And the Blue Signifies..

The Central Vigilance Commission of India (CVC) which is the apex body for the prevention of corruption in India some years ago in 2003 suddenly felt the urge to up its branding. Unlike the US government, the Government of India doesn't assign any seals to its agencies, so the CVC went out and hired a graphic design consultant and bought themselves a logo like any respectable department should do.

Thus far the CVC was within its rights to want a symbolic representation of their righteous crusade against corruption. But then they just couldn't help themselves. In an apparent effort to set an impossibly high benchmark in transparency on trivial issues that most agencies would avoid emulating out of sheer embarrassment, the CVC never the less went ahead and elaborated at length the true meaning of their beloved logo on their website:

" The Central Vigilance Commission has adopted a logo. The logo consists of a graphic representation of an eye encased within the letter “C”. The eye represented in a pleasing blue colour is symbolic of the collective determination of the community to be vigilant against any erosion of rights through illegal and improper actions of public servants. Encased within the letter “C” the eye represents the Commission overseeing the vigilance administration in all public organisations and helping in arriving at quick and logical decisions in all vigilance cases. The logo has grouped positive and negative elements within it and the deliberate choice of the blue colour signifies an active, ever vigilant but positive and friendly Central Vigilance Commission. "


http://www.cvc.nic.in/cvc_logo.htm

Role Reversal

Here is a quotation on courage I came across today:

Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
-William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act II, sc. ii

Okay, an instance after you read this quote and agree with it, the reasoning turns on its head. You realize that the 'cowards' are now the real 'valiant' ones since they endure 'deaths' many times.

Catch: This somersault only possible if these cowards know that they are seen as cowards.

An Iconic Amount

Rs. l crore for information leading to the capture of the perpetrators of the German Bakery Blast incident in Pune this week is what the government is considering. This public expression of the financial measure of the government's resolve has been reported by every paper this morning. In the same papers there is a half page advert taken out by the Home Department pleading with citizens to " be our eyes and ears". For the same end different means are sought here - only sensible considering the gravity of the situation.

We would like to think that internal security is the burden of the police with every responsible citizen aiding them. But in reality the yoke is also balanced on a network of individuals of ambiguous morality - the informants. For them to perform their "duty" they need monetary reminders. Hence the Superintendent of Police of every district in India has access to a large fund that goes towards paying for intelligence - a fund subject to no audit. This mechanism has always been in place and is vital to the maintenance of law and order, even in the most peaceful of nations. It is a nod to the idea that the state is an imposed structure precariously perched on top of a social milieu which the state doesn't quite understand.

Now for an incident like the one in Pune which captures headlines everywhere, cracking the case assumes greater significance. Therefore the gathering of intelligence becomes that much more critical, hence instead of seeking information from the established informant networks alone , the authorities need new sources. The reward for such information has to correspond to the risks involved. The home ministry surely must have its logic in arriving at a figure in a manner which is routine yet awkward. After considering the urgency, cost-benefit and demand-supply the figure arrived at is Rs. 1,00,00,000 - an iconic amount.

Perhaps it is insensitive to talk of this tiny detail in view of the bigger picture but I believe that people already have entrenched opinions on the incident and the trend and therefore my voice may well already be represented in this regard by some section.

http://www.mid-day.com/news/2010/feb/280210-kingpin-khabri-mumbai-underworld-gossip.htm

Veena Rhapsody

These guys are just having fun with it!



Musicians wear the most bizarre expressions on their faces when they are in their element.

If interested in the original version, found out that it is a cover of "Raghuvamsa Sudha" - a famous Carnatik song.