It is funny how we humans are good at twisting things. The latest trend(possibly started by americans) is to sugar coat unpleasant truth using formal jargon.  Let me illustrate with a few examples.

You are a policeman in charge of an area. You decide that it is ok to use third degree methods in interrogation.  But while using some of the harsh techniques, a couple of suspects die in your custody. Earlier you would have said - “The policeman used illegal torture and three suspects died during torture”.  But now in the changed political climate you say - “There were some collateral damage during terror investigation”.

Notice how the sentences hide the human factor involved. It even appears that the collateral damage is essential to keep us all safe.  We all become just parameters for some process. It is like applying six sigma or CMM5 to human life

The reason why I wrote this post is this news item.  Current american government believes that torture (simulated drowning to be specific) is legal. But there is one problem with this approach. There is no difference between the ‘good’ guys and the ‘bad’ guys!!

In one of earlier posts I had written that I don’t believe in God.  But at the same time I amazed at the wisdom of Jesus Christ when he said,

Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.

And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?

I am not a ‘human rights nazi’.  I do believe that strong and decisive action including death penalty is needed when you are dealing with evil.  For example, consider what happened in Rwanda. But the sad part is that nobody cared about Rwanda at that time.

Consider this scenario - you are a police officer who is entrusted to protect people. Suddenly a mob goes around killing people. There is no doubt in my mind, you must shoot and kill if necessary to protect people. It is worth noting that as per Indian law you can kill someone not only for self defence but also to defend others.

But this is quite different from dropping bombs on a country to feed them ‘democracy’.

Most of us don’t think that we will probably die tommorrow. But it is quite different for soldiers who are on the battle field. I had always thought that someone must be really stupid to join to an army.

Today I came across this blog post written by Andrew Olmsted. He was killed on January 3rd,2008 in Iraq. This blog post was written earlier by him and was to be published in case he dies in the war. It is a very touching post and the following paragraph struck me most,

Soldiers cannot have the option of opting out of missions because they don’t agree with them: that violates the social contract. The duly-elected American government decided to go to war in Iraq. (Even if you maintain President Bush was not properly elected, Congress voted for war as well.) As a soldier, I have a duty to obey the orders of the President of the United States as long as they are Constitutional. I can no more opt out of missions I disagree with than I can ignore laws I think are improper. I do not consider it a violation of my individual rights to have gone to Iraq on orders because I raised my right hand and volunteered to join the army. Whether or not this mission was a good one, my participation in it was an affirmation of something I consider quite necessary to society. So if nothing else, I gave my life for a pretty important principle; I can (if you’ll pardon the pun) live with that.

There are a lot of people who blame George Bush for the war. But the reality is that he is a democratically elected president and had the majority support in US for going ahead with the war. The soldiers who fight the Iraqi war are just doing their duty.

People die every day due to diseases, accidents and due to old age. But people also die due to human stupidity. There cannot be a better example for human stupidity than Iraqi war. For any conflict, war must be the last choice, not the first!

Personally I don’t believe in God. But most of the time I strongly wish that there is a God who values goodness in men and who punishes those who perpetrates violence and war.

There is no hope and no justice if there is no God.

It was not long ago that Indian Railways started online reservation of railway tickets. Earlier booking a ticket was a tedious chore. You had to stand in the queue for hours and it was not easy to know whether there is ticket available or not! All that changed with the arrival of online reservation.

Unfortunately, the online reservation service has its own evils. First, you end up paying a lot of “transaction charge”, “service charge” and “reservation charge” for your ticket. Here is an example,

Suppose you try to book a ticket from Trivandrum to Ernakulam. Ticket price is Rs. 110.  On top of it there is something called “reservation charges” which is Rs. 20.  Now on top of it there is a Rs.15 service charge!  And then add Rs.10 as “bank transfer fee” and an additional service charge of Rs. 1 !!!  So the total now comes out to be Rs.156.  That means you end paying 40% extra for using the online reservation facility.

Remember, Railways is earning a lot through advertisements on its Web page. In fact, it is very difficult to find the login fields among all the ads on the home page as you can see below.  Interestingly irctc.co.in has an Alexa rank of about 2000! So it is an advertising gold mine!

Now the most funny part of the online reservation site is something called the Shubh Yathra. It is similar to a “frequent flyer” programme. But unfortunately it applies only to upper class travel (even 3 tier AC is excluded!!) and there is an annual fee of Rs. 500! Look at the following equation to see what you get,

Assume you get Shubh Yathra membership card for Rs. 500. Now you get points only for your own personal tickets. Assume that you spend Rs. 10,000 for tickets (excluding family members). That means you earn 4*10,000/100 = 400 points. This translates to a bonus of Rs. 400.  Now remember you have already paid Rs. 500 as subscription fee. So the net profit out of Shubh Yathra for you is = (-100 rupees).  Aaha, you are paying them money ?  Funny indeed!

Government departments in India are notorious for laziness, corruption and what not. So whenever you approach any government department, you approach it with apprehension and uncertainty.  But sometimes you come across good people working at these places. It is so rare that it takes you by surprise!

Last week I needed to sent a registered post and I went to the post office in Vattiyoorkavu. When I reached there it was already 2PM and I asked the lady at the counter till what time I can send registered post. She replied - “1PM”.  Oops, I am late by 1 hour and I was about to leave when she replied - “Give it to me, I will process it” !

The way she processed my registered post automatically made me thank her - “Thank you ma’am”.

“Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot and anyone going faster than you is a maniac”
-  George Carlin

To me this was a real eye opener!

I stay in Kerala, southern state of India. Kerala is unique in many respects. I won’t go into details but in short, day to day life here is a challenge!

Today I came back from work early since I was not feeling well. Summer is at its peak and there was no electricity when I came home. My father told me that power was down from morning. I called electricity office to check on the status. Here is the conversation,

Me: Hello
Electricity office guy: Hello, electricity office

Me: We don’t have power in area “xyz”
Electricity office guy: We have switched off electricity in the entire “abc” area

Me: Why? What happened?
Electricity office guy: We are painting the transformer

Me: eh? painting? oh! When will it be over?
Electricity office guy: No idea, probably by evening

As you can guess, power came back after 12 hours of painting! You can imagine how challenging it is to run a business around here