Corona Testing in India: Possible Way Ahead

Many a times when problems overwhelm us, we tend to lose sight of simple solutions that can help reduce the problem's impact to a large degree, if not solve the problem itself. 

For some time now the world has been confidently asserting that the low number of Corona cases in India have been because of under-testing. Rather than getting into the debate about such assertions, it is a fact that India has been conservatively testing - possibly to avoid wasting valuable test-kits on unlikely cases. Everyone is aware about the danger Corona poses to a densely populated country like ours. If it gets into social transmission stage, it will be a DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack on our health-care system (like it has proven to be in the Europe and the US). For a delicately poised health-care system like ours, it will turn out to be a monumental crisis. Long story short, since test kits can be in short supply, wide-scale testing in an over-populous country like ours, is hardly practical, and the powers that be would try to conserve this 'fire-power' till the right time. 

THE GAME CHANGER

India has been importing test-kits from Germany [1], and the test costs almost 4-5k per head, which is pretty high, if considered at the scale of Indian population. One Indian lab came up with a homogeneous test-kit [2] that can not only test faster and more accurately, but is also more cost effective. Cost of testing still remains in the range of 1k-1.5k per head though - again not exactly cheap, when considered at the scale of Indian population.

While all this has been happening, today I came across a smart way of addressing this very problem of increasing test coverage without burdening the available resources, namely: test-kits and time taken for testing. And this method is a perfect example of how simple solutions hide under plain sight when we are overwhelmed with the monstrosity of a problem. Here's the tweet a friend shared with me, and light bulbs went off! - 

It refers to a research paper published by researchers at Goethe University, Frankfurt about a method to increase Covid-19 test coverage across the world. The english translation of corresponding news is available here - [3]

At a higher level, the method suggests pooling of test samples from a large group of people, and then using binary search to drill down to the positive cases. 

In layman's terms, if let's say the test was conducted using blood samples of people, then we mix blood samples of say 100 people and conduct the test once for that "mixed" sample. If the test is negative: voila! all 100 people are corona-negative and no further testing is needed. 

If, on the other hand, the test is positive, then it indicates that there are one or more corona-positive samples in that "mixed" sample. So, as a next step, we bifurcate the samples into groups of 50 each, and then conduct a test on each of those 2 groups. Apply the same method again: if negative, all the samples in the groups are corona-negative; and if positive, bifurcate the group further into groups of 25 each, and then wash, rinse and repeat till you drill down to the corona positive sample(s). 

HOW EXACTLY DOES IT WORK

The bifurcation part is where this method derives its power from. It's a standard binary search algorithm. Well, a little less than standard maybe - because in this case the effectiveness of the algorithm depends on probabilistic distribution of corona-positive cases across a demography, rather than the textbook pre-condition of having a "sorted-set" to give it the edge. 

In simpler terms, the effectiveness of this method in a city like New York will be far less, since the prevalence of corona-positive cases there is very high (projected to be 50% of population in a few days). But in India, which fortunately seems to be at a much earlier stage, and hence the prevalence of the cases are low, due to group elimination, this method will be quite effective. 

So far, we have been concentrating on testing only highly probable cases - like people with travel-history or people with corona-positive contacts. If we adopt this method, we can bring additional categories of people, like probables, less-probables, precautionary-test-needed, flu-patients etc, under the ambit of tests. Increasing the scope of tests in such way, will not only help us strike down the "under-testing" assertions, but will help us detect and contain/quarantine corona cases at a much higher rate, without increasing costs or time required to test in proportion. 

BINARY SEARCH TO REDUCE NUMBER OF TESTS

By definition, and let's say in ideal conditions, binary search will roughly take about 2logN + 1 (base 2) tests to find out a corona-positive sample in a group of N samples. For example, if let's say there is 1 corona positive in a group of 100 people, here's how the testing process will work out - 

test-1: 100 samples => positive
test-2 and test-3: 50 samples each => 1 group positive
test-4 and test-5: 25 samples each => 1 group positive
test-6 and test-7: 12/13 samples each => 1 group positive
test-8 and test-9: 6 samples each => 1 group positive
test-10 and test-11: 3 samples each => 1 group positive
test-12 and test-13: 1/2 samples each => 1 group positive
test-14 and test-15: 1 sample each => 1 positive

So instead of needing 100 tests for 100 people, we needed only 15 test kits to come to the same conclusion/result. 

Also, a major boost will come in the form of all-negative tests, i.e. if the first "mixed" test of 100 samples itself turns out to be negative - it will mean all 100 people are corona-negative and no further tests are needed. This can be used to pool all less-likelies and less-probables together into 1 test - to verify the assumption that they are indeed corona-negative. 

Now the obvious question will be - what if all 100 are to be corona-positive? In that case, we will end up using more test-kits than 100, specifically: N + 2LogN + 1 = about 115. In other words, the effectiveness of such binary search will be directly proportional to the prevalence of corona in the demography under test. Higher the prevalence (think New York), lower the effectiveness. Lower the prevalence (think tier-2 cities in India), higher the effectiveness. Here, prevalence is expected rate/spread of infection, not measured one. 

CLINICAL VIABILITY: POOLING

Now, in the age of sensationalism, it's but natural to be cynical about such claims, and counter question if all this "mixing" of samples is even clinically viable or practical. That is, can we even "mix" two samples, and reliably test the "mixture" for corona-positivity. 

Turns out the clinical term for such group testing is - "pooling". Pooling of samples is not a novel technique per se. I came across a research paper that asserts that such pooling has been in use since the times of world-war-2. 

So now the question remains if such pooling of samples is possible in case of Corona virus testing. Turns out not only the Goeth University, Frankfurt, but even a university from Israel, with the help from a private lab, has managed to successfully test [5] pooling of samples for Corona testing. The false-negative rate mentioned in the paper [4] is about 10% when testing for 1-in-32 samples, and I assume it can be brought down further for 1-in-16 tests. 

One small technical point to note here is - this method makes things scale even faster, since it potentially allows detecting 1-in-16 i.e. one positive case out of 16 samples. So the 'N' that we were considering above, will actually itself become log-to-the-base-16 of the actual size of the group, increasing the testing capacity at an even higher (exponentially higher) rate. In simpler terms, every one of those 16 samples, can themselves be a mixture of 16 samples, since the final test can detect 1-in-16 of the "mixed" sample which may have showed up positive in an earlier test run. 

FINAL THOUGHTS

All this information has been compiled from resources available on the internet, solely for making it easier to understand how this technique could be highly useful in Indian context, and why India should aggressively pursue and explore this further. 

I am no medical/clinical expert here, and this is not a declaration that this will bring us out of the clutches of this Corona pandemic. Nevertheless, this is a ray of hope for a densely populated country like ours, and I will love to hear what our medical professionals have to say about this. I am sure there will be some practical/logistical issues/obstacles in adopting this, but I, for one, would like to  believe that the benefits to efforts ratio, for efforts required in overcoming those obstacles, will be high enough, given the whole economy is being held hostage due to the spread of this pandemic. 

Here's hoping for a quick recovery. 

REFERENCES

Here are some references that I collected from the twitter thread, and elsewhere on the internet. 

[1] Chennai Firm Close to Developing First India-Made Coronavirus Test Kits, But 'Govt Nod May Take 2-3 Weeks'
[2] Meet the woman behind India's first covid testing kit

[3] Pool testing of SARS-CoV-02 samples increases worldwide test capacities many times over
[4] Paper: Evaluation of COVID-19 RT-qPCR test in multi-sample pools
[5] Pooling Method for Accelerated Testing of COVID-19

Musings about Hindutva and Secularism

It's been an amusing watching political reactions post the election results of 2019. On one side there is this repulsive Amar Singh, who changes colours faster than a chameleon, talking about how he kicked Manishankar Aiyyar's butt back in his hay days, and on the other side there are likes of Shashi Tharoor musing about the results in as honest terms as the suave diplomat in him allows himself to.

THE SHASHI THAROOR INTERVIEW

Just sometime back I watched Karan Thapar interviewing Shashi Tharoor about Congress' debacle in the 2019 election. 



I like Karan Thapar for the pointed questions and his ability to shoot point blank. It's a treat when you have an erudite like Tharoor responding from the other end. It makes for a very entertaining and a very thought-provoking discussion.

While for a long time I myself have been wishing to see a Congress lead by Shashi Tharoor as a capable and much needed opposition to Modi, as Karan Thapar kept suggesting all through the interview, I am as 'optimistic' about it happening, as either of them are. 

That aside, what troubled me towards the end of the interview was the standard hate-mongering about RSS and Hindutva. I have been hearing this for a long time, from this pariah-making industry, and this time I decided to note down my thoughts around this. 

HINDUTVA AND SECULARISM

In the interview, they sound so worried about how Hindutva is dangerous, how it will "destroy" this multi-cultural country, how it's against the Nehruvian ideas (while simultaneously being 'intolerant' to an alternative school of thought that Savarkar presented - and why). But at the same time they are either completely unaware of, or are unwilling to acknowledge, why so many people in the country, who, by the way, believe in live-and-let-live or 'वसुधैव कुटुंबकम्', and who would have voted BJP to power, do not associate Hindutva with the negative connotations that these people are so hellbent on projecting. 

The fact that Hindutva rose as a response to counter the hardline presented by political cults of Islam and Christianism, seems to be nowhere in their conscious. Neither does it seem to register with them that Congress' idea of 'secularism' - appeasing religious vote-banks - has been laid bare time and again, may that be way back in late 80's in the Shah Bano case or as recently as in defending triple talaq. They never seem to acknowledge that it's the RSS that's been pushing for common civil code for so many years, and it's the congress and the muslims who are opposing it, and having it their way for so long. The Indian populace may not be as big an 'intellectual' as they are, but they are smarter than what likes of Karan Thapar seem to assume. They catch these double standards and that's what they have rejected. 

That's also why people seem to resonate with Modi when he says 'the veil of secularism has been lifted from those who were hiding behind it'. Secularism, lately, has become the idea that pretentiously denounces everything that can cause even slight inconvenience to religious 'minorities' (Common Civil Code, Triple Talaq et al), and upholds everything that undermines Hinduism (Shabarimala, Hindu Terrorism et al). And while one can endlessly debate for or against it, people have acknowledged this disparity and double standards, and have expressed it through their votes. 

There are scores of intellectuals and journalists who wouldn't say a word about the train that was audaciously set on fire, burning scores of people, including women and kids, to death, but would endlessly go on denouncing the anger that boiled over into the unrest that followed. Remind me why there are hardly any 'intellectuals' or journalists who are critical of muslims when they commit a religious crime. For all the wrongs that you associate with Hindutva, it doesn't kill you for being critical of Hinduism 24x7, despite being a Hindu yourself. Try doing that with Islam, and in no time you will have to go hiding like a Salman Rushdie or a Taslima Nasreen. 

The moment you have muslims (and these so called 'seculars' or 'liberals') denouncing the wrongs that (other) muslims do, as vociferously as Hindus do when some overzealous Hindus commit a religious crime, the Hindutva that these people fear of so much, will dissolve in thin air. 

PARTING THOUGHTS

In this context, what's really dangerous is that these so called intellectuals, who look upon themselves so highly and who consider themselves as the torch-bearers of the secular cosmopolitan thought, either aren't cognisant of this, or are just plain unwilling to acknowledge it. 

So far as they keep up beating around the bush like this, Hindutva will keep gaining momentum, and people like me, despite being secular and liberal in our thoughts, will not find any fault with it. After all, if true secularism is never to see the light of the day, and if it has to be a political cult that rules India, I would much rather prefer it to be the one that I belong to, and one that I have confidence about in having scope for inclusiveness for any other religion. I definitely don't want to live in a Bangladesh or a Pakistan of yore, thank you very much. 

The Kasmir Conundrum

The recent situation in Kashmir had me intrigued and I wanted to find out if there is any base, other than the age old separatist rhetoric, behind the boil. Incidentally, I came across this purportedly facebook post by a young Kashmiri lady - Shazia Bakshi touting reasons about how she went on from being an Indian to being a Kashmiri - vis-a-vis her 'identity'. 

It had me concerned, not because her arguments held much water, they didn't as a matter of fact, and I will come to it, but more because that outlined how gullible even the educated Kashmiri youth is to anti-India calls and related brainwash. You would expect their education to have a say in determining right from wrong during their inner-voice debates, and lead them to choose a path to co-existence, peace and prosperity; over religious, regional and perceived-superior (and hence mistaken) identity. 

Since the writeup came from a girl who claimed to be an Indian before she became a Kashmiri, I decided that one writeup was from horse's mouth, and was enough to gauge the situation and the mindset there in Kashmir. 

One thing was crystal clear to me - the veil of her 'Indianness' was pretty thin. the vitriol was in your face. It was obvious she got brainwashed at the slightest of a bait. In fact, that write-up was probably not aimed at Indians, but at Kashmiris, who were/are sitting on the fence, recruiting them towards the Burhan-Wani-cause. After all, what better person to recruit sane minded people towards a path to destruction, than someone who claims to be 'one of them'. 

Initially I wanted to rip through each and every argument she had in her writeup; but then I realised many of the arguments were not worth the response anyway. They were not arguments, they more felt like her attempt at convincing herself. What needed response was the way she sympathized with Burhan Wani, claiming the guy had not even fired a bullet. It was a ludicrous premise, if not ridiculous. Should India/army have waited till he fired a few rounds and killed people in buckets? Nevertheless, I found it intriguing enough to check out more about Burhan Wani. 

The first image I found, was that of him wearing a kalashnikov and (Pakistani?) army fatigues. Then there was a neutral sounding article about Burhan Wani in Huffington Post (india), detailing his life. An interesting anecdote about why Burhan Wani became a Hizbul Mujahideen commander - mind you, commander of an organization that's declared a terrorist outfit by India, the EU and the USA - was the incident where an army patrol bullied him and his brother, friends in his late teens. And that was enough of a reason for him to join a state-fighting terrorist outfit. His father puts in a very convincing defence as to why his son joined a terrorist camp: his 'ghairat' (self-respect) made him retaliate. And I think this is thread most of the Kashmir-cause-champions hang on dearly to, most of the time - that 'you did it first and we are retaliating'. Playing victim is an excellent alibi to veil over your real intentions and deeds. Here is a wikipedia article that very succinctly explains the psychology behind abusers routinely engaging in self-victimization -

It is common for abusers to engage in victim playing. This serves two purposes:
1. justification to themselves – as a way of dealing with the cognitive dissonance that results from inconsistencies between the way they treat others and what they believe about themselves.
2. justification to others – as a way of escaping harsh judgment or condemnation they may fear from others.

Spot on, wiki! That explains most of these alibis, doesn't it? I sometimes wonder if the Kasmiri Pundits, who were driven out of their homes, if not killed, for staying in their motherland of Kashmir, had started retaliating violently, leaning on their 'ghairat' (self-respect), would these same Kashmir-cause-champions or Burhan-Wani sympathizers give credence to that 'ghairat'? 

Destruction, killing people or inciting mobs to go against a state/republic is not how you avenge/revenge or satisfy your 'ghairat'. At least not in this post barbarian era. There are better, diplomatic, social and evolved ways to address your concerns in this day and age. 

After all, we don't see people in rest of the India turning against the state and becoming terrorists because of overtures by army and police (unless they are resuscitated by the communist, who get funded, we know from where). There are so many examples of police overtures being fought in courts all over india. i am sure someone will quickly point out that kashmir situation is 'different'. Well, maybe it is. Any thoughts about who/what made it different? The pattern of arguments that follow this question are the same old Ruy Lopez with Sicilian Defense boilerplate: eventually ending at "we want to join Pakistan". Good, now you are talking. What follows is my, a proud Indian's, message to all those thinly-veiled 'Indian' Kashmiris (and their sympathizers) who advocate Kashmir joining Pakistan. A tough stance that I wish India takes, instead of soft-gloving Kashmir.

"""
Now that we have cut all the crap and arrived at the root cause, let's get one thing out of the way before we discuss any further: it's not happening - you are not taking Kashmir to Pakistan, no matter how hard you try. Get over it. It's been 50 years since Kashmir was merged with the then new born India, and while the details can be argued for and against till the end of the time, the Kashmir deed is done and dusted in the last century. India has spent way too much time and resources since then in building its defences and guarding Kashmir as its own territory. No one and nothing, not even a nuclear holocaust - in which India has higher chances of surviving than Pakistan, can change that fact now. 

One step further, it's definitely not happening on the basis of religion. India has never adhered-to/believed-in the two-nations theory - reason why the Hindu-rashtra theory is fought with tooth and nail. If Kashmir was to let off to Pakistan just because it's majority Muslim as of now, then the left and center won't have any face to fight against the right when it comes to the Hindu-rashtra theory. So forget the right, you can't get much of support even from the left or center for your cessation demands. 

As for a plebiscite, India will never accept one since Pakistan has worked overtime to increase its own settlements in the PoK to bias any future plebiscites; while India still gives you a special status through Article-370. You should hang on to it, rather than stretching it so much that the rest of India looses its patience and starts demanding the article be dropped for good. It's the taxes we Indians pay, that has sustained Kashmir and your life style over the last 50-60 years. Reference: here is the latest [2016-17 budget for J&K at a glance](http://jakfinance.nic.in/Budget16/budGlance.pdf) that shows 48% of your budgeted 'income' is out of the grants that the central government bestows upon you. Don't you forget that. 

Better be sane, stop brainwashing your kids, and learn to co-exist with Kashmiri Pundits and the rest of India. That's the path towards peace, prosperity and a better quality of life. 
"""

The Two-Face and the Arm-twisting

India lately has been outraged by this Devayani Khobragade saga, and the in general high-handedness of US. A lot of people, even from the affluent IT sector, who hold almost daily interaction with their american counterparts, and hence nurture a soft-corner towards US if not a very pro-US mind-set, stand highly annoyed and disillusioned about the way this Indian diplomat is treated for paltry reasons.

The perception of fuck-the-business-if-no-respect-towards-India is quite palpable in at the people I observed. So i decided to pen down my own perspective vis-a-vis American arguments.

What's this visa fraud all about?

Here is a link, that details the 'fraud'. In short Khobragade promised ~$10/hr, paid about half of that and tried to suppress that afterwards. That's all there is to the 'fraud'.

What about the Blackmailing Angle?

Going by this timeline of the Khobragade case as published by Times of India, one is inclined to wonder if this is really a fraud as touted by holier-than-thou United States of America, or if this is a gross overstepping of jurisdiction by US authorities in general. Especially since the Indian HC had issued restraining order on the maid, while the US authorities kept neglecting complaints and information since July.

What treatment was she meted out?

• Handcuffed in front of her school-going children
• Strip searched
• Cavity searched
• Confined in the same cell as drug addicts

Doesn't she have diplomatic immunity?

Well, the US says she doesn't. To quote their state department deputy spokesperson Marie Harf -

"Under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, 
the Indian deputy consul general enjoys immunity from the jurisdiction of U.S. courts only with respect to 
acts performed in the exercise of consular functions. So, in this case, she fell under that specific kind 
of immunity and would be liable to arrest pending trial pursuant a felony arrest warrant."

Hold on a second there, lady. Raymond Allen Davis killed 3 pakistanis working under-cover sometime back. Yet, under the same Vienna Convension on Consular Relations, you argued he perfectly enjoyed diplomatic immunity, even though he had killed 3 people in a foreign country, despite being some administration attache to the embassy (or under-cover CIA agent?).

I take it - paying $6/hr less than promised by a Depuly Consul General of India, is a wayyy graver crime than merely killing a few here and there in a foreign country by some administration attache of US embassy.

So grave, that not only is she denied any diplomatic immunity, but is strip searched, cavity searched, and confined in the same cell as drug addicts.

What does US media say?

This WaPo author - Swati Sharma tries to tone it down saying similar/worse treatments were given to other Indian diplomats as well in the past. Then why so much noise this time? So past wrongdoings justify present ones? Is that what you are trying to say Ms Sharma?

She states drug-offenses are minor in US. And under-wage charges are as grave? Are you sure you guys have got your priorities right there?

This post in TOI quotes some NYT post about Indian reaction being unworthy of a democratic govt. Excuse me? Now you will teach us about what is democratic and what is undemocratic? The same people who disregarded the whole world, even the UN, and attacked a sovereign country of Iraq - destroyed the whole country, killed its people - for what? A baseless mirage of WMDs - that were never found there.

The same people who run Guantanamo Bay, are now lecturing the most tolerant country in the world (nothing to be proud of really), about human rights violation in underpaying of a maid by a diplomat.

Opportunist Indians, in the US itself, keen to prove how 'american' they are, are using this unfortunate incident to lecture India about how it's wrong about siding with the diplomat. What they seemingly fail to understand is it's not about the diplomat. It's about the country. A diplomat represents his/her country. Faceless. So insulting, humiliating a diplomat is like insulting, humiliating his/her country.

Under-currents in the Social and National Media

While the general perception is that of anger and outrage, there is this section of not only national, but even the social media, that's busy digging out Khobragade's and her family's alleged links to corruption. What is it that you are trying to prove? That she was all corrupt and hence deserved to be humiliated by some foreign country for the graft she committed here, while she was representing India as a diplomat?

If at all true, try her in the Indian courts for those charges. I don't see any point in confusing the humiliation with India's internal business.

What Next?

While initially people were quite happy with the Indian govt showing some spine and taking some strong actions, soon it's becoming clear how sincere they were. The Delhi elections have shown that the Indian electorate is not some fool that you can deceive by mere posturing before elections.

The banana republic, that India has become due to these spineless and corrupt rulers, busy siphoning out tax payer's money through whatever outlet available, doesn't have the willingness and guts to say and do what's necessary.

Over the time, the mellow govt will meekly surrender, accept these insults and will get back to what they are good at - money-making; while the self-respecting neo Indian youth will keep licking these invisible wounds resulting out of such uncalled for arm twisting. Sad thing it is, but a fact, that we are not an Israel yet.

Update [Thu, Dec 26, 2013]:

Further to this, here are a couple of more blogs that throw some light on different aspects of the story.

• Swagato Ganguly interprets Preet Bharara and his possible intentions in this interesting read - In Khobragade's hounding, an ambitious brown man assumes white man's burden

• Peter Van Buren, former US foreign service employee, and now a whistleblower, analyses graver wrongdoings by US Embassies around the world, including but not limited to underpayment and abuses of domestic help by their own diplomats; exposing yet again the double-standards of holier-than-thou US - Diplomatic Abuse of Servants: Not Just for Indians

Khidrapur: Grandeur Carved in Stone

Khidrapur Temple

Khidrapur was one of the primary reasons why I took my bike to Sangli on the last weekend of 2011 and the first of 2012. I had been wanting to check this place out for a long time, but it just didn't come through. This time I was determined to make it happen. It was primarily for such outing-cum-photography excursions that I had bought a new mono-pod, since historical places strictly dont allow tripods. Especially if they are being managed by Archaeological Survey of India. Now this ASI is seemingly one rare govt organization which appears damn serious about its work. They not only maintain their sites impeccably well, but they are quite strict while enforcing their rules too. I hear the Khidrapur temple was also in a state of disarray before it was handed over to ASI, and since the handover, there has been a sea-change in the way it's maintained and projected.

The road to Khidrapur from Sangli is, for the most part, straight-forward. Sangli-Jaysingpur-NarasobaWadi-Kurundwad. In Kurundwad, it's better to ask for the correct turn. Another place where it's better to ask before proceeding is Sainik-Takali where the road is quite small and bad.

Paddy-fields along the way

Also, this is where it might get a bit troublesome to maneuvour a car. Otherwise rest of the road is wide-enough and in excellent condition. Once you cross Sainik-Takali, you have a straight road to Khidrapur, you can't miss it. The fields along both sides of the road, span the horizon as long as your gaze reaches. The occasional string of high coconut trees in the midst of these fields give the whole scenary a bit of Goan touch. They stand very pretty. Typical of a village setting, you will find quite a bit of birds sitting on the wires along the roads, or wading in the ponds alongside. Egrets, herons, kingfishers, swallows, drongos etc. An occasional drongo would even let you come quite close, enough to fill the full frame of your camera. The region is well endowed with water all year round, and consequently the prosperity shows.

Khidrapur itself is a clean village.

Museum being built by ASI

The area around and inside the temple is very cleanly maintained. Right in front of the Temple, there is an attractively shaped structure being built by ASI. From what I learnt from the locals, it's going to be a museum. Wonder what the museum is going to be of. Just beside the musium, flowing Krishna river is visible and the bank as well as its approach is quite pleasant to just relax and watch the grebes, spot-bills floating on the water while a brahmini kite soars high up in the sky.

Now on to the main attraction - the Kopeshwar temple. The temple, supposedly, was built in the 12th century by Chalukya kings. The architecture is majestic and carvings on the walls, pillars, ceilings are insanely detailed and intricate.

Side view of the Kopeshwar Temple

You can't help but wonder about the skills of those who carved such intricate, yet beautifully balanced carvings on those planks of stone. The temple, maybe because it's from a relatively recent time period, or maybe because it somehow remained out of sight of those rampaging Mughals who were on temple distruction spree, has managed to remain in an impressively good shape.

After clicking the architecture and carvings till I felt content, I moved out towards the river bank. The bank was bustling with bird activity. I spotted a grey wagtail alongwith a pair of white-wagtails - lifer for me. A pied wagtail was not to be seen anywhere there though. On the left of the bank, I saw a male Indian Robin sitting pretty on an offshoot and giving a pose like only a Robin or a Bushchat does. These birds are a photographer's delight. They let you come close, and besides a lot of time they will find an exquisitely positioned solitary spot to sit on and observe you. Such a spot allows you to seperate them very beautifully from the background. This is how it was sitting that time. I focussed on it and was about to click, when I saw some activity in the frame. Initially I thought it was a pigeon that was ruining my frame. A moment passed, and then with a bang, like a Nana Patekar entry, there emerged a Hoopoe in focus. I was stunned. I had never seen a bird like that before. It was a lifer for me. A Hoopoe is one of those very elegant birds with a long, down-curved, pointed beak and a magnificent crest. It's very pleasing when you get to see this bird for the first time. It allowed me to come moderately close and I managed a few okayish shots before it flew away.

Green Bee Eater with a caught bee

White Wagtail

Common Hoopoe

Due to presence of fields, the place was teeming with birds. Later that day, I also managed to get a sharp shot of a Green Bee Eater eating a bee. There were bats, larks, few water birds (spot-bills and grebes mostly), bramhini kites, Robins and ofcourse this Hoopoe. Quite a bit variety, when I hadn't even considered any birding angle to this trip.

After my lens started labouring while hunting for focus, due to lack of sufficient light, I packed my gear and started back towards home.

The sunset with the foreground of fields, trees, bridges was quite pleasing on the way back. Got few shots for HDR, as well as a few that highlighted the converging lines formed by roads, field/crop boundaries, bridges etc. Some turned out good.

The change from hustle-bustle of Pune to the relaxed, lazy life in these small villages, is quite significant. Photography as a hobby, is an enabler that pushes one to roam around, travel, visit unknown places, appreciate peculiarities and see the same things in a different light - literally. It gives purpose to the life. Khidrapur probably wouldnt have happend, had I not have a camera to capture such stuff that appeals to the creative instinct.

Power, Religion and Social Inhibitions

I have been wondering this for quite sometime now. Why do we have such a huge premium on morality? Where does it connect? Why is a girl/guy who sleeps around, looked down upon with disgust? It's just a physical need. What's wrong with satisfying it? Do we look down upon people who eat dinner at one restaurant and sweets from another? Why do we have this big taboo surrounding anything related to sex? Are we as a society so immature that we cannot handle openness about sexuality? Are we bound so much by religion and religious preachings that we haven't thought about alternative way of life, and fear that way might lead to chaos? fear of the unknown?

We are a land where Kamsutra originated. We are a land where Khajuraho was sculpted. Our Ramayana and Mahabharata are ripe with stories with hidden references, like Ahilya's story, and Yayati's story, Indra's lust, Kamdev's adventures etc. Considering all these, it's difficult to understand why we have inhibitions about sex and sexuality? Are we being controlled under the pretext of religious preachings?

All the powerful and creative people behave uninhibited. May those be actors, diplomats, celebrities, musicians (case in point is an 'illegitimate' child of a Sitaar maestro), sportsman. I wont even mention politicians.

Why then only the middle class considers that staying 'pure' is a way to save the culture? Europeans had a culture as well. The French, for example, come across as some of the most outgoing and free-est people when it comes to openness, sexuality and life. French directors have been handling taboo subjects way ahead of their times, since the mid 20th century. The subjects were controvertial, and sometimes tilted towards soft core porn as well. But they had the openness and courage to try it. Their society didn't burn them for that. And despite this, their culture isn't going anywhere, and is as intact as it was before.

I have an inkling that these probably sound like randomly hewn fabric of crude thoughts, but when you see an Emmannuel exploring her sexuality, or when you see some Dreamers enagaging in acts that border on incest, or a when a Laure lets go off social inhibitions and engages in exhibitionism and free sex, you can't help but appreciate the ahead-of-its-time boldness of French cinema, and lament the fact that even a simple and practical concept like live-in relationships doesn't find acceptance in our society.

अबू आझमी आणि विधानसभेतील राड़ा

अलीकडंच महाराष्ट्राच्या विधानसभेत झालेल्या राड्यानंतर अबू आझमींनी ठरवलं की झालं तेवढं खूप झालं, आता यापुढे मराठीतच बोलायचं. राजला वावगं पोलिटीकल माइलेज मिळू द्यायचं नाही. आणि मग काय विचारता एक-दोन दिवसात त्यांनी मराठीचा जोरदार अभ्यास केला अणि विधानसभेत झालेला राड़ा चक्क 'रेशमाच्या रेघांनी' च्या सुरात म्हणून दाखवला.

तर तोच हा राडा, शब्दबद्ध केला आहे अबू आझमींनी -

शपथ घेत होतो मोठ्या गुर्मीत
रोवण्या हिंदीचा झेंडा, मराठी मातीत ... मातीत बाई मातीत ...
सोनेरी वंजाळेनं, चकाकत्या हातांनी
स्टेजवरचा माइकच उपसून काढीला
हात नका लावू माझ्या माइकला ...

हिंदीवरती माझी पोळी भाजण्यासाठी
गरज होती मला, मराठी झिडकारायची ... बाई बाई, झिडकारायची ...
हिंदीतच शपथ घेतली, अणि वर चप्पल दाखवली
कुवे-के-मेंडक का तोरा कैसे जीरवला
हात लावून दाखवा माझ्या बॉडी ला ...

नवीकोरी चप्पल, माझ्या आझमगडची
मुलायम ने दिली, राजला दाखवायसाठी ... बाई बाई, दाखवायसाठी
शिंद्यांच्या शिशिरानं, महाराष्ट्राचा नकाशा,
गालावर माझ्या की हो काढीला ...
हात नका लावू माझ्या गालाला ...

करायला गेलो, एक, झाले भलतेच
भर विधानसभेत झाली रस्सीखेच ... रस्सीखेच बाई रस्सीखेच
वाचवण्या जीव माझा, मीनाक्षीताई धावल्या
एका स्त्री च्या मागे आश्रय शोधीला
प्लिझ हात नका घालू माझ्या अब्रुला ...

India Votes: My Experience With Section 49-O

With so many hopes, so many emotions, so many uncertainties and so many opinions going into this election in India, the dust has finally settled  on this leg of the election which covered most of the Maharashtra. For long their had been this talk about negative voting (which unfortunately hadn't been implemented in this election), and about the section 49-O of Conduction of Elections Rule 1961. The talk started gaining momentum especially after the mass public awaking due to the Mumbai attacks in November 2008. Those images of the majestic Taj burning helplessly, burnt many a hearts in India. People started being very vocal against the politicians. And then started many exchanges about this Section 49-O. Not many people were aware of existence of any such thing. There were many rumors as well about what exactly is this section and how one can use it. There were rumors about this being used against a candidate if the number of section 49-O votes exceeded the number of votes the winning candidate garnered.

So to get to the base of it, I went through lots of websites and links. I googled around here and there, through Indian government websites, and the likes of wikis; and finally I came to know for sure that, the section 49-O does exists, and though not as useful as has been rumored, it at least allows one to be a responsible citizen by letting him show the intention of casting his vote, but still making it possible for him to listen to his intellect and avoid committing a moral crime by voting for a criminal.

Even after all this brouhaha about this, I am sure, quite a lot people who are in the know, still doubt about existence of such a section. They confuse it with the negative-voting proposal and dismiss it saying it's still not implemented.

I had verified this section in the actual law text on an official Indian Govt website and wanted to rest all those doubts once and for all through a real voting experience. So here are the details of what happened in an election booth in Sangli, my home town, when I tried to actually use this section.

I went in the election booth, signed against my name, got my finger painted, and just before voting, I told them I wanted to speak to the election booth officer. The officer was not at his desk at that time, so they asked me exactly why I want to talk to the booth officer. I told them I wanted to use section 49-O. From their reaction, I realized I was first such 'case' there. After I explained to them what exactly it was, in as pure Marathi as much I could get out of my partially westernized tongue, few heads started turning, due to this unusual discussion in an election booth. Then once the whole thing sunk in, everybody around was on a mission to convince me that such thing just doesn't exist. I got a jolt when even the election booth officer outrightly refused knowing about any such thing as section 49-O. All this time, I was firm on my stand that there does exist this section which allows me not to vote for any of the candidates, and the booth officer/supervisor just needs to note my name down in some list. After around half an hour of discussions, and lots of rounds of convincing each other, they gave in and started going through their documents, instructions and booklets. And finally one of the smart guys there, found the section mentioned in the booklet. He was honest enough to read it aloud, even though that meant I being exactly right, and they all being totally wrong. While I don't want to blame those guys there, I really feel the need for these people being clearly briefed about existence of such a section, so that somebody who really wants to use this sections, doesnt get persuaded out of it.

Finally, there came a remark against my name on voter's list saying - 'Matadaan karanyas spashta nakaar' - 'Outright refusal to vote'!!
I was registered to have voted, my finger was painted, and still I didnt commit a moral crime by voting for a crook/a criminal.

I know people will be quick enough to dismiss this as juvenile, immature, and what not. They will be quick to tell me that this defeats the basic purpose of democracy if you refuse to vote. The wikipedia page on section 49-O mentions such criticisms by so-called 'experts' criticizing the negative voting proposal.

The first specific criticism is - "It is the duty of every citizen to educate himself/herself about the agenda of the candidates and to vote conscientiously for the candidate they think is better. The very purpose of an election is that a representative should be chosen by the people. Encouraging people not to express their preferred candidate goes against the intended purpose."

Think about it this way. In India, politics is by and large looked down upon. This is because of the presence of large number of crooks and criminals amongst the political masses. So the political spectrum remains devoid of the honests, capables and the 'good' guys. The general apathy of people towards voting speaks a lot for itself. So even in its current form, it will be very bold to say that people are 'choosing' their representatives, when the voting percentages are 40% and 50%. If negative voting is allowed, people will get a new, powerful and most importantly a >real< weapon in their hands, with which they can have a better go at having good leaders. As far as my information goes. the negative voting proposal also notes that if there happens a case where negative votes exceed the votes garnered by any of the candidates, those same candidates will not be allowed to appear for a re-election in that constituency. This makes perfect sense. This will teach the crooks a lesson and will give the deserving, well-educated leaders a new hope. So rather than going against the intended purpose, this negative voting proposal actually goes totally in line with the intended purpose.


The second criticism is that this will result in waste of public funds. How naive!!!
I mean what is costlier? Re-election? or choosing a criminal to guard and use the public fund?


They say, people get the kind of leaders they deserve. In India, getting the middle class to vote is key to 'deserving' better leaders and this radical step of allowing negative voting is a surefire way to make them feel positive about voting.

I just hope we are not kept waiting for this very important and much anticipated electoral reform, even in the next election.