The sport of Kings

Off late all my attention was on reading than writing, and as usual I am back after a gap. I am a bit upset when I sit down to write this post and it took me a couple of days to finish this. You would all know why when you have read this. I would be doing injustice to myself if I do not write about this.

Last Sunday, while volunteering for the Irish Red Cross, I watched the first 'Horse Race of my Life'. Horse racing is also known as 'the sport of kings', full of glamour, effort and thrilling competition. Prior to this I have only seen the game on TV.

I'm not a religious right moral values propaganda spewer, but I don't like gambling at all. So, I have never been keen on watching the sport. I especially don't like when gambling is sanctioned by the state. It leads to the wrong type of environment and that's not what people needs. Get these people good jobs for crying out loud. Oh, and I don't believe in betting on horse races either but alas, that's one that I probably would never win. I don't even like playing the Lotto. Don’t call me a pessimist for saying this. But I do play Lotto at times when I see my wife working her head out trying to figure out the winning combination. Can you imagine if the money people spent on gambling was actually used to fix some of the problems we have? Yeah we would not have anymore millionaires and billionaires but we'd have people with a stronger foundation and a brighter future.

It was still fun, though, and the horses are just beautiful. Pure, solid muscle. So the last weekend was not a total waste even with all the rain. But few of the thoroughbred racehorses that gallop their elegant way around the racecourses of Ireland every week are left to see out their days grazing in golden pastures. For thousands of the thoroughbreds that are too old, too slow or not good enough jumpers, the end is brutal: a bullet through the temple or a metal bolt into the side of the brain.

They call it 'putting the horse down'. I witnessed three horses fall and was told that they would be put down. I know it is extremely expensive for a horse to recover from an accident like this, and the poor animal would need to be put in a sling or something until it had fully healed. I am also aware that it would be extremely difficult to put the horse on its side, yet I'm highly skeptical at the claims that there would have been no way to save it.

We keep humans on life support when they are all but brain-dead... we spend thousands trying to keep the terminally ill breathing as long as possible... We scream and object to allowing people to simply die if they wish to end their suffering.... yet we turn a blind eye to this cruelty. Animals that could live for more than 30 years are put to death before they turn 5 or 10.

These horses earn their owners millions, but the owners do not want to spend money on the recovery of the horse. There's something very wrong about all of this.

Fun, was it?

It’s been almost three weeks since Irish voters have strongly endorsed the European Union's Lisbon Treaty - 16 months after their first vote rejecting it plunged EU reforms into deadlock. About 67% voted "Yes", official results from the latest referendum showed. The treaty - which is aimed at streamlining decision-making in the 27-nation bloc - cannot take effect until all 27 member states ratify it. According to final results, 67.1% of Irish voters approved it, while 32.9% voted "No". Turnout in the three-million electorate was 58%.

Ireland was the only EU member state to hold a referendum on Lisbon, though there have been calls for referendums in several countries.

Lisbon 2 delivered more thrills, spills and laughs than most sequels, and offered us a revealing glimpse into the state of the national psyche in 2009. This latter point was one of the more sobering aspects of the campaign, as, if the evidence presented is anything to go by, we would all appear to rarely be more than one or two irrational beliefs away from going over the edge.

Otherwise reasonably sane people seemed to completely lose the run of themselves as the clock ticked down to polling day. No one seemed immune to the Lisbon hysteria. Even people who are known to the the epitome of controlled calm lost the plot.

And it wasn’t just the professional political classes who were adversely effected. How many pub conversations in the weeks leading up to the poll descended into arguments about the merits of a yes or no vote? Friends of long-standing exchanged many a harsh word, and, if you believe the anecdotal evidence, people had to agree not to talk about it if they wanted to remain civil with each other.

Some of the worst of the browbeating took place on social networking sites like Face book. Lengthy posts from people pleading with their friends to vote a certain way were commonplace. Not only was it annoying, it was also something much worse – condescending. Typically, these posts weren’t about encouraging people to inform themselves, instead the core message was an appeal for readers to come to their senses and vote as the poster demanded. The sometimes random CAPPING of words only served to add to the impression of a whole cohort of PEOPLE having gone completely MAD.

This would have been more remarkable if it hadn’t all happened before. Yes, Lisbon 2 was a sequel, but in terms of the temporary psychosis it induced, it wasn’t a successor to the first Treaty vote. The first Lisbon campaign was unhinged in its own right, but was much more intense this time out, tapping into our capacity for rabid irrationality in a way that is almost unprecedented.

Families and friends divided, raised voices in pubs, no uninformed opinion left unvoiced, unimpeachable certainty on both sides, blanket coverage across television, radio and the news papers… Does any of that sound familiar? The Face book parallel would probably hold up too, were it not for the fact that social networking websites had not taken hold here by 2002.

So, is there anything we can learn from all this? Perhaps it’s that if we spend less time being so convinced about the things we believe, we might be able to listen to what others say. Perhaps it’s that we need to appreciate that if someone disagrees with us, it doesn’t necessarily follow that they’re wrong. Or may be it’s this damn, we could have won that match or whatever.

Click here to read more about Lisbon Treaty.

When Luck favours you :

 

Many say the man in the video escaped because of faster legs. I would still say it’s luck. What else can explain this. He has been plain lucky. Had he started crossing one or two seconds later, he might have ended up dead. Fortunately for him, that didn’t happen. Be careful when you cross the road. Look right and left. Get back to the basics.

Credit Card Mistakes

How Bad Are Your Credit Card Mistakes?

by Erin Peterson

Grade yours on a 10-point scale.

Nobody's perfect. When it comes to our financial lives, we've all done things we later regretted -- whether it's getting slapped with a $3 fee for using an out-of-network ATM or going on a Las Vegas bender and losing the house on an overly aggressive poker bet.

The key is to understand the scale of the transgression. With credit card blunders, that's no easy task -- is it worse to take a cash advance or to pay a bill a day or two late? Experts graded a range of credit card mistakes on a scale from 1 (losing a few bucks to a cash machine) to 10 (losing the house). Find out which worry the pros most -- and which may (almost) get a free pass.

Paying Late
How bad is it? 6
The details: Credit card companies are notoriously prickly about late payments -- even a payment that's late by a few minutes can pile up fees, interest charges and other penalties. Depending on how late the payment is, your card issuer may also report the problem to any of the credit bureaus, which can wreak havoc on your credit score. The good news, says Stacy Francis, president of Francis Financial, is that the error may be reversible. "You do have the option of giving the credit card company a call and asking them not to report it," she says. "If you've generally been an on-time payer, they may waive the fees and not report it."

Paying Only the Minimum on Your Card
How bad is it? 4
The details: Credit card companies love it when you pay off your debt slowly, but you should loathe it. It won't necessarily affect your credit score, but that doesn't mean it's a good practice. Sending in only the minimum payment "is definitely going to keep you in debt longer, and you're going to pay a heck of a lot more in interest," says Francis. "You may be paying twice as much -- or more -- as you would by paying in cash."

Buying On a Card Just For Rewards
How bad is it? 1
The details: If you're paying off your balance on time and in full, using your cards to grab extra rewards isn't necessarily a bad plan, says Gail Cunningham, spokeswoman for the National Foundation for Credit Counselling. "You can win the rewards card game if you know how to play," she says. "But you do have to know yourself." Because most people spend more when they're paying with plastic than with cash, be cautious and recognize when you're buying something only because plastic makes the purchase painless.

Missing a Payment
How bad is it? 9
The details: Not only are you going to be slammed with fees, interest charges and other penalties when you miss a payment, but you'll likely see a rise in your interest rates. If that weren't bad enough, you'll also have to contend with a significant hit to your credit report -- about 35 percent of your credit score is based on your ability to pay bills on time. As a result, you'll pay more when you try to get a loan. "Missing a payment has both immediate and long-term consequences," says Clarky Davis, Care One Debt Relief's Debt Diva. "You may be dealing with the fallout for years."

Having Too Many Cards
How bad is it? 6
The details: If you're the type to apply for a card just so you can grab a discount on clothes or other merchandise, you likely have a huge stack of cards in your purse or wallet. You're probably not getting enough value from the card to make it worth the high interest rates or additional complications from additional bills and junk cluttering your mailbox -- and you're increasing the likelihood that a payment slips through the cracks or that you'll be a victim of identity theft. "There's rarely a good reason to get a new card if you've already got a general-purpose card, a rewards card and a low interest card," says Cunningham.

Maxing Out a Card
How bad is it? 7
The details: Maxing out a card can have a serious impact on your credit score, since about 30 percent of your score is based on "credit utilization" -- the amount of credit you've used relative to the amount you have available. More important, says Davis, is the fact that it likely signifies a distressing trend in your personal finances. "Maxing out a card may not have an immediate financial pull, but it's a sign that you're not budgeting or spending your money wisely," she says. "It means you don't have enough saved up to cover unexpected expenses."

Playing the Balance Transfer Game
How bad is it? 5
The details: Moving your debt from a high-interest card to a low-interest card with a balance transfer isn't as smart a move as you think, says Francis. "About 15 percent of your credit score is affected by your recent credit applications," she notes. Pile up a few transfers and your score will take a hit. "Credit bureaus don't (differentiate) that these cards are for the same [debt], they just see it as you getting pre-approved for more and more credit." Add in the fees that generally accompany balance transfers and you're not gaming the system -- you're getting hammered by it.

Debt Settlement Plans
How bad is it? 9.5
The details: If you're overwhelmed by debt, negotiating down your balance with the credit card company (also called debt settlement) sometimes helps you pay pennies on the dollar on your debt -- but you'll pay a steep price. First, there's the tax hit you'll take for the amount of debt that's forgiven -- it will count as income during that tax year. And your credit score will be decimated, so don't expect you'll be able to take out a loan soon after consolidation. Next to bankruptcy, debt settlement "is the most negative thing you can do to your credit score," says Francis.

Getting a Cash Advance?
How bad is it? 8
The details: It may feel like free money, but the truth is that it's anything but: You'll likely have a fee associated with the advance, and you'll likely pay a higher interest rate than you would by using the card associated with it. "You also have no grace period," notes Cunningham. "You'll start accruing interest from the moment you get the money." While these are all dangerous attributes in and of themselves, they're not the worst part, says Cunningham. "When you start using cash advances, you have to understand why you're using them as they're likely symptomatic of a deep financial problem."

Using a Card in a Pinch
How bad is it? 2
The details: If the fridge went on the fritz or the furnace conked out in mid-January, you might not have the means to fund its immediate replacement. Putting the bill on a credit card -- and paying it off quickly over the course of a few months -- is a pretty solid option, says Cunningham. "You don't want something like that to become standard operating procedure," says Cunningham. "But it's OK to have a balance on a card for a few months when you're going through a rough patch in your financial life. Just make sure it's on a card without an annual fee or with a very low annual fee."

Source : Yahoo

Enigma – The Return to Innocence (Lyrics)

More meaningful and practical when we look at it a second time.

That's not the beginning of the end
That's the return to yourself
The return to innocence.
Love - devotion
Feeling - emotion

Love - devotion
Feeling - emotion

Don't be afraid to be weak
Don't be too proud to be strong
Just look into your heart my friend
That will be the return to yourself
The return to innocence

If you want, then start to laugh
If you must, then start to cry
Be yourself don't hide
Just believe in destiny

Don't care what people say
Just follow your own way
Don't give up and use the chance
To return to innocence

That's not the beginning of the end
That's the return to yourself
The return to innocence

Don't care what people say
Follow just your own way
Follow just your own way
Don't give up, don't give up
To return, to return to innocence.
If you want then laugh
If you must then cry
Be yourself don't hide
Just believe in destiny.

Failure in the Driving Test

I am a bit rusty as I start to write this post since I haven’t really written any post after “Trusting Others”

Today, I took a driving test for the second time in my life. The first one was in India and that was a success. The driving conditions here are very different from that of India and drivers should be professionals to use the road safely. I am the holder of a Full Indian Driving License as well as an International Driving Permit. Unfortunately, the validity of my International Driving Permit would expire soon and by Law, am required to have a full Irish Driving License to drive.

First time failures are very common in an Irish driving test. The pass rate for Cork is around 61.1% where as it is as low as 42.5% in another county. The national average pass rate stands at 57.2% (Source RSA - data as on 23rd Sep 09).

I almost had it, but didn't. I was directed to do a right turn and because of the presence of so many markings within a limited area, I was unable to judge the situation properly and ended up doing the manoeuvre in the wrong lane. :( there, I was marked for a grade 3 fault. Whom am I to blame? Just myself. Had I been a bit more observant, I might have got a grade 2 fault for progression on turning right, but at the end of the day, I would have had my Full Irish Driving License. I had a couple of grade 2 faults, but unless I make 9 of them, my test results are not affected. It's good to have failed this test. I didn't make even a grade 1 fault in areas where I was afraid I might fault and fail. That's the best thing.

Am I disappointed ? - yes, partly I am. But I am also determined to get it right from now on. Taking the test has put the fear of failure behind me. I know where I went wrong - the only place I went wrong, and that's all I need to correct. Am not a perfect driver. But, if someone would have rated me 30 /100, they would rate me 85+ now. I could feel the difference. I am more confident and vigilant.

I owe special thanks to my instructor Stephen Norton (Alert School of Motoring) without whose training and support, I would have ended up making umpteen grade 2 and many more grade 3 faults. Thank you Stephen, if I am a much better and confident driver, its only because of you. Rather put, when I judge my earlier driving with the scoring sheet, had it not been for Stephen's training, the tester would have thrown me out of the car within few minutes of moving off.

Just a few words (/sentences) of advice for those who might have failed the test like me : Driving is a skill, like riding a bike, some people fall off more whilst learning. If you keep getting back on you will manage it in the end. Just learn from the experience and know that its making you a better driver than the people that passed first time, that are missing out on the extra hints and tips you get. (Stephen, I am counting on you for those extra hints and tips :) )

For those who are about to take the test : Don’t go expecting to pass, it usually leads to disappointment, treat it as a normal lesson with your instructor. If you do make any mistakes, don’t panic. You can correct the mistakes, take your own time, don't worry about other drivers on the road having to wait, they had to go through the same experience.

There is only one way to pass the test. Practice, Practice, Practice and Practice. Make errors when you are with your instructor, as he can correct you then and there.

Mistakes do happen. We all are humans. Those who are wise learns from past mistakes. Failure is the stepping stone to success.

Jai Hind

Pictures from the First Indian Independence day, 15th August – 1947.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vande Mataram

Speaking pictures

Some times a picture can describe a situation more than words. Here is one :

Come what may .. soaps have the first priority. 

Be4 iPod – Steve Jobs @ home (1982)

“This was a very typical time.  I was single.  All you needed was a cup of tea, a light, and your stereo, you know, and that’s what I had.”..... Steve Jobs

Photo Credit : Diana Walker from the Book “The Bigger Picture”

Dazzling colours of Kerala

Kerala through the eyes of a foreigner – Published in The Irish Times.

The southwestern tip of India is bursting with life, but it has yet to be over-run with tourists, discovers a smitten Sandra O’Connell.

My boss speaks beautifully. But when she left a message on my voice mail asking me to go on a trip, I thought she said to Carlow. Even as I agreed my heart sank. What was I going to do in Carlow for 10 days? (And Carlow, as my kids add every time they insult me, no offence). Oh, joy, it was Kerala; the southwesternmost part of India, along whose coasts the Indian Ocean becomes the Arabian Sea.

as it happened I was interviewing a business man from Mumbai that day, Kerala, I asked him. Paradise, he said. In fact the locals call it God’s own country, and it’s easy to see why. Driving through the foot hills of the Western Ghats mountain range, past jungle forest, cardamom farms and tea plantations, it’s a land straight out of Kipling – the Disney version.

More remarkable still is the fact that no matter how high the mountain pass, nor how remote the boreen, there are people everywhere. Even knowing you are in a country of 1.2 billion doesn’t prepare you for the reality of a continuous trail of people along every roadside. If, however, you are tempted to visit India but worried about the distress of witnessing extreme poverty, Kerala is a perfect introduction. It is the wealthiest region in India and a place where, we were told often and with pride, disease and poverty have been conquered and where every child, female as well as male, is educated.

Evidence of this last point is everywhere. There are schools in almost every town, and spilling out of each are droves of immaculately uniformed children.

More remarkable still is the sight, as you drive through the emerald hills surrounding the Connemara Tea plantation in Kumily, of early-morning convoys of schoolchildren snaking their way over mountain tops and along valley floors as they walk to school.

Their starched, very English school uniforms are even more incongruous given the fact that one of the revelations of Kerala is the almost total absence of western-style clothing. If you thought jeans were ubiquitous, come here. Even in darkest Peru you’ll meet come across someone in a baseball cap or a Man Utd T-Shirt. Not in Kerala.

Here the men wear the traditional dhoti, a rectangular cloth wrapped around the waist and tied in a knot. Where he ties it typically denotes whether a man is Hindu, Christian or Muslim in this famously tolerant multicultural region.

Dhotis are typically worn with nothing more than flip-flops and a moustache. Occasionally in towns you’ll see a professional with shirt and briefcase, but they’ll still be teamed with dhoti and sandals. As for the women, they wear saris of colours so brilliant it doesn't seem possible that they could be washed in rivers. Yet Kerala is full of waterways, and everywhere you go you’ll catch glimpses of women bashing brightly coloured garments off rocks.

Because of the sheer elegance of the sari, Kerala’s women seem as if they are permanently in their Sunday best, even when picking tea, tending animals or going to market. Their colours light up an already dazzling landscape and seem to be living proof that our sense of colour is informed by the landscape around us.

Indeed, locals tell us they don’t understand why western women always dress in drab colours such as creams and beige. And there we were, thinking we looked like a sub continental version of Meryl Streep in Out of Africa.

It is the colours of Kerala that sear the brain deepest, the luminescent greens of the foliage – why we think 40 shades are worth singing about is beyond me now – and the Ayers Rock orange of the soil. For a native of a grey outcrop on the edge of the Atlantic, the sheer intensity of colour in Kerala keeps you in a state of sensory overload. Just looking is exhausting. Yet we soaked it up, touring the country side in a minibus Scooby and Shaggy would have been proud of, gleaming white with bright-yellow curtains tied back with ribbons.

Our driver, Pramod kindly stopped for us each time we saw an elephant at work, rubber being tapped from a tree or simply a view too spectacular to miss. We stopped a lot. Unfortunately, a predawn trip over the border to the neighbouring state of TamilNadu, to take a 6am bullock-cart ride, was taken by car. I say unfortunately because in this part of the world, when it comes to vehicles, size matters.

It quickly became apparent that there is no common consensus about which side of the road a vehicle should travel on. To navigate the hairpin bends of the region, the driver of the bigger vehicle gets to bag the side of the road he wants. But the decision is made in some tacit, split-second way as unfathomable as a flock of birds changing direction all at once. And it’s done without breaking.

Meanwhile, early-morning tuk-tuks weave through the mayhem kamikaze style, vying for gaps in the traffic with motorbikes transporting entire families – Dad driving, Mum sideways with a baby on her lap and a toddler up on the handlebars. As a spectator sport it must be great fun, and sure enough groups of monkeys sit on each corner, cheering on the chaos. For novice taxi passengers it’s truly terrifying.

Never before did animal drawn transport seem quite so appealing, and we collapsed out of the taxi at the bullock-cart enclosure, kissing the ground Pope style. Quite possibly by dint of contrast alone, the next three hours proved unexpectedly blissful.

Checking through the packed itinerary in advance, if you had told me the bullock-cart ride would be the highlight, I’d have said bullocks to that. But it so was. Once the heart had dropped back to its normal rate and the adrenalin receded, we adjusted to a pace I normally reserve for wandering supermarket aisles trying to remember what I came in for.

We also got used to the bullock’s irritatingly halting gait – two were pulling the cart, and it seemed as if they were always on the brink of stopping. In this way we ambled slowly down lanes and through coconut groves, our guide pointing out kingfishers and tiny Hindu shrines, some the size of shoe boxes, in fields and woods.

Across the riverbank came the chatter of women heading into fields for the day. Farther into the middle of nowhere we came across a group of workers taking a break under some vines. They called out something to us, and we waved stiffly back, asking our guide what they were saying, fully expecting it to be something along the lines of: “what are you looking at?”

“They want to know if you would like to share their breakfast”, he explained. And that was the other thing about Kerala, the amazing friendliness of the people. Even in a crowded city such as Cochin, where you might expect an edge to the atmosphere, there was none.

Along the riverbank of the old city, historically known as the Queen of the Arabian Sea, teams of fisherman spend all day hauling enormous Chinese fishing nets from the bottom of the delta. Lifting the boulders that sink the nets is back-breaking work, and they’d be entitled to be a bit grumpy. Yet all they want is for you to try your hand at lifting a net yourself, and to cheer on your efforts.

And as you sail down the languid Kerala backwaters, by ferry or on a traditional houseboat, children run to the water’s edge to say hi and bathers wave in benediction. It could be that they just don’t get many tourists around here – certainly the tourist industry is still in its infancy. Or it could simply be that Keralans are a genuinely friendly people. When you live in God’s own country, maybe you can afford to be magnanimous.

Sandra O’Connel was a guest of Sunway Travel, CGH Earth Hotels and Incredible India.

Trusting others

Our lives are built on trust. From day one, life is in the hands of other people; as children, we’re forced to place our trust in teachers, neighbours and almost everyone we came into contact with.

As adults, even something as simple as walking down the street requires an element of trust. We walk trusting that a driver won’t leave the road and knock us down, that a random stranger isn’t going to attack us, and that people are sufficiently acquainted with social norms to move aside and let us pass.

Life’s big stepping stones are those requiring huge investments of trust in other people. Major life steps like getting a job and forming relationships involve massive amounts of trust that we will not be let down; but some times we are let down anyway.

Every one has their trust breached at some point. May be an employee steals from you: may be your partner cheats on you; may be you buy a stolen car. But some people have their trust destroyed in such a shocking way they might never recover from it.

While the majority of the people are trust worthy, have your eyes and ears open. Some people are not always what they seem to be. But we must continue to trust; we have been programmed to, and the society around us is built on it.

Today's Teenagers

As received in a forwarded e-mail :

Father passing by his teenage daughter's bedroom was astonished to see the bed was nicely made and everything was neat and tidy. Then he saw an envelope propped up prominently on the centre of the pillow.

It was addressed "Dad". With the worst premonition, he opened the envelope and read the letter with trembling hands:-

Dear Dad,

It is with great regret and sorrow that I'm writing you, but I'm leaving home. I had to elope with my new boyfriend Julian because I wanted to avoid a scene with Mom and you.

I've been finding real passion with Julian and he is so nice to me. I know when you meet him you'll like him too - even with all his piercing, tattoos, and motorcycle clothes. But it's not only the passion Dad, I'm pregnant and Julian said that he wants me to have the kid and that we can be very happy together. Even though Julian is much older than me (anyway, 42 isn't so old these days is it? ), and has no money, really these things shouldn't stand in the way of our relationship, don't you agree?

Julian has a great CD collection; he already owns a trailer in the woods and has a stack of firewood for the whole winter. It's true he has other girlfriends as well but I know he'll be faithful to me in his own way. He wants to have many more children with me and that's now one of my dreams too.

Julian taught me that marijuana doesn't really hurt anyone and he'll be growing it for us and we'll trade it with our friends for all the cocaine and ecstasy we want. In the meantime, we'll pray that science will find a cure for AIDS so Julian can get better; he sure deserves it!!

Don't worry Dad, I'm 15 years old now and I know how to take care of myself. Someday I'm sure we'll be back to visit so you can get to know your grandchildren.

Your loving daughter,
Rosie.

At the bottom of the page were the letters " PTO".
Hands still trembling, her father turned the sheet, and read:

 

PS:
Dad, none of the above is true. I'm over at the neighbour's house. I just wanted to remind you that there are worse things in life than my report card that's in my desk centre drawer. Please sign it and call when it is safe for me to come home.

I love you!
Your loving daughter,
Rosie.

Prabhakaran’s death - the End or the Beginning?

Sri Lanka will go down in history as the first country in the post 9/11 era to militarily subdue a terrorist outfit of the scale and magnitude of the LTTE. It's no mean feat and needs to be acknowledged as such.

The military offensive has been brutal and we may never know the number of civilians who were caught in the cross-fire, or blown up being hostages to the Tigers. Throughout the two-year military offensive, India has taken a dual position -- diplomatically pushing for a political settlement with the Tamils while quietly aiding the Sri Lankan military offensive with training, radars, intelligence and an informal naval blockade to prevent the Tigers from coming over to India.

In India, the Sri Lankan military offensive and the domestic imperatives of the elections showed up an important reality. One, the government continued to maintain its distinction between the LTTE and the civilian Tamil population. That was important. Second, it refused to bow to the Tamil frenzy during the elections by demanding some outrageous stuff from the Lankans like a ceasefire, which would never have been agreed to, but would have damaged India's relations with Colombo.

Interestingly, by staring down the domestic popular debate, the Indian government actually cured the Tamil bogey in Tamil Nadu. The worst of the fighting in the Vanni jungles came after the last day of campaigning in Tamil Nadu. The first weeks of May saw the worst of the fighting but there was, by and large, silence from Tamil Nadu. And the best part was that the pro-Tamil (LTTE) parties like MDMK and PMK all lost comprehensively at the hustings.

Karunanidhi had visited the PM and had pushed a political agenda for Colombo to adopt. But he was measured and there was a much more realistic approach this time.

Now that Tamil Tiger chief Velupillai Prabhakaran is dead, there seems to be a move within some parts -- and parties -- of India to treat him like a hero, almost mourning his death and hailing him as a martyr. As an Indian, I'm not so sure that's the right reaction.

If you disagree with me, please answer the five questions below:

1) Was a former Prime Minister of India blown to pieces by an LTTE suicide bomber on May 21, 1991 while campaigning in elections that were subsequently won by his party?

2) Was the LTTE officially banned as a terrorist organisation by the government of India?

3) Was LTTE chief V Prabhakaran on the Indian government's 'most wanted' list for ordering the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi?

4) When India tried to ensure peace in Sri Lanka, did the Indian Peacekeeping Force not get sucked into a bloody war, losing several lives, after the LTTE violated the peace accord?

5) If the answer to all these questions is 'yes', then can anyone, who thinks of himself as first and foremost an Indian, truly mourn the end of the LTTE?

I think there are two elements that we need to consider: 1) Was Prabhakaran's cause justified? 2) Were his methods right?

To answer Question 1, the Tamils of Sri Lanka may well feel discriminated against. It is well known that the Tamilians in SriLanka were treated as sons of step-mothers.

But the harsh fact is, post-9/11, there is simply no international sympathy left for separatist movements anywhere in the world, especially those that resort to terror and killing innocent non-combatants. The best outcome any such movement can hope to achieve is autonomy within the existing national set-up, and hence the demand for a separate Tamil Nation.

India, especially, cannot afford to support any separatist movement in another country because it has faced far too many of its own. It can hardly say that such movements are OK when it comes to other countries, but a problem when it comes to India. Nor can Russia, because that will promptly invite questions about Chechnya. Nor can China, which has the Tibet issue on its hands. The UK achieved peace in Ireland only after many years of violence and bloodshed. And the US is still scarred by 9/11. In other words, the big global players aren't about to back any violent redrawing of national boundaries. And so, despite what some political leaders and others might have said during the election campaigns in Tamil Nadu, there is simply no way by which the Tamil Eelam can be an independent country.

At best, peaceful protests by Tamilians could lead to a measure of autonomy within Lanka. Now that Rajapakse has achieved such a comprehensive victory, he may not be in any mood to be magnanimous. That would be short-sighted. Because the best way to achieve long-lasting peace in Lanka would be to heal the wounds of the entire populace, and that includes the Tamilians.

On to the second question, were Prabhakaran's methods right? Well, he spearheaded a conflict that left more than 70,000 dead from pitched battles, suicide attacks, bomb strikes and assassinations. He began his career by murdering Alfred Duraiappah, then mayor of Jaffna. He decimated rival groups TELO and EPRLF and hunted down their founders, like TELO's Sri Sabaratnam.

His gunmen assassinated TULF leader A Amirthalingam in Colombo in 1989. PLOTE leader Uma Maheswaran was shot dead by an LTTE hit squad. Another squad killed EPRLF leader K Padmanabha and 13 others in a Chennai apartment complex in 1990.

Prabhakaran frequently had chances to make peace, including the India-Lanka peace accord of 1987. Instead, he turned on India and fought the Indian peace-keeping force. This culminated in the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991. In 1993, Lankan president Ranasinghe Premadasa was killed by an LTTE suicide bombing. In 1999, another Lankan President, Chandrika Kumaratunga, lost vision in her right eye after an attempt on her life by the LTTE.

Now, for those who would like to brand me anti-Tamil, I am not. My issue is only with the way LTTE followed. LTTE had ordered many suicide bombings. They had killed many-a-rivals, who were fellow Tamils during the rise to power. Under Prabhakaran’s leadership, LTTE carried out the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. This I believe was one of the reasons why the Govt. of India did not actively participate to try and stop the Lankan Army's drive which finally led to the collapse of LTTE.

What remains to be seen and what needs to be ensured by the big global players and India is that equal rights are granted to Tamilians in SriLanka. War and Violence is not the answer.

The Innocent Man

A word of caution : If you believe that in America you are innocent until proven guilty, this book will shock you. If you believe in the death penalty, this book will disturb you. If you believe that the justice system is fair, this book will infuriate you. I didn't even know this was non-fiction when I bought it. It disturbed me to an extent that I thought of not finishing the book - something that I never do.

Eleven years after their arrest for the rape/murder of Debbie Carter, Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz were exonerated using DNA testing. Not only did the testing prove that Williamson and Fritz were not involved, but that the one "eyewitness" was the actual killer. Their entire conviction hinged on the testimony of the actual killer and snitches looking for a deal to get less time in prison.

Ron Williamson spent 11 years on death row and never once change his story of innocence. He nearly went out of his mind in jail, having already had severe mental disorders prior to his arrest. During his trial not one person - not the prosecution, the judge, nor Williamson's own lawyer - raised the questions of his competency to stand trial despite a 10-year history of psychological problems ranging from manic depression to schizophrenia.

In The Innocent Man, John Grisham tells Williamson's story in a way that's understandable by the common man. He brings up a number of questions the detectives, judge, prosecutor and jurors should have been asking before convicting Williamson and Fritz. In addition, he gives a detailed account of two other men arrested by the same detectives and tried in the same court. Both were also found guilty and are innocent, but they are still behind bars (www.wardandfontenot.com).

Grisham, with his famous name and storytelling abilities, is bringing awareness to an issue that few acknowledge - the justice system isn't always just. Their story is one that most of us would like to believe never happens anywhere. Unfortunately, as Grisham proves in The Innocent Man, it probably happens much more often than we know. And in India, it happens a lot. We see it in movies all the time. All it takes is the right combination of incompetent policemen, investigators, expert witnesses, prosecutors and judges to make it possible. Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz had years stolen from them and their lives were largely ruined by the very people charged with protecting the public welfare.

Unexpectedly, this book gave me reason to question the death penalty. I have to wonder how many innocent men are put to death each year all over the world. At the same time I have to believe that the science used today to convict killers is more accurate than in previous decades. It really made me appreciate what a huge discovery DNA has been. Unfortunately though, DNA testing can often be expensive. 

Grisham tells the Fritz and Williamson story in a very straightforward way. There is no attempt to “novelize” what happened through the use of extensively recreated dialogue or by speaking from the points-of-view of its main characters. That does make for some rather dry reading at times but the details resulting from Grisham’s research makes his straight reporting of the facts a fascinating one.

I highly recommend this book to anyone concerned about the legal system. It gives some great tips on what to do when being wrongly accused of something. Be warned - if you are someone who believe in fair justice, then the injustice of it may stay with you forever. In the author's notes, Grisham says, "Not in my most creative moment could I conjure up a story as rich and layered as Ron's." Nor as unbelievable. But here it is, a true story of injustice and the problems with the justice system, not just in the United States of America, but around the world.

Really a class analogy..

Received this as a forwarded e-mail. Thought of publishing this as it holds a message for all of us.

An Old Story:

The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and laying up supplies for the winter. The Grasshopper thinks the Ant is a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away. Come winter, the Ant is warm and well fed. The Grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.

Indian Version:

The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and laying up supplies for the winter. The Grasshopper thinks the Ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering Grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the Ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

NDTV, BBC, CNN show up to provide pictures of the shivering Grasshopper next to a video of the Ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.

The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor Grasshopper is allowed to suffer so? Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the Ant's house. Medha Patkar goes on a fast along with other Grasshoppers demanding that Grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter. Mayawati states this as `injustice' done on Minorities. Amnesty International and Ban Ki-moon criticize the Indian Government for not upholding the fundamental rights of the Grasshopper. The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the Grasshopper (many promising Heaven and Everlasting Peace for prompt support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance, some saying The Nazis are reborn).

Opposition MPs stage a walkout. Left parties call for ' Bandh' in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry. CPM in Kerala immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among Ants and Grasshoppers. Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to Grasshoppers on all Indian Railway  Trains, aptly named as the 'Grasshopper Rath'. Karunanidhi calls for a General Strike in Tamil Nadu, starts fasting and demands that all ant homes should be given to the Grasshoppers.

Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the ' Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act' [POTAGA], with effect from the beginning of the winter. Arjun Singh makes 'Special Reservation ' for Grasshoppers in Educational Institutions & in Government Services. The Ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, it's home is confiscated by the Government and handed over to the Grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV.

Arundhati Roy calls it ' A Triumph of Justice'.

Lalu calls it 'Socialistic Justice '. 

CPM calls it the ' Revolutionary Resurgence of the Downtrodden '.

Karunanidhi announces from his bed that he wants to be a Grasshoper and be a victim to the Ant.

Ban Ki-moon invites the Grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly.

Many years later....

The Ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi-billion dollar company in Silicon Valley, 100s of Grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation somewhere in India , .......AND As a result of loosing lot of hard working Ants and feeding the grasshoppers, India is still a developing country…!!!

I also found some interesting facts about the Grasshoppers & ants !! A grasshopper can leap over obstacles 500 times its own height. In relation to its size, it has the greatest jumping ability. And an Ant to my surprise can lift 50 times its own weight, which is equivalent to a human being pulling a 10-ton trailer.

Fragrance of the Blue Sky

Born out of boredom on a beautiful morning. Though I have written many poems, this is the first one I dare to publish. Somehow, I always like to keep my poems to myself. Took me a while to decide whether or not to publish it in the blog.

As the final drops of night rain fall on morning leaves,
sun rises to give sparkle to splashing drops of colour and birds that sing.
Aroma of early morning dew, awakens me from nocturnal hue,
coming forth with splashes of light, all is green in the garden of sparkling sight.

Swollen shrooms after the falling rain,
hearing its colours and seeing its sounds,
life becomes a drop dissolving into the ocean Tao.

I see silence as a clear blue sky,
and a song as a cloud appearing before dissipating into void.
Heaven and hell is here on earth,
and when we die, so does heaven and hell.

If there was no beginning, then there is no End,
but if there's a beginning, then there must be an End.
And here I stand, enjoying the fragrance of the blue sky.

L.T.T.E can be finished in 30 minutes – Sri Lankan PM

The Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake has said his forces can “finish” the L.T.T.E in “half-an-hour”, but was concerned the for the safety of the innocent civilians trapped in the last rebel-held area. ”The Government can finish off terrorism completely within half an hour if it acted in an inhuman manner.

Driving out terrorists (L.T.T.E) from a very small bastion in the north has been time consuming because the government is acting most humanely considering the safety of civilians held by L.T.T.E as a human shield,” the Prime Minister said. He made the observation by the beginning of April, while addressing the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) activists in Horana, about 60 kms from Colombo.

Mr. Wickramanayake urged the people to unite to develop the nation, which is today at an important cross road where terrorism was to be totally wiped out. “Once this mission was completed a much more important responsibility would be cast on the Government and the people to steer the motherland towards a development effort in a planned manner,” the state run Daily News quoted him to say. “The unity and trust placed in the Government by people as regards the humanitarian operations should be forthcoming in equal or enhanced measure during the future national development effort,” he said.

If the Tamilians in Sri Lanka are being treated as Second Class citizens, then that should come to an end. Every one is equal. None of the races or ethnic groups are superior than the other. Every one has to be treated fair. But bloodshed is not the answer. Would a general strike in Tamil Nadu end the war in Sri Lanka? That is just political “B.S”. If these so called orators truly care, then they should be asking L.T.T.E to put down their arms for the safety of the Tamilians in Sri Lanka, than indirectly supporting a terrorist organization.

Now for those who would oppose me on calling L.T.T.E a terrorist organization – please tell me how should I address an organization that has assassinated an Indian Prime Minister?

International Media has been reporting that L.T.T.E is using humans as shields. This was confirmed by a group of people who managed to flee the war zone. It is high time that this blood shed has to end. Over the past three months more than 6,000 civilians had been killed.  This is not a Nazi era and the Sri Lankan Government would not be able to do an ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ if that is what is being projected. If L.T.T.E truly care for these innocent people why don’t they call it off?

Silver or Gold?

Good old Atomic Number 79 has always been the safe haven of choice for skittish investors, but gold is about to get a run for its money. Despite the fact that the gold-to-silver ratio is at its highest point since 2004, New York-based hedge-fund adviser the Hennessee Group says silver is poised to outperform its glitzier counterpart.

Even though silver initially suffered as the global financial crisis depended and investors fled to gold and Treasuries in 2009, gold gained about 6 percent silver plummeted more than 25 percent – it’s now seriously undervalued, says Hennessee. At the same time, demand for silver is expected to grow over the lover term. Unlike the majority of precious metals, silver is as vital to industrial applications as it is to the luxury trade – more than 50 percent of silver demand comes from industrial sectors as diverse as imaging, electronics, coinage, superconductivity and water purification. And while these sectors are currently taking a hit, their inevitable bounce back will support elevated silver prices.

In addition, demand for silver is expected to far outpace supply – from 1998 to 2007, silver generated from mine production grew at a modest 24 percent, while demand from industrial applications surged 44 percent. It’s this significant shortfall, as well as the growth in silver investment funds like the iShares Silver Trust, that Hennessee thinks will lead to silver to outperform as the economy starts to recover.

Source : Newsweek

What goes around comes around

Due to Visa regulations, finding a job here had been a bit difficult and now because of the revised terms – it has become more difficult. Because of this, I have been trying to formulate business ideas and has been reading a lot with regards to starting a business here. It has also lead me to read extensively on successful business persons and this is something that I found recently.

From Richard Branson in a interview in the December 06 issue of Business 2.0 magazine:

I met two big San Francisco entrepreneurs recently, and they said they get e-mail like this too [proposals and requests], but they just dump it all in the dustbin. they don’t try to answer at all. I asked them why, and they said, |The time we spend responding could be used to create something of value for our business.” That may well be pragmatically right, but I still think it’s morally wrong, and I suspect that anything that is morally wrong is ultimately bad for business.

Absolutely … I also believe in this. What goes around always comes around. It’s a worn and tired maxim I know, but definitely not one to be against.

Energy saving extension lead

Plug your computer into the master socket and the other 5 sockets will power up when you turn your computer on and power down when the computer is off. Includes surge protection. Another 2 sockets would always stay on and can be used to connect any devices that requires an uninterrupted power supply. Picked up mine at the local Tesco store for a discounted price. It was marked down to €10.74, previously it was €41.20.

Cable length in Metres		2
Extension Type		Extension Lead
Features of Product		Energy saving product. Extension lead with Neon. Provides high surge protection. Pays for itself many times over :)
LED Power Light		Yes
Main Switch On and Off		Yes
Material		ABS
Number of Sockets		8
Product Depth		3.8 cm
Product Height		36.2 cm
Product Width		14.5 cm
Product Range		DIY
Product Sub Category		Electrical

I don't have to bother climbing under my desk to turn off the printer and other connected stuff anymore. Think of buying one - even if you don't care about the planet, it will save you money and lots of hassles.

What is the truth about our National Anthem?

Another forwarded e-mail. Have received it a couple of years ago. Seems it’s now in circulation again. Not sure if the contents are true or if someone just made it up. I was not in a mood to do a research on it – at least as of now. I know, it’s not my way of posting. Forgive me, I lack the energy to do this at the moment.

Jana Gana Mana" - Just a thought for the National Anthem! How well do you know about it?

I have always wondered who is the "adhinayak" and "bharat bhagya vidhata",whose praise we are singing. I thought might be Motherland India! Our current National Anthem "Jana Gana Mana" is sung throughout the country. Did you know the following about our national anthem, I didn't.

To begin with, India's national anthem, Jana Gana Mana Adhinayaka, was written by Rabindranath Tagore in honour of King George V and the Queen of England when they visited India in 1919. To honour their visit Pandit Motilal Nehru had the five stanzas included, which are in praise of the King and Queen. (And most of us think it is in the praise of our great motherland!!!) In the original Bengali verses only those provinces that were under British rule, i.e. Punjab, Sindh, Gujarat , Maratha etc. were mentioned. None of the princely states was recognized which were integral parts of India now Kashmir, Rajasthan, Andhra, Mysore or Kerala. Neither the Indian Ocean nor the Arabian Sea was included, since they were directly under Portuguese rule at that time.

The Jana Gana Mana Adhinayaka implies that King George V is the lord of the masses and Bharata Bhagya Vidhata is "the bestower of good fortune". Following is a translation of the five stanzas that glorify the King:

First stanza: (Indian) People wake up remembering your good name and ask for your blessings and they sing your glories. (Tava shubha naame jaage; tava shubha aashish maage, gaaye tava jaya gaatha)
Second stanza: Around your throne people of all religions come and give their love and anxiously wait to hear your kind words.
Third stanza: Praise to the King for being the charioteer, for leading the ancient travelers beyond misery.
Fourth stanza: Drowned in the deep ignorance and suffering, poverty-stricken, unconscious country? Waiting for the wink of your eye and your mother's (the Queen's) true protection.
Fifth stanza: In your compassionate plans, the sleeping Bharat (India) Will wake up. We bow down to your feet O' Queen, and glory to Rajeshwara (the King).

This whole poem does not indicate any love for the Motherland but depicts a bleak picture. When you sing Jana Gana Mana Adhinayaka, whom are you glorifying? Certainly not the Motherland. Is it God? The poem does not indicate that. It is time now to understand the original purpose and the implication of this, rather than blindly sing as has been done the past fifty years. Nehru chose the present national anthem as opposed to Vande Mataram because he thought that it would be easier for the band to play!!! It was an absurd reason but Today for that matter bands have advanced and they can very well play any music. So they can as well play Vande Mataram, which is a far better composition in praise of our Dear Motherland - India .

This e-mail does not change my feelings or respect towards our National Anthem. I will stand to attention whenever I hear ‘Jana Gana Mana’. None the same, I would like to know the truth. If any of you have more information or know more, please feel free to let me know.

Any one who would like to know more about the controversies or facts not mentioned in this post please click here

Jai Hind.

Unless India stands up to the world, no one will respect us

A couple of days ago I had received a forwarded message titled ‘The President of India Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam's Speech in Hyderabad’. I am sure many of you might have received the same. I had always been interested Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam and after reading the e-mail, I couldn’t agree that it was a speech. So I decided to dig a bit and found out that the mail was based on an Interview of Dr. Kalam by Pritish Nandy on 13th October 1998.

During his term as The President, he was popularly known as the People's President, and a poll conducted by news channel CNN-IBN named him "India's Best President". In my terminology someone who decided that he would not just be a “rubber stamp”. With the death of R. Venkataraman on January 27, 2009, Dr Kalam became the only surviving former President of India.

I think its best to just copy and paste the entire text of the interview, than attempting any modifications.

The Rediff Interview/Dr A P J Abdul Kalam

'Unless India stands up to the world, no one will respect us. In this world, fear has no place. Only strength respects strength'

As a devout Muslim, he prays twice a day. But he is also a Ram bhakt, plays the veena, loves the shri raga, writes poetry in Tamil and, like every proud Indian, swears by Pokhran II and self sufficiency in science and technology. At 67 (now 78), Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, is not just another Dr Strangelove having a torrid affair with the bomb. He is clever, sensitive, amazingly creative and, above all, a soft spoken patriot. India's answer to Western technological arrogance. Excerpts from an exclusive interview with Pritish Nandy.

What is your vision of India in the next millennium?

I have three. Three visions for India. But before that I speak about them, I have one question to ask of you, Mr Nandy. Can you tell me why, in 3000 years of our history, people from all over the world have come and invaded us, captured our land, conquered our minds? From Alexander onwards. The Greeks, the Portuguese, the British, the French, the Dutch, all of them came and looted us, took over what was ours. Yet we have not done this to any other nation. We have not invaded anyone. We have not conquered anyone. We have not grabbed their land, their culture, their history and tried to enforce our way of life on them. Why?

Because, I guess, we respected the freedom of others.

Absolutely right. That is why my first vision is that of freedom. I believe that India got its first vision of this in 1857, when we started the war of Independence. It is this freedom that we must protect and nurture and build upon. If we are not free, no one will respect us.

My second vision for India is development. For fifty years we have been a developing nation. It is time we saw ourselves as a developed nation. We are among the top five nations of the world in terms of GDP. We have a 10 per cent growth rate in most areas. Our poverty levels are falling. Our achievements are being globally recognised today. Yet we lack the self confidence to see ourselves as a developed nation, self reliant and self assured. Tell me, Sir, is this right? Read the last chapter of my book, India 2020, A Vision for the Next Millennium and you will get what I mean.

I have a third vision. That India must stand up to the world. I have written 12 chapters on that. Because I believe that unless India stands up to the world, no one will respect us. In this world, fear has no place. Only strength respects strength. We must be strong not only as a military power but also as an economic power. Both must go hand in hand.

These are visions. What about the reality? What do you see as the most significant achievements of your rather distinguished career culminating in a Bharat Ratna in your lifetime?

My good fortune was to have worked with three great minds. Dr Vikram Sarabhai of the department of space. Professor Satish Dhawan, who succeeded him. And Dr Brahm Prakash, father of nuclear material. I was lucky to have worked with all three of them closely and consider this the greatest opportunity of my life.

I see four milestones in my career. One: The twenty years I spent in Indian Space Research Organisation. I was given the opportunity to be the project director for India's first satellite launch vehicle, SLV3. The one that launched Rohini. These years played a very important role in my life as a scientist. Two: After my ISRO years, I joined the Defence Research and Development Organisation and got a chance to be part of India's guided missile programme. It was, you could call, my second bliss when Agni met its mission requirements in 1994.

Three: The department of atomic energy and the DRDO had this tremendous partnership in the recent nuclear tests, on May 11 and 13. This was my third bliss. The joy of participating with my team in these nuclear tests and proving to the world that India can make it. That we are no longer a developing nation but one among them. It made me feel very proud as an Indian.

And, finally, four: The fact that we have now developed for Agni a re-entry structure, for which we have developed this new material. A very light material called carbon-carbon.

One day an orthopaedic surgeon from the Nizam Institute of Medical Sciences (in Hyderabad) visited my laboratory. He lifted the material and found it so light that he took me to his hospital and showed me his patients. There were these little girls and boys with heavy metallic callipers weighing over 3 kg each, dragging their feet around. He said to me: Please remove the pain of my patients. In three weeks, we made these Floor Reaction Orthosis 300 gram callipers and took them to the orthopaedic centre. The children could not believe their eyes! From dragging around a 3 kg load on their legs, they could now move around freely with these 300 gram callipers. They began running around! Their parents had tears in their eyes. That was my fourth bliss.

Apart from science and technology, what else interests you?

Poetry and music. I have this big library at home and my favourite poets are Milton, Walt Whitman and Rabindranath Tagore. I write poetry too. My book of poems, Yenudaya Prayana, has now been translated into English. It is called My Journey. You must read it. I will send you a copy.

Who are your favourite poets in Tamil, the language you write in?

Bharatidasana, who died in 1965. And Subramaniya Bharathiar, who died in 1939 at the age of 35, killed by an elephant while giving it a coconut. I also enjoy Carnatic music and play the veena.

What is your favourite raga?

The shri raga. You know my favourite kirtan? It is the one that Swami Thyagaraja, a Ram bhakt like me, recited in the shri raga when he was called by this powerful Tanjore king to sing a poem in his sabha. He sang: "In this gathering whoever are great in front of God, I salute them." He never said: I salute the king. That is strength of conviction. That is courage.

You have asked me so many questions, Mr Nandy, may I ask you two?

By all means.

Tell me, why is the media here so negative? Why are we in India so embarrassed to recognise our own strengths, our achievements? We are such a great nation. We have so many amazing success stories but we refuse to acknowledge them. Why? We are the second largest producer of wheat in the world. We are the second largest producer of rice. We are the first in milk production. We are number one in remote sensing satellites. Look at Dr Sudarshan. He has transformed the tribal village into a self sustaining, self driving unit. There are millions of such achievements but our media is only obsessed with bad news and failures and disasters.

I was in Tel Aviv once and I was reading this Israeli newspaper. It was the day after a lot of attacks and bombardments and deaths had taken place. The Hamas had struck. But the front page of the newspaper had this picture of a Jewish gentleman who in five years had transformed his desert land into an orchard and a granary. It was this inspiring picture that everyone woke up to. The gory details of killings, bombardments, deaths, were inside the newspaper, buried among other news.

In India we only read about death, sickness, terrorism, crime. Why are we so negative?

I guess we grew up with the maxim that good news is no news. The right to publish bad news has become synonymous with freedom. That is why our press is so strong, so fiercely independent -- if not always encouraging of success stories.

Another question: Why are we, as a nation so obsessed with foreign things? Is it a legacy of our colonial years? We want foreign television sets. We want foreign shirts. We want foreign technology. Why this obsession with everything imported? Do we not realise that self respect comes with self reliance?

I guess that comes from repression. When you lock in your economy for years and leave it in the hands of local pirates and cheating banias, you are bound to get a backlash. Foreign things have indeed come in but they have also brought down prices, taught us quality, stopped us from cheating consumers with shoddy, overpriced local products. Like in cars, consumer electronics, fabrics, processed foods. Nationalism for too long has been a convenient cover for looting. Let us not forget that. But yes, I agree with you, it is time we started giving value to ourselves as a people, as a nation.

I was in Hyderabad giving this lecture, when a 14-year-old girl came up and asked me for my autograph. I asked her what her goal in life was. She replied: I want to live in a developed India. For her, you and I will have to build this developed India. You must proclaim this through your writings, through your speeches in Parliament.

For the original Rediff page, please click here:

Tracking or Stalking – Google Latitude:

A couple of days back, Silicon Valley’s local CBS affiliate ran a story (video here) about a woman getting her purse snatched. But what’s interesting is the way she got it back: With assistance from Google Latitude. Her phone had Google’s location-based social networking service installed, and it was updating the location of her phone in real-time. So even though the thief hopped in a car, when the girl called her sister, she was able to tell police exactly where the criminal was. They arrested the man and got the girl’s purse back.

It’s worth noting that the woman said she had the service running on her phone “as a joke,” so that she and her sisters could “stalk each other.” And that’s interesting because ever since it launched a few months ago, jokes have abounded about it being a tool for stalking. But at the same time, the program had a user base of over a million users just one week after it launched. People are clearly interested in using location data in social services, but it’s usually only negative connotations that are associated with stories about it. Here’s a positive one, but it still has some negative undertones.

After all, if the girl’s sister knew exactly where the phone was, that means Google did too. Of course, Google has a policy not to share that information, but if push came to shove, and the authorities got the right warrant, Google would have to give up such information. Hopefully, you’re not a criminal — and if you are, hopefully you’re smart enough not to use Google Latitude — but it’s still a bit creepy for most people to know that a company has data about where they are at all times. And Google is hardly the only one of these services, everything from Loopt to Whrrl to Brightkite all have varying degrees of information as to your whereabouts if you use them. Anyways, authorities don’t need you to carry a GPS to know where you are. They have access to the carriers’ data to locate your mobile phone from the base antenna it is paired with.

Location-based services have yet to take off on a large scale, but with Google now in the field, and major players like Facebook and MySpace undoubtedly looking at entering it, it’s only a matter of time. And when those huge social networks get into the game, there will be some initial backlash, but then people will start using it. (It may even complement other future lost purse stories.) And slowly, users will let the privacy ramifications fade into the background unless some sort of location-based horror story makes headlines.

The story is definitely positive marketing for Google Latitude. But with Google knowing where you are, is it not the ‘Big Brother is watching you’ story? Though this would be useful in the case of purse-pilfers, what about the ones who want to hide from their bosses or office colleagues - probably then Google Latitude is no game for you. Fortunately, we have an option of choosing when it comes to sharing our location.

I, for one, welcome a future with ubiquitous location services in the social layer. Because there are upsides to location as well. This purse snatching incident is a bit extreme, but using location to find friends or family speaks well to its potential.

Courtesy : Technocrunch, Gpsobssessed

Undo Send : The new feature in Gmail.

A new feature now available in Gmail aims to rid your life of that classic "Oh Damn it" e-mail moment.

"Undo Send" puts a five to 10-second hold on all outgoing messages. If you had addressed an e-mail to the wrong person, let slip with an embarrassing typo or simply said something you really, really shouldn't have, Undo Send can be a lifesaver.  As with most enhancements to Google's free webmail app, Gmail users can enable the new Undo Send feature by going into their Labs settings and turning it on, click on the little green flask at the top of the screen, or go to Settings and click on the Labs tab. Gmail users can usually access new features shortly after they're announced, but the features take time to roll out across all accounts, so be patient if it doesn't show up right away.

Turn it on and every time you send an e-mail, you'll see an Undo link at the end of the confirmation message that appears at the top of your inbox.

Do nothing and the e-mail goes out. Click Undo and you get dumped back into Compose mode.  The default setting is five seconds, but the Gmail Labs folks tell us you can increase it up to 10 if you wish. In my testing, I only saw options for "5" and "0" seconds in the drop-down list. Perhaps the 10 seconds option would be rolled out in future.

Undo Send cannot pull back any e-mail that has already gone out. But a 5-second window should catch most embarrassments. I have been using Outlook to access my mail and it has an option to re-call any mail that is unread. This Gmail Labs addition is perhaps a first time for web-based mail services, or so I think.

Check out a post on the official Gmail blog by Google User Experience Designer Michael Leggett for more information.

An after thought : Why don’t we just use the five seconds or perhaps more to make sure that we want to send it before it actually goes out? Re-checking an email before sending it causes no harm – or does it?

The Illusionist - A movie with magic.

I was asked by a friend, in fact someone whom I consider to be a mentor to watch this movie if possible. Unfamiliarity with the p2p downloading tricks kept me on it for almost 30 hours spanned over a couple of days, though 90% of the movie was downloaded in the initial two hours. What happened to the remaining 10% - or what was it that made it go on for 28 hours - I am still trying to figure it out. At the end however, i feel that the 30 hours were worth it.

I may have to watch the movie again, as when am writing this, I am trying to recollect the movie scene by scene. There were a couple of times when I found myself lost in the movie.

The story is told from the perspective of the Head of Police - Officer Uhl, who as you soon learn has just arrested the magically gifted main character, otherwise known as ‘Eisenheim the Illusionist’. It creates a vision of Vienna that is a mix of fantasy and history, which plays with the concept of distinction based on class - which tends to fade away - as the old world gives way to a new one. A movie where science and the supernatural mix. It finds a magical background where it pleases almost everyone, where its just strange to thrill the fans and effortless enough to satisfy those who merely seek a diverting entertainment.

The story then unfolds as you witness a young Eisenheim being torn away from his forbidden and aristocratic love - A Duchess a.k.a Sophie. It then skips forward to a time when both Sophie and Eisenheim are fully grown and a chance encounter reunites them. The Duchess is unfortunately due to marry the crown prince at this time, an arrangement she cannot leave. Crown Prince Leopold is the type of man who is jealous of anyone else’s fame and in his envy asks officer Uhl to destroy Eisenheim’s career and reputation. Charging the illusionist with making threats against the empire, Prince Leopold does everything in his considerable power to ruin Eisenheim and keep his own prized possession – Sophie – from finding happiness with her first love.

The Illusionist is an intense battle of wills between the Prince Leopold and Eisenheim, with officer Uhl - an amateur magician himself and someone fascinated with Eisenheim’s work - stuck in the middle. Is Eisenheim calling on supernatural powers when he makes butterflies appear out of thin air, plants grow to full height in the space of mere minutes, or performs other extraordinary tricks onstage, or is it all smoke and mirrors? Uhl seeks answers to the source of Eisenheim’s powers while delicately balancing his admiration for the magician with his duty to the Crown Prince. A murder, an investigation, and love-crazed trickery follow as the plot climbs to it’s somewhat disappointing climax.

Disappointing? You might ask, when it is evident that I had liked the movie. Of course, I had. Yet, I would have liked the characters of the Head of Police and the Crown Prince to have been stronger. The Head of Police comes to understand what actually has happened in the climax - where remembering a conversation he once overheard unfolds the mystery.

I do not deny the fact that there is magic in the movie, the type that reminds one why we fall in love with movies, for creating illusions that captures us in and out and keeps us enchanted even when the rational parts of our mind keeps us hooked on to it. Yet, it could have been more thrilling.

Why not to forward to friends

We’ve all received that e-mail, right? The one that urges us to “forward this to 20 people” in return for anything from “a laptop from Dell” to “a miracle in 7 days” to an outright “surprise right after you click ‘Send’”. Who hasn’t seen the one that says Bill Gates will send you a check for $1 for every single person you forward the message to?

I just received one such e-mail the other day, and couldn’t help but shake my head at the gullibility and outright folly of the universe. The e-mail appeared to have traversed a good portion of the Internet, for it appeared to have been forwarded many a time. Scrolling through the multitude of e-mail headers (To, From, CC, etc.), revealing the e-mail’s traversal path, to the bottom of the message, brought me upon:

 

The scheme here should be fairly obvious: you send this to 8 people, cc’ing Ms. “Anna Swelung” at “Ericsson.com”. Depending on how gullible your 8 friends are (let’s say that an arbitrary 50% of them are in fact gullible and forward the message to 8 of their own friends), Ms. Swelung now has your e-mail address, plus the 8 e-mail addresses you forwarded to her (via cc), plus the 8 e-mail addresses that 4 of your recipients sent to her… (and this doesn’t even count the e-mail addresses of the folks upstream to you; i.e., the folks that sent you the message in the first place).

 Now, let’s say you and your friends are really, really gullible, and decide to up the ante by forwarding the e-mail to not 8, but 20 of your buddies… Think about how quickly (read: exponential growth) Ms. Swelung’s e-mail box will fill-up with the e-mail addresses of folks thirsty for a free laptop computer… Ah, thousands, if not millions of e-mail addresses, harvested, and ready to be spammed with Viagra, Cialis, and HornyAsianVixens.com come-ons.

And now what? The email above is slightly revised version of a 7-year-old hoax promising free phones to frequent forwarders. Though the phrase "computer laptops" has been inserted to reel in more and more people, the anonymous prankster who revised the message didn't even bother to change the names of the "free" items.

Also, the Ericsson T18 and R320 were mobile phones (not laptops) which are now no longer in production.

The email address to which copies of the forwarded message are supposed to be sent, anna.swelung@ericsson.com, is a corruption of the one specified in the original hoax (anna.swelund@ericsson.com), which, of course, was never valid in the first place.

It is important to note that often when you forward email , you leave all the information about the "send/mail to" email addresses of every recipient past and presently in the email "chain" - readable & vulnerable in the headers of the message. And the email address of everyone who has received or been sent the message, can be copied, saved and sold to email marketers, and a ready made listing can be sent  new chain scams  and hoaxes.

Think before you forward. That’s all I have to say.