Random Notes, Raves, Rants
The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools. --Thucydides, (c. 460 BC - c. 400 BC)
Justice
I saw a couple of courts recently. One of the things I've realized is that the "system" is a huge tangle that is a patience-eater. The longer these cases take, the more such cases are registered. The situation is such that in some instances the cases are filed to purely harass others with the expected delay.
This brings me to the point that this is India. India is a powerhouse of global process outsourcing. How is that with all this expertise in this country, a simple solution to expedite issues has still not been found? I really do not have any answers, but as more and more young men enter the government services, one can hope to see more ideas and reform coming in. Change is already beginning to happen.
What is now required is parallel entry into the services where the government is willing to absorb the industry's best brains with the experience of handling global problems and issues. A lot of us would have liked to volunteer, but right now, I assume there really is no way to do that.
The insights that such a move might bring could be drastic. Our incremental pace of change a.k.a the "hindu rate of growth" could end up going ballistic.
Back to the "system". There is always hope. I see queues, I feel like doing something to help. But I also understand that there are a lot of people who need these queues to survive.
Update (march 7th): In perspective, this article on what is holding India back in The Economist is a nice read.
--Shaji K V, February 29, 2008
Plastic-k
It was the annual Attukal Pongala day today in Trivandrum. 40 lakh, (4 million for you Americans), people participated in a ritual that's awe inspiring in the scale of its devotion. Trivandrum was jammed, doors were open to anyone, and the event went off peacefully. Exhale to that!
However, what makes it even more noteworthy is the temple's emphasis on not using plastic. I wish more temples and religious institutions went ahead and made Plastic "ungodly" and an "impurity." It would solve so many problems with regard to our attitude to the plastic problem that's choking the planet. We are casually killing Earth. Gaia weeps.
--Shaji K V, February 22, 2008
God's own country...
Welcome to God's own country, well thats about it in english. For a state that claims to be a tourist hotspot, the sad state of tourism support is just a little too harsh. The state seems to believe that foreigners can read Malayalam boards everywhere. Transport buses everywhere, but all Malayalam boards.
Kerala has a lot to learn, especially from neighboring states. I wonder what or who makes policy for Kerala, almost all of the things in Kerala are like chairs with a leg missing. For appearances sake it works, but not useful at all.
It's truly sad when an educated state doesn't have the will for common sense.
--Shaji K V, February 1, 2008
Wake-up call for Kerala University
This is another admission year for a lot of students. For some of us, understanding how the Kerala University works is an exercise in futility. Stop funds from flowing into this institution! The Kerala University has informed me that it does not recognize standardized university BA Honours degrees from Delhi University. What kind of madness is that? The onus, Kerala University believes, is upon the student to prove that the course is valid. The universities in question seem to see no wrong in playing around with student's academic careers.
You write your exams, pay your fees, pass the exams, and then you run around getting your degree recognized? How does that seem logical? Where do these policy makers sit? In an age of communication, how long would it take them to verify the validity of a degree course? For the clerks who staff these universities at all levels, there is nothing they can do other than gawk.
Government inefficiency is reaching a point where people have no recourse but the law. How many people take that recourse?
--Shaji K V, July 11
Wikipedia issues.
Over the last month we received mails that pointed out that the Ezhava entry in the Wikipedia is being vandalized. We understand that the Wikipedia is a collaboratively edited encyclopedia and that vandals can repeatedly create trouble. We need to understand that this is the nature of the wiki medium.
It is also the nature of small minds to attack, quarrel, and raise a din. The best response is silence, calm, a devotion to your ideals and the chosen fight. Above all, think.
Also remember, most differences lose their meaning in the light of new research that show that we are all of the same stock. In the image below, we are the blue lines.
--Shaji K V -- June 30, 2007