Personal choice Vs Discrimination

I have a house in Hyderabad in a area which has considerable muslim population. It has a couple of portions in the ground floor and a couple of portions in the first floor. Whenever one of the portion goes empty, I put up a to-let board and generally get a lot of enquiry calls as it is located on a main road and is well connected by public transport.

In the due course of time, I learnt one thing, whenever I get an enquiry call, my first question would be ... can you please tell me your name...the basic intention of this question is to check if the person calling is a muslim or not.

The first tenet of letting a house in this area is, not to give it to muslims as there is a sterotype that it will be tough to evict them and in general that the families are huge and that too many people cram into the given area. (this not meant to hurt anybody, really sorry if it does)

So whenever it is a muslim name, I kind of evade the letting out by citing some reason or the other. But this situation was always a very uncomfortable one. I have also come across people, who straight away ask, we are muslims...will you be renting the permises to muslims, this used to be a very painful situation...it is like somebody asking you, are you dsicriminating us ?

A few weeks back I read a few blog posts where people were, very naively asking that isn't letting out a house a personal choice ? I felt slightly better after reading these, as atleast I am clear that I am trying to fit a person whom I have just heard over phone or just met once into a stereotype, because I don't want to take chances or I don't want to get out of my comfort zone. Atleast I am aware that, I am discriminating people and hoping that the over all things in society would change, so that I need not do this.

After reading these posts I also felt happy that we have nationalised banks, govt. hospitals and schools, ration shops where people need not depend on the personal choices of some people to get some basic things in life. Cannot imagine the society a century back, when personal choices of a few dictated the lives of the general population.

Pleasant stumble

I just saw the movie Underworld. Not a bad movie to watch on TV. I was just checking the actors and the story line of the other movies in this series.

It was almost an aimless browsing, just following wiki links of some of the actors. I was checking out Tony Curran who played the role of Marcus Corvinus. Then saw this

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (2011) — Lt. Delcourt

It was such a pleasant surprise. I have been re-reading Tintin since I was in 3rd or 4th class. Although the levels of enjoyment have slightly decreased it is still a kind of stress buster to me. So the info that, Spielberg has made a movie out of The Crab with the Golden Claws, The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham's Treasure and that the movie is to be released in 2011 is very exciting. Somehow I feel, live characters might not give the great feel of reading the cartoon strip, but still something to watch out for, hope it turns out to be a good movie.

JP @ ISB connect 2009

I have seen a JP's video on Nagrujana's blog
http://striders-way.blogspot.com/2010/10/tie-isb-connect-2009.html.
Liked it. Adding it here for my record. Thanks Nag.

JP's videos from ISB connect 2009
Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guxdHYhjXdY&feature=related
Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VK0x-sy7kVA&feature=related

Note: Both parts overlap.

Points I liked in the video

1. Heaven being a boring place and the only place where resources are more than the needs. Managers should not aspire to go to heaven as they will not find any challenges there. --- nice one :)

2. Two great sins
Unfulfilled potential --- well, not a great sin :)
Avoidable suffering --- Unpardonable sin in my perspective. Y did it take so long to introduce something like 108 and Arogyasree service in this country.

Last year (11th Apr 2009) I visited my friend's diary farm (110 KM away from Hyderabad). Around evening time we spotted a guy with fresh toddy (he just came down the palm tree). We bought some and started chatting with that guy, like how are the govt. schemes and are they really useful to them. He told us that a year back he was bitten by a snake when he was on the tree, trying to bring a toddy pot down. Somehow he managed to scale down the tree. Few of his co-professionals hearing his shouts have alerted 108. Ambulance reached the spot in a few min and he is still alive to tell us this. He also added that people of his village were making good use of Indiramma housing scheme. No wonder YSR is revered in rural areas.

3. Most god fearing nation is the most sinful nation (based on above sins) --- nice one :)

4. Morons (Arjun Singh and M M Joshi) presiding over the educational system and the urgent need for fixing it --- nice point, looks like Kapil Sibal is more proactive than these guys.

5. Governance is about reconciling conflicting interests in a complex society --- Love this guy for his clarity of thought, a lot said in a single sentence.

6. Preventable congenital heart diseases link to German measles and how this can be avoided with a very small amount of money --- A very very valid point and sad state of affairs. This is all about preventing avoidable suffering. A decade back (22nd Aug 2000), my mom underwent by-pass surgery. I spent long times in the hospital for a week. I used to stand near a children ward, which was near to my mom's room to pass time. Most of the kids were there due to congenital heart problems (hole in the heart, may be that ward was meant for cardiac problems), it was heart breaking to see those kids waiting to undergo surgery.

7. Y did it take such long a time to introduce govt. sponsored polio vaccine on a massive scale in India --- Sad, at least they are doing it now.

8. Pranahita-Chevella Sujala Sravanti lift irrigation scheme - World's largest if implemented --- didn't know this.

9. Development of smaller towns. --- Again a valid point. Hyderabad is bursting at it seams. I think the second biggest city in AP might not even be 1/4th of Hyderabad. Y this lopsided development ?
Had been to Vijayawada on 22nd Aug 2010 for a friend's marriage. We were @ hotel Ilapuram, which is reasonably well located. It was a Sunday and there was literally no traffic on the roads around this area. I tried for a Internet cafe to cancel/book train tickets. I couldn't find one with in a 1 KM radius. The one I found was closed. May be I missed some as I was new. Some how it was a contrasting scenario compared to Hyderabad, considering Vijayawada is a big city in AP.


JP should be in governance/executive, he should not be in politics. May be 'we the people' are not ready for him yet. He should have joined Congress (sacrifice a few principles), and should have tried for a ministry. He could have been more effective as a minister than as a leader of a political party.