kasmenon

East India company and  digital India. The East India Company(EIC) ,formed to pursue trade  ended up trading mainly with the India. In circa 1600 . It startef  trade in basic commodities that included cotton, silk, salt, tea and opium The company eventually came to rule large areas of India with its own army , exercising military power and assuming administrative functions. Great Britain  assuming direct control of India in the form of the new a Raj. Circa 2008to 2105  or thereabouts : India  has huge problems in development . income disparity. Uneven economic development. Huge infra problems. Conflicting interests vie with each other to share  resources and this leads to a Hindu growth rate. Then comes the cyber space phenomenon. Indians starts with being he back room boys. Rides the wave and this creates a significant segment that is economically well off. Many travel abroad and  work there. Many become key managers of this technology. ...

Why Indians are ideal candidates for colonizing  Mars: kuchkas NASA has been in the forefront of knowledge and quest for understanding our universe. It has journeyed into unknown lands where mankind has not gone before and continues to do so. Most, if not all, of scientific, engineering, medical and IT developments have been a by-product of such pursuits by  NASA, the Soviet and European space research.  Colonizing another planet and trying to recreate livable conditions for human beings seem to be one of the next frontiers.  While the search for extra-terrestrial life anywhere in our Universe would be the ultimate triumph of such endeavors, our ability to travel far and wide and find ways to exist in alien worlds will be the practical offshoot of such scientific quests. It also has vast potential for unimaginable and exponential growth in engineering, material science, application etc. As an offshoot.  The attached news report mentions about NASA's ...

NEW  RELIGIOUS   ALIGNMENT  : SIX PACKS TO HUMPTY  DUMPTY Brad stood tall, for someone of his type, muscular and alert, like any other day, on the pavement leading up to our jogging park. His small tail wagged and his eyes sparkled in anticipation as he saw me. Like every other day, I, clad in my track pants and walking shoes, walked upto him and caressed him on his forehead. My day was made and, I hoped, he too felt the same. Both then went about his own business, me towards the park for an hour’s brisk walk and he, pulled and tugged by the harness   his master held, for his morning walk.   Both man (oops women too!) and animal seamlessly slipped into this routine. Man pretending to have evolved from mending sheep and ploughing fields to manning workstations. Animals, ending up caged and called as pets, had no pretensions about their state.  Both led a sedentary life. Both had food served literally on a platter. To most at least. ...

GUJJU'S AND ME: kuchkas The much harried anchor just managed to get the squabbling bunch of politicians off the air, a split second before the commercial break, at the end of a debate she was trying to conduct. I have been using the idiot box, mostly as a break from reading or indulging in my hobby which, by the way, is astronomy and astrophysics. The later bit, often, is heavy stuff and demands occasional breaks so as to get back to the real and cruel world.    The television news channels, these days, are as entertaining as the latest Bollywood masala. Quick, short, half an hour of drama, intrigue, verbal duels and tragic humour. The commercial breaks provide for the item number. Soap operas are passé! I also use it as a source for material I can use to bash politicians and instigate my friends whose leanings are not, necessarily, matching mine. This time the anchor warned that she will be back soon with another bunch of spokespersons. No sooner she said that, the ...

To Lanka with love ,  kuch kas :  It was a Jet airways flight that took me to Colombo. The only good part of the journey was the hour and half I spent in the club Lounge of the new Mumbai airport terminal, T2 . Lots of food, plush seating, a slice of history if you do take a stroll outside the lounge area ,all tastefully designed. Lots of shopping options in case you are that type.  I, for one, found a nice cozy corner and excellent reading material and waited. The flight was uneventful. The  devote Muslim gentlemen next to me spent most of his time praying. I realized that it made sense, as soon as the pilot landed his craft in the tarmac in a manner indicating he was not sure if he should land or take off. The hostess, in her practiced accent , announced that we had landed much before the scheduled time. Considering we were 20 minutes behind she probably meant that they got you to your destination in the first place, thank you.  The Taj hotel cabby de...

I rebel so that you may survive….kuch kas It began just like another day at school. The good old headmaster , nicknamed Drago, if my memory serves me right, had finished explaining the intricacies of the polynomial equation when the high pitched bell rang, calling an end to the math period. Out he went and soon enough few us followed. To go to the loo was the standard official reason. The minutes before the next period and away from the preying eyes of the Principal, was fun time. Pranks committed, the list of which will take reams of electronic space. Cricket scores, transactions involving buying hot botata vadas and roasted peanuts from the telewala who peddled it in front of the school, are few unmentionable ones. The logistics of how the botata vada exchanged ownership was as intricate as the Mumbai dabawala business system.  The class monitor, who occasionally happened to be yours truly, was part of the game. That was my way of getting the thugs to behave at other times....

Cirsa 1972. A Mumbai suburb with predominantly middle class inhabitants , a mix of Gujarati, Maharashtrian , south Indian and the necessary anglo Indian Mary, Janet and John thrown in for good measure. It was the usual short walk from School. While the late evening hues bathed the land, the dark clouds hovering across the skies meant imminent rain. It also meant a delightful and complete drenching. Soon , slow and tiny droplets of water fell on my face . I hummed ". Rain drops are falling on my head " and walked briskly. It turned into a deluge. With B J Thomas on my lips , I trudged along, gleefully enjoying the rain. The new notebooks, probably, felt my joy too! After a quick wash and drying upon reaching home, I was ready. It sat there majestically as usual. The baby with finger on her cheeks was her brand logo. Hope I got the gender right! Occupying the pride of place, up on a special wall mounted stand. The Murphy radio was any family's window to the outside ...