Advice: Retire back to home state if possible

I have always been fascinated by the insistence of Puneris and Chennaites to stay in that region under all costs. I am now beginning to understand why, given the recent events in Maharashtra. They want to stay there as they get preferential treatment there, at the cost of discrimination to other groups. And that might mean discrimination towards other groups from the same state too. Cobras and Debras in Pune constitutes the top of the totem pole, followed by Marathas and then "all others". You can answer a perfect engineering exam in Pune, but if the examiner is a Cobra and you are an "all others", you will get marks only deserving of "all others". (This is probably happening throughout India with many other majority or minority groups, in case other examples are flooding your mind right now)

The lesson to be learned here is that you can work and play anywhere you want, but you do want to retire in your native state, down to the exact native region. That does put Sindhis, Baluchis and other partition migrants in an awkward position. And if you are an ethnic Marathi in Belgaum, it might not hurt to eventually retire on the other side of the border.In a way, the blatant Indian discrimination and prejudice explain why Indians do well all over the world; training for coping up and overcoming discrimination begins at home and they are pretty good at advancing despite the odds stacked up against them. The stay home Puneris and Chennaites and Bengalurians do not do well "mentally" outside the country or state and always keep pining to go back home and frequently do. So there is a lesson to be learned from these silent but very effective discriminators, when they get their opportunities.

You might say that a couple of violent incidents in Maharashtra do not mean much. The incidents may be isolated, but the discrimination is pervasive. The only thing that seems to trump discrimination is corruption based incentives. Almost makes you think that corruption is a good thing for India; it plays out as a discrimination equalizing tax, even for doing legitimate business. With all the blatant discrimination playing out in India right now, corruption has never appeared so good.

To repeat the retirement statement, it is all about peace of mind. The looks of contempt and the subtle acts of discrimination can eventually wear you down. So make sure that you plan for a retirement in your native area in India, irrespective of whether you are Maharashtrian, Bihari, Keralite or Kannadiga. Of course, this applies only to retirement; you have to persevere and take the risk for your family and kids and your job. India is still a free, democratic country

Blueprint for the end of India?....

The events of recent weeks provide what could be a possible blueprint as to how India will cease to be in existence. All that is needed is retaliation by other states. So when Maharashtra goes after NorthIndians, they could in turn go after South Indians who could in turn go after the North Indian. During stray violence, Maharashtrians and Tamilians get killed in Karnataka, causing South Indian violence on each others. Sikhs start attacking nonSikhs in Punjab due to the attacks on them all over the country, causing an exodus there. Everyone get tired of "Mera Bharat Mahaan" and set up their own states. Belgaum ehtnic Maharashtrians and Bangalore ethnics Tamilians are sent packing, setting the stage for future border wars.

All this requires is the presence of three powerful jokers. We are dangerously close to such a scenario now, the two jokers in the pack right now are Raj Thackeray and Lalu Yadav. Firm government intervention is needed to address this threat to national integrity.

India is the cake that everyone takes for granted. There is a lesson to be learned from Yugoslavia here.

किसका Mumbai?

What are you supposed to do when politicians take over your city and your state and redefine it's identity? As is happening with Mumbai and Maharashtra now? Ofcourse, they will be defeated badly in the next election(will they?). But the damage is already done. Looks like Maharashtra is all set to become a beacon of ethnic intolerance(like many other states in India).

What next? Ask other states not to perform Ganesh Chaturti as it is a Maharashtrian festival? Ban out of state people from visiting Saibaba? I feel bad that that Baba Amte had to witness this before passing away.

Teacher harassment...

Teacher harassment and favor seeking is reaching epidemic proportions in India. The case in Gujarat is extreme, but teachers in private engineering, medical and dental colleges have been known to indulge in abusive behavior. Hopefully laws will be introduced and legal protection will be provided to students that lodge complaints.

Smoking allowed in adult films...

Moral admonitions are not going to stop smoking on the Indian Screens. Plus there is an element of freedom of expression.

The punishment has to be economical. Make all films that have smoking scenes to be an Adult film. That will keep a key demographic out of theaters and put a rein on the "creative" instincts of artists. Wallets are the least common demonitors here, not morality.

Ofcourse stars can do whatever they want in public, including smoking. The health minister has a habit of targeting North Indians, he would hesitate to say that about South Indian stars.

The ID experiment in New Delhi...

It is an understandable idea, given Pakistan's fascination with killing political leaders of their own country and neighboring countries,but it will not work. Indians can work in any city they want. Maharashtra uses ration cards and the Bangladeshis simply accept the 7000 rupees it cost to get a ration card as the price of settling in Mumbai. The ID will go the same way. Plus the uneducated will get the most trouble; Biharis and UP folks will bear the brunt of the rule.

Surrogate mothers, great outsourcing....

Surrogate motherships are the new form of outsourcing going on in India right now. This is probably the best outsourcing that India has done to date. An American baby in a caring family is a precious and rare commodity, thanks to the unforgiving fast track work culture in America. IVF treatments cost around $17000 a try; you can have a baby for a comparable amount this way. Add to the mix the recreational drug menace in America and it makes perfect sense to have the baby in typically lacto vegetarian, drug free settings and using already married educated women that have had normal pregnancies.

Efficiencies of scale might make you nervous about the situation. But I believe this is the best thing to happen.

Adoptions all over the world have gone terribly wrong in more ways than one. For example, Christian Charities in India seem to send over the sickest babies for adoption. While it is a great humanitarian concept, the average American family goes under managing the baby. The American family is not informed of the sickness of the adopted babies in most cases and there are horror stories of the kid needing emergency procedures right out of the airplane. Plus the adopted child is almost always a girl, if you are adopting from India. Surrogate mothership is the perfect outsourcing, even better than software outsourcing.

Bullets don't kill you, banging your head will....

Ofcourse we are all proud to be an Indian. But there are times when you are glad to be an Indian. Notice how the intelligence of the Pakistani people is taken for granted by saying that Bhutto banged her head on the car and died and blaming "foreign terrorists". That is a huge "up yours" for Bhutto supporters and a way of taunting her followers. Sindhis are the brains of Pakistans, their brains must have surely short circuited as a result of this "finding" of the "interior ministry".

What's scary is that if they can do this to their own people in this manner, imagine how much Kashmiris suffer at the hands of such callous monsters. Now that they have found a weapon even more powerful than guns and bombs, I guess the terrorists will start banging people's head against cars going forward. Classic example of "You are dead, go away" mentality of the terrorists and their masters.

Ram is too good to be true...So thinks Buddhadeb...

I had indicated top ten reasons as to why the Tamil Nadu chief minister hates Lord Ram in the Tamil Nadu blog.

Now the West Bengal CM has got into the act by denying Ram's existence. Of course the real reason is to appease the communist base and take their eyes off the Nandigram mess. As a ruling chief minister, these comments are very immature and divisive.

Added later: Buddhadeb has clarified his comments. Essentially he was quoting Rabindranath Tagore, who in turn was pontifying about the purity of a poet's mind and how a poet's mind surpasses any pious physical landmarks.

Blogs for all Indian states and major cities

Due to the interactive nature of these blogs with news, videos and images, you might want to visit blogs of specific cities and states. You can go here to get a link to all the blogs with a similar format.

Ashley Judd, human being extraordinaire.....

Ashley Judd did some fantastic work in India recently to raise AIDS awareness at all levels and to get a celebrity fundraising going. Watch the moving video on National Geography or catch preview/make a donation here.

The clip on National Geographic has the portion where Shah Rukh helps out Ashley with the necessary airtime of himself as well as a hand in fund raising efforts. Notice how they talk about the conversation with Shah Rukh! Shah Rukh is putting his MBA degree to some great use! Another great human being that India should be proud of!

Other film personalities that help Ashley are Sushmita Sen, Akshay Kumar and the Rai foundation.

Added later: Both the working prostitute(who is now dead and to whom the National Geographic video was dedicated to) and the Rajasthani driver were lying about their identities. The woman's last name and her accent and mannerisms was clearly Maharashtrian, yet she was putting in the standard line about being abducted from Nepal. Nothing wrong about being abducted from Maharashtra itself, but that probably carried a lot of shame and emotional baggage for this now departed person. I think Sushmita Sen realized the lie, but she kept quiet as "outing" her would have really meant nothing. The Rajasthani driver was a crazy character and was lying all the way to the bank. Suddenly the name of the movie "Sex, lies and videotape" makes a lot of sense.

Chief minister derby in Karnataka.....

The Indian de"mock"racy spectacle is playing out in Karnataka. We tend to have one state per year on the average undergoing this scenario. Here are some suggestions to keep the politicians honest.

- A party switching incumbent will lose his seat in the legislature. The seat remains with the party and not with the person.
- Prime Minister/Chief Minister always gets to complete his term. This ensures the required continuity and eliminates mass changes at short notice.

The current system allows a few bad apples/highly principled people to create a total mess in terms of the power structure. The people deserve a stable government, not a two ring circus.

Happy Diwali y'all!

Wish you all Happy Diwali and a Happy New Year!



शुभ दीपावली!

Dinosaur extinction and the deccan plateau.

Volcanic eruptions at the Deccan ranges caused the extinction of dinosaurs, as per this study.

You can expect a flurry of scientific activity to confirm or disprove this particular finding. It is actually much more convincing than the asteroid theory. Long extinct volcanoes do tell a story.

The extortion menace in India

Killing of prominent business man Ashish Dey is a sad day in the history of Jamshedpur, a town named after the founding industrialist of India. Our condolences to their family. It is not the politicians that run the wheels of India; it is the businessmen that take risks and contribute to the well being of numerous working families.

Mumbai policemen have typically followed encounter killings against extortionists. The encounter killing ensures that not all unemployed youth consider the profession as an easy living. Despite their filmy glamorous robinhood image in Munnabhai, extortionists are the scum of society and the dirt that connects the underworld and the civilized world. There are thousands of extortions to every encounter elimination.

Here are some tips to protect yourself.
- Keep a low profile. This includes not buying new imported cars. It used to be Income Tax that used to hound businessman before, now extortionists go by signs of good living. Have vacations abroad and keep quite about it too.
- Extortionists usually have a local connection. It pays to keep track of the local no good hangarounds. These are usually the local opposition party folks; they do not have the steady income stream of the ruling party goondas.- Do not give in. If you do, make sure that law enforcement knows about it. Extortionists leave tons of traces behind and are easy killings.
- Make sure that the family in always aware of any funny calls. Compare notes and take action immediately.
- Have base in more than one state. That sounds like running around, but it does help if your travel and business plans are unpredicatable. Extortionists tend to scout for predictability and being unpredictable helps.
- Keep following up with police if you have had an extortion experience. Typically, by this time, you know who they are and where they live. Do not let up the pressure. The police will call you directly or via your local politician when the encounter happens. It is a very satisfying day when that happens. With luck(and I mean lots of it), you may even get to meet them face to face for some private time before the encounter. I do not recommend it, as stooping to their level is not a good idea in the long run.