Instruction

Giving public instructions in a billion plus country is one of the most economical ways to spread message. But sometimes these instructions can become a good entertainment.

In nineties, Indian government took an initiative to increase the literacy rate in India. They targeted villages where literacy rate is poor. I remember my childhood days. Whenever I used to visit my grandparents place, I often came across such public awareness ads written on walls of several households. The wordings were like this- “Sakshar Janata- Bhusan Bharata” means literacy is an ornament of India. Now think, it was written to inform the importance of literacy among illiterate. Those who could read that for them it was ok but what about those who could not read a word. For them there is no message at all! Why would illiterate people bother about the written instructions? And those who know how to read letters, for them it is of no use because they already had achieved basic literacy. In villages this initiative was a grand failure as nobody paid attention to these messages.

Take another example of instructions on vehicles especially on trucks. While I was passing nearby a standing truck, I read the following instruction- Keep safe distance of 2 metres. And it was written in very small font which I could read when I was almost a foot away from the truck. There I wondered that how a person seating in another vehicle is supposed to read that message. It would not be visible to the driver of the other vehicle. And if the driver gets curious about those unreadable small letters, it has to take its vehicle almost near to the truck which would violet the instruction given on the truck itself. So in no circumstances two vehicles will come too closer. So such instructions are also useless.

Well it is not right to say that these instructions are useless at all but minimum care should be taken while planning for such initiatives like, who is the target audience and what platform should be used. It is not too difficult to evaluate. And if this is not done then new jokes will entertain us regularly.

Stars in the Sky

It is not secrete that the sky is something very huge and all other words relating it to its vastness. It has been proven number of times that it is something which we can’t touch. That is why we always say ‘Sky is the limit’. The sky has always fascinated me because of lots of reasons. Many times I look above and I shall find at least one painting formed by conglomeration of clouds on the canvas of the sky. The arrangement of clouds becomes so beautiful that it becomes very easy to identify something meaningful. Of course this happens with me only day time but at night the sky becomes the most beautiful thing in this world. The reason is known to everyone. This is the time when the Sun God goes for the rest after day’s hard work and asks its little friends to please the mankind with their splashing beauties. It is so amazing how these stars can do this beautiful thing since ages. Every night they will come and do their job but they never will expect anything from us. I used to observe them in my childhood. My father being a geography teacher, always encouraged me to observe the sky. He helped me to identify different stars and their formations at particular point of time.

We all can identify that not every star shines with equal intensity. Some are bright and some are not. Even the farthest star tries to reach out to us. But still they never compete with each other. They are happy with whatever they have and they believe to share their light with us. But the truth is every star is equal in its capacity. What matters is their relative distance with us. Some are much brighter but enough far to look dull. But the nature has a perfect harmony to balance this and that’s why after ages of formation of universe it looks as beautiful as it used to. We also have to realise the relative distance of so many things in our lives. It is true that closer things always look bright but if we are pursuing the beauty of life we need to reach out to the distant points as well. We need to try to reduce all relative distances if we want to. And if we don’t then also it is fine with the stars because they know in all probability they have to do their job as usual. So decision is always ours.

One Year

Today I completed my one year’s stay in Bangalore. I came here with a small dream in my mind. Though it was the first day, I didn’t feel like that. In fact I found bangalore much more similar like Pune. The weather and social structure was more or less similar. Here I met few of my best buddies. It is rightly said that you will always feel scarcity for friends, more you get more you want. The management education life began with full speed. Late night working for lots of assignments and waking up late and getting late for everything became a part of life. Though presentation was not a new thing for me but it definitely had a new dimension. I still remember my first presentation which was a grant failure from my side. I took feedback from several people and they really helped me out. Later presentation and other work really became part of life. Slowly I tried to overcome all deficiencies in that. There was not much interaction with seniors so everything was new with every new day. Then we shifted to our new campus.

Here after my graduation I got involved with new and wonderful people from my batch. What we didn’t enjoy? Everything. WonderLa was awesome, parties, regular outings and all. We used to fight because of group working and at the same time we used to help each other. More or less we all increased our social exclusivity. Sundays were more than festivals for us. Meeting after Diwali was as if we were meeting after a long gap so were we associated with each other. This was the first year where I celebrated my birthday after a significant gap. First time I made the mistake while riding the bike and still I am enjoying the injury. This was the year where I learn that drastic changes can’t affect us much if we are determined because economic slowdown scared us literally but I became more optimistic and confident in myself.

This was the year where my academic records were very low during initial days. But I regained after that and now I am in a comfortable zone. In this year I took marketing as my field of career. This was the year of lots of ups and downs. One of my friends used to write “every wound causes a scar and every scar reminds us about our survival”. This year gave me such scars but I came out of them successfully. I survived from them. It is a truth that life doesn’t wait for anyone. We have to accept truths and have to move on.

This was the year when I did some serious job during my internship. That experience gave me the enrichment in my life.

Now after one year my junior batch has started its course in this campus. We are seniors now. But nowhere have I felt that a year has passed now. I remember everything as if it happened in last moment. Anyways I can’t pull back the time.

I always perceive that Life is beautiful and we have to make it more beautiful. During this entire year, my friends made my life much easier than I expected. This was the year I never did any thing which I used to do during my graduation. I lived this year as a holiday from my regular life. That’s why this year is special to me. Thanks to all those who made it more special.

Amaziiiiiiiiing Goverment

Air India is in trouble now. It is seeking some 20000 crore bailout from government of India. It is well understood that who are responsible for it. Interesting news I read about government officials who travel on government expenses is all of them have to travel by Air India for their official visits. So government is making sure some financial retrieval of AI. How much this will help them that is the million dollar question. First they bled it by all possible means and now useless covering is going on. And just because some are government servants they have to abide by rules, just to save AI.

One PSU is in danger and government had taken this decision, what would happen if other PSUs also start to seek bailout. I assure you that it will be great to observe that situation. Just imagine Hindustan Latex is in financial trouble. So what next……………..???? In order to increase the sales, government will make mandatory to its employees to use only Latex ltd. made products like condoms and it will request its citizens to do the same (they will appeal as responsible citizens of this country). I am sure this will be a perfect mess. No choice in that case. Life will be full of colourful balloons. Government will come out with some paper giving clear guidelines about the product use features based upon its inventory. What should be on Monday, Tuesday….etc. I guess in that case Saturday will be half day….. Very good… and Sunday…a holiday…much better. And people will say, oh god tomorrow its Monday again with same product…….

Sp its easy to understand why weekends are so important in married life…..

So what else we can do…… I think we should pray that our PSUs perform better.

Governanance of ISRO

Indian ISRO launched a moon mission way back and even it is on the verge of collapse prior to its scheduled date. It was really a great experience for the country that we launched a mission which proved our strength in space technology. The risk factors involved in such missions are high. Space equipments have to be controlled from thousands of Kilometres and it is not a simple thing for a commoner like me. Missions result in success or in failure. Success is always admired but failures create problems for an organisation in terms of belief.

Historically, developed nations have kept failures as secretes. They never disclosed it in early stages. But ISRO admitted technical difficulties in its moon mission. The programme was scheduled for 2 years but now it is feared that after 8 months of its launch it may not function properly. ISRO like others could have admitted this truth later prior to its end but it went public and told the truth about the mission to citizens.

Indian technical expertise has always been a question for Indians only and such failures may add fuel to it. But what is important here is ISRO’s immediate statement. I think it was really a courageous step taken by them. ISRO didn’t feel the guilt about it. Confession from Indian PSU is a rare thing and ISRO proved its transparent governance policy.

Our country has always faith in ISRO and it will remain as it is. I believe that true organisations are enough capable to sustain such shocks. ISRO will come out of this.

All the best to ISRO for all future space programmes.

Family Balance for Homosexuals

I heard the recent judgement given by the Hon’ble Delhi HC regarding to Gay Rights. The HC protected the basic rights of human being of India irrespective of their sexual orientation. At least now onwards the gay community can leave a peaceful life in India. I am glad that this group were assured of their fundamental rights. Well one thing I must clear, though I say it is a well decision that definitely does not mean that I belong to that group. My only intention to write this is to realise us about the basic nature of our constitution. Our Hon’ble constitution itself gives guidelines about the fundamental rights of people of India and their protection is the duty of law making bodies. Laws should be clear enough to avoid the confusion about interpretation of constitutional guidelines.

I just gave a thought about this and I found few interesting things. If same sex marriages are allowed then one thing is for sure, population growth will be in control. But they also will expect to have babies. They know naturally it is not possible then what??? I have a good suggestion. In our big country with huge population there are lots of orphans who need deserved shelter and proper parental care. So these couples can adopt them. It will be a great help for both i.e. couples and children.

I guess, if this happens then it will be a good step towards social modernisation in our country. Think about this.

Songs and Films

Masses in India cannot imagine Indian films without songs. For them it hardly matters whether it is bollywood or other regional movie industry. Though its presence is significant in recent times in commercial context, its roots go to the ancient and historic era as well. Poetry was the major contributor in then time entertainment. In fact, in every kingdom, one honoured poet was the part of King’s council for general meetings. Even for general public, there used to happen street shows where story was explained in poetry. The reason for this is poetry conveys message effectively with few words as compared to story itself. The same thought was reflected in our greatest epics Ramayana and Mahabharata. After it, the tradition of “Sangeet natak” came and same legacy continued in modern version of entertainment, i.e. movies.
But there are so many differences in these two types poetry inclusion in entertainment. Obviously old is gold and that is true because poetry or songs of that era really conveyed the message which was well understood by those people. Even the content was related to day to day life matters of aam aadmi. Songs had meaning that time. But what do we observe today is totally different from its natural essence. The major difference is, today it became too commercial to digest. I accept that poetry is still alive in its natural form but what about its reach to the common man? Today’s poet write good but how many of us really read and appreciate that? Hardly few!! And this does not mean we should blame public. The world is fast today so the taste of the society has changed a lot. Today the mode of entertainment is movies rather than reading poetry. People prefer to listen movie and album songs because of there easy availability.
But here also the change is not satisfactory. The reason is large number of quality less songs in movies. In fact, 75% movies are waste for many but still they can have good songs and this is what is missing. The content of songs nowhere resembles to what is should be. Many songs are forcefully included in storyline and their music is altogether a different story!
Thanks to the people like Gulzar sahab and Javed Akhtar, their many songs are worth to listen. But their numbers are very few as compared to the whole. The lyricists and movies makers should realise that quality matters and not the quantity. Or else they should go without songs which anyways don’t contribute to the film. At least such movies can be finished earlier as well with lesser expenditure and even people can enjoy such movies without wasting their entertainment time. Because for them, it’s better to watch a complete story without hustle of pathetic songs and that is also within time. What else we want, everything within time with full entertainment. Or my honest advice to all, please read quality poetry, it is worth.

General Elections 2009

World’s largest democracy’s elections are over now and even results are out. The Indian voters showed their expectations from these results. It was no surprise that no single party will gain clear majority but still its quite surprising the success of UPA in 2009 general elections. The kinds of results are out clearly showed that society’s perspective towards government is changing now. If we are to discuss the outcomes of the election then situation seems to be promising now. With UPA gaining clear majority assures that for this term government would be more stable as compared to the last term.
The leaders of UPA really projected the good image of their alliance in the minds of voters. Mr. Clean image of Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh clearly gave an edge to UPA over other PM hopefuls. Every party tried to suggest the names for the top job but for voters Dr. Singh remained the first priority. His good image in Indian politics, balanced nature, calmness, expertise in economics and his international image among world leaders were significantly helpful to the Congress and its allies. His nomination as the PM assured voters that they will vote for the right person. Not only had this but Rahul Gandhi’s charisma also helped the Congress especially in states like UP. But it was Sonia Gandhi who managed everything very well right from choosing allies, party’s manifesto and party’s attachment to voters.
Now what would be the future course of actions now? One thing is clear that economical decision process will become faster to recover the slowed economy. Same people will hold the power (with minor changes) so they will continue with reform procedures with more effectiveness. Decision making and implementation would be faster because government will have enough number of MPs in Lok sabha to avoid the threat of confidence motion.
I accept that new challenges will always be their but at least for this time the nature of challenges would be different from age-old and traditional challenges like maintaining power etc. In this election people refused the orthodox voting pattern and they really voted for party and its ideology instead of candidate centric voting. They sidelined many outdated issues and gave importance to economic development, good governance, social security, issues like energy deficiency, education etc.
Here I don’t want to discuss which the best party is and who is who. Rather for me, needs of the common man of this country are the most important. Leaders must understand the changing trends in society; they should be able to read their minds. Leaders should not focus on what they are offering instead they should realise the needs of the people and then try to fulfil them. Society changes as per the time and so the ideologies of parties must change according to that. Needs of the masses and not the classes should be taken in to account in party’s manifesto. Remember, we are a democracy where people have different perspectives on different issues. That is why it is important to build a common consensus. 100% satisfaction of 100 crore plus people is a dream but leaders should aim for that and proceed accordingly.
Someone will form the government and mobilise the development; that is their job but those who will be in opposition must remain alert to check on government’s behaviour. This I say because they are not sitting there for themselves. They should take care of sections which will be left out from the development process. Because in a true democracy, no matter where do you sit, your job to protect the interest of nation ant its citizens.