Here's to you Santa!

Dear Santa,


While I fully understand your predicament at this commercially attractive time of the year, I was sincerely hoping that you would take some time out from your sledge surfing (I still believe a leopard would be a far better option that those poor reindeers- just imagine the sheer awesomeness of you perched on a leopard in a Mattel store!) and have a look at my wish list for this Christmas. While I agree to adhere to the North Pole's law book, that this wish list cannot be back-ordered like the one on Amazon, nor can it be sweetened with some last minute tomfoolery by a frustrated customer service agent for Verizon, I pray that you give some consideration to my pleas for the betterment of me and me only. I am not a selfish person, but the principle of rational distribution in a linear set of wishes demands that I focus on my odds of receiving something in lieu of demanding a 100 different things. Who knows, with 4 billion people demanding everything from the iPad to a reunion of Pink Floyd, you could probably spread the love out with my fellow bargainers. See, I am being altruistic here. Okay, back to the list:


1. Get rid of all the parks


Honestly Santa, as much I love the rays of fading sunlight fall on the leaves and turn it into a hue of poise, I feel bad for the poor gardener and his extended clan who have to redo the lawn after every outburst of public sentiment, more so these days with the Lokpal campaign and Occupy Wall street protests. Before I get lambasted by anybody for trying to question our unquestionable right to freedom of expression, I propose that we turn all parks into community centers with clean and hygienic sanitary facilities. We can always alter the landscape so as to maximize the space available for convening a meeting, while having a high-rise in the rear to provide comfortable lodging options for the night. It's a win-win proposition Santa- the government doesn't have to worry about the inconvenience caused to those who wish to take a leisurely stroll in the park, and the protesters can keep shuffling their band of slogan-raising humans so that nobody feels homesick. You can also figure in the advertising revenue to offset the costs of construction, and the cost benefits of letting the private sector sharing a piece of the pie!


2. Create a smarter Facebook


Santa, while you would agree that a lot of people really speak their mind on their walls, how about something which really taps into the mind of an individual? So that facebook would no longer have to politely inquire-"What's on your mind?", rather just publish and say-"Oh, so you didn't like the latest Mood Indigo Livewire night but are just praising it to appear cool to  other metal heads!" 


3. Get rid of money, and replace it with points


Santa, money is the root cause of all problems. Not when you have a lot of it, but then there is no limit to how much is enough. Everyone has a different take on it, from the Tea Party to Mukesh Ambani to Kapil Sibal to daily wage laborer working on the next high-rise in Shanghai. I would certainly not mind making more during grad school. How about we get rid of money all together, so that people have one less thing to complain about on their agenda. We can instead have skill-based remuneration system, something that awards points or something. For example, somebody who can jump 4 hoops at a time gets more points than somebody who can only do 1, or pipetting 1ul accurately should have more value than 1.1ul. Wait, that's how the currency system was born. Oh well, you get the gist of it Santa. Just figure it out using all that wisdom you have accrued while dying your beard starch white.


4. Find another Earth for me


Seriously Santa, these space scientists are driving me nuts with all their talk of Goldilocks zones and Earth-like planets. Every time they come up with an interesting revelation, I get my hopes high of space travel and meeting an alien who will confer superpowers on me a-la Jadoo or E.T., and then it fizzles out. Okay, we have water on Moon, and Mars might have once been home to microbial life, but where is the fabled planet where Spock resides? 


Till next year!


PS: It's the season of holidays, and what better way to celebrate than through the words of John Lennon.

Freeze and thaw

Winter is a funny time of the year. There is a deluge of family-centered holidays, and shoppers flock to get the 'best deals' that only open up at this time of the year. In India, nobody remains slim anymore, as toddlers are covered in their layers of sweaters and the women bring out the expensive cardigans and shawls to the envy of the neighbors. As for the weather, depending on your geographical location, winters can either be the best time of the year or an absolute nightmare.

For me, 5 years in Mumbai destroyed whatever winter tolerance I had built up in 17 years living in Jhansi. Winters in Mumbai were the best time of the year- no fear of dehydration and humidity at its absolute low. Having swung between these two extremes, I was under-prepared when I landed in the desert. Having been here twice in the hot and dry summer, and knowing that Tucson was not very far from the west coast, there was nothing abetting my desire to pack enough warm clothes. Turns out, Tucson is more like Jaisalmer than Pune, and the cold wave outside makes me wonder about other assumptions that go wrong all the time.

For example, we assume that politicians are committed people who will put aside differences in the end and work out a mutual agreement in the greater benefit of the nation. Ironically, the educated US senators perform no better than the semi-literate, identity-bred politicians back home at this benchmark. You can gloss over other nations as well, and it becomes clear that politics is a dirty business to the core. Another assumption that often goes wrong is that the economy is going downhill because of less global spending. Never was there more investment activity going on across the globe. You simply need to look into the right sector. Be it clean energy, or the more conventional oil exploration, investors are flocking to the few seemingly reliable areas in both sectors. If anything, the reason might be the lop-sided nature of investments, where few monies are spent on human development, and more on increasing the already inflated MPLAD funds. We spend when we feel good about ourselves, or even when we want to feel good about ourselves. Having recently witnessed the Black friday euphoria in the states, the latter certainly seemed to be the case.

The third assumption, and this one is quite close to my heart, is that Science holds all the answers to every conceivable question, and if Science cannot explain it, it is not possible. The other day, I was having this conversation with a friend about religion and faith (you know where this is going), and I put forward my best argument that some of the practices seem to be lacking any logic whatsoever. Then comes the news that OPERA project was able to reproduce their results of neutrinos breaking the Einsteinian barrier of light travel. We might very well be re-writing all those Physics textbooks 10 years down the line. Who knows what else might become explainable with better and more sophisticated instruments!

The lesson I take from the above is that while it is good to assume certain stuff, it is imprudent to blank out an alternative. With that, I wish my assumption of a warm day on December 11 turns out to be correct!

PS: Nobody remained young at heart longer than Dev Anand did. He was the foremost style icon the industry ever had, and a wonderful observer of new talent where others would have seen none. RIP!

Who came before us?

Human civilizations have been built on the foundations of ancestral knowledge, societal wisdom, and cohesive existence. It is no wonder then that a majority of our customs and beliefs are remnants of the ethos of early AD society. At the same time, not just the customs, but the shared genetic material was carried forward as well. We indeed share a lot of hereditary traits, albeit a mishmash of different genealogies, that got filtered through the numerous invasions by delusional rulers that came rushing for India's wealth, ultimately the Mughal rule, and then of course, the British colonization. No wonder then that all talk of 'having a pure genealogy' might be hard to back up if one had the family tree sorted out to the early centuries. But that is none of my concern. Recent trysts with an advanced genetic diseases class I am taking as a part of my coursework, has made more inquisitive about a basic feature that the Indian healthcare system and the society in general seems to lack- Who exactly came before us, and more importantly, what led to their ultimate demise?


The flip side to having a longer life is that we end up overbearing our immune system. As the life expectancy shot up, from periods of endemic flu where a lucky individual would go on to live longer than 50 (don't believe those stories about people living more than 100 years being a norm- not true), to where the average national rate is close to 64.8 years according to the World bank report of 2009, an individual is becoming more and more susceptible to diseases which would have made Sushruta cringe in agony, for there is nothing anyone can do if a part of your genome goes amiss and leaves you vulnerable to the perils of, for example, Alzheimer's disease. The stark reality is that we are slowly moving from the era of 'treatable disease' to an era of 'manageable disease'. Sounds depressing? I hear about it for 3 hours every week. 


Which brings me to a pertinent question-How many of us are aware of our genealogy, or what our ancestors contracted and died off eventually? The question becomes very important, because with advances in genetics and sequencing technology, genetically predisposed individuals can be more easily identified and therefore put on management programs at earlier stages of the advancement of the ailment, thereby prolonging and improving the quality of life. I agree that with only 64 years of our existence as a sovereign state, the management of a national database or formulation of a national policy would take time. But that should be on top of the health ministry's agenda, along with other prevention measures. More importantly, make an effort and try to form a family tree yourself. Ask around from family members if a distant relative's family is a carrier for a disease, for the chances are that even that could perturb your genetic balance one way or the other. You would be surprised to learn that a disease like type 2 diabetes which would not be linked to heredity 50 years ago, has now been shown to be a heritable disease on the brute evidence of advanced sequencing technology and data mining from affected individual's families. 


Knowing what our ancestors did for a living, or whether they were part of a king's court, might be interesting, but knowing what they contracted in their lifetime might actually be life-saving. 


PS: A classic from Ozzy and his troops. Watch the illusion, or the drummer. They are both incredible!

Like a Siberian crane!

For the uninitiated, the Siberian crane is known for its robust migratory pattern during the winter, when mating  necessitates migration to far-off tropical places, in search of a recluse from the sub-zero temperatures. An abstract definition of this phenomenon would be that the search for rosier avenues forces the crane to leave its abode and wander off to uncharted territories, crossing obstacles along the way, and then return home when the time comes. A good enough hint to the direction of this post? I will not be ranting about how we should all become a part of the 'brain gain' phenomenon which has apparently strengthened into a trend during the last decade. To each his/her own! What I will talk about is how desis keep the des alive in their core, even when an eventual reunion with the motherland has been ruled out forever. 

In the good ol' days of IIT, the one time of the year when people would actually look forward to going back home, away from the luxuries of LAN and lukkha, used to be the Diwali week. Of course, 80% of the populace would wait for the last moment, and then adjust themsleves on a train ride to home (all of us have our pleasant memories of traveling in the proverbial cattle class, chatting away merrily while the co-passengers gave us an obnoxious glare at 1 in the night). One reason I always looked forward to it was to rejuvenate myself and come back fresh, with visions of toiling to a bountiful performance during the endsems (suffices to say that it never happened, probably for none of us!). 

This time around, going home was not an option. Not that the travel time was significantly longer, surprisingly. If you are over 15,000 kilometers away from home, it is plausibly better to harden yourself to the cultural alienation that will ensue and imbibe the tectonic shift as a necessity. Alas, words are indeed easier written than put into action. Homesickness struck, followed by a prolonged deliberation over the decision of leaving a secure life back home to pursuing a PhD in a discipline I have scant knowledge about. However, as diwali neared, frustration gave way to jubilation, thanks to some great friends and a social gathering of the Indian community in the city. Now social gathering is an oft misconstrued term back home, as all gatherings in India eventually precipitate into a free-for-all food and dance extravaganza. Surprisingly, the social gathering here turned out to be a well-organized affair, with plenty of food, ordered queues, and non-intrusive dancing. The entire spectrum of Indian music was covered: from the raaga stuti to rabindro sangeet to amplifier! Not to forget the excellent Bharatnatyam, but of course, Bollywood can never be far nehind. Here is a snapshot of tracks kids grooved to: Taal se taal mila, band baaja baarat, and a Karisma Kapoor track I cannot remember at the peril of my life! And their was no sing-along or synchronized applause with any of the performances, only a polite congratulation at the end. 

All happy tracks, picked from movies which were quintessential Indian family dramas. Even the tracks the DJ spun towards the end ranged from the nostalgic Ta rarara to Munni badnaam hui. And people danced (there were probably only 10 out of the 80 odd who were in the 21-28 age group). People asked us about our own migratory pattern, and remembered their own good times in Ghatkopar or Kolkata. While the parents might miss India every once in a while, the kids were clearly way too Americanized, if that term seems appropriate. They even left an American friend of mine guessing at a few tracks which they seemed to know every word of. I would not be stretching it if I predict that most of these kids will visit India once in a while will their parents force them to, and then never come back again from their cushy lives. These cranes have abandoned their migration. 


Oh, and the icing on the 're-connection' cake was last night's screening of Ra.One, the most 'expensive' bollywood movie ever made. Not that I am a fan of Shah Rukh Khan, but the feeling of 'how would I tear into this movie if I never see it' abetted me to give it a shot, even to the extent of parting with $11.50 (that's 2 days worth of lunch money). And it was not in 3D, in case you are wondering. Here again, to my pleasant surprise, the desi community showed up in full gusto to cheer upon the original overseas superstar from India, one who is as well known in Germany and New York as at Maratha mandir. Hollywood movies have no intermission, but Ra.one did. Importantly, the 6-to-60 formula seemed to be working great for the audience. Taking a cue from the trailers that were shown, it won't be a stretch to predict that a certain Dev.D or Udaan never made it to the celluloid here. Ra.One might as well be the deserving contender for the Filmfare best picture award for the desis here. 

Therefore, in a short span of 5 days, I witnessed how the Indian community survives and thrives in corners of the earth, where the only thing truly Indian might the over-priced restaurant serving $2 gulab jamuns. Movies are a solid connect for them, and I do appreciate YRF films multi-fold times now compared to the time when I saw Rab ne bana di jodi. They have taken upon themselves this invisible responsibility of keeping the Indian diaspora across the world connected to the root of our culture- happy endings and familial bonding. Eagerly waiting to see if Sachin's 100th ton evokes the same jubilation as SRK gulping spaghetti with curd using his bare hands. 

If there is one song that will bring tears to an NRI's eyes, this might be it, either due to the lyrics or due to the cheesy cinematography:

Hardly a time to celebrate

Deepawali is almost here. The pompous festival of wealth and prosperity, which forces even the poorest of the poor to give a token service to goddess Lakshmi in lieu of happiness in the future, brings with itself scenes of jubilation and rejoice. Masses throng to banks and jewelers in hordes and a shopping frenzy grips the entire nation. Like every diwali, this too shall pass. The after-effects of 3 days of gluttonous celebrations will be felt by a few, but the country will go back to normal very soon. Except that this might not be the best time to let laissez faire get in our way of pondering over where exactly India stands right now. 

In terms of polity, fractures abound in the ruling and the opposition camp. Team Anna has severely dented the chances of the UPA, with the most recent bypoll rout suggesting that the public has had enough of its tardy response to corruption. The prime minister has firmly retrenched himself to the background, and all promises of being 'more communicative' to the nation in future appear shallow. The two senior-most ministers are engaged in a power struggle of sorts, and it almost appears like the UPA II is just hoping to making it to the finish line at this time, even though that appears to become harder every passing day. Achievements like the world's cheapest tablet 'Aakash', developed specifically to aid India's growing advancement in IT by rearing a new generation of internet-savvy youth, are outnumbered by blunders like the still tied-up defense procurement issues as well the Air India saga. Not to mention that the hyper-active HRD minister is all set to toy with perhaps the last remaining indigenous brands, the IITs. On the opposition side, an octogenarian is visiting parts of the country exposing the ruling coalition's dubious record on corruption, when two of BJP's own chief ministers were recently fired from their jobs on corruption charges. Talk about charity beginning at home! 

The issues which plague our country's economic development are getting severe every passing day. FDI inflows have sunk to unimaginable lows, inflation is showing no signs of easing, and petrol is actually costlier than liquor. The power sector is reeling under the unintentionally comical tug-of-war between the competing ministries. The incendiary T-issue is raging again, with AP bearing the brunt of the central government's dilly-dallying on the issue. Investor confidence is understandably at a low, and why should it not be? Policy paralysis is the graveyard of business expansion. None of these issues are unmanageable, unless the government chooses to overlook the glaring omissions in it's list of priorities. As the aspirational nature of India's youth firmly establishes itself to the forefront, the political class will have to answer sooner or later. One can only imagine that true bliss is around the corner. 

PS: It is not as if we have nothing to look forward to. The inaugural Indian grand prix is only a fortnight away. Here's the interactive track map in the words of Mark Webber himself.

A big mess

Last week, the worst fears of Aditya caterers came true. For long, Messrs Aditya and co. had felt that they will be able to avoid the limelight that inadvertently follows a reputation of the most healthy and tasty food served in a community mess anywhere in India. Keep in mind that this is not just any community, but postgraduate students (and a smattering of undergrads mixed in there, that is when they feel too lazy to pick up the phone and order a Domino's or call Laksmi) of IIT Bombay, people who live and die by good culinary habits. It is no mean feat to serve a staggering 2000 men with burgeoning appetites that correlates with their hunger for class notes. And because of that, I bow to thee Aditya!

However Murphy was not a man of discrimination, and in their attempt to refine the tastes of these hungry men, Aditya and co. fell into his trap. A dinner of chinese food went horribly wrong, and next day, 500 (that is only 25% statistically speaking!) landed up at the doorsteps of another landmark at my alma mater, the IITB hospital. Of course, the hyperactive Indian media couldn't resist itself from shoring up some attention through another story linked to IITians (remember when a fake IITian story was hyped by TOI for days?), and food poisoning became the new buzzword for parents inquiring from their wards staying at the campus. Yes, a story about food poisoning at IITB grabbed more print space than the newly implemented biometric attendance system. If one was to probe the economics of running a mess at any educational institute, especially places like IITs where students feel entitled to better things (not that there is anything wrong with being aspirational), it is not difficult to realize that these messes are being fueled by a magic lamp than anything else. The mess advance is Rs. 10,000 per semester, and the amount actually charged for food is something around Rs. 1500 per month at hostel 13 (figures not adjusted for inflation). In this rather paltry amount, which many students would outspend on movies and weekend jaunts, the caterer is expected to serve a 4-course meal replete with essential nutrients. You get my point!

Of course, my friends and myself went wild on FB poking fun at survivors we left behind at H-13. Who doesn't like having some enjoyment at the expense of a re-hydrated friend? The big question was lost in the lurch. At a time when the honorable HRD minister is going all out to prove his bravado to a bunch of pandering journalists, whether it be proposing a 6-fold hike in the fee or scrapping the benchmark exam we love to remember as JEE, it might be prudish to solve the bigger infrastructural problems plaguing IITB. Among them, ghost-house-sque hostels, crumbling furniture in classrooms, and not the least, incandescent bulbs. A rationalization in the price of mess food, while being unpopular in the short term, will go a long way in making sure that a repeat of food poisoning grabbing headlines doesn't happen. Otherwise, the residents of these hostels are only abetting their caterer to serve them cheap food fast, and not better. Cooking (for myself) is actually a big chore, so my sympathy has shifted from friends back home to the cooks who do the labor. You don't get it till you actually do it! 

PS: The chinese-style dinner was never popular in any case, but I remember long queues in front of the 'extras' line serving butter chicken for dinner. Perhaps a swap would work! Yeah, that was wishful thinking.

Came across this group recently and must I say, they are pretty good!

A game of thrones, or picking bare bones

Every time I check one of my trusted sources of information about my mother land, scandalous updates flash out like one of those dumb characters in 'Jersey shore'. Sadly, and believe me, I say this with great regret, it feels that somehow Indian political space has been morphed into a shady version of the Mahabharata since I shifted base. This is not to shunt out any objections that Indian politics was never sane in the first place - there is a reason why young men and women don't want to enter politics despite the steady flow of popularity and property it offers. It has undergone more than a cosmetic change in the last 3 months, ever since Anna and his activist troupe managed to make the hapless UPA II government eat crow and accede control of parliamentary traditions. The murmurs have turned into scowls, the game of one-upmanship has become so crafty that some of the contenders we have might want to try and turn it into a legitimate sport. In other words, we are entering an era of 10 Caesars and 100 Brutus'. 

Politics has long been an art of pretense, where you are expected to belie expectations, and abetted by such shameless pandering of your minions, have to show that you exemplify the core of all human ethos. The agenda is therefore narrow, and more often than not, opaque to popular aspirations of the electoral college. Our leaders seem to be holding strong to the adage. In circumstances where the economy is stagnating, the rupee is sinking to a fresh low everyday (much to the joy of desis desiring to make a killing when they exchange dollars back home), and reform is stuck at the gate, all eyes have turned to a general election which is still 3 years away. I watch the madness unfold everyday in America, where politicians out-compete each other to who can be more mundane, and spout rhetoric like a vending machine at Starbucks. To be fair to them, the presidential election is an year away and show(wo)manship helps. But 3 years!

Chdamabram and Mukherjee have been so detrimental to each other's cause that one of them might as well join the opposition benches in the parliament. While there skirmishes over appointments to secretary posts and the handling of home affairs has been well documented in the past, fresh muck has been unearthed. Turns out that Pranabda wants to give Dr. Subramaniam Swamy a shot in the arm by suggesting that Shri Chidambaram should've seen the 2G scam coming when he was the finance minister in the erstwhile UPA I government. Not to start a debate here, but apparently even Mrs. Gandhi didn't see it coming, and we all know that if anybody knows anything in our country, she does. With Rahul baba failing to work his magic in the recently concluded assembly elections, and his series of gaffes which have turned him in to a fodder for the 24x7 media (remember the parliamentary speech on the Jan Lokpal bill?), the congress might score a self-goal if he were to contest for the post of PM in 2014. So journeymen like Mr. Mukherjee and a certain Mr. Digvijay Singh can sniff their chance. On the other side of the fence, Advaniji is set to unleash another of his dreaded Rath yatras upon us. Considering how the NDA suffered an embarrassing defeat in 2009 when he was the prime ministerial candidate, he should've taken his cue and retired to the background. But old habits die hard, more so if they involve traveling across the country in a motorized vehicle and comparing it to a chariot marshaled by Lord Krishna himself. It's time for Gen-next to take over, not Gen-ex to still parade shamelessly. 

But why should I care? 3 years is a long time, and I have full faith in our media that by then, the character assassinations would be as complete as India's whitewash at the hands of the English.

PS: I posted a REM video last week, and today they announced the end of their glorious 31 years together as a band. I hope the same fate doesn't bequeath this group.

The learning of science or the science of learning?

How would you define learning? I know, probably not the best idea to ask a question right off the bat, but I want you to think along, because the question is open-ended. If the orthodox definition is to be considered, development of new memory fits the paradigm of learning. So when people use words like 'learning from your mistakes', it basically means that you have developed an imprint of that fallacious happening in your mind. However, if you gravitate towards science, the idea of learning cannot be limited just to development of new memory. Sure, one of the objectives behind teaching and learning of science is development of memory, based on the give-and-take between the teacher and the student. But memory is not related to intuition or thinking. That would be like saying that I watch a Nat Geo video of Mt. Everest expedition, learn every single step and hike, and then set out on my own to conquer it. Learning therefore goes beyond the simple idea of memory development.

So how can you define learning in a more pragmatic sense? A reasonable assertion can be that uncoupling learning from fact-checking ought to be able to satisfy the question behind creativity. And surely we can agree that creativity is a benchmark for learning, as a well-learnt concept leads to a more creative output. Also, in terms of science education, sufficient challenge to redundant concepts and hypotheses, which are taken for granted more often than not, is a must in order to develop independent thinking, or as the jargon goes, a critical bend. Therefore, as you proceed on the educational ladder, questions should get tougher and hypothesis should become bullet-proof. 

Personally, the initiation into grad school has been a pretty exciting experience so far, because as grad students, we are supposed to challenge any idea, no matter how big or small, prominent or subtle, irrespective of its publishing pedigree. So scientific education has suddenly being molded from taking copious notes and reading material a day before the exam, which I was doing as late as 5 months ago (I officially stopped studying for endsems like most of us did, except for THAT one course!). Now, we go in well prepared to discuss publications, formulate ideas, and gain concepts from linking disparate ideas in class. And this I believe is learning in true sense, because intuition and creativity are both integral parts of this process. If we were able to merge this system into our school and undergraduate level coursework, students would be more primed for taking up higher studies, or at least they won't have the fear of the unknown. This modicum of reform can truly lead to a shake-up, or at least do some good in satisfying the innate creative urge, so essential to our existence as humans.

PS: If you are a Max Payne fan (the video game, not the movie, which I still believe does not exist), brace yourself for Max Payne 3. If not, it is never too late to start, for this game is more than just fancy guns in 3rd person style. It is about a man and his search of vengeance!

And the obligatory music video. How about some REM?

Think like a scientist, feel like a diplomat

'Publish or Perish' seems to be the general code of law as far as the scientific community goes. The idea, while being a relatively trite manifestation of knowledge for all, has come to be known as the single most dreaded facet of building a career in research. As you go up, the impact factor of the journals you publish in is expected to show a concordant rise. The instrument of knowledge is bypassed by the instrument of conformity. Is the evil of globalization to blame, or the competitive edge that has overtaken research the main reason? A bit of both in my opinion.


Scientific literature has seen a reversal of fortunes with advancements in information technology, and it suffices to say that it has been one of the cornerstones of the knowledge economy in the last 20 years. The digitization has resuscitated the field where journals would otherwise be forever lost in a library shelf of a university. The very fact that articles are now accessible in any corner of the earth at any time (of course, internet connectivity is mandatory, but e-journals can make up for the lack of it). The positives are there for all to see. A scientist working in a remote lab in Africa now has access to research coming out of the hallowed portals of MIT. It has provided scope for constant feedback on research, and erratum are more poignantly highlighted than a letter to the editor would have done in recent times. But somehow, some journals, either by sheer luck or careful selectivity, have risen to prominence as having more venerable research compared to another. 


This has led to an era of competition, where scientists are vying for limited print space in journals. Therefore, some research is considered more publishable than the other. And it is considered fashionable to print only in the big 4 because they seem to matter more. Sadly, a lot of researchers face a dilemma of prolonging their work or conducting more experiments in order to accentuate their chances of conquering the holy grail, or publish it instantly when the results are novel and exciting. The element of curiosity is being pushed to the back-burner, as post-college career is highly dependent on the publications on one's resume rather than the importance of the work. Now, this does not imply that the exclusivity of some journals is necessarily a bad thing. They are considered the cornerstone of cutting-edge research, a sort of a benchmark. Not just in science, but also in disciplines of engineering. It is more important to change the perception, to be able to differentiate between the quality of research and the impact of the journal. Especially in countries where publication record takes a backseat to everything else- the candidate's proficiency as a team player, extra-curricular pursuits, and basic qualities like presentation skills. 


Admit it, people go to graduate school because they love science. That's how it should remain throughout their career. More and more scientists are coming out and collaborating in order to better than chances of enhancing their quality of work. More such ideas are certainly worth probing. 


A must watch show coming this fall:



And if you haven't heard of Arcade Fire, here you go:

A sham masked as legitimate

Statement after statement emanating from 7 Race course road or the Congress headquarters speaks of the virtues of parliamentary supremacy and traditions, and how it is absolutely necessary to uphold them in the face of every vindictive attempt to drag their name into ignominy. There is a popular maxim in Hindi which goes like- Naach na jaane, aangan teda. Essentially, it means that if you fail at something, you try and find faults with the system which plays only a secondary role in your success. This is exactly what is going on in the ensuing drama between the government and the civil society leaders on the contentious subject of the Jan Lokpal bill. Many of us have been watching with bewilderment the brazen manner in which this current government, perhaps also one of the most corrupt and spineless in recent Indian history, is trying to stifle public opinion and protect the parliament's 'supremacy' over all matters related to national policy. Can you please get to the real issue?

As educated Indians, we are all in consensus that the parliament is indeed the seat of our vibrant democracy and a place for a billion people's voices to be represented in an organized manner. But any attempt to bypass those billions and forcing an oligarchic view of things that a group of parliamentarians see as legitimate, is rubbing salt into the wounds of the already hapless common man. Let's face it, irregardless of the reports from the IMD or the World Bank or McKinsey, Indians are facing an uphill battle to protect their right to a decent living right now. The poor are already overwhelmed; their misery cannot be sufficiently described in a blog post or a news channel debate. However, with rising inflation and all-pervasive corruption strengthening its hold on the system, even the middle class is starting to feel the brunt of government's inaction and blunders. All of us have had our tryst with corruption, while most of us await our tryst with destiny. It is a malaise that spreads like a cancer and preys on the minds of the corrupt and the corruptor.

And what exactly is this sanctity of the parliament that we are trying to protect. Last year, an entire session was wiped out due to a stand-off between an united opposition and an obdurate government. 2008 saw bundles of currency notes being displayed in the parliament as if it were a badge of honor. Scenes of disruption are an everyday sight. In fact, the government respects the parliamentary traditions so much that it objected to permission granted to the leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha to speak on the issue of the Lokpal. Please, stop fooling us, stop this drama. Get on with business, or quit. We are more than capable of voting in a new government, albeit with a mandate of aspiration and transparency. Laissez faire can't go on anymore!

A better way

As I sit here in my living room, watching Watchmen, I cannot help but think about Dr. Manhattan's words-"The world is changing, and this new world is going to be hard to adapt to." The world is indeed at a precipice, where old ideas are being chucked out more rapidly than ever before. Therefore, it is prudent to identify the positives out of this as well as understand how some things are still unchangeable.

The first idea which springs to my mind is the communication revolution. Now much has been said and writers have waxed eloquent about the ever changing face of communication and its implications for the globe. I would like to go more basic than an optical fibre facilitated enhancement. 20 years ago, chances are that if you wrote a letter to a person in the next state, it may or may not get delivered. May or may not! That possibility was greatly supplemented by the fact the there was no tracking mechanism to check on the port-to-port delivery. So if I were to apply for a PhD in the United states 20 years ago, there is the possibility that I might have missed my shot due to a sorting error. Therefore, it is safe to say that manual errors are slowly becoming redundant. The era of the machines is here, or almost.

What are the other ways in which the world is changing? Ironically, the communication revolution and the detriment of barriers was supposed to unite the world into a more harmonious place. Yet we have seen more wars and insurgencies in the last 50 years than any documented time in history. The way I see it, with information being so easily available, it abets a nation to secure its interests in ways that were unheard of earlier. So you have things like cyber attacks on a country's information database, which is slowly replacing the conventional warfare as a more potent weapon. This is stuff of science fiction for now, but with the way technology is seeping into our daily lives, it is not ludicrous to believe that the future might be significantly different for the future generations. Once thing is for sure, education is going to be the currency of development, and investments will be earmarked for the national intellectual wealth.

And then, to the part which has remained static. The right to expression, our ability to speak our mind, has remain untouched, or rather, has been bolstered by the availability of tools both scientific and rational in nature. People today want to study tiny archaea, because they believe the answers to significant questions about life lie in there. And they go about doing it like nobody's business. The fact that basic science has braved the storm of application and commercialization is a fact oft overlooked. We as global citizens are also more empowered today, mostly because every vote is documented and every opinion is recorded. Dissemination of ideas is easier, and their harnessing is slowly becoming more inclusive. There is no single ownership to any idea anymore, a fact well illustrated by the IP wars being fought around the world.

So the changes are there to be seen and exploited. The end user will not care, the proprietor does not exist.

The Who and their generation!

Hello PM! Welcome to the orientation

Dear Dr. Manmohan Singh, I formally welcome you to your orientation as the prime minister of the Republic of India. I understand that you have not just assumed office, but surprisingly, have been at the helm for more than 7 years now. Therefore, as the famous maxim goes- Better late than never, we have decided to conduct an orientation for you to bring you up to speed with the fabrics of Indian democracy and parliamentary system. Well maybe we can leave out the latter, since that is all you and your cabinet seem to be adept at. But in our deliberations, we have concluded that it is of utmost importance that you also take some time out from your frantic consultations with Rahul baba to refresh your class 9th History & Civics.

Let's get started. So dear PM, it seems that you believe anything can only be done efficiently if it is completed in a time bound manner. Of course, your well grounded research of macroeconomic theory and your time at the helm of the Reserve bank of India can be attributed to have led you to this cementing of principles. Unfortunately, economics seems not to work that well in real life, as is evident from the runaway inflation plaguing the country at this moment. You also want to abrogate any attempts to impose pre-conditions on others, especially those who intend no harm to the country and are simply exercising their rights. You remember a certain man known as Mahatma Gandhi? He did it all the time, and the british, as gentlemanly as they were, never resorted to anything more than to arrest him and his followers. Yes sir, that is your government's prerogative, though you might want to balance it out considering we are an independent nation now.

Also, when you say that it is the parliament's prerogative to formulate policies and draft laws, you could not be more correct. But dear sir, as you must have been trained to do in your days as a grad student, you need to incorporate ideas to make them more effective. Your version of the Lokpal bill appears to be a portmanteau of what Raja would like and what Anna would dislike. You can't possibly be taking on two strong personalities, one who loves to taint his cabinet and the other who loves to serve his country. That is simply bad PR! And also, when you are giving important speeches, for example the national address, you must understand that you are not sitting in an auditorium of 50 people, all over 60, who came to discuss some deep lemma in the Keynesian model of economics. You need to show that you are the man in the driver's seat. For reference, check out Atal Bihari Vajpayee's speech on the Kargil war. You'll understand what I am talking about. And please, don't be shy of the media. They've made your party men stars, there is no reason you should allow your generosity to encompass the PM-public contact.

I hope that this session has been fruitful. The next session will be on how to keep a leash on the disruptive elements in your party, who like to have their foot in their mouth all the time!

Peace out.

PS: Arun jaitley shows Abhishek Manu Singhvi who's the boss.

The summer of Punk

The proverbial summer of 2011 is coming to an end. In true Indian color, and in the midst of all the chutzpah surrounding the boiling heat being dissipated by the cool pangs of the monsoon, another summer has passed from our lives. The summer metamorphosis goes through various shades depending on the stage of life we are at. A school going kid would want the vacation to go on and on, as I did. The first day back from the vacation would hurt as much as watching Harbhajan Singh go from being a world-class spinner to an ordinary slow bowler. Agony gives way to gratitude when one reaches the upper grades, and the prospect of bunking classes and having some fun in school appear more inviting than another month at home watching TV from morning till night. The situation remains unchanged till say the last year of college or so, when suddenly the pressures of a whole new beast in the form of the 'real' world, awaiting you, starts to appear a bit scary.

Yes, I have just finished college and will graduate honorably in 6 days to be precise. I also have a good option lined up ahead in the form of graduate school in the states. So have a lot of us, who will graduate this year from the 7 IITs, some 3500 in strength. More will be added to the alumni rolls next year, when the baby IITs shell out their first offerings to industry and academia. I am not going to delve into the big, endless, and frankly pointless debate on how IITians don't give back to the country in proportion to the exchequer's expenditure on their education. It is nobody's business to dictate how much is too much or too little when it comes to giving back to our alma mater. Not least the bureaucrats and politicians who are running amok our once growing economy's fledgling prospects via weak policy making and craven show of feudal mentality. Oops, I digress! Back to my point. So all of these shining new products, certified and approved by our symbols of world dominance in an area India needs to do a lot more, will be out on their own, without a support structure of mess workers toiling in the kitchen to prepare their 4 meals a day, without a round-the-clock security, and a serene campus to calm those fraying nerves when the end sem results go wrong, or when an election result goes the other way. Yes, that is the understated part of moving away from college. You are suddenly all on your own!

Is there a viable replacement for these institutions? Somewhat close mimes can be the HR department of your company or the department coordinator in higher studies, but they won't go out on a limb to ensure that you don't miss that tiffin even if you reach the mess counter at 6:10, 10 minutes past the closing time (Yes, H13 mess workers are so generous!). In the end, the so called hallowed portals should be indebted to the numerous small support centres functioning inside them day and night, with questionable efficiency at the times but functional nonetheless. We can curse them and mutter unsavory words all we want, but with college, the secure part of it is the thing we'll miss the most.

PS: To those wondering why this post is titled 'The summer of Punk', it is because I follow professional wrestling and a certain man recognized as CM Punk around the world is setting the wrestling landscape on fire. A toast to his awesome entrance music:

If we all sit idle...

Controversy is media's favorite child. Just let one erupt and they lash onto it. However, it is poignant to note that a major factor behind all the derision surrounding the fundamental nature of controversies is the idle mind. Yes, if we all sit idle, all we do is to conjure mindless chatter which ultimately blows up into a controversy. Nowhere has it been more prominently on display than the two 'stories' jostling for space on live television.

It is a well known fact that in India, nothing works better than the word of God. So people claim to have received divine intervention and suggest it as a means to justify their actions. The so called 'antaratmaa ki aawaaz'. First, a harmless directive from the honorable Supreme court constituting a special committee to prepare an inventory of the speculated wealth lying around in the holy confines of the Padmanabham temple in Thiruvananthapuram. The media didn't pick up the news when a retired IPS officer and a stout devotee of the lord filed a petition praying for the transfer of the control of the temple administration from the hands of the royal family of Travancore to that of the state. They didn't pick it up when the members of the teams were announced. They certainly wouldn't have picked it up if it weren't for countless artefacts of historic (and monetary) value that started teeming out of the underground chambers. The media went into a frenzy, and a controversy was born! The debate shifted from how to protect the wealth to how it got there in the first place and who should be the owner and protector of it. I have been to the shrine situated in the capital of Kerala. I remember it vividly because I had to buy a dhoti from a nearby stall to gain entry into the temple. Yes, the rules of entry to this shrine are as stringent as any other temple you could fathom. What wowed the attention of all present inside with me was not what lay beneath, but what lay above- the reclined statue of Lord Vishnu whose darshan could be taken from three huge doors. I would have loved for it remain that way.

The topic of frenzy shifts just as seamlessly to another god of sorts. Sachin Tendulkar is one short of his 100th international century, one that is of sentimental value to his billions of followers. Yet, the debate rages on. Is he the greatest of all time? Frankly, why should anybody care. Why not simply live in the present, when the man is playing in perhaps the best form of his life. Then came the announcement of the greatest test team of all time, to mark the occasion of the 2000th international test which begins tomorrow at Lord's. While the list is definitely not what a pundit would like it to be, it is what it is- a survey of the popularity of the players who live on in the fans' memory. The point of the matter is, the so called greatest team in no way undermines the greatness or the talent of any of the great players who happened to have plied their art in an era before the advent of facebook and twitter. Dear media, let it be!

$1.25: The magic number

Statistics is perhaps the greatest form of art available to the humankind today. It can adorn harsh realities with a radiant glow, and obfuscate the going on behind the scenes with mere numbers that ultimately lead to nowhere. In this latest report, the Wall Street Journal says that India has improved its standing in the world on the count of the maximum number of residents afflicted by poverty. According to the official United Nations statistics, the benchmark for a person to be considered above poverty line (APL) is an earning of $1.25/day, or Rs 56/day according to the average exchange rate of Rs 45 being equivalent to US$1. Hence, the number of citizens below poverty line (BPL) will fall to an estimated 22% of our 1.21 billion population by the end of 2015. More of a matter of concern than rejoice, for that $1.25 will fetch you jack shit going by the inflationary pressure in our domestic markets.

Let's do some basic maths. An average person has 3 basic needs in today's world- food to eat, a shelter to live, and means to commute. Clothing can be considered a luxury, a one time expense. A basic meal of potato with rice, and an occasional serving of lentils, would alone cost somewhere close to Rs 40 per day at today's market rate for flour and vegetables. That leaves 16 bucks to be spent on shelter and transport. The savings can very understandably be considered negligible. And this after our economy has opened up post the great liberalization of 1991. The poor has climbed out of poverty on the basis of numbers, not in reality. And thus the growing concern among policy makers and economists that the rich-poor divide is increasing is well founded, though it would be appropriate to separate it from the Left-propelled paranoia about wealth redistribution, which has left West Bengal among the poorer states in the country with little industrialization. So much so, that the hapless Industry & Commerce minister of the state has imagined a novel solution to the state's woes- changing the name to push the state up the pecking order of attendance at major national forums!

A retrospective view of our situation would gain us the realization that the pre-1991 times were particularly hard on the country, but the great divide wasn't as pronounced as today because the middle class and the lower class were bedfellows nudging each other all the time. Post-liberalization, opportunities grew, so did the number of scams, and central schemes became a means to siphon off public money for private welfare. Our GDP has shown remarkable growth compared to the base years, and yes, the economy is a hotbed for foreign investments. But all lip service is of no value to the poor soul who awaits his day at the turnstile when he can walk into the APL world in actual terms. Tightening leakages in the system, as the proposed cash transfer scheme intends to do, would serve us well. At least you would be sure that the usurping is going on at the other end of the deal. Middle men would be sniffing their chances in this exercise, and the complicity of government officials in propagating corruption has reached an all time high, even with heightened vigilance in public governance. More imaginative ideas and solution are needed if we are to benefit all those who share their voting franchise with us and then leave us to enjoy the fruits of our economy.

Peepli live- one of the more realistic portrayals of our situation

The battle of the Pukh!

Pukh, short for the revered Pukh nakastra in the Hindu calendar, is the day when according to the folklore, Lord Ram arrived from his kingdom in Ayodhya to the palace of his devout follower, Rani Ganeshibai of Orccha. It comes once every month, so unlike deepawali or holi, there are 12/13 pukhs a year at the revered temple in Orccha. Therefore, it is only natural that the devotees, believing in the maxim of 'the more the better', throng to Orccha every pukh in a windfall.

I have had a few brushes with the pukh previously, but the events were long erased from my memory due to my tendency of avoiding worship at temples as a ritual. However, this sunday, on one of our regular escapades to Orccha, things got serious. Exactly at the halfway mark on the 24km distance from my home to the temple, we came across a 2km long jam, which we thankfully avoided and parried in time. The reason- Lord Ram was visiting Orccha on the very day of my parents' wedding anniversary. Blessed be the name of the believer, and those thousands, who stood in the humid july weather on the serpentine road to the fortress of Orccha. It takes something special to reinforce your faith in our culture and traditions, especially if you have been used to the cosmopolitan way of life. This was one of those moments!

We promised to return later in the day in time for the evening aarti, otherwise the prayer service. Keeping our promise, and hoping that the morning rush from neighboring towns and villages would have subsided by then through the passenger train scheduled in the evening, we made our approach, only to find there were countless others who shared our thought. Nonetheless, the destination was nigh, and as we made our way into the courtyard, the sound of dholaks and folk songs reached a crescendo. The scenes inside were more colorful- men dancing in the sheer joy of the occasion; women making a frantic effort to extract the maximum possible out of the short darshan; and children adoring the deities which were richly decorated and kept outside the inner sanctum for all to see. To say that it wasn't moving would be a blatant lie, for I haven't felt such a strong connect to out traditions for quite a while. As somebody who abhors superstition, which is slowly becoming the staple of modern hinduism much to the chagrin of the learned scholars, I was beginning to believe in a god who is formless and needs to be discovered within oneself. This pukh changed it in a different, and dare I say, a better way. Faith needs a support structure to weather out the periods of calamity and bliss, both of which can be harmful to the conscience's battle against ignorance. And the sight of men and women, young and old, dancing and enjoying the mutual feeling of reverence to Lord Ram may just be that additive anybody needs.

A beautiful composition from our best performer at the Oscars yet!

The latest dope

My first brush with 'Sportstar' was way back in the December of 2000. In fact, I remember the edition precisely, for it was the much heralded millennium edition ushering us into a new century of sporting achievements. One particular story stood out. The blood-red eyes of Ben Johnson adorned the story detailing his triumph and subsequent downfall at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Johnson created a media frenzy by upsetting the great Carl Lewis at his patented 100m dash, only to be found guilty of banned substance abuse and stripped of his olympic glory. Lewis would go on to cement his place in the Hall of fame, and Johnson would go on to cement his in the doping Hall of shame.

In an era of ever tightening noose of the WADA around illegal and banned substance intake in competitive sport, be it Athletics, Tennis, or even Cricket, it is a matter of shame when a country crosses the line, figuratively, time and again. India's record at the dope altar has been murky at best, with a number of top athletes being tested positive for banned substances, especially after a coveted victory in a competition of repute. This is not to say that the athletic world is scotch clean when it comes to clandestine intake of foreign substance to give an artificial boost to their performance, but repeated dope offences should make the IOA take notice of the grim situation in the athletic nurseries of India. To quote a profound philosopher-"One fault wipes away all good done."

The latest in a long line of failed dope tests are two female athletes, both members of the victorious 4x400m relay team at the Commonwealth and Asian games. Only a year back, India was jubilant at the prospect of its track & field arm catching up with the shooters and boxers at international events. The double victory in back-to-back events had raised hopes for an elusive Olympic medal in track. With only a year to go for the 2012 London olympics, when teams start to polish that odd nook in their strategy and shave off those few milliseconds that separate the winners from the also-rans, India would have to start afresh. The blame lies on both the SAI and the athletes- SAI for the slip up in laying down stringent conditions on the athletes under its umbrella and constant monitoring of their physical well-being in the off-season, and the athletes for being nonchalant/ignorant about the intake of banned substances. Time and again, there has been clamor from athletes that they are injected with banned substances without their knowledge, and often a simple flu medication leads to a failed dope tests. Well, flu is not endemic to India, and if no other country boasts of athletes failing dope tests regularly, perhaps India should follow their lead and learn from their system, and then implement it here.

The appalling sports infrastructure notwithstanding, Indian athletes brave other odds while trying to make a career in sports. In a country where sports stars are exclusive to the game of Cricket (Saina and Vijender are proving to be worthy exceptions), athletes often brave familial pressure and lack of job prospects to make it big in the arena of track & field, the foremost competitive sport in the world. It is well known that our genealogy has blessed us with slightly inferior stamina and muscle mass compared to athletes from Africa or the west, and athletes start to learn the fine prints of their sport when others around the globe are already competing internationally. It is therefore the duty of the IOA to ensure that sports medicine be taught to our athletes right when they are being inducted into their sport. This will surely lower the number of failures, if not ameliorate it altogether.

The best soundtrack ever?

UP yours!

What is the product of a 6 hour drive on national highways laden with potholes, mixed with insensitive truck drivers and lack of street lamps? A grumpy author who is forced to contemplate on the mecca of Indian politics, and more importantly, the sorry state of affairs resulting from a desire to anglicize while the ground realities are quite de-anglicized. For example, it is well known that the monsoons arrive at this time of the year every time, yet the PWD will sit on their hands till the public comes out and raises a hue over the dug up roads or tardy water supply. I am just getting started.

Firstly, major props to the UP government for letting me know that is is doing all it can to further the cause of Sarvjana hitaye, sarvajana sukhaye. At least on paper (and giant hoarding the size of famished fields in big cities). While the maxim translates to "For the welfare and good of all", it is a mere facade to the real maxim when one reads between the lines. That crime was inbred in UP's bloodline was well established before the recent wave of rape, abduction, and killings started making national headlines. Though the government has been crying foul over the timing of the crime wave merely a year before the all important state assembly elections next year, the signs have been obvious for the last 10 years. As UP slipped from one form of ill-governance to the other under craftily sewn coalitions and a single party rule under the mask of an unified social experiment, the state moved from one form of shoddy bureaucracy to the other. The results are obvious.

It is telling that an English medium school still compounds a high premium on the masses of the hinterland. Education has gone down the drain while the number of colleges have sprouted up like fungi all over the state. UP boasts of a large number of engineering colleges, all private in nature of course since the central government still considers higher education in this country as a step child, with lack of basic infrastructure leaving the fate of the unfortunate students of these institutions hanging in balance. The obfuscation over the motives of the government couldn't have been any more obvious when, on one hand, farmers are being targeted in the name of development, and on the other, primary schools in villages also function as temporary resting places for baraats. A drive up the road would present generic pretty faces trying to figure out how to work a computer, inviting you to become a part of their confused fraternity. Of all the people in this world, a vegetable shop owner proudly presented his Eddie Guerrerro T-shirt (VIVA LA RAZZA). Indeed, the world has caught up with UP, but UP hasn't caught up with the world yet. Migration to the urban centers has resulted in an overwhelming majority of people residing in slums, while villages are getting deserted for the lack of workforce and improved irrigation facilities. MNREGA has clearly not benefited the large section of our workforce which is neither technically challenged nor educated enough to land a decent job. Other social schemes will amount to nothing unless government hiring speed up keeping pace with the expanding youth population.

Perhaps this is true for most states in our country. Educational levels are not where a country pushing for superpower status would hope them to be. Still, that smiling face on billboards and a T-shirt commemorating a great wrestler from Mexico gives me some hope. Hope that the desire of matching steps with the developed world would not remain an improbable dream for the residents of UP. That inward migration would be a reality somewhere down the line. Well, at least songs with English lyrics are becoming popular, and as many people want to watch Delhi Belly as those who raved to Dabangg. Huzzah!

Can somebody translate the spanish lyrics of this song for me?

In the business of Nature

It is official: Nature worship gets you in deep trouble, both pecuniary as well as emotional, and in worst cases, even death. Before you question my gloomy outlook towards the maintenance of Mother Earth, rest assured that I have completed my compulsory 'Environmental science' courses and therefore am a certified well-wisher of our habitat (ain't that right?). I of all people always believed that no harm can come out of protecting our environment, and planting a sapling is equivalent to Morrison's version of crack to nirvana. It is by chance, or by destiny, that the overwhelming evidence around us is coming into the fore at a time when the developed world still questions the assertions of IPCC's Nobel prize-winning endeavor. Does it really matter if the Himalayan glaciers melt in 2035 or 2080? The mere fact that they will be fading into the oblivion soon should have sent alarm bells ringing. But as with the human nature, having a free voice leads to multiple theories on any contentious issue, leading to a murky quagmire.

In a major development this week, a baba fasting for the protection of Ganga from the relentless illegal quarrying, affecting the biodiversity and ecology of the downstream, fasted to death, after 115 days! That the Ganga and the Yamuna nourish the agriculture belt of India is an ancient fact, which arises from a revered place for these rivers in Hindu mythology. Ganga was believed to have descended upon Earth through the enormous penance of King Bhagirath, who had to lay his brothers to peace which would have been possible through Ganga's sin-absolving quality. Well, we can pray to the deity all we want, even take a holy pilgrimage to Haridwar (doorway to God's kingdom), but Ganga is slowing being poisoned by the incessant illegal quarrying activity which is destroying the river bed, not to forget the cremation and offerings of human waste into the river flow in the hope of an end to the circle of life. It is just sad that despite numerous directives from the honorable courts and copious amounts of money that has been pumped into the cleansing and restoration of Ganga, the chances of saving it are slimming every passing day. And if you thought this is bad, have a look at the Yamuna when it traverses through the confines of Delhi. Nobody can blame you if you claim to have missed it, for it has been reduced a a black tarry stream full of toxic industrial waste. This is how India is paying back to the rivers it is indebted to for life.

The problems are not limited to India alone. Global warming skeptics, and there is a growing population of these, like to claim that this is not a new phenomenon and that it happens periodically in the earth's climate cycle, leading to different ages of natural conditions. Only problem being that the effects of rapid climate change have never been so potent or prominent. The shift in the arrival of different seasons is tangible, so is the increasing temperature at the various so-called 'cooler places' on Earth. Our glaciers are melting at a rapid pace, the Arctic is shrinking in size, and the Antarctic ice cap is disintegrating at a much faster pace than ever before. So some governments are actually taking it seriously and introducing measures like a Carbon tax on the citizens to offset the climate liabilities of the country. Well, it hasn't gone down well with earthlings, especially in Australia. Recent reports suggest that prime minister Julia Gillard is fast losing popularity and credibility for her efforts to tax her country for the fuel they burn and the greenhouse gases they emit. Now Julia Gillard has made some outrageous statements in the past, not least when the Indian students in Australia were facing violence arising out of racial and ethnic circumstances. But her popularity slumps when she tries to bring into effect a fundamental principle of introducing checks in the system to prevent misuse. Australia could have been a guiding light to the rest of the world, especially China which uses one-third of the Earth's energy resources and has been devouring it at a much faster rate in the past decade.

We make a big fuss about nature, vis-a-vis its role in our life and the sheer beauty gilded in its mysteries. The supermoon in March or the longest lunar eclipse of the decade 2 days ago would serve to remind us that tampering with nature and praising its beauty is a bigotry of the extreme kind. In India, nature worship has assumed a paramount role in all of our rituals. The havana is by design meant to clean the atmosphere by burning the microbes in the vicinity. Various festivals which have ties to worship of plants are to encourage their protection and nourishment. Nature has been our protector for long-it is our turn now to pay back or witness the devastation that will unfold once we reach the tipping point.

Technological conundrums

It has been close to a month now since I left one of the premier institutes of technological education in our country and shifted base back to my technologically-challenged hometown. Don't get me wrong, I love this little bustling half-city still undergoing a rapid metamorphosis. After all, considering that English-medium schools went from being a status symbol to being a norm in a short span of 10 years, Jhansi does pretty well on the rapid advancement scale in this liberalized country of ours. However, to pore deeper into this microcosm of a mixed society, you know, like the model tier-2/3 cities that our economists hail as the beacon of future growth, one needs to utilize a basic and inadvertent fact of science- Look closely if something is wrong, look closer if everything looks perfect.

Among other things that happened by the virtue of privatization and competitive bidding (at least in a majority of the cases), it can be rightly said that the telecom revolution of the late-nineties has been the sturdiest example of a simple idea made big. Hence, India now has more cellphones than color televisions and more telecom operators than that in the EU. In economics' jargon, this might be presented as the neo-liberal revolution. Back in my hometown, it stands for cheap call rates and unnecessary small talk. Back in the day, when the landline connection was given in batches and a STD subscription was considered stretching the household budget thin, people would line up at a neighborhood STD booth on a Sunday night in order to make that long-awaited phone call to a dear one. And due to the fact that those visits were more regular than the timing of Tendulkar's backfoot punch, the owner and the user formed a social bond that extended beyond that of a shopkeeper and a customer. It wasn't rare to see these phone booths being housed in ice cream parlors or general stores, so that while people waited for their turn to come, the children could lay waste to some candy or ice cream. This was until the government decided to de-monopolize the IT sector and bring in the private players, which spelt the doom for the state-run BSNL and the privately-owned STD shops.

With call rates plunging to historic lows, notwithstanding the totally unfunny ad campaign of DoComo advertising calls at 10p/min, one must wonder, and rightly so, how these companies are managing to remain in the black. The experts promptly reply that it is the total subscription and the value-added services that are the cash cows for telecom sector these days. I sincerely hope this is another of those 'good in a textbook, bad in the real world' cases, because the way my cable operator uses his cell phones or my dad uses his, the prospects of Raja's beneficiaries don't look very good. While Blackberries and smart phones are slowly becoming the norm in the urbane populace, the interiors still prefer the good old 'talk and turn off' ritual. And their favorite is the 'same network-free calls' scheme, which has saved many a relationships and connected families to each other 24x7. Hell, I hardly know of any friends back at college who use caller tunes or have call balance in excess of 50 bucks (much more if the person in question is hitched, but then the cellphone is hardly ever free for external consumption). Where is the profit coming from?

The answer is, there isn't much profit to go around. All major telecom firms have been reporting a steady decline in profits every passing fiscal. Compounded with new TRAi initiatives like mobile number portability, new entrants in the market are finding it harder to gain a foothold. So India went from having the least developed communications market, to one with the most potential, to one with stifling competition, to one with declining profits. If you believe in the circle of life, perhaps the days of STD booths will come again. Or maybe not! In the clamor of dropping call rates and fierce competition among the service providers, it is time to think of merging the call market with the information market throughout the country and not just in metros. A push at the central government's level, by promoting e-governance aggressively and subsidizing 3G services in the less profitable markets should lend credence to the amorphous market in the interiors. DTH failed to become the next big thing due to the higher penetration and affordability of local cable operators. Merging all information services in one and providing a bigger basket for consumers to choose from sounds like a decent idea on paper. The roll out will be another story for another day.

Happy birthday to a dear friend who just turned 25!

Arrested development

A dysfunctional family which happens to be something like this- A dad who cares little about his family and enjoys his time away from his responsibilities tending to daily chores; an elder son who bumbles around even when trying to be serious, and craves to create some magic of his own; a mother who enjoys the riches of the fast-depleting family fortune but shrugs responsibility for its consequences; a bumbling grandson whose throbbing pubescent hormones get the better of him; a dutiful son who has some sense of responsibility and tries to keep the family and its wealth from falling apart.

This is a rough narrative of the central characters of the hit Fox comedy Arrested development, which made critics sit up and take notice, garnering several awards in the process. Why would I want to talk about an innocuous, little-known show from the west in India? Because if you replace the dad with the President of India, the mother with you-know-who, the elder son with Dr. Manmohan Singh, and the grandson with Rahul baba, you have our own hit show being played out live to the public airwaves everyday. Sadly, there is no dutiful son who can come and rescue it from the rut, though Digvijay Singh more than makes up for the digging-a-deeper-grave part.

I was in Delhi for my visa interview when the travesty of June 4 occurred, and not surprisingly, the GOI made sure that the nation woke up to a Sunday of controversy and horror. A media-fest at the Ramlila ground at the behest of a Baba Ramdev was turned into a brazen attempt at the murder of democracy overnight. Since then, allegations and counter-allegations galore as the media churns out one byte after the other of the government or the opposition. In what has become fashionable in the tenure of UPA-II, shirking from responsibility and mudding the details has become commonplace. A similar scenario is shaping up now as the government tries to defend its midnight turn as Rambo necessary to prevent an escalation of a law and order situation, this when it claimed to have things in place and spared no effort in canvassing and convincing Ramdev to call off his proposed mass satyagraha. In words of a famous idiom, ungli tedi karni pad gayi.

A trite movement which rested on driving up a frenzy among his staunch supporters had turned Ramdev into a political figure. Clear signs of alignment with the right wing organizations were visible as he took stage and laid out his ludicrous conditions, which were, in all fairness, in good intention by a man who was only still grasping the reach of his celebrity. Perhaps it never dawned on the government's think-tank that a movement based on less than stellar credentials like Ramdev's would crash and burn on its own, unlike Anna Hazare's campaign against corruption, which had the backing of the educated class and proposed legislation in tow. Forcefully evicting thousands of hapless people in the middle of the night in Delhi's scorching summer only reaffirmed the notion that has long prevailed when it comes to Congress' image in the public- a party which tries hard to stay in the middle but gets nowhere. The hasty action has created more questions, drawn the ire of the NHRC and the Supreme court, recharged the civil society activists and the opposition, and worst, put a blot on India's tradition of allowing the liberty of peaceful protest and enshrining it as a fundamental right.

Perhaps it was a calculated gesture on the GOI's part. With 3 years left in its second term and no apparent threat looming over the stability of the government, it is relying on the fickle-minded public with a withdrawing attention span. The 2G scam has been turned into Kanimozhi's saga of martyrdom in the name of her family. The proposed Jan lokpal bill looks to be going nowhere. Operation 'Cover up' is already underway with regard to the CWG mess, as the Delhi government looks to bat it out with the central leadership having shown no signs of stern action against it. The scapegoat in each case, be it Kalmadi, Raja, Kanimozhi, or P.J. Thomas, is in the dock. The masters are thus more relaxed than normal. With the left still overcoming its nightmare of having been nearly swept out of national relevance for good, and the BJP squabbling over the next PM candidate, a strong challenge to the unruly central rule remains. This at a time when there are a number of factors to take the government to task- decline in GDP in the last quarter of 2010-2011, revision in the projected GDP for next year to the lower side, farmer agitations and land acquisition hurdles in Paradip, and a shortage of coal and natural gas slowing down India's energy production in the wake of ever-increasing demand. I am sure you can add to the list as well.

I am being reminded of our freedom struggle, when strong leaders of the stature of Subhas Chandra Bose and Sardar Patel took the helm and made sure the masses realize their responsibility. When Gandhi battled disenchantment in his idea of a united India with gusto. The democracy was showing positive signs of resuscitation with increasing voter participationin the recent assembly and local bodies elections, only to see the oxygen supply being cut short in the middle of the night.

PS: The lengthy stay in the capital city after 5 years showed me an entirely new side of Delhi, with improved road infrastructure and public transport standing out in particular. The CWG scam seems to have left an everlasting impact on the psyche of good 'ol dilli.

Cue up some Rahman