Elections USA

February 12th, 2008 Roshan

At one time I wondered why the world is always so interested in the United States elections. I know now, it matters to the rest of us because it can mean the difference between an America that’s rampaging through our neighbourhood, or an America that’s cutting off our economic blood. Okay, I’m kidding. In all seriousness though, the USA has a lot of influence with the world, they’re the people who count the most, so it’s only natural that we’re keeping a close eye on what’s going on there.

The US elections have a funny way of doing things, the main parties have Primaries where they decide who their Presidential candidate is, and then they go from there with the aim that the whole party backs one candidate. That sounds like a barely okay idea, and unfortunately, it gets worse. The people vote in the primaries but they don’t really choose the candidates, they vote delegates who are then supposed to reflect that voter support by supporting that candidate. That sounds like a needless complication but it’s necessary because of what’s going to follow. The delegates aren’t the only people choosing, there are also super-delegates - people like former Presidents, and the biggest movers and shakers in the party. There can’t be a lot of them, can there? Wrong, one fifth of the votes will come from super delegates. How about that, eh?

Now here’s the problem, CBS reported that Obama leads by just 3 delegates at the moment while BBC says that Clinton has 74 more super-delegates. So that’s why that guy has such a slender lead, that explains it. Very interesting, if that’s the way Democrats want to do it, then they can go right ahead, but having quite the interest in the elections, I’m just hoping that they can get their house in order. This delegate business is ridiculous, and the super-delegate business is retarded.

If I were there and could vote, I’d vote for Ralph Nader, but circumstances don’t seem to allow that, so I’m backing Barack Obama because the alternative is that nutcase McCain or Hillary Clinton. As to why I like Obama:

  • Universal Health Care: We’re in the 21st Century for Christ’s sake, and there are still people starving in poor countries and dying of treatable diseases in rich countries. What’s wrong with our race? Are we stupid? Thankfully, he supports UHC
  • Taxes: I’ve never understood the American fascination with taxes, I simply can’t see why they can’t have some sort of graded tax system so that it’s the rich that are taxed the most. The gubmint steals ma taxes. It’s quite sad that in the country that prides itself on being the Champion of Democracy, so few people can identify with a government that’s supposed to represent them. Something must be wrong.
  • Immigrants: See, the fellow has a sensible stance, instead of the foaming-at-the-mouth crap about throwing illegal immigrants out. It’s always funny to hear that from what is, essentially, an immigrant nation. Nearly everyone there is a descendant of someone who came as an immigrant or a conqueror.
  • Abortion: The only possible sensible stance, allow.
  • Greenhouse emissions: The only sensible stance, cut back to 80% of 1990 levels. How? I don’t know.
  • Homosexuality: Wait, what? There are people who still speak out against gay people? Thank god he’s not one of them.
  • Gun Control: Ah, he must be evil, he doesn’t like semi-automatic weapons.
  • Guantanamo: He says a lot, does nothing. Can’t say, but it’s better than supporting the place.
  • Stem cells: Supports and puts vote where mouth is.

Why I still don’t like him:

  • Military: He wants to make America’s army and navy bigger. He wants to strike inside Pakistan at people he thinks Pakistan won’t act on. Please, get lost, show some respect for another country’s sovereignty, even if it’s a screwed-up piece of crap like Pakistan.
  • WMDs: Something about being committed to ensure WMDs don’t proliferate. If he were to become President, he’d be in control of one of the largest stockpiles of nuclear weapons and probably biological/chemical weapons too. No word on use of chemical weapons in Vietnam and such stuff. So it’s clear where he is on this: It’s wrong so long as it’s someone else.
  • Palestine: Big talker, but Israeli apologist. No word on Israeli WMDs either, funny.
  • Iran: Supports military action against Iran. Is he mad?! Are they all mad?! Let’s support moving out of Iraq and moving into Iran. Very smart.

Overall not great, but rather him than the others. It’s like choosing which shark to be eaten by. It doesn’t really matter. It’s quite clear what I don’t like militarism.

Posted in World | 4 Comments »

Turtle walk

February 10th, 2008 Roshan

Went on one last night. Seemed much shorter than before, strangely. Couple of nests, pretty neat stuff. Saw broken egg. Like archaeology except in a shorter time frame, tracking turtle tracks. Good on them. Barely slept. Saw sunrise, it looked nice. Beach looks better in the dark when can’t see garbage. Was fun.

Sunrise over Elliot’s

Posted in Madras | No Comments »

Laws, tattoos, whales, paper planes

February 7th, 2008 Roshan

I was just reading the BBC feed and a couple of articles stuck out. Those highly advanced Japanese are building paper planes that are to be thrown out of the ISS, that’s pretty cool and all, but I would hope that they would spend more money on researching how to study whales without having to kill young calves and their mothers. That is disgusting, have they no respect for life? While everyone else is out attempting to conserve whales and to minimise our impact on them, Japan’s out to get them for ’scientific purposes’. This is like reading Playboy for the articles.

Elsewhere, the Archbishop of Canterbury says that Sharia law in the UK is ‘unavoidable’. I don’t know what he’s smoking but that’s one dangerous track to go down on. A uniform civil code that applies to all people, regardless of their religion, ethnicity, whatever is something that is essential to an equal society. One must not be fooled by false Muslims, the kind who make a fuss and strike when they’re part of the NHS and such bullshit. Fire them, if they don’t want to work like everyone else. Deport them, if they don’t want to accept the laws of the state to which they’ve emigrated. And if they’re homegrown converts then let them live under the same laws as everyone else. This is a slippery slope, after a while everyone will start demanding their own privileges: My religion allows me to snort coke, my ethnic background demands that I play music at high volumes at midnight in a residential area. Please, treat these idiots like what they are, and if they violate laws because these laws are ‘against their custom’ put them in jail. Please don’t encourage such behaviour UK.

In other news, a woman with vertigo isn’t correctly diagnosed until nearly 3 years after first symptoms and the guy who finally got it right was of Indian origin (yay irrational pride, yay). When my aunt came over in December my parents and her were talking about just this, the fact that even hospitals with expensive super-specialists can miss a particular disease for whatever reason and that disease can be diagnosed by small places. This is almost the same story. Fascinating. The fellow in my aunt’s recollection had some disease where the eyelid was drooping and where he would fall down in the evenings.

And to round it up, a girl tattoos ‘Supermarket’ on her stomach trying to get her boyfriend’s name there and the worst bit is they broke up. It’s like one of those old “Bill Gates will pay cancer kid if you forward this” email messages, these stories just keep coming up, there’s always some big guy who’s tattooed “Kitty” on his biceps or some guy who stuck “Depression” on his neck. It’s quite funny. One would think that these people would go get the words checked with the local Chinese take-out before getting permanently needled. Ha ha ha. If I get a tattoo, it’ll be 自由 which hopefully means freedom. Yes, that font isn’t calligraphic. But then, I’m not getting tattooed anyway.

Posted in World | 3 Comments »

When it rains it pours?

February 6th, 2008 Roshan

I just noticed that Iran just lost another line. So two lines were taken offline for maintenance reasons and then suddenly 3 other lines go down just then? I’m willing to bet that the crew that went in to fix the first broke line broke the second and third through incompetence :D

But seriously, it makes you wonder. Fine, the first two lines were taken offline intentionally, but then within a few weeks they lose 3 other lines. I’m no conspiracy theorist but it looks really weird to me.

Posted in World | 1 Comment »

I’m 20 now

February 3rd, 2008 Roshan

My birthday’s on the 28th of January every year - that’s funny, I was born only once. In any case, I’m 20 and I look back on those two decades and see no greatness. Why am I not yet a violin virtuoso? How come I haven’t yet got a billion dollars to spend? Ah, if only. In any case, things that I actually should have done include getting a voter ID card. But I have an explanation for that. When I turned 18 I was eligible to vote. However, the elections that year set the limit at 18 years old at Jan 1st. I was still seventeen years at the time. The whole thing is ridiculous because the elections weren’t even in January, or even in February. It’s not hard to set the limit at the date of the first polling day, it’s not like it adds any more to the checking process. I was pretty keen on getting a voter card at the time, and I should’ve anyway. I’m sure I could’ve got one. I wonder how one goes about getting one.

This year I graduate with a B.Sc. in Mathematics (unless my playing truant kills my attendance). I cannot honestly say I learnt much during these 3 years, I cannot even say that I deserve the degree if the amount I learnt during college is the criteria. There’s something wrong with the whole system when you have an Astronomy course but you aren’t allowed into the college post 10 PM. It’s funny, in a not-amusing way. However I do not regret joining MCC, of course. It’s just that the things you learn aren’t the things you get a degree for. Such is life.

I haven’t yet gotten around to cycling around, something that I’ve always wanted to do. I’m getting too old to hope to do it later, life catches up on youth too fast, and strangles it with responsibilities. Delayed gratification is something I always go for, but delayed too much and it may end up denied. I should get around to that post April, and before May, I hope. I’ve got my eye on this simple 10-speed bicycle, but in the end the problem’s always with the cyclist. I haven’t played a sport since I left school. Sedentary doesn’t even begin to describe the way I live. That has to change.

There was a paper I was supposed to do. It didn’t go so well the first time around, I was preoccupied with other things. Let me just finish this course and I’ll get right down to it. It can be done well, it should be, for the benefit of everyone involved. Fine, I botched it the first time around, my maths was shoddy for reasons even I cannot know, but something bad is only something that can be improved upon. A little effort, a little thought and a lot of getting back to the basics (I’m thinking I’ve forgotten my fundamentals)

I’ve always wondered why people make resolutions on New Year’s Day (Jan 1st). That’s about the worst time to make a resolution, you’re drunk, or stoned and you don’t know just what you’re thinking. It’s cold and dry, and your lips feel like death valley during the winter. There’s a whole year ahead of you, but it’s nothing much, it’s not your New Year’s Day, it’s a generic New Year’s Day. Your New Year’s Day is your birthday.

Oh, and thanks to everyone who came today, I appreciate it, it was nice. I like the fact that I got a big pink Aladdin puzzle. Anyone who couldn’t make it :) it happens, some other time. I’m not very good at organising things, I tend to forget stuff, and cannot remember to remind people. Fire and forget, not exactly efficient, but that’s all I can do.

Posted in Me | 4 Comments »

Saarang - Everything Else

February 2nd, 2008 Roshan

As my memory degrades logarithmically with time I think I should just summarize what happened over Saarang. I don’t quite remember Wednesday, I don’t think they had any events then, just an inauguration ceremony, so that makes Thursday Day 1.

Day 1

We got there at around 1 and played Cluedo, which is this game in which they give you this ‘mystery’ and you have to all Miss Marple on it. We solved a couple, while Bikram and James managed nearly all of them. We made up for all of these by writing stupid jokes on the top of each question. I don’t think the IIT crowd enjoyed them enough because they didn’t give us a place. Ah well.

Then there was Ex Tempore, the preliminaries, where Pipe and I participated in. They had this interestingly different way of doing things - one word topics. Pipe got porcupine, and I’m told he was hilarious, playing Fr. Kurien Jose perfectly. I got “rubberband” and I think I managed to do pretty decently myself. We both qualified.

The India Quiz, ah, we got flattened here. Much embarrassment at our general lack of awareness of the events in this nation was experienced, and much awe at the realisation that Oppenheimer spoke Sanskrit when he saw the H-bomb. Nevertheless, I sat there giving ridiculous answers while Pipe and Bikram answered all the questions they could properly. We didn’t make it, as is obvious.

That was it for the first day, I think.

Day 2

I don’t remember what was on this day. Ah yes, three things. Very important things. Firstly, when we left home, I noticed that the battery indicator on the car (which had been complaining the night before) had gone normal, but I warned my dad about it anyway. Of course, that was sensible. What wasn’t so sensible was deciding to take that very car and drive to IIT - it promptly shut off at the signal opposite Pantaloons, Gandhinagar. I had to push it while Bikram did his best to guide into the median, but we managed to get it to the side, lock it and get Illustrious Sibling to cycle over to retrieve the key. Once IS had reached, I had to tell him about the second item on the agenda - retrieve Chitra’s book from the shelf where I had left it. I’d put off returning it for far too long.

IS came back with the book, but promptly dropped it while crossing the road on bicycle. Hilarity ensued for a short while after when I pretended that I was going to steal his bike (he’d left it on this side of the road while he ran to the other side to retrieve the book, and the traffic had started so he couldn’t cross). IS was not amused, but being the kind soul that he is, he gave me the book with some sarcastic remarks thrown in as a bonus. Nice chap.

Arriving at IIT, we went to participate in the quiz, where we did neither exceptionally well, nor exceptionally badly. I must admit, it was Bikram who told me about Gita Press, I did not know what the hell that was. As a matter of fact, I still don’t. In any case, I qualified. However, while leaving, I forgot that I had entered with a 300 page book under my arm and had left with a slightly lighter load. Returning 2 hours later, I found it gone. Predictably, I was upset. I mean, see, it says something about a college that students will take a book titled Mathematical Analysis (or some such) instead of being instantly repulsed.

Later in the day, however, I found that this nice chap had kept it in case it was lost and he returned it to me the next day. Nice chap, Chaitanya. Anyway, that evening I was at the quiz semifinals and the questions ranged from The Bible in LOLspeech to some artist who likes to draw people flying (or at weird angles) to the Beatles. A very interesting quiz, and it was fun. I missed out from the finals by 1 point (2 points per correct answer) primarily because I didn’t have the sense to get “Jehovah’s Witnesses”. Ah, such is life.

NOTE: IITians like the A/C turned to “damn cold”.

Day 3

This day went well, very nicely. Pipe and I participated in Ex Tempore finals and we both did well except for this one round where two participants are supposed to speak to each other and Pipe’s partner decided to talk all over him and only to the audience instead of having a conversation. It was disturbing to watch it happen. By contrast, the guy who was up with me was incredibly nice and in the 1 min we were given before starting he thought up one smart idea along which we’d do the whole thing. You see, he was 50 cent, and I was Sonia Gandhi so his idea was that he would suggest ways to campaign for me and I’d dismiss them. Guy’s a genius. We thought up the ways on stage, of course and it went off very well, both of us getting some laughs.

In the second round, each participant had to either play the part of a narrator to the video being shown on the screen (without the soundtrack) or speak the characters dialogues or make noises. Of course, we were shown the video a minute in advance. I had some scene from Sholay to talk about. It was rather violent: involving a guy, two swords, another guy chained, and the cutting off of the chained guys arms. Yes, painful. I spoke describing this as an orthopaedic surgery, wisely deciding not to name the swordsman after my father. Went off well, though I felt like I was advertising Shakthimaan after my last line which was rather lame. The third round was Block and Tackle, and it was rather funny.

I won first, so I’m pretty jazzed about that, so that’s why it gets 3 paragraphs. 2 paragraphs. Not counting this one. Whatever.

That’s about all that I remember, Saarang was fun. Pretty nice. I don’t quite remember all the wins our college got but here’s what I do remember:

  • Power Chord: 2nd - Greyshack. Vikram won Best Guitarist. They’re good.
  • Carnatic Music: 3rd - Arundhathi. I thought she’d place even higher, no surprise anyway :)
  • Creative Writing: 2nd - Gitanjali. I forgot which day this was on, but she writes well so it hardly matters.
  • Light Music: 1st - Udaan. Ha ha, these guys are awesome!

Posted in College | 6 Comments »

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