Parenting: A paradigm shift

No other topic on the earth could generate a tsunami of opinion, arguments, stance as the topic of parenting, given the emotion and values attached to it. Questioning any decision on the right parenting has the potential to open never-ending debates, while the opinions can change stride as the plot thickens.

When I compare today’s parenting to that of ours, say a generation ago, I see a sea change. The way parenting was imparted on us, versus the way we impart on to the next generation is entirely different. Being raised in a patriarchal family structure, embedded with rigid value systems, beliefs, ideologies, our life decisions were largely influenced by elders, without the preferred independence we would have wanted or been aware of. Many a times, career decisions were taken much against our wishes and much to the creed of our parent and extended family’s competence on the topic. The Bollywood movie “Three idiots” was a clear example of this mess reasoned in our generation. Digging deeper, the parents were also quite nonchalant and oftentimes oblivious of the psycho-social behavior of their children, coming out of adolescence. Needless to mention, the peer pressure to achieve academic, non-academic excellence was at its helm. An advice of wisdom with compassion of a friend was almost missing from the parents, as the kids were considered as a property to be invested in, without the rights to exercise self-assessment. This generation of kids also suffered the melancholic attitude of their parents that extended even to the Indian marriage system. The reflections were enormous on all of the above accounts, when kids were asked to psychologically compete with their counterparts in the western world, where children of such ages were exercising rather a stress-free life, less controlled by parents, unless otherwise called for.

In retrospect, we could probably excuse such behavioral disposition of our parents to their lack of competence on specific parenting areas or alleged inaccessibility to inputs drawing importance (of parental involvement) in the psychological and social wellbeing of children; I feel and would have appreciated, had they personally come closer and check on our mental status to make us feel more inclusive. This perhaps never crossed the mind of majority of parents in that cohort, who kind of used to get into irrational exuberance in academic accomplishments of their kids in the social gatherings; that was used to pamper their ego regarding their upbringing skills but ultimately denigrating the fellow child rather terribly! If the whole scenario is observed from their perspectives, without being judgmental, I tend to draw some optimism. This is due to the fact that despite the parents being insouciant to our emotional wellbeing and having the expectation from us to be exceptional and not run-of the mills; they prepared us for our future, to become self-sufficient and become what we are today. We must thank them for that.

Now, when I look around, I find the situations to be improving, filling up the gaps partly because we as a generation are becoming more aware of our kids’ needs; thanks to the plethora of research and life hacks on parenting, emerging technologies to make parenting easy and above all the initiatives on the part of the parents to better understand their kids by trying to fit themselves in their shoes. It may be an offshoot of the guilt consciousness that the parents feel for not being able to give enough time to their kids in this alleged “digitally-connected” and “Emotionally-fragmented” era that they try giving a perspective to their kids’ situations and help them overcome any kind of trauma or anxiety that they might be undergoing. Of course, we get biased in our judgement, when it comes to situations that needs serious and independent introspections. But world is colorful not black and white, so its ok to get derided with the perceptions about people and things. What is important is to give a quality time to the kids, sharing their joy and sorrow, being compassionate to their feelings and giving them a sense of belongingness so that they won’t sideline your importance growing further. This would certainly reduce the teenager anxieties, trauma, emotional outburst leading to suicidal tendencies. Even though selective, kids will still be compelled to share their secrets, problems to a large extent with their family. It is important to remember that it is an investment we make towards our future, much larger and a riskier one, compared to the earned money put in risky funds.

If we make our choices wise and right, the dividends are probably an Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerburg or Bill Gates or even a Sunder Pichai, Kalpana Chawla, a Ratan Tata. I read somewhere that some institutions in US are teaching the children how to become billionaires by impounding management lessons quite early on, than becoming inventors, socialists, creative musician, artists or performers! To me personally, it is counterproductive since nudging kids beyond their realistic potential can do more harm than good. Hope, we become more sensible, conscious and take decisions that is healthy in terms of societal benefits still helping us personally.

Happy parenting to all my friends J

Thanks J for all the editing advice.

Demonetization, a firsthand experience

Demonetization- a term not so-well known till November 8, 2016 to a common citizen of India, is now a household word in India. By definition, it means the notes seize the opportunity to be used as a legal tender. The move is the latest attempt of the Indian prime minister to curb the corruption, which is so deep rooted in every possible aspect of the Indian system.

Modi along with the majority of the mass, who earns their daily bread in an honest way feel that it is indeed a way, as it brings in the accountability for the stashed money since last four decades (the last couple of times demonetization in India happened in 1946 and 1978). This money has been used for destabilizing the prosperity in terms of spreading fake currency, sponsoring terrorism, rising inflation and more importantly promoting corruption.

This was a bold step by any government around the world and it was obviously expected to attract more uneasiness than welcoming note. The momentary quake was not easy to digest and some people even suffered strokes. Some deaths were purposely delayed to call them as a suffering due to inconvenience (caused by demonetization) and political parties tried to draw a mileage in the process! Some irresponsible political figures took the drama to the next level. Even some section of media reported that people were paid to stand in queues and the lines were diminishing instantly after 10 am! Notwithstanding the above facts and non-facts, common people did suffer a lot of inconvenience due to lack of adequate funds to cater to 1.3 billion people. Situations were at times artificial as few corrupt bank staff in some places passed on the cash to wealthy people back door and getting a commission in the process, thus denying people long standing in queue of their necessities. Many private and public sector banks have been reprimanded due to their acts, Axis bank reaching the top of the list! I personally think this could not have been planned in a better way, considering the secrecy maintained by the Government to make the landmark announcement not leaked to section of people. The government and in particular Modi must be commended for its act.

As per RBI estimate, the total amount of currency held by public is 16,000 billlion rupees, out of which 86% is contributed by 500 and 1000 rupee notes, which is less than 14000 billion. World bank estimates the amount of black money to be 23.2% of the GDP. Combining these two parts together, the total amount expected to be injected in the system was 17000 billion rupees. In a weeks’ time after demonetization, the amount of deposited cash by public was 4000 billion rupees, which is a quarter of this estimate and the number increased to a third of total amount by 18 Nov, i.e. ten days. As per the latest report on 28^th December, the amount deposited, touched 14 billion rupees, which also means that people within a fifty days' window, found a means to convert their money from unaccounted to accounted transactions. The intention of the government was however to provide safety to the household incomes at the cost of some taxation that never saw the inclusion into the banking system. Coming back to my share of experience, when all these changes were having a global media coverage, here goes a firsthand experience.

We landed in India exactly after a month, where the shock had been absorbed to a good extent, the ordeals caused to the daily wage workers, common people due to lack of cash in various forms was both gathering media attention and dust at the same time, depending on the sentiments and places of choice. We were aware of such a situation and were bracing ourselves to face what was to come on our way. With 4000 INR in cash (with notes that were to be defunct for everyone except the banks) in our hands and a working ATM card, we landed in Bangalore, the IT capital of India around 0100 AM in the morning. After immigration clearance and collecting the baggage, we were to face the world of demonetization in reality than what media was reporting.

A cab was to be booked to reach our local destination. Though, I was aware of the existence and sprouting cashless entities, which offer monetary services in a digital way such as paytm, freecharge, e-wallet from almost every nationalized banks, many startups to mid-sized companies, mostly used for paying services and utility bills including smooth operation of the taxi services such as ola cabs, uber cabs, airtel recharge etc. However, NRIs and people living outside India are a very small size of customers for such companies, who they are never worried of. Hence, most of the companies expect their customers to have an Indian mobile number for being able to avail their services. Unfortunately, we did not have that choice at the moment, we landed on the Indian soil (this is for the reader being aware of the fact that Jugaad is an essential component of Indian life and one can obtain a Indian mobile sim card without much hassles in a very short span of time- that is not the subject of discussion here :)). So basically we had no money and telephone but still boarded a cab, trying to get integrated into Modi’s digital, demonetized India.

Our friend arranged us a local sim, which enabled us an instant paytm customer. I downloaded Uber, Olacabs and Paytm app in my phone instantly to make myself one of the adopters. The rest was history, I instantly was cashless (not cash starved) as uber was in my doorsteps in 2 mins, every time I wanted to step out even within 2 kms radius without having to head for bargains or even for changes. Paytm worked seamlessly for the recharged amount through netbanking and allowed me to cover all small expenses such as airtel charge, movie tickets and taxi payments such as Uber or Ola. That was bingo, I was enjoying the rides since I used to get out of the car in my destinations and just say thanks to the driver (no cash exchange nor bargains). I mustered myself “say no to autos, and yes to Uber.” Olacabs fared quite poor compared to Uber. Even if I mind the former as an Indian company with inclinations towards it, I felt in this space, make in India was not working, as it failed to embrace the customer delight and even grievances. Nevertheless, Paytm was found to be a useful piece of app, sometimes offering discounts with different vendors since it channelized further transactions for these vendors. I gathered that the company has become enough rich even to sponsor a cash rich BCCI test match that is supposed to be ad revenue sucker (better word). To summarize, the experience was like – digital India was working.

The next step was to see how the world was getting affected by Modi’s changes in first hand. We went to an SBI, where we hold the account to withdraw some cash. Well by 9^th December, there was no option of exchanging the old currency for new one (upto 2000 INR), so the only choice was to withdraw cash from the bank with a maximum of 24000 INR (per week). The que after a month was not so long, could be as big as 10 people in a row. Before my turn arrived, I witnessed some heated exchange of words between the bank staff and the customer about giving small currency instead of 2000, which hits hard for those who need to transact in 100’s not 1000’s. The old rule book also played a role while some bank employees took advantage of the dressing sense of its customers to deal with them.

Upon my turn, the first question I was asked was do I hold the account in that bank? That apparently sets precedence or at least prioritize the customers. I was audacious to ask for 23000 INR so that I could get a change of 1000 rupees in denomination of 100 J. That’s the maximum of change you receive since most of the ATMs were dried up without cash or lack of calibration (for dispensing new notes) or there were long queues like this. I experienced that notes of 2000 were aplenty, whereas 500’s were still scarce. It took us good one week to have a glimpse of our first 500 note, as sort of prized possession. Armed with some cash we started our epic tour of rest of our trip.

Every tiny to big shops had a similar picture as below at cash counters as if people push it on them! There were hesitations to release any 100’s even if we shopped upto 1500 rupees against an exchange of 2000. We received bundles of 10’s and 20’s in some places since 100’s seemed to be a precious possession that the shop owners did not want to part with. 20’s and 50’s were the new kings in the absence of 500’s and 1000’s. Our wallets started swelling, thanks to the additions of 10’s and 20’s and few 2000 notes. This was a funny experience since my wife would always release a few 20’s from a bundle, she was handed over by some shops few times. It even made sense to carry the vanity bag with vanity J

 Coming back to the experience and some tittle-tattles, Rahul Gandhi has been dreaming of a new currency, once he hits the cabinet and reintroducing Rs. 20 denominations like this. Congress just had guts to discard 25 paises and hence Rahul might be interested in reintroducing this.

Some even rumoured this!

I heard some and sometimes a lot of displeasure about the inconvenience created but the honest people and mostly poor voiced the move was welcoming, especially assuming that it is meant to punish the rich and crooked (not the only ones in Trump’s world).

Back in my hometown, I heard that in Odisha the ATM queues were shorter. The chief minister was the first one to support Modi on this and then joined Nitish Kumar. Even a small village in Puri district went completely cashless and made history by introducing e-wallet even in the betel shop. This village called Nuagaon with 300 odd population was the first to introduce digital India campaign in completion in Odisha.

There is a lot of advertisement campaigns both for shop owners as well as customers, suggesting government incentives, being aired both by state and central government. A lot of awareness is being created. Though there has been fringe elements shedding crocodile tears (for the loss of all the unaccounted money) in the veil that it created larger inconvenience to common man. This includes ArvindKejriwal, Rahul Gandhi and Mamta Banerjee. Some people like Mayawati, Samajwadi Party leaders had to drink the poison and accepting the fact that this is an irreversible process. They tried to associate all deaths during this period to ordeals caused by demonetization and made a political furor in this process. Raga even tried mentioning some earthquakes he was to unveil but ended up being trolled yet another time.

Some corrupt officers in UP still managed to convert their black (unaccounted) money to white with help of middlemen. The Government and IT department cannot stop all these. At least it is a welcoming step to curb it in parts, if not fully. At the same time, there were some gentlemen like Naveen Patnaik, Nitish Kumar who showed some commitment by accepting the move made by the central government as a welcoming one.

The steps at least brought in good amount of taxes in government treasury, which was hogging the beds and bathrooms of the rich. The ordeals have not ended and will continue for a while. But, I do believe that it is a step towards a better India. In the process, Government is managing to push for digital India more as a necessity than as a wish list for the commoners. My father is still a cash person and believes that he will survive without having to adopt to the cashless India but I hope that he would embrace the change, when it becomes inevitable. At least things are becoming streamlined, transparent. Sixty years of legacy of corruption would take time to get away but would happen, if those don’t like it have a will to change it. I pretty much liked this picture. I am in for it.

My Tesla moment

How often do we tend to own a product so close to heart? Especially when, its not a distant dream and in somewhat affordable reach with a few mental blocks away?

 

iPhone used to be one such, few years ago and people craved for it. I think Tesla car is one such possession for those who follow the technology close enough. It has all the parameters that one should aim for in a sports car, a luxury car, a safe car, an environmental friendly car. Name a feature, Elon Musk tends to have thought of it already, including the concept of a giant 17” ipad screen serving as an next to the dashboard as the infotainment system that gives close to a pilot’s feeling!

In last decade, like the way smart phone served as an agreegator of multiple functionality of human need, its integration into the car is also becoming crucial, adding another layer of personal assistance to the owner that includes to summon the car from garage with an overview of the calendar of meetings to attend, the path to follow to office to avoid traffic congestion, heating up the car seats based on climate forecast, just to name a few.

So we checked in few minutes before the scheduled booking time for the test drive. The Tesla employee in this case was a part timer student who has eagerness on automobiles with special keenness on Tesla. So, he wanted from us, how far we are familiar with Tesla models, super chargers, charging station, other functionalities, last but not the least the “Ludicrous mode.” The Scandinivian mall in Solna had a Model S, P90D at our disposal to try (he called P90DL, L-for Ludicrous). I had to accept an agreement on certain T&C for the drive (which included, any speed tickets I get enroute, was on me as a driver, well I agreed without rethinking :) of course.

So after a brief intro into the exterior, which boasted ~900 Litres boot space and ~150 lts hood space as well, with an auxiliary fitting ability of two child seats (below 140 cm level) in the boot space. The leg room is amazing for such a big car for all the passengers. We were briefly introduced to the interior, the 17” panel, angled towards the driver, virtually giving all the parameters that a driver keen on technology would be interested in.

Numerous videos already talk about what the screen and the dashboard displays. But, here is a brief on what it means to Sweden Tesla owners. The car comes with a Telia configured sim in the ipad that virtually resembles a cockpit with cool capacitive touch and a highly sophisticated google map giving the navigation functionality.  The sim is 4G enabled (it actually showed LTE!) and has got a free roaming in Europe that comes with the purchase of the car. Of course, you will see lags where the connectivity sucks. Though it looks like a computer, it is (on purpose) not supported with the flash player feature, disallowing you to watch a movie in such a big screen (which it is not meant for). Otherwise, it serves rest of the infotainment system that the modern cars are built in with. The screen can be split for more functionality of navigation and music for example. Our host mentioned it was possible to switch the sim, if I wanted to drive the Tesla to India J

The software update happens in another way, which is through a black box like module, I dint get a quite a knack on this from the Tesla representative.

Now, it was time to take the beauty to the road, we wasted a bit of time in the parking area due to congestion though there was no pollution to complain for. We were sitting inside a P90D, which included a HEPA system, prohibiting all harmful biological ingredients such as pollen, bacteria, air pollution entering into the car. Additionally, every moment you take the foot off the gas pedal, you are generating some energy which is good for the battery. However, I was more up for flooring the car (thankfully the host we had also similar ideas in mind :). As soon as, I was in the portico of the parking, the host said STOP, STOP. I thought, I made some mistakes! Well he said, press the full throttle now, it was a good 150 m ahead of plain road without someone else judging the speed limit. So, I obliged, and the next moment was a miracle, The beauty kind of put Schaumacher into the shame and I had my Tesla moment for 3 seconds, well I barely glanced around ~77 kms in around 2.5s (no, there is no record for this speed and time registered in the car, unlike a computer sports you play) but you have to be attentive to get a knack of it. So, the next few minutes we hit the freeway and tried some more of it this time going well upto 111 km, in I am sure around 4s. That was a thrill, my wife described this as a roller-coaster, but for me, it was a moment to live with.

The car was equipped with a 22” tires, which were larger than the option of 19” I was told. This gave us quite a bit of road resistance noise inside the car, that I assumed will be totally silent and an odd thing to try. Well, I am not sure, if some of the sounds inside the compartments are recreated but at least I am aware that the pedestrians outside the car do not notice (the car approaching a stop) it!

There is a HD camera for the rear vision and that can remain on if the driver wants to and of course a front camera more for the control and even the dashboard senses the car in front reminding about it. I was told even it says to some extent what kind of car is in its front, in terms of heightened truck, sedan etc. in a silo form! However, I was not particularly impressed with the resolution of the rear camera, but I never observed it in broad daylight (I saw its performace only in not-so-lit up indoor parking space).

The speed, remaining kms, and regenerative curves are intuitive. We tested the sound system and the air conditioning. It was cool but not out of the roof. On parking we tried the sunroof opening among other features. After a bit of driving, it was now time to test the auto-pilot and how cool it is. It is another amazing feature added to the series of sophistication Tesla has.

First the shortcomings, I was told that the car cannot park itself with auto pilot, if there are not two cars on two sides of it, well I was disappointed to hear that but I think I have to do my own google since the representative was only 4 weeks in job and may not be aware of everything that Tesla boast of (that included the Garmin license Tesla has obtained alongside Google for the navigation). The autopilot wont change the lanes for you. You have to hold the steering and give the indicator if you want to change the lane, then the auto-pilot assumes the presence of the driver and has the confidence to change the lane, which I feel is smart.

At one instant it took us out to the exit from the freeway, that I must say is a bug in the system for Tesla to fix, because it presumed the exit as the designated lane!

Its built on a strong aluminium chasis that is virtually unbreakable and the battery stack sits over that.

We were told that along with driver profile offering every possible customization the driver might need (seat positioning, address speciality etc.) and it stores 10 such profiles together. The suspensions are also adjustable giving a flexibility of the center of gravity adjustment of the car.

Well that was most of it. Tesla dealers do not expect or push you to buy for the car nor force you to sign up their newsletter. The representative mentioned the tentative arrival of model 3 in 2018 and a pre-book is available for a 10k SEK (completely refundable anytime). So, I am looking forward to acquire one sometime soon and justify my yeah moment.

Till then, I sign off J

Bihar election results, what it means to rest of India?

Bihar election results gave quite a bit of shock to BJP. Most of the analysts got it wrong to understand the mood of the Biharis, at least those 63% who voted for a progressive India (Bihar). Bihar is no more home to snake charmers and rat eaters (the Mahadalit community Ex-chief minister Jitan Manjhi belongs to). Bihar produces larger number of IAS, IIT goers and arguably home to some of the best minds of India. Unfortunately, it simultaneously contains the largest backward caste and economically weaker section, thanks to Lalu’s jungle raj tthat took a toll in the development of Bihar, when rest of India was on move. Lalu successfully managed to keep up the caste politics and communal politics (appeasing of Muslims despite their wrong doings) for more than a decade. Loot, kidnapping and collecting ransoms were synonymous to everyday life that used to happen under the banner of RJD. Despite being arrested on fodder scam, he installed an illiterate Rabri Devi to rule the state with third largest population in India and the voters could not do anything about it. It was of course partly possible due to significant booth capturing, proxy voting and the election was barely a nemesis of governance.

Nitish kumar rose to limelight to end all these non-sense with able support under the banner of NDA and successfully offered governance, transport, education and was a man with a mission and urge to transform the backward Bihar. Name any sector, it was in doldrums and there was a need for an able administrator and Lalu was running a buffalo shed in the chief minister’s residence. Nitish was voted for the best chief minister award numerous times as he redefined everything from scratch and the term development was almost absent in Bihar’s dictionary before him.

His political ambitions however rose on many occasions. This was partly due to the Bihar like administration by Congress in New Delhi. People looked forward to an alternative for ending Congress raj of corruption, negative industrial growth, poor diplomatic and political relations with big powers across the World. BJP seemingly offered an alternative under the NDA banner and projected Narendra Modi as the prime ministerial candidate. This was unacceptable to Nitish Kumar, who saw him as a counterpart (of Gujrat) so far and felt he could equally race for this top post. After a series of tussles, he snapped ties with NDA after 12 years of alliance, terming it as communal. Additionally, bent by the crushing defeat of JD-U (the party NItish belonged to) in Lok sabha election, he resigned and installed Jiten Manjhi (a Mahadalit) as CM with a wish that he could remove him at will but will still count on the vote banks of those castes. Manjhi turned out to be more glued to the seat than he was expected to (by Nitish), as a result Nitish used his veto power to remove him from the CM post , thus making him a political enemy.

Meanwhile, as the elections in Bihar was drawing closer, Nitish aligned with rest of the unholy forces who had a tainted background, including Congress, RJD, SP etc. calling it a grand alliance. They were assembled together to root out the communal forces (according to Lalu). Amit Shah was again assigned to spearhead the battle (of Bihar elections) with the cast, creed equations to repeat the Lok Sabha performances from UP, which was roughly similar in equations.

Here are few points that went wrong for BJP, costing it five years in Bihar.

What didn’t work in favor of BJP was a clear lack of leadership (no chief ministerial candidate decided because BJP was not quite sure if it can pull the results in its favor). The weak grounds team always resorted to a combative politics and fell prey of the minor attempts made by Nitish gang. They brought out beef politics, which is never considered as a political agenda by educated/uneducated, rural/urban, rich/poor mass. By denying a particular kind of food, you are basically denying the fundamental rights of someone, irrespective of his/her religious subscriptions. The tiny unwarranted battles made even the common mass (the 62% voters) believe that BJP is not serious about Bihar and its people. Another mistake that BJP suffered big way was to embrace Jiten Manjhi with open arms without evaluating his credibility to really pull in those vote banks, he was promising for.

•        There was so simple tactic that BJP could offer against NItish that Nitish just could not be believed due to his political alliance, which was the sole reason for his own entry to Bihar chief ministe ship decades back! How can he dilute the basic philosophy that he stood by, years ago, as history remains unchanged for both Congress and RJD? Projecting the opportunistic angle of NItish could really turn things in BJP’s favor in a big way. But, BJP did nothing of that sort and instead did similar tactics of RJD- the caste equations. That was bound to fail! Because, the voters have learnt to move on beyond this. They were looking for tangible practical solutions to their problems and Nitish in a way has been offering that despite his political associations (which he claims to swing to remain in power and offer forward moving Bihar). So the path taken by Nitish was acceptable to his junta of Bihar.
•       After Lok Sabha election, the people of Bihar did not see any translated commitments from BJP that they could further count upon. Modi’s rallies during Lok sabha elections didn’t do any changes in ground for common man in Bihar in the form of industrialization, educational setup (IITs etc.) and so on. The minor credits were carried away by Nitish diligently leaving any credits for BJP!

As a result, Nitish is now acceptable at least for the next five years, unless Lalu prefers to change guard, which is not unusual of him. But nevertheless, it’s a job well done, Nitish kumar, a calculated one but still impasse for Modi and Amit Shah.

Long live democracy, where citizens are the king and Modi is a Pradhan Sevak and Nitish?? Time will say..

But for sure, he will learn to move up in the ladder and take head on Modi in some form.

Till next time …

© Subrat Sahoo

Rising intolerances

Rising intolerances

There is a concerted effort by malignant bodies to bring down everything that is going smooth. There are two such elements present in large in post Modi era in India. I am not sure, who coined the word (“rising intolerances”) but whosoever did it, did their homework as much as possible to make noise without a drumbeat! And the result: there is a mass movement to find out those left wing pseudo characters, who never have the guts nor caliber to join a free or healthy debate, but would oppose development for the sake of opposing by returning awards, blabbering statements like “Modigovernment doesn’t know ABCD of Science/arts (thankfully they presume Modi government knows a lot about commerce, as Modimeans business).”

Congress may not be blamed, either they don’t have hand in it, or they are too smart to keep people like Rahul Gandhi out of this business, otherwise there are always people like him, who would spill the beans to flabbergast: “yes, we did it.” But certainly, it’s a concerted effort by the opposition elements including some impotents like Udhav Thackrey, who is in a desperate bid to stay in limelight like Raj Thackrey used to do before Maharastra and India’s general election. I wonder Shiv Sena still wins these municipal elections in Mumbai, despite being a shame for all the Marathis! The definition of intolerance should be inclined towards them- the way they are creating chaos, despite being in the government, defacing invited guests, shameless posts and public rallies against Pakistan as a nation! According to me, this is no patriotism at all, coz Patriotism doesn’t teach denigrating another nation or creating hatred for them, as its not the individuals in the country who has ill motive but the country unfortunately is run by ISI and Taliban in masks! Shiv Sena at least should learn a lesson or two from Gita’s custodians!

Coming back to the intolerance issue, I am not sure, what is the effect of this (rising intorlerances) at the national level that is making these so-called brilliant minds returning Sahitya awards, Padma Bhusan and the likes but they seem to follow a spree, which is internally sponsored by a section of pseudo-secularists! And mind you, most of these awardees are receiver of the award during Congress regime, so I have no idea what they want to prove to the BJP government, when they try to return this award! The other day, I came across a nice cartoon which read that- “you can return the award in the nearest local club for a return of 200/2000 rupees (quote any figure there), depending on what you have been promised to make this show off!” Amazing, isn’t it, at least most of these awardees who were long forgotten characters are getting a media coverage for another handful days!

But, to my assessment, Modi is doing right by remaining unabated by these transient situations. Thus, he proves to be a seasoned politicians not to pay heed to these minor heroes! Nor, he is appeasing them to reconsider their decision by clearly showing they don’t count nor matter in Modi’s scheme of things, that is a developed India, more outward looking (beyond US, Europe and Asia- Africais the new destination), more talked about (in global arena- 10billion dollar footstep in Africa), more digital! He does what he wants to do, he doesn’t necessarily indulge in ugly war of words with the likes of Digvijay Singh, who provokes him a lot though.

As a human, you are prone to errors and he has some personal enemity against Nitish Kumar. So, he responds to his (Kumar’s) barbs during election rallies in Bihar, but that’s part of politics and acceptable in India. But to me, it hardly matters whether or not BJP wins in Bihar, as that doesn’t change the global equations nor Amit Shah’s score card much. The loss (if it happens so) could be due to the fact that BJP could not rise to the match of Nitish (as a chief ministerial candidate in Bihar). Nitish has undoubtedly made a relentless execution of governance that remains rooted, plus or minus Lalu.

Lastly, I would wish Modi to continue to operate, the way he has been in coming days and the rising intolerances will fall “well within the tolerance (limits).”

© Subrat Sahoo
image credits: IBN

Hope for a better tomorrow, hope from Narendra Modi

Many in the internet age called him Feku, the man who promised a lot but delivered none. I realized myself that there has to be some smoke for a fire to start up. (Narendrabhai Damodar) Modi is a man, who is arranging that smoke from multiple places so that India gets back the lost fame from World map. It has been proved by many that if you instill confidence in a person, the person will grow just by the gesture of people’s goodwill. Modi seems to inherit them by virtue of his selfless good work.

He never bunks office, sleeps or drowses in meeting, remains passive during debates draws the wrong string, while meeting the technocrats and bureaucrats. In short, he always has something to discusss with anyone and everyone he meets and he is India in mind, whenever he talks business! My god, he meets five hundred to thousand people a day on a one-on-one basis, especially when he is on travel to a country like USA! I wonder how he manages to keep everything balanced along with his body. Mere Yoga and some hot tea, that’s all he offers as his secret to the journalists those interview him!

Of course, his speeches are written by his speech writers, he is well versed with a series of officers, who make life rather easy for him, but mind you, he is an impromptu speaker, when it comes to address public. He connects up with audience and also rejuvenates enthusiasm amongst the people. His Madison square speech was without notes, same is going to happen in bay area. That makes him special, there was hardly any man in the short history (68 years) of India, who had or bothered to have this much charisma. You might blame technology, coming to his advantage but that’s just an excuse, he is gliding with his own talent and will power. And we wish, he will bring a better out of India, at least much better than what Congress managed to offer, primarily because they wanted to rule the country, they never had an agenda than improving their own funds. They didn’t improve India’s stature in world map as a respectable country, a country to do business, a country that can compete with China for affordable labor costs.

I admit we have problems of poor land acquisitions, worst pollution in the capital of the country, polluted ground water and river water, corruption issues, hunger, poverty and the list is endless. All this need systematic cleansing, like how NItish kumar started in Bihar after Lalu raj, till he joined back with Lalu again. But, we also need to understand that we have a huge demographic dividend, a huge self-determined middle class who do not subscribe the idea of corruption, who are willing to thrive a better india and are willing to lock horns with Amazon by creating Ola, snapdeal, flipkart. We have Ratan Tata, Narayana Murty, who believe that things can improve, if we give ourselves a chance.

There is always a sunrise after a sunset, we just have to keep our “Umeed” alive, options open and heart warm to embrace. Simultaneously, we have to eradicate all those who come (hindering) in the process of progress, may be it Mullayam, Lalu or few more names who have or soon going to be history. On a lighter note, we have to force stop Robert Vadra to change guards to Robert Gandhi to keep the dynasty alive. There will be several Modi of Namo style, who promise to deliver and deliver the promise, there will be several Modi’s (of Lalit Modi style) and Mallya’s and (Subrata) Roy’s, behind the bar for making a mockery of the institutions. There will be a dawn that will begin with sustainable, exporting, economic and strong world power: India

Ameen!!

© Subrat Sahoo

What does Independence Day mean to us?

What does Independence Day mean to us- those who are born after Gandhi-Nehru era?

It’s a million dollar question, which many of us ponder to have answer about. Without any credible reasoning, we resort to spend the day (after all it’s a much deserved holiday) in a mall or an outing with a leisurely spending of the day. Sometimes we flaunt ourselves with tri-colors, asserting our patriotism to ourselves as well as to others. We sing the national anthem, take part in some Indian tricolor furling but always have a big confusion about what does Independence day mean to us?

 As I am writing this, I am quite sure that the definition is quite varying, sometime contradicting to people of same generation, whereas there exists a wide chasm, when it comes to those who fought for this. A good 99% are gone by now and few have sporadic encounters with the independence struggle. Even a bigger percentage of them could still be normal people who were not necessarily part of various movements made by revolutionaries.

I keep assessing the situation of our generation, to avoid confusion let me say people born after independence. There was a sea change in things on rolling out of five year plans to make India grow as there was to be a lot of industrialization, globalization by cooperation of foreign investments and participation, welfare of people with improved education system, health care, agriculture and source of income that is scalable and more importantly export oriented so that we grow as the external needs increase. There were a lot to be addressed when Angrez left us as they had the only intention of prospering Britain at the cost of further down spiraling of India. This has been very much argued by Dr. Tharoor in Oxford union on “What Britan owes India for reparation.” That was the post-Independence challenges, which was preceded by the challenge of how to evade British from India both through violent (teaming up with like-minded parties like Japan) or non-violent medium. The history gives all the credit to MK Gandhi but my interpretation is he served a wing of the movement, which would have been impossible without the sacrifice of the likes of Bhagat Singh, Bose and the countless true patriots, who preferred their guts not be surrendered by a handful British employees those enjoyed serving their boss at the cost of some traitors to the rank of so-called kings of India! The truth be told, we never rose to the occasion of a socialistic country. The colonialism was existing even before the British empire. Our history also tells that we are the ones love to be ruled without any contribution from ourselves from becoming a part of the system and that exists till date!

Today, we seek shelter in social media to vent our anguish instead of confronting. We think someone else will do the job for us - our job is to just play moral police. Don’t you think that way communists are better? Heard better? They take to the roads at least thinking little as “operating with a mask!” Of course, the former approach of anonymous or virtual reporting works only if there exists a perfect system and the system cares of its users. But, in current generation after five decades of okay (read poor) governance, a lot of mass (who happen to be part of the system) has understood and understood really well that there exists short cuts, tampering provisions or the least excuses to tweak/ by pass/ weaken the system. So, why not follow the easy path? Dr. Tharoor pointed it right (during IIMA CHAOS speech), with some (or more) education, we feel perplexed to put our feet in the mud, then there exists a moral angle, which is often diluted by the surrounded people, who force you to change for bad. Some say, Kejriwal started with a good intention but in the journey got to know how to play politics.

All these sound lecture, when there is no medium to fight it out for better. The other day I read about a smart city in Japan- Kashiwa-na-ho (google if you want to know more about it). The idea here is for lakhs of people living as a family, sharing everything that is possible- still not invading to personal space. This is a concept, where technology goes hand in hand with humanity. We in India are also talking about smart cities as well as Amruts, which sound nice in technology, but how do we bring in the humanitarian angle? How do we stop violence towards child abuse, sexual maniacs, rich-poor gaps, racism and more importantly corruption? Someone made a valid statement-“ it starts at home,” well then why don’t we do it and not just that, spread the message? The problem is so grave that we don’t feel it safe offering a lift to a stranger in highway or city nor feel safe to ask for a lift. The trust factor is gone. The racism, rich-poor index is only widening though there is no caste-based business existing anymore in India by and large.

The problem is wide spread and each one of us are aware and concerned about it. What’s the solution? Well, lets take baby steps but not get derided in the process. It’s a pledge, we have to take for the interest of our next generation and the greater sense of patriotism so that we keep hold of the Indian values, which is “Atithi devo bhaba.”  Here are few resolutions I think for me, which sounds appropriate to you as well. So let’s give it a try!!

1.    Lets offer a welcoming gestures to the foreigners in India by not luring them, trapping them, not considering them as super rich tourists J. They could be poor back packers to have a glance of what this part of the world got to offer them! Lets enrich their experience. Read what a foreigner thinks about India from her angle.

2.    Lets be little courageous not to offer bribes to those who are seeking it and before that lets not overspeed, indulge in traffic incidents, wear helmets, carry a driver’s license. Lets use social media to expose the babus who are directly and indirectly asking for bribes for the basic needs of us- like ration card, registration documents.

3.    Lets show solidarity to Modi’s digital India initiative, that will shut doors for corruption in multiple ways.

4.    Try helping others in any possible way, you could. Take it as an action to help someone during your day and see the contentness within self. In return, ask him/her to extend the same to someone else. Let there be a chain reaction.

5.    Lets promise ourselves not to throw garbage by the road when you go out to work from your home. Its everyone’s duty towards a Swachh Bharat. Lets plan our toilet plans such a way that we don’t have to answer nature calls unwarranted, you know what I mean J!

6.    Let’s switch from “Chalta hai” attitude to “nahin chalega-unacceptable” progeny.

The list could be endless but the point is we can still instill Indianness and teach others no matter what our education and profession and family teaches us.

I was quite fascinated by some of the figures Modi showed on his independence day speech, what caught my attention is-

-       20 lakh people have given up LPG subsidy – as they are rich enough not to have it, isn’t that incredible?

-       425000 toilets were built in school in last one year- it’s a shame that it took so long but it better late than never.

Long live our independence.

Jai Hind

© Subrat