A long overdue reply - The bane of democracy.

One of my friends sometime back blogged (here http://aravindakshan.blogspot.in/2012/10/a-long-and-overdue-rant.html ) on how bad our politics and politicians are.

I totally agree with the current state of politics in India. The state of the affairs in the country is very depressing. Every morning when the newspaper arrives I hate to open it for one, a full page ad in Times of India blocking the headlines and, two the headlines itself. Having said that should we blame the politicians?

This reply is not only for my good friend Aravindakshan but for all those who blame the politicians for the sorry state of India.

We are not in monarchy any more. When a corrupt or inept or criminal (or all in one) person becomes a Member of Parliament, what does that mean? He is just the representative of the constituency. Who will be a leader of cheats, cut-throats, corrupt, self-interested mass? A straight person?  No, of course not. Most people and companies cheat. No matter whether there are rich or poor. The super-rich cheat and so do the middle class and the poor. Corruption and violence runs in our culture. For example the way we pray is corrupt and violent. It is inbred in the social system. Then how do you expect the Indian parliament and government machinery to run in the manner that is not Indian. I don't expect us (the people) to change in the near future nor the way India is run!!

In a democracy, a government will not be any better than it's people. That is the bane of democracy.

Shame on you airtel !

For past one month Green Peace is shouting on top of their voice asking Bharti-Airtel to turn off Diesel power and shift to sustainable energy sources. But Bharti-Airtel is turning a deaf ear to them.** They are burning thousands of litres of government subsidized diesel everyday, for powering their numerous cell phone towers. By this they not only harm the environment but also misusing the subsidy given to diesel by the government. More than 70,000 Grean Peace supporters have signed petitions, but no action taken. Green Peace demonstrations resulted in nothing but disturbing our police department from their busy day stopping people from making indecent dance moves.

With so much happening, today morning I open my mail box and I see this:

Dear Customer,
Thank You for being a part of airtel’s “Go Green” initiative!
With the “Go Green” initiative, we have tried to instill a sense of a “greater responsibility” in the heart of thousands of people of our country and have driven them to go eco-friendly. We aim to minimize the use of paper by urging our valued customers to manage their account, pay their bills online instead of using paper to receive their bills and make payments. Your active participation will surely make this world a better place to live.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Please find attached your airtel bill:


“greater responsibility” my a**!! Better state I want to make even more money hence I am cutting costs by sending you an e-mail instead of sending a hard copy by post. And also for the past 2 months their on-line payment site is jittery and I had to resort to manual payment methods. Don't dare state "sense of greater responsibility". Shame on you airtel! (airtel is not alone, majority of the corporates do something of this sort)

** http://www.greenpeace.org/india/en/What-We-Do/Stop-Climate-Change/Green-Electronics/switch-off-diesel/ask-airtel-switch-off-diesel/

Votes

For the past couple of weeks I have been hearing a lot of discussions/controversies on Season 2 of Super Singer Junior, whether be it coffee breaks at work place or blogs I visit. For those of you who are not following Super Singer (SS), to understand what I am going to write further, you have to know three characters.

1) Priyanka - Girl with a very good voice and singing talent. According to my friends and most bloggers she deserves to go to final.
2) Nithyasree - Girl a tad less in singing talent compared to Priyanka. But is an excellent entertainer.
3) Srikanth - A very young boy (looks like a toddler) who is a good at singing but not as good as the above two.

There were 6 wild card contestants and they were selected by public through voting. The results were announced few days back.

Srikanth won with a clear margin. He got 2 Lakh+ votes out of 7 Lakh+ votes.
Vijay TV wanted a 5th participant in final and announced Nithyasree will also go to finals.
Priyanka does not make it to the finals.
( I am definitely not going to say who should have win. I am just going to analyse the voting pattern of public. )

>Srikanth was clearer not as better as the rest two. But he won by a huge margin of votes (may be) because he is so young. People voted for him because he is so small and takes up the challenge of competing with much elder and learnt people. People sympathized for him. I would say the votes are Sympathy votes.
This is nothing new to either Indian politics (e.g:Congress sweeping the elections after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi) or any other country. (Numerous examples).

>Nithyasree got into the finals even though she was not as good as Priyanka in singing. The reason being she is an entertainer. If it is entertaining we like it even though if it is not politically correct. Though technically Kamal Hassan is a better actor Rajinikanth is more popular, coz he is entertaining and more charismatic. This strangely happens in politics also. South India has made many movie stars the leader of their state. The trend is so common that nowadays who ever aspires to be a Chief Minister starts acting in movies!! Why is charisma a factor for politicians?

I am definitely not saying the finalists don't deserve to be there. The rule is get more votes and get selected to the final and they did exactly the same. So they deserve to be there.
But what I am saying is people decide the vote by emotion and not logic. It not only applies for vote, but most decisions in our life are emotional rather than being logical.

Should we all be logical or will that turn us to machines?

( My friends who gripped about Priyanka not being selected, did not care to vote!! They blame "public" for their foolishness. Again sounds familiar, doesn't it?)

React

A same incident makes different people think in different dimension. How we see things makes the difference. The way you look at things makes up ur character and defines who you are.

If you are still unclear about what I am trying to say, here's an example.

Barrister Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was thrown out of the First class train compartment because he was not white-skinned. When he got up from the platform of Pietermaritzburg he was Mahatma Gandhiji.

A youngster got rejected twice by the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna whose board had a majority of Jews. (4 out of 7). He swore to wipe out Jews from the face of the Earth and killed more than 6 million of them. Now you could have guessed who he is. He is none other than Adolf Hitler.

Thats why I say,
REACTIONS MAKETH THE MAN.

I know to remember but ???

A for Apple, B for Ball, C for Cat.... This was taught to me in my kindergarten. I still remember this. I remember them till now. :-D The same with the Maths Tables. So my school has successfully taught me to remember, but how do I forget ??

OK, how to forget( not the alphabets ;-) ). Now this is becoming a problem. There has to be courses on forgeting (unlearning also). I used to forget all the fourier analysis formulas well b4 the exams. So I thought "to forget" is something that comes naturally to me. I even forget most of the b'days and anniversaries i hav to remember :( . But when I try to forget some incidents and mostly people ( not bcoz I hate them , I jus want to forget them ). The more I try to forget, the more I remember. But some how I hav to do it.

So I hav charted out some plans. Here is the outline of the plan. Diversify my thoughts, indulge in various hobbies. Out of sight is Out of mind. (Even this is getting quite difficult as I keep bumping into ppl whom i wish to forget).

I know ,it is easier said than done.

Few of my previous Posts

This section is from my previous blog. I scrapped the old one and migrated to this location. Here are a few from my old blog.

----------------------------------~~*~~------------------------

Colour, colour what colour do u chose?? There are people who are black, who r white, who r blue, etc.. I am speaking about their skin colour. I am speaking about the colour of the brain. ( I dont believe ppl think with their heart . I will explain this in detail in a few days . I digress .)

*All colours are spread around us and we can see them in every walk of life. But our brains pick up the the colour it likes most. Our brain is susceptible to certain clours (charactersitics) pick only those it want to. ( I can write a whole book on this but I cut it here to makr this crisp ).

I will tell you something about me in general. I am an orange guy with a grey mask. But I pretend to be grey. I am not going to educate on what every colour means. It is for u to find what colour r u and the colour which is most compatible with u. Some colours go well with all colours. There r colours which will go well with only a few colours. This is what forms relationship. Ppl also change colours. For surviving in this highly competitive world (JUNGLE), we need to change colours according to the situation. I dont mean that u must not show ur true colour. There r places when u hav to show ur true colour.

So start discovering what colour u r and try also to find out the colour of the ppl around u.

(* This part was added while creating this blog)
------------------------------------------~~*~~---------------------

Fuzzy Logic

Girls are tricky creatures. They want guys to look at them. But when they look at them they give a look as if she would kill you. If their looks could kill there will be no man alive. They dont understand that every look by a man is an acknowledgement to their beauty. But gals dont understand this. So how to deal it. It is tough ... !!!

---------------------------------------~~*~~------------------------

Hate Vs Love

What is darkness? Its absence of light.

What is death? Its absence of life.

So what is HATE?

Is it just absence of love??

NO. Hate is totally different from love. One can hate a person and still love him. Sounds wierd right.. But thats the whole point. So you can love and hate a person at the same point of time. Love and hate can co-exist, but not necessarily.

OK, now why do v hate ppl? ( I am still in search of a perfect answer ). Now i put forth a hypothetical answer i hav conceived. U hate others when they dont behave in the way u expected thereby hurting u or do something against your principles. Inspite of all these u admire some uniqueness in the person which breeds in love.

This reminds me of some lines from the song "Hate Me" by Limp Bizkit "I know why you wanna hate me Cuz hate is all the world that's even seen lately"

Keep hating and loving...

--------------------------------------~~*~~-------------------------

Revenge

Eye for an Eye.

Tit for Tat.

Revenge Why do we take revenge? We take revenge to show them how it felt when we were subjected to the same treatment. It is also done to stop him/her from doing the same again. (But some never change). It is also to warn others that it will be the case if some1 else tries to do something to me and better be careful.

How does it feel after one takes a revenge?Momentarily we will feel happy and satisfied. But does that make us really happy? One will feel defnly bad abt it after the rage comes down.

So shud not we take revenge?? yes v shud not take revenge. then that makes no difference b/w u and who did it, no matter who did it first. Best way to take revenge is, when u hav got all possibilities for taking revenge and if u leave him unpunished, he will feel low like a worm.

----------------------------------------~~*~~-----------------------

Today I read a snippet in newspaper which said Three lions scared off 3 men who were trying to harass a 12 year old girl. The 3 lions stood guard for the girl ( for 6 hrs ) till the police came to rescue that girl.

Can you please explain this Mr.Darwin??

-----------------------------------~~*~~----------------------------

Possessiveness

Don't dare to touch my barbie/car/bike(toy) !!

Don't dare touch my pencil box !!

Don't dare to touch my bike !!

Don't dare to touch my gal/guy ?? oops I can't say it. I havn't bought It. They are not toys which dance to ur tunes. When one feels insecure abt his partner (even frnds) they in some way or the other try to secure their position. This is absolutly normal behaviour. It is rather an animal instinct inside us. But in this process we must make sure we dont cut the wings of freedom or hurt others.

(Word of Wisdom: U may feel possessive abt ur love, but possessiveness alone is not love)

-----------------------------------~~*~~----------------------------

What do you listen to??

U r planning to sleep early and when u r about to switch off the T.V. they telecast one of ur fav movies. If u decide to watch the movie instead of sleeping, there are fair chances that u may be a Heart Listener.

Yeah Heart Listener. Ppl can b classified either as Heart listeners or Brain listeners.

Brain Listener are ppl who c thru things. They r rational. They lives mostly don't hit extremes, they rather travel on smooth roads. They r mostly honest and straight. But their lives are mostly monotonous.

Heart listeners r not rational. Their lives hit both extremes of life. They live life to the fullest, coz they chase their dreams. They take risks. They are passionate. But they can deceived easily.

I think I am a Heart Listener coz I am doing a thing which I more passionate abt instead of doing my office work.. :D

I created this blog coz I deviated from what I intended to tell in my previous blog. I found out I am not mature enuf to write there further. So here I am with my new motto. This is just scribbling of what I learnt and came across in my humble life.

( This blog a duplicate of my another blog http://www.i-learnt.blogspot.com . I liked this title better than "i learnt" ).