How will Kerala celebrate now?

India has just won a match – an overseas ODI, not an overseas test you optimist! You have just received a job or a promotion. Your child has just got admission in a school / college. You have just won a state lottery. Sachin Tendulkar has just visited your state and you were in attendance for his felicitation. Your outstretched arm barely scraped past Sachin’s shoulders while he was leaving. It’s a festival / Sunday / any personal occasion like Birthday, Anniversary etc. Your blood test has proved everything’s right in your body. Your liver’s fine.

In all the above mentioned occasions, don’t you feel the urge to celebrate? If yes, then how? Not sure if most of us will buy a cake / have a quiet dinner with the family. It must be a lot of buzz and booze! Speaking of booze, wouldn’t you like to have a dip in the alcohol pool? Well yes, of course.

Not if you are in Kerala. Most Keralites residing in Kerala will be devoid of such “luxury” from September 12th. That’s because their government has decided to ban over 700 liquor bars in Kerala in a phase-wise approach. Around 418 bars are already closed since 1st April 2014. 213 bars currently functioning will be closed on 31st March 2015. From 1st April 2015 only 5 star hotels, approx. 23 in the state, will legally sell liquor.

Why such a ban? – Statistics don’t lie. Kerala is the one of the leading consumer of liquor in India. So much so that 1/6th of the total liquor consumption comes from Kerala. To put things in perspective, India’s per capita consumption of liquor stands at 4 liters whereas Kerala is twice that number at 8.3. So, excessive alcoholism is a major issue in Kerala, at least most of the female population and religious groups will testify. Some analysts have also linked alcohol consumption to domestic and social violence. While the link appears logical, there’s a separate school of thought that believes a drunk drowns his problems / frustrations using alcohol thereby reducing the chance of domestic / social violence. Kerala is not the first state to implement such a step – Gujarat, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland have all tried it. 

Will a ban be successful? – Let’s get one thing out of the way – if the intention is to have a healthier and a safe Kerala, then it is worth applauding. While the jury is out and there is no clear prediction if the ban will be successful, I personally feel it’s a step back for the Kerala government – economic damage notwithstanding. I can understand the political pressure imposed from the religious allies of the government – perils of a coalition government. But the solution will not do much good. Instead, it will force the regular drinkers to “procure” their spirit from neighboring states. Illegal liquor business will flourish, which is more harmful to government and individuals. Just to quote a metaphor, if murders have increased dramatically in a region, you don’t ban knives / ropes / other common weapons right? You devise a mechanism to have a stringent law to fight the culprits. Same applies here too. If alcohol is leading to an increase in crimes, you introduce and implement stringent laws to fight the crime. Generating awareness is also a solution – albeit long term. Banning alcohol, even in a phased manner, serves no purpose.

Alcohol is not the problem here. Excessive alcohol and its effect on individuals and society are. We need to fight the problem from its root instead of barely attacking the leaves.

PS: I am a teetotaler and this issue doesn’t matter to me at a personal level. But Kerala is my hometown and I am afraid this ban will be counter-productive towards Kerala’s cause. 

Book Review: Private India

Private India is a mythological murder mystery co-written by James Patterson (an acclaimed author specializing in investigation based novels) and Ashwin Sanghi (who’s currently the best mythological thriller writer in India). This book is the 8th part of the “Private” series written by James Patterson. All his novels are location specific. James Patterson’s location based entry strategy is to co-write a book with a top author of the respective country. This way, he adds his fast paced novel writing with the localized flavor of the country introduced by his co-author. And this book is no different in that context.

Judging a book by its cover – 

Who should read this book – 

1. Thriller Addicts
2. Readers who love the Murder centered "Whodunit plots”
3. Have a thing or two for mythological novels? This is for you!

What's the story like – A murder happened in the hustle bustle city of Mumbai. An Indian entity of the world renowned investigation agency, by the name “Private India”, had been entrusted with the task. Another murder happened within hours and interesting props were kept at the murder site. Before Santosh Wagh, head of Private India, gets to terms with the 2nd occurrence, a 3rd incident happens within a day’s time. The connecting link between the murders – all are women strangulated with a yellow scarf and a seemingly unconnected props are left behind. Once the whodunit chase begins, we are introduced to a don and a Godman and the story gets murkier. There’s a bigger motive at stake and Santosh Wagh has to put up a fight to protect what’s left of his own. The end is predictable given the way the reader is led to the climax.

How's the writing – Clean and simple. This book is a definite page turner for two reasons – one, story is gripping and two, the font is bigger (Oops!). In all seriousness, I felt the plot and various other sub-plots were worth the read. The characters are well defined and have justifiable reasons behind the decisions / actions. Grammatically there are errors which you don’t expect from a great writer like Ashwin Sanghi. Or were those a touch of creative innovation, am not sure. Even if it were, it didn’t feel like one. The book also changes from a 3rd person narrative to a 1st person narrative of the murderer which makes the reading experience a little bit more interesting and gives a glimpse of what the murderer is thinking / doing at that point in time.

So, what do I think – A seemingly unconnected string of murders happening with no apparent motive of stealing or revenge and a world famous investigation agency trying to make sense of it and to connect the dots between the murders – who wouldn’t want to turn the pages? This book ensures you are reading this right to the end without a break! If at all anything, there are two negatives – random grammatical errors and a rather expected climax with some dots unconnected in the end. 

Ashwin Sanghi has proved yet again that he is the best at Mythological thrillers in India. The expectation has only risen. I haven’t read any of James Patterson’s novels but I think that needs to change.

My Rating: 3.5 / 5

PS: This review is part of the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda. A special thanks to the BlogAdda team for selecting me for the review process.

Form a new batting core and 4 other things Team India needs to do urgently

Embarrassed! Humbled! Humiliated! Destroyed!

India has lost the Test series against England 3-1 after leading the series 0-1. It’s not the loss that hurts, but the way we lost. I thought 4-0 was the worst you can expect, but this was an all-new low. Despite winning the Lords Test, it feels more like a whitewash. Maybe even worse.

Metaphorical in a way

Before the final test match, I wrote an article (click here) claiming that this team is undergoing a transition and will take time to return to glory days. The response I got from some of my friends was that this is the most ****** team ever (enter your choicest word here). I tried defending the lack of application and fight shown by this team and hoped they will at least give a fight. Alas, they stooped to an undefinable level of depth not expected from a top Cricketing team. The optimist in me says they will make a comeback in the limited format and beat England. But then that's where I am missing the point. Even if we defeat England in the one-dayers, we will allow ourselves to conveniently forget the debacle in the test series and move on. This is not one to be forgotten. Lessons need to be learnt and strong decisions have to be taken. 

And it should happen right from the top.

1. Duncan Fletcher to quit for good - When we are down in the dumps, the axe should fall on someone. That someone, in my opinion, is none other than Duncan Fletcher. I personally don't know what he is bringing to the table although all the players have high regard for him. Duncan Fletcher was the coach of the England team and was in a much better position to help the batsmen and bowlers to adapt to the conditions. Simply put, he failed. BCCI won't fire Dhoni, unless Dhoni retires from the test format. Hence, the other alternative is Fletcher.

2. MS Dhoni to quit captaincy - If I say MS Dhoni has lost it, few will disagree with me especially after the drubbing we received. If you are one of those who feel we have actually improved from a 4-0 whitewash to 3-1 result, God help you. If you tell me, he didn’t have any resources to perform in England, then what was he doing in the selection committee? He could have raised this issue then and there. And considering the influence he has based on his allegiances, he would have got what he wanted. Why was Stuart Binny selected? And then dropped? And why was Ashwin selected for a green top? Your guess is as good as mine. I am a huge fan of MS Dhoni like most of us, but this time we have to prioritize our cricket team over a player. If MS Dhoni can play under a different captain, then great. Let it happen. Else, he can choose to retire from Tests. And anyways, he's just 2 losses away from becoming the worst overseas captain ever!

3. Prepare for a Test series abroad by actually playing Test matches - England prepared for the 5 match test series by playing a 2 match test series against Sri Lanka. They lost the series 0-1. But they had enough "match practice" when Indian team joined them. Indians, on the contrary, were playing T20 and ODI's before coming to England. Even in England, they played a dumb practice match before the series. Even a Test series at home would have done us some good.

4. Pujara and Rahane should be given longer rope to succeed - Despite what we say in this test series, there's still no denying that Pujara and Rahane are still the players who can take the team forward. Pujara, Kohli and Rahane are perfect 3rd, 4th and 5th in the batting line-up and needs to be given time to succeed in the longer version abroad. They need to be the new core of the batting line-up.

5. Continue with Kohli, we don’t have an option - Virat Kohli has all the capability and potential to be the Sachin Tendulkar for the next generation. I know I will get a lot of flak for comparing Kohli with Sachin. But let’s admit that he's our only hope to be closest to Sachin Tendulkar at least in terms of tsunami of runs scored over a career span. He may have failed miserably in the Test series, but had performed well down under and there's no reason why he can't do it again. He is a wonderful batsman in the limited format and still have lots of years to make a significant different in the Test setup.

I still feel this team is undergoing a transition. But even for transition to happen, you need to persist with what you think is the right balance, right players and an astute leader despite failure. This team needs some omissions and some additions (more from the youth system) to take the Test story forward. There are some players better suited for limited edition - utilize them there. Identify players better suited for the longer version and give them more opportunities.

And for heaven’s sake, take those catches that come your way!

Whose copyright is it anyway?

Although we all know what copyright means, I still thought of asking someone who’s second only to God in more ways than one – Google, our academic and professional savior! This is how Google responded – 

So, copyright is “the exclusive and assignable legal right, given to the originator for a fixed number of years, to print, publish, perform, film, or record literary, artistic, or musical material”. I think this definition is exclusive and covers everything that needs to be covered from an ownership perspective. That’s what we thought till a few days ago. Until Wikimedia posted this as part of its collection – 

Here's the Wikimedia link - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Monkey_selfie. I don't know if I can share it - copyright issues, you see. If they have removed it by the time you click on this link, your loss. Oh no wait, you can still Google the pic. That's how our Internet works.

So, what’s the background? – A British photographer, David Slater, was travelling through one of the Indonesian jungle when he bumped onto some monkeys. The monkeys started playing with his photography equipment including the camera. One of them found the button to click photos. Excited by the reflections / flash, it started playing with it – completely oblivious of the fact that it was clicking its own images – defined by a human term called “selfies”. There were 100’s of photos clicked, most of which were blurred except for some which was shared by Wikimedia. 

Where’s the problem? – Photographer Slater feels he own the images and Wikimedia should not use it without informing him. In other words, the image is copyright protected. But Wikimedia is refuting his charges stating that the image is not a copyright of the photographer simply because he did not click it. And if at all anything, it belongs to the Monkey! Obviously Slater has pressed charges against Wikimedia and Wikimedia is standing firm with their own set of arguments. 

If we agree with what the photographer believes, then we are opening a can of even bigger problems. Following are some of the scenarios where we will have to relook if Slater is legally correct - 

1. I publish my blog posts from my laptop. So, the content I create is my copyright. Now, what if a fellow blogger creates his content using my laptop? Whose copyright is it?
2. Assume Virat Kohli got dismissed for a duck in a cricket match. The next batsmen, Rohit Sharma, asked Kohli for his bat. He then goes on to make a century. Whose century is it now? Kohli, Sharma or the bat?
3. Assume I worked on a PowerPoint presentation for a business contest using a sample template shared by someone - xyz. I am the only one who worked on it, so the content part is totally mine. Then I submitted the presentation to the contest authorities. But since the template was owned by xyz, PowerPoint automatically makes xyz the "owner". Whose PowerPoint is it now? Me, xyz or Microsoft? (Actually, this falls under “Work for Hire” where the owner owns the work and not the workers)
4. During school exams, I gave my "extra pen" to a person - xyz - who went on to top at the university level. Irrespective of my result, who topped the university? Me, xyz or the pen?

I know the examples don’t exactly match the situation of the photographer. But don’t you feel compelled to think about these too? So, who do you think the image belongs to? Now, don’t say “God only knows”!

PS: This post is written more at the sarcastic level and is intended to be read with a pinch of salt and some selfies too. 

England Cricket team should be disappointed for losing the Lords Test

England team are on a high right now. And why now, they have defeated a team much high in confidence and power in the Cricketing world - India. After a rather embarrassing defeat at the Lords, they came back bouncing with 2 back-to-back victories against a now hapless Indians. Hapless because of the following numbers - 205, 178, 152 and 161. Wish these were scores of an Indian batsman. But it turned out to be the total score of all 11 players combined in 4 innings! And now we are left hoping for Ishant Sharma to make a comeback from injury - ironically, the same guy who we ridiculed on social media months ago! Talk of life changing in a matter of few months.

In a 5 test series, England has taken a lead of 2-1 which means they will never lose the series now. Even a draw at "The Oval" will win it for them. Things have finally started looking good for them. Even their Cook has started mixing ingredients needed for success. Their batsmen are performing well, bowlers doing what they are supposed to do to Indian batsmen. Their fielders are catching almost everything that’s been thrown at them. Add to it the lack of application from Indian players and you have found the secret to success. If at all there's anything they rue, it should be the loss at Lords. 

All the criticism post Lords test is now behind them and is being transferred to MS Dhoni. The guy who had Midas touch for most part of his career as captain is now left with nothing but mere touches (read: punches) of defeat. We don’t need an expert to analyze the flaws in our team. Some batsmen don’t know how to apply themselves in alien conditions. Some who know aren’t consistent enough to perform throughout the series. They say, a good start is half the effort done. Our highest opening partnership this series has been 49 runs in the second innings of the first test. Even the experienced Gambhir didn’t make it count when given an opportunity. The ever-reliant Virat Kohli is woefully out of form. Rohit Sharma has his phases of purple patch and obviously this is not one of them. Pujara and Rahane are performing in bits-n-pieces and it’s not helping the team. When your team’s scores are paltry, you can’t expect the bowlers to save you. Even if you do, we don’t have the bowlers who can take 20 wickets in a test match.

India "down under" in England

Make no mistake about it, I am not criticizing this Indian team. This team is in a transitional phase. The big players we once had are being missed big time. But we need to go through this phase and experience defeat till we find some gem(s) within us. In my opinion, five places in the test team are still vacant. These are places belonging to Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid, VVS and Kumble. From the current lot, there are players who have potential to occupy these slots – Rahane, Pujara, Kohli, R Sharma, Vijay and Ashwin. Conspicuous by their absence are Dhoni and Gambhir simply because we are talking about the future and not the present. Every team goes through this phase – even the once mighty West Indians and Australians experienced it. The challenge is how early we can move on and start winning (consistently) again. 

There’s still one more test to go at “The Oval”. The least we need to expect from this transitional team is to step up and fight. Result should not matter at this point. What matters is – if we can find someone in this team who can make it count and be the next God, if at all that’s possible?

An unforgettable experience

She came across as one who’s happy, content with life and living the way the Almighty wanted us all to. No ill-deeds, no past regrets, satisfied with the present and a hope within to continue the same in the days to come. She gets up in the morning full of praise and thanksgiving. She completes her daily chores so that she can start serving others. She does her work diligently and with complete responsibility. In more ways than one, she's like just you and me, sans petty tensions. And yes, there's one more difference. She has something we don't. She has AIDS. 

The "She" I am referring to can be anyone and use of gender is just for illustration. 

The other day I, along with some friends, had the privilege to meet and interact with people suffering from AIDS in a care center. There were about 25-30 women inmates in the care center. They welcomed us, sang songs with us, taught us new songs and shared their experiences. We had lunch together. We took group pictures before leaving. They humbly asked us to share the pictures with them the next time we visit them. What took us by surprise was their humility and a zest for life. Among the inmates, some of them were rejected by their families as they felt the victim has brought disrepute. Some of them didn’t have anyone outside to look forward to. Everyone had their own problems in the past and are living with it and will probably live with them forever. 

But a brave face and an attitude to live every day as it comes has made them stronger. Imagine their problems – an ailment that’s life threatening, virtually banned and ignored by the same society they were a part of, challenge to have nutritional food every time where millions in our country die of hunger, easily susceptible to contagious diseases due to lower levels of immunity. Difficult to imagine, right?

The learning class amongst us wants to earn degrees – graduation and post-graduation – so that they get a better career along with a better pay package. The working class amongst us yearn for the double-digit salary hikes every year, so that we can look forward to "living happily". We work hard, extra hours a day to optimize our monthly intake so that we can probably buy that elusive dream house in this city. The inmates don’t have a job to look forward to, don’t have a house – their families have left them – yet they are more composed than most of us! Why? Probably, they haven’t forgotten to thank and praise their creator during these testing times, something very few of us do. Probably, they know we are all here to live and not simply exist.

Here are some of the statistics on AIDS – More than 35 million people are living with HIV of which just less than 10% are children under the age of 15. Every year, more than 2 million people are infected with HIV which translates to almost 240 every hour. Since the beginning of the pandemic, nearly 78 million people have contracted HIV and close to 39 million have died of AIDS-related causes.

We as a society are responsible for the plight of AIDS victims – the emotional plight they experience. We look at them with disdain. We chose to ignore their problems. Despite being “educated”, we are unable to be sensitive towards them. We fall prey to “reputation in society” so much that we conveniently distance ourselves from our dear ones who has unfortunately been infected by AIDS. It’s only human to help someone in need / pain. But when it comes to AIDS, we chose an alternate path. As humans, it’s within our right to show our concern towards those with ailments, let alone a life threatening one.

We entered the AIDS center wanting to know more about them, their lives and the problems they face every day. We left the center with renewed hope and faith. Renewed hope to emerge victorious despite any form of trail that befalls us. Renewed faith that things will change for the better. The victims need our support, emotional and financial, and an acceptance in the society. That’s the least we can do.

PS: I am deliberately not mentioning the name of the care center here. The intention here is just to make each one of us aware of the problems these victims are facing. Proper awareness is the first step we need to take. A good beginning is half the job done!