Infected

Baccha's fallen sick. He's been infected. With mathematics!

Here's a conversation that took place over breakfast:

Me: hmm... I wonder which is the smallest prime number more than a million. Baccha is a million and one a prime number?

Baccha: What? How do you expect me to calculate that?

Amost in the same breath, less than a second later...
Baccha: No it isn't. 101 is a factor.

Me (completely befuddled): gaaa!!!

A short while later, in my room:
Baccha: SD you were born on August 14th right? Which year?

Me: Yup; '84.

Baccha: hmm... lets see... were you were born on a Tuesday?

Me: WTF? I have no idea... Why? How? Ok lemme check...

After checking the calendar...
Me: Baccha you freak!!!!! How the hell?

A person infected with mathematics remains human, but they may become very calculating.

Death Knell

It's been done. Years later (not too many, mind you) when India is once again down in the dumps, when the economy is once again in shambles and when all educated, smart and deserving are fleeing the country in hordes, people will look back and say, "That is the decision that ruined the country. The final straw."

What am in ranting on about? 50% reservations in elite institutions. That's what. The decision - it's mindless, trivial, idiotic, ludicrous, irresponsible, mindless, moronic, laughable. This law signals Death for IITs, for IIMs, for hard-working people, for the Country.

It's amazing how ministers unfailingly manage to harm the country in order to gain a small number of votes. It's amazing how no other political-party *ever* opposes such thick-headed behaviour.

Just slightly off-track: I read in today's paper that private schools might get reservations too! What next? Jobs? A conversation at Google: "Hey we need 10 PHD dudes... but 50% of them must be incompetent as per govt laws. Now we already have 5 dudes but we can't find any OBC PHDs! Does that mean we can't hire any more people?" Duh!

So once again coming back to the point I was trying to make: In IIT, many people have mixed reactions when asked whether they would like to go abroad. Many say that they would rather stay right here. Just overnight that has changed. And it's going to happen everywhere. Why would we stay here if all the govt wants to do is make life difficult for us. And then later they say that IITians are deserting the country. It never strikes them that they're actually driving us away.

And they speak in lofty terms of "lifting the backward people", about the injustice done to such people, etc etc. What about the injustice done to us? What about the injustice done to the thousands of hard-working, smart people? No talk of that ever crops up. I guess we just don't constitute a large enough vote bank.

The Lost Road

Do you want to be where I am? Many say they do.

"Do you like it here?", I ask myself. Silence. No reply returns.

Why would you like it here? Why would anyone want to be here? No sovereignty. Never a free reign. Everything is controlled. Everything is sober. Here, Freedom exists - only in a textbook.

Shall we dare the dragon?
Merciless, he's poisoning our hearts
How shall we leave the lost road?

Time's getting short so follow me
A leader's task so clearly:
To find a path out of the dark

Sometimes I wonder if there's a way out. A trivia perhaps. I have seen none so far.

Spread your wings and fly away
Fly away, far away

Pull yourself together
You know you could do better

You're a free man.

And I stop now. There's a portal here. Back to 3 years ago. Is that the right path? To some it is. To me it isin't.

But I look ahead. Far away, there's a tiny beacon of light. And in one stroke the light gets faint. It's still there but it seems farther away. I shall strive to get there. There's still 7 months to go.

That's how the world works. Punish the industrious, support the unbefitting. Go read the papers.

Pull yourself together
You know you could do better