Wasted opportunity

I had a GD/ interview last week in a certain B school. After the GD was over I thought that I did exceedingly well. The topic was “freedom of expression, shouldn’t there be limits”. Even now, if you compare my performance with that of the group, I did exceedingly well. Now later when I reached home, I was thinking about how well I had done the GD and the kind of points I brought in. I was telling to myself that I should be getting full marks for the GD. Then suddenly it struck me, the things we said in the GD were utter crap. Even if it was not crap, we had a very narrow view on the topic. All of us were talking about freedom of speech and things related to it. None of us talked about freedom of expression in movies, paintings, cartoons etc. None of us talked about the nude paintings of various goddesses and how certain right wing groups are totally against it, none of us talked about various movies which gets banned or on the content of various movies. We didn’t mention about the Danish cartoonist nor did we mention about writers like Salman Rushdi or Taslima Nasreen. In short we didn’t do any justice to the topic. I started off the discussion and I guess I would be getting maximum blame for the sorry state of our GD. I would be blamed for not taking the group in the right direction. 

Had I brought in all the points I just mentioned here, my selection to the institute would have been more or less certain. Yet again I missed the bus. What’s the point in having all this freaking knowledge if you can’t use it when it matters the most. You will get only one chance and you have the grab the opportunity. That’s what winners do. Getting all these points after the GD is over is immaterial. There is absolutely no use. You will be judged on what you said during the GD and there is no way that the panelist could find out how much knowledge I have. 

It could be said that it’s not just my fault that all these points weren’t discussed. Other people in the group should have brought these points. To a certain extent, the group in which you are matters, a good group can make your performance look even better, more points would come up and the panelist would have a good impression about the group. But in gd’s even though team work matters, individual contributions plays a huge role. Just because others didn’t bring various aspects of the topic doesn’t excuse you from not bring them, even if you had brought a lot of points on your own. 

Performing when it matters the most is a trait of winners, something which I seem to lack. There isn’t much difference between some one great and some one ordinary. Great people grab opportunities with both their hands where as ordinary people lets some slip. I let this particular opportunity slip, now all I can do is to wait and hope that I get in. 

Obama the visionary?

Since the time when Barcak Obama came into the limelight, we in India were full of praises for him. We would look at our politicians in contempt and would say that the world and the US need such visionary leaders. Overlooking the fact that the speeches made by him were just campaign speeches we would say that, he truly is a statesman.

It has been a while since Mr. Obama took office and even though its too early to comment on him, from that little that I have seen of him, the only conclusion that I can come to is that he is no statesman but just a politician. He had made a lot of noise about Mr. Bush’s policies, but most of his present policies are just a logical continuation of Mr. Bush’s policy. Agreed, Mr. Bush was a horrible president, he was in fact a shame for the nation. Obama was a breath of fresh air, the much needed “change” that the US and the world were looking for. To be honest, any one who could form a sentence properly would be a breath of fresh air compared to the previous president of the US.

To be honest, the kind of issues Obama talked about during his campaign was what all US presidential hopefuls talk about. Just like in India, every election politicians talk about free TV, building a temple, rice for Re 1, etc, politicians in the US always have been talking about the state of the health care system, problems with higher education, unemployment, etc. In content I do not see anything unique about Obama’s campaign. The way he said it, the timing (when people were fed up with Bush) and all mattered a lot.

The fact that strengthens my argument is Obama’s view on immigrants. Clearly that’s a knee-jerk reaction to please the public. Even though the technicalities ensures that all the hype about immigrants loosing jobs and end of outsourcing, remains just a hype, the point here is the kind of perception that Obama is giving out. If he was truly a statesman he wouldn’t give out such crowd pleasing statements without addressing the complexities of the issues (what a sentence :D ). If he was really a statesman he would have considered the implications of what he is doing once the recession is over. His views on nationalism, buy only American also isn’t a sing of a visionary leader.  It’s not just about the immigrant issue, most of his issues are just an extension what Mr. Bush’s policies.

The only reason why he could unite a huge majority of America is that all of America speaks one language, English. That is the reason why we don’t see such leaders in India. The fact that majority of the Indians still live in villages, the fact that its next to impossible for a person to communicate with all the Indians, is one of the main reasons why we don’t have a national leader. The thing that went in favor of Nehru was that, the sprit of freedom struggle was still alive back then.

I feel that we are being unfair with our politicians. Politicians all over the world are the same. Not that it’s a good thing, definitely we need to change that, but to say that only our politicians are bad is really unfair. All politicians at present think just about the next elections. 

Am I always a little too late?

I usually take pride in the fact that I am a kind of person who doesn’t get bogged down by failure or setbacks, who always learn from his mistakes or who never regrets anything. I usually come up with statements like "that is what I thought right in that point in time so can’t regret the decision". If you really look at it, these statements are a way to save once face. It’s good to learn from mistakes but the fact that one is making many mistakes isn’t a very good thing. To have the feeling that what you did in the past need not be the best way to go about things, that too often is kind of disturbing. 

I sometimes get the feeling that I am always a little too late. It’s not something recent, it has been there in my mind for quite some time. I feel that quite too often I realize the importance of something only after the opportunity passes. 

Now I feel that I should have been more ambitious when i was in school. Should have taken part in various competitions, should have improved my oratory skills and also my interpersonal skills. Any way since I was gonna get into engineering; I feel that I should have put in the effort and prepared for IIT's or NIT's. I feel that in the kerala entrance exam that I had taken, I should have attempted more number of questions, I knew many questions and didn’t attempt them because i was scared of getting them wrong, doing so would have gotten me a better rank. 

In college I feel that I should have studied some subjects much harder, many of the subjects no matter how hard had I studied wouldn’t have been of much use, but certain subjects had I studied much harder would have done better in college. I regret the fact that I wasn’t a friendly person and didn’t get to know my juniors or seniors well, for that matter even my batch mates. I feel that it was stupid of me to be hung up over a girl for a ridiculously long period of time, I can understand being heart broken, but my case of simply ridiculous. I feel I should have been a more proactive person, should have taken part in a lot more competitions, should have done something for the society. I had 4 years with relatively not much work, should have utilized it better. Not regreting what I didnt do, but I wonder, why is it only after a situation passes, I think I could have done better 

There is of course a positive side to every statement that I made. There is more that meets the eye. It was not like, I just didn’t do it. There were many times I was up against the odds and tried my best to handle the situation But I feel that one should at times be cynical to themselves. My whole argument can be countered by just saying a few things like, destiny or since I didn’t know what was right at that point in time how would i know what to do or there is a time and place for every thing. Having said that, I wonder if I missed the bus one time too many. There is definitely not gonna be an answer to the question. 

Red+pink=bad

Even the though of the “Third front” having a good chance of winning the coming elections is a cause of concern. First of all the way the alliance was formed was wrong. Their USP is that, they give a third alternative to the people of the nation, the chance of a non congress, non BJP lead government. This was exactly what the BJP did to come to power and quite frankly it’s getting a little old. Even though the other main national parties do not have a proper national agenda(other than the life long dream of the BJP to build a temple and the congresses never ending endeavor to give reservation to every caste that exists in India), the formation of the third front just magnifies this fact.

Another problem is that the third front doesn’t even have an excuse for an ideology. The only ideology that I can see is that they don’t want either the congress or the BJP to form the government. The problem with this is that, once if they come to power, there is nothing holding them from staying together. The same dislike they have towards the 2 national parties will crop up among each other. We all were displeased with the way the present government got its numbers in the house. The third front will be much worse than that. It is an alliance of people who are hungry for power and have suddenly found a short cut to get it. It is a mixture of various regional parties. All of us know what kind of trouble the regional players create for the national parties when they are in power. Imagine the situation if all these regional parties were in power together. We would have the supposed Prime Minister building her statues all over India, people jumping up and down opposing anything that is not Russian Chinese or Iranian, various other groups asking for more funds for their respective states and so on. 

The situation of having many regional parties ruling the nation is quite scary. The congress and the BJP at least want to be all over India and hence would work or say that it will work for the development of all regions in India. That hope is also trashed with the arrival of regional parties. On the bright side, the third front is a pre poll alliance and we all know what happens after the election results are announced. 

The formation of the third front from the beginning was a bad news (just look at their Prime Ministerial candidate). The only thing that they are going to bring to the nation is instability. A country run by regional parties would never be able to please the nation. When there is no head to control and no excuse of an ideology to go by, god save us if such a situation happens. Even though I do not think that the third front will come to power in this election, the fact that regional parties are getting to have a major say in national politics is a cause of concern. Its up to the national parties to ensure that they remain as the 2 major national parties and do not let some sorry excuse for an alliance to gain momentum. 

Top story, a child actor from the movie slumdog got slapped by his father. This was the tops story in one of the news channels. This happened when one thought the media couldn’t get any lower. Come on, give me a break, I have been beaten up far worse by my father many a tome and no one gives a damn about that. Children in India get abused a lot and no one reports it and when something happens to a child actor its breaking news. On this incident the whole family was interviewed. The child was like dad loves me so hit me. Mother was saying there is plenty of love in the family. Dad was like it was just because he got angry at that point in time. Come on!! I don’t think I need to say anything more on this issue to highlight the utter absurdity of the whole thing. 

A news report that caught my eye was the feud between ICL and BCCI. I knew that BCCI didn’t like ICL but only came to know about the ridiculousness of the whole issue recently. Sachin and Karthick were pulled out of a charity match because in that match there was a player who had once played in the ICL( who is currently not playing). Can the BCCI get any more childish? It’s like saying the players under BCCI won’t have fun if the people who are even remotely associated with ICL are part of the fun. Can it get any more stupid? Laxman was not allowed to play for a county because that particular county had players from the ICL. If you look at it in a rational manner whose lose is it? The BCCI won’t have this authority for long. They appear as an insecure dictator who will soon loose its power. Not allowing people to play in a charity match is condemnable. I can understand not allowing players from the ICL playing in BCCI events, I don’t see what the problem is if players under the BCCI play along with ICL players (not under ICL). This is modern racism and shouldn’t be allowed.  

What the F***?

For the past few days in various news channels every 2 hours debates, discussions, stories about whether Valentines Day should be celebrated or if it’s against Indian culture. Various groups getting hold of various arms to suppress people celebrating Valentines Day. Women getting hold of kitchen utensils, men deciding to proclaim people as husband and wife, people enacting what will happen if Valentines Day is celebrated. On the other hand you have the pro Valentines Day group. They also have come up with various innovative ways to tackle this issue. For a developing country with too many problems to count, aren’t we spending too much of our time and other resources on such a ridiculous problem? To celebrate Valentines Day or not? Is that even a real problem 

The turn of events is absolutely disgusting and appalling. Why on earth is any “sena” spending this much effort to tackle the “problem” of Valentines Day? Various sections of society across religions and castes are marginalized in India, why can’t these religious fanatics champion their cause? Farmers take their life because they don’t have money to buy the food that they produce and all we get to see is a documentary once in a blue moon. Ridiculously high numbers of children are not getting elementary education and no one give a damn. Women get raped, college girls are forced into prostitution because they can’t pay their fees, parents sell off their children so that they and their children can have a meal and do we ever get to see the real depth of the issue? Ridiculously high number of children and elderly sleep without a roof over their head, and scores of them die every year because of extreme cold or heat strokes. Do we give a rat’s ass about them? Family’s die of thirst and hunger because neither water nor food is available to them even though tons of food gets spoiled in various go downs, but why should we care? If we start to write down the problems we as a nation is facing, that list will never get over. 

Celebrating Valentines Day or going to a pub, is that really an issue. We have the Women and Child development minister and the health minister going hammer and tongs on this issue. Agreed, beating up of the women was the job of a few sexual sadists and they should be trashed but why should a minister directly get involved in such incidents? Even though I know the answer is “Politics”, still, it’s appalling. In a country (in general) where women are tortured for not providing dowry, where women cant get out without the fear of getting molested or raped, is it right on the part of the minister to give her complete attention on ensuring that Valentines Day goes on or the working of pubs are not disturbed. I am not saying what she did was wrong, but I am hurt with the kind of emphasis that this issue got. If such hype was there around various other issues we would have been a developed country 10 yeas ago. 

It’s not just about the people who support Valentines Day. Don’t the so called “protectors of Indian culture” have anything better to do?  Is Valentines Day or Pubs the major cultural problem that we are facing? I agree, it’s important to protect Indian culture and heritage, but having agitations for such petty things is nothing less than school boyish. Throw stones at the government for the status of the holy ganga or the appalling condition of the various temples in our country. Of all the things Valentines Day? I don’t   care if its politics or anything else, its simply ridiculous.

To ensure that such things don’t happen, I guess we should be the change that we want to see. This much hype for such an issue is not justified, at least in my humble opinion. It’s high time that we as a nation set our priorities right. Issues like poverty, hunger, exploitation, death might not be as fancy as celebrating Valentines Day or going to pubs but its high time that the former issues get hyped more. 

Any eye for an eye

As per latest reports, a certain so called cultural organization will go on a rampage on Valentines Day. They will either forcibly marry off couples or ask them to wear rakhi. Come on!! Are people allowed to make such threats publicly in India? I know the various political implication of taking strong action and how it’s hard to crack down on cultural groups in a country like India. But come on! This is getting out of hand. Any organization with more than 20 members can threaten to create havoc or create havoc and get away with it. Its happening in the congress ruled states as well as the BJP ruled states. After a while it’s really frustrating. Any Tom, Dick and Harry can do anything if he does it in the name of Indian culture.

The problem lies in the fact that as a nation we are not that courageous. I feel that if 50 odd people come and start enforcing their own law, the rest of the citizens should mob up and trash the living day lights out of them. That is the only solution to the problem. Even though doing so is also taking law into ones own hands, what this does is that it will act as a deterrent for people who want to make a name for themselves through hooliganism. I strongly believe that this is the way forward. If 10 “sena’s “come and attack you, 20 of you should gang up and beat them up. Even though this is a highly uncivilized way of going about things, I feel that we are running out of options.

Another thing that I have noticed is that, the media will go all hammer and tongs about leaders committing crimes and let off on bail and allowed to speak to the public freely. The absurdity of their concern is that the same channel, who cries foul about the accused allowed to talk to the media, is the media to which the accused is talking to. Such incidents make you believe in a lot of conspiracy theories. Another thing that I have noticed is that how media gets to all the place well before the police gets there. And if the accused is hiding, the media is able to contact them from an undisclosed location! Is there a tie up between the police and the media? Is there a tie up between the culprits and the media? Are all the 3 parties in it together? Or is it just coincidents? Now I understand why the Americans come up with various conspiracy theories.

What ever may be the truth, I feel that people are getting more and more frustrated. If such incidents are not controlled by the authorities, the unrest will increase and it could turn real nasty