Monday, July 21, 2014

Shame on you Bangalore

The recent incident of rape of a 6 year old kid in a private international school (VIBGYOR High School) has made me lower my head with shame. The incident happened on July 2nd, reported to police on July 9th or 10th and media leak on July 17 or 18 and first arrest on July 21. The incident has bothered me at multiple levels and raised more questions than I can answer. To start with

  • The 6 year old kid was sent to a dark room as part of the punishment for mischievous behavior. What behavior entails a dark room punishment and who will be outside the dark room guarding the room?, did the parents of the school knew such punishments existed in the school, if yes why did they not raise a voice against such things? I asked some of my friends and they were totally unaware that such punishments existed.
  • Lets say for a second the punishment was justified, was it not time bound? who went back to fetch the kid from the room? didn’t she notice any abnormalities with the kid? what about the damn teacher who ordered the punishment did she not notice anything strange with the kid?
  • The incident got reported to the police almost 10 days later, and the media got a whiff of it a few days ago? why was there the delay from the parents to contact media, would they have expelled your kid from the school? to hell with it let them do, who in their right mind wants to send their kid after such incidents back to the same school again?
  • The parents thankfully for once gathered and protested against the school and the funny part within a day of the protest the police arrested the first suspect. Is the government/establishment sleeping, does it need people to get to the road before it can take any action?
  • A few incidents happen in UP and our honorable union Home minister and Women’s affairs minister make statements cautioning the government of UP, what about this one?, where is Rajnath Singh and where is Maneka Gandhi, doesn’t the lower states exist or they will only comment if the number of MP seats is more than 50?
  • The accused was dismissed from a school for conducting similar activity back in 2011, didn’t the VIBGYOR school do any background check or at the least ask the previous employer as to why he was dismissed.
  • For the accused to reach this level, it has to be premeditated. I am sure there were warning signs spanning over the 3 years he was employed there which the school/teachers/staff completely ignored.
  • The solution from the government is CCTV cameras in every school, how does this help? only our home minister can explain.
  • The parents protest also brought to light another incident in a different school a few years ago. Why did it not go to the media?
  • For the gathering/protest only 4000 people showed up, again another shame. It was a Sunday and was a peaceful protest why did not more people join the protest.
  • I almost forgot “thank you” supreme court for commuting the death sentences of the  accused in Delhi rape case.
  • At some level I think we need to make an example of a few convicted rapists and it has to be done at an extremely fast pace. What does it take to do this? Mr. Modiji we have elected you with great hopes, I hope you will live up to our expectations. 

I have nothing against the school but if the school says they have a special coaches for skating and bicycling or some such silly things, I would be very wary. 

Tuesday, July 08, 2014

Coca-Cola and car battery

My trusty/beloved VW is touchy about the battery, I think I have replaced the battery more times than the tires themselves in the last 12 years.

Other day over the long weekend it refused to start and no amount of pumping gas pedal would help and I presumed a dead or almost dead battery. So, I had to bring out my trusty jump starter (btw, a good investment than cables) and jump started the car. While doing this I noticed that the presumed dead battery was reading the right voltage (slightly less than optimum) and there was some white salty substance on battery lead. I figured the battery is slowly dying and it will last a few more months.

The weekend passed with me pumping gas pedal every time to start the car and figured this would be the way going forward till the battery completely dies.

One thing that kept bugging was the white salt like substance on the battery leads, I remembered in one of my previous life times someone had told me to pour a can of coca-cola to clean the battery leads. I had never practically done it till yesterday. On the way back from work I picked up a can of ice-cold coca-cola from the vending machine and once I reached home opened the hood and poured the entire can on the battery lead. I was surprised to the see the white thing dissolve away and the battery lead has a slight shine to it now. The biggest bang was when the car started without me touching the gas pedal.

ps: There is no significance for ice-cold and I am sure a room temperature coca-cola would have done the trick too but that would have meant I buy a 6 pack or a 12-pack.

pps: If interested in trying please make sure the car is turned off and ignition key out :)