What's a befitting tribute to APJ Abdul Kalam?

 

  For what he as done, said & lived, is a public holiday, candle march or rather a visit to his birth town a mark of tribute?

Here's a long list of what ideally could be a pledge in honor of one of the finest modern statesmen the world has ever seen.

"I take a vow with utmost sincerity & dedication to the grand old Missile Man of India and offer to stand by it no matter what the circumstance would be, that at least from this day..."

As an Academician

   I would envision & formulate an education system that would not just make the children educated but truly learned.

As a Teacher

   I would empower my students with my knowledge & experience as well as be open to learn and update myself in the process as well.

As a Student

  With a rational mindset I would learn, understand, question & even debate what is unveiled to me both inside as well as outside of schools.

 As The President of India

    I would expedite all mercy petitions in shortest turnaround time with due diligence in the process. I would also uphold the idealism of my office in terms of how a First Citizen needs to be like how Bharat Ratna Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam exhibited.

As a Politician

   I would be simple, honest and ethical in my words as well as activities and would abide by the rules laid down by the constitution in the truest of senses & work for the best interest of the nation, state, district, town, panchayat in same the stated order devoid of any interferences in the name of religion, caste or family.

As a Government Servant

  I would carry out my work with utmost care, diligence & timeliness unfettered by the lures of personal favors, be it from bureaucrats, politicians or general public.

As a Policeperson 

  I would protect, serve & uphold justice as laid down by the codes of conduct and provide a shoulder to trust upon at all times of anyone's personal duress, without an iota of expectation of return of favors in terms of money or material from the affected folks.

As a Lawyer

  I would wholeheartedly believe in the Indian Penal Code & represent my party in an impeccable manner till the exhaustion of all possible legal remedies and accept the judgement with grace.

As a Judge

  I would give a fair hearing to the prosecution as well as the defense and provide a comprehensive and conclusive judgement at the shortest time possible that would carry utmost merit and would stand to be upheld if there exists a provision of further appeal.

As a Journalist

  I would apply my mind in clearly distinguishing what news & opinions are and publish it in the appropriate way only upon verifying the authenticity of facts at hand. I shall uphold the ethical integrity that befits the fourth pillar and remain non-partisan on all counts.

As a Doctor

  I would diagnose & treat the health issues with my best judgement for anyone who seeks my expert medical advice without any profit-making motives whatsoever.

As an Engineer

  In the process of nation building on all possible ways I would strive to be an engineer based on my prowess rather than work as an engineer for paltry sums for survival.

As an Entrepreneur 

  I would envision and execute ventures that not just serves a particular section to the society but rather the world at large having in mind, of it not being an impediment to all the rudimentary assets of nature & our environment.

As an Indian

  I would 

• keep my vicinity clean.
• abide by the rules and laws of the nation be from the smallest to the gravest.
• embrace religious beliefs of any faith if it is ethical, righteous & gives me a better guidance in life.
• be proud to use locally made goods, be it of any nature and in turn support the process of making it a much sought-after one, globally.
• spread positivity to others and always be helpful to people around.
• take care of nature and nurture it as my own for a better world in the future.
• vote without any sectarian bias for anyone whom I believe is the right person to take the country in the right way.

 

Net Neutrality: A wrong & misinformed fight!

        

           Just like how Hollywood movies used to release in India (months after its US premiere) until a few years ago, the Network Neutrality debate has finally landed in India almost a year after peaking the mainstream in the US of the A. Not surprisingly everybody (who makes money via the Internet [read as YouTube]) has put their heart and soul in parading against the curb of Internet freedom, voicing against Facebook-Reliance tie ups or Airtel Zero-Flipkart deals and what not. With Internet Freedom paraders on one side and the TSP (Telecom Service Providers) on the other, either of them are trying their best to voice their end of the argument being fairly absolute.  Though TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) has joined the party pretty late, their premise of request for comments from public has not really been 'Neutral' per se but just turned up to be a fancy judge between two fighting parties.

             However, you might be surprised that there is huge degree of real 'Net Neutrality' that is actually missing. With the current debate raging between this way or that way, everyone somehow are missing the middle path that is technically 'The Neutral' path too.

             Prior to looking at what the middle path is and how it retains the NN (Net Neutrality), Internet has to be first looked upon on what it is in the current state. One of the most common take of the NN supporters is for the Internet to remain a non-partisan and non controlled information access medium. A few facts to the better understanding of all the NN supporters as well as to set the context of this case.

Did You Know?

• Internet was neither envisioned nor designed (in first place) to be Neutral.
• Each of the application protocol standards that has evolved have always found wanting of a preferential treatment of their packets called QoS (Quality of Service) in their own respective ways.
• The existing unbundled Internet medium is not a factual endorsed NN view point but a skewed one-sided end-user centric setup.

 Hence in the true spirits of holding NN as a supreme goal a middle path has to been drawn where it has to be clearly regarded a SIN

• If end-users say or expect Skype calling and Wikipedia Browsing to be one and the same.
• If TSPs decides to provide selective applications the entire bandwidth and QoS while some similar other applications are left to suffer.

What is the Middle Path?

• Everybody (from NN supporters to TSPs) need to understand that real NN can only be delivered practically if all of us joined hands in our respective roles, agreements and understandings.
• End-users should be made clearly aware of the application level impact and differences on the existing Protocol level differences between, for instance a Skype call & a Wikipedia browsing (aka VoIP and HTTP) and on why treating both as the same is making the idea of real NN void.
• The OTT (Over The Top) should be broadly categorized into different group based their network necessity.
• The TSPs should hold the same level playing field for all OTT applications in every category without any preferential QoS whatsoever for either of them.
• It is high time that the TSPs create category specific (NOT application specific) bandwidth channels so that end-users have the flexibility to choose and subscribe accordingly based on their needs.

With the current trend of support and lobbying growing on either sides, TRAI is either going to lean to this end (leave Internet as such) or that end (bring in model for charging OTT) sometime real soon which at the end of the day is NOT Network Neutrality in the truest of senses! I shall still pin my hope on for sanity to prevail and Network Neutrality in the purest of forms come into existence! 

People who demand neutrality in any situation are usually not neutral but in favor of the status quo.

-

Max Eastman

Mr.Chovan Held Kobama's Hand Longer Than Expected

      For the first time in the history of Send-Off ceremonies, Mr.Ashog Chovan was seen SHAKING HANDS with Mr.Kobama LONGER than that was defined by the Protocol draft and in-fact the Protocol Minister Juresh Jetty was seen restless having witnessed the incident from close-quarters.

   "With reports and comments flowing in from various Government establishments, we're still unaware of the reason for Mr.Chovan's unruly act." - An FBI Security Chief at the Mumbai Airport

The White House was the first to react stating "This incident is totally unacceptable and we've called on a High-Level Meet to assess ALL the possible security breaches summing up-to this."

"We had been briefing and making 'these people' in India, on how to shake hands with Mr.Kobama and now with this lapse we have identified that Mr.Chovan had skipped the last two training sessions. We sure will take this issue with our Indian Intelligence Counterparts ASAP" - The CIA Chief-In-Charge of Security at the Send-Off location.

A Sting operation by INN-CBN has released EXCLUSIVE INN-CBN watermarked video tapes of the disgruntled Mr.Jetty post the incident sighing - "He (Mr.Chovan) did not have the latest Protocol Script v5.0. and He did not pay attention to me as well."

Ms.Rirupama Nao of the Ministry of External Affairs stated  - "Its too soon to comment on this and we are yet to receive any formal report / complaint from our US counterparts."

With various Indian National News Television agencies already in full preparations to bring out their versions of discussing this ISSUE of NATIONAL SHAME, our close sources revealed that 

• Sardeep Rajdesai of INN-CBN has already roped-in THREE PROTOCOL Experts from both India and US to discuss this issue prime-time tonight along with a strong contingent of 25 other experts.
• Proving they're not too shy at this game, NDeTV has asked Ms.Darka Bhatt to audition a set of 100 young people between the ages 20-30 based on who-claps-the-loudest and air a show prime-time tonight discussing this issue. 
• Nimes TOW has already started Breaking News as I speak, raising questions of speculative nature like...
• Whom to blame?? Was it Mr.Kobama or Mr.Chovan, who held the hand LONGER??
• Could this be a publicity stunt by Mr.Chovan to make up for his Adarsh SCAM???
• Did Mr.Chovan just follow "orders" of the Congress High Command in doing this???
• Was there a foreign HAND involved in this incident???
• The rest of the National English Channels are busy watermarking each of OUR photo stock as EXCLUSIVELY theirs.
  

With camera person Will-capture-all-footage Singh, this is I-am-the-news-breaker Patel for Pee Tee Aai, signing off!!!

Why not be a terrorist?

                With the economic crunch being felt heavily all over the world for the past year or so, people are finding it really tough to get a job. At this juncture, looking at the day to day incidents happening in the world, here's one avenue that is always booming and recruiting. 

• Here's where firing in the true sense that takes place and that's a part of your job.
• There are no non understandable HR policies, Team Leads or Managers.
• You will not need your passport, proof of residence, not even your real name, but just the spirit and passion to join.
• Those with experience on Project IGI, Counter Strike genre of games are given higher preference.
• After the training, your put up "on-site" for sure, sometimes the training too is "on-site".
• Hands-on experience, on world's advanced technologies.
• Just a hint of information on your organization's activity will be a heartthrob for News media houses worldwide and will be the top priority on their broadcasts.
• However its just your luck or rather fate how long you survive depending on various factors such the area of posting, job description etc.
• Guess what, certain countries offer top class treatment, facilities, free food and shelter, healthcare,  world-wide media publicity and what not, you name it and you got it.
• Of course, in this job too there are one or two dream workplaces where, even if you get caught red-handed by the Police, you would be given everything as mentioned previously,under their protection and one can live longer.
• Surprisingly this is one the few jobs which guarantee you a long virtual life after your death because you might appear often on History Channel, for years.
• Depending on your "at-work skills", Wikipedia may even dedicate an exclusive page on your name with information right from about the first cloth that wiped your a** to the last cloth that covered your face, for the world to know.

With so many perks which no common man can imagine in their regular lives, no wonder its not a surprise that many, world-wide are silently realizing this potential avenue and preparing  themselves to be a part of it. Who knows, maybe in near future there will be universities offering degrees to master the pure art of terrorism.

BREAKING NEWS !!!

I heard the phrase "BREAKING NEWS" for the first time on CNN, right after the 9/11 attack. It was flashing all day throughout the course of the entire episode. That was the period what I feel as "The Incubation" as far as the Indian television news channel industry was concerned. Very few players here then, who actually broadcast the BREAKING NEWS themselves. At that time I yearned for WHEN, will such a kind of quick response news be aired LIVE or in other words, news be broken on an Indian News Television. As time passed by, the Indian News Channel industry bloomed and umpteen number of News Channels came into existence and my yearning finally started to recede. For once I was happy on the fact that our Indian News channels have started to compete with the News Channel giants across the world in providing quality "BREAKING NEWS". But today, the objective of our news channels have shifted greatly into a way of using "BREAKING NEWS" everyday for highlighting all sort of stories which are not way worth it making to that category and hence the whole meaning, importance and essence of "BREAKING NEWS" is totally lost.

The trend as on date of our news channels are of providing EXCLUSIVE news footage rather than the actual news conveyed in its true sense. Every news channel on a daily basis will definitely have at least one such news item to use as their USP (sounds funny for a news channel though). With the advent of Internet, telecom and technology its happy to see the advancements in news channels (be it Online opinion polls or the Sms polls etc) but the questions many a time taken up for discussions or opinion polls aren't actually the questions that arise based on a particular news event but rather a discussion which actually gives new dimensions to the issue which dilutes the actual issue discussed in first place.

There was once a time where controversies or issues were brought to the light by news media but now the news media itself is being used as a medium to spark controversies and then being broadcast as something EXCLUSIVE caught on tape, making the little known people involved in it, a celebrity, overnight. It would be really incomplete if the advertisements doesn't have a mention here. Are the advertisements in midst of news or the other way round ?? Day by day the news footage space on screen is reducing with more and more advertisement blocks occupying the bottom of the TV screen.

Nowadays more often than not the News Media have come under the scanner of the Information & Broadcasting Ministry citing the media coverage of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks for instance. I feel the media hype or the media frenzy (to be more apt) that was created for the Swine Flu here has made the common man panic rather than be aware. The opportunistic side of such adverse coverage of Swine Flu situation has resulted in the sky rocketing demands for the face mask and medicines (that supposedly said they had cures for the Flu).

In a nutshell the news on TV is more of "re-engineered" news and "highlighted" entertainment rather than what it truly needs to be.