Why are we so afraid ?

Recently an elderly gentleman asked me "Why don't you speak up when you see certain government officials or politicians who are supposed to serve this land and its people behave obnoxiously ? Why do you as a citizen allow them to be openly corrupt and break the rules of this land ? Why are you so afraid to speak up and bring these disgusting people to book ?

Well, to tell you the truth I don't speak out openly about it as "I AM SCARED !!" . I rather mind my own business, don't really say anything about it since it does not concern me and go home in the evening to the security of my middle class home & family... & even if it does concern me , I rather placate these politicians / government officials than antagonize them ... I have a wife & child that I want to go back to. I don't want my secure middle class life ripped apart.

Can these certain obnoxious government officials or politicians really mess you up if you chose to antagonize or question them ?? OF COURSE THEY CAN & THEY DO !

The government official / politicians are always in league with one another. They could for example frame / concoct charges against you for evasion of tax.... Sure in the end you will be proved innocent but you might have gone & spent your life saving, your time, ruined your business and family life running to court everyday to prove your innocence. They could do this with any department of the government .. the corrupt politician / government official has a long reach in all aspects of land, revenue, tax & legal .. there are people like them in all our departments.

We must also not forget their sycophant followers / chamchas that will take it as their honourable duty to make you pay for antagonizing their beloved politician / government official as their livelihood depends on the degree to which they will stoop to serve their masters. Pay back could be in the form of mental & physical harassment perhaps even getting beaten up and being sent to hospital.

So tell me shouldn't we be scared ? Wouldn't we rather want to just mind our own business , do our work and in the evening go back to our secure homes & families ?

Pathetic perhaps ! .. realistic DEFINITELY !!

The girl who silenced the world for 5 minutes .....

Saw this video .. was inspired .. she spoke sense

http://media.causes.com/510213?p_id=84998284

Sachin got out !!! Boo hoo !!

I am not an ardent fan of cricket. Watch the matches now and then but not really obessed about it. It is entertaining when the teams are evenly matched and you could have an enjoyable evening watch a one day match.

Currently the Australian cricket team is touring the country. In the last match, Sachin Tendulkar who probably is the best cricketer we have, got out on the basis of an incorrect umpiring decision ... my GOD what a ruckus there was about it .. the fans got agitated, the media screamed MURDER , there were countless TV discussions on it .. "not fair .. not fair... disaster.." they all shouted .... 'suspend the umpire' they demanded ... how could this happen to Sachin ... sacrilege ..

C'mom this is just a game, there are good umpiring decisions and they some decisions which are bad. All cricketers go thru this , it is part and parcel of the game. .... he is great player, he will make those runs again sometime .. what is the big deal !!!!

Everything evens out .. it called Karma.

Relax.. what is the big deal... this is a sport , a game, don't we have more important things to discuss, cover, yell & scream about ?

Hey about the farmers in Maharashtra committing suicide .. let scream about that ...!!!!

Crackers.. YES, who cares about the Sick & the Elderly

Diwali has come and gone. A huge celebration for us here in India. It is family time, we clean our homes, light lamps, put up decorations, making of sweets & burst crackers, have religious ceremonies ... yes, it is festival time , a time to celebrate for all.

Unfortunately this year for Diwali , I was in hospital as my wife had undergone an operation and was in the process of recuperation. Yes a hospital where there are sick people , some critical, some recovering, some being admitted , some in pain but hey that is what a hospital is about.

On the ground floor of the hospital there is a restaurant whose owner and employees decided to burst crackers in the middle of the night .. mind you this is the hospital building itself. So lets celebrate Diwali .. burst crackers in front of the hospital. Of course the owner had a big white car and wore a white attire so it had to be some politician or some affiliation to a political party (yes, our dear politicians, our elected representatives). Hey we have a right to celebrate Diwali ... especially in front of a hospital. Lets forget the 100 odd patients who need rest , we must celebrate our festival.

A hospital is a silence zone ......but wait .. sorry this does not apply during the festivals, obviously patients of a hospital are not important and the bursting of crackers takes precedence.. who cares about the sick... this is a time of celebration isn't it !? Why should we bother , we must celebrate, shouldn't we ?

Of course you must be out of your mind object, you would be accused of not respecting the religious sentiments of people, you would incur the wrath of the "connected" citizens and probably get thrashed in the bargain .. oh how accommodating & caring we have become...

The above incident at this particular hospital want the only case, it was reported all over the city.... celebration time we call it !

For heaven's sake, something is wrong with us. !!??!!

Where has our compassion gone ? Has our civic sense flowed into our sewers and more importantly have we forgotten basic decency ... at least leave the sick alone !!!!!

Dadsee ... you were indeed a religious man ...

It been about 3 months since my dear father - in - law Jerome Rodrigues passed away. He was really not well for the last year or so and had suffered a lot. I am so sure he is now in a happier place perhaps sitting on a beach (he loved Goa) in his shorts sipping a nice chilled beer (he loved his little drink) solving his sudoku or doing his crossword puzzle. We miss him..

Anyway the real point of this thought entry was his attitude towards religion. He was a devout Catholic, went to Church & attended Mass very regularly , prayed regularly and literally knew every word of the Bible but not once in my entire association with him did I ever hear him 'spout' or 'preach' religion.

I am a Zoroastrian who has married into a Catholic family but being of a different religion never came up in a discussion with him at any point of time. It was not only the spoken word but also in his actions towards me.

He spoke about values, honesty, family, not to encourage corruption but never really initiated a discussion about one's religion, Christianity or Zoroastrianism, their differences and whether one was better than the other. Sure we could discuss particulars about a certain religion but his general outlook never included the differentiation of people based on religion.

This I think defines being religious.. here was a man so deeply into his religion, have so much faith in his religion, living by the principals as defined by his religion but never imposing it on anyone else. He considered it his own personal belief and it did not go beyond that. Live and let live always seemed to be his advice.

We don't see this too often do we ... ? Someone so orthodox & conservative yet restricting the views & beliefs to oneself and not forcefully imposing it on others.... I think he truly understood what religion stands for and I wish there were more like him. The world would be such a peaceful place.

Dadsee, if I had a glass in my hand I would say "I miss you but Cheers to you ! & let the good times rock."

Is it recession or correction ?

This is based on my experience and knowledge of the field of Information Technology and Outsourcing and so my comments are based around that set of companies.

The economic meltdown is here, the nightmare has just started, tons of companies are shutting down left right & center, thousands are being laid off and many many more expected. The year 2009 does not look good for anyone & "global recession" is the latest buzz word. All of us have to 'hunker' down and try to survive.

But let us take a re look at a couple of issues that are taking place and that are defining the term 'economic melt down'

- The Banks are not lending money, there is a cash crunch
This means that companies will have to use their own money to run their routine business and not use credit for that. Well isn't this way a business is supposed to be run ? You get loans & credit for upcoming projects, you don't usually use loans to run a supposedly sustainable business do you ? Is this recession or correction ?

- The Banks / Investors will be tight fisted and it will require proper project projections and serious due diligence for money to be invested.

Strange, so what was the criteria thus so far ?...wasn't proper project projections & serious due diligence basic criteria to get funding anyway ? Is this recession or correction ?

- Salary raise will probably be a mere 5-10% as compared to 30-40% in 2008 ?

7-10% is a well tried and tested norm for business for so many years. Everyone in the industry knew long ago that 30-40% increase yearly for salary for never be sustainable... so why the outcry now ?

- There will be continuous lay offs
It was common knowledge that most large IT companies in India are over staffed. They have so many workers on bench all the time and projects have been overestimated just so that more engineers could be billed for. The clients were paying so no one was asking. Now the clients are cutting project sizes to realistic levels and hence realistic levels of man - power. The rest will get laid off. Once why the noise ? It was all well known.. and it just catching up.

- Salaries will be restructured
Now I am surprised this is even being attributed to the recession. Anyone who has anything to do with the IT field knew the salaries were sky high and many a time just ridiculous. Even if a person did not have the experience, nor the skill and really did not deserve it , they still got mammoth salaries just to retain them... do you really think this would be sustainable over the long run ??. Salaries are going to come down to what they were supposed to be !

So would this be termed as recession or a correction. ?

I think we are just coming back to reality, we are being forced to accept one of the very basics of money... "Cut your coat according to your cloth ". Companies will now downsize to what they realistically are, their valuations will be more realistic, they wont have bloated reserves and yet use money from the bank, team sizes and project estimates will be what they are really supposed to be, salaries will be based on expertise and experience and finally we will back to "living, working & conducting business within our means."

So who is accountable ?

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Disclaimer: This post does not target any specific parent, any specific child, any specific teacher and any specific school. We as parents and our teachers try thier best but we all know it happens !
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Today we hear so much "blah blah" about accountability and corporate governance in India. We hear so much about accountability or lack of it in our public services & utilities.

Oh how we love to talk about it so lets talk about 'accountability' and lets see how accountable we hold ourselves towards something that is closer to home..."our children"

When a child does well in school, all love to take responsibility and credit for it , the parents, the teachers ...... oh how proud we all are. (we should be !!)

Ok, now lets change the equation a little bit...'the child does not do well in school', ' the child is having trouble coping with school', ' the child is getting in trouble in school'................ what are the conventional reasons you will generally hear ?

If you ask the parents... it would possibly be
"Oh the teacher is horrible", "there is so much work to do", "they just keeping having tests", "they don't correct the work or bother to do anything for the child" & so on.

If you ask the teacher... it would possibly be
"the child is not up to the mark", "the parents don't bother & expect us to do everything". "there are so many children, I cant take care of everyone", "we don't control the syllabus and have to complete it in time", " how much more do you expect us to" & so on

I am not disputing the above reasons given my both us parents and the teachers, I am just stating them, I am no judge as to whether they are wrong or right.

So let me get this straight , if the child is facing trouble in school both the parents and teachers seem to have perfectly good reasons for it and they themselves never seem to be part of it in most cases........ so my question is who takes final responsibility for it, who takes final responsibility to set it right........the child ? Are we seriously expecting the child to set it right ? Is there no one else who should be held accountable ? (oops I used the word accountable ..!!)

Reasons, excuses, you can call it what you like, but the child is in trouble, you have brought up this child, you have educated this child, shouldn't we as parents & teachers hold oursleves accountable for that child ?

I was under the impression that when we decided to have a child , it was one of our obligations to be accountable for the child's well being in heart , mind and soul . !!

I was under the impression that when one chooses the vocation of a teacher, it is one's obligation to be accountable for the child's welfare in heart , mind and soul while in school !!

Parents & Teachers together are responsbile for the child. Accountability does not mean blaming someone else and then leaving it.....

We talk about accountability in governance of the country but are we holding ourselves accountable as parents and teachers ? Perhaps lets start from there first before pointing our fingers at others.

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Disclaimer: (Before I get into trouble). This post does not target any specific parent, any specific child, any specific teacher and any specific school. But we all know it happens !
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