Sid-O-Scope

According to the blog in Washington post, racism in India is very prevalent. You can see the blood red colored India very prominent on the map. This story was just mentioned as a passing remark over a coffee table with a smirk, 'Yeah its India, no one cares about race, but they do care about is caste'.

It is extremely true about caste system prevalent in India even after almost fifty years of Independence. People still considered other people from schedule tribes and caste as dirty or disgusting. Reservations in education, jobs and by some unconfirmed election butter promotions, has added more to this feud. The number of people who hate other people based on their caste has definitely increased ten fold in the last fifty years. Earlier it was based on some ambiguous religious text, now it is based on medical seat availability.

In a normal world any political party getting riddled in scandals popping up faster than rabbits can make babies, will lose the local elections but Karnataka proved this wrong. How did Congress win the Karnataka polls is a question more important than the question of Doctor Who? Some say minority appeasement, some say it was prejudice against ruling BJP.

See, Congress winning the election is definitely not the problem, no, India is a country of 1.2 billion people. Having 400 corrupt and snake oils salesmen in this grand country is not a big deal, having a billions of corrupt money is also not that a big problem.
The biggest problem cropping this country, sitting there on the border of everything. A thin shade of gray living on the edge of everything.

The real problem is, this 1.2 billion people do not want to stay with each other. They refuse the acknowledge the fact that we are into this together. We all are miserable, we all are in deep trouble. See, here is the problem, most of these 1.2 billion people are trying to sink others boat. They say they are chosen, giving arbitrary reasons like caste, religion, race or birthplace. The problem is, there is only one boat.

We all started together and we are journeying in the same boat.

It is the boat that is sinking. Sinking deep into abyss, sinking without faith, sinking without life guard. The government is struggling hard to stop the ship from sinking, yes they are, but are incapable of doing so. Here is the biggest trouble of our times, it is not that we do not have better politicians, it is just that we don't want to believe in those.

God is bleeding, faith is collapsing. Faith in the republic of India is sinking and along with it blood gushing out from the minds of people. When there is blood in the water, sharks gather for dinner. Its a full feast for all sorts of sharks gluttony, greedy and gross sharks. The country is headed towards a boiler plate, tolerance levels are falling below acceptable.

The founding fathers knew this, they realized this. They used the medium of television to pass on the message. 'Mile sur mera tumhara' the song that is known by heart to every kid born before the year 2k. The song is still etched in our minds and most of you are singing it in tune right now. But here is the thing, there is no unity in diversity left in this country anymore.

The warning signs are all there. People want to be superior to each other using the same colonial mindset that  gave Indians massive inferiority complex for almost 150 years.

Unity is collapsing, don't act surprised if North Indian boys are booted from a shared auto in Chennai to give seat for locals because that should be normal. Unity is hanging by a thin hairline thread, the whole nation is still surprised when accusations of spot fixing riddled their favorite religion of cricket. They mourn together when their favorite thing is riddled in scandals. Because if not for cricket, the thoughts come back. The colonial mindset kicks in, they cannot sit next to each other.

We are into this boat together, and whatever anyone may say, this is a one big circus, going somewhere. How many will reach there only time till tell.

"Its all smokes and mirror," screamed an oversmart audience to the magician on stage. The magician looked at the over smart spectator and said, "You sir, will join me on stage for my next act."
"As if," said the over smart spectator.
"And for my next act," the magician said, "I am going to make this man disappear."
"As if," the over smart spectator said.
He was told to inspect the box, which seemed fine.
"I am going to expose your trick," said the sceptic.
"And now ladies and gentlemen for the magic," he asked the sceptic to step inside the box, "Abracadabra..."
Puff, a big ball of smoke surround the box. Someone coughed.
The box opened and the sceptic was not seen anywhere. Encore, claps, claps, Once more, once more, screamed the audience.
Everyone was too busy to notice the sceptic walking outside the magicians tent counting money in his hands.

India on an whole is a funny country. You are walking down the street minding your own business, usually wearing a nice pair of boxers or eating a bunch of boiled peanuts and suddenly, out of blue a random stranger pops out wanting to have a detailed description of the choices you have made in life and give his opinion about them.

I am still looking for the ten strangers who had detailed interest in my life since childhood.

There could be a rape going on in the house next to you but that's normal, either because the girl is married to the man, arranged by her own relatives or she would be a painted or dented girl who deserves it. No that is not the pressing issue at the moment. If they don't like it, they can commit suicide, an option that saves dignity, honor and a lot of electricity.

No matter how many people jump off the tall buildings of IT companies, which are built on the land whose original owner was a farmer that incidentally committed suicide a few years back. But that's normal, because government says it's normal. Infact it is so normal that anyone saying it is not normal is shot by cops.

The cops, they are also normal, considering the fact that they believe rape is another myth like the boogeyman and honest politician. They are sure there is no rapist under the bed of any girl, lurking and waiting and no one is 'picking' up girls who are waiting at the bus stop. Cops are busy doing their duty slapping the protesters, that may include women as well. But that is normal, they probably deserved it as well. Or as many Indians still like to believe, it could be because of some sins of previous life.

It really does not matter if a four year old is dancing or singing to the tune of 'munni badnaam hui' without understanding the implications of what she is dancing to, because that is probably what being human means. I wonder what being normal means?

The most pressing issue grasping this large and equally crazy 'normal' republic is that of people jerking off at night watching some low light movie, shot using an handy-cam in a single location and single shot that has multiple shots and commonly known as porn.

They say porn is not aligned to real world. People learn a lot from porn and it is directly responsible for rise in rapes. Is that the reason why they make bollywood movies so dumb that no one in his right mind would take life lessons from them? I find no other answer.

According to petitioner, people are learning a lot of wrong things from porn which should be stopped. There are people who hate sex ed courses for the children and adults which is also normal. Porn is a daily necessity of life, it teaches us Doctor, Patient, Teacher, Pizza delivery boy and the cable guy are some of the best professions in the world.
Obviously woman and child welfare ministers are allowed to watch the porn because it is their duty.
Another pressing issue of nation wide debate in the country, who is responsible for rise in rapes? So far everything from Porn, MTV, America, small clothes on woman, large clothes on women, no clothes, babies, small girls, walking at night, staying home at night, neighbors and the breathing is held responsible for making a man rape a girl. Obviously, if the rape happens near a temple or a bar is normal, it should not be considered rape because she deserves it.

The government of Goa has banned drinking on the beach. They have finally got tired of chasing naked and drunk strangers on the beach. The final year ritual of puking outside Tito and the Facebook bromance photo albums are feeling threatened.

Well its only fair, Goa was the last place in the country that had any liberal sanity. Whenever anyone mentioned they are off to Goa, you had to brace yourself for the Dil Chahta hai type poses or bromance pictures at Calangute beach (which incidentally is the only beach anyone remembers others are only beaches they saw on the way to somewhere else). No more sex on the beach drinking on the beach.

So bottom-line  India is a normal country... crazy normal country. Water gate opened the floodgates in American history, there are multiple tape gate, coal gate, mobile gate and what not, but the only thing that shakes the government into action is a teenagers Facebook status update.

Only relief in this normal world is eating boiled peanuts sitting on the park bench watching the Pigeons giving PDA for the whole world to see. That is also normal, I guess.

We live in interesting times.

The thing about prophecies is, they tend to start a war more than prevent it. If Kansa never heard the prophecy of Krishna we would never see the battle. If Voldemort never knew about the potter boy, we would be saved seven horrible movies. But the thing about prophecies is that they exist.


Over the period of time, I have come to believe that someone somewhere is jotting down prophecies about me in an language illegible by human. You know something is amiss, and bam that thing is amiss right then and there.

There is not a single moment of doubt in my mind about the prophecy of railway and me. Murphy had once said, if there is a fifty-fifty chance of getting something right, there is a ninety percent guarantee you will get it wrong.

During my junior college days there are people who sleep on the railway platform who used to watch me run after a train almost every day. Sometimes I even ran after it from front. This made one day, a homeless guy come towards me and said, 'You are never going to reach the platform on time.' Now that I think about it, his prediction would have been different had I given him some more money but that is another matter. But the worlds were etched, I can never reach the platform on time.

The traffic, lazy friends and missing socks helped fulfilling this prophecy time and again. Just when everything was going on time, they were joined by confusing phone calls, flat tires and one time, a cow, yes, a cow sitting in the middle of the street. The Universe does not play nice.

My first job was in New Delhi, which is so far the most confusing capital of the country.

It thus happened on the fateful day, I was busy drinking Ginger Chai dipping cream-roll on the new Delhi railway station, waiting for my train,'Sampark Kranti Express', to arrive.

The thing about Indian railways is that they do not obey the general laws of time. They have their own set of rules, if you arrive at the station an hour early than the departure, there is a guarantee that the train will be an hour late. Following the trend, you decide to relax a little and come a little sooner than the departure time and the train would be on time, causing you to rush inside it. Obeying this law, I had dutifully arrived an hour early. Had judged for fifteen minutes to decide if I should test the capability of my stomach to digest the chinese noodles near the railway station. Stumbled on two passengers sleeping, yes sleeping, on the platform. And finally settled for tea served in a cup that was questionably clean.

My train was busy following its own timetable and taking her own time to arrive. As I dipped the final piece of cream roll in my tea, there was a public announcement. A bored little clerk behind a mike announced, 'Rajdhani express is scheduled to depart on platform number 1'.
Platform number 1 was were I was waiting for my train. If Rajdhani was on platform number 1, where was my train?

There was fifteen minutes left for my train to depart and there was no train. No announcement and no information. I rushed to the train time table on the platform (it occurred to me that I could have done this an hour ago). The train time table, following the laws of railways, has its own laws of motion. It did not have my train on it.

I pulled out the ticket which contained a blurry writing of my train journey. Time of departure, check. Train of departure, check. Time of arrival, check. Platform number, check. And finally it dawned on me, a little late, station of departure, Nizamuddin Station and not New Delhi.

Without thinking a lot, I bolted out of the station to catch a local taxi. The taxi meter calculations in Delhi are done using a complex scientific calculator. And are further multiplied by an imaginary number. He spoke the arbitrary amount which I was not in any mood to argue with (if you argue well, you can subtract an imaginary number from the amount and negotiate it less than 50% of what he says but no time for that). Just told him to press on the accelerator.


View Larger Map

If they are ever looking for replacement for speed racer, this taxi driver could nominate himself. We raced to the street of Delhi and reached the Nizamuddin station in fifteen minutes.

Just when I was thinking I have missed the train, I saw her standing in great majesty at platform number 1. I took a deep breath and put one foot forward, the train started moving on.
And again, the old prophecy hit me, I was running behind a train godspeed.

I did catch it, yet again. 

This is cross posting from my tech blog with few additions.

During a drinking session with a friend, we got discussing how everyone is taking about cloud. I pointed out that soon cloud is going to replace a computer and he said that was not possible.

Computer will still be needed for many professional work like movie editing, photo editing, animation and a lot other things. But what about personal computing? Can I use only cloud systems and survive for many days?

The short answer is 'yes' I can. The long answer is this blog post. The challenge was accepted, that for seven days I will use only cloud services for my personal computing needs. Funny part was, I ended up continuing using those services way beyond seven days. Enlisting the top ten things I needed a computer for and how I used only cloud services for them.


1. Editing my novel
Thats the easiest thing anyone can relate to. How do I create documents, the dreaded excel sheets and powerpoint presentation. The common answer would be Google Docs but somehow in past few days, I am not really in Moodle for Google (neither am I switching back to the old nemesis microsoft). I used Zoho Writer to edit my novel online. I preferred their services much better than other online tools.


2. Create Graphic for the blogs
This was a tricky one. If you look at the header of this blog or on the sidebar, you will see many beautiful icons that I created using photoshop.  I could not believe any online provider could provide me the beauty of a photoshop editing. None of the offline tools came close to offering what photoshop offered. However, to my delight, I found the online editor Pixlr.com to come in handy. It can be using for cropping, pasting and editing pictures. The new banner for my blog (http://sidoscope.co.in) and my wifes blog (http://thecanvasplatter.blogspot.in) is created using pixlr. This startup was taken over by autodesk and is one of the best thing that has come up in the crowd.

3. Creating presentation
When I am not doing anything, I am busy creating presentations. I love those things that move around. You can see some of the things I created on my site showcase. Most of the presentations on the page are created using Prezi.com the online 3D presentation maker. Prezi gives an extra dimension to the presentation and that wow factor helps.

4. Making Infographics
I have used many corporate tools for making infographics. The best one was obviously illustrator, adobe knows how to do stuff right. But then can I make infographics online? I tried with pixlr but since there was a screen limit with their editor, making a long infographic like the one for cloud computing was a tedious job. Just when I thought, I am losing the challenge, ta da, Cacoo.com came to the rescue. Cacoo has an easy to use interface where you can create beautiful graphics for free. They offer 25 diagrams on the free license which is really cool.

5. Sharing files and photos
One of the many things you need a computer and those little USB drives is transfer of files. During my college days when I did not have a computer, I used to carry a rewritable CD in my bag and borrow CD writers on my friends computer to burn disc. Things changed and we now have those USB drives. So the real question here was how do I transfer more than a GB of file? Now in real world scenario there are very few things that are more than one GB, however lets say I wanted to transfer a heavy file? And there Dropbox came to rescue. What was more with the camera upload feature, I did not have to do anything. When I took photos, they were safely upload to dropbox and all I had to do was share it with my friend.
With Samsung Promotion on Dropbox, I got 96 GB of extra space (I have four devices) along with multiple camera upload spaces. So my total dropbox space was way beyond 100 GB (which was ironic since my first computer, I had only 40 GB of space)


6. Watching Movies
When was the last time you stepped into a DVD store and purchased a nice DVD, picked up a bottle of whiskey and made some pop-corn. If you never did, I highly suggest you do. Anyways, so since this was a post computer world, the best alternative I found online was bigflicks.com. It is a on-demand movie site that streams bollywood movies. It also streams selected english movies. A quick google search also brought me to the cinemanow.com that streams english movies in USA and Canada. There are many other on-demand movie site for other regions. Since cinemanow does not stream in India, I could not test it. If you are using any other service mention it in comments below.

7. Listening to Songs
Listening to songs while doing stuff is one of the many things one can do. However, iTunes has already brought those on  cloud. Just like movies, listening to songs is also a regional thing. One of the best service I use regularly is Dhingana.com. It streams not only bollywood but also regional marathi songs.
If there is any such internal service which is popular, mention it in comments below.

There are many other services that are available online like Games, e-Learning courses and many more.

I won the challenge very easily. There has been a paradigm shift in the way we look at software and computers. The bulky DVDs are now used only to watch on a DVD player (which ill be selling on ebay soon). There is a big shift from the way we conceive social notion.

This change is good or bad, I do not know but somewhere I have heard, some governments are already building their cloud army.  An army of hackers who will bring down the internet and countries along with it.

Disclaimer: None of the services mentioned above have paid me to write their names here. These are the services I use daily and is a personal choice not determined by merit.

Once upon a time, in a land far far away (Apparently this land in far far away was biased towards the pretty princessess, hence you would find almost all the princess like Cinderella, Snow White and Rapunzel in this region.) lived slept a beautiful princess, called 'the sleeping beauty' (That was really her true name). One fine day, her sleeping pills wore off, and she suddenly woke up from her deep slumber.

There was no musical around her, no prince charming and neither was anything else (except maybe unlimited Wifi)

Uddhava knew this was the ending, this is it. After moving the people from Mathura and winning the war against Kaurava, karma had caught up with his old friend. The blood bath could not be stopped, Yadavas could not be saved. Two days ago, Uddhava was called upon by his cousin on the death bed,
The chariot raced through the muddy streets towards vrindavan. On the back seat clutching tightly to his chest sat Uddhava. Nervous, worried and upset he didn’t know what lay ahead. Events flashed in front of his eyes of the bloodbath in his bellowed Dwarka. The entire Yadav clan was dead, with their own arrows. He though of the dying words of his old friend Krishna,

‘It’s over, my friend,’ Krishna had said as he rest his head on Uddhava thigh, ‘Time for me to leave the mortal world.’

‘Don’t say this, brother,’ Uddhava smiled, ‘The vaidyas are trying their best to recover you. Do not worry.’

Krishna smiled, ‘they are bound by the physical realities of the mayavi world my friend, I am not.’
Uddhava feared as much. Being a pandit of many scriptures, including ayurveda, Uddhava knew it was really over.

‘I have one final task for you my friend,’ Krishna said, ‘Go back to Vrindavan and Mathura and tell them, I am leaving finally.’

‘Krishna,’ Uddhava exclaimed, ‘No please don’t.’ Uddhava feared of Radha who was waiting for Krishna in vrindavan, he thought of Krishna’s old father, vasudeva waiting for him to return, ‘How can you be so calm and quiet?’

Krishna smiled and said, ‘Don’t worry my friend; a true master never attaches himself to the physical realms. Learn from the goose, who sits on the water. It enjoys the water completely but does not let it stick to its feather. It knows very well when to enjoy the water and when to fly…’

His chariot went over a rock that disturbed his thoughts. Today the charioteer was also nervous, everyone was.  The entire clan, every male in the Yadav clan was dead? There were no survivors, none at all. No children, all were dead, leaving behind a hoard of weeping and crying elders. What could have cause for this blood bath?

The roads to Vrindavan were familiar, Krishan always gave him news to pass on to his birth village. Uddhava was known as the bearer of bad news. Last time he was here, he told them about Krishna would never return to Vrindavan. So many people hated him for that, don't shoot the messenger, he pleaded.

Today’s news was even worst. How would they react? The noble people of Vrindavan?
The chariot was the same that carried Krishna away from Vrindavan and it was only fair it should be used to end the final chapter.

The noble gates of Vrindavan were always open for every stranger. This pleasant village had to warriors only honest farmers and milkmen. He stopped the chariot at the banks of River Yamuna. This was the place were Krishna had defeated the giant snake Kalia. He washed his face in the holy water once. How would he break the bad news? He was the learned scholar of all the Vedas?
A splash of water disturbed his thoughts, he looked ahead to see Radha sitting at the banks of River Yamuna.

Radha used to visit the banks of Yamuna to feed the goose everytime she came home to her mailka, the home of her parents. This was a ritual that was set by Krishna who had passed on the baton to her. She looked at Uddhava and smiled, "What more bad news you bring, Uddava?" she asked simply.

His lips froze, unable to speak. The entire vocabulary vanished from his head. He looked into her eyes and mumbled something that made no sense even to him.

"He is dead isn’t he?" she asked simply without even pausing to look in his eyes and busy feeding the goose in the river.

"How do…," he mumbled and then paused, she was Krishna’s soul mate and they both were bound by a connection that wasn't merely physical, "Yes," he said finally bursting in tears.

All the emotions bottled up in his mind flooded out of the crevasse. His legs gave way and he collapsed on the ground.

"Do not mourn over the dead, Uddhava," Radha said consoling him, "We all die, eventually. Krishna taught me one thing, life moves on. Kalia, the giant snake was too attached to his abode at the bottom of this river. Krishna humbled him to move on.  Krishna always used to tell me to be like the goose in these waters. They enjoy the water, but never let the water touch its feathers."

Uddhava looked in her eyes, they were sad but had no tears, how could she not cry? She was the soul-mate of Krishna. But her eyes told a different story, they were the same like Krishna. Krishna had left the world physically, but He was with her right now.

"When Krishna left vrindavan in the chariot, we met at the same river bank," Radha explained futher, "while leaving he asked me to feed his goose while he was away. I never understood what he was trying to tell me, but finally a few days ago I realized, what he really meant was. He was never going to come back physically; he wanted me to detach myself from his physical sense, so that we can be immortal together forever. I knew when you will return again with another news it would be of his death and I had prepared myself for it," she smiled.

Now Uddhava understood why his friend had send him here. This time Uddhava was not the messenger, Radha was. The final piece of puzzle that Krishna had left for him.
Krishna was never attached to physical things or places. He had moved from Vrindavan to Mathura and then from Mathura to Dwarka. His true realm was himself, not the cities; his Vaikunth was with Krishna all along.

Just like Krishna, life also changes moves, nothing is constant. That is why Krishna never tried to save the Yadavas, because Krishna knew, the time had finally come. Similarly the yuga also would change, a new yuga would come to eradicate the old one.

A new generation will come to mow over the older one, that is the cycle of life. There was nothing constant in the world, there was nothing to keep attached. He finally knew was going to happen next. They will rebuild Dwarka again, brick by brick. Raise the city back from the dead.

As the puzzle finally unraveled in front of him, he finally murmured the words that would be echoed by countless humans across the millennium,

"You know what that means now, don’t you?" Uddhava finally stood up, wiped his tears and handed the broken flute to Radha, "Great perils lay ahead for it is the beginning of Kalyuga."

Authors Note:

The story is based on Hamsa Gita, the song of the goose, the final chapter of Bhagwat Purana. I have taken poetic liberties to visualize the final scene in Dwapar Yuga. The Gregorian calender date for the event was 18 February 3102 BCE. The story and the setup is fictional, the message is from Bhagwat Purana.

Painting:

Painting: The Story of the Goose by Deepika Kabe
http://thecanvasplatter.blogspot.in

Love story

Since her birth, Kadru the mother of all snakes always had a boiling rivalry with her sister Vinata, the future mother of Garudas or the eagles.
Oh how magnificent Vinata was, with her wings spread out wide, her long flights in the air. Once Vinata kept on and on about her long jump towards the sun. Oh how jealous Kadru was. Kadru made a vow that day, that one day, Vinata would be her slave.


When they both where married to the Sage Kashyap, son of Manu, she demanded 100 sons, to fulfill her vow against her sister. Vinata was still the smartest and she asked for only two, but both of them should be stronger than any son Kadru had. Thus the sisters were gifted with their boons, Kadru in her hundred sons gave birth to Shesha, who in the future will be the greatest hermit of them all and support the land on which sons of Manu will stand. Vasuki, the future king of serpents, who would save the clan of snakes from extinction and also Airavat, whose whiteness would be the measure of all things white in the world.

Vinata however waited for long time but both her eggs would not hatch. It was difficult for nature to fulfill her boon and do that soon, so both the child took time in development. Kadru laughed, laughed at the misery of her sister.

Everyday she mocked on her sister, oh how fast her kids were growing, said Kadru. Shesha could now defeat the entire mountain, she said. Vasuki could beat Indra in the game of dice. Vinata got angry and broke up one egg.

Out sprang her eldest son, Arun, who would later be the charioteer of sun and help all creatures with energy. But because he sprang too soon, his one wing was deformed. Consumed with guilt Vinata vowed she would wait for the second egg to hatch.

In the meanwhile, things were changing in the newly formed earth. The Devas and the Aruras where going head to head against each other in their battle. Finally Kadru’s son, Vasuki meddled with the two clans and offered them a respite. They would both churn the ocean and distribute the gifts that the nature has to offer. Vasuki himself offered to be used as a rope for this churning. Kadru was angry, she felt betrayed. She instantly disowned Vasuki and proclaimed that her true son was Shesha who was true to his clan.

But with the churning of the milky ocean provided her with an opportunity to enslave her sister,

“Oh Vinata,” she said one day casually, “Have you heard of Uchchaisravas? the magnificent king of horses who sprang from the milky ocean?”

“Oh sister, who hasn’t heard of him,” Vinata mentioned, “I hear his tail hair is the purest white in color, even whiter than your son Airavat….”

“No, my sister,” Kadru said, “No one is whiter than Airavat, I have heard he is of color black. Lets have a bet on it, shall we?”

Vinata smiled, she had no idea Kadru was talking seriously when she said, “If the tail of the horse is black, you will have to be my slave forever, but if it is white in color, Ill be your slave forever.”

“Oh sure,” said Vinata playfully, she will later regret this bet as Kadru would actually chain her to the ground in front of all the snakes, for a hundred years, until rescued by her elder son, Garuda.

Kadru instantly called her sons, the powerful Shesha and the magnificent Airavat. She asked them to hide in the tail of the horse so that it will appear black instead of white, “I want my sister as my slave. Go my sons, follow the teachings of your mother….”

She was in for the shock when Shesha replied, “No my mother, we won’t go and help you with your diabolical plan.”

“How dare you defy your own mother?” she asked.

“We do not defy you mother, we obey the same teachings you taught us. You taught us poisonous fangs and their use, you taught us how to hide from others. You taught us how to build the own nest, but above all these teachings,” Airavat said, “You taught us treachery."

“By planning a diabolical plot against your sister, you are defying your kin as we do ours. We are just following your teaching…” said Shesha, smirking, walked away with his siblings.

Kadru was left fuming in anger.


P.s. The story is based on the original characters from the Hindu Mythology of Snakes and eagles. The story is also true, the author has taken the liberty to fictionize the story.

Ravan was pacing hard in his royal chamber. A disturbing trend was brought to light in his peoples court today. His advisors informed of rise in corruption among the civil servants.  Ravan had always tried hard to instill discipline in his people. He tried hard to maintain peace and policy in the golden land of Lanka. We are the richest kingdom ever, don't they see it? he asked himself, If everyone is rich, why is there corruption?

He kept asking question again and again. Why are the people corrupt? We are just and fair to everyone, we do not over tax them, no one is poor? Then why do we have corruption?

Watching him agitated Vibhishan walked towards him, "Anything worrying you brother?"

"Why is there corruption Vibhishan? We have given them everything they want.... why corruption then?" Ravan asked, "Even the poorest of the villager eats in the plate of Gold, then why do we have corruption? Why can't we end it once and for all?"

Surpanakha was sitting close by watching a few ants carry the block of sugar to their house, she quipped, "Of Course there is a way to end it forever, I have been telling you since ever. Burn one or two corrupt officers in the middle of the kingdom for the junta to see... fear will make them obey."

Vibhishan looked at his sister horrified at the thought and turned back to his brother,

"I can't burn my own subjects," Ravan said, "What message will that send to others? The king hates them?"

"You are the demon king," Surpanakha said, "What is there to like about you? You are not like those sissy Ayodhya people whose prince gave up his rightful throne just for the wishes of a half dead king," she said simply drowning the ant in the glass of water.

Ravan watched her drown the ant and felt agitated, was he as the king only suppose to impose fear in his subjects? Why would people live in his kingdom then?

Vibhishan kept his hand on his brothers shoulder, "As a king you need to have faith in your subjects and so should they. Corruption begins when you loose their faith. The prince of Ayodhya gave up his rightful throne to keep word of his father. It was not done because he loved his father well, it was done because if he refused there would be a clash in royal household. Why will the subjects listen to the king if his own son won't? A strong royal family..." he glance at Surpanakha, who had lost her attention in the talk and was busy in her ant drowning"... can restore faith in the just king. If we can take some advise from the prince of Ayodya it was, the prince will lead the subjects, not by ordering them but by bowing before them.

As a King, instead of making stringent laws, ask them to have faith in the system. Build the system so strong that no external agent can peak inside it. Only then can you curb the corruption from inside. ."

Vibhishan's words only were drowned by the screams of Surpanakha, "Stupid ants... they all biting me, get away. Shoo Shoo..."

"If the subjects fear you, sooner or later they will revolt against you," Vibhishan concluded.

P.s. The story is entirely fiction. Characters adopted from Indian Mythology Ramayana

When Aristotle spoke the golden words to those who were listening, little did he know that one fine day will come when almost all the people on this godsaken planet would use this sentence once in their lifetime at some point or the other. Most of the people in the world are in job and most of the people in the job hate the job they are doing.

"I hate my job," has become a synonym for how are you in a corporate world. Everyone uses this phrase at some point of time in their life and all for the wrong reasons.

I can totally understand a sewage cleaner uttering the words, 'I hate my job' or a puppy killer at local dog pound uttering the line is also acceptable. But how can someone who earns a lot, gets an appraisal of more than 12% (Countries GDP growth is 10%) and has not left a job for a long time utter these words?
"Why don't you leave this job?" I ask to noone in particular.
"One day I will and then these people will understand." when they do leave, no one understands. Instead there is one less stomach to feed at the office party. And they do leave but never change their job, they will simply take a new one at the competitors getting an increase of only 20K in their salary. Rest remains the same.



When we initiated a incubation center in the company, he grabbed me over coffee table.

"So what is this incubation center you were talking about?"

"If you have an idea, you can submit it in the incubation center. If the idea is really marketable, the center will provide you monetary and human resources to work on that idea." I explained, "You own the rights to the project with the company."

"But if I have an Idea why will I give it to you?" he asked, "If I have an idea I will take it and build a company out of it. I will leave this job and work on it."
"You do know that the company won't pay you any salary once you leave this job?" I asked, just food for thought, "And you will need money, resources and time to build on it. Make it marketable and then make it large?"
He looked at me straight. I could see he had not thought of all this.
"So do you have any idea?" I concluded simply.
"Not yet." he announced, "but even if I have I won't tell you. "

An office is filled with many different types of people. Some are people, others are people who do not think some are people. Some believe that the whole world is plotting against them. Others people that the whole world is plotting for them. She thought something otherwise.

"What is your performance rating?" she asked all of the sudden during the lunch time.
"Excuse me?" this is polite way of saying, none of your business.
"What is your performance rating?" she stressed again, not taking any hint, "I have received 2nd bucket. I want to know which bucket you have received?"
"Why?" another polite way of saying, mind your own business.
"Cmon, don't be like that. Tell me know, I want to know. I have worked hard the whole year, even given in extra hours by working late at night. I know you leave office at six, so I want to know how much rating you have got?"
"How can you compare someone who works slow and someone who works very fast?" I shot back. This was a rude way to shut her up. I succeeded.

There is a 80-20 rule in any office space. 80% of work is done by 20% of the office staff and since killing the remaining 80% is illegal, they are assigned with the remaining 20% of the task which they screw up 80% of the time.

Spoke one such 20% to me the other day, "You know what they should do?" he asked, "Send me onsite, give me a big pay package and let me settle in USA. I have heard you do not have to work there?"
I was busy working on something when his words alarmed me, "Didn't you have some work to do?"
"Yes but I am not in the mood." he concluded. As they say, God Save America if he lands there.

Then there are few who love to take credit for your job well done. One such person happened to become my manager (yes mistakes happen by companies). His habit was, he would take a code for review before deployment and add comment under his name over my code. What he didn't know that I knew his thing and didn't really care. But one fine day, I decided to purposely add a big exception in the code. It won't come directly in the open but would definitely come up in testing. Since his name was on top, it would be assigned back to him, leaving him no choice but to keep a straight face and pass on the code to me. Oh the fun.

After all paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind, but what if you have fun along the way?