With Arms Wide Open

Australian Migration Challenges

2010-01-06T11:55:00.002+05:30

There was a time not so long ago when the world knew way too less about countries like Canada and Australia. It used to be a surprise moment if ever there used to be any news that would come out of these countries. I guess speaking of Australia, India as a nation knew only about picture perfect cricket grounds, Don Bradman, kangaroos and the likes.

As education became more and more expensive in the US and UK, and Canada being a small job market, Australia started to become a hot destination for young Indian students at the start of the 2000 decade. The mission of all young Indian students was off course to get the coveted Permanent Residency of Australia and eventually the Australian Passport.

The Australian government didn’t muck around and embraced young Indians with open arms. Australian immigration requirements were too easy for the Indian students to meet and both parties couldn’t have got a better deal. The Australian economy pocketed huge sums of money by full fee paying International students and the Australian job market got its much required taxi drivers, cooks, cleaners, etc. The young Indian students obviously loved the deal as hairdressing or a cookery course would have definitely not taken them anywhere back home.

The relaxed immigration laws also started bringing in some accounting and IT professionals into Australia and soon those Indian students were making their way into the professional job market. As compared to the scenario back in 2002-03, suddenly there were more and more Indians visible on the streets of Melbourne and Sydney. Although the immigration laws have toughened up a little bit but there are more and more Indians making their way to Australia.

The one thing that has certainly changed in the Australian job market is that the employers have a much wider choice these days when it comes to getting a better deal in an employer-employee scenario. They say the times are slowly going away when an employer used to find it hard to have his petrol station manned for the whole night or his taxi driven on a Easter weekend or Christmas eve. The migrant population is ever so hungry and they’ll take every opportunity available to earn that extra buck.

From the eyes of an average Australian, I see the whole scenario as a big problem. It is hard for them to believe that migrants turned Australians are changing the way of life in Australia and claiming their space in the mainstream. This all may sound naïve but the fact is that when Chinese New Year and Diwali celebrations start to be bigger than Christmas, it doesn’t sit well with an average Australian. The human nature is such that it is very possessive about its own turf and if there’s any threat to it, it leads the human mind on a dangerous path. To be fair to the Australians, no other nation likes it either. In India itself, forget international migration, we as a nation are intolerant of interstate migration.

Australia has a very recent history of immigrants and it will take time for the citizens of this nation to gain maturity on how to peacefully co-exist in this multicultural environment. In the meantime, there are more and more second generation kids of the migrant population who are gaining top positions at school, universities and at workplaces, and the Australians need to take the challenge head-on.

Beijing Olympics mela - Phelps....you're a gun.

2008-08-23T07:28:00.003+05:30

An incredible story hit Beijing Olympics mela in the form of Michael Phelps. An athlete who in his young age was diagnosed with Attention – Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) took up swimming to deal with his restless energy and got tremendous support from his sisters. Cut to 2008 – he has entered into the record books with a bang. He has won 8 medals at Beijing and smashed few world records of his own on the way. In total his tally is already at 14 gold medals discounting the two bronze medals he won at the Athens Olympics. Now, this is seriously incredible.

The above-mentioned incredible story is not just about an incredible athlete but also about an incredible sporting nation and that is USA. It is not surprising to note that the US of A leads the all time medals tally by bagging more than 2200 medals compared to the next best of Soviet Union trailing behind at 1000 odd medals.

I’ve been having numerous arguments over the last few weeks with my mates about why our nation (India) has won only a total of 18 medals in the history of Olympics and only 9 gold medals, here’s what they have in defence of our sportsmen:

1. India is a developing nation and doesn’t have too much money to spend on sports. Additionally, the average spend on sports spread across the population is miniscule.

2. Let’s face it that India doesn’t have the sporting talent and we should continually focus on what we do best, IT and the likes.

3. There is too much politics in the sports governing bodies.

4. Corporate houses like Cricket and no other support, which means more money for Tendulkar than say for Saina Nehwal (well you probably only know her because she came close to winning a medal in Badminton).

5. We can’t win medals unless we have foreign coaches.

My theory for all the arguments………….the above mentioned are nonsensical excuses. The following is my response to each one of them above:

1. China is a developing nation as well and leads this Olympic’s medals tally by already bagging 40 odd medals including 25 odd gold. It is not a matter of developing vs. developed but a matter of intent. China as a country wants to prove its prowess in every field and made its intent clear early that they will work every bit harder and put in any resource possible to take the top spot at the Olympic stage. To put few numbers in perspective, China spent approximately INR 84000 crores for organizing the Beijing Olympics in comparison to India which will approximately foot a bill of about INR 65000 crores to host the Commonwealth Games in 2010. So, clearly there is no lack of funds in the government coffers. Additionally, we as a nation are definitely in a better financial condition than some of the African, East European and South American countries who lead in front of us in the all time medals tally.

2. India has great sporting talent and as much as we should focus on our core competencies like IT, Engineering grads, etc, we shouldn’t ignore the formation of a sporting culture in our society. Sports are a career and as a parent one should see or explore the sporting talent in their kids and back them. Sports bring as much or more glory than being a high profile corporate at any organization. And mums…….let your kids play in the sun or in the rain, it makes them tough. And schools…..please provide some basic infrastructure for sports and not the likes of barren sand filled football fields (seriously, they were preparing us for some futuristic sport in our school).

3. Yes, there is too much politics in the sports governing bodies. I fail to understand that if BCCI, being a trust, and not being governed by any government body, can represent India as a nation, why does the Indian Olympic Committee or the Indian Hockey Federation need to be under government control. I am not suggesting BCCI as a perfect model as it is plagued by politics but it has certainly worked well for the players.

4. Corporate houses like to associate with success and it is as basic as that. They will associate with the T20 Indian cricket team who won the world cup but won’t associate with hockey or hockey players who didn’t qualify for the Olympics. Abhinav Bindra will get the sponsorship deals but not Samresh Jung.

5. We can win medals without foreign coaches and we have in the past. Only if our coaches were trained and equipped with modern techniques we would have more success than what we currently have. Indian coaches, majority of them get the job of a coach based on their experience and past accomplishments. Abhinav Bindra is already being asked for becoming a coach, now how stupid is that, he did won a gold but has a long way to go before he can “coach” people or rather I would assume so.

State Loyalties

2008-06-16T18:00:00.002+05:30

Raj Thackeray recently vowed to kick North Indians out of Mumai/Maharashtra, HD Devegowda is supporting the thought of 30% reservation for the native Kannadigas in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu already has reservation for local Tamil population. The main reason behind all this madness……well no one is happy about the influx of people from various other Indian states into the more prosperous, urbane, opportunity struck cities like Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai etc.

I’ve been reading about this and the most sad fact about the whole saga is that the youth of the nation has some very insane/childish thoughts on this topic. A bloke in Bangalore is just angry because North Indian people don’t want to learn Kannada but will insist on speaking in Hindi, and in another case, a person in Kolkatta is angry because it seems local customs and traditions are not valued by the non-bengali inter state immigrants.

I believe there are come contrasting points to look at the above mentioned situation:

a) The politicians are playing low-grade regional politics. The idea is to incite the frustration stored in the not so successful youth and use their pent up anger and frustration to stall the growth that is currently undertaking in urban India. The politicians have just one agenda and that is to sustain or regain power. Nonsensical politicians who are starved of ideas to keep their party alive plague Indian politics and igniting regional/communal politics is their last resort.

b) The unplanned growth in India has started to show its own problems. The state/central government are offenders of equal level as they have failed to provide basic infrastructure in smaller cities to enable industrial growth to happen there. Population moves where jobs move. A great example is Gurgaon which has turned into a haven for the service industry and now a big residential and commercial centre. It’s no more a case of a state being rich in natural resources or having favourable climatic conditions that will lead itself to prosperity. It’s about providing enough incentives and good infrastructure to lure global corporate to move next door. And, that is one of the more favourable solution for a equitable growth across the nation.

c) Infrastructure is shocking in some of the big Indian cities. Taking an example of Bangalore, it is a massacre on road during peak hours as the traffic barely moves and the public transport system is in shambles. It’s a fact that the big cities in India are facing a big influx but rather than creating a fuss about it, the government should be prepared to sustain this influx by all means. Remember, more the people: more collection for the state in taxes, more disposable income: more spending by people.

d) The last time I checked we in India were living in a democratic environment. We as Indians are proud of the Taj Mahal as much as we are proud of the Charminar or for that matter of the Khajuraho temples. Where does this thing about not respecting each others culture came about? India is known for its diversity and it seems it is at a larger risk than it ever was. So what if a North Indian doesn’t want to speak Kannada or doesn’t show up for the Durga Puja? Is your celebration going to be any smaller or is your life going to be altered in any sense? The culture carries on when it is imbibed by the young kids in the house, so go ahead and teach the kids the best of the religion and culture, and all the insecurities of the culture fading away will be gone.It is understandable that with the influx of people in certain cities, the cost of living including real estate prices have become astronomical. This again comes to the point of the unplanned growth that we as a nation are moving towards. A city like Hyderabad never loses power on any given day but the farmers in regional AP are committing suicide because of less power and water for their farms. Ask a young kid and he’ll have to thing twice to come up with the second largest city in Tamil Nadu or Karnataka. The government needs to work towards a sustainable growth across India with a focus on improving infrastructure and general living conditions.

Watch out for the Indian traveller

2008-05-10T22:11:00.001+05:30

It has almost become a norm but I can’t help it. Every time I travel, be it domestically or internationally, I have my eyes open to look out for what people are upto. As much as I dislike getting on the plane, airports are the place I love to be at. I just love the hustle and bustle, love people rushing off to catch a flight, people getting pissed coz the flight is delayed, people going on vacation, kids going away from family, it is a place where you have all the emotions in world at display.

The close observations during my travel are also on the peculiar nature and characteristics of travellers from different nationalities. I’ve tried long and hard to pick up common characteristics among nationalities but I guess Indians are the only one’s which have a fair deal in common. Here are a few details:

1. The final goodbyes or the homecoming: Indian airports are by far the busiest airports I’ve seen not just filled with passengers but with people who come to drop-off or pick-up a near and dear one. Thank goodness non-passengers are charged an airport ticket if they want to get inside the airport.

2. Check-in at the airline counter: Yes, there are more airline people manning these lines than the actual passengers. You never know when the lines are broken. Believe me there are still people who walk straight to the counter ignoring the line.

3. Security check: Now, this has happened to me so many times. Even at Indian airports, clearly marked lines on the floor suggest people to wait for their turn before they go through the metal detector. You would not believe but if you wait there for the signal from the security guard to come through, there will be couple of people who’ll definitely slip past you and go through.

4. Immigration counter: Please fill out the form correctly and completely and if not then move aside and fill it. The blame goes to the Immigration officials as well on Indian airports as they just love to talk, even though the lines are getting bigger.

5. Flight boarding: What is the rush? If you’ve got a boarding pass and you are in the departure area, believe me, the flight is not leaving without taking you. Then why crush so many people on the way to try and get on the plane quickly. I can understand if it is a public compartment in train and you’re trying to get the best seat but on a plane……keeps me guessing. Maybe the fixed seat concept is a bit new. I remember being told by an Indian passenger on a near empty flight from Delhi to Jaipur to go look for other vacant seat at the back of the plane as he was not too interested to put his bag away from the seat originally allocated to me :)

6. Landing and Take-off: We love our cell phone, don’t we? I guess we love it more than anybody else in the world does and on top of that we love to call the whole world before the plane take-offs or as soon as it lands. On a flight from Hong Kong recently, an Indian lady was giving a step-by-step detail to a relative back home about her movement from the departure area following into her seat on the plane. How about a CCTV camera, I guess that would be better. And offcourse, we won’t switch off our phones unless the airhostess stands on our head and we will switch it on as soon as the plane lands on the tarmac. In addition, we just love to hit the washroom as soon as the seat belts signs come on, don’t we :)

7. In mid-air: We as Indians love to drink and we’ll go to any extent to grab a free drink. On a recent flight to Sydney, I was immersed in my sleep when I woke up listening to a tiff between an Indian passenger and the flight steward. Yes, it was about the alcohol. If you’re going to skull each time a drink is served to you and expect the steward to keep serving you, well excuse me but there are few hundred other passengers in the flight waiting to be served. Yes, you paid for the ticket and the service on board but you didn’t buy other people’s peace. Also, please have the balls to swear in English if you are that pissed with the service and not bitch about the whole thing with your mates in Hindi. I guess who wants to go to jail.

8. Indian immigration officials: As much as I didn’t want to write about this but I guess it is important for everyone to know. By the way being an Indian, I am pretty ashamed of this. On a recent visit to India, I presented my passport at the immigration counter and after looking at my passport curiously, the officer told me that the lamination on the main page is coming off slightly. I said fair enough, I’ll have that fixed from the passport office. Well, he wouldn’t let me go just that easily, he popped the question atleast 5-6 times, “toh kya karma hai iska aap batao? Problem ho jaayegi aapko jab aap waapis jaaoge” (short and sweet, he was asking me to come aside and give him some money and he’ll ignore the passport issue). This wasn’t my first brush with corrupt officials but I am deeply saddened to see the rampant spread of it.

Boxing Day Test Match…………Aussies pack a punch

2008-01-02T18:06:00.000+05:30

I know it’s a bit late and there’s no point taking skeletons out of the closet but can’t help writing this. It was a déjà vu feeling going into the MCG on Boxing Day (26th December) this year and no surprises as I witnessed the Boxing Day test match between India and Australia at the same venue back in 2003. Things did change drastically over these four years with the MCG getting a facelift and the Australian cricket team not having the likes of Gillespie, Warne, Langer in the playing eleven this summer.

Instead of the all five days of the test match I restricted myself to only the first day of cricket, almost sensing a shoddy performance from the Indian team. The first day started well with a terrific battle between bat and ball. Zaheer Khan swung the ball either ways and had the opening pair of Jaques and Hayden in all sorts of trouble but the Aussies did what they know best, attack. If it hadn’t been the experience of Kumble Australia were looking to post a total of 500 plus but the day ended with the Aussies nine wickets down for 340 odd runs. Taking back the train home that evening all I could think was, “what a fight back by India”, with the Aussies scoring 111 runs for no wickets till lunch, Indians came back and claimed nine wickets in the last two sessions. What happened in the next four days is a shame and a pain to write about.

It is not funny when they say, history repeats itself. Back in 2003 the Indian team started day one of the Boxing day test flying high with Sehwag scoring a blazing 195 runs. What happened in the next four days was no different than in 2007. Enough has been written in the press about technique, under preparation, strategy, etc of the Indian team going into the test match which eventually led to their failure. What about the millions of dollars earned by BCCI, salaries to BCCI officials and coaches, contract money to players??? If we expect the team to perform, is that a crime? Where is the bloody accountability? “Every time we go out there, we try to perform at our best”…..this bullshit shouldn’t be accepted anymore.

I got a bit lucky this time or call it my intuitive best that I bought (for AUD $35) tickets to watch only the first day of cricket unlike in 2003 wherein I bought for all five days. The point I am making here is that we as Indian cricket team supporters are spending all this money and time to watch a bunch of players who lack not only intent but skills to compete at this level. How can you justify presence of a player like Dravid who hasn’t played a noticeable innings in past 1 year or for that matter Wasim Jaffer who is best at scoring runs on placid pitches.

Don’t fool the common people by winning a stupid competition like a Twenty20 world cup and declaring yourself as world champion. Play consistent and entertaining cricket and then no matter if the team loses or wins, fans will surely support them across the world. For the moment, I’ve taken a vow not to spend money to go see a cricket match involving Indian cricket team. And what to say about the Aussie team…..you guys deserve to be the world champions.

In the Line of Humor

2007-04-16T10:52:00.000+05:30

One person will be mourning the death of Sidney Sheldon, who died this year, more than anyone else in the world and that is none other than the Pakistani Military ruler General Pervez Musharraff. I mean come on where will he get any more ideas and inspiration to come close to his first literary venture, “In the Line of Honor”.

I read the whole book sitting uncomfortably in one of the bookstore on my two consecutive weekend trips. The book read was more out of curiosity per se’ than my endorsement to the literary talents or thoughts of Mr. Musharraff. Now before you think that I am going to slam the facts and thought presented in the book all through this write-up, I really have no intention of doing that. I loved reading the book but for different reasons and have mixed reactions towards it, the following are some:

General Musharraff (– the person) – The first few sections of the book talks about the childhood of Musharraff and revolves around his education in Turkey and in Pakistan. There are few sections which also talks about his entry in the Pakistan Military Academy and his rise within the military ranks. Although you get a high dose of self indulgence by the author, one has to give credit to the man for what he has achieved. Pakistan have had its share of devious politicians, corruption embedded in its government machinery (including military), religious extremism etc but to grow up from humble backgrounds to the stature of being the President of the country, you got to give some credit to the man, i.e. Musharraff.

Musharraff – the reformer – Pakistan does look like a different country today than it was ever before and there is no denying to that fact. Musharraff has been spot on in marketing his country on the world stage. A country which was on the verge of being declared as a rogue state has been able to bounce back and on the recovery. He has managed well to keep religious extremism at bay and had gone the moderate way on empowering women, initiating infrastructure development projects, reforming madrassas etc. The book has details about many other reforms which he has promoted, which more looks like items right from his resume, the ground reality of many is definitely in question.

Facts of wars – So here’s how it goes…….1965, 1971, Kargil conflict……the reason for the wars…..India’s aggressive attitude and its attack on Pakistani soil. Offcourse this is the Pakistani version of things as narrated by Musharraff and I am pretty sure we as Indians have an altogether different story to tell. Do you and I know the truth??…..I don’t think so. The military buildup around the Indo-Pak border is always heavy and the intensity of the situation, who gets on the offensive first, who got maximum casualty, this all will always have a different version dependent on whether you are Pakistani or Indian. It is for sure that we don’t and won’t ever get the full story.

Story of assassination attempts – I am just guessing who will be first, Vikram Bhatt or Sanjay Gupta, to read the book and utilize the assassination plots from the book into their movies. I bet they don’t even have to twist dialogues around. The events as narrated in the book are exhilarating and edgy. Take for instance a situation, a plane carrying Musharraff and his wife which has fuel worth only a few flying minutes left is refused to land in Pakistan and how the Pakistani military gains control on ground and stage a coup d'état and save their future President by getting the plane land just in time. He is definitely in the line of fire.

Lashing out on India – I think being the President of Pakistan this is part of his job role. He didn’t leave any opportunity in the book to talk ill about India. One of the things I do remember from the book and he mentions that post the failure of the Agra Summit, he was not allowed to speak to the press and he claims what sort of a free country is this where people’s questions are remained answered. Well whatever may be the reasons for not letting Musharraff speak to the media, the Indian government definitely didn’t wanted him to gain any ground by presenting his side of the story…..I guess fair enough. Just on the question of freedom of press and the people’s freedom of choice, we certainly know that very recently a Pakistani media company people were physically abused by the govt. for capturing the police brutality during the protests against firing of Pakistani Chief Justice.

Pakistan and US – Pakistan is a fragile country and no one knows this better than the US. All culprits of the 9/11 event had some or the other links to Pakistan. The US is stuffing money into Pakistan to keep their footing there and monitor things on their own. In a sense the US is making things easy for Musharraff as well by keeping a check on religious extremists and pro-Taliban groups who are definitely a big threat for Musharraff.

His future role and future of Pakistan – He talks about a lot of stuff he wants to do but who knows what is in store for Pakistan. Musharraff has no guarantee that he will stay on the job. There have been many assassination attempts and who knows his luck may run out sooner than he thinks. Pakistan has a troubled history when it comes to politics and the agenda of the whole nation seems to change as soon as a new group comes to power. It would be really foolish to predict where Pakistan is headed....let's just wait and watch.

Australian Cricket marches on……..are u watching Mr. Gavaskar?

2007-03-27T03:39:00.000+05:30

It has been a perfect start to the ICC cricket mela (World Cup’07) barring the death of Bob Woolmer; a glittering opening ceremony, a splendid run in the tournament for the host nation and a war of words between two of cricket’s many great avtaars. Here are the views of Sunil Gavaskar followed by the responses of Ricky Ponting:

Gavaskar: “There is not the slightest doubt that in the last decade or so the Aussies have been awesome in batting, bowling and fielding which has taken them to the top of the cricketing ladder in both Test and limited overs cricket.
But they have also been awful in the way they have sometimes behaved on the field much to the chagrin of the traditional fans of the game,"

Ponting: "For him to go on about behavior, not too many captains have dragged their teams off the field, either," Ponting said. "I don't mind if 'Mr. Perfect' comes out and goes on about our team; I know we are all not perfect. We are not going to keep everyone happy 100% of the time. But for some of these guys that have done it all themselves, it's pretty high and mighty for them to say that."

I have no reservations in admitting that I am a big admirer of Australian Cricket but I agree to Gavaskar’s comment to only a certain extent.

The Australian Cricket team has been a force for more than a decade now and no team has come close to put up a reasonable challenge to them. The fact is not that the other teams are not trying hard or playing better or maybe their cricket standards going down, it’s just that Australian team have had the fortune of fielding together some players like Warne, McGrath, Gilchrist, Ponting etc who are amongst the best the game has ever seen.
The Australians play aggressive cricket and play at a standard which does not differ irrespective of the opponent they are up against.

Aggressiveness is a trait quite handy for succeeding and Australian Cricket team is no exception. They play tough cricket and deserve all they have achieved. So if Mr. Gavaskar thinks that Ponting has a big mouth, well too bad Mr. Gavaskar but Ponting has every right to promote his team players and be aggressive. His team performs in difficult circumstances and in most cases he leads the charge.

Good humored banter is acceptable but sledging has no place in a sport like cricket. There is no denying that numerous cases have been witnessed where Australian Cricketers have been seen sledging on the field. Some of the famous incidents include the McGrath – Sarwan tiff in a match. But things have changed over the past few years as Cricket Australia (governing body) has come out with clear guidelines for its players and how their behavior should be on the playing field. There has been a drastic change seen in on field behavior since then.

The point here is that the on-field umpires are the best equipped people on the field to notice any sledging and report to the match officials and noticeably records don’t show too many Australian Cricketers being punished for sledging. Does that mean the umpires are not doing their job or the players’ talk is not considered as serious as sledging? I will go with the latter one placing full confidence in the abilities of the umpires.

Allan Border rightly points out “Cricket is a global sport in which different cultures lock horns out in the middle. Only the nuances of the game may vary from country to country”. What might be a light humored statement for people from a particular culture might turn out to be an offensive statement for the other. Each sportsman is gutting it out in the middle and emotionally charged and in the heat of the moment anything coming out of anyone’s mind is quite a possibility. In person it’s quite certain they are a different individual altogether.

I think Sunil Gavaskar should help fix things in team India (if he can work around his inflated ego) rather than engaging in mudslinging with Ponting so that we have something to talk about whenever encountering an Australian Cricket enthusiast. I mean for god sake look at the disgusting performance of the Indian cricket team. And yeah……I am rooting for the Australian Cricket team to take the Cricket World Cup.

Love is in the park…………… and so are the Police

2007-01-13T18:41:00.000+05:30

City parks in India have been a solace to love birds for quite a few years now. Far away from the prying eyes, couples can be seen sharing intimate moments in the park. In Indian society circles’ having a pre-marital relationship is not widely accepted and if you happen to be in one, spending time with your love mate in the park is the way to go. It sounds pretty cheesy but then not every couple can afford an upscale meal on each date but yeah definitely some nice ice-cream together in the park. And offcourse, if Dharmendra - Hema Malini, Shah Rukh – Rani can sing and dance in the park how can our local Romeo and Juliet’s be behind.

December 20th, 2005 prime time television, showed a news story that angered me and I am sure quite a few others. The local police in Meerut (a small town in the Indian state of UP) conducted a drive named “Operation Majnu” (Romeo) across the city. The police went in to all city parks, caught hold of basically all couples present there and charged them with an “illicit behavior in public places” case. Any couple found in the parks by the Meerut police was caught, verbally abused and even beaten (including the ladies). The images on television showed some additional footage though; just before the police caught the couples, they were seen to be engaged in conversations and off-course were present in the park with mutual consent. No cases of people “making-out” in the park was shown on television or either reported.

This act of moral policing was criticized and sparked off a big debate but after a few articles and television slots disappeared from all media forms.

December 2006, an organization named Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), took the mantle this time and went on rampage in parks this time in Ahmedabad (capital of the Indian state, Gujrat). The result: couples were beaten, humiliated and brought to the police station. One member of the VHP was seen declaring on national television, “If the police won’t do their jobs we will do it. The parents need to know what their daughters are upto.”

I couldn’t help this time but pen down my anger. Who are the police or the VHP to decide what people of this country can or cannot do? If I am not mistaken “Right to Freedom” is still one of the fundamental rights that the citizens of this country have. If young couples decide to spend some peaceful time in the park or for that matter anywhere, it is there wish. Their parents should be bothered if at all and not the police or the VHP.

The fact of the matter is that organizations such as the VHP or its wing Bajrang Dal or for that matter Shiv Sena are losing ground and influence all across the nation. They have to come up with things such as beating of young couples caught from the park, boycotting Valentine Day, asking for a ban on any random movie etc to make news and tell people that they are still around.

In the case of the beating of couples, the problem lies in the fact that as a guy who is caught, he can’t retaliate. Organizations such as VHP, Shiv Sena etc are manned by goons and the alternative left is to either surrender or to run. And what a shame that people have to run or surrender for something which is not at all a crime.

And for heaven’s sake we have more serious matters in this country which require attention. There are child marriages still happening, widowed women are still treated as a social outcast and lot of children still go to work rather than school, so why doesn’t these organizations do something about these issues. On a quick glance of the VHP website (http://www.vhp.org/), one can clearly see the objectives of the organizations and no interpretation of those objectives suggests justification to the act carried out by the VHP activist in Ahmedabad.

Why as citizens of this country we being tortured? Who gave the right to these organizations to decide the life or behavior of other people? Is there a way out to stop this menace?

Well sure is, the Supreme Court is the only body in the country which can limit organizations such as VHP, Shiv Sena, etc and their mindless activities. These organizations are exploiting the youth and taking them on the path of doom. The underprivileged youth in this country having limited or no access to education, jobs and mainstream public life is being shown a glossy picture of a good life ahead by these organizations. These youth are brainwashed to the extent that they rarely hesitate in starting or becoming part of mob violence, looting or even killing people.

The political parties of the country should take responsibility and also hold back these organizations as majority of these organizations are backed by the national/regional political parties. The people of this nation should also raise their voice and not be pressured by the illegal activities of these organizations. We have a choice through our “precious vote” and we should make full use of it. We decide which party is there for our welfare and which one is curbing it.

This moral policing by these organizations have to stop and the police/administration should act fearlessly in favor of the welfare of the people and should protect them. Hopefully through the newly reformed Police Act, the police force in the country will have access to independent measures of handling things and will not be forced to act on the orders of the ridiculous political parties' ideas.

Seal them Off!!

2006-12-22T08:12:00.000+05:30

The apex body of this nation, Supreme Court (SC), couldn’t have come up with a better verdict than directing the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to continue with the sealing of illegal establishments built and operating in residential areas of Delhi. To start with, let me clarify, neither I am a current resident of Delhi nor have I spent enough time living in Delhi previously. So why am I so concerned about something happening to a class of traders and that too in a city which is not my place of residence. I will answer this question later in this write-up.

Delhi, the Indian national capital, is a beautiful city giving breathing space to both commercial and residential establishments which are in abundance. Though Delhi trails behind the financial might of trade carried out in Mumbai, it is flooded with small time traders existing profitably for decades now. As they say, “all hell broke loose” for the traders in Delhi when the SC came out with a directive to the MCD asking them to clamp down on trading establishments functioning in the residential areas of Delhi. MCD was asked to seal off the illegal establishments preventing them to continue further trade. What it meant was the saree shop that an aunty might be running profitably or a corner shop selling pirated DVD’s or the wholesale garment shop, they were all to be sealed off by the MCD.

Now, the whole point of “illegal establishments in residential areas” is an argument in itself and at this time, disputed. Majority of the traders claim and which is a fact as well that they were never stopped by the MCD before and in fact the MCD was annually collecting the tax on these properties, so the question is how does then these establishments become illegal?

As I previously said “illegal establishments” is an argument in itself and getting to the root cause of the mushrooming of these illegal establishments, rampant corruption in MCD, red tapism, demands several pages of writing. The core issue right now is, and I refer to an article written earlier by “Vir Sanghvi (Editor, Hindustan Times)”, that we just don’t care about things until it affects us. We constantly crib about residential areas clogged with vehicular traffic, no safe areas for children to roam about, less amount of parking, no clear air etc and yet we won’t raise a voice as long as we are able to let out our terraces for billboards or our basements to operate as shops/warehouse. So as it seems we will be all foul mouthed or up in arms if the neighbor’s drainage pipe is opened outside our house or if the neighbor has tried to capture a bit more area during his recent renovation but we will not come out and speak about something happening just a few blocks away from our house.

It is not just Delhi where one sees such trading establishments being operated but it is rampant across the nation. The unplanned growth of our major metropolis is a serious concern. The reason why Delhi is highlighted is that to a certain extent things have gone overboard (well, Mumbai passed this staged quite early). I mentioned it at the start of my article as to how it affects me and the point is I don’t need to be a resident of Delhi to see this nonsense happening but I can be in any part of India. No wonder, we just don’t have residential suburbs anymore but houses in the backdrop of big malls or a cluster of shops.

There are numerous households which will be affected due to the sealing as a lot of traders are going to go out of business, do we feel sympathetic towards them? Sure we do, but their fault is much bigger in the first place. They are for sure victims of the government machinery itself which initially promoted them illegally to operate fearlessly, but then to repeatedly do something wrong does not make it right.

The traders have voiced their opposition to the sealing drive and a number of protests have turned into mob violence, looting and destruction of public and private property. The police and politicians are in a fix coz these traders are the same people who were giving regular hafta or chanda (bribe) to them and now the police need to take action against them.

It was a shame to see that the police of the city was not able to prevent large gatherings of crowd and control the violence which marred the city for couple of days. It was more shameful to hear from the city’s government about their argument in favor of the traders and them admitting that it is very difficult for the police to control the violence if the sealing continues. The only thing I could think of was, “Is the police drawing a salary from the government or the traders”?

When the Supreme Court judges’ bench a few weeks back took strong exception to the Government's stand and announced, "You (Government) think that 25,000 people (traders) by putting dagger on the throat of someone (authorities) can hold entire peoples' right, life, liberty and property to ransom and the government is helpless," I felt like standing and applauding. There are a lot of lives which will be affected due to the sealing but many more if this menace of unplanned growth of metropolis is not controlled. And as the SC put it aptly, the law is above everything. The traders can’t take the city hostage to coerce the court in changing its ruling. For the time being the verdict stands, “Seal them off”.

Indian Film Industry…. Bollywood…….The Phenomenon

2006-10-05T13:23:00.000+05:30

It’s been 5 years and I’ve lived and or worked in 5 countries (including India) and still measuring the impact and reach of an industry which we call Bollywood. Though to the purists the term “Bollywood” is derogatory but whoever coined it has managed to localize it internationally. In this globalized era where Indian companies such as the Infosys, Tata’s, Wipro’s etc have been trying to break the geographical barriers and make their presence felt on the world stage, for Bollywood it seems, it has been there done that.

Amitabh Bacchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Rani Mukherjee are discussed and adored in the remotest corners of countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, US, UK and should I mention the rest of the world. Religious festivals and occasions such as weddings are celebrated Bollywood style nowadays. If you are tourist in a foreign country or within India itself, rest assured the guide will let you know where Shah Rukh took Priety Zinta in her arms or where Hrithik Roshan danced with Amisha Patel. Yes, I was told at Golconda fort (Hyderabad) first about where Salman Khan (Indian film actor) shot for a scene in one of his movie rather and only later where the Kohinoor diamond was extracted from. So what really makes Bollywood click all across the world?

An average Indian has never traveled as much before as he has in the last decade or so. I recently put down the list of my Indian friends and their respective locations and to my amazement 80% of them are either permanently based outside or constantly globe trotting. Their locations also include countries like South Africa, Romania, Libya etc. Indian people admit it or not are gripped to the magic of Indian cinema and it is the only medicine to cure homesickness when you are away in far distant land. When Sunny Deol shouts “Hindustan Zindabad”, we all shout in unison; when Priety Zinta sings and dances in the Mumbai rain, we are with her in that moment, feeling the rain fall on our own body. If the Italians introduced their truly wonderful Pizza’s to the world we are introducing our cinema. Previously we were regarded as the people who came from the land of Taj Mahal and snake charmers, we now are known from the country of IT and Bollywood.

I read a book recently called “Maximum City” by Suketu Mehta and also quite agree with the author’s observations on the success of Bollywood or Indian cinema. He with his discussions with various Indian film stars, directors etc notes that the biggest draw of Indian cinema’s success is the fact that the audiences just love the fact that Indian movies are family oriented. It’s a potpourri of various human emotions. On the other hand though highly experimental, original and unique, Hollywood has been primarily showing them images of alien land and people but missing out on showcasing of what we call celebration of life.

The colorful dresses, extravagant set, dancing and romancing, all help create an Indian movie a super spectacle. It definitely creates an intriguing image which holds foot in the minds of the audiences nationally and globally. Indian cinema/Bollywood has created a niche for itself globally and is much talked about around the world, be it in media or the social circles. India as a destination has enchanted many people globally and the Indian films are just helping the cause on the way.

I am a big critic of Indian cinema myself as I think around 80% of the movies made each year are just a waste. They are there to waste the time of the audience coming to watch it. Long melodramatic scenes, unnecessary dance sequences, the hero single handedly managing to kill an army of goons, loose special effects, there just seem to be no limit to it.

To me all the stuff mentioned above may be absurd but for an Indian (either living in India or abroad) it is the only source of entering some sort of a fantasy land where the good will always win over the evil, joint family system always works in the end and in approximately 100 Rupees or 10 dollars will be able to travel to 10 different countries. And especially for the Indians living abroad Indian movies represent the contemporary India and one of the ways in which they can track the changing nature of things back in their motherland.

Hate it or Love it, Indian films are creating ripples all across the globe. With some new breed of directors, Indian cinema has off-late started experimenting with new themes and concepts and an increased use of the English language has also helped draw the western audiences to the theatres. Films such as Water, Omkara through its box office success and recognition at various film festivals have shown that Indian cinema has entered a new phase.

It is not just the films but Indian actors are also going global. Actors such as Om Puri, Naseerudin Shah, Salman Khan, Aishwarya Rai and many others have worked for Hollywood productions. And why just talk about Indian actors going global or Indian film makers involved in Hollywood film making, big production houses of the west are investing like never before in producing Indian films.

India produces maximum number of films every year and thanks to our over billion mark population and a booming economy the time is not far off when we dictate the world the kind of cinema we want to watch. So Tom Cruise get ready to do learn the Govinda jhatka’s and Lindsay Lohan, the Aishwarya matka’s (a bit extreme scenario but we’ll get there :) )

Lage Raho Munnabhai………..a piece of art

2006-10-02T06:02:00.000+05:30

It’s 11:00 pm and I’ve just returned back after seeing Lage Raho Munnabhai and couldn’t help but quickly get on to write my take on the movie. The movie released very recently but I could see the excitement it was creating as early as couple of months before its release. After its release in India it became a rage. I couldn’t believe that people were calling me up and telling me to go watch it. I got lucky and the movie was screening in a theatre nearby so I did go and watch it.

My take on the movie….well…..how can so many people be wrong. I loved the movie. Mr. Hirani, why did you make such a short movie? I would have happily sat in the theatre and watched such a movie easily for 8-10 hours. I still remember watching Krrish for 3 hours in the theatre and my bum all numb after it. But Munnabhai was like a breeze.

I think the highlight for me in the movie was that it was very simple. No complicated dialogues, plots, locations, scenes, everything was just simple and beautifully executed. I’ve always liked Sanjay Dutt’s acting and screen presence and I think he’s raised the bar really high this time around. Arshad Warsi, well he has been fantastic from his very first film, “Tere Mere Sapne”. He is a brilliant actor, dancer and now a class apart comedian. The female lead in the movie, Vidya Balan, has displayed her acting talent and beauty to the maximum.

The central characters of the movie, Munna (Sanjay Dutt) and Circuit (Arshad Warsi), two lovable goons take you on a laugh riot in this movie. Munna who’s in love with Jhanvi’s (Vidya Balan, who by the way looks stunning in the movie) voice over the radio finally ends up meeting her pretending to be an expert on Mahatma Gandhi’s historical background. He is just drawn slowly towards the Mahatma’s way of dealing with things in life and starts practicing “Gandhigiri” as opposed to “Bhaigiri” practiced by him previously. The theme of the movie that of invoking Gandhian values in today’s world is a very unique concept and does provide every viewer some food for thought.

We all live in a difficult world nowadays and it is so easy to get away by portraying a false image of things. I think meaningful cinema like this raises the question that, is all what we do in our daily life right and true? Can’t help but think myself, how many times I have lied to get out of difficult situations. Have I felt good after all that??….I am not sure but certainly not too happy.

Truth and Tolerance were few of Mahatma’s teachings and the movie shows us how well we can use these two powerful virtues in our daily lives. So, it won’t be a bad idea to try out these and many other Gandhian teachings in our lives. I’m game for it and thanks to meaningful Indian cinema like this for provoking a thought like this in me.

Some quick reference to the Gandhian values from the movie:

The path of truth though always difficult assures guaranteed success and respect.

To err is human but to apologize is divine. It takes great courage to make an apology and no person becomes small by doing it.

A person’s worth is measured by how he treats people poorer in resources than him.

Restraint is always better than retaliation. Practice loving even your enemies and win their hearts rather than fighting them.

Hatred and Untruthfulness are diseases and one needs to cure himself if affected by it.

Stop the nonsense!!

2006-09-29T09:36:00.000+05:30

No, I am not debating here about the claims that the Pakistan military ruler makes in his newly released book. General Musharraf is in New York for the release of his book and prior to his visit there he briefly met up with the Indian Prime Minister in Havana. It has always been a brilliant photo opportunity for the journos whenever the leaders of the two nations, India and Pakistan, meet up or even forcibly made to shake hands at various world events.

Though the journalists present at most of these meetings are interested in only one thing, “Kashmir”. It is really annoying to hear the same question being asked by different journalist and it goes in something like this format, “So, did you had discussions regarding the Kashmir issue?” C’mon guys being journalists you can do better and if the leaders really had a breakthrough talk and feel the need to disclose it to the media, they would do so.

I think Manmohan Singh and Musharraf should also try and be innovative and not repeat the same phrases which goes something like, “we had a good discussion, the talks are moving further, both nations are co-operating……………”.

Someone gotta stop this nonsense. After a long day at work, I don’t want to switch on my tele to watch this.

Taking Religion too seriously

2006-08-28T13:27:00.000+05:30

It was a lazy Saturday afternoon and after waking up in early afternoon, I was just getting ready to go out. I was in the toilet and suddenly the phone rang, was happy to know that it was from a good friend in India. She sounded disturbed and very much not at ease. I could draw reference to the fact that she was getting married soon and that something has gone wrong in that area. My friend practices Islam and comes from a devout Muslim family. She fell in love with this other friend of mine who is a Hindu and like her he comes from a devout Hindu family. The problem….well the parents don’t support their very decision to get married.

This wasn’t the first time that I was dealing with a situation like this. A couple of years back two of my other friends, after a long courtship, decided to get married. The only problem was that though they both being Hindu came from different caste. The girl’s family though modern in living had strong age old beliefs and was not ready to have the marriage happen at any cost. The result……both of them sacrificed their love life and their beautiful relationship for the sake of their respective families. They never wanted to hurt their parents and separated their ways.

I’ve been thinking about these two instances for a while now and not being able to understand the reasoning behind the parent’s behavior in both cases.

The family pride and a good social standing is always a prime concern for an Indian household. No parents want to hear from their relatives or friends anything bad about their children and their respective conduct. But, does a parent’s kid getting married to a different religion/caste person that big a deal? Who are these society people anyways? Do they help you when you are sick or in financial trouble? Are they there supporting you unconditionally? The answer is NO. Then why care about the society. Today’s children are an educated and responsible lot and the days of eloping are certainly gone. The parents need to respect their children’s decision and counsel them if they sincerely think they’ve made a wrong decision.

The other thing that I’ve heard from a few parents is that, “if he/she comes from a different religion, how they’ll adjust with our rituals and beliefs”. Well, there is for sure a whole lot of difference between various religions/caste but are they bigger than human relationships. We are not given a choice when we are born to pick our religion and all of us as kids just blindly follow the rituals and religion that our parents have been following for years. So, does it make a difference if some people go to a mosque to pray or some to a church or some to a temple? I don’t think so.

We are living in a globalized world and geographical boundaries are fading away. The world in itself is becoming a cultural fest and to be successful in professional and personal life one has to be tolerant about various cultures and religion. Parents need to teach the same thing to their kinds from the very beginning.

I still remember being in Mumbai couple of years back and how desperately I wanted to go to Haji Ali (a religious place for Muslims). I was just so drawn by the beauty and tranquility of the place. I was visiting Mumbai with a Sikh friend of mine and when I floated the idea of going to Haji Ali, he didn’t contest it. We reached Haji Ali and he refused to come along with me inside the shrine. He talked his heart out later and told me how he’s been so angry with whatever the Muslims did to his religion people in the Delhi riots of the 1980’s. He was a small kid then and how he and his whole family had to survive in those dangerous times. Everything was either destroyed or looted of his family belongings and then there was the reconstruction phase.

I posed a question in front of him, so because some miscreants of the society (believed to be Muslims) created trouble for your religion people for which do you consider the whole Muslim community at fault? Also, is he teaching the same hatred to the young kids in his family? To my nightmare, his answer was Yes.

Well, the above is not true with my Sikh friend’s family only, this is a reality in various households in India. From a very young age kids are told which religion or caste children they need to mingle with or which one’s to stay away from. Kids are never given an opportunity to explore on their own the circle of friendship and love which can be made up of different race, creed or religion.

To believe in something as beautiful as God is fantastic but it is time we stop bothering about which form of God we believe in or the rest of the world. I just hope that my Muslim friend and my Hindu friend end up marrying each other soon and become an example of tolerance through their beautiful relationship.

Is India going into Flashback?

2006-05-14T12:37:00.000+05:30

I must admit that the news on television for past couple of days has been disturbing and probably with my understanding of the issues, I conclude that maybe our country is going into flashback. The news doing the rounds include the Reservation Quota increase, the Supreme Court bench coming out with a statement stating excerpts from Article 47 of the Indian Constitution about how States should seriously think about Prohibition in relation to alcohol as it leads to abuse and violence and finally the increasing menace of police brutality (lathicharges, un-necessary arrests etc).

To start with, the issue of increase in the SC/ST and OBC reservation seats in educational institutions. My question is what is the rationale behind it? Arjun Singh and some other party members understand it nobody in the civilized educated world does, so are we fools? Is reservation the only way out? How is a scenario which promotes a person not to be competitive, not fair well amongst peers and still be able to attain the degree/certification, justified? India is a democratic nation and is a nation which probably has the maximum youth population in the world. It is a jungle out there and the survival of the fittest is the way to go. If you are good, there is no stopping you. And for god sake the government should focus on improving the basic educational facilities to provide a platform to young deprived children so that they can compete with the privileged ones.

Instead of having seat reservation impart education for these sections of society at free of cost, at least the government can do that. The governments in India (no matter formed by which party) are running a vote bank politics and would do anything to attract votes to stay/come to power. A country like India needs a strong focus on promoting intellect, no matter what the source is, and should be gearing up to take on the world. Decisions like reservations are a step backward and certainly are not invited.

Prohibition of any sort has not done well anywhere and in any circumstances. It provides an excitement of sorts to willfully break the norms and enjoy the forbidden more. The story is the same with alcohol which is a tabooed item to be discussed at homes and especially the consumption of it, and yet given a chance young teens enjoy a drink or two every now and then. India is on its way to become a global economy and people’s lives are experiencing a tremendous change. It does not support an argument that to be trendy and hip one need to consume alcohol. This nation has a young and educated youth who understand what is good for them and what is not. It is a choice which a person makes and not a whimsical politician warming his back in the parliament.

Surely excess of everything is bad and alcohol is no different. The availability of cheap alcohol in our country has ruined a lot of homes. Take the case of a laborer who earns 50-60 Rs a day and still manages to buy a bottle of country liquor for 20-25 Rs. Now why does the government sponsor such things? The government provides license for the sale of this liquor and an uninterrupted supply. Why doesn’t the government take a step and ban the sale of this cheap country liquor of which nobody is sure of what standards are maintained to actually produce it. Isn’t the fact known to everyone that it is the families with poor socio-economic backgrounds where alcohol related violence and abuse is rampant? If the government can fix the maximum retail price on liquor why can’t it fix the minimum retail price for any type of alcohol? Make it out of reach of people with poor economic backgrounds. The only problem which may arise is bootlegging but it is the responsibility of the states to clamp down on such establishments.

This is to again stress on the point that, India is a democratic nation which provides it people the freedom of choice. It is the person and only the person himself who decides what is good for him and no one else.

The people having authority in this country have always abused their powers. The police have always topped the list followed closely by politicians and bureaucrats. No wonder we hear on the news every now and then of fake encounters, lathicharges, extortion by policemen etc. The police commissioner of Mumbai was very recently making a comment of a national news channel saying, “there was no lathicharge ordered on the protesting medical students (against the reservation of seats for SC/ST in medical institutions), the police had to use a little bit of physical force to remove them from the Rajbhavan and in that scenario some people fell and had been injured” and on the other hand there were images being shown of the police brutally hitting students and arresting them.

There is almost a sense of fear in every citizen with anything related to the police. Reporting anything to the police just seems to be getting yourself into trouble situation. There is an urgent need for government to take up these critical issues and let the people of this nation enjoy their freedom and not suppress it.

India as a nation needs to stride forward and tackle with issues effectively and efficiently. The reverse brain drain has just started and Indians should be provided every bit of motivation to stay/return to our motherland and not venture out to the west seeking a better life.

Australian Cricket

2006-04-05T18:25:00.000+05:30

I’ve been a true patriot each time the Indian Cricket Team has taken field and in the worst of the match status, I have backed them. I have also never been able to praise another team for playing well but have never missed a chance to criticize the bad performance of our Indian Cricket team. Well there is only one reason why I am confessing all of this and that is to pay tribute to the world class Australian Cricket Team.

In the summer of 2003-2004 in Adelaide (Australia), the Indian team came out victorious of the test match played against the home side. The IND-AUS test series 2003-2004 ended in a draw, each side winning one test a piece and the last test was drawn. India previously had defeated Australia at home in the Test match series. The critics who wrote off Indian team’s winning odds every time they toured outside the country, were beginning to find good things to write about the team. Many thought across the world that this is the beginning of the sporting rivalry which will make people forget the Indo-Pak or the Ashes encounters. For a moment even I thought that the Indian team is actually comparable to the Aussies.

Australian team all of a sudden was looking a bit fragile. Steve Waugh’s retirement was seen as an end of a golden era for them. In came Ricky Ponting to take charge of the test team. The purist believe that Test cricket is the ultimate test of a cricketer and one needs to prove his mettle in those 5 days to come into reckoning, and I fully subscribe to the thought. Australia toured India soon after and won the test series against the home side. The final frontier, India, (as remarked by Steve Waugh) was crossed.

Some teams have managed to fair well against the Aussies in the recent past and when arch rival England won Ashes 2004, doubts were again in the air of the Aussie team’s deteriorating performance. Well, the English played out of their best abilities but a comparison with the Aussies is just not possible. Pull out the records and see how many tests England has lost against the Aussies and by how much margins.

“Consistency” is what the Australian Cricket team is all about. There are world class performers in every International team be it the Tendulkars and the Dravids in India, Smiths and the Kallis in South Africa or Inzamams and the Akhtars in Pakistan. But the delicate balance of fusing individual brilliance in a team environment is best achieved by Australia.

The cricket governing system in Australia deserves a lot of credit for maintaining professionalism in the game from the very club level. A lot of exposure is given to young kids and no wonder the bench strength in Australian Cricket can easily field a separate International team in world cricket.

A lot of credit also needs to be given to the coaches at state level and to the selectors for bringing forward talents like the Chappels, Borders, Healys, Warnes, Pontings, Gilchrist and the list goes on.

A killer attitude and a desire to win every time they play make the Australian team and is a joy to watch them play for any cricket lover. Australian Cricket has raised the bar really high and I just hope some International team is able to get close.

Indian Sport…… Northbound

2006-04-01T15:14:00.000+05:30

Indian sport is at an all time high. Be it the splendid performance of athletes at the recently concluded Melbourne Commonwealth Games or the Indian Cricket team’s series win over arch rivals Pakistan. A country where Cricket is by far the most popular sport and cricketers treated as gods, sports like Formula1, Tennis, Chess etc have off-late shared the limelight.

Cricket has long been accused of a sport that gains maximum media attention also resulting in huge corporate sponsorships not just for the game but also for the players. The point to be noted here is that it makes business sense for the media and corporates to back a sport in which our countrymen are doing well. You can’t expect to win a big sponsorship deal for an Indian hockey team for which you got to jog your memory to recall the last win or for our football team which never qualified through the regional league also.

Sania Mirza, Vishwanathan Anand, Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupati, Narain Karthikeyan are some of the names which are doing the rounds selling you a PC, colas, car etc. This clears one point which is that if you are good enough to perform at the world stage there are people to back you up.

Though there is another point to note which is that even being a country of a billion people, we struggle each time to win a single gold in Olympics. There is a huge need to promote sport in our educational institutions and within corporate organizations. There is a lot of stress upon students to do well in academics and sport always take the back seat. Sports are looked down upon by parents and majority wants their kids to grow up and take up a regular office job. The attitude needs to be changed; parents should realize that sports are not just a good career but also a source for developing the overall personality of the kid.

All the athletes who have done our country proud deserve a pat on the back and we should all promote our sportsmen, So the next time you are sitting with an American friend never forget to mention a Arjun Atwal or a Mahesh Bhupati to an Englishman or a Narain Karthikeyan to a European.

Efforts……..but all in vain

2006-03-16T22:07:00.000+05:30

Let me clear this out before you go ahead and read the whole story, I am absolutely frustrated, angry and feel helpless when I am writing this. The story is about my own experience of dealing with the government machinery (to be specific the Police and the Passport Authorities) in the state of Andhra Pradesh (AP).

People like us who belong to northern India have this rosy picture about how good things are in Southern India. We believe in South, the government is efficient, the literacy rate is on higher side and use of computers has made efficiency levels really high in all government departments. How about this when I say this is all CRAP….. SHEER NON-SENSE……BULL SHIT.

In the month of January I decided to get a Police Clearance Certificate (required for a Visa) from Hyderabad and I got all the applications ready. I went in to the Passport office and with a hard day’s struggle I managed to file my application and was also asked to submit my Passport along with it. A week passed by and I got no communication from the Passport office and no police verification happened. Another week went by and I started to get a bit anxious. I could wait no more and as suggested by a friend, I called up the local police station to inquire about the status. The police personnel on the other side responded and agreed to meet me the next day. He did come and did the verification and boasted aloud about how big a favor he has done to me by coming over for the verification.

Wait a minute, I did pay Rs 300 as fees to the Passport Office to get the certificate, so is this my BLOODY duty to run after the police guy to get the verification done. Oh, one critical thing I forgot, my first experience with corruption. I get a call from the police guy the next day that he wants some additional document and I have to personally go give it to him. I met the guy and I felt really nice that he gave me a ride back to home on his scooter but on our way back he kept giving me subtle hints of how less his salary is and that he doesn’t get any conveyance re-imbursement and he went on and on and on. As he dropped me near my place, I knew that he wanted money from me and clearly conveyed in his tone that if I don’t pay him, my case isn’t getting anywhere. I took out 200 Rs and gave it to him and he assured me that my file will go through in two days time. I confirmed with him after two days and was assured that the file has gone.

It has been another two weeks since then and I didn’t hear anything from the Passport office and I started to wonder if that police guy actually submitted the report or not. I called him again and after a week of following up was told by him and I quote “I did my job, bade sahib (senior officer) didn’t sign for this long that is why the report hasn’t gone as yet”. Hang on…. I paid the guy and he told me the file is gone…… Are u kidding with me that the file has still not gone. Could I do something?? No way. Who wants a bad Police Report.

The police guy asked me to come over to the Police Commissioner office and let me tell you the reason why, the police guy wanted to show mw that he has done his job and is forwarding the file to the clerk to finally dispatch it to the passport office. I had to leave office early and traveled 15 kilometers to see the handover….. WOW. On top of that the clerk asked me to come personally to take the dispatch number. I requested that it would be difficult to leave office early again and if I could call him for the number, he plainly refused.

I went to the Police Commissioner Office the next day to meet the clerk and no surprise he was missing from his desk. To find a government official on his desk is like finding an oasis in the desert. After an hour long wait, I did find my oasis, I mean the clerk. I thought for a second that this looks like job done at the police end and there came the shock.

This is very important stuff. As the clerk was scribbling on the post-it to write the dispatch number for me, he said and I quote “kya kucch paise denge kya? (will you want to give me some money?). I was shocked and for a moment I thought, how he sitting in the Police Commissioner office dare can ask me to pay him a bribe. I knew there is no escape and was about to take out my wallet and he whispered and I quote “yahaan nahin senior officer dekh rahe hain” (not here as the senior officers are looking on). Eventually the clerk let me go without taking any money and I felt a bit victorious with getting away without paying anything.
Now, I thought I can get after the Passport authorities to give me the certificate as I had the dispatch number of my Police report. With this hope I went to the Passport Office and stood in line for 2.5 hours to meet a Public Relations Officer who looked into her system and told me the report hasn’t come as yet. I gave her the dispatch number and told her that I need my passport for urgent travel so please issue me the Clearance Certificate as well. I was told and I quote “the report hasn’t come if you want you can take your application back along with your passport”. I really needed the Passport and told her to give back my Passport.

After 2 long months, expenses on taxi, bribes and time, I came out a big Loser of the whole episode. I feel humiliated and have been treated roughly. I have developed a hatred for Andhra Pradesh government officials and would not advice anyone to come and live in this place. I have a lot to write but would end here and follow this story with some other incidents in detail.

Television (Tele) Round-up for the week

2006-02-20T11:03:00.000+05:30

It was Friday evening and unlike any other Fridays’, I had no plans for the evenings to go out. I reached home, had a quite dinner, watched a bit of tele and went off to sleep. I realized that I didn’t have much too do on Saturday as well or rather I was not in a mood to do much. Here comes the idea, why not just stay in bed and watch tele for the whole weekend. It was going to be nothing but a disaster. The following is a list of some of the stuff that I watched on the tele over the weekend.

News on the Cartoons: There has been a global protest over a string of cartoons of Prophet which have published in a Danish Newspaper. People have been out on the streets and protesting in smallest of the cities of India such as Ajmer, Jodhpur, Ghaziabad etc.  A simple question, how is a protest (violent in nature) by some irresponsible people who have no idea what the cartoons look like is going to solve the purpose. On top of it, in an instance in Jodhpur, at a place where Salman Khan’s court case hearing was going on and the protestors were passing from outside, the protestors forgot the agenda and mobbed the court shouting “Salman Zindabad” slogans.

Channel V Big Concert: I was thrilled coz few of the good bands I like performed at the concert and I was eager to catch a bit of the gig.  What do I see, Aryans, a band was performing and OH MY GOD, there I see a band member, with not a single hair on his head but pretty much everywhere else visible through his sleeveless t-shirt. Not to mention that he had a big belly and the band performance was pathetic. The concert started early in the day and the organizers being smart kept the minnows performance in the start when there were not too many people around. Anyways, few bad hours I spent watching it.

Cricket: Though India won the One-day cricket match series and the match as convincingly as you would have seen before, the pre-shows and the post shows killed me. I love to hear good comments but Please only from people who have played good cricket and have contributed to the game. Here is the scenario; Atul Wassan (played International cricket for one season and was a terrible performer) is cribbing about some Indian Strategy on one channel and so are some of his counter parts such as Saba Karim, Ian Bishop and many more about other cricketing issues. Dude, you have no right to pin-point at Sachin, if missed out in one innings or if Irfan Pathan gave away too many runs. Please go home and check your career statistics and see what you have done in your career.

Stardust Awards: A mega set, huge gathering of film stars and all of them swearing that this is the most prestigious award (which they do at every award show). Was just wondering, how many stardust would be selling in India that they come up with this kind of a mega show. Malaika (Malai-Kha) Arora was looking stunning but hey she was just boring with her long worded sentences and boring dialogues (even my dog would have slept hearing that). Ritesh Deshmukh (son of Vilas Rao Deshmukh, Maharashtra CM) collected the award for Best Supporting Actor for the movie Kya Kool Hain Hum and spoke “that the award came as a surprise”  Yeah Right!!, pays off to be son of a CM ain’t it otherwise how can you justify non – recognition of Naseerudin Shah’s and Amitabh Bacchan’s performance.

It all was turning out to be a bit of mess so I decided to go out for a movie on Sunday, Wedding Crashers, and was a good reprieve from the Television disaster I was facing. I swear to God, I will derive some other means for spending time constructively than watching television.

Rang De Basanti – A treat to watch

2006-01-31T11:34:00.000+05:30

26th January. A hot afternoon and the first day of the movie, one can sense the motivation we had to watch the movie. The movie previews have been intriguing and it was getting difficult to guess what this movie will be all about. The movie starts with a fantastic bit of graffiti fusing together the Indian freedom movement and the contemporary India.

The storyline talks about the heroics of the martyrs of the Indian Freedom Movement especially the young brigade such as Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Chandrashekhar Azad, etc and how the memories of these are alive in a young, Sue, through her grandfather’s memoirs. Sue comes to India from Britain to find actors to shoot the documentary on the young martyrs and soon finds them in the form of Aamir, Soha Ali, Kunal Kapoor and gang.

The movie takes you on a journey of a beautiful and culturally tolerant India where the old generation is still caught up in the chains of caste and creed but the new generation is living drawing up their own rules. Though as normal Indian youth, they too believe that the Indian political and social system is so corrupt that they can’t do anything to change it. A sudden death of a common friend, a MIG fighter plane pilot who always believed that the youth of India can bring about the change if they wanted to, brings forward the hidden fire in all of them. They decide to take a step forward and kill the corrupt people behind the purchase of defective parts for the MIG machinery (which I think was an extreme scenario).

The story telling is one not seen for quite some time in Hindi cinema and all characters have a reason to be part of the film and not stuffed in to fill reels. The movie provokes a thought in all young Indians to contribute to the nation in whichever way possible. I think people are in for a joyride in the movie with moments of hilarity and on the other hand moments where the heart would go heavy a bit. Kudos to the artists who have worked on the film and believe me there is no stopping this film to become a big box office success.

When in Rome, Do as the Romans do

2005-12-02T09:58:00.000+05:30

Summer is one season eagerly awaited by the westerners and enjoyed thoroughly upon its arrival. The state of California on the west coast of the US is a place visited by numerous tourists. The Californians residents and visiting tourists take full advantage of the beautiful moderate weather conditions that exist year round.

People plan out their vacations and weekends in advance and have a relaxing time outdoors. The beaches are packed and so are the places near the bay or for that matter the parks in the suburbs.

A large number of Indian working professionals and tourists also come here each year and can be easily spotted at the above mentioned spots. It is quite amazing to note the adaptability of the young Indians (this includes me). You can see them sunbathing in the parks and on the beach, enjoying a glass of beer on the sidewalk restaurants, cleaning up the place before they leave and offcourse responding to a friendly smile from a stranger on street.

It doesn’t stop here, Thank you and Sorry become the commonly used terms, one would walk a mile to throw a piece of garbage, stand up in the bus or train for an elderly person to take seat and really one won’t pee outdoors even in the remotest locations (instead pay for it). Paying tips becomes a mandatory routine at the restaurants and when driven in a cab. One tends to appreciate the musical talent of the artists at train stations or on streets and a homeless asking for help on the road does get a few cents.

The young global brigade of Indians is making an impression everywhere they go. The talent for performing professional work or to do well in school/college was already there and now they are integrating in the society as well.

A thought need to be spared though on a scenario if the youth in India (including the ones who travel abroad frequently) would have practiced the same behavior and attitude as they do outside India. Why do everything right and abide by the rules in an alien country and not in our very own nation. Are we not responsible to make our own nation a cleaner and healthier place to live? or Have we finally accepted that one person’s actions can’t change the scenario? This is a question that need to addressed soon for if its not the young Indians doing things right and making the country progress then we are headed in the wrong direction.

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BPO – The Buzz is all around

2005-11-21T11:08:00.000+05:30

The world is getting closer and especially when people are crossing borders as they never did before. One might experience India while in New York and an American will never feel out of place with all the McDonalds and Pizza Huts spread across in every major Indian city. Has this thing also got to do something with the spread of the BPOs’??

The Business Process Outsourcing (or the BPO) activity started gaining momentum in the 90’s decade in India and since then has become a large industry employing millions.  The sheer size of operations, volume of business and a high rate of attrition requires BPO companies to recruit more and more people.  People from traditional industries are not thinking twice before taking up a lucrative job in the BPO’s but the young turks, fresh out of college, are the prime target of all BPO outfits.

The majority work coming to India is from the United States.  India with a bulging English speaking workforce has been able to meet all recruitment needs of the BPO’s.     Though there is a simple logic attached to this, make Anjali-Anjela, Rahul-Raul and so on so forth.

BPOs’ dish out everything to make it employees feels at ease and when the employees are of the 18-25 age groups, it becomes a necessity.  From swanky offices to recreational facilities to multi-cuisine cafeterias, it’s all there to ensure employees have a good time while at work.

The Induction and training program of all BPO’s is a rigorous one and runs on a minimum for 1.5 months. New employees are taught everything and anything about America.  An accent training is given where the instructor teaches you to stress on the vowels and yes include as many slang as you can into your speech.  The love for Donughts, Pizzas, Coke and offcourse Hollywood is ignited.

As the pay packets in the industry are good at entry level, it gives a lot of freedom to the young BPO employees to live life as people their age do in America. Branded clothes and accessories, movies, fancy cars, vacations, night outs etc have become regulars for them.  The idea is to live life large and make the most of it.  The idea of savings and a settled life has taken a backseat.

But is this ideology, is this culture taking over the good of our Indian culture. There are different opinions on this issue and the common Indian feels threatened with this commonly termed “American Invasion”.  A significant Indian population is benefiting from the changing youth attitude and the increased financial freedom at a relatively young age. All should be ready to sacrifice few things for the betterment of things at large. Culture is what it always was, the Indian identity will remain, it’s just about taking the good of other cultures.

Access to God!!

2005-11-14T09:50:00.000+05:30

A recent trip to the interiors of the state of Andhra Pradesh was a refreshing change from the quotidian events of my professional life. The landscape was amazing; the roads were in decent shape and the reason for the trip, ‘Srisailam’, a religious destination frequented by many Lord Shiva devotees.

It has been long since I last managed a religious trip and I bounced on the opportunity to go on one. It was foolishness to expect less people at the temple after seeing very low traffic on the road leading to the temple. The moment we reached the outer periphery of the temple, we could guess that we were in for spending long hours queuing up before offering our prayers to the deity.

The crowd was in huge numbers but with the beautiful weather conditions we thought that we would be able to survive the wait in the long queues. The first look of the queues we had and a state of panic we were in. The queue was about a 100 people strong but the way devotees were treated was inhuman in every sense. People were caged in a spiral formation walkway with limited space to ensure two people can’t walk together. It was a poor sight, with children crying, the adults unable to breathe and the elderly barely able to stand in the walkway.

I figured out quickly that I don’t want to stand in this line but hey what’s that, a small line on the other side which is moving at a really fast pace and is carpeted. I went ahead and asked the people around about the line and I was directed towards a small room in the corner of the temple campus. Outside the room were the rates on display for the various darshan (to be able to see the god’s idol for offering prayers) that one can opt for. Hang on a second is this thing suggesting me that for a mere Rs 30 I can avoid the queue and go straight right in. YES, it is the quickest way to get in – suggested the people around.

I was furious about the whole thing and kept thinking, where does money come between a devotee and God. How can one buy access to God?? Being poor in India is anyways a crime and when in a place like a temple you have this kind of a thing happening, it can’t get worse. Why can’t humane conditions be made available to everyone?? Why does there needs to be a difference shown between how bad the conditions are when you don’t pay and how good things are when you pay??. As they often say, if you have money you can buy anything, and now “Easy access to God”.

All the men: WATCH OUT!!

2005-11-08T16:10:00.000+05:30

Things are changing in India and if some are for good some are for the worse. The men always had the freedom to live their lives per their wish and they have been making good use of it. The liberation of women and especially in the urban areas has been a refreshing change. The women today are rebellious, would stand ground and won’t take shit.

Men are facing a classic problem where they are getting the taste of their own medicine. They have used and abused women and their feelings in the past and the new age women are out here to take revenge.

To narrate an incident, a guy with all good intentions tried to be artistic on someone’s car in the parking using the dirt accumulated on the car. To the person’s surprise the car turned out to be of a girl who was walking just behind the guy. Both the guy and the girl were returning from a good Saturday night party and under the influence of alcohol. Can you beat that even after the guy wiping his art from the car and apologizing to the girl, was not forgiven. The lady was ready to free her arms, start a brawl and was more than willing to call the police.

India is at least one country where if there is a girl involved in a police issue: ‘the guy is always believed to be at fault’. The other thing is that there are always sympathetic people trying to help out a girl and especially if she is a beautiful one. The only option left for the guy was to walk-off or spend a night in prison. For crying out loud, point taken that no girl should take shit and be strong but then again should not misuse her women status.
This is a lesson for all the guys, beware of the girl power and that there is always something to loose if you fight with a woman.