Am back !!!

I am back after a long long time.

It's been more than 3 years that I have written a blog. Got busy with office work but large part of the blame goes to my laziness.

A lot has happened on professional and personal front but these blogs ain't about me. A lot has happened and is happening in India, which needs to be highlighted.

So, let's get started. 

Kab Tak ?

Of what use is development, when half of your population cannot walk late in the night, all alone, without fear in mind? This country is no longer safe for child / old / young / any women.

So, the inevitable has happened. Nirbhaya / Amaanat / Damini or whatever name you wish to call, the victim of Delhi Gang Rape has died. While the nation mourns and the condolences messages keep pouring in, we need to introspect and ask ourselves what has been the cause of such brutality. As the Chief Minister of Delhi and Police Commissioner try in vain to pass on the buck, the serious question in-front of everyone is who is to be blamed?

Is it the incompetent and powerless police force? Either they don’t have the will or they are under too much political pressure to act against criminals.

Is it the government? They have become so apathetic and detached from the reality that have tried all possible means to stop people from protesting peacefully. The insecurity has resulted in the cremation of the girl in a hush-hush manner. They have stopped so low by ridiculing the activists them names.

Is it the rapists? Think of their mind degenerating to such an extent to commit such a heinous crime.  because they very well know that the law isn’t strong enough to punish them.

Is it the people? We have become so immune to such incidents that we are not bothered if the person is not known to us. One should realize that if these things don’t end then someday, someone we know might end up as victim.

People are out on the street, there is a silent uprising and this time it is directed towards the establishment. Didn’t the government see it coming? This ticking time bomb had to explode and time has come. The government, so detached from the ground reality, is busy trying to silent the peaceful protestors. Had the government spent half the energy, they spent on controlling the protest, on tightening the security, Delhi would have been much safer place.

There is a demand for stricter laws and fast tracking of cases but do we expect our politicians to frame stricter laws and setting an example when these are the very people who makes sexist comments like “dented-painted women”, “paison ke liye national television par thumke lagana”, “women wearing skirts invites trouble”. Even some of the elected MPs have rape charges leveled against them.

While we discuss the pros and cons of capital punishment, rights and wrongs of protests taking place across the country; the question that needs to be asked is what has led to her death? Why the women don’t feel secure even in the national / political capital? I am sure laws will be made, culprits will be punished but the bigger question is what we are doing about it? It is one thing to blame the law, criminals, government; police or even the establishment but we should ask ourselves how much we are above the sins? Even today, in majority of the homes, the birth of male child is more welcomed than a female child, girl fetus is killed in the womb and newly born girl child is thrown in the dustbin. Heroines still gets objectified in the movies and the trend is on the rise in the past few years. Women gets blamed for inviting rape by wearing provocative dresses and going out late in the night and conveniently we pardon our sons / male child. Still there are many houses where women have to be in pardah, can’t go out for work and even not allowed basic fundamental education. How can we expect this society to improve when the very mindset, of treating both girl and boy child equal, is missing. Indian society as a whole has degenerated to such an extent that we view women as an object. They say charity begins at home; so shouldn’t we make the beginning. Shouldn’t we be the catalyst of the change we want to bring? Until we cure this disease, till we do something about it, I am afraid nothing is going to change and women will be on the receiving end.

Because the sad part is, while you are reading this article, there will be some gal / women / child getting molested in some part of the country. And we are doing nothing about it!

The great Indian political circus @ Jharkhand

There have been few instances of political opportunism in India but nothing could match what’s happening in Jharakhand at present moment. Last closest incident which comes to mind was the opportunism and chaos which prevailed in Karnataka when former PM H D Deve Gowda and his son H D Kumaraswamy held the state to their ransom by playing all tricks to keep them in the power. A same scenario is happening here in Jharkhand. Shibu Soren, known more for his notoriety than his work, has done anything and almost everything to keep himself in power. It is no hidden secret that there have been several charges levelled against him but that doesn’t stop Congress or BJP to align with him to fulfil their selfish agenda.

The entire episode started with Shibu Soren voting with the congress in one of the bills passed in the parliament. This resulted in the anger of BJP, ally of JMM in the state. To make the matter worse the new president of BJP, Nitin Nadkari, in haste, decided to sever ties with JMM in the state. Now both congress and BJP knows that they cannot form a government in Jharkhand without the support of JMM, which has given them the role of King Maker in the state. After realising its mistake BJP tried to salvage the coalition by deciding on some power sharing formula with half the tenure having a chief Minister from BJP and other half under the tenure of JMM’s chief minister. But with the kind of opportunist political party JMM is they realised this was not in their benefit especially the kind of power they possess. So now once again Shibu Soren has decided that he is not going to resign and will complete his tenure.

This political circus involving three parties JMM, Congress and BJP is there for a quite a long time in Jharkhand and now needs some serious mending. I hope the people of the state would make sure they won't select political opportunist parties to power. But having said that it's really difficult to identify who is and who is not.

Australianism

John Arlott had written about it in 1948 at the end of a successful tour of England by Don Bradman's men. ""Australianism," wrote Arlott, "means single-minded determination to win - to win within the laws but, if necessary, to the last limit within them. It means where the 'impossible' is within the realm of what the human body can do, there are Australians who believe that they can do it - and who have succeeded often enough to make us wonder if anything is impossible to them. It means they have never lost a match - particularly a Test match - until the last run is scored or their last wicket down."

On why Ajmal kasab should be given death penalty

Finally today, after a year and half, Ajmal Kasab, main accused in 26/11 attack, was convicted in all the 86 charges levelled against him by a court. Inspite of such a delayed judgement, people of this country are relieved that atleast judgement has come. Now icing on the cake would be to give death penalty to Ajmal Kasab. Many would argue against it but then I have my own justification for demanding such a stern punishment.

1. There are costs involved in keeping terrorist alive. Costs like legal fees, police personnel, providing extra security, creation of bullet proof cell, etc. According to one estimate it has cost around Rs 44 Crore (Rs 8.5 L/per day) for providing security and keeping Ajmal alive. And if not given death sentence, then the expenses of holding him up in custody. So instead of wasting so much money it can be utilised elsewhere.
2. Main charges Ajmal has been accused of

· Murder of 7 people (Highest punishment - Death)

· Abetting murder of 159 people

· Conspiracy

· Under Unlawful Activities Prohibition Act for terrorism

· For being part of the banned Lashkar e Taiba

· Wrongful confinement of victims

· Kidnapping

· Under the Explosives Act

· Under the Explosives Substances Act

· Under the Arms Act

· Under the Railways Act

· Under the Customs Act

· Robbery

So you wouldn’t want a person accused of such charges to be walking alive.

3. Think of people whose family members, relatives are being killed or injured during 26/11 incident. Ask the family members and they will tell you why.
4. Think of the morale of the police force and army personnel who give their life fighting such terrorists.
5. With already India having a tough time fighting naxals, it will be boost to all the anti-Indian activities.
6. Above all, if Ajmal Kasab is not given death sentence then it will send a signal to Pakistan (and rest of the world) that India is a soft state. And this could be very damaging for India.

I feel these are valid enough reasons for him to be given death penalty. Now lets wait for the judgement, which would be out tomorrow.

Indian Political League

How would you describe a country’s neta who are busy discussing IPL in cricket over important issues like Dantewada massacre, discussion on budget, sensitive issues like phone tapping, price rises and many more? This is the sorry state of affair which is being witnessed by millions of people in the country. It has been an eventful fortnight in India. It started with worst internal crisis at Dantewada when 76 CRPF men were massacred by Naxals. And around same time Mr Lalit Modi Tweeted which resulted in Shashi Tharoor losing his ministership. Then the case of phone tapping in which government had tapped phone of some influential leaders in this country. But then instead of having a meaningful discussion and taking tough measures against Naxals, Indian politicians choose to discuss IPL and put Dantewada at back burner. When some of them tried to discuss phone tapping issues, then they were asked to keep shut. It was the trio of Yadav clan (Lalu, Mulayam and Sharad) who were vocal in raising IPL issues and stalling the parliament for such irrelevant issues like IPL when there were far more burnings issues at hand. It is high time Indian politicians realise that they are being selected by people not to make mockery of democracy by discussing such petty issues , instead they should discuss things which are far more relevant and make our democracy stronger.

The day we got Chandratal-ed

I had been long wanting to write about this memorable trip, which I had with seven of my classmates (Amit, Anurag, Divyanshu, Kunal, Manish, Navanidhi and Prabin), in the month of August 2009. But due to my laziness and reasons unknown I was not able to start. Finally the zeal in me has got better of the laziness in me and here I am writing about this trip. Chandratal has been of the better trips of my life. And it was mainly due to the journeymen, the landscapes, the events and the destination. I am about to take you to this wonderful journey of ours.

The eight of us embarked on this journey on 13^th Aug’09 in a Quails (I know you would be wondering how nine of us including driver got fit into a single Qualis, but we somehow managed). Each one of us had some personal/official problems behind us and we knew that if we go ahead with the journey then our life may not remain the same. One of us was busy managing the finances of the college; one of us just had his conclave postponed; three of them were fighting hard to save off their relationships; a soul searching was being done by one of the most gifted person to have joined FMS; a wannabe Shakespeare who was bit incongruous at the place. The journeymen couldn’t have been more diverse.

The idea was to reach Manali late in the night, take a break and then start a long journey towards the destination Chandratal Lake. But then they say when you have people so diverse then be ready for any eventualities. The journey got started on a very bad note; first it was the delay from our side (getting all eight people ready is one hell of a task) and then our tire got punctured within the first 5 KM of the journey. This delay plus the opinion of majority to stop at some Dhaba in Muthal for a special parantha threw us way behind our schedule. During the journey all my friends got beer bottles for their enjoyment (1 coke bottle for me). We had a great time pulling each other’s leg, bringing out skeleton from the closet and cracking lots of PJs (some on a country’s GDP and Olympics like stadium). During this time one of my friend was busy fighting to save off his relationship, another was busy building one; one of them giving suggestions on how to allocate funds for the coming events and then there was one thinking ways of getting alternate dates to his conclave. Due to late start and other difficulties we reached Manali only in the morning 6 AM on 14^th Aug’09. We didn’t have time but we knew we had to take rest so found a hotel to take break of 2-3 hours. But the required break just got extended a bit; first due to the difficulty in waking up everyone (I have told its one hell of a task), waiting for everyone to get ready and then the sudden disappearance of the driver. While two of us decided to search for the driver, couple of us decided to check on the tents and other items needed for the journey, while the rest as usual decided to take this as an opportunity to extend their nap. During the enquiry we were told that there is no need for tents and we will get the same later. Finally everything fell into place, driver was located, people woken up from their sleep and left for the rest of the journey.

It was around 11 AM, when we started the 2^nd leg of the journey. The first half of the journey was to go uphill till Rohtang pass and then go downhill to a place called Chhatru and from there a long narrow stretch of 18-20 KM in a single lane to Chandratal. On paper everything looked perfectly fine but then what is the fun everything goes as per plan. The entire journey from Manali to Chandratal was simply fabulous. But throughout the uphill journey we were accompanied by rainfall and the rain reached its peak while we were atop Rohtang Paas. And boy we had to brave the chill wind and a sudden drop in temperature courtesy the rainfall. We knew we are heading to a region which won’t have people, any sign of vegetation leave alone mobile signal so we had to finish our businesses fast. Made couple of calls to sponsors, one of us tried to save off his relationship, while some were busy eating chips. But just before we entered the no signal range, we got one bad news – one of us had his break-up. As usual others told him that there is nothing to worry upon while the person knew it’s easier said than done because if he was at others place him would have said the same thing. I must tell you something here; the best time for receiving any bad news is just before a memorable trip with your friends because it gives you a chance to forget all your worries by the end of the trip.

The downhill was all narrow and the rain had made the journey more difficult. On the way to Chhatru, we witnessed one of the most unbelievable sights of rainbow. Later one of my friend described the scene as “mesmerizing natural splendour”. Due to rain our journey had been slowed because travelling becomes much more difficult on a mountaineering terrain. Throughout downhill, we were accompanied by a stream of river flowing between the mountains. On the way we witnessed of the better lessons of marketing (selling to be precise) as one old lady asked for a lift to a certain distance. With a long stretch to follow and no vehicle in site we agreed to give lift only to realise that by the time we agreed she had pushed one more old lady into the front seat. And we had to manage with one of us lying on three sitting at the back seat. It stayed on like that till we reached a small house where they got down. We continued our journey and reached Chhatru by dusk. We had to take a decision whether to continue our journey through that difficult terrain towards Chandratal Lake in darkness. By vote of majority we decided against it and we were lucky to have done so as one of the trucks met with an accident and had fallen into the river. The stay at Chhatru was a blessing in disguise for us as we witnessed one of nature’s splendour. Chhatru is a small place with hardly any population (they say it’s 100 but we thought it should be including the travellers who stay there for the night). We got to stay in a place next to the stream of river (which was getting violent in the night) flowing between mountains. The feeling was awesome and the icing on the cake was the bonfire we decided to have in the night. There are always some memories which stay in your life and this was definitely one of them. We decided to stay at one of a very small like place with 10 beds in it. We decided we will continue our journey the next day at 5 AM (which means the task was given to me to wake everyone up).

15^th Aug’09 – It was early morning at 4.00 AM I put my alarm so that i could wake everyone up to start our journey. But when you have a bunch of hostellers travelling with you then the task becomes next to impossible. Finally after a repeated trying, they got up to a frustrated, annoyed and shouting me. We started the journey at around 6 AM to celebrate our independence (day) from the rest of the world. And while on the journey we realised how difficult and impossible the journey would have been if we had decided to continue in the night. The whole stretch of 18-20 KM was a so narrow that two vehicles could not pass each other and for doing so, more often than not, one of the vehicles had to go back till it reached a place at the edge of the cliff to let the other vehicle pass through. But the route was just like out of the ‘travel and living’ channel. We braved the difficult terrain sometime overcoming dangerous turns we survived and reached Chandratal Lake. Though I am not a big follower of lakes and I like travelling to mountains and hills but I fell in love with the lake the moment I saw it. We could see the clear reflection of surrounding snow covered mountains. We were so overjoyed seeing the place that we all jumped into the waters and took a dip in an almost near zero freezing water. We took a walk around the whole lake and it took us more than an hour to just complete the round. The mesmerising beauty meant we all posed and took lots of photographs that we lost track of the time. And yes the best part of the journey was that the person who had a break-up was overjoyed with the place he sung ‘I want to break free’ to overcome the emotional atyachar he had faced over the past couple of days. And as I said, the best time for break-ups is when you are leaving for a trip. It was so good to see each one of us happy. We had a true Independence Day celebration because we all were free and were not having any contact with the outside world. We decided to continue our journey back and reach Manali by night because we knew if we are late this time we wouldn’t get a place in the middle of hills.

The journey back was again through those terrains with again fresh round of rains. It was difficult but we knew if could make it once then we will surely make it twice. But due to sudden climate change, drop in temperature meant that couple of us had a fever by the time we reached Rohtang pass. Two of my friend replied to natures call at the top of Rohtang pass. We decided to continue the journey as we didn’t have any option but to reach Manali. To add to the woes, driver had a sudden bout of headache and it was very severe. Inspite of asking him to take rest, he was all charged up and he told he will take rest once he reaches Manali. We reached Manali by 10.00 PM in the night with our mobile signal coming back to haunt our life. We took a hotel for the night stay and decided to go for a late night view of the place. Much to our delight, we met bunch of our classmates eating by the next restaurant. We exchanged our experiences and it was no surprise we had a better time.

16^th Aug’09 – Inspite of having an amazing tour, on the way back we decided to extend it further and decided to pursue River rafting in Rishikesh. But then to our bad luck there had been a death reported a day earlier while rafting so all the places were shut down. So we decided to head back to Delhi with just stoppage for dinner and snacks. But during this journey we came to know that another person amongst us also had break-up with his girl friend. One of us got the news that conclave date has been decided for some later day in the next month. There was news that society review has been put for next day and loads of work was pending. And we knew that we are back to this fast paced world where even though we have all the facilities but there is no peace.

We decided to coin the journey as being ‘Chandratal-ed’. Chandratal-ed because even though we had our shares of bad news (seeing two break-ups and one almost surviving on a thin line), we had just embarked on a journey which had become memorable because of journeymen, landscapes, difficult terrains, an amazing climate, events unfolding and the ultimate destination (travellers paradise) Chandratal Lake.

Naxals – Single biggest internal security threat

“Naxalism is the single biggest internal security challenge India has faced”. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, November 2004.

It took 6 years and massacre of 76 CRPF personnel in Dantewada district for India to realise that the threat is real. According to a report by Research and Anlaysis Wing (RAW), there are 20,000 armed cadre Naxalites operating apart from 50,000 regular cadres working in various organizations.

Before we look into what the all fuss is all about let’s see what these naxals are fighting for? The naxal movement in India had started in late 60s (1967) at Naxal Bari, a small village in West Bengal. The movement had started as a protest against feudal exploitation and oppression over rural power. Naxalites claims that they are fighting to create a class-less society. But people opposing to naxal movement claims that they are terrorists oppressing people in the name of a class war. Not going by who is right or wrong but looking into the actions of Naxals in India over the past two decades, there is a clear indication that Naxalism is the single biggest challenge. Otherwise who would justify the killings of innocent civilians and armed personnel in the name of creating class struggle? One cannot give an alibi to terrorism or extortion in the name of poverty and brining equality within the society.

Then why not take a tough stand against naxalites? Like various other causes in this country, naxal struggle has also got support by some so called intellectuals, who find reasons to sympathise with this so called struggle. Apart from these intellectuals these naxals have also got support in the right place in the government with people like Shibu Soren (who seems to have won election with the support of Naxalites).and closeness of political parties like CPI, CPM to these movements. We should rise as a nation against this threat and make sure stringent of action is taken against these people who find no remorse in killings innocents. For if no strict action is taken then the day is not far when these naxals would overthrow government and form a government of their own as it happened in our neighbourhood Nepal.

When unity is not strength – Greek Fiasco

On 1^st Jan 1999, eleven European countries joined together and adopted Euro as their official currency. These eleven countries joined forces with an intention to bring stability to the region and also to develop an alternate currency to dollar. With the advent of Euro, it made trade, investment and travel easier for these European countries. Also joining together made currency of each of these countries stronger. Euro was considered to be as strong and stable as dollar or yen. In 2001, Greece became the twelfth country to adopt Euro as its currency. Decision to include Greece in the list was more of a political decision than an economic one because Greece was not as stable as other countries in the region. A clear north-south divide in Euro was prominent. On one hand there were countries like Germany, in North, which had a strong economy and which relied on exports to power its growth, saved hard and ran trade surpluses. On the other hand, Southern economies such as Greece leant too much on consumer spending, had weak public finances and relied on foreign capital to supplement their low savings. This was the coming together of two un-equals and differences were obvious. But still Euro members went ahead and included Greece within their fold. As they say, when economy is booming everything you touch becomes gold and so was the case of Euro, it moved from strength to strength and problems with Greece was neglected. Some people had predicted that such a situation would arise soon after the inclusion of Greece in the group. For Greece, membership was a boom. It allowed government to refinance debt in favourable terms and also improved the sovereign rating of the country and thus gave easy access to long term borrowings.

But history continued to haunt Greece. Always known to have fiscal trouble, Greece continued with its chronic budgetary mismanagement, resulting in public debt to increase more than 100% of GDP and fiscal deficit to increase to 12.7% of GDP. And now rating agencies have reduced the ratings of Greece to BBB- and thus downgrading the sovereign rating of the country. There have been many voices which are suggesting removing Greece from the group and still many who are insisting to keep it within the group. It will be a tough decision for Euro to decide whether to bail out or to let IMF bailout Greece from this financial mess. The treaty governing the European Union includes a “no bailout” clause, forbidding countries from assuming debt of others. But then it would set a very bad precedent for Euro if it lets one of its member default, so the logic step would to bailout Greece themselves and then enforcing steps to ensure that Greece would not resort to such loose fiscal measures in the future.

Some experts are calling this as the beginning of the end of Euro. But we all know it’s always good to get pot holes at the start of the journey so that you learn to build the road to the future and this is just the beginning of the Euro journey.

Sex, Lies and Celebrities

Of late media has found new ways of exposing celebrities. And by exposing I really mean exposing them really bad. It started with Tiger Woods, followed by N D Tiwari and few days back it was the turn of Chelsea & English skipper John Terry. But what makes these exposures really turn around our head and make us sit and waste hours in front of TV, newspapers, etc. We always have been inspired by heroes and we always live our dreams through them. These celebrities give us the joy of living through the lives we have always dreamt of. So we follow our celebrities in their moment of joy and grief. We rejoice when they achieve something special and we celebrate in their moment of reckoning. The media put them to front page and make sure they are treated like Demi-gods. But what makes us really happy is when these Demi-gods fail. It’s human tendency that it gives us more happiness when the infallible falls. When we see these celebrities getting exposed then it gives us sigh of relief that they are also mortal human being. And media don’t fail to take advantage of this and makes sure they add all spice up reports and make a good business out of it. But should we really make such a fuss about celebrities and their personal lives? There isn’t a reason that the needs & desires of a Tiger Woods or a John Terry would be any different from that of an average person on the planet. But what makes their life different is that their life is always viewed under microscope and is in complete media limelight. So every action or statement by these celebrities makes it to the drawing room of their followers and fans. So it becomes the responsibility of a celebrity to act in such a way that he/she is idolized as a role model to millions of fans. But then as we say “To err is human and so are celebrities”. So it is the duty of us, common men, to become mature enough not to take extreme views in the event of rejoice and despair & let these celebrities have their personal space as well.

Save Tigers!!!

The other day I saw one TV Commercial where in I was astonished to see that there are only 1431 tigers left in India. This prompted me to write this blog. Tiger, our national animal, is on the verge of extinction. And we all are supposed to do our bit to help save tigers. But seriously speaking, what an ordinary citizens like us can do to help save tigers? We don’t hunt nor do we can stop hunting by becoming conscious of this grave situation. Even though we are not directly or indirectly responsible of this situation, we can do our bit in conversation of tigers. What as a citizen of this country we can is to spread this awareness among each and every people of this country by means of blogs, advertisement, street plays, internet chain mails, memo to governments, etc. While we do this we can be sure that someone, who is responsible, somewhere will become aware and might take necessary steps to stop killing of tigers. As a citizen of this country, it’s our duty to make sure that we don’t let our national animal ‘Tiger’ extinct.

Shining Bihar – Is it too early to celebrate?

Last Sunday on 10^th Jan’2010, Chief Minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar was conferred with “Business Reformer of the year” award at the Economic Times awards 2009. A few days earlier Bihar registered a 11.3% growth for the period 2004-09 (next only to Gujarat with 11.5%). This award is just a feather in the cap of Nitish Kumar, who over the year has shown what good governance can do for the state. Are we too early in celebrating? People following Bihar, over the years, will agree that there is no denying fact that intellectual capability of Biharis are unmatched. This can be gauged from the number of IITians, IAS officers & IPS officers Bihar produce every year. But then why the hand which led to the development of other states and countries could not replicate the same for its own land?

There are many reasons which can be attributed to the non-development of Bihar. Some people might attribute historical reason while some might attribute geographical reasons for the non-development. But the most important reason for the backwardness of Bihar was the non-existent of “political will”. Geographically Bihar might have been ravaged by flood every year, but then one must also be aware that the land next to the Ganges is among the most fertile land in the country. The skewed landownership system introduced by the British rulers together with the caste system was a recipe for disaster. But the factor that broke the backbone of the state was the high level corruption and non-existent of “political will”. Year after year, the money for development would go into some unknown Swiss bank account, where even money was made out of fodder, where for every deal one would have to satisfy the thirst of corrupt officials, and the list goes on. With no sign of development, lack of opportunities and limited options for education, the exodus began. Exodus of the intellectual mind together with the rise of criminalization in politics over the years led to the downfall of one of the modern states of ancient times.

The state which is deep engulfed into a complex caste system, where the MY factor actually helped Lalu to come to power and where elections are still won or lost on the basis of caste, development has always been a non issue. It’s no hidden secret that courtesy Lalu’s regime, Bihar has gone 50 years backward. And it will take much more than political will to bring back the state to normal. And by much more I mean support from business houses by investing more and more in Bihar. As aptly pointed by Nitish Kumar; “I am thankful to the people, who selected us for the Business Reformer of the Year award. So, some business should also come to the State. Otherwise, what will be the meaning of this award?”

The political will in the form of Nitish Kumar together with influx of investments by large business houses will lead a long and sustainable growth, which is the need of the hour, for Bihar in coming years. One of the reasons why Bihar has to grow because the place India holds in global economy, the same is held by Bihar in Indian economy. And for India to have an inclusive growth, Bihar has to grow.

Saina vs Sania

The debate would go on whether Saina Nehwal would ever be given the same status as that of Sania Mirza in India? Undoubtedly Sania has done far more than any other female tennis player from India and she deserves all the attentions and accolades. But would that justify that she keeps on hogging all the limelight inspite of not being able to repeat the performances. The past two years have been a pretty average for her and apart from technique; it’s her fitness that is to be blamed for her debacle. She is far more off the court due to her injury than on the court. From as high as 30th rank, she has slipped below 100. And she has not made a single major mark which is worth mentioning. And during the same course of time, Saina Nehwal has gone from strength to strength. She has been performing consistently and has reached atleast quarters of every other tournament she has played. She added jewel in her crown by reaching the quarter-finals in Olympics. The icing on the cake was her recent win of a Super Series Tournament. It would have been great that she also received the same adulations as that of Sania Mirza courtsy her series of achievements. But that is not to be. For her achievements, on one hand, Sania receives full page story and on the other hand Saina has to satisfy with a para mention.
Let’s find out some of the reasons for such biased reactions to these two individuals. Some of the factors are:
1. Fan following – The popularity of Tennis is far more than that of Badminton. So the treatment meted out to players in both the games is going to be different. It’s the same Cricket vs Hockey story.
2. Glamour Quotient – Sania brings glamour quotient in to the game. It’s of no hidden secret that the popularity of Sania is next only to Maria Sharapova (in terms of glamour).
3. Tennis catches eyeball – Tennis is one sport where “the length of skirt is inversely proportional to the popularity of the player”. And add the glamour and controversy and Voila you get page 3 news.
4. Media – It’s of no hidden secret that media worldwide (esp in India) shows what is sold. And we all know what is sold in India.
I don’t foresee that in near future Saina Nehwal is going to get the accolades and adulations as she deserve until or unless one of the above points changes. And till that time sports lover like me would wonder: “Why an overrated Sania’s 1st round victory is is always given far more importance than an underrated Saina’s appearance in the final of a Super Series Tournament?”

Are we becoming beasts???

The recent Surat gangrape made me wonder... Are we increasingly turning into an insensitive, inhumane and immoral society? What else would explain the recent spurt in rape cases that is getting highlighted in this country? Undoubtedly, the reason could be that nowadays the media is getting more involved in bringing them out sensationalising them, which in a way has helped us to ask ourselves such questions.
But what are the causes for increase in rape cases in India? Some might say that it is the belief that people can get away with. Most of the time women are afraid to come out because of the backward notion that many places it is considered to be women’s fault (even if they are young children). The fear of going public is there because many times the society shuns them away and it becomes difficult to find suitable match for them. And if everything is fine then the slowness with which they get justice means that they undergo harassment by people looking at her and showing contemptuous sympathy. Animals take advantage of all these factors and go on committing one of the most heinous crimes ever known to mankind.
What should be done to make sure that these cases are brought to limelight and people gets justice? First of all I feel that a strong precedent should be sent across everyone that these things would not be taken lightly. The amount of interest shown by Maharashtra’s CM in Shiney Ahuja’s case is commendable but the same swiftness should be shown in another rape cases also as all the rape victims undergo same agonising pain. When I talk of strong precedent should be sent across I mean that the punishment should be such a way that people should think twice before committing such crimes. A stricter law in itself wouldn’t serve purpose; there is a greater need for making sure that the guilty are punished and punished fast. There has been a far larger debate on whether to use death penalty as a deterrent. But until or unless such strict measures are taken and people understand the gravity of this crime, it’s going to be very difficult for us to stop this crime. Human Rights commission people might come and speak against such laws. But where are these people when these girls are raped? And would they still oppose if their own relatives undergo such trauma?One thing that we need to keep in mind is that rape is one of the most heinous crimes that can be committed by a human being. The importance of a stricter law can be gauged from the fact that “A woman who is murdered dies once but a woman who is raped dies everyday”.

Will rate cuts stimulate demand?

Another round of rate cuts by RBI and again economist are discussing whether this will stimulate demand by the public. But will it??? Or government needs to do something more??? Let’s go the basic of this situation. 

Everybody is aware that this financial crisis began due to the bubble burst of property market, which had been growing at an exponential rate. This burst led to the bankruptcy of many banks and let to the bloodbath in the share market across the globe and resulted in credit crunch across the globe. What this has done is that it has directly affected the demand (consumption expenditure) of the public. With so little of money into the system, banks are not in a position to lend money. In order to inject more money into the system the government either goes for expansionary fiscal or expansionary monetary policy. Whereas expansionary fiscal policy involves tax cut, more transfer payments or more investment from the government side, the expansionary monetary policy involves reduction in CRR, SLR, repo rate and reverse repo rates. With these monetary policies more money is injected into the system by providing more money into the banking system. But does this mean the same money is transferred to general public in forms of loans? The answer is NO. Since the crisis happened due to bad investment and bad loans on the banks part, it takes more than rates cut to induce banks to transfer the benefit to the public. This time the banks are very sceptical in giving loans. They already have suffered the brunt of giving too much too soon in hope of better returns. So they are reluctant in transferring the money to the general public. And until or unless the amount of money injected into the system goes into the hand of public we can’t expect increase in demand. So government and RBI have to take some other steps apart from these monetary policies for inducing demand. 

Only GOD can save Pakistan now

While returning to hostel, after my Economics exam, I got the news of Terrorist attack in Pakistan. It’s not new to hear about such attacks especially in the sub-continent but this was something unheard of in the recent past. The terrorists attacked the visiting Sri-Lanka team, which was playing a series in Pakistan after other teams had backed out citing security reasons. The attack is bound to have serious repercussions as to how Pakistan will be perceived hereafter. It’s been more than a decade that India has been proposing that Pakistan be declared a terrorist state. With fundamentalists getting support from the ISI and government officials, democracy is as good as dead in Pakistan. The deadly combination of Pakistan, being a nuclear possessing state, and hardcore terrorist outfits having a major say, is a sure recipe of disaster for the world peace. The future of Pakistan looks very bleak and only GOD can save it from becoming a failed state with terrorist organizations having a major stake.

US Presidential Election Campaign: Mindless Flank gets one shot point blank

(Following article is courtesy Manish Kumar, Batch of 2010, FMS)

The US-presidential ad campaign between the rivals Barack Obama and John McCain has been one of the classic examples of aggressive flank attack strategy mostly pursued by McCain and to some extent by Obama side too. The main idea of these ads was to attack the competitor in the unexpected areas to catch them by surprise. It involved a lot of creative manipulation (mostly negative) of facts and principles to churn out limitations and the misfits of the competitor for the presidential seat. The ads developed and widely distributed during the campaign revolved around demeaning the rival candidate by projecting an undignified image unworthy for president ship. The deprecation in the campaign especially from McCain's side stooped to unprecedented low proportions and the ads started a virtual mudslinging from unforeseen angles.

"Dangerous... Not truthful... Hypocrite... Disrespectful..Not ready to lead."  were the warnings that McCain and the Republican National Committee aired about Obama."Out of touch... No maverick... Same failed policies... Sleazy ads... John McCain doesn't get it." Obama's campaign aired these warnings about McCain.

In a glaring example of flanking attack, in a particular McCain campaign ad, present in the report submitted, Obama was projected as a limelight hogging celebrity in the leagues of Paris Hilton and Britney spears questioning his integrity. So basically, his popularity which was an asset was misrepresented as a negative attribute not aligned with presidential virtues.

But in strategic marketing as in real life, a mindless excess of everything, almost invariably, tends to boomerang to one's debacle. The same holds true for flanking strategy, as was bluntly experienced by John McCain. After a certain limit , the flanking attack tends to nullify its effect by raising suspicion in the minds of the target audience about its genuineness, especially when the strategy is all focused on conjuring the weaknesses of the competitor instead of highlighting one's own selling proposition. The word was that 100% of McCain's ads were negative compared to 34% in case of Obama. The election results speak for themselves.

Sub-prime Crisis - Layman's Language

What is a sub-prime loan?

In the US, borrowers are rated either as 'prime' - indicating that they have a good credit rating based on their track record - or as 'sub-prime', meaning their track record in repaying loans has been below par. Loans given to sub-prime borrowers, something banks would normally be reluctant to do, are categorised as sub-prime loans. Typically, it is the poor and the young who form the bulk of sub-prime borrowers.

Why loans were given?

In roughly five years leading up to 2007, many banks started giving loans to sub-prime  borrowers, typically through subsidiaries. They did so because they believed that the real estate boom, which had more than doubled home prices in the US since 1997, would allow even people with dodgy credit backgrounds to repay on the loans they were taking to buy or build homes. Government also encouraged lenders to lend to sub-prime  borrowers, arguing that this would help even the poor and young to buy houses.

With stock markets booming and the system flush with liquidity, many big fund investors like hedge funds and mutual funds saw sub-prime loan portfolios as attractive investment opportunities. Hence, they bought such portfolios from the original lenders. This in turn meant the lenders had fresh funds to lend. The subprime loan market thus became a fast growing segment.

What was the interest rate on sub-prime loans?

Since the risk of default on such loans was higher, the interest rate charged on sub-prime loans was typically about two percentage points higher than the interest on prime loans. This, of course, only added to the risk of sub-prime borrowers defaulting. The repayment capacity of sub-prime borrowers was in any case doubtful. The higher interest rate additionally meant substantially higher EMIs than for prime borrowers, further raising the risk of default.

Further, lenders devised new instruments to reach out to more sub-prime borrowers. Being flush with funds they were willing to compromise on prudential norms. In one of the instruments they devised , they asked the borrowers to pay only the interest portion to begin with. The repayment of the principal portion was to start after two years.

How did this turn into a crisis?

The housing boom in the US started petering out in 2007. One major reason was that the boom had led to a massive increase in the supply of housing. Thus house prices started falling. This increased the default rate among subprime borrowers, many of whom were no longer able or willing to pay through their nose to buy a house that was declining in value.

Since in home loans in the US, the collateral is typically the home being bought, this increased the supply of houses for sale while lowering the demand, thereby lowering prices even further and setting off a vicious cycle. That this coincided with a slowdown in the US economy only made matters worse. Estimates are that US housing prices have dropped by almost 50% from their peak in 2006 in some cases. The declining value of the collateral means that lenders are left with less than the value of their loans and hence have to book losses.

How did this become a systemic crisis?

One major reason is that the original lenders had further sold their portfolios to other players in the market. There were also complex derivatives developed based on the loan portfolios, which were also sold to other players, some of whom then sold it on further and so on.

As a result, nobody is absolutely sure what the size of the losses will be when the dust ultimately settles down. Nobody is also very sure exactly who will take how much of a hit. It is also important to realise that the crisis has not affected only reckless lenders. For instance, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, which owned or guaranteed more than half of the roughly $12 trillion outstanding in home mortgages in the US, were widely perceived as being more prudent than most in their lending practices. However, the housing bust meant that they too had to suffer losses — $14 billion combined in the last four quarters - because of declining prices for their collateral and increased default rates.

The forced retreat of these two mortgage giants from the market, of course, only adds to every other player's woes

What has been the impact of the crisis?

Global banks and brokerages have had to write off an estimated $512 billion in sub-prime losses so far, with the largest hits taken by Citigroup ($55.1 bn) and Merrill Lynch ($52.2 bn). A little more than half of these losses, or $260 bn, have been suffered by US-based firms, $227 billion by European firms and a relatively modest $24 bn by Asian ones. Despite efforts by the US Federal Reserve to offer some financial assistance to the beleaguered financial sector, it has led to the collapse of Bear Sterns, one of the world's largest investment banks and securities trading firm. Bear Sterns was bought out by JP Morgan Chase with some help from the Fed.

The crisis has also seen Lehman Brothers - the fourth largest investment bank in the US - file for bankruptcy. Merrill Lynch has been bought out by Bank of America. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have effectively been nationalised to prevent them from going under.

Reports suggest that insurance major AIG (American Insurance Group) is also under severe pressure and has asked for a $40 bn bridge loan to tide over the crisis. If AIG also collapses, that would really test the entire financial sector.

How is the rest of the world affected?

Apart from the fact that banks based in other parts of the world also suffered losses from the subprime market, there are two major ways in which the effect is felt across the globe. First, the US is the biggest borrower in the world since most countries hold their foreign exchange reserves in dollars and invest them in US securities.

Thus, any crisis in the US has a direct bearing on the other countries, particularly with large reserves like Japan, China and - to a lesser extent - India. Also, since global equity markets are closely interlinked through institutional investors, any crisis affecting these investors sees a contagion effect throughout the world.

Moral Policing – India isn’t Taliban yet!!!

The other day while watching news I came across a news report in which some 40 goons barged into a Pub in Mangalore and started beating the hell out of young men and women present in the pub. They justified the action by telling that in India women should restrain from going to pubs and follow Indian culture. This is the point wherein I disagree with them and would like to ask these people “Is it an Indian culture that you infringe upon someone’s personal life and property”? I would just like to ask these people who have made them the moral police to decide what to be done. We are a great nation because we are a democratic country and give respect to each other’s personal life. I am also of the opinion that some moral policing is required in this country but it needs to be proper and not for some silly reason like this. We should be happy that ours is not Taliban ruled country where some silly organisation can come and decide, on behalf of others, what needs to be done. And we should discourage these kinds of actions. Because these small things can take serious turns for which we will repent in future. 

Award Nights – How much is too much?

Last night I watched the Star Screen Award night. It has been a long time since I watched one of these awards shows as I was at home and on the Republic Day eve, I did not have anything better to do. So I thought let’s give this award shows one more chance. There are quite a few reasons for not watching these shows. First, I feel these awards shows are all fixed. One can easily make out by seeing that some of the well deserved people never get the awards and all the stars (yes I m not talking of actors here) get the award not for their acting but for being popular. Second reason being, over the past few years the standard of the jokes in these awards ceremony has gone from bad to worse. And yesterday I was appalled to see the standard of the jokes. Sajid, Farha and Shreyas co-hosted the evening. The whole evening the trio made fun of movies like Dostana and Fashion. It’s not that I liked these movies but then there is a limit upto which you can take any jokes. And most of the time the jokes were below the belt. Finally Ashutosh Gowarikar got chance and he spoke his mind condemning the way the award ceremony was being hosted. I feel that only those people have right to make fun of others who have the courage to face the criticism. The response from Sajid after the backlash of Ashutosh was uncalled for. It showed he couldn’t take the criticism.

But it’s not that all the non-deserving people received the award. Some of the excellent performances did not go unnoticed. A special mention to the movie “A Wednesday” should be given. This is the kind of movie which you normally won’t except to take any award because Indian awards shows are not for talent but for popular. Still it managed to receive some of the better awards offered during the night. But one thing I could still connect to my rationality of not seeing the awards ceremony for the above mentioned reasons. And after seeing the ceremony I have decided I would not see these awards ceremony again (Until or unless I am bored to death and have nothing else to do).