Repubic Day greetings

Warmest greeting to all my fellow countrymen on the occasion of the 60th Republic Day

Its been 59 years since we have adopted this constitution whose preamble is as follows

WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly
resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN
SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and
to secure to all its citizens:

JUSTICE, social, economic and political;

LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and
worship;

EQUALITY of status and of opportunity;

and to promote among them all

FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual
and the unity and integrity of the Nation;

Now, coming to think of it, have we, the people of India, been able to secure Justice, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity to all fellow citizens of India? Where have we failed? What are the lessons that we need to learn going further?

Its time we all think about these questions, find the answers and act, and act swiftly, in the right direction so that these questions don't continue to linger in people's mind another 60 years down the line...

AID conference - 2 days well spent

In the middle of last week, a friend of mine asked me for the route to Benson Road. The place she had asked for was Indian Social Institute and it was the venue for the 11th AID(Association for India's Development) conference scheduled for 26th, 27th and 28th december. There were a few talks scheduled as part of the conference and I decided to attend the talks as I had pretty much nothing else to do.

The first topic was about agriculture and food security. 3 people spoke about the various challenges and probable solutions for agriculture in India. A lady spoke about GM crops and their possible unknown effects on humans , where in I also came to know about this "I am no lab rat" campaign. Also, another gentleman spoke about organic farming and how a co-operative movement has been started for direct produceer-consumer interaction. Also, another speaker told us about AID's work in agriculture in various regions of the country based on the type of water source, the type of soil etc. The next topic was on women's rights. This was more a kind of discussion and what I found really interesting in this was that there were delegates from various parts of the country and I got to know their take on this topic(most interesting being that dowry in a non-cash form could actually be good). Also touched upon was the topic of women panchayat members forming a group, discussing various issues and getting the work done whcih was a healthy change from something I had known earlier where men who were panchayat members would get their wives/daughters elected when their constituency was declared reserved for women and then rule in proxy. The third topic of the day was Copyrights. The speaker, a lawyer(I guess he's chinese and has settled down here), made a really good presentation on what copyrights, trademarks, piracy etc are all about and also touched a bit upon free software, GPL etc. Also there was a small presentation by a community computer centre which uses free/opensource softwares and Richard M Stallman had visited them recently(yes.. you have read it right). The last topic of the day was related to climate change. A representative from Greenpeace made a presentation on how we are, led by the highly industrialised countries, are screwing up nature and how ill prepared we are for facing the back lash. From an individual prospective, I believe that though it is for everyone to reduce carbon content pollution, its for the developed and highly industrialised nations to take the lead. We were also shown a video about the unfortunate disparity with respect to the scarcity of water in rural areas and the way it wasted in water theme parks and in clubs/resorts where people dance shamelessly under falling water(It's rain dance.. I was informed). This ended my day at the conference.

The next day(my second day there and the 3rd day of the conference) was supposed to be a short one. It started with a talk on communalism and terrorism by a prof from CSCS, Bangalore. He touched upon various issues, but one thing that struck me was that we need to understand the 'psyche of the other'. Again I found out what the people from various parts of the country(especially Bihar and TN) think about this topic. The discussion went on and continued on the other side of the lunch break. This was followed by a presentation done by an organisation called 5TH PILLAR which is fighting corruption. It was again a good presentation where the organisation showcased some of its success stories. I probably would be contacting them again to gain a good understanding on how to draft a RTI petition. The day ended with a demonstration of a solar powered LED lamp which could be very useful in villages where power cuts are rampant or there is no electricity at all. That ended my day at the conference and I left the venue thanking my friend for getting me there and satisfied that the two days were well spent.

Jaagore

A dear friend of mine sent me a mail today morning about the TATA tea's JAAGORE campaign. As, I was telling her that I have been voting eversince I turned 18 and that just voting is not enough, we also need to keep in touch with our elected representitives to make sure they do the work we have elected them for, I saw this news that 8 bills had been passed in the LokSabha in 17 minutes yesterday(which was the last day for this session)

I am stunned, to say the least. 8 bills be passed in 17 minutes? which means that each bill got an average time of just over a couple of minutes to be tabled, debated and voted. I also read that the parliament sessions were only held for 46 days this year. These guys, whom we elect and send to the parliament in an exercise which costs hundreds of crores of rupees, have made a mockery out of parliamentary democracy, made us, citizens who elect them, look like complete idiots and still have the guts to come on TV interviews and blame all others for that.

I think its now time for a JAAGORE campaign not only to awaken the citizens to vote, but also our parliamentary system, which seems to be in deep slumber, and make sure it works as it is supposed to, each and every rupee(collected from honest tax payers) is properly used. Its time for us to really wake up.. Jaagore India Jaago.

Dear CM, reduce sales tax on petroleum

The prices of petrol, diesel and LPG have again been raised. While this unpopular move by the union government is being protested by the communists(that's the only thing they know) and the principal opposition party, BJP(looks like they think, opposition means to oppose everything), I am, like many other well informed people in the country, with the government this time. You just cannot subsidize petroleum to consumers and compensate the oil companies with oil bonds, especially when the oil companies do not have enough liquidity to buy crude oil from international market six months from now.

Now, will this move not hurt the common man, definitely it will and so the government should take steps to minimize the impact. This time, by government, I mean the ones at the states. Most of the governments have levied sales tax on petroleum products to the tune of 25-30%. Now, without taking into account other tax components, an increase of Rs 5 on petrol with 25% sales tax on its basic price will result in an effective increase of Rs. 5.61. Now this extra Rs 0.61 will go to the coffers of the state government. When the union government increased the prices to help out the oil companies, why should that result in increased sales tax collection. So, I believe that the state governments should, instead of blaming the centre for everything, get its act together and decrease the taxes so as to reduce the extra burden on the people.

So, Dear Chief Minister, can we have a moderate reduction in sales tax on petroleum??????

PS: While I wrote all this, the people whom I admire the least, the communists have reduced the sales tax in West Bengal and Kerala. Well done comrades, way to go. Other governments will do well to follow suit.

Om Shanti Om

Its been an eventful Deepavali this time around for, I did something late in the evening that, I had never done before and, left to me, would never do again. That's watching a movie on a thursday evening before it actually releases the next day!!!!!

Let me tell you how it all happened. I was, as usual, roaming around Gandhi Bazaar with a friend, when I got this call from another friend of mine. He told me that he had 2 tickets for a pre-release show of Om Shanti Om in Urvashi(a movie hall in Bangalore) and asked me if I would want to join him. I agreed even without giving it a slightest thought. You may call it "The Deepika Padukone Effect". I met him at the Basavanagudi filling station and the both of us proceeded towards Urvashi. We then collected the tickets from another common friend's sister(they had booked around 20 seats) and the rest, as they say, is history.

Now, about the movie. After watching it, I now realise why SRK is, kind of, over promoting the movie. I didn't find anything in the movie as such which will bring the audience to the movie halls, like the kannada block buster Mungaru Male is still doing. I think as a movie maker, you should be having some message somewhere to be conveyed to the audience. What is OSO trying to tell its audience? Where is the story? What are SRK and Farah Khan trying to do? But then, this is a SRK movie. It is supposed to be a pure entertainer and that's exactly what it is. People throng movie halls and multiplexes just to see Shahrukh and not to see him act. Isn't it? For the acting part, watch out for Shreyas Talpade and the superb filmy maa Kiron Kher who have made acting look so easy. The brightest spot in the movie is, without a doubt, Deepika Padukone who is doing her bollywood debut in this movie. I liked this dimple on her cheeks when she smiles and that, along with that hour glass figure and a charming face, makes her that stunningly beautiful , drop dead gorgeous young lady that she is. Even her acting skills and dialogue delivery were not bad for somebody in her 2nd movie. Now, if you ask me whether I would recommend this movie, yes I would. Watch it for Deepika, for Shreyas and Kiron Kher, for those sound tracks which feel good on your ears and for those one minute cameos by Akshay Kumar and Bachchan Jr.

This movie should either have been a take on the hindi cinema industry of the 70s or a straight forward attempt to make a movie inspired by the Karz storyline. Only then OSO would not have needed SRK to imitate a Tamil Hero or for that matter do a out of sequence dance number by taking his shirt off.

PS: Don't be surprised if Gouri Khan is launched as a lead actress shortly. I wonder why anybody hasn't had a good look at her. She looks awesome!!!!!!!

Energy and Climate Change

As all of you know, the Nobel Peace Prize for year 2007 has been jointly awarded to the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) which is incidentally headed by an Indian, R K Pachauri, and the former American Vice-President Al Gore. If you look at what these guys have been doing, it’s been mainly the study of the effects of the activities of the mankind on Earth's climate with Al Gore, especially, doing a lot of work in the area of global warming. One thing that I feel worthy of mention here is the kind of post presidential and post vice-presidential activities Bill Clinton and Al Gore have been involved in. While Clinton is very much into his foundation which works with various governments/ governmental institutions and the leading pharmaceutical manufacturers to support HIV+ patients throughout the world, Al Gore returned to his environmentalist roots and is leading a movement against global warming. This leaves me wondering, when will we have leaders, who'll involve themselves in such noble causes?

When I think about climate change, I see that we are affecting the climate in 2 ways when it comes to energy - inefficient usage of energy and inefficient generation of energy.

When I look at the using of the energy, one thing that comes easily to the mind due to its wide usage, and my area of focus in this write up is the (incandescent) bulb. As everyone knows, the very concept behind its working is 'heating'. The filament is heated to get the incandescent light. This result in usage of more electricity and also more heat for the amount of light it gives. Till recently, there was no popular alternative to the bulb. But, recently we have seen the emergence of CFL as a very viable and energy efficient alternative to the bulb. It works on the concept of fluorescence (our traditional tube lights), emitting light without generating heat and also consumes lesser electricity and thereby, is more energy efficient and is also long-lasting and therefore, cost efficient too. It too has its drawbacks. It contains mercury in a very small amount and so, proper care needs to be taken while used CFLs are disposed off. So, I think that with more research on mercury content and competitive pricing, CFLs will lead the way in energy efficient, climate friendly and cost efficient lighting solution. One thing that I would like to mention here is that, an organization called GREENPEACE has launched a campaign in India called 'Ban the Bulb' and one of its major victories has been that Mysore Palace authorities have reportedly agreed to replace all the 96,000(yes, ninety six thousand... you have read it right) incandescent bulbs used for that grand palace lighting with CFLs. I, at this point of time, will leave out the other major contributors for climate change namely, automobile emissions and industrial emissions/wastes for future write ups.

Now, when we look at the energy generation, the major contributors of energy generation in India have been, I guess in the same order, Hydro(water), Thermal(coal) and Nuclear(fissile grade uranium U-235). All these three have their own effects on nature and climate. In case of hydro electric power generation, we can see that dams are built; rivers are diverted causing submergence of huge amount of forest land among others. Thermal power generation has its ill effects with the emission of carbon gases to the atmosphere and to talk about the problems we can have with nuclear power generation, one word - Chernobyl, will give us the account of the kind of damage that an accident in a nuclear power plant can be caused. So, a lot of work needs to go into these power generation techniques as to make them more efficient and safe. Also, if readers have not yet observed, I have not mentioned solar power and wind energy as they are not yet popular power generation techniques owing to their higher costs, but I must also mention that they are nature friendly. So, we also need a lot of research on these energy generation techniques to make them more cost efficient.

To close this write up, I would like to reiterate my stand of having lots of research on thorium based nuclear reactors as we have one of the largest thorium reserves in the world and only try to import uranium as a short term arrangement instead of opening up major power reactors to IAEA and American inspections and allowing other countries to have a say in our effort to have a minimum deterrence. More on my views about the Indo-US nuclear deal will be coming up shortly.

Happy Onam

Today keralites at home in Kerala, elsewhere in India and abroad are celebrating Onam. It falls during the month of Chingam, the first month of the malayalam calender(solar calender, wherein the months have been named after the constellations through which the sun passes).

This festival is significant for two reasons. Firstly, legend goes that Bali granted Vamana(Vishnu in form of a dwarf - fifth of his dhashavathara) three foot lengths of land as desired by him. Vamana then enormously grew in size, covered the whole earth in one step, the whole sky with the second. For the third, Bali asked him to place it on his head. With this, Vamana places his foot on Bali's head and suppresses him to Patala(one of the fourteen worlds and one of the seven hells according to Hindu scriptures) granting him a wish that he would rule Patala and would return once every year to visit his subjects on earth. Onam is celebrated as the day when King Mahabali returns to meet his subjects. Secondly, it is also celebrated as the harvest festival in Kerala.

The specialities for Onam,that I am aware of, include a traditional elaborate feast, Sadya and a multi coloured floral decoration(with, sometimes, a lamp in the middle) on the ground called Pookkalam. Competitions are held for the best pookkalam designs. I watched one such competition on a TV news channel yesterday and I must say, they were pretty innovative and beautiful. The other activities include a vibrant elephant procession, Pulikali performers painting themselves as tigers, performances by Kathakali artists, women performing Kaikotikalli, a traditional clap dance and the very popular snake boat race called Vallamkali.

The most important part of this festival is that it is celebrated by keralites across all religions depicting communal harmony and a sense of oneness which is at a premium today and it needs to be appreciated and emulated.

Wishing everybody a Happy Onam!!!