No Lap Left Behind

Apparently the Indian goverment is learning from President Bush.

They have come up with a "No Lap left Behind" policy.

A laptop on every lap, they said and to top things off, the thing was supposed to cost 10 bucks (500 Indian Rupees)!

There has been a lot of hoopla around this over the years.

The most common reasoning out there was that it would still cost 100 bucks to make, but it could be sold by the government for 10 bucks. Well cost and price are two different things, especially when regulated by a government.. any government! You only need to look at ethanol based fuels and cars which claim to use ethanol based fuels (also) in the US to understand this!

Now where were we? Ah, the laps, sorry.. laptops!

Let us for a moment say this thingy does get called a Laptop.

It should have

a. a processor (at least the same thing in a digital watch or a basic electronic calculator)
b. some memory (lets say they have no hard drive to store info and that is an extra)
c. a keyboard to communicate to the outside world (no mice required)
d. a monitor of some sort
e. a power source (or module if it runs on batteries)
f. an outer plastic case to hold all these together as opposed to a ziploc bag

if you have to divvy up these 6 things under 10$, you are looking at some amazing manufacturing!

Truly amazing, state of the art, cost effective manufacturing as well as state of the art distribution which is free or nearly free!

Obviously a billion laps would need to be serviced here and that means cartons and cartons of laptop devices need to be shipped and transported and distributed and that should all be included in the ten buck cost!

Plus you need top {bolly,tolly,kolly}U(Wood) actresses, former desi Miss Worlds, Universe, etc. posing with "tzis device" to make it appeal to the masses.

Somehow I feel my brother is being cheated. The government officials in India are smoking some high quality pot and they are not sharing it with the tax paying people!

$ 40, very much possible. $30 is pushing it with today's manufacturing! I am serious here. You can get a plastic case, working keyboard, a simple processor that possibly does basic text editing, calculator, clock, etc. etc. a pixelized monitor without color, 128MB memory , batteries sold separately device for 40 bucks including distribution, advertising etc.

My BIL got Jr. a laptop that comes close, and it cost $50 and it is pretty educational!

In a world where a langot costs 10-15 rupees and a VIP brief for that same lap, goes for 50, a laptop at 500 rupees is too good to be true!

Who knows, maybe some day there will be a ten dollar laptop, for real!?!

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Government

A word that taking on an increasingly negative connotation by the day, across the world. A word for which we will consult the Dictionary, nay Wiki..

Obviously Wiki tells you the meaning as understood by the lay internet person, ergo the LCM of this blogs readers..

"A government is the organization,
that is the governing authority of a political unit,
the ruling power in a political society,
and the apparatus through which a governing body functions and exercises authority.

Government,

with the authority to make laws,
to adjudicate disputes,
and to issue administrative decisions,
and with a monopoly of authorized force where it fails to persuade,
is an indispensable means, proximately, to the peace of communal life.

A compulsory territorial monopolist of protection and jurisdiction equipped with the power to tax without unanimous consent.
Statist theorists maintain that the necessity of government derives from the fact that the people need to live in communities, yet personal autonomy must be constrained in these communities.

Thank you Wiki for the definition !!

If you look at the ground reality

We work hard
We pay taxes (no choice there!)
The taxes go to the government
That tax money gets redistributed to things that the majority of the governed would not approve of
The folks who do the redistibuting get compensated for doing this and

the redistribution of tax money has the following effect

a. we work more
b. we get paid less for working more
c. we pay more taxes on the smaller amount we make while working more

Sometimes I wonder if the last eight years in the USA were under "government" or some kind of dictatorship.

These days it is hard to find a few people with a clean tax record to run the country!

Bah!

As a dude who has always worked his butt off and paid his taxes, maybe I should go for a government position?

Then again, will the government corrupt me? If yes, then it is better to stick to my day job, no?

San asked me innocently "I don't like how our tax money is being given to people who make lousy cars, fraudulent banks etc. How can I make sure my tax is used properly?!"

Gave the longest Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh I could remember. My innocent lovely wife, if only we could control how our tax money was spent!!!

Maybe just like they ask us in the IRS 1040 EZ in the

Presidential Election Campaign section:

"Check here if you, or your spouse if a joint return, want $3 to go to this fund" You (check box) | Spouse (check box)

they would also ask

"Check here if you, or your spouse if a joint return, want 15% to go to the Lenders bailout" You (check box) | Spouse (check box)

"Check here if you, or your spouse if a joint return, want 10% to go to the Insurance Bailout" You (check box) | Spouse (check box)

"Check here if you, or your spouse if a joint return, want 10% to go to the Bank Bailout" You (check box) | Spouse (check box)

"Check here if you, or your spouse if a joint return, want %5 to go to the Big3 auto Industry Bailout" You (check box) | Spouse (check box)

"Check here if you, or your spouse if a joint return, want 1% to go to the Porn Industry Bailout" You (check box) | Spouse (check box)

etc.

etc.

That would be some day!

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The past and the present

Just after picking up Jr. from school:

Jr. : There is a book fair in my school.

Me : When?

Jr. : You won't give me money anyways right!?

Me : Okay. This time, WILL give you some money.

Jr. : My teacher says I need some bills. like phone bills or something to buy the books.

Me : ????? I think she meant dollar bills.

Jr. : yes, right.. she said we can only bring dollar bills. no Indian bills, no Canadian bills either!

Me : (thinking...at least I tell Jr. no money to her face. disappointing the kid by giving foreign exchange is not right) She is right! You need dollar bills.

LO : (chips in from behind) how about Seattle bills?

Jr. : No silly. Only California bills!

Me : (laughing) Same bills in Seattle and California kids. It is the US Dollar!

Jr. thinks that people give us dollar bills when we finish shopping at the local grocery store! We use cards whenever we go buy gas, groceries, costco shop, etc.

The only time Jr. sees money change hands is when we ask for cash back after buying groceries, which usually is to buy tickets at the desi movie theater and Jr. never witenesses that transaction where we hand over the money! Took me a few days to understand why she thought that and explain the concept of money vs. cards.

We came home to another conversation

Jr. : Daddy is going to give me some money to buy books amma!

San : why? you have all the books you want from the library

Jr. : No. I want to buy some books to keep forever.

San : how much is he giving you?

Jr. : Ten dollars

San : You get four. Which book are you going to buy.

Jr. : this one (pulls a catalog and shows some spongebob squarepants book). I have already read it!

San : What ?! You should buy a book you have not read yet.

Jr. : I like that book. So I want to have it in our house.

(by now I am wondering where this is going to go, as we listen to the same CD over and over again.. maybe Jr. likes to read the same book over and over again?)

San : Why do you want to buy a book that you have already finished reading? Why don't you buy a new book?

Jr. : (realizing that she cannot argue her way out with mom, changes the tone)Actually I have only read the cover of that book and the first few pages. Haven't read it fully!

San : (now laughing) I didnt just become "____" (Voldemortage) without crossing six. I was six years old once too you know. You cannot fool me!

Jr. : (giggles and finally decides on a new book that was four bucks!)

Sometimes I am glad that my wife was six years old at one point and remembers everything. She seems to be more ready for a growing Jr. than I am!

We do buy them books, every now and then. They got books for Christmas presents, birthday presents, when they really pestered us to buy something at the Mall recently, etc.

Believe it or not, we are allowed to check out, upto 21 books at a time in the Library and they have a reallllllly nice collection of young reader books and you can keep them for upto 3 weeks. Also, Jr. has been going through 3-4 books a day in the last three weeks as part of a reading program and is really hooked.

My best memories of college or school are at the Library!

When we were in middle school every wednesday we would get to check out one book and return it the following wednesday. Couldn't wait for that day and we would stand in line after school, to get the next 3 investigators, hardy boys etc.. and before you know it, it was Jules Verne, Conan Doyle and Earl Stanley Gardner and we exited high school!

The BHU library was just plain amazing. You could just drown youself in an ocean of books in that place and be happy and contented browsing, reading.. what memories!

The libraries in the US were better, what with computerized VAX search tools of the entire catalog! Took a part time job shelving books on saturday and sunday for minimum wage when I was in grad school. It was great because I would get to reshelve the books, remember which ones to check out later and read them during the week and also get paid for it.

Wish Jr. takes to the library like her dad. She is guaranteed to have fun!

ps. Voldermort-age = the age that cannot be spoken
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