Obama - The unknown commodity

Kashmir has remained one of the main problems that the Indian democracy is facing next to, poverty, corruption and bureaucracy. We all know what the basic issue is. Pakistan is claiming Kashmir. (In fact, the 'K' in 'Pakistan' represents Kashmir) But India says Kashmir belongs to India. And the problem still is going on. It seems like it will never end. We have already fought 3 full fledged wars and have faced numerous insurgencies. The Kashmir state is still consuming biggest chunk of Indian defense budget. Numerous soldiers have lost their life, both in India and Pakistan. People in Kashmir are constantly living under fear. If there were a peaceful period in Kashmir, it was during Musharaff rule in Pakistan. That is the only time, India had a decent oppurtunity to conduct talks about the Kashmir problem.

What exactly is the solution then? There is no peaceful solution. If Kashmir is merely a political issue, it can be sourted out. But it has become a nationalist issue. It is far from a normal border dispute. It has become Indians Vs Pakistanis. The general population itself is angry over this issue. Pakistani people are determined that Kashmir should be in Pakistan. Same goes to Indians as well. Many people have suggested that the LOC should be peacefully agreed as the international border between Pakistan and India. But i dont think that is gonna happen.

India is a diverse nation. Actually, to call india a diverse nation, is an under-statement. India is too diverse. India is so fragmented with respect to any cultural issue that you can possibly imagine. The regional politics in India is getting stronger, which in one way good, because it is a good signal that the Democray is more mature now. But also, is a bad signal, as there is not a central unification factor in India. This diversity is a crucial player in deciding who is gonna get Kashmir. If India is willing to give up Kashmir, it can create numerous violences around the country. Trust me, Kashmir is a liability for India. But giving up Kashmir can have serious repurcussions.

Enough said about India. Do you think Pakistan will give up Kashmir to India? Nope. Not gonna happen. So what is the solution then? I have no idea. My prediction is, the Kashmir problem will go on for years without a solution. Kashmir can be given more regional autonomy in the Indian constitution like the Kashmiri people want. But that is not completely feasible too.

But am afraid the US is gonna interfere in the Kashmir problem, which will undoubtedly be skewed towards Pakistan and which will seriously disturb the India-America relationship. India has always denied any support - nope intrusion is the right word - from foreigners when it comes to Kashmir issue. But am afraid, Obama is gonna push for a resolution for this problem, which will create tensions. As many analysts point out, India-Pakistan problem is the first reason for a rise in Islamic terrorism in the region. Above all, Obama had Afghanistan and 'killing Osama' as his cheif Campaign promises. To do that, he definitely needs Pakistan. If pakistan should cooperate and help the American troops, Kashmir issue should be solved or atleast American experts think so. There is a wide spread speculation that Obama will introduce a special position in his cabinet, a rather powerful one. It will be called the "South Asian envoy". People are speculating that the position will have extra ordinary powers and someone very knowledgeable will be appointed soon. In that case, trust me, that person will concentrate on Kashmir. In that case, as i said, Kashmir will once again become a major issue. According to Obama, Kashmir is part of the problem, rather than the part of a solution for the American resolve in Afghanistan.



And at the same time, there are also predictions that the US will continue to be an ally for india. If you think about it, they need India to have a check on China, which is slowly emerging as a powerful nation, which has already started demanding US for many things. Usually it the other way round. 

I read a related article in Reuters today. you can read it here. And you can read another interesting article here, about Indo-US relationships and foreign policy challenges for both India and US. The Indian govt and its top diplomats are calling Obama "the unknown commodity". Rightly so. Lets wait and see. The first 100 days of the president are very crucial.

Phd comic strip - Abstract

See the following phd comic. For some reason, it reminds me of my Final Year Project. Pretty funny. And honestly, i am going to use this for my forthcoming report. 

இனிய பொங்கல் திருநாள் வாழ்த்துக்கள்

I initially wanted to write this entire post in Tamil, in order to remind everyone, that it is indeed தமிழர் திருநாள். But i am seriously lagging behind in my Final Year Project. And so, i cant afford to waste time in blogging in Tamil. Let me proceed in English.

Something about Pongal, that makes me miss home. For many people, it is always the Diwali, when they miss home and crackers and stuff. But i dont care about diwali. In our house, we never really made a big deal about diwali. I hated crackers. 

But in our house, Pongal is a big deal. Even when we were in Salem, we used to travel 10 hrs to reach our village, கீழ்ச்சீவல்பட்டி.(The place is just 40 mins drive from my current place, pudukkottai) It is a small, but lively village. We have few farms there and a really big house, which i think should be more than 100 years old. Our house extends from one street to the other. It is not a big surprise really. Most of Chettinad houses are that big

  Our house in our village

If you wanna see the real pongal, come to our village. People in big cities cook pongal in rice cooker, and eat it while watching lousy Sun TV. Real pongal celebration is in the village. Have you ever watched a ஜல்லிக்கட்டு? That too, the அழகாபுரி ஜல்லிக்கட்டு is quite famous. அழகாபுரி is very close to my village. The scorching sun, the crowded land and the air filled with dust, adds something to the environment and your mind, that i cannot express in words.

For every pongal, we will get Sugarcane, Rice, Groundnuts,etc, form our own farm. We go to the temple in the morning and then to the lovely green farm in the afternoon, fresh tender coconuts in the evening. That is probably the day i would spend happily, without even thinking about TV. Man, i miss India so much.

Here I am in Singapore. It is 4 am in the morning and I am sitting in PGP study room(a residence in NUS), pretending to work for my project, thinking about my village and home. It is not always fun to live in a foreign country.

Anyways, Happy pongal everyone !

Windows 7

My desktop with Windows 7 OS

Finally after a series of bad Operating systems, Microsoft has come up with a pretty decent OS. (Check out the videos here)

I am currently using the Beta version of the Windows 7 OS and i gotta say, it is pretty damn good. I dont have a problem accepting that, inspite of the fact, that i am not a big fan of Microsoft products. (I mean, honestly, is there a bad Browser than IE and a bad media player than Windows Media player?)

My laptop has outdated hardware. Very bad configuration. 60 GB hard disk and a 512 mb ram. The OS calculated a performance score and said my PC score is 1.9, which is basically the lowest possible hardware. (The highest will be 8). Windows XP in my PC was painfully slow. So just tried out the new Windows 7. Even in my pc, with such poor hardware, it is faster than the usual XP. The bootup time is jus 45 secs in total. I am really surprised. In just 45 secs, you can access all your applications.

There are lots of good features in the OS, that will really make it easier for everyone to use the computers. My personal favorites are "Action center", "Dynamic Taskbar", and the "Aero shake effects".  They have adopted few methods from other OS like the "Synaptic Package manager" from Linux and the "Dock" from Apple. But still, you gotta admire the speed. I mean, Microsoft, good or bad, still has the biggest market share. I would say, this is the only time, when they have realized the responsibility and have understood what people want, rather than forcing everyone to use a crappy piece of software. This is what Vista was supposed to be. I read somewhere that the new version, is a very optimized version of Vista. I would say, this is the only time, when Microsoft product "Just works". Well, Windows 7 is still in Beta stage. Basic assumption is, it will be a lot better when the full version is released. So it should be the best windows ever, as the critics say.

Anyways, after years of suffering humiliation in the form of ads by Apple, Microsoft has a good chance to rebuild the image with the new OS. It will be available in the markets sometime next year.

Book Review: The Post American World

I recently read the book, "Post American world" by Fareed Zakaria. It is a very good book. This one goes into my list of books, that i should buy soon.

There is a famous saying, "The sun never sets in the British Empire". The Britain was a great empire. When the queens birthday came, there were celebrations in all parts of the world. It is really amazing, how a small country, was able to control the entire world for so many years. But now, that mighty British Empire is no more. America and Russia took over as the worlds most powerful countries after the world war. But, after the end of cold war, America is literally the uncontested leader, far above than any of its competitor in any field possible - military, politics, economy, technology, research to name a few.

The main question raised in the book is, "If such a mighty British Empire can fall, what can possibly happen to the US in the next few decades?" There are striking differences between the British Empire in 1900 compared to the US now, but there are few similarities too. Rise of China and India are often compared to the rise of the US and Germany in 1900. Can the rise of China and India bring down America? There are two separate chapters focusing on the rise of India and China, not just because they are the two fastest growing countries in the world. But also because they paint a good picture of the foreign policy difficulties that the US is about to face in the future.

I have read a book, "The world is flat", by Thomas Friedman. I should say both these books go hand in hand. They both talk about the impact of globalization on the world economy and politics. But this book, also talks about the policy issues from the US point of view and also the rest. Also discusses the plus and minus of the current US policies and explains in detail, what needs to be done, in order to regain the momentum and give life to the fading American Dream.

And when it comes to india, the book deals about the current challenges that we are facing, and the relationship between India and the US. Did you notice the recent state elections? The central issues in the country, including Terrorism, didnt take the centre stage, rather more local issues ruled the elections, one main reason why Congress was able to win. The author have talked about this "local" politics taking a big leap in the country and have compared it to the US during 1920.

Well, anyways, it is really a good book. Give it a read, and you wont regret.

Slumdog Millionaire

One of the best movie this year. No doubt there. The movie is just full of life. I just cant believe that this was directed by an English guy.

The movie opens with a question.

Jamal Malik is one question away from winning 20 million Rupees. How did he do that?

A. He cheated
B. He's lucky
C. He is a genius
D. It is written

And the movie travels towards answering the question and along the way, picturises, the best and the worst of India. It touches the core problems in India, the poverty, Hindu-Muslim riots, Beggars, Red light areas, and many more. It also touches some really beautiful part about India as well.

The movie has already won critical acclaims. Right from the New York times, to the Time magazine, everyone have already praised the movie so much, for its reality and the story telling. (already one of the top 100 movies in IMDB) All said and done, i would like to see the movie from an Indian point of view. It is a great movie about India. It explains in detail, how big a hell, life in India can be. 

At last, we have to wait for an English director to direct a "Indian" movie, when every movie maker in India is trying to desperately imitate Hollywood. AR Rahman said in his recent interview with Reuters, that the Director, Danny Boyle, literally lived in Mumbai for two odd years, in order to learn about Mumbai to make this movie. The songs and the Back ground score is brilliant. AR Rahman is god. No more words needed to say about him. I really hope he wins the Golden Globe and also lets hope he has a shot at Oscar.

There is one really good scene in the movie. The hero, as a kid, is a travel guide. And one time, he is with some Americans and some thieves steal the foreigner's stuff, while they were outside the car. And when they come back and find out, even the tires from the car was stolen, the car driver, Indian, starts beating up the kid accusing him for stealing everything. The Americans try to stop the driver and the bleeding kid says to them, "You wanted to see Real India, here it is" The Americans say, "Here is a bit of real America son" and generously give him some money. I think, it brings out the true India. Helpless, cruel, tough. 

But i think it has it flaws too. The movie is mainly made for audiences around the globe. So all the dialogues are in English and I think that steals a bit of reality from the movie. Even though, i don't fully understand Hindi, i would love to see the movie in complete Hindi.

Do see the movie.

TIME - Person of the year 2008

It is BARACK OBAMA . I am not surprised at all. In fact, no one should be surprised to learn this.

Apart from Obama, you can also find, Hillary, McCain, Palin, Henry Paulson and other prominent personalities. Surprisingly, Bush is listed as one of the "People who mattered". Actually, he did. In a negative way.

America's war on Terror - Lessons to be learnt

I read two really good articles today. One in "The Hindu" about the lessons to be learnt from the US War on Terror. You can read it here.

"As many as 654,965 more Iraqis may have died since hostilities began in Iraq in March 2003 than would have been expected under pre-war conditions. The deaths from all causes — violent and non-violent — are over and above the estimated 143,000 deaths per year that occurred from all causes prior to the March 2003 invasion. Iraq’s overall mortality rate more than doubled from 5.5 deaths per 1,000 persons before the war began to 13.3 per 1,000 persons by late 2006"

And other article, in Wall Street Journal, about the Indian Democracy. You can read it here. This article talks a bit about the recent elections in India and about the status of the Indian politics in general.

"The electorate's ability to look through the fog of terror, set emotions aside and focus on basic quality of life matters is a sign of the maturation of Indian democracy."

Proud to be an Indian

Really Inspiring !

Obama - The next president of the US

I am really glad, that Obama was elected the next president of the US. chuck all the effects, Bradley, Urkel, everything. He smashed all the records and has become the first African American president.

Like many people, i have been following the US elections right from the beginning. Initially, Obama said "change" and all other competitors even in the Democratic party laughed. In spite of all the silly and desperate campaign efforts from the McCain group, he has made history.

If you think about it, Obama's story can be made into a movie and it is a sure block buster. He is like a Hero now. If this indeed was a movie, then by this time, credits will be rolling. But it is not. And it seems like Obama understands that already. Do you know, Obama already has a 50-chapter transition booklet, with details on how, when and who he should appoint for which position? Just brilliant. Bill Clinton started the planning only after he got elected and reached a decision only 4 days before his inauguration.

As all the newspapers pointed out, it is indeed a success for Democracy. With a record turn out like this, newspapers are claiming that it looks like America is just re-inventing herself. The US behaves as if it is a newly formed Democratic country, as if people were given a right to vote just yesterday. Americans have proved that they are a lot more tolerant about race than any other country in the world. Imagine, if the Bradley effect did work and if Obama lost the election, it is a big scar for the country, that boasts its Democracy and Free Markets.

Now, what can I expect from a Obama era? It is weird and at the same time astonishing, how every single person in the world is asking this same question. This is a testimon of the American influence on the World, which is both good and bad, as i have always assumed. Anyways, in India, there is already a suspision that he will crush the Outsourcing industry. In my opinion, there is a slight possibility for that happening. He promised to give tax cuts for corporates, who employ more people in the US. Given the fact that the Corporate tax in the US is so high, and the forthcoming recession and the unemplyment rate in the US, there is a slight possibility of that happening. But again, it can be argued that all the above said reasons can work in favor of India as well. We gotta wait and see.

What about Finance industry? I am really worried about the answer to this question. The american president has enourmous power to bring about change in anything. And in general, the Democrats have always, always argued for more regulation. Therefore, we can expect to see more oversight and strict regulations for the American Banks. This can be a big blow to the Investment Banking industry, given the fact that the industry has been thriving because of less regulation and more risk-taking. All this will change. But to what extent? We gotta wait and see.

Obama said during the victory speech, "Change has come to America". I dont know how change can come, if he is going to appoint everyone in his team from Clinton era. Every president in the US, said he wanted to change the way business is done in Washington, but noone ever achieved it. (Even Bush said, he wanted change, during his 2000 election campaign). But lets hope, atleast Obama will bring about the Change we expect.