Freedom to say Fuck

Freedom to say Fuck

Fuck is such a versatile word. The inimitable Osho so wonderfully expresses the versatility of this great word in this 'Spiritually Incorrect' talk.

You think fuck is offensive. The fuck, it is! Should it be allowed to say. Fucking yes, I say. Does the law support me. Are you fucking kidding me? If it was allowed, how then the Censors are masking the sound of this word by a beep in all the films. Even the ones aired on TV. Even changing the subtitles of the word, to 'yuck/luck/muck, whatever'.

You say, our constitution allows freedom of speech and expression. Oh yes, the original 1950 one did But the very first amendment in 1951 diluted this freedom. So I can say fuck only if it does not violate any laws passed for-

interests of the security of the State, friendly relations with
foreign States, public order, decency or morality, or in relation to
contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence

Is saying fuck decent/moral. The fuck, it certainly is moral. And public order, that vague term, under which pretext all laws prohibiting or controlling freedom of speech have been passed. So under Indian Penal Code, I am prohibited saying fuck if it has effect of spreading communal hate, is against national integration, causes public 'mischief'. And, there are the great censorship laws, with powers to censor board to beep fuck in movies.
 

So fuck this first amendment and fuck the anti-free speech laws and fuck the censor board. Rant ends.

Elementary, My dear Watson

Elementary, my dear Watson

Most famous words by Sherlock Holmes, right? There's another famous one:

Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.

In the age of facebook and whatsapp, where there are real quotes and real images floating around, there are hell lot of misquotes and doctored images floating around. Eager people, without verifying facts, immediately share these through social media. These are just impossible, forget being improbable. 

Most of these are so blatantly false and misleading, still the sharers either do it deliberately or do it without applying logic or verifying facts.

Some of the ones that I have been regularly receiving, are both tragic and hilarious. Just check these as examples of the innumerable ones floating in cyberspace.

Lord Macaulay's speech

Receiving the above image with the quote since ages. When I read it for first time, it did not seem at all spoken by Macaulay. The man, who had brought education reform in India, who was part of drafting and implementation of Indian Penal Code. Such a man could not have used such simple and modern sounding English.

A simple search reveals this. In 1835, he was in India, and not in British Parliament, with the  responsibility of implementing the modern style educational system in English. Because he argued that the existing languages of high learning, Sanskrit and Arabic, were not good enough to implement modern scientific learning acquired by Europe, which he wanted the Indians to learn. And he certainly had very low impression of what is claimed in this quote, of ancient education system and her culture. This is what he actually believed, in his own words:

"Can we reasonably or decently bribe men, out of the revenues of the State, to waste their youth in learning how they are to purify themselves after touching an ass or what texts of the Vedas they are to repeat to expiate the crime of killing a goat?"

"But I would strike at the root of the bad system which has hitherto been fostered by us. I would at once stop the printing of Arabic and Sanscrit books. I would abolish the Mudrassa and the Sanscrit College at Calcutta. 

Letter by Jwaharlal (!) to Attlee



This one takes the cake being the most hilarious! And it was actually circulated by leading media and websites as being a letter from the declassified Bose papers. I mean, media did not get the spelling mistake in writer's name; which person could spelt incorrectly own name! And, unsigned letter. And, getting address wrong, Down Street instead of Downing Street? And, not considering the language style whether could be of the brilliant and erudite Nehru. 



So be careful before you share that next whatsapp image. And burst myths of others. Election campaigns have been conducted using battery of cyber army, trolls are lurking at every corner waiting to pounce on you for any critique or criticism against the Supreme Leaders of the world. Communal flareups happen due to doctored images. Due to all these forwards, we are now convinced that Modi had swept floors, sold tea and fought with crocodiles before becoming the PM, and Rahul Gandhi had accepted British citizenship and betrayed India.

P.S. Sherlock never said “Elementary my dear Watson” in any of the original 56 short stories or 4 novels starring his character. This has been a misquote attributed to him. It was actually written by, of all people, P.G. Wodehouse! 

Listening Pleasure - Enigma

What if I told you that these Gregorian chants are used by Christian missionaries to convert people. Would you believe me and immediately share it? ;-)

D-Company - CSR Report

D-Company : Corporate Social Responsibility Report FY2016

We at D-Company consider all our activities are carried out with social responsibility in mind. Our activities are closely linked to the government policies, namely what is not allowed by the governments or highly regulated by the governments. Since independence, governments have attempted and succeeded in declaring illegal - most common activities of humans since time immemorial - prostitution, substance abuse and gambling. But, people will continue to do so, hence we target our CSR activities in these fields. Since, governments do not allow clean legitimate businesses carrying out these activities, as they do in other parts of the world, the only option remains is we criminals indulge in these activities, for the benefit of common people in India.

Prostitution itself is not illegal; commercial sex workers can solicit clients at their homes. But maintaining places for commercial sex workers is not allowed. So as our CSR activity, we maintain a network of pimps and brothels.This being our public service carried out in view of severe restrictions by the government, there are impediments for us and we cannot take care of cleanliness of brothels, health issues of prostitutes and clients, especially regarding sexually transmitted diseases.

We are awfully happy that after Gujarat, the government of Bihar is going to prohibit alcohol. It gives us great opportunity to serve the people of Bihar by providing spurious liquor at higher rates, and not allowing any revenue stream for the government. We are glad that herbal marijuana continues to be listed among the illegal drugs, in spite of it being non carcinogenic and with no health issues, unlike nicotine. This gives us opportunity to push for chemical narcotics, which are hard core and causes serious injuries, creating drug addicts.

Advanced countries have opened up gambling as legitimate recreational and business activity, thankfully it is not the case in India. Last few years have been good social service on the gambling front, with new avenues such as IPL, for which we opened new satta centers. We have also opened online gambling sites, which act as bookies, for benefit of our netizens. All these are not regulated and we do not give any taxes to the government.  

We still remember our golden days when we used to do smuggling of gold due to import restrictions by governments prior to 1991. Our chaps would smuggle gold in adventurous ways for benefit of our sisters requiring gold for marriages. By allowing common people to legally import gold stopped this CSR activity of ours.

We believe that the governments should continue its restrictions, not present in any civilised country, for us to continue our CSR activities. We would like to thank our government for continuing good policies.

Today's listening pleasure: Don McLean

Don McLean's American Pie is a long fabulous song with the most intriguing lyrics. Every line is simple but it's difficult to understand the references! And it feels like listening to an epic, not getting the story. Enjoy!

C. Rajagopalachari - the forgotten hero

C. Rajagopalachari - the forgotten hero

What does a person do at age of 80 years in year 1957, after providing thought leadership in struggles for independence, being in Gandhiji's words 'my conscience keeper', becoming Governor General of free India, the first Indian after Mountbatten left, becoming home minister after Patel's death, and getting the Bharat Ratna? He enjoys his retirement, spending years writing novels, translating the classics and writing articles in newspapers. And gradually he realizes the path being taken by his friend Jawaharlal, is that of socialism, inspired by the Soviet Union, and against the ideals of the Constitution itself. And then this young man C.Rajagopalachari, or Rajaji as he was called, decides to leave his beloved Congress party, and along with like minded people like Minoo Masani, begins the second freedom struggle of India - 'Swatantra Party movement'. 

Rajaji declares war against, in his coined words 'the license-permit Raj' being created by the socialist policies of Nehru, whereby the government is busy creating a public sector behemoth, and laying obstacles in way of wealth creation by private sector that is getting squeezed by a rampaging bureaucracy. He felt that the Congress party has turned into a stooge of the Communists and there was a need for an effective opposition party which believes in economic independence and in liberal values.

He toured the whole country and built the Swatantra party by convincing people about ideology of liberalism. The party won 45 seats in 1967 general elections and was the single largest opposition party in Loksabha and kept countering the disastrous socialist policies.

The second freedom movement started by Swatantra finally got a ray of hope after 1991 liberalization, but it's still miles to go for real liberty to be achieved.     

Today's listening pleasure - C. Ramchandra

C. Ramchandra was a pioneer and a rebel in Hindi film music, a R.D. Burman of his time. He brought jazz music in his songs and experimented with a variety of western instruments merging their sounds with traditional Indian music.

Look how advanced this song would be at its time (circa 1947), where the male singer asks the female to try some brandy n whisky! Enjoy.

Bombay

Bombay

The official name's now Mumbai, nevertheless, it will always be Bombay to me. Today's post is about a 'What-if' scenario, one I think when I see wonders and horrors of  present Bombay. It is - What if the British retained and leased Bombay in 1947 the way they did in case of Hong Kong?

One thing was for sure, Bombay would have continued the liberal capitalistic outlook fully under the British, amidst the soul drenching, povertarian, socialism unleashed by Nehru after 1947. Just like HK became the oasis of free markets even when China fell into the abyss of communism under Mao, a far greater tragedy then Nehru's socialism. There still remained a beacon of ideals in HK for the Chinese, and Deng later reversed after 1978 the disastrous policies of communism, and advocated market economy. I am sure he had the success of HK and Singapore in mind when he did this reversal.

Even today, it is South Bombay, built by the British, which is the finest in whole of India, in capitalist culture and values. Just look at this magnificent structure to know what Bombay was under the British.

What Indians built in Bombay after the British left that can be even remotely comparable with this structure? Even the so called skyscrapers in Nariman Point are tiny structures as compared to the skyscrapers in other cities.

If British would have retained Bombay, we would not have seen flight of talent, capital and intelligence, and stinking increase in poverty in ways we saw under socialist system. It would have remained a free trade zone, with trade with all major economies, and better use of its natural harbour. Similar to what Singapore became. And, it would have remained largely liberal; it is still liberal but there are still regional chauvinistic fools all around. It would have attracted the best talent pool from India and other parts of world and would have been a world city, which sadly it is not today. It would have better town planning, no rent control acts, and certainly, no slums. And the wonderful opium bars and jazz clubs would have continued. And Bollywood? That may not have happened or happened elsewhere!

Well, if wishes were horses.... Still there is scope of improvement. It should first be separated from any state, the mayor should be given powers more than the CM. It should be declared a free trade zone with separate set of economic laws then rest of India.

Today's listening pleasure - Bach

Very few drops of ocean that is western classical music I have tasted, So, knowledgeable readers kindly excuse me about my understanding, which I have none.

I was zapped by listening to Bach's Air first time I heard..Recently I saw and heard this version on Boston Symphony Orchestra page on FB and it's lovely. Enjoy.

Happy 331st birthday to Johann Sebastian Bach! Here's a clip from Nov. 22, 1966 of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, led by Erich Leinsdorf, performing "Air" from Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 3. (Video credit: BSO, Inc. and WGBH)
Posted by Boston Symphony Orchestra on Monday, March 21, 2016

Agnostic to Atheist

Agnostic to Atheist

As per Hindu customs, before starting any new venture or an event, God is invoked in some manner, the preferred one being Ganpati, the God of wisdom. So, when I begin, or should I say, rebegin this blog after nine years, whom should I invoke? Since I was hardly a believer, maybe in my primary school years, later became agnostic, and now a confirmed (I should believe so) atheist.

I developed this one theory of God during my agnostic years, which I 'ld like to share here..And it's based on algebra! So, here it goes.

Humans, while trying to sustain and thrive using their powers of knowledge building and communication, could not comprehend source of natural phenomena like day/night, rains, wind, and so on. Humans in  different parts of world where civilisation existed, then used algebraic method of assuming the solution as 'X' i.e. 'God' as mentioned in different language. So they declared - Let's assume that this 'X' - 'God' created this phenomena, be it, day/night, rains, wind, earth etc. It became a beginning point of solving equation, now the problem to be solved was - Find out who/which/what is this 'God'. So, some had this assumption for each natural phenomenon or object; there was God of rains, God of wind, God of sun, God of moon, God of mountain. Many societies these Gods became displayed as humans themselves, an anthropomorphic God.

Now, humans are intelligent and a few among them are more intelligent than others. These few folks have tried to solve this equation in two different manner - one using religious ways, other using science. And science folks have been more successful in solving and getting this 'X'. Once you get what creates rain, lo, there is no need of having a God of rains.  But religious folks have believers on their side, so they smartly keep making new assumptions. No God of rains, fine, we will now have God of Creation itself, who has created entire world from scratch. Now, scientists begin to solve this 'X', this God of Creation!

At some point of time, humans forgot that they created this 'X', this assumption of God, and started believing that it's not assumption, but the ultimate truth. And God became omnipotent and most powerful.

I think due to advent of science which permeates our life, and the many questions and assumptions of God which are not required now, it is safe to bury these assumption of God. Once God goes away, so will the evilness in organised religions.

  

Guru: learning economics from the movie

The film 'Guru' is based on life and times of Dhirubhai Ambani. The highlight of the movie is the epic battle between Dhirubhai and Ramnath Goenka, head of the Indian Express. The Indian Express unearthed violations of certain economic laws by Reliance Industries. These appeared in a series of articles in the Indian Express which were authored by S. Gurumurthy (played by Madhavan in the film) and research carried out by Arun Shourie, who were reporters in the IE .
Arun Shourie in an interview given to Knowledge@Wharton states his opinion about the matter and I quote -

"My colleague S. Gurumurthy had written a series of articles on Reliance Industries. Their main point was that its founder, Dhirubhai Ambani, had circumvented the conditions under which licenses were given. I later said -- and I was criticized a lot for this remark, including by my friend Gurumurthy -- that we had put Mr. Ambani to great difficulties. But in retrospect, should the violation of those regulations have been condemned? After all, the licensing raj was bad; my own doctoral work had shown that. Now we were criticizing somebody for violating rules that should not have been there in the first place. If you give me a capacity of 100 yards and I produce 120, is it a good or a bad thing? But it was a violation of the law as it stood then. I took the view that such violations, in the end, help prepare the ground for the change of the law itself.

We had extortionate tax rates in the 1950s. More than 100% of our income went into wealth tax, expenditure tax, income tax, and so on. That led to honest people becoming dishonest. In the end, that huge blackmarket became one of the arguments for lowering tax rates."

Austrian economist Freidrich von Hayek, the proponent of capitalism, had said: "…by exceeding the limits in which those restrictions sought to impound them, they help create the case for scrapping those regulations".

There are interesting scenes in the movie which tells us about the kind of economic policies prevalent in India which has resulted in India being a 'Third World' poor country. One of them is if someone wants to import anything (raw material or finished goods) then he has to show that he has also exported something. This is to save 'valuable foreign exchange' ! The result was Indian manufacturers could not import intermediate goods or machinery from abroad.

P.S. This post has 2 tags: film and law. It could have been film & economics. Very rare for a Hindi film!

MRP related article in Times of India

In relation to my earlier post 'Law..Is it for real' here's a related article.
The Times of India dated December 6, 2006, Pune Edition published this report on Maximum Retail Price violations. Here is the text of the report.( For those who wish to read it on the website, check out the epaper edition at http://epaper.timesofindia.com/ )

One product, an MRP too many

A Bottle Of Water Can Cost Rs 10, Rs 12 Or Rs 20, Depends Where You Buy

TIMES NEWS NETWORK Pune:

Here’s news for consumers — MRP now seems to stand for ‘Multiple Retail Pricing’ instead of Maximum Retail Price!
While the Standards of weights and measures (packaged commodity) rules of 1977 prohibit a retailer from charging anything extra than the maximum retail price (MRP) printed on a packaged product, some manufacturers are selling the same product at different MRPs in different locations. Many consumers are thus feeling cheated while paying higher price for the same product in different parts of the city. While a one litre water bottle of Aquafina purchased by TOI from the Comesum restaurant at Pune railway station carried an MRP of Rs 10, another one litre Aquafina bottle purchased from the VXL ice cream parlour, outside George restaurant in Camp, had an MRP of Rs 12 printed on it. An Aquafina bottle of a lesser quantity (750ml) was being sold at an exorbitant MRP of Rs 20 at some malls and multiplexes in Pune. For example, at E-Square multiplex and Yo! China outlet at Kakade Magnum, the water bottle was being sold at an MRP of Rs 20.
Jai Dehadrai, a law student, was taken aback when he was charged Rs 20 for a bottle at the E-Square multiplex snack counter. He was surprised that the same product was being sold at an MRP of Rs 10 outside the multiplex. Driven by a deep sense of being cheated, Jai and his three friends, who had gone to the multiplex to watch a movie, had a prolonged argument with the multiplex management.
When the Yo! China salesperson was asked why a 750 ml bottle was being sold at an MRP much higher than the one litre bottle of the same brand at other places, he explained that the 750 ml product was specifically meant for places like malls and multiplexes. “There isn’t much of a difference in the quality of water sold through We barely get Rs 2 or Rs 3 per bottle sold at Rs 20 MRP,” he said.
When asked for an explanation on multiple retail pricing, Akim Bootwala, assistant manager (sales development), Pepsico India (Pune), said the company was following two different policies of applying MRP of Rs 10 per bottle for the Indian Railways and Rs 12 for open market. However, Akim was unable to explain the inconsistency in three different MRPs for the same product — Rs 20 for a 750 ml bottle sold at E-Square as against Rs 10 and Rs 12 for the one litre product of the same brand. Pepsico manager (sales) in Pune, Tanuj Chadha, was not co-operative when asked to explain the company’s multiple pricing policy and said that the company’s policy restricted him from talking to the media. the 750 ml or one litre bottle. However, there is hardly any margin for us if we are to sell these bottles at Rs 10 or Rs 12 MRP, considering that we also have to pay for the maintenance of this mall.


In another related article on the same day here's what TOI reports

Metrology officials find the MRP nut hard to crack

‘We can penalise offender only if sale price exceeds printed retail price’ Pune:

State legal metrology officials, who are responsible for keeping MRP (maximum retail price) violations under check, find themselves helpless over the multiple pricing approach by packaged product manufacturers. When TOI brought the discrepancy in MRPs for the same product at different locations to their notice, the officials said they can penalise an offender only in cases where the sale price is more than the printed MRP.
“The department has no control over what MRP the manufacturer prints on a given packaged commodity,” said D.G. Parate, deputy controller of legal metrology. Often, the department penalises offenders only if a violation is brought to its notice.
Parate said that although the department had been carrying out regular inspections to check overcharging, it has never come across such inconsistencies in printing of different MRPs for the same product.
“Our prime concern is to see whether a packaged product carries the five mandatory disclosures and whether the sale is effected as per the printed MRP,” he said.
Since April 1 this year, the department has registered only 15 offences of overcharging.
Although the Standards of Weights and Measures (packaged commodity) Rules of 1977 prohibit a retailer from charging anything extra than the maximum retail price (MRP) printed on a packaged product, this law is being flouted blatantly at many outlets in the city. At the Lohegaon airport’s main terminal, the Shubham ice-cream and juice centre was found selling a one-litre Bisleri bottled water (MRP: Rs 12) for Rs 20 without issuing a receipt. Asked the salesperson to explain the Rs 20 price, he maintained that this was the selling price for airport only. He refused to give a receipt.
The Salaam Dilli Chat outlet at the Mariplex mall, which is part of the Gold Adlabs multiplex complex in Kalyaninagar, charged an extra Rs 5 over a one-litre Aquafina bottle having Rs 12 as the MRP print. The salesperson initially refused to give a bill for this purchase, but after some insistence by a TOI reporter, gave a computer-generated bill for Rs 17. Irrespective of the Rs 12 MRP on the bottle, the bill mentioned the bottle price at Rs 15 plus a Rs 1.88 value added tax (VAT). The salesperson explained the discrepancy by maintaining that the Rs 15 price was inclusive of the service charges extended by the counter staff. This was in violation of the rules that there can be no extra charge over the printed MRP, which also includes all taxes.
In yet another serious violation, a snack counter at the E-Square multiplex sold two 330 ml Pepsi Diet cans to a TOI reporter on two separate occasions, although the can did not have any MRP and carried a printed legend: “Not for retail sale”.
After the first purchase at the Cake Khazana outlet at E-Square on November 1, the multiplex operations in-charge Gavin was asked about the questionable sale of the Pepsi Diet can. Gavin said he will have to investigate the matter before making a comment. “There might be some mix-up during the commercial activity undertaken by Pepsico. I will have to get in touch with the company and find out more details,” he said. However, the same scenario was repeated on November 23 with the E-Square counter selling a Pepsi Diet can without MRP and with a clear “Not for Retail Sale” legend. Gavin said the multiplex management was not responsible for the sale effected at the counters hired by private hotels. This was despite the computer-generated slips against such purchases being issued in ESquare’s name.
Assistant controller for legal metrology Seema S. Bais confirmed that the Diet can sale without MRP was an outright illegal activity. Asked what action was taken in such cases, she said the department can only act after effecting a transaction of its own, with witnesses and due panchanama proceedings, to ensure that an apt case is put up in court. Mere reporting of such case by an individual is not enough.

Rang De Basanti

Rang De Basanti (RDB) is not a patriotic film. It has got nothing to do with any 'awakened generation.' RDB is a 'psychological thriller.'

The main characters in the film are shown as happy-go-lucky bunch of young people who see their life in a closed boundary of a university. They are least interested in current affairs; prefer watching 'Fashion TV' to News Channels. How come these students end up assassinating a politician and start talking about revolutions?

When these students without having any previous acting experience, start acting in a historical film with them acting as certain historical revolutionaries, the pressure is too much for them to handle. Their minds start playing games with them and they start thinking the way the revolutionaries thought. That is when the psychological changes begin to happen and it aggravates with the dying of their friend, the Air Force pilot. The subsequent statements of the defense minister trigger the young minds whose brain is already playing games. They now start perceiving to be those revolutionaries and they act in exactly the same manner.

Ideally it should have been shown that only after they stop their acting for the film they realize the gravity of the situation and they wish to bring the reality before the world. As this was not shown clearly, RDB wavers in its screenplay.

Shafaat Khan’s Marathi play ‘Shobhayatra’ made into a movie of the same name is a story about people from different walks of life who dress up as freedom fighters for a procession organized by a gangster. In this film too these people get psyched by the characters they play. The person playing Gandhi is a RSS sympathizer who wants to play Bose but is offered the role of Gandhi because of his physique. This guy after wearing the getup of Gandhi even starts thinking like Gandhi.

In both RDB and Shobhayatra the people selected for playing roles of historical characters have no previous experience of acting. Hence the psychological transformation happens in a quick time.

Even in case of professional actors such transformation may happen. Dilipkumar himself went into a depressed state in his real life after playing tragedy roles like ‘Footpath’ and ‘Devdas’ at a stretch and was refusing such roles after this depression!

Law… Is it for real?

Law touches the lives of people in so many ways they are not even aware of. Registration of birth is compulsory, so is of death. And between these two registrations there are innumerable Acts, Rules, Notifications, Guidelines, Circulars, Notices and what not which control and record so many transactions in the lives of people. All these laws are either passed by Parliament/ Legislature or are released by authorities and are published in a magazine called 'The Gazette of India'. How many of us have seen such a magazine in our lifetime?

Since the last century nations are coming together and agreeing to bring uniformity into their laws. This means that a person will encounter the same set of rules and regulations in all the countries in the world. This has brought people closer and has accelerated the process of globalization.

Let me take one example to show how one particular law touches our daily lives. We all buy different commodities in a ‘pre-packed’ format from small shops to big malls. The commodities range from eatables to dry batteries to medicines. There are certain details which are mentioned on these packages. There are a set of rules prescribed called Standard of Weights and Measures (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 1977 for almost all pre-packed commodities.

There are certain details which should be mentioned on all these packages. They are Name & address of manufacturer, Common or generic name of commodity, net quantity, Month & day of packing, Maximum Retail Price (MRP), etc. It is specified that these details should be at a very prominent location on the package.

Also remember that the Rules prohibit a retailer from charging even One Rupee more than the MRP printed on a packaged product.

Moreover for Prevention of Food Adulteration mention of Colours (e.g. ‘Contains permitted Natural/ and Synthetic Colours/ Added Flavours’) and ‘Best before Upto __ date’ is also to be mentioned on food packages. In case of foodstuff the ingredients which are used for making are also to be mentioned. In case of medicines the chemical composition of the drug needs to be mentioned.

There are very few commodities where the Month & day of packing is not mentioned (Earlier milk and milk products was one, but this has now changed). In special cases like glass bottles of softdrinks which are returnable the Month & day of packing should be mentioned on the cap.

So the next time you buy any packaged commodity, don’t forget to check for these details. These are for protection for us Consumers. And also remember the laws which made it possible to view all these details which help us to make informed choices.

'Quixotic' View

I haven't read Don Quixote yet so I don't know about that principal character from whom this word 'Quixotic' came into being. But he should be special so as to become an adjective in a language.
'Quixotic' means 'idealist'. I will also attempt to bring practicalities in the realm of idealism.

Let me begin this journey which I don't know where it will lead me.