My Kochi Experience so far

I came to this part of  India about five months ago.
On my first day on the job, I was as nervous as little boy on his first day of school. The butterflies in my stomach were not there because I was starting a job in new city but because I was scared of whether people (students) would accept me. My irrational fear was because I looked different, I spoke with an accent and I just felt strange in this new state. But the moment I walked into the classroom, students looked at me. To my relief, they were all smiling.
I know it sounds silly to give so much importance to a smile. Trust me when I say this, we take smiles for granted. A smile is the first step in acceptance. The genuine smiles that I saw on my colleagues’  and students' faces made me feel a little more welcome and a lot less anxious.
The weeks went by and I received amazing assignments and batches to work on. My colleagues were extremely supportive and understanding of my strengths and weaknesses, although I must say it took some of them a while to pronounce my name correctly!
Over time I started to get to know more people in the building and to be honest, it felt wonderful. Yes, there were awkward moments of silence – meeting a person from a different culture can put you in a spot where you are thinking of not saying anything that might offend the other person. It’s like an auto correct function in your brain, only much faster and less reliable.
I love our intellectual discussions from politics to sports to mathematics. I always call one of my colleagues my Kerala History teacher and the other my little ray of sunshine.
I knew I had come to the right place only because I was surrounded by the right people who had accepted me for who I was. These were the people who made me feel at home away from home.
Acceptance is the first step!

Book Review: Revolution 2020- By Chetan Bhagat

Disclaimer : Recently I have read "Revolution 202" by Mr. Bhagat, here is an honest review (according to me). This review is an independent one , views are my personal and has no correlation with any publisher/advt. (disclaimer ends)!

The book revolves around struggles of a protagonist (actually antagonist) Gopal and how he gives in to the condemnable system. The landscape of Revolution 2020 also weaves the lives of Aarti & Raghav into Gopal’s life.

The plot, set against the backdrop of small town Varanasi, paints the aspirations and scrambles of Gopal’s life. Gopal is ambitious about earning money. He wishes to be rich but doesn’t know the right path. Gopal falls in love with Aarti and the only thing he dreams of is becoming her lover. His career goals go for a toss, if his friendship with her is not going well. She however is in love with Raghav. Raghav has a dream for his country and courage to chase his dream. He is passionate about the values that he upholds. Raghav aspires to be a journalist who does meaningful journalism for his city’s welfare.

The central theme suggests that India’s education system is flawed. Year after year, engineers are being churned out of private institutes with meaningless degrees. Bhagat satirizes the directionless youth and also the parents who try to squeeze their unattainable dream out of their children.The book depicts today’s Indian youth. It is a yours and mine story involving all neighborhood characters. Chetan’s writings are so figurative that one can mentally sketch out his descriptions. The sheer grace, with which he defines Varanasi, almost made the book a tourism campaign. Also, Bhagat magnifies human thoughts beautifully.
However, there is rawness in the story. The book is full of unfounded aphorisms about girls (No offence !). The end isn’t impactful. There is predictability in the plot, stuffed with clichés. When you name a book “Revolution 2020”, it is supposed to be ultra-radical, especially in times of Anna Hazare. However, the book doesn’t live up to its title. It delves deeper into the emotions of the protagonist forgetting the bigger picture. Revolution against corruption is only present in bits and pieces throughout the book. The major chunk is a sardonic sarcasm against the education system without any thoughtful solution.
However, we must pat Bhagat’s back for choosing to write on the most significant issue pertaining to education system. The effortless narration and flow of the plot are also commendable. He captures a myriad human shades suggesting that there is no black and white, it is all grey. All in all a light hearted novel which most youngsters would relate to.

My heartfelt opinion about the subject matter :
Youth, today are chasing unwarranted goals without putting much thought. Few of them, who are oriented, are incapacitated owing to the systemic inadequacies. The system is eclipsed by corruption. The despondency lies in the indifference of youth towards the insurmountable task of eradicating corruption. Youth should garner enough courage and initiative to uproot corruption. Their unstinted support is a “must have” for a better India!

Man insaan ka !!

Ek arsha hua neeche likhi chand lines ko...aaj post kar rha hun , un readers ke liye jo parkhi hain:

Chalo aaj yun hi kuch kehne ho;

zindagi beh rahi hai, behne do!

Pal Khushi ke bahut hi thode hain,

gham ke afsane aaj rehne do!

Phool to phool hain sookh jayenge;
sookhe patte to pade rehne do!
Main khud se mil ke darta hun;
aaiyna mere aage pade rehne do!

Baat duniya ki to roz karte hain,

aaj apni baat karne do!

Climatic Division

As the UN climate summit opens on Monday in Durban, some contours of the fight ahead can be discerned.

For many, the Kyoto vs anti-Kyoto Protocol line appears to be getting shaky. Small countries, including threatened islands and the European Union (EU), want to get to a climate deal quickly, in fact as early as 2015.

India, along with Brazil, Japan, Russia and Canada, has argued against haste. These divisions became apparent during the 12th meeting of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate in the US earlier this month.

This coming together of climate change adversaries, so to speak, promises to create friction at Durban. While it's too early to speculate, it is possible that Durban may see no deal on the subject. Mutual lack of trust--always healthy in multilateral settings, where rivals can undercut each other--is ensuring a glacial pace of climate negotiations.

Why government Should not bail out Kingfisher ?

In last 2-3 days the Government of India is giving signals and are issuing statements in media and newspapers to provide financial assistance of Kingfisher Airlines Limited controlled primarily by Dr Vijay Mallya, Chairman of this Airlines. Here are some reasons why govt shouldn’t bailout kingfisher:

Firstly because it is a purely private enterprise with the sole motivating factor of profit, secondly because both the Kingfisher Airlines and its Chairman Dr Mallya have reputation of extreme consumerism, vulgar flamboyancy and personification of a luxurious life, with least public concern (Thanks to billion dollars F-1 and IPL). Many of the officials including Mr.Sanjay Aggarwal (CEO) of Kingfisher have blamed high Aircraft turbine fuel (ATF) pricing and state govt's sales tax and so called "irrational" airport duties for the losses of the airlines, but these norms are same for other players and some are making decent profits. Thus it seems to be a classical case of mismanagement.

In the recent past, Kingfisher Airlines Ltd had informed the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) about a Debt Recast Package (DRP) with lending banks, following a one-time relaxation in restructuring guidelines sanctioned by the Reserve Bank of India. I would also like to give reference about the McDowell Krest (an NBFC) under the umbrella of UB Group, where Dr Mallya has been alleged to have siphoned public money and later changed the name of company to Krest Finlease, and declared it Bankrupt.

Now coming to govt's part...why should it influence or try to influence the lending policies of banks (for this bailout) , which would be a gross violation of bank's sovereignty, under the circumstances when it says petrol price rise is not under its jurisdiction and is driven by OMCs.

Based on all these background information, I think Government of India shouldn't provide any financial package to Kingfisher Airlines which results in loss of public exchequer.

New weapon in Beijing’s armoury!

Disclaimer: Let me start off by posting a disclaimer!!

The below written thoughts on recent Indo-China International relations are based on my personal analysis of recent developments of both nations and have nothing to do with Delhi-Beijing bilateral talks and strategic and economics dialogues. [Disclaimer ends]

China, the geographical hub of Asia, is the source of transboundary-river flows to the largest number of countries in the world — from Russia to India, and from Kazakhstan to the Indochina Peninsula. Recently china has strongly objected the Indian oil exploration campaign (By ONGC-videsh ltd) in south china sea , saying that it would be treated as stepping in the sovereignty of china. This has been answered by India’s external affair minister in his recent tour to Vietnam , by clearing the fact that ONGC would continue its oil exploration project in those blocks.

If we look back, we can find that block no. 127 &128 are under the jurisdiction of Vietnam by 1982 UN agreement and hence there is no need to seek permission for the exploration in them from anyone, except Hanoi.

In the month of July, China had captured Indian water jet craft –INS-Aeravat, which was patrolling in the international sea boundary near South China Sea. Unfortunately the biggest impediment before such an important task is the attitude and self-deception of the Indian ruling class. Although George Fernandes, the Defence Minister during the NDA regime, always voiced concern about Chinese intentions, he did not get sufficient support from other members of the Vajpaiyee Cabinet. Manmohan Singh, the present Prime Minister, is also advising restraint with respect to the attitude towards China. Obviously he is trying to sweep every uncomfortable information beneath the carpet. Manmohan Singh has reasons to do so as he is in the best position to know how unprepared his government is to match with inside scams !

From the above few examples what I want to convey is- China is not only trying to capture the mammoth oil and gas deposits by muscular power in that part of the globe but also trying to get a despotic control over the sea route which is considered as the backbone of trade and commerce in far-east. If India’s presence in the south china sea is hurting so much to Beijing , then by the same analogy China should stay away from the activities in PoK.

For the expansion of the India’s regime in south-china sea, Vietnam would be key for New-Delhi. Delhi-Hanoi defence pact could be a milestone in this direction. Now India is in the position to use Taraang port of Vietnam. In the decade of 70-80s China maintained good relations with the neighbours (especially Pakistan) of India to keep New-Delhi on its toes, now its time for India to establish pragmatic relations with the countries like Vietnam to pressurize china. Basically, its ‘Message-giving Strategy’ is that the relevance of Chinese communism and despotism is not over. To counter the Chinese strategy India has option to spread the message all over the world and indirectly all democratic authorities.

Now, the Chinese response is not very enthusiastic. We could not find out the answers; this is an unsolved question paper. Recently Montek Singh Ahluwalia went to China; took many issues with them in 1^st ever SED, but he returned to India almost empty-handed. What does it signify? To get the answer to the query we have to understand the basic perception of China towards India!