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!
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Monday, August 25, 2008
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...
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...
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
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!
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!
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Sunset/Sunrise
Way too long since i wrote the last blog. Things have changed a lot since then, reminding me of Bob Dylan's song, Times they are a changin', "Come writers and criticsWho prophesize with your penAnd keep your eyes wideThe chance wont come again." Something about the song that signifies the end of things and the beginning of new things. Kind of what the title of this blog says the end of a day, which again leads to the beginning of a new day. However, to tell a little bit about what has happened since the last time I wrote. I somehow graduated from IIT by the seat of my pants, and definitely a fake degree to tell the least. I enjoyed a fairly boring- sleepy summer. I joined PwC and met very, very interesting people. I didn't know what to expect when I joined but what I did see and do was definitely a vivid experience worth remembering. Looking back at the one month training in Calcutta, the sheer pleasure of meeting such individuals brilliant and carefree was refreshing after college where it seemed the weight of the world was on your shoulders. Calcutta was the last of the major metros I had yet to visit in India and it was definitely a change from the earlier cities. After that back in Bangalore to start the job in earnest. So the last couple of months were quite busy and happening in my small life.
Again thats why the title, sunset/sunrise. College was a fun time for me. I lived it to my fullest, acheived some of the goals i wanted to achieve, some failures, but overall for the lack of better words, i had fun, and as that ended, my job started off being fun. This title, isnt my own idea at any rate. I took it from the title of a chapter in Tom Clancy's Debt of Honor. (A fun book to read..a bit apopcryphal as well..in this a flight crashes into the US capitol building leaving just the vice president alive..)
I have been reading a lot of Peter F. Hamilton lately, and that author is seriously good! I have read his Commonwealth Saga, Dreamvoid, Neutronium Alchemist..Science fiction is reborn in his books. All the things that we think about and dream about(ok, maybe not all) but he makes the books come alive. His works deserve to be rated against Asimov and Clarke. I could sing epic poems about the wonder in his books, but I wont. I really enjoyed reading the stories that he weaves. A warning though, these books are not for the fickle reader, they will be long and torturous for those who cannot read and appreciate his style.
Also, I wanted to talk about the bomb blasts that have taken place across India recently. Basically its a conspiracy theory of mine I suppose. I have read a book called The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein. In it she explains the theory of economic shocks propounded by Milton Friedman which states that in order to overhaul an economy, it is not done in sustainable steps, rather it has to be rude shocks in order to erase the old foundations and set new ones. She shows example after example how the Chicago School theory(Friedman was at Chicago when he stated this theory) failed many states as they tried to implement his ideas. In each of these places, democracy gave way to bloody dictatorships and insurmountable foreign debts. Each time the
state devolved as supposedly free market practices were being implemented. Examples include Argentina, South America itself, South Africa, Poland. Hyperinflation and unemployment destroyed the countries as privatization took over as all welfare initiatives were scrapped. Anyway, the point is, each of these shocks were preceded by widespread violence in each of these countries which led to revolutions and all. Could this be the case in India? To enact certain laws and regulations, could our government in any way be subscribing to the views of the Chicago School in order to force economic reforms and privatizations by a shock therapy? Could the bombs be a precursor to a government led initiative to increase its hold on our society by eroding our freedoms? Again like I said this theory was advanced by me after reading the book.
I would highly recommend this book for anyone who feels that the history that they read in teh books is not a good enough explanation for the world as it is today.
Anyway, this is the duke of mayhem signing off for now! Will try to write more these days!
Again thats why the title, sunset/sunrise. College was a fun time for me. I lived it to my fullest, acheived some of the goals i wanted to achieve, some failures, but overall for the lack of better words, i had fun, and as that ended, my job started off being fun. This title, isnt my own idea at any rate. I took it from the title of a chapter in Tom Clancy's Debt of Honor. (A fun book to read..a bit apopcryphal as well..in this a flight crashes into the US capitol building leaving just the vice president alive..)
I have been reading a lot of Peter F. Hamilton lately, and that author is seriously good! I have read his Commonwealth Saga, Dreamvoid, Neutronium Alchemist..Science fiction is reborn in his books. All the things that we think about and dream about(ok, maybe not all) but he makes the books come alive. His works deserve to be rated against Asimov and Clarke. I could sing epic poems about the wonder in his books, but I wont. I really enjoyed reading the stories that he weaves. A warning though, these books are not for the fickle reader, they will be long and torturous for those who cannot read and appreciate his style.
Also, I wanted to talk about the bomb blasts that have taken place across India recently. Basically its a conspiracy theory of mine I suppose. I have read a book called The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein. In it she explains the theory of economic shocks propounded by Milton Friedman which states that in order to overhaul an economy, it is not done in sustainable steps, rather it has to be rude shocks in order to erase the old foundations and set new ones. She shows example after example how the Chicago School theory(Friedman was at Chicago when he stated this theory) failed many states as they tried to implement his ideas. In each of these places, democracy gave way to bloody dictatorships and insurmountable foreign debts. Each time the
state devolved as supposedly free market practices were being implemented. Examples include Argentina, South America itself, South Africa, Poland. Hyperinflation and unemployment destroyed the countries as privatization took over as all welfare initiatives were scrapped. Anyway, the point is, each of these shocks were preceded by widespread violence in each of these countries which led to revolutions and all. Could this be the case in India? To enact certain laws and regulations, could our government in any way be subscribing to the views of the Chicago School in order to force economic reforms and privatizations by a shock therapy? Could the bombs be a precursor to a government led initiative to increase its hold on our society by eroding our freedoms? Again like I said this theory was advanced by me after reading the book.
I would highly recommend this book for anyone who feels that the history that they read in teh books is not a good enough explanation for the world as it is today.
Anyway, this is the duke of mayhem signing off for now! Will try to write more these days!
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Abandon all hope, all ye that enter here!
Well, long time since my last post, but so many things have been happening that its hard to tell where to start. The happy news first I guess. Well, my inter year basketball team makes it to finals again for the third straight year, and I hope we win again. For some reason we are the perennial underdogs, even after we win. It took a god level game by mallu against the first yearites for us to win, and hats off to him. I have to say my teammates are some of the best that I have been around with, and I hope to stay in touch with you guys after this as well. Next, on the cultural front, well, thats getting over from my side, with me ending my term. I guess it ends a turbulent four years. I never expected to be this heavily into Cultural Society to tell the truth, ending up organizing all these events and all. I mean I am a person who cannot sing, dance, or act, and yet I have been completely involved with it. I will miss it I guess, and all the guys I have worked with.
I realized beyond the first few posts on a blog, its hard to sustain the momentum or keep writing blogs. Your thoughts tend to become repetetive or the motif that you try to present becomes boring as well. I try to keep things interesting by including a song or a poem or so, that way you can increase your literary knowledge plus read a poem or two. Paintings I include as well, especially ones I have seen. Remember most of these are classics and read into them with a deeper meaning. Dont go by what is said on the surface and instead see the angst of the poet/author/painter when I mention something. Evaluate it and think about it. Anyway, for this post's poem I figured I would use something with a wide relevance to the world today, W.H.Auden's Unknown Citizen. This was a classic poem, and it talks about a government who make a statue of a model citizen how he conforms and follows the rules never breaking them, politically correct, never doing anything that stands out. Reading deeper into it, you can see how the poet uses the structure to give a completely different meaning than the one that most people would get from it.
The Unknown Citizen
(To JS/07/M/378 This Marble Monument Is Erected by the State)
He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be
One against whom there was no official complaint,
And all the reports on his conduct agree
That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a saint,
For in everything he did he served the Greater Community.
Except for the War till the day he retired
He worked in a factory and never got fired,
But satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc.
Yet he wasn't a scab or odd in his views,
For his Union reports that he paid his dues,
(Our report on his Union shows it was sound)
And our Social Psychology workers found
That he was popular with his mates and liked a drink.
The Press are convinced that he bought a paper every day
And that his reactions to advertisements were normal in every way.
Policies taken out in his name prove that he was fully insured,
And his Health-card shows he was once in hospital but left it cured.
Both Producers Research and High-Grade Living declare
He was fully sensible to the advantages of the Installment Plan
And had everything necessary to the Modern Man,
A phonograph, a radio, a car and a frigidaire.
Our researchers into Public Opinion are content
That he held the proper opinions for he time of year;
When there was peace, he was for peace; when there was war, he went.
He was married and added five children to the population,
Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his generation.
And our teachers report that he never interfered with their education.
Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:
Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.
I've always enjoyed this poem as a brilliantly composed portrait of a bureaucracy taken to the excess -- the point where it dehumanizes individuals,its subjects, in the absolute. Auden meticulously selects his words to express the obsessive inanity of this mindless, mechanized State which knows its citzens only by letters and numbers, evaluates their worth with statistics, and has a formulaic standard for virtuous living. The tone of the final two lines -- a spokesperson's spin on the situation -- is both ironic and chilling.
Its a poem against mindless bureaucracy, it could be a Marxist state, a capitalist state such as ours which promotes vote bank politics, a communist state. It also shows how statistics cannot measure things like brillinace, and radicality two important things to any government.
In a similar parallel, I think IITR here also promotes an Unknown Citizen. I mean the adminstration would rather have an Unknown Citizen rather than a person who questions things and fights for his opinions. Also the "citizens" here accept this fact largely and do not question the system that sets in. I am not saying that I am different, me personally being part of the system, but its still not right, and for the time I have left, I want to be a "Known Citizen". Submissiveness in class, in extra cirricular activities is highly promoted by the adminstration here which isnt always the best option available. Anyway this bitter diatribe against this has to come to an end now, as I get ready to go to class again more due to attendance problems than anything else as the sem ends. Have fun y'all and hope the title from Dante's Inferno doesnt put you off.
I realized beyond the first few posts on a blog, its hard to sustain the momentum or keep writing blogs. Your thoughts tend to become repetetive or the motif that you try to present becomes boring as well. I try to keep things interesting by including a song or a poem or so, that way you can increase your literary knowledge plus read a poem or two. Paintings I include as well, especially ones I have seen. Remember most of these are classics and read into them with a deeper meaning. Dont go by what is said on the surface and instead see the angst of the poet/author/painter when I mention something. Evaluate it and think about it. Anyway, for this post's poem I figured I would use something with a wide relevance to the world today, W.H.Auden's Unknown Citizen. This was a classic poem, and it talks about a government who make a statue of a model citizen how he conforms and follows the rules never breaking them, politically correct, never doing anything that stands out. Reading deeper into it, you can see how the poet uses the structure to give a completely different meaning than the one that most people would get from it.
The Unknown Citizen
(To JS/07/M/378 This Marble Monument Is Erected by the State)
He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be
One against whom there was no official complaint,
And all the reports on his conduct agree
That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a saint,
For in everything he did he served the Greater Community.
Except for the War till the day he retired
He worked in a factory and never got fired,
But satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc.
Yet he wasn't a scab or odd in his views,
For his Union reports that he paid his dues,
(Our report on his Union shows it was sound)
And our Social Psychology workers found
That he was popular with his mates and liked a drink.
The Press are convinced that he bought a paper every day
And that his reactions to advertisements were normal in every way.
Policies taken out in his name prove that he was fully insured,
And his Health-card shows he was once in hospital but left it cured.
Both Producers Research and High-Grade Living declare
He was fully sensible to the advantages of the Installment Plan
And had everything necessary to the Modern Man,
A phonograph, a radio, a car and a frigidaire.
Our researchers into Public Opinion are content
That he held the proper opinions for he time of year;
When there was peace, he was for peace; when there was war, he went.
He was married and added five children to the population,
Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his generation.
And our teachers report that he never interfered with their education.
Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:
Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.
I've always enjoyed this poem as a brilliantly composed portrait of a bureaucracy taken to the excess -- the point where it dehumanizes individuals,its subjects, in the absolute. Auden meticulously selects his words to express the obsessive inanity of this mindless, mechanized State which knows its citzens only by letters and numbers, evaluates their worth with statistics, and has a formulaic standard for virtuous living. The tone of the final two lines -- a spokesperson's spin on the situation -- is both ironic and chilling.
Its a poem against mindless bureaucracy, it could be a Marxist state, a capitalist state such as ours which promotes vote bank politics, a communist state. It also shows how statistics cannot measure things like brillinace, and radicality two important things to any government.
In a similar parallel, I think IITR here also promotes an Unknown Citizen. I mean the adminstration would rather have an Unknown Citizen rather than a person who questions things and fights for his opinions. Also the "citizens" here accept this fact largely and do not question the system that sets in. I am not saying that I am different, me personally being part of the system, but its still not right, and for the time I have left, I want to be a "Known Citizen". Submissiveness in class, in extra cirricular activities is highly promoted by the adminstration here which isnt always the best option available. Anyway this bitter diatribe against this has to come to an end now, as I get ready to go to class again more due to attendance problems than anything else as the sem ends. Have fun y'all and hope the title from Dante's Inferno doesnt put you off.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Life aint about planning, its about livin!
A couple of days since my last post, but I figured i should let people think over what I wrote the last time. Anyway, since the last post, I have been trudging to classes, back and forth, back and forth, kind of like a swinging pendulum, forever doomed to follow the laws of gravity, without choice or say in the matter. The mind numbingness that follows from such activities is unexplainable, or can be explained only from ones who actually put in work I guess. Otherwise, things progress quietly into the night, as day turns to night, and night to day.
So instead of writing a diatribe against my daily life I think I will take this time to appreciate what I have. I wish I could say I thank the stars that I have everything. True I dont have everything I wished for, but I have more than I could ever imagine. Back in tenth, I thought I had a future all planned out. I was living in US, given admission to Aerospace in Cornell, I was good at mathematics, really good, I loved it to tell the truth. It was a life I thought I had all planned out. Then the shocking news came that my father is shifting back to India. All that I thought I knew, out the window more or less. From my cousins I knew of the education system in India. To my parents, I knew it was inevitable, being at whatever maturity level I was at, I never said anything and I think it was the right decision. Anyway, I knew about JEE and all that, I had looked on it as something big, something I never had to do and all. Lot of work involved, something I never really did. All the stuff I did in US really came pretty easily without a lot of work. After I came back, two years through coaching centers of Hyderabad, I was at a place where I could call myself one of the best in India, and this was a point I never would have reached without the help of my parents. Half the credit would go to them for this and for this I would like to thank God for my parents. Anyway, this was some of the best work I had done in my entire life. I became the best at mathematics, not that my marks in JEE showed it. There was an entire shelf of books that I could proudly say I had read through. Anyway, I liked being drunk on the work of feverish nights and burning the midnight oil. That was one of the high points of my life. Not that I measure my life in success or failure but that was one success no one could ever take that away from me.
Anyway, what I wanted to say in this is that life changes all the time, and whatever you have planned for and thought about, it could be really different. So all the plans that you have, just take a moment and realize that you have to be prepared for whatever life has to throw at you.
I guess thats my life's lesson for the day more for myself than anything else. With my first job that came up and leaving IITR, I guess thats my plan but I have no idea where I will be in two months from now, let alone my career plans or anything. I always wanted to be in applied mathematics, but now I am in civil engineering, and about to shift to a career in consultancy in finance. Some change I guess..
Anyway on the literary side, I figured I should put up another poem, one of my favorites, Annabel Lee by Edgar Allen Poe..Its about his love for a girl named Annabel Lee.. She being his mistress and dying young.. Really touching poem and one that expresses love completely..
Annabel Lee
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.
I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea:
But we loved with a love that was more than love -
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.
And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her high-born kinsmen came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.
The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me -
Yes! that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud one night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.
But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we -
Of many far wiser than we -
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling -my darling -my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea -
In her tomb by the sounding sea.
So instead of writing a diatribe against my daily life I think I will take this time to appreciate what I have. I wish I could say I thank the stars that I have everything. True I dont have everything I wished for, but I have more than I could ever imagine. Back in tenth, I thought I had a future all planned out. I was living in US, given admission to Aerospace in Cornell, I was good at mathematics, really good, I loved it to tell the truth. It was a life I thought I had all planned out. Then the shocking news came that my father is shifting back to India. All that I thought I knew, out the window more or less. From my cousins I knew of the education system in India. To my parents, I knew it was inevitable, being at whatever maturity level I was at, I never said anything and I think it was the right decision. Anyway, I knew about JEE and all that, I had looked on it as something big, something I never had to do and all. Lot of work involved, something I never really did. All the stuff I did in US really came pretty easily without a lot of work. After I came back, two years through coaching centers of Hyderabad, I was at a place where I could call myself one of the best in India, and this was a point I never would have reached without the help of my parents. Half the credit would go to them for this and for this I would like to thank God for my parents. Anyway, this was some of the best work I had done in my entire life. I became the best at mathematics, not that my marks in JEE showed it. There was an entire shelf of books that I could proudly say I had read through. Anyway, I liked being drunk on the work of feverish nights and burning the midnight oil. That was one of the high points of my life. Not that I measure my life in success or failure but that was one success no one could ever take that away from me.
Anyway, what I wanted to say in this is that life changes all the time, and whatever you have planned for and thought about, it could be really different. So all the plans that you have, just take a moment and realize that you have to be prepared for whatever life has to throw at you.
I guess thats my life's lesson for the day more for myself than anything else. With my first job that came up and leaving IITR, I guess thats my plan but I have no idea where I will be in two months from now, let alone my career plans or anything. I always wanted to be in applied mathematics, but now I am in civil engineering, and about to shift to a career in consultancy in finance. Some change I guess..
Anyway on the literary side, I figured I should put up another poem, one of my favorites, Annabel Lee by Edgar Allen Poe..Its about his love for a girl named Annabel Lee.. She being his mistress and dying young.. Really touching poem and one that expresses love completely..
Annabel Lee
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.
I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea:
But we loved with a love that was more than love -
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.
And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her high-born kinsmen came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.
The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me -
Yes! that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud one night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.
But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we -
Of many far wiser than we -
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling -my darling -my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea -
In her tomb by the sounding sea.
Monday, April 14, 2008
What say y'all?
Well, with the weekend getting over, mind you this being an extended weekend, the plans going into it were quite extensive, about how I would turn my life around, doing constructive activities and all..Guess thats out the window..This weekend was more about finding myself more than anything else, with me going back to do what I do best.. Writing, I guess one of the few activities I have left without being bothered by what other people think..Freewriting, I guess inspired by my sophomore English teacher, Ms. Eldredge, was one of the pure joys that I discovered. Every class we used to spend the first ten minutes just writing whatever came into our minds and discuss about it.. That one year, I learnt more about English than I ever had..My writing had improved from a childish level of writing to an adult style.. I was able to enjoy what I wrote for the first time and discover the joy of doing it..I was able to write stories for the first time..Ah the good old days..Since then, the loss of the computer for three years and then responsibilities on campus prevented me from writing.. I always believed that writing is the art of saying more with the right word at the right time..its not about using fancy words or using words that no one understand..The content and how you deliver the message is what is important.. Thats what she drilled into me, as the bootcamp throughout the year, writing 5 page reports every three days on different topics..I hated it back then, but that might have been the most important year of my life..That was the last time I was in US..A long time ago really..
So moving on now, I was just reading Conspiracy of Fools, a story about how Enron rose and fell..Really a fascinating story of how men can be easily corrupted, hopes raised, fortunes made..Gives whole new meaning to Balzac's saying, Behind every fortune there is a crime.. I mean I have to admire some of the people on that though..Jeff Skilling, who became CEO at 30..Andrew Fastow, CFO of the year at 37..How Jeff was able to convince SEC that mark to market type of accounting is correct in the energy industry and should actually be done by other companies as well..All the accounting gimmicks, not that I condone them, which not only fooled the investors but the regulatory bodies themselves..I mean the presentation skills that Skilling possessed to pull this off.. Really brilliant..This book is a must read to anyone!
As you might have guessed by now, I really love reading books and I read vociferously, anything and everything that I can find. I have lost count of the no of books I have read and the different kinds of authors..I have read classics, epics, biographies, non fiction, business, you name it, I would have read it..One genre I am not able to bring myself to read is Indian authors, whose themes are generally to do with loss of innocence, or social themes in India. I have respect for them, and what they are trying to do, but somehow I am not able to identify with those issues. I dont support the statement that one shelf of English literature is better than all the Indian literature either. In fact Indian literature is very fascinating in the way it uses form and function to create a setting which brings out a message. Western literature misses out on this aspect. The words in India are designed according to the way language flows rather than following any particular rule and it gives authors poetic licence with the language. Western literature closest similarity to Indian literature is probably found in poetry rather than prose, where poets like ee cummings, or Langston Hughes or Sylvia Plath, emily dickinson experimented with forms. The only author who was able to pull off poetic license in a book is probably James Joyce in Ulysses, where his own invention of words lead to an entire revolution. Anyway, I appreciate Indian literature, but I cannot bring myself to read it.
Speaking of Langston Hughes, the poem The Negro Speaks of Rivers comes to mind.. Beatiful poem about how the neglected groups of society had always been there with the flow and ebb of time and tide.. I have included here for everyone to read..and the spacing and the way the words are arranged is also important..So read it slowly and imagine a river meandering through time as you read this poem..
So moving on now, I was just reading Conspiracy of Fools, a story about how Enron rose and fell..Really a fascinating story of how men can be easily corrupted, hopes raised, fortunes made..Gives whole new meaning to Balzac's saying, Behind every fortune there is a crime.. I mean I have to admire some of the people on that though..Jeff Skilling, who became CEO at 30..Andrew Fastow, CFO of the year at 37..How Jeff was able to convince SEC that mark to market type of accounting is correct in the energy industry and should actually be done by other companies as well..All the accounting gimmicks, not that I condone them, which not only fooled the investors but the regulatory bodies themselves..I mean the presentation skills that Skilling possessed to pull this off.. Really brilliant..This book is a must read to anyone!
As you might have guessed by now, I really love reading books and I read vociferously, anything and everything that I can find. I have lost count of the no of books I have read and the different kinds of authors..I have read classics, epics, biographies, non fiction, business, you name it, I would have read it..One genre I am not able to bring myself to read is Indian authors, whose themes are generally to do with loss of innocence, or social themes in India. I have respect for them, and what they are trying to do, but somehow I am not able to identify with those issues. I dont support the statement that one shelf of English literature is better than all the Indian literature either. In fact Indian literature is very fascinating in the way it uses form and function to create a setting which brings out a message. Western literature misses out on this aspect. The words in India are designed according to the way language flows rather than following any particular rule and it gives authors poetic licence with the language. Western literature closest similarity to Indian literature is probably found in poetry rather than prose, where poets like ee cummings, or Langston Hughes or Sylvia Plath, emily dickinson experimented with forms. The only author who was able to pull off poetic license in a book is probably James Joyce in Ulysses, where his own invention of words lead to an entire revolution. Anyway, I appreciate Indian literature, but I cannot bring myself to read it.
Speaking of Langston Hughes, the poem The Negro Speaks of Rivers comes to mind.. Beatiful poem about how the neglected groups of society had always been there with the flow and ebb of time and tide.. I have included here for everyone to read..and the spacing and the way the words are arranged is also important..So read it slowly and imagine a river meandering through time as you read this poem..
I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the
flow of human blood in human veins.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln
went down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy
bosom turn all golden in the sunset.
I've known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers
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