Chinophobia

Chinophobia is not chionophobia, it has nothing to do with snow or ice cream. It is a new term coined by yours truly in the face of the dangers and fears that I sense. China is a big country and has been known for its impervous nature in the sense that the world has never known (for most of last century) about the goings on there. But now with so much exposure to the present world scenario I see/ know more of china now. China is largely thought of as a oppressed country by many, they consider that china is powerful but have no idea largely of the extent. Here I intent to state some facts to bring in the cold truth. US has been wary of the growing influence/power that china has been gathering over the past 2 decades. Not only does it hold the largest value of usa t-bills (external debt) - almost a trillion, but also its military power is beginning to challenge US. And for Indians who wish to believe that whatever power China may have should not affect India - well China is interested in expanding and for a country that is a dangerous thing for it's neighbours. China lays claims to Arunachal in NE India and it is not interested in the Hindi-Chini bhai bhai crap. It has shown that it is determined to oppose and hinder India at all possible points. The security council seat or the recent veto of the 3billion ADB funding to India. It has come to light that China has been trying to malign Indian industries - selling goods (spec garments and medicines) with fake 'Made in India' labels in countries where India's most export go to. Such is the determination of China in breaking India. What is going on is perhaps a cold war of sorts that has not been acknowledged by either side as yet.

Also it is a well known fact that industry in US is dying and china has become as the manufacturing centre for the whole world. It operates factories in 'inhuman conditions' and can obviously mass produce goods at - often unbelievably cheap rates. India has been allegedly 'shining' etc based on the few call centres we have managed to open up. Added to that we believe that because we have some IT companies that we are beginning to emerge as the next superpower. We cannot be more wrong - all that is produced in India is lowest quality stuff - the engineers we produce are good just because they are so many and so cheap. The work done in IT in India is mostly stuff that is low end. On the other hand chinese engineering technical supremacy was apparent in the recent top coder contest. There were as many as 800+ competitors from India but none managed to reach the final rounds. China had quite a few of the top places including the #1 winner. There are many other incidents that point to one direction - that china is taking over the world. If you are not bothered by it, enjoy and start learning chinese oops cantonese. But if you are not - then don't do anything out of the charts - we need to at least acknowledge and accept the position we are in. Acceptance of the problem is the first step in solving any problem and it is high time we begun.

0% Syndrome - A product of Procastination Inc.

Being a total geek, even my jokes have their source in academics. In software engineering there is term called the 90% syndrome (there are even papers on it). It basically means that a software project after reaching 90% completion takes till eternity to finish the last 10% because people make assumptions, over estimate their deeds and underestimate the remaining tasks. So basically things drag and makes the whole project very inefficient. Now we as elders of the procastination society (no one holds elections, so everyone can take as many posts as he feels like) take it upon to give back to the society (contrary to the claims that procastinators have no useful output).

I give you the 0% syndrome. It is based on studying the doings of myself as well as fellow members of the procastination society. The fact that a job has not been started means it is at 0% completion. And it remains so until the very last moment, the job is done (if done) so fast that it spends almost all of its time at 0%. We find this is very efficient to the worker in the sense that he gets from being fired (mostly) and doesn't worry about work except the bare minimum required.

If only I could get a research paper out of this too .. ! :D

Talibanisation

So today we see how precariously Pakistan is placed. India and Pakistan started of as kind of similar nations. Just that Pakistan was smaller. Even in early nineties economically they were not far apart. But now when Indian are going out and making a name for themselves around the world, we have millions of Indian researchers in premium universities, companies trading with fortune 500 companies and PIOs working in those companies as well. But what about Pakistan, its busy making headlines as the home grown terrorism hit country. The nurturing of Taliban and other 'Islamic' forces have now been proven to be disastrous out in the open, its not a new suprising thing as such, people always knew what they were dealing with. Just that they had been denying it as everything was not out in the open. Now that they are being held hostage and their existence is more than in danger. Now we don't have anything to rejoice because India's stand is being vindicated. The thing is now India has a more grave responsibility, to forgive and help. That requires a very big heart and lots of humility from both sides. But that alone can be the solution that can now resolve this situation so that both continue to survive. Its not fair to expect this of India but come to think of it, Pakistan is a way better neighbour even at its worst than Taliban. To support Pakistan is somethng unimaginable in India and I dont see any party with thing on their agenda getting a single seat.. But good thing that politicians are not answerable to the public unless their time is almost up. Lets hope that leaders on both side see some sense and act with maturity of mind and not only age.

Dignity of labor

Well no work is bad, the fact that you are doing a work that enables you to live with self respect is sufficient to make it dignified. Well how did this idea come to slip in through the crack while the rest of the world is based on nothing but egoist principles. The reason I believe is the white collar people who need the workers to do work that they consider below their dignity. They know that the common man has to do whatever work he gets - its not an option for most. But the thing is that the need is dual and instead of a symbiotic relationship with mutual respect, we know that practically the man with less manual work and all the power has indeed been dealt the higher hand. Now they can be mean and let the rest know who is the boss. But then they are smart in the fact that they know that workers with even a false reason of self-respect and sincerity are better than those that are forced  and so we have such a fancy show. They do that from time to time but at the same time they have this propoganda  teaching kids that no work is bad. Hell if it aint why the difference in position, power and money. I am not saying that they dont deserve it, just that giving the people a false sense of respect is somewhat cruel - practical but cruel.

Sense of Agnostic Redefined

Agnostic is as defined a person who doesn't believe that a certainity pertaining to God can be reached. I have refined this in my earlier post and myself defined it as a person who believes there is no reason to attempt to define a religion, belief and impose it on all others. Basically I am against the forced cloning of ideals that religion basically has come to be. 

Now with new insights I intend to add some thoughts to it. Religion is not a bad thing, the same old logic of too much = bad applies here. The problem is that religion may at best be a consolation to the people who might need it from time to time when in need of support and strength (though its always better to find it within yourself). But people will be the same, they tend to over-rely on anything that gives them comfort, be it medication (druggies), entertainment(lazy bones) or food (fatties) and the same is true for religion. The reform we need in here is more self-restrain and not simple abolishment of religion or any such sweeping change. We need to realise that all people are not strong enough for them to be able to deal with the realities of life and the idea of having some sort of a emotional support for them is not at all repulsive. It's more like we need to make it more of a personal thing. Do what you need to help yourself and thats it. There is no need to make everyone see the things in the same way as you. An anology I can see of the present situation is of a addict under influence hating all the sober people around him. Actually there is nothing more interesting about this whole thing. More focus needs to be given to actual important stuff that may help people live better. ~!

too random this time - i put no effort to rein it in

I just discovered. In old movies when the hero is saddened for some reason that cannot be solved by his almighty fists he sings .. well we normal people do other stuff less filmy. I for instance write. So I through that chain of thought I realised that my writing is more of a device to cope with pain. Its not a rule but thats mostly the case. So why is it that I am saddened on holi eve. When i talk to people they believe that I must be having a time of life, enjoying myself and basically worthy of being envied - all because I am in USA. But then what does being at any place do, will a dying man be happier just because he is living in switzerland or in paris. No, thats a basic immaturity of folks, I cannot be innocent of this crime myself - I used to think so just few months back to some extent. Ya this is pretty obvious but it does pain you when you realise that your suffering is going unrecognised rather misinterpreted and even envied.! 

So the thing is I havent written a diary for a while - by diary I mean not a thing recording what happened but what I thought. Because thoughts like time fly by, you seem to retain only a few seemingly important ones. But then there are things that you would like to know later on but it slips your tiny brain. 

So here I am blogging my thought out in the world naked for everyone to see. Doesnt that make me an exhibitionist - I am not sure. An exhibitionist in the known literary senses is somewhat of a repulsion for various people including myself but come to think of it exposing your body is less weird than opening your mind and thoughts to everyone. Why there is nothing new in any body but every mind has something peculiar and new in it (at least mine does). But exposing it is not blasphemy as it probably should be. Well I dont know - a closed mind doesnt really spread out new ideals and thoughts if you think in that sense.

So I have discovered that this is what my style is in writing- I guess I am more consious than I should be about my style - part of the reason being that I sometimes fancied(or rather still do fancy) myself to be a writer of sorts - but well then I should produce coherent, free flowing, seemingly effortless stuff - but boy have I realised that it is though to take a dictation from the mind and compose it in a decorative language at the same time. I could write it down first and then perhaps try to beautify it - but that would be cheating and somewhat fake - so I tend to keep a clear consious and provide readers( if any :D - my lame humor is glued to me tight, there is one regular reader i believe) this incoherent piece of unintentional crap. 

Well seeing that I have creative juices flowing today and that I have typed this whole thing till now without a pause to think, I should probably go on till it goes - just to see how much I can write without actually saying anything of much consequence. That will be a fun experiment - for me at least.

So coming back to the original topic - why is it that I am sad on a jolly holi day. Well the thing is that its nothing new, nothing that anyone can change and not anything weird. I mean I guess almost everyone has this kind of trouble give or take a little in magnitute.  But the reason is that the most important person from my perspective is what I think about most and am effected by him - and as it turns out for me its myself. Thats the case for most normal people. So that explains sadness as a result of environment and some problems( wont go into details - ya am cutting that supply of masala) so why today then. Hmm still figuring it out, I guess you tend to miss people more in times of 'fun that could be but it not to be'. Not a very innovative answer I know - but then thats the best I got - guess becuz its the most sensible one. 

I am beginning to realise how much of a narcassist I am turning into - I am writing this as basically a record of my talks to myself - it is a weird minute of the meeting that I am having with myself. Well from my viewpoint.

Kind of a different track now. I was thinking why/how do old friends/friendships die out. Its not a machine made of nuts and bolts that just die out of wear and tear. I have seen many (some including myself as a member) friendships die out as a star out of fuel. The reason is distance - well in most cases it is an important part. But there are other reasons such as girls, economic divide, ego and many other follies that man has created to nullify all his intelligent gifts given in the form of such wonderful things. And the thing is it saddens my heart to see that indifference also figures among them - ya its not for an egotist to admit it out in the open - but thats why I name no names and I am sure no one knows exactly who I am talking about - because I myself am not sure. he he .. Ya I meant the general trend of people in general out of which some are important to you. I guess I am going to make a novel of crap if I dont stop, so I will force a stop at this point.  

But ya continued this whole thing w/o a pause. I can produce good volume work if not good work. . lol

Depression v2.0

The great american recession... havent talked about that and somehow this is one thing that has affected everyone (myself included) in more ways than one. We had the last big depression in 1930s and this was a time that I know not much about, but the least I can tell is that this was a time when the developed nations had conditions not much better than what poor nations have today .. or state it simpler suddenly the great nations had gone poor. Now what baffles me is how does a nation become poor and more stupefyingly how can the whole world become poor. Well this is what happened in 1930s and is happening in the present and coming years. The reason is obviously some sort of a scam - a conspiracy ( that's a chic word to use today for some reason!). Well I am not the right person to comment on the depression v1.0 but since I have seen the depression v2.0 released by Mr. Bush I surely can give an insight into that. The USA has been for a long time been the dream of dreamers, who wish for success - material success at least. Many have come in and realised their dreams. But now suddenly why has USA got nothing to give its own people now. It's poor - one of us. There can be no one reason for this. One is obviously the war that America has waged over the past few years in Afganistan and Iraq. Official figures are around __ billion usd so we can be sure its at least __ billion usd . But this amount though very large it's not enough to pull down a prosperous nation as USA. The reason is that it is more of a case of a terminte infested house being subjected to floods - a sort of double whammy. The other reason is inertia - the tendency of being in the flow of the situation, with rising belief that a bleak future is ahead of us the future is made more bleaker with the death of each hope. Also I am not a real fan of Bush. I do believe that other than the war his policies had a lot to do in fucking up the economy. So basically the wrong choice made by american voters has been the reason that other countries have suffered.!! Other reasons include the oil prices. Oil is the necessary and OPEC is the devil with its key. Now it can hardly be the case that all the countries are helpless in front of opec. They have oil but the rest of the world has lots of things that they dont. The reason that they yield so much power is the greed of men of power that make the powerful countries meek in front of them. Now i dont mean that Bush was on a direct payroll of some oil lord - but in some sort of indirect way he has profited or else he is why has he let the opec come across terrorist powers. It may seem that this essay is somewat scattered but the reason is that the problems associated with the topic are a web and concentrating on just one part will give only part of the picture. There is a lot more to the topic and it shall be continued ............

Religion ..assorted thoughts

They say sex sells, on the contrary religion sells the most and still it is not recognized as it is somewhat not thought of as along the same lines. The church/mosque/temple is the biggest grosser of them all. The reason is that they say the money is for a cause. The only cause, as I see, worth contributing hard earned money can be humanitarian and not Christian, Islamic or Hindu. These funds are destined to be misused either in a bad way (Jehad) or at best spent on furthering the religion's popularity. I would call this as a misuse as well - because converting people from one religion to another which is the ultimate goal achieved/intended is not worth zilch to the cause of humanity.
Let us try and estimate how the religions came into existence The God(s) have never made a public appearance (or i missed one great show), well at least not one for the past millenium or two. The only evidence we have is books, scriptures that tell us a story. Now how are we to believe that the story is a historical one and not just another fantasy tale. We can't , and even this simplistic demand for reason and logic is seen as a form of develish impertinence & blasphemy. Were you to be told that your meeting is not to be held as earlier decided, wouldn't you ask for a reason? If such a simple thing breds a need for reason why should a man's need for reason in what is supposed to influence his thinking, his society and very much everything in his life ; be questioned.
I have been an agnostic since before I knew what the word meant- moving over to my birth religion on increasingly rare occasions ,chiefly in periods of despair ( or extreme happiness). It's something of a weakness, I am not ashamed to admit that I have been weak at times. But does that make me a falsifier? Quite on the contrary I believe it makes my believe in non-utility of religion more tangible. It clearly shows that man doesn't really need it, if he is strong enough in character. The more relentless advertising we see on behalf of every religion the more it makes me sure that it's a fake necessity. Our reliance of it is somewhat similar to our addiction to other best marketed products that we see advertised around us - like colas etc.

Competition

We know that the outlook one has is very important in what he becomes. That is true for nations as well. We see the US as a very developed/prosperous country. But why did it come by being so successful... Competition.. Thats what it was blessed with... it took to competing with Russia and Russia took US to great heights while it itself kept moving down. Come to India.. we are very happy and pumped up that India is progressing blah blah.. but is it real progress.. well the world is progressing and as circumstances would have it India is so strategically placed that it's man power is taking it to rise at a pace slighty above the world average.But do we have competition. We tend to compete with Pakistan - that's the enemy state. Well an unworthy opponent is a good way of defeating yourself. If instead we look towards competiting with China and let Pakistan burn in the fire they have light themselves.. !N if they keep pestering us we know its no more than a fly for India if we truly use the force that we have. !

JEHAD

Jehad an Islamic term, is a religious duty of muslims. But come today it has gone to mean a mask to cover all despicable acts in the name of religion. Can we help hating the religion that has come to be recognized as the mascot of terrorism. It may sound very much discriminating but if you look at the sort of events happening of late we cannot close our eyes to the fact that more than 95% of terrorism is undeniably 'jehad'. If the religion teaches it's people to destrop the world shouldn't the world join as one and eliminate this nuisance of a teaching. There may be many that say Kuran does not teach this or that people are bending it for their own use and misguiding. But I say hell with it. Do you think that your hand is not spreading poison intentionally .. if it poisoning your body however tough the decision maybe you will always decide to chop it off. And that is what needs to be done. The problem is a religion is not as easy to chop off as a hand of a poor man. There are all sorts of compassionate issues involved and humanity bites us. But if we want the world to live we need to eliminate muslim or at least let them know that they will be eliminated if they continue to thread this unbelievingly ruthless way of destroying the world they themselves live in. We may at least seal off all support to any country that is a declared islamic nation. For instance bleed them economically starve them and isolate them. And well if you decide to thread this path i m sure there is enough way to get the thing done once the world leaders sit on this with their manipulative minds set on this! :D