A few days back I experienced one of the darkest days of my life ! At the same time, it has given me another dose of new resolve. No incident in life is bigger than life itself. I have always held the belief that at no point of time in life can you reach a point of no return ! Life is just too beautiful and too full of possibilities to give up on. Also today I have realised that modernity of thoughts and the steel in resolve is not in plunging yourself into the extremes of freedom but to hold your own; be aware of your vicinity and the people who constitute it; and act in common interests.
I can say unambiguously that 3-4 years ago I was naive -> completely naive. Today I have climbed one more run in the ladder to maturity. I have realized that I have taken birth and have been brought up in a society which requires sacrifice; I am part of a culture which considers parents as a manifestation of God in flesh and bone; I have discovered it is not quite impossible for kids to grow up and forget the same parents who give birth to them and treat them to the best of their capabilities;
Today I have seen a man, a woman, a girl crying for one of theirs-> Today I have witnessed the Betryal of Blood.
7.21.2007
Service to rate a service - What say ?
"Is there anything that you expect in terms of services and you are not getting", this was pretty much the question that I was asked by my friend today. At first it seemed really vague and I was ashamed too for sometime; considering I was totally blank. My mind was tempted to wander and discuss that larger implications of this vacuous feeling; but I knew too much of "thinking blog style "is bad :-).
Anyway so I did dig up some genuine answers but I knew this question was more rhetorical so basically I was supposed to ask my friend "Have you expected something in terms of services and found yourself wanting"; that was the cue and he put forth the idea that was fermenting in his mind.
According to him; there was a lack of some kind of service which rates the services. e.g. he went to a hospital and was fleeced not because they charged him a lot, which they actually did, but because the service was not commensurate with the money he was charged. To come to the larger point, let us say a newcomer to Hyderabad wants to buy a TV to kill boredom in his new rented flat. Is there an offering in any media - print, tv, mobile, web - which can inform him on the electronic stores in this neighborhood; quality of after sales service, discounts/freebies if any, hidden costs etc. Once the TV is in or before that, our new guy in town wants to eat, obviously. Now he just wants food which does not have the usual ills of hotel food - spices, oil being the usual suspects- can he just access this service and put in a few key parameters which balance exhaustiveness and informativeness. Categories have sub categories. A lot of options but minimum clutter. Do we have a service offering of this sort currently. There is something called MetroMela which I myself have not checked out much but which, I think, intends to do what I am talking about.
This idea sounds to simple to have remained unexploited so long, but I cannot recall any such service available in India, currently. Do comment and let me know, if such services do exist.
Anyway so I did dig up some genuine answers but I knew this question was more rhetorical so basically I was supposed to ask my friend "Have you expected something in terms of services and found yourself wanting"; that was the cue and he put forth the idea that was fermenting in his mind.
According to him; there was a lack of some kind of service which rates the services. e.g. he went to a hospital and was fleeced not because they charged him a lot, which they actually did, but because the service was not commensurate with the money he was charged. To come to the larger point, let us say a newcomer to Hyderabad wants to buy a TV to kill boredom in his new rented flat. Is there an offering in any media - print, tv, mobile, web - which can inform him on the electronic stores in this neighborhood; quality of after sales service, discounts/freebies if any, hidden costs etc. Once the TV is in or before that, our new guy in town wants to eat, obviously. Now he just wants food which does not have the usual ills of hotel food - spices, oil being the usual suspects- can he just access this service and put in a few key parameters which balance exhaustiveness and informativeness. Categories have sub categories. A lot of options but minimum clutter. Do we have a service offering of this sort currently. There is something called MetroMela which I myself have not checked out much but which, I think, intends to do what I am talking about.
This idea sounds to simple to have remained unexploited so long, but I cannot recall any such service available in India, currently. Do comment and let me know, if such services do exist.
अपना अपना Solitary Cell
Watched हज़ार चौरासी की माँ । A movie by Govind Nihalani with the 1970s Naxal 'awakening', which started with Naxalbari, as a backdrop. An art movie in the true sense. If you are looking for the nouveau genre of movies with an art-bend, well you are in for a huge disappointment. In my opinion one cannot take this movie in while watching it. I think one just watches it and then the movie works in the back of your mind. Do not expect to finish the movie with a refreshing moral in the end; not because there is none ( Also I am not saying "there is" one); but trying to rush to a lesson will only put you in the category of the other so called masses looking for serious cinema.
So my thought - Watch the movie and just let is work !!
So my thought - Watch the movie and just let is work !!
7.17.2007
Denial of Education is a crime
All this talk about India Shining, - God, I just cannot stop using this phrase ever since I discovered that it represents not an exultation of arrival, but a Pandora's box of glaring paradoxes kept in wraps - has really not taken into account the people below the detection range of our politicians and economists' radars.
It is high time that the governments, at the centre and states, took serious note of its primary responsibilities apart from the usual toppling of state governments and paying lip service to lofty ideals.
Education starting from the primary level right upto the research - it cannot be the prerogative of the select group of people who can afford it; education is a necessity and hence automatically translates to a fundamental right; but with education I do not necessarily mean the pedagogy which leads to IT jobs et al
A good holitistic education till 12th gives a person enough perspective to decide how he/she wants to chart his/her future course.
Parents -majorly, though not entirely - from the poor class, give birth to a dangerously large number of kids in their quest for the male child or to ensure enough helping hands or even due to sheet ignorance of simple tenets of family planning. Ironically, women in lower castes, who work for a living as maids, labourers; get paid lesser than their male counterparts; they are expected to act as reproductive machines.
Government should formulate a carrot and stick policy, when it takes up the responsibility of the youngsters' education in partnership with their parents' Government alone cannot and should not be held responsible for the irresponsible whims and ignorance of parents' and neither should it shirk from its duty to provide a minimum level of education to all its citizens.
It is fortunate as well as unfortunate that many ills in India are connected intricately. Unfortunate because it can be really overwhelming esp with a large swathe of our polity experienced only in vote bank politics; Fortunate because even one good push can roll the rock down the hill; on its way down it will collect other rocks and before we know a huge boulder of the ill plaguing our country will plunge into the deep sea, for good.
It is high time that the governments, at the centre and states, took serious note of its primary responsibilities apart from the usual toppling of state governments and paying lip service to lofty ideals.
Education starting from the primary level right upto the research - it cannot be the prerogative of the select group of people who can afford it; education is a necessity and hence automatically translates to a fundamental right; but with education I do not necessarily mean the pedagogy which leads to IT jobs et al
A good holitistic education till 12th gives a person enough perspective to decide how he/she wants to chart his/her future course.
Parents -majorly, though not entirely - from the poor class, give birth to a dangerously large number of kids in their quest for the male child or to ensure enough helping hands or even due to sheet ignorance of simple tenets of family planning. Ironically, women in lower castes, who work for a living as maids, labourers; get paid lesser than their male counterparts; they are expected to act as reproductive machines.
Government should formulate a carrot and stick policy, when it takes up the responsibility of the youngsters' education in partnership with their parents' Government alone cannot and should not be held responsible for the irresponsible whims and ignorance of parents' and neither should it shirk from its duty to provide a minimum level of education to all its citizens.
It is fortunate as well as unfortunate that many ills in India are connected intricately. Unfortunate because it can be really overwhelming esp with a large swathe of our polity experienced only in vote bank politics; Fortunate because even one good push can roll the rock down the hill; on its way down it will collect other rocks and before we know a huge boulder of the ill plaguing our country will plunge into the deep sea, for good.
Only you can help form your opinion.
I was reading this article in Hindu
Robert Jenson's visit to Pakistan for some official work coincided with the hold up of Lal Masjid.
That and his company with two learned people helped him get the other side of the story, a story which unless dug for does not show itself.
The Lal Masjid issue is something of its own; but in this article I see a greater malaise afflicting the media as such and a vulnerability that the masses are facing.
I used to read on politicians owning newspapers and other media and the thinkers worrying about their ability to mould the opinion of the masses. I always thought "Cmon, we cannot be so naive, as to know who owns this newspaper or channel and not be aware of the propaganda being floated around on them". But a few incidents have indeed cleared my apprehensions. The most quoted being, "Iraq holding WMDs". It was never true but at the time when the American President was shouting war cries, with Tony Blair in tow, all of the media took the claims of the President to be true, except for a few, Washington Post being one of them (if I am not mistaken).
Similarly, in the case of Lal Masjid. Not discounting the extremist angle, it does help to have a look at the other aspects too.
Another example is the case of fake encounters. Even though I am ambivalent when it comes to human rights of hardened criminals, I do not support the killing of innocent people. With the state machinery in the hands of the politicians, it is their idiosyncrasy, as to who should be branded a terrorist and who should be given a ticket for the election.
My lesson, anything that you read; use them to form a perspective not an opinion.
Only you can help form your opinion.
Robert Jenson's visit to Pakistan for some official work coincided with the hold up of Lal Masjid.
That and his company with two learned people helped him get the other side of the story, a story which unless dug for does not show itself.
The Lal Masjid issue is something of its own; but in this article I see a greater malaise afflicting the media as such and a vulnerability that the masses are facing.
I used to read on politicians owning newspapers and other media and the thinkers worrying about their ability to mould the opinion of the masses. I always thought "Cmon, we cannot be so naive, as to know who owns this newspaper or channel and not be aware of the propaganda being floated around on them". But a few incidents have indeed cleared my apprehensions. The most quoted being, "Iraq holding WMDs". It was never true but at the time when the American President was shouting war cries, with Tony Blair in tow, all of the media took the claims of the President to be true, except for a few, Washington Post being one of them (if I am not mistaken).
Similarly, in the case of Lal Masjid. Not discounting the extremist angle, it does help to have a look at the other aspects too.
Another example is the case of fake encounters. Even though I am ambivalent when it comes to human rights of hardened criminals, I do not support the killing of innocent people. With the state machinery in the hands of the politicians, it is their idiosyncrasy, as to who should be branded a terrorist and who should be given a ticket for the election.
My lesson, anything that you read; use them to form a perspective not an opinion.
Only you can help form your opinion.
7.04.2007
MVI- Scorching the surface of Human mindlessness
Mal Visarjan Interviewing --मल वीसर्जन इन्तेर्विएव
Next Gen Interview Methodology
Move over 360 degree evaluation and "36 ways to scrore in that interview", move in MVI. This cutting edge interview methodology has everyone swooning and going gaga. HR personnel swear by its ability to shorten interview time spans and the interviewees see this as a magic pill that can help them kick, rather bloody, any ass in any interview. This path breaking discovery was stumbled upon by serial orator SN during one his sojourns in his deep thoughts.
People close to SN have given details on this currently-under-wraps methodology on strict conditions of anonymity. One of his co-workers was so highly impressed with the simple yet razor sharp method that he vowed to incorporate it in his next job interview or appraisal interview, whichever comes first.
A sneak peek into this methodology. Please remember that you have read this first here in PJ times - always striving to bring the state of the art and top of the line research into personality related (dis)orders. Getting down to MVI, SN has drawn parallel with the perennial act of the human body getting rid of unwanted stuff from the body. There is a sub class to the defecating process called Mal Visarjan. This involves the dumping of Mal (different from Maal which is another word for Mal) in a gushing manner. The process does not involve energy consumption from outside the system; which means an effortless disposal of garbage. Another sine qua non for Mal Visarjan is that at the end of the process, the system should have Zero mass. The closest analogy to this MV can be the well known phenomenon of Impulse in Physics; wherein a considerable amount of force is used on a body for a short amount of time. There are some process improvements suggested like the precise placement of the unwanted material in the water hole. This ensures that a successful implmentation of MVI princeple will flush the person into the company mainstream with minimum time lag.
MVI comes as another example of exemplary intellectual capabilites displayed by Indians right from Aryabhatta to Abul Kalam and now SN. A matter of pride for Indians, indeed.
Next Gen Interview Methodology
Move over 360 degree evaluation and "36 ways to scrore in that interview", move in MVI. This cutting edge interview methodology has everyone swooning and going gaga. HR personnel swear by its ability to shorten interview time spans and the interviewees see this as a magic pill that can help them kick, rather bloody, any ass in any interview. This path breaking discovery was stumbled upon by serial orator SN during one his sojourns in his deep thoughts.
People close to SN have given details on this currently-under-wraps methodology on strict conditions of anonymity. One of his co-workers was so highly impressed with the simple yet razor sharp method that he vowed to incorporate it in his next job interview or appraisal interview, whichever comes first.
A sneak peek into this methodology. Please remember that you have read this first here in PJ times - always striving to bring the state of the art and top of the line research into personality related (dis)orders. Getting down to MVI, SN has drawn parallel with the perennial act of the human body getting rid of unwanted stuff from the body. There is a sub class to the defecating process called Mal Visarjan. This involves the dumping of Mal (different from Maal which is another word for Mal) in a gushing manner. The process does not involve energy consumption from outside the system; which means an effortless disposal of garbage. Another sine qua non for Mal Visarjan is that at the end of the process, the system should have Zero mass. The closest analogy to this MV can be the well known phenomenon of Impulse in Physics; wherein a considerable amount of force is used on a body for a short amount of time. There are some process improvements suggested like the precise placement of the unwanted material in the water hole. This ensures that a successful implmentation of MVI princeple will flush the person into the company mainstream with minimum time lag.
MVI comes as another example of exemplary intellectual capabilites displayed by Indians right from Aryabhatta to Abul Kalam and now SN. A matter of pride for Indians, indeed.
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