Fall seven standup eight

Karl Marx's relevance - Part 2, Class

2019-11-10T03:59:00.002-08:00

In this article, I will write about some core concepts Marx identified. Class and Class Consciousness

What is a Class?
According to Marx, all the people who share the same relationship with the current mode of production are in the same class. The land, capital and machinery owning class are the bourgeoisie and the skill, tool owning class is proletariat. There is also a second dimension to class: Consciousness. Unless they realize their commonness, the fact that they belong to one side of the game and develop a mutual solidarity, they cannot become a class. They need to have the consciousness of the class, the realization about their relationship with the means of production and the need to wok together. The current day unions are all examples of class consciousness driven unity.

What is the importance of class consciousness?
Unless there is consciousness or the same feeling of victim-hood in the proletariat, the dominant class or the bourgeoisie will continue to exploit the proletariat. Unless they are conscious of the common suffering, they will get played one against the other.

What role does class play int he society?
Marx says, the entire evolution depends on which class you are born into. Your economic class determines your social class. If you are in the Bourgeois, you will have an upbringing, mental outlook and conditioning that will justify somethings. If you are born in a proletariat family, your morals, values and norms, education, ethics, religion and everything that determines your thought is controlled by your social setting.

For example, being a proletariat, you are all taught to respect elders and authority. Your religion teaches fearing god and doing the right things and conforming to a way of life. The society will shame and brand as deviants who do not subscribe. The whole societal structure around you ensures that you serve and don't defy.

If you belong to the bourgeois, you determine the mores of the society through cultural hegemony. You set trends, consume conspicuously, create envy and condition aspiration.

As you can see, these were strong ideas. Lets see if they resonate in today's world in the next article.

Karl Marx's relevance - Part 1, Dialectic Materialism

2019-11-10T02:57:00.000-08:00

Long long ago, there lived a legend who vociferously argued against capitalism, exploitation and rent seeking behavior. He was instrumental in a path breaking thought called Communism. For some days I have been wondering if the old man is right after all. For the benefit of some of my friends who are not too aware of his ideas, I want to break the article into Three parts. In the first two articles, I wish to explain in what is Marx ideology. In the third part, we can talk about his relevance.

Marx stated that there are only two classes of people. An individual's relationship with the means of production will determine which side of the game he belongs to. By means of production we refer to are land, capital, machinery, tools, skill and expertise and human effort. So, if own Land/ Capital/ Machinery, you belong to ownership class or capital class or bourgeoisie. Else, if you own only Tools/Skills or Labor, you belong to the working class or the proletariat. In a given mode of production - there are 3 modes so far, the bourgeoisie will exploit the proletariat to maximize production capacity till it is no longer possible to increase further. Once the threshold limit is reached, the mode of production changes and the dominant class changes the rules of the game in their favor. He calls this the theory of Dialectic materialism and quotes history as an testament to it.

Historically, Marx says world history is the history of modes of production. That is, how people produced goods for consumption. In mode one, man was nomadic and primitive and did not have a lot of sophisticated tools and machinery to produce. So he produced little by hunting and gathering.
The dominant class were the most skilled at organizing and commandeering the hunt. The prize was the animal hunted and they appropriated maximum because of their superior skills. They distributed as little as possible to keep the herd motivated to participate in the hunt. Nothing more.

Gradually he settled down and started to produce more.The dominant people appropriated land and made others work on them as slaves. he no longer needed the cooperation of the individuals, just their labor. So they switched to master slave mode. The master fed the slave and his family in return for their work on the fields. He exploited the slave and his family to increase the output. When it is no longer possible to increase the output, improvements in farm implements and tools took place. Since the slave had no incentive to efficiently to use these tools and increase production, he became indifferent to these developments and the master realized that he had to change the mode to produce more. Then came the feudal lord and the serf concept, the second mode.

In mode two, the serf paid rent to the lord for working his fields and any surplus after paying the agreed rent was his. So the serf is motivated to produce as much as possible in the hope that anything remaining is his. The feudal lord pushed the serfs to pay exorbitant rents till the point where the serf could pay no more without compromising on his sustenance. At the same time industrialization started and the relationship with respect to land vanished. The bourgeoisie owned capital and set up industries.Others would sell their labour and earn livelihood. Once industrialization began, the rent paying mode with serf was no longer profitable. He just needs workers to work his machines. Then came the third mode of production where Marx said the capitalist exploited the workers by paying low wages and extracted maximum work till their human energies permitted.

These are three modes of production as defined by Marx. I will describe more on Class and Class solidarity in another essay.

Google personal assistant can make calls

2018-05-11T02:20:00.000-07:00

I saw this presentation by Sundaram Pichai yesterday about how your personal assistant can make a call to the hair saloon and book an appointment for you.
I felt it did a decent job. But what was not shown to us probably is how it can manipulate the person at the other end.
Imagine the possibilities. Some humans have a way with words and talking. They open more doors and have a better success rate with managing relationships. What if we hire a digital assistant with those smarts? How will the person at the other end feel if he is out talked by a digital assistant?

What is the effect of more people having such assistants?

What is the effect on those people like you and me who make a living doing some ordinary jobs?

Independent, Republic and Sovereign India

2016-12-29T04:56:00.000-08:00

From what I understood from this article, it tries to convey the idea that India was under British rule till 1950. I disagree. I want to highlight a couple of things about independence. The Brits left India and India was free to pursue her own path after August 15, 1947. Neither was she under any obligation to agree to the British foreign policy nor was she was under English command. We were the masters of our destiny. Yes, it was a part of commonwealth of nations which we still are. Commonwealth does not mean control. It's a group. Like NATO, SAARC, its a group of nations formerly under Colonial Britain. Let me define the difference between independent, sovereign and republic nations. An independent country pursues its own course without any obligations, forced or otherwise. A sovereign country is one which has a defined boundary, a permanent population and a central authority that will govern it. A republic is an sovereign, independent nation governed by the rules it frames for itself. So the pre-requisite to become a republic is having a set of rules by which it governs itself. After being sovereign independent country, India elected a constituent assembly to create a formal constitution. The constituent assembly took time and produced one of the most comprehensive written constitutions that the world has ever seen. Then, independent sovereign India gave onto itself this constitution and declared itself a republic. If you read the preamble to the constitution, it clearly uses these words.

The next question is why Mountbatten and some of the English officers remained in India after the English left. Lord Mountbatten was requested by Nehru and the Congress to see us through the transition. If you read through any of the independent versions of our freedom struggle, you can verify this fact. And just to clear the air, as soon as Pakistan got independence, they armed Pathans from Afghanistan to plunder Kashmir and Mountbatten with his military background from second world war, helped India air lift troops and annex Kashmir. Again, you can verify this. Another interesting anecdote is, when Lord Mountbatten went to attend Pakistan's independence day, he asked who will be anointed as the president of Pakistan. Jinnah replied "If someone else were to become the President, why would I fight so much for a separate Pakistan?". Lord Mountbatten was a British citizen for sure, but at no point of time was India obligated to obey the crown. As soon as we became a Republic, the governor general left and we had our own President, Prime minister and so on.

And next about Subhash babu. There is no doubt Subhash Chandra Bose was a great freedom fighter and his contribution to Indian freedom struggle was enormous. But at some point of time, he was against the then existing thought process of how to win freedom. He was forced to quit Congress and he left to start the Forward Block. He went to Germany and met Hitler and consequently the Japanese aggressors. Subhash babu wanted to take Japanese help to liberate India. Japan by then built a reputation to be an aggressor. Just talk to anyone in China/ Vietnam and Korea about Japanese aggression during second world war, I am sure you will hear gory stories much worse than the British rule. As such, how could our leaders trust one colonial power against another? So they did not agree with the military solution. And the Indian National Army all of 25000 soldiers was not in any shape to fight a war much less defend our country in a war that was as long drawn and costly as the second world war. We neither had the numbers nor the wherewithal to do it. In fact Indian independence was the least of concerns of a loosing Japanese army. Worst of all, if the war were to strike India, we were in no shape to face it. Famines and rationing had struck a death blow to a weak population. A war would have swept away our millions like ants in a deluge. Any which case, post war, entire Indian National Congress stood behind the INA and defended them against being treated as prisoners of war similar to the Japanese, though they expressed solidarity with the Japs.

Finally, a word about Nehru. It has become a fashionable to condemn Nehru and Gandhiji and explore conspiracy theories about how they wrecked India. I firmly believe Nehru was a great leader. He was a statesman beyond our imagination. In 1937 when there was a meeting among all the nations subjugated by the colonial powers, all of them unanimously elected Nehru to represent them. NAM, a brain child of Nehru could mobilize 100 nations behind us. Imagine the amount of soft power India held among newly formed nations during Nehru days. Yes, he misjudged the Chinese that cost our nation enormously and left us with an inferiority complex that still persists. Yes, his daughter turned out to be the biggest blot on India's democratic career. But who has not committed mistakes? If you read his 3 books: Glimpses of world history, Discovery of India and his Autobiography, you will understand his devotion to Liberty, Socialism and democracy. I have not read anyone who believed in these ideals so fiercely, mind, body and soul.

I am open to clear my understanding of the Indian freedom struggle. But it has to be based on facts. Not based on conspiracy theories, palace intrigue, heresy or fictional imagination masquerading as facts. Of late, everyone want to talk about "real reasons behind" or

A letter to Arvind Kejriwal

2013-12-28T00:09:00.001-08:00

Dear Arvind,

Let me first offer my heartiest congratulations on your resounding success in Delhi elections. You have proved to the world that money and muscle power can in fact be defeated. You fired the imagination of 1 billion people and proved wrong all those critics of democracy who said no leader worth his salt can ever be selected through elections(Hitler said that in his book). You are the Obama moment for India and the hope of the middle class society who watched haplessly when the main stream politicians brazenly plundered public wealth without fear or compunction.

At this moment, when you are about to take oath as
the Chief Minister of Delhi, I wish to draw your attention towards three figures from history. They are perfect examples of how you ought not to be once you start functioning. To begin with, question your self if you are Abhimanyu, the son of Arjuna in Mahabharata who knew how to enter the Chakra Vyuh but didn't know how to come out of it. You entered the arena of politics alright. But be sure you don't perish in the battlefield; for the Congress are the Kauravs of modern India. I say this because we heard your dreams, but we don't know of a concrete plan that you are going to follow to achieve these dreams. Just as you made your campaign transparent, make your plan transparent so that, if need be, we will throw in a spanner or two for help in case Kauravas obstruct you!

Next, be sure the light you have kindled so skillfully doesn't perish for nothing. Don't become the modern day Lenin. Lenin too was a man who came very close to realising the ideal. He demonstrated to the world that the chimerical world of Karl Marx can in fact be realised. He put in practice ideas of Marx and Russia took giant steps towards progress and social justice under his leadership. But after him, just when his plans were about to take fruit, his followers fought for power and finally it ended with Stalin emerging as a dictator. The point is to make sure that the ideals for which you stood up are understood by your team and not floundered after the spur of the moment and that the moment you created will be carried over.

Finally, let the AAP not become the Assam Gana Parishat of Delhi. How proud were we of Praffula Kumar Mohanta and his friends, all of 30 years filled with fiery passion and ideals courageously denounced ULFA, promised peace and development and defeated the political bigwigs and came to claim power at the swearing ceremony in Guwahati that day! How the whole of Assam turned out in their best attire to watch their beloved son take oath; only to be let down horribly when he and his friends bickered openly for portfolios during swearing ceremony! Remember, power corrupts human beings. Be sure you and your team is aware of all these and raise above the mundane. You need to lead a saintly life if you are going to take the fight to the end.

Are you prepared to do all this Arvind? We invested our hope in you and cannot afford to loose it. Every one around the world is watching. From the young Chinese who put up with the PRC because they thought democracy won't deliver development to Egypt and Arabia where people are taking baby steps towards Democracy, are all of us are looking up to you! Don't fail us.

May you have the strength to live up to our expectations!

Alchemy of Desire - Tarun Tejpal's

2013-11-28T21:11:00.002-08:00

My good friend Balaram asked me what is my take on the Tarun Tejpal's fiasco. Well, here is it.

Lets start with Mr.Tejpal. I think he made a thorough ass of himself messing with a junior staff member when he was drunk and tipsy. But I thought some amount of sense prevailed in him when he apologized and then took himself off the job. Unfortunately, the devil prevailed and he gave three statements that were thoroughly assine, ridiculous and unwarranted. Firstly, he said the lady was overreacting to what was drunken banter. Yeah, the Delhi gang too thought the same about an year ago. We beg to differ Mr.Tejpal! Secondly, he said the lady enjoyed the rest of the evening as if nothing happened. I say who the #$@$ are you to determine how someone reacts after meeting a jerk like you? Thirdly, he announced that the Goa government was witch hunting him for exposing the defense scandal and the Gujarat riots. I say, how does it matter? You *(&^ed up and they are coming after you. Mr.Tejpal, the fun ends when you become the news.

Moving on to the other breaking story, everyone knows that the CBI, police and the second CBI team screwed the investigation in the Talwars case. The only reason CBI is pushing for a closure is because they want to get done with it.The public and all the half baked pundits in news rooms too, want a simple story full of sleaze and orgasmic thrill and a harsh punishment to satisfy our parochial sense of in-the-end-evil-will-be-punished belief. We don't seem to be able to come in terms to the facts that this case might never have a closure. If we need to learn something from this case, it about how our police need to handle evidence collection and crime scene management skills. We should be able to live with the fact that some cases might remain unsolved forever. Instead, we want an end to the story. We are hell bent on indicting someone and cheating our self into believing a story full of guesswork and perverted logic and making a cruel joke out of the circumstantial evidence clause in IPC. What if the Talwars are innocent all along? How dastardly will it look on us as a nation?

A word about Judiciary here. The fact that the sessions judge is influenced by public opinion is something that the judiciary needs to be ashamed of. Looking at it closely, the Judge in question is trying to base his judgement on public opinion rather than his Judicial acumen. Is there any evidence of crowds ever being rational? What sort of justice is this? In this case, judiciary is the biggest turnoff.

Finally, to my pet peeve, the media. Media proved to us again that they can't let go of sleaze and sensationalism. When there are Cyclones, Tornado's and typhoons killing people around the world, when major international treaties were being signed, when the biggest event of democratic India is round the corner, the major News channels are busy being petty. In one channel, the News reader was ranting "Our reporter will take you to the scene of crime in Hyatt, Goa, exactly where Tejpal assaulted the lady. This is where the whole fiasco happened behind this black door!" what crap! Arbzilla goes on "Jayanthi Natarajan, why don't all the women leaders in congress come out in public and unanimously condemn Tejpal? Tell me why? What stops you from calling a press meet? The nation demands an answer Jayanthi" I say why don't you just jerk off and stop being horny? Tell me why Arbzilla? The nation demands an answer. The Indian media is pathetically out of synch with the world. Its a pity we don't get any news worth its commercial time. Prrrh there we go again!

2 Soldiers killed by Pakistani army

2013-01-10T10:13:00.004-08:00

How can you comment, argue, or take extreme positions based on heresy? Well, this is something we seem to have made a habit of these days. Yesterday, there was a news about 2 Indian soldiers being brutally killed by Pakistani regulars. No body knows where this news come from. No one knows if this is indeed really true. All we know is that we have 2 dead soldiers with mutilated bodies and the press is having a gala time spitting fire and venom against Pakistan. Messers, Rajdeep and Arnab are front loading hate in their questions and asking hapless Pakistani journalist to respond. Check out this article here from Hindu. The article clearly shows some leads that might point to the contrary direction. You don't necessarily have to buy this opinion, but you need to give it the benefit of doubt.

I think news from prime time channels should be followed with a healthy dose of doubt and pessimism and the only way you can vouch for its validity is when you check multiple sources. The ugly truth is that there is no one paper/channel that will report 100% truth. Some have commercial concerns, some political and some others, the plain old compulsions to attract viewership. Funnily, all their interests don't converge. So we as readers need to be intelligent enough and know how to cherry pick our news sources for different subjects. For example, Hindu is a great economic critic of the Government. Where as ET is always going with the wind. Politically Hindu is left leaning while IE is extreme right. TOI by the way has no opinion. I think editorials by Chetan Bhagat is stretching it a bit. Still I like the glossy photos and the how-to-cheat-your-wife advisories.

I think this includes a dose of author bias. So tomorrow, I will try and think of some generic pointers that ight help us trace the truthfulness of an article. But for today, I will give Pakistan the benefit of doubt.

The Worlds growth story

2013-01-03T10:42:00.000-08:00

The entire economic history can be viewed along three big ideas that drove profits, investment and as an aftermath politics and change. The first big idea happened to be scientific thought. Someone started seeing the world from a different angle and people began to come out of dark ages. Lots of inventions were made and consequently the industrial revolution took place and those who invested in industrialization then, made lots of money. The idea was stretched a little to optimizing the production process. Most of the industrialized nations hunted for cheap labour and raw materials leading to colonialism and imperialism. Powerful countries backed their merchants and traders and tapped into the natural resources of Africa and Asia to exploit them. The margins and the huge potential for further exploitation made production a plump investment.

The second big idea was war. The entire world devoted itself to a production frenzy, producing bombs, arms, ammunition, artillery, aircraft bombers, tanks and what not. After producing them, they put these goods to good use by destroying most of what was built causing wide spread destruction and disease. When the war got over, it’s time to rebuild from the scratch and the everyone devoted their time to nation building and arms development. Technology got a fillip once again while green revolution and white revolution emerged making agricultural production profitable.

The third big idea happened to be computers. During the post war period, computers started appearing and they made rapid progress. People started using computers in anything and everything. Communications and connectivity improved, robotics took over manual production and the world changed. Taking advantage of the IT revolution, some nations emerged as top IT destinations outsourcing and globalization happened and production started to be optimized at a new level, this time on a global scale.

Compared to the earlier phases, the current phase seems to be bland and unproductive. We had no big ideas that changed lives or no tech breakthroughs. All we were obsessed with was playing around with financial instruments and returns on investment. Nothing fundamentally changed to prompt a growth story. So how can we expect our investments to grow? The last 20 years witnessed a mad rush towards the field of Finance, an auxiliary field that is supposed to support the real functions like manufacturing or agriculture. The best of the minds were diverted to these fields by lure of money and exuberant lifestyle. Physicist who are supposed to design space probes started playing with option pricing models. The cream of the academic community took to MBA and science as a field was left to lesser mortals and an entire generation got wasted without producing a great idea.

What is going to happen now? Do you want to pick a winner?

Yahoo! Just finished posting my 101th blog post

2012-12-29T22:23:00.000-08:00

Its been a long journey measuring up to 100 blogs and when I look back and read my really old blogs, I am surprised at the lack of connect, fluency of language and utter banality of those posts.

I now have a plump feeling! I have improved! Improved a lot! I can write. Yes I can darn well write! Three cheers to the might of the Pen! Every time I felt low, every time I wanted to take stock of the situation, every time I wanted to organise my thoughts, I took up blogging. It brought some order and reined in the chaos. Therefore, for me blogging is not just a pass time. Its more....

Thank you Blogger.com, you have given me a new skill, a new lease of life....

Is it really about rape?

2012-12-29T06:56:00.003-08:00

Yes! Rape is abhorrent, condemnable and outright disgusting. According to me, people who perpetuated this crime should be hanged by their balls. But that's just my anger seething with hatred speaking. It accepts nothing short of summary killing, gory death and public humiliation. But does that amount to justice? Or will it at least deter others from doing it? NO. Are we aware of this? Yes. Then why are we thirsting for it? Is it just the response to Rape or is there something deeper involved?

Why do you think people are going mad protesting on the streets daring water cannons and police batons? Why is there so much raw anger towards the establishment? Why is there such a deep chasm and utter lack of trust between the two warring parties, the old guard that works the establishment and the rest of the junta that took to the streets?

The answer is nothing works in this country. Not the promise of equality, not the tall claims of democratic freedom, not the rule of law. Not a f*#@$ing thing works here! Its only time people come out of this hypocritical garb of democracy that the old guard is using to further their own interest. Time has come!

We consistently suffer a power deficit of 10-12% despite spending 2% of GDP on building power infrastructure. Every day, we live without power for at least 4 hours in urban areas and 8-12 hours in rural areas and god knows for how many hours in interior India. You don't get drinking water in your house so you have to buy mineral water. More than 60% of India defecates openly everyday prompting some one to say, India will one day bury itself in its own shit. You don't have proper schools for your children despite the staggering amounts of money, 3.3% of GDP to be precise being spent by the government, so you approach private schools who operate like Mafia these days. The government hospitals are such a sorry sight that the very thought that you need to enter one will give you a near death experience. So you approach those fancy private Hospitals who royally grab half your life savings on your first visit and the other half thereafter. Any amount of Health insurance cover seems to be a pittance. Again the government spends almost 1% of GDP on health care. Commute to work is a nightmare in itself. An estimated 2000 people die in Mumbai alone due to train accidents while commuting for work. If it is not able to provide such basic services after spending such mindboggling amounts of public money, where the F^$% is the government? What the hell is it doing? Whom is it working for? Whose pockets is it filling up?

Avenues for positive social mobility are quietly vanishing. Research after research states that if you belong to the elite class, the chances of you failing are almost nothing, while the exact opposite is true for the ordinary people. There is a strong feeling of betrayal and angst among the 99%. Every small incident will trigger an unusual and exaggerated response, releasing this long pent up anger. People will demand answers, action and change. Now stop questioning about the correctness of the response and start doing something. Else, Cut-lo!

Two girls arrested for FB comment on Thackeray's death

2012-12-29T06:56:00.000-08:00

I say WTF. Can't you have an opinion about something? Is this some goddamned country ruled by Taliban or some gun totting fundamentalists striking at will? Is there nothing called liberty and freedom of speech? There is something going wrong with the psyche of the nation. Every two bit leader wanting to gain popularity or strike fear is creating mayhem under some pretext.

Every moron wanting to get his 2 minute limelight is arming himself with a FB account/Mail ID and an internet connection and is rummaging through the internet to find something that will hurt his silly sentiments or beliefs or their egos or worse the petty egos of their leaders. Truth be said, they are bound to find something. And why not? After all we are a bloody huge nation with a 1.2 billion population representing every single imaginable difference that humanity can ever think of. Be it race, caste, religion, place, profession, gender, language, culture, eating habits, dress code, skin tone and you can add anything else that comes to your mind, we have a huge and scary list of differences if we care to notice and there are bound to be fundamental difference arising just out of this. Now add some real or perceived or politically motivated or personal differences to this list and it should dawn upon you that differences are bound to be there and you better learn to live with them. How can we talk, discuss, argue or even live without touching upon these differences, given our now famous propensity to argue?

If someone starts feeling hurt about it and we allow them to go on a rampage, imagine the amount of chaos that will break on us. Can we afford to have this? It is time we stop this nonsense and cure this itch to be famous. Anyone destroying public property, engaging in illegal activities as a mob ought to be punished severely and the police under that jurisdiction ought to be made responsible for the safe upkeep of the area. The SP should be asked to pay for the damages so that he will mind his ass before supporting illegal elements. May be then there will be some order.

Ajmal Kasab Hanged to Death

2012-12-29T06:54:00.002-08:00

What is wrong with us? Why do we celebrate/congratulate someone's death? One man was horribly hanged till the rope squeezed the living lights out of him, till his entire being agonizingly gave up resulting in the inevitable, and we want to celebrate?

Agreed he was the perpetrator of 26/11 attacks. Agreed he killed innocent victims in cold blooded fashion and maybe he even enjoyed doing it. But what makes us any different from him? Are we not blood thirsty like him? Longing for the kill, celebrating his death and saying things like "He should have been publicly hanged" Or "At last we got justice"? Aren't they signs of barbarism and cruelty? Why and how can we equate Vendetta to Justice?

Fine, he was hanged for whatever he did. Let's not demean dignity of human life. He is a misguided spirit who did some gruesome acts. I am sure he saw enough hatred and abhorrence, maybe he deserves some pity. If not when alive, at least in death. RIP Ajmal Kasab!

10 things I hate in Indian IT companies

2012-05-28T06:33:00.000-07:00

Four more weeks and we will be thrown out of college. Be it internships or placement, we will be pushed back into the corporate world from where I thought I escaped for good. The very thought of entering those air conditioned morgues floating with formally dressed corpses flashing plastic smiles and eat-me-if-you-can-attitudes is unnerving.

A few days back, I heard Prof Merchant’s "face your fears" lecture and so I started thinking. What is it about the corporate world that disturbs me so much? Here goes the list.

1. I will have to smile and wish my boss good morning while stifling a deep urge to strike him with the first object within my reach that can cause irreparable damage to his cerebrum.

2. I am expected to be coy and chivalrous with those overfed; heavily perfumed HR bimbos dressed in ill fitting western outfits and massage their bloated egos to make sure that they don't turn their misappropriated power of I-can-screw-anyone’s-happiness towards me.

3. I will have to say "bravo" to all the half baked ideas from some harebrained MBA who happens to be my team mate and who holds the illegitimate power to influence my boss, courtesy his fawning skills.

4. I will have to stick around in the office and act busy for 9 utterly unproductive hours irrespective of whether I do some meaningful work or laze around reading Dilbert comics

5. I will need to put up with insurmountable levels of stupidity of my co-workers who cannot distinguish between formal conversations and tea time chats and usually end up re-telling how I joked about my boss in the conference call.

6. I will have to act nice and befriend the dispatch room bug and beg him for two sheets of white papers to get a print of an expense bill amounting to RS 500/-, which everyone from the CEO downwards have approved after 2 weeks of haggling.

7. I will need to undergo that extremely frustrating annual appraisal cycle that is designed to screw my hike. No matter what I achieve or how happy the client is with my performance, I end up in the dog’s tail of the wretched bell curve where I am thrown a lavish 1000 bucks as annual hike. Adding to this I am served some serious bullshit in terms of how the company is facing an uncertain future, how the market is bad and all that sorry stuff while in reality the company is minting truckloads of money and the stock price is through the roof and the top management is rolling in dollars.

8. Whenever I have to travel for official reasons, I need to raise an e-ticket that is charted to go around half the universe and I am expected to follow up with every Tom, Dick and Harry, not to mention their lousy secretaries and get an approval. After all the dog race, I invariable end up late at the travel desk who will squarely lay the blame on me and announce in no uncertain terms that since I raised the request late, there are no tickets available in cattle class for the travel date mentioned in the ticket. Meaning I have to repeat the entire circus again, this time twice for both cancelling the previous request and raising a new one. After all the hocus-pocus, I will end up getting a ticket in the cheapest and most uncivilized flight that ever flew from that airport and I will hide my luggage tags from public view lest someone I know finds me boarding these rattle ships.

9. I will have to resort to a lot of hara-kiri like begging proxy passwords from allegedly legitimate users or using tunneling websites that mask the actual URL’s I am browsing to visit normal websites like NSE India or HDFC BANK, while I suspect that my boss has access to sites hosting bizarre and decidedly fishy stuff.

10. I will have to screw myself bottoms up to meet the deadlines of a god damned project that the BRM sells to the client without knowing what the eff it is, without the project manager knowing how many effing hours it will take to achieve and worse, the effing client not knowing what he wants. Hilarious of all, these morons sit together, attend multiple conferences and draw up an SOW and SLA, couple it with billing rates and other fancy items and create a neat excel quoting to the last penny the client has to pay once the project is complete.

Now folks tell me if any of the above statements are wrong, I will gladly join the company and write a bond for life…

Good bye S.P.Jain!

2012-05-28T02:44:00.002-07:00

I got some time today and I am turning all my half finsihed draft blogs into posts. I found this nice little piece which I penned out of honest heart burn! Looking back, it looks all true. So I am reproducing it in original form. Read on.

What is it? Why am I feeling as if I have to clutch on to every moment before it sails past me? Why is it that I have a sense of belonging to all things I took for granted till now? Why does my hostel room flowing with worn out clothes, half eaten biscuit packets, unkempt bed, books and newspapers give me a sense of belonging? Why does the old college building with stinking toilets, peeled paints and pigeon shit strike an emotional chord with me? Why do some classmates who used to give creeps ealrier suddenly look decent and amiable after all?

I think I know deep down its end of story. End of story for college. End of carefree banter, friendships, late night gossip and all things that geniunely add up to happiness. I am slowly warming up to the recollections of the corporate world. The world of chilled silence, flourescent lights, plastic smiles and serious sounding conf calls. The world where work means manipulating people, where happiness means smiling despite the agony, where friendships are limited to the time spent in a project together and where people fiercely guard their emotions against exploitation.

So does this experience leaves me fulfilled? Why is there a sense of unease and fluster? Why this sense of gloominess? May be thats what is called longing for more! Next step, pack up and Leave.

Good bye S.P.JAIN! Thank you for the wonderful 1 year that I will remember for life!

Sublime life...

2012-05-28T02:33:00.000-07:00

I have been listening and I really feel it has started experiencing liberation. The shackles are broken! It is free! The voice is no longer hidden. It calls out loud and clear, full and flowing so sure as if drawing the universe towards itself. In fact commanding it to itself with brave, raw and pulsating vocals. There is no escape, the call is seductive and bewitching. The body succumbs to it. Eyes dilate, the blood drains out from the brain, the knees grow week collapsing the body in a heap, the form itself prepares for the ultimate step.

There it is, gone! You never know when it will return. Nor will you know when it will be with you. You are just a barren patch of parched land waiting for some cloud to shower rain! Resigned to waiting, you are no more!

The devil is driving....

2012-05-28T02:20:00.001-07:00

There it is, I already feel the fatigue. The cycle of eternal enthusiasm; adrenalin rush; extreme effort followed invariably by fatigue & nausea and aversion to do the job on hand is repeating itself.Any thing I start doing, just drops off in the middle. I feel no enthusiasm to write stuff, words just don't flow and worse, I have no control over it. And to make it even more frightening, I know that this is only an ugly manifestation of a deeper malaise that is eating me inside out. I am conscious of this fact but helplessly running out of ideas. I have played enough games with my brain, lulling it into doing something that it might never do on its own. But now is it becoming aware of all the scheming? Will it grow wiser and resist control? Will it start acting on its own dervish spectre? Is the game over? Have I fed the evil so well that it is now a full grown bear growling to take the reins of my hapless being? Oh god! Wait! Why god? I know there is nothing like god, its just an insane idea invented by some clever pundit to mass control thoughts. Oh my! Am I becoming aware of this idea? Or is it my evil brain thinking to grow out of order? It is happening again. I can see the devils smirk in the background. I know I am approaching that end of the cliff when I invariable decide to jump, only to realise that with one leap I will have kicked out years of good I did to myself. Can I save my self this time? Will the mind monkey listen? Is there help? can someone unscrew my brain and treat this worm?

Will someone answer these questions? Again, I know the chances are next to zilch! So is it for you, you and everyone else!

What is your Caste?

2012-05-28T01:56:00.000-07:00

You have got to read this. Please do here.

In essence he is cribbing that the backward classes are unsuccessful in being corrupt. Wow! Give them coaching classes’ man! Or use the standard election formula we always triumphantly used so far; reservation. Reserve some corruption exclusively for backward classes. Make Coal mining is exclusively SC domain, Petrochemicals to Muslims and other natural resources to ST’s.

Guess who wrote this article, a Rajya Sabha MP. In essence he says only the backward classes get caught when there indulge in corrupt practices. Oh god! The very fact that the article got printed in one of the prime national newspaper tells us that there is no dearth of audience for such nonsense. God save us.

To put things in perspective, the article is not without merit. Lot of bada babus who are corrupt never get caught may be because they are so very good at the art or may be because they are not so idiotic as to deal in hard cash. Whatever the reason, we seldom see corrupt from forward castes getting caught.

As a matter of principle, we need to condemn all corruption, nepotism, exploitation and double talk. There are no two ways about it. Whoever in whatever form be it Kiran Bedi travelling economy class and pocketing the first class fare or Mr. Janadhan Reddy minting money out of the mining scam in Bellary. All are guilty in the court of law. But mind you, only when they get caught. Till then it happy go lucky!

Billionaires want to leave India

2011-12-22T05:39:00.000-08:00

Man! I love this paper and its headlines. It never fails to stun me with its capacity to bullshit people. I saw this article about Indian Billionaires wanting to shift base. The only reaction from my side would be “Get lost! Faster if you can help”. It seems some gentlemen, apparently rich are sick and tired of the changing rules and regulations in India and they are planning to shift base to some foreign location with a more planned and stable regulatory setting. WoW!

Did someone force there gentlemen to stay and bless our country with their enormous economic clout and extraordinary intellect? Did the country derive any unusual or overreaching benefits in lieu of them? Or was it the other way round? More importantly, will they be able to do what they did in other places? The people I am referring to are Messers Ruias, Munjals, Mittals et al. One of them was incriminated in the 2G scam and others have made their fortunes because of the very regulations that they are crying about. If there a more subtle way of putting this, please let me know. But to my mind this looks to be a plain swindle and scoot operation. Anyone listening?

To Vivek and Sharanya

2011-12-10T20:54:00.000-08:00

Last week, one of my best friends got married. It was a happy wedding, which I unhappily missed. Truth be told, at one point of time I thought, if ever I attended a wedding, it would be his. But life has its strange ways and I couldn't attend. The least I could think of was to write about him and remember our association. Vicarious as it may sound, think of this as a wedding speech that one of the grooms best man would give, while raising a toast to the newly weds.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, in honor of this wonderfully sweet couple, this is the grooms best man, a dear friend for a decade and one who will promise to be so for years to come!

In the journey called life, we meet lots of people. All kinds of people. Good, bad and ugly. On the scale of morality, I haven't so far crossed paths with one like this. Vivek. He is one beacon of morality. Sharanya, guess what? You just got lucky! You easily got yourself the best bachelor alive between the Holy Ganges and the murky Pamba. Congratulations to you!

Lets talk about Vivek. I have seen this one grow. From an aggressive self conceited bastard to a soft, caring guy whom you can count on. We had a great deal of fun. Hanging out together, traveling together and facing the odd troubles. We also had our share of squabbles too. But we knew that we would always get back there. It was something like Bungee jumping. No matter how deep or how steep you jump, you always know your legs are grounded. You will go back.

As much as he tries to deny, Vivek is a sensitive guy. He is sentimental, old school and orthodox. Depending upon your political leanings, he could come across as drab communist or worse a congress supporter. But his heart has always been at the right place. Sharanya, take good care of him! Among all other things , he needs a shoulder to lean on. He can do the supporting. You just have to stand and watch girl. I am sure he will make a great husband and you will have a great life ahead. Have a fantastic life ahead! and take care!

Ladies and gentlemen! To Vivek and Sharanya!"

Freedom of speech as I understand it.

2011-12-10T20:23:00.000-08:00

There has been a lot of ruckus about free speech and I have been brooding over it for some time now. What exactly does freedom of speech and expression mean? Can you speak and express anything and get away from it? What are its limits and when do you act against it? These are some points I would try and think over in this article.

Voltaire once said “I absolutely oppose your views, but I will fight until death for your right to express them!” Remarkable statement indeed! Recently Harvard University removed the courses taught by Mr. Ramaswamy Iyer taking cognizance of his articles that provoked Anti Islam sentiments. Should Mr. Iyer be entitled to free speech and therefore be allowed to teach his courses irrespective of what he expressed? I think this is where we draw the line. If the expression evokes or is capable of evoking strong and necessarily violent reactions, it ought to be curbed. The next logical question is, who gets to decide that he is wrong and his expression is capable of creating violent reactions? I feel it should be someone who is capable of proving engaging him in a debate and proving him wrong. In due process, may be Mr. Iyer himself would be convinced of the wrongfulness of the act and amend himself.

Now comes the next question, can we always debate and convince? To this John Stuart Mill is crystal clear. He says “if you cannot convince someone of wrong, it might not be wrong after all”. Now comes some abstract ideas like blasphemy, religion, sentiments, etc. People live with all kinds of prejudices, biases and opinions. In a democracy, right is what the majority believe irrespective of whether it is wrong or right. That is exactly what BJP is trying to do. Make hate the bottom line of the majority and you will be able to manufacture opinions and manipulate people like a pied piper. Then how about rational thinking? Who will guard that?

Courts? In the recent 2G spectrum scam, most of the allegedly guilty offenders were denied bail taking into consideration the public sentiments. In case of Afzal guru, the alleged master mind behind the attack on the parliament was given death penalty on circumstantial evidence. This is a worrying trend. Things are straying away from the rational path.

I think its time to put in an institutional mechanism to fight bigots, chauvinists and jingoists. By fight I am referring to debate. If you err here, you will end up like an Orwellian society. History has seen many such examples: Taliban, Khmer Rouge, Hitler, Stalin et al.We don’t want to create one more…

Life of late…..

2011-12-10T20:20:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time, my father used to insist on me reading the editorials from Indian Express and re-writing the article in my own words. His idea was that the language used in the newspaper was of the highest order and reading/trying to re write it would improve my language skills.

Can we say the same about today’s newspapers?

With increasing frequency, I come across spelling mistakes, missing punctuations, print errors and worse grammar mistakes. Some of the newspapers I guess are not very worried about such niceties. If you are publishing huge glossy photos of half nude models on every page, why worry about other content? I feel helpless in such a world.

Nobody cares about quality of the material we live with. All we now care is whether it’s “done and out” or not. Part of the problem is our obsession with visible results, lack of patience and most of all, fear of being redundant.

Look around for yourself. Vehicles do not last for more than 3 years, phones, laptops and electronics don’t last beyond 1 year and people get restless In a job in less than 6 months. What’s happening? Why is there so much impatience, restlessness and relentless pursuit for novelty? Sometime back when things were made the hard way, when they were designed to painstaking detail, crafted with mastery and sold with respect and pride, we had a special attachment to our possessions. I remember during my childhood, when there was something new arriving in the house, it was a big event. Be it a sewing machine or a electric grinder. But now, we buy worthless things pouring lakhs of rupees and we don’t have the discipline or respect to use them carefully.

Remember your dad who never allowed you to drive his 60’s scooter or the refrigerator you mother would be hysteric if you slam shut its door? Are we even watching it now? All that people are worried about is whether others envy what we have. You buy an iPhone because your friends and colleagues feel its uber cool to have one. You buy a MUV because people are awed when they see you driving it around. You buy a grand apartment in a posh gated community because you want to be surrounded by such people. And then, you dump all of them for a new fad.

I feel we really don’t care what WE think about what we HAVE which is ironic. To get all this, we slog late nights in office for promotions, try and save big time in onsite assignments and compromise on what makes us happy. Why? Why are we blind to our priorities? Why do we always end up spending impulsively? Why don’t we care? I derive a strange feeling of togetherness using ‘WE’ but in fact, it could be me alone!

Future of South China Sea

2011-11-25T05:49:00.000-08:00

The quest to dominate the South China sea has become a bit of an obsession to the world right now. Everyone wants a share of the pie. The hidden meaning of this phenomena is that, the transatlantic region has lost its significance and the world is looking at south east asia as the new economic growth engine replacing Europe.

Barack Obama recently announced that America is going to suppliant Australian Navy with its own soldiers. This is nothing short of fingering China and it has every reason to be peeved. Imagine Chinese sending troops to patrol POK? Adding to it, US is engaging Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos in trade agreements.

To be fair to Obama, these nations were more than willing to embrace America given the Chinese behaviour in sharing Mekong River waters. China browbeated these nations into submission and one thing that no one likes is being dominated and bullied. Now these revitalised nations will say "Hey! Look big guy, Big brother is watching my back. Mind you!"

The Pacific rim as they call it is heating up and the world is watching out for the East Asia Summit scheduled to be held this month. Russia and USA are the new members while China has been the founder and core member of the Summit. Recently concluded ASEAN summit has taken some bold decisions and now 10 + 3 seems to be the order. The founding members Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia should be happy! Isn't it akin to surrounding China from all sides?

I am unsure why USA is being so testy about China now. May be elections, may be fear of being alienated from the world's growth engine(Only?) or may be USA is just being "Uncle Sam". Anyways, Hillary and Obama are hell bent on becoming a thorn in China's flesh. Both parties however have compulsions to feed the stronger-than-thou psyche of their domestic audience and Obama has an impending election facing him. The republicans are going all out to prove him a failure and foreign policy seems to be his only trump card. Likewise the standing in line Chinese premier is yet to make his bones and the nation is watching him to demonstrate that China is no weak nation. Interesting times these are. Lets watch for more!

Arab spring still not done! Egypt is burning

2011-11-25T05:31:00.000-08:00

Its nice to see people fighting for their rights however violent be it. May be we are witness to the birth pangs of great nations.

Where ever there has been an uprising, the result has been voilent and painful. Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain and Syria. Saudi Arabia has helped quell Bahrain revolution and its shelved for now. Syria being a Sunni dominated country with a Shia elite ruling, Saudi was more than happy to see it happen and a bloody uprising it has been. Libya has seen so much of bloodshed and voilence that I am now starting to wonder if it is another Iraq in making.

Going to Egypt, the most populous Arab nation, it was clear from the beginning that people won't let the revolution slip away under their very nose. Come what may, there should a change and democracy it will be. Then why fight a loosing war? Why can't you just conduct elections fast, create a constitution and get the eff out? I am not sure what the army thinks of, but its never easy to control mob violence. Strangely, except for the Muslim brotherhood, every one else thinks its time for elections. Ironically the brotherhood remains to be the most popular party! In politics, strange phenomena are recipes for disaster! God save Egypt!

Coming back to mob violence, all authority should stay clear of encouraging or seeding it. I think some sense prevailed when the army advanced the presidential election dates and announced that elections will be held in the later part of the year. Next will come the constitution and finally the peoples government.

But will the mobs have the patience to endear all these without the calming influence of some sane leader? Mobs were never known for deliberation and thought. Its just not their Chemistry! People act at the spur of the moment and it turns into a crescendo before anyone realizes the illegitimacy and utter uselessness of the undertaking.

Ultimately, I often wonder can we chart destiny? Maybe, may not be. So lets wait and watch how the drama unfolds...

Publi service broadcasting trust!

2011-11-15T04:58:00.000-08:00

I found an amazing article in Frontline about the Public Services broadcasting trust headed by some benevolent public spirited and responsible media Moguls of course, past their prime. Nevertheless, it’s an amazing concept and has the potential to destabilize the existing media monopoly.

Themes and issues that the main stream media is least interested in will get picked up. Technicians, failed artists and those with dreams in their eyes but little backing and money now have a wonderful platform to learn, unleash and showcase their creative talents to the world. The opportunities are unlimited. It can rekindle the now commercial coloured artistic fervor, awaken creativity, give us all a break from monotonous love stories and best of all provide employment and earnings to those hopeless lives lurking as background artists. It might as well provide a safety net to those with amazing talents but minimal support networks.

I am so happy that the initiative is already bearing fruit. A lot of these films made by unheard of names are succeeding in international film and art festivals knocking mighty production houses off their feet. Go PSBT go!

Baazaristan or USSR!

2011-11-15T04:55:00.000-08:00

Wow! Was my first reaction. I have been reading about the shadow markets in the world and the Foreign policy magazine estimates it to be worth 12 trillion dollars. They went on to fantasize about a utopian economy based entirely on shadow networks and under hand dealings calling it the united states of shadow republics (USSR).

Amazing. Why do they exist in reality? Why do shadow businesses flourish where the white economy falters? The reason is the capitalistic. It knows the true price of a product or a service. Its dynamic, untied to law and is fluid to exist or vanish. If this provides cost effective solutions like in Nigeria where some ingenious trader imported portable diesel engines to power the homes of oil rich Nigeria at a fraction of their electricity bills, whats wrong in it? The Chinese exported the machines, the locals used the available diesel and behold! There is power everywhere.

I will stop at this because this does not ask for explanations. The moment you start talking about advantages and disadvantages or pros and cons, out goes the informal economy.It reads your thoughts before you even realize. That you are trying to formalize it or legitimize it or bring it under rules.