The great Indian brain drain

Hi,
Brain drain is the term associated with intellectual capital assets (i.e. intelligent people) moving out of a country in search of greener pastures. I have seen brain drain happen in form of, more than 70% of my engineering batch mates, being outside India. Many cite reasons like poor infrastructure, poor monetary compensation, red-tapism among many others.
I feel reservations at all levels is one of the primary contributor to this 'brain drain'. There are reservations at all education levels, may it be engineering, medical or even normal graduation. Now there is also a plan of having reservations for IITs' and IIMs'. It is difficult to imagine the kind of MBA crowd that emerges from such reservations.
I was reminded of this problem this week as there were two separate articles highlighting Indians abroad who have excelled. One is associated with NASA in their mars project while the other one discovered a new thermal method of detecting cancer.
I had an old mail on reservations, am sharing the contents below, good read...
THE STORY OF INDIA:
World version:
The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and laying up supplies for thewinter. The Grasshopper thinks the Ant is a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away.
Come winter, the Ant is warm and well fed. The Grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.
Indian Version:
The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summerbuilding its house and laying up supplies for thewinter.
The Grasshopper thinks the Ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering Grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the Ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.
All TV news channels show up to provide pictures of the shivering Grasshopper next to a video of the Ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor Grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Communists stage a demonstration in front of the Ant's house. Human rights groups go on a fast along with other Grasshoppers demanding that Grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter.
World leaders criticize the Indian Government for not upholding the fundamental rights of the Grasshopper. The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the Grasshopper (many promising Heaven andEverlasting Peace for prompt support as against the wrath of God for for non-compliance). Opposition MPs stage a walkout. Left parties call for 'Bengal Bandh' in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry. Communists in Kerala immediately pass a law preventing Ants from working hard in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among Ants and Grasshoppers. Railway ministry allocates one free coach to grass hoppers on all Indian Railway Trains, aptly named as the'Grasshopper Rath'. Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the 'Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act' [POTAGA], with effect from the beginning of the winter. HRD ministry makes 'Special Reservation' for Grasshoppers in Educational Institutions & in Government Services.
The Ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, it's home is confiscated by the Government and handed over to the Grasshopper in a ceremony covered by all leadings news channels. Communists calls it 'A Triumph of Justice' and 'Revolutionary Resurgence of the Downtrodden'. Some call it 'Socialistic Justice '. Some world leaders invite the Grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly.
Many years later...
The Ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi-billion dollar company in Silicon Valley, Lakhs of Grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation somewhere in India...
AND As a result of losing lot of hard working Ants and feeding the grasshoppers, India is still a developing country!!!

Conspiracies of the universe....

Hi,

Continuing where I left off last eveing...

On Monday night I went to the mall to collect the left over items from the department store and to my surprise, there was a formula one car (Renault) on display at the very same mall. Now my excitement knew no bounds as I am a diehard F1 fan. Thus the conspiracy of the universe astoundingly continued. I am sharing some of the photographs of the F1 car that I clicked at the mall.

Conspiracies of the universe

Hi,
Wish to share an interesting experience that I had over the past week end. On Sunday afternoon I had been to a mall with my family and did some petty purchases at a department store, while the items were not many the packing boy decided to pack those in two separate bags and I took only of them home... which, as you would have guessed, I realised only after reaching home...Surprisingly the contact numbers of the store were not mentioned on the bill or on the carry bag. I thought that I would have to search them on the internet and call, which I decided to put off till Monday...However while browsing through some timepass newspaper I came across an advertisement of the same store and luckily it had the store's telephone nos. I managed to speak with the customer serivce fellow by 6 pm on Sunday and he confirmed (based on the stock codes on the bill which I read out to him) that one bag was with them and that I could come and collect it on Monday.
Had read in the 'Alchemist', book by Paulo Coelho, that if a particular thing has to happen then the universe conspires to make that happen. This incident reminds me of this...To think that firstly I normally do not browse news papers at home (as I like watching TV), secondly that the newspaper that I was browsing was Fridays newspaper and I picked it up as there was no other newspaper around me...
There is one more surprise element to this story, would write about that tomorrow...

Cool card reader

Guys, This is first day of blogging...Today I bought a cool card reader for just 150 rs. This device can actually read out of 4 differnt sizes of cards and connects to your PC through usb. Have attached an image of the card reader which incidentally was captured from my mobile and transferred to the PC through the very same card reader...Thought this is a good accessory to have...