Indian polytricks

Is it high time to replace the opaque solid boundaries built around Indian government and the politicians that run it everyday with transparent glass walls?

It is disdainful to see our political machinery operate behind closed doors without any sense of credibility like some secret service. I said disdainful because we are about to enter the 60th year of Independence, we produce more graduates than almost any other nation in the world, we are the biggest destination for outsourcing and yet we are the most corrupt nation in the world.

In indian politics it has become very common for public personalities to become politicians. Politics has become an attractive destination for popular film stars.

We have subscribed to a couple of Indian satellite channels at home and the motivation for this post comes from watching the politicians turned film stars attending almost every film promotion day in and day out. Accompanying these so called politicians/ministers to these stupid promotions is their high priced security, further questioning their presence over there when they should be really working on solving hard pressing community problems for which they were supposed to be elected. It just makes me wonder why doesn't anyone question their callousness and their shameless utilization of government machinery for their personal use.

Even after 50 odd years of Indian independence the rich are still becoming richer and poor are getting worse year after year. The root of all evil is corruption. India is one of the most corrupt nations in the world. The billion plus population is attributed to the prevailing corruption levels but in my opinion there are many more dangerous propellants for this than mere population. Job Reservations are one of the most important factors that are causing a brain drain. When the best of the talent is asked to compete in an unfair playground, when recruiting for key positions is done on the basis of caste and religion then that talent is left with no option but to pursue their aspirations elsewhere where there is a level playground. For the past few years this level playfield has been U.S and other developing countries where this brain trust is offered plenty of opportunities to earn name, fame and more importantly dollars and pounds. This process automatically leads to inept people backhome becoming key decission makers generating inept policies and inept governance.

So in my opinion for any reverse brain drain to happen, for starting to put an end to corrupt practices it is very important to construct level playing fields. We have to construct platforms where talent is asked to compete with talent and not with caste, creed or religion. The first step in building such platforms is to bring transparency in governance and thereby accountability for actions. One of the main reasons for the success behind private companies is that employees are held accountable to their actions. Hard work and success stories print paychecks in a private company. This begs to ask the question - 'Why can't we have the same accountability for politicians?'. After all a democracy is by the people, for the people and of the people. So the politicians are supposed to be working for the people and if so the common man should have the right to see and question where every penny of his hard earned tax money is going? There should be a medium that people can acess to view the profiles of their representatives, how much money was sanctioned to them for development efforts every year and where and how they are spending this money. Politicians should be asked to submit time sheets and provide periodic progress reports and all this should be accessible to John Q. If John Q cannot access a computer or an alternate medium to get all the above information, government should provide these reports on an on-demand basis in whatever format that is plausible. It is not important how a common man gets the above information as long as he can get it whenever he demands it. Once we all have all this information at our disposal it will enable us to choose our representatives wisely.

All the above cannot happen over night, but it definetely has to get started sooner than later. The punchline is transparency. Isn't it hightime?

El Principio - The Beginning

Finally I am able to get my two feet inside the blogging world and what can be more exciting to start the wheels going than to blog about my recent vacation.

Me and my wife went to Orlando, Florida for the thanksgiving weekend. Its my third trip to Orlando and my wife's first. The prep for the trip went very different than any of my previous trips which were mostly crazy road trips with my grad school buddies. During my bachelor days a typical vacation started with renting a car and then looking for some friends to hop on to wherever. But this time around I booked the flight tickets, hotel and the rental car all in advance and even carefully dotted down what we were going to do each day given the time constraints.

We arrived in Orlando on a beautiful wednesday evening and the wonderful florida weather made us forget our long day of travel. It was refreshing to see beautiful palm trees everywhere and my wife commented that the whole atmosphere reminds her of India. True, there is an ocean of difference between Iowa and Florida and from the minute we stepped out of the Airport we knew that it was going to be a great vacation. The weather was warm and very soothing.

We took it easy the first night and went to Kennedy Space Center the next day. It was my third trip down there but was worth every penny of it. If I ever go there the next time though I will plan a trip to sync with a satellite launch. It sure looks promising and exciting.

During the next two days we visited Universal Studios and Cocoa Beach. Universal Studios was amazing and showcased how human imagination can make impossible things possible. We were extremely tired that evening after long walks in the park so our trip to Cocoa beach the next day was perfect. Nothing can make anyone humble than an ocean front. Atlantic ocean with its mammoth size and gigantic waves seemed to reflect the power of nature and we very much enjoyed the oceanic breezes on the beach.

We got back to Iowa the next morning after spending 4 wonderful nights in Florida.

Now the weather in Iowa is an glaring contrast to the wonderful weather that greeted us in Florida. I am glad that we have a place like Florida to go once in a while and it makes me wonder where do Florida people go for a vacation. I am sure they don't come to Iowa but after a while do they take all the wonderful things in Florida for granted?