A Story, That Couldn't End Wrong

I was reading a story, well a novel. And as all novels have to go, it suddenly got tough for the hero. Real TOUGH. He was going to die! But of course, he couldn't, I had covered only half the book! Well some novels have their hero dying, but, it has to happen only in the end. Its all about the hero, right?

So there I found myself quite gripped by the turn of events but telling myself that hero was going to live after all. And he did. It was a story, yes, just a story, which couldn't end wrong. Which takes me to another story.

I've been kicking around for twenty two years in this world. Ain't much, I know. But I've seen a couple of stories. Stories from close quarters. Maybe you can say I even played a guest role in them. Stories. Stories, which couldn't end wrong. It got bad. It got worse. Sometimes there seemed to be absolutely no way out. Given the chance, I'd still change the plot sometimes. But, well, they were stories. Real. Lives. Which. Couldn't. Go. Wrong.

The story of my grandmother who I never met, you could say, ended. And ended wrong. A woman dying leaving four children with nothing is a wrong ending after all. What else can it be? But, well, after 39 years, I'm having some doubts. If you think I still believe it ended wrong, I've got a clue for you. No! It could have ended better, but I can't say it ended wrong.

With Jesus as the hero of your story, your own story, the story of your life, your very own story, you have a story, a story which simply can't end wrong. 

India's Corruption - Make Transactions Transparent

We the people have at last risen against corruption. People are fasting, marching, and at the very least blogging and tweeting about the whole stuff.

So let me do my part, I read a very very interesting article about how Slovenia is tackling it. They have created a website Supervizer, where the expenditure of the govt. to contractors can be seen by anyone with Internet access.

So why can't we do the same? The govt should just keep track of all expenditures online and making it search-able should not be a big deal at all. If they can create the UID, to keep track of us - the people, why shouldn't they take a far smaller effort to make ALL expenditures and incomes available online.

We should be able to know to which private contractors/companies the central and state govs. are giving projects, etc. even to whom the govt is donating money, or land, or housing.

By the way all political parties must be thoroughly audited and make it online too. Where do they get the funds for all these newspaper ads, tv ads? How are they able to spend so much and organise rallies? Make it available online, We should be able to see it.

If small Slovenia can, India with Infosys, TCS etc. should definitely be able to do it. The question can we make them do it?

Friends forward this, I sincerely hope this reaches Team Anna!!!

PS: For more details about Slovenia - http://www.funkykaraoke.com/2011/08/transparency.html

Django in the appengine

I am planning to blog a walk-through in creating and hosting a django based app in the google appengine.

Before I start rambling on my own, let me give you a couple of links which got me going.

• http://www.djangobook.com/ - if you are new to django start here. It is *the* place to start.
• http://diveintopython.org/ - wait a second, do you know python? if not start here ;)
• http://www.allbuttonspressed.com/projects/djangoappengine - if you know python and django, this is the place to go
• http://code.google.com/appengine/articles/django-nonrel.html - the official article

If you are unable to make much sense of the third and fourth links, come back here! I'm going to keep this damn simple.

Lets do the doing!!!

Doing vs learning and reading

Do.

Stop reading, learning and planning.

Its not that those steps are entirely useless. They have *some* value. But, they all exist only to enable one to *do*, to *execute*.

I had been planning to do something for some time - I read, learned, and what not. But, nothing really helped when i actually did. I found out that I learned whatever i needed as I did the doing. And as the old saying goes, planning is essential, but, plans are useless.

So stop reading this - go and do!

Blog Revived

I am going to start blogging actively again, expect a bit of Django, firefox, linux, psychology (that i noticed in the past year while working)...

God So Loved the World that He Gave (Part 4) | Danielkolenda.com

God So Loved the World that He Gave (Part 4) | Danielkolenda.com

Lies about Christian Conversion in India

There are many lies about Christians' converting others, but, nothing is as famous or widely believed than this lie - "Christians convert poor people people by giving them freebies". This argument was used widely during the Orissa and Karnataka riots.

People conveniently ignore the fact, that when people of SC, ST ie people who have special benefits of reservation in jobs/education, food subsidies, free education lose all these when they become Christians. THEY LOSE when they become Christians. So, how can a Christian missionary convert them giving temporary freebies.

Many people deny this. So I am giving the link to an interesting argument (but quite unrelated, anyway they bring this up) I found in wikipedia here.

I am reproducing a few excerpts from that exchange for people who are lazy to read the whole stuff,
* "As to your question about John Mulagadda, he is an Indian Christian with Dalit heritage but he himself is no longer Dalit or SC as per the constitution of India."

* "As a standard in history, crypto believers of any faith were never counted as members of that particular faith. They always had to choose or pay a price for openly professing their faith. In olden days it was martyrdom, in the current scenario it is relinquishing reservation benefits. To be called a Christian in India, one has to relinquish his Dalit or SC status. There are umpteen numbers of Christians with Dalit Heritage who have done that (like Bishop John Mulagadda) and they are numbered amongst the 24 million Indian Christians. The issue of Dalit Christianity affects Christianity in India but it is not an integral part of Christianity in India as of yet.
- BunyanTree (some wikipedia contributor)

If you don't agree clearly explain in your comments.