The Fast & the Corrupt

Disclaimer: - The following are my views based on what I saw/read/observed during the past week and I am no expert in these matters.

Earlier this week, the entire country was in an excited state (at least thats what the media made us believe). Anna Hazare had written a letter to the Prime Minister informing him of his decision to go on a fast for a corruption free India. On getting no repsonse, he went on a fast which lasted till the demands on the Jan Lokpal bill had been met. What was amazing was the amount of support that he had been getting. Anna Hazare became the rallying point against corruption for one week. The question reamins, Now What?

The Indian public had been rightly fed up with the seemingly unending series of corruption scandals being reported. As someone rightly put - People wanted to do something, the Anna Hazare led Lokpal agitation seemed to be that something, so people jumped on to the cause. I can safely say most of his newly acquired supporters had neither heard of him or the Lokpal bill. But they came out in support immediately after the World Cup euphoria. Now my question here is, did the people who rallied behind this actually believe in the movement or they felt that something had to be done and this seemed like that "something"?

I might be sounding cynical, but I felt the support being shown was not for the cause but because it seemed the "cool" thing to do. Putting an "India Against Corruption" badge on your facebook display picture (which had the "Bleed Blue" badge till last week) became a sort of fashion statement over the past couple of days. And status messages/tweets saying "Anna Hazare is a rockstar" seem meaningless when most are not even aware of the cause he was fighting for. The social media seemed to have a belief that this fast was going to be the panacea of all problems when it was only a start.

Then there were people who tried to jump on the bandwagon. Some of the politicians with the worst cases of  corruption against them saying they support Anna Hazare. They were rightly turned away. The chief opposition party supporting the man only because it was a chance to score some brawny points over the government. There was a long list of film personalities coming in support. Lalit Modi tweeting support for the cause was comic to say the least. He was asking people to hold placards during the IPL matches. Wonder if he would have done the same if he had been the commissioner.

Then there was this disturbing trend on asking every personality to support the cause. A random article on a certain person would be filled with comments like why isn't he supporting this cause. An article on IPL had comments which stated - "none of the cricketers are supporting this, so lets boycott IPL". Seriously, this made no sense to me. You can't just force anybody to support you. This sort of jingoism probably defeats the very idea of satyagraha.

Now for the Battle against Corruption. Most of us not only indulge in but also actively encourage corrupt practices. Paying off the traffic police for minor violations rather than paying the full amount of fine. Submitting falsified HRA/Medical bills/Reimbursement claims to save on taxes. Applying for driving license/ passport through back door channels. Not taking the bill in lieu of a reduced price. These are just a few instances. Looking at all this somehow the battle against corruption starts sounding hypocritical. There was a nice tweet on this subject "Isn't it hypocritical that you sign an online petition supporting the fight against corruption using a pirated Windows OS?" Pretty much summed it up.

Now on a funny note. Indians abroad also planned to take out protest marches and candle light rallies. Given the recent events in Africa and Middle East, quite likely this might trigger the fall of some other government.

P.S. On re-reading, the above post has started sounding like me trying to do "something".

The Fight Against Corruption - Anna Hazare's Letter to the PM

Here is a reproduction of Anna Hazare's letter to the Prime Minister. Stated his points simply. Its good to see the support he is getting and hope this becomes the rallying point for the bigger fight against corruption.

Dear Dr. Singh,

I have started my indefinite fast at Jantar mantar. I had invited you also to fast and pray for a corruption free India on 5th April. Though I did not receive any reply from you, I am hopeful that you must have done that.

I am pained to read and hear about government's reaction to my fast. I consider it my duty to clarify the points raised on behalf of Congress party and the government by their spokespersons, as they appear in media:

1. It is being alleged that I am being instigated by some people to sit on this fast. Dear Manmohan Singh ji, this is an insult to my sense of wisdom and intelligence. I am not a kid that I could be "instigated" into going on an indefinite fast. I am a fiercely independent person. I take advice from many friends and critics, but do what my conscience directs me to do. It is my experience that when cornered, governments resort to such malicious slandering. I am pained that the government, rather than addressing the issue of corruption, is trying to allege conspiracies, when there are none.

2. It is being said that I have shown impatience. Dear Prime Minister, so far, every government has shown complete insensitivity and lack of political commitment to tackling corruption. 62 years after independence, we still do not have independent and effective anti‐corruption systems. Very weak versions of Lokpal Bill were presented in Parliament eight times in last 42 years. Even these weak versions were not passed by Parliament. This means, left to themselves, the politicians and bureaucrats will never pass any law which subjects them to any kind of objective scrutiny. At a time, when the country has witnessed scams of unprecedented scale, the impatience of the entire country is justified. And we call upon you, not to look for precedents, but show courage to take unprecedented steps.

3. It is being said that I have shown impatience when the government has "initiated" the process. I would urge you to tell me - exactly what processes are underway?

a. You say that your Group of Ministers are drafting the anti‐corruption law. Many of the members of this Group of Ministers have such a shady past that if effective anticorruption systems had been in place, some of them would have been behind bars. Do you want us to have faith in a process in which some of the most corrupt people of this country should draft the anti‐corruption law?

b. NAC sub‐committee has discussed Jan Lokpal Bill. But what does that actually mean? Will the government accept the recommendations of NAC sub‐committee? So far, UPA II has shown complete contempt for even the most innocuous issues raised by NAC. 

c. I and many other friends from India Against Corruption movement wrote several letters to you after 1st December. I also sent you a copy of Jan Lokpal Bill on 1st December. We did not get any response. It is only when I wrote to you that I will sit on an indefinite fast, we were promptly invited for discussions on 7th March. I wonder whether the government responds only to threats of indefinite fast. Before that, representatives of India Against Corruption had been meeting various Ministers seeking their support for the Jan Lokpal Bill. They met Mr Moily also and personally handed over copy of Jan Lokpal to him. A few hours before our meeting with you, we received a phone call from Mr Moily's office that the copy of Jan Lokpal Bill had been misplaced by his office and they wanted another copy. This is the seriousness with which the government has dealt with Jan Lokpal Bill.

d. Dear Dr Manmohan Singh ji, if you were in my place, would you have any faith in the aforesaid processes? Kindly let me know if there are any other processes underway. If you still feel that I am impatient, I am happy that I am because the whole nation is feeling impatient at the lack of credible efforts from your government against corruption.

4. What are we asking for? We are not saying that you should accept the Bill drafted by us. But kindly create a credible platform for discussions - a joint committee with at least half members from civil society suggested by us. Your spokespersons are misleading the nation when they say that there is no precedent for setting up a joint committee. At least seven laws in Maharashtra were drafted by similar joint committees and presented in Maharashtra Assembly. Maharashtra RTI Act, one of the best laws of those times, was drafted by a joint committee. Even at the centre, when 25,000 tribals came to Delhi two years ago, your government set up a joint committee on land issues within 48 hours. You yourself are the Chairperson of that committee.

This means that the government is willing to set up joint committees on all other issues, but not on corruption. Why?

5. It is being said that the government wants to talk to us and we are not talking to them. This is utterly false. Tell me a single meeting when you called us and we did not come. We strongly believe in dialogue and engagement. Kindly do not mislead the country by saying that we are shunning dialogue.

We request you to take some credible steps at stemming corruption. Kindly stop finding faults and suspecting conspiracies in our movement. There are none. Even if there were, it does not absolve you of your responsibilities to stop corruption.

With warm regards,

K B Hazare

Hoping and Praying that this is a start to reduce corruption.

The Umbra & Penumbra of Life

Out of Sight, Out of Mind.

This was a theory which I had put forward as an explanation for people disappearing from our lives. As life moves on your earlier closest friends fade away and get replaced by new ones. And the cycle goes on. From school to college to work, the set keeps changing.

But nowadays thanks to the increased Social networking, it is becoming easier to keep track of the people who had gone away. But thats the only thing that social networking does. Keeps track, maybe an occasional meeting but the same level of friendlines? I doubt that.

And as the time flies the close ones become less and less while the social networking circle keeps expanding. I have a theory that this could be easily explained using the Light & Shadow effect of the Umbra & Penumbra. As life moves on the closer friend circle (equated to the Umbra region) becomes smaller, while the social network friends circle (equated to the Penumbra) goes bigger and bigger.

This is a theory I had mentioned in an earlier post. Would be glad to know if anyone else believes in it.

The Cricket Song

Cricket is the flavour of the season. The world cup is on. There have been a been a few cricket themed movies  (Lagaan, Iqbal, Awwal Number, Bodyline... come to mind immediately) and a few but nothing which really invoked the cricket spirit. Then I came across this uniquely cricketing love song here.

From an old Hindi film "Love Marriage" (1959) starring the evergreen one and only Dev Anand with Mala Sinha.
With lyrics which go like
She ne khela He se aaj cricket match... ek nazar me dil bechara ho gaya LBW

Definitely worth a watch

Once Upon a Time - The Irony

Memories are a funny thing. Incidents hidden somewhere in the grey matter jump out all of a sudden and you cant help but have a smile on the face. Today was one such instance. Was chatting with a friend on the subject of IP addresses getting depleted today. The talk moved to the concept of infinity then to the subject of calculus, onwards to the oil reserves in the world getting depleted in the next 40 years (?) to the uncoventional gas sources to coal bed methane to the debate of petroleum vs mining engineering (I know pretty huge variety but it had been a very logical flow of thoughts and ideas).

Now the last point reminded me of my final year engineering days. In one of the interviews I was asked how a post-petroleum engineering life is better than a post-mining engineering life. Now like a true petroleum engineer me gave the following reasons.

1. better working conditions
2. better locations
3. higher salaries
4. technology & analysis (or something like that)

My interviewers (fellow petroleum engineers) were obviously impressed enough to give me the job. And here is what I got in the job.

1. Working in hot, humid conditions
2. Located some place which was not exactly traceable on most maps
3. A stipend as per PSU rates
4. Technology usage - I remember climbing up on X-Mas trees (oil wells not the Christmas ones) with a pressure gauge to measure the flowing pressures. (Don't want to get any technical here, so no more details but it was dirty work to say the least)

Those days are now far behind me but do provide a few stories. Cant imagine the situation could  have been any more ironical.

P.S. Readers are requested not to not use this post as any comparison index between the two streams. 

Nostalgia

Saw this video shared on facebook. The poem is hauntingly beautiful. And nostalgic.

What is it about memories of your friends from school/college days that all of a sudden they just jump into the mind. 

Goodbye 2010

Last Day of the Year MMX A.D. At the end of 2009, I had made a few promises to myself. Its time to take stock of what happened to them.

• Watch an IPL match (Done. Watched the finals & 3rd place match in the DY Patil Stadium)
• Try the random bus travel on a 20 rupees ticket (The ticket price has gone up to Rs 25, but did not do it)
• Travel in a train (Done. Only Local Train)
• Visit a new place (Done. Lonavla, Hyderabad. And on official trips visited offshore also)
• Read More (Difficult to quantify, but have done this, 1984, Thousand Splendid Suns, Catcher in the Rye, Immortals of Meluha, Love Story, Animal Farm and some  more)

So 4 out of 5 cleared. In addition blogged a lot more. In fact started a fully dedicated cricket blog. Tried a bit of photography also. Had my first ever chopper ride and then a few more. After almost 5 years since I started working I got my first increment (change of company, doing an MBA, global recession had prevented this earlier).

Lost a loved one. The same story of more people going out of life than coming in continues. However the social networking circle keeps on increasing (can relate it to the light & shadow effect of umbra & penumbra).
2010 ends with the first major change in the past two and a half years. Change of apartment.
Goodbye to another lousy year. Sometimes I do wonder why did I ever grow up?

So here are the wishes for 2011. Continue the Pursuit of Happyness. Find the 3 things to be happy (Something to do, someone to love & something to hope for).

Wishing a Happy 2011 to all readers.

Bidding Adieu...

Last Day of the Year. Arrive in office and see the following mail from a colleague who sits in an adjacent cubicle.

Sub: Bidding Adieu...

Dear All

I had been with you all for almost an year and its been the best time of my life

Though it is hard to say, this is the truth...

I know that you people

would not have expected this so soon from me....

I had been thinking of leaving for a long time…. Now that I have finalized I m telling you guys.

I'm leaving by the end of this month.

I will let you know to where I go within a few days.

Thank You for all the support and love you have given me. It was nice working with you all.

It was difficult for me to come up with such a decision but change is inevitable.

Hope u enjoyed my company .... Bcoz I very well enjoyed a lot with you guys....

Hope u will always remember me... Plz keep in touch...

All the best to you all for your future endeavors.!!!

Now this was a shocker to say the least until I scrolled down and found the following text.

With Love & Regards

Yours Only

Year 2010

Have to say this was one perfect practical joke.

10 From 2010: Songs

Time for another Ten from Twenty Ten. For this list I turned my attention towards the year's music. And frankly speaking finding 10 songs for the year was some task. This is alist of songs which caught my ear this year (nothing else). So here goes.

10. Zor Ka Jhatka - Action Replayy

Sung by Daler Mehndi, Richa Sharma. The song sounded different. And MTV/Channel V played it repeatedly as promos every morning for more than a month.

9. Udi - Guzaarish

Sung by Sunidhi Chauhan. Nice lyrics with flamenco beats.

8. Tujhe Bhula Diya - Anjaana Anjaani

Sung by Mohit Chauhan. Almost slipped unnoticed till I saw a post on facebook about this song.

7. Bin Tere - I Hate Luv Storys

Sung by Shafqat Amanat Ali, Sunidhi Chauhan. Saw the film during a flight. And this was a song played on repeat by my flatmate for a month or so.

6. Sheela Ki Jawaani - Tees Maar Khan

Sung by Sunidhi Chauhan, Vishal Dadlani. The current national obsession. Katrina Kaif was the main reason for the popularity of this song. Although women named Sheela and their relatives would certainly not like (sorry HATE)  this one.

5. Munni Badnaam Huyi - Dabangg

Sung by Mamta Sharma, Aishwarya Nigam. 2 new voices, a remixed song, with Malaika Arora gyrating to it in a Salman Khan film. The song had to be a hit. Amongst others it also increased Zandu Balm sales.

4. Waka Waka - Shakira

Shakira's song for the football world cup. From May to July this was the song everywhere. A Columbian singer singing an African song in English for a football tournament played in South Africa becoming a superhit in India. Just one word, Globalization

3. Wavin Flag - Knaan

Became popular as part of the Football World Cup. The original lyrics really convey the pain felt for his homeland Somalia.

2. Dil to bachcha hai ji - Ishqiya

Sung by Raahat Fateh Ali Khan. At present the best singer in the business. Should have been the best song in most lists.

1. Azaadiyan - Udaan

Sung by Amit Trivedi, Neuman Pinto, Amitabh Bhattacharya. A true coming of the age song. Talks about a new beginning, new thinking. And the movie is set in Jamshedpur.

Have to say this, it is a pretty bad list, summing up the state of indian music right now. Most of the songs appearing are the ones being seen on TV first. Making this list wasn't an easy task given the pretty low recall value of songs.

Hoping for a musically better 2011.

10 From 2010: Arbit

Twenty Ten is passing by and it is time for some annual list making exercise. Following is a list of 10 arbit and unrelated things which happened in the year 2010. A random compilation of memories would be the most apt description of this. Here goes in random order, 10 from 2010.

1. Legend of the Year - Rajnikant

The number of SMSs, mails, blogs which have been inspired would itself have created a record. Chuck Norris, Jack Bauer have been totally overpowered. A classic line - Chuck Norris once met Rajnikant. He was reduced to being a joke on the internet.

2. Musical Instrument of the Year - Vuvuzela

Popularised in the football world cup, it drowned the commentary, made watching footbaal a pain in the ears. No one liked it, no one stopped it. It was just there.

3. Place Name of the Year - Eyjafjallajokull

The Icelandic volcano which disrupted almost the entire European air traffic. Disasters dont have a more exotic name.

4. Management Jargon of the Year - Sweat Equity

The IPL-Kochi franchisee mess did give a new management jargon. Sweat equity. Pretty powerful term. Afterall it led to the resignation of a Union minister.

5. Brand Endorsement of the Year - Zandu Balm

Munni badnaam huyi aur phir zandu balm ho gayi for her darling. Result - Quarterly Sales of Zandu balm increased by 35% post the release of song.

6. Loser of the Year - Prashant
Someone's blind faith in a mental conversation with Lord Ganesha led to picking two wrong choices for the 5 crore jackpot question. And he ended up getting 3.2 lakhs after having won a crore in KBC.

7. Promise of the Year - Larissa Riquleme
In the space of a few days, Larissa became the most famous Riquelme on this planet (beating the Argentine footballer Juan Ramon). Her promise to the world certainly helped garner a lot of neutral support for Paraguayin the World Cup. Though wasn't to much avail as Paraguay lost in the quarter-finals. (She still kept her promise though)

8. Overexposed Gimmick of the Year - the MRF Blimp
It was there in almost every single IPL game. The camera would go up to the sky. The "marvel of tecnology" that was the MRF blimp would come into the picture. And the commentators would simply go crazy. In the next few breathless seconds they would mention everything from tyres to the pace academy to SRT's bat. Whatever goodwill MRF had generated in the hearts of the cricket followers through the Pace Academy had surely disappeared.

9. Anagram of the Year - Sir U Made Lakhs
Suresh Kalmadi. He and his team probably made crores. But the anagram could only come up with Lakhs.

10. The Leak of the Year - Wikileaks
The year ended with wikileaks. On a daily basis a couple of hundred secret cables from various US embassies are being released into the public domain. And a set of governments, officials, companies are getting red-faced. The best line - The last time there was a deluge of this proportion Noah had to build the Ark.

So this is 10 from 2010. A collection of arbit events for the year. Forget this year, Dont worry be happy. Blow your vuvuzela to usher in the new one.