Everything can be outsourced.

Even murder.

Optional

CBSE kids can rejoice.

TED talk by Ashraf Ghani

A very interesting talk by Ashraf Ghani, currently in race to be Aghanistan's next President.

How exactly does this help??

People stand in queue for swine flu check up outside a hospital in Pune.
(A picture from the Indian Express)

Aai mala pan fugaaaa

Kasab's desire to have someone tie him a rakhi as reported by the ToI makes him sound like a child who wants something colorful and shiny that the others have.

"He expressed his desire after he saw several people in court sporting colourful 'rakhis' during the day's proceedings," his government-appointed lawyer S.G. Abbas Kazmi told mediapersons."

Clothelines in the US

Having heard stories of warnings by apartment landlords for hanging clothes to dry in the open, clothesline spotting has become one of my favorite pass-times. My husband never seems to see any, though as the passenger I have spotted quite a few on county roads. When I was new to this country it seemed absurd that people would spend so much time, money and energy drying clothes in a steam dryer that reduces garment life. I took it as one of those things that 'Americans do'. So now this story (and the comments that follow) in NYT only makes me laugh in disbelief.

Poor pedestrians

Why does Vivek Moorthy generalize that pedestrians are "poor and illiterate" and so "cannot take legal recourse?" Though the number of vehicles on Indian roads has increased dramatically it does not mean that only the poor walk. Educated, middle class Indians also walk on the same roads and have to face the same hazardous conditions. It seems like he got carried away by his idea of the "walking class" and could not resist attributing an income level to it. I appreciate and support his appeal for better urban planning with safe walking conditions. But making pedestrians seem like some poor and illiterate beings unable to stand up for themselves just kills the piece for me.

A letter to Mr Thackeray

Mr. Bal Thackeray,

Really, are you out of your mind completely? You want him to be hanged publicly at the Gateway of India? Though Kasab deserves to die for what he did, the Gateway of India does not deserve to go down in history as the spot where he was hanged. You want it to be a big spectacle with people cheering and the 24 hr news channels telecasting it live for the world to see? You really think that would deter other terrorists from attacking India? Or do you wish to immortalize Kasab's death so that it can be used as fodder for other terrorists-in-training? You known it favors politicians' electoral interests when the country is under attack from external forces? Are you sure you speak only out of a desire for justice?

Just so you know, we are not barbarians. We are a country of decent people who would be outraged by such displays. We are not terrorists. We do not go about killing people because we are told that they have wronged us. We allow the judiciary to determine guilt and provide justice. A fair trial, as is currently underway, is what you need to send a message to the millions of Indians that the state machinery can protect them. The judicial system is capable of bringing terrorists to trial and punishing them without outraging publicly decency. We do not attack lawyers for serving their country. We stand by them. Maybe you could too.

Kasab is a terrorist. He does not need to die a martyr.

My posts at FPA blogs

I now write for the Foreign Policy Blogs, a production of the Foreign Policy Association. The FPB network has around 50 blogs that discuss global developments across all continents. The Foreign Policy Association is a New York based think-tank established in 1918 to spread awareness and understanding of foreign policy issues.

Check out my posts on Indian foreign policy at their India blog.

Something to cheer about

While Gulam Nabi Azad made us laugh, the latest news on population policy will make you smile. A detailed National Population Policy formulated in the year 2000 set out to achieve a total fertility rate (TFR) of two by the end of 2010. Now the union health ministry reports that 11 states and three union territories have achieved that target of two children per couple two years before the deadline. Most Indians are used to a large number of government projects missing their deadlines. To see these states work efficiently fills my heart with optimism. All we need now is for the good work to continue uninterrupted and become a norm.

The National Population Policy had rightly identified education, women's empowerment, and communication and awareness about the benefits of family planning to be some of the ways of achieving the targets. (Azad should have taken a cue from the policy and made the argument for more televisions as the means of spreading family planning awareness.) Interestingly, the National Family Health Survey (2007) reports the literacy rates for most of the 11 states as being above the Indian average of 67.6 percent. The statewise literacy rates are as follows: Goa (83.3), Himachal Pradesh (81.3), Karnataka(69.3), Kerala (89.9), Maharashtra(77.6), Punjab (74), Sikkim (76.6), Tamil Nadu (74.2), West Bengal (71.6) and Andhra Pradesh (63.7). Either it is sheer coincidence, or higher literacy rates and decreasing FTR seem to be co-related.