The Minority Report

After a long day at the office, all I wanted was to get home and relax and watch a movie... "My Fat Greek Wedding" to be precise, but one glimpse at what was going on CNN-IBN's "Face The Nation" and I knew that I simply had to write about it.

The topic under debate on the channel was the recent protests and treatment of the ethnic Indian minority. I for one am an Indian, born a Hindu and most certainly a Tamil. So it goes without saying that I have an opinion about what is going on in Malaysia. However, I will refrain from writing my two cents about the actual happenings because in order to do so, one has to collect more data than just random news clippings in order to provide a disinterested view of the situation.

What really caught my eye during the debate was the name of the organization leading the protests... The Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf).

I couldn't but notice the irony in the name. Think about it... a group of ethnic Indian Tamils (at least the majority of the ethnic Indians in Malaysia are Tamils) identify themselves as Hindus. This comes at a time when a sizable chunk of their native brethren consider themselves as being a group of distinctive non-Hindus with some going to the extent of terming Hinduism as a whole being a plot to oppress Tamils. What is even more ironic is that the rise of anti-Hinduism in Tamil Nadu over the last one century pretty much coincides chronologically with the rise of Hindu identity among ethnic Indian/Tamils in Malaysia.

This jarring contradiction of people of the same origin choosing and opposing the same idea raises questions in my mind. What is the religious identity of Tamils? More importantly, what is the religious identity of any minority group?

A closer look reveals that this is something that can be determined only in the context of the situation that makes the group a minority or to be more politically incorrect, it is the majority which determines the religious identity of the minority.

There are two ways in which the religious identity of the minority gets defined.
(i) It is seen as a way to distinguish the minority from the majority.
(ii) It serves as form of rebellion against the majority.

The religious leanings of Malaysian ethnic Tamils and the converse behavior of many Tamilians here in India serves as an example of the former. In case of the Malaysian Tamils, since the line between majority and minority has already been drawn, religion is seen as a rallying point because religion indirectly represents culture which in turn indirectly represents ethnic divide.

The same theory can be applied to Indian Tamils as well, with their non-Hindu identity seen as representing something distinctly different from the North Indians.


Strong examples of religious identity being a weapon of rebellion can be seen in the slow tilt of African-Americans towards Islam as well as the mass conversions of Dalits to Buddhism.In these cases the minority-majority have had the same religious affiliations (at least in the recent past) and hence see the move away from the majority's religion as a way of asserting themselves.

You may agree with me or you may not agree with me, but you are more than welcome to leave your comments on this post. Before you do so, please remember that this is not a rant against any religion. All I have done here is provide my own observations about sociological behavior of groups of lesser numbers in a multicultural/multi ethnic society.

Batman Begins, Casino Royale and Superman Returns

Wondering about the title???

Wikipedia defines reboot as follows...

In computing, booting/rebooting (booting up) is a bootstrapping process that starts operating systems when the user turns on a computer system. A boot sequence is the set of operations the computer performs when it is switched on that loads an operating system.

Yet another meaning is...

Reboot, in serial fiction, means a discarding of much or even all previous continuity in the series, to start anew. Effectively, all previously-known fictive history is declared by the writer(s) to be null and void, and the series starts over.

Batman Begins, Casino Royale and Superman Returns are... you guessed it. Reboots... and is this post.

Using this post I hereby declare to the world that "Ramblings of a Nerd" has been officially rebooted. Of course, I will not be deleting my previous posts though. Hell, I spent a lot of time on those posts. I am not throwing them out the window.

In light of this reboot, I have decided to give the blog a new look. Hope you guys like it.

I chose the sunrise blog template to indicate a new rising. A new beginning. A new Scipio.

PS: The scenery on the header is actually a sunset, but hey! Cut me some slack here alrite??

I hang my head...

...in shame. Period.

Mr.Hand-Me-Downs

Boy cribs to his mom, "You have always given me hand-me-downs when I was a kid. Mostly stuff that had been used by sis."

He continues, "Second-hand cycle, second-hand school bags, second-hand geometry boxes, second-hand sketch pens..."

Mom thinks for a second.

"You know... she did use my womb before you did."

Boy shuts up. Man reflects.

Many sons and lots of guns!!!

What kind of a cottage industry would you suggest to put rural India on a growth trajectory?

Amul?
Khadhi??
Handicrafts???

Here is a leaf out of the book from Pakistan.
Watch and learn all ye Indians who crib about rural employment! Watch and Learn!!



Many sons and lots of guns!
After seeing this video, I am amazed how we were able to win five wars against these people.

The Departed

Scipio see "The Departed".

Scipio liking "The Departed".

Scipio think Jack Nicholson is God.

Scipio will very much liking to see a Tamil remake of this movie. Is Gautham Menon listening?

Here is them YouTube links to the trailer and my favorite soundtrack from the movie.

Some pictures are worth a thousand words...

...but then some stun you into silence.

Time to reflect.

Is Tamil and Tamil Culture in danger?

This is the question that is on the minds of the PMK (Pattali Makkal Katchi) et al who are worried about the future of oldest spoken language in the world, as well as its culture.

For those, new to Tamil Nadu politics, PMK is one of the major political parties in Tamil Nadu with strong presence in both the State Assembly as well as the Lok Sabha.

It is one thing that the beautiful language of Tamil (which is also my mother tongue) has an unbroken history of oral and written literature. Countless invasions and mixing with other races has not affected the central nerve of this language. Nevertheless, I agree with the PMK that Tamil indeed faces the danger of redundancy in a world where English is fast becoming the most dominant language. But the approach of the PMK and many others towards such a threat is far from constructive. Many feel that the only way to counter such threats is to reject their proponents. I have a contrary approach though, that the correct way to tackle the issue would be to encourage the Tamil language and instill a sense of pride for Tamil.

At first glance, it looked like PMK along with a few others was under the same impression as mine, when it launched of the Tamil Ina Maanam Meetpu Iyakkam (Tamil Ethnic Pride Retrieval Movement) . It is one thing that the PMK would not consider me to be a Tamil enough (I am a TamBrahm) to be worthy of an opinon but I support the rejunvenation of Tamil all the same. That was until I came across this article about the launch of the movement.

Dr. Ramadoss, the chief of the PMK seems to have a narrow notion of what constitutes Tamil culture. Here is a feeler...

Party founder S. Ramadoss declared that youngsters should not be seen on
the streets after 8 p.m. "Students and youth seen roaming without a valid reason
should be taken into police custody. If they do it repeatedly, they should be
punished by the judiciary," he said

This may sound as innocuous ranting to some, but there were two other features in the article that really caught my eye. This is the first one...

The movement's (Tamil Ethnic Pride Retrieval) 300 trained volunteers, called the
Army of Black Shirts, will fan out to different districts and address the
'social problems' concerning youth and women.

Call me an alarmist, call me anti-Tamil or what you will, still I can't but compare this to these Black Shirts, despite it sounding far-fetched.

The above may be attributed to my sense of paranoia, but this following quote is what really made me write a post about this issue...

The next job is to ensure that people from other states do not exploit Tamils.
"We do not mind people coming to Tamil Nadu to earn their living but we will not
allow them to exploit Tamils,"said Selvan (PMK Youth Wing Secretary).

Such a blanket statement really does sound ominous. It gives the party a free hand for misuse and a moral right (as questioning a Tamil Pride movement would be blasphemy) to launch a tirade of action against those it considers as opponents to it, under the false garb of Tamil Nationalism.

I might be just overreacting here (and I truly hope so too), but something does not seem right about this. I sincerely hope that people see that preserving Tamil culture is not about expelling whom they consider "undesirables" but is about making sure that all the good values of Tamil Culture are passed on for generations to come and by actively encouraging the Tamil language and arts so that the uniqueness and richness of this land is savored not just by Tamils but by the entire globe.

Money, Money, Money...

I know what I don't like.

And "The Apprentice" is definitely something that does NOT figure in the list of things I don't like.

I have heard about the show before, but I never got a chance to watch it.

After watching it, I have to tell you that I am impressed. Very impressed.

Not that I think the show is probably the best reality show on TV, but due to the fact that a businessman was so smart that he was able to make money in something really different (Media) from his own business (Real Estate) by selling what he knew. Now that is what I call a shrewd businessman.

Sure, some of you might argue that there have been movies and sitcoms on the Corporate World before, but a reality show? The man really is a genius and probably deserves all the money (including those he earns from this show) in his coffers. The one thing that I did feel would have added to the dramatism of the show would have been to seat both the teams (Gold Rush & Synergy Corps) opposite to each with Mr.Trump seated at the head of the table. I would have added to the feeling of confrontation between the two teams.

I thought that Mr. Trump's trademark line, "You are fired" was a bit corny but overall, I give the show two big thumbs up. Especially to the business acumen of "The Donald".

Oh! And I almost forgot... I have an open proposal for Mr.Trump. In case my dream of starting a company comes true....

"Mr. Trump. You are HIRED"

Update: A guy called Guy shares almost the same thoughts as me pretty much around the same time as I did... I guess great men think alike (Err... what is the emoticon for Tongue in Cheek? :)

Back in Chennai

You can take an Indian out of the US,
But you can't take India out of the US.

That was no typo in the above statement. You read it right the first time.

But first things first... I am back in India.
More precisely, I am back to my Amma's Sambhar Sadam and Potato Masala (absolutely heavenly).
I had to return ahead of my original schedule as there is some stuff here that needed my presence. Now that the 'stuff' is done, moi is back to blogging.

Now back to the opening statement of this post. Ever since I returned from the US of A, I was wondering what I should write about the trip. I don't want to write about my experiences there, you know the whole "I went there... I did this... I saw this" thingy. It would really be too cliched. With all the IT engineers in India visting the US nowadays, there must already be a million such posts already. So I decided that I would write about my encounters with India in the US.

I am talking about 'India' and not 'Indians' here. You can obviously encounter an Indian in every street corner in the US, so there is not much to write about it. What I try to capture in this post is the references of India (and it's history) that I encountered in the US. I have tried to capture these references in pictures to present to you here. So here goes...


This is the Korean War Memorial in Battery Park New York.

Some of you might be wondering what the Korean War (which was really a proxy war between the US and the then Soviet Russia) have anything to do with India. It has all got to do with the little flags in the memorial. As you might have noticed, there are flags of the US, Korea and a bunch of other countries. Here is a side view of the memorial...



The memorial contains the flags of all the countries that contributed in the Korean War. As you might have guessed by now, India actively participated in the Korean War (albeit in a non belligerent mode by contributing medical corps).

Obviously I have not done justice to the memorial through my 'professional' photography. Here is the memorial as it should be seen.

While looking up this info, I came across this. It is the list of contributers to UN peacekeeping missions around the globe. Looks like India is one of the biggest contributers to peacekeeping missions. The only ones whose contribution beat India's is Pakistan and Bangladesh (These kids always seem to be playing a game of one-upmanship with us. Kids!)


This one here is my personal favorite. It was taken off the Broadway sidewalk in Manhatten. The sidewalk is unlike any other because it has plaques which identify different historic events and visits. This one marks the visit of our nation's first Prime Minister Nehru to the US. Surely he must have visited that exact spot and stood exactly where I had in order to inaugurate the plaque. It felt nice when I realized this. (On a different note, I have been unable to rotate the image using the 'img' tag. Does anyone know how one can rotate an image using the HTML tag?)

Not much to say about this next one. I shot this one during random clicking in New York. Looks like some ad which featured names of cities from around the globe. When I saw Mumbai, I just had to capture it. Nice to note that American businesses see India not just as a cheap labor sweatshop but also as a business opportunity.

At first glance, many people must find this photo puzzling. After all, it is nothing but a golden dot with the words CNN and New Delhi.

Let me explain.

This photo was shot at the CNN Center in downtown Atlanta. The CNN Center is the world headquarters of the News Channel. Here the floor of the atrium of the building is tiled in order to resemble the world map, with a golden dot representing its offices around the world. Ths dot here is a testimony to their presence in India.


This is the last photograph of my collection. Technically, it does not belong to me, but more on that later. Let me first explain the pic... Anyone who even has a slight inkling of US history must have identified that the picture is that of Martin Luther King with his family at the dinner table. Sadly the Indian connection is not in the frame. This picture is a part of a set showing MLK at the dinner table with his family. There is another front shot of him in this set which clearly shows the portrait of Mahatma Gandhi above his head. Such was the respect that this man had for the father of our nation. After all, here was a man who famously remarked, "To other countries I may go as a tourist, but to India I come as a Pilgrim".

The other shot which clearly shows Gandhi in the background is available in a small MLK memorial in the Atlanta Airport. Sadly, my camera ran out of battery and I as unable to capture it. Hence I had to make do with this one I scrounged out of the web. Hopefully I have not violated any copyrights here.

In addtion to these photos, I have photos of the Balaji temple in Atlanta, but it does not make my cut as an American reference to India. So it does not feature in the above list