Sugar isn’t sweet these days…

The busy day at office makes me little lazy at home, but a cup of tea balances it. Today evening when I was making tea, realized my sugar pot was empty and my room mates did not make any efforts to refill it. The evening tea addiction made me walk down in same formals to nearby grosser guy. And the moment was killing…I paid 36 bucks for 1 Kg sugar…I remember getting it for my Mom in college days for 12 bucks…somewhere in 2003…with average inflation of 5% this was an increase of 200%...that to in a commodity of daily use and for all sections of society.

This makes me feel that most of us will have to act like diabetic patients if this trend continues. And irony is people are making good money on sugar stocks….honestly, even I made few bucks…but now my conscience does not allow me to trade in them. Who’s to blame the poor government planning, lack of foresight, or corruption? I guess all of them…

By the time the government pressed the panic button last week, situation had spiraled out of control: India’s sugar output is expected to drop by more than 40 percent to around 15 million tonnes in the crop year that ends September 2009. This can be translated into a shortfall of about 5 million tonnes. Our consumption is growing at 2.2%, creating huge demand supply gap…and by the way India is biggest consumer of sugar in world…..”Mind it.” The festival seasons of Navratri and Diwali are around the corner. Sweets are supposed to be most inclusive part of these festivals for a farmer, for a school teacher, for a banker, for a businessman, for an actor and for politician as well. So it’s “Full Tensiondaaa” this season. Such a irony, man earns to celebrate these festivals with great joy and mostly circumstances make him realize that he need to be little passive on joy as future is uncertain…and cycle goes on with same arguments all his life.

That’s why I thought Sugar isn’t sweet these days…..it just can’t take out bitterness out of common man. He is helpless and succumbs to this corrupt system that even can’t allow him to enjoy his festivals well.

Education Reforms…..imperative to capitalize on Demographic dividend…

Kapil Sibble must be challenged enough with media bothering him with clarity on education reform roadmap. Certainly they are important, for capitalizing on upcoming demographic dividend but I am scared of politics and unhealthy debates which may kill future of million children who gonna be important part of this dividend. The reforms should be looked at for whole gamut of Primary, secondary and higher education but here I will focus on only Primary Education and my thoughts on it.

With Primary education first thing that comes to mind is Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan. According to Government of India statistics, 192 million children of 6-14 age group comes under this umbrella. As per my understanding India is gonna see demographic dividend starting from 2020 till 2050, these 30 years will take country to 3 rd position in world or may be 2nd we never know…Experiencing this demographic dividend means becoming a Young Country in Ageing World. To capitalize on this Dividend the ultimately objective of India is to make these 19 crore children important part of working age population in 2020.

The 30 years of demographic dividend will help India to become important manufacturing hub and more prudent financial market where SENSEX and NIFTY will not be only depended variables in multi-market correlation equation but will be used as Independent variables by then emerging markets.

I am confused about the whole definition of Emerging Markets after these crises, and believe USA is an Emerging Market now…simply as its trying to emerge :) jokes apart…what I am trying to say is to give these 19 crore children purchasing power and skill set to manage massive investment that India is going to see, in both FDI and FII.

19 crore children will need at least 9.5 Lakhs teachers assuming 20:1 ratio. And these 9.5 lakh will have to be equipped enough with global dynamics to prepare majority of them for rising India. Currently there is already scarcity of primary teachers across nations and looking at incentive system imbalance between Industry and Education I believe it will continue. Success of Teach India and Teach for India will be crucial here.

More so in 2020, looking at current growth of India, and availability of other alternative opportunities / careers, the teaching as profession will be last option for most professionals.

Now its time for government to stop sympathizing with poverty and start emphasizing, think practically and make teaching not only highly respectable but also a very well paid job. People do want to teach, people will teach, just give them respect and money that other jobs give. Reduce your subsidies and pay a teacher, that’s something what government should do. This will solve fundamental problem of education. I had chance to look at current Planning Commission research document which says every 1 rupee that goes to BPL (Below Poverty Line) requires Rs 3.35 as logistics expenses. And out of that only 15-25 paisa reaches all BPL’s. So, a loss of Rupees 4 for every rupee. Isn’t this mockery of system where people sit after passing one of the toughest examination in world – UPSC
The public education should be given industry status and at least treated at par with all PSU’s, assuming all teachers as employees and giving them equivalent emoluments. Government should not expect feelings of sympathy from every individual on planet. And start fulfilling there basic dreams, they can’t discount their dreams of house, car and shopping on weekends.

The issue is public schools, they take care of huge chunk of underprivileged children and facilities and teachers available there are not enough to prepare children for globalised and flat world. These schools are basically trusts and they don’t generate enough cash flow to pay teachers good sum which ultimately affects their performance. The possible solution I see is to back up group of schools with a holding company which will take care of education infrastructure, school supplies and will attract investment to develop schools. The school trust will only be responsible for school operations. The holding company will use debt market to pay back investors. This means issuing long term bonds, which will be tradable in market. This is little complex but some brain storming can help to materialize it.

I would like readers to comment on possible solutions that come to their mind. I will keep updating this blog as n when I get more clarity and idea for future of primary education.

The unusual DREAM I had

To be honest I dream a lot, may be each one of us do, and fortunately I remember my dreams. Yesterday, morning was an unusual dream; I was sitting with RAM, yes GOD RAM. It was nice conversation he even gave me some fruits to eat and some thoughts to ponder on. Trust me I have not gone mad, but may be I watched too many debates on television and RAM being an important issue, it just came in my dream that I was with GOD RAM. I am more honest than our politician, at least I agree that I spoke to him in my dream. He was gentle, modest and very assertive. Here is glimpse of conversation I could remember after my Kacchi morning sleep.

I: GOD u r rocking on earth,

HE: Oh really…what happened…

I: You are more than GOD now, ur an important issue :)

People are so attached to you that your concept of detachment has gone for toss. They are fighting over bridge you made long back to reach your beloved wife.

HE: Oh…that was long long back. Is it still there? And even if it is…why you guys are attached to it, use it if it’s usable, else forget it.

I: Different people make different stories, linking it to science, and introducing new term called Religious Sentiment.

HE: What is that?

I: Its nothing but attachment to once Religious Infrastructure and getting hurt if somebody even thinks of amending or destroying it. I read some of religious books and understood that Religious person cannot be sentimental he can be sensitive to others sorrows but surely can’t be sentimental. Am I right GOD?

HE: Absolutely, when I was on Earth, I was somebody like you only. But I discovered my hidden potentials through lot of hard work and strong value system. There were not many temples or mosques during my era still I could enhance myself spiritually, because I looked inside and not outside.

I: But these days not many people know actually who you were, they have there own stories. For your temple they killed so many people all across India. Do you influence them being GOD???

HE: What you saying son, I wandered in jungle for 14 years, just to keep up my mothers word, how can I influence people to kill each other?

I: Than what you actually want people, at least in India to ponder upon, they are really nervous, specially my generation. We don’t have concrete things to tell our children about what’s right and wrong. What was there and what was not? Please guide us.

HE: Son, you don’t have to worry about what was there and what was not. Even whether I was there or not should not matter after all it was past. Aim of you guys should be to enhance your intellect to know your SELF. Because when each of you will look inside and do this you guys will not have even a second to ponder on outside matters. The world inside is so big and beautiful that you would want to go more and more deep. Keep Religion the most personal matter in your life. Preach your religion but without influencing, preach your religion but without hurting others. Practice your rituals but remember it should not hurt others physically and mentally. Best way to do this is, think of Religion only when you are in Solitude.

After all if you have to use me to market your political party and campaigns, I have no issues. After all what can I do, I am not on earth na…But my suggestion is…. Don’t make RAM a Hindu God,

“A good SON. A good BROTHER, A good HUSBAND, A good GURU, A good LEADER” would be better marketing punch lines.

Son, I and other people who have worked hard in knowing our self have realized that Religion and Spirituality is not for empty stomachs. First tell your government to give purchasing power to public. Religion and Spirituality will take care of themselves.

And after this my useless Mobile alarm started to wake me up…I hope I will meet him again sometime and will get answers to more questions. May be this way I can guide my next generation better. See even if you can find him in your dreams…and if you can’t Please let me know your questions I will ask him..PAKKA :)

Gunj rahi hai kitnee cheekhe pyaar ki baatain kaun sune?

At least for this post you can’t relate to the title of blog with the given early description and statements. Going through news papers and news channels, everyday I am piling up head with bad news only; either it’s related to Terror attacks, or Dirty Politics or Global Economic Crises. The volume and quality of bad news is so fantastic that it will not take much time for things to get worse and worse and worse on almost every front. After all…. Evil attracts Evil.

So thanks to the Evils, The issues we will confront as global citizens in coming months will be mainly....

1.Getting economy back on track and stand upright in part of crises which are yet to be materialized

2.Elections, which is certainly a massive event in our country

3.Terrorism - Something we can't stop but can just fight harder and harder

These are the issues that media will concentrate on most for next few months. But my concern is there will be lot many important issues apart from above 4, which needs my help as global citizen. These are the issues which should have been taken care of immediately after independence. These are the issues which have affected us from roots and which will affect massively if not taken care of right now. These are the issues of High drop out in schools, illiterate women and children, literate but uneducated youth, educated but confused and wandering youth, child labor and everything that's related to coming generation….after all its goona save WORLD from Wars, from global warming, from greed and from being THE worst place to stay at.

I sometime think that if world would have been rightly educated more than what it is, it would have been beautiful than what it is. The above major three issues are not outcome of lack of education, because they are certainly ignited by people who are intelligent and smart but may be not educated with attitude of creation. They are surely not embedded with fundamentals of cycle of life and death. May be people of each civilization and community have taken for granted that they are going to live forever.

There is a beautiful Hindi song, saying... (Click on Lyrics to listen)

Ishwar allha tere jaha main nafrat q hai jang hai Q,

Tera dil tho itna bada hai..insa ka dil tang hai q,

kadam kadam pe sarhad q hai, sari jami jo teri hai,

suraj ke fere kartee hai, fir bhi kitnee andheri hai,

I think the only answer to this that God would have given is man's ignorance of self. Man is gifted with capacity to think and create; hence there is a creator inside each one of us. But may be to balance the act there is a destroyer also. We are supposed to create things which will help us prosper towards happiness and destroy those which will not. I believe we have used this tool of thinking in reverse manner. Lee Tolstoy once said "The Kingdom of god is within you", my interpretation of this is "I am the Creator" of things which will help me to come out of despair and will be instrumental for those coming after me in this world and the chain will keep extending.

The holy book of Hindus "Bhagwat Geeta" is outcome of a war, claimed to be biggest in mythology. According to Geeta, Arjun must do war because it’s his Karma, he cannot back out from it. The war was there so that good can win over bad which will be beneficial for whole society, it was not to win a piece of land, sky or water, it was there to destroy evil. It was war to defend oneself against untruth and betrayal by Kauravas. To understand this lets have the Mahabharat Story in very brief...

There are two personalities of utmost importance here representing good and evil, Dharamraja (Yudishtir) the one of Pandavas and Durodhana the one of Kauravas. Dharamraja is known for his softness, honesty, integrity and fair play while Dhuryodhana for his physical power, pride, arrogance, envy, greed and lust for power. In fight to become leader of Kuru dynasty the Duryodhana represents qualities of Yudishteer as his weaknesses and challenges him to win a game of intelligence and luck which was infact gambling. Amongst many things here, Durodhana snatches from Pandawas, their Kingdom. But the period for which it was snatched was 12 years. When Pandavas returned after these 12 years, Duryodhana refused to give back their kingdom. Pertaining to soft nature and after consultation from Krishna, Dharamraj asked Duryodhana for just 5 villages. On this, the power drunken Duryodhana said, I won't even give a piece of land where you can pin even a needle. The decision of war was taken after this response because it was inevitable, it was not only for survival of Pandavas, it was for survival of Dharma. Here almost everything was at stake, our religion, tradition, family values and the very future of the land of the Bharata.

This situation is well described by Poem in recent movie Gulaal:

Do nyay agar to adha do (If not full give us Half)
par isme bhi yadi badha ho (If you can’t)
to dedo kewal paach gram (Give us atlest 5 villages)
rakho apni dharti tamam (Keep rest of land with you)
Hum vahi khushi se khayenge (We will eat n live peacefully there)
parijan pe asi na uthayenge (But we will not raise weapons on friends n family (asi = hathiyaar))

This poem is based on a situation where Lord Krishna goes to kauravas as a peace messenger from pandavas. So crux of this whole gyan is war / violence should be nothing but last alternative and I am sure people will fight over definition of LAST…can’t help.

The countries currently fighting for XYZ piece of land or for their philosophy sometimes use this argument to justify the violence but one can understand the difference. The WAR for POWER and PRIDE is different than WAR for DEFENDING ONESELF.

The wars that Alexander (although he was a great Leader) fought were to win pieces of land, sky or water, all of which stayed here only after Alexander died. But Bhagwat Geeta, remained here and will remain till there is life in universe because it teaches to Defend against untruth.

My writing of this blog, or lyrics of this song, or world economic forum or demonstration with candles on Gateway of India after every terror strike is not goona make this world peaceful. Neither its goona give answers that the Ishwar Allha song raises. But still, I will finish with one logic..."Life is a quantity which has no weights no measure, and which cannot be equalized to any other, and so the destruction of one life for other can have no meaning."

NANO: Showing India of Possibilities

Yesterday was another day for Manoramam Year Book 2009 to record. It was launch of NANO – the dream of Ratan Tata in Mumbai. I really appreciate personalities like him who make possible the most impossible things, the most unheard and unthought-of things. When 6 years back Mr Ratan Tata, kept his dream of a Lakh rupee car on table for ACMA (Auto Components Manufacturing Association) to believe in, hardly anybody except Brij Mohanlal Mujal of Hero Honda supported him. But yesterday he came up with most basic model at price he decided 6 years back. This all is despite of so many obstacles and difficulties surrounding him in last one year. He is surely worried about Corus output and cash flows which are suffering due to global crises. JLR deal was done at the time, surely very much wrong. Terrorists also attacked his heritage. And who can forget the whole singur fiasco. If we think practically he would have convinced customers that now its not possible to conceive this car at price fixed 6 years back and the situations around have just made it worse. But beauty is his commitment to customers. There is lot for India to learn from people like him. Specially all the flyover contractors they just keep extending time period and keep revising quotes. Though the NANO prices currently announced are fixed for first one lakh customers, still the job is commendable.

Along with commitment he also showed world that India is not only destination for outsourcing but can be a bigger and better manufacturing hub for rest of the world. I believe 23rd March 2009 was an important day for India of Possibilities.

There will be lot of sound and noise (most of which I also believe in) on the infrastructure issue due to these one lakh cars rolling on roads of Tier II and III cities. I don’t expect people to buy them heavily in cities like Mumbai and Banglore. But in such cities I see a possibility of phasing out Ricks slowly and graduation to NANO to become a form of private transport. In my view even government can venture into this territory wherein NANO will be just like Ricks but run by government, if it can manage buses why not it can manage cars also. Just like ST stand there will be NANO stand for people to commute. Government can surely do this experiment in small cities before implementing it in Metros.

Atleast now government should think in manner that, given all the facts and figures Middle Class is increasing and will increase in coming years, Car is one of there dreams and they will materialize it with help of people like Ratan Tata. The argument of more Public Transport is acceptable but government can't discount the dreams of middle class. Very few are goona bother about the fact that there will be more traffic on roads due to my car and hence I should not buy it. Only answer here is development of infrastructure to accommodate them, without questioning the growth of this country of possibilities.

Book Review: Imagining India

Imagining India talks beautifully about enterprising India. The county which we goona see by 2030. He explains in bit the journey of India after freedom through dark tunnel of protectionism and its economic freedom in 1991. This is something that we have read in almost every economics book focused on India and more profoundly in India Unbound by Gurucharan Das.

But that's just beginning of book, its just marvelous when book takes us through changes and changing definitions on six fronts of; Population, Entrepreneurship, Democracy, English then and now, Technology and finally India adopting progressive view of globalization after decade of debate between capitalistic and socialistic thought channels.

Best thing that I liked in book is the way author has explained concept of Demographic Dividend. Something that India is going to experience in around 2030. We will be young country in aging world. This is a lifetime chance in a century or two for any given country. Every country which has done homework and prepared itself to make best use of this time has prospered beyond expectations. China (from 1975-1991) and whole southeast Asia being best examples to quote. Demographic dividend is the time wherein country has maximum working age population and minimum depended. This happens when birth rates start falling and if somebody do proper research the result will be birth rates have already started to fall.

In my knowledge there is a theory in economics called Neo Classical growth theory (hope I m quoting right name of theory) which says when opportunity cost of staying at home and raising children increases, more and more women become part of working age population in there youth and thus birth rates decline. This is the time where country simply doubles its working age population.

Apart from this author has given emphasis on Education which is prime mover of economic growth but underestimated to heights in our country. he takes us through classrooms to explain the mistakes our teachers, parents and whole system has done with list of good suggestions with good global examples to transform this system for good. Though Obama and Thomas Friedman are saying that students in USA should study and work hard because there is going to be huge competition from China and India, I feel there is huge gap in this as far as India is concerned. whatever good that India has done in education is f0r 30% of population which is beneficiary of globalization rest 70% suffers same way it was may be decade back.

Author also takes us through journey of India's Environmental Challenges and her search for alternative sources of energy which will be again not only our need but pre-condition to our growth going forward.

Sameer Singhvi or Sameer Khan

I am writing this before going in for Firraq, heard it’s a movie on Godhra violence in 2002. You can read lot on this topic to believe that it was a horror.

Last few years of life wherein I have been waking up to understand this world and myself, trust me every morning is challenging. It scares me with dangers in world, like community violence, bomb blasts, and terror attacks, war on border, and than gives me strength in packets of various identities so that I am not alone and I can fight all dangers with my country, state and community.

By the way, if you did not notice, my name is Sameer, a name which can be Hindu as Sameer Singhvi or Muslim as Sameer Khan. In Hindus it means Breez and in Muslims it means "entertaining companion", or even "loyal companion", and was traditionally given to Arab males of both Christian and Muslim families.
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samir_(name))

I am born in so called “Hindu Country”, in Maharashta State in a Jain family. So I have multiple identities which I use to save myself and almost everybody is doing that. Don’t we as Sameer Singhvi feel safe in Pandurangwadi and as Sameer Khan in Mohammad Wadi….we do…But why?

Whether, I am living on this earth as an Individual or as a Man, Asian, Straight, Hindu but non bramhin, a Maharashtrian from vidharbha, Jain, and that too Shewtamber, I don’t know if there are identities below this too. I will have to ask my parents.

Bottom-line is, I am confused; if I give any one specific answer I will be deceitful. When I think of myself I am an Individual and when I go to temple I am a Hindu. But why am I going to temple, because I am Hindu or I like going to temple? I think here I have answer, I go because I like. Why I like? Because my mom has taken me there from Childhood and I enjoyed it. And she was taken there since her childhood as well. So, all these identities are given to me, I never wanted or asked for anyone specific Identity. I just wanted to be myself. But it’s said that when you are in flow you can’t go back….and to high extent it’s true. When most, in society around me are proud as Hindus or Muslims and not as themselves I somewhere will have to flow with them, otherwise they won’t help me in times of my need. And somewhere we need people to help us. If violence breaks up again in Mumbai I will have to find place in Hindu Majority area otherwise I will get killed. Who made up all this religious nonsense? I feel this question is being asked by many and I just repeated. Instead of going into who made up all this nonsense I think now its time to shift more towards Individual as an Identity and not religion as one. Respect every religion is true till the time Sameer Singhvi is not attacked by Sameer Khan, the day two fight for any silly reason the respect for religion will go away once again.

I believe religion should be the most personal matter, just the way we become one with our partner in closed bedroom, we should be one with ourselves only in solitude (yes it should be that personal) and may be that’s our true DHARMA. I am here to prosper materially and spiritually, it should not matter where in world I am born to parents of which sect. My faith is just my faith and it should be something that will not cause harm, physically or mentally to other in society.

I remember my school days where whole class was given roll number in certain order; this was because students can be managed in a better way. Generally if you observe things can be managed well if they are labeled. Just like we give names to folders in our hard disk drives. Reducing people to identities is in the interests of our politicians. If people are seen only as Muslims, "community leaders" can get power and influence by claiming to speak for the "community," in a way they could not if being Muslim was seen as only one part of people's identity. And politicians go along with this, because it's easier to manage people if they are boxed and labeled.
In his book “Identity and Violence”, Amertya Sen says that “just as we have multiple identities as far as race, culture, background etc go; we also have multiple class identities. We do not therefore identify with any one specific class as at different times and in different situations, we occupy many different ones.

It’s just that it’s easy to get people to identify with religion than with themselves. So all those who succeeded to a high level in identifying religion are our “community leaders” who built temples and break mosques because they know god more than themselves. Quite funny but yeah, its horror truth.

When I go and tell this to people, they say sab aisa nahin sochte baba, but why? Its simple mathematics, if we think like this we will have atleast less internal violence and less violence means more happiness which ultimately every one of us is seeking. It has taken 62 years of independence to clear scars of partition; I don’t know how much time it will take to clear the scars of religion. If beautiful world like Religion can’t give me peace its better not to use it.