The best advice to avoid work

...is given by Wally, of course. (courtesy: Dilbert)

Happy Children's Day!

The adults know it is Children's Day because they celebrate it. But this child apparently doesn't know that and is probably feeling insecure being in an odd place (Rashtrapati Bhavan), with odd company (President Patil) and hundreds of cameras flashing light at him. Whoever brought this kid here...

Tricolor on Moon: Not guilty your honor!

The proud moment has finally arrived. The Chandrayaan landed its passenger, the Moon Impact Probe (MIP) on the lunar surface on 14th November. India is now one of only four countries to achieve this feat. This is such a moment that makes one feel proud of his / her identity, i.e., being Indian. It also lets us forget all the crap that goes on in everyday life. As expected, lots of voices have been raised in the west whether India could afford such a costly program. They have been answered by the ISRO (as they are directly accountable) and by common Indians whenever they faced such queries on internet forums. Personally, I feel it would be better to ignore such questions as we are well aware of the pros and cons of such missions and we need not justify them to others.

The MIP took the following pictures of the Moon on its way -





The MIP: It was a very hard landing for the MIP as it cruised at over 1.7 km/sec. to make a touchdown on the lunar surface at 8:31 PM IST. The ISRO never made a secret that the MIP would have to crash land if the mission was to be considered 'successful'. They also painted all the sides of the box-shaped MIP with the tricolor to signify India's arrival there. Now the legal question is did the ISRO disrespect the national flag? They knew that the lander would be destroyed on impact on the moon. With it, the national flag too, probably. The code of conduct (linked to a PDF) for the national flag lays out several rules of what constitutes respect and what doesn't. What constitutes disrespect is, however, still not clear. Celebrities have been harassed by media due to different interpretations. Sania Mirza faced wrath for putting her leg near the flag. This was considered an offense. A week after almost every Independence Day celebrations, all the paper flags that are put on street corners go down the drain and nobody bothers. Not even the people who felt offended by Sania Mirza's casual attitude. Coming back to ISRO. Have they disrespected the national flag? Don't know. Can a case be filed against them? Nope. Indian courts have no jurisdiction over the moon. Any case, the ISRO says the tricolor is intact. Phew, what a relief!

BSE's address seems to have changed!

Chandrayaan's first picture

Chandrayaan has sent its first picture back. It is that of the earth taken at a distance of 9,000 km.

Dogbert mocks Indian accent

Is it South Indian or Bengali?? Either one, it's funny.

The importance of punctuation marks

What's in a name? A lot. Particularly if the punctuation marks aren't placed properly or not placed at all. e.g., A company by the name Anu's Laboratories came up with an IPO recently. Whenever this name was flashed, it elicited an awkward response. Why? Coz they would write Anus Laboratories for that company's name. That even includes some major newspapers and TV channels including Reuters (only a slight mention though in Top 3 by volume). It was only at the time of listing that I discovered it was Anu's Labs and not A*** Labs.

Breaking news: Journalism reaches heights!!

Breaking News #1: Amitabh Bachchan catches cold




Breaking News # 2: Commissioner's dog missing since 25th March



Breaking News #3: Delhi: Commissioner's lost dog is found



Breaking News #4: A cat climbs on the roof-top


Breaking News #5: Rahul (Gandhi) eats Dal-Puri for lunch

President's affection: All for the camera!

Image location: here

Gujjar Protests: Fight for the bottom of the pyramid

There's no denying that we (as a country) have had a history of discrimination. The rigid Hindu caste system had oppressed a few sections of the society. This was, no doubt, an extremely bad thing to have happened for social harmony. After gaining independence, the Indian constitution, drafted by a person from one of those oppressed sections, Dr. BR Ambedkar, recommended reservations for them but ONLY for a period of 10 years. This would help them to join the mainstream. He probably knew the repercussion (as we see now) if the time limit was not set. After his death, the subsequent governments, instead of taking stock of their progress, kept extending the period. Not just that, the vote-minded politicians even extended the scope of reservations by including all and sundry in the OBCs. Now, the whole country seemed to be backward. What next? Reservations in world jobs since 1/6th of humanity is backward, so 1/6th of the world's jobs should rightfully belong to us. Isn't it? Well, the world doesn't elect our politicians, so these guys haven't demanded it yet.

60 years on, people still feel it is a birth right to get reservation. What is worse is holding the rest of the country to ransom while doing so, like the gujjars did. They were demanding for inclusion of their community in the ST (scheduled tribe) list so that their are entitled to a different reservation. It is not that they are backward and denied reservation. Whether they are backward is debatable, the reservation part is not as they are already covered under the OBCs (other backward classes). Now they want to be moved to a different list as they feel the OBCs list has become extremely 'crowded' and getting jobs even there is difficult. Hence, the demand for inclusion in a list that is lower down the order and the protests to press for it. Now you know, what the unreserved or the 'general' category feels. Anyway, by doing so, they encourage discrimination of themselves and cry foul when others do that to them. The gujjar agitation is the scheme of things to come in the future. People will be willing to die for such things, but won't believe in such simple things as hard word. Hard work? What's that?