Tata Nano: A curse for the upper classes or a blessing for the rest?

Its been quite some time since I wanted to write this article about the Tata Nano. I have had a bad feeling about traffic jams and pollution ever since the plans to have such a car were announced. And the negative feeling was there until the car was about to be released and I had a sort of realization that my views on the Nano were purely elitist.


The Tata Nano will lead to a lot of traffic problems and being a Bangalorean I would say we don't even need a Nano to choke up the existing potholed streets of Bangalore. Along with traffic congestion Nano is expected to bring in more air pollution and increased stress to people traveling on the roads.


Because its going to be the reason of the common man's pain, sneering at Nano sounds like an elitist attitude, an attitude that I would love to explain. Imagine that there are a group of people including me and you the reader as well. I happen to be the only one among the group to be having a car that costs Rs. 50 Lakhs. Applying the same elitist attitude, if my opinion is to ban all cars that cost less than Rs. 40 Lakhs so that the owners expensive cars get to zip around the city and also the city gets clean air, you know what kind of a hole people will call me :)


Thats why the attitude seems to be elitist. Probably the solution for the possible root of the problem lies in the government's response to the infrastructure woes of the country. Instead of pointing fingers at Nano - a car that has proved many cynics wrong, its a better idea to ask for better road infrastructure. And that is why I personally feel that the Nano is a blessing in disguise. The Indian system (the govt and the civil agencies) never wakes up until it gets a jolt and the jolt will be when Nano swarms the roads and cripples the complete system (although this looks a little far fetched, it is possible).


Widening the roads to any extent is not a good solution, especially when there is no concept of lanes in India and with the two and the three wheelers squeezing through the every available gap in the traffic its almost impossible to even dream of a disciplined traffic. Its surprising to see many people, especially the ones arguing against the Nano speak of implementing the congestion charge system similar to that of London while they are not thinking of the kind of amazing public transport present in this city. London has an excellent metro rail transport system and is very well complemented by the bus transport through out the city. With such an infrastructure it makes sense to have a congestion charge. But implementing it in any Indian city, the city would be better off by asking the businesses to shut down operations and move to some other country and people can swat flies sitting at home.


While Ratan Tata says that the idea of Nano is to provide a safer mode of transport to the Indian family of 4+ riding a 2-wheeler, Sunita Narain of the CSE claims that 2wheelers are a better option since they pollute less and is more inclined towards buses. Both sticking to their points, both are correct and sound noble in what they are saying. But IMHO a mass rapid transport system like a metro rail augmented with an excellent bus transport will do wonders to big cities in reducing the pollution levels, traffic density, travel time and convenience.

So a Nano may be perceived as a blessing or a curse, but the governments can do a lot towards having a good public transport system.

PS: I took the photos at the auto show :)

Racist Indians?

Its been a while since I came to this foreign land (US) and my views and perspectives of the world including India (and "us" Indians) have changed!


Then what makes me name this post with such a title? Well, in plain words, we Indians(99% of "us" Indians) are born racists, bred racists. It is in our blood to categorize people based on race, colour, language and many other things, which is what we learn throughout our schooling, thanks the the caste system and the politics that hangs on to it!


US is more diverse (than India) in every possible aspect and seems to have people who respect each other a lot i.e., at least they don't categorize people saying that you speak this language so you are so and so, you are from this country, so you are something else. Where as most desis have a name to call people from every possible corner of the planet. Eg: Makku, Kallu, Goraa, Chinki etc etc. The problem doesn't lie in the naming, but that attitude exhibited by many Indians, being immigrants or tourist/students who find a problem with the Americans (easpecially the ones who have been named as M,K,G or C). Not only this, when a desi lands in US and happens to be in a high desi density area, its very common to notice their comments saying OMG there are so many desis over here expressing both surprise and disappointment (sometimes) in their reaction !

Where does the problem lie? Is it in the Indian education system or the cultural upbringing of the typical Indian or the society in which we Indians grow up?

Here is the problem:

With every single political party thats there in the Indian Political Arena claiming cater to a certain caste/creed/religion and the past 60 years of not so glorious Independent India, the system in the country has been decaying with the rot spreading slowly and silently. Years of slavery under the British came to an end on 15th August 1947, but for the Indians it was a dawn of a new era, an era where illiterate, shrewd, criminal Indians would rule the literate (professionals like engineers, doctors, lawyers etc) Indians with the slaves of the Independent India never realizing that they are the literate slaves of the illiterate rulers! The current breed of political aspirants is so polarized that the debutents have to be criminal, casteist etc.

So is it the problem with these politicians? To some extent, yes. But to a greater extent the problem is with the non participatory democracy in the country that has made the good people (the slaves of the independent India) passive to the politics, even though the slaves are the ones to be screwed by the masters!

Why is it that the largest democracy of the world so non-participatory? Something wrong in the democracy itself? The current constitution of India was a great folly by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar??

The answer to the above questions may be Yes.

With the same old constitution being followed by our dear politicians, the country has no poption but to remain in the 50's while the rest of the world marches ahead! Dr. Ambedkar himself was of the opinion that the constitution has to evolve itself with time and also made it clear that the country will deteriorate if there are no amendments to the constitution.

Sadly, Dr. Ambedkar's name has been misused by many groups (politicians and the so called "dalit groups") to such an extent that the underprivileged people consider him to be there god but fail to realize how flexible the constitution was meant to be! Anyone trying to change or amend the constitution is called as anti-dalit or anti-Ambedkar person whereas the scores of amendments that have taken place behind the scenes are never questioned! Over the years these behind the scenes acts have been performed without the knowledge of the literate as well as the illiterate Indians!

Now, whats wrong if the constitution has been amended a few hundred times over the past sixty years? Isn't/Is it cool to have had so many amendments?

The problem lies in the ulterior motives of the corrupt political ruling parties that have raped the Independent India. The amendments have been done to facilitate corruption at all levels. Most of the amendments degraded the constitution to the next level. While these amendments are never questioned by the dalits for their lack of knowledge, every good amendment that is anti-corruption gets very good publicity, which is opposed by the parties and the dalit groups (that its an insult to Dr. Ambedkar)!



To be continued ............

Great Video from TED Talks

Fumes from indoor cooking fires kill more than 2 million children a year in the developing world. MIT engineer Amy Smith details an exciting but simple solution: a tool for converting farm waste into cleaner-burning fuel. Plain-spoken and passionate, Smith talks about some other tools she and her students are creating, including an incubator that stays warm without electricity and a grain mill that frees women from hours of grinding every day. These are basic tools with world-changing results.

About Amy Smith:

Amy Smith designs cheap, practical fixes for tough problems in developing countries. Among her many accomplishments, the MIT engineer received a MacArthur "genius" grant in 2004 and was the first woman to win the Lemelson-MIT Prize for turning her ideas into inventions


Source: TED Talks

Dalit Freedom Network

This post is about an organization that claims to do good work, but it has many not believable facts making me write strongly against it. I have no personal anguish against the real dalits nor the real Christian missionaries, but this article portrays my anguish against the fakies in this world of deception! People who feel offended by any real religion/caste discussions are advised not to read the article.

Quoted from the DFN website

"The Dalit Freedom Network partners with the Dalits in their quest for religious freedom, social justice, and human rights by mobilizing human, informational, and financial resources.

We at the Dalit Freedom Network value the contributions of others who have gone before us, and through those efforts made the world a better place. Therefore, we seek to carry forward the legacy of William Wilberforce who worked for the abolition of slavery and the reformation of society; the legacy of William Carey who worked for the abolition of Sati, the practice of burning widows on the funeral pyre of their husbands; the legacy of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and Mahatma Phule who pioneered the movement for the abolition of caste and the Dalit quest for freedom and dignity; the legacy of Mother Teresa who showed God’s love in word and deed to the sick and dying; and to follow the command of Jesus Christ who called us to be ‘the salt of the earth’ and ‘the light of the world’."

Sounds good?

DFN claims to do the "good things" for the dalits and its intention is to abolish the caste system. Of course it is a benevolent idea to help the downtrodden, but, a few questions arise in my mind, for I have been a skeptic of such "social z or NGOs" who claim to do good work.

The only proof of authenticity is the ECFA (Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability), which is (quoted from the ECFA website) "an accreditation agency dedicated to helping Christian ministries earn the public’s trust".

Why aren't there any other affiliations, memberships, approvals appearing on the website???

Why should the NGO show only the ECFA membership seal and not bother about any Indian certification agencies?? ECFA guarantees that the money is used for good purpose (according to their rules and regulations).

Quoted from their best practices website, the very first 'Standard' says "Every member organization shall subscribe to a written statement of faith clearly affirming its commitment to the evangelical Christian faith ".

So, by their own standards, it seems like ECFA and members of ECFA are committed to Christian Evangelism!

Caste system, Dalits, SC/ST are all the 'tags' that are used by the political parties to garner votes from the most gullible vote bank, because of which I strongly feel that DFN is in India to mislead the people.

The donors may assume that the donations go to the actual dalit projects (its good if this really happens), but there is a clause clearly stating that "if" for any reason the funds collected are in excess, it will be used for other projects.

A full scale critique would require a complete (on the ground) investigation, but with the limited amount of sources of information, its not fair to blame the organisation on no grounds. This last few lines may sound contradicting when compared to the rest of the article, hence its up to the reader's intelligence/prejudices/suspicions to agree/disagree with suspicion pointed out over here.

Will update this article after further pondering :)

THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM

Having read the Bourne series, its nice to see the third part of the trilogy finally taking shape on screen.

The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy were great to read and also watch (although the movie and the novel were not having the exact same story).

After Watching the movie:

Movie is amzing with slick action sequences, gripping story and the tempo never goes down. The typical Bourne movie that seems to be the best among the trilogy.

1 thing that you may notice in the movie is that the cops car, Audis and the VW Touregs that are involved in the action sequences seem to have a special config where the airbags never seem to work even after the car falls from the 2nd or the 3rd level of the building :)