The Test - Part 2

He kept himself free that day and was eagerly waiting for that call. All that was totally new to him, which added to the excitement. The phone rang. He greeted the lady and the conversation started. It lasted for exactly 45 minutes, as precisely mentioned in the email. It was one-of-its-kind interview he had ever faced. The questions were unique. They were not only interested in what he had done till now but also on what he was capable to do for them in the future. So, they tried to know him and his leadership qualities along with aptitude. Before he could accept what was going on, it was over. The lady told her that she would update him about the telephonic interview in a couple of days. He felt he did a good job and gave brisk and confident answers.

He got an email in exactly two days, just like it was mentioned. He saw it in his inbox and opened it with his pulse shooting off the roof. He was getting excited at each stage wanting to know what was next. It was not the end goal which he was focused on but wanted to enjoy the journey to reach there. He could not believe the content of the email. He got through the telephonic interview and was now invited for a final round of personal interview at the company’s headquarters. This personal interview was not just a couple of hours of conversation but actually a three day process. It was an all-expense paid trip to the company’s headquarters including stay and food. Coming from a third world country, all this was getting quite amusing, funny and surprising for him. It was getting hard for him to realize and understand the amount of time, energy and money a company was investing in hiring people like him. All of this, when he considered himself as an average person with hardly any special skills.

The connections were checked and tickets were booked to reach the company headquarter which was actually in a different country than the one he was living in. He preferred to take the train. It was faster and hassle free. A top class hotel room was booked for him with a double bed and other luxuries. He checked-in at his destination hotel in the evening before the beginning of the real deal. Keeping up with his small town mentality, looking at room he thought, what a waste of money. The company could have easily adjusted two students in a single room. Little did he knew of the concepts of privacy and etiquette of the western world. 

While checking in, he was told that a representative of the company which invited him for the interview will meet all the candidates in the lobby next day morning at 8 am. He was told there were 12 guests in total booked for 3 days by the company.

He had a couple of sandwiches for dinner which he had brought with him and then checked his suit if it needed any iron. All excited for the next day, he went to bed early.

More in the next part ... 

The Test - Part 1

Like in the life of any other post graduate student, during the later end of his studies in 2007, he was looking for an Internship. With the intention of getting a big name stamped on his Resume and to get a better job in the future, he was only applying to big companies. He believed - big name matters most. That was his level of naivety in the real world.

He also applied to a company which had almost nothing to do with his studies so far. Even though being from the IT background, he applied to one of the biggest oil companies in the world. It was his way of exploring ways to deviate into another domain and try his hand at something new. This internship did not had any particular prerequisites. Anybody with good grades and involved in a decent level of extra curricular activities could apply. So, all confident of the open and flexible requirements, he applied and waited for a reply.

Now, this was not any average company. Founded in early 1900, this company has almost 90,000 employees worldwide, with total assets in the range of $600,000 billion, and with a recorded revenue in 2012 of around $450,000 billion. With such statistics to back it, even the intern recruitment was no child's play. They really meant business. 

The first phase of the recruitment process was an online application with an essay to write on one of the given topics. In addition, there were several questions to be answered which gave an insight into the applicant's character. That was also assisted with an online psychometric test. He carefully answered the questionnaire and the test which took him almost 2-3 hours but he was satisfied with his answers. He was quite surprised and happy at the same time for going through such an experience which was completely new to him.

After a few days, he almost forgot that he had even applied there since he did not heard back from them for a long time. Then one fine day, he got an email in his inbox informing him that he has cleared the online phase and had been selected for a telephonic interview. He was happy and content. He selected one the days offered in the mail for the interview keeping enough time for himself to prepare for it.

Being the kind of person he was, he kept all of this to himself and did not shared it with anybody, not even with his family and friends. He had once heard a phrase which stuck a chord with him and had stayed with him ever since. It says - It ain't over till the fat lady sings.     

More in the next part ...

Nothing is permanent except change

How would otherwise anyone explain, that of all the people it would be me who would start up with twitter? I was one of it's biggest critiques yet thought of giving it another shot. So, even added it as a widget to the blog. Unbelievable !!

I had already written a post once on this blog critically arguing against the use of twitter but somehow realized that there are many things worth sharing online and it is one of the good ways to do it. One might not have enough time and energy to reflect their thoughts on every topic so this makes it easier to share content with like minded people without writing a complete post on it.

This is just an experiment just like this blog. I would like to see if an anonymous, non-celebrity like me could use and maintain such a thing :)

P.S: I think I got bored with all the election posts particularly seeing the indifference people share with the new government.

A chirp ... The Twitter

I work in the field of Research and Technology and it keeps amazing me with its wonders quite regularly. To some extent I can understand the mystery around new Technologies and its evolution but the human influence around it particularly in these times is something which fascinates me beyond limits.

One of the many children of modern Technology is Twitter. The place where it has reached today is pretty unbelievable. I wanted to praise and rant about it today at the same time.

Imagine a start-up with a few people you can count on your hands coming up with an initiative. The initiative is to allow people to broadcast 140 characters at a time on a website. It is a fairly simple thought and a pretty non-trivial idea (at least for me). It was a project named twttr. That was year 2006.

In about one year, the project turned into a full blown company called Twitter. A new term was conceived called microblogging to define its genre. Today, Twitter is one of the 10 most visited websites on Internet with more than 500 million users, generating revenue in the range of three digit million USDs and employing more than a 1000 people. This is year 2012. It is definitely a commendable feat without an iota of doubt. There are few companies I have seen or heard in my lifespan which has grown at this rate. You don't see such things happening every day in your life.

I personally cam to know about Twitter in 2007 and like many other ignorant people and investors rejected it completely at that time, I did the same. I has just finished my Master's Degree and started working. I still remember very clearly a photo of about 6-7 people grinning away as the team behind this venture on a website. I tried to explore it, learn its working and idea and found the whole thing a waste of time. I said to myself that who the hell in this world would be interested and have the time to know what others are doing in real time. Time, proved me otherwise.

I feel dragged on opposite ends when thinking about the use of this free online service. At one end of the spectrum, I feel that it is quite useful in communicating new ideas, links, news with people. It is a fast way to spread the word among your group. It is a good way for celebrities/organizations to keep in touch with their fans and for the fans to follow them. It serves as a good platform to promote yourself, your product, your ideas etc. 

There is absolutely no doubt that the features offered by this online service can be useful to many but then after reaching a point, I feel dragged by the negativity of this service and drag me into thinking many questions without satisfying answers. 

1. One of the biggest angst I have with Twitter is that I lost a lot of good bloggers whom I followed left blogging completely and started twitting. They started writing smart ass one liners and all the good content they could have generated never came up. It might be possible for a teenager to keep updating themselves every minute on their phone or tablet but for a working person like me is just not possible. You loose interest since you fall back on the tweets and then at one point give up forever.

2. I can accept that maybe for some people, keeping track of what their favorite celebrity/organization is doing. I can even accept that they need to know when and where they are going, when they are eating, when they visit the loo etc but does it really make sense to know what your best pal is doing by the minute? Does it not generate the need to show-off and materialize everything around you? Does it not generate a plastic life? Does it not generate a wannabe like culture? I read a study recently which showed that more than 50% of the content on Twitter is pointless babble!

3. Then it invites all the money sharks. Market researchers start hunting for the latest trends generated by the content on Twitter. To some extent that is good from technology point of view to understand the desires, needs and the thoughts of the society but then again after reaching a point it again starts becoming fake. Questions come up like whether the content generated is authentic? Was it generated by real and active accounts or just bogus ids? Were those people even sensible enough or just simple dumb? You or your product get paid more just because you have a long list of followers? Who checks how many of them are authentic and not just one time clicks? Does it not create an environment of more unreliability and non-trust around?

I can go on and on but I don't feel like doing it since it will not change anything. Maybe these and even more points must have discussed before by many other people but I had to take it out personally somewhere and what better place than my blog.  

The University and Religion Analogy

As a continuation of my previous post here, I wanted to draw an analogy which I have in mind.

The organization of Religion to me is analogous to a university where you take admission to learn. You take up a religion to learn about how to live your life.

University:Your end goal is to get a graduation degree.

Religion: Your end goal is to "reach" God and become "one" with God.

University: There are different departments at the university like Mechanical, Computer Sc, Automobile, etc

Religion: There are different religions in the world with different names like the Abrahamic religions of the West and Middle East or the religions of the far east.  

[Just like after school anyone can take a subject/department of his choice at the university due to liking or on recommendation of friends and family, similarly one can take up any religion based on choice or recommendations.]

University: There can be different uniforms for the different departments, different mode of teachings, different set of rules and regulations to follow in each department etc.

Religion: Each individual religion can also has its own set of rules, different methodology of teaching, different sense of dressing etc.

[Just like one religion say it is okay to eat meat and the other prohibits it. That does not mean one is better than the other. It should just be taken as a rule or condition keeping in focus the end goal to get the graduation degree. More often than not, people who take up religion keep fighting on such petty issues and forgetting the end goal.]

University: There can be different forms of test for each department.

Religion: There can be different set of tests for each individual religions.

[Just like the tests and exams for the mechanical department maybe on a Lathe machine and that of Computer Sc on a computer or laptop similarly one religion might test you by asking you to fast or another by asking you to give up worldly possessions or another by asking you some rituals etc. But the end goal is still to be with God.]

University: Once you end up with all the learning and going through all the tests taking your time you finally become a Graduate.

Religion: At the end of the complete process or even a lifetime you are finally one with God.

[Just like at the end of time you are recognized more as a Graduate with a particular specialization in a department, similarly at the end of your religious life once you are one with God it is not much important which path (religion) you took to reach Him. The end result is that you finally found Him.]

I know the above might sound very naive and unrealistic but still I feel if we allow others to follow what they want until it does not harm others in any way, things might be better in the world. No religion is above any other and should be considered as different paths to reach the same end goal. Because as a believe of faith I cannot believe or agree that "if" there is really a supreme power running this universe, then it distinguishes between someone eating meat or not eating meat, fasting or not fasting. I think HE would be more interested to see how you lead your own life and how well you treat others around you and how well you make you world a better place to live in.

But, till we realize what I said above, I also cannot deny the saying ... Misinterpretation is an easy stick to beat people with. I hope TIME prove me otherwise.
   

Don't ask, don't tell

After reading a post by a fellow blogger, there was a rush of thoughts that went in my head. I wanted to document them as a post. Though a bit late but still, I wanted to keep my word of writing my own post on the same topic. The topic of Religion.

This post is not meant to offend any one or any thought process but merely reflects my opinion on the topic. I strongly feel that religion is a very, very private concept which should be kept personal. It should be your own personal duty to explore religion and understand it rather than blindly following it by imposing your own ideas and concepts on others. 

Usually, I don not even talk on this topic openly. A friend of my father once gave me a great advise. It was when I was going on my first individual trip away from home all alone for a trekking adventure. I have great respect for him so went to meet him before my trip to take some tips. One of the tips which still stand firm in my head is related to this topic. He told me that if you are alone and away from home and suddenly you find yourself sitting with a group talking and chatting and out of the blue, the topic of religion comes up, stand up and walk away from that group at that very moment. At that time I hardly understood what he meant. But slowly with time I realized its true meaning and importance. I experienced over time that - Misinterpretation is an easy stick to beat people with. This is the reason I said before that this should be very personal and private. Thoughts and ideas can sometimes conflict and cause problems leading to severe consequences specially on this topic. Events mentioned by the fellow blogger are a good proof of this.

It is an open fact that in history there is more blood spilled on the name of Religion than for anything else. Wars have been fought. People have been slain. Generations have been wiped out. It comes as no wonder that even learned and famous people have spoken against it since ages. One of the most famous comments come from Karl Marx who said - Religion is the opium of the people. Even Friedrich Nietzsche could not resist in saying - Faith means not wanting to know what is true.

Incidentally, I was in discussions with some colleagues lately on the same issue. Last month a colleague came to work and gave us the news that he has officially left the church. Actually in Germany, as a catholic or protestant you are officially registered with the church. Being a member of the church, you also have to pay a church tax from your salary every month. There are a few perks which come along paying this tax. This way you are officially allowed to attend the Mass and also the right to religious burial etc. I asked him the reasons to leave the church. He said he was not very happy to see the current state of affairs relating to religion, particularly his own. He rightly mentioned how in history horrendous acts of brutality have happened on the name of his religion. Also, the latest abuse scandals totally distanced him from the church. This is not just his story but as I observed over the years, the story of many in Germany. A few days later, I read a related news which did not surprised me and proved that this phenomena is really challenging the church. My colleague also suggested me to watch the movie, Magdalene Sisters. It was quite new for me to learn about that true story.

It immediately reminded me of all the scandals happening in India related to the so called "Holy Men" like Nithyananda to name a few, tarnishing the meaning of Religion. None of the religions I know have been spared by the misdeeds of a few bad men. There have been and there will be people misusing the name of religion for their own benefits. But that does not mean the whole concept of religion is bad.

Even after listing all the criticism against religion, I can still say that I am a religious person. I still have a faith in which I believe strongly. Because for me an atheist is also believer of a faith. The faith in the "absence of God" because like a person who cannot prove the existence of God, an atheist can not prove its absence.

I follow my religion which is relatively new and open. The interpretation which I made from it on the topic of religion can be compared and related to the structure of a university. Let me elaborate it in my next post.

The Campaign

It is not that I have anything personal against US or the people there. I like many things there, like their humor, their movies. I think their wittiness is beyond any comparison. And their film industry offer the best variety I think for any movie lover. They have gems in every genre of movie making. Anyone can pick one for his taste. But something which I cant stand is their arrogance and politicians. I personally feel the only difference between the politicians there and in India is that the ones there wear nice expensive designer suits with a tie and all accompanied by a decent physique. I don't think I need to explain their Indian counterparts. Another thing which sometimes get on my nerves is how they usually blow up things out of proportion, sometimes reaching ridiculous levels. No doubt that they have this blown up mentality of big cars, big houses, big supermarkets etc. But they even tend to take social issues with the same blown up attitude. The latest in line is this KONY 2012 campaign.

I came across this video 2 days back when someone posted it on his wall on Facebook. It was about this guy in Africa who has done atrocities on kids to the levels which can shake anyone's senses. There is no iota of doubt that this Kony is a bad guy and he should be tried in a court of law. There is no discussion about it, that's the bottom line. But what made me write this post was the video. As a first impression, it send out all the right signals. It made me feel angry about what Kony was doing, that he should be stopped at any cost for the sake of innocent children and we, the privileged should do something for this cause even if it is just about spreading the word. And boy, the word is spread. In the last 2 days, I have seen and read about it almost everywhere and it has truly gone viral. There is at least one article on all major mainstream news websites. It is everywhere on Facebook, Youtube is exploding with videos about it, Twitter is going berserk over the issue. But what made me think again was the message in the end asking the people to tell the politicians to send armed forces in Africa to stop this. And here I felt, I need to think about this, again.

You can call me a cynic but just I just do not like to take things taken for granted and like to use a little bit of thinking before going gaga about something. I don't think it hurts anyone to analyze things before just blindly following  the herd.

1. The first thing which struck me when I first saw the video was that it looked too polished, organized and expensive. Such a video coming from a little known charity group seemed a little odd to me. It seemed like it is more of a video from an election campaign which is thoroughly funded.

2. The technologies used and shown in the video made me think twice. Where did they got so much money to implement and use those technologies? Even if they got it from charity, I feel that there are many other more urgent causes to work and spend money on rather than on catching a guy who has shown no sign of life in the last 5 years or so.

3. The level of sophistication with which such technologies are merged with social media websites does not seem ordinary to me. Each time it makes me think, who is paying for all this specially to a charity whose name was hardly heard of before this video.

So, all I meant was that the cause to fight for is good. But the intentions behind it is still not 100% clear to me. Even the local people seem to have some hesitation about this whole thing. Sending troops now to Africa for someone who has not been heard of since many years does not make much sense to me. Specially when the country is in a state where it has enough problems on its own land. This thing being one of the major ones. After what happened in Afghanistan and Iraq, sending troops to Africa seems like getting a little bit overboard to me.

Or maybe it is just me, panicking !

P.S: I wanted to write about Greg Smith today (something more for my taste) but I also felt like getting off this Kony thing from my head.

Anna Hazare and all that ....

I am quite amazed to see that there is absolutely no mention of Anna Hazare and his team in the recent news. Neither do I see any blog post from the famous bloggers on the same topic. Is there any follow up of the ardent task they had started ? What happened to the enthusiastic followers who took up the cause with such passion ? Is it another case of our people where our short memory is to be blamed ? I had been following this campaign quite closely from the beginning. I even went on to read the draft prepared by Team Anna and also read the one which our government proposed. Quite frankly speaking the draft from the government was a joke. Even a novice like me which absolutely no knowledge of how bills are passed in our parliament could tell that.

Anyways, this is not a post about what Anna did or whether the ways he took were right or wrong. I have read many articles from both sides of the argument. But my biggest surprise is that since the beginning of the campaign, people are just discussing whether a bill will be passed or not. Hundreds of articles have been written by one group of people congratulating Team Anna for the noble cause they have undertaken and for amalgamating the entire nation to fight against corruption. Hundreds of articles have also been written by the second group of people criticizing the whole campaign as a sham and for making a mockery of our democracy and that such a bill will  do nothing more than creating a new government department which will also eventually end up corrupt.  

There are numerous articles and essays written which only discuss the problem but never aim at finding any solution or even discussing it. I have yet to find an article or a blog where the author actually proposes a solution or at least brainstorm steps that should be taken to achieve the removal of corruption. I can understand that there can not be a foolproof plan for such a vast and diverse country like ours but at least one has to start somewhere.

Being 100% corruption free is a myth. It is impossible. It is a basic human trait to return favors. Even the most advanced and developed nations are not completely corruption free. In fact they have come up with a fancy word called Lobbying, which for me is totally bogus. So, we must concentrate on getting rid of the lower level corruption. Now, I am neither an economist or someone with a fancy MBA degree but still I feel there are two ways to eradicate core corruption.

1. Start completely fresh. Complete restart. Like what happened in Germany after the war. The common man was left with nothing. They had to build up the complete nation from zero and thus there was this community feeling. People took upon themselves to work hard and build up their nation. Hence, only honest efforts were put in. This option looks pretty tough in case of India considering its vast size and I don't think there is any holocaust coming soon.

2. To copy the model of Nordic countries (i.e. Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland). They are the least corrupt countries in the world [link]. Start by copying the model and then trim it in a way to adopt it according to Indian needs. Of course, one can argue that copying that model is impossible since the population of those countries are not comparable to India. I would say let us start from State level or even lower to the Municipal level. It needs to initiated at least somewhere and then build upon it.  

With any holocaust not in sight, copying the model seems like a good idea. There are many aspects in that model but the one which I feel should be implemented foremost is to have a balanced and flat society with less divide between rich and poor. The race to become rich by the poor (to have basic comforts like house and car) and to become richer by the rich so that the poor don't catch up is the breeding ground for corruption. Take for example the case of a government servant like a police inspector. The average salary of Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) is between 15-39k [link]. A police inspector is below the rank of an ACP thus getting even a lower salary. With such a pay scale, can he offer a good private school education for this kid ? At the same time the entry level pay of a software engineer would be double than that. This is not see in the case of the Nordic model. Yes, even there the public sector salaries are less than the corporate world but not in the magnitude of half or even less. This is just an average case. I am not even talking about going further down one level where the salaries would be exponentially low.

Another thing which much be copied and I think is extremely important is to have uniform education for all and a must. Strangely enough, it was just last year that education became a must in India by law. Even that is not sufficient. The quality of education should also be at par. It should be more or less of the same quality regardless of the economical background of the student. I know all of this might be sounding too ideal but how else can I believe that the student coming from a Hindi medium state sponsored school be able to compete with a private convent school educated  student. If you are running a company yourself, which of the two will you pick ? This will in turn lead that public school student towards a lowly paid job entrapping him in the same circle which he will try to come out in any way possible thus increasing corruption. Another point to note here is that how will an illiterate be able to elect the correct candidate during elections to govern him ? Is is possible for the illiterate person to actually analyze things around him before he goes to vote ? It comes out as no surprise that voter turnout in urban areas is falling since the educated people are slowly giving up on the politicians [link]. Of course, it is good news that the rural turnout is increasing but equally alarming and dangerous is the higher turnout in rural areas where uneducated people could be easily influenced to vote for anyone. I have never seen huge rallies and gatherings in urban areas but at the same time there are record breaking turnouts each year in such rallies in the rural places. This also shows me that there is absolutely no political will to educate the people since if the people actually knew what our politicians are doing, they might not vote for them or even go to the polls.

Finally, I believe people in India should give up this "chalta-hai-dude-attitude". It irritates and annoys me to exorbitant levels to see such attitude. Yes, such an attitude does solves the problem at hand for the time being but in the long run, I don't think it is an efficient way. We are getting too used to thinking short term for petty gains and forgetting the big picture.  

This is the last year of the 11th Five Year Plan laid by the Planning Commission of India. I only hope that the draft of the next plan take some non conventional steps to break India from the shackles of corruption, poverty and illiteracy, all of which are interdependent on each other to a great extent.   

Back to Square One

After living outside India for a considerable time, going on vacations to India are always special and memorable. Usually, I go twice a year to India usually around Holi and Diwali but this year, I went after a complete 1 year. The reason is that in the last years, I used to be always gung-ho and filled with energy and excitement to go to India but after spending 4-5 days, I started feeling like getting out of there. After reaching India, all that energy and excitement evaporates somewhere. Things get complicated, illogical and impractical situations start coming up, people start bothering everywhere, I get restless and impatient in all of this and the weather does not help at all. But on this trip, it was different !

This was I guess the first time that I went with a more open heart and had decided to take everything in good spirits. I promised myself that I will not loose control of myself over how people and things work in India. Instead, I will try to enjoy it and try to blend in. And boy, I did not let myself down. Maybe the reason for all this was that since the beginning of this year, I had been contemplating on moving back to India, for good. Of course, I have no problems here and my life cannot be more easy than it is. But I guess I have started to miss the chaos of life and starting to feel that there is no fun in having no problems in life. That does not mean life is served here for me in a golden platter. I will still have to shove off the snow from the driveway with my hands come winter but all this is nothing as compared to the life in India.

And so coming back to taking the trip more positively, I will pen down a few instances. The first two days were tough and I had to try very hard to not let my blood reach its boiling point. Nothing disturbs me more than seeing a guy driving his car on a road with absolutely no traffic but still not in a particular lane but in the middle of two lanes using the lane division paint as a trail to reach some kind of nirvana as destination. I mean how tough it is to drive in a single lane is always beyond my comprehension. Then there are these over smart guys who will not stop and wait in the rightmost lane to turn right at a traffic crossing on a red light like many others waiting but will take the adjacent lane and will come all the way to the front right at the red light to block the traffic which has to go straight. I guess we Indians living a life with absolutely no real achievement at all get the kicks in performing such stunts just to feel good about ourselves, to get a feeling of achieving something great in life about how smart, tough and intelligent we are. The girlfriends or wives sitting in the car, feeling so proud of their partners in performing acts of such high caliber like one feels after winning a Bharat Ratna. Anyways, it took me 2 days on the road but after that I started taking it positively and taking it like a Wii video game and got myself busy in concentrating on reading the truck shaiyri in traffic jams. I think nothing can beat that. One gem from the back of one the trucks read:

neki kar, joote kha

maine khaye, tu bhi kha

The next thing which tests my patience and anger is seeing people consciously littering on the streets but when you go to their house and throw a toffee wrapper in their drawing room you are being judged as uncivilized. I retained my composure by not preaching anyone but doing my part of picking up others stuff wherever possible. Even in the car sitting with a packet to collect everything which would have gone out the window by my cousins and being ridiculed each time. I still took it positively ignoring their taunts. While waiting for my turn in Q at a jam packed KFC in a mall, one fine lady did not even bothered to wait at the back and by completely ignoring the Q like we were totally invisible, went bang at the front to place her order. I still did not mind and reminded myself of fast forwarding myself from 1950s to 2011. It is even more amusing at a temple, gurudwara or a mosque where people will push you, kick you, break lines to get their shoes back from the shoe collection place but will appear to be absolutely devoted, calm, composed, compassionate when inside praying to God. Sometimes, I totally fail to understand people. I simply enjoyed the total mismatch between the news on TV channels about fake and adulterated khoya and the amount of sweets being sold and bought in the market by the same people who go hawwww and haiiiii after watching the same news. I did not fret about people who came to our house to give Diwali gifts and then gossiping and bitching about the people they are going on the next stop to give the gifts. In fact I tried to enjoy the gossip and in fact spared myself watching shitty soaps on TV to keep me entertained.

I can go on and on giving awesome experiences and the list will never end. BUT, no matter how complicated it is, how impractical and weird it is, how biased and with double standards it is in India but it is still my HOME and that is the bottom line. I can keep living here and keep writing such posts or I can go back to India and take everything like a sport by doing my part and in the process if I can influence even 1-2 people around me to change, I think my decision of going back would be successful. I am sure I am sure there will be like minded people back there and who knows maybe in 50 years from now people will start learning from us like they did hundreds of years back from our civilization!

Apni Dilli

Trips to India are always eventful even if you have nothing planned. It has been hardly a week in India and I am thoroughly entertained. 

1. It starts right from the movement when you leave the aircraft and enter your homeland. A huge gust of warm, suffocating air enters your nostrils and reminds you that you are there. The guys at the immigration are really funny. I guess their boring job takes their humor to strange levels and they never leave an opportunity to have some fun. Sample this: my new passport and the photo on it is only 2 years old yet the guy asks me .. 

officer: bhai saab .. yeh passport pe foto aap ki hi hai

me: haanji sir

officer: but lag nahin rahi 

It left me speechless for a second or two and then I had tough time controlling my laughter.

2. Driving home from the airport comes with its own pleasures. It is like playing a video game where you have to save yourself from all the mines on the road and where you are free to take any lane at your wish without even caring about using the indicators. Who cares ? The guys at the back will take care of saving himself. But I was amazed to observe that the pollution levels have come down drastically in Delhi and also the traffic has eased all thanks to the Delhi Metro. Really appreciable work.

3. I went to see the ODI between India and England at Feroz Shah Kotla grounds and it really overwhelmed me. It was not just warm weather but the warmth from the people sitting there and enjoying the atmosphere which made my day. It made me feel that staying in Germany has made me mind-my-own-business kind of a guy. Human interaction is pretty limited in Germany and seeing the complete contrast from people sitting around me moved me a bit. I have seen many Bundesliga matches at the stadiums but nothing comes to watching cricket live at the stadium in India. People around me were opening their life books so casually that I could not help noticing it. It was an awesome day and India won !

4. I hardly have any urge to switch on the TV since the local gossip is entertaining enough. Who is going with whom, who did what, who ran out with whom, who left whom. Just a cup of tea and there is you go. The Pandora's box opens up. A lot of that gossip is true but a lot is made more interesting by sprinkling in the spicy bits. Now, this is such a contrast from the place I have been living for so long where everyone is only concerned about themselves. Both sides have their pros and cons.

I am sure a lot of this is told before but I wanted to pen down my own experiences. More of the updates on the visit later.

My affair with Youtube

My affair with Youtube is an old one. It started with hate at first. Way back, in the beginning, the videos just did not streamed properly. There was always this drag and the need to buffer the video before actually playing it. Of course it was a big turnoff but still it fared much better than the other video sites of its time back then.

With time, Youtube kept improving itself. The buffering issues were solved and there was hardly any matching video sharing portal. It was proving far better than its contenders. After moving to Germany, I got close to it even further. It provided unadulterated entertainment at demand. It also became a means to keep in touch with the cultural changes ongoing in India. The latest trends in music, humor, sports etc were all available at the click of a mouse.

The most attractive thing I used to find about Youtube was its unbiased filtering. People could upload anything they want (excluding porn). It became a great tool to interact with people all over the world. It allowed social interaction at a level never seen or experienced before. Another interesting thing about it was the honesty and the rawness in the videos uploaded by people with no commercial intentions. It was pure unadulterated entertainment provided by normal everyday people for other similar people. It allowed true fan following without any marketing blindness. There were no advertisements involved by third parties etc. Its biggest asset was that it was non commercial to a large extent.

But further down the line with time, I felt things started changing and moving towards a more commercial domain. Google bought the whole thing and consolidated its holding on the internet market. Big money was involved. In addition to this, I feel that the people also got a bit greedy. The regular uploaders who were popular and had a big fan following because of their honest videos started receiving money from Youtube to keep the momentum going and to keep the viewers sticking to Youtube. From the uploaders perspective, it was fair. They were receiving rewards for their hard work and dedication in terms of money this time. But gradually, that money thing started making them stray away from their sincerity. Now, they kept trying to increase their subscriptions for the money and not for genuine fans. It has now become a number game. More followers or subscribers means more money.

Now Youtube has become totally commercial, with huge amount of advertisements before starting videos with no options to bypass them, the lower 20-30% of the screen is always covered with pop-up ads which sometimes have nothing to do with the viewer or the video he is watching. A lot of regular uploaders with big subscription numbers get lots of perks from Youtube and the uploaders also show off those perks to encourage more people in following them. A good piece of marketing and business strategy but diluting quality entertainment in the process. 

Stop Pause Think

I am deeply impressed by the solidarity Indians are showing all over the world against the issue of corruption in India. I won’t call myself a cynic but yes I am having my doubts at this stage specially seeing how things are slowly unfolding.

I would totally agree that corruption is a menace for the society in India. I would also agree that someone somewhere has to take a stand and start working towards eradicating it. So, I was initially very pleased to see that this time some people without a political background and motive were trying hard to do something for the cause. I was initially criticizing people who were not coming forward to support the efforts. I was telling them no matter what their personal agenda is, we should at least not discourage their efforts. What if a bunch of people get some credit and more powers in their hand at the end but at least if they are successful, all of us might be benefited from it. Since everything is going peacefully, all is good.

But I see a sudden change in the air. Things are getting hot. People are getting impatient and specially after the leader of the moment put behind bars there is a rage among the public. From law and order point of view this could lead to dangerous circumstances. Some anti social elements could take advantage of the situation and things could go out of control. At the end, I would not be pleased to hear what once the prominent leader of the party now in power in early 80s (also then in power) said after the Delhi riots. The explanation he gave was: jab ek bada ped girta hai to chote mote ghar to toot te hi hain. I don’t want to see that. So things have to be controlled and taken forward in a meaningful way which could be tough as more and more people take to the streets. So I am a little concerned since yesterday a friend of mine had to postpone an urgent surgery because of road blocks in many parts of Delhi.

Now, I can understand that we need strict laws and better vigilance but somehow I feel making a new body to perform that might not really solve the complete problem. Human beings are opportunists by nature. Who will govern or keep an eye on the people elected to form the committee if at all the bill is passed? What if they themselves become corrupt? Were agencies like the CBI etc not formed to do the precise things? If they can fail to deliver then it is tough to believe other such institutions will not fall prey to the same disease. Because at the end of the day, it is normal people like us who would be working there. I have yet to see a country and/or its politicians totally devoid of corruption. It would be too idealistic to even imagine that. I personally feel that laws should definitely be strict but we must also take some responsibilities in out own hands.

The long term solution for all this in my opinion is to create a more equal society. Of course it is not easy in a huge country like India but we must force our politicians to work more towards achieving that. I find this a more stable solution. It can not be mere coincidence that the Nordic countries considered to be the best places to live in the world also have the least corruption. The reason is a flat society in which even the poor have the basic amenities of life. The rich are taxed more to pay for the more unfortunate. This automatically leads to a stable society with low crime since people don’t have to struggle.

It is no surprise that the police officer in India who works hard an even in odd hours risking his life and paid less than half of what an IT Engineer gets take bribes. He also wishes to provide the best to his family. The same argument holds for other governmental employees. But this is not the case in the Nordic countries or even in central Europe. In Germany, the starting salary for a police officer is almost same as that of a fresh engineer directly out of university.

I have doubts when I see people blindly following something. Many people I know personally who actually have no morals in life, always acted on the chalta hai attitude and made fun of people who acted honestly and morally, are aggressively showing their support for the bill. Some of them have not even read the proposal of the bill or don’t even know where and how it will end if and when the bill is passed. I find people online and on streets with flags and all but somewhere I feel it is like a hollow effort where the finish line is pretty blurred. It appears to me more like a herd mentality where anyone who questions them is considered being not with them and labelled unpatriotic. I hope it is not like Egypt where now after the uprising; life had gone from bad to worse. I personally know a person there who told me that the media does not report the current situation. At the moment there is no law and order in the country. Kidnappings are on a roll. People are scared and life is not yet back to normal.

I just hope and wish that people should stop, pause and think before deciding on their actions.      

The "Business" of News

I was born in the early 80s. As a child or maybe as a teenager, my first dose of international news was in the form of a TV program on Doordarshan by Prannoy Roy’s The World This Week. I remember I used to wait eagerly for the weekly program even though it used to air pretty late around 9.30 or 10 in the night. In those times, I think this was the only source of world news (and in English) for me apart from the one page international in The Hindustan Times or Times of India newspapers. I used to be utterly impressed by the news and the way it was presented. It always had the most interesting and knowledgeable pieces of information of the world which I hardly knew anything about. It used to leave me fascinated about the world which existed beyond my surroundings and everyday life in India.      

I think it was a time of purist television for me. Simple, thought provoking and truly entertaining programs aired on television, courtesy the Doordarshan. Who can forget Master Haveliram of Buniyaad, Basesar Ram, Nanhe, Chutki of Nukkad, comedy of Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi, the suspense and thrill of Byomkesh Bakshi and Karamchand, the Quiz Show by Siddarth Basu etc. Okay, so before I get lost in the nostalgia of the yesteryears, let me fast forward to the current times. The simplicity and modesty of the Doordarshan was literally stripped and raped by cable/satellite TV. Doordarshan got lost in the dark somewhere and private channels popped up by dozens. I remember when we first got a cable connection, we had around 15-16 channels, maybe even less. Today, we have more TV channels than a TV actually supports. Of course, to some extent it brought us close to the outside world. We started understanding the bigger picture. But I am not sure whether the tradeoffs were balanced enough.

Coming back to where I started, i.e. world news on TV. Now, either the world was a relatively better place a couple of decades back or either the news reporting has changed over all these years. The reason I feel this is because these days all I see is depressing and violent news on TV. Of course there were not so very happy moments around the world being presented by Prannoy Roy back then but in half an hour or so of news, their impact were not so significant. But at the same time we were rightly made aware of what was happening. All this changed over the years. Talking first about the news channels in India, I feel that except a couple of them, most of them are total trash and should be banned asap. They are nothing but a bunch of people trying to tantalize and sensationalize normal things happening around us. And on top of that I sometimes wonder that have we become so dumb to see news like Ravan’s grave found in Sri Lanka or a hill in the shape of Nandi, the bull. How is it possible for such channels to survive if there were no viewers? This simply means that the supply exists because there is a demand. Do we really need such repetitive feed of titillating news? Even the more decent ones trying to deliver sensible news are made to bow to such cheap and low levels in order to compete. These relatively better English speaking but Indian news channels hardly focus on international news. When I visit India these days, sometimes I feel totally cut off from the world if I don’t connect online or see BBC or CNN on TV. The expansion of the news “business” has gone wrong somewhere and at the same time the taste of its viewers.

Talking about major international news providers like BBC or CNN who offer much less biased information are reasonably good but still not perfect. One must be open to read from different resources to get a fair piece of news. But the point I am trying to make is that has the world changed so much in just a couple of decades that there is hardly any positive news available anymore? Pick up any news website and check its front page for the last 7 days. I am sure that 99% of it would be negative and depressing news. So, has the world changed itself and is really deteriorating itself or are the news people changed their style of reporting? Does it really help knowing every bit of detail around you? Should we really be so concerned about things which are beyond our controls? Should we really get influenced by it? Is the society becoming too voyeuristic in nature? Have we started mixing entertainment with things which are more serious in nature? There are hell lot of questions popping in my head right now and I am still trying to find my answers.