A Nation slapped in the face

Today morning after I read a hard copy of this article by Prabhu Chawla in India Today and then started off for my Workplace, I realised how much our nation and almost everything about it that we are proud of, stands at a mercy of the terrorist.

My workplace definitely is. Though it appears to be one of the most high end of the facilities an IT company can be hosted by, it is so vulnerable to those intentions that killed almost 200 between 26 to 28 November 2008. The 6 lane road I everyday take to work is no less vulnerable. The Chinese restaurant I spend evenings with my wife, the supermarket we go for buying our dailies, the cineplex which provides some respite from Recession worries, are all at risk. Those iconic Cyber Towers, which every Hyderabadi working in Hi tech city stops to salute - more for reasons of traffic - and hence the presence and significance of almost every beautiful building in our Metros which assert India Inc's stride into the new world order is at mercy of some armed and brainwashed creatures.

We might have one of the world's largest armies. And our arsenal is well equipped to provide us with a never-felt-before sense of security against foreign invasion. Still some 10 people come by boat loaded with enough arsenal to kill 200 of us and terrorize rest of us for life. We might be strong and brave. But we are not safe.

The intelligence and security agencies can not boast of anything in terms of numbers, figures or stats which can make us feel safe. I am left with the feeling that if someday, someone in our neighbouring countries decides to kill me or some others around me, our security forces will not be able to save me. I am alive because someone there has not decided that yet. I, my life and everyone else's around me is at their mercy.

We think, innovate, conceptualize and slog at our work places so that the nation keeps growing at 8%. We go to work everyday with the dream of a new India in our hearts. My generation is the one that has chosen to stay in this place - and not fly west despite opportunities - too see the nation make it big. And be a part of it. Suddenlty that 'Great Indian Dream' is at the mercy of some RDX which can anytime choose to blow itselves up at the right spots. The dream is alive because someone in our neighboring country has not yet decided to blow it away.

I think if these politicians also one day wake up to realize that that their lives, jobs and dreams are at the mercy of the people who 'came by the boat', a lot of our problems will be solved. But the security forces are for them to stay away from being terrorized. It has to be we, the people for whom there is no security and hence, only fear and mercy.

A blog after IPL is over

Read the post below. And see how terribly I've been proven wrong. So wrong that I wanted to delete the post I made before IPL began.

But I chose not to. This will provide an evidence of how skeptical some people (including me) are of ground breaking initiatives and ideas. And how they end up falling in line praising the idea once it is a success (Of which this post of mine should be an evidence).

IPL has changed the way we have looked at cricket. We have our own cricket at home now, with the worlds best players playing for us. India is a cricket superpower and IPL has established that. Post - IPL, Team India's international performance, across various tourneys, does not matter as much as it used to pre - IPL.

IPL is not only about corporate hype, as I asserted in my previous post. IPL is also about India's passion for the game and its celebration of it being a cricketing superpower. We love our bats and we have the balls to say that!

A blog hours before IPL takes off!

India has begun the countdown for its first ever celebration of cricket. IPL and the magnanimity it has assumed even before the first match is played, is a symbol of how people of this country love cricket, and how some capitalists of the same country know this.

Hype for cricket in India is never too much. And putting your money where madness knows no end is a good idea.

But what is IPL about.? It's T20, so it's certainly not about cricket at its best, as T20 is everything but that. I don't give a damn whether you hit the shot on the off or the leg, drive it straight or hook it above the keeper, I want runs. I don't care whether you win the toss or loose it, whether you choose to bat first or bowl, whether you open the full face of bat or don't even hold it proper, whether the pitch is bouncy or dead. All I want is runs if you are my team and dot balls if you are not.

IPL is also not about stardom. People have watched cricket to watch Sachin. They have watched cricket to watch Jaysurya, Lara, Ponting, Hayden, Gilly. And they have watched cricket to watch why Sachin is better then them all! I don't think people would watch IPL for Sachin, Dravid or Ganguly specially when they might as well be pitted against your "own team".

IPL is also not about "playing for us" feeling that international cricket brings in. Sachin scored a century playing for India against Australia. I am an Indian. He played for me, I feel great! But in an IPL match, when I see players from some other state, some other country, playing against players they share their regional credentials with, I doubt he is playing for my city. He is playing for bucks. And I haven't spent those, so he is not playing for me. Much of my city's team has no one from my city I can wreck the house of, should he choose to drop a catch!

IPL is not about money. I don't care how much those guys have spent on these players to play for them. I am not going to get anything if they do good! And I can't understand what these guys who have spent these millions are going to get if their team wins.

IPL is not about brand promotion. Cricket works wonders for brand promotions but though IPL teams are related to corporate houses, no IPL team is associated with any special brand. Only way brands can be promoted is spill boards, TV ads and all that. And it can in no way get better than international cricket in its ability to do that!

IPL is not about anything I have been following cricket for.

IPL is about HYPE. A corporate house gets a boost if it is in someway connected to anything that is hyped. When a world cup is on, ride the sponsorship wagon and be a part of the Hype. If hundred corore people watch the ball hit the boundary, at least a part of them will see the label pasted on the spill board. And at least some part of them will recognize it when they see it next and at least a part of that will be willing to go for it in case they have to make a choice between that brand and another not so hyped one.

But hype does not come everyday. World cup happens once in four years and there are no sixers in hockey, soccer, tennis, volleyball, athletics etc etc. So what do I do if I need the HYPE.? You guessed it right, I create it.

When I need to create hype, what medium do I use? I use the one that is easily propagated. I choose a language which everyone understands, a star that everyone wants to look at (even with indifference) and an event whose outcome is not certain. That's right, I choose cricket, all international cricket stars and a club-like tournament to suffice the three purposes.

IPL is about hype, and willingness of capitalist outposts to generate it. How successful will they be.. is an answer which we will start getting from 6 PM - 18 April onwards.

Shamsabad blues

When adversity strikes, it does so irrespective of your aptitude and capacity to plan it away. As an Indian I was almost sure of the chaos that was going to reign when Hyderabad's new high-end state of the art International airport would get operational. As 15 March 2008 was the declared date of commencement of operation, I decided to do my Chennai trip from 21 to 23 March by train. What added on to the urge to travel the Lalu Yadav's way was the recent "Chuck de Railway" budget which promised of a better rail journey than ever before with lower fairs and enhanced facilities. I was so curious to see how a profit making railway would look like, since the last time I did a rail journey, both rail and railways used to suck and stink.

Well nothing seems to have changed in railways except balance sheet. Right from reservation to boarding - conditions at platforms, within bogeys, on the tracks and virtually everywhere the rail went- the railways continued to suck and stink. It was 21 March and me and my wife were on our first railway journey in ages, and were staring at each other in utter disappointment. The disappointment came less from the absence of Chuck de element altogether from the journey but more from the fact that Hyderabad's Begumpet airport, with its convenient location, was still operational as on 21st march - 2008.

Being the 'aware citizens of the information' age we proudly assume ourselves to be, we decided to cancel the return train journey and book tickets on a flight instead - assuming that it would be long before the Shamsabad airport would be operational and the civil aviation ministry will have at least the sense to inform the nation well in advance of a major change in transportation facility. In a rather unprecedented sense of urgency, I called up my sister who booked my ticket on-line through our household internet connection. The best part was that i had to get in the stinking Indian railway toilet to guide her through the steps to book a ticket online and tell her my credit card details - giving due protection to my own privacy.

So far so good. But when i reached Chennai and was returning from getting my train return tickets canceled, i learnt that Shamsabad airport had suddenly become operational - as if it was waiting for us to be caught sleeping - on the Chuck de sleeper! Bingo, Begumpet shall no more be known for an airport in the heart of the city. Actually, now the twin cities do not have an airport anymore! There is an international airport though in a nearby town Shamsabad, which is 40 km by road from the twin cities.

On 23 March, evening 8 PM a new airport - the first of its kind- welcomed us. And I knew that I was going to go though the same chaos i wanted to avoid by the Chuck de Railway experience. The new airport is truly international and simply awesome. No doubts about the airport and its credibility as an international destination as long as you are within. So much so that i forgot that i am 40 kms away from the city.

And then I walked out of the arrivals gate. My assumption that such a big airport - even though it is the second day of its operation- will have a pre-paid taxi counter was proven false. There were private taxi counters within the airport which the conscience that i sometimes carry in my pocket (apart from the little money that i had at that time) did not allow me to go for. When i asked some very welcoming receptionists for pre-paid taxi counters, they misguided me to a place where they were running metered cabs of just one company apparently gaining monopoly over the facility. They were charging a whopping 15 rs per km. 15 rs per kilometer- 40 times over? This would cost me more than what my airline charged me for a 400 km journey (less the taxes)! The conscience did not let me go for it.

I then went to the shuttle area where over crowded buses would ply to and from the city. When i asked for a service till Madhapur, they said that i would need to take the shuttle to Mehdipattnam and get down there, wait for an auto, and then go to Madhapur. There is no shuttle bus service to a place where i believe most frequent fliers would come from! I was not willing to hunt for an auto at 11 in the night at Mehdipattnam. I have had pathetic experiences of black-mailing auto rickshaw drivers in the middle of night charging you a fortune for even small distances.

What is traumatizing here is the inhuman tendency to extract as much money as possible from a person who is clearly in a desperate situation - if it is visible that he is well off and can afford to shell out that extra. Taxi drivers, auto wallahs, cab owners, they seem to fish for people trapped in situations where they can be exploited. And it is not about money, it is about the unscrupulous look in the eyes of these people when they catch you desperate. I don't know about others but it leaves me shaken.

Having turned back from the in-feasible shuttle service I went back to the metered cab section again. The scene there had changed in a matter of 10 minutes! There were no more cabs waiting for people. There was a queue there now, and about 20 to 30 people were waiting to shell out 15 rs /km as if they were waiting for a bus! To make matters worse, the people who were manging the cabs were at utter failure to manage the chaos and as soon as a cab would arrive in a ready state to pick up, it would be mobbed by people and the "first come first serve" basis had acquired lethal dispositions with people mobbing the cab in life threatening fashion. Their 'own' life threatening that was. The people in-charge of the service were also not allowing any other cab or taxi driver other than their own label to stop and negotiate with the customers. I even saw one of the passengers getting in a heated argument with these people when he tried to book a cab of another label. Monopoly at its best and competition suffered a natural death. It was disheartening to see an old lady unable to get hold of any cabs and waiting in the queue desperately. As was visible, a cab once went would return back only after at least two hours and as i overheard one of the guys wearing a cap of the same label as the cabs, speaking on mobile phone, there were not enough cabs to clear this queue for coming 4 to 8 hours. When i went to one of these guys and asked "Can you help me with a cab?", he said "Not available sir!!! ". "Are you sure?? ", I asked. "Sir! Please sir wait in the queue sir! 15 minutes sir!!!", he said, as if even he too knew that this might be his day but that won't be for-ever. But 15 minutes is something we both knew was not what it was going to take.

The whole night at Shamsabad airport? I asked my wife. She looked at the desperation on my face and said "We will go by Shuttle! And we will get an auto at Mehdipattnam! ". "Fine", I said having to other option visible.

When we were on our way to the shuttle service a guy whispered "Sir. Pre-paid taxi! ". "Where were you! I was looking for you!!" I said as if I had found a long lost brother. "Sir we are not having a pre-paid taxi counter here till now sir. It will be a couple of days! ". "Anyways! I want to got to Madhapur. "
With the same unscrupulous look on his face as a response to my desperate call, he said "650! ".

"O.K." I said. "F**k u!", I heard the pocket conscience scream! Yet again a desperate customer was made prey to vulturous exploitative tendencies. It was then when i understood the plight of a young beautiful woman! Just like she suffers from the phobia that everyone around is after her beauty, I felt that everyone around was after the little bit that i have in my pocket.

Welcome to the world class facilities at the new International airport.

Love. The Big Spoiler

When not in love, we behave. We are more self conscious. We connect to people in more self disciplined matter. We have layers of abstracion and we exercise more self restraint. We project oureselves as more sophisticated, more polite and what now. We let the good within us rule.

But slowly, when love takes us over, we start listening to such statements that makes us realise that we have a person who will accept us even when we are we are at our worst. Love spoils us by showing our IDs an scope of acceptance. Deep within our subconscious we start wanting to be accepted in worse forms and avatars than we have always have been.

The bad in us forgets the fear of rejection. The good in us is taken over, and we start getting worse than we have always have been .

" She should accept me the way I am", is what the ID makes us beleive. That is when we turn abusers.

Loving someone should never mean spoiling someone. There should be some limits where we should very clearly lay down the limits of the worse we can take. This is not for our good, but for the good for our loved ones. We should have rules laid out pretty clearly and prett early in the relationship.
If my girlfriend had told me in the begining of the relationship, " I will not accept any yelling. However angry you get I want you to behave.", perhaps i would never have yelled at her. What she told instead is " You can hit me, but not in front of the kids!". And beleive me now I know what limit of the worse in me she can take, I will one day end up doin that even if i myself never want to.

The good and the bad are every where. In a relationship, the bad is controlled by setting limits. By not accepting that bad. By forcing another person to not let that bad take over.

The Inspirations:

Movie : Black.

Dedicate your life to someone who needs it. This is precisely what the movie seemed to communicate.
Reminds me of some psychology lessons, where it is ego, which makes a man take a decision. A decision of life. One fine day you discover enormous amount of ego satisfaction in being present where you feel you are needed most. From a wanderer, you end up seeing your identiy crisis coming to an end. You see roles associated with your name. You feel like grown up, responsible.

"He/She needs me. I have to be there. "

And we arrive there. Keeping everything aside. And life changes.

How pleasant is the pleasure of making the difference in someones life?

Making monstrous sacrifices for the sake of the role that needs you, seems greatness from outside. But it is not. It is NOT, because, it is the want, the desire, the lust, the hunger in all humans of high self esteem to be wanted, craved for, and be a desire in themselves, that makes a human go for such greatness.
Motherhood, the purest form of love, is a depiction of that. The child needs her and she is there. Nothing satisfies a human like perhaps satisfaction of satisfying someone.

So it is the ego satisfaction that comes from being wanted, needed and craved for, that makes a person present where he is needed. People like me go on to the extent of generating such need in another human being to derive continous satisfaction of being wanted.

The greatness of the movie is, when Amitabh Bachhan, knowing fully well that he has a need to satisfy, leaves it aside, because of his decreasing capability of being of much help, and leaves his student alone.

True, a Godly act. Even God, like that character, is with us everytime we need him. And is NOT with us, when we need Him Not. It is God who like a very wise parent, Knows, when we need that arm of support, and when not. It is Him, also, who knows, when to leave us alone, so that we know how to be on our own, and independent.

Great great lesson the movie taught me.