How Nair sir handled the Village Bully...

Begin Story of Sajimon

Sajimon was the village bully in my native village.

This incident happened long time ago when one kg of onion used to cost 2 rupees and weight of the vegetables procured was far, far higher than the weight of the money given to procure them.

The village used to be shrouded in innocence. A poet might say that 'Nattakom' (our village) was where sun god pays his obeisance (not to confuse with Obesity) before proceeding to bring light to millions across the globe.

A more romantic poet will probably mention that Nattakom was the village where gazelles learned to frolic and swans learned love by seeing the loving couples who used to sit by the village stream and say sweet nothings in each others ears...

Just kidding. Ours was a regular, boring village where nothing happens, any time, ever...

This was the village where Sajimon roamed around as the village bully.

Always itching for fight, was Sajimon. Nothing good ever came out of his mouth. Always needling people, always wanting to fight (but backing off at the first sign of aggression from his prey), terrorizing the village maidens, speaking loudly and crudely to women making them cringe by his comments...

Sajimon was a bully, a class one at that...

( It is funny. In Malayalam language, 'Mon' is the affectionate term for a boy and 'Mol' is for girls. You will hare names like Sajimon, Shajimon, Sunnymon, Lizymol, Rosamol...)

Etc.

Like any typical bully, Sajimon was bad at studies. Even with a very lenient educational system which tried to push and shove students from one grade (Class) to the next, Sajimon was like a snail, taking his own time to move from one class to the next. He spent two years in class 6, another two years in class 8...

One gets the point. 

People either avoided him or used him. Those who wanted to take revenge on others used Sajimon as a tool. Like a typical bully, Sajimon was always susceptible to manipulation. A well placed news about someone would see Sajimon extending his wrath on a mostly unsuspecting person.

This was Sajimon.

And then there was Nair Sir.

Nair sir and his family relocated to our village when Nair Sir joined as a Professor in a nearby Engineering College and was allotted a free accommodation by the college. He had two daughters Beena and Sheena. Beena was about our age (did I mention earlier that Sajimon was of my age? No? Must have missed it) and Sheena was about 3 years older. They also had a brother names Aji and a step brother named Gopi. 

Along with his wife, that completed Nair Sir family.

Though she was of our age, Beena was small and cute (In English Language, it is called 'Petite', I think). She was very pretty, with dimples as deep as Grand Canyon. In addition she had a faint squint (which made her pretty and mysterious, in my opinion) and Sajimon took a morbid fascination to her squint. Every morning he will stand in the path that Beena took to go to the school and bullied her about her squint. Every evening he bullied her as she returned from the school.

It was bad. It was only a matter of time before something gave.

That came one afternoon. I was sitting at home playing marbles and thinking things. Suddenly, Kosh, my childhood friend came all a'runnin. Panting like a dog, was Kosh, and his eyes bulged out like Google Glass. To say that he was excited and little scared would be correct.

Kosh was one of the minor recipients of Sajimon's bullying largesse. A minority shareholder, if you will. 

"Did you hear about Sajimon?", asked Kosh, all inhaling and exhaling laboriously (Panting, I mean). 

"What happened to him? Did he get religion?" I inquired, all sarcastic.

That was our fond hope. That Sajimon will one day get religion and realize the futility of bullying.

"No, no. Nair sir found him bullying Beena and caught him and tied him to a pillar in his house. He has sent for Sajimon's brothers to come. He want to discuss with the brothers before releasing Sajimon."

In a village where the only exciting thing that happens is when Pillachan runs after his chicken, to catch them of course, in preparation for afternoon repast, this was news.

Sajimon tied to a pillar. This was big news

Breaking news...

We kids went to see Sajimon. From outside the gate we could see Sajimon. And he could see us.

We gave him a sympathetic smile. He responded with a sheepish smile. As limp a smile as you can imagine. Tied to the pillar, Sajimon was as listless as a Pelican caught in BP Oil Spill.

But his eyes said it all. He was scared. He had seen the limits of his bullying. He had seen that power did not lay in shouting, rather power laid in quite firmness. Power laid in moral authority rather than loud sound. Power laid in deeds and not in words.

(Later his brother came and got him released)

From that day, there was a perceptible change in Sajimon's attitude. A few of our friends encouraged (needled) Sajimon to seek revenge on Nair sir by actively targeting Beena. But other than occasional shouting at night while walking in front of Mr.Nair's house, or an occasional long distance whistling as he espied Beena on the horizon, Sajimon was like a mouse when he approached Nair Sir's house. The pillar seemed to scare him.

And slowly his bullying tendency also reduced.

He had a series of failures since then. He failed class 10 multiple times. 

These failures can take a toll. They can either make you into a more vicious bully or as it happened in Sajimon's case, can mellow you and can even lead you to religion (this did not happen in Sajimon's case).

Thinking about those times, I still wonder. What if someone had given a good direction to Sajimon when he was growing up. In this case, he was unfortunate, that his family was not very educated and they did not have it in them to give a good direction to their kid. Sajimon had talent, it was obvious, but he lacked direction.

That is how it happens. That is life.

End Story of Sajimon.

With no TV and no Computer.....

....it is very surprising how much you can get done.

I don't have TV in my house. I stay alone in Mumbai and have decided not to purchase a TV, the reason being that I am eternally hopeful of coming back to Bangalore and I think TV will become a liability.

You can't sell it off without losing a lot of money, you know.

There is another reason I don't have a TV. I leave home early and reach home late. I work 6 days a week and whenever I have a weekend off, I travel to Bangalore.

So no time for TV in Mumbai, if you see what I mean.

But that is not what this post is about.

I normally spent a lot of time on the internet. As it happens, it was a holiday yesterday and laptop conked off sometime in the afternoon. I was like caged animal. With no laptop, I did not ken what to do.

And that is when I discovered books. In my house. Those which I hadn't read. I had books lying around that I hadn't read.

Can you imagine?

I like to think that I am an avid reader. I have read a lot of books and I enjoy reading them. That I have not read some good books recently I attribute to the fact that I don't have time. Besides, don't I read articles in the internet? I am not getting enough reading from the net?

I may be an 'avid' reader who hasn't read books recently, but I definitely am an 'avid' buyer of books. There is a small shop near my office and every time I walk in front of that shop, I am drawn to it like ants to shgar and invariably end up buying a book or two, more like two.

Yesterday, while walking around in my home, frustrated at having nothing to do, I cast my eye on my bookshelf. There were a few books that I had purchased recently with the idea of reading them later. I picked the book '99 Thoughts on Ganesha' by Dr.Devdutt Pattanaik. It is a reasonably good read I must say. Some parts of the book is fascinating and inspiring while other parts of the book are plain ordinary. There is a lot of repetition in the book, for example, early in the book the author tells the story of how Parasurama cut off one of the tusks of Ganesha, and soon enough, as  the author mention Ganesha's tusks, I was like 'Not Parasurama Story again...'.

Fascinating aspect of Ganesha is about how Ganesha is a benevolent deity in India and a malevolent deity in our neighboring country Nepal. In India Ganesha is 'Vignaharta (Remover of Obstacles)' and in Nepal Ganesha is 'Vignakartha (Creator of Obstacles)'. Another aspect of Karthikeya ('Murugan' in South India) is that in South India he is a married god while in North India he is considered to a warlord whom women dread and do not pray to.

Another fascinating aspect is regarding why Ganesha is named 'Morya' in Maharashtra. There are two possible reasons. One is that peacock (called 'More' in Hindi) is the vehicle of Ganesha. Another is that the predominant temple of Ganesha in Maharashtra is the temple of Sri Moreshwar (Mayureshwar) temple in Moregaon. As a non-maharashtrian, I always wondered why Ganesha was called 'Morya'.

Now I know.

Did you know that in parts of US, they celebrate 'Pancha Ganapati Puja' for five days between December 21 and December 25? This is because last week of December is the period of Christmas for Christians and Hanukkah for Jews. Since all the children will have something to celebrate during this period, they started this puja during that period so that Hindu Children can also enjoy the holidays. During this period, on each day, Ganesha is bedecked with different colours starting with Golden Yellow, through Royal Blue, Ruby Red, Emerald Green and finally Brilliant Orange...

Fascinating. Isn't it?

I am a voracious reader. Once I start reading a book, I complete it fast. In about 2 hours I had finished the first book and much like the proverbial Genii, I was on the lookout for a new book to read. That is when I came across the book 'Myth=Mithya' authored by Dr.Pattanaik (again). This book is a treatise on Indian 'Mythosophy' (Philosophy throu Mythology). This book is divided into three parts, each part focusing on each of the main deity's (Trimurtis) in Hindu Mythology vis Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva and their consorts Saraswati, Lakshmi and Parvati. 

According to the Hindu Mythology Brahma is the Creator of the universe, Vishnu is the Maintener of order and peace and Shiva is the Destroyer. For a story aficionado, this is a gold mine. For a seeker of Hindu Philosophy, he gets the philosophical perspectives brought out by these stories. The author seamlessly navigate between philosophical perspectives and appropriate stories. 

The beauty of Indian Mythology is that despite their separate roles, there is a close interaction between the Triumvirate.  You can see each one of the three Gods helping the other in some occasions and punishing them in other occasions. For example, Brahma the creator created a beautiful woman to help extend mankind through reproduction. Since she was created by Brahma, she was his daughter. As is the custom, she wanted to do a 'Pradakshinam' (walking around elders with folded hands, to get their blessings.) around Brahma. But Brahma became so besotted with her beauty she wanted to keep looking at her always. To achieve this he developed heads facing each direction to ensure that the woman he created is never out of his eyesight. 

Unable to withstand Brahma's lustfilled look, the woman started flying away. To see her while she was flying, Brahma developed a fifth head on the top and started following her wherever she went. Finally, having panicked by Brahma's incessant stalking, the woman prayed to Lord Shiva who came and cut off Brahma's fifth head, thereby bringing Brahma to his senses...

The book talks about 'Sathya' (the eternal truth) and 'Mithya' (truth within a specific framework). Unlike the other religions where there is a clear distinction between Good and Bad or Sin and Virtue and even God and Devil, Indian mythology do not have any real parallel. There is nothing called 'Lie' in Hindu Mythology. As per Hinduism 'Lie' is only a particular view of the truth within a specific framework. 'Mythya' is not 'Lie', it is truth from one's perspectives. 

The different perspectives that cloud a person's view of the absolute truth (Satya) is / are known as 'Maya'. Each one of us has our view of the world, created by our unique cloud, unique perspective, unique Maya. What a seeker of truth does is to slowly remove these layer of Maya to move towards the ultimate truth. 

The book also talks about the powerful liquid that lies in our body. It is the semen and it can flow either in downward direction or in upward direction. When it flows downward, it is called 'Rasa' and helps in procreation. The upward flowing liquid is called 'Tapa' and this help move the liquid from your lower hip towards our brain. Enlightened people achieve the power of 'Tapa' through 'Tapasya'.

One final word about the concept of Equity and Debt in Indian Philosophy. Every act or deed of ours lead to one of the four outcomes: Increase Equity, Increase Debt, Decrease Equity and Decrease Debt. At the end of the day, your balance sheet will be prepared and you will either go to 'Swarga (Heaven)' or 'Naraka (Hell)' based on the relative value of your Equity and Debt.

The book is not as boring as my review above suggests. This book is a treasure trove of Mythological Stories. Many stories. Fascinating stories. Most of them I had read as a child. Story of demons Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakashipu, of how Vishnu as Mohini helped kill a demon who was threatening to kill Shiva, the Story of the power of Shiva, the power of Vishnu and the Power of Brahma,  the story of Bali and Sugriva.....

The list goes on.

Mr.Pattanaik has tried to maintain the balance between Stories and lessons thereof. And that is what makes Indian Mythology so fascinating. 

At the end of reading this book, one is tempted to ask for more, to demand more of the ocean that is Hindu Mythology and the associated philosophy...

@BANGALORE Airport

Spice jet celebrating Holi. Also read this

Spice Jet seems to have gone overboard on Holi

Oh no, not another blog...

Caveat: This article is written purely as a humorous post. Any resemblance to any blogger out there is coincidental. Please try to read it and give a smile. This post falls into the attempted category 'Humour'.

The internet is filled with so many blogs that it freaks me out. Apparently everyone has something to say and believes in saying it. You throw a stone in the internet and it will land on another blog. People are expert in something (or everything) and has no qualms of flaunting their knowledge. 

Here are some of the types of bloggers that one comes across. 

Humour Blogers: Anybody who has read one PGW novel is a humour blogger. The net is riddled with Humour Blogs. Most of the time, you smile after reading these blogs just to humour (see the deft usage of the same word to convey different meanings?) these bloggers.

Check out my 'Humour posts

Cooking Blogger: Normally a purview of the ladies. Every lady and her mother-in-law, who has set their feet in the kitchen has a Cooking Blog. As soon as the food is prepared, the first task is to update the blog before serving it to their hungry husbands. Blog names have to end with the word 'Kitchen' or 'Cook Book', as in 'Sindhoos Kitchen', 'Kamlas Cook Book' etc. With the food habits changing every 10 Kilometers in India, the country is a gold mine for Cooking Bloggers. 

Ideally they should blog on the cooking style they know. But they won't do that. For instance Sindhoo, who is born, brought up and had been living in Kerala all her life, will write about 'Panneer Butter Masala (Kerala Style)'. How can PBM be 'Kerala Style' for God's sake? By adding Coconut Oil and Curry Leaves? But does Sindhoo even care of the stress that she is creating in the minds of Sardars? No sir, no way. She doesn't give a 'Kripaan'..

Check out 'My Cook Book'

Child rearing (Also Parenting) Blogger: Any lady who has given birth for the first time has to blog about being a first time mother. You don't see many blogs on being a 'First Time Father'. Or about being a 'Second Time Mother'. Apparently, they (the first time moms) have never learnt any life lessons so far and the arrival of the cute, new baby,  has suddenly filled them with all the wisdom in the universe. The range of their penmanship spreads far and wide. They write everything from 'Changing Diapers' to 'Teaching Discipline' with the same flair and elan. They spread their new found wisdom with gay abandon, but will correct their mothers if they (the mothers) try to give some parenting advice. Apparently moms do not know anything about parenting...

Check out my posts on Parenting

Photography Blogger: This is normally the purview of the IT Consultants. In their world anybody who has purchased a digital camera is a Photographer and if you have an SLR (No idea what it is) you are a photography blogger. Their oeuvre spreads from  photographs of Crimson Horizon to Old Buildings to Close ups of Flowers. They are liberal in providing advice to the newbie 'photographers' (who have purchased a digital camera) on everything from focus to smiles to anything technical about photography.  

Investment Blogger: This is a genre normally occupied by males. Normally they hold MBA degree or are accountants. It is easy to become an investment blogger. Only qualifications required is that you should have lost money in the stock market (under that logic, I will make an excellent investment blogger) . If you have purchased a stock at a high price and sold it at a low price, you are qualified to become an investment blogger. They spew out advice on everything from Equity, debt, Mutual Fund and even on retirement planning, even though they are just out of their schools.

Travel Blogger: Like photography, a domain majorly occupied by IT Consultants. The moment they are out of their base city on a project, they start a travel blog. Many of them visit a city for two weeks without going out even once out of their hotel room. But looking at their blogs, you will not know this. While going from hotel to their office, they will click some photos in their digital camera and become Photography Bloggers as well.

Checkout my Travel posts.

Health Blogger: Did you get up today and drink a glass of Grape Juice? Did you eat a fruit yesterday? Did you walk in front of the Gym last week. Did you ride a cycle to go from home to the neighborhood market? Did you take a bite of that low cal salad when you went to that swanky restaurant about two months ago?

If you have answered 'Yes' to any of the above questions, you are qualified to become a health blogger. These are Generally men.  Their blog is filled with the nutrition information on all the food items in the world. They also know how many calories you burn if you walk at a speed of 6 KMPH for 30 minutes at an incline of 5% (Answer: 225 Calories). And since they walk regularly (They walked 2 Kilometers last Tuesday), they are very liberal with their advice and are very critical of those 'Couch Potatoes'. They give a sigh of exasperation when they espy an overweight person on the road. They will come home and blog about how that fat person can get a better life 'if only' he exercises. These guys are insufferable in their blogs and even outside of  (blogs).

Marketing Blogger: Since these guys are into Marketing, blogging for them is work. Blogging is just another 'Media Channel' which has to be regularly updated with 'Quality Content' and mined for 'Actionable Intelligence'. They have no idea of the misery they are inflicting on the unsuspecting population that accidentally visits their blog.

A special group of marketers are the bloggers who inflict your Facebook and Twitter accounts (and even emails) with latest updates from their blogs. The moment they update their blog, they have to let the world know. 

Book Reviewer: If you have read a book, you have to write a review of that book in your blog. The Book Reviewer doesn't care a hoot if they liked it or not, or if the book is fiction, non fiction or philosophy. If they have read it, they will blog about it. Since they have read the book, they will also try to look intellectual.

While you are here, why don't you check out the Reviews of the books that I have read recently?

City Walker: These are a special combination of 'Travel' and 'Photography' bloggers. These bloggers roam the city streets with a camera in their hands and blogs about their experiences. Any time you see a sly guy with a camera in one hand and a note book in the other, you know that you have set your eyes on a 'City Walker'.

Fashionistas: Again, a section of blogging community flooded with ladies. Any girl or her sister-in-law who has worn a Tank Top or a Spaghetti or a Camisole (I got these words from Myntra.com) is qualified to be a Fashion Blogger. They fill their blogs with images of various dresses that in their opinion are 'Trending'.

General Bloggers: These are the worst kind of bloggers. They have nothing to say and believes in saying it. Their tentacles extend to anything that comes along. If they prepare coffee, they blog about it under tag 'My Cook Book'. Read a book? Read their review under the tag  'Book Reviews'. They think something is funny? It is labeled as 'Humour' in their blogs. They give advice on Parenting, on Self Development, impart Wisdom....

You name it, these blogs have it.

While you are here, check out my posts on Self Improvement and Wisdom.

Just to round it off, I mean.

Why I am proud of Indian Police......

About 3 months ago, the cousin of the lady who comes to clean my house was hit by a truck at night. In this 'Hit and run' case, the driver of the truck vanished into the night.

This was a major accident, and the injured person spent about two months in hospital. The poor family had to spent a lot of money on hospital care.

Yesterday the lady came and told me that the Police had arrested the culprit, impounded the truck and the owner of the truck paid them 60000 rupees to cover the hospital expenses.

It made me very proud of the Indian Police. The wheels of justice turn in this country, may be slowly, but that is understandable in a messy country like ours with such huge population. 

Today, I read in the papers that Police has arrested the murderer Esther Anuhya, an Employee with TCS in Mumbai who was stabbed to death about a month ago. This was a sensational case where the lady who came to Mumbai from Machilipatanam in Andhra Pradesh was found murdered in the Mumbai Suburbs. Police arrested Chandra Bhan Sanap or Choukya. After the murder, Choukya was hiding in his home town of Nashik from where police arrested him. 

The way things work in India is they work slow. But they work, definitely. Common man may have a negative perception about Indian Police System, but as these examples show, the system works and works very effectively. 

There are many such cases where the Police System has delivered. Just look at the massive task of managing traffic in Indian cities. The police system works exceptionally well here.

So here is my three cheers to Indian Police system. Indian Police? They rock...

Will you still blog even if no one is reading your blog?

Last Sunday, 9th of Feb, I attended a conference of bloggers in Mumbai organized by the bloggers group Blogadda.com.

There were multiple presentations. In one of the presentations, the presenter asked the audience, 'Will you still blog even if no one is reading your blog?'

That set me thinking. 

It was a very incisive question. It touched the root of the issue. What is your objective of blogging? Are you doing it for your self satisfaction? Are you doing it for the creative thrill that is generated when you pen your ideas and publish it in your blog? Are you blogging for 'hits'? Are you blogging for 'Comments'? Are you blogging for Money?  Are you blogging with a clear objective?

Why do you blog? I think that is the root of the question.

For me, the answer is very clear. I blog because I enjoy blogging. I enjoy the construction of ideas in my head and their smooth transition to the blog. I get a creative thrill when I use very good words like 'Behoove', 'Overarching', 'Delectable' etc. I blog so that I can attain that 'high'. 

Over the years since I started blogging, I have written some very good posts and many average posts. I also observe that over the years, the focus of my blog has shifted subtly. My blog started off as 'Random Thoughts' where I was writing what came to mind, then it moved on to Creativity as a theme and the blog name changed to 'Thoughts out of the box' and now it has settled into Personal Growth as a theme and the blog name has changed to 'Grow Together'. This I think is permanent. 

Has blogging helped me? Yes of course it has. It has structured my thoughts. It has simplified the transition from ideas to written word. It has brought me access to many talented bloggers. It has taken me to Blogadda conference.....

Has blogging had a deleterious impact? I think that blogging has a negative aspect in that it makes you a serious writer. You end up focusing on 'What' of writing and not the 'How' of writing. Some of my best writing is when I let myself go. The language is more jovial and my writing is more humorous. But when I am blogging, I tend to write on serious topics. Sometimes I tend to become pompous and think that what I write is the ultimate on this topic and that I am reaching and impacting more people than I really think I do. I tend to write posts like this one when I should also write posts like this and this and this more. All these three posts were strokes of inspiration and I think came out well.

At least writing these posts gave me a lot of elation. It is not that other posts do not give me satisfaction. Every time I hit 'Publish' button, I am very happy. But some posts make you happy while some elate. 

Who knows? May be it is not the blog that is changing me. It is me that is becoming serious and this is reflected in my blog.

(What about you? Will you blog even when you know that no one is reading your blog? Or are you one of those 'Statistics Watching' kinda blogger? Share your views here)

Ode to a traffic constable...

He is always amblin',
Hands a'wavin'
Always alert, always able
Thats my neighbour'ood traffic constable.

Traffic he's a'guidin'
Sometimes shouting, mostly smilin'
Always helpful, always amiable,
Thats my neighbour'ood traffic constable.

Is there for us when its a'rainin'
And when heat the sun a'peltin'
Always there, always available
That's my neighbour'ood traffic constable.

With Idiots he's up a'puttin'
Who's bend on rules a'violatin'
Always in control, always unflappable
That's my neighbour'ood traffic constable

Salute thee, I a'standin'
For your poise and your passion'
You're my hero, Mr.Capable,
You're the best neighbour'ood traffic constable.

My 300th Blogpost: A milestone

My post on Failed Project was my 300th post in my blog !!

Like your age, or your experiences that creep up on you unobtrusively, my 300th post came without any announcement, without any fanfare.

I have been regularly posting my blog posts and there it is !! . My 300th Post.

My year wise number of posts are as below.

I started blogging in December 2005. You could say that I was one of the early bloggers in India. In the initial days, I did not give a lot of thought to blogging. As my 301st post will tell you tomorrow, I was extremely busy in a project in the year 2006. Hence my posts were very rare. That is an overstatement. In 2006 my posts were zero.

I did 54 posts in 2007, most of them earlier in the year. In the middle of 2007, I joined a new company. Since I did not know the blog policies of the company, I decided not to take risks and not to post in my blog.

In the year 2008, I went to Bogota, Colombia and most of my posts written from that country. I enjoyed Bogota and my posts reflect the affection that I felt for that country.

You can checkout my posts on Bogota here.

I also had a couple of posts from the USA, which I visited in 2012 and one from UK, which I wrote in 2007.

2009, 10 and 11 were a lull because I was busy with my project work. Well, that is a silly excuse. I did not write, period.

Somewhere in 2012, I started writing a series on 'Tribute to My Batchmates'. This was on the lines of the book 'The Class' written by Erich Segal. I was a part of Class of '81-'86 of Government Engineering Collage, Trichur, Kerala. I wanted to write about how my batchmates were faring after 25 years. The story is mostly positive, I don't like to write negative and hurt people. This is an ongoing project.

Couple of my recent posts got published in the 'Spicy Saturday' feature in  Blogadda, one was on 'Gym Perspectives' and the other one on 'Ice Cream Sandwich'. I enjoyed writing them.

Many of the posts, like this one, just came out on to the page smoothly. Those are the posts that I enjoyed writing and also which the readers liked. Where I have laboured to complete a post, neither I had the satisfaction of writing nor my readers had the joy of reading...

Somewhere in 2012, I changed the focus of my blog to personal growth. I renamed my blog to 'Grow Together' from the earlier 'Thoughts out of the Box', to show this focus. 

I also see that the best blogposts are written from the heart, with feelings and emotion. The moment I distance myself from the emotion of the experience, I write bad. 

I also enjoy writing about people, about books (Check out my section on Book Reviews) and cooking. Currently I am in the middle of a project to cook thirty different Vegetable dishes in thirty days. You can read about my recipes and emotions in My Cookbook.

The key task for me going forward is to tag my blogs more scientifically. Each post should have the correct tag so that cross-referencing becomes easy.

I also missed some key posts in my blog. I remember reading about the horrible Josef Fritzl episode when I was in Bogota. I was devastated by the cruelty and depravity shown by Mr.Fritzl. Regretfully, I did not write anything about that incident. That was one key miss.

Similarly the Satyam Scandal. I purchased Shares of Satyam at a price of 13 and sold it off at about 100, but I did not write about the scandal even though I followed the case very closely.

That's it for now. I have enjoyed and continue to enjoy writing my blog. I hope that you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it...

'None of the Above' option in election

Recently Supreme Court of India has asked the Election Commission of India to add the 'None of the Above (NOTA)' option in the Electronic Voting Machines. This will come into effects from the elections to the five states in India, scheduled later this year.

Read the news here

Even now this option is available. Currently, if you do not like any of the candidates, you can exit without voting for any of the candidates and express your displeasure in the register kept with the Election Official at the venue of the Election. There are two problems with this. Unlike Voting (showing preference) which is a secret process, rejection (Showing displeasure) is not a secret process. This means that you might end up in the bad books of all the political parties (and they have a very long memory). Also, there is no way to prevent someone from casting fake votes in your name because there is no way to block your vote even if you did not want to vote for anyone. 

People circumvent this and make their displeasure known by Voting for multiple candidates and making their votes invalid. This is a round about process.

Supreme Court addresses this anomaly by bringing the rejection also as a part of the voting process. As per the rule, if more than 50% of people in a constituency reject all the candidates, the elections will have to be redone. 

There is no doubt that this is a good measure. It gives a lot of power to the electorate, the common man. It also puts a lot of pressure on the political parties to field honest, upright and capable candidates in the election. This will ultimately be good for the country by helping to cleanse the political cesspool in the country.

Of course, the government objected to this in the Court. Review petition is still going on. Government's contention is that elections are a process of 'Selection' rather than 'Rejection'. Bringing in NOTA option will make it a process of 'Rejection'. This is not what the framers of constitution had in mind.

The government's case is weak, I think. After all the option to express displeasure with the candidates already exist. Only thing that the court has done is to formalize the option and linked this option to the ultimate result in the process.

Government will probably lose this case, 

I can see that it has a lot of good points. But still, I am uncomfortable with the decision. 

Why?

The reason is that there are two groups of voters in India with different stakes in the election. One is the rural / urban poor and the other is the urban educated, well off class. Both these groups have different emotional investments in an election. For the poor, elections have real direct consequences. For one, they are main beneficiaries of government programs and any delay caused by uncertainties due to delayed elections will impact them directly. 

These folks do a lot of analysis of the positions of various candidates before voting. They know that both of the candidates are bad but they also know what they can expect from each of them. They are very clear of their choice and thery are also clear that their choice is 'first among equally corrupt'. 

As far as the other class is concerned, the elections are more in the nature of esoteric, once in a while programs for which they get holidays. Many of them do not take the trouble of applying for election cards and even if they have the same, they do not go and vote in the elections. 'Understanding the positions of each candidate?' 'Sorry yaar, no time. I have to post in blogger and update status in FB. And what is the point? Both Congress and BJP are both sides of the same coin. I am going to reject both the parties anyway, Nothing is going to change even if any party wins. Who has the time to vote?'.

This is my worry. The NOTA process expects the electorate to invest a lot of emotional energy and personal involvement in the election process. To expect  a class - which comes out against rape when only when one of their ilk is raped, the class which demand and accept dowry and which is more invested in the next trip to US than the desultory, boring aspect of electing the people to rule them -  to understand and evaluate the nuanced positions of various political parties, come to an educated decision, go to vote and then elect or reject the candidates? I think it is too much to expect.

Well, I am an eternal optimist. I keep hoping that Rahul next door, who parties all night and boozes till cows come home, will somehow become a responsible voter and choose NOTA judiciously.

Lets hope for the best.

Italians Kidnapped by Maoists in Odisha....

I am sure all of you have read the news item about two Italians, Bosusco Paulo and Claudio Colangelo, having been kidnapped by Maoists in Kandhamal district in Odisha. This district is notorious for Maoist infestation and even Indians are scared of travelling to these places.

These two guys illegally went into the jungles and got kidnapped by the Maoists (as expected). Now Italian government is putting pressure on the Government of India to get these guys released from Maoists.

I presume that ultimately Maoists will release these guys. In the process will win some brownie points with the media and government and help internationalize the Maoist problem.

Finally, after achieving their public relations goals, probably they will release these Italians. In fact they have released one of them, Claudio Colangelo as of today.

I find it frustrating that these Westerners who travel to our country do not follow the basic security precautions. It seems that this guy, Claudio Colangelo, was determined to ignore all the warning signs. He wanted to go into the deep jungles of Odisha and approached many travel agencies. All of them refused to take the trip citing Maoist threats. Finally he went with an illegal travel agent Paolo, who agreed to take him

You can read the story here

Over the last 4 years I have extensively traveled across the world. Before I go to any country, I go thru travel advisories put up by various travel sites about what to do and what not to do in that country. The travel advisories are very specific about which areas to avoid when you are visiting a new country.

For example, when I was visiting Colombia, I was asked not to got to the some parts of Colombia because those areas are infested with rebels and Government forces are engaged in continual fight with the rebels.

I am sure such travel advisories exist about India and they specifically mention about Maoist threats in parts of Odisha.

What does it say to you about the security status when most of the travel agents (who are always looking to make more Foreign Currency revenue) refuse to take you to some parts of their state? Shouldn't you be smart enough to know that probably the public wisdom is correct and that you should avoid these places?

If I were the Italian Tourist, I would avoid such places.

No, not these silly Italians. They want to prove that they are superior and they can go to dangerous areas and come out 'victorious'. So they violate the law, uses an illegal travel agent and get kidnapped by the Maoists.

Do they have any idea of what they have done? What are the possible implications of their hasty, thoughtless and hare-brained action. Probably the travel agent who took them to the jungles will get arrested and spent his life in Jail. The Italian Diplomats will have to work overtime and answer many questions from their probing Indian counterparts.

And finally these 'courageous westerners' will have to spent nights and days in Odisha Jungles, being bitten by mosquitoes and relieving themselves in the God's universe....

Some would say that justice is delivered to these silly guys...