$60 Billion Sanctuary

$60 Billion is the amount of aid that was given out as US Federal Student Aid in 2013.[1]
That does not even include the various grants that US universities receive as a part of industry-institution relationship development initiatives.
It does not include the money that comes from students who come from other countries to study in US.

With this money, India can
a) Furnish all 15 IITs, 30+NITs, 100+top engineering colleges with state of the art engineering labs, equipment and highly qualified technicians.
b) Provide all 11 AIIMS, 150+ top medical colleges with research facilities and trained lab technicians, chemicals and medical diagnosis simulators
c) Atleast build art school in each state capital and run by Universities.
d) Build basic science labs and library for all our 1.5 lakh schools.
e) Invest in management research to conserve and document our traditional farming and food security and health-care practices. This knowledge is going to be the only pivot on which our country can lead the world knowledge economy in times to come.
It might seem like a tall claim today. The writing is loud and clear.
The impact of "Green Revolution" has started showing up in terms of communities losing autonomy over fundamental resources leading to crises.

Our country is developing and education forms the basis of all socio-economic development.
US has been able to create so much wealth only because it could lead the world through technological, policy and intellectual prowess.
It has systems and policies put in place to attract and retain some of the best talent across the world.
So, today it is a melting pot of the world intelligentsia.

Moreover, they have created enough opportunities in high skilled areas that people from all across the world find it easier to work in US over any other place. This gives the people in US more opportunities to contribute to the society over any other place.

We have to be constantly reminded of larger goals and the important role that our educational institutions need to play in nation building and also in creating a knowledge economy.
Our own people have to start coming back and connect to their roots.
We have to re-kindle our empathy and start taking up our problems and solve it by collaborating with the global knowledge pool.
The solutions of masses will not always apply to solve a local problem. We require therefore empathy to address a local problem through deep listening.

I have hope that we will also be the greatest nation on earth. We will be the beacon that will lead the world.
Jai Bharat

PS: Did i mention that we struggle to bring together even $5billion dollars every year.
[1]http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2013/2013183.pdf

Net Neutrality

Twitter and some of the popular sites are flooding with calling each other's support for Internet's freedom, popularly known as Net Neutrality.

The fundamental principle on which Internet was designed and functions to this day is, that there is no partiality to any kind of data or users or any specific kind of content or section of human beings.

It is the open standard of the Internet that allowed some of the most popular websites like Reddit, Amazon, Google, Facebook to continue to exist and flourish.

All these companies were companies that started small and could reach to their consumers only because of the open standards of the Internet.

Imagine if Internet was a Road with two lanes and each one of us had to pay extra to go on a faster lane, assuming hypothetically that there exists a faster lane than the current one.

What is a faster lane anyway?

Internet Service Providers like Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, Time Warner are lobbying In the US to allow for a law to pass to allow charging content providers for access to the hypothetical fast lane.

That is mockery! 

Large number of companies are against passing this legislation.

Now, this may not seem a big deal for Indian web companies, but since most of the Indian web companies are either having their content served from US or are having consumers in US and around the globe, the effect would be as evident the Lehman Brothers debacle in 2009.

So, lets stop being Ostrich and come out and support.

Here's how you can do it: https://www.battleforthenet.com/sept10th/

Here's a simpler and hilarious explanation from the witty Brit and my favorite Internet newsreader John Oliver

Hyderabad is a Metropolitan city

Today, I met a girl who speaks Marathi. And strangely i was surprised how come she, a marathi speaking girl came to be in hyderabad. She should have been in Pune, Aurangabad, Nagpur or some other marathi speaking place for Godsake.

And all throughout the conversation, instead of knowing more about her and her work, i kept wondering how come she is.. how come here .. how come in born in hyderabad..

Once she left with her friends, it suddenly dawned upon me, what if, someone in Bombay had asked me , "arey you are konkani na, you people are from Goa right, how come you are in Bombay" and kept wondering and pestering throughout my childhood days, my schooling days, all the way through my graduation and my working days.
I cant imagine if someone would be paranoid about whether i should have been born and brought up in Goa or Karnataka and not in Bombay.

Similarly, i cant imagine myself being paranoid when i see a Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Punjabi, Sikh, Oriya, Bengali in Bombay. It seemed always normal :)

Hyderabad is a metropolitan city and we will see more and more number of people who came from other states come and reside here, be born, grow, study, work, marry, make babies and live here.

My interactions with people in hyderabad was limited primarily to Telugu speaking friends or met people who came to Hyderabad over the last few years to work.
I think my Cortisols were the culprit here ;) to imagine the little girl as someone who may have come from outside ;).

have fun

The world as i have come to understand is filled with people who have pulled along making compromises. multitudes of them, in numbers as they are, they would give anything to see a man living his dreams.

the greatest on the earth are cheered, for they are following their hearts.
when we are truly having fun, others will pay so we continue to have fun and delight them :)

In Pursuit

A while away, i whiled away

to chase the moving puck

i raced to the edge and tipped over.

i got back in and straightened up

to chase the moving puck.

Two years since I kissed comfort, safety, a good bye, atleast so far.

Journey in a startup has not been forgiving thus far. 

It is a pursuit, a search to find meaning. 

To be born as humans with ability to think, 

to rationalize and ideate is a great gift.

greater and rarer is the ability to find one's calling 

lo! behold, he's a misfit.

greatest and rarest it is, 

to translate to reality, to give meaning to thoughts, 

tangible as they be.

It is a pursuit, a search to find meaning.

                                     

Vote

The entire nation is going to vote. The largest democratic machinery at work.

The political parties of today have tremendous power to malign the minds of voters(you and me)
The discussions that this election; vote for a stable government at the center, stable leadership at the center, a corruption free government , a progressive and able government is baseless, and without any substance. It only goes on to tell how murky our polity has become.

I or you cannot form a government. Government is formed by the legislators.
It is legislators job to do.

Our responsibility is to vote for good, honest, hardworking parliamentarian. One who represents the voice of majority from our constituency.

We need not feel that our vote will go waste if we are not voting where the majority is voting.
It is okay.
By casting a vote, i tell my explicit choice for representation.
It might not be a voice of majority, but it is a voice that has a representation in our democracy.

So, I'll be fearless in casting my vote and voicing my opinion.
I'll exercise my democratic rights, so should each one of you. Vote :)