Anatomy of Hypocrite’s argument

Hypocrite is a word some folks have used to describe me, directly or indirectly.. ironically most of them have never even talked to me for more than an hour, all put together. So I often wondered why I make this sort of impression on people. Seemingly my views strike people as contradicting : I am a self-proclaimed sympathizer of minorities and yet I defend sentiments of the majority, I am a strong adherent of meritocracy and yet a staunch supporter of reservation, despite my belief that there is no strong leadership I am all for creation of a separate state of Telangana … the list is pretty long. Folks seem to have lost a sense of the continuous spectrum that exists between extremes. Let me explain.. not in each case but at least in reservations case because that often leaves people’s blood boiling.

The Merit Argument: One of the most compelling arguments against reservations comes from the advocates of meritocracy. This is a very strong argument. Merit, Intellectual Prowess etc. seem to be the cool ideal that  should dictate the world order. In a world where there was universally objective index of merit, that would have been possible. In contrast, merit as measured today, in India in particular, is one of the most misleading indices.. both manipulated and manipulative. One only needs to look at the mad machinery in today’s coaching centers that regularly churn out ‘toppers’ to crack any kind of exam. These almost exclusively serve the urban populace and, within it, only those who are rich enough to afford the overpriced services. I do not intend disparage the kids who attend these centers. My case here is that being blind to the underlying mechanism that determines ‘merit’ and harping on meritocracy is total BS. It reminds me of Ayn Rand’s arguments (the stupid and insensitive ones.. she had many great ones too). As much as I love Objectivism, I am appalled by her inability to realize that ‘the weak’ are neither born weak nor are  ‘the strong’ born strong.  Like Rand’s argument, the merit argument against reservations ignores that fact that there is whole range of factors that shape the character of a person, that there is long phase of nurturing, learning and skill-sharpening that gives final shape to the raw talents of an individual. And no measure of merit is decoupled from the influence of these. In India, in particular, a vast majority of the population was deprived of access to such skill-development and intellectual pursuits.. and deprived for long enough to even kill such aspirations among these people. Now, after centuries of oppression, suddenly waking up and saying “Oh!! that’s horrifying!! Come on, let’s go purely by merit!!” is like asking a lame man and a super-fit athlete to compete in the same race!!. Lets face it : the resistance is simply because the section that has been enjoying the benefits, so far, lacks the courage to face the consequences of a corrective action. In  meritocracy, they find an ideal that can conveniently hide their insecurities. On the other hand, affirmative action addresses real problems. Problems that cant be solved by individual will alone. Social changes that could take several strong-willed generations are brought about in much shorter span. A progressive society would happily embrace such a corrective action and not hide behind manipulative theories that seek to continue the old rotten systems. I welcome merit, but not when its determination is flawed.

The Economic Backwardness Argument: This is another hard-nut. I saw a lot of self-proclaimed progressive thinkers bashing Arjun Singh when he came up with the idea of OBC reservations (some even using the choices of abuses). To their credit, Mr. Singh is no saint and the true intentions behind his crusade are not known.  But the critics conveniently forget to show an alternative. Apart from the shallow merit argument most of them claim that economic backwardness should be basis for reservations. Unfortunately, none of these ‘thinkers’ had a road-map for a viable implementation of these new category of reservations. Once again, the plank of economic-backwardness is a seemingly a pure and holy ideal that would only end up serving the cause of incumbent system. As sickeningly oppressive as it was, the caste system could never beat the basic laws of nature and its only natural to find a poor Brahmin and a rich Sudra. That fact should never be taken out of context to suggest that corrective action should not be caste based. The burdens of being social outcasts, of being banished to do jobs that would crush the basic sense of dignity, of having to live as second-class citizens, of being manipulated to believe their worth is only so much (and all this for centuries) are really intangible. Refusing to pay reparations for such abuse is the highest sin that I can imagine. Letting ourselves get away, under the pretext of forgetting or erasing caste system, from that responsibility is paramount to cheating ourselves. Moreover, any implementation of an economic-backwardness based affirmative action is very likely to be corruptible and aid those calling the shots currently. That is not a corrective action but a disguised aid to perpetuate the status-quo. It is inevitable that seemingly better measures like merit and economic-backwardness will eventually guide us but that can only happen when the ghosts of past are buried forever. Surely, 60 odd years of reluctant corrective action is not enough to offset thousands of years of exploitation.

The Centers of Excellence Argument: This argument is specific to the so called premier institutions (read IITs). I see a lot of folks (mostly, alumni of these institutes) claiming that bringing these institutions under the scope of affirmative action would somehow ‘drag down’ the ‘level’ of these institutions. No offense to the genuinely worried ones, but most of these ‘intelligent’ folks seem to be worried that their own worth might later on be undervalued. I wonder how much value these guys add to the label of their institution and how much they derive from the label. Do not get me wrong!! Academic excellence of the students from these institutions is indisputable. However, I wonder if the role of a center of excellence ends in taking the sharpest minds of the country and sharpening them further and then promptly exporting a good number of them to the so called ‘land of opportunities’. These institutions are some of the biggest beneficiaries of public money that is pumped in to them with near-zero accountability. With a few honorable exceptions, a good deal of ‘research’ that happens is incremental and way below international standards. Even the excellent ratings from the industry is a result of the hard work and brilliance of students who have learned to work under cut-throat competition. It would be interesting to see the results of the same amount of money poured into improving the infrastructure and facilities of smaller institutes or even allowing individual states to develop their own premier institutes. And yet, somehow I am regularly told that this is all worth my tax money and none of these institutes should be asked to fulfill their social obligations.  Its like the offerings made to a God who is never to be questioned.  An institution that can nurture only the best minds, as measured by a flawed system, and not raw talent (that has the potential) has little intrinsic worth. My opinion is that institutions that refuse to do so should be asked to find avenues to raise their money by themselves (like IIIT-H is now obliged to) or justify how money being spent on them is helping in making us a better country.

The number of arguments is endless. The point I want to make is .. things were pathetic, we want them to be ideal.. the intermediate path has non-zero length. Simple!! We cant erase the caste system overnight. Its a long and painful (at least to some) path. Refusing to take that path is to cheat. Having the courage to accept the consequences of taking that path is a big deal. Even an utterly capitalist society like America has eventually recognized the inevitability of course correction and affirmative action. In Parsifal Mosaic, Micheal Havelock answers Alex Kalyazin’s accusation of America’s indifference to hunger and poverty : ‘If that is true, then we deserve to lose‘.  I wish I could say the same about my country with the same conviction. I wish, like in Guru Gobind Singh’s prayer, that courage to follow the right path may never desert my countrymen. Bless those who call me a hypocrite for doing this!!.

Holy Cow!! this is fast and cool.. BUT..

Thanks to the speed at which information spreads these days, its proliferation and  its persistent existence, I have been landing on things that range from funny and interesting to hypocritical and disgusting stuff these days, both old and new. As much as I appreciate the advantages of this, I am really scared at the implications. Recently, I got my Dad (living in one of the remotest corners of the country) to watch my pics from a recent trip and to have a video conference with me. That was awesome… the pro of speed, reach and persistence.

And more recently, the news of Andhra CM YSR missing spread like wild-fire in our state. Emotionally appealing and heart touching clips and pics of him were telecasted again and again. The same news papers that cursed him only a few months back were now making him once-in-a-generation leader and claiming that there wont be a leader like that again!!. What struck was the impact of it: old men in the twilight of their life would gather around the TV(or the live TV on my dad’s computer) at our home.. the clips telling them that YSR is the one who got them their pensions, state-provided insurances and all.. the poor old chaps are taken over an utterly needless emotional roller-coaster ride. The fainthearted ones see only gloom in near future and, rather frequently, their hearts give in and I hear the demise of so and so old man who has never seen YSR in his life!!. Bad.. I say. This aspect of information proliferation sucks!!

I was damn worried and started going over the coverage to see what could move people so much that their hearts pop!! And guess what?.. in an hour I see myself sending a mail to my friends paying tribute to YSR. I thought ‘holy cow!! I got to stop reading this s**t!!’. The idea that there is load of information out there trying to persuade/manipulate me is scary. I understand how its natural and all, but aren’t our focus and attention things that should be treated as assets, now that there is so much on the plate? The average time I spend on crap coming in from RSS feed aggregators, mail chains, breaking news and social network updates is growing bigger and bigger.. its stealing my life man.. i am scared!!

Now that I have said what scares me, I will do my bit for proliferation so that I am not the only one to suffer .. X-).

i) The interesting stuff : I was immensely in to this debate on partition triggered by Jaswant Singh’s Jinnah:India-Partition-Independence. Sounds boring.. yeah right!!. I am sick of these self proclaimed ‘face-of-new-India’s like Chetan Bhagat who think that their disinterest in history or any other topic makes them irrelevant to everyone. Our media should be ashamed to be even giving space to these s**t-h**ds!!. I, for one, was always intrigued why Allama Iqbal who wrote ‘Saare Jahan Se Achah‘ had to conceive the idea of and fight for Pakistan. And why ‘Amar Shonar Bangla‘ written by Rabindranath Tagore came to be the anthem of predominantly Muslim nation like Bangladesh. To a logical mind, it appears that there was too  much manipulation that made people forget the thread of brotherhood that runs through them. And I care about such things!! Any reasonable man would find the need to look back, at least in an attempt to avoid old mistakes or even to correct course!! If our faces-of-new-India cant see this, then I fail to see how they can claim to be so.

ii) The funny stuff : My folks are a bit pissed off with me for not giving me an assurance on when I would even start thinking of finding a soul-mate. Unfortunately, I am in to lot of other things, as of now. However, I landed on this cool video that made me realize that I always loved girls who can code. And here’s a tribute from Dale Chase to all the coder-girls. Wish I had a kick-ass coder girlfriend!!

iii) The weird stuff : This has to go the SRK detention stuff. I am not in to movies but I know this guy has a reputation for being a megalomaniac. This instance only seems to confirm this. Heck, even people like Abdul Kalam get checked. Not to mention the care we Indians take w.r.t swine-flu these days.. checking foreigners and all!! He must have been thinking he was in some remote corner of India full of smitten dames and aping dudes. Thumbs Down!!

iv) The disgusting stuff : The stuff that goes on in reality shows this days.. like Dadagiri, Splitsvilla. Dont these TV guys ever realize that there exists another India that is not the same as the spoilt brats from posh joints of Mumbai or some other metro.  This could be old stuff but I was shocked to see a contestant getting slapped [and his reaction and the chaos thereafter] in a bizarre video (sorry.. no embedding as I do not want to give screen space to s**t like that). I could not help sympathizing with the contestant… I would have reacted similarly irrespective of the gender of the other person. Its a human instinct and more so in this part of the world!!. (Judging from his language the contestant seems to have a rural background and probably could not digest being slapped on TV. The hostess should have known to behave herself and the d***-h**d who was the co-host should have know a thing about damage-control). Its high-time the numb-skulls who design these programs properly evaluated how well these things suit the audience/contestants (apart from checking the sanity level of the hosts).  As always, my concern is about the friction between one India that is madly engrossed in morphing itself in to what is their idea of  ‘cool-dudes/hot-chicks‘ and the other India that is struggling to retain what is their idea of  ‘character‘ and yet enjoy the fruits of ‘modernization‘. I confess I belong to the latter class (or closer to it, at least)  and I often feel that the victims of the friction are, more often than not, the later class!! And that is what is disgusting!! Where is Swami Vivekananda when we need him?

A month at Noida/Adobe

Its been four weeks since I joined Adobe and I thought its a nice time to recap the new experience. The major part is typical to any job/place switch : tons of new people, tons of new places and food joints, new lifestyle. There was a trip to to this beautiful place Chail and meetings with lots of new friends. So here are the things I felt/experienced.

Adobe and Noida: Adobe’s office is perhaps the most imposing building in its vicinity. So its natural that some coolness is attributed to it. I spent a good part of the first week knowing Adobe’s history ( which is a real wow!!). Its a shame that they do not make much money despite having some of the best and ubiquitous technologies with them. Hope that changes in the coming years. Apart from that, I was given the task of reading these absolutely beautiful tutorials on pdf ( Oh, I forgot to mention that I work for the Acrobat team). During the orientation, stalwart  Naresh Gupta gave a wonderful speech on the history as well as the future of Adobe. One sentence sums the future : Cloud, Mobile and Social Computing are the future. My first impression of Noida (when I visited two years back) was that its a wonderfully planned urban locale with nothing to crib about. But after getting a closer look, I think its the place where extreme poverty and atrociously profligate lifestyles have come together and stand as testimony to the disparities that plague us (which partly explains the high crime rate, I guess). The sight of cars speeding by panting rickshaw-wallahs trying to cross the road before the light turns red somehow did not go down well with me. The weather, in comparison to Bangalore, is miserable (putting it mildly, that is).  Now I know how tough it is to live in the North.

Trip to Chail : I have been lucky to be on a team trip within the first fortnight of my joining. We went to Chail, a small village thrown away in the hills near Solan. Its my first view of Himachal Pradesh. Chail is often termed a slice of heaven. May its not that big an exaggeration. Roads that wound around the hills like ornaments on a dame, Little homes sprinkled at random on the lush green surfaces of the mountains, Pine trees towering over you as if they were soldiers guarding the heritage from a bygone era, Clouds passing by you as if to say Good Morning.. the place is more a like a fairyland. Tolkien’s Hobbiton might come close . Apart from enjoying the serene beauty of nature I had some good time with the team games that went on. We won a treasure hunt and tug-of-war :O. I also learnt to play pool (my first pot was a reflection shot ) and cards. So overall, it was an absolutely amazing trip. On return, I got a glimpse of Chandigarh and can now appreciate why people from there are so much in love with their hometown.

The Work : As I already said, the stuff that Adobe has is really cool. The fact the Acrobat Reader and Flash Player are two of the most ubiquitous software should give an idea of that. However, what I do now and going to do in future is a sea change from what I have been doing. But I guess experience with giant-size teams, legacy code and highly evolved software development processes is a very good skill addition. Of course, I am having some good fun outside work too. I went to the golden jubilee meeting at Adobe’s ToastMasters Club, volunteered to make an impromptu speech and won the best speaker prize . I guess rambling on a lot of things frequently really helps.

There are lots of other things which are very exciting personally. My parents had our sweet little home renovated, I sent my Inspiron Desktop to home and put my parents on road to computer literacy (its the best feeling I had in recent times), My niece is absolutely in love with Alex The Lion of Madagascar ( a character I used to play to entertain her when she did not know of computers) and tons of other blessings of God that I could keep counting. I will save the other interesting things for future posts as I now seem to have time to blog more frequently.

Changed my Job

Its been an age since I blogged. And for good reasons this time. Had a hell of a time

figuring out what to do with my life . The QLC that started a year back is extended

itself. After months of pondering, I decided to explore interests ouf of computer vision

for a while. Then got kicked by a couple of leading software companies due to my computer

vision practitioner-cum-researcher tag. Thats always hard on the ego as I always thought

I am good at computer science (thats a belief). So after considering several options I

have moved to Adobe. I joined their Noida office this week. It was quite emotional leaving

Sarnoff/Serial as it was my first job and I learnt a lot about life at that place. I failed

to control my tears. That was when I felt it takes courage for a man to cry. Its not at all

easy. Having the balls to admit ones sensitive side is a big deal. Thats over, however.

The good news is that Adobe seemed a nice place so far. I am right now in love with the

place. Next judgement.. after the honeymoon .

Lot of things happened in between and I cant ramble on everything. So this post is pretty

much for announcing the job switch. Looking forward to a nice time at Noida.

Its been an age since I blogged. And for good reasons this time. Had a hell of a time figuring out what to do with my life . The QLC that started a year back extended itself, I guess. My job at Sarnoff/Serial was too good to lose. However I had a feeling that computer vision is no longer interesting enough to make me put in 100% effort. After months of pondering, I decided to explore interests out of computer vision for a while.  So after considering several options ( and after getting kicked at a couple of places due to my vision researcher-practitioner tag), I have moved to Adobe. I joined their Noida office this week. It was quite emotional leaving Sarnoff/Serial as it was my first job and I learnt a lot about life at that place. I failed to control my tears. That was when I felt it takes courage for a man to cry. Its not at all easy. Having the balls to admit ones sensitive side is a big deal. Thats over, however. The good news is that Adobe seemed a nice place so far. I am right now in love with the  place. Next judgment.. after the honeymoon .

Lot of things happened in between and I cant ramble on everything. So this post is pretty much for announcing the job switch. Looking forward to a nice time at Noida.

Ragging : a curse that just wont go.

I am shocked at the continued news of deaths due to ragging. Its is perplexing how such a brutal and insensitive culture (if such s**t can be called that) was allowed to evolve in the first place. Even SCs orders have failed to curb this evil. And the news reminded me of my own experience with it.

Emotional Abuse : IIIT-H gave me the first taste of this stupid (and thats a mild expression of what I think of it) tradition. Even when IIIT-H had a strong policy against ragging, the so called mild ragging/healthy-interaction was a gigantic culture shock to me. If the so called mild-ragging involves making freshmen crawl on their knees in public,  I shudder to imagine what the real ragging that happens in an average campus will be like. Seniors, at least during those nightmarish months, used to look like psychopaths to me.  For a rural kid brought up with orthodox values, this could be a shattering experience. The physical violence is one thing. The hit that your self-esteem and dignity takes is a thing that stays with you for years.  I remember my own case : I wanted to react against this atrocious stuff but saw the remaining guys getting along and had to keep silent, I was miles away from home/parents and unwilling to disturb my parents with this, I was afraid to talk to a senior for academic help fearing another session of abuse.. heck, it was a life I hated to the core.

A culture that passes on: What surprised me was the attitude of my fellow freshmen who refused to complain saying that ‘its common yaar’. And I guess that the was the moment when the seeds for the next year’s ragging were being sown : repressed feelings that are waiting to get a release next year.  Over the next year or so, friends and some friendly senior have tried to convince me that ‘it is all okay, man. It is college!!’. I think this is the core of the problem : treating something that is abusive, immoral and disgusting as something that is normal. At first, I refused and took an ultra-aggressive stance on everything from birthday bumps to cheating with assignments. But in every case, I had run in to the danger of becoming an outcast since I was not conforming to the so called tradition.  And eventually, I had to give in and merge in to the mainstream. But the scars that the whole episode left on me and the impression I formed of some of my seniors stayed with me. And recent ghastly news opened up the old wounds. 

Solutions?? : I personally held a belief that harsh punishments both academic and otherwise would be a good deterrent. But toothless implementation does not seem to be helping. The  merits of moral education along the lines of Jeevan Vidya have been debated quite intensely and I am convinced that such training from a very early age would help a great deal.  In fact,  I have been looking for parties who would bring up the issue of ragging as well as conscription after +2. But unfortunately, the second issue was brought up by  Varun Gandhi, who at this stage, is not acceptable on account of his secular credentials!!. But I hope soon, our politicians will find a lasting solution to this issue… only, one of their kids needs to go through a traumatic experience. After all, youth with a strong character is everything for a country  as Swami Vivekananda said long ago!!

Caste, beard and a pleasant encounter

So long, blog!!  I have a lot of catching up to do as its been more than a month since my last post. Pulkit brought to my attention that my posts are increasingly revolving around social issues and not merely serving as updates about my life, which I thought was very positive development . So here are the thoughts :

Wither the end of the caste system: Given the title I do not need to say much, right? A recent trip to my home state has shown me how deep rooted this evil system is. Naturally, the elections turned out to be the primary preoccupation of most of the people back home. And thats where I ran in to this curse that still plagues our people. I have foreseen it, in a way, when I wrote this and it looks like the caste equations that used to plague North India and Tamil Nadu have finally made their way in to Andhra Pradesh. Quite interestingly, the outspoken and much controversial supreme court judge Markandey Katju caused quite a stir by claiming that the caste system is on its last legs. After my visit, I thought.. gimme a break!!.  Forget remote hamlets that are still trapped in the hegemonies of the feudal era, the caste system is alive and kicking even in the most modern places of our country.  I have been shocked to see that even educated people (whom I otherwise deem to be wonderful human beings) try to convince me that we need to consider the caste factor when making decisions concerning political allegiance, marriages and social interactions. Its a deeply disturbing trend. In case of AP, all Chiru’s party  seems to have managed to wake up all the dormant castes to form their own outfits and cry hoarse about injustice to their caste. I dont know about the positives but his party sure added a negative aspect to AP politics. Interestingly the Weaker Sections Empowerment Forum comprising of stalwarts like anti-caste-system ideologist Kancha Ilaiah praised Chiru’s outfit for empowering weaker sections by giving them a big chunk of tickets in the election. So they want to kill it and yet want it to remain alive. So when will this system meet its end? And btw, my support is for JP’s Loksatta.

The Beard and the Taliban: The same Justice  Katju got in to news when he equated sporting a beard with Talibanization in a recent case. His remarks were certainly appalling. But it appears he was right in his judgment. The debate on whether beard is an indispensable part of Islam or not is quite delicate and would certainly strain some sensitive nerves. From my own understanding of Islam, one thing is  sure that sporting a beard falls under Sunnah (manners of The Prophet) and whether its a Fard or not is disputed even among Islamic scholars themselves. In practice, a good number of modern Moslems do not sport a beard. Afterall, Allah will judge one by the intent of his/her heart and I personally deem that anybody framing rules on His behalf is actually committing a sin against Him. However,  the inconclusiveness of this debate is not the basis of my support for the judgment. Personally, I believe that a school should be a place that promotes equality and should never, actively or passively, allow things that would raise boundaries between those who seek knowledge.  A school where Hindu’s insist on wearing Saffron, Digambar Jains insist on attending classes naked and Sikhs insist carrying long Kirpaans stands a faint chance of becoming a temple of learning rather than a place where religious beliefs clash regularly. So if religious practices (particularly the ones that have to with physical appearance which is an immediate stimulus) need to be kept on hold in the quest for knowledge, then so be it. Even The Prophet urges us all to take pains to learn about God’s creation and in search of knowledge (‘Seek knowledge even unto China’).  It is painful that most people ignore the spiritual aspects and true intent of his teachings while trying hard to stick to his physical manners, deluding themselves that it is what earns them Allah’s blessings. The case in particular seems to be born out of the desire for attention by the concerned student. I doubt if he was following the other manners of the Prophet by doing this.

A Pleasant Meeting : It happened on a my flight from Delhi to Bangalore. As I was immersed in reading Freakonomics, I noticed the elderly passenger beside me was performing Salaat (Namaz, as its popular in India). Later on, we went on to discuss a number of things pertaining to religion, faith and a whole lot of things. I was surprised to know that he was pilot from Yemen who is in India on business.. so deeply spiritual and yet so modern as to fly a plane and use an i-phone. Even after years of reading and interest in theological issues, I learned things that are worth a ton from him. His lamentation on the abuse of the concept of Jihad, his view that Allah does not approve what extremists like Taliban are doing today, his disapproval of Israel’s actions, his criticism of Pakistan’s delusion that its being Islamic and his belief that prophets other than those mentioned in the scriptures of Abrahamic religions could exist have all taken me by surprise and filled me with hope that Islam’s true message is still alive in the world. The interfaith-dialog that Allah ordained centuries ago might still take place. And the refusal to take part in it is partly why He is punishing nations like Pakistan where extremists are now taking refuge.  May His light guide them toward the right path!!.

Damn.. I am an Alarmist

Two events spurred me in to write this thing : i) The protectionist tendencies from the agent of change, Obama and ii) The recent change of views on India at major credit rating companies S&P and Moody’s. They took me back to 2004-05 as the first taste of gains of free markets was sweeping India in the form outsourcing and offshoring. I was reading two books with nearly opposite views  on Globalization : Tom Friedman’s The World is Flat and Joseph Stiglitz’s Globalization and its Discontents. Obviously, reactions to such book will depend on the times at which we are reading them. Friedman’s unbridled enthusiasm of a wall-less world that allows everybody to compete against everybody not only made sense at that time but you also would feel that the world ought to be that way. The first of his flatteners is  the fall of Berlin wall. It is the most recognized symbol of the beginning of the end of communism (after more than four decades after WW-II). However, looking at the it now, It took only 20 years since the fall of that wall for capitalism to give its rudest shock to the world. As the world reels under the crippling impact of the follies of one over-consuming, over-spending and overwhelmingly greedy country the issues raised by Stiglitz start getting importance. Only a little too late, I am afraid. 

Positive Imagination..Only!! : As noble as the intentions of Globalization might be, imagining only the positive outcomes of it and never thinking of the ways that it could go wrong seems to be a great folly. True, the turn around of economies of India and China can be attributed mostly to free markets.The flat world enabled India’s brainy lot to compete with everybody else, the cost factor turning the odds heavily in their favor. India has accumulated reasonable wealth and did it relatively fast. But that is only half the story. Even if the current crisis had not raised its  head, the huge disparity (wealth distribution in India defies even the ubiquitous 80-20 rule) and the lack of infrastructure for sustainable growth give us the other half.. and yet that is only the best case scenario. As the recession deprives the jobs of poor workers who are being told that they are losing their job not because they didn’t work hard enough but because of deeds of someone at the other end of the world.. people they have not seen, they have not known were capable of influencing their lives.. It is hard to justify the optimism associated with free markets. Sure, the advocates of globalization (lets call them Globalists) have visualized job losses and other ills due to increased automation and efficiency. They even had remedies for it. What they did not realize were that the remedies were based on certain assumptions whose validity was never questioned.

The ever growing pie and the ever free world : The remedies strongly advocated by the Globalists go as follows : With the walls taken down there will be greater access to markets, hence greater consumption and hence newer jobs will be created that can feed those who have lost the jobs. All governments across the world have to do was to ensure that the population that lost the jobs will have opportunities to diversify their skill set and acquire the new jobs. The jobs of people on the frontiers of knowledge like innovators and researches will anyway remain safe. So there you go.. two big assumptions. First, the pie will grow forever and everyone gets to eat. Second, the walls will never rise again and everyone will have access to most of the jobs. Now, exactly the reverse is happening : Global consumption has gone down… every index from the troubles of manufacturing sector to the struggling retail chains tells this story. So the pie is actually shrinking!! And countries are rushing to save their own piece. So the quintessential evangelist of capitalism, USA, turns to protectionism by saying outsourcing companies will not get any bailout money. Pranab Mukherjee went to the extent of suggesting companies to save jobs (its a matter of time before the suggestion turns in to warning and then in to a  whiplash!!). So when the assumptions break down who suffers the most?.. I know the answer but Sainath’s article will tell you better.

Continuing on the matter who of suffers the most, Friedman’s own book suggests a way for American Middle Class to survive in the flat world: New forms of training to create a new middle that consists of collaborators,  Adapters, Innovator etc. More or less the same holds for India.. only we need to upgrade the skills of not  some decently educated low-skilled population but a near-illiterate population to the same level. So before  all the glittering white-collar jobs vanish or are lost to Africa or Vietnam, it is left to India to raise its own level and move up the survival-chain. Nice plan!! Assuming enough political will and enough resources that can be allocated to development and welfare programs this could have been a possibility. But again, thats optimism all the way and things didnt go that way!! In the wake of the latest downgrading of India outlook by S&P and Moody’s, things will get costlier for us and fetching money would become even more difficult and god knows where currency will end up (remember East Asia).  China on the other hand has begun the process of securing its future long back with several universities developing along the lines of Tsinghua in addition many of its top universities, many more second rung ones and strong development programs . Sadly, a billion Indians have one IISc and few IITs to boast of. Universal health-care and social security are things that we can only dream of. And given our fiscal scenario and the pace at which even flagship programs like Bharat Nirman are moving.. I am afraid,  before we realize,.. all the good times would be over. So really, whose crisis is it anyway?

Was it Globalization? : All this makes me wonder if India’s good-bye to an autarky based model in early 1990’s could turn out to be the greatest disaster in its post-independence history. Sure, twenty dramatic years that have got us in to the list of top nations is great. But if all that flight ends up in getting us to crash land then I guess its time to examine the real nature of the Globalization that we had been following. One thing that perplexes me is the portrayal of 1990’s reforms as a route that India chose. The fact is that the world bank and IMF have effectively steamrolled us to accept it and our pathetic forex reserves left us with no option (Well, I could be wrong.. because at that time I was about 8 year old and I can only see things in retrospect). After that, directly or indirectly our fate was largely tied to that  of the US economy. All the decoupling theories are now vanishing. Even as we rejoice in the fact that we rely on our domestic consumption which is still healthy.. its only a matter of time before the trickle-down effect takes place and our consumption levels decline. Job losses in Europe and associated social turmoil (read protests and racism),  Japan’s nth recession, Our own textile and manufacturing industry.. all point to the same thing. So now, what appears to me is that in 1990 we were really saying “We fledglings commit ourselves to learn to fly by clinging on this great eagle called America. However, should it choose to shake us off we agree to be on our own”.. and I am afraid the fledglings are going to have to crash. In worst case, a dirty class war that splits the country in to several pieces some communist, some capitalist and some mixed can ruin us. In the best case.. anything could happen and thats why I am still an optimist-alarmist. 

Quite depressing.. eh. I warned you. 

Recent Readings : The Zahir.

Reflections on the Mangalore Pub Incident

As ever, Karnataka manages to remain in news for being a haven for right-wing activists. And once again, as in the case of attacks on Christians, the liberal voices successfully managed to avoid a debate on the core issue while painting the incident as a dastardly act against women and their freedom. Having being labeled an MCP for daring to question such stuff at college, I will first make a disclaimer : I am absolutely against violence against anybody and believe that each individual is entitled to make his/her own choices concerning lifestyle, faith or  whatever. However, if things worked in a way as simple as that, then much of today’s conflicts would not have started in the first place. In fact, the very conflict arises from the freedom of choice: The Taliban fiercely defends what it proposes because it deems it right and, to them, it is a violation of their freedom of choice if we say that it is wrong. To us, it appears that they are violating others freedom. This only indicates that something is wrong with the perception of freedom of choice (at least on one side, if not both). So let me try to put down the various threads of thoughts going on in my mind.

The first thing that we ought to acknowledge is that there is a prevailing segregation of humans that is predominantly based on some similarities. I don’t think anybody ever attempted to define a set of similarities that formed a basis for this  segregation. In fact it appears that these groups were somehow ‘in sync’ even before they realized  they formed a group. They shared physical, intellectual and other non-tangible resources, their  habits, perceptions of the world and what not. Whatever be the reason behind the evolution of these  cultures, the human race has displayed the remarkable ability to celebrate this diversity. This  diversity is indeed what makes the world so colorful. The spirituality of Indians, the fierce independence of the Pashtuns, the sporting spirit of the Caribbeans.. each culture gave the world a different color. Within each group, culture is the social fabric that binds people together and imparts stability. When an individual breaks away from acceptable norms in such a group a response is bound to happen : it could be assimilation (and thus morphing of the culture itself ) and equally likely is a conflict. In the end, a pragmatic individual would remember his/her reliance on the group around him and would make choices that would keep him in harmony with the group around him. This does not mean that one has to sacrifice his/her liberty at all : There is a very fine line between freedom and absolute chaos. If there were no social constraints, then humans would be no different from a pack of wolves willing to feed on each other. The need for such pragmatism is more pronounced in our country where wealth and new cultural flavors flowed in a relatively short time (catalyzed by free markets and the advent of internet) opening new avenues for people to indulge themselves in. Cultures  would clash, inevitably. Liberal and Conservative voices will rise with equal voracity and I don’t think  there is anything wrong in either side’s argument. The fact that there was violence at the Mangalore pub should not take our focus away from the more important issue. Instead of engaging in a non-partisan  debate, our media (as usual, I might add) once again is eager to play the champion of the liberals. They seem to be telling the youth ‘Its OK to drink and dance semi-naked. It happens all the time in New York’  rather than urging them to be mindful of the impact of their actions on the people around them. There  is really nothing like sacrificing freedom here. It is as natural as choosing not to sing loudly at  midnight. When the sight of a skimpily dressed well-off urban girl stokes the sexual insecurities of a  poor village-born porter-boy, I find it hard to side with either of them. I think its time we  appreciate the role of culture and the impact of cultural differences and act accordingly.

The second thing concerns the ‘women’ factor. Yes, the incident is certainly about women. But it is not so much about the freedom of women than it is about alcoholism among women and the central role of women in the Indian Society. It would be foolish to think that Indians haven’t come to terms with the fact the women can be as good as men in every aspect of life… at a time when women are the holding the key to every kind of power Political (Sonia, Maya ), Economical(Chanda Kochar, Kalpana Morparia.. the list is  too long here) and what not. The issue is that the ills of alcoholism and drugs etc really don’t care about the sex of a person. Just as an alcoholic man is more likely to make bad father, bad husband and a  bad citizen an alcoholic woman is more likely to make bad mother, bad wife and a bad citizen. And given the proven impact of such habits on the offspring the issue deserves an attention. It concerns the very foundation of our family system. A woman does not have to embrace the western lifestyle to be successful. In fact, the woman I mentioned are modern and successful but their lifestyle can hardly be described as western (despite the fact that one of them is Italian by birth). They rarely become the role models to our young pub-going, loose and forward women. Again, let me repeat.. its a matter of choice. Everyone, is entitled to make their own chocies. But when somebody talks against women taking up drinking, it is very likely out of a concern for a pillar of our  society, not because they want to curb the freedom of women. Whatever the extreme feminists say, it is a fact that in most middle class homes in our country the woman holds the family together. The middle class woman multitasks, manages the home and finances, lends emotional support to the family members,  shapes the character of her kids amongst zillion other things. I doubt if a pub-going, drinking woman would play these roles equally well. In fact it is highly unlikely that she will. Of course the same applies to men too. But the negative impact is far greater in the case of women, particularly in our society. However, in either case, it is a matter of making responsible choices and not sacrificing freedom.

The third. I think the white-boot-licking attitude is so strongly is embedded in our psyche that we treat anything western as ‘posh’,'modern’,'advanced’.. or whatever. My personal experience lends strong support to this. Pub going folks seems to derive their value from the number of parties they have attended, the number of page-3 people they know, the number of fashion accessories they own/aware of, the strongest drink they ever tried or their of knowledge cock-tail composition. The inability to maintain enduring relationships is a hallmark of this lot (most of them, if not all). Perhaps I am passing a  judgment here.. but frankly, I think we Indians are quick to embrace the flashy and negative aspects of western culture while the good things like meritocracy, equal-opportunity, professionalism rarely are adopted. Quite bad, if you ask me. The white boot-licking is a striking feature that is apparent  elsewhere : ‘White Tiger’ and ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ both sucked big time (in my opinion) and I met a lot of folks who shared the view but the voices are always stifled you see!! The fear of being labeled with adjectives like ‘chauvinist’,'old school’,'jealous’,'conservative’ is too great for them to speak out.

N.B : None of my views should be construed as an endorsement/approval/justification of the attack at Mangalore. Beating women is a disgusting act which only cowards would engage in. But sending underwear in retaliation is equally cheap and absurd. Of course, I am awaiting the drama that is set to unfold on Feb 14th.

Recent Reading : Letters to Sam , Only the Paranoid Survive,  Diary of a Young Girl

New Year Musings

I spent a good part of last month away from work. Home seems to be getting sweeter every time I go there. And of course there are tons of things that I wanted to blog about. Here is a summary of the ruminations.. (some might be elaborated in later posts)

End of a nightmare.. beginning of another?: I had the luck of welcoming the new year with a prayer along with my parents (The small peaceful local church seemed a better place than a boisterous party. Watching my niece slip in to sleep as we prayed was a bonus). There is a general feeling that the year 2008 has been one of the worst years for the country : terrorism, recession, scandals and what not (refer to Ramachandra Guha’s articles in outlook if you are more interested in this). Although my family(including me) had a reasonably good year, we could not feel  joyous about the previous year. I fervently wished for a different 2009 and within a week all the wrong omens have come : The blasts in Assam, terror threats  (to IT companies at Bangalore  and the Expat congregation at Chennai)  and Satyam’s downfall only seem to the beginning of another nightmare. I can only hope that the pattern would be different for the rest of the year, but with elections around I do not think it will change course.

Expats, please back your country: As if all that frustration was not enough, that sick egoist b**** Arundhati Roy (I normally do not resort to such words, but read her articles on 26/11 and you will see I am actually being kind) carries out another blatantly illogical attack on the State of India almost justifying the Mumbai attacks. It seems she wants to use this opportunity to become a Chomsky of India. Heard about the fox that tried to become the tiger?  I was a fan of her at the beginning. It would have been so much better had she stuck to her booker-winning fiction novels than torturing us with her wisdom like this. And what’s worse, I found the mails agreeing with her were mostly from Expats.  If these are the views of  our ambassadors to the world (according to Pranab Mukherjee) then God save our country. Look at the way the China and Israel are able to act strongly to protect their interests. This, despite the existence of warped brains like Roy who see every incident through their cynical lens. Its because of the strong backing from their diaspora. Our folks abroad need to learn lot from the way the Jewish Community throws its weight behind Israel. Power and Influence that is never used is no power at all. If not now, when are we going to assert ourselves.

The mess in my homeland: With all the recent talk of extra-ordinary progress and welfare activities of unprecedented magnitude in Andhra Pradesh, I thought I would see a shining state (and of course, an equally shining Telangana). What I came across however was a state with  a corrupt, populist, bankrupt and misguided government, equally corrupt state machinery, caste polarizations (thanks to recent political developments),  corporate scandals, squabbling press that has lost a sense of professionalism, land-grabbings and the traditional problem of farmers. The list is much longer. I will a write a detailed post about this shocking state of affairs later.

Counting the blessings: This is the regular thing… here is the list

i) Got my degree . I was the first to receive both my BTech and MS at the IIIT’s convocation (although I defended in 2007).

ii) Lot of travelling (India Only) : Delhi, Pune, Chenni, Mysore, Ooty and Hampi are the places. Started making business trips .

iii) Kept my job. Learnt a lot at work. Company spun off from the US one. Effectively a start-up now, but thats all the  more interesting.

iv) Ended a relationship. No regrets .

v) Moved to a new and cool home.

vi) Started commuting to office by environment-friendly means (bole to walking/cycling).

vii) Still going strong on that physique thing. Built a six-pack abs (and realized its not worth the effort unless you are into show-biz). Hope recession wont hit my gym budget.

viii) Improved my general knowledge and social consciousness.. thanks to wikipedia and  TED.

ix) Made a habit of praying (just to be safe )… although agnostic tendencies are showing up .

yeah thats it.. just short of double digit!! (hence  switched roman numerals ).

Trip to Hampi

Break to Blogging : Over the past few weeks I have been cursing myself for daring to promise a sequence on posts on conversions. My busy schedule at work precluded my attempts to get back to blogging. However last week was kinder but by then the hot topic is no longer conversions but the Mumbai attacks.  So I guess that post has to wait .

Hampi : Meanwhile, some colleagues inspired to take a trip to the world heritage site Hampi. Its a bit difficult to describe the feelings that the place evokes. I was expecting some old stone structures and erotic sculptures that are so typical to Indian tourist spots. However, Hampi has lot more to offer. The old Hampi (erstwhile capital of Vijayanagara empire, whose ruins are the main attraction) seems to be the ultimate evolved city.. complete in every aspects with guard towers, markets, entertainment theaters, amphitheaters, swimming pools, public baths, dancing halls, secret underground meeting halls, dining halls for soldiers, irrigation system (a rare place where you get to see the old-time aqueducts) and numerous temples. It is simply breathtaking.. here are the pics if you are curious(not annotated). If you are interested in medieval history its all the more interesting. I spotted several foreigners who were actually taking notes at the site . Going around on a bicycle is the preferred way to get a good view of the place.

Message to Terrorists : While I was roaming around, I noticed an overwhelming number tourists in the VILLAGE (yes, despite all its past glory Hampi is a remote village where mobile network and power supply are damn scarce). Hampi is practically an Indian village  with foreign population in that sense.  At the local Virupaksha temple I got to talk to this Czech lady residing is US. Inevitably our conversation turned to Mumbai and she said “See, I am not at all scared. I love India and would like to visit it many times over. I think this only worsens the image of Pakistan, not that they have a great image anyway!!”. I replied with gratitude “That’s the best message we can give them”. Its a revelation to know, what the world thinks of Pakistan (Dont think I am generalizing, the lady was pretty well educated and seemed to have a knowledge of world affairs).

Nice Gestures : And just before the trip I was of course very very angry and anguished by the attacks. And inevitably, the thought crept in : ‘Lets see what Indian Muslims have to say now’. For a day or two nothing happened while the regular terrorist apologists were busy painting the incident as Zionist conspiracy while some others even dared to take the you-deserved-it tone. I wondered why people like Shabana Azmi who accuse Indian polity to be biased dont come out now and a show that they really belong here. Yeah, yeah I know I am sounding too rightist.. but given the situation and the suspicion with which the Indian Muslim community is looked upon, a nationalistic gesture is the most desirable thing. Fortunately, slowly but surely many Muslims have spoken out… the three best gestures (in my opinion) being i) Refusal to bury the terrorists (Although I wonder if its in line with human dignity) ii) Suspension of Black Day protests and iii) Making Bakr-Eid Celebrations a low key affair. Personally, I see this kind of reaction superior to arguments like “why do we have to prove our loyalty every time?”. In a polarized nation, such gestures should be seen as a sign of maturity and courage and not as sign of fear.

Some pics on Mumbai have appeared on Boston Bigpicture : attacks, post-attacks