Some notes on Homosexuality

(Updated Below); Update II
I first read of homosexuality when I was in 8th std. There were American and British novels at home; written by Frederick Forsyth; Jeffrey Archer and other trumpets of the glory of the West. Some of the male characters showed a predilection for other males. When I first read the word "Homosexual" somehow I understood its meaning.
You see, one of the kids in the neighborhood (he was 2 years younger than me) was known to make advances on my friends. This was in Tirunelveli, and I bet he was not "converted" into homosexuality by anyone. In fact I doubt if he knew the term. There was no Tamil equivalent then (now there is - ஓரினச் சேர்க்கை ).
We used to harass him a little bit; but we all knew that homosexuality was taboo.
At that point of time, people just pretended that homosexuals exist only in the West. Homosexuality burst into public consciousness following the rapid spread of AIDS. AIDS was thought (incorrectly) to spread primarily through homosexual contact - so much that a friend thought it was unique to homosexuals. Of course, it was not unique to gay people. It was a virus that spread through unsafe sex, or sharing needles or a hundred other ways.
But when AIDS started spreading, there were advocacy groups who came on television and they openly talked about being homosexual. They advised tolerance for homosexuality in society. I believe that primary reason why AIDS patients are reviled in India is because of the association with homosexuality.
During this period, I got hold of a book based on popular psychology. It was one of the books such as "I'm OK; You're OK". It had lots of information about sexual behavior and variations. I have always believed that knowledge is the true key to fighting fear; reading that book has since made me more aware of the variety of sexual behavior common among humans and consider it normal.

Some Terminology
1. Homosexuals are not the "Third Gender" (Moonram Paal). They are not physically varied from general males or females.
2. The people we call "eunuchs", Napumsak (in Sanskrit) or "Aravaaani" (அரவாணி ) in Tamil are humans born with slightly different genetic make up. They MAY have both male and female sexual organs (hermaphrodites) or some other genetic difference. There is an ongoing fight for their rights and dignity.
(In Tamil Nadu they call themselves "Aravaani" because they trace their history from the oral story of "Aravaan", a warrior character in the Mahabharatha. An important part of the narrative of such marginalized and oppressed groups is their myths and legends. We will look at a few about Homosexuality later))
3. Transexuals are people who have a desperate wish to belong to the opposite sex. They are typically called as men trapped in a woman's body or women trapped in a man's body. In the West, transexuals actually have the option of undergoing medical procedure to change from a woman to a man or vice versa.
(Again, the Mahabharatha story of Shikandi - reborn from a woman to a man for revenge - can be taken to be a reference to a transexual.)
4. Cross-dressers are men or women who prefer to dress like the opposite sex. Men who dress in skirts (called "drag" in American popular culture) is an example. Cross-dressers NEED NOT be homosexuals. That is, even though some men may like to dress in women's clothes, they may not be attracted to other men.
5. Bi-sexuals are people who are attracted to males and females - their own sex and the opposite sex. Psychologists believe that bisexuality is very common, but it is concealed.
6. Finally, homosexuals are general males and females who feel sexually attracted to their own sex. In Western popular culture male homosexuals are called gays and female homosexuals are called lesbians. There are several derogatory terms for gays and lesbians in English. I won't list them here.

Homosexuality has NOTHING to do with child molestation or incest. There are people among us who somehow feel like having sex with children. They are called pedophiles and it is a horrid crime. Psychologists can try and cure pedophilia but Homosexuality is not a disease.
In popular culture, some of the worst offences on homosexuality are committed by comparing homosexuals with pedophiles or people who have sex with animals. Please note that homosexuality is consenting sex between two adults - that is, both the partners agree to have sex.

Homosexuality and the Fight for Equal Rights
In modern times, homosexuals in the West have been leading a more open lifestyle and have been demanding equal rights in society such as the right to marry and adopt children. We have to remember that even in the 1950's homosexuality was punished in the UK and USA (although they have forgotten all about that and use gay rights as a convenient beating stick on countries like Iran). Alan Turing, the founder of Computer Science and the main cryptographer who broke the German Enigma cipher machine was gay. He was punished by an English court to take medicine to "cure" homosexuality and he ended up committing suicide by taking Cyanide.

Why is homosexuality so reviled? It is "abnormal" in the mainstream's thinking and it involves sex. But there are also religious reasons in the West.

The Biblical sanction against homosexuality
The Book of Genesis in the Bible describes the story of Abraham. At the time of Abraham, there were two cities in Palestine called Sodom and Gomorrah. The people of Sodom and Gomorrah were said to have been involved in several acts of sexual deviancy. The Abrahamic God gets angry at this and plans to destroy both cities. He informs Abraham about this impending destruction.
Abraham remembers that his cousin Lot lives in Sodom and therefore begs the God to protect his life. God agrees and a couple of angels turn up like ordinary men at Lot's house in Sodom.
Unfortunately, the deviant people of Sodom had seen the angels and they demand from Lot that the men be handed over (presumably for raping them). Lot manages the situation. He is warned by the angels to flee the city of Sodom and not to look back.
Lot gets out of Sodom and across the plains towards the Sea of Galilee, as clouds gather above Sodom to inflict God's punishment. With him are his wife, and two daughters. His wife, curious as to what is happening behind her to Sodom, turns back and immediately becomes a pillar of salt. (Even now, near the Sea of Galilee there are several salt pillars and tourists are informed that one of them can be Lot's wife).
The acts in which the people of Sodom engaged are collectively called "Sodomy". They are identified with homosexuality. The laws of several states in the USA prohibit Sodomy, because of such Biblical sanction. The Indian Penal Code forbids Sodomy - that is homosexuality is a CRIME, still, in India. Although the law is hardly enforced.

Other Arguments Against Homosexuality
The "abnormality" of homosexuality has prompted it as a assault against society's basic structure. For example, Homosexual marriage is portrayed as an assault on heterosexual marriage. The gay lifestyle is thought to be hedonistic. As I said above, people (ex- Rick Santorum ex-Senator PA) have compared homosexuality to sex with beasts or with children. The idea that our kids will choose homosexuality or will become homosexuals is a potent fear for some people.
These fears are caused by sexual repression, and religious superstition. Psychologists believe that strong homophobia (fear of homosexuals) may be caused by repressed homosexuality itself (ex- Senator Larry Craig of USA sponsored several anti-homosexual resolutions, but was found to have solicited and had sex with men in airport restrooms).

The Arguments for Homosexual rights
What are the equal rights that the gay community demand in the West and in India?
They want the anti-Sodomy laws repealed.
They want awareness of homosexuality in society so that "hate-crimes" against them stop (remember the guy burnt to death in a Chennai suburb for having AIDS?)
They want to be not discriminated against in jobs (that is even if someone is openly gay, he/she should not be fired for that reason.)
They want to be able to serve in the military or police
They want their marriages (between a guy and another guy or a woman and another woman) recognized in courts so that benefits and property rights follow.
They want to be able to adopt children.

It is clear that in the West homosexuality is rapidly gaining social tolerance and equal rights will eventually be theirs. Most younger people are tolerant of different lifestyles. In India, there is a long way to go - even women have not reached a tolerable lifestyle here.

Some of the arguments made by homosexuals to be considered as part of society are interesting:
The "Hardwired" argument
One strand of homosexual advocates have tried to present homosexuality as a genetic difference. Thus, they argue, homosexuals cannot help being gay; it is hardwired in their brains.
As a proof they have tried to show some scientific work. The religious community has hit back with other scientific work and at this point it is a stalemate.
I personally believe this argument may make homosexuality acceptable in people's minds; but I don't agree with the thrust of it. Hardwired or not, even if it is a matter of choice, society HAS to give equal rights to gay people. Who cares if it is in the genetic code or not? The private lives of adult humans are not the business of laws.

By the way, interestingly, as a part of this argument, gay rights advocates also point to the fact that homosexuality exists in the animal kingdom - dogs can be homosexual; and zookeepers have known homosexual animals for some time. For example, Baboons are said to be 50% gay.

The Historical Argument
The oldest surviving epic in the world is the Epic of Gilgamesh. It is a classy Sumerian poem compiled around 1700BC and has miraculously survived and has more miraculously been translated.

Sidenote:
I will quote a few classic lines from the debate on Death in this epic. Nothing to do with the subject of this essay, but these are thoughts of people who existed 4000 years back:

But man's life is short, at any moment
it can be snapped, like a reed in a canebrake.
The handsome young man, the lovely young woman -
in their prime, death comes and drags them away.
Though no one has seen death's face or heard
death's voice, suddenly, savagely, death
destroys us, all of us, old or young.
And yet we build houses, make contracts, brothers
divide their inheritance, conflicts occur -
as though this human life lasted forever.
The river rises, flows over its banks
and carries us all away like mayflies
floating downstream: they stare at the sun,
then all at once there is nothing.

-- Gilgamesh, a New English version. Stephen Mitchell. Free Press Publishers

Gilgamesh talks about a very close, extraordinary friendship between the King of Uruk, Gilgamesh, and a savage in the forest, Enkidu. Several of the descriptions of their friendship sound like a homosexual relationship. When Enkidu dies, Gilgamesh dresses him in a bride's veil.
Homosexual rights advocates claim of a historical tradition of homosexuality being accepted in society. They point to Greek and Roman societies and their literature points to accepted homosexuality.
Further along, Leonardo DaVinci, one of the greatest Renaissance men was said to be homosexual.
These arguments legitimise homosexuality and try to detach it from the biblical context.

In several ways, the thrust of these arguments is a demonstration of human rights - that society shall not take away the natural rights of humans. I think it is time for a repeal of the Sodomy laws in India and some education about alternative lifestyles.

Update I
I missed clarifying a few common misconceptions about homosexuals.
1. Psychologists say that many "straight" men and women have a few homosexual fantasies. This does NOT mean they are gay.
2. You do not become a homosexual because you had a domineering father. This belief, common in evangelical circles, is a myth.
3. Homosexual men need not be impotent. Impotence has nothing to do with straightness or gayness.
4. The converse too - if someone is impotent it does not mean they are homosexual or even feminine.
5. Homosexual men need not be feminine acting or feminine thinking. Homosexual women need not be masculine.

Update II
I know I am digressing too much here, but I am unable to resist.
The Epic of Gilgamesh has meaning for Indian readers. The character, Enkidu, who becomes Gilgamesh's friend, is found as a savage in the forest. He is said to be born the son of Goddess Aruru. When Gilgamesh hears about this formidable savage, he asks a guide to contact Shamhat, a priestess of Ishtar in his city (Uruk). The priestesses of Ishtar are described very similar to Devadasis, being available to any man, having dedicated their bodies to the goddess.
The guide takes Shamhat to meet and seduce Enkidu into coming back to Uruk. Shamhat reaches the forest and observes Enkidu. He has never seen a woman and is smitten byher. She then convinces him to leave the forest and go with her to Uruk.
This story must be familiar to Malayalam movie watchers. This is the story of the movie "Vaishali". Vaishali is based on the legend of Rishyasrunga described in the Ramayana.
The kingdom of Anga has not had rain for a long time. The King is advised to perform a yaga (fire worship). The yaga has to be performed by a man who has not known a woman. The sages advise the king to get Rishyasrunga, son of the Rishi Vibhandhaka and the celestial dancer Menaka. He was born in the forest and brought up by his father without contact of any woman.
The King of Anga sends a delegation of Devadasis, to seduce Rishyasrunga and bring him back. They go and accomplish the task.

See any similarity? Isn't this amazing? The Sumerian legend had obviously spread around and influenced the Indian epics of Ramayana and Mahabharatha, both of which contain this legend. The original Sumerian poems, which were written much before the epic was compiled, were from around 2500BC.

Establishing an Internet Presence

I wrote about the administrative details of starting freelancing here. In the below article, let me talk about a few guidelines for getting clients.
When you plan to take the freelancing route, as I mentioned in the above article, be clear about your role: A freelancer in IT is usually a programmer (or graphic designer). You need to be ready to program and be hands-on.
You are NOT starting a business - for now. You are a one-man show initially. Do not be over-aggressive in going after clients. Do not commit to more than you can do. All the rules that apply as a programmer in a project applies to a free-lancer too.
There are certain possibilities for getting clients as a freelancer - let us consider these:

The GetAFreeLancer route
Here is a link to a set of freelancing websites for coding: 85+ Tools & Resources for Freelancing
When you start, it is tempting to look at getafreelancer or other sites and assume that you can bid lower than everyone and get projects. This route is completely packed with a million other programmers all over the world. The clients are mostly cheap and try to lowball every bid. They have no idea about the true value of programming and may not pay at the end either. I have seen people who ask for an Email campaign system for $200. It is ridiculous, and I would advise you to stay away from this route.

The NRI route
As I mentioned in the previous article, if you have been abroad for some time, maintain contacts with your immediate friends. This does NOT mean that you go after any contact like an Amway rep. Stay within your comfort zone but let people know that you will be available for freelancing. Open a LinkedIn.com account and keep it current.
In my experience, if you let people know that you are going back to India, they will approach you with offers. In this technological age, remote working is pretty easy and so feel confident about going into freelancing.

The Long Hard route
If you are in India, have not had time to cultivate contacts abroad, you can still get clients. But it is a long haul. You need to prepare from now. Most Indian programmers with a talent and passion for programming would be in the situation I describe below:
1. You will have had some years of experience (3 or more) in a services company.
2. You will have worked with foreign clients. You would have communicated with them via email,IM; you would also have interacted with them personally when they come over or you go abroad on short visits.
3. You know that there are a set of "soft skills" - writing grammatical English with some structure; how to organize your thoughts and write emails; and you understand a few foriegn accents. If you are not skilled at these, you atleast know that you have gaps and try to get better.

The method I suggest below takes a long-term view. It may not yield results immediately; but there is no question that it is a clean route to take.

Note: Most services companies have non-solicitation agreements. Based on those agreements, you cannot usually work with direct clients of your company for a time-period. So, PERISH the thought of freelancing directly for your companies' clients.

Establishing an Internet Presence
1. Register a web domain name with a good hosting provider. For now, go cheap. Think a bit about your domain name. Remember that you MAY grow to be a business at some point, so create a professional sounding name.
2. Make sure that you get a hosting provider which offers platforms with the technology you are most comfortable with - such as .NET framework and SQL Server if you are Microsoft; or PHP and MySQL if you are in PHP.
3. Google (and other providers) offers email services under your own domain. For example, if your site is www.mygreatcompany.com, then you can get email services for @mygreatcompany.com. Most hosting providers give you a way to map from the domain name to a third party email service such as Gmail. Use that and create professional email ids such as sales@mygreatcompany.com and an email address with your name.
4. Some hosting providers give blogging packages for a small fee. That way, you can host your blog in your site itself. Or you can try the route I chose - I have a blogspot technical blogging address (http://ramsnotes.blogspot.com). I link my articles from my website (http://www.alphazonsystems.com).
Having a blog is important. Having some backend such as .NET or PHP with database support is also important, even if your site consists of html pages only at this stage.
5. Have a graphic designer design a decent website. Develop it and make it available for public.

At this stage what is the content strategy for your website? How do you get traffic?
You have to create content based on your goals. Your goal is to be known as a good technologist. This website will be seen by your potential clients. They will NOT take a decision solely based on how good your content is, but it is definitely ONE of the factors. You are trying to gain popularity in the internet.
The best way to create content is to write blog articles. These articles can be of certain types:
a) Explaining a concept such as XML parsing or concurrency checks in a O-R framework.
b) Explaining a tip such as how to trace HTTP calls with Fiddler while browsing from Firefox.
c) Exploring a new technology such as Microsoft Silverlight or Adobe Flash Collaboration Service.

I have written a detailed article on the idea of blogging here. You need to learn to write well. Apart from writing articles, provide free code. People will always visit sites with free code. For example, if you wrote a business app based on Silverlight as a proof of concept, provide the code as a zip file, linked and downloadable from your website.
If you create good content, then there are two advantages from it:
1. Obvious one - people will visit your site; they will link to you. It serves as online credntials.
2. Subtle one - for every article you publish, send the link to your clients, friends and contacts. Put the link in LinkedIn.com, facebook and so on. What that does is it REMINDS your contacts that there is a talented guy/gal out there who is available. They will keep being reminded by your work. Let us say, instead, that you send an email every month telling everyone that you need contracts. people will not react favorably to that. But sending the blog link is a very subtle reminder.
I think this is the best way to use the internet as a marketing tool for personal work.

One big question is how far you can market yourself while STILL working for another company. If you look at my website, alphazonsystems.com, I am explicitly marketing myself. But I ONLY did it after I left my last job. Before that, the site was available and so were the articles. But I did not cross the line and ask for work for myself. I think that is safe. Maintain a website and post articles, but don't let your company feel threatened.

This internet presence you create will take time to accumulate. Over time people will link to you, download code. But you may not get actual clients who ask for services. That is fine. There are other indirect reasons it will help you.

The Website as Credential
As I said earlier, you cannot directly approach your clients. But your clients have friends and their own network. THAT is the network you can tap into. It is one level separated from your own network. If you impress the people known to you, they will refer you and remember you when someone is looking for a freelancer.
That network does not know you personally. But your website and the work that has accumulated in that website over a period of a couple of years will serve to convince them to trust you.
If you are passionate about technology and want to freelance anytime in the future, it is IMPERATIVE for you to establish an online professional presence. Start the process NOW.

So, again, the steps to create an internet presence are:
1. Create a website
2. Create a blog in your website or separately
3. Start writing a couple of articles
4. Popularize your articles by linking them in your website; linking them from your IM; Facebook; LinkedIn; and send emails with the links to everyone who likes technology in your circle.
5. Write frequently
6. Create demos in your website with free code downloads.
7. You can also write articles in online tech journals and link to them. It requires professional writing skills but you should try.

Back to my original point, you require this kind of long haul approach to seeking clients for freelancing. Particularly if you do not have many contacts abroad.

Layoff Dharma

I want to quickly point out a couple of things about layoffs.
I see people often arguing that layoffs are essential load shedding for a business cycle. Whenever you rant about layoffs, a bunch of guys talk about the businees point of view.
While it is true that layoffs are unavoidable, we have to look at a bunch of predicaments employees face in the Indian context:
1. They are not paid fair compensation during layoffs - most companies only pay till the day the layoff occurs, while according to law they are supposed to pay till the month end. Thus companies violate the law for their benefit.
2. Even during the peak of this recession, you see companies insisting that the layoffs are performance based. Obviously, (as I have argued here and here), almost every layoff in this cycle is because companies THEMSELVES are not performing well. They are losing projects, are unable to hold on to clients and find new clients. Yet, the fallacy is mantained that a vague "performance" criteria goes into layoff listing. The truth is, there cannot be any independent verifications of performance. It is a vague term. Whoever heard of companies laying off employees from billable projects enmasse?
3. As I wrote before, companies have hiked the "notice period" for an employee to leave to be an unmanageable THREE MONTHS. This was done when the market was good so that companies can treat employees close to bonded labor. They have thretened and cajoled employees to sign these notice periods.
But while laying off those same employees, they do not adhere to any notice period. By any standards this is unfair. While we are ready to give allowance to companies for maintaining their interests, we are not ready to grant the same to employees. Why can't the notice periods be mutual?
4. More than anything, what makes me angry is that the HR and management keeps talking about "loyalty" as a prime virtue in any company. The relationship between an employee and employer is contractual, and there is no need to talk about loyalty. Yet, they kept claiming some kind of divine moral authority based on loyalty. How loyal have THEY been to their employees?
5. There is another very important consideration here - companies like to treat employees as if they are contract workers, during a recession. But, they are NOT allowed any of the conveniences of a contract worker. If you work for a company, and you want to earn more money, you CANNOT freelance. If you do it you have to secretly. Thus, you KNOW that you will be laid off during a business cycle, YET you cannot accumulate additional money for the rainy day. I think this is the unfairest condition, either mentioned in employee agreements or implicitly enforced. If an employee does NOT use any of the company's resources and does NOT go after a company's clients (non-solicitation) I don't see why he/she cannot freelance.

Thus, the scenario in India is loaded against employees. Layoffs are fine, if you give a sufficient notice, adhere to the severance package, and allow employees to freelance in their spare time. Otherwise it is just naked exploitation.

I will write more about freelancing next, but here are the list of my links on the recession:

IT Layoffs - Stop Blaming the Staff
IT Layoffs and Corporations
A Quick Note on the Economic Downturn
Being Self-Employed in IT

Being Self-Employed in IT

I have been self-employed doing freelancing programming work for the past 6 months. Let me describe how I got into it and a few administrative details.
Taking the plunge
There is a difference between being self-employed and running a business. If you plan to run a business, you can face exponential growth or risky shutdown. Freelancing is not the same thing, even though there is pressure for you to expand. (Note: Do NOT freelance if you plan to get loans. Banks do not give out loans to freelancers)
If you are in the USA and planning to come back to India, or if you are already in India but have enough contacts in the USA, freelancing may be a good idea for you. Let your contacts know that you plan to freelance. Your contacts will need some credentials to justify hiring you. For that purpose, register a domain and have a basic website - if only with html. Put your resume outline in that resume and highlight your work. If you can write well (with grammar and good content), then link your blog articles in the website. Have a set of email addresses registered under your domain. My own website is here:http://www.alphazonsystems.com
Freelancing works well if you have a stable contact who trusts you and vice versa. Companies may not trust just an unknown freelancer in another country. You need a champion at the client. It would be ideal if he/she can coordinate payments and also help you get set up for starting. The gain the companies have is, of course, lower rates.
So, I would advice you to cultivate potential clients if you are abroad and planning to come back. If you are already in India, do not hesitate to contact your friends abroad.
Technically, you will generally need a VPN connection to the client. You will need a high speed internet connection.
You will also need to be self-motivated to work by yourself. I maintain a timesheet even if the client does not ask for it. I have regular calls and status updates sent to them - and that keeps my work planned.

Infrastructure and Administration
Freelancing, of course, needs the following infrastructural and administrative elements:
1. You need your own computer, preferably a laptop. Make sure you have a warranty.
2. Get an UPS for electricity failures.
3. You may not need an office space, if you have enough space at home. Otherwise, get a small enough office space, close to home. Don't plan a long commute or spend too much money on decorating the office.
4. Get a webcam.
5. Open a Skype account with SkypeOut (ability to call international phones). Start with a $10 SkypeOut credit. For the SkypeOut payment, get an online receipt printed for your tax purpose.
6. Get a good set of headphone with a microphone.
7. Get atleast two physical file folders. Label one of them for your business account in the bank and the other for your taxes. (I will come to banking and taxes later)
8. Since you will spend time at home, make sure you have a decent broadband internet connection. Atleast 512kbps will be needed.
9. Get a good computer table and chair. Make sure your working location has good airconditioning. This is important, because if you are at work, the AC is takend care of by a company. If you only have AC at bedroom at home (as most middle class households do), then you will find yourself trying to work from the bedroom all the time. That is not a very good place to work from. Plan for a second AC room.
10. Buy an external hard disk with atleast 160GB for backup. Have a bunch of DVDs for storing your important files. Have a USB flash drive with 4-8GB capacity. If possible, sign up with a service like Windows folder share or SugarSync for an online backup of your programming work.
11. Backups are VERY important. Take a full system backup atleast once a month. If your client uses source control, check in your files regularly.
12. Get a copy of Norton Anti Virus with Internet Security. Run LiveUpdate once a week. Keep running Windows Update every week or have it run automatically. Keep your computer well patched and do not have any anonymous shares. If you use Vista, run under the UAC (User Access Control) mode all the time. You cannot afford a virus infection.
13. Get a laser printer; they are not that costly now and will help you out.
14. For ALL of the above purchases, whether online or not, get a receipt. You will need it for tax purposes.

Founding the Company
In India, there are different kind of company structure - proprietorship firm, partnership or private limited. For a beginning freelancer, a proprietorship firm is ideal. It ties to a single bank account and you can use your personal PAN card for filing taxes. (You can still hire people under a proprietorship firm). Other than the bank account, you do not need any other form of registration. Here are the steps for founding a proprietorship firm:
1. First decide on a name. Make sure the name is also unique for starting a website.
2. Make sure you have a individual PAN card. A PAN card in your name is sufficient.
3. Decide on a bank. Contact the bank official and let them know you will be running a current account for your business. They will give you a set of guidelines for opening a current account.
4. You need rubber stamps. 3 stamps at least - a seal called a "For" seal that you will affix with your signature to documents; a seal called the address seal with your company name and address; and a date seal. All these rubber stamps cost around Rs.600-800.
5. You need letter pads and a logo. If you already have a website designed, you may have a logo. Otherwise design a logo, a letter pad and a visiting card. A graphic designer can do this for you. Get a letter pad printed and the visiting card printed. (The visiting card is not essential).
6. Contact an auditor near your location. Let them know you are starting a company. You would go back to them when filing your taxes.
7. After the bank opens your account, they will send you a checkbook.
8. Usually, if you work with clients from abroad, the easiest and fastest way to transfer money (payment for your services) is to wire transfer. But wire transferring has charges - upto $100 for a single transfer. The charge applies to the person doing the transfer ie your client. They may deduct it from your payment. If you do plan wire transfers, then get the wire transfer details document from your bank. Every bank has a slightly different procedure and there are some details to fill in. Send the details to your client.
9. From a stationery shop get a "Cash Voucher" book and a receipt book. They may come in handy when you document expenses.
10. For invoices, get an invoice template online. Every invoice should have a unique number and will have the amount you will be charging your client. (Invoices are the "bill" for your client. They will make payments according to the invoices.)
9. With a bank account, stamps, letter pad, PAN card, invoice template, cash voucher book and (if possible) a website, you are all set to go.

Payments and Taxes
Before you negotiate with your clients, you need to know this: it is better to be on a hourly work basis than on fixed-bid work. If your work is such that the clients engage you for a long term with a steady hourly payment, that situation is ideal. Please note that a commitment for an engagement long term does not mean much - the client can cut you off at any point with payment for services till that point.
So for hourly work, what would be your "take-home"? Let us say you bill $100 every hour (unlikely, but it is easy for calculations. Being in India, you would probably only bill less than half that amount).
There is no service tax for dollar exports in software coding services. So, your taxes would come to 20%-30% (depending on your slab). Let us say you started work in January; If by end of March, you earn less than 5 Lakhs, then your slab would be 20%. But, this is assuming you had no other income from the previous April to December. You are taxed for your entire income from April to March.
So $30 of every $100 you earn would go to the government ideally. But there are a few expenses that you can claim to lessen your tax load.
(Your US client may want to know if he needs to tax you in the USA. Because India and the USA have a dual taxation treaty, your income will NOT be taxed twice. )
The expenses you can claim are:
Capital expenses (all your initial investment such as buying the UPS, printer, headphones, stamps and so on)
Location rent (if you work from home, only 50% of your rent is eligible for deductions. If you have an office, your entire rent is eligible)
Transport (if you commute to work; have a car or two-wheeler)
Water
Phone and broadband
Stationery (not much use in IT)
Entertainment (such as lunch with your client at the Taj)
You are a proprietorship firm - you can hire people. You do NOT have to deduct tax for them. Your payments to them count as expenses.
Your LIC, PPF and other savings still apply.
Keep a receipt of ALL your expenses in a physical file. Auditors advise to keep a note of credits and expenses in a excel file.
You have to pay advance taxes twice a year (March and September) and file returns in June. For advance taxes, you would sit with your auditor and go over all the expenses and income. The advance tax can be paid in a local bank such as SBI or HDFC. Keep the advance tax receipt safe.
When you file returns in June, you will include the advance tax receipt and then adjust your final payment according to actual figures. At that point, you need all the proof of your expenses. The Income Tax office may ask you to come in person and ask you to submit the proofs.
If you receive foreign exchange payment, then do NOT forget to get the receipts from your bank called the FIRC. You need it for submission to the Income Tax office.

How to Plan Future Work
The biggest problem you will face as a freelancer is insecurity. Your contract may end at any time. It is tempting to take additional contracts to stave off this danger, but then you may end up having a hard time managing two contracts and clients. So, you tend to try to hire someone. But then you have to face all the problems that comes with trusting a third party - he/she may not like to work for such a small shop. they may disappear any day. They may ruin your reputation with clients.
So, it is a dilemma. I have avoided this by deciding early on never to hire other full-time people. I also decided that I will not take additional full-time contracts. Sure, my position is risky in that case - I actually lost a couple of contracts because I refused to work full-time for them. But that is fine for me.
One key struggle psychologically is NOT to consider yourself a budding star entrepreneur. It is very tempting, particularly with all the propaganda about entrepreneurs to consider yourself a special sort of human. I remind myself constantly that I am simply self-employed and not running a business. It helps.

Tamil Short Story

I wrote this story (among others) 4 years back. I thought I may as well publish here. It is copyrighted to me and should not be reprinted without my permission.

ஒரே ஒரு ஜோக்
--------------------
இரா. இராமையா

வீட்டில் இருந்து பார்ட்டிக்குக் கிளம்பியதில் இருந்து ஒரே சண்டை.

முதலில் ரகு மௌனமாகத் தான் வந்தான். பிரேமா பேசிக் கொண்டே வந்தாள். திடீரென்று ரகு கத்திச் சிரித்தான்

"என்ன?" என்று கேட்டாள் பிரேமா.

"ஒண்ணுமில்ல"

பெண்களிடம் இது சொல்ல கூடாத பதில் என்பதால் சற்று நேரத்தில் அவனே பணிந்தான்.

"இல்ல.. ஒரு ஜோக் ஒண்ணு யோசிச்சேன்."

"என்ன ஜோக்?"

"பார்ட்டில சொல்றேன்"

அவள் நிதானித்து, "பார்ட்டில ஜோக் சொல்லப் போறீங்களா? வேணாமே.."

"ஏன்? போன முறை மாபிள்ளை ரொம்ப ஜோவியல் டைபுன்னு எல்லாரும் சொன்னாங்களே? நீ தான சொன்ன?"

"ஏதோ சாதரணமா சொன்னாங்க"

"ஏ.. சும்மா மட்டம் தட்டாத ..போன முறை எங்க தாத்தா பத்தி சொன்னேனே. எல்லாம் விழுந்து விழுந்து சிரிச்சாங்க."

"உங்க பரம்பரைய பாத்து யாரு தான் சிரிக்கல?"

ரகு அவளை முறைத்தான்.

"நீ கூட அன்னிக்குப் பெரிய பல்லை காட்டி சிரிச்ச .. குழந்தைங்கல்லாம் பயந்து அலறிச்சு."

பிரேமா வாயை மூடிக் கொண்டாள். சில நிமிடங்கள் கழித்து, "ஒரு முறை ஜோக் சொன்னா சிரிப்பாங்க. ஒவ்வொரு முறையும் சொன்ன கோமாளின்னு சொல்லுவாங்க." என்றாள்.

"யாரும் அப்பிடி சொல்ல மாட்டாங்க."

"சரி..என்ன ஜோக்? சொல்லுங்க.."

ரகு சிரித்தான். அவனுக்கே அவன் ஜோக்கை நினைத்துச் சிரிப்பு வந்தது.

"ஒரு முறை ஷார்ஜா கிரிக்கெட் மேட்ச் எந்த ஊருல நடக்குதுன்னு பேசிக்கிட்டோமே?"

"ஐயே. அது வேணாம்."

"ஏன்? நீ சிரிச்சியே?"

"கேவலமா இருக்கும்"

ரகு கவலையுடன், " வேற எதுனா யோசிக்கிறேன்" என்றான்.

மணி பார்த்தான். இன்னும் ஐந்து நிமிடத்தில் ஹோட்டல் வந்து விடும். அவனுக்குக் கவலை அதிகமாகியது.

"எங்கயாச்சும் காரை நிறுத்திட்டு ஜோக் யோசிப்போமா? " என்று கேட்டான்.
"அப்பிடியாவது ஜோக் சொல்லி ஆகணுமா?"
" என் மேல எதிர்பார்ப்பு நிறைய இருக்கு பிரேமா. பார்ட்டியே என்னால தான் களை கட்டணும்."
திடீரென்று, "கிடைச்சிடிச்சு ..சூப்பர் ஜோக்", என்றான்.
"என்ன?"
"உன் கிட்ட சொல்ல மாட்டேன்."
"அங்க வந்து மானத்த வாங்காதீங்க."
"முதல்ல நீ என் மானத்த வாங்காத. ஜோக் சொன்னா சிரி. போன முறை சில ஜோக்குக்கு நீ சிரிக்கவே இல்லை. எல்லாரும் விழுந்து விழுந்து சிரிச்சாங்க. நீ மட்டும்..திமிருடி உனக்கு"
"சிரிப்பு வந்தா சிரிக்குறேன். தத்து பித்துன்னு எதாவது சொன்னா?"
"உனக்கு எப்பவுமே நான்னா நக்கல்"
"சரி".
"என்ன சரி? இந்த முறை மட்டும் சிரிக்காம இரு..உன்னை வச்சுக்கிறேன்."

ஹோட்டல் வந்து விட்டது. இருவரும் கடுகடுவென்று இறங்கி உள்ளே போனதும் புன்னகைத்துக் கொண்டே போனார்கள். பிரேமாவின் உறவுக்காரப் பெண் மாயா, பிளஸ் டூவில் நிறைய மார்க் வாங்கியதால் இந்த விருந்து. அந்தப் பெண்ணிடம் நேராகச் சென்றார்கள்.
"கங்க்ராட்ஸ்", என்றாள் பிரேமா.
"தாங்க்ஸ்"
"என்ன மாயா..பேப்பர் சேசிங் போல இருக்கு? இவ்வளவு மார்க் வாங்கி இருக்க?" என்றான் ரகு.
அந்தப் பெண் பயத்துடன், "அதெல்லாம் இல்ல", என்றாள். லேசாகக் கண் கலங்கியது அவளுக்கு.
பிரேமா அவனைத் தரதரவென்று இழுத்து கொண்டு போனாள். "சும்மா இருக்கீங்களா?" என்றாள் தரதரவிற்கிடையே.
"நான் என்ன சொல்லிட்டேன்?" என்றான் அவன்.

எல்லோரும் சாப்பிடத் தொடங்கினார்கள். ரகுவிற்குப் பரபரப்பாக இருந்தது. தகுந்த தருணத்திற்காக காத்திருந்தான். எல்லோரும் கத்திப் பேசி கொண்டிருந்தார்கள்.
"இப்பல்லாம் ஸ்டூடென்சுக்கு நிறைய வாய்ப்புகள் இருக்கு", என்றார் ஒருவர்.
பிரேமாவின் அப்பா, "மாயா ..என்ன படிக்கப் போற? மெடிகலா?" என்று கேட்டார்.
"சிங்கப்பூர்ல ஒரு ஸ்காலர்ஷிப் வந்திருக்கு", என்றாள் மாயா.
ரகு, " சிங்கபூர்ன உடன ஒரு ஜோக் ஒண்ணு நினைவுக்கு வருது", என்றான்.
யாரும் அவனை கவனிக்கவில்லை.
"சிங்கபூர்ல எப்படித் தனியா போயி படிப்ப?"
"அதான் யோசனையா இருக்கு"
ரகு பல்லைக் கடித்து கொண்டான்.

சாப்பிட்டு முடிக்கும் வேளையில் ரகு ஆவலுடன் காத்திருந்த சந்தர்ப்பம் வந்தது. எல்லோரும் பேசி முடித்திருந்தார்கள்.
"கேர்ல்ஸ் தான் இப்பல்லாம் நிறைய மார்க்கு", என்றார் ஒருவர்.
"உலகத்தையே சுத்தி வந்திடறாங்க கல்யாணத்துக்கு முன்னாடி", என்றார் பிரேமாவின் அப்பா.
"உலகம்ன உடனே ஒரு ஜோக் நினைவுக்கு வருது", என்றான் ரகு.
அவனே பயப்படும் விதமாக எல்லோரும் அவனைத் திரும்பிப் பார்த்தார்கள்.
"என்ன ஜோக்", என்றார் பிரேமாவின் அப்பா.
ரகு சற்றே கலவரத்துடன் தொடங்கினான்.
"அமெரிக்கால ஒரு பொம்பளைக்கு நாலு குழந்தை பிறந்துதாம். நாளுக்கும் நார்மலா பேரு வச்சா. அஞ்சாவது குழந்தை பிறந்திச்சு. அதுக்கு மட்டும் ஹூவாங் ஹூவங்க்ன்னு பேரு வச்சா...ஏன் தெரியுமா?" என்று கேட்டான்.
ஒரு பாட்டி, "என்ன அசட்டு ஜோக்கா இருக்கு..", என்றாள்.
"சிரிப்பே வரல", என்றார் ஒருவர்.
"ஜோக் இன்னும் முடியல", என்றான் ரகு.
"மாப்பிள்ளை..சீக்கிரமா முடியுங்க. குலோப் ஜாமுன் சாப்பிடணும்", என்றார் பிரேமாவின் அப்பா.
ரகு, "ஏன்னா உலகத்துல பொறக்குற ஒவ்வொரு அஞ்சாவது குழந்தையும் சைனிஸ் குழந்தையாம்", என்று முடித்தான்.
எல்லோரும் அவனையே பார்த்துக் கொண்டிருந்தார்கள். பிரேமாவின் அப்பா, "உம்..மேல சொல்லுங்க", என்று ஊக்குவித்தார்.
ரகு கோபத்துடன், "ஜோக் அவ்வளவு தான். முடிஞ்சு போச்சு ", என்றான்.
பிரேமா "ஹா ஹா ஹா ..." , என்று கத்திச் சிரித்தாள். வேறு யாருமே சிரிக்கவில்லை.

வீட்டுக்குத் திரும்பிப் போய்க் கொண்டிருந்தார்கள். ரகு மௌனமாக இருந்தான். பிரேமா ஏதோ பேசிக் கொண்டே வந்தாள்.
ரகு திடீரென்று, "என்ன திமிருடி உனக்கு..", என்றான்.
பிரேமா திடுக்கிட்டு, "என்ன?" என்றாள்.
"அந்த ஜோக்குக்கு ஏண்டி அப்பிடிச் சிரிச்ச?"
"நீங்க தான சிரிக்கச் சொன்னீங்க?"
"எல்லாம் சும்மா இருக்காங்க. நீ மட்டும் ஏண்டி சிரிச்ச?"
"இது என்ன இது..சிரிச்சாலும் தப்பு ..சிரிக்கலன்னாலும் .."
"உம்..சும்மா கிட"
கார் போய்க் கொண்டிருந்தது.
"திமிருடி உனக்கு"

The Indian English Media

This is going to be a long post.
For the past couple of years I have been observing the English news channels in television and also online portals such as rediff.com and IndiaTimes.com. A pattern emerges, but I wonder about the causal factors for news reporting in India.

Two Recent Campaigns

The IPL move to South Africa and Tata Nano's launch are two cases in point. To any dispassionate observer watching the news reporting, it must be obvious that the media went nuts with both. They hysterically covered Tata Nano's launch so much that it seemed Tata needed no additional marketing. One reporter, self-reighteously asked Tata what he would say to Mamata Bannerjee, as if Mamata's campaign was somehow against the Nano (it was not). Tata, of course, is a businessman; even though the media tried to project him as a warrior against politics in this country, he knew his place. So he just said "Good afternoon". But that statement was enough for the media to interpret as some kind of witty come back to the evil Mamata.
On the two days following the Nano's launch, rediff had a total of 39 stories on the launch. Many of these did not read like news - it was as if Tata had paid rediff, Indiatimes and all those English television channels.

At around the same time, the IPL controversy was gathering momentum. On the day IPL decided to move out of India, rediff publishes the following lead-up to a discussion forum: http://cricket.rediff.com/report/2009/mar/22/ipl-message-board.htm
That particular article has to be read to be believed. A basic journalistic standard is to clearly show the difference between editorializing (expressing opinion) and news reporting. This helps readers understand that what you are talking about may not be facts, but your own opinion.
The above article blurs that distinction and presents the IPL organizer point of view as if it is objective fact. It does it through some standard tricks - such as omitting quotation marks from quotes.

While the government did not want to take chances with the security after the attack by gunmen on Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore [Images], it also lost a lot of revenue and a chance to show that the country is a safe place to host sports events, keeping in mind next year's Commonwealth Games [Images].

The BCCI also apologised to fans, saying the government had left them with no other option. It made it clear that a lot of money was at stake and the Board along with the franchises and broadcasters could not afford to lose so much.
...
Who do you blame for depriving Indian fans of the high-octane action in the IPL, which was a mega success in its first year?

At first glance it seems as if rediff is doing this violation of ethical journalism so that they can support the BJP.
In both these news stories, the media went overboard, with the English TV channel's 24 hour coverage of the Nano. Watching the pathetic emptyheads on television cheerleading for a car, we can easily blame them for being without substance. It is clear that in both these cases, the media is forcing a certain narrative down the throats of viewers. The question is why they do that.

What is at Stake
In India media criticism is rare, but before I make a case I have to explain what is at stake here. After watching decades of doctored news from outlets like the Tamil Sun Television or Jaya Television, it is natural for us to assume that the media, like any other institution can report whatever they deem as news. At least that is what they say.
The Corporatised media needs to earn money, true. But we should not forget that a honest press is one of the pillars of democracy. They have responsibilities to the public beyond earning money. They have strict ethical guidelines for news reporting.
More than anything, the press enjoys a host of benefits from the government. A member of the press enjoys access to high officials and is definitely more powerful than an ordinary citizen.
Without a free press that is not acting as a tool for the rich and powerful, we may as well call off our democracy experiment. People curse politicians all the time and celebrate corporations as repositories of all that is good and benevolent. But we ought to be cursing our corporate media too, for letting down the majority people's interests.
Having said that let us analyze two views for the corruption of media.

Ezra Klein and the Media Narrative- A Charitable View
There is a charitable view we can take about the media behavior. That is explained in this classic post by Ezra Klein, a leading liberal blogger in the USA. Klein was talking about the nature of the American media, but it applies here too (emphasis mine):

I think one aspect of the modern press that doesn't get enough attention -- either among folks in the media or folks critiquing it -- is the transition from the fundamental scarcity being information to information being in abundance and the fundamental scarcity being mediation.
...
If everyone got a newspaper once a day, and there were eight political stories, and all of them were different each day, and one of them had pointed out that Palin actually did support the Bridge to Nowhere, then the press would indeed have done its job. The job was to report the story, and they reported it.

But cable news and blogs and radio sort of changed all that and now there's too much information, and so consumers largely rely on the press to arrange that information into some sort of coherent story that will allow them to understand the election. And the press assumed that role -- they didn't create some new institution, or demand that the cable channels be credentialed differently and understood as "political entertainment."

They fill this new role through the methods storytellers have always used to tell stories: the repetition of certain key themes and characters, which creates continuity between one day's events and the next and helps the audience understand which parts to pay attention to. It's sort of like a TV show:

In the case of the Nano, it was obvious from the first that there was a narrative here - a businessman is let down by powerful, evil politicians such as Mamta Bannerjee. He takes his show and leaves for the arms of another, more business-savvy leader (Narendra Modi). And he finally releases his car thereby satisfying the dreams of millions.
The press chose this narrative and ran with it, even though there were big holes in the story - for example, Tata had an private agreement with the Communist government in West Bengal for land transfer in Singur. If he was so noble, he would never have tried to go for such a deal. Secondly, during the entire controversy, Tata himself never expressed any antipathy to a deal with the politicians - he knew that he needed them as they need him.
Thirdly, Tata's cars in Gujarat are now heavily subsidized by the tax payer. There are estimates that Rs.50,000 to 60,000 of each Nano is borne by the tax payer. If Tata was a people's hero, he would never have tried to wrestle such concessions from elected governments. Gujarat has literally bribed a single businessman enormously to base his plant in their state.
This is transparently not capitalism, but the media thought the narrative was powerful. The same narrative idea holds for the IPL, where Lalit Modi was the new brave warrior against government.
So, it is entirely possible that the Indian corporate media is simply building these narratives and presenting well-packaged stories to the Indian public (even though they are violating news standards) - because that has become their job in this age of "too much information".
But then there is another possibility.

The Indian Media and Elitism
We should note that every narrative the media builds somehow enables and enriches private business elite. I suspect that the IPL controversy made the private business elite go crazy because government seemed to be saying that business was not the most important thing in the world. They screamed about lost revenue for the government - if government's purpose is only revenue making we should probably rent out Parliament House in the summer.
But over the past few years there is a strong streak of class warfare in our media. It is clear that the media tries to suggest the following:
1. Government should be run like a business
2. Any government "inteference" to regulate the private business world is a travesty of capitalism.
3. The interests of everyone in India is closely allied with the interests of business people
4. Businessmen are noble
During the IPL auction, which they feverishly covered, the media stars declared "What Recession?" because the amounts in the auction were astronomical. Meanwhile ordinary construction workers were facing the recession alright. In fact everyone was feeling the recession probably except for the narrow band that the media glorifies. P.Sainath wrote an excellent article on this elitist coverage here.
I am not sure how much the media has succeeded in this myth creation - reality, like the Satyam fiasco, kind of tends to expose their stars for what they are.
But it seems to me that the media is performing this dance around private business because their own corporate masters see what we all see - that in India the business class has an excellent opportunity to suppress a class struggle. It never fully worked in the developed countries, but they see an opportunity here.
This is why I reject the view that the media is directly paid by Tata or Lalit Modi to do their marketing. It is more subtle than that. They get access and power and form an alliance that blurs the real issues at stake in modern India.
They think they have formed a heady concoction using Cricket stars, Bollywood's talentless tarts and "lifestyle" issues.
I got a glimpse into their inner workings in an article by Tehelka editor, Tarun Tejpal, 3 weeks after the Mumbai attacks. In that article, Mr.Tejpal talks about a media consultant who lost his life at the Taj. But he also talks about what these consultants advise - they apparently guide media corporations towards such "lifestyle" issues and meaningless trivia in news. They think this is what the public is asking for. This is why your local newspaper publishes a lifestyle section with unrelated stuff about Paris Hilton and Brad Pitt.

As a more interesting note, corporatization seems to have directly caused this abuse of power and a complete corruption of journalistic ideals. So much for the glory of private business and businessmen...

As much as we hate politicians, we have as much to fear from the corruption of this new monster in the block.

Is Hindi Film Music in a Renaissance?

Short post - but it seems like Hindi film music is going through an amazing resurgence the last few years. I don't know what is the cause of it...if it is the increasing number of fresh music directors; or the music talent shows sparking a renewed interest; or the influence of Pakistani bands. But I am hearing more and more sweet and well-sung numbers. Most movies now come with a Sufi style song (and an item song, which is another matter).
I have a few personal favorites, such as:
Mitwa from Kabhi Alvidha Na Kehna
Dil De Diya Hai from Masti
In Dino Dil Mera from Life In a Metro
Jab Se Tere Naina from Saawariya
Aaoge Jab Tum Saajna from Jab We Met
Aaj Ki Raat from Don
Woh Lamhe from Zeher


"In dino dil mera" rendered by Debojit Datta in Zee SaReGaMaPa (starting 1:20)


At the same time I am worried about the Tamil music industry. Harris Jayaraj or Yuvan Shankar Raja are pale substitutes for giants such as Ilayaraja and Rahman. Yuvan still has off key singing in his songs. They are going wholesale Western without any attempt at fusion. It is disappointing and it would be nice if we have another music director of the calibre of Ilayaraja...

Indian attitudes to Science Education

My early exposure to science was not very good. We had a bad science teacher from 6th std to 8th std. No practicals, but lots of chanting in the class room. He taught Newton's third law by singing. "Action and Reaction are Equal and Opposite", he sang and asked all of us to join in. We had no idea what action or reaction was. But we joined in the chant because he beat you if you did not shout loud enough. Now, that has left me with a lifelong scar - I still hear the singsong in my mind when I read about Newton or watch rockets taking off - "Action and Reaction are Equal and Opposite".
Later in my life I took Physics at college and attended an interview in IIT Madras for Master's in Physics. They asked me how a bottle rested on a table. And I answered that the force of gravity on the bottle was balanced by the opposite reaction on the table. It was a wrong answer, because although action and reaction are equal and opposite they act on different bodies. They made fun of me for some time for that. It was sad that the teacher who taught me Newton's laws was more interested in singing than on the actual meaning of the laws.
The way science was taught was the way Thirukkural (Tamil poem) was taught. We all dreaded Thirukkural at school, particularly in the 10th std because they had fifty of them as "manappaada paattu" meaning we had to know them by heart for the examinations. In the examination, we were asked inane questions like this - "Write the Kural that ends with 'Arivu'". And we would all be looking at each other and mouthing the kurals at the examination.
This, of course, ruined all interest in Thirukkural for all of us - it was seen as one of the peculiar torture mechanisms preferred by adults.
Newton's laws were taught almost in the same fashion. If there were lots of laws by Newton, they would have asked us "Reproduce the Newton's law that ends in 'Opposite'" and we would all be staring at each other. As it is, in exams they asked us to write the laws verbatim.
What saved me, from a lifelong hatred of the exact sciences, was the books at my home that my father bought. One of these books was called "In the Name of Science". I don't remember the author.
That book talked about a peculiar problem that farmers faced in the 17th century. They could pump water using suction pumps but each pump could only push water to a height of 34 feet. So for a deep well, they needed multiple stages. This was a problem posed to Torricelli (I don't remember all the details). At that time there was this saying "Nature abhors a vacuum". If nature abhors a vacuum then a suction pump should be able to pump water to whatever height. Torricelli thought about this issue and had a key insight. What if air had weight? If air had weight and we are living under a ocean of air, then, Torricelli reasoned, probably the weight of 34 feet of water was all the entire atmospheric weight could sustain. (This is called now as atmospheric pressure). To prove that this is true, Torricelli chose a test tube full of mercury. Mercury was 13.6 times denser than water. So, in a meter long test tube, atmospheric pressure can only sustain around 2.5 feet of mercury. Torricelli tried to see if this was true and well, he found it was true and thereby created the first artificial vacuum. In the process he also invented the barometer.
This story was narrated in the book with beautiful illustrations. The book continued on into other experiments such as the one where 8 horses could not pull apart a vacuum sealed sphere.
This book caused my first interest in science and I looked for more such. My father bought a few Russian books; even a Tamil translated book on the Special theory of Relativity. I had no idea what they were talking about but read them anyway.
One of the Russian books talked about a experiment by Galileo. If you had a heavy object tied with a long string suspended from an axis, you have a pendulum. A pendulum swings back and forth and it has a time period and an amplitude. It is natural to suspect that if you pull a pendulum far enough and let it go, it will swing faster. Well, Galileo found that this assumption was wrong. The time period of a pendulum's swing ONLY depends on the length of the rope.

This was an experiment I could do - I got a rope, a iron ball and then tied to a nail and tried swinging at different points. I did not have a stop watch so I counted manually. It sure seemed Galileo was right, and I did not make any dramatic discovery that overruled Galileo.
Now, you would think that I went on to become a scientific whiz kid. Unfortunately, that is not what happened. This post is about why I did NOT become such a whiz kid.

The Examination System
While I kept trying to read about Astronomy, and tried to build my own telescope by stealing lenses from the school science lab, I still had no clue why I was doing all this. I wanted to observe the moon up close (I still have not done that). I took some chemicals from the school lab and tried to burn the house down. But I did all of these without knowledge of the scientific method and what it means. School should have taught me that, but instead they were giving lots of details about the chemical equation of Hydrogen Sulphide.

In 9th std, we got an excellent science teacher, finally. His first class (I still remember it) was a lecture on Pavlov and his dog. For those of you interested in this experiment, here is the wikipedia link.

In that lecture he explained the reflex actions that guided most animals and humans and the principle of classical conditioning. He quote from the dreaded Thirukkural - the poet says that men should share their food as even crows call each other when they see food. The teacher said that crows called out on seeing food out of reflex and not out of nobility. Otherwise they would not be fighting with each other when a couple of more crows reach the scene. This was the first time we actually had a science teacher lecturing anything. He just talked for 45 minutes, without referring to a book or dictating notes.
He taught us for 9th and 10th, and my liking of science grew a lot in those years. Yet, we were faced with a dilemma - his lectures were essentially useless to us, when you went to the examination and the questions went like "Define reflex action". You lose marks if you even swap words in the definition.
This is why, in spite of good teachers (and they are few) our examination system is royally messing with our heads.
Slowly, the examination system squeezes out any interest in the actual subject you may have. People blame religion for a lack of interest in science, but it is our own examinations that makes us lose interest.
When we got into high school and then later college, there were practical classes, in which you go into the lab and perform experiments. These sessions were made as dry and devoid of fun as possible. You needed to have an observation notebook. Then you had a practical notebook. The practical notebook was awarded points for neatness - it needed a brown paper cover and a label on top. Then each experiment had an objective and other sections. We all copied from each other and from seniors making the whole system worthless.
Again and again and again, we measure the refractive index of glass - we knew it was 1.5 by 9th std, but we had to perform experiments whose sole objective was to find out the refractive index of glass. We did not know why so many experiments were devised for finding something that everyone knew. This resulted in some "backhand work". In Physics lab there was an experiment called the Newton's Rings. It was complicated and hurt the eye and its purpose was - you got it - to find the refractive index of stupid glass. In my class, we devised a method by which we would sit at home and work out the 32 readings using a calculator which would result in the answer, 1.5. Someone took it too far and showed the answer to the professor without coming to class. Unfortunately, there was no electricity on that day and it is not possible to perform Newton's Rings without a powerful mercury lamp. He got caught.
We had a micro processor lab in engineering college. I always got into trouble with the professors because my "observation notebook" was not neat. It was a programming lab and I actually wrote the programs in the notebook. Why would my notebook be neat if I am trying out different assembly programs? Incredibly, in one of the electronic labs, the professor wanted to "discipline" us. The labs were more about discipline than having fun with electronics.

I blame the system utterly for making science education so meaningless. Even after three years of Physics I had no idea what the scientific method was. If someone had asked me the difference between the Renaissance or the Age of Reason, and the period preceding that I would have been unable to answer, even though I had a science education all my life. In fact, I bet most people reading this blog would have the same problem.

Indian Society and Science
Our society treats science the same way we treat all knowledge - it should be "received" and accepted without questioning. In the case of science, many educated Indians reject that it is a fundamental shift in looking at the world.
I had an argument about astrology with a couple of colleagues. One of them said that a long time back Indians had identified the planets as nine (nava graha) and that this was getting confirmed by modern science. I pointed out that the nava graha of Indian astrology included the Sun, the Moon, Raghu and Kedhu (eclipses). These are not planets. Raghu and Kedhu don't even exist. Thus Indians knew only the five visible planets that most of the ancient world knew.
I am not going to rant about astrology more here, but the key problem in Indian understanding of modern science is two-fold:
1. A belief that modern science is no different than ancient knowledge - that the means of acquiring it and the means of making new findings are similar to, say, alchemy.
2. A belief that modern science is somehow "western" and thus a patriotic rejection of its ideas.
This is why you see people insisting that the ancients knew about everything or an attempt to explain "scientifically" homams, yagams and so on.
There are also two other reasons for our rejection of scientific values:
1. An inferiority complex about being colonised causes us to be suspicious of giving "credit" to white people.
2. Our own "rational" movements have not helped the cause. They have called for a wholesale rejection of religion and examining every action through a rational prism. I think this is not practical - it is possible to acquire scientific knowledge and also accept religion. Our rational movements have started out on a crusade against any aspects of religion (meanwhile inventing their own religions, holy people and rituals). Most sociologists and psychologists accept a role of rituals, myths and legends in human life - rationalists are thus going against the spirit of science itself, in some ways.
My point is not in finding a middle ground between science and religion. I don't accept portraying them as opposing poles. They are in different dimensions and cater to different roles in human life.

The Scientific Method

Modern scientific method originated in Europe, with the works of Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler. It is a specific event in human history. Even though we link it with the exact, "natural" sciences such as Physics or Biology, science includes all quest for knowledge, its synthesis and analysis. This quest, after the 16th century followed specific methods of hypothesis, empirical observations, theory formation, predictions, repeatable tests, and most importantly, peer review. This method is the defining change that has brought us all the progress of the past 4 centuries. Just as economic historians identify the explosion of capitalism as an event that started 3 centuries back, the advent of modern science is traced to the beginning of the 17th century.
This event happened in Western and Southern Europe. Historians trace the Renaissance to specific social conditions around the city of Florence, Italy. It spread to regions closest and then most of Europe, soon after. Simlarly the advent of the Age of Reason was caused by social conditions.
One key thing to note is that the scientists engaged in advancing the method were self-aware that they were part of a new age of human history.
We have to realize that the scientific method represents a clean break from the previous periods of human history and is a unique idea.
We ought to be proud of this "human" legacy - it is not a western legacy (in spite of all efforts by the West itself to take ownership).
One of the best ways to understand what science is, is to learn what science is not. There is a classic book by the mathematician, Martin Gardner called "Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science". This book defines pseudo science and covers several examples of it in a very interesting fashion. If our current Chief Minister or the media had read this book, they would not have run around with Ramar Pillai and his "Mooligai Petrol" 10 years back. Anandha Vikatan published an editorial calling "anti-Tamil" and "elitist" the professors in Delhi and Madras who rejected Ramar Pillai's work.
If, our education emphasized the role and the history of scientific method even a little bit, we can place ourselves in some context within scientific knowledge. We can distinguish it from alchemy and pseudo-science. Instead we have people hiding in homes with all curtains closed during a solar eclipse.

Couple of references to bloggers in television

Quick post - I heard a couple of references to bloggers in television recently.
1. A.R.Rahman mentioned the fans in the web who have been fighting a war between Ilayaraja and himself.
2. More curiously, there is a music talent show called Airtel Super Singer in Vijay TV. The voice trainer for the singers, Anant Vaidhyanathan, mentioned that one of the contestants, RaginiSri was upset that the bloggers were abusing her. He said, "What do they call it? Blogs?" and I felt a moment of pride. I have not written about the show, but I hope to hear more refernces to bloggers as opinion makers.

Speaking of English as a Medium

Almost once a week, the principal of the school near my home addresses her students and blames them for all her problems. I will write more about that later, but something caught my attention today about her "pulambal".
She said, "We will not tolerate coming late to school, talking in class, speaking in Tamil or behaving disobediently".
Yes, she clubbed speaking in Tamil along with all the other ills in her students' behavior.
Then I went to the beach in the evening and heard a couple next to me yelling and screaming in English with their 3 year old son. They were literally baby-talking to their kids in English. It was hilarious listening to the dad telling the son to "lick the chocolate, dude".
I would almost have a problem with these two incidents but both of them were illuminating for other reasons. It was not so much that the school principal was advising that talking in Tamil in school was a crime. Most of us are used to this - almost every private school has this rule and it exists for a reason (we will discuss that later).
But the school principal herself was talking really bad English.
She was saying things like this: "I don't know what I will do. I get too angry.."; " The teacher scolded me! How am I feel?" and so on.
I have listened to her closely and it is obvious that she is translating from Tamil to English in her mind. In fact I bet all their teachers do that.
The students whom these luminaries are training are no better: they generally talk street Tamil outside but occasionally lapse into "I like that only" kind of English.
The same holds true for the family in the beach. In spite of all their efforts to talk in English with their kids, I could tell it would not help. The dad had a really clumsy accent and his yelling "dude lick the chocolate" was not going to go far.
Here is the reason why talking in English to kids, and enforcing that even in casual talk, at school may not help - most of our English is bad (as in ungrammatical and clumsy) English. How do we expect that the same teachers at school, who teach bad Physics and bad Biology, and the teachers who are trained by our same useless educational system (we are better off calling it an examination system) - how do we expect them to suddenly teach English alone in an exemplary manner?
I have struggled to find why this English only rule is imposed in schools and why more and more parents talk in English to their kids. I have heard the explanation that it helps the kids' fluency when they grow up. I doubt that it does. The reason why we think that, is because we assume the people who are teaching English are good. We assume that the parents talk good English in the first place. Most of the time, both these parties do not know any better.
If learning a language fluently meant talking to kids exclusively in that language all his or her life, then they will grow up both unable to blend in India AND anywhere else.
What is the focus here? How much of immersion into a language will make a kid an "almost native speaker" of English? My point is that it is a futile quest. Just accept that we are Indians. we speak a different language natively and our educational system can only provide so much.
Instead, let me suggest an alternative.

Now we are getting to the positive part of this essay: I went to a government school. I got into a government engineering college and 70% of my classmates were from rural areas (I myself am from Tirunelveli, which is neither rural nor urban). Many of the guys and girls were getting an education in English for the first time in their lives. Not just that, some of them were the first people to pass tenth standard in their whole village.
Well, almost all of them are in the United States now. Some of them run companies there. They have been there for more than 10 years and talk and write better English than the school principal above or the retarded English only kids. How did this happen? Is it a miracle?
No - most humans with an IQ above 90 can pick up a language pretty easily if they are in an environment. Now, in my class, there were also kids who exclusively studied in English-only private schools. Looking back, I would not say they were particularly successful or smart. Both these groups did well enough.
Here is the thing we have missed in this craze - what helps a kid most is, I believe, a cross-cultural, cross-disciplinary knowledge - what they call a Renaissance education. Some of the most informed and smart students in my batch were actually rural and had a taste for modern Tamil literature. They used to read Jayakanthan, Sundara Ramasamy and so on. But better than that, they had a thirst for literature of any kind. One guy from rural Tanjore had Tagore's Gitanjali along with a translation of Manto's short stories in his hostel room. Well, he was the first guy who cleared GRE and went abroad.
The truth is this: purely from a practical perspective, a kid who grows up with an awareness of his immediate surroundings will adapt better to new cultures and will, in general, be smarter. I am assuming that every middle class and rich family wants their kids to be in the United States - and thus the push for English, rather than any literary merit they see in English. I may be wrong.
But if someone does want their kid or student to grow up to be able to work in an international environment (euphemism for American companies), then they may be better off exposing them to regional Indian literature and the arts, than try to talk to them in bad English all their youth. That is what my experience tells me and that is what I observe from people who grew up with me. It may seem a surprising result, I acknowledge that.
There is no gain made by pushing English down their kid's brain and blocking off access to all local languages - he or she is still either translating in their minds or are completely disconnected from their local environment, that they cannot attune to any other culture.

I could not resist wondering about some of the motivation for the insistence on English by parents and schools. I suspect there is another reason beyond "learning". See, here is what happened when we became independent - suddenly the poor had voting rights; legal rights; and access to an education. I think some of us just could not take that all distinction was lost between the chattering masses and the special "ones". Enter English-only schools. Enter parents talking to their kids only in English. At first, it was cute that a kid spoke words like "irritation". Soon it wore off and more urgency crept into the "classy" people. They now had to make the kids sound American. The quest goes on for that teeny weeny measure of distinctness from the trash surrounding us.

Worst Lyrics in Tamil Romantic songs

Me and Mr.Alla here were discussing movie lyrics and he wrote an excellent blog on Telugu Movie Song "Sahitya" (in Telugu everything sounds literary - I thought he was referring to Thyagaraja when he mentioned Sahitya). This is the Tamil counterpart.
Some of the worst lyrics in Tamil movies have been written in the last 10-15 year period. Earlier, there was Kannadasan and then initially Vairamithu wrote some excellent lyrics. Around the 80s, they started substituting random words in romantic songs, but it still sounded good.
Now, I am referring to romantic songs specifically here - Kuthu song lyrics have become better and better. For example the recently released Nathamukka song has the following lyrics:

பொண்ணுங்கல்லாம் பொறக்க வச்சான்
பொண்ணுக்குள்ள கருவ வச்சான்
கருவ வச்சான் கற்ப வச்சான்
கற்புக்குள்ள தீய வச்சான்
தீய வச்சு எரிய வச்சான்
எரிய வச்சான் எரிய வச்சான்
மதுரை எரியுது அணைங்கடா அணைங்கடா

Translation:

He created women and he put the womb inside them
He put the womb and he put chastity inside them
Inside chastity he put fire
He put the fire and he caused it to burn
he caused it to burn, he caused it to burn
And Madurai burns, let us put out the fire..

This is a reference to Kannagi burning Madurai, and it is woven in nicely into the breathless style of the song. (Lyricist P.V.Prasath)
Another really nice "Gaana" song was Vaala Meenukkum in the movie Chithiram Pesudhadi. It described a marriage ceremony celebrated by the different kinds of fish in the sea. Lyricist and performer was "Gaana" Ulaganathan.
(Gaana is a special Chennai inner city folk music that has lots of potential)

So, the Kuthu songs are fine and they satisfy their audience. It is the romantic songs that had really bad lyrics. The situation is changing with Thamarai, Naa>Muthikumar and others but check out some choice romantic lyrics from the last 10 years - just the ones that REALLY make you want to tear your hair.

Movie: Kaadhalan (Lover)
Lyricist: Vairamuthu (DiamondPearl)
Song: Yennavale Adi Yennavale
The hero Prabhu Deva is really taken with Nagma (she being the governor's daughter and him being jobless, sigh). He starts singing to her in his dreams. He really loves her and here is how some of the lyrics go:

காதல் என்றால் பெரும் அவஸ்தை என்று
உன்னை கண்டதும் கண்டு கொண்டேன்
எந்தன் கழுத்து வரை உந்தன் காதல் வந்து
(wait for it)
இரு கண் விழி பிதுங்கி நின்றேன்

Translation:

I saw you and I realized Love is a great pain
Your love has filled me till the neck and
I am standing with my eyeballs squeezed out

Now, right when I heard that I had an uncomfortable feeling in my eyes and it continues everytime because Unnikrishnan, the singer, insists on singing this in every concert.
But hold on, DiamondPearl goes on:

வாய்மொழியும் எந்தன் தாய் மொழியும் இன்று
வசப்பட இல்லையடி
வயிற்றுக்கும் தொண்டைக்கும் உருவமில்லா ஒரு
உருண்டையும் உருளுதடி

Translation:

Neither speech nor my language are under my control now
In between my stomach and my throat a formless sphere is rolling

Now, I don't know what is this formless sphere, but come on. The words Urundai (sphere) and Pidhungudhadi (squeezed out) in Tamil are really really not meant for romantic songs.
Whoever wants to have an image of eye baslls squeezing out while hearing a song?


Movie: Love Today (that is really the name of the movie; it was before the Tamil Nadu government started paying movie makers to name their movies in Tamil)
Lyricist: Vairamuthu
Song: Yen Pen Endru

Vijay is roaming around in despair because Suvalakshmi has not been reciprocating his love. He starts singing in a classic melody. This song is tuned beautifully and is a pleasure to hear until you reach this:

தூக்கத்தை தொலைத்தேனே துடிக்குது நெஞ்சம்
தலை போன சேவல் போல் தவிக்குது அங்கம்

Translation:

I lost my sleep and my heart is hurt
My body is twitching like a chicken whose head has been cut off

Seriously, this man...there is that image of a chicken running around with its head cut off.
Have pity on us.

Movie: Kannedhire Thondrinaal (She appeared before my eyes)
Lyricist: I don't know
Song: Kanave Kalayadhe

Great song, Prasanth and Simran are singing a duet. And here is the offending line:

இது வரை இதயத்தில் யாருமில்லை
சந்து கிடைத்தால் நுழைவாயா?

Translation:

There is no one in my heart till now
If you find a gap would you enter?

?? Enter what? Where? Plus the word Chandhu (gap) in Tamil literally means an alley. I can understand writing:
பாதை கிடைத்தால் வருவாயா?
or something like that..but chandhu? Nuzhaivaaya? Is that an appropriate word in a romantic song.

Movie: Alai Paayudhe (Waves are breaking)
Lyricist: Vairamuthu
Song: Evano Oruvan

Shalini is despairing because of the tugs of love in her heart and family pressure. This song goes on in the background:

எவனோ ஒருவன் வாசிக்கிறான் இருட்டில் இருந்து நான் யாசிக்கிறேன்
தவம் போல் இருந்து யோசிக்கிறேன் அதைத் தவணை முறையில் நேசிக்கிறேன்

Translation:

Someone is playing a (flute) and in the dark I am begging him
I sit in meditation and think and I love it in installments

I can understand the first line and even the second half. But, installments? That is "Thavanai Murai" in advertisements for buying cars or cots. It is not a term you associate with love, unless you are paying someone for it. And I don't think they accept installments...or credit cards.

I will leave you with one of the old classics, so that you forget about Prabhu Deva's eyeballs:

நாடாளும் வண்ண மயில் காவியத்தில் நான் தலைவன்
நாட்டிலுள்ள அடிமைகளில் ஆயிரத்தில் நான் ஒருவன்
மாளிகையில் அவள் வீடு
மரக்கிளையில் என் கூடு

Translation:

For this princess who is ruling the nation, in her epic story I am the hero
But among this nation's slaves, I am one in a thousand
Her home is in a palace
while I nest in a tree branch

And it all rhymes and fits the context!!

The White Tiger, Slumdog Millionaire - Insights of the Colonized

I have not yet watched Slumdog Millionaire - but I am going to and think I will enjoy it.
But the movie has ignited a very lively debate that has gone on in the internet, print and in television - does the movie reflect a real India? Does the movie deserve an Oscar? One of the most vexing questions has been this - do movies that portray India poorly get noticed more in the West and corner awards? Amitabh Bachan wrote a blog about it, then retracted it - whatever.
If you read the internet forums, people are split right down the middle on this one - people point out that such movies are made with the idea of getting awards. I am not sure that Danny Boyle had the Oscars in mind. Lots of people are outraged by the stark shots of Dharavi. Meanwhile an equal number say that India's poor suffer from underexposure - not over exposure. This argument quickly becomes political - is India developing or not? Why do western filmmakers always show an India that is underdeveloped?

Shyam Benegal perhaps gave the best explanation - he said that Danny Boyle was not Indian and the movie is his creative expression. Thus his creative expressions can only show India as he sees it (along with his crew). Nothing wrong with that - same thing happens if an Indian makes a movie about Italy.

The Colonized

But I think there is an underlying issue here - it is obvious that we, Indians care a lot about how our country and culture APPEARS abroad. Particularly in the West. The most important reason why this happens is because we were a former colony of Britain. Colonized and Oppressed races do have a tendency to prove themselves before thir former "masters". I have seen a very similar tendency among African-Americans in the USA.
Our textbooks and education is full of the point of view of an outsider looking in. Subash Ghai said the most happiest he felt was when "700 white people applauded Taal in Chicago". Note that he specifically said white people, not Americans or even non-Indians. Our nation's elite, in particular, are highly self-conscious. Amitabh Bachan has been attacking Satyajit Ray for a long time "for showing India under a bad light". This is why the most minor reference to India by Obama or Bush or Clinton transports our media to orgasm.
Media stars refer to "India arriving on the world stage" again and again. We want to be a super-power, not because the word has any meaning; but because then we will get equal respect. Get noticed somehow. We will model our award shows on their award shows; we will model our economy on theirs; we will show - somehow - that we are no different.
It is this high value we place on Western opinion - while simultaneously ignoring native wisdom, that makes us angry when "India is shown in a poor light". We think the POINT of the movie is to show a fallen India. But, of course, that is not the point of the movie. The story, the plot, is the pont of the movie - let us not invent any further.
I think this is a very natural reaction of colonized peoples - but it has to be overcome. A little self-esteem is what we need.

Meanwhile, The Colonizers are not free of problems of their own. Let me explain with an issue I have been facing for some time.
I have tried reading English novels by Indian authors in the recent past. I read Salman Rushdie's "Midnight's Children" when I was much younger, and I liked it. In the last five years, I buy English novels by Indian authors from time to time and always abandon them in the middle.
What bothers me about them? Why can't I read and enjoy novels by Indian English authors? I have tried repeatedly - The Inheritance of Loss, White Tiger, The Namesake - all of them. I am not able to even complete them - why is that?
Then I read Tamil writer Jayamohan's interview to A.Muthulingam in the Tamil literary magazine, Kalachuvadu and it made sense. The question to Jayamohan was about marketing his books to an international audience. Jayamohan said (I am paraphrasing here) that a Western audience (which is where the money is) is not interested in most Indian literature. They look to Indian books and movies for "knowledge" - that is, for learning about an alien culture. They are not really interested in the philosphical or literary beauty of the work - because they think they get enough of that from their literature.
This is a key idea and I agree. Most discussions about Slumdog or White Tiger with Americans (that I have had) revolve around whether the incidents narrated happen or can happen. But that is NOT the question they would ask when watching an American movie. While a movie like "The Dark Knight" is watched assuming its internal coherence, an Indian book or movie is automatically associated with reality - it is not read as a literary work but as a tour guide.
That tour-guidishness is, of course, a need that many Indian authors in English satisfy. Mind you, I think they are pretty good literary writers, but subconsciously they are not addressing "Us".
For example, Arvind Adiga's White Tiger narrative is in first person, as a letter written to the Chinese leader. By adopting this narrative, Mr.Adiga has conveniently taken the point of view of an Indian explaining his country to a foreigner - which is, of course, exactly what he is assuming his audience are. The little explanations the narrator offers about India to the visting leader, are, thus, directed from the writer to his Western reader.
That puts me off, because Arvind Adiga did not intend me as the reader. Again, I am not saying the book is bad - it is just not intended for me to read. It is a tour guide for British and American reading public.
This is why I am not able to complete the Namesake, and the Inheritance of Loss. I am bewildered by their tone and subject matter. There are also other reasons - Anita Desai, Jhumpa Lahiri and Arvind Adiga are themselves cross-cultural children. They are dealing internally with the immigrant experience and a need to explore their home country. They end up writing something that fails to connect with me.
I do not see the same tone in other foreign works - Orhan Pamuk writes from Turkey; Jose Saramago from Portugal. Their works are translated into English and they read well. It must be the peculiarity of colonization and the unique cross-cultural situation of Indian elite writers that causes this disconnect with their own countrymen (I think Arundhati Roy has escaped this. Her writing is still interesting).
As a result, the Colonizers read a version that is tailor made for them. Authentic and rich literary work in Indian regional languages rarely make it outside and never make it popular. Their loss - I think we gain more by cultural osmosis.

This blog post was based on a internet chat I had with my American friend, John (name changed). I have the actual chat text below, if it helps clarify what my thinking is.

Ramiah says:
hey u busy?
John says:
what's up
Ramiah says:
well I thought about what u said about the movie - here is the core problem
I think when you talk about this movie and others and when I discuss them with you
the basic question is always about if these things happen or not
but that is not a question that you ask of all movies
which means that writer was right
when you watch Indian movies or read Indian lit
you think about what you can learn about the country from that movie or book
but of course literature and movies are not always about learning geography or economics
they are about actual people and their emotions and their philosphies
and the problem is the movies you watch and observe about India caricature all of that
so that they can bring you snippets of an alien life successfully
these movies and books are fine
don't get me wrong
but they are very miniscule part of what life in India and literature in India comprises
my specific point is that u don't watch an Indian movie the same way u watch an American movie
and these movies are tailor made for u
and so are the books
John says:
I disagree - it depends on the subject matter
Ramiah says:
this is why I find it very difficul to read english books by Indian authors
because they are not "indian" literature
they are tailor made for ur consumption
John says:
if the movie is about a poor kid growing up in Harlem then the environment is going to be a big part of the movie's focus
Ramiah says:
yes but the way you watch it is different - because you culturally "get" Harlem
John says:
the more 'foreign' the context the more focus it gets
Ramiah says:
and not India
John says:
dude - you think white people 'get' harlem?
Ramiah says:
yes
John says:
try to get them to go there
Ramiah says:
u get Harlem the same way I get the Dharavi slum in Mumbai
it is a part of our cultural consiousness
we may not go there
but we most defintely "get" it

Pedestrian Rights - It Is My Road Too

I read a recent article in The Hindu titled thus: Poor Patronage for Subways, Foot Overbridges. Please read it for a better perspective on this blog.

The overall attitude of our police officers and citizens with vehicles is that in Chennai (and in India) pedestrian "discipline" is the major cause of accidents involving pedestrians. I was travelling in a car near Thiruvanmiyur. We entered a narrow lane with teashops and houses on either side. A person crossed the street to a teashop, in front of our car. One of the guys with me said , "walks as if it is his father's road". You hear this kind of comments from educated people all the time.
The other day I saw a person crossing a junction talking on the cellphone. A lady stopped her scooter just before her and yelled at her for using the cellphone.
During the rains, the road near my home is flooded on one side. Pedestrians have to walk in the middle of the road to avoid stepping in the putrid water. Car drivers lunge at them, honk at them and generally try to make the pedestrians run for cover.
We know all of this, it happens before us, and there is no reasonable framework to address this.
The reason is that police officers and the general public have completely bought into the view that a road belongs to cars and motorcyclists. Wherever that road may be, whatever the circumstance.
I have written in detail about the plight of pedestrians in Rajiv Gandhi road (OMR) : one of the complaints of the guy in the car (in above article) is that he has to "apply sudden breaks in his car in the OMR". The OMR is a straight road, and the speed limit is 40km/h. If you had to apply sudden brakes, it means a suicidal maniac ran in front of your car.
But that is the picture they present - that pedestrians are somehow leisurely strolling across "their" roads. Anyone who walks in any of these roads would know that the opposite is true.
I think the core problem is that there is no awareness of what rights a pedestrian has - and hence the whatever pedestrians do, they are blamed for accidents.

List of Pedestrian Rights
I will suggest below the following set of Pedestrian Rights - I know these may not be followed, but we have to make an effort:
1. In a traffic signal with no "walk" signals (for pedestrians), walkers have right of way to cross the road on a green signal. Turning vehicles have to stop for pedestrians.

2. In a road or alley or street, if there is no pedestrian sidewalks, (or if there IS a pedestrian sidewalk and it is unpassable), then 15% of the road width on either side belongs to pedestrians. Cars should NOT park on this zone.

3. If a pedestrian set foot on a pedestrian crossing, traffic SHOULD stop until they cross. Pedestrian crossings are meant to be that way - in practice noone respects them.

4. In a school zone or in residential roads, pedestrians have right of way across at any point.

5. In roads that pass through suburban districts or office districts, medians should be low and pelican signals (where a pedestrian can press a button for a signal) should be available in frequent intervals.

Implementation

Why are such rules very difficult to enforce in our roads? There are practical reasons why people find it difficult to call shots or fight for their rights in plenty of other situations.
But, after observing traffic violators for some time, I have noticed this - most people are not rogues. Most people violate laws because noone teaches them the laws.
This is, of course, not conventional wisdom - I have heard people blame Regional Transport Offices (RTOs) for issuing licenses indiscriminately. But the core problem is NOT that people do not follow know how to drive. I have been through the driving license classes and here is the core problem - there is NO Training or Education in RTOs.
That is, RTOs reserve the right to issue licenses - but there is no information supplied by them about a list of traffic rules to follow. In the United States and in most developed countries, getting a driving license is a two-step process. First, you have to get a book, read it, and then clear a written test. Only after the written test do you get the Learner's License. After that you take driving lessons.

The FIRST step is learning traffic rules and learning (fundamentally) that driving is a social act and it has certain responsibilities.
By focussing instead on driving as simple as learning to turn the steering and manage the gears, RTOs have failed their purpose.

If, such a educational system exists, then it is easy to take the list of pedestrian rights and push them as part of the syllabus.
Pedestrian discipline is NOT the problem; Jaywalking is NOT the problem - the problem is driver attitudes and our torturous roads.