Ban Harbhajan for slapping Sreesanth

If it is true that Harbhajan slapped Sreesanth, BCCI should take firm action against him. However bad Marco Materazzi taunted Zidane in the world cup, Zidane's head butt was not justified (This is in a sport that is much more violent than cricket). Similarly whatever Sreesanth had done to invoke Harbhajan, a slap is unwarranted and not justified. BCCI should take firm action after a quick and proper enquiry. He should be banned for at least a few matches and a huge fine should be laid on him.

Weed

By this slap, Harbhajan has let himself down and made the whole nation to doubt his earlier actions during the Australian controversy. He has also given fodder to the likes of Mathew Hayden who has already called him 'an obnoxious weed'. Now even the Indians would start asking whether he is really an obnoxious weed to cricket? Expect the Australians to get back on Harbhajan with full force.

Indian Premier League

But during this controversy there will be one group of people who will laugh their way to the bank - Organizers of Indian Premier League. This controversy will generate more publicity for Indian Premier League and will shoot its television ratings further. Lalit Modi would be thanking his stars for this controversy.

NDTV Office Attacked in Gujarat

Ahmedabad Office of NDTV, India's largest private producer of news and current affairs, has been vandalized by a Hindu fundamentalist group. Not because the NDTV reported wrong about the group... Not Because they hurt the religious sentiments... Not even because NDTV sided with the minority groups... It was just because they included "Picasso of India" as one of the contestants in their opinion poll for Bharat Ratna, . Read the news here.

While some of the experts may use this incident to point an trend of increasing attacks of Hindu fundamentalist parties and their high intolerance, I am left numb with the question: How can a group get the courage to attack the regional office of India's largest television Production House? Is not the same courage that emboldened the Congress members to attack the Sikhs after the death of Indra Gandhi? Is it not the same courage that emboldened BJP & Shiv Sena to attack the Muslims during Gujarat & Mumbai Riots respectively? Is not the same courage that emboldens thousands of politicians to accept bribes? A Courage fueled by an immunity from punishment. A Courage that stems from the fact that the law would not be able to touch them. A Courage that symbolizes the complete breakdown of law and order in the state. A Courage that scares every person on the rough end(Media in this incident).

God Save Gujarat!

Indians are Hypocrites

If Leader Page article in 'The Hindu'(Tuesday, December 11) - "India in the World - How we see ourself" has to be believed, we, the Indians are hypocrites and that too the worst. According to the survey, on which the article was based, 93 percent of Indians agree that our culture was superior to others (we topped the list). But still... we believe we need special protection against foreign influence. [Since it is the rule of the game that inferior product or service wins the battle against superior product or service... :D]. Until here, the author - Meera Nanda was doing o.k., then she started jumping to show figures to substantiate her own hypothesis rather than talking about the trends from the survey.

For example, according to the author, Materialism = Free markets . (Meera, Can you show me a economy book that explains this?] Also according to the author, the separation between religion and state means the political leaders should never bow before sadhus or saints or there should not be any idols in government buildings. Sorry, until now i was thinking that separation between religion and state means that religion plays no role in the decision of the state. (Though i would prefer any government property to be free of idols or pictures of gods or goddess as a mark of a secularity)

But the worst part of the article was that the author never points that the sample size was just 2043 people(who represent a billion!!!) and that it was disproportionately urban(as stated in the report). Also because of the cultural differences, different terms would mean different things to different people. For example, free market would mean liberalization in India, while it may mean free market in health sector for Americans. An article that shows that writer bent on shouting/deriding India does not need a reason to do so.

P.S: Last Sentence - Exaggerated
If you want to read the report - read 47 Nation Pew Global Attitude Survey & Trends Topline.

Indian Postal Service - Shame on You!

While we are always happy to proclaim about our Indian Postal office as the most widely distributed post office system in the world, it makes us feel ashamed when things like this happen.

"Amit Agarwal's (India's first professional blogger and IIT-ian)Google Adsense Christmas gift was opened in transit and USB Memory card was removed. "

People with Disability - A Neglected Group

Disabled people are the most neglected and the most excluded group in India. Here are a few facts from the recent World Bank Report - People with Disabilities in India :-

• Children with disabilities are 5 times more likely to be out of school than average
• Employment of People with Disability(PWD) among large private firms was only 0.3% of the workforce in the late 1990s. Among the multinational companies, it is far worse with only 0.05% being PWD. Remember... this is the situation when at least one in twelve households has a member with disability.
• 50% of Households still believe the disability to be a "curse of God" resulting in social stigma against PWD
  
• Low Educational Attainment, Poor Employment Prospects (Employment rate among PWD fell from 43% in 1991 to 38% in 2002 n the midst of high economic growth) and stigma mean that PWD and their households are notably worse off than average

Sad thing is that even economic growth cannot alter the situation of PWD since economic growth can neither decrease the number of disabled nor provide them with employment prospects.Even simple tasks like traveling or entering a building is quite tough since these group of people are never taken into account while planning or construction. In fact none of the buildings in IIM - Indore are PWD friendly.

It is time we moved from just commitments to outcomes based implementation to bring out a difference in the lives of 40 to 80 million Indians with disability.

"The problem is not how to wipe out the differences but how to unite with the differences intact - Rabindranath Tagore

Yoga and Christianity: Are they compatible

When NDTV news reported about "Two Church halls in U.K. banning Yoga", it might have been a shock for a few Indians. But for the Indian Christian community, it is something that has been under discussion for quite some time. (Though the Indian Catholic Church immediately expressed its displeasure of the decision of 2 church halls).

Both the proponents and opponents of Yoga in Christian community have their own reasons to believe in their stand. While the proponents talk about the multiple benefits of Yoga - e.g. one of my devout christian friends and the college chess captain explains how the breathing exercises of Yoga has helped him in Chess games by increasing his concentration. The opponents talk about the mutually exclusive view points of Yoga and Christianity about God, Man, Man's fundamental problem and its solution. Read for yourself why Yoga and Christianity are incompatible @ "Probe.org - Yoga and Christianity: Are they compatible".

But my first dash with Yoga was enough to take my own stand of keeping myself away from Yoga, in spite of its multiple benefits. "Surya namaskar", the first exercise that was taught to me, made me feel uncomfortable, just by its name. (Remember, it is a blasphemous thing for both Christians and Muslims to worship anything/anyone other than God). And i feel more uncomfortable at places where Yoga is made compulsory.

P.S: Major reason for writing this post is not to explore the compatibility of Yoga with Christianity, but just to remind that there may be a few among us who don't carry the same high opinion about Yoga as a lot of other Indians do.

Reservation in TamilNadu - My Opinion

This was my toughest post ever. On one hand, it is the first time someone(Karthi) requested me to write on an issue. In the other hand, I fear my opinions may hurt a few people including a few friends of me. That was one of the reasons I consciously avoided posting on the Reservation issue on my blog. (Even this post has been there in my blog for more than a month for want of publishing) Another constraint is that - the only demographic profile that i know of is TamilNadu making me ineligible to comment on the whole of India. So restricting the reservation issue to TamilNadu to make it much more meaningful for the people who read this.

Is the reservations really bad?
I have studied four years in a college which has around 60% caste-based reservation but none of us cared or gave a damn for this issue. We accept it as a reality and found a way to live with it. A few things I observed from my U.G. College is

• The policy of having around 60% reservation in my U.G. college ensured a very good representation of students from rural, semi-urban and poor families. This diversity in Anna university really benefited me as a person since I was exposed to certain hard realities of life[like how important 50 paisa is to a few people with economical constraints - have waited with my friends for hours in bus stop to climb a white board bus & leaving all the yellow board buses just because they were a few paisa costly]. This even made my transition from 'poor' CEG to 'rich' IIM a bit difficult
  
• Most of the students who entered the college through General Quota came from the developed urban cities
  
• Most of the students who went to M.S. for higher studies belong to the forward caste since Exposure & Networks that a forward caste student had was greatly superior to that of other caste students
• My Class Topper entered the college through the quota
  
• But I am also sure that the average of the SC/ST students will be much lower than that of other forward caste students.
  
• If somebody says that caste does not play any role in TamilNadu. Just think why Arvindaswamy & Madhavan are favorite actors for Manirandhanam. If you say it is only in Cine-field, then read this. In 2005, a retiring HOD of a well known Government supported Engineering college in central TamilNadu filed a FIR under TN anti-conversion bill[Only case of under that bill in the state] against his successor since he does not want someone who did not belong to his caste to occupy the post(that has belonged to his caste for ages)

Ok. But what does the sons and daughters of the FC people had did to deserve this punishment of caste based reservation?

The network and exposure that their parents had developed is a very important advantage for them. For example, if my parents had ever lived in North India, they would have ensured that I learnt Hindi in my young age itself. (My children would surely learn Hindi!!). Similarly the learning & experience effects and also the network built is a big advantage to them which can be offset by reservation. But still I believe there are lot of other better ways of affirmative action.

My Personal Stand - I don't welcome reservation but I don't oppose reservation too...

P.S: I am more a socialist than a capitalist... And expecting my arguments to be shredded into pieces in the comments section.. :)