Point to Ponder

I saw X – Men Origins last week.
The 4th X men movie & prequel to the earlier three X – Men movies.
In the break saw prmos of Ice Age -3 & Terminator Salvation.
All very successful & popular movie series.
There are many more such series that Hollywood could boast of.

How many such series do we (Bollywood) have?
None excepting Krish & Dhoom & these too have been in the last 10 years.

Are Indians poor storytellers?
The amount of blatant plagiarism, lack of original story ideas & none noteworthy sequels / trilogies do point towards the same.

Guess we should include Story Writing as a subject, encourage children to let their imagination flow & write.
This rather than just reading , comprehending , memorizing & mastering theories , poems ,stories formulas already written by masters on various subject, which is what our current education system does.
How about Story Telling/Writing as a subject in the K-12 curriculum

I am Sorry

Last week, India crashed out of the 20-20 Cricket World cup, disappointing many.
Indian team looked jaded & faded, a far cry from what it was a few weeks back.
Personally, no issues, you can’t win all the time. Am sure team will bounce back.

As expected, the judgment brigade was out with TV channels, newspapers & all sundry, jumping over one another in trying to do a post mortem on team India & Captain MSD, which is expected for a cricket crazy & idol starved country like India.

In this commotion, many missed or choose to miss Dhoni’s apolgy to the nation.
Can’t remember how many Indians have apologized to the nation (excepting Jawahar Lal Nehru, after the 1962 Indo- China War), for their acts or for their inability to perform the role / duty that they were expected to perform.

Politicians & almost all public office holders in India are known to err often, but never apologise.
Terrorist attacks , deluge , train & air accidents killing hundreds, judiciary failing to give justice on time ,robberies, thefts & murders and police failing to provide safety, bad roads, poor power supply etc etc.

List is endless, but never has any minister, beaureacart or official apologized to the nation for a duty not done.
Incidents have been big as well as trivial, but we always shift the blame & never own up to an apology.

Reasons can be many. Ranging from a system that has been created in away that accountability is never on one individual, to the way we are educated & brought up.
Education has a key role to play in developing the collective conscience of any society. But our education system, as well know, focuses on building skills & hardly on building character or values.

I was never a very huge MSD fan and always though him to be bit too lucky for the results he got.
But this one incident has changed my opinion. This guy has the Character

Go ahead captain courageous.
Hope you never have to say " I am sorry " again.

Easy Questions, Tough Answers

Don’t know if this applies to all, but I surely find very tough answering some of the easiest questions.
Though this has been happening since long I realized the same last week.
Wife out for a late night dinner, I had to fetch dinner for self.
I found it very tough answering this one simple innocent question,

What is it that I want to eat if I can order anything I want to?

It was then that I thought & realized that it is this & many such very simple question that are toughest for me to answer.
Is this applicable to all or I am the chosen one…….I don’t know.

Some samples:
What is your favorite dish / meal?
What is your favorite past time.
One place that you are dying to go for a holiday?
Do you like traveling? Answer is yes I do, but then why do you travel so less. so do you traveling ??If you likes you would have done better in the end score..
Favorite film (that’s tough since a lot of us have many)
Rephrase it as genre of films…So what’s the genre of films that I like to watch???
Favorite music and I get more lost…..Like movies it varies far & wide.

Is this the case with all, or I am confused.
Are all others clear or all contradict themselves like I do often.

Hope all do ……Pls write, but who, I am yet to have my first visitors.
Still waiting for the chosen one.

Guess I should announce a bumper draw, early bird prize etc.

I didn’t know that it is not only writing on the laptop (ppl who know me are aware how much I enjoy that ) and getting online & working thru the maze of usernames & passwords & options & fonts etc , and then hosting your thoughts, but POPULARISING it also .

Now how do I do this??

My Favourite lines ....as of now..
I am part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough Gleams that untravelled world,
whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnished, not to shine in use!
As though to breath were life.
Ulysses - Alfred Lord Tennyson

India Inc & Sons

As elections draw to a close, UPA wins, we all assume that the dynasty / heredity politics is not what Indians object too, I want to reopen the debate & carry it to beyond the political domain.

Let’s accept one ground rule that any position or office should, in an ideal case scenario, be given to the most deserving individual. Deserving on basis of merit, qualification, training or educations & not birth.

That’s unfortunately has not been the case and it’s not only in the political “industry “
It happens in many other areas like our film industry, performing arts & too a certain extent though not that rampant in the sporting arena.
Look at Films, performing arts (musicians, singers et all) & we have numerous sons & daughters carrying the family lineage ahead.

But the question here is that, is this correct, should it be accepted (it’s in the genes) or a changed situation aspired for.
I am clear on one aspect that this phenomenon cannot be completely erased & will be present is some form in all societies.
Its prominence however goes down in more educated & developed societies. These societies don’t discourage heredity but high literacy, fair exposure & hence opportunities to all, have ensured a level playing field.

Educated population, trained in modern education is brave, ambitious, wiling to question conventions is & does not consider any occupation to be pre ordained via birth, geography, caste- creed and sex.

An educated mass also ensures more acceptance of merit over birth and hence offices held via elections or positions acquired via voting or popular support tend to go to the most meritorious.
An uneducated & ill informed populace still lives in a feudal mindset, doesn’t consider heredity basis, to be an unjustified claim for offices / positions.
Instead it honors, upholds & supports such claims.
It still lives in times when kingdoms were passed from fathers to their heirs & hence considers the manifestation of the same in today context to be legitimate.

An educated & well informed population on the other hand, ensures fair competition & very often the win of the best / most talented

India lacks this.

Like the root of many problems, it is the lack of education & empowerment which have ensured the prevalence of this trend in high proportions.


Guess the issue, thus is not to blame & fume over the sons / daughters / nephews etc of a film stars or politicians, but in educating the masses & providing opportunities of level playing field to all.

Education will provide the dreams & the opportunities to all to accomplish their dreams.
It will also ensure that heredity without merit as a “reasonable claim “to a certain position / office is disrespected and discouraged by one & all across.

Hope the day dawns soon!

But will Governments & politicians educate masses?
Education which not only makes people literate , but also builds the “right “ temper , attitudes & character.

Watch this space for more!

India and the IPL

IPL 2009 started with the expected fanfare & pomp. Success, TRP etc relative to the 1st edition would be known soon.
Irrespective to success or failure, the loss to India would of course be enormous.

From showcasing India as a mature, fast developing country to the employment & biz opportunity loss, to developing & strengthening the 1st Indian global sporting event brand, the benefits were many.
The shifting to SA has naturally has had a dampening effect on all these.
Reasons can be many, some legitimate & some very clumsy.
Overall the Indian political & administrative machinery was divided and in absence of a clear will, IPL had to move out.

Thinking on this, I can’t stop drawing parallels to various Indian accomplishments, which are “Indian” “but can’t be called Indian”.
Those that originated in India, but were later moved to more “helping “geographies, where they flourished.
History gives us many instances.,
Scientists, professionals, astronauts, entrepreneurs, we have many cases who were Indians, but flourished & achieved their due, when they moved out of India.
This was particularly true for scientists & entrepreneurs in the pre liberalization era.
Post liberalization though some successes have happened (Indian IT industry being the best eg) but these have been far too few, and also the credit for the few successes is because government stayed away from it.
IPL is clearly India’s first sporting event brand and its movement to SA because of issues in India, makes me draw parallel to cases cited above. Maybe premature, but the thought does cross my mind

Hope IPL does not become an Indian league held across the world in the times to come (there will be many suitors for hosting the same in future) and it comes back to India in 2010.

Hope Government machinery gives to IPL & to all such endeavors what they need the most, administrative support, encouragement & a conducive environment.

Leave the rest to undying Indian spirit & we‘ll have many such successes.

As they say, let the games go on!!