Julian Assange: Why the world needs WikiLeaks

Nehru and his relevance today

Nehru was certainly a great man. I don’t have to say this. Most of our country’s renowned political analysts and thinkers have said this. He needs
no mention. He was one of the first prime ministers of India and a true statesman. He was an intellectual,a negotiator,a diplomat and a man who chronicled his life in books and letters. He was one of India’s most intellectual if not educated prime ministers. His quotes and writings are often said to be for a matured audience and an audience that understands issues that are of global significance and the impact that these had on India. What captures the imagination of people about Nehru was that he was a man of words,a man of style and elegance. Nehru’s much talked about affair with Lady Mountbatten has been written by many and even showcased in movies.

Nehru wrote books,something not all politicians would try their hand at. He wrote the ‘Discovery of India’ which chronicled the history of India unto the freedom struggle and then to independence. It was his book ‘Glimpses of world history’ that really captured the attention of a Global audience and made Nehru a figure. Becoming the first prime minister of India and the new beginning of the post colonial era made Nehru a figure but Nehru’s struggle to develop India and transform its image continued to be a tough job. Nehru was one of the Prime ministers of India who wrote own his own the ‘The tryst with Destiny’ speech and read it to an audience that would begin a new era on the 15^th of August 1947.

An important point about Nehru was that he lacked nationalism which other contemporaries of his times didn’t.

Nehru was not populist unlike Gandhi because of which he didn’t strike a chord with the masses like Gandhi. While Gandhi might have preached the philosophy of Satyagraha,Nehru was a man who never spoke much on religion and spoke more on the strategic aspects that affected our lives. He was a true policy decision maker. He believed that both capitalism and communism are a means to an end as seen in recent times. From being a socialist economy we shifted our business and economic model to a capitalist way of functioning but capitalism too bought with it various problems that the government did little to deal with.

Nehru envisaged an India that was prosperous and free from poverty but the very vision of Nehru has been tarnished by the current administrative system. India continues today to be a third world country. The economics of a country like India is bipolar because we have acute poverty and then we have people who have everything. The bipolar economics is irrespective of the growth rate or the GDP. Today while a section of society is being featured on the Forbes list,a section of the India society is starving. The figures of the World bank and other organizations have proved this.

The philosophy and economic geniuses that our country has produced can give a solution too many to solve our problems both socioeconomic in nature but a will to implement these strategies is essential. In a consumerist India we need policies that are beneficial to the the poor,the middle class and the rich. There has certainly been a decline in mediocre people becoming politicians. There is a dearth of good politicians. No longer do people from mediocre and educated backgrounds enter into politics but it is the uneducated people with a criminal background armed with money from the black economy who are entering into politics.

If Nehru is remembered and followed I am sure our country shall benefit .Each of us can set an example to follow but if all of us are busy setting examples than I am afraid what Nehru said is of little significance.

A lensatic Compass can change your Address

Living in India and more so in Bombay many of our Roads have East and West directions but no North and south. Get out of a Railway station and you’ll find a East and a West but no North and South. This Seems Ridiculous, every other place here has a East and a West but no North and South.
Now

I did a small investigation after buying a Lensatic Compass(same as pictured above).I went about some places with it and found that actually the Road named as East(direction) is actually South and the Road named as West would be North.

So this should apply to any place in Bombay. Our addresses and roads are not geographically correct. Our Municipal authorities and Railway authorities’ don’t take the pains to make the addresses according to directions seen on a Lensatic compass but instead name roads as East and West Blindly. This seems to be done for pure convenience which seems to be absurd. If one has a compass one should be able to find his way to any place that seems to be the norm worldwide but not here in Bombay. I am not sure about this in other parts of India. But I feel the Municipal authorities ought to do something about this. They must change the names of the Roads. This will make result in a change in our maps because if we go by the Mariners Compass or the Lensatic Compass then most addresses would change.

 

Why I hate Facebook?

Well There are something’s I hate one of them being Facebook.I  hate to admit this in social circles but yes I hate Facebook and I hated it since its inception.I hate its Founder,Mark Zuckerberg and I am also against those who use Facebook as a style statement. I am in favor of those nations which have gone out to ban Facebook.I am democratic and in favor of a mixed economy.I favour Liberalization and Globalisation but not Facebook.

But Facebook I believe is a tool of the masses.I have always faced problems with Facebook because some of the many of my relationships doomed because of Facebook. If not for Facebook I would have kept those friendships intact. Also Facebook is a great spying tool. It is against privacy and doesn’t embrace privacy laws at all. One is certainly free not to use Facebook.
The problem with the Facebook generation is that they have forgotten the miseries of the world and are escaping it to get into what is called a mini-opium den of the masses what i believe to be worse than TV.TV is packaged content from a bunch of media professionals but on Facebook each one of us wants to be a star and each one of us struggling to create our identity and more so a fake one in the social media sphere
Besides I have always had problems with Facebook and I do agree that Facebook has help me connect with long-lost friends but so will twitter or Google +.Now Facebook is a devil in my opinion and has always turned Away lady luck on me. All this sounds irrational but is true in my context.The day I chatted on Facebook the very next day or the days to follow seem to be bad days and I often end up cursing Facebook, the medium.
According to Marshall McLuhan, the medium is sometimes as important as the message. I am a lover of twitter and have been using the network since 2010.I am active tweeter, have had many accounts.
Facebook is merely a consumerist medium for companies to sell their products and to people to show off the better side of their life to others. It is a tool for company’s marketing their products. Look at the number of websites that are now integrated with Facebook, look at sites like mashable that give Facebook News and look at all those people of this generation for whom Facebook is another part of their life. It would be unimaginable for all these people to live a life without Facebook. The streets would be filled with people shoving their photos and screaming without knowing where to channelize their energy. It is sad that our likes and dislikes can be lied upon on a site like Facebook by simply clicking the like button on the page of the brand, product, and celebrity. It is very easy for one to fake these things. What one may actually like might be very different from what he actually endorses
Giants like Google have been good media companies that have promoted literacy through their search engine but sites like Facebook might have sparked off the Arab spring (I give that credit to twitter) but are a threat to The age-old values and the very foundations of mankind or may be even the way the world works. People like Mark Zuckerberg will continue to make money for every new Facebook account and for every like that you thumbs up on Facebook.

But  we are not becoming more sophisticated or losing our inhibitions or for that matter forming opinions, we are simply shaping our lives and giving it a color that is hazardous and getting caught by a contagious disease that most of us relish and that disorder is called Facebook.I must say that his is the place I can rant about Facebook.I cant do this on Facebook.

Open letter to Kapil Sibal

I am writing this letter keeping a variety of issues I feel you need to address.The government needs a lot of lawyers Mr. Sibal and that too those who can be legal eagles like you so that arm twist the hands of sites like Facebook if they cant protect the privacy of their users .

I guess you guys and gal(s) who preside over meetings at 10,Janpath over god knows what need to realise that Facebook is an indian disease that needs powerful vaccines which your government is researching under various ministries.Please realise that a world without such sites is what our politicians might have envisaged but these sites brought to the fore what people think and dont think about the government and I realise that you need to take notice of both.Enacting Laws like SOPA and PIPA would have been altogether different with the internet and the amount of Piracy it generates with online piracy it generates because only if you took notice of pirated books that were sold on the road and the one you would be writing very soon.Make sure you propagate it through legal means and not through pirated book sellers.

Mr.Sibal.Everyone is scared of you because you gag people too easily.But we certainly need laws related to the internet.Some sort of copyright laws like SOPA and PIPA that would curb the amount of Piracy.I request you look at burning issues like piracy than look at who is speaking against you.It makes more sense in that way if a ruler would curb the piracy in his kingdom

My humble request to you to bring laws on social networking sites that would not censor theem but rather make them a better place.Lunch is never Free Mr.Sibal and a growing tribe of netizens needs to realise this and who better than you Mr.Sibal can enact laws that would curb piracy.Controlling corruption is in the hands of the People,we know how to arm twist the government  but please at least bring laws on the internet that would curb piracy

Open letter to our Leaders

Dear Leaders,

There was a time when we looked up to our leaders with fear, inspiration and hope. But times have changed. Now we look up at our leaders with contempt, hatred and fear. Fear can be of many instances and with time the nature of our fear which we look up to you too has changed. Today the fear of our Leaders stems from the fact whether we could be taken advantage of or whether our leaders might orchestrate anything that goes against public interest.

.In 2010 we had Wikileaks which opened the robes of superpower America even though the price to pay was heavy. But that has not stopped the fact that people will go against governments and the very fundamental religious axiom that when there is misuse of power there will be a force of oppression that comes to resist its misuse.

2011 has been a different year with person’s world over going against their leaders that comes from a feeling of repression and years of oppression. Especially during the Arab Spring in the Middle East, we saw what happened to Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and Qaddafi in Libya. None of the Leaders could stand the resistance that came their way.

Our Leaders too must realize that any amount of playing games with people will not go for long. We know that those sitting in Parliament and not necessarily those of the congress party are corrupt. I do not like to typecast the congress as a corrupt party because we know that in a democracy like India our Representatives no longer remain our representatives they represent their own views and ideologies. What happens in Parliament is often a well orchestrated stunt with most ministers playing to the gallery of the Camera/Live TV.

We certainly need reforms in our country. It would be idealistic to say that corruption is an Indian phenomenon, but the earlier we eschew with it the better. Our lives would certainly become more difficult without corruption because we wouldn’t be able to getaway everywhere with paying bribes. But the need of the hour is anything that eschews corruption and other forms of vices infecting the government, lest we bloggers and activists start calling the political class a douche bag because this country is very tired and sad of the way in which things have been running. While common man is effected, he doesn’t care to raise his voice because corruption has infected us like an epidemic with We literally endorsing it because the system has become like a rusted iron that needs replacement or certainly some reforms which will make it easy for the poor and the middle class to not catch this super bug of Indian origin which certainly emanates for your honorary top order.

I request you to see yourself in the mirror and understand that putting up a veil on your face doesn’t make you any good in the Parliament just like putting up make-up, mascara only ends up making you masquerade in front of educated Indians on TV while the rest are tuning to Chikni Chameli on some channel. It’s a well-known fact that you gifted orators end up arguing like school children in a Elocution competition but you need to realise that mere debating is a great entertainer on Loksabha TV but all this in vain as we end up with no reforms in governance as we see you orchestrate your debates to suit your needs, not ours

I want to tell you that you might have what it takes to run a country despite some bad track records because we know that you are truly special and that what makes you a parliamentarian but trying to keep the people in the dark like you do in your own federal states is one great reform in your favor.

P.S (Post script): My letter does not go to any party in general but to all parliamentarians who are masquerading and doing malice to one and all

–Nobody but Somebody

Gandhigiri is a marketing gimmick

“Why are we immortalizing Gandhi?”This is not a statement but a question. He is found everywhere and has become a popular figure in the media. His name is used in the media too often by those who might want to associate with his image of Truth, freedom, celibacy and non-violence. Gandhi has become a brand to the extent that expensive pens are released in his remembrance. Recently Mont Blanc released a series of Signature Gandhi pens. A number of books including a compilation of his letters, teachings, biography have been written on him and his autobiography has been translated into a number of languages. Though in recent times it is Hitler’s Mein Kampf that has outsold Gandhi’s “My experiments with truth”. First written in Gujarati the autobiography was translated into English by Mahadev Desai.

What I said might sound sarcastic and that Gandhi has been stereotyped and has really swept into oblivion. It can be described as nothing but a plain type of ignorance that is seen among the Indian mindset to not accept Gandhian principles though he might be called the father of the nation. The History textbooks have immortalized him and not to forget that the books have also exploited the term Gandhi. This exploitation led to the inception of a course started by a number of universities in India who coined the term Gandhian Philosophy. Thus we have seen a number of people have taken the course.

Gandhi is on every Indian rupee note. His statues are erected in India and world over.

But as we have seen gandhigiri has become more of a marketing gimmick with more and more people joining the Gandhi bandwagon. Anna Hazare has been touted as the new Gandhi of India with books released on him too. But as Indians how many of us have really understood Gandhi’s teachings and well acquainted with it? Though we relate to Gandhi most of us don’t really understand his teachings. It can also be said that most of his teachings are imposed upon us through various mediums like Textbooks, the media, etc. In other words gandhigiri and Gandhi-ism has become a marketing gimmick to subvert our repression against the governments wrongdoing which is all satyagraha is all about. Besides Gandhi also preached socialistic principles at his times and we are living in an era of consumerism and budding capitalism with profit being the sole goal of society. With Globalization shadowing upon us Gandhi might only be only a holisitc maxim not the principle on which our economy is based on.

My discussion here opens scope for a book I can’t write and goes beyond the scope of this blog.

Open letter to Aamir Khan

Dear Aamir

Oh no! I’ll call you sir

Ok anyway Aamir. They say there are some people who stand up in the film industry when no one else does and that is you. You are the quintessential guy who can do everything from endorsing brands and remaking films (after buying their copy rights) to making bold political statements which I wonder if you really stand for or mock at?

Well Aamir. You are one powerful person with sensitiveness of an artist. There is this big Fan brigade who have their khan camps who fight wars. Before it used to be the Germans and the Jews, then came cold war. Now it’s the Khans. They’re all over television and the papers. They make statements which the media goes gaga over as if it will spark off some war. They are endorsing every brand and they are also laughing their way to the bank; No one else but the Khans.

Aamir, I guess your name should have been Amir. But these days everyone’s playing with numbers and numerology so I guess may be aamir adds up to some lucky number and that is why its Aamir and not amir. Devgan has become Devgn.I thought it was a spelling mistake but then it was later clarified that it had a numerological significance.

You also shot to fame with Taare Zameen Par until all the stars really came down and everyone who failed in school or college had a good reason to give they learned from your movie: dyslexia; besides everyone was also exhibiting that funky hairstyle you sported in the movie. Again in Ghajini you suffered from Memory loss after your brief stint with Dyslexia in Taare Zameen Par .Well everyone other than Bollywood claims that Surya did a better job than you in the Tamil version of the movie. I saw the movie and I am of the same opinion but I understand that when you’re catering to such a large audience it’s bound to occur unlike catering to an intellectual Tamil speaking audience. I now request you to make many more movies on such many such disorders which appear in the dictionary of the APA (American Psychological Association).I believe that movies on subjects like Amnesia and Dyslexia must not be populist as they are bound to be misinterpreted by audiences. They must be made with care and not played with but I must say these populist movies have done enough for creating awareness that such disorders do exist in a country and that they might require counseling.

I want to congratulate you for immediately sporting a handlebar moustache after a clean-shaven look in Three Idiots.

Three idiots was a good movie to watch. I believe my eyes,they dont lie.You were not a twenty year old. Make up does all the magic while you walk home with the awards just because politicians like to walk to parliament with the votes.

——–Your Friendly movie goer and critic at heart

iPhone,Computers and the bygone era

I recently bought a Samsung QWERTY phone.Now let me tell you how the times without the iPhone were very different.

1. iPhone’s are still expensive;Land line Phones were Cheap enough for everyone

2.People had real sex not that sex in the chat rooms.

3.People were smart;Phones weren’t

4.I would be knowing my arithmetic tables byheart and not use a calculator

5.Postal services would still be more active than before and i wouldn’t be sending mails and SMS’s

6.There would still have been Proof Readers in Editorial departments

7.We wouldn’t have had computerized billing

8.We wouldn’t have had phone banking

9.2G scam wouldn’t have been unearthed,thanks to iPhone tapping

10.I wouldn’t be blogging here

Open letter to Anna Hazare

Dear Annaji;

You have been made into a hero; indeed hailed a hero by sections of the media and the people of this country who see you as a boon to this country and worship you like a god who will put an end to corruption like Blitzkreig(lightning war).I see no reason why they can’t at this hour when a lot of people in the country have come together to throw light and understand the effects of corruption. People of this country are very innocent and do not understand Law or engineering like an internet audience or the disturbing cacophony of a Facebook audience who understand and are obsessed with few words like “Anna”, ”Corruption”, etc. They are tightlipped when asked about the Lokpal bill or seem to hate the political class itself and is in its own trance of music and dance which it never seems to leave

Anna ji what you need to understand is that just like corruption which was born over a period of time from a tyranny of rulers doesn’t end with a threatening fast against  political parties who have deemed you as Pro-Hindu and Anti-muslim again showing that every party and government in this country has played religious politics.

However Mr.Annaji the way in which one abuses his own body must know its limits. When a person is hooked on to alcohol for a long period of time he is advised by well wishers to quit alcohol. Similarly when the fight for corruption becomes a necessity but eventually gives away to destruction of one’s own body it must be discontinued. It is written in the Bhagwad Gita that a man who fasts in a way that he harms his own body does not please god .Lord Krishna says so in his conversation with Arjuna the archer in the Bhagwad Gita.

Similarly Annaji while many people in this country are helpless about corruption there are legal recourses to corruption which can be solved through judicial activism which sadly people of this country never take recourse to owing to reasons I may not be aware of. We would love to see you fighting a corrupt government as long as you live. Limiting yourself to your own ideas on corruption is bad. Various activists all over the world have (their own) methods of fighting corruption but must be open to ideas.

Mr.Anna ji I urge you to end your fast. They say that the pen is mightier than the sword but in the world of i-pad and blackberry it has proved otherwise with a generation of ignorant and arrogant youth. Setting deadlines on the government difficult to all of us make us anarchies country (we have always been that).

My humble request to you as your team’s supporter to end the fast understanding the consequences both team Anna and common man will face