Rationalbeing

Achieving Your Childhood Dreams - Randy Pausch Last Lecture

2010-01-14T16:06:00.004+05:30

This is among the most inspiring and moving speeches I had ever seen. Dr. Randy Pausch was an American professor of computer science and human-computer interaction and design at Carnegie Mellon University. Pausch learned that he had a terminal case of pancreatic cancer in September 2006. He gave an upbeat lecture entitled "The Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" on September 18, 2007 at Carnegie Mellon. Watch.

Links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Pausch
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Really_Achieving_Your_Childhood_Dreams

3 Idiots: Sagarika Ghose on a Pathetic Media Stunt, Really Sad

2010-01-05T23:37:00.006+05:30

First of all, let me make it clear, I am not a huge fan boy of the movie, 3 Idiots. And I really feel, the kind of media frenzy surrounding it is pure rubbish. 3 Idiots is a commercial movie which is good. 'Satisfying, not the best', was Rajeev Masand's review of the movie and I think that pretty much sums up all of it. Those who say, 3 Idiots is the greatest movie ever is either totally dumb or haven't seen any movie other than those cheesy bollywood ones.

But the kind of lashing out done by Sagarika Ghose, the much celebrated TV anchor of CNN-IBN, against the movie is totally unwarranted and out of touch with reality. Here are some of her statements about the movie and my opinions about them.

"Three Idiots is slickly made but the message that all higher education sucks and studying is just a waste of time...hmm..a bit dangerous?"
"3 idiots reflects a growing disdain for rigour and hard work..not just in engineering but in other fields. Thats dangerous"
"Guess Dumbing Down is a new mantra? hang loose, follow your heart, throw out the books sing songs..wish life was that easy though!"

- Sagarika Ghose via Twitter

Here are some of the things that I infer from the movie,

I have seen the movie and never in it I got the all-higher-education-sucks-and-studying-is-just-a-waste of-time message. And I don't think following-your-heart is such a terrible thing to do.

Education was meant to instill the spirit of creativity among students and instead, the exact opposite is happening in majority of the cases. We are being nurtured to be like everyone else, to rollover, to play it safe. As Ken Robinson in his TED session clearly puts it, 'School Kills Creativity'.

Movie encourages us to think on what education really meant when it all started and where is it now. And also encourages students to learn things for the sake of really-knowing-things and not for marks and grades.

Movie clearly depicts the kind of pressure a kid faces while growing up, from all around, including parents, teachers, society et al.

'3 idiots reflects a growing disdain for rigour and hard work'. If working hard means mugging up everything one need to learn to prop up grades, yes there is a growing disdain against it. Otherwise, this is the kind of statement one would expect from a sad a** religoius leader or a politician and not from a celebrated, always-with-common-people kind of TV anchor, Sagarika Ghose.

Follow your heart. Never run behind jobs and pay checks, instead choose excellence, and the rest will follow. And thats the one liner I got from this movie and I think that is the case with most of us.

How in the world such a talented TV anchor like Sagarika Ghose came to such insanely lame conclusions for this movie?? I seriously feel, all this hype was deliberately created by some PR expert to prop up her ratings. If that is the case, just one word, SAD.

Ted Talks - Schools Kills Creativity, says Ken Robinson

2009-12-05T09:24:00.009+05:30

Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.

Should We Deny Freedom To Kashmiris If That Is What They Want?

2009-12-03T00:32:00.014+05:30

Last day, I was browsing through some news web sites, when I stumbled upon this interesting peace of news which came in a Pakistan based news website called Dawn. According to the news, a human rights group in Indian-administered Kashmir urged authorities on Wednesday to launch a probe into 2,700 unmarked graves. Initially I thought it was some kind of propaganda and so I went on to search further about it.

And what I found did amaze me. This particular piece of news was right their on Amnesty International's web page and there was no trace of it in any major news channels in India?!!

The independent Srinagar-based group, which calculates 8,000 people have gone missing in the 20-year separatist insurgency, released a report entitled ‘Buried Evidence’ documenting the ‘unknown, unmarked, and mass graves’ containing at least 2,900 bodies! In the above picture Kashmiri relatives of missing persons sit as they hold placards during a peaceful demonstration urging authorities to take action and find out what happened to their loved ones.

Some obvious questions came to my mind,

If this news is true, What essentially is the difference between USA's Vietnam or Iraqi occupation and our occupation of Kashmir. I know, a lot of people will be outraged to see the word occupation here, but What if Kashmiris don't want to be a part of India?

Problems in Kashmir had started some 25 years ago. Yes, I agree that Pakistan is running the main plot in creating instability in Kashmir, we should accept the fact that, without local support , this kind of resistance can't happen. So what we are up against in reality? the Kashmiri people itself?

And some suggestions and insights,

Some independent entity should take a survey where in Kashmiris could choose between India and freedom. We should not do to Kashmiris what the Great Briton had done to us 60 years ago. Arundhati Roy once famously said, "India needs azadi from Kashmir as much as Kashmir needs azadi from India". May be she is indeed right.

There is no military solution to Kashmir's problems. It is a genuine apprising against Indian rule and we should accept the fact. We should withdraw Army from Kashmir in a phased manner.

A lot of excuse related to Army's presence in Kashmir revolves around its strategic importance. But when you think about it, what kind of security do we really have now. Bomb blasts have become a daily news in our country. Instead of strengthening our internal security, we keep spending thousands of crores of rupees in maintaining "law and order" in Kashmir.

Another major argument is that if we give freedom to Kashmir, other regions like Punjab or north eastern states may also start demanding their freedom as well. But that is a really lame excuse for denying freedom to Kashmiris.

It's time people. We should get our heads out of our asses and start acting like humans instead of being Indian or Pakistani or Hindu or Muslim. As someone said, India should not become yet another "super power", instead we should become the super empowerer. Let Kashmir Valley become truly the 'Paradise on earth' once again.
image source

Shashi Tharoor at TED Talks, Inspiring and Exhilarating

2009-12-01T21:55:00.004+05:30

Shashi Tharoor at TEDIndia -'Why nations should pursue "soft" power'. Surely among the greatest and insightful speeches ever by an Indian Politician. Hats off to this one of his kind Diplomat.

Pakistani Nuke And Its Repercussions

2009-12-01T20:35:00.002+05:30

On the 11th anniversary of nuclear tests by Pakistan, a popular Pakistani daily, Dawn News, ran an insightful article about its repercussions with the current Pakistani society. It was written by a well known Pakistani figure, Pervez Hoodbhoy. This article indeed is thought provoking and should be read by all peace loving humans in India as well. Here is an excerpt from the original article. Read on.

"ONCE upon a time making nuclear bombs was the biggest thing a country could do. But not any more; North Korea’s successful nuclear test provides rock-solid proof. This is a country that no one admires.

It is unknown for scientific achievement, has little electricity or fuel, food and medicine are scarce, corruption is ubiquitous, and its people live in terribly humiliating conditions under a vicious, dynastic dictatorship. In a famine some years ago, North Korea lost nearly 800,000 people. It has an enormous prison population of 200,000 that is subjected to systematic torture and abuse.

Some had imagined that nuclear weapons would make Pakistan an object of awe and respect internationally. They had hoped that Pakistan would acquire the mantle of leadership of the Islamic world. Indeed, in the aftermath of the 1998 tests, Pakistan’s stock had shot up in some Muslim countries before it crashed. But today, with a large swathe of its territory lost to insurgents, one has to defend Pakistan against allegations of being a failed state. In terms of governance, economy, education or any reasonable quality of life indicators, Pakistan is not a successful state that is envied by anyone.

Contrary to claims made in 1998, the bomb did not transform Pakistan into a technologically and scientifically advanced country. Again, the facts are stark. Apart from relatively minor exports of computer software and light armaments, science and technology remain irrelevant in the process of production.

Pakistan’s current exports are principally textiles, cotton, leather, footballs, fish and fruit. This is just as it was before Pakistan embarked on its quest for the bomb. The value-added component of Pakistani manufacturing somewhat exceeds that of Bangladesh and Sudan, but is far below that of India, Turkey and Indonesia. Nor is the quality of science taught in our educational institutions even remotely satisfactory. But then, given that making a bomb these days requires only narrow technical skills rather than scientific ones, this is scarcely surprising.

Some might ask, didn’t the bomb stop India from swallowing up Pakistan? First, an upward-mobile India has no reason to want an additional 170 million Muslims. Second, even if India wanted to, territorial conquest is impossible. Conventional weapons, used by Pakistan in a defensive mode, are sufficient protection. If mighty America could not digest Iraq, there can never be a chance for a middling power like India to occupy Pakistan, a country four times larger than Iraq.

Eleven years ago a few Pakistanis and Indians had argued that the bomb would bring no security, no peace. They were condemned as traitors and sellouts by their fellow citizens. But each passing year shows just how right we were."

Full article here

Bal Thackarey and his nephew should just stop talking

2009-11-18T22:05:00.013+05:30

So here is it happening again. Bal Thackarey is trying to regain the past glory. Shiv Sena supremo clearly know the eventuality. Since Shiv Sena is based on nothing but hatred, there is no future for it. It's days are numbered. Thats why Shiv Sena needs to breed hatred some way or other. Thats the very essence of its existence.

Raj Thackerey, the very own Bal Thackarey's nephew, invented this novel idea called hatred towards north Indians. And people are flocking to get their share of blood. Shiv Sena is just one among them.

On other hand, Congress Party always love sitting and watching people killing each other. They have done this before, and they are doing it again. Congress knows the fact that, Raj's MNS is eating into the very own Shiv Sena's vote share.

That's good news for Congress, it's called divide and rule policy. And obviously at the cost of human lives, but who cares. People are meant to die like dogs in the street and "leaders" are meant to motivate them to butcher each other and thrive at their behest.

And finally, the latest outcry against the mighty Sachin Tendulkar. When you speak against a super star like Sachin Tendulkar, obviously you get a lot of media attention, thats exactly what Bal Thackarey wants, and that is politics for you.

The funny part is that, When sachin made that "I am an Indian first" statement, what he actually, unintentionally did was, questioning the very relevance of Bal Thackarey band of politics. More interesting is the very statement by Bal Thackarey. He was quoted as saying, "When You speak politics, You rip apart the hearts of Maharashtrians." Rip apart the heart? WTF Come on, we all know what you were talking about. All he meant was that, don't mess with my votebank.

As Shashi Tharoor said, "With Maharashtra for Maharashtrians and Kashmir for Kashmiris, where is India for Indians?"

Lets hope, some day, these south Indians and north Indians and east Indians and west Indians seize to exist and only Indian(or should I call him/her human?) remains. Following is the very picture that comes to my mind when I hear the name Bal Thackarey or VHP or Shiv Sena or Al Qaeda or Terrorism. Common man is suffering, everywhere.

PS: By the way, Shiv Sena is pretty active in Kerala, especially in Trivandrum. That is an interesting if not intriguing piece of news, because this is the same party that led the crusade against south Indians during 1970's in Maharashtra.

Picture Courtesy:
http://www.outlookindia.com/
http://wondersofpakistan.wordpress.com/
http://pulkitdesai.blogspot.com/

Raging Water Wars

2009-10-20T02:42:00.006+05:30

First of all let me tell you guys, the original inspiration for writing this article came from a documentary video, For The Love of Water(FLOW). Flow is a true eye opener, i never knew privatization of water is happening in our country. It is not just happening, but more and more states and adopting water privatization initiatives, which brings us the obvious question, Whose water is it anyway?

For those who think, privitization of Water is good since it brings in a lot of efficiency and accounting into the otherwise corrupt system prevalent in our country, let me tell you, i used to think like the same, NOT ANYMORE. Privitization of essential resources is bad and should be avoided at any cost.

The kind of exploitation by big corporates like Suez, Vivendi, Nestle or Coca Cola in countries like Bolivia, South Africa and even USA(Watch FLOW) are in front of us. Consider what happened in Bolovia. A subsidiary of American company Betchel took over the control of Water distribution in 1999 and slowly increased water rates manifold and disconnected Water supply to those who cannot pay. This led to violent protests all over the country and finally Betchel was evicted from Bolivia in April 2000.

We all know what happened in Plachimada, Kerala. A BBC report says, the substance given away by Coca Cola as pesticide to the poor farmers around was actually toxic industrial waste. That is atricious. Let us don't make the same mistake again.

But guess what, our babus who are otherwise slow(if not crawl) in accepting changes are quick to accept privatization of our precious water resources. Multinational Water giants like Suez, Vivendi et al is already active in places like Delhi. Officially 19 privatization projects are already underway in India, but unofficial numbers put the figure at around 40. Scary isn't it?

Here is an insightful article on privatization of water in India
And i strongly recommend everyone to watch FLOW

Educational System and its Implications in Society

2009-06-20T00:52:00.006+05:30

I never seriously thought about the educational system we have in place and it implications in our society, until i recently came to read an editorial in The Hindu. It was about the Pakistan's educational system and the things they taught their kids. Initially i thought it was about the madrasa education, but to my amazement, it was about the official educational system that the Pakistani government prescribes. Look at the excerpt below.

The one that particularly interested me was " India's evil designs aganist Pakistan". What in the world does that mean. Why can't they teach the fact that all Indians no matter what religion or caste they belonged, together fought for the Independence for a unified India or that Jinnah wanted India and Pakistan to come together at a later stage. Why cant they give "Peace" a chance.

Another interesting case is that of the USA. Different pressure groups in that country are trying hard to infuse creationism into science texts, to be taught along with evolution. Essentially what they want to teach kids is that, how earth was created by the almighty God around 6000 years ago!. Come on guys, these religious texts are at best a good code of ethics. How can these bronze age mythologies can be called as truth or as alternative to theory of evolution. (I recommend you guys a documentary film called Jesus Camp. Movie clearly depicts how easy it is to indoctrinate young minds. It was a bit scary to see those small kids absolutely convinced for what they are saying or doing).

Everything boils down to one thing, politics of hate. And these politicians and beurocrats and military dictators, will never realise the simple fact that it is much easier to do good and teach people to respect each other instead of trying to control people using tools like religion or nationalism or whatever. I had always taken our own educational system for granted. It has its own drawbacks though. But it is not that worse either.

Tribute to a Whistle Blower

2009-02-16T09:18:00.008+05:30

"The only stable state is
the one in which all men
are equal before law."
- Aristotle

Satyendra Dubey was one of his kind. Born in a poor family in Bihar, young Dubey was the bright son every lower middle class family in India would hope for. Passed out from elite Indian Institute of technology, he was among a few others who decided to stay in his own country. Satyendra Dubey was different from most of us. He does things which most of us wont, like speaking aganist injustice or taking definitive stand aganist corruption. While most of us are frustrated about our corrupt system, what we do aganist it is mere lip service. Satyendra Dubey was not like us, he was a man of substance. And that explains why he got killed. He was simply not fit for our "civil" society.

Whistle blower is someone who is an insider, wanting to expose the rot within the system. Satyendra Dubey did just that. It all happened in 2003. Satyendra Dubey was the project director at NHAI(National highway Authority of India). He was in charge of a section of Golden Quadrilateral highway project, the then Prime Minister's very own dream project. There he found out wide spread corruption at all levels. He tried to inform it to his senior officials, but his voice fell into deaf ears. Nobody took any action at all and he also started getting threats from the construction mafia. But Dubey was fearless and he just wont bog down under any sort of pressure.

He wrote a letter to the, then prime minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, which had the details about the prevailing corruption in the project. He insisted not to disclose his name. But that was not be heard. Whether the Prime Minister's Office(PMO) did this deliberately or beacuse of the usual carelesness and lethargy, is anybody's guess. But the result was that, the whistle blower's name fell into the very hands that the whistle was blowed aganist. Satyendra Dubey was brutally murdered on Nov 27,2003. There was lot of hue and cry and even some arrests over the years. That's great job in a country like ours. Those who were convicted were petty criminals who probably did this at the behest of some political honchos or corporate hotshots. The big fish is out there and with our present state of affairs, the real criminals will always be beyond the law. So much for the largest "democracy" on earth.

What if Dubey simply decided to leave the country for a high paid job abroad? What if he was not as passionate about his country as he was? He and his family of five sisters and a brother would have been in a better state of life. Atleast he would have been alive. But he chose to be GOOD instead of being "practical". That's called greatness. And that's Satyendra Dubey for you. Tributes to this one of his kind human being.

Live And Let Live

2009-02-08T00:30:00.005+05:30

As the saying goes, Nationalism is the last resort of scoundrels. That is so very true in the present Indian context. Sri Ram Sena has become an household name in a week, thanks to the media largely. And why not? They are the ones who are fighting for one of the most pressing issues India has ever faced. Its called protecting Indian "values". I really doubt something of that sort really exists. Our's is so massive a counrty ,to have anything in common, including the so called "values". If we had anything in common, that was the feeling of oneness, the feeling that we are Indians no matter what. Thanks to our politicians and their divide and rule policy, that too is diminishing.

India is still a hugely impoverished country. Hunger, poverty, illiteracy, child labour, child marriage, communalism, regionalism, you name it, problems we face are of astronomical scale. And some-pub-going-urban-women is the most important issue we have at hand, according to these right wing organisations. After decades or even centuries of oppression, Indian women from middle class backgrounds have finally started to come out and were enjoying their newly found freedom. Yes, this time, it was boozing in the pub. What in the world is wrong with it ? If men can do it, why women can't ? You may like it or not, its not "your" decision, its "her"decision to do what "she" wants to do with "her" life. For our country's sake, dont try to impose your morality(or pseudo-morality?) onto others in the name of culture and tradition.

More shocking is the kind of support these criminals get. Many old people and even youngsters tacitly support these acts of injustice and goondaism. If you think, this was a lone incident, consider this. Saina and her brother, Syed, was waiting for a local bus when some men came and started beating Syed for no reason. The girl was not wearing Burqa, while the brother had his gulla. And the thugs assumed that they were lovers from different communities. Thats all they need to beat up an innocent man. This happened in Puttur in Karanataka. Karanataka had at least 4-5 such reported issues in last year alone.

Moral policing is on the rise. And its not a regional or communal phenomenon. It is starting to cost us dear. The single and the most important value we have, as a country, is Freedom. And it is the very thing, these thugs are aganist, for petty political gains. Open your eyes and take a stand aganist such atrocious, unjust acts. Atleast, don't vote these criminals into power.

Compiz Fusion..breaking new grounds!

2008-08-13T16:52:00.003+05:30

Compiz fusion is a compositing window manager for X window system which uses 3D graphics hardware to create such breathtaking desktop effects which a normal user with a basic hardware configuration can never dream of .If you ask me what was the single most important reason that made me to start using GNU/Linux based OS ,its not the open source philosophy or the overall slickness of GNU/Linux based systems,but compiz fusion(to be fair ;) ). Compiz fusion has always been a cut above the rest.I have been using Ubuntu 7.10 and now ubuntu 8.04 with compiz fusion as my default window manager.All those days i have wondered what they are gonna come up with now.

GOSH!! they came up with something incredible!!Here are a few that i think is worth mentioning.

What you are seeing below is a screenshot of a simple shift switcher !!in layman terms this is what a simple alt+tab looks like !!isn't it amazing.

Now, that is a desktop :D.From cube to cylinder to sphere.This is how a four workspace desktop looks like with compiz fusion !!

the sphere

Thats the modified expo plugin(see the curve)

Next one is a screensaver plugin.Dont mind the screenshot(its a bit weird i know :D),this one is a real show stopper ;-)

All this works in my system which has a bare basic configuration(512 MB RAM,intel centrino duo processor and an intel on board graphics card) when compared to "vista standards."

PS:GNU/Linux based system is not at all about looks.Its just the outermost part.Its a highly efficient, superficially fast, extremely stable and flexible operating system with a plethora of applications to play with.I had been using it for an year now and i m' loving it ! ;)