Rolling Stones... Gathering Moss

2006-11-21T09:23:00.000-08:00

The Toon Bug...

So, Mansur and I were looking at ways in which we could run an ad campaign and the idea of doing simple stick cartoons came up, and I thought I should try it... just for kicks. So here goes... predictably inspired by the fact that a gazillion folks have just written the CAT.

This is the first of the series...

2006-10-26T09:01:00.000-07:00

Stressed!

And not really sure what to do about it! The last couple of weeks have been rather crazy. For one there's been the insane amounts of time spent driving from one location to another, scouting locations where I could plonk the new cafe... and you begin to figure out why almost everyone who (really) lives here complains so loudly about the state of the traffic in the city... and then the gazzilion other things that need to be figured out in order to get this up and running!!! Equipment, suppliers, concept, menu, people, interiors etc. etc. AAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!!! Mommmmmmmmyyyy!!!

The 3 most important things in the restaurant business are... location, location, location.

After doing the rounds of the locations we've had in mind... I figure that while finding THE location is something akin to finding the holy grail, it isn't sooo hard considering there're real estate agents to atleast guide you.

On the other hand, there are the million other things that still need definition that evoke this mind numbing fear in me.... people, equipment... hell even the right name!

Where oh where am I going to find the people and MONEY to make this happen!!!?? :((

So... this is a "need to control the panic" rant... kindly ekshkushe...

S

2006-10-20T09:35:00.000-07:00

Back...

Back after what seems to be aaages. D-day came and went, and the last two months have passed in a bit of a haze, travelling, moving house, fire fighting, spec writing, concept developing and so forth... and in that time, my resolve to start blogging actively again seems to have wilted.

Here's hoping this marks the moment when a new leaf is turned :)

S

2006-08-21T23:51:00.000-07:00

Sissyphus is Thrilled... 'cos something he wrote actually got published to a readership greater than three! On an editorial page, to boot :)

It's at http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1913833.cms on the oft flogged reservation issue that I've been working with a group of alumni on now for a while. So, the real text, prior to the edits is below (Tra tra traaa, pa-ra-pa-pa-pa-pa-pum-paaaa [sounds of trumpets and other cool band baaja]) Hurrah!!! :)

Key learnings from the exercise are:

Never bulletize stuff that you send to the press. The end product looks ultra-wierd
Keep it short - but this was not a "short" letter , and nobody wants to hear what I have to say in say a 3 part series! :)
Talk is cheap - what do we do next?

so here's the text of the letter - slightly abridged version of what we sent to the PM/Prezzie, which also included some other proposals that we thought might better serve the goal of Aff. Action.

An Open Letter to the President and Prime Minister of India

The Pan-IIM Alumni Council, a body representing alumni of all the 6 Indian institutes of Management recently wrote to the President and the Prime Minster of India to convey their concerns on the policy of reservation currently under consideration by the Govt. The PanIIM Alumni Association also submitted an alternative set of actionable proposals to help serve the cause of affirmative action in higher education

Excellencies,

The PanIIM Alumni Association representing Alumni of the six Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), was recently formed to communicate the entire alumni community’s strong concerns regarding the Government’s proposed initiative to create reserved quotas for OBCs in Institutes of Higher Learning.

As all other right thinking citizens of the nation, we are strongly committed to the principles of a just and equitable society on which this nation was founded. We are convinced that there is an urgent need to address the issue of socio-economic inequity before the nation can take up the challenges of the new century. However, we are extremely disappointed by the policy mechanism being articulated by this Government to address this issue.

We do not believe that the proposed System of Reservations is the correct approach to solving the problems of socio-economic inequity and strongly oppose the proposed creation of reservation quotas for OBCs in Insitututes of Higher Learning (IHL) including the IIMs.

While the underlying concerns of ensuring a just and equitable society remains laudable, the manner in which this entire issue has been handled, both in the definition of the problem and the proposed solution to it, is a serious cause for alarm for the citizens of this country. There has been a systematic attempt to politicize the entire issue and ram through the policy without even a passing pretence of due diligence or fair procedure.

We firmly believe that a carefully considered and efficiently administered alternative affirmative action policy can and must be created to benefit genuinely deprived sections of our nation’s society. Such an alternative policy would necessarily be:

Based on demonstrable evidence
Transparently designed and administered
Sensitive to the multiple dimensions of disadvantage including but not limited to caste
Designed to preserve institutional excellence in IHLs
Non-prejudicial to the fundamental constitutional principles.

It is unfortunate that these points, which should normally be de facto assumptions of policy-formulation procedure in a progressive civic society, should require active reminder. However, it is a telling indictment of the current proposal that it satisfies none of the above criteria!

The current Reservation policy suffers from several serious flaws that form the basis of our opposition to this initiative. They are as follows:

The Reservation policy is targeting the wrong problem in our education system - Low representation of groups in higher education has a strong correlation to poor quality primary and secondary education. Poor educational facilities at primary and secondary levels also have a clear causal relationship to success in higher education. The systems for delivering primary and secondary education in this country are in an appalling condition. We believe this problem needs to be addressed and corrected first, before reservation in higher education can play out its stated role.
The real disadvantaged are those who cannot even dream to acquire a college degree, (and they belong to all castes), because they cannot afford education. Given that only 8% of all Indian youth (17-23 years of age) attend institutes of higher learning, quotas in higher education clearly will not serve to address the fundamental causes of socio-economic inequity. Quotas in IHL are therefore, a poor instrument to ensure participatory growth.
The basis of the Reservation policy has not been transparently or objectively reached - No reliable, current data has been used or presented to make an objective case for OBC reservation. The data that has been cited is not contextually relevant, it belongs to a different era altogether and linear extrapolations thereof are an unscientific basis for such a significant policy initiative. What is disturbing is that more contemporary data sets from the NSS Series 1999-2000 and National Family Health survey,1998 appear to contradict the most fundamental assumptions on which the policy has been framed ( i.e. the proportion of OBCs in the overall population, their grouping as one homogenous disadvantaged set, and the extent of their under-representation vis-à-vis share of population in higher education).
The policy is socially divisive – The Constitution enshrines the right to Equality of all citizens under the law. It is the fiduciary responsibility of the state to create policy interventions that do not distinguish between its citizens on the basis of caste, creed, religion etc. particularly when objective, non-discriminatory and feasible alternative means of identification and targeting exist. In this instance, we believe that the Government has betrayed this responsibility by resorting to a socially divisive mechanism for affirmative action that unfairly distinguishes between citizens suffering from the same socio-economic disadvantages, simply on the basis of caste.
We believe that meritocracy and excellence should be the guiding principles in implementing reforms, including those in the education sector. Implementation of affirmative action should not come at the cost of institutional excellence or undermine the primacy of merit in public life. The manner in which this policy is being implemented will greatly weaken the strength of our institutions, and thereby seriously jeopardize the future of our country.
The policy does not clearly enunciate the requirement of minimum merit standards/entry criteria in IHL- This will create a situation where candidates enter educational environments where a certain minimum proficiency is assumed in pre-requisite areas, without basic skills. Mandating a fixed quota also deprives institutions of the autonomy to define minimum student proficiency levels or entry mechanisms and negatively affects the overall classroom experience (e.g. advanced topics may not be covered as some sections of the class may not be able to cope). Over time, this negatively affects institutional quality.
Quotas encourage a ‘once in, permanently in” syndrome that seriously damages the cause of institutional excellence. Disadvantaged groups should be challenged to raise their standards instead of being dependant on quotas forever. The policy does not propose any sunset provisions.
Arbitrarily lowering the admissions standard/criteria for one group over others is unfair as it treats equals unequally and offends the idea of a just, merit based society. It is discriminatory to candidates in the general pool. Demand for quality education is set to grow as we enter into an increasingly knowledge-driven economy. Creating fixed quotas discriminates against candidates in the general pool by artificially constricting or limiting supply when the need of the hour is to increase overall access.
IIMs today have won worldwide recognition because of thousands of brilliant students of all castes, creeds, and linguistic/ethnic groups and a dedicated and knowledgeable faculty. This reputation has been hard-won, based on these institutions’ unwavering commitment to excellence and merit as the sole criterion for admission and success. We urge the Government to preserve and enhance these great institutions by continuing to respect their autonomy, particularly in defining their selection criteria viz. the rigorous selection process currently in place. Any dilution of the admission process will have disastrous consequence to the culture of excellence cultivated over the last four decades.

We urge the government to constitute a Judicial Commission to look into the entire issue of affirmative action including imposing reservations in IHL and to advise the Government accordingly. Members of the Pan-IIM Alumni Association would be happy to be represented on this Commission and to help design/implement fair and equitable affirmative action program, in cooperation with Government and Industry.

Sincerely,
R. Jayaraman
President
Pan-IIM Alumni Association representing alumni of all six IIMs.

2006-08-19T21:34:00.000-07:00

KANK your stars if you ain't seen it yet!

As a self-proclaimed Anti-Hindi-Movie (AHM) Type, I was kinda surprised myself when I found myself at a relatively "newly released" movie last week - Karan Johar's KANK. The interesting thing about the movie was that it was (along with "Corporate") one of those movies that was so extensively marketed or hyped (who can tell the difference these days!), that even I had heard about it.

So, what, you ask, can get you not, one, not two, but a gaggle of five cine-stars of repute interested in a movie? well, as it turns out, not much! :)

KANK is, to put ye dear readers out of your collective misery, a largely atrocious movie. Like most other hindi films in the "Ugh!" category, nearly every one of its 180 minutes is completely unbearable. but then, perhaps that's being a bit too harsh... almost every moment of it is atrocious, but it does have some redeeming features that unfortunately fail to justify forking out a good 100ish bucks on watching this at your friendly-neighbourhood multiplex.

So, what were the things I liked about KANK?? Well, for one thing, I thought its theme was pretty damn progressive, path breaking even, for traditional hindi cinema. "What happens if you meet the person you love after you get married?" they ask, and the answer is not, as one typically expects to find in a good, bharatiya sabhyata protecting Hindi Phillum. No venerable father or mother figures pop out of the woodwork to tell erring youngsters that in the end, ye to janam janam ka saath hai, or... "This is a one way ticket dude" (you'll understand the usage if you ignore my advice and watch this film!). No sanctimonious characters preach how this just ain't done in Indian marriages, and Amitabh at one point even tells the offending party to go ahead and find their happiness (gasp). No bent-out-of-shape, mind-numbingly inconsistent endings to salvage notions of the good Indian marriage here - not one, but two couples get divorced in the film! We even have a scene that depicts adultery! All in all, a truly out-of-the-box story theme at least in the sense that these guys seem to have had the balls to hold on to a logical ending despite showing all signs of succumbing to the typical bharatiya sabhyata protecting instincts that plague most aspects of Indian cinema. Apart from the theme, this movie has two good songs, Mithvaa and KANK, that are pleasant to hear. I really liked the Mithvaa concept as its a fusion of a folksy indian song with some less inspired western rock, but an interesting song nonetheless. Finally, there are two scenes where Abhishek Bachchan impresses with his acting skills... this guy seems to be bringing together the best of Amitabh and then some, an will definitely be an interesting person to watch in the days ahead.

So given the paeans of praise I've just sung, why do i still say I hated ... HATED KANK? To keep from ranting endlessly I've decided to adopt Guy Kawasaki's "Top 10 reasons" style... so here goes... the top 10 reasons why you should avoid KANK like the plague

1) Amitabh Bachchan playing Pimp Daddy - it's true... I kid thee not. In this movie, AB wears a pimp fur coat, a series of outrageous pimp glasses, glugs down champagne, courvoisier and other genuine pimp-drinks, ravishes at least one new woman a day, and lives in a pimpin' big motha'-offa-howse-mon... all of which shout out his genuine, "made in NYC" P.I.M.P bona fides. Which brings us to "What Karan Johar got wrong in this movie" #1 - AB's name ought to have been "Sugartastic Bachchan Trump". Y'see doll, I pimpafied his name at http://www.playerappreciate.com/pimphandle.asp. All ye AB fans and sundry readers might want to get yourselves some good Pimp names - mine is Macktastic sissyphus Large. Plis to be posting comments with genuine pimp names wonly. Really, the guy can afford to be a bit more selective in the roles he chooses, and needs to start setting a higher bar. So you were a superstar 15 years ago, but get with it... dude... stop making an ass of yourself.

2) SRK cannot act to save his life - this is, sadly true... so help me God (and yes, Mitey M, please forgive me too). He has atrophied(?) into this "I can do this one thing" actor who needs to do the right thing and retire. He doesn't seem to have developed any skills beyond this "I'm a boyish cool-dude and I have a carefree attitude and you have to love me" manner... hellooo saar, you're wayyyy too old to be doing this. It's like a shoe that just doesn't fit any more. So for the better half of three hours, we oscillate between his two for-moolah pharmoola acts - a) saying "I'm obssessed by you and i HAVE to get you" with rabid intensity ad nauseum and b) "Ooooh i'm a cutey li'l kid who cracks silly jokes all the time... umm... do you love me now??? .... now??".

3) Atrocious Kaamedi - yes, I can't spell it, and neither could they. It's the kind of stuff that really wants to make you cry... WEEP hysterically. And it is inflicted on you for almost half the movie.

4) The "What do we do now?" syndrome - clearly a script that was written through a democratic show of hands between a bunch of people who've systematically raped the initial concept to make it suitably "philmy", interspersed by the right quantities of everything that "defines" the romantic-hindi-phillum blockbuster.

5) God-awful dialogues - I just don't get it. These guys spend a few crores on each of these actors, a few crores on the music, another few crores on the sets, location, production, and then they get their 5-year-old nephew Bunty to write the dialogues for a lollipop or two. Why skimp there!!? What did we do deserve this!?

6) Bharatiya-sabhyata-protecting-adulterous-sex scenes - Hello, the dudes are screwing non-spouse types, and they aren't even in India, and you do these weird allusion-only sex scenes because... why exactly? Why not focus on a rose, or a lamp for a few seconds and be done with it? I mean that is classic sabhyata-protection-strategy and atleast it isn't forcing you to stay in the theatre for an extra 600 seconds than you need to (because your friends are refusing to leave... fyi). This has nothing to do with my personal preference for healthy doses of nudity in movies, but this was a movie where a few minutes of porn would have actually been a redeeming factor. I mean, by this point in the movie, the audience has endured so much, it deserves a good dosage of porn. And so, we were left lamenting that Tyler Durden wasn't in the projection room splicing porn into the reel.

7) There are not enough morbid accidents - So somewhere 5 minutes into the movie, SRK gets slammed by a car going at 60 mph, and drat it, he survives. Mebbe KJ was super pissed with him that day, but it looks like the producer didn't like the idea of forking out a few crores for 5 minutes work and had him resurrected. This is one of those movies where you're cheering anonymous Mad Max types, praying that they materialize from out of thin air and slam the bejeezus out of each of the characters at different points of time. sadly, your prayers are never heard, because, the scriptwriters, like God, abandon you for the duration of the movie, and no one hears your prayers, or your screams.

8) Pretty Preity and the Sista Act - Just so we have all the proper disclaimers in place, let the record show that I think PZ is super hot, and one of those people who consistently comes across as being a genuinely intelligent person with an opinion of her own which makes her wayyyy hotter. But I think (and maybe I'm in a lone minority), that she's really taking this "Feminsim rocks" thing a bit too far. So in KANK, we have seemingly contrived scenarios where she gets to stand up bravely for her rights as a woman and make cutting statements about how she has a right to work (Aye!), be successful(Aye!!) and how she's the one with balls between her and SRK (no doubting that either! :) ... but you didn't have to say it as such!!! and then again, maybe SRK took it as a complement). I'm tiring of the grandstanding, and I think she should actively choose roles that are meant to be feminist statements, rather than morph generic roles where a strong characters are called for into opportunities to grandstand. But then again, this is probably the minority vote on this...

9) We don't insist that movies should last no less than 180 minutes - There's a billion dollar hollywood movie machine that churns out movies in a 90-120 minute format. You don't HAVE to stretch out stories to last 3 hours. We will forgive you, understand that you didn't have more to say, enjoy your movie and go out for dinner or ice cream.

10) Not all of us carry insulin shots - and don't deserve this hyper-glycemic dose of good-shweeet-Indian-ness that insists you crucify yourself endlessly, not to mention the audience while you figure things out. Keep it short, keep it simple... ishtupid. KIS-ISH as us menagement types would say.

And there ends my rant, as promised, in 10 short painful outbursts... and as you can see, even i ran out of things to say, but atleast I have the grace to admit it unlike certain others who shall not be named... but who I just ranted about for the better part of an hour anyway! :)

Fare thee well, dear reader, may the gods be with you!

Au Revoir... I hope! :)

S

2006-08-04T03:03:00.000-07:00

And then Sissyphus Jumped...

It's finally... finally, done. I sent in my resignation a couple of days back. Sissyphus jumped...

My future plans are not exactly crystal clear, but I do know I want to give myself a chance to create something meaningful, and that I will be able to figure my way through this.

Now that the moment is passed, it's quite interesting to observe the kinds of emotions that one is subject to when the notion of not having a salary handed to you every month starts to dawn on you. For an entire day before walking into my boss' office to break the news I fretted about it. And then... poof, a wierd sense of relief in the immediate aftermath. And since then, an interesting combination of what-if scenario building, hope and raw fear.

Finally, in the last days leading up to this particular jump, my sweetheart parents and my dear sis pretty much gave up on me :)... anything to stop me bitching anymore about my job or throwing wild ideas up for consideration! So now, they're keeping a bleary-eyed watch on me, with this cool combination of a "go do it" look, a "ayyo rama, this silly boy" look and a "see! i told you so!!" look all in different stages of expression!

It's been a year since I first thought I should take the plunge. I really thought I should give the corporate life a fair chance and evaluate entrepreneurship having experienced the pros and cons of working in a company.

Having spent a year at Cubicle Farm, I've learnt a few things about myself that helped me find the gumption to take that first step in what is bound to be a long, hard road ahead.

Sissyphus (in some random order):

wants to do something meaningful - make people happy and be able to see it! I'm not seeing how I can do that here and get all kicked up about a sub-sub-sub-system that hardly any non-geek, non-buried-in-enterprise-IT types will EVER use.
has got some generally acknowledged (good) qualities/capabilities apart from the generally acknowledged evil ones - sarcastic giggles at this point of time are not welcome... Thank you.
is fanatical about doing stuff that HE thinks up/ thinks is cool/wants to do - this is a very dangerous and silly thing.
is tenacious about making others come around to doing what he wants (or mebbe he's just been darn lucky thus far that it was something they wanted to do in the first place)
is not tenacious when it's not his baby and someone just told him to "do it".
is appreciated for good work when he pushes his pet projects through.
HATES having to listen to people when he doesn't think they are doing the right thing/speaking something sensible/being constructive
isn't motivated by "good boy" compliments, "bad boy" reprimands... super important for regular workplace survival
wants to be obscenely rich but at the same time is a pretty frugal tam-bram types (okay... maybe my definitions of "Frugal" are wayyy off the board!), but obscene wealth (and the ability to do kinkier and wilder experiments in life), ain't happening on this get-a-job-ticket.
does not like what he has to look forward to in doing this job thing super-well for the next 10 years or so... what the super-successful seem to be doing does not sound like a lot of fun at all !! :((
is not really able to define himself in any other way that forms a neat subset that's already out there... he's tried... promise!!

I somehow feel I've been kidding myself. I'm never going to find my quest, or the answers to it, unless I start searching for it actively. the answers aren't around me where I stand, and that means I'm going to have to let go of this boat and swim a while as I try to look... and hopefully, hope floats!

So... time to get a-thinkin'. My ideas are still kinda shlushing around, and I'm hoping the time invested thus far will actually bear fruit and result in a tangible business plan that I'm going to be able to run with in a month from now, when I leave. If not, I'm at some level, reasonably at peace with the notion that I'm going to have to figure something out.

So there ends the latest installment... it's been an eventful few weeks since my last update... and yes.. this was a cathartic core-dump type of session... and yes, I did tell you (hallooo?? anyone??) that I started this blog just so i could rant.. so there!

On a more random note... what do you think about a blog where people write about their startup experience? A bunch of us are on the road now, so it might be interesting to just set up something and see what folks have to say. Might even get us some investors, what!??? :) Methinks itsakewl-kewl idea... predictably :)

wogay, now i am going to do random cleaning up stuff from my workplace. plis to be leaving comments (and money :) ).

S

2006-07-16T04:43:00.001-07:00

Hugh Hefner and the First Amendment - What you didn't know about Playboy and didn't bother asking...

This was just tooooo good to ignore! There was a show on CNBC last night where I heard Christie Hefner, who runs Playboy, remark how it was really at some level about our fundamental right to free thought and free speech! Hmm... I think I kinda missed that part of the script... mebbe it was tucked away in some corner of the centerfold!!

Heffie adds his 2 cents in the end, remarking how your freedom in the bedroom is the acid test of a really free society. Well... I'll drink to that!! :)

Which brings us to the oft-repeated though seldom-believed fact that guys actually buy Playboy not just for the amazing women portrayed in the mmm... most honest light for who they really are, shorn of artifice and free from the chains of society (or clothing) but also for their high quality articles that are both informative and entertaining. Scouts honor!

Anyway, at the very least, it makes for a super cool quiz question! Name the award instituted in 1979 "to honor individuals who have made significant contributions in the vital effort to protect and enhance First Amendment rights for Americans."

Two posts in as many days... here's hoping that lasts!!

2006-07-16T04:43:00.000-07:00

The Sissyphus Paradox

Mite-y M recently lamented that she's finally given up. That she just can't seem to meet interesting men and is going to have to give up "expecting" to find one. Not that she's in the throes of depression or anything, but just that it'd rather simplify things if she stopped expecting it to happen. Gone would be all the stress that the 'manhunt' is inflicting on her, and if Mr. Right just happens to turn up, then hurrah for serendipity.

It was this observation that got me a-thinking... Sissyphus knows for a fact that there are many, many, many poor male-of-the-species-types that wander like lost souls waiting endlessly to meet a woman. And then, here's Mite-y M, who's a one-helluva-cool-woman types, who's complaining that it's actually impossible to meet 'nice' men. Despite our failings as a gender, Sissyphus knows that we aren't all bad... not all of the time anyway. Sissyphus also hears his brothers rant on about how they aren't able to find engaging women despite searching high and low. And therein lies the paradox - if cool, intelligent women-types and cool, intelligent male-types mutually lament a shortage of supply of members of kindred souls of the other sex, even though it's obvious to even the casual observer that there is on the contrary a serious supply overhang.

Nefarious S suggests that it's simply a matter of what women and men looking for very different things, despite seemingly meeting each other's search criteria at a superficial taxonomical level.

This seems reasonable enough, and yet it leaves me with more questions than answers... especially the biggest of them all - What do women want?? or, in this specific case, what do cool-intelligent-women-types want?

Clearly, this makes for a rather oh-not-again type of blog topic, added to which, I frankly have no clue... and so I shall leave it to the hordes of cool-women-types that visit this blog to help me figure this one out. What can I say... I live in hope! :)

And as for what men want... that sounds like a reasonable, though equally done-to-death topic for a future post!

Until later... Au revoir!

2006-05-27T08:10:00.000-07:00

Reserva-shun: Part II

At the time of writing Part 1 of this post, it seemed like there was still some scope for introspection on the part of the Govt. and an opportunity to define the specifics of a more rational reservation policy. In the week or so it's taken me to get back to writing this, it seems like our netas have managed to figure it all out, shove their decision down everybody's gullets and feel quite smug about themselves.

So why write at all? As it seems, the agitating medicos aren't taking this egregious we-don't-give-a-damn-what-you-think attitude and are keeping up their strike... so there's still a debate in the public arena whether our dear PM would like to acknowledge it or not. Also, a few friends from IIMA have been thinking about ways to support the movement and make a difference, and so... here I go again! :)

I've been arguing for sometime now that those agitating against this latest round of caste-based reservation politics are bound to fail unless they (we) articulate a more comprehensive policy alternative that addresses the legitimate concerns of the oppressed members of society. More importantly, we need to use this movement to politically mobilize a section of the public that has traditionally been electorally inactive - without such a mobilization, the logic of electoral math will continue to supercede any "public interest" rationale that contradicts it.

The specific issue of reservation in higher education institutions has been a highly emotive issue. Underlying this issue are factors of a precarious demand-supply situation students face in the country today. There is an absolute dearth of quality educational infrastructure in India today. Even our famed IITs (in the words some of their own alumni) owe their fame more to a rigorous selection system than the educational infrastructure they have nurtured. The constriction in supply is acute - we have just a few thousand students in the IITs, just a couple of "good" NITs that suffer from the same problems of faculty and infrastructural shortages etc. The situation is worse in the medical sciences where students who slog to get their MBBS degrees soon realize that it is practically useless - and then discover that the odds of getting a postgraduate degree are almost nil, barring super-duper-brilliance OR a sackful of cash.

I don't pretend to have the 'right' answers to this muddle, but in my view there are two aspects to the issue worth considering:

Equitable and just access to educational resources
Administration of higher education in India

Without addressing both these aspects, I fear that we'll continue to be shackled within the same us vs them mindset and dialogue that has characterized the debate thus far.

Equity, Access and Merit

It's a universally accepted fact today that share of underpriviledged sections of our society in higher education is far less than their share of population. Providing opportunities for higher education was intended to enable these sections of society to break the cycle of oppression by giving them the training and opportunity to access/enter professions they would otherwise not have had a chance to practise. It is argued that these underprivileged sections cannot compete on a level ground with others who have had access to a richer set of educational resources.

But how to ensure equity while balancing the need for merit? Here's what I've been able to come up with:

Ensure that minimum proficiency criteria are set for all fields. This could take the form of a two-stage test similar to what we have at the IIT-JEE today. Those not clearing this basic-skills hurdle would be ineligible.
Each institute could run special coaching classes that provide a "boot camp" to help students from disadvantaged backgrounds to attain a basic level of competence before commencement of courses.
Unfilled seats from any applicable quotas should be filled by residual "general merit" students
Inter-institution transfers should be allowed/encouraged after the first year to fill any capacity created by students not progressing from one year to the next. Students who had applied previously under the general merit category may also be invited to join by the insitution in subsequent years. Where such transfers may involve a lack of "coverage" of courses missed by incoming transfer students, individual institutions can insist on students completing these credits before graduation.
Since education is intended to provide access to job opportunities that are typically accessible after undergraduate education, higher education should ideally be excluded from the purview of reservations. It's however unlikely that such a position find acceptance given the situation today.
Candidates can claim reservation at only one point of time during their higher education. So a candidate entering an undergrad institute through reservation will have claimed his fair share of the helping hand of the State and be ineligible for a future hand-out.

At a more fundamental level, we can also try to implement a verification of Mandal-esque criteria on an individual basis e.g. whether the person studied in a backward area; if the living circumstances are disadvantaged (poor neighbourhoods or dwellings); whether loan history indicates an above-average lifestyle or not (home loan amounts, car loan histories etc.). Certainly, the technology to do this exists today. This would also have the effect of creating truly objective criteria that the disadvantaged irrespective of caste or creed could meet and thereby become eligible for state support.

Fixing the System

I think almost everyone who's been through the higher education system in India agrees that it is horribly broken. The supply is horribly constrained (see Shekar Gupta's wonderful editorial in this regard), and the quality of education imparted (even at some of the "best" colleges available) is simply appalling. Good faculty are very hard to find, and the training resources available to students are far below what their peers would enjoy outside the country. It's generally acknowledged that we as country churn out students with degrees rather than real skills, leaving it up to their prospective employers to train them to do anything useful.

Till date, we have lived with the rationing and the pathetic quality - the jobs available were typically fewer than the aspirants anyway. Yet today, with economic growth finally kicking in, we find ourselves in a unique position - a country with millions of unemployed graduates where corporates scream about a lack of usable talent!! We need to fix this urgently for everybody's sake and it's going to take some serious systemic changes... here are my 2 cents:

Enable/Promote private participation in education at both primary-secondary and higher education - NK Singh came up with this wonderful idea of putting the power of choice in the hands of the common man, and letting a free-market dynamic address the demand for education in the country. He proposed putting education coupons in the hands of every family for an amount equivalent to the proposed state spending per capita on education. Families could then pay for education with these coupons and top up the amount to the extent they saw fit. He reasons that the private sector will respond to the demand (as it already is), but more extensively as people who today have nothing to give will be remarkably empowered through this mechanism. We already have ration cards and electoral cards - there is no reason why we cannot enable this as well. He recommends that the state limit its role to testing and quality control. He reckons that when schools are ranked based on their performance, parents will vote with their feet. In addition to his recommendations in a BS article that I can't seem to find, I'd also suggest leveraging the existing school infrastructure in some kind of Public-private-partnership on a BOO(T?) model - we could work in some kind of user fee norms and SLAs into agreements which enable private parties to take over the running of public school infrastructures. Reimbursing the economic cost of education in cases where govt. initiated quotas are in place for those seats where revenue opportunities are being constrained on account of govt. policy - an area of concern for all private managements today.
Provide clear guidelines for accreditation/affiliation of institutions and have a transparent system of evaluation - One of the big reasons for malpractices on hte part of managements of private institutions has been that the Govt. has created an immensely corrupt adminstrative system. All certification authorities are accused of conducting a cash-and-carry evaluation system. This is particularly acute in the case of medical education - the bribes paid to set up a medical college are humungous as is the annual hafta paid to the blokes who reassess the situation each year, and the rot is said to run up to the very top of the Dept. of Health (surprise!!). It's hardly surpising then that medical education is also characterized by exorbitant capitation fees (and in black!), the worst demand-supply gap and nepotism of every imaginable kind!
Implement fool-proof privacy methods that prevent candidate identification - this would help check the current system of "rigging" the application process to serve the interests of those who "buy" seats on the black market today.
Enforce clear guidelines and transparent mechanisms for application processing/evaluation - though one expects that if fee-setting is up to the management and that one is counting on consumers to vote with their feet depending on the quality of the service provided.
Provide complete autonomy in managing finances to all Govt. promoted institutions - this should extend to curriculum-setting, fee-setting, compensation and hiring practices. Govt.'s role should only be limited to providing an independent watchdog to monitor and publicize quality/performance levels.
Promote research ecosystems through a rapid ramp-up in funding across different disciplines ranging from the sciences to the arts. Seed research corpuses in institutes to fund initial research from new faculty. Create scientific equivalents of DARPA, NIH etc. to fund research projects across different fields. These researchers need to bring their research-driven insights to the classroom and develop an academic ecosystem for the future.
Promote private contribution to university-based research through tax cuts and other incentives.

Okay, so that's all I could think of in the ummm... week or so I've had. I do wish that we start looking at this as an opportunity to do something really meaninful than simply mumble tokenisms to the ghost of Mandal. We really, really could do with some new solutions in this space... and fast.

Here's hoping that my dear spineless PM actually stops resting on his past laurels and starts leading from the front with some serious policy initiatives, rather than play Joe Doormat...

2006-05-17T01:43:00.000-07:00

Reserva-shun: Part I

It's all the rage these days, and brave Sissyphus can hardly resist the temptation! This week, we saw a clear escalation of the standoff between the pro and anti reservationists. Our most honourable HRD minister hardens his stance and now appeals to Parliament to stand firm on the issue. Meanwhile, students now campaigning against the move have graduated from simple vigils and boycotts, to door-to-door campaigning and hunger strikes. The pro-quota lobby amongst students now rallies to the fore as well, adding its voice to the din.

Somewhere in the middle of all this hard-nosed politicking, frightened protesting and all round assertiveness the basic issue seems to be getting lost. Is this just about reservation in educational institutions, or is there a bigger question about fundamental social endowments and a distinction between equal opportunity and appeasement that underlies this confrontation?

To many, Arjun Singh's latest maneuver seems chillingly akin to VP Singh's moves in 1990. In fact there is very little difference in the motivation behind these moves. Perhaps Arjun Singh and the Congress hope to cobble together an OBC plank to replace the SC/ST-Upper caste-Muslim coalition they traditionally commanded - whether this works remains to be seen, but if history is any indicator, this is hardly going to be a solution.

At the foundation of each such initiative is the Mandal Commision report. The report, submitted in 1980, didn't see the light of day till VP Singh ignited the reservations powder-keg a decade later. The report itself, indeed its author, has become a by-word to describe all divisive casteist initiatives. It is sad that the report itself has never been the subject of a serious debate. Perhaps by succumbing to our desire to paint everything in black and white, the mainstream press chose to demonize this document rather than debate it seriously. I myself can't say I'm fully acquainted with its contents, but even a little bit of googling provides some interesting insights. First, that the Mandal commission made about a dozen recommendations, of which only the issue of reservations was picked up. Second, that the commission recognized reservations to simply be a temporary palliative. Third, that it suggested extensive socio-economic measures to address the fundamental causes of inequality rather than mere tokenism. It's interesting that none of the other recommendations were ever implemented, and worse, that we didn't, and aren't even debating these recommendations. Personally, I thought that these recommendations, along with some kind of system of qualification criteria and periodic review could well be a genuinely worthwhile initiative in social reengineering. The problems arise in ensuring equitable and just mechanisms. Dinakar Sakrikar provides in this opinion-piece, a list of the criteria that the Commission used. At first glance, these seem to quite reasonable, and indeed, extremely objective (barring the one regarding classes/castes considered backward by others, which is extremely subjective). Unfortunately, there are also several drawbacks/shortfalls I think are worth thinking about:

1) Do the measures/criteria defined constitute an adequate description of the characterestics of "backwardness". If not, do more criteria need to be evolved?

2) Individuals may satisfy certain criteria but not others. What configuration of criteria will an individual need to meet in order to continue being described as backward? For example, does a person satisfying any 8 of 11 criteria qualify? 2/11??

3) Is there any way to create a secular definition of backwardness meriting affirmative action? A backward/disadvantaged person suffers irrespective of religion, caste, or geography. Is there any way to enable all disadvantaged members of society a helping hand?

I think we're at an important juncture, and that despite their devious intentions, Arjun Singh and the Congress Party have atleast provided us with an opportunity to seriously re-examine issue.

The fact that reservation has always been the silver bullet for politicians with different spots is something worth analyzing as well. The political imperative seems sadly divorced from the social needs that merit intervention. While our political class has hardly given us any reason to hope for more, there is, to my mind, a real opportunity to reorient the public discourse in a more worthwhile direction.

What if, instead of screaming themselves hoarse that reservations be rolled back, the agitating students campaigned instead that:

1) The Commission's recommendations be implemented in toto, and in a timebound manner.
2) The Goverment evolve objective, secular criteria for candidacy based on the Mandal criteria or some subset/superset thereof.
3) The Government conduct a periodic review of both the demographic (through a more regular census perhaps) to review and update the candidate set.

To my mind, this would genuinely set the cat amongst the pigeons. First, it'd force the Government to reconsider its stonewalling attitude, and break the "us-versus-them" dynamic that has pitted the middle class against a vast majority of this country. Most political parties depend on a local feudal heirarchy of some sort to perpetuate their existence. It is this fundamental conflict of interest that has prevented meaningful governmental intervention towards improving the lot of the socially disadvantaged in the last 60 years since we embraced "democracy". At the very least, this would be a unifying discourse, seeking only objectivity and fairness, while genuinely championing the legitimate interests of the downtrodden masses.

This of course, does not address the specific issue of reservation in educational institutions and in the private and public sector. As usual, I do have a good deal to say about that too... so stay tuned for Part II... coming soon!

2006-05-14T10:13:00.000-07:00

All the Queen's Men

Amidst the ruckus around the latest round of reservations pulled off by old Mr. Arjun Singh were some other really curious noises this week.

Madame Gandhi romped home to victory in Rae Bareilli, and elsewhere UPA "allies" (kaff kaff, ahem ahem) seized decisive victories in their respective states. Seemingly oblivious to the obvious shrillness this is all going to bring the UPA in the months ahead, Congress factions seem to have gone into some kind of hyper-drive on attacks against its own goverment. And then again, maybe they aren't so oblivious after all!

So, on last count...we had some four Poltu-dudes join the "embarrass-singh" bandwagon. Milind Deora and Kamal Nath started off by indulging in this periodic ass-kissing ritual we are now painfully used to... Now that Rahul Gandhi has led Madame G to a stunning victory, we are led to believe that the nation has affirmed its faith in " Soniaji's and Rahul-ji's" leadership. So one must take on the "glory and responsiblity" of leading hte nation, while the other, should be given more responsibility in hte party etc. etc. My dad taught me this shloka once, that seems to be somewhat relevant in this case...

"Oshtraanam vivahascha
Karthabahakila gayakaha
Parasparam prasamsamthi
Aho-roopam! Ahoroopam!
Ahodhwani! Ahodhwani!"

which roughly translates to...

"To a Giraffes wedding,
A donkey was called as the wedding singer
Each praised the other saying,
'what a face! What a face!';
'What a voice, what a voice!"

Hmm.. the resemblance is striking :)

Then we had Murli Deora do a spectacular back-flip! He now says that one shouldn't hike prices and instead, like good marxists, we should instead cut our duties on fuel imports. Of course, no helpful suggestions are offered on how to plug the fiscal hole that results from this little sleight of hand.

Then today, we had the wily old Singh throw another grenade at the PM and the NKC, rekindling the issue, first firmly refusing to revisit his recommendation, and then sweetly leaving it "to the cabinet" to take a final decision.

Adding to the confusion was Mr. Nath doing a bit of an encore - "price control!" he shrieks!! "A conspiracy of cement manufacturers!" ... "Off with their heads!!" and so forth. Well, one assumes he's left it to lesser mortals to wrestle with notions such as demand and supply, but an educated view hardly seems warranted, given the chosen profession here - sad, but apparently true. Those that know better, choose to be mum. Thankfully, he seems to be getting a fair share of editorial brickbats for his ridiculous posturing - but the days when simple editorials made these guys blush have long since passed.

But each individual incident really isn't what interests me. Methinks the pieces are in play. Though what exactly is being aimed at, beyond replacing the good Doctor remains a bit of a mystery to me. After all, it's not like Manmohan Singh has any kind of political base... or gumption (sadly) ... so what exactly are these good Congressmen doing aligning themselves more closely with the apparatchiks policy-wise while screaming paeans to the Gs? Is it rebellion against the good doctor (in which case, who shall wear the crown?) or is the stage being set for a bigger reshuffle should Mrs. Gandhi mess up at the hustings? The mystery deepens... hmm... God save us!

2006-05-07T05:23:00.000-07:00

Spent a weekend in Bangalore after what seemed like ages. And as usual, the visit combines something of a sense of nostalgia and pleasant familiarity with this disturbing recognition that the Bangalore of one's memories has been mutilated perhaps beyond repair. Heaven knows exactly why we allowed our city to come to this, but we sat by and did nothing.

The good thing about Bangalore is that I always get to catch up with friends I never seem to outgrow. The kinds who knew you before you knew yourself. It's amazing how you can never seem to drift apart so much that you have uncomfortable silences hanging over you.

Amongst my oldest friends@ Bangalore, is HK who's going through the wringer. It seems his parents are turning the screws on him to "go forth, find a woman and start a family". Along with that directive come all the whys and why-nots that all such interventions come with. So as it turns out, HK has developed an ingenious method of deflecting the inquisition. Apart from being somewhat hilarious, I thought that it might also be a great ploy for female readers of this blog (of which one hopes there is an invisible, growing army) I often get to hear them griping about how their parents are on their case regarding one or the other "eligible software engineer" with the right antecedents/references. Well, fear not, for help is at hand... or atleast an experiment worth emulating. Apparently, HK has developed a simple filter for shaadi.com (more on this one later) profiles. He simply records his first reaction to it - his parents always get to hear if he's unable to take a particular recommendation of theirs on board because his first reaction is ... "Akka!". Something of a KLP-R in reverse (no, if you didn't get it, I can't tell you - this is good shantam-paaapam blog).

Ok - so much for Bangalore. My weekend vist draws to a close, and this time I haven't had my good darshini masala-dosa at my favourite haunts... woe is me!!!

Next stop - Biryani city...

2006-05-04T01:52:00.000-07:00

3 May 2006, and I’m typing in the hot, sweaty darkness of my first full-blown power cut since my arrival in Hyderabad. Sometime last week I contributed my 2 cents to an article in the Express on the Hyderabad-Bangalore “race” and whether India’s Silicon-city was losing it’s premier position to the upstart Biryaniwallas, I said, “Aye! For they have learnt from Bangalore’s mistakes,” But I guess the cup has slipped… so… “stop the presses! I retract!!”. But seriously, one hopes this is a one-off thing that doesn’t warrant a full recant… or an emigration. Unlike Bangalore, you can’t exactly shrug off a late night power cut here… which explains in part why I’m writing this blog at an hour one swore as early as yesterday one wouldn’t keep… but as usual the fates conspire.

While surfing the web for the umpteenth time at the Cubicle Farm today, I learnt of Pramod Mahajan’s death after 12 days struggling against the fratricidal attempt on his life. Predictably, the news channels compete to spend air time on the event and the history of the man. In life, as in death, he’s hailed as the BJP’s chief strategist and Mr. Fixit – some epitaph…

On a more personal note, I wondered if my recent tirade might have been too harsh… after all, he does seem to be quite a decent chap and all. It’s awful when you say or imply rotten things about a person and then they promptly kick the bucket…But then… I think that the fact that he seems to be this nice, warm person is exactly the problem we have to face – is this the best we can get? And so… I recant my recant… that is to say, I can’t recant…My Machiavellian self now wonders what is to become of the case and my alleged cover up… will the family break ranks? Are we going to hear more in the days ahead? Que sera sera… As a mark of respect for the departed soul, I cease my tasteless tirade here…

But not my rant for the evening!!!!

Nefarious S, who is my sole blog-reader these days brought up my comment on Ash’s moribund acting and acting lessons for sex-scenes. “How does one teach pre, post, in the act, orgasmic expressions?” S asks. And so, I thought that it’s really not that hard. After all, one could well provide either in-the-act kinds of practical training, OR, for sati savitri types, one could provide some kind of manga comic tutorial. Since, a blog is not the best kinda medium for a practical tutorial (though curious young ladies with a burning desire to learn could contact me directly)… and since this is a shantam-paapam kinda blog, I decided to restrict my investigation to a how-to of sorts. While pondering over it, I figured that this is just the kind of thing, faithful readers… including but not limited to Nefarious S might just be interested in contributing to. So… here are my humble efforts in providing the adept with some guidance on how to pull off a good post-orgasmic reaction when acting in a sex scene so that poor unfortunate souls get their money’s worth. My contribution is as follows:

Example 1: The “WOOO Gawd – this is feeling fantashtic!” look. Recommended for middle aged characters that aren’t likely to get any.

Then there's the once-in-a-lifetime Geek-love moment

And then... the "I'm a cool-dude but still blown-by-the-experience" look

And just so we dont' start assuming here that my knowledge/repetoire is limited to the state space of male expressions... which in fact would be far... FAR from the truth, and be purely the figment of an envious mind's imagination... I present... the "That was so mind-blowingly good I'm squint-eyed in love with you" expression for "ladis wonly"

In the interests of keeping this open, the random reader is encouraged to send in their contributions with cartoon sketches that could be added to the tutorial. I shall then compile them and attempt to have them sent to the IceMaiden who was turned into Ash. :)

So... for now... au revoir mes amis... please... pretty please?? You will visit this blog again.. won't you? Won't you??? Aaaargghhh!!!!

2006-05-01T11:15:00.000-07:00

It's Monday and I already seem to have got a head start on this week's quota of things to see 'n' do. Yesterday, I finished up with Amartya Sen's "Argumentative Indian" and today, I stumbled into a theatre screening the "Mistress of Spices".

Since I need to get this out of my system, I'll vent a li'l bit about Chitra Divakaruni's "Mistress of Spice". Just so we're all on the same page here, I'll qualify this by saying I haven't read her book - i was told off it. It has, however, received critical acclaim from several outstanding personalities and critics. This rant is solely about the movie, released in India this week, starring Aishwarya Rai, Dylan McDermot, Anupam Kher and Zohra Sehgal. For all ye that harken here, heed my word - this is one god-awful movie!!! The storyline is a brazen rip-off of "Chocolat" without any of the class. The result is somewhat akin to a Chetan Bhagat rip-off of Marquez's 100 years of Solitude. Where Chocolat thrives on a magical imagery purely through suggestion, Divakuruni's Mistress of Spice (Ash) engages in deranged monologues, in turn declaring the potency of each spice in turn and entreating the "spices" to behave in any-which-way. Paul Berge's direction is terrible and the screenplay simply appalling. It's the kind of script that one could cite as emperical evidence of the infinite monkey theorem. However the most tragic aspect of the movie for me, was Ash's (ice)maiden Hollywood performance. Oh GOD!!! This was either the worst acting performance she's put up till date or the result of a Botox overdose! I mean... I love da way she looks mon ... but this is too-f'ckin-much!!! Even the "climax" of the movie - where she 'n' Dylan-boy get all naughty is soooooo ... frigid... for want of a better word. One imagines that if not anything else, sex scenes are easy to nail. I mean... this is the sorta thing they skip at acting school because ... duhh... you're supposed to know! I mean, mebbe they tell the guys... "Y'know.. you really can't DO anything... X-nay on the getting really happy young man!"... but i'll be darned if they say "This is how you pull your post-orgasmic face". All in all, a terribly demotivating experience for anyone that drops a jaw when Ash appears. In this movie, she and her comrades in arms only succeed in making you want to pull your face off.

Enough said on that - the good news for the week was Sen's "Argumentative Indian", a book I bought after my dear Prof. B brought it to my attention. This is a good book with an interesting, and perhaps long-needed emphasis on India's analytical tradition. Sen argues that we have a strong, if deemphasized tradition of analytical enquiry. One that is distinct from the theosophic, or more exotic literary traditions that tend to dominate the western notion of "the Indian identity". The book basically consists of a series of lectures he's delivered over the years, and contains many interesting nuggets and a rather persuasive basic argument. However, the book does suffer from a fair dose of repetitiveness - the same examples (e.g. Akbar and Tagore) are cited ad nauseum and several passages repeat opinions that the author has already established early in the text. There is also a discernable ideological position here that lends an air of polemic to the book - perhaps in some part reinforced by the repetitiveness of some opinions. In addition, Mr. Sen does not seem to take the trouble to identify and critically evaluate some of his own basic assumptions. I found the essay on India's nuclear program to be particularly naive in its base assumptions. His academic interest in human development shines through in several passages, though I felt that few new arguments relevant to the context came through his exposition on human developmental issues. Sen also takes a uniformly dim view of the Sangh parivar and proponents of a unified Hindu "identity". While he does a great job of demolishing some pet ideological themes of the parivar, I felt his fundamental aversion for the politics of the Sangh precluded a more interesting analysis of the hindu-nationalist phenomenon.

While we're on the sangh, one can't but help dedicate a few lines to that parivar icon, Pramod Mahajan, who battles for his life since his tragic shooting at the hands of his brother Praveen. A Cain 'n' Abel plot if I'd ever seen one! While one wishes him a speedy recovery, I wanted to vent (yes... I think THAT's why I started this blog) on two aspects of this entire episode. First, the complete cynicism with which the players involved here have tried to masquerade their own colored interpretations as the truth - notably brazen efforts by the family to squash the initial reports of a property dispute as being the motive behind the shooting and Pravin's lawyer and wife in cynically crafting a "history" of abuse and mentally deranged behavior as building blocks to an insanity plea. The second, and more disturbing feature of this drama, has been the TV media's complete abnegation of its responsibility to probe the facts. It seems that the print media (e.g. Outlook) is picking up the trail here, but it seems too little too late. It isn't however too late to ask some pertinent questions regarding how this family, which admittedly has made a rags to riches transition, has managed to amass such riches. How does one go from "struggling student leader in Pune" to a house in Worli through a career in "public service"? The amazing thing here is that no politician has the courage to raise this issue. As they say, hamaam mein sab nange hote hain.

Okie - that's all from me I guess. Since I'm ending with a parthian shot at the media's cowardice in this country, atleast in this context, let me point with some hope toward the USA, where journalistic integrity has been in relatively short supply lately. Not that this page is gonna contribute much traffic to anybody's site, but for those who haven't seen Stephen Colbert's courageous call-out of the Bush administration, please do have a look here, and thank this brave, brave man. Salut!!

2006-04-28T12:51:00.000-07:00

Now that it's come to it, I seem to have no clue why I started this blog. Not a thrilling start, what? And yet, I cannot tell a lie... although I seem to Fib quite freely...

I
Blog
About
Nothing and
Yet the pages seem
To overflow endlessly thus... duhh...

Phew ! Made it... and only just!!!

Truth be told, I hadn't given much thought to it, but egged on by the nefarious S, I seem to find myself in quite a fix. Helpful souls suggest a sampling of topics one could assay... "Life in Biryani City" (ho hum) ... "My life in Biryani City" (zzzz) ... I guess the fact that I'm writing this on a Friday night with only my pod for company puts paid to any hope of a scintillating chapter on that topic anytime soon... but one hopes, dear reader, that thou shalt be patient...

And so, brave Sissypuss shall ramble on... mebbe tomorrow :)

Ciao for now...