The one in which I discover myself

Niketa Mehta - The choice of Women ? Really ?

2008-08-31T18:59:00.000+05:30

Most of us might have been aware of the Niketa Mehta abortion case. For the unknown here is a small snippet, Niketa Mehta and Harshad are a couple from Mumbai, Niketa got pregnant after her marriage and after 4 months discovered that the child in her womb was not in a healthy condition, the doctors had advised her that the child when born could have some disabilities and heart related issues. The couple feared that the child when born would go thru a lot of hardships and when they realized this they thought of aborting the child. But as per Indian Law a medical termination of pregnancy (abortion thru medical means) should be done within 20 weeks of getting pregnant. But Niketa was already the carrying the child for 22 weeks and hence they moved to the Mumbai High Court to get the courts order to allow abortion in their case. The court immediately sought the advice of medical fraternity, though divided in their opinion the medical fraternity believed that there was a high chance for the baby to have disabilities after it is born but never the less, the child might be lucky and may not have such issues as well. Since there was at least a glimmer of hope that the new born could live without any major disability the verdict of the court was that Niketa should not abort her child.

Once the court verdict was out there was a huge debate on this , some of the opinions which were flying across in the media (mostly in the visual media) were

a) Niketa as the mother of the unborn baby and as the carrier of the baby has all the rights to decide whether she can abort the baby or not , no body even her husband nor the government can force her to have or not have this baby.
b) The number of weeks to allow abortion should be raised from 20 weeks to something like 25 weeks, since the rule pertaining to 20 weeks was an old one and because of the advancement in the medical field in the last two decades it is considered that it is safe to carry out abortions even by the 25th week.
c) A silent group mostly of the disabled and the physically challenged people though were of the opinion that the child had the right to leave in this world and therefore Niketa should not be allowed to abort.

Until today I was a strong supporter of (a) above , but only till I read the following article in the Hindu. From now on I support only C .
Here is the link Alive to the joys of life which change me.

Most of us are not disabled at least in the physical sense , but as one writer put it across "you can become a disable any time .. on the road ..in your home .. any where , so If you have the right to live in this world then, then so does Niketa's child" .

PS: Niketa subsequently had a miscarriage.

Olympics - Memories of my Athletic days

2008-08-15T19:43:00.001+05:30

Its been a few days since I wanted to write something on this Olympics, even Abhinav's gold medal could not bring me out of my lazy self to write a blog. So what made me to write this blog was a Boxing match (54Kg category) which was fought btw Akhil Kumar of India and the current world champion Sergey. Now I had already seen Akhil in the previous bout where he humbled Ali of France. Akhil has an unique style, he does not have a protective stance, he always has a open stance i.e. he always exposes his face. On seeing that bout only I realized that Akhil would go places in the Olympics and I kind of believe that we are going to get the second gold medal in this Beijing Olympics courtesy Akhil. But Akhil knows the sport more than me so this is what he says "In Boxing all you need is one good punch and that could end your match". I do hope that this one good punch is always delivered by Akhil and not the other way around.

Olympics, the first olympics I remember watching is the Seoul 1988 Olympics as an 8 year old and some memories of it are still fresh in my mind, thanks to Florence Griffith-Joyner . She was awesome as she won the 100 and 200m. Unfortunately she is no more.

Believe it or not I was an Athlete at School level that translates as a good athlete in my School but not more than that. But that was a good feeling what so ever, I remember the first proper race which I ran was the 200m in my 5th std and I came first courtesy my class mate by name Narayanan who decided to participate in Long Jump rather than 200m. Actually it was me who made a tactical decision requesting him to participate in the Long Jump so that I can participate in the 200m. Wondering what for ?? We both belonged to the same House the "Green House" and a House can be represented by two persons in one event but a Person can participate in only one event. Now everyone knew that the two best runners in the School (5th std) were Narayanan and myself. But he was also good in Long Jump whereas I was good only in running. So we sat together and decided that for the goodness of our house "green house" we would participate in different events the natural choice being that Naryanana would go for Long Jump and me for the more glamorous 200m. We both won our respective events and it helped our House to win the over-all championships that year. FYI mine was only a primary school and so it had only grades till 5th. I think my political brain with a little bit of game theory started evolving from here.

The most cherished memory which I have of my Athletic life was in my X std. I belonged to the Tagore house and I fell in the "Seniors" category. The school divided its Athletes into four categories namely sub-juniors, juniors, seniors and super-seniors (from grade 6 till grade 12).
Now this was my fifth year in that school (I joined their for my 6th grader). I won the 400m , Javelin and came second in the 100 and 200m. I also was also a part of the winning 4x100m relay team in the Senior category. Now actually even though I was a "Senior" category athlete I still ran the 4x100m relay for the "Super-seniors" as well and we won the silver medal in that as well. i.e totally I won 6 medals that year (4 individual and 2 team events). Not surprisingly I won the individual championship in my category (Senior). This created a lot of fame for me in the School. I should not forgot to mention about the most interesting race I ran ever, it was the 100m in which I came second (till this date I believe that I could have easily come first in that race if not for a bad track). Here again just like my 5th std the two fastest runners happen to be in the same house. One was myself and the other was Muthuraman. Now the whole school knew that we two were the fastest runners at school, some even believed that we could have easily won over the super-seniors that year (that's one of the reasons why both of us ran the 4x100m relay for the super-seniors section as well !!). But the million dollar question was among the two of us who was the fastest. We were all set for the final of the 100m, unfortunately I got track # 1 among 8 runners, it was unfortunate bcos there were 8 runners but there was only 6 tracks on the 100m track, so the #1 and the #8 guy would have to run on the outside of the tracks on either side of the main tracks. The race began and I had a good start, till 75 m I was leading though only a little in front of Muthuraman, but suddenly btw 75-90 m, the track condition was totally bad, the soil was so hard that my spikes did not go thru them properly, which created a little bit of imbalance in me which resulted in Muthuraman sneaking the lead from me and winning the race, I was a close second. But what I remember and cherish still in my mind was not that I came second in a race which I should have come first, but something which immediately happened after the race which I guess will remain in my memory for a long time. Immediately after the race myself and Muthuraman congratulated each other and we walked with our arms resting on each others shoulders for the next two minutes or so. The reason we belonged to the same house "Tagore" and we knew that Tagore house till that year had never won the overall Championship Title. And we coming 1st and 2nd in these races would definitely help to change that this year. And what we dreamt happened that year, our House Tagore won the Overall championship that year by garnering 116 points and a whopping 48 points was contributed from the "Seniors" category mainly bcos of myself and Muthuraman. We loved that day. I guess I got the spirit of Team and Team play mainly bcos of this particular year.

By next year I faded away bcos of a back injury, I did not win the 100,200m. I won the javelin and the 400m. The very next year I won only the javelin. And after that I was into College where we did not have a thing called Sports or the Sports day. But I am proud of two facts, (a) I never lost a 400m race which I ran(I guess I won all three times I participated) and (b) I never lost in Javelin (3 consecutive years).

Coming back to the Olympics this year, I am predicting a few things .. a) that Bolt would win the 100m with a new world record (tomorrow this time, it will be known). b) Akhil Kumar would win India one more gold. c) Liu Xiang would come third in the 110 m hurdles .

Kamaraj , the true leader

2008-07-15T22:12:00.000+05:30

Most of the times we talk about the future and sometimes about the present, but there are certain occasions when we think of History and that too of a particular person and also get a feeling that a person had played a decisive role in our lives.

Kamaraj, the leader who represented the Congress Party is one such person. He introduced free education, mid day meals for children from all background way back in the 1950's . This is one of the very strong reasons behind Tamil Nadu being a leading state in the field of education even today. My grand father I believe went only till 5th std or so, but he made sure that all his children went to High school and in some cases (my Dad) to college as well. My father grew up when Kamarajar was the Chief Minister of the state of Tamil Nadu and my grand father was from a humble background, he may not have afforded education for all his kids if it weren't for free education. If it weren't for education,my father might have never reached Chennai and may be I also woundn't be where I am currently.

Kamaraj's greatness is so true that even leaders from Opposition parties celebrate his birth day even today, infact Tamil Nadu's current CM Karunanidhi (who belongs to a non-congress party) makes it a point to bring in a new welfare scheme for the state every year on Kamaraj's birthday, even today on his 106th birthday the CM has announced that Bananas would be provided to those school children who don't take egg during their mid-day meals (Infact I believe Tamil Nadu is the only state in India to provide mid-day meals on all days and 3 eggs per week for School children).

Even my grand-mother who was not political at all always felt proud for one thing which she and the people of her district gave to Kamaraj. Kamaraj lost the election to the State Assembly which happened at the peak of the Anti-Hindi movement in Tamil Nadu during the 60's. Infact he lost in his own Home turf of Virudhnagar, soon after this loss he stood for elections in a by-poll in my parents native district, KanyaKumari district and won the by-poll. Most elderly people of this place are still proud of the fact.

He is the one who brought most of the Industries to the state, but when he died it is said that he had only six rupees. I am sure there is never going to be a leader like him again, I can only wish.

School on Saturdays !!!

2008-07-05T22:04:00.000+05:30

Today I happen to pass thru my old School, Don Bosco, Perambur (where I did my primary) and was shocked to see students at the School ! Shocked because while I used to study there we never had schools on Saturdays . Infact I used to love the fact that I did not have schools on Saturdays when almost all my friends from other Schools had to go to School !

When I changed Schools in my 6th standard to CTTE I had to undergo the pain of going to school on Saturdays , which did not make any sense to me. I never appreciated Schools on a Saturday , bcos they used to have just half a day which essentially meant some 4 periods, which put together would agregate some 3.5 hrs ... but bcos of this 3.5 hours at school, you end up waking up early (never a tough thing for me though !!) travel to your School, come back during the hot afternoon , these things drain your energy and you have little left for anything for the day.

But there were some good things as well , one we got to play cricket matches right after school till the evening (that is If we were lucky enough to get a place in the Ground ) , two some of our friends who had GFs would have had some more time to spend with them (unfortunately I never had any luck on this regard while at School ..... wait a minute .... even at College .. What a pity ? ) and three, some of our friends even dared to go to Movies after the half-a-day school (I have to accept that I never had the courage for that while at School ... infact I wanted to break that so badly, that I went for a movie on the very first Saturday after joining college :) )

But essentially I am against having Schools on a Saturday, bcos I think that children need more free time to be more creative and ofcourse they need the extra time for involving in activities other than studies ... Also I don't know what the School would achieve in that half a day of School when they have five full days with them !!!

And ofcourse one more good thing about having a School on a Saturday was Students were allowed to wear Color Dresses (yeah thats what we used to call any other dress other than the School uniforms !! ) ... But .. But .. But my School did not allow this either !!! so I had to wear black & white dress even on Saturdays !!!

Remembering Kanishka

2008-06-24T15:38:00.000+05:30

Do you know the single most deadliest terrorist attack on a Passenger Airplane, many of us would say its the September 11 attacks, but its not so.
On june 23rd 1985 an Air India flight flying from Canada to India was brought down by terrorist bombing near the shore of Ireland, the terrorists involved were from two Sikh terrorists group. the reason for the attack was supposed to be a retaliation of the attack on the Golden Temple by the Indian government during 1984. (before and aftremath of the assasination of Indira Gandhi)
All 329 on board died. But since this was not a heavy bomb, unlike in normal bomb attacks, none of the people died of burn injuries, whereas it is assumed that all the passengers were thrown into the air after the airplane broke into many peices (after its nose broke), and as people kept falling thru the atmosphere the force of the air hitting them was so much to take their life's off.

After sincere investigations for very many years only one person has been convicted by the Canadian government due to the lack of evidences.

pls refer to the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_India_Flight_182 for more vivid details on this incident.

Global Warming ! Are we done ?

2008-02-16T11:36:00.000+05:30

Global Warming is the name given for the increase in the average temperature on Earth due to Greenhouse gases. But is this a serious issue ? Should we all start worrying about this right now ? We don't see any siginificant weather changes, so is it necessary to actually worry about this now ?

So many questions , but the one answer for all these is that "we are already late" , so lets work harder and cover-up for what we have missed. Yes we have to take Global warming seriously, IF we want to see our future generations to lead a peaceful life on this planet. The Noble Peace prize for this year was awarded to Al Gore and an Organisation called IPCC for their effort towards educating the people and the policy makers of the possible effects of global warming. Spare a thought for the "Peace" Noble prize, its usually given for national leaders who fought to bring peace in a war torn region , some of the distinguished persons who have won this award include Aung San Su Kyi (Burmese pro-democracy leader), Nelson Mandela , Yasar Arafat and likes. These are people who tried to bring peace to their respective countries so that the people could leave peacefully. And when the same Noble Peace Prize is given to Al Gore and IPCC for educating the world about Global Warming, it explicitly tells you that in order to have peace for mankind , we should do something about global warming.

So what we as an individual can do about Global Warming ? What my Country as a nation can do for Global Warming ? No country is safe, neither USA the largest emitter of Green House gases nor a Country in Africa, because all countries share a common atmosphere, so every one is going to get affected in one way or the other.

Certain facts of global warming , Do you know that
1) USA has worlds 40% of vehicles.
2) more interestingly USA produces 45% of the green houses caused by Vehicles
3) Ice caps in the polar region are melting faster
4) Glaciers in the Antartica and Himalayas are melting faster
5) US the largest emitter of Green house gases is not a signatory of the Kyoto Protocol, which sets standards and limits for emission.
6) China is al set to take over the mantle of the "Producer of the largest green house" gases.
7) If global warming proceeds in the current phase , then the Map of the World would change, most part of Bangladesh would be submerged, Chennai, Cochin, and many other Cities near the Oceans would vanish from the map by the end of this century.
8) Sea levels would increase bcos of the glacier meltdown and ofcourse I dont have to tell what would happen If the Sea level would increase.

So what are the countries of the world trying to do on this ? Are they doing something to find a solution for this ? Luckily they are but unfortunately not every country is participating in the initiative . The Kyoto Protocol is a set of guidelines stating the limit of the green gas emission by various countries ? It basically quantifies the amount of green house gases which can be emitted by a country. This protocol divides the countries into two categories , Developed and Developing countries. While the Developed countries who are a signatory of this protocol has to bring down thier green gas house gas emission to a specified level by 2016 or so, the developing countries don't have that obligation. The developing countries have to just report the amount of green house gases emitted by them. The rationale behind this logic is that countries like India and China who are developing countries missed out on the Industrial revolution (which is considered as one of the major reasons for green house gases) and therefore no restriction should be placed on them now or atleast for a certain longer period of time, since it would affect thier economic progress. But European countries which are already developed bcos of the Industrial Revolution have to press the button now to reduce the emissions because they have long been causing emissions.
Though the rationale is debatable, I am afraid we don't have any other feasible solution for the time being. But unfortuantely Uncle Sam (also popularly known as USA) is not a signatory of this Kyoto protocol. only very recently has US President George Bush has admitted that Global warming is a serious issue and its time the USA got its act together on this. I believe this is good signal from the US. ofcourse the US has its own reasons for not signing this protocol, they demand that resonable emission restrictions be placed on developing countries like India and China since they also contribute a lot towards green house gases emission. India and China are clever , they want restrictions to be placed based on the population of a country. ie a country with X population can produce 100X emissions for each person. So naturally since China and India are the leading manufactures of HomoSapiens, they would get to produce more green house gases.
In my opinion the permissible level of green house emission should be based on the population and the geographical area of the country.

So finally what could we do to do something on this ?
a) We can use more atmosphere friendly energies (Wind energy, Tidal Energy)
b) Make less use of our Cars
c) plant more trees
d) burn less things
e) eat only once in a day (I am kidding )

or I have a alternative idea
a) If you are living in a coastal area , pack your bags and move to the mountains, so that the sea water level increase won't bother you.
b) get into a secret agreement with NASA and get yourself transported to some other Planet. (But beware you may be dropped in Nevada desert )

Before closing this article, I want to tell about an interesting problem.
Ocean waters are responsible for absorbing 30-35% of the CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere. Warm waters have more CO2 absobing capacity than cold water. Usually water on the surface of the ocean is much warmer than the water beneath the ocean surface. But due to global warming winds across the Oceans are blowing much faster (Air moves from High pressure to low Pressure regions and hence Waves are created on the Water surface) due to a higher difference in presssure between land and water. Fatsre winds create larger tides and larger tides mix more water.This leads to mixing of waters from the deep ocean with the waters on the surface of the Ocean and thereby decreasing the temperature of the surface water. Since the temperature of the surface water is reduced, it also reduces their capability to absorb CO2.

So a solution is affected by the same problem ,which it is trying to solve !!! What a pity !

Immigration and migration ... History continues

2008-01-19T12:18:00.000+05:30

I am sitting at the Las Vegas Airport waiting for my connecting flight to New York. An Airport is a unique place where you get to see people from different backgrounds. I happen to see a few Mexicans who are also are waiting for the same flight .. but there is a difference between them and me, I am going to New York to see the place and visit one of my best friend Sachin Bakshi, whereas I am forced to believe that these Mexicans are going to search for or join a petty job which would earn them some 300 or 400 $ per week if they are lucky, as recently as yesterday I read in The Hindu that there are some concerns over the spread of illegal Mexican immigrants from the South of the country to all the other parts of the country. So who would fear these people who can do only low skilled work for a meagre salary, apparently those would be doing this already and getting displaced by these people would be worried and those people are mostly Black Americans .. which proves that in all spectrum of jobs there exists a competitive environment which creates a feeling of anxiety and in-security.

Why do people migrate ? Why has US grown to such a huge economically powerful country even though it's a very young nation when compared to India or China whose respective Histories date long back ? Who are the people who migrate ? Do all the people who migrate have any common underlying charateristics, meaning is there a single reason for migration or there are varied number of reasons ? Are these reasons though varied , but common across people from simialr economic background.

Low skilled People from Mexico, Kerala, Phillipines, Bangladesh migrate to their nearest migrtable destinations where they can make some amount of money which they can use for leading a decent life, for this section of the people its more often the case that these people migrate mainly to support thier families rather thanselves, I say this because though these people earn more than what they used to in their Home Country, they mostly lead a life style which is either in-par or below what they had experienced in their own homes back. They live in Tents, Empty Ship containers. But most skilled labourers who migrate lead a standard of living which is better than what they would experience in thier Home Country. This is a pity since people who are suffering are suffering more for supporting thier families back in their Home country.

But I am not against in-equality in the world, I believe that in-equalities should persist so that they will always challenge a human being and test the true human spirit of endurance and fighting against the odd skills.

Where did the countries of Africa, Asia and South America fail? They were never a part of the Industrial Revolution and therefore missed a good chance to develop. And now the IT revolution , though has caught the attention of a few Asian nations, the continent of Africa is mostly unaffected by this. Will they ever catch-up ? Are there any specific industries/services that these African countries can build and offer. At present Human resource is not a success factor for these countries in Africa. Countries like Nigeria are making some good progress by using their natural resources. Infact China has got into agreements with many of African countries for their natural resources, since China is sure to run out of its natural resources in a short time because of the rapid exploitiation of their own resources.

Until the time where opportunities would be available in all places, people would migrate looking for them ... Hail the migrants !!

what we do ?

2007-10-11T14:00:00.000+05:30

This has been striking me for some time now , do we really know what we want of all the activities which we do ?

Are we really in the job which we want to ?
Are we really having relationships which we want to ?
Do we act/behave always in the way which we want to ?
No body can lead an ideal life, but how far are we from each of our ideal lives ?
Why do we do what we do ?

I think atleast I can't arrive at any answers for these questions so the only thing I can do till I find that is to keep on doing "what we do" !!

When every thing is for one last time

2007-06-28T19:08:00.000+05:30

So probably are another 8 more days before I leave Singapore and when I realize that I have mixed feelings.
And suddenly every activity I do becomes one for the list of nostalgia feelings. I shop in the nearby Super Market and realize that this might be the last time I come here in this life time, I will not be able to see the courteous and well mannered three Chinese ladies in the counter of this Super Market. I may not be standing in a Queue where one could be Chinese, one could be a Malay, one could be a Indonesian, one could be our very own Indian, one could be a Caucasian, one could be from Africa, one could be from Australia... Singapore is truly a cosmopolitan city.
When I realize that this could be the last time I am picking tomatoes, Bananas, Coconut, Grapes, Juices and my favourite "Shop and Save" bread it is really an amazing feeling, where you feel sad and happy. Sad because that these scenes may never come again in this life time and happy because I was given this opportunity to relish such experiences for a short time.
The times I felt bad after pressing the Walk Lights for the Zebra crossing on the road, but not waiting for it to turn Green but cross the road since there were no vehicles around and once I cross the road , I find the green light for Zebra comes up and therefore all the Vehicles stop , but there are none to cross the road, yet no Driver of the stopped Vehicles jumps the Signal. Its so lovely so see such disciplined people.
Coming back to the "..one last time" .. How do you feel when you know that a thing which your are doing/performing/conducting or any other "..ing" is for the one last time, the situation the environment and the ambiance may never again come in your life, its like a Scene in a Movie which never comes back and you can see it only for the one last time, after that you can only imagine about it and relish under the imagination.
So some of the things which I may doing for the one last time ...
1. Walking to my Tennis court in my condo for the one last time...
2. walking to the pungool park for the one last time ...
3. jogging on the pungool park for the one last time ...
4. walking around my condo for the one last time ....
5. travelling in the MRT for one last time ....
6. seeing a mixture of people an MRT for one last time ...
7. running down the escalator to catch the standing MRT Train for one last time ...
8. seeing my reflection on the Glass walls of the MRT ....
9. walking back from the MRT to home ....
10. Walking into the House where you are staying for the one last time ..
11. Walking into your very own room for the one last time ... ooh I cant see it barren, it will be while I leave ....
12. Watching the two High Definition Channels in my Sony LCD TV for one last time (at least till such a thing comes to India) ....

but the hardest of all is the one which is yet to be mentioned ....
its the changi airport ..whenever I am there I don't feel like I am in an Airport ...its almost like a second Home ... I can sleep , run , eat and do whatever I want there ... but I hope I miss this Airport for only a very short time ..

But once you feel that you are doing a thing for the one last time , the whole experience of doing that thing changes , you feel interested in each and every moment of that action , even moving a finger !!

Where the second serve is faster than the first !!

2007-04-22T19:34:00.000+05:30

In Tennis, the usual behaviour of a Player w.r.t to his/her serve is simple ; The first serve is always faster than the second serve; Why is this so ? you take the risk in your first serve and if it fails then you have a second serve and 99 out of 110 times (yes its 110, why to use always 100?, Why is 100 so significant, because its just easy for statistical purposes) you serve it slower than the first serve ! Why so , a slower serve is assumed to be more accurate than the faster one ... But in my case the theory is turned on its head .. My second serve is often as fast as the second one and in some cases even faster than my first serve; Now there are questions which arises

a) Is it really helping my game ?
b) How much has this to do with a persons character, in this case me ?
c) How often do I second serve ? ie like How successful is my first serve and thereby the need for a second serve ?

And many more, but lets restrict to three questions only ....
a) Its helping me at a personal level, but with the Game , I am still losing because of this . So does this mean that I am not worried about losing, but want perfection and substance in whatever I do, which for me would be not to put a slow second serve.. People who would have played this game would understand this more clearly, I have come across so many amateur players(both young and old) having a very slow second serve when compared to their first. The one word answer for this Question is "no" in the short term, but I would like this to be "yes" in the near future onwards.

b) I really don't know, my line of thinking is that when you put your second serve just after the second serve your arm and body is more flexible and knows what to do to better your first serve? But the general thinking is the first time your serve failed, lets make sure that the second serve goes in ; I believe that this general thinking is more of the mind and my thinking is more of the physical aspect of the whole thing...

c) almost all my first serves are on the net ..

The first one and therefore not the best one

2007-04-22T15:51:00.000+05:30

This is more of an introduction or getting to learn blogging. I know what a Blog is for quite sometime now, but never had I got the motivation to start one for me. Never knew what it could help me to achieve, yep in most cases I see the objective before starting with it, not sure whether this approach on the whole is a good idea, but actually either I dont have time to think over that or just like most Human beings probably I dont want to. But now I have started a Blog , it doesn't necessarily mean that I knew what this could help me to, so I guess its a good change in pattern for my mind behaviour now !! starting something without knowing its objective .... Will this act as an outlet for me !! or will help me to see myself more clearer on the mirror of life ! Anyway now since I have committed to start one, I will make sure it will be oiled and run properly ..
Lets get started ..........................