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Freedom Is A Lie

Here is a delightful article I read in the newspaper.

IT professional lands in prison for no fault of his
B.S. Ramesh

He spent seven days in lock-up and 43 days in jail

A mobile phone operator gave his IP address to Pune police

He is fighting to get compensation from company

BANGALORE: He was one among the many youth in Bangalore engaged in the software sector. His life revolved around his work at an Information Technology (IT) major, and his interest in cricket.

But Lakshman Kailash’s small world came crashing down when policemen from Pune arrested him for a crime he never committed.

Mr. Kailash was taken to Pune, where he spent seven days in lock-up and 43 days in Yerwada Jail.

A private mobile phone operator had given his IP address to Pune police following a complaint regarding a “derogatory blog” on Maratha king Chhatrapathi Shivaji, on Orkut.

The real offenders have now been caught, and Mr. Kailash has been released from prison.

His employers, who stood by him through his ordeal, have relocated him to Chennai.

He intends to carry on his fight to get compensation from the private mobile phone operator.

“It is their communication which led to my arrest and the 50 days of incarceration,” he says.

During a chat with The Hindu on the High Court of Karnataka premises on Saturday, Mr. Kailash relived his “dark” days in jail.

He had come there to consult his lawyer for initiating action against the mobile phone operator. Mr. Kailash said that on August 30 last, he had gone to sleep after watching a cricket match, in which India was playing, till 3 a.m. Five hours later, he was woken up by eight policemen from Pune, at his residence on Airport Road.

Even before Mr. Kailash could gather his wits and ask them what wrong he had done, the police began firing questions at him and “searched” his computer.

He was told that they had received a communication from the Bangalore office of the mobile phone firm saying that the “derogatory text” on Orkut against Chhatrapathi Shivaji had come from his IP address.

Unable to comprehend what the police were talking about, he contacted his brother who stayed near Hebbal.

But the police refused to believe that he was innocent. They took him to the airport police station, and then to Pune by road.

Mr. Kailash said that he had reached Pune on September 1, and had to spend seven days in “filthy” lock-ups at two police stations there.

The bail application he filed on the eighth day of his stay there was rejected by a magistrate, and he was sent to Yerwada Jail. With bed bugs for company, sound sleep was out of the question in the jail, and it was difficult to have jail food, he said.

With 200 undertrial prisoners packed in one of the wards, Mr. Kailash said that they had to sleep with hands on their chest.

He said he had refrained from telling the inmates the reason for being jailed.

The Pune police had told him that he would land in trouble if he told others that he had made “derogatory” references to Chhatrapathi Shivaji.

Jail life was a nightmare that Mr. Kailash still cannot forget. What is more annoying is the fact that he is not even remotely connected to the “crime” for which he was picked up.

Life in a high-security jail with hardened criminals was never easy, he said. The “blog” on Orkut seems to have changed Mr. Kailash’s life forever. He says that his family and friends have been helpful and encouraged him to start life anew.

He is determined to see that others do not suffer the fate he has.

He wants to ensure that adequate safeguards are put in place so that nobody is punished for a crime he has not committed.

Now what is wrong with badmouthing Shivaji? Making ‘derogatory references to Shivaji’ is not illegal in any way. Every citizen is entitled to Freedom of Speech and Expression (which is a Fundamental Right - Article 19, Indian Constitution). What happened to this freedom?

India claims to be a tolerant country but we all know that this is completely untrue. Everything is taboo and everything is subject to moral judgement by a small group of narrow minded people who deserved a slow painful death. Intolerance is the way of life here and everything is controlled by politicians/thugs, religious fanatics and the rich. Don’t think you are safe. If this can happen to some random IT professional it can just as easily happen to you.

Welcome to India, where freedom is a lie.

Who Defines Indian Culture?

What is Indian culture? Who defines it?

What gives you the moral authority to say what other people should do? Were you granted some sort of special knowledge by a supernatural entity? Are you somehow better than other people?

You are enforcing your idea of India upon other people. People will do what the hell they want. They have every right to. Who are you to tell them what to do?

If it is your own personal opinion of things that you are talking about, then you should mention that it is what you would prefer and not what has to be done as a general rule.

Your so called culture conflicts with that of most developed countries. And you still think you are right?

As a parting shot, have you heard of the temples at Khajuraho? You probably haven’t, because the so-called guardians of our culture would prefer that you not know about it.

A Definition of Indian Culture

‘Indian culture’ is a set of beliefs, rules and practices that are invented and enforced by:

• those who have the power (through thugs, fanatics, police) to do so
• those who can make enough noise about it

I constructed this definition a few days ago and I’m looking to word it better so help me out.

People who disagree with the definition are also welcome to comment with their objections provided they don’t mention the words ‘unity’ and ‘diversity’ anywhere.

It’s Called Firefox

Indians, as a general rule, are noobs*. This isn’t wholly their fault, of course. Living in a under-developed country with poor penetration of technology and Internet is the main reason.

However, some of the things they do are simply inexplicable. An example of this is referring to all portable music players as iPods as we discussed earlier in some blog. One of the most annoying things they do is refer to the Firefox browser as ‘Mozilla’.

“Dei, Mozilla installed a?”
“I have Mozilla da.”
“Mozilla is good da. Marc told me.”

Many of my classmates are guilty of this. How did they reason that Mozilla was the name of the browser instead of Firefox? By their logic they should refer to the only word processor they know as Microsoft, which would also be the name of their operating system.

The only explanation is that they came across an unfamiliar word/name and assumed it was the name of the browser. Since they don’t know what forums are, or look at any kind of technology-related websites or know any pro^ friends there is no source of information to set them straight.

*A person with a very poor understanding of the Internet and/or computers.
^ A person who is knowledgeable in things a noob is not.

Rachel always posts paragraphs of disclaimers after a post that might invite heated comments. I’ll say this:
Are you offended by this post? Haha, sucks to be you.
Are you not offended? I’ll try to do better next post.

We Do Not Use Insects As Currency

Money is referred to as BUCKS, not BUGS.

If you are going to use a new word, why don’t you look it up and make sure how it is spelt/pronounced? You would avoid making a total fool of yourself when someone points out your mistake. You have the Internet and dictionaries and Wikis galore. Look stuff up and read instead of looking only at the pretty pictures. (Half your computer problems would be solved if you’d just read and understand what’s on the damn screen.)

The Large Hadron Collider Will Be The End of Everything!

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is a particle accelerator and hadron collider located at CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland. Currently under construction, the LHC is scheduled to begin operation in May 2008. The LHC is expected to become the world’s largest and highest-energy particle accelerator.

This device is worse than any thermonuclear bomb. It has the potential to create a tear in the fabric of space-time and destroy our entire Universe. This is how it looks like. Does this look safe to you? I don’t think so.

Act now and save the Universe! Please sign this petition to stop CERN from activating the LHC. They are trying to confuse us with some science mumbo jumbo but don’t be fooled by all that.

Pwned By Pbama

Barrack Obama
“As commander in chief, I will always reserve the right to make sure that we are looking out for American interests. And if Al Qaeda is forming a base in Iraq, then we will have to act in a way that secures the American homeland and our interests abroad.”

John McCain
“I have some news: Al Qaeda is in Iraq. . . . It’s called Al Qaeda in Iraq. If we left . . . they wouldn’t be establishing a base. They’d be taking a country, and I’m not going to allow that to happen, my friends.”

Barrack Obama
“I have some news for John McCain. There was no such thing as Al Qaeda in Iraq until George Bush and John McCain decided to invade Iraq.”

ZOMG PWNED!

I would like to take full credit for yet another brilliant post title. If you don’t think it is brilliant, you don’t understand it.

Hillary Pwnage

I dislike Hillary just because she isn’t as awesome as Obama. Plus I also feel that no husband and wife should ever be Presidents. It’s just not right.

In the U.S. in spite of all its problems, you can still say whatever you want. In India, a sign like that would get your shop burnt down by an angry mob and put you in the hospital. So much for democracy.

I Say It Is Too Early

I went to my old friend’s wedding reception today at West Mambalam. Aishwarya was a classmate in PSBB some 11 years ago. It was a grand and crazy affair. Met up with other old friends from PSBB (Mouli, Anandan and Rajesh).

Another classmate of mine was married last month and yet another will be in a few more months. I don’t particular like this trend of marrying off girls this young. What about their own lives and careers? Wouldn’t they want to do something with their lives? Now don’t say they will have careers after marriage. Our ‘culture’ will expect them to do the duties of a housewife also and eventually the strain will make them give up their jobs.

The Common Enemy

It is nice to have a common enemy, isn’t it?

Microsoft, politicians, auto drivers, Anna University…

Scientology is the new enemy and people are fighting back. See this post to see how the protests at London went. Read the whole article.

I would have loved to be there. India remains blissfully unaware of Scientology, Internet memes and culture as is usual.