Aarj hain,

Sirf punya-ki batein hi na kitabon main karo,
Kuch gunaho se bhi ye duniya hanseen hoti hain!

Gifted solution to a gifted problem!

As much as exciting flying could get, it could also get depressing! And if you are a frequent flyer in states, it is more depressing and rarely exciting (for wrong reasons!). The other day I was flying out of Frankfurt airport to Philadelphia. Being late March, I was worried about weather and Mother-Nature did not put my worries in vain! It was nice and sunny until like an hour before we started boarding, but then it just suddenly turned gloomy and temperatures dropped to 20’s (F). The inevitable just got realized, it was all icy out there! Then to my surprise Airlines still boarded the flight and we were waiting to be towed to the air-strip, when I heard that most unpleasant voice of our Flight-commander. ‘Ladies and Gentlemen, this is flight 426 to Philadelphia and this is Jim, your flight commander speaking. As you could see outside the weather is not really complying with us, we will need to wait for Ice-crew to help us clear the air-strip. I will update you as soon as I hear back from them. Until then, please use our entertainment system to your pleasure and have a leisure time.’

Now I was sure that this is going to be a run of a mill flight! After a while another Public announcement declared that flight is delayed by an hour. So, I picked up conversation with few fellow passengers and we were having some ‘gala’ time. I didn’t notice that weather outside has improved in last 45 minutes of our conversation, but someone did! PA (Public announcement) buzzed all of a sudden, and then there was this funnies announcement I have ever heard,
‘Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Jim again. We waited long enough for Ice-crew, but we waited so long that the problem has disappeared in itself! So we no more need any crew and we will be on our way shortly.’

I guess the world has decided to tackle the 'Global warming' problem the same way, but I am sure we are fooling ourselves….. as they say, you cant be lucky twice!

Its been a long night......

Few things are inevitable and no matter how you want to evade them, these things will catch you. They say that mob does not have a conscience, but surprisingly enough I believe the society as a whole from the beginning of this universe has always travelled in the right direction. Some factions may lag the development but sooner or later they will catch up. (I must admit that society also develops few Ulcers, but we will nip them off!)

One proof of what I am saying is from as recent as yesterday. All India Muslim Women Personal Law Board (AIMWPLB) proposed a regulation of marriage certificates and voided the age-old ‘tradition of Talqh’. They want to empower women and this is a step in right direction. They are presently facing least to say fierce opposition from different Muslim boards, but willingness to change is the biggest hurdle crossed for development.

I am all with AIMWPLB and I wish them good luck with that.

Opportunity looming on horizon.....

Not even a single US based NRI is unaware of ubiquitous comparison between west and India, which dominates his everyday conversation. I don’t form an exception to this rule. I am from the group of opinion who believes that this comparison is invalid in itself! Although the problems manifest themselves in similar ways; the dimensions of those problems are different! Culture, Economic and political stability and population are to name a few.

So, if you buy into that, is there really any yard-stick against which India can be compared? Yes, China! For the dimensions those I mentioned China fits into pretty well. And more so over, there is an excellent opportunity for India this year.

China is proudly hosting 2008 Olympics. They are facing n-number of problems and eyes of the world keep fixating on that! China has to overcome those problems and conduct these games successfully. They have problems starting from drinking water to accommodating so many tourists. India can observe Chinese actions closely and learn from them. Obviously India would need to alter those steps to fit to India, but if nothing else we can at least avoid to commit same mistakes those Chinese will do!

I think India should send a delegation of burocrates while China is grappling with all sorts of problems. This delegation can brings us back an experimental report, based on which Indian government can start executing projects on smaller scale, which in turn will feedback to the report itself.

Bottom line is if you don’t know how to approach the problem, at least start compiling Do’s and Don’ts list. The solution will take shape by itself.

An Irish prayer..

May those who love us love us,
and those who do not love us,
may God turn their hearts,
and if He cannot turn their hearts
may He turn their ankles
that we may know them by their limping.
~Irish Prayer

What can I say! (borrowed from one
of my distant friend's orkut profile.)

Government civil services as rewards!

Not Religion, not Secular, not Developing neither Culture can single handedly define India, the way word 'Cricket' can! We recently won the Australian tour and now our dear cricketers; the national heroes are again in center stage for right reasons!
Everyone is in best of their mood! BCCI declared price of Rs 10 Cr. to the team... bravo...The heroes were offered a great welcome, specially arranged in a cricket stadium in Delhi. It was worth it (was it really?). Keeping this 'is it worth it' issue aside, what grabbed my attention is Meerut Commissioner (and for the wrong reason!)

Praveen Kumar; an emerging star is from Meerut. Praveen showed his magic in this tour and really helped us to win. Great! So everyone is flocking to his little house in this little town to give their regards and wishes. Devendra Chaudhari, commissioner of Meerut was not to feel left out. He joined the bandwagon too! But he crossed a line when, reportedly he declared that – “Inke ghar ke saamne main road par cement ka road banega (It's a matter of pride for us. We will construct a cement road on the approach to his home)," (http://www.ibnlive.com/news/goodies-wedding-proposals-follow-stardom-for-praveen/60627-5.html)

I don't care if they really build the road or not, because I am pretty sure it will not get built, but what baffles me is how a comissionar of a city could ASSUMES the power to declare that development!? That too, as a reward! Is he sure that there are no other preferred places where cement road is required in Meerut? This attitude needs to be nipped off in the butt! People of nation pay their taxes for the development of society, and the money needs to flow on priority basis. This announcement is completely invalid especially considering BCCI has already announced their reward (do I agree with that is again a different issue, but Skeptical once will always be one!)

So I guess I should not be surprised if tomorrow Defense Ministry of India, declares houses of cricketers to be VIP places and decides to guard them too!

Should 'freedom of speech' question the 'respect'!?

It’s rightly said that there is no Right History!

History is usually your interpretation of events (or your borrowing of interpretations from someone else) based on information 'made' available to you. Everyone needs to be aware that there is always something that 'you don't know'; either on purpose or because no one else knows it (yet!).

There are two ways to get to history; one is academic, which is based on evidences and other is ‘Popular history’. Popular history is the actual remark that an historical event has left on the then existing society and the way it was interpreted for rest of the generations! It’s no surprise that at times these two sources/interpretations may differ simply because the domains in which they are nurtured are completely detached. Issues arise when these two domains try to interact.

For example, (not so) recent controversy of Shivaji! For years there has been some research going on about debating who Shivaji’s father was. Popular history takes it to be Shahaji where as few historical sources are challenging that. Populace has immense respect of the king Shivaji for the right reasons. Its tough on them to accept anything that they think denigrates their hero. There were seen some violent, vandalizing protests against sources which tried to portray this as a part of popular history! That (protest) was bound to happen.

Popular history always has some emotions attached to historical events. Populace has suffered through this history and so they are committed to one opinion about certain event. Any new introduction to old acquaintance is now heart over head; where as academia is objectively interested in trying to find out whatever they could. Their approach tends to be head over heart!

And therefore, any media, may it be print-media, motion-picture media or plays; they need to take into account the emotional attachment of populace to that event. They need to respect the other-side. But this also does not mean that media should be banned from sharing what they are finding. Just like populace deserves the Respect, media deserves the Freedom of speech; and both the sides needs to acknowledge the presence of the 'Other'!