Archive of An Unknown

No one other than the royal family knows when the prince of Congress party is planning to take over from our most qualified yet “one of the” weakest prime ministers (I don’t think he is “the” weakest one we ever had because some horribly weak people have already been there and done it without even commanding the respect of a few dozen parliamentarians!). But, the good news would be that his takeover would bring in a lot of stability to our government after almost two decades, which for sure is not all that great at the moment. Even a few spineless clowns used to disrespect the prime minister in UPA-1. It’s better now in UPA-2, but it still has a lot of scope for improvement. It can never be perfect unless the person at the top has people’s backing. Unfortunately, Dr. Singh doesn’t have it as he came through the backdoor. As we discussed a few posts earlier, it is not his problem, but ours, for not being able to respect and back an extraordinarily decent leader like him. When the bato...

There is no better time to talk about Ayodhya issue than now. When I could spend so much time on various not-so-critical issues in last few months, it wouldn’t be fair if I don’t spend a few hours on such a critical issue like this. I prefer to call this Ayodhya issue as the parties involved in this call it differently based on which side of the fence they are on. One group calls it Ram Janma Bhoomi issue and the other calls it Babri Masjid issue. Or, they call it Ram Janma Bhoomi-Babri Masjid issue or Babri Masjid-Ram Janma Bhoomi issue respectively by changing the order of names to make it clear to the world as to what came first in their opinion. I am not very fond of getting into controversies. I would rather be comfortable leaving my surrounding more confused, as I strongly believe that it eventually would lead us collectively to a clearer territory. I don’t have much data with me to pass any judgment. I don’t need them as I don’t have any compulsion to prove anyone wrong or rig...

Kathlal by-election win forces me to rethink about my stance against Narendra Modi and his way of politics. I know it wouldn’t be seen as humane to like him in Indian politics. His iron fist against terrorists is still appreciated. But, giving green signal to the brutal killing of his own innocent people being a chief minister of a state is just a third class behavior. It just can’t be an act of a national leader. It was his contribution to prove how low a chief minister could get by occupying such a high position in a democratic nation. I would have been happy if he had caught all the culprits who set fire on the train in Godhra and hung them on streets with complete media coverage. They deserve such a punishment, but not the innocent people that belong to the same religion of the criminals that did it. It is so basic and commonsensical that any punishment should be given to the guilty and not those who belong to the same group, be it caste, community, religion, region, race, langua...

People spend more time searching for names for their kids than for even searching for their better halves these days. For some people, the process starts as early as their childhood itself. It's not just a name for identification. It means much more to us. We try to communicate a lot of things through those names. And, some couples that pass all tests after marriage get stuck at this stage. It divides families and makes some lifetime dents in relationships. It has become so important to us. We try to prove that we are superior to the rest with these names or at least not inferior to anyone. I don't know how it is in the western world but in this part of the world it has really become a very critical process. Each one has a logic for naming. There is one group of principled people whose only principle is to find a name that can't be easily pronounced by all. If the number of people that are able to pronounce it correctly is more than that of those that can't, it is a f...

Like 'Culture Shocks', this is 'Culture Surprises'. 'Culture Surprises' is my travelogue and peoplogue. Travelogue to discuss about all my experiences in every new place I visit and peoplogue to discuss about all my experiences with people from different cultures I meet. So, it is not necessary that I talk about only cultures here. It's about everything new that I come across. So, purists... please bear with the coinage of the title! This is in continuation to the last post on my journey towards west. Just before starting my journey westwards, I fortunately had an opportunity to spend some good time with a westerner in India. It helped me prepare for the journey. I also wanted to show him the best of India. But, I couldn’t take him anywhere to do that. Instead, I tried to be the best of myself with him so that I do my bit to build the brand India. I also made it very clear to him upfront that I am very crazy about learning new cultures and hence I w...

There are winners and losers in all walks of life. There is also another group of people. Those who have all the talents to succeed in a particular line of work but never made any attempt to do something about it. There are many reasons. It could be laziness. It could be timelessness. It could be the issue of not knowing one's own abilities. A reason for that could be that the time they have is enough for their regular work. Unlike in some developed countries, our education and profession are not decided based on our talent and interest. The reason for that is our economic condition. All those who are enjoying the success are not enjoying their own success alone. It includes that of those who never tried also. Their inability to try shouldn't demean those who tried and succeeded. That is the price they give for not trying. This is the prize that the ones who tried got. All we are trying to do here is to wake up the ones that never tried and not degrade the success of the ones...

I used to be often told in my childhood that I would be sent to Russia for higher studies if I studied well, as my grandfather was in Communist Party of India. It was very common those days that the children and grandchildren of communists were sent to Russia for higher studies, especially for medicine. That not-so-serious dream went for a toss when the Russian collapse happened in 92. Even otherwise, I don’t think it would have happened as we were not so serious about it. But, that did help me dream about flying to a foreign land and being with people and things that are completely foreign to me. Other than that I have never had to think of working with any foreigners on a daily basis ever in my life, until I chose to study computer science in graduation. By that time, a cousin of mine had done computer science, entered into the most happening Indian software industry and started travelling abroad, which triggered me as well to dream about travelling all across the world. Unfortunat...

Reservation has been one of the most selfish political topics of our time. It is advocated only by those who benefit from it (either a direct beneficiary or the political beneficiaries) and protested by only those who lose because of it. Both the parties are not ready to look at it objectively. It is very evident from the way our upper caste friends use their caste to establish their superiority in every possible way and being worried about the problems of caste only when it comes to reservation. It is also evident from the way our lower caste friends protesting against the benefits that are given to those who are in lower state than them and being worried about social justice only when it comes to their own reservation. So, considering the sensitivity involved on the topic, I am fixing the scope of this aimless discussion (like sweet nothings in romantic discussions I love this aimless discussions in blogging) only to caste census and its ultimate goal of eradicating caste differences...

We have a huge list of problems. I don’t have to be innovative to list them down. Whether I include or not, they are going to be the same. They feature in every similar article or poll. But, what perhaps matters here is that the way in which a problem is being looked at by an individual and the way they are being prioritized. Many intellectuals even opine that the prioritization is our biggest problem. Looking at the number of issues, I am afraid if I would be able to make my posts smaller as mentioned in the previous post. Let me check if grouping multiple related issues into one and choosing only the top three from that list would help. Do I have solution for each problem? No. It would be madness if I say ‘Yes’. If a common man sitting in the outskirts of Bangalore has solutions for all the national issues, then why would we have governments, elections, politicians, bureaucrats, and millions of other people who are paid by the government and are meant to do this in their own trie...

Two ex-Infosysians are forcing me to write a piece on the current challenges of the country. 1. Mr. Nandan Nilekani, ex-CEO of Infosys. 2. My friend Shambu Nashipudi (no title required!), ex-employee of Infosys, Wipro and another small company. How Mr. Nilekani? Just finished reading his book Imagining India. It took months to finish it as I don’t read more than 5 pages per day. It is such a heavy book, literally as well as in terms of its content. Starting with a bit of history, he has explained every major problem of this country in his own corporate style. Thanks to the globalization for bringing in a new perspective to look at things. The corporate world has brought in that. He doesn’t talk about emotionally weakening subjects. He actually talks about some of them in a politically correct tone. We are just used to the kind of people who don’t talk about issues because they would be viewed politically incorrect. Else, there is another group that politicizes everything that they ...