Why people like Raj Thackrey should be stamped out in Indian democracy, right now!

Okay so I have been against Raj Thackrey since the first day he spat his venom on "north Indians" settled in Maharashtra. I used to think that people like him who want to gain votes will keep trying to polarize the historically easily dividable Indians and people should just just ignore him.

But what I realized yesterday, got me scared. It also made me see clearly why people like him should be made to shut up or sent to jail right away. I may look shortsighted and unnecessarily "worked up" but let me try to make you see what I see now.

Let's forget about Raj Thackrey for a moment. Let's see the history of the Hindu-Muslim divide which gifted us Mumbai attacks a few days ago. If you go back to early 1900's, all was well in India. Indians were standing up to oppose the British raj and the freedom movement was building up.Then something happened. Britishers played the "divide and rule" card and turned Hindus against Muslims. From nowhere, a guy called Jinnah became a rival to leaders like Gandhi and sparks started flying everywhere. Soon partition happened and 60 years from then, we are still not able to recover from it. Thanks to the image which was portrayed in Indian movies and media, I used to believe till now that it was Jinnah, who played a key role in this painful partition.

But no. Here I need your attention. This is what wiki says about Jinnah:

"Some historians like H M Seervai and Ayesha Jalal assert that Jinnah never wanted partition of India and independence of Pakistan —it was the outcome of the Congress leaders being unwilling to share power with the Muslim League. It is asserted that Jinnah only used the Pakistan demand as a method to mobilize support to obtain significant political rights for Muslims."

So, he never wanted partition but still used to demand for Pakistan to gain support. Rings bells? This is exactly what I am told by some of my Maharashtrian friends, who don't see anything wrong in Thackrey apart from his violence for North Indians. They say that Raj Thackrey is just doing this to gain votes but his real intention is for upliftment of Maharashtrians and there is nothing wrong in it.

And this is where my dread starts. If my educated friends don't see the far reaching consequences of this separatist movement, even god can't save this country. Remember, what was just a demand for Pakistan, created the great animosity between Hindu and Muslims; animosity which feeds on blood of innocent people. What if same thing happens today? Hatred doesn't take much time to seize control of one's mind. We have seen that again and again. How easily Indians get divided? First came Hindu vs Muslim, then came Mumbai vs Lungi(South Indian), Tamil vs rest of India and north Indian vs Maharashtrian. Somewhere, some self serving leader wants votes, calls conferences, targets a community and people get divided, just at the drop of a hat.

Yesterday I watched "Ek Ruka Hua Faisla" in full. You would be amazed at the fact that the feelings expressed by the characters are so relevant even today. You would also feel anger at watching a few scenes like this one:(the video is a comparison of this movie with its original "12 Angry Men". Listen to the dialogues of the person in the original too, they are relevant in Indian context too )



Now imagine for a second what is being said in this scene about Muslims, being said about a Bihari by a Mahrashtrian in future. Looks ludicrous? Today, yes. But if we don't wake up now it may as well be possible.

I am all for development of Maharashtra by people like Raj Thackrey. Reserve jobs for less privileged if need be. Reserve seats at colleges and schools. But for god's sake don't divide India again. You will come and go, after reveling in power plays but the hatred you stoke today will never wither out. If we don't wake up now, India will again become a collection of small states, as it was before the Indian republic was born.

I see a devil. I see another Jinnah. I am scared.

India waking up...

So it seems it took one more disaster, the jolts from the recent terrorist attacks on Mumbai, to wake the giant sloth of this nation of 1 billion. Or at least thats what it looks like today and as given the forgiving tendencies we Indians nurture, the giant may doze off again soon.

But this time it does look like a different awakening. I am not sure what exactly was different this time around than the previous attacks, most notably the attack on the Indian parliament in 2001. But this time it does look like, at least to me, that the way people are disturbed because of this incident is totally different from the previous ones. This is what I think explains this wide spread public anguish and loud voices to bring about a change:

1. This time it was death, minute by minute, unlike a big blip on the radar, at one point in time. The seize lasted for 60 hours which were covered in detail by the prodding eyes of media. People had their eyes fixated to their TV sets, getting updated about minute by minute actions from both sides.

2. The attacks were carried out in one of the most brazen way, one which took everybody with surprise. No one had thought that out coastline and deep seas were so unsecure that people could sneak in with so much ammunition all the way from Pakistan!

3. The shocking(and myterious) demises of top 3 security forces of India, all the the same time! When the news came that three top bosses from three different security forces fell simultaneously, people were shocked to the core. How can three popular chiefs fall in what can be called a "soft dismissal"?

4. The attacks had all the elements of a typical bollywood flick- corrupt, inept politicians, foreign hostages, black commandos, hand grenades being flung around. All this sensationalized by the media round to clock.

Whatever be the actual reason for this powerful response to this version of the act, I thank god that at least now the general public is taking it seriously and asking the authorities right questions. And the ripples have started getting formed already- state home minister and chief minister are already stripped of their power and asked to resign "on the basis of their own conscience". At the center, the union home minister has been forced to resign "voluntarily" too.

I see a lot of activity on the blogosphere too, with people from abroad reacting sharply and caustically to the incident. Closer home, the reform lists are being prepared by the media(eg. TOI wish list) and I hope new home minister- P.Chidambram will pay heed to these.

Hope this is not an initial euphoria and we all don't just fall asleep again. Not this time.

We are at war!

"I condemn this dastardly attack."

"The wires were pulled by ISI in Pakistan."

"I am confident that Mumbai, with its characteristic indomitable spirit will bounce back soon and show to the perpetrators that we are not scared and your plans to disturb communal harmony in our country will not be successful."

O our dear politicians, Give us a break now. Don't expect people to take it lying down again and again while you sit in your comfy offices enjoying the power you have been given for no real vitrues of your self. If you don't act now, I quite seriously believe that we are going to witness something like what the movie "A Wednesday" showed. Watch first 2 minutes from this video:



I particularly have strong objection to the unshakable belief on what is known as "irrepressible, indomitable" spirit of Mumbai. Quite simply, I don't believe that a thing like that exists. And whatever reasons we have to believe it exists, are actually not the high points about Mumbai anyway. The reasons for my this rather unpopular belief will take quite a few more keyboarding and I will write about them in the next post.

As an aside, there is theory doing rounds since this all started on 26th. There seems to be a logic behind the dates chosen for the execution of these attacks. The formula seems to be-

Date of attack = 13 or 26, alternately
Month of attack = Month of last attack + 2.

Look at the dates for last 4 attacks:

13th day, 05th month- Jaipur
26th day, 07th month- Ahmedabad
13th day, 09th month- Delhi
26th day, 11th month- Mumbai.

I am quite cynical that this is true, but who knows? These dates might be chosen due to some personal/religious/group preferences.

Pathetic public bus service in Pune

The headline will find an echo with the mind of most of the readers here. There are plenty of problems around public bus service in Pune and I remember when I came to the city for the first time a lot of people used to say it is deliberately kept in a messy state by the two wheeler production lobby. While this might be true, the fact that some of the problems in the PMPML buses are very basic in nature and this is the state in one of the better cities in India, amazes me to no end.

The biggest problems with PMPML in my view are:

1. Very few direct routes.
2. Low frequency of buses. You have to wait for 15-20 mins minimum to catch bus.
3. Hostile staff which still lives in ancient Indian PSU(Public Sector Undertaking) mindset.
4. Badly maintained fleet of buses.

Today, I wrote an email to the PTTF(Pune Traffic Transport Forum, www.pttf.net) of which I am a member about a bad experience my sister had recently with our PMPML bus service. Here is the email:

Hi,

Since, we frequently encourage people in this forum and elsewhere to use public transport, I thought of bringing up experiences by my one family member and my friends with our PMT buses.

It is a well known limitation of our bus route planning that we have too fewer direct bus routes and most people have to go to corporation to go anywhere from their destination. Not only its an additional hassle to change over, but it is often the most painful point in this public bus usage exercise.

For instance, a few days ago, my sister wanted to come from railway station back to home, at Baner. She went to corporation bus stop and located a bus supposed to go to Baner in around 15-20 mins of time. She boarded the bus and the bus start getting filled with people. After 20 mins, there was a sudden rush and people started getting off the bus and started climbing on to a different bus. People informed my surprised sister that the bus to go on the Baner route has been changed! And to her shock, she found the bus drivers and conductors standing there, smiling in mischief at the plight of the people. What there were thinking it was- a prank?

Anyway she changed the bus and climbed on to the new bus. After 10 mins in the "new" bus- hold your breath- the same event of bus change happened again! People started scrambling on their way out from the door to climb on the new bus yet again! Not to mention- the PMC people standing nearby repeated their "smiling at your plight" exercise again.

In the end, my sister, whom I had asked to use public transport, managed to come after 1.45 hours from corporation to Baner and was aghast at this callousness and inefficienct operations by PMC. I asked her if she noted the bus numbers and the name of the PMC people, but she told me that she was too taken aback to do that.

Before, anyone here starts to discount this as an one-off incident, let me tell you that this experience has been shared with me by one cousin and a friend of mine about 1-2 years ago too.

On this forum, we talk of metro(not too many supporters though), BRTS(quite a big following). But shouldn't our first step be to make regular bus service reliable and customer friendly? Shouldn't there be more direct routes? Shouldn't the frequency be increased/decreased as per the latest traffic load? Shouldn't PMC staff be taken to task when they behave in a hostile/callous manner to a customer?

I tend to think that the argument made against metro, that Pune is not as big yet, holds good for BRTS also to some extent. We can do without BRTS if the PMPML is run efficiently. But without an efficient PMPML, dreaming of BRTS looks ill conceived. This is just a feeling, so let me know if I am wrong here.

I would also be very eager to hear about:

1. steps, we as a group, have taken to improve PMPML.
2. steps we can take now to this end. I would be happy to volunteer.

Thanks,

And soon got a reply from a senior group member, who is known for his rebellious streaks, to trash this expectation that people should use public transport in place of private vehicles, in the current conditions of PMPML bus service:

The expectation is that this moth eaten institution of the PMPML is to replace all our personal travel vehicles, unless we plan to cycle or walk all the way, all day. All plans are hinged on this great hope that the PMPML with its third rate fleet, apathetic staff and clueless management is going to substitute 14 lakh pvt vehicles. The efforts to improve the PMPML are on for several years now. And we all know that the experience u have narrated is the rule and not the exception. How many of us use public transport and leave our scooter/car behind? Only those who can afford to use the rickshaw.

Hmmm. Sad, but true. But I would choose to fight the system. I hope as a group of citizens who want to improve things, we are able to bring some change in this area.

P.S. I have been just invited to attend a meeting of PTTF and the new GM of PMPML on Friday 11 AM. Since it is a week day, it would be difficult to make it but I think I should. At least once. Will update if I do go.

PMPML ! Here I come!! :)

Road Rage- Survival of the fittest?

Road rage. This has been in news a few times in recent times. Sometime back, one of my ex-colleague at Nevis Networks, was manhandled in city while she was driving in her car and happened to rub a motor cycle rider on the wrong side. In broad daylight, on a busy road, she was pulled out of car and slapped by this brave young man a few times. Police complaint followed but I won't be surprised if the case is now forgotten by everybody.

A few months ago, there were a series of events on city roads where traffic policemen were beaten by a few youths. They probably didn't like getting an earful from the cops and decided to give him back something in return. Whoa.

Apparently, this is a global phenomenon. A car driver in US recently got a free ride on top of the hood of a car driven by a road rager:

http://videos.oregonlive.com/oregonian/2008/07/cyclist_on_car_hood.html

After seeing this video, I feel a bit scared of going outside on my cycle. If this is what happened in US, anything is possible in India.. :)

5 year experieced test automation lead looking for networking/embedded system companies

Well, this is my status message on linked-in these days. Reason- My company after trying hard not to touch India office headcount in last one year, finally bit the bullet and shut down the India operations. In several rounds of layoffs in US office so far, one at the end of each "below expectation" quarter, they had already cut down the staff size by 50%. Well, the good news is company is now recovering from a string of bad quarters and hopefully will soon bounce back.

So here we are, 5 "IT guys" in newspaper parlance, trying to find shelter after the sudden unseasonal heavy rains. The things are going well so far with all talking to different suitors to find a match between good work and financial and non financial incentives. The 1.5 year journey we had at Tropos was fun and we really had a gala time together.

And coming back to linked-in, heck I wonder if its any good for job searching in India. How can recruiters come to know of the people like me who are looking for a job? If they can, I would be amazed because sites like monster will get you hooked to phone for hours in a day attending the calls from the dream sellers..

All the best to me and my partners in crime(read ex colleagues) in this marketing exercise of selling your self to the companies at a good bargain!

Unwiring Pune!

I read about the grandiose plans of "unwiring"Pune again after a long, long time. Last time they talked about it was about an year ago. And I read in the yesterday's Pune mirror, that all this long they were trying to put up a pilot project, which as per the paper doesn't work. There was a nice picture by the article which showed the well despised "Can not find server" IE error.

So where am I heading? Well, I had a sense that this was never going to work given that we haven't been able to get past even a relatively rudimentary, not too tech-oriented problem of making "drivable" roads. Since I have been working in a wi-fi mesh networking company for last one year, I think I know some of the hurdles and challenges in an ambitious plan like this. A really meaningful city wide wi-fi deployment takes some good planning and also needs sumptuous resources, which are two major problems in the India context. Add to these the huge population pressure, the poor per capita PC penetration and the pathetic law and order condition( think-shiv sena can pelt stones at a wireless router to oppose young people using orkut to set up dates!) and we know that we are in for a herculean task.

Lets focus on the technology part, setting aside the political and law and order problems. Wi-fi (technically 802.11) by design is supposed to be a shorter range solution than something like wi-max, but at a cheaper price than the latter. To guarantee a coverage of about 90% in a city like Pune would translate to a at least 30 large capacity "nodes" per 4 sq km. Depending on the backhaul connectivity you choose, you would have to give back haul(wired connectivity to the internet) to all or some of these access points which means non trivial investments in laying down fiber lines etc. Just a quick comparison with a smaller city like Mountain View, CA would be sufficient to have a feel for the costs. The figure will be close to a $1 mn there. Note that google has provided "Free" internet here to all citizens and this network performs well with good coverage and satisfactory speeds. Here is a link: http://gigaom.com/2006/08/15/google-launches-wifi-network-in-mountain-view/

And look at the meager amount of money spent for the pilot project recently finished in Pune. It claims to cover around 200 hectares of Pune agricultural college and is supposedly put together for just Rs 2 Lakhs. Ok, we might be able to do better network planning and maybe even discover a better solution to reduce costs, but the figure will still be more than $ 2-3 mn (Pune is after all a far bigger city than a tiny Mountain View). And then there are maintenance and support costs which are a continuous drag.

Some might say, capital in India is not a big deal. Private sector is always ready to jump in with cash. Can agree. That brings me to the bigger question- why do we need city wide broadband access anyway? How many people are really mobile in a city with their wi-fi enabled PDAs , laptops? If you just have a PC and prefer to work from comfort of your home, you are better off with a broadband like BSNL which will me much cheaper and reliable. And come to think of it, India needs to get the basics right first. Good quality roads, traffic etiquette, reliable power supply, potable water are some teething problems which we should try to solve first.

This is not to say that the campaign "unwiring Pune" is futile and should be relinquished. No, just add more sense to it. Learn from the lessons from across the globe. Don't plan to cover the whole city in one shot. First choose parts which really need mobile broadband, like say Koregaon park and Hinjewadi. As and when you feel the need, you can always add more access points.

We need to compete with the best of the cities in world. And we need to add a dash of local flavor to make their solutions work. The marketing punchline "Think Global, Act local" seems apt here.

-nIkUnJ