Indian 'talibani' Senas VS Valentine's day! Please stay safe (what not to do on valentine's day) and keep loving.

The festival of Love is coming! And here in India we will again (hopefully not) witness a mass hatred against those involved in the celebrations. The Shiv, Ram, Bajarang, and all other senas and dals will come out on the streets and hit innocent people relentlessly and shamelessly. The numerous such incidents in the past will have no effect on the governing bodies and the festival of love would get tainted yet again.

I sincerely hope that the valentines day realizes its true meaning in India as well this year. I was watching a movie based on the famous novel The Kite Runner today and could not help but notice the similarity of the Talibani elements in Afghanistan and these self proclaimed moral police in India in the modern times. Hate articles have flooded the Internet and the land of Gandhi is being tarnished by lame and shameless acts of violence in the name of religion, culture. Young boys and girls who should be encouraged to spread love are advised not to venture out on Valentine's day.
While a number of people are thinking of ways to express their love for someone special in the most imaginative way on 14th of Feb, there are others who are busy calculating the political mileage they would get by ransacking a gift shop or a flower mart.
When bhagwan Ram said that a time would come when nothing would be right he may have been right. Contrary to what the opening dialogue of the famous movie Love Actually says love is actually missing from this planet now. Everywhere we go we find messages of hate expressed at the expense of other's lives.

It is sad to say this but there are a few precautions that one must take in India this valentine's day:

• Don't flash your love on the streets.
• Try to stay at home or at best go to a party hosted at a friend's home.
• Do not venture into a pub, disco (even in places like Bangalore we have seen pretty sad things in the past)
• Make sure you leave the celebration, party, date at the first sign of any sort of disturbance, please do not stay back to become a victim.

We need to firm up a political and social will against such acts of cultural terrorism. Signature campaigns, free hugs moments, rallies, blogosphere propaganda and anything else that you can think of and are capable of doing, please do it. We are a free nation we must tell these mentally handicapped culture-less senas this.

5 girls thrashed by 40 men for consuming alcohol in Mangalore

5 girls having lunch in a pub in Mangalore attacked by 40 hooligans calling themselves part of a self fashioned moral police party named Sri Ram Sena.

They reportedly barged into the pub in the afternoon today and went on a rampage destructing the premises and hitting whoever they could find. Everyone was beaten and the girls were so severely beaten that 2 of them are in a critical condition in a hospital. When I heard this news I logged into orkut to check the kind of reactions the India Community (popularly known as IC) on orkut was reflecting. I was ashamed to find many people either supporting the incident or providing 'reasons' behind the occurrence.
This is not the first time that such a thing has happened in our country. There was the valentine's day terror, the Merut park bashing, the mumbai molestation (the 'reason' given was that the girl was roaming on the streets of mumbai, drunk, at 2:30 in the night; a huge mob molested this poor girl; she is yet to get justice). There are a few things that need to be done right away:

• Find all the 40 men and punish them in the most severe way possible


• If there are no strong laws to protect innocent people from such shocking incidents, make them.


• Make it mandatory for every small party (political or non-political in nature) to register itself and publish all its agendas.


• Ban the parent parties of all such organisations. (Shiv Sena is believed to be the parent party of Sri Ram Sena).


• Publish the photos of all the people involved in such incidents in local newspapers and print them in public places like inside buses, etc.

The most shameful aspect of all these episodes is that such things are done in the name of 'The great Indian culture'. Hitting unarmed women black and blue was never part of my Indian culture.

I would not be surprised if the same people who hit these people (and women especially) for consuming alcohol in that particular pub are later found celebrating their 'success' over a mug of beer in the establishment of some doomed leader!

A Black Man occupies the White House

At around 10:30 PM last night, there was a sudden rush near the TV sets at my hostel. I wondered what it was for ?? a new episode of MTV Roadies or an Arsenal vs ManU, the telecast of STAR Screen Awards or the worst fears in the minds of every Indian, another Terrorist Attack.
As soon as I entered the room I understood that all my friends how are getting ready to dawn managerial roles in the corporate world assembled to watch Barack Obama's Swearing in Ceremony.

I thought twice but I could not recollect myself having watched Pratibha Patel's Swearing Ceremony. I asked people around and they too had similar things to say. Like me, a few had probably watched ex-President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalaam's entry into the Rastrapati Bhavan . So it boils down to the fact that at times a person or an individual attracts more attention than an event or activity.

This man is stepping into the critical position at one of the worst times in US economy. Most people in the United States and other parts of the globe are eagerly waiting to see the "CHANGE" that this man has promised to bring about. He is entering the White House with the burden of numerous hopes and aspirations for better governance and bringing radical change across sectors for the revival of the US Economy.

But then I don't know who would really serve as the best example in Indian context. If we speak about Dr. Kalaam, then yes; both can been seen as a welcome change in their respective political setup. In case of Pratibha Patil, while Obama is the first Blank Man in White House, she is the first lady to become a Rashtrapati (President). So the idea here is that CHANGES are happening in India since long.

Last General Elections we elected the first Sikh as our Prime Minister. A man who was primarily responsible for the great Indian growth story as the finance minister in 1990s was bestowed greater responsibilities.
Even the President of the Party having the highest stake in the current government is not an Indian by birth. So while America is welcoming a person from a minority Community we Indians have had moved beyond all these. We have had all the ranks in our governance held by people from diverse backgrounds and representing various sections of the society.

We have had a stage where our President was a Muslim, Prime Minister a Sikh, President of the Leading Party a Christian, whose father-in-law was a Parsi, and the leader of Opposition - a Hindu.

But then when it comes to evaluating their performance, we don't have new standards,any benchmarks or regulations. In the coming General elections we expect to vote more prudently and have a more responsible, committed politicians* at power and doing things right. All magazines are predicting that the younger generation of politicians would be the instrument of the real change. Lets wait with optimism and see how things turn out in months from now.

* I guess after the recent protests, they would soon come up with a new word to describe themselves, as "politician" has become quite a negative word these days

Madame! It happens only in India

Fashion ka Jalwa

Disclaimer: I am not one of those typical orthodox people that you may come across, these are just a few observations of a modern Indian.

I was going through the Times of India, Pune edition, wherein I happened to notice a picture of an array of models with the heading "How the South was won !! " in the Pune Times supplement. It took me 3-4 readings to understand what exactly the article and pics were for. It was about Pantaloons Femina Miss India South 2009. The article read:

"Glamour, fashion, nerves and entertainment - it was all there in a good measure as the search for the face of the South brought us to the finale of the Pantaloons Femina Miss India South 2009……….."

Till now I knew that every year we have girls from all parts of our country aspiring to be big names in the world of fashion competing for the "Miss India" title and the top contestants represent our country in similar contests held at international platform.

But I was a little surprised to notice that we even have further divisions to it in the name of Miss South India and East India and so on..

Further the surprising fact was the names of winners – Faith Pandey, Ragini Dwidevi and Zara Shah. Could not help wondering who amongst these is a "South Indian" because the article was about the victory of South.

Well, looking at it from one perspective, one can actually compliment that these results show us the way the country is getting united and the population diversified.

But then there is a hind side as well.

I am not sure as to how many of you have noticed this ad by CEAT, calling "Change" to be good, refreshing and what not!! But I wonder if we could really generalize it that way.

I am an Indian from the southern part of the country. A place where a majority of people still prefer their tradition food to the modern junk. A Place where a majority of people still prefer classical music to metal. Where Engineering and Medical are treated as synonyms of graduation; where people are still following the good old saying – Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. A place where investing in gold is always treated as the best (if not the only) investment; where rice and curd are a must at meals (lunch), where people are so devoted to the so called God's that they go to the extent of praising actors by building temples ;)

But things are changing here, as as per my observation more drastically than in other parts of the country. The young generation of India does not identify itself with their place of origin. We are all equal, speak with a common slang, eat similar food, have similar good/bad habits and even wear similar attire and the word we use to describe all this is - Fashion.

In this unification drive though we have gained a lot, but we never realize the things we lost. One of the identities of Indian women is a "bindi" a mark on her forehead which (I think) enhances her beauty. But now it is almost an endangered species, and is treated as a fashion item restricted to marriages or few other special occasions. Very similar is the state of bangles and other ethnic ornaments.

How many teenagers do we see endorsing this?? More so if you are following the TV soaps, its always the actors in negative roles who promote this, and I have no clue why is that so..

It's not just the question of bindis, even some of our traditional clothes have lost the race in this fast world. A south Indian traditional dress called "Thaavani" which for common understanding could be termed as half saree has almost become extinct now. Not long back it used to be the most common attire for all women of this region, but these days it's only the kurtas, jeans and western attire that sell.

Khadi is dubbed as a costume meant for social activists and politicians. Similar would have been the fate of many other traditional Indian wears.

But something which struck me the most, is the use of white lungis or dhotis (not sure what exactly they are) by people of all ages here in Chennai. There, I found both young and the old switch to this traditional wear while at home. Actually, this is what is making me write this post. I just came back from a trip to Chennai where I found most guys and uncles in my colony roaming around with these white lungis, and the girls yapping around in different clothes, that I better not describe.

So just the way we are trying to protect the national animal and other species from extinction, we should also try to think of ways of protect even these traditional Indian costumes, so that the next generation atleast get to know about our traditions.

Sex and the Indian society

The attitude of Indians towards issues like sex, sexual education, AIDS and public display of affection is distressing. The country which gave ‘kamasutra’ to the world is struggling to find a balance between its culture (as advocated by the fundamentalists) and reason. Just a few months back there was this incident of a 70 year old woman being raped by 4-5 men in some village. This was a sexual punishment to an offence committed by her son.
Sex in India is still not something which can be freely discussed on a dining table within a family. There is a constant rise in the number of young couples choosing to stay in a live-in relationship in big cities which is the reason for our bollywood movies becoming more and more expressive these days but the fact remains that most small town dwellers still find it uncomfortable to talk about the 3 letter word.
Even big cities and metros like Chennai impose rules (mostly just implied) like reserving the left side of the bus for women and the right side for men and any trespass into the other territory is greeted with sullen faces or even an insult at times. In most cases the people of the opposite sex would not occupy vacant seats in the other domain. Walking hand in hand with your girlfriend, boyfriend or even spouse attracts nasty comments or/and abuses.
For a country like India where the population index beats any other index hands down it is imperative that people are made comfortable talking about condoms in public. STDs and the threat of HIV+ can be taught to people only when they are in a comfort zone when you speak of sex. If the TV in the living room get switched off when Amitabh Bachan speaks about safe sex or Shabana Azmi speaks about breast cancer, the millions spent in these awareness campaigns would just go down the drain.
We are a nation which is on the verge of making same sex relationships legal which is funny because over so many years we have not been able to accept a so called ‘normal’ relationship. Any sexual relationship which is outside the wedlock is still a taboo (and sometimes illegal as well). Sex which should be one of the most important factors in any intimate relationship is sill considered a word which may result in a broken relationship. A guy demanding sex in a pre-marital relationship is considered lecherous, the partner demanding a non-conventional sexual desire is considered unholy. Even married couples have to ‘steal’ time from their families to indulge in sexual activities (which may be part of the fun but should not be forced).
The sour fact is that the people who advocate a form of Indian culture where sex is considered evil are the same who commit sexual crimes like the one stated above, the states which have a strict code of conduct for men and women in sexual matters (or even in something as simple as sitting together) are the same that role out the maximum number of pornographic movies each year, the men who insult and ridicule the gay community are the same who indulge in pedophilic activities with young boys.
If India has to fight evils like HIV+, breast cancer, female feticide, rape, pedophilic activities, etc. we would have to stop tagging sex as evil. Embrace sex for a brighter India.

10 things you need to know before you choose a PG accommodation

If you are looking for accommodation as a Paying Guest in a city like Bangalore, there are many ways to end up in a situation where you are paying more for a less facilitated place. It is fairly difficult to find an ideal PG where you get to stay with a family and the chances are high that the accommodation you rent is more like a hostel.
Here is a list (not comprehensive by any means) of things you should check before you enter a contract with the landlord.

1. It is important to have multiple toilets, bathrooms if you are in a ‘multiple-sharing’ room (two of more people in the same room) as all the inmates may have to leave for work at the same time. If a single facility is available it is a good idea to look for a place which has the toilet, bathroom and washbasin secluded from each other.
2. The room should get ample sunlight and must be airy. In a multiple storey building it is advisable to be placed somewhere in the middle so that you don’t have to climb a lot of stairs and at the same time your windows are not blocked by adjoining buildings.
3. Make sure that the room has multiple plug points, preferably in all corners of the room.
4. The water should be clean and fit for consumption. There may not be any means to check this but inform the landlord if and when you find any sort of rashes or infection in your skin. Warm water facility may be necessary as the morning and evening temperatures may dip very low at times.
5. The room should be in a residential area, even the presence of a cottage industry or a coaching institute can be a source of continuous disturbance and noise pollution.
6. Medical facilities, market, food facilities, etc. should be near.
7. Before entering into a commitment with the landlord, make sure that all electrical, appliances, switch boards, etc. are in perfect condition. All appliances should be properly earthed.
8. Cupboard should have locking facility. Put your own lock as the landlord/caretaker usually has a set of keys to clean your room even in your absence.
9. Make sure that no hidden charges exist. It may be advisable to enter a legal contract with the landlord. In such a case read all the clauses very carefully specially the ones which talk about the ‘minimum contract period’ and ‘notice period’ before vacating the room. The advance paid (if any) should be fully refundable with a shortest notice people possible.
10. Make sure your landlord/landlady is a sane person who understands the language you speak.

The Mosquito Effect

If you are wondering what the content of the post would be by reading this title, then my sincere suggestion would be; please stop guessing could sometimes on CnC we too talk about incredible things (may be someday even we might write on fairly tales and Harry Potter on our blog).

Well this post is coming from a frustrated soul, who is clueless about ways to settle a dispute. Every night me and my enemies drawn our boundaries, sign peace treaties and cease fire; but all these unwritten laws fail in few minutes and we are back at war. I stand tall like a brave Spartan warrior up against a fleet of over 300 enemy soldiers (a lil exaggeration though); I wait and kill them when they are within one yard radius from my body. Fierce battle lasts for hours, neither can I stop and donate blood to my enemy nor do the mosquitoes quit the battle field; they breath through my smoke bombs (don't think otherwise I am talking about mosquito repellents here) and keep trying to enter my territory. It's a complete bloodshed, either mine or others.

The results of this wars are, either they lose their life by getting smacked by me (high success rate of .1%), or leave me with a small protrusion (as if they have filled something in my veins rather than sucking it out; happens 10% of the cases I guess) or the most common, I try to zero them, but then end up hurting myself and they fly away.

It is a never ending war, though I wish to win, I am clueless of the how?? Can anyone suggest a first hand tested strategy which can be of my help??

I tried to get a few solutions from various philosophies from noted thinkers, writers and religions that "love" is the greatest weapon and one can win anything with love. Some went on to say that we can even win over my enemies with love. Even our own Munnabhai quite promotes this concept (remember the incident where a person benevolently cleans the paan strains created by a crook without shouting at him). So does that mean I need to love mosquitoes as well? Will a mosquito stop biting me if I voluntary allow it to bite for more and more times??

This is where I feel all these concepts are not always practical. Just take a simple case of a ring master in a circus; the tigers and other animals perform the necessary tricks only because they are afraid of him, not because of the piece of meat that he offers them at the end of the stunt. If we realise it's the same with most other trainers as well. We learn more when they are strict and we work under pressure. Remember this is the image of boarding schools which most people have - that the teachers are strict and students get punished for all in-disciplinary acts. It's this fear that helps most students do better. I am not sure if others feel the same, but I think I miss my teachers whom I was more afraid of than those who were nice to me. Or may be its just that I learnt it the hard way.

It applies to my mom as well.. She is all nice and loving when I do well but at the same time, will scold me if I ever do something wrong – and I believe it was this fear that still keeps me conscious before I could ever dare do things wrong. So it is this balance between love and fear that helped me grow the way I am and I believe its and in-build art which most mothers possess.

Now when I say all this, I am remembered of the buzz around the country. What should be our next step to counter terrorism?? Is war the solution?? How to resolve Kashmir?? Are we prepared for the War?? What would be extent of damage?? What could be the outcome?? So many questions but very few concrete answers…

But then here also mosquito effect stands to explain the international relations..

Why is Pakistani government under greater treat when the United States of America pressures it and comes up with statements against them?? At the same time India, which has been highlighting the epic centre of all the terrorist activities, it was not at all catered to?? And now look even Pakistan is trying to take a few steps by capturing some key members of the militant groups??

Now all this is definitely not because of love..

It's not that I am trying to prove that love is not powerful and only fear rules the world. There are instances where problems which otherwise failed, were solved by love. Take for instance the relation between Indians and Pakistanis; keep aside all the terrorist and political activities, I think the increased communication between common people is serving as a big step to bridge some of the differences between "aam admi" of both the nations. The apple traders were the happiest when the trade was restored this year.

So the mosquito effect tells us that love and fear are both equally powerful tools and should be used according to the situation. And just as the war between me and mosquitoes seems never ending, where sometimes I win and sometimes they, similarly the success of love and fear will be never ending sometimes the problems get resolved by love while at other we need to use fear.

And regarding Terrorism and countering it, its an issue with so many complexities attached to it. I am dying to see what step our politicians take and bring long – term peace and tranquility back to one of the most beautiful part of the planet.

2008 - The year India got divided again and trying to reunite after being shaken

Last night I was watching the above documentary from BBC, talking about one of the most memorable moment in the history of South-East Asia - The Partition of India. A move that then affected more than 10 million lives and now it’s still counting. And the only reason behind it was of course, Religion and politics attached to it.
After watching this video, I could not stop wondering for long, “what if both nations were not divided”?? We talk of growth stories of India in the last few years and its future prospect of being the next superpower of the world, but, what if we had our neighboring country along with us??
After spending hours I realized that, Religion has had always been used as a “Weapon of Mass Destruction” and if I were to summarize all the events of this year, religion played a major role, or rather a devastating role.

The year 2009 started on a very positive note with the sensex booming, most Indian companies performing well, our international ties getting strengthened, our sportsmen doing well and so on. But slowly things faded, we were almost at war with terrorists who went on a spree and created havoc in all parts of the country. And now before we could control them, we have few more issues to address – the anti north Indian drive launched by MNS, the attack on Churches in Karnataka, rape of a nun in Orissa, formation of Hindu terrorist group and then came the biggest blow – the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.
Let me not talk much about the terrorist attacks as it been talked and written about all over, including CnC, so my focus would be more on the other incidents.

This year had attacks on Churches and Christian community in some parts of the country, viz. Karnataka and Orissa. But then I read an article by Mr. Francois Gautier.
The article coming from a Catholic Indian seems really convincing and it explains to a certain extent why and how the so-called secular India is turning violent and more shockingly the Hindu community.

What made Hindus angry in Karnataka?

Well I am sure many of you would have come across forceful conversions being promoted by some of the Christian missionaries in India. Even I myself had a firsthand experience, exactly five years back when I was travelling by a bus from Trichy to Thanjavur. We were heading for general elections that time and I felt that NDA did well and would be re-elected, but a man tried to explain me why he wanted me not to go by the financial growth and vote for party which is secular and unbiased. And slowly as the discussion progressed the man started narrating his own story. How he was in trouble, not able to meet his medical expenses, before a Christian missionary lent a helping hand by funding his treatment and now he is a convert and is promoting other to follow his steps by talking about his own emotional example and the benefits he derived out of it.
From my friends from different parts of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, I did hear about many more mass conversion campaigns and promotions, and I agree with the author on all figures he is quoting. Conversion campaigns were conducted even in places like Tirupati which is one of the most holy temples especially for South Indians.
But I never heard of the situation in North-East. Just now I googled it out and was shock to see some of the news items.
Assault on a Dalit couple for not converting to Christianity (Jalaun, UP, Oct 17 2007, Dainik Jagran)

Tripura tribal leader killed

Separatist group bans Hindu festivities

Hindu preacher killed by Tripura rebels

All this created a divide and brought in lot of disturbances between these two communities. No one was taking any action against such unlawful propagations, and it reached a level were none could act sensibly and come up with a non-violent and sensible solution.

For me, as much as terror attacks, it was shocking to see an Indian army personal being questioned for promoting communal violence. We have seen movies like Shaurya and even the blockbuster Main Hu Na where men in uniform were into malpractices based on personal grievances against a particular community but then I was always proud of our army personnel, who not only lay down their lives for the nation but also respect their enemies and treat them humanitarianly (independent of how they treat us). So I never expected as issues like Lt. Col. Prasad Porohit to come up. Sandhvi involved tried to justify her involvement by quoting the mishaps in her personal life, but then as far as I am aware, a Sandhvi one is supposed to leave all emotional ties and act in the best interest of righteousness. Now after the unfortunate demise of ATC Chief, Hemant Karkare I really wonder how the case would move forward and when it would reach the final verdict.

Now rather than talking about Terrorism and how the jihadi groups misinterpret religion and deceive people, I would rather like to talk about some moves made by Indian government to attack votes from the Muslim community in India.I remember that after Dewali I was coming back from Hyderabad and I note a building very brightly lit and well crowded, I wondered what it was and felt it must be some studio or building which is having an extended Dewali party, but then it turned out to be Hyderabad’s Haj House.
This year, we know how the airline industry is faring, but the Cabinet as usual has decided to increase the number of pilgrims availing the Haj subsidy and flying by the national carrier. For an airlines already reeling under Rs 2,000-crore loss and burdened with severe employee-related issues, a welfare measure like this puts undue duress on it.
Aircraft engaged in Haj duty have to first pick up pilgrims from the smaller towns which have been approved as part of the hub and spoke arrangement, and then after they drop the pilgrims to the final destination, they come back empty. Similarly, in order to pick up the pilgrims, the aircraft have to go to Jeddah empty, which results in an increase in expenditure. Any commercial airliner does not view huge aircraft flying empty favourably as it implies a loss in revenue.
The Cabinet kept the amount paid by the pilgrims for the round trip to Jeddah and Medina at Rs 12,000, as it has remained since 1994. In 1991, the amount paid by the pilgrims was Rs 10,000 as against Rs 14,056 per passenger paid to Air India by the government. This amount was then gradually raised to Rs 12,000 by 1994 against Rs 17,000 paid to the carrier. Last year, while 1,10,000 pilgrims availed the subsidy paying only Rs 12,000 each, the amount paid by the government to the carrier was Rs 47,454 per passenger. The total cost for Haj operations last year (for 1,10,000 pilgrims) was Rs 727 crore of which the subsidy requirement was Rs 595 crore. This year, in order for the pilgrimage of 1,23,211 pilgrims, the total cost estimated by the government is Rs 847 crore, of which the subsidy requirement will be approximately Rs 700 crore.
Now, even the learned Muslims are supporting the appeal scrap such funds, as Haj is a pilgrimage which one is supposed to complete under his/her own expenses and by not taking any financial help from others. Thus, providing subsidies and other moves taken by our politicians are just for vote banks and not for the best interest of the minority communities. For further reading go through :

‘Haj subsidy unIslamic, use that money on our education, health’

Then we had a heinous move by MNS under the leadership of Mr. Raj Thackeray, to kill the harmony in the commercial capital of India. Again to create a niche vote bank, problems due to immigration of North Indians into Maharashtra were blown out of proportions and created a sense of hatred among the Mumbaikars, who otherwise never associate themselves with their place of origin. Riots, strikes, murders, created tension all over and the politicians of all regions were also quick to react and fueled the case. But Mr. Thackeray who was proud to be arrested for this cause went underground ever since the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, when the entire nation came together to fight against two major problems in India – Terrorism and Politics.

The horrendous ghost of terrorism to a certain extent helped in keeping aside all minor issues misused by politicians for election campaigns. Now the citizens of India would no longer listen to all the fake propagandas of political parties ahead of coming elections. One incident has brought people on streets, openly raise voices and revolt against the politicians.
Till now Ego, Revenge, Power, and Money are driving most thoughts and all good qualities and morals were on a standby. But now on I believe people would maintain high awareness level and would act with maturity, analyze, understand and then decide whats right and whats wrong. Until couple of months back everyone wondered who the other person is??
If it’s Mumbai, whether you are a Maharashtrian or a “Bhaiyya” ??
In Orissa, whether you are a Hindu or a Christian ??
In Tamil Nadu, if you are Tamil or Hindi speaking ??
Now people have stopped giving a damn about these religious, linguistic or regional divides. The meanings of love, brotherhood, unity, patriotism will now have a big difference from what’s being practiced over the years.
Enough is enough.. it’s high time that we overcome this situation and move ahead to form a truly UNITED INDIA.

IT labour Union in India

A friend of mine works in a famous automobile company of India in the capacity of production manager. His plant is a high capacity plant and produces a big percentage of the total number of heavy automobiles produced in India every year. Reputation wise his company is one of the most respected and trusted companies of India with high standards of quality which is accepted as a hallmark. However, in the various discussions that I’ve had with him about the work culture in his factory, I have been made aware of the irrevocable presence of the labour union and its effect on the production capability of the companies like his.
For instance, the company can incur a big loss at the end of an assembly line just because the labourer working at some point in the line got his evening tea with a 5 minute delay! The middle managers live under a constant threat from the unions and with the not so old incident of the CEO of a company in Gurgaon being killed by the labourers even the top level managers and owners of such a factory feel a chill down their spine when facing the union or sorting out a genuine problem. The recent economic crunch has lead to layoffs across all sectors but the labour union in almost all factories has made sure that the working class is untouched by the situation. The bully unions have fought for the rights of its members tooth and nail on all occasions, at all times. The working class in India is not paid much so this structure may be necessary to safeguard the lives of those who work each day at low wages and deplorable conditions so that our nation can march forward.
One of the fastest growing sectors of Indian economy, the IT and ITES sector is also one of the chief employment providers now and like any other sector the disparity in the remuneration, facilities, etc. is evident along the hierarchy of any IT company. While the CEOs and top management get a heavy share of the profits the payments made to the entry level engineers, lower order management and the like is very less. In the present scenario the situation has become even worse with layoffs and salary cut across the board. While the rights of lowest level workers in a manufacturing unit are well protected by the strong unions (who can even threaten to bring down the whole unit if wronged), the lowest level workers in an IT company have none. The over staffed IT giants have slashed their work force drastically in the past few months with their plans of expansion going awry and the employees had to bear the brunt. This economic crisis presses for a need for an IT labour union more than ever. There are a number of start-ups which have no employee policy to safeguard the rights of the people who work with them and since the future of a startup is itself not secure the government needs to step in to make sure that the employees’ lives and families are taken care of.
One major problem in the establishment of such an IT labour union is the scattered presence of the employees in various companies. A union within an IT giant is very feasible but one that covers every person employed in any IT company is a little difficult due to the physical absence of everyone in one working facility. However, there are ways to bring this notion to effect. Internet is a great medium for people of the IT sector to form a union and if the idea catches up with more and more people a little government intervention can turn this ‘virtual union’ into a physical force safeguarding the rights of millions.

JAAGO aur sabko JAGAO

Hey I'm Raj, so finally you decided to wake up!!
For people getting confused what this is all about, visit jaagore.com
While I was watching the Dada play his last Test match, I happened to watch a commercial which was trying to pass a social message and provoking people to vote without fail. Then out of my curiosity I checked the above website and noted that Jaago re! One Billion Votes is a nonprofit, nonpartisan campaign to educate people on using their voting rights better, coupled with a nationwide voter registration drive covering 35 cities.
All veterans in our country simply say that they are optimistic above the youngistan and expect the next generation to bring the change and we the youngsters who are amid various social and cultural divides are looking forward to an indigenous Obama.
Now we are months away from another general election and elect a person who can change things on our country. Thanks to our regulators our financial sector is not as badly effected as most other countries but then we are facing bigger problems due to the growing communal divide, terrorism, corruption, poverty, illiteracy, infra-structure and many more and we also need a person to lead such positive changes.
So before we hit the polling booth here, did you know that there is a system in our constitution, as per the 1969 act, in section '49-O' that a person can go to the polling booth, confirm his identity, get his finger marked and convey the presiding election officer that he doesn't want to vote anyone! Yes such a feature is available, but obviously these seemingly notorious leaders have never disclosed it. This is called '49-O'. Why should you go and say 'I VOTE NOBODY'... because, in a ward, if a candidate wins, say by 123 votes, and that particular ward has received '49-O' votes more than 123, then that polling will be canceled and will have to be re-polled. Not only that, but the candidature of the contestants will be removed and they cannot contest the re-polling, since people had already expressed their decision on them.
This would bring fear into parties and hence look for genuine candidates for their parties for election. This would change the way, of our whole political system, it is seemingly surprising why the election commission has not revealed such a feature to the public ??
Anyways this seems to be a wonderful weapon against corrupt parties in India. So now on let's show our power, expressing your desire not to vote for anybody, is even more powerful than voting, so don't miss this chance. So either vote, or vote not to vote (vote 49-O) and spread this information, so that we can really use this power to save our nation'. Use your voting right for a better INDIA.

Why is UP and Bihar always clubbed together ?

In all discussions across India why does UP and Bihar come up together ? Sure both share a certain set of similarities but so do many other states ... parts of MP are a lot similar to parts of UP, parts of UP are included in NCR, parts of Bihar are similar to WB, culturally UP, Bihar, MP and many other parts on North India are strikingly similar. Economically both are distinct. The only thing that does appear same is perhaps the kind of politics that is prevalent in both the states, but 'cast politics' is becoming more of a norm in India now.
Even the way the native people of UP and Bihar speak is different. The poor people of both these states who migrate to other places may look alike but that is how each and every poor of India looks like !!!
And just like any other state of India UP too have hoards of settlers from Bihar. Perhaps the reason both are clubbed together is that no one in UP has ever closed the doors to the Bihari, be it a student fighting the odds to become an IAS officer or the laborer who struggles hard to earn the daily bread.

PS: Please don't smudge this post with 'hate' comments and take the topic to some place else. I'm aware that both these states are scorned at and they don't deserve it (but even people like Mr. Amitabh Bachan like to make it a matter of joke with his funny accent of a 'chora ganga kinare wala' when he's shown walking down d polio booths, while he chooses to speak in sparkling english when he's speaking about the surge that India has made in various walks of life and this 'chora of ganga' is then walking along the lovely cost line of mumbai; more than being a case of what we want, its a case of what we expect that the media decides to show).

Behenji's Lucknow

Lucknow and Kanpur recently appeared among the top 10 cities in India for business/industry in of the leading business magazines. There are a lot of things working in favor of these UP cities like a very enthusiastic and young population, low infrastructural costs, a 'supportive' state government. I had the opportunity to visit Lucknow a couple of days back. It was a short journalistic stint which lasted a single night. I reached Lucknow at 8:00pm and spent the night roaming in different areas of the city finally leaving in the morning at 6:00am!
Most areas of the city are in fact very safe even at night, I could find police forces almost everywhere in the city (though none of them were alert and paid attention to people like me roaming at night, taking pictures. I could have easily been some terror element). The roads are nicely lit, which is a pleasant surprise in any UP city. One of my friends in Lucknow told me that there were no power cut in the city since the last few years. For a state in which most other (important) cities like Allahabad, Varanasi, etc. are facing a heavy power shortage with just under 20 hours of electricity provided on most days, this is quite a feat. The financial capital of India, the resurgent IT capital (Hyderabad) all are facing regular power cuts. The only street which was poorly lit was the one dedicated to the citizens by the former chief minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav. The street lamps were either broken or missing and along the stretch of a few kilometers I could not locate even a single police post, the only mistake of this forsaken road being its apparent loyalty to the Mulayam government.
There has been a recent development in the city politics with Mr. Akhilesh Das (the former Congress and SP supporter) joining Behenji's brigade. Huge banners and hoarding plastered the city streets pledging support of a few sections (read casts) of the city to the potent Behenji. This power show was atleast worth a few million rupees which could easily be utilized in much more thoughtful ways.
The whole city seems to have been engulfed in a 'blue' light. The color of the lights to light up major city statues, the lights around the road crossing, all other major structures were flooded with blue light signifying the illuminance of BSP waiting to spread on to Delhi with Behenji dabbing Delhi in blue hue.
The area near the railway station (central) and Hazaratganj is donned by many statues, some old and forgotten like that of Mahatma Gandhi and some immersed in heavenly blue light surrounded by scores of Policemen. While the blue statues (thus heavily guarded) fail to be more than a landmark for the city, the Mahatma's statue was still providing shelter to the homeless at night (see picture below).

With such disparity between the capital of UP and its other cities in almost all areas of development, it is a tormenting thought to think of Mayawati as the PM of India. If such a thing does happen I hope that BSP rises from its 'power-show-politics' and beings to think of the greater good of the underprivileged sections of the society which it claims to represent.

Chrome. Google's browser or something else ?

Chrome, the 'browser' from google is available for downloads. I would not like to call it a browser though. Web browsers, historically, have been used to 'browse' the web since the ancient days but things have changed drastically since the late 90s. In the old times all we had were 'web-pages' and now the cyberspace provides more than just static information, this is the time of 'web-services'. Chrome is a browser to make the best out of these services available online today. This would be the perfect solution for those of you who like to play online games, listen to music, chat, etc. THIS IS THE NEXT EVOLUTION IN BROWSER HISTORY.

One of the major architectural changes in chrome is the multi-process approach. Most of us have experienced browser crashes and long 'hold-ups' for which some obstinate javascript applications may be responsible. Chrome changes this experience by refining the old 'single-execution-thread' approach and adopting the new multiple processes. A sneak peek at the 'processes window' (try pressing alt+ctrl+del)will give you an idea of what I mean by multiple-processes. Web apps like gmail would work the best with Chrome.
Another major feature of Chrome is the elegant use of Gears (the amazing research project of google labs which is already surfacing in some of the most wonderful projects). Gears, in a nutshell, is an 'thing' which will enable online applications to run offline (with a few constraints). For example, if I happen to go offline which I'm in the process of publishing this post Gears would make sure that I don't lose any of my work and I will continue to 'work' as if I was still online.
The design, look and feel is very refreshing and revolutionary. The tab placement is well thought of.
An amazing feature is the 'incognito' window. If you want to browse without leaving a track of all you did online the options that most popular browsers (Firefox and IE) give you is a complete deletion of browsing history this could be a little disturbing if you don't wish to lose all your 'history' but rather want a selective deletion. The 'incognito window' gives you an option to choose which records should be preserved and which should not.
A clever move to fight malware and other attacks is to allow each of the processes to run in a sandbox without harming your system (the user, however, has to be alert about the add-ons that she installs).
There is an interesting 'comic' that you can read about Chrome here.

Rock On!

Two movie reviews in a day! They should start paying me for watching movies ;)
Rock On! The movie on the whole rocks!
It may not be able to stand as a milestone or a movie defining a phase in bollywood (like a DCH or RDB) but it will touch many hearts.
The story is very predictable and even before entering the theatre its easy to figure out the whole plot just by looking at the posters outside. BUT, the way it is presented is almost flawless. The rock band called Magik is a winner of Channel V contest and gets a chance to make a music album but differences, ego and compromises forced by the pedantic views of the record company plays a spoil sport. They meet after 10 years and fight out their circumstances and egos and participate in the challenge once again. The movie really talks about how empty our lives can be without dreams and their realization. And music is blended with the movie in a fantastic way; you don't just have secluded songs trying to emerge from situations, they rather complete and supplement each and every motive of the direction. Each song is a unique story in itself and taking away any line of the song would dent the completeness of the movie as a whole.
There may be a little flaws like ... well, there are none that come to my mind instantly! Perhaps the only flaw in the movie may be its predictability but its taken care of by the treatment. A few of you (particularly people who expect the movie not to be a movie-based-on-rock-music but a rock concert itself) may get a little bored a few times when a couple of (necessary) emotional scenes are shown but the fantastic music more than makes for each such moment. The cast is just perfect, with some performances that would certainly be remembered. Rock On announces the rise of Farhan-the actor! Arjun Rampall plays a man who's only talent is music and the way he plays the part can get him a 'role' at the opening ceremony of the next olympics. He has given one of the best performances of his career and even in the 'side-role' (though I can hardly call it that) he is the real rock star attraction of the movie. Farhan is surprisingly good. This acting debut of Farhan can be compared to the direction debut of Amir in TZP. One of the surprise packages is Prachi (she plays Farhan's wife), she looked as gorgeous as any housewife can ever look and acted well. Purab did well (though I expected him to be much better), he's a very promising actor and we all know that. The things that touch your heart are the intensity of each person involved in the band. The passion, not just for music but for each one of them is phenomenal and you can see and feel it in each moment of the scene. Its not a thriller so it doesn't rivet you to your seat but if you get involved in the movie it grows into you (and would hopefully last for a very long time).
The shadow of DCH was evident in quite a lot of places but you soon realize that its got to be because of the youth appeal that it has (which it shares with DCH). Rock On is a movie thats certainly not meant for the masses. I happened to talk with a few people that might constitute what we call as 'the masses' and they were not very satisfied with the movie. Its either for those who understand human emotions or those who know that 'hindi-rock' has started making waves in the music world. Its inspiring in its own way and is a movie well made (I'm not very confident about its performance at the box office though).

Phoonk, RGV's last horror flick (hopefully)

Its been sometime since I did any movie reviews here at CnC and I'm going to watch 'Rock On!' today and it looks like a movie worth a review. But before that there's another movie which deserves a review for the benefit of the people who may want to venture to see it on the big screen. PHOONK, the RGV horror (or thriller, or whatever) is certainly not meant for the small screen. The best thing to do would be to find a couple of friends who know how to enjoy the lowliest things in life and are prepared for a good laugh which may not be provoked by the high bass background scores but inevitable nonetheless.
The movie revolves around black magic that an 'innocent' family finds itself gripped in. The young and resurgent builder finds his atheistic beliefs on lose grounds when one of his close aides turn against him and decides to punish his little girl. The movie, sadly, has no twist in the story. The victory of good over evil is the moral.
My orkut caption says these days, "Phoonk misses the 'Best comic movie award of the year' by a whisker", this review is not going to be an exaggeration by any means. There are a couple of good things about the movie though. The camera work can be called captivating if you happen to like the seeing things from a close angle. The background score is good and perhaps the only scary part of the movie (though you will find it hard to hear most of it if you are sitting with a lively audience who find it hard to control their laughter). As against the common notion, RGV has tried to include a song in the movie. I personally found it good but not many people seem to remember it and the Planet M at Allahabad was unable to find a Phoonk audio CD in its stores. The story, though very predictable, is racy and the camera work keeps you guessing. Most of the cast is good, the usual people from the 'RGV factory'. The acting of the possessed girl is good, considering the fact that its always hard to act in a horror flick where the 'music' is added while editing the movie.

The things to watch out for are:
1. The dead crow (with a stone eye) perched at almost all the trees around d set.
2. An old lady with a 'spring fitted' head.
3. A Javed Jaferry look alike.
4. The latest technology in levitation- 'phoonk effects'.
5. The 'phoonk healer' who (strangely) can set things right with a couple of chopsticks fitted between his knuckles.
6. An underpaid driver who's unsatiated 'hawas' (even to the disappointment of the audience craving for a bit of flesh-flashing) leads to a lot of harm to the family (or is it because he was given no dialogues by RGV, cant say!).
7. The pathetic 'replication' of the common 'fights' between ghosts and the ordinary man towards the end is a total let down.

The Indian olympics dream ..

Congratulation! We won the first ever gold for an individual event in olympics!
This great feat accomplished by Abinav Bindra comes as a huge motivating factor for all the Indians. It is not just a victory for the Indian sports but a moment of pride for the middle class dreamer as well. We have always blamed our bad performance in sports on the 'insecurity' associated with a career in sports and games. It is always said that in order to become a sports person in India you have to take insurmountable risk and put your career at stake. For Bindra it was never the case. He has got a gold, which is surely the best moment in his life, but even before this victory he has been an achiever in his life. An MBA holder, this 'little man' is in fact the CEO of a company as well.
So, if you dream of making it big and doing your country proud, this is the moment. Rise up to the challenge. And there is hope that even if you do not perform too well, your career could be great even without the incentives from government that always just become a promise.
Dream big and go for the kill.

Why are the names changing?

The world seems to have waged a war against names that sound simple and are easy to spell. Take for example 'Bangalore', an easy to spell familiar name, changed to 'Bengaluru'. Not just cities, you will in fact find many people adding a few letters to their names to make their names compatible with the 'rules' defined by the 'new age' (but otherwise very old) sciences like feng shui, numerology and what not. But, believe it or not there is much more to this story than meets the eye. Do you remember when this 'fashion' of changing names started catching much pace ? It was somewhere in the late 90s and beyond and if you can recall, this is the time when www.google.com had started becoming the first choice for searches being performed on the web. Most of us may not be able to make a conspicuous connection between the two but its rather obvious. Adding that extra letter, or keeping a tough to pronounce name (which is spelt in a unique way) may in fact give better search results on google.com!