WHAT HAVE WE DONE...?

This is one of our favourite songs...

It shows the true of mess we have created on this planet...

In this farewell, There is no blood

There is no alibi

Cause I've drawn regret

From the truth

Of a thousands lies

So let mercy come and wash away

Put to rest, What you thought of me

Well, I clean this slate

With the hands, Of uncertainty

So let mercy come, And Wash away

What I've Done

I'll face myself

Tto cross what I've become

Erase myself

And let go of what I've done

For what I've done

I start again

And whatever pain may come

Today this ends

I'm forgiving what I've done

I'll face myself

To cross out what I've become

Erase myself

And let go of what I've done

(Na,Na,Na)

What I've Done

What I've Done

Forgetting what I've done

Upfront on The Voice Of America: Youth and Elections in Africa-Their role and impact

Upfront on The Voice Of America: Youth and Elections in Africa-Their role and impact

This is a very interesting read about the political situation in Africa: the problems and the possible solutions. Both elements have been discussed with a certain sense of simplicity which i liked a lot. Hope you like it too.

DON'T GO SPEED RACER DON'T GO!!!

"vroommmmmmmmmm...(gear shift)...vroommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...(gear shift)...vroommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..."

Well that is the sound coming out of a 6 year old's room when he is playing "car racing". He is  imagining that he is racing in this amazingly powerful car (which most likely is his bed), and he is winning a very important race of some sort. Nothing else is more important at that time.It takes a little bit of yelling scolding and shouting from his mother for him to have his lunch. He is that engrossed in his game. 

Little does he know that this little game of his, summarises the story of his life. For, through out his life he will be in a race of some sort, where he will want to come first no matter what the cost. And nothing whatsoever will make him leave any of those races.

And this is true for almost anyone. Right from the school going days. Be it winning the imaginary race or coming first in class. In college it is all about looking the coolest, dating the pretiest girl and getting the highest paying job. In the job its about promotions and raises. The races keep changing but the idea is the same to win it!! No matter what the cost.

People are so very obsesed with winning at every step of their life that they forget about the people they love, themselves and if I may say so their surrounings. Everything in life takes a back seat. People forget that winning is not as important as some other things. Sometimes people should take a break from being hard core machines and enjoy their human nature a little bit. Its not a bad idea to take a break and let the other person win sometimes. Its important to look into other things in life. The most important amongst all those things happens to be health. It may not bether your thick skin to be running with poor health. But be rest assured that it will effect the people around you, the people who love you. And probably, it will effect them far worse as they will feel a sence of helplessness. 

Then comes your family and friends i guess. We work hard and make a lot of money for them. But what is the point of all that money if we cannot enjoy some quality time with them. Personally i rather not earn all that money. I rather become a teacher or a preacher and enjoy my life to the fullest. Hard work is important, but enjoying the fruits of that hard work with your family and  friends is probably more important. In this fast world of information technology many fail to see this. But at the same point of time, i am glad to say that quite a few people, institutions and organizations which i have come across have acknowledged this and are working towards it.

Then lastly and importantly comes the environment or surroundings in which we lead our life. Yes, I am talking about ones locality, city, nation. Whatever you call it. Its important that we pay special attention to this aspect. For, we miss it always. Your health and wealth and wealth are directly related to it, especially your money (if that is an attention grabber). If our locality clean and hygenic our health will be fine. If the locality is not over priced then you will have lesser holes in your pocket. These things may sound silly, but they are true. People argue that, such is an utopian world. So what? If each of us can just pay a little bit of attention to the problems of our surroudings then i am confident that we could get very,very close to such an utopian world. THE SUM OF THE PARTS IS GREATER THAN THE WHOLE. And that is the trick we have to understand. OFcourse, problems would still exist. After all, if all the problems end in this world then we will get bored won't we. But the idea is to reduce them to an almost zero. Anything beyond I guess is not practically possible. 

It takes, for our mother to shout at us for us to have lunch when we were 6 years old. Lets not wait till that long, now that we have grown up...(if you get what i mean)...lets go and have our lunch.

"vrooooooom vroooommmm ehnnnnnnnnn(brakes)" 

ARE WE INVOLVED?

"OH NO!!! NOT ANOTHER POWER CUT!!!"

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"How can you drive on these roads???"

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"When are we going to get a proper water supply?!?" 

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"What is this Government up to???"

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And so continues the cribbing, blaming and cursing...

Ever since i was kid, all i have heard is strong criticism, of the kind of governance we have had in this country. I have heard of the problems that governments have failed to solve over the years. I have read the same problems of poverty and hunger in civics and economics textbooks over the years. But never, have I heard or read of solutions!! Yes, the odd schemes for social and economic upliftment of the masses do pop up every now and then. But never have i heard of any real solution that could solve the problem  for good. It has always been talk, nothing else. I have seen no one taking up steps to solve the these problems. Or even asking for the problems to be solved.

I ask you , so many of us have issues with the horrible condition of roads. How many of us have actually registered complains about it at the municipal corporations of our respective cities. We crib about the power cuts we face almost every day. But how many of us turn off the fans and lights of a room before leaving it. We blame the authorities for not providing us with water. How many of us have tried taking the practice water harvesting beyond our geography text books?

This is a country of a 100 million. Even if 1% of that number was to voice its opinion about the abysmal condition of the roads at the right places, then it could make all the difference. If only 1% of that number could try and conserve water and electricity, then power cuts and water shortage could reduce. But if all that were to happen then this would be a different country to live in, wouldn't it? Whether we like it or not, we have gone indifferent to all the problems of our surroundings. We have adapted ourselves to live in that kind of rubbish, but we are not willing to come out of it. Why?? Because we have gone LAZY!!! 

We don't want to take the trouble of making things better for us..."why that would involve work!!!"

And the most convenient excuse we have is, that the GOVT ISN'T DOING ANYTHING. But then again why are we blaming the government? after all we were ones who put it in power to fix our problems in the 1st place, weren't we?

Wait...what is this i hear:

You didn't want that party in power?? 

Then how did it come in power?

Oh wait...i hear something else:

All parties are the same? They are full of fake promises? 

And yet you let them come to power?

Hold on this is something new:

Our country doesn't have able leaders? 

Then why are we not looking for better leaders?

You know all this is possible only if we VOTE. And that again is the problem. We are LAZY!!! Just like everything else, we will adjust to poor governance but we will not try and improve it as it will involve more work.

Until and unless we wake up as a country of individuals who take our problems seriously there is very little any technology, law, social scheme or economic reform can do for our betterment. Any form of improvement has to start from us, from the people. The road may seem long and tiring at first but i assure you, the destination would be worth the effort.

"PER ASPERA AD ASTRA"

"Through difficulties to the stars"

The Importance of Elections

The first motivation for us to come up with something like MOV was the Imagine Cup '09. The real theme of the Imagine Cup this year is "Solve the toughest Problems of the World". We have spent countless nights, debating whether MOV can be one of the solutions to the toughest problems of the world, like poverty, education, health, environmental sustainabiltiy,etc. I have always dwelled on this ever since we finalised the whole concept for the Imagine Cup. all this changed a few days back. The motivation is no longer Imagine Cup. The debate has reached a conclusion. An the doubts have melted away.

I was in a CT scan center the other day. I found a baby there which had undergone a brain surgery. I was shocked!! Ever since that day I know for a fact that MOV is not one of the answers but THE answer to the toughest problems of the world.

I was shocked to realize that such an inocent little thing would have to go through a brain surgery. Such realities of life dont strike us when we read about them in the newspapers. What really set me thinking, was the fate of all the unfourtunate children in the world who dont get 2 square meals a day and may be in need of such medical care and support. What about them?? How can we help them? How can we care for them? How do we know that a kid is even suffering from a disease? How do we get to them? I thought of a number of resources and instituions that could be put to good use to reach out to the unfortunate ones in this world. But all of them seemed inadequate compared to the uphill task in front us. That is when I realised the one orgnization, institution, formation, framework or whatever you call it, that can not only achieve the goal I am talking about here but a pelothra of other goals towards the betterment of this world: THE GOVERNMENT of any country.

The Government of a country alone has the capacity to solve all the problems of a country comprehensively. A government alone has access to all the resources of a country. It alone has an overall picture of the problems of the country. It alone can be the best judge of where the country is, where it can head in the time to come and how it can move towards progress rather than distress.

This is why it becomes even more imortant for the Government in power to be composed of responsible induviduals who are willing to put their country before themselves. Every country has such individuals. So I will trash all those remarks which claim that such a thing exists only in never-never-land. The challenge is to find such people. People who are ready to lead their own country.

And thats where something like MOV comes into picture. The concept with its simple and efficient method of voting makes it simple for the public of a country to take interset in elections and the counrty in general. With the likes of MOV better governments will from. People will take a lot more intrest in the development of their country which these days is not a less thought of thing but a "never" thought of thing. That is important. Once that happens in any country, then that country will fast track towards prosperity.

Its time we realised this and MOVed from the shackles of darkness towards that alluring light.

Vijay Krishna
The Tripod

A Discussion with a Senior

This is a chat(on gtalk) we had with one of our seniors in college, on MOV. He is Shiv Anand Thakur a passout from AIT,Pune, Computer Engg. and is currently working in Infosys. This is what we discussed about MOV...

me: wat do u think??

Shiv: its cool...the idea

me: thnx

Shiv: bt then the poor voterturn out is the biggest problem the world is facing??

u'll be able to defend this??

me: ya...wat u hav to realise is that the middle class virtually absent from the voting scene and they are the ones with the education to take balanced decisions

if we can somehow involve them...then we can get better results on anyday of the week and twice on sunday

Shiv: agreed.......bt then aren't they matured enuf to think over this...

if the whole educaion that they have is not able to take them to the polling booth...

me: well thats y we are takin the polling booth to them

Shiv: there must be something fundamentally wrong with the system itself

ain't it?

me: no

not really

ppl are too engrosed in just one aspect of the system

so they are really not even thnking about the other aspect

Shiv: hmm...

me: with the pressure of doing well, everything in life takes a back seat

Shiv: security aspect n fake voting......system hacks...basically prepare the security scenario well

coz it is vulnerable to misuse

me: it is...but the server can be made hack proof

i think it can

voter id can be worked on

Shiv: bots can be programmed by some candidate to increase the hit count

me: all these are excuses

if we can take care of those two things then the hacker will have to change the votes of individual voters

something that is difficult to pull off in large numbers

and thus difficult to effect results effect results.

Shiv: u've to be prepared

me: ya thats why we are reviewing the system everyday

wat do u think??

Shiv: it is nice...its different...n if u can defend it, it stands a really good chance

me: thnx!!

OTHER WAYS OF INCREASING VOTER TURNOUT??

Firslty I would like to thank all those who have joined this blog as CONTRIBUTERS and all those who have given their invaluable thoughts on MOV. Thank You all and keep those ideas and opinions comming. We are dying to know whats going on, in your mind.

Now it has been some time since the 1st post and we have decided to move to the next point that we had in our mind:

"HOW CAN WE INCREASE THE VOTER TURNOUT IN THE ELECTIONS??"

The thing is that we want to know what you think can be a possible answer to the above question apart from the one we have provided ie MOV.

TAKE "MOV" OUT OF THE PICTURE FOR A SECOND. WHAT OTHER IDEAS CAN YOU COME UP WITH WHICH CAN SOLVE THE ABOVE PROBLEM???

Give you ideas in the form of comments to this blog post. We can't wait to hear those ideas.

-The Tripod