Citius, Altius, Fortius. This is the motto of olympics. These three Latin words mean "Swifter, Higher, Stronger." These words are a source of motivation for the athletes all over the world to achieve excellence in sports. Olympics is not just a sports competition today but a question of national pride and honour throughout the world. Our country also participates in olympics. 80 years back, our hockey team announced arrival of India on international sports arena by winning a gold. Dream run continued till 1964. But from thereon, there is a haunting silence. We get a single medal sometimes in olympics and that is all our 1 billion nation has to show in world sports gala. Father of modern olympics, Pierre d Coubratine once said that participation is more important than winning. Our olympians have taken it to heart.
There were few olympics in between where we failed to won a single medal. Australia suffered same humiliation in 1976 olympics. They revamped the whole system and started to nurture talent from school and college level. Their trainees in government sports hostel do not have to worry about jobs and future. Government take care of everything. They are given proper exposure to foreign tournaments. Resuts were there to see when Australia finished fourth in overall medal tally in 2000 olympics. China did not send its team till 1984 olympics because they were against sending the team just for sake of participation. Today they are best sporting nation in world after US.
Well, I am not going to lecture about how India can improve its performance in olympics. It is of no use. Olympics are from 9-19 August. For sure from 20Th to end of august, we will see angry reactions from public and media. Our 24-hour TV channel will show clipping of people blaming players and federation for national humiliation. There will be articles in newspapers about how to produce champions at ground level. Yuck......I am bored of it man. You guys are doing same things in postmortems of last three olympics. I can bet if India win the champions trophy(of course cricket's guys.we cannot qualify for hockey's for last 4 years), the following month, everyone will forget about all this olympic fiasco. Well, you can ask why I am even bothering about debacle at olympics. It is not as important as injustice met out to our crickets in Sydney test match. Right!!!!!!!. We need a halle gebrselassie to remind our athletes about Citius, Altius, Fortius. Now I will not tell you about him. Try on google.
Friday, 18 July 2008
Thursday, 17 July 2008
Are we ready?
We are living in a difficult time. Price rice is on a roll. Share markets are falling. Suddenly, everyone is apprehensive about job security. People are running to trademark companies rather than small ventures which give hefty pay package. There is shortage of food and fuel world over. Everybody is getting hit. Cliches like booming India and India shining have suddenly become part of distant past. Well, last economic depression was two generation ago and even if I would have my grandfather with me today, he certainly would not be able to explain economic depression because mighty british empire took the hit that time.
Today, situation is different. Britain has lost too much muscle and our independent India is yet to gain power to face this crisis. In India, literacy rate has improved and pockets of people have also become heavier but still, we like to live in dreams. Our leaders make populist promises without sparing a thought about consequences. Who can forget that 60000 crore loan waiver for farmers or free electricity promises in state elections. And what about fight for distributing elctoral freebies like DVDs, TVs and cycles to voters during recent assenbley elections in Tamilnadu. This kind of irresponsible and short-term promises increase fiscal deficit which is more or less responsible for current crisis. According a report punlished in a leading national daily, atleast 10 different loan waiver packages have been declared for vidharba region alone in last 6 years.Suicides have continues throughout this period and there has been no improvement in economic situation of farmers. Where that money has gone? Who is answerable for such a utter waste of taxpayer's money?
If government is really serious about stopping current crisis from converting into a full-blown economic tragedy. it has to make long-term plans for improvement of agriculture. Current policies favour farmers who go for cash crops. So, most of farmers are going for cash crops rather than cereal crops. Due to this continous growing trend, today we have to import food grains after a gap of 30 years. Most of farmers who are under debt grow cereal crops. This discrepency has to be removed from the system. Government has to open the gates of foreign investment to increase the confidence of small investers. FDIs are responsible for recent bull-run of stock markets. These FDIs pull local investors like magnet. New sectors are needed to be identified.
Finally, we have to accept that everything is not in our governemnt control. For example, government cannot do anything about global oil prices. It cannot force Americans to go for shopping which was driving force behind double digit GDP growth of most of third world countries for last 5 years. But same measures can be taken to improve happiness quotient in our public. We can introduce social security plan for senior citizens and jobless peoples. This plan is operational in USA and UK. Some study of their implementation will be helpful in reducing chances of misuse of this facility. It will be a big relief to salaried people who are currently under severe trauma because of losses incurred by their american bosses and the farmers to whom one monsoon means end of the road. Again, key lies in its implementation. It will be successful only if it is properly monitored, accounts are maintained fairly and goverment have genuine zest for public welfare. At least, it will give believe to people that in this hour of crisis, they can bank on someone. Maybe, I am hoping for too much but we have to be ready for worst because this time we really have something to lose and there is no british empire to hide us. We have to face it straight on.
Today, situation is different. Britain has lost too much muscle and our independent India is yet to gain power to face this crisis. In India, literacy rate has improved and pockets of people have also become heavier but still, we like to live in dreams. Our leaders make populist promises without sparing a thought about consequences. Who can forget that 60000 crore loan waiver for farmers or free electricity promises in state elections. And what about fight for distributing elctoral freebies like DVDs, TVs and cycles to voters during recent assenbley elections in Tamilnadu. This kind of irresponsible and short-term promises increase fiscal deficit which is more or less responsible for current crisis. According a report punlished in a leading national daily, atleast 10 different loan waiver packages have been declared for vidharba region alone in last 6 years.Suicides have continues throughout this period and there has been no improvement in economic situation of farmers. Where that money has gone? Who is answerable for such a utter waste of taxpayer's money?
If government is really serious about stopping current crisis from converting into a full-blown economic tragedy. it has to make long-term plans for improvement of agriculture. Current policies favour farmers who go for cash crops. So, most of farmers are going for cash crops rather than cereal crops. Due to this continous growing trend, today we have to import food grains after a gap of 30 years. Most of farmers who are under debt grow cereal crops. This discrepency has to be removed from the system. Government has to open the gates of foreign investment to increase the confidence of small investers. FDIs are responsible for recent bull-run of stock markets. These FDIs pull local investors like magnet. New sectors are needed to be identified.
Finally, we have to accept that everything is not in our governemnt control. For example, government cannot do anything about global oil prices. It cannot force Americans to go for shopping which was driving force behind double digit GDP growth of most of third world countries for last 5 years. But same measures can be taken to improve happiness quotient in our public. We can introduce social security plan for senior citizens and jobless peoples. This plan is operational in USA and UK. Some study of their implementation will be helpful in reducing chances of misuse of this facility. It will be a big relief to salaried people who are currently under severe trauma because of losses incurred by their american bosses and the farmers to whom one monsoon means end of the road. Again, key lies in its implementation. It will be successful only if it is properly monitored, accounts are maintained fairly and goverment have genuine zest for public welfare. At least, it will give believe to people that in this hour of crisis, they can bank on someone. Maybe, I am hoping for too much but we have to be ready for worst because this time we really have something to lose and there is no british empire to hide us. We have to face it straight on.
Thursday, 26 June 2008
To be a Muslim
Few days back, I watched a hindi movie, Aamir. It was a movie about a person who has everything right about him and who deserved a happy and good life. He missed out on it because he is a muslim and his views do not match with religious hatemongers. Irony is that everybody looks at him with suspicion because of the general thinking after 9/11 that every muslim is a terrorist. And his muslim brothers are not ready to embrace him because he is one who is modern. educated and a person with rational thinking.
Leave aside movie, this is true about general atmosphere prevailing in Indian cities. Muslims gave away their identity easily with those burqas and topis. Dangerous thing is that they allowed themselves to be recognized as a saparate group who live as a flock. This perception has never allowed them to become part of mainstream. It is not that hindus are ready to embrace them. When I was in Delhi, I found muslims are limited to certain very old and poor areas. These were sub-standard all-muslim colonies of old delhi and turkman gate. Even in hyderabad, city is properly divided between hindu areas and muslim areas. My friends who were living there for 20 years warns me of going to charminar, the central point of old hyderabad. Even Banglore was same. Media played a special role in it. When a Ishant Sharma become successful, nobody points out that he is a hindu but when a Irfan Pathan became successful, everyone was gung-ho about a muslim doing well for India. Itis not that opportunities are not there but problem is that their co-workers generally practice minimum interaction policy with them and there are very people who can survive that suffocating environment of quite hostility. Reservations will worsen the situation. Indian middle class is paranoid with suspicion and fear. It is our failure that we fail to recognize a sizable section as our own.
We have to protect characters like Aamir because they are they are fighting on two fronts. We have to give power to them, believe to them that they are not alone in their fight against hatemongers and fundamentalists who want a big section of society languishing in dark age. I have found my Aamir long ago. You have to find yours.
Leave aside movie, this is true about general atmosphere prevailing in Indian cities. Muslims gave away their identity easily with those burqas and topis. Dangerous thing is that they allowed themselves to be recognized as a saparate group who live as a flock. This perception has never allowed them to become part of mainstream. It is not that hindus are ready to embrace them. When I was in Delhi, I found muslims are limited to certain very old and poor areas. These were sub-standard all-muslim colonies of old delhi and turkman gate. Even in hyderabad, city is properly divided between hindu areas and muslim areas. My friends who were living there for 20 years warns me of going to charminar, the central point of old hyderabad. Even Banglore was same. Media played a special role in it. When a Ishant Sharma become successful, nobody points out that he is a hindu but when a Irfan Pathan became successful, everyone was gung-ho about a muslim doing well for India. Itis not that opportunities are not there but problem is that their co-workers generally practice minimum interaction policy with them and there are very people who can survive that suffocating environment of quite hostility. Reservations will worsen the situation. Indian middle class is paranoid with suspicion and fear. It is our failure that we fail to recognize a sizable section as our own.
We have to protect characters like Aamir because they are they are fighting on two fronts. We have to give power to them, believe to them that they are not alone in their fight against hatemongers and fundamentalists who want a big section of society languishing in dark age. I have found my Aamir long ago. You have to find yours.
Friday, 6 June 2008
Fly Smart
I don't whether you are aware of the title or not but people who frequently travels by air can easily identify it as tag line of a domestic airliner. These days, domestic airlines are raining in India. In every six months, new airlines are coming up. But that does not mean that quality is improving. Well, my experience has told me that at least in airlines industry, quantity and quality are inversely proportional. I think I should return to 'fly smart' airlines. Recently I got a chance to travel from Bombay to Delhi via that airliner. Most of my friends had warned me in advance that these flights are rarely on time. Well, I was lucky that I became a party to that rare occasion. When I boarded the flight, I was searching for those pretty faces and greetings. Well there was none. None pretty faces do not had time to say even a hello. Plane was as worse as it could be. My seat adjuster was absent from its place. Plane was like someone has put it on runway directly from a warehouse. When treatment of passengers by support staff was very rude. They were giving a definite feeling that we were unwanted there. You can say why I am so much fuss about these petty things. After all, I have to tolerate this only for 2 hours. Well, I spent a good amount of money for travel and I have right to expect good service. I was thinking at that time of tag line 'fly smart'. This airliner is owned by a big bollywood actress and a business tycoon. I don't know whether they are taking revenge on us for their own poor traveling experience . It is not that only this airlines provide this kind of treatment. I had a terrible experience with other private airlines when I went to them for cancellation of ticket. I don't know what is qualification for sitting on ticket counters but we can expect them to understand simple english. It was written in terms and condition section that tickets can be cancelled 2 hours prior to departure. Well, those guys were adamant that they will cancel ticket only exactly two hours before departure. I had to don the cap of english tutor to the people who desperately don't want to learn the things. These incidents not one off incidents. Air travel has become a compulsion for the people who are working very far from their home towns and cannot afford two days of travelling in train in a professional environment which is all about time-constraints. I am not against private airlines. these are all responsible for fall in airfares. But they are not providing service for pennies. Airfares are still not that low that you can ignore poor service. Next time, when you try to book a flight, you better check with your friends and relatives and remember the tag line 'fly smart'.
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