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November 11, 2008
October 16, 2008
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga | Novel About India Wins the Man Booker Prize
Aravind Adiga, 33, won the 40th Man Booker prize on Tuesday night for his debut novel, “The White Tiger,” a vivid exploration of India’s class struggle told through the story of a village boy who becomes the chauffeur to a rich man.
Michael Portillo, a former cabinet minister and the chairman of this year’s panel of judges, praised Mr. Adiga’s novel, saying that the short list had contained a series of “extraordinarily readable page-turners.” However, Mr. Adiga’s book had prevailed, he said, “because the judges felt that it shocked and entertained in equal measure.”
Mr. Adiga said his book was an “attempt to catch the voice of the men you meet as you travel through India — the voice of the colossal underclass.”
“This voice was not captured,” he added, “and I wanted to do so without sentimentality or portraying them as mirthless humorless weaklings as they are usually.”
When he accepted the award, Mr. Adiga dedicated it to “the people of New Delhi where I lived and where I wrote this book.” When asked what he would do with the money, Mr. Adiga joked, “The first thing I am going to do is to find a bank that I can actually put it in.”
The Man Booker prize, Britain’s best-known and most generous literary award, is given annually to a novel written by an author from Britain, Ireland or the Commonwealth nations and is accompanied by a check for £50,000 — about $86,000 — as well as an inevitable increase in sales.
This year’s list of finalists was one of the least star-studded in recent years. It included two first-time novelists, and several of the favorites were snubbed by judges. Joseph O’Neill’s critically acclaimed “Netherland” was omitted from the short list, as was “The Enchantress of Florence” by Salman Rushdie.
As a result, bookmakers were divided over the likely winner, oscillating between Mr. Adiga and the Irish writer Sebastian Barry, 53, whose book “The Secret Scripture” is the story of an Irish patient in a mental hospital sharing her shocking family history with her psychiatrist.
The other books on the shortlist were “Sea of Poppies” by Amitav Ghosh, “The Clothes on Their Backs” by Linda Grant, “The Northern Clemency” by Philip Hensher and “A Fraction of the Whole” by Steve Toltz.
September 15, 2008
Disbanding the army of clerks
A Chief Minister, who shall remain nameless, told me in despair the other day that the latest Pay Commission was going to bankrupt several state governments. “Where are we going to get the money for development projects, for strengthening the police force, for anything at all if we spend Rs 92 out of a hundred rupees on paying salaries?” It is a question we should all be asking. Can we afford our army of clerks any more? Of the Rs 92 the Government spends on itself, more than 95 per cent goes towards paying the salaries of clerks, whose only interest in being in a government job is that it is permanent. On my travels in rural India I constantly run into young men who tell me in so many words that their big ambition is to get a ‘sarkari naukri’ because it is permanent. When I point out that jobs in the private sector pay much better salaries than the government and there are many perks as well, the invariable answer is, ‘But, they can kick you out. In a government job they cannot do that’.
A direct consequence of this self-serving approach to governance is that we continue to remain a poor country and will remain that way forever unless we find some way to get rid of our clerks. The finest schemes to fight poverty and provide our wretchedly poor people with basic education and healthcare fail to be implemented because the implementers are clerks. Our best efforts to clean our rivers, save our forests and preserve the environment fail for the same reasons. The most tragic examples of this are the Ganga and the Yamuna, whose waters remain filthy despite thousands of crores of rupees having been poured into cleaning them. The initial mistake was made by Rajiv Gandhi when he took the Ganga Action Plan prepared by INTACH and turned it into a government project.
The self-serving approach to governance afflicts not just lower division clerks but the mighty Sahibs as well. And they have developed expensive tastes. India Today recently investigated the high-flying activities of our babu log and found that even ministers did not travel as much as our officials did. “The information (obtained) throws light on the fact that 1,576 officials of the rank of director and above have travelled more than 5.65 crore km and stayed 24,458 days abroad over the past 40 months (from January 1, 2005 to April 30, 2008)”. What on earth were they doing? The short answer to that question is: holidaying. Indian taxpayers pay for them to travel first class and stay in fine hotels and we get nothing in return. They seem to travel blindfolded or they would have noticed that other countries look very different from India.
If they at least came back with new ideas on running our appalling public services or just finding systems that would make Indian cities and villages look less like slums, it would be something. I have seen cities in poorer Southeast Asian countries like Cambodia and Indonesia, which have managed to deal with waste disposal, drainage and other municipal problems so their streets do not stink of rotting garbage and open drains. With so many travelling officials, why do we have no solutions to these problems?
If all of this were not reason enough to rid India of its army of clerks, there is the additional problem of corruption. When I sat down to write this piece I tried to remember the last time I had met a senior Indian official whose children were not studying in some expensive foreign university. I could not. Where does the money come from?
Now that the latest Pay Commission has raised salaries so generously, we need to demand something in return. We need the Prime Minister to come up with a voluntary retirement scheme that would start reducing the numbers of clerks in government offices. If they do not wish to retire voluntarily, their performance needs to be assessed so that the corrupt and inefficient can be persuaded that it is in their best interests to leave quietly. One more thing that needs to be done with immediate effect is to make it possible to sack non-performing officials. Will any of this happen? Well, when Dr Manmohan Singh became Prime Minister he promised administrative reform. Nothing would improve governance more dramatically than reducing the numbers of clerks in government offices who mostly serve to obstruct the movement of files. As someone who is a keen observer of governance when I am on my travels abroad, I can report that there are few countries in the world where simple things are made as complicated as they are in India. The reason is too many clerks.
Source : The Indian Express : The Fifth Column – Tavleen Singh
August 26, 2008
Mother Teresa’s 98th Birthday Celebrated
The Missionaries of Charity houses world-wide on Tuesday celebrated the 98th birthday of its founder Mother Teresa with her successor Sister Nirmala praying for the right use of the life given by God in a strife-torn world.
“We thank God that he has given us this life and pray that we make the right use of the life He has given us,” Nirmala told newsmen at the MC headquarters here.
The day started with the customary morning mass at the first floor chapel of Mother House.
Later, the All India Minority Forum held an all-faith prayer at Mother’s tomb on the building’s ground floor.
A steady stream of Mother’s devotees and admirers visited the colourfully-decorated tomb kept open throughout the day.
MC hospices and orphanages in the city organised special feeding programmes for the inmates on the occasion.
The Nobel laureate nun, who died on September five, 1997, was put on the first track to sainthood by Pope John Paul-II, resulting in her beatification in 2003 after the Vatican approved a miracle attributed to here. The beatification allows her to be worshipped in all MC chapels.
One more authenticated miracle is necessary to declare her a saint, which would allow her to be worshipped in Catholic churches globally.
August 24, 2008
Beijing Olympics Ends, Baton Passing to London
The 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing are ending Sunday with an elaborate closing ceremony including fireworks, musical performances and a cast of thousands.
Hundreds of dancers, acrobats and drummers helped kick off the final ceremony, directed by Oscar-nominated Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou.
Other highlights are to include a duet by tenor Placido Domingo and Chinese soprano Song Zuying, as well as a display by several hundred martial artists.
Although criticism of China’s human rights was persistent on the sidelines, Beijing has been praised for its flawless handling of the logistics for the games. China also led the competition with total gold medals (51).
The United States won the most medals overall – 110, China came in second with 100, and Russia was third with 72 medals.This Olympic was special for India with its first individual Gold medal won by Abhinav Bindra and two Bronze.
The next Olympic host – London – is expected to put on an eight minute show part way through the closing celebration.
During Britain’s segment, Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page and British singer Leona Lewis will perform.
Afterwards, British football (soccer) star David Beckham will kick a ball out into the crowd from the top of red double-decker bus.
At its climax, Beijing’s mayor will hand an Olympic torch to his London counterpart – Boris Johnson. London is to host the 2012 Olympic Games.
“We will not compete with the (Chinese) ceremony, it will be simple, youthful, athletic, loud and proud like London, entertaining and fun,” said Mr Bill Morris, Culture, Events and Education chief of the 2012 London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG), at a media conference. Chairman of the LOCOG Sebastian Coe said the handover will mark the start of Britain’s four-year “cultural Olympiad”.
August 21, 2008
Apple iPhone to be priced @ Rs.31,000 in India | Unlock iPhone
Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who had promised at Worldwide Developer’s Conference on June 10 while unveiling 3G iPhone that it would be made available at $199(8Gb), is no more to be true in India. Now Indian consumers, who have been waiting based on Jobs’ promise have to pay Rs. 31,000 for 8 Gb and 16 Gb for Rs.36100.
The pricing is made available to the customers who have already made their booking on July 25. One of the Vodafone message says, “Your wait is about to end! iPhone 3G arrives on August 22. 8Gb model is for Rs. 31,000 and 16 Gb for Rs.36100.”
Earlier, the Bharthi Airtel operators said that they would make iPhone available in India at Rs.20,000, they are further breaking their promises. Both Vodafone and Airtel will be launching the iPhone on August 22 and industry experts say bookings and pre-launch interest suggest that they would be able to sell over 100,000 phones in the next 12 months. Companies like Vodafone, which opened bookings for the phones in July, have already received booking requests of over 10,000 phones.
Apple Iphone is one of the most expected gadget to be launched in india
Unlocked Apple Iphones are available in Indian at many places though by illegal means.But Iphone price in india is too high with major shops .
Where to buy Iphone in INDIA :
Best way to get hold of an Iphone in India is to ask someone to bring it from USA .
You can get a 4 GB Model for around 12000.RS in this case and AN 8 GB Model for 16,000.RS
But you have to unlock such phone by using third party softwares available .
Unlocking Apple Iphone in India:
Unlocking an Iphone is not so difficult.Many easy methods are there which can found by googling.
Hackers across the country are working overtime to find ways to unlock the SIM cards that will come with Apple’s iPhone once it is launched at the stroke of midnight on August 22. Since the SIM-locked iPhone will be sold by Airtel and Vodafone Essar, non-Airtel /Vodafone GSM subscribers won’t be able to use it unless codes are available to break the SIM lock.
While Airtel and Vodafone Essar executives aren’t ruling out the likelihood of the much-hyped phone being hacked within days of its India launch, the companies were unwilling to comment on the safeguards that have been put in place to keep hackers at bay.
However, a brand new way to unlock the phone is now available, in case the hacking software doesn’t work. A mobile phone expert, speaking on condition of anonymity, told ET: “If your iPhone is loaded with 04.02.13_G, the 1.1.2 firmware (read: the latest version), it cannot be unlocked with any software. A Turbo SIM card, available for upwards of Rs 1,500, does what a hacking software cannot do even for the latest version of iPhone. The manufacturers are claiming it will not get locked again—an issue that plagued earlier hacking methods.”
The Turbo SIM may not be available in India immediately , but one can always order it online or even do a Google to unravel ways to use the card to unlock the iPhone. Airtel and Vodafone officials remain unfazed. “SIM lock-related issues will have obviously been addressed by Apple.
The phe-nomenon isn’t new as codes to break the iPhone SIM locks have evolved in global markets where the phone has been launched. One cannot rule out such a phenomenon in India. But since the iPhone is being offered at a full-blown price in India, all network-related issues will have been factored in,” said a top Airtel executive.
Officials at Vodafone said: “We are launching the 3G iPhone in two variants—8 GB and 16GB. The operating system is proprietary of Apple and we cannot share any further details.” While both Vodafone and Airtel execs remain tightlipped on the actual operating system/version that will power the iPhone in India, ET has learnt the phone may be launched with the latest iPhone 2.0 software update.
If you are not an Airtel or Vodafone Essar user but are still keen to use the phone, you first need to find out the version of your iPhone. To find out the firmware (version ), open the emergency call menu on the iPhone and type *3001#12345#*, suggests a software spe-cialist .
Detailed instructions are available online, but the process basically involves copying the information from your SIM onto a Turbo SIM, and then switching your SIM for your carrier SIM. This al-lows the Turbo SIM to piggyback on your carrier SIM, and report-edly gives the phone full calling, SMS and EDGE capabilities. For older versions of the software, a quick search on Google will throw up a number of ways to unlock the SIM. Such software is freely avail-able on the internet.
HOW TO UNLOCK Apple iPhone:
Here is the updated QuickPwn for Windows, wrapped by Poorlad’s GUI. It contains new bundles for 2.0.2 and added support for version 2.0 devices which means you can QuickPwn and jailbreak the device if it is running 2.0, 2.0.1 or 2.0.2.
Remember this is still beta software, so usual rules apply, no complaints ifanything goes wrong and use the tool at at your own risk!
DOWNLOAD SOFTWARE
NB: Using QuickPwn does not update the firmware itself, this tool is designed to ‘Pwn’ (the ability to install future custom non-Apple firmwares) , ‘Jailbreak’ and install Installer or Cydia on a given device. If your device is running 2.0.1 and you QuickPwn it, it’ll still be running 2.0.1, although it will now be Pwned and Jailbroken, similarly if your device is running 2.0.2 and you QuickPwn it, it will then be running 2.0.2 but the device will now be Pwned and Jailbroken. It will also activate (not unlock) devices that are being used outside of their intended territories and cannot be activated using iTunes.
If you want to update to 2.0.2 then use the normal iTunes update to get to 2.0.2 and then use QuickPwn to Pwn, Jailbreak and Activate, remember that the 2.0.2 update includes a baseband update for the 3G iPhone, so depending what your long term intentions are for the phone, update wisely, of course in the upcoming PwnageTool application you’ll be able to create a custom ipsw without the baseband update enabled.
Again, no updates with regard to the unlocking of the 3G iPhone.
(NOTE : I havent tried any of these myself so try at your ow risk! )
Tarun Reflex 