AIDS in India

I was watching a public awareness ad on TV regarding AIDS. A boy wanted to get some action with a girl and the whole theme about the ad was surrounded around saying no to sex. The girl was saying I am young but not stupid, you should have the guts to say no. Even if that was not an exact description about the ad it is more or less what they were trying to say. Even though they were trying to do a good thing, I believe the way AIDS awareness is being handled is wrong /inaccurate(in India).

Go and ask a 10th standard student about how AIDS spread. The answer that 90% of the students will give will be either it spreads to sexual contact or it spreads if you have multiple sexual partners. Even though this answer seems right its only half the truth. In fact its incorrect. AIDS does not spread if you have sexual contact nor will it spread if you have multiple sexual partners. It will only spread from one infected person to another through various ways including sexual contact. I do not know how other countries and going about informing people about AIDS, but in India, as we have a conservative culture I think people are trying to use the fear of AIDS as a way through which they can prevent premarital sex.

Having premarital sex may or may not be right, but to give false information and have things done your way is not right. I asked a few of my classes mates how AIDS spread. Quite a few of them actually thought if one had sex with many partners they will get AIDS. They were under the impression that you were supposed to have sex with just one partner. If engineering college students think like that god knows what the rest think.

Even in schools, in exams when they are asked the question how AIDS spread; the students write "through sexual contact" and get full credit for it. Luckily I had a good science teacher who corrected us when we wrote the same response for the question.

Most of the AIDS campaigns surrounds around not having multiple partners or not having premarital sex. I believe in doing so the public is getting misguided. You won’t get AIDS if you have premarital sex nor will you get AIDS if you have sex with multiple partners. You won’t get AIDS if you have sex without condoms with a person who does not have AIDS. AIDS is a dangerous disease, but people must get their facts right. Because of such misguided campaigns people are afraid to have premarital sex and have other false information about AIDS.

More importance should be given to the actual ways in which AIDS can spread. The fact that it can only spread from one infected person to another should be stressed upon more. Use of condoms is a good thing, but even if you do not use it when you are with a person without the virus you won’t get the disease. As getting AIDS through sexual contact is under our control, more importance should be given to it.Students in schools should be informed properly. All the ways through which they can get AIDS and ways through which they cannot get should be explicitly stated to them and not left to their interpretation of various sentences.

Getting AIDS through infected needles are being reduced by the way the syringes are being made. Getting it through blood transfusion is not exactly in ones control. Hence I believe that the Ads (prevention of AIDS) are made with a good intention but unfortunately they sometimes tend to mislead the public. If the school teachers are trained to properly inform the students I believe a lot of misnomers will be gone. The only way that people will get accurate information about the disease is that they get it in the grass root level.

PS: Just to clear the air, I do not have a girl friend nor am i writing this because some girl refused to have sex with me. Thought that people are getting their facts wrong :P

Am I doing the right thing ?

Even though I had promised myself that I won’t be writing any personal blogs, after getting loads of advice and opinions from concerned well wishers and bystanders, I thought that I should contemplate my decision here.

I just finished my final year of engineering and hopefully I wont have to write anymore exams under Kerala University. Last year I attempted CAT and after the exam was over I knew i got screwed or i screwed it up big time. The answer I gave when people asked me how did it go was that, I got gang raped over and over and over again for 2 hours 30 minutes. When the results came, I felt that to say that I was gang raped was an understatement. I was expecting the worst and what came was worse than the worst. It was like getting AIDS, herpes, gonorrhea, and various other STD's after getting gang raped and then finding that I would be the first male to give birth to a child. In the various other exams i fared decently. Not good enough to get into a good B school but was quite ok.

Now I had 3 options after passing out, join a software company or repeat my MBA exams or do both. Joining a software company and just settling down was not an option for me. Almost all my seniors who joined companies have told me 2 things. One that they are fed up of their lives, second that "MBA its now or never". Even if I ignore the second statement the fact that most of them hate their jobs and me being in that position was not something that I was looking forward to. To work and prepare for my exams seems quite impossible. It’s like trying to be good at two completely different and complicated things at the same time. I would reach home by 6 then be all tired and you know the rest. So I logically came to the conclusion that I got to repeat my MBA without going for any job.

Now is my decision right or wrong? People have been telling me, its a huge risk. if you do not get this time what are you going to do? You did not perform well last time what makes you think you can do well this time out? If you have work experience you will have an edge during the interviews. My parents were worried at first and I think they still are but are not showing it out.

The fact that I want to do an MBA shows that I got brains in my head. I know what i am doing is a huge risk. I know that there is absolutely no guarantee that I would get into a good B school this time out. Going for a job would be the easiest thing to do right now. You don’t have to study anything, you get paid for the work you do. You can party, do all kinds of stuff. I decided I did not want the easy way out. The fact that I am in touch with studies at the present moment and I would be more or less totally blank 2 years from now kind of went in favor of me repeating. The whole situation is filled with if's. If I go for a job I might grow roots there and would never do an MBA or 2 years down the road I might quit my job and prepare for MBA. Either way what I am doing now seems far less risky than the other options that I have. If you are wondering what all the fuss is about MBA to just clear the air, for having any kind of success in the corporate world you need an MBA, unless of course you are an exceptional person, which I might be but am not willing to bank on that.

Now I have taken a decision and there is no going back. Is my decision right? I do not know and do not think that any one can tell that. No one can ever know what would have happened if i had gone for the job. I might have become a millioner in a year or I might have quit and went for sanyas in the Himalayas. I have taken a decision and I got to stick by it. I may or may not get into a good B school. What i have got to do is give it my all. After that things are not in my hand. I do not want to be in a situation in which I would say to my self, if only I had done that.

So in general I would like to say. Take your own decisions, be responsible for it. Never regret any of the decision you have made for your on interest (by this I do not mean that if you think killing a man is good for you, you should do that). Do not worry too much about failures, better have them now than 20 years from now (you got to learn from them though :P). As they say failure is the stepping stone to success. Individual failures will be insignificant when you look at the larger scheme of things.

Population 436

You could consider this as a creepy movie. You can not consider this as a horror movie as such as there are not many seens which will scare the living hell out of you.
The story is about a village whose population always remains a constant436. A census officer goes there to update the records and gets into all kind of trouble. He tries to figure the customs of the village and gets to know how screwed up that place is.
This is one creepy movie. Its definitely worth a watch

The declining state of Indian media

Yesterday I was surfing through the news channels; saw a report on headlines today about a man in an accident. A rod had passed through the man and he was still alive and breathing. I have seen a similar story in Replies believe it or not. Even though I d not have much of an impression about headlines today, I thought that showing it was not such a bad idea. Most of the other channels did not feature this report and to an extend it was an interesting piece of news. Then on every time when I stopped at headlines today while I was surfing the channels I found that they were showing this report. At night they even went to the extend of reenacting the whole incident.

You could forgive the fact that this particular news channel has amateur reporters if they at least tried to report something sensible. A main stream news channel should be clear about its purpose of being a news channel. Its job is to keep the public informed about important matters that affects the public. It should bring to light issues that require the attention of the government and the general public. Other than the main stream news channels we have sports news channels, entertainment news channels, various entertainment channels and the job of these channels is to entertain the general public. News channels should not try and take the place of these channels. I remember Cyrus Broacha's comment when he was asked about the various innovations that cricket channels are bringing in during its match analysis, the idea of adding spic into cricket. What he said was when he watches the analysis he wants to know about the technical details about the match said by some cricketer, not what a beautiful 20 year old woman has to say. Channels like MTV are there to give the viewers beautiful women and spice. Cricket channels shouldn’t try and do that. I agree with every word that he says.

Similarly news channels try and dilute its content. The content that headlines today present is appalling. The 50 odd days in which Mr Rajesh Talwar was in jail, each day they used to enact the murder and do all kinds of non sense. Rakhi Savent is another of their favorites. Every day when you switch the channel one ridiculous thing or the other will be there. The madness is endless, breaking news about Saif and Kareena fighting, controversy about Bipasha and Ronaldo kissing, the ridiculous stunts that they pulled when Harry Potter was released. The list goes on and on. Not to mention their ridiculous "sting" operations. One could argue that if I have that much problem with a channel I should stop watching it. But that’s not the point here. I do agree that news channels should do what it takes to get more TRP, but to steep to this level is not acceptable. Showing such news reports once in a while is nice, but to over do it and make that the only thing that is shown in the channel is quite a waste.

I am quite sad that channels like headlines today are forgetting why they came into the news business on the first place. Each channel will have a set of audience and the channel should ensure that it keeps its viewers well informed about relevant matters. Channels like headlines today are failing to do the duties of a news channel. Labeling them as news channels is a disgrace. I really hope that the channel goes bankrupt. Their reporters are worse than teenagers amateur reporters, the content nothing but distasteful and their ad which takes a hit on most news channels is quite unethical and immoral. All journalists belong to the same group and should have mutual respect. I really pray to god that it goes off air sooner rather than later. I do admit that it has many viewers; even my parents sit and watch it. The question you go to ask yourself is that, are they really showing the news?

Nuclear deal text

Link to the full text of the 123 agreement between India and the US given in the official website of the ministry of external affairs

CLICK HERE

The link takes you directly to the MEA website

Indian and the world

My 10th standard History teacher was teaching about world history ( something that happened 6-7 years back). NAM(Non Alignment Movement) came up. NAM countries , founded by Nehru of India, Sukarno of Indonesia and Tito of Yugoslavia(mainly), are countries which during the cold war period did not support either the USA or Russia. This does not tell us about the entire working of NAM but a part of the motivation of NAM was to have a set of countries which were independent of USA and erstwhile USSR. After saying this, he added. I will tell you a secreat, do not tell any one. Even though India was a NAM country it secretly supported USSR and some other country supported the US(not quite sure which country it was ). I mentioned this to stress upon the relationship between India and USSR.

India and Russia/USSR were virtually allies since India's independence. USSR provided us with technology and other military equipments and a moral support in all international matters. On our part we provided them with food. Russia is a country with which India has had an excellent relationship with. Russia has always supported every international endeavor of India. We used to buy military equipments from them. One thing which any sensible person will tell you is that, never leave a friend for another friend nor never pay less attention to an old and faithful friend when you get a new friend. Russia is our old friend. We should not try and improve our relations with US at the cost of Russia. Even though Russia is currently not as big a supper power as it used to be, Russia still has a big say in the world. If not anything its ethically not right on our part to ditch an old and faithful alley of ours for a new one.

The recent pro US statements by various Indian officials can be considered equivalent to backstabbing. Bilateral relationship with Russia is at an all time low. We have been neglecting Russia for a getting a better deal with the US. Its not just Russia that we have neglected. We have always had a good relationship with Iran and Iraq. Unfortunately because of our fascination with the US those relationships are also getting weak. India is trying to achieve an impossible balancing act. India wants to have good relation ship with all the countries. India is trying to take political diplomacy to an all new level.

From personal experience and various global events, its next to impossible to be a friend to all. 999 times out of 1000 if you try to have such a balancing act the result is going to be that most countries would think that India has a weak foreign policy and its only aim is to prosper using other countries. India should have a strong foreign policy. It should not change according to India's needs. Either India should go with the US, and when i say go with the US it should have a similar relation with the US as NATO or she should have a neutral relation with the US at the same time re kindling its old ties with Russia and various other countries. Its quite hard to have an ally like relationship with both the USA and Russia.

I agree that USA is a great country. Its the current super power. The reservation I have with having a close relationship with the US is that it will be like a traditional Indian marriage, with India being the bride and the US the groom. India will be forced to dance to the tune of the US. That's the impression that I get when i look at the present situation between the US and its various allies. US is a super power and it will do everything it can to ensure that it retains the title for as long as possible. Hence we should be really cautious when we go in for strengthening ties with the US even though it might be the need of the hour.

Strengthening ties with other countries is far less risky. The whole situation is like making an IPL team. Should you spend large and go for the big guns or should you be selective and chose utility players. Its a very tricky situation and is one which needs a lot of thought. The only thing i have to say that we have to ensure that we do not do anything to upset out old friends at the same time should make sure that India does not lag behind when compared to other countries in the world.

Indians and NRI's

What is it with Indians and the people of Indian origin who live in other parts of the world? When ever a NRI or a person who is 1/512th Indian does some thing remotely significant, the entire Indian media goes gaga about the person. Since the media goes gaga it’s just a matter of time before the Indian public goes gaga over them. You can see various shows on the person. How a person of Indian origin achieved this and that. When I see the entire nation going gaga over some person whose only relation to India is that his great great grandfather was born in India and stayed here till he was 8 months old, one question comes to my mind. Are all of us out of our minds?

I can think of two logical explanations for this phenomenon. One is that we want to inspire the Indians. We want to show them that Indians can do anything. As a developing country we need to inspire the nations so that we can become a developed country. But do we really have to inspire people with stories about people who are 1/512^th Indian. Countless examples come into my mind. Sunitha Williams, Kalpana Chawala, spelling bee winners in the US, sports men in other countries, etc. I think there are plenty of Indians who live in India, whose stories can motivate us. Why makes stars of people who has got nothing to do with India. I am by no means downplaying their achievement, but it has nothing to do with India and hence I believe a bit too much importance is given to them. If the media searches inside India they would find plenty of examples of inspirational stories.

The second reason that I can think of is that we what to shout to the world that we are no less than any one. We want to tell them we are good in every field and we are a force to be reckoned with. It’s high time that we stopped doing that. We have been telling the world about ourselves for quite some time now. We should ensure that instead of ourselves bragging about India, the world must talk about us.

I do agree that NRI’s at one point of time was directly or indirectly related to India. But to be quite honest I don’t believe that we had anything to do with their success. It’s like a person donating sperm, finds out who bought his sperm, and then finds out that the grandchild of the child that was born using that sperm has won the Noble and the sperm donor taking credit for the success of that person. In short it’s quite ridiculous. It gives one the impression that we don’t have any successful person in India and we are so desperate that we try and look at all the successful people in the world and if they are related to India in one way or other we would try and take credit for it. (I remember a story during the 1999 or 2003 football world cup about Michele Oven being an Indian). My humble request is that don’t make act like fools. Be proud of being an Indian and of the success of other Indians. Do not try and take credit for matters where we don’t deserve any credit.