Short Memory

Date: May 4, 2006

Venue: Speech by Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense in Atlanta, GA

Ray McGovern, 27 year old veteran of the CIA: Why did you [Rumsfeld] lie to get us into a war that was not necessary that has caused these kinds of casualties?

Rumseld response: First of all, I haven't lied ... It appears that there were not weapons of mass destruction there ...

McGovern: You said you knew where they were ...

Rumsfeld: I did not ...

Hmm ... I think the secretary has a short memory. Let's go back a bit in time, shall we?

Date: March 30, 2003

Venue: Interview on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos"

Rumsfeld: We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat.

And wait, there's more!

Date: March 14, 2004

Venue: Rumsfeld Interview with CBS' "Face the Nation"

Bob Scheiffer (Host): Let me just ask you this, if they did not have these weapons of mass destruction, though, granted all of that is true, why then did they pose an immediate threat to us, to this country?

Rumsfeld: You and a few other critics are the only people I've heard use the phrase immediate threat. I didn't, the president didn't. And it's become kind of folklore that that's what's happened.

WOW !!!! Continuing ...

Schieffer: You're saying that nobody in the administration said that?

Rumsfeld: I can't speak for everybody in the administration and say nobody said that.

Schieffer: The president didn't say that?

Rumsfeld: If you have any citations, I'd like to see them.

Tom Friedman (second guest): Right here it says, some have argued ‑‑ this is you [Rumsfeld] speaking, some have argued that the nuclear threat from Iraqi is not imminent, that Saddam is at least five to seven years away from having nuclear weapons, I would not be so certain.

Rumsfeld: And ‑‑

Friedman: That's close to imminent.

Rumsfeld: Well, I've tried to be precise, and I've tried to be accurate.

Friedman (quoting Rumsfeld): "No terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people, and the stability of the world than the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq."

Remember, people. This election ultimately is a referendum on George Bush and his admnistration's failed policies. The Republican members of Congress has done nothing but rubberstamp George Bush's flawed and failed measures, and it's time for a change.

If not for the courageous stand of some Democrats, social security would by now be privatized, oil companies will be drilling and spilling in the pristine reaches of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

It's bad enough that the GOP muscled through a backward energy policy fueled by the dark figure that is Dick Cheney and their continued insistence on fossil fuels and lack of money for alternative energy research.

It's bad enough that giant corporations get subsidy after subsidy and rake in humongous profits while real wages for workers have actually fallen in this country since the beginning of the Bush presidency.

Remember, we must throw the bums out who have shown absolutely no hesitation to blatantly lie to us and now claim that they never said such things in the first place.

Political Contributions

Generally, before a major election, I usually earmark some money for political donations. It's not much (~$50) but it is something for me to take part in the democratic process, especially in years like this when I am not actually physically present in the U.S. to volunteer on election day or in the run up to the elections even.

So today, after much deliberation, I finally decided who was going to get my money. Roughly 60% went to Harold Ford Jr., a Congressman from Tennessee who is now contesting for the seat that Bill Frist is vacating. He would be the first African-American Senator from the South. He is running on a conservative agenda (he is anti-abortion in most cases (but so am I) and he is against gay marriage (and I am very much for it). But this is what is needed to elect someone from the South. And despite this, he still trails his opponent Corker, who is an extremist pro-lifer like Bill Frist, a man under whose leadership in the Senate, real wages have declined for most Americans and the "culture of corruption" has reached its peak.

The reason why Ford Jr. got my money is because he has a fairly good rating on the Defenders of Wildlife's Conservation Scorecard. He is against drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, my biggest electoral concern and last but not least, Tennessee is a crucial state that Democrats have to win if we have *any* hope of taking back the Senate (besides keeping off a strong Republican challenge in New Jersey and taking at least two of the following three states: Montana, Missouri, and Virginia. Oh, we also need to ensure that we keep our slim leads in states like Pennsylvania and brace ourselves against the 72-hour Get out the Vote effort by Republicans).

We're placed fairly well to reclaim the House, Newt Gingrich's "Contract with America" lays shattered with DeLay and Foley making a mockery of anything it pretended to stand for, and with Senate in Democratic hands as well, Congress will *finally* be able to provide the kind of oversight and restraint that is all too needed for the current White House administration.

So anyway, that's why Ford Jr. got my vote. He is trailing by a few percentage points according to recent polls, but it's within the margin of error of those polls and anything can happen. Anyway, the remaining 40% of my money went to that champion of conservationists, Washington Senator Maria Cantwell. In conservation circles, her name is synonymous with opposition to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She holds a fairly sizable lead over her opponent in recent polls, 52 percent to 37 percent with 8 percent undecided. So you might ask, why support her? Well, it's a just-in-case kind of thing. Her opponent is well funding by Big Oil and you never know what kind of stunt the Republicans will pull at the last minute. She literally needs every dollar she can get, especially given the history of nail biters that Washington usually produces, remember all the recounts it took for Democrat Gregoire to finally be crowned Governor, and the Republicans still haven't given up!! And you can never discount the great evil that is Karl Rove either.

Another reason for supporting Senator Cantwell is that she must win re-election. Her defeat will be interpreted by the Republican spin machine and broadcast out as saying that the public supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. We know that Congress will probably be fairly evenly divided, regardless of who controls it, and such propaganda could well scare moderates in both parties to shift to the pro-drilling camp due to concern over their own careers. Therefore, it is not only important that Sen. Cantwell wins, she needs to win by as big a margin as possible to send out a strong message that the public cares about the sanctity of the ANWR.

Finally, I was debating earlier today the ethicality of donating to political parties and campaigns when arguably, the money would be much better used if given to a charity rather than spent on overpriced, negative campaign ads, etc. Well, I've arrived at the conclusion that political campaigns are a necessary evil. Any money I give to charity will be a drop in the bucket compared to the good that a Democratic Congress can do, whether it is increasing international aid, promoting conservation both in the U.S. and abroad, curbing the trigger-happy attitude of the current administration that spreads suffering, improving the lives of poor people in the U.S. by providing the long overdue increase in minimum wage, repudiate state-sanctioned torture of people labeled as "enemy combatants", restore the Bill of Rights and civil liberties, and the like. Democrats are not perfect, but they're a lot better than what we currently have, and I sincerely believe that although for the moment, my money may be wasted as compared to giving it to a charity, it will pay off in the long term.

My BSNL Experience

This is one of those "India experiences" that have to be shared. First, here's the background. You all probably know the ordeal it took to finally get an internet connection at home back in August. Well, this is the deal. I went and got an internet application form and a brochure on available plans from BSNL back in August.

The brochure apparently wasn't up to date, but I wasn't aware of that at the time. The type of modem I was interested in (a "Type II" modem) was one that had a wireless capability since I have a laptop and wanted a wireless connection in my house. But according to a brochure, the Type II modem wasn't available on a monthly rental basis (Rs. 100-odd per month), but was available only on purchase (Rs. 1800-odd). This would have made sense if we were going to keep the service for at least a year or so, but since we would cancel the service once I came back to the U.S. (since everyone else either doesn't use e-mail or uses it from work), I had preferred the rental option as more economical. But since according to the brochure, it wasn't available, I checked the "purchase" box on the application form. While turning the form in, I just decided to ask whether I could get a type II modem on rental. Apparently, I could (the brochure was wrong!), and I struck out the purchase box entirely, checked the "rental" box and even circled the whole rental box + lettering to get my point across.

This was in the second week of August. Fast forward to the first week of October, when I noticed the phone bill for August. My father was about to take it and pay it, this was something like Oct. 1, and the due date on the bill was Oct. 5. I was surprised to see the bill for Rs. 3,000-something and I saw that they had charged us the purchase price of the modem. This was clearly wrong and I told my dad we had taken the modem on rental. On Oct. 3, I called BSNL and complained. They checked my file, saw they had made a mistake, and issued a work order to change it from purchase to rental. Then they asked me to come down to this "Commercial Officer's" office to get a new bill.

I wasn't able to do that until Oct. 6, but since the due date was Oct. 5, my dad went ahead and paid it to avoid the late fee. When I went down there, they said I shouldn't have paid it and they couldn't give me a refund now, but would credit me the amount in the next month's bill. Fair enough, so I thought. The lady who I met even wrote down my phone number to credit it. Well, we recently got the bill for September 2006 and there was no credit!

So again I went to the commercial officer's office today. I first went upstairs and met the lady who I had met a few weeks back and told her my problem. She again pulled up my account information on a black-and-white computer screen from the 1980s (did I mention that BSNL was state-owned?). She saw three work orders (the first one dated Jan 2004 when we moved to this address, the second one dated August 2006, and the third one dated October 2006). For some reason, she opened the August 2006 work order and asked me to go downstairs and meet the commercial officer and talk to him about this first.

Kind of perplexed, off I went downstairs. I walked into what looked like this guy's office (AGM or Assistant General Manager) but it kind of branched off into three or four separate offices from what looked like a common lobby. At the desk of what I thought was a lobby, there was a nameplate which seemed to be different from AGM at a quick glance. So I kind of stepped forward to see what the other offices were.

The guy sitting there asked me in an irritated tone, "where are you going?" I asked him if he was the Assistant General Manager, and he said, "well, didn't you read what it says on the door?" Somewhat taken aback, I replied back, "well, your name plate says something different." He asked me, "what does it say?" When I read it, it said "AGM Comml (NE)", which probably meant Assistant General Manager Commercial (Northeast [Bangalore]). I was expecting something like "Assistant General Manager", so I missed it on a quick glance. I told him the same.

Then I sat down. He gave me a small lecture on how I should pay more attention to what I do and then asked me, "Haven't you ever been to a government office before?" And then he asked me, "How old are you?" I replied, "23" and he gave a chuckle. And here I am sitting thinking, "WOW!!! I thought the socialist inefficiency ended in 1991, what an idiot I am!". Well, to be honest, things have improved since 1991 since despite the lack of courtesy or customer service, he did get my job done whereas two decades ago, it would have taken a bribe to even initiate any kind of action!

Anyway, he pulls up my info on a similar black-and-white screen and says that a work order has already been issued to change my account to rental and I need to go back upstairs and talk to the lady about the refund. However, he does "very graciously" decide to write a note to the lady upstairs giving clarification. So I go back upstairs, *again* and meet the lady. I had to wait for some students (who looked like they were Korean) trying to get their problem fixed and their limited English skills was really taking some time. The lady wanted them to write a formal letter stating their complaint but they didn't quite understand what she exactly wanted, so the girl kept asking what she needs to write in the letter (poor souls, this was probably their first experience with Indian bureaucracy. In India, *everything* needs a written letter, which should then be signed in a minimum of two places. Even if you forgot your checkbook and want to withdraw money from your bank account at the bank (non-state owned even), you need to write a letter to the bank manager to that effect. In state owned banks, there exist things called withdrawal slips, but you have to fill them out, carry your "pass book" with you, get it stamped, get a token, and wait for a minimum of 15 minutes for a rude government officer to give you your *own* money! Anyway, once the lady gave them some directions, the Koreans left the office and she saw me again.

I very patiently, but firmly, told her that I had been downstairs and the guy had sent me back upstairs. I made a pointed effort to let her know that the guy had written her a note. She saw the note and sent me to one more lady to get the issue sorted. This lady looked at my form and she was like, "how can the commercial office simply change a purchase to a rental after you've purchased something? they're making our life miserable." I waited while my file was brought upstairs and the new lady and the old lady both had a meeting while I stood and listened. The old lady explained, "see normally you can't change a purchase to a rental, but since this was their mistake in the first place, the commercial office changed it." So finally, the new lady comes out of the conference and tells me, "Ok, we'll get this done. We'll keep this copy of your bill. You can collect an updated bill next week." It reminded me of a Dilbert strip where the HR person asks Dilbert to give him "the original + all copies of a document" while Dogbert screams, "don't do it! he'll lose it." (or something to this effect, anyway).

So where am I? Well, I still don't know that my account has been fixed and I may very well need to make *another* trip to the commercial office next week, but ... let's wait and see.

If you don't read anything in this post thoroughly, make sure you record the fact that I was actually asked, "haven't you ever been to a government office before?" There are so many things wrong with the statement, not the least that I should expect inefficiency and kow-tow to their egos.

Is it really worth it?

I recently discovered this hilarious comic strip, Piled Higher and Deeper, a.k.a. PHD. It's usually a satirical look at the life of grad students, but some of them carry forth meaningful messages. I find the following strip especially nice and relevant in my current position of trying to balance grad school application, obtaining research experience, writing the GRE Biology Subject Test, deciding where to best utilize your funds and visit schools, and worry about where you'll get in and what project you'll be working on for the next half decade with what kind of funding ... you get the picture.

Note: Click on the comic strip for a clearer image.

So for all of you out there, remember, you're in it for a reason (unless of course, you're Indian and you're a doctor or engineer because your parents wanted you to be and your neighbor is convinced that there is "scope" only in these two fields). :-)

And just in case if you're wondering whether the above strip has a lighter side to it, it does. Here's the same scenario from the guys' perspective.

Ayudha Puja

The purpose of this blog was mainly to capture my experiences living in India, from the perspective of a person who has spent half his life, including the 'formative years' in the U.S. For my Indian friends in the U.S., this blog was meant to remind them of visions, things and happenings in India which they would be missing out on. For my American friends, it was meant to increase their knowledge about India in general.

Unfortunately, I think my last India related post was a while ago, and since these days, I do nothing but concern myself with studying for the GRE Biology Test and prepare to apply for schools, I haven't really done much in India and as a result, this blog has come out sounding more like my former columns in my college's student newspaper than what it was intended for.

That will change. I am going to make an earnest effort henceforth to go back to what this blog was supposed to be. Of course, I will still continue to comment on world and political issues (I am anticipating a post containing the scream "YEEEEEAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHH" once we take back Congress in early November).

But anyway, yes, a greater focus on daily happenings in India is what I am going to strive for. And the perfect way to begin that is this post on Ayudha Puja.

Ayudha Puja is a Hindu festival we celebrated on Sunday, Oct. 1 this year. The dates aren't constant because the Hindu calendar is a lunar-based calendar, so the dates keep moving around from year to year. Ayudha Puja is a part of Dasara, a festival that is grandly celebrated in southern India.

What we basically do on this day is wash all our vehicles and conduct a puja to them, where they are smeared with kumkum and yellow turmeric powder. Lemons are placed under the wheels and the vehicle is driven over the lemons, crushing them. I'm not too sure about the symbolic significance of the lemons, but it's done with all vehicle pujas. Something to do with good luck ... I remember that when I bought my car in the U.S. and did a vehicle puja at the Venkateshwara Temple in Bridgewater, NJ, I drove the car over lemons as well.

Anyway, after smearing kumkum and turmeric, we say a short prayer to the vehicle. Now non-Hindus and Hindus who don't know why we do this might be thinking, why are vehicles worshipped again?

Well, Dasara is a festival that coincides with Navarathri (nine nights) (it's basically like a 10 days / 9 nights deal, very convenient for travel agencies I suppose). It celebrates the victory of Lord Rama over the demon Ravana in the Hindu epic Ramayana. In the olden days, Ayudha Puja was a day during which the tools used in everyday life were worshipped, mainly weapons, farming tools, and books that imparted knowledge.

Today, our 'modern' tools are vehicles and books (while the vehicles were being worshipped, my grandmother was simultaneously worshipping my textbooks in front of the idol of the Goddess Saraswati, the Goddess of Learning. Hinduism in short teaches that God is all-pervasive, present in anything and everything. Ayudha Puja is a day for us to see the divinity of God in our vehicles, books, and anything else we use to navigate our lives. It's a day to reaffirm that God exists everywhere, not just in our idols and puja rooms (the room in the house where the idol is kept).

When I was living in the U.S., I really didn't keep track of Hindu festivals such as this. When living in India, it's easy to remember when the festivals are. The streets vendors begin to start selling festival items and everyone is talking about it. In the U.S., you're really cut off, especially if you go to the temple only once in a while. Anyway, my resolution is from next year onwards, I'll try my best to keep track of festivals in the U.S. and at least try to follow them.But enough of that, here are some pictures from Ayudha Puja including a picture of my bike.

Oh, but before that, as with any Hindu festival, Ayudha Puja had its environmental consequences as well. With Ganesha Chaturthi, which was about a month ago, the main environmental concern is people immersing the idols of Ganesha, often painted with toxic paints, in lakes and rivers killing aquatic life. In the olden days, paints used to be made from vegetable dyes, so it was ok. Today, it's really a major concern. I am however proud to announce that my family has been buying a plain clay idol, without any coloring, for the past seven Ganesha Chaturthis now, since the year 2000. After all, the idol hardly matters. It could be a lump of clay for all we care. As long as you imagine it to be Ganesha in your heart, that's what counts.

And Ayudha Puja had its environmental side effect as well. Can you imagine how much water is needed if everyone is washing their vehicles? According to The Times of India, Bangaloreans used 100 million liters of water (almost 15% of daily usage for the city) just to wash their vehicles! My solution was to delay washing my scooter until the day of the puja, so I wouldn't waste any extra water on account of the puja. Our car was washed only two days before the puja, so I didn't wash it on the day of the puja, just a quick wipe-thru with a wet cloth did the job.

As for the scooter, we took a half a bucket of water and took a cloth. We didn't use any kind of soap, but wiped down the entire scooter with the cloth. My cousin used the same half-bucket of water for his own scooter and after we carefully ensured that we didn't wipe any portion of the scooter where the water might get contaminated with oil or grease. After we were done, we just dumped the water in the garden in front of the house. So there, environmentalism and tradition need not be mutually exclusive.

Anyway, yes, the pictures ...

The front of my scooter. Notice the flowers just above the license plate and the 'Om' sketched out with kumkum just above the tire.

You can see the lemons that I rolled over, as well as the juice staining the pavement. I also show off my scooter in this picture, which during my last tank of gas managed to get a phenomenal (for a six-year old scooter) 44.28 kilometers per liter (104.62 mpg).



The car after the puja was performed. You can see the flowers near the center of the windshield wipers and if you look closely, you can make out the Om in the center of the hood.

So Gen. Musharraf, are you with us or against us?

The question of George Bush's black and white statement, "with us or against us" is now once again in the open as it seems that Gen. Musharraf and Pakistan have been playing a dual role in Islamic terrorism once again.

On the one hand, Musharraf is shouting from rooftops in Washington about how much his nation is fighting the war on terror. On the other hand, he has recently reached a peace deal with the conservative Islamic tribes in the lawless Waziristan region of Pakistan that are harboring and abetting the activities of the Taliban and Osama bin Laden. Musharraf's refusal to take concrete action in that region, despite the pleas of Afghan President Hamid Karzai whose country is slipping back into chaos speaks volumes about Pakistan's "war on terror".

Now the latest, Mumbai's police have said that they have evidence implicating Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI in aiding Pakistan-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba in the deadly July 11 train bombings in Mumbai, which killed 188 people in 7 coordinated blasts on the city's trains.

7/11 handiwork of seven teams

India's police say Pakistan helped plot July bombings

So now the question is, what next? Over the past few months, I've come to this conclusion. The current UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government, led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is impotent and ineffective in security. While they've done great in internal matters of the country, their foreign policy has been racked with indecision.

In the wake of this new revelation, they really need to take a hard stance. Otherwise, it is inevitable that the conservative BJP will catapult into power. Once again, Musharraf shook hands with Manmohan Singh at the Non-aligned Movement summit in Havana just a few weeks ago, and since then has proceeded to stab India in the back.

We cannot sit back and let Pakistan shelter and aid terrorists that seek to carry out terrorist activities within India. The sovereignty of India must be protected. Bush's short-sighted foreign policy is to give a free leash to Musharraf, lest a "bearded general" replaces him.

Well, from India's point of view, Musharraf is no better than a "bearded general", at least a bearded general would be forthcoming about his nation's activities. The terrorist problem in Pakistan must be dealt with quickly and severely. It is time India shed its cowardly attitude and followed the Israel method of dealing with terror.

The actions to be followed should be now:

1) Release all evidence of the Mumbai attacks to both the United States and the Pakistani governments. Demand that all who are implicated in the 7/11 bombings are extradited to India by Pakistan.

2) If Pakistan fails to meet this demand, India needs to mount troops on the Pakistani border to prepare for an invasion, like was done after the 12/13/2001 attacks on the Indian Parliament.

3) Unless all of India's conditions are met, unlike after 12/13/2001, India should carry through on its threat and invade Pakistan, simultaneously "bombing it back to the Stone Age" like how the U.S. threatened to do after 9/11.

Unless the Indian government thinks the lives of innocent civilians are expendable, strong measures need to be taken. It's time Pakistan ended its double game and decided. Are they with us or against us?