The year gone by

I love looking at THE YEAR GONE BY articles and news which generally populate most news channels and newsprints..they come in all variety and sizes, and covers a wide variety of topics including, sports, politic moves, tragedies, celebrity gossip, Page3 parties and so on..

These are few things that I can remember ( borrowing some MBA jargon, Top of the mind recall)...

1) The Dad of all scams in India = Telecom Raja ( 2G + 3G = couple of billions of rupees)

 2) Most luxurious house in the city which also houses the largest slum in the world = Antilla , owner Mukesh Ambani

3) A heroic and brave resuce of trapped miners in Chile - a lot of solidarity seen across the world at the time of tragedy

4) CWG in Delhi - The coming of age of India " the fast paced economy" to show its capability in putting up a worldclass event..though entangled in myriad Kalmadi scams..

5) India in Sports - One of the best years for Indian Sports, both cricket & non cricket ( the two key sports segments in India).. from winning some good haul at CWG & Asian Games.. and of course the best 20-20, Test & 1 day side in the world

6) Icelandic Volcanic Eruption - How nature completely threw world travel, airlined industry and many more into doldrums by its fury... there is a popular joke on how the ashes of the Icelandic economy was distributed across Europe

7)Australia turned to Ashes - This was a far bigger blow that the volcanic ashes..the formidable Oz side had to beat the dust at home against arch rivals England

8) The Football Worldcup in Africa - Waka , Waka & all eyes tuned to the beautiful game in the dark continent..

9) The historic, land mark and much awaited Ayodhya judgement - The much awaited judgement and the reaction that Indian public gave clearly enlivens the Fasttrack accesories tag line -  MOVE ON..

10) The leak of all Leaks , Wikileaks - There is a bible saying, nothing will remain hidden for long.. it will all come out to the light.. this cant be more true in this case

What's special about 00:00 AM Jan 1st ??

New year & new year's eve is one of the best examples where pre-concieved notions are best practiced by almost all humans.. well what I mean by my blabbering is that.. what is actually new about new year ? well its the new day, new beginning of a fresh year.. now who decide's the year.. well we do either its the Julius Calendar , the Greogrian Calendar or the Chineese Lunar Calendar.. whichever it be..there is a compelling need to celebrate, and start afresh.. a new day & new moment at 00:00 AM..

So what I mean is that, its just in our head that 00:00 Jan 1st of every year is a harbinger of good times, a time to let go of old things, make new resolutions & start afresh..

A New Year's eve could be just about any day for that matter.. it can be today, yesterday or tomorrow.. If each day, we could let go of old buried hurt and hope for a bright new dawn.. how beautiful would life be...

Being a Monkey

Life sometimes is like being a monkey in the matser's hands.. something like those impromptu circus that is seen in thouse myriad cross roads & junctions in Indian villages & small towns..

The monkey does various tricks depending on its masters instructions. It may laugh, cry and all the other gimmicks which entertain people and then the master's mood may change suddenly and the monkey would scurry of from his vicinity, to be away from the wrath of its master..

Soon enough master's mood changes again and there the monkey is back to its gimmicks

Few Nostalgic Moments

I was checking out the racks at the local grocery store to find what's new and cook inspiring and suddenly I saw the various bins of staples & provisions like rice & wheat. I thought its been ages since I saw loose wheat grains.We have been buying packeted atta for so long that this seemed like a distant memory. Taking those wheat grains in my hand it reminded me of those days when I used to go with my dad to a nearby grinding place to get wheat flour. He used to buy large quantities of wheat when the crop and price was good and then take it to the nearby grinding store to get flour done and the store it away for later use.This would be done for red chilli's, rice flour, coconut oil and sometime coffee powder.

Those days seem like a long time ago now.

In these times of instant chappati's it is defintely a faraway moment..

Today is International Men's Day..

Today is International Men's Day.. well atleast that 's what this morning's Times Paper mentioned.. Now I'm a completely throughbred feminist.. and love all the attention poured on us on Women's day, Mother's day, Friendship Day and not to mention Valentine's day.. In all these years however it never ocurred to me about not having a Men's Day or any specific celebration related to Men.So it came quite as a surprise to me to learn that there is after all a Men's day.

The celebration of various " Day "s  or a need to have these xyz Days  is a much debated topic. Some take the view that it is absolutely unneccesary as it is  that Mother's are remembered only on Mother's Day or proposals can be made only on Valentine's day. While others believe that is is good to have a certain day becuase then people remember to make the life of someone you love special.

On reading that it is Men's Day today, I wondered if the whole thing is a marketing gimmick. There are no big billboards announcing this as in Women's day, no related cultural events taking place this week, no shopping coupons in malls and absolutely no advertisements related to how much men contribute to this world. May be Women, Mother, Friendship & Love are all aspects where people splurge to keep the women in their lives happy and these things strike an emotional cord with the fairer sex. Women generally love the small tokens of appreciation from family & friends and just make them feel more special.

Or is it that it is difficult for men or the society to come out and celebrate a Men's day becuase of the negative image that may potray especially in the light of today's feminist society. Now is the age of reservation for women, from parliament, to many office postings, train coaches and what not. Marketing companies may feel that celebrating Men's day may not go very well with their brand image..

History says that International Women's day ( IWD )  has its roots in the garment factory workers' strike in 1857 on poor working conditions which then began as a start of a long fight against equal rights for women.Though IWD was initiated as a class war,  it soon took the shape of a gender war and then finally something like a liberation day or a day to make women feel special..

However International Men's day (IMD) has a much more recent origin.It was conceived by Dr. Jerome Teelucksingh in 1999 as a forum to promote a positive role of men in the society.

Is this a start for another gender discrimination but in the other way, would there be a time when Men would feel oppressed..its hard to believe that something like that could ever happen.. either way, I think women have pretty large hearts and can definetly accomodate a Men's Day celebration... See that's the feminist in me speaking :)

Passion for Work

Yesterday I was watching Masterchef Australia and this time it was Masterclass by Heston Blumenthal, known as a culinary alchemist.. It was mind blowing and by the end of the session, I added a meal at Fat Duck or  Dinner  ( the to be opened restaurant in London ) as part of my wanna do list sometime this life.It was truly innovation at its heights. His speciality is in engaging the various senses while also eating.. Amazing to say the least!

This set me wondering as to what actually creates this fire of passion in humans, how is it that some people just love what they do for their living and simply excel themselves every day. Looking back at some great works, we can quickly conclude that it can be recreated or highly logical and clarified in concept. But what is important is that these guys thought about it first and stuck on to their thought to create their own legacy..

So how do they get this passion, may be its a professional calling, but how do u listen to this calling, how do you know what excites you most and do you have the capability to pursue your calling or do we listen to all those mundane other voices which simply throw more road blocks..

I can list so many things I would want to do, from travelling to promoting Indian traditional art forms, to cooking, to starting my own company..but have I done anything on this list, atleast a small step & the answer is a big No..

Well..perfect musings for a rainy wintry day like today.. may be I should just stop typing and get back to some real work :).. So long

Cities & Their Personalities

Yesteday, while driving back after a particularly long day in office, a colleague and me were talking about cities and its personalities, or features that stand out and make you either fall in love with or stand out like a sticky thumb waiting to jump out.

Quite a philoshpical topic considering that the sun had already set, but as we spoke, it was interesting to see how both of us percieved the same about certain cities.Actually come to think of it, even offices & homes have the acquired personalities.And often it happens that certain employees or married into in case of homes stick out for the same reason.

Certain homes have a very welcome, sunny and bright look which immediately makes the visitor comofortable. Sometimes houses are filled with their past memorablia as though the residents simply are unable to move on to the future , whereas some homes are intidimating and some lack any sort of personnel touch and completely looks like a hotel suite.

Anyways here is a gist of our mumblings on the cities & their personalities..

Banglore has the history of an erstwhile summer hangout + retiree's home background. From this history it has grown into a IT Technopolis.So essentially there is a good crowd of old banglaoreans and a big chunk of new adoptees who are in the 20- 35 age group.Laid back would be the personality for bangaloreans. Any coffee shop would be a success in this city where people like to sit back, enjoy a coffee with freinds preferably in an out door setting. Book stores, theatre etc are other favorite pasttimes.

At any time of the day, you can notice people at Coffee Day's, Barista or just about any other coffee shop in the city. The crowd in the city is young and ready to spend variety. Walk down the streets of Koramangala or BTM Layout and you will immediately catch the vibrance of the young.

Chennai as per us has this amazing combination of a true east city, it has deep traditional roots with all the goodies of a city. Dance, Music, Theater, Tamil cuisine, Brahmin culture and extended families are the core of this sprawling metropolis which is yet to become cosmopolitan truly.It is also one of the few cities where neighbours still know each other.

Mumbai is the fast city, highly professional and of course the Promised Land for many. Look at the many many people who come to Mumbai everyday, living on the streets and you can see hope in their eyes of better tomorrows.That's the promise that Mumbai holds to India. Extremely professional , safe and forever on the move.

Delhi kindles the patriotic spirit in me, its a mix of patriotism  and red tapism that is evident from the moment you land there. You can find old crumbling ruins standing amidst the glass towers. I always wonder the battles these ruins have seen. Red Tapism & Show off go hand in hand here, its completely un cool to have a low profile wedding, or drive in a small budget car or go to a hotel in a rick. Money impressions needs to be made at the first meeting to get the message across.

Most cities seem to be loosing this culture streak in them as globalization continues. Different variants seem to blend in but certain charectristics still stand out.

The Caw Society

Over last weekend while I was enjoying the few late mornings that I am blessed with, a few hundred crows decided to spoil it for me. There was continuous cawing in one side of our neighbourhood and I woke up sleepily to check what it was.

I was quite stunned to see the hundred odd birds perched across our building , neighbourhood apartments and the trees or electric poles in the vicinity.All of them were cawing in unison and there seemed to be good communciation between all of them.

It took a few minutes for me to realize the cause of their agitation. There was a dead crow on the terrace of the next door apartment and all the crows were apparently were mourning its death. This continued for about half an hour. After some time all the crows departed. About 1 hour later there was another similar assembly. Here couple of ravens came near the dead bird and started plucking its feathers.

I have no idea what this behavior meant, but it set me thinking of another story that a recent aquintee mentioned.

He was working in a reputed law firm in Mumbai and was a regular on the Andheri - Churchgate local train. Though he did see a person lying on the tracks near Andheri, he like other fellow travellers took it in their regular stride. 2 days later, while he was reading the Mid-Day paper, it mentioned that there was a decompoising body near tracks in Andheri which people realized becuase of the stench...

Well..are we humans have declared ourselves as social, emotional and intelligent supreme beings... now maybe its time to contest that...

Chinese Neo Colonialism

New Age Imperialism or Neo Colonialism is all about controlling Finance and Trades.. It is vastly different from the earlier variety of slavery down right looting, but this is about creating a sense of freedom while there is someone always controlling the strings..

During the cold war times, both US & Soviet followed a policy of divide and rule where all nations had to take a stand on which side lies their loyalties. But post the fall of Soviet Union, its the era of embargoes and aids till about the last recession. While US is going through the throes of the recession and fiscal deficit, China has been silently and strategically positoning its spread across the world.

A good chunk of the US fiscal deficit is financed by China. This could work as double whammy considering the exchange ratio's, the large imports of chinnese manufactured goods into US and ofcourse job creation in US on account of manufacturing.

Commonly known is the Chinese support given to most African nations where there are bilateral ties between the government for supporting developement and prosperity in the dark contienent. In many ways this is like a business deal on " Customer Relation Management".  It is a back door entry for building a very stable trade position in the future with access to natural resources. In the earlier years US had adopted a " Big Brother " attitude whereas the Chinese approach would be more welcome to the country.

The best part of the Chinese approach is that it caters to countries in distress which has a long term potential for either growth or is strategically positioned. I was recently reading an article about China building a port in the southern tip of Srilanka at the cost of $1.5 Billion. This is part  of the support extended to the Srilankan government during the LTTE war.The total Chinese investment planned here is to the tune of $6Billion. Srilanka is an optimum location for strategic interest considering its location at the southern tip of India. Many security analysts fear that this is another step for Beijing " String of Pearls Strategy" for setting up many ports in the Indian ocean.

Next is the recent example of the Greek fiasco and the assistance provided by the Chinese to the bolster confidence through bilateral ties. In the short period there were two visits planned by the Chinese Premier and about 14 deals are reporterdly signed which totals to the largest investment in Europe by China.

Another example is Africa. There has been an increase in Chinese settlement in various countries is this continent. The beauty of the Chinese offer is that it is unconditional, there is no pre condition on economic performance, and they do not interfere with the type of governance in the state, be it a democracy or a Pariah state. China is incidently the largest energy player in Sudan and has build considerable construction expertise in most of the other countries.These investment do not neccesarily bring in more african jobs becuase most of the contractors bring in laborers from their home.

China is also active in the other countries including Nigeria and Angola the continent's largest oil producers as well as countries like Equatorial Guinea and the republic of Congo.Also there are many countries to which Chinese military and financial support is exteneded as in Sudan, Zimbabwe, Zambia & Uzbekistan. Africa's 5.7% GDP growth last year is also largely credited to China. I remember reading some news articles stating  - Can one country build a continent ?  The article stated that there are about 800 Chinese companies in Africa.

These are definetly not examples of Chinese philanthrophy but a strategic plan for increasing its footprint. This is quite an amazing example of Neo colonialism where most super powers will suddenly be stuck with the realization that for the smallest of decisions in their country there will suddenly be a Chinese twist.

Where does all the money come from ? Well China has stated its deficit as 20% of the GDP, but like most other government statistics , this looks highly impoverished. Some estimates state it as over 40% of the GDP. Hence the money is largely funded by the government banks rich with the savings of the hardworking 1.6 Billion population. At any time if there is a huge run, then it will cause another world recession and disorder. But as of now there is no reason to predict such an exodus considering that China is one of the few economicly stable countries.

The Sonia Factor

There has been a lot read & written about Sonia Gandhi , the outsider in India at the helm of the government.In the earlier election, BJP played the foreigner card and fell flat ( That;s not the only reason for loosing elections, but it dint work as a trump card either).\

Many times, I ask myself, how can Sonia be an outsider, according to me she is an astounding woman, & one of the best leaders that our country has had. She has been single handedly capable of uniting and leading the congress party which is a group of veterans from pre-independence era each having their own variant of the party manifesto.The whole congress juggernaut rode into power under her leadership.If not for her, there is no other leader who can unite the grand old party of India.

An astounding woman, who married into the first family of india and survived many personal disasters. Her husband & mother in law were asssasinated. and instead of going back to Italy, which she easily could have, she continued to bring her children up here as indians and then after a long stoic silence entered politics. Even now, she would be the prime target of many assasins out there. I dont know how many indian woman would do this?

I adore the way she handles herself, any small speck of dirt would be magnified in india and looked at through evilsh eyes, but she never gives way for trouble or controversy. Whether it is her remarks, interviews, dress sense and so on..it is always within the limits set by the public and her sphinx like silence is yet to be broken.

A good manager, she has picked and chosen a set of close aides who abide by her at all times. Here no polictical games, or public laundry wash is seen.

Sonia is a good strategizer too.She has learnt "what wins here" and played her tactics accordingly.Whether it is the "support from outside"factor or being the chair person of the UPA, the congress allies, the power vote on 123 agreement and so on.

No wonder she was featured in the most powerful women's list by Forbes. Presiding over the grand old party of India and being the hand behind the Central Government's wheel for the largest democratic and second fast growing country in the world can be no small feat...

Hat's off to her...

Corruption Wealth Games

CWG hosted in Delhi in Oct would have the pride of the 1 billion population country..a reason to show off the talent in the country, welcome thousands of tourists and sports enthusiasts..but now it is expected to become another farce..

The stadiums are far below perfection, it is yet to be completed on time, all the allied infrastructure is yet to be ready and we are going to be short of 10000 rooms. Delhi Government is hoping that the friendly people of Delhi give the option of home stays to the tourists and they can escape the fiasco in this way.

All that remains now is a lot of contractors and middle men who have made bags of money. To the utter dismay of the tax payer, crores and crores of money has been wasted away and siphoned off. The organizing committee chairman Mr. Kalmadi feels that the reponsibility of corruption or of showcasing  a standard event is not his, but it is with the government.

Now the Government is a group of people entrusted with the job of governance..but there has to be one person, minister, which is responsible & accountable..heads have to roll..its people & attitude like Kalmadi who make hurdles for India to become a great nation..

Chimney's on the Streets

If you take a swab of cotton with any cleanser & wipe your face at the end of the day..hmmm. it will look like you have just walked out of a coal mine. The cotton will be a rich grey color and these days the streets are filled with auto carbon spewing machines.

Pollution is quite a wide wide topic, one issue which irritates me so much that my friends joke about it is the complete apathy of vehicles on emission. These days travelling in our cities is quite a toxic affair, the amount of Carbon Monoxide inhaled along with precious amounts of other items and of course the effect of pollution on skin , hair etc.

The main culprit s are the smoke billowing vehicles, usually Govt. Public Transport Vehicles or Private Vehicles meant to transport public. Its chimney would be sprouting smoke especially while waiting at the umpteen signals and traffic snarls.

Auto’s, bikes, old trucks, Taxi’s, BPO vehicles and Govt. busses are frequent chimney’s on the road. I sometimes wonder why such a highly evident emission lag is not catching the police eye.

Usually our traffic police staff, especially by month end when the coffers are nearing empty, they are out looking for all sorts of traffic miscreants but you will never catch them booking on emission control problem. This too when the traffic police perched on their traffic islands are the worst affected by the same.

There are strict restrictions on emission control with the certification expiring every 6 months but enforcement of regulation and random checks is missing. Let ‘s forget government apathy for the moment, but public awareness is the key problem. Govt. vehicles especially busses must have strict rules on age of fleet size. LNG vehicles would bring in some amount of change. Companies need to ensure that their vehicles are strictly within the emission norms and there needs to be overhaul of fleet to ensure that vehicles with stricter norms are enforced.

For eg: if a manufacturing company which is committed to environment and sustainability needs to get proper assurance from the logistics provider that the trucks / trailers they use have proper emission control. Similarly I think it is the responsibility of the BPO companies to ensure that the vehicles which they have outsourced are proper. In this manner the industry will be forced to change as it involves their business.

With the increase in population and industrialization this problem is only bound to increase and in a power starved company electric cars and not in sight in the foreseeable future. However some amount of public awareness and commitment towards society can make a sea change.

Sania Wedding - A national breaking News

The latest breaking news of a country which dreams of being a superpower by 2050, with a staggering population of a 1.2 Billion Plus ( the jury ( census) is still out), was caught in a catch 22 situation last week with the announcement of Sania's & Shoaib's wedding...

Of course there is a Maoist wars in one part of the country, municipal elections, water crisis, power cuts, ongoing census, bio metric identification program, US-Nuclear deal clauses, hundreds of corrupt officials cases, women's reservation bill, Maywati's elephants, increase in summer epidemics, in-complete stadiums to host the commonwealth games and many more such issues which did not excite the country or the media as much as Shoaib's love triangle...

I completely fail to understand how a very personal issue can be brought to such limelight , and be the single most discussed issue , ( IBN 7, Headlines today & NDTV claimed it as " Breaking News") in the media.

Does anyone really care who Sania is getting married too ???

May be I should not have such a pessimistic view on the wedding..Let me list out why this is indeed breaking news,

• Sania, Shoaib wedding is a prime example of how the heart knows no boundaries or Kargil wars and need no pacts for being together..
• Further enhancement to the India - Pak.. bhai bhai concept...
• Some level of speedy justice given to a muslim lady in hyderabad
• Monetary help to some business houses like Taj Krishna, Air travel companies and the myriad other shopping houses
• Help to artisans who can use their ability in encrusting swaroski crystals in the lehenga
• A good script which our Bollywood writers/diectors can copy.
• Of course, news & TRIP ratings for news channels who are otherwise starved of any breaking news
• Push Markeing for the millions of "eye balls" glued to the TV's & breaking News
• And of course more importantly, a whole new generation of Indo-Pak citizens to be born...

 See, there is after all a long list of worthy clauses for the wedding being Breaking News..It is just that poor normal brained citizens like me could not appreciate it !!!

Aye's & Nay's for the Women's Reservation Bill

As a person I’m seriously against reservation of any kind other than financial / economic classes, and similar is my stand on woman reservation…I don’t think we women need any sort of “ you are here because of our big heart to give away a seat and the so called “ Seat Liability” from any of the male gender…and don’t quote me wrong, I’m very much for woman development and quite a bit of feminist ( it runs in my family).



The woman’s reservation bill which is getting introduced now is just a politico-management sham, BJP and Congress have devised this tool for maintaining their market share and a temporary brickwalling, as other parties like RJD, BSP don’t really have too many women to field or active in their party ranks..


Both Congress and BJP had less than 10% of woman in their MP’s last year, if they were so much committed to woman emancipation, then the count of women candidates fielded should have been much higher.

Also the bill entails that some seats will be randomly selected as “ reserved for women” which means that an MP selected form one constituency this year, may not be under reservation quota from the same seat next year and hence the party will not be interested in building up a mass connect for the poor lady contesting from that seat.

On the other side, Scandinavian countries have high woman participation in governance and in these places the levels of corruption, woman liberalization and development is much higher, so may be there is some way forward in this bill.

I think these reservations must be first done at the panchayat, district, municipality & state levels first before attempting at the central level. In this manner, women will be able to build a mass appeal and have some “good stories ” to campaign by herself and will also build up party ranks. Also the issue of woman emancipation is bigger in rural areas, in urbane locations, there is financial independence and people are somewhat aware of their rights.

In essence, I think the bill should not be treated as some sort of management brick walling, instead if there is commitment to include woman in governance and build the woman’s team from grass root level, then here is an “ Aye” to the women’s bill…

Socialism & Capitalism..

Maoism and their cause ( Sympathizers View) is one of the main topics of TV shows these days. Sympathizers feel that Maoism is a result of capitalism in the country and lack of even development for all sections of the community..
I find this thought hard to digest because the more I think of it, I cant understand what really does these two ideologies profess & who follows them…


Couple of years back, during the age & times of USSR, may be this was an active ideology splitting the world into loyalty towards the two super powers…

But What about now.. what does US profess.. the superpower of the capitalist world, believes that profits are for keeps by the multi billion asset companies and if there is a loss then it is borne by the tax payers ( the 1 Trillion debt waive off / or stimulus package).. and wars are surely paid from the tax payer’s money.. This is surely socialism turned upside down… Profits to the companies & Losses to the nation community…

How about the Socialistic Country China… Companies belong to the state.. but the community is suppressed by the be-all’s & end –all’s of governing bodies.. They decide who speaks what, what to wear, how to communicate, what to learn, where to work, what to eat and everything else which a basic human being should be able to decide without help from the “ community ”.. So here is an example of twisted capitalism… “ Power to the people, but no power to think or decide by oneself”…

And of course there are countries like India, which is capitalistic & socialistic..it is caught in between.. Declaring Capitalism will create unrest in CPI ( nearing extinction)..some flares like Maoists.. & professing socialism means declaring yourself as Anti – Development and non futuristic country and also bring on the wrath of FDI’s & FII’s…

Isn’t this confusing enough….

Bangalore has caught the flu...

Bangalore or Bengaluru ( I cant bring myself to call this lovely & classy city that name) has caught the flu.. She has been hovering in between 21 & 36 degree temperatures for the whole of last week , which is a sudden shift from the dormant 14 – 20 degrees till February…Of course you wont find this as breaking news in any TV channel, unfortunately they prefer to make it news after the patient is dead. But it is definitely a topic of discussion amongst the people of Bangalore.

Combined with the low humidity climate in Bangalore, she cannot bring in enough precipitation to bring about rain. There were thunder showers in Mysore & Kerala but nothing crossed over to Bangalore..

All the vehicle pollution has led to a chemotherapy type environment and the trees that Bangalore has nursed over the last so many years is looking bald, dry & whithered.

There are symptoms of jaundice too with the 800 odd lakes in Bangalore sighting a yellowish color. Ulsoor lake in the heart of Bangalore has a mix of colors which may soon turn brackish black.

But the spirit is still alive and she tries to sport a bright new day look every day with a slight early morning chill, chirping pigeons, misty fields and dew on the thousands of trees which still exist…

Hope she get’s well soon and the days of wearing a sweater to work and the charm of walking under glorious tree lined streets with a mist in your breath returns soon..

Horn OK Please OK Horn

" Ok Horn Ok" , " Horn Ok Please" , are some of the very popular signs on Indian road otherwise devoid of any other road signs..All trucks irrespective of whether it was built during British Era or the more recent ( in truck age, recent is 10 years old) will sport this sign..

Save Our Tiger...

Saving the Tiger from Aircel is the most recent " Sustainable Development Marketing Propoganda "..The campaign consist of a Tiger cub waiting for its mother to return, and of course Dhoni, Bhatia announcing their support and intent to Save the Tiger..The campaign asks people to log on to the website http://www.saveourtigers.com/ , join in the " roar", and web posts of how the Indian National Animal is on the verge of extinction.

I must agree that this is a very respectful idea, but sadly there is a serious lack in execution. I fail to see how couple of second's of TV Ad's, and about 50000 Roar's ( the last time I checked) on Face book for Strippy the Tiger cub, and wearing the campaign T shirts would actually help to save the tiger. May be some Face book savy poachers would log in, read the comments and be teary eyed, repent and swear to save the tiger...Or the other chance is of poachers seeing many poachers see people wearing the T Shirts and become overwhelmed with guilt and turn up their hunting weapons.. Or poachers may realize that as there are only 1411 tigers left, their profession will soon become extinct too and may be it is time to shift jobs..

Another plausible case is that  poachers are fans of Dhoni and will get moved by his commitment towards saving the tiger..

How much ever I have whack my brain, I cant really see these options really saving the tiger.

Alternately if there was some more pains taken, for eg : Aircel can donate money, say " 100 rupees" for every new aircel connection to a fund which will be used to improve the communication equipment of Forest guards, work with establishments to rear tiger cubs and release them into the wild, improve security in our Tiger Reserves etc..Or may be work with a legal NGO's in establishing fast & strict closures of poaching cases...there are many more such options which will actually help in saving Strippy  our tiger cub..

However the campaign has truly increased awareness on the state of the Royal Bengal tiger.

Facebook campaigns and roars may be more useful for some other tigers in India like  Thackeray's, Muthalik ( he roars only on dates close to Valentine's day and remains in his den on all other days).. It would do good to both of them to increase awareness on their existence, that is if they are not opposed to the myriad things related to T shirts ( it is not ethnic Indian wear), or Face book ( completely western, socializing place, young innocent people meet and can get provocated) and websites ( english language) and so many more issues which logical minds cannot concieve... 

Attention Deficit Syndrome ( ADS)..

If AIDS was the scariest syndrome of the 20th Century, the forecast is to be ADS ( Attention Deficit Syndrome ) in the 21st Century. Medically it is situation of being less attentive, restless and inability to focus and so on..
I’m sure it affects most of the urban people, the bigger the city or lower the tier ( Tier 1).. the more acute is the infection and hence the paranoia…
We often get to see people with 2 phones, ( or one phone with 2 SIM’s), blue tooth attached to the ear, hitting away on the laptop and of course an I-Pod hanging from the other ear all the time doing something else like either eating, watching TV, reading newspaper and so on..
Now where is the person concentrating ? it is hard to say...

Some outdated facts...

Can you imagine that many of the fad's which we follow now like Cigs being bad for health where actually promoted amongst public in the mid 20th century.. I found that interesting. What caught my interest was that these things where popular as recent as 1950 - 1960 period, which is the life and times of maximum 2 generations prior..

Exodus from Agriculture

Agriculture is one sector of the GDP which is often criticized for dragging the Indian growth story. It is still the biggest employment sector, offering jobs to half the Indian population, though the numbers are far reducing now.Not too many years back, agriculture or farming was the main employment skill in India. My own family, 2 generations back are farmers. Rices, pulses , spices and even coffee, sugar & jaggery were farmed and after storing for the family, surplus was sold in the market. In my childhood days, I don’t remember any surplus being there, farm output was largely for family use as the next generation ( my parents) moved out to earn a living from industries. Nowadays there is no farming as the present generation ( me & my siblings) are completely away from the family tradition or the farm land.

In short, in 3 generations, there has been a complete shift from selling farm products to buying from supermarkets. This is the case in many other families too, some in 2 and others in 4 generations.

This is as I see it the exodus from agriculture.

My Take On Ad's

This is my list without the obvious chart topper's like Zoo-Zoo campaign...

Fourth Estate...

I've been on a search for the perfect news paper for a long time now. There are many choices related to the fourth estate whether it is print, or the tube..but yet to fit into my scheme of things.

I like my news in black & white, with not to many atrocious pictures in pecking order. The highest priority news should be on the first page and so on..This is a very simple requirement as per me..