Listen,Learn and Letloose

Aamir - a true masterpiece

2009-03-15T02:55:00.000-07:00

The movie "Aamir" was released an year ago , but I happened watch it only yesterday. It's a big shock that it hasn't received any awards yet, because this is definitely the best movie of 2008, by a long distance.

How many times have you watched a movie that gives you goosebumps , that keeps on the edge of the seats from start to end and makes you feel the stench on the screen as it takes you through the seediest of locations you have ever seen in any movie. Aamir , in my view, is the most brilliant movie to have come out of Bollywood in a decade or so. I am not giving much of the story away because its difficult not to let out a few spoilers while revealing the story.

It starts innocuously enough , with a cheerful "It's a good day" song showing the start of a typical day in mumbai. In stark contrast , the protagonist's day goes down the spiral as the day proceeds. Rajeev Khandelwal as the liberal Muslim caught in a tight spot is just perfect for the role. As a mysterious voice in phone blackmails him to follow his instructions for the sake of his family members, you are transported bang into the action.

The story teller knows his city well , as he takes us to a National Hotel in Dombivilli to the narrow scum filed by lanes of Bhendi Bazar, it's definitely a Mumbai that I've never seen and sure that not many people residing in Mumbai would identify with it either. A particular scene where Aamir is instructed to go to a dingy toilet and get a note from there is too real for the audience's comfort as it makes you puke with it's sheer stench and you feel relieved when Aamir is finally out of there.

Music is the right hand man for the story. Right from "Chakar Ghumyo" when Aamir starts clearing the traffic to get to his location on time to the last piece in climax , the music is simply mind blowing. The pick of the songs is "Haara" - a true Desi rock song.

It would have been nice if the voice on the phone had just been a voice , but that's just an observation. This is must watch , you'll get hooked to the movie and sure to google for the songs once you are done watching it.

Ban the Bandhs

2007-04-06T06:07:00.000-07:00

This post may be a touch late , given that the bandh in chennai was a week ago.Nevertheless as one of the thousands to suffer a stupid decision by the government,I'll go ahead and vent my opinion.

Even assuming that there was consensus in the state about the reservation issue i.e. everybody agrees that a 27% reservation in higher education is necessary(a highly debatable assumption),I see no connection between the bandh and the ultimate decision that supreme court will take.Supreme court has stated clearly that it needs the correct facts about population distribution from the government, so the immediate priority should have been to get the data correct and present a convincing argument. It just reflects the state government's conviction about it's facts that they chose to call a bandh rather brace themselves for a viable argument.

Coming to the actual bandh itself, it was shocking to see trains passing through chennai station being held for 12 hours. This was a case of a government holding public to ransom.Just imagine the time wasted and god knows how many plans were spoiled.

I was at the receiving end of the after effects of the bandh.I was on my regular trip with my friends to Thiruvannamalai on Saturday night(mar 31).The thiruvannamalai busses which are usually quite free were filled to the brim.However, thanks to the bandh,Bus after bus was filled with people hanging on in the footboards.After waiting at the bus terminus for 3 hours , we realized we were not getting a bus if we waited at the terminus.We went searching for a cab for our trip. Thanks to the bandh again, all travels had a leave that day and there were no cabs were available till early next morning.We had to finally catch a bus that was returning from Thiruvannamalai and a grab a seat in that.Once the bus reached the terminus, there was virtual riot to enter the bus and within seconds the bus was packed enough for everybody smell each other's sweat.Imagine the plight of kids and ladies who had to travel standing for 4-5 hours.Not that I was magnanimous enough to give them my seat, but frankly no body in his right mind would have given away his/her seat to a more needy person.The general inconvenience led to a series of quarrels and the four hour journey was filled with heated gibbering between the standing passengers and seated ones , among the standing passengers, between men and women were the ones to suffer the most, their wailing punctuating the constant quarrel.

If only all buses had run on schedule everybody could have traveled peacefully.I really don't understand how the suffering of numerous people served the purpose of reservation, and this is not even a critical scenario , just a chaotic and inconvenient bus travel.Imagine cases of unexpected health emergencies that would have required transport.

I am convinced that it's high time we ban bandhs.

Parvadha Malai - Pushing the Limits on Pongal

2007-01-20T00:20:00.000-08:00

Question : What gives human mind the greatest Joy?
Answer: The sense that you have pushed your limits and achieved something considered to be beyond yourself.

It's interesting how random coversations lead to the some of the most memorable experiences of your life.Our trip to Parvada Malai also started on similar notes.On one of of my regular trips to Thiruvannmalai, our conversation drifted to a temple on the hills nearby - Parvadha Malai.The description about the place given by a person who has been there and done it was jaw dropping.As he explained how risky the climb is,how scary it is at times and most importantly the belief about a couple dogs in the hills, which are considered incarnations of Lord Bhairava showing you the way through the hills really got a few of us interested.4 of us, Me, Sampath, Mani and Arvind Ram immediately decided that we have to make this trip at the earliest.We decided that Pongal holidays was the ideal time for this trip.

As with all good plans, we faithfully put it in backburner for quiet sometime.Arvind Ram collected a lot of info about it, but in general we were lost in our supposedly busy office life.By the time Sampath gave me a call and discussed about the trip it was Jan 10th.We were still quiet hopeful of making the trip as planned. Arvind and Sampath handled the travel planning after that and had booked an Innova and so the trip was finalized on Jan 12th.A Toyota Innova for five guys, 4 of us and William, Sampath's colleague ,was a tad luxurious , but our enthu to make the trip overcame all inhibitions we had about expenses.Arvind Ram also prepared a neat schedule for the trip with a list of items to be brought, a few precautions etc.As I found out earlier the schedule was prepared for his travel with another group but Arvind was fated to capture our photos in his camera.

Inspite of my eagerness to make the trek, I did have an inkling of fear at the back of my head.I wasn't exactly sure of my physical abilities and the build up give to the trip was giving me a few minor jitters.

So we started as planned on Jan 14th Morning.The ride on the Innova was super-smooth and but for an occasional glance at the speedometer I would have never guessed that we were traveling at 90-100Km/Hr for most of our journey.The talk during the journey was generally about ICICI bank , since I was traveling with friends who were either employees or ex-employees of ICICI bank and occasionally I had to remind them that I am an outsider to the topic.We watched movies during the trip , but I really don't remember discussing much about the actual trek till we reached Thiruvannamalai.

Our first halt was at Thiruvannamalai. After praying to almighty for a safe trek, We proceeded for a decent lunch.Meanwhile our driver , Stalin, had enquired the shops around about the hill and was in a dilemma about whether to come for a trek with us or not.He ultimately decided that it was a risky proposition as he had to drive all the way back to chennai on our return journey.

We first went to kadaladi , the village near Parvadha Malai.We could see parvadha malai on out way to the village and the sight was capturing enough for us to make a couple stops to from them in Arvind's camera.

When we reached kadaladi,The arrangements were on for Jallikattu,the traditional bull fight.There were oxes of all sizes lined with decorations.Though the rest of the guys were enthusiatic about it , I didn't quiet like the idea of waiting on the sidelines when bulls were running about.Thankfully we decided to proceed to the hills as it was 3:00 in the afternoon and we wanted to reach the ashram at top before dark.
The villagers we met were quiet friendly and were filling us in with stories about the hill.They made the trek on the hills sound much easier than what we had imagined.
We were introduced to our guide Jayavel.Jayavel was a local guy who was doing odd jobs in chennai and had been to the hills 70 odd times.Though we trusted the story of a dog guiding us through the hills,we were too novice to let our trek be guided by fate alone.

We started our trek at 3:15. After the initial walk, the climb to the hills started. We were climbing through narrow passge way flanked on both sides by tall bushes.As we proceeded further, the climb got steeper and our bodies began to show signs that the physical challenge is getting tougher.My heart beat went up drastically and I began to pant like an old railway engine.Heart beat rate increased high enough for me to wonder whether it's going to jump out it's place.Half an hour into the trek and my head started spinning just a little and my feet were getting a bit shaky.The plight of the rest of guys was not much different with Williams and to an extent Mani managing to hold themselves, so we took the necessary break.

Jayavel meanwhile was trying to buck us up and cajole us by saying , we can reach an easier part of the trek in 10 minutes and take rest. As we proceeded further we realized that what was 10 minutes for Jayavel was probably going to be Half an hour for us , we had little pauses through out the next part of our climb.All the while , the dog which was our unofficial guide kept a close watch on us and was coming along with us throughout.At all our short pauses,Arvind kept clicking snaps of the scenic spots around us and of course more than a fair share of our pictures.

After about one and a half an hour's trek , we reached a shop.There are few shops in the hill, all set up as tents.All the owners have to bring all the items from the village and have to climb through the same path.Moreover all the items for constructing the Ashram at hill top was carried by the same route.Considering the fact that we were finding it difficult to carry ourselves, the guys who carried cement bags, steel rods etc through the same path sounded like super humans to me.

The shop we had halted was owned by pachayappan.We had a glass freshlime soda and it was getting chill enough to wipe the sweat off our faces.The cool wind and the refreshment we had was a pretty energising and we went on take on the toughest part of the trek.

The next part ws the "kadapaarai padhai" or literally the path of rods. The climb was very steep and there were steel rods drilled on the sides so that we could climb gripping the steel rods.At first I didn't realize that we had reached that part when I had look at all the rods lined up and when I did I went like " Iam supposed climb through this?!!".I was carrying a crossbag on my shoulder which wasn't exactly a bright idea.On seeing the steep climb, I promptly handed over the bag to Jayavel who was more than willing to take the burden.After climbing a bit and I had look down just to how far we have proceeded and decided that it was best to climb fast through this part without halting.It wasn't as scary as I had thought as the steels were more than sufficient to climb through the steep path.Once we crossed the kadapaarai paadhai,
considered to be the toughest part of the trek , there was a sense of relief and joy and we celebrated by taking a few snaps of each other.By this time it was cold enough for me taken my monkey cap out.

The climb further was similar to our initial part only that this time we didn't have so much trouble climbing through the steep path.We managed it pretty well and the beautiful sunsight only made the trek very much worthwhile.By the time we reached the peak it was 6:30 PM a good 3 hours from our start time and mist was just about covering the hills.We went to the temple at the hills.Hot tea and more snaps followed.Having a tasty hot tea on a cool eveining on the hills is quiet an experience.

We went back to the Ashram to rest for the night and were completely bowled over by the hospitality of the people there.The Ashram was quiet warm and we really didn't feel much of the cold outside.There was a cave temple within the Ashram and there was puja in the Ashram. We waited in silence for dinner.When dinner arrived it was 9.00 and we were hungry enough to grab anything that was offered , so the pongal that they served,which doesn't count as my preferred dinner was lapped up happily.After dinner when we went out wash our hands , we could see nothing but mist and since we had removed our shirts for the Puja, the cold winds were even more telling.We were provided with all facilities for a comfortable night's sleep.

The Ashram is run by a mouna samiyar (Silent saint).
The Ashram provides all it's visitors a comfortable stay and the way treat you , makes you feel really at home.Since Jayavel is quiet a regular visitor there , we guys were literally pampered.
There is no power facility at the ashram and generators were used only during dinner time.

We had a good night's sleep, though Williams had a bit of struggle coping with the cold weather.When all of us were awake at around 6:00 AM , we again found that there was nothing but mist surrounding us and visibility was quiet low.We had thought that may be we can start later when mist clears a bit but were advised that this is the right time to start as it will get really hot once the sun comes out.Heeding that advice we started at around 6:30Am.The climb down was quiet a smooth one,though I got a bit scared at the kadapaarai padhai.Since I was walking bare footed , I had few minor slips in the climb down with my feet hitting the rocks a few times.Aprt from that the trek down was quiet casual.By the time we reached the bottom of the hill all of us were sweating profusely but for William.

It was a nice to have completed a 3000 feet climb and back to ground, something that seemed improbable when all of us were breathing our lungs out half an hour into the trek. Jayavel was an excellent guide as he kept telling stories about how villagers climb here with all type of loads and how easy the climb is.He also told us about mytholigal stories of this being the first place where Lord Shiva kept his foot on earth.Overall he ensured that we were never bogged down.

We visited the Ayyanar temple of the village and started our journey back to chennai.For me the trip was memorable for two things , one we actually managed to execute a much cherished plan and two the proof that I can push my own limits when required.

How to get there?
Parvadha malai is near the village Kadaladi which is about 35 Kms from Thiruvannamalai.Frequent busses are availablr from chennai to Thiruvannamalai.From there you can catch a bus to kadaladi.

Highly recommended for young sedantary workers who haven't done any reasonable physical activit for quiet some time and anybody willing to take a break from their hectic lifestyles.

Not advisable for heart patients,Asthma patients and people above 50 Yrs of age.

P.S. It is a bit unfair not provide pictures for such a verbose post.You can view the pictures taken by Arvind ram at http://picasaweb.google.com/arvindram79/ParvadhaMalai

Life is a Journey?? Ya, Ya , I know....

2006-12-30T01:29:00.000-08:00

I am sure the guy who coined this term definitely wasn't thinking abt the journey time that people spend commuting to their office and back daily.I am one of the million beneficiaries of this thing called IT boom and the only hitch with that is the office is invariably located in a far away planet which takes anywhere between 2-4 Hours of ur daily time.In my case,I have to travel 32 Kms in roads which tell you the bitter truth about India's Infrastructure.Come to think of it, I am quiet lucky. I atleast have an office bus to save me time and the night cabs to ensure that I don't have to worry abt means of transport.
Mumbaikars have been living with this long commute for decades now , it's newbies like me who are making noises.Anyway train travel in Mumbai is better than the long drudgery the Bus commute to office is.Imust admit , I quiet like the night cab travel with the radio playing songs without RJ's interruption.
So I guess our mordern lives is all abt the journey to make our living. enjoy the journey, what else to do?

Musquito:India's National Insect?

2006-10-06T08:35:00.000-07:00

Delhi-Dengue to Chennai-Chikungunya ,musquitoes are in news again.Condiering the fact that we share such a special relationship with the species and the fact that whole of India acts as a natural nurturing ground for musquitoes, I think it's high time we named it as India's National Insect.Our National Animal and National bird are in the endangered species category,so we'll atleast have one national representative which is dangerous rather than endangered.

The media predictably has been on with the same stories poor sanitation,poor garbage disposal blah , blah ,blah...as if propoganda is going to solve anything.

Here are two suggesstions to save yourself from these dreaded diseases

1.Settle down in a scandinavian country.Then you might as well ask "does dengue mean thank you in an Indian Language?"

2.Air-condition ur life. Airconditioned homes , A/c cars , A/c office et all. Then u become part of the "righteious elite" and freely scoff at pathetic administartion.Can't afford it? then u are cursed to suffer , hard luck...

Blood Soaked Tear Drop: Lankan Crisis and my view

2006-09-29T13:09:00.000-07:00

“Nearly 13,000 refugees landed in Rameswaram this year ... That too only those who had Rs.30,000 or more to pay for their perilous trip... Leaving their families, houses, properties and relatives.It is a humanitarian crisis which is similar to Darfur ... It is a sad sight when our brethren who are living so close to us are having such a plight ... What we all hope for is a peaceful resolution of the conflict ...I am not supporting the LTTE or other separatist organizations ...But the plight of these Sri Lankan refugees who are now shifted to Coimbatore as the Mandabam camp in Rameswaram is over-crowded ... need not be overlooked. They too speak the same language as we do ... follow the same social customs, the only difference is we were lucky enough to be born on the other side of the palk strait ... “(Views expressed in an Orkut discussion by user “neo”)

Ever since the influx of Tamil refugees from Srilanka has reached sizable proportions over the last few months, the media has become actively involved and so have the Indian citizens more particularly people of Tamilnadu. There are varied views as to what exactly must India do. The views vary from supporting LTTE’s armed struggle to crushing the armed struggle by assisting the Govt of Srilanka. These are just two extreme views and there are a million responses, which lie between these two extremes. I will attempt to present my views on the issue and what possibly must India do. Right now India is doing nothing and it will do so at it’s own peril.

Disclaimer: There may be factual gaps and inaccuracies in my narration, do mention that in your comments.If you need to form your own independent views on the issue “Island of Blood” by Anita Pratap and “Inside an Elusive Mind” by Narayana Swamy are two good books. The views that have been expressed here are largely an understanding of those two books. Other good book that I have heard of but haven’t read is “Tigers of Lanka” by Narayana Swamy published in 1994.

Where are the roots of this ethnic conflict?
If we have to get to the actual roots of this conflict we may have to go back a very long time in History. Let’s for the sake of meaningful understanding take a look at the History of events from Srilankan Independence. I am bad with Dates and names, so if you are looking for accurate chronology of events or for names of political leaders involved you have to google it.

Srilanka is a country of Singhalese Majority. Approximately 75-80% of the population is Singhalese and the rest Tamilians.The minority population is concentrated in the northern and northeastern parts of Srilanka. After Srilanka got Independence from British rule, the first president of Srilanka visited the northern part and announced that there will be no discrimination against Tamils and they need not worry about being a linguistic minority in Srilanka. What went wrong then? Politicians being politicians smelled a big opportunity to score a few brownie points. Immediately there was furore in Srilankan Parliament by Opposition parties about how Singhalese interests are being compromised and how the government is selling out to minorities. For all the bold declarations, the political heat was too much for the incumbent government to stand up to and it went back on all promises and started to discriminate against Tamils. Thus a vicious cycle was set where in Political parties try to project themselves as Singhalese warriors and Srilankan politics was essentially reduced to Singhalese Chauvinism.

There were political parties in Northern part of Srilanka and prominent well-respected Tamil political leaders. Their political and peaceful means to stand up to discrimination were always crushed ruthlessly. Srilankan political history is replete with events of how peaceful civilian movements were crushed with brute force. Just a few examples to show discrimination- compulsory Singhalese number plates for vehicles, Preference to Singhalese citizens in higher education and government jobs etc. Apart from the state policies, government also turned a blind eye to violence against Tamilians. There was a literal state sponsored genocide in Srilanka.

In response to all these atrocities, various armed groups emerged in the northern regions, but most of them were quiet unfocussed and didn’t have any strategic or tactical power for a military combat. LTTE emerged as the most ruthless and powerful force from among these groups to make the Srilankan government and indeed the entire world up sit up and notice and bring them to the negotiating table.

Just how the hell did the LTTE become so powerful?

India under Indira Gandhi’s rule in the 1980s played a significant role in LTTE’s emergence as a powerful guerilla group.

Prabhakaran, the LTTE chief was born in Srilanka in 1954.His childhood was witness to mass atrocities against his family members and his people and that probably instilled a sense of anger and Hatred firmly in his head. He became prominent in the public eye after the murder of the Mayor of Velvityur, his hometown. He is believed to have received armed training in Palestine. He was, right from his beginning as a rebel, been very clear about the idea that a Separate country for Tamils is the only way to ensure their peaceful existence and to this day he hasn’t budged from that.

July 1983 was witness to the most unfortunate event in Lankan History, the “Black July” pogrom against Tamils. In a skirmish between LTTE and Srilankan Army LTTE attacked an Army post at Velvettiyur and killed four Army men brutally, this was done as a retaliation for the death one of their prominent members. This event sparked off mass violence against Tamils. In her book “Island of Blood” Anita Pratap says that during that period the Tamil newspapers carried no news, they had only obituaries and travel agency ads to arrange for escape from Srilanka.Thanks to the efforts of Indian Journalists like her, the incident got the attention of Indians and there was an huge outpour of sympathy towards Srilankan Tamils.

Meanwhile quiet a few armed groups had emerged in the Northern part of Srilanka and there was a power struggle between them (I do not remember all of them but TELOS was prominent armed group at that time). I do not know or rather don’t remember the exact reasons but Prabhakaran stayed in India, in chennai during this period. He was living like a normal guy and nobody would have believed that he was a “wanted” by Srilankan government. It so happened that an unexpected Gunfight broke out between him and another armed group leader at Pondybazar in Chennai. The police caught him. Prabhakaran didn’t come out with his true identity. The other guy who was caught told the truth about them. The circumstances turned fortunate for Prabhakaran. The General sympathy that had been built up in India towards Srilankan Tamils coupled with Indira Gandhi’s enthusiasm for another Bangladesh like adventure ensured that he wasn’t sent back to Srilanka, as he should have been. All Lankan armed groups were given Arms and Training under the guidance of RAW (training given in Dehradun in forest warfare and huge forest areas cleared in TN to provide training).

The IPKF Fiasco

This bonhomie between LTTE and India continued for quiet some time. Tamil Political parties were falling head over heels in love with LTTE and there was an active competition to provide assistance to them.

All this continued till Rajiv Gandhi did a sudden U turn on this issue. He insisted that all armed groups should act as one group and that Srilanka and LTTE should agree upon a peace deal that did not insist on formation of a separate Tamil nation. India wanted LTTE to surrender their arms and sent the IPKF to monitor the “peace” process. (This later broke into pieces and a badly bruised nose for India)

His sudden insistence on giving up of arms by LTTE and hastiness to broker a peace deal really upset Prabhakaran. He was also upset by treating his group equivalent to other groups as he firmly believed the idea of separate Tamil nation and did not trust the sincerity of other groups this the cause (or at least this is what the LTTE sympathizers tell)
While there's no clear cut reason for Rajiv Gandhi’s sudden change of policy w.r.t LTTE , there are indications that it was an attempt to divert the Bofors issue which was burning his pants then(some RG supporters were living in the dream of him getting a Nobel peace prize for resolving Lankan issue, talk about being naïve )

The IPKF had failure written all over it even before it began. For starters the troops that landed there didn’t have much of a clue about political ground realities.(some army men landed their with supplies for just two day’s stay) The LTTE was already against this move and was plotting IPKF’s downfall. There were noises from Srilankan opposition that the landing of foreign troops in Srilanka was against their national interests and national pride. LTTE and Sri Lankan Army both played an active role in turning the IPKF against Tamilians. The LTTE would attack Indian forces posted there and would vanish within the local population. Lack of local intelligence resulted in innocent civilians being attacked by IPKF for LTTE’s attack on them. Thus a scenario developed where both the LTTE and Srilankan government wanted to get rid of the IPKF and so did the Tamil civilians who were suffering at their hands. In a cruel irony, SLA army provided Arms to LTTE for battle against IPKF.LTTE waged a successful Guerilla war and Indian troops were forced to withdraw after a long, fruitless battle.

The withdrawal of IPKF was a huge boost to LTTE, it proved that they could take on a mighty army and defeat it. LTTE was also successful in elimination all other armed groups by force or by coercion i.e. they either become part of LTTE or get killed. This act is justified on the premise that other groups were traitors that were not sincere about the cause of Ealam – The separate homeland for Srilankan Tamils.

What is the Justification provided for Rajiv Gandhi’s Murder by LTTE’s sympathizers and what is it’s aftermath?

Well, the oft-repeated argument is that he was a traitor against Tamils and it was a revenge for sending IPKF and unleashing atrocities against Tamils. My actual understanding is that the decision to assassinate Rajiv Gandhi was based on two factors

1) Lok sabha elections were due in India and LTTE was sensing that if Rajiv comes back to power, he would do something to erase the bad memories of IPKF that may not be in LTTE’s interest.

2) Assassination of a prominent politician of a large democratic country would project LTTE, as a powerful organization that can strike at will.

Whatever the basis of the action, it remains the biggest political blunder by LTTE. It ensured that no self respecting Indian can ever support the LTTE, even if he is a staunch supporter of the Srilankan Tamils. The LTTE’s original demand for separate Tamil land stood seriously diluted because of this act and subsequent assassinations that it carried out. The world saw no difference between LTTE and other terrorist organization with separatist ideologies.

Why do peace talks between LTTE and Srilanka continuously fail?

For the same simple reason that all peace talks fail- rigidity. The sad truth is none of the successive Lankan govts have any proof that they are serious about treating Tamils with equality. The LTTE in turn refuses to budge from its position of Separate Ealam. Whatever alternative voices emerge, they are suppressed. The LTTE ensures that no voice apart from it’s own is heard to outside world, people with political view different from LTTE are not tolerated. Similarly the chauvinistic agenda of successive Srilankan governments has ensured that Singhalese citizens are either apathetic to the plight of Tamilians or a fanatical few of them encourage the discrimination against Tamils.

There have attempts by social groups to increase interaction between Singhalese and Tamil people especially youngsters. This is to erase the hatred that has developed between the two communities over the last few generations. These are just small efforts that can at best act as supporting structure in a larger peace process.
What have been India’s responses to this crisis post the Rajiv Gandhi assassination and what should it be?

India’s response can be described as an Ostrich syndrome. It fails to see the problem in the hope that ignoring it would make the problem disappear. There has been no clear stand on this issue(that there has been no clear stand on any external affair issue requires another blog). What are the options India has in this situation?

1) Continue to act like an Ostrich, bury your head in sand and hope that the problem will go away. Result – Obviously the problem is going nowhere, we’ll only end up with more refugee influx and more hardening of radical Tamil groups within India
2) Support LTTE in its cause for Separate Ealam.Result - India will end up with another Bangladesh like scenario. We’ll create an authoritarian regime that is right now controlled by Prabhakaran but has no succession plans. The possibilities of proxy war by Srilanka will exist. We’ll end up opening another front to create headache for India. The reason why India will never take this stance is because of the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi.

3) Support GoSL in its attempts to curb LTTE. The Gosl will curb LTTE and get back to it’s old ways of discrimination and this in turn again runs the danger of raising radical voices in TN

4) The best option in my opinion is to bring diplomatic pressure on Srilankan Government. Set time frames for implementation of policies that conveys sincerity in treating Tamils as equal in Srilanka. Help in setting up a federal structure as we have in India After all when EU countries are involved in working out a solution, it is only fair that we must do our two pence to our neighbor.

I think we must look at the sufferings of Sri Lankan Tamils as a humanitarian issue rather than get emotional about "Thamizh inam"(tamil unity to put it simply). After all when the govt condemned the attacks on Lebanon and sent Aid package to them, I really see no reason for us to remain mute to issue that is taking place next door.

Another question that gets raised is Will formation of separate Tamil Ealam fuel separatist tendencies within Tamilnadu?

I doubt that very much as there is no serious alienation of Tamilians from the Indian mainstream. More importantly political parties will not lend much voice to such a stand, simply because the power and money that can get as a politician in a well developed state of India is far greater than what they will get being part of separate nation.

Should India go the Israel way?

2006-08-02T09:43:00.000-07:00

This is the topic doing rounds in Internet after the Bombay blasts .By attacking terrorists ,most people mean India should attack Pakistan. If that is the line of thinking ,then I would say a firm no. Is this a sign of cowardice as the right wing thinkers say? No. A war should never be undertaken unless we are convinced that it would fulfill its objectives (US can give lessons on this as they are discovering that war on Afghanistan and Iraq is proving frustratingly fruitless). In this case India's objective is to end cross border terrorism, will war on Pakistan end cross-border terrorism? No, it will only make the terrorist camps shift to Afghanistan and Bangladesh. What we must do is to firmly establish the facts that Pakistan acts as a base for Terrorism. This is not to show Pakistan that it needs to act (even if truth spits on it's face Pakistan won't agree that there is terrorist activity on it's homeland) but to bring International pressure on it to stop terrorist acts.
Intelligence network is the best way to counter terrorism. We must seal our borders at all ends - even a "friendly" nation like Nepal acts as a gateway for terrorist infiltration, and ensure that there is proper communication between various law enforcement agencies and the Intelligence networks of different states. One more way India must act is to cause internal disturbance in Pakistan.Pre -1998 (mostly during PV Narasimha Rao's rule) India was following a policy of "talk and hit”, even as we were having govt level talks with Pakistan, our Intelligence agencies were given a free run to twist the internal politics of Pakistan.

What has Israel achieved by attacking Lebanon, attracted International condemnation, Increasd the count of Hizbollah sympathizers and turned Lebanon into a radical Islamic ground for new terrorist recruits.
What will India achieve by attacking Pakistan? US Condemnation and possibly a few other countries joining in, local politics which try to create communal disturbance for electoral benefits and of course a few Jingoistic bollywood movies added to the collective swelling of national ego. An idealist is an Idiot, who can't face the truth, an extremist is an evil who will destroy himself, I hope we have the courage to be a realist and act intelligently.

2006-08-01T09:42:00.000-07:00

Islam and Terror : Questioning the Connexions
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The Bombay blasts that killed 200 innocent lives have once again brought back the sharp debates on "Islamic Terrorism"The main accusation is that the basic teaching of Islam that all non-believers shud be eliminated is the main reason behind terrorism.Add to this , the media especially the webworld is full of articles about how quran preaches hatred with english
translations provided as proof for their argument.

Here are my counter arguments to that accusation:
1.If Islam does indeed preach hatred for all non-muslims , where was it hiding for a long time?I am talking about modern history which by my definition is post second world war.Atleast I do not remember reading about islamic terrorism before Osama.How is it that after 9/11 this kind of material is getting wide publicity?Is it just a case of clever western Propoganda?Afterall the world's most crucial resource -Oil, is in control of Islamic powers and western Imperial powers would want to gain a moral high ground before attacking them and capturing the Oil resources,This propogand may just be a part of their build up towards their eventual seizure of Islamic powers.I would even go as far as to say that the blasts in Mumbai may have had US involvement to force India to take an extreme stance and toe the US line in Iran and West Asia,yest it's an extreme idea , but I am not ruling out that possibility.

2.Taking the specific case of India where were these "Hindu haters" before 1990s? There was bloodshed during partition but after that there weren't many Hindu-Muslim clashes till late 1980s when Kashmiri pandits were targeted by millitnat groups and then the the 1992 riots.If Islam does indeed preach hatred why is that Muslims were maintaining restraint for long periods of time?

3.Is this accusation of Islam being a religion of hatred just a case of bad translation?I mean is there a difficulty in translating Arabic verses ?Are we reading the meaning too literally and ignoring what the verses actually communicate? or is it being used by certain vested interests to poison Muslim minds that their religion orders them to kill the "kafirs"?

I have posted these questions at various forums on the net and I have got extremely insghtful replies as why these could be true.The basic summmary of the responses that I have got is thid, Islam preaching hatred is definitely not a case of bad translation.The Quran is written in Arabic and Arabic countries also interpret Islam in this extreme form only and the only reason restraint was maintained was that the logistics of organizing a terror network were impossible.It's very easy now to stay connected an operate through a network secretly .

My thoughts on those responses ?Yes , organizing a network is much easier now than it was two decades ago,but if Islam asks to get rid of all "kafirs" , why is that they were not passionate abt it for quiet sometime.If their god tells them to do that , they'll do it at any cost right?
About Arabic countries , most of the Arabic countries are friendly with US , the biggest "kafir" going around , so I do not see much value in the argument that they also interpret Islam in an extreme form.

I do agree that Islam is probably the most intolerant to changes.The argument I have heard from Muslims for this is that ,they believe that the Koran tells them everything about their way of life and since it was written by god , how can the mere mortals intrepret god's word according their convinience.

Recently there was an Article in "The Hindu" about how Muslim leaders in Varnasi are having a relook at Islamic preachings after the March 7 bomb blasts at varanasi.Please read it to retain the hope that may be not all muslims are thirsting for the blood of non-muslims.

Summary-
I am delibrately taking a stance counter to popular perception here to question the group think that seems to have afflicted us The reason I want to question the logic of blaming Islam for terrorism is that , if we take that argument to be true, we are not very far away from World War III , with west asian Islamic countries on one side and US and Israel on the other, rest of the world has to join one of the sides.This is just too ugly a scenario for me to imagine.

And here's a response I got from a person of Muslim faith to my Initial argumentsJews were protected by muslims at a time when christian kingdom were bent on eliminating them… one good example is that caliph Omar, in his time jerusalem surrendered to caliphate thru truce and there was no war… so when he signed the truce and it was prayer time, the christians told him that he can do the prayer at a space near the entrance of church. But the caliph refused
saying that if he pray it there today, it might be an excuse in future for some muslims to claim that this place belongs to them. (Caliph Omar is one of the best friend of Prophet). If hatred is what Islam preaches as claimed by somebody, there shuld be no people of other religon in palestine today.

Lastly there is prohphet muhammed (p.b.u.h) saying:A man who helps people who commit atricities on the society is against Islam (This is my translation of what he had said in tamil).

Disclaimer: My view are NOT NEUTRAL , they are meant to look at the opposite point of view.Please ignore the typos , I am toosleepy to correct them now...

A Disaster called Development.

2006-06-24T00:14:00.000-07:00

All it took was 7mm of rain to drown bangalore in misery.The media has once again made the right noises about poor infrastructure, poor administration and lack of accountability in the city corporation. To look at Bangalore only as city with poor infrastructure and administration would be a mistake.Remember , not long ago Bangalore was the darling of the upper middle class working professionals-the climate , job opportunities , cosmopolitan crowd et all.Where does it stand now? a decaying city crumbling under the weight of it's achivements with a steadily increasing crime graph. From being a role model for development, it has degraded into an example of all things that can go wrong with a growing metropolis.

The objective here is not to deride the city but look at the bigger picture. The degradation of bangalore is only a symptom of a disease which has been spreading through out the country with our tacit help. A glance at other cities will confirm that they are already there with bangalore or speeding their way to match it's urban mess. So is it just a question of managing urban growth? No it's a question of our one-dimensional view of development.

What is our definition of development? Of developed cities and states? We typically view development as huge IT parks with their fancy glass buildings, huge dams, huge power plants and basically anything that will allow the govt to announce in newspaper proudly "Rs 2500 Cr allocated for city development". Plans like these typically swell the city's problems along with the politician's ego. My argument is not against big ticket projects, Yes , we do need spend a lot on developing our country's infrastructure, but the kind of obsession shown by both central and state governments for mega-sized projects without taking a long term view is hurting the country badly.( this is irresspective of the party in power).The political and administrative class of the country along with it's citizens approach the issue of development like hollywood producers- hype and excitement are more important than content. No wonder we end up producing 'Godzilas' that destroy people's life.

What is the problem with this view of development? Most of the development plans do not include the people who will be affected by it into consideration. It's almost as if they never existed. Coming back to the Bangalore example (this is true for other cities also), the development of city as IT hub has resulted in an uneasy divide. On one hand we have the mobile-flashing yuppie crowd which is not too averse to show off it's wealth. On the other we have migrants from various parts of the state who do not have proper job opportunities, the resulting frustration drives then to crimes.

Typically all big ticket projects require land to be acquired from locals.Invariably agricultural lands are acquired from locals.The farmers usually don't have much of chance against such land acquisition, either their financial condition is too poor to deny such an offer or they are any way forced to part with their lands for the cash compensation offered.When politicians are involved , then accusations of land grabbing and scam cannot be too far away.People who are displaced like this initially manage with the cash compensation received, with the absence of proper investment opportunities for the cash they have received , they have soon get back to finding a job and are driven to cities and so we have this urban mess.

It is not that politicians and Government officials are not aware of these facts.The reason why there is bias towards huge projects is the huge kickbacks that politicians and officials receive.

We have to get rid of our assumption that jobs in the "knowledge sector" (IT,BFSI) are the panacea for job growth.Inspite of the economy growing at a steady phase over the past 2-3 years there has been negligible job growth.Modernization has resulted in loss of jobs in manufacturing sector and the IT,ITES growth is not big enough to absorb the employment requirements of the economy.Moreover in a country where access to quality education is limited , it is impractical to expect that growth in IT industry will reach all sections of the society.

We need to pay attention to the fact that any project that does not address employment of people affected by it will definitely end up being a disisater.The government has to pay attention to vocational training and provide a mechanism to make employability achiveable by everyone.Of course there are no easy solutions, promoting small scale industries is probably one of the ways of achieving this goal.Government and private sector needs to strike a balance between mordernizing manufacturing facilities and promoting labor intensive jobs.

There are a few worthy models of inclusive development within our country which need to emulated. The shining example is of Tate steel at Jamshedpur.Jamshedpur is a modern, compact industrial city developed by Tata Steel.Life in the city is comfortable, with all areas having 24 hours running water and electricity. Facilities are maintained by Jamshedpur Utilities and Services Company Limited(JUSCO), a 100% owned subsidiary of Tata Steel.I would need to start another blog to list their various corporate initiatives, but I’ll provide you with a glimpse of their enormous impact on lives of people.Forty-eight tribal girls are being educated through a residential program over nine months. They are being taught Bengali(their local dialect is sainthali).One of them has just been selected to represent Jharkand in the state archery competition. They have their own women’s football team and whats more they are now fond of education. It is a passion and not a burden. Tata Industries is one of the 30 international companies to submit 'triple bottom line' accounting, measuring not just their financial results but also their social and environmental practice, to the United Nations Global Reporting Initiative.

I am not a PRO of Tatas, but this is an exmple of what comapnies can do if they want to.Instead of perinially complaining about poor government, lack of infrastructure etc., Tata's have gone ahead and done something about it.This is what corporate India and Government of India need to emulate. There are other hundreds of individual initiatives which are being lost in the government's obsession with size.Even now the governments across the country are discussing about river-linking project, an expensive proposal which will end up being an ecological nightmare,huge dams , huge power plants.

We need to shift our focus to local initaiatives and innovative ideas to really become a developed nation.Two such examples that I recently came across were production of petrol from palstic(by prof.ALKA Zadgaonkar of Nagpur’s G.H. Raisoni College of Engineering) and One Mr chandrashekar who has built a power plant exclusivesly for his village.(sorry for the sketchy details , will update as soon as i get more details)

2006-05-27T09:08:00.000-07:00

Dandi March

2006-05-20T01:10:00.000-07:00

Dandi March

His Eyes were raining down tears and his nails were biting into his palms as he sat there watching his brothers butchered like lambs. The rage and grief that possessed him were turning his blood into poison, a poison that will be let out soon.

Meet Saiffudin Yusuf Aslam.
A modern young Indian, who has found a place for himself in the back office of the world. The Multinational that employed had moved all its back office operations to pune for cost cutting. Yusuf was raking in the moolah and cost cutting was the last thing in his mind.

His humble beginnings and a tough early life were keeping him grounded. Even though he was part of the day dreaming, money splurging club of the country, he had simple ambitions in life – to make his brother syed an engineer, save enough money to start a small business for himself at dandi, his hometown, and live peacefully.

Fate had so far played as per his script. Just as he completed his graduation, the buzz of the BPO caught him. Thanks to a few of his friends, he started his job hunt in Pune. It was far from easy though. His poor English and lack of confidence, typical of a small town guy, hit him hard. But he fought on. Hours of training, CNN and HBO channels later, he landed a job. Once on job, he literally got wings to fly. Life was a fairy tale.

‘These fools have to be taught a lesson.’ Sheik Ahmed Khan was bellowing at the top of his voice. ‘We will take revenge forever drop of blood. We’ll clean this earth of this scum.’ There were dozens of young men and women much like Yusuf in that small hellhole. The collective frenzy in that place was enough to destroy this world.

The fairy tale ended abruptly, as if someone had pulled the chains in a running train. Like millions of others who watched the photo of a young man pleading for life with death written all over his face, Yusuf went pale with shock.

What followed for the next few weeks was a once famous Gulzar’s poem turning into a shocking reality.

“Every Morning my hands are soaked in Blood.
Every morning I pick up the newspaper.”

Yusuf was in touch with his little brother Syed throughout the ugly episode. His unwillingness to see reality made him sty back instead of rushing to syed. He kept telling himself, ‘this would end soon.’

Sure as hell, it ended. Two weeks into the Godhra carnage, Syed was one of the thousands of corpses that were piling up. Reality had hit too hard and too fast for Yusuf to do anything.

Standing amongst a sea of corpses that would make you puke your life out, he saw syed, with the milk white skin charred like coal. He wished he were blind. Rage spread through Yusuf like a forest fire.

Sheik Ahmed Khan was a failed gangster. He never had the intelligence to run the ‘dhandha’. He was once part of the now famous D – company. His stupid goof ups ensured that he got kicked out pretty soon. Now the wide spread hatred of his community provided him an ideal opportunity to seek his place under the sun. He was planning grand political games.

He was assured of financial and infrastructure support from Al-Ahmadia, one of the zillion groups that had mushroomed, thanks to the Gujrat riots. All he needed was people to run the show. Young guys like Yusuf with venom in their veins were a perfect fit.

Hundreds of CDs and videos were distributed all over the country and shown to several groups to instigate the anger. The visuals with gory details of the riots were enough to enrage even the calmest of saints.

No wonder, Yusuf was more than a ready volunteer for a violent cause.

The plan was clear. Yusuf was to get to back to mainstream. It’s hard to suspect a modern young guy employed in the back office of the world. But before going back, he got trained in the design of explosives.
He was to go to mumbai and wait for instructions. He was to design and plan the bombs at the said place at the said time.

Yusuf stayed in Andheri, the central location of Mumbai ad he was well and truly lost in the crowd.
Then the day arrived when he had to show his mettle. The day he had been waiting for. He was to plant a pipe bomb at dadar station, enough to throw the financial capital of India out of gear.

His hide out was one of the million chawls in Mumbai. This particular one in Vasai was unlike the others. Though it was filthy, it wasn’t too crowded. A secluded enough place for Yusuf to plan his battle.

As he was working furiously at assembling the explosive, an unbelievable joy spread through him. He himself was exploding with nervous energy. ’This is it’, he thought, time to launch the war. In two hours time every thing was ready. The explosive in front of him seemed to be the most beautiful thing on earth.

He decided to carry the explosive along with him, it was too dangerous to leave it there, even though he was 24 hours away from the actual execution.

Yusuf looked very much like a college guy with the bag slinged stylishly on his shoulder. He caught the last train leaving from vasai. Train would be free enough for him to go without raising any suspicion.

As he huddled himself in a corner seat of the train, he was irritated by a family, which came and sat near him. He was hoping to be left alone. More irritation followed as the guy who was apparently the head of the family started talking to him.

‘What do you study?’ Yusuf gave him a puzzled look. He didn’t know why a complete stranger would like to know about his education. He simply said BCom’.

‘Hmm. that’s good. I want to make Intiaz a doctor’, the man said and looked with pride at his son. The kid was bubbly and was running up and down the train.

One look at the small kid, syed came flooding back to Yusuf’s mind. Even though syed was 14 when he died, what Yusuf remembered about him was a little kid playing kites with him. Intiaz was very much like syed, the same cheerfulness, and the same energy.

The man continued talking.’ I have a dream to make him a doctor. He is a very bright boy, you know. He is great at everything. Studies, sports, everything. But Iam a small man. I work at a teashop at dadar station, enough to run my house, but not enough to pay his school. Allah will help me.’ He seemed to be talking to himself rather than to Yusuf.

The family got down two stations later, but the little kid never left Yusuf’s mind. Time seemed to have stopped for Yusuf. He was less than 24 hours away from fulfilling his life’s purpose, but the very purpose had been questioned.

Yusuf was torn between the innocence of Intiaz and loyalty to his group. After all, they were his only friends when there seemed to be no one for him and they had trusted him with the first blow of the war. How could he betray them?

All this while Intiaz and syed kept flashing back to his memory. His heart was pounding as if it were experiencing an earthquake.

‘Intiaz deserves to be a doctor’, he thought. He will not let his war come in the way of an innocent man’s dream. A strange sense of happiness spread through him as he decided this.

A war had been won without blood. There is still venom in his veins, but it will heal soon, a few more Intiazes willing.

Nightmare called news channels

2006-03-18T22:39:00.000-08:00

Weekends are probably the best part of working bachelor's life.If you are an average joe like me(read as couch potatoe like me) , you sit around lazily and watch the TV on weekends.If that is what you are doing , then life will be pretty messy I guess.The quality of TV programmes is similar to quality of movies running in the city , which means it's going to be rubbish that you have to put up with.

Turned off by all that nonsense , I switched to news channels.My god , I am yet to figure out how news channels can be so dumb.Sample this. Rahul Dravid , the Indian cricket captain is playing in his 100th test match.I know it's an important mile stone, but there was way too much hype .I mean it' almost as if he had
scored a 100 centuries .There were inevitable sound bytes from former players, comparison with sachin etc I could put up with all that stuff , but the kind of questions that came from the reproters to former cricketers about Dravid were as banal as banal can get(eg : What do you think of Dravid as a batsman?).We're supposed to enjoy this .Sob soaps on TV are probably more unpredictable that this.

The modus operandi of news channels these days is - Pick up a trivial issue,blow it out of propotion , create exclusive reports on that , get a few old heads to discuss on the topic,sensationalize the issue and beat it to death till you catch hold of another potential topic that can be hyped.

All of us aware what havoc channels can do in terms of active journalism.I am bit enraged that Zee news got away with that Gudia episode.They unnecessarily fiddled with a poor lady's life just for a few TRP points.The media wants to exploit all trivial issues for news value , but wont take any responsibilty for their actions.I have a conspiracy theory about Bird flu .I seriously belive it's not Bird flu at all , it's just a seasonal poultry disease that's being by hyped by pharmaceutical majors with able support from media to mint more money.Hope my cynical thoughts are not true , but definitely not ruled out.

More posting on this will follow...

What does random revolutions mean??

2006-03-18T22:06:00.000-08:00

I am big believer that life is nothing but a game of probability. If you have limited knowledge of probability like me , you will know that inspite all the all the talk of it being a science,it's a pretty random concept. I mean ,even if you have done a Phd in probability , you would have no clue what would turn up if you toss a coin.Makes me wonder , whether we should call probability an art or rather a philosophy.

Ok , enough running around the park.The reason this blog is called random revolutions is because it's going to be similar to life , just like you have know clue what's going to happen in your life tomorrow, I have know clue what's going to be posted next.Sometimes it'll be funny,sometimes provocative and sometimes silly .Another thing about life is that , everything happens in circles,when you are hitting a purple patch , even your everyday blunders become miracles.On your bad days , even your miraculous efforts become disasters.

It's hard to predict the future in short term ,but longterm intelligent guesses turn out right .So, even if don't know what am I going to post next , I'll have lot fun blogging and hopefully anybody reading it will enjoy it too