Dog Tales ..

One of my very close friends (she lives in the bay area, west coast USA) posted a catching status update on facebook ! Goes like this ..

'Why are Indians in the US scared of pet dogs while they comfortably walk amongst stray dogs in India ? When walking my dog, if I encounter someone of Indian origin, 9 out of 10 times, they either freeze with horrified look on their faces or swiftly move away. Bear in mind I own a toy poodle …"

It was actually thought provoking as this is a behaviour I ve noticed many times earlier myself, but never thought so prominently about it to bring it out for a discussion. May be because I do not own a dog  - I did not take these reactions around me personally. So, it was latent observation but not actionable one !!

I started sorting the "Indian" behavior towards dogs in many buckets (This does not include the people who are comfortably oblivious to any dog - pet or otherwise) .. it may be true for other cultures too, but I ve no right to comment on that ..

First - Those who are afraid of all dogs - Pet or stray ! A minority.

Second - Dog lovers …. Mostly like / love pet dogs and sympathize stray ones - again minority

Third - the kind my friend observed. Those who comfortably walk the streets filled with stray dogs of various breeds and temperament and zero vaccination but make cautious space around other's pet dogs !! Majority by any observation standard for sure.

While chasing this psychology down to the root of it, I had many sets of reasoning and counter reasoning until I stumble up on a root level dis-trust we human beings have towards fellow human beings (not animals).

Stray dogs are free. Out there fighting for their survival every moment. Staying away from motor tyres, protecting their territory, scavenging food from garbage, forming street wise associations, battling the weather etc. Strays are not trained / brain washed by any human being ! Strays are themselves - always ! And with a full agenda related to survival.

While a pet is not so much fighting survival. Does not have a full daily calendar of musts. It gets the food, the walking, the grooming, the petting - has idle time in which it is trained by the human owner of the pet.

So when the majority of the people in the third category show the apprehension towards to pet dogs, they actually sow their dis-trust on the human training given to the pets in their otherwise fulfilled life.

An apprehension towards a fellow human being, the pet owner. Now the potent human thoughts of isolating other human beings, not trusting other human beings, scared of strangers etc. reflect in the dog that has enough idle time.

That makes the pet dog more scary to many people than the stray dogs.

Enter and Return ...

My (just turning an official teen) boy is a programming junkie. He learns on his own from Youtube.
JAVA, Scripting, C - anything you name and keeps doing a few oddball programs whenever he has time.

So, I am used to opening my computer to get voice greetings like "Welcome Mr. .......... Please enjoy your work !"

Or sometimes, a strange looking icon at the middle of the opening screen that says - "Click and all the applications you really use will be open with just that one click".

Many more like that. He never bothers to ask me questions on programming. With plenty of resources on-line, he is pretty much on his own.

However, today he asked me one question. "Why some languages refer the "Enter" key as the "Return" key ?"

At first I did not even understand the question. Then he explained me - Enter means, coming in to something / some place. Return mean going back. Quite opposite English terms used for the same key ?

20 yrs of computer history was replaying in front of me to answer that question.

Return - relatively older term from the line feed printer and punch card days, which came from Return Carriage ! Used to move the cursor back to column ZERO.

Enter - Newer term. In newer era of computing, Input text boxes ask for strings to be entered. In most new apps Enter not necessarily does a return carriage. It can do a search or some other fucntion.

Happy 13th Birthday on this Christmas my boy !! Stay inquisitive ...

Curious case of IT ..

This is by far my best interaction with the IT department that is supposed to help through IT issues with office computer, emaling etc.

Some time around end of November, I opened a case -

"I can not decline any meeting from my calendar with a 'comment'". If I am silently deleting it, without any comment to the person who invited me to the meeting, there is no issue. but in case there is a comment (which there should be - otherwise how would the person know why I am declining the meeting ? ) it throws an error and the decline notice does not go away.

-> The first person in IT who was assigned to this (In our company, which has a dream of being #1 IT company in the world -  has IT  outsourced to IBM) tried a few things. Like removing my e-mail account and re-establishing it. It took me 3 hrs to get back my folders etc. And then excused herself saying, as I use a MAC I need to call up another queue.

I tried to explain, this has nothing to with MAC because the error says "HTTP error" and there is no such thing running on MAC to return that error.

Logic does not work with IT dept. She said, she can not help but following up asking, whether she can move the state of the case to "Resolved" state.

-> I tried the same thing, declining a meeting from a web client on a Windows machine, and opened another case. This time was funnier. The person read through the details etc. but wanted to troubleshoot only when I am connected to Wired ethernet network. What crap !! I explained, I can do "HTTP" to the world from wherever I am connected.

Again - logic has no place. She politely asked, if she can move my case to "Resolved" state and before I answered she did.

-> I did a bit more experimentation - removed my calendar delegate / my admin assistant and noticed the problem going away. So, I opened a new case with "Calendar decline with comment does not work from web based interface on any platform, whether I am connected to wired company network or logging in through VPN from outside. It however, works when I remove my delegate from configuration.

This one takes the cake. The third IT Engineer picks up the case, goes through all patiently, politely, then says - OK.. so your problem goes away if you remove your delegate. Can you try that ?

I did it again. removed the delegate and problem went away. She was very happy, and said "Thank God the problem is resolved" and moved the case to "Resolved" state ;)

New Betaal theorem

Goes this way -
" Time can bring relief to everything ... excepting 'boredom' " !

But the moment, I brought this to notice of a few ardent betaalites,  it turned controversial :)

All starting from the very definition of boredom...

 Boredom can mean many things ..

• Not knowing what to do with time ?
• Doing the same thing again and again, and not enjoying it ?
• Getting to do something or be in some place without one's wish ?

And each one of them could be cured with enough time, indeed !

I am going to build this one over, the holidays ! Pretty exciting way to spend the time I say ...

Maid in India ..

I am not any tabloid columnist to comment on the certain IFS officers arrest in the big apple.
However, I am a normal Indian citizen and have all the rights to mock the Indian mentality.

We can arrest an unconventional editor based on a "suo moto" complaint of harassment. 
We can take the post of the retired judge based on "Prima Facie" case of misconduct.

Why can not someone be arrested for far more severe charges of abuse and visa fraud ? Immunity ?

On the same day, when govt. passes a wrapper law enforcer, lokpal, showing a very concerning face of up holding the "Dharma", the same govt. produces "Drama" favoring the govt officer.

Superficial show of strength before election ? Really ? How many common people of India will sympathize with the "have all" vs. the "have none" ? Is a pretty face on TV, being show cased as the victim, the best recipe for "show of strength ? " !!

There has not even been a single statement from the maid every published in the front page of any newspaper. Why ?

There is a lot of inconsistency in this story ! And when in doubt should not we allow the law of the land to follow its course of investigation ?

377 ..

I am not here to provide an opinion in favor of Gay Sex or against it.
However, I am not OK watching the mis-information going around and top news papers (including ToI - Tabloid of India) keeping it in the front page of the news for so long !!!

Long enough for me to comment on it -----

Its very unfashionable NOT to criticize Supreme Court now after the latest ruling criminalizing "unnatural sex".  So, predictably, everyone who wants to show a social face has an easy avenue now to get on the TV or newpaper to say - "its been very very wrong".

I bet my ass (pun intended) on one thing - none of these so called advocates of "Gay Sex" has read exactly what Supreme Court said ! And yes, none of them for sure even have had "gay sex" too ...

Article 377 criminalizes "Unnatural sex" - which include many other verities of immoral stuff !!
Like bestiality, pedophilia, necrophilia and not just sodomy. And it has nothing against Gay. Even if a straight couple engage in "unnatural sex" they can be (sorry not they - the MAN of the couple only ) can be jailed for 10 yrs.

Now, all supreme court did is, said that they are retaining what is there in the constitution as it is. If it has to be ratified, and the correct way of doing it would be to separate out "consensual adult gay sex" as a clause and put  in the acceptable category ! But leave the 377 there with many other unnatural ones there. However the ratification is job of parliament. Not the SC.
So, what did SC do here that politicians are condemning ??? Very twisted really !!!

And the noise is about article 377.. not just "Same Sex consensual bed room activities" which is just a strand of what all it covers.

100 yrs down the line, people will become increasingly lonely. They will have foreplay over a video chat with a call center facility and then have sex with a pet sheep (bestiality). But in the privacy of their bed room ! Consensual.. Sheeps will be developed genetically to be sexier !! Some mythologists will write news paper articles that "its expression of ones freedom. Greeks did this in 14th century.. blah blah blah".

The likes of today's news makers will get on TV and FB to declare, scrap 377 ..all over again as it is Oh So natural to mount a sheep (I know some of you already feel like throwing up now .. !! ) !!

If in our mind, that day would be too much, then we should not completely abolish such a term called "Unnatual Sex" and hence 377. Yes, we can always create a a sub-clause now and make it acceptable. 

So, its not SC. Its not 377. Its somewhere a subset of it, which only law makers can ratify and fix !!!

Give SC a break.. and the politicians who are blaming HC now, should just go prepare something "inclusive" of the LGBT community.