BackNot above the rot, very much a part of it
Not above the rot, very much a part of it
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Amit Varma has written well on the unpleasant facts of life in our country—‘A business proposal’, Mint, 16 August. However, I do not agree with his view that media is above the rot. There are many media persons who write, or do not write, stories and pieces for pecuniary or other benefits. Often one sees biased and angled reporting to suit particular views and interests. This behaviour is not exposed only because of professional courtesy. I wish there were a media ombudsman who would dispassionately publish the facts behind such news and features.
—Sivaramaprasad Kappagantu
Reading Mint on 29 August, I wanted to comment on ‘On Technology’ by Shanthi Ramamurthy about service-oriented architecture (SOA.) I’m not sure who came up with the questions, but it seems the person is not very clear on what SOA is actually about. SOA is a concept, and it should not be placed versus ‘application’. In fact, SOA is just a modular approach to development of new applications. In the end, it should allow easier adoption or implementation of a new business process.
Because of its modular approach, SOA works with building blocks (an HR master DB, a payment module, etc.) that all plug into each other, much like the LEGO concept—all connections able to connect. The big challenge, hence, is not the business process, but making sure the open standards are in place. The biggest winner of the SOA game is called middle-ware. This is the layer between applications that allow them to talk to each other in the same language.
—Ralph Moreau, Technology Attaché, Embassy of Belgium, India, Flanders Investment & Trade
Re ‘Quitting, India? Be graceful’, Mint, 17 August. S. Mitra Kalita is right: Quitting should be graceful. I work in a public sector unit and the manner in which my colleagues, who leave, are treated is shameful. An employee who submitted his resignation was not given the golden jubilee ex-gratia payment even though he had completed more than 20 years of service in the organization. Employees leave the organization with bitter feelings. They are not given an official farewell. The management ensures that they are so humiliated, they will never return. Companies should abandon this behaviour and consider larger interests and possibilities from better behaviour.
—D.P. Jain
Mrinal Pande’s ‘An ode to the villager...’, Mint, 28 August, is the story of a truly remarkable man. Spurred by love for his wife, he waged a fight against nature, societal norms, bureaucracy and his own frailty vis-a-vis the magnitude of what he set out to achieve. This is not only a powerful love story, but also a story of a very lonely satyagraha.
We must popularize such stories of inherent greatness in individuals who truly are the fathers of the modern India we hope to build. Such stories would be an inspiration for school -children in our country.
—P. Swaminathan
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