Oh India...

I am just trying to think where Indians need a mindset change, and have to do a lot better to raise their standard of living...

From what I see today

• Respect for the other man - I don't quite know why we Indians by default loathe each other as long as the other person is not known to us - like on the roads. Civility to fellow beings will certainly be a good start.
• Just wondering if all this has to do with the overflowing population and consequent disregard for the other person - the other person is an abundant commodity - is this turning out to be a demand and supply thingie?
• Compromising on all available rules and finding ways around them - everybody, from the people to the police themselves, is looking at things from a selfish perspective.
• The blissful ignorance of the other parts of the world is not a good thing. I don't see Bangalore, one of the best cities of India becoming something like London in another 20 years, while everybody else in the world zooms ahead in development.
• As a columnist at rediff said, people here, after independence, were told that they were the kings in the country, and everybody now has a perverted sense of ownership of all public property. There is no hesitation in thinking of all public property as one's own and destroying/rubbishing them. Right from burning buses, tearing the leather in the bus seats, to spitting all along the roads, not realising that there are people who pay taxes to maintain all these.
• You cannot tell a person on the road not to do such things. There is far too much "Why do you care - is it your father's property?" attitude floating around. I really don't know when this will come to a stop.

I can clearly tell that since these are mindset issues, once these things stop, the nation will be a lot better. People here either are indulging in this nonsense or have been forced into living in denial and compromise. Which is why I fully support a movie like Anniyan (Tamil), which hits at these issues. I sincerely hope people get the message right, and stop talking about technical glitches or other silly things about the movie, which don't matter compared to the issue that it addresses.

Anyways, I will stop for now, let's see what the future holds...

About me...

Welcome, and thanks for visiting my corner of blogosphere. Hope you enjoy it...

So my intent is to talk about myself, which I may not be able to summarize concisely - I have been changing all through these 25 years. Anyway, will try...

BRIEF VERSION:

Yeah, I am Subramanian Janardanan, call me Subbu if you like, 25, male, single and available ;-), (most probably only till next year - RUSH if interested!)

• Capricorn
• South Indian - Tamil, aspirant Sanskrit scholar
• Cat on the wall: Brahmin-50%, agnostic-50% - yet to decide which side of the wall to jump finally
• Favourite things in the universe
  
• The Universe
• Life
• India
  
• Music
• Philosophy
• Humour
• Languages - Human and Computer
  
• Culture
• Computers and the Human Brain
• Space
• Physics - the philosophical side

FULL VERSION:

Born in Kanyakumari, the place where the Bay of Bengal meets the Arabian Sea, I grew up mainly in Coimbatore - mid-sized city, quieter than Bangalore by miles - Bangalore used to be very similar to it sometime back. Bangalore is where I reside now.

I am one among billion+ Indians, one among millions of software engineers in the world, have Tamil for my mother-tongue, though I generally love some other languages also. Love and curiosity for languages is one of my earliest interests, right from the day I started with "SuklAmbaradharam Vishnum", in Sanskrit, a language that I didn't understand, and only now am coming to terms with. Never knew what SuklAmbaradharam meant back then...Probably the interest goes back further, to my initiation into studies, when, as a child of two or three, I was made to write Tamil alphabets on the surface of rice in a big vessel, an age-old custom.

I am a man who always cherishes things that are old, like tradition and culture. I don't often see myself appreciating contemporary things, don't know why...I love music, my foremost passion, though I have not proceeded to become well-trained in any genre - its been a to-do thing for a long time. I also like reading, but normally dont read fiction - have only read Harry Potter Book 1, and not gone ahead - "what a shame!!!!", everybody seems to be saying...

I love computers, and technology, but I always take technology cautiously. I got my first cellphone when I was 23 - after almost every teenager in India had one, and I was forced by my family to buy one. I am a C++ programmer at heart, and know some other languages too.

My plan for this blog of mine is to write up regarding anything I feel I should share with other netizens. Topics may include but not necessarily be limited to India, culture, politics, arts, my view of the world, my favourite gripes...