Oshanto Mon

Buying an apartment: My experience

2011-08-01T08:21:00.004+05:30

The first question is whether to buy or rent. There is a mature rent vs buy debate out there and I respect all the points for and against. I still went for a 'buy' decision because of an emotional reason. It is not easy to change a house like one changes a fridge/washing machine. I tend to develop emotional 'roots' in a house, in the shops/vendors/restaurants/libraries around the house, in the sunrise I get to see from my bedroom balcony, etcetra etcetra. Changing a house due to landlord's diktat (even when I have no need to shift) is painful.

Once I decided to buy, I bought my apartment when it was nothing more than hole in the ground. From that point till I got possession has been a tale of pain, humiliation, despair, depression. I finally got my apartment but I never look forward to buying a property ever again in future(if I can help it).
Since then, I have suggested everybody to buy only ready-to-move-in properties, be it from builder or from earlier buyer. There are some learnings which I want to share.

Pros of buying ready-to-move-in property:

In Bangalore, there is a saying: "Whole of bangalore is disputed territory". This adage can safely be extended to any Indian city. One never knows when a piece of land is declared illegal or disputed. One never knows when an ad comes up in newspapers cautioning hapless customers about the disputed nature of the property and hence stalling the construction. The name/reputation/size of the builder is immaterial here. However, when you are buying a ready-to-move-in property, you are sure that most of legal disputes are already sorted out.

There is an argument that in a ready-to-move-in property you miss out on the opportunity of doing civil alteration. This argument is a weak one.
All the civil alterations (like extra-loft/cement-shelves) I did turned out to be unnecessary. The builder and architects generally do a good job in designing the floor-plan and structures. An amateurish intervention (like I did) in a well thought out plan brings forth unforeseen chaos.
For example, I asked for a loft. It gave me storage but made a critical bulb-point useless. I could have used lot of innovative furnitures to make extra storage. There is no dearth of furniture shops with innovative designs.
Another alteration I requested was for cement shelves. I thought I will save on cupboard costs. After I got possession, I found out so many affordable and beautiful readymade almirahs. However, I had to give them a pass as my cement-made-shelves came in the way. I had to buy a suboptimal furniture which fits my cement shelves. I am now seriously thinking of bringing down those cement structures which were put up on my request (and money) in the first place.
Long story short, civil-alterations/electrical-point-alterations in an under construction property sounds exciting but is actually not for amateurs like me.

In a ready-to-move-in-property, what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG). Never underestimate the power of WYSIWYG. In my apartment complex, there are flats whose main balcony is ruined because of a super-structure which possibly strengthens and beautifies the overall building look. The building does look good but I feel for the poor souls whose main balcony projects into the super-structure. There is no way, the affected flats could have figured this out when they were buying holes in ground. Nor is builder at fault because he never explicitly promised about anything which lies outside a flat. The problem is again our amateurishness. We look at the hole in ground, we look at the colourful brochure, we look at one model flat and we think we know how our flat will look. That is not true. An experienced construction professional may surmise the final appearance from drawings but not amateur buyers. This problem does not arise in case of ready to move in property.

Cons:

One pain of buying ready-to-move-in-property is the legal/paperwork. There is an established infrastructure for buying under-construction property. However, for buying ready-to-move-in property, there are additional apprehensions of getting duped. There is fear of buying a property which has already been sold to N-customers earlier. If reliable broker/lawyer-services can be found who help in buying ready-to-move-in properties, that will be great.

Exchange-listing, Free-markets and Ajit-Dayal

2010-12-31T10:04:00.003+05:30

This post is in response to a blog (called Honest Truth) by one of my favourite bloggers - Ajit Dayal. He has commented about dangers of stock-exchange listing. I am unable to give the link to Ajit's blog because of some copyright issues. Google it and you shall find. Here goes my response:

Is the Ashok Desai in your blog the same Ashok Desai of 'Price of Onions' fame? I am a layman without any economics background. I remember reading 'Price of Onions' and nodding my head in agreement with most of the conclusions and illustrations. So if that same Ashok Desai is expressing a view, I will rather read it in his own words before agreeing with the opposing opinion (i.e. yours).

I agree and disagree with your post.

First the agreement part. I believe that stock-exchange is like police. Free competition and profit maximization should not be applicable for police. Monopoly of violence should reside with one agency and it needs to be regulated. Otherwise, only rich will be able to afford police and police will become mercenary. Same for stock-exchange. It needs to have regulation. I fully agree with you on that.

Now to disagreements. I do not know what happened behind the scenes, but I do know that private telecom companies come to my doorstep, pester me, plead with me to take a connection. I really get to choose. When there are complaints, I can call up customer care, yell at them and get the problem fixed (albeit in 15 days, rather than the 48 hours they promise). Contrast this with what used to happen earlier with government phones. Or for that mattter what happens today with BSNL connection. No Mr. Dayal, I still believe privatization and profit-making and multiple-players were good for telecom-customer.
On the airlines reference, I disagree again. You get those exorbitant prices only for the bookings made on the day or day before. People like me who plan air-travel 2-3 months beforehand, still get the cheap prices. Regarding service and on-board facility, I am ready to pay 10-15% premium for travelling a route through private airlines rather than air-india.
Your reference to SBI and ICICI was again irrelevant. Yes, I keep my money with SBI for security concerns. However, this sense of security does not come because of any belief in SBI being better regulated. SBI is not better regulated. I do not believe that SBI has better mechanisms and better people than ICICI. I kept money with SBI because I know that government will bail out SBI in case of crisis. This bailing out of SBI/LIC is not healthy but it is precisely this unhealthy assurance which makes me keep money in SBI. I am not very proud of this, but such is life.

Bottomline, I agree with your main assertion that exchanges should not be listed. I do NOT agree with many other points you mentioned in your blog. I would rather read a blog/article by Ashok Desai on the same topic before making my mind. I will not send the email to SEBI right now. I also hope that SEBI looks at the logic rather than #-of-emails they receive. Even if Mr. Ajit Dayal's is the only mail against listing of exchanges, it should win over crores of opposing emails on the strength of logic and not numbers.

Manmohan-Singh, Corruption and Atanu-Dey

2010-07-01T10:45:00.003+05:30

Atanu Dey is my favourite blogger. His skill, brilliance and anger makes a heady concoction which I drink heartily from. His logic is irrefutable. On some issues, I disagree with him. This blog is about one such issue:- "Manmohan Singh (MMS) and corruption"
MMS presides over an alliance which has bunch of corruption charges against it. MMS government handles issues of national importance like cut-motion-against-price-rise and nuclear-deal by negotiating with MPs/MLAs of questionable morality. Follow Atanu Dey for more on this issue, where he has explained it more logically, more factually and with much more flair.
I respect MMS for his guarded-talk. I believe that MMS with the help of Narasimha Rao ushered in liberalization (I give more credit to Rao though). In this post, however, I am explaining why I do not hold MMS in contempt in spite of everything said above. I do believe that all the corruption charges are true but still MMS stands redeemed in my eyes. Here's why:
Manmohan Singh(MMS) is not the source of corruption that plagues India.
Corruption happens when we pay half the ticket-price to bus conductor and ask him not to issue the ticket. Corruption happens when we happily enjoy a discount from the furniture-stores by foregoing the receipt. Corruption happens due to our unethical greed and lax system.
Unethical greed is universal to our species. MMS cannot control that. However, MMS, being the prime minister, is in a position to change the system. Atanu believes MMS is not doing anything to change the system. I am not so sure. Right To Information was introduced under MMS. That was a significant move.
Why is MMS not doing more? I believe nobody, not me, not you, not even the prime minister, can move very fast against corruption as corruption is deeply entrenched within India. Dictatorship would have helped but it has its own risks. We all have to live in this filth of corruption, engage with it where unavoidable and desist from it wherever it lies within our power. Should MMS have resigned instead of compromising with people in power? Or should MMS continue IN the system in order to change it? I am not sure which is the right option. I am not sure what I would have done if I was in MMS’ position.

Enough said.

Sania Mirza, M.F.Husain and Ajmal Kasab

2010-06-23T09:02:00.003+05:30

This post is a response to this blog-post. My repeated attempts to post the following in comments section failed. Hence I am posting it here at oshantomon. Here goes:

I could not agree with your viewpoint on any of the three things you mentioned.
I also rub my hands with glee since this post of yours gives me an opportunity to pen my cliched thougths and do blog-whoring too.

Sania Mirza: I would have liked a world where Arabian Sea on our west extended further north till Afghanistan. In other words, a world without Pakistan. Since that is not to be, the only other good option is peace. If events like Sania can create even an iota of one-voice, I welcome it.

M.F.Husain: Husain did not show his paintings to me. So he was in no position to offend me. He let me down though. I believe in freedom-of-expression. Husain let me down by running away. He should have fought the court-cases in India. His money and fame would have ensured a constant media coveage and that would have served the cause of freedom-of-expression greatly. He would have been slightly inconvenienced but his money could take it. I do not believe Husain was under any serious-tangible threats from fundamentalists.
More of my thoughts on this topic and freedom of expression here, here, here, here and here.

Kasab: We could have killed him the very next day. We CHOSE not to do so.
Will it create incentive for the next mercenary? May be yes.
Will it show India as a softie? I don't believe so. Anyway, in reality, world opinion does not count much. So no harm there.
Will it create a possibility that in future some terrorist forces us to negotiate Kasab by taking some hostage? Yes. However the point of failure will be the hostage situation, not the act of leaving Kasab alive.
Does the one year trial raise India's position in international opinion? I do not give it a damn. The international opinion, as I said earlier, does not count much. In international relations, might is right.
The fact remains that we CHOSE not to kill him in a hurry when we COULD do so. As a nation, this makes me feel very proud. And powerful too. It is not a logical feeling, meaning I can not explain why exactly I feel proud. But I do feel proud, immensely so.
Slightly unrelated, but more of my thoughts on this topic here.

The title of this post is making me a bit queasy as it clubs names of two Indian achievers (who make many Indians feel proud) with a terrorist. My request to the readers is to treat the title as just a title and surmise no deeper meaning underneath. I would not have to write this title if I could post it in the comment section of the original post.

Tagore, Satyajit Ray and Agantuk

2010-06-05T14:14:00.003+05:30

A very interesting debate has been initiated at http://mycounterpoints.blogspot.com/2010/06/my-first-blogging-experience.html

I find myself agreeing and disagreeing with the author. Following are my points with respect to part1 of the bloglink given above.

I agree with the statement that we guard our icons too much (though I cannot think of any other race which does not). This tendency, though natural, is a weakness which should be overcome.
You yourself said that the fact of "tagore mollycoddling with British" was hidden from public. So I have no ways to verify your statement. I can neither agree nor disagree with you. Same goes about your assertion regarding lobbying for prize.
Regarding Tagore's sycophancy, I have heard the argument before. Methinks, returning knighthood clinches the argument in Tagore's favour. A true sycophant will not be deterred by the fear of social boycott. I also believe Tagore was sufficiently strong-minded to fear a social-boycott. Consider Gharey-Bairey. I found the storyline of 'Gharey Bairey' very daring and relevant. Casting a freedom-fighter and his hot-headed-but-hugely-popular-methods as villainious shows independence of thinking. I appreciate Tagore for that.
Regarding quality of Tagore's work, we might be in agreement. However I am not passing my judgement on the basis of number-of-universities where Tagore is in curriculum. I am passing my judgement based on my first-hand reading experience. I have read quite a few stories/novellas of golpoguchchho and about 10 essays of Tagore. I never felt compelled to read more. I did not find Tagore unputdownable. As far as probondho goes, I will pick Amlan Dutta anyday before Tagore. Regarding fiction, a Sharadindu/Shirshendu anyday before Tagore for me.
Regarding Satyajit Ray, I have serious disagreement with you. Unlike Tagore, I truly adore Ray's works (exceptions notwithstanding) and that has got nothing to do with the Oscar-lifetime-achievement-award. Against your quip regarding medical-practitioner-in-Agantuk, I cannot express myself better than what Soumya did in Greatbong's Goopy-gyne post. I quote partially:
If after seeing Agantuk, one of the messages you came away with, was that the film was implying that we ought to go to a quack instead of a modern medical practitioner, then you need to watch Agantuk again with an open mind.

Conduct of Ujjwal Nikam (public prosecutor in case against Ajmal Kasab)

2010-05-07T08:52:00.002+05:30

Advocating against Ajmal Kasab may not have been an easy job in spite of mountains of evidence against him. The case took more than a year to complete. This implies that there has been a lot of hard work on part of public prosecutor (Ujjwal Nikam and his team).
However, I am getting uncomfortable watching the conduct of Ujjwal Nikam in front of media. I can not express myself better than what Times-Of-India did in last paragraph of its editorial. I quote:

However, a few niggles regarding Kasab's trial remain. One of the main ones is the conduct of the prosecutor, Ujjwal Nikam. By all accounts, his statements, both in court and to the media, have been rife with hyperbole and strident almost shrill denunciations of Kasab. It is a pity that he felt the need to grandstand in a case where sober understatement would have served far better. The enormity of the 26/11 attack speaks for itself; to dramatise it is to trivialise it.

You can read the Times Of India editorial here: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Home-Opinion-Edit-Page/Special-court-hands-down-death-sentence-for-Kasab/articleshow/5899235.cms

"Paid news" is not that harmful‏

2010-04-04T14:02:00.002+05:30

During second half of 2009, The Hindu (newspaper) launched a major offensive against paid news phenomenon. I find the ill effects of paid news being greatly exaggerated in media.
First, it is wrong to assume that a reader blindly accepts news items. I believe that The Hindu is biased towards CPIM. That doesn’t prevent me from reading Hindu. I treat all political articles in Hindu with skepticism and look up other sources for alternate point of view. This enables me to get a balanced perspective. Same should apply for other readers and that will diminish the harms of paid/propaganda-news.
Second, paid-news does introduce bias in newspaper but bias in newspapers is natural. Sometimes bias can be due to ideology of editor. So why one should be overtly concerned about bias introduced through money?
Third, newspapers/media cannot change public opinion at its own will. An example is 2002 Gujarat elections. Most of the media went for the jugular of BJP government. However the election result showed that public has a mind of its own, which is not easily affected by newspapers.

Media is Rita Skeeter

2010-04-04T13:13:00.003+05:30

In the link(http://ibnlive.in.com/blogs/rajdeepsardesai/1/53653/tv-news-good-bad-and-ugly.html), Rajdeep Sardesai lamented how the visual media might be behaving irresponsibly. He had given three case-studies where media should have behaved differently. First one was 26th Nov 2008 terrorist attack on India. Second one was related to reporting of2009 polls. Third one was regarding media's hysterical reporting regarding India bashing in Australia. My reply to the topic is here:

I see that Rajdeep has given 3 case studies. Allow me to present a 4th one. Chetan Kunte retracts his blog and publishes an apology to NDTV & Barkha Dutt. Blogosphere explodes with indignation. Not a single 24 hour news channel (including CNN(BN) reports this issue. The chetan-kunte episode was very controversial giving lots of juicy and righteous debating opportunities. Surprisingly not a single news-channel takes it up. Was it a conspiracy of silence?

However my message to Rajdeep and his ilk of 24-hour-news-folks... Relax! Your high pitched reporting and other drawbacks are not something which can be overcome. These are integral part of your job definition. Your job is to entertain us and you do that quite admirably. Your job is also to make a living and money for your employers (like all honest people do). As Rita Skeeter once said to Hermione "The Prophet exists to sell itself, you silly girl". So Rajdeep and gang, do not indulge in mea-culpa. You folks are acting quite natural and there is nothing to feel guilty about.Some of my thoughts (not exactly related with the topic though) are at http://oshantomon.blogspot.com/2009/06/law-to-censor-expression.html

Fighting Terrorism

2010-02-25T08:53:00.004+05:30

Vir Sanghvi has discussed about ways to fight terrorism here.He has written about 4 options of fighting terrorism. Quoting from his article (line breaks and bullet-numbering are mine):

Quote begins:

The first is that you guard every likely target. This is nearly impossible to do and no matter how many men you deploy, terrorists will slip through the cracks.
The second is that you use intelligence to discover terrorist plots and then foil them. This too, is hardly a fool-proof strategy.
The third is that after terrorist attacks are committed you spare no effort in going after the perpetrators so that you deter would-be terrorists. The Israelis travelled the world in the aftermath of the Munich attacks in 1972 and killed every one of the terrorist masterminds.
And the fourth is covert action: you take the battle into the enemy’s camp. You infiltrate terrorist organisations, you kill terrorists before they can strike, and you dabble in the internal affairs of your opponents, financing and arming those groups that are likely to create trouble for your enemies.

Quote ends

The article claims (and I agree), that India tries for option1 and option2. The thrust of the article is to find whether India should look into option3 and option4? I am not so sure about option3/4. My discomfort with option3/4 is not on any moral/ethical ground. I fully support the way option3 and option4 kills your enemy. My doubt is what option3 and option4 does to me. Pakistan is a prime example of what happens to a state when it takes too much of option4. The pakistani-powers which conducted their proxy war in India, refused to stay under the their own government's thumb. They are now striking within Pakistan. Option3 is a lesser degree of option4. Consequently, it may also harm the way option4 does, albeit to lesser degree. I believe Manmohan Singh wanted to say exactly the above when he said "the manner in which it would brutalise the Indian State" in Vir Sanghvi's article.

However, what is happening in India now cannot continue. A solution has to be found and I do not know how. May be some option5 is required, may be getting better and better in option1/2.

PS:While writing the above post a few thoughts flitted through my mind which should ideally be discussed in different posts.

The sheer size of India makes it a different problem than Israel. Israel has been cast into a convenient stereotype of heartless, brilliant, no-compromise nation. I disagree. Israel bleeds, Israel cries, Israel's plans go wrong, Israel compromises. It is very interesting to note that the fabricated stereotype is useful for both Israel-basher and Israel-worshipper.
I do not consider the soft-spoken Manmohan Singh a soft/weak prime-minister.

A law to censor expression

2009-06-09T14:53:00.003+05:30

I feel bad about an upcoming law. A few of my thoughts related to the law are given below:

I do not believe opinion/art/literature can hurt anybody by itself. People get hurt by their own choice. Hypocrites choose to see/read a picture/book, take offense at their own choice and then blame the picture/book. This law legalizes the nuisance that mischievous hypocrites create. You may refer to previous articles in this blog for specific instances of such mischiefs that happened in India. (Mischief is a soft word. May be I should use unethical, diabolical, evil)
Bloggers may feel the brunt of this law. There is no security in numbers for a blogger. All it takes for any mischief-maker is to make an example of one blogger to silence a large chunk. Bloggers, without time/money at their disposal, will have to restrict themselves to humour pieces or non controversial eulogies.
Main stream media(MSM) may not come to rescue as it does not make business sense. I have stopped watching television-news for past 9 years. The behaviour came naturally. I did not like the raised-tone of the anchors, the adbreaks and few other things. It is not that I have become disinterested in current affairs; reality is far from it. I moved to blogs where I am much more in control in reading/commenting/writing-my-own-stuff. There are many people like me. Now, due to the law, I will not be able to vent my feelings nor read others. The only option will be to go back to MSM.
Chetan Kunte(blogger) vs NDTV has shown the ethical limits of MSMs. I am more disturbed by the deliberate silence of all the MSM-channels rather than the 'apology' itself. I believe a financial stakeholder in MSM stands to gain with this law.
This law is not the biggest problem facing India. There are more important and pressing issues. However, this law must be opposed. It can sow the seeds of something much more sinister.
On second thoughts, internet portals of MSM might face a drop in activity. I visit controversial news on rediff to read the talkbacks rather than main article. This law may impose a severe cutback on interesting talkback. So the hit-count of web-only-MSM might be impacted. I hope this may bring some of the MSMs to oppose the law.

A thought on election result analysis

2009-05-25T08:16:00.002+05:30

This link describes best what I have been thinking about since 2009 loksabha election results were declared. That the government has higher stability is established fact. However, claiming that Indian voter consciously voted for stability is, at best, a hopeful theory.

Only bonded labours have right to strike

2008-08-31T20:24:00.002+05:30

People who are not bonded-labours, do not have right to strike. Employment is a contract. If any party breaks it, redress should be sought legally. Any other option like strike is unethical and immoral.
That's the gist of what I want to say. If you want to read the same point with loads of fluorish, read on.

Striking work for a pay-hike is plain robbery. It is a blatant violation of the industry-owner's right to use his/their own money. If pay is less, employee should quit the job. If quitting job is not easy due to economic scenario, accept the fact that employer is doing a favour to the employee. One accepting favour is in no position to strike, morally speaking.
If employer has embezzled money or defaulted on salaries, take recourse to legal route. If judiciary/police does not work, fix those. Do not strike.
May be working class has won the right to strike after a long struggle. So what? Assume I start a long struggle for right-to-murder from this day on?
Strikes happen in developed world too. That does not lend any legality to strikes. Developed world people are wrong when they 'strike'.
Mahatma Gandhi called a general strike. He was wrong. I do not buy the argument that striking against foreign rule was okay. Every body joining the strike should have rather resigned from their job. Keeping the job and resorting to strike is opportunism of the worst kind. I respect Gandhi very much and I plan to dig into his autobiography to see how he could have rationalized such an action. Respecting Gandhi does not mean that I should agree with him.
I have seen elaborate articles in favour of strike. I could not find a single reasoning which can refute the argument I cited above. If you (the reader) have a reason for 'strikes', let me know. I have tried reading a pamphlet by W.R.Varadarajan at www.cpim.org. Its a lengthy article and I am still going through it. It is an article written with loads of conviction and lots of effort. It impresses me but does not convince, at least not yet. If you have gone through the same article and found something convincing for right-to-strike, let me know.

M F Hussein: Freedom of Expression

2008-08-26T12:03:00.000+05:30

The hindus demanding M.F.Hussein's conviction/punishment are wrong. Hussein drew something on canvas and displayed them in closed door exhibitions. Unless one deliberately goes to the exhibition and sees the paintings, one can not feel offended. There is no way a person can be involuntarily made to see a picture. Hence those claiming to feel offended by Hussein are troublemakers and a nuisance. The troublemakers should be ruthlessly dealt with.

The above para is cut-paste from my earlier blog. I am getting repetetive but so are the troublemakers. The same 'sin' of curtailing freedom is happening in india repeatedly.

IPL-Cheerleaders, Indian-Media and 'These-politicians'

2008-04-26T02:59:00.001+05:30

Regarding IPL cheerleading issue, many people are up against the politicians vilifying them as kill-joys, moral-police, people-with-muddled-priorities and what not. I disagree with these people.

A bunch of Indians are indeed worried about the cheerleading going on during cricket games. Giving a vent to their emotions and feelings, is definitely the job of politicians. I hate when people losely go on a rant about 'these politicians'. There are many media-articles/blogs, filled with rants against 'these politicians'. The rants may be justified in a few of the cases, but mostly the rants reflect clouding of logic by author/blogger's emotion.

IPL-cheerleaders and Freedom-Of-Expression

2008-04-26T02:54:00.003+05:30

Freedom of expression should not be at the cost of somebody else's freedom of not-to-see the-expression. A bunch of indians are feeling uncomfortable watching the cheerleaders during IPL-matches. It is no good arguing "if cheerleaders offend, switch off TV" as it will shut off cricket too. I do not object to stopping of cheerleading.

So what about the freedom of those who wish to view the cheerleaders on TV? Surely, there can be many solutions although I can only think only of one now. It might seem funny, but it is an effective solution. Let us call it solution X. The solution is to have a private cheerleading session going on parallely with the game. On one TV channel transmit game+cheerleading, on another channel transmit vanilla cricket. My intention in this post is not to advertise the solution X. I only want to emphasize that there are many ways to guard freedom-of-expression of all concerned, even in seemingly contentious scenarios.

I feel irritated when comparison is drawn with bar-girl-issue and cheerleader-issue. Banning of bar-girls was a blatant case of violation of freedom-to-enjoy and freedom-to-earn. Bar-dancing happened in an access restricted area where it could not be forced on unwilling viewers. Every person in a bar knew what he will see. The people claiming to feel offended are nuisance. In India we had many such nuisances. See my earlier posts for a couple of more examples.

Taslima Nasreen; Bengali Lajja

2008-03-22T12:50:00.001+05:30

Taslima has been virtually kicked out. Bengalis do not seem to mind. Any criticism of muslim fanatics who caused this ouster is always balanced with how-MF-Hussein-has-been-treated or how ungrateful-taslima-is. Not being able to condemn the ouster unconditionally seems like cowardice to me. Afraid of what? May be physical violence? May be afraid of being called communal? Shame!! We bengalees have bent down before muslim rioteers. I am so disturbed by these chain of events that I am finding it difficult to concentrate on my day to day work.

Shedding my narrow bengali perspective and donning the indian hat, as an Indian I feel a little less coward though. At least the indian government extended Taslima's visa, although the step proved more symbolical. However, Indian government does not understand/believe/appreciate freedom of expression. India is not a land of free-expression, at least not yet.

Audio-guides and tourist-spots in India

2008-01-05T13:22:00.000+05:30

Indian historical sites or museums are not tourist friendly. A historical site or museum generally has a lot of exhibits spread over large area. Without a map/plan it is difficult to cover each exhibit. Sometimes the number of exhibits is overwhelming. In such cases a tourist likes to prioritize some and skip others. In India, at many places the exhibits are not properly described at location. In absence of the background information, the exhibit fails to excite. At some places (belur, halibidu) there are fantastic local guides but you wish there pace would have been slower.
There is an easy solution for the above problems. I believe it is a good business proposition too. The solution is audio-guide. It is not a novel solution. You can find audio-guides in many international tourist spots. A printed tourist guide or map may also serve the purpose but maps are costly and inflexible-towards-changes. Moreover a book can not compete with the superior experience provided by a nicely conducted audio guide. Here is what I feel audio guides can/should do:

Audio-guide helps tourist to navigate the whole place at her own pace.
It does not matter whether the exhibit-explaining-boards are missing.
Audio guide machines are costly. So leasing out the audio guide should be done against a high-amount-of-cash or essential documents like passport/driving license.
If audio-guide machines are not feasible, one may maintain mp3 of audio-guide content. This can be uploaded to personal mp3 players at a cost.
May be an arrangement can be made with telecom service providers to deliver content through mobile phone.
Let hundred audio-guide companies bloom with their own version of contents and interpretations. People will choose the one which agrees with their own bias.
The museums/historical-places frequently undergoes renovation and modification. This is helpful for the business idea as piracy of content runs the risk of getting outdated. Continuous update is necessary.
A good audio-guide session sounds like a quality programme shown in discovery/national-geographic. To prepare a good audio-guide content you need good history students, good media content creators. This means more job opportunities with scope of differentiation through quality.
The audio-guide industry at historical locations can come up with private enterprise. It need not be stalled due to lack of government help.

Unimportant bit:

Why this post find its way to 'oshanto mon'? This is because this audio-guide idea looks like a low-hanging-fruit to me which no one is picking. It can lead to good busines, good opportunities for students, good appreciation of history. Then why the hell nobody is latching on to it? If you like the idea, please spread it to your enterprising friends. If you see a major chink in the concept, do talk back to this post.

Tasleema Nasreen: Freedom of Expression

2007-11-22T12:41:00.000+05:30

The muslims demanding revoking of Taslima's Indian Visa are wrong. Taslima Nasreen wrote something in a book. Unless one reads the book one can not feel offended. There is no way a person can be involuntarily made to read a book. Hence those claiming to feel offended by Taslima are troublemakers and a nuisance. The troublemakers should be ruthlessly dealt with.

Nandigram

2007-11-16T03:54:00.000+05:30

I am a bong staying outside west-bengal. I do not have all the facts in my hand. Should I feel anything for nandigram? Won't the feelings be half-baked, or for that matter utterly-wrong? Moreover I do not vote in west-bengal. So I am a perfect nobody. However this is my blog-space and I will rant here now.

I don't care about how many Aparna Sens, Mrinal Sens walk or protest. I never appreciated any of their works. However a Shirshendu Mukherjee or Rituparno Ghosh walking in protest disturbs me.
There was (I guess time has come to used past tense) a resurgent bengal till yesterday. May be it was the markets, the world-scenario, stars aligning.. Whatever it was/were, there was also one indisputable force behind it all. Buddhadev Bhattacharya.
I can blame CPIM for one thing. Systematically destroying meritocracy in past 30 years. Every government post is populated on the basis of party-loyalty. Had there been an efficient police force (instead of a bunch of incompetent party-loyalists), Nandigram could have long been under control. No drastic measure would have been required.
Left-front screwed up every aspect of administration for 30 years. Now that they are looking for development, their own folly is catching up with them. Ultimately bengal loses.
The poets/art-film-directors-who-never-make-profit must rejoice. They will get more poverty/wretchedness around to serve as inspiration for their next masterpiece. Watch out folks for another barrage of Cannes/Oscar/noble-peace/noble-literature medals from 'supremely talented' bengal.

Potter Lawsuit on Calcutta Pujo: A bad taste

2007-10-12T23:40:00.000+05:30

People are pathetic about respecting copyright laws. Every person photocopying textbooks, using pirated software, MP3 etc is as guilty as a thief and is a criminal in his/her own way. Saddest thing is we do not even realize that.
Having said that, I am pained to see what Penguin/Rowling/Warner-Bros have done. Filing a lawsuit against pujo-pandal is a grave mistake. A pujo pandal on harry-potter theme is a tribute to Rowling, not cheating her. Pandal visitors would have marveled at the potter items, that's all. If this is copyright violation then so is every bit of fan-fiction available on net. Every blog, every opinion which mentions the word harry-potter is copyright violation as these magic-words always generate greater footfall/eyeballs/clicks.
I like to believe Rowling is not responsible for this but her legal adviser in India is the culprit. Anyway, she must be held responsible for this action.
I do not believe that she is greedy. She has enough already. May be they are doing it as a matter of principle (respecting IP/copyright). If they manage to get 20lakhs (compensation asked for in the lawsuit) out of pujo-committee, possibly they will give it away for charity. However, I would love to see that charity-money being thrown back to them. To put it melodramatically, 'Oder mukhey chhuNRey maara uchit taaka gulo'.

Broken something is, deep in my heart.

Ram Setu, Freedom of Speech, Confusion

2007-09-17T12:30:00.000+05:30

I am feeling ashamed as a hindu to see the mess being created over Ram Setu. ASI was cent percent correct. Ram is not history, Ram is puran. So today if a developmental project is being scuttled in name of Ram-Setu, tomorrow something else may be scuttled citing some mythological pretext. I am feeling so bad. Moreover, it is getting difficult to freely talk about this issue. If I voice my opinion, comments like "could you have voiced such opinion in saudi arabia about muslims", "pseudo secularists", "you third rate bong-commies" will be plastered upon me. If I voice it in a crowd, I may get bashed up. So, I am bothered by two issues:

We hindus seem to be backtracking to middle ages. Blind faith is replacing reason.
In spite of being democracy, free-speech is getting throttled.

The next thing is confusion. I am not able to align with a single political party which completely adheres to my views. I support BJP on many many concerns and issues. However, the stand they are taking on ram-setu, bashing-up-ahmedabad-art-college-student etc pains me.

Or may be this confusion is the right thing. This dilemma, hesitation and ambiguity is actually good for me? May be this will save me from being a fundamentalist (of any shade) some day. Life is clearly indicating to me - "Look Sambaran!! There is no complete solution/package. Every entity will have something which you like and which you hate"....

Confused very much, I am.

deathy hallows: Sambaran Mitra Ishtyle

2007-04-23T17:42:00.000+05:30

I solemnly swear I am up to no good... (err sorry, got a bit carried away). I solemnly swear that this is my own theory and I have not nicked it from anywhere. Any similarity to a similar theory or the actual book (going to be released in 3 months from now) is purely coincidental. If I had the literary genius of Rowling-di, I would have written something up myself. Here I present just the threadbare theory.
I would like to clarify at the outset that this theory springs from my love of Severus Snape. Yes, you heard it right.. I love snape! May be it is just Alan Rickman playing brilliantly. To be serious, I can not forget that snape saved harry's life in philospher's stone; I can not forget how snape shielded harry, hermione, ron from sirius in PoA when he thought sirius is going to attack these three (rewind and see the movie sequence inside shrieking shack); I can not forget what a brilliant student prince had been (would have loved to be a student like him) and above all DUMBLEDORE TRUSTS SEVERUS. So the hero of this theory is Snape. Enough of prologue now the theory...
Dumbledore, Voldemort and Snape are the 3 leading wizards of our time. Harry is fine but will take time to mature. It is not possible to say who among these 3 is the best. One thing is sure, Snape is out of limelight. Dumbledore wants to work this to Order's advantage. Dumbledore knows he can not finish voldemort alone. Harry will need to finish voldemort all right. However dumbledore needs trusted and able wizards to help Harry like he himself did. The obvious choice is Snape. Snape is cosy with voldy's group too. So Dumbledore decides to sacrifice his life (which was anyway nearing its end) in the hand of Severus Snape. That explains the pleadings to Snape on top of astronomy tower. He was pleading Snape not to spare him, but kill him. He had also asked snape to create a horcrux for alternate-Snape with the murder. Snape first refused to do this murder and horcruxing business. Then Dumbledore had to convince/argue with him in the dark forest, reminding Snape that this murder he has agreed to do when he joined the order or something like that. Hagrid overheard part of this conversation and Harry suited this conversation to fit his own theory. Snape kills his own headmaster, creates a horcrux and stashes it some place safe. The other snape will join voldemort's group. When harry comes to kill voldemort, snape will help harry, even at the cost of his own life. Harry succeeds in finishing voldemort (or for the effect he may forgive voldy, that is not crucial). All is fine now. Harry will finally understand what snape has done and go recreate Snape from the horcrux. Recreated Snape takes over as headmaster (may be after McGonagall).. it will be a shame not to let such a genius be the principal. Harry will be allowed to become the DADA teacher (this one is just for fluorish, not necessary to the real plot).

That's all about it. ting ding. May I get the literature nobel now?

Anti-reservationists: How to vote

2007-03-31T23:06:00.000+05:30

First and foremost and most-obvious: Please get your name listed in electoral rolls. Even if it means taking two days leave and roaming around in sun around government departments, do it. Then vote as written below.
If some candidate in your constituency declares that she/he will push for ZERO percent reservation, vote for her/him.
If nobody is against reservation, vote the standing candidate out. Best way of doing this is to vote for the closest competitor. Do not be bothered by party to which the competitor belongs to. Just vote the closest competitor, even if the closest competitor is arjun-singh :-).

Key message is that vote for throwing existing candidate out from your constituency.

That's it. This is the gist of this blog-post. You may stop here. BUT, if you are interested to know my rationale for the above algorithm, read on.

All the political parties believe that indian middle class does not vote. Hence we have the scenario where spontaneous protest is being systematically ignored by all political parties. Commies make fun of the entire episode by saying that these are stage-managed. Protests of much lesser dimension bring government to heels because parties see a vote bank in those cases. Thus the only way available to us is to create a hulchul in most feasible manner.
Youth For Equality and all its sister concerns may not be able to field electoral candidates, at least not in all the seats. If candidates can be fielded with agenda of 0% reservation, voting choice is clear.

If not, we have to hit the person who voted-for/quietly-agreed to this 27% extra reservation. That person should be made to feel the fear of the thing which (s)he prizes most - the parliament seat. Hence voting against him/her is necessary. But voting against somebody means voting for somebody. Abstaining from voting will also reduce the margin, but voting against the candidate will be 2X impact. So who do we vote for? An independent candidate who does not belong to any party? This is less effective as this may lead to a lesser margin. The maximum impact can be made by voting the closest competitor.

Let us take example. North Bangalore voted for H.T.Sangliana(BJP). C.K.Jaffer Sharief(congress) lost last time. As per the above scheme, we should vote for C.K.Jaffer Sharief. Now we know that CKJ has no love for general-class candidates, but that is not the point. It is Sangliana we are trying to punish because he agreed to 27% extension. If we can make CKJ win, he will know that it is the swing of general-class vote which made him win. So even if we general classes are a minority, an enbloc voting for closest competitor may tip the result. And both CKJ and Sangliana (in above case) will be acutely aware of what caused the result. This is what we want. Making our impact feel.

The specific example of CKJ/Sangliana highlights another issue. This is a time to put all other issues including communal-issues in backburner. You may justly feel afraid of islamic-appeasement or christian-appeasement. We will revive these issues later. Now is the time to prevent this pseudo disenfranchisement of general category. I believe what is happening to general class is not dissimilar to what happened to jews during nazi regime. If we lose political voice, the opponent will next come at us to take everything away. 'All general category people should leave out one room of their house for backward class people'. Sounds ludicrous? Far fetched? Not really, when people can shamelessly give the pseudo-logic of "how 1000 year of oppression can never be offset by 50 years of reservation". You are seeing for yourself that parliamentarians will crush logic if it suits the vote-bank. So nothing is impossible here. Sample some. 'All general category people will immediately forfeit 10% of their bank deposits for upliftment of society'. 'All general category people will pay 5% extra cess on income-tax'. You see all these can be 'justified' if somebody wants to.

BJP.. boy oh boy. I voted for them. But what a disappointment. I can not blame BJP really. Actually we middle-class/general-category (just wondering, are these two terms interchangeable) betrayed BJP so BJP is taking the only option available to it. I do not blame them. But nor will I vote for Sangliana in next election.

Left parties. These guys are one happy lot. I believe communists love it when people stand powerless in front of government with folded hands, begging for telephone-lines, gas-connections, OBC-certificates and what not. They had this status quo till 1992 and will give anything to bring it back.

Congress. This is at the same time a hopeless case and only hope. You see, this party does not have any democracy. If one fine day madam feels reservation is bad, the whole party will put their head in 'sonia ji ke charanoN mNe'. But we can not rely on this party as we do not know which way cookie (sorry madam) will crumble. If madam had asked me to lick her feet, I would have done so if that meant abolishing reservation. But that prized mind of madam is not for me to fathom.

Before I end, we all (I mean general category) should thank Arjun Singh. This is NOT a sarcastic statement. Remember, if he had not raised the ruckus, 27% reservation would have been silently passed through.

BJP: Does it want to grow in bengal or not?

2007-03-18T20:22:00.000+05:30

I want to support BJP. I agree with some of their concerns. However what they are doing to bengal vis-a-vis singur/nandigram confuses me. Pains me. Does BJP not know bengal needs money and prosperity? For bengal, industrialization is not nice to have but absolute necessity. Is BJP not concerned? Is power at any cost the goal? Power at any cost is goal for trinamul.. sure. But why BJP? Central leadership might not feel/understand bengali psyche, but what about the bengali BJP leaders? Tapan Sikdar et al? Commies have screwed bengal for long. I believe that. But Buddhadeb is trying from his heart. Does it not deserve support?

TATA at Singur is absolute must for bengal

2007-03-18T20:03:00.000+05:30

Unlike some other big states of india, west-bengal is heavily populated. If a company has to buy land by negotiating with each owner/jotdaar/borgadaar in a place like west-bengal, it will become a very long process infested with myriad litigations. I believe west bengal can not afford this delay. Our (bengalis) back is pushed to the wall. We are forced to migrate out of our state. This migration is at every level. Right from the software engineer to the construction worker. It pains me when I see a construction-worker living in very poor condition. The construction worker would have been living a higher quality of life if he was able to stay back in bengal and do the same job. At least his expenses for lodging/family-ties would be saved. It pains me when I see that so many nithari-killing victims are helpless bengalis. (Come on, flame me for being a provincialist. I would have felt bad for any language speaker, but pain of a bengali affects me more). This is why I am whole heartedly supporting buddhadeb in whatever he is doing.
Purulia/bankuRa would have been better sites. Let them be the next in line. Let the roads come up first then we will go to purulia/bankuRa. For now, let us not stop singur/nandigram. If once investment flies, it will not comeback easily. Look at the comment sections of rediff. There are a bunch of people out there waiting/hoping for west-bengal to fail, so that TATA goes to their state. Singur/Nandigram roll back will be a PR disaster for bengal. No bengal lover should be happy if TATAs go back.
Don't agree with me? Do talkback to this blog post. I want to listen to reason.

Nandigram

2007-03-15T16:33:00.000+05:30

Right Ho Buddhadebby Sambaran Mitra on Mar 15, 2007 04:23 PM

I completely support buddhadeb in his efforts. I hope the industrialization of west-bengal does happen and is not scuttled by these developments. Having said that, I must add commies are now getting taste of their wrong doings. They have categorically decimated the police force by recruiting party-cadres into positions. These cadre/police knew more about party rather than their own job. Result is for everyone to see. Rogue elements in nandigram should have been put behind bars by now. Alas, police has to fight a pitched-battle there.

Ganguly: Apni dada ki baat sunenge na?

2006-11-26T22:41:00.000+05:30

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apr30rHS0sI