Central Bureau of Investigation director's cure for rape is to enjoy it. . .

The idea of hierarchy in an organization, apart from control and direction, is the hope that someone in a higher position would posses greater wisdom and serve thoughtfully. This is all the more desired of public institutions like the CBI and Police that play a large facilitation role redressing the aggrieved by faithful and sincere application of law and mind. An error in judgement here only further abuses the victim the extent of which is greater, greater the position of the erring authority.
The CBI director's casual remark on advising to 'enjoy rape if it cannot be prevented', should be viewed as nothing less than him setting his callous attitude as the direction to the agency in dealing with such crimes. Clearly, this doesn't help our law enforcement agencies already mired under patriarchal insensitivities.
The director's negligence to the matter could be sensed from his regret statement that apparently came out of a paper, probably drafted by someone else, which was visibly in contrast to his temperament at the time of making the remark about 'rape'. If you heard or watched the video whereby Mr.Sinha makes the remark, you will know that it neither fitted into the context nor was humorous. By his own logic, if he cannot address issues facing his office he should learn to celebrate his failures!!!! (Is this what he tells himself). . .
The director has revealed not merely his insensitivity to gender issues but also his formula for managing incompetence neither of which is acceptable to rightly thinking Indians.
As an ordinary citizens I'm alarmed by the presence of such a banal director who, to me, represents the risk of vitiating the conscience of the agency from top to bottom through his vicious influence; because now we know that we cannot expect wisdom and judgement to flow down from the director to clear the apathy at the lower rungs.
It is only right to sack Mr.Ranjit Sinha from the office of CBI director for admitting his misgivings about rape, in particular, and shortcomings in his perceptual ability of social problems, in general.

Media myth on PMs CHOGM visit

I'm compelled to write this article to clarify misconceptions created by popular English media about the Tamils' sentiments in the affairs of our neighbouring Srilanka. The issue has once again come to the forefront of national television debate and seen as an instance of regional polity arm twisting national foreign policy, in the wake PMs decision to not attend CHOGM in Colombo. The sentiments are often articulated in news rooms and debates as sympathy for the, now defunct, terrorist outfit LTTE. Here I argue that it is not the case.

First of all, yes there may be a few sympathisers in TN for LTTE, its cadre and founder, but most Tamils regard the organization much the same as LeT or Al Qaeda and have no sympathy for it whatsoever.

That stated, secondly the Tamils feel a sense of closeness to the ones across the Palk strait with whom they share their language, being a society closely connected to its language. Come as hypocritically as it may sound, it is true that we feel all the more affected when human rights violations are directed against Tamils; especially ones so close at hand. We believe we have a moral duty to protect their human rights as much we would guard ours. And our failure to fulfil this assumed duty frustrates us; only compounded by regional political parties playing to the vote banks doing precious little to placate the plight of the Srilankan Tamils.

Thirdly, and quite significant to the context of CHOGM, is the fact that the sentiment espoused by the regional parties and members of other national parties are pressed on the parties by the people of TN and is not the usual political sensitization of a community.

Fourthly, citizens voice finds legitimate expression in public policies in a democracy and rightly so, so long as it's reasonable. And the operating concern (not just sentiments) of the Tamils (Indian) are not only reasonable as explained, but also the only right course. Justice is two prong in a situation like this- rehabilitation of the victims and punishment to the perpetrators. While progress along rehabilitating is real however tardy, efforts to bring to book the violators is completely absent. It is in this wake that the Tamils are pressing for the PM to act, for once, in some way that will posture us as a nation genuinely concerned about the fate of human right abuses; something that we should have done even without the Tamils insistence.

Having articulated the three important facts I genuinely think that the question of PMs attendance has gained so much controversy due to the PMs refusal to deal with the demands of the Tamils (Indian) decisively, for once.The PMO should have pro actively engaged with the Tamils over their demands explaining his stance in the clearest of terms without compromising the Tamils' sentiments.
Ideally he should have done one of the two things, below :
1) Cancel his attendance and inform Colombo that India will not tolerate rights violations against Tamils and that demonstrated progress on the issue is expedient to sustaining healthy ties between the two nations.
 or
2) Confirm his attendance to the meet, while assuring Indians that he will impress the weight of the Tamil sentiments on the Colombo establishment. And work for an peaceful resolution.

But, the PM has done neither. He's avoided the meeting, sent his delegation and a letter best construed as one of apology; in effect adding to the confusion abounding the initial question, "should/shouldn't he go to Colombo".

The Tamils or regional parties can hardly be blamed for the spineless approach of the government that starves the real problem; which to re-emphasize again is the abuses to the human rights of Srlankan Tamils and not any body's sympathy for the cadres of former LTTE.

quotes

#if you're serious about beauty you won't decide it with your eyes
#the only thing  nobler than giving is seeking

India's dilemma in 2014

India will go for the ballot in 2014 yet again to choose the lesser evil. Except this time the electorate is more puzzled than ever on which is the next ruling coalition leader. Ministers and former ministers of the ruling Congress coalition are disastrously tainted by reports of massive scams to the tunes of several lakhs of crores from the commonwealth games scam, 2G spectrum scam, coal gate scandal to the more recent solar scam involving state Congress leadership in Kerala. While the present cabinet is certainly the most corrupt since independence it is also one of the weakest since the same time. The poor performance of the economy, is for most and largely, a consequence of UPA II's mismanagement led by an shortsighted finance minister, whom Subramanium Swamy- leader of the Janata Dal party- claims to be a co-conspirator in the 2G scam. The steep rise in price of essential commodities, reduction of fuel subsidies and blatant disregard for public office have been the major achievements of the government.
The most serious failure however was that of its foreign policy, first marked by its inability to impress its concerns on human rights violations on neighboring Sri Lanka during the latter's war against the LTTE which took a heavy toll of needless civilian casualty of ethnic Tamils. Apart from failing to reflect the genuine concerns of the Indian Tamils the government waited till the very end of the war only to finally support a US sponsored UN resolution on Sri Lanka demanding a UN headed probe to investigate violations, after it was hacked by regional parties and student protests. India's management of the issue ran counter to its  leadership position in the region as the island nation asserted its aggression heedless to the Indian voices.
Incursions by the PLA of China into Indian territory, its openly aggressive poise in the region and naval build up in the surrounding seas starkly reveals the gaps in our foreign policy leaving the Congress in no favorable position in the upcoming elections.
The alternative camp headed by the BJP is already threatening to unleash a Hindu Rashtra much to the discomfort of the peace loving tolerant Hindus themselves. The assertive and unrestrained Narendra Modi fashioning himself as the prime ministerial candidate has already cost the party an ally- Janata Dal- in the process; who could have presumably tilted the coalition slightly towards being secular. The party has since been flaunting its Hindutva agenda, staunchly supported by the ranks of the party and close ally- the fearsome RSS. With his opposition to the setting up of a lokayuktha in Gujarat and remorselessness to the Godhra tragedy orchestrated under his nose,  renders Modi a leader to be feared by the minorities at election time and everyone soon, thereafter, if he ever becomes the prime minister. What is more terrifying than Modi's assertiveness is the unity of the voices than stand by his sectarian stance. If made the PM he may well end being surrounded by an belligerent entourage with no one to counsel him wisely, even if he was prepared to listen.
Such is the choice blaring before us next year with no able third front in sight to offer real succor. Coalition however may provide reprieve by keeping checked the power of the ruling in important internal affairs while supporting it decisive foreign relations and economy. The supreme court and other public institutions have a  greater role to play along with the civil society in the coming years.

India's long date with corruption

Growing up in India has made one thing clear about the country and its people. The failures of this great nation that I love is the failure of its common man. Contrary to beliefs espoused in various media pinning the blame, after every tragedy, either to politicians or bureaucracy; I believe the prime reason behind  the nation's chronic suffering is its vast majority of corrupt people.
It is unfortunate that I make this observation at a time when the nation is in the grips of unbound grief following the tragedy that struck the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand. Rampant proliferation of tour operators, hoteliers and other service providers colluded the carelessly orchestrated growth of tourism that found favor with the burgeoning mass who thronged the fragile ecology year after year to partake the annual pilgrimage. Sadly infrastructure and thoughtful tourism policy did not keep pace with the unregulated activity; with the net influence of each participant (operators, hoteliers, service providers, pilgrims and state government) having on the others producing an man made landscape disrespectful of the natural one. Commercialization, thus began without heeding to the cries of those who forewarned  catastrophic consequences; and commercialization couldn't have succeeded without winning the favor of the pilgrims (public), a good number of whom could have been repeat tourists who knew the geography but didn't care for it. Likewise every participant to the commercialization story have acted on their own personal interests to maximize benefits from the trade; to the point where genuine interests had become indistinguishable from exploitation of the terrain. And I cannot imagine that those involved were all illiterates or unaware of the dangers involved. I can only imagine us being powerless before greed.
The destruction is likely to be on air on prime time for sometime; however I'm not sure we're going to be able to fix accountability here either. It's after all a natural calamity.
The real way forward lies in cleansing the individuals conscious from corruption, and make way for education received to take firm root.

how I became something

This is my story of how I landed unemployment soon after I became the envy of people around me on nailing my first job with Amazon after letting go half a dozen opportunities and losing just as many before.
I quit my first job a couple of months back on the pretext of exploring a career in civil services. I'm currently in the fourth month, of my first bout, of unemployment reading and watching sitcoms intermittently. I decided to describe my actual motive behind giving away my job in hope that it would teach someone how to make a decision or, maybe, how not to! 
I must admit that I wasn't exactly happy with the terms of my contract- including but not limited to my role- as a recruiter. I was hired to work as a 'talent acquisition associate' with Amazon becoming, along with my friend, the first in the country to be hired on campus by Amazon into their recruitment team. Excited as I was, I was equally apprehensive about having to work on contract on the rolls of a third party with no clarity on the basis of absorption or the time lines, except vague assurances made during the pre-placement  talk by the GM of HR. The compensation too was well below what other firms offered.  I said whatever! and accepted the offer hoping to make the best out of it.
So I started working for Amazon. Before I go into the part where I disappoint with my observations, here's what I assumed about my job before signing up. I expected to work amongst the best people in the trade, who knew what they were doing and could any day help me out as I learned the trade, committed individuals working to their team's strengths to offer their best for the organization. I imagined systems to guide operations with men of integrity guarding them, avenues for growth and development.
So on my first day at work I found, to my rude shock, that while some recruiters could barely even speak English, only few even cared to. Nor did I understand how this was to happen at Amazon, a leader in the industry known for sky high hiring bar that only keeps climbing year after year. My initial observation and subsequent ones about the qualification of an average teammate made me think if I was hired for a job for which I didn't have to specialize. Sometimes it even made me think if I was only as good as the worst amongst them, if I was chosen to work as one among them; since I held no prior work experience I reasoned one will only have to be a little better than the worst already to be hired.
Simultaneously as I tried avoiding these questions trying to focus on the job at hand, I couldn't but make other observations like stagnant careers- which hadn't moved an inch in four years-, politics of favoritism, serious violations of established guidelines, dual standards in hiring- that explained the proliferation of mediocre hires hired to be subservient to individuals than be led by the principles of the organization-recruiters, arbitrary firing of employees who fell out of favor with the boss. And yes, the boss himself was another reason I saw no reason in continuing in the job, especially after it was becoming clear that he had the least intention to improve the condition of the team-whose morale by then was that of a bunch of convicts standing trial.
The team viewed as a panorama was people working to please their supervisors who in turn were doing the same to their bosses. This clearly was not what I'd signed up for. But most importantly it was an association built on false promises of career growth and development that I naively bought. So, it didn't make sense to me to cling on to a job for career's sake, which I doubted existed from the very beginning. I didn't like to get up to a workplace which I had come to openly dislike for most part. I decided I will not be wasting my time on something I didn't appreciate doing,  because time is too precious a gift to be thrown away like that into a uninspiring job. Something that became too clear after a few youtube videos on motivation and Sean Penn's "Into the wild".  That's how I got unemployed, that's my story of how I became something- 'something' yet to be ascertained!!!

the big sociosphere

The world is a big place with exotic distant destinations, expensive experiences, enviable millionaires, celebrities and fantastic ambitions and all things that keep us busy planning to be successful. The social network is always willing to publish our autobiographies, update by update, in real-time if we choose to. We may enter and exit from relationships freely as we log in and out of the old chat rooms leaving the relic of our savvy choices as a symbol of our class and liberal thought. The camera we hold is only to please our social fans with cute poses and has long ceased to be the device that captured memories worth cherishing much later. Instant admiration of an ever growing list of stranger-friends who know little more about us than we are sex deprived/psychic/rich/ostensible/stupid/reckless have become the most important almost over-night.
This is the world in the 2010s, here social networks means everything.
So what has it done to us?
We no longer truly miss loved ones because the moment we do we instantly beam our feelings, through satellites operated by tech giants, as tweets/message/call or worse video chat. Of course, only to realize later you were on drugs before satelliting the sentimental sham. Not detesting the fruits of technological progress that has helped fight anxiety caused by ignorance about a distant dwelling dear one, but just complaining about the annoying level of empowerment that keeps us perpetually disturbed with our memories engrossed in an artificially interested virtual social network, much like landing on the seeds while digging with all teeth into the pulp.
It's likely the reason why contemporary relationships are shorter and too frequent, than they were in earlier generations, if that's the case at all; perhaps our little brains need to miss a person to know it loves that, and where opportunity is denied to experience this crucial feeling we escape love itself. Might I say love escapes us!  Weather there's truth at all to this theory, it's important to sometimes miss people- not to rid them deliberately in a fair, that would be unfair to the theory- to trigger those special feelings that are otherwise never felt.
If it is only an obsession that's keeping you locked up with your virtual world, perhaps it might be able to combat it with another obsession. The obsession to live life to lees, where we run into life and newer experiences without feeling the obligation to report every little frame of it to our ever opinionated/flattery pals online. Hopefully we wouldn't have to change our relationship status back to being single again, and not mind about the millionaires, celebs, exotic destinations and our failures !!