Pratibha Patil's comments about the purdah and the veil under which she wants to hide herself after the controversy could hopefully save the Atlantis in landing safely and thus rewarding the many who are praying for Sunita Williams' safe return into the earthly presence where 2 legged humans and 4 legged animals roam around in the shelter provided by the ever growing wealth of Indian Cricketers whose money will not stop growing after the ceiling cap on endorsements for cricketers were raised, not taking into account the surprise acceptance of Kalam to contest the presidential elections in India, which has now taken an interesting turn, albeit still not turning as much as the Monty Panesar delivery which dismissed Dinesh Ramdin in the 4th and final test match in England which cannot even stand a chance against the quite irresponsible way in which India's former spinner Maninder Singh disputed suicide accusations even while he was grappling with trying to avoid and evade the accusations of drug consumption which put him in the spotlight, but which has today been over shadowed by the new Italian Avtar of Durga taking shape in the form of Sonia Gandhi's depiction as Sonia Durga Gandhi, hogging the important headlines story in CNN IBN, which may get much publicity amidst growing ecological concerns over China's infrastructure plans of building a road till the base of Mt. Everest as a journey for carrying the Olympic Torch for the 2008 Olympics.
June 21, 2007
June 12, 2007
Will Orkut Stay Put ?
Internet savvy world welcomed with open arms the rise and rise of social networking. Orkut, along with other social networking sites as hi5, have revolutionised how people stay in touch. If the messengers of the world (the IM ones) led the way of chatting and finding new friends, social networking provides a better way of meeting people with matching interests. The anonymity of the chat world has been replaced by the genuineness of the orkut world. Not quite well enough though.
Orkut has been in trouble on more than one occasion. In Brazil it had been asked to furnish information and data because of criminal activities which gained ground in orkut. Very soon, it came to light that there were anti-India communities existing as a group. This created another furore in India, with an issue being served to google. And a couple of days ago, Shiv Sainiks in Mumbai vandalised an internet cafe' because of certain groups in orkut derogatory material about Shivaji and the Thackeray family. There was also a murder of a girl working in TCS by her boyfriend after they developed relationships after meeting up on Orkut.
All this indicates the cons of having a networking site. But there is no dearth of such sites at all. To name a few, hi5, fropper, myspace, facebook and the list goes on. The fact that orkut gets dragged into all this is because of it being owned by google, and its spread across the world as a robust networking site. There is no denying that orkut has always had good things from its users, for having brought long lost friends together, in making new friends, and most importantly, the genuineness of the profiles on orkut. Of course there will always be those who will abuse the site. But why orkut is loved by its users is because of the detailed profiles which exist. That users with common interests can form groups is probably what has created a lot of problems.
Technology will always continue to surge ahead, and provide more opportunities for people to get closer. Social networking sites like orkut provide a lot of facilities, but there is always a flip side to anything which enables and equips people. The wrong doers, who will continue to persist and do wrong things. These could be people who want to evoke a sense of hatred, and incitement to create social disharmony. It could also be authoritarian rules which restrict usage of such sites. Either ways, technology will always be misused. The more it progresses , much more chances that it can be misused.
It is difficult to curb sites like orkut which has such huge following. What can be done about those who form groups with wrong intention is to report the site as bogus. This is an option which orkut provides. If a certain number of users report it as bogus, the group will be removed. One other thing that can be done is, to set a lower cap on the number of users who can join a group. If a group can boast of 500 members, then it can be made public. Else it shouldn't be. Moderation should obviously be a responsibility of the owner of the group. It should also be made mandatory that anyone who wishes to join the group has to go through the moderator. Though these are not easy to implement and follow, curbs like these can certainly help in orkut and other networking sites having more of a useful value than nuisance value.
Head Back Home
Orkut has been in trouble on more than one occasion. In Brazil it had been asked to furnish information and data because of criminal activities which gained ground in orkut. Very soon, it came to light that there were anti-India communities existing as a group. This created another furore in India, with an issue being served to google. And a couple of days ago, Shiv Sainiks in Mumbai vandalised an internet cafe' because of certain groups in orkut derogatory material about Shivaji and the Thackeray family. There was also a murder of a girl working in TCS by her boyfriend after they developed relationships after meeting up on Orkut.
All this indicates the cons of having a networking site. But there is no dearth of such sites at all. To name a few, hi5, fropper, myspace, facebook and the list goes on. The fact that orkut gets dragged into all this is because of it being owned by google, and its spread across the world as a robust networking site. There is no denying that orkut has always had good things from its users, for having brought long lost friends together, in making new friends, and most importantly, the genuineness of the profiles on orkut. Of course there will always be those who will abuse the site. But why orkut is loved by its users is because of the detailed profiles which exist. That users with common interests can form groups is probably what has created a lot of problems.
Technology will always continue to surge ahead, and provide more opportunities for people to get closer. Social networking sites like orkut provide a lot of facilities, but there is always a flip side to anything which enables and equips people. The wrong doers, who will continue to persist and do wrong things. These could be people who want to evoke a sense of hatred, and incitement to create social disharmony. It could also be authoritarian rules which restrict usage of such sites. Either ways, technology will always be misused. The more it progresses , much more chances that it can be misused.
It is difficult to curb sites like orkut which has such huge following. What can be done about those who form groups with wrong intention is to report the site as bogus. This is an option which orkut provides. If a certain number of users report it as bogus, the group will be removed. One other thing that can be done is, to set a lower cap on the number of users who can join a group. If a group can boast of 500 members, then it can be made public. Else it shouldn't be. Moderation should obviously be a responsibility of the owner of the group. It should also be made mandatory that anyone who wishes to join the group has to go through the moderator. Though these are not easy to implement and follow, curbs like these can certainly help in orkut and other networking sites having more of a useful value than nuisance value.
Head Back Home
Vacant Reservation
While the Gujjars are now facing the wrath of the Government in Rajashthan, the democracy of India is giving rise to more voices demanding reservation. Rajasthan Brahmins now have demanded for quota on economic grounds. With India clocking economic growth rates of over 9%, it will be fun watching India go back to it's caste based culture. So, India would become an oxymoron of sorts. Maybe we could call India - Forward Looking Backwards. That this is happening is honestly not a surprise. With more people coming under the SC/ST & OBC quota, the remaining poor sections of society would feel they are hard done by. Being not economically sound, is enough for them to demand a right for a quota for their own. Which precisely is what should have been done, or still can be done. Alas, that is not the case, and India would be 100% reserved in a few years to come. Ironically that would solve matters too !
It is funny how the quota matter is boomeranging on those who conceptualised it. It is taking a turn for the worse. Offering reservation to the SC/ST, OBC has now led to more people requesting that they be tagged as backward too. Someone said it right, that India would probably be the only country where people want to have a backward status. And they don't mind it, do they ? While the Indian economy progresses, the Indian Society regresses. Indians a re embarrassing themselves, mainly due to the fact that there is no dignity of labour in India, unlike in the United States.
While Ford has nothing to do with reservation or quotas being demanded, he is certainly in the limelight for the simple reason that he rejected the BCCI's offer of coaching the Indian Cricket Team. As a result he has left the reservation he had, vacant once again. BCCI, in keeping up with the Indian Bureaucratic standards and it's own arrogance about being the richest cricketing body, was game enough to announce Ford as the Indian Coach, without first verifying with his availability. The BCCI and maybe even the players are bent upon getting a coach, so that there will always exist a scapegoat for Indian Cricket's establishment and cricketers. For any losses, blame it on the coach. For any victory, credit it to the cricketers. Handing a one year contract to coach the Indian cricket team, with a neighbouring cricket nation's coach being murdered in the middle of the world cup, can give any prospective coach cold feet. If BCCI thinks that a one year contract would be accepted by a foreign coach, they have got it all wrong.
On the one hand the BCCI insists in a foreign coach, because they bring in discipline and work with the boys closely, on the other, they want quick fix solutions in a matter of a year. One of the prime reasons why Ganguly's team was successful until 2005 was because John Wright was the coach of the team for almost 5 years. That is the amount of time a coach can really make a difference to a team. Though one can always argue, is there a need for a coach at all ?
Head Back Home
It is funny how the quota matter is boomeranging on those who conceptualised it. It is taking a turn for the worse. Offering reservation to the SC/ST, OBC has now led to more people requesting that they be tagged as backward too. Someone said it right, that India would probably be the only country where people want to have a backward status. And they don't mind it, do they ? While the Indian economy progresses, the Indian Society regresses. Indians a re embarrassing themselves, mainly due to the fact that there is no dignity of labour in India, unlike in the United States.
While Ford has nothing to do with reservation or quotas being demanded, he is certainly in the limelight for the simple reason that he rejected the BCCI's offer of coaching the Indian Cricket Team. As a result he has left the reservation he had, vacant once again. BCCI, in keeping up with the Indian Bureaucratic standards and it's own arrogance about being the richest cricketing body, was game enough to announce Ford as the Indian Coach, without first verifying with his availability. The BCCI and maybe even the players are bent upon getting a coach, so that there will always exist a scapegoat for Indian Cricket's establishment and cricketers. For any losses, blame it on the coach. For any victory, credit it to the cricketers. Handing a one year contract to coach the Indian cricket team, with a neighbouring cricket nation's coach being murdered in the middle of the world cup, can give any prospective coach cold feet. If BCCI thinks that a one year contract would be accepted by a foreign coach, they have got it all wrong.
On the one hand the BCCI insists in a foreign coach, because they bring in discipline and work with the boys closely, on the other, they want quick fix solutions in a matter of a year. One of the prime reasons why Ganguly's team was successful until 2005 was because John Wright was the coach of the team for almost 5 years. That is the amount of time a coach can really make a difference to a team. Though one can always argue, is there a need for a coach at all ?
Head Back Home