Four years back when I was finishing my bachelor’s degree I was not sure of where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do? I had few options in my hand. The one my dad wanted me to do was to take over his business like a good Indian son. I told him that It doesn’t make sense that I have a Bachelors is in Computers and that I take over his construction and material supply business. He also offered me to start my own software consultancy in India, I wasn’t sure of myself because I had no experience and no defined skills in any field then. Another push was from my Mom, She wanted me to go abroad and do my Masters in Computers and I was biased with this idea anyways. The one I had going on in my mind was to stay in India and look for a job (in MNC, it was kind of cool in those days to get a job in Multi National Company) have a fairly good salary and live the dream of happily ever after. The best things about having cool parents is that even if they don’t agree with you and even if they are trying to push you into a different direction they will let you do what you want to till a period of time. Till they use force on you to do what they want next. So I was given an opportunity to go to Bangalore to look for a job. Though I didn’t find a job but I did find one thing that it was not time to define anything yet. Well after 5 months of Bangalore entertainment I finally ended up applying for universities in US. Looking back I don’t think I was the only one in that state of mind who graduated with me. Though culture was defining but it did ease up a bit specially on the girls. I was just lost in my thought yesterday when I got an idea to see where we started and where we are going.

1)      Guys and Girls who were very good at studies and especially English had the most stable sense of future. They knew they were going abroad (US or UK) to pursue master and success. These guys were not only just good at what they do but people used to go to them for advice. They were popular during exams, hard working and sincere. Status: They did come to US and pursue their masters got good jobs with good benefits and good salary. Most of them are already married and they are planning places to call it home. Enviable.

2)      Guys and Girls who thought (please remember I used the word thought) they couldn’t afford to study abroad so they stayed back to find a job in a MNC. Guys and Girls who were good with grades did well to get into the early screening entrance test and they got jobs earlier than others and they started to fit into the system earlier. These people worked extremely hard to be where they are today. They got opportunities to travel and work with people of different cultures. Some after visiting these countries wanted to settle in those, like a lot of my friends here in US. Girls got married both aboard to guys already in abroad and girls in India to guys in abroad (this was cultural and nothing else). Then due to work permits girls had to either pursue masters or look for opportunities on forums like assistantship or volunteering etc. Still Enviable.

3)      Guys and Girls who were not good at studies but would keep up with grades just to keep their heads above the water. They did find jobs later in India and they did find admission in universities abroad. They did find jobs may be not the most promising. They are having fun. I fall in this category.

4)      Guys and Girls who never cared about education because either they were forced to pursue bachelors or they knew their future pretty well. They are their own bosses and with their businesses. I should have been in this category for a better life.

5)      There are those who are still looking for jobs and doing other things. I am not aware of any such person yet.

The interesting thing will be to see where we will go from here. Its fascinating to have friends not just in India but though out the world, in touch with each other thru social networking or some other way. Lets see where we go from here.

http://smallchange.in/

This is something I found on Orkut,  a petition to introduce a ‘code of conduct' for the Indian Media due to a very sad recent event in Mumbai. Though there are many debates that are still going on about the recent attacks in India we might be going overboard with the appeals we make. Vishal Dadlani with right intentions is seeking a code of conduct for the media in India, though I differ in opinion not because I don’t share a common sentiment, but because I do not want to surrender our free speech and freedom. Such petitions can be a small step towards India’s Patriot act (like the one US had) which will have nothing to do with patriotism rather an act in haste and fear for ill thought protection plan.

We cannot have a code of conduct on speech and yet call it Freedom of Speech. What happened in Mumbai was a failure in preparation and lack of Plan, a system that should have been in place just in case such a tragic event occurred. Things that could have made a difference was like a secure in inaccessible radius from the site of attack, Restricted access to telephone to public except to the police (standard procedure in any hostage situation), A media spokes person, A help Line, information line and so on. If we place a code of conduct on free speech today and tomorrow something else will be questionable and there will be another petition for restrictive speech. The freedom of speech or any other kind will be constrained not because the leaders are imposing those on us making new laws but because we as people are asking them for it. The largest democracy in the world, the most secular yet regionally we as Indians have not been able to enjoy most of our rights due to many reasons like politics, fear of regional riots, Power the Indian police has on people and a very ill-equipped monitoring system paving opportunities for corruption and many more. Let’s voice out for self defense, plan and preparation and I will be happy to back any such petition. I will not point a finger at media because they were doing what they are supposed to do. We misinterpret reporting to commentary, debate to commentary etc. on the 24 hr news channel. Let’s not question the media at this point rather ask the leaders to answer the questions that needs to be answered about the situation that was caught on tape minute by minute by media. If we stop the Television media and introduce a code of conduct to the freedom of speech then we will have to introduce a code of conduct for online media and blogging. This will set of a trigger were we might end up giving up our right in the name of National Security.

This is a good time that we invest in National Security related programs. This is the time to provide funding and prepare for such attacks on any part of India not just Mumbai and Delhi. This is the time to approach allies for help and this is the time to secure our borders on all fronts be it Kashmir, Bangladesh, china or sea routes.

The world looks up to India as the biggest democracy and the most secular state. Let’s not trade our constitution in the name of fear instead let’s practice it. India has a right to self-defense, let’s defend and not give up.

Live is trying to renew itself from all the money making social networking sites. Though MS has a Facebook (100 million users) ad and access deal they still went ahead with a serious plan to persuade all the 280 million hotmail users to use MS own social networking. It’s a brilliant idea, a fresh start and very intimidating. Seriously, a lot is missing like all those little apps that we use on facebook, myspace and orkut. Well today I spent some time to check and redo the blog look. I have been blogging for 3 and half years on spaces, here are the things that I found.

Google Chrome does not support most of Live features and FireFox on vista is aslo pretty bad. Try it on IE 6, 7 XP, Vista or Firefox XP SP2.

·         No ads at the top of the page. This I like, no doubt the best thing so far.

·         Themes and Settings and Modules, They are all the same and nothing has changed. MS should have added some new stuff just to get the users excited about the new look and networking capacity.

·         Adding Friends from facebook took me 14 min 23 sec. That’s a lot of time for just 54 invitations and it failed to send invitations to 21 users. (I am sure everyone in my friends list on facebook will get an invitation but basically it was a test.)

·         Nothing innovative in the contact list. It’s still the same and boring.

·         May be because there are lots of people trying out hotmail or may be its some technical problem. I constantly got a reply “website cannot be found”.

·         Skydrive offer seems to be very interesting but it needs to accommodate a lot of file types otherwise it’s just any other storage device.

·         There is a way to add wordpress uses to Spaces. But I am not a wordpress users.

·         Partnership with popular networking sites lack. There needs to be close integration with myspace, twitters, orkut, ebloggers etc.

·         Fun is still missing with no games. Where is scabullous, chess, poker etc.

·         An IPHONE MSN app, like facebook. MSN is missing out on world wide iphone users where facebook has done some cool job of its app which is as powerful as its website.

·         A lot of improvement hs been done to the profile pics. Though most of the features and layout resembles facebook, MS has tried to its best to be original.

All and all I would Say nice work but a lot of improvement is needed but it has to come fast so that they can take advantage of the excitement. 2 out of 5

CM and the deputy CM’s resignation in Maharashtra will not over turn the tragic and terror filled events of last week. This seems to me like an easy escape from the responsibility that was ill stood. It was interesting to see the world media react to the Mumbai Terror attack. In India, Deccan Mujahideen claimed responsibility for the attack. The government was suggesting the two names it has gotten used to in the last few years, LET (Laskhar-e-Toiba) and Indian Mujahideen. In US, Al-Qaeda was all over the news as either the group that attacked Mumbai or it provided help to the LET or Mujahideen group calling it India’s 911. The problem after every attack is the finger pointing, as important as it is, the more important thing is to secure the place for the common people. People, who pay taxes, choose the leaders and employ them to serve.

Laskhar-e-Toiba – Army of the Righteous: A terrorist organization that calls itself the army of Righteous should either have deeply misunderstood the meaning of Quran or might have never touched one. I will not spell things out but rather refer to versus of Quran against terrorism.

2:190-193, 9:4-6, 60:7-8

Mujahideen – People Involved in a Jihad. Now that brings back to the question what is Jihad?

 Jihad is simply “Struggle”. That’s all it is. There is nothing more to it. Anything else you hear Jihad is either a Poetic or contextual or idiomatic expression. Jihad is widely misunderstood as “war against infidels” or “fight for the spread of Islam”.

To put it in another way the word ‘Jihad’ is used more as to show the rough and difficult path ahead on any issue than a war, battle or a fight.  

Jihad bil Saif is one which the people misinterpret the word jihad for. It is the only way to permissible warfare in islam. But there are rules that need to be followed as Mohammed himself laid it out in very clear words.

“Stop, O people, that I may give you ten rules for your guidance in the battlefield. Do not commit treachery or deviate from the right path. You must not mutilate dead bodies. Neither kill a child, nor a woman, nor an aged man. Bring no harm to the trees, nor burn them with fire, especially those which are fruitful. Slay not any of the enemy's flock, save for your food. You are likely to pass by people who have devoted their lives to monastic services; leave them alone.”

Al-Qaeda means the base. Al-Qaeda was unknown till 2001. People in the Muslim world also refer to this name jokingly as a baseless Al-Qaeda.  There has been so much said about this that I do not even want to waste my time.