About a Muslim & An Indian And the transformation of an academician

Brilliant Speech by Omar Abdullah supporting the Confidence motion. A speech that lasted hardly 5 minutes but conveyed a lot.

Also, check out the speech of Manmohan Singh. The video will be devoid of audio because our elected representatives did not bother themselves with the task of hearing him out. As a result, the speech was drowned in the boo-ing and demands for his resignation. But this speech is a must read. He takes on Advani, Karat and gang with great finesse. And nothing, absolutely nothing can take away the sharpness (and at times, acerbic) of the speech that ended with the following:

The greatness of democracy is that we are all birds of passage! We are here today, gone tomorrow! But in the brief time that the people of India entrust us with this responsibility, it is our duty to be honest and sincere in the discharge of these responsibilities. As it is said in our sacred texts, we are responsible for our actions and we must act without coveting the rewards of such action. Whatever I have done in this high office I have done so with a clear conscience and the best interests of my country and our people at heart. I have no other claims to make.

Do lookup some of the links on speeches of LK Advani and Pranab Mukherji. Very interesting reads indeed. Advani was all over the place. Though some will claim that he spoke of everything that mattered, I would like to say that his line of thought was unable to find enough buyers. Pranab Mukherji was brilliant. Especially in the way he took on all the allegations head-on and managed to avoid the rhetoric.

When?

When will the tides in the ocean stop...
And, When will I go for that dip!

Zander On Classical Music

Engaging talk by Benajmin Zander about Western classical music. I like the way he talks. Connects to his audience. Wish someone would do this for Indian Classical Music as well.

The Hampi Heritage Half Marathon

Hampi happened. Like most good things in life, this was also unplanned. Had got this mail from Shantanu saying Sabine is organizing this ‘Heritage’ Half marathon in Hampi long time back. I was excited about it. But these days, my enthusiasm about a lot of things is like the proverbial ‘baasi kadhi main ubal’ (boiling over of a stale curry). So as a hard-working employee of the firm, I dutifully archived the mail in a folder called ‘Life etc.’

So, on a particularly hectic afternoon when I had successfully achieved transitions through multiple meetings, I had this enlightenment. I had to go to Hampi. I have wanted to go to the place for a long long time. The history enthusiast in me took over and I called Shantanu to confirm ‘participation’ in the Hampi run. Guess, there are a lot of fence sitters and before I could say anything, we had 5 of us (Nitin, Saurabh, Saumya) running off to Hampi for the weekend.

Nice drive. Nice bunch people to travel with/ run with. Essentially what you'd ask for on such a trip!

From a heritage perspective, Hampi is unbelievable. The golden period of Hampi was from 1610-1635AD, during the reign of Krishnadeva Raya. The widest road of those times, the Hampi bazaar is wider than the widest of the Bangalore roads. Just imagine the peak hour activity in that market!

The city was abandoned after 1665AD when the Vijaya Nagar empire lost to the combined might of the Bahamani Sultanate (Bidar, Golconda, Ahmednagar, Gulburga, Bijapur). The inhabitants fled and the city lay in ruins. Over the years, the sands of time have claimed the city and the larger part is claimed to be still under the ground. But whatever is above the ground (or recently excavated) is breathtaking as well. The ruins next to Kishkindha which are not a part of the usual tourist circuit are as beautiful as they come. I think you can spend a lazy week in Hampi exploring the ruins and just ambling around the place. Of course, all this is good only if you have a little liking for history.

So the usual word of caution: Hampi has not night life whatsoever!

Recommended eating joint: Mango Tree (Good food with excellent lazing around possibilities)

Sunday morning, we had the first ever Hampi Heritage half marathon. It was absolutely glorious. Big thanks to Sam, Sabine and family for the organization. The run was through the ruin country. We started off just before 6 and kept exploring the town till long.

I am not going to put the timings here because nary an average man/woman would have walked slower than us. But blame it on Hampi, we were captivated!

Reservations: Part III

In the past I have written about reservation twice (I and II) and if you have been a regular reader here, you know that I have a pro-reservation stance at an ideological level. Though I do not agree with the way our governments have gone about implementing it.

So even for a person who thinks that reservation is good as an idea but the present form of implementation leaves a lot to be desired, HRD ministry’s directive to extend reservation to faculty positions in IITs leave me livid and angry.

I am bewildered at this step for which I am unable to see any bonafide intent. I think this systematic destruction of the brand that goes by the IIT name started when they started opening IITs all over. I think the HRD ministry needs to understand that mere buildings and lab equipments do not make an institute of excellence. Even if we were to believe that students at that state are pliable and can be moulded (which I personally believe to be true, the experience is capable of changing people in multiple ways), we need people who would be able to do the mouldling.

And this is where I have a problem with this directive. I think the end-product from IITs (atleast on the technical side) is a function of the faculty imparting the education. Student interests, career directions, research options and academic rigour are function of the faculty that the students interact with.

I do not have a problem with people of any caste, color, creed, nationality holding faculty positions in these institutes of excellence as long as they are appointed on the basis of their academic and research capabilities. Granting 49.5% (which is enormous) of the faculty positions to a certain section of the society on the basis of their birth is the discrimination of the worst order.

This order attacks the essence of the IIT brand – ‘Excellence.’ I think the output from the process is a function of the input and what the process does to the input. I know ‘input’ at these educational institutions is a function of merit and the stated social objectives of the political set-up. However, screwing up the process will ruin the years of good work that faculty, students and researchers have put in.

I think it is time that the HRD ministry should realize that they are facilitators and enablers at best. The ministry exists not for making political statements but for actual Human Resource Development. How I wish that Arjun Singh and his set of cronies start looking at the broken schooling system and start some work to fix it! If… If wishes were horses.

I want to ride my bicycle

दोस्तों, खरीद ली हैं हमने एक साइकिल। एकदम मस्त है और चलने मैं दमदार - पूरे २१ गियर हैं! और दाम भी कम - फिर कोई वो क्यूँ ले, ये न ले (वो से मतलब महेंगी वाली firefox/ trek)

इस साईकिल का नाम है - हीरो ओक्टैन (देखें फोटो)

No, this is not a reaction to the increase in fuel prices. But, just for the record, Mr. Chidambaram and Mr. Deora, it hurts!

This bike is supposed to complement the running. Had a recurring knee injury in the left leg due to my over-pronation and this bike is supposed to help me strengthen my knee and cross-train a little. Did some 25Km on it this weekend (along with a half marathon). Was good fun, coming back was little painful.

Have not taken this to office yet। Am too scared to cycle in Bangalore rush hour traffic. Someday!


Related Blog-post: Biking and etc

Big Brother is Watching

Remember Orwell's 1984?

I felt something like it is happening in most modern socities. I always knew that our online lives are monitored by security agencies. I guess the IBs and RAWs are running scripts on the net to find out what we read, what we write and what we do on the net. I think expecting privacy in an online world is akin to wishing for the moon expecially in terror ridden society of ours.

But when things like this happen, you wonder if you freedom to express yourself is under threat.

Here the issue is two-fold:

1. Error in the data being given by a mobile operator
2. Undue (?) use of force by Maharashtra Police

The first issue is an easy one. Given the terror backdrop that our law enforcement set-up works in, it is natural for them to ask the service provider to provide inputs that they consider critical to their function. However, the callousness with which the Mobile Service Provider (MSP) handled this particular request is incredible. They need to understand the repercussions of any error they make here. In this case, Lakshman Kailash spent 43 days in the Yerwada jail at Pune for no fault of his.

The MSP has spent a considerable amount of PR money to keep this matter under wraps. I hope the courts award a judgment in the favor of Lakshman Kailash directing the MSP to compensate him. And I hope the compensation is large enough to ensure that the MSPs exercise utmost care in providing such information.

The second issue is the most concerning one. Having lived in Mumbai for 4 years, I know that the Shivsena/ MNS/ BJP/ Congress set-up simply loves Shivaji. He is a deity of sorts. However, they just cannot go after anyone who has something derogatory to say about Shivaji. This is a free country and people are entitled to have their views. Putting someone behind bars for more than fourty days for writing something about a maratha warlord is something I find hard to digest. People write so many derogatory things about Mahatma Gandhi but I doubt any of them is subjected to this treatment. Why?

The answer is simple: Vote-bank politics! Shivaji seems to be the top draw in marathi political scenario. The Shivaji mania is so visible in whatever Marathi Polticos do. However, the entire idea of Bangalore police co-operating with the Maharashtra police to catch the 'criminal' who wrote something 'abominable' about Shivaji seems laughable to me. Today it is Shivaji, tomorrow it might be Bal thakrey (Incidentally it did cause a furor of sorts sometime back) and who knows it might be considered bad to bad-mouth Arun Gawli and Chotta Rajan in times to come.

We are a democracy and we have the right to hold our opinions and convictions. They might not be what the establishment would have us believe. But it’s ok! As long as our expression is peaceful in nature.

But even as I write this, I have this lurking fear that my blog might be put on some kind of watch-list and tomorrow they might be knocking at my door to take me to a trip to Yerwada, Pune. So friends, Banloreans and Countrymen (and countrywomen as well), keep your eyes and ears open, I might need your help!

Search Words

While I was away, this web-page had a continuous flow of traffic all the time. Initially, the increasing count on gostats made me think that I have a group of regular readers and I was really smug about it for a while. But as most of you might know or intuitively understand that such a constant stream of visitors is difficult to maintain if no updates are being made to the web-site. Unless the traffic is driven by a search engine.

And hence I started on this analysis of the visits in 2008, trying to figure out the drivers of this traffic. Search words/ Specific pages. Yes, I do such things inspite of the much avowed work-eating-any-free-time-that-I-have syndrome. As for the results, they were very interesting to say the least.

Some blogs were more popular than the others. And the posts that I like the most were hardly there. May be people do not want to hear what I'd really like to tell them.

Anyway, here goes the juice of my analysis.

Hate Hindu(s): This one was the most popular by far. Did not realize that so many people hate hindus. And this site was getting so much traffic because of this. I believe I need to put another post clarifying my position on these matters.

Cure for Drowsiness: It was a distant Second but very strong at being second. Guess a lot of people struggle with post lunch drowsiness.

Aaj Tak/ Surendra Pratap Singh/ Khabrein: SP did leave a strong impact on a certain generation. But what are they looking for?

Anupam Biswas: That fictitious guy from IITB figures in a lot of search results. Just reveals the power of chain mails.

Airtel Desh ki awaaz: I do not know why this is here. Do not remember writing about this ever. Guess it might be because I have ‘awaaz’ in the the name of the blog.

Mrig Trishna Meaning: I like this post. And like the word even more.

Pancham Songs (Various Songs at Various frequencies): This is because of the two listings of my favorite Pancham Da’s songs. But is totally unexpected because they should be totally buried in the thousands of results thrown by Google.

And all this got me interested in SEO (Search Engine Optimization). I think any organization that wants to be successful should get some understanding on SEO. Have enclosed a link on SEO. If you are as uninitiated as I was on this subject, this would be helpful.

Of runners

Lately a lot of my conversations with a set of people I know have been centered around running. Cannot help it at all. And if you are a runner, you will understand.

Got this link a few days back from a runner friend. This was a Adidas campaign some time back. All of these are so true. Most of the runners would have done some of these at some point in time.

http://www.chayden.net/Runs/Adidas/index.htm

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Back on popular demand

Actually far from it. Yes there were those handful visitors who missed me. But the traffic to this web page did not die down in the last 5-6 months. Sounds unbelievable in a way. This period of no blogging started with pre-occupation with other stuff, then manifested itself into inertia and then the need to write just disappeared.

Anyway, this post started with a visit to Chadha's blog. Read what his profile said and I felt like writing again. Chadha, I do not know if that was for me but it has certainly helped me get back to blogging. Your profile did remind me of those IIT days and the email signature that I used to have at that time.

Meanwhile, people tell me that blogging is passe and there is something new called twitter that is gaining favour with the net. I have realized that the pace at which net is changing is much faster than the rate at which I adapt these days. Finally, after half of the world had gotten a facebook ID, I got one as well. I remained an island for a while and then people started adding me. But the level of involvement till now is much lower than the initial days of Orkut.

Speaking of Orkut, I finally deleted my orkut ID. I think it was taking a lot of my time. Though I would miss the good birthday calendar that it had become.

Rest later!