Happy Durga Pujo and Shubho Bijoya

Wish everyone very happy pujo and shubho bijoya. This was my 2nd year in Bangalore celebrating the pujo in a small way. Nevertheless, I got the chance to do 2 pandal hopping and enjoy some yummy hot Khichudi, Alu-Potol, Bandhakopi, Tomato chutney and paayes. The pujos were small in grandeur when it came to comparing with those in Bengal but still sweet experience. There were some nice little cultural events around.

But what makes the pujos so special is the excitement with which we wait, and the openness with which we enjoy the 4 days. Oh yes the food plays the most significant role.

So here are pictures from Bangalore Pujo.

Blogging back

Just came back from a trip to Austin, TX and Savannah, Georgia. Was in the middle of different things (not necessarily important) and was also not sure on what to blog. Hence this extended delay in the posting. Well, I will make it up with some cool pictures from Savannah where I was attending a conference of the Institute of Navigation.

Amazingly Motivational Story :: A Guy who got into Google

Read this :

A Guy Who Got into Google

NY Times Article :: End of Black Politics?

I was reading this article on NY Times. Pretty intriguing and displays some unusual complexities. As I read through, I felt how just a different perception can add a complete new dimension of complexity.

Is Obama the End of Black Politics?

Very interesting read. Pretty Long though.

Using Plastics for Waste:: Work of Dr. Alka Zadgaonkar

I read this very interesting article on goodnewsindia.com. If this is so successful, I wish it comes to every corner of the country and the plastic is taken away as soon as it is dumped down.

Alka Zadgaonkar Wrings Plastic Waste for Profit

Advanced Management Courses

Watch Chak De India
Watch Swades
Lalu Prasad Yadav's Railway Success

The above can easily run into semesters with students' perspectives etc.

OK!! Apologies for being sarcastic. :-) But it caught my attention this early morning when in a TV channel it was being shown that some management institute had screening and group discussion on Chak De India as part of curriculum.

Remember "Yeh 75 minutes tumse koi nahin chheen sakta..." ? a.k.a "Nobody can snatch these 75 minutes from you.." ?

Its Uncertain I tell you

We were all working peacefully this morning and the discussion was still on about why the heck is this diesel crisis and power crisis and will the Air conditioner stop working in the completely closed room. As usual, the possibility of conspiracy theories behind the power and diesel crisis were also being discussed.

And then there you go. Someone comes and says there were couple of blasts at a stone throw distance from our workplace. And the whole focus shifted. There were 9 low intensity blasts this afternoon in Bangalore and quite a few were pretty close (< 1-2 Km) from my house and my office. And then there were discussions, a little panic and little philosophy. To be honest, I was the philosophically boring one. I am sure my colleagues were like "Oh no not again" :-) Buts that's alright.

But I guess its high time we throw that panic out of door since its no help getting panicked. Its just a sense of excitement unfortunately. We should get this straight. Our lives have become uncertain. We might be here today. We may not be tomorrow. The home minister may condemn. Critical IT establishments may be brought under Central Industrial Security Force (CISF). Great fine. But, you cannot guarantee where a trigger may go, from a common man's security perspective.

I was having this discussion with a few colleagues some time back and they were not definitely satisfied with my point when I asked , is it better to die suddenly with a sense of security until then or is it better to live every day without any sense of security and fearing that some mindless attack may happen? I think I would go for the former.

Unfortunately, a common individual must get this that we must live life without panic and be ready to accept that one never knows when they may be at a wrong place at a wrong time. That's what happened with two unfortunate souls who died today in the blasts.

Buses, railway stations, malls, movie halls etc. are so many soft spots. Will we stop going to those places? Ofcourse not. We believe that the people in charge of the security of the community have done their pre-emtive job.

Until then blasts will happen. Innocent people will keep dying. Our ministers will keep condemning and promising not to spare the guilty.

It must have been a normal morning for the poor woman who had no clue that a blast was in store for her. It could have been you. It could be me. And we start taking these things as part of life.

Unfortunate!!

Diesel Shortage in Bangalore

Today, we got an email informing us that there is a severe diesel crisis in Bangalore. And as you know, power cuts are a common phenomena and hence many times, the offices are working on generators. And these generators work on diesel. So, diesel cut means, the generators cant sustain for long and if they cant, well!! then your guess is anyone's guess. Thats right. The work in Bangalore can come to a halt.

These so called modern offices are built with nice looking windows only to be not opened. I wish they could. That way we could turn off everything in day time and opened the windows. Its anyways fabulosly pleasant in Bangalore. But alas we cant.

We have already gotten emails asking us to shut down our systems when we go back home. And guess what !! I forgot :-) :-(

Is it possible that all offices in Bangalore might come to a halt if this crisis grows? What other ramifications can this have?

Unimaginable crisis!!

Ex-VP of IBM/HP Facing Charges of upto 10 years in prison

This is absolutely scary. If you are wondering what the heck I am talking about, then go to google and search for the keywords "Atul Malhotra", "IBM" or "HP". The news article will pop up.

Now, coming to the brief intro and the analysis, Atul Malhotra was with IBM for almost 7 or 8 years. While at IBM he gets some document containing sales strategy etc. The document was sesitive. He was not supposed to share it with anyone. Then he moves on HP. He shares it some VP at HP. Lands in trouble. HP fires him. Reports him to cops. He pleads guilty of leaking IBM trade secrets. Faces a prison term of upto 10 years in prison. Also faces a fine of $250000.

When I was reading the article on some news website, I also saw lots of comments so eager to see him punished etc. And then there some comments citing racist politics.

No doubt this guy has done something wrong.

But this issue seems to have been blown leagues and bounds out of proportion. I think, this guy never realized that what he might be casually doing might land him in such a huge trouble. Is HP trying to show, through its action, that it is some kind of honest/altruistic organization believing in complete transparency? I am sure that will be too nice a music to the ears. Several questions remain unanswered (or may be there were answered in court) :

Why was this guy so badly cornered?
Why wasnt he just warned and told that this is unacceptable and that document destroyed right there?
How does one ensure that the document is not destroyed now?
Is he being made a scapegoat? Could he be a victim?
Could it be possible that there was this casual meeting and he just casually shared the document that he thought is pretty innocuous and based on trust?

While I accept that he has done soemthing wrong, but he for sure does not deserve such a inhuman punishment.

I am pretty sure that in today's world, the organizations are structured in such a way that, some folks act in a way, buckling under the pressure of their superiors, which might land in trouble. In such cases, should those poor folks be severely punished?

Reminds me of a classic Cadence-Avanti case few years back.

These stories for sure scare the hell out of any corporate employee because they are never sure whether what they are doing is right or wrong, to be honest.

Being Busy

An interesting point is "We are always busy".

Why are we being so busy?
Is it normal to be busy?

By being busy, are we in control?
By being busy, are we exploring what we are made for?
By being busy, are we just being a machine ?
By being busy, are we taking time to introspect?


I want to be less busy :-)

BJP Claims Karnataka

That was the headlines in the morning when I turn on CNN-IBN. That has been the headline in all the channels since then and much to the chagrin of my wife, I have been glued to my TV since then. It is definitely the fun time to watch the TV. Complete Entertainment.

As usual, media predictions went which way I do not know. But definitely not the right way. And if you notice, there is a trend here by the way. Media exit polls have been going horribly wrong since quite sometime that I remember. To many this might be coming as a surprise but somehow to me, this is not coming as surprise. Because, as I watch more and more of CNN-IBN and NDTV these days, the analysis seems to be significantly lacking in objectivity. Conducting loud mouthed debates not letting everyone speak, coming to own conclusions have been some noteworthy observations that I have made. Finally, Sagarika Ghose puts it that Media has things to learn. I ask, Isnt it obvious Sagarika? Watch your own folks in debates in your channel where you do not even let people express their opinions completely. And what opinion polls are these? What basis are these being conducted? Has this been asked?

To clarify before I begin this next paragraph, let me be clear that I am not at all a BJP sympathiser. In fact, I used to be long time back. But after what happened in Godhra and how things have been handled since then, it would need some miracle for me to ever vote for them unless some other good deeds of them convince me. Inspite of that, it was so obvious to me since the beginning that this has to be BJP in Karnataka this time. How could it be not obvious?

Does that mean, people have suddenly started loving BJP? Absolutely not. And that is something, the master craftsman Arun Jaitley, the CM to be Yediruppa etc. need to keep in mind. The bottomline is, people had nothing left but to choose someone and turns out BJP was the best in the rotten lot. Forget about Congress. Dharam Singh did all his best during his tenure to ensure that a common man would never vote for Congress. Then comes the Betrayal saga. After that, it does not need too many experts, expert opinions and judgements to figure out that majority is never with people who they cannot trust. This is a fundamental philosophy of life that will stand out for ages that once you lose trust you will lose everything. That is precisely what JD(S) got.

Congress can say several things like secular vote got divided, BJP won on caste vote, BJP won on sympathy vote etc. The bottomline is, BJP is the winner and the Congress is the loser and the JD(S) is the super loser.

While this is an amazing opportunity for BJP to again prove that it is indeed a party with the difference and does not belong to the same breed of high promises and low executions.

Arun Jaitley should stop making comments like Congress is on the decline. Venkaiah Naidu and Rajnath Singh should stop making comments that BJP will rule Karnataka and India. The "rule" itself sounds like monarchy.

Infact, Yediyurappa displayed lots of humility. I hope he continues to be humble and gets some good work done fast, not only in Bangalore but in the whole of Karnataka.

In the run up to the general elections, it is completely in the hands of BJP to either capitalize on this opportunity and lose it by their own immaturity.

I hope BJP does not get swayed away by caste politics, reservation politics and religion politics. By focussing on simple things like development, infrastructure, convenient life for every individual, ease of access of everything to every individual, they will for sure ensure they will win the hearts of the people of Karnataka.

And then they will not have to rely on Expert Opinion Polls. They can be sure then that Expert Opinion Polls will predict their failure. And that will mean, they will win :-)

RTI Directory

Take a look at the following website :

http://www.rtidirectory.in/


There were two basic ideas which spurred the starting of this website.

1) The idea that two persons within close proximity to each other and
not knowing each other might file an RTI for the same piece of
information. In that case there would be some wastage of energy and
time.

2) Once a person finds information through an RTI, which is of public
importance then very few people actually get to see that information
since there is no means to disseminate it widely.

The Right to Information Directory is open for uploads from any city
and town in India. We look forward to an enthusiastic response form
applicants and browsers alike and look forward to your feedback.

The website is started by Mumbai based civic and environmental
activist Rishi Aggarwaal and developed by Wherrelz IT Solutions

**********************************************************

Interaction with the Auto Guy

This morning, I had a fantastic and a pleasing experience. So you know, when people talk about the auto guys, they portray them as mean, whining, fearsome, frightening individuals trying to rip you off. Right? But I have always disagreed with them. I have always maintained that it is very unfair to portray them like that. We must appreciate how much stress they go through. Furthermore, to me it seems, the educated folks are most maniacs on the road.

Anyways, the above whining can go on forever. Coming to my point, today I took an auto from my home to my work which is less than 2 km and hence it comes to Rs. 14.
When I got down, I realized that I have only Rs. 13 in loose change or the only next one I have was Rs. 20. So I gave the guy Rs. 20 and asked him to give me Rs. 5. He said he didnt have change. I told him that I have only Rs. 13 in such a case and I dont like giving less.

The auto guy immediately tells me : "Saab kam chalega. Rs. 13 hi de do. Kitne baar log humein jyaada to de dete hain. Humein uska khayaal bhi to rakhnaa padegaa.."

I was so touched. The only thing I could respond to him was " Aaapke jaise log aur bhi jyaadaa ho gaye to duniyaa sudhar jaayegee"...

He gave a nice smile and drove away. And my morning work started with a fantastic good feeling.

Update :
Thanks to Marcos' comment, here are the translations into english :
"Saab kam chalega. Rs. 13 hi de do. Kitne baar log humein jyaada to de dete hain. Humein uska khayaal bhi to rakhnaa padegaa.." : means "Sir leess will do. Just give me 13. Many times people give us more as well. So we need to keep that in mind too".

" Aaapke jaise log aur bhi jyaadaa ho gaye to duniyaa sudhar jaayegee"... means "If we have more people like you, then the world will be a much better place"

Ahh!!! I couldnt vote this time :-(

Damn it!! what an irony it is... Got the first chance to vote and couldnt vote this time in Karnataka assembly elections. Lazy ? May be. But why cant we make things simpler? I am not the only one you know.

I was supposed to get myself registered. And I did not do it. Hence I could not vote. There were many people who did not know where to go to register. I understand ti sounds like excuse. But here is a point.

Why can't the registration process be made online? I mean, one anyways has to provide an identification. Hence the Election Commission of India should open up the concept of online registration. Then people having access to computer can register whenever they want using a certain mode of identification such as passport, PAN card etc. ONce they register using an identification method, they should be able to vote using the same identification. Is it too difficult?

That way I would have registered online and would have voted. I am sure so many people could not vote because they did register.

Let me see what the Election Commission says to my suggestion. I have sent the commission a small email.

Belur Halebidu Trip

After a long time, finally I got to meet up with friends and could get out of town on a long trip. We decided to go to Belur Halebidu. Belur-Halebidu are around 230 kms from Bangalore. So covering them was going to be a long tiring trip. Still we decided to go ahead.

We started early in the morning from Bangalore at around 7:00 a.m We booked a small tempo traveller that was good enough for around 13 folks. The highway was pretty good enough. At aroun 11:30 a.m we reached Shravanabelgola. A beautiful place it was indeed. But we decided not to climb the steps of the taller hill since it would hamper the plans of Belur and Halebidu. Instead we climbed the smaller hill and still could get the pleasure. :-)

After a brief stay at Shravanabelgola, wee started heading towards Belur. The tempo would go over Hassan. Hassan is a good place to stop over for lunch since there are quite some good hotel/restauarants like Sri Krishna, Hassan Asshok, Suvarna Regency. But since most of us were asleep in the tempo, we went past Hassan and directly stopped at Belur. I must admit though that while the road was pretty good enough, the drivers werent and we saw many accident scenes primarily because of the mistakes to overtake over a single lane and coming straight in front of the opposite coming traffic. Never do that. There is no hurry and nothing is more important than life. Enjoy the trip and go slow. Its a bad sight to see such accidents.

We reached Belur at around 2:00 p.m We had lunch at Belur in a pretty ordinary restaraunt and then straight away headed to the temple. We hired a guide because these temples can never be understood without the help of a knowledgeable guide. These guides are Govt. of India approved. And the guide we chose was indeed very knowledgeable. He explained the art, culture, science, history, geaography and everything. It was really fun to understand the concepts in details. After spending some time at Belur, we headed towards Halebidu which was around 15 kms. Halebidu was another beautifulpiece of art. This place was the capital of the Hoysala kingdom.

Halebidu has a beautiful garden and an adjoining lake. So go to Belur first, and then come to Halebidu and relax on the grass besides the lake.

At around 6:00 p.m we started heading out of Halebidu and back to Bangalore. And there you go. It started raining heavily. Wow. what was a pleasant rain it was after a hot sunny humid day.
We started heading towards Bangalore. Wanted to have dinner at Hotel Hassan Asshok but they didnt have Dosas in the night. What a bummer it was. So we came out and started heading home. At Bellur Cross, we stopped to have our dinner. After having and coffee and we started heading back. Most of us fell asleep after a tiring day. We reached Bangalore at around 12:00 in the midnight.

It was a fantastic trip. Belur and Halebidu are awesome and I wouldnt mind going again and just spend the whole day there.

Dont miss them if you are in Bangalore..


Enjoy the photographs.

Bhopal Padayatra 2008 :: Blog

http://www.bhopal.net/march/padyatra2008_blog.html


Information on Bhopal Padayatra

International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal

http://www.bhopal.net

International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal (ICJB) 's complete resource on Bhopal, the History and the present.

The Students Bhopal Campaign

This is the location to find all information


http://www.studentsforbhopal.org/

and express solidarity and participate..

Air, Water, Earth and the Sins of the Powerful

Tehelka magazine's article on Bhopal Gas Leak... Read it to get an idea on what happened and what is happening..

Air, Water, Earth and the Sins of the Powerful

More Information under Bhopal Label

NY Times Article :: Mother's Influence on Barack Obama's Life

It has been such an inspiration for me reading this article.

A Free Spirited Wandered who set Obama's Path


Forget the influence etc. Just from a human perspective, purely based on what has been mentioned in the article by the author, the beliefs and practices of the lady have been so phenomenal that you feel like following similar practices.