Archive for March 2016
Differentiating Drugs Simplified
A discussion on addictive drugs and issues thereof with friends delved into identifying various drugs. From cannabis to Heroine to marijuana to meth. I found it difficult to differentiate between various drugs. I have put together a quick Drug 101 tutorial after a bit of research.
|
Opium Poppy Plant (Depressant, makes you calm) |
Cannabis Plant (Hallucinogen, varied effects) |
Coca Plant (Stimulant, makes you excited) |
Crystal Meth (Stimulant) |
| Heroine: Synthesized from from latex of the plant. White crystalline compound. Snorted or injected. | Charas/Hashish: Resin from flower/leaves of female plant. Run on hands and Collect the resin stuck to hand. Resin cake. Smoked with tobacco.
Also prepared by sieving leaves/flowers into silk cloth and then baking. |
Cocaine/Coke: Chemically synthesized From leaves of Coca plant. Powder is Snorted, injected into veins. | Meth: Man made chemical. Not from plants like other 3. Methamphetamine. Manufactured in illegal laboratories called meth labs.
White crystalline. Snorted, Smoked, Injected. |
| Smack: Another name of Heroine | Marijunana/Pot: Dried flowers, leaves, stem of both female plant. Smoked and used in brownies. | Crack: Form of cocaine. Cooking Cocaine with baking powder. Becomes cheaper in cost. | |
| Ganja: Leaves and unfertilized flowers of young female plant. Smoked or brewed like a tea | |||
| Bhang: Male plant. No flowers. Green leaves. Not smoked. Ground up and mixed in milk beverages like Thandai | |||
| Weed: Slang for Marijuana/Cannabis/or Ganja. | |||
| Dope: Generic Term for many drugs | |||
Fighting for Freedom of Speech by Trampling others FoS
Both, worlds’ oldest and biggest democracies are gripped with discussion around Freedom of Speech (FoS). From JNU to Chicago, people have been made to sit up and take sides. Right wing is always blamed for rhetoric of dividing the society. Liberals and Lefts are the ones insinuating. But I see some issue here.
If liberals and lefts preach FoS they should honor the FoS of Right wing too. What we are seeing now and over the years, Left Liberals trying to Trample FoS of whoever disagrees with them. When Baba Ramdev is invited, JNU people scuttled his FoS. He is not allowed to speak. When Trump does a rally, protestors disguise themselves among his supporters and disrupt the proceedings, provoke supporters. Both sides have their right. JNU should have let Ramdev speak; same for Chicago protestors. They could have shown black flags and symbolically protested outside the venues.
I don’t have any issues with protests as such. I advocate FoS. But I don’t like to see other people’s FoS stifled under the garb of defending own FoS. Moreover I despise people trying to take moral high ground and being felicitated for it. AAP did it by giving ticket to the guy who threw shoe at Chidambaram. Liberal media did it by giving ample airtime to person who tried to attack Trump in one of his rally. If Kejriwal or Clinton was attacked the same way, Left Liberals would have raised a lot of hue and cry.
Let’s be consistent is all I ask.
How to win a losing argument
Just for the sake of argument. A lot of times we feel that we are losing an argument. That the other side is winning. It can happen due to number of reasons. The other party may have better points to put forward. We might be lacking the depth on the issue and not able to give supporting literature. What to do in such a situation?
Some people would concede and back off, lose the argument. What if we don’t want to? Well, if it does not seem possible to win, best is not let the other side win. This may not be an outright win for you, but if you puncture holes in opposite argument, you have pretty much nailed it.
I remember a scene from movie, where a lobbyist father (whose whole livelihood depend on gift of the gab), explains to his son. He said, it’s not important that you are right, to win an argument. You just have to prove the other person wrong. He went ahead giving an example. If you say Chocolate ice-cream is better and your friend says Vanilla is better. There is no clear way to win the argument. You can attack the other side of being a racist for not liking dark colored chocolate. By proving him bad, you become right.
I agree it might not look an honorable approach. But since not being politically correct is in vogue these days, this might just pass through. Attack the person if not the argument. And believe me you will win every single time. If such a win satisfies you, that is.
5 years down the line
This is a common question which someone or the other might have asked you. Where do you see yourself 5 years down the line? Mostly it is an interview question to which we give a parrot reply. Hardly do we give any thought to this in real.
Do one thing. Go back 5 years in time and analyze if you are where you wanted to be 5 years down the line? I predict the standard deviation would be too high. The difference between dream and reality. We can owe it to a lot of factors. Not always is the difference negative. Many chances that you have achieved more than you hoped for. There are chances that you have not achieved as much. We can owe it to lack of foresight or divine powers to look into the future.
How to make things better? I would suggest make 3-4 years goal. And analyze if you are on track regularly. At the end of the period if still you have not achieved what you bid out for, time to either change the goals (as you might not be interested in what you aimed for), or time for serious introspection.
Throwing away the life aimlessly is no good. Have some aim; however stupid or vague. You will feel good working for it. You will feel like getting up in the morning. Else this long life without the answer to, “Why we are here” will be a long slog.
Solution to JNU Crises: Give them degree and kick them out
JNU crises have reached a deadlock. There is a need for smartness on the part of authorities. I read that a committee has recommended expelling the hooligans. Not a smart move. No point giving these people audience and propelling their political careers.
Expelling will lead to unnecessary protests. Not worth it. These hooligans and their ilk, who feed on taxpayers’ money, have nothing to lose and everything to gain. So they will do anything and everything. Smartest solution would be to give them the degree. They way they will have to move out the college. Expedite their exams and kick them out.
They can’t cry that they have been expelled. They won’t get the coziness of college for their nefarious activities. No reason for protests. Don’t fail them, pass them. And show them the door. I admit it’s not an ideal solution, but we don’t live in an ideal society, do we?
This leftist hooliganism is a global phenomenon. Lok what happened to Trump rally in Chicago. These people have nothing to lose. No point fighting them. They thrive on media attention. Time to clean our colleges. Rather than expelling, give them a degree and get them off.
Random Conversations
Random Conversation about nothing at all,
The Fat Cherry: I don’t have a reservation in train. What should I do?
The Constant: Don’t worry; you can still board the train. Pay something.
The Protégé: Take a bike ride.
The Dreamer: Don’t go.
The Constant: My leather shoes are good.
The Fat Cherry: Are you sure they are leather.
The Protégé: Hush Puppies are leather. These are not Hush Puppies.
The Dreamer: No Bro.
The Protégé: Ola has started cheaper ride.
The Constant: Why don’t you buy a car?
The Fat Cherry: You can give me a ride then.
The Dreamer: Hey Bro.
The Dreamer: It’s hot. Did you turn off AC?
The Constant: I didn’t do it (Smiles)
The Protégé: I don’t feel hot.
The Fat Cherry: Someone get it on.
Freedom of Expression, Hate Speech: India is Too Young
The point that I want to address today is Freedom of Expression in India. Under the raging debate lately, this expression has been mixed with Freedom to Hate Speech. People wanting right to hate speech put forward the argument that it is a non violent protest and they have every right to do it. I agree with argument but it not in sync with the stage which it is set in. Let me explain.
Is hate speech non-violent? Yes. Is hate speech allowed in other democracies? Yes. In developed countries it is much worse. So why the issue in India? The issue is, India is not yet ready for this. “Not ready in what sense”, would be the next question. Well in the sense of law enforcement. We are a country still way back in policing and enforcement of the law. Security personnel to population ratio is way too low. Arrest rates, Conviction rates are very less. We as a country are working towards betterment but when compared with developed countries, we have a long way to go.
What happens is, due to shortcomings in law enforcement, people feel free to take matters in their own hands which leads to mob justice and mob violence. It cannot be justified and neither am I trying to do that. But we have accept the sad reality. Thus for the age our country is in, Hate Speech can’t be clubbed with Freedom of Speech. It has and it would lead to friction among groups and eventual violence. Onus is on all of us to keep the fragile peace going.
As the law enforcement, conviction rates and fear of law improves, Freedom of Speech automatically will expand to allow Hate Speech. Just because we are born in globalized age, we should not forget the reality of our Geography. Till then don’t blame the nation for any aggressive reaction against hate speech. You are yourself to be blamed for that.
An Advice to BJP: Congress card works no more
Vijay Mallya left India for London amidst all the hue and cry. His sympathizers in media pointed out that he didn’t do any wrong by going abroad. There was no legal requirement for him to stay. And they are right. He was free to leave. And here lies the problem.
When Govt. of the country is so weak as to not read the writing on the wall, there can hardly be any excuse. Mallya is a Rajya Sabha MP as an Independent. But we all know BJP supported him and propelled him to Rajya Sabha. The fishy loans he got approved were during the UPA decade of shame. Thus both BJP and Congress are in on it. Both favor such crony capitalists and both blame each other.
For BJP this is highly embarrassing as now they are in power. They don’t want to bring Lalit Modi back and now they have let off Mallya. Any guesses how many years will it take to bring him back? I say never. Same for Lalit Modi.
And it’s sad to see BJP playing the Congress card again. “Loans were given during Congress’s regime”, they say. So, What should we people do? Dance?
BJP can silence Congress during debates with this argument. But it can’t fool the people of India anymore. ‘Congress is bad’, argument has started falling flat. You have been in power for around 2 years. And now the blame is on you.
Your crony capitalism has come out in open. Lalit Modi and Vijay Mallya are two shining armors to that effect. I know nothing will change. I am only writing this as I have nothing better to do.
AOL: In India money buys you everything, Even Environment
I just read that after a few days of hullabaloo, NGT has given clearance to Art of Living (AOL) World Culture Festival. Only after imposing 5 crore in fine. This for me is akin to the pollution tax. What NGT is saying to AOL is, please go ahead polluting and breaking environmental norms, just pay us 5 crore in fines.
In essence, if you have money, you are free to pollute. 1000 acres on the bank of Yamuna has been converted into a village. AOL contented it is temporary structure which NGT questioned. Understand the issue here; it is about damage to the Yamuna and the environment.
I understand there are hardcore fans of AOL who want this to happen. But this cannot be the reason alone. There can be fans of ‘N’ number of people. Would we start allowing everyone such privileges? The ‘Guru’ tag associated with Sri Sri, fears the Govt. Sri Sri has always supported BJP and hence this softness on Govt’s part.
I don’t question AOL and its leader. You might be doing well for yourself and your followers. It’s not any of my concern. I won’t come and question you in your ashram. What you do is your individual right.
But such things leave bad taste. NGT has imposed a fine of 5 crore. So if you didn’t have this money, you wouldn’t be allowed this event. Right? Thus it’s all about money. You have bought the Environment. I don’t like it one bit.
What I don’t like is any common citizen of this country wouldn’t be allowed such a privilege. Why should any organization? It’s not about AOL, it’s about cronyism.
Sad reality behind ‘huge’ Arnab Goswami viewership
Whoever has watched Times Now, would be familiar with the Arnab’s rhetoric about Newshour being the most watched News Show. Indeed it is. But there is a sad reality hidden behind.
Newshour is the most watched English News Debate show. However the number the people watching this show is not more than 5-6 lacs in reality. It’s just that out of other such shows this is the most watched. Hindi News shows have more than 10 times viewership. Why is this show hailed then?
For most of the part it is his self advertising, telling about how great the show is. How big the crusader he is. And sad part is the per capita income difference between English speaking and non-English speaking Indian’s is too high. More so with people who have subscribed to such English News Channels.
It’s the per capita of his viewers which is high. Not the number of viewers. The much celebrated status and high advertisement rate of Times Now is much due to the economic divide that India faces today. Less people are More rich. More people are Less rich.
In our society since poor people don’t have much money, they don’t have much purchasing power. Which in turn eliminates them from potential TV viewer list. No TV channel wants people to see their show, if they don’t have money to buy products advertised. It’s the game of money.
Hype of TimesNow and Arnab Goswami is due to the purchasing power of his viewers. Who are less in quantity but more in monetary terms. This should not be much of a surprise given Top 1% owns more than 50% of wealth in India.
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