I try to say a lot while saying very little. Get used to it.
Posts tagged controversy
changing india
Dec 7th
Posted by SEV in staying.thoughts
it is now widely accepted that the “resilience” or the “spirit” that we have lauded so much in the past is a myth that most people have stopped believing in. people are angrier this time round, if anything, the attacks supposedly have fewer people asking for mourning, and more people asking ‘when will we make them mourn this day?’
but do we really think this can happen? do we believe india will manage to bring terrorists to justice? do we believe that india can prevent any more terror attacks?
not really. as everyone unanimously tends to agree around their tables, india can never change.
sailesh made a valid point that we need to change before we can expect anything else to change. and given a chance, most people will actually agree with this ideology. however, given the fact that the large majority will not change right now, we too will not change right now. the circular reasoning is perfect. and the state of affairs go on as they always have.
more than one person refuses to discuss the matter. i cannot censure them for this, every discussion that we have ever indulged in has been academic. we talk, and then we go back to living our lives. can anyone really be blamed for doing this? the days of the selfless person – the person who lives for others first, and later himself – are long over. discussions should lead to action, but today – when i sit in the US arguing over dinner as to why india’s foreign policy has always sucked – i know, as does everyone else, that there is very little chance that what we talk about will ever leave the dinner table. on the one hand we know that only we who have experienced the crap that is the indian life, can actually do anything about it. on the other hand, we have way too many other things to involve us: our careers, our significant others, our gadgets, everything else.
i complain that the president is uneducated, that politicians by-and-large rarely study beyond school, but i will not enter the system myself. i shouldn’t have to, politics is not for everyone. is there any real way in which i can ensure that the candidates i vote for are worthy of my vote?
there were an interesting set of initiatives talked about in this NYT article: to some extent, people are appearing to realize that such a system can only be reformed by the people themselves. on the other hand, the article also talked about how the average person only talks, in the end, he will still bribe his traffic havaldar. i have done similar things too, i could justify it as my token of appreciation for someone who did their job properly at the RTO.. but i know that this is the behaviour that starts the slippery slide. the large majority are now tired of the state of affairs, as evidenced by comments on the previous post. but they also believe that everything is a sham, and nothing can be done about anything.
change is a funny thing in these circumstances.. we say we want things to change, but we also worry about what that change will mean for us. no more getting away with traffic violations. no more parking anywhere anyhow. no more getting official permits without having to go through the process of application. and then people have the right to want everyone to toe the line. “why catch only me now? first catch all those people who got it done illegally and then come to me. then don’t let those people in power get it done illegally. when you’re done with all that come back to me. in the meanwhile give this to me now.”
the fact of the matter is that we want someone else to get things changed without having to change much ourselves. we laud systems “abroad” while, as we have all repeated at dinner tables, the only difference is that people respect the system “abroad”. somehow this never applies when one is in india. simply because the large uneducated majority does not do much by the book, the educated minority does nothing either. we each have about 300 billion peeves with the way things do not happen in india, and believe that nothing can be done by us about even one of those peeves. our solutions generally range the gamut: from stopping the payment of taxes to endorsing president’s rule to simply getting rid of all politicians.
i remember arguing once with friends about how nothing could ever change in india. there was a point at which i believed nothing could ever change in india. today, i cannot believe this. the fact of the matter is that we don’t really want anything to change. we would rather mourn the dead, lament our fates, express disgust at a broken system, and then go back to systematically ensuring that it happens again. those people held at gunpoint that day, those soldiers and civilians who died: every one of us is as responsible as the politicians and the system we persist in blaming for their murder.
i know, it is easy to say such things sitting in a faraway country. to talk about living within the indian system when i am not actually having to practice what i preach. unfortunately, all i can do right now is talk. its the only way i know of ensuring that the indian in me will change.
do dark times really lie ahead ?
Dec 5th
Posted by SEV in staying.thoughts
after reading this, a question that has been hovering at the back of my head begs analysis.
i’ve spoken about it before as well, and even if i have been disparaging about the reaction of people to a lot of the mails i have received, some current developments mean second thoughts should be had. if not third.
orkut is, and always has been very open in terms of structure: everyone finds everyone, meets anyone, can read about anyone, can add anyone. the concept was that you would not invite someone you do not know to orkut. however, making gmail – and hence orkut – available to anyone kinda kicks that idea in the teeth. orkut is not the “trusted circle” of friends they call themselves anymore. the effect is already seen – fake profiles are created for every possible misuse – whether slander, paedophilia, or just a misguided sense of fun.
scraps are literally meant to be ’scraps’: pointless tid-bits. and should be used that way. people misuse them, talk about everyone on them – there will be consequences to acting thoughtlessly. i think orkut scraps were designed to be quick ‘hey-how-are-you’ messages, not personal ads. or long messages about the self. are we still worried about the content being publicly accessible? delete all scraps. i have nearly 2000, would keeping them help me? i think not. deleted.
how restrictive is orkut when it comes to details ? you can choose who can see what, some generic details are open to all. those details, i should think, are pretty common. or obvious. religion, language, books, music.. these are shared by a wide majority. i see now that ‘google talk id’ is common knowledge – i.e. can be seen by everyone – which is stupid. can i change that ? only if i disable google talk+orkut. which is pointless integration i have come to believe. disabled.
i’m not saying that these are the only issues, there are more which i may be skipping over. when they do occur to me, there will be updates. the point is that this source of possible privacy breach can be controlled to some extent.
now, for the question of whether its safe at all. there are two parts to it. the first depends on what level i stop at for restricting privacy. the second is pertaining to how far misuse by a third party affects me.
today, having an online presence is a matter of choice. on the internet, i have currently chosen to maintain a fairly public blog, a photo album, profiles on various forums, a social networking presence, and email. the blog is easily found when searched on any search engine – and has enough detail about me to identify me. is that safe ? not exactly, if someone means to do harm by using information about me, against me. but that was a choice i made when i associated my blog with me. my other presences aren’t as public, but can be found if needed. the bottom line is that once you decide to exist online, you have to decide where you draw the line of privacy when it comes to publicly accessible knowledge. not so publicly accessible knowledge – that is the gray area. google is a repository for a lot of my data – my mail, my notes, my calendar, my photos and so on. do i trust google enough to not misuse this information ? i have to. or else i don’t use the service. the same logic applies to semi-public information e.g. orkut. i have to trust that google, amazon, paypal, ebay and so many other services i use everyday will not decide they can do whatever they want with all that information.
the fine print of any online service would yield some very scary codicils. yahoo and msn are supposed to have clauses that say any work transmitted via them becomes their property. orkut retains some rights over what information you put up on it. bloglines has some kind of rights over the content of feeds you access via their interface. and so on.
when you decided to get an online presence – and that includes an webmail account – you decided you trust someone with all that information. that google is trying to centralize all your online information, and doing it successfully, doesn’t make them the big bad wolf… it makes them the smartest of all the little piggy online services out there.
misuse of my information that is accessible by someone else – the question is who.. and what. orkut ? i believe its just a neat way of keeping in touch. say, i see a profile of someone else, and from what i know of the person, the data appears fake – am i really going to change my opinion of that person ? companies will not use data they found on orkut as a metier of the person. if they do, their HR department has to be the worst in the world. if people i don’t know – and will not meet – see a fake profile of me – does their opinion of me affect me ? if they are willing to form an opinion of me without ever meeting me/emailing me/chatting with me, what does that say about them ? communities exist that degrade others, but then they exist in real life – and have way more effect than on orkut, of all places.
as far as other online services i use go, they probably contain a lot more personal and sensitive information than i would like to admit. however, i either trust their assurances and use them. or i don’t use anything online at all.
dark times lie ahead, true. too many people use things they have no idea about. or have the inclination to learn about. they will allow problems to develop, maybe even cause them through misuse, and then cause devolution.
and thats the part i hate the most.
encephalous leadership
Jul 18th
Posted by SEV in staying.general
i had no idea this happened, but greatbong kinda summarizes anything i have to say on the topic.
just for comparison, an observation by suyog.
its simple really. sometimes, we indians just suck.
now, i’m really feeling it
May 25th
Posted by SEV in staying.in.my.head
when i heard that reservations are official, the feeling of deja vu; that feeling of doom hit me.
but then i figured that it doesn’t really matter… protests will happen, hunger strikes and everything; and eventually it’ll all die down.time heals; i think. or makes you apathetic and cynical.
thats how it works. all over the bloody planet.
not.
IIT-bombay students, people i know, are on hunger strikes. doctors are still on strike. medical students in delhi are protesting actively, preventing interviews; making themselves heard. rallies. door-to-door canvassing. everything possible.
the country is not giving up.
and even as i type this, goosebumps prickle, spirits rise – i want to be there, i want to strike, to protest; to make myself heard.
a spirit that used to exist in india, that fuelled a revolution 50 years ago has received a shot of adrenalin. i thought indians have become apathetic, given up on a system that has been systematically taken apart; away from its original ideas – that does not work anymore.
apparently not.
inquilab is back.
inquilab zindabad.
the leader behind it all..
May 23rd
Posted by SEV in staying.aside
ladies and gentlemen, the man who decided that reservations are the solution to the upliftment of the “backward classes”.
Arjun Singh’s Interview
Please, read, download, laugh, and get scared. get very scared. this is the typical leader of the country.
i am so, so proud.
there are no words
May 16th
Posted by SEV in staying.thoughts
not my style, this. but nevertheless, i have been inspired. let me try.
a pretty decent coverage of what i’m talking about is here.
from the facts i know of, the proposal for reservation in indian colleges happened about a month ago. i remember getting agitated over the fact that premier institutes in the country were going to have to admit students who were just not upto the standard that they stood for. online petitions, arguments with friends, i was getting heated up.
then news. reservations are old hat. politically motivated vote attractors. long ago (i’m talking 10-odd) there were similar proposals for the private sector of the industry. booted out eventually, once the elections were over. i don’t have a problem with that. votes, politics, politicians – they all suck.
apparently, i might be wrong.
in addition to reservation in education, there was one for the india inc. and funnily enough, india inc said they don’t mind these as such.. at the discretion of the company. it fell through, once this admission was made. the seeds have been sown. stats show that merit-based employment in companies doesn’t mean that backward castes do not get jobs. the probabilities are similar. backward castes have a slightly higher chance of not getting a job – 3%. reservation doesn’t make the odds at par, it makes it lop-sided in their favour. essentially meaning, if i am from a backward caste; i do not have to be as good as as someone who is non-backward caste.
the one for education though, is to become law. now, speaking as a student who is has to obtain anything he wants on merit; it is more than a little ridiculous. an opinion shared. so the polls were finished, and there was no sign of retreat in reservation. protests happened. repulsed with lathi charges. doctors dragged in the dust. beaten up. this is fact.
not according to the police. the first statements were issued. students were not lathi-charged. then, they were lathi charged because they were planning to mob the raj bhavan. then, that force had to be used because they were breaking in.
protests are still happening. the reaction is minimal. news of protests outside his house, meant that the CM in mumbai decided to go to shirdi. and the government is still committed. my guess is its a matter of pride now. very much like the british and the “quit india” movement of 1942.
the point ? facts and figures show enough that the reservation will not solve the problem, if there is any to start with. reservations means molly-coddling a populace which needs a kick up its butt to get any work done in the first place. they mean that the populace that can get things done is not going to be allowed to, because they are the only ones to get things done anyway. from the point of view of empowerment, the fact that the so called open category is less than 20% of the country says a lot. “brahmins”, who are supposedly the worst offenders make up 3%. no reservation. the 80% of the country that doesn’t want to improve their lot need not perform even as half as well as the rest; and should be given every oppurtunity to show they cannot perform.
i have studied in india. i have seen how students admitted under reservation perform. 90% of them cannot. and the 10% that do, would be able to obtain a seat based on merit.
a stop-gap solution invented 50 years ago for a newly born nation is to be made permanent. for the sake of politics.
its a question that comes up when we talk here. would any of us, who talk, want to enter the system ? reform it ?
the answer, not surprisingly, is no. its too dirty for us to want to clean it ourselves. so all our empty talk, is just that: empty words.
if i was in india, today, now, working; watching this destruction of the possibilities my country could have in the future (read reservations and protests); what would i do ? would i turn a blind eye ? would i be charged up enough to face being lathi-charged ? or would i do what i’m doing here, condemning crap with more crap ?
i don’t know.
and neither does anyone i ask this to.
as the title says, there are no words.
or, there are only words.
[ all blame for this can be attributed to:
(02:13:39) Raghu: you are wrong
(02:13:47) Raghu: unless you feel what you write no one will
(02:13:57) Raghu: i cant write for shit
(02:14:10) Raghu: thats why i am asking you to
(02:14:10) Raghu: consider yourself my proxy
thanks dude. in your honour.]
