indian moral (po)lice

India seems to have gone mad all of a sudden. Public institutions have gone crazy conservative and the public is stupidly silent about it. The police have taken it upon themselves to instill moral values in the youth of the country. And what exactly are these moral values? Think of nimrods from the 12th century and what their values would be. A few weeks ago a couple kissing in a madras club were arrested for indecency. The club has been shut down for allowing such "obscene acts". Apparently such moral policing is not restricted to chennai. This sort of nonsense is happening in most big cities. Why is there no protest? An 18 year old girl gets a say in who gets elected to public office but does not get to decide what clothes she wears. Or who she chooses for a boyfriend and whether she can hold his hand in public. Hold his hand, mind you. And this is India Shining? A progressive country waiting to break loose. Give me a break. Soon they will start shutting down the voice of dissent and we can quit calling it a democracy.

Best of the Beatles

That was the name of this PBS show I was watching, as usual half way into the program. And in usual PBS documentary style it was a series of interviews edited and presented. Like most people would expect, I expected to see some interviews with the Beatles and some of their songs. Soon I realised this was a documentary about Pete Best - the original drummer for the Beatles (later replaced by Ringo Starr). Apparently Pete had a bigger fan following compared to the rest of the Beatles, something the others couldn't handle. For more details check out the PBS documentary and Pete Best's website.

Marathons and Fundraising

Many volunteer groups use marathons to raise money. I can understand big corporations donating money to the runners so people can associate some sort of goodwill with the company which is eventually profitable for the company. I'm assuming the runners wear some sort of label indicating where they got their money from. But why would individuals want to donate money when they know only part of it goes towards the cause the volunteers are running for (which I assume is more than personal gratification)? For the uninitiated, volunteer groups hire the services of a coach (and probably equipment etc). So you begin with a deficit - you have to pay the coach, who is hired for a period of about 6 months - which is not a small amount. So if I donate some money, I know part of it goes to paying this coach's salary. I'd rather just donate the whole amount directly to the organization than to the runner. But oddly enough groups do manage to raise quite a bit of money from friends, relatives etc. And the reason I think this is, is because the donors don't know that part of their money goes to the coach. They are blissfully oblivious to the way these things work. And maybe they don't care. Maybe they donate purely because they want to support their friend/relative and the whole donating for a cause is just a bonus. Who knows?  

music videos

Its been really long since I've seen music videos. Both MTV and VH1 have more "behind the music" stuff these days. And not to mention the countless pointless reality shows. Yahoo launchcast is apparently good, but I haven't tried it personally as it works only on windows. Today I found this video blog on blogger, thanks to yahoo! Everyday there is a link to one video, something from current artists. Its pretty neat, and hopefully will introduce me to some nice music. btw, doesn't the lead singer from the cardigans(nina something) look so much like kirsten dunst?

International Student Application

International students make up quite a large fraction of the graduate student population at most US universities. There are currently two stages in the graduate school admission process for international students. First you get admission into a university, second you need to get admitted into the country i.e. you need a student visa. The first notification comes about 2 months before you graduate from undergrad. The second comes a few days before you are ready to leave for the US, usually a couple of months after graduation. Getting a student visa has become increasingly difficult over the past few years and this current system needs to change. The second part of the admission process can and should be carried out ahead of time. There are already links in place between the university and the USCIS (at least that's what it used to be called), through the SEVIS system which allows the govt to track every international student in the US. Once the university is ready to offer admission, it should just forward the required details to the relevant immigration office to make sure the person can get a visa. It could possibly forward to the local consulate and have them process the application ahead of time. This way the student knows well ahead of time whether or not s/he will be able to pursue higher education in the US and make plans accordingly. Moreover, the university knows ahead of time whether the student will able to come or not. This can close the gap between number of admissions offered and number of students who actually show up.

size doesn't matter

Okay it does, but only to a certain point. Case in point - the miniaturization of mp3 players. Its obviously much nicer to be able to carry tons of music in a small portable mp3 player, but only to the point where its portability is improved. mobiblu has put a 1GB mp3 player in a cubic inch. Now that sounds and looks pretty cool, but does it matter that its a cubic inch? This thing could fall off and you wouldn't know. Besides, how much of an interface can you put on a cubic inch? I'd rather have a slightly bigger player with more memory, and a nicer interface. The ipod shuffle is probably the worst mp3 player around. Especially given that it came out of the same place that makes the ipod. See how funny it gets when the shuffle is taken to an extreme - here's the ipod flea.

Anatomy of Hell

No, I'm not referring to the movie. I'm referring to the world in which terrorism is taking up center stage. A few weeks ago, extremist Briton Muslims bombed subways in London. A year ago trains in Spain were bombed. The US (and most of the western world) has changed dramatically since the September 11 attacks. India has witnessed suicide bombings, whether it was the assassination of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in '91 by the LTTE or the recent car bomb (unfortunately, just one of many such occurrences in the area) in Kashmir. The Palestine conflict has been a cause for several suicide bombing attempts. There are several other places which have experienced the brutality of terrorism. What is it that transforms people into terrorists? It is not hard to see how repression can lead terrorism, but what drives four Briton Muslims towards mass murder? Thomas Friedman in his NYT op-ed piece (from July 15, 2005) describes how a large part of terrorist attacks in recent times has been carried out by young extremist Sunni Muslims. The suggestion that ideologies of certain religions makes people practicing those religions more inclined towards violence, is very disturbing. I have, for a long time, resisted such connections, but statistics seem to point in that direction. The very fact that ideology can drive man towards terrorism is sad. But the suggestion that religion is responsible for some of these ideologies, makes things even more tragic.