Its been a day of debate and concerns.
On one hand, there is blatant criticism, denial for our growth or whatever status that we have and the immediate fashionable tendencies to disown our country on every pothole. On the other there are tendencies that freedom fighters did their jobs, lets remember their stories and sing songs and sleep over it. It was supposed to be a gift after all. There seems to be a definite disconnect between the times when freedom fighters did their jobs and suddenly the current situation that we are facing.
There is no place on earth where you won't find corruption, religion issues, terrorism, homelessness, poverty and everything associated with a country. The only difference is that usually the people there do not constantly worry about their identities as citizens when they are talking or facing such issues.
Why the hell are we so bloody conscious of our own identities or always in a crisis ?
If we don't like this place we have to move out and settle somewhere else and then constantly worry about our small worlds revolving around our cultural/caste/language identities and of course currency conversions ?
Just a thought, do people of Indian origin outside actually want our country to be absolutely at par with the developed one's ? Or do they lose on the differential gain that they are enjoying right now ? I am not being judgemental here, its just a mention of a possible thought process.
If we are born and brought up somewhere else and are citizens of that country, why not just accept it and be comfortable with it ? People living abroad are crazy conservative nuts. Simply put, they have lost it when it comes to actually adopting modern caste/religion/language -less value system. Am I generalizing...??? What do you do up their talking about people back in India ..huh ???
For people of Indian origin when it comes to sports, the moment they know that they are no good for those country standards, they remember that there is a place called India. Just go back and try to represent the place as they get some country representation at least. Are they willing to be citizens here ...hmmm ..sorry.
Back in India, Why can't we "own" "our" issues as "current" without being conscious of our identities and without referring to anything before 1947 ????
Why is their always a question about "being proud of one's country ?" and
comments such as "disgusted with the country". Its a shame and the only reason why one should be ashamed is the peoples attitude. Thats all that seems to be going wrong here.
Growth and sustenance would always be an ongoing process and as much as we own our responsibilities, identities and the problems that we see and have a participating attitude instead of "who gave me this bad piece of cake"-attitude, the easier it would get.
For our achievements till 1947...A Very Happy Independence Day to All. And now further...
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Technology Extremes in Sports : In or Out ???
On one hand there is technology assisted line calling in tennis wherein pure computer rendering of the path determines if the ball landed in or out. Even if there is a micro element of an already micro-sized tennis ball touching the line(via computer rendering), a call is made.Quite obviously, the player on the receiving end of the deal feels cheated due to such assistance and to be absolutely fair, the player on the other end feels like having got a cheat bonus. The tennis example being on extreme side of technology assistance makes it look absolutely inhuman for some of the results.
We are using technological assistance in games like hockey, cricket, basketball, motor sports, ice hockey, rugby etc., while there is nothing of that sort provided to soccer even if the referee on the ground confesses of not being in the best position to decide. Now this is one thing that I find absolutely ridiculous in the name of keeping human errors in the game i.e., making it more human. The only argument against such a stance would be the unimaginable amount of money, pride, emotions involved all across the world. Such a stake in the name of keeping things human which is purely a result of an individual or managements old school of thought. Do they actually not get bothered when obvious errors make or break a game. They always mention technology intervention to be harmful to the human element but I feel, that has taken place only in the case of tennis and assistance is something which should be the norm of the day.
Be it Lampard's goal against Germany or the deflection of the Dutch free kick against the spanish wall (the counter attack after that decided the world cup winners), obvious mistakes do not have a place in any form of the sport, in the name of human element at least.In this age the amount of money involved with soccer cannot take "Sorry" as an answer to an obviously wrong decision made.
We are using technological assistance in games like hockey, cricket, basketball, motor sports, ice hockey, rugby etc., while there is nothing of that sort provided to soccer even if the referee on the ground confesses of not being in the best position to decide. Now this is one thing that I find absolutely ridiculous in the name of keeping human errors in the game i.e., making it more human. The only argument against such a stance would be the unimaginable amount of money, pride, emotions involved all across the world. Such a stake in the name of keeping things human which is purely a result of an individual or managements old school of thought. Do they actually not get bothered when obvious errors make or break a game. They always mention technology intervention to be harmful to the human element but I feel, that has taken place only in the case of tennis and assistance is something which should be the norm of the day.
Be it Lampard's goal against Germany or the deflection of the Dutch free kick against the spanish wall (the counter attack after that decided the world cup winners), obvious mistakes do not have a place in any form of the sport, in the name of human element at least.In this age the amount of money involved with soccer cannot take "Sorry" as an answer to an obviously wrong decision made.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
2 martyrs per 10 sq m every 10 days !!!
It was 3rd Feb 2010 (Wednesday) when two teenaged siblings were crushed to death right in front of the gate of the block that I live in.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Siblings-crushed-by-DTC-bus/articleshow/5532917.cms
The street on which this incident happened is like that of a typical residential colony, where it’s difficult to imagine buses plying on them. Thanks to the DDA shopping center built few years back, one would find all sorts of cars parked in a manner, which may be referred to as the modern avatar of Civil Disobedience Movement. ‘Civil Disobedience’ seems to be deeply imbibed into the very ethos of the political capital. The idea of not obeying laws and more so in terms of Civic-“Non”-Sense is something that we have derived quite literally out of our history text books. The main attraction in the shopping centre is undoubtedly the "Hori Lal Pan Shop" and followed loosely by "Apni Rasoi"/"Dominos" as food centers. Of course, I didn’t mention that the complex is also a Hide-Out for Open-Air Drinks Parties. There used to be a Liquor Shop here some time back. And instead of controlling the Open-Air Drinks Parties, they shut the shop instead due to complaints from the Resident Welfare Associations of the adjacent blocks. The parties continue though.
I must also mention here that this lane is the route to two major schools in the area (less than 100 yards away) and a hospital (opposite the school). The entry to this lane is plagued by the clutter caused due to car shops, gym, bank and the shopping centre. A special mention that the shops (in residential complexes) had been closed down by authorities before and they re-open again as always.
Like any other residential area, even this street has its share of vegetable/fruit vendors, cycle rickshaws and few other hawkers. The Beat Officers on/off duty are typically seen at the "chai"-shop [tea shop] catering to the area, right at the spot where the accident took place. As a resident, I haven’t really had any problems with the hawkers/cycle rickshaw pullers. As regards the mishap, the reports don't mention whether the bus was at a fast speed. If that’s the case, then the accident is just like the kinds on any other road/lane and there isn't any specific thing about the lane or the hawkers or any other clutter contributing to it. Here, it’s mentioned that the kid (17) was riding the bike taking his sister (13) to the school and seemingly couldn't tackle a hawker and slipped and was crushed under the mini-bus. Now, if the bus was at a controllable distance or speeding, then the driver of the bus is at fault. If it wasn’t then I am not sure, if the driver of the bus was really guilty.
Now this terrible incident throws up the state of utter civic-Non-sense and blatant violation of law and order:
- Illegal Shops in Residences
- Illegal Parking Chaos
- Public Drinking Practices
- Pan/Cigarette shops within 100 yards of a school
- Underage driver (the kid)
- We still don’t know much about the driver of the mini-bus and the vehicle’s status.
- Everything under the nose of Law Enforcers.
All the above are taking place within a km from the MLA’s residence and a km distance from the Police Station HQ.
Who is to be blamed for the accident ?
Finally the action taken by the authorities : The fruit vendor, the chai (tea) shop and the cycle richshaws have been removed for the time being and that would be predictably for a week or so.
My heartfelt condolences to the family of the two kids. Nobody deserves such a fate.
Do we really need 2 "martyrs" for every 10 sq.m space to be cleared off daily wage-earners by the authorities for 10 odd days. What could be more stupefying than this ???
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Siblings-crushed-by-DTC-bus/articleshow/5532917.cms
The street on which this incident happened is like that of a typical residential colony, where it’s difficult to imagine buses plying on them. Thanks to the DDA shopping center built few years back, one would find all sorts of cars parked in a manner, which may be referred to as the modern avatar of Civil Disobedience Movement. ‘Civil Disobedience’ seems to be deeply imbibed into the very ethos of the political capital. The idea of not obeying laws and more so in terms of Civic-“Non”-Sense is something that we have derived quite literally out of our history text books. The main attraction in the shopping centre is undoubtedly the "Hori Lal Pan Shop" and followed loosely by "Apni Rasoi"/"Dominos" as food centers. Of course, I didn’t mention that the complex is also a Hide-Out for Open-Air Drinks Parties. There used to be a Liquor Shop here some time back. And instead of controlling the Open-Air Drinks Parties, they shut the shop instead due to complaints from the Resident Welfare Associations of the adjacent blocks. The parties continue though.
I must also mention here that this lane is the route to two major schools in the area (less than 100 yards away) and a hospital (opposite the school). The entry to this lane is plagued by the clutter caused due to car shops, gym, bank and the shopping centre. A special mention that the shops (in residential complexes) had been closed down by authorities before and they re-open again as always.
Like any other residential area, even this street has its share of vegetable/fruit vendors, cycle rickshaws and few other hawkers. The Beat Officers on/off duty are typically seen at the "chai"-shop [tea shop] catering to the area, right at the spot where the accident took place. As a resident, I haven’t really had any problems with the hawkers/cycle rickshaw pullers. As regards the mishap, the reports don't mention whether the bus was at a fast speed. If that’s the case, then the accident is just like the kinds on any other road/lane and there isn't any specific thing about the lane or the hawkers or any other clutter contributing to it. Here, it’s mentioned that the kid (17) was riding the bike taking his sister (13) to the school and seemingly couldn't tackle a hawker and slipped and was crushed under the mini-bus. Now, if the bus was at a controllable distance or speeding, then the driver of the bus is at fault. If it wasn’t then I am not sure, if the driver of the bus was really guilty.
Now this terrible incident throws up the state of utter civic-Non-sense and blatant violation of law and order:
- Illegal Shops in Residences
- Illegal Parking Chaos
- Public Drinking Practices
- Pan/Cigarette shops within 100 yards of a school
- Underage driver (the kid)
- We still don’t know much about the driver of the mini-bus and the vehicle’s status.
- Everything under the nose of Law Enforcers.
All the above are taking place within a km from the MLA’s residence and a km distance from the Police Station HQ.
Who is to be blamed for the accident ?
Finally the action taken by the authorities : The fruit vendor, the chai (tea) shop and the cycle richshaws have been removed for the time being and that would be predictably for a week or so.
My heartfelt condolences to the family of the two kids. Nobody deserves such a fate.
Do we really need 2 "martyrs" for every 10 sq.m space to be cleared off daily wage-earners by the authorities for 10 odd days. What could be more stupefying than this ???
Saturday, January 30, 2010
साठ साल के बूढ़े या साठ साल के जवान !!!
For those who do not understand or can see the Hindi Fonts for the title..its an expression which says 'so ..60 years old or 60 years young ?' There was an old advertisement of an energy dose which had a similar tag line. Here I am referring to our country, India, completing 60 years of being a republic.
This year, I am happy that I attended both the Republic Day Parade and The Beating Retreat Ceremony. Till around 1992 ie., 18 years back, these events used to be a family's must watch on TV/live. With the boom in television programming channels, the interest for this event reduced just like many other shows which used to be an occassion when the family gets together. Similar to the trend, for many years, Republic Day became just a holiday for me as well when I could sleep till late but not so for parents though. They still enjoyed watching the parade. It was only a few years back when I actually started thinking about this event and the significance that it holds vis-a-vis the changing culture, interests and ideologies of the society. Today when we talk about such achievements or events, the reactions by many young people including a generation previous to me is that of sarcasm and cynicism. Even though there is no smoke without fire but the fact is that for many of them, especially the younger generation, this cynicism comes as a "learned" attribute only. Criticizing and constant comparisons with other countries (especially west) on various parameters primarily civic in nature has been the order of the day and would probably remain so for some time.
Whatever be it, I feel that simply being a part of the audience watching the proceedings and cheering for them makes me a tiny part of our huge entity. At the same time, I feel that the problems affect me as much as I have the little potential to bring in some change towards cleaning up being a part of the group. Isn't it the problem that the human race is facing in totality and not just any single country ?
The little things that made my day were the sights of small kids who were enjoying their little picnic and at the same time asking their parents for details about whatever they were seeing. The aged set of people who were in the audience had a mixed look of pride, nostalgia, patriotism and a certain concern for the results of whatever they dreamt about. I remember seeing a very old gentlemen with a walking stick. He was wearing a tattered blazer with a label reflecting some sort of Indian representation. He had a rather shabby track pants and an old pair of shoes without socks and a hat. I saw him sitting till the very end of the proceedings and walked slowly in the crowd to finally disappear from my sight. I still wonder about his life and his thoughts at that age, wherein he attended the entire parade while he was in the midst of all sorts of crisis viz., poverty, old age and without support/company. Well....I was sitting in the section where there were lot of senior defence personnel from our country and abroad. Our section was diagonally opposite to the President's section. I was slightly disappointed at the end wherein I saw all the Senior Defence Personnel walking out with their families like quite a lot of civilians saying that the show is over. It was just about to get over and there was still the National Anthem to be played in barely 2-3 minutes time and more importantly the President (Supreme Commander) was yet to leave. I am not trying to make a big issue out of it but...whatever...nevermind.
At the Beating Retreat, my parents were also with me. When the Rashtrapati Bhawan got illuminated, the excitement of people and the gleam I saw in my parent's eyes were 'Priceless'. All n all the Beating Retreat seemed to be more of a family affair along with the President, where people were cheering a good show.
This year, I am happy that I attended both the Republic Day Parade and The Beating Retreat Ceremony. Till around 1992 ie., 18 years back, these events used to be a family's must watch on TV/live. With the boom in television programming channels, the interest for this event reduced just like many other shows which used to be an occassion when the family gets together. Similar to the trend, for many years, Republic Day became just a holiday for me as well when I could sleep till late but not so for parents though. They still enjoyed watching the parade. It was only a few years back when I actually started thinking about this event and the significance that it holds vis-a-vis the changing culture, interests and ideologies of the society. Today when we talk about such achievements or events, the reactions by many young people including a generation previous to me is that of sarcasm and cynicism. Even though there is no smoke without fire but the fact is that for many of them, especially the younger generation, this cynicism comes as a "learned" attribute only. Criticizing and constant comparisons with other countries (especially west) on various parameters primarily civic in nature has been the order of the day and would probably remain so for some time.
Whatever be it, I feel that simply being a part of the audience watching the proceedings and cheering for them makes me a tiny part of our huge entity. At the same time, I feel that the problems affect me as much as I have the little potential to bring in some change towards cleaning up being a part of the group. Isn't it the problem that the human race is facing in totality and not just any single country ?
The little things that made my day were the sights of small kids who were enjoying their little picnic and at the same time asking their parents for details about whatever they were seeing. The aged set of people who were in the audience had a mixed look of pride, nostalgia, patriotism and a certain concern for the results of whatever they dreamt about. I remember seeing a very old gentlemen with a walking stick. He was wearing a tattered blazer with a label reflecting some sort of Indian representation. He had a rather shabby track pants and an old pair of shoes without socks and a hat. I saw him sitting till the very end of the proceedings and walked slowly in the crowd to finally disappear from my sight. I still wonder about his life and his thoughts at that age, wherein he attended the entire parade while he was in the midst of all sorts of crisis viz., poverty, old age and without support/company. Well....I was sitting in the section where there were lot of senior defence personnel from our country and abroad. Our section was diagonally opposite to the President's section. I was slightly disappointed at the end wherein I saw all the Senior Defence Personnel walking out with their families like quite a lot of civilians saying that the show is over. It was just about to get over and there was still the National Anthem to be played in barely 2-3 minutes time and more importantly the President (Supreme Commander) was yet to leave. I am not trying to make a big issue out of it but...whatever...nevermind.
At the Beating Retreat, my parents were also with me. When the Rashtrapati Bhawan got illuminated, the excitement of people and the gleam I saw in my parent's eyes were 'Priceless'. All n all the Beating Retreat seemed to be more of a family affair along with the President, where people were cheering a good show.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Ad-Wise for Kids ???
On one hand I see people going gaga over whatever is being shown on Emotional Atyachar. Well i.e., to say ...some set of people only i.e., people like me who belong to a generation before mine but are biologically in the generation we are in and are being pushed over by the current young generation. Did I just reveal my age ???? Nevermind.
To start with Emotional Atyachar is a take on Cheaters which was on Reality TV with Tommy Habeeb as the original host. I did see few episodes of that series and happen to see partial/couple of episodes of EA. The only difference that I saw was ...a certain sense of what would you say ...fake/made-up emotions in the desi-version. And the entire formula of 'loyalty test' which is not there in the original version. It tries to prove and to some extent succeeds in its effort to show that guys/gals here are nothing but frustrated, depraved and sick. Don't take it as the typical desi-bashing idea here. What I am trying to say here is that the so called couples shown here are themselves so casual in every sense of the word. In one case a young 'cheater' was giving gyan on techniques of simulating break-ups and that would be to act possessive..huh...and then he wanted to get into ( shy "hee hee" ) live-in relationships only. Hmmmm one can understand the depth in emotions/intellect/worth in there ...hmmmm again. :) But as we make such hue n cry about these young ppl going about anyone and everyone put or kept or found or seen in front of them, I just get reminded of an ad 'fast track' move on move on move on move on .....well few of them at least. :) One of the ad gave us gyaan about chasing the guy to get rid of him. Acting possessive ???? :)
And the other ...well please see here :
My intention here is not to take a moral gyaan(knowledge) session here. My idea here is that there is a difference between selling a commodity and selling an impressionable idea instead. Here with such ads, young impressionable minds get an idea/understanding and assurance that having a new guy/gal in your bed every other day is the coolest thing on earth. God help relationships in that case. At the same time some of the ads for the same product are absolutely fine and toying with the idea of moving on but not crossing the line. If nudity or direct depiction of sexual acts is the only criterion for censorship then even softwares can detect fair amount of that and there is no need for any censor boards. Is there any censorship for ads for the ideas in them ? In the same light one might argue that a product like AXE is trying to portray the sexual attraction as the USP but if one notices, it still is focusing on the product and not selling any idea.
Hence an explicit sexually charged ad turns out to be funny instead.
Now just like the above series of ads which were successful and seemingly titillated many of our audiences, I would like to mention another ad and thats for a product called Mentos. Now mentos reminds us of the interesting animation in which the monkey goes on to become a man and dominates the donkey which used to dominate the monkey. Neat graphics, interesting music and all. People liked it, all is well.
The animation, concept n all is amazing but my take is that there are portions of the ad where it has been done in a violent manner ie., from the perspective of kids. To some extent the music itself is quite gory, if I may use the word. And especially the shriek and the visuals of the reaction of the animal when hit by the hunter, couple of times, is something which I thought was a very violent visual for a kid. I know, the initial reaction of many/all, would be that these days kids watch everything n all ..bla bla bla ...but that doesn't cover the fact that those specific visuals were not appropriate for kids. Such visuals would never be seen in any of the Disney or western animation productions for kids. And the idea again, approving the beating of a donkey as being smart is not something that a small kid should learn. I would definitely like the experts in child psychology to comment on my observations. I see my neighbour's kid beating up dogs because the kids parents have given him the approval or rather encouraged him to do so. We don't want that...do we ?
Ok the last one for the day ...
This is a recent ad for Bingo potato chips.
Now everything about the ad is fine except for one shot ...where a car is actually shown to hit the guy and the guy is in the air due to that impact. Now that visual i.e., one single shot was not required to make the ad any more effective than it already was. Without that particular shot, just the audio could have done the trick and the next shot of the guy lying on the ground is effective enough to generate humor. I don't think the accident shot brings in any humor but only adds to the violence and shock element of the ad, which I would not like a small kid to get affected by. I found it particularly surprising. I own my comments as my personal views and people who know me also know that I have an amazing tolerance for concepts, ideas and different cultures but I am quite particular and sensitive about the exact content which affect young people and small kids.
There are q uite a few of them ..but its getting way too late in the night ...so Catch ya later...goodnite.
To start with Emotional Atyachar is a take on Cheaters which was on Reality TV with Tommy Habeeb as the original host. I did see few episodes of that series and happen to see partial/couple of episodes of EA. The only difference that I saw was ...a certain sense of what would you say ...fake/made-up emotions in the desi-version. And the entire formula of 'loyalty test' which is not there in the original version. It tries to prove and to some extent succeeds in its effort to show that guys/gals here are nothing but frustrated, depraved and sick. Don't take it as the typical desi-bashing idea here. What I am trying to say here is that the so called couples shown here are themselves so casual in every sense of the word. In one case a young 'cheater' was giving gyan on techniques of simulating break-ups and that would be to act possessive..huh...and then he wanted to get into ( shy "hee hee" ) live-in relationships only. Hmmmm one can understand the depth in emotions/intellect/worth in there ...hmmmm again. :) But as we make such hue n cry about these young ppl going about anyone and everyone put or kept or found or seen in front of them, I just get reminded of an ad 'fast track' move on move on move on move on .....well few of them at least. :) One of the ad gave us gyaan about chasing the guy to get rid of him. Acting possessive ???? :)
And the other ...well please see here :
My intention here is not to take a moral gyaan(knowledge) session here. My idea here is that there is a difference between selling a commodity and selling an impressionable idea instead. Here with such ads, young impressionable minds get an idea/understanding and assurance that having a new guy/gal in your bed every other day is the coolest thing on earth. God help relationships in that case. At the same time some of the ads for the same product are absolutely fine and toying with the idea of moving on but not crossing the line. If nudity or direct depiction of sexual acts is the only criterion for censorship then even softwares can detect fair amount of that and there is no need for any censor boards. Is there any censorship for ads for the ideas in them ? In the same light one might argue that a product like AXE is trying to portray the sexual attraction as the USP but if one notices, it still is focusing on the product and not selling any idea.
Hence an explicit sexually charged ad turns out to be funny instead.
Now just like the above series of ads which were successful and seemingly titillated many of our audiences, I would like to mention another ad and thats for a product called Mentos. Now mentos reminds us of the interesting animation in which the monkey goes on to become a man and dominates the donkey which used to dominate the monkey. Neat graphics, interesting music and all. People liked it, all is well.
The animation, concept n all is amazing but my take is that there are portions of the ad where it has been done in a violent manner ie., from the perspective of kids. To some extent the music itself is quite gory, if I may use the word. And especially the shriek and the visuals of the reaction of the animal when hit by the hunter, couple of times, is something which I thought was a very violent visual for a kid. I know, the initial reaction of many/all, would be that these days kids watch everything n all ..bla bla bla ...but that doesn't cover the fact that those specific visuals were not appropriate for kids. Such visuals would never be seen in any of the Disney or western animation productions for kids. And the idea again, approving the beating of a donkey as being smart is not something that a small kid should learn. I would definitely like the experts in child psychology to comment on my observations. I see my neighbour's kid beating up dogs because the kids parents have given him the approval or rather encouraged him to do so. We don't want that...do we ?
Ok the last one for the day ...
This is a recent ad for Bingo potato chips.
Now everything about the ad is fine except for one shot ...where a car is actually shown to hit the guy and the guy is in the air due to that impact. Now that visual i.e., one single shot was not required to make the ad any more effective than it already was. Without that particular shot, just the audio could have done the trick and the next shot of the guy lying on the ground is effective enough to generate humor. I don't think the accident shot brings in any humor but only adds to the violence and shock element of the ad, which I would not like a small kid to get affected by. I found it particularly surprising. I own my comments as my personal views and people who know me also know that I have an amazing tolerance for concepts, ideas and different cultures but I am quite particular and sensitive about the exact content which affect young people and small kids.
There are q uite a few of them ..but its getting way too late in the night ...so Catch ya later...goodnite.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
aalijjwell ....!!!
The reference for whatever I am going to write are the horrific visuals of a police officer who had been bombed/hacked to death. The presence of officials and ministers could not provide him help in time.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/videoshow/5424415.cms
If I were to show this video without the mention of the ministers and to highlight that the vehicles standing there are part of their convoy, I feel that it wouldn't have raised any eyebrows. Thats because this is completely representative of the general tendency i.e., inability to react or take initiative or even have a willingness to help anyone on the road in case of accidents or any such mishaps. I have personally witnessed and initiated action at least 3-4 times in cases of road accidents. Normally its a very satisfying experience to help someone in time but typically it spoiled my day, every time. Thats because in all the incidents I wasn't the first person who witnessed the accident. I reached there and saw that nobody was taking any action and then I had to jump into the scenario and shout/abuse at people to get into action i.e., help me to help the person. Its true that I had to bully people around for help and I have never resorted to requesting/asking for help. I am sure the victim would have tried his/her best before I reached.
Ahh sorry about the mistaken facts...in one incident I did happen to witness the accident..I helped...got blood stains on my clothes (was going to office)...and then when I was catching my breath on the roadside after helping the situation to safety, I saw few enthusiastic young men (who had reached there after the incident) approaching me and shouting at me to extract money for the poor lady who was hit....hmmm...justice/compensation..ahhh. They mistook me for the person who had hit the poor lady. Since these intelligent young people only saw my car nearby so they naturally thought that I was the "one". Poor initiated chaps...I had a 'polite' conversation with them to make them realise whatever they needed to asap..... Thankfully they did respond to my suggestions. Again...it did make my day.
So why would this incident raise eyebrows...well it should...for all the common-sense reasons that I need not write here. Also in the video, I was shocked at the control/authority they had over the officers who were there and still abiding/attending to their bosses instead of taking any action for their colleague. Poor buggers don't realise that they might be having the same fate someday. Maybe they are actually so dumb and thats the reason they are doing whatever they are i.e., serving their MASTERS. Actually, its unfortunate...the entire scenario.
Chalo ji.....sab badhiyaa hai ....aalijjwell samjha ?...tamashaa khatam....aage badho .... !!!!
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/videoshow/5424415.cms
If I were to show this video without the mention of the ministers and to highlight that the vehicles standing there are part of their convoy, I feel that it wouldn't have raised any eyebrows. Thats because this is completely representative of the general tendency i.e., inability to react or take initiative or even have a willingness to help anyone on the road in case of accidents or any such mishaps. I have personally witnessed and initiated action at least 3-4 times in cases of road accidents. Normally its a very satisfying experience to help someone in time but typically it spoiled my day, every time. Thats because in all the incidents I wasn't the first person who witnessed the accident. I reached there and saw that nobody was taking any action and then I had to jump into the scenario and shout/abuse at people to get into action i.e., help me to help the person. Its true that I had to bully people around for help and I have never resorted to requesting/asking for help. I am sure the victim would have tried his/her best before I reached.
Ahh sorry about the mistaken facts...in one incident I did happen to witness the accident..I helped...got blood stains on my clothes (was going to office)...and then when I was catching my breath on the roadside after helping the situation to safety, I saw few enthusiastic young men (who had reached there after the incident) approaching me and shouting at me to extract money for the poor lady who was hit....hmmm...justice/compensation..ahhh. They mistook me for the person who had hit the poor lady. Since these intelligent young people only saw my car nearby so they naturally thought that I was the "one". Poor initiated chaps...I had a 'polite' conversation with them to make them realise whatever they needed to asap..... Thankfully they did respond to my suggestions. Again...it did make my day.
So why would this incident raise eyebrows...well it should...for all the common-sense reasons that I need not write here. Also in the video, I was shocked at the control/authority they had over the officers who were there and still abiding/attending to their bosses instead of taking any action for their colleague. Poor buggers don't realise that they might be having the same fate someday. Maybe they are actually so dumb and thats the reason they are doing whatever they are i.e., serving their MASTERS. Actually, its unfortunate...the entire scenario.
Chalo ji.....sab badhiyaa hai ....aalijjwell samjha ?...tamashaa khatam....aage badho .... !!!!
Monday, January 4, 2010
2010...public encounters...
This year i.e., in the last 2-3 days, I made it a point to use public transport. Even though the weather has suddenly become quite chilly, which I would have enjoyed if I wasn't in the grip of slight cold/fever. Nevertheless, the point that I wanted to make is that I reached two places in the last 2-3 days which would have been a 'hell'uva traveling otherwise using erstwhile public transport infrastructure and I was thankful indeed to the Delhi Metro Services.
One of the places was in East-Delhi and to reach there I was quite excited to get onto the old DTC buses and the smaller versions of pvt buses as well. The fares starting from Rs.5 and the next level being of Rs.10 after 4 km. I did overhear concerns of the lower-economic strata users who found Rs.5 as the starting rate for DTC buses as high. Say if a labour earns Rs. 75-100 per day then the min he would spend on the DTC bus would be >=10% of his daily income. Maybe I was suddenly transformed to my old student days when I boarded the DTC, I also asked twice if the little distance that I had to travel required a 10 Rs ticket. Another thing that I noticed was the struggle and the immense peer pressure for young students to dress up and have all the accessories en-vogue. Quite a struggle indeed and to imagine the job scenarios after majority of the useless courses that are available, it would put them into a never ending loop.
Anyways, the Delhi-Metro is most certainly a boon. I was near Shahdara one day and the other day I went to Sec-18 Noida using the Delhi Metro services. Maybe because of the acceptance of the standards that the Delhi Metro has been providing to the users, I still found the conversations in some sections as plain "Thankless" in nature. Am happy that the tax payers money is being seen somewhere with concrete useful results.
I hope to use more public transport just to look around human patterns and to get a lil exercise as well which I need desperately.
One of the places was in East-Delhi and to reach there I was quite excited to get onto the old DTC buses and the smaller versions of pvt buses as well. The fares starting from Rs.5 and the next level being of Rs.10 after 4 km. I did overhear concerns of the lower-economic strata users who found Rs.5 as the starting rate for DTC buses as high. Say if a labour earns Rs. 75-100 per day then the min he would spend on the DTC bus would be >=10% of his daily income. Maybe I was suddenly transformed to my old student days when I boarded the DTC, I also asked twice if the little distance that I had to travel required a 10 Rs ticket. Another thing that I noticed was the struggle and the immense peer pressure for young students to dress up and have all the accessories en-vogue. Quite a struggle indeed and to imagine the job scenarios after majority of the useless courses that are available, it would put them into a never ending loop.
Anyways, the Delhi-Metro is most certainly a boon. I was near Shahdara one day and the other day I went to Sec-18 Noida using the Delhi Metro services. Maybe because of the acceptance of the standards that the Delhi Metro has been providing to the users, I still found the conversations in some sections as plain "Thankless" in nature. Am happy that the tax payers money is being seen somewhere with concrete useful results.
I hope to use more public transport just to look around human patterns and to get a lil exercise as well which I need desperately.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Job Opportunity : COO
Required
-----------
Designation : Chief Operating Officer
Company : My Life
About the Company :
The Company is nothing like a regular company but seeks regularity in operations and maintenance once the COO is hired. The Company is responsible for its own growth and the COO's growth. The COO can enhance the growth rate if she performs well in her roles and responsibilities. The company is listed and believes in the Super Power Stock Exchange and has shown consistent performance and shared consistent dividends with all the stock holders.
** The Company has not appointed a COO before and has never advertised its requirement before. **
The Company is proud to have retained ethical and sustainable policies for its own growth and contributing to the ecosystem as well. The Company shows great enthusiasm in performing arts and creative fields, new concepts, academics and ethical practices for progress and is concerned about the society at large. The Company doesn't limit its imagination at any stage to avoid any barriers towards further goals achieved and is constantly in a pursuit to stretch itself and grow further.
The Company believes in the self made philosophy that the ultimate displacement of any company ( read "life") might be ZERO but its the distance covered that matters.
Role :
The COO focusses on the establishment and optimization of day-to-day operations in the company. All internal department heads report to the COO.
Responsibilities :
- Should be responsible for managing a house with a family of 4-10 people and the operational staff.
- Should be responsible for motivating, supporting and tolerating the CEO.
- Should be able to conduct/direct company operations to meet budget and other financial goals.
- Should direct short-term and long-range planning and budget development to support strategic Company goals.
- Should establish the performance goals, allocate resources, and assess policies for younger members and provide confidence and security to senior members.
- Should conduct regular meetings with department heads to ensure that priorities are clear and coordination is good.
- Should be able to take charge in high-priority crisis or in absence of CEO.
- Should be able to facilitate resolution of issues between departments and members of the Company.
Skills :
• Excellent interpersonal, communications, public speaking, and presentation skills.
• Ability to generate respect and trust.
• Passion, or the willingness to become immersed in work
• Initiative, organizational skills, time management skills
• Flexibility n Openness towards learning, culture and change.
What You Can Expect by Joining My Team:
- Complete access to all the company's resources.
- The opportunity to work with an exceptional team of people who are relaxed, objective, completely unaffected and many a times completely unaware of unhealthy social biases/trends/practices.
- Would be given complete respect, freedom and support to learn, grow and achieve your personal goals and interests.
- I would hopefully provide you with an interesting ride of experiences which would be different, challenging, sometimes testing and stretching your capabilities but overall a healthy and satisfying LIFETIME experience.
Requirements :
Gender : Female
Age : Negotiable
Physique => Default Status : Gods Creation in any form is Welcome.
Current Status : Negotiable ...points would be given if you havent abused god's creation to unrealistic limits.
Drinking : Social
Smoking : hmmm not daily please. Ocassional and depending on situation is fine.
** Deformed babies as a proof for gender equality and power is an unfortunate reality. **
( Strict Requirements)
- Mental Age : Young
- Attitude - Objective, Open n Learning
PS: Age doesnt define attitude...its the reverse.
- Empathy n Kindness towards anything living or non-living
That automatically brings in respect for other people, elders, animals and surroundings.
- Flexibility : Willingness/Readiness or Flexibility to say live in a hostel setup or a jungle, if the situation arises.
- Communication Channels : All incoming and outgoing communication channels should be open 24 X 7 X Life time. Since all the possible potential scenarios can be discussed openly/objectively hence closure of communication channel during any time can be seen as a potential clause for termination.
(Preferred)
- Social Awareness n Concerns
- Dreams and new ideas and concepts.
(Pls DONT Apply if )
- If you are someone who minds other people's business more than yours.
- Having Fussy n Inflexible attitudes.
- Gender (Social) issues are seen as a shield to get away with any shabbiness.
- If you foresee any issues from the existing Life members.
- If your own family has issues or foresees any potential issues.
Tips :
- Referrals would be preferred.
- Acquintance would certainly have their positive/negative bias.
- Past applicant(s) suiting the current requirements may apply.
Acceptance and Termination Policies :
- The Acceptance of the Job, once the offer has been made should be done after careful examination of all the points mentioned above and also any clarifications can be taken after discussing with the CEO.
- Termination is an option not really open and would not be a possiblity if all the requirements are met in the first place but in the dire circumstances if its considered then you would get complete access to whatever you desire as per your objective and reasonable wish list without resorting to any unpleasant remedies.
- Any illegal and unethical practice would be severely dealt with, by the management.
Note :
The above material is not a copied text for humor and is a serious attempt to document the personal ideas and requirements of the blogger who writes at http://my23cents.blogspot.com . This has been published in public domain for comments and potential interaction.
-----------
Designation : Chief Operating Officer
Company : My Life
About the Company :
The Company is nothing like a regular company but seeks regularity in operations and maintenance once the COO is hired. The Company is responsible for its own growth and the COO's growth. The COO can enhance the growth rate if she performs well in her roles and responsibilities. The company is listed and believes in the Super Power Stock Exchange and has shown consistent performance and shared consistent dividends with all the stock holders.
** The Company has not appointed a COO before and has never advertised its requirement before. **
The Company is proud to have retained ethical and sustainable policies for its own growth and contributing to the ecosystem as well. The Company shows great enthusiasm in performing arts and creative fields, new concepts, academics and ethical practices for progress and is concerned about the society at large. The Company doesn't limit its imagination at any stage to avoid any barriers towards further goals achieved and is constantly in a pursuit to stretch itself and grow further.
The Company believes in the self made philosophy that the ultimate displacement of any company ( read "life") might be ZERO but its the distance covered that matters.
Role :
The COO focusses on the establishment and optimization of day-to-day operations in the company. All internal department heads report to the COO.
Responsibilities :
- Should be responsible for managing a house with a family of 4-10 people and the operational staff.
- Should be responsible for motivating, supporting and tolerating the CEO.
- Should be able to conduct/direct company operations to meet budget and other financial goals.
- Should direct short-term and long-range planning and budget development to support strategic Company goals.
- Should establish the performance goals, allocate resources, and assess policies for younger members and provide confidence and security to senior members.
- Should conduct regular meetings with department heads to ensure that priorities are clear and coordination is good.
- Should be able to take charge in high-priority crisis or in absence of CEO.
- Should be able to facilitate resolution of issues between departments and members of the Company.
Skills :
• Excellent interpersonal, communications, public speaking, and presentation skills.
• Ability to generate respect and trust.
• Passion, or the willingness to become immersed in work
• Initiative, organizational skills, time management skills
• Flexibility n Openness towards learning, culture and change.
What You Can Expect by Joining My Team:
- Complete access to all the company's resources.
- The opportunity to work with an exceptional team of people who are relaxed, objective, completely unaffected and many a times completely unaware of unhealthy social biases/trends/practices.
- Would be given complete respect, freedom and support to learn, grow and achieve your personal goals and interests.
- I would hopefully provide you with an interesting ride of experiences which would be different, challenging, sometimes testing and stretching your capabilities but overall a healthy and satisfying LIFETIME experience.
Requirements :
Gender : Female
Age : Negotiable
Physique => Default Status : Gods Creation in any form is Welcome.
Current Status : Negotiable ...points would be given if you havent abused god's creation to unrealistic limits.
Drinking : Social
Smoking : hmmm not daily please. Ocassional and depending on situation is fine.
** Deformed babies as a proof for gender equality and power is an unfortunate reality. **
( Strict Requirements)
- Mental Age : Young
- Attitude - Objective, Open n Learning
PS: Age doesnt define attitude...its the reverse.
- Empathy n Kindness towards anything living or non-living
That automatically brings in respect for other people, elders, animals and surroundings.
- Flexibility : Willingness/Readiness or Flexibility to say live in a hostel setup or a jungle, if the situation arises.
- Communication Channels : All incoming and outgoing communication channels should be open 24 X 7 X Life time. Since all the possible potential scenarios can be discussed openly/objectively hence closure of communication channel during any time can be seen as a potential clause for termination.
(Preferred)
- Social Awareness n Concerns
- Dreams and new ideas and concepts.
(Pls DONT Apply if )
- If you are someone who minds other people's business more than yours.
- Having Fussy n Inflexible attitudes.
- Gender (Social) issues are seen as a shield to get away with any shabbiness.
- If you foresee any issues from the existing Life members.
- If your own family has issues or foresees any potential issues.
Tips :
- Referrals would be preferred.
- Acquintance would certainly have their positive/negative bias.
- Past applicant(s) suiting the current requirements may apply.
Acceptance and Termination Policies :
- The Acceptance of the Job, once the offer has been made should be done after careful examination of all the points mentioned above and also any clarifications can be taken after discussing with the CEO.
- Termination is an option not really open and would not be a possiblity if all the requirements are met in the first place but in the dire circumstances if its considered then you would get complete access to whatever you desire as per your objective and reasonable wish list without resorting to any unpleasant remedies.
- Any illegal and unethical practice would be severely dealt with, by the management.
Note :
The above material is not a copied text for humor and is a serious attempt to document the personal ideas and requirements of the blogger who writes at http://my23cents.blogspot.com . This has been published in public domain for comments and potential interaction.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Zest for Life !!!
Today, during my conversation with a friend, I was reminded of my visit to AADI (Action for Ability Development and Inclusion, Delhi) with a radio station to celebrate Holi with the kids there. I believe that was 2006. It was just an hour that I spent there but it was an experience that I probably can't forget. I saw a writeup of that in "My Documents" and here it is :
2006 : "Experience of a Layman at AADI"
As amongst the majority of people, I was quite ignorant about Cerebral Palsy and the needs that come with the same for people affected by it. My one hour at AADI as part of the Holi ki Toli from Radio Mirchi was definitely a rollercoaster ride of thoughts and experiences within such a short span of time.
When I was entering AADI, I had a sense of curiosity, doubt, slight fear and over precaution for what I was supposed to do and at the same time what I shall be subjected to. When I entered, I couldn’t react much as I felt being subjected to various sights and sounds which were personally unknown to me and unexpected and too fast that I didn’t know how to handle. I drifted away from the Holi ki Toli and allowed myself to be colored by many kids to their amusement and pleasure while I was simply observing their reactions and expectations as I felt like an object that they felt happy playing with. What I really wanted to know at that time was:
What are these kids seeing in me? An object to play with or a new person/friend from the world outside or a person whom they listen to on radio or maybe just one more target where they can splash whatever colours they had and amuse themselves. I didn’t know what I was supposed to be at that moment.
During this while I was trying to make myself comfortable and was observing some of the most ruthless colour exchanges amongst few kids. Talk about over precaution, well I honestly felt vulnerable and was also a victim of some colour attacks. Slowly I was getting used to the reality i.e., the normalcy of small kids enjoying themselves and nothing more than that. I was comfortable now.
I was fortunate that couple of very energetic and enthusiastic young adults grabbed me for a chat. I didn’t know how to start but soon realized that they were looking for an opportunity to discuss relevant issues with someone who is available. The issues were relevant to any young adult across the world but I thought that the only difference here being, that the challenges were more and the opportunities made available to them were very constrained and limited. I also noticed that the challenges faced were different for different people. I spoke to them for a while and while exchanging each others contact information, I was surprised that the person had five email ids. One of them sounded like “summer beach “ bla bla bla …. I did recommend the person to have a consistent and a regular email id for which he responded (read obliged) by sharing his regular email id. So it wasn’t a very smart and unknown tip from my side after all. :-)
I was personally very inspired by their attitude, determination and dignity that they reflected. All n All I enjoyed playing Holi and meeting new people who taught me a lesson or two in what I would simply put as “A Zest for Life”.
Please watch http://www.aadi-india.org/AADIFilm.php
2006 : "Experience of a Layman at AADI"
As amongst the majority of people, I was quite ignorant about Cerebral Palsy and the needs that come with the same for people affected by it. My one hour at AADI as part of the Holi ki Toli from Radio Mirchi was definitely a rollercoaster ride of thoughts and experiences within such a short span of time.
When I was entering AADI, I had a sense of curiosity, doubt, slight fear and over precaution for what I was supposed to do and at the same time what I shall be subjected to. When I entered, I couldn’t react much as I felt being subjected to various sights and sounds which were personally unknown to me and unexpected and too fast that I didn’t know how to handle. I drifted away from the Holi ki Toli and allowed myself to be colored by many kids to their amusement and pleasure while I was simply observing their reactions and expectations as I felt like an object that they felt happy playing with. What I really wanted to know at that time was:
What are these kids seeing in me? An object to play with or a new person/friend from the world outside or a person whom they listen to on radio or maybe just one more target where they can splash whatever colours they had and amuse themselves. I didn’t know what I was supposed to be at that moment.
During this while I was trying to make myself comfortable and was observing some of the most ruthless colour exchanges amongst few kids. Talk about over precaution, well I honestly felt vulnerable and was also a victim of some colour attacks. Slowly I was getting used to the reality i.e., the normalcy of small kids enjoying themselves and nothing more than that. I was comfortable now.
I was fortunate that couple of very energetic and enthusiastic young adults grabbed me for a chat. I didn’t know how to start but soon realized that they were looking for an opportunity to discuss relevant issues with someone who is available. The issues were relevant to any young adult across the world but I thought that the only difference here being, that the challenges were more and the opportunities made available to them were very constrained and limited. I also noticed that the challenges faced were different for different people. I spoke to them for a while and while exchanging each others contact information, I was surprised that the person had five email ids. One of them sounded like “summer beach “ bla bla bla …. I did recommend the person to have a consistent and a regular email id for which he responded (read obliged) by sharing his regular email id. So it wasn’t a very smart and unknown tip from my side after all. :-)
I was personally very inspired by their attitude, determination and dignity that they reflected. All n All I enjoyed playing Holi and meeting new people who taught me a lesson or two in what I would simply put as “A Zest for Life”.
Please watch http://www.aadi-india.org/AADIFilm.php
Thursday, August 20, 2009
The Goal !!!
I purchased “The Goal” by Eliyahu M. Goldratt in 2006. While travelling, I had read the first half of the book till just about the first climax of the story (which I discovered recently). After my trip, I somehow managed to lose it in my shelves and subsequently it became a TBR (to-be-read) item up there. I had never come across a fast, easy read, thriller style management book before. Today I finished reading it and am glad that I did.
The story is about Alex Rogo who is a manufacturing plant manager. His plant is going through a rough time with the revenues falling due to delay in production schedules, backlogs and competition. The company decides to close down the plants which are underperforming. Alex is given a time frame of 3 months to make the plant profitable to the company or face closure. The plant has already laid off 600 people before this. And now another 600 people are in line for unemployment if Alex fails in his measures to turn around the plant’s performance. To make matters worse, Alex is having problems in his marriage. His entire focus and concern towards the situation is seen by his wife as a deliberate attempt to stay away. Consequently, Julie i.e., his wife decides to leave the house. Now, Alex is completely caught up between his family and his concerns to save his plant. At the plant, he is following all the norms that a typical plant manager is supposed to follow. The workers at the plant are always busy and the plant is always operated in full capacity. Yet, the plant seems to be constantly running behind production schedules and is unable to meet orders on time. To improve efficiency the plant has acquired technologically advanced robot machines but matters only turn worse after the same. The backlog of pending orders keeps on piling up even after working on full capacity. The net result being that the local efficiencies of the machines/workers are increasing while the plant would increasingly lack in performance.
Alex decides to consult a physics professor, Jonah, who works as a consultant to manufacturing companies. Alex had worked on a project in his early career with Professor Jonah. Jonah being a very busy man doesn’t have much time to dedicate on Alex’s problems. Nevertheless, he does try to understand Alex’s problems and would constantly challenge his thoughts/ideas on fundamentals by posing questions. At every stage Jonah’s questions are a challenge for Alex and also seek considerable brainstorming amongst his team. The answers to the questions at every step become the guide towards the solution for continuous improvement. The simplicity of the solution always seems to be mere common sense once it is achieved. Here, the ideas to the solutions sometimes came from basic activities say the kid’s weekend hiking expedition for which Alex was the group leader.
The book challenges a lot of conventions and principles and highlights our resistance to change. It lays down the importance of knowing and defining the goals before getting into the process to achieve the same. It defines productive actions as any action which brings us closer to our goals. Hence the book emphasizes on the overall goal of the organization and in turn, aligning the local tasks accordingly. It deviates from the purist aims of cutting costs, reducing wages and increasing local efficiencies in a plant. And instead it focuses on balancing inventory, operating expense and throughput. It argues that making money through sales is the ultimate goal and hence the calculations for all the operations have to be made in the context of the throughput achieved through sales. The idea is to simultaneously aim to reduce inventory, reduce operating expense and increase throughput. The book suggests that a plant in which everyone is working all the time is inefficient. It explains the concept of dependent events and statistical fluctuations leading to bottlenecks/constraints. The bottlenecks/constraints decide the productivity of the plant instead of the local optimums. This lays the foundation for Theory of Constraints. It also lays down a step by step process to counter the constraints. The sequence of events leads to Alex’s plant turning profitable by utilizing maximum capacity of the plant. He is in turn promoted, to seek further challenges in managing the division. Parallel to the events, his personal life also stabilizes. The story ends with the spirit and endeavor to constantly seek improvement by objective analysis, deduction and learning.
The first edition of the book was written in 1984 which was further revised in 1986, 1992 and 2004 respectively. I see the book as completely relevant not only in the manufacturing industry but also in various other sectors like retail, distribution, IT etc. The essence of the book is about Science and Education. Science refers to the deductive process and the manner in which we place our assumptions to explain any phenomenon i.e., the thinking process. Education reflects the need for constant learning from our environment. We also notice in the book that giving readymade solutions to issues is just a recipe for creating further problems. It’s critical to learn and deduce our own solutions for sustaining and improving in the long run. This thinking process can be applied to our personal and professional lives and also to balance the same. It makes us understand that most of our complex problems have very fundamental and simple solutions. Hence objective analysis, deduction and learning can fuel our endeavor for ‘Ongoing Improvement’ in all walks of lives, leading to our GOAL.
Friday, August 14, 2009
....feel free..!!!
Well my last post was about a place called Kanthalloor and after around 2 months of that experience, I still have vivid memories of the certain still and peaceful landscapes where nothing changed except the sunlight, clouds and breeze.
After that experience, I questioned our widely seen obsession these days to express, communicate and make our whereabouts known to everybody else. Was I sharing my 23 cents on the same lines of behavior ? I wasn't so sure but at the same time, I didn't feel like expressing either for around 2 months now. :) ( I was/am busy as well ..:D)
These days be it blogs, social network websites (statuses), even some location indicators on your cellphones ...everything is constantly pointing to our obsession to live our lives in public for most of the part. And our ideas, thoughts and activities are constantly desirous of recognition by our connections. Anyways ....the reason for me to be here was a question on a radio channel that I just heard...what would be the 3 things that i would like the Prime Minister to mention in his speech on 15 Aug 2009 ?
Well we are a 62 year "young" country which had been ripped apart before that by all the struggles/events which had been amongst the most significant one's in World's History. And even before that period, the influences on this land has been the most varied. "Volumes" has always been the USP (Unique Sore/Selling Point) for us and we have always been in a "situation". Now these days somebody who is quite worried about his properties, investments, recession concerns, school admissions, car maintenance, relationship mess, identity crisis and the constant stress of all this mad race would simply put things as .."all this is a mess and we are losing our culture, we are aping the west, we are going mad, the govt is not doing anything, we are not free, insecurity, terrorism..bla bla bla" and " old times were better times..retaining culture ethics morality ...again bla bla bla"
I really fail to understand with the country under foreign rule for more than 100 years ...how could the past ever be glorious ? And with so many influences, so many rulers, kingdoms, dynasties ruling this land the cultural influences have been varied w.r.t time and location but were not as coexistent as it is today. Today we are having international cultural influences and at the same time we are in a fair way retaining/preserving our old cultures/traditions. The blending, mixing and evolution is something which nature is based on ...so it has to continue. My argument is that we are culturally richer than our previous generation but at the same time we are more of junk information and we end up blaming junk food instead.
Is this generation more of escapist in nature than our previous generations. They definitely had the challenge to build up from scratch so nobody questioned their motivations. This generation has the responsibility to "sustain" and to take it forward as well. Now this is but obviously a challenging proposition because sustaining is many a times more difficult than creation.
PM should talk about :
1) Share a smile with people whom we interact with or even share a glance with. The more we share our smiles, the more we tend to unite and get towards each other instead of being islands of prejudices. And then we definitely get a reverse feedback in our times of sorrow or concerns.
2) Accountability/Ownership and Sharing. Whatever the period of time but lets see the current problems as "our" problems instead of passing around blames. If point (1) is implemented, the chances are that people will get together and discuss to take up issues/concerns with the authorities more easily. That would itself help resolve quite a lot of issues of public interests.
3) Feel the pride...Happy Independence Day !!!
After that experience, I questioned our widely seen obsession these days to express, communicate and make our whereabouts known to everybody else. Was I sharing my 23 cents on the same lines of behavior ? I wasn't so sure but at the same time, I didn't feel like expressing either for around 2 months now. :) ( I was/am busy as well ..:D)
These days be it blogs, social network websites (statuses), even some location indicators on your cellphones ...everything is constantly pointing to our obsession to live our lives in public for most of the part. And our ideas, thoughts and activities are constantly desirous of recognition by our connections. Anyways ....the reason for me to be here was a question on a radio channel that I just heard...what would be the 3 things that i would like the Prime Minister to mention in his speech on 15 Aug 2009 ?
Well we are a 62 year "young" country which had been ripped apart before that by all the struggles/events which had been amongst the most significant one's in World's History. And even before that period, the influences on this land has been the most varied. "Volumes" has always been the USP (Unique Sore/Selling Point) for us and we have always been in a "situation". Now these days somebody who is quite worried about his properties, investments, recession concerns, school admissions, car maintenance, relationship mess, identity crisis and the constant stress of all this mad race would simply put things as .."all this is a mess and we are losing our culture, we are aping the west, we are going mad, the govt is not doing anything, we are not free, insecurity, terrorism..bla bla bla" and " old times were better times..retaining culture ethics morality ...again bla bla bla"
I really fail to understand with the country under foreign rule for more than 100 years ...how could the past ever be glorious ? And with so many influences, so many rulers, kingdoms, dynasties ruling this land the cultural influences have been varied w.r.t time and location but were not as coexistent as it is today. Today we are having international cultural influences and at the same time we are in a fair way retaining/preserving our old cultures/traditions. The blending, mixing and evolution is something which nature is based on ...so it has to continue. My argument is that we are culturally richer than our previous generation but at the same time we are more of junk information and we end up blaming junk food instead.
Is this generation more of escapist in nature than our previous generations. They definitely had the challenge to build up from scratch so nobody questioned their motivations. This generation has the responsibility to "sustain" and to take it forward as well. Now this is but obviously a challenging proposition because sustaining is many a times more difficult than creation.
PM should talk about :
1) Share a smile with people whom we interact with or even share a glance with. The more we share our smiles, the more we tend to unite and get towards each other instead of being islands of prejudices. And then we definitely get a reverse feedback in our times of sorrow or concerns.
2) Accountability/Ownership and Sharing. Whatever the period of time but lets see the current problems as "our" problems instead of passing around blames. If point (1) is implemented, the chances are that people will get together and discuss to take up issues/concerns with the authorities more easily. That would itself help resolve quite a lot of issues of public interests.
3) Feel the pride...Happy Independence Day !!!
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Blessed !!!
This is something that I wrote on my laptop on 29th May 09 in a mud hut in Kanthalloor.
Here it goes :
I am not feeling any typical flavor of the state that I am in. It’s not the typically green coconut/banana/rice plantations all around and neither are there any backwaters here. But again, its exceptionally green……I am in Kerala. This district is called Kanthalloor, which is around 50 kms from Munnar and comes after Marayoor. This place is called PeruMala. I am in a mud hut on a hill which is surrounded by forests. There is hardly any electricity and the only sounds around are the insect noises and the typing noise on my laptop. Since I am not really a camping enthusiast, I haven’t had such kind of an experience before i.e., being completely with nature. The skies are clear today unlike yesterday. The crescent is shining in all its glamour.
On this journey to Kanthalloor, which was purely by accident, I was happy to meet an ex IT professional turned restaurateur and organic vegetables farmer. I am not a herbal tea/cuisine connoisseur, but I had one of the best herbal tea here. The leaves were simply plucked from the plant and put in boiled water. That’s all. It was an amazing drink. I think it was called lipaya. With this experience, I hope to educate myself more about organic farming. He gave me a stem of the same, which I am trying to bring to Delhi and grow it there. This would be the birthday gift to my mum. Lets see if this works in the climate of Delhi.
Considering that I love animals, I was really excited to meet a really interesting dog. This dog belonged to the owner of the cottage that I lived in and was popular amongst all the farmers and workers and everyone around multiple plots of land in the neighbourhood. While scouting around the place and on my way back, I saw this dog and she actually started directing and taking us to the cottage we lived in. It took a route which was difficult for us to follow. And hence we didn’t follow it and took another route. It came back from its intended route and then again guided us on the route that we were taking.
Earlier in my journey, I had met another amazingly friendly and socializing dog at my uncle’s place. It had many peculiar things to its credit. This was the first time; I had seen a dog with a fetish for carrots, tomatoes, mangoes and banana’s. This dog would feel sad when its not allowed to mix with guests and asked to go to its cage. Once it was made to feel alienated the entire day, it simply pushed as hard as possible and was successful in putting away the food from its cage. Again, this was the first dog I had ever seen, who would eat the drumsticks used in sambar (a curry recipe in South India) in a technically correct way. It could teach people, how to eat the drumsticks used in sambar.
My trip this time covered kannur ( pallikunnu and cherkunnu), thrissur, cochin, munnar and kanthalloor. The relaxed air, the lush greenery and the comfortable and helpful people are the perfect recipe to de-stress oneself from the craziness of the city life.
The temple in Cherkunnu, is a very famous temple. I remember coming here while I was a kid. I simply relish the payassam ( a sweet dish ) made out of jaggery at this temple. One can get payassam as a prashaad (food offering at the temple), but the taste here has been distinct and has remained the same since last 25 years that I personally remember. I think I had this payassam after around 18 years. J
On this trip, I really felt connected to my home town and would like to keep this connection in the future as well. I am feeling blessed to have my roots here. It’s seldom that one’s roots are in God’s own country and I am happy to realize it. J
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Rocky, he was an underdog ..right ???
Ok IPL IPL IPL.
So right now while I am writing this, Mumbai Indians are playing against Royal Challengers Bangalore. Ok, lets see who my favourites at the beginning of the tournament were and lets see how they are faring as on date. Or rather lets start from the last tournament. In the last tournament, everybody knows that the Rajasthan Royals won the tournament and Chennai were one of the good teams all throughout. Deccan Chargers were second last in the rankings but I still liked the team, purely for their spirit and certain positive energy that they always exuded unlike the RCBangalore. I remember, even though they lost most of the matches like Bangalore did, but they were far more positive as a team. Gilchrist, Gibbs, Symmonds, Rohit Sharma and also one name who was my personal favourite last time, Venugopal formed an interesting team. I was always skeptical about Styris though. I think he is over with his magic, unfortunately. He does put in lot of genuine effort though. I would love it, if he comes back. I always love the fighters, underdogs and the "humble" champions. And venugopal always played a gem of an innings last tournament.
So first favourite since last year : Deccan Chargers.
Second Favs : Delhi DareDevils.
Well I need to be slightly patriotic and support Delhi. And also, this team has Sehwag whom I am a complete fan of. If you read my the first blog down below around the World Cup, you would know. I was in complete support of him then as well, when the entire media and people seemed to be against him. Anywayz I will freeze my talk about DD or Sehwag here.
Third Favs : Mumbai Indians.
I thought as a line up of stars, nobody could beat this team last time. Sachin, Jayasuria, Pollock ( in the last one) and so on.. They didnt do well. I didnt particularly support them but I actually liked the positivity in their first match with sachin coming back to the team. Yeah I supported them from that second onwards. One has to follow the gut. One cant simply go by past analysis only. Thats in a way Blasphemy in the sporting world. How can anybody predict a competitive persons performance based on the trend. Thats ridiculous and I will leave that job to the esteemed commentators and anchors like Sameer, Arun Lal, Mandira and to some extent even say Sunil Gavaskar and Shastri who show their favs on the basis of pure mathematics. Funny isnt it ? Anyways ..hell am I happy. :)
So 3 of the favs are falling well in line with my desires. I felt rather sorry for RCB last time and especially for Dravid, coz he is one of the most sincere cricketers ever. And he has been ripped apart time and again. And I simply do not like that. I am happy for him that he had been one of the leading run scorers in whatever number of matches that he had played. He has joined back after few games today against Mumbai Indians. Congratulations to him for his new-born baby. Lets see how he fares in the match today. Even though I like Mumbai Indians, I am supporting RCB to do well today. :) Its a tough choice but lets see. I liked the way they beat Punjab XI yesterday. I want them to do well as well.
For the 4th position, I would love it, if its Bangalore.
There are other teams who are really good like Chennai and is coming back in this tournament after few hiccups. I supported Kolkata ONLY today against Punjab XI, but I guess they gave away the match to Punjab XI by dropping 4 catches and atleast 4-5 run out chances. So they unfortunately didn't deserve it I guess.
Yesterday when Kumble's team (RCB) beat Yuvraj's team (Punjab XI), one should have seen the post match commentary. Yuvraj was actually sulking his guts out. Now cmon, you are the captain, you cant say "I" had a hattrick and scored 50 runs and still...lost..sob sob. I know he is kind of awkward when it comes to "talk" bit. Last year, I was watching this match wherein the toss was happening and Yuvraj was asked, if there had been any changes in the team. While I was just kidding to my friend that he won't even know about it, he actually said that he doesnt remember the names. :))) Can you beat that ... ??? Now thats what I call a Blissful Captain ( Ignorance afterall is Bliss. ) And later when he was queried about his captaincy, he said "Yeah, Sangakkara is helping me out .. so things are fine." Good work Sangakkara. He is a good guy. Another example, TODAY, after winning against Kolkata, during the post match commentary, Siva Rama Krishnan asked Yuvi, " How did you feel when there were hardly 52 runs on board after 10 overs ? What was your plan ?" His reply : " Well I thought ....hmmm... are you talking about my team or theirs ? Who put up that total ? " Hmmmmmmmmmmmm, Well just for the records, Punjab made 82 runs in the first 10 overs and Yuvi was there on the field with 1 run to his credit. Hmmm some plan I must say.. :D
And guess what , I wouldnt say a thing about him, when he is there playing for the country. I love his talent. Awesome. :) Just that he is playing for the team I dont support. :D
Hence, on any other day, I would support Rajasthan and Chennai after Deccan, Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore.
And what about Kolkatta afterall ...well ....they jost got one thing wrong in the Sprite Ad. The line should be "Opposition ko daraane ke liye haraana padtaa hai !!!" and not the reverse ...:D
Chalo ..lemme get Blore to win this one ...to the utter sadness and stupid analysis of many ...!!!
I love Rocky !!! ...Anyday .... and Rambo too ..hee hee
So right now while I am writing this, Mumbai Indians are playing against Royal Challengers Bangalore. Ok, lets see who my favourites at the beginning of the tournament were and lets see how they are faring as on date. Or rather lets start from the last tournament. In the last tournament, everybody knows that the Rajasthan Royals won the tournament and Chennai were one of the good teams all throughout. Deccan Chargers were second last in the rankings but I still liked the team, purely for their spirit and certain positive energy that they always exuded unlike the RCBangalore. I remember, even though they lost most of the matches like Bangalore did, but they were far more positive as a team. Gilchrist, Gibbs, Symmonds, Rohit Sharma and also one name who was my personal favourite last time, Venugopal formed an interesting team. I was always skeptical about Styris though. I think he is over with his magic, unfortunately. He does put in lot of genuine effort though. I would love it, if he comes back. I always love the fighters, underdogs and the "humble" champions. And venugopal always played a gem of an innings last tournament.
So first favourite since last year : Deccan Chargers.
Second Favs : Delhi DareDevils.
Well I need to be slightly patriotic and support Delhi. And also, this team has Sehwag whom I am a complete fan of. If you read my the first blog down below around the World Cup, you would know. I was in complete support of him then as well, when the entire media and people seemed to be against him. Anywayz I will freeze my talk about DD or Sehwag here.
Third Favs : Mumbai Indians.
I thought as a line up of stars, nobody could beat this team last time. Sachin, Jayasuria, Pollock ( in the last one) and so on.. They didnt do well. I didnt particularly support them but I actually liked the positivity in their first match with sachin coming back to the team. Yeah I supported them from that second onwards. One has to follow the gut. One cant simply go by past analysis only. Thats in a way Blasphemy in the sporting world. How can anybody predict a competitive persons performance based on the trend. Thats ridiculous and I will leave that job to the esteemed commentators and anchors like Sameer, Arun Lal, Mandira and to some extent even say Sunil Gavaskar and Shastri who show their favs on the basis of pure mathematics. Funny isnt it ? Anyways ..hell am I happy. :)
So 3 of the favs are falling well in line with my desires. I felt rather sorry for RCB last time and especially for Dravid, coz he is one of the most sincere cricketers ever. And he has been ripped apart time and again. And I simply do not like that. I am happy for him that he had been one of the leading run scorers in whatever number of matches that he had played. He has joined back after few games today against Mumbai Indians. Congratulations to him for his new-born baby. Lets see how he fares in the match today. Even though I like Mumbai Indians, I am supporting RCB to do well today. :) Its a tough choice but lets see. I liked the way they beat Punjab XI yesterday. I want them to do well as well.
For the 4th position, I would love it, if its Bangalore.
There are other teams who are really good like Chennai and is coming back in this tournament after few hiccups. I supported Kolkata ONLY today against Punjab XI, but I guess they gave away the match to Punjab XI by dropping 4 catches and atleast 4-5 run out chances. So they unfortunately didn't deserve it I guess.
Yesterday when Kumble's team (RCB) beat Yuvraj's team (Punjab XI), one should have seen the post match commentary. Yuvraj was actually sulking his guts out. Now cmon, you are the captain, you cant say "I" had a hattrick and scored 50 runs and still...lost..sob sob. I know he is kind of awkward when it comes to "talk" bit. Last year, I was watching this match wherein the toss was happening and Yuvraj was asked, if there had been any changes in the team. While I was just kidding to my friend that he won't even know about it, he actually said that he doesnt remember the names. :))) Can you beat that ... ??? Now thats what I call a Blissful Captain ( Ignorance afterall is Bliss. ) And later when he was queried about his captaincy, he said "Yeah, Sangakkara is helping me out .. so things are fine." Good work Sangakkara. He is a good guy. Another example, TODAY, after winning against Kolkata, during the post match commentary, Siva Rama Krishnan asked Yuvi, " How did you feel when there were hardly 52 runs on board after 10 overs ? What was your plan ?" His reply : " Well I thought ....hmmm... are you talking about my team or theirs ? Who put up that total ? " Hmmmmmmmmmmmm, Well just for the records, Punjab made 82 runs in the first 10 overs and Yuvi was there on the field with 1 run to his credit. Hmmm some plan I must say.. :D
And guess what , I wouldnt say a thing about him, when he is there playing for the country. I love his talent. Awesome. :) Just that he is playing for the team I dont support. :D
Hence, on any other day, I would support Rajasthan and Chennai after Deccan, Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore.
And what about Kolkatta afterall ...well ....they jost got one thing wrong in the Sprite Ad. The line should be "Opposition ko daraane ke liye haraana padtaa hai !!!" and not the reverse ...:D
Chalo ..lemme get Blore to win this one ...to the utter sadness and stupid analysis of many ...!!!
I love Rocky !!! ...Anyday .... and Rambo too ..hee hee
Saturday, May 2, 2009
The grass remains the same !!!
I saw two documentaries today. One was Channel 4's "Unreported World : The Killing of Kashmir" and the other one was "Inside Hamas". Now both the documentaries are available on google video as well.
"The Killing of Kashmir" was a documentary made in 2004 but it seems to be as relevant today as it was then or before. As someone who is in the capital city, I only get to know of whatever the situation is through the newspapers or television news. The gravity of any situations in general is understood by the documentaries one gets to see about the place and situation. This film depicts the complex situation of the local people living in Kashmir. The local people simply do not know what to do and how to carry on with their normal lives. The reasons of poverty, lack of opportunities, political conflict situations has made their lives nothing but hell. For all practical purposes, the local people don't want the Mujahideens or any other militant factions and they don't want the Indian Army as well, considering the amount of human rights violations as are constantly reported against them. The militants want the locals to support their cause, hide them from the army and provide them with "whatever" they demand. The army on the other hand, wants to capture the culprits and in that effort, they need information from the locals and want the locals to support them. And they have a tough time distinguishing amongst civilians who support militants and/or are under pressure from militants or are neither of them. So "no militants, no army and leave us alone", being the natural expression for the troubled people.
Similarly the other documentary, "Inside Hamas" focusses on the operations and the current situation of Hamas. It talks about the reducing popularity of Hamas amongst their own people. As regards the situation of the civilians, the similarity between the two documentaries can be noticed clearly. In the documentary, one civilian shouted loud "No one from Hamas, No one from Fatah, No one from Islamic-Jihad...No one can come to my house and tell me what to do". Now, that clearly reflects the sentiments of the tired and troubled civilian.
As they say, when elephants fight, its the grass that suffers.
Now, Isaac Deutscher, who was a British Journalist, historian and political activist had given a famous statement regarding Israel in "The Non-Jewish Jew and Other Essays".
And that was : "A man once jumped from the top floor of a burning house in which many members of his family had already perished. He managed to save his life; but as he was falling he hit a person standing down below and broke that person’s legs and arms. The jumping man had no choice; yet to the man with the broken limbs he was the cause of his misfortune. If both behaved rationally, they would not become enemies. The man who escaped from the blazing house, having recovered, would have tried to help and consol the other sufferer; and the latter might have realized that he was the victim of circumstances over which neither of them had control. But look what happens when these people behave irrationally. The injured man blames the other for his misery and swears to make him pay for it. The other, afraid of the crippled man’s revenge, insults him, kicks him, and beats him up whenever they meet. The kicked man again swears revenge and is again punched and punished. The bitter enmity, so fortuitous at first, hardens and comes to overshadow the whole existence of both men and to poison their minds."
I guess, this can be seen as a generic example for many other situations as well.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
We dont need no ...Edddukkaaashunnnn !!!
The entire battle called Elections is a pure game of controlling the mindset of the masses in which fair or foul means do not matter coz once an impression is made ( on the mind and on the vote ), things are quite literally over. The only problem which adds to the masala is the media needing a large pie of the share in this chaos. Hence the inclusion and exclusion of any context or material to any facts or playing with the focus, depends on various parameters involved ie., the TRPs, ad revenues, political or other influences and their implications. This entire situation is best visualized by the Mahabharata staging scene in the movie "Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron".
Now, imagine Mr. A.K.Hangal, the veteran actor, being introduced into the chaotic scene of the movie. He tells everyone that the entire confusion can be peacefully and objectively tackled. Now, Isn't that the worst thing that could ever happen to such MASALA packed chaos (read adrenalin pumping entertainment) ?
There is no difference between REEL and REAL afterall.
I have been reading so many posts and news reports and opinions here and there on the web and there are usually quite strong comments from the readers about the posts in general. Its a separate matter whether they are correct in their knowledge and understanding. (Refer to fair or foul clause above) Atleast their minds are filled with ideas and opinions thereby.
At the moment, what is seen is that the excitement, raging emotions, mudslinging, bashing up and squeezing in every possible sentiment, opinion and response in the public forum seems to be the name of the game. The only thing that remains comfortably and "secularly abandoned" is a certain positive objectivity which is ofcourse, without any political mileage. Look at these two links :
1) Pak militant says everybody is busy with their work and doing pretty ok. So what should he do ???? No jihad boyz....lets pack our bags.
2) Mahant Janamjey Sharanji, the president of Shri Ram Janam Bhoomi Nirman Nyas says that there is no need to use religion for political gain and everything is possible with mutual agreement. Hence don't encourage such political parties.
http://www.aol.in/news-story/Hindu-saint-asks-people-not-to-vote-for-BJP/2009041306039012000048
Both the above links are not discussed/debated/highlighted or even commented upon by readers. Hence I can fairly say that the non-interest and abandonment of such inputs is uniform and truly secular in nature. We really don't need no edduuukkkaaaashunnnnn.......!!!
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Propaganda or Bludgeon !!!
Refer to the news item which says that in Rajkot, BJP uses Art of Living Association (AOL) for Poll propaganda.
Further to that the EC has warned AOL against adding such political colours to their events.
EC has said that if any candidate addresses a gathering or shares the stage at the programme, the expenditure of the entire programme would be counted as the party's poll expenditure.
*** Why am I writing this piece of thought and what are my concerns ?
It was only couple of months back that I pushed my parents to attend an AOL camp. And I have a good impression about the association. Also, I have personal friends who are members of the group. My concerns and queries are fairly objective :
1) Does this event at Rajkot mean that, some members of AOL are using the AOL event for promoting their personal political will/support, which happens to be BJP in this case ?
If that is true, wouldn't AOL disallow such usage of their brand to conduct such activities ?
I haven't seen any report or statement from AOL, not allowing such events to take place.
2) Additional to the above fact, I understand that there is a "viral" mail chain which is doing the rounds and it seems that its being propagated by AOL members. The mail has a well constructed piece of text and asks to "vote for change" and also specifies the change as BJP.
The above two facts makes the situation quite ambiguous.
- If AOL is not stopping the use of their banner to promote BJP and there are instances of the "Vote for Change" propaganda (change being specified as BJP), then why doesn't the group come out in the media and declare their support for BJP ?
- Is the so called education being spread, limited to their members only ? ..so that they can spread the message through whatever means, as their personal initiative i.e., using the brand value for all practical purposes but without declaring the official brand support.
- Now, with the above understanding of AOL being supportive for a change (read BJP) but still not officially supporting BJP, is there a reverse brand-tagging issue somewhere ?
- Does AOL fear getting a tag of being more of a religious organization, if they openly supported BJP ? Obviously, that will not do any good to their existing brand value.
I have no issues or concerns w.r.t AOL showing their support for any party, be it BJP or any other. Suppose it was supporting the INC or NCP or any other, in this manner, I would still have similar concerns. The only point of concern for me is, why is there a lack of clarity and be non-committal ? I have always had my sincere respect towards the organization but I find this manner of conducting a propaganda as highly unethical until there is a clear public statement made by AOL on this topic. And this definitely would constitute a breach of trust.
I am a firm believer in the democratic and secular ethos in our society.
Noam Chomsky said "I think there is a good reason why the propaganda system works that way. It recognizes that the public will not support the actual policies. Therefore it is important to prevent any knowledge or understanding of them" And also "Propaganda is to a Democracy, what a Bludgeon is to a Totalitarian State"
We see it here as well.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
The Equalizing Factor !!!
Some information on the internet tells me that there are 45 million "active" internet users in India. The population of India is approx 1.1 billion.
=> Approx 4 % population are active internet users.
-----------------------
*** QUICK INFO !!!
-----------------------
* http://myneta.info/ gives
i) Single page coverage/comparison of all the candidates in your constituency.
eg: http://myneta.info/comparisonchart.php?constituency_id=103
ii) Complete details based on the affidavits the candidates have filed :
For example : http://myneta.info/candidate.php?candidate_id=1235
Note : There is usually a window of less than 2 weeks from the time an affidavit becomes available at the Returning Officer's office and the date of poll in that constituency. So thats the period when the information is uploaded as well.
* Did you forget about manifestoes ? Here they are :
http://www.indian-elections.com/partymanifestoes/
------------------------
*** PROBLEM !!!
------------------------
Do you think the kind of information as given above is easily available ?
If the answer is NO, then
Out of those 4% how many are actually getting or reading the above information ?
say 50% of the active users or would it be less than that ?? I leave it to your judgement.
With the above assumption,
" Less than 2 % of the population gets to see the above information. "
Thats the Problem !!!
----------------
SOLUTION
----------------
How many people do we interact with during the day, who are non-internet users ?
Starting from the maid at house. The chowkidaar/guard in our housing society/apartments/colony. The guy who washes our car. The cab driver who takes us to the office or the parking guy if we drive our own car to the office. The guards at the office. The pantry boy who gives us the first Official Tea. The helpers at our evening Gym.
If we think carefully, all these people usually have big families and represent large communities.
Here's how you can help :
1) Have a small casual chat with the people that you interact with. Ask them whether they cast their vote and/or the constituency in which they vote ? Now thats hardly a big deal if you are the friendly kinds.
2) Show them and give them few print outs or photo-copies ( say 20 ), of the comparison chart of their constituency. If you want the page in Hindi then use www.google.com/translate and copy/paste the same chart url. Do advise them to share it with other families in their community. Would it take any time out of your work ??? Naahhhhhh !!!
3) Further, if your motivation is still there, get few copies and arrange them to be distributed in your neighbourhood say your RWA or ask your chowkidaar to distribute the same.
THATS ALL !!! Yeahhh... you are done with it !!!
================================================================
So even if you give 5-10 ppl, 20 copies each and each copy influences say 5-10 people. You can actually help say 2000 people ie., 2000 votes. And if you do the neighbourhood exercise only then also you end up with many in your count kitty. Isn't that number slightly difficult to digest ? :-D
We might be the internet "know-all" users but each of these votes have exactly the same power and not a single penny less. And that's the EQUALIZING FACTOR !!!
Our shyness and inhibitions sould not guide our actions and we should appreciate the equal value of the power.
Do begin the process and do spread the word around.
Timing of the act is very critical. All the Best !!!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Facebook users can support the idea by joining the group :
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=63415962823
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
=> Approx 4 % population are active internet users.
-----------------------
*** QUICK INFO !!!
-----------------------
* http://myneta.info/ gives
i) Single page coverage/comparison of all the candidates in your constituency.
eg: http://myneta.info/comparisonchart.php?constituency_id=103
ii) Complete details based on the affidavits the candidates have filed :
For example : http://myneta.info/candidate.php?candidate_id=1235
Note : There is usually a window of less than 2 weeks from the time an affidavit becomes available at the Returning Officer's office and the date of poll in that constituency. So thats the period when the information is uploaded as well.
* Did you forget about manifestoes ? Here they are :
http://www.indian-elections.com/partymanifestoes/
------------------------
*** PROBLEM !!!
------------------------
Do you think the kind of information as given above is easily available ?
If the answer is NO, then
Out of those 4% how many are actually getting or reading the above information ?
say 50% of the active users or would it be less than that ?? I leave it to your judgement.
With the above assumption,
" Less than 2 % of the population gets to see the above information. "
Thats the Problem !!!
----------------
SOLUTION
----------------
How many people do we interact with during the day, who are non-internet users ?
Starting from the maid at house. The chowkidaar/guard in our housing society/apartments/colony. The guy who washes our car. The cab driver who takes us to the office or the parking guy if we drive our own car to the office. The guards at the office. The pantry boy who gives us the first Official Tea. The helpers at our evening Gym.
If we think carefully, all these people usually have big families and represent large communities.
Here's how you can help :
1) Have a small casual chat with the people that you interact with. Ask them whether they cast their vote and/or the constituency in which they vote ? Now thats hardly a big deal if you are the friendly kinds.
2) Show them and give them few print outs or photo-copies ( say 20 ), of the comparison chart of their constituency. If you want the page in Hindi then use www.google.com/translate and copy/paste the same chart url. Do advise them to share it with other families in their community. Would it take any time out of your work ??? Naahhhhhh !!!
3) Further, if your motivation is still there, get few copies and arrange them to be distributed in your neighbourhood say your RWA or ask your chowkidaar to distribute the same.
THATS ALL !!! Yeahhh... you are done with it !!!
================================================================
So even if you give 5-10 ppl, 20 copies each and each copy influences say 5-10 people. You can actually help say 2000 people ie., 2000 votes. And if you do the neighbourhood exercise only then also you end up with many in your count kitty. Isn't that number slightly difficult to digest ? :-D
We might be the internet "know-all" users but each of these votes have exactly the same power and not a single penny less. And that's the EQUALIZING FACTOR !!!
Our shyness and inhibitions sould not guide our actions and we should appreciate the equal value of the power.
Do begin the process and do spread the word around.
Timing of the act is very critical. All the Best !!!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Facebook users can support the idea by joining the group :
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=63415962823
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, April 9, 2009
History of ABC !!!
History of "Age-Bar-Council"
-------------------------------
The Bar Council of various states and now Bar Council of India are repeating their attempts to bring some form of age restictions, either to the enrollments of advocates or enrollment of students to LLB Course.
I have collected below few reports in the order of occurrence and highlighted few aspects of interest. In the first report, the HC judges who quashed the BCT demands to put an age limit of 45 for enrollment say that the parliament has not fixed any upper age limit to pursue law course. Is the current attempt by BCI, to fix an upper age limit for pursuing law course ( 30 for PG LLB and 20 for BA+LLB ), an attempt to counter this argument and achieve something which has been quashed by the courts multiple number of times.
Its quite a shame and pity as to the utter wastage of time and energy caused due to the blatant quashing of freedom and opportunities by such repeated unsubstantiated attempts.
Please find the articles below :
I ] Nov 17, 2006 Chennai
http://www.hindu.com/2006/11/17/stories/2006111716980700.htm
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Madras High Court has struck down a Bar Council of Tamil Nadu (BCT) regulation stipulating the maximum age for enrolment of advocates as 45 years.
Declaring the impugned Rule 8(A) of the Enrolment Rules of BCT as void and unconstitutional, a Division Bench comprising Justices P. Sathasivam and S. Tamilvanan said: "Parliament fixed no upper age limit for pursuing law course after taking note of various relevant features. Hence, the State Bar Council cannot widen/expand its rule-making power so extensively as to discriminate or classify between two similarly placed persons (fresh graduates and belated entrants) based on "utter arbitrariness".
Flagrant violation
"It is the duty of the court to stretch its hands to save the affected party and to remind the limits of the body (BCT) in respect of its rule-making power, particularly when Article 14 is flagrantly violated" the Judges said.
As per the impugned regulation, introduced on June 17, those aged 45 and above are not entitled to be enrolled as advocates. A person enrolling as advocate in any other State Bar Council, where there is no age restriction, shall not be entitled to apply for transfer to Tamil Nadu.
When advocate M. Radhakrishnan challenged the new restriction, the BCT justified it on the ground that it would help upkeep the professional standards and protect the interests of lawyers; that several candidates succeeded in getting a law degree while continuing in government/other service without formal or basic education; that it would help sift those having fake law degrees; that the belated entrants could not be treated on a par with regular entrants; and that they lacked in knowledge and manners.
Rejecting all the contentions, the Bench said the BCT could not furnish any concrete material with statistics to demonstrate that due to the inflow of belated entrants the standard and quality of the profession dwindled to a great extent. If the BCT meant to say that these persons did not have good knowledge and also lacked in manners then "such claim is at best a delusion born of surmises and conjectures."
The court was not underestimating the rule making powers of the BCT, they said, adding, "At the same time we cannot uphold the validity of a provision when it is stained with arbitrariness and inequality and infringes on Article 14 of the Constitution."
While disposing of a petition challenging the bar council's decision, a bench headed by Justice Vikramajit Sen said the lawyers' body had withdrawn the circular and therefore the decision could not be implemented.
All the members are of the unanimous view that the rule made on July 21, 2006 that a member above the age of 45 years will not be enrolled as an advocate is now scrapped with immediate effect. All the members are free to be enrolled to pursue legal profession" said the circular.
III ] Mar 08, 2009
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/law-commission-chairman-upholds-age-bar-for-law-courses/432253/
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-------------------------------
The Bar Council of various states and now Bar Council of India are repeating their attempts to bring some form of age restictions, either to the enrollments of advocates or enrollment of students to LLB Course.
I have collected below few reports in the order of occurrence and highlighted few aspects of interest. In the first report, the HC judges who quashed the BCT demands to put an age limit of 45 for enrollment say that the parliament has not fixed any upper age limit to pursue law course. Is the current attempt by BCI, to fix an upper age limit for pursuing law course ( 30 for PG LLB and 20 for BA+LLB ), an attempt to counter this argument and achieve something which has been quashed by the courts multiple number of times.
Its quite a shame and pity as to the utter wastage of time and energy caused due to the blatant quashing of freedom and opportunities by such repeated unsubstantiated attempts.
Please find the articles below :
I ] Nov 17, 2006 Chennai
http://www.hindu.com/2006/11/17/stories/2006111716980700.htm
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The Madras High Court has struck down a Bar Council of Tamil Nadu (BCT) regulation stipulating the maximum age for enrolment of advocates as 45 years.
Declaring the impugned Rule 8(A) of the Enrolment Rules of BCT as void and unconstitutional, a Division Bench comprising Justices P. Sathasivam and S. Tamilvanan said: "Parliament fixed no upper age limit for pursuing law course after taking note of various relevant features. Hence, the State Bar Council cannot widen/expand its rule-making power so extensively as to discriminate or classify between two similarly placed persons (fresh graduates and belated entrants) based on "utter arbitrariness".
Flagrant violation
"It is the duty of the court to stretch its hands to save the affected party and to remind the limits of the body (BCT) in respect of its rule-making power, particularly when Article 14 is flagrantly violated" the Judges said.
As per the impugned regulation, introduced on June 17, those aged 45 and above are not entitled to be enrolled as advocates. A person enrolling as advocate in any other State Bar Council, where there is no age restriction, shall not be entitled to apply for transfer to Tamil Nadu.
When advocate M. Radhakrishnan challenged the new restriction, the BCT justified it on the ground that it would help upkeep the professional standards and protect the interests of lawyers; that several candidates succeeded in getting a law degree while continuing in government/other service without formal or basic education; that it would help sift those having fake law degrees; that the belated entrants could not be treated on a par with regular entrants; and that they lacked in knowledge and manners.
Rejecting all the contentions, the Bench said the BCT could not furnish any concrete material with statistics to demonstrate that due to the inflow of belated entrants the standard and quality of the profession dwindled to a great extent. If the BCT meant to say that these persons did not have good knowledge and also lacked in manners then "such claim is at best a delusion born of surmises and conjectures."
The court was not underestimating the rule making powers of the BCT, they said, adding, "At the same time we cannot uphold the validity of a provision when it is stained with arbitrariness and inequality and infringes on Article 14 of the Constitution."
II] Nov 22, 2007 Delhi
http://indiaedunews.net/Delhi/Bar_council_cannot_impose_age_limit_for_lawyers_-_court_2617/
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The Delhi High Court on Thursday said the Delhi Bar Council cannot impose a rule barring law graduates above 45 years from enrolling for practising legal profession in the capital's courts.While disposing of a petition challenging the bar council's decision, a bench headed by Justice Vikramajit Sen said the lawyers' body had withdrawn the circular and therefore the decision could not be implemented.
All the members are of the unanimous view that the rule made on July 21, 2006 that a member above the age of 45 years will not be enrolled as an advocate is now scrapped with immediate effect. All the members are free to be enrolled to pursue legal profession" said the circular.
III ] Mar 08, 2009
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/law-commission-chairman-upholds-age-bar-for-law-courses/432253/
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The BCI has restricted students from open category above 30 years of age and those belonging to SC/ST above 35 years of age to take admission for LLB (old syllabus). Similarly, students from open category above 20 years of age and those from SC/ST above 22 years of age can no longer take admission for BA LLB course.
A R Lakshmanan, chairman of Law Commission of India on Saturday said that the rule is justified and all colleges must abide by it. Speaking to The Indian Express, Lakshmanan said, “This decision taken by the BCI and all colleges -be it government or private law colleges, must strictly follow.” He added that once the rule is made, it is supposed to be followed, not objected. Justifying his statement, Lakshmanan cited the retirement age limit stipulated for every profession.
“By restricting admissions for students above a certain age to law courses, the BCI must be ensuring younger minds into the profession,” he said.
IV] Apr 4/5, 2009
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Shabnam Mulani, a 39-year-old police constable and Yasmin Tavaria, a lawyer has filed a PIL against the ruling. Advocate Yasmin Tavaria, 52, was the first to file a PIL against the restrictive rule and the Bombay HC issued a court notice to the BCI chairperson to give his say on April 16. In a new development, Tavaria wrote to Mumbai University and state bar council to find out whether the statutory requirement of consultation was conducted by the BCI.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Krazzzy Kiya Re ......!!!!!!
To all our politicians/leaders/public figures who are influential but flying high and claim to love people for that ......
"That kinda lovin' turns a man to a slave
That kinda lovin' sends a man right to his grave
I go crazy, crazy, baby, I go crazy"
Ok thats aerosmith alrite :) but yeah it kinda suits the situation ..aint it ?
Sometimes its demoralizing to write about politics ... and as it is everybody is writing about it to debate some daily event in the election process in India.
In this existing scenario of mayhem across the world, due to the terrorism, communal tensions, conflicts between nations/races and natural calamities, the elections are about to take place in the world's largest democracy, India. During the elections, the religion issues, the communal hate speeches, the criminilization debates, the celebrities debate .....everything is pointing to one and only one thing ...and that being ...the ordinary people (especially the lower economic class) are being taken for such ultimate fools and being insulted on their face for their helplessness, day in-n-out by everybody around.
Now, without getting into the details and debates of what a young gentleman said in his "hate" speech, the very fact that a young person coming from a well-off family can actually go and talk such utter disgusting rubbish in a remote village shows the entire state of lawlessness and power corruption. This remote village is a place which he wouldn't have any business with, in his personal life. The region has been assigned to him by the party to work upon professionally. Now, the party is not backing the young fellow's alleged statements but at the same time, definitely backing him up after initial days of hiccups wherein they had to collect their own wits. If that's the case then, either the young fella has taken things into his hand without consulting his party or he was actually given complete freedom to do so. Considering that he is completely being backed by the party as a candidate, we can assume the latter ie., complete freedom being given to a candidate with limited experience in the profession. Now, if a politician with such limited experience and working under such a super banner is allowed to make such an extempore speech and also a free hand to conduct howsoever he wishes to then, doesnt it speak volumes for the unprofessionalism of the party itself. Should I assume here, that the party is literally "Ram Bharose" in their operations/methodologies ? (pun unintended). I am not really chasing this issue as the "end of it all" situation or getting into any party bashing/preference on my part.
Talking about hate speeches or communal speeches, I saw a documentary called "Final Solutions" by Rakesh Sharma. Anybody who can get a copy of it should view it once. And please keep the kids away because of its sensitive content. Apart from loads of sensitive details, it showed some really communal speeches being delivered, which obviously never got highlighted. I fairly assume such speeches are being delivered even at this moment and would be continued as a standard practice to woo the "ordinary" ( read "foolish n helpless") people of this country.
Just a quick thought here as to the reasons if any behind the other speeches not getting enough attention in the media or discussions. Is there a star power factor attached here as well ? Even though the hate speech needs to condemned but is there a factor of 'who delivered it' responsible in highlighting the entire issue ? Don't know really ..but maybe.
*** keywords for research : Media Favourites/Corruption/TRP's ? ***
Ok, I am reading a book called "India After Gandhi". Now Ramachandra Guha has compiled and narrated an amazing story of the manner in which "India" was actually born and how has it shaped up till now. Even though a country like India and its story can never be told in an 800 page book but its a masterpiece without a doubt. It has a bibliography of around 90 pages. I would strongly wish and suggest, not only translating the book into all the possible languages in the country but also to have it in the school curriculum as a compulsory subject say over a period of 3 years (VIIIth - Xth class). We have got to know, where we are and how we became what we are today as a nation. No-one amongst my peer group would actually believe that our nation, as we are today, was almost ruled out as technical impossibility, as per political scientists in that era. And its seen as a wonder, even today. Now the mention of the book might seem as a deviating reference from my initial focus on religion being the standard and the only ingredient at times for political campaigns. The reason that I mentioned this book was because of the starkling similarity between the manner of influence used in the early 20th century and in the 21st century. The same topics and debates to influence people, the same class of people and the same style still exists. What has really changed afterall ?
I think the notoriety of formulaes on how to rule the common masses have obviously been passed on till the current generation and is being used quite effectively. The formulaes has definitely made more impact in the psyche of the nation than the fading popularity of the committment and perseverence by many, to make this nation a possibility. And such a losing battle prompts my desire to make this a text book or rather an integral subject for the young children, who deserve the right inputs in moulding their ideas instead of the largely corrupt caricature of the entire political or administrative "system".
If I tell my young urban peer generation to read the book that I mentioned above, before reading say a book like "Audacity of Hope" by Mr. Barrack Obama, I would get raised eyebrows for sure. I would get a cynical remark saying "Nothing will work here..so stop your pseudo idealistic preaching" or "Are you in your senses ?" or a remark on my marital status (single) saying "You need to get married more than reading such books". Why is that ? Is it because we as a generation are tired of keywords taken in the cliche'd envelope containing our history ? Say keywords like Freedom Struggle, India, Gandhi.... n all. Is this generation somewhere tired of listening to the same bugel for ages and are almost closed to even listening to it now ? Does this generation really know the details of the real challenges that have been faced in just bringing together and managing a single structure called India ? No. Thats because, from the time everything started for this country, the keywords have been taken advantage of in gaining political mileage or raising sentiments or if simply put, to raise enough dust to confuse/convince ordinary people.
With absolute due respect to Mr. Barrack and his book, let me now think about the general impression or attraction towards a book like "Audacity of Hope". The motivational aspect in the urban youth might be dissected in the manner say ...
1. The current generation does see some hope in a contemporary icon of integrity more than the sickening rut of debates that we end up wasting our energies on a daily basis locally.
Everybody here knows the truth beyond the cloud of dust and that is the reason for such well accepted discontentment. "
2. In very rare cases, it would make a more fashionable statement in the peer group. And why not ...??? we definitely need to have pride n style in anything to get us interested in it. So nothing wrong in it.
So where does this blabber end ? This blabber ends in a note that
1. Its time that we be open to accepting and being positive towards the progress which we have made till date as a nation. And that is very significant indeed.
2. We do have enormous amounts of issues and problem areas for us to work upon. So instead of simply shouting for a "change" or looking upto the need for a messiah, one thing that we can practically do is to try and know whatever we can about our growth and about our country. This would be a concrete step to have more qualified ideas and sensitivities which is needed more than hollow/infectious emotions and lazy demands.
"That kinda lovin' turns a man to a slave
That kinda lovin' sends a man right to his grave
I go crazy, crazy, baby, I go crazy"
Ok thats aerosmith alrite :) but yeah it kinda suits the situation ..aint it ?
Sometimes its demoralizing to write about politics ... and as it is everybody is writing about it to debate some daily event in the election process in India.
In this existing scenario of mayhem across the world, due to the terrorism, communal tensions, conflicts between nations/races and natural calamities, the elections are about to take place in the world's largest democracy, India. During the elections, the religion issues, the communal hate speeches, the criminilization debates, the celebrities debate .....everything is pointing to one and only one thing ...and that being ...the ordinary people (especially the lower economic class) are being taken for such ultimate fools and being insulted on their face for their helplessness, day in-n-out by everybody around.
Now, without getting into the details and debates of what a young gentleman said in his "hate" speech, the very fact that a young person coming from a well-off family can actually go and talk such utter disgusting rubbish in a remote village shows the entire state of lawlessness and power corruption. This remote village is a place which he wouldn't have any business with, in his personal life. The region has been assigned to him by the party to work upon professionally. Now, the party is not backing the young fellow's alleged statements but at the same time, definitely backing him up after initial days of hiccups wherein they had to collect their own wits. If that's the case then, either the young fella has taken things into his hand without consulting his party or he was actually given complete freedom to do so. Considering that he is completely being backed by the party as a candidate, we can assume the latter ie., complete freedom being given to a candidate with limited experience in the profession. Now, if a politician with such limited experience and working under such a super banner is allowed to make such an extempore speech and also a free hand to conduct howsoever he wishes to then, doesnt it speak volumes for the unprofessionalism of the party itself. Should I assume here, that the party is literally "Ram Bharose" in their operations/methodologies ? (pun unintended). I am not really chasing this issue as the "end of it all" situation or getting into any party bashing/preference on my part.
Talking about hate speeches or communal speeches, I saw a documentary called "Final Solutions" by Rakesh Sharma. Anybody who can get a copy of it should view it once. And please keep the kids away because of its sensitive content. Apart from loads of sensitive details, it showed some really communal speeches being delivered, which obviously never got highlighted. I fairly assume such speeches are being delivered even at this moment and would be continued as a standard practice to woo the "ordinary" ( read "foolish n helpless") people of this country.
Just a quick thought here as to the reasons if any behind the other speeches not getting enough attention in the media or discussions. Is there a star power factor attached here as well ? Even though the hate speech needs to condemned but is there a factor of 'who delivered it' responsible in highlighting the entire issue ? Don't know really ..but maybe.
*** keywords for research : Media Favourites/Corruption/TRP's ? ***
Ok, I am reading a book called "India After Gandhi". Now Ramachandra Guha has compiled and narrated an amazing story of the manner in which "India" was actually born and how has it shaped up till now. Even though a country like India and its story can never be told in an 800 page book but its a masterpiece without a doubt. It has a bibliography of around 90 pages. I would strongly wish and suggest, not only translating the book into all the possible languages in the country but also to have it in the school curriculum as a compulsory subject say over a period of 3 years (VIIIth - Xth class). We have got to know, where we are and how we became what we are today as a nation. No-one amongst my peer group would actually believe that our nation, as we are today, was almost ruled out as technical impossibility, as per political scientists in that era. And its seen as a wonder, even today. Now the mention of the book might seem as a deviating reference from my initial focus on religion being the standard and the only ingredient at times for political campaigns. The reason that I mentioned this book was because of the starkling similarity between the manner of influence used in the early 20th century and in the 21st century. The same topics and debates to influence people, the same class of people and the same style still exists. What has really changed afterall ?
I think the notoriety of formulaes on how to rule the common masses have obviously been passed on till the current generation and is being used quite effectively. The formulaes has definitely made more impact in the psyche of the nation than the fading popularity of the committment and perseverence by many, to make this nation a possibility. And such a losing battle prompts my desire to make this a text book or rather an integral subject for the young children, who deserve the right inputs in moulding their ideas instead of the largely corrupt caricature of the entire political or administrative "system".
If I tell my young urban peer generation to read the book that I mentioned above, before reading say a book like "Audacity of Hope" by Mr. Barrack Obama, I would get raised eyebrows for sure. I would get a cynical remark saying "Nothing will work here..so stop your pseudo idealistic preaching" or "Are you in your senses ?" or a remark on my marital status (single) saying "You need to get married more than reading such books". Why is that ? Is it because we as a generation are tired of keywords taken in the cliche'd envelope containing our history ? Say keywords like Freedom Struggle, India, Gandhi.... n all. Is this generation somewhere tired of listening to the same bugel for ages and are almost closed to even listening to it now ? Does this generation really know the details of the real challenges that have been faced in just bringing together and managing a single structure called India ? No. Thats because, from the time everything started for this country, the keywords have been taken advantage of in gaining political mileage or raising sentiments or if simply put, to raise enough dust to confuse/convince ordinary people.
With absolute due respect to Mr. Barrack and his book, let me now think about the general impression or attraction towards a book like "Audacity of Hope". The motivational aspect in the urban youth might be dissected in the manner say ...
1. The current generation does see some hope in a contemporary icon of integrity more than the sickening rut of debates that we end up wasting our energies on a daily basis locally.
Everybody here knows the truth beyond the cloud of dust and that is the reason for such well accepted discontentment. "
2. In very rare cases, it would make a more fashionable statement in the peer group. And why not ...??? we definitely need to have pride n style in anything to get us interested in it. So nothing wrong in it.
So where does this blabber end ? This blabber ends in a note that
1. Its time that we be open to accepting and being positive towards the progress which we have made till date as a nation. And that is very significant indeed.
2. We do have enormous amounts of issues and problem areas for us to work upon. So instead of simply shouting for a "change" or looking upto the need for a messiah, one thing that we can practically do is to try and know whatever we can about our growth and about our country. This would be a concrete step to have more qualified ideas and sensitivities which is needed more than hollow/infectious emotions and lazy demands.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Valentine Departure : Heart Shaped Piece of Bone !!!
Feb 11 - My aunt expired. She had a brain stroke and then a series of complications which finally led to her death. She was 67. [ The hospital and the struggle with the administration being the topic of much concern in our society had a role to play once more...... No comments at the moment.]
Feb 12 - Funeral - I have only been to two funerals before in my lifetime where I saw the body being burnt. The peculiar thing for me was the noise of the bursting skull. I had never known that before and it was the sign that the soul has escaped. Had the noise not been there, the skull would have been broken by a wooden stick. I am not sure .....but can someone confirm by technical means that it is the skull which bursts and makes a noise due to the fire or can it be any other part of the body ? And also in the previous two cases there wasnt any noise and hence the skull was broken using a wooden stick instead. There was another fact which I had come to know of ...that was a "heart shaped" piece of your bone is supposed to be carrying the soul and is sought while collecting the remains n ashes for the last rites.
Feb 12 - Funeral - I have only been to two funerals before in my lifetime where I saw the body being burnt. The peculiar thing for me was the noise of the bursting skull. I had never known that before and it was the sign that the soul has escaped. Had the noise not been there, the skull would have been broken by a wooden stick. I am not sure .....but can someone confirm by technical means that it is the skull which bursts and makes a noise due to the fire or can it be any other part of the body ? And also in the previous two cases there wasnt any noise and hence the skull was broken using a wooden stick instead. There was another fact which I had come to know of ...that was a "heart shaped" piece of your bone is supposed to be carrying the soul and is sought while collecting the remains n ashes for the last rites.
Feb 14 - Garh Mukteshwar which is around 90 Kms from Delhi in UP is the nearest place from Delhi where the River Ganges flows. All the ashes and remains were immersed in Ganges. Its a separate issue that Death was the source of livelihood for many there, the boatman, the pundit and whosoever was involved, would try to extract the maximum amount of money. The more money you give to the pundit (priest), the prayers would be more precise and elaborate and that would allegedly mean that the departed soul would get Mukti/Moksh easily and/or for sure.
Friday, January 30, 2009
The Shroud of Turin !!!
( http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/03/21/shroud-of-turin.html)The Shroud of Turin is a linen cloth bearing the image of a man who appears to have been physically traumatized in a manner consistent with crucifixion. It is kept in the royal chapel of the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Turin, Italy, from which it derives its most common name. Some believe the Shroud of Turin is the burial cloth of Jesus and that his image was recorded on its fibers at his resurrection. Others contend it is a medieval hoax or forgery.
( http://www.religionfacts.com/christianity/things/shroud_of_turin.htm )Originally not scheduled until 2025, Pope Benedict XVI has announced that the Shroud will be on display for a short time in the spring of 2010.
www.sindone.org - official website of the Shroud.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
CBSE - Central Borad (needs) Spell-check Empowerment !!!
I don't know why ...but I was afraid of being accused of picking on the smallest of things and sensationalizing it. I don't even get paid for panting continuously on screen (news) or write some of the text daily (newspaper) which robs me of my money and time I waste on some of the news channels. Anywayz, on a precise note, the reason and manner in which I reached this link makes this typo error in a public circular very very shabby indeed.
Monday, January 26, 2009
The Chakra of Life !!!
I attended the Republic Day Parade Ceremony (26th January) in the year 2008. I wanted to make it a calendar event in my life to make sure that I attend the Republic Day Parade live every year. And if for any reasons I am unable to make it, I would like to make it an event watched by the entire family together. Somewhere in my view, it definitely brings in a sense of belonging towards the country and its a nice family event as well. I arranged for the passes this year and my brother, bhabhi, mum n dad were really looking forward to attend the event live (for the first time). Due to some unavoidable reasons, we had to settle for the TV broadcast instead. In our family it was after ages that we were actually sitting together and watching the parade from the beginning. It was a nice experience.
As it is, the Gallantry Awards this year were a topic of much debate. Suddenly everyone is talking about how ill equipped are the forces to counter attacks such as the 26/11 Mumbai Attacks. I am sure the topic is relevant and has come out because of this sudden attack.
Without discounting or giving any less regard to the martyrs here and also say the Kashmir issue, what about Eastern and North-Eastern Part of the country ??????
Meghalaya cop R.P. Diengdoh was awarded Ashok Chakra for an operation to neutralise 10 armed militants in the state’s jungles; Orissa Special Operations Group’s Assistant Commandant P.R. Satapathy got the medal for taking on 500 Maoists with a team of just 20 policemen.
Every single citizen knows that there is something or the other happening in these regions on a consistent basis. Whats being done to equip them with competent or even basic infrastructure (fire-arms, stations, man power, training ) to combat these situations which are known and predictable ??? Who should the family of these officers blame, for their loss ??? Or was their bravery pure suicide in the face of unwanted and/or less glamorous issues which nobody wants to own or feel about, in the metropolitan cities ?
Wish you a very Happy and a Proud Republic Day !!!
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