Horn NOT OK Please

Stuck in a traffic jam? Getting bored of repetitive music on the FM? Frustrated with the vehicle in front for taking a few extra seconds to stir in motion? The solution is right at your fingertips, a button press away - HONK! Honk away your miseries. Honk for a better future…

A future full of physiological and psychological health issues like hypertension, high stress levels, sleep disturbances, hearing losses, stress and what not.  But thank goodness that the worst affected of all these effects are the children. Add to the ill-effects-list learning impairment and cognitive development delays and it’s a perfect recipe for a perfect future generation.

A little unfair that us adults who actually contribute the most to the noise pollution levels are digging graves for their own kids by cultivating such mannerism and lifestyle.

But why think of all of this? Honking is totally worth the hell we create for them.

Appeared in HT Edge on July 11, 2011

One less Uttar Pradesh

Misery and plight of seven females and their families has turned into an orgy of vile political drama. The accused are absconding from the law and the victimized girls are committing suicides. While this happens political battleground is turning into a powerhouse of allegations and constitutional mockery. Assurances are pouring in, amendments are being proposed, number are being justified by statistics and strict actions are being promised but the most objective step towards imparting justice is still not being taken…

Welcome to Uttar Pradesh, the rape capital of the country.

[This article has been published in The Viewspaper. Read the rest here]

In Deep Water

Two years in term and there is no respite for UPA government. Strings of accusations keep pouring in as new facts get unearthed every day.

Dayanidhi Maran’s involvement in 2G scam is one such skeleton UPA can’t wait to bury to prove a point of governance integrity. But compromising Maran would be a too little too late response for absolution from all that UPA has managed to get into.

Maran just happens to be a piece of jigsaw puzzle that will ultimately solve to be corruption at absolute government levels. Without involvement at the top it’s impossible to pull off a scam of such magnitude and cover it up for so long.

The only saving grace for this government can be through a thorough cleanup of all its deeds. Waiting for CBI to prosecute and take action is just getting too tiring for the entire country.

The Bad Apple

In the information age, forcing copyright policing in the crudest manner is both undesirable and unacceptable. Apple’s patent to disable video recording in places like concerts and live entertainment reeks of extreme level of intrusion in end user’s usage freedom.

Funny how those with power to dictate terms take measures to make extreme things possible, like publishing user’s private data publicly (Facebook). But trying to restrict the content one wants to keep and capture is deemed as an offense to be tackled desperately at every level possible.

This “feature” is bound to create so much discontent that overriding Apple’s restrictions via any necessary means will become commonplace. The people willing to go the “wrong way” might just increase. There have to be better and more concrete ways to avoid video capture at such events than installing a big brother on your phones.

Scarred v/s Inspired

Osama Bin Laden, the poster boy of al-Qaeda, was the deemed face of terrorism for a major part of the world. His death came in just in time to restore Obama Administration’s popularity index but too late for being a significant turning point in the history of the world.

I believe while Laden’s death stirs things up a bit, it achieves nothing definitive. It is certainly not the end of the social ideology sparking terrorism, neither is it revolutionary enough to restore what was lost in all these pressing years.

The intrusive, precautionary measures of security are already set in stone at this point. The presumably disconnected terror efforts of al-Qaeda can be thwarted given how the world has geared up since 9/11. Al-Qaeda might be spurred up after Osama’s martyrdom but there is little it can do with the zero margin of error rest of the world has learned to live with.

Corruption Carnage

Anna Hazare took the cue for the revolution in the biggest corrupt democracy of the world. A five day hunger strike, protests enveloping the entire country and support of millions finally brought government to its knees and yield to what always was constitutionally ours.

There were two kinds of citizens India witnessed over the past week – those who wanted the corruption to end and became a part of the movement and the others who wanted the corruption to end but had given up any hope of reform. For the latter, the government’s submission should be an eye opener to the difference a taxpayer’s involvement can make in a democracy.

The battle is half won but we should be ready to return to the battlefield when the time demands. The deep-rooted venality can be prevented to be a part of our being. If conscience cannot show us the way, a 72 year old man’s ideology and commitment might.

[Appeared in HT Edge on April 11, 2011]

The Tortured Reality

PMO, Civil Hospital will set up a board to conduct an examination on tortured teenager. DCP claims that the boy said in court that he did not have any “problems”. But all I can wonder is what was going through the police’s minds when they were mercilessly beating up the 13 year old in custody.

Gurgaon Police’s manner of persecuting an alleged motorcycle theft is appalling both constitutionally and morally. It reeks of abuse and corruption of power and helplessness of those at receiving end. The ultimate insult to the victim is the way this incident is tried to be shrugged off.

A few hollow words of damage control are not sufficient, what’s needed here is a conviction of reform. Reform of those in power and reform of citizens who let it go because it didn’t happen to them. Pressing public bodies for accountability is imperative else the offices of power, instead of serving its citizens, will be debased to dictating them.

[Appeared in HT Edge on April 04, 2011]