My other writings
Cricket 24 x 7
Jaagruthi
Yahoo! 360
Mayajaal
My Bloglines
My 43 things
My LinkedIn
On Orkut
Badri's Tamil thoughts
Ganesh's Happily Haphazard
Nitin's Acorn
Prabhu's Pethals
Raghu the reluctant Delhiite
Samanth's blahg
Sankhya the busy idler
Srini the movie critic
Rabble Rousing Random Ramblings by S Jagadish is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
How the collective wisdom of our leaders gets exhibited
In the past 2-3 weeks alone, there've been 3 instances where the wisdom of our political leaders has been exhibited in all its glory.
- DMK demands that Sri Lankan Tamil refugees be made permanent residents of India.
- Spend nearly Rs. 10 crores to sterilize 70% of all stray dogs in Delhi ahead of the Delhi Commonwealth Games.
- Karnataka government decides that the best way to send out an environment-conscious message is to force auto-rickshaw owners to paint their autos green!
Labels: commonwealth games, karnataka, politics, refugees, sri lanka, tamil
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Over the past 3-4 days, there've been multiple reports in Bangalore's newspapers about the Karnataka Queer Habba where individuals & organizations associated with homosexuality, sexual minorities, rights of sex-workers and sexual minorities will conduct various activities, including cricket matches, pride marches, discussions, film & theatre shows, etc.
I totally support everyone's right to indulge in consensual (informed consent, to use the legal term) sexual behaviour, regardless of whether it is homosexual, heterosexual or bisexual, assuming that both parties are also aware of the risks associated.
Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) related to 'Unnatural offences' makes no sense. It says
377. Unnatural offencesInterestingly it doesn't refer to carnal intercourse with plants. Why doesn't the law cover those? Is sex with plants not against the order of nature?
Whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man,
woman or animal, shall be punished with 152[imprisonment for life], or with
imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and
shall also be liable to fine.
Explanation- Penetration is sufficient to constitute the carnal intercourse necessary
to the offence described in this section.
Being a homosexual, heterosexual, transsexual, etc. is an individual preference. To me, it's like choosing to be a vegetarian or non-vegetarian or choosing to be associated with a specific religion, sect or sub-sect. No-one, and really no-one, has a right to question your choice, especially on moral or social grounds.
It's not about whether homosexuality in humans is deviant behaviour or not. Using the known existence of homosexuality in animals to argue that homosexuality in humans is nothing to be surprised about is a dangerous line. After all, we find cannibalism and filicidal behaviour in animals as well. I'm not aware of too many people who'd support humans exhibiting such behaviour.
However, what I do find odd is the word 'queer' being used by the very people associated with the LGBT movement. 'Queer' has negative connotations and the synonyms associated would be "funny, odd, peculiar, unusual, strange".
Surely, if the LGBT movement really wants to ensure that those associated with it are treated normally, the one thing they could think about doing is to not call themselves 'queer' any more!
Labels: bangalore, homosexuality, ipc, karnataka, queer, section 377
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BESCOM - Bangalore Electricity Stoppage Company
Totally frustrated with a 8 hour power shutdown for the second consecutive Sunday, and possibly the 5th Sunday in the last 2 months, I wrote a letter to the Chairman of the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission since the BESCOM website, true to the nature of its service, says "Service Unavailable".
My main grouse against BESCOM is the frequency of maintenance and load-shedding. But since it is now common knowledge that Karnataka is facing a huge power supply crisis, there's little to be gained in questioning the frequency. But at the very least, BESCOM can be a lot more better at communication, politeness, restoration of service and customer responsive. These are the four main aspects I pointed out in my letter reproduced below.
ToUpdate: The email bounced. The account was over quota. What this tells you is that mails have been accumulating for a while. I guess this implies they're not being read, since you'd expect that the office has figured out a way to download mail through POP3 and delete messages from the server.
The Chairman
KERC
I have complaints to make regarding BESCOM's frequent load shedding and maintenance. The BESCOM site is not working. So I am unable to use it to file the complaint.
While I totally understand that the power supply situation is dicey and customers must expect load-shedding, I have a few aspects to point out regarding load-shedding & maintenance:
1. Advance notification - Notification to the public through major newspapers (including national newspapers & those with a circulation in excess of 10,000 readers regardless of language of publication) about the load-shedding or planned maintenance at least 24 hours in advance so that we can make alternate arrangements. Currently the notification is published (95% of the time) in the newspaper on the same day as the service downtime, which means that customers are unprepared. Alternately, does BESCOM suggest that we consumers be prepared for shutdowns every weekend?
2. Politeness in the notification - The fact is that we are customers & consumers and BESCOM is the service provider. Service downtime communication must be in such a manner that it is polite and conveys the reason for the downtime. Instead we get terse 2-3 line notices in the newspaper which (most of the time) does not even tell the consumers why they will have intermittent electricity supply that day, or indeed the fact that BESCOM is sorry for the inconvenience! For e.g. see the notifications published for today's (20 July 2008) power shutdown in the Deccan Herald and The Hindu. Since the content is the same, it is unlikely that there's actually any editorial contribution from the newspaper staff. Hence what is published is what is provided by BESCOM.
3. Punctuality - Typically, the maintenance or load-shedding starts around 9 am and goes on till the evening. BESCOM is very prompt at stopping the electricity supply but not at resuming supply. The published completion time is almost never adhered to. I totally understand that sometimes it may not be possible to adhere to the timelines, especially in maintenance situations. But if there was planned & scheduled load-shedding, the supply must be resumed at the time that was published in the notification.
4. Responsiveness - Typically, calling up the sub-station or the call center number (1917) for information results in no response. Either no-one answers the phone (automated voice messages and pleasing music aren't exactly what consumers want to hear at such times) or those who do not give any meaningful information or are downright impolite. In fact, I have had instances where the responder was adamant that he would speak to me ONLY in Kannada since that was the language of the state. (This when he had initially answered the phone with "Tell me, Sir"). The sub-station phones and the call center numbers must be answered by personnel who can give consumers right answers, and politely. I totally understand if the person cannot talk to me in a language that I can understand. I'd prefer being told so politely.
Is it too much to ask BESCOM to provide 24 hours advance notification, make the notification polite, bring the electricity supply back promptly and be more customer responsive.
If this is not the right way of filing the complaint, please let me know the right mechanism of bringing this to your notice.
Anticipating your reply.
Thanks
Jagadish
So it seems like a pretty pointless exercise after all. I did manage to file a complaint using the BESCOM site though. But I did not receive back any sort of ticket or reference number. It has been directed to /dev/null.
Labels: bangalore, bescom, complaint, electricity, karnataka, kerc, letter
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I don't mean to gloat about it, but I just can't help it. Last year, on 9 February, I wrote:
It is not difficult to foresee that the BJP-JD(S) combine government will not last for too long. Around halfway through the remainder of the term, they will part ways, either because the BJP would pull the rug or because the JD(S) would point out the BJP's communalism as being a factor. Kumaraswamy will enjoy his Chief Ministership, his (and his father's) long cherished dream, and cock a snoop at Yediyurappa's ambitions of being CM for the second half.It has panned out more or less exactly as I'd anticipated. The BJP's communalism is a factor, as is the Deve Gowda family's perception that the BJP is out to get them. This is one level more than the standard Tamil saying Unakkum bebbe unga appanukkum bebbe (Bebbe for you and for your father!) since here it's more like Yen kitterndhu bebbe, yenga appan kitterndhum bebbe (Bebbe from me and from my father!)
For those who doubt if I actually did write about this 20 months ago, check out my post as archived by the Internet Archive!
Labels: deve gowda, karnataka, kumaraswamy, politics
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After two tries, one of them aborted at NTU, and the other one at IGNOU, whose convocation function I couldn't attend, I finally made it to my own convocation, at IIM Bangalore.
A little more than three weeks ago, I graduated from the Post Graduate Diploma in Software Enterprise Management course. I did my course project with Joe and our project title was 'A marketing strategy for Digital Audio Players in India'.
Doing a post-graduate business management degree from a good institution had been one of my aims, probably right from the time I got into class 11 (1991-92). My original plan was to get into a B-school when I was around 28 years old, after a few years of work experience.
Due to my messing up at NTU, I had to go through an under-graduate programme all over again. 'The best laid plans', eh? This thus impacted my "B-school at 28 years of age" target. My attempts at joining a B-school in a full-time programme were severely hampered by my previous academic history at the under-graduate level. In 2002 when I did write the CAT, at all my interviews, a common thread was that my background didn't give them the confidence to allow me to do their post-graduate programme.
I got married in 2003. That obviously meant that I couldn't do a full-time programme since I'd have had to lead a student life, possibly on campus, after giving up a job. I guess since I like the job at Yahoo!, I didn't want to go back to a student life. After a fair amount of head scratching, one day, Krithi asked me to check if IIM-B had a part-time programme. Lo behold! There it was! The PGSM PGSEM course.
I got a horrible 'deja vu' feeling at the PGSEM interview (having got there by clearing the PGSEM entrance test, held on the first day of the first India-Pak series in Pakistan for 15 years) when the two profs who were interviewing me (Prof. Abhay Ojha and Prof. Kumar, I think) kept bombarding me with questions about why they should select me for the programme given I'd messed up the SIA-NOL scholarship opportunity. I tried my best to convince them that people move on and that I had a good idea of what went wrong (not studying hard enough, and spending far too much time on the internet after 'discovering' it in 1993. For evidence, see these search results from Dejanews Google groups, Yahoo!, Google) and that I knew how to ensure I didn't make the same mistakes again. I hadn't actually given up hope, but I realized it was tough to get the monkey off my back. As it turned out, I did get through the interview.
If Jurassic Park's tag line was "An adventure 65 million years in the making", my adventure lasted a little less than 3 years - 32 months, to be precise. It was one helluva ride, balancing family, work, studies and blogging. Although I tried to do so to the best of my ability, I suspect there would have been many times when I ended up being unable to do the balancing act properly.
The course started on 16 June 2004, four days after Jaagruthi was born. The first couple of months were tough. I couldn't go to Trichy on weekends since classes were held on Fridays and Saturdays. So I ended up making lots of 1 day trips.
Once Krithi and Jaagruthi came to Bangalore, it was very tough on Krithi since this was the first time she saw that although she'd be at home on Saturdays, I wouldn't be around till 2 pm. Moreover, since I got to work late on Fridays, I'd be back late on Fridays. Assignments, case preparation and exam preparation resulted in late-night studying. This invariably translated into a Saturday afternoon nap, which would end up screwing up any chance of an outing on Saturday evenings. We had several fights in those 29 months (from Oct 2004 to Feb 2007), most of them because weekends were more or less ruined.
Classes on Fridays and Saturdays also meant that we could only take weekend breaks or go on mini-vacations during term breaks. Long weekends were also very rare, although after around a year or so into the course, I started bunking classes more often. What this also meant was that we had to opt out of making several trips to Madras/Trichy, especially during festivals/get-togethers. Instead, my parents & brother and Krithi's parents had to make trips to Bangalore to have a good time together. There'd have been several other instances where Krithi and Jaagruthi have gone to Madras/Trichy to stay there for a few days and I didn't go along since I had classes till Saturday.
The course was very useful & interesting and I met some very smart people. Yet, for the 32 months, it was a tough journey. So this is a nice opportunity to thank everyone, and that includes Krithi, Jaagruthi, my parents, my brother, Krithi's parents, her siblings, my friends, my team mates & managers at the workplace(s) and my classmates & profs at IIM-B, and everyone else I might have missed out! Like I've often said, Isaac Newton got it spot on when he said "If I have seen further it is by standing on ye shoulders of Giants". People don't achieve in isolation. Of course, I take a lot of credit for completing the course. But it wouldn't have been possible without the support and encouragement from all the people I mentioned above, obviously varying in their contribution levels.
Photos from the convocation:
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Labels: bangalore, convocation, graduation, iim, iim bangalore, karnataka, management, mba, pgsem
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Ambareesh quits Lok Sabha in protest
'Sandalwood' angry-young-man, grandson of the legendary violinist Chowdiah, Mandya MP and Union Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting, MH Ambareesh resigned from his Lok Sabha seat, in protest over the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal's ruling last week.
He made it clear that power didn't interest him and that he wanted to do his bit to benefit the Kaveri basin farmers of Karnataka.
I hope he lives upto his words and doesn't seek re-election, when a by-election will be announced. I've said it earlier, and I'll say it again. When legislators resign their seats in protest, while switching parties, to score brownie points, or on technicalities, the state must not bear the expenses of the by-election in case they put themselves up as candidates.
In fact, I'm of the opinion that in such situations, those who've resigned must not be allowed to contest any election until the tenure of the legislature completes.
We saw Sonia Gandhi, Chandrasekhar Rao and Siddaramiah do this in the recent past. Now, Navjot Singh Sidhu, is contesting the by-election for the Amritsar constituency. He was convicted by the Punjab & Haryana High Court in December for culpable homicide not amounting to murder, but obtained a Supreme Court stay on the conviction.
Labels: cauvery, elections, karnataka, kaveri, lok sabha, resignation, water
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Water - the flavour of the fortnight
First, it was Canada's nominee to the Oscars, Deepa Mehta's movie 'Water', finding itself in the final shortlist in the 'Foreign Language Film' category.
Then, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu had their usual tussle over the Kaveri/Cauvery. This time it was after the tribunal announced its decision. This resulted in most folks rushing back home early last Monday, a bandh yesterday and a total blackout of Tamil channels from cable television.
Here're a few questions for the morons who're responsible for this blackout, as well as others who support their stand:
- Do you seriously think an act of not allowing Tamil channels to be beamed to homes having cable TV is likely to get those sections of the Tamil populace who're still siding with Tamil Nadu, over to your side? I've been pissed off far too many times with this militant brand of Kannada chauvinism. I've reached the end of my patience. You've now officially lost any sort or empathy I'd have ever had.
- Are you protesting against the tribunal's decision? Last I checked, there were no Tamilians in the tribunal.
- Have you considered the fact that the politicians know that a review of the decision can be sought. Why do you need to cause hardship to the population at large if a review application is on the cards anyway?
- The bandh is over. You've had your bloody say and way. Can we have the channels back please? How long is this going to continue? Until you chaps have gone through the 1000-page order and then decided on which parts of Karnataka each of you is going to own for causing chaos?
- I'm unaware of the number of Kannadigas living in Tamil Nadu. I suspect the number will be far less than the number of Tamilians living in Karnataka. Yet, had the judgement gone the other way, consider the reality that one of those Kannadigas would have been writing a similar post, not me.
- Would you like it if say a relative of yours, living in Tamil Nadu and unable to comprehend/speak Tamil, was told summarily by a TNEB official to bloody well talk to him in Tamil since he was living in Tamil Nadu?
- Would you like it if that said relative was asked to shut up and bear the absence of Kannada channels since he should sympathize with Tamil Nadu's protests when he was in that state, else he could pack his bags and go? The above questions aren't rhetorical. I've had these put to me by officials at BESCOM and by my cable TV service provider.
The third water related issue that happened was Professor Raymond Lafitte declaring the India-Pakistan slugfest over the Baglihar dam as a draw, as was reported here last November. His decision gives Pakistan the boasting rights while India can move on with the construction of the dam, with a few changes, as Nitin writes. In total contrast to the transparency that it demands of governments, the World Bank as of now, doesn't even have a press release announcing the decision on its website. Purely going by Pakistan's attempts to paint the decision as vindicating its stand, it seems a classical case of the Tamil saying 'Kuppara vizhundhaalum meesaiyila mannu ottalai'. This is literrally translated as "Although I fell flat on my face, mud didn't stick to my face", and is a metaphor for a hopeless attempt at saving face!
Labels: baglihar, blackout, cable tv, cauvery, chauvinism, dispute, india, kannada, karnataka, kaveri, oscars, pakistan, tamil nadu, water
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"No more remakes", swear Tamil and Kannada film makers
The following happened today, triggered by an event around noon.
Offices, shops, schools etc. shut down very early, in the afternoon in fact. There were incidents of stone throwing, tyre burning, dharnas etc. despite the presence of policemen. Tamil channels went off the air on cable television because the cable operators' association was also protesting.
No, these didn't happen because Rajkumar died again or because there was yet another bandh in support of Karnataka's claims over Belgaum.
All that happened following the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal's ruling today. The overall perception in Karnataka is that the decision favours Tamil Nadu. There're accusations of Karunanidhi (ab)using his Lok Sabha seats to get the decision in his favour. This obviously indicates that had the Congress (I) administrators in Karnataka done their job in the previous election (In 2004, the Congress (I) won 8 seats in Karnataka while the DMK won 16 from Tamil Nadu in 2004) as well as when HD Kumaraswamy hoodwinked them last year to become CM, the decision on the river waters would have been in Karnataka's favour. I find that line of reasoning hard to accept.
Buses from/to Tamil Nadu were also affected. I'm unsure about the status of trains. I'm not going to take my TN registered (and lifetime Karnataka state tax paid for, by the way) two-wheeler out for a few days because of the thugs terrorists prowling the streets!
In fact, I'm fairly sure that the situation would have been similar in Tamil Nadu had the verdict been different. If anything, Tamil Nadu protests in an even more macabre manner, like ... umm ... by burning a bus with college students in it.
Yet, some good may come out of all this. Sources in the Kannada and Tamil film industries close to me revealed that they were actively considering stopping remakes. It is no secret that a lot of Kannada movies/film songs are heavily inspired blatant remakes of Tamil movies. It is also no secret that most Vijay movies in Tamil are remakes of Mahesh Babu's movies in Telugu.
Hence, film makers in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have apparently agreed that Kannada movie makers will cease to remake Tamil movies until the Cauvery dispute is settled. At the same time, since Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have still not sorted out the Krishna river water sharing, Tamil film makers, especially those who cast Vijay, will not do a copy-paste job from Mahesh Babu movies.
It is my wish that this would revive the Kannada film industry and also provoke Vijay into exploring other types of roles as well.
Labels: cauvery, chauvinism, dispute, kannada, karnataka, kaveri, movies, tamil nadu, water
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Today is a state-wide bandh in Karnataka in support of the state's claim over Belgaum. Coming as it does barely a week after a legislature session was held in Belgaum and a decision taken to make it a second capital, it reeks of nothing but political one-upmanship.
As a result of the bandh, there're no activity. No shopping, no schools, very little public transport, no autos, no offices ... and more critically, no cable TV! I called up my cable TV operator and he declared proudly that I had no right to ask for telecast since I was in Karnataka and I should respect Kannada sentiments.
I've gradually lost respect for these so-called Kannada sentiments over the last four years that I've been here. Now I'm on the verge of doing an Arundhati Roy, and declaring secession from Karnataka. Since I'm anyway losing respect, I might as well point out that Karnataka would be among the very few states in India which has territorial or water disputes with each and every neighbour state. Belgaum with Maharashtra, Kaveri with Kerala & Tamil Nadu, Mahadeyi/Mandovi with Goa and Krishna with Andhra Pradesh. Maybe, just maybe, Kannadigas ought to read this line from Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" (1599 - Act I - Scene 2 - Rows: 140-141)
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.A state government that cannot take a tough stand against a needless bandh is unfit to be in power. A judicial system which continues to be mocked by parties of all hues in spite of its earlier pronouncements on strikes, bandhs and hartals, needs to wake up and seriously re-evaluate itself.
Previous rabble rousing random ramblings about Kannada/Karnataka: Moratorium on non-Kannada movies, language paranoia in Bangalore, Bangalore's name change, reaction to Rajkumar's death and protests against Imsai Arasan 23am Pulikesi.
Labels: chauvinism, kannada, karnataka, strike
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Urban infrastructure mess-ups?
Earlier this month, Madhu Menon wrote about how the Bangalore Airport Road flyover was a lovely example of how not to design a fly-over.
Given I'm one of those who'll use it frequently, it was so bloody obvious that the planners had messed up bigtime. Then again, a fly-over is merely a shifting of the bottleneck from one location to another.
Now, a friend's relative, has come up with an alternative to a proposed under-pass at Malleswaram circle.
I don't live in that area. So I'm unable to appreciate his proposal. If you're familiar with Malleswaram, go on and read his proposal. Actually, read his proposal nevertheless!
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Apparently the recently released Tamil movie Imsai Arasan 23am Pulikesi (Search for it: Google & Yahoo!) greatly affects the sentiments of Kannadigas.
That's why a bunch of Kannada activists chauvinists, wielding swords (or at any rate, they looked like swords), have protested the screening of the movie. They were unhappy with the title, which translates (approximately) to "Royal pain in the a@se, Pulikesi the 23rd". Their contention is that the title demeans Pulikesi, who ruled over what constitutes modern day Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Hence they want the screening of the movie in Karnataka to be banned.
Haven't these jokers heard of satire, for that is exactly what the movie is meant to be? So far, the government hasn't stepped in. But I'd not be surprised if the movie ban was supported by the government. After all, Kannada pride plays a huge role in politics here, especially since son-of-the-soil Deve Gowda's son is the Chief Minister. Given the history of militant linguistic & religious organizations acting as super-censors and governments too willing to accede to their demands, I'm fairly sure this movie won't be seen in movie theatres in Karnataka.
Language chauvinism in Karnataka is nothing new. In fact, I've blogged about it a few times. In 2004, film producers & distributors sought a two month moratorium on the screening of new Tamil movies after their release. The government stepped in and made it a three week delayed screening process, which was ridiculous anyway.
Last year, on a visit to Hyderabad, I compared signs on buses, shops etc. there with those in Bangalore.
Last week, I noticed several boards along Old Madras Road which had been blackened out with some writing in Kannada. The only thing common to all those boards was that they had been written completely in English, without any Kannada on them.
Mind you, these so-called Kannada language protectors would in all possibility be sending their daughters & sons to English medium schools, possibly not even in Karnataka.
Labels: chauvinism, kannada, karnataka, movies
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Kannada superstar and thespian Rajkumar passed away a few hours ago in Bangalore due to a cardiac arrest. Read more at Google News and Yahoo! News.
Offices, shops and commercial establishments all over Bangalore (and indeed Karnataka) will have come to a halt by now because their managements are ensuring the safety of employees by dropping them off at their homes since there is trouble on the streets. There've already been incidents of stone throwing, stopping vehicles, burning tyres etc. in various parts of Bangalore, especially in/around where he lived - areas like Malleswaram and Sadashivnagar. I'm just about to leave for home as well, unsure of when I will reach home!
To the best of my knowledge, he died of a natural cause. It is unfortunate that he died. It is unfortunate that he died of a cardiac arrest. He was not assassinated. So why the hell should hoodlums, under the garb of professing their love for him and shock at his death, riot? What wrong did the innocent people on the streets of Bangalore do? Why should companies kill productivity by being forced to send employees home?
Update
Photos © Reuters
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Labels: bangalore, chauvinism, kannada, karnataka
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It is not difficult to foresee that the BJP-JD(S) combine government will not last for too long. Around halfway through the remainder of the term, they will part ways, either because the BJP would pull the rug or because the JD(S) would point out the BJP's communalism as being a factor. Kumaraswamy will enjoy his Chief Ministership, his (and his father's) long cherished dream, and cock a snoop at Yediyurappa's ambitions of being CM for the second half.
I think one way to prevent instability in such a coalition is to insist firstly that the Chief Minister (or Prime Minister for that matter) should be from the party which has a numerical majority (in terms of MLAs or MPs). The second is to ensure that in case of a mid-term poll, the bill is paid for by the party which took the first step in bringing down the government. If it is tough to reach that decision, as happened in the case of Karnataka with both the JD(S) and the Congress(I) insisting that the other was responsible, both parties must bear the expenses for the election.
Labels: deve gowda, karnataka, kumaraswamy, politics
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For much of India's history, I reckon that the south has rarely been touched by invasions, violence etc. either because it was too difficult to access or because the people didn't respond positively. While there're certainly chronicled instances of the freedom struggle being marshalled admirably in south India, there're very few names which come to mind: Tipu Sultan, C Rajagopalachari, Subramanya Bharathi and perhaps Sarojini Naidu, VO Chidambaram Pillai among them. I can't think of others, can you?
South India also remained largely untouched by foreign invasions, most of the marauders focussed on looting and/or capturing and settling down in north India, as exemplified by Alexander, Mahmud of Gazni and Babar. Despite the possibility of invasions via sea, I can't think of any that happened. This could very likely have been because south India's kings had extended into South-East Asia and Sri Lanka had embraced Buddhism thanks to Ashoka.
The problem of terrorism in Jammu & Kashmir (late 1980s to present) and Punjab (late 1970s to the early 1990s) also did not affect southern India. But Tamil Nadu was affected by the LTTE's presence, especially since the governments were more than happy to lend tacit support to the terrorist organization. Rajiv Gandhi's gruesome assassination in 1991 and the Coimbatore blasts in 1998 came as a real shock. After all, terrorism had always been an alien concept down south.
All that has changed now. Bangalore seems to be target #1 as far as terrorists are concerned. A few months ago, there were reports that several industrial, educational and technological establishments in the city would be targetted by terrorists. There were bomb hoaxes at various offices of Wipro, Infosys etc. After the carnage at the IISc two days ago, Bangalore went on high alert, even as the police and the administration tried their level best to blame the constellations for the mess.
Today, I saw the increased security while going for my classes at IIM-B. There was checking of every car that went in. Interestingly though, they let me go when I was on my two-wheeler. On the way back, I saw a lot of folks standing outside the software technology park at the beginning of the inner/intermediate ring road. My first thought was that there was some movie shooting on. My second thought was that it was some terrorism preparedness drill. I inquired with a chap standing on the roadside and he told me that there had been a bomb threat.
There're now fresh threats against New Year celebrations and the Chief Minister's residence. There is just one direct implication. We will continue to see threats of this nature, resulting in ever-growing paranoia, much as what Londoners would have gone through earlier this year.
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Bangalore's name change is official now
It is now official. With effect from November 1 2006, the word Bangalore will cease to exist in all official correspondence.
The question though is if it be Bengaluru or Bengalooru? Is the use of 'u' the clincher? I think they should just call it TCFKAB, i.e. The City Formerly Known As Bangalore.
The process will take some time. Will other places in Karnataka also be subject to this exercise? Is this decision as culturally significant as it is made out to be? Basically, do you care a f@(k? Sorry for the usage of the profanity, but I really think this is a ridiculous decision.
Does this name change mean some other city in India can change its name to Bangalore and attract investment? Or does this name change mean Bangalore Bengaluru Bengalooru Bengalooroo TCFKAB will get investment worth trillions of dollars and be transformed into Singapore within the space of a decade?
Labels: bangalore, chauvinism, kannada, karnataka, renaming
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Bangalore name change very much on the cards
The process of getting Bangalore renamed to Bengaluru has been kicked off now. Apparently the Chief Minister has instructed all official correspondence to drop the Anglicised form and use Bengaluru instead.
Another one goes down the drain. Hang on, not if it is a drain in Bangalore. They're all clogged. Doesn't that kind of hint at what the government should be more concerned about?
So, if you do live in Bangalore, would you actually like to refer to the place as Bangalore or Bengaluru or Bengalooru? I'll pick the first option - Bangalore. Your turn!
Labels: bangalore, karnataka, renaming
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The Karnataka Government is currently coming up with its action plan to celebrate fifty years of the state's existence (as Karnataka).
One of the suggestions, given by noted Kannada writer UR Ananthamurthy was to rename Bangalore as Bengaluru as part of the celebrations.
Why on earth would anyone suggest this, if not to rake up a Bangalore v/s the rest of Karnataka issue yet again? Why didn't he suggest renaming Mysore to Maisuru, or even pertinently to Mahishasuru or something like that? The city provides a rare instance of getting its name from a Hindu mythological demon, Mahishasura, slayed by Durga.
What next? Renaming important roads? Brigade Road to what? Old Madras Chennai Road to what? Perhaps rename Airport Road using the Kannada word for Airport?
Has renaming cities actually done any good? Bombay to Mumbai, Madras to Chennai, Trivandrum to Thiruvananthapuram, Calcutta to Kolkota, Calicut to Kozhikode, Cochin to Kochi, Pondicherry to Puducheri etc. Has any of these cities seen better living conditions, infrastructure, employment opportunities, lesser riots/chaos etc. because of the name change? Do the people of those cities necessarily feel better because of the name change? Does having the city named in the local language, as opposed to having British, French or Portugese influences in the name, make them feel proud about living there?
I venture to hazard a guess. No. I can certainly speak for myself. I couldn't see any difference between living in Madras or Chennai. I couldn't understand what the name change meant to peoples' daily lives. Unless threatened at gunpoint, and except in moments of weakness, I continue to refer to the city as Madras. Ditto when I refer to Calcutta or Bombay.
So what would be gained by renaming Bangalore as Bengaluru or perhaps even Bendha kaluru, given that the apocryphal story about the place's name. Is this paranoia at work again?
Labels: bangalore, chauvinism, kannada, karnataka, renaming
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Language paranoia: Hyderabad v Bangalore
Last Wednesday and Thursday, I was in Hyderabad, the land of Mohd. Azharuddin and Harsha Bhogle. But my thoughts were hardly about those two. Instead, I spent most of my time wondering about what might have been.
If I had gone there this time last year, I would have found Raju Mama alive. I couldn't help but keep wondering about how ridiculous it was. It still only seems like yesterday that he came to Bangalore to visit ailing folks on his "sammandi's" side. Did the stress of that visit, by bus, worsen things to the point of no return? I don't know. Appa and Amma told me about how he could have been saved had Apollo Hospital done simple things like have a functional oxygen cylinder ready in the ICU, ensure the hospital staff were accessible (this when it was 7 am in the morning) and be able to reach the duty doctors immediately. They did none of the above. Life moves on though. I had gone there to recruit folks for Yahoo! Bangalore.
The thing that really struck me on our way from the airport to the university campus was the near absence of local language (Telugu) signs. Perhaps it was just a coincidence, or the nature of the localities we travelled in. But it was in striking contrast to what I find in Bangalore. Here, shops, companies etc. face the wrath of the self-styled protectors of Kannada if they do not have Kannada on their signs. Is it anyone's case that Kannada faces a greater threat from the outside world than Telugu (or any other Indian language for that matter) does?
On Thursday, I had a breakfast at Kamath's, on MG Road near Paradise. I chose to once again go with my masala dosai index to determine the restuarant's standard and price. The masala was short on salt but the price was ok.
When I returned home on Thursday afternoon, I wasn't met at the door by a beaming Jaagruthi. I saw her perched on the sofa watching television. When I called out to her as I normally do (Heiiiii Jaagruthi!), she gave me something approaching a scornful look and turned towards the television. Apparently she had missed me on Wednesday!
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What's in a name? The bard Wali Miyan Sheikh Peer wrote in 'Romeo and Juliet', "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet."
But I attach a lot of importance to names, especially street names. That is why most of Bangalore really gets my goat. The street names are so orderly, even if the traffic isn't. It is almost as though the streets were named by a programmer. Third main, second cross; Fifth block, seventh main, first cross ... you get the point.
Getting lost is so easy. If the I before V in the signboard pointing to fourth cross gets erased through forces of nature or man, then you end up in the wrong street. Imagine if the street name was something like 'Ajay Palvayanteeswaran street', to borrow a name immortal in soc.culture.indian. No one would ever get lost!
Bangalore must also be the only place where 90% of all old newspaper marts have the same name, or derivatives thereof. They're all named 'Venkateswara'. Similarly, the water lorry services are invariably named 'Manjunatha'. Why? Come on, lets show some ingenuity!
I don't know the exact timeframe but a couple of decades ago, the Tamil Nadu government, influenced obviously by its Dravidian ideology and origins, changed the names of several streets in Madras, and probably other parts of TN as well. They removed all caste-sounding words appearing in street names. So Rangachari road became Ranga road, Thambu Chetty street became Thambu street, Kasturi Rangan Iyengar road became Kasturi Ranga road, Appu Mudali street became Appu street and Chetty street became ... Street!
I love streets which have personality names in them. At any rate, the street name must convey something ... perhaps an old worldly charm. I think the best street name that I've lived in so far is 'Match factory lane' in Kurla (West), Bombay. You really can't get anything better, at least I think so. Last I heard, large parts of Kurla were submerged as a result of Narayan Rane invoking Indra's wrath. Can someone confirm if that street is intact? It has been more than fifteen years since I went there, but I do remember that 'Match factory lane' is off a main road which has a Punjab National Bank and a BEST bus stop.
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Blast from the past: Bangalore
I am convinced that what I wrote six years ago about Bangalore's infrastructure holds good more than ever before. I'm curious to know if aside from the Ring Road and a few flyovers (with the one being built at the Airport Road-Indiranagar intersection presumably being made a museum artifact), has there been any other infrastructure development effort in this duration?
I'm just back from a Linux conference at Bangalore. The first person who affects you when you set foot in Bangalore is the auto driver. Now I do not claim that he is worse than the Madras auto driver. But at least the Madras auto driver doesn't insist on offering you opinion on which hotel you should be staying in even after you've told him a dozen times that the room has already been booked. It does tend to make you feel a little bit on the down side at 5 am.
The Bangalore one is much more polite. But he drives as rashly as the Madras chap and haggles as much. What's worse our means of communication become something like a mixture of pidgin version of Hindi and Tamil. I know Bangaboys will rise up in union and declare that theirs is the most cosmopolitan of South Indian cities but not from my experience. Well at least a lot of the auto drivers I've talked to cant figure out Tamil and the other half aren't too good with their Hindi.
Unfortunately it is the rainy season in Bangalore now and the poor infrastructure is evident from the way the roads break up during the rains. A lot of the Indian cities (except possibly Bombay) really get affected by the rains. But I found it strange that a city with Bangalore's profile would also be found wanting in the area of drainage. Well I had heard stories (and news items) of how Bangalore is bursting at the seams and how the city's infrastructure has gone for a toss but I now experienced it first hand.
The conference by itself was a superb one. Except for a couple of speakers (one from Oracle talking of how Oracle and Linux are made for each other and another from SCO talking of their new network administration system Tarantella) the talk was of the highest quality. The speakers were pioneers. Rasmus (www.php.net), Richard GNUman (www.gnu.org) & Nat Friedman (www.gnome.org) were the stars of the show. GNUman in particular was amazing. What he said would have ruffled a lot of feathers and a lot of it did not seem practical either but it was the way he said it that really influenced the people. Nat Friedman, who wouldn't be older than 21 or so gave a superb demonstration of the GNOME project and its associated projects like the GNUmeric project etc.
The conference had been organized into three separate sections:
a. Beginners
b. Pro 1
c. Pro 2
It was however apparent that a lot of people had wandered in from the Beginners track to the Pro tracks. Snippets of discussions overheard:
Q: "Hey who is this Linus Torvalds chap ?"
A: "He is some programmer chap. Don't really know why his name is on the slide"
Q: "What is this Star Office ?"
A: "Star Office, Oh that is a Windows 95 program written for Linux".
No I'm not kidding.
Lets leave the conference behind. So I walked around Commercial Street hunting for food and found a Woodlands branch there. It was possibly one of the safest places to have grub surely. I hadn't however prepared myself for the prompt service I would encounter. After I had purchased my meal and taken it to my seat, I went about the task of consuming it. A while later, I walked back to the counter to get a drink and indicated to the waiter that I had *NOT* finished with my food. I went back to my seat to find out that the waiter had not heeded my instruction. Sure you have to do your job sincerely, but not at my stomach's cost !!!
I've been to Bangalore around 4-5 times in the last year and during various seasons. Yet I have never ever figured out why on earth people wear jerkins in the day, at night, when it rains, when it doesn't, when it snows, when it doesn't ... you get my drift. Any Bangaboy cares to clarify ?
Call me sexist or myopic but Bangalore was the only place I've seen in India where I saw girls driving Kawasaki Bajajs and Hero Hondas around. I'm not saying that they cant or they shouldn't but it did make me wonder about why I hadn't seen that happen in say Madras. I haven't had enough time to focus on the roads in Bombay because of the huge amount of time I spend travelling from the airport to Flora Fountain and because its night by the time I am done with my job !! Anyway I am more likely to see a lady taxi driver in Bombay than anything else !
All the blasts: Kargil & WC 1999, Lata v Asha, Tam-Brahm wedding, Madras, Unglamourous Orissa, Idols and Bangalore.
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