To all the sachin fans out there!!!

World Cup is back again after 4 years! Well nowadays there seems to be absolutely no lack for tournaments of this size as the T-20 world cup and IPL matches offlate seem to be there always around the corner, so much so I'd say the relative hype of a huge gathering of international teams for an event seems to be less this year than the previous episodes. But of course, it being hosted by our Cricket crazy country, there is absolutely no lack for media hype and the several reviews by different sets of commentators.

The Indian team, this time around, at the beginning of the tournament, actually looked like it was at it's peak with quite a Captain, team rapport and seemingly the best team India has ever had at the world cup and this one being extra special for the famously known "Little Master", as it is his final World Cup! But unfortunately some of the matches till so far have been complete lack lustre not just in the Bowling Department, suprisingly in the Batting too! The team famed for it's batting line up, seems to still depend on Sachin to show the light at the end of the tunnel, still left clueless once his early departure happens like in the last match! Anyway that topic is reserved for another time, this one is gonna be about this guy whose fans seem to address him "God" once too often and this kinda irked me which is why I am writing this now.

How do you define God first of all? Is calling Sachin "God" alright?

Reading these two above questions make the reader (if they are a fan of Sachin) might in all probability get upset/angry for they feel he undeniably deserves that place! Does he is my question, please read through and analyze for yourself?

Here is a guy, who at the age of twelve gets recognized for his batting skills and vigourously trained by his coach in Mumbai, makes it to the Ranji Trophy and eventually to the Indian team at the young age of 16 with his stroke making and brilliant talent for batting as such.
As time progresses, he dons the captain role for a while, realizes it's not his cup of tea, hands it over and decides to experiment further when he practice his bowling, turning himself into an all rounder. This guy, is just yet another normal guy who faces criticism from the whole Media when he was out of form, who gets afflicted by several injuries.
So finally he manages to wriggle out of it all, and achieving glories of the greatest nature once considered impossible, so how did he do it?

I personally feel calling him a "God" just removes all the innumerable hardwork and determination he has put in as a human being into just some term we use to assign what he did as impossible. An escape tactic at best.

People out there who seriously consider him the so called "God" they address, please don't just see the match and cheer for him! His life has been his message! The way he walked during the match just went to show how much his conscience mattered to him above everything else! He has been a epitome of hardwork, determination, strength, courage and most of all integrity!

Instead of isolating him from your life by calling him a separate entity called "God", why not take him to be a inspiring role model not in terms of how he bats, but how he lives his life?!! When pushed to a corner, imagine the corners he may have been pushed to in his, all he did is put his mind as a strength behind his soul and worked towards his passions Blindly working hard irrespective of results! I am reminded of a quote of Bhagawad Geeta when i think of the previous line i wrote

"Karmanye vadi Karaste Ma Phaleshu Kadachana,
Ma karma Phala Hey thurbu,
Maa te sangosva Karmani"

Which means do your work as your should, in the best way possible, but do not expect results, they will automatically come, but the outcome must not be the aim of your effort which is exactly what Sachin is doing so beautifully.

Ultimately it depends on what you see yourself as a fan, just another person cheering out loud for a few hours for a day and then going on to bother about your business your way or truly holding him in your heart to help you cross over the several problems you'll face in your life and maintaining the kinda grit and determination that he is a champion of :)

The battle of the genders!!!

Before i start this topic of mine, i would like to ascertain some stuff, though i will try my best to objectively view the situation at hand there are times, i may tend to get subjective sometimes unconsciously purely owing to the fact that i belong to the so called "fairer" sex (though i wonder often why and how such a term was phrased). Readers may kindly point it out to me as may be the case.

Past few months, I somehow seem to have hit on this topic somehow or the other when talking to friends, colleagues, batchmates and even people from the yester generations as well and amazing as it would seem to most, i was on the listening side often with me just absorbing those said and analysing them as much as my brain would permit me to. :P

A gentle man from my office had questioned me as to why an "International Women's Day" existed when there was no such day for men... Nowadays if i dare mention the word "feminist", there is as much a reaction as the infamous "Sulphuric Acid and water" Combo would have, that i am rather careful paraphrasing myself that way.

Some of them cited several reasons for the same, and it was really not because all of them were male chauvinists, but normal men who felt that justice and equanimity must be the higher goal rather than "feminism".They show me the several excuses women make up for not having done their job, the excuse getting as lame as "My hand is paining, hence i can't fuel properly" for a girl working at a petroleum pump, getting a lot of advantages in terms of not getting transfered etc.

At this juncture , i am trying to unravel some of my findings along the way as i try to start at the root of the word, exploring this whole area of history that i wasn't very well aware of previously!!

Feminism grew from the western world with a far more reaching effect that our own Rajaram Mohan Roy, but just as any human undertaking deviates with time from the original purpose, just as neither Christ, nor Buddha nor any of the world's greatest people ever sought to create a different sect, they rather tried to correct the inconsistencies in the generation they were present in, feminism too has started to be misused in some ways, I feel.

Coming to my own life, The feministic attitude I possess since i don't know when, as young as 3rd standard where i used to argue with my grandmother on some views, and with my friends in school, some of whom just had to pick a fight with me saying just how men are greater. That was just immaturity and wanting to have a fun fight i later realised. Years later, i had some more friends in college who made of fun of the curfew more often than not , and I realised how they felt secure in the fact that they'd never have to endure it even once in their life, though not consciously. There were a certain other factors they claimed to aid us, which was true, there were certain "benefits" so to say, we got in exchange for our freedom. Funny thing, if men misused their freedom, it was considered alright, but if women did, it was looked upon as degradation of culture, when both meant the same thing.

Anyway with all this in mind, I have always sought to protect, to fight for women, be it my friend's mom, my cousin sister, or anyone i barely knew... But this whole other face of women i got to know was when i went to work and had two colleagues accompany me to my several trainings sessions that i have had in the past year. Women, who are emotional at the touch of a finger (not literally, figuratively), women who are so happily dependant on men for every step along her path!

If you know me, you'd know how hard core a feminist I was , for I did not allow for gentlemanly courtesies, asking men to carry my baggage nor do anything for me just because i was a girl and my friends and anyone who's be around me would know that just too well. This is what I have always felt that was indeed the true nature of feminism, but i seem to find more and more women, perceiving reservations for any and every place, seek to be aided and helped where it seemed men have more strength. If women themselves perceive so, why not men?!!

That being said, there are two kinds of strength, physical and mental. Nature has always balance in it and it's balance portrayed through the Physical Strength of men and Emotional Strength of women ( This is a fact, survey of several men and women was taken for EQ and found the average of women greater than that of men) This may possibly be owing to the factor, most women emote more than men do, thereby having lighter hearts to deal with at the end of the day. There was a time when i thought that women should have never stayed at home... But one of my friends once told he'd like his future wife to stay at home and have the kinda work-life balance as his parents did, i scolded him for his idea back then, but now i realise what it is to be that way. Women of yester years stayed at home, to deal with as many issues as men did in office, but over time men began to dominate and think they were indeed the breadwinner not realising the importance of a secure woman at home to take care of his everyday needs, which was probably the first and foremost reason women even began to feel the pinch and bother to step out of her comfort zone and make her entry into the business forays.

Women, today, especially those who are educated and knowing their way about life, should realise there are still major injustices happening, about 27% of rapes in India alone are those of girls less than 16years old... Out of which a shocking 13% is those of kids below age of ten! How men can even think of doing this act on a kid is way beyond my imagination, but inequality in every sense of the word exists strongly in the world. For those who'd argue that women have made it to the top today-

There once was a time in American history when the thought of women working for complex, multi-national technology companies, giant advertising firms, and massive publishing houses was snickered at behind closed boardroom doors.

Today, women are running those companies—from some of those very same boardrooms.

But although women make up over half of America's labor force, as of 2009, only 12 Fortune 500 companies and 25 Fortune 1000 companies have women CEOs or presidents.

Catalyst, the not-for-profit New York-based women's research organization, points out that its data shows a change over the last ten years. In 1998, 11.2% of corporate officers in Fortune 500 companies were women. This percentage rose to a peak of 16.4% by 2005, but has since fallen and in 2008 it rested at 15.7%. While this is progress, Catalyst notes that, at this rate, it would take 40 years for the number of female corporate officers to match the number of male officers.

For the few women who have reached the highest ranks, they'd prefer not to talk about their gender. To them it's no longer an issue. Their accomplishments represent significant milestones—not just for women in business—but for women all over the world making career choices.

Read more: Women CEOs — Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/spot/womenceo1.html#ixzz1H4Xdz8U6

Quotes from:
http://www.cxo.eu.com/news/highest-paid-female-ceos-in-america/

In Germany, women in Europe's largest economy on average earn 23.2 percent less than men. Yet Germany isn't alone in the equality issues, despite women making up almost 40 percent of the global workforce, the number of female CEO's across most industries remains low. Deutsche Telelekom, one of the country's biggest companies unveiled plans to fast-track more women into management roles in the company. By 2015, the company want 30 percent of its middle and upper management positions to be filled by women - the first gender quota to be implemented at one of Germany's top 30 DAX-listed companies.

So in Germany women are still facing a struggle, now what about America? In America, some of the most well known companies - the likes of Kraft Foods, Avon Products and PepsiCo have a woman at their helm, yet still, women account for only three percent of the chief executives at the helm of the 500 biggest US companies - that's only 15 female chief executives from a handful of industries including food, insurance and energy, Forbes report. So does this three percent of women have their pay matched to men?

http://money.cnn.com/2006/10/03/news/newsmakers/mpwpay/index.htm
Read the article:

10 Best-paid executives: They're all men

And they're making about 2 to 3 times what the 10 top-earning women executives do.

I find all this amazing! At the top of the corporate structure, these women have fought it tooth and nail to survive and be the fittest there is... Yet the discrimination...

Women should not ask for leavages their way in terms of toughness of job, as no excuses can be given in the job. Your job quality ( that displays your character) is as equally important as your family if you are going to work. Men must not become soft on women because they are women in terms of quality of the job as they often do. Both men and women need support and encouragement to climb up their ladders and decisions to take if they need to push that ladder higher up. The reason you find just so few women at the top is not because they are not capable but that they value something more than just position and money in their lives. Respect that for what she is. Men and women need to work hand in hand if this inequality is to change, a attitude shift majorly needed at this hour! ( I don't mean now exactly :P)

Women, please realize and wake up there is more to it, than jump for the success in 33% reservation. And men, just don't generalise all feminists, there are a lot more out there wanting to show exactly what they mean by equality by living their lives. And the change is for you all to see.

The Great Indian Dream

I just went online today after a really really long time and happened to read one of the blog entries that one of my friends had written apart from just take care of certain official mails. The topic revolved around what he thought was wrong about India, and why we with such a huge population were not able to develop despite having the best of brains. He questioned as to why no one won the coveted noble prize, or even win competitions in games all around the world despite the fact that 2 in ten people in the world are Indians. I thought deeply about the arguments he put forth, the ideas, the practicality of them and how the comments were to his article and what could actually be done. One thing I couldn’t but happen to notice is most of whom, had commented or rather all so far, were people who thought all this themselves but are now presently abroad, pursuing their higher studies abroad, so that they may earn more, live better and enjoy better infrastructure. And there lie the irony and what they fail to realize that they were themselves contributing reason to why the whole article was written. One claimed that the attitude needed to be changed, the author himself claimed that it would never change even if 500 years happen.

Hmmm herewith lies my line of thought on this topic...

India is a rich nation, we are culturally rich, emotionally rich and intellectually rich. When the rest of the world wore leaves, we were busy inventing steel. When the rest of the world had not awakened to the light of learning, we had universities and studied Medicine and Mathematics. A rich nation that has remained poor… This is from a book I recently read, I don’t know how many people have read or won’t read it for bias against the author but it dealt with economics through and through and interested me much. “The Great Indian Dream” by Malay and Arindham Chaudary of IIPM Fame.

Personally I have great respect for those two people for the mere fact that they didn’t just write what they felt, they did it too… That they dared to challenge the likes of IIMs and open up a Management Institute that is Non-Governmental in nature yet striving to maintain standards of those levels shows how much of a commitment into their idea, plus how much of service they provide to the villages with their rural program shows the drive into executing what they believe is right. It is these kind of people that are in dearth in today’s society. As much as we may boast of a huge population, we fail to realize that close to 60% or more of that population, still happens to live in villages with the least of facilities, while the planning commission of our country still makes a revised pay commission to increase the pay of governmental employees rather than spend a part of that money into providing irrigation and electricity facilities to the millions in the village.

To bring about a change of this magnitude, of overhauling a system that has gone unchecked in most of it’s activities for sixty years since it’s freedom, that is filled with a legal system that has a highly skewed supply to demand ratio needs the dedication and workforce of atleast an entire generation of literate and educated population of India to think that their primary duty is that to the nation rather than themselves. People who see that India has such a huge population should also notice it has a population of almost 40% who are under the poverty line (which considering it is approx 1850 rupees a month per month for a family of five is ghastly low by itself), of medical facilities of the ratio of just 1 Indian Doctor for 2400 Indians in the rural side compared to the “I don’t know how many” doctors per sq.m in the city side, having rare and inbetween educational facilities that do not boast of a system encouraging the student to study anywhere considering he can’t make the IITs owing to the fact that his city peers have much more exposure and specialized training for the same and can’t make it into so called other private colleges either thanks to the huge fees that comes with them. And a fraction of those middle class people that constitutes the government technical universities, the money allocated per student is significant for whom the Indian government and so is the amount paid by private institutes but the skill level of the industry is still considered poor and not upto the mark. There is just exploitation of the financial resources on all fronts possible.

So why don’t the youth take to politics inspired by the “Yuva” or “Ayutha Ezhuthu”?? Why is the media that shows day long about all the negative things that happen not happen to popularize the political party developed by IITians? Why haven’t they been able to succeed despite having a brilliant tag named IIT associated with them? These are the true questions to be pondered.

All these points I am sure are very well discussed by many illustrious people but I feel the economics of this issue needs to be seen through different glasses. I want anyone reading this blog to tell me of one renowned Indian brand that has been created only in the last twenty years and managed to survive without being kicked out of the market by so called globalization (per se without having an extraordinary background). Most may argue at this point that these companies have improved the standard of living by means of generation of plentiful jobs, providing international standard and so on… But what we fail to realize is that these very developed countries of today in their developing stages when we were being of robbed of every possible richness in the name of colonization practiced “Protectionism” for more than 2 centuries to get where they are now, but the Indian Market is unduly expected to rise to those standards without much input in terms of technology or finance to deliver such an expectation. From the simple toothpaste we use to the tiles we purchase almost everything is foreign in nature. We boast of extremely talented artisans in the most of the culturally oriented fields that have developed in the rural areas but they are highly devalued! I dunno if my friends have noticed but a lemon juice in our college “juicy” costed us 5 rs. Whereas when we have the same thing in a Hotel in Chennai it costs us atleast 25 to 30 or even more depending on the costs of the region hotel is located, price of the human labour available locally. So you can imagine the discrepancy in pay for an average Indian qualified with the same way to that in any of the developed country in the same company for the same job merely because it is located there probably the most prime reason for most people to go to the US since most jobs are available here now. Even the MNCs have realized what a potential the intellectual market in India is, so much so many have started developing their R&Ds here in India paying much less than their foreign counterparts yet a comfortable enough life as the cost of living is relatively very cheap here.

The question of why India hasn’t developed in Sports and why is Hockey the national game when it isn’t even popular is a very clichéd argument and one has to look at how many schools even in the forever developing metropolitan cities, how much of importance is given to the Indian Art Forms and Styles, how many schools encourage children to take up sports as important as their academics. Yes, it is in fact true that most parents choose for their child rather than let them choose but neither does the school equip the child take a decision. First and foremost, you live your life for yourself and you should not keep parents as an excuse to lead life the way you do, secondly most people who’re now in the sports field are the people who have only sports as their main vein and have it for their living. The sports quota in several colleges and government organizations ensures that such people are encouraged by providing a means of living but it is not the primary choice of parents solely because of the sheer competition owing to extreme population or if not, the amount needed to sustain the sports interests. Sports as a career needs a lot of financial support, extremely good infrastructure. I don’t know if there exists one dedicated Sports School that provides an opportunity for athletes to seriously pursue their career in that lane. To top it, the initiative to set up schools like Harvard and MIT brings us to the question if they will maintain their American Standards in their Indian versions or are they just measures to “tap” the educational market in India which seems to be sure sell out for the generations to come.

India in it’s present state does not need a dictator but a educated and young, leader like Mahatma Gandhi who was able to reach to the masses, bring together all the strata of society to a united cause of developing India. Inspire an entire generation( and by generation I mean all those alive in that period of time) to work selflessly towards that goal. Most people are caught in their own lives to think about the bigger picture, I think my comp sci friends know it better as the “Greedy Algorithm” and know the result of such an algorithm as well. But it is not so simple either, for this person needs to be flanked by the appropriate people, and the goal isn’t as precise and simple as it was earlier. In short a revolution of a magnitude that reaches every person in the country and that is no mean task. Difficult but not impossible.

Dominated!!

"I have travelled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such high calibre, that i do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation which is her spiritual and cultural heritage and therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater that their own, they will lose their self esteem, their native culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation"

Lord Macualays address to the British Parliament 2.2.1835

This is something i saw written in the pamplet of the hotel I recently stayed, (in Yercaud) which happens to be a set of British Villas. It was a means of advertising India to the Foreigners but to me it seemed like an outright assault on our way of life today.

Reading this gave me a sense of how much we, as a country, have changed over two centuries and how Lord Macaulay and the other British Generals who ruled our country really had the last laugh after all.

Despite so many years of Independance, we still aren't truly out of the "dominated" category. The fancy for everything foreign has left us with the least regard to our own past.

While there are a few who condemn the culture damage only in terms of dresses women wear and the language used but would happily use so many MNC products that have flooded the markets, learn technology developed abroad not to mention earn a lot of money thru foreign influence. If we are to embrace culture, it has to be a wholesome one, the economic advantage that comes from international interaction comes with automatic awe for western worlds. The British rule, that we learnt about in our history textbooks for years together, had much more of a profound effect than is obvious. And there are others who struggle against the corrupt and unjust administration here, where development hardly happens which is one detrimental factor and motivational factor to look outside the country...

My heart cries out ... What happened to all that was displayed to Lord Macaulay? Where is that kind of a nation that created such a impression? If the British happened to break our backbone, it was possible only because we let it be weak enough to be broken... And all this has happened only because something called value has been reduced to mere coins and notes.

Change

Well each one reading this blog right probably know the old cliched and trite phrase that "Nothing is constant in life but Change" but when each of us feel it in ourselves, it no longer seems as cliched as it used to.

Hmmm, to tell about how this summer has been quite a different experience cannot be simply be expressed by words but i will, earnestly, try to do so to the best of my abilities.

For one it was my first trip in a place all by myself, with ppl only to guide me and not lead me by hand to places i needed to go. Last summer despite having left home, i stayed in my roommate's house which served as good as my own home with her parents fawning over me as though i were their own daughter.

The first butterflies were created when I was to leave my parents in the visitor's area in the airport. I had not travelled by myself in a flight. As my luck would have it,(which, mind you, was too good for me to believe) the girl seated next to me in the flight happened to be a junior from my college who recognized me as "Hostel Rep". So the flight journey was very pleasant as we talked away our time. Once I reached Delhi, I had my second hurdle to cross... The language of Hindi... My knowledge of hindi is actually very weird, because i read and write hindi better than i can my own mother tongue, i can sing songs in it as well( probably not with cent percent lyrical accuracy but nonetheless) and understand as well when someone talks in Hindi but i can't talk!!! Here i was to meet this driver of my dad's friend who knew only hindi and was trying to say about some place that i didnot know about. Finally asked him in my broken hindi to wait at the entrance of a particular restaurant i saw and found him. BTW, with a lot of effort from my pg(paying guest-house) roommates and the aunty who owned the house my language started to pick up but still there's a long way to go i guess.

I live with a Kashmiri couple here who have two daughters, one in the US and the other here, with a lovely 6 month old grandson. It is one thing to hear about how difficult it is to handle babies, and it's another to watch. As cute as babies are to watch, they need a lot of pampering and time. I watched that the mother( who had incidentally resigned her job for this baby) had to tend to the baby even when she had fever herself and couldnt sleep even if it was 1 in the night till the baby slept. And one particular night, the baby caught a fever and cried thru the whole night.

I have heard a lot from my father saying how he spent nights trying to make me sleep as a baby and how during times of Diwali how much difficulty he'd have, shutting down every possible door and making everything silent because i was ever so sensitive, but seeing it up close and personal made a difference. I saw the effort and the effect, it had on the mother as well as the grandparents.

I could also see how much a mere fact of having a pg in their house with outside girls staying with them and the fact that one daughter lived close by made a difference to their lives and gave the parents something to do in their old age. Otherwise they'd be really bugged with life and pretty much getting into depression with no company and nothing to do as well. Apart from changes of life that i noticed, there's one particular incident i'd like to mention. During the beginning of my summer training, i used to .sincerely, put my mobile to silent, just like when i went to college, so as to not disturb anyone. One evening my roommate wanted to check her new caller tune and called from mine just to hear it when she noticed that it was on silent. She asked me as to why it was silent, and i replied that i forgot to change it back once i got back to the house. When she actually asked me "Why do you put it on silent in the office" only then it struck me that I was in a company not a college.

Another thing that i got introduced to and got used to, is the guiding to places by means of words without actual dropping me there the first time.(It had , i realised, always happened that the first day of going to any place i would actually be accompanied by someone and the next day onward i would manage) I realised how much of a child was still present in me to expect some such thing.

Yet another day my roommate had bought a new mobile all of a sudden and brought it to hostel. It was then it sank in that she earned money and she'd do anything with it as she pleased without asking anyone. It was yet another realisation dawned late. I had not till date bought any costly item ever without the consent of my parents and I just couldnt imagine of the day when i wouldnt do so. I have been thinking as to how such changes happen so rapidly and yet so tacitly, noone ever seems to see it as a big difference.

I hadn't, till date, seen the subtle lines that made a lot of distinct difference between the child and the adult. That transition hadn't happened for me earlier, i suppose, as I was permanently lovingly kept in the shadows of ppl i know.

It's a transition that most of us will be undergoing or probably have already undergone by now and probably this is the one that saps out all the "Childishness" out of us and equips us with what's required to enter the "Adult world".

First :)

Hi,

Guess this is my very first post, hopefully not the last. Despite having a lot of things on my mind i haven't written anything all this while because I haven't the patience to type it all and I hadn't found the need till now to write but something urged me on today, perhaps boredom, or sheer wanting to share my thoughts and so i am. Probably this indicates that i am whimsical person, maybe or maybe not. :) So let's get started i say.