Right To Privacy – My Take

Yesterday everybody celebrated the SC judgment on Right to Privacy. Modi haters enjoyed more because it was allegedly a blow to Modi’s rising surveillance oriented fascism. A quick chat with one of my friends from different ideology suggested the ramifications of privacy on sale could be  like companies will would have known what you ate,  When females in your home has period,  When you used condom, which color underwear lingerie, one prefers, govt would have known your behavior more than you..Tracking of your finance, behavior- a reason why it was rejected in UK. And because it was rejected in UK why should we have it anyway.

More followed, like securities concern are huge, If you have aadhar, you can become indian citizen very easily, The law of introducer is strange.. With introducer u can have aadhar, With bank account and aadhar passport, voter id, It has potential of inviting infiltration.Then these welfare schemes will go to Bangladeshis not us. Don’t know why govt taking such risks.. Just on the behest of corporate, who themselves have dual citizenships.

Most of these above use cases are like science fiction script to me. My take on this matter is let’s assume, okay aadhar is bad. Then the courts should also have said how to establish identity of an individual if not by using biometrics.  Why could not they just make playing with aadhar data a penal offense?

Reliance did not ask anybody to submit aadhar. People did that voluntarily for their greed of free data. Making Ambani a soft target is the best pass time topic of part time leftists. Judgment could have been more sensible if meelord had asked parliament to pass some amendment to aadhar act. Aadhar is an ID card and not a document of citizenship. If you are managing to become citizen with aadhar then it's a process loop hole that needs to be plugged. Money siphoning is stopped (I have my uncles in UP east who enjoyed MNREGA benefits as they sat on various positions at panchayat) in DBT schemes .Because now you are able to establish a primary key between a number, a bank account and an individual. That itself is the single reason enough to back the tool.

Aadhar data theft has one main commercial goal to be able to retrieve authentic mobile number, region, name, gender and address. This can be gold Mined by corporations. And hence this theft could have been made severely punishable.

Another fraud could be using your biometrics to forgery your identity. A case,  which is matter of concern from implementation point. We put gold in lockers. Don't we.

Supreme court has opened a Pandora Box.

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The Wagging tail


Like many of you, I too believe the Final of ICC Champions Trophy was fixed. Not because Kohli and Co are dishonest but because the fact that the game has grown much beyond 22 yards and as widely suspected, it is played more outside the Cricket stadiums and in all likelihood, Guns and roses are involved big time too. But I am not commenting here on the match fixing part – an area that is greyer than rather Technicolor.

Let’s talk about the Team India - The test team. Quite realistically , this particular format is not fixed and let's assume that everything there is fair and square.
And if that is the case,  Team India is in good shape for at least next decade or so.

When was the list time the Tail of batting line up of any country had all-rounders having test averages like that of  Jadeja - 29.89 , Ashwin – 32.82 , Pandya 59.33, Shami ­13.8 and with Yadav coming at 11 this makes a very healthy reading.

I haven’t included Saha in the List because are used to of having a guy called MS Dhoni who  has made any wicketkeeper batsman comparison immaterial for decades to come. But having said that,  Mr Saha is more than useful at the position.

Going by last two series we have had instances like below that substantiate my argument

·         India V England: In the first Test at Rajkot, India was tottering at 361 for 6 on the fourth morning, after England amassed 537. Ashwin orchestrated the rescue adding 127 runs with the rest of the bowlers for company.  India still conceded a 49-run lead, but if not for that wagging tail India surely would have lost the Test with plenty of time to spare

·         India V England: In the second Test at Vizag, India were left vulnerable on the second morning, with Kohli’s dismissal at 351 exposing the tail. Once again, on a difficult surface , the tail cobbled together 104, with debutant Jayant Yadav impressing on debut

·         Earlier against Australia, Jadeja and Wriddhiman Saha got runs in last three tests and the others chipping in; India just turned the tables on Australia

·         While India was in Trouble, Pujara (202) and Saha (117) steered India to 603 for nine against Australia and gave the team a substantial 152-run lead in the third Test, which eventually ended in a draw

·         In the third Test against Sri Lanka, Pandya came into bat at number eight and scored a 86-ball century for India. A La Klussener effort India witnessed many a times playing in South Africa

And hence with substantial confidence, going by the records we can say that gone are the days when 160/5 used to unfold like 220 all out. These are the days of 450-9 Dec.

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My American dream

As my H1B visa expires this month , i am forced to go back in time when I was all set to cherish the american untill the last moment.
That day I had gone to office and the plan was to put down the paper Which in fact I did.
Suddenly my mobile buzzed. It was my mother who wanted to inform me about my father who was not keeping well. I disconnected the call and immediately left the office for home which is 700 kms away.

It was during that forced vacation, I had decided not to leave the country. Since I was the only one in family financially capable of handling any situation.
Having said that , family affinity was not the sole reason that had changed my mind.

I have few like minded friends here who thought we must be in India and witness the giant stride it was making, rather that stay outside and discuss the old Doordarshan serials with friends from indian dispora
community.
The commonwealth games (Brasht mandal khel) was four years ahead and I also wanted to witness that. Several flyovers came up with time accross NH8 as tangible signs as well.
I was happy and wanted to contribute too.

I also had unfinished dreams. I was 26 , so I wanted to write civil services which ended after 3 unsuccessful attempts.
Then I ventured into writing. Which by no means was upto the mark. My first novel could not be published as several other titles had hit the stands already and I didnt had any new chetan bhatat-ish story to tell.

Every known publishing house has atleast 200 manuscript in their queue and thus one always get negative reply. The ones that are little known ask for 'self publish' or 'publish in partnership' which means paying anything from 40K to 100K to their pockets.


After 3 years When I look back , I am not too happy about that.

The city has become a complete mess

The Internet of Things

For some reasons I stopped writing anything besides Post dated cheques and office emails few years ago. I have not been busy, that’s for sure. I have had plenty of time at disposal every single day. And now that my son has grown from infant to toddler to a child and pretty much on his own, I can’t put the blame on him. Therefore , today at the stroke of midnight when the nation celebrates its 69^th (or 68^th if you count like I do) Independence Day I decided to come back to the skill which at one time I really believed I had in great reserve.

Wait! Did I just revealed the place where I was hibernating? I am pretty sure I have. Tell me how are people wishing each other or congratulating and praying for a prosperous tomorrow or  having I-day bash ? The unambiguous answer is of course on the Social media! And that’s my culprit.

I get it that social media has been around for quite a while now. But was it ever like this before? While you needed to reach out to a desktop or a decent internet connection to broadcast the idea to the world 3 years back, its lot more different now with smartphones buzzing with status update feeds from various apps thanks to 3G data plans. 

With people tweeting and whatsapping every idea they get  every minute , there is absolutely no scope of discussing  or doing a debate the good old way. Leave aside writing a whole blog and hope people to read and comment. As the walls are vanishing , so is the difference between knowing and not knowing , letting others know or not been able to convey. 

People instantly believe what they read and share. Be it intenet hoaxes like reverse ATM PIN's automated call to police stations or NDTV news regarding some factory worker having injected AIIDS virus in pepsi or coke, or mermaids or aliens being real things or the Full form of INDIA is - Independent Country declared in August crap. 

People suddenly appear to have good knowledge about everything and the ones who knew facts from the time they read the relevant textbooks (The front benchers were the original alpha males until being back benchers became fashionable) for the first time are increasingly feeling cheated.

I know I am not going anywhere. Perhaps my level of English has also declined during this period of LOL and ROFL vocabulary.  So until I gear up , pardon me for this abrupt end.

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Thanks10dulkar

10/10 what a fitting date you have chosen to announce  retirement, 10dulkar!
Unfortunately, with your retirement the last link to my childhood and teenage now stands broken.
I suddenly feel that I am in 30s , am a father, pay EMIs and work to save for retirement.Guess I'll not be able to relate to 1990 born new age T20 Gladiators now that you are gone.
Like many other friends and cousins , I grew up to understand my world and Cricket along side you.

When Javed Miandad hit 6 of the last ball, I saw the anguish on my father and uncle's face. Don't think they ate food before bashing Chetan sharma to grave. That day I understood for the first tome that there is a country called Pakistan and a loss against them was blasphemous. Sadly there was no one in our team who could answer them in their tone. Kapil dev , Gavaskar, Vengsarkar were gentlemen. They were good but they lacked what pakistanis had in abundance. The aggression and fire -to match them eyeball to eyeball.
That day you danced down the track against Adbul Quadir and took him for 28 runs in an over in some exhibition match. We all knew , now we have answered Javed Miandad and all those who burnt India flag in the stands.I was too young to understand how tough compiled 119 at england , 114 at Perth and 148 at sydney were. But I was happy
that you are accomplishing something what those uncles were not able to.
Yes there was Mandal commission and Babri Masjid , but you ensured that people still have something common to discuss.
We carried pocket radio at school to listen to your heroics against Pakistan in Sharjah Cups. Once (Khalid Ashraf are you reading this ?) our Math's teacher had seized the radio set but returned it as he was saddened to silence when he heard that Aquib Javed had Skittled out the whole team in one spell.

Fast forward to 1996, when the class Xth board exam coincided with Wills World Cup, I used to take frequent breaks just to confirm you are at work. It was an insurance cover to go back and study as everything is safe. Ofcourse, when heath streak yorked you at 3, my english paper suffered.
The sahara cup (4-1) , Class XII results,Dessert storms of sharjah cup, The Titanic scene,  IIT JEE  coaching ,streakers during India SA match, every thing  is so much overwhelmingly overlapped. Thanks to you.

Graduation came and went. Quite fittingly between two world cups. Sandwitched between your 140 after returning from father's funeral and 92 against Pakistan in that seemingly impossible chase at centurian.

Jobs, projects ,client, outsourcing, TL, PM new characters and vocab came to my life one by one. So did cricinfo and those illegal streaming links. Perfect tools to remain abreast with your exploits. As long as you were playing, I felt the same enthusiasm as I had in early 90s listening to radio or while standing outside some TV shop during the days when Doordarshan was giving way to ESPN.
At times these days when the TV broadcast shows age of players as they come to bat. It reaffirms the fact that the whole generation has changed i.e., All my childhood heros are gone. No Kapil, no Wasim , no Kumble, no Srinath no waugh brothers, no Lara, just nobody whom I loved and followed, play now. But before I feel sentimental enough to switch channels, I see you whack another ball down the ground for four and suddenly I see myself back to my old days. The very reason I watch you play.

Now that you have announced retirement this automatic trip down my childhood memories will soon be a thing of past.
I just hope Leander Paes still has few years in him.  Hoping against hope I know.
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Of Gods and Mortals

From the moment Virender Sehwag broke the record for highest score in ODI, there is a debate going on among all cricket experts from Chai –stalls to Salons to vegetable market (and yes not to forget the 24 hrs Breaking news channels !!)
The buck stops here - why Sachin Tendulkar is considered God while Sehwag is still a human being.
I am not qualified (rather statistically equipped) to contribute to the debate. But I take this proud moment to express my angle to this very interesting topic.

Generally speaking , most of the Gods, at some point in their lifetime had to resurrect themselves to show the light and lift the mortals from period of darkness.

People who follow cricket as fanatically as I do ( Hemant Dua are you reading this?) would agree if there ever was a dark period in Indian Cricket of modern times, It was between 1996 to 1999. Placed between two world cups of 50 overs format, I single out the period as dark age because that was the time when almost nothing went right for Indian Cricket.
The decline started with India’s semi final loss to Sri Lanka at the Eden gardens. It broke too many hearts. And ironically enough, while the cricket board should have engaged in the some kind of post-mortem of the sudden death, it rather started organising tournaments after tournaments to rope in the newly found moolah. The world cup was swiftly followed by the singer cup in Singapore, Sarjah cup , siyaram cup, Akai champions trophy in Colombo , Independence cup , bilateral series against Srilanka , another series against Srilanka , another Sarjah cup...what not and where not. If we ignore four- five sparks of brilliance – mostly orchestrated by Sachin Tendulkar, it was a deep sallow and dull period. Just as Sachin Tendulkar had single handedly carried India to Semi Final of the world cup’96 he did the same in all other tournaments but faltered painfully at penultimate stage. It was evident that India needed more than one Tendulkar. Certainly three more - at least.
Defeats after defeats followed. Others teams took full advantage of our ill fate. Saeed Anwar scored 194 , A kid called Shahid Afridi emerged to torment the modest Indian attacks, Sanath Jaysuriya started to re write the script of ODIs and unfortunately chose Made in India ink to do so. Can you forget Jayasuriya’s onslaught against Venkatesh Prasad & Anil Kumble?

All of a sudden it appeared the mother India’s womb had dried up from producing genuine talents. While Pakistan and Sri Lanka were producing modern day geniuses one after another , India had suddenly found some steadiness in producing plethora of mediocre personalities. Amay khurasia , Hrishikesh Kanitkar, Vijay Bharadwaj, Amit bhandari , S Ramesh (man with zero footwork and zero luck) , Abey Kuruvilla, Debasis Mohanty , Harvinder Singh Sr & Jr, Ritendir Sodhi , Nilesh Kulkarni , Noel David etcetera etcetera. They came and they went. Those who were batters served 5-wicket hauls to Vass , Muralidharans , shoaib Akhtars and Aquib Javeds. Those who could bowl helped Jayasuriya to notch one record or another Tournament after tournaments. The quest for more Tendulkars was yet to bear any fruit.

And then the inevitable happened. Sachin Tendulkar made his debut in 1989. By that time most of the middle class homes had started buying colour Television.
Suddenly there was a boy next door aged 16 , who looked 12 started hooking and pulling the bouncers showered by quickies. And when the generation who grew up watching one of their own dance down the wicket to hit spinners out of the stadiums was ready to sail into the big league, India finally had some answers.
Virender Sehwag is a phenomenon. He can do unthinkable with the bat. From run a ball triple century in test match to his latest carnage of Indore. One who was touted as a clone of Sachin in his initial stage of career , has now galloped ahead in the race for records.
Not long ago there was a jat from Punjab who hit 6 sixes in an over in a knock out game. He single handedly guided India to 2011 World cup victory. And there is a captain cool around who can do no wrong. The Rainas and Kohlis more often than not bail out India of difficult situation with ease. Mumbaikars Rohit sharma and Ajinkya Rahane look poised to take over the baton from their idol. When did the last time so many promising talents appeared simultaneously?
It’s correct that Rahul Dravid , Saurav Ganguly and Anil Kumble should also been given the credit but few would argue that it’s only one Man- the pied piper of Indian Cricket who has inspired the young bunch of self believers to produce amazing results at enviable regularity.
We are indeed witnessing a resurrection here.

The other India

First things First , I start with meaning of the title of this blog. I don’t think it’s too difficult to guess that either. 'The other India' is a part of India which comprise of people who survive on $ 1 per day. Which flock in queues to polling booths during elections while we surf internet , attend rallies of Politicians (and these days social workers), pull the rickshaw we ride on , Clean our toilets , work as maids and prostitutes. Their children spend teenage at traffic signals carrying Shanidev on saturdays and 'Made-in-China' toys on other days, grow up only join or replace their parents in their odd jobs.

The part of India which still doesn’t know the benefits of Internet, do not own a cell phone amidst this huge mobile revolution. To whom, the shopping malls stands inaccessible and appear as imaginary castles form fairly tales and glassy office buildings seems like Tilism from Arabian nights. Whose photographs appear on WHO reports year after year, something, they are obviously not aware of. Who are unaware of who is Sachin Tendulkar and why should the ticket for a car race being held at outskirts of Delhi cost INR 35,000.
They are a part of statistics which we wish if somehow didn’t exist.
While for the last fortnight or so , it appears as if the whole of India is giving opinion on the popular subject Sarkari Lokpal Vs Jan Lokpal debate , I thought of writing about something else.

I am not a big fan of this Anna- andhi movement either. Since I strongly believe this is not the best 'Tarika' to arrive at the 'Natija'. And no one should, in any situation, assert to blackmail in order to push for any demand.

This is about the other India I was talking about in the first paragraph.
I first heard about this word from a nemesis named Mr Dennis (Batch mates, help me recall his first name) who taught us Personality development when we were in the final year of Engineering.
Most of his Classes were bunked (with no concept of campus interviews in 2003, a personality development program was the last thing we wished to attend) but I remember in one of his first sessions, while explaining about Joblessness and stiff competition, he mentioned how fortunate we are, since we are actully competing with only 10-20% of the potential population and added that they day when rest of India wakes up how much this competition is going to be stiffer and tougher.

I felt I have met the other India which Mr Dennis had had described a decade ago, head on, on 6th July 2011. The day when supreme court upheld the Allahabad High Court decision to quash the land acquisition in Shahberi village in Greater Noida. While it came as a shock to the middle class Flat buyers (fraternity belonging to India we know), the villagers jumped with joy, distributed sweets and burnt crackers. I watched the interview of villager’s lawyer Mr Parmindar Bhati who beamed with confidence of victory and hope for a fan following and solid scope of clientele. He was the face of ‘Other India’ ready to take up rest of the countrymen as bull by its horn.
The other India had finally woken up. Big time.
Contd....