Bhubaneswar as the Smart City

Not long time ago, I met an affable friend in Bhubaneswar after a long time. Our chat mostly centered around our common friends, one of whom happens to be in USA and doing well. My friend back home retorted back "He wasn't so smart, so how come he landed up in America" ?

Can't blame my friend back home. He was just following the definition of smartness he was familiar with. As far as I am aware, smart is someone who is sharp, witty or brainy. But Bhubaneswar has its own definition of smartness. Smart is usually an accolade laced adjective deserved for guy, who otherwise known as a LUNGUDA ( a habitual girl chaser), is the one who attires himself with fashionable clothes and shoes, scavenging pretty girls in every nook and corner of the city.

Hence my friend in USA hardly fit the bill for smartness per Bhubaneswar parlance. He was shy, neither rode a motorcycle, nor chased girls, which automatically disqualifies him as smart. The faster one drives, more girls he drives around, more fashionable cloths and shoes one wears, makes one the smartest person on earth. Yet my friend, who is unquestionably brainy and has a great command over English is branded in local lingo as a PENA or DHAIN (nincompoop).

So when Bhubaneswar is officially declared as a smart city, it caught me between the proverbial Scylla and Charybdis, the Devil and the Deep sea. Now I have a Hobson's choice to make, whether to make an emotional call and be glad for a city, which I migrated to as a 7 year old in 1976. Or be cynical about a city, struggling to feel smart about, where the woeful infrastructure on the ground is archaic and the air is so pathetic that you can't speak to someone on mobile without your call dropping in every 5 minutes.

The city which I once called home, grew right before my eyes, as I grew up with the city. During my teenage time it grew like an infant. During my youth it grew like a teenager. Like a teenager starts putting on weight, the city loaded itself with population. Unwarranted and unplanned buildings started sprouting like pimples on a teenager's cheek. A la, a young adult starts growing taller at a faster rate at teen stage in life, Bhubaneswar grew without bounds like a teenager's heart and mind. During my childhood the tallest building was the NA MAHALA KOTHA (The 9 storied Secretariat Building). Now myriad tall buildings criss-cross the landscape. A la the cool temperament of a child changes into a hot natured teenager, salubrious weather of the city has vanished, transforming the city into a hot weathered enclave for the most part of the year. Cool breeze blowing across green foliage, has been replaced these days by hot lava winds meandering through concrete jungle.

Akin to a growing teenager, the city started flexing its muscle in form of its expanding traffic. The voice of the traffic became coarse and it became more and more unruly, same as a teen would behave. As a teenager expands physic and vision, Bhubaneswar expanded itself growing recklessly in all dimension beyond its frontier engulfing small villages and rivulets. Now the rivulets in the form of undrainaged water due to the recent unseasonal rains has come back to haunt it. As the city grew, like the irresponsible parents the inept authority not only slept it became corrupt. Now similar to the spoilt kid which comes back to haunt the hapless old parents later in their life, the city has come back to hunt its residents. Probably a poetic justice which was waiting to happen.

So what the authorities did to cope up with the burgeoning city ? They not only slept when it grew at an exponential rate. Matching it, they became exponentially inefficient and corrupt. Now that it's officially topped the smartest of the smartest cities in India, let's pray the City-zens of the Temple city develop some smart civic sense. Otherwise nothing tangible is going to happen, however smart we call it. Hope the so called smart city eventually doesn't end up one befitting its local definition of smartness. There is Nothing official about it.

American Conservatism - 101

Many Conservatives in America are now wary of Donald Trump, as he is in the striking distance of snatching away the Republican nomination from a field who are Champions of American Conservatism. Their concern - Trump, who was a Democrat before with liberal credentials, will compromise with their  core conservative principles,  once he gets Republican party's nomination.

Trump in my opinion is a PUCCA BEPARI or VYAPARI (businessperson), who not without reason has built a fortune for himself, sitting over an empire of $9 billion. He can resort to all rhetorical crap to his political advantage, but he is far from being a suicidal megalomaniac. Never underestimate the calculative acumen of a successful businessperson. I am sure,  he will campaign and once elected. govern from the center. That's exactly what the conservatives fear.

Here is a glimpse of American conservatism for the uninitiated, encapsulating some of their Core principles.

AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM - We all know this and there is some truth to it. Without certain exceptional qualities and leadership, America wouldn't be where it is today. Even virulently anti Americans grudgingly admit the same. Yet, self glorification takes the mojo out of it. Rubbing of self ego hardly helps, same as the Message - A Self massage doesn't give you the same pleasure, as much as the massage given to you by someone else.

SMALL GOVERNMENT - A la the conservatives, I am a big believer in small governments, often vocal about it. It has been vindicated, smaller the government leads to reduced Bureaucracy means better governance.

GOD, GAY and GUN- They strongly believe in God and firmly against gun control and gay marriage. I believe that gays, like any Homo Sapien deserve the rights to be gay and happy,  and pursuit of life, liberty. But I believe that marriage is a union between a man and a woman.

STOP ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS - With more than 12 million illegal immigrants in USA, it's the right issue for the Right Wingers. There's a legal channel to come to America in order to pursue the American dream, for after all, this is a land of immigrants. But what's illegal is illegal, cannot be condoned.

LESS TAX AND FREE MARKET- My take is both Yes and No. Yes, I am a staunch supporter of free market. Yes, lots of tax loopholes need to go. No - America has one of the lowest taxes in the world compared to other developed nations. So little more tax on the rich won't hurt.

LESS FREEBIES LIKE UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS  AND FOOD STAMPS - Agree, it should be temporary. Otherwise, it won't motivate people to work. Extra socialism can be suicidal. Name a few successful socialist countries (Commies won't agree).

ANTI- ABORTION - Conservatives are against abortions, even in the case of Rape and Incest. But I am pro-choice, I believe in a woman's right to chose.

Summing up, I consider myself a center-right persons as almost 40% Americans are. In some matters I am conservative, and in some matter I am progressive.

Dhoni as Pitamah Bhishma

Dhoni is like PITAMAH (Grand Sire) Bhishma of Indian cricket. As Bhishma got an ICHHAA MRUTYU (self death) boon from his father, Dhoni seems to have the ICCHHAA retirement boon from his Godfather (if any).

Bhishma vowed never to die until the HASTINAPUR kingdom is secured. Now that India started well in T20 series with a win and a possible series win, Dhoni after series should gracefully retire - Indian cricket being well secured for future under the leadership of Kohli.

All Indian team members can put their hands for Dhoni to sleep, imitating the SARA SAJYA (bed of arrow) of Bhishma. Kohli can play the role of Arjun by spraying some Champagne on Dhoni's mouth, a la water sprout made by Arjun for Bhishma. That can be a fitting finale of passing the baton to the next generation of cricket MAHABHARAT.

Snowzilla in North East - January 2016

The snowzilla last weekend in the North East and mid Atlantic USA dumped upto 30 inches of snow. The situation was worth around New Jersey where high winds up to 70 miles of hour, compounded by tide due to full moon, caused coastal flooding.

Death toll was reportedly around 20, not so bad to the immense preparedness and professional disaster handling by the authorities. Most are driving related, as there are still people who needlessly cause harakiri by adventuring out, not heeding to the warning by the authorities. I am sure in that case, the human toll can be cut down by half.

It is no coincidence that due to global warming, there is more moisture on the surface of earth, leading to catastrophic hurricanes, cyclones and snow storms than never before. But glad to advance technology, this monster storm was predicted for about a week or so ago, giving advance time to prepare.

Yet no technology has been developed to correctly predict the natural disaster of earthquake. It's said that some animals are known to have a sixth sense to sense and earthquake and are known to behave weird, as the harbinger of the event.

It has been repoeted earlier, cats and mice running helter skelter on street together, rather than cats chasing their bette noire, just before earthquake. A friend mine who studied Engineering close the location of the famous Latur earthquake in 1993, remembers dogs whining and cows mooing, hours before the shudders of tremors came. Sadly, we have to depend on the sixth sense of animals for predicting earthquake.

Trump is certainly not suicidal

I am no fan of Donald Trump, but if the reports on media, social or otherwise are to be believed, there is some concern, that if he is elected as the President of United States, he will go berserk. That kind of over reaction I think is not only preposterous, but little far fetched.

Having followed the American politics closely for close to two decades, I can vouch, nothing of that sort gonna happen. Before Modi led BJP won handsomely in 2014, many predicted doomsday for minorities in India (as if there were no atrocities against Minorities during the times of Congress and the Communist supported governments. Nellie massacre in Assam in 1893, followed by the Delhi massacre after Indira's assassination in 84, both took place when Congress government was in its prime and very much at the helm of affairs). Hardly anything close to that has happened.

So IF Donald Trump gets nominated and IF he gets elected (both conditions have to simultaneously coming true), I am sure he is not going to nuke everyone. (Having said that, a week is a long time in politics and November is politically eons away). A businessman sitting over an empire of $9 billion might exhaust rhetorical crap to his political advantage, but he is far from being a suicidal megalomaniac. Never underestimate the calculative acumen of a successful businessperson.

As they say - all politics are local. Trump is simply playing to the playing fields at his crucial juncture of campaigning. Anything construed beyond his rhetoric is needless fear mongering. Folks on the other side of the globe have more chances of a Mullah Missile or Kim's Kamikaze Kids, rather than Trump sending nuclear warheads on their way.

Youth suicide as a political issue

Every person, has rights to live. It hurts utmost when someone commits suicide. And it hurts more, if that person happens to be young. Because, like every young men and women, they have eons ahead of them, they too have a dream and unwisely decide to procrastinate their unfilled dream by killing themselves.

When does a person decide to end his or her life ? It's not just the frustration with their life, it's more due to the lack of care or concern for the rest of the world, which includes their near and dear ones. If I feel suicidal for some reason, I may resist that thought for a moment, if I think of my family, if not me. Apparently they don't care about their loved one and decide end their life at the spurt of the moment, never getting a chance to regret it later.

Suicides in college campuses are not uncommon. Surging teenage hormone can create havoc in hearts and minds, which can be due to failure in academics, love or bullying by others.

There is an alarming increase in IITians committing suicide in recent years. I have a close friend from IIT, who during his trips to India visits his professors from Alma mater. They told him - gone are the days when intelligent, creative students used to come to these premier institutes. Now many mediocre students churned out of innumerable coaching institutes mange to clear the entrance exam. Once in, they can't cope of the aggressive curriculum and choose end their lives.  

A great tragedy in this context, is the death of an young man Rohith Vemula, who recently committed in an Hyderabad University. He was young and I am sure he too had a dream. So also many young minds who decide to prematurely end their life. But hardly any issue is made out of it. The news of their death dies within a few days of their death. But this case is different, for a different reason.

The greater tragedy is the myopic eyes of our NETAs, whose jaundiced view can rarely see beyond the colors of caste and creed. It feels sick to the stomach to see our politicians back home, busy milking political milage out of this tragedy. Rather than fixing the issue, they try to fix their rivals to get one step ahead of them in the rat race for power.

The greatest tragedy is silence of the silent majority, which is conspicuously deafening. Can't resist repeating my often mentioned joke. A person once went to an astrologer, who after seeing his chart said " You will beg after two years". "What will happen after that ?" asked the person who now was somewhat concerned. The astrologer responded "You will get used to it". So may be the silent majority has got used to the chaotic system.

Money - the greatest leveller

Like every year, I return to Volunteer filing Income Tax Returns for the lower income people. It gives me the immense pleasure of volunteer work and the accompanied opportunity to interact with folks from different walks of life. From a 95 year old lady, who as a teenager drove a Ford (In 1930s, 90% of American households had access to car), how she flirted with her beau on telephone (Americans then had 4 times more phones per person than British, 6 times more than Germans), to anecdotes from an 18 year old, whose mom never returned to his Indian father after moving to US with him, settling down here for good.

But nothing trumps this encounter a few years ago. Money certainly can be a great leveler, the proof of which I saw in my own eyes. Like every tax season, one fine winter morning I was doing my Volunteer Tax Preparation for low income people. A couple who were filing jointly, as usual were seating across me, while I prepared their taxes. As I was busy going through their documents, entering them on the IRS website, the couple were busy bickering among themselves.

Their verbal cat fight, was reaching its zenith (fights are a ritual amongst couple, only exception were probably Sri Maa and Aurobindo or may be Ramakrishna Paramhans and Sarala Devi). Tax Preparation needs utmost  attention, so the couple's rambling was  an irritating drag on my work.

My cup of patience was full. I was about to mildly reprimand them when all of a sudden their Refund Amount popped up on the screen. They were getting around $3600 back which was a hefty amount in proportion to their income.(The so called  low income folks who come here to file their taxes drive cars, smoke Camel cigarette, stand in line until the door opens and wait patiently when their turn comes).

I interrupted their bickering, announcing the Refund amount which is going to land up in their Bank Account in 2-3 weeks, after e-filing their Returns. Their face suddenly glowed, words turned sweeter. The husband now started calling the wife Sweetie. The wife reciprocated with calling her hubby Honey. They high-fived and praised Good Lord for being generous to them that morning. (Little they understood that it's their own money they are getting back from IRS who holds on to more than a year with 0% APR). The animosity that existed between the squabbling couple only moments ago, was now gone. With a smiling face they warmly shook my hands and bid adieu. No question, Money certainly can be a great leveler. Their reaction made me remember the good ole rhyme

"Money money money.
Brighter than sunshine,
Sweeter than Honey".