“We don't need no education
We dont need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone!”
- Pink Floyd, Another Brick in the Wall
A decision that many parents really think through is the school that they enroll their children in. Usually the process involves going through many and eliminating according to individual criteria, after which parents battle with themselves to overcome ‘letting go’ issues, and they finally send their child away for a few hours each day to become better people.
In that context, teachers are seen as extremely influential people in a child’s life. While having almost complete authority on children during their time at school, they play a huge role in moulding those impressionable minds. So it’s scary when that power is used without responsibility. The condition is reflective of the spate of corporal punishment cases that the country has recently witnessed. Caning and other forms of corporal punishment weren’t that unheard of a few years ago. But it’s appalling that these statistics raise their ugly head in an age where there is a growing awareness on not physically abusing a child in an effort to get them to obey.
· A 15-year old Delhi schoolgirl , who lay comatose for three months after being hit on the head with a stick by a teacher, died this March.
· A 6th standard child was beaten up by a group of teachers for failing to complete her homework.
· A 4th standard child in a Hassan government school was beaten by her teacher for asking for more food at lunchtime.
The Supreme Court of India has banned corporal punishment in Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Goa and Tamil Nadu. Proposed guidelines in the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights make it illegal to even scold a child or call them names like ‘stupid’ and ‘mindless’ in class. Despite these meaures, plenty of cases still take place, the majortiy of which go unreported.
Children are helpless. They depend on adults to guide them through life until they arrive at a stage where they can do it themselves. Misusing that position and delibrately inflicting pain on them in an attempt to ‘discipline’ them is nothing short of perverse. Chirdren have a right to attain an eductaion in an environment that is free from fear and abuse, physical or otherwise. ‘Grown-ups’ who fail to understand that are obviously the ones in depserate need of an education.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Girl Power!
This was a really great ad I saw the other day:
Shah Rukh Khan – Actor
Earns Rs.247 per minute
Amitabh Bachan – Actor
Earns Rs. 255 per minute
Mukesh Ambani – Industrialist
Earns Rs. 413 per minute
Sachin Tendulkar – Cricketer
Earns Rs. 1163 per minute
Indra Nooyi – CFO, Pepsico
Earns Rs. 2911 per minute
And that's just the beginning of the many fabulous things she's capable of
Don’t abort the girl child.
Disclaimer: I am not a feminist and refuse to be considered as one. I believe in the goodness of men having had several great guys in my life beginning with my father and both my grandfathers. I am simply a pragmatist and a firm optimist who belives that women have a pivotal role to play in the world's walk towards progress.
Shah Rukh Khan – Actor
Earns Rs.247 per minute
Amitabh Bachan – Actor
Earns Rs. 255 per minute
Mukesh Ambani – Industrialist
Earns Rs. 413 per minute
Sachin Tendulkar – Cricketer
Earns Rs. 1163 per minute
Indra Nooyi – CFO, Pepsico
Earns Rs. 2911 per minute
And that's just the beginning of the many fabulous things she's capable of
Don’t abort the girl child.
Disclaimer: I am not a feminist and refuse to be considered as one. I believe in the goodness of men having had several great guys in my life beginning with my father and both my grandfathers. I am simply a pragmatist and a firm optimist who belives that women have a pivotal role to play in the world's walk towards progress.
Friday, April 4, 2008
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Mediocre Movie Madness
I was looking at a recapitulation of movies that have hit the silver screen this year and I was disappointed. Apart from one movie that documented the love story of two royal Mughals, pratcically all the others were centred around the industry from which they were generated in the first place - Bollywood. They were half-hearted stories of struggling actors in India's filmdom, of starry-eyed hopefuls and other painfully mind-numbing nuances that dominate desi tinseltown. My question: Who cares?
I understand that creativity levels cannot always be through the roof. But I'd say that that's true of individuals at different points in time. Not of an entire fraternity for an entire season! That's plain ridiculous.
I've never been one for comparisons. But it's hard to ignore some of the brilliant stuff that comes out of foreign markets. And no, I don't mean just Hollywood. Besides American masterpieces, it only requires a glance at Italian, French and sometimes Oriental cinema to see the facts for yourself.
As a firm movie-buff and one who has great faith in India's talent, it is my earnest appeal to the country's scriptwriters and other media folk to get their act together and push themselves a little further. To challenge themselves and come up with work whose viewpoint extends beyond the tips of their nose. Because frankly, if this is the state of affairs right now, I'm in mortal fear of the prospects of the future of this industry.
Indian fashion has already proved beyond doubt that it is capable of holding its ground in an international arena. There's no reason why Indian cinema should be an exception.
It's only April. There's still time to save this year. I'm also a firm optimist.
I understand that creativity levels cannot always be through the roof. But I'd say that that's true of individuals at different points in time. Not of an entire fraternity for an entire season! That's plain ridiculous.
I've never been one for comparisons. But it's hard to ignore some of the brilliant stuff that comes out of foreign markets. And no, I don't mean just Hollywood. Besides American masterpieces, it only requires a glance at Italian, French and sometimes Oriental cinema to see the facts for yourself.
As a firm movie-buff and one who has great faith in India's talent, it is my earnest appeal to the country's scriptwriters and other media folk to get their act together and push themselves a little further. To challenge themselves and come up with work whose viewpoint extends beyond the tips of their nose. Because frankly, if this is the state of affairs right now, I'm in mortal fear of the prospects of the future of this industry.
Indian fashion has already proved beyond doubt that it is capable of holding its ground in an international arena. There's no reason why Indian cinema should be an exception.
It's only April. There's still time to save this year. I'm also a firm optimist.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Desert Flower, Desert Rose
It's not for nothing that the term 'woman of subsatnce' was coined. Women, all women, really are made of substance - some just more than others.
I was reading model, Waris Dirie's story online recently and was shocked at how much she has been through and has still managed to carve out a constructive life for herself.
She was born into a nomadic African tribe and her childhood home consisted of a portable grass hut. At the age of five, she recalls being held down by her mother while another woman cut away her genitals. She was tightly stitched up afterwards, leaving an opening only the size of a matchstick that naturally made it difficult to even walk. Imagine being robbed of your womanhood.
Though she managed to survive this brutality, her sister and two cousins were not so lucky. At 13, she fled Africa after being promised to a 61-year old man in marriage in exchange for five camels. The limits that those in power in a male-dominated society are capable of pushing is distressing. Suppression of women is seen as almost a validation of that power.
Waris reached Britain, where she stayed illegally for a while, surviving by scrubbing floors at McDonald's until she was dicovered by photographer, Terence Donovan, who put her face on the cover of the Pirelli calendar. It's amazing how much she had to do at such a young age in order to have a shot at a semblance of a normal life.
Today, she spearheads a strong campaign against female genital mutiliation.
Women like Waris inspire others to challenge themselves.
I salute her courage, her spirit, her woman.
I was reading model, Waris Dirie's story online recently and was shocked at how much she has been through and has still managed to carve out a constructive life for herself.
She was born into a nomadic African tribe and her childhood home consisted of a portable grass hut. At the age of five, she recalls being held down by her mother while another woman cut away her genitals. She was tightly stitched up afterwards, leaving an opening only the size of a matchstick that naturally made it difficult to even walk. Imagine being robbed of your womanhood.
Though she managed to survive this brutality, her sister and two cousins were not so lucky. At 13, she fled Africa after being promised to a 61-year old man in marriage in exchange for five camels. The limits that those in power in a male-dominated society are capable of pushing is distressing. Suppression of women is seen as almost a validation of that power.
Waris reached Britain, where she stayed illegally for a while, surviving by scrubbing floors at McDonald's until she was dicovered by photographer, Terence Donovan, who put her face on the cover of the Pirelli calendar. It's amazing how much she had to do at such a young age in order to have a shot at a semblance of a normal life.
Today, she spearheads a strong campaign against female genital mutiliation.
Women like Waris inspire others to challenge themselves.
I salute her courage, her spirit, her woman.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Meeting a Stalwart
It wasn’t chatter, it wasn’t banter…it was superbly presented matter.
I attended a talk by developmental journalist, P Sainath the other day. Before you think that I’ll head off on a wild rant about how perfect the man was until this space begins to resemble a literary shrine, let me assure you that I intend to do no such thing. But it’s important to know why I chose to write about him at all.
I didn’t know much about P Sainath before I attended this talk, largely because rural reporting and all related doesn’t really interest me. I am a much more materialistic person and the simple life doesn’t fascinate me. That’s just who I am and I’m OK being honest about it. So when the man walked in through the doors of Senate Hall, Central College on a sultry afternoon dressed in a khadi brown waistcoat on a white kurta pyjama, I thought to myself, “Oh no, not another intellectual who’s going to try and convert me to numb my fashion sensibilities and don a similar brown garb in an effort to become a better journalist.” Boy, was I wrong.
From the moment P Sainath began speaking, he had an audience, an entire room filled with people, who were keenly hanging on to every last word that he uttered, simply because it made so much sense. The man who spends close to over 300 days in a year in interior India began by saying that the biggest problem today was the divide between mass media and mass reality – the media wasn’t reflecting pertinent issues that the public needed to know. And one such issue was the crisis plaguing Indian farmers. The community that puts food on the plates of the rest of the nation, goes to bed hungry every night. Scores of them have committed suicide in a very short span leaving their families subject to financial and sexual harassment. Where does the injustice end?
Another glaring disparity is between the recently released Forbes billionaire list that boasts of a substantial Indian presence versus India’s position as one of the highest on the World Hunger Index. Who’s about to explain that?
What really struck a chord with me was that he repeatedly addressed the young journalists and student journalists in the room. It felt wonderful to be given that kind of importance when we’re usually the lowest rung of an educated gathering. He gave some important advice as well. Not the empty nonsense that fades away after the applause dies down. It's advice that’s likely to ring in my ears for as long as I choose to be a journalist. Those words were that, the success of a journalist depends on how relevant they make themselves to the great processes of their time. If you’re out of sync with that vital component, you can’t expect to serve much of a purpose.
Finally, three points stuck with me at the end of the talk. The first was P Sainath’s tip that journalists should never lose their sense of questioning, their skepticism. But he clarified that point by saying that there was a fine difference between skepticism and cynicism. Skepticism breeds questioning but cynicism breeds negativity. The second point was his statement, “What the heart cannot feel, they eye cannot see”, which is so true. If you don’t really connect with a topic don't try and be passionate about it. There’s no bigger turn off and it’s the easiest deception to spot. Finally, he ended with Don Maclean’s lyrics from the song, Homeless Brother…”Where wealth has no beginning and poverty has no end”. That’s one of the most haunting lines I’ve come across in a long time. And it was so relevant to the topic of discussion.
Great going Mr. Sainath. By the way, you actually look really good in that khadi brown waistcoat. That’s because I get why you’re wearing it. You’ve convinced me. Obviously, your heart and deeds are perfectly in sync.
I attended a talk by developmental journalist, P Sainath the other day. Before you think that I’ll head off on a wild rant about how perfect the man was until this space begins to resemble a literary shrine, let me assure you that I intend to do no such thing. But it’s important to know why I chose to write about him at all.
I didn’t know much about P Sainath before I attended this talk, largely because rural reporting and all related doesn’t really interest me. I am a much more materialistic person and the simple life doesn’t fascinate me. That’s just who I am and I’m OK being honest about it. So when the man walked in through the doors of Senate Hall, Central College on a sultry afternoon dressed in a khadi brown waistcoat on a white kurta pyjama, I thought to myself, “Oh no, not another intellectual who’s going to try and convert me to numb my fashion sensibilities and don a similar brown garb in an effort to become a better journalist.” Boy, was I wrong.
From the moment P Sainath began speaking, he had an audience, an entire room filled with people, who were keenly hanging on to every last word that he uttered, simply because it made so much sense. The man who spends close to over 300 days in a year in interior India began by saying that the biggest problem today was the divide between mass media and mass reality – the media wasn’t reflecting pertinent issues that the public needed to know. And one such issue was the crisis plaguing Indian farmers. The community that puts food on the plates of the rest of the nation, goes to bed hungry every night. Scores of them have committed suicide in a very short span leaving their families subject to financial and sexual harassment. Where does the injustice end?
Another glaring disparity is between the recently released Forbes billionaire list that boasts of a substantial Indian presence versus India’s position as one of the highest on the World Hunger Index. Who’s about to explain that?
What really struck a chord with me was that he repeatedly addressed the young journalists and student journalists in the room. It felt wonderful to be given that kind of importance when we’re usually the lowest rung of an educated gathering. He gave some important advice as well. Not the empty nonsense that fades away after the applause dies down. It's advice that’s likely to ring in my ears for as long as I choose to be a journalist. Those words were that, the success of a journalist depends on how relevant they make themselves to the great processes of their time. If you’re out of sync with that vital component, you can’t expect to serve much of a purpose.
Finally, three points stuck with me at the end of the talk. The first was P Sainath’s tip that journalists should never lose their sense of questioning, their skepticism. But he clarified that point by saying that there was a fine difference between skepticism and cynicism. Skepticism breeds questioning but cynicism breeds negativity. The second point was his statement, “What the heart cannot feel, they eye cannot see”, which is so true. If you don’t really connect with a topic don't try and be passionate about it. There’s no bigger turn off and it’s the easiest deception to spot. Finally, he ended with Don Maclean’s lyrics from the song, Homeless Brother…”Where wealth has no beginning and poverty has no end”. That’s one of the most haunting lines I’ve come across in a long time. And it was so relevant to the topic of discussion.
Great going Mr. Sainath. By the way, you actually look really good in that khadi brown waistcoat. That’s because I get why you’re wearing it. You’ve convinced me. Obviously, your heart and deeds are perfectly in sync.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Nip, Tuck and Other Such Clinical Terms for a Crime
“Cut my life into pieces
This is my last resort
Suffocation
No Breathing
…Do you even care if I die bleeding?”
- Papa Roach
It’s an issue that’s finally garnering public and the media’s attention. The occurrence that has silently existed for centuries is finally evoking worldwide protest. And it’s about time. A practice such as this if allowed to continue unchecked can only spell disaster for one of the least empowered groups of people – children and women.
Female circumcision. Or more accurately known as female genital cutting/mutilation. The term itself credits a wince.
Widely practiced in Africa and Indonesia, female circumcision involves partial or total removal of the external female genitalia for cultural, religious or another non-medical reasons. Unlike self-consent procedures such as gender reassignment and vaginal reconstructive surgery, this process is carried out with parental consent as it is generally performed on a minor. That means that the child, usually between the age of four to eight years, though the operation can be done anytime between infancy to adolescence, has no say in the irreversible alteration that her anatomy undergoes. Considering the tender age of the patient at the time of operation, they have little knowledge of what is being done to them, making dissent almost impossible. It results in them being robbed of health and imposed with a lifetime of hardship.
Practiced in African and Indonesian Islamic communities, opinion among the larger Muslim society regarding female circumcision ranges from forbidden to obligatory, though it is not commanded by the Quran. Hence, majority of Muslims don’t practice it.
While male circumcision is known to have some known health benefits, its female equivalent has none. On the contrary, it can cause infections, obstructed urine and menstrual blood flow, infertility and even death through shock, immense pain or excessive bleeding, when done without administering anesthesia or use of sterile instruments. In parts of Africa, girls are even stitched up with materials as crude as brambles. Reasons for performing this surgery includes increase of matrimonial opportunities, prevention of promiscuity and loyalty to one’s husband, reduction of sexual pleasure but enhanced male sexual performance and pleasure.
But let’s put the gruesome details aside for a minute. The cause for greatest concern is misinterpretation of faith, giving room for abuse of those who have no voice to protest. Radical clerics take to the pulpits, vociferously recommending this unnecessary measure in the name of religion and tradition. What’s scariest is that such steps often find their way into mainstream society over a period of time – almost like crediting a lie makes it seem true after a while. And then there’s no saying until where the madness can extend. What’s next – breast ironing that’s practiced in Cameroon or the well known foot binding native to China? It’s easy to see how such practices solely torture a woman’s body, either for male satisfaction or simply because it is possible to do so.
Somalian-born model, Waris Dirie, who was in the news recently after going missing for three days in Belgium, strongly advocated against female circumcision – something she was subjected to as a child. The WHO is trying hard to abolish the practice. With notable figures and major organisations representing the cause, there is hope that it will soon fade away. But until then, it’s helpless little girls who desperately need to be saved from a deed that gains ground by the suppression of women.
Read Waris's powerful story in her autobiography, Desert Flower.
This is my last resort
Suffocation
No Breathing
…Do you even care if I die bleeding?”
- Papa Roach
It’s an issue that’s finally garnering public and the media’s attention. The occurrence that has silently existed for centuries is finally evoking worldwide protest. And it’s about time. A practice such as this if allowed to continue unchecked can only spell disaster for one of the least empowered groups of people – children and women.
Female circumcision. Or more accurately known as female genital cutting/mutilation. The term itself credits a wince.
Widely practiced in Africa and Indonesia, female circumcision involves partial or total removal of the external female genitalia for cultural, religious or another non-medical reasons. Unlike self-consent procedures such as gender reassignment and vaginal reconstructive surgery, this process is carried out with parental consent as it is generally performed on a minor. That means that the child, usually between the age of four to eight years, though the operation can be done anytime between infancy to adolescence, has no say in the irreversible alteration that her anatomy undergoes. Considering the tender age of the patient at the time of operation, they have little knowledge of what is being done to them, making dissent almost impossible. It results in them being robbed of health and imposed with a lifetime of hardship.
Practiced in African and Indonesian Islamic communities, opinion among the larger Muslim society regarding female circumcision ranges from forbidden to obligatory, though it is not commanded by the Quran. Hence, majority of Muslims don’t practice it.
While male circumcision is known to have some known health benefits, its female equivalent has none. On the contrary, it can cause infections, obstructed urine and menstrual blood flow, infertility and even death through shock, immense pain or excessive bleeding, when done without administering anesthesia or use of sterile instruments. In parts of Africa, girls are even stitched up with materials as crude as brambles. Reasons for performing this surgery includes increase of matrimonial opportunities, prevention of promiscuity and loyalty to one’s husband, reduction of sexual pleasure but enhanced male sexual performance and pleasure.
But let’s put the gruesome details aside for a minute. The cause for greatest concern is misinterpretation of faith, giving room for abuse of those who have no voice to protest. Radical clerics take to the pulpits, vociferously recommending this unnecessary measure in the name of religion and tradition. What’s scariest is that such steps often find their way into mainstream society over a period of time – almost like crediting a lie makes it seem true after a while. And then there’s no saying until where the madness can extend. What’s next – breast ironing that’s practiced in Cameroon or the well known foot binding native to China? It’s easy to see how such practices solely torture a woman’s body, either for male satisfaction or simply because it is possible to do so.
Somalian-born model, Waris Dirie, who was in the news recently after going missing for three days in Belgium, strongly advocated against female circumcision – something she was subjected to as a child. The WHO is trying hard to abolish the practice. With notable figures and major organisations representing the cause, there is hope that it will soon fade away. But until then, it’s helpless little girls who desperately need to be saved from a deed that gains ground by the suppression of women.
Read Waris's powerful story in her autobiography, Desert Flower.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
The Indian Billionaire Club
The results are out. The game’s gotten hotter. The Forbes Billionaires list 2008 boasts a substantial Indian presence. India is shining.
Of course, such lists and statistics are no more than an overview of the stock market on the day that the list was composed. However, the sizeable number of Indians that dominate the top slots on the coveted index indicates something much more profound.
India is shining for a reason.
Few other countries in South East Asia, barring China, are producing globally competitive companies the way India is. In fact, the region is almost conspicuous for its failure to do so. Their enterprises are not serving much further than the home country. This works to India’s advantage, with its location among sluggish neighbours enhancing the value of its business successes.
Apart from China’s Lenovo and Singapore’s Singapore Airlines, there aren’t too many internationally-recognised business houses to compete with India’s global players of Tata Steel, Ranbaxy and Wipro, with the exception of real-estate giant, DLF, which is wholly national. Investors prefer putting their money in the Indian market, which offers so many more options.
India has turned into a giant ‘wealth creating creature’, with its productivity increasing rapidly. Owing to its huge managerial talent pool, it has developed into a ‘growing economy’ – an alive, intensely competitive system that is acutely sensitive to prices and functions on the principle of providing maximum value to its customers.
But this hasn’t happened overnight.
It takes more than being large for a company to make it ‘big’ in an international arena. According to Economist, it either needs to build a brand that is valued world over, develop innovative technology or exercise an admired business method. Indian businesses dealing on foreign shores seem to have at least one of these concepts down pat. Take Wipro, for example. The International Association of Outsourcing Professionals ranks it the highest Indian IT provider and it enjoys a 300-plus clientele, across US, UK and Japan and 50 of the Fortune 500 companies. Forrester Research has also termed its offshore model ‘unique among the larger players in the security consulting space’.
A stark difference between Indian undertakings and several big companies of other countries is that much of their financial support doesn’t extend too far beyond their own friends and family. This causes them to remain under archaic, mediocre managements that are generally controlled by patriarchal owners. The scene in India is ironically different, despite us being a country that has roots in similar professional structures. Tata Sons maintains a minority stake in Tata Steel, leaving daily operations to be handled by managers. Even if administration remains within the family, in most cases shareholders can breathe easy knowing that Cornell-educated Ratan Tata, Stanford-educated Azim Premji and Wharton-educated Aditya Mittal are qualified to manage their massive investments.
Indians are now heading major multinationals – Vikram Pandit at Citibank, Indra Nooyi at Pepsico and Shantanu Narayen at Adobe Systems. Indians are also acquiring foreign companies – Arcelor-Mittal, Corus taken over by Tata and Vijay Mallya’s all-cash acquisition of scotch whisky maker, Whyte & Mackay.
All of the above has contributed to the revamping of the Indian economy, making it a destination that the world is quickly sitting up and taking notice of.
Bharti Telecoms, headed by Sunil Mittal (4th richest Indian and featured on this year’s Forbes list), has recently launched a calling card in US, aimed at NRIs. It offers competitive rates for those calling India from US, compared to other telecom service providers. This ability of Indian companies to identify specific needs in alien markets, clubbed with the added advantage of a huge Indian population spread across the globe, will ensure that they continue to excel overseas. The Ambani brothers, the Mittals and the Tatas will laugh all the way to the bank for several more years and the Indian billionaire club will only swell. Now that’s pretty swell.
Of course, such lists and statistics are no more than an overview of the stock market on the day that the list was composed. However, the sizeable number of Indians that dominate the top slots on the coveted index indicates something much more profound.
India is shining for a reason.
Few other countries in South East Asia, barring China, are producing globally competitive companies the way India is. In fact, the region is almost conspicuous for its failure to do so. Their enterprises are not serving much further than the home country. This works to India’s advantage, with its location among sluggish neighbours enhancing the value of its business successes.
Apart from China’s Lenovo and Singapore’s Singapore Airlines, there aren’t too many internationally-recognised business houses to compete with India’s global players of Tata Steel, Ranbaxy and Wipro, with the exception of real-estate giant, DLF, which is wholly national. Investors prefer putting their money in the Indian market, which offers so many more options.
India has turned into a giant ‘wealth creating creature’, with its productivity increasing rapidly. Owing to its huge managerial talent pool, it has developed into a ‘growing economy’ – an alive, intensely competitive system that is acutely sensitive to prices and functions on the principle of providing maximum value to its customers.
But this hasn’t happened overnight.
It takes more than being large for a company to make it ‘big’ in an international arena. According to Economist, it either needs to build a brand that is valued world over, develop innovative technology or exercise an admired business method. Indian businesses dealing on foreign shores seem to have at least one of these concepts down pat. Take Wipro, for example. The International Association of Outsourcing Professionals ranks it the highest Indian IT provider and it enjoys a 300-plus clientele, across US, UK and Japan and 50 of the Fortune 500 companies. Forrester Research has also termed its offshore model ‘unique among the larger players in the security consulting space’.
A stark difference between Indian undertakings and several big companies of other countries is that much of their financial support doesn’t extend too far beyond their own friends and family. This causes them to remain under archaic, mediocre managements that are generally controlled by patriarchal owners. The scene in India is ironically different, despite us being a country that has roots in similar professional structures. Tata Sons maintains a minority stake in Tata Steel, leaving daily operations to be handled by managers. Even if administration remains within the family, in most cases shareholders can breathe easy knowing that Cornell-educated Ratan Tata, Stanford-educated Azim Premji and Wharton-educated Aditya Mittal are qualified to manage their massive investments.
Indians are now heading major multinationals – Vikram Pandit at Citibank, Indra Nooyi at Pepsico and Shantanu Narayen at Adobe Systems. Indians are also acquiring foreign companies – Arcelor-Mittal, Corus taken over by Tata and Vijay Mallya’s all-cash acquisition of scotch whisky maker, Whyte & Mackay.
All of the above has contributed to the revamping of the Indian economy, making it a destination that the world is quickly sitting up and taking notice of.
Bharti Telecoms, headed by Sunil Mittal (4th richest Indian and featured on this year’s Forbes list), has recently launched a calling card in US, aimed at NRIs. It offers competitive rates for those calling India from US, compared to other telecom service providers. This ability of Indian companies to identify specific needs in alien markets, clubbed with the added advantage of a huge Indian population spread across the globe, will ensure that they continue to excel overseas. The Ambani brothers, the Mittals and the Tatas will laugh all the way to the bank for several more years and the Indian billionaire club will only swell. Now that’s pretty swell.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Not So Incredible India
January 1999: Graham Staines, a Protestant missionary, is burnt alive with his two sons, as they sleep in their station wagon in Orissa.
March 2007: BB Mohanty, son of former Orissa director general of police, Biti Mohanty, is found guilty of raping a German researcher in Rajasthan.
September 2007: Two Japanese nationals allege that they were gang raped by three men in Agra.
February 2008: 15 year-old British national, Scarlett Keene, is found dead on Anjuna Beach, Goa.
India has long been known worldwide for her hospitality. No one does it quite like the Indians when it comes to welcoming a guest, complete with garlands, decorated platters, fireworks and colourful fanfare. So then, how would the recent numerous atrocities against foreign nationals in the country be explained?
For those of us who have travelled abroad and have been racially discriminated against would recall how degrading the experience was. It was humiliating to be treated poorly because of the colour of our skin. We know how we seethe when we read of inhuman working conditions of Indian labourers in the Middle East. We ask, what right do these sheikhs have to ill treat our people? And we wish we could gouge the eyes out of the foreign nationals who endorse the thriving child sex-trade industry in Goa and other parts of South India.
We could blame it on the steady diet of anti-foreigner facts that we are fed on through the media or resentment towards all goras for their wrongs against us in the past – ultimately, anything that numbs us to violence committed against them. But not all foreigners are demons and don’t deserve to be heinously punished. From smaller offences of spitting on them from buses, to passing lewd comments at them, of a general attitude to exploit them when they're on Indian soil and finally larger ones of rape and murder – non-Indians have not been treated very hospitably.
It's strange that for a country that worships women, we don't protect our own and rape our guests.
The government has now decided to review the safety measures at tourist spots. But how is such an effort likely to work without education of the masses or public cooperation?
The world is coming closer together. Several countries are waking up to the potential called India. We’re likely to see plenty of traffic from overseas. In view of this climate, it’s in our best interest to clean up or act rather than being branded with the growing misnomer of being the ‘World Rape Capital’.
March 2007: BB Mohanty, son of former Orissa director general of police, Biti Mohanty, is found guilty of raping a German researcher in Rajasthan.
September 2007: Two Japanese nationals allege that they were gang raped by three men in Agra.
February 2008: 15 year-old British national, Scarlett Keene, is found dead on Anjuna Beach, Goa.
India has long been known worldwide for her hospitality. No one does it quite like the Indians when it comes to welcoming a guest, complete with garlands, decorated platters, fireworks and colourful fanfare. So then, how would the recent numerous atrocities against foreign nationals in the country be explained?
For those of us who have travelled abroad and have been racially discriminated against would recall how degrading the experience was. It was humiliating to be treated poorly because of the colour of our skin. We know how we seethe when we read of inhuman working conditions of Indian labourers in the Middle East. We ask, what right do these sheikhs have to ill treat our people? And we wish we could gouge the eyes out of the foreign nationals who endorse the thriving child sex-trade industry in Goa and other parts of South India.
We could blame it on the steady diet of anti-foreigner facts that we are fed on through the media or resentment towards all goras for their wrongs against us in the past – ultimately, anything that numbs us to violence committed against them. But not all foreigners are demons and don’t deserve to be heinously punished. From smaller offences of spitting on them from buses, to passing lewd comments at them, of a general attitude to exploit them when they're on Indian soil and finally larger ones of rape and murder – non-Indians have not been treated very hospitably.
It's strange that for a country that worships women, we don't protect our own and rape our guests.
The government has now decided to review the safety measures at tourist spots. But how is such an effort likely to work without education of the masses or public cooperation?
The world is coming closer together. Several countries are waking up to the potential called India. We’re likely to see plenty of traffic from overseas. In view of this climate, it’s in our best interest to clean up or act rather than being branded with the growing misnomer of being the ‘World Rape Capital’.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Ponder, don't pander. Wonder, don't wander
It's an interesting question I came across today. Why is it that when we're kids, we want to be astronauts, ballerinas and wildlife photographers. But the moment we turn 20 years old, our dreams go out the window? We settle for more 'practical' careers, even if that means being unhappy for the rest of our lives. Maybe childrens' wisdom shouldn't be underestimated. And perhaps it's not just coincidence then that children are infinitely happier than adults...
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