Author: neoalchemist

Death sentence for Parliament attack conspirators

Three people were sentenced to death for conspiring with terrorists. Though the sentence can be challenged in higher courts, this incident will be bringing forth the discussion about capital punishment. Capital punishment, which is rare in india was last carried out in 1989, when Satwant singh and Kehar singh were hanged for the assassination of Ms. Indira Gandhi.

Linking rivers in India

Indian Government is planning to link all the major rivers by 2016. After an initial estimate of 30 years for this project, the Government scaled the project timescale to 14 years. Given the scale of the project, it remains to see if the government will achive this by the time frame given.

I would imagine that such a project will help our agriculture, tackle untimely draught and flood, and also open up transport routes, in addition to the employment it will generate. Way to go.

Protests by India

Interesting to find that our government is furious over the release of Masood Azhar. This was one of the militants released by Indian government after the Indian Airlines Hijacking episode. I believe that the Indian Government lacked(still lacks) the guts to tackle the hijacking issue. Now the released militants, will cost more indian lives than that on the hijacked plane. Except issuing a strong protest, no action is being taken to protect the people of the country.

What could have happened when the flight was hijacked.

  • When the Hijacked plane was in India, Commandos could have stormed it. A few lives would be at risk, but a strong message would have gone out to the militants.
  • When the ransom-militants were released, they could have been exposed to some sort of slow-poison (radiation?), ensuring they lived for a max of 2 more years. (is someone talking about human rights here? Human rights of 160 people are more important than a few.)
  • Embed some tracking systems on the militants freed, and a couple of RAF jets could have flown with them. After freeing the hijacked plane, the RAF could have just eliminated the convoy of militants. (Afghanistan ruled by Taliban was only recognised by 3 countries during that time)

There could have been more solutions, but I wonder if thinktank in New Delhi was(is) dry.

The Bully on the Playground

His face stood out in the crowd. Even on a hot day it radiated peace. Silently he stared at the long queue of patients waiting for their turn to meet the doctors, in that huge hospital. Life indeed had taken him places. From a small village in Kerala to a wealthy financial professional in the states, he had been through a tough journey. His face maintained a serene look, when the nurse came back to him.

“He’ll be at the Perinthalmanna hospice,” she said, “we discharged him long ago. Here’s the address.” She handed him a piece of paper. He thanked her and walked out of the hospital. It seemed like his journey was taking him to the place where he wanted it to go. He got back into the taxi, and asked the driver to drop him at the bus stop.

“It has been ages since I travelled on a bus,” he thought to himself as he walked to the enquiry counter. “When is the next bus to Perinthalmanna?” he asked politely to the clerk on the counter. “12:42” replied the clerk, without even lifting his eyes scouring the newspaper. The noon sun was getting intense and the people huddled below the shade wherever they could find it. It was only a 10-minute wait for the bus to Perinthalmanna.

As he got into the bus, he observed that the bus had aged, the rust was showing and so was the dust and dirt accumulated over the years. As it had been during his college days, he sat at the window seat, where he could catch the breeze as the bus sped along the road. It was very hot but the breeze coming through the windows was cool, and soon he was asleep, oblivious of the valiant efforts of the bus tackling the potholes on the road.

~**~**~

Niket was the quietest kid in his class. Although not exceptionally good at studies, he always managed to get a good marksheet at the end of the year. Everyday during the lunch break, he used to have food with his friend Manikandan before running off to the playground for a football match. The school had two big football grounds, though it would mostly be occupied by cricket players.

Niket and Manikandan always played with the small kids, where they both joined opposing teams and enjoyed the match on a silent corner of the ground, till the school bell called for the afternoon lessons. The scores never mattered. The piled-up chappals served as the goalpost and a small rubber ball served as their football. Barefeet on the warm ground, they played with abandon, hating the school bell for sounding the end of the recess period.

It was one of those days that Simon, the school bully, began to interfere in their matches. He usually was accompanied by some of his other bully-friends who would start kicking away their temporary chappal football-posts. Eventually, Niket and Manikandan got irritated and decided to give up playing with the kids altogether. But Simon didn’t want to give up. He followed them everywhere.

One day Niket decided to stand up to Simon. “He might be a bully, but he had no right to pester me.” He told Manikandan defiantly, “and I am going to play with the kids from tomorrow again, if you want you come… there is no point in getting scared.” He didn’t give him a choice, as Mani did not have any other friends. He decided to stick with Niket.

The kids were happy to see both of them back during the afternoon session. The chappal-goal-posts were up again and the match began. Soon enough, the goalposts were disarrayed, the ball being kicked around by Simon and his bully-friends who had turned up from nowhere.

Nevertheless Niket decided to confront him. “Why are you interfering, we are not disturbing you, why don’t you let us play in peace?” His face turning red with the effort. Before Niket could finish with reasoning with him, he felt a painful blow on his face. He could not avoid it, though he raised his arm to block the next blow, and the more that followed.

~**~**~

“Saar, Perinthalmanna hospice is next stop,” the conductor gently roused him from his sleep. The bus was already crowded, and he started making his way to the door. The bus stop was just opposite the hospice. His feet were firm as he walked into the hospice office. His long search might soon be over. The caretaker looked up from his desk with an inquiring face. “Yes, he’s at bed no.13… very terminal stage of cancer…nothing can be done now, even the painkillers don’t have any effect. He’s just waiting for death.”

“You can see him if you want to,” the caretaker added.

He saw the emaciated bald figure lying on the bed. The figure was groaning in pain. He moved closer and looked into the eyes of the figure lying there and could see nothing but pain in them.

He briskly walked out of the hospice. He had a smile on his lips, and his eyes – triumphant.

A message from my garden

Staring at a blank notepad for a long time doesn’t produce a journal entry. Or maybe it just will, if you stare long enough.

“You have to choose between the snails and the tree” I was told. I was in an ethical dilemma over handling a situation in my Garden. Leaves of a medium-sized shrub in our garden were suddenly having big holes in it. A closer inspection led to the discovery of a colony of snails, slowly and steadily munching all the leaves of the shrub. If I leave the snails to finish off the leaves, the shrub will die and then the snail population will migrate to other plants. But is killing of snails ethical?

The principle of non-violence seems to have been embedded somewhere deep in my mind. It always comes up with the question before I can even think of harming a creature. I have killed several mosquitoes, but I have spared even more. Before I raise my hand to kill a mosquito the question pops up again in my mind. Is killing of mosquitoes ethical? Afterall they suck blood for survival. Once the question comes to my mind, I find myself gently prodding the mosquito to fly away, instead of squashing it into a two-dimensional non-living-object.

As a child, I used to watch my grandfather killing rats, after they had been caught in the mousetrap. He used to drown them in a bucket of water, before disposing them off. Somehow it never appealed to me (or my brother). During later periods of our life, whenever we caught a mouse, we used to take it far away from our house and leave the mousetrap open, so that the mouse can escape into wilderness. “What happens to the mouse after that is its fate!”

Back to my Garden. The question was taking its toll on my mind. If I leave the snails without doing anything, all the plants in the garden are at risk, but eliminating them is a huge ethical issue. After consulting with Zubin, who went into greater lengths to explain about symbiosis and lack of it, I finally bought a bottle of snail-killer over the weekend. With a heavy heart, I chopped off the branches of the shrub, and used the snail-killer to eliminate the snails.

I could only find shells of dead snails in the garden today. The non-violent side of my mind was really upset of the whole affair. It got a slight reprive as I saw a small-child-snail crawling up the branch to start it all over again.

Way to Worldcup

The world cup is finally over. Brazil was a class apart and they deserved to win. Though the Germans took the game to the opposition, they lacked the magic that the Brazilians are distinguished for. This world cup saw many countries outside Europe emerge as strong football nations. And it wont be long before an Asian or an African team wins the football world cup.

India too can make it to the big league, taking a leaf from success story of the Korean football team. Though the Koreans didnt win the world cup, they were amazing in the way they played and so was Japan. Indian football needs a shot in the arm. Its not at all unrealistic for India to reach the next Worldcup finals to be held in Germany in 2006.

The governing body of the football worldwide is FIFA(Federation Internationale de Football Association). The world of football is divided into six confederations based on Zones. The six zones consists of Asia, Europe (Russia comes into this zone), North & Central America with Caribbean Islands, South America, Africa and Oceania (countries near Australia).

Asia

The Asian zone comes under Asian Football Confederation.. Teams for the Worldcup are selected after the preliminary matches conducted by this confederation. The AFC holds the qualifying matches and the process of reaching the Worldcup finals is a bit tedious for the Asian teams.

The 40 teams from Asia are divided into 10 groups of four teams each. Each team plays against all the other teams in their group twice. The winners of each group go the second round, the losers go back home. The second round is divided into two groups of five teams each. The winners of these two groups qualify for the World cup., whereas the runners up of the third round play among them two games (home and away) and the winner goes to Euro/Asian playoff. Euro/Asian playoff is where they play similar runners up from UEFA World cup qualifiers. The winner of the Euro/Asian playoff goes to the Worldcup. Just for records, this time it was between Ireland and Iran, and Ireland won the berth to the Worldcup.

Europe

From Europe, the teams are segregated into nine groups, the group winners going directly to Worldcup finals, the nine runners up and one team from the Asian qualifiers play, and the five winners go through to the world cup finals. The governing body dealing with European zone of football is UEFA (Union des Associations Europennes de Football)

South America and Oceania

Qualifying from South America and Oceania section is simple. South America has one league with 10 teams in it, the top four teams qualify for world cup finals, and the fifth team in the table plays with the winner of the Oceania group. Oceania has two groups of 5 teams each, where the group winners play each other to qualify for the play off with South American playoff team. South american football come under the purview of Conbemol(South American football confederation), and the Oceania teams come under OFC(Oceania Football confederation).

Africa

In Africa 50 teams play and the top 25 teams are selected into 5 groups, where the group winners qualify for the world cup. The governing body is CAF(confederation Africaine de football).

North and Central America

Qualifying games in this zone are a bit confusing. The matches are held in two groups. Caribbean Zone and Central American Zone. Caribbean zone has 3 groups and Central America have 2 groups, winners qualify for the semi-final round, and the runners up go for the play offs. One team of the Caribbean runners up play Canada, and the other two play the runners up from the Central America. And the winners go to semi-finals.

There are four automatic qualifiers into semi-final from America., Costa Rica, America, Jamaica and Mexico. These 12 teams play in 3 groups and the top two teams from each group go to the final round. And the top 3 teams from the final round qualify. The governing body is Concacaf(Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football).

In addition to these qualifiers, two other forms of qualifications also comes to play. 1. The host nation of the Worldcup finals is automatically qualified (which is being scrapped now) and 2. The winner of the last Worldcup automatically qualifies. The next world cup is just 4 years away and I will be closely watching the Indian football team, who in this Worldcup-qualifying matches lost in the first round itself. But I am sure, given time, training and support, soon India will also be in the Worldcup finals (fingers crossed!).