The Gujjar Demand

It is more than 2 weeks since the Gujjaras have been agitating demanding ST status for them. About 45 activists have been killed till date. It is reported that the Railways is loosing about 3 crore INR every day the rail traffic is disrupted. The CM and other top bureaucrats have been wasting a lot of time on this. The loss the daily commuters and the companies that employ them may incur in not reporting to jobs in time and the resulting productivity loss would be hard to calculate. The mental trauma of people who had to commute or travel urgently trough the trouble torn areas would be more difficult to quantify.

In spite of all these, the Raje Govt. is taking a tough stand by not yielding to their demands. With a sizable 15% of the population in the state belonging to Gujjars, it would be a very easy political decision to grant their demand. Just imagine what would happen if this causes a 5-6% vote swing against the ruling front. This would mean a disaster for any party, leave alone a party which has an opposition which is at least as popular. A more worrying factor would be that the state is going for assembly polls shortly.

In spite of all these, I think the Rajastan Govt. is sensible in not yielding to their demands. If a community gets the status of SC / ST just because they have agitate so much, it would send a wrong message to the other communities, particularly those which have sufficient strength in their side. Each of them would start agitating and it would be a total chaos in the country.

In fact, the attitude of the political parties to appease a community or a section of the society has boomeranged back at them. I believe that at least now, the top leadership in most of the political parties would start thinking about the bane of community / caste based reservations. Perhaps this is the start of end of caste / community based reservation. The saying goes that there is an opportunity in every adversary and here too, there is an opportunity to get rid of caste / community based reservation. Hope the policy makers wake up sufficiently early.

Indian Cricket Team - Now at Where It Belongs

I am not sure how many of us ardent cricket fans of Indian expect India to lift the world cup this time. For all those fans, the Indian team had their answer in the match against Bangladesh and Srilanka. This is what will happen when a bunch of models represent the nation for the cricket world cup. Any thing that need specilised skills should be done with passion. These guys are not passionate about cricket, but about the money they earn out of it. They spend more time in the shooting spots and studios than in the nets.

Consider the match against Srilanka. They needed to chase a moderate total of 254. Considering the hype that India has one of the best batting line up and we have 3 of the so-called best batsmen in the world, it is a meak surrender. Tendulkar came in when the scope was at 43/2. How come can he get out for such an ordinary ball from Fernando. He knows it is a crunch game and we need some good partnerships to turn the game. But he didn't seem to have had a thought of how important it is. If he is not able to concentrate and deliver when needed, what is the use of all the hype around him. Why should he be playing at the hightest level of any game. Just for promoting the lables in his bats ?! Very bad. Yuvraj Singh did play some good cricket in the last 2 matches. But the way he got out in the match is too silly .

I don't understand why Agarkar and Harbajan are in the team at all. Anyone can bowl 10 overs and give 50 odd runs. At the highest leve of the game, we don't need a specialized bowler slots wasted for that. They certainily should have delivered better. How does Agarkar justifies bowling 3 full toss deliveries in the last over of the game. Did he have any plan for getting the batsman out or restricting him. I hope any seasoned street bowler would have a better plan for their bowling. With such performance in the team, they certainly don't derserve to be in the super-8. They are left at where it belongs to.

It is the selectors who should take the responsibility for such a dismal performance of the team. They certainly cannot justify selection of people like Agarkar or even Tendulkar. If they have any concern for the tens of millions of Indians watching cricket, the BCCI should revamp the selection board first. They should have a new bowling and batting coach. The team should be selected afreash. The team should have people who have fire in the belly to perform. They should have strict norms on minimum time the players are needed to spend on the nets. Also, the time they spend in studios should be restricted so that it doesn't affect their practice hours.

It is a blessing in disguise for India to have been eliminated even before the super-8 stage. Had India qualified for the super-8 stage, it might have given a false sence of well being of the team. Even if India have had got eliminated in the super-8 stage, the need for a revamp of the selection board and team may not be felt as much as it is now. The BCCI should take this opportunity to revamp the system here.

On a not so lighter note, there are many a good things about the elimination. To mention a few...

1) Getting out an early stage leaves most of us Indians lesser prone to BP.
2) We get to watch some good quality cricket with the non consistent teams getting out.
3) Indians don't need to waste time watching the team play and expecting India to come with the cup, only to seem them goof up at the later stages.
4) These guys have their levels known and be trimmed.

Leadership - The Monkey Way

There was a family of 4, a couple and two children, living in America. There was also another important member of the family. It was a monkey. The monkey was so much involved with the family that it used to share the same living place with the family and also traveled with the family everywhere.

Once the family went to a cocktail party. The monkey too joined them. The couple were enjoying the drinks and the children the cakes and chocolates. The monkey too had a good time with cakes and fruits. The party ended and family started traveling back home. All of a sudden, there was something happening in the car and the car soon stopped after hitting a huge tree.

Soon, all the members of the family were in the ICU. The investigating office wanted to find the reason for the accident. But the officer couldn't get any information as all the members of the family was unconscious. The only traveler who was in a position to provide some info was the monkey. So, the officer went to the monkey and gestured to mean "what was the head of the family doing when the accident happened". The monkey gestures to mean that "the gentle man was kissing". The officer gestured to ask "what the lady was doing". The monkey replied back with the same act. Now the officer gestured to find what the children were doing. The monkey replied back with a pose of a sleeping child. The officer got curious and wanted to know what the monkey was doing. The monkey replied back with the posture of a driver. The officer understood that monkey was left to handle the wheels while the couple had a nice time kissing. All these years, we know this as a very good joke.

The joke apart, there is a good learning in this with regard to leadership and management. If the correct person, doesn't take the leadership when neeeded or if the team trusts the leadership position with some one unequiped for the position, it will be a disaster for the entire team.

In the above scenario, the head of the family is the one who has the management capability (the skill to drive the car). He, in an inebriated state, neglects his duty and trusted the monkey to do his job. This in turn lead to the accident which hurts even the passive members in the team, the children.

Also, it is the responsibility of a true leader to snatch the leadership position when needed. If the correct person doesn't take the leadership position, the wrong person would chip in and will lead to a disaster for the entire team. So, it is important that the true leader takes the leadership position in the greater interest of himself and also the team as whole.

Applying the same paradigm to our political, social and economic scenarios, Are we not playing the role of either the children or the couple and our leaders that of the monkey ?. Yes of couse. We in many a ways are not happy about our social and economic environment. But how many of us dare to take the leadership position to drive the change we need. When we are complain how those things affect us in innumorous ways, most of us have just been mute spectators to what is happending around us. So, not just the leaders (monkey), but also us (the couple and children) are to be blamed for the way our country is now. So, the next time you complain about anything, think about how you can change it. For sure, you will either find a solution or atleast you would stop complaining.

A trip to meet your forefathers

How it is like to go to the places your fore fathers have lived it. Will not it be very interesting ?. This is what happened to me, my dad and some of my chitappas went to Virupatchipuram on 27th and 28th of Nov. Virupatchipuram is a village about 2 Kms from Valangaiman and Valangaiman is about 20 Kms from Kumbakonam on the route to Rajamannarkudi.

By word of mouth thru some generations, this is where my Great grand father (Shri Maha Ganapathi Sharma) was born and lived in. Shri Maha Ganapathi Sharma is also my upanayanam name. My grandpa Shri V.G. Venkatrama Sharma was born in 1913 and his elder brother Guruji in 1910. Considering that, Shri Maha Ganapathy Sharma should have been born around 1890.

His father Mr. Maha Linga Sharma seems to have lived in this village and he was not blessed with a child. After a boy was born to him, he named him after lord Ganesa("Maha Ganapathi") and also constructed a small temple for lord Ganesa inside the Shiva temple there.

We went to the temple and also the houses they lived. There is a brahmin family living there. In those days, with not much of transportation facilities, I hope many of the previous generations also would have lived in those village. It was infact a very energising experience for me.

'Occasion'al Bakthi

I use to go to a Kabaleeswar temple atleast once in a week. Today being a Saturday, I went to the temple. I know it would be crowded by peek hours(6.00-8.30 PM). So, I reached the temple around 9.00. Believe me, in spite of spending only 5 min in front of the deity, it took me 1 Hour for me to come out of the temple. The queue was not less than 100 Mts long and most of the time, I was just standing in the queue. Later, I found that today is "Maha Prodosham" that comes once in a year. That too this is falling on a Saturday is more auspicious. This is how it is with any other auspicious day like Diwali or Pongal.

This is not the case just with the Kabaleeswar temple. There are 9 Siva temples in and around Mylapore and all these temples are equally crowded. So are the temples in Triplicane, Adambakkam or even with temples in far south like Thirunallar or Thirukadayur. Go to these same temples on some other ordinary day, you might not even get to see the priests. From my childhood, I have known about "Prodosham". But the concepts of "Sani Prodosham" or "Maha Prodosham" are fairly new to me. I am not sure if these are new terms introduced to commercialise Gods more and more. But one thing for sure is we Hindus are running short of temples or auspicious days on which we can go to temples.

A trip to Bangalore

What do I do all of a sudden I had to travel to Bangalore for a day. I had to shell a sweet 1100 for my to and fro expenses apart from about Rs 400 as sundry expenses. This time, I did notice some differences during my travel.

First of all, in this era of Privatisation, the more you pay, the better service you will get. I started from Chennai on Sunday night by 11.00 from the Koyambedu private bus stand. It was a volva bus and it reached Bangalore private bus stand by 5.30 in the morning. In about six and half Hrs, it has taken us more than 350 Kms. As I reached there after a fairly good sleep in a semi-sleeper seat in a AC bus together with a woolen blanket, I didn't feel like having travelled 350 Kms. The opening of privatisation has given the Indian railways too a run for their money. Else, would they have any time thought of introducing a train like Sathabdi. I boarded the training by 6.00 in the morning and by 10.55 it was in Chennai. The train was amazingly punctual at te only stop in between Bangalore City Junction and Chennai Central. It reached there at 8.58 and started exactly at 9.00 from there. For someone who is used to seeing trains coming atleast half and hour to one and half an hours late, this is very unusaul. But these doesn't come cheap. The to and fro journey costed me 570 + 530 = a sweet 1100 Rs.

Apart from the difference in climate and the language, the other thing I could see was the obvious differences in bus fares. When it is fairly cheap in Chennai, it is pretty costly in Bangalore. If you are taking couple of buses to commute in Bangalore, the to and fro journey would easily cost 40 Rs. I think such a high cost mass transport and high petrol cost would effectively keep away lower middle class families out of Bangalore.

Whom do you expect to meet when you are travelling from Bangalore to Chennai in Sadhapthi. I was expecting a guy from the software indusry or someone working in a Bank or a grade I office in state or central Government. Strangely, I met a guy who is a creative writer working in an adverticement company. This guy was a chartered accountant by profession. But he told me that he is very passionate about advertising that he switched career and is now in advertising. His job is to write scripts for advertisements in visual media -print and TV commersials. I had nice time chatting with them for about 1 hr. He was telling me about the various activities they do and the processes they follow in their company.

Atlast thanks for the short notice. If not for that, I would have never travelled in a Volva or a Sadhabdhi.

Oil Price Hike and the Inevitable

It is official. The inevitable has happened at last. After increasing the price of petrol by Rs. 4 per liter and diesel by about Rs. 2 per liter, the Government has in principle agreed to allow the price of petroleum products to be decided by OMCs if the price crosses $75 per barrel. This will obviously have a cascading effect on the prices of essential commodities which in turn on the inflation. This is inevitable though as the Oil Marketing companies(OMCs) had been incurring a loss of Rs. 6.50 per liter of petrol and equally in diesel, LPG and Kerosene. Part of the high price can be attributed to Central and State taxes which account for about 55 per cent of the retail selling price of petrol and 34 per cent of diesel. The left have been demanding a cut on taxes instead of increasing the retail price of petroleum products. Looks like the government have struck a balance between the price hike, tax reduction and bonds. One thing I fail to understand is attitude of the government here. The government should in fact regulate the price of petroleum product when the price is high. But the Government is trying to do it other way around.

Need for an alternate source of energy
The international crude oil price which $25/barrel in September 2003 is now hovering around 73$/barrel and is soon expected to touch $100/barrel. Infact, it looks very much inevitable considering the phase in which the world community(especially India, US, China and European countries) are consuming the natural resource without giving much thought that we are depleting it very fast and the alternate means of producing oil proving to be atleast as costly. It invariably mean that the prices of petroleum products will keep raising. While the world community is already searching a way out either by might or by identifying alternate sources of energy, the top politicians and bureaucracy in India are quiet oblivious to this is quiet difficult to understand.

The short-sighted attitude of the governments and the bureaucracy is very well evident by the way they are trying to handle this long-term emergency. The Indian government should work on finding alternate source of energy instead of considering raisin the price, cutting taxes or issuing of bonds every time.