1st Jan 2015 - A Study in Irony
If some entity decides the course of events in our lives, I'm sure it loves irony. For how else can you explain the fact that the day I see The Internet's Own Boy, a splendid documentary on one of the biggest heroes of freedom of Internet, Aaron Swartz, is the day I find out that our beloved, "अच्छे दिन आ गए (good days are here)" touting, pro-development government orders ISPs to put a blanket ban over 60 websites including vimeo, dailymotion, github, pastebin, sourceforge, etc. In any general scenario I always find ironies amusing, maybe darkly amusing, but worth expending a smile nonetheless. But this time, I'm not amused. Not when they snatch away GitHub from me.
India's repute of producing software developers and engineers is world renowned. Long gone are the days when we were portrayed just as a bunch of people with fake accents sitting at call centers taking pesky calls at odd working hours. Though the Indian education system keeps ensuring that all creativity, and the art in solutions development is snuffed out of us by pencil-pushing, report-making and other activities synonymous to a drone, we still thrive by emulating the free flowing spirit of the tech world - hackathons, ideation cells, tech and business incubators and that sweet cherry on top - startups. Sorry, let me back up for a second; even drones do better jobs than those poor chaps slaving away at universities.
Then along comes polly. Sorry, Modi. Or to be fair, this BJP government. Acting on reports submitted by the intelligence advisory over hosting of contents sympathizing with ISIS, or knowledge about potentially dangerous piece of technology/code, they decided to go guns blazing and shut the whole thing down. Who cares if a multi-billion dollar industry, and much that goes on in it, is heavily dependent on some of these forums? Still not convinced about its importance? Well then to the average Indian television viewer - how the hell is IIN supposed to work if the same ISP under the boot of this government bans these sites? How can dreamers like him innovate if they cannot refer codes or previous projects? Irony, abounds!
There are those passionate Modi lovers who'd have already started fuming at me and would shout,"Why are you blaming one man? He's pro-change, pro-development. It's just that he's surrounded by lesser people! You cannot expect one man to do everything!". I wholeheartedly agree; but think back on the 10 years of UPA. Manmohan Singh was an honorable man, an honest policy maker once. Look what his company did to him. But apples and oranges aside, what do you have to say about Modi purporting ancient mythology as science? With effects as far reaching as these sensationalizing talks finding their way into revered conferences? Sir, with due respect, those may be your humble (or lofty) opinions and you're entitled to hold on to them. But look at what you've done! You're alienating progressive scientists now! There's an old idiom in hindi - "चौकी की बात चौके पे और चौके की बात चौकी पे नहीं करते (matters of forum are not discussed in kitchen and vice versa)". What about this piece of ancient wisdom? Irony, I tell you.
And all this talk of history and heritage for what? So that the average Indian kid feels proud? I'm sorry sir, I was proud once, and an avid follower of our ancient history, culture, heritage and even mythology. Alas, over the years the zeal, fanaticism and sheer stupidity exhibited by so called propagators of religion has forced me to give up faith on the idea of God! Yes, I got so tired of the debate that I stopped believing altogether! Am I the only one who sees the irony here?
I knew the honeymoon would end some day, the endless swooning over Modi will stop. It was only a matter of time when the impatient youth who elected him to power starts demanding immediate reforms which both sides of the house are in no mood to pass. I didn't know it would come so soon. All I demand is that you bring back my GitHub. I'm a software developer and I'm NOT a terrorist!
India's repute of producing software developers and engineers is world renowned. Long gone are the days when we were portrayed just as a bunch of people with fake accents sitting at call centers taking pesky calls at odd working hours. Though the Indian education system keeps ensuring that all creativity, and the art in solutions development is snuffed out of us by pencil-pushing, report-making and other activities synonymous to a drone, we still thrive by emulating the free flowing spirit of the tech world - hackathons, ideation cells, tech and business incubators and that sweet cherry on top - startups. Sorry, let me back up for a second; even drones do better jobs than those poor chaps slaving away at universities.
Then along comes polly. Sorry, Modi. Or to be fair, this BJP government. Acting on reports submitted by the intelligence advisory over hosting of contents sympathizing with ISIS, or knowledge about potentially dangerous piece of technology/code, they decided to go guns blazing and shut the whole thing down. Who cares if a multi-billion dollar industry, and much that goes on in it, is heavily dependent on some of these forums? Still not convinced about its importance? Well then to the average Indian television viewer - how the hell is IIN supposed to work if the same ISP under the boot of this government bans these sites? How can dreamers like him innovate if they cannot refer codes or previous projects? Irony, abounds!
There are those passionate Modi lovers who'd have already started fuming at me and would shout,"Why are you blaming one man? He's pro-change, pro-development. It's just that he's surrounded by lesser people! You cannot expect one man to do everything!". I wholeheartedly agree; but think back on the 10 years of UPA. Manmohan Singh was an honorable man, an honest policy maker once. Look what his company did to him. But apples and oranges aside, what do you have to say about Modi purporting ancient mythology as science? With effects as far reaching as these sensationalizing talks finding their way into revered conferences? Sir, with due respect, those may be your humble (or lofty) opinions and you're entitled to hold on to them. But look at what you've done! You're alienating progressive scientists now! There's an old idiom in hindi - "चौकी की बात चौके पे और चौके की बात चौकी पे नहीं करते (matters of forum are not discussed in kitchen and vice versa)". What about this piece of ancient wisdom? Irony, I tell you.
And all this talk of history and heritage for what? So that the average Indian kid feels proud? I'm sorry sir, I was proud once, and an avid follower of our ancient history, culture, heritage and even mythology. Alas, over the years the zeal, fanaticism and sheer stupidity exhibited by so called propagators of religion has forced me to give up faith on the idea of God! Yes, I got so tired of the debate that I stopped believing altogether! Am I the only one who sees the irony here?
I knew the honeymoon would end some day, the endless swooning over Modi will stop. It was only a matter of time when the impatient youth who elected him to power starts demanding immediate reforms which both sides of the house are in no mood to pass. I didn't know it would come so soon. All I demand is that you bring back my GitHub. I'm a software developer and I'm NOT a terrorist!
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