Has India failed Gandhi

October 2nd 2019 was the 150th birth anniversary of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. To say that he is India's most famous son after Buddha is no exaggeration. The juxtaposition of a religious figure with an almost God-like reverence and a political figure may seem sacrilegious, but it is something most scholars of Indian politics and history won't find incongruous.

Gandhi's role in the Indian freedom movement is well documented by numerous historians and political observers, both in India and internationally. And yet his contributions are grossly understated in his home country. With the rise of right wing nationalism, Indian society has forgotten the significance of a non-violent freedom struggle spearheaded by Gandhi. So much so, that some sections of right wing fanatics deify Nathuram Godse, the man who assassinated Gandhi. It is representative of the modern Indian society and the world at this moment, with a surge in right-wing nationalism all over the world.

It is very strange that the right-wing does not like Gandhi. Gandhi was everything that a utopian right-wing politician offers to their supporters. His politics was driven by a strong moral compass, a result of him being deeply religious. His evangelism of radical vegetarianism is proof of his devout Jain roots. And yet he was not blinded by ideological or religious bigotry. At times Gandhi admired Christian beliefs, despite the "unchristian" behaviour of the British. In his autobiography, he applauds the gospel of Mathew and especially chapter 5, the Sermon on the Mount. And it is often this tolerance of other religions and opposing views that makes him stand out amongst other right-wing leaders.

Indian government has trivialised Gandhi and forgotten his ideals. It is ironic that in his 150th birth year, the government has decided to imprison the people of an entire state in their homes. The unconstitutional abolishment of article 370 and the subsequent clampdown on India administered Kashmir is proof that India as a society has failed Gandhi. For someone who took a bullet because he refused to condone violence against Muslims, this must feel like a knife to the heart.

The most common complaint against Gandhian principles is that they are too lofty and ambitious. The modern leader needs to be pragmatic. And it is this pragmatism that is the damnation of this generation. The refusal to speak out against blatant injustice against fellow countrymen is a testament to the moral corruption in our society. This lack of a moral compass has created a country of self-seeking opportunists, pragmatic and quite often clever. The modern Indian does not care if their government is tyrannical.

In this age of Erdoğans, Trumps, Putins and Modis, the world has forgotten Gandhi. And as we witness the birth of a totalitarian nation, a Nazi India, I am sure India has failed Gandhi too.

Let's talk about six baby!

10 years is a long time in football. 10 years ago, Pep had just won the treble in his first season. Alex Ferguson was managing Man Utd and they used to be good. Javier Zanetti and Esteban Cambiasso were part of the Inter team that won the European Cup that year. Jose was coaching Inter, Pellegrini was managing Real. 10 years ago I was a bright eyed high school student, with few worries, but the biggest of them was Liverpool FC, the club I loved. 10 years later I am a corporate professional with many worries, but Liverpool ain't one of them.

It was in the summer of 2010 that I realised that Liverpool would not be at the pinnacle of Europe for long. Rafa had left, we had finished 7th the season before. The club was in a mess financially. Alonso and Arbeloa had left. Mascherano had handed in a transfer request.  He wanted to leave for Barcelona, and play for Guardiola, not Roy Hodgson. It seemed like if you wanted to win, Liverpool was not the place to be. Then came the lowest of lows, when in January, Torres left Liverpool for Chelsea. It seemed that Liverpool would languish in mediocrity for some time.
Hodgson was soon relieved and in came King Kenny, who revitalized the squad. We won a trophy, albeit a League Cup and reached an FA Cup final. Inconsistencies in the league proved fatal though, as even Kenny was sacked at the end of 2012 season. Even in the short span of 18 months, he gave us lots of memories and a lasting gift in Luis Suarez.
The 2013-14 season was all about the genius of Luis Suarez. 32 goals in the league, in a season when he was banned for 10 games. He took us to the cusp of glory only for that fatal April afternoon, when it all slipped away. The 3-2 win against Man City gave me an almost blind belief of victory, only for the heartbreak against Chelsea two weeks later. Suarez left in the summer. He left for Barcelona (them again).
Brendan Rodgers left and in came the magician Klopp. Everything about him was special, right from Day 1. The first season was decent, the Dortmund comeback being the highlight. I remember having to study for a test, only to give up on it and watch the match. Liverpool ended up going through and I ended up with a C. There were heartbreaks too. Two finals losses. The second one in Europa League hurt, because it seemed that we were destined to win, after that epic comeback. A summer of heavy recruitment ensued, in came the likes of Mane and Wijnaldum. The following season was one of restoring normal service. Back to the Champions League.
2017-18 is one of the fondest seasons in my memory. Liverpool signed Salah for 35 million, which seemed a lot for someone who failed at Chelsea. Then Neymar blew up the transfer window. With every passing game, Salah seemed like a bargain, a steal. City were running away with the league, unbeaten by New Year. In came January and Coutinho left us for, guess who, Barcelona. We bought another over-priced defender from Southampton to partner Lovren for 75 million, or so I thought. Man City came to Anfield, unbeaten and looking invincible. Our front three destroyed them. Our defence caved in the end, but we held on for a 4-3 win. We then destroyed them in the UCL quarter finals. As we reached the final, it again seemed to me that we would win it for sure. Liverpool fell at the final hurdle again, thanks to some poor goalkeeping from Karius and some insane wrestling from Ramos. It hurt to lose like that.
The summer was one that gave me hope again. We got in Fabinho, Alisson, Keita and Big Shaq. It seemed like we finally had a team. The season began with the front three sluggish. Liverpool were sturdy and had to grind out results early. By September, we were in a 3-way tie at the top. We outplayed Spurs at Wembley and deservedly won 2-1. Firmino had a freak eye injury. We welcomed PSG in the UCL match day 1. Liverpool's absence from the Champions League had seen a generation of players pass by and never play at Anfield, the likes of Neymar and Messi. This was special. Two great players, in Mbappe and Neymar, completely outplayed for 45 minutes, as Liverpool raced to a 2 goal lead before half-time. PSG got a lucky break as the ball fell to Munier who absolutely buried his shot. 2-1 halftime. Liverpool dominated the second half. Salah gave the ball away in Liverpool half letting Mbappe equalize for PSG late in the second half. Klopp brought on Bobby and the one eyed pirate broke PSG hearts with a classy finish in injury time. What a game!
A Daniel Sturridge screamer against his old team Chelsea, won us a share of points at Stamford Bridge. City came to Anfield and Mahrez rocketed his penalty to preserve our unbeaten record. By December, Liverpool and City were neck to neck. A late Origi goal, with an assist from Jordon Pickford, gave Liverpool the win in the Merseyside Derby. A late double strike from substitute Shaqiri sunk United and gave Jose the sack. City lost three games in December as Liverpool topped the league on Christmas. We thrashed Arsenal 5-1, with a Firmino hat-trick. Meanwhile the Champions League was a bewilderment of sorts. After the PSG win, we lost to Napoli, Red Star Belgrade and PSG away, with a win against Red Star at home. It left us with a must win game against Napoli. All seemed well as Salah scored one before we missed a host of chances, with Mane particularly guilty. We were holding on for 1-0. Late in injury time Lovren did a Lovren and missed a header, leaving Arkadiusz Milik one on one with Alisson. It seemed like it was all over, but somehow Alisson saved it. Liverpool held on and we went through to the knockouts.
January began with a match against City at Etihad. Liverpool had a 7 point lead and a win would have been fantastic. The game depicted the fine margins between victory and defeat. Mane almost scored for Liverpool in the first half. John Stones cleared the ball 11 millimeters before it crossed the line. Late in the second half, with scores tied 1-1, Sane hit one to Alisson's far post only for it to ricochet off the post and into the net. City shut shop after that and won a close game 2-1.
Liverpool had a poor start to the year. We lost to Wolves and got out of the FA cup. We drew consecutive matches against Leicester and West Ham. Rafa led his Newcastle to victory against City. We were still in lead with 3 points. February brought the Champions League round of 16 matches against Bayern. 0-0 at Anfield was followed by a wonderful 3-1 win at Allianz Arena, with Mane scoring a brace. We dropped points against United and Everton and were trailing City by a point. There were still 10 games to go, so it seemed like a close finish.
By April, we were in the semi-finals of UCL and in a tight race with City for the league. City had some tough games against United and Spurs, while we had won against Spurs with a magical own goal in the 90th minute. We still had a home game against Chelsea. By the end of April though, the league chances seemed bleak. Both teams had won everything, and it seemed like it will be City who will win it. City won 1-0 at Burnley and with two games to go, it seemed like the title was theirs to lose.
May brought the UCL semi-final against Barcelona. They had bought some of our best players over the years, so it seemed apt to finally be able to defeat them. We started the first game brightly, without Firmino, in Camp Nou, before Saurez scored one to put them 1-0 up. We thoroughly dominated the second half before two quick goals from Messi put the game to rest. Dembele missed a sitter right at the end, but it seemed like Barcelona had won the tie at 3-0. The penultimate game of the league saw us visit Newcastle. We were 1-0 up and then 2-1 later in the game, before they made it 2-2. This seemed like the match where we would lose the title. On top of that, Salah was stretchered off with a head collision to cap off a truly catastrophic week. Big game man Divock Origi scored a late winner to steal the 3 points for us. Monday night fixture saw City win their game 1-0 against Leicester with a long range screamer from Kompany of all people.
The second leg of the semi-final was one heck of a game. Origi and Shaqiri started in the absence of Firmino and Salah. Origi scored one after 7 minutes. Alisson made some really good saves to keep it at 1-0 at half-time. It still looked tough for us to score 2 more and not concede. Wijnaldum came on for injured Robertson at half-time and scored two goals in 2 minutes to level the tie after 58 minutes. I could not believe what I was watching. Quick thinking from TAA at a corner left Origi with a golden chance to score. And he did score emphatically to put Liverpool 4-0 up. Barcelona were shell-shocked. We held on for a famous night. A final beckoned. It had seemed impossible 90 minutes ago, but we did. The sight of the entire team and support staff singing YNWA with the Kop was one to behold.
We won our last game in the league but so did City. They won the league with 98 points, we finished second with 97. It was disappointing for sure, but a bigger test awaited now. Spurs waited for us in the finals.
The final was an uneventful affair compared to our season. A second minute Salah penalty and a late Origi goal sealed European trophy number 6 for us. And in that moment, when Jordan Henderson lifted our sixth trophy, a decade of heartbreaks was all forgotten.

Discovery of Karnataka

Towards the end of last year, a few friends and I decided to explore the South Indian state of Karnataka. Some folks in the group were planning to migrate to other countries, and others going back to school. This was the one big party before we all went our separate ways. There was little hope of meeting everyone together again and very little hope of traveling together for 10 days. The trip began with almost zero planning. The idea was to figure out the travel plans along the road. We rented two cars and started our ride on a Saturday evening, three days before Christmas. The first stop in our journey was Kodagu, better known as Coorg. Kodagu is a hill district on the Western Ghats, with thick forests, rich wildlife, and world-famous coffee. Madikeri is the district capital and the principal town. The district lies between the state of Kerala on the south and Karnataka on the north. We reached our Airbnb around 2 in the night and crashed on whatever we found. The next day started with a heavy breakfast, complemented with some of the best coffee I have ever had. Our first stop in our "itinerary" was Abbey Falls. It's a cliched waterfall, which gets a lot of tourists every year. We spent the afternoon exploring the areas surrounding the waterfalls. The aim was to get away from the crowds. The evening plan was a night trek, which involved a 3 km trek in a thick forest in complete darkness. Of course, we had a guide with us. It wouldn't be wise to let loose a bunch of concrete jungle citizens in an actual forest. The night trek ended with some rabbit hunting. Most of us choose to avoid, more so because of fatigue rather than any love for animals. On the morning of Christmas Eve, we resumed our expedition. We checked out some other places around Madikeri. One of the prominent places in Kodagu is Raja's seat, a beautiful garden on a hilltop. The view from atop is very beautiful and one can see all the different hills that make up the Kodagu district. By afternoon, we started the journey to our next destination, Mangalore. The drive down from Kodagu mountain ranges was beautiful. It started raining too, disturbing the serenity of the hills, and creating an aesthetic marvel. So much so, that even the lazy ones started to volunteer to drive. -:) Mangalore is a port city in the Arabian Sea. It is one of the earliest places where European merchants landed via sea, the first being Vasco Da Gama in 1498. Unlike him, we reached Mangalore, via road, at around 6 in the evening. And this is the place beyond which we had no plans. We spent some time looking for hotels, till we found a cheap hostel for the night. At 200 a night, it wasn't all bad. For starters, we had running water in the bathroom. But that's where the luxury ended. We spent Christmas Eve at St Aloysius Chapel. Italian Jesuits built St Aloysius Chapel in 1880 and painted the interiors in 1899. The upper arches depict the saints of the Church. The lower arches depict Jesuit saints and the sloping ceilings depict the Apostles. Some of us attended the Christmas service, while others were busy devouring the rum cakes. The next day, on Christmas day, we traveled to St Mary's Islands. St Mary's Islands are a set of islands in the Arabian Sea, off the coast of Udupi in Karnataka. The subvolcanic activity led to the formation of the island more than 88 million years ago. The only way to get to the islands is via a 6 km ferry service from Malpe. The ferry ride is a different experience altogether. One can find people partying and dancing on the boats. We joined the people dancing at the deck and did not shy away at all. We spent the afternoon at the Island's before resuming our nomadic voyage on four wheels. Our stop for the night was at a hotel 20 km south of a small town called Bhatkal. Next day, Boxing Day, we started early for the temple town of Murudeshwar. Murudeshwar is a temple town from Hindu mythology. It is famous for it's Shiva temple and the world's second-tallest Shiva statue. The statue depicts Shiva sitting in meditation, with his back to the Arabian Sea. Some devout believers went inside the temple. By afternoon, we were traveling again, this time towards the coastal town of Gokarna. The drive to Gokarna was scenic, the roads sandwiched between the rocky Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea. We reached Gokarna around 2pm and spent the rest of the day at the different beaches around Gokarna. Gokarna is another temple town, and a popular holiday destination, with many isolated and unexplored beaches. We spent some time at Om Beach, named so because of the protruding land mass giving it an "Om" shape. Some of us bought some cheap souvenirs, before proceeding to Half Moon Beach. The only way to reach Half Moon Beach from Om Beach is by navigating a tricky climb over a small hill. It was every bit worth it though. We were all alone at this beach, left with the vast sea all for ourselves. If you have been to other Indian beaches (I look at you, Goa and Kovalam), this is a pristine experience. We spent the evening playing frisbee volleyball at the beach and floating in the ocean. It was only after sunset that we realized we had to navigate back the treacherous terrain, in the dark! Thankfully we found some fishermen, who gave us a ride on the motorboat after some haggling over the fare. The dinner was at Kudle Beach, with some wonderful seafood and some fine quality rare herbs (wink wink). The dinner went late, very late into the night and by the time we came back to our rooms, sleep was the only thing on our minds. Next stop in our journey was Dandeli. Dandeli is a town famous for its Dandeli Wildlife Sanctuary and the Kali Tiger Reserve. The Wildlife Sanctuary is home to Panthers, Elephants and various species of birds. We had planned to visit the Kavala Caves. Kavala Caves are tiny in dimensions. One has to climb around 400 steps to reach the entrance and then climb down. There are prior permissions required from the Forest Department for visiting the caves. We had to skip it and move to the next item in our "agenda" - rafting in the Kali river. The usual rafting trail stretches for about 12 km which starts at around 9 am. We missed it, so we had to settle for the smaller trail of about 5 km. The trail has grade 2 and grade 3 rapids. Three of my mates bounced out from the raft, and we sprang into action. One of the fellow rafting groups caught hold of one of them. We chased down the other guys, one of whom was floating on his back as per the instructions. The last guy found a rock and climbed on top of it and stayed there till we reached him much later. The rest of the day was quite uneventful. Nothing could follow this. We left Dandeli late in the afternoon for our final stop at Hampi. We stopped at a small town called Haliyal for our dinner at a roadside hotel named Hotel Baburao. Baburao is one place with some amazing food and the world's best lime soda. After a ravishing meal, we resumed our journey towards Hampi. We reached Hubli at around 11 pm and decided to stop at Hubli for the night. After searching for a hotel for some time, we found a place, and we decided to end our quite eventful day. The next morning we resumed our voyage to our final destination. We reached Hampi by 3pm in the afternoon. Hampi is a beautiful ancient city from the Vijayanagara Empire. At the height of its fame in 1500 CE, it was the world's second largest city after Beijing. In 1565, a coalition of Muslim cities attacked the Vijayanagara empire. They destroyed the city and it has been a ruin ever since. UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site in 1986. The Tungabhadra river separates the city into two areas- the older ruins and the new "Hippy Island". We spent the evening exploring the newer part of the city and then climbing the Anjaneya Hill. There is a temple on top of the hill and it has a breath-taking view. The climb to the top is about 600 steps. We enjoyed the sunset and took some mandatory wanderlust pictures before coming down. Our Saturday plan was to explore the ruins of Hampi. The plan included the Virupaksha temple, Underground Shiva temple, and the Vittala temple. Vittala temple is famous for its musical pillars. The pillars produce the seven musical notes when hit at the right spots. It is also famous for the stone Chariot which is also found on the back of a fifty rupee note. We left Hampi by 6 in the evening. We stopped at Anantapur for our dinner. We were famished and devoured the food like hungry animals much to the amusement ( or derision?) of the hotel staff. We reached our homes late Saturday night, exhausted by an arduous trip. Along the way, I found out that Liverpool thumped Arsenal 5-1. What a way to end the year!

FOSDEM 2019

I recently had the opportunity to attend FOSDEM. If you haven't heard of FOSDEM, it is a two-day conference held in the beautiful city of Brussels, Belgium. The goal is to promote free and open source software. FOSDEM brings together people from diverse FOSS projects. And unlike other open source conferences, FOSDEM is completely free to attend.

It was my first time attending FOSDEM and I was unsure of what to expect. And if I am being completely honest, I was a tad sceptical as to whether it would be worth travelling to Brussels all the way from Bangalore. I am glad that I was wrong. Along with attending some high-quality talks, I spent 3 wonderful days in the city of Brussels, visited the nearby city of Bruges and spent a couple of days at Amsterdam.

I met some very interesting people and talked to some very interesting projects. There were some very cool stands from some very popular projects like Apache and Mozilla. Being extremely popular, these were extremely crowded. I met some folks from the PostGraphile project, a really wonderful project that allows one to create a GraphQL API server instantly by pointing to an existing PostgreSQL. How cool is that! There were some guys who maintain the super impressive game 0AD. 0AD is a free and open source game like Age of Empires, only better. It's completely built by game developers all over the world. Imagine playing a strategy game written by yourself! There were some other popular projects too like GlusterFS by RedHat, a distributed open source file system. 

But the most interesting of all was the XMPP project. The XMPP project is aimed at building a set of open technologies for instant messaging, multi-party chat and a lot of other things. If one could send instant messages to other people, much like how we send emails now, without ever having to worry if the receiver is on a different email provider. So I could send a message over one of my messaging apps to a person on some other messaging app. The folks at XMPP were kind enough to answer the numerous ignorant questions that I asked.

I spent a lot of time in the open media dev-room. Dev-rooms are where people with a specific set of interests come together to talk about interesting projects in the domain. That is where I discovered GStreamer, an open source multimedia framework for building multimedia applications on top of it. There were interesting talks, with one in particular about using Rust to build multimedia applications. I also spoke there about combining OpenCV and CUDA to build video analysis tools. 

FOSDEM is a really special conference in that it is run by volunteers and donations alone. Brussels is a really nice place to visit, maybe February is not the best time. Here is a picture of ULB Solbosch, the venue.