Movie 3 Idiots review - A different movie from what was sold

It was called the most awaited movie of the year. And why? Amir Khan was at work. Everyone knows him as perfectionist. In last ten years he had acted brilliantly in almost each movie. When the movie is said to be based on the best selling novel, Five point someone, it was deemed to be good. Except when I saw this movie I was disappointed and I am going to tell you why. Many of you might not agree with me, you can leave your comments below.

The fundamental problem of the film was that the director did not know how to tell a story - a story that is different from Munnabhai. Movie was supposed to be a attack, criticism, of the Indian education system needed to be realistic when it was dealing with a real subject. This did not happen even in the first scene. Madhavan aka Farhan Quereshi stopped flight by enacting a heart attack. Is it real? This scene needed? Answer to both the questions is NO. No engineering graduate, in fact anyone with sensible head, would do anything like. And if does, airlines and other security authorities would arrest immediately for the damage or as a suspected terrorist. Second, why this all needed? Why Farhan had to behave like circuit of Munnabhai? Why not show a simple scene where Farhan was in the queue and he got the call and rest of the thing follows. or something else but more realistic and pragmatic. A scene should tell the story. Story need not be told by shouting at full volume.

Where does the movie criticize the education system? Movie was all about criticizing a professor ViruS, Boman Irani. He was the villain in the movie. All the evils, suicides were happening because of him. What was the message in this scene where a student commit suicide? It was not the system that does not extension to project submission rather a professor. In any university there are deadlines, if someone misses the deadline, there is no chance of getting degree in time. It is as simple as that.

On contrary, I found that the system was shown as functioning very well. Rancho was forced to leave the classes and all the time thinking different from the university system was getting the highest marks. A student, Chatur Ramalingham, who was relying on the bookish knowledge was punished and came second. This simply indicates there was no fault in the system. It was the lazy students, who were offering extra prayers and milk to God, who were getting less marks.

The whole problem of the current education system is that is suppresses holistic development of the students and make them machine who cannot imagine but only reproduce. In the movie it was opposite. Rancho who was having fun was rewarded by university as well.

The most disturbing and disgusting scene of the movie was the baby delivery by a vacuum cleaner. Where on earth, vacuum cleaner can be used for this purpose? It is a dirty non-hygienic thing. How can someone think of pushing the vacuum cleaner's pipe in a pregnant woman's private part? Is this laughable? Definitely not. Woman are not a machine. Baby delivery is neither fun nor so easy as they showed. Director should watch "Nine month" movie to learn how to show delivery scene with humor. India, a country full of superstitions and mad men, cannot afford if someone learn baby delivery from this movie and tries something similar. Will they take any responsibility for that?

Indian engineering colleges are already suffering from the ragging. There have been suicide in the colleges. This movie was glorifying ragging. Movie should have shown how the new students feel terrified and psychological pressure rather than so many students with their trousers down and Amir Khan acting as a Hero. It should have been shown as a bad thing rather than a fun. Movie failed to raise any awareness about ragging.

Biggest disappointment was Amir Khan himself in this movie. I admired him in Lagaan, Rang de basanti, Tare Zameen par because he allowed everyone to play their roles. He was one of the artists in the movie and the artist in the movie. This movie was about one guy only. Farhan and Raju were behaving like gays. One stopped the plane and the other was without his trouser on the street to meet their friend Rancho. I am sure even gay would not behave like this crazy.

It was an average entertainer with all the scenes copied from Munnabhai - part 3 and less humor. One should not watch this movie with great expectation because it fails on almost pre-release marketing promises.

Will court allow a woman to die?

People all over the world are still busy fighting for the right to life, life with dignity. But some people can think beyond that. They are fighting for the right to death, Euthanasia. Social activist Pinki Virani is one of them. She has taken the fight for death of Aruna who is in hospital for last 36 years. She was assaulted and attacked by a fellow worker in the same hospital where she is admitted now. She has no one to visit her. She cannot feed herself, she cannot understand anything or react. She is no human being. She is a dead body and should not be fed meshed vegetable and let die. That is what the petition says to Supreme court of India.

Is it not a contradiction in itself? When she is no human being, a dead body, then why she should have right to die? Dead bodies do not have right. Who we are to decide who should live and not? In any country of the world this topic has not been yet decided. In fact, it is not discussed widely. On one hand we, the educated people, messiah of the world, applaud movies like Tare Zameen Par and Paa because it is about the people who have some sort of disability. They are not normal, as we consider normal. They need support. One other hand if someone, who is not in coma, but cannot led life like us, we want to kill. Why we have mental hospitals then? Many people with mental disorders cannot led their life as "normal". Just kill them or use more posh language, provide them euthanasia facility.

I believe there are so many other issue (of life) India is suffering from that we can concentrate on them and make life better for the people (including disabled) than kill them. There are very few people in the world who demand euthanasia for themselves. People are suffering from something so wants to run away as the world cannot provide them cure. Farmers commit suicide because they do not have money, rather than using their right-to-die. We do not need to fight for the farmers to have right-to-die we should concentrate our energy on issue that can bring the farmers out of poverty and do not commit suicide.

Telangana Hero or luck by chance

Media has undoubtedly become the most powerful instrument in achieving one's target. This has been proved by recent Die-Unto-Death fast of Mr. K Chandrasekhar Rao. He formed a party seeking the opportunity that there was no one actively supporting the cause of Telangana statehood however without gaining any significant success on the ballot box. He joined NDA in 2009 general election assuming that NDA will come to power this time when the lost, KCR found himself neglected, marginalized.

He decided to go on fast. He knew in Indian history only two people have died of hunger strikes. He was sure that he, an MP, though not important in forming government but having enough support, would not be allowed to die of hunger strike. It was planned. Well, many of the fasts are planned so it was not unusual. What is unusual is the success of his fast. A fast for only eleven days gave him, or the people of Telangana, assurance that they will have their separate state. The kind of support he got for his fast was unprecedented. If he really had such a huge support then why his party won only two seats in general elections 2009? If he was Telangana Hero he could have wiped out all other parties from Telangana region. It did not happen.

Success of his fast lies in two factors. First, there was no effective government in Andhra. After the unfortunate death of YSR, Andhra Congress, ruling party in the state is divided and many of them were not supporting the K Rosaiah as chief minister of the state. In fact, he himself must feel obliged to the central congress leadership for the post. He has been a politician for so long in the state, he must know that if the situation not handled properly, it might become law and order situation. But he did, could, not stop this. He failed and KCR become too big for him to touch after a few days.

Second is the media. Media supported KCR immensely. He became darling of the media. All the day, 24X7, media was projecting his pictures. People and students, who already feel they are discriminated against Telugu people, only need little ignition to turn state into fire zone. That is what happened.

Fast in itself is useless if the other party is not weak or ready to listen. That is what happening with Irom Sharmila. She is never shown on any national TV or even regional TV channels. She is fasting for last nine years and no one listen to her because Manipur is a tiny Indian state. It is not important for national politics. It does not give many MPs, why care? Is this how a democracy is suppose to run? There are question marks, only time will answer if non-violence is always effective tool. or there will be one Jatindra Nath Das or Potti Sreeramulu.

Switch to XP from fedora

Last week I spent my all free time in installing Microsoft XP service pack 2. I thought it should be easy task and should not take more than three to four hours in whole installation (including all drivers and software I need for my work). But I was wrong. I spent hours in pressing F12, F2 and Fwhatevernumber to enter the boot menu and change setting to factory default so that the machine can boot from CD and I can install XP. This was the beginning of my long struggle.

After searching some forums and online tutorials, I became quite knowledgeable. I felt enlightened. I came to know "grub loader", how to add windows to grub loader. I added a couple of lines into the "grub.conf" file but no success yet. I will still get black screen after I pressing any key when the windows asks me press any key. "Windows is inspecting hardware configuration for installation". My question was so what? Let me please install XP over Fedora. I was ready to lose all data as I had already copied everything to external hard drive.

I also came to know that I should change the ext3 format to ntfs, repartition and make free space for XP. My system will not ready to listen to me. Fedora takes first 512 bits to start the loader so I was suggested to write 00000 manually so that there is no loader. I believe I did everything possible to reinstall XP over Fedora but I lost. I surrendered.

In the end, I downloaded ubuntu9.1 and install this over Fedora. Surprising Fedora let me installed Ubuntu. And the next step was to install XP over ubuntu. I got the fabulous blue screen. Hmm.. and I was ready to install XP.

To cut long story short. Get rid of Fedora first by installing ubuntu and than install XP. It works smoothly and takes less than half a day in whole setup.

Hope you enjoy your XP experience.

Will you join me in 10 10 campaign?

I am generally not very optimistic about campaign and summits but the Copenhagen's climate change meeting next months is something that I am looking forward to. I am ask to address the world leaders in the conference and I will make a strong pitch how India is doing its best in fighting against the climate change? How India, the government from local to regional to central level, never think about providing public transport at affordable price and millions of people from villages commute to town on highly inefficient jugadus (See picture below)?

I was kidding. There is nothing like this. I am not fortunate enough, if it is considered so, to address the world leaders. What I am excited about is that I have come to understand or I am convinced that these meetings and these leaders will not or cannot do anything other than having good champagne and nice sea food for dinner. They will give one or the other excuse for not pledging to reduce carbon emission in a realistic time frame. They will pledge to reduce 10 or 20% by 2050 by that time many of us will be dead or near to death. No one will remember this pledge and glaciers will continue to melt if any of them will be left by then. So it is hopeless to expect anything from these meetings.

If we want to make any real difference then we need to do something at personal level or technically speaking as economist prefers to say micro level. Ultimately to a large extent we, each or most of us, are responsible for the level carbon emission or global warming. China does not want to produce millions of plastic chairs and other things and fire crackers and cheap clothes if we are not going mad to buy them. We can not and it is not pragmatic to go and protest against a petrochemical factory in New Mexico or steel production plant in Shenzhen. We can do a little bit sitting at home and in our everyday life to save some energy and ultimately help in reducing carbon emission.

I am highlighting some, none of them is my original idea but reminding myself and my audiences, of them here. We can switch off the electric equipment while we are not using. I have started switching off my computer (rather than hibernating) and the router and modem as well. I am not sure how much energy it saves but definitely millions of us start doing this it will be significant to quote! Why not take your bag or not ask for a bag when we can manage without that. People go for to buy a quick lunch (sandwich or burger as American will call it and French fries or chips) and take a big plastic or paper bag and picks more than couple of tissue paper. Ask yourself do you really need those many even if they are free and Mc Donalds makes billions selling rubbish? you can come up with many more ideas. You and I will save some energy from now on. I am not sure if it will be 10% reduction of current consumption by the end of 2010 but lets target for that.

Amen.

Inside Lalgarh - Part 4 (final)

One of the best report by IBN live on Maoist affected or government ignored area Lalgarh



Previous

Inside Lalgarh - Part 3

One of the best report by IBN live on Maoist affected or government ignored area Lalgarh



Previous Next

Inside Lalgarh - Part 2

One of the best report by IBN live on Maoist affected or government ignored area Lalgarh



Previous Next

Inside Lalgarh - Part 1

One of the best report by IBN live on Maoist affected or government ignored area Lalgarh


Next

Why does MNS want to stop non-Marathi coming to Maharastra?

Maharashtra Nav Nirman Sena (MNS) has taken the cause of Marathi people. It is doing a good job, as all of us know, by beating common people from Bihar on streets to beating democratically elected SP leader Azmi in state Asseembly. It was not enough so it has taken even more serious things in its hands - they beat an IAF officer from Bihar. Why on earth this Mumbai (or if can be extended to Maharashtra) needs a Bihari IAF officer? Are there not enough Marathi IAF officers to defend Maharashtra? If the great son of Maharashtra Shivaji Maharaj can defend his motherland then why not current generation that goes to pubs on weekends and visit malls and enjoys materialist life can defend Mumbai itself. All the Non-Marathi IAF, RAPF, CRPF and CISF should be banned to enter Maharashtra. It is a welcome step for every Marathi that now MNS is trying to secure jobs in Indian railways and SBI. It has issued notices warnings to Indian railway board and SBI not to recruite non-Marathis for Maharastra posting. When Indian railway did not adhere to the MNS warning, MNS activist disrupt railway boards exam and had beaten the candidates.

All this sounds very good to the ear if you are Marathi and you feel that now the jobs will be secured to your kids and there will be prosperity in the state. Isn't it? And this might bring votes to fascist party like MNS but this is fundamentally wrong. None of the Marathi-pride supporters including MNS came to oppose the NSG commandos during Mumbai terrorist attacks. Did any one say that they did only Marathi commandos in Taj hotel? I doubt. Mumbai is rich and so it Pune. These cities have company head quarters and factories that generates lots of employment. How many of these companies will survive if these so called Marathi companies are not allowed to operate in Bihar (or now Jharkhand) and West Bengal? Every manufacturing company gets raw material (e.g. iron ore, coal, Aluminium etc) from other states. Can someone imagine TISCO in Mumbai with the mines in these so called BIMARU states? How long Tata Motors (now Tata Engineering) survive if it does not get almost free iron ore from Jamshedpur that happens to be in Jharkhand? If Bihari people who come to work in other states do not exist then who will travel? Marathi people do not travel that much anyway. Trains will be empty anyway, why railway will recruit Marathi people then?

Marathi pride might sound great but the greatness and the wealth in Mumbai does not come from Maharastra only. Directly as labourer or executives and indirectly by providing raw material other states are also contributing the development of Mumbai. People need to understand these basics and discard gunda parties like MNS and Shiv Sena. Of course it is difficult as these parties or should I call gangs have mussle power but people power will win over them if used properly and consistently to challenge them.

Pathetic pathology labs of India

I recently got the chance to visit one pathology lab in Moradabad. As it is obvious to everyone that these days pathology labs play crucial role in diagnosis of any disease or symptoms, one must pay lot of attention to way it is done. But my experience says something different.

My father had gone for an 'liquid profile' test to Dr G**g's pathology lab (It is near city bus stand, I do not want to name the doctor for the fear of defaming, if she has any, her) in Moradabad. It is one of the most popular lab and one must expect world class treatment when one is paying high fees of those stupid tests that one can do with a machine without having talent or expertise. They charge hundreds of rupees for these test. However it is doubtful that one can trust the result of these test after seeing the horrible site of the pathology lab.

As this particular lab is on the GT road one must expect lot of dust and sand roaming around the atmosphere and indeed it was the case. There is dust everywhere in India so what is wrong if it is near a pathology lab? In fact, nothing, as long as this dust not come freely into the lab. Unfortunately this was not the case. A so-called componder was taking blood sample from the veins of the patients just close to the half broken door and pouring that blood in an not-so-clean glass bottle, that was kept open in same dust for hours, as sample. Everything was open and this blood goes for test in the open. Only god knows what will be tested in the lab and if the results will show any resemblance to blood of patient or the dust.

If this was not enough to irritate one then you can notice the compounder working without using gloves and playing with the blood of one patient after another as he was chopping chickens in butcher shop. No doubt these compounders are not educated, in fact India does not have many educated nurses, but it is the responsibility of the doctor running the shop and ofcourse the state that allows patients on the mercy of these money-hungry doctors to train these people to understand basic safety procedures. When the doctor is charging hundreds of rupees per patient and printing thousands of reports each day (making lacs of rupees a day) then these poor fellows, compounders, who get 3-5000 a month have nothing to worry about. They know their boss, people call them doctor, need money more money or all the money if possible.

It is not the case that people are not paying for private services, they are, but what they are getting in return? These doctors are sucking blood in syringes and hard-earned money in their pockets without caring for anything. There are no regulations and no watch-dogs. Customers do not know or do not have any rights. They still live in feudal times. They treat these doctors as god, dhanavantri, incarnation however these are incarnation of Yama or some god of thugs. The people of India need to ask for better services otherwise they will keep paying for nothing in return.

Why a celebrity rapist need separate law

When last week Swiss authorities in Zurich arrested Mr. Roman Polanski on an arrest warrant that was pending for over three decades, a larger number of people came in to support him. It is understandable why Hollywood embracing him. He has directed some of the best movies for Hollywood and won many Oscars. But it became more than emotional support when Whoopi Goolberg said that Roman Polanski did not commit rape-rape. She was questioning the definition of rape at the first place. It is well documented that he forced a minor do drink alcohol and take drugs and finally raped her. He did not counter these charges himself. Though because of his money power and celebrity status he managed to reduce the charges to having sex with a minor which is not much less what he did.

Surprising he also got support from the French and Polish governments and their foreign officers have written to Hillery Clinton for his release. In fact French have never regarded him as rapist. He was given best treatment as a talented artist that he is but he is still a criminal. Though he might have not commited this crime again in his last three decades but does it make less criminal for the crime he committed. Actress Debra Winger, said it was a "three-decades-old case that is dead but for minor technicalities. We stand by him and await his release and his next masterpiece". Publicly his victim has pardoned him now and she does not want him to see into the jail. Are we going to use the argument when the victim has pardon than state has no role to punish the criminals? Doesn't it sound like Shariya law? Are we approaching there?

In contrast when Shiney Ahuja committed rape on his house made he got little public support. It is assumed the role of judges and the courts to punish or release someone from the alleged charges. At the first place, I find the system of pleading guilty and bargaining the charges ridiculous and then escaping the punishment of reduced charges is just criminal. If an ordinary citizen rapes a minor there is no way for him/her to escape the punishment and lead normal life even after the punishment period had passed. Mr. Roman Polanski has already lived over three decades of good life. He does not deserved any leniency now. He should also face charges of running away from court for three decades and put behind the bar for rest of his life.

IIT professor's hunger strike hurting IIT brand

1500 IIT teachers went on hunger strike on 24th September. On the face they are raising the issue on par pay scale with DRDO and ISRO. But it all seems about the money. I can see point here. Some of the faculty members who have started working after 1980s and particularly 1990s find that they left behind in the money earning process. They imagine themselves as Narayan Murthy and Azim Premjee. What hurts these teachers most is that the students are getting higher salary than them. Do they consider that these students are going for temporary jobs in a field, particularly IT and investment banking, that they might not like do spend their life in? Starting salaries might be good but the upper range rarely goes beyond Rs 20 lakhs in India. These students have to work on the projects that their company gets. There is no freedom as IIT professors have in research.

This hunger strikes projects the IITs as if the teachers are not paid at all. IIT teachers are not starving at all. They get many facilities those are not available to UGC professors. One of the benefit of joining IITs is that career graph moves very fast. One becomes professor from assistant professor in less than 10 years. In UGC it might take upto 20 years to become professor. Is this not a better deal than the UGC professors? There is very little publication by the UGC teachers. Does this mean they are lower grade researcher? Answer will be NO. The biggest problem for a UGC teacher is the facilities. They do not have access to high speed Internet. They do not have access to science journal and online members-only databases. IIT professors get access to all the resources by default.

There is no direct comparison between the IIT professors and a UGC professor. One should not try to make fool by discussing the basic salary only. NO UGC professor gets Rs 4 lakhs for research expenses every three year. It is weird and unfair to compare salaries. There is no dearth of new students trying to join IITs as professors on current pay scale. IITs selection criteria is so strict and far from practicality that only a few are able to join there. After spending 4-5 years in foreign countries a large number of students long to go back to India. They do not find an institute with decent research facilities so they decide to stay away. Very rarely I have seen a Phd student talking about lower pay in IITs as a cause of not joining there.

They need to realise that they are the best paid public servant in the country. Yes, public servant. IITs are funded by the government. If they can raise money for their operations then they can think of any salary as in corporate. They will be measured for their performance every quarter as is done corporate. If corporate life was so easy then a large number of teachers would have not come into teaching at the first place.

Face the reality. Teaching is a profession by choice and not compulsion.

Three language formula needs rethinking

Mr. Kapil Sibal has big agenda as Union HRD minister or he wants to remain in the news for one or the other reason. After scraping the compulsory 10th board exam, now he is taking dig at an old controversial issue. Issue of having one national language - Hindi. When he says that Hindi should be promoted throughout the country then he is not doing anything wrong or unconstitutional. Constitution of India says that the language - Hindi - should be promoted by the state but it never says that Hindi should be imposed on the people. But Mr. Sibal wants all schools in the country to teach Hindi.

A large number of 'elite' people have started supporting that there should be only one language in the country as it is in China, Italy, Germany and France etc. The argument goes further to get support from the economist. Single-language-supporters argue that single language will promote free movement of people and there will be more skilled workers will be available and the workers will have more opportunities in the country. Invariably this single language turns out to be English because it gives jobs to the 'elite' class in all the multinationals. But the argument of mobility is baseless as language is not the only hurdle why people do not go to different region in search of work. It is the connection with the culture, language, society that stops mobility. Will we tomorrow impose single-food-habit rule all over the country? Every one should eat Chai-samosa or idli-vada or vada pav only depending on what the HRD minister likes. It is complete non-sense.

What he has proposed or initiated is the three language formula that became part of 1968 national education policy. It was an compromised formula because it was difficult (or nearly impossible) to enforce Hindi all over India. The policy-makers came with this idea of three languages. The deal was that the Hindi-speaking people will also learn one other Indian language (preferably south Indian). It never happened. No one ever imagined that the students in Haryana studying Tamil or in Panjab studying Bodo or Khasi. It was thought that Hindi is the national language and superior to other languages so Hindi speaking people did not need to learn other Indian language. This arrogant attitude of hindi-speaking people has done more harm to Hindi proliferation than anything. South Indian states have become more adamant to introduce Hindi in their states.

In my opinion if there needs to be three languages then the first language needs to be mother tongue or as close to it as possible. It has been found that the mother tongue is the best for learning. Philippines has introduced mother-tongue based primary education in the country that is supported by UNESCO. Similar opinion is also building in Kenya. Second language should be from a pool of national languages. It is not possible to have all the languages in this option but it should cover as many as possible. It should be a mandatory course from class sixth (primary education) onwards. Now when there is no pressure to pass the class 10th board why not introduce third language at class 9th or 10th? This language can be any foreign language including English. Anyone who is not looking for international career does not necessarily need to study English anyway. Point is necessarily but if someone wants s/he can. And also most of the career starts after at least bachelors degree that gives good five years to master the language that is good enough to learn a language.

This formula gives freedom to learn whatever language students wants or like rather than forcing a language for dubious reason (national integration). We do not need to speak same language for national integration. A Tamil or Malyalam or Nagaland feels equally India as anyone speaking Hindi feels about. A same language speaking person can also be foreign agent, militant or molester. Language can not change one's character or feelings.

Congress' austerity drive is meaningless

A newspaper reported that one cabinet minister SM Krishna and his junior minister Shashi Tharoor were living in five star hotels. Congress high command that is promoting her slogan 'congress ka hath, aam aadmi ke sath' felt embarrassed to learn this (It is surprising that they did not know this for last 100 days until it was reported in media). Quickly, finance minister ordered them to vacate their five star life and stay in their respective state houses. Mr. Shashi Tharoor gave argument that the state house in the capital does not provide privacy and gym so he can not live there. Both of the ministers also argued that they were paying from their pocket for their luxurious life in hotels. It went unheard by the party high command.

Party took extreme steps and has asked all the minister to travel by economy class and let their 20% salary go to public fund. Both these measures are laughable. At the first place when the ministers or even MPs are allowed by the law (compensation approved by parliament) to travel first class in the train then why should they travel economy class? Second, will this really save any significant money for the exchequer? A large expense on the minister is their security. mayawati is using over 300 policemen round the clock for her security. Every minister carries a number of security cars and ambulance with their convoy wherever they go. It is also reported when Sonia Gandhi travelled economy class then a number of seated were kept vacant around her. This adds to the cost anyway. Where is the real saving? On top of this it creates more inconvenience for the common men. I will be afraid to travel from a station where a big politician is supposed to travel from. It is risky and also police will be too alert and check everyone and too much. Common men will not be allowed to walk freely. All in the name of security measures.

MPs do not have very high (direct) salaries in India. When the Congress party ask for 20% from their salary (will be less than Rs. 10,000) it is meager amount in comparison to total expenses on them. MPs or minister earns bigger amount by passing the contracts for their loyal people and relatives. That is where they earn multi-millions. Common people do not need to see what these leaders are doing in Delhi. They know their local MPs better. Forget about MP. If one becomes MLA then s/he become rich enough in five years. They have their new businesses and bigger houses. What can MP do (earn) it any one's guess. Except a few (like Mamta Benerjee and Narendra Modi), it is hard to believe from their lifestyle that politicians are earning from legitimate sources only.

But it not the politicians only, people of India also wants to see their politicians and leaders to lead superior life than themselves. People expect they have to queue for hours and the rich and politician will go through quickly. People do not protest. They accept and expect this discrimination. No one but they themselves can help them.

End of Jet Airways strike is a relieve for Air passengers

Unannounced (and probably unplanned) mass leave by the Jet airways pilots left thousands of passengers to face the problem. The pilots and the company management, both, had shown quite resistant before coming to compromise for the settlement. The pilots had done nothing wrong in forming or joining a pilot union but perhaps they do not need one. Pilots in India are highly paid (a large number of them in dollars) because of sudden and exponential growth of the airlines in the country. Pilots are scarce in India and all the companies need to recruit foreign pilots to satisfy the expansion plans.

Jet airways is already an international airline (with a substantial presence in domestic market though) and it has very high level of service standard. It is surprising that the management took too narrow view to block the pilots from forming the union. These pilots are already highly paid what else they can demand even if they have union? Whatever they want can still be discusses in an amicable way with the union. In united Kingdom, unions are helping the companies in reducing the wages and making extra staff redundant. If management genuinely try to do it best then union should not be much worry for the management.

On the other hand, there was no way for the pilots to get sympathy from anyone. They are highly paid so the labour ministry has no incentive to support them. At a time when the aviation industry worldwide is struggling with lower demand and recession every employee is supposed to help their organisation in performing better. But the pilots just went on mass leave. Jet airways has lost almost 200 crore rupees because of disruption of the services and even the biggest lost is the lost of the brand image and customer trust. The company is offering 50% discount on the flights for next five days to attract for customers but any customer who has suffered in last week will think twice before flying again with Jet airways.

Jet airways needs to work harder to regain the lost customer trust. If the customer service is good and flights are punctual then it will be easier to regain the lost trust. It is quite a uphill task and need lot of effort from the management, pilots and the ground staff.

Does India need (fake) encounters to deal with terrorists?

These days there is increasing focus on the encounters in different states. Public becomes very much outrageous when the news of encounter of MBA student in Dehradun comes or the report of fake (?) encounter of Ishrat Jahan becomes public. There are four different scenarios in any encounter that need to be understand before making any opinion otherwise the whole debate on encounter killing is meaningless.

There is encounter or fake encounter (staged operation) and there is a target. The target can be a dreaded terrorist or an innocent. Everyone agrees that any innocent should not be killed in any encounter (fake or genuine). What is debatable is whether police force should have power to kill a terrorist or any other anti-social element without trying to bring them before the court of law? Human right activist and some other civic value supporters want to abolish encounter at all. This is very ideal situation and is perfect when everything works as it should. But it is not pragmatic. When the criminal cases drags for years in the court and there is no hope of solving the cases in future either then how can one trust the court? It is not that the judiciary does not try to solve the cases but there is too much work in the courts and also the investigating agencies do not provide proper documents quickly. Even after 2o years case of Bofors bribery is not solved, one year has passed Indian government has not provided any concrete evidence against 26/11 terrorist, even daud ibrahim will get bail eventually because CBI will not be able to provide all evidence against him at the time. It took decades to find and kill sandal wood bandit Veerapan when he was not living far from habitat.

Should the police force let these well-known anti-social elements walk free on bail from court and let them continue there activities and wipe out the evidence against them and kill the witnesses or kill them in encounter even if it is fake? General consensus is police should be aloud to kill them as soon as they are captured. This consensus gives extra-ordinary power to police, directly, and politicians, indirectly. Many of the so-called encounter specialists have been convicted of extortion and working on behest of someone. And using this extra-ordinary power they have killed many innocent people sometime to please someone and sometime under pressure to solve some criminal cases quickly.

As the consensus supports existence of encounter, the misuse of this extra-ordinary power develops the need for proper and independent monitoring of these encounters. There is currently system in place for the enquiry after each encounter but it is not efficient and there are cover up to protect the fellow police officers. This needs to be abolished. Any police officer found guilty of encounter of innocent people should be punished without showing any leniency. When these police officers will be punished for the crime they commit, public faith will be restored in the police and encounter will become non-debatable issues.

Indian politicians and statue building need regulation

There is no simple answer as 'Yes' or 'No' to this issue, particularly when it is made an issue. In recent times, Mayawati has taken this cause of statue building very seriously. In india, or in any part of the world, statue building of their icons has been a tradition. So why are we so much concerned and worried about the public funds when Mayawati does this?

One of the arguments against anti-Mayawati statue fever is that she is using public funds for her personal statues and glorification. When so and so many people are dying of hunger, there is no electricity in villages, no roads and no education then how come she spends hundreds of crore on these memorials? In fact when the arguments is taken further then some of the intellectuals question even the purpose of building Shivaji Maharaj's memorial in sea-bed in Mumbai. Or by same logic statues of Nehru, Gandhi, YSR, Karunanidhi or any other politician.

This argument does not stand any logic. When farmers are dying or committing suicide then we have space program and building nuclear weapons. These are expensive programs. We spend hundreds of crore on military budget. If one things is not working properly then we can not cut budget for the other. If the farmers are committing suicide, it is because of the inefficiency in the public distribution system and other corruptions in the bureaucracy and not because of space program or statue of Shivaji Maharaj in Mumbai. We needs statues, we need memorials to conserve and show our heritage, culture and whatever political agenda.

But the biggest question is which way to go? In my opinion, there is a need to setup and independent and autonomous commission or authority to develop and enforce guidelines on such projects. There should be non-ambiguous criteria when and how much public fund can be spent on statue building or any other so-called cultural projects. The total budget for such projects should not ever exceed a prescribed percentage of the total budget of state or the center. And in any case it should not be more than the budget of ASI (Archaeological Survey of India) budget. ASI has bigger role and responsibility to play in India than these new projects.

Unless such regulations are in place politicians of every party will continue to exploit the loophole in the system and get cabinet's approval for any project. Even the court is helpless when there is no law to stop these projects. Building statues does not violet any current law. We first need law to make this statue building exercise auditable under some strict guidelines.

Making CBSE class 10 exam does not solve the core problem

Mr Kapil Sibal is minister and no one can stop him from doing what he wants to do because he has support from Indian PM who was educated in Oxford and would like to see similar education system as it exist in UK. The first casuality of determination is CBSE class 10 exams that are made optional now. His argument are that class 10 exams are irrelevant because no student is judged on the basis of class 10th marks for university entrance and it puts undue pressure on the students. It seems very logical argument. Why have exams for class 10 when no one care for the results? But the same logic how can be justify the exams for the class 12th. Are they still young for the pressure? Just a gap of 2 years do not make them extra mature to handle the pressure. Now how can, if a student wants to, a student change school after class 10? They will not have any credible report to show their worth. What will happen if a students fails in the internal grading because his/her teacher does not like him/her but pass the external optional exams with high grades?

I believe the major problem was not the exam in itself but the way they were conducted. This year almost 90% student cleared the exam. What is expected when the CBSE exam will become optional? Do we want 100% to pass through class 10? It might not happen because there will be some student who just can not pass any amount of liberty is given. At the same time who will take the liability of giving false hope to the parents of students in class 10. A large number of private school will pass 100% of their students to make students and parents happy. If in one such private school 90% students fail in class 12th then what will be do? Wouldn't it be counter-productive and more stressful for students and more suicide case? A brilliant student of class 10 failing terribly in class 12.

Not surprisingly these exams were not left of any significant in recent years. A large number of students get over 95% overall and even in subject like history and language. It is difficult to believe that the students were to brilliant that so many got such a high percentage. It was the papers were set and the classes were conducted during the whole year. Students were prepared for the exam questions only rather than their holistic development. There is huge difference in the infrastructure of some private school and poorly funded public schools. Teachers do not come to classes and weaving sweaters during the class hours have been common sight in public (government funded) school.

The honorable minister needs to tackle the problem of quality, accessibility, infrastructures and affordability otherwise only the students of elite class will continue to go to the best schools and reap the benefits whatever the format of grading is used.

Why don't they leave lion alone in the cage?

I was recently reading Telegraph newspaper and found something very silly. I do not understand what the purpose was to post this video. Though I appreciate that posted this video and we know how insensitive reporter telegraph has recruited. When the Lion are becoming extinct species then how come their reporter goes to disturb a lion living in a cage. Charles Starmer Smith entered the lion cage and he was attacked by the lion. If you see the video attached below you will find that the lion was very tolerate of his behavior but this reporter was adamant to get bites from the lion.

What he was trying to prove? When there is a big sign saying "stay away from the animals and do not touch them" then why he entered the cage. Of course the official in the sanctuary are also culprit why they allowed him in. But we know that corruption is widespread in poor developing countries. It is the responsibility of the educated and rich people not to exploit this weakness for their fun.

Telegraph newspaper is equally responsible to encourage reporters to do these adventure and pay them for these activities that encourages putting life in danger of the endangered species. The newspaper should make sure that its reporters do not exploit their status and money in future to any such activity.

Ban on Jaswant Singh's book was unnecessary and unwanted

As soon as the book by Jaswant Singh - Jinnah - India, Partition, Independence- came in the market it was banned by the Gujarat government. Though no one had (could) read the book in a day time when the order came from the CM office to ban the book but there is always issue why to ban a book. In some cases, it makes sense in the interest of public. For example, India banned Salman Russdie's book, Satanic verses but that was different case altogether. It is debatable if satanic verses would have really caused any harm to the public.

Time has also changed so banning a book in one state is not that effective any more. Ban by Gujarat government only said that publication, distribution and sale of the book was not allowed in the state. This did not and could not ban reading the booking in Gujarat. Anyone can buy from neighbouring state or online and read the book. How can state government stop this? It is out of its jurisdiction to stop people from reading whatever they like to. So it makes ban ineffective in current time.

Secondly, who was going to read the book anyway? If the book was not made controversial then there was possibility that a very few people would have read the book. Even after all this high drama, only a very few elite and intellectual class will read the book. This book is not going to be part of university curriculum in near future. As, some sources say that Modi was afraid that (allegedly) negative role of Patel described in the book might hurt his chances of winning in by-polls election. He is too paranoid after the parties poor performance in Lok Sabha election to ignore such small issues like a book. Masses are not going to read this book and make their judgement who to vote.

Finally, some relief has come from Gujarat high court that has lifted the ban on the book.

YSR Reddy legacy for Congress

It is one of the most unpleasant moment in the history of Andhra Pradesh that the most popular leader of current time has died in an accident. His popularity can be assessed from the fact that 67 people have committed suicide or died after hearing the news of terrible death of their leader. Now, his son has appealed to the public not to commit suicide and show patience and be brave. Definitely, he was popular and successful and he managed to reach this position single-handedly with his determination and hard work.

The congress party is projecting as if a national hero (leader) has died and the media is full of praise about what he did and how (well?) he managed the social welfare programs in the state. But behind all this, there is an bad face of YSR as well. He is also the one CM who put many journalist in Andhra who spoke against him. He gave little freedom to political rivals from opposition parties and even his own party. He was authoritarian and ran the show as in feudal system. He was linked with some of the business houses in making deals for his personal profit. The role of state government in changing the route for Hydrabad metro was criticised by Delhi metro chief Sreedharan. He had pointed out that the route was changed to appease the consortium and prime land was given cheap to the developers. His allegation makes much sense when seen in the light that Satyam chairman has accepted his fraud in Satyam accounts. Mr. Raju and his family was also led developer of the metro project. Undoubtedly Mr. Sreedharan was pointing the role of YSR, but implicitly, in this corruption. There are many cases of corruption against him.

Despite being one of the most corrupt chief minister, he was darling to the Congress party and particularly to Sonia Gandhi. It was not without reason. He was the man who could win majority of seats from the state for Congress party after three decades. He made possible for the party to come to center in 2004 by defeating Chandrababu Naidu. By showing remarkable performance in the state, he was able to get freedom from the high command to run his show in the state.

To win seats, he was using populist majors that gives immediate results. He gave pensions to the families of suicide victims, distributed BPL ration cards in massive numbers. But he failed to create any substantial infrastructure or industry that could provide jobs to the poor. A society can not be supported for ever by state funds. People need to work. That was missing. But perhaps if he had lived longer he could have worked on this direction as well. We did not get chance to see much of him.

May his soul rest in peace.

What is hidden behind 6.1% Indian GDP growth

Indian PM was happy man to see 6.1% GDP growth for the last quarter. He was even happier to know Indian government godown (warehouses) has 50 million tons of food that is good enough for 13 months of supply through PDS. Interestingly Indian newspapers also started gaga about the growth and started projecting if global recession is over. But there are many facts hidden behind these numbers.

Statistical data for export and import is released one day after the release of overall growth. Though India media, including the business newspapers, did not concentrate too much on this export-import data. One need to search foreign media to find the facts. BBC reports that Indian export has declined by 28% and import by 37% in the month of July. Though it is a known fact that Indian economy is not export-oriented but it gives employment to millions of people (yes, it a very small % of billion plus population) in cities like Surat and Bhathinda where handcraft work is done. These people will have to go back to their houses in the village. Many reports suggest that this is already happening. When there was 8% GDP growth the benefits never reached the poorest of poor people of the country (that means almost 40% population) and when the recession has hit the world, there will be more poor people. There is still no study but it might undone all the poverty uplift of last 10 years during economic boom.

On the other hand, one can not trust the government gowdons for food demand in the country. Officially they might have food for everyone but a large amount of food will not exist in the godowns or will be of poor quality. Why the officers and politician will not sell from the godown when they can sell and never get caught because they can always mix small stones in the food packets.

PM of India need to get in touch of the realities rather than making fancy policies and citing numbers.

Religious symbols in secular country - A case of India

Time and again this debate comes in modern Indian intellectual circles what place religious symbols have in a secular society? Our modern society is very much fascinated and inspired the secularism in France. We are increasingly opposing the display of religious symbols in the public places. Many a time it is believed that a section of society getting more favourable treatment while others are discriminated. Fundamental problem and confusion is created by forgetting the definition of Indian secularism and taking example of French secularism.

India has a completely different socio-cultural environment to France so the comparison is quite baseless. India is a country where a large number of Hindus (a majority by population) visit dargah and mosques in hope of getting divine blessings. Religion and faith does not come into the mind of these people. At the same time at many places, particularly Kashmir, a large number of Muslims help Hindus in their pilgrimage to holy shrines in Himalayas. Followers of different religion help each other in getting divine blessings. Everyone follows his/her religion but does not bother what the religion of other person is. But the point is that everyone is (or most of the people are) religious in some sense. Religion can not be, at least in near future, removed from Indian life.

When I grew up in a Muslim dominated town, I had seen Muslim women always wearing burqua but it never bothered me. If they came to our shop to buy something then we were not concern about their attire. For us, it has always been their choice. If they, by choice, want to wear burqua than what is wrong. Recently a case of a Muslim girl , Ayesha, made national headline when she was not allowed to attained college in burqua. How does it should matter to other students and the faculty if she comes in burqua. Burqua is not a Satan that will eat away everything that comes near it. It is just a piece of cloth. If someone does not like than that person has freedom not to be friend with this girl but there is no need for agigation or banning the burqua altogether.

Some people start questioning that the Hindu or the Sikhs are allowed to display their religious symbols than why not Muslims. Arguments and counter-arguments can go like that burqua (and beard) is not religious requirement but the sikh's turban is. It can go on and on. But the basic questions is why argue at the first place. France has ban all the religious symbols from all public places. People sitting in India gets excited and start demanding similar structure. But they forget that France is a pseudo-secular country that is suppressing its minorities in the name of secularism. If one look closely than one finds that a lot of christian symbols are allowed in France but nothing for other religions. For example, why there is Christmas and Easter holiday if it is secular country? Or then why not Id is national holiday in France? One can carry engagement or wedding ring everywhere in France. Is this ring system not very christian? May be at one time when Muslim population in France was really low, it did not matter much but now it is not fair. No one questions when a Jew rabbi roam around the street of Paris in sporting Jews cap or a catholic nun wear almost-burqua like dress but Muslim burqua is not welcome.

In India, religion has not been eradicated like China nor been tried to uniformalised as in France (though it is bias towards Christianity). Religion is part of life. Expecting that the symbols can be removed and a uniform society can be created in India is hugely hypothetical. India need to learn to bear and tolerate the difference. In fact, it has been part of Indian culture and society for so long. Why some of the intellectuals are trying to create a resistance between the different faiths by thinking homogeneous society. Some of the intellectuals suggest that religion is a bane in Indian progress but they forget that upto 3 centuries ago India commanded almost 25% of international trade and it was religious society even then. We need to learn from our own history rather than copying a model from others (France) that will not work in India.

If Ayesha want to bear burqua than let her bear. Do not need to show hatred but need to show genereousity.

Why IIT professors need more salary?

IIT professors took casual leave to protest against the snipped pay hike. It is democratic right for all the workers (employees) to protest peacefully if they are not happy with something, particularly salary. There is no problem in that. As being from engineering college they perhaps felt necessary to provide reason. But the logic behind their strike is little unreasonable.

First, some of them have compared their salaries to the professors at Harvard and MIT. No doubt professors at American universities get Rs 500,000 a month that is whopping amount when seen as such. But it needs to be talked in purchasing power terms. Purchasing power factor is almost 5 for India and America. So the amount professors earned in America is equivalent to Rs 100,000 when this factor is taken into account. As reported in the media and can be calculated from the IITs recruitment websites that a professor of IIT gets almost Rs 50,000. Does this really look so less as made by the professors and the media?

Second, some of the professors have given interviews to the media that they left some lucrative offers at Stanford and other US universities to come to India. Well, it is good that they decided to come, teach and research in India but what else they expect? They have not done any personal favour to anyone or the country at large. Expect a few, most of them come back because they did/could not fit into the US or any other society. They miss their home and parents. They want their kids to grow up in India with Indian "traditional" values.

Third, they get the best possible facilities in India for research in comparison to any other university. Not only they have freedom to do research whatever they want to but also they get all the resources, including the best brain of India to work for them. For a career in academic what else one needs? They get almost free on-campus accommodation with electricity and water supply for 24 hours. Their kids have Kandriya Vidyalaya in campus. They live a life free of many day-to-day hassle that an ordinary citizen of India faces. And after all they get respect from the society and the government for being a teacher of repute in an institute of excellence.

IIT professors are asking for scholastic payment of Rs 15,000 per month. Their argument is that spend six years in doing a Phd on their subject. They lost the opportunity to earn in those years so they need to /should be compensated for the lost opportunity. Is it a joke? Any professor teaching in a smaller university also spends six years for doing Phd and they do not even get scholarship during those years but they do not get any benefits for the lost opportunity. They why the IIT professors should get? They should be equal in terms of direct compensation from the government.

One should not forget that the IITs are government institutes and run on government funding. MIT, Harvard and Stanford are private institutes. They have different objectives. Neither IIT professors should compare themselves with their students who get offer of Rs 9 lacs in their forth year. Many of these professors are from IITs and they had chance to accept these corporate offers but they choose to spend life in academic. This is life they have chosen and imposed on them. If they are not happy they are welcome to join corporates and work for 60 hours a week on subjects that the companies like them to work and lose their freedom to do research. It is a balancing act. One can not get everything in one life.

Delhi Mumbai among the least expensive cities in the world?

This very exciting news has come in almost every newspapers (The Hindu, Indian express,) in the country. It is a refreshing news in a time of recession and when the commodity prices are shooting up. We, people living in the metros, can at least feel that we are living in the least expensive city in the world. But if you ask anyone in these cities they will tell you that this is not true. So, where is the mistake? I tried to find the answer for this and explain in next paragraphs.
First thing that should strike in any statistics based analysis is that what the parameters chosen for the data collection and how they are analysed. As the reports says that the basket for this analysis has been selected based on the western European consumer preferences then the same basket, with little variations, has been used through out the world cities. It is a questionable assumption and the whole analysis will be altered if this is challenged. This report has given only 14% for the food and groceries and 15% for the transportation. How many of the Indian in these cities spend more money on the transport and less on food? It is true for the western Europe but not for the Indian cities. People living in these cities spend money on the transport but the weightage given to these items do not reflect the regional realities.

If one looks at the other table, net and gross wages, then it is clear that the Indian workers are the least paid among the 73 cities selected for the survey. This is also reflect in the domestic purchasing power for these cities. Most of the Asian cities, Indian cities are on the bottom, can buy only upto 5.5 of the basket while people in European cities can buy 13 standard baskets. In North America and Sydney this ratio is 16 times. So they can by 2-3 times than the average worker in Indian metro. Is this is still really cheap to live in Delhi and Mumbai?

Other problem with the survey is that the price comparison should be done for the same commodities. For example, when one travel in a local train in Geneva or Zurich then the quality of the train and the speed and overall experience is not comparable to the local in Mumbai.Other example is of the accommodation. Whatever one pays, quality of accommodation in Indian metros is worse than in western European cities. So even if one pays less for the service, the services is not the same. So ideally these can not be compared. Same products are like 8GB ipod. But how many people in Indian metros can really afford this gadget? These things are, to some extent, reflected in the Human Development Index of UN report where Indian cities perform badly.

This report can give good indication to compare western European cities but to extend beyond that is meaning less. So no hype. It conveys no sense to any sensible person.

Dawn of intellectual darkness in Indian politics

India is a world's largest democracy but unfortunately her political parties are not. For most of the time after independence, India has been rules under one party - Indian national congress. Charismatic leader Pt. Nehru and autocratic leader Indira Gandhi never allowed much space within the party for any discussion. This was one of the reason that many of the leaders came out of the Congress to form their own parties. It was a good step. It gave room to evolve thoughts. Implementation Mandal commission report by VP Singh was an example of this free system. He wanted to implement genuinely for the benefit of the lower caste people or not can be debated but the very act of implementing the recommendations was not something that might have come out from one party.

But sadly enough, all the parties those were supposed to be place of discussion and thoughts have become the same leader-founder based parties. Whether it is Mulayam Singh's Samajwadi Party or Mayawati's BSP. There is no discussion. BJP was and still to large extent a party in India that has no charismatic leader anymore. Its founder members led the party for decades but they gave enough opportunity to the other leaders to grow and debate on many topics. Leaders could get more opportunity based on their abilities and potential. This was remarkable departure from rest of the parties and a hope for the political leaders to have their own space. But it seems that BJP is also changing its tolerance for having different views and expressing them.

As it is made out in the case of Jaswant Singh. He has been expelled from the party he was part of since its inception. Only argument given against him is that he has written a book that does not subscribe the the views/believes of the party. First of all, most, if not all, of the leaders of the party who took decision to expel him have not read the book. They might in best case have seen the interview of Jaswant Singh before the book release. Making a decision, as harsh as, to expel someone without giving a showcase notice needs more interrogation. Even if in the book, Jaswant Singh said that Nehru, Gandhi and Patel were equally responsible for the partition of the country then whats wrong? He is not claiming that he is right. It is his perspective and he has analyse the events of pre-independence based on his research and abilities. He might be wrong. So what. Party is out of power. Its leader should have freedom to think and introspect on various topics. Otherwise how the knowledge will grow? Or the party thinks that they have gained enough knowledge they need to run a party and the country if they come power.

This harsh and unfortunate step will discourage other leaders to speak out their different opinion. It might be difficult to bear criticism from within the party but it also gives opportunity to correct one before other parties take advantage of the weakness/mistake. Learning can happen only in an environment that encourages debate, dialogue and allow space for difference. Yes, everyone needs to agree on some core/fundamental issue to move together. But, definitely one should have freedom to pursue one's academic interest and write books. We always criticise when a movie is banned in one state for some reasons under the pressure from some extremists and now how can this be supported? Gujrat government has banned the book, Jinnah: India, Partition, Independence. Though it is symbolic because people can buy from other sates and of course online but it is a big move to show the inwards and conservative attitude of today's politics in India.

This controversy will have an impact on Indian politics that will be far reaching and we can say it the dawn of intellectual darkness in politics.