Black Money

There's uproar in the country about bringing back the black money that's stashed abroad. As usual not surprisingly everyone is missing the point. It is not without reason they say, 'prevention is better than cure.' So why doesn't our economy behave in a way that it's impossible (or at least makes it very hard) to generate black money?

Here are two scenarios where black money is generated and possible solutions.

Land Registration
So there's a guidance value of x Rs/sqft for a specific area. Now this 'x' was probably set a long time back (order of maybe 3-5 years back). Real estate is very volatile and using 'x' as the basis to compute tax is probably not ideal. It's no secret that people quote just about 'x' even if they have paid as much as 3x for a specific property. When I bought a property I quoted it all in 'white' and paid a size able amount for registration and stamp duty and during the same day when I was at the registrar office, I could of course see other apartments in my own complex with exactly the same size being quoted for much lesser and I believe that I got a reasonable rate for my own apartment that I refuse to believe that anyone else buying at the same time paid drastically lesser than me. So black money was generated. How could it have been avoided?

Now is this really a problem that can't be solved with centralized software? There's too much power with the people working at the registrar offices. Move this power from the people into the software and all we really need are clerks who work with the software to help the common man, as R K Laxman would poignantly put it. Can't a software intelligently arrive at a appropriate guideline value based on recent transactions, yearly appreciation, year of the property, area guideline, builder reputation, amenities offered etc? It would be complex, but it's definitely do-able and all it needs is one guy who does "white" transactions to catch all the "black" stuff and automatically impose penalties.

Of course this can be abused.
What if the Govt. gamed the system by creating a really pricey transaction and fed it into their centralized system through the back end? Maybe the MPs have been brushing on their SQL skills!
How do we tackle this now? Hmm maybe we don't need to. This would have simply driven up the guideline value by a exorbitant amount that the property with taxation is now simply unaffordable and hence there are no buyers and in the long run the Govt loses more taxes if there are lesser transactions. If the gaming increased the rates marginally, then the property would be affordable though the number of buyers start dwindling as it goes higher and higher again leading to lesser transactions. Am not a economist, but I believe that gaming the system might prove more detrimental than beneficial.

Movie Theater Tickets
You've seen touts at some point in time selling movie tickets. I saw a recent press release that Ek Tha Tiger's first day tickets were sold at 700Rs for a 100 Rs. ticket. It's become a way of life that it's being reported as a matter of fact. Do you know why touts exist? It's really simple. Think hard. No? Think again. Give up? It's really simple. No?
Have you ever wondered why the ticket counters selling the movie tickets are outside? Ok forget it, now think of the airport - how would one go through immigration? You walk up to a person who checks your papers and then allows you through past that person. All one needs is a similar system for movie theaters and the tout problem is gone, for ever. What we need are "theater toll booths". Have you ever seen touts selling the passes for the toll booths on the highways? Exactly. All we need is to change the design of the God damn building!

These solutions are of course not perfect (nothing on the first try ever is), but I believe the focus really needs to be more on preventing the generation of black money.

Existential Crisis

I am going through an existential crisis. I know it. Not that am able to do much about it, though. Today when I walked out, the weather was dreamy. I thought it would be rather pleasant to look upwards and not have to bear the brunt of the Sun. The sky was gray and like seeing through a 3-D stereo-gram, when I tried to look beyond it, I thought of the Rover on Mars. When you are able to visualize things from a perspective so high, it draws the fact of one's own miniscule nature so lucidly that there's just no escaping it. What the heck was I doing here on Earth anyway?

So it was in this mood, I asked a friend what the purpose of life was yet again. This friend has always had an air of a philosophy about him and he gave me a response that I really liked to hear.

"The purpose of life is to lead a life where you don't have to ask such a question."

For some reason that really resonated with me. There was one tiny problem with it though - I have no clue what such a life would consist of. I have tried immersing myself in activities am passionate about, opening myself to experiences I wouldn't have dreamt about, questioning beliefs I hold strongly in my heart and yet invariably after some time, I wind up at the same point again and forced to confront the forbidden question again and again.

So I turned to this friend again and asked him and his response was that I was a very inquisitive analytical person and that I would figure it out eventually. As if I wasn't weighed down enough by the question, I now have to bear the burden of expectations too.

Where does one start?

Observations & solutions

In India, people like to advertise their kid's names at the back of their cars for whatever joy. I guess someone started the trend with his one kid. It caught on. Soon we had people advertising that they had two kids and then of course the names of all 4 kids on the 4 available corners of the poor rear windscreen. Population control can go to hell. It's quite the rage now.
My response to them all is to hold on until the day I put up my entire family tree tracing back 10 generations on the window of my car! Ha beat that!

If there's a queue people will jump it. Queues at office canteens, the bank ATM, for restrooms. What's more they give such preposterous reactions and responses when you confront them.
I really wish something called Karma existed, cause I don't see much evidence of it. Day after day I see people jumping queues in front of me and fighting with them every day takes such a toll on oneself. 
Here's how I wish God had created people or if he didn't the way the human body should have worked. When people do something like this, there's a small decrement to their overall Karma factor and that's displayed on their forehead. Just a positive or a negative sign followed by a number. I think just being able to see someone commit a act like jumping a queue and it instantly being recorded so visibly is reward enough for me to not confront the jumper. 

And for the offender, nothing like waking up on a bright sunny day and seeing in the mirror that your karma is at (minus) -34334934934394394934934934939434.34934393434 :) The mirror will probably need to be spooked so that it doesn't read backwards, but let's save that issue for another day.
 
Imagine the number of things that would become easier for everyone if our bodies worked like that. Instead most of us are so content with virtual karma on silly social networking sites. The whole concept of Karma needs to be driven by one's moral fiber, by our own conscience and if that says it's ok to jump a queue when others are waiting, there's something really really wrong with us.

Things to do

Fitness

• Run the Bangalore 10K run in 2013 in under 55 mins. 
• 2012 run - 84 mins - mission to complete it without any training accomplished

• Do 50 consecutive push-ups.
• Jul 2012 - best is 33 consecutive pushups

• Learn swimming

• Climb Everest

Sports

• A perfect game in 10 pin bowling.  
• Jul 2012 - As of this day, best is 191. Average hovering around 120. shucks. How does one hook with a house ball and a conventional grip?

Soul

• Learn the piano well enough to play "I am a pirate" soundtrack

• Compose a song

Programming

• HEQL in Clojure and ANTLR

• Mig2 in Clojure

Quotes

These are quotes I strongly feel about. Some of them, I made up. Some are adapted and yet others I blatantly stole.

- Not to worry. If 2012 doesn't kill us, relationships will. If relationships don't kill us, love will. If love doesn't kill us, the memories will and if the memories don't kill us, those haunting thoughts would definitely do the job

- Funny how we can live in a planet inhabited by 7 billion people and still feel lonely

- Funny how we live surrounded by water and don't have access to clean drinking water in most parts of the world

- I am not what my parents think I am. I am not what my parents think I should be either. I am me

- Love exists. I know cause I have been at the giving end. Manipulation also exists. I know cause I have been at the receiving end

- I keep hearing love and marriage are two different things. So I wonder why marry at all?

- It's remarkably difficult to live alone

- To Hell and beyond
Adapted from 'To infinity and beyond'- Buzz Lightyear's line

The purpose of life

Is there any meaning behind it all?
To our existence?
To our dreams?
To our saving of resources for a better future that might come or might not?
What's the point behind it all?

Years ago I used to ask everyone I encountered about this. (I guess I've been a nutcase for quite some time). I got answers that convinced me that no one had a God damn clue.
There were some that said the purpose of life was reproduction. Yeah right mindless reproduction without a thought to how much of us our planet can sustain
Some said the purpose of life was to be happy, though most didn't have a clue as to what made them happy. Shopping makes some people happy. Looking good makes some people happy. Some wanted to be admired by others, respected by others to be happy. I could be immensely happy with just one wafer of chocolate jokes, but then that might not work for all.
Some were the cryptic ones who couldn't answer the question directly so they came up with their own ingenious way of saying they don't know. 'The purpose of life is to figure out that, the purpose' - Yeah right, might as well just admit you don't have a clue.


I watched the 2012 movie again. I've seen it earlier, but I guess it's had more of an impact on me this time as we are on the threshold of 2012. If the various interpretations that are floating around about why the Mayan calendar doesn't have a date beyond Dec 21 2012 are to be believed, then there will be a significant impact and change to the world as we know today. There could be physical changes (Earthquakes, faults, Tsunamis). There could be chaos, anarchy, mass-looting. As one friend says, the change will be of spiritual significance. There are also the non believers who think life's going to be as usual - 'same shit, different day'. As in the 2012 movie who knows, we might be really building space ships to get somewhere else - a selected few of us trying to prolong what we call today the human race.

So is there a purpose to life at all? Something that we need to complete before 2012 overtakes us? Frankly I don't know and having seen what I have already am not really too keen to get on to that spaceship either. I would rather be like those amazing musicians in the Titanic movie who continued to just do what they did best even when it didn't seem to matter anymore...

Huck's ten commandments

Over the years, through the lens of various experiences, I have formed my own set of commandments, which I believe would help me become a better person in my own eyes. Am hopeless at some of these today, but hopefully I'll be able to become better at them some day. These are of course based on my own experiences. They might or might not work for you. In either case, form your own code for yourself, if you have to.

I) Get up no later than 8:00 AM everyday for the rest of my life - Depending on where you live, the Sun in all probability has risen before you have. There's a lot of positive energy that can be felt by just synchronizing your timings with that of the Sun.

II) None of us knows what the future holds, but a child like enthusiasm, lots of hope, a heart that can forgive and a mind that can forget seem like worthy things to take into it - Granted none of this are possible without a herculean effort, but good things don't seem to come easily.

III) Holding extreme beliefs makes you vulnerable to experiences that will question the same - Such experiences are however truly ethereal and liberating - Either don't hold extreme opinions on anything or question everything you already hold to understand why it is so better. You'll have the luxury of time to do this at your own pace and not be hurried on to it one fine day. This could be as simple as thinking Sachin Tendulkar is a God or it could be more trickier as questioning His very existence. And yes if you think with absolute conviction that the Chicken came before the egg, question that also. Ironically enough this very commandment is a extreme belief on not holding extreme beliefs. Go figure.

IV) No two experiences are the same. The worst you can do is belittle another's pain by saying you've already been through it and therefore they ought to listen to you. The best you can do is just listen to them.

V) When you have something bad to say, say it to the person's face. When you have something good to say, write to them. The written word lasts longer.

VI) The best antidote for depressive thoughts is exercise. It's free, only takes a little amount of will power and gets positive energy flowing through your body and mind immediately.

VII) When in doubt of whether to say something or not, just say it. People usually don't get irritated with the fact that you said it, but more in the tone you said it. Go figure.

VIII) Be honest with people. Don't say "I don't know" to direct questions. Honesty brings out things they have to deal with. Dishonesty is something you have to deal with and that's more tough.

IX) Money is important - to a certain extent. Give away the rest to things you believe in and people in need. I gave away some to wikipedia this month.

X) The best you can do is put yourself in a situation that gives another what they want even if it ends up hurting you. The worst you can do is wallow in self pity. - Love another beyond the capacity of what you thought possible. If you get hurt, there's a lot of people out there who can and will help plus of course there's always Huck's ten commandments to fall back on!