Karma V/S Dharma

For those of you who don’t understand the title, here’s what it means :

‘Karma’ or ‘Deed’ V/S ‘Dharma’ or ‘Duty’.

I found these thought provoking videos on you tube.1st video is an interesting debate between Ram Jethmalani and Sagarika Ghose (w.r.t JM fighting for Manu sharma ). If you are not aware of who these people are, I encourage you to go through the links.

My friend wrote to me :

“cut out the rhetoric and heed the point the old bloke was trying to make. 'EVERYONE is entitled to an unbiased trial and best available defense'. That is the crux of his argument... Professionalism does not preclude a conscience, it fosters it..”

I was impressed, but knew something was wrong.

I was quite restless about the whole video that day. I mean, this doesn't sound right – but its defended so perfectly. I went to you tube and started watching other interviews of JM (Jethmalani).Almost immediately, I found this :

Nobody could have done a better job I guess. I was all smiles after after watching this.

This is what I posted to my friend:

“No one is denying the fact that 'every case is indefensible' .. Who would? All I want is for you to not fall prey to JM's trick of putting the values of his institution as a defense against what he is justifying. Hypothetically ,If we were top lawyers, would you or Jose or myself take up Manu Sharma's case? We probably won't, right?That's the difference!
In saying that you believe 'everyone is entitled to an unbiased trial' , you are hardly defending JM or Manu Sharma, you are just defending the values of court as an institution which no person in right frame of his mind will disagree with...But it is his cheap trick to confuse simpletons like u and me by putting fwd something so undebatable. Watch the 3rd part where Karan repeatedly questions his conscience, and that's what its about.”

Many of you would have probably seen it, but I am so cut off from Indian news channels , that I was able to locate it only now.

Which of the two videos do you root for??

Freedom of Speech

Freedom of speech is being misused in US.

Excerpt :

"Hollywood actor Charlie Sheen has requested US President Barack Obama to hold a new investigation into the 9/11 attacks as he believes them to be staged by the Bush government."

On a similar note have a laugh watching the below video :

Those days…

Came across this wonderful summarization of pre-1991 era (in India’s context), from one of Gurcharan Das’s articles :

“Dreaded days prior to 1991 when our government did believe that the way to make a poor person rich is by making the rich poor”

Gurcharan Das almost always impresses me.A lot of my thoughts are reflection of his.

Whats with the statues?

Seriously! What’s with them? Are we unable to rise above statues?

As if Mayawati’s statue-shopping wasn’t enough, we have a real competition going in here.

Excerpts from TOI report :

“Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray on Sunday described the Congress-NCP government's proposal to erect a statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji in the Marine Drive, Mumbai, as "foolish".”

It is indeed “Foolish” and even the Thackeray’s know it, which suddenly makes it all the more "Foolish”!!

“However, Sena chief executive Uddhav Thackeray clarified that Balasaheb was not opposed to the project as such. He told TOI: "The Congress-NCP has been in power for the past 10 years. Why did it not implement the project? It announced it only on the eve of the assembly elections with an eye on votes. It is the non-serious attitude of this government which we find objectionable. It may be recalled that Balasaheb himself had inaugurated a huge statue of Shivaji Maharaj outside the air terminal at Sahar."”

Eye on Votes?? Why do politicians even blame other politicians for doing things “with an eye on vote”??What’s the point?Hmm…They must wanna prove that ‘moron population is in majority’?

Have a look at this ( Heart patients, stop right here! )

“Meanwhile, the politics of statues has taken a new turn with senior NCP leader Vijay Kamble demanding a memorial to Dalit champion Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar at Dadar at a cost of Rs 700 crore.”

Even if I was uneducated, why would I vote for some ABC party because it is spending 700 crores on building XYZ’s statues??WTF?

So tell me, what’s with the statues?Are they In-fashion?? I would wanna build one of my own, in my garden, and I swear to vote for you if you give me a 100 crore subsidy, if not finance it completely.After all I am from ‘Blah Blah’ caste, and any denial in releasing the funds will be considered as a contempt of people of my caste!!

Edited to add the below Link provided by 'phase shift'

Cong plans 30 YSR statues in Hyderabad

America’s U-Turn!

Another Populist move by Obama.

U.S. Adds Tariffs on Chinese Tires.

“President Barack Obama slapped punitive tariffs on all car and light truck tyres entering the US from China. Beijing decried the decision, saying the move sent a dangerous protectionist signal before a G20 summit and could stoke reactions impeding global recovery.”

Below excerpt from WSJ

“The decision is a major victory for the United Steelworkers, the union that represents American tire workers. And Mr. Obama cannot afford to jeopardize his relationship with major unions as he pushes Congress to overhaul the nation’s health care system.”

Let me tell you that since taking office, President Obama has frequently declared himself a free trader. In several appearances over the last few months, he has driven home the message that protectionism is dangerous to economic health.

Now - do you guys get a feeling that he’s just a populist – but lacks true wisdom?Ever since he was elected – I always got a gut feeling that he’s just a populist, and a good orator ofcourse – but someone who lacks conviction and wisdom.He’s someone who tries to take everyone on the same boat, take his policy in middle east for example, but this is not going to work in long term.

Anyway, this move is definitely protectionism! Now – I am not an expert on this – but isn’t it already a proven fact that it does more harm in the longer term.Who knows it better that we Indians, right?Look what we made till we were living under protectionism – a scooter!

Considering that Americans have been preaching against protectionism to the whole world, this would be a hypocritical move.What right would America have after this to ever talk against protectionism?

This might not only back-fire America, but could slowly lead to something which the world is not ready for.This is a wrong approach to a right problem.

1930 great ‘depression’ was after all a just a ‘recession’ which was badly handled

“There is nearly universal agreement among economists of all ideological persuasions that trade protectionism (i.e., the Smoot-Hawley tariff) was a primary catalyst for the Great Depression. Tariffs in the 1930s originally were intended to protect agriculture, but by the time other special interest groups had climbed on board, an average tariff of close to 60% was imposed on more than 25,000 items. Retaliation by America's trading partners was swift and fierce; the entire system of world trade then was dysfunctional for a decade.”

One of the reactions :-

“The effect of new U.S. tariffs on Chinese tires is as clear as day: U.S. consumers will pay more for tires.The point is to reduce our standard of living by denying us the products of overseas trade in order to benefit a few U.S. tire manufacturers and their union members.”

Similar issues had come during Bush era but he chose a different, clearly the better route.

Below excerpt from WSJ

“President George W. Bush received four similar recommendations from the trade commission, the most recent one involving steel pipe in December 2005, but he rejected all of those recommendations.”

An interesting and welcome development is giving China some hope on their export dependent economy :-

“China welcomed the decision of the United States Court of International Trade to rule the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) as "unreasonable" for its imposition of anti-dumping duties (AD) and countervailing duties (CVD) on tires from a Chinese maker”

However the below news is depressing

“Three paper companies and the United Steelworkers filed an antidumping case Wednesday against China and Indonesia, making good on the union's threat to protect other U.S. industries after winning a recent trade decision against China.”

What remains to be seen is how would Obama react?If he goes for tariffs on imported paper – he will almost create a panicking situation.He might want to refrain from doing this, and be seen as protectionist but how would he then justify tariffs on Tires alone? Now this is what happens when you lack conviction!!

Exploiting Dumbness!

This is disgusting

Now, a search engine for Muslims only.

Has the Muslim religion become synonymous to conservatism..Er, or not even that, because this sounds plain dumb and not conservative.

“A Dutch company has launched a new search engine that aims to protect Muslims from accidentally bumping into explicit material while surfing the Web. Called ImHalal.com, or "I am Halal," is the world's first Muslim search engine.”

Really?Accidentally bumping?When does that happen?I use google whole day, I never ‘accidentally’ bump into porn. I am sorry – does anyone else reading this post ‘accidentally’ bumps into explicit material??

Even if you do – why do you think has the Microsoft,Google,Firefox given the ‘Back’ button in their web browsers?Makes no sense, right?

I mean, I understand if they were developing this search engine for Kids, but What the hell does this mean : “world's first Muslim search engine.”..?? Are there gonna be more? Do we really have Christian search engines, or Hindu search engines, or Jew search engine?I have never heard of them, please feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

“Reza Sardeha, founder of AZS Media Group, which runs the search engine, told The Daily Star that the idea grew after his friends complained of bumping into sexually explicit content when using search engines such as Yahoo or Google.”

HA?What an idiotic excuse to exploit and capitalize on someone’s beliefs, rather stupid beliefs!!

“According to The Daily Star, the site's filter examines the user's search terms and the websites that are returned, trawling for a 'non-halal list' of words that may indicate forbidden fruit. On the site, sex-related terms such as 'gay,' 'lesbian' or simply 'sexy' merit a haram level of three; the highest score on the list.”

The word ‘sexy’ too???

Whose problem is it anyway?

Everytime – Pakistan BEGS for more resources to fight taliban in their own courtyard, why do they do it as if they are doing a favour to the world? I mean – wouldn’t they like to take on Taliban and save their own ass if other countries don’t chase them to do so???

Below excerpt from TOI report quotes Zardari :-

“"If the world's armies and the world's budgets cannot look after (the Afghan) side of the border, give me more time and give me the resources that I need and we will deliver," he said.”

Why doesn’t someone tell them FO??huh..

Note : I know Taliban is a global problem ofcourse, but I only want to prove one point here why the hell does pakis behave as if its not their problem at all???

Rules and Free market!

Paul Romer talks about RULES - free market, capitalism , market driven economy, globalisation, special zones, though he doesn’t use all of these words explicitly in his talk.

He starts by analysing how almost everyone seems to have a mobile phone but people don't have access to electricity - a comparison which fits in India's scenario too.

Regulation is important, but years and years of over regulation have left us with no electricity, no drinking water etc. Telecom sector was de-regulated in late 90s and the sector flourished, I believe its high time water,insurance, electricity,retail, rail , infra like airports should be de-regulated too.Government has really stifled sectors like electricity, rail by not allowing private participation at all.

Then he talks about ‘one nation partnering other nation’ . India will not do this, probably because of the colonial hangover that we are still carrying. I do get shivers where he gives example of Cuba going and asking Canada to administer a part of their land.I ask myself - How much is too much?Should Globalisation have a limit?These are unanswered questions.

He proceeds to propose "Charter cities" which sounds good though I don’t agree with the Naive belief that cities are safe from crime.I also like the fact that the example of HongKong and China was used.Now, China did get some of its motivation from HongKong. India can copy the western model too – but the right wing dudes won’t let that happen – why? Just because its “western” apparently. I hate these guys, enough is enough, Indians deserve basic amenities if not luxury – even if it comes from a “western” idea. I don’t see the west shunning the idea of YOGA and CURRY saying its “Indian”. Why are so many of us still so xenophobic?Arghhhh

The power of Google

Google is amazing and most of us know it. One of the new things that I have learned to ‘Google’ is my symptoms when I am sick or when I have any kind of medical problem. I leave doctors baffled , when I guess the problem they are about to tell me.

Recently I had a skin problem, and I ‘Googled’ my symptoms. When my doctor started asking me questions like ‘do you have it on your knees and elbows’ and blah blah, I knew where it was heading. I told her if she was suspecting XYZ, and she looked at me and started smiling, and confronted me as to how did I know. I replied ‘My job involves computers, I read it on the Internet’. Not just that, once you know where it is heading, you also precisely know the biological cause and the treatment.I am serious, doctor had nothing new to offer me, I knew more than she told me (I am not saying 'I knew more than she knew' ).

This is not the first time I have done this, last time I left a doctor baffled was in Bangalore.The doctor there did not even tell me the ‘side effects’ of the medicine which were pretty serious in nature. I had to confront him as to what if I have the side effect XYZ.

I am sure we software engineers can make these doctors feel really insecure, with the knack that we have for googling any damn information.

Google has become synonymous with Internet for so many of us.I don’t know about you, but I have no clue what will I do without Google or what will the Internet do without Google for that matter.

Alright - Time to cook. Ah! Wish google knew how to cook and serve food..:)!!

Why do we do this?

This is really cute :-

Its not about Air India

Some developments on Air India’s Financial woes and my views :-

AI Chief Jadhav told Patel that AI urgently needs equity and soft loan infusion from the government to be able to keep flying. To tide over its problems, the airline is learnt to be eyeing Rs 10,000-15,000 crore as bailout package. But since the finance minister has already told them to get real and seek a `realistic' figure. Any amount higher than Rs 4,000-5,000 crore is being billed as unrealistic.

The cause of this misery can’t be attributed so much to a ‘slack in demand’ as much as it can be attributed to the inefficiencies within which the airline operates – to name one - Highly paid and inefficient staff responsible to no one but god .Yes! Thanks to tough labour laws – it is impossible to remove someone even if he simple declares that he is not going to work and this actually happens.

Now – I wouldn’t mind baling out AIG so much as I will mind bailing out Air India – why? Simple – my lack of trust, not in Air India or its staff – but the system that encourages inefficiency and lax competitive spirit.

AI also requested for a relook at the massive bilateral agreements India has signed with foreign countries in past few years that has allowed their airlines to virtually flood Indian cities big and small with flights at rock bottom fares.
The cash-strapped national carrier has also asked the government to make it compulsory for government employees travelling on official trips to use only the AI which would inturn get some revenue. At present, officials can take any airline they want with AI featuring pretty low on preference list.

What does both the above points tell us?

Socialism produces ‘losers’ who fear at the very word competition and these ‘losers’ want free lunches..!!

Reversal of ‘open skies’ policy would mean monopoly, thereby Higher costs and lower service levels.This would effectively be travelling back in time to socialism.Huh!

"The Prime Minister has said that the entire weight of the government is behind Air India. It is a national carrier and it is our pride. But there is a condition that Air India must put its best foot forward. The employees must realise that there is a problem and it is a cumulative problem," Patel said.

Now, only if Mr Patel himself ever sat on an AI flight, he would realize that it is not a ‘national pride’, it is a ‘National Shame’. Air India gives you a look and a feel of how things work in India much before you actually land in India.

This problem is bigger than they are making it sound, its not just about Air India that I am talking about. It is a generic problem.Isn’t it time for some labour reforms?Can’t India get someone like Deng??

Got hold of an interesting piece from Bloomberg which says that the chief of Airline’s parent company V.Thulasidas had expected the airline to return to profitability in the year ended March 2009. Considering that the airline made a loss of 5000 crores last fiscal – I wonder what the hell was that man thinking!!??

In my previous post, Charakan wanted to know my views on “hundreds of bankruptcies in US including that of General Motors and the way the Government is trying to bail them out”.

Hmm..Now – I am no financial expert ( as yet ) , but I would rather study it case by case instead of just answering that question in one shot – if you know what I mean.

I certainly believed that AIG was too big to fall and the world would have come crashing down if AIG was allowed to fall.I don’t see any such thing happening with the fall of Air India. The next point as I made above is – its not that I believe in AIG or its employees - its my faith in the system to return to profitability and its competitive attitude that I believe in.

Recommended Link :-

KingShuk Nag gives some examples of how Air India was run.

Nehru’s Legacy

Nehru’s Legacy continue to disappoint us :-

Air India Bankruptcy

I bet the 30,000 crores that we got from ‘disinvestment’ over the time looks like 'peanuts' now??

It is not just Air India, our whole economy typically worked like that before 1990.

More of Tioman

Here's More of Tioman :-

The Corrs

These guys are probably the best, I love their music, way different from others and very relaxing.

Fan of 'Corrs' ,, anyone??

Here's one master piece 'Corrs- Joy of life'

Scuba Dooba Do

This is damn cool, this is something that I never even dreamt of doing in my life.Last week, I did deep sea diving(DSD) level-1 in Tioman Islands, Malaysia.I cannot describe the experience in words nor have the pics done justice to what I saw. 

Click on the pics which will take you to my flickr, where I have written comments too, also view the slide show (which I have also put up on my blog).

Tioman has crystal clear water, something that I have never seen before. We also ended up doing snorkeling in the clear waters, it feels as if someone has put you into a big aquarium, beautiful corals and fishes, what an experience!!I don't have the pics to prove that though.

Malaysia is a beautiful country.If any of you guys are planning a trip to South-East Asia, do cover Malaysia, it has loads to offer, and yes do go to Tioman.Let me add that it is amazingly cheap, so don't worry about the costs.To put things in perspective, Tioman is cheaper than Bangalore,India.

The whole experience was truly surreal.

I will share more pics of Tioman soon.

 

www.flickr.com

Scuba Dooba Do

Strike-Throughs in Blogger

 To create strikethroughs in blogger, download Windows Live writer, it also comes as a part of windows live essentials (set of tools which also includes messenger).

Its a nice tool, and I have been using it since more than a month now.

You can insert tables, size up your pics, save a local copy of your post, post draft to blog, directly publish post to your blog,use bullets, numbering, check word count, and ofcourse create strikethroughs, and all this in the same environment as your live blog.Other features are for you to figure out.

Its free, so you might wanna try it out, specially those who are longing to use ‘strikethroughs’ in your blog.

IDEAS : Nandan Nilekani

I agree with with everything in here.

The ‘anti-technology’ that Indians were, the ‘anti-English’ Indians were,‘anti-computers’ Indians were,primary education, people being assets, everything.Brilliant!

I certainly acknowledge the role played by Dr Manmohan Singh, P.Chidambaram, Narasimha Rao, in 1991 in achieving all these ‘Ideas’.

   

                                 

I first saw this video on TED, but the blogger doesn’t allow you to embed videos from TED I guess ( May be because they are flash videos), so I had to search the video from YouTube, download it, then convert it to MP4 and then upload it here.

If someone has any clues regarding how to embed a video from TED/You Tube, please let me know.

 

After this, I read Nita’s post here.

One of the comments said

“Our media is obssessed with the rise of middle class and put no light on the growing wide gap of income between rich and poor. Lack of attention to agriculture sector by educated class is the root cause of poverty problem in our country.It is said in your previous article that trade is better than aid. Subsidies on fertilizers and seeds are not reaching to the farmer directly. When loan are sanctioned to farmers , the banks and brokers are ready to take huge bribe before crediting the loan to uneducated and poor farmers. 
Isn’t it sad that one-fourth of the world’s farming population — 600 million farmers are on the mercy of monsoon than a good irrigation system. Since 1997, more than 1.80 lakh farmers have committed suicide. The tragedy is that even this human sacrifice, massive from any political standards anywhere in the world, has failed to shift the national focus on the plight of farmers.India is the ungrateful nation be in a hurry to dump its farmers, the real backbone of the economy for implementing world bank policies.And still we ignore fundamental flaw in our development pattern.”

Then, I was like…Hmm..Guess ‘Nilekani was being over-optimistic’ with the whole thing. I mean, we still have socialists who believe that the basic purpose of an industry is not to make profit but to employ huge number of people, not realizing that it doesn’t do any good to either parties involved, and I was left disappointed.

Myself, being capitalist to the core, tried to do some arguing.I said

“The problem with socialism is that it sounds good only on paper, and history has proved it.

History is an interesting subject indeed because it tells you about your mistakes, but clearly some of us are still to learn from our mistakes.

Stressing on the same line again –>

We were so concerned about distribution of wealth that we forgot about actually creating it. 

This is what Indian did till 1990, achieving nothing. Why would you wanna go back on the same track again??”

 

The reply that I got was

“Unequal distribution of Economic Freedom is at the basis of India’s uneven development. The reason is simple, the areas in which the middle and upper classes make their living have seen the highest degree of liberalization, while the areas in which the poor earn their livelihood have seen the fewest reforms.All the countries today shouting for open economy had developed in the past either due to imperialism and protected economy. How can you measure the ‘comparative advantage’ of a commodity which is highly subsidized with an output that does not receive even a fraction of the subsidies received in the US? Today production is don for the consumption of masses, not by the masses.This has lead to current crisis. And the country whose 90% of GDP is consumed in loans(Sources:Business India 5,October 2008) ,you are following the same path.Today we are growing due to bliss of outsourcing but soon this job will also go to small countries like South Africa and Vietnam etc less developed countries. Creation of wealth and progress can only be maintained by manufacturing sector and self sufficiency in the agriculture sector is required for supporting such huge population.Example, For creation of wealth in future, we need to transfer Infy &Wipro into product based software companies like Adobe,Google and Microsoft.Do you want always profit to be privatized and losses to shared by your tax.”

 

I can probably reply to each and every sentence above with a one page article. But , I did not see any point in that, I mean, you can argue with Charakan ofcourse because he gives you logical points, but what can you say to above comment where each and every logic is so illogical??I did not bother to reply. I gave up! Remember in my ‘25 point someone’, how I said

“I am confrontational...but I really don't believe in confronting a Dumb person, I generally agree with Dumb people. I am serious!! you cannot convince someone who has no idea about a subject but still wants to speak about it.”

While I am not saying the guy is ‘dumb’, but he does seem to have no idea of what he is talking about.Not exactly that too.He does seem to know what he’s talking about, but his basics are all messed up, he has learnt his lessons precisely the way that he wasn’t supposed to. :(... ha!Never mind! Socialism is still haunting us.

Then came the election results, where ‘LEFT’ was LEFT out and marginalized  to 24 seats.I was again like…”Yea!! Not so bad for capitalism after all..Hope they completely disappear by next elections”.Whatever was the reason for their poor performance, the means need not justify the end always, right?..which reminds me of Lord Krishna..:-)!

ISRAEL V/S PALESTINE/HAMAS - Perspectives

 I am posting the discussion between me and Charakan on the ISRAEL-PALESTINE/HAMAS issue. I believe it is worth reading.

As it turns out, both of us hate HAMAS but I also Kinda took Israel’s side between ISRAEL-PALESTINE, but at the end of it, I guess I am pretty convinced that ISRAEL isn’t doing all that good in Palestine and we do need to see things beyond what ‘western’ media says.So I kinda stand confused on this issue now,I would love to see what you guys think..even if that involves changing my opinion.

It all started when I wrote the below paragraph in my last post

I was irritated when Israel was asked to stop their confrontation with HAMAS recently. For me, it was the same thing,, hello!! Israel did not call for it, they even gave up GAZA, hoping for peace, you freaking come and fire rockets at them, what do you expect back? I know that innocents get involved and loose their lives, but then there are innocents loosing their life on Israel’s side as well, right? A country has every right to protect its citizens.

His replies in blue.

Mine in Red.

I do not agree with you on Israel.May be you should read about the history of Arab-Israeli conflict in detail and come to a conclusion rather than depending on Western Mass Media.
few links from anti-zionist jewish websites which may help you
http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?ar=10&pg=4
http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/publish/101conflict.shtml
You can also read a recently published Book titled Broken Promises Broken Dreams by a Jewish doctor named Dr Alice Rothchild.

I will go through the link, but my point is, that time is over, now if you don't fire rockets at Israel, they ain't gonna simply attack you.The world has changed now. To stick to old causes and still develop suicide bombers is not justified anymore.Same is the case with LTTE,they came into being for a reason, but now they just kill innocents, like HAMAS does,,so I am pretty much not interested in what happened 30 years back and why they were formed, if you are killing innocents now, you will get what you deserve.

I cannot understand what you meant by World have changed.Nothing has changed for those in Gaza.Palestinians are facing an occupational force all these years.Even if 150 years pass occupation is occupation.
The attack on Gaza by Israel just before Obama's coronation was an election ploy.Israel had an election in February and the various Israeli Political Leaders involved wanted to depict themselves as more aggressive than the other at the expense of lives of about 1200 Palestinians. Go through those links when you get time.It may be interesting if you like history.

Well, our thinking is pretty much the opposite in that case, I really don't think ISRAEL will attack palestine NOW if HAMAS stop firing its rockets. If you remember just when ISRAEL declared ceasefire after a month long operation, HAMAS was still firing rockets.
I mean, I indict HAMAS for all the innocent lives that were lost and not ISRAEL. If they stop goading ISRAEL, I seriously doubt ISRAEL can do any damage to PALESTINE NOW ( And by now - what has changed is that countries need to justify their attack on someone, even US by the way ). If you don't give ISRAEL a reason to attack, it CANNOT and WILL NOT.
How come, you support my view on LTTE and Not on HAMAS? Even LTTE was formed for a noble cause by the way.

 

Chikki,you talk as if Israel and Palestine are 2 sovereign states. And you said Israel even gave up Gaza Strip as if Britain will say we even gave up India in 1947.Israel is a Nation created by Britain and US in West Asia on the Palestinian homeland. Main root of the problem is that.Israel still contorls all the routes to West Bank and Gaza and decides what happens there.The missile strike was against the Isreali blockade of the border crossings resulting in severe food shortage and economic hardships. I do not support Hamas which is an ultra extremist Islamist force.I support Fatah.Systematic undermining of the moderate and somewhat secular Fatah by US and Israel by sabotaging all peace deals signed by Arafat resulted in the rise of Hamas.Israel likes Hamas the same way hindutva forces likes jihadists.Both feed on each other. You can also read the open letter to Obama by Teachers of major universities of US in my blog about Palestine issue.

http://mytake-charakan.blogspot.com/2009/01/open-letter-to-obama-about-gaza.html

Sorry for the long comment.I am and I believe most freedom loving liberal people all over the World are emotional about this.

Gaza was a territory won by Israel in a War in which it faced troops from almost 6-8 countries or say the whole Arab-world'.Can you beat that?Do you expect China to give 'Aksai Chin' back to India?
By the way, rockets are not aimed at Blockade alone. I have no idea how do I reply to this. I think HAMAS will be ashamed too when they hear this, I mean, even if they fired a rocket or two at blockade, you ofcourse know that even HAMAS claims responsibility of rockets they fire inside Israel, don't you??You do know they claim responsibility of the suicide attacks that happen inside Israel, right?

About your open letter to Obama?I don't see it eulogizing HAMAS, but I do see it criticizing ISRAEL.Interesting, you should probably read LTTE's history too, I am sure, you will start criticizing Sri Lanka.Allthough I must say I am a bit confused as you said you agree to my points about LTTE and Sri Lanka but not Hamas and Israel.
You talk about freedom?What about freedom of Israel to exist?Do you know HAMAS doesn't even recognize Israel??

Oh yea, I remember, you casually mentioned that you hate HAMAS too, then you should probably read my post again.Infact I wonder, what were we even debating then?I am not sure, what is the point that you wanna convey? Is it something like , you wanna say - you hate HAMAS and you hate Israel too??By the way you should also read how Jews residing in the Arab world were oppressed after the war.
I am against LTTE , I am against HAMAS, I am against any damn terrorist outfit, that kills innocents, that has no regard for human value, Ofcourse I support offensive against them, and that is why I was so pissed off when ISRAEL wasn't allowed to pursue its bombing of HAMAS targets, and that is why I get pissed off when I hear Tamils across the world sympathize with LTTE.

By the way , I stand by my point, I take HAMAS responsible for innocent lives lost in Gaza.

Chikki,you said,
Gaza was a territory won by Israel in a War in which it faced troops from almost 6-8 countries or say the whole Arab-world'Can you beat that?

Do you mean to say that if a foreign army invaded a part of country and established control then they have the legitimate right there for ever even if they withdraw? By that logic Germany which beat the Allies in World War 2 and occupied France and other European Countries should have all the rights there for ever? Will you call the French resistance movement terrorists then? In any resistance movement there will be extremists.Hamas is an extremist organisation whom I do not support.
Difference between the Srilankan Tamils cause and that of Palestenian cause is that Srilankan Tamils are facing discrimination in their homeland from a majority ruling class while Palestinians are facing Occupation by an invading force. Discrimination by a democratic ruling class is different from Occupation by another country.

Invading force'..?? Who wanted to capture Israel and who refused its existence??who wanted to invade Israel? Who massed up army along the border which led to war??Who wished that Israel should cease to exist?? Errr....Arabs..!!

Just because they Lost the war, and the opposite happened - Israel ended up capturing some of their territory, you can't cry foul now..That would be so lame..Why was a defeat not expected in the 1st place??why were the pros and cons not carefully weighed?
I believe Israel does better than Arabs would have done if god forbids the result would have been opposite. In 2004,Israel agreed to return land captured by them, if HAMAS stopped the violence. Unilateral disengagement from Gaza was a result of this.But what did HAMAS do??continued its violence and broke the peace accord. Why would a country not get pissed?Specially when it also HAS THE POWER TO GET PISSED!!

Chikki, Israel is a Nation created by Britain and US using their colonial power in West Asia on the Palestinian homeland. Do you agree?
Zionists are settler minorities who is trying to displace the majority Arabs from their home land. do you agree?
If a large group of ppl come to your native land and try to settle there and carve an exclusive settler only nation there will you welcome them or oppose them?
Above points are the root of the problem.Rest of the discussion depemds on how you answer the above questions.
If your answers are supporting Zionism then I will beg to disagree and stop this discussion because there is no point in continuing.

"Israel is a Nation created by Britain and US using their colonial power in West Asia on the Palestinian homeland."

Agreed! That happened after the holocaust.
And ofcourse you don't disagree with the fact that JEWS were not there before creation of ISRAEL, do you??
From what you have been writing, it looks like - even you don't recognize the right of 'ISRAEL to exist' which is very disturbing to me.

"Zionists are settler minorities who is trying to displace the majority Arabs from their home land. do you agree?"

I think its the opposite happening - Arabs just can't recognize the right of 'ISRAEL to be'. why can they 'Live and let live'??Why do they keep goading ISRAEL all the time?? and when ISRAEL retaliates, they start looking around the world for help. Wahhh!!

"If a large group of ppl come to your native land and try to settle there and carve an exclusive settler only nation there will you welcome them or oppose them"

First of all Israel is not on a 'conquering spree' and we are not living in an 'imperialist age'. ISRAEL is a NATION now . It is not practicing 'Slavery' either.
You attack ISRAEL, ISREAL doesn't attack you and take your land away!! It is even ready to give your land back. All it wants is peace which you can't seem to believe in because if peace prevails, you will obviously not have an agenda to live and you will become so Jobless!!

To all the ARABS -->
'LIVE AND LET LIVE' guys please. 2nd World war is over long back.A lot has changed, but please MOVE ON you guys!!

Ya, thats all! I hope you did not skip anything.;-)!Its an exhausting post again with more than 1800 words. These ‘55-ers’ are gonna hate me.

IHM – I remember the strikethrough post, I will do it I promise.:-).

Things I am emo about

Hmm..Things that I am emotional about??..I was told that ‘irritation’ is also an ‘emotion’, and its a lot easier to write about things that irritate you, isn’t it? So yea, let me start with sharing the things that irritate me, later I can share other emos like things that make me cry, laugh,frown etc etc.

1)Tamils who support LTTE ; countries asking Sri Lanka to halt their military operations against them.

Finally Sri Lanka is doing something that it should have done long back, it is something that India should have done long back. Wipe out the terrorists in a planned offensive!!

Demand for separate land?WTF? Why can’t you stay in harmony with others? And as if a separate land will solve your problems? What happened to Pakistan?what happened to Bangladesh?

For those of you who think that Sri Lanka is bombing innocent civilians who are trapped, let me tell you a responsible Govt will always try its best to save innocents, its the cold-blooded terrorists who will not care for innocents, have a look at TOI’s report which confirm that LTTE is infact using civilians as human shields.

LTTE-killed-civilians-Surrendered-leaders

I did not actually need TOI to confirm this for me, this was something which was so obvious to me.These terrorists will go to any extent to save their ass.

For those supporting ceasefires, it is a truism by now that ceasefires only helps these terrorists as they come out stronger and kill more people.

For those against violence, I say Sri Lanka did not call for it, it was not their first choice, but what the hell are you gonna do if people come and kill your innocent civilians every alternate day? and the death toll is about 40,000 for your information.

For those supporting political resolution, or resolution through talks, I think the Govt tried it for 2 decades, but as they say laato ke bhoot baato se nahi maante.

People still want Sri Lanka to stop?Why not use your channels and pursue LTTE instead to give up??Huh??Very simple right??

The best part was, when the assholes were subjugated in a 6KM sq area, they declared ceasefire, just as I was reading the news, I thought “what a fucking Joke” and next day Sri Lankan Govt comes out with the same word “A Joke”.

I do know the purpose of why LTTE came into being, but what the hell, if you deviate from your very purpose and start developing suicide bombers, then you will have no sympathy atleast from me and BUSH.

On Similar lines, I was irritated when Israel was asked to stop their confrontation with HAMAS recently. For me, it was the same thing,, hello!! Israel did not call for it, they even gave up GAZA, hoping for peace, you freaking come and fire rockets at them, what do you expect back? I know that innocents get involved and loose their lives, but then there are innocents loosing their life on Israel’s side as well, right? A country has every right to protect its citizens.

You don’t expect every country to be an India showing so called ‘resilience and restraint’ even after people come, enter your house, kill your civilians, but you show world-famous ‘restraint’!!

For those Indians who espouse LTTE, they should probably feel for local banned outfits like SIMI etc etc too, otherwise you are just a hypocrite.

This is why I probably like Bush and even Bhagat Singh for that matter!!

Oops! I had a few more ‘irritations’ to write, this was just one, but may be I will divide this subject into parts – a hundred of ’em?, so that I don’t end up writing an exhausting post again.:-)

God! when will I ever be able to write a 55 word thingi??

Recommended Link : some-species-are-better-extinct

IHM, you had once asked if 'violence is justified for any goddamn reason', here is my answer, I probably did not comment then, because I knew I could write a dozen posts on that topic.:-)!

My try on ‘55 words Thingi’

IHM gave me an idea of writing ‘55 word fiction’ because she thought my posts are too long and it will be like a ‘self-challenge’ for me to limit myself to 55 words.So, here is my 1st attempt to write a ‘55 WORD FICTION FACT’ ( we will leave FICTION for some other time’ – lets take it one by one people, phew!)

A lot of urban ‘sensible’ urban voters are entering the election fray this time. My take…

We have Captain Gopinath of  ‘Air Deccan’ from Bangalore, then we have Meera Hiranandani from Mumbai – a banker unhappy with the way Govt handled 26/11, then we also have a new party – loksatta –from Hyderabad – “voice of the urban” – supposedly.I am sure there are few others that I am unaware of.

My fear is that these people will take away votes not from the most ‘undeserving candidate’ but from the most ‘deserving candidate’ from among those who are fighting ( even though my ‘most deserving’ candidate can be a jerk too – but what I mean is he would still be better than other jerks – or say the ‘least bastard’).

Why?I presume that it is the ‘sensible’ voters like you and me who are going to vote for these ‘sensible urban candidates’.Whom do you think we would have voted if we were not voting them?Ofcourse the ‘least bastard’ one.So, we end up harming our ‘least bastard’ candidate instead of the ‘most bastard’ one. To add – I do believe ‘sensible’ voters are in minority in India and hence our votes might not help these ‘sensible urban voters’ win anyway.:-(. Sad – but I do believe my presumptions are logical.

I repeatedly choose to classify you and me under ‘sensible voters’ category because I presume that ‘you and me’ are not going to vote for a candidate because of his caste/Religion/Sex or for a bottle of liquor, nor are we gonna fall for any of the fake promises or any ominous agendas like ‘hindutva’ or ‘culture’ shit.

Having said all this – I want to convey that I definitely don’t encourage you to ‘not vote’ for these ‘sensible urban voters’, lets atleast give motivation to others to join too, today or tomorrow they and hence we -- might win.

I guess I have ended up crossing a little over 320 words.Never mind, lets call it a ‘55 355 WORDS FACT’. Yea, something new for a change.

 

55 355 WORDS FICTION FACT

A literary work will be considered 55 355 WORDS Fiction FACT if it has:

Three hundred and Fifty-five words or less (A non-negotiable rule)

A setting, One or more characters, Some conflict, and A resolution.

And if it is a

Fact

Thats all.

Piss Offs piss me off

Some Piss offs in the last week or so

Piss off no 1)Me finding the secret appraisal document of my team and finding out what,

One Team Lead has given a rating of 4 ( 4 is considered above average and only 10-15% of people get it) to a gal he is dating (she deserves a rating of 2).

Second team lead who is a marathi has given a rating of 4 to another marathi in his team, who joined the project 3 months back and barely knows anything.

Third team lead who is a tamil, has given a rating of 4 to two of his tamil team mates, out of which one guy totally doesn't deserve it.

And then I have some seniors in project who deserve 4, but are stuck with 3. I feel so bad for them.

I was told that I had performed much above their expectations, expectations that they have from a college passout, and that I was the best among freshers in my project. I have received a performance award, numerous client appreciations, but what do I get --> 3.3..normalised to 3.WTF?Just because I don't belong to their states?

I Have decided to try and not to work with Indians in future, do my MBA from Singapore, and stay away from Indians at work as long as possible.They can mess up even the best of work cultures.Yeah, I am an Indian who is not very fond of Indians.I am sorry.

Mai apni pehle appraisal report pe haath rakh ke kasam khata hoon ki jaan lagadunga magar MBA ke baad Indians ke saath kaam nahi karunga.

Piss off no 2)Maneka Gandhi's allegation that a Muslim police officer had injured 25 of Varun's supporters.The SSP said that the Muslim officer was not even present in Pilibhit on Saturday, having been transferred to Bilaspur to prevent controversy.

I have decided that India is not worth a place coming back to.Life comes just once,I cannot afford to come and waste it in a country where majority are fools and they don't even realise it, so they condition their offsprings to become fools too, and the trend continues.Why else will a country entertain such bastards?

Piss off no 3)Three Rapist Fathers (in India)

What the hell is wrong with our society?Talk about Indian culture, ah?Its time we start importing prostitutes, so that these guys will atleast stop fucking their daughters.

Piss off no 4) IIT classes from Std VII, 6 years before test

WTF?Why are parents in India so obsessed with just one exam - the IIT?Have a look at your dull kid, who does nothing but slog all day, and has specks in class 5, don't you pity him?Its not like, others who go out and play games don't succeed in life.Big Thumbs down to parents who play no role in overall development of their child.

Piss off no 5)Probability that Mayawati might become PM of our country, and then from no where, some people turn out who actually don't see any problem with that.

This is what I called "Adaptation".A typical stage where you are so fed up with the bad things around you that you try to do reasoning with your mind and see good even in bad.Good for you, but what about the whole country?Rather be a critic.

Piss off no 6)Obama's words

"We will restore a sense of fairness and balance to our tax code by finally ending the tax breaks for corporations that ship our jobs overseas"

This is precisely not the time for cost escalations.

Now, won't this move make the already ailing companies even less competitive compared to their peers in other nations who will continue to ship job overseas and reduce costs?Companies world wide, be it America or Europe or Australia are trying to reduce costs to come out of this difficult times, why would Obama not want to get this basic thing right?Ofcourse you will have opposition from simpletons who just see and hear on TV that their job is going away.

But as a Leader, shouldn't Obama see the larger picture?Atleast he should know whats good for his country in long term.It should have been an established fact by now that if you not reducing your costs, you are not going to survive in a increasingly globalised world.The Job losses then will be much more than now, duh!

As long as their are countries who can provide the same output at much lower costs, it does make sense to shift non-core jobs to that country, doesn't it?After all, aren't you responsible to your millions of investors as well.

What an Irony indeed.You badly want your companies to come back to profit, but you are the one who's standing in its way!!

Piss off no 7)90% tax on employee-bonuses, only for companies which have been bailed out by Govt money.

This is precisely not the time when AIG and others can afford to loose its people.90% Tax on employee bonus?WTF?I can understand 20, 30 or 40, but 90%?

If you are going to take 90% from the bonus, which by the way is a big part of overall compensation, chances are you are not going to attract the creme, but rather loose the ones that you already have.

The companies who did not get the bailout will still pay bonuses to its employees and retain the creme, all the more essential in tough times, whereas the already failing ones which unfortunately had to take Govt money will fail even further because nonprofessionals on the street will now decide its future.

Isn't it sometimes better that we leave it to our parents to decide what is best for us?Like the numerous decisions taken by my mom and dad for me, that I would have previously thought are so crude, but now realise were what was best for me.

As expected Mr.Obama again doesn't get it and makes a populist statement again?This is where I feel Bush was different, the kind of conviction that he had about whats right for the country and whats not, Obama clearly lacks it. Don't you guys feel the same?

Read this somewhere,

Diplomacy is best conducted in secret,media and parliament in democracies tend to confuse the issues with moral considerations and this will lead nations to take irrational positions that did not necessarily further their own interests.

Isn't that line amazing?Doesn't it apply to India as well - at times atleast?

Battery powered Cars in India?Are you sure?

Going green with Battery powered Cars,,, Really??

People go home and charge their batteries with electricity which inturn is generated out of coal (Yes, world still uses Coal for generation of electricity ).What is so Green about a Battery powered car??

About 40% of world electricity comes from burning Coal, about 49% of USA's electricity comes from burning coal.The figure is 70% for India.

Facts about Coal -->

Gross carbon dioxide emissions from coal usage are slightly more than those from petroleum and about double the amount from natural gas.

The thermodynamic efficiency of Coal at best is 35% which means, 65% of the coal energy is waste heat.

Coal is the largest producer of Carbon di oxide, a greenhouse gas, in environment barring the natural processes.

Coal-fired power plant releases emissions including mercury, selenium, and arsenic which are harmful to human health and the environment.

Consider this --> 

Calculation says, a KG of coal is burnt to produce 2KW-hr of energy.

Now, if you keep using that electricity to charge your car batteries every alternate day, I wonder how much amount of Burnt Coal will you be responsible for??

However, if a country uses non renewable sources to generate electricity, battery powered cars are a go-ahead to them.

Considering the fact that more and more Electricity will be generated from non renewable sources in future, we should give a lot of thrust on developing Battery powered Cars, but as of now, I think, it ends up polluting more.

India's case

I came across an amazing article which I think all of you should read. Do read all the 6 parts

Knowledge-allianz

Some interesting points from the article :-

(India's)Estimated annual CO2 emissions: 1.275 billion tons in 2003 (4th biggest worldwide, not including entire European Union)

According to Indian Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, the renewable power capacity was around 8 Gigawatts at the end of March 2006, roughly 6.5 percent of the total power generation capacity.

Nearly 70 percent of the country’s electricity is generated from the inexpensive and abundant, but environmentally hazardous fossil fuel - Coal.

According to researchers at Stanford University, replacing 30 GW of coal energy with nuclear energy would save India up to 218 million tons of emitted carbon dioxide each year.

No, wonder I wanted to personally shoot down everyone from left (party) when they were against the Indo-US Nuclear deal.Anyway, Its a different issue, will discuss about it some day.

Now,why would someone want to use a battery powered car in India if only 6.5 % of electricity is coming from non-renewable sources??

I wonder when will Coal be replaced as a source for producing electricity?? not anytime soon I guess, atleast not in India!! So is battery powered car really a  good deal for India?I don't think so.

You can also check out India's energy information at,

Enery-Information-Agency

Weirdly, the statistics are a little different here, that too for the same year.For example, the below line

Hydroelectricity has been a consistent source of power in India, accounting for nearly 16 percent of power generated in 2006. (Remember the other article says, renewable power capacity is roughly 6.5%).

But even this article says 

Nearly all power in India is generated with conventional thermal sources, which produced over 80 percent of electricity in 2006.

So, yeah the bottom line is!! 

If you are in India, Don't use Battery Powered Cars as of now :-)

By the way, all the users of REWA in Bangalore, Pune, the car has miserably failed German crash tests, and is banned, refrain from using one.Either ways, it doesn't look like it can take a crash even from a cycle.