Veni for long....Vidi I did!

I am a lazy fitness enthusiast. I have tried my hands at almost all that is meant to keep you in shape. Gym, yoga, running, cycling, boot-camp, Sport - couple of them . You name it.

Did I miss mentioning variety of diet gimmickry and also the swanky obesity clinic that ripped me of my money and did make me poor and miserable at the end of it? Oh! Yes.

As in surfing, you are on the ride for a few seconds but to get there you have to swim against the tide a long time, which I couldn't. As a result, I was a reluctant cyclist, average badminton player and a rigid yoga practitioner. which eventually puts you off, back into the cozy comfort of the bed. Perhaps all that a person, at the bottom perils in the fitness ladder, looking up -longing and with aspiration-  is kindness and comradeship. Dream runners and - add all the emphasis you can here - Dominic John, made me felt belong. Not only was my lack of strength or stamina NOT looked down upon but it was seen as something he expected! All that was asked of you was your commitment and the team made sure that one goes back home, better in spirits, if not for fitness - always. Within a few weeks, thanks to this contagious setup, people and process combined, I too became a dream runner, albeit a slow one. The training brought me awareness that my core, upper and lower body needs strengthening, no kidding! But, like fly attracted to fire, I stuck with the group, watching my body slowly transform from a huge obese man to an extra-sized man (still sporting an unhealthy belly). 

Make no mistake, that my run itself was uninspiring. For the books, I finished my first 10 K.M, in a record 1:25:15 (I concede, it is a personal record). I was looking at all the inspiring stories around me. A elderly couple running (and walking) holding their hands, an extra sized man trying to ignore this bulk, a bunch of kids too young to be running anything, leave along a 10 KM run, an old lady laughing sheepishly in her ultra-slow run, average men and women who ran like their life depends on the results of this performance. Not to miss those inspiring athletic runners, some barefooted and some shirtless, who ran like a whistle who not only oozed sweat, but passion and love for the sport.  I eventually picked up some pace, thanks to a cyclist volunteer who reminded me, that I am too, here for a run. 

Two men, likely to be - Partha at the entrance of the school and Dom at the end line - cheered me up! 

I dont know what the future holds -Will I become a seasoned runner? May be not - I might still be that street dog, that I am - jumping from one passion to the other. But just in the last few months, I learned that a leader need not be a bang on orator - but can even be a mild mannered and sometimes reluctant speaker. I learned that as a team, we can do so much more than what we can individually. I learned that it is possible for  us to enjoy alarm, mornings and often pain. 

I too wish to run a race, like my life is depended on that, like my size doesn't matter, like my age doesn't matter,  my pain doesnt matter and like those passionate athletes and average men/women/kid/old and maybe inspire  one another person, like those countless people did to me on Sunday, the race day!

May be, vici too will happen!

FAQ on the Fishermen's issue of TamilNadu

1) What is the issue?

The Tamilnadu fishermen, mostly from the Rameswaram town of Ramanathapuram district have been in continuous threat of being arrested or being shot at(though this has reduced significantly) by the Srilankan Navy. This has become a serious issue and heightens strains between not just two friendly neighbours but also threatens livelihoods of millions on either side of being arrested for pursuing, what is essentially their job. Let us break this down and explore why this problem happened and whats the impact, what are the solutions.

Firstly, The Srilankan Navy and the Srilankan Tamil Fisherman, have been opposing the Indian Fishermen entering their waters for two distinct reasons:

Reason 1: Pre 2009, Indian fishing boats were extensively used for smuggling essential supplies to the Srilankan Armed Tamil Rebel forces, the LTTE. Supplies for bomb making to medicine to fuels were often intercepted by both Indian and the Srilankan Navy during that period. An intelligence estimate suggested that as many as 100 Indian boats were used for this purpose during that time (out of the total 80000 odd fishing boats that are licensed in Rameswaram.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Tamil-Nadu-back-as-LTTEs-haven/articleshow/2958231.cms

Post-war, Srilankan route for smuggling narcotics has become popular and that is also another factor in the heightened vigil in the Srilankan waters (

Source: http://www.bprd.nic.in/WriteReadData/userfiles/file/201608020552270235597Report.pdf

Reason 2: The most contentious issue is the practice of bottom trawling and usage of bottom and pair trawling techniques generally by the Indian fishermen and their invasion of the water. Rameshwaram alone has an estimated 1000 trawlers that plunder the fishes, quite literally.

2) What is Trawling and what are trawlers?

Trawlers are specific kinds of boats, fixed with a pulley jacks and through ropes they can be attached with nets. They are called as "izhuvai padagugal" in Tamil.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fishing_trawler


What is bottom trawling?
Bottom trawling done by boats called trawlers, have a mechanized hydraulic pulley with endless rope with nets attached. These nets scrape through the ocean floor and there by get a huge yield of fishes that otherwise don't venture to the ocean surface.

What is pair trawling?
Take bottom trawling and attach the two ends of the net in two different boats! Now when these two boats, operate at a distance of say 100m maintaining speed, direction and distance through walkie-talkies, bottom trawling can happen for over 100 meters. The nets used for this type of fishing is called "Irattai madi" or seine nets.

Ecological impact
Needless to say, dragging techniques have a long standing impact on the oceanic environment.
The ocean surface that has rich marine lives gets scrapped out often and the food availability for fishes reduce, this leads to migration of fishes in search of food.
Since the palk-strait also has a rich coral reef structure, dragging literally kills the reefs.
Dragging invariably catches fishes of all size and shape, a fish that has a potential to grow to a foot long, can be caught when its barely a few inches. Sometimes, even the egg hatchment pods can also be destroyed because of dragging.



3) What are the rules that govern trawling?

Neither Srilanka nor India have so far banned trawling techniques. India has recently agreed to phase out bottom trawling and in Kerala, it has imposed a 61-day per year restriction on the trawling boats from venturing the seas, which the Kerala govt reduced to 47! Tamilnadu also has a two-month cooling season during the hatching season.
Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/India-promises-to-phase-out-bottom-trawling/article16980979.ece

4) What should Indian or Srilankan Navy do when they catch Fisherman?

Indian Navy are patrolling the Indian waters, typically 12 nautical miles from the land. There after it is International waters which they CANNOT prohibit the fisherman from going to. The problem arises only if the Indian fisherman go near the Srilankan coast. Typically, they are announced that they have cross-over into their sovereign waters and they have to be arrested and the boat is led to the nearest port, like Thalaimannar, Kangesanthurai and produced before a court. There is a penal and punitive damage (of upto SL Rupees 15 crores) for such cases. Till the cases end, the fishermen are kept in jail. However, most fishermen and boats are let go on diplomatic goodwill.

5) Does Indian fisherman cross Indian waters?

The distance between Dhanshkodi, the tip of the Indian land mass, and the International maritime border is 8 nautical miles. The total width of palk-strait is between 60-100 kilometers. With over 1000 trawling boats in Rameswaram itself, it would be only wise to assume that the Indian boats cross the international waters and venture into the SL waters to get their catchment. Otherwise, it would become impossible for so many trawlers to operate in that region, with any amount of success.

6) Do boats have GPS system ? What stops fisherman from having it?

Trawler boats are very expensive and it is not the cost of the gadget that is going to have a bearing on the decision to buy a GPS device. It is very much possible that the Fishermen have access to GPS and in all likelihood they can have one. Indian government also, in 2013, embarked upon an initiative to fit GPS in all the Indian boats.

source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/national/gps-devices-being-fitted-on-tamil-nadu-fishermens-boats/article4287068.ece


7)  Which district/Villagers and how many boats fish in this controversial area?

The most affected areas that are often caught crossing borders are the Nagappatinam, Karaikkal and Ramanathapuram district fishermen. An approximate of 1000 trawlers are known to be fishing in these districts alone, according to Swaminathan foundation.
http://www.mssrf.org/sites/default/files/Season-Based-Fish-Catch%20Calender.pdf


8) What is 1976 agreement?

1976 agreement is declaration by India agreeing that Srilanka will hold ownership to the Kutchatheevu island which is more closer to India than Srilanka, the Maritime border near Kutchatheevu along the Indian side reduces to 7-8 kilometers.
https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/61460.pdf

9) What's the stand of Srilankan Fishermen?
Fishing was banned in Srilanka during the war until 2009. Srilankan fishermen had in fact come to India as refugees and they are employed in India. Those that stayed back have started fishing as a career. But they use traditional boats and use traditional fishing practice (though some of them have started buying trawlers)
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/Fishing-in-troubled-waters/article14406727.ece

10) What's happening with Joint Committee Meeting?

The Srilankan stand is very simple in that they are advocating for small fishermen to fish in territorial waters on either side. Their only contention is that the Indian fishermen stop using bottom and pair trawling. The join committee has in-fact made the Indian government agree to the fact that India must ban pair and bottom trawling in a time bound manner. Srilanka wanted it to happen sooner than later and Indian fishermen wants to current setup to continue for a few more years. In-fact the bone of contention shifts to Kutchatheevu only because if it falls under India, the maritime boundary will shift in India's advantage.
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/India-promises-to-phase-out-bottom-trawling/article16980979.ece

11) What are all the solutions?

Even if Kutchatheevu is brought under the Indian government, trawling is sure to kill the scant coral reefs that are already in danger naturally due to El-nino (https://news.mongabay.com/2016/05/indias-coral-reefs-experiencing-catastrophic-bleaching-heart-wrenching-scientist-says/) and climate change. The answer lies only in sustainable fishing. Fishing be restricted to certain tonnage per centre which is less than or equal to the rate of reproduction of fishes.
Deep sea fishing is also an option- However, over-exploitation risks will always be a ticking time-bomb.
Measures to increase the coral reefs such as artificial reefs, banning shrimp fishing near coral reefs(shrimps eat algae and keeps water fresh for corals to get sunlight) etc are some measures that fishing communities can be educated in.
Sea water pond fishing is also been contemplated as a solution and governments must begin researches and trails  into moving away from hunting for fish to harvesting of fishes.

Also read the summary and recommendations of the Madurai Kamaraj University based on extensive studies done by them: http://planningcommission.nic.in/reports/sereport/ser/stdy_coral.pdf

Also refer to this elaborate study on the way forward:
http://carnegieindia.org/2016/09/09/india-sri-lanka-fisheries-dispute-creating-win-win-in-palk-bay-pub-64538

Cauvery Dispute and a looming crisis of states - A statistical take

Cauvery has been a bone of contention for not the states of Karnataka and TamilNadu but also been a playful jibe between myself and my folks-in-law, for the love of their mother-state. So any argument Ive had on Cauvery was to be reasoned and cautious as taking blind side for my state could hurt someone who otherwise thinks differently. For long enough, I told them the story told here and understood the stories being told there and have commonly lamented the lack of quantifiable action on changing climate by any govt, including the current bunch ( Discussions on that are gems to be preserved for later :)) Now, that has always lead me to reach out to the neutral source and figure out if the Kannadigas are the nambiars that we are made to believe or if the Tamils were the blood-sucking leeches as we have been portrayed.

Where people and press failed to provide sanity, science and maths live. And over there one can live at peace.

Rainfall-Water and Semantics
While it is not anyone's claim that the rainfall in SW monsoon is deficit, a mere look at statistics say that the shortfall is in the tune of 30%. Look at the storage of 4, 5, 6, 7. The statuses of dams across Cauvery in Karnataka.

While it is seen apparent that the water levels are 30% shorter than capacity. Turn around to Geography - Kabini is in Mysore district and KRS in Mandya!  Now, look at the average rainfall these catchment districts - include Kodugu as well get in September, October.

So, monsoon is still not over and we might have to wait until we see the end of it to state if the rainfall falls short by <30 50="" across="" all="" and="" as="" claimed="" leading="" or="" p="" panic="" protests="" to="" violent="">Look carefully at the last column that says Cumulative Rainfall for the season. It doesnt look that bad! Actually, the rainfall for the season less than normal and as the picture above states. The monsoon is far from over today.

Now, this doesnt satisfy me! I am looking for rainfall forecasts by IMD. What do they say for Karnataka for September and October?
What does IMD say

Now, that still doesnt satisfy me!
What happened last year? Well, there is an average of 10% more rainfall than normal in the three districts of Kodugu, Mysore and Mandya!

Whats really happening is an panic attempt to save all the water - despite the amount of rain predicted post-monsoon well into January and label it as drinking water crisis within Karnataka. 

What is also obvious is that the Kodugu hill district, the real catchment area for Cauvery water is now getting lesser and lesser rainfall over the years, triggering these sets of panic waves and a closer look needs to be given to see the reason for the poor monsoon in the district!

Indian Warming-Clearly Globalization hasnt worked here!

It is indeed time to call it Indian Warming for some of our patriotic idiots to seethe to the reality of the planet's climate change, which the scientific community, including the Indian ones, have attributed to human intervention. A lot of Indians, general public,uninformed media, educated elite and the policy making bureaucrats have come across as completely unaware of the effects of Climate change in India and continue to treat it as a global phenomenon not affecting our policies and decisions in life.

As an old-time blogger and a human-race sympathiser, I have only one medium to vent out my feelings. I blog. 

Global warming is not something that has to be explained to, but the effects of the Greenhouse gases that will be emitted when mined-hydrocarbons are burned, are known and perhaps is a simple 2-mark question for even the 10th standard student who wrote his SSLC this year. Being a developing country, India, says it cant afford to take the competitive disadvantage of not burning Hydro-carbons as India, as a nation, needs to develop too. The Chinese say the same thing and therefore there is no question of the countries with about 50% global population of the world today, continues to say, "We don't care!" 

A closer look at the statement from an Indian context is what I am planning to do here. I hope this will make help some people who are upbeat and enthused about India's multi-crore coal auction, easing of forest norms, construction of new ports, new tourist destination or even a new shopping complex understand that there are adverse climatic impact due to each and every action. 

"Behold! These are costs that we have to pay for our development!"

Unfortunately, mother earth can not treat her cancer, that she already has, by letting our nation alone cancer her further. So in the interests of the territorial integrity of India and the survival of its diverse nature, I try to answer a few developmental questions myself. 

"Acche din for everyone! Har har growth! Ghar ghar Development"

On the face of it, everyone wants to be prosperous and therefore creating a decent paying in a rural sub-urb, promising some 1000s of youth jobs in the country will go a long way in achieving that goal.

So the government says we want to build factories, using the fertile/forest lands, using semi-skilled labour-force, mass-manufacturing goods to supply  all over the world. 

"So this isn't helping India with the goods we built mostly, is it?"

Factories running on Urban infrastructure like good rail connectivity, road connectivity, plenty of clean water, skilled manpower are expected to open-up in a Rural neighbourhood that is neither connected nor have the skills. So, in the hype to get more factories open up in Rural India, our government is focusing on converting the sub-sub-urban villages that will anyway fall under the realm of development because of its proximity to the cities, sooner or later. How many private factories have cropped up in the interiors of Bihar or on the peripherals of  Tamilnadu or even on the coastlines of Orissa. 

"Don't be a fool! Where are the basic infrastructures in the places where you say!"

This presents a blend of unique sociological, ecological and not the least economical issues along with it. A semi-skilled labour will not be even able to afford the kind of life he was used to in the countryside. So, he is basically chasing money, in search of a life style that matches his pre-industrial lifestyle. Talk about progress!

"This is so 18th Century!" 

Industrial revolution did revolutionize. It did bring in research and innovation based economy from a paternal family trait follower. But, but, but, hasn't the world moved on from Industrial revolution to computing revolution to dot com revolution to Life-Technology revolution. Sticking to Industrial revolution ONLY and assuming that India is already there in other ones is just naive. Indian development story has to revolve around our needs rather than telling that world that we will make your nuts and bolts. We are no third-world citizens and the government's and by extension people who support it are inclined to believe so!

Where is the raw material coming from?

Just for example, we are going to be a Nuts and bolts exporter for the world. We take out all the resources for the making of nuts and bolts, basically cast iron, from India and export them around the world without putting them to use in our country's actual demand for production of defence, agricultural and constructional needs of the future. Note: I am not fully against mining, for we wouldn't be here without mining. There is a need for conserving scarce natural resource in our country and world isn't ending anytime soon.

"What does this have to do with warming?"

Rampant industrialization to the extent of extreme shortsighted development is dwindling our existing forest cover and depleting the green trap we have been naturally gifted for trapping CO2. Forests and green areas are being considered, as a mindset, as something that we have absolute control to and  anything can be done to it. There is going to be terrorists and greediest, but many "you and me"'s now consider forest destruction is the way to go about. Take for example the coal auction: We just auctioned coal for 1,80,000,000,00,00 rupees! What we would do is, mine coal more than we need, burning more greenhouse gas than ever before and export coal to some other nation on the earth who will burn the coal releasing more Co2. Do we want to do that?

Government needs more energy. Clearly, coal is not the fuel of the future. Do we have alternate fuels that will cater to India? Hell yes! Do we have government conviction? Our PM did demonstrate his willingness to explore alternate energy sources like the sun and wind. 

Very hot summers, unseasonal rainfalls, Prolonged drought spells and raising sea-levels should cause huge panic in us. But somehow, our national focus always seems to be compensation for land, loss and lost time on Make in India. 

There are some basic questions here:

1) Why are we trying to move people out of agriculture into semi-skilled to unskilled labour work in factories, where they have poorer living standards, unable to embrace modern technology and no appreciable job guarantee.

2) Why do we have to mine ever so faster and export ever too sooner to a foreign nation when we need those resources for our needs, tomorrow or the day-after.

3) Why ruin the environment when neither our nation is improving nor its citizens are benefiting out of it.

Are you an economics professor or a climate scientist?

Neither am I an economics professor to enunciate the short comings of the industrial policies, its impact nor am I a climate scientist to profess knowledge on global warming caused by mankind. But I call myself human enthusiast. I wish this breed of animal survive its test of time and don't destroy its fellow being due to its own internal greed.

Do we have scope for young Indians to join the mainstream of development from the confines of their villages, wherein we have spent a great amount of fortune to get basic development into them.

It does have a lot of potential solutions. Like making farming as a service or FAAS, co-operative farming, like investment into existing grid power storage like re-pumping water back to the Hydro power plant, exploring the tidal energy and investing heavily on Research on renewable energy areas. 

"Have patience, right time will have to come for all this! After all, Rome was not built in a day"

All I am asking of the "everyday you and me" is this. Understand that we need tomorrow. Our kids need a good nation to live. See how nations struggle to preserve their lakes, rivers, forests and mountains. Respect the nature and plan your development around it not against it. Use technologies to build clean energy, factories and houses. Plant trees. Billion of them. Water them and save them. 

Don't eat elephants land, tigers land, Boar's land or a farmer's land. Don't rob river of sand, give her water for she will give sand. I don't want to get preachy but you get the point.

"Earth doesn't not need you to save her. She is fine without you and me. We just need to save ourselves to sustain"

Smile: Over and out

I have gone so old that these days when I sit down to write something, all I think of is me!

See, another self appraisal!

This blog and its very purpose of keeping the smile remains abused so long as I do this.

Life and its rigors are going to change me into a more self oriented person rather than having me think and care about putting smiles in others face.

Yes. True.

As a 21 year old, I had resorted to blogging and at 26 I am probably too old for rambling in blog.

I see it now as a waste of server space!

So, smile will also be added to my list of exits such as facebook, twitter et el.

See you all when I see you!

Rgds,

Balaji

Re-commencing !

Hello world! Howdy?

Its been long since I was here! Not only because, I am busy, priorities changed and all such non-senses., but because of the fact that I get too bored to be here, alone. Having said that, not being here gives me absolutely nothing to do apart from commenting on a couple of active friends's status messages in Facebook! So I decided, WTH, to kill sometime of ours(its mostly mine.,But if you are reading this, you deserve to be mentioned) by writing again!

"I commence "Smile"open. Enjoy yourselves!!!"

So lets make it official folks! The magnetic smile is back live! Just like Lalit Modi commences the IPL open, we also announce the smile open for the global fraternity. I am sure you would thoroughly enjoy this riveting, out-of-the-world, fantasy experience again!

No, I don't ask a garland of currencies just as Behan Maya loves these days! We are a non-profitable entity and are very proud of that fact. That renders us to be un-biased in our views and criticism, making us just one of its kind! I know that you've split hairs wondering who the "we" are. Long story! I have decided to take in an array of mosquitoes into the "smile" team. They used to be an irritating neighbour peeping into your affairs without being invited..but over a period of time, I realized that they were laughing into my ears when I write or say something funny and were not trying to put me off! Since, the recession is almost over and I was looking to expand the shop, I offered them job in the "smile" creative team and they are now on-board.

So with all those brick bats that I get, you need to now get those electrocuting deadly-tennis rackets to keep "smile" in check! Smile isnt stopping until it receives a "Nobel" prize for literature or medicine depending on how the NOBEL committee views our efforts on the empowerment of humanity!

More later!

Smiles,

Balaji

What an idea sir ji?

Recently a subject close to my heart was opened up. The partition of India in 1947.
Unlikely of unlikely Mr. Jaswant Singh wrote a book on it. Two days later before the weekend came up so that I can check out the book price the party BJP fired him from party membership and then was reasoned that it was against the idealogies of the party!

I beg your pardon, what? Idealogy?
A great man called Issac Newton designed certain theory that said light was nothing but wave. There is nothing in it. An idealogy sure and definitive truth perhaps not said another man. Holy hell, how do you disagree to Newton? He should be either nuts or he should have been Albert Einstein to say light has something in it. It carries its weight with it!

Oh! yes! Add another factor to it. India! Look at these compilation.

In 17th century an idealogy was followed where a women might have to be burned alive with her husband! Individual birth place was a more relevent bench mark for his future livelihood. Wearning shirts and blouses were an idealogical issue and some vetoed against foreign products being sold in the country as opposed to the home made product!

Werent these idealogies debated and removed and deemed irrelevent in the greater context with time?

Now the Issue of Mr. Jaswant Singh. It doesnt bother me a dime whether he stays or quits BJP. What matters more to me is Indian context to it. 62 years after it was all over, today a first alternate political view of the partition of the country is being putforth and it is seen as anti-something.

I dont know what thing but surely it isnt anti-national as Mr. Singh would have now been behind bars if it was so. There might be other anti-s to it that are political and thats not our terittory!
Lets discuss that idealogical question raised!

Its 2009 and the decision makers of 1947 have definitely left a lot to be desired in today's context. Yes! It does in hindsight doesnt it?
This is more about whether the centralized governance for the nation (the current setup of India) or a federal republic system (as in the US and other nations)was required at that time or not? That was the idealogical difference that led to partition.

The debate was concluded by the wise men, however rather controversially and painfully the argument lingers on! Therefore the decision taken based on the idealogy wasn't so correct. As we can see it. Or else how could you justify a partition when over 1 million people were killed. Talk of holocaust which happened for about 15 years; the partition riots happened over just 60 days!!

I can see the cries and protests of the farmers in this country for building industries over their agricultural land. Thinking of 1947.

On the other hand, the federal system might have been a big failure . It would have lead to internal wars and greater chaos; Just like the Soviet Union. Or may be, you know, just may be, India could have succeeded as a Federal republic rather a democratic nation. The centralized system could have created a peaceful province of the islamist population and there wouldnt have been fightings and bomb blasts every few months in the country.

Ideas make up a society. Accepted ideas and alternate ideas make up the crux of the society! Ideas emerge, merge and change. They contradict, contest and culminate. It reappear, reinvent or totally reverse based on parameters. It drives a society and gets driven by it. Sticking to an idea? ignores reasoning, belittles intelligence stamps out necessity to reinvent.
If a progressive nation like ours, have a political agenda of NOT to reinvent and not letting to challenge the unchallengable, then the question is not
"Where are we going" it is " Why did we stay back?"

P.S : Oh well, concluding on idealogies, the RSS's idea of the Akand Bharat is one that should have been eradicated with Sati. Wonder why it is still getting mentioned every full moon day?

P.P.S: These ideas of mine got posted in the Hindu newspaper!!!

P.P.P.S: I am reading the book by Mr. Jaswant Singh whose review will be posted very very shortly!

---
Bala

Taught me to care
Taught me to dare

Without you I would have been no where!

Made me happy
Made me Sad

Without you I am a nomad!

You are old
You are young

Is it why you are always there?

You are rich
You are a slumdog

But why didnt I ever feel like an underdog?

You are straight! You are Might!
You never succumb to any ROYAL plight!

You are Pride
You kindle Passion
You are the one that matter!

We salute we pray..
Humbled to wish you Independence day!

A subject, subjected to subjective subject!

Eons ago, I blogged in this very blog that writing and coming up with writeups that qualify itself as a post qualified to a post is the most daunting and challenging task I face every now and again!

It can be painfully boring to think of a subject which interests and eventually gets posted. The number of drafted but to be posted blog entries in my Dashboard certifies that!

But, I have to admit the blogging has to the single biggest thing in my life that kept me bonded for about 4 years! My college, err, comes closer, but a lot of other things (compulsion, to name one) kept me going at that!

Facebook, Orkut, Twitter, LinkedIn, uff, has indeed solved a lot of blogging needs, with the holy one liners pretty much summing up what am upto! Buttt, somehow, I feel they are unidimensional and there are some thoughts, war cry and heart cries, posts like this, that may go unnoticed!

I hang on to blogs, with the tip of my finger nail, nevertheless, hanging on.

Smiles from,
Balaji

MJ

A blog post, post MJ!

MJ...For all we have done! Just RIP!
We always love you!!

The most intelligent Indian..."the common man!"

Hey the election games are over! It finally ascertained the claims by a lot scientific researches that given a particular situation, humans react in a particular way!

I couldnt rationalise and reason the fact that 1 billion people think alike or in similar lines?
How do people vote? Is there a pattern to it? What is that they do?

• Do they listen to the poll campaign?
• Do they look at their problems vis-a-vis the expectation from the government?
• Or do they vote based on which of the candidate is most probably going to favor him/her? (caste/money/religion/region..you name it)
  
• Do they just follow the gut feel?
  

This is not a simple equation, as to me everything had it share of influence! But still coming up with one verdict fascinates! When you see the right thing being done, you feel happy. When you know, you did it, your neighbour did it, your family did it, your city did it, you feel proud. I am that proud!

Apart from being non-partisanic, one has to be political. I am political and I wish for an India where there is clarity of thought, purpose and action in people and our chosen leaders.
Some of our leaders lack thought, some purpose and many action. Last evening a host of "leaders" that India was ashamed to have, were embarassed! Yes! I was happy to see these "leaders" humbled.

With this India has not only demonstrated that the excuses such as being a complex country, democratic agenda, secular vision etc are dispelled off hand. But also by simply not giving the world to have a laugh over the auction of Indian democracy. I am happy that the voter has kept some of the forces of jingoism and hoonglism where they deserved to be.

I am not a victorious party man before you guys fire me. In my opinion te opposition camp lacked clarity in thought(their core issues) and action( supporting the acts of Jingoism, to a major extent). Congratulate anyone for whom you can still see the black dot in the middle finger/pointing finger for he, the great Indian common man, had emerged as the real hero over the last two days!
Elections continue to fascinate me!

இனியேனும் வருமா விடிவு?

அமைதி கேட்கிறோம்!
என் தமிழ் சகோதரர்கள் வாழ!
சுதந்திரம் கேட்கிறோம்!
அவர்கள் தலைநிமிர்ந்து நடக்க!
பேச வார்த்தைகள் எங்களிடமும் இல்லை!
கேட்க செவிகள் உங்களுக்கும் இல்லை!
தலைவர்கள் வந்தார்கள்; தலைவர்கள் சென்றார்கள்.
தெளியவில்லை சித்தம்! தெரித்ததோ ரத்தம்!
மீண்டும் இதோ ஒரு பாதை! ரத்தம் உறைந்த தேசத்தில் பூக்கள் உதிக்க!
சித்தம் தெளிந்து உலகில் சாந்தி தழைக்க
மீண்டும்
அமைதி கேட்கிறோம்!
என் தமிழ் சகோதரர்கள் வாழ!
உலகம் கண்டெடுத்த பேரழிவு ஆயுதங்கள் அனைத்தும்
சோதிக்க பட்டுவிட்ட நிலையில்!
மீண்டும்
அமைதி கேட்கிறோம்!
என் தமிழ் சகோதரர்கள் வாழ!

Political? Read this!

Elections? Whatz that bro?

In this maddening world, there cant be many more mad things as elections in India. Sure there are the guiness books, but that restrict itself to individual madness and you cant think of a collective madness as the elections in India.

For any sane person of this country, leaving these bunch of nonsense makers who self proclaim themselves as leaders of the nation and to believe that they are the future is not only depressing but horribly frightening!

These are days of political actions where the already out-of-the-mind media yell so loud that you can hear them with TV switched off!!

So my bits on the politics that I understood or I failed to understand!!!

Why Fight elections dear?

Some strong ones first. I have been taught that India is a country of many religions and all living in harmony and enjoy harmony. But, a minimal understanding on politics would tell you that well you have not been given a fact in schools but you have been merely thrown someones's wish!

Unity in diversity is a hogwash statement, that is atbest used where even diplomacy fails!

People of this country want good food, clean water, proper shelter, neater roads, electricity, transportation for which mostly they are dependent on the government, or we were made to believe, it looks like even your jumping the traffic lights are even synonymous to who is in power during that day!

With this premise, an election looks big and a fate decider for an average Indian.Thankfully thats not to be. An average Indian, willing to shell some bucks when in trouble isnt in any kind of issues. 

Whos fightin?

BJP, a party from the days my memories goes back, been a party which kindled the emotions of lots of hindus,p when not warranted that has led to polarization of the country. Frankly speaking other than countering islamist terrorism and tackling congress, they dont have anything fancy. 

Then there, you have Congress, except for Manmohan Singh and AK Anthony you dont have uncorrupt ministers and except Soniya Gandhi who is a decent leader and just that. They were responsible for anti sikh riots is a legend in whole of Delhi! Well being non communal is their claim but dalit, muslims, moderate hindus are their vote banks(????). Talk of anomoly!!!

Its fair to conclude this big blog with stating India is indeed hopeless given the facts.

But wait in a puppet race that Indian democracy is, we have another fictious group called the third front! These are strange set of individuals who could neither accept of the two and nor have an agenda for themselves. 

So,

Simply put, if the BJP are the republicans, the Congress are the democrats in the Indian elections. But,let alone having an OBAMA, I dont even find a George W Bush Jr here.!!

Elections time and again serves as another testimony for an inefficiency to deliver what it taught you, even the basic ones. I just wonder how much it actually worth, even worrying about?

Just my 2 cents guys!!

Happy voting...doesnt matter if u aint votin! wont make a freakin difference!

Wry Smiles, 

Balaji

New life @ New Delhi

Folks,

I am back in India and that means the Internet restriction policy by the companies start. You dont check your personal mail, you dont access social networking sites and the word download is already out of your dictionary. 

Adding to these woes is the traffic and timings of office you seldom get time to visit the blogosphere and no wonder all my heavy traffic months were when I was outside the country.

Its been a pretty hectic one month after I came back and some might know that. I was moved or rather dumped into a train to New Delhi from Chennai and was asked to work here for a period of anywhere between 4>5 months. 

Unfortunately, a week after I came here, my father had to undergo urgent hospitalisation and subsequent medical procedure before getting discharged and adviced rest and recuperating well.

I am back in Delhi again, now that I have to finish the call of duty that moved me to Noida in the first place. 

Its election time and I have to look at ways now to register myself and vote. But travelling twice from Delhi to Chennai and spending so much money, might not be worth it. Afterall, a parlimentary election vote is not that costly!

Kind regards,

Bala

Harvard Blog!

I hit a Harvard university blog

http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/radjou/2008/11/wanted-entrepreneurs-who-can-i.html#comments

My humble opinion here. (Cant post in Harvard blogs for obvious reasons :))

Issues for students in India in choosing their career, these are not in the order of their mention, but in the order that I feel is impacts!

• Lack of financial returns
• Lack of funds
• Lack of governmental support
• Lack of guidance
• Lack of proper training
• Lack of Infrastructure
• Lack of communication channels
• Lack of vision
• Lack of nurturing of vision
• Lack of resources
• Lack of confidence
• Lack of motivation to pursue the dream
• Lack of corporate/professional exposure
• Lack of exposure
• Rigid bureacracy
• Corruption
• Lack of proper labour force
• Lack of honesty/ cheat involved in start ups
• Sustainability
• Lack of committed partnership

There are some initiatives on in the country to address some of the specifics here. But the broader look at the list demands for the idea of India itself to change. . There is a greater need to revamp the Q & A columns in the newspapers.

Japan days!

It was moderately cold when I came here and winter is getting to its peak here!

They say it might snow in a few days time from now....and i have all the indications that it would :)

Lets face it, cmon just snow right...!

War

Am I the only person or are there people in India who thinks that India and especially its media has gone mad? Daily I watch this CNN-IBN and thankfully dont buy it completely. I tried to base some of my opinions in line with the masses, but more than taking opinions I find myself arguing in the middle of the night (alone, thanks to the time difference with Japan) with the media pundits!
Having said that, I can imagine what is being played in NDTV and Times NOW. Cmon this is about war right? A war of survival in the commercial India where if you dont give a sensational story for a guy who comes back at 8 PM after a tired day's work at office, braving the terror threats that are omnipresent, feared by the recession and his job, whose wife is most probably looking out for oppurtunities again to start working, thanks to the inflaaaaaaaaaaaaaation, he will definitely switch off the Tele and think again at his own worries or worse switch on the all india radio for some old hindi songs. You cant let him be careless. Can you?

He should be worried about the war now! But this war is already on. The war of inequality, the war of injustice, the war of languages, the war of cultures and the war of stubborness. He who has no time to think about why his roads are so bad, why the drain is full and overflowing again, why the bus cant hold only the 40-odd people it can hold and not the 150 others who "hang around!", he who wears a helmet and pained to see another one flaunting it on his petrol tank.

My man has no time to think why he was abused so unhumanly when all he did was to stop his bike when the yellow light went ON. If these social problems arent enough, he has to deal with the economic problems, a collegue has been asked to leave and a friend who doesnt know when his company will collapse. His boss has happily announced that your job is safe, except take a 10% salary cut.
My man, who is tired by a midday call from the credit card company reminding him of his bills and his agents mail about his policy due date. A common man, fighting thousands of war in a course of day only finds himself in a war against survival. I dont know cartoons. But if R.K.Laxman can still do it or any one half as good, please convey to the war hungry media houses in India that we are already in war. A war which was waged on him, when he did nothing wrong and he can only fight. A war where everyone runs after his hard earned money, he has to be cunning. Ruthless and insensitive even to the poor.
After so many wars, he has lost the hope of the government for he sees them as one collecting taxes from him and pay its employees, nothing else. For the leaders, for all they bother is that you dont turn up to vote, I will take care of it. To him, "I" and "My" are the most important terms in the world.
Because my man, now has to feel that he is a part of the society. He has to live a pseudo life. He texts the tele guys, to kill all the pakistanis, vents his anger for the day, sleeps in peace that night to fight another war the next day! For the tele guys who he knows are working late, but waging the same war, the war against the race of time.

Disease prevention!

I dont know what to do!

I am staying away from India for the time being and have this luxury of living life without breaking news of the Indian news media. Believe me, I am living a very peaceful life here. The Indian in me sometimes asks me to look at what is happening in your country! Well, nothing special. They have now found out a "Hindu" terrorist organization or whatever. But, as I said, the luxury of living in Japan made me realize that news is no more news here. I felt like watching a crime movie everyday!
Here are the news that had the prievilage of the Media
Encounter of a Bihari job seeker in a Mumbai
A Sadhu and a Guruji are arrested in connection for planting bombs
India won Australia to retain the Border-Gavaskar trophy
Among other more important news that reached me was more regional, Dr. Ambedkar Law college students in Chennai had a bloody (literally) fight among themselves and the state of Tamil nadu has been put on high alert!
I dont know if this is correct or wrong, but somewhere in our total news coverage the media and the news savvy citizens like me, We have gone more and more negative. When the stock market crashed on a monday. I am now prepared to tune in to a headlines stating that "Blood bath in Dalal street" or something to that effect. When a Language fundamentalist, ask Mumbai to respect Mumbai's culture, the whole of Media is ready to bash out with something like "Raj Thackrey lashes out at the Biharis, declares Chat pooja illegal!" And in cricket (I ve been writing too much of it off late!!) this funny line, "India outses Australia 2-0, Are they the new world no.1?) blah blah blah...

The world is not safer, with terrorists striking, fundamentalists attacking, finances galloping and life getting harder by minute as a result of this. But what good is this? Worse we have got some bad people out there! We have had the Hitlers and the Idi Amins in this world. Can some young college students have the same threat to us. They normally shouldnt. But they are, because of the protrayal in our great news media that more than fifty % of the commuters feel that commutation is a threat!

I wouldnt for a bit deny that terrorism or anything of that sort needs to be under estimated or taken less seriously. But, where are the positive signals to combat terrorism? I was in Singapore which woke up to Mumbai Train bombing they continuously play video on how to counter terrorism to the commuters. But bomb blast after bomb blast we have been told that how a man of twenty something place a bag in the garbage bin and walked away into thin air..we have no clue, though densely populated!

Give me solution guys, for I dont have one! Give this to your friends if you feel the issue is worth it! Let us all come up with a responsible way of working for the media and be more careful in handling issues such as terrorism and give a person, however big a celebrity he is, some personal space...Till the time we would have a solution implemented, we will keep this thread alive

Start now!

Sovrav Ganguly....A true satyagrahi!

Yesterday, the 2nd of the October 2008, was full of two stories, the 139th Birth anniversary of Gandhiji and the umteenth comeback of Sourav Ganguly. The news media, though did not bring in a correlation, I think, it is perfectly justified to compare the likes of Gandhiji's satyagraha with Ganguly's "Fight for No.5". They both have failed, withdrawn from the war, hounded by the masses(read media) yet emerged victorious. Gandhi was though fortunate enough to get the support of a lot of people, all the supporters of Ganguly dont have their voice reach a lot of people.

Sourav, we must accept is not a good test player. Not one to be seen with the likes of Brain Lara or Sachin Tendulkar. But hey, he is still a fine player like Shiv Chanderpaul, Inzi-ul-haq or even Matt Hayden. While, Chanderpaul remains the best in the Windies till date, Inzi left Pak, taking that great skill of batting baton, without passing it to anyone. Ganguly, however didnt have such a good luck. He was always compared with two of the greats the game has ever seen, Sachin and Dravid. It is no wonder that he is third on that list, if there be a comparison. So, why is dada victimized? I don't see a cricketing logic behind this, but a lot of marketing factor.

Think about this,

Sachin, he is our icon, legend, the no-nonsense, no-controversy, the god of medern cricket in India, he can sell, Colas to Biscuits to Insurance to you.

Selling point: Best and greatest

Rahul, awefully out of form in the past year(except the last few innings), but he is still the great wall of India, anyone calling for his head will always be a idiot in cricket, rightly so.

Selling point: Reliable and gritty

Kumble, he is not as great as Shane warne or as cunning as Muralitharan, but yet he is a fighter, remember his straped on bowling in Windies to get Lara out? Or the 10 for in the Delhi tests?

Or even the hero cup batting with Srinath while his mother and Grandma watched with the same intensity as we all? Or the no non-sense press statements, ever since he took the captaincy?

Selling point: Fighter, symbol of respect

Well, that where we are left out with two of the nicer players of our time, not the greats though, Sourav and Very Very Special Laxman. Ganguly would be remembered as the best indian captain, One who can give it back to the opposition and who lead India through to the finals of a World cup, never his game. Even his "god of the offside" title were not his selling point contrast to Laxman, for whom "I-get-my-tail-up-when-i-see-the-baggy-green" has been his sole selling point.

So, now when Ganguly is no more the captain, he is no more seen as a leader. He was made a captain when Azhar outsted, Tendulkar refused and Kumble wasnt a one day specialist at a very earlier. right from the early 2000-01 we knew dada as a leader, it didnt matter if he didnt hit those runs, his team selection, bowling changes were spot on. So when he was sacked of the captaincy, there is no selling point. The dada factor wont sell. He might still hit those occasional gems and still contribute as always. But the fact is simple. However, hard they try, dada will still be considered one of Indian crickets greatest leaders unless Dhoni's mavericks perform consistently;even in the finals.

So, the next time, you see some channel calling for his blood, its not their outright cricketing sense. Its just that he is no more a marketing material. Rest all are plain rubbish.

After posting this blog, Dada announces his retirement succumbing to the rubbishes, but to me he walks away with his head held high!

So Long and so less

I dont know whether the world of blogging has seen its high already or not. I used to get a lot of blog updated(!) messages and some fantastic blogs via email. Oflate, I stopped receiving anything remotely related to blogs. The world today is not similar with the one that I stopped blogging. The world today is full of negativeness. Filled with terrorism. Masked with trustlessness. There is a very serious need for people, I mean you and me to understand each other better.
I write this blog sitting in the sixth floor of an air-conditioned office in the heart of Chennai and I know many people who have the access to this blog, need not even know that there is a place named Chennai! That beauty, amazes me! This medium offers an excellent platform to lay things simple and plain before this world. Therefore, I dedicate this post to the agents of positiveness in the world.
What is the need for me, suddenly, to start worrying about the world, all of a sudden? Has it got anything to do with me sitting jobless after a long long time(!!!). Of course it does. But what worries me most is that though I have thought over countless time to convince myself that there will be an end to it. The drama is getting more serious and the end might perhaps be a prologue to a whole new other drama. The terrorism threats me. Yes it is bound to. Thats why some 20 young graduates planted bombs all over the country, killing about 200 people in the process.
But what threats me more is the flavor of religion, that adds to any thing and everything that I see.
This flavor in the terrorism, in the vandalizing of churches, in the money-to-convert scandals topped with global temperatures increase of the same, panics me. Humanity needs a leader.
For all the gods who have successfully failed in saving the world from this misery. I doubt, even a man for all of what he is, would be able to do it.
And, that is what threats me the most!

this post might not bring smiles on the face, but I hope in some years, I would like to read it and laugh at it as an unnecessary panic (Definitely not Nostradanamically!!)