Thoughts Unlimited

I was away from Hyderabad last weekend and did not follow the news. I was absolutely shocked when I heard about the terrorist attack. A second attack in a span of 3 months! Atrocious! To add a pinch of salt, the place where the attack took place is hardly 500 meters from the ‘Andhra Pradesh Secretariat’, which is supposed to have top security.

Government cannot be blamed for everything that happens in the name of terrorism. After all, security cannot be provided to every nook and corner of the city where people gather. But I was greatly disheartened to see the indifferent attitude of Security personnel (In fact there were not too many!) in the Secunderabad Railway Station, when I returned on Tuesday, hardly 3 days after the attack. They seem to be checking none and there were no metal detectors available. Railway Stations, bus terminals and shopping malls are a few places which attract huge crowds. Security must be tightened at least in those locations, so that the probability of another attack comes down.

Only a calculative and intelligent approach by the Government and the concerned authorities can put a check to these criminal activities. Terrorist activities seem to be on a rise in the past 5-6 years. Done to incite communal disharmony, these activities claim hundreds of innocent lives. No country is an exception to this trauma and World is a single place, as far as terrorism is concerned.

I greatly appreciate the steps taken by AP Government to combat terrorist activities in the city. But every security personnel must do their duty to utmost perfection and do not indulge in perfunctory activities. At this juncture, I remember a song written by a tamil poet. (Translated) “Thievery cannot be eradicated, unless the thieves decides to stop it”… I believe, the same analogy holds good to those involving themselves in terrorist activities.

A plea to the terrorists - “PLEASE SPARE THE WORLD!!”

I am a leaving to Chennai today taking 2 days off… This time planning for a long trip, to some religious locations in Tamil Nadu.  I really love the places around Mayiladhuthurai and hoping to have a good time :).  Will write a post on my travel experience, once I am back.

Meanwhile, everyone have a great weekend!

P.S:  This is another nice interesting article written by Rajesh Setty.  A must read for those who could not afford a full time MBA, whatever the reasons might be.  Hope you enjoy reading it, as I did.

Rangasamy, Back from hibernation!!

Nowadays around the Parliament, only 4 words could be heard - US, 123 Agreement, Hyde Act and Sovereignty. I decided to dig into this and report the latest status to our readers.

Outside the Parliament there were a group of politicians. From a distance it looked like BJP members…

Me: Rajnath Singh Ji. What is the problem all about regarding the Nuclear deal?
Rajnath: Indian Sovereignity. That is the only word I can say.
Me: What do you mean by sovereignty sir? Can you elaborate?
Rajnath: Hmm ha…hmm… Don’t ask me too many questions… 123 Agreement is a danger to Indian Sovereignty and UPA must be thrown out so that we can be back at center. This is a very good chance for us. How can we miss it? Only that I know…

Then there was a conclave of the Left party members. They did not seem so excited as BJP members, but still a lot of discussions were going on.

Me: (To Mr. D. Raja) Sir, what do you think could be the implications of the 123 Agreement?
D. Raja: US is trying to fool India. 123 Agreement says US must meet the Hyde Act provisions. Hyde Act is way to ‘hide’ many details from us, which will be a danger to our country.
Me: But, Nuclear energy will help improve India’s power generation….
D. Raja: Develop power with coal. That is what we have been doing…
Me: But Sir, Coal based power generation contributes to Global Warming…
Raja: What is global warming? Is it a new agreement between India and US…

Ultimately I happened to meet the man behind everything, Dr. Manmohan Singh.

Me: Sir, What do you think could be the final outcome of this agreement? Are you confident to convince Left and the opposition?
Manmohan: We are sure that 123 Agreement is good for India. But for us being in power is also important. How can we strain our ties with Left? It is like a suicide.
Me: If you are sure that 123 Agreement is good for our country, why don’t you proceed with it.
Manmohan: We staying in power is first priority. Then the priority of the nation comes… Only if we stay in power we can server our country nah…

As I was coming out, I happened to meet Mr. Prakash Karat. He was very serious about something. I could hear only a few words uttered by him. “India can attend IAEA meeting coming up, but nobody should speak the word ‘Safeguards’. If that is the case, then we will withdraw support from the Government…”. So the committee, which goes to attend the IAEA meeting must ’safeguard’ themselves, by making sure that nobody uses the word ’safeguard’ in any of the meetings.
Now the country is witnessing the drawbacks of the Coalition Government!!

A cute add on for Mozilla Firefox, this enables you to post entries to your blog without opening a tab or logging in to your blog every time. (I am trying it on my Wordpress blog.  In fact, this post is written using ScribeFire). This addon creates a tiny little icon at the status bar, which toggles the blog post editor.  A rich editor gives you all the features that Wordpress offers. 

Try this add on.  I believe it is good

Scribefire

Powered by ScribeFire.

Sanjay released

I begin to wonder about the media coverage of Sanjay Dutt’s conviction and 6 years imprisonment verdict that followed.  The whole thing seems like a movie, with Sanjay Dutt in the lead role.   For a movie hero like Sanjay Dutt, real life is no different from his movies - “The Hero ends up happy”.  Just because a person has so much of money invested on his behalf, he can be bailed out even if the crime is proved.  A wrong precedent set here!  As I said in one of my earlier posts, Sanjay Dutt should have accepted the verdict with honor and be imprisoned for 6 years.  That would have made him a Hero to remember!

A person cannot stop speaking lies.  I might sound weird, but this is true.  Just imagine, one fine day, the human brain (of all humans in this world) unlearns to lie.  What would be the consequences?

You cannot bluff something to your wife when you go home late.  If you were up to something and your wife did not like it, you will have a tussle.  Tussle leads to a fight and that makes both of you unhappy.

One cannot lie to the traffic cop, regarding the registration of his vehicle.  Finally, he/she will end up paying money.

Politicians cannot give promises.  Since most of the promises are hypothetical and from imaginary world, they will have a tough time.  I think, unlearning to lie will hit them the most.

Salesmen will have a nightmare.  In my opinion, there is a 10% minimum average of lie in the selling strategy.  They can say no more lies and their sales will be hit.

You can say no more lies to your manager regarding slipped schedules.  When you give out the exact reasons for your slippage, like blogging, browsing, gossips etc., you stand the danger of losing your job.

Ultimately you can see, a person cannot stop speaking lies.  Underlying premise is that, lies cannot be undone with, unless the circumstances which require you to lie are gone.  So as long you have circumstances to lie, you cannot help but to speak lies.  Since these circumstances are not solely created by us but by others, we cannot stop speaking lies unless others stop creating the circumstances.  This is absolutely impossible!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ad357O6hgOM]

Just yesterday I was thinking about uploading a couple of my favorite scenes to Youtube.  But I was pleasantly surprised to find it already there
God reaches people through love.  Those who love and care for others, are direct messenger of God.   A very strong message!  I simply love this movie

Translation in English

1031
Howe’er they roam, the world must follow still the plougher’s team;
Though toilsome, culture of the ground as noblest toil esteem.
Agriculture, though laborious, is the most excellent (form of labour); for people, though they go about
(in search of various employments), have at last to resort to the farmer.

1032
The ploughers are the linch-pin of the world; they bear
Them up who other works perform, too weak its toils to share.
Agriculturists are (as it were) the linch-pin of the world for they support all other workers who
cannot till the soil.

1033
Who ploughing eat their food, they truly live:
The rest to others bend subservient, eating what they give.
They alone live who live by agriculture; all others lead a cringing, dependent life.

1034
O’er many a land they ‘ll see their monarch reign,
Whose fields are shaded by the waving grain.
Patriotic farmers desire to bring all other states under the control of their own king.

1035
They nothing ask from others, but to askers give,
Who raise with their own hands the food on which they live.
Those whose nature is to live by manual labour will never beg but give something to those who beg.

1036
For those who ‘ve left what all men love no place is found,
When they with folded hands remain who till the ground.
If the farmer’s hands are slackened, even the ascetic state will fail.

1037
Reduce your soil to that dry state, When ounce is quarter-ounce’s weight;
Without one handful of manure, Abundant crops you thus secure.
If the land is dried so as to reduce one ounce of earth to a quarter, it will grow plentifully even without
a handful of manure.

1038
To cast manure is better than to plough;
Weed well; to guard is more than watering now
Manuring is better than ploughing; after weeding, watching is better than watering (it).

1039
When master from the field aloof hath stood;
Then land will sulk, like wife in angry mood.
If the owner does not (personally) attend to his cultivation, his land will behave like an angry wife
and yield him no pleasure.

1040
The earth, that kindly dame, will laugh to see,
Men seated idle pleading poverty.
The maiden, Earth, will laugh at the sight of those who plead poverty and lead an idle life.

Tamil Kural Courtesy: http://www.cs.utk.edu/~siddhart/thirukkural/

English Translation Courtesy:  ThirukkuraL English Translation & Commentary Translated by Rev.G.U.Pope

Yesterday, I had no better work than to watch the special programs in Sun TV. There was something which really bothered me and ultimately made me write this post.

I think there was a piece which was running every 30 minutes. I believe, it was sponsored by Airtel. The piece was nothing but our Indian National Anthem sung by various eminent singers of India (one singer every half hour) and also played by some wonderful musicians. I really respect each one of them and sure, I would not hesitate to listen to them, again and again. Also I respect the patriotism of Airtel, in creating this piece. But what was not in good taste, according to me, was the National Anthem being used for this. I am a firm believer that National Anthem has some specific occasions for itself and cannot be used as a ‘just-like-that’ song, to show our patriotism. I would have enjoyed it much better, if some other patriotic song, like ‘Vande Mataram’ had been used.

I had 3 options whenever the piece was played on television:

1) Change the channel or mute the TV - This amounts to insulting the National Anthem

2) Leave the place or remain sitting on the couch - This too amounts to insult

3) Stand up every time the National Anthem is played and pay due respect.

Ultimately I had to choose the 3rd option and pay respect to the Anthem, for about 15 times.

What a wonderful feeling! I feel a great sense of patriotism when writing this post. It is very hard to imagine, how it would be, if India was still under the British rule. My hearty honors to those who has given up their pleasures and also their lives, to make us feel the fresh air. We should take this day as an opportunity to remember and thank these great men, whom the Indians can never afford to forget.

Today, India is the 12th largest economy at the market exchange rates. India is proud to be home for a large share of knowledge based workforce in the world. If the ‘123′ agreement goes through, without hurdles from Left, NDA & UNPA and also without compromises to the Indian sovereignty, it will be yet another milestone in Indian history. It will help in a great paradigm shift - from ‘coal-based’ electricity production to ‘nuclear-based’ electricity production.

I see the oath for this Independence day must be - INCREASING INDIA’S CONTRIBUTION TO REDUCE GLOBAL WARMING

Global warming is truly a global phenomenon. High green house gas emissions from a country, not only affects its own people, but also the entire world in the long run. I strongly feel, Indians with their commitment and sociological thinking, must lead the world by example, in reducing global warming. Some people ask me, how can my contribution matter to a global phenomenon? How does some steps taken by me, help reduce global warming? Then it reminds me of this story.

A traveller was walking along a beach when he saw a woman scooping up starfish off the sand and tossing them into the waves. Curious, he asked her what she was doing. The woman replied “When the tide goes out it leaves these starfish stranded on the beach. They will dry up and die before the tide comes back in, so I am throwing them back into the sea where they can live.”

The traveller then asked her “But this beach is miles long and there are hundreds of stranded starfish, many will die before you reach them - do you really think throwing back a few starfish is really going to make a difference?”

The woman picked up a starfish and looked at it, then she threw it into the waves. “It makes a difference to this one” she said.

We must use this analogy to the phenomenon of Global Warming and try to do at least a bit, to help the cause. I think the major action we literates can take, is to create awareness among the public.  First, it should start from our family!

Let us take an oath on this wonderful occasion, to DO OUR BEST TO REDUCE GLOBAL WARMING AND LEAD THE WORLD BY EXAMPLE!

Some pointers on what can we do to reduce global warming!