Nunc Aut Numquam

To Life, Fate, Destiny..the works...

2007-06-18T05:58:00.000-07:00

So much for your promises
They died the day you let me go
Caught up in a web of lies
But it was just too late to know

I thought it was you
Who would stand by my side

And now youve given me, given me
Nothing but shattered dreams, shattered dreams
Feel like I could run away, run away
From this empty heart

You said youd die for me

Woke up to reality
And found the future not so bright
I dreamt the impossible
That maybe things could work out right

What I've Done

2007-06-14T04:11:00.000-07:00

A new song from Linkin Park. From their new album - 'Minutes to Midnight'. Nice video. And an awesome song...

What I've Done lyrics

To My Friends....

2007-06-14T00:51:00.000-07:00

Now that you all are away, I guess this is my way of expressing how much I miss you all and how much fun we have had....especially in the last 2 years....so here's to all of us:

The Grey

2007-06-13T02:04:00.000-07:00

Smoked out grey cells. Impotent intelligence. Its like facing the full blast of a typhoon. But then why had I to venture out and pee in the face of the storm? The backlash is numbing. A subtle yet evil grin. Mocking me. Devouring my misfortune. An affluent addiction. Raping my mind. Stripping my soul. Demeaning my existence. Bullying by body. The blistered heart braves this monster. Discovering my n-dimensional endurance. Will it suffice? Dissolving the brain in the cranium. Do I even have the time to realize? Or is it already to late? An alien comfort. So volatile. Leave it and breathe. Else blood will seethe.Walk faster, no run! Faster! Its closing in. Your last chance...

Haze

2007-06-07T01:57:00.000-07:00

Days of glory,
Days of thunder,
When did they pass,
I sit and wonder...

The listless life,
Is a stagnant river,
Crooning the dirge,
In a cold fever..

Launder my karma,
Purge my sin,
Keeping the sabbath,
Hoping to win..

Fate is not mine to keep,
Nor is there any luck to borrow,
I seek solitude to weep,
Seeking to drown my sorrow.

Grayscale rainbow,
Boiling beer,
Even the smallest things,
Dont seem right here....

A crappy lunch,
Is a sadist bitch,
She takes you by the tongue,
And throws you to the fitch...

A skinny latte,
And a smooth drag,
Just little smiles,
No more to brag...

Angelic deeds,
Like floating weeds,
Slowly move over,
Forgotten forever...

Blood to wine,
In the holy grail,
Makes little difference,
To this life so frail...

Like drunken stupor,
A slow dizzy phase.
Like the omnipotent Sol,
Will someone lift the haze?

Dirge for a broken heart....

2006-05-21T13:03:00.000-07:00

Stuck in a pit of helplessness,
I need to exhale...
Pangs of unconsciousness,
When all attempts fail.

Exhausted in this wild chase,
I have nowhere to hold...
Dead end staring stark in the face,
And all the walls are stone cold.

The silence is too loud to take,
Don't have the strength to keep..
The happiness I try to fake,
And the sorrow begins to seep.

They say events in life are freak,
Dunno how, to those eyes, I fell...
The words dont seem to speak,
What the heart wants to yell.

I dream of a better time,
Better place, for hope to appear,
Till then the heart will be a mime,
Wanting for these thorns to disappear.

B.C. Sutta...

2006-04-15T12:55:00.000-07:00

This is as from the heart as it comes..... Unwinding at the place you like. Your bestest buddies are with you. The music is your saviour. All problems seem to dissolve with every sip. The one you love seems close to you. The music flows more through your blood than the boooze. It is as if its played as a precis of your life. The sutta is your 'mashaal'. The rejections and ironies of life are but jokes for the night....all over a sutta.... B.C. sutta....

Adios 2005...

2006-01-03T02:10:00.000-08:00

2005 wasn’t something to write home about. Shitty and uneventful at that. No one landed on the moon/mars, no new country formed, no new target for the US, Intel didn’t come out with Pentium 5 and looks like it will still be a few years before Microsoft comes out with Windows Vista. On a more personal note though, many of you would beg to differ with me. Some of you went to far away lands, got married, got a job, lost a job, etc. Well, I too got a job, but that was as exciting as Sonia Gandhi speaking. Nothing has happened this year that would make me sit up and take notice. My statistics could be estimated as listening to 1300 hours of music, drinking 100 liters of coffee and watching 10 crappy bollywood movies. But they say life is more than all this.
Looking back at 2005 makes me think all right. When I will look back at 2005 in 2015, it will be more significant than what it seems today. Cause at that time I will probably see the bigger picture and I don’t mean 53-inch plasma. Cause 2005 is just a small piece of the giant jigsaw puzzle that’s this life. And maybe many tsunamis and earthquakes and Iraqs later, 2005 would still occupy an important place in this giant puzzle. And as we move into 2006, dancing in farm parties or watching ad-laden movies on HBO, you and I are hopeful in some corner of our mind that our lives will be better next year.

Here’s to life and our future. Hallelujah.

Happy 2006. Goodluck and Godspeed.

And then God said, "Let there be blogs.."

2005-12-08T22:14:00.000-08:00

By now all of us have heard about Sidin Vadukut, the creator of the avant garde blog Domain Maximus. This dude is a fab writer. Even his sorry-for-not-posting-in-months post gets over 50 comments. Normally, blogs are more like online journals, literal vents for emotional/intellectual thoughts. Sidin's posts are so well written that he seems to be inviting international attention. Following is a comment written to one of his posts. It makes you realize that whether you like it or not, blogs like these mean big bucks to the owner. Move over Ann Frank. The blog-wagon is steam-rolling forward.

As with a zillion other readers, ended here trying to trace the author of "Travails of single southies..." U'll be happy to know that its gone international coz I'm writing in from Malaysia and I head global communications for my co and i've made sure every single Indian in my company in the 17 countries we have offices in has received a copy! Look at the amount of money u lost pal! I am loosely associated with our publishing division and i know gold when i see it. Why havent u gone professional yet? Do u have an agent.....GO GET ONE...NOW!!! After i landed on ure page, i havent done a minute of gainful employment related activity for the rest of the day since there is so much catching up to do on your blog. And dude...do u realise you r probably the only blogger anywhere in the world that receives an average of 50 comments on every single post and with people threatening to kill themselves if u dont post a new blog soon....do u want to translate that into number of readers x book sales x royalty@ 10 - 15% ??? U do the math & I'm sure the figure looks nicer than mine! :-)Ure fellow IIMAite Chetan Bhagat did that kick ass book on the IIT and i met him in HK recently and he is considering giving up investment banking to turn full time writer. An inspiration there???~ Fellow southie with complicated last name that no one in the mystic east gets right.
-- Ramya Chandrasekaran

(Link to Sidin's blog can be found in the 'links' section of by blog alongside)

Catcher somethin....

2005-12-08T04:33:00.000-08:00

(This article can only be understood by those who have read "Catcher in the Rye" by J. D. Salinger)

This dude in the picture is some kinda catcher or something. I never really cared for this kinda stuff. I think this guy is a big phoney. I guess he is standing there like this because he probably is too dumb to do anythng else. Thinks his black shirt is all fancy and all. I never really liked black shirts. Think they are boring and all. Plus everybody has them so it is not interesting at all. Everyone thinks that they look cool in their black shirts. Well they all are a bunch of phonies I think. I like phones cos you can talk to people and all. I once called home from New York to speak to my sister Phoebe but she wasn't home. Its all kinda sad. Why have a home if you dont want to stay in it? Anyways this isin't gonna go anywhere so I better stop talking to phonies like you and all.
(Inspiration and courtesy: www.uncyclopedia.org)

Hang on.... We are almost there....

2005-12-02T11:34:00.000-08:00

Emotions take their toll on the individual. The weight falls solely on the soul. They make you introspective. They make you take a look at the bigger picture. When life doesn't seem to add up, all you could do is to hope that you missed some pieces in this giant jigsaw puzzle. And thats being optimistic. You look back into the rear view mirror of your life. And yes, problems are bigger than the appear. But then again, isin't this the age to be hoplessly romantic about stuff? Certain events in life change the entire context of you vision of the world around you. If hyperbolism is to be tolerated than I might go to the extent of saying that they are epoch making. They are like a good ol' matured wine. Subtle yet explicit. Although they dont make an obvious impact on the course of your life, they make an alteration which, in time, compounds in such a way that you end up on a completely different path.
Its hard to let go, but sometimes fate leaves you with no other options. You have to let go. The sooner the better. Its probably your karma that makes you go through such phases. But then again, these ARE just phases. They are meant to pass. Like the phases of the moon. From new moon to full moon. Thats life. Just sail through. All that is required of you is to keep going on. Dont falter. And then when you are almost about to give up, the storm abates.
Thats what I am doing...... riding it out. Adios..........

Cynism Galore

2005-10-05T22:15:00.000-07:00

Ok. The following piece of literature is going to take everything to pieces. Break stuff. Dont read it if you cant handle some negativity mister.

"I'll have a Sania Mirza with extra hype and diet coke to go please...."
Now let me see. What's up? Sania Mirza. I mean come on. I might not have any moral right to say this but the dudette needs to loose some weight. And her backhand undoes everything her forehand tries to do. All that she has won is a junior wimbeldon event. I mean Sharapova is so much better. Well Sania IS the best we've ever got, but she certainly cannot be compared to Sachin. Its like comparing Ashton Kutcher to Al Pacino. And she talks like she's won the Noble Prize or something. And what's with that accent? Did she work in a Hyderabadi call centre? Why the phoney PR act? And those loud Tees. She's immature people. Not that I expect her to be mature. But we so need to stop iconising bimbettes like her. She's a pioneer alright. but look at the likes of Anjali Bhagwat, Malleshwari, Rajywardhan Rathore and many many more. I think Rathore's feat warrants more media attention than our Miss Biryani here. Why doesn't Rathore have a PR manager? Why dont Chinese ahtletes ever make it to the cover of Time? Simple. That's because Miss Hype is in it not just for the game. Allied interests. Media packaged patriotism. PR managed nationality. Deep fried interviews. Sania Mirza...with extra hype.

Su-Doku. Translation: Pee on your head....
The other day, I was browsing through the pages of a local daily. There i found a half page article on this new wannabe crossword. Its a game where you fill in numbers like you do letters in a crossword according to some rules. Allow me to be clear on one thing. This game is fun. I like it. Now it aint that good to write a half page article. People are obsessed. I mean its a game. Its not a new invention or something. Its some lame masscom graduate who wanted to do justice to her/his salary. With no stories left to cover, why not Su-Doku? But a game? The focal point of a half-page story. What wrong with people? Its a newspaper! What's next? Articles on mobile phone covers? Why do we love to make such a hoopla over such inconsequential things? Honestly the media has lost focus. They aint printing papers. They are printing money. And that's all they care about. Then maybe these are just fillers. You dont want to leave the other side of a full page HP add on how their supercomputer is helping genetic engineers in Berkeley; blank. Hell, lets put up articles on Su-Doku and Mallika Sherawat's new bustline. That'll keep their cash registers ringing. Ka-Ching!

WATCH THIS SPACE FOR MORE.......

Now or Never.......

2005-09-29T04:16:00.000-07:00

Is it just self healing? Trying to console yourself? Content on living with what you got? All under the guise of optimism? Patience or lack of drive? Compromise is a double edged sword. Is it waiting for the 'right time' or laziness? Do you make philosophy out of the half-filled glass or get up and top it up? Do you look at the silver lining or fight for your sun light? Do you wait to be rescued or rescue yourself? Is 'faith', the panacea of all ills? Is preemption really jumping the gun? Is weight of wisdom greater than the bulk of conscience? Is 'self-identity' a redundant term? Is there a fine line between the sense of urgency and impatience? Is there such a thing called 'second chance'? Do you have enough time? Do you want to discover your fate or do you want your fate to discover you? Does fate have a plan B? If not, do YOU have a plan B? The parachute aint opening till you pull the chord. There is no 'undo' button in life. How will you know if you still got time? When will you cross the river?

Moral of the story: Its now or never........

Confluence of the Dark Knights...and...er..a white one...

2005-09-26T10:06:00.000-07:00

Upon discovery of the degree confluence project (http://www.confluence.org/) I instantly knew that we, the SQF (Sinhgad Quizzing Fraternity) brethren were the right people for the job. I tossed the idea to the real life Calvin manifestation a.k.a. Anish and he jumped at the thought. Panday as is usually the case, volunteered lazily. White chocolate a.k.a. Rahul was a hard (and white) nut to crack. But he agreed to come after he realized that his lame excuses were futile against me. Now the problem was finding a GPS device. Like a saviour emerged Ashish Chaudhary. He had a device which he got from those NRI-relatives. Bless them. So we were set. Day-Sunday. Time-afternoon. Car-maruti 800. Punctuality-none. After setting off 45 mins late, we filled petrol and were off. Rahul (who henceforth will be referred to as ‘the tourist’ for reasons which would soon be obvious) was given a pizza. (which was nothing more than a 'bling-bling' papad) After the mustard sauce settled (all over the rear seat…..much to my distraught when I later realized that) we were out of Pune heading due south. This trip fulfilled my dream of riding a moon-buggy on the lunar surface. Well it almost did. Except that the moon buggy was the maruti and moonscape was the highway. After proving that maruti does make some of the best suspension systems in the world, we closed in our objective. Just before khambatki ghat, our GPS unit read that we had already crossed our confluence point!! (18N 74E) But we trusted Google Earth and NASA World Wind (whose maps we were using) more and decided to cross the ghat. The satellites put some sense back into our device which then read as expected. Just below that ghat, it started pointing to a point some 400m into a field. We parked our car and ventured into the lush green albeit shady looking field. Three fields, four weird looking cows and two snaps later we saw some form of habitation. They were farmers working in the fields. One of them saw us from a distance and started yelling in a vernacular tone, “Come here.” We weren’t surprised to hear a farmer speak English. We were wondering why he chose us to display his knowledge of the language. Then as is generally the case, we realized that he must have thought that Rahul was a foreigner! And indeed, when he approached him trying to explain what we were doing, he said he thought we were foreigners, because of Rahul. He apparently was a part time farmer working forBPCL in Wai, close by. He directed us around the field and after a few minutes of walking and crawling with the device, we finally successfully located 18.00.00 N and 74.00.00 E. I think it was the Sun in India that made the tourist loose his senses when he loudly proclaimed that the sun sets in the east. In his wid fit of mental imbalance he manged to loose our only pen. After a hearty laugh the required snaps were taken and we walked back to our car. On the way back, in continuation of his bad day, the tourist stepped in slush which he later had to clean with cow fodder. All this when we met the mobile phone brandishing sarpanch of the village. We reached Pune two and a half hours later.
So all in all it was more of a confluence of carefree road tripping and funny Rahul-related incidents rather than just a confluence of integer latitudes and longitudes.

Life...or something like it.....

2005-09-23T05:21:00.000-07:00

This is for those of you who think that my last post was not quite me, I hope this one which also comes straight from the heart; is more 'like me'.....

I travelled so far.....
Saw sights a many.....
Was led by a guiding star....
Yearning for that short penny....

Was always runnin behind that penny and a chic....
Hoping someday my life would click....
At crossroads tossed the odd coin....
Tryin to decide which path to join...

Many years later today.....
I fondly remember the eventful yesterday...
Still cant decide what to keep and what to chuck....
Then look back and wonder.....Oh what the fuck.....

;-)

First...

2005-09-20T08:31:00.000-07:00

To Walk is to Fall first...

To Dance is to Trip first...

To Emote is to Feel first...

To Learn is to Unlearn first...

To Sing is to Humm first...

To Walk is to Get up first...

To Quench is to be Thirsty first...

To Write is to Read first...

To Gaze is to Look first...

To Miss is to Meet first...

To Forgive is to Sin first...

To Befriend is To Be A Friend first...

To Succeed is to Fail first...

To Love is to Hurt first...

By:
Yours Truly.... ;-)

Shalom Namaste....but no thanks!

2005-09-14T03:22:00.000-07:00

Everyone learns something or the other from bollywood movies...... Well this is what I learnt after watching 'Salaam Namaste'.....

1. Colourful undies are in.
2. Sensible lyrics are out.
3. Wear loud clothes and you get laid.
4. Melbourne is like Mundhwa. Catch a rick and you are there.
5. Athletic dancing of a nine months pregnant woman is good for her baby.
6. Cant speak English? Become a doctor in Australia...

Ok here's a simple question....
What do you get when cross mutated goat with a colourful donkey?
Simple.....You get Preity and Saif in Salaam Namste.
One cant stop braying and the other cant stop showing how gay he is....

*** SPOILER AHEAD *****
(movie story discussed)
Well, you cant really spoil that is already so bad.....

In a nutshell, wannabe guy-wannabe job-pretty girl-Australian lifestyle in Indian pay-both start off on wrong foot-sing a misplaced song-fall in love-live together-guy knocks up the girl-now the best part---INTERMISSION---girl pregnant-guy in denial-blame it on the faulty condom (so picked up from 'Friends')-girl sees guy's real colour-abortion attempt-sees meaning of life in clinic-abortion called off-guy hysterical-girl->"We should break up."-Guy->"Yeah. Maybe we should."-Me->"Yawn."-turmoil-that song with silly lyrics-get back together-happy ending-Me still yawning-Movie over-Me delighted.

On a more serious note, too much 'Kal Ho Na Ho' and 'HumTum' baggage. Sloppy direction. Too much plagiarism. Haywire scripting. More emphasis on packaging than on content. Superficial acting. Lame attempt of introducing comedy. Waste of Arshad Warsi.

Best Dialogue -- Javed Jaffarey: "While in Rome, do the Romans."

Best Scene - INTERMISSION

Best Plot: Preity Zinta trying to pull-off a Mallika Sherawat.

Exit Quote: "Should have watched 'No Entry' instead."

MORAL OF THE STORY: Dont watch unreviewed Yash Raj films.

Stick a fork in me Mama, I am done!

2005-09-01T05:39:00.000-07:00

My thoughts when I got my B.E. (Bachelor of Engineering) result the other day. Now I am officially an electronics and telecommunications engineer. I am not trying to make hyperbolic statements here, but I think the last four years have been one helluva experience. As cliched as it may sound, let me say it. 'The last 4 years have changed me.' I have to say it because it's true. I know every graduate says the same thing with a lot of nostalgic emotion. But there is certainly something different about the BE degree. I can never talk about the '4 years' as good 'ol college days. I think they made me more resilient and patient. And most importantly I learnt to accept failure and move on. There were so many instances in these years when I felt, "I am in deep shit!". But then I started enjoying these 'shitty situations' and coming out of them. If there are any Rocky fans reading this they know the line - "Its the eye of the tiger its the cream of the fight...". Engineering taught me that.
In hindsight I feel enginnering was more of a finishing school for us to face life.

Sorry....

2005-08-31T22:20:00.000-07:00

Sorry for not posting anything new for months now. I've been busy u see with my new job. That's right I am now a software professional. Shucks. Might as well call me a Mumbai-dance-bar owner. At least thats 'in'. Freddie Mercury rightly said, "Another one bites the dust." Couldnt agree more. I am now officialy a part of what, a million strong clan of software people in India? Although the figure is debatable, the fate is not. The only thing unarguable is the salary and the air-conditioning. I have to admit, nobody gives this much salry for a fresher, except the IT clan. And probably ditto for the AC. So Lo, and behold, the endless monotomy - my life. You know, the most exciting time of the day for me is reading 'Garfield' in the newspaper every morning. I am sure even an old farmer in Alabama does more exciting things. The only silver lining is that myself being in the embedded systems field, I am atleast surrounded by a little excitement in the sense that atleast I can see where my code is running and how it is a part of a system-based application. I pity those doing database and other stuff for whom the maximum action is when they see their code returning from QC with only minimal bugs. (No offense to my DB friends.....SQL rocks!) I guess the only reason people stay here is for the money. (Plus an IT job is good to flaunt in front of the commerce and arts people.) I find it very hard to see myself doing this for a career. This is not to say that I am too good for this or anything like that. MaybeI havent got what it takes. I certainly havent got the acumen. (woohoo..Barron's word....I always wanted to use 'em. And you think that list is useless!) Lets see what I finally end up doing. (IT is still not ruled out!!!)

Their way or the highway

2005-06-18T10:40:00.000-07:00

You're always wrong. Every thing you do is wrong. You have a problem. Rather you are the problem. Nothing is right when it comes to you. It’s like a disease with no cure. You're destined to be doomed. There seems to be no way out of it. The only way out is you rot yourself out. Be someone you are not. Because its not ’right’.
You are caught. You cant do anything. You are helpless. You have no control. All you can do is take it all until you cant take it anymore. You are the problem. You are being convicted for being yourself. You need to realize that you have a problem. Big time. Your mind is distorted. You cant think straight. You’ve probably lost it. Its all dark. Its like drowning in water. Helpless. You are a lost cause. You can never be right again. Hell would be a walk in the park. Emotional extremities. Loss of balance. Bad symptoms galore. Wait you cant die, because then you would be in a better place called hell. But wait. A ray of hope. Maybe a way out. Change who you are. Shed your soul. Who cares anyways. Its to see if you ‘fit’ into the scheme of things around. If not, you have to be reshaped. No liberty. You cant afford it. Who are you? You are no one until someone around you decides what you are. You have no inherent identity. If you do, that is your problem. You don’t fit. Fit or quit. It aint a rose if it aint red. Follow the rules of existence or cease to exist. The price you pay for being what you are. Outclassed. Outlawed. Exiled. The price you pay for trying to fit. Its either their way or the highway. The annihilation of self. I present you my Lord, my distorted soul.

“Every step I take is another mistake for you.”

--- Linkin Park in ‘Numb’

This one goes out for the 'city-bred-pseudos'

2005-06-16T23:27:00.000-07:00

“We are the next superpower…..”

If I had a rupee every time someone said that, I would have several Mittals washing my army of Maybachs with mineral water. We Indians have used our new found growth as a shield; whenever we lack valid arguments in those all so prevalent ‘how-my-country-can-beat-up-your-country’ debates. The most common contenders in these tournaments are of course India and the USA.

The new young, hip and vibrant India seems to be sending out a ‘dare all’ message. We openly proclaim our ambition to become a superpower by 2020. Our missile man – turned President has even written a book on it. Well, there’s nothing wrong in being ambitious. But a serious ‘reality check’ is due. And before we dismiss America as a land of fat couch potatoes with easy money and who need counselling to relieve shopping stress; we need to think again.

“Those American kids are so dumb. My 10 year old Bunty can solve problems from an 8th standard American mathematics book.” That is not a problem. The problem is that this is all an average Bunty can do. Although Mommy does send him to classical Hindustani music classes, but that is only because she hopes that someday he’ll become the next Indian Idol. So what if he likes painting more? There is no Indian Idol for talent in painting. The point I am trying to make here is that we always want our kids to follow well-oiled tracks of proven career choices. What? Your daughter wants to become a sculptor? Where’s the money in that? We need to realize that a career is not chosen on the basis of how much money one gets or the associated ‘glam factor’. It is about what you really like and what you think you are good at. Because if you like something then you inherently give it your best shot. Then money is a natural progression. The 10th standard American kid might not be as sharp as our Bunty when it comes to solving maths problems but he does have knowledge about different world religions, Greek or Egyptian mythology, Russian or French revolution or even pottery for that matter. Because his curriculum straight till his 10th standard included these subjects. Also these subjects weren’t thrust upon him. He had the weapon of choice. In India, we repeat the Indian Independence struggle thrice as a part of history in 10 years of school curriculum. Moral of the story: give all areas of education, equal importance. “Those American schools are so bad, kids carry guns and shoot each other!” In India, kids carry camera phones to school to ‘shoot’ their classmates doing the ‘ahem’ stuff. (read DPS) So, yeah our kids don’t carry guns and kill each other but they aren’t Tibetan monks either. And at the rate at which we are going, that day is not far when we’d have little mujahideens running around with pistols.
We take pride in proclaiming that the IITs are the best engineering colleges in the world. Probably not even the brightest of Americans teenagers would clear the IIT-JEE exam. (our Bunty did; in flying colours). But we shouldn’t forget that in spite of this, some of the greatest inventions in the last century (read microprocessor, the Internet, etc.) have come from America. Now how did they manage that without having an IIT? Some food for thought, aint it? “

Bangalore: a la San Hose. The next IT boomtown of the world. Yes, we call ourselves the IT superpower already. Look Uncle Sam, we have Infosys. Well, try asking any random person on the road, what does Infosys do? “They do something related to computer, software is it? Doesn’t matter, sounds hi-tech enough for me.” To put it simply they write software for various ‘Fortune 500’ companies. They do take pride in highlighting their esteemed clientele, which are mostly American companies. Step in, problem number two. We need to stop being satisfied with being a service-oriented economy. We need pioneering companies that develop products like no other in the world. Just developing high end software or attending to abusive calls won’t do. But what about our Tatas and Birlas? Aren’t the big enough? Reliance industries is worth Rs. 96,000 crores. I say that’s pennies. Check this out – the value of IBM’s market liquidity is more than India’s GDP. The point here is that we should refrain from patting our own backs as yet because we still have a long way to go. And yes not just by providing back end support to IBM. But by making our own IBM.

Come 2008, Mumbai will be getting a sea-link which will be the only one of its kind in this part of the world. Isn’t that cool? The capital city of a state gets a flamboyant and expensive arm candy for transport (read Rs. 1600 crores) when it already has a near perfect bus and train system. In the meantime, the rest of the state reels under 4-9 hours of power cuts everyday. The total transmission and theft loss of the MSEB (Maharashtra State Electricity Board) is somewhere around 30% whereas that for the Californian power grid (which is much larger than MSEB) is around 0.03%. Guess the much needed power generating stations can wait but not the sea-link. Problem number three – we need to get our priorities right. When the US talks about building the world’s tallest building, they are rest assured that there won’t be a single power cut. Our reply? Let’s top theirs by building our own tallest building in Noida. Need I say more?

The last and probably the biggest hurdle is our massive ego problem. We have this denial syndrome. We just won’t accept that we are wrong. Just because we fought off the British and achieved independence 58 years ago doesn’t make each and everyone of us, a Gandhi-avatar. I pay my taxes, I vote which means I can jump the red signal. Wait before you do that, keep a 50 rupee note handy, in case the big-bellied cop catches you. This is so convenient, because he rarely takes the trouble of stopping you. Too much hassle you see. Now in the land of Uncle Sam, the cop would probably chase you down and arrest you for this and you would probably end up having your licence suspended. Jeez, why take so much trouble when a mutual agreement over a 50 rupee note could make both parties happy. It happens only in India. (And probably in Surinam)

The pseudo-modernists, pseudo-secularists, God they get on my nerves. Some Software Engineer sitting in the plush living room of the 18th storey pent-house in Bangalore, has opinions about a right wing fundamentalists organisation and how its ruining the secular thread of India. I am no right-wing fundamentalists, (for the record, I am a centrist) but come on. Why deliver your opinions that are solely based on what NDTV reports or what Barkha Dutt thinks. (Don’t even get me started on Aaj-Tak) He probably spent most of his thinking power on some dumb ass software that he writes all day for some American company who probably thought it was to easy and time-consuming to do that in-house. These very fundamentalists parties are extremely vital to maintain a ‘communal balance’ in the country. Otherwise within a few years the text books would say that Prophet Muhammad killed the evil Rama and saved the world from the infidels. On this topic, I could write another article.

At this rate, I see Ivory Coast and Tunisia becoming superpowers before we do. We need to think a little less about what we achieved so far and do much more that is much needed. If we are to become the next superpower, we first need to change our own attitudes towards the country. You and me.

2005-06-16T23:26:00.000-07:00

The following is an article written by Mr. Velu Shankar for the magazine ‘Outlook’. Mr. Shankar is former executive producer, Channel V and former programme director, Radio City. I found this article really thought provoking. I think that all the young Indians today(read 52% of the population), should read this article and consider revising their attitude towards their country and its polity.

Teflon-Coated Bubble Wrap Cocoons

In a recent interview, Chief Election Commissioner J. M. Lyngdoh, talking about corruption in politics, said that hope lay in the younger generation as his own had failed to get rid of it. The moot question is: does the younger generation even realize its onerous responsibility?
A recent market survey by a soft drink MNC among its largest segment (read youth) says that 60% of India’s young people are happy, positive, have a high sense of confidence and are raring to go. Is this something to celebrate as part of our all-pervasive India Shining campaign or is it something to ponder over? Where does this happiness originate? Does it come from a Teflon-coated bubble wrap that protects you from questioning or from not seeing oneself as a part of this thriving polity?
All around, I see smugness, a desire to be coopted, a conducted tour of insanity. “I’ll marry a girl of my choice but only with my parents’ approval”; “I’ll choose a career of my liking only if it’s well-paying”; “I won’t upset the status quo or choose a path which will encounter resistance from the entrenched”; “The rich cricketer who bucks the system by not paying duty for his expensive car will be my icon.” This disconnect is disturbing.
Where is the rebellion in them? When I say rebellion, I don’t mean burning buses or themselves, I don’t mean fighting in the streets or in the campuses. Rebelling is a questioning attitude, a healthy contempt of accepting things the way they are, a self-awareness generated within and not confined to what comes out of clever copy-writing of youth brands. Let alone issues of nation building, even issues affecting them fail to enthuse today’s young; a regressive minister and the IIM administration are debating on the future and funding of the IIMs, nothing from the students who are affected. In a freewheeling and chaotic democracy like ours, participation is necessary to keep it healthy. But the prevalent atmosphere is one of apathy and naivete (“All politicians are corrupt, ya?”).
Where did this process begin? When did this alienation start? Has the polity failed to create an atmosphere which gives one an opportunity to experience and participate? Have we as a country alienated ourselves from the benefits of an active young generation from its fresh perspectives, from its lack of post-Independence or socialistic baggage? Is this a symptom of a larger malaise of non-participation the whole nation suffers from? Where does this generation derive its identity? What does it mean to be an Indian? Is it the hazy, hoary past, a revivalist argument of inventing zero and Vedic mathematics that they derive their identity from? Don’t they have anything to relate to in contemporary India? The identity is ambiguous; individually, they are bright, confident lot, but they are defensive when it comes to having a national identity. They are not proud of contemporary India, in spite of the full page cover spreads. The craving for global acceptance and identification as a global citizen also seems to have made today’s youngsters embarrassed about the Indian realities seen negatively in the West.
The system has appropriated the spaces of youngsters. Take college elections, fought on partisan lines, funded and fuelled by mainstream parties. In the city I live in, considered an educational centre, we don’t see any space reflecting the students who populate it. I don’t see the kind of edginess in music, theatre or debate I see in any self-respecting campus town abroad. The highly competitive educational and career choices are definitely taking the most of the youngsters’ time and energy. The system run by geriatrics, where a 50-year old minister is considered young, is alienating them. Lack of fresh ideas and leaders to look up to is denying them the incentive to participate. The cooption of their spaces and thoughts has contributed to their apathy.
But then again isn’t this the time to be stupidly idealistic? Isn’t this the time to protest without expecting concrete results? Isn’t rebellion something that is an intrinsic part of growing up and not something you try to chalk in between gym classes and sessions of visa counseling?