Jumping from Flame to Fire

The poignant death of Soumya, a 23 year old woman passenger on her way back from work on a train in Kerala following gruesome rape by a co-passenger has kept tongues wagging all over the country, cutting across different strata of the society. Politicians, Woman’s organizations and a surfeit of other commentators were hammer and tongs in condemning the Railway authorities for the lackadaisical attitude for not being empathetic to the woman clan’s concerns. Hang on. Legitimacy though they have, should the attitude of our society and the ethos we exercise be over looked?

India has always been in the head wind in the empowerment of woman and leading them to the forefront of the society. Kudos to the state of Kerala in keeping up this tradition and offering itself as a model for other states. The recently concluded local body elections in the state witnessed woman being reserved for half the pie of the total seats and positions. However, it is a paradox that events like the one mentioned above materialise in the same society which is being often hailed for its high literacy rate.

The Kerala society has always stereotyped the values to be upheld by woman. Giant leap though they have when it comes to woman participating in decision making or the rate of pantry savvy moms giving way to career woman, there has not been much of a change when it comes with the values they espouse.

A woman who travel late night is looked with an eye of suspicion, a woman who shares a seat with a man on a bus is labelled as libidinal, a woman who ride as a pillion on a male colleague or friend seems to break the value thread etc are only the tip of an iceberg of typecasts of air the society has been breathing.

The aforesaid brandings have a different version during its early genesis. We have twin rows in school assembly lines, class room seating arrangements, places of worships, marriage halls, et al for the twin sexes which is the harbinger of the slew of segregations to follow in life. This creates a dictum that women are a different genre of human beings and there is something elusive when they are kept at a distance.

Not long ago, the attainment of puberty for a girl was celebrated with splendour and dazzle in the society. Following her announcement to womanhood, she is contained from interacting freely with her classmates, friends or compatriots next door from the opposite sex. When parents and elders hamper her freedom reflecting the moral values she would uphold in her future life, what they quintessentially do is sow the seeds of segregation from the society and invites hostility, from the opposite gender.

Ultimately what matters is explicable with a cause and effect paradigm. Due to the shackles of moral policing, women are compelled to exercise pseudo morality gimmicks. Though she may feel safer to be in the company of strange male co-passengers in a general compartment, she is impelled to board a LADIES ONLY compartment to duck her being condemned as an aberrant. The situation greeting her there could be not one of security and protection, but of peril and risks. (As a case in point, consider Soumya’s fate when she was the lone passenger in the ladies compartment of the fateful train on that ill ordained day). In this route, what she is doing is nothing but jumping from a fire that could warm her personality and integrity to a fire that could eventually become an inferno which could catapult her nemesis.

Who is to be blamed here? Is it Railways for not stationing guards or our social beliefs and ethos that garrison our grey cells?

A Year After

In at one ear, out at another. this seems to be Indian Government's policy with regard to addressing terrorism. After all, it has been more than a year since the formidable attacks in Mumbai rocked the nation. The shrill of slain men and woman in the Nariman House, Taj hotel and CST still make remnant reflexes in our senses. But what has happened since the D-day? Even after the mourning and half mast flags which lasted for a fortnight, or the candles that lit Mumbai's busy nightlife or even the Studio talk shows by electronic media?

Just at the expense of an extradition treaty, a 21 year old lad (I reckon, we have finalised on his age after a horrendous hullaballo that he was minor), Ajmal Ahmed Kasab awaits his trial and sentence in a Mumbai jail, when the neighbour across deems him an absconding criminal. Doesn't it gives goosebumps when the reality outweighs the rhetoric? Adding insult to the injury, Shiv sainiks and Maratha warriors launch "rage attacks" on the attorney who hails for the convict, thus making more impediments for a faster trial in India. National security and patriotism wins here?, Prerogative, No!!!

Did the media vanish into thin air for the next one year after the event? The TV anchors and journalists who bloviated on the sad plight of the slain men and women were in their pregnant silence mode till the eve of the first anniversary of the "Big Event" . Cutting across bias lines, the total fraternity were quick to step uto the plate to reap pecuniary benefits by reliving the past events during prime time shows. Doesn't it really question the integrity, commitment and obligation of media in acting towards morale, germane causes.

Remember the promises that were made after the fiasco? Excellent security measures in Railway stations, spycams in crowded areas and squares, new machinary for cops, better vehichles and facilities for security agencies, ID cards for Fisherfolk, the list is on and on!! But, as expected, it still remains quixotic reveries as with our government!! Two months after the event, I had a chance to visit Mumbai's CST station which crawled into attention with the rapid killings and Sebastian D'Souza's snaps of Kasab's demoniac victory march!! Guess what? I was not told by the cops to pass through the metal detectors present. They were busy relishing on their evening tea in the midst of a freewheeling chat about the recent Bolllywood fick!! Would stricter weapons or facilities make a better force if the frivolous attitudes of our Law enforces stayput?

Personally speaking , the sole loser in the endgame remains Shivraj Patil. The poor chap was the scapegoat for Manmohan Singh and his government. Hadn't Patil been enforced a resignation, the opposition would have clamoured for Manmohan's head. The prudent and proactive Congress brains (Of course there are still good ones among the harebrained ones in the party) saved him and let the storm blow over.
But a million dollar question still remains. When will Indian governments study the difference between action and reaction, prudence and hindsight, introspection and retrospection? Well, no idea!

But one thing is for sure.
They would continue to play Russian Roulette with the security and national integrity!!!!!!

Sucker Punches!!!

Journeys are often learning experiences. Train journeys of course top the list. Senses are so exposed and left ajar to injest anything that happens before us in a train journey. However, when this senses receive a sucker punch, its a different experience indeed, a different learning curve and a different ball game altogether.

I came rushing to the Railway station after collecting my marklists from my college, where I had a stint of 4 years studying the intricacies of Electronics and Instrumentation. I purchased my tickets. Well in India you still purchase tickets and dont fish it out!!! Whatever, its still not very important in what we are discussing. However, there was a girl who asked me whether I knew which platform the train was expected. I said "1st obviously", though the reason for me doing was ulterior. The lady seemed to be a spinster in her early 20s.

Clambering to the train, the first thing I sought was a conversion of my open ticket to a AC 2 tier. However, it proved abortive. Even the lady was not spared. She too failed in it even with her coquettish looks at the TTE. Here is a lesson, no rather a question. Why do girls often be kittenish with their tone of speech, looks and behaviour when they need to get something in their favour?

The compartment was jampacked and somehow I managed a seat. The lady sat infront of me facing me. What intrigued was her response to the gentleman who gave her the seat. Literally, right after the moment he helped her with her seats, she in fact made a 180 degree somersault in her approach towards him. She ceased to look at him even, though she was busy pleasing him with her kittenishness before. I reckon, the gentleman turned "sheepish" when the "kittenish" stopped!!!! Well, wasn't it a learning point in a Sucker Punch?

Corporates are using brainstorming sessions to nail down the market wars and woo their customers. They fight really hard to sell their brand equity. Well if they have one, fine. If not, tough luck babies. Brainstorm and bean count. You may prove yourself. However, there was one exemplary show by someone in the compartent, which the corporates could ape. It came from a lame derelict. He was amputated in his right hand and had it really cast off. He had plasters on his amputated parts and a yellow patch of medicine, I rechkon Tingere Iodine stains accesorising it. He must have had a bad hair day, when he lost his limb, I guessed. But here is the punch.. He came with currency notes of 10s and 100s(I m not sure whether he had even showcased higher denominations). To my surprise, most of the passengers were seen opening their billfolds to deliver him with currency notes rather than loose changes. I too followed suit, since I thought loose chane wont be the best bet he would get.

But then came the Sucker punch. A gentleman who had borrowed Chethan Bhagath's "Two States " from me came running to me from the other side of the compartment. He quipped me I had executed a bad decision. I scowled. But he was right. Absolutely, when the story was retold. He knew the derelict who had wooed the passengers. Indeed he had talked with him. The derelict, as per the gentleman, belonged to Cochin. His daily collection from the trains reach beyond 2000 Indian rupees. And the way he spends it gave me an inferno in my stomach.. He bingedrinks, dine in good hotels and the rest of the peanuts are given as loans for high interests.Well, Wasnt it the "SUCKEREST Punch"?

I sat there speechless, studying the floor. By the time, I regained my nerve to catch the derelict by heels, he was out of horizon!!!!!!

It gave me goosebumps

What a rhetoric. Must read!!!

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him;
The evil that men do lives after them,
The good is oft interred with their bones,
So let it be with Caesar ... The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answered it ...
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest,
(For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all; all honourable men)
Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral ...
He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
But Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man….
He hath brought many captives home to Rome,
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
You all did see that on the Lupercal
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And, sure, he is an honourable man.
I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once, not without cause:
What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?
O judgement! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason…. Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.

It happens only in India

WE THE PEOPLE OF INDIA having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and to secure to all its citizens:

JUSTICE social , economic , and political;

LIBERTY of thought , expression, belief,faith and worship;

EQUALITY of status and of opportunity and to promote among them all;

FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation;

IN THIS CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY this twenty-sixth day of November,1949 do HEREBY ADOPT ENACT AND GIVE TO OURSELVES THIS CONSTITUTION

In hindsight when we look back at the very genesis of our constitution and the preamble, is it not time ripe that we inflicted a change in it? Where in INDIA can you find justice ,be it social,economical or political??? when the judiciary, who is the custodian of citizens rights even is wobbling in the dirty hands of illicit politicians and bootlegged money, when and where can you redeem justice???


When THE RIGHT TO INFORMATION ACT is still in its infancy can anyone be sanguine about the right to expression??? When some wrondoing by the court is being pointed and that in itself becomes contempt of court where in india can one think of freedom of expression???

Equality of status and opportunity finds place only in Electoral tours and gimmick speeches of our Political fraternity. Sadly, this brethren do not even move a finger to bring fraternity to assure the dignity of our fellow citizens, nor do they uphold the integrity of the nation as a whole. Rather, their endeavours could dig a hole on the motherland out of nowhere.

Our motherland is no longer secular. Outbreaks of fanatic wars are not beynd distant horizon. After all this is a country where "Trishuls" were distributed cutting across all racial, political and gender lines for that matter.

Yes, of coutrse we are sovereign, but only to capsize in the big ocean of developed flagships led by America. If a US Air carrier could humilitate a past president in his own turf by frisking him unto the worst, Yes definitely we are sovereign!!!!!!!

Though Rahul Gandhi's gospels about reverting the hot money in Swiss banks has evoked a loud applause, why is the clarion call just restricted to voice and not action. Wouldn't this money alleviate the wicklow status of millions of our citizens? Couldn't purchasing power bringforth better facilities to the social, economic, political and judicial equality of India?

As with him, its all better said than done!!!!!!

It happens only in India

Yes, we have a preamble, the nutshel of our constitution, which in itself is a misnomer. Better that we don't delve into the constitution itself!!!!! :D

Thirakkadha.....A remarkable movie

Not every movie touches us in the way the Malayalam movie “Thirakkadha” by Renjith does. In the present scenario where the industrial think tanks sanctimoniously lecture the death of good movies, this film dazzles them with its splendour. Set on the lines of the mid 80s, the storyboard meanders through investigation, suspense, love, friendship, hope, misunderstandings and much more.

I usually watch movies to get relaxed., as do everyone of you. In most occasions, the scenes and melodrama of these movies slip into oblivion hours after you get out of the movie hall. At times, you seem to remember some scenes from some good movies. But very rarely does it happen that, a movie, and its central characters haunt you. You feel as if they are tethered to you by some preternatural bondage.

The Director Renjith has purposefully given an element of doubt regarding the castings. The hero, Ajayan is projected as a talented actor who came to cinema industry through his first film in the role of a villain. The contemporary viewer then gets an impression that the cast is made as if to tell the story of Mohanlal, who came to Malayalam cinema in 1978 and then went onto become the unquestioned emperor of Malayalam movie industry.

However, there is another instance in the fag end of the film, where a movie poster projecting the hero as a police officer is seen. Here the name of the movie has been purposefully set as “Rudhiram”, in line with a contemporary Mammooty flop, “Raudhram”. The pose and stature of the hero has also been set on the heels of the Mammooty film.

It was a serendipity that I walked into this movie among a cluster of other movies in the multiplex. However it reaped dividends for the bucks I spend. The story of Ajayan and Malavika is truly the “one of its kind” in the cinema culture. I had always believed that the first girl in a person’s life would never get away from his thoughts or perceptions. The psyche of a man will always be behind the wonderful days they had together. It was as if this axiom of mine was cemented in this movie.

The mood of the film changes every now and then. Also impressive is the multidisciplinary first person narrative of the storyboard. The narration changes from person to person when the cue changes. This gives an impression to the viewers that the subject is treated in different angles. The kaleidoscope through which everybody sees a series of happenings is different and diverse. Everyone had a reason to think that what they thought and did was legitimate, but only prior to knowing the facts and truths at the later part of the film.

The different love story portrayed on the canvas is a thrill to the eyes and music to the ears. The Director has sought earnest efforts to recapitulate the sets and locations resembling 2 decades back. In fact he has made significant inroads into it, lest for the poor selection of attire for the heroine in certain scenes.

The movie is an apt predictor of humanism winning over lucrative visions. It tells the bondage of people, how a character influences and impacts an aspiring young director. It’s a must see movie for all people, in all walks of life. But one thing for sure, the spectators would only come out of their movie halls, with their eyes wet!!!!!!

The operative line of the story as far as I was concerned is that Love never fails. It was due to this that the final death wish of the heroine too is materialised, though both the lovers were separated for a long time. The film culminates with an open-ended climax with the option left for the viewers, and that liberty of choice gets you into a Gordian knot.

Happy watching!!!!

HUMAN STORY BEYOND HEAD LINES

my dear readers...

This is a cover story i read in THE HINDU AUGUST 16,2006 ISSUE in lieu with the war clouds in west asiaThis is a page torn out from the annals of humanlife in tru flesh and blood.. and is not a cooked up story...DO READ THIS AND FEEL HOW BAD THIS WORLD IS........

THIS STORY TOUCHED ME A LOT THAT AFTER READING THIS I COULD NOT EVEN CONCENTRATE ON MY STUDIES....


Human story behind the headlines
Clancy Chassay

A week ago the body of a woman clutching a baby was found in a bombed apartment block in Beirut; the image was printed across the world. By tracking down the surviving members of her family, this reporter has managed to piece together her life — and how she died with her three children and husband by her side.
ON AUGUST 10, the London-based Guardian ran a front-page photograph of a dead woman and baby buried in the rubble of Beirut. I have seen many dead people in Lebanon these past weeks, but there was something particularly painful about this picture, amid the endless stream of upsetting images: the baby was very new, very small, and he or she — it was not obvious which — lay dead in the arms of what must surely have been its mother. All that could really be seen of the woman was one battered hand, adorned with a wedding ring, clutching the baby tight. Crouched in the rubble, the two were grey with dust, wrapped up in each other's arms, frozen together in the moment of death.
Who was she, the woman in the rubble? What sort of life — and death — did she have? On August 12, I went into the wrecked suburbs of the neighbourhood of Shiyyah to try to piece together what I could about her life.
I had visited the site of the blast on the night of August 7 that the woman was killed. A five-storey apartment block had been destroyed by two Israeli missiles, fired from F15 warplanes around 8 p.m. Buildings on either side had been ripped apart. I arrived on the scene to find a mass of silhouetted bodies scrambling around in the smoky darkness, the tops of their heads lit up by lights from the torn-open living rooms of neighbouring apartments. There were shouts for quiet among the barrage of voices, as people struggled to listen for the calls of survivors trapped beneath the rubble.
Where to start looking, in such chaos? I had been told that, in all, 12 members of the Wehbe family had died in the blast, and I contacted the security authorities in the area to see if they knew anything about the woman in the photograph. They suggested I try survivors in the Mount Lebanon hospital; on my way there I called on a friend, Hassan, who lived in Shiyyah and whose family name was also Wehbe. He was not in his DVD shop, but his father, Abu Hassan, was sitting where he always sits, behind the counter of his modest clothes shop, annexed to his son's. I asked if he had known the Wehbes who were killed in the attack. "Of course," he said. "They were cousins."
Abu Hassan took me to the door and pointed down the narrow empty back street to a house less than 100 metres away. "That is where [the family] are staying now," he said. At that point a young girl walked up. Her name was Khadeeja Wehbe; she was the dead woman's niece, she said. She told me that her aunt's name was Selwa. Khadeeja took me to her house and, after some delays, introduced me to her family. I was shown into a small courtyard. Chairs were brought out and relatives of Selwa's husband, Ali, came out to greet me. Ali's brother, Abbas, sat with his sister, Hala, and Hala's daughters, Khadeeja, 22, Fatmeh, 21, and Amal, 19. They were warm and hospitable, despite their grief.
These people told me that Selwa Wehbe was 28 when she was killed. She died alongside her husband, Ali, their 13-day-old daughter, Waad, and their two sons, seven-year-old Hussein, and nine-year-old Hassan. What could not be seen in that photo on The Guardian's front page was that the two boys died clinging to Selwa's body.
Selwa, they said, was born Selwa Nissar, in the southern village of Kfar Sir, just north of the Litani river, near the large town of Nabatieh. She was a softly spoken girl, they said, gentle and kind, with a great sense of humour. Kfar Sir lies along one of the streams that feed the Litani, and Selwa developed a love of swimming; she would spend hours in the river as a young girl. She was a clever girl, her family said, and studied hard at the local school in Kfar Sir, which was a small village with a single policeman.
`She was a romantic'
"She loved to joke, she was always fooling around, but she was very clever, very perceptive," said Fatmeh. "She was very down to earth and so kind." As the family talked, Fatmeh brought out drinks, first ice-cold glasses of sweet powdered orange drink, then the traditional cups of coffee. "Selwa loved the simple things in life, she was a girl of the village," she said. "But educated," added Abbas. "She was a real romantic," Fatmeh went on. "She loved to watch romantic Arab TV series; she was always so moved by their stories."
"She loved her village and the quiet life and it was difficult to leave her village to go to the local town when she married Ali," said Hala. Ali and Selwa were married, and then set up home in Harouf, where Ali was from. He was a taxi driver and general handy man. "They were perfectly alike; both loved to clown around — they were always joking together," said Hala.
"[Selwa] loved her children so much; she was so happy just being a mother," said Fatmeh. For the seven years before the conflict began, Selwa and her husband had been building a new home for themselves in Harouf. "A modest house, you understand," said Abbas. "We don't know if it is still standing."
The house was finally ready to move in to only two days before the bombing started; Selwa, meanwhile, was heavily pregnant. The baby was born in the Rhageb Harab hospital in Nabatieh (the nearest big hospital to Harouf) in the second week of the war; Waad, which means "promise," was named after Operation Waad Saadiq, or "truthful promise," the name Hizbollah had given to the operation to capture the two Israeli soldiers; the operation that appears to have triggered this conflict. (Many baby girls born since the war began have been called Waad. Boys have been named Hassan after the Hizbollah leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.)
"My brother always said that everything he had belonged to his wife," said Abbas. "I remember him telling us how they both physically built the house together. He said: `My wife is the other half of me, she even built half the house; everything we do, we do together.'"
Hala lost two of her siblings, and six nieces and nephews, in the attack, she told me. Selwa and Ali were very attached to their land, she said, and had waited till the last minute to flee from Harouf to Beirut in Ali's taxi. "They were the last people in the village to leave," she said, "They felt it was safer to stay at home than risk the roads. In the end the food ran out." So the couple and their children fled to the home in Beirut of one of Ali's brothers, who also died in the blast.
As we had been talking, a young boy had been playing in the alley along the side of the house. He ran up and was introduced: this was Abbas' seven-year-old son, Mohammed. Abbas stroked his head lovingly. The boy said "Hi" politely, and then ran back to his solitary games. He had lost his seven closest friends in the attack, the family said: his first cousins Hassan and Hussein had been like brothers to him. "All his friends have died, he doesn't haven't anyone left to play with."
The family described the last time they saw Selwa and her family. "They had come over for coffee," said Hala, "She had just brought new clothes for Waad and wanted to show them to the family." The family took pictures of the baby in her new clothes, and in the courtyard they showed me a picture of baby Waad on a mobile phone. (They did not have pictures of Selwa, they said; all the pictures of her, if not destroyed, were in Harouf, which was too dangerous to travel to.)
"We were measuring the baby," said Fatmeh. "I remember little Waad looked so beautiful, I remember saying we should take her to a professional photographer to get baby photos."
After everyone had admired the baby, Selwa wanted to get back to the house the family were staying in. She was concerned that the boys had left a mess behind them and wanted to get back to tidy up. "I remember she said to Ali, `We should go back and clean up,'" said Abbas. "I joked with him, I told him, `'Send the wife back.' Ali replied what he always said: `Where my wife goes, I go.' He would never let his family go anywhere without him. It was as if God knew this and took all of them together."
Strange atmosphere
Hala described a strange atmosphere in that last hour before the attack; an underlying gloominess as if the family had already lost loved ones. "We were excited about the baby, but everyone was feeling a bit off, there was a heavy atmosphere."
In the courtyard, we looked at the photos on the phone of baby Waad all dressed up in her new clothes, and of her two dead brothers, Hussein and Hassan, both grinning warmly. "We were all talking about the old days, how easily we used to go down to the south to visit them in Harouf," said Hala. "Selwa was always talking about how much she wanted to go back to her village. Neither of them liked Beirut much."
Twenty minutes after Selwa and her family returned to the flat they were staying in, the other Wehbes heard the blast. It shook the walls and furniture in their home. Abbas described standing in shock, staring at the demolished building.
"I couldn't make sense of what had happened, I just stood there watching the smoke and fire. Only when I came back here and turned on the television did I know what had happened. We waited till dawn then went back to the site to search with the rescue workers.
"The first thing I saw was her hand and the ring Ali gave her. I recognised the children from the clothes they were wearing — they had been at the house only a few minutes earlier."
At this point Amal quietly lowered her head into her hand and held it there.
"The rescue workers were trying to take the baby from her arms but they couldn't — it was as if they didn't want to be separated," said Abbas. "It was the same with the two boys. Hassan was gripping on to her arm, and little Hussein clutching on to her thigh. The rescue workers couldn't pull them away from their mother." —
© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

COMMITMENTS AND OBLIGATIONS OF INDIAN IT INDUSTRY IN EDUCATIONAL RESTRUCTURING

The power of delivering the superlative quality education by means of using information technology has been the linchpin of every fervent discussion in the intelligentsia. This discussion should be given much more attention in the case of a country like India where every maneuver is a stalk horse which is concealed with the very mood to soaring newer heights so as to reach the pinnacles of the world stage. Information technology with its abundant resources and bounty of services can and should become a quintessential part of our state of the art education system. Mother India has always serviced all the prerequisites needed by the Information technology industry with the timely delivery of man and material resources. Thanks to the visionary thinking of PANDIT JAWAHARLAL NEHRU in setting up IITs and IIMs which then marched on to become the best in their classes (and thereby being the envy of the world) and by the respective governments in delivering infrastructural facilities as well as tax waivers to innovative IT promotions. Now its time ripe for the industry to prove the legitimacy for all these afore said actions. Educational system recounts to be the best player the industry can feel confidence as its potential emissary.

India is a country renowned for its pluralism. Stroll through US, you see an American, in FRANCE you see a French, in DENMARK you see a Dane. But come to India you see a PUNJABI, a GUJARATHI , a TAMILIAN or a KERALITE. Distinct in culture, caste , creed, religion , language and outlook , yet bound to the same substrate of belonging to the motherland and thereby exhibiting the so called traits of UNITY IN DIVERSITY. This pluralism comes in the case of education too. Though the entire country vies for a 10+2+3 level of basic educational system, the pluralism is clearly visible in any nook and corner. The syllabi a PUNJABI studies is entirely different from the one studied and espoused by a BENGALI. The subject matter and sometimes even subjects itself take a 180 degree somersault. In different regions of the country , science subjects even are taught in regional languages and when it comes to scientific names in the link language , pupil hardly seem to know about the very word being mentioned , even though they might be masters and connoisseurs of the same piece of knowledge in their mother tongue. It is in this arena that IT can work wonders if supplemented with an adequate support and co ordination from substantiating technologies like satellites. A detailed syllabi rising up to the standards of the world stage should be shaped by means of trawling through the world of internet. This uniform syllabi based in the medium of English should be adopted as the common standard for the entire country so that everyone in the country , in spite of the tyranny of pluralism would achieve the best and equivalent form of education. The implementation of such a system, toppling the existing one is not a mean endeavor. This would require a lot of home works and preparations, which can be simplified by means of the bounty from IT’s kitty.

Another serious concern is in the case of professional education. There has been a proliferation of engineering colleges and other technical institutions in the country as a spin off due to the rapid rise of the IT industry in the country. As per industrial grapevine, of the total pool of four lakh engineers coming out in flashing colours every year from a plethora of such professional colleges, only a meager 25 percentage are employable. What is the possible hitch??? The answer yet again lies in the syllabi adopted in these sorts of colleges. For the quintessence of this discussion let us take up the paradigm of software engineers who are preferably given BE or B.TECH by all and sundry universities throughout the country. In his course of a four year long bachelors program, a scholar studies approximately 50 odd distinct topics. However the only snag here for the professional engineer with such an exposure is not that he studies so many subjects. But instead it is that not in even one of these particular subjects is he a master. The syllabi is so structured that the bachelors degree just brushes him through the surface pool of knowledge and does not vie for an in depth learning. Therefore the off springs from such colleges are pupils who are not accurately employable from the point of view of an industry. A corporate sector’s processing or R&D section which requires manpower who are fervent with their in depth knowledge in a particular domain like networking does not meet its requirements as the state of the art educational system provides just a demography which is rich in acquaintances with the field of networking and whom thus cannot be seen as assets as true as steel.

IT giants whose wallets are heavier should consider that the time opportune to act is now. Bigwigs should now embark on finishing school programs for suchlike unemployable freshers so as to provide them the adequate know how in particular domains viz networking, software testing, program coding and the like. INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES, TCS and CTS have already gone on board with such projects in leading NITs and IITs. The “PARTNERS IN LEARNING” program ensued by INFOSYS pools 1% of the company’s total turn over in this side. However such programs are still in its infancy and more big players have to join the pioneers by following their vestiges.

The clout of the brand equity of IITs and NITs has been a stumbling block for professional colleges with high standards in their vicinity contending for development. The industry just concentrates in these IITs and the master grade colleges, though those colleges which are vying for a top spot just gets derided by the glitter of the IITs. A slight nudge would bring out the best from the scholars in these colleges. However the industry just concentrates on IITs and thus hinders the chances of healthy grey cells from grooming into mouse potatoes. Here indirectly the industry is nipping the expertise of such brains in the bud itself. Therefore the IT industry should make it a point to make available technical seminars and workshops descend into the courtyards of such middle of the road institutions so that the scholars in such colleges too learn to live up to the industrial preconditions.

Another hitch with the educational system in attendance is the lack of modern use of technology. Though there has been a lot number of a technological achievement, the potentials of these advances are not availed to its optimum practicality. Take for example the scarcity of computer enabled pedagogy. Not many villages in the suburban parts of the country are in tune with this form of strategy. If India is to boom in an ever changing world stage, the demography with a substantial know how in computers is to become an indispensable organ of the system. IT giants should make it a point to infuse the wealth of computers in the villages of India. This can be enabled by servicing the needs of government run aided schools. The requirements of computer systems and instructors in government run schools should be catered by IT giants by embarking joint ventures with state and union governments.

IT is not the panacea for all ills that have crept into the state of the art educational structure. However the abundance of IT and its services can surely be an asset that can drive away some of these malaises that have been letting down the prowess of our well proclaimed pedagogy. Since the motherland has been servicing the needs of the industry in many a way it could, by lending the professionals and manpower to make a pedestal in the world stage, now its time ripe for the industry to pay back for the legacy it has inherited. However it’s not going to be a cake walk for the industry to topple the existing system, but rather the course is to be forbidden by a plethora of stumbling blocks. When the industry makes a budge for the same, (let’s hope it acts so in the near future) let them be led by this slogan by SWAMI VIVEKANANDA

“ARISE, AWAKE,
STOP NOT
TILL THE GOAL IS REACHED”

GOD GIVEN LESSONS OF A NOVICE

IN LIFE WE MEET A LOT OF PEOPLE ....

SOME ARE PEDESTRIANTS THROUGH OUR LIFE'S UNEXPLORED PAVEMENTS...

SOME COME FOR GETTING THINGS DONE IN A WHISKER..

SOME NURSE THE INTUITION OF BEING AT OUR SIDE, BUT WE AIN'T ACKNOWLEDGE THEM..

SOME COME IN AS FRIENDS,BUT WITH THE MOTIVE OF EXPLOITING OUR RESOURCES..

SOME ARE STRANGERS WHO BECOME DEAREST FOR US EASILY,BUT WE FAIL TO OCCUPY A NICHE IN THEIR HEARTS AND MINDS....

SOME OTHERS ARE OUR MIND WATCHDOGS, YET THEY CHEAT US FOR REASONS UNKNOWN...

SOME OF THEM RAISE APPREHENSIONS REGARDING OUR CHARACTER AND OUTLOOK,

IF THEY CANT CATCH UP OUR WAVELENGTH,THEY DEMORALISE US BEFORE THE WORLD..

SECRETS DISCLOSED TO PALS WHO WERE CLOSER TO MIND AND HEART RETRACE TOWARDS US AS DOUBLE EDGED SWORDS....

AND.. AT THIS POINT OF TIME...

YOU FEEL THAT NONE IS TO BE BELIEVED IN LIFE,COZ UR MORALE DECIMATES TO AN AXIOM THAT...YOU CAN NEVER FIND A PERSON IN LIFE WITH YOUR OWN MIRROR IMAGE...

YOU FEEL THAT YOUR PERSONAL PREROGATIVES AND CONFIDENCES SHOULD BE KEPT AS SUCH IN THE LITTLE BUT WONDERFUL WORLD OF YOUR OWN MIND..... AND MIND ONLY...

FOR... THIS WORLD HAS LOST IT'Z GLORY....

AS A SYNOPSIS YOU ARE SLAVE TO THE BITTER TRUTH THAT

"NO ONE IS TO BE BELIEVED IN LIFE"

THEN ONE FINE MORNING YOU GET A BENEDICTION FROM GOD ALMIGHTY....

A FRIEND WHOM YOU HAVE BEEN ON THE LOOKOUT FOR...

A PERSON WITH THE KINDRED SPIRIT ....

A FRIEND WHO MATCHES YOUR WAVELENGTH....

A FRIEND WHO STANDS BY YOU IN EVERY NEED.....

NOW YOU PROCLAIM THIS AXIOM TO THE WORLD THAT.....

" HAVING A FRIEND AS TRUE AS STEEL IS BETTER THAN HAVING A THOUSAND ACQUAINTANCES..THANK YOU MY LORD FOR GIVING ME THE FRIEND OF MY LIFE..THIS IS THE BEST GIFT I EVER HAD FROM YOU....."

...THE TROUBLES GIVEN TO US BY GOD ARE THE OPPORTUNITIES TO VE AN EXPOSURE AND EXPERIENCE TO STUDY NEW THINGS IN LIFE..

LIFE SEEMS FULL OF TROUBLES....BUT GOD RUSHES TO US IN THE REAL HOUR OF NEED.

HE GIVES YOU TROUBLES NOT TO MAKE YOU DESPONDENT, BUT INSTEAD TO GIVE YOU THE PREPARATORY LESSONS OF LIFE, A PEP TO YOUR LOST CONFIDENCE AND A THRUST FOR YOUR WICKLOW MORALE....

INDIA BOOMING... A PARADIGM SHIFT OR A MEDIA HYPE

MUCH HAS BEEN SLURRED ABOUT THE ECONOMIC BOOM INDIA HAS BEEN LURCHING INTO.FROM US TO UK,TO ITALY TO ROUND THE GLOBE ENDEAREMENT OF THE INDIAN COMMUNITY HAS BEEN PARLEYED.HOWEVER AS OF MY OPINION,ALL THESE, OR MORE PRECISELY LION,' SHARE OF THIS HAS BEEN JUST A BUZZ CREATED BY THE MEDIA AND ANALYSTS AND NOTHING ELSE.DOES INDIA HAVE A USP THAT COULD OSTRACIZE HERSELF FROM THE REST OF THE WORLD????

THE IT AND ITES BOOM IN INDIA IS DRIVEN BY NOTHING OTHER THAN COST FACTORS.IT TAKES ONLY ONE BY SEVENTH OF THE PENCE TO GET A JOBIN INDIA AS COMPARED TO THE WEST.. ADDING INJURY TO THE INSULT IS THE FACT THAT INDIA IS A HUB FOR BUSINESS PROCESS OUTSORCING,AND NOT COMPUTER ENABLED RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT.THE AXIOM THAT CONNOTES THIS POINT IS THE FACT THAT INDIA HAS A DEMOGRAPHY THAT IS VERY EXCELLENT WITH THE COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN THE LINK LANGUAGE.WHEN MOST OF THE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IS BEING DONE IN THE REST OF THE WORLD INDIA IS CONTENT WITH ITHE PROLIFERATION OF CALL CENTRES AND TECH SUPPORT OR CUSTOMER SERVICE INITIATIVES.IN SPITE OF THE COMMOTION BEING MADE BY THE MEDIA ABOUT THE SIGNIFICANCE OF INDIA IN THE GLOBAL ARENA OF IT , A SAD BUT COMPELLING REALITY IS THAT ONLY 2% OF THE TOTAL PIE IN IT INDURTRY IS BEING ENGINEERED IN INDIA.

THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY IN INDIA STILL IS IN ITS ABYSMAL STATE OF AFFAIRS.THOUGH MUCH HAS BEEN TAILKED OF ABOUT THE M and A POSTINGS BY MULTINATIONALS LIKE TATAS, MAHINDRAS OR THA BIRLAS THE PREREQUISITE THAT HAS TO BE MET IS THE ABILITY TO TAKE HOLD OF SUCH BIGWIGS.IT WONT BE OF ANY USE IF A MINNOW SWALLOWS A SHARK AND THEN JUST DIES A LUDICRUOUS DEATH.

THE INFRASTRUCTURE IN INDIA IS IN ITS WICKLOW STATUS.THE AVERAGE SPEED ON NATIONAL HIGHWAYS TOO IS ONLY A MEAGRE PERCENTAGE OF THOSE IN DEVELOPED COUNTRIES.THE SHORTAGE FOR POWER IS A SEQUEL TO THE OLD SAGA.THOUGH THERE HAS BEEN SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENTS IN THE NUMBER OF MOBILE PHONE USERS,THE TELEDENSITY IN METROS TOO ARE BELOW PAR.THE INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENTS ARE SEEN WITH A MEDIOCRE SIGNIFICANCE , THANKS TO THE MEDIA WHICH IS PREOCCUPIED WITH GIVING A GLOBAL BRAND LABEL FOR INDIA THOUGH IT SHOULD NOT VIE FOR ONE.

BRAND EQUITY IS WHAT PROPELS A NATIONS PROSPECTS IN THE GLOBAL MARKET.INDIA DOES NOT HAVE ONE OF ITS OWN.FIRMS THAT CAN CLIMB UP THE LADDER ARE IN DEARTH FOR APPROPRIATE OPERATIONAL AS WELL AS INFRASTRUCTURAL SERVICES. OF THE 4 LAKH ENGINEER BEING DRAWN OUT OF INDIA ONLY 25 % ARE EMPLOYABLE!!!!!!!!! SO DOES INDIA HAVE THE MORAL RIGHT AND AUTHORITY TO CLAIM A PEDESTAL OF ITZ OWN IN THE GLOBAL ARENA , AS DEVISED BY THE MEDIA ????

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