Indonesia - 14 day itinerary

Travellers have a sense of clarity on what they like to experience and what kind of a vacation they want - history travel experiencing monuments and museums, nature travel trekking the mountains, wildlife travel seeing the wild species, city travel experiencing the bustling urban life, or a beach vacation.

Indonesia offers you all of this - from trekking to watch an active volcano to basking in the sun in the beaches, from going back in history at temples to walking around rice terraces, from seeing a 4 million year old species in the wild to partying till dawn. You are spoilt for choice if you can look beyond the touristy Bali.

Here is a quick snapshot of our itinerary and tips for visiting Indonesia. Detailed posts separately about Java, Bali, Flores and Lombok shall follow.

Highlights: 14 days
Java  - Trek Mt.Bromo, sunset at Borobudur, sunset at Prambanan and Ramayana ballet

Bali - Ubud, rice terraces of Tegallelang, dolphins in Lovina, waterfall of Gilgit, Tirta empul temple, tombs at Pura gunung kawi, Goa gajah temple, Lake temple Bratan, Tanah lot sunset and cliff temple of Uluwatu

Flores - Mt.Kelimutu near ende, Komodo dragon at Rinca islands and snorkeling at Kanawa and Kelor islands

Lombok - Gili Trawangan

Must do: Mt.Bromo, Borobudur, two wheeler ride around Ubud, Komodo dragons, Snorkeling at the pristine beaches

Rough budget (INR) - INR 2,20,000 for a couple

Flight:- Rs.95000 (Bangalore-Singapore-Surabaya-Yogyakarta-Denpasar(Bali)-Ende-Labuhan Bajo-Lombok-Denpasar-Singapore-Bangalore)

Local travel & sightseeing:- Rs.50000 (Includes tickets at different sites, taxi hires, public buses in Surabaya, self drive 2 wheeler & car in Bali, boats in Lovina & Labuan Bajo)

Food:- (Vegetarian) Rs.23000

Stay:- Rs.37000 (Resorts in Bali & Lombok, Basic lodges in Cemoro Lawang & Moni, decent hotel in Yogyakarta)

Other Miscellaneous expenses:- Rs.10000

Points to keep in mind while planning the trip:
1. Visa - Available on arrival for Indians at all major airports. List available here. Surabaya airport had a smaller queue and was very quick. 35$US per person in 2015. 1 and 2 dollar notes not accepted.
2. Public transport options are not very convenient. Buses are fairly congested and not very efficient. Hiring a private vehicle is easiest to save time. You can look for shared taxi in places like Probolinggo, Ende to save some money.
3. Bali offers many options to get self-driven cars. Regular Indian driving license in English is sufficient.
4. Keep a time buffer for traffic on the road, possible flight delays and cancellation.
5. Vegetarian food is scarce and difficult to explain to locals.
6. Be ready for a lot of flight connections since this is an archipelago.

Brief summary of Itinerary:
Day 1 – Bangalore to Singapore. Night stay at Singapore.

Day 2 – Singapore to Surabaya by flight in the morning. Local bus travel to Probolingo continuing to Cemoro lawang village at the base of Mt.Bromo.

Day 3 - Mt.Bromo and Prambanan

• Trek Gunung Penanjakan to see the sunrise over Mt.Bromo at 3am
• Trek Mt.Bromo to see an active volcano after breakfast 
• Travel back to surabaya and fly to yogyakarta 
• Sunset over Prambanan Temple 
• Ramayana ballet at Prambanan 7:30 to 9:30 pm
• Night stay at Yogyakarta 

Sunrise at Mt.Bromo

Day 4 - Kaliurang Village (Mt.Merapi) and Borobudur 

• Kaliurang Village at the foot hills of Merapi volcano. Please avoid unless you have time to scale the mountain
• Sunset at Borobudur. Will take 3-4 hours if you really want to go through each beautiful level of the temple 
• Evening flight to Denpasar. Reach hotel in Ubud late night.

Sunset at Borobudur

Day 5 - Ubud

• Relax at a hotel overlooking the rice fields in Ubud 
• Rent a two wheeler 
• Monkey forest and walking around the Ubud market area 
• Hit the Spa in the evening  

Rice terraces of Ubud

Day 6 - Tegallelang and Tampaksiring 

• Ride the two wheeler through the rice terraces of  Tegallelang stopping to take pics 
• Tirta empul temple 
• Gunung Kawi temple
• Goa Gajah temple
• Lunch at The Bridges, Ubud enjoying a lovely view of the valley 
• Ubud palace and walking around the market 

Day 7 - Lovina and Tanah lot

• 3 am start to drive up north to Lovina beach. Watch the dolphins swim in the sea (best time is to do this in the morning just after sunrise)
• Gilgit waterfalls (give it a miss if you have seen better waterfalls in your life)
• Pura ulun danu Bratan lake temple (give it a miss since the lake has less water and the temple is no longer in the middle of the lake)
• Tanah lot sunset 
• 3-D Art museum in Seminyak were you can click some interesting pictures
• Balinese Dance Performance at Made's Warung Seminyak

Sunset at Tanah lot

Day 8 - Flight from Bali to Ende and taxi to Moni village at the base of Mt.Kelimutu. Night stay at Moni.

Day 9 - Mt.Kelimutu - scaled up the mountain at 4 am to watch the sunrise over the tri coloured lakes. Night stay at Ende since Garuda airlines canceled our flight to Labuan Bajo. We suggest you try to reach Labuan Bajo to enjoy the evening there.

Sunrise at Mt.Kelimutu

Day 10 - Komodo and Kanawa beach 

• Morning flight to Labuan Bajo
• Boat trip to Kelor island to do snorkeling . The water is unbelievably clear and shallow for a fantastic snorkeling experience 
• Onward boat trip to Rinca islands to see the komodo dragons 
• Snorkeling at Kanawa beach 
• Night stay at Labuan Bajo 

Komodo dragon in the wild

Day 11 - Uluwatu and reach Gili Trawangan 

• Travel from Labuan Bajo to Bali 
• 4 hours taxi rental to visit uluwatu and shopping at Krisna (great place for souvenirs)
• Flight to Lombok, taxi to Bangsal, Boat to Gili Trawangan, horse cart ride to the resort 

Gili Trawangan

Day 12-13-14 - snorkeling, kayaking, swimming & beach bumming at Gili Trawangan

"Independent" politics

Watching the discussion on "We the people" on NDTV today has made me finally break the silence on this blog. The main discussion was on the relevance of two independent candidates contesting the general elections in 2009 - Captain Gopinath from South Bangalore and Meera Sanyal from South Mumbai. The crowd participating in the discussion was of course largely the urban middle-class crowd, which is of course the target for these specific candidates. However, I do not wish to get into a discussion on the suitability of their candidature as independents. Even though I am not really hopeful that they will win, I think it is a good sign that they are contesting and want to do something about a cause they believe in.

The discussion itself revolved around corrupt politicians and the need for "change" (isn't that the buzzword everywhere nowadays!) from the current system. However, two points particularly struck me - One was a comment saying that the Indian middle class considers itself as far more important than what they eventually are in the context of elections. And the other interesting point was from an IIT professor who said that in twenty years of his experience, whenever he has gone with a good idea to either bureaucrats or politicians, it is the politicians who always supported him! Incredible uh? I was wondering at the end of the debate whether these debates will really result in something constructive coming out of them. For our country's sake, let's hope they do!

Speaking of elections, I am one of the lakhs of people who will not be voting this year (I am not registered in Mumbai to vote and I am not planning to travel to Bhilai on election date where my name features in the voters' list). I will end up in the category of people who will voice their opinion on the elections, criticize candidates/parties/stars and what not and eventually, do nothing about it! For a sense of self-satisfaction to tell myself that I have done something atleast, let me point the handful of people who may read this post to my friend's blog on shaking people. Alternately, you can also log onto www.jaagore.com to find out more.

Money Talks..

Should temples in our country get all the comforts such as Air-Conditioners, Refrigerators, etc? This piece tells us what some people think about the newly installed AC in the Golden Temple at Amritsar. A disclaimer here is necessary that I have neither seen the Golden Temple nor do I know anything about what Sikhism says about such "man-made" comforts within their holy places.

In general, I do not see the installation of modern comforts in temples and other holy places as a big problem. Why not utilize some of the funds that junta pumps into these places than let them go into the pockets of a few? And it is after-all meant to make the darshan more bearable than last it out in the heat. Given that so many old people visit these places of worship, I don't find anything wrong with the idea.

This newspiece reminded me of a debate I had with some of my friends a couple of months back. We were having a discussion on the "VIP queues" and other such monetary schemes you have to manage crowds in temples - atleast the famous ones like Tirupathi, Srirangam, etc. The question really was whether such discrimination should be allowed in a place of worship. Shouldn't temples be above these money matters? Does "God" really see people who are richer and can pay to jump the queue as special cases? Why should anyone be allowed to have a quicker and more convenient darshan just because they can pay more? If one doesn't have the time to
visit the temple and stand in queue, don't bother visiting! When we stress that everyone who comes to pray should be viewed as the same irrespective of caste, gender, community, etc then why should economic status be given preference? The other side to the story was that if I can pay to get a more convenient and quicker darshan, why not! Isn't it just like visiting any other tourist spot where more money should give you better comforts? As it happens with debates, we did not really reach a consensus and simply agreed to disagree on our views.

Incidentally, all this talk was right after we enjoyed VIP status in the Kamakhya temple at Guwahati thanks to one of our friend's fathers! We jumped the queue, did a quicker darshan, and were pestered by each of the pandits inside for a "bhent" to the deities (Can't really blame the pandits, they supposedly make a living out of our donations!). I still wonder how or why people feel they've had a great darshan at such places when they are pushed around and shouted at by every single person including the pujaris. Isn't it a lot better to visit temples which are more peaceful, do not have so much crowd and where the pujari atleast has time to give you some attention! I suppose one has to really be a believer in God and the piety of such holy places to really experience the satisfaction and contentment of having visited them. For lesser mortals like yours truly, it really seems like too much effort for a pointless exercise.

Incredible India Indeed!

In the beginning of March this year, after our alma mater was through with the placement season, six people set off on a journey which will stay in their memory for a long time to come. No, this was not a life-changing journey or anything. If you had walked into IIM Indore and picked six arbit people from my batch, you would be hard pressed to find a similar group of such six seemingly unrelated characters. But what the heck! How does it matter who travels with you so long as you have a good time. With this philosophy, all of us set out to perhaps some of the most unexplored areas in our country – the North East.

The Characters:
1. Vignesh – Better known as Viggy, the accountant in the group who realized the true value of the double entry book keeping during the trip. Also the constant worrier and the biggest question bank imaginable
2. Arun – AKB, doing a lot of free-riding when it came to maintaining accounts, conveniently giving the excuse of alcohol. All he has to say about this is - "Its ok da!"
3. Manas – Mona. It takes him exactly 20 seconds to fall asleep in any moving vehicle no matter how bad the roads are or how uncomfortable the position. Used to wake up once every four hours for status updates!

4. Vijay – Puttasura, easily the most relaxed guy in the group. He makes sure everyone else gets affected with his LOUD snoring. Yes, everyone except the sleeping Mona vouches for that!
5. Vikas – Vicca aka King of Dogs aka Junglorean – as big a coward as any one can imagine and a staunch Bombay-worshipping (err....i should say Mumbai worshipping!) wannabe shiv-sainik. He got the most nicknames during the course of the trip, the best one being “Non-Stop Nonsense” coined by Puttasura
6. Vivek – Iyerru, the planner in the group along with Viggy who left his mark on every single toilet seat in all the places visited during the trip!

For my convenience, I have broken the trip into broadly four different phases mentioned below, the details of which you can read by clicking on the associated links.

Part 1: The journey to the abode of clouds (Meghalaya) - We could have done with some rain in one of the wettest places on planet earth. You can read about the places to visit and click here to get a glimpse of what we saw.
Part 2: Brahmaputra Calling – Every conceivable thing in Assam is associated with Brahmaputra. Every city seems to be within touching distance of the river as well. For more on our experience in Assam, click here.
Part 3: Ola Sho Sho – This local song in Arunachal Pradesh seemed like a perfect blend with the beautiful landscape. Our trip to the north east can even be described in 2 parts – i) Before Bomdila and ii) Bomdila and Afterwards. Click here to read more.
Part 4: The Land of Teesta – Only three among the six characters made their way to the home of Baichung Bhutia. Mr. Iyerru sadly missed out on all the fun we had in the snow capped Himalayas near the Indo-China border in Sikkim. Our snowy experience has been described here in detail.

Fairer the better..

Right from the time the Harbhajan-Symonds issue crept up, I have been wanting to write on the topic of racism in our country but somehow never got down to penning it down. Much has been said about the controversy itself and I have no intention of broaching that issue again. It is done and dusted now, and Harbhajan as we all know has already come a long from there.

Soumya Bhattacharya has a nice piece on the inherently racist nature of Indians. Our society's general "preference" for fair skin is fairly obvious to anyone who has come across any matrimonial pages in newspapers. Apart from this, the implicit assumptions about certain communities like people from the north-east is quite revolting as is obvious from this article.

I had a chat with my dad on this topic and outside the numerous examples we could think of within our family, he recounted a story from his bachelor days. Those were the days when Bhilai had a constant inflow of people from Russia who came for short stints at the Steel Plant. There was a separate colony called Russian Complex (the name and the colony still exist) especially for the Russian people. Of course, there were Indians as well as other foreigners who stayed in the colony as well. During one of the summers, a group of Nigerians had also come for a training stint along with the Russians. My dad does not recall any untoward incident as such during their stay. However, on the day of their farewell, one of the Nigerians went on stage to give a farewell speech. After thanking all the people for being nice to them, he mentioned that while there were a lot of managers who invited the Russians to their homes for lunch or dinner, none of the Nigerians received a single invitation to any of the homes. I wonder how many people in the audience really would have got pinched when he said that. Would they have even cared about what the Nigerians think? While there may be no answers to these questions now amd the incident may have happened decades ago, but has the scenario really changed?

See, I told you...

I was wondering when one of the Aussies was going to start off about Harbhajan, with the 'Turbanator' presenting such a wonderful opportunity for them to look at everyone and say - "Look, we told you so!" Here's what their skipper Ricky Ponting has to say about Bhajji.

Thanks Ricky for leaving the judgment bit to us. I do not wish to imagine a day when people like us start depending on you to form opinions about anyone. And it would definitely suit your cause to focus on your batting. Speaking of which, Australia may be touring the best possible place for any of their batters to strike form again. With Zimbabwe not competing in test cricket, there aren't too many better options than West Indies for any batting side to find some form.

With nearly half the IPL season over, it is fair to say that it has been a welcome timepass for people like me, who have nothing better to do than analyze the matches so far. I hope BCCI has better sense from now on than selling broadcasting rights to Sony Max. Their coverage has been pathetic to say the very least. The cameramen always seem to cover every part of the ground except where the ball has been hit. We are now used to missing one ball per over, thanks to the pup licking stamps and running with a tie. And can someone ask Arun Lal and Ranjith Fernando to retire from the commentary box. I can still tolerate Ravi Shastri's cliched statements but the completely redundant statements from the other two mentioned makes me want to throw the remote. One hopes that the commentators seriously do better home-work and earn their money than just spouting general gyaan which anyone who has followed even two matches of T20 would know.

The Great Italian Wall!

And so it's confirmed now. Paolo Maldini is finally retiring at the end of this year to wind up an illustrious career with Milan spanning no less than 23 years (to date) starting from the junior days.

Just thought I'd pay a small tribute to my favourite football player. Have loved watching him play all these years. There's a small video I have with me showing some of his classic tackles and moves. A true champion and an AC Milan legend. One of my happiest moments supporting him and Milan was to see him lift the Champions League last year after Milan beat Liverpool.

Rather than repeating a lot of what has been well documented here, I'll just sum it up with the fact that Milan are going to retire the No. 3 jersey which he has proudly donned for the best part of 23 years now!

Obsession with Centuries!

Mr. X scored his 26th century in 112 balls in his 218th match and it was the 11th time he scored it in the second innings of a match. With this he also completed 7000 runs in international matches with an average of 37.83 per innings.

You might wonder what the heck am I writing about! Well, this is how a lot of our cricket analysts end up trying to prove a point about the quality of a cricketer. We Indians especially have a fascination for numbers over a career instead of bothering about the performance on the field on a particular day. Rather than focusing on whether the team won or lost the match and why, we tend to get carried away by these stats and figures. While these stats may give some idea about how good a player is, it really doesn't matter so long as the team wins. I don't think any of us should care for how many runs any of our batsmen scored in the entire World Cup as long their contributions helped the team win matches. Does anyone really need to bother about how many runs any of the Aussie batsmen have scored in recent years! What the heck, they have been winning next to everything.

This obsession with statistics is not just limited to cricket or sports. No matter what it is in life, numbers always play a big role. Don't we view somebody who scored 97/100 in an exam in 9th standard as better than someone who scores 91/100. Isn't a 9 lakhs per annum salary better than an 8 lakhs package? Isn't a 17% growth in earnings better than a 14% growth managed by some other firm? Why is there always a need to differentiate on the basis of numbers? I daresay it is a sort of security we have that we can't be wrong in our judgment because we have quantified stuff. While I agree that there is some logic in having numbers as a measure to keep things in perspective, we definitely have a tendency to go overboard with numbers.

Coming back to cricket, does any of us really care how many runs were scored or wickets taken any of the Indians during the recently concluded T20 world cup? What really matters is that India won the world cup, playing better cricket than most if not all the other teams. What got me started on this topic was the disappointment I sensed in all my friends here about Sachin Tendulkar on a century yet again. While he played a scintillating knock and helped India win a match, what people were more worried about was his habit of getting out in the 90s. As far as I am concerned, I would rather have him play the way he did today and score 90s or 80s or whatever so long as India wins matches rather than Sachin scoring centuries and India losing matches. It is a simple enough point but somehow always seems to enrage all the Sachin devotees!

Having said all this, I would also like to place on record the successful completion of my century today after two years and nine months of blogging! Yes people, this is my 100th post... You see, I am not so different from those analysts after all!! :P

Of Democracy and Capitalism..

Sensex hits 20K. Mukesh Ambani becomes the richest person in thw world. At the ET awards ceremony, all the top honchos in the industry meet and decide that they feel proud to be Indian in the midst of such a crowd. If you were reading only the headlines in business newspapers, one could forgive you for assuming that India today is on the verge of becoming a developed nation.

One interesting observation was made by one of my professors who has returned from the US for a brief period. According to him, in 16 years that he has spent abroad, he has seen nothing change in India. And these are the 16 years India is said to have moved from a socialist economy to a more capitalistic model. Have things really improved? Yes, software engineers passing straight out of engineering college get paid 5 times the salary a normal engineer used to get in those days. Business graduates earn high packages and one looks down upon any post-grad student earning less than a certain salary figure. More number of High Net Worth Individuals seem to be surfacing everyday. The financial markets attract a lot of attention, perhaps even more than the government policies nowadays.

Amidst all this euphoria, I found this article by Arun Maira very insightful of how we may be losing sight of how things should actually be. While firms are all aiming at beating shareholder expectations and attracting new customers, the term "inclusive growth" seems to be a word best left for politicans to handle. It is very useful to note how the growth patterns have been different in various stages of economic development in the US. From an economic standpoint, even in the Indian perspective, has the change in government really made a huge difference? The BJP and the NDA tried to harp on the India Shining mantra and was voted out of power. As things stand today, will the UPA fare any better in any poll? I doubt it even though the economy is still growing quite aggressively. While I have heard many views of how democracy doesn't work in the Indian context and it is a hindrance rather than a positive influence, I sincerely believe that our democratic credentials are a constant reminder to the people in power that they need to either deliver or perish. And we as a country definitely need to work out a way to make the India Growth story more effective than simply blame the politicians for the inequalities.

"Awe"-struck..!

Former President APJ Abdul Kalam made a visit to my institute as the chief guest presiding over the 11th Foundation Day celebrations. His presence was of course eagerly anticiapted by one and all in the institute and I daresay he attracted more attention than any other guest speaker has for quite some time here. Personally, this is not the first time I am hearing him talk and I did not find the lecture as inspiring or even interesting as the media reports it.

This post is not about my views on APJ and the substance of his lecture but about a conversation which sprouted as a result of this. When I was talking to one of my friends in the evening, I was told that I may generally seem to be "cocky" and egoistic because I do not really appreciate or applaud things that are commonly treasured by people. There is a tendency to downplay the achievements of others saying - "Ya, Big deal. What's so great about that?". Even if I may be exaggerating that observation a bit, I have had similar hints from others earlier as well.

There are two fairly obvious things involved here. Firstly, this observation has mostly come from people who adore/respect someone who I criticize or argue against at that time. While this may seem a touch defensive, the point I am trying to make is that it is mostly when the difference of opinion comes in that I suddenly get to hear this. Secondly, the criticism itself is true to an extent. I do have a habit of rationalizing and perhaps playing down people I am not majorly fond of in the name of being "reasonable".

The conversation made me think about personalities that I am in awe of. Now, "awe" may be too strong a term in my book but I could pretty easily think of a set of people (in no particular order) for whom I can use this term without a second thought:

1. Sir Garfield Sobers - The best cricketer ever. When it comes to cricket, he is GOD! We talk of fearsome batsmen, great bowlers and brilliant fielders and he's someone who was all that rolled in one and much more. :)

2. Bertrand Russell - I have not yet managed to read a lot of his books but whatever little I have read has made me respect him a lot for his thoughts and philosophy which was way ahead of his time.

3. KR Narayanan - A true statesman and a glowing example of how wrong our notions are about people coming from the "discriminated" sections of the society.

4. Kalpana Sharma - Yes, finally a woman on the list. Love reading her articles in The Hindu and now on www.indiatogether.com

5. Monica Seles - I was never an ardent fan of Seles even after her comeback in the tennis circuit. Perhaps I was too young then to appreciate her ability, resilience and determination.

6. P. Sainath - His articles are an eye-opener for anyone who talks about development and equality in our country. One of my favourite journalists.

7. Paolo Maldini - Personal Favourite, an AC Milan superstar and one of the best defenders in the modern era. There isn't much rationale in this paticular choice except that he has been my idol when it comes to football.

8. Medha Patkar - Iron-willed lady. Even though I may not entirely agree with all her views, she is simply amazing for the effort she puts in for any cause that she truly believes in.

9. Amartya Sen - Yes there had to be an academician there after all. This Nobel Laurate's book 'Identity and Violence' has made determined to read the rest of his works as well.

10. Noam Chomsky - Whenever I have read anything about Chomsky or any of his own works, it has always made me aspire to be like him one day. He is after all one of the best thinkers in todays' world.

I could perhaps go on and on but shall limit the list to these ten names for now. If I think of any more, I'll perhaps mention them in a new post. :) And I have purposely left out names like Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa since I am nobody to really comment on such people. Not that the names mentioned above aren't great, but they are definitely discussed lesser in the world. These are indeed people who inspire. They are people who can be cited as examples and role models. And each one of them is great in their own way.

This brings me back to where I started this post from. I do not think I would put in so much effort to listen to Dr. APJ as I would to hear most of the names mentioned in the list above (I'd definitely prefer watching the sporting legends!). So is it simply my ego that refuses to give any importance to the former president's address or is there some sense in what I am writing about! Either way, it doesn't matter because I don't see my views on this topic changing for now.

Marginalization..... or regionalization..

Studying in one of the IIMs ensures one thing.. You get to meet lots of people from different backgrounds.. One might have a neighbour from Kashmir, North-East, Gujarat, Kerala or any other corner of the country for that matter.. For most parts, the different "regionalities" do not really cause any sort of tensions.. In fact one gets to know a lot about other cultures and communities as it should be..

Why am I bringing up this topic? Primarily because there have been some unnecessary questions raised lately on this topic in campus.. Now, there is a tradition we have in our insti where the "Tam" junta of second year introduces a local mess where you get proper home-made tam food to the incoming first year batch.. Naturally the invitees are tams as well.. This is one occasion for the tam junta to get to know each other and freak out together.. And the good part according to me is that the invitation list is never actually limited to only tams.. Since the second years foot the bill, it is normally only a limited set of people whose dinner can be afforded by them.. However, nobody has ever stopped non-tams from joining the group..

It has so happened this time that once the remaining people got to know about this "event", a big hue and cry has been raised about regionalism.. People, for no apparent logic, feel that the tams are trying to introduce regionalism in the insti.. They find the idea of a separate tam treat too hard to digest or accept.. I have had some of my friends argue on these lines as well..

Now, this is what I call blowing things out of proportion.. What is wrong in a set of people going out to eat some place where they get the kind of food that they are used to eating at home.. Its not as if they've ever stopped anyone else from joining them.. In fact, knowing most of the tams here, they'll be the first to invite anyone who may show the least bit of interest.. Moreover, I don't see anything wrong with the tams bonding once in a while.. u get to speak own language even if its for only one day..

I heard that some of the girls were raising questions about this tam dinner thing.. I only have this to ask them - Have we ever questioned the treat that the girls give only to the girls in the senior or junior batch? Have we ever called it a case of sexual discrimination? I wonder what the girls would say if the 160 odd guys had a party on their own not calling any of the girls..! It would be a wonderful example for sexual discrimination and marginalization of women I am sure.. Anyway, I rest my case here..

And the debate goes on..

"Three people have been sentenced to death in the trial of those accused of involvement in the 1993 serial bombings in the Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay). The court ordered that Pervez Sheikh, Abdul Turq and Mohammed Mushtaq Tarani be hanged for planting bombs in India's financial capital." This is the latest piece of news (taken from the BBC site) involving capital punishment in India.

It reminded me of a discussion I had recently with one of my friends about the logic of having death sentence as a punishment. The basis for that discussion was a book called The Chamber by John Grisham which I had just finished reading. After reading the book, I was pretty averse to the idea of capital punishment as I did not feel it really served any purpose. The people involved in the execution never feel good about it, in fact many of them have been known to get affected from the entire process. One of the questions I had was whether we (society, government, judiciary, etc) had the right to take a life based on our judgment of a person's crime. What gives us the right to kill any person? Isn't a life imprisonment a better and more humane way of punishing a criminal?

Of course, there are enough and more counter-arguments. One of the primary ones is the fact that once a person has committed a heinous crime such as rape and murder or serial killing etc, that person no longer has any right to live. His/her fundamental/human rights shall be forfeit in the larger interest of the society. After all, the victims also had a right to live which was taken forcibly from them by the criminal. The issue of terror is also involved. If we keep terrorists imprisoned rather than executing them, their release can be bargained by fellow terrorists as was seen in the case of Kandahar. Thinking from the position of the victim's family, the one thing they would want is the criminal who has caused them grief to be removed. The society would be a much better place without the criminal. And it is simply not worth it to spend so much of the tax-payer's money to keep that person alive. This site for pro-death penalty provides quite an in-depth analysis of why capital punishment is justified.

Having said all this, I managed to dig up a very interesting section on the subject of death penalty specific to India. The Indian law advocates the use of capital punishment in the "rarest of rare" cases. The argument brought forth in the article is that "Paradoxically, it has arguably been the development of the "rarest of rare" doctrine that has helped the death penalty survive as a form of punishment over the years".

The article also points out that most of the people who are executed are from poor and uneducated backgrounds with inadequate procedural safeguards. It is very difficult for such people to get good legal representation. It goes on to state that "The Constitution of India protects the right to life (Article 21), the right not to be arbitrarily deprived of one's life (Article 21), and the right to equal protection by law (Article 14). Capital punishment violates all of these."

The time I spent reading on this topic led me to discover two more interesting articles. Both deal with a specific example - the case of Mohammed Afzal. One which presents simplistic arguments about why he should not be hanged. And the other which is an in-depth analysis of the entire case. The first one is a blog post about why Mohammed Afzal should not be hanged. The main points brought forward are that executing a terrorist would make him a martyr in the eyes of other terrorists and hence not solve the purpose of detracting them. Capital punishment in a way ends up legitimizing the use of violence as a means to the end. Moreover, speedy justice is a more effective tool than capital punishment. (I only question the "justice" part because capital punishment is considered a form of justice).

Specific to the case itself, I found it interesting that Arundhati Roy has actually published a book on this topic. I managed to dig the intro of that book here. It requires free registration with the outlook website. For those who can't be bothered to register there, I have just copied a small piece from that article for reference.

"Even the Supreme Court judgement, with all its flaws of logic and leaps of faith, does not accuse Mohammed Afzal of being the mastermind of the attack. So who was the mastermind? If Mohammed Afzal is hanged, we may never know. But L.K. Advani, Leader of the Opposition, wants him hanged at once. Even a day's delay, he says, is against the national interest. Why? What's the hurry? The man is locked up in a high-security cell on death row.

He's not allowed out of his cell for even five minutes a day. What harm can he do? Talk? Write, perhaps? Surely, (even in L.K. Advani's own narrow interpretation of the term) it's in the national interest not to hang Afzal? At least not until there is an inquiry that reveals what the real story is, and who actually attacked Parliament?"

As you can see, she actually questions the appropriateness of the entire trial to the extent of suggesting a conspiracy theory. However, that is a debate which diverts the attention from the main subject of the post. So having read all that I did, do I believe capital punishment should be abolished? Yes, for the most part. This was the position with which I had started my argument with my friend. And we had signed off on a note where we decided that we need to do more reading on the topic before arriving at any concrete answers.

However I still feel that capital punishment is not necessarily a deterring factor when the actual crime(s) is/are being committed. If perhaps it can be proved that it is a deterrent, it may be considered as an effective tool. Reasons such as economic ones do not seem as relevant to me because we are talking about someone's life here which really cannot be trivialized by talk of economic issues. A lot of money is anyway spent on trials and legal procedures as a part of the capital punishment process. Moreover, even the accused has a family. No matter how heinous the crime, I don't think the criminal's family should be made to go through a period of torture and anxiety awaiting the execution. Speaking of the victim's family, there are two fairly recent cases where the family members have requested for the criminal's clemency. One involving the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi and the other was the brutal murder of Graham Staines and his sons. In both cases, the wife of the victim has requested for clemency. Finally, are we really making the world a better place to live in by executing a few criminals? Does the execution of a Dhananjoy Chatterjee really affect anyone outside the families of the victim and the accused himself? I admit I still do not have any concrete answers yet to these questions as well as the many more running in my mind.

It is worth noting that worldwide 120 countries have abolished the death sentence in law or practice. In a briefing pointing out the recent cases of execution from India, Amnesty International further presses the case for the removal of death penalty. While some of the arguments brought forward seem to me to be tilting in favour of the accused, there is good merit in the arguments overall. They are further substantiated in this article bringing out the legal as well as practical aspects from the Indian angle, and presses for the removal of death penalty as a form of punishment.

With all these thoughts put together in a random and arbitrary way, I would just like to sign off this post with my view that as a part of civilized society, I believe we should progressively work towards the abolishment of death penalty.

The First Citizen(s)

After an eternity, returning to the blogging world with a slightly changed look for my blog. I suppose I should give my brother due credit for reviving the interest, not that I had lost it but had sort of turned from that direction!

This post is mainly about the biggest news of the day - India has finally elected its first woman president. Ms. Pratibha Patil takes over from Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam as the 13th President of India.

It is sad that a historic moment like this has been mired by petty politics which is quite unbecoming for the post of the first citizen of our country. Even though there have been some proclamations in the media about the first woman president, this has largely been overshadowed by the real "motives" behind Ms. Patil's nomination for the post. However, I do not wish to debate on her qualifications and election. What provoked me to write this piece was my brother's post on Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, the outgoing president of India.

Even though I am nowhere near as critical of Dr. APJ as my brother, I would say that some of what he has written has substance. No doubt that Dr. Kalam was a favourite with the general people of India but even his election in 2002 was hardly free from issues. Dr. Kalam's simplicity and his "non-political" background have been cited as refreshing changes in the "corrupt political system". The media has as usual gone overboard with their representation of Dr. Kalam as a middle-class superhero. The numerous forwards asking people to sign petitions for Dr. Kalam's re-election are further reflection to the uninformed nature of public opinion.

Personally, I admit I have always had a soft spot for Dr. APJ, mainly because he was a professor in Anna University for a brief period when I was studying there. But that does not really mean that he is the best president that our country can have or has had. In many ways, it is similar to the brief speculation about Mr. NRN of Infosys for the post of president. Mr. NRN may have his own achievements and credentials, especially in building the software giant Infosys, but the proposition of his candidature for the post of president seemed a little naive to me. Similar to Dr. Kalam, the fact that NRN (as he's called in Infosys) does not have a political history appeals to people who are increasingly disillusioned by the current nature of politics in India. However, I feel that the larger picture of having a suitable person with the right credentials and experience for the post was being ignored in these debates and speculations.

One of the things which I found a little unpleasant as I was reading on this topic was the way the late Mr. KR Narayanan had been depicted by some constituents of what was the NDA when he stepped down from his office. I managed to dig up a piece written by P. Sainath on the late former president. One of the finest presidents of our country, reading about some of his achievements was quite a revelation to me. A simple search on wikipedia helped me find this info about him. I was simply amazed at the length and details of his achievements and contributions to society whether as a parliamentarian, academician, diplomat or president. Even though internet was not as prevalent back then in India as it is now, I could not help wondering whether we would have sent such forwards and requests for his re-election. It also makes me think whether people would ever rise above politics and appreciate such people's achievements rather than have a narrow-minded view of them because of their political background.

Having said all this, I would like to wind up this post by appreciating the significance of the election of India's first woman president and hope that her tenure is remembered for all the right reasons.

Its Showtime....

And so the day has arrived.. Just got back from the inaugration of IRIS 2006 - which promises to be larger than life.. the start was pretty much perfect with a pretty thoughtful lecture By Ms. Naina Lal Kidwai, the CEO of HSBC India.. it is always good to listen to people like her address young audiences who have so much to learn from corporate leaders like her..

Now, after the inaugration, we are gearing up for the kick off of some of the events today.. we have Papyrus, Marksman, Cerebrate (Strategy) and Factorise lined up today.. and of course all the really big games - Ashwamedha and Kalpavriksha - start tomorrow.. for more information on all the events and details about IRIS itself, visit http://www.iimi-iris.com/iris-2006/index.asp
Do watch the intro with the speakers on and enjoy the IRIS theme.. as we have kept saying over the past few momnths, Welcome to the Show, Welcome to IRIS!!

The Six Sigma Men!

TQM.. Six Sigma.. ISO 9001.. all these terms can hardly be imagined in the sub-urban, crowded trains of Mumbai, can they? But there is a set of people who make it possible.. They are the people now famously known as the "Mumbai Dabbawaalas".. I just learned today that their association is termed "Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers' Association".. As a B-school student, let me go with the acronym tradition and call them NMTBSA..

Going by the latest trend in all IIMs, our institute also arranged for a lecture by the famed dabbawaalas from Mumbai.. I must admit that I was quite skeptical about what significance such a lecture would have.. And whether its been unnecessarily hyped by everyone.. But after attending the session and especially seeing the documentary at the end, I would say that all Indians should atleast see how the system works.. It almost reflects a utopian world as far as I am concerned.. Which makes it even more special because such a thing has been in existence for almost 116 years now..

The kind of service these dabbawaalas provide is quite hard to imagine, given the circumstances they do it in.. Anyone who has been in a Mumbai local train knows what it takes to wrestle one's way to get any space on those trains.. For them to cover the entire length of Mumbai in those trains carrying those heavy loads, both on the western and central lines, and provide service with a zero error rate (well officially it is 1 error in 6 million) is simply mindboggling.. Again I would like to stress on the kind of environment they do it in.. Not a single dabbawaala is educated more than 8th standard.. Their average age is 52 years.. And many of them have to carry loads upto 75-80 kgs on their heads.. Their only dependence is on the Mumbai local train service which is very reliable as long as the weather gods don't intervene drastically.. The way they sort out and separate the 2,00,000 dabbas they handle every single day is quite amazing.. Not a single dabba gets misplaced or sent to the wrong destination.. The system is entirely manual and surprisingly, there is NO mistake ever made.. The confidence of the President and the Secretary of the association in their system was quite a revelation.. Why shouldn't they be, after all they are Six Sigma certified!! The secretary actually made fun of terms such as Logistics and Supply Chain Management saying that they are told they are good at it but he doesn't even know what they mean.. Being a so-called OR enthusiast myself, I was really amused by a lot of his comments..

All in all, I would say it was a very humbling experience for every one of us listening to the two gentlemen talk about an organization where every single employee is also a partner.. Everyone earns the same amount of money.. All the revenue generated is distributed equally among all the partners.. It reminded me of the word syndicalism used by Bertrand Russell in his writings.. When I say syndicalism, I am not referring to the Trade Union aspect of the philosophy; I am talking about the fact that every single person has an equal stake in the organization.. Such a system is very difficult to find and the Dabbawaalas are unique not only in that respect, but also the fact they have the most efficient system in the world.. Finally, I must thank our Operations professors for arranging such an interaction which gives people like me a different perspective to life altogether.. Life never ceases to throw its set of surprises, does it?

Back on the road again!

So I am finally back after what seems like forever.. Have been missing blogging lately.. Was just waiting for some appropriate moment to resume.. And so today happens to be the auspicious occasion..

Well, the last few months have shown me how things can change very quickly in one's life.. Just 3 months back, I was sitting in Bangalore, in an air-conditioned office, working for a common goal in a project which seemed to be going on forever.. In fact, if I rewind back by 3 more months, I could well have been on a flight to Silicon Valley in the US of A.. But then as it happens, I had to take a crucial decision at that juncture and ended up refusing that offer for "greener" pastures in life.. So, after rounds of GDs and Interviews and nervously waiting for results, I found myself selected for the course on Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) in the Indian Institute of Management, Indore (IIM-I as it is more commonly known!)..

Its been a month and a half since I got here and I already have many experiences which will remain with me for a long time to come.. I had always heard so much about experiencing life in a B-school, but being here and actually being a part of everything is really exhilarating.. Sure, its a competitive world and everyone wishes to finish top one day.. But the different kind of people I have met here and most of what I have learnt so far is really intangible.. Whether it is the initial intro sessions, the late night parties, the theatre club performances, the World Cup matches in the audi, the birthday celebrations, the student body elections, the freshers' and talent night performances, the quizzes, the games, or the latest matki-phod competition, and so much more which I can keep writing about, it has been so much fun and at the same time, such a unique experience that it seems tough to believe that I have been here for not even 2 months.. Ohh, we do have classes too!! :P In fact, we are already more than half-way through this term.. But who wishes to write about acads on a blog when one's happy!!

I have been reading quite a bit about people writing their experiences in Infosys and I have made up my mind that I need to dedicate some space to Infy in my blog too.. But that needs to be a separate post.. For now, I'd just like to sign off saying that I am back blogging again.. with the determintaion to be more regular from now on..

Just Let 'em be...

Being a man, I feel it is naturally hypocritical for me to write on a subject like sexual harassment. I have done my share of ogling at women, passing comments, etc. Although I would like to think I have not "offended" any woman, there is no way I can say whether it is true.

Amit Verma sums is it up quite well in his post here. Especially this part of his post makes a lot of sense to me:
"I suppose women are used to the male gaze, and I can't imagine how. But everytime a man talks disparagingly about letches, he's being hypocritical, to some extent or the other. After all, we all 'check out' women fairly often. If we're male, we have the gaze. Maybe we've just learnt to make it less obvious. One man's checking out is another man's letching. Where do you cross the line?"

I have discussed this with my female friends and it was quite a revelation for me when they told me that they face such things almost every time they go out, whether they are alone or in a group. I can't help squirming when I hear about the kind of things they go through almost on a daily basis. I know I can't truly relate to the sort of harassment they go through. I do not even know whether raising a voice in public will even change anything. I am slightly pessimistic about what raising one's voice in public will do. What if the girl actually does not want me to raise my voice and give undue importance to such an episode? As one of my friends put it quite succinctly, "just let women be". Wish men paid heed to these words.

Many of my male friends think that harassment has a lot to do with the dress that girls wear. They argue that "revealing" dresses naturally "provoke" guys more into passing lewd remarks, etc. I do not really agree with them. The kind of instances I have heard and seen about do not really indicate any such tendencies. Inspite of all the "modernization" in our culture, I still don't think all girls still have the freedom to wear anything they want to. Most of them are very conscious of what the society will say if they wear "bold" dresses. With people like the shiv sainiks and similar "ethnic" groups playing police and custodians of the "great indian tradition and culture", I don't know whether we will actually see a day when women are given complete freedom in our country.

Don't mingle with singles..

A day before the International Women's day, it is but natural that there are many articles on women and their status in the society is widely discussed. The sad truth is that even though there may be women who are able to make their own decisions and enjoy freedom, their number is still quite low when compared with the ones whose lives are controlled by either their families. How many girls in our country, whether in urban or rural areas, get the freedom to choose when to marry and with whom? Things may be a lot better than what they were 20 years ago, but a lot of change still needs to come into the mindset of the people.

I find it really disconcerting that we have women requesting men to put on their thinking caps when it comes to respecting and appreciating the new "empowered" woman in a newspaper like this. Isn't it a basic level of freedom which any man should automatically think about giving to any woman? Does it really require such articles to point out these things which seem fairly obvious?

Changing times...

I remember reading Ram Guha's article in the Hindu recently about him supporting any team but England in international cricket matches. Well, I share the same views. And this article sums up the mindset of the Englishmen, or atleast what it used to be. Things are not too different this time either, even though the "second-string" English team actually performed quite admirably in the first test (probably better than what their "main" team would do.)!

I am glad we are in an age where the pommies are not given undue importance by the rest of the cricketing world. Perhaps the one sore point nowadays is the sad decline of cricket in the West Indies. It is really sad to see them getting beaten by every other team nowadays. It is not so much the fact that they are losing, it has more to do with the manner in which they are doing so. And there doesn't really seem to be any solution in sight. Hopefully the world cup next year may bring about a change in fortunes. For the sake of cricket, I hope the revival of the Carribean kings happens sooner than later.

Love for the game!

There are some things in life which really move you.. This article shows the other side of cricket.. Away from all the glamour, media attention and adulation from the crowds, there are players who simply play because of the love for the game..

I admit that Narendra Hirwani is one of the players I have ridiculed in the past.. I still remember one of his fielding errors which made me laugh when I saw it live.. I felt very guilty as I read this article and realized that a lot of injustice was done to a player like him.. I somehow feel equally responsible for his not being selected in the team when he deserved it.. I wonder how we'd have looked at this man had he played for India in that crucial Kolkata test against Australia and won that match for us..

Somehow, all of us tend to get clouded by stardom and what the media chooses to inform us.. With all this talk of Saurav Ganguly and his exclusion from the team, I wonder how many of us even bothered to think why people like Hirwani, Kanwaljit Singh never really got their due. How many of us are even aware of such players? It just amazes and inspires me to read stories of such men who keep fighting on and on inspite of being ignored repeatedly and perhaps unjustifiably so. It makes me think that there is so much more to cricket than just winning a test match and being counted as one of the best in the world..
I think this piece sums it up really well
"Watching cricketers like Hirwani, who possess the ability to go on forever and a day, defying age, pushing themselves further and excelling against opponents a whole generation younger, provides a unique kind of thrill. Not all journeys need a final destination; often the joy of the ride is fulfilling in itself. "