The story of an Indian behemoth!

One could not wish for a worse and more gruesome death than being burnt to cinders in a railway compartment. This unfortunately has been the fate of some of my fellow countrymen over the last few months, in a series of train mishaps. Particularly horrendous is the panic and confusion that ensues post a train in motion catching fire and hapless passengers running helter and skelter to escape pursuing flames, suffocating smoke and raising heat in the steel bogie. Post Godhra in 2002, the Indian Railways has had numerous instances of trains catching fire resulting in deaths to countless passengers. What invariably follow’s is news chats, breast beating, finger pointing and distribution of funds to the effected by the Honorable Railway Minister. Herein lie two pertinent questions: 1. Has the cause of the fire been ascertained, the fault fixed and the responsible nailed? 2. From what fund, is the tax payer’s money distributed? While I deeply sympathize with those that have suffered and do agree that they need succour, it is painful to see incompetence accepted , the guilty getting away, people dying and the tax payer made to pay, while the those guilty in this bumbling, bungling behemoth called the Indian Railways stumble onto the next calamity and the vicious cycle plays out again and again. That the railways are in bad shape and need urgent attention is there for all to see, except possibly those in the system. The passenger is at high risk and maybe it is worth their while to insurance themselves for a journey akin to air passengers. I clearly remember a picture in my school history book, of Akbar, the Mughal Emperor perched on an elephant and distributing alms to the poor. Times of not changed much, since then, except that the elephant is gone. Or has it really? The Indian railway’s which to me looks like an old infirm rouge elephant, needs serious urgent reforms, if it is to stop killing innocents by the bushels. It is an enduring joke that Laloo Yadav was feted as the supposedly greatest Rail Minister that we have had and this was lent credence by the IIM's inviting him for talk shows and various other random bodies singing praises to him. Well, Laloo's legacy if there was ever one has gone The poor Indian needs to stop dying simply because somebody who was incompetent was on watch!

The Turing Enigma!

I'm sure very few of my fellow denizens would have heard of Alan Turing, mathematics genius, supposedly the inventor of the computer and more importantly code breaker. Alan Turing helped decipher German Naval codes during World War 2, thus ensuring Allied supremacy of the sea's and it is said that he brought the ghastly blood letting to a premature close. However there was a twist in the tale. A WW2 hero, Turing took his own life in 1954 after being charged for his homosexuality and fired from his job,two years after his conviction on charges of gross indecency. He was 41. In a 1936 research paper, Mr. Turing anticipated a computing machine that could perform different tasks by altering its software, rather than its hardware. He also proposed the now famous Turing test, used to determine artificial intelligence. In the test, a person asks questions of both a computer and another human — neither of which they can see — to try to determine which is the computer and which is the fellow human. If the computer can fool the person, according to the Turing test, it is deemed intelligent. The British have now pardoned Turing by Royal decree and the British prime minister, David Cameron, said in a statement: “His action saved countless lives. He also left a remarkable national legacy through his substantial scientific achievements, often being referred to as the ‘father of modern computing.’ ” When Mr. Turing was convicted in 1952, he was sentenced — as an alternative to prison — to chemical castration by a series of injections of female hormones. He also lost his security clearance because of the conviction. He committed suicide by eating an apple believed to have been laced with cyanide. Some would say that justice has been done to a genius who lost his life due to the prejudice of fellow men who cannot seem to live with diversity. India too seems to be in the throes of indecision as far as homosexuality is concerned. The Turing tragedy could be a case in point of misplaced morals, hasty action and then

repenting at leisure!