Arcade of Thoughts

A month back, my friends and I were talking about funding for different departments and graduate research assistant stipend during summer. I learnt that some student get twice as much during summer than during regular semester. I hadn’t asked my prof about my pay-check then. I did concede that it was partly because it is uneasy to talk about money. That’s when it occurred to me about write about cultural differences that I have encountered so far.

Profit is a dirty word

I had read an article (link) by Amit Varma where he talks about Profit being a dirty word during Nehru’s socialistic governance and later on until economic liberalisations. The thought of profit, and consequently money, being dirty have always been taught to us since primary education. I remember reason couplets that talk about working hard without really worrying about the result of money that you can get out of it. Also, I remember how angry parents used to get when, as a child, we prayed to god for anything materialistic. The idea that money is last thing to worry about is etched in our minds. Its hard to let go of such ideas in quick time. Asking for raise is not something Indians are comfortable with.

Even e-mailing profs for funding when going for an Internship is hard thing to do. Clearly, expecting money for you work is not wrong. But the idea of money being ‘dirty’ is playing its role here. On the other hand, American students are pretty frank about it. Unlike Indians, they do not go to grad school if they are not funded. Understanding local culture and adopting them and letting go of our conservative mindset is what we need to learn.

Tipping

Indians in US are infamous for being bad tippers (it could just be a stereotype, but i have seen a few people in my university who refuse to tip). Despite arguing that waiters are not paid as much they are suppose to paid because it’s a ‘tipped-job’, some people refuse to accept what I say. We ought not to be so insensitive to any practice here. I believe that while in Rome, we should do as Romans do. There is a reason why romans do the things they do. We ought to respect that.

Japanese Shopkeepers Handling Currency Notes

I have guilty of being culturally insensitive too. In India, you are always taught to offer and receive anything (including money) with your right hand. Money is offered directly to hand. Also, both the giver and the receiver should either be inside the house or outside. I think it’s just a way of saying, ‘I respect you’. There were two instances when I was in Tokyo when the shopkeepers asked me to place the currency notes on a tray. Forgetting that I was in completely different country, I gave it to their hand in dominating way. This happened twice. It was only later that I realised that I may have offended them. That was when I made a mental note of being sensitive to local customs.

I still don’t know if I have offended them. Anyone who knows, please let me know.

Language

Recently, I read about a case (lost the link … sorry) in Canada about an Indian shop keeper who had used the words, “I will kill her if he doesn’t give the sweets to you” to a regular Canadian customer. We Indians know that “I will kill you” is used in jest by everyone. But in a different place, the implications are completely different. The shop keeper was arrested by the police on a complaint by the customer about the “death-threat”. I think the mis-understanding as later resolved. Such thing do happen by accident but it is in our best interest to adapt quickly.

A lot of things are lost in translation. I have heard this statement, supposedly from Koran: “If people do not convert to Islam, kill them (infidels) by swords”. I do not think it is true but even if it is, I am interested to know the context in which it was said. For all we know, “kill them” can mean “ignore them”. Who know what it meant 1300 years ago?

Student in India use “jobless” to say they are free to do stuff. I once said, “I will be jobless tomorrow, you can call me” and they appeared really concerned. Two seconds later I released my mistake and explained the meaning of “jobless” much to their amusement.

Any such funny or serious stuff you guys have experienced? Comment it.

What prompted me to write this is another post shared by my friend on google reader. It talks about Sarabjit Singh, the woman who did not want her husband released in exchange for terrorist. Kudos to her. I really admire her because she put her country before herself and her family. What I did not appreciate in the post is that he called another person, desperate to get her family back during Kandahar hijacking, an anti-national. It is becoming rather fashionable to call some anti-national. Be it cutting flag coloured cake, playing musical version of national anthem, or if it looks like someone’s leg is facing the national flag. There are lawyers who make a living out of it. I want to explain why demand or negotiating release of hijacked passengers in lieu of terrorist is not anti-national, but plain human. I know some views are controversial, please do not jump to conclusions before reading this post completely.

One of the jobs of the Govt. is to protect its citizens. The govt. is elected by the people, and consequently it is the job of the society to elect the right government. In other words it is the society which takes care of itself. Now, a plane is hijacked. Obviously, the govt. failed in its duty to protect its citizens. What is wrong with demanding the govt to secure the release of the passengers? It is the govt. which has failed and has to set things right. The society is very much entitled to demand this. It is very disappointing to see that a part of a society thinks otherwise. As if it is duty of the hijacked passengers to die for the country.

It is very easy to judge the relatives facing the trauma as “anti-national” when others have no experience dealing with such uncertainties. Everyone loves their country, most of us love ourselves more. That’s the fact. I am really appalled by the ease with which the author of the post judged the poor woman anti-national. I bet the author has never been in situation that has gambled with his life.

Many say that if we ‘give-in’ to the terrorists, wont it send the wrong signal to the terrorists that every time a plane is hijacked, they can pull another of their heroes back from prison. If you are scared that that signal we sent that day somehow made them think that hijacking a plane is solution to their problems, haven’t you
already conceded that they will hijack again and there is nothing India can do to prevent that? Are you convinced that we can protect ourselves any more? This to me is the real felling of “giving in” to the terrorists.

In some sense, many think that govt. “gave up” to the terrorists. Here’s how I look at it. Had we remained stone hearted and let the passengers be killed, we are sending a signal that if we release a terrorist we cannot catch him again, that we were very lucky to have caught him.

Lets assume that India has a reputation of storming the planes every time they are hijacked. Think for a moment,as a terrorist, what would you do? Would you attempt negotiation with the govt. from the hijacked plane? Or would you blow it up mid-air or against a tall building out of spite? I have a feeling this has been done before.

For once, before calling anyone anti-national, society ought to step into their shoes and look and the options before them. It is the fault of the government/society that the plane was hijacked. After the harm is done, society should try and rectify it. Not treat the victims like guinea pigs in a failed experiment and let them be killed by hijackers. The society has to take the responsibility of bringing them back alive.

Talking about social responsibilities, let me express my views on capital punishment as well. I am myself not sure about capital punishment, but there is one case where I am against it. I was in favour of capital punishment before watching the movie ‘monster’ which portrays a like of a prostitute who becomes a serial killer out of circumstance. I am against capital punishment given out to psychopathic serial killers.

People don’t just become psychopathic serial killers. It is the society which makes them. It is the society which gives them tough choices and it is the society which treats them badly. When the results aren’t favourable, society wants to treat the person like a guinea pig and kill him. It is bad enough that we treat labs rats and well, guinea pigs that way. I dont like the ‘tax payer’s burden’ argument about keeping them in jail when there is no hope for them to recover. It is the society which made them that way. From a moral stand point of view, society should pay for its failed experiment.

Another argument I have heard is that we all have lived in the same society, and we did not turn out to be serial killers. My simple answer is that every individual is unique, and if you cant respect that, you are the one who doesn’t deserve a place in society. Some favour death penalty for the ’sentiments’ of victims’ families. I dont buy that because the decision which the family takes is an emotional one and not necessarily the rational one.

Moving a little away from the topic, people love to call those who have left the country for education or job as anti-national. IITians, and in last ten years, NITs, BITS etc, are the main targets. Let’s examine that claim as well.

Firstly, ‘the lakhs of rupees spent on an IITian’ argument. As an IITian, I can say that we were not put in luxury. We had to pay for everything from electricity bill to Rs 600 for renting a gown for the convocation to ’security’ for the hostels. They subsidized the mess (which was horrible) up to Rs 8 per day per student which, I agree, is quite significant. But then who isn’t subsidized in India? Petrol is subsidized. Diesel is subsidized more for the farmers which makes people buy diesel cars (they are real anti-nationals if you ask me ). Gas is subsidized to every household. Taking all of that into account, I am sure subsidy for us is remarkable more then rest of the country. Profs are paid for research and teaching us. Its their job and cannot be counted towards the “burden” of the tax payers. The only place where, I think, the lakhs of rupees figure makes sense is the licensing of the softwares for research. Sophisticated Labs and Labs Equipments are something which undergraduates seldom use. But, I am sure any research that is done in IITs and IISc comes back to nation as inputs for ISRO, DRDO etc. for India’s development. Most of research is done by PhD students who stay in country. I am damn sure the lakhs of rupees figures is not the true figure. The realistic figure, I believe, is a much reasonable amount. I do realize that rest of the colleges do not even get the minimal facilities that we “enjoy”. That only talks about govt. apathy.

Secondly, lets look at the reason why the “brain-drain” occurs. A student expected to pay back to country though research or through entrepreneurship. As far as research is concerned, it is known that hardly any importance is given to it in India. Expenditure towards research takes a back seat. Infrastructure in India is lacking. Who is responsible for that? Government/Society. How about entrepreneurship? India was a socialist country 20 years back. Little wonder that brain-drain was rampant back then. Today it’s, thanks to economic reforms, much less. Again its the government/society responsible for that. Calling people anti-national is doing society no good. There are very few who put their country ahead of their personal ambitions, they are truly amazing. Other are human, not anti-national.

Also, why is the responsibility of the chosen few to bring the country out of the mess it is in. What is the role of the people who judge others as anti-national? Isn’t that an indication of resigned society putting burden on a some of its members to bring them back on their feet.

Before calling anyone “anti-national” the society should learn its responsibility.

Imagine a situation where there is a wealthy businessman, and he has an excellent B Plan to make more money. All he does is, opens a mall in few villages. Offer low prices for an extended period of time enough to drive the mom and pop stores out of business. He makes loss over the period but as he is wealthy, he is fine. As he monopolizes the villages. He raises the prices to values higher then before. Is this legal? Yes. Ethical? Thats a different debate. Should the govt protect the small time investors and prevent this situation? Obviously. But How?  Please comment on that after reading the rest of the post.

Just note few of the things which make the situation tricky. The wealthy businessman are few in number. So the competition is that much less. Even if there are a little too many for comfort, it makes economic sense for all of them not to compete against one another. There are better off looking at different villages as market or selling different product. As the govt is obligated to protect the interest of all its citizens, what laws should be implemented to prevent rich business from growing richer at expense of village folks?

All the controversy and wal-mart-bashing that you see is because of their tactics. In US, which is run on the ultimate form of capitalism, if you observe, huge chains like sears, circuit city, walmart, target, academy sports are present everywhere. But single shop owners are not present in that large a number.

During our fortnightly lab meetings, another issue came up. It was possible that any of there stores, sometime in future, record the stuff a person purchases, and charge people accordingly. More frequently you buy a product, more you are willing to pay for the it, and hence by a capitalist principle, more they are gonna charge you for it. As scary as it sounds, it not something to be scared about (From my limited knowledge of economics, correct me if i am wrong). Price rises for everyone. And hence the inflation. And so you currency will lose its value. Consequently, your employer will raise your salary. No harm done!

If you are wondering how is the previous case different from this one, remember that the in the previous case, only a part of the population is affected. So raise in inflation is not significant. And so only the village folks get poorer. We need a solution in capitalist domain. If we venture into socialist/communist form of governance we do have some solution. But, get you creativity going in solving this problem in capitalist domain.

I had put this on discussion at the famed bangalore gang (”bang-gang” for short). Here are some of the points that came up.

A study has shown that  “kiranas” can  coexist with big time retailers. But I ma not sure if it talks about India alone or  all over the world

Few solutions:

One of the  plausible solutions is moving towards socialist form of governance specifically for food grains, cereals, oil and basic amenities is a govt controlled efficient Public Distribution System. India had a decent network of Fair Price Shops (nyaya bele anagadi in Kannada) or Ration Depots all over the country. As the Govt gave up it’s exclusive procurement rights, the system died out. Govt no longer has access to sufficient food grains. The private companies are quick to approach the farmers and get the produce at a lesser cost and once they have it, they can import/export or process it depending on the market needs. This can lead to hoarding. But of course, govt interferenace has its drawbacks of corruption among others.

Another solution that was tried (targeted at walmart) was to restrict the area of shopping area to a certain value. In India too such a law was tried aimed at stopping tata-birlas from running more business. But it was circumvented by opening business under proxy names.

Charge large taxes on goods sold at higher rates elsewhere. This again is some kind of regulation which might not work too well owing to transportation cost etc.

Capitalism on Waitresses and Waiters:

Tipping culture exists in US because they are paid less than minimum wage. They are paid less than minimum wage because it is a tipped job! When waitress or waiters earn less then minimum wage even after tips they dont report it because it becomes an excuse for the employer to call them incompetent and fire them. More on that here (via desipundit).

I am a capitalist too and love the idea of free market but it is quite cruel at its fullest level. Do comment on possible solutions to the problem I described above.

Happy new years to all my readers!

Being in India, you are never more than just couple of hundred meters away from a tradition that is followed simply because it has always been followed. Mythology is used to explain most of the weird superstition. A good work (shuba kaarya) is never started the day after a new moon day as the Mahabharata war started on that day; onion, garlic, tomatoes etc are seldom used in cooking (in highly orthodox places) because they were no created by God but by Vishwamitra among others. The educated ones assume that there is a scientific basis for all of this and carry on the tradition.

One such tradition in followed in Karnataka is preparation of Vada during death Ceremony. Vada is prepared in many families only during the annual death ceremony. If prepared during other times, it is not donut shaped but saucer shaped. This issue came up when my room mate, from Andra Pradesh, wanted to prepare Vada for Diwali or Dasara. It was apparently a tradition at his place. The plan was later ditched as my other room-mate from Karnataka told him about this. Around same time, abcd room-mate was talking his mom getting mad when he had shaved his head once. It is a common knowledge that head is shaved usually in case of death in the family (Thirupathi Apart). If such tradition are broken, it is seen as a utmost contempt and blasphemy.

It should be hard to see that such tradition mostly serve as a form of mass communication to inform the community about whats happening at your place. There are certain kind of dishes that are prepared during a Birthday, and others during the death ceremony. You really don’t want people to come into your place and ask, “is it a birthday or did someone die?” To avoid any such conflict, certain tradition do make sense. It is for this reason that I am a believer in saying, “While in Rome, do as Romans do” Suppose a family moves from their own place to a new one, they shouldn’t refrain from changing their tradition. It is nice to stand up to what you think is right, but at the same time you should be bothered about inviting wrong questions such as the one above, when you are adamant about following the tradition you have always followed.

Many of the card games usually depends on the hand that you get. Bridge is an exception. Played in teams of two, even with the worst possible hand, a game can be won. The game is all about establishing a protocol with your teammate about the hand you have and making right judgment about how many tricks you are going to win. An informed judgment about winning only three tricks and eventually doing so can get bring your team up. I don’t play Bridge, from what I know, there are several tried and tested methods to communicate to the partner over the table. Needless to say that a sound knowledge of them is necessary to win a game.

Salsa in competitions and bigger occasions are rehearsed and performed several times before presenting them on the stage. However, many are dance are performed impromptu when there are experienced dancers. Built on certain basic steps, all the swirls and the turns are established on the spot through dance gesture by the leader and the follower should be responsive enough to reciprocate the moves. Though it takes a lot of practice to look elegant in front of an audience the crux of the whole matter lies in interpreting the leaders’ moves. There are several such standards in salsa too based on the place where they are practiced.

I dont know how many of you would played this wonderful game called Mafia (aka Ware wolf) (not the video game, check the wiki link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafia_(game) ). It is a game with the good guys (villages) and the bad guys (wolfs). The wolfs know who else is wolf. Villages are uninformed. Villages, fortunately, have policeman and doctor amongst them. Policeman can find an identity (villager, doctor or wolf) during the game. Doctor can choose to heal a person whom he think the wolf are going to kill. The game proceeds with night time (after all the players are assigned their roles secretly). A moderator asks wolves to open their eyes and point to thei possible victim. After the wolves have come to an agreement they convey it to the moderator (not aloud … no one is suppose to know anything). Then doctor can choose to save a person whom he thinks is going to get killed. And then policeman can get to know the identity of one person from the set of players.

Based on who was chosen to kill, based on policeman’s knowledge, the good guys have to kill all the wolves. Wolves, on the other hand, should try to defend themselves or be sly enough to blame an another person and make the majority vote him out of the game. Remember that policeman simple cannot reveal himself initially as wolves will go for the policeman next night. Same argument goes for the doctor. The game in uninteresting during the begining when there is nothing to go by. As the game moves on based on knowledge of policeman(if he is not killed) game get really interesting and at times emotions and rage runs high.

Having played this game many time in our hostels and also in the Himalayas :), it is a game where communication is the key. Its all about policeman trying to convince others about who the wolves are and wolves trying to implicate others though good arguments. Certain signs of being a wolf is being too attentive or under attentive in the game, or to fumble an argument. Wolf, sometimes, kill deceptively to implicate someone else and thus communicate wrong idea while the opposite works for the good guys.

If you are still wondering what common to Tradition, Salsa, Bridge and Mafia, it the idea of effective communication that makes them a great, for lack of a better word, entity. Nature too has quite an effective communication skill. There is a lull before the strom, tremors before an earth quake, low tide before tsunami and, of course, melting of ice caps before ….

PS: Freakonomics … well i know the article is not about ecomomics .. but couldn’t find a better title

PPS: Pics will come later when I get my own laptop in 2-3-4 weeks.

I did want to post DC and NYC pics, but I will do that later. There are a lot more things I want to say about the place.

Roads

“There are some people out there in our nation who don’t have maps” (link)… that’s so not true. They may not have world map, but many here do have road maps. Finding ways is much easier in India. To get from point A to B, you may have to know about 2-3 three villages or town you should cross and the direction on milestones will take you where you want to go. But here, there are hardly a few boards on Interstates which show the direction. You have to use sites like google maps or mapquest to get direction before you head to a place. The other alternative is road maps. Every highway has several exit roads which interconnect two highways. You will have to hop from one to another about 2-3 times in those many hours (link). Exits from highways may be on the left or the right side of the road, being on the correct lane is very important. If you happen to get lost, you need maps to get back on track. You wont find people on the street on a highway like in India to guide you and neither are there any directions on the boards (only the exit numbers are marked).

I was at Pink Floyd tribute band concert and during the break an old man (American) was talking about way Indians stop in the middle of the highway to check for directions and causing accidents because of fast trucks behind them. He said that about Indian Women driver in particular. he has seen it happen several times.

Road signs:

They are abundant. “Side walk closed, cross here”,”men at work, lower speed limit, 35 mph”, “men at work, turn head lights on”, “yield” etc. My favorite one is seen in Pennsylvania (not in Delaware or New Jersey for some reason): “Bridge may be Icy”. The reason eluded me for a month (thats why it my favorite) until my room mate told me why. In winter, there is sub zero air both over and under the bridge, while roads have cold air just over them, so bridge may indeed be icy in winter but not roads.

Resource consumption

All you read in news paper about USA being the biggest consumer of resource is true. Every two weeks, we go to super market to buy groceries. For every couple of items, we are given a polythene cover. There are loads of them lying in my home right now. Its hard to avoid it as we have to buy stuff all together for two weeks. The concept of commercial shops close to residence area and buying stuff for 2-3 days is non existent here. It is tough to avoid the use of plastic here. I remember the time (nearly 15 years ago) when most of the stuff were handed out wrapped in news papers.

The effort to reduces the consumption is also silly. I found a pamphlet on a hand dryer replacing paper tower claiming hand dryers are environmentally more friendly as trees are not cut. How they forget about the coal for the electricity used by the hand dryer? In my department, the printer gives out a page printing just one line with user name, date and time of the document it is printing out next. Everyday there are at least a pile 200-300 empty (but for that one line in the header) papers next to the printer. I do take some home to work out my assignments, but there is only so much i can do. The fact that upto 2000 pages can be printed every semester doesn’t help.

MRP:

There is no mrp on the food products and other consumer products which are bought regularly. I am not sure if this is a feature of capitalism or if its is in USA alone. We have to go by the price written in on the rack. They are consistent with price encoded in the bar codes. Because there is no MRP, prices vary from supermarket to supermarket with walmart being the cheapest.

Academics:

At least in my university, every course has a prescribed text book which is followed. I prefer this system rather having to write notes manage material from several sources. There are tonnes of assigments, quizes with midterm and end term to keep you on your toes all the time. During the orientation, there were couple of lectures on plagiarism in research and cheating etc. Kind if image that is projected in India about USA is that people obey rules student rarely cheat. Well, its not all that rosy. I do find copied work when I grade assignments and the average in assignments is usually high. Bottom line is that there are all kinds of students here.

Weekends:

Though my place is a small town. Many activities happen during the week end apart from foot ball. There are concerts, plays etc happening all the time. The one big advantage of being in a big university is that there are loads of workshops, activity clubs etc in place for students to engage in. Be it adventure club that has a hike, trek or rafting trip organized every week or community dace workshop that meets every week, there are stuff to do that can rejuvenate you from the academic work load.

Big fat Greek fraternities

There are number of fraternities here which are all named with three random Greek letter. “Phi Beta Kappa” “Alpha Pi Epsilon” etc etc (i am making them up, for all that i know, they may actually exist). From the wiki link (link), I find that they are so named to abbreviate they motto in Greek. There is one named “Delta Phi Theta”, and when written in capitals, it reminds me of the deathly hollows
Ads:

There is standard protocol for Ads here

A: I have this problem
B: Ok, have you heard of this product?
A: No, what is it?
B: It is <blah blah>
A: What are its advantages
B: <blah blah>

Thats it! and if its an ad for a medicine, it usually end with, “side effects may include headache, nausea, vomiting, fever and liver damage”. Thee are some good ads, but only a handful.

There are couple of new ad style that are common here. Any event that has to be publicized, balloons with the event ‘logo’ are strung around the bus stop area for people to notice. Neat Idea I think. Also, there is this airplane which carries a huge poster around the city all day with Gaico (insurance company) ad on it. I wonder if it is efficient at all. No one looks at it and on foot ball days, when it is most common, people watch foot ball, not some plane flying around the town.

Archtechture

Most of the universities are very old. This is very much evident in the architecture here. It does add to the beauty of the place. There are new buildings in place, but the campus is dominated by the old and red buildings. Purdue is also similar in this aspect. I am not sure about other universities but given that many universities came into existence in 19th century, I wont be surprised if all of them look similar.

Coins:

The cost of any product is not a multiple of a quarter (25 cents). It can be $2.37 or $4.56. After every transaction, you are left with load on 1 cent, 5 cent, 10 cent and 25 cent coins. I have about 80 (all put together) of them in my room. I have no clue how to dispose them. The bright side is you wallet gets heavier every time you spend :).

Cleanliness:

Toilet papers are not clean. I have seen people throw cigarette butts carelessly on the roads. Other than that, yeah, the country is very clean. There are dustbins everywhere. With a lower population, it is very easy to keep it clean. Take New York, with so many people, it is as chaotic as India. The traffic is disorderly and the place is not all that clean esp china town area.

Cultural and Religion:

Hmmm … the only thing that you will notice is some people don’t dress according to, lets just say, “Indian Culture” (don’t ask me what it means). When everyone around you is similar, you hardly notice it, and it not at all a distraction. People do wear shorts toclass and no one complains and no one takes an offense.

Many students works here. Libraries, labs etc are all managed by students who earn from part time positions. I think such a system must be developed in India as well. We have them in IITs where a few things are manageed by students, but they are not paid for it. This is very option when scholarship for financially challenged students is limited.

Religion and caste make headlines all the time in India. With most of the country being Christian, it occasionally makes headlines here. In a local daily, it was published that about 14% of Americans were found to be atheist. Thats a pretty big number I thought. There is this person who preaches about Christianity everyday in the afternoon near a building where some people usually gather around. On one occasssion, a few non-believers started arguing with him. As expected, it went on and on. At one point one of them raised a point of being narrow minded when anyone considers Christianity being the real truth. The preacher replied, “To me, calling some one narrow minded is a high school taunt. When you don’t know is murder and rape is good or bad, you are open minded. After all the arguments, when you know that its bad, you are automatically closed minded! It just a high school taunt.” The argument carried on (obviously). I left the place thinking about a similar experience I had when I was called narrow minded for not accepting violence as a solution.

Update:

Coffee

Americans love their coffee as much as South Indians love their filter coffee. Junta get their spill proof glass to buses and classes and having during the course of the day.

I thought I will wait for a month before I pen my first impressions on America rather than writing a post immediately. Here are a few things I noted down about the place.

Friendliness:

About a year ago, there was survey conducted about politeness and Indians turned out to be the most rude people. After traveling to Japan and being here for nearly two months, I must say with a heavy heart that it is true. You are always greeted with a smile every place you visit. Millions of ‘thank you’s and ’sorry’s may sound artificial initially but its surely better than frowns you receive back home in a government offices.

Why brain-drain?

I missed my bus and reached ten minutes late on a quiz day. We were told that quiz would be conduced at the end of the class. However, prof failed to notice me absent and conducted the quiz first. When she realized I was late, though it was entirely my fault, I was allowed write it after the class. Back in IITM, in my last year, there was circular sent saying student have to be in exam hall at 8:50 for 9:00 am exam. It was more of a guideline everyone thought. When 3rd year mech. students (I was in 4th year then) made it at 8:55, they were not allowed to write the test for 30 minutes. Thats the difference in attitude in two counties. HOD of Mech, IITM has no right to complain of brain drain. You can’t expect students to be obedient enough to stay back in iitm after being treated indifferently.

Paper Work:

When is comes to paper work, this place is no better than India. We still need to carry paper from one department to another to get things done. But at each place, work get done in quick time as all the tasks are computer based. My friend lost his passport after coming here. The assistance he received from Indian Embassy was pathetic. He complained that no one spoke to him in English in Washington embassy. Any English he spoke was not responded to. He had to run around DC and NYC and several hundred bucks later, got his duplicate passport. Now, his I94 will take 2 more months. I guess its typical of Govt. offices to take such a long time.

Punctuality and road discipline:

Except on the days on foot ball (American foot ball), buses are always on time. To the last  minute. You can always expect trains to be fast as they are computer handled, but these guys manage to run buses on time. Lane discipline is amazing too. Hardly anyone ever jumps a red light. When I drive in India, I always slow down even on a green signal because I “know” someone will jump the signal. It is scary initially when every vehicle zooms past an intersection on green light.

Earlier, about 6-7 years ago, buses in Bangalore used to be punctual despite the unpredictable traffic. I now don’t think it true after  the population explosion of sorts in Bangalore.

Foot ball and Base ball:

They as big as cricket in India. A person who claims that base ball is a boring game and 2020 cricket is good is a hypocrite. I am sure most of Indian don’t follow base ball and simply pass a judgment. And American foot ball is a big craze here. I have seen people holding huge banner begging for tickets on weekends in this place. I wish to understand the game too. Thats one more thing to do on week ends.

A lot of people say that love for soccer is more than that for cricket because people who follow soccer also madly follow club soccer. But in India, the regional cricket is hardly followed by masses. One should realize that given the frequency of International Tournaments in Foot Ball, naturally other forms of soccer gain popularity.

International PresenceMy university does boast of international presence but 60-70% of international presence is made by Chinese and Indians. And talking about China, pub culture is looked doen upon just like in India. And also, there are a few Chinese  who would love to have a sibling but cannot as it is illegal for couple to have more than one child. Coming back from CD trip as part of international orientation, a chinese girl was saying about many people deciding to stay in US because of one-child policy back home. My opinion: China’s dictatorship/ communism is just a ticking time bomb, Tienanmen’s square massacre was just a beginning. Also,  I hope Burma get its independence soon. Walk On!

Fall :

Trees change colour and shed their leaves. Until now these were true only in text books But yeah … this place is damn green. I some how fail to understand the garden city title to Bangalore. Even 10 years back, it was never this green.

Food:

Dear god .. its so bland! Thankfully, we have all the spices at home to cook. Americans don’t have trouble understanding my accent, but every i say vegetarian, they ask me to repeat it.  Indian food is expensive …. the restraunts call it “exotic” here.

Coming soon: Pics from NYC and DC and few other things i may have missed here

I am not a voracious reader or anything, but I do read book once in a while. Off late I have been visiting a few book stores in Bangalore, now that I have a lot of time at my hand. While I don’t read much, I do want to score brownie points in my friends’ good books. It works this way. Every time anyone asks me about having read any book, I casually reply, “it’s by this guy right, Vikram Seth? I haven’t read it, but I want to.” It’s like saying, “I know about it.” It is important to show off at occasions. All of us at some point of time do like to associate ourselves with someone famous or learned, and be in sync with their conversation. We all want to be famous, some of us do get that fifteen minutes of fame. At other times, we strive to move with famous people. For instance, at any wedding in South India, people crowd around the bride and the groom to be at the helm of the proceeding. It is not that they are needed or something, it is just the hurried running and gulping of headache relief pills that some folks seem to enjoy. And listless old men, who what don’t want to miss out on the action, too chip in with advise on performing rituals.

Ever wondered why once in every 6 months, a while after she died, new characters kept emerging from nowhere saying they slept with Princess Diana? It’s the ‘I-want-to-be-with-famous’ syndrome. No one can confirm or deny it, they might as well make something out of it. It could have happened. Diana’s sure gone. She can’t speak.

Do you remember high school cricket? Good old days where only one of us got to be “the best” player, and rest of us cling to him in all games and always wanna be in his team. Yup, its the same syndrome at play. It should be noted that such a system promotes the hero-sidekick relationship among the students. I have observed such relationships on couple of occasions outside the television. Its fun to ‘watch’ such things in life actually :). With new rules (link) in schools operating, with boys and girls no being allowed touch the people of opposite sex, I see no reason why the hero-sidekick culture won’t present itself as a norm. After all, it is the duty of the hero to show the right way. This reality also mimics television. Among dozen others, Batman and Robin stand out clearly as a leading Hero-Sidekick example. As it turns out, both are … well … gay. Arguably at least. Hence, the likelihood of fears among conservatives that it promotes homosexuality is not that unfounded (link).

Also, I believe, there is a difference in you being someone’s sidekick and you idolizing someone. In the former case, you blindly follow what the other person does. In the latter, though you agree with the principle at a bigger scale, you change the rules to your needs. If you are thinking about most common example for hero-sidekick relation, you need not look further. The most famous entity is God himself. He (Capital H) is the Hero, fundamentalists are sidekicks. Associations with ‘famous’ God is the “thing” in claim to fame! Like George Carlin says, “up on the mountain, when no one was around, God gave us Ten Commandments.” (link), every religion sets out rules formulated thousands of years ago. The sidekicks follow them blindly. Brilliant, isn’t it? In fact, people said to be closest to God, that is priests, are in the highest strata of the society. This hero-sidekick relationship is not exclusive in most of the cases. In a certain case, there are hundreds of Gods and equal number of sidekicks, there is no problem of ‘promiscuity’ there.

God is famous. We all know that. Lets come down to earth. Did you know that Scientology boasts of 10 million memberships by the end of 2006. It surprising that a religion (?) arising out of a science fiction novel can attract so many people? With its foundations lying in alien invasions, volcanic eruption, hydrogen bombs and soul clusterization (link), how the hell did people even find it acceptable? With John Travolta and Tom Cruise following it, isn’t it hardly surprising?

Comments on blasphemy, religion and related issues won’t be answered. The questions, if need be, can be directed to Richard Dawkins. Yes, he is very famous, and I am with famous.

My previous attempts at Humour
But, not so seriously
What your status today
Peg’s law

Four years of hostel life changes a lot of things. Though I see myself as the same person as I was when entered IIT Madras, I kind of know that I have changes a lot in these four years. This post will reflect what I have learned from the four years of my undergraduate life. It is unfortunate that many us miss out on so many opportunities, while some of us explore a part of it. And there are very few, if any, who make the best use; I so envy them. I wanted to write this while at IIT Madras, but laziness got the better of me.Statuary Warning : Long post

The Tech. Part

It was only in my final year that I indulged myself in the robotics, robotics-like activities because the courses I took demanded them. My college has a fairly active “hobby club” which caters to people with such interests. In fact, the robotics club started in my first year. It now provides a reasonably good platform for the students to start their work. What many of us fail to realize is that when you get your hands down and dirty, science and technology can be fun too. In the final semester, I was involved with a project where a miniature model of a lift had to be made. To be frank, it was the first time that I actually learned about handling micro processors, assembling mechanical components and electrical components together and actually put some of the workshop skills to use. The best part of the whole deal is the fact the you get to know people better, you interact with lot more and make more acquaintances. I can only wonder why I chose to distance myself from such activities in the past.

After the first year, it was only a matter of time before many more clubs like Physics clubs, Astronomy club popped up. I am sure that those involved in their functioning would have had loads of fun. Mostly, I was part of the Programming team in IIT Madras in four years. It was amazing being part of that. Met awesome team mates and that even took me to Tokyo. As part of the technical festival called ‘Shaastra’, projects such as building a hovercraft, tensegrity tower, remote controlled aircraft etc would have been an immense learning experience. Yet again I stress the fact that it is the people who you meet during the period that you value the most.

The Management Part

Many people miss out on being volunteers and coordinators for different events and facilities that help massive cultural and technical festivals (Saarang and Shaastra respectively) run smoothly. It is a common misconception among students that by being a part of mangement, the “fun” of Saarang and Shaastra is gone. That is true only to an limited extent. Given the ample number of events that take place, and given that fact that there are only a handful of event which really confined to your interests, you are not missing out much. Work on Saarang and Shaastra begins months before the actual event. During the run-up when you are loaded with tonnes of work other than acads, it is very satisfying targets falling one by one during the entire course. It is a pity that many of us take academics so seriously that it is considered a ‘waste-of-time’ to find yourself doing “other” things.

I have been a ‘volunteer’ three times and a ‘coordinator’ five times. Each time, I have had great fun being a part of both technical and cultural festivals. More than half the people I know in IITM can be traced back to acquaintances I made as part of the organizing team. In 2006 Saarang, I was part of the Production team which ended up being a great group to hang out with. After that, I was part of the event “how things work” for Mechanical Engineering Department’s technical festival ‘mechanica’. I was forced into it, but I have to thank all those who forced me into it because the people I got to know were the most enthusiastic bunch I had ever seen. Also because, I managed to win “how things work” in the following shaastra. In other occasions too, I have always loved being responsible for whatever I was in-charge of. Any youngster today, I would advice him to be both technically inclined as well as be ready to work on cultural activities to earn a wholesome experience. Plus, a coordinator in Shaastra would mean 400 bucks worth of freebies and 900 bucks in Saarang
It is often complained that students more time of computer these day and less on social interations. I think more such activities undertaken by the institute will help in building Social interation skills among students. Instead, today we find the Dean reducing the number of days of Saarang as it not in academic interest. Earlier, a real show-case of Indian Culture was observed in the name of “Bharath Utsav” in IIT Madras. Again, as it was not a part of academics, the entire fest was canceled six years ago.

The Acad. Part

In the final semester I took a course named “technology and development” taught by Prof. D Veeraraghavan one of the most eminent profs in Humanities Department in IIT Madras. In one of the classes, an old student of his, an alumnus of my college’s electrical department, gave a small talk. He had done is Ph.D. in social sciences unlike his peers who stayed on in core engineering. That talk was an eye-opener for me on research in Social Sciences. He explained about indigenous cotton seeds, imported cotton seeds and how it affected the rural textile industry as the looms were designed for indigenous harder cotton seeds. Frankly, until then, though I had often wondered, I had no clue as to research in subjects other than science and technology. It is true that IITs (and all engineering colleges for that matter) provide a one dimensional view of education, ie technology. A “full-fledged” engineer from my college will have completed just 12 of 180 credits in non-engineering subjects. This is a dismally low number. It is sad that people don’t realize this.

Apart from numerous (a lot more than even MIT actually) core engineering courses, we are given a free choice for two courses (free electives) from any department. Also, we several have a minor streams which are designed to different from our engineering Major. In my opinion, these options aren’t enough. But, many fail to consolidate even on this limited choice. For instance, almost three-fourth of computer science students opt for operation research as minor as it complements some of their courses. Though I appreciate their enthusiasm, I have to remind them that the whole point of minor stream is to do something different from the regular routine. A lot of students end up taking courses from their own department in the ‘free-elective’ slot. They are simply not making the most of what the institution has to offer.

I should refer to Steve Jobs speech in Stanford convocation where he talks about “connecting the dots” on his calligraphy course which he later used in Apple mac OS(youtube link, text link). I would advise any fresher to explore his options completely before resorting to “safe” choice of following the herd.

The get-together, treks part

This is one part, where, I don’t think many would have missed out. I have been to places in last two years of stay. Traveling, photography are cherished by all. It is inevitable that people end up in a clique of 5-6 people who constantly hangout together. It is in treks and traveling that people with common friends get together and have the time of their lives. The network of friends grows very fast on such occasions. Hopefully, I will go to one more Himalayan trek that is being planned now When you travel, invariably, you have stories to bring back and envy a lot of people.

The treats part

Chennai, though the climate sucks, is blessed with beaches. The treats, get-together, parties happen a lot across the east coast. When it comes to choosing colleges for your under graduation, I would recommend a place on the coast, a big city preferably. A city a lots to offer. Chennai, for instance, has places like Tanjarine (sizzlers), Don Pepe(mexican), Eatalica (Italian-American), Pupil (formerly Veronas, Junk food heaven), Buena Vista (on East coast road, for secluded beach with nice stuff ), New Yorkers, Lil Italy etc. It’s no use lamenting about the city not being as “cool” as Bangalore (in every sense), enjoy the place while you are there. Make sure you visit all the eat-out places

The LAN part

Gaming, surfing, movies on comps, sitcoms etc form a integral part of any hostel life when it is connect to LAN and internet. You gotta enjoy all of that while it lasts. When you watch movies in CFD lab meant for academic purposes late in the night because of the AC to beat the summer heat, the experience will remain imprinted in your mind for a long time.

Bottom Line: Be tech savvy, be geeky, be cool, have fun! Believe me! All of them can happen at the same time

On a personal note:

I am headed to Pennsylvania State University (PSU) for Ph.D. in scientific computing in Computer Science and Engineering Department. I am sure I will miss the name ‘coolshankin’ three months on, though i hate it as of now. Many of my friends have told me that all I have to do to tell them my email address and the name will stick. If that happens, I will surely hate the name all over again.
I am sure a lot of people will hate me for saying this, but I will say it anyway. When people have no reason to meet, they don’t. Though we all promise that we will keep in touch, it is only once in a while that we actually bother to mail the friends. When there is a reunion, there simply isn’t any common topic to talk about. The conversations are mostly formal. Given orkut, facebook and gtalk, I am sure people will make an attempt to keep in touch. After convocation, I got no idea when I will be meeting my friends again. Perhaps in US or perhaps in India itself after one, one and a half or two years. By then, all of us would have moved on and meeting over the net will also be a rare thing.

It is a fact that though we all keep promising that we will keep in touch, in the end we all tend lose touch. To know whats happening with my life, you can always see my status messages and read my blog posts :P. After a lot of complaints from friends and family alike, I promise to take more pictures with myself in it and post them at flickr, orkut, picassa or wherever. It was great knowing you all

I am reminded of a song by Amy Grant which goes, “Oh how the years go by, oh how the love brings tears to my eyes ….” It’s very apt here. Don’t mind the video .. listen to the song.

http://www.youtube.com/v/PZcbRr7GBHY

I remember my first day at the college when my dad was about to leave me and I was missing home already. I was thinking, “I can’t believe this is happening”. Couple of days back, when I was packing stuff in my room to leave home I was thinking again, “I can’t believe this is happening.” Emotions were exactly the same. How good a place can be measured by how happy you are while you were at the place. How good a place can be measured by how sad you felt when you left the place. I think the latter is more appropriate. Lemme know what you think.

Earlier last month, there was a request made by freshies in my college about a mathematics test being postponed by a week so that it doesn’t fall right after the diwali hols. It was scheduled on Monday following the diwali weekend. Even before the request letter signed by freshies read the mathematics department, the authorities turned the request down (as far as I have been informed). In my opinion, the request was quite a legitimate one. After all, diwali is the most celebrated and biggest festival in the country. If students want to have a good time, I don’t understand their problem. I’m sure that no American or English Universities schedule their tests right after Christmas. The holiday season is what it is supposed to be - Holidays. What is annoying is the fact that it is the same authorities who complain about brain drain later at a different occasion. How the hell can’t such a simple request be fulfilled? If the “brain” is not even allowed to enjoy what rest of country takes for granted, you can’t blame them for trying to get out of this place.It is not an isolated incident that I am complaining about. We have had Industrial Design test to write on Gandhi Jayanthi. We have been forced to write Engineering Drawing Exams right after sweating it out on Fitting Workshop for four hours. There was one lab in which the in-charge wouldn’t let us switch on the fan or open the windows (it was close to 40oC) because it would affect our readings. None of us could see how though, it was a completely enclosed system.

There are always those Profs who demand respect rather than command it. Somehow the “Indian culture” put a teacher on a pedestal. From what elders have told me, “They ought to be respected, no questions asked.” Such a respect is not advised to any other profession. That leaves a little wonder why there isn’t any dignity of labour in our country. A ‘level’ of a cobbler, for instance, will remain low forever because no one ever asks anyone to respect them. But a teacher, oh no, they have to be respected. I may be grossly wrong here, but from what I see, over the ages Brahmins have been teachers and are always respected simply because they are teachers. After thousand of years, we cannot wonder how the whole social (caste) hierarchy came into existence. We are not taught to respect anyone on how well they do their job but on what they do, no matter how miserable they perform their job. Why isn’t it clear to some teachers that students are going to respect them provided they teach well, and not just because they are teachers?

Over my stay in school, every year I have seen some teachers who tried be “forgiving” to students on their birthdays. They tell them, “I am letting you go because it’s your birthday, otherwise ….” Come on! It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the birthday is effectively ruined. Thankfully, I have never been at the receiving end of this, but some of my friends were. Let me not get started on beating (read physical torture) that some of the teachers in my school were “famous” for. Also, every one of us would have been victim of imposition sometime or the other during elementary schooling.

My friends have their exams in Bangalore starting the day after Christmas. Perhaps, the authorities find Christmas and New Year parties against Indian Culture. Whatever the reason, these people (like Mathematics dept.) have forfeited their right to talk against brain-drain as such people are driving cause for brain-drain to begin with.

And yes, before I forget, lemme tell you that Pizza and other delivery people cannot come into our campus. It is not that they cause nuisance in the campus, there are tones of other vehicles coming in and going out everyday but because it’s a residential zone. There is a gate through which the bikes don’t have go through the residential zone, and can reach all the hostels. But even that is a big deal for authorities here to allow them to come in. This issue, hopefully, will be resolved soon.

Please note that I am not saying many teacher, Profs and authorities are that way. In fact, I respect, in the true sense of the word, almost all teacher who have taught me, not out of compulsion but because they do a good job. There are those few who, unfortunately, make life difficult for us when all it takes is a little effort to make it simpler. And I don’t respect such people no matter what their profession is.

To end on a positive note, our Mathematics Prof had absolutely no problem in postponing the test for a week. All it took was an oral request.

Couple of friends of mine and me had an argument which was kicked offby this peace of news. My reaction, just like many others, was, “wtf?” We all know how the government had done such a mediocre job is building new schools. The right to basic education is being denied to scores thousands of people in the state. Yet, the government goes out of the way to destroy the existing school. This clearly shows the sign of its irresponsibility. Yes, the schools were given to permit teaching in only Kannada as the medium of instruction and they did flout the law. All that govt. had to do was warn them and remind them about the condition on which the permit was given. It wasn’t necessary to take the extreme step. Let’s face it; English is the language in which science is best taught. International standardization for scientific terms has existed for long time. Social Studies, on the other hand, is best taught is the native language. When you learn about a society or about a culture, the native language obviously has the richest vocabulary to express the ideas. It was wrong on the part of the schools to have taken license for schools to run in Kannada medium and flout the rule. I can only say that, it’s now fair if the govt. gives permits to existing schools either as Kannada medium or as English medium provided the schools follow the necessary norms. Though many may hate to admit it, English medium is a necessity and not a luxury in Urban India. In rural India, perhaps, native language works the best.There had been a constant worry among Kannada activists that the language is losing importance. Some of them have taken extreme measures to burn English hoardings in Bangalore to encourage Kannada. This is not acceptable. Kannada Activists have every right to encourage Kannada, but they have no business to discourage English or any other language like they did. There are ways to popularize Kannada and other regional languages. For instance, a good comic book for primary kids and good novels to a high school kid goes a long way in developing interest and enthusiasm in a language. You can’t enforce a language on someone and hope that it popularizes it. You have to develope a natural inclination to a language. The fact that locals are offended by “outsiders” are encroaching Bangalore is laughable. Different kinds of people coming into Bangalore has added diversity and richness into the culture of Bangalore. And remember that the Indian culture we talk about has again evolved over 20 centuries. If we have to retain our identity, we have encouraged it, not prevent people from coming into Bangalore. IT is blamed for “infesting” Karnataka. Remember, IT contributes to 25% of GDP of Karnataka. Given 50% comes from agriculture, the share of IT is phenomenal. It’s up to the govt. (indirectly, the people) to use them.

Regionalism took its tool on our debate. points about how Tamilians never speak in other languages, and how accommodative Kanndigas are as they are “allowing” people to stay in Bangalore were all made by my friends. I did not agree to the fact that Bangalore was decaying because of presence of other people.

The topic of the debate swayed a little bit to how tolerant, in general, Indians are. My friend claimed this has lead to our downfall in some sense. We talked about how foolish India was for not trading POK for Lahore after the ‘71 war and other passive attempts to counter terrorism. Speaking of recent comments by Manmohan Singh , I acknowledged the fact that a stronger stance was needed to counter terrorism, state-sponsored or otherwise. Then the debate turned to religion. And that’s what prompted me to write this post.

At this point I made it clear that I don’t find my life very different from a Christian Indian or Indian Muslim. I don’t consider myself a Hindu and that I am an atheist. I don’t want to assume a narrower Identity. I am a citizen of the world first, then India, then my state. This according to them was being too benevolent. They said, “We have to serve our people. One has to be a Village/Town’s person first, State next, country next and then the world.” They claimed, ‘Indians have this tendency of giving a lot to the world and not getting as much in return by being benevolent and tolerant to others.’ Despite the obscene portrayal of Hindu deities by MF Hussein, he was felicitated by the Indian Govt. Govt. was blamed for appeasing the minority for votes (obviously) and splitting the majority and successfully make a living out of it. They claimed that because of the India being a secular nation, political parties are able to use the mantra of “divide and rule”. That is, appease the minority, get their votes, split the majority, get half their votes and win election. However, it isn’t clear to me how the majority is split. Both of them went on to claim that India will be more peaceful nation if it officially a “Hindu state”.

I was taken aback. What sort of a country (and democracy) is it when you don’t have a freedom to choose the religion you want to follow. They went on to claim that Secularism hasn’t worked anywhere in the world. I claimed that it obviously wasn’t true. It is only in India that Secularism has worked because of Hindu Muslim conflict. The only other place where a bitter war is being fought in the name of religion (between two religion) is Israel which isn’t a secular state. Source 1, 2. The rest of the world is quite peaceful secular or not. It is easy for Hindus in India to say make India a Hindu State. What about the minority. Why should they be subjected to the torture of having to follow a religion not appealing to them. India is a free country, a secular country. For a country as diverse as ours, that’s the best.

I was baffled at this point. First, they say that my priority of considering myself citizen of the world first is screwed and second they want to make India a country which bound by laws of a rigid religion whose rules cannot be changed easily. The topic of Narendra Modi was also raised. I called him a cold blooded murderer and a terrorist. This was agreed upon. Then came the issue of conversion, Christian missionaries and of course Graham Steins. One of my friends claimed, he can justify the killings of him and his two sons.

—
He Explained:
It is against the Indian constitution to coax anyone into converting his religion. Graham Steins did just that. He went to tribal area, spoke to people over there. Introduced then to Christianity. Offended a lot of people. He deserved to die.

I answered back, “how the hell can you justify him being killed for that? What was the fault of his two children? Would you kill Osama’s children? The intention of the missionaries is to spread Christianity. They do a lot of social service. If they can inform people that that is what Christianity is all about. There is nothing wrong in asking them to convert as long as he doesn’t force them.”

He started, “Ok, killing his children was wrong but he still coaxed people. Its against constitution”
Me: “Coax is not a crime. It is surely not wrong. Constitution is wrong there. It should be changed. It can be changed”
Him: “Nothing is right or wrong in abstract sense. I follow what constitution says. I accept it as a norm”
—-
My opinion: Great argument in rhetoric, hardly holds any weight otherwise.

I asked him if he thinks what missionaries is doing is wrong, does he approve of what ISKON is doing? He replied, “Yes, there are spreading Krishna Conscience, not Hindu conversion.” Logically speaking, since Krishna is Hindu God, shouldn’t an ISKON follower imbibe certain (not
all) Hindu customs and traditions? Isn’t this a hypocrisy? You can’t approve what Iskon is doing and not approve what Missionaries are doing.

He went on to speak about how he insulted people over there and that there is a written proof of that. He offended a priest in the tribe who ran away from the place and that aggravated people. I asked him, “If he was insulting them at their face, how did he even hope to convert people.” He answered, “lets not get into logistics of that.” He told me that police and ministry wouldn’t help the tribe and hence they asked Dara Singh to kill him. He said, “Dara Singh, in a way, helped them.” At some point I asked him the source of this information. He said that it was in a book by Arun Shouri. Why didn’t that surprise me? He is from BJP. He is obviously going to bend facts in Hindu’s favour.

Even then, how does it justify him being KILLED? His view was that Indians have been insulted by Graham Steins’ actions. I questioned him if he believed Christianity was an Insult. He said, “no”. He also stated that such action were “necessary” for Hindus to retain their identity. At this point I was totally agitated. He had just claimed killing was a necessary and not just that. He wanted it to happen once in a while. He continued, “tribal were threatened by him, they killed him. I don’t support the killing. But, it is justifiable.” I made the usual clichéd argument about no one having a right to take a life. I also firmly said a big NO to capital punishment to Dara Singh or to Osama.

What kind of a religion supports violence? Isn’t the intolerance expressed by my friends totally against any religious beliefs? I asked him if he supported Osama Bin Laden’s Killing. There is a parallel here. He merely claimed they were different cases altogether. Seriously, Bin Laden is killing because he feels his religion is being threatened. Dara Singh did the same. Isn’t what he did a Hindu jihad? Just that in other religions there is no name for religion sponsored killing. How can anyone who supports what Dara Singh did, not support ehat Osama is doing? They are being hypocritical.

All of this happened between 1am and 5am. Raising my voice of several occasions and repeating many times, “how can anyone ever justify killing?”, I was waiting for an answer. I still am.

[PS: Ironically, this post on a heated argument had to come right after my post on lack of social interaction in IITM]