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The birthday boy had an awesome day today, doing exactly* what he wanted.

*conditions apply

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Intellectuals. Wrecking the best laid plans of benevolent dictators since the times of Qin Shi Huang.

Data and facts. Worldwide, facts are the bane of criminals masquerading as strong leaders, who helm authoritarian regimes steeped in corruption.

In Washington D.C. till Saturday evening with the kids. Any friends around who'd like to catch up?

Will hopefully be in NYC Monday.

America, you need to turn off more lights at night. Kavin is very upset with you. Some of that electricity still comes from dumping CO2 in the air. He's asleep now, but when he wakes up in the morning there'll be hell to pay. A store with no one in it doesn't need its lights on.

I needed some probiotic tablets. The ones for kids were on discount at Walgreens - chewable chocolate bears. Now I'm sucking at one because I don't wanna kill some of the 5 billion bacteria in it as they go into me.

Piyush Manush, we are with you. You didn't break any law. You are only standing up for what is wrong. Morally wrong. Legally wrong. Ethically wrong.

Thank you for fighting the righteous fight.

Innovation happens in the Indian Government despite huge hurdles.

This app was developed by a team that does not have product managers, project managers, a UI/UX team, testers, build managers, a DevOps team, or even a proper requirement specifications document. It just has software engineers and managers in the team. At the Railways, a software engineer is a Swiss army knife who does everything from documentation to development to testing.

And now they are handling customer support also.

Embedded within the various comment threads are responses by engineers I've known for over a dozen years. Good dedicated individuals who learn things on the job. No, Railways does not believe in giving professional training to its employees. Heck, they don't even reimburse travel properly when sending employees on official travel.

It is heartening to see people who you've known for a long time, working as entrepreneurs - building new products on new technologies, end to end. Hustling is the word used in startup speak. At the same time, it is very disappointing. A run-of-the-mill delivery app with less than a thousand active users has 10x the skills and resources available to it than people who build sarkari technology that is used by millions. If the government were to outsource this work, it would spend crores of rupees on it. Yet, when it does this work itself, it can't even be bothered to hire proper customer support. In fact, even when the Ministry replies itself, I know very well who exactly it will call up within the engineering team to actually give the answers.

The railways is promoting this app in a big way. On stations across the country, kiosks are being put up and passengers accosted to install the app. But behind the scenes, I am sure that not a single new hire would have been made. Not even for tech support.

Experience + experiences + education + empathy > things

In my twelve years of working with the Indian Railways (as a vendor), this is the one anecdote that consistently surprises people:

The Railways regularly loses rolling stock. Lots of it. All the time. All over the place. There is no proper system of inventory of rakes and coaches. The railways has no idea where all its bogies are at a given point in timr. Stock taking rarely happens, if ever.

So there is nothing to see here. Its made it to the news only because the bogies were new and fancy.

Hurray. My batchmates at work, helping the environment.

क्योंकि सास भी कभी बहू थी

इसलिए विपक्ष को सत्ता धारी पक्षी पर तंग कसने कि कोई आवश्यकता नहीं। यह शुभ कार्य स्वयं सत्ताधारियों ने बखूबी सम्पन्न किया हुआ है।

Awww

मेरा जीवन

A 2.37% YoY growth in pass percentage is impressive. Especially when the board is central and the state has no say in tweaking the cut off marks.

Indeed a party that continue to deliver on its promises despite all odds.

This is the basic governance that all citizens deserve to receive - education, health, safety. These build the very foundation from which spouts all the other achievements of society - economic growth, science, technology and research, excellence in sports, etc.

If we invest in good education now, tomorrow these children will bring us the GDP growth we so desire. And what tomorrow? These are school leaving exams. Most of these children will end up in the workforce, not in college. These results will reflect in a better workforce in Delhi immediately.

This ad is so fantastically terrible. And the product idea isn't even half bad.

On skills and vocational training

The second half of the article seems almost surreal in its choice of word. Perhaps since I spent a recent evening watching https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ek_Ghar

There is rage in TN against the police.

Policemen were attacked by the public.

This is something that the TN government needs to look into. The cops in TN are detested, because of their bad attitude and corruption.

I remember driving into TN from KA once. We crossed the border near Mudumalai. Immediately a policeman stopped me. Inspected the entire vehicle. Found nothing. All papers in order. He still wouldn't let me go. But what I have faced is nothing compared to what others have faced.

The Tamil Nadu police brings shame to the entire state, because of the way they treat its citizens.

Our forces. So brave. Much pride.

Oh no! What battle has the @[100044199231121:2048:Aam Aadmi Party] picked now?

We can fight the BJP. We can defeat corruption. Modi can lose the PM seat. And the LG can be made to see reason. All this is possible. But eleminating the godforsaken prosopis juliflora is nigh impossible.

But if my friend @[100002104093966:2048:Arvind Kejriwal] does indeed defeat the vilayati kikar, he will surely become the undisputed sikandar of modern India.

Faye putting it like it is.

Making up completely random shit is apparently a move that all sides can play with elan.

I especially like the footnote, "Don't think just share".

Thinking individuals. The bane of democracies (and autocracies) everywhere.

https://www.altnews.in/no-white-house-has-not-declared-manmohan-singh-as-the-most-honest-political-leader/

This is so shameful. Venezuela is in deep crisis and we couldn't send one observer from our entire country? Because of elections in one state? This is our commitment towards democracy and the problems of others?

Confucius says, if you keep toddler in sweater all time, he grow up to always be cold.

Meet my darling boy, Kavin

सारे के सारे मिल कर चढ़ गए बेचारे गार्ड पर वह भी क्या जवाब देगा? LG तो अंदर छिपकर बैठा है।

आजो सारे। इस बार तो लगता है Sarit और Neetika के घर पर है। Double मज़ा।

I believe this is the first time I heard Ankit. Bindhu had invited me to her performance at the reinauguration of Chaunsath Khamba. The venue had undergone restoration, paid for by the Aga Khan foundation.

I just discovered that I have followers on Facebook!

@[100000368711220:2048:Ram Singh], who is something of a personal hero of mine, follows me.

Why would you guys follow me? Just send me friend requests. At least give me the pleasure of rejecting your friend request before you end up on my followers list 😀

@[100000368711220:2048:Ram Singh] भाई friend request भेजी है, accept कर लेना।

A marvellous person has departed the world. @[1005490575:2048:Ankit Chadha] was a phenomenal artist. But more than that, he was a wonderful human being.

It is only when you are truly, genuinely good at heart, can you produce the beautiful body of work that Ankit was able to produce in such a short time.

I have only known @[1005490575:2048:Ankit] for less than two years. I first met him at his performance of Khusrau Ke Rang at the Stein auditorium. And then I would see him again and again, every time at a performance more brilliant than the one before. More throughly researched. And even more relevant to the turbulent times we live in.

When a person is an artist, there legacy lives on in their art. You can continue to experience the person through their art. But how do you experience the goodness, the richness of soul that Ankit was. The world has lost some amount of its goodness with him passing.

I... I don't now what I am talking. I am so sad. If you missed experiencing his work in his lifetime, you can know more about him at https://www.ankitchadha.in/ and see some of his work here https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ankit+chadha

Did I tell you guys about this old tablet that I repurposed to be a wall display. For realz.

For years after beginning to drive a car, I was petrified of running over small children or animals that I could not spot. You could call it a phobia. I'd driven motorbikes for many years before moving to a car, and they never gave me this fear - visibility from a bike is awesome. But backing up a car is a crazy risk. I am surprised that proximity sensors and reverse cameras haven't been made mandatory by law in all countries yet.

I especially like the tagline: It's probably just me. If driving were as dangerous as it seems, hundreds of people would be dying every day!

The robots. They have arrived. And they are so awesome. Benevolent robotic overlords... err assistants. So coooool. I'm gushing.

Storm's cleared up the air. Get out and play Gurgaon.

Or, you know, just scramble to work.

#401Reasons Andaz Delhi

Shalini Makhija Venugopal teaching me photography.

#401Reasons Andaz Delhi

झलक

यह दीवारें वाकई कुछ के‍हती है

#401Reasons Andaz Delhi

एक बंगला बने न्यारा

#401Reasons Andaz Delhi

बहुत कुछ है देखने और सराहने को यहाँ। मग़र हमारा वक़्त हो चला ख़तम।

#401Reasons Andaz Delhi

मछली जल की रानी है

#401Reasons Andaz Delhi

#401Reasons Andaz Delhi

कूटer

#401Reasons Andaz Delhi

मेरा जूता है...

#401Reasons Andaz Delhi

उड़ान

#401Reasons Andaz Delhi

बहुत मुश्किल है इस मूर्ती को तस्वीरों में उतार पाना

#401Reasons Andaz Delhi

#401Reasons Andaz Delhi

क्या तुम्हारी परछाईं भी गाढ़ी हो चली है?

#401Reasons Andaz Delhi

प्यारा सा बोझ

#401Reasons Andaz Delhi

This frame seeks a muse

#401Reasons Andaz Delhi

चाबी

#401Reasons Andaz Delhi

रंगत

#401Reasons Andaz Delhi

A familiar face

#401Reasons Andaz Delhi

दरख़्त

#401Reasons Andaz Delhi

थाल से थाल मिला

#401reasons Andaz Delhi

नया पुराना

#401Reasons Andaz Delhi

Photo uncle says good morning

#401Reasons Andaz Delhi

Me: Do you know what's living on our compost bin now?

Nilay: What?

Me: Lizards. Do you know why?

Nilay: Oh, they're eating the worms and little buggies that eat the garbage. Ohhhhhh (loudly). We've made an ecosystem.

Me: Yep

Kavin: What's an ecosystem?

Nilay: You're in grade 4 now. You'll learn this year.

Kavin: What eats lizards? Eagles. Next we'll have eagles.

Me: Those, I can't deal with.

Kavin: What next? Dinosaurs!