What should I have done?

Last wednesday I was standing at the back gate of my hostel waiting for one of my friend to return from the tea shop. In the meanwhile, I saw a middle aged man (nearly 35) coming to me. As soon as I saw him, I understood that he is coming for some help from me (don't know how). As expected by me, he came to me and asked me whether I understand Tamil. I answered in No. Then he said no problem I know English too.

Then he started narrating me a story that he had come to Chennai from Coimbatore. He was called for an interview. After the interview as soon as he got into a bus someone pickpocketed his wallet and that he is left with no money. He asked me for some money so that he could go back to his home. At once I thought to give him money, but then I thought for a while whether he is speaking truth or it's a tactic by him to get free money. I said that I too don't have money and I need to go to ATM to withdraw some money. He just said ok and left. I kept looking at him till he was invisible and kept thinking that should I have given him the money?

Really, it's very difficult to differentiate between honest people and liars. Why didn't Gandhi give us a talisman for this too?

Brett Lee Wants Sponsorship

I was amazed when I looked at the shoes of Brett Lee in one of his match. No No... It was neither too good nor torn. It had a sticker on it labelled "Sponsor Needed". The paucity of sponsors for a player like him is quite surprising. Even his way of advertising for himself is interesting.

Jai-Lolitha

Tamilnadu Chief Ministers have been so generous to the voters who helped them to get back power. Today, I came to know the reason behind a few rusted Dish TV Antennas in rural part of TamilNadu during my SEB field visit last year.

I read in the newspaper today that Mr. Karunanidhi had promised people to give them colour TVs if he comes to power. Guess what! He didn't breach the voters and colour TVs worth Rs. 4,000 Crore were ordered and delivered. Actually he had two benefits. One that he was seen as a politician who stood to what he promised and the other one was that it would help increasing the TRP of his television channel SUN TV. That's what we say "Ek teer, do nisaane".

Going along with the traditions of the state, Amma too had promised that she would provide students of class XIth and XIIth with a laptop. Now, 14 Lakh laptops would be ordered to keep her promise. I was thinking of the company who would get this huge order. They would be lucky enough to get the single largest hardware order ever in the history of India's e-inclusion programme. The order could be anywhere between 150 Crore to 350 Crore (huge enough to change the P&L figures for the company for this Financial Year).

There were some other promises too made by Amma during her election campaign which she announced to start soon after she was sworn in as the Chief-Minister of the state. Such as free rice, subsidised other cereals to the poor.

What I think is that just a formal declaration of these freebies won't help. Improvement in the PDS system is what India needs. There have so many welfare programmes running all across India. But, without proper watchdogs, they have been just a tool in the hands of officials handling those programmes as a means of increasing their personal wealth.

Hoping of some steps in this direction too.

Should bribery be Legalized?

On the website of the Finance Ministry, the chief Economic Advisor to the Indian Government Mr. Kaushik Basu has recommended to legalize paying bribery (in case of Harassment Bribery*) in India in order to fight corruption. At the first go it may seem absurd to even think of legalizing an immoral act to tackle corruption. But, a deeper thought must have gone through in Mr. Basu's mind before putting up the recommendation.

One of the explanations may be that people easily tend to pay bribe in order to get their work done. It happens to even those who don't want to pay bribe but have to. If they complaint about the bribery before getting their work done then their work won't get done. And they can't complaint about it after paying as it is illegal in India to pay or accept bribe. So, the solution provided by Mr. Basu is that if someone doesn't wish to pay bribe, they first get their work done by paying bribe. After that they can complaint against the person who accepted bribe for the work. This legal construct would dissuade government officials to accept bribe as they would think twice before accepting it.

In India, rules are such that a boy who attempts suicide, a father who pays dowry and a journalist who carries out a sting operation is also liable to be punished. I think these rules are an arm for those who asks for bribe or dowry, as they know the bribe or dowry giver won't complaint against them as they too are criminals in the eyes of law. Hence, such a law would be very helpful in combating corruption.

Looking at it from a different angle, won't it make easy for big corporate houses who most often bribe government officials to get their work done? Even for a common man, bribing would be easy as they would have a panacea in their hand. So, before implementing the rule certain Ifs and Buts must be taken into consideration. Then only it would help fighting corruption otherwise we only would have to suffer.

*(Harassment Bribery is defined as those cases of bribery in which people don't intend to pay bribe, but they have to, in order to get what they are legally entitled to. For example- If an income tax refund is held back from the taxpayer and he has to bribe the officials in order to get it.)

OBL - An Obituary

Osama Bin Laden (herein after to be referred as OBL - surely in order to not repeat blunder of confusion between Osama & Obama :-P) is finally dead according to the US officials.

Early Life of OBL

In 1979, at the age of 22, bin Laden joined the Mujahideen in Afghanistan to fight the Soviets. He subsequently became the chief financier of an organisation, which evolved into al Qaeda (which translates to 'The Base'). In 1989, after the Soviets pulled out, bin Laden returned to Saudi Arabia to work for his family construction firm. He was forced to leave Saudi Arabia in 1991, when the government revoked his citizenship for indulging in "anti-government" activities. He took refuge in Sudan.
In 1996,Under pressure from the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, Sudan expelled OBL. He moved with his 10 children and three wives to Afghanistan and declared a jihad, or holy war, against the U.S. and its allies.
In 1998, truck bombs triggered by al Qaeda in U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania killed 224 people.
Week later, the U.S. Embassy in the Tanzanian capital Dar es Salaam was bombed.
In the biggest terror attack on U.S. soil, the twin towers of the World Trade Center were razed to the ground on September 11, 2001 by al Qaeda suicide squad.

Final Destination

He used to live for the last five years imprisoned behind the barbed wire in Abbottabad (just 50 Kms away from Islamabad) spending long hours in front of his computer without an Internet connection (to protect himself from the reach of tech savvy US Military). He relied on just one person for his communication to the outer world, popularly known as the "Courier" and his brother who carried his Thumb Drives in & out. Living with the name as Arshad Khan, OBL lived with his three wives (so unlucky, just three) and few children completely behind the walls. One interesting incident that if some Sahid Afridi hit ball from a nearby playground over the 12-foot concrete walls, the Khan family wouldn't let anyone enter the compound. They would give the boy R.50 to buy a new one (they could have given the ball instead, but they thought it may be some US spy ball which may reveal their secret).

Even in his exile, OBL used to record voice messages to be edited, subtitles added, his images added and broadcasted by the Al-Qaeda which was sent via his Courier boy or his brother.

The role of Pakistan had been suspicious throughout the operation. It would have been impossible without their involvement that OBL would have been living their for the last ten years. Even military operation by US would have been impossible without Pakistan's support.

After Death (AD)

Look at the happy faces of US people, now they feel relieved that no 110 storey building would fall over them while working in office.

Back in Afghan land, another man was worried,Omar Bin Laden, (the Nth son of OBL's Mth wife), who left his father with his siblings in 2001 from Afghanistan as he never liked the work his father did, has rightly accused Obama for unlawfully killing his father who was without arms at his home at Abbottabad. According to him, OBL should have been arrested and made to go through trial in the court of law for truth to be revealed in front of the whole world (God knows what truth he was talking about).

Another incident which seems interesting after OBL's death is the announcement of US officials for US citizens abroad to be alert and cautious of traveling outside their home and to avoid large gatherings. Terror...even after death I would say.

One news that caught all eyes after his death was the fall in the price of oil below $113. Amazed by the reach of his affect on even commodities like oil. (Hope food inflation in India too falls)

India too joined to discuss the role of Pakistan in providing shelter to the terrorists (thanks OBL for revealing the world about Pak's double face and giving India a chance to say something against them). Hope it progresses in the positive manner in the coming future.

After all,as far as I am concerned, justice has been done to all those who suffered because of the terrorist activities carried out under the leadership of OBL, be it Indians, Americans or British. Now, Mission al-Zawahiri to be accomplished.