Here are some pictures taken during my travels. Hope you enjoy them. Click to enlarge.
Thursday, 29 September 2011
Wednesday, 14 September 2011
Puppet Prime Minister Of India
The "post" of President is considered "dummy" in India, as in the president does not have much influence over the running of our country and the real power is vested with the Prime Minister and the cabinet ministers. However, it is a common knowledge that our Prime Minister (Indian PM) has been a puppet ever since he took office in 2004.
Puppet Ministers are common place in Indian politics and there have been some curious cases of stand-in puppet Chief Ministers in our nation's history. This situation however is not the same as the stand-in O.Paneerselvam when Jayalalitha could not hold the post of Chief Minister of TamilNadu due to the corruption cases. Nor is this same as Rabri Devi, stand in Chief Minister of Bihar, who took on the role as her husband, the ex-CM had to face corruption charges. These people are not in the same league as our PM, who is educated, intelligent and capable of fulfilling the role he is chosen for. Atleast with the others, we all knew what to expect.
What bewilders me most is his repeated claims of innocence, as with the 2G scams or his ever-changing stance in the Lokpal Bill. Is he just a mute spectator or is he actually party to all the white collar crimes that go on in the name of a democratic government? If he is innocent, why has he still not resigned and exposed these unscrupulous activities. I believe he was chosen because of his clean track record and his expert play-acting - a perfect combination to hoodwink the people.
I felt proud the day I knew Dr.Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister, having read about his humble beginnings, academic excellence and esteemable career. You see, most of the politicians in India are uneducated, have a history of crime and violence and are not fluent even in their native language. But I was ashamed when he chose not the role of a PM but the role of a "puppet" in the hands of a power-hungry, totally corrupt government of the Sonia's Congress Party. It is high time he resigned or admitted that he is as corrupt as the rest of the lot.
Puppet Ministers are common place in Indian politics and there have been some curious cases of stand-in puppet Chief Ministers in our nation's history. This situation however is not the same as the stand-in O.Paneerselvam when Jayalalitha could not hold the post of Chief Minister of TamilNadu due to the corruption cases. Nor is this same as Rabri Devi, stand in Chief Minister of Bihar, who took on the role as her husband, the ex-CM had to face corruption charges. These people are not in the same league as our PM, who is educated, intelligent and capable of fulfilling the role he is chosen for. Atleast with the others, we all knew what to expect.
What bewilders me most is his repeated claims of innocence, as with the 2G scams or his ever-changing stance in the Lokpal Bill. Is he just a mute spectator or is he actually party to all the white collar crimes that go on in the name of a democratic government? If he is innocent, why has he still not resigned and exposed these unscrupulous activities. I believe he was chosen because of his clean track record and his expert play-acting - a perfect combination to hoodwink the people.
I felt proud the day I knew Dr.Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister, having read about his humble beginnings, academic excellence and esteemable career. You see, most of the politicians in India are uneducated, have a history of crime and violence and are not fluent even in their native language. But I was ashamed when he chose not the role of a PM but the role of a "puppet" in the hands of a power-hungry, totally corrupt government of the Sonia's Congress Party. It is high time he resigned or admitted that he is as corrupt as the rest of the lot.
Sunday, 11 September 2011
Business Tactics Uh!!!!
So far, I have seen some weird, funny things going on in my job and like any sector, there are several inside jokes in the Software Industry, some of which you might have received by email, like the ones involving project planning, documenting, implementing, testing and the result being something that is entirely irrelevant to the requirement.
There are obviously several ways to procure a business - you agree to generate a software for a client, even if it is not at all necessary. Something that is existing might very well do or in some cases, the whole project is totally unnecessary except for giving work to those who hold jobs with the client themselves.
This was a scenario I came across for the first time in my limited five and a half years experience. Now, in this case, the client already has a software in some technology that generates a report. The IT guys who are employed to seek business convince the clients that they would generate a software that would improve the performance of the report generated, that is, generate it in a short time, less servers and so on. The client finally gives in and provides a document that was created when the project was initially commenced.
One of the important things about documents is that even the ones who wrote it cannot tell you what they are all about, none of the changes are all entered and it is simply an overview of what the entire project was about. The long and short of it is you cannot write a code with the help of the document especially for an existing project whose report is currently used.
The only other way is to refer the codes and identify the process, input, tables involved, etc., But these will not be shared as they are "IP" Intellectual Property of the clients. So, there is no idea of the inputs, the processing logic and what the output consists of. You only have a few documents with basic information of what the report must contain and a sample report with data. But you need to do everything to generate the report that is exactly like the one they are currently extracting.
This is all very well - after all it is business, you find a way to give them what they want or you sell them what you have. But one thing that the manager said was indeed the height of ridiculousness. "An engineer must create things from scratch, only a layman works with everything in place".
Really??? In this case!!
Thursday, 8 September 2011
Democracy - The people and the lizards
I was reading the fourth book "So long, thanks for all the fish" in the trilogy (yes, you read it right) of Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy. This series is about the adventures of the human after he escapes from Earth, minutes before its demolition by the Vogons with the help of an alien. It has a delightful dialogue that sums up accurately the state of democracy in all the democratic nations of the world. Nowadays, no country is an exception.
This is the exchange between the human Arthur Dent and the alien, Ford Prefect when a robot lands on the planet from an alien land.
"I come in peace," it said, adding after a long moment of further grinding, "take me to your Lizard."
Ford Prefect, of course, had an explanation for this, as he sat with Arthur and watched the non-stop frenetic news reports on the television, none of which had anything to say other than to record that the thing had done this amount of damage which was valued at that amount of billions of pounds and had killed this totally other number of people, and then say it again, because the robot was doing nothing more than standing there, swaying very slightly, and emitting short incomprehensible error messages.
"It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see"
"You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?"
"No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."
"Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."
"I did," said Ford. "It is."
"So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't people get rid of the lizards?"
"It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."
"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"
"Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."
"But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"
"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?"
"What?"
"I said," said Ford, with an increasing air of urgency creeping into his voice, "have you got any gin?"
"I'll look. Tell me about the lizards."
Ford shrugged again.
"Some people say that the lizards are the best thing that ever happened to them," he said. "They're completely wrong of course, completely and utterly wrong, but someone's got to say it."
"But that's terrible," said Arthur.
"Listen, bud," said Ford, "if I had one Altairan dollar for every time I heard one bit of the Universe look at another bit of the Universe and say `That's terrible' I wouldn't be sitting here like a lemon looking for a gin."
This is the exchange between the human Arthur Dent and the alien, Ford Prefect when a robot lands on the planet from an alien land.
"I come in peace," it said, adding after a long moment of further grinding, "take me to your Lizard."
Ford Prefect, of course, had an explanation for this, as he sat with Arthur and watched the non-stop frenetic news reports on the television, none of which had anything to say other than to record that the thing had done this amount of damage which was valued at that amount of billions of pounds and had killed this totally other number of people, and then say it again, because the robot was doing nothing more than standing there, swaying very slightly, and emitting short incomprehensible error messages.
"It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see"
"You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?"
"No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."
"Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."
"I did," said Ford. "It is."
"So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't people get rid of the lizards?"
"It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."
"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"
"Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."
"But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"
"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?"
"What?"
"I said," said Ford, with an increasing air of urgency creeping into his voice, "have you got any gin?"
"I'll look. Tell me about the lizards."
Ford shrugged again.
"Some people say that the lizards are the best thing that ever happened to them," he said. "They're completely wrong of course, completely and utterly wrong, but someone's got to say it."
"But that's terrible," said Arthur.
"Listen, bud," said Ford, "if I had one Altairan dollar for every time I heard one bit of the Universe look at another bit of the Universe and say `That's terrible' I wouldn't be sitting here like a lemon looking for a gin."
Tuesday, 6 September 2011
Who is an Accomplished Woman? - Then and Now
If you have read Pride and Prejudice, you would never forget the "accomplished woman" scene. This was the general idea of an accomplished woman in 1800s.
'It is amazing to me,' said Bingley, "how young ladies can have patience to be so very accomplished, as they all are."
'All young ladies accomplished! My dear Charles, what do you mean?' (says his sister.)
'Yes all of them, I think. They all paint tables, cover skreens and net purses. I scarcely know any one who cannot do all this and I am sure I never heard a young lady spoken of for the first time, without being informed that she was very accomplished.'
'Then,' observed Elizabeth, 'you must comprehend a great deal in your idea of an accomplished woman.'
Oh! certainly,' cried his faithful assistant, 'no one can really esteemed accomplished, who does not greatly surpass what is usually met with. A woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing and the modern languages to deserve the word; and besides all this, she must possess a certain something in her air and manner of walking, the tone of her voice, her address and expressions, or the word will be but half deserved.'
'All this she must possess,' added Darcy, 'and to all this she must yet add something more substantial, in the improvement of her mind by extensive reading.'
In India, in the 1800s an accomplished woman, in general was someone who sang songs in praise of God in her pooja room, who cooked delicious meals, took care of the house and her kids/siblings (if she was unmarried). She was supposed and expected only to be devoted to God and her family.
In 2011, you have the "top ten list" of powerful women (doesn't matter if you are corrupt!) in the world, sports athletes, science, literature, music and every other field imaginable. I don't know about the accomplished woman, or whether there is such a generalized term.But the first word to describe a "modern woman", (in any continent) as any website would tell you is "Beautiful", glamorous, who always looks like she is in her twenties. She is also expected to have an education, comfortable income, do/handle household work/staff, cook meals, take care of kids and a million other things. More like a multi-tasking Barbie!
This is definitely not my definition of an accomplished woman, just what women are expected to be today and what they are forced to become - although, one could argue that they themselves are not objecting much to this idea.
What do you think?
'It is amazing to me,' said Bingley, "how young ladies can have patience to be so very accomplished, as they all are."
'All young ladies accomplished! My dear Charles, what do you mean?' (says his sister.)
'Yes all of them, I think. They all paint tables, cover skreens and net purses. I scarcely know any one who cannot do all this and I am sure I never heard a young lady spoken of for the first time, without being informed that she was very accomplished.'
'Then,' observed Elizabeth, 'you must comprehend a great deal in your idea of an accomplished woman.'
Oh! certainly,' cried his faithful assistant, 'no one can really esteemed accomplished, who does not greatly surpass what is usually met with. A woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing and the modern languages to deserve the word; and besides all this, she must possess a certain something in her air and manner of walking, the tone of her voice, her address and expressions, or the word will be but half deserved.'
'All this she must possess,' added Darcy, 'and to all this she must yet add something more substantial, in the improvement of her mind by extensive reading.'
In India, in the 1800s an accomplished woman, in general was someone who sang songs in praise of God in her pooja room, who cooked delicious meals, took care of the house and her kids/siblings (if she was unmarried). She was supposed and expected only to be devoted to God and her family.
In 2011, you have the "top ten list" of powerful women (doesn't matter if you are corrupt!) in the world, sports athletes, science, literature, music and every other field imaginable. I don't know about the accomplished woman, or whether there is such a generalized term.But the first word to describe a "modern woman", (in any continent) as any website would tell you is "Beautiful", glamorous, who always looks like she is in her twenties. She is also expected to have an education, comfortable income, do/handle household work/staff, cook meals, take care of kids and a million other things. More like a multi-tasking Barbie!
This is definitely not my definition of an accomplished woman, just what women are expected to be today and what they are forced to become - although, one could argue that they themselves are not objecting much to this idea.
What do you think?
Thursday, 1 September 2011
My Travel Sydney, May 2011
These are some pictures from my trip (official, just an excuse!) to Sydney in May. Instead of boring travel logs, I thought pictures would suffice. Click to enlarge.
There is a cableway ride in Blue Mountains with a beautiful view of the Three sisters and the valley. The cable ride has glass floor and it was a beautiful, thrilling ride.
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| Harbour Bridge |
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| Opera House |
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| Blue Mountains |
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| Three Sisters |
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| Me |
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| Blue Mountains |
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