My birthday 6th august

My birthday 6th August
Yes, at last, today is 6th august 2007. For some, this might be a black letter day because it was on this day 62 years ago that the disastrous Hiroshima and Nagasaki bomb blasts took place.
But for me, it is a red-letter day, because it is my birthday. Don’t mind me if I get a little retrospective .I thought I was old enough to pen down my thoughts. I am officially 18 years old now. How I wish I could just be born and relive the happy moments in life!!! Since that is impossible I have to stick with being an adult now.
Since I am an adult now, I have a lot of privileges. I can find my name on the voters list and help India get a better administration. Wow! That’s too much too much for a kid like me.! I can get my drivers license and help my country by becoming a good rider and by avoiding accidents.
I can find myself in places like discothecs, which any next-door teenage girl like me would love to go.
I can even get married or elope! Which is awful because I hate even the m of marriage.
I might have grown older but I have become wise too. I am not cherubic like I was before. I have learnt to start appreciating even the un- noticeable things in life. I have become more sensitive when it comes to certain personal issues like friends, family etc.
I have been in the good books of most of my teachers (I have got into deep trouble with some) and many of my friends. I have got myself in the bad books with some of my friends in the past. It is a pretty dramatic story, that which cannot be revealed.
But I have never regretted that incident. Infact I have learnt from it. I have realized that I cannot expect all my friends to be of the same mentality I am.
Then after, a few years later, I have made new friends and understood them better. I have also not remained the same anymore . I have improved on my behavior, made new friends and many acquaintances also. I have learnt from my mistakes and I am very much ready to make new ones.
This birthday is special, not just because of the gifts and phone calls from my well wishers. It is because I have a lot of memories, which I have lived and cherished unlike other birthdays.
This year I have gone through a lot of personal problems. Lost hope, lost self-confidence. But as I learnt to battle them one by one, things seemed to be a lot better. When I look back, I see that it was not the worst problem I have faced after all!!!
In spite of my difficulties, I have done pretty well in my board exams. I managed to score 96%, a centum in maths, which felt like a cherry on top of a pie. I received a lot of appreciation from my family and friends for achieving this feat.
Guess what,“sphurti is a child prodigy” well, how does that sound? No, I am just saying that. One need’nt have to be a child prodigy to prove that they are intelligent. I am proud of myself, as I have been academically very good in my entire life. I have won many school awards for my academic excellence. I have won a scholarship of national level general knowledge competition. I am good in sports too. Besides that, I love to dance. I have received a lot of appreciation for the stage show I had performed once amongst many other competitors.
I have never done any pretentious act of valor. My family has never told me that they are proud of me. But, somewhere in my heart, I feel that they are already proud of me and of what I have achieved so far!!!
I guess we all grow up pretty soon eh!? Now, I can never go back to being born again and reliving the happiest moments of my life so far.
I can never go back to being a kid again. Ah!!! How much I miss those days!
Nevertheless, life goes on and we have to learn to live with it. We have to accept everything that comes in our way as we don’t know what we are destined to become.
Always show unconventional love and passion towards what you are doing. Don’t ever get intimidated by others success. I encourage myself to become envious of others because it helps me improve myself by acquiring the qualities, which I lack. By doing this it helps me become a better person.
I have a lot of responsibilities. High hopes are pinned on my back. It becomes my responsibility to live up to their expectations.
I have learnt that no matter where life takes me, I shall always be strong. I hope to become someone someday and be more useful than what I am now.
CHEERS TO LIFE!!!

Things holding India back from being a developed nation

In a series of posts, I intend to present my take on why India is unable to take the next big step and announce its entry into the world's elitest nations; Why are we in a situation which is very alike to "So near, yet So far"; Your comments, criticism, encouragement are most welcome!!

1. Corruption - Corruption is, by far the biggest ill that our country faces. From a college peon to a minister, only money makes them sing. Taking bribe has become a part of a government official's duty. There are instances where bribe was taken and deadly criminals were let off; Crores of rupees worth of items are illegally siphoned off after paying bribes; Drugs which are intended to be given freely to the poor are being sold in open markets; The food grains which are intended to be rationed among the BPL people is being sold in open markets; And not paying bribes resulted in gross neglect and inaction in hospitals which have taken poor peoples' lives.

These and hundreds of other instances show that corruption is our biggest enemy.

My heart bleeds. It asks, Why is corruption such a big menace? Cant something be done about it? Isnt there someone who can put in some basic moral values into these people?

The answer is a flat NO. Noone has the courage to do it. The mafia behind them is so strong that no person who has the power to punish is ready to take the risk. This was evident when Justice Venkatachala was the Lok Ayuktha of Karnataka. He caught hundreds of corrupt officers red handed. Unfortunately not even 1% of them were punished. The government was clearly unwilling to play ball and invite the ire of govt officials who form an important vote bank. Justice Venkatachala was promised suo moto powers to prosecute by 3 CM's. But the promise remained on paper. They knew they had made a mistake by placing a man who wanted to bring a change at the top. This was evident when they didnt want to give him a second term.

Most of us must have realised by now that we can take the next big step towards being a developed nation only when this ill called corruption is nipped from the root. My eyes are eager to see someone come in - one who is not afraid to do the right things; One who doesnt care to lose his position by doing the right thing; One who takes stern action against those who hold this country at ransom and are preventing it from becoming a true superpower.

(This series will continue; Please stay tuned for my following posts)

I have applied for the TOI's lead India campaign. I urge my readers to apply also. We should want to be this someone. For long, we have waited to witness change. Now that it is not happening, we must take the lead. The future is in our hands.

Absolute Reality - Is there any such thing?

Most of the children have imaginary characters for their friends. They play with them, enjoy with them and even talk to them. If you ask them anything about those characters, they will reply in a way, which will convince any body that those characters actually exist or they are “real”. But for us those characters are just figments of the children’s imagination. They are not “real”. Just because we cannot see hear or even sense those characters how can we deny their existence? We experience thoughts, dreams, emotions and feelings. Are these not real?

We may feel that anything we perceive using our five senses is real. So we believe and understand that all the objects that we can touch, see, feel, hear, taste are real. Well, in that case think of those myriad stars twinkling in the night sky. What we are seeing could be what was the state of the stars many years ago because as everyone knows light takes several years to reach us from the distant stars. It could be possible that some of the stars do not exist any more. We believe that they exist because we see them twinkling. The assumption here is that “Time” is absolute that is one is simultaneously able to see the stars as they are now and as they are seen from the Earth. Does that mean reality is something beyond our fives senses of perception? Probably. Any thing “real” can or should probably be defined relative to the space in which we live.

Consider the example of a seed that has grown into a tree. From our knowledge of science we know that this tree has grown from a seed. But just try to view the tree in the absolute sense. We do not call it a seed anymore. The “reality” of the tree being a seed was the past. The “reality” now is that the seed is a tree. What was “real” in the past is not “real” any more as we cannot perceive the “seed” using our five sense organs. Here the assumption is that space is absolute i.e. it is the same space where the seed was planted and now the tree is standing. This implies that “Time” needs to be incorporated in our understanding of reality.

Consider this. I understand that if I am shown the color red, it is red because I have been taught that the color is red and now I understand and believe that the color shown to me is red. But if some one is taught that the color red is green, that person will understand and believe that the color is green and not red. Here what is “real” depends on what we have defined the terms “red” and “green” to mean. Humans have written a language and created words and associated meanings with it and have laid down a universal understanding that a specific reality is associated with each word that represents anything that is tangible. So reality includes those things, which we have been taught to believe and understand as representative of a specific thing.

If you noticed, whatever we defined to be “real” was relative to some element – either time or space or a person’s understanding of what is real. If “real” is defined relative to something how can it remain “real”? We associate “truth” with “reality”. When we think of “truth” we think of it in the absolute sense. If reality is relative, then so is truth.. We have based all our knowledge of science, scientific discoveries and inventions on assumptions- assumptions some of which we believe are true and others we just intuitively know are true (the ones we call axioms). So if this fundamental understanding of truth changes can we then say that our knowledge of science if fallacious? Is it right to base our understanding of anything based on truth which by its very innate nature is relative because of its dependency on factors like time, space, beliefs? This brings me to my question – Is there something which we can call “the absolute truth” or “the absolute reality”?

Fading Identity

Recently, our team shifted to a new building far away from home and finally i am beginning to feel the pinch. Today morning when i reached our new campus(hate associating the word "office" with myself), i was reminded of the many things that i wanted to do by the time i finished college. I wanted to be an entrepreneur with the "youngest achiever" award, giving loads of interviews on the TV. But unfortunately none has been accomplished or even started...

OK, fine i am applying to b-schools and all that. So what? I am still far away from what i wanted to do. B-school is definitely not my destination. In high school i was so overwhelmed by people such as Alexander and Cleopatra that i wanted to actually rule the world someday so that my name gets etched in the history of the world and not lost once i perish. Over the due course of time that fantasy matured into the want to be an entrepreneur and own a building as huge as our new campus.

After high school i got carried away by the usual competition stuff and here i am sitting in my cube debugging code. Which competition you say? Well, the usual marks saga. I am not sure how can competition land a person into something that she doesn't want. But sadly that's the truth and that will be, till our system and values change.

This is not the future that i dreamt of nor would many "dream" of in childhood. Then why am i not going ahead and ditching my job and starting off with my dream? Probably i am not the risk taker kind. Am i the only person who is doing what she DOES NOT want to do or are there other people too?

Hats off to people like Bill Gates who had guts to ditch the "competition" saga and realize their dreams. As far as people like us, i don't even know why do we keep reading things about these achievers. I don't see us (atleast me) putting it into practice. Oh OK... Our system has taught us how to do theory not practicals right? Then how can we realize it in reality.

I don't think its too late. Probably we all still have time to live our dreams. But how many of us actually know what we want? Probably a flashback to our childhood days will help.

I just hope you and I realize what we actually want and go ahead with that, instead of sucuumbing to the situation. Else we will end up spending 15 hours a day doing something that we never dreamt of or do not actually enjoy doing, till we are 60 and then retire and wonder what happened the whole time in our lives.
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A girl losing identity in her cube

Safety Last in Motown!

Its sad, but “safety last” seems to be the attitude of all players in the Indian automotive industry – be it manufacturers, consumers, Govt., transport companies – everyone. Seems too harsh, doesn’t it? Lets analyze why this conclusion was reached in the first place.

Automobile Manufacturers:

Road conditions in the country have improved tremendously in the past few years, more so the inter-city highway infrastructure. This has resulted in increasingly large number of people preferring their own cars for long distance transport. This improvement has also bred high-speed driving patterns. Obviously, this calls for higher safety expectations from the cars. But, have these expectations been met? Not really.

The bare minimum safety features one can expect when one thinks of high speed highway driving are – airbags and ABS. And what are the cars offering these features? Since small cars form the overwhelming majority of all cars sold in India, we’l take a look at small cars first.

• Chevrolet Spark offers ABS as an option; on the top-end variant only. Airbags are not offered, even as an option.
• Suzuki Zen Estilo offers ABS and driver-side airbag only as an option; on top-end variant only.
• Fiat Palio Stile doesn’t offer either ABS or airbags, even as an option! (Either that, or their website design is so poor that I wasn’t able to locate these features).
• Maruti WagonR offers ABS and airbag as option, on top-end variant only.

You’d notice that the real volume-sellers – Maruti 800, Hyundai Santro, Maruti Alto, Tata Indica do not even feature in this list. Reason- these cars offer neither airbags, nor ABS; even as option! I wonder whether these cars would even be road-legal in many of the developed countries. And I shudder to think about the upcoming Tata’s OLRC (One Lakh Rupees car), or similar ultra low-price cars being developed by other manufacturers (Kinetic??)

Now lets step up the ladder – and analyze the “premium hatch” segment.

• Chevrolet U-VA offers ABS only on top-end variant. I could not find any reference to airbags on their site.
• Maruti Swift offers dual front airbags and ABS as standard on top-end Zxi variant; and ABS as option on the middle Vxi variant.
• Hyundai Getz has ABS on the to-end variant.

The above list is indicative. The point I’m trying to make is that the automobile manufacturers are trying to play a game here – if safety is what you want, go out and buy our top-end variants. What if I want a “basic” car, but with safety features? After all, since I don’t smoke, what use is a cigarette lighter and ash tray for me? What if I don’t care about body-colored door-handles and leather-wrapped gear-knob? Answer is – there is no such “basic-but-safe” car out there in the market.

And oh! If you thought that only small cars are the target of this safety-discrimination, think again. The same pattern of offering essential safety features on top-end variants is carried over all the way to the Chevy Aveos and Maruti SX4’s and Ford Fiesta’s etc.

I think it is high time manufacturers started offering ABS and Airbags as option across all variants. This is all the more relevant as the roads improve by the day, speeds increase, and more and more people start traveling by road.

General Public:

Its not only manufacturers who disregard safety. We "aam janta" care hardly 2 cents about it. How often have you seen well-educated people speaking on the mobile phone while driving a 2-wheeler? Its almost arrogance personified! “I don’t care about safety and rules. I have a cell phone and I shall use it while driving” kind of attitude only magnifies the safety problem on our roads.

Coming to the topic of rash driving – of course it is “subjective”. Still, just look around when you are driving. Chances are you’l see not only the “brat” cabbies driving as if there's no tomorrow; but the well-dressed, educated professional as well.

Transport companies:

People who regularly travel by the long-distance luxury bus services would identify with this. We have all kinds of luxury buses flooding the market. Volvos, sleeper coaches, semi-sleepers and what not. How many of these have proper safety features?

To quote an example, I regularly undertake overnight journeys by VRL, a private bus service provider in Karnataka. These buses are popular for their comfort. However, I have noticed time and again, that even though seat-belts exist, the seats are laid out in such a way that it is not possible to engage the seat-belts! One can imagine the effect of even sudden braking when one is asleep. This problem is even more pronounced in case of sleeper coaches. The upper berth in the sleeper coach buses are an example of how things should not be.

In spite of being so unsafe, these buses are immensely popular with the passengers. This shows how much the general public cares about safety! Or is it the case that transport companies dont give a damn about the passengers' concerns? Whatever be the case, it needs to be set right.

Government:

If the manufacturers are not forthcoming in offering safety features on basic cars, then the Government should mandate it. Of course, the ideal case would be that it should be made compulsory for ALL cars to feature ABS and airbags. However, this is not a practical solution. But, surely, the government can make it compulsory for all manufacturers to offer these safety features at least as an option on all variants?

The same goes for buses as well. The government should regulate safety features on all long distance buses.

Regarding rash driving and using cell phones while driving; well there are a whole bunch of laws regarding these. Only if all laws as they are on paper, were implemented!

Conclusion:

Its still not too late. Either the manufacturers, transport companies and general public should act voluntarily, or the government should take matters in its hands. It only takes resolve on part of the authorities to brush aside resentment from lobbies.

Its delightful news that consumerism is becoming a way of life in India. Lets also inject an element of responsibility into the whole business! Looking forward to an India where safety gets its due credit. JAI BHARAT.