The year that was

This is the last day of 2008. The end of this day will witness a grand farewell to 2008 and an equally grand welcome to 2009. The past year was a special one, for more than one reason. In every field, new milestones were established. I would like to peek back 365 days and try to relive those moments, just one more time.

The Indo-US Nuclear deal gave tough times to Manmohan Singh

It was the year of twists and turns in the Indian political arena. The Nuclear deal with the US proved to be enough to shake the government at the centre. It caused the long awaited divorce of the Left and the Congress while sparked off a new bubbly affair of 10, Janpath with Mulayam Singh and Amar Singh. The cash-for-vote scam was not only shocking but disturbing. It maligned the image of Indian democracy in front of the entire world community. Raj Thakery and the MNS tried every trick in the book to gain political advantage by causing regional divide in Maharashtra but the unity of Hindustani Manus proved to be too strong for someone like Thakery to destabilize. The recently concluded Jammu & Kashmir elections were a slap on the face of the separatists.

Abhinav Bindra - India's first and the only gold medalist in Olympics

The year was definitely one to remember for all sports fans. It was the year of Olympics and Abhinav Bindra gave all of us which no one else had ever given since time immemorial – the first individual gold. His triumph in the 10m air rifle event was well complemented by two bronze medals by Vijender Kumar in Boxing and Sushil Kumar in Wrestling thus giving India the best ever medals tally. Usain Bolt defied the limits of human sprint by clocking 9.69s in 100m and 19.30s in the 200m creating new world records in both the events. By winning 8 golds in this Olympics, more than many of the countries like Israel, Venezuela, Peru, etc. have won in all the Olympics held so far combined, Michael Phelps not only broke the long standing record of Mark Spitz of the most golds in a one Olympics as well as most golds in Olympic history, but ignited yet another debate of ‘who’s the best sportsman ever’. In the world of motorsports, Vijay Mallaya introduced the world to Indian power and potential by launching Force India – the first ever Formula1 team owned by an Indian. Although Force India failed to finish among the points at the end of the season, the motivation that his team provided to the young drivers like Karan Chandok and others, can not be underrated. The Euro Cup of Football kept all of us glued to our television sets till late nights and with Spain ending their underachievers tag, the Spaniards gave a clear signal to the EPL and other club managers that they are a force to reckon with. Another Spaniard, Rafael Nadal ended the 5 Wimbledon winning streak of Roger Federer and toppled him of the world number 1 ATP rank too, though Federer showed some signs of comeback by winning the US Open towards the end of the year.

Indian heroes destroyed the Aussie might

2008 was the year of Indian cricket. By defeating the mighty Australians at Perth, earlier in the year, the Indian brigade tore the layer of invincibility which was adhered to them since many years. And if this was not enough, the the 2-0 home series win against them left the kangaroos with nothing but remorse. After the Proteas overcame the Australians at Melbourne yesterday, the era of Australian domination in the world of cricket is surely over. The world saw India’s power and dominance on the world of cricket when Lalit Modi kicked off the inaugural season of the IPL which attracted foreign players and sponsors alike. Sachin Tendulkar became the demi-god of cricket after breaking Brian Lara’s record for the most runs in test matches. The year also saw us bidding farewell to two of India’s finest cricketers, Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble from international cricket.

Narrow Escape!

Obama came out victorious after a marathon election process

The restoration of democracy in Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh and the first ever general elections in Bhutan were surely welcome signs for India. The 8 eight year long Bush regime which saw him escaping many verbal and even ‘missile’ attacks is about to end. The long marathon of US presidential elections gave the US  its first black President in its 200+ years of democratic history. Both the crude oil prices and sensex reached all time highs but owing to the US recession towards the later part of the year, both fell to rock bottom. Ill health finally forced Fidel Castro to announce his resignation from the presidency of Cuba. Bill Gates too stepped down as the Chairman of Microsoft to concentrate on his noble endeavours of philanthropy.

Chandrayaan - I

2008 was a year of scientific advancements for the world as well as for India. The Large Hadron Collider was officially inaugurated while ISRO launched Chandrayaan – I to the moon. The announcement of the launch of Bhuvan – India’s answer to Google Earth was yet another feather in the cap of ISRO.

26/11 made us all think about our national security

The soul of Mother India was made to cry several times by terror strikes in Jaipur, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Delhi and then in Mumbai. The Mumbai attacks caused worldwide criticism of India’s intelligence failure and led to the change of leadership in Maharashtra as well as the Indian Home Ministry. The war hysteria created by Pakistan after the Mumbai attacks is yet another point to worry for the Indian leadership.

2009 brings with it new hopes and new challenges. It will witness the Dance of Democracy as general elections to the Lok Sabha will be held somewhere in April-May. India would have to devise new means to fight persisting terror threats from the militant organisations within and outside the country. I wish for world peace and safety for all this new year.

Happy New Year!

We owe our life

The two shows which i watched on National Geographic in the past two days left me awestruck. They showed me a strange irony of nature. The irony of the true identity of an animal which was later solved after pondering over it for sometime.

Yesterday, the program was on one of the deadliest predators of the wild – crocodile. It showed how fiercely the crocodile can attack and kill large animals like a full sized zebra, and even a buffalo. It showed the massive strength that a crocodile possesses. It’s unique body engineering can allow it to exert a stupendous force of more than 2,000 lbs through its jaws without causing any damage to its skull. The strength is well attributed by its intelligence and the ability to hunt its preys even in the most extreme conditions. All these factors along with many more such special qualities have enabled the species of crocodile to survive through 10 crores years of evolution while many of the other animals could not and got extinct. Crocodiles are, thus, well established among the top predators of the animal kingdom.

But today i saw another program which revealed a totally different side of that master carnivore. It was based on the story of a crocodile family. It beautifully showed that how after mating, the father played the role of guarding the nest against possible dangers while the mother ensured that every egg is hatched and each young one learns the nitty-gritties necessary for survival.

Once the eggs hatched, the mother crocodile held each li’l croc one by one in her mouth and, to my surprise, brought the deadly jaws together! I considered it as yet another display of the animal instincts of the crocodile, that for satisfying its hunger, it didn’t even spare its own young ones which she had protected since many months in those delicate eggs. But, it was not the case. The mother had carefully kept at least 10-15 children in her mouth to take them to their new home, in the river nearby! It is beyond the scope of the limits of the art of explanation that how the 15 of the most delicate and tender li’l crocs were in the safest abode on earth inside those deadly jaws which were synonymous to death and carnage just a day ago on the same television screen?! She then carefully took them to the river and taught the young ones swimming by flooding her mouth with water. It was one of the most mesmerizing scenes that i had ever seen on television. It made me wonder, what a crocodile really is, the deadly beast which can tear down any living species on earth to pieces with its powerful jaws or the caring mother which can, most carefully, hold 15 of her children between those very jaws!

On thinking over it, i realised that the irony was not a mystery. The truth for me was personified in the kitchen room, preparing lunch for the family. The truth was – the love of a mother. The motherly love of a crocodile can defy the strength of the jaws of the killer beast. The realisation was yet another proof that a mother, through her love, can challenge every odds in the lives of her offspring. This fact does not need any explanation or detailed analysis by me or any expert of any field. All of us have experienced it in our lives! After all, we owe our lives to our mother.

My Election Manifesto

While going through the pages of the national daily this morning, i came across the news of the Election Commission planning to announce the 2009 General Elections for the Lok Sabha in and around the months of April – May next year. As the election scene in Jammu & Kashmir wrapped up yesterday with another coalition government looking very much evident in the valley, all political parties are now gearing up for the coveted throne in Delhi. The BJP and the whole of NDA would be in revenge mode as they would be looking towards making inflation and terrorism as the main issues in their campaign. The current UPA government is basking under the glory of the successful nuclear deal but the issues of inflation and national security will constantly be haunting the Congress led alliance. I won’t be surprised if Mayawati comes out to be the kingmaker when the largest democracy of the world declares its verdict somewhere in May or June next year.

It's up to us to decide who goes here.

But my point here is that, will the election result be a verdict of the people? We have seen the Election Commission declaring very proudly the figure of some 65 – 70 % voting in most of the general and assembly elections. 65 – 70 % people coming out to cast their vote is mostly, if not always, the maximum turnout in nearly all the elections of our country! On an average, the average voter turnout of all the general elections held so far in independent India is a shocking 59.63%. Here is a link to a table showing the voter turn outs for all the general elections held so far. Is the result of votes by a mere 59% of the country’s adult population, the verdict of the entire country? Definitely, no! More importantly, we all know that who is responsible for this. We, the citizens of India are the biggest culprits for this democratic debacle.

This is the point where every non-voter has a ready answer, “There is no political leader or party that can do any good for this country. Sab chor hain. So there is no point in voting!” I ask them, is not going to vote a solution for your country’s problems, or is your ‘logical reason’ a mere excuse for escaping long queues at the polling booth and thus ‘spoiling’ your holiday which the government has given to you to take a long awaited afternoon nap or checking out the nearest multiplex for a movie or two? The jaagore campaign of a leading tea manufacturer is doing its bit in enabling easy voter registration for us. But the point is, are such campaigns and numerous advertisements by the Election Commission enough for waking up the millions of sleeping Indians who are often seen crediting their lack of interest in politics for their presence at the shopping mall or the multiplex on election day.

Voting is a national duty not merely a fundamental right.

My answer is no. The only resort for ensuring that the large electorate of over a 700 million people turns up at the polling booths on election day is making voting compulsory. Voting in India is a fundamental right of all the citizens of the country above 18 years of age. This very concept has to be understood in a different manner by us. Voting is not only a fundamental right but a national duty of every citizen of the country. But as it is not easy to make people understand this basic fact, there is every reason with the legislature to make voting in India compulsory. It is not that there have not been any attempts for this is the past. In my recent memory, the president of the Uttarakhand BJP, Bachi Singh Rawat moved this bill in the Lok Sabha in the year 2004 but it was rejected by a voice vote. Rajya Sabha MP Jai Prakash Aggarwal also moved the Compulsory Voting Bill in the Upper House in 2006; again with no positive outcome.

India's politicians rely on vote bank politics.

The rejection of Compulsory Voting Bill by our leaders, every time it is moved in the Parliament, points to only one hard fact – our leaders do not want every one of us to vote! Voting by every educated citizen of the country goes against the very principles of the Vote Bank Politics followed by the political parties of our country. These parties know that it is not easy to mould the thoughts and ideas of the educated masses by the dirty politics of regionalism, communalism and false promises, and we very gracefully accept their ways and means of running our country.

Now let me talk some facts. This is a portion of the Compulsory Voting Bill, 2006 moved by MP Jai Prakash Aggarwal.

Any eligible citizen, who fails to cast his vote in any election –

(i) shall be liable to a fine of rupees five hundred; or

(ii) shall be punishable with imprisonment for two days; or

(iii) shall be punishable with forfeiture of his ration card; or

(iv) shall be debarred from contesting any election for a period of ten years from the date of his conviction; or

(v) shall be debarred from allotment of any plot or house in a Central/State Government owned organisation; or

(vi) shall be debarred from taking loan of any kind in all the Central/State Government owned financial institutions; or

(vii)shall be debarred from entitlement to any welfare scheme announced by the Central/State Governments from time to time.

Provided that if such a person is an employee of the Central or the State Government or any public sector undertaking owned by Central/State Government, he shall be punished with—

(a) forfeiture of ten days salary; and

(b) delay in promotion for a period of two years.

There may be many exceptions to these rules, the discussion of the details of which is irrelevant here. Such a system is, in my opinion, very necessary for ensuring that people do come out and exercise their Universal Adult Franchisee. But this is surely not the solution towards a true democracy. True democracy is when people willingly come out to vote on every election day. But the relevance of such a system is that it will play the role of educating the younger generation about the necessity of voting and after a period of time, say 30-40 years, it can subsequently be abolished by a Constitutional Amendment Act.

It’s not that good politicians or good leaders are sent directly from heaven. If the politicians and ministers would know that they have been sent to work by the entire population of the country and not by a mere 50-60 % of the electorate, and this population, the second largest in the world is keeping a strict watch on them, they will work for the people (they will run out of options, isn’t it?).

India is not merely a country where we live. It is our home. It is our duty to make our home shine (i mean truly shine, unlike the farce called ‘India Shining’) among all the other countries of the world. As the punchline of a famous paint manufacturing company goes, Har ghar chupchaap se ye kehta hai, ki andar isme kaun rehta hai (meaning: a home is built by the people who live in), every country too is built and is recognised by the people who live there. We have to be responsible citizens, and for this, the first duty is to vote, whether it’s compulsory or not.

May the government after the 2009 general elections be truly by the people, because then only it can be of the people and more importantly, for the people.

Suggested link: wikipedia

Bhuvan

The other day i was at my grandpa’s place when one of his friends, who had come to visit him, told him about the satellite pictures of Nainital which his grandson had shown him on Google Earth. Being the kind of nostalgic person that my grandpa is, he was quite excited as he had spent the better half of his life in the serene surroundings of Nainital. When i told him that he could see any city, any village, any place of the entire earth on the 15 inch screen of my Dell, his excitement turned to fascination! The laptop was not with me at that time and i decided to postpone this programme to some other day.

Considering the pitiable speeds and comparatively high charges of Reliance Data Card, my internet connection solution, i had never explored Google Earth personally before. On exploring it and after streaming it for about 15 minutes, i was greeted by low resolution images of my place – Haldwani. Being the patient person that i am, i successfully identified the town’s sports stadium but on zooming closer, i realised that my newly established colony was nothing more than forest land on the map! Then i realised that Google Earth’s low resolution images of Indian towns and the outdated pictures were definitely not an answer to my grandpa’s nostalgia. He, along with many more Indians, deserved something better, something which everyone of us can call our own.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man. The ‘man’ in this case is no one else but ISRO – the Indian Space Research Oragnisation. After the successful launch of Chandrayaan-I, the Space Applications Centre of ISRO has made India and all the Indians proud with the announce of India’s indigenous answer to Google Earth – aptly named Bhuvan.

Bhuvan which means ‘earth’ in Sanskrit will be capable of streaming Indian towns and cities upto a resolution of 10m or even less per pixel which is staggering considering Google Earth’s resolution of about 200m (for Indian cities). Another key feature of Bhuvan is that it would be updated with new pictures every year which is again significantly better as compared to Google Earth which updates its pictures in about 3-4 years. More than anything else, Bhuvan would be using the services of Indian satellites and will be designed to concentrate mainly on the Indian subcontinent. This fact removes every doubt from my mind that Bhuvan will not give me and my grandpa, and millions of other Indians, the nostalgic satisfaction that Google Earth fails to deliver. Bhuvan is expected to be launched by March next year.

But like every other gift of scientific advancement, Bhuvan will have its set of possible misuses. The lone gunman caught alive, involved in the Mumbai terrorist attacks, Ajmal Kasab has openly admitted to have the used the assistance of Google Earth to become familiar with the area where he and the other demons were supposed to attack. If opened for free public use, there is every possibility that Bhuvan can also be used for similar purposes. ISRO would have to consult the government of India and the usage of Bhuvan could then be restricted to only the authorized people. One vague, but possible solution for this can be to restrict Bhuvan only to the users having an authentic username and password. This username and password can be provided to users by the government after a thorough identity check which can be done at different Bhuvan outlets set up in various parts of the country. To meet the paltry budget of ISRO and the expenditure of this infrastructure setup, the users can also be nominally charged on an yearly basis. More on such a system can be discussed in the comments section.

Bhuvan surely tops my list of most eagerly awaited software innovations of 2009. What’s your say?

Oil Turmoil

The news of the constantly dipping oil prices in the international market is definitely one to ponder about. Hence, i decided to dedicate this blog to this very situation. The oil prices which had crossed a staggering $100 per barrel and were maintained at that level till September this year, are now at a shocking $38 per barrel! The importance and the impact of oil in today’s world is known to one and all. To be true, dearth of oil can bring any nation, howsoever powerful it may be, to a total standstill. This cold reality brings shivers down my spine and it’s high time all of us realise the gravity of this statement. The international oil prices are controlled and regulated by a selected group of oil rich countries better known as the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Should the prices of a commodity as important as oil be controlled by only a selected group of countries? I completely disagree with this current world order on oil.

Oil holds the unique distinction of forcing the world witness two wars in the past decade and if the current state of affairs in the gulf region continues, i won’t be surprised if we see another one in the near future. One need not specially mention the chief culprit for the current scenario. The country which can be called as ‘addcited to oil’ (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1024181/, http://tinyurl.com/yz9arf) on the present day is definitely the United States of America. As compared to many of the European and even Asian countries, the US has not taken enough measures to promote green technologies in its industries and other establishments. Thus, the dependence on oil of the US has not gone down even on this day when the entire world is looking for green alternatives for fulfilling the energy needs. The two Gulf Wars and the present confrontation of the US with Iran are a direct consequence of such irresponsible policies of the US. The current leadership of US, which is now counting its last few days in power, will go to any extent to get a hold of world’s oil reserves. I pray that the Obama administration does not stick to these policies of the government else the world we are living in would no longer be a safe place to be in. I say this with firm confidence keeping in view the US government’s stand on oil for the past many decades and the military might which can be a means of complete destruction to this world. To make the situation even worse, we have the bankers of the US Federal Reserve who, for the fulfillment of their vested interests, have always supported every cause of war for the US. None of us have forgotten Vietnam, have we?

Another very important point is that the stringent policies of the US for getting oil causes great unrest in many of the oil producing Islamic countries. One of the direct consequence of this is global terrorism which is a menace for every country in any kind of association with the US and India is no exception to this. None of us can ignore the impact that something like the 1973 oil crisis (wikipedia) will have in the present world. The oil embargo against the US and Western Europe that was imposed in 1973 by the Arab countries may not get similar response today that it got three decades ago.

I propose that irrespective of the countries producing crude oil, the oil prices should be regulated by a special committee of the United Nations. This committee should consist of representatives of the different member countries of the UN, nominated by the respective Petroleum Ministries of the countries. The membership would have to follow yearly rotation policy with 5-6 countries operating at one time. Surely, imposing such a system won’t be a cakewalk for the UN and would face strict opposition by the OPEC but with the support of countries like the US, China, Australia, India, Brazil, the whole of Europe, the entire south-east Asia and Africa, there is little doubt in my mind that it can not become a reality.

Comments and furthur suggestions are invited; they are important!

OSScamp Pantnagar

It was just another day when Sumit (http://twitter.com/sumitsati/), who had just returned from Delhi from an event on Open Source in the month of September, 2008, told me about the two days he spent there. The event was an Open Source Software Camp in the premises of IIT Delhi. Both of us were on a rickshaw on our way to the Badi market when he first introduced me to the concept of Unconferences (wikipedia). For me, it was an instant hit! I instantly loved the idea. We had just reached about half way when he told me about his meeting with Kinshuk (http://www.kinshuksunil.com/) and the proposal of having such a camp in our college – College of Technology, Pantnagar (http://www.gbpuat-tech.ac.in/)! Working for the Engineering & Technology Society of the college for the past 2½ years had given me enough experiences to understand that whatever he was saying was not going to ba a cakewalk considering the administrative hurdles and formalities in the government university. Initially i was very skeptical about the feasibility of the camp at Pantnagar but the idea constantly fascinated me.

For me, this fascination towards Open Source softwares and technologies began last year when the Campus Ambassador of Sun Microsystems in our college, Narendra Pant sir held workshops and introduced us to Linux and other Open Source technologies. Open Source philosophy particularly inspired me and especially after watching the documentary movie Revolution OS (http://www.revolution-os.com/), i knew that Open Source softwares are definitely a big thumbs up from my side!

The process of clearing the administrative hurdles began in the Department of Computer Engineering. We had a meeting with our Head of Department and told him about the camp and our plans. Having an orthodox professor’s mindset, making him understand the concept of unconferences was a tedious task but once we took him in our confidence, he extended every bit of support to us. Working for the camp in Pantnagar included writing numerous applications, designing proposals (I say proposal’s’ as to satisfy every administrative ego, the same proposal had to be edited and redesigned three times!) for the Dean and the Vice Chancellor, listening to ‘un’necessary advices and what not!. During the course of this work, the Open Source Camp at Pantnagar became OSScamp Pantnagar (unpunctuated and with the lowercase ‘c’!!!). Visits to the HOD became an everyday routine. There were occasional meetings with the Dean too where we were aptly supported by our HOD.

There was yet another problem. The first and second year students of the college were not very much aware about the Open Source philosophy and technologies. With the special permission from the Dean, we, under the banner of OSUG, Pantnagar (Open Source User Group, Pantnagar, http://groups.google.com/group/sunclub-pantnagar/), held classes for the students every day in the evening. Taking and attending these classes was a surely a big learning experience. The attendance of students was overwhelming and many days we had to face the problem of lack of chairs and space in the class rooms (was surely a matter of envy for the department professors!). The members in the newly formed Google Group http://groups.google.com/group/osscamp-pantnagar/ increased and so did their posts. The entire working team and all the students were now eagerly waiting for the official permission to come our way.

One fine day i got to know about Ruby FunDay at Delhi and i, along with Sumit, Manish (http://twitter.com/graphicmist/) and Diwanshu (http://twitter.com/diwanshu/), went to attend it. Kinshuk accompnied us on our return trip and stayed with us for two days at Pantnagar discussing plans for the OSScamp. It was the end of November and the administrative hurdles were not yet cleared. Once Kinshuk left, we left no stone unturned in fulfilling our promise to him of getting the administrative nod by the end of the month. December dawned and so did out semester final examinations. We had our first exam in a couple of days when a phone call to Sumit jubiliated us all! We had got the written and signed permission from the Vice Chancellor! It was a moment to rejoice and we surely did enjoy it! Very soon we got http://pantnagar.osscamp.in/ and today it is busy with new sign-ups everyday.

The dream called OSScamp Pantnagar is now a reality. This reality will unveil itself on 31^st January – 1^st February, 2009 in the Department of Computer Engineering, College of Technology, Pantnagar.

OSScamp Pantnagar has been a long and interesting journey for me and all my fellow contributors in and out of Pantnagar. Now it’s time for all of us to bask in the glory.

Welcome to OSScamp Pantnagar!

Sign up for the camp at – http://pantnagar.osscamp.in/

Join the group – http://groups.google.com/group/osscamp-pantnagar/

The college – http://www.gbpuat-tech.ac.in/

Merry Christmas

On this very auspicious occasion, i wish Merry Christmas to all the readers. 25^th of December is wordwide celebrated as Christmas – the birthday of Jesus, the son of God. Billions of people around the world eagerly wait for this day and as i write, are celebrating the holy day – the birth of Jesus Christ. But before i proceed with my blog, let me throw some light on the life and name of the divine person referenced above – Jesus Christ.

As the legend in the New Testament goes, Jesus was a shepherd who was born of a virgin, the Virgin Mary, in Bethlehem on 25^th of December. He had 12 disciples with whom he went about to different places delivering sermons, leading people to right paths in their lives and performing miracles. He was later crucified to death. After three days he resurrected and went to heaven.

So where does ‘Christ’ fit in here? Christ, meaning the anointed one (origin: Greek Khristos), is actually just a title which was given to Jesus as a mark of respect for his miraculous deeds. In the time period around 1 AD, the assumed life period of Jesus, there are historical records of about 20-25 contemporary historians like Aulus Perseus (60 AD), Livy (59 BC – 17 AD), Pliny the Elder (23 AD – 69 AD), Plutarch (46 AD – 119 AD), Valerius Flaccus (1^st Century AD), among others. In their writings, we all expect to get a detailed historical account of Jesus’ life and works. But quite shockingly, not even a single one of them mentions any historical figure like Jesus living around at that time!

There are more than thousands of evidences which prove that not only the life of Jesus but the entire Christian religion originated and is totally based on political ambitions of some of the power hungry people in Europe who gave this world the establishments like the Church and a forged historical account like the Bible which do every bit to ensure people trap themselves in the shackles of religious slavery. According to Thomas Paine (1737-1809), “The Christian religion is a parody on the worship of the sun, in which they put a man called Christ in the place of the sun, and pay him the adoration actually paid to the sun.”

I am not being religiously prejudiced. In fact, every religion of the world and the associated customs, whether in Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, you name it; are nothing more than a means of ensuring political domination by a certain sect of people who know that what they ‘preach’ is nothing more than a farce. A famous saying goes thus, “Religion can never reform mankind, because religion is slavery.” I do not condemn any saying or preaching of Christianity or any other religion. I am just trying to be rational as i support the idea of getting moral liberation through religious beliefs and practices, and not get forced or indulge in religious slavery. I reiterate, i believe that all religious sayings and customs are correct and true, only when they do not force people into religious slavery.

I also do not condemn celebrating December the 25^th as Christmas Day. Christmas is the day to celebrate the life of Christ – the anointed one, not necessarily the life of a mythical figure called Jesus! We need to celebrate Christmas as the life of the person who made a true impact on the lives of each and every one of us, born on this very date – Sir Isaac Newton.

Sir Isaac Newton, or Newton as we love to call him, was born in the year 1642^* on December the 25^th. One need not be a rocket scientist to know the impact of Newton’s life on this world. No one was particularly surprised when the History Channel named Newton as the second most influential person of the past millenium after Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of the printing press. The works of Newton in the varied fields of Mechanics, Mathematics, Optics and even Alchemy helped in solving many of the mysteries of life. The ongoing works in the fields of astronomy and space exploration are a gift of Newton’s genius to this world. There is no doubt in my mind that Newton was the real ‘anointed one’, the real Christ, not Jesus.

So let’s celebrate Christmas. Let’s celebrate the life of Christ – the anointed one………….. the anointed one that is Newton!

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Note: I sincerely apologise for hurting the religious feelings of the reader but on pondering for long on the topic, i realised that this is what the truth is. Merry Christmas!

All feelings expressed are my own. Quotations and historical evidences referenced from the Part I: The Greatest Story Ever Told of the documentary movie Zeitgeist (http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1166827/, wikipedia).

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^*According to the Julian calender, put in place by Julius Caesar in 45 BC, Newton was born on December 25, 1642. But according to the Gregorian Calender, the one in use today, his birth date is roughly around January 4, 1643.

The Simple Word – ‘Friend’

As promised, here’s my blog on ‘friend’. The intent of writing this blog came while writing the previous blog on Masking. This is one topic on which i ponder the most and have spoken on and written about in the past too and i am sure writing on it will surely be great fun for me. So where shall i began… well i’ll begin from a very old and famous saying on friend – “A friend in need is a friend indeed”. There is no doubt on the validity and relevance of this saying but i have certain reservations and many points to add on to this definition.

There may be numerous instances in life when we are in dire need of something or some help. If there is a person in our life, whom we consider our friend, and because of one reason or the other s/he is unable to help us in that moment of ‘need’, does that eliminate him/her from being called our friend? In my life, it doesn’t.

Few years back, i got to see a poster bearing a very small and simple definition of friend – “A friend is a person with whom you dare to be yourself”. This definition was one of the many definitions of friend which had i read and heard but after a lot of thought process, i realised that this one was definitely special and had a deep impact on my mind. This definition links directly to the phenomenon of masking. I may even say, “A friend is a person with whom you need not wear any masks.” It is also often said that a friend is the only relation which one gets to choose by himself/herself. This saying too complements the definition on the poster as only we can decide that with whom we need a mask and with whom we don’t. This is nothing else but the comfort level that we feel while we are with that person.

A friend need not be someone with whom we study in our class, work with in office, play with in our neighbourhood, et cetera. Even one’s father, mother, boss, junior, employee, or anyone else can be one’s friend. A friend in life is definitely the most prized possession and being someone’s friend is nothing short of an achievement. With only a friend can we share our life – our moments of happiness, of sorrow, our confessions, our affairs, our anger, our laughter, our tears, and what not…. everything… and when i say everything, i MEAN everything. We can act to be ourself with many people but the key word in the definition is dare. While acting, we are always cautious and take every care not to commit any mistake in revealing our inner self but while with a friend, we need not be cautious and can dare be what we truly are! Just think about it and you’ll get to know your friends.

We have made living something as simple as life very complex and this is the reason that a simple word, a simple relation like friend is becoming so difficult to understand and comprehend. Hence, some literary great had to give this famous saying. “If you find one friend in life, you have found a gem. If you find two, you have found a treasure. If you find three………… sorry, you can’t find three!” In this highly manipulating and masked world, this saying holds relevance more than ever. I reiterate, its very simple – “A friend is a person with whom you dare to be yourself”. If you agree, try to apply it in your life like i do. I’m sure it’ll help.

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Dedicated to: My friend.

Masking

We all love watching wonderful graphic designs spread all around us – on the web, on different posters and advertising banners, on greeting cards, and where not? We owe it to the great designers who toil hard to make our digital world beautiful. One of the key tools that these designers use is masking. Masking is essentially just another way of making a selection.^[1] The fields of masking and vector masking have varied applications that help the designers in bringing out the very best in their creativity.

But the term masking is not limited just to the designing world. Masking has got applications in the lives of each one of us. Living through the course of life, we all learn the ways to very cleverly mask the traits of our personality in different ways depending upon the place and situation we are in, lest we commit a faux pas. Two major masks which everyone of us carry with us are the ones which govern our behaviour as a part of a mob and as an individual. Apart from these two, each one of us carry different set of masks just like different designers use different masking techniques to make their creations look the way they want them to. We mask our traits which we carry with our friends^[2] at out home and vice versa. Carrying a single mask while with friends doesn’t always help either. Depending on the people we are with, we need varied masks. The most stringent and necessary masks are needed with some special people, on some special occasions. I can’t imagine myself without any masks in front of my boss or even my girlfriend (if i ever get any!) on my first date. As i talk of boss, the irony is that even more characterized masks are needed while in front of one’s juniors! The types and uses of such social masks are endless.

Being a socially successful person is nothing else but a measure of one’s capabilities in masking. The master of masking is always the one with the biggest social circle. As a school child, i read many moral stories and poems concerning social masking and almost all of them condemned the practice. They asked and taught the readers to ‘be what they are’ with everyone as it is always beneficial in the long run. But today i ask all those authors a question, among all the people we meet daily, with how many do we have a long term association that we need to care about the ‘benefits in the long run’? Ours is a fast changing world and most of the association have with people are essentially short term and this is where masking comes in handy and allows us to present a better social behaviour. I may sound a bit radical but what i am writing is what practicality is.

There’s only one class of people with whom we can think of living without caring about masking. That class is of our friends. This ‘friends’ out here is totally different from the one mentioned in the second paragraph. More on ‘friends’ in my next blog. Till then, happy masking to one and all!

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^[1] Definition of masking referenced from ‘Photoshop CS2 – All in One Desk Reference for Dummies’ by Barbara Obermeier.

^[2] More on the term ‘friends’ in my next blog.

Open Source Examinations

Everyone of us has heard of Science Fiction. We all have read and have been fascinated by some of the thought provoking science fiction writings. This is my first blog and i too want to devote it to fiction; not science fiction but ‘Exam Fiction’!

During the course of my recently concluded semester final exams, i constantly wondered what a wonderful scenario it would be for all of us examinees, if the schools and universities adopt an Open Source ideology in conducting the examinations! Presently, the examination system is much more like the proprietary software market where the end user (the student) gets only the final product (dreaded question paper) without getting the source code (the text book, from where s/he can get most of the solutions too!). Just like most of the products of the closed source world, the intellect behind the question paper is not original, and is often just a copy-paste from some other source. The community support (hope you understand the analogy in the examination context by now!) in this system is also very limited and is very very restricted! There is another big problem. If the end user intends to get the product before its scheduled launch date (the date of the exam), s/he has to rely on pirating the product through numerous modes of cracking available (all of us have experienced taking leaked papers at some point of time, isn’t it?). Thus, all the complications of the proprietary software market are directly inherited by our current examination system.

Now let’s consider the conduction of exams in the manner which i love – the Open Source way! For convenience, i consider the product (the exam paper of course!) released only under the GPL. In such a system, the end user (the student) would get the source code (text book) bundled with the final product (question paper)! More significantly, the student would get the freedoms entrusted upon the Open Source products – the freedom to modify the product according to his/her needs and then redistribute it! Imagine what an impact such a system would make! We would have the liberty of modifying the questions of the paper according to our level of preparation and interest! What more, we can even redistribute the modified paper to our friends for their use and of course, they can then modify it as per their needs! Even then, there will be no lack of community support for anyone taking the examination. This system will revolutionize the examination system for the examinees just like the Open Source philosophy has done to the software world.

So all you examinees, come on and propagate this idea. I can gurantee, taking exams in such a system will be real fun!