The Golden 80s

Nobody questioned the real nonsense that happened: the fact that the ordinance to save the convicted elected representatives went to the President without much opposition from all the “clean” parties. In a democracy like India, all opposition parties are “clean”. When these opposition parties become the rulers, the then opposition become clean. That exactly is how an average Indian understands Indian politics. The media just propagates this theory. So, the same democratic, objective media did not vehemently question why the bill was created in the first place and why the ordinance was rushed through. No media questioned or even wondered why we did not see live telecast of thousands holding candles near India Gate unlike some time in the past. We also did not see the “saviours of Indian democracy” performing a satyagraha stunt or wage another televised version of freedom struggle. We did not see anyone waving the Indian flag, or music concerts to save India. And when Rahul Gandhi ...

It is known that the GDP figures hyped by the media to credit or discredit political formations in India do not "account" the environmental damage caused by the so-called "Development." There were seminal papers published that questioned the entire economics paradigm that still stood united behind the GDP as the yardstick for growth. But, Indian economists and foreign-educated ultra-liberal growth pundits have no time to read about Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) that accounts or discounts the environmental damage caused by mindless growth. (Renaissance took place in Europe, right?). Advocates of GPI do not claim that it is perfect. But while our journalists pillory governments over GDP figures, let us be aware that there are other perspectives to look at how growth is contributing to human and environmental welfare. Check this link: http://rprogress.org/sustainability_indicators/genuine_progress_indicator.htm

We, three kids, were not good in solving mathematical problems in school textbooks. There were no outside help, and  we were happily "stuck" with our inability and hereditary weakness in solving the problems. After a while, we never bothered to revisit why we were "stuck". But we never "struck" anyone. We were simply "stuck." And in the last few weeks I heard "struck" again, as the developer was finding it difficult to fix a "small" issue. So, developers will also get "stuck" somewhere. Candid admission anyway. "Struck" is the past tense and past participle of the verb Strike . As a noun, stuck meant "something causing delay or difficulty." Next time, when your tongue inserts an unnecessary "u" in before "r", just strike it off. Otherwise, you will be"stuck" like a door that got closed when the dog was half out of the door. And nobody held the door ajar for the...

"...The cynic, after all, is inclined to question people's motives and assume that they are acting self-servingly unless proven otherwise...".writes Julian Baggini in The Guardian . Certain cynics act dumb, or appear dumb. They do not appear polished, but disheveled. They do not follow anything or anyone, but observes and dissects everything. No other choice. And it does matter because of this; "...cynicism proves its worth as one of our best defences against spin and manipulation ..." Spin and manipulation. Thomas Carlyle wrote that Imperfection clings to a person, and if they wait till they are brushed off entirely, they would spin for ever on their axis, advancing nowhere . The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words . Philip K. Dick The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it ...

Wanted to write about overconfidence today, but got confused about whether it is about "overconfidence" or "hubris" that I wanted to write about. People use overconfidence in many erroneous ways. Whatever it may be, overconfidence is a "cognitive bias" type that manifests itself in various ways. So, Wikipedia says, "...A cognitive bias is a pattern of deviation in judgment, whereby inferences of other people and situations may be drawn in an illogical fashion..." For more information, see Cognitive Bias .

From Garden City to Hospital City , said a headline. In an year, Bangalore will get around new 3000 hospital beds, claims the news story. Yes, Bangalore indeed requires lots of hospitals and hospital beds. May be, in a science fiction like scenario, people will even be living in hospitals or medicated glasshouses or skyscrapers in Bangalore. Servants will be replaced by nurses who take care of the permanently ill or disabled citizens in the city. Such a bleak or black scenario is possible because of the following reasons: 1. The city has crossed its carrying capacity and is reaching its breaking capacity. 2. Alarming rise in air pollution because of the arrival of 200-300 (unofficial) vehicles per day on the city's roads and no effort to control the situation. 3. Reckless lifestyle celebrated by people of all ages. Drinking, smoking, doing drugs, and unsafe sex are all fashionable, trendy, and even "normal" in this hyper-America of India. Those who cannot practice...

I am not an expert in Sri Lankan politics and atrocities against Tamils in that country. But to succumb to threats by regional parties in protest against atrocities in a foreign country does not augur well for India's strategic relations with neighbours. This consistent pressure tactics threatening withdrawal of support to a coalition government creates instability and governance freeze at the top. Decisions are postponed and all energies and valuable time is wasted on fire-fighting and saving the government's numbers. The UPA government has enough wisdom and expertise available to deal with this situation. But whether to dance to the tunes of regional satraps who hold the Damocles Sword of Support for issues that requires lots of diplomacy is an entirely different matter. I think the Indian prime minister should step in and announce India's position on this issue. In the meanwhile, if somebody wants to move away, let them be. There is a great honour in doing...

I always liked Test cricket batsmen who play aggressive cricket instead of those who are technically perfect. Sehwag has been one such batsman in the past. Recently, he has been a pale shadow of his past achievements. So, the decision to drop him was not a surprise for me. A cricketer's individual records do not matter from the real perspective of the game. A cricketer's records shine more gloriously if it results in wins for his team. It is immature to keep on playing someone when records show a different story. So, poor form or lack of performance will result in only one thing. Today, it is  Sehwag. Tomorrow, it will be someone else. Hope Sehwag comes back with a bang.

I leave it to you to decipher why I pasted the following screenshot:

They or most of us thought that India had developed and arrived. IT parks, malls, multiplexes, international brands and cuisine, and latest Hollywood movies. We thought that the world started and ended with 8-10% GDP. And in the next 25 years, we would become another US. The only US of South Asia. We never realized that our men had not changed. They were always the dominant species with everything within reach. Unlike the standards followed in the cubicles of IT companies, men in India never followed, never adhered to, and never needed standards for either them or to what is happening outside. The absence of nothing to rein them and the chaos of how to rein them was the greatest opportunity. Standards were a deterrent and they knew how to subvert them. Long before today's IT coolies started enjoying life, Indian men were enjoying life, women, and liquor. In various forms and cheaply. They know where to find anything they wanted and they knew how to snatch or violate anything th...

The Indian cricket team, which was defeated in the recent home Test series , appeared comfortable while playing the Twenty-twenty games. While the shorter version ended in a draw , with both teams winning a match each, the body language of the Indian cricketers looked much better. Frankly, I did not understand why the rookie pace bowlers were allowed to bowl the last few overs of the match. So, create three separate teams for the three formats of the game. Let there be an exclusive Test team, ODI team , and T20 team. Ideally, I would like to see three captains, and specialist batsmen and bowlers for each format. Such a strategy will ensure that there will be variety, a larger pool to select the team from, and more opportunities for youngsters. There is no point in continuing with the old strategy that puts too much emphasis on individual records and letting the greats play all forms of the game. Individual scores really matter when it results in victory or saves India from defeats....

OK. I wanted to know what Application Extension really is. So, out of the three different definitions, I decided that the third one was the one I was looking for. The term meant that it was a "supplementary routine that adds capabilities to" the Java application I was working on. And a routine was a set of tasks. Then, I subscribed to a weekly email digest that brings terms ad their explanations to my inbox. I know that my reading habits will put off people and friends. Because I cannot stand discussing the glories of pulp fiction and best-sellers that do not challenge the reader in any way. How to read books and alienate friends did recount the joys of reading good creative stuff from great writers.

It is a fact that when the Congress party is in power or on an extended term, a slew of corruption charges are thrown at it with or without merit. So, things are not different now with a slew of allegations that started from the mistake of hosting the Commonwealth Games in the Indian capital city of Delhi. Since every week, we sit mentally prepared to entertain ourselves with the latest shockwave of corruption. I would like to know a few things from the everything-we-say-is-right anti-corruption brigade: 1. What steps do you recommend to end corruption in India? 2. How will you ensure that the people in Lokpal would not favour a politician or not take a wrong decision? 3. Will your version of Lokpal punish the errant officers also along with the corrupt? 4. How will you ensure that the corrupt and criminals do not even have party membership? 5. What exactly is the development model you suggest for India so that poverty is wiped out? What is the time frame required to achieve th...

When people lie, the Indian media just laps all of that up and regurgitates them on the reader or viewer. This is first of a periodic collection of such lies, half-truths, canards, unverified facts spread through the media. There is nobody as minister from the North East.  A union minister is a minister of the Union of India. The minister represents the people of India and not his or her state. It is not a quota system out there. Both the hosts Sri Lanka and Windies can win the T20 World Cup. Yeah. But you don't need a sports desk reporter in a suit to tell you that. Right? India's  natural resources and their exploitation belong to the poor. When the media continued to pound our senses with this blatant lie, nobody bothered to check. Those who have read the Constitution of India knew that the natural resources belong to the Indian State and it can utilize them for the benefit of the nation and its people. People do not have inalienable rights to natural resourc...

In India, any hike in energy prices leads to a slew of protests, mostly by opposition political parties and mostly meant for the TV cameras. Yesterday, the Kerala state government announced a hike in energy prices across the board. The decision has met with opposition and the opposition political parties are conducting state-wide protests against the price hike. Now, Kerala requires 3400 MW of power daily, but power from hydel sources alone is just 1600 MW. There are no other major sources of power. Since Kerala faces the biggest opposition in India in the name of environmentalism against new power projects such as hydel projects and thermal plants, all new projects land in controversy. Announce a project and the courts will be flooded with Public Interest Litigations (PILs), and the newspapers will be filled with statements and lengthy op-eds. So, what exactly can the hapless people do in such a situation? The real solution depends very much on the immediate need for a change in m...

As a former journalist, I have written news stories according to the Inverted Pyramid style. As a technical writer, I have not tried that. Writing user manuals according to the Inverted Pyramid style, which still is a distinctive characteristic of news writing, may work. However, I do have some reservations. What I would like to point out here to non-journalist technical writers is the "context" and "news values" that are used to select a news story is 'fundamentally different" from writing a section in a user manual. The "analysis" that precedes the actual process of writing in both the cases is entirely different. For example, one of the important news value or determinant used to select a news story is "Significance." Any event that affects or interests a large number of people merits a news story. For example, the recent hike in petrol prices in India affects not just the entire population, but it has a larger impact on the econo...

"Call strengthens for re-probe into Yuva Morcha leader’s murder," said a newspaper headline. Re-probe? Wiktionary says "to probe again", but the Corpus of Historical American English did not return any search results for either "re-probe" or "reprobe". Moreover, reprobe seems to be a molecular biology term than a word meaning "reinvestigation". To be more apt, it is better to use "reinvestigate" than re-probe.

Rafael Nadal stormed into the French Open finals today by beating fellow Spaniard David Ferrer 6-2, 6-2, 6-1.  In a match that spanned just one hour and 46 minutes, Nadal showed total control of the game after Ferrer made initial gains by winning a couple of break points. As the game progressed, Nadal's hard-hitting volleys and agility found no match in Ferrer who struggled to keep pace with the former, who is just one victory away from the seventh French Open title. Nadal showed no signs of slowing down as he continued to hold on to the remarkable run he is having in this edition of French Open. Nadal will meet the winner of the second semi-final between world numbr one Novak Djokovic and third seed Roger Federer. Rain did interrupt the match after the first set, but after a 55-minute break and with the Sun coming out, Nadal raced to win the rest of the sets in a pretty quick fashion. Nadal said that he would be matching the second semi-final as it would be one of the greate...

It was with some concern that I read the news that the antibiotic Azithromycin could increase the risk of heart deaths. Researchers at Vanderbilt University compared data of people who took the antibiotic and those who took other less dangerous antibiotics. The results showed a increased mortality rate for people who took Azithromycin and those who are already at risk of cardiac failure or those with cardiac illnesses. Since I have no subscription, I could not read the full report published on the New England Journal of Medicine ( NEJM ) . From what I understand, Azithromycin is a macrolide antibiotic, which prevents bacteria from multiplying by affecting their ability to produce growth proteins. It is known that macrolide antibiotics cause abnormal heart rates (arrythmias), but Azithromycin was considered safe like another antibiotic Amoxicillin. But the study by Vanderbilt researchers has proved otherwise. For experts the estimated 245 additional cardiovascular deaths per 1 mill...

I don’t like IPL. I am sorry to tell this. I don’t know the exact reason. But I still I do not like the tournament. May be, I don’t feel it is just cricket. Cricket was serious, slow, and silent. May be that is the version I like. May be that is the misunderstanding I have. Cricket was not like someone’s metabolism gone haywire. The game was serious, thin, and decent. Stuffed with ordinary, decent, and quiet souls. It was never elite, vitriolic, or violent. There were only gentlemen, and not villains. The beauty of cricket lay in hitting the ball through the ground, or not hitting it, or not hitting it over the  boundary line every time. Hitting the ball out of the ground, and using brute power to hit the ball over the green, thick bed of grass was more like unknown violence. Unnatural wooden acceleration against gravity. Man’s restless war against Nature. Sixes resembled violence against the leather, against the spectators, and against the bowler. More impor...