Una verdad simulada

In his opinion piece titled “Why Bush Will be a Winner,” Bill Kristol writes:

Let’s step back from the unnecessary mistakes and the self-inflicted wounds that have characterized the Bush administration. Let’s look at the broad forest rather than the often unlovely trees. What do we see? First, no second terrorist attack on U.S. soil — not something we could have taken for granted. Second, a strong economy — also something that wasn’t inevitable.

And third, and most important, a war in Iraq that has been very difficult, but where — despite some confusion engendered by an almost meaningless “benchmark” report last week — we now seem to be on course to a successful outcome.

And no, this is not an Onion piece, it appears in Washington Post. Seriously Bill, what have you been smoking? Not surprizingly, there are 249 pages of comments as of now, and most of them aren’t favorable, to say the least.

Why does a right-wing pundit get a free pass to speak things without an iota of truth? All reports point to how disastrously the Bush administration has handled the war on terror^TM; but all that does not matter: the war is going well because I say so. How consistently and seriously wrong a right-wing political pundit has to be before we sees him/her fit for an insitution for the mentally challenged?

Tags: General by Niket
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A few days back, I got residential quarters assigned within the campus. I was extatic to learn that I was assigned quarters next door to Arunn Narasimhan, in apartment D1-56. However, my happiness was short-lived, as Lakshmi informs us that she and Arunn have moved to a larger and better place. Well, such is life!

My quarters still need some renovation in the kitchen, toilet and bathroom. The junior engineer has promised me that the work will be done by Wednesday. As of now, the work hasn’t even started. I am hoping that I get to move and settle in at least before the semester starts.

 Its times like these that I feel knowing Tamil would have helped. In any case, the fun of being at a new place is in part to learn a new language and get to understand parts of the new culture; that I intend to do in the due course of time.

Tags: General by Niket
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The autorickshaws in Chennai do not charge based on the fare meter. Instead, one negotiates the fare while boarding. So, if one knows the region and how far is the destination, s/he can negotiate a fair price. If not, you get charged two times what the actual fare ought to be.

For example, the distance between IIT gate to Adyar signal is approximately 2 kilometers. The fare for this distance should be between Rs. 14 to Rs. 20. However, I have never seen any of my friends negotiate it for anything less than Rs. 20. At the same time, when I hail the auto, the drivers invariably ask for Rs. 30, and complain a lot even to bring down the fare to Rs. 25. Since I know that I should not be paying more than Rs. 20, I don’t take the auto unless the driver agrees to this price.

I guess if someone ends up paying Rs. 30 for that distance, you could consider the additional Rs. 10 as an “information tax”… an excess amount you need to pay because of insufficient information you have to negotiate a fair price. Likewise, hailing an auto in front of a five star hotel would cost Rs. 20 more than if you hail the same auto from half a block further. This excess charge is simply because an average customer exiting from the hotel has both the capacity to pay more and a disinclination towards haggling too much.

I prefer the Bombay system of paying by the meter, but cannot grudge too much if the auto driver in Chennai is able to wrest a few extra bucks from me.

Tags: General by Niket
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• That when you answer the phone, the correct salutation is not “hello” but “tell me.” No, I am not talking about Tamil salutation, that is literally the English salutation.
• That you have to exchange sweat with the person in front of you in a queue, else it will be assumed that you are not standing in the queue but waiting to decide on your order.
• That in any queue, there will be an amma standing in front of you who will refuse to move even if the queue moves. But she will perfectly remember the gentleman who came just before her. Meanwhile, due to the rule above, additional individuals will join the queue in front of her. So, when the gentleman just before her is done, it will be her turn. With her gone, you are suddenly sixteenth in the queue, although you were sixth half an hour ago.
• That its OK to start a riot if curds (or curd rice) is not available during a meals. For everything else, “sarr, please adjust.”
• That its never a meal, its always “meals,” even “one meals.” Likewise, its always “curds.”
• That “reserved for women” will always be written in Tamil and you will only be told that you are occupying a reserved seat in Tamil. However, as soon as all the unreserved seats are taken, people will suddenly develop English-speaking skills and you will be informed that the seat you are occupying is reserved. BTW, availability of alternate reserved seat (or lack thereof) is not a criterion for this new-found English speaking ability; the only requirement is unavailability of alternate seating for you.
• That when you share an autorickshaw with strangers, you pay the full fare while your co-riders will pay only their share (eg., for a Rs. 60 ride with two strangers, you pay Rs. 60, the others pay Rs. 20 apiece).

(Please note the category of this post before your Tamizh pride gets hurt.)

Tags: General by Niket
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This is a trial post written at 3 pm on 11th July.

- Niket

Tags: General by Niket
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