My first day in college

It was my first day in college. The biggest day of my 16 years so far. I went through a rollercoaster of emotions. But most importantly I was free. I mean FREE!!! I took one gingerly step then another….. Well of course “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” I was well prepared. I was armed with some of the most powerful prayers of this era. I had mugged them in great desperation from my grandmother coz I had a premonition that there was grave danger lurking around. It was like the “Sword of Damocles” hanging over my head I was in terrible fear of being ragged…… And what could be scarier than that. Now that I managed to walk the first few bold steps, I mustered the courage to drag a few more moving my lips fervently chanting the magic mantras much to the chagrin of my friend who thought college could make me delirious so soon. Only if I had special sensors which could forewarn me of any such move. We rolled on oblivious to the many times we were eyed upon. And finally we reached “Commerce Block” where our classes were to be held and were reveling in the fact that we had been victorious. Victorious all the way from the gate through the drive and to the classroom. The walk felt like one on an international ramp with hundreds of pairs of eyes scanning you through their mind’s eye.

And then all of a sudden out of the blue, “Hey Freshie, freeze…...” And we frrrroze. How I wished I had Harry Potter’s Invisibility Cloak or Sabrina’s magic spells. And then we turned around and gave the most sheepish grins of our life. We were engulfed by five ‘mighty’ seniors who with their cold disarming looks quickly scanned us from top to bottom, right to left. They stood rolling their sleeves and licking their lips hatching a plot in their evil minds to make the most of the situation. We were now into the lion’s den and couldn’t do a thing about it. Then immediately the order came from the high command “Bury your damn smile!” We dutifully wiped the smile off our faces and dug the grave meticulously with our fingers and buried our poor smiles. And then we had to publicly mourn it all the way down the drive for a good 100 metres. Memories of good old school kept haunting me. Then suddenly out came a familiar little safety pin from one of the senior’s pockets. It was a milder version of one of those weapons used by our geography teacher just to ensure we don’t forget where Timbuktu or Neverfoundland was located. Then pat came the order “Measure the entire drive using this” Not a bad one I thought. After all my prayer seems to have been of some use. And then after 15 whole minutes under the scorching sun we found our poor selves counting 56, 57, 58 and then half an hour later 3001, 3002, 3003 ….. Finally our misery was put end with 5286, 5287, 5288. Whew! What a relief! All this was taking place right under the nose of a bear shaped dustbin which screamed “Ragging is strictly prohibited!” Can you beat that? And just as we were cursing our fate, the bell rang. The sound of the bell has never ever sounded so good before. Not once in twelve whole years in school. We grabbed the opportunity and scooted to the classroom.

All this was just a part of some warm up exercises to the real thing. It was supposed to be a prelude. It was just a preparation. Fortunately we did not face the real thing, although we did appear to college the next day with books in a bucket and stationery in a mug.

Now after three years of being in college, the first day is not much different. Only the roles are reversed. It may seem absurd to many of us that ragging is legally banned in most colleges. Ragging is fine provided it has its limits. Its one of the most creative introduction you can make by making a fool of yourself and breaking the ice.

India is a soft state

Which is a soft State? A State which does not have a clear policy and strong will in dealing with internal and external matters such as reaction to external aggression, foreign policy, crisis handling, internal law and order, economic policy, etc is a soft state.

Look at our response to external aggression. Bangladesh rifles kill Indian BSF soldiers in cold blood. The Pakistanis continue to interfere in Kashmir in the garb of Mujahidean. When our very own next door neighbor Pakistan continues to threaten us no end with terrorism we still want glitzy newspaper pictures of handshakes, embraces and dialogues. Every time we say we want POK back we don’t get up and do something about it. How can we forget the joy ride on a bus from Amritsar to Lahore and of course the “Samjhauta Express” to try and build friendship? When our aggressive neighbor Pakistan entered our territory in Kargil, in spite of having the moral right to retaliate, we chose not to step into enemy’s territory. The world may have outwardly applauded but they secretly sniggered.

Anybody who thinks we gave a free ride to 3 of the world’s most distinguished criminals all the way from Amritsar to Kandahar on an Indian airlines plane would know we are a soft state. Why else do we give in to some of the preposterous demands of the US who thinks she is God’s gift to the world?

Is there some reason why after all these years we are not able to put a man most distinguished in his field behind bars? And lesser known ones like Veerappan and Chota Shakeel can party fearlessly without any hassles.

Take our economic policy for instance, bad debts of the Indian public sector banks stand at a tall 56,000 crore rupees thanks to an absence of strict debt recovery mechanism. It is almost 13% of the total advances of the Indian banks. It is only now that the govt has promulgated an ordinance to enable speedy recovery of bad debts.

It is basically a matter of attitude. Our attitude does not reflect a national resolve to pay the price required to fight anything. That’s our problem. We are not ready to pay the price required to fight terrorism. We are not ready to pay the price required to fight poverty and illiteracy. We are like the mayor of Santa Vithoria who got very upset at people saying he wasn’t doing his job properly, he went to his wife and said, “I have had enough, I’ll pick up a gun and shoot myself in the head”. His wife promptly replied “Why your head when your brain is somewhere else?”

India today as I see it...

billion people, 32, 87,590 square kms of land mass, and a zillion hopes and dreams -some fulfilled and many unfulfilled

George Bernard Shaw once said “Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world."

India today as I see it is a collage of extreme diversities… contradictions.

We might still be highly economically backward, with a p.c.i of a measly 450$. One out of every 4 Indians lives below the poverty line. At the same time large no of Indians - Ambanis, Tatas, Birlas, Premjis – are vying with each other to join the Fortune 500 club.

Our economy is still as tardy as an Indian elephant refusing to move faster than 4-5% per annum. At the same time, the Indian IT industry grows at the breakneck speed of 30 % per annum.


Look at our political system, we have many leaders who are not even aware of the alphabets and have tihar jail as their second homes with only a couple of murders and rapes to their credit. But we cannot deny that ours is a democracy in its most vibrant form. We cannot ignore the fact that the Indian media is one of the most free presses in the world today and deserves due credit for effectively cracking the whip on several issues be it Tehelka, Godhra or the long list of scams and scandals which decorate the Indian political scene.

We have effectively scared several foreign institutional investors with our complicated and bureaucratic norms and procedures. Today, but we have an industry today providing world class services be it in the field IT, biotechnology. No wonder we have an emerging class of foreign companies flocking to Indian shores to avail quality services at a lower cost and they call it BPO.

We have come a long way from being a largely socialistic state. We are now heading towards an essentially capitalistic State. Earlier, the govt. had its finger in every pie starting from making defense equipment to sandal soaps. This trend is breaking away and we are now contemplating selling even oil, aluminium and telecom industries to the private sector.

We often crib about brain drain and complain that the education system stinks. Well this is most certainly true to the extent that after 55 yrs of independence we have only managed a grim picture of 62.5% literacy (Govt of India estimates) and our universities though being very high in quantity are very low on quality. We often have vociferous debates on “brain drain”. But it is also true dear audience and nobody can deny the fact that Indian students are one of the brightest worldwide. Why then will we have schools like Wharton business school making a trip every year all the way to India to handpick some worthy Indian students to fill up some of their seats. IIM-A would not be labeled the most difficult school in the world to get into for no reason. We would never be having such a large pool of doctors and engineers hunting for jobs.

Talking about our values and culture; though by embracing globalisation we have also imbibed the western way of life, but we essentially are a people that believe in dharma and karma. We are a country that has the charm of the old world and is opening its arms to the comforts of new technology.

To conclude I can only say that this is the India of today where very often one is fed up with the din of daily life. We find it chaotic, cumbersome and clamorous. We often feel that there is excess of everything except water and parking space. We find it a herculean task to obtain a driving licence. Getting into a decent university without hefty donation requires some effort. The list is endless…..and we could go on for hours…but the undeterring truth is that this is home and home is where the heart is.

*****

How Fair is fair ?!

MIRROR MIRROR ON THE WALL …..
WHO IS THE FAIREST OF US ALL??

Its not only snow white’s wicked step mother who frantically chants this line trying to fulfill a life long ambition of being fair and not unfair.

Let’s face it. The Indian race is obsessed with fairness. Fairness is and has always been a sound criterion for judging a girl’s beauty. Whether it is the man or his mother on the lookout for an ideal bahu... Or it is Ekta Kapoor choosing her leading ladies…. Or it is a matrimonial advertisement on Sunday Times; the parameters are “FAIR” and later come slim and then beautiful. How can we ignore the fact that all fairness creams ads are almost always aired on prime time television trying to effectively entice not only the college going daughter but even the sari clad housewife mother.

Isn’t it ironical to see the white skinned foreigner trying to desperately acquire a tan sprawling all over the beaches of Goa like alligators while we are oh so careful about our delicate skins and protecting them adequately from the sun? Not a single “Miss India” has had a dark complexion even if her personality is as sparkling as her cosmetically altered teeth. And all our Bollywood stunners are almost always fair and if they aren’t; they are shot under the best possible lighting and if that still does not work have to make a living with art movies or be content playing the role of the dusky vamp. So much to say that most of our Gods and Goddesses are also fair and the rakshasas and asuras dark as night… atleast the ones that appear in mythological serials. A fair skinned woman is desirable even if she resembles an elephant seal.

Looking at various reasons as to why this idée fixe about lighter skin people in India associate fair skin with beauty no matter if she has bulging eyes and a nose as long as Pinocchio’s. The foremost one seems be to please their future mother-in-law who might just pardon their dark sins. It may even be to look lighter in the dark. On a more serious note, it is cited that since Westerners are mainly fair skinned and as always fellow Indians associate it with wealth and prosperity.

This obsession isn’t a recent phenomenon. Ever since glorious kingdoms flourished and perished the need to have a lighter skin has always prevailed. The two dominant races were the Aryans and the Dravidians. The Aryans had essentially wheatish complexions and the Dravidians were very dark as. Even they in their eternal quest for fair skin it is said bathed in goat’s milk and made weird concoctions of the vaguest things like Fuller’s Earth (Multani Mitthi), Besan, Turmeric et al. Psychiatrist Anjali Chhabria speculates, "In the early days, a fair complexion was associated with royalty. It implied a respectable and dignified background." In addition, the color white or 'shubhra' has, in the Indian literature meant 'clean'. This combined with phrases such as 'dark deeds', 'black money', and ‘black market' work to reinforce the bias. In fact this school of thought cannot be limited to India alone. It is said that the exotic looking Cleopatra always pampered herself to a bath of donkey’s milk so that her skin would never stop glowing.

Alas several companies have exploited this weakness of the masses effectively and turned this into a major money spinner. It is said that in the Rs.1300 Crore Indian cosmetic market 52% of the revenues come from fairness creams, a whopping Rs. 650 crores at least. The market leader being HLL’s ‘Fair n Lovely’ followed by ‘Fairever’. Godrej even recently launched fairness soap called ‘Fairglow’ the first of its kind in India. And voila! Even men are coming out of their ‘Tall, dark and handsome’ cliché and are found to be 32 % of the total fairness cream users!

The advertising policy followed by these FMCG companies has also come under severe criticism. This particularly comes to light just when Fair and Lovely's latest ad spot had to be taken off air after a strong petition by women's groups, leading to angry protests in Parliament. Always criticized for reflecting the prejudice against darker skin, this time, many say the product has gone too far. The ad also received a Duryodhana award last year for being imparting wrong messages to the society. It was in the limelight because the father says “Kash mera beta hota” and finally the damsel in distress uses Fair n Lovely and emerges as a lovely maiden wearing a mini skirt and becoming a successful air hostess. Another ad goes on to say that fairness could change your ‘kundali’ (horoscope) forever.

While these corporate giants with vast financial muscle to flex constantly reinforce the idea that fair is beautiful, the vulnerable target audience mostly being middle and lower income groups succumb to these ideas. The masses must wake up to the fact that a woman’s worth should be measured by her capabilities, her earning power, her virtues, the values she imparts and not the color of her skin or the way she looks. It is high time we come out of our stereo type image of the ‘gora chittha’ Indian girl. This can only happen when we educate our sisters, mothers and daughters. It is said that when you educate a woman you educate an entire family. A lot of women’s organisations are trying hard to create awareness to some extent. There is a need for her to come out of the fetters of what the society perceives her to be. After all beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder.

Looking at the half full side of the glass, these mindsets are slowly but surely changing. People are beginning to realize that fair is not necessarily lovely. In a nation of mainly brown skinned people it is fair to say you are fairly dark. It is unfair to say that dark is ugly. We can take a cue from some of the great black beauties of India, to name a few – Bipasha Basu, Kajol, Nandita Das, Nayonika Chatterji, Diana Hayden, B. Sarojadevi etc. On this positive note it is only apt to say that women should stop trying to prove themselves the fairer sex.

* * * * *

Today’s education - a devil in a sheep’s skin...

Haven’t you ever wondered – Why you force your eyes open just to maintain a mandatory 60% attendance in class? Why keeping your head above the 35% pass mark seems a Herculean task? Why as a kid did you carry a load full of books and developed a hunch back? Why education in India does not allow us to dare to dream the dream we want to? Why young people are viewed more as bottles to be filled rather than candles to be lit……..

Education in India to say the least is dismal. The origin of the present day Indian education system can be traced to the famous "Macaulay's Minute" when the British East India Company decided to establish a western type education system in India. Their motives were ulterior and they wanted some people to fill up clerical jobs in their various administrative posts and we have let them triumph.

Learning today does not lift us to higher levels. It does not arm us with sufficient tools required for us to face the world with confidence. It does not bring out the best in a person. It does not give us the confidence to look at a crisis in the face and tackle it by the horns. Children hate this dreaded monster that they are forcibly thrown into. As for most teenagers, when it comes to choosing college to a job they pick the devil to the deep sea. Learning far from being fun is not even tolerable. It has become an everlasting saga of rituals which begins with the first period in the morning and drags upto the painful last hour of the day which makes anybody too tired to complain. It does not inculcate any kind of leadership values it is supposed to. It makes the tenet “Leaders are born and not made” very evident.

One might think of some bright sparks who created a stir in various fields such as science and technology, humanities, sports, literature, entrepreneurship etc. This number is utterly miniscule considering our commendable achievement in building such a gigantic population. Moreover these great achievers have reached the level of success by their own colossal will and resolve.

Don’t you think education today has become extremely drab and monotonous? Isn’t there something radically wrong with the entire system? The youth of India seek answers to many burning issues. Burning because for a nation of mammoth size and a gigantic population like ours “education” is the single most important issue to be addressed if it wants to shed its third world status. Why do we have to study irrelevant subjects? Why do we have to study textbooks which seem to have been revised years ago? Why is the matter we learn so impractical? Why is wanting to be an archaeologist or an oceanologist ridiculed? Why after more than half a century of endearing freedom we brag of an abysmal literacy rate? Why do millions of children make firecrackers in Sivakasi, while we are so busy collecting ring tones on our mobile phones? Why do Indians seek their fortunes on alien territory by making silicon valley more prosperous and Punjabi food more popular in the west? Why does the government puts its finger in every pie starting from making defense equipments to sandal soaps including running schools and colleges knowing fully well that it cannot even run the government?

Why is an average Indian not entitled to a decent education?

Well, we could blame the system, our forefathers, the government, the policy makers, the implementers … the list is infinite. But at the end of the day when it comes to fending for ourselves we have only our own poor selves to blame.

Fellow Indians, the fire is raging. We need to douse it before it consumes us. We need to find an answer and quickly. Whether it lies in partial privatisation of higher education, revamping the entire system to make it more wholistic and practical, removing all necessary white elephants or cutting the red tape - we need to act fast. The government has to make education its best investment option if it can even dare to imagine a 100% literate India in the near future. It is only through proper education can we build a nation
-Where people realize that a double digit economic growth is not like a genie’s magic act.

-Where there is dignity of labour.
-Where people don’t strike an uncalled for rebellion against reforms.
-Where the prosperity does not remain an illusion anymore.

It is only where there is education the poor peasant will not be taken for a ride by the slimy and corrupt politician. And where superstition, nepotism and corruption are a thing of the past. It is only in a truly literate India would people realize the value of sustainable development and work towards conserving nature thus ensuring our very own stay on this planet for at least a few more years to come.


It is only through a literate India that more people like us will speak out their minds and make an impact. Only then would we not be taking any thing lying down and we would dare to dream the dream we want to. Nothing wrong in dreaming …….. George Bernard Shaw once said ……..Some people see things as they are and say, why. I dream things that never were and say, why not.