Joan of Arc - Napoleon and Canada

Joan of Arc was consigned to flames by the British after one year of incarceration. And the French, whose freedom and sovereignty she fiercely fought for, sold her to this destiny. Such are the odds of life, which sometimes are recorded by history for posterity but on most others forgotten.

But her death did fuel a revolution strong enough to throw the British out from the French soil. While French had some respite from repeated fracas with their neighbors across the channel, Napoleon rose. During that period, farm-land productivity was at its ultra low, and migration from farm to fleet and back from fleet to farm after the war was over was a phenomenon common enough to make the farmers restive.

This migration ensured two things, that women contributed to the farms, while the men were in the fleet, which made them tough and independent, and second, the men sought stability of profession in lands till then unexplored. This, in the post Napoleonic era, set a trend to migration to various lands like Canada, New Zealand and Australia. The Britain royalty preferred this migration to have a restive population on its soil. A loose allegiance of a far away peoples was any day a preferred option to a restive population back at home, particularly when the purse strings were stretched and the industrial revolution had not yet fired the economy.

The migration to Canada of the British was relatively simple. A land predominantly forest, used to export timber by sea to the British Isles, and the empty ships in return would carry immigrants to the Canadian shores for a paltry fare. So, while the southern territory of the Canada were getting colonized by the French, the north and particularly the north west was predominantly English speaking, with a mix of Throne Loyal Americans who deigned not to be a part of Republican America and the British sea farers who reached the Canadian shores as barter trade of some type on the ships that carried timber to England.

  

IITs to ITIs - The Journey Sibal Sponsored

When I got selected to IIT Kanpur, some 30 yrs ago, it was rated number one amongst other IITs, which in those days were only 5 against the 16 that they count today.

These were real centers of excellence being run without much of governmental interference. The councils of board of governors BoG running them were fairly independent of the political shenanigans and with the autonomous structure they had, they could usually ward off governmental intervention without suffering consequences.

But India there is tendency to destroy excellence and pedestrianize all that you have and this insincere clown of man Kapil Sibal has precisely done that. The rank of IIT Kanpur that used to be, by one study 5^th globally for UG studies, today would be today lower than 250.

There is clearly a tendency in India to give a pompous appellation to an institution and leave quality to the magic of the name. This attitude in fact comes from a disregard for quality and lack of concern of the name getting spoilt. As a consequence, you may have a Udaipur Palace hotel without water or a shower.

Besides, creating a structure without infrastructure is typically an Indian way of addressing a problem. But who cares, as the country still moves. So while the 16 IITs today have multitude of students, 1200 in the mid eighties to about 20,000 today. The labs ipso facto are ill-equipped, libraries pathetically rigged and faculty under-staffed.

Also, it is very onerous to bring students of a particular class to a level to qualify for prestigious institutions like IITs or IIMs or AIIMS. But it is far easier and popular to reserve seats in them for those classes. Reservation has always been used in India at the expense of merit to seek votes, and IITs were not in anyway unique to stay unscathed from this malaise. I only dread the day, when there will be reservations for religions and when the there will be reservations in the army.

The ratings are dropping. The place occupied by the IITs is being vacated in favor of colleges from Singapore and Beijing. But who cares. The UPA governments don’t survive on having a correct IIT policy, but on having a leaking MNREGA.

All minds, though most a sophomoric and so mediocre like Mani Aiyer, are merely planning schemes to bring UPA to power a 3^rd time.

In the process, Sibal will continue to make the IITs the ITIs of the country.

Why Crib about India.

Many Indians, particularly those who are fortunate to see the world outside India, are chronic cribbers on how bad the situation in India is. And how well treated they are by their adopted domicile, their original country not being able to value them. This blog is intended to highlight, let us look at the good side of India just as we look at the good side of foreign countries.

In Amsterdam, taxis were not accepting credit cards. At every traffic junction, the taxi driver would pull out a file to scribble something. Apparently, it was for tax administration. Meaning, it was a manual tracking system as the taxis, otherwise mostly Mercedes make, did not have radio control. Also they did not accept credit cards. Contrary to the Meru cabs et al in India.

I landed at the hotel booked for me, and they did not have a room despite having charged my card for that night. What efficiency? This has never happen to me in India.

The hotel 4 star, respectable by all standards, the Wyndham Apollo, did not accept traveler’s checks.

A shop selling motorbike gear, did not accept credit cards. They could accept cards with a pin though. More interestingly, they informed this to me, when I had already spent 1 hr or more in rummaging the store to find the best fit, and was at the counter to pay. The apology that came too was not adequate.

In a very decent restaurant, I saw a cockroach creep onto the sofa I was occupying. In India I would have created a ruckus on this, more for the reason of sensitizing people to be conscious of quality. But there I did not care.

In Frankfurt, at the Steigenberger – a 5 star hotel, there was a fly in the mushroom soup. Again shameful! The hotel desired to compensate me by making my meal complimentary, which, I very condescendingly declined. Such a paltry amount cannot compensate such a hideous affront to my sensibilities.

The cycle that I hired at the Steigenberger was improperly  balanced. It was an automatic Kettler, a local German brand, and I had to call for a tool kit for correcting the balance.

The telephone system did not work. It was impossible to get the reception or room service or any other service. The spa was filthy, and completely unattended. The charge for delivering the bottle of water was the cost + Eur 5 of service charge. There was a group in the hotel that was more noisy than any Gujarati group that I could imagine in India. I had to request the staff to sobre their decibel level.

While we as a country are still stuggling for basic necessities, but in some places we are more advanced than several parts of the world.

In Lufthansa my favorite carrier, in business class, the crew captain told me that the meat was pork whereas it was actually veal. Again I could have created a ruckus. But I did not.

May Day in Istanbul

Today was my day to bid goodbye to the bosphorus, I saw anger on the streets of Turkey. While mainland Europe celebrated May day, Turkey was simmering - with angry mobs braving the police - the black uniformed armed police could be seen in droves menacingly patrolling the streets. I did witness a standoff myself between the police and the people.

The taxi that I hired to go meet the Chairman of the only company playing in Immuno-suppressants, its driver was seething with anger too.

While I am not too sure about what the mobs on the streets were demanding, but my driver’s anger was directed toward Edrogan the Prime Minster. The Islamization that Edrogan is presiding upon is not going well with the Turk of Istanbul. Yes, indeed the Turk of Istanbul is very cosmopolitan, and has a distinctively different outlook from his brethren of the hinterland. He prides in the secular tag that his Islam has, unlike the Islam in other countries that overrides both personal and public lives. That suffocates and stifles all walks of life, unless you succumb to make it your own way of life.

But this modern Turk, who till a few years ago, wanted to make history by becoming the first and only muslim ethnicity entering the European Union, feels threatened about losing the liberal muslim identity that he has do diligently built.