Mysorean

[Via email from Hemanth]

Vivek Pradhan wasn’t a happy man. Even the plush comfort of the First Class air-conditioned compartment of the Shatabdi Express couldn’t cool his frayed nerves. He was the Project Manager and still not entitled to air travel. It was not the prestige he sought, he had tried to reason with the admin guy, it was the savings in time. A Project Manager had so many things to do!

He opened his case and took out the laptop, determined to put the time to some good use.

“Are you from the software industry sir”, the man beside him was staring appreciatively at the laptop.
Vivek glanced briefly and mumbled in affirmation, handling the laptop now with exaggerated care and importance as if it were an expensive car.

“You people have brought so much advancement to the country sir. Today everything is getting computerized”
“Thanks”, smiled Vivek, turning around to give the man a detailed look. He always found it difficult to resist appreciation. The man was young and stocky like a sportsman. He looked simple and strangely outfox place in that little lap of luxury like a small-town boy in a prep school. He probably was a Railway sportsman making the most of his free traveling pass.

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Sometimes when people come to me and say, “What’s the use of living in India? There is never any development and nothing works as per plan. And these politicians are always interested in themselves and not bothered about the country! What’s the whole point?”. I argue against them always! But not when such things happen.

Torching the office of media killing 3 innocent people.

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In one of my posts, we had a discussion about the culture of Mysore. Vatsan compared it with Chennai’s culture and said:

Mysore will become another silicon valley and lose its identity :), im pretty sure.

Chennai retains its identity because the labour working in IT firms is largely frm in and around TN, and chennai has close connections with TN, culturally speaking, chennai is an overgrown village. if mysore doesnt have roots with karnataka and workers don come frm the state, then Mysore will lose its identity just like blore :)

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Five years ago on this day, the Indian symbol of democracy was attacked by terrorists. Our parliament was under sieze by a group of five terrorists (Arundhati Roy says “six”!). The entire nation watched the well-covered event on television. The session was on inside the parliament and they seemed to be going about their business as not many of them were outside the parliament. If I remember right, the zero-hour was going on.

Our security personnel stood their ground against these terrorists and killed all of them. But not before sacrificing eight lives to prevent the heart of our democracy from being attacked (or God knows what was on their mind!)! The martyrs were soon forgotten after giving them a few notes of paper and one piece of metal (no, that’s not a typo error!) each.

The investigations took place. It was concluded that the mega event was well-planned and excecuted. The main guy who planned the event and managed the back-end was found to be Mr. Mohammed Afzal (bloody traitor!). Quite surprisingly, within 5 years he was caught, booked and convicted by the Indian judiciary.
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The Hindu has a story today on the transformation of Dr. Manmohan Singh. Completely agree with the story! Click here to know my thoughts on the speech.

A transformed Manmohan
Harish Khare

Controlled aggression, a game plan and application of technique At the outset he positioned himself in the Mahatma corner, quoting Gandhi’s abiding injunction to wipe every tear from every eye, and declared himself a legatee of the Jawaharlal Nehru vision

NEW DELHI: Manmohan Singh has been Member of Parliament since 1991 but he had never been applauded as an exciting parliamentarian. And perhaps never before did he display as emotionally combative a streak as he did on Thursday in the Rajya Sabha in the debate on the controversial nuclear deal.

Before dealing with the doubts and questions about the India-United
States Civilian Nuclear Agreement, the Prime Minister almost stumped the House with a kind of personal testimonial. Rather than conforming to his reputation as a shy and reticent person, and as a humdrum speaker, the Prime Minister spoke as a man who felt that his reputation and pride were being questioned.

It was a Virender Sehwag kind of performance — controlled aggression, a game plan and an application of sound technique. At the outset, he positioned himself in the Mahatma corner, quoting Gandhi’s abiding injunction to wipe every tear from every eye, and declared himself a legatee of the Jawaharlal Nehru vision.

To those who questioned his professional competence to deal with so
complicated an issue as the nuclear world, he asserted, “I have some experience” of dealing with economics and technology of nuclear business. He reminded the House that as member (finance) of the Atomic Energy Commission he has had worked with the distinguished nuclear professionals like H.N. Sethna and P.K. Iyengar.

And then, a bit of working philosophy. Status quo is always comfortable, but the challenge lies in breaking out of familiar terrain, and to cope
imaginatively and confidently with “uncertainty.” He talked of all the names and epithets that were hurled in his direction when he induced the post-1991 paradigm shift in the economy. He was no stranger to the name-calling game; he seemed to be telling his critics but told the House that he felt he stood vindicated by history of last 15 years.

Recalls TTK’s observation
Dr. Singh recalled the insightful observation of T.T. Krishnamachari of “tigers on the prowl” in New Delhi and added, somewhat challengingly, that he had nothing to fear from the new tigers, scenting blood.

In an unusual personal touch, the Prime Minister reminded everyone that he was born in a poor family and had the blood of freedom fighters in his veins. He conceded that while he was a latecomer to the world of politics, he belonged to a party that had a proud heritage of having brought freedom to the country.

As the Congress benches repeatedly applauded him, Dr. Singh promised that he would do his best to promote and protect “the vital interests of the country.” In an unusually emotional pitch, Dr. Singh told the parliamentarians that he was in the “service of India” and was committed to “the last ounce of my blood” to work for freeing millions of Indians who suffer “day in and day out.”

Unexpected
This sentimental preface was totally unexpected. It galvanised the Congress benches who were till that moment somewhat sceptical of the Prime Minister’s parliamentary skills to respond to the critics’ daylong assault.

In a way, Dr. Singh won the day even before he came down to the specifics of the nuclear deal. At the end of his 70-minute performance, the Congress MPs were left wondering the transformation that overtook the Prime Minister.

Our Hon. Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh gave his reply to the queries raised by the opposition and the Left on the nuclear deal with the US in the Rajya Sabha. It was not a reply, it was more of a speech. The speech had all the ingredients that a seasoned political speech writer would include. In fact, till I heard the speech I didn’t realise the immense significance of this Nuclear Deal in the Indian Democracy. But what came out of the speech was something totally different for me – it was the emergence of Dr. Manmohan Singh, the shrewd politician.

The PM played all the cards he had in this speech. He started off by thanking all the members for raising queries so that the issues would come up for debate and get clarified too. He elaborated on the types of queries and answered them brilliantly. To read meaningful exceprts of the speech please click here. What stood out for me are the following statements:

• I did not seek Prime Ministership, it came to me and I have carried out my duties faithfully and will continue to do so. Infact, if you ask me, choosing Dr. Manmohan Singh for PM was the most sensible decision made by Sonia Gandhi. And after this speech, my opinion only got strengthened.
• I am the son of a Freedom Fighter who left his job to fight for the independence of this country. So, there is the blood of a freedom fighter that runs in me. I got those goosebumps on hearing those words. Even the PM choked on saying these words and paused to have a glass of water.
• I made it clear to Mr. Bush that the intervention in Iraq was a mistake. This statement told me that Dr. Singh is not a weak and spineless man. He has it in him to speak on behalf of the country whatever be his political pressures.
• When I introduced reforms during 1972-73, I was labeled a pawn in the hands of the US. Looking back, I wonder how India would have handled the Great Asian crisis . He was now taking the entire issue on his head. His capabilities are well known and from here on the entire house just listened. They were sold already.
• I was the Finance Secretary for the Atomic Energy Commission and I know what are the costs involved in the deals that we are involved in. He understands the domain of Nuclear Energy.
• There are risks involved in such deals. And I am willing to take such risks for the sake of the development of the country. He knew what he was doing.
• I will serve the country to the last ounce of my blood and nobody can take that right away from me. I didn’t care about the speech anymore. I was deeply impressed by this man who is leading my country.

I am sold to the Nuclear Deal!

You can watch the video of the speech here.

And if you want to know more about our PM. Click here.

The Hindu quotes in an article:

This time it’s not just the police; academicians too have joined the brigade and launched a campaign against tight clothes, jeans, skirts and T-shirts.

Banning cell-phones is one thing but asking students what to wear is another issue. It does seem fair to ask students to switch off their mobile phones during class hours as it does indeed disturb academics. Not many students seem to have an objection to this.

But enforcing a dress code on students is moral policing, students say.

“The ban on sleeveless tops, tight-fit outfits and jeans clearly seems to target girls,” says a postgraduate journalism student. “It is not only sexist but a completely old-fashioned male chauvinistic attitude resurfacing,” she adds, almost enraged.

During engineering, the dress code used to be a T-shirt, One pair of Blue jeans [Yes! Only blue! Why? Because sky is blue! I don't know yar!] & bathroom slippers. Only during the first year [that too because of ragging], would we ever wear formals [Yeah! With those open cuffs and slippers].

I absolutely cannot relate to this rule from Anna University. Considered to be one of the top 10 colleges in India (according to one the recent surveys by India Today) , and one of the top 30 in Asia.

Why can’t students be made to learn that they should not wear ‘indecent’ dresses? Why does the University feel that the students it has selected after so many entrance barriers don’t have the basic dressing etiquette? [Getting into Anna University is the toughest through TNPCEE]

In this age of MMSes coming out of schools, this move is a reverse gear. Instead of educating people on the right and wrong[What else are educational institutes for?], we are trying to implement more unimplementable rules. There’s an age-old saying, “Don’t judge the book by its cover”. By wearing formal clothes, you are not going to make students study and concentrate better. You ought to teach better. Somebody needs to give this funda to those authorities at Anna University.

Students, as a group, never bother anyone unless they are needled like this. Let them be the way they are. Help them realise what they should do and what they shouldn’t do. Don’t teach them by force. There are other methods too. Try them first. Students are the future of this country. Their energy must be harnessed towards positive things than distracting them with such dumb rules. [As if there weren't enough distractions already!]

“Hi, what are you doing for this weekend?”

“I have planned a trip to Munnar. It’s a wonderful place you know. I booked the Club Mahindra resort long back. It’s a long weekend na, that’s why”

“Oh good! Enjoy! I have never been to Munnar. Hope you have a nice time”

“Thanks!”

Munnar, Kodaikannal, Pondicherry, Colombo and Singapore are the places a few people I know are going to on the long weekend of August 13, 14, 15. The more intelligent of them have applied 4 days leave and converted it into a jolly 10-day vacation. Brilliant!

Incidentally, August 15th happens to be the day we became independent from the British rule. For some strange reason, it has been made a National Holiday. I agree that it’s a reason to celebrate the anniversaries of the day we were liberated. And one way of celebration the Nation thought was by making it a holiday.

The Independence day is actually a result of the effort put in by the people of that age to help us live our lives today. There were several people who sacrificed their lives for the sake of the succeeding generations. When I say sacrifice, I point not only to those who died but there were those who contributed 100% of themselves to the cause called “Independence”.

Independence was not a right in those days. It was a cause to live. I don’t think we understand the gravity of the paradigm shift. The cause united millions of people. The cause gave people the ability to fast for months together as a mark of opposition. The people then didn’t have independence, they fought for it. The lucky ones got to enjoy the freedom. They realised the value of a free India.

The freedom fighters didn’t fight for nothing. If we are right now in a state that’s worse than when the British left, then they handed the Country to inefficient people like us. We can wash our hands off by saying that the Nehru family was the one that ruled us for almost half a century, they are responsible to the country’s present state of affairs. But, let us take the stand that the damage has been done, but it’s not beyond repair. We still have 600 million young people raring to go and make this country a developed country. We can win if each of us decides that we are going to do whatever is in our potential for India.

Independence Day should be a day when these promises are strengthened. We should remind ourselves of our commitment to this wonderful country. It’s a chance to do a review of the past one year and set new goals for this year. Do a conscious analysis of the past one year and write down three things that we have done for the Country. I am sure we will not even fill up the first field.

August 15th should be the day such decisions are taken. The only problem that India faces as a country is that we lack a cause. We stand united when there’s a Kargil, we stand united when there’s a Latur earthquake, we stand united whenever there’s a collective danger to the country. The danger to the country right now is that we will continue to remain developing if we don’t make the conscious decision of reaching the rural areas and helping them develop.

There’s no water in certain areas. And here I am getting to sell low cost computers to them. Is there a paradox? Actually, this is a paradox that will appear to us at every step. We can talk about this paradox sometime later. A short answer to the question is that, to provide essentials to the rural areas is the responsibility of the Government. I am willing to do my best if I am able to figure out how I can help the situation. They need to get out of certain non-core business and get into concentrating solely on the essentials. Well, these are huge topics. Lets take them up some other time.

In my humble (for sake of correct grammar, don’t take it seriously!) opinion, Independence Day should not be a Holiday. It should be a working day as usual. And with a Flag hoisting ceremony made compulsory at every workplace, educational institution, etc. We don’t need to have long speeches on the day. Just hoist the Flag, salute the people who sacrificed their lives for our sake, say the National Anthem with the pride of being an Indian and retain the pride for the rest of the year. Next year you can renew the ties with our Motherland with new vigour.

Jai Hind!

(This post was supposed to be posted yesterday)

Tomorrow: Bangalore