Good times. Where are they?

India as a country is surely not enjoying the best of the times. High inflation, plethora of charges of corruption and space research setbacks. All these things have made this first month of year gloomy.

Corruption has always been rampant in India but so many charges on people holding seats of high responsibility are very disappointing. When even CVC and a former Chief Justice of India come under cloud, it surely is one of the most disconcerting time for ethics in Indian public life. Add to it the monster of inflation which has not been reigned in by the government yet. Rise in petrol prices may very well aggravate the problem although it is good to know that diesel prices are not being raised, at least for now.

But India is known for its resilience. We have seen far worse times in 1991 and came out of it to embark on our journey of phenomenal growth. I hope we do enough inquisition to embark another journey of inclusive growth this time.

Chinese rubber stamps

What do you need to do in order to win Pakistan if you are not India? Easy. Just antagonize India and Pakistan government will bend over backwards to lick your boot. That is precisely how Pakistan behaves with China.

So when Pakistan toed the Chinese whip of not attending Liu Xiaobo's Nobel ceremony I was not surprised. This whip or bullying also showed the countries who quake at the prospect of differing with China. Below is my take on some of these countries:

Russia: A lot has been said about their own human rights record in west. It is quite natural for them to side with China. Who knows, a dissident from their country may be next Nobel laureate.

Pakistan: If you remember a highly tragic and unfortunate train accident happened in Pakistan few years ago. Three trains were involved and the loss of lives was immense. There were reports that one reason for high death toll was the quality of coaches which were purchased from China. Pakistan didn't even register a protest let alone ask for compensation. The rulers of Pakistan (read military) are so wretched that to keep themselves in power they don't hesitate to risk their own people's lives. What these leeches ensure is that they not only keep Pakistan poor but also hamper India's growth.

Saudi Arabia: Representative of greater evil pervading the pure land of Arabia. The land which disseminated so much knowledge in medieval times has now got bunch of clowns ruling it. The kings and their families, all short on IQ run their writ on unfortunate populace. If there is one thing on which I support Osama Bin Laden, it is his wish to get Saudi rid of its king. All the vices are committed by ruling families but they are the ones who preach morality most. They openly criticize Israel but have never taken a sensible step in resolving the conflict. The Wikileaks have now exposed their ambivalent policy on Iran. The moral science classes always warn about the demerits of wealth acquired without effort. Saudi is a good example of it.

Radiagate, barkhagate, mediamafia ...

The last few days have presented a very sorry state of Indian media. First the leak itself and then the deafening silence by leading media houses. It is debatable whether they have crossed the line or not. N. Ram (editor, The Hindu) thinks they have.

The Hindu was the only major media house which gave coverage to this murky affair. I thought very much on the issue and feel that the journalists in question have crossed the line although have done nothing criminal. I personally believe Barkha Dutt should step down but she has not done anything so wrong as to leave journalism. Just as sports persons can have poor form, error in judgement, complacency and disregard for public sentiments so are journalists prone to these fallibilities. Barkha Dutt has done very well as a journalist and this mistake of hers can be forgiven bearing in mind her contribution to field of journalism. It is quite obvious that she has been maliciously targeted on twitter not because of this case but for her stand on other issues.

It is high time that prominent media persons get together and root out this evil from amongst themselves. This is only tip of the iceberg considering that issue of 'paid news' cropped up not long ago. It will be great if people like Rajdeep Sardesai, Karan Thapar, N. Ram, Siddharth Varadarajan and Shekhar Gupta can come together and get India media out of this mess.

Judiciary and media are the only saving grace of our democracy and I hope media continues to bring justice to Indians as it has done in Manu Sharma case.

Final year at IIT Kanpur : first half

It all started with gloom of many hues. It ended on a positive note. While it was clear at the outset that it is going to be a very different year of my academic life, it turned out to be the best year. John Keats said, “Heard melodies are sweet. Those unheard are sweeter”. Clearly this melody was sweet. I wait for sweeter ones.

This year was preceded by departure of many of my friends with whom I relished talks ranging from topics as apart as economy, foreign policy, politics and cricket. Of course we discussed something about academics too. Dual degree programmes at IIT Kanpur have one drawback, though not necessarily of their own making. For four years we are put in a wing (a column of rooms) with inmates from different departments and different programmes. So it is quite natural that you make friends with students enrolled in 4 year programs. Sometimes they turn out to be your closest friends or cronies!!! One can't stop oneself from cursing this design of academic structure. But then, not all whines are for legitimate reasons.

I entered the new Hall of Residence (that's what we call hostels in IITK ) which is at least a km away from academic area. This distance looked more arduous due to necessity of marking attendance everyday. However, things started getting better from second month onwards. The September last year had the best weather I have ever seen in my life. Add to it the rustic surroundings of Hall 9. The wing structure in Hall 9 suits smaller wings. And we were left in just that number in our final year. The bonds grew stronger. The stipend and quality of Hall 8 canteen meant that we were able to spend more on food. Four of us became frequent visitors to that place. My interaction with department also increased due to allocation of a workbench and duties of Teaching Assistant. So much so that the guy with whom I had only formal conversations for first four years, leg pulling and banter was part of every meet.

October brought with it some tension. Yes, the placements were approaching and even if you try to remain oblivious to the fact, your surroundings wont let you do so. The spate of PPTs and concomitant tests meant that the importance of the event dawned on us. Add to it the aftershocks of recession last year. November went off very quickly and perhaps it was the single largest month of the year in terms of tension. Luckily for us the placement of Computer Science department was very good. Overall placements also improved. Most of us got placed before our expected date. And some of us got their choicest sector. With this our first semester concluded on a happy note.

Any remembrance of life at IIT Kanpur should not end without mentioning the weather and beauty of the place. Early winter months are very pleasant in Kanpur. Hall 9 is very well placed with vast open space behind it. Few stunted trees dot it but more or less it is a grassland. The view is breathtaking at evenings and during cloudy days. Vacant backyard also means the wind speed is relatively high. The final year provided us with many spare hours to enjoy natural beauty and contemplate. And one thing which I can say with confidence after living there is that plains can be as beautiful as hills.

P.S. I plan to write about remaining months but I am pretty lazy in putting my thoughts in my blogs, so that may take some time.

First cricket test match in stadium

After missing 3-4 chances in Kanpur I finally got to watch cricket for the first time in a stadium. And as they say in Hindi 'Der aaye durust aaye', what a treat it was to watch.

The planning of this match started with one of my friends (who ironically didn't watch cricket even on TV in our first semester at IIT Kanpur). I was very disappointed that Wankhede missed out on test match against New Zealand and wanted to watch test cricket this year at any cost. Finally we both zeroed in on Bangalore test between India and Australia because, well you knew this, it was between India and Australia. We also factored in that this would be the last time Dravid would be playing on his home ground and that this is the last time Sachin, Dravid, Laxman and Ponting would be part of a test match in India.

The start of the day was very disappointing, not because India didn't win the toss (in fact with India fielding we got to see most players close-up), but due to inability of our bowlers to take a wicket in whole of first session. This meant that we had to put up with Mr. Watson who is as boring to watch as excitement while watching Ponting bat. Our torture ended in second session when Ponting came out to bat. And the elegance of his batting was clearly visible. To help the matters the view from our seat was very good for both ends. But like most Indians it becomes very difficult for me to appreciate opposition's good performance for long. Harbhajan was impressive in second session and Ojha in second and third but we felt much relieved when Raina trapped Ponting who it seemed was not going to be dismissed by Indian bowlers all day. All in all we got to wave Indian flag 5 times (five wickets fell that day).

I was very happy to see the turn out. The stadium was almost full. The din compounded by shrill music (or noise?) added to the excitement. That was one time when I would have agreed with Ravi Shastri's "The Atmosphere is electric" chirp. Was disappointed with Laxman not taking field but saw debut match of Pujara. Who knows he turns out to be next Laxman!!!

P.S. Was impressed by Ponting's conduct on and off the field. Esp. his thanksgiving to crowd in post match conference. My respect for him, both as a person and a batsman, has gone up by few notches.

Maoists are tough, we need to be tougher

Nitish Kumar has shown a lot of spine in resisting the pressure to yield to Maoists. The so called Swami Agnivesh's call of try to extend deadline and not using force is another instance where so called intellectuals with left leanings live in a surreal world and apply the logic which sounds good there to our world.

Yes we have lost one life and may be can lose more. This is very harsh on the families of martyrs. But if we don't yield this time we can save many more lives in future. Remember the Kandahar goof-up. Please don't repeat this. All political parties should rally behind Bihar government at the moment. It is not Nitish Kumar who is up against the Maoists, it is our state, the Republic of India which is fighting this battle.

Poly-tricky Politicians of India

Just a few days ago I was watching a debate on a news channel about the raise demanded by the Members of Parliament. Most of the reasons cited in support of this demand were related to them being public representative and that they have to take care of the visitors, pay their staffs, visit their constituency's nook and corner etc.

And every time they were criticized by media they retorted by flaunting their status of being 'representative' of common man. I want to suggest a very good way for testing the representation of these politicians.

Just have a referendum in every constituency for an MP. If the approval is more than 50%, the MP gets a 300% hike (as desired by them), otherwise he/she forfeits the seat and pays Rs. 10 lacs(or maybe more) as fine. Those MPs who do not desire a hike need not have referendum. I am sure very few MPs would dare to hold this referendum and thus a small amount would be spent in conducting referendum. However this will go a long way in taking the sting out of this 'representative' claim and also present true approval percentage of these worthless chaps. This would also go a long way in rewarding those MPs who are diligently discharging their duties.

Do our polity have guts to accept this challenge? No. Simply because most of them 'represent' us not because they are greater 'good' but because they are lesser 'evil'.