Thursday, October 27, 2005

what the $#@%@#%

I was about to post something.. something about me and my life that has been frustrating me all my life... and then, I read this.


From Varna's blog

"

Every now and then India throws at you an experience that changes your perceptions of its people and places forever. For me this time around it was ugly. I live in the Delhi, the capital city of this country. I live in South Delhi- the posh part of the capital of this country. Now I am ashamed of where I live.

It was eight thirty when I set out as usual to cross the Yusuf Sarai crossing that leads to Khel Gaon Marg for college. There is something troubling about this crossing. Automobiles rush past without a fraction of a pause, by the dozens, every second at top speed. The roads on either side stretch to AIIMS (arguably, India's most busy hospital on any given day) to IIT (one of the most used roads in south Delhi that has an extremely busy flyover) and the airport. The troublesome bit is the absence of a red-light signal along the whole length of the two kilometer long road at any pedestrian crossing here. Consequently all pedestrian crossing are unofficial.

A request and a PIL for a red-light on this road, as I found out, has been pending in Delhi Courts for the last seven years. Its heartening that there is, at the very least, someone who took the initiative to demand one - the fact it got lost in the administrative inefficiency of the bureaucracy, is not, something that we have a right as Indians to be angry about. No its all in the game you see. Its part of being Indian. Hence I am ashamed.

So there I was crossing the road. I crossed the first half worrying about class, and how I am going to get yelled at for being late by a minute and a half by the teachers of my esteemed institution-- till this happened. A young man, only about twenty five was talking rather animatedly in Tamil into his mobile phone. I am a Tamilian (ahem... half Tamilian) therefore this caught my attention. The young man stood with me at the crossing for a good ten minutes. We watched cars, bikes and buses zoom past, indifferent to the mass of humanity at the fringes of the roads. We grew impatient. More him than I, for I am now used to being subjected to this form of torture everyday.

The young man crossed. He ran across. All it took was a fraction of a second. I could've imagined it, but, I saw a bike actually speeding up as he ran across the road. The bike hit him. The young man was lying on the road. Blood was pouring out of what seemed like a huge yawning hole on his left temple. We all saw it. We watched shocked. A second later a bus slightly to the right of the young man decided it had to move. It did. It ran over him. Over his arm and the right side of his body. It then stopped later. It was a DTC.

I pushed myself through a huge swarm of people around the young man. He was lying there in a pool of his blood. He had fainted. I could hear him breathing. His legs were broken. I have never seen legs broken like that. The white faschia was spilling out from the joints. Both legs had broken in half exactly at the knee joints. The right side of his body was oddly flattened, his arm was twisted out of shape. Some thing white and fragmentary was jutting out from the elbow. It was his elbow. There was a lot of blood. Inches away from they wheel of the bus was his phone, the LCD smashed broken into pieces so small it was hard to believe.

I wanted to help. So I asked. Was anyone going to take him to hospital? Then I shut up, because I heard people talking about how much money they could make out of this. One man said no-one should move him, because if he died there then they all could make more money. I was bewildered. It was like I had got transported to someplace barbaric. To a place in the dark ages.

Then I said something. I called an auto- asked the driver if he would take me and the man to hospital. The auto driver thought... and thought and thought. Finally he demanded a hundred and fifty rupees, I didn't have time to bargain. The distance was worth thirty. Amongst a lot of abuses, threats and such I managed to hoist the man into the auto. In the auto I searched his pockets to find a number I could call--only to find his pockets ripped off and empty. His money had been stolen. People had searched his pockets before I got there.

We reached Safdarjung Hospital. At nine the trauma care centre was devoid of any patients. The man and lady at the reception made me wait for a half-hour while they completed some paper work, despite my protests. They then brought out a sheaf of papers. Asked me if I was a relative, because only then would they allow surgery. I called him Senthil and signed as his sister. They brought him in on a stretcher. Then they left him there in the lobby with me for forty-five minutes, I timed it. When I asked why they were taking so long-- they said they had sent someone to stamp the papers and couldn't begin till they arrived. At long last the took him into the OT.

I took an auto back to Yusuf Sarai. I had missed the first three classes of the day. There were two more to go. The crowd had largely disappeared. The bus, its driver, conductor, a couple of touts, the bike owner and a large beefy policeman stood in a small circle pointing to the blood stains. From a distance, I imagined that justice just might be on its way. I went up to the policeman saying I was an eyewitness and would be happy to give a statement.

He looked at me curiously. I looked at the bus driver and the bike owner holding two five hundred rupee notes each in their hands. The police man had already collected a thousand. He tore the complaint notice in half in front of me. I asked what he was doing. He told me not to worry. He said the matter had been resolved. The bus driver, conductor and policeman left for Chai together. The bike owner drove off nervously.

I stood there for a while. Feeling defeated. Tired. Angry. I then took an auto to go to college. I was on my way, when I got a call. It was someone from Safdarjung. Senthil had died. I turned my auto around and went back home. I cried.

I want to know what makes people so inhumane? What makes people not care? What makes people accept this? Is this how selfish we ought to be? Is this our great legacy? Would he have lived if I could've been fifteen minutes faster?"

Sunday, October 23, 2005

Thinking About You!

I was thinking of you again.. and It was as pleasantly invigorating as ever.
Just one soft brush of your lips.. and I swear, I cannot let it pass!
Singing my existence with your words.. and Killing me softly with your song..
If only I was my own self.. I would have taken my revenge in kind!!

Empowered, are you?

INDIA EMPOWERED TO ME IS

Opening avenues for growth of IT, i.e. Indian Talent

DR R A MASHELKAR
DIRECTOR GENERAL, COUNCIL OF SCIENTIFIC & INDUSTRIAL
RESEARCH & PRESIDENT, INDIAN
NATIONAL SCIENCE ACADEMY


India's future is in IT, but not in IT as in Information Technology, but in IT as
in Indian Talent. Giving every opportunity possible to Indian talent to reach its
real potential would truly empower India.

What happens to Indian talent today? Fifty per cent Indian children go to school.
Thirty per cent of them reach up to 10th standard. Forty per cent of them pass.
Thus, six per cent of our children go past the 10th standard. This is only a tip of
the iceberg, of which only a very small part shines. A huge part of the iceberg
remains submerged and dark. To me, India will be truly empowered when we let the
entire iceberg shine by lifting it.


I too belonged to that submerged part of the iceberg. I was born in a very poor
family. My father died when I was six. My illiterate mother did menial work to bring
me up. I went barefoot till I was twelve. I studied under streetlights. Yet I was
empowered again and again.

I studied in a free municipal school. Access to free education through public
funding was the first empowerment in my life.

On finishing primary school, I sought admission in a secondary school. I required 21
rupees as admission fee. My mother did not have the money. A lady, who herself was a
housemaid in Mumbai, gave her savings to us. One 'have not' sharing with another
'have not' was a powerful lesson of empowerment early in my life.

I stood 11th amongst 1,35,000 students in the state in the Maharashtra State Board
exam in 1960. I was about to leave the school, since my mother could not afford my
college education. Sir Dorabji Tata Trust gave me a scholarship of 60 rupees per
month until my graduation. Thus, my next empowerment came through the philanthropy
of an industrial house.My school teachers empowered me. Principal Bhave taught me
physics in the school. One day, he took us out in the sun to show how to find the
focal length of a convex lens. When the sun rays were focused on the paper, it got
burnt. He turned to me and said, ''Mashelkar, if you focus your energies, you can
achieve anything in life.'' That gave me an inspiration to become a scientist. It
gave me the philosophy of life; focus and you can achieve anything. Empowering India
to me, therefore, means growing millions of Bhaves, who will inspire young Indian
kids.

I was teaching and researching in England in the early Seventies. Indira Gandhi was
the Prime Minister. The news of Nobel Laureate Khorana not getting a job in India
had done rounds. She asked the then Director General of CSIR, Dr Nayudamma, to go
abroad, pick up the brightest and the best and offer them jobs on the spot.

Nayudamma came to London in 1974. He met me, among others. He offered me a position
at NCL in Pune. There was no application, no formal interview, no bureaucratic
hurdles. I came back to India, thanks to a science leader, who was trusted and
empowered by a Prime Minister.

India cannot be truly empowered until the best of its talent stays in India and
contributes. Why does talent leave India? An Italian Nobel Laureate, Riardo
Giacconi, who settled in the US said, ''A scientist is like a painter. Michelangelo
became a great artist, because he had been given a wall to paint. My wall was given
to me by the United States.'' To empower scientists, it is necessary give them a
wall to paint.

This year, I became only the eighth scientist from India to be elected to the US
National Academy of Science since 1863. After the Nobel prize, this is one of the
highest honours. Every scientist aspires for it. The honour came to me this year
because a visionary CSIR leadership had empowered a young Mashelkar by giving him
his wall to paint thirty years ago.

My lessons from my life are simple. A society, that gives an opportunity for
education to everyone, that has inspiring teachers, that has philanthropic
industrialists, that has visionary leaders in all walks of life and that gives the
talent every opportunity to reach its real potential becomes truly empowered.

(Thanks, Dr Arul & Dr C Gunanathan,
The Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel for this empowering message!)

Thursday, October 20, 2005

Serious Business!

The members of the "Bloggers of Bangalore" community would like to bring to the attention of the media and society at large, certain unfair and intimidatory actions undertaken by the Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM) against members of the Indian blogging community.

In June 2005, JAM, a popular youth magazine published out of Mumbai, ran a story on IIPM titled 'The Truth about IIPM's Tall Claims' pointing out blatant exaggerations in the institute's claims about infrastructure, courses, affiliations and placements. For instance, the magazine article pointed out how IIPM continues to use certain rankings conferred upon it AFTER those rankings have been withdrawn by the bodies conferring them.
The magazine ran an ethically researched investigative story on IIPM, revealing what was a marketing fraud by the college.

Alongside, the editor of JAM magazine and a former student of Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad, who is also a blogger, published the same on her personal blog. In August 2005, blogger Gaurav Sabnis, another Mumbai-based blogger, posted about this on his own blog, linking to JAM's original story. Soon after this, he received an e-mail from the IIPM legal department threatening to sue him for a huge sum of money unless he withdrew his comments. Simultaneously, he was also pressurised by IIPM through his employers, a global hardware manufacturer. Rather than put his employers in a tight spot, Sabnis decided to quit his job.

The mainstream media has picked up on this issue and the stories are available at the links provided below.

Hindustan Times
Indian Express
DNA
NDTV
Business Standard
MSNBC


This issue has created a furore in the blogosphere in India as well as internationally. The strength of blogging as a force to reckon with has previously been seen in the co-ordination or relief efforts in the Tsunami crisis and the Mumbai rains at Mumbai Help and Cloudburst Mumbai.

For detailed information on the bloggers vs IIPM issue, please visit Desipundit for chronological updates on the controversy.

The purpose of this petition is to express solidarity with the bloggers who have suffered threats and abuse at the hands of IIPM and also to draw attention to the original issues at the heart of the JAM story on IIPM.

If you believe that journalists and the media should be free to inform the public of false advertisement which directly or indirectly affects their lives;
If you believe education should not be reduced to a marketable commodity;
If you believe that blogging is a powerful supplement to traditional media;
If you believe that bloggers should be entitled to individual opinions as also their own online space for airing and discussing these opinions;

If you believe in standing up for your rights; as an active member of society, as a blogger, as a citizen with the right to know

Please show your support to this cause.


Sincerely,
The Undersigned



Sign the Petition here!

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Ah Ha!!

You Should Get a MBA (Masters of Business Administration)

You're a self starter with a drive for success.
You'd make a great entrepreneur.

Key to my Heart or what ?!!

The Keys to Your Heart
You are attracted to those who have a split personality - cold as ice on the outside but hot as fire in the heart.
In love, you feel the most alive when your lover is creative and never lets you feel bored.
You'd like to your lover to think you are stylish and alluring.
You would be forced to break up with someone who was emotional, moody, and difficult to please.
Your ideal relationship is open. Both of you can talk about everything... no secrets.
Your risk of cheating is zero. You care about society and morality. You would never break a commitment.
You think of marriage as something precious. You'll treasure marriage and treat it as sacred.
In this moment, you think of love as something you can get or discard anytime. You're feeling self centered.

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

prove us wrong iipm...

[Disclaimers/Disclosures:
whatever written in this space is my own responsibility..
I have a couple of relatives who studied/studying from IIPM. And I studied from an IIM. ]

i dont want to spend much of my time on an institute like iipm.. suffice to say that if it is even worth a wee bit, it should tender an unconditional apology, taking responsibility for its own behaviour and that of its students. but then, knowing iipm well, i am just asking for too much.

my 2 paisa of facts here...

-students who get into IIPM are those who havent got into an IIM or one of the other top A tier institutes (this is plain vanilla.. ask any serious MBA aspirant)

-IIPM extracts lakhs of money as course fees

-IIPM does not give 'free' laptops to its students

-IIPM students have an optional international industrial tour/training. and the students who opt for it have to shell out tens of thousands of rupees. And they just visit some cities and a few company plants (like one's school industrial visits), basically having fun outside, usually europe.

-Arindham Chaudhari got his own degree (and gold medal?) from the very institute his father started.

-IIPM carries quarter page Ads in the Times of India and Economic Times during the student admission season. (And you know the lakhs of rupees it costs for such an Ad) (yesterday, it ran a full page Ad!)

-students give a lot of presentations in formal attire.. blazers et al

-And the exceptional students get a decent job.. one of my relatives, he topped last year at IIPM mumbai and he got a job with the Essar group for some 4lacs. Last heard, long after their course completed, many of his batchmates were still looking out for a job (read.. any job. that is after many many joining some door-to-door sales job or as a teaching faculty in still shadier colleges)

to read the whole drama, check these links
youth curry
A question of principles
blog war redux
Abhi shakes

Bhaskar

Sunday, October 09, 2005

Future Tense?!

no.. I am in a state of confusion... not much of a shock or tenson yet. (see the pun? then, you are a tamilian ;) It has been just about 90 odd and even pages into 'Future Shock' by Alvin Toffler.

I am a bit amazed to know that I have been a li'l ahead of my times, and that there are other millions way ahead of me. More than that, a lot of things about myself have started making sense..like my interest in traveling and the uneasy gloom when i am tied down to a physical place.

But above all, it is the overpowering and sheer amazement that somebody could think of the future so clearly and concisely, sometime in the late 70s.. just about the time I was born!
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The Tryst with The God

Notwithstanding the rains, the hunger pangs and the shivers, me and my cousin went to meet the God live in all his glory. And what an experience it was!!

An unforgettable day.. And what a fitting finale... 'Maa Tujhe Salaam' and the heavy downpour blasted off on its way after its 3.5 hour break.

(For the benefit of the global audience, I went to see the AR Rahman perform at the palace grounds, bangalore ;)
---------------------------------

And people say.. beauty is divine.

guess who I saw at the palace grounds? someone I consider the most beautiful person I have ever 'known'. She was wearing a white shawl over a snow-white tshirt.. with her characteristic hair-do and the little strand (or whatever you call it) with the distinct curl over her forehead.. (and her hubby towing along! )
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Its been 5 days since I visited my own blog.. never happened earlier.. anyways, there is always a first time!
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Raj.. coming to your tag..

The rules are:
1. Go into your archive.
2. Find your 23rd post.
3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to).
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.
5. Tag 5 other people to do the same.

So the 5th line of the 23rd post of mine is:
"This particular poem is quite unlike my other ventures...."

(This post was actually a Krazy poem by one of my friends. To read it, click here!

And now, I tag:
anyone and everyone who reads this post. feel free to leave your links on the comments :)

Monday, October 03, 2005

kick ass

everytime we have a QBR (quaterly business review), i am more charged at my work than ever before. one thing that is particularly special is the presence of my boss's boss's boss - an amazingly energetic and charged-up guy who just oozes with enthusiasm. everybody.. everybody without an exception, is left with the conviction and power at the end of the day and ready to tackle the coming quarter.
and to add to that, a couple of special mentions in my boss's and boss's boss's presentations made my day!

you (yes, you).. if not for anything else.. just to have the access to a 'kick ass' team like ours, you should do your MBA.

Bhaskar

Eternal Life!

Javeda Zindagi  I love this song from the movie, Anwar... just melts my heart every time I hear it. (Courtesy: musicmania from ...