Lol!!

“ I have been warning Pakisthan not to play games with us. The last game should be Mumbai attacks. Stop it there.... If terrorists from Pakisthan try to carry out any attacks in India, they will not only be defeated, but be retaliated against”........ Our honourable home minister, P.Chidambaram spoke these words earlier this month.

Today’s Hindu (dated Nov 26) thought it was important enough to carry it in the editorial page. I must thank Hindu Group for providing me comic relief and a rush of nostalgia.
I was reminded of how, when we were kids, we would be told by teachers, “Stop playing the fool। Let this be the last time you come late to class। Next time you do this, you will be thrown out of school”। None of us ever got thrown out of schools-not that we never repeated our mistakes।

I frankly just don’t find any difference between these two threats।

Enough and more literature has been written about the 26/11 Mumbai attacks। I wouldn’t be writing anything new, or asking new questions if I were to use this space to wonder aloud some realities of the whole episode.

However, I do wish to gently remind the home Minister that, there’s a lot of cleaning that needs to be done in our own home, before we point fingers at the other। We’d rather have a home minister (and hence the media) flashing reports reflecting lessons we have learnt from the attacks.

We still read about poor training for policemen... we still hear about poor security checks.....we can still walk into any shop and buy any number of sim-cards with flimsy proof of identity....
What have we really done at our own home is a more pressing question than threatening our neighbour।

Till such a time...

Anything that is said is a sinister joke, and all we can do is- Lol!!*

(*Lol: Laugh out Loud)

“You can’t plug round holes with square plugs”

“Operation green hunt - the fancy name given to the offensive against Naxals” has become the brand new nutritive supplement for the insatiably hungry media. The words and phrases that are used with reference to Naxals makes one cringe-“We need to flush out people”…. “Cold blooded murderers”…. Since when are “people” “flushed” out?

… I am not saying Naxals are right, or the State is right – not taking any moral stand or branding of good and evil-. My issue is the lack of debate about this issue- It seems like most people are willing to buy what news channels and papers say! The ‘Great Indian Apathy’ works just fine for the State and the media. Bunches of people who haven’t stepped down from the (urban educated, English speaking) pedestals talk about the issue and (read justify the state’s great idea of the operation green hunt)I would be unfair if I don't make a special mention of Arnam Goswami of the Times Now

("…….On the night of September 22, discussing Kobad Ghandy, a top Naxal ideologue, Arnab Goswami said “Terrorist or ideologue?”.

“Six thousand innocent Indians have been killed on Mr Ghandy’s ‘watch,’” he said (as if Kobad Ghandy was some Idi Amin figure presiding over a banana republic), “and yet human rights organisations and NGOs are asking for his release.” (Mr Goswami always reserves special scorn for human rights activists, as if they are a uniform sub-species of anti-national humankind, rather than men and women with differing and individual views.) “What about the 12-year-old girl the Naxals killed in Jharkhand?” he thundered. “What about the 15 CPM cadres they killed in Bengal last night?” Every time one of his panelists tried to introduce the larger political context behind Naxalism or a more complex argument, Mr Goswami swatted them down… "
To read more : http://www.mail-archive.com/marxist-leninist-list@lists.econ.utah.edu/msg09205.html )

The insensitivity of the media in handling this issue (that is the “gravest threat to the country”) is obscene and reflects clear insensitivity and apathy… If anything, the media (with its moral stands of good and evil) and it’s handling of the whole Naxalite issue is a far greater threat to the country.In a democracy, shouldn't people engage a debate? Shouldn't media facilitate such a debate?

I need to admit at this point that I don’t know enough to comment about the issue, or have an opinion- I am no leftist, communist or a naxalite activist or any such “ist”!! It is the human being in me feels miserable to see beasts in action. If the issue of naxalism is about a neglected section screaming for attention, how can killing them be a solution? Shouldn’t addressing their needs be an issue? This is like saying, I will rob you off your belongings- the moment you raise an issue about it- I will make sure you are silenced!

I read somewhere that over 600 villages in Chattisgarh have been cleared under Salwa Judum and the areas are given to private firms for private mining activities. Labeling this as development and expecting tribals to feel a part of this “development” is ridiculous, illogical and irrational. Roads, powerhouses, mobile phone etc are investment-attractors and not development for the tribals.

A political issue can’t be solved by force.

A socio economic issue can’t be solved by “flushing” people out and spinning myths like inclusive growth, equal opportunities.

Operation green hunt can’t be a solution to a deep rooted problem such as neglect. The operation can kill people, but can do little to the anguish of being practically missing in the world’s largest democracy’s development curve. It is simply not possible to plug round holes with square plugs…..

Perils of Privatised Indian Higher Education

I was reading in the newspapers that our honourable Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in his address at the Punjab University recently raised the issue of higher education in India. Talking about the need to enhance the quality of higher education, the Prime Minister spoke about the government encouraging private participation in higher education to make it available at an "affordable cost".No!!! That's not a typos!! You read it right..-P..r..i..v..a..t..i..z..e..d e..d..u...c...a..t..i..on at "a..f..f..o..r..d..a..b..l..e C..o...S..T" ?!! Only that Mr Prime minister forgot to mention who are the people who can afford it !!!

In India, deregulation and privatisation of higher education has been pursued by successive governments with zeal in the last two decades. “Direct” privatisation of higher education has led to thousands of private colleges mushrooming in the late 1990s that run the risk of disappearing as quickly as they arise. This situation reached its extreme in 2002 in Chattisgarh, where over 150 private universities and colleges came up within a couple of years, till the scam got exposed by a public interest litigation and the courts ordered the State government in 2004 to derecognise and close most of these universities or merge them with the remaining recognised ones.

Education is essentially a public good that has to be served by the government. Recently the Director of National Council of Education Research and Training in an extremely lucid article in the Economic and Political Weekly endorsed this view by saying that inviting private sector participation in education is not the correct solution to the poor quality education. The mistrust is deep rooted that the corporates would soon turn it into a for-profit activity and accentuate social inequality in India.

In 1999, Mukesh Ambani and Kumarmangalam Birla were commissioned by the government under the Prime Minister’s Council on Trade and Industry, to suggest needed reforms in the education sector( Mukesh Ambani?!! Education sector?!!) . The committee’s report, submitted in 2001, strongly suggested that government should leave higher education altogether to the private sector and confine itself to elementary and secondary education.( The report coudn't care to provide a rationale behind such a proposal!)

Further, the report urged the passage of the Private University Bill and also suggested that the user-pay principle be strictly enforced in higher education, supplemented by loans and grants to economically and socially backward sections of society.

The recommendations are essentially de-democratising by nature. The core of democracy lies in the elected representatives being accountable to its people. In a scenario of privatised education, who is accountable to whom? and India is still a democracy.. ain't it? (Oh! yes!! the exorbidantly prices election rituals keep happening....testifying that we are democratic!)

Absence of a long-term and coherent policy has made regulating the private sector in education an unmanageable task. Ad hoc policies and lack of a centralised control has led to the emergence of several actors of higher education. Internationalisation of education by allowing foreign universities to open franchisees in India has added to the confusion. There is a culture of “deemed universities” catching up now. A few universities, for example, the Guru Gobindsingh Indraprashta University in Delhi consists only of affiliating private self-financing colleges (Experience of Privatization of Education in India by Naraginti Reddy- http://ezinearticles.com/?Experience-of-Privatization-of--Education-in-India&id=1398246) .

In addition to this there are States where government-aided private institutions are converted to private self-financing institutions. Entry of private funds into higher education is not a case for the State to withdraw from the education sector. If anything, it is a call for the State to deepen its involvement and give it a different shape.

The State has lessons to learn from what it has done to school education in the past three decades. By encouraging privatisation of elementary schools and forgetting to expand and strengthen its own education infrastructure, the State has ensured that children who can afford only government school education have a defunct system thrown at them.

The Government of India has allocated Rs 850 billion for higher education in the 11th Five Year Plan. However, considering that the Planning Commission has identified a resource gap of Rs. 2.2 trillion, it is unlikely that the Government alone can address infrastructure needs in the higher education sector in the near future. This begs attention to private public partnerships (PPP). PPP’s are very different from “private” ventures, as the government does not lose control in a PPP. Relationship between the private corporate and academia must be developed in tandem with the government.

For Indians, higher education has been, in Stanley Wolpert’s (an American historian who specializes in the history of India and Pakistan) evocative words, “the swiftest elevators to the pinnacles of modern Indian power and opportunity”. These words make a case for the state to stop mindless privatisation and look at more desirable and feasible PPP models for the education sector- unless of course, the country is prepared to see the day when private educational institutions list themselves in the stock market-- all in the name of catering to the insatiable demand for “quality” education.

Greater Common Good?(!)

Life has its own language of talking to you... giving you answers, or more questions, at times it offers solace, other times it reminds you to count your blessings, and at times it wakes you up to some truths- only if one has the time to stop to listen to it......

Diwali is fast approaching and my mind has been filled with memories of Diwali। The only thing that comes to my mind when I think about Diwali is the celebration and fun I have had in a home that I grew up in. For the first time in my life, this year I would be celebrating Diwali elsewhere as we no longer live in that home where I grew up. My mind has been blank every time somebody spoke about Diwali, because it seems beyond me to imagine how it would be to live elsewhere during Diwali. This has been weighing on my mind for quite some time now.
Today, I walked into a library and picked up a book to read- a collection of essays on various social issues. I settled down comfortably with the book and I leafed through the contents. I chose to read a piece ‘Greater common good’ by Arundathi Roy.
The essay is set in the backdrop of a Pandora’s box (grandly called the Sardar Sarovar Dam construction). Arundati Roy in the essay, articulates why the idea of the dam must be trashed and how the ‘displaced’ millions struggle for a home even today. I found those words moving something in me. It was a journey that I undertook. As I read her essay, I admired the power of her language, was enraged at the insensitivity of Government towards the ‘displaced’, disagreed (and was angered) with her cynicism about Indian democracy, dumbfounded by the statistics (that claims that over 50 million people have been robbed of their homes to acquire land for dam construction), and taken aback by how we couldn’t care less about the faceless, voiceless (and now homeless) tribals and Dalits. The journey through the essay was intense and thought provoking. As I finished it and put the book down, the only thing that remained was an irrational guilt- about how I have been feeling bad about having moved into another home, when there are these millions who have nothing to call a home.
How precious is the idea of home to all of us?! I shudder to imagine how I would react if I were asked to move out of my home, because somebody decided that it is good for the nation to build something else in the place of my home.
Suddenly the new over bridges and the broad roads that decorate the city ceased to be glamorous. They seemed to be a reminder of how somebody has been robbed of their space to make it public space. The idea of expansion and displacement of people that we often read about in papers suddenly seemed to make more sense than before.
I have nothing against development and infrastructure building। But it is problematic if it involves unfair means, however “pure and noble” the ends maybe। This whole experience of reading the essay has opened my eyes to the truth of how significant the space of home can be for an individual. Something that we tend to take for granted. In a larger sense, reading this essay at this point of time, has had an meaningful impact on me. The unsettlement about moving away to a different home for me has quietened and replaced by a larger anger about insensitivity we breed in our country. Life has quietly reminded me to count my blessings for having a space to call a home, in a country where my home too could be taken away for a ‘greater common good’.

P.S: The following link takes you the essay, The Greater Common Good- http://www.narmada.org/gcg/gcg.html

I love writing letters...

I love writing letters!!! (Please do not read letters as mails. By letters I mean, those wonderful hand written letters that are generally dropped in post boxes and which reach the recipient a few days after being posted!!!) I genuinely love writing letters! Sitting in a quiet corner, staring at white sheets of paper and eventually conjuring a happy letter for a loved one gets me on a high! Sometimes, when I carry a bunch of four or five letters to post, I feel like Santa Claus whose bag is full of surprises that make people happy!:)
When I am found writing long letters to friends, most people look at me like I come from a different planet or they look at me like I was a part of some ancient civilisation! A zillion times, I have heard people trying to “educate” me on the speed of e-mails and text messages as compared to letters (that are now stylishly called “snail mails”)!! And I stand there, trying to explain that this is my way of telling people that I make time for them, because I care! (I mentally make a note to find time to write to the person who is educating me, to let him know how wonderful letters are!)
Well, just to put it on record- I do use emails and text messages! But I find them so dead as compared to a letter! I mean, a letter is SO full of life- It carries with it a bit of the writer! I can’t disagree that letter writing is a longer process than e-mailing or ‘scrapping’, but isn’t that the most touching thing about a letter? A letter in your hand talks beyond the content of the letter- it screams at you that, “Here’s somebody who thinks you are worth so much of their time”!!
When I talk about letters and letter writing, I have come across people who tell me they have never written a letter in their life! (Ha! Gotcha! Now it’s my turn to take a second look at that person and wonder which planet he is from!!)

Who ever said, letters can be written only for people who live far way!? Letters can be written for anybody( er..that is, to anybody who can read what you have written)!! The next time your friend is celebrating a birthday and you really have trouble finding the right gift, sit down to write a letter for him! (It’s an almost zero cost gift that has the knack of being priceless ;)!) When you write for people who live in the same town, you can have the fun of playing postman yourself by just walking up to that person and shoving the letter in his hands!
Trust me- do it once! The simple excitement and joy is so overwhelming- (irrespective of whether you write the letter or receive a letter) that you would write like it were an addiction!!! The most beautiful thing about a letter is that you write because you care to spend that time and take that little extra effort for the one you love! After all, life’s all about going the extra mile that makes special smiles! So, if you are nodding your head or if you catch yourself mentally agreeing with what I am saying – hold that thought! Act on it now! Pick a paper and pen right away and scribble a letter to five most important people in your life and send it – it will touch your life in a way that is very special! It will touch your loved one’s life in a beautiful way! Try this .. It works..All the time *
(*NO conditions apply)
Well, Just as I am about to finish off this post, let me add a little footnote that’s going to read “I love receiving and reading letters as much as I enjoy writing them ;)” (psst! This is for the benefit of those of you who are wondering what would be a gift I would love the most!!! ;) !!!)

“To be or not to be”

“To be or not to be”
The (overdone!!) clichéd famous words of the good old Shakespeare!! It may be overdone or cliché, but at some level – it defines life in a nutshell. It defines the framework within which our lives work; It breaks boundaries and opens up our lives!! It truly does! I guess we spell like as L-I-F-E simply because it more convenient to spell, as compared to “Art-of-choice-making”!!! But, life deserves to be read as “art of choice making” because that’s all life is about!!
Anybody who is happy has a choice- to be or not to be happy! A teacher who punishes a student to death has a choice- to be or not to be heartless and insensible! I have a choice- to write or not to write this blog post now!!!!!!! Simply...anything and everything.... our friends, our relationships, the food we eat, the moods we exhibit, the phones we own, the tears we shed are all a matter of choice.
Well, what happens if we see everything as a choice? It jus creates a perspective shift where you just stop playing the blame-game that corrodes your being! If all situations are mere choices and you are here to just make your own choices then life is as simple as painting a colourful picture the way you want to paint it! You can decide what colours you want and how you want them on your canvas! If some things do go wrong as they will, then the choice is still yours to let it make or break you! So, it’s a win-win situation where nobody-you, people around you or your life situations are to be blamed!!
This is quite a fun thing to do... Assuming responsibility for your own life... being all dramatic and asking yourself at all points in time..... “To be or not to be”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The moment life choices are made out of love driven by passion and not out of fear or compulsion your life can’t help but explode to success!!!!
Well, having come this far I am presented with a choice - to conclude or not to conclude this blog post....!! I have chosen to conclude this post here..... and I will do just that(despite not being successful at finding a right concluding statement for this post) !!!!!!!!!!!

Social networking and me!!!!!!

The unhealthy craze and addiction to social networking sites is something that has always amused me. I do not exactly remember when this frenzy of ‘orkut-ting’ caught up with everybody! But, I have vivid memories of being at the receiving end of “Which-world-are-you-from” looks when I said I don’t have an orkut account. If I happened to confess that such things do not excite me and I am not ‘not orkutting’ due to parental pressure, people would stare at me like I were practicing and advocating strict celibacy!!! When I meet old friends or end up meeting cousins at a wedding, they ask me for my virtual id as if I cease to exist in front of them there!

I have a friend of mine, who genuinely feels terrible that he is unable to keep in touch with me, because I am not on orkut or facebook! (No!No! We do not live in different cities or countries!! We live ten minutes away from each other!! Just about the same time it takes to boot the computer, connect to the internet and open the world of orkut)

At a time when I was still unfamiliar about the social networking parlance, I overheard my friends talking about communities with a rare kind of interest and zeal. I was overwhelmed at the thought that these guys are discussing something sociological about communities and community development – that happiness didn’t last too long because in a matter of few seconds of my expression of happiness, everybody burst out laughing and eventually explained to me the existence of virtual communities and how involving they are!

For the past 4 years I have been fighting pressure to find my space in the air- to create a virtual existence for myself. If you ask me why, I would say......... maybe it comes out of a generic fear of adding one more dimension to my (already confused) identity and image of self!( Well, that’s something that sounds intellectual enough and people don’t bother to prod further!)

But if you do, then I might just admit that I do not have the patience to go through the process of creating it, reading messages, replying to them , hoping and praying that your id’s not hacked by some creepy guy who decided to crush on you and so it goes........!! If you prod me further, I may agree that time is what we make and not having patience is not strong enough a reason....
No! No! This absistence from social networking doesn’t rise from me being happy by myself. In fact, I am a people’s person and passionately believe in making and keeping friends for a lifetime!! (Any of my friends who at some point or the other been at the receiving end of my lectures about ‘keeping in touch’ would vouch for that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! )

Well, heart of hearts I guess this abstinence from social networking sites comes out of my true love for people, and all your true alive selves! Any day I would rather see a beautiful smile curving from a warm heart than the smiley I see on the computer screen! Any day I would rather hear a wonderful voice that spells happiness, strength and cheer rather than see a few letters arranging themselves on screen conveying a message! I would rather see a pair of eyes becoming wide in excitement and a beautiful excited smile than seeing a bunch of exclamations that my brain registers as a sign of excitement!! May sound archaic but I would rather hear and see people around me living their lives, living their emotions, expressing their most extraordinary selves rather than see them through the messages or profiles hanging in the air!!!!!! After all, watching the IPL live is not the same as reading about it the next morning in the paper!! Watching a movie is just not the same as reading a review!

Social networking sites to me, seems like it reduces the thrill and excitement of an alive life to a mad scramble of letters (With a lot of typos because people are in a hurry to reply to a whole lot of other messages!!!!!!!!) To all you social networking maniacs- I do buy your arguments like this saves time and shrinks the world – but is that what we want? We save time by social networking to do what? To do more social networking?

Disclaimer Note:This is not some kind of text that is trying to convert you from a theist( a believer in social networking) to an atheist!!

Definitely not!! All I want to do is to gently remind all you networking kings and queens that there is a life beyond the social networking. There may be your grandmother who would love to take a walk with you and who would smile a smile that is hundred times brighter than the smiley on screen if you do take her for a walk! Try this! There is a life beyond social networking.....live that for a change......!!!!!!! In exchange I promise to get myself an identity in virtual space! From an atheist am moving to being an agnostic – going to find out of in truth there is a sense of keeping in touch through social networking... Let’s taste a bit of each other’s world... What say? After all...variety is the spice of life...........!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Face book...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Here I come.............!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A disturbing irony...........

I picked up the newspaper early this morning and I did not feel like reading beyond the first page. The first two articles on the first page on The Hindu newspaper made me stop, to reflect on our system of democracy and justice. I can assure you, I am not one among those pessimists who believe that this country is good for nothing, neither am the kind who doesn’t believe in democracy. But, for a few minutes, I couldn’t help wondering if our ideals of democracy and justice are of any relevance at all!!
The front page today represented the extremes of the continuum of the system of democracy and reward, punishment systems that our country has. On the left is an article carrying news about Kasab, the lone surviving gunman in the Mumbai terror attacks and on the right is a news item about the young girl Shanno who died( who was killed rather!!) following corporal punishment at municipal school. At the face of it maybe these two news items do not have anything in common. But, looking deeper into both these issues, it represents an irony! A disturbing irony! To me, it seems to reflect a weak reward-punishment system!!! A terrorist who has been seen with the gun in his hands is being 'rewarded' the luxury of having trials, having lawyers to represent him(at the cost of Indian taxpayer’s money!!) and here is this girl who was 'punished' on the spot for a “crime” of not reciting alphabets properly. Why is it that time and again we wait for incidents like this to happen to wake up to the real need to strengthen fundamentals in the society. In what way can the teacher justify this act in a society that is giving somebody like kasab, a chance to justify his wrong doing? How can the teacher decide to punish in such a manner without imagining consequences? Is it lack of awareness about the need to abolish corporal punishments? Is it negligence? Display of power? Or is the blame going to be thrown again on lack of stringent laws or lack of implementation of laws?
At one end we have debates and discussions about free and fair trial and just punishment being given to the terrorist Kasab who is responsible for killing so many lives in the Mumbai terror attacks and on the other end we have this little girl who was punished to death for not reciting her alphabets properly!! To call this ironic seems an understatement! To me, this irony seems to raise a lot of thoughts like for instance, does our country work in such a manner that bigger the crimes you commit, the safer you are (because it takes a long time for you to be tried and presented to the court)? If this is the punishment for the child who has not learnt her alphabets, in other words not done her duty as a student, then what is the punishment and who will punish all those people out there whose negligence and lack of commitment has lead to such crimes ranging from corporal punishment to terrorism?

the "F" theory...

I genuinely believe all our lives are designed to work in a certain manner that revolves around fundamentals that are more or less the same for all of us! This may not be a great line to start a blog post, but it certainly is great line to start off a thinking process. I was thinking about this and I hit upon a very interesting observation which in future will be referred to as the

“F-theory”

revolving around two “F-factors”. In fact, the more I dwell in this the more I am convinced that this “F-factor” is a very fundamental and core for all our lives, purposes and action.
So, what exactly is the first “f” factor??!!
It is F.e.A.R!!

If we carefully study a lot of our actions (and inactions!!), a lot of happening around us or other people’s actions, it can be seen that it boils down to a certain fear. Starting from small issues like a lie, which is a fear to expose the truth to a suicide, which is nothing but a fear to live – fear seems a pivotal force in all our lives.
For all the brave hearts out there who are shaking their heads denying any trace of fear in their lives, Let me ask you, do you sing aloud every time you feel like it? Have you ever known what it is to dance like nobody is watching you? Have you ever walked up to the store and got yourself those pair of jeans that you really love, despite all your friends hating it? Gotcha!!
What holds you back?! Isn’t it the factor that takes control of those decisions? Fear of criticism, fear of being hurt or ridiculed, fear of standing out of the crowd, fear of failure, of being laughed at!! Remember all those small and big things that you have always wanted to do, but never got around to doing it? The only that that can or will stop you is the “f” factor!! Every such a thing, that remains a dream arises from this “f” factor- the fear of not wanting to stretch beyond the comfort zone that we belong to or the fear of doing something out of the ordinary!
Well how do we fight this fear? It is at this point that I must introduce the second “f” of the “f” theory, that is

“Facing the fear”!!

As simple as it sounds, jut face your fears! Start simple, but start strong! Does a roller coaster ride put the fear of god into you? Simply face it! This weekend, pack your bags, tag along a few friends and drive to a theme park and just do it- face your roller coaster ride!
Has your class eight math teacher been your biggest fear factor in your life then? (and is that why you hate math till today??!!) Well, blindly execute the second part of the “f” theory: just face your fear! Choose a nice day and drop in to your teacher’s place to spend an hour or two with her, thanking her for all that she has been to you( You have an added advantage that teachers have a way of being nice to alumni!! ;)!! ) face your fear (fearlessly)!
Does speaking on stage set the fear engine in you rolling? Grab the next opportunity to do public speaking (even if it is a boring vote of thanks at the end of a long lecture) and do your best: face your fears!
I bet on all that I own most of the times, at the end of the facing your fear session, you will catch yourself saying “it wasn’t that bad you know!!” because nothing truly is that bad! So, get started on your trip of facing fears!
Let me let you into a secret that this blog is my attempt to face my fear that I can’t do creative writing for nuts! Well, I am facing my fear and am enjoying doing it, believing that it’s not that bad after all!! :D
So, its time you too faced your fears! Let no fear ever hold you back! After all,
No man has ever lost anything by stretching his reins to their fullest possible length!!