Sachin and the emotions

Let me be honest - I was not, am not and will not be a Sachin fan. Don't get me wrong - I respect the guy, and I admire him for the way he has handled enormous pressure while dudes like me blow off our top for every trivial stuff that happens in office; and for the squeaky clean image over a 24 year career.

There has been the odd "Maaki" (Australia 2008) or the "ball-tampering" (South Africa, 2008); but I will let those incidents pass - too many others have done far greater shit and walked away scot-free.

For me it is an honour that Sachin made his debut and batted last on my birthday (15th November 1989 and 2013). #ThankYouSachin for that :D

What is the best image of Sachin in my memory? I have 3

1. Operation Desert Storm

2. The stunning assault on the Aussies in the World Cup 1996. Nearly won us that match till he got stumped off a Mark Waugh wide

3. THAT innings in Chennai against Pakistan

Thanks for the memories Sachin :)

Comments on Indian Railways - 'Then and Thenner'

A story of the Indian Railways

In 1909 Gandhi said about the railways that they -

“accentuate the evil nature of man. Bad men fulfil their designs with greater rapidity.”

This changed in 1947 to

“Trains cannot be run for charity,”

This report also delightfully speaks about the subsidy culture -

Indian politicians are addicted to a tax-and-subsidy regime of bewildering complexity, and deterred from tampering with it by a crowded electoral timetable. The Mohan report, for example, estimated that 15% of Indian railway passengers, many of them railway workers, were enjoying discounted fares. Among the 42 categories of people listed as eligible for concessions are students, boy scouts, the elderly, the very poor, war widows, nurses, journalists and some “persons taking part in mountaineering expeditions”. Even some sorts of freight—fruit and vegetables and salt, for example—are subsidised.

What concessions have you used in rail travel? अपुन has used only इश्तुदेंट concession :)

IIIT for IIT

The Andhra Pradesh CM has laid the foundation for an Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) at Basar in Adilabad district.

The IIIT is a supposedly compensation for shifting the proposed Indian Institute of technology (IIT) to Medak.

Now, to the interesting part of this article -

Addressing a public meeting, he said the IIIT would be more useful than the
IIT, as many students from backward Adilabad district would benefit. If the IIT
had been established here, only a couple of students would have got seats.

Now, I have been to Basar as recently as November 2007. Its a peaceful place with the Godavari flowing nearby and the life of the people is linked with the Sharada temple. The people are nice and simple who would have every reason to believe the CM. And the opportunity to unleash some unrelated bull-shit has not been foregone by the CM.

But dear sir, there are a few doubting thomases in this world. Hence I checked the website of the IIIT at Allahabad, because that is the model I presume will be followed here. What does it say?

Entrance to these courses is through the All-India Entrance Examination
conducted by CBSE.

OK? Now, what is the means of admission to IITs? The JEE right?

Now,

1. Can this be a valid appeasement? - take an IIIT for an IIT. Why not an NIT? The purpose of asking this is - how does an Information technology institute replace an engineering institute? Even if it does, was this "replacement" IIIT shifted from somewhere else? And if so, what will that place get?

2. How can the CM guarantee in the scenario of competitive exams the proportion of students who will clear the entrance exams (JEE/AIEEE whatever)? What if more students from Adilabad clear JEE in comparison to their counterparts from Medak and show the proverbial middle finger to the CM? Will he revert the proposed IIT back to Basar?

3. Most importantly, since when has clearing competitive exams become an inter-district competition? I thought it was mostly about the achievement of the self.

Shame on you.....

... Mrs. Pratibha Patil. Why? For this.

What a steep spiralling descent it has been from the days of the ethical APJ Abdul Kalam.

The office of the President can deny until eternity about the events that took place, but, we all know that our president is yet to get over thinking like a politico.

Right now I feel the same way I felt when Ricky Ponting and Michael Clark appealed for the catches of Dhoni and Ganguly - i.e punched in the solar plexus!!

Educating Amit Varma

Amit Varma, in this blog-entry links to a ToI photo where the deputy CM of Maharashtra is being weighed against books at a function in Pune.

Well, the picture looks funny with everyone in the best of spirits, specially with Mr.Patil's staff/stooges trying to balance their leader, who is trying to balance books on the other pan. (digressing, does this make Mr. Patil an accountant, since he is balancing his books?)

Amit goes on to say

No, do not ask me what Mr Patil is up to. I don’t know, and never wish to
find out

I shall deliberately ignore the 'never wish to find out' phrase and do my best to educate him -

The act that Mr. Patil is indulging in is called Tulabharam, which translates ino English as weighing by scale. It generally is carried out as an act of charity usually at temples and socio-public functions. There is an interesting story concerning Tulabharam involving Rukmini, Krishna and Satyabhama.

Mr.Patil's reasons behind this Tulabharam may be debatable, but the one important question that needs to be asked is, "Why the heck are books being weighed against Mr.Patil? Is this how the Ministry of Education (hopefully those are books for school kids) "functions" in disbursing books?"

Copies

In government offices in India, when multiple copies of any official letter are being sent,
the following terminologies are used:

1. When a copy is being sent to someone who is of a higher designation than the sender

"copy submitted with respect(s) to"

The additional s in respect(s) comes about if someone is feeling excessively respectful to
the 'boss'. But you better have respect at-least. A respect in letter is better than no
respect(s) at all.

2. When a copy is being sent to someone who is of equal designation

"copy fwcs to"

fwcs standing for forwarded with compliments.

3. When a copy is being sent to someone who is at a lower designation than the sender

"copy with enclosure to"

For those of you who are having a slight insulting smile on your face, try looking at it
this way. Think of a very very very traditional family whom you are visiting and are about
to take leave from:

When you take leave from the elders, you generally seek their blessings.

When you take leave from your peers, you generally shake hands or embrace.

When you take leave from the kids of the house, you generally give an affectionate pinch or
a kiss.

Think of government offices as an official version of the same. The same inter-generation
struggles are seen, the same atmosphere persists wherein you don't call elders by just
their name, but a suffix which is generally sir/madam.

Stockholm syndrome at work, you say?? Well, "Say what you mean but it won't change a
thing", but the undeniable and unchallenged fact remains that no one has better record
keeping skills and a minutely defined set of procedures covering every eventuality as a
government agency. This is true, cutting across national borders!!

And yes, copies play a very very vital role; whether you submit it with
respect/compliments: at the end of the day, all that matters is whether it is in the file
or not and for the good of everyone, it better be :D