Wake Up You Media

There is always one city that reminds you of many things close to your heart and those things can be your first job, great friendships, your first love and many other lovely memories. For me, that city is Pune.

Pune. The city that is popularly called as cultural capital of Maharashtra and Oxford of the East. One of the best cities of India. Of the world if you ask me. Its been exactly 38 months since I left that city but the memories of my stay there are very much the same today as they were on the day I was leaving Pune. I’ve been a frequent visitor to the city since then. But I’ve not gone to Pune from last one year because of my studies. But this month, I got a week away from my college and a golden opportunity to visit MY city. So, the reservations were done, friends were informed, even a detailed schedule (and a tight one for that matter) was made and what not. But I wish life were that simple and predictable.

The fourth estate played the spoiler. The so-called fourth pillar of Indian democracy – The Media.

Actually the main reason was my parents not allowing their son to set a foot into a city that is suffering from a pandemic called “swine flu”. Pandemic?? At least that’s what people like my parents understood from media attributing any death in Pune to swine flu. And its not parents if you can’t be afraid of the possibility of only their son catching the disease out of 3.6 million population of Pune. So I succumbed to the demands or rather fears of my parents and cancelled the whole plan and apologized to all my friends.

This whole episode once again raised the question on the accountability and credibility of all those 24X7 non-stop news channels of our country. There’s no denying the fact that swine flu was a potential threat but so is anything else like a road accident, pneumonia etc. But the magnitude by which media blew this whole swine flu paranoia out of proportion really makes one ask the exact business that media is in- News reporting or News creating?

My guess would be the second one. I asked my friends about the situation on the ground level and all replied unequivocally – its all media hype. Yes, we need to be careful when there’s a possibility of a deadly disease’s infection. But do we sit at home because there’s a possibility of a road accident? No. We choose to drive carefully. And this is what media could’ve done. Giving more information and advising the ways in which a person can avert a possible attack could’ve been more useful rather than blaming a poor swine for the death of even a diabetic!! One of my friends told me that people in Pune are going for a morning walk, with their puppies, wearing the protective masks as if they are giving a fashion statement.

But this is not the only instance when media went out of their way to make juicy headlines and increase their TRPs and finally the ad revenues. Be it 26/11 Mumbai attacks, Attacks on North-Indians in Maharashtra, Aarushi Talwar murder case- media has let millions like me down who believe that media can play a very constructive role in the country’s affairs without even compromising on their business.

It’s not that media has not done anything good at all. We also have the examples like Jessica Lal murder case and Teach India campaign where media has done an exceptional job. But it mostly indulges in activities or news that do more harm than good. Media made a lost, forgotten, rejected hooligan into a hero of the cause of sons-of-the-soil!! I wish and hope that our fourth estate will deliver what was expected from it by the founding fathers of our constitution.

And hey, no one can stop me from visiting Pune coming April.

Happy Birthday To You India

During school days, first two weeks of August were my favorites. One reason for this was that my birthday used to bring me many gifts and that was my day to be the cynosure of all the people around me. It was my day to feel the boss of the world. The other reason was the Independence Day. And honestly, it had nothing to do with the patriotism.

As was the tradition in the schools all over the country, everyone at my school used to switch to the ‘preparation’ mode. Everyone was preparing for something from Principal to teachers to students. Be it the welcome speech for the chief guest, extra curricular like dance, drama, group songs etc. And these preparations were a welcome break for people like me who detest studying (even today). But there was a catch. The ‘break’ was meant only for people who were ‘ performing’. So it eventually led to my participation in almost every other performance. This also justifies my liking for all these extra curricular till date.

You can be sure of reading many articles about the state of the country today, few black n white clipping of Britishers beating Indian freedom fighters, those old patriotic songs and movies, a detailed analysis of what we have achieved in last 62 years, prominent figures distributing alms to the poor, PM giving speech from the Red fort and many other things which I cant write here because of the paucity of space.

The point is, do we want to ‘celebrate’ our Independence Day by seeing/reading all the above things that are repeated every year? Do we want to again listen to someone on the television about his take on patriotism? Or do we really want to do something different this year? But before anything else, do we want to be patriotic citizen or a responsible citizen? Are the terms ‘patriotic citizen’ and ‘responsible citizen’ different?

To me, they are same. Patriotism includes, of course, fighting at the border, doing charity for the society, helping poor, and maybe joining politics or any government agency where we can take decisions to take our great country forward. But these are not the only ways to be patriotic. These are the popular or mostly known ways to be patriotic.

But the one way which is comes closest to my definition of patriotism is being a responsible citizen. Now being responsible is very subjective and can vary from person to person. But there are certain qualities that apply to every Indian. Being responsible is to throw your garbage in the dustbin and not on the street. Being responsible is to switch off the bulbs and fans before locking the door. Being responsible is to close the water tap tightly (come on, it takes half turn more to the right in less than a second). Being responsible is pushing your chair under the table after you’ve finished your meal in the mess. Being responsible is stopping at the red signal behind the zebra crossing. And there are many other ways to be responsible.

These things are those that I see daily in my college. And these are not the ones that are visible in my college only. Its everywhere you go. I’ve worked in one of the best software companies of India. The condition was same there as well. And literally, my heart bleeds to see so-called “literate” and “highly-qualified” people failing to follow the basic etiquette of being responsible. I refuse to accept that these people don’t know or understand their responsibilities. The same people who use to throw their coffee cups in the street will become well civilized when they will go to a foreign country. You can’t dare to spit on the road in US because that would cost you $100. So you follow ‘rules’ there. If you can do that in a foreign country then why this ill treatment towards your own country? 

Yeah I know I got a bit carried away. Everyone today glees over the fact that they can do what they wish. But I think we are not able to understand the cost that our forefathers had to bear to attain what we fall “freedom”. With freedom comes great responsibility. And let us not forget that. I’ve made a simple resolution this year again – to be more responsible. And that is best gift I can give to my country. My love.

 

Dedicated to Friendship!!

Remember that painting of a deer standing near a waterfall in a jungle with a beautiful home and two kids playing with their puppy in the background? I had one such lovable painting hanging in our drawing room. It was the essence of our drawing room. I was in love with that painting so much that I tried my hands at painting for the first time in my life. Of course I tried to paint a replica of that painting but whatever was the outcome, my love for my hand-drawn painting overwhelmed my love for that scenic beauty hanging on the wall. At that time I didn’t realize why I was enthralled more with my creation but after a few years, I got my answer. Because it was MY creation. I worked on it from scratch. And I remember protecting my painting till the time I got involved in more worldly things.
But there was a lesson from that entire episode. It’s in human nature to be partial towards their own creation. And that’s true for the relationships as well.
We have got two kinds of relationships. One is by the virtue of the fact that we are the children of our parents. And second is the one which we created on our own. And that’s called Friendship.
Enough has already been written about friendship but that enough never sounds good enough. Adjectives fail and nouns and verbs go into sabbatical when we try to describe that relationship called Friendship.
Friendship is just like that seed which we have sown, nurtured with care, protected from every evil and then seen it grow into a shadowy tree providing fruits of comfort, warmth, care and love for our whole life. Maybe, I used some adjectives from my limited vocabulary and my pathetic narration should be pardoned. But the whole point is that friendship is that one (and the only one) relationship which is not gifted to us because of our bloodline. We make it happen. We make it work. And we make it worthy enough to live our whole life for.
It was friendship when you shared your school lunch boxes. It was friendship when you wanted to be on the same team with few special people. It was friendship when you wanted to do what some other special people were planning to do for graduation. It was friendship you looked up to for money when wanted to buy an expensive gift for your first crush. And it was again friendship when you needed a shoulder for comfort after breaking up with some one you thought was love of your life. And it has been and it will again be friendship when you’ll need to make an emergency call at 2 in the morning.

The only relationship which comes closer to friendship is Love. But I don’t think Love can stand on its own. I would say its just an extension of friendship. And yeah..friendship is always older than love. There’s no love possible if you don’t have a friendship.

I’m lucky enough to have celebrated every friendship day with, touchwood, an ever growing list. And I hope that this will continue my whole life. Friends are like jewels in your crown and you are the luckiest person on the planet if you have even one jewel. So, how many jewels you’ve got?

Happy Friendship Day

Living life...Musically!!

God has created this Universe. Humans included. And since the time of Adam and Eve, humans have also created many things. I’ve studied and heard umpteen numbers of times that the greatest invention by human is the “wheel”. Sorry. I disagree. Ok..Ok..There are many uses and inventions that followed the invention of wheel. But neither as a kid nor as an adult the wheel has amazed me ever.  I feel world would have been a better place to live without it. If you doubt my argument, ask the environmentalist. I’m writing this blog to share my amazement over that one invention (or discovery?) by (of?) human. Music.

Music is the essence of life of most of the people in this world. I can say for sure that no one can survive without actually loving music in some or the other form. Nothing else has the power to arouse the kind of emotion that music can. And the impact becomes more tangible and visible when lyrics are intertwined with music.

I remember, as a kid my favorite songs were those that can make me dance. We used to go to the birthday parties of our friends for cake and sweets but no birthday party can finish without having dance performances from all the kids. And who can forget all the marriages in the family? Can anyone imagine any marriage without music? Music played at high volume use to put some extra energy in our veins!!

Then we became teenager and we started understanding the type of music and started categorizing music on the basis genres. Those were the days of puppy love and crushes. We started making more sense out of the songs we listened. We started making collection of songs and greater the collection, greater your esteem among your friends.

Adolescence is the time when we actually live the music. It flows in our blood. There are songs that remind us of that someone special. If you are still with that someone then you are listening to love songs and ghazals with deep meaning lyrics. And if you’ve broken up with that someone then sad songs come to your rescue. But whatever state you are in, music is there in your life as your companion.

And this goes on and on for your whole your life. Don’t you listen your parents often suddenly singing a song when that song comes on TV or radio? When it comes to music, age is no bar. It represents the celebration of life. Celebration of life becomes sweeter when it is done musically. I can’t even imagine life without it. Music can make you experience all the emotions. Love, happiness, sadness and many more. Hang on…one of my favorite songs is coming on radio. By the way, your favorite song is?

 

 

It's Rain Time!!

As a kid, my favorite season was summer season. We, as children, always believed that the best thing in the world is the holidays and the vacations. So, summers automatically raced ahead of any other season by a long distance. Summers were the time of enjoying in our own world, reunion with cousins, swimming, mangoes and what not. We never bothered about the temperature at that time. What mattered at that time was that we don’t have to worry about the homework and all the boring routine. I never actually understood the logic behind the inclination of grown-ups towards rainy season.

For me, rainy season was that part of the year when you are supposed to start a new academic session, again the hectic school schedule, you can’t play cricket, you can’t go swimming, you have to be mentally prepared for unforeseen cancellation of any outings. So in all, I hated rainy season.

But time changed and so changed my outlook towards the seasons. It all started when I started understanding the fact that beauty of this earth is mostly because of the rains. It provides respite from long drawn summers to Indians. Many parts of India witness mercury shooting up to 48 degrees during summers. So rains are always a welcome relief.

Last week, I tasted the first rain of this year. The fragrance of maiden drops of water on soil is unmatchable. You want to get soaked in those messengers of greenery even if that means catching cold. You can actually spend hours looking at the rain from your window with a cup of coffee in your hand. You actually want to do a rain dance!! Rains bring a green blanket for earth with it. Now I also realize why all the good Indian sayings have taken rains as the example: “Khusiyo ki baarish” or “Dhan ki varsha” etc.

But rains are not about only the scenic beauty. Rains means happiness. It also brings in prosperity. Good monsoons are always a cause of joy for farmers. It’s the source of ground water. Our necessity of using (or may be wasting) disproportionate amount of water is also fulfilled by these rains. But I fear for the day when there will not be enough rains. And the effects of that are already visible. Human greed has resulted in imbalance of things. We hear about floods and draughts more often now. Blessings don’t take much time to turn into fury. So rains also remind us of our responsibilities towards the nature.

Lessons of Life

We all dream a lot. Dreaming with eyes closed. Dreaming with eyes wide open. Dreams of career. Dreams of a beautiful spouse. Dreams of high social status. And then, we try our best to make those dreams come true. It’s not an overstatement that we, most of the times, dream of things which are unrealistic. But it’s not human to not dream. But while dreaming, we unintentionally tend to disconnect with people who are real. Our parents. Our friends. Our loved ones.

Life, in some or the other way, keeps reminding us of the people who are worth dying for. And I got one dose two days back. One of my best friends lost his mother to cancer. He tried his best with money and time and care. He even sacrificed a seat in one of the country’s best b-schools for his mother. But at the end of the day, everything was not in his hand. But then everything is in no one’s hands.

This whole thing makes me wonder what wrong he ever did in his life to deserve this? To lose his mother so early?  These are those frustrating questions that no one has answers for. It’s all destinies and nothing is in our control.

But we can do one thing that is in our control. Love the people who are close to us more than ever.

I think we don’t need these examples to change our outlook towards important people in our lives. But these examples help greatly to remind us that we should not lose our chance to enjoy life and spend some special moments with them. While they are here. We are here.

Hail Bangalore!! Hail India!!

I’m an avid blog reader. Actually, I started writing blogs because I’ve, myself , followed many blogs for years. Just continuing my habit of reading blogs, I recently read a blog on Obama’s outburst against US companies that are involved in outsourcing. So, I got an idea of writing something on the same topic.

Our politicians can really take a leaf out of Obama’s intentions of fulfilling promises, which he made during his election campaign. One such promise was to stop job loss in US because of outsourcing. This man is taking each of his promises one by one and this is really commendable. But all his moves to counter recession smell of highly condemned socialism. And this is coming from the self-proclaimed champion of capitalism who has been teaching the whole world how to do business since time immemorial!!

This policy of protectionism is not new. It has been followed by the capitalist countries whenever their own share has been in danger (remember the time when Japan flooded US market with its small cars??).

 Mr. Obama’s recent remark against the companies “which are creating jobs in Bangalore, India and not in Buffalo, NY” has its own set of supporters and critics. The supporters consist precisely of the general public of US that, like any other country’s common people, has been lured by populist measures. The accusation of Obama against companies, which are indulged in outsourcing, as tax evaders holds little water. Can it be possible for companies to outsource just because they don’t want to pay taxes? And all that talk of low-cost-high-skilled human resources and improved efficiency doesn’t seem logical to the policy makers of Obama administration. And what about many other indirect advantages of outsourcing like creation of more jobs for the home country citizens by the way of giving companies room for more expansion and investment through the cost that has been saved?

But its politics to talk of populist measures even if they are illogical. In this whole episode, Obama has done one thing unintentionally and that is – he has given Bangalore the kind of publicity which would have taken many more years if would have done only by Infy’s and Wipros of Indian silicon valley. Now, the name “Bangalore” has been firmly pasted into the minds of many people across the globe. He has proved himself to be the best ambassador of the Brand Bangalore in particular and Brand India in all.

Indians have often been accused of being xenophobic. It’s heartening to see as an Indian that accusers have now become the accused. The statements made by Obama are not going to affect India at all (courtesy: Narayana Murthy and other dignitories) but it will, in turn, create more business opportunities in India. We hope that the corporate world in US will make the policy makers to see the benefits of outsourcing and stop this policy of unwarranted protectionism.