Trekking ho!

A tryst with nature is up on the cards during the weekend, when a group of researchers (I am the only exclusion in a group having 4 PhD students, with the possibility of the Poet-Scientist joining us) undertake a trek to the George Washington National Forest, located on the Virginia-West Virginia border, about 6 hrs. drive from here.

Keep checking back. I would post details on the trek and some photographs in a week.

Gone with the Spring

The Spring Quarter came to an end today. However, summer has already begun, with day temperatures breaching the 30 degrees Celcius mark. I remember having promised to put up some more Spring photographs in one of my posts long back. At that time, I had hoped that I would buy a new Digital camera. However, in view of the looming expenses and the fact that I am not funded for the Summer term, I decided to forgo the luxury of high-quality digital pics and instead offer you some low-resolution pictures taken from my mobile.

So here you go:


Standing at crossroads: Which way to go?



Renaissance Festival at the South Oval. Notice the clothes worn by people in the background - reminscent of the 1400s.



Dreese Labs at twilight



Bright colors welcome pedestrians before the Oval captures the mind



Home



Storm brewing up the sky - just before thundershowers shook the city a week back

West Campus

I never realised that the most beautiful part of the campus was the part I had hardly visited - West Campus. This happened quite a few weeks back - I was planning on attending a seminar organised by the Industrial Engineering Dept. on a bright and sunny Monday evening (4 p.m). I took the campus loop and got down at the west campus bus stop, but couldnt see any building nearby. I walked on what seemed like an empty and deserted street, only to see two buildings far away. Already late for the seminar by 10 minutes, I figured out that it could take me 15 more minutes to reach the nearest of the two buildings. Not engaging in that futile exercise of trying to reach the seminar venue, I chanced upon some of the most serene and picturesque spots on campus. The following photographs were taken on the same day, except for the last one, which was taken while we were having our usual cricket practice session.

The West Campus parking lot


The sun tearing through the clouds, enabling us to have an extended practice session.

Quest for journalism ends tamely

Two weeks back, I saw an ad in The Lantern, the student newspaper on campus requiring Opinion columnists for the Summer term. Having had a penchant for writing (not necessarily a flair for it, though) and being highly opinionist, I saw this as an opportunity to express myself on the big stage. To see your articles appear in the third-largest campus newspaper in the country is a feat every budding journalist would dream of, and the feeling that my views would influence the views of the whole campus seemed so accomplishing.

The selection was based on a sample article that one had to write, choosing from the two topics, due by Friday, May 26 5 p.m.:

1. If elected Ohio's governor, who would better serve Ohio's institutions of higher education - J Kenneth Blackwell or Ted Strickland?
2. Is the proposed 6 percent increase in tuition at Ohio State justified?

Having been in this school for almost a year, I thought I could easily write on the second topic. With a heavy schedule, that turned out to be just another wish. I was racing against time, and with Srivathsan helping me with ideas and editing, I was able to send in the article a few minutes before the deadline. During the next day, I checked my email every 5 minutes to see if the Editor had replied. She finally did, with a comment that my article had 'editorial errors' and that I need to edit and resend my article. With our best efforts, we (I and Vathsa) managed to send the edited article to the Editor by Monday.

After a days' time, I saw another email from her. She had thoroughly reviewed my article and pointed out my errors. I had made a lot of assumptions, and many of the facts were not backed by any research or data. I was taken to task for being superfluous. However, she was happy with my writing skills, and left the decision to me, whether I wanted to take up the job or not.

I thought over it for 2 days, and responded to her that I was ready to take up the job and would careful in future with regard to every word that goes in my articles. Two days later, she did a sudden volte-face and politely refused the offer, she had thrown open just a couple of days back. There I was, within touching distance of a job I had never imagined I would do one day. A classic case of just about there, but not being 'there'.

I am posting the article that I sent to The Lantern. I leave you the task of figuring out the factual errors and assumptions that I made in my quest for being a journalist.

**********************************************************

Is the proposed 6% increase in tuition at Ohio State justified?

Let’s face it! President Holbrook has proposed a 6% increase in tuition fee at OSU; that’s almost $500 more for each student this year. Some students might be relieved to see the hike this year at 6% as opposed to the average increase of 8.5% over the last 4 years. One would ask what justifies this hike. We obviously haven’t seen smarter classrooms, better faculty or even a nominal pay hike at on-campus jobs. And all this in spite of Ohio State having a budget surplus of $50 million and $1.6 billion dollars (huh!) in endowment and Jim Tressel taking home $961 per hour (based on a $2 million annual salary working 40 hrs. a week), while students get paid $7 an hour.

But hold on! Before drawing a premature conclusion, let’s look at the national scenario. Schools across the US have increased their fee this year, and Ohio State is no exception. If Virginia Tech increased their fee by 8.3%, Illinois State University by 14%, WVU by around 7%, UT-Austin increased their non-resident fee by 8%. And, if you think our neighbors in the Midwest suck at fiscal management, then other schools in Ohio are no better, with the University of Cincinnati, University of Akron and Wright State proposing an increase of nearly 6% in their tuition fees.

With national inflation at an all time high of 4.5% and the university facing federal cuts in research expenditure at a time when cutting edge research decides the best university, it is imperative that Ohio State take every measure to ensure not only its survival but also continuation and betterment of research facilities that it is well known for. The recent ranking that put OSU as the 9^th best public research university in the country only adds substance to my point. It is true that the state of Ohio has seen mismanagement of government funds and a subsequent increase in taxes but a jobless growth in Ohio and the Midwest can only be tackled with the excellent education and research provided by schools like Ohio State, which will act as an impetus for job creation.

Being the nation’s 3^rd largest university with 58,000 students spread across various campuses, our administrative and maintenance costs are definitely higher than some of the smaller schools. Being a university that is 140 years old, renovation of old buildings and construction of new ones is inevitable. These activities require a lot of money and tuition fee is one of the primary sources the school is looking up to make up for the shortfall faced.

With the increasing recurring expenditure of the university and state funding being at a historic low, I do find reason for the hike in the tuition fee. All said and done, I feel that an increase in tuition fee every year across all schools in the US is not a healthy trend. There are more ways an institute of higher learning should learn to sustain itself instead of putting the burden on the students. An affordable higher education is the key to generating more jobs and creating a growth-led economy. It is due to the world-class universities and the top-notch education they provide that the United States is the technology leader of the world, and to maintain this supreme position, we must ensure we truly aren’t “left behind”.

Competitive Cricket

A few days ago, I read an article where someone had posted the cardinal rules of blogging. The first rule was that one should blog daily. Even if there was nothing to write, sitting in front of the computer would cause easy flow of thoughts was the arguement given The author didn't account for the time involved and obviously, didn't think about Grad students while writing this. I struggle for words in my emails to my Mom, written alternate days. Talk about daily blogging- Nice try!

This part of the world is abuzz with cricket on the shores of Atlantic, with the India-WI series keeping us all gripped. If at all there was any award for the most sporting cricket team in the world, the Boys in Blue should be the rightful and only contenders for that award. Our team loves to play competitive cricket, which means, we would do anything to make a match out of any game. At one end, if we can give a run for their money to the Australians (though not always managing to win), we also make sure that audiences get their monies worth even in matches against Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, and as the current tour proves, against a depleted West Indian team, who are ranked 7th in the ICC list and haven't won a major game in the last 2 years.

If the first two matches showed that both teams were nearly equal in strengths and the team holding their nerves right till the end would end up winning, the next two matches proved without doubt, that all talk about this Indian team being a serious World Cup contender was all baloney. Though there is one match left in this series, it is not wrong to conclude that West Indies has clearly been the better side, in spite of having very few world-class players. The only bright side for the Indians has been the getting back of Kaif among runs and the continued consistency of Yuvraj. The top order, for the nth time, failed to click in any of the matches, and this over-dependence on the middle order and lower-middle order does not augur well for a team that is preparing itself for World Cup due next year.

On Sale

Another episode in the Great Indian Tamasha comes to an end. Lucky, this time, it was restricted to only 5 states, but the whole nation was kept on their toes, until the electoral results were declared on May 11.

The States that went to the polls included Left strongholds Kerala and West Bengal, the unpredictable Tamil Nadu, Assam, the insignificant Pondicherry, and the farcical bye-election in Rae Bareilly. The electoral campaigning was a heated one, with national leaders travelling the length and breadth of the 5 states, in order to leave no stone unturned. Tamil Nadu was a peculiar case in itself, simply unmatched in terms of the freebies offered. If Amma offered free cycles to students and cheaper rice, 82-years old Kalaignar offered everything from rice, gas stove and color TVs to free power and land. While this mega sale was going on Tamil Nadu, the neighboring state of Kerala presented a picture sharply in contrast. There were virtually nothing on sale, and it was an even battle, given that the state has one of the most informed electorate in the country. Given its history of shifting mandates everytime, the Left was confident it will make it this time. Karunakaran's break-up from Congress and his last-minute patch was not seen as a confident sign for the Congress. Another loss-in-face was awaiting Congress in West Bengal, where it once again failed to make its presence felt.

The results are not difficult to analyse. Sheer populism brought DMK to power in Tamil Nadu, though I wonder how they are going to manage all the money for the ambitious promises made to the electorate. When the IT Minster Dayanidhi Maran was asked how they are going to manage this, he confidently replied "Oh that is very easy!". Pondicherry was also swept by the Congress-DMK wave, and returned the Rangaswamy government for another term of 5 years. West Bengal saw no change even this time, with the Left romping home with a thumping majority. Mamta Banerjee was once again made to bite the dust at the hustings. The wily Buddhadeb declared his victory as the peoples mandate to continue the good work the Left has been doing for the past 27 years. Winds of change never seem to blow over West Bengal!

Left repeated its success story in Kerala, wresting power from Congress, after a 5-year stint in the opposition. The conservative 82-year old V S Achuthananthan is expected to take on the Chief Ministership, though the final decision is yet to be announced by the "high command". Assam threw up a hung assembly, though the Congress is likely to form the government, being the single largest party in the new assembly.

Meanwhile, Sonia Gandhi romped home with a thumping victory at Rae Bareilly with a margin of 4.8 lakhs over her nearest rival. Inspite of the low voter turnout, Sonia secured nearly 80% of the votes polled. Though there were demands by the Sonia-loyalists to take on the Prime Ministership as per the "mandate", I fail to see the point in getting elected, barely weeks after resigning the seat. If the whole idea was to cling onto the MP seat, why resign and make yourself a martyr. Another gimmick sold well to the gullible people. Kudos to Priyanka and Rahul!

These results mean greater bargaining power for the Left, now that they have one more state, Kerala under them. Meawhile, Congress is also hailing the results as its victory, inspite of losing in Bengal and Kerala, and winning in Tamil Nadu simply due to its coalition with the DMK. BJP, expected to open its tally in Kerala, once again failed to live upto its promise. The biggest loser in this election must be BJP, for failing miserably in all the states. Though the BJP's response has been that they are not a major player in any of these states and hence, the losses cannot be taken at their face value, I feel that if a party like BJP does not have a presence in 5 states of the country, then they are not fit to be a national party. I am not aware when the next set of state elections are due, but whenever they are, I am sure, we are guranteed of another round of drama, excitement, and a sale-mela!

Free TV.....free power....free car...free housing...free everything......Free India

Test Run

Last week, I put a sitemeter on my blog. While its obvious that it keeps a count of the visitors to my blog, it also helps me know the demographics of my visitors and how they got referred to my site. This set one of my roommates, Arun off into claiming that having a name like "Columbus Dispatch" is sure to attract netizens from differerent places to my blog. (For those who are unaware, The Columbus Dispatch is a popular newspaper in Columbus and central Ohio). He labelled it as a marketing technique to sell my blog online. The deal was set. I agreed to rename my blog for a brief period of around a week and watch the site traffic. A nonsensical name was given to the blog and the site activity watched.

Believe it or not, the site traffic remained steady over the last week, disapproving Arun's theory that I was indulging in cheap gimmicks and marketing strategy. I do, in part, agree that having a name that sounds like a popular newspaper is a sure way to attract visitors to my site, but thanks to you all, my blog does attract few genuine visitors. Promptly, the name was reverted back to its usual "Columbus Dispatch", though I prefer the softer, British-sounding Despatch. I also recognised that quite a few people have put my blog as a link on their blogs. I have, in part, tried to reciprocate their gesture and also added few new links on my blog.

Btw, Arun maintains a beautiful blog, which is hyperlinked through this site (See the Links section).

Thanks for stopping by my blog,
An idle brain, it helps unclog.

When ideas run dry, and all you see is fog,
this place is always choc-a-bloc.

Riot of Colors

The whole campus is looking green and colorful. Thought of putting up some of the pictures I have taken in the last few days while walking around the campus. The quality of the pictures may be excused since they were taken from my Mobile Phone.

Outside Hitchcock Hall


Close-up of the plant seen in the background of the first picture


This colorful plant decorates the Siebert Hall


This is part of the OSU Cricket Ground


The majestic South Oval



These trees are found adjoining the Chemistry Dept.

Here comes the sun...

After months of harrowing winter, which, incidentally was a mild winter by US standards, the Spring has finally arrived. The first indication was people begining to shed their clothes. Bright sunshine, longer days, colourful trees, blooming flowers and liveliness all around just confirmed the onset of the spring season. A walk across The Oval is almost necessary everyday (Equally compelling is a game of Frisby there). The other day, walking across The Oval, I found two girls sitting in front of hundreds of paper windmills. They had erected 3500 of them in support of the over 7000 victims of child abuse cases in Ohio alone. The following picture, apart from being a photo shoot, also expresses solidarity with their cause.



Round-up of the events around the world:

Before the spring could arrive, the heat was already being turned on by the controversial, national debates, both in the US and in India. Bush tried to appease the Mexican population by introducing the Immigration Bill. The Bill sought to legalize the stay of nearly 12 million illegal Mexicans living in the US by asking them to first accept their illegal status and later imposing a token fine on them. The Bill, which generated heated debates and concerns, ultimately fell through and this was another loss of face for the already battered Bush administration.

Half-way across the globe, it was the turn of the Congress Government to propose the 49.5% Reservation Bill in India. It is election time in 5 of the key states and something of this sort was possible, though, not fully expected. Seen to be losing ground in these states, HRD Minister Arjun Singh marshalled his team and played the Mandal card, exactly 15 years after VP Singh had tried it rather unsuccessfully. Such a bill, if ever introduced, will be modern India's undoing after all the reputation it has built for itself as the technology manpower provider to the whole world. God save India!

Reaching for the skies, at Dayton!

It has been snowing for the past 2 days, but as the academic calendar wants me to believe, its the official Spring Break. Last weekend, I made a trip to Dayton, OH - about 75 minutes drive from Columbus. The city was the home of the Wright Brothers and is aptly named the "Birthplace of Aviation". Just outside the city is the The National Museum of the United States Air Force at the nearby Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

7 people in 2 cars started the journey at 9.30 a.m on a bright, but cold Saturday morning. While there was nothing remarkable about the journey, but what followed was truly admirational. On entering the Museum, we were given the directions map and that set us on our tryst with modern history.

There were displays of various aircrafts, right from the age of Wright Brothers to the ones used in the Iraq War, neatly divided into 5 sections based on chronology. There were separate sections devoted to planes used in WWI, WWII, Cold War period and a Missile section. It was truly amazing to see the use of technology in the war planes that were used in WWII, which ensured the visotory of the Allies against the German and Japanese forces.

We took a lot of photographs, courtesy Benny, whose fingers clicked faster than your eyes could blink. While returning, we also stopped at the Buck Creek State Park near Springfield, OH and enjoyed the sunset with some shero-shayari. In all, a Saturday well spent.

The team is ready to enter the Museum. (L-R) Anisa, Neha, Benny, Arun, Me and Sagar (Sanchit behind the camera)

I survey the Museum map closely, while Arun poses for the camera


This is the famous Ford Model-T, being used as an Ambulance in World War I


The propeller of the P-26 Boeing "Pea Shooter"


The B-29 Superfortress

Welcome to Space

With Arun in front of the Boeing B-28 Bockscar, which was used to carry the bomb dropped on Nagasaki.

And here comes the Bomb - Fat Man, the atomic bomb that ended World War II

This one looks straight out of Star Wars: B-2 Bomber used in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars

Everyone enjoys a light moment at the Buck Creek State Park (L-R) Sagar, Me, Arun, Anisa, Sanchit and Neha (Benny behind the camera)

Keeping you "mobile"

My room mate, "Playa " bought a digi cam a few days back and resulted in this photo. After resisting for long, I decided to buy a mobile phone, though I am not sure, why. At the very first mention, my mom rightly asked me "what for"? I couldn't decsribe. There is more to it than just being in contact. But when you are in a place, where everyone owns a mobile phone and at any given point, you can see more than 4 out of 5 people talking on their cell phones while waking, running, even jogging, even the best of the minds is made to think about this tiny little creation.

I owned a mobile phone even while in India (oh, come on! who didn't?), but it was just a basic model and did what it was meant for - sending and receiving calls and text messages. But I yearned for more. With the whole world shrinking onto your palm , there is a whole range of tasks done with your mobile phone than ever before and I wanted to be in the thick of the technology.

Alright...I am eagerly waiting for my Sony 600i camera phone with an in-built MP3 player. Now doesn't this sound cool?

Busy Quarter and world events

WOW, what a week that was! By far, this has been the longest and toughest week for me - 2 mid terms, a homework submission, a new Lab to TA and mid term grading for 2 lab sections + some additional responsibility being on the EC of AID-Columbus...huff..puff.. and at the end of it, I am forced to shout "Thank God It's Friday"...woohooo...

My update on the blog is thanks to two of my friends - Nano and Sujoy - who politely made me realize that probably they check my blog more often than even I visit it. Last few weeks have been full of activities. My new job as TA meant that I spent more time on the Lab than on my courses, and research obviously showing no signs of getting started. But I must admit that I enjoyed every day of being a TA. It helps to get to know so much people at the same time, being an instructor, and lots of thanks are due to my Lab coordinator, Kimberly, without whose support it would have been nearly impossible to pull it through the tough initial weeks.

I have had my share of fun this quarter as well. The Intra-mural sports started around mid-quarter and indoor cricket is one of the sports. There are 8 teams in the fray. We have had 2 matches so far, and we won both of them. In fact I have a match in another hour.

Lots of international events also caught my attention - the notable being the proposed Nuclear treaty signing with US and the wide spread protests in Muslim countries over the Prophet Muhammad cartoon. While I havent gathered enough detail on the N-treaty, but I have a strong feeling that India might even try to sell itself to the US, while trying to "secure" our nuclear interest. Over the 2 weeks, I have read about protests and clashes in every part of the Muslim world. Though its quite surprising that the protestors should damage properties and establishments in their own country, the more surprising aspect is the total apathy in the West over the issue, dismissing it as another incident of Muslim fundamentalism. I was having a talk with my roommate today, and he reminded me of John Lennon's statement in 1966, when he said "We're more popular than Jesus now." and that sparked off protests in the US, leading to burning of their albums and cancelling of their US tour. The cartoon controversy doesn't seem to be any different.

The parochial and insular view of the West vis-a vis the Muslim countries (yes, I am talking about Iran and Syria) and the Third World will not lead them anywhere, unless they understand that its time they learnt to live peacefully with other nations, instead of trying to pressurize and threaten them.

Back to campus after Happy Valley visit

Its been a while since I even visited my own blog! The Fall Quarter got over and it was vacation time! While I continued to work at the Chem. Lab, lot of things got sorted around that time. I chose Prof. Dan Mendelsohn as my advisor. Dan M works on Fracture Mechanics and Vibrations of Beams and crack propagation in them. And then, came the great news - I was offered a TA assignment by the ME Dept and with it came cheer and happiness. My vacation had truly started then. Within 2 days, I left for State College, PA to meet my cousin whom I had met way back in 1998 during his marriage. Remamkable things that I did during this trip:

1. Went out of Columbus for the first time after having set foot in the USA.

2. Took the Grey hound bus to reach State College, PA from Columbus, OH. That was one helluva journey and took me close to 11 hrs. I am gonna think twice before I board that next Grey Hound bus!
3. Went Bowling and won the first ever game I played. Wooohoooo!
4. Went for tubing and almost skiied, but for my cousin, who advised me against doing it without taking proper lessons.
5. Was my first visit to an Indian temple in the US - The Sri Venkateswara temple at Pittsburgh.
6. Had lunch at an American family's house for the first time: At my cousin's colleague Prof. Robert Newnham's house. For the uninitiated, Prof. Newnham was behind making the UltraSound scan, as we know it today.

7. Read two more of R K Narayan's books, thus inching closer to my aim of reading his entire collection.
8. Watched a movie almost every night, thus making sure that I watched more movies in the last 10 days than I have done in the last 1 1/2 years.

There ended the Dream vacation.....thuddddd! I am now back to reality. The Winter Quarter has started, but the vacation hangover made me watch all the 4 Bowl Games with all enthu and passion. The Buckeyes deserved to win the Fiesta Bowl, but the best game was the Rose Bowl game between the Longhorns and the Trojans.

Begining next week I will have to sweat it out in my new job as TA for the ME 570 Measurements Lab. My next blog will be on that! Till then, I have lot of cleaning to do at home before I begin the next week.....

Cost of Comparison - Part II

After a seemingly long time, here goes my second part of the story...

Soon after the death of Zedong in 1977, the Chinese Govt. decided to abandon the Communist policies followed so far and decided to adopt a semi-capitalist form of economy, trusting more govt. instititions in the hands of private individuals, opening the market to foreign players, and putting up its ailing Public Sector Units for sale.

After trying this experiment for more than 20 years, China finds itself at the pinnacle of world economics. Its exports are soaring, goods manufactured in nook and corner of China are flooding the US and EU markets. But, there is an increasing realisation in Chinese economy think-tank that they havent cultivated enough of fresh ideas and innovative products all these years.

Two decades of mindless copy-and-produce has left them woefully short of the Narayan Murthys, Azim Premjis, Baba Kalyanis, M S Swaminathans and Deepak Puris, that India seem to be having in abundance. When the Chinese look back in retrospect, the absence of such innovators and entreprenuers troubles them to the level that a special task force has been set up to devise means to breed such entreprenuership among the youth and the corporate China.

Against the backdrop of this, I hear comments from people that India should follow the steps of China and aim to be a super-power. Super-power, but at what cost? Mindless felling of trees and over-dependence on fossil fuels has left China slave to the vagaries of nature and the price-regulation of the OPEC countries. I am happy with the way India has been growing, though I would like to see more of Indianisation and localistion in our markets and products. I would like to see lesser dependence on fuel -guzzling automobiles and other modern gadgets. If India is going to merely ape the West, then I cannot imagine what may happen to the environment if every Indian (and every Chinese) owned a car and depended on electricity for even shaving his moustache a few years down the line.

Every Indian may dream an American life, but is he ready to face the consequences such a life may bring about?

Cost of comparison - Part I

What is the similarity in the articles you would read in The Times of India, The Hindu, Rediff.com, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and sometimes even in Columbus Dispatch - the growing acceptance all over the world that India and China are the world's next two superpowers in-the-making; the fact that 2.4 billion people represent more than 30% of the human population and collectively they could eat up all the energy resources in the world, and push oil prices to levels unseen so far; and the reality that China has raced far ahead of India during the last 20 years and India is trying hard at covering up the gap.

Though, in principle, I do not agree with the view held by the Western media, which is, at times, reflected even in the Indian media, I completely despise the comparisons India is subjected to against China, because there are inherent differences in the way both the countries chose to "develop" economically. (Let me make it clear that I have a different meaning for the term development and I do not necessarily agree with the generally accepted meaning of the term). Before we go into the comparison, let us see the points of similarity between these 2 countries.

1. Both India and China became independent around the same time from colonial rule.
2. They are large countries and have a large population, which, in present age, means that both have a large workforce and a large market for anyone to sell anything.
3. Both of them are in a drive to "develop" economically and have partly or fully adopted the model used by the Western world.

Now lets come to the critical differences.
From the begining, the US had a soft corner for China, which ultimately resulted in China getting the coveted Permanent membership of the Security Council. though many would argue that Security Council and the UN are puppets in the hands of the US and thus make no sense, China made the most use of it and sided with the US on every public forum, and was thus able to turn into a reliable friend which the US could trust on any issue. (Only now the US has realised its folly, when it sees its market literally swamped with "Made in china" products, its people losing their manufacturing jobs to their Chinese counterparts and Chinese economy looking to challenge the supremacy of the US). Though built on the Communist model, very soon China threw the policies of Mao Zedong (pronounced Tse-tung) into the trash bin and went into a frenzied makeover of its ailing public companies which had accumulated losses to the tune of billions of dollars. Interstingly at around the same time, India had experimented with the idea of "Open Market" and by 1977, when the new socialist govt. took over, comapanies like Coke and IBM were thrown out of the country, only to be later called back in early 90's.

.....To be continued in Part II

The plunder of Paris

Arson, rioting and killing has swept France and left the world bewildered. The country that gave birth to the lofty ideals of humanism -- Liberty, Equality, Fraternity -- is facing questions it has perhaps never faced since the Bastille fell, 216 years ago, and the French Revolution marked an important step in human evolution.

A state of emergency has been declared in Paris and various other metros, first since the war in Algeria in 1955. The riots were sparked when 2 teenagers belonging to the minority Muslim community were electrocuted at a power station while fleeing from the police. Almost immediately the public anger against the French government and its policies was evident in the form of burning of cars, torching of govt. buildings and large-scale rioting.

Though the Govt. claims that the situation has been brought under control, the streets of Paris and its suburbs paint a different picture altogether.

New to this World

I have been thinking of doing this for a long time, but procrastination is a disease that is akin to an extra-marital relationship. You feel guilty and bad the first time, shy the next time, but after that it just becomes a habit and you enjoy doing it. Finally I shrugged off my laziness and made myself part of this world, that seemed to be a lunatic's asylum just a few years back. Till long I dismissed web-logging as one of those new internet hypes, until Dec.26, 2004 came when the Tsunami struck South-east Asia and various parts of South Asia. That's when I realised the sheer power of blogs - before media reporters could reach the spot of destruction, eye-witnesses had started writing their description of the events on the blog, and within minutes, the whole world knew what was happening in a small village in India.

I salute the power of blog!