Criminals to be kept out of contesting polls?

Couple of years back I had put forward a proposal to keep out the netas that are convicted criminals in a lower court, from contesting polls. See my earlier post here .

Looks like someone got a better sense (thanks to Veerappa Moily) and the government is thinking of making this a law. See the TOI news piece here .

I am excited, even though it is still too early. But this law would go a long way in cleansing our political system. Hopefully somebody somewhere has not given up hope and fighting from within the government to save the future of India.

May it happen...!

Fearless cricket, what about a fearless life?

Heard Virendra Sehwag the other day after an IPL match,

'I told the boys to play fearless cricket'.

How simple, but profound! Sehwag's style has always been fearless, it has not worked in all matches for him. Given the success he had in international cricket so far, it is difficult to say that the odds of succeeding playing fearless cricket is low. If anything, he has done much better than some other methodical players who have always been afraid of losing their wicket and at some point in their career ended up losing their place in the elite class. Being fearless does not guarantee success, but does it guarantee peace of mind? At least for some?

Being fearless frees you from the burden of future, as you can't expect much and just take whatever comes along the way.

I wonder why it is so painstakingly frustrating to stop thinking about the future? That is where all the fear starts. What happens if I lose my savings some day? What happens if I catch an illness tomorrow that has no cure? What happens if something wrong happens on my way to office today?

Fear of unknown plays such a big part in our lives.

How I wish life was that simple and I could suggest somebody:

"Go out there into the big world and live a fearless life".

Alas, how I wish...

Three super successful men and learnings

Sachin Tendulkar, Amir Khan and A. R. Rahman - Every time I watch these there super successful legends, I notice three common traits:

Child like enthusiasm,
Profound love for work
Innocence and simplicity even in chaos

These must be important keys for success.

What is amazing is how these men have managed to maintain these traits over so many years of professional life, and every time can exhibit it, use it to their advantage. These are good lessons for me.

Let us say I am a software engineer, my day to day job is to find issues in code and fix them for a better experience of the customer. Or may be to come up with innovative solutions that a customer will find useful and save resources in the world of automation. How do I maintain same level of enthusiasm of finding or fixing a bug after so many years of programming? How do I go about thinking of a solution as if I am the only one who can solve the customer's problem best possible way - year after year, days after days of doing the same job ?

I have to be in love with every aspect of software engineering. I see that is the only way. That is my lesson - that is probably the easiest way to remain successful.

On the contrary, the lessons I learn from somebody like Himesh Reshammiya is - don't ever overestimate yourself. Never be proud that you are beyond your profession. One is limited by own powers, and at some point or other you are bound to run out of steam. The key to keep going is to find that self motivation to fall back in love with your work, once again - and to submit to that love instead of trying to conquer it.

What a simple way to live in harmony !

Thanks for those lessons Mr Tendulkar, Mr Khan and Mr Rahman - keep inspiring us...

Vedanta project and politics

All this news about Vedanta's bauxite mining project in Odisha coming to a halt really puzzles me. Was the Odisha state government blind ? Did they do nothing to consider this one year back ?

I am not saying all corporates are responsible enough towards the environment or the people involved. However, in a democratic and developing country with enough scientists and environmentalists around - can't the government find a way to mine in an environmental friendly way ?

And if it was purely environmental, why does Rahul Gandhi suddenly realize that the tribal people exist ? On one hand the central government says that the decision was NOT POLITICAL. But then why is a politician who is not involved in governance in any way decides to visit the area at a very crucial time ? Where was he one year back ? Where was and will be he when those people will go back to their daily struggles of gathering meager money to survive? Does he offer an alternative to them?

Can't the government enforce the mining is done in an environmental friendly way and ensure employment to the ones who would be losing their livelihood otherwise? Why is that every corporate establishment has to go through the political game instead of the governance game ?

It saddens me to no end to imagine that any industrial development will be delayed by at least another 5 or 10 years. I completely agree about protecting the environment, but the tribal people in Odisha need the money to come out of poverty. Some or other solution has to come out of it.

I wonder if the ministries can't afford few environmentalists and mining experts to sit together and form a guideline for mining in that area.

In our country, sad part is - while in government, people forget to do good governance, and continue to do politics.

Forest dwellers and the future that awaits

The other day I was reading this article about how the Odisha government has violated some parts of the protection for 'forest dwellers' in sanctioning land for the POSCO project. And that got me thinking ... in today's world, does it make sense to protect forest dwellers by preserving their natural habitat for their living?

How long can the natives continue to depend on the forest to earn their food and shelter? Is it sustainable? At some point or other, the industrialized and mechanized world will invade their space. And if they refuse to join the main stream, what have they gained? A status in museums ? Is that the right choice for them?

Can an Adivasi continue to sell 'kendua' and 'mahula' and have a better life?

Is not it better to give new opportunities to these people so that they can gel with the modern world - and learn the rules of the mainland they live in?

I am observing the popular media make them heroes and detest corporatism and industrialization. But do these gentlemen have an answer for the next 50 years? When an average child will be spending her time exploring the world through a computer, the Adivasi girl would still be hunting for firewood to help her mom cook food. Is that what the media envision for the Adivasis?

We have to remember the old colonization days - the British rule, they came from a mechanized world and took over our ancient civilization within no time. But we in India, should not draw parallel with that about the Government of India. The government is not perfect - but it does not have policies to colonize the forests. The only way going forward for preservation of forests and protection of forest dweller's interest is to let the government take steps in bringing in money so that these can be done in a systematic way.

All Adivasis are not visionaries, and the whole government is not evil.
Media needs to co-operate with the government in educating less aware people and explain the world's rules to them. We all have a responsibility to bring them into the modern world with grace so that the people don't suffer. After all, we are a self-ruled elected set of power holders - not some east India company employees.

And for god's sake, media needs to stop glorifying the anti-industry movements in Odisha. On one side they cry about Odish'a poverty, on other side they don't let any industrialization project proceed peacefully. Do they have a solution to offer to bring Odisha out of the poverty? Selling forest-originated biological materials is not enough - we have to sell our mineral resources - but in the process, gain maximum benefit so that at some point we become self sufficient in industries so that some alien organization is not giving us only a meager percent of what we deserve in terms of economic growth from our resources.

For heaven's sake - let some big industries come up in Odisha - that is going to be our only way of coming out of the sorry state of economic affairs. Ancient ways are not enough - we compete in a modern world and we need to stand up!

Yet another powerful person, corrupted. What else did you expect anyway?

This whole IPL corruption story was so expected, that it is almost boring.
See this news article on times of india for what I am talking about.

In a country like hours, where there are hardly any honest people in power positions, whenever you see money flowing all around - it is very natural to expect that some 'locha' is going on somewhere.

When was the last time we heard that some great business idea or political initiative was done purely for the sake of business? There are always people with vested interests, who just want the best thing for themselves or their family.

It is so very tiring to hear about yet another scandal.
How much is enough, really? And when will better sense prevail in the society!

The spiderman dialogue which I like very much - 'with great power, comes great responsibilities', does not seem to have gone down into any powerful person's head.

And for Mr Tharoor, he still has a lot to learn about Indian politics. There are numerous politicians sitting in the parliament having done enough 'ghotala' and still going strong. Sad thing for Tharoor is that, he could not handle such a small ghotala and was disgraced in public. He needs to learn better politics.

And there is no hapiness in saying that yet another corrupt minister is gone - because I am quite confident that all the rest of them are even more corrupt than Mr Tharoor.

Hmmm, it is so tiring, it is so so boring. Yaaawwwn....

Bring on some more sports on field - waiting for the IPL semis and final.
Cricket is better than the political game, anyday!

The principal who had not forgotten his adolescence

Continuing with my series of teasers...
Earlier one is Rebels and Results.

--
Polished leather boots always clamped his big toes. With such force he used to walk, the whole concrete corridor would shake like a wooden platform under pressure from a battalion of soldiers. Our principal was more like an army major than an electrical engineer. He had probably forgotten his casual student days. Hari used to claim that he must have been a strict disciplinarian during his college days - just like him. Nobody had the courage to ask him that and it remains a mystery to date.


Exactly at 8.05 AM he would start in his government white ambassador car. His driver was the only driver in that small town to be dressed like a typical Hindi movie car driver. Mr Nandi insisted that he be dressed that way or lose his job. I had this feeling that the driver also enjoyed this special status even though he criticized Mr Nandi behind his back.


At 8.10 AM the white ambassador will take a turn at the main gate and at 8.18 AM the heavy boots will start their long walk from principal’s room in the corner. By the time the sound of boots faded, there will be a list of teachers who missed their first class or came late. Other teachers, the old ones, the new ones and the lazy ones hated Mr Nandi. Nobody wanted to be in their first classes holding chalks by 8.20 AM. But if you missed one class, you will be summoned to principal’s room with the knowledge of all your students. Mr Nandi would just barge into the classroom and politely request the professor to see him after the class. The whole class would have this meaningful sarcastic smile filled with pity. The teachers had no choice but to be on time.

By the way, did I tell you about this ego fight among teachers about their positions, roles and promotions?

“No dad, not now! We see that in our college even today, please skip that!” My kids screamed in unison. “Okay, okay, let me go on…”

So, I went on, about Mr Nandi, whom, personally I considered as one of the best administrators I have seen in any academic institution.

He did his engineering from an IIT, the most premier engineering institute in India. IITians took a lot of pride in their “IITian” status. So, Mr Nandi, just like any other IITian, would not lose a single chance to enforce the fact that he was superior to all his peers, not only in position, but also as an engineer. Most of our teachers secretly admired IITians and always felt lacking in their technical knowledge even though that was not true for many of them.

Anyway, it is not about the teachers fight, I will reserve that for another day.

Kids, it is about how Mr Nandi had not forgotten about his college days.
And knew exactly what the students wanted.

Nevertheless, by his disciplinary actions over time, he had acquired a notorious reputation among his peers, and admiration from us students. That is because we realized that as long as he is at the helm, the college policies can only be student friendly as he understood our pulses.

During our first year in college, all of India saw a major student movement against Mr V. P. Singh’s plan to implement “Mandal Commission” recommendations. There were many deaths, student agitations reported from almost all colleges. And we were not to be left behind.

Among our seniors was Mr S. Shravan, a no-nonsense third year student who loved to remain in touch with contemporary affairs. I suspect he had a desire to be a student leader. But in an engineering college, nobody wants student leaders.

Unless the leader could convince the college management to spend good money to bring the prints of the latest movie for private screening.

OR

The leader could convince the ladies hostel matron to keep the visiting hours longer than usual on special days like Valentine’s day or Rakshya Bandhan. Oh yes, you heard me right, Rakshya Bandhan was a special day, even for the hot blooded teenagers, for specific reasons. Let me keep your curiosity burning for some more time kids.

Coming back to student leaders, certainly, nobody wanted a leader who was serious about making a point. Those kinds of student leaders, who later would play a bigger role in state or national level politics, are not found in engineering colleges. They are found mostly in Arts or Commerce colleges. In a way, the engineering students did not bother much about the country going to the hands of useless goons – as long as they were assured good jobs and nice social status in our poor country.

The general colleges that taught less job oriented courses, play bigger roles in manufacturing powerful leaders.

Shravan would find that out in a bitter way.

His dreams of making national news on Mandal Commission would remain unfulfilled.
Bcause Mr Nandi knew exactly what the students wanted and had not forgotten the days of his adolescence.

“Come on dad, no more build up please, tell us! …”

And I was thinking where I start about Shravan’s heartbreak. I admired the guy, his focus and dedication for the bigger roles in life. And I was one among the culprits, that guilt will only burn with me on my last day.