The State of the Republic

The sovereign, socialist, democratic nation of India adopted its constitution on 26 November, 1949 and began commemorating this iconic feat every January. Yesterday, we celebrated 60 years as a Republic. On this momentous occasion, lets go through how our constitution has helped us develop as a country:

The Fundamental Right to Freedom
Everyone in this country is allowed to have his/her own opinion. Let me illustrate with an example. Suppose you are a notable bare-footed painter. You will realize that people who do not like your works can express their disapproval by ransacking exhibitions and burning your paintings in broad daylight. The right to freedom of expression stops the police from checking this menace.
We also have freedom to reside and settle in any part of the territory of India and practice any profession. I wonder whether Raj Thakeray knows about it.

Right to Equality
All men are equal, some men are more equal than others.
Have you ever stood in line in front of a government office and spied the occasional bureaucrat taking his acquaintance aside and pushing his file before any else? If the answer is no, this blog isn't meant for you.
Women of our country want to be treated as equals and yet scream for reservation when it comes to seats in the Parliament and the Metro. Plus, I believe I'm going to be labeled a sexist because the first line of this paragraph does not contain any representation for the fairer sex. Damn!

Right to Vote
A right/duty given to every Indian above 18 years of age. Mumbai registered 45% voter turnout in the last elections. I wonder why they complain when corrupt politicians get elected. Votes can bought everywhere in the country except on eBay (they should change their advertisements).

Right to Education
Only 44 deemed universities were de-recognized by the Education Ministry before the apex court ordered a status quo. How does anyone shoot one's self in the leg? Its quite similar to the way our country introduces self-defeating reforms.
Remember Slumdog Millionaire? 'The Three Musketeers' was never in our syllabus. But we have read saffron-ized history that changed with the change in regime. Here's an interesting story on the plight of education in India.

Right to Constitutional remedies
I wonder what our fundamental right to approach the courts for justice was called. In India, Justice is blind. Absolutely blind! Try going on a shooting spree in a busy city at midnight and leave behind CCTV footage of the carnage as well as a hundred corpses. Years would pass by while the Supreme Court would let the government spend crores on your protection while you call yourself an aspiring actor in Bollywood. Why don't you simply rape a minor and get staggering 6 months in jail?

Right to Freedom of Religion
According to our constitution, no person can be discriminated against on the basis of his/her religion. Ironic, isn't it?

Right against Exploitation
The Wikipedia article on our fundamental rights says that the Right against Exploitation covers:

• Child labour (below 14 years of age)
• Forced labour
• Trafficking
• Slavery

The middle/cattle class and lower classes have long been exploited by the upper classes. Nothing for us down-trodden folks. Even OBCs have it better than poor old 'General' category.

And this concludes our lesson in Social Sciences. Be proud of our heritage - the land of Narendra Modi, Bal & Raj Thakeray and L K Advani (Names represent only the creamy layer of villainous evil-eyed fly-bitten ruffians).


P.S. The right to vote is not a fundamental right.

Live Forever

The response I got from my colleagues for my last post was incredible. Seems like LIVE CDs were exactly what the doctor ordered. Quite a few have started looking at Linux without fear in their eyes and quiver in their voice.
Here's a little more about Ubuntu LIVE distribution:

The company behind Ubuntu (Canonical) believes that it should be FREE. No installation charges or service fees or anything of the sort. The latest release Ubuntu 8.0.4 aka Hardy Heron has met with a lot of success. So much that people actually want to install it permanently on their systems alongwith Windows.

Have you have tried Ubuntu?
Do you want to install it?
Are you afraid of the dangers of installing Linux without certified professial assistance?
Shifting partitons, creating swap partitions, making space available for Linux give you the creeps?
Are you scared that valuable data might be lost while trying to install Ubuntu on the hard disk?
Never fear, because Wubi's here.

Wubi comes with the Ubuntu release nowadays. It can also be downloaded from its site. As usual, hunt for the site's name (Hint: try "wubi installer for Ubuntu"). The minimum size for Ubuntu partition using Wubi is 4 GB.

If you have Ubuntu ISO image, copy the Wubi installer to the same folder. Run the executable.

• Enter the Username and password. This will be your user id and password to log into Ubuntu.
• Choose the installation drive.
• Specify the size of installation. This is the amount of space allocated on the harde disk.
• Click Install!

Once Ubuntu is installed, a folder will be created at the location specified during installation. An option to boot into Ubuntu will be available after restarting.

If you think that you are just not a Penguin lover, you can always uninstall Ubuntu from Windows by using the eternal Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel.

If you have any queries or suggestion, do leave them as comments. I'll reply as soon as possible.

Live Linux, Use Windows

When I first started writing a blog I had decided it would only contain things that mattered to me. Events that influenced me. However, there's more to me than just watching TV and laughing my head off at the news channels.
I also happen to be a software engineer.

Loving computers actually leads to the development of hatred towards Microsoft. Yes, Microsoft has done a lot of great deeds with the release of Windows. The tremendous growth of Windows enabled computers to become personal. An interface that was beckoning to newbies to usher in a new era in technology. Millions and millions of people worldwide use Windows. But there is a dark side too. In an attempt to snuff out the competition, Microsoft violated quite a few laws. A lot of companies were bought out by Bill Gates to ensure his monopoly. Many ideas were lifted without acknowledging the original authors. Even C# was blatantly copied from Java (And Vista (not including Aero) was copied from Mac OS X)!

And thousands use Linux! Linus Torvalds had no idea that his kernel would spark a new revolution against the monopoly of Microsoft. If you want to join in the revolution without getting your hands dirty, let me tell you how.

Most people are scared of Linux. Its an entirely different interface, totally different coding and absolutely different perspective. Not to mention the different types of distributions available in the market. The perfect blend to make an average Windows user shudder with fear.

Let us suppose you are in love with computers. You have a plain desktop PC at home with the usual Windows and you like all the features it provides. However, you have heard a lot about Linux and want to try it. But there is a small problem! You do not want to let go of Windows. You haven't decided to make the switch to Linux and would like to use it on a trial basis before you actually decide to take the plunge.

The various organizations backing Linux saw this problem. And they came up with a novel idea. Why not install a Linux distribution to a CD so that whenever a person wants to use it, he/she can pop in the CD and boot from it. No installation necessary! Welcome to the world of LIVE CDs!
A LIVE CD contains an entire Linux distribution on it. The beauty of the thing is - No installation required! To use Linux use the following steps:

• In the BIOS setup (displayed by pressing F8 when the computer is started), the boot priority of CD should be above the Hard disk.
• Put the Live CD in the CD/DVD drive.
• Restart PC
• That's it!!

There are quite a few LIVE CDs available. Most of them are FREE. I'm mentioning just two of them here:

• Ubuntu
• Knoppix

The ISO images can be downloaded from their sites. Just to give you a sense of adventure, I'm not mentioning the name of the sites. Discover them yourself!
Once you have downloaded the ISO file which is almost 700 MB in size, just burn it to a CD. And you are ready to go!
So if you ever feel the need to explore the realm outside Windows, feel FREE to try Linux, LIVE!

If you have any queries or suggestion, do leave them as comments. I'll reply as soon as possible.

What an idea, Sirjee!

This small post is dedicated to the ingenious minds in the advertising business. A few days ago, I came across the most touching ad. The IDEA ad featuring Junior B as a priest!

The ad is pretty simple. A priest sees a poor girl being turned away by his school because the seats are full. Feeling sad for the children who can't attend school, he prays to God. And gets an IDEA. Soon, every village boy and girl is getting educated like their urban counterparts. How? By the use of mobile phones!

All children in the village gather at one spot. A mobile phone placed nearby connects them to teachers of a missionary school, undoubtedly overseen by the priest. So, besides teaching the students in the classroom, the teachers are also teaching children who otherwise wouldn't have been able to go to a real school. In the Annual Prize Distribution Ceremony, the girl who was initially turned away (in the beginning of the ad)wins the best student award.
The ad concludes with the priest looking up at the sky, smiling and saying, "What an idea, sirjee!"

The very first time I saw the ad, I felt a tear trickle down my right cheek. It touched a very deep chord. Why can't we all be more like the priest? We are supposed to be the new India. Why depend on octogenarians to resolve our issues when they can't even take care of their own knees...ehm...health.

I could blabber on about the state of the country, the deplorable conditions of the middle class but that's not the issue. As was once said by JFK (and quoted by millions): "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country!"

Kudos to the people who developed the IDEA ad (The ad company, the actors etc.)
Its brilliant...and maybe...just maybe...signifies the rise of the new India.

Management Fundae for Dummies (by Dummies)

These days it seems any dolt with a computer and internet connectivity can churn out a business book & make a few bucks. As a matter of fact, that's what most of the so-called management gurus believe. Everyday, there's a new book in print by one of these glib fibbers.

Personally, I despise management books. After reading about half-dozen (actually, two) of these time-wasters I believe that now I have sufficient authority on the subject to air my views. I began nurturing a dislike for the books when I realized that they actually are worth nothing. Not one book contained anything other than common sense. "If you sell more, you will earn more! If you cut costs enough, you can increase revenues without actually selling more!". DUH!

Management is not something a person can be taught. Its a practical subject and can be demonstrated by anyone. Become one of the organizers of your College Fest and you'll know what teamwork actually is. Leadership will be shown by students who were organizers last year too. So why do students of IIMs get so absurd salaries? Elementary, my dear reader. The entrance test for management institutes is one of the toughest in the world. The students who are able to bell the CAT are in fact, cream of the academia. The fact that they made it to prestigious institutes speaks volumes about their capability. After addition of a few finishing touches by the institution, they are ready to refuse a package of Rs 12 crore per annum and start their own business.

Frankly, my disposition towards the fad has earned me many enemies. Once I hid my good friend's management bible. He went to Indrajit Hazra who went on to write about "Who moved my Who Moved My Cheese?". I thought about returning the book, but it turns out that it became my Pillar of Strength. Actually, its supporting my limp computer table right now.

Anyhow, there's a plus side to the management invasion. As a matter of fact, I have developed a sureshot plan to make a lot of money from this instant money-making scheme. I plan to get in conflict with the most famous ones of the lot to gain instant publicity.

My masterplan includes releasing my own New York Times #1 bestseller, titled "The Engineer who bought a second-hand Ferrari from a Monk", blasting all management principles promoted by the self-styled managers. It will be succeded by a superhit sequel "Why did I buy another one of these Books? And other silly questions". As a matter of fact, I plan to write business books until the readers run out of money (or New York Times proclaims me as the next Robin Sharma).

BRAINWAVE:

Why does New York Times have so many #1 bestsellers? From Robert Ludlum to Spencer Johnson, everyone's been a #1 bestselling author. An underground mafia running the management book printing business? We may never know.