Why people should be wary of Anna Hazares and Baba Ramdevs

It seems like a story straight out of the history textbooks. Complete with all the romanticism involved. An individual believes in his ideology so strongly, that he gives up his daily bread, so that his ideas may be implemented. Just as our forefathers believed in the idea of freedom, and gave up their lives to achieve it. They were beaten up by the police, locked up in prisons, hanged, yet their indomitable spirits lived on. And finally, they achieved that which was the collective dream of all - freedom from a tyrannical British government. Today we seem to be facing a similar situation. We have a government that has looted the country far more than the British could ever dream of. We have rich businessmen getting away with this mass looting for token punishments. And we also have the same brave 'Iron Men', who are willing to give up their lives, through a slow and painful process known better as fasting, Persecuted by the government, these tireless souls soldier on, in their quest against the atrocities of the government. And perhaps, one day they will succeed in uprooting the evil that plagues this country. And all shall prosper.

Or is it? Have you, my fellow countrymen, my people, the true legitimate rulers of this nation, given a good thought to what these protests entail? To what end would they lead? What they are doing to the fabric of this country and to its unity? Have you asked yourself an honest question before pledging your support for these 'leaders' among the people - Am I really going to benefit if this struggle shall be successful? Apart from a smug sense of self satisfaction, am I going to get to even see, let alone touch any of the black money that returns from abroad? And what happens when they really do start hanging corruption-mongers? Are you going to get back all that money you paid, so that the request for your driving license/passport/PAN card is processed quickly? What's in all this for you?

Agreed, not all causes need have short term benefits. It is always a good idea to fight for a good cause, and achieve it, so that even though we may get hurt in the process, we will eventually reap the benefits of our struggle. But have any of you spared a thought, as to what this struggle is doing to our country and our government? We are no saints, and our government is not a government of saints either. But this same corrupt government keeps the prices of petrol and diesel down, so that we may afford it. The same government maintains a strong police force that atleast deters, if not stops criminals from their deeds. The same government builds and maintains one of the largest road and railway networks in the world. Yes they have potholes, yes trains are delayed, yes flyover constructions are delayed.
But it runs the system nonetheless. It ensures a reasonable distribution of food items throughout the country, especially during famines and calamities. It runs schools to educate, for nominal amounts, the youth of the country. In fact, I am going to stop right here. What the government does in reality for the people, and what they seem to forget in a hurry, cannot be put down on a single piece of paper. Or even a book. And this is the very government all of you look to question. It does not matter that the Prime Minister, whose job it is to run this country of 1.3 billion 'Rajanikanths', is continuously on his/her toes to get the job done. No, you want the right to question him about every irregularity in his/her life. It doesn't matter that there are good and honest officers slogging away behind the scenes, keeping this country running. You only want the right to raise accusing fingers at them. Let us not even mention here any possible misuse of this law - All you want is to see the high and mighty fall down.

You want a quick and dirty solution to all the problems plaguing this country - You would just kill all corrupt politicians and businessmen. A simple question here - How does one define such a corrupt person? It has been suggested - let us keep the bar at Rs. 2 crore. How does one verify whether the scam is actually worth more than Rs. 2 crore? What would stop our beloved lawyers from bringing every case to below Rs. 2 crores? And consider this - A poor father of a bright young student has to bribe a college official with Rs. 50 lakh in order to get him/her a seat in a prime college. How do you justify that this crime is not worth a hanging? More so, who should be hanged? The person collecting the bribe? The dean of the college? The guardian politician? Why is nobody realizing just how ridiculous these demands are?

People, you are not doing yourself any good by allying yourself with these 'pioneers of freedom' All you are doing is undermining this government that has kept the country running for 64 years. We have a government that has atleast fulfilled its campaign promises partially. It keeps us safe from the greedy Orientals in the North and the East, and the fanatics in the West of our country. Agreed, the scams that have unfolded, are unforgivable. But let us not be too hasty in meting out justice. Let us not forget that we are the ones who have elected this government in the first place. Since the blame lies directly with us (and I'm sure Mr. Ramdev and Mr. Hazare would be less than willing to hang themselves for electing corrupt politicians), let us be a little more mature and grow out of the 'Rang De Basanti' fervor, under which everyone seem to view the government as complete villains that only deserve death. If you want to clean up this country, start with yourself. Clean up your own lives of all the prevalent dishonesty. Finish all your work in time. Be honest in all your dealings. Do not forget - campaigning for the death penalty against the corrupt does not absolve you of corruption or exempt you from the law. Each one of us has skeletons hidden somewhere, and believe me, just as you will dig up the government's skeletons, so will someone come to dig up your skeletons one day. Yes, firm and immediate action is necessary against the corrupt. But let us not get drawn by such blackmailers into something you and your future generations would regret. Let us stand united and not act against our government, but work with it to root out, not the corrupt, but corruption itself.

P.S. Anyone who wants to replace Hindi with English as the medium of instruction should:

A. Go to hell

B. Dig a hole, plant themselves, and water themselves. After all, they are the 'sons of the soil'.

C. Give a really good reason why people, whose mother-tongue is not Hindi, should learn a language that is not spoken anywhere outside India, or even is the mother-tongue of the majority of this country.

Urdu shayari

There's something about Urdu poetry. Perhaps its the beauty of the language or the words it uses. Perhaps its the amount of expression one can fit in few words. Perhaps its the exotic and mysterious nature of the language, that reminds one of deserts, and sands, and moonlight, and the winds blowing across the desolate lands that it borrows from its Middle Eastern parents. Or perhaps its just the fact that in a matter of seconds, those words express precisely the thoughts which you have been cooking slowly in your mind, longer than you can remember.

Indeed there's something about Urdu poetry.

For now, let me repost here, one of my favorite shers.

Muddai laakh bura chaahe to kya hota hai?
Wohi hota hai jo manzoor-e-khuda hota hai!

How to open your Nokia 6300

Hello everyone, and welcome to my first attempt to document the art of taking apart things. I hope this serves as a useful guide to those who wish to perform some minor cleaning operations in case your phone gets soaked in water (as did mine) or for those who simply have an itch to take apart their phone and study its innards. I have not gone so far as to disassemble the main board (I love my phone and I wish to use it for as long as it can support my usage). However, if any of you have actually gone that distance, I would love to hear about it.

Step 1: Requirements

Here is a list of things that are absolutely essential before you begin your work.

• Clean, well-lit workplace
• Set of precision screw drivers
• Clean cloth
• Strong adhesive (Fevi Kwik should do)
• A Nokia 6300 :)

Step 2: Initial disassembling

Switch off the phone. Remove the battery, SIM card and memory chip from their respective slots. Note that the SIM card is located just below the battery, while the memory chip is in a slot on the side of the phone.

Step 3: Removing the silver cover

The real fun begins now. The silver cover is attached to the phone body by adhesive. No screws here. Start prying around the edges with a flat head screw driver, and you should be able to pry off the cover in no time.

Caution: There are a number of copper connections (shown in picture) on the phone body that are now visible. These tend to fall off, so be careful and collect them in case they do come out.

Step 4: Removing the screen cover

You should be able to simply lift the cover off. In case it is still held to the phone body by some adhesive, you can use the flat head screwdriver to carefully pry it loose.

Step 5: Removing the black cover.

This is held to the phone body by 4 clips, two at the top, and one down each side, as well as two small screws at the back. Remove these screws and try your very best not to lose them :). Then pry around the clips, using your flat head screwdriver, and you should be able to remove the black cover.

Step 6: Removing the keypad

Simply lift the keypad out.

Step 7: Removing the main board

Note the 4 screws, all placed around the LCD screen. Remove these 4 screws, and once again, try your very best not to lose them. Having done that, simply lift the board out of the phone cover.

Step 8: Putting everything back

Simply follow steps 1 through 7 in reverse order. Start with the main board. Make sure all points on the phone cover fit into their respective slots on the board.

Fix the 4 screws back in place. (Step 7)

Place the keypad in its original position (it should fit perfectly) and attach the black cover on top. Make sure the 4 clips lock perfectly. Attach the two screws at the back. (Steps 6 and 5)

Place the screen cover on top of the LCD screen. Put any loose copper clips back in their place. (Step 4)

Apply some Fevi Kwik around the edges of the phone, and stick the silver cover back on. (Step 3)

Once dry, put the memory chip, SIM card, and battery back. Close the cover. You may now turn your phone back on. (Step 2)

Please feel free to post comments/critiques on this short tutorial. And if any of you have some interesting gadgets you are willing to sacrifice, I would be delighted to help you open them up.

Lifted from The Times of India, September 7, 2008.

This is a response to the article "Fight against N-deal not over: Karat". I hope I'm not committing an act of plagiarism or something, but I really couldn't have put it in better words.

Sam Oommen , USA, says: What is wrong with you Mr. Karat? You pulled the plug on UPA, but they raised themselves at Parliament. Now you are calling for election, you want to be eliminated? UPA is not afraid of election. The elections will come in time. Do you have the right to speak any more on Indo-US Nuke deal? You are not mighty like "Vamana" to walk over the millions of Indians who aspire for progress and growth and our steadfast PM, Manmohanji. Your political integrity and patriotisam is questionable????? Your party's policies of keeping the poor and down troden further below the poverty line is to keep your party alive in India. Your party can exist only if there have poor and uneducated souls. Congress is trying to uplift poor to a higher level through education, employment and higher wages. You are against progress and growth and uplifting the people above the poverty line. Your party has made a mess in West Bengal and Kerala. NSG waiver is the most welcome sign and the best Manmohanji was looking for. Congress has work hard to cast away the waiver and now working to complete the Indo-US deal. Mr. Karat this will be done in 30 days. People of India are praying and hoping for this. Their PM is intelegent and hard working man. A man of action for the country. You make only insane statements just to provoke the people. Do not speak un-truth? Do not mislead people? Last fortnight you made many statements of misjudgement about NSG waiver. Your Chinese people try to scuttle everything from behind at NSG. Now Chinese are asking for NSG waiver for Pakistan. What is your reaction on this? We demand you statement on Chinese indirectly asking for waiver by NSG for Parkistan. Do not fool Indian people anymore. We know what is good for India. It is good for your zip it up and meet the people of India at the parliament election. Manmohanji, Congress and UPA please follow the path of progress and growth for the country. Jai Hind
[7 Sep, 2008 2002hrs IST]

The Vacuum

There comes a time in life (and quite regularly in mine) when you want to do nothing but bang your head against the wall. Or jump off the balcony just outside your room. Or if you have a vehicle, jump into it and blast off at the maximum speed possible. Or simply catch the Bus No.11 and be off somewhere. Just leave this life behind you and try to move ahead. Or if you can't leave this life, then move to another life temporarily. You say to yourself - dude, this is enough. Why are you wasting time over such a fruitless activity? You could spend your energy doing so many things that will keep you involved and hence, happy.
But in your heart you know there are always two choices. And I always choose to stick with this life, because i believe that some good will come out of it. And the cycle continues ..........

Learning ....... but why?

Why do we learn? Do we learn because we simply wish to learn? Is learning a means of satiating our constant thirst for knowledge? Or do we learn about something because we wish to use that something in our endeavours? We have strong feelings about some topics - we like discussing objective problems about those topics and thus add to our knowledge. But, at the same time, can it be that somewhere in our unconscious, we have the notion that this knowledge gathered is going to be of use to us, somewhere in the realm of the future? At times, this notion might come out into the open, but in most cases it is unconscious. As a result we cannot answer the question as to why we like a particular subject and wish to learn it.

Take the example of a baby learning to speak. In this case the baby urgently feels the need to efficiently communicate his/her thoughts and feelings to the people around. Perhaps it is an inherent human intution (if you care to believe in the idea of "Wisdom of the species" being gathered over the period of human existence) that a means of communication must be set up with fellow human beings if we are to survive. Hence, it is throught the desire to survive and let the world know of his/her needs that the baby strives against all odds, and indeed, against all odds does he/she finally manage to grasp the alien syllables and intonations that form our daily speech. Experts claim that this is the period when the human brain is the most receptive to learning, and hence babies are able to talk easily by the age of 1.5 yrs. It is also during this time that they learn many new things about the world, like the need to eat when you are hungry, important toilet habits, bathing, etc. The response to the query as to how a baby can learn so much in such a short time is always the same - babies have more receptive brains. But how about this - Babies have a very strong driving need to learn, because they wish to imitate the society around them and fit into it.

Let us explore the avenue connecting learning and need a bit further. Coming to kindergarten kids, the ones who have to learn the written scripts. It is true that they are driven forward by the adults to learn the scripts - they would not truly understand the full reason behind learning to read and write. But they do observe their elders reading and writing, and understand that this too could be a form of communication that they could very well use. In the worst cases, the kids might learn their alphabets simply to stop their parents from prodding them any further :p. Again do we see the unseen forces of the need that lead to learning - even the need to stop the constant prodding eventually leads to some form of learning.

Coming to middle school and high school, the majority of students learn because they have the need for good marks. They need to get good grades, and since the only way to attain this is to study and learn their subjects, that is what they do. In these situations, there are those who discover that they have an aptitude for certain subjects - the ability to do better than most. What drives these students is the desire to be better than the best - to always stay ahead of everyone in your field constantly. The driving force of the "Parent's wish" may still serve as an adequate driving force here, for learning the school subjects. In any case, the system is brutally effective, ensuring that almost all students make it through their high school.

It is the period before the undergraduate years (going by the Indian system) that the real cracks begin to appear in the education system. According to the commonly accepted reasons, it may be the result of lack of parental pressure. Or a general rebellious feeling that flows through the youth of that age. People regard the youth as being too confident about themselves, while they do not know what is good for them. Of course some students keep going on because they believe in something - they feel that their studying is going to get them admission into a good institute for their undergraduate studies. And it is at this point that the fatal cracks appear in the system. Students known to have performed brilliantly all their academic lives find themselves failing in subjects. People known to be "good at academics" find themselves at the "bottom of the heap". A general feeling of discontent spreads among the people - they find that they are no longer satisfied with the learning process. At the same time, they start noticing other avenues - avenues that seem more promising, as a result of which their academic career takes a further beating. The eventual result is similar to an engineering institute producing finance graduates and consultants - which, ironically, is not far from the truth.

So how do we explain this sudden turn of events using our "need theory"? Why do these people, once stalwarts in the academic world, suddenly fall foul of it? The answer, as before, is the same. The learning habits of the students are driven by the need to learn, by the various driving forces that affect this need. The difference lies in the fact that the people are no longer striving simply for grades or for recognition - they have had enough of that in their lives. All they now desire is satisfaction in whatever lives they pursue. Some of them feel that this satisfaction can be achieved through money. Hence all their efforts are focussed towards getting a prime job. But money is only a superficial reason for this transition.

Through all the academic years it is simply assumed that the students will compete against each other and hence will mutually benefit in the process. Their learning process will be automatically accelerated, and all of them will perform at their best. But the concerned people do not understand that the priorities of the students have changed drastically. They are no longer interested in petty academic rivalries (though some still take pleasure in such pursuits). All they want now is to be satisfied about the job they have taken up. This can be possible only if they know that they have done a good job. And it will be possible for them to do a good job only if they understand their job thoroughly. Which seldom happens.

It has always been the case that the education we get through our system is in bits and pieces. We do not notice this in our school years since our driving reasons for learning totally surpass any inhibitions that might come in the way. But right from the beginning our learning is in fragments. We start learning our written scripts when we have no idea about its uses. We learn math at an age when we have no idea what we are going to be doing with it. At those times, we go along with the crowd, for we do not think for ourselves what the benefits of these learnings are going to be. This fragmentation is inevitable, since we cannot expect 3 yr old kids to grasp the full implications of learning a written script, or learning how to add two numbers, and yet the age of 3 years is perfect to start learning these things for only in that way will the kids be able to efficiently finish their learning by the time they are adults and ready to enter civilization.
The amount of knowledge a person has to know is simply too vast to be covered at the time when he/she can grasp its implications. Hence it is logical to begin by teaching the basic and simplest things first, and then go on increasing in complexity. In the beginning the students have no problems learning what they are being taught. However they start asking questions as to why they are learning what they are learning, and what are going to be its benefits. And they are no longer satisfied by the standard reply - "You are not mature enough to understand the importance of this knowledge yet, but you will understand it later". Unfortunately, its too late by the time this 'later' really does arrive. The people see no reason in learning what they are being taught, and so they do not learn. This leads to their loss of interest, and hence, the consequent effects, which are well known.

Thus, I conclude that the education system needs to be reformed. There are those people who have their interests clearly defined, and who have an idea what the ends to their learning are going to be. But the majority have to realise the benefits of their learning, through its constant application. They need to be shown how they will be using the knowledge they are now pursuing, through real-life examples, or simulations, or any suitable techniques. People have now opened their eyes and now routinely question the superstitions and beliefs that have been hitherto practiced. Now they also question their learnings and its true uses. They no longer oblige to undergo learning so blindly as they always have. They must be provided the answers.

Two quotes that seem ideal here :-

"The best way to learn a job is on the job".

"Understanding is a delaying tactic. Do you want to understand swimming or do you want to swim?"