Author: Atanu Dey

Everybody likes to be free. That’s evident not only from introspection (which only humans, as far as we can tell, are capable of) but from just looking around we can be certain that all other humans also want to be free. Not just humans, all sentient beings prefer being free. Even lower animals — dolphins, dogs, elephants, tigers, cats, birds, and what have you — have a definite preference for not being constrained. It must be genetically hard-coded in living beings since freedom is good for life. That much is clear. The question is why then is there so much lack of freedom.
Continue reading “Don’t they like freedom?”

The “Survey of Popular Political Sentiments” was interesting in it gave support to what I suspected. In this post, I attempt to summarize the main findings. But first, a great big thank you to all who retweeted the announcement of the survey and those who took the time to respond to the survey. I appreciate your help sincerely.
Continue reading “What I Learned from the Survey of Political Sentiments”

Whether Congress, and by extension the UPA, is a criminal enterprise could be a matter of detail. But evidently the UPA rewards criminal behavior. Among scores of instances, let’s just talk about a recent one related to Teesta Setalvad. She gained notoriety by becoming, as Sandeep puts it, “both the CEO and Chief Legal Officer of the Gujarat Riots Cottage Industry Inc,” in his blog post “The Wages of Teesta’s Sins“. Her sins include, but are not limited to, perjury in the Supreme Court. Check out the blog “Evidence Against Teesta Setalvad” for details. Now Teesta is being rewarded by the UPA for her tireless efforts at subverting the rule of law, etc. Congress has a history of rewarding criminals as long as it profits the Congress. Here’s a bit of history that the Indian school textbooks will not highlight.
Continue reading “Is the UPA Government a Criminal Enterprise?”

Here are the intermediate results of “A Survey of Popular Political Sentiments” which I posted yesterday. The number of respondents was limited to 100 by the free version of SurveyMonkey. The survey continues on “Google Forms.” I am learning how to consolidate the results from the Forms, and will update the results from it later. Below you will find the results of the first 100 responses.
Continue reading “Intermediate Results of the Survey”

Public sentiments determine social welfare, especially in a democracy. Perceptions are based on beliefs and what we believe to be true. This is a small, unpretentious, unscientific survey of popular political sentiments to find out how some people feel about what’s going on in India. It is a sample survey but is definitely biased: only those who read this blog (and other associated social media) are possible respondents. So this sample selection bias ensures that this cannot be generalized for the whole population. But I am interested in precisely that sample: those who read/write blogs and tweets. I need your help: please spread the word around.
Continue reading “A Survey of Popular Political Sentiments”

The first of the Four Noble Truths expounded by the great Gautam Buddha — the Enlightened One, the One Who Went Thus or Tathagata — is the truth about the existence of dukkha. It is an empirically verifiable claim that all sentient beings are subject to suffering of some type or another. In other words, bad stuff happens and good stuff does not happen all the time.
Continue reading “P. Sainath on the Evils of Neo-classical Economics”

I am not easily impressed by TED Talks but this one is a “must watch.” Mr Viravaidya — I kid you not — is funny as all hell. The subject is serious but he brings a refreshing light touch. Watch the embedded video below the fold.
Continue reading “Mechai Viravaidya: How Mr. Condom made Thailand a better place”

Yesterday while brewing my morning cup of coffee I saw through the kitchen window a huge plume of thick black smoke rising from the neighboring housing complex. A massive fire was evidently under way. The column of smoke ominously rose into the clear blue sky and I wondered what caused it. Perhaps it started as a kitchen fire or an electrical fire, I could not tell. Within minutes a dozen fire fighting units came rushing down the street, their wailing sirens shattering the morning calm. A little while later, the black plume started getting shades of white, indicating that the water jets from the fire tenders were working to control the blaze. Within an hour, the fire was over. The episode led me to reflect on the nature of fire and the visceral human reaction to it.
Continue reading “We Don’t See Rants on Fire on YouTube. Thankfully.”