Is Tamil culture conservative?

This is the topic very nearer to my heart. As a tamilian myself, we are tend to view some of the topics as taboo. Not to forgot the uproar, when Kushboo talked about the premarital sex. Kushboo has vehemently talked about the safe sex and also youth of Tamil Nadu should be bold enough to accept a girl who is not virgin. As she quoted that premarital sex is increasing in urban areas in Tamil Nadu. I am not a staunch support of Kushboo’s views on the premarital sex.

Ancient Tamil Nadu is more an open society than what we currently have
because in ancient literatures like thirukkural, silapathikaram, etc, poets have talked about romantic relationships in elaborate manner. Take thirukkural has an example; “Kamathupal” has more obscenity than any other current tamil movies.It actually applies to almost all the ancient literature especially sangam ones. Unless a society is very open minded, thiruvallur wouldn’t have spoken about sex in most liberal manner. But our society has undergone lot of change and now it is lingering in liberal-conservative stage.

It is always true, whenever we hide something it leads to lot of problems. Tamil Nadu used to have highest rate of HIV infection before the most audacious advertisement “Pulli Raja” came into limelight. Tamil Nadu’s HIV infection by then has been drastically reduced after the more liberal views of media on AIDS campaign. When it comes to technological innovation or literature evolution, it is usually the liberal society tend to lead the race. For example, France is the country now leads the fashion and art industry. I personally believe our sangam literature is one of the best literatures in the world; they were able to produce something of that caliber mainly due to liberal society. What do you think are the drawbacks of a liberal society?

An Adventurous Application

Is a conflict free world impossible to achieve?

On request from Velan to write on this topic... Here it goes ..

Why must Indians and Pakistanis hate each other? (ofc not all do, but u get the general idea) Israel and Palestine, Iran and Iraq, US and Russia? Why should Shia muslims fight the Sunnis? Conservative catholics and Jews? A complete list would stretch to the moon I think.

Hating someone/something doesnt make one happy or feel good. Still why do people continue to do so? That too on a global level (as with exceptions to everything, we have the Swiss and some Pacific islanders who dont care if the world is imploding around them). Why cant we tolerate each other with respect to belief systems, customs, rituals, sexual preferences and lifestyle. In no way is this hate culture new or modern. I have a hunch that early humans invented clubs and spears to bump each other off and then accidently discovered their use for hunting food. Since then through the medieval ages till the nuclear age, man has continuously sought for ways to harm/kill other humans. But take any sci-fi alien film and the whole world gangs up to kick alien a$$ with dialogues like "the human race shall prevail" and so on ..

If you have been reading this post so far expecting me to tie all the loose ends and provide a logical explanation, I m sorry. I do not know the complete answer to this. I believe there are several multi faceted reasons and am eager to hear from you readers as to why you think people behave this way. I for one surely do not hate anybody. Its just too much negativity for me to handle.

Trash talking...

I always thought that quite a lot of places in India are quite simply dirty- and that the streets contain people in a hurry without taking into account the mess they end up making; the hasty techie who has a quick bhel at the roadside chaat stand and throws down the piece of paper that served as its container or some other ‘aam aadmi’(Common man- a term that has become very popular with the ruling Congress party) who chews ‘paan’(betelnut in Hindi) and ends up projecting red sputum, left, right and centre, like water sprinklers. It’s not just the cities, but also many rural areas that have a whole host of trash related problems –Cows, bottles, putrefying vegetable matter, gutters; you name it, at least one Indian town’s got it. I am not trying to “dis” India or anything like that, but the fact remains that trash is a major problem in India, for all its goodness and beauty. Try sitting down on Chowpatty beach in Mumbai or even swim there( Some brave souls do!). It makes me sad when I see a non native sitting on their heels, their puce coloured face contorted as if they have come out of a hovel containing rat turds or something – it’s not right.

I don’t think that any legislation will help- there is a legislation banning smoking in public. I find lots of people smoking in public; bus depot, train stations, amusement parks. Implementation is the key- and therein lies the problem. Nobody cares- not even those who enforce the law. It all depends on mentality and also a sense of community helps. We DO have a sense of community; but most of the times it is for the wrong reason. Just a little quirk from "me" to "we", will do the trick.

Maybe it has begun-

Education system in China

Recently, I have read the thread on Indian education and entrepreneur. It is very interesting topic and give me a more ideas on do and learn what you like. However, I am also puzzled that is there no problem for Indians to enter a university. Because in China, the examination, National Higher Education Entrance Examination, is to set the barrier to campus almost can decide one's destiny.

Most of students have 6 years in primary school, 3 years in junior middle school and 3 years in senior middle school. After that they will face the examination and choose what university they want to attend. Generally, examination papers are differentiated by provinces (states) and other geographical area. All the students in the same province will have the same exam papers. At the same time, the university also set different proposition of admission criteria for different provinces. Generally, one university will keep half of its admission quotas to the province which it locate in. The reserve quotas will be dispersed among other areas.

It is very hard to enter a good university. For example, the number of students in the examination in one province is more than 300,000. The no.1 university, Tsinghua University only accept no more than 100. As a result, one in more than 3000 students can enter the no. 1 university. Generally, for top 10 universities in China, the admission rate is about 0.001.

After accepted into the universities, students can select majors given the priority by what mark they have. High mark student can get whatever they like, while low mark student will enter the biggest part in Engineering.

Even you have entered a good university, there is no guarantee that you will have a good job. Since the competition for job scouting is also fierce. The open jobs are limited while the hunters are huge. So most of students will have a job in a lower salary. Averagely, they need to work at least 20 years to pay the loan for one flat off.

That is what happens now in China. Students can not imagine what they will do in the future. At most what they care is that which university he or she can enter. Actually, half of them cannot enter universities. So some will opt for diploma, and others will do some small business. For diploma students, they are at a disadvantage when competing with bachelors in the career hunting.

The result is that, opportunities and chances are limited which definitely cannot fulfill the demands of students.

The Indian dreams

A lot has been spoken about University education in India, good and bad. But in the past four years I have spent in this college, one of the best engineering colleges in India, I have observed something else. The root cause of all issues relating to University education in India lies not just in the way it is taught or the acceptance the current system gains among students, parents and recruiters. Instead I have observed that it is predominantly ingrained in the primary school education system and on a broader scale, greatly influenced by the innate mentality of the people.

As people in any third world country think, the primary objective of higher education is to ensure a secured high paying job. Passion and job satisfaction take the back seat even today when we compete against global powers for international recognition. As an engineering student I was amazed to see the response for non technical electives like Creative Writing, Marketing Management, Entrepreneurship development etc among my friends who echo the frustration of having been made to study engineering for three long years in spite of it not being their interest. So where does this ‘leading the donkey with the carrot’ scheme actually start?

It starts right in the middle school time when a child identifies his passion for cars, his admiration for a cricket player or a singer, his interests in painting etc. But how many of these children end up becoming racing car drivers, cricketers, singers or painters? Unfortunately, very few! I personally know a few friends who still carry the aspiration to become cricketers and singers, even after three years into engineering. But I think we all can predict what they will end up in a year’s time. Engineering trainees or Officers in engineering firms. Some of them might go to the USA or Europe for higher studies and sometimes even Ph.D. In general it would not be wrong to say that we simply adopt the pre existing path and make ourselves suitable for it. In other words, any dream away from the ideal career is a nightmare!

However I saw a striking difference in the approach with which people in the West take up higher education. Students in UK, I saw, tend to get into a job after their GCSE (Class 10 equivalent). These jobs are not very high paying; however there is a rule in the UK that the minimum wages for a paid work must be at least GBP 4/hour. This rule ensures that these people get the necessary financial support. After they work for couple of years, they identify their dreams and take up a university degree in the relevant field. It is important to note here that they actually end up doing what they want to and hence I believe have achieved a greater deal of success.

When I considered the reasons for the absence of such a scheme in India, I felt that primarily two factors contribute to this. One, the lack of flexibility in curriculum and absence of short term jobs for students, and two, the mentality that does not support the adventure called entrepreneurship. There is a severe dearth for good employment opportunities in India; especially the ones that allow you to learn a trade before pursuing higher education. Here education simply cannot end before one completes under graduation and then it becomes very difficult to chalk a new career away from your ‘degree’. This approach must change, and the system of financial independence for children above 18 years must be encouraged. Students above the age of 18 years must be encouraged to earn, especially with the avenues provided by internet, IT and other growing sectors. As a matter of fact financial constraints used to make this mandatory for the people of earlier generation, however the comforts of upper middle class has actually replaced it and this I think has led to stereotyping of vocational education and entrepreneurial ventures. Also this system will help alleviate the students from the distress of having to become what you never wanted to become, and also to chalk out a career for them and be more successful.

History has always supported people with focused goals and strong ambitions to emerge leaders. Unless this concern is addressed I doubt if India can convert the millions of talented youngsters into global leaders.

ABCD and ABCC are true?

Lot of times,i have thought about this!! some of my cousins are natives of america ( born and brought up there), whenever they come to india, my mother face a huge pressure of handling them which i have noticed and in turn she vents her frustration at us. usually this does not happen to my other cousins who are breathing indian air. Then i seriously think is it due to the huge cultural difference which they have adapted r adopted?? The curious thing about them is they still want to show their nativeness in the way they behave but don't know where to draw a line. simple example is of my cousin who told me, she never wears sari to her work because of people looking at her as alien, but when she is in india,buys a lot of saris.

I was surprised where will she wear that and asked her a question "where will u wear this"?? she replied, in functions, i screwed her by saying what are all the functions she attend,she was kinda pissed off and could not handle my bundles of questions. Then i realised that this people try to be the native at home ( indian or chinese at home), at work try to be american,that is why they are aptly called, for indians, ABCD (American born confused desi) and chinese as ABCC(American born confused chinese) who loath their native for the false system and contribute nothing to the home land. They try to inherit the american culture in them but mix too much of their native values which obviously gives rise to lot of complications. For example, if a girl child is born in america and bought up there, obviously the child will get accustomed to amercian system but the parents try to instill indianness saying "you should not wear this and that, which is obscene". Anyway that is not going to be practically possible at those countries where the child is going to be very independent after early ages.

The world still has many gems

22nd Dec 2008, my dad suffered a paralytic stroke due to high blood sugar. Since then, he s been struggling to regain control of his left arm and leg. Last week my parents were out shopping for some comfort wear for him in Yeshwanthpur,Bangalore where they happened to stop by a store run by a person called Salim. Seeing my dad's condition, the shopkeeper Salim informed my parents of a place some 150kms from Bangalore where supposedly effective treatment is being given for such stroke patients. Not stopping at that, he called up a friend near that treatment center and asked him to help us find the place.

His friend(Ghouse bhai) proved to be a true gem. That person postponed a personal work involving his daughter to another day so he could take us to the treatment center, met us midway through so we wouldnt have difficulty finding the place and then stayed with us for half the day and made sure things happened as they were supposed to. Finally he left without even taking some money that my mother offered him saying "no madam, money spoils friendship; let us just be friends." We also came to know that 25 years back, he adopted an orphan straying near his shop as his brother and raised him to be a fine young man, setup a seperate shop for him and got him married as well. The world still has many gems .. amongst all the hatred and divisions along race, religion and culture, people like Salim and Ghouse bhai shine like brilliant beacons for others to follow.

A Bus Journey

I was travelling from Cuddalore to Chennai on ECR bus during my summer vacation. I am very loquacious so I don't mind whoever sit beside me, I automatically start talking to them. Much to my despair there was none beside me on that day till "Annupuram" because I was travelling in the morning on weekdays. At Annupuram some young stud board the bus and unfortunately sat beside me. I thought I am the most talkative but that guy started talking to me immediately.

He was basically from Mumbai working as an engineer in Kalpakkam Nuclear station. Apparently he is going to get married soon. So, I think he is on cloud nine that might have provoked him to speak.Here is the real interesting story begins. He obviously don't know much Tamil but he is in love with a Tamil Telugu girl why I say Tamil Telugu is their family is settled in Chennai for quiet long time and it seems she can only speak Tamil and English fluently. He told me at first bride's family was against their relationship but they changed their mind when she protested. He asked me "Are love marriages common in Tamil Nadu?" Wow that is a very good question. I said, in urban areas it is getting popular but I don't think it is quiet common.

He told me majority of marriages in mumbai is love marriage. It is not a big surprise to me since mumbai is a cosmopolitan city in India. He remarked, he got to work on different sensitive indigenous technology in nuclear station. I said, wow! great you people are making great contributions to India and I am proud of. From the boring topic, he shifted to talk about his gril friend, he told me the best part of his girl friend is the amount of time she talks. It seems she's normally quiet but once she once starts, end is not near soon. That poor boy admires this quality of her. I really enjoyed the trip. It ended by asking me what I do? what is my ambiton? and things like that. I wished him good luck in all his endeavors and also congratulations for his marriage.

Are Indians lazy?

I was chatting with my Indian friend over a lunch, suddenly he asked me, "Do you think we are lazy?" I said, I don't know the correct answer for this accidental question. He told me, he thinks we are generally lazy compared to other hardworking races in Asia. I said to him, may be man your right. So after returning from lunch, I gave a little thought to that crazy stereotypical question. Is he really right? Flipping through some facts, it seems Indians do less physical work than others and we are more prone to type 2 diabetes. These results were published in BBC health section.


If we look at studies which requires us to have lot more will power than anything else, we don't lag behind others. But certainly don't slog continuously than other Asians in general. Though there are some total nerds in India but those people utterly don't do exercise and tend to be overweight. I knew lot of my friends back in chennai play video games for straight eight to nine hours but if we ask them to sit and study or do some sports they flunk it (not in studies though). So what might have caused us to have such an attitude.

I think our family structure might have contributed to some extent where only one parent (especially father) tend to work and others sit and relax. Our social structure doesn't permit adolescents to do part time jobs or other works. But contemporary young people are health conscious and also have power to drive so this attitude may change very soon. There are spoil sport like video games and computer games might hinder the change of attitude. Any thoughts to this?

Spotted Shruthi's tattoo!

I was watching Shruthi Haasan's interview on Indian Today website. Most of the time, the camera angles change and the cameraman was focusing more on the shoulder of shruthi than her face. In the beginning, I couldn't understand why that crazy fellow is showing shruthi's shoulder than face of both interviewer and interviewee. Later, I figured out that there is something like a tattoo on the shruthi's shoulder. So I googled it like any curious mind.

You know what, much to my surprise it is her name tattooed in tamil. Wow! She is so proud of her name and her language (I think). I always used to admire her father (Kamal Haasan) for selfless attitude. He is obviously one of the great actors of India. I like most of his movies and he took tamil cinema to new heights. I never thought shruthi will be like her father.

Shruthi wears many hats, she is a singer, actor and musician. Her recent movie luck has been released on July 24. I hope she will emerge as a good actor. Good luck to her! Coming to the tattoo, I have now become a fan of her mainly due to the tattoo and her braveness to show it to the public. Anyone like me?

A see thru of a modern day Indian women's perspectives!!

Yesterday i was doing a chit chat with my chinese friend (xian fei) during our walk from office to home, i usually ask him some serious conspiracies. He is a pretty cool guy who handles the situation aptly. Since he is getting married with his long time sweet heart in china , i asked him the differences in the olden day chinese women and modern day.

His answer was pretty pragmatic, in olden days, a chinese woman did everything for her attached man whereas the modern day chinese man do everything (cooking is their major activity, as far as i know) for their attached woman. The women play a major role in decision making rather than being viewed as "baby-producing machines".

Immediately stuck to me is the desire of the indian women in the modern era who are equally educated (in terms of thinking according to me) as the men, they also work their ass-off for their families as the men claims !! So the indian women also expects her beloved to do atleast a minimum in everything or is it the responsibility of the metrosexual indian men to take into account the women equalism rather than they being assertive???

Tamils hate North Indians? No, Not all!

My north Indian friends in NTU, keep on asking me ,why tamils hate North Indians. I refute them by saying there is no notion of hatred among tamils. It is a general idea of north indians that tamilians don't want to learn Hindi and they hate Hindi like how french people hate English. But it is not true, majority of south indians especially tamils these days really want to learn hindi. Apparently, it is Tamil Nadu which has highest number of privately registered hindi programs according to "The Hindu". But why there is uneasy between tamils and north indians.

Actually tamils envy the assertive nature of north indians, their socialable culture. Obviously not to hide, most tamil guys want to have north indian girl friends. But the fact, they often don't succeed because north indian guys are aggressive enough to even lure south indian girls. This has actually lead to jealousy and common dislike among young tamils. Sometimes sadly though tamils guys work their ass off to achieve spendidly superub things but still they couldn't compete with normal hindiwala guys when it comes to getting girl friends. So this has automatically lead to envy feelings.

Another important fact why is there an envy feeling is related to the entertainment industry. Tamil movies are so freaking conservative compared to Bollywood movies. Usually successful tamil movies are about village boy chasing for rich girl or emotional family problems or unsuccessful urbanities. But hindi movies on the other hand shows so much of skin and grandeur on the celluloid this has also to lead to jealousy among tamilians for opportunity deprivation. Lastly, it is the fair skin which we all want to have but unfortunately God has cursed as with dark skin so tamil only envy north indians, not hate them. Secretly we want to be like you.

Naked truth about stocks for investors!! from India's T20 loss

Hi folks

This is one of my friend's ( Pavan.K) views on the rocky stock market. He took a cue from India's T20 loss and summed it up in an exhaustive way.

Dear All,

SO after INDIA's Twenty20 (T20) World Cup debacle, and a billion fans are crying about it !!! Let us see what we, as investors, can learn from this:

1. Past perfect, future tense
In the T20 format, it is far more difficult to predict than in other longer formats. In the equity markets too, the shorter the time duration, the more difficult it is to predict. Just as how no fund manager knew at 21,000 sensex that the market can come down to 9,000, even those who claimed that they could predict, could never have predicted that from 8,700 market will move up 80 per cent in such a short time.

Lesson: Don't time the market. Invest regularly in a disciplined manner .

2. Strategy matters
Mahendra Singh Dhoni in 2007 was playing to win. In the year 2009 he was playing 'not to lose'. This made him very defensive.

Moreover, the top batsman had a limitation, they could not play the rising ball in England. The bowlers were not effective either.

Anil Kumble, Sachin Tendulkar were all available in England. The selection was poor.

Strategic mistakes in investing include
- too many funds
- choosing sectoral funds
- paying income tax on equity funds (by choosing a balance fund with 50% equity)
- not doing a SIP (systematic investment plan)
- investing a debt for a long term
- not taking adequate life insurance, etc.

These strategic mistakes hurt in the long run.

Lesson: Stick to the investing basics.

3. Never reward mistakes
Most actions are judged on outcomes, not on efforts. When Joginder singh was given the ball to bowl the last over there was no logic, but the result was stunning. So we called Dhoni a strategist. Now selecting Jadeja resulted in a loss. So we call him a failure.

Fund managers who sat on cash from 21,000 to 10,000 looked smart. That was a mistake we lauded. We called their performance as a ‘1st quartile performance’. However, when they sat on cash at 8,700 index waiting for the index to go to 6,500, they lost out. So the same heroes look like zeros!

Lesson: If you made a mistake, accept it and don't repeat it. It may have worked once but not always.

4. Overconfidence kills
Main causes of India’s failure were overconfidence, too many changes in the team, and playing defensive cricket.

Most retail investors struggle about which fund to keep and which to remove. The very simple thing to do is choose one fund and monitor progress. Also the need to transact is so high for the retail investor, that it hurts.

The same hurt you even while investing. Overconfidence (my techniques of last year will work this year), too many transactions, and keeping all your money in debt funds for 20 years.

Lesson: Be patient while investing which most of us are averse to !!

5. Sharpen your skills
Even if you are a good tree cutter you need to take time to sharpen the axe. If you do not take time to think, rest, relax the muscles, how will you recover to play again? We over did our playing. What was the reason that we had a jaded team? Not sure. Many mutual funds tend to relax and rest on their past laurels. Look at their recent performance - it is really jaded!

Lesson: Keep learning

So invest wisely at regular intervals in various asset class.

Rogers - India Skeptic

Have you heard of Jim Rogers? The guy has who traveled the whole world in motorcycle and made it to the Guinness record. He also wears so many hats, used to be a professor at Columbia Business School, co founder of Quantum Funds along with George Soros. Besides that he made headlines in American television for moving to Asian city. He currently resides in Singapore. The reason behind his movement, he considers the future in Asia rather in America or Europe. So his daughter is learning mandarin to prepare for future.

But he is only betting on china and also published a book called “A Bull in China”, not India he remains skeptical of India’s growth and considers India’s growth will broke up in next 30 to 40 years. Shocked? He has reasons for spotting this trend. He claims India’s bureaucracy is legendary (which everyone knows). India is reluctant to privatize lot of things which badly needs reform. One of things is obviously education when there is a huge chunk of population which is very young. So, He claims reluctance among Indian Governments in reforms will break the sub continent and lose the economic race.

He obviously saying the obvious but he forgot to mention, Indian entrepreneurial talent which no other country in Asia actually has. India business elites are one among the top in the world. Though India has so many bureaucratic problems, it is able to produce 70 – 80 billionaires. Just contemplate if Indian government strenuously work to improve Governance, Indians will see so many millionaires and zero poverty in India. So India can beat the skepticism of Rogers and other likeminded people. Hope, Indian government realizes this faster before it is too late.

Marie Digby - Youtube star

Linkin Park - Shadow of the day

Listen to this song, it is one of the best songs from Linkin park. My favorite too!

Watch this video

This guy has amazing talent, watch out his videos on youtube I bet you will be mesmerized by his performance.

Know the rules of game (gethu.com)

Do you know we are in the midst of deep recession? I hope every soul knows about it but something unnoticeable is happening around the world. If you’re a middle class you may sometimes think how come the number of BMW or Mercedes Benz keeps increasing in this slump? In America, federal government has thrown money at all the banks that are responsible for this worst financial crisis. Other governments around the world also have doled out millions of dollars or yen or euro or so on. But I don’t really perceive whether the current economic crisis has recovered especially the labor market where most want recovery.

In the middle of this economic crisis there were so many controversial issues like AIG bonus, lax regulation, climate change, carbon cap and trade, G8, G20 and all other things. But yesterday, Goldman Sachs, an investment banks reported bumper profit and send shock waves across the world saying that they have set aside $11.5bn for compensation, it seems each employee will receive 400K of 29,400 total employees. That’s an enormous pay package when most ordinary people don’t have money to buy food.

I was discussing with my professor who did his undergraduate at IIT, Madras and post graduate and PH.D degree from George tech, USA about the passion of students on studies. To much of my surprise he said students in his batch hardly studied because they understood where the easy money is available when reached IITs. Of course it is banking and financial services, so more than half the batch prepared for IIM CAT. To make humungous money, don’t study hard, just know the rules of game. Improve your soft skills!

Know Why huge rush for Banking Jobs?

Goldman sachs yesterday reported bumper profits and they announced compensation of $11.36 bn compensation for its employees. OMG! Now we can understand why there is a huge rush for MBA and financial jobs. This is the prime reasons. I don't know what the hell they do there to earn so much. I hope we can also master those skills to earn such a hefty pay or do we need to be priviliged? I don't know the answers. click here

Hilarious!

watch this video you will know Why US hegemony is deteriorating. I feel sad for that girl though she is frigging beauty.

I love this video

Entourage - Returning for men's pleasure

My favorite TV show undoubtedly is "Entourage" for several reasons. It has a unique spice to attract any men on the planet earth. It was on hiatus for quiet month. Now, it is back with a bang in season 6. The show returns on HBO this Sunday, July 12 with episode "Drive". I hope it will have the same spice or spicier than previous seasons.
The character I like the most is Ari Gold, I wish he does the same miracles in the season 6 as well.

How poverty is measured?

Alright! if someone ask you to carry out a small project on measuring poverty. How do you do so? I presume most people will go for the average earning per day but in India its different. Have a look at this link you may learn further mathematics http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/09/how-many-indians-are-poor/

Discrimination in Indian Education

Indian elites in United States of America and other developed countries has made India so proud because of their achievements but if you really look into their background most of the people hail from India’s prestigious IITs and IIMs and also from privileged backgrounds. It is a case to analysis since India is a developing country which wants to rise to level of developed nations. Before having the aspirations to compete with developed nations we need to fundamentally overhaul our education system. It is a need of an hour because China which is also in the developing league has better system of education and playing field for all the students is almost flat.

China’s education system is centralized mean to say there is only one existence of board and common university entrance examination. Such a scenario is almost non existence in any Indian states especially in southern states. To paint a big picture we have CBSE, ICSE, State Board, Anglo Indian, GCE, etc. and list goes on. This is not to ridicule the system in place but the complexity involved in providing one of the most basic amenities to its citizens. The quality of education provided in each board differs considering and there is an informal ranking in place for students to select their board if they want to score high grades. That’s said, we are not imparting the true education to the child’s brain rather just making a choice. Why are so many boards? Why there is significant difference in the quality of education? Likewise lots of questions pops in any young ignited minds.

If any nongovernmental organization does survey in our elite IITs and IIMs to find out their true backgrounds i.e. their board of education, income status (true status), urbanite or rural. It is safe to assume that more 95% would definitely hail from urban upper middle or rich class and also from either CBSE or ICSE board. This is not to brand CBSE or ICSE board is the best but it is reality we need to concede. Why is this scenario? Does it mean rural students don’t have brains to compete? If we look below the surface we know the hard truth that those boards are highly priced. At the same time, urbanites (upper middle class) have better opportunity to train in expensive coaching class than rural students who basically lacks those infrastructures. Aren’t we denying rights to our citizens?

There are several Cinderella stories happening in India but those come to limelight when that kid usually comes to the city. Two years back there was a guy from village who worked part time in food courts and cinema theatre to fund his IAS coaching in Chennai and he cleared IAS exam in his third attempt. If we made available the same facility in his district capital or big town nearer his village, he wouldn’t have come to Chennai in first place to toil himself day and night. There are several untold stories which are often digested in the half stomach of rural students coming to cities to succeed in their academia. Most students don’t succeed because they have poor fundamentals inculcated by rural schools, not enough money to finance their coaching and culture shock in cities. To add fuel to the fire, urban students often mistreat their rural students instead of helping them.

Infosys founder Narayana Murthy once remarked in an interview, there are two Indias one is the urban India with all the information and facilities to compete with the globe; other is the rural India which is shattered in hope and live in despair. That is true case of the education provided to the students of Indian villages and towns. Aren’t they citizens of India who has to treated equally? There are still caste discriminations prevalent in Indian educations. There are several stories which are reported as well as unreported in the media that a lower caste child is mistreated by teacher or peers. China on the other hand differs in this fundamental right of a citizen. Though it is a communist country, it has provided a same education to all students no big difference in board, only difference which naturally occurs in any case is that urban students has more exposure than rural students.

Our former president A.P.J Abdul Kalam and so many distinguished people hail from villages. We need to understand that was the time when there was no big difference between Rameshwaram (Kalam’s Home town) and Ranchi. But globalization has changed the platform; there are visible inequities in cities and towns now. Kalam himself is afraid that “Will there be any Kalam from villages in next decades?” The situation persist in India says an obvious “NO”. We need to reverse this, we the people of India have to act not the politicians. We should rise up to challenge and protest to petition the Indian government to overhaul or revamp the badly hit education sector. There should be only one board of education. We need to have common entrance examinations throughout India. Multi entrance examinations have increased corruption in private institutions. Urban India has to stop the apathy in not acting to save our citizens who are not getting same education like them. We need a change like how Barack Obama has campaigned!

Is Kumari Mayawati a real dalits messiah?

Kumari Mayawati is the current chief minister of one of India’s most poorest and backward states and also she hails from lower rung of Hindu caste ladder. It is a rejoicing moment for dalits when she was elected as chief minister of India’s most populous state. It is worth noting that dalits were suppressed class of rigid Hindu casteism once they were known as “untouchables”. They did menial jobs which are considered impure, dirty by the upper caste Hindus. When they observe a leader from that caste climbing to the top rung of political ladder, it is an obvious moment of joy. But that moment of joy did not last longer when they witness their lifestyle has not been improved by same political hero.

Recently, India’s Supreme Court has asked Kumari Mayawati to justify spending an estimated $425m in public money to erect statues of herself, her political mentor Kanshi Ram and erudite Ambedkar. This public litigation was presented to the supreme court by two lawyers one namely Ravi Kant urged the court to order central bureau of investigation to investigate the misuse of public development funds on monuments to falsely glorify chief minister’s image. The concerns of lawyers include Uttar Pradesh which is one of the poorest states with some of its highest rates of infant mortality and maternal mortality must first address those some pressing problems.

Mayawati claims that all these monuments built will increase the self confidence of dalits but educated elites (from dalits) claim that only good quality education to dalits will truly increase self confidence. She has been fiercely criticized for one of the projects which cover 130 acres which have employed about 25,000 mostly out of state workers. All these workers live like refugees in their home country sleeping in tattered, makeshift tents, spending scorching days carving stone under elephants, like something out of a medieval tableau. This public interest lawsuit adds to the legal woes faced by Ms Mayawati who is already under investigation for her huge wealth accumulation through unknown channels and also a case of corruption in development of areas near Taj Mahal dating back to her earlier stint as chief minister. She has constantly denied any wrong doing and defended her building spree.

Lok Sabha elections results were setback to Ms Mayawati who dreamed of becoming prime minister of India. Before the election, Mayawati’s BSP (Bahujan Samaj Party) was touted to win at least 40 parliamentary seats but election results revealed it has won only 21 seats. Ms Mayawati is widely known for her autocratic style and fierce temper didn’t win votes from her core constituency which suggested her self- aggrandizing projects were alienating herself from voters. Repercussions of her projects are clearly visible and voter’s true concerns are exposed in form of grievances in the election results.

Democracy is defined as Government of the people, by the people and for the people. Ms Mayawati has tweaked the definition to state “Government of the people, by one leader and for glorifying the leader’s image”. It is high time that she should realize there are millions of people in her state without food to eat, cloths to wear and a place to live. She should not spurn the business leaders, the World Bank and foreign secretaries who are willing to provide helping hands to the people in despair. A good political leader is one whom the people always remember is through his or her deeds.

If Mayawati really wants to uplift the impoverished dalits who are still living in the bottom of economic pyramid then she has to stop her building binge and focus on the understanding of their problems. Though problems are clearly known to any layman but there is a complexity in solving those problems. Often poor governance in Uttar Pradesh is blamed for the large swath of people living under below the poverty line. She needs to improve the governance before laying fantastic highways and other infrastructural developments for businesses. Only inclusive growth in Uttar Pradesh can solve the long standing problems of dalits. For that to happen, Mayawati should shun her ego and step up!

Good Will Hunting

This article was published on "Theviewspaper" and link is http://theviewspaper.net/good-will-hunting/
Good Will Hunting was released on 1997 and it was a box office hit, also won two Oscars for best actor in supporting role – Robin Williams, best writing – Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. The movie has very inspirational plot and one of the best performances on the screen by actors. Will Hunting (Matt Damon) has gifted prodigy who can solve any mathematical problem by intuition and also memorize facts. But he works as a janitor at MIT and lives alone in shattered apartment in an impoverished South Boston neighborhood. Will was abused in the childhood so he turns his self loathing for sabotaging his personal and professional lives.

This troubled teenage boy solves a difficult graduate math problem that Professor Gerald Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgard), a Fields Medalist wrote on a board to challenge his students, hoping some of his students will solve problem by end of the semester. Students accidently see the problem solved and approaches Lambeau to find who that genius is. Apparently none says that they solved the problem. Puzzled Prof Lambeau puts another problem which took him and his colleagues two years to solve. Lambeau suspects Will vandalizing the board but much to his surprise, he solved that problem. Prof Lambeau tracks Will who was confronting the law due to his assault on the police officer and some youth. He comes to a deal with Will that Will has to work for him and also consult therapist for his psychological problems otherwise Will won’t be rescued from going to Jail. Will accepts deal but he gives frustrating trouble to the all five therapist who consulted him so they go away.

Lambeau visits psychologist Sean Maguire (Robin Williams), his old friend and fellow MIT classmate who grew up in the same neighborhood as Will thinking that he may connect with Will. Sean forgives Will’s caustic behavior and tells him lot of personal stories to connect with him. Meanwhile, Will meets Skylar (Minnie Driver) at bar near Harvard University and eventually falls in love with her. Sean encourages Will to have objective look at his life and consider job interviews arranged by Lambeau. Skylar also love Will , ask him to move to California where she is going to pursue Med School. Will goes to a dilemma whether to choose the job offers or go with Skylar. Meanwhile his best buddy Chuckie (Ben Affleck) wants Will not to squander the best gift God has given to him.

At this critical juncture Will disclose to Sean that he was abused as a child, to console Will Sean says “Its not your fault”. Will realizes his mistakes and chose to go to California to see Skylar to start a new beginning. This movie is remarkably inspiring to all losers as well as normal people. If we scratch the surface of this movie, we see a human trying figure “who he is”. The screenplay of this movie is very tight; we will never lose a focus or move from the seat. Some people may not digest the profanity in the film but apart from that this film is a clean chit.

The best scene in the move is where one of Will’s friend hits on a girl and get embarrassed by Harvard Phony but Will matches his wits with that guy. There should be a special mention about Robin Williams who acted as Sean Maguire, he acted stupendously super in the movie and it is guaranteed that we may be blown away by his skills. The picturization of MIT and other places is also awesome and thanks to the cinematographer Jean Yves Escoffier. The man behind the success of this movie is obviously the director Mr. Gus Van Sant. His shrewd skills for the clarity in the film brought real colors to the characters. Everyone will definitely love Cinderella stories so this film is no exception.