Ego Searching with Safari

And now in Google Website itself…

Ego Searching in Google

Am so happy now…!
–
Mugunth

©2010 MK Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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PS: This post has nothing to do with Apple, iPhone, programming, Windows, Microsoft. Sometimes, I do pen down my personal thoughts on my blog. Read it if you are an atheist. Read it if you aren’t either

== God ==

Our Galaxy - The Milky Way

Being in the 21st century, the age of science and technology, computer research, many of us really doesn’t think about God. This Universe, is a very vast area, which “hosts” the Milky Way. Our Solar system is a very small part of that galaxy and the planet we live, Earth (or Mother Earth) is another minuscule part of Solar System. In such a great Universe, only our Earth has the right proportions of Oxygen in Air, has water and the right temperature which makes it the only planet to support life. Isn’t this a miracle? Who could have done this?

For human beings to survive, water and air are indispensable. It’s available for free on this planet. Who gave this to us? Can we all “thank” him for that?

Every engineer knows that a computer’s chip is made from silica, which most commonly found in sand. Can you believe that, that sand is doing miracles on your computer right now when you are reading this? Who designed it? A chorus, “Some Engineer” did it. Nearly every literate person can answer that question.

God is also an Engineer, much like us. The “chip” he designed is called “CELL“. It carries the DNA, which is a “blue print” depicting your Intelligence, your height, your weight, complexion, skin color and the entire “YOU”. It also has the mitochondria that generates the necessary power for the survival of the cell along with a whole lot others. But when we are asked, who made this chip, we blabber this, that and end up saying “evolution”. Evolution, the very word, states that there was something in the beginning and everything evolved from it. Who created that something? (OK, a mild digression, I’m a strong believer of Evolution, which is why I think Veganism is really bad and against evolution.
Analogous to that, we didn’t invent the Core 2 Duo chip out of blue. It “evolved” from it’s predecessor. Tracing back to it’s roots, the very first “CHIP” was created by a Texas Engineer, Jack Kilby. He then invented the calculator and the thermal printer as well.
Similarly, were we able to trace how the first living “CELL” was formed? Do we know what happened before BigBang? Why don’t we just thank Him for what He provided us? Why can’t we worship the nature, He provided us there by thanking him? If everyone believed that God is there and God made the Universe, and God is looking at all of us, there wouldn’t be any unlawful practices, murders, rape or robbery. Don’t think that “Seeing is Believing”. Yes of course, seeing is believing, but it cannot be applied universally. How is your computer working now? What flows through the power cord? Can you see it? Well then don’t believe in Electricity. You can only “feel His presence”

== Religion ==

Religions

Now comes the most controversial topic. If I have to believe in God, which religion is the best? Ask me, I’ll never ever say follow religion XXX. Now, who created religion? About 300, 000 years ago, when the Neo Cortex of the brain started growing at a considerably rapid pace (see, I believe in Evolution), we, humans gained “self consciousness”. This self consciousness, lead to the creation of a sophisticated language with which we were able to communicate more information with our peers. Though, animals had the sense of “fear” and morals (some animals like Dolphin, not all), their poorly developed language centers prevented them to form a strict set of rules that constituted a religion. This is again evident from the fact, that animals don’t bother about the carcass of their peers, where as Neanderthals buried their peers after performing some rituals. The “self-awareness”, which humans gained after the growth of “neo cortex”, created the sense of “Afterlife” sometime during the past which seeded the origins of the first religion. However, religion is nothing but a strict set of rules set by the first person(whoever it might be or whatever it might say) who wrote it. Remember the monkey, ladder and the cold water story? Precisely, this is how religion got disseminated. Most of us, who believe in one or the other religion, disseminate their religious thoughts, much like the monkeys in the story, without even “thinking” about it. Read any “holy book”, they always say, the other religion is bad. We live in a secular world and still think these texts are true and we claim we are an intelligent species.

I can hear you murmuring now… So what should you do? Should you believe or not believe? Is there God? Well,

1) God exists. But he didn’t write those holy books which you read. He didn’t build those temples/churches or mosques you visit. You don’t have to go there to worship him. He created this entire Universe for you to live and you think, God lives only in those temples/churches or mosques.

2) God never created religion or never wrote any holy books. It’s we humans who disseminated it. If God really created religion, animals, as well would have built its own temples, much like the way they built their caves or nests.

3) After creating the Universe, the Solar System, the Earth and the laws of Earth, God will never interfere with it/meddle with it.  He created Physics. When you leave (drop) a ball from your hand, it doesn’t stay there. It falls down to Earth, and believe me it’s a miracle. But for most of us, who adhere to “strict religious” principles, miracle is when the same ball moves up rather than being attracted by gravity. God created physics and the Earth and its gravity. He is not going to bend the very laws of physics he created just to make you believe his presence. He has given you the sense of “self-consciousness” with which you should understand what’s right and what’s wrong. He’s not going to perform magics or tricks defying the very laws He created. The physics He created itself is a miracle. Here is an article on what Einstein thought about God and Religion.  Some excerpts from that article.

There is a third stage of religious experience which belongs to all of them, even though it is rarely found in a pure form: I shall call it cosmic religious feeling. It is very difficult to elucidate this feeling to anyone who is entirely without it, especially as there is no anthropomorphic conception of God corresponding to it.

The religious geniuses of all ages have been distinguished by this kind of religious feeling, which knows no dogma and no God conceived in man’s image; so that there can be no church whose central teachings are based on it. Hence it is precisely among the heretics of every age that we find men who were filled with this highest kind of religious feeling and were in many cases regarded by their contemporaries as atheists, sometimes also as saints. Looked at in this light, men like Democritus, Francis of Assisi, and Spinoza are closely akin to one another.

How can cosmic religious feeling be communicated from one person to another, if it can give rise to no definite notion of a God and no theology? In my view, it is the most important function of art and science to awaken this feeling and keep it alive in those who are receptive to it.

The “religion” which he explains is close to what modern day “Deism” is all about. A quote from Wikipedia on Deism states that,

Deism is a religious and philosophical belief that a supreme being created the universe, and that this (and religious truth in general) can be determined using reason and observation of the natural world alone, without a need for either faith or organized religion. Deists generally reject the notion of divine interventions in human affairs – such as by miracles and revelations, but not necessarily

The cosmic religious feeling which Einstein had is what we, as Engineers or technologists should follow. It’s closest kin, Deism, says, God never meddles with your day-to-day activities. So tomorrow, when you go to your place of worship, Thank Him for what he has given, rather than asking for some kind of favor.
“Oh God make me filthy rich” will never make you rich. Bill Gates, didn’t pray that way, for he is an atheist, if I’m not wrong.
God created you and the Universe along with every other animal or plant out there. Thank him for that next time when you worship, rather than asking him for some favour which He is not going to give. God gave you the sense of “reasoning”. Question your religion or anyone who preaches any religion. If your religion bans something, ask why? Why shouldn’t I eat Beef (I’m a Hindu, legally, not morally). If God really wanted humans not to eat Beef, he wouldn’t have created cows at the first place. If God really wanted you to circumcise, He would have ensured that your fore-skin falls off once it’s duty of protecting your genitals is over. No, I’m not a creationist. What I believe is, God created “something” initially from which everything else evolved.
What differentiates between the God created chip, “CELL” and human created chip, “Microprocessor” is the ability to reproduce. That ability of the first “CELL” gave way to evolution and Darwinism.
Believing in God doesn’t mean you ought to follow a religion. Einstein never followed one, yet he is not an atheist. You can believe in God without following a religion. If you are following a religion, start questioning it. Ask yourself why?. The moment you really believe in God is the moment when you become truly, self-aware. That God, needn’t be anthropomorphic (nor He is). It’s just a feeling. A cosmic religious feeling which Einstein felt. Start feeling it. When everyone “feels” this, there wouldn’t be war in this World.

Hope you enjoyed the post.
Feel free to pen down your comments. Hope I didn’t hurt anyone’s sentimental feelings. If you felt so, do let me know.

Thanks,
Mugunth

©2010 MK Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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1. ShahRukh Detention Vs Frisking of Dr. Abdul Kalam The detention of ShahRukh in US has created a lot...

I first thought it was the stupid Indian media that created the hype. But the topic started trending in Twitter, and here is a screen cap from Bing, which says ShahRukh is a “Popular” search now (17th Aug 2009).

Bing Says ShahRukh is a popular search now...

Just about three weeks back, when the man who I revere next to God himself, Dr. Abdul Kalam, was frisked at the Indian Airport by US, no one bothered to make such furore. Dr. Kalam, was asked to remove his shoes (yeah he could be pirating cocaine or meth to US) he accepted and obliged and even Continental reported that

Kalam was very cooperative and underwent the entire process which happened over a month ago

Neither the media, not the Internet savvy people made much noise.

Three weeks later, ShahRukh was detained at the Newark Airport and the whole Indian diaspora made a huge furore.

Hindu reported that, “Shahrukh doesn’t feel like stepping onto US soil again”

It was very unprofessional of the airport security staff of not allowing me to use my cell phone to contact my local organisers

We will take up the issue with the United States government strongly. Such incidents involving Indians due to their religion or nationality should not happen… we will not accept it – Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel

My dear citizens, it’s their country and they have setup their own laws and they have every rights to check who is entering their land and who is not.

Mr Khan said,

I have travelled throughout the world for my shooting and also as brand ambassador for major products, but I have never been treated like this before

StraitTimes reported that, Some (really stupid) cabinet minister wants to retaliate by frisking and detaining Americans travelling to India.

The only Indian Media to report in a neutral stance was Economic Times A quote from their article,

Interestingly, the same day that SRK was detained in Newark, there came news that the great Bob Dylan, wandering around Long Branch, near New York City, was asked for an ID by two cops too young to know who he really was. When he couldn’t furnish one, Dylan was taken back to the resort where he was putting up and staff there vouched for him.

How can ShahRukh expect a “Royal Treatment” in the United States, when Bob Dylan himself was not given one? He may be a super hero in India and he makes a lot of money because some crazy idiots make him God, but the educated upper echelons of India, should at least understand and stop making a furore. In India you might allow any politician/film actor go through your immigration gates without much checks. That has lead us to great problems including the Mumbai Terrorist Attacks. But, after 9/11, every American wants to save him and his country which in my view makes a lot of sense esp if you are patriotic. You can’t expect Americans to follow the herd just like Indians. Moreover, comparing how Abdul Kalam co-operated when he was frisked and what Khan said when he was detained, you should at least understand who is trying to make a fuss.

A kind plea to all those educated Indian diaspora living abroad: Your visa status, your immigration and getting a green card is possible only when America and India has a good relationship with each other. Already, those stupid politicians and film actors and film actor turned politicians have f***ed up our lives. Don’t again allow them to play with your life and make a fool of yourself. They have already made Australia a “bad” place when there wasn’t any racial intentions. Now they have turned to United States. At the end, you have to provide your family with everyday bread. Neither ShahRukh, nor the Indian Politicians will. Save your visas. All these commotions will only make it more difficult for future Indians to secure a H1B or a student visa.
And now don’t ask me why US/Australia and why not stay back in India. Read my other posts Quality of Indian Education and Education System in India

Thanks for reading…

–
Mugunth

©2010 MK Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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Indian students are ubiquitous on Australian campuses, but they have not assimilated into the Australian way of life. On many occasions they have violated their visa status and have started to permeate the landscape around the campuses in search of menial jobs. Some of the female Indian “students” have been caught as prostitutes, and there is the general perception that many of the Indian students sell drugs in Australia. Some Australians have accused the Indians of using Black Magic for seduction purposes. Australian students also accuse the Indians on cheating in exams and whispering answers in Hindi and other languages not understood by Australians. Sydney beaches are full of the drunk Indian students ogling and harassing the women. The Australians also accuse the Indians of gender bias and mistreating female instructors. One of the “attacked” Indian males was soliciting sex for money. Being gay in India is frowned upon. Many gay Indian students visit the seedy parts of town seeking gay activity. The Indians do not own cars, so they walk on streets in the wee hours of the morning, something totally alien to Australian culture.

“Be a Roman if you are in Rome” — COMMENTED BY ME

Unlike most other Asian students the Indians live in off-campus dilapidated apartments. One major source of complaint is the cooking habits of the Indians. Australia has about 400,000 foreign students. The Malaysians, Lankans, Bangladeshis and Pakistanis either live in the dorms, or live in well to do apartments. Unlike the Indians, most of them also enjoy Australian foods. They do not face similar complaints. In a recent poll, most Australians had a negative view of the students from India whom they found obnoxious and very aggressive. This sort of diplomatic aggressiveness will boomerang. Already there are signs that the Australians are tired of the carping. Privately the Aussies are seething at the Indian attitude. “Who they hell they think they are?. If they don’t like it, they can go back to Smellyland”.

“diplomatic aggressiveness” – what are you aggressive of? What do you feel proud to be aggressive of? In Singapore, the country where I live now, I’ve heard some Indians saying “Because of we foreign workers only Singapore is rich.” I would like to assert that, it’s not because of us. If it were really because of we Indians, India would be the RICHEST country in the world. — COMMENTED BY ME

We are not feeling safe basically in Australia, we are not feeling safe at all,” one of them told the Herald Sun. Another Indian said: “They told us that it is a multicultural country, you know, but after living here for three years. Herald Sun. -

“It’s not your country buddy… you can’t expect someone to safeguard you once u step out to a foreign coutry” If you don’t feel safe better come back. — COMMENTED BY ME

Unlike other Asians, many Indians are very fond of loitering in front of their apartment complexes with loud music blaring the latest out of Bollywood. Another unique feature which puts them at odds with the Australians is the fact that most of the Indian students away from family restrictions are very fond of drinking.

While in Rome be a Roman, Don’t expect Romans to behave like Indians — COMMENTED BY ME

As one Dot Buster said “Nothing worse than a smelly drunk Indian trying to entice Australian women“.

The complete article is available here… http://rupeenews.com/2009/05/29/massive-backlash-against-india-why-do-australians-hate-indians/.

—- In my view, this happens from our base habit that we want people around us to follow our culture. A vast majority of us are never happy to follow the rules and regulations of a foreign country and start complaining once things go wrong… Remember, whenever you are in a foreign country, don’t blame their govt. It’s entirely your responsibility to follow their rules. If they hit you, you can’t hit them back. You can’t cry. You can’t call Indian govt. You chose to go there. They didn’t call you. Don’t expect to celebrate HOLI in a foreign country and dirty it. If you want to celebrate and enjoy your “Indian tradition” come back to India. Remember, In every developed country, US/UK/AUS, there are other races/ nationalities that include, chinese, philipinos/malaysians and latinos. Why is it that only Indians are targetted? Ask any “so called patriotic Indian”, he will say it’s because we steal their jobs. But remember, it’s not we alone who steal. There are a lot other nationalities also. The main reason is not that my dear friends. IMO, We don’t follow their rules and expect them to follow ours. Even whilst in Bangalore, we are not ready to learn Kannada, but expect the locals to speak Hindi. Respect others freedom/race/culture. Your’s will be automatically respected.

–

Mugunth

©2010 MK Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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1. ShahRukh Detention Vs Frisking of Dr. Abdul Kalam The detention of ShahRukh in US has created a lot...

In the year 2000, I approached Indian Overseas Bank for getting an education loan for financing my undergraduate studies. The manager was very adamant and was not interested in giving me a loan as I don’t meet the “required” criteria (bribe on demand?) and rejected my loan request. Nevertheless, I was funded by my relatives and pursued my education. Two years later, when I learnt that the manager got transferred, I went again and asked the new manager in charge. He approved the loan, after getting a collateral document worth 50 times the loan amount and even reimbursed my older (first two years) education fees. I don’t have an idea why he asked for a collateral when P. Chidambaram has clearly stated that for any loan amount lesser than 4Lakhs, collateral security is not needed. I was lucky. I had this property to be pledged in lieu of the loan disbursed. What will happen to those poor Indians who aren’t rich enough to pledge properties? Despite Govt’s orders, how can these officials create their own rules? Let me leave that for another blog post. I don’t want to digress from the main topic.

Finally in 2004 I managed to complete my education and got a job through my campus placements and also started repaying my loan. The loan amount was 192,000 and the interest accrued went upto 240,000. Yeah in India, interest of 12% accrues even while you are studying. So beware! I took my loan in 2003, so it was only 40000. Had I got my loan in my first year, I would have to pay an insane amount of 2.8L for my 2L loan.

I was working in India for about three years till 2007 June, and had managed to pay around 1.8 Lakhs in the mean time (5000 per month). After that, I wanted to pursue my higher studies and went to the manager (around Nov 2006) seeking an education loan extension. Again, the manager changed and he didn’t give me despite my prompt payments. As Singapore govt was kind enough to finance my educaiton through scholarships and gave me a education loan grant for the uncovered amount, I came to this country hoping that I would get a loan here. I went to the bank (OCBC) and showed my passport and my admit letter. Five minutes later, my loan was disbursed. No questions asked…

Meanwhile in India, this manager also resigned, and I spoke with the new manager regarding stop payment for my education loan. I explained him that I had got an offer to do Masters and willing to pursue in Singapore. He being new, offered me a loan after seeing my payment record. I told him that I got scholarships and tuition fee grants from Singapore govt and asked him if I can temporarily stop paying the loan for two years till my graduation in July 2009. He accepted it. But unfortunately, due to some reason he was transferred and a new manager took the office.
He immediately sent some people to threaten my parents to start paying back the loan immediately. How can a nationalized bank like IOB do this?

In Singapore, after I got a job, I went to that bank and told them I want to start my repayment. I started repaying my loan (200$) every month from March. From April my bank account was not deducted for the loan. I went and asked OCBC. They told that because of recession, Singapore govt has asked them to stop taking repayments from students as some of them have not gotten their jobs after graduation. They also told me that I have to pay back the loan only from next April and till then interest will be frozen. Singpaore govt could have easily told that these rules apply only to citizens, and all foreigners should settle their loan immediately. But they didn’t. They cared for us. In turn, back in India, IOB sent some minions to threaten my aged parents when I’m here. Isn’t there a way to report this?

Is Mr. P Chidambaram dead or asleep? Why did he so blatantly told that education loan is available for students without collateral? To threaten us later? Does he ever know that something like this is happening?

I’ve now repayed my loan in full. But what will happen to people who didn’t have money? People who are stuck in this recession? Should they die in the hands of those minions??

Someone please help me.
–
Mugunth

©2010 MK Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Related posts:

1. ShahRukh Detention Vs Frisking of Dr. Abdul Kalam The detention of ShahRukh in US has created a lot...

This one is from Google.com website…
More evident that infosys is firing more people than they hire…
So is that all??? That IT bangalore boom???

This happens for TCS, Wipro and many other companies…
Try it for yourself…

–
Mugunth

©2010 MK Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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Yesterday, I went to Suntec City for buying a External hard drive for my Mac. Whoa, look at the crowd… Are they giving things there gratis? I’ve never seen such crowd in Singapore. There were huge LCD displays asking the public to come after an hour due to “overwhelming” response… My God… even in this recession, Singaporeans are craving for gadgets???

—
Mugunth

©2010 MK Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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In this blog post, I intend to post my views on what is good and what is bad about different aspect of veganism.
Basically, veganism can be defined as abstaining from

using leather based products
eating animal flesh
eating animal eggs
drinking animal milk

From my point of view, I would say that, killing animal for its skin is CRUEL and GRUESOME. I always prefer rexin based belts, seats and other upholsteries made of cloth over leather belts or plush leather upholstery. I have always used a similar equivalent product that could easily replace leather for my needs.

But does that always hold? Can this practice be extended for our eating habits?
I did a lot of analysis and found some interesting stuff.
Firstly, eating a pure vegan diet does not give us enough calcium, iodine, and vitamins like B12 and D. Practising vegan means, to fulfill these dietary needs, one should take pills that supplement these deficiencies. How many vegans do this? Literally very few. there are cases where people, specially babies, have died because of vegan practices like http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/21/opinion/21planck.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Secondly, evolution says that humans should eat meat.
Monkeys lived on plant foods. Chimpanzees, which are slightly close to humans in evolution started eating meat (http://science.jrank.org/pages/1418/Chimpanzees-Eating-habits.html) based food. They have canine teeth and can tear flesh. So are humans. And yes, we are not pure carnivorous like tiger as our anatomy says that. By eating vegetarian food, are we trying to fool nature and go back in evolution? Similarly, to digest chlorophyll based green leaves, cows and other herbivourous animals have something called an appendix. The appendix which is a vestigal organ in humans, is used to digest plant based food in herbivorous animals (http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/bio99/bio99430.htm). In humans, appendix serve to store good bacteria that aid in digestion and that’s it.(http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/the-appendix-does-have-a-use–rebooting-the-gut-396277.html)

Do we really get energy by eating spinach or green vegetables? No… We are only able to assimilate the minerals and vitamins contained in those leaves.
The ecological pyramid states that humans are not primary consumers of plant based food. Are we trying to change nature and its laws by becoming vegans?

But, yes, I’m against using animal products for anything else apart from eating. For example cosmetic usage of animal products and so on. I’m also against using animals for pulling logs of wood from forests (especially elephants), making money by training animals in circus, animal testing, which includes killing animals for experimentation which itself is estimated to be around 50 to 100 million vertebrates per year. I’m also against domesticating animals. A gold fish, which is very common in a majority of houses (specially in cities), is usually found in deep dark waters. The gold fish is an animal that hates light. In the name of domestication, we catch it, feed it with some “junk food”, and grow it in brightly lit fish tanks or aquariums. This could be crudely equivalent to shutting a human in a dungeon without any source of light and asking him to eat to his heartful. Same applies to caging birds. If you really care for animal rights and animal welfare, please do not domesticate them. please do not cage them. You don’t lose anything by doing this. Instead arguing that following vegan diet because you care for animal rights and welfare will only make you weaker and unhealthy. Moreover, you will be going against nature by abstaining from eating meat.

So from now on, avoid using leather based or ivory based or any animal based products. Avoid domesticating pet animals. But do not avoid eating unless it’s religiously banned. People who speak about animal rights and animal welfare, should think twice.

-
Mugunth

©2010 MK Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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1. God and Religion PS: This post has nothing to do with Apple, iPhone,...

The place I visited was the famous Honshu island that hosts the World’s largest metro, Tokyo. I stayed in Shin-Yokohama (New Yokohama), and travelled around the city. I went to Ome, Yokohama, Tokyo, Shinjuku and Akihabara. Unfortunately, the weather was pretty bad and I was advised that for going to Mount Fuji, this is not the right time. I had a glimpse of Mount Fuji while traveling to Shin-Yokohama though.

Japanese tradition and culture is well known. As opposed to the myth that in Japan people speak only Japanese, I could see a lot of people who could converse well in English as well… Even when I started conversation in Japanese, they replied to me back in “pretty good” English and that amazed me. Japan in no longer a isolated country. So are the announcements in trains. Nearly every announcement will be in Japanese and English. Yes, of course, you room cleaner cannot speak English and you have to live with that. Apart from that, Japan is not completely into English too…(like Singapore) You can’t find English novels and people do not read them nor do English papers, and yes, you can find a lot of English teaching courses. So, to summarize, if you have any plans of going to Japan but fearing that language would be a barrier, please do not hesitate. Go ahead, and book your tickets!!! Of course, learning some Japanese sentences could be useful.

Now, onward to the culture. Japanese are very traditional. They bow for nearly everything, like saying a Thankyou or a sorry. They will try to help you out in nearly every situation that’s possible. For example, I was stuck at a railway station as I could not buy a railway ticket. The interface language was in Japanese and so is the map. If anyone have learnt Japanese, they would know that unlike western languages, Japanese is pretty difficult to read and write that to speak. For native tamil speakers, speaking japanese will be a breeze. I picked up within 3 months as Japanese has close relations to Tamil. (no not my own hypothesis, read this http://arutkural.tripod.com/tolcampus/jap-tamil.htm research done by a Japanese professor). So as the board was in Japanese, I approached a person to help me out. I only asked “shin-yokohama e ikitai desu ga…” (I want to go to shin yokohama…) and he readily helped me out. He asked me every detail as how many people are going etc., etc., You can’t expect this hospitability elsewhere. Same happened in Shinkansen ticket counter. We were called seperately when we were in the queue and the person (who looked like a police) bought us the tickets from the ticket vending machine.

We ate inside our residence, a canteen sort of. Food was pretty expensive compared to Singapore standards. The canteen is actually subsidized for the employees and for us, it was free (hi hi, so finally there is something called “free-lunch”) as our meals and stay was paid by the company. A meal costed around 600 Yen (8 SGD) where as in Singapore I can get a equivalent meal for about 3-4 SGD and in India it should be around 100 Rs. If it were not subsidized, multiply this cost by two. One interesting thing to note here is that, one of my friend, a pure veggy, just told the canteen incharge that he cannot eat NV and a special customized vegetarian noodle was prepared for him!!! Japanese are helpful to that extent and if you speak Japanese, rest assured that you are a king in Japan!

Let me now move on to other aspects of Japan, especially technology. I don’t know why I did not like Japan’s transportation system. Was it that I expected more?

www.flickr.com/photos/mugunthkumar/2296292436/

A comparison of Farrer Park station in Singapore (LEFT) and Tokyo (RIGHT)

The station is clean though not as clean as Singapore. The population is overwhelming. People, people, people everywhere and Shinjuku, the most busiest station is used by over 5 million people (slightly higher than the population of Singapore!)
Travelling from Shin-yokohama to Ome, took about 3 hours by train, a pain-in-the-butt situation, where everyone hangs on to the train, no place to sit, etc., etc., Trains are clean and warm (yeah, japan is freezing cold (-2 to -2 degrees), but still the stations are quite unclean compared to Singapore and the reason could be over-population. Same applies to Narita Airport. I would rate Narita a B in cleaniness if Singapore is A+. I have not yet visited Hong Kong as I’ve heard that Hong Kong is well ahead of Singapore in the quality of service. (Even if I go to Hong Kong, I would still rate Singapore A+ and Hong Kong A, as I live in Singapore… Huh..? just kidding… leave it)

One of the technological marvel in Japan was the Shinkansen. I traveled from Shin-yokohama to the next stop Shinagawa in Shinkansen and it took about 5 minutes to reach. I could not feel the speed of the Shinkansen from inside as it was all closed everywhere. While returning back, I came in the normal train and reached my place in about 30 minutes. Now that should give you an idea of how fast the Shinkansen is!!! It travels at about 300 KMPH, and you will not feel it! But travelling by Shinkansen will cost you an arm and a leg as that one station travel costed my 1250 Yen (SGD 16) or (450 INR). The whole of the Honshu island is connected with Shinkansen and Air transport within Japan is slightly under used compared to United States, which could partly be because of the size of the country.

I toured the city and reached Yokohama Landmark Tower. Wow, marvelous, was my first word when I reached the top of the tower. A few shots from the top of the tower.

The city is lively!!! Full of lights everywhere and so large when I compare it with Singapore. Shinjuku the business district was also rocking!

I went to Akihabara and purchased a cover for my iPod. Unfortunately, upon opening I found that the cover was for iPod classic 80 GB whereas mine was iPod video 80GB… If it were any other country, they would not have returned my money back. But it’s Japan! No questions asked. They told they don’t have a cover for my iPod and hence wi

ll give me money instead!!! In this world which is full of cheaters around, this was very different for me. I have had very nasty experience in Bangalore when I got a blank DVD only to find that it was scratched like hell. The shopkeeper replied, “it’s not covered under warranty”. After all a 20 Rs issue. A few photos from Akihabara…

Though, the city is pretty clean, I was almost choked when I returned back owning to Haze.

No idea where these dust came from, but, it makes you suffocate given the close-to-zero temperature.

Electricity in some parts of Japan like Shin-yokohama is still transmitted through open (non-insulated) cables which is something that was quite disgusting given the country’s technological advancements. As the electric voltage is very low, 100V 50/60 Hz (50 or 60 depending on which part of Japan you go) the conductors are really thick. Power lines are found virtually everywhere as in the picture below.

This was something which I did not see in Singapore. Not all the parts of Japan have underground electric wiring.
All in all, the city was amazing. It’s a kinda new experience. Though i did not enjoy much, which is probably because of my overly high expectation, Japan is still amazing. I think people have over-exaggerated Japan’s cleanliness. My next trip to Japan will be to cover the northern island, namely Hokkaido and probably climbing the Mount fuji in the main island.

My gallery of Japan photographs can be viewed at flickr here…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mugunthkumar/sets/72157603972972870/

Mugunth

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On the right is a photograph of a small pedestrian walkway which is kind of clean everywhere else except for that area where there is a water seepage. Singapore is a country that gets abundant rainfall. Infact, it rains nearly everyday in Singapore. So it should not come as a surprise to see water flowing across like this. The road you see on the right is near a small hill inside my college.

Because this road is kind of “not maintained” well, within a couple of days, it turns mossy.

The one you see below is a tree in that “forest”.

To prevent formation of this moss, the govt, literally has to “fight against nature” as its extremely humid here and cleans up every pedestrian platform, roof tops of all the bus stops, schools, public buildings etc., etc., You don’t have to do this in India, still, our infrastructure is not “World class”.
Now to NYC…
I’ve not been to this place, yet I’m just reflecting my opinions on what people say about this city.
Here too, the govt cleans up the snow that has fallen overnight failing which literally no road traffic can move. A picture from wikimedia commons is shown below for reference.
Again, you don’t have to clear snow in India (atleast in many parts of the country) which means less work for the Government.
Nearly every developed nation I knew of became powerful not because of the people (Yes, Japan is an exception) but because of either a very charismatic leader (like in Singapore) or a very efficient government (like China)… It’s painful to say that India has neither of them and after 60 years of Independence, our country is worse than it was during the British period.
Moreover, because Singapore is humid, nearly every thing that is left exposed is affected with Fungus. The image below shows my mobile phone data cable that has a fungal coating on it. It’s next to useless now.

Another photograph of my shirt that I forgot to dry it in a hanger after wearing it on a sunny day…

Hopefully, I could clear the fungus off by washing it again…
But, so far, I haven’t seen a place, a seat in the train/bus in Singapore that’s mossy or fungal coated.
In India, We don’t have to “plan” in advance for anti-fungal protection, Yet, our bus/train seats are so unclean.
Now, a lot of time, when I make a comparison between India and Singapore, people always say, Hey, Singapore is small.. you can do anything over there. But atleast when population density is taken into consideration, Singapore’s density is atleast 20 times that of India!!! and I’m serious… 350 persons/sqkm in India vs 6000 in Singapore. Even otherwise, I’ve made comparisons before with a “big” country, China here.
Why is our country still a “developing country”, when a lot of countries(South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore… etc., to name a few…) around us that were poorer than us became very rich and developed?
The number one reason that I think is internal commotion. Though we are a country that speaks over 20 different languages, we are not united on a single language. Migration between states becomes more difficult that migrating to a different country. A person coming from a nearby state is often treated as a foriegner to their “land”. During the early days of Independent India, there were some “initiatives” to make Hindi the common language of India. Somehow, it has not got widespread acceptance atleast in the Southern states. Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew was brilliant. Though the country had predominantly higher Chinese population, he did not force the others to learn Chinese. Instead all of them learnt English and accepted English as the link language. But unfortunately it did not happen like that in India. Hindi, which was spoken only in three states (UP, MP and Haryana) was imposed on the remaining 22 states just because Jawaharlal Nehru was from UP. As a result, till date, we fight among states owing to lack of unity. To this date, the central govt is pushing everyone to learn this language by various means. For example, to enter politics, it’s mandatory to know Hindi. To ace the IAS, it’s mandatory to know Hindi and so on… (Another reason why central govt is sparsely populated with Southies) This has only incited a feeling of hatred and not unity as the govt expected it to be.
Secondly, the government is defunct and does not know to manage funds. Because Kerala is small, very little funds are allocated to Kerala for industrial development. A state with 100% literacy is far behind in industrialization and no one is simply cared about it.. (PS: I’m not a keralite). The same applies to our seven sister states of the North East. When they migrate to other parts of India, we casually mock, “hey you look like a chinese, are you really a Indian?” They look like chinese, because they are of Sino-tibetian origin unlike Indo-aryans or dravidians and it’s a part of our multi-ethnic culture. why should we ignore them?
Third reason is very high income inequality. Maharashtra boasts that it’s the richest state in India in terms of GDP per capita. But I doubt that. If we ask Ambani’s family, Salman Khan and Sachin Tendulkar to migrate to Bihar, then probably Bihar could become the richest state. According to World bank, any one living with less than 2US$ a day is deemed to be struck with poverty and according to that statistics, over 80% (or approximately 800 million) people live with income of < 100 Rs a day. What did the government do to uplift them? I fear none. But, Yes, it did one smart Math. According to India, anyone earning less that 0.4$ a day (15Rs a day) is deemed to be poverty struck and by this figure, only 30% of Indians are poor. This 0.4$ is calculated using nominal GDP by India. But owing to very high inflation nominal GDP figures is often misleading. Infact India is third richest (richer than Japan) country in terms of nominal GDP which shows the extent of mislead nominal GDP calculations can have.
Fourth is the Lack of Population control: China has a one child policy in place to control population. They understood the negatives of a high population. We are nearly 90% of chinese population yet our land area is like one-third of China and still our government does not bring in any reforms here.
Fifth is Literacy: When Kerala has a whopping 100% literacy, other states should learn from it and try to implement a similar system in their state. But our tendency is, “Why should we imitate that puny little state? my state is great.”
There are even more, but I don’t want to sound like a negative critic. Nearly everything goes the wrong way. A govt that does not care about the citizens but do care a lot about their seventh heir. An anthem that does not praise the country, a pe

rson who does not deserve to be called “Father” is the “Father of Nation”. (I believe that we got our Independence because of Nethaji) etc., etc.,
Because we’ve already lost a lot of opportunites in the past, we now have to work really hard to restore it. I strongly believe that a good and a high quality education is the only way for resurrection and I’ve already blogged about that here. Another sulekha blogger, sujim, has put his thoughts here.
May be if you have more to say, feel free to comment on this blog…

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