Back in Black!

Back in black
I hit the sack
I've been too long I'm glad to be back
Yes, I'm let loose
From the noose
That's kept me hanging about
I've been looking at the sky
'Cause it's gettin' me high
Forget the hearse 'cause I never die
I got nine lives
Cat's eyes
Abusin' every one of them and running wild
'Cause I'm back

Couldn’t think of a better song to announce my return to the world of blogging! My world since the last post has changed way too much, and hopefully for the better! I finally cracked my nemesis for the first time, the CAT exam! More on that later at any rate. I no longer am in Pune, but am back in Bangalore, a new apartment to boot(one which I am being asked to leave as well)…I can’t resist paraphrasing the line from MIB II, New suit, new shades, new shoes, new tie with the new attitude. The days in Bangalore have certainly become longer, both with work and studying, leaving no time to do much else. Some good books I have read since the last time I blogged:
1) Freedom at Midnight – The story of independence of India as seen from the British point of view, Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre’s book is one which reads like an epic tale, of the struggle, Mahatma Gandhi as he was viewed by the other side, the deep divisions that the British saw among the Indians at the time between Nehru and Jinnah, the description of the power of the fast, these all led me to appreciate the odds that one man fought against a British system that existed for centuries.
2)Bonfire of the Vanities – A novel by Tom Wolfe, a book on New York at what he describes as the height of its power, the point at which it was the center of the world, like London in the 19th century was described by Charles Dickens, how the city had its own soul, omnipresent, and pressuring individuals from all directions.
3)Competetive Advantage of Nations – Book by Michael Porter. He extends his structural analysis of companies and the five forces model to analyze how nations should pursue a strategy. He gives the determinants for competitive advantage among nations, and uses case studies of the printing industry, the software industry among others to show for example, why the software industry was successful in US, the printing industry in Germany and so on. He also discusses what strategy a firm should follow in order to be a truly global company operating in many different countries.
4)Les Miserables – I reread this as part of a nostalgic experience from a long time ago, this being among my favourite books with the colourful characters of Valjean, the Bishop of D--, Javert, Thernadier, Pontmercy. The vivid descriptions of Paris after the Napoleonic wars, are so complete that historians refer to this book to find out about early 19th century France. As the title suggests this book is about the downtrodden, how the vicious cycle of poverty keeps them enslaved. However, the book is mainly about the evil of good, as it describes the struggle by Javert as he tries to reconcile the laws of society vs the good that a man can do. It raises several questions such as, is there a higher law that operates above the laws of men, and if so, which should we follow. Is it the letter of the law that we should follow or the spirit of the law. These questions are still valid to a large extent today, as discussions of what is right and what is wrong are debated daily today without borders across nations.
5)Star Trek novels – I probably have read close to 100 star trek novels over the course of the last two months, mainly being from the original series and the next generation. The novels might not be of the best quality, but it was more the characters which brought these novels to life. Star Trek was one of the serials I grew up with and Kirk and Picard were quite fascinating characters from those worlds, and William Shatner’s introduction to Star Trek, “Space... the Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no man has gone before” did fire a lot of imagination as well.

Of men and swine!

This is a blog from almost a danger zone or ground zero for the swine flu epidemic India(so consider being written under duress!). As dramatic as that may sound, it’s the honest to goodness truth. In Pune, where daily deaths due to swine flu are the headlines, it has indeed caused a great consternation to all those living here. Due to disregard for regulations, government indifference, racketeering and plain robbery, the spread of swine flu is fast becoming unchecked and it is only a matter of time before it spirals out of control. With the hospital workers themselves getting infected while treating the patients, it remains to be seen, how soon it will be before civil unrest breaks out. Strong parallels are being drawn between the situation here and Mexico about three months ago when it had to go on a war footing to stamp out swine flu and the return to normalcy is still taking place. With the places of public gathering shut down, malls, theaters, and schools closed for a week and to be continued based on the situation is indeed dire. With most of the cases arising from the waiting lines in hospitals, it does seem like a Catch-22 situation, or rather the choice of Odysseus, between Scylla and Charybdis. However, I am completely fine so far, and I hope that this continues until the situation is under control.
The faults in our political system are being exposed in this crisis, as the blame game has already begun. They should realize that this is a crisis not of their own direct doing but one that has been in the making for many years now by the entire world, as research into viral diseases has decreased over the last decade as consumer drugs rose in both productions as well as sales. Dealing with the situation successfully now should be of utmost concern here. I think the Health Minister Azad was very forthright about this and his conclusions that the worst is yet to come and that we should be prepared for it a valid point.
Anyways, enough gloomy predictions and doom, I think the four Horsemen can wait a little longer before they claim the world. In the midst of all this, I find myself at office working much shorter hours than before (which is a good thing!), and just indulging myself writing this blog as well. Over the last couple of months, it had been a different life, as I had seen untold hours I was promised I would never see by my family when I studied to get into an IIT. I mean all this was exactly what I wanted to avoid when I studied.
Also, its been a year since I joined PwC, one long year filled with ups and downs, success and failure, problems and solutions. If I had to quote Charles Dickens, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season o Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way…” It was mostly a good year, filled with interesting people, and definitely a large change from my earlier life of being a student (although I am working towards being a student again!).

High Road Robbery

To recount a story which no doubt many Indians here would have gone through or will go through in their lives at least once would no doubt be an exercise in futility but my first experience of this is indeed, to mince words here, exhilarating. It was a beautiful Saturday morning on which my friend and I decided to take the bike out and go to a Tata Indicom showroom to get his phone fixed. (And when I say bike I mean a little scooty pep + that I have “borrowed/stolen” from a literally “little/tiny” client(and I mean her height here))) The economics of it became that it was either go about 10 kms further and fix the phone for 100 bucks or buy a new phone for 700. Adventurous that we were and the fact that we didn’t know Pune, we decided to go for a ride. Getting lost and turned later, we found ourselves on a bridge with no entry for two wheelers apparently although there were many two wheelers on the same bridge. Just at that moment, the policeman appears out of nowhere stops us and takes our keys. Here follows the conversation between the three of us(my friend, me and the policeman)Warning alert, in most of this moi was completely useless and thanks to my friend its all good.

Police: Show me your licence(Translated from hindi/marathi to English most of this)!
Me: No sir, I don’t have a licence.
Police: Come along, drag your vehicle and park it at the police station, come along(in a loud and bellowing voice).
Me: Yes sir. (In a sotto voce to my friend, How much money do you have, I have about 20 bucks in my purse? Also the thought running through my head was, ditch the bike and run, its not mine anyway)
Friend: I have some, it should be enough
Me: Sir, please let us go, we didn’t know it was no entry for two wheelers.
Police: Nothing doing, keep the bike and quietly go on your way. Tell me your name.
Friend: Sir, this is our first time in Pune, we were in a hurry that is why we had to take the bike from our friend.
Police: Show me the bike papers!
Me: Sir its in the bike. (Little did I know that they weren’t, and that the bike was uninsured and it failed a pollution test)
Police: You people are driving around a bike with no licence and papers and all!
Me: Yes sir, but please let us go sir. Please don’t book a case against us.
Police: Nothing doing. Here look at the fines you people have to pay.(Its in Marathi which we didn’t know, so he made up no’s based on things I suppose). It comes out to 1700 bucks.
Me: (To my friend in sotto voce), pay the policeman that much money and lets get out of here.
Friend: Sir, please sir, we were trying to find Mangalwar peth and got lost, sir we cannot pay that much right now. Please let us go.(Finally the policeman comes around and asks)
Police: How much can you people pay?
I take out my purse and find that even the twenty bucks I thought I had was missing.
Police: Chalo pick up the bike from the commissioners office. Get out
Friend: (He quietly removes a 500 at which point I see he has more money as well)
Me: Give him whatever he wants, how much ever you have, just give it to him. Give him the purse.
Friend: (In an exasperated tone) Shut up and let me negotiate. Get out of the way
Me: (In a very meek voice) Yes, yes.
Police: 600 rupees and all this could be forgotten
Friend: Yes sir.
Now the policeman changes his tone.
Police: Sir, where do you have to go? (He shows us the directions each time calling us sir and lets us go)

After that, we decided to turn tail, head back and buy a new phone which my friend curses me for. However, I suppose it is one experience all of us go through in our lives, and no matter how many times you hear of it from other people, it is still harrowing nonetheless.

And now breaking off from that story into a different mode of thought altogether, I started wondering about what a value system means and what it is supposed to be. Is it religion or is it personal or is it one that is imposed by a society, friends, family or yourself. This came into being mainly after being called conscience-less being by my manager as a joke, but I figured maybe it is. As a child of two religions, I grew up with two different belief systems whose fundamentals about good and evil are the same, yet different. I started wondering about what are values essentially? Is it being honest, being loyal, being fair and just, or believing in what you do? Not to philosophize at this point, but wondering about it made me think that the choices you make are what defines your value system. Whether the values you hold are right or wrong is not what I am debating about but rather what is it that defines that system. I suppose when you choose upon a particular course of action, you make the choice based on a certain rationale. Whether that “certain rationale” is rational or not is again open to debate, but that “certain rationale” is what the value system is I feel.

At any rate, books that I have been reading. One book that I have read just two days back would include an arbitrary book by Mills and Boone. No offense, but the less said the better about that. Otherwise, other readings would include “The Future of War” which was an enlightening read on what warfare is about, and how it has changed, how rules of engagement and technology has changed the battlefield yet kept the basic tenets of warfare the same. It is mainly about the US military and how US policies are meant to maintain the American hegemony. Other than that, a book called “Statecraft” by Margaret Thatcher, the iron lady herself. It is an assessment of world conditions from a political, economic and military point of view. It is a pretty interesting read as one of the things she deals with is the view of the Middle East from a European point of view and how they see Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

The Isshoes of Today(ok, a bad pun here)

A ghastly time to be blogging, but I feel as if I have no choice in this matter. Sandwiched between insane hours at the office and the solitude that sleep offers, writing is one of the best ways to cure a life devoid of any frissons for now. I wish I could say my life was copacetic but I wont complain about it either. Where to begin I suppose is one question that haunts me for now, with me running out of topics to write about in this blog. Since the last time I have written, I have not read too many books worth mentioning about over here. Most of them have been the read and forget types, to not wonder about.
One thing I did want to mention was the growing number of incidents of politicians having shoes thrown at them. With politicians across the world facing such an ire and the difficulty of the security to stop such a protest, it has spread like wildfire since the attack on Bush. I paused to wonder what it was about the shoe that made it the symbol, I mean why the shoe and no other apparel of clothing as such. If we go back to the sixties it was "Burn the Bra" era, then later came the afro era, the jeans era etc. Throwing the shoe is not an invention now as Nikita Khruschev had done earlier in the United Nations during the Cuban Missile Crisis against Adlai Stevenson. Anyway, we see the shoe as just another part of what we wear, some use it for style and statement(most ladies I know), and some for brand endorsement money. Anyway throwing the shoe has now come to mean throwing the basest part of what you wear(the one covered with all the dirt etc, not unlike many politicians that we know of today) as a sign of protest against all that has come to represent politics these days. I digress at any rate on an offbeat topic which no doubt you have all read about, but still I have come to wonder at this new form of protest. We can also now see how trends follow across the world. From the first fling of the shoe at Bush, to now people in villages in India flinging shoes at politicians here, we can see the power of the media at work.
As to my current reading, I have just finished Balance of Power by Richard North Patterson, and it was an interesting read on how the gun lobby has an influence in the government, at how laws are passed in favor of the gun lobby, simply due to the amounts that they spend in endorsing their candidates for the House of Representatives and the Senate which then enact laws protecting the gun companies. At any rate, I do feel pretty sleepy and I have to get up for work tomorrow morning. So long and muchas gracias for reading this blog!

Falling into Infinity

The dates between my blogs seem to be growing, and I think it is futile to say anything about how or why it has been so. So skipping over the usual banter I think I can give a better description of time spent since my last post by the places I have been to since then. Traveling is a curse they say, but seeing new sights and people is definitely one I would not like to ever give up. So since my last post I have been to Hyderabad, Calcutta, Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Roorkee, and finally back to Pune. It has been an all India trip of sorts and I did relish my time spent in each of these places, even if it made me bankrupt in this process.

Going back to Roorkee was a memorable one, meeting all my juniors and some of my classmates. It was a trip made possible more by luck than by design as my classmates who were with me in Program management made the trip from various parts of India. For three days we forgot that we had left the institute and felt ourselves as students again. Going back there, not as a student but as an alumnus, I felt proud that I had been there, and that I was able to enjoy the four years I had spent there. Small pangs of regret I did feel as I wondered how it would have been, had I not made the choices I had, mainly regarding academics versus extra curricular activities, however, hindsight is 20/20 I suppose.

Anyways, beyond that trips to Mumbai were as fun as always and I really have to appreciate the vibrancy and diversity present there. If I could, I would call it the City of Blinding Lights to describe this city. The dichotomy that is present in Mumbai really surprised me though. From the world’s largest slum to the richest real estate property on Earth, I am surprised to see so many shades of Mumbai in this fashion. It really does remind me of the title of the book by Jeffrey Archer, As the Crow Flies.

So moving beyond these trips and all, I was thinking about a conversation I had with my friend the other day, about how people’s image of themselves changes as we grow and age. What we see ourselves as, our values, morals, character, who we are and how these change with time. During the conversation I was reminded of the book, The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde in which Dorian Gray on seeing a picture of himself is dismayed by the fact that the picture will stay the same as he ages and eventually withers away. A deal is struck to have the image age and contain within it a picture of his true self, he would remain the same young person. Eventually in the course of time, he locks the picture in an attic and tries to forget that the picture existed, and watches himself in the picture as his soul decays with his decadent means and ways. I couldn’t help but think whether I would be able to face my true self in this fashion. I don’t know the answer to that question, but I did agree on one thing though. Its each person’s life to live, make mistakes and learn, and its each person’s answer to his/her own questions that makes them who they are. Call it a very laissez faire approach to life or by any other term, there are obvious limits to where your freedom ends as well in this approach.

Going back to political commentary, I know my election predictions turned out disastrously as I predicted both the primaries and the main election wrongly; however, this has nothing to do with elections or predictions, which I will now leave to higher beings to do. Since January 20 of this year, the world’s eyes and at least one ear has been on the White House and its doings. Obama has taken the right steps ahead in closing Guantanamo Bay and his passing the finance bill through the senate. However, his system of working seems to be a bit mysterious as his general statements on the economic crisis seem to be just that, as no details are being released on the actual functioning of the rescue package. Also his neo isolationist policy seems to be the exact replica of Bush’s own isolationist policy which he tried to implement when he became president back in 2001. Events forced Bush to do otherwise, and it could be that the isolationist policy was what caused terrorism to flourish on a global scale. If Obama is doing this to distance himself from the previous administration, it could very well backfire on his own domestic agenda. The economic crisis has to be his top priority because economics is usually the indicator of the confidence of the people in their own country, and a crisis of confidence as Jimmy Carter said could be more destructive than any known weapon on earth.

Stepping aside from the foreign politics for a moment and entering into the far murkier world of Indian politics, it is that time again when the world’s largest democracy goes to election this year. I have not voted thus far in my life, looking upon it as an exercise in futility. However, even we in India face a turning point in our own country’s history. Whether we shackle ourselves to the point where we do not step forward or go along with unbridled corruption or not is in our hands now, and I sincerely urge all of those who have not voted to vote this year according to the issues that the party presents. Although voting in India might seem like a choice between Scylla and Charybdis we have to complete our duty towards the nation and its people. Not stepping into the adages of nationalism which could be more mind numbing than inspiring, it is the least that we can do for our fellow human beings. I think the call “jaago re” is appropriate in this sense.

Anyway, I will try to post more often these days, and for a small preview, it will be on books I have read since the last time I posted, so keep looking out!

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.

Elections everlasting!

With the final week of the US election coming up, the world turns to watch the oldest democracy select who will become probably the most powerful man on Earth, possibly the most powerful man ever. With many crises all coming to head in this generation or possibly the next, this president is at a crossroads of sorts that will decide the fate of future generations. This time we are at the nexus of many crises including the financial one right now which has reared its ugly head. By crises I mainly mean the raw materials crisis, the environmental crisis, the financial crisis, the globalization and population crisis to name a few. The POTUS, is at a state where he has to define policy on all these issues, and most of them have to be far reaching ones. The next policies he defines might be as important as the Constitution or the Bill of Rights itself. How America conducts its domestic and international policies over the next four or eight will affect almost every nation on the planet. With the financial crisis which has brought almost the entire economy to a standstill across the globe, how America can revitalize industries is going to be looked at very carefully. I mean the financial crisis has brought about a lot of comparisons with Greek tragedies. The financial wunderkind often being referred to as the gods of Mount Olympus, and how they looked down and ruled the financial world, or as Icarus who went too near the sun, or Pandora’s  Box. This being the case, we could call this the Gotterdammerung, a dusk of the gods if you will. Any number of clichés or statements however will not fix the crisis that the world finds itself in. No matter the rhetoric used by the news networks as describing scenes of Wall Street as a bloodbath or cataclysmic destruction of the universe, the events that unfold still happen. To fix this crisis requires a monumental effort on part of the US government and the US President. They will have to restore faith in the market system that they has eroded over the last couple of months. No doubt that President Roosevelt in 1932 faced a similar quandary after the Great Depression which happened during Herbert Hoover’s time. It took the US 15 years to return to the financial status of 1929, and it took a world war for that to happen. However, short of a major positive jolt to the system, this seems unlikely to be the case now. At the time Roosevelt initiated a public transportation building system that employed thousands to build roads and infrastructure that have lasted through the century. Now the new President will have to find some way to keep people moving, to have them contribute to the world’s largest economy. The drive by both candidates to keep jobs in America might be such a move, but it would be detrimental to the globalized world. By withdrawing jobs away from other countries, it would set the emerging nations economies back a couple of notches. However, that might be the best move to revitalize their own economy. I think we now are seeing a gradual shift back to the nationalism that was present in the hey days of the 19^th century in Europe. The new worlds to conquer in the information age now are knowledge, a smart workforce, and natural resources. It could lead back to the times when statesmen who were supposed to think long term substituted short term gains for longer term ends and failed to sustain their states through the 19^th century as many empires fell with the end of that particular century. Now with the culmination of the financial crisis taking place we see a return to that kind of nationalism that eventually led to two world wars. Anyway, with the election about to start in eight hours, I guess its time to call the election and make a prediction. Everyone has one anyway.

My prediction is that the Gallup polls are wrong and that McCain will win in a closely contested election which will see Obama winning the popular vote but losing the electoral vote. The problem with the Gallup polls and all is that most people do not honestly answer the surveys in fear of revealing their own vote or appearing racist in this case I feel. Also they are limited in the people they survey amongst. I see a continuation of the Republican government for the next four years. I see America electing a person of great stature who gave his life for his country in Vietnam and has a varied experience in the Senate. Generally, most Americans are Conservatives at heart and would elect a Republican into office. Also, America has never changed parties in the middle of wars, even Lincoln who supposedly had 27% approval rating in the middle of Civil War was reelected President. Lyndon B Johnson, who instigated the Vietnam War, was also reelected to office. So I think we shall see McCain in office for the next four years atleast.

Chapter 2

“That is the last of what we know of what happened with Commander Mitt’s mission. What you have all witnessed was what we could piece together from Beagle’s headset. The rest is a blur, and what we have witness of the intruder is only evidenced by the red light. As you can see from Beagle’s headset, the enemy’s ship is of a size unfathomable even to those of us who have advanced since the days we were bound to stay on Earth. I have called each one of you here, since this affects us all, not only in our business and shared interests, but that we each of us represent a sizeable portion of the Confederation and can take decisions rapidly. Make no mistake, this is an unprecedented event of the likes that could define our very sense of what it is to be human.”

With that President Zachary Wolf, inventor of the hyper wormhole transportation, and sole holder of all rights to it, took a seat in the Council, now controlled by the ruling dynasties. They were all here, the major ones at least, the ones whose very word was law on each of his own planets and a mere glance from them could elevate a person to high status or erase him to oblivion. All of them equals here, all controlling various parts of the intricate workings of the Confederation. They were more like feudal lords in their own right, with more power than any king could hope for, but they ruled justly and for centuries, peace had been the foremost concern, as poverty, aging, disease and other such appalling things had been eradicated and bringing new freedom to man. However economics was the one thing that bound all humans and these men as they were represented the brightest and the climax of what humanity had achieved. The Konark dynasty with its control of all shipping, Marlon with its terraforming capabilities, and the other dynasties Geriac, Wedenstra, Micsola, and Omicra made up this council.

“Well, its not one that I have built. That kind of scale would take centuries just to make plans for it. Its as large as a small moon. Makes the Deathstar from the old Earth movies a joke.” Mark Konark, the head of the Konark dynasty, was immediately  fascinated that such a thing could exist. He had been working on building larger ships to free man of planets and roam the stars, but this was beyond his wildest dreams. Already he could see himself retooling his factories to work out his plans. However, the loss of his ship troubled him that he lost some his best men working on them. The Interstellar Navy, technically which worked for the Confederation, was a direct extension of his empire, as he supplied all the ships.

“Gentlemen, I think we can say without a reasonable doubt that this ship, is not human, and is definitely alien. We have encountered alien species here in this Galaxy, but none of them sentient enough to raise a concern. This is something that we have not planned for, and have no contingency for that an alien species far more advanced than us, could be violent enough to wipe out an entire squadron, without attempting to raise any contact.”

“Zach, can you venture a guess on how this alien ship moves? To make a hyper wormhole jump, calculations take us normally hours before we execute it. We try to make sure to avoid ending up in a star, yet this apparently dormant ship powered up and left, before we could make any moves.”

“To answer your question Mark, I would have to say that this makes my theories a joke. I cannot answer your question in this lifetime or the next. I can take a look at that video all I want, but its not going to get us anywhere. Until that thing reveals itself to us, we have nothing to go upon. The only thing I can say looking at the quantum subspace fluctuation that took place before the ship powered up, is that the ship deals with the fabric of space-time itself. Its almost as if that the ship is part of the space itself. With that kind of powers, for all we know, it could be God or anything it chooses to be. Also remember the planets, they had to be made. No way that the planets be so round, or placed so vicariously with those double stars. We have to assume that this alien has planet building capabilities. Consequently, with the power to build, they also have the power to destroy.” With that, a chill could be felt within the room. It had been a while since these men had to deal with such a situation. Centuries of peace had convinced them that war was an anachronism, and that fighting for material was outdated. But an alien fighting them without any motive and with the power to destroy humanity or a significant part of it was frightening enough.

“Mr. President, should we start with weapons research again? Just to make sure we have something that we can counter with? I for one would feel a lot safer, knowing that some defense is possible against the indefensible. We may not be able to fully defend ourselves but at the very least force them to come to the negotiating table or preserve a part of humanity that could continue.” A babble of voices came to the fore as Zach watched the lively debate. Starting weapons research would end the centuries old ban to weapons for destruction, however he couldn’t see any way around it. No doubt that the Omicra dynasty would profit from this, but at this level, profit was no longer a motive.

“I call the vote, the Confederation starts weapons research with an intent to defend the human race from extinction.” As each raised their hands, the dice was thrown and Zach could think of a line he had read a child in a distant past. “The moving hand writes and having writ gestures.”

“Next item, how do we handle this with the rest of the planets? Surely we should tell them about it?” Wedenstra were known as the peacemakers, as they had successfully convinced the warring factions of Earth to give up their weapons to herald the beginning of the Pax Wedenstra as it was now known. They had been great statesmen, and would always probably remain so, thought Zach cynically.

“I propose that we do a limited statement release to the people explaining that the squadron was investigating an unknown phenomenon in those planets and that an accident caused the subsequent destruction. We need to hold for some time before making any rash statements. Obfuscate reality for now, to ensure a safe future. Outside this council, I don’t think anyone needs to know about this incident.” Small wonder that it came from the Omicra dynasty, as the others exchanged looks across the table. It would mean that they would have a larger say at this table, but it was the only course of action as they saw it.

“We shall keep in regular contact until the next such incident occurs and I hope that it is not within our lifetime that such an event comes to pass. However, at this point of time, we are the best equipped and the most able minded to handle such a crisis, and I intend to see that the Council is up to the mark.” Zach had been president for four hundred years, not only because of his hyper wormhole transport system but also for his ability to convince the rest of the Council of its usefulness towards mankind in general. No oligarchy in history ever had such power and none ever would. “I urge all of you to use your discretionary powers that are available to you in keeping this under wraps until we are ready. My own planet will provide any amount of resources that you will all need to survive this. With the survival of our race at stake, I pledge with all my life that we shall overcome this obstacle.”

Far away from that room, in the outer reaches of spaces, an unknown ship emerged as if just created, from a hostile situation it just encountered. For a million years it had hid, but never forgot what had forced it into hiding. Within the confines of this ship, it survived through the ages, ever adding to itself, ever growing in its consciousness as it reached out across the stars looking for any enemies. With the encounter of the small rafts it had fled the scene after destroying, fearful that finally they had caught up to it. It seemed so long ago, but just a blink of an eye for its life. Breaking off from the F’rmo’gyhs it had forged a life of its own. It knew that it was the climax of its civilization that had taken to the stars, building themselves into the very fabric of space, with its ability to create stars and planets, controlling galaxies to shape and bend to their will. The civil war that had started had lasted for millions of years, fought across galaxies and planets, till the very end when it watched the remnants of the splintered groups burn, it fled across the universe, to hide and fight another day. Shutting itself, and watching the universe go by had been the hardest thing to do, but it was the only thing left for it to do and go on survive. Sure that inactivation was the only mode of survival, it had gone on for eons waiting for a signal, waiting to be found. That the ones who found it were of a technological scale a full universe behind, hurt it more as to how degraded it had become. It was a being of a different kind, having a genetic code different from its own civilization. A mutation that fully developed and threatened to overtake its own species, yet through a combination of sheer numbers and luck, it was barely defeated and now taking refuge in this galaxy. The only thing it had left was patience, and the reticence to survive. It would wait, wait until those that made it run, found it again. It had come to rest at a star, a yellow star, with many planets. Four gas giants and several smaller rocks. Several signals seemed to be emanating from the third and fourth planets, but all seemed inconsequential. It would wait here, till the end of time perhaps, but wait it would, and watch the universe burn.

Fun stuff!

I was watching a British series called “Doctor Who” and it’s a real fun series, for all those cultists and science fiction fans! I mean which other series would have a tacky blue telephone booth for a time and space traveling device and a time lord, called the Doctor who looks human, a human companion, ostensibly a female, on all his travels, and supervillains like another time lord, the Master, the Daaleks(metal cans who are apparently indestructible), metal men(human robots). It’s a real fun series to watch and suspend your thinking for a little while atleast. You get to watch end of Earth in 5 billion years, the end of the universe, the paradox machine, a spaceship crashing into the big Ben, Agatha Christie, Will Shakespeare, really anything short of the super ordinary.

Also for those book fans out there, Peter F Hamilton’s second book of the Void trilogy is out(I posted about the first book, the Dreaming Void a while back). Its really good, just read it last night, and boy does he really weave an intricate story across the universe, both real and unreal.

Ok, beyond all this, I just re-read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand again, that being one of my favorite books. For those of you who have not read it, you are missing something in life by not reading this book atleast. I might forgive you for not liking any books, but not for not reading this book. At the very least, go through John Galt’s speech at the end of the book, which in itself contains a philosophy of living.

Also, with the financial crisis going on around me, I guess we are living through history now, with the countries bailing out their banks in a huge way. Whether this is socialist or not, it possibly could be only fending off the coming Gotterdammerung. I tried following the news about this by watching CNN-IBN, instead all I get are one line statements saying, people shouldn’t worry and people should have more confidence in their government and its ability. That India’s fundamentals are very strong and we should continue to invest. This shows that the government’s attitude is that the Asian market’s are decoupled with respect to the globalized economy which could very well be the case. Certainly after the Asian market meltdown in the late 90’s, banks in each countries have worked to make it so, but decoupling is not 0 or 1, that is, black or white. For more details on the decoupling issue, read the paper from Deloitte’s website. Eventually with the global recession, it may have direct effects, but secondary effects will certainly bog down our GDP growth rate. Recently in the newspaper, I think under the column of Swaminomics, MS Swaminathan made a case for why its not the GDP growth rate that’s important, but the fact that our GDP growth rate has fallen which is. Since with decreased global demand, our export markets are certain to be hit which could have huge fallouts in other sectors as well. I am more interested in seeing what kind of social fallout will this recession have, since spending has been at an all time high, and curbing this will be harder to do. Anyway, I hope someone can shed light on this issue...I am no economist to make any predictions and neither am I a fortune teller with a parrot or cards.

Oh, and the song Californication has been stuck in my head for the last couple of days…find myself humming or singing this out…But it’s a fun song, and listen to it!

So beyond all that, I wish you all happy holidays for this month, and enjoy!

The Untitled Story(the beginning!)

“The flash lights don’t work either..” Mark, call sign Beagle, said as he entered the opening of the cavern. Mentally, his eyes were still adjusting to the abrupt dark that set in with the night coming in for the first time in days. The binary system of Unatute stars ensured that this G-class planet had night once every six days. It played hell with the weather patterns, causing huge storms that lasted for months. That this planet had ever survived the formation of the binary system was still a mystery that threw academia into a tempest when it was discovered.

Two years ago, the planning for this expedition had started. Unatute was part of Phase Six space, eventually to be terraformed into an industrial planet for the dynasties that currently controlled the affairs of the Space Confederation formed in the early 22^nd century. Nearly 450 years had passed since its formation when its founder Zachary Wolf had discovered the hyper wormholes. By latching on to tachyons, the user could be transported from one place to another within the space of seconds according to Earth time, now an anachronism on many planets. With people now settling across the galaxy, Earth was just another planet, albeit the cultural centre of the Galaxy. Space Confederation was like any other bureaucracy, now large and unwieldy controlled by the few that could afford the luxury of appointing the men and women to agencies of their choice. With all the planets of the Confederation pledging allegiance to it, the Confederation directly controlled the lives of a quintillion people now spread out over a sector of the Galaxy.

The discovery of Unatute I and II had spawned a widespread intellectual tumult in that by all known laws of physics, the planet should not have existed, yet there it was, as if in cosmic defiance to all that could care. Its shape too perfectly round, and featureless save for a cavern that existed on the far side of the planet. In all respects the planet was stationary and was there as if the stars revolved around it. An expedition was eventually planned and launched by the Confederation in due course towards the planet.

“Beagle, I read you. Check and use thermal imagers, see if you can find anything. Scan all frequencies. Something is causing this electrical storm, and I don’t think it’s the weather. This is Mitt, out.” Mitt Rowell was the commander of the mission. This was supposed to be a routine run of the mill mission on exploration of a planet and its attributes. He had a wide experience of those, and they had almost always ended the same way, in most cases the planet being very docile and ready for terraforming.

“Negative on all frequencies, sir. I am switching over to sub space transmitting frequencies. Nothing here either. The quantum signatures are not registering on any modules. I will attempt to move inside and report from there. Will maintain an open comm link to report.” Mark said as he switched his sensors on. After thirty minutes of walking into the cavern, he switched off the sensors. “Sir, negative on all readings still, will return to shuttlecraft and wait for further developments after the storm. This is Beagle out.”

“Beagle, I read you. Maintain an open comm link throughout the storm, we do not wish to lose your coordinates due to the energy pulses emanating from the storm.”

“Yes, sir. I understand. Will catch you on the flip side of the storm sir. Wait a minute, I am picking up something on the subspace scanners. Switching to active, hold steady.” Beagle’s voice emanated over the comm link. “Its some sort of code and its repetitive, sir. I am uplinking the signal to the command module sir. See if the computer can analyze it.”

“Beagle, advised to maintain position and transmit. Receiving signal, now. Computer, analyze the signal for any known messages. Run it through the Loki-Nuth Algorithm.”

“Captain, I am picking up large amounts of quantum fluctuations in the subspace arrays. Advise that we put our shields up.” the ship engineer called out over the link.

“Very well, shields up. Go to red alert status.” Mitt was fully alert now, and at the helm during this time. This was his first red alert status that he had ever ordered but training and discipline from his training days at Earth, it came automatically to him. “Lt. Commander, bring back Beagle to the ship, and take us out of orbit.”

“Yes, sir. Beaming Beagle back to the ship. Beagle, stand by.” As soon as Mark was back on the ship, he came to see the Captain.

“Captain, inside the cavern I saw something that should not have been there, and I did not wish to transmit over the comm link. Sir, you remember the part of the Confederation’s code dealing with time travelling and what to do in case we encounter members from the future?” Mark asked him.

“But, that was just mumbo jumbo from some hare brained scientist, who didn’t know what he was saying and they ratified it as it is really nonsense. Time travel does not exist and is not possible. I know what all the stories and the strange theories predict that some day it might be possible but I don’t see how it could be relevant in this case.” Mitt replied, surprised that a crew member would even bring up such a clause of the Code.

“Sir, this is in the strictest of the confidences that I tell you this. I saw a ship inside the cavern. It looked old and disabled, larger than any ship in the Confederation. It looked abandoned and was just hanging there. No lights, no subspace communications, nothing on the scanners for life. Also the scanners picked up that no one had been inside this cavern for over a million years. Sir, a million years ago, humans were closer to their ape compatriots.

“That’s ridiculous. The scanners must be wrong. Send me what you found.” Mitt thought back to the time he reported an anomaly on Mars, the first true colony of Earth. Green cadet that he was, his shipmates played a trick on him by reprogramming his scanners to show a large invasion force from an unknown alien, apparently hostile and destroying the planet. In the confusion, he never looked out the window to see all was fine on the surface of the planet. He trusted the scanners to do what they were doing. He raised alert levels on all planets to high levels and the entire defence force was mobilized in seconds only to find a cadet who was scared not to look out his own window. From then on he decided to trust his instincts rather than what the machines showed. Old fashioned thinking though that might be, after the fiasco, he rapidly rose through the ranks to the point where there weren’t many people left to remind of this particular story. “What’s the status of the storm? Give me updates, I want all heads in on this.”

“Captain, this is Beagle. The storm is holding still as if to cover the cavern. The quantum fluctuations are increasing. In a few moments, I will have to leave this position sir. My scanners report all normal. I am uploading the data now.”

As Mitt went through the data, he was shocked to find that this was real. There was a ship there in the cavern.

“Captain, the ship appears to be moving. It’s moving to portside. Hold on. I will try to get a visual of the ship. The scanners are going crazy. I have never seen anything like this before. The readings are off the scale. The ship appears to be powering up. I am now within visual range of the ship. There is some red light that seems to be emanating from it. I am trying to get a reading, sir. I ...”

A loud explosion rocked the vessel as Mitt was thrown to side. Warning lights flashed all around him, as he tried to stand up.

“Comm, what the hell is going on?”

History Revisited!

I got an argument against history from my friend that there is an opportunity cost to everything we do. The time that we spend in doing something, could be used in doing something else more profitable or more time worthy I suppose. She argued that learning history, going through books and all, were time taken away from other things like academics (I mean getting higher in school and all which is a commendable goal despite what the cynics might have to say about the education system), athletics (being more fit), or having fun with friends (hanging out and having a life in general I suppose).

Anyway, to refute these points one by one, I want to first state that people have different goals in life. Each of the above categories, people give different weightage to depending on their goals. Some might give entirely to academics, some to sports and some to hanging out. So depending on what you want to do, reading etc, will always have an opportunity cost. Since it does occupy time, it will always prevent you from doing something else. But isn’t that true of all activities? Will not every activity have an opportunity cost with this reasoning? However, reading about history I want to argue that its opportunity cost is much lower. History is one way of learning to sift through myth and reality, which is pretty important for any businessman who has to read a multitude of reports. The ability to summarize entire texts within a coherent brief of a couple of pages is very important in today’s world of infinite knowledge. This can be pointed out by the fact that HP’s former CEO Carly Fioriana was a major in Medieval History, and she did relate to this skill when she explained her success as a CEO. In athletics, or physical development, history isn’t all that important, but don’t we always like to know about the sport we play? Wouldn’t we want to about the greats that played the game and how the game evolved over time? Isn’t that a way of enjoying the game itself? Sure, there would be an opportunity cost of not playing the game, but would you be playing 24x7 that there would be no time left during the day? I mean most of the knowledge you pick up by watching tv which you do retain, and I don’t think that this would be major inconvenience of any sort to learning. And then hanging out in general, again it is not a 24x7 job that would force you to not have any time to yourself. There are 24 hours in a day and life is too short to spend it sleeping. I think longer than 7-8 hours a days is indulgence which has a higher opportunity cost than anything else. With average work being around 10 hours a day, that leaves about 8-9 hours a day free which I am sure increasing your general knowledge and a little about history shouldn’t take more than an hour or two. Besides that, we all have history and all taught to us during our school years and if we can relate what we learn in class and retain a part of it, (which also increases your academic knowledge at any rate), that would be quite a knowledge base to begin with. Although there is an opportunity cost attached to this, considering that we use only about a small percentage of our brains at any rate, I don’t think this would cause an overload at any rate. Also, a lot of history can be learnt by just reading the newspaper everyday and relating what you know to what is happening in the world today. A question of relating events more than anything else to understanding foreign policy of various nations, for example the fight in Ossetia in Russia and the Russian response to the insurgency, the blunted American protests in response. Also we can relate more to what’s happening in the world through what we know especially in a world where cross country borders are becoming more lines in the minds of academicians as today’s technologies bring the world much closer to each other.

Personally, I don’t think it was a high opportunity cost in learning history, which is totally unrelated to my field of choice which was engineering. I still did well academically, played sports, hung out with friends and did many more activities. I may not have done too well, but I don’t think I would blame my excessive if not obsessive book reading mania for that. There were probably other reasons for not doing too well, but this was one of my ways to escape the confines of reality and let my imagination take me away…Its like the song, Overkill, “I can’t get to sleep, I think about the implications of diving in too deep, and possible the complications, especially at night, I worry over situations, I know will be alright, perhaps its just imagination. Day after day it reappears, Night after night, my heartbeat shows the fear..Goes to be here and fade away, Come back another day… (This is for my friend that gave this argument than anything else).  

Empty homes and history!!

Ok, simple enough explanation for this title I suppose. The short story, I am writing this as I sit in my empty home now, devoid of all furniture and electronics, books and shelves, an empty home. Anyway, I can’t help feel sad that this is the last time I will look upon this place and see it no more. Rather from Edgar Allen’s poem, The Raven… “Quoth the raven nevermore”. Or could be the Green Day’s song Time of your Life… “Its something unpredictable but in the end is right, I hope you had the time of your life” Looking back over the last five years that I lived here, well not exactly “lived” considering that four years I have spent in a hostel, yet there was the knowledge, that yes, there was a place I could go back to… Now I am civil engineer without a home… Where’s the irony in that? Anyway, getting back to more saner things in life… Anyway, I was having a long conversation with one of my good friends, namely Tulika, on the importance of history… I mean why is it important? How does something, someone did a long time ago affect our daily lives? I am probably sure that everyone can get on through life without knowing any history at all as well…But as an ardent learner of history, I feel compelled to defend it. There is a saying, Those who do not know history, are condemned to repeat it. To me this sounds just like a bromide, and this is not the defense I want to use. It seems a very weak defense as well. There are good examples of this being true through the course of history of course. I am sure if people look up the European wars through the ages, it can be seen tat the shortsightedness of the statesmen in looking at immediate gains rather than longer views forced countries into wars which were neither profitable nor worthy. If we can see Napoleon’s invasion of Russia, and Hitler’s invasion nearly a century later, we can see that both failed due to the same reasons of fighting wars on two fronts, and of course the perennial General Winter of Russia. Both stopped with sighting distance of Moscow and turned back. Then we can see the colonization processes of Britain, France and now the US and how they all proceed in the exact same manner. It can be even said that they are following centuries old policies of the Romans itself, mainly divide and conquer. Anyway, leaving that defense, I wanted to see how it is useful everyday life itself. What it means to know history and relate it to yourself. I agree that you can go through life without ever knowing history, probably never bother about it all. However imagine how much more richer would the knowledge make you, being able to see things as they are now in their historical context. For example, Giacometti’s statues which to an observer would just seem like badly made cariacatures, but put in their context of being made between the two world wars depict the lonely, desperate times and what man yearned to get out of. An energetic being brought down by an impending sense of doom almost, lonely as it stands against the tide that seems to wipe over humanity. Or Wagner’s music, which on first hearing would seem very good, and it in fact is excellent. But put in the context of Wagner’s philosophies and teachings, would put an anti Semitic face to the music, deploring it of all music. The Nazis would later use this as their purifying music fit for their Master Aryan race. So playing this music for your Jewish friends might not be the best way to fit in with them. Also history teaches us a way of sifting through facts and myth to come up something real, as how people were all those times ago and seeing if what we live in is a better way now? Has the quality of our life been improving or simply a repetition of what our predecessors did? These might not be questions we ask ourselves in the course of daily events, but these are relevant questions if you want to be able to do something different, something what the world had not seen before. In the future, people might debate as to how we used to live, what were our outlooks on life, what were our beliefs, what code of standards did we use to live by. Anyway, history to me personally is like a story, a tale of how man has progressed through the ages. How we have grown from living in caves and dwellings and now have skyscrapers and high rise buildings built into the sky, as if to challenge the very gods themselves to dare stop us.

Anyway, I have been thinking of writing a story for some time now, and have found a good plot line I think… I will put up the starting on the next blog and see how people like it…Guys remember, I am no Isaac Asimov, so don’t expect too much either…

Strange Things

I guess this is the take off from the movie Wild Things, which I am sure every engineer has seen wide eyed. Anyway, in a lighter vein of things, I have modified the line Dilios says in 300 to suit any engineer to tell the truth:
“The old ones say that we engineers are descended from Newton himself. Taught never to look at women, never to sleep. Taught that cheating in the exam is the greatest glory he could achieve in his life. Engineers: the finest drunkards the world has ever known”
So moving on, with the song Cocaine stuck in my head.. “if you wanna get down, down on the ground; cocaine; she dont lie, she dont lie, she dont lie..cocaine” Actually this is the product of a person whose senses right now are numbed to the point, where coming up with something to put on the blog is becoming a pain itself. So over the weekend, read a book called War 2020, a world in which the US influence is decreased due to increased Japanese technology whose laser weapons have created a stalemate in the world. Basically Russia is down, and the Cold War continues with Japan and US on opposite ends. The US military is obliterated by the Japanese war machines, and the economy due to extensive outsourcing is controlled by outside forces. Now the Americans decide to support Russia in an unprecedented move to push back the rebel forces in Russia and thus regain some of the lost pride which they lost in wars to South Africa, Mexico, Los Angeles(internal gang rebellion) and Latin America in general who were being supplied by the Japanese. Also a disease without a cure ravages the western world while the eastern world somehow survives it unscathed. Now this all sounds very unbelievable to the point of being ludicrous, but hear the author out after the setting. It’s a pretty interesting book as to what happens and all. I personally think that this has to do with the outsourcing issue and the irrational fear that the Americans have about it. I mean the jobs that are being outsourced to other countries are the non essential jobs, that one could argue could have generated jobs in US but is being outsourced to India. But the fact remains that the corporations save a lot of money here, which they reinvest to have meaningful jobs back in the US. I mean, they pay software engineers in India the equivalent of what a guy flipping burgers in a McDonalds in US. Would people want to really do those jobs, or will the corporations be willing to pay them higher for those jobs? It could signal the end of the software bubble that India has been riding on for the last couple of years. Otherwise, it could lead to a monumental loss to the US market, as the jobs don’t get filled and the corporations claim the taxes… However, with both candidates set against outsourcing, we will have to wait and see the results of their policies.
Also the other thing was seeing John McCain selecting Sarah Palin as his running mate. This is a disappointment coming from a senator of 30 years to select someone who does not seem qualified to hold the post of Vice President. I don’t have anything against her, but it just seems an amateurish way to capture the women vote and appease the Conservatives… It just seems like this might blow up in his face with Sarah Palin being inexperienced whereas McCain attacks Obama on being inexperienced.
Anyway, enough of the American elections, I am too tired to discuss that any further today. I instead wanted to talk about a section I belonged to while in IIT Roorkee. It was called Program Management or PM for short, part of Cultural society. Once upon a time in my first year, I remember going to an interview with a group of people. I thought generally at the time, to stay away from my room. I figured, either I should be in the room to study or outside enjoying. So I sat down, and two people took my interview. It was a weird interview. In two minutes they figured out I didn’t know hindi, could not draw, and wasn’t all too imaginative. I figured, that’s the end of it, lets have pizza at Nescafe and go back to the room, but for some reason they passed me through. Again, probably a clerical error of putting my paper on the wrong stack now that I think back to it. So I made it to this group at the time. It seemed like a fun group and the people seemed fun. The first meeting we had, I was christened Yella at any rate. One of the seniors found Rahul too hard to remember and thus shortened my last name to that.. Now four years later, that’s the name everyone knows me by. I honestly don’t think anyone knows me as Rahul. I even wrote an article in third year in a magazine claiming I am not Yella. Actually I tried to emulate Leonard Nimoy who plays Spock in Star Trek. He wrote a book I am not Spock as everyone associated him with that only..Later he wrote a book called I am Spock. Anyway after that article, people called me Yella even more… Back to the story, PM was a big part of my time in IITR. I worked and the people in the group were fun and energetic as hell. It involved basically organizing events for Cult Soc. Through this group, I had some very cool seniors and some very good juniors. I made some of my best friends there and four years was too short a time to spend with you guys there. I will always treasure the moments with you guys. Actually the trip down nostalgia lane was brought upon while discovering a greeting card given four years back by these guys on my birthday. I found it when I was packing my parents stuff so that they could move. I guess at the end of all things, all you are left with are memories of a time you left behind.

The Presidential Diaries

Since today morning, I have been reading a lot about the Democratic National Convention ’08, how both the Clinton’s have set the stage for the biggest speech in these times, the one of Obama and to not miss the historical significance, this speech commemorates the 45th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech. Barrack Obama is probably one of the most scrutinized politicians in the recent times, more so than any other, for the fact that he is competing for the highest post and most probably the most powerful post in the world, the POTUS, and that he is an African American is what polarizes this election. Many questions lie unanswered, will he be able to unify the Democratic camp, what are his policies… Many of these questions will be answered in the next couple of days. With the policies that the Bush camp have followed in the last 8 years, they leave the world in a pretty bad shape, maybe even worse than the one at the end of Nixon’s disgraced presidency. With its foreign policy in tatters, and economy slowing to a grinding halt, despite the lowering of interest rates by the Federal Reserve, which is forcing the booming economies in turn to lower their own interest rates, causing overheating of those economies, in turn leading to isolationist policies, and thus decreasing Globalization. I must admit, I was an ardent Republican supporter, however in the last 8 years, the Republicans have floundered with the way they have dealt with the nation. The proposed tax cuts, the decreased spending in welfare, healthcare, Medicaid, social security… They have generally let the largest economy in the world become stagnant. Coming after 8 years of successive economic growth in which an unprecedented trade surplus was created, the US now runs a huge a trade deficit. America is no longer respected as a nation, even amongst its own allies, as the leaders who supported Bush being replaced one by one. Blair’s Labour Party now looks like it will fall signaling the death knell for Bush’s regime, if you could call it that. Despite all the checks and balances present in the Constitution, he was allowed to wage war despite the advice of all the advisors and the reports of WMD not being present in Iraq. With no clear agenda emerging from the Bush administration, one really begins to question the reasons for waging the war. To say that wealth generation for the oil firms was a reason would be a sole reason to place Bush amongst a select reviled few who include Hitler and Stalin. It is a pity that US does not accept the validity of the International Court at Hague, which tried Milosevic and Saddam Hussein. It would have been interesting to see the defense of the House of Bush. I have great respect for the democratic system of US, as it is the oldest democratic system and has survived more than 226 years with only 17 amendments being added since the original Constitution and the Bill of rights. It was a document that was both far seeing and practical. I mean 55 ordinary people, lawyers and such gathered together in a house in Virginia and produced the most important political document that has survived nearly unchanged since 225 years, an example of an ordinary group of people who got together to do something very extraordinary. However, enough of the history lesson, back to the main point. Barrack Obama has a unique chance in history to change all the perceptions about US. He might be what US needs at this time, not John McCain with another four years of Republican rule. The Ultra Conservatives have really ruled with an iron fist, and it might be time for some velvet gloves. With Hillary and Bill Clinton setting the stage, its time for Obama the politician and the man who is ‘one of us’ to step up and become the President of the United States.
Anyway, enough of that political discourse.. I have read Chasm city by Alastair Reynolds in the last two days, and what I have read, I have liked. It’s a fun book filled with intrigue and guile and it’s a quick read as well. This is my first book of Alastair Reynolds, and I think I will go on to read more of his books.
Also in this blog I would like to mention my cross country wingman Jassi, whose advice to get a girl I found very valuable. His advice is shed all inhibition, go for the girl that you find unapproachable. After that he says, going to any other girl should be easier..Go figure, if he wants me to be a bachelor all my life or something… But to be fair, his advice is better than the other wingman, Kaviraaj… His advice of sending a message to propose, since I was out of balance, was invaluable… That girl called me up and then laughed at the idiot who would send a message… However, that group of guys I was with in Roorkee, really made life there much easier, as we were able to share all the good times and the bad times together. Thank you guys and I miss you as well!

Randomness!(Rather Craziness!)

Breaking Dawn! Never read this book or read at your own mental peril. Remarkable story of how I came to that conclusion. So, busily browsing on amazon.com, I saw that this book was on top of the New York Times Bestseller list. So I went ahead and bought the book in the nearby store thinking, this cant be so bad. Anyway, 900 pages later I found the truth that yes, most people have no idea of what they read. I also found out that this was the fourth book in some series. The book is basically how a human marries a vampire who is at war with the werewolves at the time. The vampires and werewolves have signed a treaty to not produce any more offspring and they adhered to that for years together. However, the human and vampire together have a werewolf baby. Actually the explanation is pretty scientific as well. Apparently vampires have 25 sets of chromosomes and werewolves have 24 sets of chromosomes. Since humans have only 23 sets, apparently the law of averages works in inter species pregnancy. So the book goes on and on for 900 pages. The least I can say about this book was that the Chinese method of torture seems a better option than this book.
Anyway, for the last one year I have been reading Star Trek series. Lot of novels written by different authors. Mainly I have been reading The Next Generation novels with Capt. Picard and Riker. The character of Picard comes across as very interesting in this series. The thinker, philosopher, historian, captain.. Really comes across as the ultimate man, the one who says the buck stops here. He is kind of a throwback to the ancient Greco-Roman days, the statues which show men as immaculate. Anyway, I would recommend these for the Sci-Fi fans. Trekkies for life.
Anyway, beyond the literary reviews, with the Olympics getting over and all, it got me thinking that even the world’s largest stage was presented to the world leaders, not a single leader of a nation used it to protest against China’s humanitarian policies. I think I used one of my earlier blogs to complain about the draconian laws of China like the One child policy, the bullet charged to the family.(one child policy- each family can have only child and any other children being born will be put to death before they crown). (Bullet charged to family- There is a famous photo of a guy standing in front of a tank at Tiananmen Square where students were protesting against Deng Xiaoping’s policies. They arrested the guy and sentenced him to death. They charged the family for the bullet they used to kill the guy) Tiananmen Square was an incident that recently occurred and the leaders then are still part of the Chinese Politburo today. The stage setting by the Chinese seemed like a repeat of the Berlin Olympics of 1936. Only this time, the entire world was watching live on TV and not a single protest was raised. I would still say congrats to the Chinese athletes for challenging American supremacy at the games. The games are competitions at the highest level challenging both body and mind, and those who persevered won. It was a magical Olympics, with Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt, USA’s Redeem Team. Lot of winners here, and I hope that London will see even better athletes who better these records.
I was watching the tv show How I met your mother the other day and in that Ted mentions his favorite go to bad time movie is Field of Dreams. That brought back old memories of where I had first seen this movie. It was in a math class, that my teacher out of her own interest had shown us the movie. At the time I dismissed it as a movie with ghosts and a guy chasing after them. I think I realized the full impact of the movie years later when I watched it again after getting through JEE. I realized that the ghosts he was chasing were members of the Chicago White Sox, who were involved in the Chicago Black Sox scandal for betting on the games and accused of throwing the World Series. These were some of the most famous players at the time and it caused a huge stench in the sport at the time. It shows that the souls of these players had not yet rested and were yet to be appeased. Very moving story, as how Kevin Costner, meets his own father who was part of the team, and meets his own father’s ghost. Kind of gives a Hamlet feel to the entire story.
Also, was just in a chat right now, thinking, does economics and its implications have anything to do with the election results? I mean, with BJP probably heading one of the largest expansion phases of Indian economics, they still lost out with their India Shining Campaign. With Bill Clinton leading the largest and longest economic growth in US, the Democrats lost to the Republicans bringing George Bush to power...(Now that is an entirely different story as well.. Basically with Florida recount, he won by 537 votes and 10,000 votes not being recounted on order of the Supreme Court, whom the Republicans have nominated 8 of them.) For more on Bush, wait for my review of The Fall of the House of Bush. Now the Labor government in England seems destined to fall.

Anyway, this duke is feeling really sleepy and I will go off to drink coffee and biscuits...So have fun, stay safe and enjoy...

Echo of the Sound of Silence

Hola mis amigos! Que tal? Ok, for those who are spanish illiterate it means Hi my friends, whats up? Anyway, this title being inspired from the Simon and Garfunkel's song Sound of Silence. Really struck with me with this line.."and the people bowed and prayed to the neon god they made..and the sign flashed out its warning..".."people listening but not hearing..".. I wondered what are they referring to when they say the "neon god". Are they ones that we see on TV, the glitterati and social elite? Are they the ones that we see perform superhuman feats? I was wondering about who do we consider as heroes nowadays? Are the days when we considered scientists and all heroes gone? ( I remember saying as a kid I wanted to be Einstein and all, never mind that it never happened) Especially in India where there is a lack of the hero ethos. Sure we have Sachin Tendulkar(who was my hero when I was a kid), Abdul Kalam etc. but most of the heroes we have nowadays are the ones created by media for one defining moment only to be brushed off until the next hero comes along. I mean if you look at the careers that were lifted by the media to heights reserved only for the greatest and the best, (ex. Sania Mirza, Narain Karthikeyan) only to crash and burn in the outset of their careers. These could have been heroes for a generation had they been allowed to grow properly. With the pressure of a billion people watching them, the fact that they were able to compete itself is a great achievement. I mean do we as a country truly have a "Hero" we can look upto? I would venture to say that yes, we do. Call me old fashioned or cliched, but Mahatma Gandhi was one such person. His ideas and ideals were ones that truly lifted our country and they still continue to be relevant to this day and age. Anyway, so are these the neon gods that we made?
Also, with the background of the Olympics, I wanted to express my joy in the Indian athletes that won medals abroad, and I sincerely hope this is a point which will spawn a generation of athletes to come and compete at the highest levels. Something out of the lines of Kryptonite by 3 doors down.."If I go crazy then will you still Call me Superman If I'm alive and well will you be There holding my hand I'll keep you by my side with my Superhuman might" I just hope that these people wont be forgotten quickly by our short attention span society these days.
Anyway, more on these things later.. Recently i read a book by Albert Speer, the Reichminister for Armaments in Nazi Germany, Inside the Third Reich. Actually this is what got me thinking about the Sound of Silence. How silence from the crowd propelled mad men to take over the reins of a state, convert a country that produced Beethoven and Bach to creating instruments of genocide. This is what got me thinking about who do we look upto, whom do we see as our saviours in this modern day and age. In the 30's the German people turned to Hitler for that. I was trying to understand, how did they as a people were lured by the wiles of a mad man. Albert Speer explains how he was perfectly seduced to the point where he cared neither about his life nor limb when he went to visit Hitler a last time in his bunker just to tell him that yes, he disregarded his orders and was waiting for the punishment. Not of friendship, and not out of loyalty but rather hypnotism was his explanation for it. For that he spent 20 years in Spandau(a prison for the Nuremberg trial prisoners). At Nuremberg where the German leaders were tried for crimes against humanity, the first ever such trial held, these people were found guilty on all charges and the higher leaders being hanged whereas the second level leaders receiving long terms in prison. Again business sense got the better of the Allied forces here as well. They released the business leaders quite quickly as Krupp, Thyssen etc were released barely three years into their prison terms. These were the people whose finances made the German war machine possible. I.G. Farben whose factories churned out Zyklon B, the terror gas of the prisoner camps used to exterminate the Jews, Krupp's factories which manufactured the incinerators, Thyssen whose shrewd finances helped the Reich amass a huge war chest in direct contravention with the Treaty of Versailles.. All absolved of their crimes against humanity.. They say trade brings two countries closer as they exchange their culture with each other..but two thoughts that could change that..1) In 1939, France was Germany's largest trading partner 2) In 1941, USSR was Germany's largest trading partner..They were such good partners that even after a month after invading USSR, the grain trains were still running west from the Ural mountains towards Germany.
Anyway, enough history lessons for now.. Off to lunch, bbye!