Have a book to read
Nice to know it’s always there
Subconscious presence
So I decided to plunge into Anne Rice’s world of vampires once again. I felt I had to get those stupid wimpy Twilight vampires that sparkle in the sun out of my head! Of course, I was a bit wary after her last book “Memnoch the Devil” began to show her increasingly christian themes which I didn’t care about.
But Armand has always been such a mysterious figure for me that I thought it would be real neat to find out more about him. And overall I wasn’t disappointed. Lots about the supercool and ancient Marius as well as some nice reunions with old friends like Louis, Pandora and David (Lestat is in some kind of stupor on the floor throughout). But there was also a lot of the heavy christian stuff as well. Not very surprising in this book given Armand’s initial christian upbringing.
Image Credit: endovalswhisper.blogspot.com
Armand - A Devil in an Angel's skin
I found myself glazing over large tracts of text about jesus and god and about how he loved everyone – blah blah. Get to the cool vampiric stuff already! But as I said, we find out all about Armand and his relations with Marius – including sexual ones. Oh didn’t I mention that? There’s sex. Lots of it- and explicit. With Armand being at the center of it all. He coolly frolics with men and women alike showing no particular preference for one over the other. Marius of course, being a vampire can’t screw in the traditional way but there are plenty of kisses, as well as handjobs and (not so subtly) implied blowjobs.
But it’s all done very artistically in Anne Rice’s impeccable style. It’s very refined and naturally we can’t imagine Marius being coarse. He finds Armand irresistible, as does everyone else apparently and Armand is mightily pleased about the whole situation.
So if you’re comfortable with skipping over tedious christian themes, and you want read more about Rice’s awesome vampires, then get a hold of this book. Lots of succulent backstory that you would no doubt be thirsting for (no pun intended) after finishing her big trio – “Interview with a Vampire”, “The Vampire Lestat” and “Queen of the Damned.”
Oh and one more thing – those who’ve seen the movie “Queen of the Damned”, please please forget it. The book is nothing like it. The movie is quite simply pathetic and my wife and I almost puked while watching it. “Don’t judge a book by its movie” seems to be the latest mantra these days, and it applies in this case particularly well.
After many months, we now see the true colors of the Unique Identity (UID) number that Nilekani is so keen to foist on the Indian public. At a function organized by the Indo American Chamber of Commerce, he admitted that the real motivation for the UID was to track people. He also said that in time, if someone didn’t have a UID, that would in itself be suspicious.
Long ago, it was feared that the UID will be used for mass surveillance. Nilekani goes so far as to say that all hotels might be required to demand a UID from those who stay there – not for purposes of credit or to ensure payment, but simply so that the government will be able to keep track of who is where.
Image Credit: Aquila
Mass surveillance around the corner with the UID
The obvious question is, where will this stop? If hotels demand a UID before you can stay in them, will it be long before a theater asks for it before you can watch a movie? Even worse, can a policeman randomly stop you on the road and ask for it as well? This isn’t the same as being asked for a driver’s license since not everyone should be allowed to drive if they’re not qualified. But asking for an ID “just to check up on you” is an invasion of privacy. However, since privacy is a legal right in India, I wonder how such procedures would stand up in court.
To assume that the government won’t become more and more intrusive if it has the ability is stupid. Whenever governments get too much power, disaster ensues. We can rest assured that slowly, bit by bit, the uses of this UID will continue to increase and become more and more pervasive if technologically feasible. Most of us still don’t realize how much the loss of privacy will hurt. They will learn once they do lose it. In that way, this whole experiment is a good thing. It’ll be painful, but it might just be the start of an experience that will teach us the value of what we take for granted in a free country like India.
Today I watched the last episode of an awesome series called “The Prisoner” (1967). I won’t tell you what it’s about, but it’s pretty mind bending and makes you think about new and interesting concepts. Unfortunately, as the series progressive, it becomes more and more “arty” and begins to stray into allegory. The finale called “Fall Out” turns out to be a total mess with the entire episode seeming like a disjointed nightmare. The worst of it was that this episode was hailed as a major accomplishment and a testament to the skills of the director.
Now let’s get one thing straight. I’m a barbarian. I like things to be straightforward and have a clear meaning. Movies should have good and interesting plots – otherwise they’re pretentious crap. Those who praise “Artistic” movies that rely on “style” and “technical accomplishment” should, in my opinion keep their views to themselves. And for good reasons. There are a class of people (I’m sure you’ve met them) who need to feel superior, and when they’re told that such and such a thing is “classic”, will harp on about it even if it bores them to death – perhaps because it bores them to death.
Image Credit: emurray
Wine - Snobbery at its finest
Here’s a powerful illustration of what I’m saying. You know how “sophisticated” people talk about wine? They’ll drone on and on about how each wine is unique and reflects the vineyard it came from. Then they’ll taste it and pretend to pass judgment on its quality and talk about it’s “history” etc etc. I’ve always itched to do a proper randomized double blind test on these pretentious snobs who just want to look “cultured”. Well, we recently found out that the notion of “minerality” – being able to taste the soil of the wine is a complete and utter myth. And people have been believing this crap for centuries.
I can find similar examples of people claiming to be able to distinguish between good and bad art. There is no such thing as good art and bad art. If people didn’t know they were supposed to appreciate Van Gogh, almost everyone would say his paintings are childish and immature. But because they know it’s a Van Gogh painting, they’ll ooh and aah over it and find hidden mysteries that only their eyes can see. Coming back to movies, there are similar tides flowing here as well. Movies that are crappy as hell are praised by critics merely because they’re supposed to be praised. Once again, I would love a randomized double blind test to be done to weed out these phonies.
Citizen Kane - A boring dump of a movie
Citizen Kane is one such overrated movie. The American Film Institute however, thinks it’s the greatest movie ever made and has repeatedly put it at the top of its list of best 100 movies of all time. The truth however, is that it’s one of the most mundane movies I’ve seen. And if a movie is boring, it deserves not to be seen. I’m throwing down a challenge to whoever reads this. Watch “Citizen Kane” and tell me if it’s interesting. I don’t care about how groundbreaking it was in 1941 and how much it’s affected film making since then. I want to know if you think you can stay riveted on the plot and whether or not you can bring yourself to give a shit about a boring rich man who says “Rosebud.”
How a movie can be called the greatest of all time when it’s like watching flies fuck (to borrow a quote from the immortal George Carlin) is something I can’t understand. Movie connoisseurs who cream their pants thinking of Citizen Kane feel that just because a boring movie introduced new techniques in 1941, it has a right to be called the greatest.
2001: A Space Odyssey - Slow paced with no plot
Next in line is 2001: A Space Odyssey. Another movie that’s as interesting as watching paint dry. Nothing happens until half an hour into the movie. We actually have 20 minutes of watching a space ship fly through space (and nothing else) with Beethoven Strauss music playing in the background. Mind, I enjoyed watching Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange” immensely. It has a plot. But A Space Odyssey is an exercise in frustration. The only reason I forced myself to watch it was because I was waiting for the supercool computer villain HAL 9000. But even that wasn’t enough to make up for the sheer boredom of the experience. And the ending is confusing as hell. You don’t know what happened!
Of course, we see the same trend in literature and poetry too, where snobbery is the norm and a means of showing superiority. It’s so pervasive and frustrating, that it’s more noble to take a stand on the opposite extreme. So here’s my message to the “sophisticated” ones: I’m a philistine. I don’t understand all the “arty” stuff. Give me movies and literature with proper plots, paintings that are easy to understand and don’t expect me to know better. I’m sure you don’t really understand either.
I have to admit I’m embarrassed to be reading a book with such a clichéd title. I mean the whole idea of a magic sword is so passé, it reminds me of He-Man. But let’s face it – almost all epic fantasy novels are set in a middle ages atmosphere and the attraction of a special sword can be too powerful to resist.
Wizard’s First Rule by Terry Goodkind is the first book in the Sword of Truth series and my feelings about the book are mixed. I don’t know if I’m going to move onto the next one or not. There’s something missing for me that I can’t quite put my finger on. I think it has to do with the fact that I don’t really care about the characters in the book. The only really interesting ones are the bad guys who engage in some pretty unusual practices to say the least.
Wizard's First Rule - Sword of Truth Series
There are a few new concepts that I kind of liked, but really not as much as the “endowment” logic in the Runelords series or the Saidar/Saidin concept in the Wheel of Time. In those two, the magic system is just that – a system. So far in the Sword of Truth series, there’s not much logic to how magic works. It’s haphazard and things become possible as and when the plot dictates it must.
Also, unlike the Wheel of Time and the Runelords series, I’m not really keen to find out what happens to the hero. Perhaps the problem is that I don’t really feel the sense of destiny that characterized the protagonists in the other two despite late references to “prophecies”. Another problem may be that he has things a little too easy. He has a tutor right from the word “go”, and the realization that he’s more than just the sword he carries comes a little too late.
It also pisses me off when close friends in the story keep vital secrets from each other for ridiculous reasons. This is a flaw shared by other series’s too by the way. People must tell each other everything. Only then is it believable. I’ve decided to read an “in-between” book before I determine whether or not to read the second book in the series. Let’s see how I feel about it then. I might give the series another chance and see if I start caring more.
The “Equal Opportunities Commission” needs to have its head examined. The latest loonacy is to get private companies to maintain a “religious inventory” of their staff so that they can ‘monitor’ discrimination based on religion.
It’s so silly I don’t know where to start. What are they going to do with the data? Suppose an organization has too few muslims, are they going to try and implement a quota? Or if there are too many muslims (proportionately speaking), will they accuse the organization of discriminating against hindus? I can already imagine crazy parties like the Shiv Sena swooping down and decimating a small business for employing too many muslims…
And of course, if the ultimate goal is to make religion irrelevant then monitoring it is the last thing you want to do. If the caste system still exists in India today, it is in large part due to the government putting its nose in where it shouldn’t. By highlighting caste, monitoring it and laying down separate rules, the government has ensured that the caste system will never die. And if they start monitoring religion in professional organizations, we can be sure that religion will start to play a bigger role in the workplace.
Image Credit: imNickle
Let the cube remain mixed!
When will the government learn to leave things alone? We don’t need more monitoring, we need less. Just keep an eye out for crimes, and unfair practices and let things sort themselves out. I’m going to quote yet again from the Tao Teh Ching here about how to govern:
The highest type of ruler is one of whose existence the people are barely aware.
Next comes one whom they love and praise.
Next comes one whom they fear.
Next comes one whom they despise and defy.
When you are lacking in faith, Others will be unfaithful to you.
The Sage is self-effacing and scanty of words.
When his task is accomplished and things have been completed,
All the people say, “We ourselves have achieved it!”
Tao Teh Ching – Ch. 17.
Kickass translation from John C. H Wu!
Perhaps the government should learn that things take their own sweet time to change. Contrary to popular opinion these days, Democracy works in India (with a little help from the judiciary). We’re doing just fine. Leave things be and don’t try and force change down people’s throat. It’s not going to work. Lucky the corporates are putting up a good fight against maintaining this sort of dossier. And rightly so. They don’t want to be accused of religious profiling. So here’s hoping this will never be finalized.
Followers of my blog know that most of my impressions of the US are hardly flattering. But one really must give credit where it’s due. One of the great things about this country is the respect and treatment they extend to their armed forces, and this is something that India can really emulate.
Killings of Indian army personnel on the border are an everyday affair for us Indians. Perhaps because of the sheer number of tragedies, it’s impossible to praise and keep track of every death. But our army faces a shortcoming of quality officers and rightly so. Why would any intelligent and promising young person join up? Apart from patriotism, do they have any other motivation to enroll? True they get certain benefits – cheap food, accommodation, and education for their children. But do they get public respect?
Image Credit: $owmya
Respect for Indian Military Personnel
In my year or so of stay in the US, I’ve been astounded by the respect and admiration the American people display towards people in the army. Though it sometimes borders on Jingoism, we can learn much from the Americans in this regard. By following these two simple steps, we can ensure that quality people become motivated to enlist.
When people gather together – either in a plane, or in a concert, or a theater, an announcement can be made on the lines of, “Before we start, let’s take a moment to thank our military personnel who are sacrificing their lives for us.” Or “Can we have a big hand for the brave men and women who keep our country secure.” Military personnel can also be asked to stand up and then given a round of applause.
Benefit: This lets them know they are valued and appreciated. It reassures them that their job is important.
Currently enrollment in the National Defense Academy (NDA) is done only via a formal boring tender-style advertisement in the newspaper. In order to attract the best talent, we need to make life in the armed forces more appealing. It’s all about marketing. A video with inspiring music (but not over the top cheesy) which conveys the sort of meaningful life that most young people seek. A meaningful active life with integrity. I’m sure a good media company can make a great deal out of it.
They can show it on TV, in theaters and have well crafted, glossy and tasteful posters strategically placed in high profile areas where we normally see high value brands. Like 5-star hotels, and prime Billboard space. The total cost of all this is negligible (compared to the defense budget) and will repay itself many times over in better quality people entering the army, navy, and air force.
Basically we need to improve the visibility of our armed forces in every sphere of life. Veterans and Disabled personnel all need to be taken note of, and given the respect and adulation that their counterparts receive in the US.
It never fails to shock me how a tip is demanded in the US. People simply refuse to listen to reason when we (yes, there are others!) tell them that leaving a tip isn’t necessary. Well, I’m hoping for too much here, but if you’re a waiter, here are 5 reasons why I will try my best not to give any money to you and why the reasons for tipping are crappy.
Just leave me alone ok? I don’t want to bloody chit chat with you. I want food. FOOD! Get it? It’s a restaurant. I go there to eat. I go because I want either Italian food, Chinese Food or something else which I can’t get in a McDonald’s. So I come to a restaurant to fulfill my cravings for it. I will pay for what I value – food. Not you.
Christ, you offend me – kneeling down next to my table, pretending to like me and chatting as if you’re my best friend when it’s obvious that all you’re after is the tip! I’m not a bloody money bag you know. I will pay the bill which includes the cost of the food, the environment and the salaries of the people involved – nothing more.
The only way to get money out of me that I don’t have to legally pay is by prying it out of my cold dead hands…
Bottom line: I don’t want to know your name, or interact with you for any longer than I have to in order to place my order. As far as I’m concerned, you’re the equivalent of a conveyor belt that brings me my food and a computer into which I input my order. Of course, I won’t be rude. But don’t expect me to interact with you any more than I would with some stranger.
Image Credit: cafemama
Did you earn this tip?
And this is my problem how exactly? It’s astonishing that customers are expected to make up for your employer’s cheapness in not paying you a decent wage. Please include the full cost in everyone’s bill thank you very much. I’ll pay it because I have to and the charge is there for me to see.
What’s really funny here is that no one seems to criticize the employers! All criticism is reserved for non tipping customers instead of the owners of the restaurant for not paying a decent wage. Wtf! Could it possibly be because you guys know you can make much more by tips and under report your income to the IRS?
And I’ll shoot your kid if you don’t give me a million dollars. Seriously, am I even hearing this right? You’re actually using the threat of blackmail to make me pay you? Well as long as you’re openly claiming to be a criminal it’s all right I guess.
Fortunately that’s why I prefer buffets. Listen apart from it being illegal, this shows your poor integrity. But if you spit in someone’s food because they didn’t give you money you didn’t earn, then you’re a loser and deserve to be a waiter for the rest of your life.
Did you cook it? Did you invent it? No. You picked it up and brought it to me. While it might not be easy, there are plenty of jobs which are much worse – shop floor workers for example. And I’ve been a shop floor manager, so I know. Face it – compared to other jobs, being a waiter is unskilled. You get paid what the market will think your services are worth. You don’t deserve more for your work over and above what your employer should pay you.
I expect you to be grateful and pray for me at night if I tip you 10%. Be happy I gave you anything at all. I worked for the money in my wallet and by giving you some I didn’t have to, I’m doing you a favor. Learn to remember that when people give you something they don’t need to, it’s a favor. You don’t complain that they didn’t give you more!
By the way, the same thing above applies to all professions that demand tips including those on cruise liners.
So now that you understand why I won’t give you money you don’t deserve, stop with the “oh how could you?” attitude. I can. And I will.
This post isn’t going to make me very popular with the progressive Indian crowd. I don’t blame them. A Uniform Civil Code (UCC) for India will mean that there will be only one civil law for all religions and for all people. As of now for example, Muslims have a separate marriage law and Christians have a separate inheritance law. The Indian Constitution states that the government should try and ensure that over time, there is just one law for everyone. Mind we’re not talking about Criminal law which is the same for everyone. Just Civil law.
I used to be a big believer in a Uniform Civil code for India too, until I began to see things differently and began to understand why India has survived as a Democracy for so long against all odds. I’ve come to realize that people don’t like their identities to be subsumed by a larger identity – especially when they feel threatened.
Image Credit: Adam Foster | Codefor
India's diversity is its strength
All over the world we see people struggling to maintain their identity – to differentiate themselves from a larger identity that they feel threatens their own. The Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, the Uighurs (or Uyghurs) in China, the Tibetan population, and too many others to list here. These movements are worldwide. Even countries with uniform and homogeneous cultures have separatist movements. The French for example, fiercely protect their language and identity and the Danish people will pay immigrants to leave if they can’t integrate culturally.
Given all these movements, it’s nothing short of a miracle that India which has 1,576 languages (according to the 1991 census), and a dizzying multitude of races has managed to survive so long without being split apart several times over. The main reason for this is the fact that India doesn’t try and integrate everything by force. It just lets things be. Force begets force.
India doesn’t believe in coercion. It accepts everything and everyone. It doesn’t try and control. Many people claim that India’s weakness is that it doesn’t take anything too seriously. They are wrong. It isn’t weakness. It’s strength.
I can’t help but quote from the Tao Teh Ching here – it’s so apt that it might have been written for India:
When government is lazy and blunt
The people are kind and honest;
When government is efficient and severe
The people are discontented and deceitful.
and
Those who lead people by following the Tao
don’t use weapons to enforce their will.
Using force always leads to unseen troubles.
and finally
Why are the people rebellious?
Because the rulers interfere too much.
Therefore they are rebellious.
As things stand right now in India, most people don’t feel threatened by a government that is chill with everything. No one takes anything too seriously. There are fights and battles, but the disturbance they cause is relatively small. As of now, I feel that the imposition of a Uniform Civil Code by force will make people feel threatened.
It goes against the grain of India to make things uniform. India is a mass of contradictions. Each state is like a separate country – a bit like the European Union rather than the US, with each having its own culture, and language. Even the Chief Justice of India has commented on how the Uniform Civil Code is a sensitive issue.
India has found stability because of its contradictions. Instead of trying to resolve contradictions, we let them thrive side by side. Destroying those contradictions and bringing everything in line with logic, may be a pretty ideal, but it will be the end of India as we know it.
What’s your take?
Loading ...This is going to be a tough one for you guys to swallow. At the heart of it, is a chap called Lawrence Summers who’s currently the Director for the National Economic Counsel in the US. When he was president of the World bank, he wrote a memo which recommended dumping more toxic waste in developing countries because – get this – lives in poorer countries are worth less than those in developed countries.
Image Credit: Molas
Dumping Toxic Waste in Developing Countries - because rich people's lives are worth more?
The problem of where to dump toxic waste generated abroad has plagued planners in the west for a long time. The recent controversy regarding the Platinum II cruiseliner on Indian shores is evidence of this. Summer’s memo makes a very clear point by saying,
“The World Bank should be encouraging more migration of the dirty industries to the LDCs [Least Developed Countries]“
He gives three reasons. First, rich people in the west earn more money. Therefore if someone has to die, it makes economic sense for it to be the poor people. In his words:
“I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that.”
Second, poor countries like Africa are under polluted! To quote:
“I’ve always thought that under-populated countries in Africa are vastly UNDER-polluted, their air quality is probably vastly inefficiently low compared to Los Angeles or Mexico City”.
His logic is that the pollution generated by the west must be spread over the globe instead of being restricted to the countries where it was created. In other words, he sees the good air quality in Africa as a haven for dumping the Industrialized world’s waste into.
And finally, he says that since people in poor countries anyway have a shorter life expectancy, dangerous chemicals will have less of an impact on them. He goes on to claim that they’ll be willing to trade clean air in exchange for money since they must value a clear environment less than rich people
Remember that these aren’t the words of some loony fringe economist, but the Chief economist of the World Bank in 1991 and who still holds a position of prominence in the Obama administration!
In my opinion, such statements can only come from economists who view everything including life in terms of money. Wait, that’s not true. Corporates whose only motive is profit also think the same way. When you start looking at the entire world using just one metric – money, you commit terrible atrocities because your sole aim is then to increase that metric to the expense of everything else. The whole world becomes a means to increase your money as much as possible. The lives of all living things, and the environment are fodder to be used.
When Summer’s memo was released, it created a terrible backlash leading him to claim that it wasn’t serious. But from reading his language in the original memo, I don’t believe that for one moment. I think he was dead serious. And for a brief moment, we the regular public caught a glimpse of the kind of people who rule our world today.
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