Foot ball league

I am not actually a sports person, never took them seriously, and I am not ashamed to announce that, so far, I have not seen a cricket match from toss to trophy.

However, I liked the concept of T20 and IPL. I liked them because, local players, who could not sustain melee in the Ranji trophy, able to play at international level, bypassing the politics.

Today, Sachin Tendulkar announced that he wants to change the sports fabric of India. Thats one refreshing thing. I am sick of people around me talking only of cricket, noticing lengthy articles on newspapers. Badminton penetrated a bit, but thats not sufficient.

IPL style hockey trophy with funky team names failed to grab our attention. Now its football, lets see if it could the change the fabric of sports as Sachin thought.

Sneeze, Arrangement and Sugery - Plays by Anton Chekov

Watched three short plays by Anton Chekov back to back today.

I dont who Chekov was, but i really liked them. 

"The Arrangement" focuses on how a father wants his son to grow up, become a man. Unfortunately, he links it with having sex. So he takes his son to a brothel. The innocent young boy, was confused, excited and scared at the same time. After paying the prostitute, father decides , not to kill his innocence so early. A 15 min play. We went late, and missed first five minutes.

"The Sneeze". Story of a clerk who is interested in the theater. He goes to a theater with his wife, and buys first class tickets. When the show is about to start, he realizes the minister, under whose department he works came to the show and sitting beside him. He got excited , invades the privacy of the minister to get to know him, which he believes who help him in the career. When everybody is deeply involved in the cinema, the clerk sneezes so hard that, he dampens the Minister's hair. Minister was cool about it, but the clerk would not let it go. He drags apologizing to a point which annoys Mrs. Minister. Minister tries to change the topic and starts small talk, but the clerk continues to apologize.

Clerk could not sleep that night. He gets anxious about the sneezing incident and tells his wife that he is going to apologize the minister at his office one more time. Not minding suggesting from his wife, he goes to the office. The Minister, could not recall clerk. Clerk narrates whole sneezing incident and tells him how sorry he really was. Minister asks him to go easy on what happened and sends him away.

Now Clerk is tension free. But he is furious. He concludes that the minister was responsible for losing mind over such a trivial matter. He wants to question the minister why he tormented him. He goes to the ministers office again, asks him why. The Minister gets annoyed for getting disturbed over such a silly matter and gets angry. Terrified by the anger of Minister, while trying to talk to him, he sneezes on Ministers face. The Minister shouts and warn the clerk to not to show his face ever.

Poor clerk, reaches home frustrated than ever, and dies.


"The Surgery " . A comical play where a yet-to-get-degree intern pulls the tooth of a priest complains of toothache.

Of all the three, i liked " The Sneeze" . 

Art of Intervewing bureaucrats.

Finally, at last, after years of waiting, i landed up in a job which involves traveling and talking to people. I joined in a NGO which works on Right to Information Act.

My job involves, going to remote districts and conducting a sample survey on selected offices regarding implementation of RTI Act. The job description might sound boring, but for a guy like me, its fun.

Its not a public survey, where i can move to next idle person who wants to talk. I have list of a specific officers to talk.  I had to interview, panchayat secretaries , superintendents at MPDO office and MROs.

I am not a journalist, which gives them publicity, i am not from Information Commission who will threten them to pour red ink on their service books. I am just from a NGO which will submit the report to govt. I dont have a carrot or a stick to make them talk to me out of their "busy" schedule.   




I have decided to be the "ear" who listen to them, a shoulder for them to cry and promise that i would become the hand which will wipe their tears. And it worked.

Village secretaries are usually docile and talk a lot. Superintendents friendly and offer hot beverages. And MROs, once started, hard to stop. And my tactic to make them give an interview to me , is to let them indulge in self-pitying, of course, most of them already in it and they just need an ear, and some must be pushed.

First and most important task is to show my face to them. I tried call to request an interview with them but, they would say they are busy with municipal election and ask me to come after ten days, in a tone we shoo the salesmen selling Tupperware. 

1. Dont walk to the face of the interviewee. They are bureaucrats, and that too head of the respective offices, they should be approached through subordinates. Though i can read MRO is sitting in his chair, with a big name plate on the wall behind him, i would ask some one, if he is available. Lower staff respond well to words like "Delhi", "Indian Institute of " , " Administration " . ( My NGO got the project from Indian Institute of public administration, Delhi). A man from Delhi, will be treated like a man from Moon. Now, he would take me to game.

2. Patience and Manners. Locals, barge in to the room and start talking not minding if the officer is on phone or counting letters in paper before him. But, man from Delhi , is well mannered and well educated. Dont sit, no leaning on the wall, no checking mobile.

3. After introduction , and purpose of arrival and purpose of the survey, i listed out few problems of them and pity them to show them the path of self-pitying. This technique is rarely used and not need mostly, as they are ready to burst out. However, it worked great with  hard-core bureaucrats who wish to be look busy. Sadly, it took me some time to realize this technique.

4. Pay attention, and scribe something on the paper if the officer tells something in the tone of a philosopher, though its not related to the survey.

5. When he wish to upgrade my status from an interviewer to some NGO, to guest, i never denied it. I drank every tea or coffee which is offered to me.

6. Ask open ended questions, though in questionnaire its a closed ended one. Let them open up and talk.

7. Indulging in small talk in between the interview is actually a good practice.

Its fun to observe, the body language of officers. More the rank, more the ego is what i guessed, but i was wrong in many cases.

Eternal sunshine of the sptoless mind.

The love story of a shy guy and exotic and impulsive girl. They fell in love, they fight, the girl went to get her memory of him erased from her mind. When the guy came to know about it, he went to the same clinic to get her memories erased from his head.

While technician erasing each memory , we get to watch that memory. While her memories getting wiped out , the guy decides that her memories are important so wanted to cancel the process. But as he is unconscious ,so, he could not do much. So he tried to hide her in memories where she was not there before, making it hard for technician to finish what he had started.

Meanwhile, the pissed off receptionist, who understood that she was once in relationship with the old doctor and then got her mind erased of his memories, resigns her job, took all the records with her and sends them to the clients.

The guy and the girl, met each other in a train again , treats each others as strangers and they went out.  After receiving their records they realize that they were in a relationship, and wanted to continue it.

Jim Karrey and Kate Winslet. Those were the keyword for me to go for the movie. For a change, i have seen a movie where Jim Karrey wont act like " The Mask" Jim Karrey. I never knew Jim Karrey is such a fine actor for romantic comedies and Kate Winslet excelled as a girl who changes the hair color to match with her dress.

My first Rastharocko

I received invitation from a friend to participate in RastaRocko. I was in lets-try-new mood, so went.

The Rastarocko is to protest against the locking down of a Temple in my friend's colony by the Municipal authority. The Rally was already started when i reached their colony. I parked my bike and participated in it. I was still not decided  to participate in the road-blockage. 

The percentage of people according to age and gender is intriguing. The rally is headed by youth. Not even ten members and most of them are known to me. I was  surprised to notice the low participation of youth from that colony. Its a big colony and i have seen the youth power in Ganesh Pandal. I bowed to the father of my friend in respect and joined youth.

A large gang of ladies followed behind , with banners depicting the temple behind bars. I agree, a group of middle aged aunties should not be called a gang, but they are more active and looked more ferocious than the youth ahead of them, and middle aged men following them. 

I let the rally move ahead of me to join the Uncles behind the train. They are slow, sloppy but shouting the right slogans. Like the youth , they are not much in number. Its like kids are running faster, mothers are behind them shouting and fathers slowly walking behind knowing how the whole story going to end.  However, the choice of slogans shows their distorted aim and how they want to get focus on them but not on the actual issue. The whole protest is for a temple of  Lord Venkateswara, and the slogans were " Jai Sri Ram" and " Bharat mata ki jai" . 

Few priests with pigtails and a well groomed local politician were waiting for us at the cross roads.Soon , everybody started settling down on the road. Its Nagarjuna Sagar Highway which we are trying to block. Its a four lane road, with bunch of  always-half-asleep traffic police controlling it.

Initially i was hesitant to sit on the road to block, that too for cause of a temple. But then i thought, i might not get another opportunity to sit on road with my friends.  Its not that bad, road is relatively comfortable to sit except i cant lean back with support of elbows. Sun is not too harsh on us, i was hoping that the police will bring us tea.

The gathering grew as many BJP members joined it. Slogans are unrelated and just RSS stuff.  The well groomed local leader , like father of a bride, over excited but wants to maintain cool demeanor, tried to prove his leadership qualities by giving new slogans. That attempt backfired, they are long and not catchy. The new guys from BJP continued their standard slogans which are largely unrelated to the temple issue. Everybody is waiting for the media to shoot them and police to arrest them.

Sat there till legs got numb. When i woke up walked few steps, the numbness and fun are gone. The traffic jam beginning to build up. I felt guilty a little, for blocking the traffic for a temple. Why could not God help devotees construct temples. Why cant Lord Venkateswara appear in the dream of that municipal officer like Lord Rama did in the case of Sri Ramadasu.

When i returned after tea-break, the traffic jam expanded beyond  horizon. It was frustrating and irritating. My friend tells me that four college students, in car, struck in the traffic and they have to go to an exam. They are just behind the gang of ladies holding banners. I could not do much except offering sympathies. I walked further tried to guide few vehicles to take a detour to escape the jam. Some listened , some didnt. Soon, police from nearest police station came.. The local leader is nowhere to be seen now. The talks were successful , everybody agreed to get up from the road and let the traffic flow. Jam was cleared in less than 3 minutes.

Everybody congratulated everybody for making it a huge success and left. 

 

Beyond Coffee by Khadir Babu

Picked this book at Hyderabad book festival. Picked it,only because its written by Khadir Babu, the author of Polerammaband kathalu and Dargamitta kathalu.

Its a collection of short stories. Except for one story, most of them are based on upper middle class or upper class where the characters either tend to jump into an illicit relationship or make their lives miserable out of boredom. I might be undermining the theme in a line, but the old saying " An idle mans mind is devils workshop" is true, and author tried to elaborate it with stories, only, its not a mans mind, its women's mind he talked about.

I have never finished a collection of short stories which are not related with each other, like , Malgudi Days ( Which reminds me that i am yet to finish that book ), but, the style of author is too gripping to loosen the grip on the book and not to turn pages.

Overall, a good read, however i strongly feel, its overrated, Rs 135 for few stories which can be finished in couple of hours is not acceptable.

Expanding RTI to media!

There was much argument on bringing political parties under RTI. I agree to that, but sadly none of political parties which preach transparency did not.

All the present media, both paper and electronic, propagate a particular ideology to the people. Of late, they have started cooking stories to make a news and entertain us. According to me, this is more dangerous than corrupt political parties.

Once, we start to build opinions based on unverifiable stories, that's the end of reason. If the reason is gone for a toss, then the assumption that people are sensible individuals capable of apply reason to make decision to some extent,  on which concept of democracy is built,  becomes false.

A law is important as media stopped educating people but instead started entertaining them like cinemas. The motto is to give people what they want to know, not what they have to know.

Attacks on Reliance stores which followed after few popular Telugu news channels stated a provocative discussion that Reliance industries made sure that Late CM YSR get killed pertaining to krishna-godavari basin. The source being a German website. Before, rest of the media started enlightenment that the source is not reliable, the damage was done.

If not RTI, at least we need an ombudsmen which force media to share the source of the news.

i lead india campaign

The campaign to spread understanding on Right to Information act, in collaboration with Times of India.

The organizer was Mr. Ali, a software employee at Unisys.

 I already knew how to apply RTI and have applied few times before. My RTI endeavours are mostly because of enthusiasm. I have no idea on getting information for change in the system.

But, the organizer , with his success stories, and balanced opinions showed me a path and gave me whats needed to be change the system. I.e stop complaining with friends and start complaining with the authorities. Its that simple.

I am one of those citizens who talk in length on how badly govt is working, and how it worsened the situation. Deep down, i knew, there something i should be doing for that, and i dont know what to do, so , like many, there is nothing to do.

More than the lecture on RTI, its the shared success stories between organizers and participants, gave me hope that, sooner or later, India shall raise.

The workshop made me realize that, to change the system, we don't have to dig up a 2G like scam. A simple act of getting the road you use repaired will inspire others to do the same. Until then, i dont even know that GHMC runs a portal to receive complaints from the citizens. Its the information like these, we do not know which makes ignorant to the solutions of everyday problems.

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

Revenge story of a captain on a whale. Thats the story in nutshell.

The book is considered as American classic, and a website mentioned that , this book along with " Atlas shrugged " was left unfinished by many readers. If I had not known that, probably I would have done the same thing.

Instead of calling it a novel, I would like to call it " A study on whales and whaling ships ". The author wrote too much on taxonomy and anatomy of whales, about the interactions between the ships , and how the room mate of narrator baths and many more trivial topics. The uncontrollable wish of the author to make a bulky book , made reading an ordeal.

It took me almost six months to finish it. Many times I thought of abandoning it, but like captain Ahab who resolved to kill the rogue whale of all the seas, I have resolved to finish the novel. The reader must have the same qualities of the captain Ahab to accomplish the task. Patience, determination, ability to boost self and a broken leg, so that you can't run away.

Ishmael, narrator of the novel, knows too much, thinks too much, observes too much and has the urge to verbalize every thought. After reading a hundred pages I wanted to put a plaster on his mouth. Apart from nonsense on details, it's the Victorian English used by characters which pushed the annoyance to the next level.

Anyway, it's one book, I am proud of finishing. Like, Zen and art of motor cycle maintenance, it deserves another reading, may be after few years!

The Great Gatsby

The story of an eternal lover trying to get his love back , though she is married to someone else.

I have not read the original work, just saw the movie. I think, what the movie say is, that, guys are good at giving commitment and girls are not. The hero loves her so much that, he is ready to take the death of woman who was killed in a car accident by the girl he loves on his head. And the girl , who jumps into the love at first kiss with hero, then , love at first gift with somebody in the absence of hero and marries the second guy , who is not loyal to her. Then our hero, The Great Gatsby, tries to win her heart by throwing parties for her and throwing expensive clothes at her. She comes close to him, and her husband came to know whats going on.

When the husband takes off the cover which is hiding the whole thing, Gatsby says the girl never loved him. The girl confirms the same in low voice, but when husband asks her again after reminding her a romantic moment, she changed tune to , i loved him in past but now loves Gatsby.  The husband successfully annoys Gatsby regarding his low-born, when Gatsby loses his temper and tries to hit her husband, the girl starts crying and could not come close to Gatsby. On the way to home, the girl hits the mistress of her husband with a car. Husband of the girl,  convinces the husband of that mistress-girl, that its Gatsby with whom she is having an illegitimate relationship.

In a trial to protect the girl, Gatsby got ready to take the blame of death on him. The girl and her husband leaves the home for good. And our poor Gatsby waits for her call which confirms the elope. While he was waiting for the call, the husband of the mistress-girl, shots him in the heart.

The acting-crew performed so well that, i hated the characters. The author might have succeeded in what he wants to inspire in people. Have to read the original work, for a better judgment.

Seven Samurai

An old Black & White Japanese movie. Its the movie from which sholey is inspired. Of course, there are major differences.

Seven Samurai, maintained a simple story line than sholey. In sholey, villain character is elevated more than protagonists.

Village is attacked by group of bandits after harvesting. On the advise of village old man, a group of villagers set out to city in search of Samurais who would risk their lives to save the village. These are poor farmers, so there is no reward for the samurais , except rice.

To their luck, seven samurais agree for the deal. They come to the village, prepare battle plan, strengthens the defence of the village, train villagers for battle, won the battle. A simple story, but captivating photography and screenplay. Though , its three and half hours long movie, i never felt boredom. A must watch for drama genre lovers. 

Adventures of Chinnari

I went to this only because my friend is part of crew . Director thought its for children, but i refuse to agree so.

The story is simple. There was a demon, which steals valuable things. One day it steals the dress of chinnari , in which her wants to see her. So, chinnari set out to seek the dress. Two villages went along with her. The path to reach daemon is guarded by two lesser daemons , Fast-food-daemon and Television-daemon. She passes through them, kill the antagonist and takes her dress. 

Though its aimed at kids. I highly doubt if this generation kids like it or not. In the era of 3D graphics, which kid wants to see a drama where cloth and bamboo sticks are used create the background, which i felt , extraordinary. The Hut in which chinnari lives, the boxing ring, a boat in ocean , a mountain, a rope bridge  etc etc are set using clothes. And the background music along with songs are good. 

The play is by Theater-outreach , Hyderabad central university.  They are organizing the play all over Andhra Pradesh , on request. 

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

I expected something else, but the author gave me better.

By the title , I expected a story line similar to Anil Kapoor's " Black & white ", where an Islamic fundamentalist becomes reluctant to blow the bomb at Redfort in the last moment.

The story of the book is based on a Pakistani , who went to America for studies. After he got selected in a reputed financial firm and falling in love with an American, attacks on world trade center happen. Major part of the novel deals with how he was affected by those attacks.

More than the story, it's the narration style which kept me going. The author had made the reader, me , a character in the book.

Not a great book, but , not a bad choice, for someone who wish to try new.

Freakonomics

One of the famous books on popular economics.

Be warned, though the book claims to be a book on economics,  its in fact a book on sociology. The reader hardly learn anything about economics from this.

The author talked about the how conventional wisdom might not true all the time. To support his point, author had given many examples. These examples, give us a different view on society in general.

Instead of discussing chapters like GDP, GNP , growth rate etc etc  author chose to discuss much on criminology and popular misconceptions. However, some of the arguments against misconceptions are hard to agree, or hard to check the authenticity. For example, in an argument against the popular belief that watching TV damage brains of kids, author says that, in Finland, where children are allowed to go to so from the age of seven, sit at home, and learn to read by watching American channels with finnish subtitles. Another chapter is dedicated to money spent by contestants in American elections and their percentage of victory. I find that chapter, really ridiculous.

Too many statistics in some chapters, and while breaking generalizations, author made few generalizations. I disagree with the misconceptions author has mentioned, but can't really accept the examples he provided.

If you really want to learn something on economics or get an insight into world trade or something like that, dont buy this one, instead go for "Underground economist" .

Tale of haruk - Korean play

The theater enthusiast woke up in the evening and I went to watch "Tale of Haruk" at Ravindra Bharati. On the ticket it was printed that it's a korean play with subtitles. Too late, I already paid the money, so decided to give it a shot.

They have installed two large Televisions on both side of the stage to display subtitles. Auditorium is not completely filled. And the play started at the mentioned time. 

The story is a silly one. There is not much scope for the action for actors. There were no lengthy dialogues. The play offers little insight of Korea. However, i consider the play is great, not because of the story and all but based on how it is played.

The tallest guy among the actors, started performing magic a show. Rest of them joined him, thumping rudimentary musical instruments like water cans, water bottles, copper plates etc etc. The magician creates music out of just sounds. This act, worked as ice breaker. This made us get ready to accept uncommon things in the play so that we wont be shocked. And these are same instruments which offered background music through out the play. 

Its the story of an old and sad couple who pass time nagging each other. They pray the "Tree of spirit" for baby. The tree gives them an egg, and told them not to feed the baby anything other than dew. When the egg is hatched, the baby came out and said "Haruk", so they named him Haruk, little they know that its the only word or sound the baby is capable of pronouncing. While trying to teach the baby other words, the couple started learning Haruk-language. 

One day, tired of eating dew everyday , Haruk demands rice. After much thinking, the couple feeds him rice. That night, Haruk dreamt of Big things, and when he woke up , he become big and hungry. The more he ate, the more he gets bigger and the more hungry he became.  He ate the whole world, sun , moon and the old couple too. Then he gets lonely and starts crying. The tears of him become the rivers and his body become land and mountains. However, universe continue to cherish in his tummy including the old couple who continue to bicker.

More than story or acting skills of the artists, everybody was amazed by the way it is played.  The manifestation of Haruk growing beyond limits, the way they used puppets to represent the old couple in the climax to make us understand that how big the Haruk become, the use of lights are worth watching.

pheku.in

Two days ago, i went to La Makaan, and found myself in www.pheku.in launching function.

In Twitter, faku is the word used for Narendra Modi and Pappu is for Rahul Gandhi. The owners of the website say they are not just against Modi, but every politician who gives false data to prove his administrative talent. According to them, Modi-sycophants love him for the so called development in Gujarat. And by, " enlightening " them with facts, Modi-sycophancy can be reduced.

I think, the problem is deeper than that. According to my observation, development of Gujarat is socially acceptable reason to announce their love for Modi, the real reason is Godhra riots. Many who argued with me, supported Modi, for letting the Muslims die. The argument goes something like this " What? You dont like Modi, for letting the Muslims die in the massacre. What do you call the train accident which initiated Godhra riots. They killed us first , and we killed them in revenge. Its fair. This is land of Hindus bro "

Of course i have to repeat the old dialog " Revenge is not justice" , and they brindise me as a congress supporter. So , the real problem is  the psychological fight of "They Vs We". 

Book Without A Title.

Till few months back, i wanted to avoid death. I knew its not possible, i would like to be the Dorian Gray. I dont want to age, i dont want to die. Not that, i would like to embrace it now, but recently i developed different view on it.

Death. Its like the last fullstop of an interesting book. If you ever read a book, which you are so much enjoying it, and got annoyed because the book has an ending after few pages. The reading speed goes slow, so that you can enjoy it for some more time. For me, it usually happens with RK Narayan books. We might not check the number of pages in that book, but we knew that , its going to end.

Now, i perceive life like that. Its a book. I dont know , how many pages are in it. But, i am sure, its going to end at some point. I dont know when its going to end either. However, its hard to accept the truth that, it will end , it does not matter, if i accept it or not, its going to end. I like it or not, i have to read it.  While reading novels, we drop the novels, which are boring or depressing. With , book of life, i dont have that choice. I HAVE to read it.

The religionists believe that, Brahma or some guy who belongs to their religion wrote it and they have to read it. As a nihilist, i believe , i am the author of it. So, in a nutshell, i am writing a book, but i dont know when it will end. I have few choices to make. First, i write nothing, except mundane activities. In that case, when i reach the end, when i skim through the pages, i cant find anything worth reading. Lets say i am in death-bed with no physical activity what so ever. Would not i regret that i have no memories written which are worth reading, feel nostalgic , feel proud, feel ashamed, to feel anything at all. If the authour cant enjoy his/her own work , then its worst work possible in the world, is not it?

Second, believe that God will write it. No , i cant accept that. Third , let others write it. Hell NO.

Many i know, prepare cover page of the book first , then start writing it. The cover-page requires, a title, a photo and name of the author. The famous titles will be something like "Story of a successful man", "My love story" , "Me and my family" , "How soap operas changed me", "How i kicked asses of others", " The greatest man ever born" , " Me and Religion " etc etc . Once the title is fixed, then photo. A picture of him, in youth, with his life partner , while everybody is watching them, is a common picture. Or a photo of him , in youth (obviously! ) having good time with friends. Usually, the title will be decided by society and photo will resemble the trend in the movies.

Now, as they got  title and photo ready, many want to write the content in accordance with the cover page.  However, these people are better than the ones , who ask others to write a title and think of a photo. Their books will be written by others not them. Amazingly, at no point, they think that, their book is too boring. For the readers, they might be the worst authors, but they are in peace, believing destiny and all those crap.

Coming to me, i have decided on the photo. It will be me my pic on the death bed , laughing. Not that society accepted laugh, my special laugh. And the title? It would be "My life" like Bill Clinton autobiography or none. Just blank.

Previously , i wrote blog posts on similar topic. Now, i feel they don't have much depth. They are

After a quarter  and అవును , నేను పాత విల్లన్ లాంటి వాడినే !!  . Only change, now and then is , i am beginning to accept death.

The dark room by R.K.Narayan

I think its one of few books RK Narayan wrote, which go on a serious note.

The story of a neglected wife, who usually sulks , but become normal after spending few days in the dark room of the home. After few pages of story, she realizes that her husband is moving closely with another lady. This time, she leaves the house, goes to another part of the town and joins as a sweeper in a temple.

The feminists might expect the story to end there, or might expect her husband to realize her value and ask for her forgiveness. However, author lead the story in more realistic way.

Small book, but made me think over it for a long time.

The question of criminal- legislators !

The relationship between politicians and crime is legendary, so is, the idea to ban criminals to enter politics. However the solution is not suitable in Indian context with our sluggish judiciary system. Supreme Court has been trying to put an end to this, but without success.

Economists like S.A. Aiyar and Bimal Jalan are arguing for a different approach. I.e to speed up the court cases of the legislators with criminal cases. Their argument is that, with a system like that, the criminals abstain from entering foray fearing that their case will come to an end soon the verdict might come against them. I liked this solution very much. But there is a small problem with it.

What if, the accused is proved guilty? We have to remove him/her from legislation. Then what? Elections have to be conducted in that constituency again. And what if the next candidate also proven guilty?

Extending that idea, why cant we make the time between nominations to elections six months or one year, and ask the courts to speed up the process of the cases on the contestants. This way, people don't have to vote multiple times and legislature will be criminal free. 

Philosophical dilemma with technical analysis.

Regarding stock trading, there are broadly two methods investors follow. Fundamental analysis and technical analysis.

It is considered that fundamental analysis is for long term investment, where the investor would check the balance sheet of the company to invest in it or not. On the other hand, techincal analysis does not bother itself with balance sheets or ledgers , but on charts which depict the history of the stock so far.The trader analyze the stock history and decide when to buy it and when to sell it. The philosophy behind this technical analysis is that there will be pattern for every stock.

Now my philosophical problem, is it right to follow technical analysis or not.  How can we be sure that there is a pattern and the stock follows the pattern in the future too.

Long back i denied the idea of "Circle of life", "History repeats itself" , " horoscopes can tell everything" etc etc. There is a reason for me to deny so. According to mathematics, if we toss a coin fifty times in a row, and if we  toss it again, the probability of head and tails will still be fifty-fifty. It implies that, the result of game cant be predicted based on the history. My life is an example too. Since kindergarden, people consider me an above average student. I have never failed
in school or in inter. But that didn't stop me to fail in the B.Tech first year From first semester of engineering to the last but one semester, i failed a few subjects in every semester. But that history, could not stop me to clear the last semester exams in one go , achieving the degree in four years.

If we have to judge a person , or guess the result of an outcome, based on past, then there wont be any "giving second chances". It closes our minds and make us stupids. Lets take the example of Indian cricket team. It got defeated many times in a row, but won again. Australia won many matches, in row, but some point it failed. The same goes with horoscopes, astrology. If i had to believe in technical analysis to make a quick buck, i have to believe in "Circle of life" things to avoid being an hypocrite.

Later, i read an article, which eliminated that dilemma. The author explained the essence of technical analysis i.e those charts does not just show the price of the stock each day, they actually show the psychology of other investors regarding that stock. The upper limit and lower limit does not just show the performance of the company but the belief of the investors in that stock. Now that made sense. Its human psychology. We, people, as a whole, are not better than sheep. Something in our mind tells us to follow other than making a new path, so , we follow what others are following. And as humans we have mental inertia, i.e its hard to change our belief system, unless some forces us to believe otherwise. If a stock is going up, that means, the leaders, in this case, the fundamental analysis people, start investing in it, and others start buying it because the stock is going up. When the fundamental analysis people start selling the stock, because the stock value went beyond the book-value, people follow them and sell it like its end of the world, so the stock value goes down, till again a fundamental analyst finds it good to buy. Its a pattern, not of stock, but psychology of people.

However, that lead to another problem. In technical analysis i am making decisions based on opinion of other investors but not on the performance of the company. Its like judging somebody based on opinion of others, without having first hand experience, making me one of the sheep, who buys and sells based on decision of others. I guess, thats the easy way to live in this world, without wasting much energy on thinking and analysing.