Hari's Corner

Recently a friend of mine was involved in quite a serious road accident where his car hit a bike and the rider of the bike sustained serious head injuries. Now causing or at the least, being involved in a serious road accident in which you are not the affected party can attract either civil or criminal liability or both. It's very important that if you're the driver of a car or a bigger vehicle and has caused serious injury or maybe even death to another road-user (and especially to pedestrians or bike riders) on the highway, that you should not try and rush away from the scene of the accident. This creates a very dangerous situation for the driver and owner of the car (or the bigger vehicle involved) and might be taken as a prima-facie evidence or admission of guilt. Hit-and-run is a sure way to attract severe criminal penalty - at least in India. And when the case involves accidental death, it may even attract a maximum of a 2 years imprisonment (with or without fine) if negligence on the part of the driver is proved (Section 304A of the Indian Penal Code - causing death by negligence). Even if there is no fault on the part of the driver, leaving the scene of the accident at the earliest possible moment is a big mistake. To be on the absolute safe side, it's very, very important to follow these simple rules which can minimize liability (if any) and go a long way to ensuring that you're on the safe side of the Law. Accident cases can be very disturbing and being the accused in a criminal proceeding can be very unpleasant and stressful to the person or persons involved.

First always stop

Don't be a hit-and-run driver. It is much worse to face criminal proceedings in hit-and-run cases. If the accident zone is unsafe, pull over at the nearest possible safe area and call the traffic police control room and seek assistance giving the location of the accident.

Stay calm and don't make any admissions

Stay calm in the face of the accident but do not admit to any liability in any manner whatsoever to strangers, even when provoked by by-standers and locals. When pressed, state that if there is any claim your insurance company would take care of the same.

Arrange to take the injured person to a nearby hospital

This is a legal duty! When an accident occurs, don't panic... It is very easy to think about running away and escaping, especially if there are no witnesses. Even without direct witnesses, the police can trace vehicles involved in highway road accidents by the process of elimination - even if it takes a long time. One such way is to get the records of toll collection and police check posts and finding out the registration numbers of which cars passed through around the time and date of the accident in question. It's extremely important that the question of responsibility or guilt should come second if the person involved in the accident is seriously injured and is losing blood. It is common humanity to arrange for emergency medical care to the injured party as quickly as possible to save a life. If it is absolutely impossible to personally attend, a close trusted friend who will take all responsibility on your behalf should be left behind to attend to the injured. Calling a nearby ambulance service is highly recommended.

Note the name, address, vehicle number and contact details of the injured person(s) and their friends/relatives

This is another step to ensure that you are not caught unawares if the police are investigating the accident and you are not denied the chance to put forward your side of the case or defence in time. If you wait for the police to catch up with you before you admit involvement in the accident, it can create a bad impression. Noting the names and addresses of the injured party will at least give you a solid piece of evidence that you HAD cared to stop and attend to the injured if the police do eventually arrive and inquire at your doorstep several weeks after the incident. Keep your temper under control Even if you do stop voluntarily, you might be tempted to leave when it appears that there will be trouble over the event. Especially on highways, the local townsfolk or villagers will gather together in hostile attitude near the scene of the accident. Tempers might flare up for a short duration, but avoid getting caught in a heated verbal altercation or a scuffle with the local populace. Even if there appears that there won't be trouble, never take anything for granted. Particularly, don't trust local persons who tell you to leave the scene of the accident or those who try to act as mediators and take money from you promising to discharge you of liability. Your actions might still be taken as hit-and-run when the police ultimately arrive on the scene. Implicating the absent party is not only possible, but highly probable in such scenarios.

Inform the police of the accident and register a counter-complaint if warranted

If you are not at fault or at least there is a chance that the accident has been caused, in part, by the negligence of the other party, filing a counter-complaint at the local police station near where the accident has taken place as soon as possible will give you a better chance of avoiding criminal liability. Here I'll say one more thing. It's important not to make a deal with the police without getting a written assurance from the other party that they will drop charges if you offer them some kind of monetary compensation. Never take the assurances of the police for granted! In the less serious accidents, compromise is often possible and indeed desirable from everybody's point of view. But compromises should be made in the proper manner and the police should not be given a chance to take advantage of your absence to establish and file charges. Trying to bribe policemen can be a double-edged weapon and very dangerous! Be very careful in such a situation. Inform your lawyers immediately If there is a good chance of getting charged on a criminal offence, it is important to get in touch with a good lawyer as soon as you can and let them know the whole facts of the case. A lawyer can definitely be a help and a support in dealing with the situation and in the worst case scenario, a lawyer will help you wade through the technicalities of criminal proceedings. If there are regular hearings of the case, you might be able to get the court's permission from having to appear in every single hearing. That's about it. Being involved in road accidents is never pleasant and is nearly always stressful and panic-inducing. Following these tips will not be easy or natural, but it will save a lot of trouble in the long run.

Inform your insurance company of the accident

Don't forget to inform your insurance company in writing about the accident immediately upon filing the police complaint so that steps can be taken by them in respect of your own-damage claim (if you have comprehensive cover) and also about third-party liability (which is mandatory by Indian Law). In most accident cases where injury or death of a third-party is involved, your insurance company will incur liability and would most likely opt to settle the claim if there are no legal grounds to deny their liability. Informing your insurance company is vital in accident cases.

Disclaimer: At the time of writing this article I was not a qualified lawyer (still a student of law). At present I am a full-fledged legal professional. Information in this article will be reviewed periodically in the light of knowledge and experience and may be revised for accuracy. It is recommended that first-hand legal advise from a qualified lawyer is always taken in accident cases and not to rely entirely on this article.

Thanks to Debian's huge package repository I've discovered quite a few decent Real-Time Strategy games in Linux. If you like RTS gaming, here are a few you might like to try:

Bos Wars

A futuristic RTS game with a rate-based economy system (rather than an absolute system where you collect "1000 gold, 500 wood, 50 energy" etc. I actually tried this out, but the AI is highly aggressive even in easy mode and rushes you even before you have time to build a few basic structures.

Boson

Though I've not tried it out, this is actually more than a game. It's an RTS engine that can be extended to create new games and scenarios.

Globulation 2

An unusual RTS game that does away with the usual clickity-click micromanagement usually found in most RTS of the collect-food-wood-gold-build-until-you-die" variety. Seems interesting enough to explore though graphically it seems rather underwhelming. Worth trying out.

Glest

Looks very promising for a fantasy RTS gamer. Screenshots look really tempting and attractive. Another on the must-try list.

Widelands

An Open Source RTS game inspired by Settlers 1 and 2 (which I've never played myself).

In general, RTS games in Linux seem harder to learn and master than a typical Windows RTS game. The AI also doesn't seem to be as advanced, which is quite understandable considering the effort and time needed to code a really sophisticated AI. I guess these games are mostly targetted at multiple human players over a network or the internet.

I'm not as patient as I used to be some years ago when I was really a big fan of RTS. Now I prefer Pacman and Tetris.

Our cop finally gets to DO something, for a change!

Papa Hari News Service

Following the alarming trend of the abuse of the word "Fake" by bloggers to gain mileage out of famous celebrities and popular events, the Papa Hari Commission for the Protection of Fakes Against Non-Genuine Usage (PHCPFANGU) has sought a legislation banning such usage of the word "fake" as in "Fake IPL player" and "Fake Steve Jobs".

Speaking at a press conference, a representative of the PHCPFANGU told reporters that the trend of using the word "fake" in a false context in order to exploit the popularity of celebrities and events was nauseating and repulsive. "We cannot tolerate fake usage of the word 'fake' in language any more. We request the Papa Hari World Government to enforce strict legislation banning such usage. Only genuine fakes have the right to this term. Real fakes who've actually worked hard to fake something genuine, rather than fake fakes who exploit the popularity of fakeness in order to gain popularity or mileage."

When asked to clarify what is really fake and what is not, he further explained: "When something is so obviously fake and that fact is paraded by the faker in order to exploit the popularity of the original, then that is a fake fake. When something is genuinely trying hard to appear real but is truly a fake, then it is obviously a genuine fake. We have already received several complaints from the Association of Counterfeiters, Forgers, Identity Thieves, Nigerian Scamsters and Assorted Conmen (ACFITNSAC) protesting vehemently against this kind of exploitation of their trademark word and we fully agree with them. To take away from the sanctity of the term 'fake' is to deny the hard work these legitimate fakers have put into their work in order to appear genuine. Bloggers and webmasters who blatantly and gratuitously use this term for their own purposes deserve the severest condemnation and punishment!"

In the meantime, another group, The Association of Protection of the Purity of Genuineness (APPG) has strongly and vehemently condemned the PHCPFANGU for repeatedly using the word "genuine" and "original" alongside a word like "fake."

"As members of the APPG, we demand an apology and the payment of hefty damages from the PHCPFANGU for their derogatory and demeaning the usage of the words 'genuine', 'legitimate' and 'original' by using it to describe fakes. This has got to stop," said the President of the APPG, who was later unavailable for comment as he had left for an undisclosed secret location.

A Papa Hari World Government Ministry spokesman admitted that this was a priority issue and that they were working with a popular-internet-search-engine-which-shall-not-be-named-and-which-started-in-the-research-lab-of-two-students in order to detect fake fakers and eradicate them from all search results. The popular internet search engine has declined to comment but has assured everybody involved that it will protect freedom of speech and expression and at the same time comply with the censorship laws of the Papa Hari World Government.

In other news, several Free Speech activist bloggers who shall not be named have started an inspirational online campaign named "Fakes Have Rights Too!". In a show of strength and solidarity, they have published an 88x31 icon image created in GIMP and released it in GIF, JPEG, PNG, BMP, TIFF, XPM, XCF, PSD, PNM and TGA file formats for bloggers to copy and paste on their blogs as a mark of protest and give them more publicity in the process. "The publication of an 88x31 icon image is one of the greatest democratic expressions of the Internet," said a blogger to this reporter under the condition of anonymity. When asked whether they were supporting the rights of fake fakes or genuine fakes, he appeared extremely confused and started writing yet another rant on Freedom of Speech and Expression of the Human Species.

Or should it be unhealthy...?

I normally don't comment or review current affairs. But the recent expose by the media on private medical colleges (and some deemed universities) in India and their illegal practice of collecting "capitation" fees from students has one outstanding feature: the almost complete lack of public outrage (I don't count temporary media-generated frenzy as public outrage). To be sure, other recent news, such as the racially motivated attacks on Indian students in Australia have captured the headlines and the public attention to the exclusion of everything else.

Capitation fee, for those who are not aware, is, I believe, something unique to India because of the heavy demand for professional education (in the main, engineering and medicine) and the shortage of high quality institutions that provide them. The system works like this: a certain percentage of seats in educational institutions are allotted by Government or Government-recognized universities. Seats in private colleges or institutions affiliated to such universities fall under two categories: one based on the quota-based merit ranking as determined by qualifying examinations (also known as Government Quota) and the remaining seats are left to be filled at the discretion of the private college's management. Government-run or aided colleges do not have this private quota. The natural consequence of this has been that privately run colleges have been shamelessly selling their share of seats to students for exorbitant sums of money (in the tune of hundreds of thousands of rupees per seat) which is in direct violation of a Supreme Court Order against this practice. "Capitation" is a term used for cloaking this illegal practice in respectability. The real term should be "unadulterated greed."

The reason I believe there's no outrage (or at least very limited outrage) is because the public know, and have known for a long time now, that private colleges and even some deemed universities have been collecting large sums of money from anxious parents to "guarantee" a place to their children in their institutions long before the results of qualifying exams even come out.

There has been a kind of passive acceptance of this practice from the student community and the system has been well entrenched by now. Even if families are put to great hardship and are forced to take heavy loans at high interest rates to fulfill such demands, higher education has such an appeal and priority that even lower-middle class families have been willing to take on heavy burdens.

The situation has only worsened because the Government has been granting deemed university status to numerous privately run institutions of late regardless of the quality of education or facilities they provide. Armed with such a status, these private institution have only increased their demand for such fees, resulting in further deprivation of educational facilities for the truly meritorious. Students who have been squeezed out by the system either because of the stringent quota system or their lack of "competitive scores" in the qualifying stage and have been forced to seek entry by the other route - through the private quota of these colleges. And hence the system has inevitably survived and propagated.

Mere de-recognition of offending institutions or universities will not help resolve the underlying social issues at work here. I believe that the situation will only be resolved in the long term if the current caste-based quota-based system (with merit accorded a lower priority) is seriously re-considered. A quota system based on economic status should be introduced with merit being accorded higher priority over one's caste, religion or birth. Of course, political groups in favour of the quota system will resist such moves strongly as will the managements of private colleges because the current system suits their respective purposes admirably.

Really wealthy people should not mind either way as they can afford to pay their way through higher education at any cost. It's the poor, but deserving students (regardless of caste or religion) and meritorious students belonging to middle class families (especially those belonging to the so-called 'forward castes') who will benefit from such educational reforms.

I don't see this happening though. The only other practical solution is increasing the number of seats and courses to accommodate the maximum number of students possible and force private colleges into seeking students to fill empty seats rather than the other way round, but this might further dilute the quality of education and lead to other problems. Of course, many will accept this solution willingly on the basis of "something is better than nothing." The other advantage is that it also provides a nice escape route to avoid the social tensions which might be caused by removing the quota system.

While politicians can cry hoarse over the "capitation fee" issue in Parliament, conveniently ignoring the deeper issues they represent, the public will only remain apathetic and unimpressed by their sincerity (or lack of it in this case) in addressing the core problems.