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Showing posts from August, 2012

I and the universe

When in school, some of us used to make fun of what is the point to know that Ashoka, some guy in past had planted trees along roads and constructed some resting places for people on move. Why do we need to know now? Unfortunately we must learn and write the test paper to get our marks. Such useless knowledge! Well at every stage of life one has different perception of knowledge, again based on understanding of knowledge gained. The dance of our own mental reactions to every idea of others is what we basically enjoy. It is very critical as to in which avatar we view an event or situation. As an inquirer to learn, or to pass judgment . We are prisoners of our own prejudices. I find as we gain more and more experience of what we learn, wisdom lies in refusing to judge but remain a humble scholar. While in school I had more confidence to judge. With time the judgmental attitude is waning for me. So as a mere learner , I do appreciate and wonder how some of our celebrated hig

What India needs urgently

Let the Opposition do its homework, UPA is out on its own misdeeds Dr Jay Dubashi I often wonder why we Indians rarely, or perhaps never, rise against our useless and corrupt rulers, like, for instance, the Arabs did or have been doing against their dictators all these months. We never rose, as a nation, against the Moghuls, and though we did manage to shake up the British in 1857, things soon reverted to normal, and life proceeded as before for almost another century. Now, of course, we don’t really have to rise, for there are elections every few years, when we troop to the voting booths to cast our votes, and often elect the same useless people who have been looting us for the previous five years. We complain against the Congress junta and end up voting for the same corrupt junta, though we have a chance to throw it out. There are a few people like Anna Hazare who try to raise the temperature once in a while, and though some people do respond, things never quite reach

Cyber war and India

Cyber war is a reality and we seem to be not well organised for it. I sent a suggestion to PMO that government should organise a group of 500 IT specialists, with at least 100 of them well trained in hacking, to scan 24/7 websites for offensive content to cause destabilisation within the country and then block the same. Additionally bulk SMS can be created from this group to counter similar abuse of the SMS medium by India haters. Banning is not a solution in digital world. Actually banning SMS causes more insecurity in the minds of the threatened and suffering fear, by denying communication. The same medium can be used aggressively by the government to give assurance to those suffering by communicating and providing the help lines. The govt can enjoy priority for its SMS. Technology should be used and not banned and old police methods and thinking should be avoided now.

Gander ,Newfoumdland and 9/11

SEE????? SOMETHING GOOD DOES COME OUT OF SOMETHING TERRIBLE.  THIS IS SO REFRESHING. Here is an amazing story from a flight attendant on Delta Flight 15, written following 9-11: "On the morning of Tuesday, September 11, we were about 5 hours out of  Frankfurt, flying over the North Atlantic. All of a sudden the curtains  parted and I was told to go to the cockpit, immediately, to see the captain. As soon as I got there I noticed that the crew had that "All Business" look  on their faces. The captain handed me a printed message. It was from Delta's  main office in Atlanta and simply read, "All  airways over the Continental United States are closed to commercial air traffic. Land ASAP at the nearest airport. Advise your destination." "No one said a word about what this could mean. We knew it was a serious situation and we needed to find terra firma quickly. The captain determined  that the nearest airport was 400 miles behind us in Gander, Ne