Dealing with boredom...

I used to think it's a curse to be bored. I used to chide myself and yell at myself mentally saying, how can you be bored, when there are so many interesting things to learn? Then I'd open some newspaper website and start concentrating on the day's events. For the past two days though, I've been bored beyond belief and beyond relief. No matter how much I tried to coax myself to study, I just couldn't do it. 

I decided to throw caution to the winds, and do whatever I felt like. I started watching Russell Peters shows on youtube. That guy is hilarious! After watching about 10 video clips, I thought that I was sufficiently entertained. It dawned on me much later that, in the process of entertaining myself, I'd come across quite a lot of new information. While watching his videos, one link led to another and I ended up watching his interview with Riz Khan. It's in two parts and you can see it here and here.

I came to know a lot of things about him and about stand-up comedians in general. Moreover, when he said that religion is something he never jokes about or messes with, I had an "Oh yeah" moment. Till that point, I'd never noticed that when he makes fun of peculiarities of cultures and accents, he never makes any references to a religious peculiarity. It made me think, is he scared? The reason he gave is, religion is a personal thing, and he is nobody to tell which religious habits are peculiar and which aren't.

When we watch stand-up comedians perform, we rarely realize the kind of efforts that go into making up the act. They've to always be prepared to get booed down. Or worse, they've to be prepared for no laughter at all. They're under constant pressure to come up with good jokes. And of course, each comedian is only as good as their last performance. Therefore, I was quite amazed to know that Russell has been at this for more than twenty years now, and is still going strong.

I also felt proud when I saw the vast crowds that came to watch him do his act. That struck me as very unusual. Russell is an Indian of Canadian origin. He has never been to India while growing up. In fact, he came to India for the first time to perform when he gained fame. Therefore, it is quite possible that India or Indians had very little to do with his success. Why do we feel pride for Indians based out of India? Ours has been this sort of rags to riches story, where post Independence we were a poor and developing country, with a very low self-confidence. As Indians started becoming visible in the global spotlight, our self-esteem grew, both individually and as a nation. This practice of collective victory for individual achievement is still continuing, as we take every Indian's success as a measure of every Indian's capability to become successful. Every Indian's victory is a personal victory. If he can, then I can too, irrespective of where he has come from.

So I'm happy that I got bored. It made me realize that everything you do, whether its for work or entertainment, has the potential to change your perspective and teach you something new.

I think I should really get back to work now, or else as Russell Peters says, Soma buddy gonna get hurt real baaad! Lol :D

Image source: http://www.indianlifeandstyle.com/ILS-May-June05/fast%20lane.htm

Happy Diwali!

Here's wishing all my readers a very happy diwali. Of all the festivals, this is one festival that I'm always looking forward to. And, of all festivals, this is the only one which I have no idea how to celebrate. I think this is one festival that is fun before it starts. I've always had great fun shopping for a new salwar kameez, persuading my Mom to buy all possible colours for Rangoli and picking out firecrackers with my brother. Isn't it funny, that I keep wondering when I will wear my new salwar kameez, what I will do with all the Rangoli since my drawing is terrible and firecrackers have become an elusive joy thanks to environmental concerns? 

This diwali, I just about managed to do one out of those three, which was buying a new salwar kameez. Firecrackers have been ditched long ago, and Mom bought all the stuff for Rangoli much before I came to Pune for my Diwali vacations. Another thing that I missed out on was buying an Akashkandil. Dude, this is the big one. Although we don't buy one every year, I would have loved to pick one out this year. I remember the great tussle I had with my Mom when we bought the last one. It was a beautiful blue globe that we both finally agreed upon. This year, Mom has picked up a pretty one made of cane.

My Mom used to tell stories about how as children, she and her sisters would wake up at 4:00 am and take baths while members of the household would burst firecrackers outside. I somehow don't see the point of this exercise, especially since I'm on vacation. Wake up at 4:00, take a bath and then do what? Go back to sleep? I must admit though, it is fun roaming around in Pune during Diwali. All the shops are lit up by strings of lights. The Akashkandil stalls are a sight to behold and I get tempted at every diya stall to spend from my fast-diminishing account. 

Apart from hogging on faraal and meeting relatives, I don't really know how to celebrate Diwali.. Anybody willing to help me?

Indo-US Youth Dialogue by GatewayHouse Part 2

Refer to previous post

Climate change was next on the agenda. Dr Craig said that US is the 2nd largest polluter in the world, and India is the 4th. However, the per person carbon footprint of the US is much higher than that of India. US is often accused of being hypocritical in this aspect as it refuses to reduce it's own emissions but urges developing nations to reduce their carbon footprints. 

According to Russell, the public opinion in the US largely seems to be in favour of reducing carbon emissions. Obama had also tried to pass a bill that would severely restrict carbon emissions by industries. However, the bill didn't make it through the Parliament. To retain their seats, members of the Parliament are/were refusing to pass bills or take steps that would make them unpopular with corporations contributing to climate change. Instead of terming the US as hypocritical, it is important to note that Obama alone cannot do much. He took the first step by introducing the bill. The final decisions are taken by the Parliament. 

Ms. Akanksha Mohla, a panelist from India, said that in order to effectively curb carbon emissions, incentives needed to be given to corporations, not governments, since corporations cause pollution. According to her - and this view was shared by almost all the panelists - climate change cannot be countered unless immediate financial incentives are provided to corporations to reduce their carbon footprint.

On the topic of terrorism, the most pertinent question asked was, "Do India and US share the same agenda?". The overall view was, India mostly faced internal threats, whereas the US faced threats from agents outside the US territory. Although the question of huge military aid to Pakistan and subsequently endangering India's security did arise, this wasn't addressed in a satisfactory manner. US's hesitancy to share intel and information about David Coleman Headly was also brought up for discussion. The panelists felt that US had the world's best interests at heart and was doing the best it could in terms of sharing intelligence reports.

A concern raised by an Indian student in the audience was, Obama is losing popularity in the US and with the mid-term elections, the Democrats are likely to lose more seats. In such a scenario, will Obama be able to live up to the promises he makes to India? The panelists agreed that foreign policy is rarely related to domestic concerns and that the result of the mid-term elections would have possibly no effect on Indo US relations. 

US was accused of being hypocritical in the matter of human rights violations. The US government perpetrated human rights violations during war with Afghanistan and Iraq.What right did it have to ask other nations to clean up their human rights records? A member of the panel pointed out that almost every US citizen was ashamed of the human rights violations by the US government. Moreover, a distinction was made between wartime violations and violations in day to day life. American citizens (not necessarily represented by the state), raised objections to day-to-day human rights violations like domestic violence in developing countries.

An American student from the audience asked how the so-called benefits of President Obama's visit to India would trickle down to a large number of Indians living below the poverty line. Also, how will India fund it's development now that United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funding has been stopped. One of the suggestions to help India's poor was to invite the large majority of Nobel Laureates to India and encourage them to propose solutions to problems that plague the common man. Another solution was to make it easy to set up B2B solutions between medium and small level entrepreneurs in India and in the US.This would include lifting the visa restrictions imposed recently by the 2 countries. 

I will post the full text of the agenda as soon as it is available. In the meantime, I would request Mumbaikars to invite Obama with an open heart and not curse him for restricting their Diwali celebrations.

Update: Click here for the agenda.

Indo-US Youth Dialogue by GatewayHouse Part 1

 India passed the RTE (Right to Education Act) which makes school education compulsory for children between 6 and 14 years. President Obama's Race to the Top program, urges Americans to study harder and surpass India and China in the race for the top jobs and educational opportunities. Keeping President Obama's forthcoming visit to Delhi in mind, are Indians and Americans competing against each other or collaborating with each other in the field of education?

Several such issues were raised in the Indo Us Youth Dialogue organized by Gateway House in HR College, Mumbai on Tuesday, October 26, 2010.  A panel of youth interested in international politics was chosen for the discussion, which was headed by Dr. Craig Johnson. The primary aim was to formulate an agenda that contained issues which should be discussed by Dr. Manmohan Singh and Mr. Barak Obama during the latter's stay here from November 6-9, 2010. 

The panelists consisted of 3 representatives from the US and 3 from India. A member of Gateway House told me that they had purposely chosen young people with interest in international affairs but no affiliation with any government or foreign relations offices. The reason behind this was, they didn't want any panelists with biases or vested interests. Although the panel discussion took place at a slightly immature level, it was nonetheless interesting for students and people like me who knew considerably less about Indo US relations. The discussion also saw attendance from other US students and during the open round, many biases and preconceived notions on both sides were apparent. 

In response to a question about collaboration on education, Ms. Ali Rosen, a panelist from the US side pointed out that while there were a 100,000 Indian students studying in the US, the number of American students studying in India was barely 3000. The change needed to be in two directions. First, visa restrictions need to be lifted to make access easier. Second, on the Indian side, only the elites were able to afford education in the US. By means of grants and scholarships, this opportunity should be extended to students from poorer backgrounds as well. Also, in order to increase number of US students studying in India, American students need to be taught about India in their school curriculum. Ali recounted that during her school education, while she was taught about the middle east, Europe, China and Japan, there were no dedicated lessons about India. Thus, by introducing India as a specific topic, students would learn more about India and would gradually feel like coming here to study.

Another interesting point that came up was, in the near future, nearly half of US high school education will be conducted online. What will be the implications on US and India? One of the American panelists, Mr. Russell Mason said that US educational resources are good and aid in faster understanding. Hence, if it is available online, it will  be crowd sourced and will benefit students from other countries as well. By 2016, he hoped India too would put up it's educational content online and allow US students to benefit. 

Contd in next post..

Ganpati bappa Moraya!!!

 

Have you ever been through traffic jams caused by loud processions taking up more than half of the road and pounding music in your ears till you're sure you've gone completely deaf? I have, on several occasions, and I've cursed the tradition, the people who follow it, and the law enforcement officials for allowing it! That's why, when I was offered a chance to be part of a visarjan procession here, I jumped at the chance. I wanted to know how people enjoy themselves with abandon when they're causing so much of noise pollution and traffic nuisance. 

What can I say? The rhythm gets to you! For about an hour I stood around awkwardly taking photographs because I didn't know anybody. I walked back and forth along the procession as it slowly made it's way towards the Chowpatty. Dhol and zhanza were the instruments of choice and what a rhythm they beat up! Poor things though, some of the percussionists were spraying themselves with Deep Heat while others were wearing gloves and bandages around their palms and arms. Nevertheless, they kept everybody thoroughly entertained and seeing people dance gave them more enthusiasm.

After about an hour of standing around and staring, I stood near the dhol tasha players and I actually started enjoying myself. The noise was deafening and I could hear my heart pounding, but instead of getting angry, I just felt like dancing! I guess the reason it's terrible when you're riding is, you get distracted from controlling your vehicle and that can be quite scary. We had a line of volunteers who held a rope up, barricading us from stepping out of half the road space. Although cars and bikes did face trouble, I don't think anybody was stuck for more than a minute. Although the sound of firecrackers added to the frenzy created by the dhol, I wish we hadn't burst them. That is really scary to people driving on the road.

Finally, I asked one of the zhanza players to lend me his pair of zhanzas and I clanked them till my arms hurt. I found a group of girls around my age, and started dancing with them. Amidst all that, free food was being distributed. I had a mango ice cream, wada pav and sugarcane juice. As time progressed, I think we needed better energy boosters (hint hint). The best part was seeing small kids sitting up on the truck which was carrying the Ganesh murtis. A few kids were making groups and dancing amongst us too. Everybody from aunties to kids of all ages were thoroughly enjoying themselves. I felt out of place because I didn't know anybody, but gradually I realized that many people were dancing alone and I lost my inhibitions.

I didn't go all the way to the Chowpatty because it gets too crowded there. Nevertheless, I got a taste of what it's like to be a part of a procession and why so many people take part in it. Do I approve of it? Only if it's done in a responsible manner with no fireworks and a few volunteers actively involved in controlling the space that the procession takes up on road. And of course, it should happen only once a year!

Need v/s greed

Calling up kids at 10 pm in the night and dealing with their suspicious parents was scary enough. Therefore, you can imagine my plight when I decided to write a story on train hawkers and my teacher said to me, "get good quotes".

I don't really remember who told me that selling goods on trains is illegal but I thought it would be an interesting idea to follow up. However, I was scared of two things. First, I was scared of talking to the train hawkers as I felt they might misunderstand me, get too friendly or too aggressive. Second, I realized that I might need to speak to police officials too, and this was even scarier than the first part.

I started in small doses, pretending to be interested in buying jewelery or foodstuffs, while trying to make conversation. The easiest question I asked was, "where do you get your stuff from?". Most  hawkers were forthcoming about this and soon I had collected enough data in this part. I now needed to move on to tougher questions. 

At this stage, I started actually buying stuff. I bought a pair of hairpins from a small girl, some chikki from an old woman, 2 bottles of nailpolish from a girl around my age. I bought stuff primarily because I felt that the hawkers would open up to me only if they didn't think I was wasting their time. However, I soon realized that I was buying more out of guilt, than anything else. Moreover, almost all the hawkers I spoke to were more than happy to speak to me, even when I asked the tough questions.

If you mention the word 'Police' in front of any "respectable" person, that person immediately flinches. I am not judging here, I belong to the same crowd. Since hawking is illegal, I expected the hawkers to turn cold or aggressive the moment I asked them if the police has ever caught them. To my surprise, they didn't even bat an eyelid. Most of them calmly told me that they'd been to jail more than a couple of times. I came to know much later on that RPF officials take haftas from all train hawkers, besides fining them. No wonder hawkers are still allowed to operate without licenses, as it allows RPF officials to make some money on the side. 

In contrast to this, I asked a fellow commuter who was buying jewelery on the train if she knew that hawking on trains was illegal. She immediately started pretending that I was made of air. As a consumer, she is the last person who would be held responsible for buying illegal goods. It's ironic that she and people like us shy away at the first mention of anything illegal or related to the police.

I wasn't brave enough to ask RPF officials if they took bribes. The only information I got from them was that hawkers should attempt to get licenses. When I asked a few hawkers why they didn't get licenses issued from the government, one enterprising hawker told me, "Indira Gandhi ke zamaane mein license milta tha! Ab milta hi nahi hai!".

Despite taking a lot of initiative, my story was incomplete because I didn't have the guts to ask the toughest questions. However, I think it was a good start and it made me realize that every person has a story to tell. You just need to be attentive enough to know where the most interesting part of the story is.

Table Tennis as a profession

 This is the essay that I submitted for the mind map assignment (refer to previous post). A few things might seem unnecessary, but I just wanted to put this up as it was submitted. I've realized, at times, its necessary to state the obvious. :)

Table tennis is a sport in which 2 or 4 players hit a small light ball across a table, with the help of rackets. Though widely played in schools, colleges and game-rooms of corporate companies, it is perhaps one of the most underrated sports in India. Since it is largely looked upon as a means of passing time, it is rarely thought of as a suitable profession. This article explores the commercial viability of being a professional table tennis player.

If you want to pursue table tennis as a profession, the first thing that you would need to do is sharpen your skills and get your techniques right. Practice with friends who play well, and familiarize yourself with the rulebook. The next step would be to join a training camp. If your school has a TT training centre, enroll yourself for starters, before heading towards a professional TT training camp.

  

To test your caliber, you can participate in district and state level tournaments which are held in every state. Table tennis clubs are still a novelty, but you might find one if you’re staying in a metropolitan city. Once you achieve a good rank at the State Level, the State Government Association can pass on your name to the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) for participation in National Level Tournaments. TTFI was one of the founding members of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) and its most important task is to send players to the ITTF Pro Tour international tournaments to represent India.

The most popular international table tennis competitions are ITTF Pro Tour, World Championships, World Cup (also sanctioned by ITTF) and Olympics.  Continental championships like European Championship, Asian Championships are fiercely competitive. Professional table tennis players also play for clubs, apart from their countries. However, in India, there are very few professional clubs as of now.

While considering table tennis as a profession, do remember that till the national level, you have to largely depend on prize money as a means of income. If you’re good, you might get individual sponsorship from companies, but this will need to be your initiative mainly. Mostly, players at national and international level earn a living through table tennis. If you do not make it to the international level, you can apply for a job in the sports quota in government organizations. Another option is to become a coach at a table tennis training camp. However, to have high credibility and earn well, you should have played well at the national level.

Some of the famous Indian players who have represented India internationally are Kamlesh Mehta, Chetan Baboor and Achanta Sharath Kamal . Lack of professional clubs leaves TT players largely at the mercy of prize money, which may be irregular. However, a few people believe that table tennis is slowly gaining popularity in India and in another 5-10 years, India might start having its own professional clubs. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for that!