Strange land, strange happenings!

Incredible India!! How true is this statement these days for the 7^th largest nation of the world! Where on one hand we still have majority of our population below the poverty line, on the other hand there are brazen displays of money in the higher strata’s of the society.

Dalit ki Beti, Mayawati, always attracts votes during elections by calling for dalits to bring her to power in order to come out of their current low status in the society. For many years, the political equation in U.P has been defined by Samajwadi and Bahujan Samaj Party which is a struggle between the dalits and the so-called higher class. It’s a comedy of sorts to see one party cancel out or declare illegal the laws made during the tenure of the other party. Out of two evils it is very hard to determine which is even slightly better.

In case of the present Mayawati government, money is spent in tunes of 7-figures to place statues of elephants and Kanshi Ram at prominent places. Such news come filtering out after regular intervals of time.

But this time Behenji took the entire political system as well as the entire nation by storm. A brazen display of a garland made of currency notes enveloping her during the anniversary celebrations of the party made the front news. Against the expectations of party members going on defensive mode the same incident was repeated 2 days later, albeit with a smaller garland.

Having been lived in U.P during the initial years of my life, I consider it as an integral party of who I am now. I am in a kind of a love-hate relationship with the place. It has been 12 years since I left the place with a bitter after taste in my mouth but I can’t still see any major changes which could have happened in the positive direction.

When the central government allocates funds for some sort of developmental activity, it disappears midway. A state with such huge opportunities in terms of land and labor has no huge industry to boast of. There are still huge levels of corruption, low literacy levels and major wastage of latent talent.

When the party members were questioned, they came out with the explanation that the garland was made out of the contributions from them rather than from other sources. But if they have the monetary strength to contribute money to this extent for their respected “Behenji”, then why hasn’t there been any visible development in this state. Why aren’t there any educational institutions to boast of apart from a stray IIM and a handful of engineering colleges? If they have this much money to collect why are still hordes of laborers and daily wage earners migrating to other places? Why is Lucknow, once considered a hub of Nawabi culture, now a witness to its death?

I just hope that these political parties answer these questions before U.P is also considered a lost cause and left without any hope.

My Internship

Ever since I finished my schooling I have been dying to work in the corporate sector….and even uploaded my resume on different sites…but my parents always felt that it’s better to first complete my studies and then start working….so I dropped the plan..

Well I have finished my second semester of the MBA program and am at my home doing my internship. Once I started working here I have realized why a job is perfect for a person like me. Because I don’t have to study eight different subjects these days or stay awake till late in the night to finish my course for an exam or become a parrot J

I am a very moody and lazy person so if I love something I’ll give 100% to it otherwise nothing or no one in this world can make me do it.

When my professor told me that I have been selected to be an intern at Devyani international Ltd. I wondered as to what kind of a company it is….I had never heard of it. And then he told me that it was the franchisee of Pizza Hut for north and east India and a franchisee of KFC and Costa Coffee. The first day when I reported there I was nervous but excited as we usually are about new beginnings…my first day at the corporate world!!!!

I had heard various tales where many interns were ill-treated at their respective companies or weren’t given any opportunities to learn or do something constructive and I was wondering what kind of an experience I’ll have here. My first day was not only smooth but I was also impressed by the company and its people. We were introduced to our respective guides and given detailed introduction about the company. My company guide is a really sweet person as he not only encourages me to go ahead and do my best but also keeps motivating and encouraging me. Before I began my SIP I felt as if I was having second thoughts about taking up HR, whether I was actually interested in it but now after I have a month of experience here, I think I’ll love it.

I have been allotted to the Costa Coffee section of DIL. Since it has only 44 stores till now in india, Costa is on a major expansion spree and is thus focusing on recruitment in large numbers. The manpower is less as compared to the work so my supervisor actually takes me to various interviews and has sometimes also allowed me to actually take PI’s, of course for entry level posts only.

But the most exciting thing is that Costa is the beverage partner of IPL matches which will start from 12^th March for which the company requires Hotel Management students from all over the country. I have been given the task of contacting and recruiting these people, explain to them every thing and then select them. Since it’s a very important event, there’s a lot of coordination between HR and Marketing department, working against deadlines, collecting and arranging the information etc.

So, in short I’m loving my time here!!!!!

End of the second sem....finally!!

My life has seen a lot of much anticipated changes in the past few weeks. First of all my second semester finally got over J . Although the last time my semester got over in September I had to stay back for almost 2 days in a dark and virtually vacant hostel, this time I had sworn that nothing would make me stay one more day in that place. The entire week from 25^th January to the 1^st of Feb was a dreaded journey as we had successive papers, day after day after day, and in between 2 papers on the same day. So when the exams finally got over, I literally packed my bags and ran away!!!

My sister, who had come to pick me up, and I went to the city where we stayed in a hotel. The next morning we went to visit the Charminar, the first time I went there, along with Lad Bazaar which is famous for its glass bangles and the Pearl market. It is so easy for us to generalize everything, isn’t it? If we meet one dishonest or rude person in a new city we quickly assume that the city as a whole is rude and that you simply ‘hate’ the place!

Although I am sure I have been overcharged many times by the Hyderabadi autowallahs but still when I look back right now at my past one year experience there, I can confidently say that the city is beautiful and people helpful. Although I don’t remember the name, but my first trip to Golconda Fort last year in August or September with two of my friends turned out to be real fun and informative because a guard assigned there took us on an impromptu tour, telling us all about the old tales and scientific methods used to make it an impregnable fort, before finally guiding us to the light and sound show. Although it was not a part of his job, he did this. I don’t know what else to call it if not helpful nature.

The second time such a thing happened was when I was roaming on the top floor of the Charminar with my sister. We were just standing, looking out at a mosque located directly opposite to it, when a guard on duty approached us and started telling us about the story behind the construction if the monument, the underground tunnel which has been closed now and showed us the various famous buildings which could be seen from that point. Such instances keep happening, to me and I’m sure to many of you too. We just have to remember them while we crib about something the next time.

Goodbye 2009!!

2009, the last year of the first decade of the new millenium has now come to an end...a year of which i have many memories...some not so good, some nice and some simply marvellous :-)

for me the year started with celebrations at Goa with my family...i was still trying to get into an MBA school having given my share of entrance exams and really been fed up of all of them.

i got several calls, some from highly reputed colleges while others from simple money minting factories..finally i got into my present college.

a fresh graduate and probably the youngest in my batch ( yeah i Know...i have been called a baby too many times in the past 6 months or so :P) i met some really amazing people and some sample pieces for the first time in my life!

this year saw me doing many things for the first time in my life vis-a-vis go-karting, bowling, playing golf and having sleep-overs with friends among other things :-)

all in all those trips to the city to snow world, central, city centre, eat street, golconda fort, various malls, and all the travelling and the numerous interactions with an interesting and wide array of personalities has helped me a lot!!!

but yeah some things which i didn't like about this year- my first b'day away from home ( but had fun with friends :-) ), first diwali away from home and not being able to meet my college buddies when i went home for a 7 day vacation after a four month long semester.

but anyways...this is for 2009, a wonderful and different year which opened doors to a new point in my life, it was nice knowing you. Good bye. and welcome 2010!!

Current Situation in Andhra- a personal view

First of all Merry Christmas to all of you :-)

It has been a long time since I last wrote a post....part of it could be blamed on me being super busy with project submissions, presentations and tests and the other part on me not really feeling very strong about anything to write about.

Well Andhra Pradesh has again been wrapped in turmoil of the demand for Telangana. Demands were raised by TRS for a separate state as their supporters played havoc with the city and its residents....The first protests came with the beginning of December and curfew was applied. I had just returned from Mumbai after spending one extra day in order to avoid the trouble but transportation was still pretty badly hit....However at that time the Central government gave the promise of Telangana to diffuse the situation and it was back to normal.

But the beauty of Indian political system is, you just have to wait for a few hours to get the feedback. The next day newspapers showed an increased demand for Gorkhaland and subsequent protests from Congress ministers and other quarters against this decision. Days passed and finally the Central government has again come out with its revised decision to not go ahead with the division of the state.

The city has again been held at ransom as some so-called activists damage public property and disrupt the peace and quiet. For the past few days, life has been topsy turvy. The city was closed down for some days before Christmas...although my college is almost 42 km away from city, still TRS activists came here, threw stones and raised slogans and also broke some near by eateries. We were advised not to go outside as the situation was really bad.... and although the curfew has been lifted for Christmas and the weekend it's not yet clear what the situation will be like next week.

Yeah I know I have said earlier we should try to be a part of the system and change it and this will make me a hypocrite but I feel as if I'm losing my faith in democracy...Sure India is the world's largest democracy and see where it has brought us.

We have demands for new states cropping up as if they are some candies!!!

these nonsensical demands have already led to the creation of Jharkand, Chattisgarh and Uttaranchal...Every time any state is divided to form another territory based on political pressure, it acts as an incentive for more demands to flood in.

Today if the government agrees to the formation of Telangana, tomorrow we'll have demand for Gorkhaland, or Khalistan or a demand for the division of some other state. To what extent will this go on...till all the states are divided. I must be going crazy or else I wouldn't think that autocracy is at least a bit better in dealing with such crazy ideas. I hope not many people have this same idea or else the world's biggest democracy might just be getting hollow from inside, unseen by anyone. When will the politicians stop using every possible option to get political mileage, and when will we, the citizens, stop them from taking us on a ride by whipping up a frenzy about anything and everything.

India is not just a land mass with 28 states, it is a country and it will continue to be so till the day we remain united...till the day we resist division of states solely on the basis of language.

A view of the past

I would like to dedicate this post to my school history teacher, Joshi ma'm. For many people history can be the worst possible subject, what with all the dates and events to be memorized and written down. Infact whenever I say that it is one of my favorite subject, my friends react by saying what's the use of learning about events which are a part of the past now!!!

But as we all know very well, there's a phrase - 'History repeats itself.'

I was glad that I got Joshi ma'm as my teacher as she taught history in such a practical way that I grew to love it forever.. out of the many things I learnt under her the one incident which affected me the most was the black mark on humanity - The Holocaust. To hear that man can be so cruel to kill others like him just because they are of a different religion and have a separate set of beliefs and practices not only turned me into a lifelong hater of Hitler but also made me look up on various incidents related to the horrible events, the history behind those places which proved to be the hell on earth for many.

This interest of mine merged with another interest of mine i.e movies. I, therefore, try to watch as many movies based on Holocaust as possible.

Out of the many I have seen, three stand out in my mind right now - Schindler's list, The Pianist and The Boy in the striped Pyjamas.

Although based on the same basic story each of these three movies show us a different angle of the people involved in it.

Schindler's List : The story about an opportunistic businessman who sees a chance to run his business without spending too much in the form of wages and thus employs a group of Jews. However his intentions of simply getting rich make a u-turn when he views the senseless murders of innocent people at the hands of the SS officers. A story of a man's change of heart and the extent to which he goes to protect those whom he sees everyday. the pain he feels when he hears about the murder of one of his own worker and the subsequent steps he takes to prevent the repetition of such an incident. He uses every possible method- bribery, threats and psychological manipulation. Steven Speilberg's decision to use black and white rather than colour adds a certain strength and punch to the movie and thus prevents it from passing off as just another war movie. The tense scenes as families desperately try to remain together, the casual way in which the nazi soldiers laugh over the burning bodies of Jews sends a chill down your spine, no matter how many times you see it. A story about humanity, how it always exists.

The Pianist: What an amazing performance by Adrien Brody!! The story of a happy Polish family which is torn apart after the German attack on Poland and the subsequent despair faced by a man left all alone. The movie depicts how the Germans degraded and dishonoured the Polish people, snatched away all their rights, forced them to wear the Star of David, denied them the basic demands of food and forced them to live with their hear bowed down...The scene where Szpilman ( the character played by Brody) is separated from his family by an aquaintance in order to save his life and the subsequent blind and tumbling steps he takes, crying out for his loss, looking around at a ghost town is not only chilling but also heartrending. and forces the viewer to imagine what many jews suffered during the senseless murders. The long days and depressed nights he suffered, the continuous fear of being caught, the desperate measures he took to remain alive can not leave you untouched.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas: A movie which starts as an innocent story of a young boy who has to adjust as his parents move to a different place ( something which I'm sure all of us have been through), his anxiety about whether he would be able to make new friends and if so how will they react towards him. As the story progresses we find him coming face to face with the prejudices of the adult world as his elders prevent him from interacting with 'the villagers' who are actually Jewish prisoners. The scene showing his interaction with Pavel who works in his home is a mixture of innocence and a subtle touch about the way trained and well educated Jews were made to work as slaves, forced to forget their true identity. The stress put upon Bruno by his tutor to read 'proper' books shows how sometimes young minds are brainwashed. The most beautiful part of the entire movie is however the friendship which develops between Bruno and Shmuel, a bond pure and devoid of any falsification. Their bond further strengthens with slight hiccups in between. However when Shmuel tells Bruno about his father who's missing from the camp, the latter decides to help search for him. The search ends tragically and the movie ends with a shot of a room full of abandoned clothes implying that the boys were gassed to death. A depiction of how the war affected and destroyed many innocent lives.

Although about the past, these stories hold as much importance today as ever before. The importance of being patient and understanding about the differences in customs and practices and respecting each others rights will never grow old. Today we are faced with another wave of extremism which is based on brainwashing of impressionable minds and are thus witness to several senseless attacks which if unchecked can escalate to horrifying consequences. An eye for an eye will always make the whole world blind.

An angry outburst

Hey guys!! Well I returned from my trip to Mumbai this morning itself... It was a much needed break and left me fully charged up to face another two months of my MBA semester:-)
Although it was my second trip to the finacial and movie hub of India, the city pulled me inside all over again!! From the moment I set my foot out of the bus all I wanted to do was just roam around and get the maximum out of it that I can have within the 4 days long holiday I got.

During my visit there I got to be a part of the Navy day celebrations at The Gateway of India. Joining the huge crowd as all of us gazed up and enjoyed the sight of our brave commandoes slithering down the ropes from the low flying helicopter with The Taj in the backdrop, I was reminded of the horrible scenes of the past year. More than a year has passed by and still no concrete result has come out of the case on the lone surviving militant, Mohammed Ajmal Kasab. News reports ranging from the admission of his involvement in the attack to his subsequent denial and the latest one of the sacking of his lawyer by the court are the only reports available to the public but those who were the victims are still waiting to get justice. each day brings a new twist in this tragic story.

However I am not going to talk about the case here, let's save it for some other day. What I want to talk about is much more serious according to me, and I would love to know how you feel about it. While I stood in front of the Taj, a teenager standing next to me asked his friend, "It's not the anniversary of the attack today. So what are they doing this for?'

It didn't shock me that he didn't know about the Navy day, many people don't know. But what disturbed me was his question. Have we become so complacent and so busy in our lives that it's only on anniversaries that we remember such a black day? I remember many attacks which India has undergone, be it on Parliament, in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Jaipur and the list goes on. And after every such attack a statement is released to the press - "The spirit of our people will not break by such cowardly attacks and we'll survive such attacks."

The question is how do we realize when this spirit of survival turns into nonchalance? How can we be sure that instead of being strong by remembering such incidents and being more alert and cautious, public would start taking them as an integral part of their lives, only to be to remembered on anniversaries or if it reaches uncomfortably close to their own home? Nobody likes remembering nightmares but these nightmares can only be removed with a conscious and continuous effort by all. Why take a recap of all the happenings and the subsequent progress only on anniversaries? Why shouldn't we try to solve and wrap up the cases quickly and effectively? While Mumbai was under siege, people from all over saluted the brave soldiers and the members of the general public who laid down their lives or went through hell to save others. For me those people are still and will always be the true heroes, but if we want to really respect them we'll have to come out of our cocoons and become much more aware and alert Indians rather than putting all the blame on the security forces or government. Rather than fighting the system from outside, be a part of it and change it from inside.

In the end I would like to say that rather than putting the stamp of a particular day on such acts, lets keep that anger alive in us so that we can send a strong and immediate response to such infiltrators.