Puffing the life out of the lungs - stylishly

"Cigaratte smoking is injurious to health". First it was only words. Then, for the chosen ignorant, the images also came. Yet, the number of "fashion-chuggers" hasnt seem to come down.

For those who dont know me, I work in an IT-Park (Tidel Park to be precise) in Chennai. With around 12K employees working in about 50 companies, even a small percent will comprise a good enough number to create a smoke screen. I digress.

Coming to the case in point, Tidel Park used to have a "smoking zone" at the western side of their compound. After the State government's law that public places are a "no smoking zone", the banner was removed. Period. End of story. The local management had done it job. Yet the smoking part continued, without the poor banner.

Indians generally apply the following guideline to every law available. "If you are not fined, then you are fine". So, since no one cared to stress that smoking in public is a crime, people happily continue smoking right near the place where the previous "smoking zone" board was kept. (atleast, they are faithful to the location).

Every one of the chuggers know that smoking is slow death. So, basically these nut-cases are in reality attempting suicide, although on a long term basis (hey, I heard someone ask since its long term, does it have tax benefits.. you f*#$@) . Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code says that "attempting suicide is a crime with punishment upto 1 year in prison". So, it will be nice if the authorities actually apply this law to arrest these morons and put them in jail so that passive smoking atleast will reduce. In fact, another IPC section of comitting murder (with poisoning) can be applied to these nincompoops and shove the same cigarette butts in their b*@#.

In my home town, to stop the menace of wall "leakers", the corporation put on a notice on the writing "Here, donkeys urinate". From the next day, the leakage stopped. Maybe something that straightforward needs to be driven into their heads.
Some which I was able to think of
1. Suicide Zone
2. GOBI (Group of Ostrich Brains Idiots)

More welcome!

In the name of the father...

Its been too long since I have written a blog entry although I use the internet almost 10 hours a day daily (excluding weekends, where I have a high probability of getting killed by the wife if I even give an attempt). But, this time, I have a very valid reason (that is, until you talk to the wife) for not being able to blog.

August 31, 2008 was not such a wonderful day in the history of mankind. No earth shattering scientific discovery or a startling discovery was made that would upset the stomachs of The Vaticans or anything of that sort. It was just that it was our 5th wedding anniversary. On any other year, (meaning for last 4 years), we would have gone to a movie, had lunch and dinner at a hotel, upset our stomach, be satisfied we spent a few thousand bucks down the drain and watch TV. It was not to be this year. We were in a hospital. My entire family (my parents, my brothers, their family, my wife's entire family) was waiting in St. Isabel's hospital. And damn this canteen guys, of all the days in the year, they had to choose today for their annual maintenance work. X-( (damn damn damn) I was roaming everywhere like a puppy who just burnt the tip of his tail. My wife was the one admitted. And she was sitting in the labour room. The kiddo was itching to come out and seems to be readying itself to push its way out of his creation and storage haven for the last 9 months. The contractions were coming at a regular intervals, and everytime it comes, my wife will see hell. I was going crazy to see my wife suffer. I had heard of people suffer a lot of pain during labour time, but this was the first time I was actually looking at one and undergoing the "experience" of being near one. Waves of emotion was floating everywhere. I used to say to people NOT to take any decision when they are emotionally charged. But seeing my wife in that condition, I decided "No more kids". I simply couldn't stand and see her suffering like this for months together, and like a movie climax (or is it the other way round) it peaked at the labour ward.

She was taken into the delivery room at around 8:30 PM. After that, it became worse. I have seen my wife shout. But, it was always in anger and I know how the voice will be. But, now, she was giving out a sound I have not heard before. (Later she told me that she herself didn't realize she was capable of creating so much decibels). It was nearing 10:45, but respite was still far. I was starting to wonder whether the baby will be born on our wedding day itself or born right-just-a-few-seconds-past-midnight and slip into the next day. Then the main doctor came out and told that the baby will be arriving in a few minutes (what the ???). And true to her word, the baby BOY was born at exactly 2300 hours IST on the SAME DAY as our wedding day (5 years ago).

Wooohooooo..... HEEEEHAAAAAA. I am father. This fact , after 3 months hasn't fully sunk into me. I am a father. I am a father. I am a father. (nope, still hasn't). I am able to accept everyone else as a father, even my brother, but not me. I don't know why. I don't know if this is how all newly-formed fathers feel and react. But, I did and I still do.

The moment I heard the news that both the kid and the mom are fine, I couldn't control myself from crying. Well, that was the first time, I broke into fits of uncontrollable crying (maybe the second time. the first time being when I was vacating from my mom's internal parking space), partly to the fact that this ordeal (for me) was over and partly to the fact that my wife's suffering was now over. We stayed there for another 2 days before coming home on Vinayaka Chathurthi. (here, I should highlight that our marriage in 2003 fell on the same day as Vinayaka chathurthi that year).

This is our King. Anthony Bastian

and a newer one (taken on Xmas 2008) here...

Call Drivers in Chennai (for ur records) - taken from Ergo

Sri Murugan Travels
Ph: 98412 84518 / 94445 52257
Charges : Rs.150/- for 4 hours (min)

Top 4 Call Drivers
Ph: 2825 7777 / 2823 5275
Charges: Rs.200/- for 6 hours

Jayashree Travels
Ph: 6529 5959
Charges: Rs.150/- for 4 hours

Chennai Job Service
Ph: 6450 8454 / 6526 7886
Charges: Only monthly hire for Rs.6500/-

Joe

My 6 yr old niece's dance video

This is my niece anika dancing. we shot this without her knowing. she was dancing for about 1/2 hour for 3 songs. we later edited this to fit into just one song.

Is It Microsoft Office XP or...

The other day, while re-formatting my office PC and installing the software (yes, i didn't go to my IT guy for support; i realized it a little later in a hard way). I was searching for CDs to install Microsoft Office 2002 (since that was the one previously installed). But I could not find the Office 2002 CD anywhere at all in the whole of the office. I ended having a CD which said "Microsoft Office XP". Now, I did not want to install anything different from what I wanted and so asked my IT manager. He said that both Office XP and Office 2002 are one and the SAME.

What the F*%# ??

It turned out "Office XP" is the marketing name, but the actual name (on display) will be "Office 2002". I was wondering how a discussion between two Microsoft guys would have gone before they came to a similar conclusion

M1: I think we are up with a new version of Office. We need to find a new way to make this more appealing to the Office "Enhancer" series.
M2: I think we can have "The all new Office XP Multi-domain" series.
M1: What is multi-domain?
M2: Just that if a user gets a single CD but with multiple licenses, it is called multi-domain
M1: But don't we already have a "multi-user license" for that
M2: This is different. This is coming with all new features and enhanced stability
M1: What exactly are the new features?
M2: Well, actually they just fixed 2 bugs which was causing Word to crash when HELP was called.
M1: ohhh... (muses to himself. then...) That is a good marketing term. We shall keep it that way.
M2: But, don't forget, we need to make sure that the "About" box gives a different name from what the CD / package mentions.
M1: Why is that?
M2: We can add that as an "added features set" to all the users and mention in the attached overleaf "For exclusive customers only"
M1: Perfect. Then, the About Box will show "The all new Office XP SP4" with Multi-domain in the second of line of display.
M2: Perfect. I will take forward this proposal to the "steering committee" and get their approval before sending out a leaflet to all those guys at CNN and BBC
M1: Yea. We need to create a hype for those guys to buy into this crap

Voila, the next generation of Microsoft Office is born...

@#&*#%@#$&!

What it is not

Sometimes, (well most of the times) when I see people being so ignorant and half the times just damn adamant in their behaviour and thoughts, it irks me to the core. Some of these below things cross my mind when seeing these king of people, but I just sulk away with an overgrown case of timidity and boneless-ness. I do hope I can come out of this...

* When you want to go down in a lift, you dont CALL IT UP, but you TELL it that you want to go down. My office is in the 5th floor. More often than not, when people want to go down and they see the lift in the ground floor, they immediately press the "UP" button and ASK the lift to come up. I used to get irritated before, but nowadays, I just cant suppress the smile on seeing a live telecast of ignorance. Though, this is not the worst part, their behaviour after "asking" the lift to come and pick them up, they keep fidgeting with their mobiles as if a chauffuer will carry them to their destination.

* In a traffic signal, if the "green" side is free, then we have the RIGHT to move and proceed towards our destination regardless of signal on our side. Our RTOs are among the worst of the lot while examining and giving driving licenses. The "best" thing about getting a license in India, or for that matter, anything in India, all you need is to know the process of using the money-under-the-table technique. Ive heard of this news in madras. A normal procedure while building a house is for the owners to get a "completion certificate" from the CMDA before you can apply for Electricity connection and water connection. But, if you have the skills of using money-under-the-table, all you need is 10K to get an electricity connection regardless of whether a house is there or not. Now, beat that.

* Any place, any side of the earth where a tyre can roll, we can drive. This logic is applicable to every two/three/four/six/eight (and what not) wheelers in india. An array of vehicles will be standing at a signal waiting for it to become green. But, those coming behind cannot wait. Its always "you are blocking my path" attitude. The immediate fix to this situation is to find the next or nearest possible "escapade" on the sidewalks, pavements or if the median is low enough, the median. It doesnt matter whether you need to take a right or not, I can stand on any side of the road, right, center or (the best location) the left to take a right turn when the signal turns green. Oh every time (EVERY SINGLE TIME), I really pray to God that he gives me the magical power to just burst those "shrewd" tadpoles on tyres right at that point. But, so far my wish hasnt been granted.

More to follow (am feeling sleepy...)

How NOT to take a seminar

I recently attended a seminar/lecture by a colleague on a new concept, that too in the afternoon. I am not a very good day dreamer, but after just a few minutes into the seminar, I was flying into the realms of day dreaming. Half the others were sleeping and almost none were interested. My brain completed its fantasy journey and returned me to ground reality and made me to take some points, those which I SHOULD NOT do if and when I take a seminar.

Do NOT
* Read what is written in the slides.
I feel this is one of the worst way to take a seminar. This gives the feeling to the attendees that you are not fully prepared. Dr. Walter Lewin, an MIT professor, known for his different and histrionic ways of taking a class said about taking a class (and it applies to everything) "It's not what you cover, but what you uncover". He also said "Never show a student a slide or an equation on a slide or on transparencies. Everything they have to digest, YOU should be able to write on the blackboard, (with an exception for pictures)." I agree to this completely.

* Show an equation/diagram and not explain it on the board. Already, I know nothing of it. Showing a technical diagram and not explaining is like adding salt to the wound.

* Dive into the core of the seminar from the word Go. Those sitting there are NOT machines. They are people. They have been working their ass off (atleast half of them) at something different and are already pre-occupied. If the presenter jumps directly into technicalities, he/she does not give an opportunity for the listeners to gain access to the seminar's environment. Once they are blocked, they never enter the seminar (mentally) at all.

* Look at only one or two persons and talk. Either the others get bored or get bugged. Either way, this is not a right etiquette during a seminar.

* Use very irritable and poor hand gestures and postures. Being a technical seminar in itself is tiresome. Nobody wants to look at a person to get themselves irritated more. Any hand or eye gestures ought to be relevant to the topic and should be graceful; At least should go with the personality of the presenter taking the class.

* Use too many textual slides. More the slides, more impatient people become. My policy is have as little slides as possible and talk more. If possible, make it a two way conversation with the audience. It makes for a more "alert" audience.

* Talk to the screen. The audience are looking at you to listen. NEVER avoid them. It will show the presenter in a poor light.

* Use poor language. Phrases like "anyone can understand this", "anyone can read it" are top phrases to irritate the audience. The audience sitting are not idiots to hear these words. They know if its going to be easy or not. Its not for the presenter to decide on the intelligence of the audience.


NEVER
* Underestimate an audience's intelligence on the topic at hand. There are people who will know better than what you are trying to know. Respect that.
* Mismanage time. Any seminar/meeting getting extended is bound to go on the wrong side of people, be it technical stuff or personality development. There is only so much that a crowd can accept. Know the limit, and keep to it.
* Try to interpret a question before the audience completes it. Hear them out fully before answering. Its your seminar. Its your duty to hear their questions and explain to them. That is one of the intentions of having a seminar.


ALWAYS
* Prepare fully for a presentation. Doing a dry run before a presentation always helps. You will get to know where you get stuck and correct it, so your presentation goes smoothly. A well prepared presentation shows itself on the audience's faces and their observance.
* Be confident on what you spell out. If a statement's validity is not clear, do not spell it out. In all probabilities, there will be a person who will catch that exact statement to raise his/her query.



Some of my Short "Spirit" tips for making a seminar/presentation a success.

- Clarity of thought on the subject at hand.
- Demonstrate love for the field/subject. It will shows itself by your presentation flow and energy you exude.
- There are no stupid questions. Chances are that if the person who is asking does not know, then you may also not know.

CellOne International Roaming

If you have an international roaming enabled BSNL CellOne SIM, to activate the roaming when in a foreign country, the following procedure needs to be followed.

Select the "Cellone" menu in your mobile. Then, select the "Network" sub-menu. In that select "international" to activate your incoming and outgoing calls in international roaming mode.

Main link

An effective saloon

Last week, I went with my uncle to Baroda to meet some people relating to my uncle's work. While loitering around the office (in the Gujarat Industrial Area), I came across this sight of a saloon. With the cost of living growing faster than AIDS, I cudn't say much but to admire and appreciate the simplicity of the situation. I later found many more such shops scattered throughout the industrial area.

Kuruvi - A first feel of the music

Happy New Year : Sunidhi Chauhan,Yogi B, Dr Burn

What starts out as an ECR Resort Pub Song, quickly takes a U turn to Triplicane and stays there for most of the time. The "pick up" in the middle of the song might suit the flow of the movie, but does not seem to fit in the flow of the song. Sunidhi Chauhan has given a powerful performance to boost the song in its "urban-koothu" culture.

Dandaana Dama : Sangeeth Althpur

Obviously the introduction song for the hero, with a very good "build-up" piece. Sangeeth's voice fits perfectly with Vijay's personality. The lyrics does not seem to give anything new, or atleast does not give the feel of a newly written "build-up" song. Cudnt expect anything other than expecting Vijay to do some (obviously good) dancing and lots of "hero-image-stints" like the resting stork pose or something similar.

Thaen Thaen: Sung by Udit and Shreya Goshal

A typical Vidyasagar peppy melody. A nice arabic styled beat to go with the flowing voices of Udit and Shreya. Udit's awful pronunciation of the language does not deter the song from its melody and style.

Palaandhu Palaanadhu : Vidhyasagar, S Rajalakshmi

Lots of punjabi thump, with a touch of arabic pop finishes here and a bit too much of voice-slazing (which goes to the point of irritation). This song was pretty irritating the first time, but the pain subsided from the next time.

Theme Music : Praveen Mani,Dr Burn,Renina,Suvi

Part 2 of Ghilli's "Kabbadi" Theme Music. The first half of the song is more of a rock song while the second half quite majestically transforms to madras' local rhythm style

Mozha Mozhannu : KK , Anuradha Sriram

From rumours, I heard that this will be an item song with Malavika.  In that case, the starting lyrics fits the bill perfectly. Although the song's theme words gives an "uneasy" feel, the other lyrics does not make you squirm. A gana song, vidyasagar style.

Thaen thaen is for car stereos, Mozha mozhannu is for midnight masalas, and the rest for all FM channels and music channels.

Article on Banyan (or is it?)

(with no hatred to the author or the paper...)

Writing an article for a newspaper needs real good skills, as it needs to reach to a varied audience. Something should have happened to the author or the folks at Indian Express while approving this article, a "cover story" article with the title "Six months in the shade". It seemed to tell about the author's life/learning when she was at Banyan.

Link to the article

The passage talked about the author buying dresses, taking autos and lots of stuff which were related to the title like Uninterrupted power supply and the Electricity board of India, before actually entering to the subject at hand. At the end of the passage, I was wondering if I was confused or frustrated or drained down of energy. To top it all, the whole gist of positive words about banyan were highlighted in a boxed area and that is about all you can muster about Banyan from that passage. The flow of the paragraphs were getting stuck like peak hour Bangalore traffic. The passage, overall, tasted like drinking a special portion of hot lime milk.

BSNL Broadband modem drivers

The good part of BSNL Broadband modems is that they work well. The bad part is that the modem drivers are NOT available HUAWEI's website nor anywhere else, except of course with the CD-pack that comes with the modem. If you are one of those who tend to misplace your CDs more often than your keys, then this link is for you

Dataone modem drivers - Calcutta Telephones

They have all the drivers for all the types of modems BSNL has ever released for Broadband modems.

Email blog

Now that i did a direct mobile blog, am tempted to do an email blog.
And this is that. Sending it now, ...

Blog on the go

Too bored waiting for my people to complete shopping, just trying to kick off mobile clogging er ... Blogging. (damn this t9, doesnt have the word blog.)

Decency is the virtue of Idiots

I have seen people advice that good education turns you into a more social, sensible being. India, Chennai to be more specific, is one place where these sayings are put to the toss on a daily basis. The government has a cleanly built MRTS Railway Station right in front of Tidel Park with a nicely built walk-over bridge nearby. Today, many of all those "well educated" people (with a sick attitutude to the road rules and the general laws), both men and women were crossing the road , jumped the high and wide median, crossed the other 3 lanes of road with full oncoming traffic and reached tidel park/elnet so that they can continue their work culture under the pretext of decency.

These people look decent. Push them a teeny weeny bit, out comes the a$*-#*!# eagerly waiting in them. These attitudes are the ones which maketh for most of the traffic snarls and senselessness in our city. The police and the guides are trying their best to make this a nice city to live in. But, these S#*!!y mongrels are making sure that their job is not done that easily giving madras its (I HATE to use this word) trade mark life-style.

Everytime I see one of this beings, I really wish I had to magic power to do something painful to them. Like,when in a traffic signal and this "clever" f***-o## barges through every single vehicle to lick at the edge of the traffic-constable's patience, I'd love to make his tyre burst. After all, he is trying to move his way ahead of all "poor fear-covered beings" to show-off his "bravery" and talent; and what better way than to make sure he sinks into the s#*t hole of shame in front of all the "poor beings". Similarly, when I see a person reaches for the median, I'd love to pass 12KV supply in the median so that he/she is thrown off the road onto his starting point.

Oh, How I wish I had a magic wand now

Direct link to mp3 files through Google

Paste the following text into google search bar replacing the "artist/song" with either the name of the artist or the song title, but leave the quotes on. Hope this helps.

-inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:”index of” +”last modified” +”parent directory”
 +description +size +(wma|mp3) “artist/song”

Mokkai Podathey

The cast read like this.
Movie : Satham Podathey
Director : Vasanth
Hero : Prithviraj
Music : Yuvan Shankar Raja

So, here I was waiting for the show to begin. The theatre is almost full (mainly becos, there is a India-Pakistan Twenty20 Match going on right now). I must iterate here that I am a big fan of Yuvan, and so was expecting a good output in the background score.

The gist goes something like this; Nitin is such a seasoned drinker that he has become a "senior citizen" in his 20s. So, he shouldnt be getting married. But, driven by the "manly" powers, he cheats Navya's family into marrying him. And later, the family finds out. Divorce happens. By this time, major part of first half is over. Now, comes Prithviraj and they love and marry. But, the villain is not to be left alone. So, what happens forms the second part.

The moment the movie started with Nitin Sathya approaching the heroine's family and getting married to Padma Priya. The first 5 minutes were engrossing, but after that I wished I was home watching the match. I was not able to judge the winner of the "most painful feature" in the movie. The contestants were the cinematography, screenplay and choreography.

I couldnt decipher the idea of projecting prithviraj as the hero of the movie. The director could have as well put him in the "guest performance" role and put Nitin as the hero/anti-hero. I heard Padma Priya got dehydrated most of the days during shooting becos of the amount of crying and shouting she had to do. Anyways, the one point I wanted to enjoy was the background score. It was awful. The score was ok. But, coupled with the horrific screenplay, it rarely matched the on-screen proceedings. I think yuvan must have had simliar pains when he saw the movie for background score.

The only hightlight of the movie was the audience. We had a good percentage of young guys in the cinema hall. Their comments and feedback over the course of the movie was what pulled us through till the end. I however started having a headache as soon as the second half started, and my wife and I had to rush out at the fag end of the movie to save our lives. Choreography was done in such a way that even prabhu deva would have looked like a bad dancer.

This movie taught me a lesson NOT to go to a movie just based on technicians' skillset. And for giving such a good lesson, I give it ONE star.

Pitch Perfect

Just enjoy it. I have no words to describe.

Eagles Vs Plaza

I took a diversion from the already diverted route from Old Mahabalipuram Road to go to my home. While passing through the backyard of perungudi, the normally darkness covered government compound was buzzing with high voltage flood lights. More out of curiosity than interest, I went in. A cricket tournament in full flood lights was going on. It was a match between "Plaza" and the "Eagles" team. I got these names from a local commentator struggling to give a pure tamil commentary. Each team had their own t-shirts, one team in red and the other in blue.

Six separate teakwood flood light stands with about 15 flood light in each surrounded the ground. A stage, a stage audience (!!!) a generator to feed the lights, a commentator to feed the 99% youth audience with the details of the match. It was a tennis ball match. I was expecting to see more fireworks from the batsmen. But, apart from the fireworks from the commentator's mouth, the game was pretty decent. Batsmen were placing the ball better than some of our international stars. Local ballooning did happen from time to time with two of them ending up in fielders' hands. At the time of my leaving, the batting team had scored around 20 runs in 4 overs for the loss of 3 wickets.

The crowd mostly consisted of guys supporting their team. Some even had the team's shirt on. While crossing some of the guys, the smell of liquor flavoured the place. In all, the whole place was lit like one giant fair. I was able to see the lights in the sky from my home.

World cup winners or not, cricket fever hasn't yet slowed down in our country.

Has modernization spoilt Indian culture

This was an article I wrote for an article competition in our office.

---

I once heard a definition of Change. It went thus: "A change is something which we hoped not to happen." And when it eventually happens, it can have one of the two effects. It can either be accepted by the majority and renamed as "Growth" or opposed by the majority and termed ... well, some people are good at feeding the hungry negatives like "social evil", "anti-human","anti-social", etc. English language dwells on such creativity.

Modernization is one such "change" happening right now in our country. Its not that "modernization" hasn't been happening, its just that its happening at a faster rate now. This "Change" has been termed as "growth" by some, "westernization" by some, "anti-Indian" by some, and what not. This "change" has impregnated our day to day life. But, how do we view it? How do we feel it? How do we accept it?

If modernization includes changes in the way the younger generation approaches the educational learning cycle, it is "Growth". We see kids nowadays with a higher IQ than the current generation of youth during their time. It is "Growth".

If modernization includes changes in the way people communicate, it is "Growth". Wherever your dad is in the world, he has become reachable right inside your mobile. The other end of the sword here is the loss of one's privacy. Mobiles and telephones are for the phone user's convenience, and not for the caller's convenience. But, this concept doesn't seem to have reached the Indian people. Whatever the situation you are, be it at the temple offering prayers or at office attending a meeting, when a phone rings, people go for it. The people who have graced the "modernized" mobile phones did not grace the concept of proper "phone sense". Is this OK?

If modernization includes changes in the way people see marriage, it is "anti-Indian". Indian style of life has seen marriage as the single binding force to close-knit families. With the "modernization" seeping in (rather pouring in), we see more divorces and more "live-in" relationships. Is this good? From the context of Indian culture - A big NO. Families have moved apart from each other. A feel of "togetherness" normally seen in our families is becoming more of a movie scene. But, this sword of "change" has its other end too. It has shown independence to people, the power of choosing the person to live and love. The power to "Choose". Is this good?

IF modernization includes the spread of the "web", it is "modernization" literally. Any information you need is in front of you within a few clicks. The spread of knowledge and information has reached speeds synonymous to the speed of sound. A gun shot in Iowa is heard by an Indian in Andaman in a matter of few minutes. Sports actions reach people in seconds. Businesses are being handled entirely through the "web". The world has shrunk into a 17 inch monitor. But, what does the "web"-coin's other face look like? Human interaction has come down. Students were so drugged with the web that the management of a particular institution had to restrict use of Internet inside their campus because of poor inter-personal communication. People have more friends "online" than in the real world. The world of "friendships" is seen more through e-cards and forwards than in face-to-face chats and sharing. Is this "acceptable"?

If modernization includes the financial state of people, it is "social change". More and more people are able to buy their own house, have their own cars, go more "site-seeing" trips, take the airlines more. With the growth in the power to spend, the variety in the ways to spend has also increased. People have more choices. The idlis and dosais are now competing with food ranges from the dish of the "Continental" to the "Kentucky friend specials", from "Szechwan" style to the "pasta" dishes. The once monopoly of "Maruti" has given way to the Fords, Hondas, Fiats and Opels. The other side of this sword is the increase in the amount of health issues. More and more people have diseases not known a few decades ago. Diseases occurring only to old age people have shifted ages to more younger age groups. Air pollution has increased to alarming proportions. With lackadaisical government policies in respect to the environment, this is already having its effect on the country and its people. How "good" is this?

I leave the decision to the reader.