Death, Be Not Proud !

What do we attain by a Death Sentence?

Some months back  - Medha Patkar had raised this issue in an interview. She is with a strong opinion that the law pertaining to death sentence/capital punishment should be abolished. She gave numerous examples citing from writings of Mahatma Gandhi, BR Ambedkar .... which justify that No state has a right to take anyone's  life irrespective of the crimes committed.

I am not blindly following her opinion , neither do I have a deep insight or study in this matter that I can expertly comment on it. My point is that, does really death sentence solve the problem?

Some say kasab's hanging will create fear among masses and no one will dare to do such act....atleast a dozen of high profile assassins  were hanged over the world till date...  Right from Godse in 1948 to Samant Singh (Indira killer ) in 1989.......still it dint stop the LTTE to kill Rajiv Gandhi !!! So does it really serve the purpose?

The point that my conscience feels BINGO about opposing death sentence is that  - an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind - which comes from Gandhian philosophy....what right does anyone have to take life of anyone?

Death erodes the entire possibility of a criminal to improve......I am not saying that given a chance , Kasab will improve or he will repent, But if not hanged -ATLEAST DOOR IS OPEN FOR HIM ..... his execution strips off even the slightest chance of this positivism !!

Criminals serve their punishment behind bars...but while doing so the Law gives them rights to develop themselves. To learn and earn degree as well ! to cite an example Nalini (one of the members of the LTTE assassins of Rajiv Gandhi) has earned a post-graduate degree in computer applications, topping the course among jail inmates who appeared for the examination in Tamil Nadu. During her 20 years of prison life,  she completed her HSC, graduation n post-graduation as well she cud give time (though a zilch) for her children (the very reason for which her death sentenced was exempted) . Her Death would have made a full stop to all this !!

So Kasab could have served the punishment for this heinous Act !!! No Doubt,.... but why deprive him if he was interested to develop himself ?  My such argument would seem a crazier one for you all, but think as a human being,  he is serving the sentence , a life time sentence, A prison life is not a bed of roses ! he will suffer, will have to bear a torture.... he can’t escape that....but what if while doing so, he completes his education? .....will it not enlighten him to understand the gravity of his crime? will it not churn out his conscience? And will it not take him to the path of penitence? AGAIN  - this is highly suppositional...and i can see the ridiculous smiles on your faces ! :)

And As I google about all this, I find a fresh news about India opposing the UN draft resolution to ban Capital Punishment (or death penalty) .

Among the nations voting against the resolution were India, Bangladesh, China, Korea, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Kuwait, Libya, Pakistan and the US.

Those who voted in favour included Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Israel, Russia, Nepal, South Africa and UK.

At one end, We severely condemn the Law system of countries like Saudi, which give harsh punishments like chopping hands/feet for crimes like Rape  - argument is such punishments are an epitome of merciless and violent action violating human rights !!

and At other end, We are OK to give a death sentence !!! so is it not merciless???

The problem is we become so apprehensive about Kasab's act and the anger stops us to think the other way...I don’t know whether I am right or wrong ! But I just keep on thinking whether Death is the ultimate solution? Will it erode issues of terrorism? Is it a panacea for all evils? Or should one think of human values of compassion, sympathy and mercy (which some of you may feel a bit idealistic! )

- Gaurav 

Gazal

संध्या !

भय इथले संपत नाही !

Disclaimer: The thoughts expressed in the poem need not project the poet's state of mind or attitude towards life ! 

When Dark Clouds Fly...

Disclaimer: The thoughts expressed in the poem need not project the poet's state of mind or attitude towards life !

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THE 'CLASS'IC HELPER !

THE 'CLASS'IC HELPER !


The tornado in the country side of phildelphia had made lives of people living there miserable. I was debugging a s0c7 abend JAVA source code, and the tenacity to crack the code was strong through the efforts. The whirling storm outside the window pane was in a way motivating me to just slog, hammer, plough and reach the end point. API, helplets, forums, seemed time consuming alternatives to me. Now i was relying on the magnificient power of  human mind to tackle toilsome situations like this. 


The wind was blowing like a sine wave with alternate fluctuations, coupled with horrifying, awe-fearing sounds. Towards, the surging wave of such sound, my fingers would start trembling, my eyes would start winking, heart beats would accelerate, entire body would get horripilated as my curiosity to crack the code would zoom up !!! As the wave would  reach its climax, I would drown deep into the code, watch for every bit and piece of syntax, functions, and subroutines !!! But towards the falling spell of the wave, my vigor would start collapsing and I wud come to the ab initio level of temperament. 


My thoughts were fighting with these odd and even spells, and the entire experiment of these iterations was seeming hopeless ! I decided to take a break !
 I  went outside the avenue, down the street to see the condition of the city. As I was looking at the pathetic situation of city - torned and massacred by tornado -  I encountered a small school girl, standing at the bus-stop, tightly holding the bars out of fright and shivering out of panic ! Supposedly, she was trying to escape the tormenting winds, but was failing in her efforts. As I went near her, Tears trickled down her eyes, and she leaned back, sensing me as a stranger. I gave a light smile, showed my university i-card, made her comfortable, asked about her parents, and address, and offered her take her home safely. As reached her home, her parents were overwhelmed to see her, and they thanked me ! While leaving the house, the small girl kissed me on chick and said "AL UTF HELPR CUS" , I was amazed, since the words seemed familiar to me, with a wink of curiousty I saw at her, she said - "it means "Thank you Helper" in spanish !! and gave a cute smile. I hi-fived her, and left the house.


On my way to the lab, the words were striking my mind, since they had a deep familiarization, some where in my mind. I tried to dig out some links , but in vain. So i left that thought and starting thinking about the source code. I reached the lab and starting working on the program. I checked the program right from begining, the primary routines, the interface functions, the secondary routines, the exception handlers, the HELPERS, the closure routines.........errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr......I went back to helper routine, and I again remembered her words  - AL UTF HELPR CUS - Gosh !!!!   I got it ! it should have been helper UTF 8 library function, instead !!!!! The bug is trapped, the fish in net and with cherry on cake, program is all set !!!!!!!! 


I banged the desk, in excitement, and said yes,yes,yes !!! I added the helper library function to that class, compiled the program, restarted tomcat, and ,checked the interface !!!!!! It was amazing,  the screen was blushing, I heard the merry bells in church, the pious hyms made me emotional. I was the first one, to debug a complex program in mere hours !!!!!! AND the credit - ofcourse goes to that small cute school girl  - "AL UTF HELPR CUS"  - My day was a memorable one !!!!


disclaimer: This story is a fiction, and the code 'AL UTF...' is also not real spanish. Its just that I wanted to relate it to the situation in the story

A Fruitful Sunday


Sundays are welcomed like VIP guests. The only DAY which doesn't disturb sleep, which doesn't disturb clock, which doesn't get suffocated in ultra-packed, over-dense crowd of dadar platform No. 2, and which is blessed with calm and peaceful afternoons !!!


I along with 2 of my friends were a bit annoyed on one such Sunday, when we had to go to college to attend an extra lecture (the degree of annoyance was somewhat subsided by the fact that  it was FM lecture, esp. for one of our Finance-savvy friend :P :P ). Also, then we had scheduled an interview of one of the top managers of ONGC. This was a part of our curriculum. The good thing was that the house of that person was near our college, the bad thing was that we would have to sacrifice our afternoon. But our FM lecture in the morning had elevated our energy levels (esp. of our  Finance-savvy friend :P ) , and with pretty good lunch, we were set ready for our afternoon session with Mr. P.S. Chauhan, General Manager, ONGC.


The next one hour was a memorable one. We set all equipment required to shoot the interview. I gave a brief introduction about our project to Mr. Chauhan ('uncle' as we called him then ), and we started with the interview. We had prepared the set of questions, and Uncle was patiently answering all those, very precisely and to the point. We covered various aspects about ONGC, right from company profile, operational details, business model, e-business, online websites, portals to CSR. 


Prima-facie, we were knowing that ONGC is an oil and gas company with prominent presence in oil market. Also its a PSU. But as Uncle was answering our questions, our perception about the company was becoming broader and broader. ONGC is Asia's second largest oil and gas exploration company, has presence in several countries and is NOT a oil-marketing company (like BPCL and HPCL) !


ONGC is one of the few Government organisations which has implemented SAP system for its operations and supply chain processes. It is one of the first companies in India to implement Online performance appraisal system (e-PAR). It spends a lot of money on training and development. The important point in all this was that the ability to respond to a CHANGE,  in which ONGC has proved to be an ACE. Unlike, conventional government officials  (with due respect to them) which are reluctant to change, esp. from offline work to computer work, ONGC employees have grasped the system changes, and are comfortable to use the systems. The Change Management provision of the company seems to be strong. ONGC has dedicated training centres, and it makes sure that employees are trained appropriately for any system change.

Another important point was, ONGC's proactive policy for Climate Change.  The kyoto protocol has laid down caron emission levels on the company, but the company is smart enough to not only keep its emission levels under control but also take advantge of CARBON TRADING on carbon markets. It is aware of its responsibility towards better ecology, and hence a lot of Green initiatives have been undertaken by ONGC.

The most interesting point in the interview was that ONGC doesn't entertain social media. It doesn't have any presence in the sphere of social networking. The company has a strong and robust Knowledge management system, that facilitates healthy knowledge sharing and also builds social bonds within the company. It hardly advertises on Media websites. The employees make effective use of internal online portals which facilitates knowledge sharing.

We ended our interview within 45 minutes, and Uncle was humble and kind to offer us some snacks and tea ! With every sip of Hot tea, i was thinking about my preconceived notion about Government companies, a smile washed away that notion ! With every piece of snack, i was thinking how companies respond to CHANGE, and why is it necessary to change, an eye-wink dragged some determination in my heart.  AND finally with every word of vote of Thanks, i was also feeling sorry to disturb Uncle for his SUNDAY afternoon, a pure wish for his well-being removed that guilt !

However, for us it was really a fruitful SUNDAY. A Sunday that taught us to respond smartly to CHANGE, a Sunday that changed our perceptions and perspectives, and a SUNDAY that was never like ANY OTHER SUNDAY !!!!

- Gaurav