Manmohan Singh

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There they have it. India's next prime mister is claimed to be most qualified among all previous ones. He is claimed to be more reform oriented and all. What disheartens me still that when will our media grow up? Instead of contributing to his qualities and capabilities they are hailing him as "minority" and "Sikh" prime minister. Not that the media is wrong, but just do we need to think of all these at all when we praise a person for a post or work? Why can't we just forget and not mention all that. This is of course not the first time media is reacting like that. When current and last president were elected, most heard phrase were that a "muslim" and a "dalit" have acquired highest post. Even if people of India decide to move away from narrow communalism, I think media will not let them. For for it, that is "spice" and "flavour" of the news. Ask any kid of new generation, and you will find that his apathy is not just limited to country and government only, as I mentioned in my last article. He is apathetic to religion as well, and for good. Why don't we let them forget, and atleast try not to encourage the feeling of communalism. Very unfortunate, but I haven't read a single piece of news referring to Manmohan Singh without mentioning his caste/religion etc.

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Indian Loksabha Election, Massachusetts Same-Sex Marriage Law, and more ...

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Over last couple of months there have been lots of things in my mind. But as usual, either I didn't get enough time or I was plain lazy, I didn't worked on my blog. Actually if you carefully notice than you will find that majority of web loggers start their blog cursing that it had been long before they did it. But of course, my laziness didn't prevent me from forming opinions which by now have accumulated to such an extent that if I didn't divulge them, I will forget them. Actually, what is the big deal in doing so is a reasonable question. But then whole purpose of blogging is lost. Though there comes one more question: Do people read other's blog? Actually, as I have perceived over the years and as Dale Carnegie in his book "How to Win Friend and Influence People" have noted, that most of the people are interested in their own stuff. And they will do only things they like. For example, my friend visited me last weekend, and I invited him to show my collection of pictures which I have proudly collected during my brief stay at MIT. But he didn't seem to be interested in what I wouldn't get tired watching, simply because they represented some memories for me, and nothing but a set of unknown people to him. On the other hand, he offered me to show his set of pictures, and to my surprise my reaction was not any different, though I didn't let it show. So we come to basic point of why would any body be interested in reading my thoughts. Actually, and truthfully I know that nobody, but of course, as I have mentioned time and again one more purpose of writing blogs is to save memory for yourself, from loses resulting from forgetfulness. So here I begin...



Lets see, what to start with. I want to talked about much-talked-about Indian election 2004, also about my semester which just concluded, and about my birthday, and about same-sex marriage laws passed into US recently, and other thoughts that I usually digress to.



Loksabha election have come and gone. And I have always the neck of following political news with keenness. Actually, in this regard I differ from many of my generation who are apolitical. Indeed this is the reason for younger generation of India to adopt complete apathy towards community goals - including voting. If you think that it is because 'all politicians are corrupt', then I should like to tell you that this similar nature has been observed during my stay at IITM as well. The reason is apathy to associate oneself above mean personal gains and think broader. Of course, this all will sound like "lecture" to many of you who think they are smartest people on earth and everybody - including all politicians, policy makers, administrators and others - are stupid set of people. Had they been given the rein of decision-making things would have been different. What they fail to reaslise that those who holds rein are among these only. There is no reason to believe that everybody will be happy when you will be making "smart" decisions.



Actually I had big debate over this with my roommate Vinod. Not that this was only topic I ever debated with him, but his response was that by not participating in voting, people are not avoiding their responsibilities but doing more favour to the country than those who chose to elect one among none of the competent candidates. Arguments goes like that: If enough people chose not to vote, then system have to change, and then their will a set of "honest" candidates which will be elected by those will-wishers of India. Actually complete logic is more convoluted, but the gist is this. One thing you can immediately spot in above and similar arguments is that these are utopian views. Yes, I will be more than happy if this were to happen, but then I don't want to wait for this to happen, I want to act now, and act with conscious judgment considering ground realities and practicality of the issue are. Dreams are necessary for progress, but realistic dreams are forerunner of improvement not the daydreaming.



Anyway, so I was telling that I followed elections keenly. And media, which is ever powerful, chose to move from subjects to subjects too fast, and too vigorously that they nearly created mass hysteria. On personal basis, I do not like the way media functions in India. Importance of kalam over talwar is not new, but the fourth state in India continues for fail the responsibilities it beholds in such a vast country. Before I digress again in those reasons, let me trace back. Some news pieces which were neglected by the media are worth giving second thoughts. One was that one fellow name "jyonsho" was contesting elections from some constituency from Andhra Pradesh. The difference here is that he is independent, doesn’t have a single follower and has been contending since 1985 or around. After resigning well-paid government job in electricity board, he started one-man crusade against corrupt political system. He has been contesting in every election - be central or ward - again and again, and unfortunately without win. What is admirable is the willingness, and sacrifices and efforts on part of one man. He has lost all his life savings on elections, but hasn't lost the hope. And we have people who think voting is time-wasting job.



Other news was the loyalties of Kashmiries in Indian democratic process. When terrorists have warned for boycott, around 30-35% voting was recorded in Srinagar. In some cases percentage went as high as 60% which more than educated middle class contributed in UP and Rajasthan. And the shock comes now, that about 15-20 people lost their lives while exercising their right to franchise. Losing a life has not been so much sympathetic in India anymore, but think of losing your life when you decided to go and vote even under life-threatening situations. My supposedly intellectual friends would like to call a waste of life for such a "useless process". Had I been there, perhaps I wouldn't have done that. But they did, and they deserve a full fledge salute. And we have generation which treat government with 'who cares' attitude.



What they fail to see is that however corrupt the government is, whatever it doesn't do for poor and public, still shapes countr'sy future in form of its policies. And long-term effects, good or bad, do percolate to poor. Country isn't running by itself. They fail to realize the importance of the priviledge since it is their birthright. Had they been born under dictator rule, they would have been striving for government to listen to people's voice. And we have the future of India which doesn't care about itself.



Not that voting is the only way you can do good, indeed their are millions of other ways, many much effective than this. But the act of voting is not as important as the ideology against it.



One very touching article I happened to read divulged that "In Gujarat Muslims Don't Matter". BJP knows that they won't vote for it whatever it does and Congress knows that they don't have any alternative but to vote for it whatever they do. What a pity, that Congress hasn't included any Muslim party worker so as not to "offend" Hindu votes, while this can hardly be expected of BJP in Gujarat.



Let me be frank. I have been pro-BJP. There are reasons, of course, for it. But recent series of incidents have left me wondering if I am right. Specially after Sonia Gandhi was about to be Prime Minister, the drama raised by Sushma Swaraj and Uma Bharati aroused in me nothing but deep disgust and hatred for these people. Be it foreign origin or not, BJP did and said whatever it wanted to before election. People listened, and gave their verdict. Now going against Sonia Gandhi is like going against verdict of People of India, which undermines the fundamental constitutional idea itself. Before you jump into saying that I am anti-national, let me make it clear that I 'personally' wouldn't want a foreigner running my government, but then this is my personal views. And everybody has right to express his/her opinions. But then when collective majority of people has expressed their personal opinions then who is BJP to go against it. Yes, people of India chose to elect a foreign-born-Indian-national to lead them, you or me may not like it, but then, in democracy majority wins.



Okay then, lets move on. On 17th of May, Massachusetts becomes the first state in USA to legalise same-sex-marriages, and joined few others including Nether land, Belgium and three of Canadian Provinces. Before I read, "Why Men Don't Listen and Women Can't Read Maps' by Allan and Barbara Pease, I used to think that same-sex attraction was behavioural problem. Many in India thinks like that. But unfortunately, it is not. It is not a behavioural problem but a medical one, on which the person has no control over. Unfortunately it cannot be cured either. Abhorring them is like punishing someone for not fault of his/her own. I, now, have sympathy with them. Though I still believe that problem is more enhanced by recognition it received. I mean, that those people who were slightly off normal - not in offensive sense - and who could adapt to normal practice by some therapeutic treatment and self-control, chose to move to other end because society accepted it. Not that it has been fully normalised in US as well, but still people do recognise this portion of human existence. Unlike India where gays and lesbians are fighting for recognition - for many Indians these people simply do not exist - they here are fighting for marriage and other social rights.



My second semester at MIT has just finished. It was comparatively more interesting as well more hectic. The courses this semester were all elective unlike previous semester when I had to do core courses. "Probability and Statistics in Engineering" has practically didn't teach me anything that I didn't know beforehand but it reinforced many concepts and formalised my knowledge in this area, which till now, I had learned indirectly in other courses as per need basis. Also, this was an easy course, so not much of workload as such but sure good grade! Other course, "Demand Modeling" opened area and applications of Statistics to me that I never knew existed. It taught me how to model demand by statistical and regression models, and how to predict market shares. Applications of this are aplenty, starting from Transportation demand of modes/destination etc. to most of marketing related applications. My interest in Operations Research continued after "System Optimization: Models and Computation", which taught me many advanced methods in Operations Research. Most important aspect of this course was that it helped me learn optimization related softwares which are practical necessity in any professional work. I am happy to learn MATLAB, OPL studio and AMPL programming languages. Apart from academics, this semester being second at MIT saw more of my involvement in general. I went to Skiing Trip with Transportation Students Group, as well acting as Treasurer for Indian Student Association - Sangam. Weather has been good in later part of the semester when summer begun.



That seems to be enough for now. At least I can't think of anything more. Oh yeah, my roommates have gifted me my favourite gifts for my birthday - books! And that too, my favourite author Issac Asimov. I can't hold reading, so bye for now.

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