The world looks at Steve Jobs and sees an innovator, leader, legend.

I see the man who built his career around challenging the status quo.

Jonathan Moss had once said,

Steve Jobs was born out of wedlock, put up for adoption at birth, dropped out of college, then changed the world. What’s your excuse?

He defied all odds to become what he did, and taught all of us a very important lesson in the process. Here is a previous Apple Commercial that defines the man and his spirit for me.

The Text

Here’s to the Crazy Ones.
The misfits.
The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They’re not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can quote them, disagree with them,
disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing that you can’t do, is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They invent. They imagine. They heal.
They explore. They create. They inspire.
They push the human race forward.
Maybe they have to be crazy.
How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?
Or, sit in silence and hear a song that hasn’t been written?
Or, gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?
We make tools for these kinds of people.
While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.
Because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world,
are the ones who do.

This text is from an Apple advertisement when Steve Jobs had just returned to the struggling company, Apple. Jobs and Lee Clow had collaborated back in 1984 to launch the Macintosh. Now was the time to recover the sene of Apple’s place in the world of creative users. The TBWA Chiat/Day team said that Apple should be aligned with the creativity of personalities and people making an impact on the twentieth century. The “Think Different” phrase provided an opportunity to celebrate both the creativity of these people but
also the distinctiveness of Apple in the computing world, responding to IBM’s historic campaign motto, “Think”. The campaign was swiftly approved by Apple, then begun with the television commercial, which first ran on Sept. 28 1997, followed by the print ads, billboards and posters.

The following is the famous Standford Speech by him where he talks about his life and more.

Warren Prabhu shared this on the nextGen India group and I have found this the best way to understand the system of tax cuts. So, lets put the economic jargon in terms that we understand.

PS: If you don’t want to read the whole post, just scroll down and watch the video.

Here is the story

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay
The sixth would pay
The seventh would pay
The eighth would pay
The ninth would pay
The tenth man (the richest) would pay
So, that’s what they decided to do.

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. “Since you are all such good customers,” he said, “I’m going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by “

Drinks for the ten now cost just

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men – the paying customers? How could they divide the windfall so that everyone would get his ‘fair share?’ They realized that divided by six is But if they subtracted that from everybody’s share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man’s bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so:
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid instead of (33%savings).
The seventh now pay instead of (28%savings).
The eighth now paid instead of (25% savings).
The ninth now paid instead of (22% savings).
The tenth now paid instead of (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.
“I only got a dollar out of the ” declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man, “but he got !”
“Yeah, that’s right,” exclaimed the fifth man. “I only saved a dollar, too. It’s unfair that he got ten times more than I!”
“That’s true!!” shouted the seventh man. “Why should he get back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!”
“Wait a minute,” yelled the first four men in unison. “We didn’t get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!”
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
The next night the tenth man didn’t show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn’t have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

For those who understand, no explanation is needed. For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.

First published on snopes.com

This post is about the idea of India and how people just keep fighting about stuff doesn’t even matter. Or more about the insignificant perspective. Lets take the recent JanLokpal Movement as an example. The whole movement and its support base was rational in the start but become more around the symbolism associated with it rather than the bill itself.

For now, whatever questions you may have about the Jan Lokpal Bill, here are the answers you’re likely to get: tick the box — (a) Vande Mataram (b) Bharat Mata ki Jai (c) India is Anna, Anna is India (d) Jai Hind.

That is a quote from Arundhati Roy’s Editorial on the issue. I am not really fan of the author but I have to agree with her on this.

Well, let’s admit it most of us supported it coz it was pitied as India vs Corrupt politicians kind of movement and if you were not with Anna you were not with India. And symbolism like the use of Tricolor everywhere, chanting Vande Mataram and equating Anna to Gandhi helped. But midst all this, did anyone pause to focus on the real debate? I wrote a post on the issue Why should you oppose Lokpal. Also, here is another great article from the Wall Street Journal extending the point. Getting a grip on Indian Corruption. But there was no debate happening on the Bill itself. The whole time people were busy choosing sides; either you are pro-corruption or anti. I mean really? What happened to diverse perspectives?

Atleast now, some debate is happening but did anyone think before when it could have actually made a difference? No, Everyone behaved like a herd and ended up getting all of us screwed.

And no it wasn’t just a one time thing, looks like focusing on the wrong debate is in our blood. Let me give you another instance, Caste based reservations. People have been fighting and killing each other ever since politicians started using reservations a caste vote tool. The result is that people keep voting for their own caste candidates irresective of their capabilities election after election. Whether the so called lower castes should get special concessions or not and whether the cause of equality is being served by this is still unanswered. But has anyone ever stopped to wonder, What has Caste got to with lack of Opportunity? Isn’t it poverty that denies people a Chance? Or for that matter Does being an SC/ST mean that you are poor and need easier access to opportunity? Think.

In a capitalist society, it is the poor who need a chance irrespective of their caste. So instead of SC/ST fighting with everyone else and the stupid concept of creamy layer we should be debating whether income based reservations should exist or not. That is a more holistic approach coz if SC/ST are poor like some people say, they will still end up getting a decent shot at life.

Similarly, there was a debate on ‘whether women should be allowed in the armed forces’ and almost everyone kept saying that women are not fit enough and the other side kept demanding some relaxed rules. But we never looked it this way, What if a woman was fit enough to join the army even with the current physical standards which are used to judge men. Shouldn’t she be allowed in?

What I am trying to say is that we keep fighting over things that don’t matter and we usually end up fighting for someone else’s motive (in this case the neta’s vote bank).

Why can’t our people make independent choices? It is coz people don’t think and just keep following the so called intellectuals and opinion makers and thus end up serving someone else’s interst. So, next time think before taking a stand. You may not be right but atleast you will not be a sheep in the herd. Think. It is time.

It is time to cut out all the Bulshit. It is time to focus on the real debates. It is time to break away from the herd. It is time.

PS: If you did not understand the post, it is either coz I wasn’t able to express myself properly or you are just better of being a part off the herd.

Also, there is an interesting TED video about the 3rd side to everything which is basically the perspective we never get to understand but it does exist.

New things are always good and especially when you are a part of it. The past month has been so much fun and hard work both for me personally and for everyone else involved with the TechFest.

And why is that? Well, coz my college, IIIT Delhi is organizing it’s first ever technical fest from 3-4 September and it is always tough getting things started. But it has been really fun and we now almost a week away from the fest. Everything is running in high gear and here is a brief info about the fest.

Esya is about exploring the pervasiveness of Information Technology in all spheres of life. That makes it a unique tech fest that concentrates on Information Technology while involving a large variety of events. We want to provide an opportunity to the most innovative and the most brilliant, by providing industry guidance and promoting collaborations among students; we want to provide a platform where the most brilliant minds can showcase their skills, talents and abilities; we want to celebrate innovation and leet-ness, creativity and resourcefulness, talent and excellence and we want to do it in as many ways as we can – gaming, programming, debugging, quizzing, designing, movie-making, developing B-plans, developing mobile apps, debating and more.

The fest has a lot of interesting events but one my favorites is Prayatna which is the Social Entrepreneurship event.

This event provides you an opportunity to come up with technically as well as socially sound innovations and solutions that stand a chance to conquer the challenges we face today. So start out on a journey of great ideas and come up with solutions which could perhaps define a better tomorrow.

If you have a Tech Solution to a an everyday social problem here is your chance to show case your idea and win some cool Cash.

<Links>

Prayatna

Esya: Official Page

 In psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud defined hate as an ego state that wishes to destroy the source of its unhappiness. More recently, the Penguin Dictionary of Psychology defines hate as a “deep, enduring, intense emotion expressing animosity, anger, and hostility towards a person, group, or object.” Because hatred is believed to be long-lasting, many psychologists consider it to be more of an attitude or disposition than a temporary emotional state

For long physiologists and behavior analysts have tried to define hate  and no one has been able to give a holistic view but that is not what I am going to talk about today. We all know what hate is. We have all felt that emotion and surely identify it.

Hate is the root cause of majority of all problems

Most of the problems in this world have a single cause i.e. hate. From terrorism to racism, almost everything has hate as its root cause.

Imagine a world where humans were not capable of the emotion called hate. What if we were neurologically incapable of hating someone. It is just an imagination but is certainly possible. After all, if humans can evolve an emotion, they can certainly devolve it

It is a bit far fetched but one of those things that I wish were true.

Hate is Reactionary and eternal

I agree but reacting is in your hands. We can make a choice whether to react or not and we usually choose to let our selves get carried away. And we end up hurting ourselves.

Another problem with hate is that it is transferable and yet doesn’t die. And not just with hate, this is true even for anger. You can hate people, and they will in turn start hating you, thus increasing the amount of negativity in this world. Not just that, hate doesn’t end on its own unless it can be countered by love. Just look at any conflict around the world, most of them are never end, both sides always make a compromise.

I’ll prove this by an example of the Lankan conflict. And I can show this for almost every other conflict too.

Just think about the primary cause of the conflict. It all boils down to some people from one community hating the other community. Which in turn was reciprocated and tensions rode to such a level that violence took over and was soon a full blown civil war. Now think,

What if the solution to Sri Lanka’s civil war was not the annihilation of LTTE and millions of people who died in the name of ‘collateral damage’. What if both the sides woke up one fine day and stopped hating each other?

Okay I agree that it wouldn’t happen in one day but it is definitely possible as this guy proved it. Have a look at the video called “A day of Peace”. And think, if we can do it for a day then why not forever?

Video link: http://youtu.be/04SEzifEsGg

How do we solve it?

One way is to look at it from Gandhi’s perspective.

An eye for an eye makes the whole world go blind

but I don’t think that’s the best way to look at the solution.  coz lets admit it, humans are selfish by nature and don’t care about the world unless it is your own.

So, get rid of hate but not for the world but for your own good. Just try to forgive and let go and you will feel much lighter.

Lets start getting rid of hate and before we know it, the world would be a better place. But do it for yourself and not for the world. Coz Hate is injurious to health.

Pic Credit: Hanns-Jörg Anders, 1969 World Press Winner

What do you think? Do leave a comment below

Some years back when the girls had apparently scored better in maths than guys, the headlines read “even girls can do maths”…there was a very interesting FB status during the world cup inquiring if women could really understand cricket… there was this FB poll asking if the IQ of the girls was decreasing continuously… ofcourse, when you confront these people, they express surprise on not understanding the ‘joke’ and accuse us to be frustrated females. I am very used to this and had always ignored writing on this matter. But this had to come… and it came when someone talked about the ‘unfair’ women quota in some universities.

This article, however, is not a personal attack. This is an attempt to attack another common mentality or I should say illusion that people have. This article concerns itself primarily with the women quota which exists in JNU.

JNU needs no introduction…it is supposed to be the hub of the so-called intellectuals of this country. JNU also has one of the lowest fees and that’s another reason for the monstrous competition. Besides the standard SC, ST, OBC reservation…there are many other quotas as well. Among which is the women quota. The Women quota in JNU simply means a deduction of 5 marks which is just about 1%. The quota does not have an internal reservation. It is for women…irrespective of their locale. So apparently a lot of girls make it to JNU, every year. But is it only because of the quota? And is the quota unnecessary?

So apparently a lot of girls make it to JNU. The quota is held responsible. But is it that all the girls who are in JNU had 5 marks less than the required marks? Girls from the top institutions make it to JNU so are they actually that ‘undeserving’? That’s my point about the girls of the urban locale where supposedly the gender discrimination is minimal. Now let me talk about the girls of the small towns and rural locale. Opportunities are limited for them. Investment in the higher education for girls is still not very popular. Education in these regions is also not very competitive. So reservation for women is as important as reservation for the other long-discriminated sections of the society. It is not because girls are “less intelligent”… it’s because girls are “more discriminated against”.

I also remember this debate with a friend about the minimal female population in top engineering colleges. He argued how girls had less “logic”. Ofcourse, that’s another myth but I must admit I consider this better than “because girls think more with their heart, than brain”. Some days back someone tried arguing “scientifically” how women use the right side of their brain which is more creative so they are better in expression than “logic”. Men, on the other hand, are supposed to be using the left side of their brain which is more “logical”. My reaction to this so-called “scientific” crap has always begun with me expressing a great amount of surprise as inspite of being from a science background, they are unaware of the different schools of interpretation of facts which exist in science. So even in this very “objective” discipline, interpretation of the ‘objective’ facts is subjective.

Though there is a lot of confusion (different groups of scientists) about which side of the brain do women use, here I’ll try to argue by considering that women use the right-side of the brain. I am a female but I happen to be a left-hander and according to science, left-handers use the left side of their brain. Now left-handedness is supposed to be more common among males. But the famous left-handers are generally people associated with the “creative” domains. Any arguments?Also, I think it’s also a matter of how one defines “logic”. According to Hegel, logic is the essence of human thought. There can be no creativity without logic! Furthur, I would also talk about the sociology-biology debate which features in the study of evolution. It is believed that sociology or society can have an impact on our biology. The transition leading to human evolution took place when the apes due to societal tendencies preferred to settle on the land. So even if one ends up proving that some things are probably due to the nature and not nurture, one must remind himself/herself of the sociology-biology debate.

Let me come back to the issue of the engineering colleges. I think I’ll repeat my points about the societal set-up. If we analyze the regional background of people who generally make it to the top engineering colleges, we’ll find that majority of the people come from the lesser-developed regions. So for them, competition and making it to the top colleges is the only way-out. And in this endeavor, men are in the fore-front. Investment in a girl’s education is still not very widespread, it is negligible in these regions. Girls are recommended to go for the ‘soft’ subjects like history, political science etc. I also feel that the fact that girls can afford to neglect higher studies because of their later recruitment as homemakers may add to the laid-back attitude in these regions. Infact, there may be a lot of other reasons. But the source, as we have realized, is just one… the societal set-up.

So yes..the second gender may not be ‘deserving’ the quota but do they deserve this discrimination?

I just want to clarify right from the start, I am against corruption as much as anyone else is. So, stop calling me a traitor and open your mind to accept that other sides to a problem can also exist.

So, lets start with

What will the Janlok Pal Bill do?

The idea is to establish a complaint redressal system which will be on top of the existing governance system of our country. It will cover the complete system i.e. from the lowest ranked official to the PM (under debate as of now) and so there will be a ‘anti-corruption’ officer who will ensure that the state officials are not corrupt.

PS: This is a very crude description of the idea so, don’t depend on it.:)

Why should we not support Jan Lokpal Bill?

1. The problem is the complexity and the size of the state, Jan Lokpal just increases it

   What the bill will do is that it will make the system a lot more complex and increase the size of the state, while what we need are measures to reduce its size. The state is involved in things that it should not be. Cut out licensing, permits and stupid rules that the state imposes on us and no one will need to bribe any officials to get their work done.

2. People bribe to circumnavigate rules, why create more?

   The reason corruption exists is coz people need to bypass rules to get their work done simply coz the officials wouldn’t let you work if you go by them. So why not just abolish them? Instead we are making more of them. So now, you can also be exploited by the lokpal and we will end up paying double the bribe for getting your work done. First to the government official, then to the ‘anti-corruption’ officer.

3. If you have mass  support? Use it

   Honestly, I have my doubts but if people like Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev are so popular, why don’t they ask their followers to stop paying bribes for the next one year. Not just that, they have many other leaders on board like Kiran Bedi and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. All these people have millions of followers some of who are also very influential people.

   Just this one step will go a long way in reducing corruption.

4. Democracy can’t be undermined

   It’s the same reason why I have opposed the Telangana Movement before and I oppose Anna Hazare and Ramdev’s movements. You cant bully an elected parliament using undemocratic ways. They keep saying they have the whole nation with them, then why only 20,000 people turn up at Raj Ghat? Further more, if they have the huge support they claim why don’t you contest elections and then bring in the bill?

5. JanlokPal will fail to curb corruption

   Jan Lokpal has been one of India’s largest movements in recent years that is built on common man’s anger against the power elite. And I have my reasons to believe that its not going to be the last. But if the Jan lokpal that this bill is going to establish fails at ending corruption as it is most likely to, the common man will again start believing that ‘India mein kuch nahin badalta’.

   Instead, lets focus on something constructive and something which will actually work. I don’t think Jan lokpal will and is just a waste of time and resources.

    

Link: You can watch the Janlokpal Debate live here: Loksabha TV

What do you think? Do you agree with me? Feel free to voice your opinion. Drop a comment below

Here is an interesting video by Shantanu B on the issue, where he spoke about it at Orissa High Court