This was my experience and conversation with a small town factory worker in his tiny factory making those plastic bottles to hold chuna ( edible lime product ) .The conversation was insightful in more ways than one .The machine was a low-end one though thoughtfully crafted . It was nothing but a moulding machine with variously shaped moulds to cater to many end products . On the top was a cuppish slot to hold the plastic raw material and that was fed into the heating chamber with the help of a spindle . The heating chamber was nothing but a coil which was fed by the ac supply and which heated the raw material ( plastic balls) beyond their melting point .This viscous,molten plastic was then fed into a chamber where it was blown out into bottles by the help of pressurised air from a compressor .The finished product came out of a 4-legged termination point .The efficiency of the machine as stated by the worker was a mere 50% but still reaped in huge profits for his employer .

Then i asked him how they were paid . On hour basis ? Or on number of bottles made ( in that case they were dependent on the machine as they did not completely have a direct hand in the number of bottles finally turning up ).He said " bhaisaab , maalik jo hai na bada ginti ka pakka hai , 5 gm main 50 bottle nikalti hai , toh ham karib 3 kilo maal din main nikalte hain aur tab jaake prati 1000 bootle ke hisaab se 20000 bottle ke paise lete hain ( wink wink !!! ratio and proportion redifined !! wink !) , tabhi kuch bachta hai khaandaan ko khilane ko kyonki aane jaane ka bhaada bhi toh lagta hai , aur phir sahab ( whispering) hame toh is wajan waale machine pe bhi bharosa nahi ( actual weight of their output would be in the tune of 4 Kgs) hai aur na uspe , lagta hai maalik ne ise bhi golmaal kar rakha hai tabhi toh hame kabhi nahi dikhata wajan kya hai !!!! bas yehi majboori hai ki andhere mein naukri kar rahe hain kyonki aur hame kaun rakhega bina jaan pehechaan ke delhi jaise shahar mein !aur phir gaon mein kya karen , kheti bhi toh bahut mehengi pad rahi hai gentor(generator) ki bijli mein !

Now that is how the trickle down theory works in india !! with falsified calculations , dishonesty , utter disregard for the poor and bull shitty weighing machines !

Solar house: A Solar Home, can u add solar panels to your house ?

The house includes a fully integrated solar roof that is interconnected with the local utility grid. The solar electric system uses an inverter which regulates the energy produced by the solar panels on the roof making the system completely compatible with the home's local utility provider.

This solar home, replete with solar panels, harvests energy from the sun to generate electricity and heat. On sunny days, the roof collects enough sun energy to produce more electricity than the home actually requires. Since the home-owner has a net metering agreement with the local utility, the electrical meter on such days will run backward, selling energy back to the utility company. At night, the residents of this solar home consume electricity from the utility as regular consumer.

The home is also equipped with a solar thermal array that provides all of the pool heating and a good part of the domestic hot water. The family's swim season is extended by two months, as well as paying a much lower overall cost for pool heating.

As well, part of the home's space heating requirements is covered by solar thermal heating. This also reduces their monthly gas bill.

In addition to all these features, the home is constructed using passive solar design principles. These features include the use of natural daylighting, natural cooling, superior insulation and windows as well as other energy conservation techniques.

invictus-" unconquerable "

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever Gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of Circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of Chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

This is one hell of a poem by William Ernest Henley, it is my eternal guide when i am down and out in life , it inspires me to bounce back from any damn shit surrounding me . Its greatness lies in the way it tells us to take responsibilty of our own destiny .It is the same poem which Timothy McVeigh ( oklahama bomber ) recited as his final statement before death .( though in no way does he influence my admiration for it )

tamil movie: criticality

Recently i had the (mis)fortune of getting to see an old tamil movie named vaali- directed by s.j. surya ,it is a plain and simple plot of a desperado having desire pangs for his brother's beautiful wife played by the sensuous simran ( maybe inspired by " Vanilla Series - My Brother's Wife- DEBTS OF DESIRE he he !!). The brothers have been played by ajith in a double role .

Now what is it about the movie that makes me write a dedicated blog on it - it is the spoon-feeding done to the characters by the director , cmon mr. surya you cant give the characters a flat- not thought about -all made ready recipe - let them think for themselves for god sake !!!!

There are some very obvious scenes when the plot just unfolds as you would expect it to being a lay-viewer ( total lack of creativity):

• the sikh driver just comes at the right moment and hence the antagonist is informed of where the couple is put up for their long-delayed first night ( bad dude , bad !)
• the lady trips over the carpet and finds blood- signifying that her husband is in danger -just in time
• the mundane " it had to happen scene " where simran by mistake mixes sleeping pills in the protagonist's glass of milk - i was dumbstruck MR. surya
• towards the end simran realises that the guy in the house is not his husband only after she gets no replies to almost a 1000 questions ( antagonist is deaf and dumb FYI) , pathetic
• the phone receiver had to be pulled off for no 2nd call from the husband's end when there was no other way of communicating ( they literally were bearing the proverbial brunt of the telephone monopoly)
• the tranfer of the gun-holding jacket onto the actress' shoulder-that had to happen - the villain should die in the hands of the victim bhai ...though eventually both get to share the delight of killing the villain-the last nail on the coffin is struck by the husband ...

Though i just could not take the credit away from simran for deftly handling glycerine throughout the movie for scenes filled with lachrymose .....

But goddammit ! MR. SURYA the next time round please make the characters think for themselves - gift them a sense of inductive logic so that the thriller remains just that and not a mere" predicatable state of affairs " ...

till then .. chao

Exporters look for more sops :pre-budget rhetoric

I had this chat to an exporter friend of mine some days back over the omnipresent G-TALK and we were mulling over the insecurities that the exporters are facing post the rupee appreciation .(the rupee has appreciated by 15 per cent against the dollar in the past 16 months ) It has not only impacted the profit levels of export-oriented units (EOUs), but also foreign buyers who are now looking for other cheaper options, pressing a panic button in Indian industry .If the ambitious export target of $200 billion has to be achieved by the end of the next fiscal, some measures are needed to provide a cushion for the sector.Now that exporter friend of mine had to say some things which were repeated in one of the articles in a leading newspaper and i could see that the pulse of the exporters is beating at a uniform rate and they are a bunch of anxious people waiting for magic to happen in the hands of the magician - FM p. chidbrm .They cite these needs :

• concessions in taxes and duties and formation of some kind of cash reserve to tackle the present crisis, posed by stronger rupee.
• concessions for the export sector, particularly for the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and the worst-hit labour intensive sectors like textiles, handicrafts and leather.( my friend belongs to this group)
• tax incentives for the manufacturing export sector for movement up the value chain
• waiver of the Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) so that the impact of the appreciating rupee could be minimised
• extension of income-tax benefits to all exporting units
• basic customs duty exemption on capital goods imported under the Export Promotion Capital Goods (EPCG) scheme
• rebate on duty paid on exported material
• exporters want ambiguities removed while giving service tax refunds and its benefits be given to all those contributing to India’s exports
• Small manufacturers, who are either in the non-excisable sector or in the exempted category, have to bear the incidence of service tax paid during the course of exports. Exporters say levy of service tax affects competitiveness of exporting units and want that they be exempted from paying the same

AHOY! Is chidambaram anna listening , anna pananga , idi ella pananga , please saaar ....

Stop the world, I want to get off!

Let us face it, the world today is an agglomeration of events and impressions, most of which are “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” The word “most” is deliberate there, because interspersed in these inconsequentially gauche episodes are pixels of quintessential significance. Those who walk through with a perfunctory glance will miss them, but the pragmatic observer pales at their intrinsic importance.
Another year of nebulous delights has sped by. It was the purveyor of both the mundane and the magnificent. The senseless killing of hundreds of innocents went unnoticed in Iraq, in Chad, in Kenya, in Afghanistan. Superpowers gloating over obscenely fat (and mainly undeserved) pay cheques, turned a deaf ear to the pleas of the poor, the dispossessed, the starving, the dying.
While ineffectual statesmen, deified by the press, made exponential speeches in totally ersatz parables, cities burnt, and hopes crumbled. The statesmen rode back in the plush comfort of stretch limos, while the common man shook his head in untenable despair.Indiscriminate greed
It took a brave person like Gore to stand up to the established lobbies in the hallowed precincts of power. Every second some gigantic tree that took ages to reach its splendid proportions is felled. Indiscriminate greed and implausible superstitions propel the slaughter of animals to slake the demand for parts believed to rejuvenate vitality.
The blood of cobras is collected to be served to men with pouches of indulgence hanging from their jowls; sharks are caught, their fins cut off, and then tossed mercilessly back into the waters. The majestic whale is hunted and killed, so are the bear, and the rhino. The senseless killing of wildlife is equalled only by the facetious attitude towards the destruction of the environment. We are the ingenuous inheritors of this presumptuous folly.
Similar shenanigans are not missing from the other facets of life. Religion, politics and even the sacred corridors of learning are rife with corrupt practices and insensitive machinations. Impoverished citizens hide in the hills of Orissa, fearing persecution. Mosques are burnt, temples desecrated, churches destroyed, synagogues defiled. Hatred and intolerance are nurtured by lack of communication. It is ignorance that breeds insensitivity.
Caught between two worlds — “one dead, and the other powerless to be born” — is the common man. To him goes the questionable delights of this unctuous struggle. He trusts in political statements shrouded in arcane promises, but tastes the bitterness too late. His dream of democracy is cloaked in terse sobriety. He no longer recognises democracy in the travesty of the ideology that he sees around him. The mantle is borne by worthless men who have no calling, except that of unrestrained avarice.
Imprisoned in the milieu of unbridled progress is also the optimist. He counters the argument of enervating pessimism by pointing out the achievements of a Muhammad Yunus, a Jimmy Carter, an Orhan Pamuk, a Doris Lessing, a Roger Kornberg. We are mulling ideas in an age of tremendous possibilities, and it is up to us to bear with grace and dignity the responsibilities of a “brave new world.”
We need to wake up to the loss of tremulous hopes before we are engulfed by the rampage of festinate greed. Do I want to get off now? This is the only world I know, and I believe that we are capable of rising above all these to a level of refined purity. So, let me just wait and see what’s around the bend.

courtesy: CHOTY-ANNE THOMAS (Open Page)

intersexuality

what are various ways in which culture-bearing humans have interpreted and lived with this natural ambiguity? and why?

a) cultures have accommodated the ambiguity
hermaphrodite (hermes + Aphrodite)
1) hijra in India— not so much a ‘natural category’ of person, but a role that can
subsume a range of sex/gender nonconformists
including intersexuals but also what in west would call eunuchs (castrati),
homosexuals, transsexuals, transgendered persons

2) guevedoche (‘penis at 12’) Dominican Republic
= the hereditary genetic mutation that Cal has in Middlesex, which in US has no popular name and is treated as a medical condition — 5 alpha-reductase — "treatable"


We have learned from listening to individuals and families dealing with intersex that:
* Intersexuality is primarily a problem of stigma and trauma, not gender.
* Parents' distress must not be treated by surgery on the child.
* Professional mental health care is essential.
* Honest, complete disclosure is good medicine.
* All children should be assigned as boy or girl, without early surgery."