Salman's Conviction

So Salman Khan is convicted and sentenced to 5 years of rigorous imprisonment.

Does this bring to an end a 13 years old sordid saga? Unfortunately No. There are bail applications, appeals to High court and the Supreme court. The story goes on.

Is the sentence too harsh ? After all he did not do it intentionally (Farha Khan Ali); and the he runs a charity - Being Human (Salman's lawyers). Moreover, those dogs (the dead and the injured) had no business sleeping of the pavement (Abhijeet).

What the quantum of the sentence should be, is for the honourable court to decide. But Salman did not exactly knock off a glass of water in a restaurant table. He killed a MAN and seriously injure four innocent MEN. If he did it intentionally, he should be in jail for the rest of his life, if not hanged. That is the law of the land Ms Khan Ali, and applies without prejudice to all and sundry and even to the Dabang Khan. The maximum punishment under section 304 II IPC is 10 years. The judge has been very considerate when he has given a sentence of 5 years for killing a man and destroying the families livelihood and so crippled 4 that they remain incapable of earning a livelihood for themselves at young age.

Yes Salman has contributed to charity and helped many people, but how does that justify drunken driving leading to death and injury.

And if every man had the right squash dogs on the pavement under the wheel of his car, then we are not living in a sane world. Mr Abhijeet & Ms Khan Ali, there are hundred on Indians who are born on the footpath, lives there and dies there. That is urban India, in case you haven't noticed. Probably the government need to do more, but what have you done ?!

Land Acquisition Bill

Land for agriculture and environment vs land for development is a vicious cycle. 

Recently the Madhya Pradesh government sent a proposal to the Central government seeking permission to flatten the centuries old Chambal ravines to make the land available for agriculture. Can you play with vast creation of nature? What will be the cost, both material and to the environment? Who will cultivate the land thus created ?

As the population increases, there will be an increasing demand for land for housing, industries and for creation of other utilities. It will also be a greater demand for food, jobs, water, electricity. There will be a larger creation garbage (mostly non bio degradable) and sewage. 

For all these agricultural land and forest land will be acquired. That will thus, leave lesser land available to grow grains and vegetables, for which the demands will continue to increase. Lesser forest cover means lesser rainfall, lesser groundwater and higher temperatures. Taking away agricultural land will push more people towards the cities, but the jobs and capacity building will not move at the same pace. This will lead to increase in crime in the urban areas. The increase in industries and larger quantity of sewage and non biodegradable wastes will poison and kill our rivers and soil and make our air unbreathable. The signs are already visible in our cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Lo;kata etc.

It is against this backdrop that the land acquisition bill must be seen.

Countering America's Inshoring

I was watching a documentary on BBC about America's efforts at insourcing or inshoring - bringing back jobs to America. Someone made a statement that the way India made its Silicon Valley in Bangalore, US is trying to build its Bangalore in South Dakota.

It might not seem serious now, but the signs are ominous. Last year US brought back an equal number of jobs as compared to the number of jobs that went out of the country. This is a significant change from the last couple of decades when large number of jobs fled America to China and India.

What India must do to counter this?!

For one, listen to Raghuram Rajan. It should not be just "Nake in India", but also "Make in India, for India".

India for long, has focussed on building software as per client requirements abroad, i.e. the idea and design came from abroad and Indians only implemented it. It must change now. Focus must be on new ideas and innovations. Not just in the area of IT, but also in other areas like manufacturing and agriculture.

India must also focus on quality, in every sphere. Anyone will tell you that a Lux soap made and Sold in India, is far inferior to the Lux soap that you can buy in, say, Dubai. The emission quality from our vehicles, and the safety standards in the vehicles sold in India, are far inferior to the vehicles that we export to Europe. The government must ensure that we get the same exacting standards in the country that we provide for European countries. Yes, the vehicles will get more expensive, but we will breath a better air.

We cannot forever continue to be the price leader. We need to raise the bar. We need to make innovative and quality products, in India, for India. And this need to start from ensuring quality school and college education, quality teachers and innovation built into the curriculum. Can the government do it ?!

She Died That Night

Rina died a new days back. I buried her, somewhere deep in my heart. 

She was a dream. And like all beautiful dreams, she was great, as along as she was there. I loved her dearly. But she was so distant, almost inviolable, darting in and out of the dark clouds of my life; as though she came from another planet. A shimmering but very remote planet. A place, whose thought sent the mind into a convulsion of emotions. From my distant perch, it appeared to be a land of milk and honey. But it also conjured images of awe and fear, in the unfledged mind. She fought, cajoled, scolded and loved. But all of it seemed so wonderful. I wished it would never end. But it did, that night. 

I called her Rina, to the rest of the world she was Rashmi. Rashmi lives on; Rina died that night. As I laid her to rest in the depth of my heart and grieved, I knew that she had left behind a wealth of beautiful memories, wonderful moments, which would serve as my companion for the rest of my life.

As I sat, staring out of my bus window, at the verdant fields yonder, her charming, smiling face floated in and out of my reverie. Every word she had said, remains indelibly etched in my memory.

A liitle thought

Very few people get what they want in life, most don't. To the outside world they are a picture of joy, mirth and laughter, but the pain within, they suffer all alone.

The dark night is their invisible cocoon. It hides them, hides their tears and protects them from the prying eyes of the world, as they grieve.

And when the tears dry up, they get up and retrace their steps along that beaten track, that they have so often traveled, in their dreary lives. They walk, with the hope, that one day, just maybe, one day, someone will come along and hold their hand, in love, and walk along with them in their journey of life.

That Rainy Evening

Being a single parent is not easy, even in a big city, and a being a single father is worse. “A man can never nurture”, it is said. No one is willing to give a man a chance. He is bound by the societal streotypes of a bread earner and a protector. He is often the the subject of the society gossip and the child often subject to taunts and questions, answer to which he is too young to contemplate. Conflicting emotions tears up the man everyday and at every step. Should he be the caring and loving mother or the disciplinarian father? It is an emotional mesh that tend to push him to the extremes in either direction.

It was one of these battles that I was fighting that rainy evening. My five year old son was impatiently pacing in the room, anxiously looking out of the window for his playmates. It was pouring outside and he wanted to go out and play. The mother in me did not want to let the boy out in the rain. After lot of cajoling and promises, I agreed to let him go out and play with his friends on the assurance that he will keep his raincoat on and avoid the puddles. He ran down the steps of my fifth floor apartment, too excited to wait for the lift. I had hardly settled down in my sofa to complete a long pending book, that I heard his joyful shrieks. I thought of taking a peek out of the window to check on him. There he was racing down the society walkway, on his bicycle, along with the other kids of the society, drenched to the bone, his shirt sticking to his body, raincoat long shed and forgotten. I shouted at him and commanded him to come back home on the double.

He stood at the door shivering in his wet clothes, scared and nervous about the expected reprimand. I was scolded him as I rubbed him dry with a towel. He was obviously sad on loosing out of the fun time with his friends. His question disarmed me completely, “Baba, did you not play in the rain when you were my age?” He ran inside, too cold to wait for an answer and too young to understand contradiction of the adults. 

When I was his age, I not only got drenched in the rain, but also muddied my school uniform playing in the rain and mud along with my friends. When I seek to protect him, I was actually denying him the joys of childhood which he is so entitled to. We adult spend too much time thinking, “what would happen if,” and thus miss out on the small joys of life. When we correct your children we forget how we craved to do exactly the same things as a child.

The B-school internship

So you have cracked that snazzy B- school entrance exam, and you thought that the worst is finally over. Brace yourself ! The fun is just about to begin. You are about to enter a labyrinth you had never encountered before. Here you will need the skills of a kamikaze pilot to navigate through.

The B-school approach is distinctly different from what schools and colleges had previously taught you. Classroom teachings, as you had known, is replaced largely by self study. Focus is more on application of knowledge gained rather than reproduction of matter learned by rote. You are not limited by the boundaries of a syllabus. The more you know, the more you need to know. Worse, sometimes you need to unlearn all you had learned before and relearn. In short nothing you had done before prepares you for what you are going to experience in B-school.

B-school is a motley crowd of poets, accountants and nerds. That's how the Arts, Commerce and Science graduate are referred to. Here Accounting and Finance are a challenge even for the accountants. While Organisational Behavior drives the nerds crazy, it is Market Research which gets the goat of the poets. But Marketing, overall, is always everyone's darling.

Since the focus is on application, preparation of the course should begin even before the actual classes commence. Books must be sent to students well in advance. B-schools are expected to scan the resumes of it's students and advice them to work on their weak areas. Science and Arts graduates, particularly, must be asked to attend Accounting and Economic classes before the regular classes begin. Knowledge of Statistics and Calculus will also help. Those who seek to pursue a specialisation in Human Resources and Industrial Relations should have some knowledge of Corporate Laws. Prior work experience should be made mandatory.

B- school experience could be exhilarating, hectic and draining. Your attitude and approach will decide what you will carry back from the college.