

The reservation bill is of course aimed to uplift the "oppressed" lower caste citizens who have suffered 2000 yrs of discrimination and rejection that they need all the help they can get at this time. I think it is our failure that even after 58 years of independence we have to give free rides to uplift citizens. Do we want to build a generation based on free rides or a generation based on merit? Do we want to cripple hard working students by medieval-age policies?

From what I understand this bill does two things - gives creamy layer an absolute free ride and gives the government some ammunition to respond to critics questioning their contribution. So creamy layer. For folks who don't understand this. Creamy layer example - children of OBC parents who are doctors, judges, ministers etc etc. So their parents got into medical school because of reservation, graduated, found a job because of reservation(maybe) and make enough money to raise a family and provide for them. Their children grew up with every opportunity they needed. But since this bill considers them at par with the genuinely poor lower caste citizens, they get an absolute free ride. I think most of the seats will be filled by free riders. That is a very sad deal.

About the second thing the bill does. Millions of Indians live in poverty. Our great economic growth in the last few years didn't make a difference to millions of people who still live in total poverty. This bill will not help them. People who don't have food to eat, water to drink don't care about a medical seat "reserved" for them. Our economic growth is mostly limited to cities and towns. Do the villages have enough water for everyone? Electricity? Health care? People in villages need jobs. Let the people help themselves. Build infrastructure in rural India. That can use the work force in the villages. Bring agricultural reforms that actually helps the farmers and not the middle man and government. For instance I know that by growing paddy(rice) in my village you cannot make enough money. But the price of rice in your super market is not dropping. It is rising. They blame it on gas prices, taxes, warehousing problem etc etc. Solve those problems.

So if you find a minister who can eaten up half the treasury and ask him what he and his party contributed, he would proudly say they cleared a reservation bill which uplifts and poor and gives opportunities to the poor. Opportunities...what a joke!

I have seen poor people in my village stay poor over the years. If the reservations are supposed to uplift the poor, why are they still poor? Why didn't they go to schools and colleges? I don't know about everyone's case but I know some of them had to go to work instead of school. They went to work because their parents couldn't find work jobs that provide for the whole family. They still do the same kind of work as their parents did and can't provide enough for their family. The system clearly failed.

Reservations might help but not the way it has been drafted. This is mostly for the creamy layer and that just sucks! We need reforms that empower people not give them free rides. We need to be a nation built on strength not weakness. Hard working students are not asking for a helping hand but they don't want their legs cut off either!

I feel sad as I think about the hard working students who are preparing to be disappointed and frustrated. I feel helpless when I should actually try to do something. But what? Am I doing anything? Can I do anything? A question we should all ask ourselves. This bill will be India's biggest mistake in many years to come and right now we are just looking at it wide-eyed and helpless...Our silence is worse than the government's policies.

As Martin Luther King said, In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

Today I hate my silence! You should too!

India 2006

What comes to your mind when you think of India in the year 2006? I posted that question to about 2 dozen people and got a dozen responses already. Overwhelming. :) It was my personal survey and I have got some interesting elobrate responses so far. My response to those folks is - please blog.

So here are some -

"Mumbai blasts were really unfortunate....very unfortunate"

"Increasing number of indians are getting optimistic abt their future. Plus india received a lot of recognition on the world stage. The successful passage of the nuclear deal is just one instance. As the say, the tiger has woken up..."

"RESERVATION - oh my blood boils at the very mention of this topic and Congress could do it one more time!!! indian youth is tryin hard - day in and out to take where our country stands in the globe Today and these sick politicians only care for their dirty politics without caring how these idiotic decisions will impact india's future!!!"

"Reservation Bill for IIT and AIIM etc. SHoudnt have passed this law."

"The first thing that came to my mind were some of the major deals that Indian steel companies did, buying up other major steel companies around the world, for some reason, this came as a sign of great growth to me. (also reflected by the growth in indian economy)."

"Improving Indian Legal system (I was surprised beyond belief with the legal system in India when some well known people were convicted of their crimes and brought to justice by the legal department...examples in case, Sanjay Dutt, Navjot Singh Siddu, Manu Sharma (Jesica Lal case), and Shibbu Soren)"

"Uneducated (when someone supposedly tampered with B.R.Ambedkar's(BRA) statue in Kanpur, in Maharashtra alone the common public followers of BRA destroyed public property worth 2.5 crores in 2 days...mind u we could've made a gold statue of BRA in that money, and I'm not even counting the other states and the troubles faced by other common people...this is un-education at its peak)"

"Opening of Indian Skies. Improvement of aviation in India."

"Dual-citizenship. Now I can be a american citizen and still keep my Indian citizenship"

"Pathetic Indian Politics (I have tons of stories on this, even though I've only stayed here for two and half months. A simple problem in Chennai is after and during monsoon rains, the roads are always flooded with water, and stagnates beyond imagination. Even though this is a known issue, none of the moronic politicians here pay attention to it. The most basic infrastructure in India needs some major attention and revamp, if not we're farther away than our so called global goals.)"

"Number of people who died in the bomb blast which happened in Mumbai locals."

"economic growth because of the growth in the IT sector in India."

To be continued....

Blame...a game we all play!

I have read somewhere that there are two types of people, the ones who take responsibility and the ones who don't. The ones who don't take responsibility blame others for everything. Blame the government for economy, blame politicians for corruption, blame the employer for your dissatisfied job and so on. So...how does it help? Other than a temporary relief nothing!

So although I have a good life there are few things that are quite not where I want them to be. Well, we all do else we would just be one big happy world. How bad would that be? :) I have my own excuses for many things. For instance, I put on extra pounds in the last couple of years and I blame it on my wife's superior culinary skills. She of course thinks I am lazy but I decided to stick with my excuse. It gives me temporary relief. Sure does. Excuses...excuses...But that's not good. If I stop giving excuses and be responsible about it I can have a healthier life. That is just one example of my tardy excuse. But who is perfect huh? Argh! Another excuse.

History shows that people who have done great things did it against all odds. They don't blame anyone. Sam Walton's Made in America is a great book. No blame games. He knew what he had to do. He had many problems, many hurdles but he overcame them and now we have Walmart. History does teach us many things.

So what blame does is lead you away from the actual objective. We lose sight of what we really set out to seek. We now have excuses, somebody to blame and we feel much better. Ah...gain without pain! But don't get me wrong. Sometimes there are assh**** who deserve every blame you throw at them but the blame game needs to go. We are now a society playing the blame game everywhere.

So how do I change? A positive attitude? That can help. Ah too vague. I can get that from a cereal box! Well, I think taking responsibility and shedding the ego will surely help. Taking on responsiblity doesn't mean we fuc*** up in the first place. It shows we are mature enough to handle the situation and we believe that we are problem solvers! We should be a society of problem solvers and not blamers. Ego...drop it.

Well, I will only know if I can if I try. And I am going to...

"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go" - T. S. Elliot

Faith...

I just started reading "End of Faith" by Sam Harris. A very bold book which says how Faith is going to lead to our self-destruction. Yeah, I was not kidding when I said it was bold.

It is some heavy reading but quite intriguing. Usually, when I read a book I am looking for that one thing which can capture my attention and make me think. So when I start reading a book I am just reading along initially, just like eating pop corn. But then something comes up that intrigues me or amuses me. Get that sudden rush of blood. Bang...now I am really into it.

So this book, well I start reading and he is making some bold statements but yeah OK. I still just read along. And then I came upon the attention grabber. So he says what if the whole world woke up one morning and nobody remembers anything. Not a thing. Read, write, drive cars..everything. Well, what would man try to learn first? What is of relevance now? Well, once we figure out how to grow stuff and eat we would start reading books. Which book would you turn to? The religious ones? Or the ones that tells how you can fix and run the machines. If they were to rearrange the library then, where would the religious books go? Interesting....yes, think.

I am not an atheist, in fact far from it. I believe in god and I am glad I believe in Him because to me that makes a big difference. We live in a world full of uncertainties. There are no guarantees in life. And I want to believe that there is a greater power looking over me who is beyond these uncertainties, beyond the worldly limits. I need that faith. I need that belief. Is it because I feel insecure. Maybe..maybe not. But I draw some strength from that belief. That faith helps me through tough times.

I still have most of the book left to read so let's see how it goes.

It ain't your daddy's train!

I hate something about my train rides. Seat Hoggers! Yeah those damn seat hoggers on the train. You stand in the train station freezing your ass off and get into the train only to deal with seat hoggers who have colder hearts! I usually try to get on to the upper level and sit on the cross-seats so that I don't have to deal with these knuckleheads but on the occasions that I had to resort to the lower level...it sucks.
So I got into the train today. Sat next to this guy reading his newspaper. Yeah fine, I sit down next to him and start reading my book. Ok, he gives me the cold stare like I had just seated myself on his living room couch and grabbed his beer. Well, fine, I go on reading the book and every few seconds he has to look at me. WTF! Crap, I am trying to unwind after work and this guy is giving me cold stares? How cruel is this world? Usually, I would have put up a fight in this weird cold-stare-for-seat contest but whatever. I moved to another seat. Enjoy the whole seat you damn seat hogger.
There are others who leave their bags on the seat. Sure, that is subtle enough. Some leave their coffee or food on the seat. Anything to keep the whole seat for their sorry big ass!
So my message to these seat hoggers - move your freakin ass! It ain't your daddy's train..

WFH

So...for guys who drag their asses to work everyday, WFH means working-from-home. For the wise asses who WFH when they are too lazy to show up at work - how do you sleep at night? :)

As ridiculous as it might sound, WFH is the mostly commonly used lame ass excuse for not showing up at work, second only to dog-ate-my-homework. So last week, Chicago got hit by a snow storm and I couldn't make it to work. Well, I didn't want to use my vacation and it was officially a very working day, I said I am going to work from home. So I sent off an email to by boss saying I am WFH.

Ok...now that it's settled I figured I should move on with the day's tasks. First things first, switch on TV. My wife who had to work from home too gives me a stare that really says "u gotto be kidding me". So I flip through the channels. Ok, Monty, Jerry Springer, Judge Judy, Judge Hachet. Hmm...Five minutes into that I wanted to run for the door and somehow make it to work. Daytime TV is the single motivation factor you need to show up at work everyday. But I decided to improvise instead. PS2. Oh yeah, never lets me down. Now my wife is shaking her head in total disbelief.
9:15am - Madden 05 Green Bay packers vs San Diego Chargers!
9:30am - I am losing...
9:45am - I tied it in the 3rd quarter
9:55am - lost the game, threw away the controller in disappointment.

Hmm...well, maybe I should work. So like everyone, I start my day's work by opening my inbox. Oooh, we got some interesting emails. Responding to emails gives a feeling that you are actually working so it is pretty gratifying. Ok, that's done.

Next...well, let's see what going on around the world. But before that, let me get some coffee.
10:35am - Good coffee.
10:42am - Need some more.
10:50am - Some more emails. Mostly, single-line insignificant responses to my emails. "Thanks." "Welcome" "Get lost" "lol". I mean really a whole email for lol? No, I do not care if you laughed out loud.

11am - I am hungry.
My wife by now has tuned herself out of my madness and working hard. She said I was the worst WFH ever. Fine...
11:15am - Done eating leftover pizza. Now I am hungry for revenge.
Madden Madden 05 Green Bay packers vs San Diego Chargers REMATCH!
11:45am - Victory can't taste better! Gotto love Brett Favre!

12:00pm - Oooh, nearing lunch time. Yes, the pizza was breakfast really.

My wife after working hard since 9am wanted to go out for lunch. They had kinda cleared the snow by then so I figured it might be a good change of "pace". But I was determined to actually do some work once I got back.

2:00pm - back home after Japanese lunch. The roads are so F****** up!

2:15pm - Email, news...
2:30pm - TV is on. Is that Oprah? Did she lose weight? Whatever...5 mins into that I am on the couch like Homer Simpson. I get violently woken up by a projectile thrown with great anger and strong determination. It was a cushion thrown by my wife to stop my snoring. How long was I out?
3:30pm - That's it. I cannot do it anymore. Sent an email "hey guys, I am signing off early. Have a great weekend". Yes, it was friday.

Later that evening, I felt bad...really bad. I am usually a hard working guy but what I went through that day without actually doing anything productive. So I learned my lesson. WFH is not for me...for sure! My wife agreed instantly...

So now when I see a WFH email from someone I am thinking...yeah rite!

I found books...

Yes, as I had suspected I was not able to continue writing after the few initial posts. Well, they are mostly rants so let's just leave it at that. So yes, it ain't easy to continue writing. At least to write something you want people to actually read. :) How do professional writers do it? Well...that is why they are paid the big bucks while I am scribbling away on cyber space.


Few months back we moved from the city to the burbs. I hated the idea and made sure it was not hidden from anyone. Yeah, I can be a real jerk sometimes. I didn't want to move away from the cool Chicago downtown to the burbs. I dreaded the train ride to work everyday. City living was hip although I never did anything cool. Oh well...So we moved and I dreaded the train ride even more. I thought it was such a waste of time. But I started doing something I have hardly done in my life and probably would have not done but for my 45 minute train ride to work...Read books. Oh I did read before but everything online. News, history, sports everything from web. I still think reading on the web is good but books are really more personal. I have read some great books...yeah, all the favorite ones in my profile are so so recent. :) Now I love my train rides.

And the moral of the story is - drink less coffee during the day so that you don't have to stay up late and write about your new found respect for books on blogger! Ugh!

Comments, blog settings and more thoughts...

Great comment there Jai*. I am glad the first ever comment on this blog is so well-written, crisp and absolutely thought provoking! I totally agree with you about the media taking the back seat instead of doing what they are supposed to do - to stand up for the people and voice our opinion!

I made a slight change to the settings. Anonymous comments can be posted but I have enabled moderation to make sure it doesn't get out of hand, if you know what I mean.

Tomorrow the indian PM Dr. Singh will be attending the G8 summit and is expected to make a strong statement against the attacks. Mere words will not do it but if they are strong it would be a good start for him. The Indian media has however decided to focus on auxillary news. Rediff is filled with articles that quote the so-called party leaders and ministers. Let's examine couple of them, shall we?

Murali Manohar Joshi - Senior BJP leader. - "If Pakistan thinks that country is incomplete without Kashmir, let us make it loud and clear to them that in that case India is also incomplete without Pakistan," the BJP leader thundered.

Huh? What? He might have "thundered" but he sounds like he has just been hit by a lightning. Dude, what you said doesn't even make sense leave alone provoke thought or action! Either that or the reporter screwed up the translation (Hey Rediff - are you letting www.dawn.com reporters report for you too?)

Abu Azmi - Samajwadi Party MP - "Muslims are made to feel as if all of them are terrorists. I would like to tell the government that if 20 lakh Muslims pour onto the streets, it will be very difficult to control the situation," Azmi told reporters.

Great. So what are you implying Mr. MP? Turn this whole thing around and make it a communal issue. That should do wonders. It will shift what little focus the ministry has and worry about how to make peace with this dude so that they don't lose the 20 lakh votes. You are thinking "wait, wait, wait...He never mentioned votes. What are you talking about?" Yes, I am sure they are more worried about the votes and majority balance than possible communal riots.

So what is happening is these leaders are just trying to get back their position in the government. To them this is an opportunity to topple the government, regain power and make more money! What a disgrace!

Former premier of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto says she would close down any terrorist camp operating in the country if she returned to power. Hmm, so you are saying there are terrorist camps that can be closed down? Interesting!

I hope the moronic ministers/leaders don't turn this situation to a communial issue and shift the whole focus. We need focus! Remember the lives that were lost.

I quote Marlon Brando in Superman(1978) - "They can be great people, Kal-El, they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you... my only son. "
Unfortunately, we don't have a superman coming to our rescue. It is just us. Do you see the light? Do you see the way? Ask yourselves....

Jai Hind!

*Jai (not real name) is someone I know but we haven't spoken in a very long time till I received his phone call last night. Great surprise! If you haven't read his comments please read it in the posting "Zidane...."

Anger, Zidane, Laloo and Angelina Jolie

So we all get angry. I do. I get angry more often I guess. But I can calm myself down pretty soon too. I can hold a grudge sometimes but anger, eh no. It goes up and then low...Well, that's about my anger level and it ain't going to bring any world peace so moving on.

Did you follow FIFA world cup? I am sure you did unless you are in the US of course. I just don't get it. Question to USA - how can you not be the world champions in the one truly world-wide game but be world champions in everything else. Basketball (nba), football (nfl), baseball (mlb) and ice hockey*(nhl). Oh I know, me me me me!!!! Because....because....you are the only country playing. Sure, that's one way to be world champions. However, I should add that the above games are played at the highest level and I love watching NBA and NFL. Recently, I asked someone "do you follow soccer" and his response was "soccer?...eh no...too slow for me...i watch my son's soccer games". No, his son doesn't play for the US soccer team. He is 7. "too slow for me". Are you kidding me? And you find baseball real fast eh? - no offense to baseball fans. So anyway...

Ok, you followed soccer; then you know what went on in the finals between France and Italy. Italy won, went to penalty shoot up, Zidane got a red card, french fans booed...wait, wait, wait - Zidane got a red card? Hey, didn't you read that Italy won? That's ok, tell us about Zidane. Seriously, that is how the media is treating this news. If you google Italy's victory is gone into history books but Zidane head-butting incident still reigns as top story. Well, alright...let's jump into right way. So why did Zidane head-butt Italy's Materazzi? I have read few reports but the 2 most common reports - 1. Materazzi called Zidane a 'terrorist'. 2. Materazzi insulted Zidane's mother and sister. Materazzi - not cool! So Zidane got pissed and that lead to the infamous head-butting incident. Now that's anger! Does he regret it? Don't know. He got sent off the game which went into PSO and France missed one of their shots and france lost. Who knows. If Zidane was still in, he might have scored that. Anyway.....

So Zidane's got anger. For being called a terrorist or because his mother and sister were insulted. Being called a terrorist...Hmm...not freedom fighters like www.dawn.com likes to write. Damn, we need that anger in India's leadership. Let's get Zidane to pay a visit to the Dr. Singh, Shivraj Patil and laloo Yadav. If they don't listen to him, give them some head-butting treatment. Although, he might want to go easy on Laloo. The guy has eaten up all of Bihar's treasury and lot of central ministry's treasury so might throw up anytime. Ewwww, on that thought. Damn sissy! So message to the indian leadership - wake the F up! Do something. Those are our brothers and sisters that died. Show some anger! Head-butt the sh** out of LeT and SIMI and all those cowards!

Here is an interesting link my friend sent me about the Zidane incident.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/13/zidane_headbutt_outrage/

On another topic - Angelina Jolie is starring in the movie they are making about Daniel Pearl's kidnapping and murder by pakistani militants. Yeah, I said pakistani militants - that's how it was written in E! news. Go fight with them if you have a problem. So the pakistani militants, LeT (Lashkar-e-Taiba) kidnapped and beheaded this american journalist and they are making a movie based on his wife's best seller. That's great. At the very least american people watching the movie will curse the crap out of pakistani militants! Gee, if only our leadership acts I wouldn't have to resort to this! Shame on you! Wake up, will you!

TGIF!
Jai Hind!

* NHL - whenever played!

Yeah Right!

It is sometimes interesting to read pakistani news websites. The "news" is "reported" in a very amateurish language and sometimes the headlines will have nothing to do the news. Please don't counter-attack by saying that's how I write. If you compare a leading newspaper article with my scribbles, you got issues pal!

So try www.dawn.com. Oh wait, I will get a better link in a second.

The reason I came up on this subject is this - http://www.dawn.com/2006/07/13/top2.htm
hmm...well...hmm...ok read it again and I am sure your reaction is WTF! So I read dawn once in a while and the thing I consistently notice is this - what we term as terrorist will show up as freedom fighters in there. That's a good spin. Whatever makes them happy!

And the website - Jeezaloo! Somebody get them a freaking web developer! Don't center align the whole article. At least don't center align the whole front page of the website. WebDev 101 comments - Not Cool!! It is a damn piece of "news" item, not a classified ad for free Pizzas. And will somebody please tell them it is not cool to put a real annoying color ad between every headline. Seriously, I could eat an HTML book and throw up better crap. For the copyright police - I dont think that is my line but I don't know who to credit it to so chill.

Now I have comments about rediff but dawn needs few web developers, reporters, spell-checkers a.k.a proof-readers and a lot of unbiased approach before being mentioned in the same context of any other newspaper.

A day that will be remembered or forgotten?

Yesterday, as many of us sat in the safety and comfort of our homes, Mumbai the vibrant city of India shook under terrorists attacks. My initial response was anger, frustration and feeling totally helpless. We have yet again seen how ruthless the enemies are. We have yet again seen how the terrorists act cowardly and claim the lives of innocent people. It is not an act of terror but an act of cowardice.

Mumbai has been attacked six times in 12 years. To better illustrate that situation imagine if Oklahoma city bombing happened every 2 years. Yes, the situation is bad, really bad.
Today as I saw the pictures of these truly barbaric acts I began wondering - if a terrorist network with motivated recruits and paid mercenaries can hatch this plan well ahead of time and execute it why a country like India cannot hatch a counter plan and act? Sure we cannot find every terrorist alive but you can find training camps, terrorists leaders, weapons, finance trails and a lot more. When will India act?
This is war and they have directly challenged India. The response should be swift and brutal. Make no mistake. India is very capable to doing that. Only thing it lacks is leadership. Oh yeah, we have always had problem with that. Let's find out why. Some people think the government follows the principles of Mahatma Gandhi. Hmmm...Interesting point. Let's refute. So Mahatma Gandhi is a symbol of peace. If the politicians have taken that to heart I guess they should also refrain from bribes. Well...I rest my case. Of course taking bribes is one of the many crimes they do but imagine the ripple effect it can have. Even terrorists might be using the same bribe-entry points to get into our system. Did they ever think about that? No, they are too busy building mansions and hiding bribe money. Shame on them! So coming back to the question of why the leadership doesn't act. Political reasons? Well said. How can you win elections in the world's largest democracy and second most populous country? I am sure there are better ways but for them its a game of words, empty promises, money, lies and deceit. For board game enthusiasts it is pretty much like playing scrabble, poker, monopoly and chess all at once.

How can someone so worried about losing his position care or do anything about the terrorist threats in India? The Home Minister of India shivraj Patil said they knew attacks like these are in the making, just didn't know the time and place. Yeaaaaaaaah, he should blame the terrorists for that. How can they carry attacks without giving the exact place and time. Did they warn the public? Did they do a preemptive attack on the training camps? Did they get the intelligence community to foil this plan? Answers of some of these might be yes but that doesn't change anything. The attacks went on and they have failed. The leadership of India has failed!

Ok they are corrupt and inefficient, the leadership I mean. Phew! Doesn't end there. Some are criminals. Oh yeah. The railway minister Laloo Yadav was in jail because. You know why. Why bother writing about that jackass. So why would a complete moron like him bother to do anything about the security scene is train stations and trains? No reason. He is good to pose to photographs and of course make money. Google him. Some interesting readings.

Ok they are corrupt, inefficient and criminals. What else? They are politicians and have to play politics in everything. My oh my! How could we miss that? Any assertive actions taken by the government will not viewed as good by everyone in the voting bank. They might lose some minority votes. And that should create a problem in the very delicate balance of their majorities and so on. The international community might condemn the pre-emptive attacks but whose ass is on the line? They are not dying in our trains are they? When you try to protect your family and create some noise your neighbor might complain. But you wouldn't care. Would you? No.

Nothing I wrote here is new and that is sad. We know so much and yet do so little. I live far from home and today I miss her more than ever before. I wish I was closer to my family. I wish I was in our country. Today I weep. Today I pray. Today I stand with the victims and the families and voice my opinion. Go India! Go kick some ass!

My first blog

At this time I am just curious to see if I can write frequently and still make sense most of the times. Not sure what I will blog though. Well...this is a start and like any other start too premature to say anything...I guess I will see how this looks before writing more.