Trail Blazer

Happy Birthday, Didi! If my memory serves me right then after a long time, we are celebrating your birthday in your absence. I have been trying to think of different gifts that you may like on your birthday but because of analysis-paralysis could not focus on one and hence writing some thoughts for you. 

Law School by itself may not be harder than other equivalent disciplines but getting into law school by scoring in 99th percentile takes some natural talent, commitment and hard work. When I told you earlier that let me also write LSAT, it was just a joke 😀. You are a trail blazer in our immediate and extended family. You are doing something that is difficult, if not impossible to do and is definitely not a beaten path. You are travelling a path less travelled especially by people having our background. Most of us likes to quickly settle and enjoy life but what the heck, you only get one life  - that everyone lives for themselves. There are very few who gets a chance to live for others. I hope you eventually become that chosen few that genuinely is of help to people less fortunate. 

 “कौन रोता है किसी और की खातिर,

सब को अपने ही किसी बात पर रोना आया |”

 

Your decision to leave schools like Columbia, UPenn and settle for NYU law speaks about your abilities to analyze the pros and cons. At a surface level, these seems to be normal decision that many individuals take in their career but digging deeper and understanding your point of view during such decision-making made me more appreciative of your decision. I wish in your life you do not ever compromise and settle against your wish and intuition. 

 

When you are into doing things you may underestimate your worth or your abilities but looking from outside, I can say without hesitation that you have got some serious talent to bring change in people’s lives, if you continue to back yourself up. Talent is good to have but one needs to continually polish that talent every day to be able to use it otherwise there are 99% of the world’s population that has talents but cannot leverage it just because they are not harnessing and polishing their talent every day. Focus is invaluable!

 

I learnt from you the perspective of earning money vs being happy in what you do even if you earn lot less. I have hardly seen anyone in my contacts who has happily pursued the path of sacrificing money to be happy first in their career. I too was initially a bit skeptical about your goals but have now become your greatest admirer. It is good to earn money but it is far better to be able to do to pursue something that may bring some change in the lives of people that need help! You are destined to do bigger things. This strength of your character to stay focus on what you like to pursue, have the discipline to back your decision and the ability to stand by your decision gives me courage and hope to look beyond the regular life for you.

 

"आज आग हैं, कल पानी हो जाएंगे,

आखिर में हम सब कहानी हो जाएंगे | "

We all come to this life, play our character and one day go back from where we came but there are few who are destined to blaze trails. You are already a trail blazer for me and will remain such for me, ever. Keep dreaming and keep achieving your dreams!

where ends the logic, there begins the magic

Blessings from Elders

It's an amazing coincidence that all four member of this family here in US for the first time in our life time are simultaneously employed on Aug 3, 2020. We took this picture on our dining table. The four  laptops represent the four companies that we work for. This moment was possible because all four of us are working remote due to Covid issues. The latest member to start the work is Tanvi who is starting her career today with Microsoft.

This day today was possible only because of blessings from our elders and wishes from all of you.

From BI to AI

It was just a couple of weeks back, I was speaking to Girish Pathak, my ex-colleague at Satyam & Zensar, who mentioned “From BI to AI” when he came to know that my younger daughter is joining Microsoft in the area of Cloud & Security that intersects with AI & ML.

I realized that when I started my career in Information Technology, BI was the hot and emerging 

trend in late nineties. All I used to do was eat, drink and talk BI to understand what the heck it meant and how to master it along with my ex-colleagues in erstwhile Satyam Computers.

Our daughter Tanvi recently graduated from University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign (seen here alongside her elementary school graduation pic) and is all set to join Microsoft in August. It’s just funny to think that in last 21 years the level of understanding from Dad to Daughter has evolved from BI to AI.

She is very excited to join her first job and here is wishing her the best.

Father's Day 2020

This is the first year that Father’s day has come while my Father is no more. Though I am not a huge fan of Father’s day but the fact that my Dad passed away 6 months back still seems so surreal. The inability to call him and talk about various things flashed today soon after I got up this morning. The feeling of not ever able to talk to my Dad was accentuated when my daughters called out Happy Father’s day.

This is the letter that I received from Didi today on this occasion. She has encouraged me to write more. Will try to do that as much as I can. 

As she is slowly planning her move to New York to start her law school, the significance of this day is becoming more vivid. I feel that I should become like roots - invisible but strong; the more kids reach for glorious heights in their life, the deeper in soil should I go to support them from falling. Let’s see if I can ever do that.

This is the letter that I received from Chotu today morning. So

cute. She is correct to point out my concern about summer solstice. I like that.

She also writes about difference in opinion but what she does not know is many times I try to bring on different or contradicting views than hers to help her appreciate the other side without getting angry or overwhelmed. Life is good because of inherent contradictions and she will become a much better person (she already is) once she realizes this inherent life’s contradictions. I am proud of her the way she is evolving as a thoughtful, compassionate and mature young woman.

Even Sky is not the Limit

Tanya with her hands on her mouth

This post comes after a long hiatus but at an extremely gratifying moment for me- My elder daughter, Tanya, finally selected her law school that she likes to attend for the class of 2023 and the honor goes to NYU school of law, New York.

To recapitulate, she was offered confirmed admission to these law schools:

• Columbia
• UPenn
• NYU
• University of Michigan
• University of California, Berkley
• University of Virgina

View of NYU Law School

All these schools perhaps rank in the top 10 law schools in US. After myriad back & forth, pros & cons, she finally concluded NYU as her choice. Based on what I heard from her, it appears her decision to pick NYU was mostly based on her current thinking of pursuing career in public interest. NYU seems to provide the most expanded support system for pursuing public interest in the field of law out of the schools that she was admitted to. 

All this was the culmination of more than last 18 months of arduous work where she aced the LSAT while teaching part time to aspiring LSAT students. Filing copious applications for different law school can be nerve wracking to say the least and can burn you out. Similarly, deciding on your law school could be equally grueling if you have the good fortune of having option of choosing amongst different law schools.

As a parent, I could not be more delighted of the incessant hard work that she put in to pursue her future aspirations. Though not of any momentous consequence but still it is important to note that she is now destined to pursue the craft of her great grandfather who was an eminent lawyer in Patna, India.

However, after she made her school selection and deposited the money to accept the offer of NYU, she called me yesterday. She was a bit worried that she left the Ivy League school of Columbia and UPenn in favor of NYU. While listening to her concern, I reminded her that if she continues to be satisfied with her own research and data that the public interest program of NYU has a higher ranking than the corresponding courses in UPenn and Columbia then she should not be worried. I also suggested her to stop thinking of what others may think of her choice of law school because majority of her acquaintance may have only paltry understanding of what goes into such a decision process.

Tanya at age 7 on the left with her sister

I personally think that Tanya will get a world class law education in any of the schools that offered her admission. NYU will be as good a school as the rest of the schools that has extended her admission. It is not where she goes but what she does in her school will define what she can accomplish in her career ahead. My best wishes and prayers will always be with her to lead and live a meaningful and accomplished life.

Xoriant Big Data Movie

Suggestions to Improve Existing Sexual Offense Law in India

Thank you for the opportunity provided by Justice Verma committee to all the citizens of India to write their views about making sexual assault laws meaningful in light of the heinous crime that was committed on Dec 16th in New Delhi. I strongly feel that making punishment harder and giving wide publicity to such laws will act as deterrent for sexual crimes. As it is said an ounce of prevention is better than a ton of cure and hence I request the committee to deliberate more about prevention of such crimes. Pls. find my suggestions under the following headings

Prevention

Reporting

Investigation

Trial

Punishment

PREVENTION

1.    Providing defense to the defenseless should be the motto of new law

2.    Eve-teasing should be dropped from IPC and should be replaced with the word molestation

3.    Not only rape but any kind of sexual offence to any woman and child be made non bailable offense

4.    The maximum sentence for sexual offense should be death penalty

5.    No sexual offense crime can be punished for less than 20 years without the chance of parole earlier

6.    All person above the age of sixteen should be tried as adult for sexual offense

7.    Every police station in India must have at least one woman police officer at the level of Sub-Inspector and above to co-ordinate the prevention and investigation of sexual offense

8.    Establish a National Sex Offender Database that can be accessed by any Indian national to become aware of such individuals in their vicinity

9.    Sex offenders who are released from jail need to be on parole for the rest of their lives including reporting to their home town police station every month for the rest of their lives

10.A charge sheeted sex offender cannot stand for any public office unless finally acquitted by the courts

11.All persons holding any public office and also accused of sexual harassment should be debarred from making any public policy or vote on any public policy

12.Convicted sex offenders be allowed to appeal only till the Supreme Court and no appeal can be filed after the lapse of 3 month from the last sentence

13.Sex offenders must stay in jail for the entire time of the judicial process including time for appeal

14.Proper police protection to be provided to the victim on request

15.Media must volunteer to keep the names of the victim anonymous unless requested by the victim to the contrary

REPORTING

1.    Provide Internet and mobile access to report crimes of sexual offense so that no one suffers from the humiliation of verbal rape by the authorities. The victims should be able to lodge complaint from the confines of their shelters.

2.    A templatized complaint document needs to be evolved for victims to report the crime in same standardized manner. This templatized document should be available at all government offices and hospitals including its availability on internet

3.    All district and block hospitals in addition to all public/private hospitals which has any in-patient facility should be made nodal points for reporting any sex offence crime including the ability to undergo medical check-up

4.    This will help free-up the police stations from managing such reporting and they can utilize more time in policing and investigations

INVESTIGATION

1.    No investigation officer should be lower in designation than SHO in investigation of sexual offense

2.    Proper training needs to be imparted to all the police officers who qualify to investigate the sexual offense crimes

3.    All police captains must report all sexual assault in their jurisdiction to the leading Newspaper in their area once every quarter

4.    Any lapses or lack of attention to detail during investigation that results in acquittal of the sexual offenders must be severely dealt with including stopping of promotion of the concerned police office for next 5 year

TRIAL

1.    There should be separate fast track court to deal with sexual offense

2.    All trials of sex offense must be over within 90 days

3.    Retired judges of sessions/high/supreme court should be appointed to such fast track courts to assist regular judges for the speedy trial

 PUNISHMENT

1.    Maximum punishment as per the law should be norm rather than exception

2.    Once a convict goes through his punishment, his details needs to be captured in the National Sex Offender database and then remains on parole for life including reporting to home police station once every month

3.    Two strikes (two times found guilty of sexual assault) should make the accused spend rest of his life behind bars, if not jailed for life or awarded death sentence the first time