Wednesday, 6 November 2013

Windshield Incident 2

As he sped away I followed him in my car. I had abadoned my specs which had fallen and possibly broken But I did manage to grab my car key ring. While he was trying to snatch the key he was not successful and only could manage to break the keyring which contained the image of Krishna i.e. Lord Krishna.
On the next signal which was Bommanahalli, I found a person from our office. I gave him lift and narrated what happened. He told that the person could have gone to Madivala police station which was behind Silk Board. If that person who took my ID card and broke my windshield was serious in going to the police station he would have "not sped away" rather would have 'escorted me to one'.
He said we can go office and then visit Electronics City police station if required. I said okay and drove all the way to office. There I narrated the incident to office colleagues and manager and they said no need to go to police station and just chill it out.
People asked me if I had noted the number down but I had not and since that person had immediately knocked my specs off, my vision was also hampered.
Windshield could be repaired by me and no need to file police report in case you do not need insurance. Only thing my manager told that I should not have given my ID card. But, I never knew that he would have driven off with my ID card. I thought he might have seen it and returned it.
Around afternoon (maybe 2:30 PM), I got a call from someone claiming to be from police station and he was speaking in Kannada that I need to visit the Madivala police station for the same.
I was ready to leave for Madivala police station and even told my manager but he asked to take it easy and not go immediately.
Then he made a few calls mainly to person who was the father of a contract employee who was earlier working in our team. That person was a cop. After several calls and two-three hours my manager told me that there was no complaint that had been filed and somebody had made call just like that or maybe that person had used his friends to 'extract money'.
That means if I would have gone to police station, it would be possible that they might have extracted money by threatening to file police complaint. Anyway, we do not know what would have happened.
We only know what happened. Evening, my manager and two colleagues accompanied me in my car from Electronics City to Koramangala area after office hours. Though I did not have my specs, it was not much of an issue to me. My manager had his doubts as to whether I could see properly.
But we reached safely. Subsequently, I took the vehicle to Service Station and there they told me that I could claim that coconut fell on the glass and claim insurance because if I claim that somebody broke it then police complaint would be required. So I got insurance to the extent of around 5000 but spent around 7000 so almost 75% got covered.
After that I went to my native place to attend to grand mother first year death anniversary and at that time my mother got diagnosed with cancer and 2 and half years later she was gone. Since that incident, two years later, I was transferred to M4 office which comes in Garvebhavipalya which is very close to Bommanahalli and I chose not to continue there which meant that I lost my job.
What I want to say that much more bigger things have happened but somehow that windshield incident is still something which defines me and shows that "People living in glass houses should not throw stones".
But I did not 'throw any stone'. I only was trying to reach office a bit faster by overtaking the Honda Activa scooter by honking which needs to be driven on the left anyway. Why did it block my path?
It was road rage which I saw.
At that time the Elevated Expressway was not yet 'thrown open' and work was still in progress. It was opened in February 2010 while this windshield incident happened on May 2009. In a sense the Elevated Expressway "takes the rage away" as people climb on it and get down after 10 kms. But people below the expressway suffer.

Windshield incident 1

In May 25, 2009 we shifted to new office in Electronics City.
Our earlier office was at Castle Street.
May 25th, 2009 was a Monday. The previous week we were given briefing as to how to go about in new office and stuff. Only thing we had not visited our office. We only had packed our stuff and sent it.
Since it was our first day on Monday in new office I did not get proper stuff to eat on that day i.e. my regular eating habit was disrupted.
Also since the new office was located at a certain distance, my sleep pattern was disturbed.
Earlier I could get up at 7:25 AM and reach office by 8:35 AM.
Now with new office being at a distance, I was forced to get up at 7 AM or earlier to reach by 8:40 AM.
And with private vehicle it takes lesser time than by public transport and here in Bengaluru public transport only means BMTC buses for now.
But on Tuesday i.e. the very next day, while I was bending down at my house to pick up something after bath and getting ready to leave for office, I had a sharp pain and my body got bent. It was severe pain in my lower back.
Even in Castle Street office I never used to go daily by car or bike to office. My pattern was in a five day working week, either two days or three days I used to go by car. And my car was Ford Ikon model.
Though bike is faster than car, there is no doubt that car is safer. Also, public transport is also safer. I will tell how public transport is safer from the incident which happened on the very same week i.e. May 2009 last week.
Monday I went by bike. Tuesday I had back pain and went by car. Wednesday I went by bike. On Thursday May 28th, 2009 while I was going by car at Silk Board junction when the signal became from red to green I gave horn and tried to overtake a Honda Activa or a person riding Honda Activa. But he did not let me pass. Rather he got enraged and I was forced to stop my car just where the Silk Board flyover comes down.
Then I lowered my glass to tell him that why would he not let me pass and stuff. I was alone driving my car. But he was in no mood to let me even talk. He was a local person i.e. a local Kannada person. He then slapped me and my specs fell off and got broken. Another person also supported him and slapped me. Then he tried to take away the keys (of the car). Then before I could react, he opened his Honda Activa seat and brought a wrench and then began hitting the windshield till it got cracked.
Then a small crowd had gathered. Due to my back pain which happened on Tuesday my flexibility was reduced. But someone in the crowd told me to get down from the car because glass had fallen on me and I got down and then the person who broke my windshield asked my name and company where I worked so that we could go to police station.
I had agreed to go to police station because I had no fault of mine. I only tried to overtake the bike and it is natural that a vehicle which wants to go forward should be allowed to pass. It was only he who got enraged and not only hit me a broke my specs but also broke my windshield.
I gave him my ID thinking that he would return it. But he took it and drove off. Someone in the crowd, some North Indian guy came to my rescue. Since that crowd had gathered which included people waiting for buses, probably that person drove off. As soon as he drove off I began following him but he sped away and disappeared. I will continue in the next post.

Monday, 4 November 2013

Kashmir Conflict

The Kashmir conflict ongoing in the state of Jammu & Kashmir is also worth noting in the context of the Shia Sunni divide.
Like I have analysed earlier, most of India is 'Shia mentality' and Jammu & Kashmir is also of 'Shia mentality'. But there are vast sections of India which are 'dilly-dallying' portions and they provide the bulk of 'mercenaries' or more popularly 'armed forces' to defend Kashmir from 'foreign influence'.
It is in strategic interests of India to keep the attention of West focused on Pakistan and Afghanistan and Af-Pak border. It makes strategic sense for India to focus its efforts to make the west focus its efforts on the Western border of Pakistan.
Apart from Shia Sunni conflict which India Pakistan conflict actually is. Let us not think religion for now. India is 'mostly Shia' and Pakistan is 'mostly Sunni'.
Now Jammu & Kashmir is Shia no doubt about that. People from Kashmir are in three minds actually, to be with India, to be with Pakistan or stay independent. Of the three issues, staying independednt is not an option according to me, it would not be acceptable to either India or Pakistan.
So it has to be either with 'Shia' India or 'Sunni' Pakistan.
Everybody knows about the conflict between Shias and Sunnis but we have to acknowledge that the conflict between 'Shia and Shia' and 'Sunni and Sunni'.
Between 'like minded parties' there is conflict as well and it is no less bloodier as we can see the conflict in Kashmir going on for more than two decades.
Ultimately only one will prevail and that is what the conflict is all about.
The conflict is about who will 'inherit the earth' or that portion of the earth.
Pakistan is Sunni and may face a lot of resistance from Shia Kashmiris. Let us not think religion for now. What they are 'deep inside', that is what will describe them whether they are Shia or Sunni.
Also, since India has several potions of the land where there is a Shia-Sunni mix, India will have no problem in findling 'promising foot soldiers' even if Sunni to defend Kashmir from Pakistan.
It would then become a case of 'foot soldier from Sunni Pakistan' against 'foot soldier from Sunni India'. Thus it would be Sunni vs Sunni in the land belonging to Shia Kashmiris.
Trust me people, what I have written here will not be like solve the problem. But one step in solving a problem is understanding the problem. We cannot just say things are like this and that. There are a lot of factors we need to look into.
Ultimately, the world does not want the 'Sunnis to triumph'. We can see that in Egypt and Palestine and elsewhere. Similarly is the case in Kashmir. India's interests are best served if the world is following what it is following elsewhere and not 'change the rules' in Indian subcontinent for Kashmir.

Modi and Bihar

The way Modi is targeting Bihar is worth noting.
We know that general elections are coming in India in 2014 and whoever wins in the election will get to 'rule over India' for the next five years.
Now everybody knows that Modi supporters are quite active in the social networking world. We also know that their are many press reporters who are tacit supporters of Modi and BJP and write articles 'favoring them'.
Modi and BJP they know that one state which holds the key and that is the state of Bihar. They are out there in full force to defeat Nitish Kumar and ensure that Congress does not benefit from Nitish's loss and the benefit goes to BJP and Modi.
If you look at my analysis earlier, Bihar is one of the 'dilly-dallying' state and everyone knows since India's independence that whichever way the two states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh go, the Indian Govt. goes that way. In other words, these states 'dictate' who will form the Govt at center though not directly but indirectly through the 'ballot'.
In recent times, South Indian states are able to form an 'anti-axis' to Bihar and UP. And it has been observed that whichever way the South Indian states go that dictate the Govt. getting formed at the Center.
And Modi is a notch different for South Indian folks. Firstly Modi belongs to Gujarat which is a Gujarati speaking state and not Hindi speaking. In India there is an ongoing conflict.
Though Hindi is the most widely spoken and widely recognized/understood language in India, no one wants to declare it or accept it as a national language. And it is mainly those non-Hindi states including states of South India.
For them Modi is a 'non-Hindi belt' leader and that immediately becomes acceptable to non-Hindi states.
So Modi will face little resistance to become PM from South Indian states and East Indian states both which are non-Hindi states. In the case of East India, Naveen Pattnaik and Mamta Banerjee may ultimately support Modi on the same count of his being a non-Hindi belt leader.
Here in 2014, Maharshtra may hold the key. Everybody knows that there is a hidden conflict between Maharashtrians and Gujaratis. Which way Maharashtra goes may be decider to decide whether Modi becomes PM.
That is why Modi is targeting Bihar and if Modi wins the heart and minds of Biharis in the heartland of Biharis, there would be little anyone can do to stop him from grabbing the PM seat in Delhi.
Many Biharis are there in Mumbai and Delhi and they may ultimately support Modi if Modi wins Bihar. UP is no doubt there. UP is no doubt an active place for politics due to the Ram Janambhoomi case.
Also, Telangana would be formed which was the BJP dream since beginning as BJP may stand to gain tremendously from Telangana as it had only a minuscule presence in united Andhra Pradesh.
Thus BJP and Modi knows that Bihar being a 'very populous state' and where 'it has to go alone' holds the key to Modi becoming PM.

Analysis of Indian States: Shia or Sunni.

Here I will try to analyst Indian states according to my perspective whether they are Shia or Sunni.
And remember I am not talking about Muslim and religion.
As I have said earlier India is mostly Shia.
In broad definition, Shia is someone who places emphasis on family and tradition and culture and does not want much change.
Sunnis want change and place less emphasis on family ties and more on work and tasks.
Generally in India we can find a mixture of Shia and Sunni culture in the States. We can classify the states as below:
Category I: Fully Shia : Greater than 90% Shia mentality. 
Category II: Mostly Shia : Greater than 50% Shia mentality. Shia still in majority. Sunnis in minority.
Category III: Mostly Sunni : Greater than 50% Sunni mentality. Shia in minority.
Category IV: Dilly-dallying states : These states do not identify themselves as Shia and Sunni and though they can be Sunni in their outlook but by simply 'existing in India' they become under the Shias.
States in Category I
Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Odisha, West Bengal, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Tripura.
States in category II
Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Assam.
States in category III
Karnataka
States in Category IV
Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, rest of North East (excluding Assam and Tripura), Goa, Pondicherry, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, rest of the remaining county.
Thus according to me only Karnataka is like Sunni to me and my analysis.
And BJP is trying to bring in Sunni system under Modi. Meanwhile, in 2013 elections, BJP lost Karnataka but at that time BJP was under Advani and not Modi.
Thus my analysis is if BJP had come under Modi earlier, than BJP would not have lost Karnataka which according to me is the 'only predominantly Sunni state' in India.
And my observation is that conflict between Shia and Shia or between Sunni and Sunni is more deadlier than between Shia and Sunni.
We can see in history also. Iranian revolution was a conflict between Islamic Shias in Iran and Capitalist Shias led and backed by US.
Soviet invasion in Afghanistan was a conflict between Islamic Sunnis (Mujaheedins) and Athiest Sunnis (Communists).
Maoists are Sunnis and they are against Indian state which is Shia. Nepal is Shia but the Maoists in Nepal are Sunnis. We can analyse the entire world and its conflicts as Shia or Sunni.
We can say that the entire African countries/continent including North Africa are like Sunnis except maybe the country South Africa.

Saturday, 2 November 2013

Facebook banner ads

I will say as I have said earlier that the way Facebook "lurks around" in the form of banner ads is really bad and if Facebook is reading this I will request you to stop targeting me with banner ads.
I do not want banner ads. Those banner ads are better being flushed down the toilet.
Facebook kindly leave me alone.
You are pure evil and I do not want to do anything with an evil medium.
Do not target me with banner ads. I will never join you again. My life may get snuffed out of me but I will not join you.
Go. Get out of my face. You may "rule the earth" and billion people may bend down on their knees for you but I won't and do not want to do anything with you.
You may think you are the 'greatest gift to human race' but you are not. You may think you are 'the greatest invention' for this earth but you are not.
And even if I do not want still you come in my face while I am reading my mail on yahoo.
Why? Just mark my words I have nothing to do with you.
Earlier I was with Facebook and it was my mistake. Kindly remember I do not want to repeat my mistakes.
For me Facebook is like 'feces' book if you know what feces mean. Hence, do not trouble me.
I am oscillating between begging you, requesting you and warning you. But I can't do all at the same time. I can be either a beggar or a 'tough nut to crack' but not both at the same time.
Whatever you say, I do not want you near me or me near you.
Like they say, "Chal chal apna raasta naapo." That means "go mind your own business" and do not trouble me.

Friday, 1 November 2013

Ego maniac

I will say the way Modi is building a huge Sardar Vallabhai Patel statue smacks of egoism and his selfish pride for himself and 'his state of Gujarat'.
This is nothing but a sheer waste of public money. Even Sardar V.Patel would not have liked it thats what I feel.
Just like people have made idols of Saibaba and worshiping them with elaborate 'Hindu rituals', so is the case of Sardar Patel. Sai Baba origins are not known whether he was Muslim or Hindu but the way he is being worshiped is like Hindu. During his life Sai baba led a very simple ascetic life. But now, he is 'bathed with gold' so as to speak with gold throne and gold crown and so on. Would Sai Baba have liked it. I don't think so.
Similarly Modi is building a huge statue so by using Sardar Patel name he wants to override the contributions of the Nehru-Gandhi. There is no doubt that at a national level which family has contributed the most the growth of 'India as a nation'. It is no doubt the Nehru-Gandhi family. Modi wants to build a huge Sardar Patel statue and thus negate the contribution of the 'actual living entities'.
Eveyone made a lot of sacrifices in Nehru-Gandhi family. Smt Indira Gandhi was assassinated and so was Rajiv Gandhi. They paid the ultimate price. They did so for the 'unity and integrity' of India.
Now Modi what he is doing smacks of regionalism and showing that "Gujaratis are the most superior".
Okay, Sardar Patel was a national leader and not just Gujarati leader, else, Gujarat would have been independent country.
Modi is copying the big statue of a Tamil poet in Kanyakumari built by Tamil Nadu in the past. Tell me is 'copying Tamils' the best option for Modi? Can he not think for the entire country?
Let us not forget because of Tamil politicians only, Rajiv Gandhi thought of intervening in Sri Lanka by sending 'Indian Peace Keeping Force'. If their leaders would have gone to Delhi and 'cried' in front of the 'Supreme leader', tell me what were the options available for the 'supreme leader'. Now the same Tamils want Modi as CM. I have a honest belief that many Tamils deep inside their hearts are supporting Modi.
Now recently, there was a big Cyclone in Odisha. Can Modi not give the funds being spent for the big statue for cyclone relief or re-building of people's lives?
If he really wants to build a big statue why not build one for Lord Vishnu or Lord Shiva because that is what Modi represents (i.e. the VHP and RSS) and if one believes them as God, no person is bigger than them.
Modi does not want to build a statue for himself else he will fall in the direct target of social activists and others. Thus he is making a statue for a 'son of Gujarat' who is 'long gone' and no one target Modi personally for this. Modi wants to be remembered 100 or 500 years from now as a great person. Nothing wrong with that. But tell me is this 'greatness'?
I will say that the way the Sikhs are hell bent on building a memorial for Indira Gandhi's assassins are justified if we see Modis actions.