This should have been posted long ago, it has been lying around in my writings folder for over two weeks now....
The World Economic Forum’s India Economic Summit had some
intriguing topics and good discussions. Though the event was streamed live on
the web, I got to follow it only on the last day. I am excited about some of
the topics on the previous days and looking forward to listening to the
recordings soon.
The discussion I tuned into was “What kind of super power
will India be?” It is a very interesting topic for many reasons. With a panel
consisting of members from the media, NGOs, industry and the Planning Commission,
it was a balanced and well-informed discussion. With India’s growing economic
clout since the recession, India Inc’s confident ventures from Africa to the US
and great strides in various fields, the once unheard-of usage of “India” and
“super power” in the same sentence, is commonplace now. With the UNSC seat
debates, G20 meet, RIC trilaterals, recently concluded CWG and Obama’s visit
and his “emerged India” comments along with the newly assertive Indian PM’s
comments, “super power” is indeed the new fab word.
A discussion on a similar topic a couple of years ago would
have been titled “Will India emerge a super power?” So, the very title of the
discussion says a lot about the lines of thought of Indians as well as the
light in which the rest of the world looks at India.
Yet, the topic is slightly hazy. One of my first thoughts on
coming across the topic was “What is a super power?” And the question was
reflected in the discussion quite a lot.
What indeed makes a super power? Is it economic clout?
Military might? Political or geographical reasons? Nik from BBC made a
fantastic point when he noted Soviet Union was a military giant, but its
finances were in a mess. Indeed, it was its financial position that pulled down
the Soviet Union from its super power status, but it did manage to be a super
power long enough without corresponding finances. And the world not being what
it was, say, 50 years earlier, it is hard to define what makes up a super
power. Today’s world is multi-polar as opposed to the bi-polar or uni-polar
world earlier. Almost every country has leverage in one way or another. And one
single country is no longer able to dictate terms to any other country as a
super-power in a traditional sense should be able to. There is of course, the USA
trying to having a finger in every pie, but it is proving increasing difficult,
and not just with China.
And many answers came up, a prosperous nation, one that can
defend itself against external aggression, one that clubs both the
above-mentioned, etc.
Talking about defending oneself, in today’s world aggression
doesn’t mean just territorial aggression – pressures on the trade front,
external political pressures, disarmament treaties, all of these can amount to
aggression. So having said that, now the task of defining a super-power becomes
a little easier. A super-power, I would say, is a country that can hold its own
in matters it considers important to her own welfare.
Sudha Pillai, Member, Planning Commission, said in her
quiet, dignified tone that India will be a “soft” super-power. One may not at
first instance like the idea of “soft”, it need not be taken to mean that India
will not be assertive. It means India will indeed be assertive, without being
aggressive. In fact, that is what India actions embody even now from the
climate summit to the NPT. What Sudha Pillai meant to say was that India would
be assertive of her rights, but not force any other country unduly.
If we were to take my explanation of super-power, then India
has always been a super-power – able to hold its own in the international
arena. But then consensus doesn’t prevail that we ARE a super power. Where to
we lag? We are yet to meet some of our needs satisfactorily. And we have been
forced to appease and flatter some countries time and again.
If we were to take the explanation in a narrow sense, every
country that doesn’t let anyone else dictate terms will be a super power, and
that will include rogue nations. So, a super power should be one that will be
able to influence other nations substantially in matters of international
interest.
This ability to influence is dwindling down slowly for the
powerful nations of the day. Being a one-way process, “influence” is not much
desired today. Also, the line between “influence” and “aggression” is very
thin. So what would be desirable for a super power is ability to bring about
cohesion – a much-needed attribute in today’s world, which is ridden with trade
imbalances and where protectionism seems a tempting option. So, the dynamics of
world affairs today is such that a super power would be one that can bring
about cohesion in international affairs.
This is closest to a comprehensive, defining definition of
“super power” I am able to come up with – A nation that can hold its own in the
international arena and one that can bring about cohesion in international
affairs will be the super power of tomorrow. India is inching closer to this
definition, from the Climate summits to G20s, India is emerging a driving force
rather than a participatory one. That said, it would suffice to say India would
be a next-gen super power, “soft” or otherwise is quite irrelevant.
The question of whether the world has space for just one or
more than one super power is another one :)
The morning of 24th
Oct dawned bright and clear.. probably.. well, it was a bright and sunny day
and we will assume it did dawn so, I wouldn’t know for I was deep asleep then
;) Maami was the poruppana ponnu, she woke up at about 6.00 AM
and took her bath before myself and Nithi deigned to wake. Even 6.00 AM was a
late hour to wake up when you have to attend a South-Indian Muhurtham,
but thankfully for us, the auspicious hour was 9.00 –10.00 AM. We dressed up in
saris, adorned our trinkets and flowers and started to the mandapam.
Being the early bird, Maami had reached there a little earlier. Thendral
was quite ready and waiting for her muhurtha-pattu to be brought in.
The bride’s room was even
more fun-filled than the previous day, Gowri akka, anni and the
three of us pulled Thendral’s leg and she gave a good number of “natural”, read
blushing, poses for the photographer. Muhurtha pudavai, traditionally
given by the groom’s side was brought in and by 9.15 AM, Thendral was ready to
proceed to the manavarai.
With Mrs. & Mr. Durai Pandi
We were quite ravenous by
now, but we knew from our experience at Baskar anna’s wedding that the
actual ritual lasted barely two minutes. So we couldn’t risk sneaking into the
dining hall. We loitered near the manavarai and clicked a few pictures.
Soon it was too crowded to click pictures and we did not want to stand right at
the front and block the view for the other guests. But Maami, our
never-say-die girl wouldn’t give up, she hopped on to the stage and squeezed in
beside the official photographer and clicked pictures. It was official now;
Miss Thendral Muthusamy was now Mrs Thendral Durai Pandi.
The elders and guests
lined up to bless the newly-wed couple. Thendral and Durai had quite a time
touching the elders' feet for blessings. We now looked around and spotted our
gang right at the very back of the hall. VP, Prasad, Vivek M.E(bar)@ Maapu, Muthu @ Solo, Baskar and
Vijayakumar senior were the MIT CS gang that had made it to the wedding. We had
already met the family people a few minutes before – Reemaa, Priya and their
respective husbands, Satish and his wife.
Pongal session started in full earnest. It started off
with deceptively mild how-are-you-s, and then progressively turned into riotous
fun. Our 8-point-someone Maapu M.E(bar/overline), Maami, and unfortunately, me :( were the center of ootals. They wouldn’t
let me forget the seminar I had given at MIT a couple of days back, and I was
branded dhrohi:). Also, I will not deny that I thanked my stars our
8.5er VivekM.E(bar) had missed the seminar. Finally, the crowd near the stage
thinned out a bit and we made our way to the stage, wished the couple and
handed over gifts.
Not the ones to miss a
feast, the guys had finished a good breakfast earlier. But we poor girls had no
such luck, so we insisted we finish our lunch before we made our next move. We
finished a delicious traditional Chettinadu lunch, and over ice creams,
we made plans to visit the famous Chettinadu palaces/mansions around
Karaikudi after a short stop at the hotel to freshen up.
A little past noon, all of
us with the exception of sincere Oracle’r Baskar were ready to explore the Chettinadu,
C/o our official guide, Muthu. We hired an auto and our convoy of auto and
Indica was on the road headed towards to the Chettinadu Royal Mansion of
Rajah Annamalai Chettiar’s lineage. The ride was fun; the winding road was well
laid and flanked by fields of cashew trees and other plants, no traffic and no
requirements for screeching braking.
Chettinadu Mansion
Though often seen in
movies, the splendour of the mansion was still awe-inspiring. Two more or less
identical mansions stood side by side. One was being occupied by the members of
the extended family and was private. The other was generally open to public
viewing, but recently due to some reasons, it was closed. One needed
connections and recommendations to get in. Fortunately for us, our VP knew some
political VIP, or his father did, which was lucky for us. I doubt we would have
been able to get in otherwise.
As we stepped inside the
entrance gate, the first thing that struck us was the coolness of the place as
opposed to the scorching sun outside. We fell in love with the huge pillars,
the cool flooring tiles that were unique to Chettinadu and the massive
door under an ornate threshold immediately. All this before we had even stepped
in. Once inside, the main hall was a exhibition of sorts – huge portraits of
the eminent members of the family – all easily recognizable names, a man-sized
mirror flanked by a pair of huge ivory tusks polished to a shine, a smaller
mirror on a table flanked by a pair or minutely carved tusks, an elephant’s
preserved foot, many intricate wooden and metal sculptures, a showcase of
graduation-type gowns – this was after all the home of family that founded a
university, Annamalai University, and many other framed citations. When we had
finished gawking at the exhibits and the painted ceiling that was two floors
high and stained glass windows, we stepped over another huge threshold and we
were in the courtyard that was the trademark of Chettinadu style of
architecture.
Solo Muthu @ royal courtyard
The concept of courtyards
is difficult to explain in words to someone not ethnically South-Indian, but I
do not think I need to spend too much time here. The courtyard was long with a
wide corridor running around it, from where doors opened into rooms on every side. The
building was two-storeyed and we made our way up the stairs to the upper
corridor that housed the private quarters of the senior members of the family.
The rooms were locked and the police guard informed us that some valuable items
were locked in there. Good thing the stunt Vivek and Prasad tried did not
trigger the burglar alarms fitted on the doors.
Stunt
Leading from the first
courtyard was another courtyard. These courtyards were where the photo sessions
started :) Vivek was keen on his mission of “no-solos” and
Prasad would very obligingly click pictures of someone, then instruct that
person to click a similar picture of him. :)
Nattaama...
Our next stop was at
Kalathupalayam. For that ride we abandoned our auto and rode in the Innova that
our VIP escort had provided. The AC ride was a pleasant interlude after the anal-kathu
ride earlier. The facade of the mansion was not too promising except for
the 3D effect sculpture above the main doorway. But the minute we stepped in,
we were impressed even more than we had been with the Chettinadu
mansion. The main hall here was blank and we could admire the tiles and ceiling
better. This house had an upper corridor to the main hall as well. The bonus
here was that one of the rooms was open. It had a huge cot and dressing table.
The cot had a kind of rotating apparatus with a mirror on one side and a
painting on another at both ends. The ceiling was of wood and the wood
everywhere was beautifully polished.
Next we explored the
courtyard. Here our Chettinadu-karan Muthu explained the use of
this courtyard for weddings and pujas. The photo session here was centred
around the pillars and was great fun. From the upper corridors, there was a
provision to go to the open terrace as well. Standing on the terrace, we saw
palatial mansions on every side – some inhabited, some locked, all in the same
style –built around courtyards, but each had it’s own unique features we were
told.
Now our guide was starting
to get tensed as we were getting late, his endearments urging us to finish our
photo-shoots faster fell on deaf ears. Finally, he managed to shoo us out of
the house and we went on to Athangudi.
Muthu was related to one
of the owners of the Athangudi house and this was where he had spent most of
his childhood vacations. We even got to see his childhood cricket pitch in the
entrance verandah of the house and the “stumps” drawn on the wall :)
While the previous
mansions had been purely Indian, this house had some elements of Anglo-Roman
architecture – some of the wall paintings had modern elements like trains, etc
and were often flanked by baby angels with wings and such. The intricacy of
paintings and tiles was more pronounced here and the doors had mirror and inlay
work in them. Each hall had a story painted as a mural series in the arches
above the windows. Some of the paintings were pointed out as made of
herbal-based paints. To the right and left of the courtyard, apart from the
rooms, there opened a long room running the entire length of the house,
presumably a dining hall for the functions and festivals. We could almost
imagine long lines of men and women dining there on banana leaves, enjoying a
traditional Chettinadu feast.
Fun at Athangudi house
We couldn’t help but
wonder at how such huge mansions had been lived in and maintained. In earlier
days, there would have probably been a bustling life there with people
occupying almost all parts of the house. Now, the members of the family stayed
in smaller quarters on either sides of the main mansion.
Our “palace” tour done, we
sauntered to the tea-shop next door and sipped hot tea. Our “cheers” picture
with the plastic and glass tumblers invited a few laughs, but then, when
have we cared about all that? :)
Our time at Karaikudi was
almost up, atleast for us girls. I had to board the bus to Bangalore at 8.45
and Nithi and Indu had to catch their train at 8.30. The guys bound to Chennai
had till 11 pm before they had to get on their train. So we had barely 2.5
hours to pack up, visit Muthu’s place, have dinner and start. Also, Nithi had
to visit her periappa’s house and I wanted to visit one of our senior’s
house nearby.
We packed at top speed and
then Nithi rushed to her uncle’s place and I walked down to Ananthu senior’s
home that was just down the lane. I had never met his parents earlier, but he
had called ahead to say I was coming. Uncle and Aunty were easy to talk to and
I had a good time chatting with them about MIT, senior and his friends, etc.
Uncle showed me albums – family albums, and albums that senior had, they were
fun to look at, especially those of MIT days. We even spotted a couple of pics
of me in my first year :) I wish I had more time to look at all the albums
at leisure, but we were pressed for time and I had already gotten a call from
Nithi to get back soon as we were running late. So I said my byes and rushed
back to the hotel room.
With just an hour and half
to go, we reached Muthu’s house that was again only a hundred metres or so from
our hotel. Muthu’s home was a charming house of traditional Chettinadu
architecture. We looked around the house and saw an album of his younger days –
we couldn’t resist clicking a picture of one or two photos in the album :) We hardly had any time to spend there. Aunty
served us girls dinner while VP and Muthu went to get the famous Karaikudi kaimurukku
for all of us to carry home. I have said a lot here about the food already,
but I cannot leave out Aunty’s excellent dinner preparation. Sweet sevai,
idli and kolumbu were simply heavenly. As we chatted, Aunty kept
replenishing our plates and we had to plead that we really couldn’t have more before she stopped serving us :) Dinner done, we
got our blessings from Muthu’s patti and bade our goodbyes to Uncle,
Aunty and Muthu’s brother Natchiappan and left.
Nithi and Indu were in a
hurry now as it was over 8.00 PM. They rushed to the station. I lugged my bags
down more slowly and made my way to the ABT office just across the road,
bidding goodbye to the guys. Baskar finally materialized out of his hotel room
and appeared at the ABT office as well.
Thendral’s friends from Siemens, Gowri akka, Saravanan anna, Baskar
and myself stood around chatting with Baskar anna for a few minutes. We
got on the bus and much to the despair of Gowri akka,Baskar was
in the seat right before her. And he faithfully promised to do his best to keep
her awake with his telephonic-working that night as well :) Thankfully, for both of us, he did not have to
take a call that night. Narayana, Janani and myself chatted for a while till we
reached Trichy at about 11 PM. Divya, who was feeling queasy, had also
recovered by then and slowly we drifted off to sleep.
It is this phase of life
when you attend wedding after wedding – friends, classmates, colleagues.
Weddings are eternal in more ways than one – two people tie a knot for
eternity, they are eternal in another sense too – one never stops attending
weddings, they come in all shades and in various circles – relatives,
neighbours, so on and so forth. But there is something very special and
incomparable about attending a childhood or college friend’s wedding. We see a
pal join hands with a friend for life to walk the long journey. It is in some
ways, a parting of ways, and in some ways, welcoming a new friend. It can be
scary, yet at the same time joyful, for all concerned.
It is to one such special
occasion that I will dedicate a couple of posts here – to freeze the memories
in words, to look back on and cherish. There will be more than the wedding
itinerary here – meeting old friends, experiencing a new place and its heritage,
getting to know a friend’s family, making new friends. In all, a lovely
experience that ought not to be eroded by the sea of forgetfulness.
On the sultry evening of
the 22nd of October, myself and Nithya threw our paraphernalia into
a bag, negotiated the Chennai traffic in an auto and rushed into the Guindy
station to meet up with Indu @ Maami enroute to Egmore to board a train
to the heartland of TamilNadu – Karaikudi.
Thendral, 20033753 and our dear friend was to wed Mr. Durai Pandi on the
24th Oct, 2010. Orders concerning our travel to the marriage venue
had come from Ms. Thendral well in advance, not that we would miss it anyway :) I had
hatched the seemingly brilliant plan of traveling from Chennai, which meant I
was on traveling SBC-MAS the previous night. The travel and a day in blistering
heat of Chennai had already sapped my energy and I was ready to drop asleep at
a moment’s notice. But the excitement-fuelled adrenalin helped sustain me from
blanking out on Nithi as yet.
As the train pulled out of
Egmore at 9.45 PM, we attacked our dinner of idlis and chappathis
with ardour and the salt intake energized me, and we were all set for a good
old pongal session(pongal is MIT lingo for chatting :) ). The
dinner was again a reminder of our numerous lunches and dinners at MITLH (short
for MIT Ladies hostel). We then lived a simple life – open the parcel, dig in.
What is the need for separate plates? And did anyone say spoons??!? ;) We did
not think twice about going back to our simple lifestyle. We probably did
attract a few stares, as Nithi belatedly wondered the next day, but then, we did
not notice them.
We alighted at Karaikudi
junction the next morning. The weather was pleasant, lulling us into a
misinterpretation of the heat that was to cook us later in the day. As we
awaited the pickup vehicle Thendral’s brother-in-law had arranged for us, we
noticed a boisterous gang boarding vehicles in front of the station. Just as we
were wondering if they were there for the wedding as well, we spotted the groom
in their midst. He was busy ensuring his friends were all accommodated in their
vehicles getting a few bumps from them in the process, and he paid no attention
the three poor girls standing a few yards away clutching their bags. Grave
mistake Mr. Durai Pandi, the bride was going to hear about this! And we vowed
to get back at him for that ;)
Hotel Golden Singar opened
its door to us. The room was neat and comfortable and the beds beckoned us. But
our stomachs growled in protest and we reluctantly acquiesced. Fresh and fully
awake now, we made our way to the restaurant downstairs and feasted on Podi
dosai, Masal dosai and pongal. The food was awesome, it was no means
like any hotel food. Crisp and homely, the dosais disappeared in no time
at all, shortly followed by the melt-in-the-mouth, non-greasy pongal.
Bathed and fed, now we
called the bride and she excitedly made plans for us to join her at her home.
We asked for the address, but she wouldn’t hear of it, insisting that she send
an auto to pick us up. The ride in Mr. Ambuli’s auto gave us our first feel of
Karaikudi, wide roads and not one double-storeyed building in sight, it gave us
the feeling of being in the semi-urban, no, rural, no, semi-rural, well, it can
be best put as Indian countryside.
Thendral’s home had all
the signs of a bride’s house. Frenzied preparations were in progress – sweets
being packed, maapillai alaipputambulams being readied,
relatives busy at various other tasks. And of course, the center of attraction,
the star of the day….. our darling, Muthu Pandi! ;) No, not Thendral, she comes
next to her nephew, don’t you agree, Thendral?
Thendral was all smiles
and vetkam at being teased, with her athachi or anni being
our first partner in that. We really missed capturing on film, the blushing
Thendral when we gave her a photo frame with Durai and her pics in it. We settled
in at no time at all, and in a few mins, the seemingly shy Muthu kutty
was dosth with us and things were only fun from there. We met
Thendral’s brothers – Baskar anna, Bose anna and Illayaraja anna,
and her sister Kavita akka and her kids – cute, doe-eyed
Mahadarshini and her new-born brother.
Muthu Kutty
We had a totally gala time
decking up Thendral, not to forget the sumptuous lunch, and the bride was ready
to go to the mandapam. By then, the house was in total chaos, Maha and
her brother gave akka a tough time and we somehow managed to get some
lunch into Muthu kutty. At about 4.30 pm, we started from the house,
Thendral and her family went to the mandapam, and we three went to the
hotel to freshen-up. The travel and the excitement of the morning finally
caught up with us and we crashed on the inviting bed for a short nap.
Refreshed from our nap, we
scrambled to get ready – we had orders from Anni to reach the marriage
hall soon, and at 6.30 pm we made our way to the mandapam, a couple of
hundred metres from our hotel. The maapillai alaippu, marked by the
deafening fireworks, courtesy of Durai’s friends, was in progress as we walked
in. The bride was getting ready and we sat around and chatted, followed by our
personal photo session with the bride. Thendral looked gorgeous in her maaman-seeru
purple-pink saree and the hairdressing was simply beautiful. We met the
Durai and we chatted for a few minutes. That was when we had our chance at
revenge on the groom, he was at our mercy for a sneak peek at the bride and he
did not get one ;)
Private photo session with the bride
Muthu kutty was
restless, all the running around had tired him nicely and anni was
worried he was running a temperature. We all took our turns at carrying him
around and pacifying him. He wanted to meet Durai maama, and we took him
to meet the groom, small consolation for the groom, nephew in place of the
aunt. ;)
Anni escorted Thendral for the ceremony downstairs and
we spent our time clicking pictures and observing the rituals. The Chettinadu
rituals were foreign to all of us and interesting to watch. Thendral was
quiet and serious as she performed the rituals expected of her.
Finally, it was time for
dinner. In fact, it had been dinnertime for quite sometime then, one after
another Thendral’s annas had repeatedly urged us to have our dinner but
we were having too much fun to think about food. But now, we were terribly
hungry and we meekily surrendered to Bose anna’s orders to go down to
the dinner hall. Dinner was simple and simply delicious – idli, dosai, and
idiappam made the main course, with chicken and mutton kolumbu to
go with it. Just as we finished one item, our ilais were replenished
speedily with piping hot dosais or idlis. Care was taken to
ensure vegetarians were served vegetarian side dishes. We rounded it off with palpaniyaram
andcarrot halwa followed by milk laced with pannankarupatti.
We met Thendral’s friends
from work – Divya, Janani, Velmurugan and Naryananan, we chatted for a few
minutes. We all said our byes to Miss Thendral Muthusamy (point to be noted ;)
) and walked down to the hotel together escorted by Baskar anna, for
they wouldn’t trust Vel and Narayanan with escorting us safely ;) Come what
may, what is a get together with old friends without pongal? We were
dead tired, yet we couldn’t resist a short chat session in our room before we
finally drifted off to sleep.
Every sports fan’s first piece on a favourite sport or even
a casual spectator’s recounting of a sports experience typically starts with
tracing his or her history with the game. Should I follow the unwritten rule or
break it? Maybe, I will include my “history” somewhere as I go along, and keep
up with the tradition to a small extent atleast.
Though I should have begun my sport chronicles with the F1
seasons of the days of yore of Schumi or with the FIFA World Cup 2010, I never
really got around to that. So this time I was determined not to miss out on yet
another of my “firsts” – a live cricket match from the stands! It was something
indeed. It wasn’t a breakneck-paced Twenty-Twenty or even the conventional ODI,
it was a Test match! I know how even a hardcore cricket fan would react to this
– “Um.. Test.. Interesting”. And I know
it hardly sounds interesting, but it was nevertheless a cool experience.
It was the first day of the second test of the series in
Australia’s tour of India 2010 – Oct 9, 2010. It was the “Border-Gavaskar
Trophy series” – I knew this only when I looked at the actual gate-pass. It was
a match that would go on to become legendary, but we are yet to enter the
stadium, so we have quite some ground to cover before we get to that ;) The Indian
side having returned fresh from a win at Mohali, skepticism prevailed as to
their performance in the second test at Bangalore. Well, what do you expect?
Our boys have been known to put up their feet after a win… and end up with a
thrashing in the next match.
So it was with the least expectations of excitement that we
started to the match. We were an assorted gang – myself and my roommate, a
senior and a junior and a friend from work. It all started with spotting the
ticket sales on bookmyshow.com. The first day fell on a Saturday, and we
thought, why not? We leisurely made our way to the stadium on the appointed
day. The match had attracted quite a crowd, largely thanks to the brilliant
idea of selling the tickets on bookmyshow, I believe. Here, I shouldn’t forget
to mention the innovative methods of securing the stadium. “Cameras,
Audio-video equipment not allowed”, the website had stated sternly. So it was
with a little worry that we carried our brand-new handycam to the stadium. The security guards let us
carry it in, but they had a handycam of their own and clicked a picture of each
spectator, cam in hand, at the gate :)
So, there we were, tickets collected, queues cleared and
armed with our handycam, walking into the C-Stand. We felt a small tinge of
disappointment that India had lost the toss and was fielding. Alright, we will
atleast get to spot all our guys, we consoled ourselves.
As we entered the stands, we noticed two things immediately
- the choicest seats were taken and the ground was smaller than we had
expected. The second observation meant something good for us; we weren’t going
to be staring at ant-sized figures in white all day without any clue as to
where the ball was or what was happening. So coming back to the seats, we
learnt our first lessons on live sports viewing:
The
best seats vary from one sport to another. In a cricket stadium, the best
seats are the ones nearer to the boundary, you can follow the footwork and
the ball better. You get a good view however further back you are (we were
pretty much at the back, but still got a good view), but the front ones
are the best. It probably works the other way round in football, I suspect.
It
is better that you aren’t assigned seat numbers – there are these huge
pillar supports that can block the view squarely and there comes your
luck
The
lighting matters, so do the weather and the direction of your stand.
Ok, the good thing about these lessons is that we did not
learn them the hard way - we got pretty good seats(unassigned, you pick them),
in the west stand(the sun doesn’t hit you full on that way) and the weather was
cool too. So yes, the gyaan was for my
enjoyment and your torture ;) Ok, I will move on now. Hey, stay with me, no
more lessons, I swear!
Just as we settled in to our seats, the first thing we did
was… yes, look for Sachin! And oh, he was at the boundary near the East stand :(
That was when I realized what Sachin really meant to every cricket fan and
every Indian. The crowd cheered every move of the little master. If he bent to
pickup the ball or adjusted his cap or stretched his hands, every move was
greeted with cheers. Yet, for all that, he was modesty personified. Once in a
while, when the crowd pleaded constantly for acknowledgement, he would turn and
give a shy wave. That is Sachin for you!
We spent sometime identifying where each player from the
Indian side was positioned. The spectator crowd was mostly the IT workforce of
Bengaluru, with a smattering of student population and a some bunches of
families. The action on the pitch wasn’t hot and just as we were starting to
feel the thirst for action, the first Aussie wicket fell to Harbhajan Singh.
The crowd cheered in good spirits and the team celebrated at the pitch.
Just as I was getting a feel of the handycam – zooming at
the right speed, moving the cam in a steady fluid motion of the arm, I got my
reward, I caught the next wicket on film! Or HDD or whatever, but does that
matter? Me, at my first cricket match, at the first instance of handling a
handycam recorded a wicket!
As we finished our lunch of sandwiches and bananas, we got
our next reward, Sachin was stationed at our side of the field. We trained the
cam on him, patiently waiting to click our very own Sachin-pic. After about a
minute of two of endearments and cajoling from the crowd, the man of
five-foot-five, who rules the hearts of many an Indian, turned and gave us a
wave.
The next two wickets fell at roughly forty-minute intervals
(or as one of our friends remarked, after every food-break :))
and we dutifully cheered. I caught one more wicket on camera and was
congratulating myself on the good fortune when Ponting walked in, and with that
our frustration. He wouldn’t budge, nor would North. We were getting restless
and my roommate declared over and over again, that she would be satisfied with
the day if only Ponting’s wicket was taken. Another declared that the match was
too drab, and he would prefer that the Aussie hit a few good shots atleast, to
spice things up. The clock was edging towards 4 pm and we were making our plans
to leave, when Raina(Raina!?!) dismissed Ponting for a lbw. So we left
Australia at the crease nearing the end of first day of play at 236/5 and
walked out, happy with our money's worth - Sachin and 5 Aussie wickets, in that order. What more can one ask for?
Now, for posterity, I will make a mention here of how the rest of
the days played out – Aussies were packed off only at 478, Sachin and Murali
Vijay put up a century each – Sachin’s 49th century and his 6th
double ton, India’s first Innings score stood at 495, Aussies put up a 2nd
innings score of 223 setting a formidable target of 207 for India, and on the
final day of play, debutant Cheteshwar Pujara and Sachin batted away, or rather
blasted a way, to India’s victory.
P.S: My history of cricket-watching isn’t all that
interesting, it started with watching the 1996 World Cup and has been
continuing on-and-off :)
Scholarships come in many kinds and hues. I am not an expert
in this topic, but to me, they fall into two major catgories – enabling
scholarhips, merit scholarships. Enabling scholarships are awarded to students
based on a number of factors, which might otherwise place a hurdle on their
education. They also serve as a means of encouragement to continue education.
The regular BC scholarships, first-graduate scholarships and many other
scholarships targeted at economically backward students and girl students fall
into this category.
Merit scholarships, on the other hand, are meant to
appreciate and reward students of academic brilliance and merit. They often
come as a reward for academic achievements.
These two types of scholarships do not fall into mutually
exclusive silos nor are they are an umbrella to describe all scholarships.
There are scholarships that are awarded to the most scholarly of an economic
strata, etc. But, in general, they can be classified into one of the two types
based on the determining factor of eligibility.
Then, of course, we have the government scholarships,
corporate scholarships, endowment scholarships, etc. My lines of thought here
was triggered by and centered on a set of merit scholarships awarded by a
corporate house(or corporate-based foundation, I beg to be allowed the luxury
of not having to worry about the nitty-gritty here).
“Aditya Birla Scholarhips” said a full—page ad in The
Hindu, alongside a picture of smartly dressed girls and boys, with poised
looks and winning smiles directed at the camera. The scholars were all students
from IITs, IIMs and BITS. Some hunting on the net turned up details of the
scholarships which were awarded each year to students of these premier institutions
of engineering and management studies. The website also hosted details of
scholars from previous years. Each biodata read like the next – topper,
brilliant at Maths, etc. Don’t get me wrong, each scholar’s CV was awesome
indeed. But, well, they were nearly the same. Of course, how different will the
CVs of IITians be, or IIMers, for that matter.
Engineering education in a premier government institute
isn’t too costly. Yet, having graduated out of a premier engineering institute
myself, I do appreciate that a scholarship eases the load on the student’s
family. On the other hand, if you are in IIM, I imagine it comes as a boon,
given the exorbitant fee structure.
I do appreciate the Birla group encouraging the top talent
in the country in their endeavours of higher education(though B.Tech hardly
qualifies as “higher” education). Yet, I can’t help but feel, that there are
other avenues that merit these scholarships. No, I am not miffed that my
alma-mater MIT was not considered in the “premier” list or that the scholars
weren’t chosen from a wider net.
I wish the focus was, instead, on graduates of Arts and
Sciences disciplines. We are at a dearth for social scientists, economists and
other such students of “lesser subjects”. While our prowess in software
industry is indeed good for our GDP, it is our grasp of economics and sociology
that will put us in the path of inclusive growth. While engineering will help
us build the dams, it will be our knowledge of ecology, hydrology, oceanography
that will help us manage and sustain our natural resources. While engineering
will help us build our reactors, it will be hard-core physics that will enable
us to design our nuclear power programme in the first place. While our
engineers can build our refineries and mines, it will be our geologists who can
tell us where to build them and where to dig.
Coming to management, while our management graduates can
instruct us on the business model, marketing and supply-chain management, it
will take an economist to distill the economic sense in any business model.
While our management graduates and engineer create huge conglomerates, there
will be a need for astute lawyers to ensure the laws of the land are held
sacrosanct. Finally, given all our flashy, successful, cosmopolitan population,
it will take an administrator to ensure our roads are laid, bridges built,
traffic managed and water supply regulated.
Yet, it is these disciplines of Pure and Applied Sciences
and Social Sciences, which are considered “lesser”, and are routinely ignored.
It is this “greater-lesser” disparity that the Aditya Birla Scholarships
demonstrate.
If indeed there are scholarships from the same foundation
for the Science disciplines, my apologies for assuming otherwise will be
speedily rendered. Let us say, for instance, that there are indeed scholarships
for the students of other disciplines, then, shouldn’t they be the ones
highlighted so as to motivate students to walk along the “road-less-taken”?
My plea here is two-fold, encouragement for students
pursuing the Arts and Sciences, motivation for more students to take up study
and pursue careers in these disciplines. Little knowledge exists in the society
on the significance of these disciplines and even less is the awareness of the
career paths and opportunities in that arena.
It is an entirely different argument that parents literally
thrust the “lucrative” engineering and medicine education on their children.
The question of who should decide the career of the student is a raging debate
of all-time. My argument here is that, given the limited knowledge of career
choices, students themselves lack the guidance and vision to chose an academic
path that is more in line with their interests, even where their parents let
them choose (and lots of parents do that, I can assure you).
This is a large problem that has to be tackled on many
fronts. Awareness of Arts, Sciences, Engineering, medicine, etc should be
created in the student in the school years. The syllabi, extra-curricular
activities should facilitate that. Parent-education should be available, so
that they can in turn educate their children. Excellent government institutions
of research and learning should be built and developed.
OK, so it is a mega-problem, what does the Aditya Birla Scholarships
have to do with this then? The encouragement can come from many quarters. And
backed by a corporate name of repute, the scholarships(if created), will enjoy
a position of prestige and will be a wonderful source of motivation for the
students. The full-page ad, then, might ignite a few sparks. It would warm the
hearts of parents and reassure them that, there are indeed accolades and
well-being in store for their kids should they chose the less-trodden path. It
might, then, create a Dr. Manmohan Singh or Dr Ahluwalia or a T. N. Seshan or a
Nani Palkhiwala.
In these disturbing times of CWG worries, Ayodhya title-suit tensions, Kashmir troubles, floods and Naxal issues, there appear in the newspapers, once in a while, some heart-warming stories. One has to really burrow deep into the newspapers(and the right newspapers at that) to get to them, but they do exist, however small in proportion. One such stack of news stories that has been building up for sometime now is the news on heritage structures preservation.
We have been infamous for non-conservation of our structures. And what we did rarely in the name of conservation were shoddy jobs that distorted the monuments. What we did in the name of promoting tourism was even worse. Our Archeological Survey of India(ASI) has often been like most other government institutions – lethargic, if not anything worse.
So, it came as a surprise to learn about some really ambitious and well-done projects in archeology and heritage structures in the recent past.
First in the list is the Muzuris project. Muziris is an ancient port on the Malabar Coast that has been mentioned in ancient Tamil scriptures and Roman texts. It was a busy trading port in first century B.C.E. Though numerous speculations abounded, the exact location of Muziris had remained elusive so far. The fact that backwaters and river courses altered over the last two millennia did not help either.
For a long time, speculations on the location of the Muziris port centered around Kodunganallur on the banks of the Periyar River in the coast of Central Kerala. But puzzling lack of archealogical evidence meant Muziris remained mysterious. Careful study by a doctoral scholar in the 1990s threw up evidence of a small village Pattinam possibly being the spot where the flourishing port of Indo-Roman trade once lay. Archealogical evidence presented itself almost immediately and excitement mounted in all quarters. An expert team came together and systematic excavations began in the 2007. Excavations happen every year seasonally(due to the monsoon I guess) and loads of ancient treasures like beads, pottery, coins, etc have been unearthed. Iron age artifacts have also been found providing evidence that Muziris indeed had a long long history before it suddenly vanished one day.
Following the Muziris excavations, the Kerala government has launched the Rs 140-crore Muziris Heritage Project(MHP) which is funded fifty percent by the Central government. MHP covers not only excavations and conservation of the Muziris and its satellite ports, the project aims to pay a tribute and conserve heritage of the maritime history along the Malabar coast with central focus on Muziris.
One of the projects under the MHP is the Chennamangalam Paliyam Palace and Nalukettu mansion conservation project. The palace was built by the Dutch for the Paliyam chief for his help in dislodging the Portuguese. Distinctive Dutch architecture and historic significance of the palace make it an important landmark of the pre-British European colonial conquests on the Arabian coast. After the renovation works, the Palaces will be handed over to the trust that has been maintaining it traditionally to open to public and continue maintenance. This is a good example of practical and sensible public-private partnerships in heritage preservation.
Then coming as an example of social conscience towards preservation of history is the Uttaramerur Kailasanathar Temple renovation. An entirely a private effort led by the REACH foundation, an NGO, villagers and students of IIT Madras, there are several aspects to be praised here. The renovation was by no means a haphazard job and care was taken to preserve the originality of the structure. Scientific techniques of restoration and methods to test the structural strength (courtesy of IIT Madras) were employed. Inscriptions of Chola and Vijayanagara periods have been discovered in the course of the effort. Work over two years has restored the 1200-year-old temple to its former glory.
The latest news is about the most prestigious of India’s international heritage conservation efforts- the Ta Prohm temple conservation project awarded to the ASI. The 12th Century Ta Prohm is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the Angkor Wat region of Cambodia. Though the uniqueness of the temple lies in the interweaving of mammoth stone structures and tropical trees, unbridled growth of the trees will lead to complete demolition of the structure. ASI’s work has recreated some of the damaged parts of the temple, created supports in wood and steel as well as facilities for tourists to walk through safely and view the temple complex. Initial skepticism on ASI’s technical capabilities has been laid to rest with the good work demonstrated so far.
It is true that these heartening news are far and few. And the scale of the efforts is in no way comparable to what is required to preserve the expanse of the rich heritage structures and sites of India. We still have the yellowing façade of the Taj Mahal, decaying Nizam’s wardrobe or the monsoon-damaged Charminar. But these stories are definitely something to be appreciated, definitely feel-good.
As the few of you following my blog would have noticed, I have been posting articles fairly often the past two months. I kept wanting to write almost every single day. And I tried to make time for it. But I have also been having this nagging feeling that something was missing in my writings lately. Was it my style? Or even worse, substance? Nah, I think the substance was OK, not too bad atleast. I guess it is the style.
As I went and reread my last few entries I noticed my sentences steadily became more winded. I always liked my writings to be a mix of simplicity and a conversational style. I never wanted complex sentence construction to be my trademark. My words should paint the picture subtly, not become the glaring colours of the picture itself. Or in other words, I liked the idea to transcend the writing. I noticed that my last two blogs atleast deviated heavily from my aspired style. In fact, this contrast became more clearly apparent to me from my perusal of the “Lost & Found” piece. The “Columns” was the exact style of writing I liked and was comfortable with.
Well, I guess I am being too harsh with myself. It is not as if the last few entries are totally unreadable(They aren’t that bad, right? :P ). It was just that I wasn’t totally satisfied with the writing. You are wondering where this is going, right? Well, I warned you, the title says “confounded writer”, you should have known ;)
So, coming back to the topic, I thought about why my writing wasn’t my best and hit upon the culprit(No, no, not me. OK, maybe in one sense, it could be said it is me. But you know, … OK, I will stop :) ). I realized I did not write the pieces in one stretch. So my thought flow had been broken and hence my writing looked more like a collage than a picture. So you know what I did, sat down and wrote this in one go! :)
I guess it is high time I updated this.. Hmm.. Well, "About me" has never really been my strong point.... I have a choice here, I can ramble till I hit the 1200 char limit or I can let you get on with my blog posts and frame your own idea.. The latter sounds better, what do you say?
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