Wave, particle....and 24th. floor

"Where is M-"? asked a visibly puzzled T-, rushing into my office. I had to say I had no idea and even though we share the same office I do not actually track his minute by minute whereabouts.

"Well, his skype status says he is in office and this is his office isn't it"? grumbled T-. "Last time I checked it was, indeed", said I.

"Well, he must be in quantum mechanical world then", T- seemed to be rather satisfied with his apt, geeky sarcasm. "He can actually be present beside his pool at home and in his office at the same time"!

While the two of us were sharing a good laugh at M-'s (and possibly Heisenberg's) expense, the man in demand returned.

"Hey M-, which state are you in right now? wave or particle?" I asked ( How could I let this opportune moment go!).


 "Since we couldn't explain your iCloud status with you enjoying the lovely spring afternoon by your poolside garden in any classical way, we resorted to quantum mechanics", came T- to rescue.

Well, you know what, it was M-'s turn to be geeky this time (let's face it, he is perhaps the smartest among the lot, anyway!),
"you're missing a third state my dear colleagues, it's the 24th. floor, where I was in a meeting", smirked the Swede!

While all three of us cherished a hearty laugh I couldn't help thinking about the virtual-real multi dimensional existance of Modern Times.
                                                       
We are always connecetd but never reachable; our status is  for the whole world to view yet we're unsure about our next moves;we've thousands of buddies to chat with and none to talk to....
                              
The list could go on longer, but my mood (or my emicon?) has already changed from LOL to grumpy!

There are already thousands of physically dead users in facebook, some of them being posthomously exploited by internet fraudsters while the others' virtual immortality just hurt their near and dear ones.

It's multiple-schezophrenic soceity.

Feminist Utopia? Not quite.

Sweden is a country with great gender equality. Nearly half of it's members of parliament are women (without any quota). Swedish men are perhaps the best in world when it comes to taking their fair share of household chores and child care. The salary gaps between genders (even though it exists) is among the lowest in the world. Perhaps still short of ideal world, but definitely the best in this world.

Or so it would seem. But then wouldn't you expect nearly same representation from both sexes in almost all fields, including science and technology? I'm leaving out construction works or similar manual labour jobs for now...firstly because men do have more muscle power than women in general and secondly because I have very limited experience of that domain.

But as the intellectual ability is same in both sexes, how does it then explain the representation of roughly 21% women in technical jobs in IT sector? Which is, not surprisingly, the same as that of female student percentage in engineering departments.

Is it really then the stereotype difference between a male brain and a female one? That the one is tuned for science and the other for humanities? Well, complete absurd as it is, it is in fact is the main factor; not because it is true, but because the society to a large extent still believes it to be true.

Even in egalitarian Sweden, there are distinctly different girls' toys and boys' toys. In day care centers little girls dress up like princess and boys as warriors. Often boys and girls play in different groups in the pre-schools.This society determined  gender stereotypes continue in schools and to universities where girls are expected to enroll in certain departments and boys in others.

Progressive Swedish doesn't say those "girly tastes" are bad, but still maintain that two sexes are "suited" for different things. So women continue to overwhelmingly outnumber men in HR or accounts departments where as men dominate in techie jobs. And since none is considered better or worse than the other, there is no conscious effort or need from any quarter to change it.

Not a true feminist Utopia, is it?

Versailles never ends

Two hundred years after the French revolution, in the Land of "Liberté, égalité, fraternité", a statue modeled on French first lady Carla Bruni Sarkozy is to be erected in Paris suburb of Nogent-sur-Marne, part funded by tax payers' money.

To add insult to the injury, Bruni-Sarkozy, who probably never have done a single day's of honest work for a living supposed to represent "plumassière" – a female worker from one of the area's former feather factories.

This brilliant idea to spend more than €40,000 of public money in this statue came from the local Mayor from Sarkozy's ruling right-of-center (?) party.

Was Marie Antoinette more out of touch from the general public when she suggested them to eat cakes, if they don't have breads? At least she wasn't elected by the same public!

I am no fan of French Socialist party; but have to agree with William Geib that "It's sad for the women who were employed in this job. Carla Bruni must have seen more ostrich features on the catwalks than in a factory."

Truly, revolution is not an one time event, you have to keep doing it.  200 years is a long time to gather the scum again!

Seems the Versailles never ends.....!!!

Outsourcing Insight

Barak Obama is pitching hard to stop, or at least halt, the massive outsourcing by US companies to other countries (to India, mainly). It was always there in his political agenda and with tough November Senate elections in sight, he has sharpened his attack on outsurcing in an attempt to woo the recession trodden Americans.

Without even considering the typical American hipocrasy of banning outsourcing while trumpetting for the free market economy, let us first analyze how this is proposed to be achieved.

Obama said he is trying to change a tax rule whereby the companies outsourcing their jobs will loose the tax break which will be given to the companies creating jobs within America.

Come on, can someone as talented as Mr. Obama seriously think, that companies outsource their jobs ONLY to get some tax cuts? The money that these companies save in salaries and capital expenditures for the outsourced posts far outweighs the tax break gains.

And what about the talent pool? Though the outsourcing originally started with cheap labour in mind, now it has moved much beyond that. IT Jobs are outsourced to India because of the vast pool of educated and experienced professionals. That is why big American giants like Motorola, IBM or GE are opening more and more R&D center in Bangalore. They're not just investing in cheaply laboured support or call center.

Experienced Indian brain is no longer cheap; Some multinational biggies pay to some of its prized engineers in Banglore more than what it pays to their engineers in similar positions in Europe. They do crib about it, but can not help investing more in R&D centers in India as it cannot ignore the vast talent pool and the work quality.

Cutting the tax breaks for the outsourcing companies will just be a political gimmick which may even work with ignorant American voters; but the actual remedy is much more complex and time consuming.

If Obama is really serious in tackling the issue then America should invest in serious education. Scrapping the teaching of Creationism can be a good start! And this would be a long term project without much hope for immediate effect on the ballot boxes.

The outsourcing companies will even find ways to get arround this tax break rule. For example, they can form subsidiaries in other countries. That'll not amount to outsourcing and hence the rule will not be applicable to them. I'm sure qualified tax lawyers can find many more elegant solutions!

Anybody with the knowledge of the industry knows it. That is why neither the American companies nor their Indian suppliers are worried much.  All they have to do is come up with some new arrangements and tax consultants will walk happy to their banks.

Indian share market is running all time high, profit of the IT companies are increasing and they're hiring more than ever. No one is unduly perturbed.

In capitalism, if anything is good for the companies (capitalists) and bad for the masses then that will prevail. Profit is the almighty here which American people, in general, claim to support wholeheartedly.

Outsourcing is here to stay, not because it is bad for America, not because it is good for India, simply because it is the way the capitalism works.

Yes ! It's back again !

I couldn't believe my eyes; is this real, or am I just hallucinating? After almost a decade long absence, is it really back? Will I be able to satisfy such a basic need of life now in a way I want? Will I be finally able to get rid of all those discomfort, shame and dissatisfaction caused by its absence?

I had to check. So I went closer, checked the inside information, touched it, felt it, spread it to full and did a mental measurement. Yes. it is true; the High Rise Jeans is back in shops again!!

Now if you are a fashion front runner (very unlikely, considering that you're reading my blog, which is not quite to the taste of a fashion diva or a style guru) then you'll probably say that it has already been back to fashion some months back. May be; but being someone who throws the newspaper fashion pages straight to recycle bin and who is not a shopaholic, I could be excused for not noticing them on the very first day.

And it does not really matter when it came back, as long as it is indeed back. Now those days of spending futile hours to find a decent pair of trousers which sits on your waist and doesn't hang dangerously from your groin area, will finally be over. Now I can bent down to pick up dropped articles without the fear of exposing my private parts for public display. Once again I'll be able to stand up from any seats without needing to pull up those treacherous low rise pants. And most importantly, I would be spared of those hideous sights of flab protruding out of the scanty limits of low-risers worn by millions of men and women with a figure less than perfect.

"real people" in low rise jeans

Keira Knightley in low rise jeans

It's really amazing how something as impractical as low rise jeans dominated all over the world for so many years! It may look very sleek and seductive on size zero models and I've no problem them wearing it on ramps. But millions with real figure had to wear them in real world, in real crowded trains and buses, in real rain and snow; why did not anybody thought of keeping some normal staffs in their store? They could be a savior of common people (with real figures) in addition of making gazillions.

But no one seemed to understand that there was a market for normal waist pants and to my horror they went into oblivion. All over the world  I searched for them, from shops in India and Sri Lanka to upmarket shopping areas in Paris, London, Brussels, Copenhagen and Stockholm; but in vain. Thanks to globalization, the world seemed to blindly follow the dictates of fashion houses and retail chains and the commonsense took a back seat. 

low rise "adaptation"

The ease with which people accepted such discomfort and humiliation and even paid for it, tempts me to think that people won't complain about anything as long as it is advertised widely with the help of sexy models.

This strange phenomenon even caused a specific evolutionary adaptation in humans; a whole new generation evolved who mastered the seemingly impossible task of walking in jeans that come only upto their thighs without letting it fall down completely.

Thankfully these are the things of past now. Once again I'll be able to wear a bottom garment which fits my well endowed body!

Basking in the bliss, I bought 3 pairs of normal rise jeans.

A plague on ALL your houses

The Swedish general election was held yesterday. The result is out now. And for the first time in history a far-right, racist party called Swedish Democrats entered into the parliament.

They have own 20 odd seats in the house of 349 seats; but that's enough to influence the formation of government as both the rulling Alliance (with 172 seats) and the opposition Red-Green coalition (with 157 seats) fall short of securing absolute majority.

The good thing is both Alliance and Red-Green prefer supporting each other than taking support from ultra racist Swedish Democrats. Even a minority government can be formed with issue based support from other parties (something which I suggested could have worked in Britain). This kind of minority government is not unprecedented in Sweden.

The Swedish Democrats will however will leave no leaf unturned in pursuing their way to the government. And with the very recent memory of fierce electoral battle between the two main coalitions and the prospect of getting into a-pain-in-the-neck of a situation of running a minority government, who knows what will happen eventually!

I can only hope (that's the disadvantage of being an Atheist, I can't pray, just hope....) that they do not succeed in their sinister attempt to hold government into ransom with their small but crucial number of 20 seats.

It seems only yesterday that I was considering myself lucky escaping a Tory Britain to come to Sweden, the epitome of civil liberties and race-gender equalities. So imagine my dismay, barely 4 months later, at the prospect of being governed by neo-Nazis. Talk about being thrown from frying pan to fire!

The puzzling thing is how did they manage to get so many votes! Their success was mainly in southern Sweden, in Skåne, Malmo, parts of Stockholm. And yet these are the places with educated, urban population. Xenophobia aparently run much lower among peasants and fishermen in the north than that among the savy corporate executives in the south.

I do not really understand how, of all places in Earth, Sweden can afford to be anti-immigration; this is a vast country with barely 9 million people, 1.5 million of which are immigrants. They just do not have enough people to run this country.

This sub-arctic place is not an obvious choice with immigrants either. Most of them come from war trodden places like Iraq or Afghanistan and they do not really have a choice. And a handful come attracted to this free and fair society which will be destroyed fast thanks to rise of parties like Swedish Democrats. The generous benefit system which the Swedes are so much proud of, will dwindle fast if the contribution from the immigrants stops. They can have this cold, dark place all to themselves then and can start re-sharpening their skills as Viking pirates for survival.

What upsets me most is that far right xenophobic parties are getting ground all over Europe; from Switzerland, Austria, France, Netherlands and Germany to now in Sweden. Recent economic downturn just added to the problem. "Those foreign immigrants have taken our jobs" is a very popular line with people suffering from deep economic recession.

Growing Islamic terrorism is another big contributing factor; somehow people feel being hostile towards Muslims and in general to all foreigners would help reducing Islamic fundamentalism. In reality though it is quite counter-productive; it allianates Muslims even further and to quote Mr. Obama, works as a "recruitment bonanza for Al-Queda".

I cannot think of any place in the earth now where intolerance, insensitivity and warmongering is not rising alarmingly. Where to take the refuge now? It is a plague on ALL your houses.

Crime and Punishment

After 26 years of painful wait, the final verdict has been delivered this year for the Bhopal Gas Tragedy case. And what was the verdict? Only 8 convicted for a maximum of 2 years in jail, for which they were granted bail immediately. And this is for the gross negligence and greed which caused thousands on deaths, tens of thousands of injuries and birth defects. Till date, children are born in Bhopal with birth defects which can very well be attributed to the leak of leathal mythyle isocyanate gas in that cursed night of 1984.

This is a case of Justice delayed AND Justice denied.

Poinsionous mythyle isocyanate gas leaked at midnight from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal and killed thousands in their sleep. But they were perhaps the fortunate ones; thousands of others suffred months, even years of sickness; were paralysed to various extents, lost eyesights, developed cancers and waited for a slow, painful death.

While their losses were incompensateable, at least they could still have some consolence if the people responsible were brought to justice. But after long and tedious judicial process which lasted for over 25 years involving numerous trials, wittnesses and cross examinations, they were finally told that no one was practically responsible for their peril.

Their own government simply cheated them. Indian government took the case from victims' hands and claimed to represent the case in their behalf. And then went for an out of court settlement with the Union Carbide and agreed for a peanuts amount of settlement money ($470 million). With this money, Union Carbide (and their present taker Dow Jones) washed their hands off the whole episode; they were free of all criminal and civil liabilities regarding this case.

The central government investigating agency did not furnish the required proofs; the Indian government did not excersise its extradiation treaty with America to bring Union Carbide chairman to Inida to face the trial. And America did not bother to try him in its own judicial system either; who cares, if a few thousands poor Indians die thousands of miles away? That's no reason to bother an wealthy American businessman!

Of course it is a different matter if the disaster happens in American soil affecting American people. Just look what happened when the oil leaked from BP well in gulf of Mexico. BP top bosses were grilled in Senate, made to set aside a compensation pot of 2 billion dollars and had to spend billions more to seal the leak. This was the penalty for causing 11 deaths and putting a few thousands out of business for one season, endangering wild lives and making the American coast dirty.


Yes, the environmental impact of the BP oil leak is enormous, but so it was for the Bhopal gas leak. If the formar is worst environmental disaster for America then the later is that for the whole world.

I'm not advocating for the less severe penalty for BP; they deserve every bit of it and should be punished even more,if possible, for their negligence. American government did a very good job dealing with the situation....making sure that the leak is stopped as soon as possible and that everybody concerned gets compensated.

Bhopal tragedy survivors are not so lucky; their own government betrayed them and the all powerful America, including their Nobel peace prize winner president, could not care less. They are simply not interetsed in brining one of their welthy citizens to trial to provide justice to a bunch of poor, black people in another continent.

The two incidents just show that the value of human life is not same for everybody. The punishments for these two similar crimes are anything but similar or compareable. This could be against the basic rule of justice; but then life is anything but "just".