Musings on a quiet Friday afternoon

Well, a while since my last blog, but it has been a hectic set of days since then as well, traveling between cities and friends. Also, I would like to thank all those people who wished me on my birthday, and for those of you who didn’t (grr!). Well, I have read a lot of books since then, (good books all!), some of them being, Nandan Nilekani’s Imagining India, Asimov’s End of Eternity, Niall Ferguson’s History of Money and many more. It has been a while since I critiqued a book and I figured I should go back to my original self when I do this.
The first and easiest book to tell about would be Asimov’s book. When I saw the book I was shocked that I missed a novel from the master and lord of science fiction. The book is about time travel and its consequences mainly. Assuming for a moment time travel is possible, and that a group called Eternity was set up to control all time movement, and historical facts to weed out the unusual over time and stop wars from happening, and other things to ensure a future which would be safe and sound, Asimov talks about the destruction that this would cause to the human spirit. The Unusual is what makes humans different from the rest, that one man can take on the world and plunge it into war or rise to glory and fame is what makes the world move and have paradigm shifts. The existence of Eternity would ensure mediocrity and a world where humans become more docile. Anyway, before spoiling the book, it is a must read for all, and the fact that it is short also helps. I have no critique on this book, other than to say, Asimov continues to be one of my favorite authors and he doesn’t disappoint with this book.
The next book would be Nandan Nilekani’s book Imagining India. He presents his views in a unique manner, and is unique due to the place that he is in now, the leader of one of the largest companies of India and one who is involved steeply in formulating government policies as well. In this book, he outlines what he sees as the problems of India, what he sees as the roadblocks in growth and development of India. From problems of population to bureaucracy to infrastructure, he talks about these problems giving possible solutions wherever he can. He admits that he does not have all the solutions but he provides his insights clearly and expresses himself in a lucid manner. Given my general aversion to Indian authors, I was enthralled to find a book which could talk to me as it were. Nandan Nilekani talks to the educated generation through this book. It is not a book meant to inspire or glorify his company or a biography, but an attempt to discuss his own thoughts, like a blog almost, albeit a bit long one. He talks about ideas in four different parts, ideas that have arrived, ideas in progress, ideas in battle, and ideas to anticipate. Overall, it is a good book to read, to expand your own horizons and see a person who solves complex problems in his own world, attempt that in our world as well.
Apart from these, I have read a lot of Alistair Maclean’s books over the last two weeks. Short and sweet, I like these books mainly for the action, the sarcastic wit of the main characters, and the tangled web plots that he weaves in his books. If you are a fan of fiction and especially war fiction, then Alistair Maclean is the way to go.
One other thing I wanted to comment on was the shoe throwing incident of Bush. The fact that a reporter who violated the norms of his profession, has turned into a cult figure among the masses in the Middle East is fascinating because it is an example of the unpopularity that American faces in the Middle East. Though I do not support the shoe throwing incident, it is not hard to see why it has happened. The only thing remains to be seen is whether Bush will face that in his own country once he steps down from the Presidency. Will his own people be able to embrace him after his mishandled and clearly bungled terms as President is a question that remains to be seen.
Lastly, I had just gone through Arundhati Roy’s essay on terrorism in Mumbai “9 is not 11”. Her last ending line left an impression on me:
“The only way to contain (it would be naive to say end) terrorism is to look at the monster in the mirror. We're standing at a fork in the road. One sign says 'Justice', the other 'Civil War'. There's no third sign and there's no going back. Choose.”

Are these the only two options that we have? What is ‘Justice’? Some would look at genocide as justice for the losses that they have faced and some would look at complete appeasement as justice. Both of these extremes are clearly wrong. Justice and Civil War are vague terms at best. If Civil War is defined as countrymen fighting each other, haven’t we been at Civil War for the last 60 years or so since partition. The future historians might choose to look at it that way. Brother turned against brother, son against father, and neighbour against neighbour. This does fit the classic definition of a civil war, however, does terrorism and anti terrorism come under the domain of a civil war? Will the doings of a couple of men change that?

Placements and Recession

Actually, credit where it’s due, I guess I was inspired to write this after seeing PDM’s blog. Initially I thought of commenting on his blog, rather I figured I should write my own blog concerning this as well. I agree with him completely, that this is not affecting just the guys in our college, but everyone. Not only the academic world but since this is a financial crisis, the business world in a large manner. Trust me on this when I say, we don’t know what will happen tomorrow really. Before the Japanese used to believe in the Divine Right of Kings, that the shogunate feudal system was always there and always will be. It seems that we have returned to such a system today, that we started to believe that businesses were always there and always will be. We have been jolted from that position, and the realization has come that, even the supply demand curve applies to jobs as well. In this scenario, the ones with the temperament to work hard and increase their skill sets are the ones who survive. I am not going to sermonize here, telling everyone to work hard and get higher CG’s or whatever. All I am saying is that don’t despair in this time. Eventually the cycle will trend upwards, it is the basic human nature I guess or whatever the psychologists want to call it. Eventually after a crisis, people do start moving again and the good times will return. It could happen one month, one year or one decade from now. Asking why me, why my time is not what we are here for. We do not choose the times we live in, but we can choose how we live it.
I, and most people would probably agree, yes, life might have been a lot easier if we had things handed to us, but the old adages do ring true during the difficult times. It is the early bird that gets the worm, the ant and the grasshopper story, the rabbit and the hare etc. I guess what I am saying is stop expecting that the name or rather the reputation of the institution that you go to is what hands you a job, or whatever. The competition is such that your knowledge and your willingness to learn is what counts. Many of us, and I myself have been guilty of it, have been involved in extra curricular activities throughout four years to the extent where we neglected our main purpose there, which was to study for our engineering. Whether we were interested or not is a moot point. We had selected that based on whatever factors, and it is a duty you owe to yourself to see it completed, and completed well. There is no such thing as a bad job, only a job not done well by you. There is enough freedom provided to each one of us to pursue our interests in addition to whatever we are studying. Right now, it might seem like we can afford to sermonize now that we are in jobs and all, but even in professional life, many times you are put in roles you do not want to be in, or in roles that you never imagined yourself in, despite your interests and all, more so than in college. Those who do their work in exemplary fashion, are the ones who do it enthusiastically despite their own reservations and have the energy to do more than just that, the ones that pursue their own interests outside of the work as well, are the ones that are really successful. So again, I ask you all not to despair as to what job you are in, or the fact that placement isn’t occurring soon enough or there aren’t enough companies out there. It may take time, but all of you will be placed eventually.
To juniors, who are seeing the placement season from hell, do learn some important lessons. First, I hope they break the myth of the CG. Those that tell you CG isn’t important, do take whatever rotten vegetable and throw it at them, really it is an all important figure, and unless your knowledge in any field is very high, it is a number that judges how hard you have worked through four years. There might be exceptions to this rule, but largely, lets say about 80% of the time, the rule works. Second myth, extra curricular activities are really important on your resume. They aren’t. No one really cares whether you were head of any section, or in any sport, (maybe schlum does, but again it is an exception to a general rule) or that you were in politics, or really that you were pretty important in the institute. Some people might argue differently, I mean sure being the General Secretary, or the Cogni convenor might help sure, but the amount of time and effort spent on it, is really not worth the returns. Do something in the institute if you like it, not because of its effect on a resume. I mean enjoy these activities while you do them. It is a great way to network in the institute and make friends as well. For some reason our institute rewards people who are extroverts to become leaders and all. Generally if you look at it, the introvert type of people are the ones that have good qualities to be leaders. It becomes more of a popularity contest that way, and many a time it is not the most able that becomes lets the head of a section or anything. Don’t mistake success in these fields to success in getting a job and all. In the end it is your knowledge, your willingness to learn and your personality that gets you a job and finally growth in your job.
I hope these words of comfort will help you guys through this difficult time. And of course to all those that have been placed, congratulations, and all those yet to be placed, good luck and do well.

Tragedy and Hope

With the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai, I felt it was time for me to write an entry related to them. A tragic loss of life, no doubt, and the bravery of all those involved in the freedom of the commandos, leaves little to say with respect about it. During this catastrophic time, we stand with Mumbai and express our solidarity and condolences to all those who died. To our enemies who have dared to launch such an attack on our psyche and our symbol of hope and reason, I hope the leaders take decisive action and punish those involved to the fullest extent of the law and beyond. To use the words of another man, “Deciding whether the terrorists go to hell or heaven is God’s choice, but fixing their appointment with God is ours.”

            Whether it was an intelligence failure or a political failure, or a security failure is now a moot point with this tragedy now behind us. All we can now do is examine what led to this event, and hopefully take corrective action, that the lives of those that were lost were not in vain, and prevent such horrific attacks. Blindly asking politicians to resign over this is not the solution. Though it might give a short term psychological relief to the people, the problem still remains and the new minister still has to solve this problem. In fact, by the time the new minister comes to grip with the problems, we could have lost invaluable time, time which could have been used to take preventive action. Due to the factitious nature of our government, considering its allies and the coalitions formed, it is difficult to expect a single solution that keeps all those involved happy. Compromises are made and in this case, Mumbai emerged the loser due to all the deals, both over the table and under the table. We might never know which horses were traded or how much money changed hands, but it is this nature of our government that leads to chaos and disorder. However handing a mandate to a single party in a country like India is also cause for trouble due to the diversity present in India, as it would give one group ascendancy over the rest of the groups. It is not a problem with an easy solution; however, we can see that in its present form, it causes paralysis of the state. I sincerely hope that the people of Mumbai recover from this tragic incident, and that the famous spirit of Mumbai moves forward.

            One thing I noticed during the news coverage of this incident was how the news reports these days tend to be more of a sports commentary laced with adjectives, rather than reporting the news. In a sentence, you get to hear words like tragic and horrendous etc. without actually saying whats happening. I guess that is due to viewer ship issues, but still I would like to hear the unadulterated news without actually having to hear the newscaster’s opinion.

            The other thing I wanted to talk about was the Mumbai riots that Raj Thackeray was responsible for. I want to ask, where were they when the attacks happened. Champions of Mumbai, that they call themselves, where were they when the grenades and bullets went off. Posturing in front of camera, or beating on unaware travelers is much different than actually fighting the good fight as they might have found out. Unforgiving as this scathing attack may be, not a single word expressing grief at the loss of life or for the brave commandos has been uttered by either of the Thackerays. With the general election about to come up, I hope that the mask of these self righteous groups has been torn off for all to see. The fact that it was India that defended India’s Mumbai from foreign attacks is probably lost on the MNS activists as they continue their fight.

            And one thing from my earlier blog entry predicting a win for John McCain, the voters of the United States have proved me wrong comprehensively by electing Obama with one of the largest mandates to be handed out in recent times. A gracious speech by McCain, conceding the election and President elect- Obama’s speech accepting the elections results shows the strength of the American democracy, that a loss is not perceived as the end of the line, or the end all be all, that tomorrow, you still are ready to serve the country working with the person you fought with for an American future. I guess India would do well to learn lessons from this election as our own come up. The problems I mentioned in the earlier blog, still persist and have gotten worse; I hope Obama is the president who will deliver on his election promise.