Mediocre Perspectives

The last twenty minutes were not easy for him. He knew he was to make the most important decision of his life. But never did he realize that it will be this difficult. He fixed his eyes on the biometric microphone lying beside his bed. He will have to say three words – “Yes, I agree”, if he is ready for the procedure which he is to undergo in fifteen minutes. The room was equipped with biotech sensors which have been monitoring him since he entered. While David was immersed in deep thought, his doctor Krishnan entered the room. “So, it seems your mind is still in dilemma Mr. David”. David gave him a wry smile. “Well, when I gave my nod for the procedure, I was excited. But now, the thought of losing my memories is preventing me from going ahead”. Krishnan smiled calmly. “Everyone who signed up for this procedure goes through such mental conflicts Mr. David. You will lose your memories for the last fifteen years but it will also make you fifteen years younger. We are fortu

When the Cold war ended the USA became the undisputed super power of the world. Today, it is widely accepted that the world is heading towards a multi-polar world with many power centers. But even before the stage has reached the USA has some concerns. That is more than validated by the speculative US policy of ‘Pivot to Asia’. The US plans to station close to half of its troops in the countries of the Philippines, Vietnam and Japan by 2050. A superpower does not take such measures until there is a significant development. Two weeks ago Chinese currency Renminbi (Yuan) entered the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) currency grouping. Currently, USA holds 41.9 percent and China 10.92 percent in the revised SDR basket. SDR refers to the basket of currencies on which a debtor nation could receive loans from the IMF. China has been known as the ‘Workshop of the world’ for its manufacturing sector’s capability. But proceedings in the last few years have cemented China as the nation beyond a

The recently concluded cricket series between India and South Africa has produced some resilient performances from both sides. Though the Indian side won the series 3-0 the South African have several positives to take back from this tour. The tour rekindled the long standing debate – the importance of the cricket pitch. Perhaps there is no other sport where the performance of the players is affected significantly with change in the battleground. This is certainly attributed to the nature of the sport where the cricketing pitch is involved in every ball bowled. Tennis is probably one other sport where there are specialists for each surface. Cricketing pitches vary across continents. The 22 yards favour swing in Australia, pace and bounce in South Africa and spin in the subcontinent as we’ve seen in the last series. In addition to their inherent nature weather patterns could slightly alter their nature. Pitch preparation which is taken care by the ground staff prepare pitches which

It would be fair to say that I started watching tennis because of Roger Federer. Tennis was alien to me ten years ago. I didn’t even know that ‘love’ had a different meaning when pronounced on a tennis court. But watching Federer play was enchanting. It felt like poetry in motion. Ten years down the line, I have become an ardent fan of tennis and I realize that I was fortunate to have watched the ‘Big Four’ play in their prime. I am not sure where I read that phrase for the first time but I do know that it suits the four well. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray have enthralled tennis fans for a decade. Most sports including tennis see the rise of stars every decade. To quote examples in tennis, there was a decade of John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg and Jimmy Connors. We also had a decade dominated by the likes of Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi. But the Big four of tennis stand unrivalled due to their contrasting styles and character. I shall rather not go into the

Procrastination is an integral part of human lives. We rarely miss that trait in people we come across every day. On the macro level, the same character is very much prevalent. It is no different with climate change. The world woke up to the grim reality of human induced ‘climate change’ in the last half of the 20 th century. Since then, there has been considerable progress through mechanisms like the Kyoto protocol with few countries accepting obligations to reduce their green house emissions. But it is well agreed among international organizations that it is not sufficient. If climate change is to have a minimal impact on human lives it is mandatory that world nations reach a concrete agreement in the COP in Paris which has begun yesterday. The convention during the Earth summit in Rio 1992 accepted that climate change is accelerated by human actions. It is accepted widely that the impact on the earth will be minimal if the temperature rise is kept below 2 degree Celsius. Henc

“I am stressed out. I need to take a break tomorrow”. “I didn’t read that book for the last two days. Even that looks part of my routine. It stresses me out”. “I hate that gang. I get stressed at their sight”. “I have lots of homework today. I am tensed”. These are statements which we frequently come across in our lives every day. ‘Stress’ was not a common terminology used in conversations few years ago. But today it has broken all age barriers ranging from a 10 year old to a CEO in the fifties. Though few might use the word without recognizing its meaning it is true that our society is suffering from a disease of ‘extended stresses’. To avoid prolonged stress it is necessary to understand its purpose. Imagine yourself 20,000 years ago in a forest eating a hunted deer under the shade of a tree. Suddenly, when you sense a lion stalking you, you bolt from the place. When the lion gives chase, you climb faster to the top of the nearby tree. Your breathing and heart rate ar

4:30 PM Global Standard Time, November 25, 2070, Somewhere on Earth Richard’s legs picked up pace. It was raining heavily but slowing down could be detrimental to his life. He was being chased for the last two hours. His knowledge of this patch of forest has made evasion possible. If he could reach the highway which was a few miles away he could live to die another day. The forests were one of the dense patches which were left on earth. He paused near a mahogany and crouched. The sound of the rain was deafening. He could not see his chasers. Making sure that he had lost them, he slipped his hands into his trousers and picked up his phone. To his dismay, it has been battered thoroughly. He recalled that it should have damaged when he fell before a few minutes. His right leg was severely bruised from the fall. Not knowing what to do, when he rested his head on the bark to contemplate, a bullet pierced his thigh. 06:15 PM Mars Standard Time, Saganom 48, 2557, Somewhere on Ma

Andy [ in letter to Red ]: Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies. -From the movie Shawshank Redemption Last week, when I went through the newspaper that Sachin has scored a half century in the All Star T20 tournament which took place in USA, I couldn’t help myself from watching it. I managed to browse and watch a 3 minute video of his fifty. It would be unfair to pick a few adjectives to describe the shots which he played. Throughout his career this man has exhausted all the positive adjectives in the dictionary. When I closed my browser my mind was flooded with memories of the ‘Little Master’. I am a rationalist who does not believe in the concept of God. But when Sachin was first adored as the ‘God of Cricket’, my rationality accepted it without any objection. Years later, analyzing reality I believe the phrase will stand the test of reason in the years to come. I remember a conversation with my friend on God. I asked h

I still remember the first time when I ordered a book online as a second year college student three years ago. I was pretty skeptical but my friend convinced me that it saves a lot of time and the prices are reasonable for a new book. When few hostellers felt comfortable with the delivery of books, others followed. Two years later, recalling the last months in college I could remember a guy with a bag standing in front of every hostel block delivering a range of goods. (From livelaw.in) The growth of e-commerce in India has been nothing short of extraordinary. In monetary terms it is fairly good to say that the growth of the industry is exponential. The principal factors which aid the industry are internet penetration and increasing use of smart phones. The number of Indians who have access to the internet is only close to 10% and the percentage that uses smart phones is not high either. In such a scenario, it wouldn’t be surprising if the exponential growth of the industry i

I spoke to my friend who has now migrated to Chennai for work. During the conversation he told me that it has just been a month and he was enquired about his ‘caste’ on two occasions. I told him that ‘two’ is quite a high number for a month. Then he told me, “It is not just in Chennai. You migrate to any place in our State; people aren’t shy in enquiring about your ‘caste’. It is the way it is”. I had to admit what he said was true. Being a rationalist who denounces religion and caste, I have always found it uncomfortable when people ask me such questions. But it has to be acknowledged that different questions are raised depending on where you migrate. Your state is enquired when you leave your home ‘state’ and when you leave your country people are interested from which ‘country’ you come from. The details which I filled for appearing for a government examination were rather amusing. Only during the process I realized that my ‘place’ of birth and my ‘native’ district were no

The foundation of the capital city for the state of Andhra Pradesh (AP) has been laid in the presence of many dignitaries. Planners would find it difficult to recall the last time an event was conducted with such fanfare. Few months ago, in a list of the most polluted cities on earth, 13 out of 20 were found in India. The report should be taken as an eye opener for upgrading the ‘live-ability’ of our cities and should serve as an important take away for the new capital ‘envisioned’. Two concerns Though the reasons given for the current state of our cities are many, they fundamentally lack an important quotient – planning. Cities in India have always proliferated without a specified direction resulting in so many problems which we encounter today. Amaravati is both a blessing and a curse. Amaravati is a missed opportunity since Andhra Pradesh has not declared any of its existing towns or cities as its capital. This would have provided Andhra Pradesh with a possibility of div

The Sahithya Akademi has finally acceded to the demands of the writers, that a resolution to be passed against the attack on rationalism. But this has happened following many writers returning their awards pestering the academy to break its silence on the ongoing assault on tolerance, the right to ‘dissent’ and killing of rationalist M.M.Kalburgi. The actual reason for the recent outburst is a series of events since the new government under the leadership of the honorable PM Narendra Modi came to power. A pattern is seen emerging if one skims through the events which has occupied the headlines in the last one year. It starts from the honorable PM himself reluctant to extend his wishes for all festivals setting aside his bias. The events of ‘reconversion’ of people back into the fold of Hinduism by VHP termed ‘ghar wapsi’ through material means was widely publicized in the media. The irresponsible statements made by few legislators ranged from calling for Hindu women to have more

When I was combing my hair today through the mirror’s eyes, I couldn’t resist contemplating a TV show which talked about increasing ‘face’ fairness. In the show, the difficulties of their facial skin problems were narrated by the participants and the experts were giving advice for tackling them. On second thought, I did realize that this was not the only show which talked about ‘facial’ problems. I remember many shows in where questions being asked, from hair fall to acne.  The emphasis on ‘looking’ good is embedded rather deeply in mind. It is not a new phenomenon and has been prevalent ages together. TV shows on facial fairness and innumerable commercials on beautification products are only extension of what existed for centuries. This is elucidated by the description of heroes and heroines in epics, poems and sculptures. There hardly existed a queen or a king who didn’t want them to be depicted as beautiful though reality might be the other way around. Throughout our lives

He never liked to work on Saturdays. But now it was the only way to tide over the tough financial condition in the last two months. He knew that things will be normal in one more month. After slipping his one-sided bag over his shoulders he walked out of his office. The time on his mobile phone was 7:10. “It is late already. Let us go”, said his friend. Parallel to the pavement they fast along the road. Murthy looked over his shoulder to the pavement. Apart from walking, he could recall every other activity, the pavement was used. His mind returned to reality when an auto blazed past them with a screeching horn.  One more supermarket was being constructed on that road. “There will be more traffic when this comes up. Who asked for another one?” asked his friend. “Move along, it doesn’t matter for us. It is not on our bus route”. When they reached the main road, his friend handed him a Rajeshkumar novel. “Here, it was good. This was definitely better than the last one you gave me”.

The last two months in Tamil Nadu has witnessed widespread protests calling for closing the shutter on Tamil Nadu Marketing Corporation – TASMAC, the State run institution which controls the distribution of liquor in the State. The protests were triggered following the death of Mr.Sasi Perumal during his protest calling for closing a wine shop. In the aftermath of such incidents it is worthwhile to analyze the impact which TASMAC had had on the State especially in the last decade and the feasibility of its closure. Implications: The society has been at the receiving end of  TASMAC's success. TASMAC has influenced the psychology of the population and has made drinking an ‘acceptable’ part of our lives which is very well reflected in our movies. The act of drinking which was done on rare occasions far outside the premises of residential limits have completely changed with wine shops being found near all residential areas including schools and temples. There have been many ins