Computer Keys and Programs Demystified

Computers as seen through the eyes of a person who has been using it for long but is still no way savvy enough.

Control Z: A big time life saver for all and sundry, especially the technologically challenged. Wish there was such an option in real life too - it would have meant fewer regrets and guilt trips.

Backspace: A reliable companion for two finger typists (and that includes around 98% of netizens) and those afflicted by a disease called writer's block. In many computers and laptops this is probably the first key that goes kaput due to overuse.

Pause break: A key seen next to 'number lock' in most computers. Till this day I have never used the key nor I am able to figure out what it is all about.

Control c+ Control v: For plagiarists it is as significant an invention as the wheel was to scientific community. But this function is useful for others in copying lengthy quotes or sending interesting url links to friends.

Notepad: The purgatory where all that remains is pure words and numbers, all commands or hyperlinks attached to it disappear. Wish it had a spell check option.

MS Word: A god-send for those with handwriting styles ranging from chicken-scratch to hieroglyphics (that covers more than 90% of literate population). Also a boon for those who care about correct spellings (a dwindling breed under the corrosive influence of SMS lingo).  The sheer convenience it offers in preparing and sending documents has made many forget what post office was all about.

MS Excel: Those rectangular cells do seem quite intimidating. However a little knowledge will make you realise the wonders it can accomplish in computing. But still I am not so comfortable about using it. Did some computing of monthly expenses, but the exercise was short lived as it was just part of my New Year resolution.

Also Read: Bangalore Beat

Sans Mercy

They were perceived as soft towards terrorism and bleeding heart sentimentalists when it came to meting out harsh punishment like sending people to gallows. But now the UPA 2 is going on an overdrive to live down that image.
 
First it was Ajmal Kasab. The government had to put up with lots of barbs and jokes in this regard by trollers on  Facebook, Twitter and other sites. On every anniversary of 26/11 attacks newspapers used to put up stories as to how much was being spent on keeping Kasab alive - 'kill him, kill him' used to be the response on feedback message boards.

The apocryphal story of him being served biryani at Arthur Road jail in Mumbai was gorged by the masses with gusto and few bothered to take it with a pinch of salt.
 
But when the verdict was announced many of us patted on our backs that in India even a person like Kasab can get a fair trial. His was an open and shut case - the face of terror captured on CCTV cameras and relayed ad nauseum on TV. Though he had waged a war against the state he was given a civilian trial. Except for those opposed to death penalty in principle, not many tears were shed when he was hanged.
 
'Now what about Afzal Guru' was the loud thinking among the internet trollers and right wing jingoists. The focus shifted on a Kashmiri man accused of being the mastermind behind the attack on Parliament in 2001. He was awarded death sentence by the Supreme Court and his mercy petition was pending with the President. 

The attack on seat of democracy always evokes strong emotion among any populace. Students of History may recall the infamous Gunpowder plot in England, when a person named Guido (Guy) Fawkes was on the verge of blowing up the British Parliament in 1605 (it is indeed an ironic reversal of fortune that Guy Fawkes masks are now used by hacktivists to fight for something as democratic as internet freedom).

Afzal Guru's case was not considered an open and shut affair, in fact legal experts have pointed out far too many discrepancies. However, be that as it may, the cloak and dagger secrecy with which the Government carried out his hanging, the way his family members were kept in the dark and the subsequent clampdowns in Kashmir would make African and South American dictators nod in approval. The moral high ground we had acquired in the Kasab trial was frittered away in this case.
 
Contrast this with 1989 when Indira Gandhi's assassins were hanged. Both Satwant Singh and Kehar Singh were allowed to contest the rejection of mercy petition by the President in the Supreme Court. When the court rejected it their date of execution was made public and their families were allowed to meet them.
 
Barely had the din over Afzal Guru subsided, the President rejected mercy petition of four Veerappan aides. They have at least been afforded the luxury to approach the Supreme Court. There are many more in the line - the killers of Rajiv Gandhi and late Punjab chief minister Beant Singh. It remains to be seen how the government is going to act against them.

Also Read: Bangalore Beat

Culture And Anarchy

Recently I came across a news item that writers in Myanmar are trying to relearn the habits of free thought and testing the boundaries of free speech. Long spells under military rule meant journalists, writers, artists and others associated with cultural field had to undergo various levels of censorship to conform to what the regime thought was appropriate.
 
But before they cast away those conformist skins for the brave new world, it won't be a bad idea to share them with Indian writers and artists who seem to be staring at an increasingly intolerant society.

While for some learning these skills may be a tough grind as they have been under the corroding influence of democracy for more than six decades, but for organisations like say Tamil film industry or Hindi commercial film industry (who are either at the beck and call of Thackerays or Dawood Ibrahim) the learning curve to reach those levels of conformism may be a cakewalk, as they are almost there by default. Moreover the fact that the Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf has a good following in India will only be an added plus.

Another major challenge may be Indian conditions - they are different and hence the training may require some improvisations. In Myanmar the artistes have to contend with the jackboot of military junta and nothing else, but here they have to grapple with state, non-state, religious and corporate forces and that too with  many axes to grind.

Salman Rushdie recently put it very succinctly. He said that "because the writers, painters, filmmakers, artists don't have armies. We don't have the boys to put on streets to defend our film, novel or painting. So it's not hard to attack." He then went on to add that a "strange form of identity politics has developed in which people don't define themselves with things they love but by the things they hate. So to attack a book about the Ramayana, book about Shivaji or painting about Saraswati... these things are easy to do. That somehow galvanize the sense of identity of these extremist forces." 

And he should know, after all death threats and fatwas have shadowed him for decades.
Also Read: Bangalore Beat

Howrah Bridge Is Falling Down

A lot of printer's ink, cyber space, airtime and reams of paper have been used to describe how we Indians fail so miserably on the civic sense front. Even cities in other third world countries like say Colombo look a lot more cleaner than many of our metros.

Indian men's habit of chewing paan and other tobacco supplements like gutka and spitting around with gay abandon has painted many a town red. Their leaky bladders, which would put even dogs to shame, and their tendency to treat every wall as urinal has ensured that we are never too far from its reeky stench.

However so far we all thought this only takes a toll on aesthetics of a city or village and is an assault on our sense of sight and smell. But a recent report I came across was, quite literally, an eye opener.

Engineers say that the metal structure of Kolkata's landmark Howrah bridge is in danger due to relentless onslaught of gutka loaded spit. They said that "the struts supporting the girders of the bridge had already lost half of their metal casing: The corrosion was apparently caused by acids in the gutka."

The report said that to increase gutka’s  shelf life magnesium carbonate – which is used in fire extinguishers and is a known carcinogen – is added.

Hence there is more to paan and gutka than meets the eye(sore).

Also Read: Bangalore Beat

Lance Armstrong's Dope Shame

Ever since he decided not to contest the dope taint complaint in August last year, it became clear that cyclist Lance Armstrong had many skeletons in his closet. But even then many of his loyalists had felt that the guy has been unfairly hounded by authorities for too long and he was fed up. After all the seven-time Tour de France winner was never officially caught for doping, though allegations shadowed him all along.

Finally he admitted to taking performance enhancing drugs and that too in America's most visible confessional chamber - The Oprah Winfrey show. In the first part of the interview he admitted taking drugs to win all the Tour de France titles and called himself a 'flawed character'. To many of his admirers, especially those battling cancer and see him as role model, it was a moment of deep disillusionment. Whatever residual hope they may have had about his innocence got snuffed out.

In his overriding ambition to script a perfect American dream myth, he won the first battle - against testicular cancer - quite honourably, but took recourse to a venal path to win the most punishing event in the modern sporting arena. Tour de France participants have to pedal a distance of 3,497 kilometres covering stretches of Italy and Switzerland, in addition to France. The route passes through mountainous stretches of Pyrenees and Alps.

The seven-time winner admitted that his illustrious feat would have been humanly impossible without doping and he did not ‘invent’ that culture. One cannot dispute him as the Tour is scarred by a long list of dope cheats and the recent ones include Tour winners such as Armstrong's compatriot Floyd Landis (2006) and Spaniard Alberto Contador (2010). But they all got punished, whereas this guy all through these years managed to take doping authorities and his hero-worshipping fans for a ride. And even now his so called confession looks more like a selective leak. He argument is based on the premise that since everyone was doing it, there was nothing wrong in what he did.

Quite predictably it created a commotion in the sporting world. 'Djoker' Novak Djokovic, more known for his horseplay on tennis court, was perhaps the most vociferous in his comments and wanted all of Armstrong's titles taken away and added that he should suffer for his lies. Former basketball legend Magic Johnson lamented that Armstrong has let down the sport and fans, but commended him for 'couragesouly coming forward' to admit his guilt.

Perhaps the person who ought to feel the most vindicated was David Walsh, chief sports writer for Britain's The Sunday Times, who has been pursuing Armstrong ever since he won his first Tour in 1999. He reportedly sat glued to television, though the interview was telecast in Britain at 2 am.

Walsh lauded the witnesses he spoke to in his years of investigation into Armstrong and who were vilified for telling the truth. The newspaper also stood by Walsh all these years. 

Armstrong had sued The Sunday Times and in 2006 the newspaper settled the case for more than $500,000 after spending more than $1 million in legal fees. They quite rightly now want the money back - with interest.

Also Read: Bangalore Beat

Blood On The New York Subway

While the Indian media was fixated about the Delhi rape and issues related to safety of women, a brutal hate crime on December 27 involving an Indian man in US went under reported. A 46-year-old man was shoved in front of a subway train in New York by a woman, who appeared to be mentally deranged.

Sunando Sen was pushed from behind onto the tracks and was crushed by an incoming train. Probably in his eagerness to board the train, he was standing close to the tracks. The woman fled the station but was later tracked down based on a black-and-white video footage that was broadcast on news programmes. Someone who spotted her called up the police. Despite her mental illness she had enough sense to flee the scene after the attack.

Police claims the woman, Erika Menendez, had selected her victim because she believed him to be a Muslim or a Hindu. She told police that “I pushed a Muslim off the train tracks because I hate Hindus and Muslims and ever since 2001, when they put down the twin towers, I’ve been beating them up.”

She also did not show any remorse at her arraignment, laughed uncontrollably and said that she did not regret her actions.

Menendez has a history of run-ins with the police. She was arrested at least twice on misdemeanour charges related to violence. Her family members have also called the police several times about her erratic behaviour and mood swings, including once when her mother reported to police that she was “threatening to harm herself and others.”

She was arrested on charges of possessing cocaine and marijuana, using a stolen credit card, harassment and assault.

In 2003 she had attacked a firefighter and he said her punch was strong like a 'guy punch'. He did manage to overpower her and hand her over to police.

Sen has been in the US for the past 16 years and after years of struggle had recently managed to set up a printing and copying business near Columbia University. He was a bachelor and was staying with three other immigrants. His friends describe him as a quiet person and his Muslim roommate said that he admired the respect Sen showed for those who saw the world differently than he did.

Indian media's compulsions are understandable, but I am surprised the Indian community in US too seems to have not yet taken up this issue. They had gone ballistic on a Time magazine article written in jest by Joel Stein on Indian immigrants at Edison, a New Jersey suburb, and had forced the magazine to issue an apology. But seem to be maintaining a deafening silence over a far more serious issue.

The textual diarrhea prone internet Hindus too seem to be very rationed in their outpourings. And Indian government which went on an overdrive when some Indian students in Australia were attacked and when a Indian doctor there was held for terrorism charges, is yet to open its mouth on this issue.

Also Read: Bangalore Beat

Delhi Rape: Random Thoughts II

India's Tahirir Square moment seems to have opened a can of worms - the issue of sexual harassmsent, patriarchal values, sex ratio and many other gender centric issues have now become part of public discourse and also caught many political leaders with foot right inside their mouths.

Talking of unparliamentary remarks, I thought the last word was said when Sanjay Nirupam made the 'thumka' remark about Smriti Irani's TV days and questioned her 'charitr'. How wrong I was! Even after that there was a steady flow of statements on same misogynist lines.

But it was Abhijith Mukherjee's remark that really took the cake. To begin with somehow I had hardly heard about him, though he is the son of President Pranab Mukherjee. His comment that only the painted and 'dented' (can't figure out what he mean't) women go for protests against the Delhi gangrape, showed Dilli Durbar's total disconnect with reality. His remarks even managed to divert the brickbats his father was getting for government's ineptitude in dealing with crimes against women.

Even after the woman's death, we had some BJP leader saying girls should not wear skirts. Once again the onus of upholding morality has fallen on the shoulders of girls. What to do boys will be boys - with libidos akin to water cannons, pumped up on a sumptuous diet of Honey Singh lyrics, Sunny Leone videos and a 'haseena maan jayegi' mindset!

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It is also a protest against a crony capitalism where not only wealth but even policing is cornered by a bunch of oligarchs, who have laid siege on Lutyen's Delhi.

Almost 30 per cent of the police force, probably the smarter and fitter among the lot, is tied up for the well being of these VIPs. Most of these policemen may be doing precious little other than buy vegetables for memsahibs and drop their children to school. This is not just the case with Delhi, but with most state capitals.
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Apart from the brutality of the incident, what probably evoked such a groundswell of protest is a feeling of empathy among the common public. The woman had gone for a movie and then taken a bus along with her male friend (thankfully, having a boyfriend no longer raises eyebrows or has been overlooked for now). The time was around 9:30 pm, not an ungodly hour. Somehow unlike earlier instances of such assaults this time there was no she-asked-for-it ring around it.

This particular case did manage to pierce through the iron curtain of public apathy. And the Delhi-centric national media was more than eager to roll in its OB vans and cameras and milk the issue dry for TRPs. 
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It was indeed a heart warming sight to see the agitators withstand the water cannon in a chilly Delhi winter, when people even loath to take hot water baths. It is indeed ironic that the government came out with so much alacrity to quell the agitation, but did not even utilise half of that zeal in making streets safer for women.

But the agitation was not free from its share of controversies. It took a violent turn when some political goons joined the agitators and provoked the police. A more unfortunate fallout was that some of the women agitators themselves were eve-teased by men, who were drunk, and had come to have some 'fun'. What better place than a crowded protest meet where women have turned up in large numbers!
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Hang them, castrate them ... these nostrums were not just mouthed during angry private conversations, but in Parliament, TV debates and message boards of various websites. We had Mohandas Pai, former Infosys HR chief and revered figure of India Inc, come on TV and say that rapists should be castrated. The message board warriors wanted rapists even stoned to death, bobbitised; and in Facebook we had pictures of men hanged in public for rape in Saudi Arabia with numerous 'likes' and 'shares'. All this must have been sweet music to the Saud dynasty, Mullah Omar, Ayman al-Zawahiri and late Osama bin Laden!

But seriously, it shows the disgust the general public has towards the way our police and legal system functions and the pathetic conviction rates, which makes them advocate such drastic measures. And not because they have now fallen in love with such medieval practices.
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Now the Indian media, be it TV or newspaper seems to be on an overdrive to report sexual assault cases. Suddenly incidents happening even in remote parts, which usually used to get buried in inside pages as 'fillers' or 'killed' for more important stories, are getting prime-time slots.
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Came across a really hard hitting video of Kavita Krishnan, secretary of the All India Progressive Women's Association, which actually covers the whole gamut of the issue. Wish there were English subtitles, so that those who do not understand Hindi could also follow it.

Also Read: Bangalore Beat