My-Views

This is my first and probably going to be the only blog post talking about a NOG i.e a Network Operator Group. I usually do not talk about that here because NOG is supposed to be facilitating the work of the network operator community and in itself should not be a topic to focus on or talk about. As a matter of fact, I find it a bit irritating when NOGs are presented as the end goal when parties are thrown in just to celebrate certain age of NOG when hours are wasted just telling stories about NOG planning etc.

Over two months passed since anti-farm law protests have started. It’s having a major impact across life in Delhi, Haryana and Punjab. This post covers it in detail.

Advanced warning: Very India specific post. Has nothing to do with systems or networks. Do not read if you aren’t interested in Indian farm distress, the way our democracy works and associated issues.

Image source: Firstpost

Background of farming stress

Due to a number of policy decisions, farmers in Punjab and Haryana (and some key areas of UP) got into a vicious cycle of producing wheat & paddy crops in excess. While it was actually a need of the hour when India was in a food crisis decades ago but since the green revolution, it has just continued. A number of expert committees have explored over time to reduce this dependency but lack of political will always come in the way.

A post to dump mind views. Hasgeek folks (who run RootConf conference in Bangalore + some other places around) seem to be in expanding mode. Besides RootConf which is a conference primarily for DevOps community, they are doing events on Fintech etc and now expanding to networks. I have been to and presented at multiple RootConfs on RIPE Atlas probes and BGP routing security. Both of these topics were from networking domain but closely touch the Sysadmins and thus probably made sense.

Attending SANOG 34 in Kolkata and today Champika from ICANN mentioned about how they (LKNOG) is trying to promote local participation by keeping the event free for locals. That is great if they can manage that. As he finished, I went to the microphone and suggested that whether or not such NOG (Network Operator Group) events are free for local operators but they must be kept free for students. I was part of INNOG 2 which happened recently and we kept the event free for the students.

(Warning: Post is about Indian politics and International readers can likely skip the post unless interested in Indian politics)

After the recent announcement of General Elections as well as tensions on relations with Pakistan, the whole environment is getting so political. News channels are full of people screaming about the party, the leader they support while the level of discourse has got to a very low level.

I must admit I was much more excited about elections back in 2014 as compared to now and I feel that is the case with many other people around me.