Maximum City

Bombay is home to 17 million Indians, most of whom have come to the Island City in quest of their livelihood. Being the second most poulated city after Shanghai, Bombay also holds the unique distinction of having the most densely populated metropolitan area in the world. To give you a baseline, NYC has a population density of 26000/sq. mile, whereas Bombay has a density of 117000/sq. mile. The trains in Bombay known as "locals", carry 6 million passengers everyday, making it the most densely packed transport system in the world. At peak hours, there are upto 16 commuters standing in one square meter and the trains are packed upto 3 times their regular capacity. Bombay contributes to 33% of income tax, 60% of customs duty collections, and 40% of India's foreign trade. The people of Bombay come from all over India and even from all over the world. The diversity that splits Bombay is the same that sustains it.

Poets, writers, historians, journalists, film-makers alike have tried to describe Bombay. They have called it a city, a temptress, a power, an addiction. The big bad city, the city that does not sleep, that dreams with its eyes open. The city of hope and despair, of aplenty and scarcity, city of dreams and nightmare city. The city where the towering heights of glamour look upon the filth of poverty. A heartless city whose tales of compassion bring tears to the eyes. A city of infallible spirit, a city that vibrates with each of its million people. A city that is not slowed down by bomb blasts, riots, floods and earthquakes. City of excesses. Maximum City.

But Bombay is all this and much more. I wouldn't dare to describe the essence of this megapolis. The fact is, many have tried to fathom what makes this city and its people tick and have failed. Bombay is a nation unto itself. It allows itself to be ruled by the powers that are, but it rejects any change in its being. It changes the people that come to it and is changed by them. But it shrugs off any effort to change its essence.

I have been following closely the recent floods that hit Bombay. Bombay has never learned succumb, not even to nature. I read stories of the hardships people went through as they fought to keep their chin above the water. The floods brought out the worst in Bombay in terms of governance and disaster management ability. It also brought out the best in Bombay - the innate goodness of the people who do not shy away from extending a helping hand. I read the stories of buses and cars and motor cycles and autorickshaws that plied through the streets, taking stranded Mumbaikars from one place to another. Of people getting out of their cozy homes and wading through waist-high water to bring succour to stranded Mummbaikars. Of people putting their life in danger to save the life of a stranger. I read these stories with an ever tightening gut wrenching longing for my beloved city. Maximum City.

technorati tags: Bombay Mumbai Maximum City Mumbai floods

Intel leaps down under to 45nm

Intel has just declared that it will be investing 3bn$ in a 300mm wafer fabrication facility in Chandler Arizona. This "Fab 32" will start churning out chips using 45nm process technology. For the uninitiated, 45nm will be the length of the gate in the MOSFET (transistor). Considering that current Intel processors use the 90nm node, this will be a giant leap. Exciting times ahead for nano super computers ... call it Ultra Large Scale Integration (ULSI).

Pics Uploaded

I have uploaded my 4th July weekend pics. There are some awesome snaps of the fireworks @ Penn State (obviously not by me). We had also been to Washington DC, Bushkill Falls and Philadelphia.

the soul of a nation, long supressed, finds utterance

On the midnight of Independence, Nehru promised that the India of our dreams will be a free India. Free to choose, free to speak, free to express. But the newspapers today say a different story.

Dance bars banned in Maharashtra
Gujarat Courts Need Parental Consent To Register Marriages
Jeans banned in colleges
Smoking banned in films

Is the government responsible for safeguarding the rights of the people or in-charge denying them? Are these guys, with a collective IQ marginally better than that of a goat, trying to tell us that they are capable of deciding what is right or wrong for us? Insulting our intelligence by declaring that we are not smart enough. Apparently it is a long to-be-banned list, MMS, SMS, advertisements, massage parlours, TV channels, TV serials, discotheques, belly-dancing and pornographic material. Why does this hegemonistic attitude reign in the world's biggest democracy? I agree... we are probably not intelligent enough to choose the right government either (seems apparent now), but in no way does it condone this. If something needs to be banned, it is franchise (that's just a euphemism for booth capturing anyway). Today, when governance has been relegated to changing the names of cities and roads, burning effigies, and banning dance-bars... the common man is lucky if he can feed himself at the end of the day.

India has traditionally been a nation of suppresed thought. The founders of this nation had a vision. They envisioned their nation and its people thinking freely. Thought unprejudiced by caste or religion or gender. Thought towards greatness and power. But somewhere in the melee to attain the evasive "satta" (seat of power) the vision was lost. But we, the people, cannot afford to accept what is given but have to take what is ours. It is time for a revolution, a revolution of the minds, a revolution of thought. Free thought.

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high.
Where knowledge is free.
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls.
Where words come out from the depth of truth.
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection.
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit.
Where the mind is led forward by Thee
Into ever-widening thought and action.
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
- Rabindranath Tagore, Mind Without Fear, Gitanjali

Google Moon

I am sore most of you guys have tried Google Earth. But this by far takes the cake... Google Moon. And try setting the zoom level to max. These guys do have a sense of humor!

and the Creator said, "let there be logic"

But what is logic if not another word for dogma? Logic is nothing but biases passed down in this world by great men who have been audacious enough to define it. And of course logic for one man may be ill-logic for another. So now where does that get you?

Well here comes the hard part. If you are going to be great, you better start thinking beyond logic. There is world of difference between "thinking without logic" and "thinking beyond logic". You cease to be normal and begin greatness when you start thinking above logic. When you start redefining logic itself. It is what separates the boys who try from the men who do.

I can talk till hell freezes over, but I hope this gives a general idea of how this blog will turn out. Enough said. In the words of my mentor, Don't just stand there, make it happen - Lee Iacocca

Disbelief in beliefs

When you say freethought and freethinker, that usually means you are a nontheist. But neither my writings nor my opinions have anything to do with religion, god, or santa claus. Enough has been said and shed over these. I for one have neither the time nor the inclination. I would rather take on the title of nonconformist than nonbeliever.

So why do I advocate nonconformism? A lot, I think, is lost and missed out by our generation because we spend most of our waking time doing what we may not believe in. After an expensive education we end up spending an exorbitant amount of time unlearning what we learned. Many opportunities are missed out in this pursuit. And there are others who live their lives and die without realising that there was a lot more they could have done, or aleast tried.

Nonconformists have always been scorned. But do you realise that it is precisely they who have created the rules for an entire generation to follow? People like Galileo, Newton and Gandhi have preached and practised radical rules and beliefs and have often been branded as maniacs by the people of their times. But who do you think finds mention in the books? Who created the prejudices we carrry today? The church or Galileo?

Great souls have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. -AE

Freethought

Freethought is the idea and practice of forming one's opinions independent of tradition, authority and established belief. Freethinkers strive to form their own opinions based on sound logic and rational judgement. My blog is, but an effort towards thinking and expressing freely. Thought not shadowed by prejudices and biases, not veiled by dogma and not morphed by years of education.

Society, today, is constantly telling us how to think. Educators are telling us what is right, the media is telling us what happened and how, the politicians are telling us who the enemy is, our peers are amplifying and confounding their own biases and we end up looking at the world through a thick veil of preconceived notions and foregone conclusions.

Every once in a while a brave soul dares to break out of this matrix and proceeds to leave a mark in history. I call such souls histocrats, people burdened with creating history of their times. These are mere mortals, like you and I, who unshackled their minds and thereby became immortal.

This blog is dedicated to them. And to the histocrats of our times.