Has India gone bonkers?

Telegraph Blogs: Peter Foster: May 2006: Has India gone bonkers?: "Your analysis of the social division is illuminating. I wonder how many people in India are as knowledgeable and eloquent as you are on this pressing matter. I so wish that the Indian media will take the bull by the horn and kill the ghost of prejudice, misjudgement and political maneuvering by nation wide open discussion, analysis and debate. People must comprehend the facts to be able to make rational judgement on such a controversial issue."

India going backward !!!

Reality Check India � OBCs are 52 % - give or take 230 million !!

Checkout the post on Sanskrit !!

A
day in the life of LIFE

Mr Techno !!!

What is RSI?

Of late I have been experiencing some pain in my wrists due to the way I type on my laptop. I have heard of this term called "Repetitive Stress Injury". Thought I should check out some information on the net about this and found this blog entry. Found it quite informative. Do have a look: Link to Scott Adams' blog (not the Dilbert Scott Adams, I presume). There's quite a lot of info on RSI and how we could avoid it. Google it and you'll find out.

Photography is still a mystery to me...

I bought my first camera, Canon EOS300 SLR in 2000. Since then, I must have taken loads of pictures, but I have really not taken the time to learn the art better. More often than not, I end up taking photos of some family functions/festivals/marriages and the like. However, I have also captured some really decent snaps from places in Karnataka, Europe, US and Israel. But after I got to see the photos in this collection, all my photography seems bland.
Check out this wonderful link on "My India" by a person called Claude. I think the photos have some of the best composition and color schemes I have ever seen. I am sure they would enthrall everyone who gets to see them. Hopefully, I will start using my cameras a little more creatively from now on.

Power Struggle !!

Please watch this really thought provoking video which depicts the perspective of school children on the Nuclear tests that India and Pakistan conducted sometime back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7mWPR0JAi8

My thoughts kind of mirror those that you see in this video. Politicians from both these nations are playing over the minds of the innocent public and are raising passion on things unimportant to the common man. What the common man needs is not bombing the enemy but to have a good infrastructure in place for the economy to grow, to get adequate food and other necessary items, to have the best schooling/university system, to have sufficient employment for one and all to prosper.

My thoughts however are not limited to just India and Pakistan. I would say, no Country has a right to hold the other countries at ransom using their nuclear capabilities. Why is it that a few nations get to keep their nuclear weapons while all others are being forced to get rid of them. There must be a common scale to measure all nations. I understand that there must be some defensive force in place in case some rogue nation develops technology with the intent of harming other countries. But this is precisely why the "United Nations" was formed, if I understand right. UN is supposed to have the capability to deter all such malicious intentions. But the UN should be powerful enough so as to not let a few "powerful" countries like US make decisions that would harm the prospects of the other countries.

We are all seeing a growing trend in increased petroleum rates, our over dependence on individual modes of transport which adds pressure on the already low inflow of petroleum, increased temperatures, increase in power requirements for various activities etc.

What we need is a solution that addresses most of these concerns. I feel that the solution should be two-fold.
One, the people should try to lessen their power requirements by optimizing their way of work. Secondly, alternative sources of power will need to be explored to fulfill the growing demand.

One source of power that seems to be tenable is Civilian nuclear power of course. I would say, India is moving in the right direction on this issue.

(i will write abt this a little more.. i got to go now)

A video on Cisco as well !

Vande Mataram a few other good videos

An Inspiring video of - sung by Lata Mangeshkar, in her beautiful voice.





Peugot - The Sculptor

A young sculptor in India calls on his talents, dedication and local wildlife to help realize his dream of owning a Peugeot 206. Such a big animal, such a small car!




Bill Gates goes to college !

Bush meets Bush - a funny video

Wonderful post -- a good read!!

Hallucinations!: An open request from a Bangalorean.

Bangalore does it RIGHT !

After looking at the various posts and discussions on topics related to the bangalorean-outsider, kannadiga-non kannadiga, north indian-south indian, IT and non-IT sector debates, I feel that people are clearly frustrated at the system and they really don't have much against the people. But you may say that in a democratic setup, "people" are the "system". Ideally, it should have been. But for some reasons, we see that the system seems to be failing. It's prudent if we try to analyse the state of the democratic system in our country, find the issues that seem to be causing hindrances to the growth of the system, isolate them and put in a fix so that the system gets on track. I am sure that every sane INDIAN would agree with me on this. So, let's stop all cribbing and get serious about the solution.

Recently, I had been to an "Influencing people" workshop. One of the first things the instructor spoke about was the "zone of influence". Let me go deep a little on this. Try to make a list of people/situations on which you have complete influence (i.e where you can control the situation/person). Then list out some where you have a limited influence. Finally, list some where you have absolutely no control.

After you have these 3 lists, try comparing with what I tell you next. You have absolute control over only one person, that is you. You have some limited influence over a few people. You have absolutely no influence over nature and totally unrelated people/situations.

So, as you can see, cribbing is no solution. You can certainly influence other people (the government, the locals, people from outside staying in Bangalore etc), however, you can completely influence or control ONLY yourself. So, unless you start doing things right, you have no moral right to question others and crib about the entire system as YOU are part of the same system.

Let's start something constructive but let's keep the goal smaller - let's do it in Bangalore first. Let's make Bangalore a model city by doing things properly. If atleast, we do it correctly, others will follow. Let's take a pledge that "I will be right, no matter what others do". Slowly but surely, we will definitely see things improving.

We should call this campaign - "Bangalore does it RIGHT". (by it, i don't mean IT sector, the pun was unintended).

When I say Bangaloreans from now on, I mean whoever is living here NOW, no matter where he/she came from, regardless of his/her background.

Let's list down all the problems that Bangaloreans seem to be facing and see if I as an individual can do something about improving the state of the system and do it religiously.

Just as a representative set of problems, I am taking here "Traffic woes". We can build a huge list of topics/issues and see how an individual can contribute towards the solution.

1. Traffic - Bad roads
2. Traffic - People not following traffic signals properly.
3. Traffic - Motorcyclists riding on footpaths.
4. Traffic - Speeding cars and bikes
5. Traffic - Polluting vehicles
6. Traffic - Use of mobile phones while driving
7. Traffic - Only one person travelling in a car with 4+ seats and hence contributing to the congestion.
8. Traffic - Corrupt Traffic cops
9. Traffic - Motorists not allowing pedestrians to cross.
10. Traffic - People not following "one-ways".

I would say, we should create a website for this campaign, where each problem being faced by a Bangalorean gets listed. Let everyone give his/her opinion. Let some people take the responsibility of moderating this forum. So, we will have a list of problems alongwith what people collectively think the solution should be from an individual perspective - in a terse manner. We should then go ahead and draw up an awareness campaign wherein people will get educated. If only we can spend a few weekends doing this, we could do a lot.
I am sure this idea can be taken up in a big way, if only YOU contribute.

Based on the replies to this post, I am willing to start a website/forum using some freely available solution on the net). If someone has a better solution or is willing to provide some resources (time/effort/knowledge), I could work with you.

So, what do you say, BANGALOREANS ?