Subho's Jejune Diet

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

2012-02-12T21:29:00.000-08:00

This is a post that touches on music, technology, people’s movements, loss of memories, and memories of loss. Readers are requested to forgive me for attempting to straddle all of these in one post, there is no way I can help it today.

“Remembering things about a person is an expression of compassion and concern. Forgetfulness shows a lack of compassion, a lack of responsibility.” These words by Daisaku Ikeda started my day as I settled in with my tea to watch the live telecast of the 54th Grammy Awards. I was looking forward to the show for the Beach Boys reunion and the Paul McCartney performance. However, the run up to the show saw the death of Whitney Houston and the awards ceremony was a proof of how the show can go on without compromising on compassion and concern. With presenters and and performers alike making it a point to honor those who are not among us today at a show that is precisely planned and televised live, it is a living testimony to what the arts and technology can do together.

The weekend had me reflecting on how the new technology and social media can actually create a brave new world. The internet with all its shortcomings continues to be one of the few spaces where the new generation can go to find the memories of their predecessors. One of the more painful drives in Hyderabad is the one on Tank Bund where one is faced with the defaced pedestals and missing statues of Telugu luminaries whose presence angered some people. Counting the defaced pedestal that are still standing made me realize yesterday that I was not aware of the life and times of many of these people. Thanks to the internet, I was able to look up who they were and what they did. What the internet failed to give me was any rationale behind this act of vandalism, though it did show me that I was not alone in my grief and that the largest expression of opinion about this was that of sorrow and disgust. This digitization and virtualization of our collective past is rapidly becoming the norm, with museums, galleries, libraries and book stores giving way to virtual storehouses of memories and information. I realize this as I see the second hand books and magazines Sunday market at Abids shrink a little more every time I visit.

This comes with its plus and minus. The new generation of internet users, though often accused of being fickle and short of attention, is capable of processing far more information at a much faster pace than any earlier generation. They are quick to receive and honor new ideas and 1expressions, and equally quick to reject them. The evolution of the social media space to where it allows convergence of all media across a wide range of platforms and devices has only added to this movement.

People can come together using the new medium to not only share their creative expression but also to express their opinions about their own welfare. In many ways, people are today able to impact public policy by using the power of the internet to mobilize, crystallize and publish the will of the people. Censorship and restriction on the freedom of expression or access to information by governments and corporations have proved futile. The Arab Spring and the recent global uprisings against failed capitalistic institutions and principles are evidence of this power. Many people are quick to point out that these “people’s movements” are naive, misguided, and either fizzle out or get hijacked on to somebody else’s agenda. It is perhaps prudent to keep in mind that these are the early days of this movement. There are few precedents and the failures of these movements are but lessons that will strengthen the future of the free internet.

Today’s television event of the year, at least for music lovers, is streaming live not only on the official websites, but on Youtube itself, long perceived as a threat to traditional television and the commercial audiovisual industry. The internet today is emerging as the future of all media. The Grammy’s three hour delayed telecast to the West Coast continues this year in spite of having lost all its relevance in the age of the internet. To adapt the words of the legendary Gill Scott-Heron who too was remembered at the awards show, the revolution is not being televised, it is live.

Enough of this socio-economic stuff. Let me get back to the music.

Since this post was written in the backdrop of the Grammy telecast (or is it the other way around?), I need to share my big takeaways from the ceremony. The Maroon Five and Foster the People tribute to The Beach Boys was the perfect introduction to the iconic band performing together for the first time in god knows how many years, even if for just one song. And that was followed by Sir Paul, Eagle Joe Walsh and Diana Krall singing My Valentine from his new album Kisses on the Bottom. Glen Campbell! was as much fun as the superb all-star tribute that brought him on. Tweets paused for a while as Jennifer Hudson sang Whitney’s all time classic I will Always Love You with the intensity that had people tweeting that she was channeling Whitney’s spirit. I had always wanted to know about the music that Nicki Minaj made, and her strange act at the award ceremony gave me some idea. Though it was roundly dismissed by viewers the world over, the pyrotechnics, the speaking in tongues, the levitation, and the rather meaningless religious symbolism made me realize that we live in a world that holds the cultural vacuum of sensationalism (Lady Gaga and Nicki Minaj) and genuine artistic expression (Adele and even Taylor Swift) in one impartial embrace.

For me personally, the highlight of the show was the McCartney recreation of the closing tracks from perhaps the best Beatles album Abbey Road. The guitar climax with Dave Grohl, Joe Walsh, and Bruce Springsteen joining in to trade licks was a treat. At a time when new music is challenged to match the greatness of the past, this year’s performances showcased the best of the new generation standing very ably shoulder to shoulder with the giants of yesteryears. A heartening sight indeed.

If you have not already seen these two posts of mine, you may want to check out
1. Band on The Run - Paul McCartney and the Wings - 25 years later
2. My tribute to a legend. Whitney Houston

The Secret Secret

2012-02-09T03:09:00.000-08:00

Have you ever wondered what makes some people successful and happy while others languish and struggle to even get by? How do some people make it to top positions and earn lots of money, while others seem to be destined to serve under them? Why does “luck” seem to favor some and overlook others?

In this post, I will share with you the “secret” secret of success. After reading this post, you will be able to apply this secret and find yourself among the “super-achievers” and celebrities that you have always looked up to.

Since this is neither a product review nor an advertisement, I will tell you the secret right away, and then tell you how you can go about applying this secret in your life to become more popular, earn more money, attract the right partner, succeed at your job, and find the meaning of life. Research shows that after you apply this secret principle, your blog traffic will increase tenfold, you will also be able to take better photographs, lose as much weight as you desire, and cross the roads in Hyderabad quickly and easily.

The secret is simple – fairness. Fairness is the secret formula for all success. Fairness can open doors to opportunities that you did not know existed. But of course, this is a truth that all of us know. Here is a quick look at the amazing principle of fairness.

Why does fairness work?

From time immemorial, man (and woman) has used his wisdom to discern between good and evil. Day is good, night is evil; white is good, black is evil; clear is good, muddied is evil. For reasons beyond our comprehension, we are not comfortable with the principle of goodness without an evil to contrast it against. With the subsequent expansion of “civilization” and the “discovery” of the lands of the unfair, the fair people finally got proof that this was how the creator meant things to be. Otherwise, it would have been the unfair who discovered the fair, innit?

This belief has been nurtured and perpetrated down the ages, till it has become ingrained within us. It was the fair that gave our nation the first taste of modernity, in education, in governance, and in healthcare. It was the fair who were at the forefront of the newly formed nation of ours. It was the fair who have given leadership to our country. The only time that we were stuck with a leader who was not fair was when a person who knew more than a dozen languages had nothing to say. That’s “not fair” for you. Of course, the fact that a new and different (as good as alien) kind of fairness was being groomed is beside the point. Over time, fairness, indigenous or otherwise, has been proved to be the touchstone by which all things and people are judged.

How does fairness work?

Fairness works on the principle of cause and effect. If you are fair, you will automatically do the right thing, make the right decision, and take the right path. It might seem inconvenient in the short run, but your fairness will bear fruit in the long run. Being fair is simply being in accordance with the principles of nature. People who are not fair might seem to be making gains but in the long run, they will lose out. See the consequences of being unfair below.

I was not born fair. Can I become fair?

Not being born fair is the result of past karma. Your parents must be either unfair people themselves, or have done some very unfair things in their lives, as a result of which you are unfair too. The other possibility is that you were a very evil person in your previous birth. There is no way you can escape from the fact that you have been born unfair. At best, you can try and capitalize on the reservations and quotas that the fair have made for your type. However, there are steps that you can take to become less unfair in this lifetime. The first step you have to take is to publicly disown your unfair self. You can do this by cutting your hair short, wearing long overcoats and always carrying a large handbag. This must immediately be followed by a conscious decision to dissociate from all things and people that are unfair. If you practice this diligently, in the course of time, you may be eligible to be counted among the fair.

Fairness is like religion. You may be born without it, but there are many who will help you acquire it. You might lose it once you have it, but you can get it back with a dab of foundation and a flick of the compact. The best part of it is that you can lose it over and over again, and get it back every single time. Remember, public memory is short, and no one wants to remember things that are not fair for too long, so just go for it.

How to become fair?

Some ways of becoming fair are easy, some are not, but all of them are fair. The easy way to become fair is to use fairness creams. Remember that one cannot become fair overnight, nor is there one surefire formula for becoming fair. You have to use these creams day and night on a regular basis, and keep using different brands of them, in order to get result. Also keep in mind that you need one kidney to survive, so don’t go about selling the second one to buy those products. You must also be careful not to overuse them, since you might just wake up one morning and find that all the ammonia in them has bleached your face away. Of course, then you will not have to worry about where to hide your face, since you will no longer be having a face to hide. During this process, since you have already disowned your unfair self publicly, if you need to make a public appearance, you will have to resort to foundations and face powders that are meant for fair people. If you use the less fair versions of these, you will be rejected by those you care for, so be very cautious.

Fairness goes deeper than the skin, so just using fairness creams is not enough. You have to shun all the ways of unfair people. Three excellent educational aids for achieving this are the all season DVD packs of Friends, Desperate Housewives, and Sex and the City. Study these carefully and try and personify the superior values that they promote. Many people make the mistake of discarding their unfair accents and adopting a fairer one. This strategy can backfire and people might think that you are nothing but an unfair person with lot of makeup who works in an outbound call center. However, if your speech is anything like mine, with a preponderance of aiyo’s, haila’s, and why because’s, you may want to go for an accent training program, and mind your pee’s and kaiku’s.

What are some of the consequences of not being fair?

If you are not fair, you will not be able to sing well at college functions. You will not get interviews with stars if you are a television newsperson. If you are not fair, you will end up paying more dowry. If you are not fair, no one will complain if you do not burn with an even blue flame. If you are not fair, your chances of being in an accident engineered by the fair multiply. If you are not fair, you may succeed in the short run, but sooner or later, your unfairness will catch up with you, and you will be eating crow, maybe Jim Crow. Even the best of education, the most expensive jewelry and the best designer clothes cannot help you if you are not fair.

But surface level jokes and double entendre's aside, if you are fair, the world might look past you, you may be ignored when opportunities arise, and people might reject you, but you will sleep well knowing that you have done the right thing. If you are not fair, on the other hand, you might get a high score in an exam, but have already flunked the real test of life.

“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him his own.” -Benjamin Disraeli

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This post was originally written as an exercise in imitating writing styles and has been sitting in my drafts for a while. Not everything is best served cold. It is being posted purely to offend those who discriminate on the basis of color, caste, class, gender and creed. The comments thread, however, is open to all, the blessed and the godforsaken alike.

(The picture in this post is that of Mehul, our niece, daughter of Subhomoy and Kaberi, at a recent family function.)

Future Imperfect: The HSBC Global Research Report

2012-02-06T21:47:00.000-08:00

We are a funny people. We top the academic charts the world over while a large number of children in our backyards either die as infants or have to go to work as child labor before they can think of going to school. We are the leading destination for medical tourism, yet our public health system lies in tatters with basic healthcare a distant dream for the less privileged. We have the Mayawati's, the Mamata's and the Jayalalitha's yet we need a reservation bill for women and wake up to crimes against women every morning. We have embraced the true meaning of Islam, of Buddhism, of Hinduism and of Christianity, yet our vote banks are divided along religious grounds. We seem to be very pleased with ourselves as a nation without reflecting on the rot that we sweep under the carpet. Dr. Ramesh Grandhi, in this article, looks at issues facing us as the emerging superpower of the immediate future.

It has been long forecast that India would occupy one of the top five places in the world based on GDP. The HSBC Global research report bears this out, and yes it is indeed a matter of some pride that we will be in the third place by the year 2050 with just China and the US ahead of us. Newspapers are blaring the fact that our economy will be the third biggest, but if we go past the headlines, we see not a very rosy picture. Corrective measures are the need of the hour, but will our government which seems more intent on fighting Mamata and Anna have the political fortitude to address this long term issue? Plans will need to be made now and not a decade or so into the future.

Studying the figures I was reminded of an advertisement that had brought a smile to my face sometime ago—a kid comes running home declaring proudly—“Mom, I came third in a race at school. The proud mother beams, but the canny father asks “How many students participated my boy?” The answer “Just three of us”. This time the kid wasn’t looking all that pleased with himself.

The report portrays a very similar picture, China will be on top with a GDP of 24.6 trillion dollars (trillion=1000 billion), the US will be second with 22.2 trillions and India is third but at a measly 8.2 trillions. If you look at the per capita figures, the comparison is so skewed that you will end up being dismayed. China’s per capita incomes are almost 4 times ours and America’s more than 11 times.

We are doing much better than them on one yardstick though, we are beating them silly in population figures. We are doing so well in fact, that we will shoot past China and have 200 million more citizens than them (161 crores to 141 crores). These figures are so depressing that I am finding it difficult to even be cynical.

We need to do a lot of introspection, where have we gone wrong? Is there something lacking in our psyche that prevents us from achieving what China has shown is eminently possible? Is it the way we are governed, or is it our form of government? These are questions our intelligentsia and all well meaning people must ask repeatedly until we get answers. It wouldn’t be surprising if even Bangladesh crosses our per capita figures soon, to my recollection Sri Lanka and perhaps even Pakistan have better figures even now.

It is gratifying to know that the coming decades will be Asian ones, with Europe taking a back seat. Populations are aging in Europe, Japan and the affluent North American countries, and at the same time falling. These facts are playing a role in their economies cooling down. Developing countries will be the engines of growth, which is a very welcome sign.

India will need to get its act together, we will need to educate our masses on the dangers of overpopulation. We are talking about a 40% growth in population and that too from an already high base—will these figures be sustainable? I know we cannot adopt the draconian measures China can. We are also seeing that the educated middle classes and the rich being satisfied with a single child. They have realized that giving birth to and bringing up one child and ensuring he or she has the best possible breaks they can provide is more important than giving birth to 2 or 3 children. The masses below the poverty line however are doing the opposite skewing the demographic profile even further.

Population control is such a touchy subject that no politician is willing to touch it even with a barge pole, but someone has to do it and do it soon. We have the opportunity on hand now to really excel, but these macroeconomic issues that can influence our future have to be tackled vigorously. Can it be done in a democratic set up? I believe it can, but for that our polity has to mature, our leaders should resist the urge to address the least common denominator and rise to the occasion. The intelligentsia and the NGOs should step out and articulate the evils of overpopulation. Water is already scarce and food availability will be an insurmountable problem. If we wake up now and take corrective measures, the 161 crores might come down to 150-even that will be a huge achievement and improve our per capita figures by a sizeable percentage.

We owe it to our children to do the right thing by them. I am reminded of a PPT I had seen sometime back when an emaciated child in 2075 looks at a photograph of his grandparents and asks them “why have you left us in such a state?” That PPT left an indelible impression on me. I guess it is time all of us right thinking citizens think about the way we are going about things—conspicuous consumerism and materialism of the worst kind, and make a course correction.

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This is a guest post by Dr. Ramesh Grandhi. Some of his other popular posts are
Lady Gaga, Why this Kolaveri Di? Justin Bieber
Bharat Ratna Sachin Tendulkar?
Are there really no full stops in India
Samsung Galaxy Note - Phablet or Tabone?
The Dreaded Pink Slip - Part I - How to avoid?

My All New Improved Alexa Rank!!

2012-02-03T07:01:00.000-08:00

Subho's Jejune Diet is now among the 10,000 most popular websites in the world, and is ranked as 184th most popular website in India. My global Alexa rank has just hit the 9,990 level!!

Ok, ok, jokes aside, - this is neither the truth nor a photoshop tweak. Neither is this validation of the widespread allegation that most Alexa ranking stats are manipulated. The recent country specific URL redirect introduced by Google and Blogger has resulted in new URLs for all blogspot blogs that are generated depending on where the page is being viewed from. This has led to some amount of confusion and trouble, but this one made my day.

Alexa does not really have stats for my .in page, but it recognizes blogspot.in as a page and has a number for it. Till a few days back, it was displaying this report for blogspot.in, but today I found it has recognized the blog, but is still displaying the earlier stat for the top level page. So this is what my current Alexa rank looks like. In reality it is at the 350,000 mark and slipping ever since this redirect has started. Thought of sharing this screenshot to bring a smile to your face. In these times of evolving norms for censorship, freedom of speech and disappearance of the right to privacy, anything that can do that is welcome.

And just to set the record straight, since I don't want some stuck up government official to find this content inappropriate (darn, my entire existence is a condemnation of the way those in power have exploited the people and is nothing if not inappropriate by their standards) and censor it now that the tools are in place, here is the screenshot of SJDs real Alexa stats. Have a nice weekend!

Update (February 7, 2012): From the last two days, Alexa has started picking up a rank for http://subhorup.blogpost.in, but it is back in the 5 millions range, just a shade better than where I started out. My rank for the .com side continues to slide, as it is now registering traffic only when visited from the US. A piece of good news though is that the February 6, 2012 Google Pagerank Update recognizes the .in domain and gives it the same pagerank as the .com domain, which in the case of Subho's Jejune Diet remains at 2.

My First Blog Award: And The Award Goes To

2012-01-31T01:08:00.000-08:00

It was a pleasant surprise to receive The Versatile Blogger Award from Rahul of Cognitive Amalgamation last week. This is the first time I have received anything like this so, quite naturally, I am even more not all there.

When one receives this viral peer review kind of award, this is what one is expected to do with it

1. Add a picture of the award in your post.
2. Thank the award giver.
3. Share 7 random facts about you.
4. Choose 15 other bloggers to pass the award to and let them know that they’ve been nominated.

Today’s special on my learning disability menu is following instructions. If I were to be reading this post, the first thing I would have wanted to see is whether my blog is on the list. So without taxing your patience any further, the last task first. And this list comes with my personal assurance that these are some of the finest and most versatile bloggers out there, and it would be well worth your time to check each of these blogs out.

A five, six, seven, eight. The award goes on to

Aarathi of Between Life’s Doings. A blog that touches on universal values and morality seen through the eyes of a spiritual seeker, mother, and homemaker. Each of her posts leaves you filled with gratitude for the vastness that lies within each of us.

Akshay of Indian Polity Today. A relatively new blog by a budding blogger. Kind of niche in that it deals with Indian Politics, but delve in and you will find that it is really an accurate and honest reflection of the emerging generation’s dissatisfaction with the present erosion of values in public life.

Amropali of Two People. A blog that does not get updated as frequently as one would like it to, but captures the creative spirit of this in-your-face blogger-poet designer as she journeys towards her true self.

Christy of My Kitchen Flavors-Bon Appetit. A blog that is as niche as niche can get, but on my list for the sheer range of recipes, cuisines, innovations, and cooking techniques in it.

Deekay of I See, I Feel, I Blog. One of my first early readers and fellow blogger, and one to whom I am extremely grateful for the love, support and feedback. The original Mogwai to what all bloggers turn into, this blog too deserves more frequent updates. This heart-felt blog is more of a personal record of the blogger’s journey and creative expression, and it will bring a smile to your face as you bask in its simplicity.

Harsha of The Leo. Harsha’s other blog, Critic Leo, is an immensely popular film review blog, but the personal blog of this emerging blogger is very interesting too. It is a privilege to get an inside glimpse into the search for social relevance of this fun-loving thinker.

Satish of I, Me, & Myself. This psychologist, physicist, pixie and philosopher who finds life and magic in content management systems, has been the source of many an amazing discovery for me in my journey towards the truth. When I ask this blogger why the blog is not updated frequently, I am told it is because it is hard to create content that can stand the test of time.

SB of One Cent at a Time. I came across OCAAT and thought it was nothing outside a personal finance blog. Time and exploration proved otherwise, as I discovered nuggets of true “wealth” stashed away in this blog.

Shubhomoy of Shubho’s Posterous. A terribly poorly tended to blog (especially given that this is from one of the nation’s foremost experts in social media marketing) by a mind so twisted that it almost looks spectacular.

Sowmya of My Space. In a crowd of mindless chatter, this blog really stands out for being solidly rooted in values, courageous in voicing its opinion, and proud of its origins.

Sujatha of Conversations. A triumph of self-searching and determination, this blog is honest and outspoken, and also very very popular judging from the number of times it has been featured on Versatile Blogger Award posts. Figures in my list mainly to trigger a rewrite of the post that was originally written for earlier editions of this award-meme.

Surabhi of Womanatics. Niche in the fact that it is women-centric, but also contains a host of superbly written, gender-neutral, wonderful posts that are useful to all. One of the first people to actively help me out with suggestions and feedback.

SVS of Knowledge Sharing. Very popular and very simple. This blog puts out all sorts of information from a rich variety of sources, without too much of opinion or self promotion, and the sheer breadth and sometimes the depth of information put out is enough for it to be on my list. SVS’s genuineness and commitment (time and effort and research) to sharing empowerment with the readers of this blog is amazing.

Tan of Elusive 42, Wownder, and Sidekick. Extremely competent writing on travel, science (allegedly for children but equally fascinating to the adult in me) and technology. His detailed travelogues can make you want to leave that cup of coffee undrunk and catch the next boat out.

Tomichan of Matheikal’s Blog. An incisive look at the crossroads of politics, religion, education and social engineering, this blog brings up difficult truths and presents them in an objective manner in order to let the reader come to his own conclusions. Very relevant, very focused, and often very disturbing.

Vyanks of A Moment Please. An absolute pleasure to read, this unpredictable blog really covers a huge range of topics, and does it with style and wit.

I am going to let each of them know that I have sent the award their way though my guess is they will check this post out before I get down to doing that. A word, though, about how I came up with this list after a quick message from our sponsors, and task three next, seven random facts about me. Chai ke liye jaise toast hota hai …

This turned out to be a lesser task than I thought it would be, since all I had to do was let my vanity drive my car and ask embarrassment to sit inthe back for a while. I also wanted the list to be truly random, yet not just a random list for the sake of a random list. Here are seven not so random facts about me

One. I get teary when I watch films or TV shows that showcase the human spirit of overcoming obstacles. This happens a lot and is terribly embarrassing.

Two. I have burned a book once. It was a hugely cathartic experience.

Three. I am a selfish musician who uses his musical abilities only as a barometer for his life state. My friends and family are extremely grateful for it.

Not only you and me. I know that Monty Python and Mad Magazine can teach one more about living than new age self help gurus or expert courses in morality or life skills.

Take Five. In spite of my dislike of the genre of music and the lifestyle that Michael Jackson pursued, I think he ranks right up there with the master of the performing arts.

Six. I do not know how to explain what I write almost as often as I do not understand what I have written. This has not led to any urge to rewrite or edit what I write.

Seven. If I had to choose one musical track that I like the most, it would be Pursuance from Coltrane’s A Love Supreme.

End of commercial break (an ad for me). We would like to let you know that this list rewards the most versatile bloggers known to me as determined by some of my myriad selves who first voted using secret ballot, but then broke in while tabulation and auditing was being done by the famed hip-hop band, The Ministry of Education. Since there were only 15 contenders for the 15 awards after truly following the Election Commission’s guidelines, the only hitch was the order, which was resolved by going alphabetical!

For those who are still on this page, I thought it relevant to share my struggle when I started looking out for 15 people that this award should go to. Several really good blogs were eliminated by the very nature of the award, versatility, so several niche blogs focused on a single topic kind of fell through. So did aggregator type of blogs, some of which are pretty high on my list of favorites. And then of course, there are bloggers who stick notices that say something to the effect of “Blog Awards, Please Excuse,” as if one were pimping a backlink or perhaps just about to ask for dowry. I canimagine that these acts of endorsement of each other’s work may become a drag for insanely popular bloggers, but for me, this is a first, and I know I will never forget how it is making me feel. Most of the truly versatile bloggers on my list already have this award tucked away in their archives. A few that don’t couldn’t be bothered. I hope it will be meaningful to the rest. The only personal filter I have used is that all the entries on this list are Indian Bloggers.

I decided to keep my obsessive-compulsive self aside for a while and list the ones out that I believe are truly deserving of this title, regardless of what they thought of it or even if they thought about it at all. All the blogs on this list are blogs that have directly contributed to my growth as a blogger, as a writer, as a student, and as a person. I am truly grateful for the presence, real and virtual, of these people in my life. All the bloggers on this list are truly versatile, in their writing and in the topics they write on, including the couple of niche blogs out there.

Now on to task two, thanking the person who sent this my way...

Thanks,Rahul! It is indeed an honor for one’s work to be recognized by fellow bloggers. I would like to thank all leaders of corporations, governments, financial institutions and religions for giving me a reason to start blogging. Thanks to all my readers for giving me enough reason to keep at it. Thanks also to Renie Ravin for creating the networking platform of Indian Bloggers, Indiblogger, through which I have found friends I never knew I had. End of acceptance speech.

And finally, here is the image for the award. If you are a recipient, you can copy this image and use it on your post. I also stuck a picture before the jump so that it shows up for people who only visit my homepage and then run away. Thanks to all of you for your love.

Blogspot Redirects to Your Country Domain

2012-01-30T19:50:00.000-08:00

This one is for the bloggers who use blogspot to host their blogs, like me. Looks like Google and Blogger have decided that in a world divided about what is permissible and what is not, it is safer to redirect all blogspot.com pages to their respective country code top level domains. To a lay user like me, this comes with a whole lot of issues, and this post is about finding perfect answers for them by raising questions. I am hoping that the technically more knowledgeable readers of Subho's Jejune Diet will come forward to help all of us answer these questions.

From this month, all blogspot blogs will be redirecting to country specific URLs. This means that if you are in India, and you are looking at a blogspot.com blog, you will get to see the blogspot.in page. The same page if viewed from Australia will show you a blogspot.au page. This also impacts page ranks and stats for the blog. For example, this blog has an Alexa rank of 340,000 and a Google Pagerank of 2. But the blogspot.in page for this blog is not recognized at all by Alexa (it gives stats for http://blogspot.in only) and shows a N/A in Google Pagerank as of now.

Blogger support has this to say about the reason for doing this: "Migrating to localized domains will allow us to continue promoting free expression and responsible publishing while providing greater flexibility in complying with valid removal requests pursuant to local law. By utilizing ccTLDs, content removals can be managed on a per country basis, which will limit their impact to the smallest number of readers. Content removed due to a specific country’s law will only be removed from the relevant ccTLD."

The recent update to their Privacy Policy has already made it clear that if users do not like the fact that Google will use all the information it has about you uniformly across all its services, they are free to take their patronage elsewhere. In my opinion, for a service that brings the world together like the open web, this comes both as a solution and a let down in times of increased censorship and regulation of free speech.

Is my blog on blogspot.in or blogspot.com now?
It is on blogspot.com, but will redirect to country code top level domain (ccTLD) depending on where it is being viewed from.

So I have as many versions of my blog out there as countries that my readers are from! How does that figure with Google's policy of penalizing duplicate content?Blogger is very reasuring with regard to how this affects bloggers, by saying: "After this change, crawlers will find Blogspot content on many different domains. Hosting duplicate content on different domains can affect search results, but we are making every effort to minimize any negative consequences of hosting Blogspot content on multiple domains. The majority of content hosted on different domains will be unaffected by content removals, and therefore identical. For all such content, we will specify the blogspot.com version as the canonical version using rel=canonical. This will let crawlers know that although the URLs are different, the content is the same. When a post or blog in a country is affected by a content removal, the canonical URL will be set to that country’s ccTLD instead of the .com version. This will ensure that we aren’t marking different content with the same canonical tag."

When I link my blog pages, what URL should I use, my .com URL or my country specific URL?
As things are evolving now, the .com URL is going to the mother URL for your content, so that is the one you should use. As yet, I do not see any aberration in page views, so other than the pagerank tools finding a way to translate the multiple domain data into one cohesive dataset and search ranking tools finding a way to figure out what is not duplicate content, there should not be a major problem.

Would a /ncr work with this?
For those of us who might be having a question about this question, a /ncr is a URL that runs a session based cookie that blocks the automatic redirect to country domain. This is what happens when you click on "Go to Google.com" from the Google.in search homepage, and works with all browsers and OS's for all Google pages. So no matter which country you are in, if you type http://subhorup.blogspot.com/ncr it will show you the pages that are otherwise "content removed" for your country as per law. When I saw my page URL displaying http://subhorup.blogspot.in, I checked to see if this works with this change. It does as of now, though it would appear to defeat the purpose of this policy. At the time of writing, you can also set up an automatic redirect to .com/ncr in the blog header by using meta tags, JS, or PHP, and as yet, it does not appear to be a violation of Google's Terms of Service, though that might be in for a change, either at policy level or at the custom redirect level.

Looks like we have more question than answers right now. How is Google going to determine what pages are permissible for .in viewers? How will the traffic data and page ranks be converged? How do I know what content on my blog is blocked and where and why? The days to come will reveal these answers as the blogging community comes forward to understand and explain the nuances of these new developments in Google Policies.

For Indibloggers
Update (1130 IST Jan 31, 2012): For Indibloggers on blogger platform, it is likely that your Indivine submissions will not show up properly (till this issue is fixed) if you are copying the URL from the address bar, since it will have a blogspot.in or .pk or .au domain depending on where you are. For some reason, Indivine accepts this URL when you submit, but cannot display it as it is a virtual URL, and not a real page. I guess the terms I am using are not correct, but this is how I understand it from a lay perspective. So what you can do is paste the URL into the submission box and then edit the .in or .pk or .au back to .com, and then it will (should) work. Please keep updating me and other readers with what you are able to find out on this issue.

Google's New Privacy Policy: The Story Behind It

2012-01-26T00:39:00.000-08:00

Greetings on the occasion of India’s 63rd Republic Day!

If you are a Google service user you are already in receipt of the notification from Google announcing its new privacy policy. This development has set the web afire with all shades of reactions. Larry Dignan at ZDNet believes that Google now knows more about you than your wife does. Others are convinced that this will strengthen the hands of regulators who are already miffed with Google’s monopolistic vision. This comes bang on the heels of last week’s failure to meet quarterly earning prediction, and the fact that user adoption of Google Plus, the social media platform that it hoped would be a gamechanger is still at about an eighth of Facebook. Not a great press time for the guys at Google, this one.

What is the new privacy policy?
The bottomline of the new policy is that Google will now replace all its privacy policies across almost all its (more than 70) products and services with one single policy that will treat the user as one entity on all its services. This policy comes without an opt-out, and is going to be in force from March 1, 2012. What this means for the user is that Google will now be able to integrate all the information (which, incidentally, you have already given them permission to acquire in the individual terms of agreements whenever you registered for a Google service) and use it to offer a better and more intuitive experience as well as use it to generate more targeted advertising on its sites. For more details about the new policy, head over to the policy page on Google, or take a look at Alma Whitten’s (Director, Privacy for Product and Engineering, Google) official blog post on this subject. In this post, we take a look at exit options, the impact of this policy, and the story behind how Google got to this point.

Is there a way out?
Google has some built in features like the ad manager that can be used to control some aspects of what this new policy might imply for users, but for most lay users, these would be similar to Facebook’s older privacy controls which lay buried in a maze of menus and options. Already developers are busy with anonymizers and opt-out extensions, and I am very curious how they will fare on Google Search results. This new privacy policy also comes with a somewhat arrogant reaffirmation of the commitment that they claim to have towards data liberation with Google makes it clear to users that while there is no opt-out, “if you want to take your information elsewhere you can.” I am certain this sounds very much like a bad marriage with a difficult divorce even to many Google loyalists.

How did Google get this powerful?
Google has become what it is today riding on the back of users who saw it as the champion of the open web. It made all its basic services free, set up huge databases of every sort, provided web development tools and support, and launched initiatives to decommercialize and free content up in many areas such as education, software programming, music, streaming video, and books. Yet, the last few years have seen it at the center of anti-trust inquiries both in the EU and in the US not very different from those faced by its alleged arch enemy - the evil corporation. The question being asked by objective commentators is whether this apparently monopolistic trend is possibly a step towards the open web realizing true openness.

The restrictive practises story goes back to when Microsoft got into trouble over features in the Windows operating system that put others at a disadvantage. The hero of that particular battle, Netscape, has however long been buried and forgotten. Microsoft on the other hand has remained the industry leader in spite of many aspects of computing evolving faster than it could strategize.

How did Google come into the picture?
Google set up shop in 1998, with its web search and advertising solutions and later webmail, and opened the door to free web services that rivalled those offered by others in terms of efficiency, speed, and user experience. Over the years, Google emerged as the new protagonist, initially by taking pole position in the search race which gave them an edge over others in terms of advertising revenue, and then by introducing a host of other web and computing services including operating systems, codecs, a browser, and their latest forays into protocols for mobile devices and chromebooks. Somewhere along this journey, they have ended up looking more and more like villains to their competition, and recently, to regulators as well. With the new privacy policy, this sentiment will surely be reinforced.

So is Google good or evil?
Google and advocates of Google’s philosophy of offering the best user experience possible, of course, do not agree with the sentiment of Google’s strategy being monopolistic. From a larger perspective, they point out that it is the size of their web footprint in terms of number of products and services that creates this perception. With regard to their new privacy policy too, they point out that just on the user experience level, they have boiled 60 different policies down to one, and cut a 68,000 word policy filled with legalese down to a 10,000 easy to understand document. Google users too often defend practices like adopting the proprietary Adobe Flash player, or developing an alternative to Javascript as positive steps towards loosening the monopolistic stranglehold of internet and technology giants.

Cloud computing is another example of how Google has actually played both sides of the game equally well. Google launched it’s cloud based document storage and processing services as a way to counter Microsoft’s Office suite, the longstanding staple of business computing, and one of Microsoft’s main bread earners. Then came the launch of the Chrome browser, the Chrome OS for netbooks, and then Chromebooks. With most new features in their services being released as Chrome-only, this can be seen as an anti-competitive stance. The reason that many observers will not agree that Google is being restrictive is that in the field of web services, the competition is merely a click away, you are free to take your information and go there.

Should I be worried about this policy?
Privacy activists may rave and rant about how they don’t want their erudite Google account to be invaded by ads based on their middle-aged YouTube searches for “preteen boys,” or to find search suggestions based on their email, but my personal opinion is that as long as you are not doing anything that you will not be embarrassed about or ashamed of, and this cauldron of data actually intuits what you wish to do and wish to see, it is a good thing. Google already had all of this data with it all this time, and has, in some way or the other, been using it to provide better targeted services. This policy just makes it official and makes you a party to the arrangement. If you are ashamed of your internet behavior, then you either need to get help, or pay the price for it, or just grow up and accept things about yourself. I know that not too many people will agree with me on that, especially given the fact that the contemporary user of the web has his adolescence, youth and adulthood all up there in the cloud. This can be embarrassing to those who would not like anyone to know that they were silly goats before they became dead serious mathematics professors - or whatever - known for their “grave”ness - or is the word “gravity?

Who is the champion of a free internet now?
In the global outrage and inquiry that has followed the announcement of its new privacy policy, there is one truth that cannot be disputed. In the last 14 years, Google has taken strategic decisions that have repeatedly been perceived as out of sync with its self declared role of guardian of the open web. The future will reveal how this develops as far as fair play in the internet technology world is concerned. It is my understanding that the war for a free internet and an open web has already moved out of the hands of corporates like Google, Apple and Microsoft, (and even governments) and has landed at the doorstep of the individual user of the internet and social media. In order to retain the benefits of an user base, services and products have to ensure that the user gets full freedom to do and see what he or she chooses. How this will happen is as yet unclear (to me) in light of the thrust of new technology being convergence and mobile computing and an as yet undefined emerging social media. The champion of the free internet and the open web is you and me.

I have put my views across on this, and I accept that my understanding of this subject is limited and perhaps biased. I like Google products, but not to the point that I am blind to unfair practices. I look forward to a stimulating discussion on this matter in the comments section. Do join in with your views.

Chiranjeevi and Balakrishna: Tollywood Star Wars

2012-01-24T21:15:00.000-08:00

The recent war of words between the two Titans of Tollywood, Chiranjeevi and Nandamuri Balakrishna has brought some light relief to the sensation starved masses. These two stars are huge draws at the box office and have filled the coffers of many a producer. Though there might have been some rivalry between them when both of them were competing, it was never overt. Both of them comported themselves with dignity and decorum and were often cited as examples for more unruly stars. These giants of the silver screen have not had a single scandal attached to them and that is saying something in these days where even a one-film wonder will have ten scandals behind him. These two have more than 250 films between them and not to have a single scandal tells us of their sincerity to their craft. The less charitable might say that they might have been much better at ‘hiding’ than the rest and they might even be right, for there have been a few whispers against one of them.

If it was just a fight for silver screen supremacy, no one would have bothered. But this war of words has political undertones and tempers are rising. What started as mild political posturing has now turned a little ugly with personal remarks and film dialogues thrown in. While this spectacle might provide some amusement to the masses the long term consequences will not be great as it will mask the real issues that need to be debated. Dr. Ramesh Grandhi, a popular guest blogger on Subho's Jejune Diet, explores the phenomenon.

I am no political pundit, but it does seem that these two are jostling for primacy in the coming elections. They are without any doubt the primary vote catchers of their respective parties and both the TDP and Congress will rely on them to a great extent to attract the masses.

With Junior NTR at odds with the TDP supremo Chandrababu Naidu and his father Harikrishna openly sulking, it stands to reason that Naidu would turn to Balakrishna for providing the glamour quotient to his party. The TDP has taken several knocks in the recent past and needs all the help it can get.

Chiranjeevi’s foray into politics wasn’t a very pleasant one. His hopes of emulating the incomparable NTR turned to dust and his plans for political stardom went awry in a big way. He ended up with a paltry number of seats but managed to garner more than 17% of the popular vote—no mean achievement that! YSR’s death and his son Jagan’s subsequent revolt from the Congress suddenly improved Chiranjeevi’s political stock with the Congress bosses bending over backwards to curry favor with him. The TDP though has good reason to be upset with him, as several analyses have shown that without Chiranjeevi’s Praja Rajyam in the fray they would have perhaps won the last election.

Balakrishna of late has been making several statements to the press about his willingness to serve his party in ‘any’ capacity. His philanthropic activities at the Cancer Institute have also been widely covered in the press. Does this indicate that he is preparing the groundwork for a plunge, and if so what better way to do it than attack the Congress’ new found golden boy. His potshots at Chiranjeevi will have the added benefit of attracting wide publicity with all the leading dailies and 24-Hr News Channels blaring nothing else but this war of words.

Chiranjeevi has not been in politics for more than half a decade but has attracted his fair share of negative publicity. A comment that he had desired a huge amount of money to join the BSP hurt his chances even before campaigning had started. Then there were allegations of seat selling that further sullied his reputation, nothing was proven, but in politics if you throw mud enough times something will stick. We also know that there is no smoke without a fire.

His ‘noble’ attempt to see that seat distribution was done in a socially fair manner was laudable, even though it failed miserably in fetching political dividends. YSR and Naidu were far too canny and had offered too many goodies to too many sections of people that his social experiment failed to take off. What is remarkable about Chiranjeevi is despite the increasing number of allegations of backroom deals being stuck for his support to the Congress, he has succeeded in maintaining his reputation for probity to a certain extent. He should however realize that the masses are beginning to suspect that his white kurta is turning gray. If he has ambitions to rule this state and it is apparent he does, he needs to take care that his public image doesn’t take any more beating.

If we were to gaze into the crystal ball for their political fortunes, the picture would be so shrouded in mist that any forecast would be quite difficult. Both of them are huge crowd pullers, and belonging to the castes they do, they have every reason to hope for a good result when the state goes to polls.

Balakrishna has the TDP behind him and his Kamma caste background will help him quite a bit. The Kamma’s dominate industry, films, and some of the biggest newspapers are owned by them. His statement that he is willing to stand from any constituency in the state shows his confidence, which might well be proven true as the masses might indeed vote for him. His being the star son of the late and lamented NTR will not hurt his chances any! The one issue where he falters is that he is no orator like his father, elder brother, or even junior NTR. He stutters and stumbles and his speeches are not impressive in sharp contrast to junior NTR who has managed to inherit not only his grandfather’s looks but also his famed oratorical skills. Balakrisna is justly famous for his dialogue delivery in films so it is surprising that his public speaking skills are mediocre.

Chiranjeevi comes from a BC background, and his Balija caste numerically is perhaps the most populous in the state, which will help him quite a bit. The backward castes form the bulk of the electorate and if he succeeds in mobilizing them behind him he should have a smooth ride, but this task is easier said than done. His first attempt at doing this failed, but his backers explained this away due to the lack of organizational structure. The BC’s while having the numbers are politically not as active as the Reddy’s or the Kamma’s and Chiranjeevi will have to take this into his calculations. Financially too the Reddy’s and Kamma’s are dominant, another factor that harms his chances. Currently, he is the flavor of the month and he might yet become a Central minister, but is he ready for the rough and tumble of Congress style politics, where infighting is the order of the day? This needs to be seen. He might be a better orator than Balakrishna, but only by a slender margin.

When it comes to their charisma and vote catching skills they are evenly matched. Both of them have had glorious film careers with perhaps the Megastar winning over the YuvaRatna at the box office. Politics, however, is a whole different ballgame and seeing their statements it is clear that bugles are being blown. It would do them credit if they make sure they don’t make a habit of ‘hitting below the belt’ but I would think that it will be impossible for them to do so. Sound bite hungry channels and newspapers will play one against the other, and we will hear a lot more comments about Bala, Kantichoopu, and thousands of crores of corruption.

Politics is indeed the theater of the absurd, so should we relax and wait for this entertainment, popcorn in hand? Not with bated breath, but with a wry smile on our rueful faces-what else can a simple voter do

Warming up for Yoga

2012-01-23T21:44:00.000-08:00

One reads a lot about yoga these days. On one hand there is the ruckus about yoga being a religious pursuit. On the other there are ads that promise weight loss and hot butts through yoga. In between there are scholarly studies that indicate that practice of yoga can cause more harm than good. There are blogs that put out a yoga posture a day in something resembling the English language. There is a whole range of hybrid yoga that is promoted on television channels and print ads by spandex-clad and photoshopped yoga instructors. Yoga, through these attempts to label it as a physical fitness regime or a weight loss solution, seems to be on the verge of being turned into something altogether different from what it truly is.

For those not familiar with the Sanskrit root of the word "yoga," it means union, communion, binding, using, applying, and directing one’s attention to. Yoga is the entire philosophy of dedicating one’s being to seek union with one’s highest life state. Different people use terms like god, the divine, the creator, and the universe instead of “highest life state,” but at the end of the day they all mean the same thing.

First things first. What is commonly promoted as yoga and comes to mind first when one mentions yoga is yoga asanas or yogic postures. However, yoga is not just about postures, body contortions and breathing exercises. That is only one aspect of yoga, known as asanas and pranayama that make up what is commonly known as hatha yoga (the way to union through determined effort), or as Patanjali called it, ashtanga yoga (the eight limbed path to union). Hence an understanding of yoga based on the physical postures or yoga asanas is an extremely limited understanding of yoga.

Yoga is the pursuit of aligning one’s body, mind and spirit with the laws of nature in order to manifest one’s fullest potential, to find happiness and success through the dispelling of disease and ignorance. There are many aspects of the meaning of the word yoga, and each of them lead one to experience fulfillment of one’s true destiny in its own way. The sum of this can be found in Arjun’s treatise on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. The yoga of faith, the yoga of knowledge, the yoga of meditation and the yoga of action are explained in detail in The Gita, essential reading for believers and non believers alike.

The yoga we know as yoga today can broadly be said to correspond to the yoga of meditation or Raja Yoga. However, according to the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali, which is the text on which all yogic practices are based, there are eight limbs of yoga, which are further divided into three stages of practice, external, internal, and spiritual. The external pursuit are those of morality, discipline, and physical health, the internal pursuits are those of breath control, mind control and withdrawal of the senses, while the spiritual pursuits are those of concentration, meditation and super-consciousness. Hence, before one can gain true benefit from the practice of asanas, one needs to make progress in the pursuit of the first two limbs of ashtanga yoga, namely Yama and Niyama. Practitioners, teachers and students who pursue and promote only asanas and the subsequent disciplines of breath control and mind control are really endorsing trying to run before one has learned how to walk. Of course, this is my opinion, and in no way is it an invalidation of the sincerity of those who believe otherwise. Sounds pretty simple, so far, right?

Yama, Niyama and Asanas are the external pursuit that lays the foundation for preparing the individual for seeking union with one’s highest life state. Yama basically means universal ethics or morality, those values that are unaffected by culture, class, religion or time. These include non-violence, speaking the truth, refraining from taking that which does not belong to you, celibacy and self restraint, and non-coveting or contentment. Niyama means rules or discipline, and are more focused on the individual himself. Patanjali lays down the five disciplines that the student of yoga is expected to follow – purity, contentment, austerity, observation of the self, and dedication to the highest state of being.

The third limb of yoga is asanas or physical postures, which most yoga programs focus on. What is made clear throughout the text of the Yoga Sutras is that control of the body through yoga asanas is of little value in the pursuit of true yoga without harmony with universal ethics and individual discipline. Breath control practices and mind control practices come after having achieved grounding if not mastery over asanas. Yet many yoga “products and services” bundle yoga, pranayama (breath control) and a hodge-podge of meditation practices and market it as yoga.

There is definitely a lot of good that be found in pursuing physical fitness, mental concentration and stress reduction through yoga as it is promoted. However, in the process one loses out on the true benefit of yoga, which is overcoming and dispelling ignorance and gaining access to the highest potential that lies within us.

We are standing at a critical juncture of our civilization where morality and individual discipline are being corrupted by what is commonly perceived as the modern way of life. The practice of Yama and Niyama allow one to develop centeredness and integrity, with the power of which one can live a life of true meaning in a difficult age. This will allow us to make lasting contribution to building a society that respects the gifts of life, nature, and the environment, a society that pursues value creation for all its stakeholders, and a society that cherishes happiness above pleasure.

If you are a student, a practitioner, or a teacher of yoga, or just contemplating taking up yoga as a pursuit, remember to warm up with Yama and Niyama before commencing on a program of yoga asanas and pranayama. This will ensure that you get the fullest benefit from your practice and spread light to all whose paths cross yours.

Dirty Picture, Sunny Leone, and Crimes Against Women: The Real Dirt

2012-01-18T19:18:00.000-08:00

Three things happened over the last couple of month’s that led up to this post. The first was the release of the movie Dirty Picture. The second was the entry of Sunny Leone into the “house of the big boss.” The third was a series of blog posts and television talk shows about the safety of Indian women in our metropolitan cities. It triggered several lines of thinking that I felt are worth reflecting upon. What message does the use of the word dirty in Dirty Picture pass on to the generation who are not yet old enough to be allowed into the theater to watch it? How does the average Indian family explain the concept of an adult entertainer over prime time television dinner on the weekend? Why do we as a society feel so surprised at rape and other gender crimes against women?

The morality and values of a society are passed on from generation to generation, and each generation accepts what it finds relevant and discards what no longer works and then passes it on. Even though we are from the land of Vatsayana, we have perpetuated a culture of sexual repression. There are two aspects to this repression – the first is a denial of female sexuality and the second is a don’t-speak rule about sex as a natural healthy urge. As a result, most Indians grow up learning about sex from their peers, from pornography, or from abuse, either as a victim or as a perpetrator. Much of this learning is erroneous and based on myths and stereotypes.

Silk Smitha was not the first Indian woman to openly flaunt her sexuality. Screen goddesses from the early days of cinema have done it, but with due deference to the menfolk, knowing that their sexuality was only to please or placate the male. Silk was the first to be openly sexual for the pleasure it brought her, often with what bordered on disregard or contempt for the male. While the moral police will be quick to point out that it does not make her a cultural role model, her cult status cannot be explained away to large percentages of submissive males alone. In many ways, she, along with other actresses and celebrities, freed the Indian woman to express herself as a person with intimacy needs and a right to sexual expression. This is in direct contradiction to the jejune diet our male-dominated society would have us on, and hence, in order to get the masses into the theaters without raising anybody’s hackles, the film is named Dirty Picture.

What a masterpiece of social engineering and political marketing! The Dirty disclaimer keeps moralists at bay. How can you object to a so called dirty picture that is called Dirty Picture? How can you object to a positive portrayal of female sexuality when it has already been labeled as dirty? How can you not be grateful to the makers of the film for having re-inforced the myth of sex and sexuality as being dirty, something that one needs to not talk about, not think about, and not long for? Ekta Kapoor’s Dirty Picture has gone on to be a hit nationwide, something that Deepa Nair could not do either with Fire or with Water, and there is a lesson to be learned here. The bottom line of the film is that a woman who dares to live life on her own terms can never be happy, and that is perhaps the secret to the acceptance of the film by our culture. The audience comes out raving about Vidya Balan’s performance but subconsciously glad that the tale turned out the way it did. And the subject of sexuality, or female sexuality, continues to be branded as dirty!

Just when Bunty and Babli thought it was safe to let the kids go into the water, came Sunny Leone into Big Boss. I have heard about Big Boss and even tried to watch a few episodes in earlier avatars but have failed to appreciate why millions would want to watch a group of squabbling roomies week after week, season after season. But then I have never understood what makes people watch serials which are really nothing more than fictionalized versions of the same thing. I must confess that I have never heard of Sunny Leone till the Big Boss thing happened, and even today, it is unlikely that I would recognize her if I bumped into her in the streets. I especially like the fact that she hails not from the pornography or the blue film industry but from the adult entertainment industry. I think this is revolutionary for our society. In one stroke, we have given the adult entertainment industry a certain social acceptance that no pornographic content or blue film maker could have ever aspired for. Sex for the sake of pleasure is now officially an acceptable value. Little Bunty and Little Babli will now be able to discuss adult entertainment with a straight face with their parents.

Another masterpiece of hypocritical marketing of double standards! The adult entertainer tag assures universal viewer interest - those who like women are attracted for obvious reasons, while those who like men are attracted to find out what she has that they don’t. Young viewers are attracted because they are not yet adults, while the older generations are attracted to remind themselves how things used to be. What is of interest though is how superficial this sheen of liberality is. How comfortable would our families be discussing adult entertainment across generations or even within generations, or lets be frank, even between the average man and wife? How calmly would we be able to introduce a close friend or relative as an adult entertainer to others? Just like Dirty Picture, here is a forbidden topic that pretends to have been outed, but is still firmly ensconced in tradition and taboo.

And finally, there was the expected but futile media explosion after the slutwalks, the dirty pictures, and the gender crimes against women. Just like AIDS or malnutrition, we as a society feel compelled to visit these questions periodically. Whether we find answers or whether those answers translate to meaningful use are also nothing more than questions to be visited periodically. Let us look at what we ingrain in our minds ( I include my generation, and my parent’s generation, and I can only hope that the future generation makes a change) as we grow up.

Boys who cry are sissies. Girls who don’t cry are tomboys. Boys study to become professionals, and while they are studying they develop proverbial manly habits. Girls study and then become homemakers, so while they are studying they need to learn to cook, sew, wash and nurse. Singing, dancing, and embroidery are preferred while rock climbing, drag racing and a hectic social life are not. A virgin adult single male is a wimp if not gay. A sexually active adult single female is promiscuous and a person of loose morals. The examples of how we discriminate between the genders are endless and almost all are disempowering to women. The media too portrays women as objects rather than as people. Nine out of ten films made in our country have a non-existent role for the female protagonist but a meatier role for the item girl. Recent films have managed to roll the item girl into the virtuous heroine, a generic package meant to titillate the male gaze and turn the female gaze into self pity or anger while doing a perfect balancing act between being Chammak Challo and Chikni Chameli on one hand and Sati Savitri and Mother India on the other.

The social response to crimes against women is to ask the women to behave and dress appropriately, and almost never to question the male behavior. This is not a new development, it goes right back to our mythologies. The woman is expected to carry symbols of being a possession, be it the mangalsutra or the sindoor, while the male is exempt from any such stigma. Without addressing these inequities and double standards, it is unreasonable to enter a discussion on why women are at the receiving end of injustices. Just as anti-corruption laws are being delayed and thwarted in every way possible, attempts at discussing gender inequities, especially in our society is dead-ended by the stale excuse that we are a conservative society and that such matters do not need to be discussed, since our men are descended from the ideal man, and our women do not need to be brought into such discussions. We are so cool.

These three developments might not be lifechanging for our society, but they are milestones. We have invited female sexuality and gender inequity into our living rooms through the television and the DVD player. Regardless of the fact that it still is veiled behind the purdah of hypocrisy, it is a beginning. And in many ways it is a good time for this beginning. We are now aware of the downside of aggressive feminism and how it damages relationships and family bonding. We have seen the futility of trying to gender-neutralize biological and social functions of the sexes. We can choose to take the best of what right thinking people over the world have fought to achieve over the last several decades and discard what has been proven to not work.

Disclaimers

1. I believe that gender equality is not the same as feminism.

2. I have not seen Sunny Leone or the current season of Big Boss yet. As a matter of fact, I am not even aware if it is still running or if she is still “in the house.”

3. I believe that there are some things that men are better at than women and vice versa, but then that is purely my subjective opinion.

4. I believe that creative erotica is not the same as pornography.

5. I believe that the only answer to hate and victimization is compassion and acceptance.

Commenting on Blog Posts: The Art and the Science

2012-01-17T05:57:00.000-08:00

One of the more dynamic aspects of the blogging world is the comment thread. The emergence of the blog as more than just a platform for personal expression into a potential tool for marketing of ideas, products, and services has brought with it a desperate need for traffic and followers. The “worth” of a blog no longer lies in the value of the content; instead, the value of the content is now measured in terms of hits, bounce rates, and time on site. Content is now created keeping keywords and SEO in mind, and creativity often is forced to play second fiddle to them. To this end, the blog comment has also undergone a revolution of sorts and the art of commenting is slowly losing out to the onslaught of social media marketing and promotion.

In the early 2000’s, one hardly bothered about the market-ability of what one wrote, and the blog posts and the discussions that followed were profound yet informal. Comments would be few, but relevant and insightful, often adding greater value to the post itself. Nowadays, popular blog posts attracts hundreds of comments. These start flowing in and getting approved and published as soon as the post goes live, more as an indicator of the quantity of readers and popularity of the blog than as reflection on the content of the post itself.

While there are two sides to this state of affairs, it is not hard to understand why it is so. Comments have come to be identified as more of a tool for self promotion than one of dialog. One of the leading experts on blogging says, “To grow your blog, commenting on other people’s blog is the way most blogger start off promoting their websites. It’s easy to do because most of the times you don’t need the permission of the website owner to comment on their site.” One can see how this has translated to reality in the quality of comments that one commonly finds on blogs these days.

For many blogger, a comment on another blog has become a tool for getting a comment back or at least a single hit on their own blogs. What most commenters ignore is that the comment thread is a tool for a dialog that is initiated by the blog post. The only reason why one would click through to a link on the comment is if one finds the comment to be relevant and thought provoking enough to check out the content on the commenter’s link. Of course, the reality is different. I regularly click through to links on comments like “nice post” and “great article.” Part of it is out of a compulsion to reciprocate, and part of it is to seek an opportunity to leave a comment on a post out there. I do not pride myself for this behavior, yet cannot ignore the effort taken by someone to leave a comment on my post.

Given the ongoing dissonance between my beliefs on this subject and my behavior, and the frequent annoyance that arises from it, I decided to jot down my guidelines for commenting for myself. These are not necessarily guidelines for commenting on this blog, though I would love it if you looked at them that way.

The art of commenting

1. Comment only when you have something to say. Instead of just saying “nice post,” let the blogger know why you thought it was nice. While “nice post” is something to say, if you are saying that for all posts on all blogs, it really boils down to nothing. If you have nothing to say, please do not say it here.

2. Disagree courteously. Disagreements are often opportunities to explore new ways of thinking and looking at things. It is only natural that you may have a point of view that is contrary to what is put out in a post. Feel free to put your point across but refrain from being unpleasant. This planet and cyberspace both afford each of us enough room to disagree and cohabit. If you feel so strongly about your viewpoint that it is not possible for you to express yourself without being uncivil, refrain from commenting.

3. In the realm of wisdom and spirituality, we keep what we have only by giving it away. It is likely that you have greater knowledge and understanding of the subject of a post than the person who has written it. Please do share your wisdom in the comments so that all can benefit from it.

4. Do not use the comment thread to settle scores or personal disputes. Use your cellphone, bedroom or the courts for that.

5. Provide links to resources. If you are providing data that readers will want to verify, quote your sources. If you have already written at length on what you are saying in your comment, add a link to your post, instead of writing it out all over again. A comment is not a blog post.

6. Use your comments for shameless self promotion. Yes, you read that correctly. Comment in a manner that establishes you as someone whose opinions and comments are worth listening to, and someone whose blog is worth following. Most of the bloggers whose work I share or refer to in my social media presence are bloggers I have discovered by virtue of the quality of their comments on my posts and elsewhere. That means making sure that your comments bring value to the post, to the blogger, and to the readers.

7. Very often comments are left in a hurry, as if the commenter’s time is more valuable than the post being commented on. While that may be true, that is not what a blogger will want a comment on his post to reflect. Proofread your comments for spelling and grammatical errors. Nothing speaks as poorly of your intent as a sloppily written comment.

And finally,

8. Comment from your heart. If your heart dictates a “nice post” or a smiley only, so be it. A genuine comment, regardless of whether it is disagreement, criticism, or adoration, is more valuable than one which is contrived and artificial.

You are free to reproduce these guidelines on your blog with or without modifications, with or without any credit or backlink to me, and you do not need my permission to do so. If you do let me know that you used it or do offer me credit, I will be overjoyed and will send you a free audiobook of me reading the Concise Oxford. If these guidelines can bring about an improvement in the quality of comments anywhere in the blogosphere, I will consider my mission to have been accomplished.

The Search for Happiness: Guest Post at Elevation Life

2012-01-13T20:52:00.000-08:00

Happiness is our natural birthright, but we often get confused about what it truly means. Happiness is not a life without struggle or a state in which nothing undesirable happens. It is the ability to see the wholeness of things, to accept humbly that which instructs us through pain and to respond to the call of life to participate in it. It is in the ability to cleanse your perception so that you see with your heart, the ability to follow your heart even when it might seem that you will be the only one on your journey, and the ability to be grateful even at times of great adversity. Happiness is being a student, a teacher, a mate, a child, a lover and a parent, and honoring the multitudes that we are all made of.

I am honored to have one of my posts featured on Bryan Thompson's life-changing blog Elevation Life. Do head over to read the rest of the post there.

Sankranti Subhakankshalu

2012-01-12T21:07:00.000-08:00

Greetings to all my readers on the occasion of Sankranti 2012! May your lives be filled with love, light and laughter! May your storms always be wary of the strength of your faith!

Sankranti, which is celebrated across the land in various forms on January 14, is a harvest festival as the Sun moves into Capricorn (Makar, hence the name Makar Sankranti) and ends the so-called inauspicious phase and heralds the onset of auspicious times as per the Hindu calendar. Across India, it is known variously as Makar Sankranti, Magh Bihu, Pongal, Uttarayan, Maghi, and Poush Sankranti. The celebrations vary too, but the theme is the same, thanksgiving to the protective forces of the environment, letting go of the past and making fresh determinations for the future, inviting wisdom and purity into life, strengthening social ties with family and friends, and having a good time together.

Sankranti, for me, is when the the sky start to shed its wintry grey and turns clearer and bluer each passing day, when the eight winds change direction (three days after Sankranti according to popular wisdom) and becomes warmer, when the streets of Hyderabad suddenly open up as people head out out of the city and homeward for the four days of festivities, when homes welcome you with bright and intricate rangoli, when the house is filled with the rich smell of traditional ghee fried goodies, when the womenfolk dress up in bright new clothes and wear jewelry and put flowers in their hair and go visiting each other in the evenings, when the sky is speckled with kites of all hues, and the terraces are filled with men and children putting out their best manja to prove their kite flying prowess.

Sankranti is a reminder that while I am the one who flies the kite of my life, the path it takes is governed by my respect for the forces of nature, and that I need to exercise courage, prudence, and wisdom along with firm faith if I want my kite to convey the greatness of all life. My Sankranti is a reminder that it is not necessary to carry the clutter of ignorance and attachment, and that the fire of knowledge can dispel the darkness of false beliefs. Sankranti is about the rice powder in the rangoli that feeds ants, birds and insects when you are not looking, and the complex mandalas or designs that prevent negativities from entering into our lives. And at the end of the day, Sankranti is about letting your hair down and breathing easy and having a good time, enjoying the sights and sounds (and tastes) of a people celebrating their oneness with the environment.

As the result of the journey of my life, I have developed my own understanding of much of my culture, and I am extremely glad for my understanding, though it often contradicts what our culture is commonly understood as. This post was triggered by an inspiring article I read on Sankranti by one of the more thoughtful bloggers that I follow, Sowmya Swaminathan.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T08:55:00.000-08:00

I was surprised to find that I have never written a post exclusively for or about Christmas, and actually had to do a few searches across the various blogs to be certain. Surprised because in my scheme of things, the only festival that resonates with me and makes me go mushy is this one. Partly that is because of my having spent much of my childhood at Christian missionary establishments, and part of that is because of the obvious Christian subtext of the majority of the writers I read, Dylan Thomas and Thomas Mann, Nietzsche and Russel, or Le Carre and Rand. So this year, as I bring to close a particularly instructional part of my life and launch into a more exciting phase, as I wish my readers all light and joy in the coming year, as I snuggle into the holidays with my favorite writers, artists and musicians, here’s to the spirit of Christmas, a post on The Story of Parth - A Puppy Called Hope. Have a good one!

Frugal Living Healthy Eating

2011-12-21T06:33:00.000-08:00

A lot of people come to this blog from food and diet related web searches, thanks to the name of this blog! My guess is that at least a few of them do not go back disappointed - for two reasons. 1) They like the non-food related stuff they see here. 2) There are quite a few yummy food posts tucked away in the archives of this blog.

I am a foodie in every sense of the word, a gourmet and a gourmand rolled into one. One of the reservations I had in my early experiments with frugality was that I might end up having to compromise on my love for fine food. However, with time, I discovered that frugality and food share a special relationship. By choosing frugal eating options, one can build a diet that is healthier, tastier, and more ethical than most of what goes by the name of food in fine dining establishments. Ever since I read Michael Pollan's writing, I have endeavored to elevate my understanding and consumption of food. Frugality added the necessary tempering to my efforts.

Read more at my guest post at Pick The Brain on The Frugal Way to a Healthier Diet. Do let me know what you think in the comments, and feel free to share it on your networks if you like it.

Read the whole post on The Frugal Way to a Healthier Diet>>.
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The Dreaded Pink Slip Part II - How to Deal With it

2011-12-20T19:18:00.000-08:00

How do you deal with the reality of being fired from your job? In this second part of his article Dr. Ramesh Grandhi discusses the best strategies for dealing with a pink slip once it has been handed to you.(To read the first part, Click Here.)

It is every employee’s nightmare come true and something he devoutly prays will never happen to him, but realistically speaking there is a decent chance that it might happen. For some it might happen within 2 to 3 years of employment and for others perhaps a decade or so after. The only constant is no matter when it happens most employees are psychologically ill prepared to face the brunt of an uncertain future.

I would not like to in anyway portray employers as ogres just waiting to pounce and destroy careers and lives, nothing will be farther from the truth. They too have to safeguard their own interests and keep up to their obligations and believe me in these days there are a lot of stipulations placed on them. They have to “cut” quite a lot of corners to achieve what they promised their shareholders or funding agencies. It would be naïve on the part of the employee to expect that employers would sacrifice their own interests to save them.

Now that we know that the pink slip is something we cannot ignore let us find the best ways of being prepared for this eventuality and coping with the aftermath.

1. Money: Save as much as you can for the coming rainy days. The psychological boost and confidence you get with having money in the bank is indescribable. Do not bank on any severance pay or gratuity to tide you over, consider that as a bonus, but make sure you scrimp and scrounge but SAVE as much as possible while you still have a job to go to. Each and every employee should be well versed with his contract particulars. If not, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to immediately read it to find out what kind of a severance package is on offer, what the gratuity would amount to, and also how much money would be there in the provident fund.

2. Handle the pink slip with as much grace as you can muster. It might be the single most difficult thing you have to do, but do it. You will feel that the entire world has conspired against you and that the “exit”utives are disguised hangmen who are unfairly beheading you. To a certain extent if you are a conscientious and productive employee you would be right, however, you will have to recognize that it is not in your interest to create a scene, because no matter what you do the pink slip for you is a reality and you will need to pack up and leave. There is no sense in burning any bridges, because if things change this very same employer might take you back, so make sure not to rile him up. Make sure to leave the premises as unobtrusively as possible, just inform your close colleagues and leave with a smile on your face.

3. In these uncertain times, it pays to be on the lookout for better pastures. If you get any hint that your management is seriously considering downsizing to cut costs, immediately brush up your skills and update your resume. If a new manager or supervisor has been appointed and you don’t get along with him all that well that might be more than enough to “earn” the dreaded slip. You will need to understand that the new guy on the block might have already been given the brief to show you the way out. So do make sure to keep your Biodata or CV or Resume or whatever else you might call it up to date and not leave it to the day you are fired.

4. Develop a finely tuned antenna that will warn you of an impending pink slip, and once that antenna starts to tingle start checking job ads immediately, the early bird does catch the worm! If your company has been acquired by another and you are in a managerial role, your antennae should go wild. If you don’t already have an old-boy network start developing one on a priority basis. Ring up your friends and acquaintances working in related industries and request them to inform you of openings in their companies.

5. Try and ask the “exit”utive the reason, ask him whether your performance and attitude had any bearing on the decision or it was due to overall cost cutting through downsizing. You will in most cases not get a straight answer, with that gentleman mumbling that it was a “management decision”.

6. Recover from the shock as quickly as possible, it is true that you have been hard done by, but sitting at home bemoaning your fate, cursing all and sundry or drowning yourself in liquor will not help you or your family, you need to understand YOU will need to continue to bring home the bacon. The sooner you put this behind you, the faster you can search for a new job and you never know there might be a much better one out there waiting for you.

An employee who has just been kicked out in spite of commendable service to his company might not at first glance like a lot of what I have written, but if he takes a moment or two to reflect I am reasonably certain that he will understand that there is more than a modicum of truth and common sense in this article.

The Dreaded Pink Slip Part I - How to Escape Its Clutches

2011-12-20T19:11:00.000-08:00

Job losses are one of the realities of our times that many people are challenged to deal with. What steps can you take to prevent it, and how can you best deal with it once the dreaded pink slip does come your way? Dr. Ramesh Grandhi offers you some tips on how you can avoid getting fired in this first of two posts on the subject.

*****

We are facing uncertain times, our growth rate is falling precipitously, exports are drying up, the rupee is tanking and the global economic climate is nothing to write home about. As our IT and ITES sectors are heavily dependent on the US and the Euro Zone for their business, weakness in these markets is causing a lot of turmoil in these companies. The falling rupee is providing them some cushion, but if your business dries up then there will be no dollars and no rupees! In some ITES sectors, Technology is improving by leaps and bounds and this too will lead to quite some retrenchment down the line.

Quite a lot of software professionals are nervous these days and hoping against hope that they will not be guillotined; the pink slip is indeed a guillotine in more ways than one. Company managements in India have changed, they have become more westernized, the days of empathizing with your employees have long gone, it is a dog eat dog world out there and your colleagues will not have many qualms in sacrificing your career if it will prolong their own.

So in such an environment what can any employee do to avoid the dreaded Pink Slip?

1.Make Yourself Indispensable
Performance will always count, even in bleak times. Be punctual and do your duty as conscientiously as possible. Without being too obvious about it make sure your work is noticed by your superiors—believe me that is important!

2.Be a Team Player
Your performance will be judged not only on its quality and quantity, but also on how well you get along with your colleagues and how passionate you are about your job. Loners and disrupters will be frowned upon.

3.Deal with Pressure
It is a given that employees will be asked to burden themselves with extra duties, you should be stable and capable enough to accept and carry out this burden. Make an effort to remain positive throughout, find out what the short and long-term goals of the company are and as subtly as possible let the concerned authorities know that you are in tune with them. Learn to keep your opinions to yourself, know that divergent opinions even if expressed with an intention to help won’t be welcome.

4.Keep a Happy Demeanor
Keep smiling while you toil, remember these days will pass. Perform to the limits of your capability, keep the morale of your associates high and help them perform to their potential. Never deny any of your superior’s requests, remember they will be instructions couched as requests.

In spite of all this if you are given a pink slip, don’t under any circumstances panic or get disheartened. You will be doing yourself and your family a disservice if you let it affect you. Let us discuss how best we can handle this career detour in another article.

Can't You Hear Me Knocking?

2011-12-16T18:39:00.000-08:00

By the time I was 60, and that was nearly five years ago, I was totally stuck. Not metaphor stuck, but stuck stuck. In my late 30s and early 40s, it was not this bad. Sure, If I sat, I would be stuck to the chair, and if I laid down I would be stuck to the bed, but I would be able to get up and go on to do the next thing I needed to. It started getting worse once I crossed 50, and the last few years, it has overtaken me entirely.

(I first set my tongue to freeze, and started working on the gooey bands at my shoulders and neck, and then once the corrupt slime froze and hardened, I used the VG-1 blade of my mind to stab at it like a chisel till it broke off in pieces. I then changed the settings on my tongue to hiss and crackle to burn the remaining bits off, before switching back to freeze mode again. It would be a long night, but I had to get out.)

Now I lie in my bed, and I am no longer sure if the slimy stuff that engulfs and devours me is stuff that oozes out of the woodwork or out of me. There are days of sunshine and hope, and I get filled with a new hope, and I spend all morning trying to get one limb free. I twist on to one side and send all my positive thinking towards that one limb, watching the fingers leave the black tarry goo, and then the palm and the wrist, and then the forearm.

(Every now and then, fatigue overcame me, and I rested, keeping my tongue in standby, and with my mind held loosely but ready to spring into action. I had to resist sleep, since the sticky situation had its own system of overtaking the unmindful. Like the darkness within that Peter Parker has to battle, I too was faced with evil that appeared stronger than my will to be and do good.)

It is a struggle of the strangest kind as the dark and viscous tentacles slowly snap back, leaving my forearm free, and instead start gathering force at my upper arm, to prevent any further losses. I contort my body to exert the maximum force, and free my arm entirely, and if it is one of those days when I am feeling strong, I manage to get it free till my shoulders.

(The flames from my tongue leaped out and lashed at the gummy jelly like ribbons that rose out of the slimy pool, sputtering as it burned through the evil that it contained. The putrid smell of burning living matter filled the air. The sharp blade of my mind was getting coated with the juices of the sticky substance and the flecks of frozen and burnt malevolence.)

Then I start working on my other arm, using my free arm to pull away at the gunk that it is mired in. Yet as I start doing that with some measure of success, the darkness gathers elsewhere and the slime begins to invade my back and shoulders again, pulling me back. Before I know it, it climbs up my free arm, and pulls it back into submission.

(Even though it was me and my battle against all that kept me tied down, the mayhem that it was made it sound like an entire nation was up in arms, and to me that was precisely how it felt. I thanked my stars for the VG-1 cold steel of my mind and the narrow laser focus of my flamethrowing tongue.)

There is a strange sense of gratification and maybe even victory in that submission, like a starving man faced with a lavish spread, a cold dog that sights a warm fire not too far away, a junkie shivering in anticipation of the heroin running up his veins and spreading comfort to all parts of the body.

(It is funny how experience often influences judgement more than truth or facts do. The horror of realizing what you are stuck in can be so overpowering that one begins to view the sticky situation as acceptable or even desirable. When I speak with others about my beliefs, I hear many of them saying, it is not possible to get out of this unless everyone thinks in the same way. I remind them that there was a time when only one person believed that the earth was round, that there was a time when only one person believed that the earth rotated around the sun, and that there was a time when only one person believed that his fried chicken recipe could become an industry by itself.)

It is funny how fact and fiction can coexist in our daily lives like buddhahood and corrupt politicians. It is funny how truth and perception tend to get blurred with things that are close to your heart. It is funny how wit and wisdom can mean the same thing just as much as they can opposites.

*****

This is a piece I wrote for the KFC Sets You on Fire contest hosted by Indiblogger. It is neither fiction nor creative writing, but the truth about my life, your life, and our times. If you are a blogger, do go ahead and promote my entry on your blog and on Indiblogger. If you are not, do leave a comment to let me know what you thought of this post.

Are There Really no Full Stops in India?

2011-12-16T00:10:00.000-08:00

It is my honor to host this post by Dr. Ramesh Grandhi, who is well known to many readers of this blog. A physician by training from the Sri Venkateswara University of Medical Sciences, he is best known for the inspirational leadership he provided to his team of healthcare specialists as Vice-President at a leading Healthcare BPO for the last 12 years. Thank you, Dr. Ramesh for sharing your thoughts with the readers of Subho's Jejune Diet.

*****

Just finished reading The Hindu’s write up on Mark Tully’s No Full Stops In India, and wanted to share my views on him and his book. Tully is indeed a respected name in India and his articles and books have always, even in my jaundiced view, shown a genuine love and respect for India, and more importantly Indians.

For writing this book, he traversed the length and breadth of this vast country visiting Naxal infested areas and regions riven by caste and communal conflicts. I wonder if an Indian had said the same things that Tully is saying would those views be given the same importance? I fear not, I feel that our brown skinned selves would still give more credence to a white man.

Tully also mentions the Tatas and how they have spread their wings under the liberalized regime. Like all Indians, I have long been an admirer of the Tata conglomerate, but I would be lying if I said that my respect for them has not been dented by the Nira Radia tapes and their misplaced munificence in Raja’s constituency. I know that I am going off on a tangent here, but hey what the hell, I needed to get this off my chest!

Regarding Tully’s views on where India is currently positioned, is it a superpower in the making or is it jumping headlong into becoming a failed state, I would say that we are at a rather critical juncture. We are in no way a superpower now, but can we become one in the near or even distant future? If I were to wear my realist’s hat, I would say the chances were between 20-25%.

China is so far ahead of us in all spheres that catching up would be well nigh impossible. Unless China implodes due to its inherent contradictions or the US engineers a Taiwan-China conflict to safeguard its position as the sole superpower, or the Muslim underbelly of China raises its secessionist head I don’t see any reason for China not surpassing the US in the coming 20-25 years or even faster if the US economy continues to falter. The second half of the Twenty First century may well turn out to be a Chinese one and we can kick ourselves for not making the best of the opportunities on offer; if we had we would have been where China is currently positioned.

Is our democracy a boon or a curse or is it both? I would tend towards both. Totalitarian regimes are brutal and we had a very brief glimpse of this during the Emergency years. All middle class Indians dream of a benevolent autocratic regime, we pray for a Lee Kuan Yew, but the chances of getting a Hitler or Mussolini are much more than getting a Lee. Our democracy has become a mobocracy where the mob rules, the intelligentsia have confined themselves to their ivory towers and the burgeoning middle class while moaning about everything under the sun is too busy and pseudo-elitist to even vote. Politicians have learned that appeasing the illiterate downtrodden masses is the easiest way to come to power and they have refined this into an art form.

So are we a failed state or are we in danger of becoming one in the near future? The way we are throwing up fractured mandates, the way Naxalism is spreading (Red Corridor), the ugly scenes in Parliament and Assemblies where no business is transacted and only walkouts or adjournments are the order of the day leads any sane person to believe that unless corrective measures are taken and that too expeditiously we are headed in that direction.

Like all patriotic Indians I would hope that emphasis would be placed on taking care of the needs of its citizens primarily in the health and education sectors and in employment generation. Make haste steadily and surely should be our guiding principle and yeah we might not become a superpower, but our people will at least eat one square meal a day!

How to Cook Like a Masterchef

2011-12-07T23:02:00.001-08:00

This may look like it is for food bloggers, gastronomists, and closet foodies, but it is not. This one is for all who love to live, live to love, and wonder why both loving and living are so challenging. This one is for those who stop in the middle of the road and wonder what they are doing there. This one is for the ninja in each one of us that we didn’t know really existed. This one is for me. This one is for you.

Why do we study the philosophy of food, and the life and the wisdom that is sustained and transmitted through this most sacred of causes. Why do we read for that matter?

Clothes protect us from cold and food sustains us, just as oil keeps a fire burning and water supports fish. - Nichiren Daishonin

Each Moment is a New Beginning

When planning, preparing and serving a meal, one needs to first clear the decks and make a fresh start. As in all areas of life, your mentor will be able to teach you the correct way of executing your faith in yourself. Don't forget the hurt of a ruined dish, or a sunk cake, but don't carry either regret that it happened or fear that it will happen again. A path is created by walking. (African Proverb) Similarly, one must not be arrogant of past successes and achievements and strive to brings one's self to the present moment, and be in it. Like getting the onion slices uniform.

At every point of your cooking, ask yourself, am I seeking to do the best thing now, is my mind and my soul telling me what the next right cause to create is.

Food can be relatively good, or absolutely good. Much like the provisional teachings and the ultimate teaching, or like snail mail and broadband video conferencing, the choice is yours.

Our mentors never stop cooking. My mom is 80 and still runs a tight ship in the kitchen. The diamond commandment is to never give up practicing. Even the best cook still needs to do a GTD style weekly review on a daily basis, and while cooking, probably on a minutely basis.

Get Out of Your Own Way

The greatest danger is to consider the dish you prepare to be the achievement that you have striven for. Do not make this blunder. These are temporal "icing on the cake" and anything less than manifesting your destiny through your cooking is a weak determination to make.

The focus of your life has to be the object of your devotion, your mission to use your gifts to promote harmony and understanding, yes, with a pomegranate and garlic chives, with a peeler and a ladle, a glaze and a crust. Through your lives and your work, you can inspire others to similarly manifest their true nature to the fullest. The smiles on the faces after a meal, too, are but "icing" and not the cake. Do not make the mistake of missing the cake for the icing.

I can hear the loving cooks fret, but that is what we cook for, the smiles!

A simple way to understand this is to see that the smiles are not the effect, they are the causes. They will cause further happiness in the lives of the people in the radar of those smiles. They are the causes that will strengthen your mission and your faith. Step back, we create the causes that create the causes that result in happiness.

Trust Your Mission

A common challenge for all kitchen workers is a disaster on hand, whether it be failed equipment, or time and material gone wrong. Remember, your opportunity to create value is commensurate to the size of the challenges you take on. Instead of lamenting, we can remind ourselves that by our commitment to "feed" people, we have automatically received protection from the universe. It is always ideal if the ground is illuminated, but till you get there, the skies may not be clear. Look at the function of a kitchen disaster not as an obligation to work around but as mission to turn "poison into medicine" and still deliver on your promise to celebrate life.

When you have a noble goal in mind, obstacles are bound to arise, not just in disasters, but also in errors in judgment. Remember that when the obstacles are fierce, they become you, and you are going to have to be strong enough to disagree with yourself if you want to win. Preparedness, Wisdom, Courage, and boundless Faith are the key ingredients in dealing with the errors that arise from the devil choosing to take over your cook mind. Study, practice, and keep the faith, pretty simple, actually.

Of course, not waiting for a crisis is essential. It is lack of appropriate prudence at the right time that causes manifestations to be delayed. If you know fish don't take more than three minutes on each side, don't go checking your e-mail till it is done. One must be receptive to one's inner "receiver" and keep it tuned and powered, like a zen guitar. This transmitter (the one that tells us instinctively what ingredient to add when and in what quantity) is a really powerful one, it runs on the rhythm of life, the rhythm of the universe, but if our receivers are not tuned or not powered, we will, metaphorically speaking, be left holding the icing only.

Love and Live by Your Own Standards
Do not look at your style of cooking or your presentation or your flavor palette the way society or people look at it, look at it as a gift you have been given for a worthy cause, a hearty healthy moment of oneness over a meal.

A last word with one of the best tips I ever got from a fellow kitchen worker.

Flow and Zone are common words in performance sciences. But one's culinary skills need to be like flowing water, and not flaming fire. Take a set of five or six dishes, make them your own, master them, experiment with them, perfect them, over and over and over - your family will hate your for this, but only till they sit to eat. Once you can do it in your sleep, take another set. Repeat. The way the blue of the indigo plant deepens with every repeated dying, let your entire being become one with the creation with an intensity that is beyond that of "doing" something.

If you have read till here, I am certain it is time you got back to the kitchen of life and love.

Physician, Heal Thyself - Three Questions

2011-12-07T00:16:00.001-08:00

Alice Mitchell: Dennis?!!!!!!
Dennis Mitchell: What strawberry pie?!
(a Dennis the Menace single frame)

Q: Who is in the puja room?
A: But I didn’t eat the bananas!
(old Bengali proverb)

Over the last 24 hours, much is being made of the governments attempts to “censor” or “regulate” offensive content on the social media sites. While the official was quick to go on air and proclaim that this was out of concern for religious sentiments and national security, everyone is aware of what the real intent is. In many ways, what is happening is a good thing. It shows up people for what they are, something that has been happening with a heartening frequency over the last several months.

It was really the anticorruption movement of the civil society led by Anna Hazare that brought this into focus, as the web brought the masses together. One of the arguments offered by the ruling party politicians and officials then was that the movement really didn’t matter much, since it was an elitist movement supported by armchair intellectuals tweeting and blogging in an elitist language. This view was endorsed by many grassroot social commentators too. But then, this was in April. By later in the year, this perception had been changed altogether by the millions across the country, across class and caste, who joined in the movement.

Watching the twitterverse and blogospheres explode with the developments, I switched on the TV. There were several white haired boys taking different sides of the debate, and I was reminded of Kurt Vonnegut’s definition of true terror as waking up one day and finding that your country is being run by your high school class. This prompted me, like the thousands of other bloggers who are right now doing the same, to put my thoughts down about this. I took three of the allegations indirectly being made against bloggers and social activists on the internet and tried to answer them as objectively as possible.

1. Are bloggers elitist?
2. Do bloggers spread hate and intolerance?
3. Are bloggers vain and self centered?

1. Are bloggers elitist?
It is obvious that those in power are totally unaware of what is happening in the social media space. With Indian language support growing in leaps and bounds among all social networking platforms and with mobile phone penetration putting social media access at the user’s fingertips, one no longer needs to blog or tweet in English using complex applications on a computer. Vernacular blogs are multiplying, evolving, and maturing rapidly. Perhaps the explosion of social media in societies like ours is precisely because of the frustration with the system, since most blogs are openly critical of the ills of the system. One of the startling discoveries for me was to find political parties using the social media in regional languages to put their ideologies forward. That aside, there are some extremely popular and thought provoking vernacular blogs out there. What is worrying for those in power is that the numbers are growing, and so is the realization that we as a people have been taken for a ride by the political elite. Is blogging elitist? Of course it is, but it brings a different type of elite of our country together, the elite who believe in values, in human welfare, and in standing up for the truth.

2. Does social media spread hatred and intolerance?
The Indian society is built on the principle of tolerance. Our major religions teach us tolerance. Our national leaders and politicians are epitomes of tolerance. Do you think they are not aware of what the common man thinks of them? Yet they go about doing what they have to for five years without a complaint, and then come and ask to be voted to power again. We as citizens too are a tolerant lot. We tolerate the lack of roads, water, power, health, and education for years and years without complaining. At best, we turn to the private sector and fill their pockets instead. We even tolerate the hijacking of our oppression for political ends! Is there not a need for something to balance this excess of tolerance that we have built into our society? What is intolerance? Is protesting against corruption intolerance? Is speaking about the obvious dynamics within the ruling party intolerance? Is the disapproval of an inadequate and biased legal system intolerance? If yes, the social media does promote intolerance. On the other hand, the social media is also where balance is restored to extreme emotions. When Sharad Pawar was slapped by a young man recently who was protesting against corruption and high prices, the social media was quick to criticise the act even though for all intent and purposes, most people could identify with the man who committed the act.

3. Are bloggers vain and self centered?
The social media space is occupied by people of all shades and hues. They cover the entire gamut of ideologies - political, philosophical, economic and religious. Some of them do write about what they actually do in terms of living their ideologies. Most don’t. However, that does not mean that they do not do anything, but just that they do not talk about it on their blogs. The true agents of social change on the internet are by and large quiet about their personal contributions but vocal in their propagation of the need for change, vocal in their criticism of what they see as wrong with the system. This does sometimes create the illusion of a lot of chatter but little of matter. It is perhaps important for the blogging community to start sharing in the most appropriate manner what it is doing to make a difference. A small but powerful example that comes to my mind is that of Surabhi Surendra, a blogger from a remote part of Andaman and Nicobar islands who spent Children’s Day realizing the challenges faced by children there in pursuit of learning and creativity and decided to do what she could for them. This is just one example of how people are making a difference through their presence in cyberspace.

I now turn my questions around and leave it to my readers to answer them. The answers are obvious even to those least in the know. The tragedy is that few, if any, of our politicians are either willing or capable of answering these questions with any measure of honesty.

1. Are politicians elitist?
2. Do politicians spread hate and intolerance?
3. Are politicians vain and self centered?

2011 has been a year of coming from the shadows for social media. While marketing and advertising professionals have been figuring out the consumption patterns of those who log on to update their status thrice a day or to upload pics of their drunk friends from last night’s party, a quiet revolution has been taking place that is capable of bringing governments down and saving lives. Apart from the free and in depth access to information that the internet offers, there is now a new sociopolitical dimension to being a netizen, one that rises beyond all that is petty and provincial. The internet has made social activism possible on a global scale, where the entire world can know first hand what living conditions are all over the world and how they can contribute to a remedy as individuals. The internet has created a new elite, an elite that prides itself for its humanity, its compassion and its commitment to positive change! An elite that just might make it possible to regulate and censor politicians and their activities.

Thank You For Your Love!!

2011-12-01T23:28:00.001-08:00

I thank all of you who have nominated and voted for this blog for the Top 50 Personal Development Blogs of 2011, along with some of the biggest names in personal development blogging. For those of you who have not yet voted, you can do so till December 12, 2011.

There are some brilliant blogs out there on the CYT list, so please do vote for your favorite by leaving a comment at the bottom of the nomination page. Thanks if you have voted for this blog or will be voting for it. You can go directly to the nominations page by clicking on the badge below, scroll down to the bottom of the page and enter a comment saying that you vote for Subho's Jejune Diet (or whoever else you wish to vote for).

Greening of our Inner Environment

2011-12-01T05:54:00.001-08:00

Much of my forays into frugality and sustainable living were thrust upon me. While I would spout words of wisdom about simplicity and my burning desire to reduce my ecology footprint, in reality I was pursuing a life of overconsumption for years. I am grateful to the universe that those days of “consumption” are behind me. I am also grateful to all the forces that put me into the position where choosing to live simply and frugally was no longer a choice but a necessity. In the course of my journey, I have come to see that forces that appear to be devilish can sometimes lead you to enlightenment, while forces that appear angelic can often lead you straight to hell. One such lesson was with corporate sponsorship of green initiatives. Of course, green here implies the external greening, not the inner greening that I pursue as a calling.

This started with a post I wrote on saving money by driving efficiently. On a whim, I submitted that post in a contest inviting entries for green initiatives. As I went to submit the entry, I realized from the format of the entry that this was primarily for projects that were in the form of innovative products or initiatives that can be taken up by government agencies. I had no clue how one can implement a blog post on driving and fuel efficiency tips, but I submitted it all the same, more to disseminate my thinking to whoever would be reading the contest entries before deciding what they were worth.

A month or so later, I got a call asking me to come for a presentation organized by a media group, and that my entry had been selected. Having been immunized to such calls by telecallers offering everything from insurance to timeshares at holiday resorts, I dismissed it as promotional spiel. To my surprise, when I got back home and checked my email, it turned out that I was one of 10 finalists from Hyderabad from over 4000 entries. I was informed that I had just the weekend to come up with a presentation that would be judged by a panel of experts, to decide on the 6 national finalists.

I thought about several ways of putting my views across in a way that would get me to the next level, but every time I started with that focus, my presentation turned into a business pitch. Finally, after some deliberation and opening of the eyes, I decided to follow my heart, and share nothing more than my views on creating a greener environment by addressing the root cause of the problem, our selves, aspirations, beliefs, values, and ignorance. I set it all out as a slide show in the prescribed format that had headings like USP, Budget, Funding, Partners, Viability, Ease of Implementation, Expected Outcome, and the like. It was quite amusing to put forth a proposal to clean and green our selves in this format.

At the end of it, I shared it with two people whose opinions I value for their honesty and impartiality. They sat through the slide show patiently and then asked me what on earth I was trying to say. I realized that I had to start over again. Time was short, so I quickly edited my slide show down to almost nothing and began writing a short speech that I planned on reading out.

The presentations were rich and varied, ranging from the high school miniproject to the mad scientist magnetic levitation mass transit system, along with a few blatantly commercial pitches. However, it was a source of immense learning. When my turn came, at the end of a gruelling afternoon that had stretched into the evening, patience had worn thin for all, as had attention spans. However, as I had by this time clarified my thinking about why I was there, I was glad to get a captive audience to read out my little speech. My presentation revolved around building a community of everyday green heroes who would share their journeys in the form of tips and tricks that can be applied by anyone to simplify their lives, reduce consumption, and move from a having orientation to a being orientation, an idea put forward by Erich Fromm. I recommended downshifting, reassessing the need for multiple income families, letting go of carbon emitting luxuries, and the like. The audience listened patiently, glad that the day was coming to a close.

The panel of judges included environmentalists, government officials connected with social initiatives, scholars, and even an actress I had never heard of but who was obviously a big star, judging from the reactions of people. The only question that the eminently qualified and cultured panelists had for me at the end of my "impassioned plea" was a reaffirmation of how far down the path of purposelessness we have gone as a civilization. Picking up on my suggestion of family members making more quality time for the family by letting go of multiple income earners, I was asked, “Mr. Dasgupta, it is a very good idea that you are suggesting that people can leave their jobs and be present to the family, but what will they do sitting at home, surf channels on TV? Do you have any suggestions for what they can do?”

I was unable to respond to this question purely out of shock at the question and the person it came from and I expressed my shock and inability to answer. This question was something I had never reflected on since my brain was always clamouring for more time to do all the things that I dream of. Going through the entries for the indiblogger contest on “if you had two extra hours a day, how would you spend it,” I realized that I am not alone, and if the intent of all those who have blogged about this in the past several weeks even comes close to fruition, we will find our inner selves much greener (and cleaner, as if washed with a popular detergent) than we can imagine.

Update: Two weeks later, I received a token of appreciation from the sponsors. It contained ridiculously expensive skincare products. There was a fairness cream, an anti-wrinkle cream, and a volume boosting shampoo. I looked at the prices and got a shock of my life, these products were just under 1000 rupees each. That made me curious about the ingredients, since the packages were pretty small. I looked them up and found that several ingredients are not approved or considered safe for use in US and other countries. I looked at my dark skin, my wrinkled face, and my dull hair, and thanked god for liberalization and globalization and open markets. Where would I have hidden my face, my wrinkles and my lifeless hair without these policies?

Understanding Depreciating Assets

2011-11-30T19:22:00.001-08:00

A key to health and happiness is having a balanced and comprehensive understanding of personal finance. This post by Jeffrey Strain discusses the concept of depreciating assets.

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Not all assets are created equally. When you purchase something, it's usually an appreciating asset or a depreciating asset. During your financial life, you want to purchase as many appreciating assets as possible as these are purchases which will gain in value over time. On the other hand, you also want to purchase depreciating assets only when it's necessary since these items will lose value over time. Understanding the difference between appreciating assets and depreciating assets is important to improve your overall finances.

The purchase of a home is considered an appreciating asset. While it's certainly true that the value of homes can fall over short periods of time, the general assumption is that a home will increase in value over long periods. Since a home will general increase in value over time, it often makes sense to purchase one as you can actually make money by purchasing and holding onto it. On the other hand, there are a lot of purchases that we want to make, but they are depreciating assets. Timeshares, boats and recreational vehicles are all good examples of depreciating assets. These are usually "wants" and not "needs" of the person buying them, but they lose a huge portion of their value the instant that they are purchased. Boats and recreational vehicles can lose 20% or more the instant that they are purchased. Timeshares are so bad that you can lose 90% or more. Except in very rare occasions, you are going to lose a lot of money on these purchases if you ever decide to sell them at a later date.

It would be easy to make financial decisions if it were possible to only purchase appreciating assets and avoid buying depreciating assets. The problem is that there are many purchases that we need to make in our life that are depreciating assets. A perfect example of this is your car.

The moment that you purchase a new car from a car dealership and you drive it off the car lot, it depreciates by 10% or more. Even though we know that a car is a depreciating asset, most people will need to buy a car sometime during their lifetime, and usually several. So how do you keep your finances in order when you know that you will need to purchase depreciating assets during your lifetime?

To get the most out of a depreciating asset, you need to focus on what is needed rather than what you may want. When you go to purchase a car, there are a huge range of models and prices. You can spend a little or a lot depending on what you decide to buy. Learning to purchase only what you really need when buying a depreciating asset rather than what you might want will help you not waste money on these depreciating assets. In the example of the car, getting a good quality car with all the basics makes sense while avoiding all the fancy extras that may look good, but don't make the car function any better. In fact, it probably makes financial sense to consider buying a used car in good condition which is several years old. Doing this will mean that much of the initial depreciation (which is the largest portion) of the car has already been priced out.

Another good way to look at the difference between needs and wants when purchasing a depreciating asset is to consider what you would buy if the depreciating asset were an investment. For example, think of a car purchase as if you were buying gold to invest it. If you wanted to invest in gold, would you purchase gold bullion or jewelry? Most people would say gold bullion because you would end up paying a lot more than the value of the gold if you purchased jewelry. When you purchase a car with a lot of extras that aren't needed to make it run, you are basically doing the same as purchasing jewelry. It may look flashier and turn people's eyes around you, but it does so at the expense of your investment.

It's important to remember to first ask yourself "do I really need this?" when considering making any large depreciating asset purchase. If you determine that you do need to make the purchase, think of it as an investment and opt for purchasing what fulfils your needs rather than your wants at the best possible value. When you understand that depreciating assets will also hurt your finances to some degree, you can learn to avoid them when possible while making financially solid purchases when you do need them. When you do this, you have put yourself in a position where depreciating assets will have the least effect on your finances as possible.

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Jeffrey Strain is a personal finance writer and digital nomad. His main website is Saving Advice.

Happy Birthday, Jimi Hendrix!

2011-11-26T23:37:00.001-08:00

Hendrix was born on November 27, 1942. His life and death are an important lesson for all who connect the use of drugs with creativity. Happy Birthday, JH!

While it is natural to eulogize and worship the body of work that Hendrix left behind, it is also pertinent and prudent to reflect on the senseless waste of creative talent and life and to filter our adulation with caution that not everything that a role model embodies needs to be emulated.

I grew up at a time when to play guitar like Jimi did was my goal, and he did it stoned, so getting stoned was the goal for budding young blues guitarists of our times, but nobody told anybody then that not only was drugs the greatest ambition killer but it also killed human beings in every way imaginable. Nobody talked about his washed out non performances concerts, the physical violence, the arrests and the humiliation that his lifestyle, his personality and his drug use entailed. Many of my friends and I myself have been blessed not to have died from our stupidity and our love for the “jimi thing,” in its various forms, but the millions of lives that have been snuffed out by drugs is testimony to how close we were to losing our lives, our sanity and our purpose in life.

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