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Misplaced Priorities - Rectifying Institutional faults

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If anything the current pandemic has exposed the inadequacy or abject failure of current institutional arrangements to meet unexpected and daunting challenges confronting the world. To say it happened without a warning might be incorrect. Ironically a warning about Corona like virus came from the poster boy of Capitalism, Bill Gates, five years ago! And yet we are where we are. I venture to argue that we are in our current predicament due to faulty institutional arrangements. It has been argued by experts that defence expenditure exceeds public healthcare expenditure and we have misplaced priorities. This is not a one off example but a pattern. Consider this, importance is given to defence, artificial intelligence, Industrial revolution 4.0, 5G, Space and arms race as compared to food, clothing, shelter, education and sanitation for all. The former more glamorous the latter more rudimentary yet essential. It is time every country invests limited resources on things that mat...
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(Dys) Functions of Social Media!

Make no mistake I am not a Luddite, who would argue not using social media and going back to pen and paper. However, the immense attraction of social media on the one hand and its abuse, misuse on the other, is a cause of concern. In TISS, a day long abstinence from social media was tried. The participants felt "detoxified". Let us try to understand this toxicity which is a part of our everyday life. It is beyond doubt that social media has helped to connect people in ways unthinkable. My contention is that it has outlived its purpose and now it is a site of toxicity. We see fake news, spams, so called viral videos, porn freely circulated on social media. In WhatsApp, we see "All Boys'" group, an avenue of hyper-masculinity, objectifying, degrading women. We witness trolls against celebrities. We see blatant rape threats to women expressing their opinion. The whole atmosphere is marred by toxicity, hatred, negativity. The worst part is we are 24*7 a part ...
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Planet F-377 U/497

I am going to share a secret with you, almost at the risk of sounding insane. So, I have this friend called X, who is actually an Alien. Hear me out first. X comes from Planet F-377 U/497, from a galaxy far far away, trillions of light years from us. From whatever X told me about the planet, I was really fascinated. Every home owns a drone, a supercomputer. They don’t grow food it seems. They just look at the Sun and Bam! Photosynthesis! No food so no agriculture, no classes, no Capitalism or Communism, race, ethnicity or religion. X tells me they had to house hunt there because of some shit called global warming on their original planet (but who cares!). So then they figured out a way to solve the time-space puzzle, travel through ether, imaginary tubes and tame some dark matter and all. Suffice it to say, they are to humans what humans are to homo-sapiens.   Planet F-377 U/497 is a technological marvel! But I am not really in awe with the technological feats. Human...
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When numbers lie!

4-1 read the score line! India lost a test series in England, Again! It hurt even more because it was thought of India's best chance to win, with an enviable pace battery and star studded batting line up. 4-1 really does look bad on paper. And as in life ( so in Cricket) we are obsessed with results. That’s why we are missing something so significant here. This was not just any test series, 'it was a celebration of red ball cricket' to quote Harsha. These test matches actually resembled a boxing ring. Blows were exchanged, one by one. Both Teams fell down, got up and gave it back hard to the opponent! Bruised? Yes!! Finished? Never! For me the series was in fact a 'celebration of life'. It has given me clarity, busted a lot of myths and took me back to basics. First and foremost, life is unpredictable. Let's face it. Even if you put in all your efforts, you might still end up 4-1 down. Luck does exist. Otherwise what else explains Kohli losing the...
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Rational unemotional !?!

(This is a story of a close friend. I have written it in first person to give it a feel) I met this hot mallu girl during my interview. She was perfect. Elegant, graceful. We just had a glimpse of each other and moved away. I was with a female friend, who also thought she was smoking hot. She insisted I talk to the girl and as usual I was uncomfortable to initiate the conversation. But as it turned out, it was my lucky day! The girl walked up to me and asked for a lighter. I was overjoyed, for two reasons. First, she came up to talk. Second, she was a smoker too! May be it’s just me but I really find girls who smoke attractive. Fuck the Norms! But this is not about me. Or the girl. It’s about the conversation we had . She was a psychology student. And having read Freud a little, I had a chance to brag. We spoke about diverse things…from Nair community in Kerala to Artificial intelligence. Basically I said AI is foolish because we are giving our USP i.e thinking, to someone else....
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Virah Ki Peeda!

Virah Ki Peeda! I first heard about this term in reference to Krishna and Radha. To be honest, I really did not understand what it actually meant. Since Radha Krishna symbolised true love, I really wished I should experience it someday (Stupid me!). This was 2006. Fast forward to 2018! I broke up with this girl. There were a lot of practical issues. First thing, Long distance. So I was pursuing my Masters from TISS in Mumbai and my girl (?) from NID, Ahmedabad. Let me tell you two states is not that easy. Next thing my obsession with Civil services meant posting at remote locations, where she had very little chance for career growth. And her parents were going to look for a groom for their lovely daughter in just a year, I was still completing my masters. So break up was the most rational, sane, practical solution. But beyond all this rationality lies a human heart. It craves just to have a glimpse of her. After a hectic day at college all it wants is to talk to her. In...
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