Will to choose a Life, and not just a Lifestyle

In today’s world, are we just keeping ourselves busy
without really finding a life. Purposeful living is the
answer. One of the human endowments is the Free Will ,
the capacity to think and act unencumbered .The power
of independent action and choice. In the words of Henry
David Thoreau , ‘I went to the woods because I wished to
live deliberately--- and not , when I came to die , discover
that I had not lived’. Lifestyle purveyors abound .The
market place is filled with those things that give you a
makeover and a personality, if you call it so. From cars
to designer homes and holidays abroad , there is much in
waiting for the discerning and the well heeled . Be all you
can be, an inward orientation that brings out the best in
you . Not just to respond to situations & circumstances
based on the resources . But in discovering yourself ,
the uniqueness that is you . We may have to look away
from the market place though . Life’s biggest joys are the
simplest, simple triumphs of everyday living, in trying to
excel in the tasks at hand.

Differentiation and Integration are two processes that
underlie the capacity to achieve a happy and meaningful
life. It’s a paradoxical proposition, nevertheless the two
aspects are compatible . Differentiation involves

realizing that we are unique individuals , responsible for
our own survival and well being , who are willing to
develop this uniqueness wherever it leads. Integration
involves the realization that
however unique we are we are also completely enmeshed
in relationships with other human beings with culture and
the environment . As one former CEO had observed
“My definition of being successful is contributing
something to the world around and being happy doing it’.
To be successful you have to enjoy doing your best at the
same time contributing to something beyond yourself .
If a leader can make a convincing case that working for
the organisation can provide relevance , that it will take
the workers out of the shell of their mortal frames , that it
will connect them with something more meaningful, then
his vision will generate power and people will naturally be
attracted to working for such a company.

Few people who are Entrepreneurs , Artists , Writers,
Sportspersons, all have the benefit of pursuing careers
that are challenging yet fulfilling as it is well matched to
their skills and talents. You are living your vocation. It is
worth remembering that the organization you are working
will shape your entire identity. It will either enable you to
grow or stunt you . It will strengthen your values or make
you cynical. Many enter their first job still unsure of what
they want to be and of their skills and it is their experience

at work during this period that is likely to
determine
the direction in which they will go professionally . If

the first job doesn’t work it is
better you continue your search than stick it out in a dead
end situation. Look for your passion, go towards
companies you really admire where your God given talents
will be best used . Your values and skills should find
expression. A lifetime career is not what you should seek
instead a job where you can study and grow.

Work should not be everything in life although it gives
you that identity. All work and no play makes ----------- .
One should also have interests outside work , if one has to
balance Work and Life . Setting Performance goals
and high standards for oneself , no matter how
uninteresting the tasks may be can help achieve flow in the
job. When the challenge encountered is matched with the
skills, the outcome can be greatly satisfying . There is
absolute control over their activity and the feedback
gives the one who performs the ability to modify and adapt
to the needs . Striving for excellence does not necessarily
demand that one become the best in one’s field. For many
it means simply to do one’s personal best. Ultimately what
makes a result excellent is that it goes beyond what you
would have expected given the available resources . That
way you end up surprising yourself .

-Bijoy Joseph

Versions 20.12

2012 hasn't even begun, and yet we've already got a number of reasons to look forward to the coming year. Let's take a look at some technology coming our way the next year

Operating systems

As far as operating systems go, 2012 looks set to be a bumper year. With a slate of Windows 8 tablets expected to release, we'll finally get a proper look at Microsoft's vision of the future of Windows. Not to mention Windows Phone 8, which also should make an appearance before the year is out.

On the Google side of things, Android 4.0 (aka Ice Cream Sandwich) has been heralded as the best version of Android yet; and devices running Google's latest should start making their way to our shores in early 2012. The long-rumoured Google Tablet appears set to become a reality next summer.

As always, huge things are expected from Apple's next OS updates, iOS 6 and Mac OS X 10.8; as of now, though, little is known of either. Similarly, BlackBerry fans will have to wait until the end of the year for a glimpse of Blackberry 10.

Gaming consoles

We can't wait to finally see Nintendo's Wii U in action. The original Wii revolutionised motion-control in gaming and became the most popular console in the world; but it's since faded a little due to dated hardware and a dearth of quality third-party titles.

The Wii U represents Nintendo's answer to those criticisms — with HD graphics on par with the current competition, a stellar legacy of innovation and Nintendo's formidable stable of games, the Wii U is easily one of the most anticipated 2012 launches in gaming.

Right up there with the Wii U, though, is the PlayStation Vita. Going by its powerful specifications alone, the Vita is quite exciting; when you also consider that it claims to deliver PS3-level graphics and a full array of control options in a hand-held device, it becomes positively drool-worthy. As always, rumours abound about the next generation of Microsoft's and Sony's consoles.

Will 2012 see the release of the PlayStation 4 or Xbox 720 or whatever else they might be called? It's unlikely; however, given all the evidence pointing to something big coming our way at the end of next year, an announcement or two doesn't seem outside the bounds of possibility.

Truly smart

Meanwhile, ASUS is keeping the flag flying with its sheer out-of-left-field designs. The company that gave us the excellent Transformer Prime tablet — which turned into a capable net-book with the addition of a keyboard dock — is once again pushing the boundaries with the ASUS Padfone.

The Padfone is a 4.3-inch smartphone (reportedly running Android 4.0 at launch) that integrates with a 10.1-inch display dock, effectively enabling it to serve as either a phone or a tablet. And if that wasn't enough to pique your interest, the Padfone will also be running on a quad-core Tegra 3 chip; thus making it one of the most powerful smartphones around.

Say cheese!

In terms of sheer potential, the gadget we're most intrigued is from the field of photography. We're not alone in having such high hopes for the Lytro Light Field Camera; it's been described as the biggest thing to happen to photography since it went digital.

What's all the fuss about? Well, the Lytro camera uses light-field technology to capture all the light information from a given scene comprehensively enough to create what the company calls ‘living pictures'. You can adjust the focus of these living pictures at your own leisure, or even convert them into 3D images.

While it does have its limitations right now, the “shoot now, focus later” USP that Lytro is going with is undeniably exciting, and provides a solid platform to build on. The technology used in the camera isn't new; however, until now, it's solely been the province of those with research labs and supercomputers.

Arjun Sukumaran

The Industrial Downturn

In an announcement that shocked both the government and the markets, the CSO declared recently that the month-on-month annual growth rate of industrial production had turned negative in October 2011. The government quickly played down the evidence, seeking to talk up the markets. In this it was aided by the fact that the decline was driven to some extent by an unusual 25.5 per cent annualised decline in production in the capital goods sector. The Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council argued that the fall in capital goods output was possibly due to statistical underreporting. The message was that the numbers are likely to be corrected when the figures are revised, and therefore should give no cause for alarm.

But as the accompanying Chart displaying month-on-month annualised growth rates suggests, medium term developments are such that there still is cause for concern. To start with, the decline in month-on-month growth rates is a trend rather than a one-time phenomenon, though October is the first occasion in recent times when the figure turned negative. The ‘V-shaped’ recovery from the 2009 recession seems to have peaked and reversed itself as far back as February 2010. That was disappointing enough because the recovery had established India as one among the countries that had quickly put the effects of the global crisis behind it. To boot, since then industrial growth has slipped, stabilised for a while, and then registered the recent sharp downturn.

Secondly, while suspicions have been expressed about the veracity of the figures because of the surprisingly large 25.5 decline in the production of the capital goods sector, the October figures point to a negative rate of growth in all industrial groups in the “use-based” classification. Even consumer goods, with a weightage in the index of industrial production that is more than three times as much as for capital goods, registered a decline, even if of a much smaller 0.83 per cent. The trend, if not the magnitude, is general.

A third feature coming out of these growth figures is that, if the October figures prove to be statistically acceptable, the month-on-month growth rate is at a trough that is close to its worst performance during the 2009 crisis. If the 2009 recession was a downturn worth taking note of, so is this.

With figures as striking as these, it is difficult for both government and industry to dispute the decline, even if doubt is expressed about the magnitude of the fall. So what has followed is an attempt to dilute the significance of the downturn by attributing it largely to the effects of the Reserve Bank of India’s attempt to raise interest rates to combat inflation. In fact the RBI has even been criticised on the grounds that its response to the inflation was overdone, and yielded less in terms of inflation control than growth deceleration.

There are many advantages to this position. First, it makes the downturn and possible recession an engineered rather than a systemic phenomenon. This provides the argument for those who would not like a proactive response to the recession on the part of the government. Second, it strips the whole gamut of other policies of the government, including those referred to as the “economic reform”, of any role in precipitating either the inflation or the industrial volatility that underlie the current downturn. Third, it ignores the role played by the high growth in services, or outside the productive sectors, in creating the basis for inflation in recent years. More income and less commodity production normally implies high inflation, more imports or both. Accepting that link would amount to accepting that within the current trajectory high growth would lead to high inflation. And, fourth, since inflation divested of its relationship with growth is expected to moderate in due course, the RBI is expected to respond in reverse by reducing interest rates and easing monetary policy. This makes the recovery from the downturn seem inevitable.

There are two important relationships that arguments of this kind ignore. The first is that the inflation, the response to which is supposed to have triggered the downturn, is not an accidental occurrence. There are strong direct and indirect cost-push effects that the recent economic policies of the government have had that are substantially responsible for the inflation. To that extent, policies other than the responsive hike in interest have had an important role to play, even if the role of the latter in driving the downturn is accepted.

Second, the effects of the interest rate must work through some mechanism. Normally, it works through a dampening of demand, which reduces the degree to which the system is overheated. That is, the mechanism is one that seeks to alter the supply-demand balance by squeezing demand, in order to reduce prices. Its success is, therefore, predicated on a decline in demand and growth. Relying on the interest rate implies accepting the link between growth and inflation.

Conventionally, the perception has been that the effects of the interest rate on demand works through its dampening effect on investment. This reduces investment demand in the first instance, and by limiting the income generated through new investment curtails growth in consumption demand as well. The efficacy of the measure depends, therefore, on the responsiveness of investment to interest rate increases. This has in the past been ambiguous, and is more so now given the option of borrowing from abroad for the big corporates.

This questions the argument that interest changes have generated the recent sharp downturn. However, in more recent times, credit has financed not only productive investment by firms and farms, but a substantial volume of housing investment and consumption by households. Interest rate increases discourage such investment and consumption more than they adversely affect productive investment, making the effects of such hikes on demand much more potent.

It is for this reason that interest rate increases are likely to have had strong adverse effects on growth. The question remains as to why they have been less effective in combating inflation. If cost-push factors play an important role in explaining inflation, the dampening effects of rate increases on the price rise are bound to be lagged and limited. That seems to be the case in India today.

C.P Chandrashekhar

Food Security: If bill becomes law!

UPA II brought a legislature on the food security, fulfilling an election manifesto
promise, a gesture seen rarely in democratic India. But key questions are raised
almost on every provision of the bill, be it the out sized amount of finances involved,
its serious fiscal implications, population identification or distribution mechanisms
and its large scale food grain procurement except on its noble intentions and utmost
necessity. Let’s try to understand the legislation and find answers to draw a clear
picture.

NFSB (National Food Security Bill): The bill aims to cover close to 64% of our total
population. It proposes an imaginary division of population in general and priority
households, covering nearly 75% of rural and 50% of urban population under its
ambit with at least 46% in rural and 28% in urban areas under priority households
and promises them the right to 7kg of food grains per person per month at subsidized
rates. General category would get at least 3 kg of grains at a rate not exceeding 50 per
cent of the minimum support price. What are these unheard divisions? The division
will be based on findings of socio-economic caste census carried out by the respective
State Government with the financial and technical support of the Government of
India, which will be used to separate out priority household from the general. Doing
as promised will require 61 million tons of food grains thus an escalation in food
procurement, translating into total food subsidies to Rs.1 Lakh crore. It also gives
Central government usurps all powers to decide the number of people belonging
to priority households and imposes a substantial level of expenditure on the State
governments. In words the bill sounds simple, doesn't it? Then why has the bill
triggered slurry of criticisms? Let’s answer to the questions floating in the criticisms
and see which part of the chain of food security are missing i.e. the production of
food, its distribution and its absorption by the poor and hungry.

Where will the food come from? - Current average food grain procurement is 52
million tons which has peaked in the last 3 years owing to good rainfall. But if we
see back, we were producing much less thus average procurement was much lower
between 2002-2008. Since Indian agriculture is largely dependent on monsoons we
may have years of bad monsoon and the average production will is less, then the
remaining food grain to meet the legally mandated demand will have to be imported
which could climb the global prices up. The way out is to make India self-sufficient
for its requirement for which we need to invest in agricultural growth, scientific
irrigation, in rural roads that provide vital physical linkage to markets, in scientific
storage and efficient transport logistics, in developing as close a link as possible
between the farmer and the first stage of food processing, in short we need second
green revolution or a evergreen revolution sooner. Ideally, we need to have all the
agro reforms in place before embarking on such an exercise or else the scheme will be
a non-starter or a simple failure.
How the food will be distributed? - The distribution mechanism is centralized
and raises question whether such massive exercise can be handled by FCI(food
corporation of India), and can this system deliver? The food ministry earlier revealed
that it costs Rs.134 per quintal to procure wheat while it costs them Rs.289 to
distribute it. These enormous costs are the result of our failure to move towards a
decentralized system. The way towards an efficient and financially viable distribution
mechanism calls for localized innovations in productivity, to procure food at
panchayat levels and involve these institutions where delivery can be ensured and
fastened, which will also give way to new economic activities. The only logical way
to tackle hunger is to try different methods and see which one works best and extend
the model nationally. This is how the mid-day meal scheme introduced in Tamil Nadu
in was adopted nationally in 2001.
Who will be given the food? - The bill proposes to give food to priority and general
households but no clear division mechanism and is the biggest downside of the
legislation which will not only divide people within same community, the criteria
used will leave out many deserving households and this division of household is
counter reproductive to the inclusive PDS approach in states like TN and AP. Only
feasible exit is to either give everyone the same entitlement or the entitlements above
poverty line be completely vanished and poorest households can continue to get
special support. This bill is not India’s first crack at hunger. In the past we have had
the food-for-work programme (a variant of NREGA), the Antyodaya scheme (targeted
at the ultra-poor), the mid-day meal scheme for children, and the anganwadi schemes
for mother and child. Above it all, we have public distribution system (PDS) which
works well in some states
What are the fiscal implications? - Even though the bill will burden the state
exchequer a large amount it is unlikely that bill come into force in the entire country
in one go and the subsidy will materialize right away. What is at stake, therefore, is
not an immediate financial blow, but the ability of the Indian economy and public
finances to accommodate this Bill over a period of time. We definitely need food
security and the amount involved cannot be the reason for not doing it.

Is it another ‘common-man’ stunt? - Since the economic growth model is not
inclusive, rising inflation and chronic global economic fluctuations are bound to make
India’s war on poverty difficult. So the fact is that the country’s poor need subsidized
food to be able to spend their earning on their important needs, like health care and
children’s education. The government, on the other hand, by its very nature, has to
balance contradictions in society and hence has an obligation to providing the poor
with a minimum sense of existence. Based on this thought, the Food Security Bill
should be welcomed. Hence, the administration of food security is a challenge beyond
budgetary numbers, which seems to have caught everyone’s attention!

The truth is that food security comes from ensuring three things: creating jobs and
income, ensuring higher food output by raising productivity, and creating a safety net
to feed those who can’t do so themselves in distress situations. The proposed subsidies
can help the efforts but it cannot eliminate the problem. And the food security bill is
just one approach to the problem and is certainly a flawed one!

Written by

Ashish Gupta

Steyn makes batsmen look like idiots

Dale Steyn is without doubt the best fast bowler in the game today. Anybody who swings the ball away from the right hander at that speed is well nigh impossible to tackle. The only saving grace is that the batsman looks like an idiot as he is squared up ball after ball and the slip fielders go crazy with the expectations of the edge coming to them, any ball.

If the bowler is one who brings the ball into the right hander, then there is the pain of the ball thumping into the body while for the away swinger the batsman just plays and misses or edges the ball. That is why the best ball for the tail-enders is the one that comes in, for it is more than likely to have him bowled as he moves out of the way to avoid being hit.

Steyn has been picking five wickets in virtually every Test match and is the one reason why the South Africans are doing so well everywhere, and not just at home. If only Steyn had a partner at the other end who could keep the pressure up then there wouldn't be too many big totals against the Proteas, but Morne Morkel, though awkward to face at times has not been consistent and has allowed the batsmen some leeway.

Hackers target US security think tank

Now Playing Don 2 Trailers in 3D. Catch It All on YouTube! youtube.com/Don2



Hackers on Sunday claimed to have stolen 200 GB of e-mails and credit card data from United States security think tank Stratfor, promising a weeklong Christmas-inspired assault on a long list of targets.

Members of the loose hacking movement known as "Anonymous" posted a link on Twitter to what it said was Stratfor's secret client list — including the U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force, Goldman Sachs and MF Global.

"Not so private and secret anymore?," the group taunted in a message on the microblogging site.

Anonymous said it was able to get credit details, in part, because Stratfor didn't bother encrypting them — an easy-to-avoid blunder which — if true — would be a major embarrassment for any security company.

Stratfor said in an email to members that it had suspended its servers and email after learning that its website had been hacked.

"We have reason to believe that the names of our corporate subscribers have been posted on other web sites," said the email, passed on to The Associated Press. "We are diligently investigating the extent to which subscriber information may have been obtained."

The email, signed by Stratfor Chief Executive George Friedman, said the company is "working closely with law enforcement to identify who is behind the breach."

"Stratfor's relationship with its members and, in particular, the confidentiality of their subscriber information, are very important to Stratfor and me," Friedman wrote.

Stratfor's website was down midday Sunday, with a banner saying "site is currently undergoing maintenance."

Wishing everyone a "Merry LulzXMas" — a reference to spinoff and fellow troublemakers Lulz Security — Anonymous also posted a link on Twitter to a site containing the email, phone number and credit number of a U.S. Homeland Security employee.

The employee, Cody Sultenfuss, said he had no warning before his details were posted.

"They took money I did not have," he told The Associated Press in an email. "I think why me? I am not rich."

Anonymous warned it has "enough targets lined up to extend the fun fun fun of LulzXmas through the entire next week."

The group has previously claimed responsibility for attacks on companies such as Visa, MasterCard and PayPal, as well as others in the music industry and the Church of Scientology.

____________

Cassandra Vinograd can be reached at http://twitter.com/CassVinograd

Top Ten Free Online Writing Courses

Even though you still may be in middle school or high school, this doesn’t mean you can’t learn more
advanced writing techniques. Thanks to technology, several online and conventional universities offer
free writing courses through the internet. It’s simple to use and offers you the opportunity to advance
your writing skills for free and on your own time. Listed below are ten colleges that offer free online
writing course.

1. The University of Utah: Courses offered in creative writing. Free registration is required.

2. Utah State University: Courses offered include current writing technologies, research writing
and intro to prose. No registration is required.

3. UCLA: This course is taught by best-selling author, screenwriter and UCLA writing teacher, Steve
Barnes. The course can be accessed from his website at www.LifeWrite.com. No registration is
required.

4. Massachusetts Institute Technology (MIT): Courses offered in short stories, essays and poems.
No registration is required.

5. University of Massachusetts Boston: Courses offered include critical reading and writing. No
registration is required.

6. Purdue University: Their Online Writing Lab (OWL) provides extensive writing and proofreading
information. There is also information on different styles of writing. No registration is required.

7. News University: This website offers free information about writing for journalism, including
copy editing and covering news. Free registration is required.

8. Open University: Courses offered in essays and fiction. No registration is required.

9. Wikiversity: Courses offered in narrative dialogue, web writing and technical writing. No
registration is required.

10. E-Zine University: Courses offered in basic writing and web writing. No registration is required.

Available courses vary in length and degree of advancement. All are self-conducted and don’t require
homework or other assignments.

Carrie Oakley is editor and writer for Online Universities.
She likes to write articles about many topics of interest, including education and career planning.

Sonu hopes for ‘my’ time in coming year

Singer Sonu Nigam, who has been in the industry for almost two decades and will celebrate his 38th birthday Saturday, says his resolution is to take time off and invest in his personal life.

“I’ll be in Nairobi on my birthday because I have a concert there. My family will also be with me,” Sonu said in an interview.

“I would want to give myself some time this year. I have worked a lot in the year gone by. I want to go to the mountains or the beaches and just chill out and spend time with my family. I could not do that last year. Besides everything else personal space is a big requirement for me and I would like to give it to myself. I need some ‘my’ time,” he added.

Sonu, who married Madhurima in 2002 and has a three-year-old son Nevaan, revealed that 2010 had been one of the best years of his career.

“Last year has been one of the best years of my life because so much happened in this one year that it was difficult to keep a count. Last year I was in Los Angeles on my birthday and at that time I was about to start ‘Chhote Ustaad’ on Star Plus. The whole season was so great and fulfilling.

“Then I did so many concerts. The best part was my performances at the award shows. That earned me a lot of appreciation from everyone. My comic timing was appreciated and also my acting and singing skills. Then the tremendous success of ‘X Factor’ and my first single ‘Let’s go for glory’ for ICC World Cup got me acclaim.

“Apart from that, my performance with Jermaine Jackson at IIFA and Britney Spears collaboration – all that happened last year. So it was quite an eventful year.”

Sonu began his singing career at the age of three, when he joined his father on stage singing Mohammad Rafi songs and also accompanying him on his singing appearances at weddings and parties. At the age of 19, he moved to Mumbai with his father to begin his Bollywood singing career.

His initial years in Mumbai proved to be a struggle – he started by singing covers of Mohammad Rafi songs in albums released by T-Series and after some time he was labelled a “Rafi clone”.

His first film break was for a song in the film “Janam” (1990), but it never got an official release. Meanwhile Sonu took up radio commercials until his big break came in the form of popular TV show “Sa Re Ga Ma”, after which success has been constantly knocking on his doors.

He started hosting “Sa Re Ga Ma” in 1995, which soon became one of the most popular shows on Indian television. The format of the show gave Sonu a chance to showcase his singing skills as well as his natural charm and audience appeal.

Then his song “Accha sila diya” for the film “Bewafa Sanam” (1995) boosted his popularity and singing offers started pouring in.

He rose to fame with composer Anu Malik’s song “Sandese aate hain” from the 1997 war movie “Border” and it helped him get rid of ‘Rafi Clone’ tag and in the same year he crooned Nadeem-Shravan composed chartbuster “Yeh dil deewana” (”Pardes”). Since then, he has created a unique style of his own.

Over the years Sonu has become a major force in the Indian music industry. He is recognised for his versatility in singing and his excellent range by singing romantic, rock, sad and patriotic numbers.

Some of his popular numbers are “Ishq Bina” (”Taal”), “Panchhi nadiyaan” (”Refugee”), “Suraj hua maddham” (”Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham”), “Kal ho naa ho” (”Kal Ho Naa Ho”), “Main hoon na” (”Main Hoon Na”) and “Shukran allah” (”Kurbaan”) among many others.

He didn’t limit himself to Hindi songs – his body of work has songs in Kannada, Bengali, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, English, Bhojpuri, Urdu, Nepali, Chhattisgarhi and Marathi.

Looking back from where he started and where he has reached, Sonu became sentimental and said: “I couldn’t have wished for anything more. When I started I didn’t know that being a singer I will be recognized. People will stop me at signals and knock on the windows of my car. I’ve been given so much love that its amazing.

“I just came here to become a playback singer and the fame, love and adulation that I have received is amazing. I’m really thankful to the almighty and the people who love me and bless me,” he added.

Down with herd mentality

Philosopher Spinoza has said, “If you throw a stone up in the air and if the stone has a certain amount of consciousness it will fly in accordance with its own wish.”

Many of us are programmed to feel an emotion even without understanding its fundamental basics. I first noticed this when a friend and I had gone to see a film. A newsreel preceded the show as was the practice at that time. A shot of Subhash Chandra Bose flashed on the screen. My friend clapped loudly and whistled, saying that he gets goosebumps whenever he sees a visual of Subhash Chandra Bose. When I asked him why, he said that because the freedom fighter, in opposition to Gandhi, believed in violent action. I asked him whether he knew about the exact fights waged by his idol. He didn’t.

Instead of educating himself on Subhash Chandra Bose, this friend began to believe in everything I said, he wanted to be programmed by me. Thanks but no thanks, I didn’t want to become his idol, or anyone else’s. On another occasion I was speaking to a guy who is very vociferous about his kindness towards animals. I asked him if he would kill a dog if he was given `1 lakh. Rightaway, he said, “No way!” Then I asked him if he would kill someone who is willing to exterminate the dog for `1 lakh. To that, he said, “No, because the man is a living being too.”

Fair enough. Next, I argued, “But what if that someone needed the `1 lakh to save his dying child?” By now, this man of compassion was angry with my questions, he looked as if he would kill me with his bare hands. He had forgotten that I’m a human being too. So I abandoned my attempt to de-programme him.

Then there was this man who would keep telling me belligerently that he is a patriot. When I asked him, “What do you love about India exactly? Can you tell me the names of just five people in this country whom you would sacrifice your life for? Or do you love the country for its dirty roads and the corrupt system which you keep bitching about all the time?” Immediately, he changed the subject to film gossip. So much for self-proclaimed patriotism, which has to be felt rather than announced from the rooftops.

I believe that we all are constantly programmed to feel righteous and be know-alls in accordance with pre-ordained social and religious objectives. But if we question and re-question the feelings which are fed into us, we will quit behaving like robots who must follow the herd mentality. It’s only then that we can become individuals, like that stone thrown into the air.

-Ram Gopal Varma (Source:DC)

Answer The Call Of Duty

Many things in life seem contradictory. You cannot hate someone, unless you love him, or at least you care for him. You will not try to change someone, unless the person means something to you. Never mind what you are, but at least in that one relationship, you are being very honest. You are a do-gooder. But it is tough being one, because it involves trying to show the person the way ahead; and that could make you unpopular. And that is the reason why many of us stop being do-gooders in many basic relationships.

Let us not consider the many relationships we are all involved in, such as husband-wife, boss-worker, etc. Let us confine ourselves to the most primal of relationships: parent-child. We all agree that when it comes to our children, we all have their good at heart. We never resort to manipulation or deceit, nor will we find any endeavour too much to carry out when it comes to the welfare of the little ones.

Despite our focus in terms of intent, do we carry out our duties in their best interests? Not really, if we review our actions with honesty. Last week I met a girl in her twenties, whose parents had indulged her every whim. She was attending an upper crust school for painting, after having learnt photography in New York. Yet she was quite sad. I asked her why. She was wondering if her parents truly loved her.

“I know that they gave me everything I wanted, even though my choices cost a packet. But that was because they could afford it. I do not know if they would ever sacrifice anything for my happiness, if they could not afford it,” she said plaintively. She is not the only one I have known from her socio-economic bracket who longs for one thing which comes free — parental love.

There are many other parents, across all classes, who take the soft option and do not really get involved in the lives of their little ones. Some allow their children to play with unsuitable friends, because they would be unpopular parents if they were to act otherwise. Some are too stressed with their own lives and have no time to pull up their sons and daughters when they transgress social norms. They would prefer peace in the home, at least in the little time they spend there, rather than have ugly showdowns. All of us have pulled back from insisting on ideal bedtimes in these days of television and the internet. And even the best of us, have gently told our children, “Tomorrow,” when we are occupied with something and junior asks us a question.

Remember, especially when it comes to children who do not know better, we cannot abdicate our responsibilities. In every society and through the ages, the needs of children always have had priority. Everything else in our life can wait. To the child we cannot answer, Tomorrow. His need is Today.

-Anupam Kher (Source:DC)

How not to play people's politics

The issue of Lokpal has once again taken centrestage. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh meeting with UPA allies on Wednesday was a success but the all-party meeting yielded little on the three contentious aspects of the Lokpal Bill — the inclusion of the Prime Minister, the lower bureaucracy and a citizens’ charter in the proposed anti-graft law. This is to be expected in the initial stages. Even if consensus is not reached with the Opposition, possibly there will be agreement with some of the parties. The fiasco for the government we saw on the FDI issue is avoidable.

Team Anna has taken a very aggressive attitude on the issue and remains rigid. Anna Hazare has signalled his intention to resume his fast from December 27, this time in Mumbai.

The battle lines are drawn and in these situations events overtake decisions. Even while the entire political fraternity and the self-appointed leaders of civil society battle for their own version of the Lokpal Bill we saw three crucial bills — Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill, Whistleblowers’ Protection Bill and Citizens’ Charter and Grievance Redressal Bill — cleared by the Union Cabinet on Tuesday. Team Anna wanted these three subjects brought under the Lokpal. This move was clearly a part of the UPA government’s strategy to steal much of the thunder of its political opponents. On the other side of the battle line the strategies of the BJP and the Janata Dal (United), along with the Akali Dal, go beyond the Lokpal issue and are aimed at electoral success in Uttarakhand and Punjab and an improved showing in Uttar Pradesh. The campaign by Team Anna against the Congress will help these parties, and there is nothing wrong with such quasi-electoral forays.

Politics is full of twists and turns but total agreement, as envisaged by Team Anna, looks rather difficult unless they evolve a give and take on the matter. The stands being taken from time to time by the Congress and its allies on the one hand, and Team Anna, along with the BJP and the JD(U) as well as certain NDA allies on the other, indicate that both sides have made calculated moves. There is politics involved at every step and no one at this stage is quite clear about the likely impact of Mr Hazare on the battles ahead. Team Anna can say what they want, but to achieve their ends they will have to take a political route. It would be good if Mr Hazare and Baba Ramdev, or anyone else for that matter, entered the poll arena.

The five Assembly elections — in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur — are less than three months away and it’s time to shift into electoral mode. The decision of Team Anna to oppose the Congress would mean that Mr Hazare would be supporting the Opposition parties. Technically, Mr Hazare would be supporting the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in Uttar Pradesh and the BJP-Akali Dal combine in Punjab. In Uttarakhand the party in power is the BJP, so the state might not see adversarial campaign by Mr Hazare. The Congress will no doubt see the negligible impact of Team Anna on the NCP in the civic polls in Maharashtra. Individual members of Team Anna, with their probity track record coming under a cloud, have provided adequate ammunition to the Congress, and the media is unlikely to take sides in the electoral battle.

The upcoming UP elections continue to draw attention and I still see the BSP ahead of the others with the Congress in second position. If I may take into account the Ajit Singh factor, 12-15 seats will push the Congress-RLD alliance ahead of the Samajwadi Party (SP), which clearly looks under a great deal of pressure. With Rashid Masood and Salim Sherwani, both former Union ministers, set to help its prospects in Saharanpur and Badaun respectively, the Congress is posing a serious challenge. In the coming months votes will consolidate for both the frontrunners unless the SP recovers its lost ground. The People’s Party has run into problems in its candidate selection and if it starts losing ground, the SP will gain.

As I write this article we have had a rather weak debate on the black money issue, on the millions and trillions lying in foreign banks. I wonder if there is any difference between videshi and swadeshi black money. The BJP’s adjournment motion on black money was defeated last Wednesday and I do not understand why we are so hypocritical about this issue as all senior politicians, more than anyone else, are involved in fund collections. Can anyone certify whether the funds generated through coupon sales or cash donations are black, white, purple or red?

The five Assembly elections, with close to 600-plus seats, could cost the political parties anything between Rs 3,000 crores and Rs 4,000 crores. If one were to examine the books of accounts of all the political parties — the Left parties are an exception — one can draw one’s own conclusions. A single Assembly seat costs a crore in electoral expenses for a political party. In Punjab this escalates to `2-3 crores. No party will be short of funds! Every leader is aware of this and less than one per cent of our MPs and MLAs will have the personal resources to fund their election.

The issue is further complicated by a handful of individuals who act beyond the line of duty and accumulate assets. They tend to hold the leadership to ransom, as we have seen in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Goa and Jharkhand. Transparency in party funds, in my opinion, will enable the majority of leaders not to succumb to vested interests in the discharge of their duties.

Mystery on God’s particle to end next year

The debate between theists and atheists over the question of existence of God might continue for centuries to come. But over the God’s particle (Higgs boson), the debate and suspense will end around this time next year.

A top scientist working in one of the two teams that are probing the particle for the last 30 years says the scientific community is quite excited about the progress. “We do not rule out its existence. There are a few hints (about its existence),” Prof. Sridhara Rao Dasu says.

Higgs boson, named after the English physicist, who talked about this hypothetical elementary particle that would hold the key for our understanding of the Big Bang theory.

Prof. Sridhara Rao Dasu, the Hyderabad-born physicist working at Wisconsin University (the US) and on the project, sounds more positive than negative about the existence of the elusive particle. See his Twitter version on the project update — ‘Not not found it yet’. “We should have found it by now. But not yet,” he says.

What will happen, if it exists or doesn’t? Perhaps, nothing much. Your Sensex will remain the same. So will the way you carry out regular work. But it certainly change the way we understand cosmos, Prof. Rao says.

A day after CERN (the European Centre for Nuclear Research) announced exciting hints about the particle, Prof. Rao delivered an interesting lecture at the Birla Science Centre on the quest for Higgs boson.

Friends of Prof. Rao from Nizam’s College days in the early 80s, fondly recollects his brilliance in physics and his ability to solve Resnick and Halliday, considered to be a tough nut to crack, questions at a very young age.

After his Masters at University of Hyderabad, he was off to the US where he joined the prestigious project of finding the mysterious particle that has been playing hide-and-seek with the two teams — ATLAS and CMS.

Prof. Rao works on the latter team. Both teams made presentations at CERN on December 13, promising an “interesting situation soon”.

CERN says the experiments presented the status of their searches for the Standard Model Higgs boson. Their results are based on the analysis of considerably more data than those presented at the summer conferences, sufficient to make significant progress in the search for the Higgs boson, but not enough to make any conclusive statement on the existence or non-existence of the elusive Higgs.

“We have narrowed the mass range of the boson at 115-127 GeV (giga electric Volts). If it exists, it should be having a mass in this range,” Prof. Rao says.

To give you an idea, the typical AA battery has 1.5 eV.

“Tantalising hints have been seen by both experiments in this mass region, but these are not yet strong enough to claim a discovery,” CERN has said after the presentations.

ATLAS or CMS, who will win? There cannot be a loser, says Prof. Rao

Because, he says science is all about repeatability.

Experiment

The team has collected data generated at the LHC (Large Hadron Collider), the 27-km underground tunnel near Geneva. The multi-billion dollar experiment has already seen trillions proton-proton collisions in the last few months to catch a glimpse of Higgs boson.

But the problem with this ever elusive particle is it quickly disappears. The collider has a Giga pixel camera (compare this with 10-mega pixel professional Nikon’s or Canon’s!) that can take a billion pictures of quantum interactions. This has left scientists flickers of evidence of its existence.

“We have inconclusive hints. Discoveries may be around the corner. 2012 proves to be a good year. Stay tuned,” Prof. Rao says, as he answers questions from the young and seasoned physicists with aplomb.

-KV.Kurmanath

From an ‘eating house' to the ‘Taj at Apollo Bunder'

Born in the wake of the 1898 plague, the Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai has stood a silent witness to history for over a hundred years.

Its towering 240-feet-high dome has seen countless tales of resilience, symbolising the indomitable spirit of the city — the bubonic plague, birth of a free nation at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, the turn of the century, and the nightmare of what is now called “26/11” — when the city and the hotel were held hostage by 10 gunmen.

Myriad stories find their way into the pages of the history of this iconic hotel, captured in a coffee-table book The Taj at Apollo Bunder, by historians Charles Allen and Sharada Dwivedi. Late on Friday evening though, the hotel's dome looked down on a select gathering at the Taj hotel's open-air terrace, where Mr Ratan Tata, Chairman of the Tata Group, unveiled the book, along with Mr R.K. Krishna Kumar, Director Tata Sons, and Mr Raymond Bickson, Managing Director and Chief Executive, Indian Hotels Company Ltd.

SELFLESS SPIRIT

“The Taj, despite its majestic being, could never be what it has turned out to be without that spirit, without the selfless spirit, embodied in the staff and the management.

“They stood by, at great risk to themselves and in some cases at the cost of their lives, to protect the people who were here.

“And that became the symbol of the strength of Mumbai, the strength of the city. Those who witnessed the carnage of 26/11 were also witness to the spirit of the Taj and its people. That we did get mauled but did not fall,” Mr Tata told the audience.

While excerpts of the book were read out by different personalities, including author William Dalrymple, film actress Juhi Chawla recounted how her mother had worked with the Taj for 20 years, and how she too aspired to work in the hotel some day!

International film-maker Shekhar Kapur recollected how he had come to the hotel with his uncle, the evergreen romantic and actor — the late Dev Anand.

The Taj hotel also hosted “the biggest party” after Kapur's international filmElizabeth, and his Bombay Dreams film party — made musically memorable as well, with A. R. Rahman and Andrew Lloyd Webber jamming on the piano for more than an hour, he said.

The “inadvertent” mistake that resulted in the back of the hotel being the sea-facing view, and other such anecdotes, were read out. One such story is that, when Jamshetji Nusserwanji Tata decided to build the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel on a 10,000-square-yard piece of land in 1893, his sisters objected.

“You are building an institute of science in Bangalore, a great iron and steel factory and a hydro-electric project — and now you tell us you are going to put up a bhatarkhana (eating house)!,” one of them said!

But the Taj Mahal Palace did open its doors on December 16, 1903.

On its first day, it hosted 17 guests, at Rs 20 for a normal room and Rs 30 for rooms with additional comforts, like fans and attached bathrooms.

The hotel went on to host Maharajas, freedom-fighters and international celebrities, including Gregory Peck and the Beatles.

niveditag@thehindu.co.in

jyothi@thehindu.co.in

‘I've been really lucky, thus far'

Emma Stone is the fastest rising star in Hollywood. She first gained attention with her performance in “Superbad”, then surprised people with a high school comedy “Easy A”, landed a huge hit with “The Help”, and has just finished shooting the reboot of the Spider Man franchise. But Emma is not your typical Hollywood beauty; she shows depth as well as the ability to transform from nerdy girl to bombshell. In “The Help”, she plays a young writer in 1960s Mississippi attempting to expose the racism against the black housemaids in her town. Excerpts

The Help was a huge hit in the U.S.. Did you expect that this project would get so much attention when you signed on to it?

There is nothing I know for sure. I don't even know for sure if I am going to live through the next five minutes. Hopefully I do.

We knew that we had something special and everybody loved the book so much that we had the hope that people would like the film as well. But nobody could have expected the reception that it received, which has been really amazing.

The film deals with segregation, which is actually still a relevant topic in America if you look closely. How do you experience that?

I live in New York, which is one of the most diverse cities in the world. I'm from Arizona, which is a very conservative state, but also a state that sweeps a lot of the issues it doesn't want to deal with under the rug. As far as segregation goes, I would be shocked if in my generation somebody would be genuinely racist at the age of 23.

You said you live in New York these days. Was L.A. getting too much for you?

Yes, definitely. I like L.A. because of my friends there and the weather is very nice, but other than that it is a hard place to live in. Everything revolves around the movie business. So when you are not working and just want to talk about normal things it is almost impossible... I remember the day I decided to move to New York. I sat in a restaurant and the people to my left were talking about a script they were writing and the people on my right were talking about a movie they were producing. I was like, “No more. That's it, I am leaving.” I wanted to be able to sit next to an accountant and a lawyer while having a meal.

How was shooting Spider Man? It was your first big budget blockbuster production after all.

It was great. It really taught me that it doesn't matter what the background is, no matter if it is a blue screen or if you are hanging on wires or sitting in a house in Mississippi, your job as an actor is to build a connection between you and another human being. This version will be very different. It is about him being orphaned and his parents leaving him. But he is still a super hero... He still has webs coming out of his hands, I will tell you that. (Laughs)

For “Easy A” you said you recorded tons of casting tapes because you were never happy. Are you still such a perfectionist?

I have realised that there is no such thing as perfection in my job, ever. I just had to learn how to deal with myself as a micro-manager. So when I am working, every night before I go to set, I lay out all my clothes and I pre-make my coffee and I lay out the script. That way I can sleep better because I know everything is taken care of.

Plus I learned not to watch any playback anymore. I don't even watch the films when they are done.

But did you watch The Help?

Yes, because it was at the White House. If Mrs. Obama wants you to sit through the movie, you sit through the movie. I don't know how you say no to the First Lady. (Laughs) I was sitting in the front row with everybody behind me so I couldn't even sink into my seat out of embarrassment.

Rumours say that at age 14 you created a PowerPoint presentation for your parents called “Project Hollywood” to convince them that you should move into acting.

That's true, that's no rumour.

Is Hollywood how you imagined back then?

I don't know. It's just different. It's work. But it's also really, really exciting. It's also a lot better than you could ever imagine – and harder than you could imagine, too. But I've been really lucky, thus far.

Do you have to make an effort to keep your feet on the ground?

Absolutely. I've got some really great parents and a really great family and good friends that cut me down to size all the time. It's pretty great.

What clothes represent you the best?

Well in my everyday life I just kind of wear... whatever. I don't really think about it that much. But whenever they give me clothes to choose from I tend to wear a lot of black, or things that have zippers or chains on them. So I don't know what that says about me. Leather. I like leather. Really into leather. (Laughs) Getting pretty wild.

Is it true that you are a bad liar even though your profession involves doing things that are not true?

Acting has to be truth, though. The reason why I don't like to watch myself is because I can tell when I am lying and when I am saying the truth. So I have to try to operate from the truth as much as possible, but it is an ongoing struggle to be as truthful as possible. You need to try to feel what the character feels.

--Catherinee theterone

Making History On The Move

The Shelby M.C. Davis 1958 Professor of History at Princeton, Linda Colleyspecialises in the history of Britain since 1700, in a broader European, imperial, and global context. Her publications include In Defiance of Oligarchy(1982), the path-breaking work Britons (1992), Captives (2002) and, most recently, The Ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh (2007). Professor Colley will deliver the Fifth Indian Economic and Social History Review Lecture in New Delhi on December 15, 2011. Here she responds to questions by Sanjay Subrahmanyam, joint managing editor of the IESHR, and Professor of History at UCLA.

In an autobiographical essay, the Cambridge historian Chris Bayly has alluded to how his early background in Tunbridge Wells, and family experiences, may have influenced his way of looking at history. Do you think your background and early years influenced your way of doing history, or the questions you have asked?

I'm sure early influences have an impact on most historians (and on everyone else). I was born and spent my first five years in Chester, an ancient city that retains some of its Roman walls and fortifications, and contains a great medieval cathedral, as well as Tudor, Stuart and early 19th century architecture. Visiting these things was free, and my parents made the most of this. So I have very early visual memories of objects and scenes that were represented to me, as a child, as being of and speaking to the past. I suspect, too, that since my father was constantly moving from place to place on account of his job, I learned early a certain restlessness, and perhaps a sympathy with individuals and groups in the past who were more than usually mobile.

In India, it used to be common to make a sharp distinction between Marxist and non-Marxist historians in Britain. In your experience, has that division made much sense since the 1970s and what is its status today?

I am old enough to remember when large numbers of British history researchers at Cambridge and elsewhere were still intent on studying working class ideologies and identities and trade unionism, usually in an industrial city; and when the editorial board of the journal Past and Present was dominated by great Marxian figures like Rodney Hilton and Eric Hobsbawm. Obviously, that time is long gone, but I'd want to make three points. First, even at their most influential Marxist historians in the U.K. tended to be kept out (or to keep themselves out) of the highest positions of formal academic influence. For instance, E.P. Thompson only occasionally held a formal academic post, while Hobsbawm was never able to gain an Oxbridge post. Second, onetime Marxist historians in the U.K. (as elsewhere) have often retained a commitment to theory, while switching its nature. By way of example, Gareth Stedman Jones for a while moved into linguistic analysis; while Catherine Hall moved into post-colonialism. Third (and again this is not just true of the U.K.), the decline of Marxism has had the unfortunate effect of leading ambitious young scholars generally to neglect economic history. I hope this is now beginning to change.

A significant part of your work, especially since your book Britons, may be thought to reflect on questions of British national identity, a thorny issue. How, as a historian, would you address the question of a multi-cultural Britain as a project and reality?

One of the benefits of working outside the U.K. is that I don't have to keep fielding media/politicians' enquiries about “Britishness” and its ills. Having constantly to do this drove me mad during the five years (which were otherwise very profitable) when I was at the London School of Economics!

I have come to think that what is needed in the U.K., from school-level onwards — and as an aid to wider public understanding — are forms of “British” historical teaching and interpretation that focus much more upon movement: movement over time and by different peoples into these islands (ie. Great Britain and Ireland), movements over time out of these islands: and movements within and among them. As it is, I rather fear that the process of devolution in the U.K. may only serve to throw up more walls, with Little Englandism being matched by a kind of Little Scotlandism etc.

Your work, especially over the last two decades, is sometimes posed by analysts and reviewers within the framework of “world history.” Are you comfortable with that category? Further, have you ever considered yourself to be a sort of “micro-historian” as well?

Like many other scholars, I shy away from claiming to “do” global or world history, which — as far as any individual scholar is concerned — is bound to be an impractical if not a presumptuous aspiration. Even the most brilliant single-authored world histories such as Bayly's Birth of the Modern World, are notably stronger on some regions of the world than on others (in the case of his book, Latin America suffers) because no one is capable of making all the intellectual leaps and connections that world history would ideally require.

Nonetheless, it is impossible and, to my mind, distorting to write British history, especially post-1600, without some kind of trans-continental purview and reach. Am I a micro-historian? Not really. But I did want both in Captives and inElizabeth Marsh to explore the potential of hitherto neglected approaches and source material. For example, what passes for world history has evolved substantially out of certain branches of economic history, and has tended in part for that reason to be somewhat impersonal, abstract, and often very masculine in its focus. Elizabeth Marsh was in part an attempt to do things differently. In my current project, in which I'm trying to wrest constitutional history away from its traditional encasement within national narratives, I'm very much returning to the macro.

What has been the impact on you personally, and on other British historians, of history-writing coming out of India? Do you believe that there is a real conversation today between Indian and British historiography? If so, what are the most interesting elements there?

The impact of scholarly work coming out of India (and not just in history) has been growing relentlessly, in the U.K., as in the U.S. It is sometimes difficult to distinguish this precise Indian contribution from the increased awareness — in some, not yet all British and American quarters — of the need to pay greater attention to non-Western scholarship in general.

By way of example, I, and a colleague have just started a programme of seminars exploring how people in different parts of the world conceptualised their membership of political communities from the 18th century onwards. Recent Indian historiography is bound to play a big part in our discussions, but so will work to do with China and elsewhere. My own first introduction to the work of Indian historians was by way of Ranajit Guha and the publications of the Subaltern Studies group. I continue to be impressed by how Indian historians are expanding and challenging both the material and the arguments available to historians of the U.K. But I am also impressed by the need for British-based scholars themselves to explore Indian and Asian connections in different ways.