The Exorcism of Emily Rose

This is based on the true life experiences of a German woman who was suspected to suffer from demoniac possession, and was subjected to an exorcism. This attempt failed, and she eventually died. The link to a page on her is here. The theories of demoniac possession have never gained wide credence in the West, however, Eastern cultures have long known , or atleast acknowledged the presence of the supernatural. Why is this? Is this because the relentless progress of science has completely impaired the judgement of people and rendered them incapable of viewing alternate hypotheses? This is strange, however, because the West is by no means run on scientific principles. This is something strange I find: that science in its purest form is really not accepted here, people do listen to absolute rubbish all the time. But than gain, what is understood to be 'folk wisdom' in the East simply does not exist in the West, most especially in the US. the resulting situation is quite silly. Hence, urban legends and myths abound, but that is about it.

And for this 350th post,

We will talk about action flicks: acting is not as critical as the guns, car chases are highly recommended, hot chicks, even more so.
So the list commences:
1. Hard Target: directed by John Woo, this movie has Jean Claude van Damme at his blistering best, and Voslo and Henrickson make excellent villains.
2. Desperado: Robert Rodriguez directed this remake/update to El-Mariachi with the great Antonio Banderas and his guitar case. Never will I think about a guitar case and imagine that it contains a guitar again. The absolutely delectable Salma Hayek brings along what every Bond film tries, and as a tribute to Ms. Hayek, fails to bring.
3. Assassins: Robert Rath (Stallone) and Miguel Bain (Banderas) are really polite in this movie. Even when they are trying their very best to kaput each other, they do so with silenced weapons.. no loud bangs! Julianne Moore is the exact opposite of Hayek in Desperado, a super hot computer programmer with a pet cat, lovvvvely!
4. The Transporter: Jason Statham used to be a member of the British Olympic swimming team. Thank Goodness, he decided to take up acting at some point (well, the man most directly responsible for bringing him to the screen is Guy Ritchie). Statham is the best thing that happened to hard guns and bad arse hero action flicks in this decade. He drives a BMW at breakneck speed, dives from a plane and kicks some serious arse with equal aplomb.
5. This spot is left open for the 2007 summer.

Sunrise photographs.

Sunrise or sunset photography is tricky, but it can be amazingly rewarding. The range of colors that the sky and the sun will sweep through in a few short minutes offers a great deal to the attentive photographer. This blog is actually a result of a response to someone's request on Flickr.

Tips:
1. Given a bright object, the camera's internal engine tends to think 'this is way tooo bright, I need to underexpose' and hence renders much of the image too dark. I suggest taking a few pictures at different exposure settings to find what setting is decent and offers the best picture in terms of hue. This picture 'Bhor' was underexposed by 1.3 stops. It is a good idea to keep fraction stops available. See your camera's manual for this.

2. Use a deep field. An aperture opening like f8-f11 is what I find best. Everything is in focus from, say palm trees in the foreground to the horizon.

3. Use spot metering. My camera offers three types of metering: Full frame, centre weighted and spot. The meanings are quite obvious: full frame is fine for regular sunlight conditions, centre weighted is what you should use when you find yourself recomposing shots having half-stopped to autofocus on someone's face and then reframing. Spot metering gathers light from a point in the frame and calibrates exposure level with that point. This is tricky. If you half stop with the spot in the middle of the solar disc, the rest of the frame will be dark. If you half stop on a dark cloud, everything will be washed out. The trick is to half stop on whatever you want to be the primary focus of the picture and then check different exposures and see what that does to the picture.

4. Silhouettes are good subjects. Finding the right spot to frame the perfect picture is important.

5. Look for small objects, perhaps a seashell, or a small bird.. these can be nice subjects. You may not be lucky enough to find a sailboat perfectly silhouetted against the setting sun.. but there are always nice subjects to look for. Have fun taking great sunrise and sunset pictures.

Pictures and websites.

Ok, some of my Florida pictures taken during the recent ENC are on my Flickr webpage. Florida pictures are LINKED HERE. I have made space for them by removing some of my NY and Boston pictures taken during this Christmas-new year to another website: Sony Imagestation. They are HERE. I have to say, for all that Flickr has accomplished, getting people who like photography to create the best forum around, their uploading tool sucks. Imagestation has an amazing uploader which works... fast!!

Questions to think about

If William Shakespeare was a design artist, what would his favourite play be?













































Much Adobe About Nothing.

Of prelims and music, of socks and orange chicken, of things to do, RDCs to compute.

Yes, I pretty much talked about whatever I have been doing in the very immediate past in the title of this blog. I passed my prelim. Not that I had expected to flunk, but somewhat bitter experience has taught that lightening up on myself leads to mediocrity. As my colleague, the Real Shim Shady puts it, you pass an exam three odd weeks before it, not on the day of the exam. Good point. So the committee proved to me that I do not know any physics whatsoever. And as I am already aware that my knowledge of biology and chemistry is, well, non existent, that leaves me at a very comfortable zero. There is such an abundance of frighteningly elegant physics behind any form of spectroscopy, that a lifetime will prove insufficient to do anything more than perhaps scratch the surface.

A lot of people helped me to prepare for the prelim. Starting from the many useful discussions I had with my labmates to people from the fluorescence spectroscopy groups to my batchmates, every bit of insight was useful. I cannot begin to express my gratitude to all these people. UM is a fantabulous place to study and do science.

I woke up yesterday with the feeling that I need to buy socks. I am sure that you, gentle reader will know what I am talking about: there comes a point in everyone's life where you just have to buy socks. Also right after my prelim, I felt the urgent need to sample some Chinese Orange Chicken. Both of which have been done. Nice!

I also have a bunch of RDCs to compute. In the words of Eminem, its 'back to the lab again'. There is SO much to study.

I finished reading the book 'A Glorious Way to Die', by Russell Spurr. This book talks about the last Kamikaze (suicide) mission launched by the Imperial Japanese Navy in April 1945. Operation 'Ten-Go' called for the flagship Yamato, escorted by the cruiser Yahagi and a squadron of destroyers to breach the Okinawa blockade and throw the invading Allied forces back into the Pacific. Yamato was the greatest battleship to ever set sail. Mightier than any dreadnought to ever be built by a Western power, cloaked in the heaviest armour ever milled, bristling with the most powerful naval artillery ever seen, she was considered unsinkable. Close to 900 planes from Task Force 58, the fast carrier attack group commanded by Admiral Mitschener struck her. She went down with more than 3000 hands. The first time I had ever read of her was some sixteen years ago in a Reader's Digest condensed version. This was a great opportunity to read about a story that the West has largely forgotten.

Loreena McKennitt is a Canadian singer. Lots of elegant influences. I am listening to a CD with her famous song 'Mummer's dream'. Try to listen to it.

Lovely politicking.

Rather rummy, eh? I was just describing the Indian Administrative Service as the 'steel backbone of the nation' to someone today. And then I came upon this article in today's Statesman. Yes, the steel backbone exists, but it is somewhat.. tarnished.

The plastic frame of bureaucracy

The role of a civil servant in the affairs of state has for some time past been increasingly questioned, particularly when government is seen to have been privy to some horrendous acts. We, therefore, need to examine this role a little closely.
The duty of a civil servant is always to record the facts as he sees them in their entirety and to tender to his minister such advice as he thinks fit and proper based on those facts.. Thereafter, it will be his plain duty to carry out the orders of the minister, even if they are not in accordance with his advice, provided they are not demonstrably immoral or illegal. It is no part of a civil servant’s duty to sit in judgement on the political wisdom of his minister. These may be said to be the basic ground rules governing the relationship between a minister and a civil servant.
There is the famous – or notorious – case of the film Kissa Kursi Ka during the Emergency when I was a Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in Delhi. Vidya Charan Shukla was Indira Gandhi’s hatchet man in the ministry. The film in question was refused a censor certificate by the Film Censor Board in Mumbai. It came up to me in appeal. I recommended that the film should be granted a certificate, notwithstanding that it taunted the Gandhi family in no uncertain terms, arguing that it was so badly made that it would die a natural death at the box office, but withholding the certificate would give it a notoriety value. I was overruled by Shukla. For this, and other, misdemeanours, I was given marching orders and reverted to the state. I had to be content with the dubious distinction that I was one of very few men in this world to have seen the film.
The subsequent history of the film is well known. All copies of it were allegedly burnt in the premises of the Maruti company by Sanjay Gandhi. In the post-Emergency era, all crimes committed during it were prosecuted. Shukla and Sanjay Gandhi thus found themselves in the dock in a Tis Hazari Court in Delhi. I was called as the main prosecution witness. It was put to me by Ram Jethmalani, prosecuting on behalf of the State, that I was so terrorised that I had to go by all the whims of the minister and I did not dare express my own views in any matter. I said the truth was far from what was imagined. I forcefully expressed my views in the case in question and there was the file to prove the point. I said that I did my duty as a civil servant; and the minister did his as a politician. The two points of view were different.
I said to myself after looking at the two forlorn figures in the dock that one did not whip a dead horse. Shukla and Sanjay were acquitted. Shukla became a staunch friend after that and said that when they would come back to power, they would remember my gesture. I said that I did not do anything in expectation of any favour on an unlikely (as it then seemed) return to power of the Congress..
That is how a Congress government behaved. The CPI-M has been no different. There was once a tete-a-tete between me and a minister in the course of which he made the fatuous, but apt, remark: “I am a Communist, not a gentleman”, inviting the retort that upon that question his opinion was conclusive and I was in no position to differ from it. But the limited point I would want to make is that when he dealt with us, he behaved as a gentleman. I soon received marching orders from my post. That was one of a series of marching orders given to me for doing my duty as a civil servant.
The basic ground rules mentioned by me at the outset are consistently violated, for the minister desires what is politically opportune in preference to that which is required by good governance. It is for the chief secretary to see that these rules are not violated.
The chief secretary is the arbiter of what is right and what is wrong for the government as a whole. He sets the tone of the entire administration, including the police. He should fearlessly stand by any officer in any sphere of government who does what is right. This paradigm of uprightness is all pervasive, and officers at all levels and in all departments draw strength from it. If this paradigm of uprightness is not liked by the political bosses, then the chief secretary will be forced to go. And if his successors tread the same path of rectitude, they will soon run out of stock of officers who can be appointed chief secretary. Therefore, an administration is as good or bad as the chief secretary makes it.
When PS Appu, an IAS officer of the Bihar cadre, was offered the post of chief secretary, he politely declined it on the ground that there were several officers senior to him and their supersession would not be proper. This plea was not accepted by the chief minister and Appu had little choice but to accept the offer. But he first defined the terms on which he would accept it. Chief among them was immunity from political interference in matters of administration. These terms were accepted and Appu was appointed as the chief secretary. Upon a breach of these terms subsequently, he resigned from his exalted office.
A few other cases like Appus’s can be cited. But they are rare. In West Bengal, the only name that comes to mind, among the older officers, is that of Amitabha Niyogi, an honest and upright officer.
The rot set in good and proper in West Bengal when an officer was appointed as chief secretary, superseding several officers senior to him, on the basis of an uxorial proximity to the ruling party. The officer did not demur like Appu. It is true that government has full discretion to appoint a suitable officer to the post of chief secretary. But suitability, justifying the exclusion of senior officers in the instant case, is not discernible.
The length to which government will go to get a “convenient” chief secretary is amazing. An officer of West Bengal, who was holding an important post in the Union government, was made to give up this post and his reversion to the state government procured so that he could be appointed as chief secretary. The realisation then came that he would not be “convenient”, and what followed was a dastardly act of betrayal by the chief minister, who, for the sake of “convenience”, ditched the officer in question squarely without any apology and, bypassing ten officers in all, found someone, about whom the less said the better, for the post of chief secretary.
A chief secretary appointed under such dubious circumstances will then be busy protecting his own turf, and anticipating prizes to be dispensed after retirement for good behaviour. Thus a slave to political expediency is born and nurtured. And the rest of the bureaucracy (including the police), with some exceptions, follows suit.
Two examples may illustrate the consequences that flow if a “convenient” chief secretary is in office. Some years ago, a young district magistrate of Malda dealt with a riotous situation in his district and in his report to the government he recited the facts, holding votaries of the present ruling party fairly and squarely responsible for the riot. This was not appreciated by the powers that be. And so the chief secretary took it upon himself to set matters right. He sent for the magistrate and asked him in no uncertain terms to change the complexion of the rioters so as to make it appear that the Congress was the guilty party! The magistrate stood his ground, politely refusing to do what he was told and soon got marching orders for his pains.
Then again, there was the case of the senior most IPS officer in West Bengal, with an admirable record of service, being passed over for the post of director general of police; an officer a year junior to him was appointed to the post. The chief secretary had before him a potential cause celebre in the making. He ought to have firmly put his foot down and argued against the supersession. But a man of greater courage was required for this. In the result, the senior most officer found himself shunted as DG, Fire Services. He happened to bear the wrong name and he retired with the feeling that he was unjustly treated by the secular government of West Bengal.
The psyche operating in all these cases needs to be studied. The attitude of officers is coloured by the awareness that their political masters will not tolerate any dissenting voice among people they have increasingly, and habitually, come to regard as their slaves. That dissent and an alternative notion, which, if need be, can be rejected in the light of logic, form the essence of good governance is forgotten.
The time, therefore, seems to have come when one must sing a requiem for the bureaucracy and one must mourn the demise of the steel frame, on which the bureaucracy in olden times had prided itself. That structure, alas, has been pulled down bit by bit and in its place has risen a new structure, which may conveniently be called the collapsible, plastic frame.

(The author is a retired IAS officer)

Before an exam.

Just before an exam, I tend to go slightly bonkers. In that spirit, my recent activities include:
1. downloading a picture of a giant Schrodinger's cat inside a glass box.
2. watching a horror flick: Deathwatch, which i found rather enjoyable in a very creepy way.
3. Taking hundreds of pictures at Holland, Michigan. That place has an annual Tulip festival, which is very pretty. A lot of cultural fiesta like things follow, complete with wooden shoes!! Lake Michigan is bloody cold this time of the year.
4. watching 'who killed the electric car'. I am fully convinced that the big automakers are involved in a giant conspiracy along with the oil companies to prevent the advent of other technologies in the marketplace.
5. starting to read 'the great hunt'. this is volume 2 of Robert Jordan's 'the wheel of time', which, as we all know deals with the breaking of the world, the rise of the dragon, and other such calamities. very much classic fantasy fiction. the only problem is that there are 11 volumes on the main storyline and one prequel. robert jordan has stated that the 12th (well, actually 13th) volume will conclude the 'main storyline'. why does he not suffer from carpel tunnel syndrome? aleya lent me the first volume a few years ago.
6. spending an unnecessary amount of time reading about Yamato, the greatesrt battleship ever built.
7. watching snakes on a plane. this is a surprisingly good trashy film. (let me explain: i expected it to be really trashy, turns out to be all of that, but quite watchable). i waited for that line, 'I have had it with these ****** snakes on this ****** plane!' did not let me down even a bit.

Special Economic Zones.

What is a 'Special Economic Zone'? This question is very relevant to the common man in the light of what transpired at Nandigram and Singur. Is there any real benefit to be derived for the common man from these institutions? Or do the ills (loss of tax revenue for the government, displacement of local people, potential money laundering and loss of revenue to offshore financial instiutions associated with the SEZ and long term damage to small scale industries) outweigh all potential gains. This article from the Statesman addresses some of these issues.

A country within a country

Perhaps the most debated and controversial socio-economic issue today is Special Economic Zone (SEZ). The Left Front government in West Bengal is perturbed over the issue. The Centre too is in a fix to find modalities of SEZ.
Obviously, the ordinary citizen has some questions like what is SEZ, does it work for the welfare of the common man, what is the employment potential and so on. We should also try to find answers to questions like how much revenue would the exchequer lose every year and what would happen to small and medium enterprises and other social issues.
Origin: It can be said that SEZ is a product of foreign policy initiatives of 1999 with the basic objective of phenomenal growth of export performance. The legislative enactment is the Special Economic Zone Act 2005. SEZ comprises more or less 10,000 hectares (which has been reduced) with manufacturing, real estate and service facility.
One of the earliest and most famous SEZ was founded by the People’s Republic of China under Deng Xiaoping in the early 1980. SEZs have been established in several countries, including Iran, Jordan, Poland.
Characteristics and functioning: The significant characteristics of SEZ is, it enjoys a host of fiscal and non-fiscal concessions and exemptions provided by the government and geographically treated as a “place outside the host country”. One may call SEZ a tax-haven. The implication is that supplies from domestic (in SEZ language, it is called “domestic tariff area” or DTA) to SEZ is export from the country and reverse movement of goods is treated as imports into the country.
In other words, SEZ is a “Country within a Country”. It can be formed by the public, or by joint sector or by state governments. An unit approval committee is the competent authority for approval of units and required to execute a legal undertaking with the development commissioner. The efficiency of an unit of SEZ is measured by the fact that each unit is required to be a positive “Net Foreign Exchange Earner” (NFE).

Fiscal and non-fiscal concessions and exemptions:
Income-tax: Entrepreneurs of SEZs are allowed 100 per cent deduction from their income for consecutive five years after commencement of production and thereafter @50 per cent deduction of income for next five years. Dividend distribution clause is not applicable to SEZ developers or units. Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) is not applicable in SEZ. sales tax, service tax, excise duty and customs duty:
a) Units of SEZs, which are registered are exempt from payment of CST on supplies from domestic tariff area.
b) Taxable service provided to a developer or an unit are exempt from Service Tax. c) No excise duty is leviable in case, goods brought from domestic tariff area to SEZ. d) There is all round exemption of customs duty enjoyed by the developers and SEZ units, both for import and export in respect of goods and services.
Though readymade data is not available, one can say that loss of revenue on account of the foregoing exemption and deductions, is huge and substantial and for a considerable period of time. Can our economy afford to absorb such loss every year?
Therefore certain amendments are required as a damage control measure. In respect of Income-Tax exemption, tax holiday for developers and units may be curtailed/reduced to three years and one year, respectively. Likewise, dividend distribution tax may be imposed with a reduced rate.
The central government is expanding base of service tax every year. SEZs should not be given total exemption from service tax. Either tax (service) holiday for initial two years may be allowed or a reduced rate of service tax may be imposed.

Other concessions and implication:
i) SEZ units can be set up to manufacture items reserved for the small scale sector. If this happens, the small scale sector would lose the level playing field in the domestic tariff area and would face unfair competition from big sectors enjoying a host of tax concessions. ii) Domestic product laws are not applicable to SEZ. This exemption may create unfair trade practice.
iii) Units engaged in the manufacture of drugs, have been exempted from registration under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act. The efforts are praiseworthy but the concession may result in violation of norms and even production of poor and inferior quality of medicines. iv) Another significant concession is full exemption from stamp duty to any instrument executed by or on behalf of or in favour of the developer or unit of SEZ. This concession is going to affect revenue of the state government. v) The SEZ units are allowed to have external commercial borrowing up to $500 million a year without maturity restriction. vi) International financial centres (off-shore banks) are permitted in SEZ. vii) Export proceeds may be repatriated without any time limit.

Employment opportunity:
No doubt during the construction period till commencement of production, a large work-force both skilled and unskilled would be required. However, this exercise will last for a limited period. Due to technological innovations and requirement of highly qualified professionals, both at the manufacturing facility and service sectors, unskilled and unqualified workers would not find jobs in sufficient numbers. Having regard to the size of SEZ, and capital deployment, one cannot expect a bright employment opportunity at SEZs.

Damage control:
Recently, after the Nandigram debacle, the Centre had changed certain parameters of SEZ like, land ceiling of 5,000 hectares (12,500 acres), promoters would directly negotiate with farmers before acquiring their lands and providing job to at least one member of the displaced family. In other words, efforts are being made to humanise the whole SEZ episode. But promises are more political than practicable.

Unanswered questions:
If environment impact assessment is not required for setting-up of SEZs, governments must come out to say that SEZ gas emissions are within tolerable limits and each SEZ has taken adequate steps so far the pollution norms are concerned. There is no second opinion that SEZs would contribute to a substantial volume of formation and emission of green house gases and consequently to global warming.
A reasonable estimate should be tabled in Parliament to show the reduction and loss of crop production, state-wise, due to occupation of fertile lands not by farmers but by SEZ owners.

Movies. Again.

The list is back. This time, a few new entries, and a few old ones. These are the horror/thriller films that you should not miss:
So my vote for the all time greats will be:
1. Birds: this is classic Hitchcock, although the horrifying part of the movie is somewhat evident in the title.
2. The Exorcist: three decades down, this still is a cinematic masterpiece. Also try to read the book if you haven't.
3. Wolf Creek: pushes the envelope to levels where US filmmakers rarely go. Also noteworthy is the gritty 'home movie' feel that this gives you. Extremely competent development of characters.
4. Ringu: if you want horror, go to Asia. They really know how to scare the willies out of you.
5. The Vengeance Trilogy (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance and Old Boy): these Korean movies from Chan Park are less horror and more gut-wrenching, spine-tingling, nerve-jangling rollercoaster rides. There is blood and gore, yes, but this man is a master of his craft. These movies are driven by brilliant scripts and a directorial hand which pays great attention to detail. Park is a man of method, and this reflects in some of his characters. His cinematography, particularly his use of panoramic (wide) lenses is stunning. His background scores are as close to perfection as one can possibly get. Tarantino could benefit from some lessons given by this guy.

Possible merger?

I am not sure that a merger between two market leaders is good for the market. Common sense suggests that whatever competitive effort there is will be much reduced, and customers will have less choice. However, mergers and acquisitions also sometimes bring much better collaborations to fruition than would have been happening otherwise. This is an article I just read about the possibility of Microsoft and Yahoo perhaps merging.

Moments.

There are certain moments and lines in movies which simply stay and freeze the air for a while. Here I am going to put some of them down.

1. Remember that scene in Jaws where Quint talks about his mates being killed by sharks in WWII? Remember the quiet? Remember the water lapping against the hull of the Orca, the creaking of the timber? Here is what Quint said:

'Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into our side, Chief. We was comin' back from the island of Tinian to Leyte... just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in 12 minutes. Didn't see the first shark for about a half an hour. Tiger. 13-footer. You know how you know that when you're in the water, Chief? You tell by looking from the dorsal to the tail. What we didn't know, was our bomb mission had been so secret, no distress signal had been sent. They didn't even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, Chief, sharks come cruisin', so we formed ourselves into tight groups. You know, it was kinda like old squares in the battle like you see in the calendar named "The Battle of Waterloo" and the idea was: shark comes to the nearest man, that man he starts poundin' and hollerin' and screamin' and sometimes the shark go away... but sometimes he wouldn't go away. Sometimes that shark he looks right into ya. Right into your eyes. And, you know, the thing about a shark... he's got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be living... until he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then... ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin'. The ocean turns red, and despite all the poundin' and the hollerin', they all come in and they... rip you to pieces. You know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men. I don't know how many sharks, maybe a thousand. I know how many men, they averaged six an hour. On Thursday morning, Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player. Boatswain's mate. I thought he was asleep. I reached over to wake him up. Bobbed up, down in the water just like a kinda top. Upended. Well, he'd been bitten in half below the waist. Noon, the fifth day, Mr. Hooper, a Lockheed Ventura saw us. He swung in low and he saw us... he was a young pilot, a lot younger than Mr. Hooper. Anyway, he saw us and he come in low and three hours later a big fat PBY comes down and starts to pick us up. You know that was the time I was most frightened... waitin' for my turn. I'll never put on a lifejacket again. So, eleven hundred men went in the water; 316 men come out and the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945. Anyway, we delivered the bomb. '

2. Galadriel telling of the story of the Rings, in the Fellowship. There are epics, and then there is something like the Lord of the Rings.
It began with the forging of the Great Rings. Three were given to the Elves; immortal, wisest and fairest of all beings. Seven, to the Dwarf Lords, great miners and craftsmen of the mountain halls. And nine, nine rings were gifted to the race of Men, who above all else desire power. For within these rings was bound the strength and the will to govern over each race. But they were all of them deceived, for a new ring was made. In the land of Mordor, in the fires of Mount Doom, the Dark Lord Sauron forged in secret, a master ring, to control all others. And into this ring he poured all his cruelty, his malice and his will to dominate all life. One ring to rule them all. One by one, the free peoples of Middle Earth fell to the power of the Ring. But there were some who resisted. A last alliance of men and elves marched against the armies of Mordor, and on the very slopes of Mount Doom, they fought for the freedom of Middle-Earth. Victory was near, but the power of the ring could not be undone. It was in this moment, when all hope had faded, that Isildur, son of the king, took up his father's sword. And Sauron, enemy of the free peoples of Middle-Earth, was defeated. The Ring passed to Isildur, who had this one chance to destroy evil forever, but the hearts of men are easily corrupted. And the ring of power has a will of its own. It betrayed Isildur, to his death. And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth. And for two and a half thousand years, the ring passed out of all knowledge. Until, when chance came, the ring ensnared another bearer. The ring came to the creature Gollum, who took it deep into the tunnels under the Misty Mountains, and there it consumed him. The ring gave to Gollum unnatural long life. For five hundred years it poisoned his mind; and in the gloom of Gollum's cave, it waited. Darkness crept back into the forests of the world. Rumor grew of a shadow in the East, whispers of a nameless fear, and the Ring of Power perceived. Its time had now come. It abandoned Gollum. But then something happened that the Ring did not intend. It was picked up by the most unlikely creature imaginable. A hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, of the Shire. For the time will soon come when hobbits will shape the fortunes of all...

3. Ah, yes. The five point palm exploding heart technique. The best tribute to all martial arts films made: Kill Bill. This is Bill and Beatrix talking about Pai Mei:
Bill: Once upon a time in China, some believe, around the year one double-aught three, head priest of the White Lotus Clan, Pai Mei, was walking down the road, contemplating whatever it is that a man of Pai Mei's infinite power contemplates - which is another way of saying "who knows?" - when a Shaolin monk appeared, traveling in the opposite direction. As the monk and the priest crossed paths, Pai Mei, in a practically unfathomable display of generosity, gave the monk the slightest of nods. The nod was not returned. Now was it the intention of the Shaolin monk to insult Pai Mei? Or did he just fail to see the generous social gesture? The motives of the monk remain unknown. What is known, are the consequences. The next morning Pai Mei appeared at the Shaolin Temple and demanded of the Temple's head abbot that he offer Pai Mei his neck to repay the insult. The Abbot at first tried to console Pai Mei, only to find Pai Mei was inconsolable. So began the massacre of the Shaolin Temple and all sixty of the monks inside at the fists of the White Lotus. And so began the legend of Pai Mei's five-point-palm-exploding-heart technique.
The Bride: And what, pray tell, is the five-point-palm-exploding-heart technique?
Bill: Quite simply, the deadliest blow in all of martial arts. He hits you with his fingertips at five different pressure points on your body. And then he lets you walk away. But after you've taken five steps, your heart explodes inside your body, and you fall to the floor, dead.

Ultimate Bad-Arse Tam

Chennai. The land of Tams and Tamil. Also the land of very beautiful classical music, the home of empires of great antiquity, of rasam and orthodox Tam-Brahms.

Also the land of the double god, Pradbhu Deva. This bloke is probably made of India-rubber or some polymer with a really short Kuhn length (this is me showing off my newly acquired knowledge of biopolymers). Because he dances like, well just see it for yourself.


Urvashi.
Hum se hai muqabla (in Tamil).

Corruption continues.

I have been inactive on this blog for a while, and this state of affairs will continue for the immediate future: the reason, I was out of town on a conference, and now I have an academic evaluation coming on, one which promises to be properly blood-curdling. However, I will presently post pictures from the conference, which was at Daytona. In the meantime, I will resort to my standard mode of evasion: to simply post someone else's work: Here is an article by Rajinder Puri(Statesman, calcutta edition, May 3rd, 2007) on a specific instance of how an honest bureaucrats was railroaded and persecuted for doing his job. Corruption in its various forms is endemic: the first document serving as proof of age for a long time in India happened to be the school matriculation certificate. It has long been a practice amongst certain people to write down a kindergarten child's age as less than it actually is upon entering the school. This supposedly gives them an 'edge'. Thus is corruption introduced into the Indian psyche at an early age. But I am keeping you from Puri's article.

Anatomy of corruption
Whistleblowers And Facilitators In Bureaucratic Jungle

By Rajinder Puri

Recently TV news highlighted an inflammatory communal video prepared by the BJP for its UP poll campaign. After conflicting comments by BJP leaders, the party disowned the material before it was circulated. This was before any complaint had been lodged with the Election Commission. Nevertheless some parties, including the Congress, demanded that the EC should de-recognize the BJP. The BJP demanded that EC member Naveen Chawla be debarred from hearing the case. A BJP petition alleging Chawla’s partiality towards the Congress was already pending in the Supreme Court.
The court asked the EC to decide the matter. It is accepted democratic convention for a judge to exclude himself from hearing a case if he is an allegedly interested party. Since the BJP petition against Chawla in the Supreme Court was filed before the de-recognition demand, he was allegedly an interested party. The CEC, N Gopalswamy, was expected to exclude Chawla from the case without prejudging him. But Gopalswamy allowed Chawla to hear the case. That raised some eyebrows. Gopalswamy was appointed by the NDA government. He was not perceived as being committed to the UPA government. Evidently, he is not. Is he then, as most successful bureaucrats, committed to himself?

Favourite axiom

Broadly, there are three kinds of bureaucrats: The corrupt black sheep who are complicit in corruption; the clean officers who are often marginalized; and those who keep their own records clean but facilitate political corruption. The last are considered most successful and rise to high positions. Gopalswamy occupies high position. The favourite axiom of successful bureaucrats is: “Never rock the boat.” A cruder version is: “Know which side your bread is buttered.”
Details of a case have emerged that may provide a good example of how successful bureaucrats operate. In 1994-95 the Semiconductor Complex Limited (SCL) near Chandigarh floated a global tender, worth approximately Rs 400 crore, for purchasing electronic equipment. SCL comes under the Department of Electronics (DOE). The SCL Executive Director Vigilance (CVO) was JS Tiwana. Earlier Tiwana, along with a colleague, had on request of N Vittal, Secretary, DOE, prepared a foolproof procedure to ensure that SCL’s global tenders were impartially evaluated.
While the bids were being evaluated Tiwana was contacted by a bidder based in America. He complained of being approached for a kickback of 10 per cent in return for which he was promised his bid would succeed. Tiwana consulted his seniors in CVC and DOE including CVO of DOE, N Gopalswamy, who is presently the Chief Election Commissioner. Tiwana was advised to contact the complainant and seek further evidence, possibly through taped telephone conversations. Tiwana was asked also to assure the complainant that if he did this, he would be introduced to senior officials of DOE and the tenders would be decided on merit.
Tiwana followed these instructions. He received explosive tape records of the power broker who named the people he would in turn have to bribe in order to get the tender approved. The power broker was BL Raina, a close associate of the acting CMD of SCL, MJ Zarabi. After his appointment Zarabi changed the existing purchase procedure by which tenders were to be awarded to the lowest bidder. Tiwana, who co-authored the earlier procedure with his colleague, Ramaseshan, was asked to sign approval of the revised procedure. He refused.
Subsequently Raina made overtures to the America-based bidders. Following the instructions of Joint Secretary and CVO of DOE, Gopalswamy, Tiwana transcribed the recorded evidence and sent it to the Secretary DOE, N Vittal, through an official letter number ED(V)8500: DO: 94, dated 25 October, 1994.
After this Tiwana’s life was made miserable. He received a curt letter from Gopalswamy seeking details of the circumstances that led to the tape recording. This puzzled Tiwana. He had earlier played the tape recording for Gopalswamy’s benefit in the presence of his colleague, Ramaseshan. Tiwana sent the sought details to Gopalswamy. He also apprised the Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC), Vijay Sekharan, who had been briefed on the case all along. Tiwana conveyed to the CVC the relationship between Raina and Zarabi, and his own interpretation of the contents of the tape recordings.
Tiwana’s communications to DOE were duly passed on to Zarabi who turned hostile. Tiwana was excluded from all responsibilities in SCL and was totally marginalized. Apparently there were adverse remarks and allegations of wrong doing against him in his Annual Confidential Report (ACR) for the year 1994-95. Tiwana had received excellent ACRs in the three preceding years. The Reporting Officer had been the same in the earlier years as well as in 1994; and the Reviewing Officer was N Vittal.
Under the Right to Information Act (RTI) Tiwana has sought confirmation that Gopalswamy wrote to the CVC to close the case as there was “no conclusive proof” of bribe-taking. If this was Gopalswamy’s approach, it appeared truly strange. The evidence presented indicated a conspiracy needing a probe in order to abort possible corruption. How could conclusive proof of kickbacks be furnished before the tenders were decided?
Thereafter Tiwana was subjected to disciplinary proceedings for imposition of major penalty for alleged misconduct. The allegations against him were frivolous. He was accused of utilizing four Leave Travel Concessions (LTCs) allotted to him for two successive years not on the basis of two LTCs each year, but of using one in the first year and three in the next year. The LTCs were sanctioned to him by the appropriate authority. Reports of Tiwana’s own charges as well as the charges against him of alleged misconduct were leaked to the press. After 1995 Tiwana’s promotions were blocked. His representations were ignored.

Wrong records

Tiwana submitted his statement of defence to the Ministry of Personnel. In November 2002 he was exonerated of all the allegations levelled against him. One allegation was frivolous and another was based on wrong records. In exonerating him, the ministry’s order also requested that “responsibility be fixed on persons responsible for not providing all the relevant documents while sending proposal of initiation of disciplinary proceedings against Shri Tiwana”.
Can Vittal and Gopalswamy shed some light on this? They were Secretary and Joint Secretary respectively of DOE when the adverse ACR against Tiwana was written. Although eventually vindicated, Tiwana’s last 12 years in service were spent under a cloud. His crime? Discharging his official duty, he blew the whistle. Vittal and Gopalswamy never seriously pursued the evidence that might have exposed a corruption conspiracy involving powerful politicians. Their reward? Both rose to occupy constitutional posts. Vittal retired as the Chief Vigilance Commissioner. Gopalswamy is the current Chief Election Commissioner. Who, then, thrives in our system ~ whistleblowers or facilitators?