When did IPL become public ?

IPL is private cricket league game.  Yes, BCCI is the umbrella for all cricketing activities in India.  However, I have always thought that IPL is private.  The IPL owners have put in the money and hence reap benefits without getting taxed - and if this is not enough, the team in the story has a boss who smokes in public and struts around because he has money and the power.  We have heard about match fixing, drinking brawls and sleaze over the past week.  All this get front page.  Isn't that the story of IPL ?  Please correct me if I am wrong !!! I am not a cricket buff.  

The paper today put me off.  You have the chief minister of a state along with the governor celebrating the victory.  Ok.  The team is named after the city so, you are there for congratulating them.  But this is not a team representing the state - it is a team made up of people who are there to play after being auctioned.  If a victory for IPL is so important, then why doesn't any government show so much enthusiasm when their home teams win the Ranji Trophy ?  No top level official is seen conducting an appreciation ceremony, forget becoming the MC, the chief guest as well as joining in the dance finally ending in a lathi charge.

Whither are we going ?  Where is the wind blowing ?  And why do we follow blindly.

The above opinions are mine and mine alone.  I may be in danger but then, how are we as a people keeping quiet ?  What can we do ?  If we object, we will be called party breakers...

A Spoilt Brat

The strike by pilots of the national career reminds me of a spoilt brat - no, not that of a child but an adult who has been indulged endlessly to the point of no return.

The last time the pilots went on strike, some of them were dismissed and then if I remember right reinstated.  This habit has made them so bold as to cripple the country, stranding thousands of passengers.  Every job comes with a certain amount of accountability and dignity.   This one is at its pits.  Not that I question employees rights to strike - it is necessary and essential sometimes.  However, going on a strike every six months and plunging the airline to more debts than what it is going through today is not justified.  The current reason given is the training being given to IA pilots for the 787 dreamliner.  When IA and AI have been merged into one entity, does your past still hold ?  Speak of mergers and acquisitions. 

If this is the attitude of the staff, why get us taxpayers to pay for it.  No wonder people try to evade tax.  Imagine, they are getting a 30,000 crore bailout and to top it they go on a strike.  Isn't this behaviour akin to a spoilt brat who goes partying when the family is plunging into debt.  Sometimes, it is better to cut the chord and hope that it will teach the child the value of security and the joy of spending something hard earned.  

I remember the last time I visited the Air India's office.  I had to cancel an international trip for a conference and thereby met the manager to ask him for cancellation procedures.  A gentleman walked in asking if he could get a discount on the ticket as someone known to him worked for the airline.  Another employee walked in asking that the manager's signature for a trip she was taking(I guess airline staff are entitled to trips, subsidised or free I am not sure - but they are which I gathered from the conversation).  All this was happening when the government was wondering how to bailout the airline from bankruptcy. 

Another time, a matronly woman had to be asked thrice by the lady sitting next to me for a blanket to cover herself up as she was feeling cold.  You should have seen the face of the matron. 

Would this have happened if it was a private carrier ? The staff's perks, such as the above would have been immediately cancelled and the expectation is that employees understand that a roof is better than pulling down the whole house.  Another airline in debt was allowed to sink  recently.  Then the question becomes, why not this one.  Just because it is a public carrier ?

It would have been understandable if the employees rallied around to save the carrier.  However, that is not what we as the public feel.  You never know when your flight will get cancelled - no surety.  A government servant is enough to cancel or delay your flight and no questions can be asked(the recent episode being the Maldives one where a plane was changed to accomodate a minister's family).  That is one reason why most people shift to private carriers.    

So, are we going to cut the leg and save the body or are we going to let it rot and stink with people around having to bear for it.  

(I know I sound brutal in places, but then this saga has been going on for too long.  Everytime there is talk of a bailout, parallely the staff go on strike as if it is their birthright.)

End of a year, nearly.

It's again the ending of an academic year. Almost time for another batch of students to say bye bye to student life(excepting those who are determined to continue further studies) and step out into the world, as adults, as individuals who are ready to realize their destiny.

In college, it is the time of the year when batches take turns to celebrate days - formals day and dhothi day. Formals is the day when all the students turn up in formals, boys in formal shirts(full sleeved) + formal pants + tie + shoes and nowadays blazers too (I wonder how they manage to keep their blazers on, despite the heat at this time of the year) and girls in sarees, many of them in Kanjeevaram(here again, I wonder about how they keep going in the heat with the silk sarees). Dhothi day is one where both boys and girls switch over to traditional Indian wear(dhothi and saree). It is usually the South Indian way of wearing a dhothi, but I remember the time when students from other parts of the country came in their traditional attire(kurta-pyjama/salwar-kameez, dhothi tied in a different way specific to their culture). For this reason, I would be happy if students change it to 'Native Day' giving students from different states the chance to wear their traditional clothes. In this, I remember an event 'Across the cultures' organized by students at UoH, where each state was represented by a group wearing their traditional attires. We also had international students wearing clothes from their countries making it a learning experience and broadening our knowledge.

So, this time of the year is colourful but also one of joy and sadness. Joy because we know that these kids who grew up under our tutelage are going out into the world and sadness for we will not be seeing them everyday, no more of their pranks, and no more part of their world.

However, yesterday was different. When I walked in at 9:00 a.m., I saw two students walking by, wearing white shirts(rarely see that in college), but with something different. On closer look, they had a rose pinned to their shirts(one had a red one and another a yellow one). I wondered what they meant and reasoned that they probably are trying something different. Once in a way, you find students doing something different - like one, who gave himself a flame of red(dyed his hair red, thankfully, not totally) as a birthday gift to himself, or the time when a group of 4-5 came bald one morning, they said after a Tirupathi darshan.  So, I walked ahead.  Again, I see another bunch now, with a red rose pinned to their white shirts. The first thought that came to mind was, 'Oh No! Not another valentine's day routine'. Then I said to myself, 'this is March, stupid, not February'. So, then what was this about. I looked for the girls dressing in case they had come up with something similar and have a new kind of day to set a new tradition. However, nothing of the sort with the girls. Throughout the day, I saw some students with a rose pinned to their shirt and wondered if I should stop them and ask what it was all about. However, not wanting to embarass them or myself, I let them pass thinking that I will know what it is, if it becomes part of the tradition.

Tradition, now that is a word I sometimes love to hate. For, it is used easily - good if it is for the good but many a times to keep the not so good going. So, please replace the word 'tradition' in the text with ??? habit - no !! culture - too broad. Uffa, the trouble sometimes with finding the right word !

Kudos to the dolphin savers

Faith was reinforced in the goodness of the human kind when I watched this video.  With news of the dwindling number of tigers, killing of elephants and the dwindling of forests that protect and nurture wild animals, this one is welcome news.  It just goes on to prove what we can do to coexist with nature.  Actually, what little we need to do but what happiness we will receive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekmMD8oYtJ0&feature=player_embedded

Watch this video of beach-goers in Brazil help the stranded dolphins.  I guess we are returning a favour.  You must have read stories of dolphins helping fishermen and people at sea.  What good you do goes around.

Joy Mukherjee - in memory

It was long long ago - long before cable TV with its long string of channels came in.  That was the age of Doordarshan.  One of the good things about DD was that you got to watch a lot of Hindi movies - old hindi movies.  That was one of the luxuries we had in our school days.

One of my favourite actors of that time was Joy Mukherjee.  Reason is of course obvious - he was joy to watch. Tall, young and pretty good looking.  And Joy and Sadhana - they made a great team on screen.  Sadhana is my all time favourite.  Her eyes - they took your breath away.

It is sad to hear that he passed away.  The good part is, he will continue to live in our memory.  He will be remembered for his movies.  I will remember him for some of the songs that I keep humming to this day, the lyrics of course forgotten, but the face of the actor very much in mind.

Some of the songs I remember him for are : Bahut Shukiriya,  Bade Miya Deewane, Lakhon hain nigah mein  zindagi ki raah mein(with a guitar that he does not use in the song),   Bandha par war Tham Lo Jigar.  

Deeksha, Me and her Playmates

This is (or was, she has changed in the past few months) one of Deeksha's favourite games when I go to Chennai.  She introduces me to all of her friends - her playmates.  And I am supposed to hold on to all of them at the same time till she is satisfied.  Then she takes them back and places them in the cupboard.  

This has happened everytime I have been there and have wondered what runs in her mind when she does this.  Anyways, I let her do it happily as it makes me happy to see her introducing her toys and being so interested. She has a name for all her toys, which I with my poor memory can't remember.  She repeats them patiently for me in case I make a mistake.

You can see Tweety an Betty.  The others, I don't remember again.  By the way, she bathes them in rotation and keeps them healthy and fresh.  Hats off to that.  She does take good care of her friends.

When lawmakers become lawbreakers

Found these photos in my cellphone(they were taken a few months back).  Took them when I found violations,  meaning to send it the then commissioner who was doing a good job bringing traffic sense into people.  However, people in his own force abandoned it.  

This was taken at R.S. Puram.  The police van was parked right under the 'No Parking' sign.

This one was again taken at R.S. Puram in front of Nilgiris.  I couldn't take it better, as the policeman noticed me taking snaps and started walking up.  And I am not a lawyer or a media person who can stand up to them.

All this at a time, when charging and towing was happening in full swing, for the common man ofcourse.  Why is it that lawmakers so easily become lawbreakers. 

Today we are back to our old ways after the change of guard.  Law enforcement is at its weakest.  Example ::   Just come to the signal near CMC on Avinashi Road.  There are umpteen two wheelers who come down the bridge instead of taking the U-turn at Thanneerpandal Junction and coming down towards CMC.  The policeman or woman allows them to cut across from the wrong side without as much as a word.  Another example ::  Take any 'No Parking' signboard.  And you will find a vehicle parked right under it.

Yum!

Something I cooked up one sunday !  Why is it that sometimes I am in my elements and sometimes, I am not. Sometimes I cook something amazing and on others, it falls flat.  

Onam 2011

The first Onam together after a four year hiatus got me wondering what design to put for the Onam pookalam.  Finally, on my sister's advice we tried something different.  This is how it looked in the end.  Arun pooled in with his ideas of placing the green and was my edupidi(poor him).  He trimmed and destalked the flowers to do the pookalam.

Making the Onam sadhya(lunch) and putting the flowers, it took me six hours.  I am slow I have to accept.

Not a Dry Leaf

At first, I thought it was a dry leaf.  Then realized, it was alive and kicking.  It was a mantis.  Green, I have seen, not brown and not one so big.  - From the archive collection titled 'Univ. of Hyderabad'.

Politics should be defamilized !

Yes, I am trying to coin a new term.  Defamilized !

Businesses run for profit.  The motive is known, side-effects understood. You have an entire family of doctors.  Those days, such families used to run good hospitals with the sole objective of learning.  I remember my parents speaking of one such family in Trichy.  The father and sons would sit around a table, treating patients, poor and sick from morning till midnight, with just breaks for breakfast, lunch and tea.  They run it in the same fashion the last time I went there.  Yes, it looked like what you would call a government hospital.  But let me tell you.  Those doctors were what you would call 'close to God' for many, poor and moneyless.

That was an age when doctors, teachers and politicians got into it for the sheer joy of doing something good.  Doctors have changed, so have teachers.  But go to any hospital, and you would still find quite a few who follow those principles, who take time to smile and reassure you (I met one such yesterday - God Bless Him !).  Same with teachers.  But the place where people of this tribe have ceased to exist is politics. 

You find people who live out of a two room house standing for elections - oh ! wait.  Nothing wrong with that.  They have cutouts put up in various parts of the city with each huge cutout costing anywhere between 75K to 1L.  Ask them who gave them money for this and they will tell you well-wishers.  Now tell me, won't these well-wisher knock the door again for a wish when you win elections.  Another two months, and the person moves into a bungalow, and then he starts owning entire buildings and acres of land, moving around in a Mercedes. 

I am not telling that all politicians are like this.  I had a friend of mine whose mom won a local election by talking straight, assuring people of doing good and telling them politely that she did not have money to dole out for free.  And she won !!!!  That is what democracy is all about, isn't it.  Those are the stories that reassure you that yes, humanity and dignity still exist among the political lot.

And then I read in the paper yesterday 'Someone is ready to take the plunge if people want him to'.  People, which people - maybe people means just family.  In India, with political families, the entire family is into politics in some way or other.  When business fails, or becomes not so profitable, maybe politics looks assuring.  Maybe ! [Again, I am not telling all of them are like that].  But then, after looking at father-child-grandchild dynasties across the country and looking at how easily people connected get seats, and those who are new have to climb the steep ladder the hard way, it is time I think politics is 'Defamilized'.  Maybe, skip a generation atleast.  So that it does not become an occupation, for it is not a job, even like that of a doctor or teacher or engineer.  Politicians are those who fix the fate of a nation, who steer a country and given that our country is one billion, maybe a wide enough representation of families will help in diversity of views, of thought and of action.

Demotivating should be classified as a crime

Demotivation !  The mention of that word is demotivating.  So, you can imagine what happens when someone tries that with you repeatedly. 

It is a strong and cruel tool used by many people whom we see in our day to day life.  And those who have a strong tongue, a superiority complex or is a person in power uses it with so much ease.  They do it in so many ways :  try to talk you out of doing something, try to put you off, try to tell you that you are not good enough or that the task at hand is something that you cannot or do not have the capacity to handle.  And if all this does not work, then they start striking using means and ways that make you wonder how ? 

With young people especially, motivation is a strong force - which when used can bring wonders.  A little bit of the magic potion, and it makes people whom you could have initially thought inept, do amazing things.  They fly, soar and take paths others would have thought twice. 

So then, one can only imagine the destructive power of the opposite.  Just like the power of love to give and take, motivation has the power to build and destroy, looking at it from different sides.

It takes a person of exceptional courage and willpower to resist that force of demotivation.  Today, you talk to any person working in any field, and they find so many people ready to demotivate and so few to motivate.  Why are we becoming so negative, I wonder ?  Why is it that we (parents, teachers, friends, siblings, employers, employees, ............) try to demotivate people when it is so easy to motivate ?  Why is letting of negative energy so alluring ? 

Sometimes I think demotivating should be classified a crime.  Because it is deadly. It is deadlier than killing the body.   It kills the flame, the eagerness, the happiness, the very soul of a person.  It leaves the person in a state of vacuum.

A Potty Story !

I have not blogged in a long, long time. Not because there weren't topics to blog about - to think out aloud, to thrash. Given the goings on around, there was so much to argue, oppose and find a means to think objectively.

However, a conversation I had yesterday gave me a reason to get back. This was what happened :

I called up my sister, who picked up after a long long time. She had just then given a bath for my four and a half year old niece, which is a task by itself. As she spoke to me, she put on a dress for her. Just then, my niece said she wanted to go potty. I asked my sister if that wasn't unusual - didn't she go before her bath.

Given her vacation, madam has changed her schedule to suit her games and her system has gone wary. My niece was insisting that she was on the verge of going and rushing her mother. Asking her why this last moment hurry, she came out with these :

Conversation - 1:

(Family going out, and daughter asked to go potty so that there is no exceptional event inbetween the outing)

Mother : Deeksha, aren't you finished ?

Daughter : Mama, no !!

Mother : Finish up fast - time to go !

Daughter : Mama, potty is not coming !

Mother : Only if you finish can we go !

Daughter : Mama, potty is sleeping. Let it sleep for some more time. We shall go.

Mother : No ! Only if you finish can you come. Else, mama and papa will have to go alone.

Daughter(heard from the other side of the door) : Potty, come out. Mama is calling. If you don't come out now, mama and papa will go out, leaving us alone at home. So, please come out fast !

I burst out laughing, at the same time wondering how a four year old could make up a conversation so effortlessly. Potty sleeping, so let it sleep for some more time !!!! And look at the articulation - not that

she was trying or not trying. It was the potty not making an effort.

Conversation - 2:

For Madam(my niece), nothing can disturb her games. Everything else, comes second. So, susu and potty can be postponed to the very last minute and is always done in such a hurry - in order to not waste a second of playtime.

So once, before she could remove her dress, susu started off and she couldn't do much. As my sister was mopping the floor with dettol, she offered this explanation. 

Daughter : Mama, I came as fast as I could. I told susu to wait a little but susu just didn't listen. I kept telling susu to wait but susu just didn't. What can I do mama. It is not my fault.

As if, she and her susu are part of two separate systems.......... I was amazed and at the same time laughed at her ingenuity and the workings of a little childs mind. It is amazing the stories they make up(even about susu and potty). And at that time, all I wanted to do, was hug her and kiss her for being just her...........