AIRED

Sept 24th is celebrated as the “International Girl Child Day”. On this occasion, my company (Aricent) organized a commemorative event for the girl students of Government Primary School, Sanjaynagar. The concept intrigued me the moment I read about this in my e-mail but what triggered me most were the words of someone close saying-- “I HATE DAUGHTERS !”…. The feminist in me was provoked and impulsively I decided I’m going ahead with this.

Although impetously decided, I was excited nevertheless. For long now, I’d been thinking of doing something worthwhile for children so this was a good chance. So on Sept 24th, 10 volunteers from Aricent set off to the Government school. We gathered around 50 girl students from class 5th, 6th and 7th. Each class was assigned three volunteers based on linguistic abilities, since the children were a mix of Kannada, Tamil and Telgu tongues and not to forget they understood rudimentary English too! Needless to say, I was heading a group for my Kannada background. As the girls lined up in their schoolground, their faces had a mixed expression of confusion and eagerness. After they settled down in the bus, I started breaking the ice, asking if they had seen planes? Some nodded enthusiatically, some silently acknowledged and some shouted “Yes Mam”. I continued saying “Have you seen them from very close, have you touched them?”. In unison they replied in negative. So that is where we took them, to an educational tour to the HAL Aerospace Museum. Listening this all the children clapped.

Once inside the museum, the whole grp was split into two, with one guide attached to each team. The tour had 3 parts. It started off with the photography exhibit on the growth of Indian aviation for the past 60 years. It was interesting for me to take a sneak peek at a piece of history but the kids were getting restless. The next leg of the tour was the prototype displays of various models of fighter jets, LCAs, MIGs, Helicopters, radars… etc. Wow! This was amazing. I became a child too as I explored these flying gaints. The last leg was the interior view of flights, the engines, the navigation systems and the pilot maneuvers. Our guide was saying Bangalore has the biggest HAL museum in whole of India and it looked like it. The tour ended with a quick look at the Air Traffic Control and for the kids a pilot simulation game which was simliar to one of those games in a playstation like Ameoba.

After the tiring tour of the museum, it was time for relaxation. As we distributed snack boxes, there was a sparkle in the child's face. Well! they had not expected this. We were told that some of these kids were below poverty line, so the simple snack of chocolates, cookies and juice was like a platter from a five course meal for the kids and they relished it.

COLOURS OF INNOCENCE

Following this was some interaction with the girls. We distributed papers, colors and paint brushes and told the children to draw anything they like. The girls playfully enjoyed this...... it was as though they were pouring their imaginations out. And that very situation reminded of the drawing competition scene from “Taare Zameen Par”............:) Every child busy putting his creativity on paper. Being pathetic with lines, curves and paints myself, when one of the little ones asked me to help her out to draw a pigeon, I was hesitant........ and the outcome , a disaster. The white pigeon that I was supposed to draw resembled a fish! And the girl next to me remarked “Mam, why did you draw a fish in the air!”, I laughed helplessly............:)

We concluded the day with distributing momentos to all children. They were thrilled. As we were departing, one girl told me "Mam, come to our school everyday" and an other one said "Mam, come to my house, I'll cook chicken biryani for you" and on clarifying my vegetarian habits, she said "No problem mam, I'll cook veg biryani for you". When we got back to the bus "Everyone was offering me a seat right next to them!". Thats when I realized that our one small effort made such a big difference to their lives.

Back in the bus, one girl told me this is not the same bus we came in. I casually overlooked it but after seeing the driver I realized the girl was right. She pointed out that the color of the seats and the curtains were different. We are blessed with comforts so we brush apart such simple things..... smart kids they were, all they lacked was a direction. I was more impressed with one of the teachers who accompanied the students, she was a big source of encouragement for the kids, a firm believer of the concept "Children of today are the citizens of tomorrow - gender no bar ".

On the ride back to school, all kids were excited enough to scream some movie songs. As the children got down from the bus each had a geninue smile of satisfaction and with a firm handshake they gratefully said "Thank you Mam", "Bye Mam". One of the kids was so emotional that she gave a warm hug to an Aricent volunteer. Later we came to know that the girl was earlier in a slum and all this was a terrific new experience to her and was overwhelmed with joy. The innocence that shined in the childrens' faces drastically changed my idea of government school children.

This event was organized in collaboration with Youth For Seva volunteer group. It’s a sort of an NGO which takes up several such socio-community initiatives. Latest one being the look out for volunteers to teach in Govt Schools....…. Naresh and Darshan, think about it.......... :)

Read more about the organisation at http://www.youthforseva.org/

Un-processed

In the corporate world I live in, various surveys on quality, statistics, work organization and people management galore. A couple of months back I attended one such survey response feedback meeting conducted in my team. The survey was centered on the capability of my manager in handling and molding his team. It goes without saying that almost all the team members cribbed in varying intensities – a few carped and caviled and for the habitually querulous folks it was a treat... :) I did not want to be left behind in the race so I gave my two cents too, I’d a few bickering and one among them was “the periodicity and the duration of our status meetings” !

My team meets every Friday to discuss the status and proceedings of the week. Although such meetings are vital, if it becomes superfluous and carried out just because of the fact that the process demands it then it definitely sucks. Considering the fact that I dislike such routine meetings, it becomes more irksome if such meetings are extended beyond the stipulated time. And when I complained about the same, I was rebuffed in a manner as if it was my personal problem! I’m not totally against such meetings but time is a precious resource, out of 40 industrious hrs 2 hrs cannot be whiled away for such feel-good-factor meetings! This makes the famous one-liner in the corporate lingo that “meetings are places where people meet to discuss that nothing can be done“ come true. Although my manager did not completely agree with me, the jeering did make way for a succinct update, Cheers.

This experience really made me wonder why are we Indians (on a whole) so process-oriented? In today’s changing trend being authoritatively process-stuck may be seen as an overhead. Recently, I read an article about the changing facets of Indian corporates, here the author seemed to corroborate my belief. He says “Leaders of the challengers are not driven as hard to meet quarterly pressures as global companies are. A Ratan Tata could never have conceived the Nano if he had the next Tata Motors quarterly conference call with analysts on his radar”. Here the author not only comments about the diligent followers of methods but also stresses the importance on leadership abilities to achieve global visibility.

Although India is relatively new in the MNC field as against other job profiles, in absolute terms the MNC industry is not all that very old. It can easily boast of biting the past 20 yrs of Indian history. 20 yrs prior, when India as a developing country set out her tender foot on the global map, her weapons were perseverance and obedience. Yes, I say obedience in the sense - aping the tried and the tested methods assiduously. But today as India spreads her wings on the global map, to stay ahead from her competitors she needs to be unfettered from such process. Its time that we set a process of our own!! India has all the qualities to make her presence felt globally but she is deterred by such peripheral issues.

On deeper thoughts I realized that indeed leaders are so anti-process, famous entrepreneures, leaders and rags-to-riches heros didn’t make it there because they followed what was common. There is something they thought out of box, there is something that they denied to follow, they were the mavericks kind sneering at the trifling issues.

But the question is can this happen with the service companies, which is predominant in India? If it cannot happen then India should stop serving and start leading, well it has already started……….. but positive thinking has never harmed anyone, right?

This situation reminds me of the IBM ad where recumbent employees in a conference room are “IDEATING”.

Good Luck Guys is what I can say.

Non-existant denizen

The main power of a citizen in a democratic republic is the power to franchise. And how should that citizen feel if such a vital power is stripped?

Today was the assembly polls of Karnataka state. The campaigning for the same had started in full swing for the past one month. I'd been closely following the campaign and the people contending for it, with a view of casting my vote scrupulously. But alas! the Government of Karnataka/India never even provided me with a chance to cast my precious vote.

Every voter in the electoral list was given a slip a week prior to the elections. This slip was something like a registration of the individual for the elections. This was done on a door-to-door basis. When it was the turn of my house, my mom noticed my name missing (inspite of having a valid election ID card). She mentioned this, but those folks never noted it in the additional list because they were instructed to only distribute the slip and not to do anything more! But she was told that there were many such people whose case was similar to mine, such people could come to the election booth with the election ID card and they would be allowed to vote. My mom agreed to that and let go the issue.

On the day of the election, I went to the booth with my election ID card only to be embarassed right on the face. The election duty special officers who are none other than the teachers and government staff were helpful enough to go through the list thoroughly to check just in-case if my name was misplaced in the list but all their efforts were in-vain. Since they are not vested with the rights to take decisions but only to discharge their spoon-fed duties they strictly didnt allow me to vote. I've no complaints with them on the contrary am glad that India still retains her face of obedience and honesty.

But am irked with the Government, what kind of a stupid rule could that possibly be where a law-abiding citizen with a voter's card does not get to vote! Not having my name in the list does not disprove my citizenship specially after having voted in the last election, how could they restrict me from not voting this time around? I agree to the fact that my name might have missed in the electoral list because of miscrepancies, but having a valid document under the seal of Republic of India makes me in all sense a rightfull citizen of this country. Be it passport, voter's ID, PAN card, driving licence etc all are despatched by the Govt, by rejecting these, is the government skeptical of the authencity of its own practices?
Further, I could find the names of around 90% of my neighbours including my neighbour's servant's family!!!

Govt spends booties of money in educating the youth the power of democracy but if the same govt treats its citizen in this condescending behaviour, it will not be late before me and people with similar experiences lose their interest in electing the ruler of their choice.
In the election booth, a govt staff remarked as to submit another form to the corporation claiming am a resident of my place and to get a new voter's card ! Now, what do I do with the old voters card, throw it straight to the bin?

Now on, When am asked for my address proof or age proof, I contemplate on which documents to present since the govt itself is not ready to accept it as a proof, why should I blame the third person!

Next day, it was all over the papers about this mess where many people who had an election photo ID Cars (EPIC) were denied voting permissions. They had given fuming statements about the EPIC struggle they had to face. The Election commission had 4000+ complaints. That was still less! After all this the statistics claimed only 44% vote from Bangalore, ridiculous!!

Is democracy still "BY THE PEOPLE" !!!!

Arty curriculum

Just hit upon an article on dance and this particular excerpt was intriguing.
When asked to comment on the inclusion of theatre, dance and music in the academic curriculum, this was the remark of Geetha Narayanan, an educationist and a close associate of Natya.

"Its a near-impossible task of taking fine arts to schools. It is not at the core of the education system but remains at the periphery. Worse, it is brushed aside as an "extracurricular activity" or used in a lackadaisical "let's give the kids a bit of creative expression" kind of manner."

Further she cites that this curriculum shift is necessary not for the sole purpose the child's growth alone but for the betterment of the society too.

"All children who learn dance do not become dancers. They fill another, crucial role: that of the audience. If children don't know dance, how will we get audiences for our dance recitals in the future?"

I can personally relate to the latter. I dont expect an audience who are connoisseurs but yes knowledgeable. And the very fact that "extracurricular activities" are given a drag reflects where our education system is heading!

Do I see another Taare Zameen Par happening here?
Hope so!

An inspiring rendezvous

Recently I happened to meet a set of people whose nature of work is diametrically opposite to mine. They were professionals in the field of fine-arts. I met them in a mega event which served as an art symposium. It was a pompous gathering with a potpurri of shows. The participants were an intermixture of the "who's who" of that industry, students, interns, freelancers and professionals of that field. Among them, it was the freelancers who particularly interested me.

I got acquainted with a freelancer of the same age as me. Over a casual talk, I came to know she was as well qualified in her form as I was in mine. What puzzled me was, regardless of the fact that she was a freelancer without a fixed pay and a secure job, she had an air of placidity flowing around her. She was incredibly happy to be in the rat race in a tough place where creativity scored. In the conversation which followed between us sounded quite sensible.

When I asked her "Isnt it tough to be a freelancer?", this is what she had to say.
When she was out of school and on the thresholds of choosing the right career naturally she was confused. Weighing her likes and dislikes, she gave in to follow her heart. She decided to pursue arts as a career much to her parents surprise. In the art field, there is either a hit or a miss but no intermediate state of sustainment. And if anyone is here to stay, the unwritten rule is they have to be the best. Her parents doubted her calibre but they were supportive though. With her graduation done, it was the time to enter the professional world of arts. But unlike other conventional fields she did not find any company which induces her into the practical world and hence she took to freelancing looking for oppurtunities and grabbing them when the best came in. Freelancing gave her the time and the freedom to learn new things practically and also improvise them theoretically back home. This made her strengthen her fundamentals and constantly update herself. Most important it gave her the much needed time (which is a priced possession in a full-time job) to think at a relaxed pace. She felt freelancing gave her the time to learn, think and rectify.

Ok, Keeping aside her passion for learning, I asked her about the vital- monetary gains. She said she earned enough to make herself financially independent. Being a freelancer was just an initial struggle in her path to making arts her full time profession. She believed if she turned out to be good professionally, money would find its way automatically and then she could thinking of saving. Freelancing laid the base for this. And she also mentioned that she would indulge herself in liabilites only when she was in a position to cover it up. I was awed by her confidence in managing her life. Inevitably I compared my software life with her life. Sadly I found such startling dissimilarities.

Survey reveals that staff working for a multi-national companies earn the highest average pay among the middle class Indian population. Software crowd being a part of this population has a completely different perspective towards work and money than what the lady above has.
After graduation, indecisively we enter the big world of software as freshers, where we are trained and moulded the way the company wants. We get a good job with good money and we are happy. It presents a rosy picture right?, Wrong ! Now, this good amount of money gets into savings, assets and liabilites at a very early stage in our career. So to cover up these liabilites, we yearn for more money resulting in a switch to a higher paying job. And the story goes so on and so forth.

When I mentioned these facts to my friend, she simply brushed it apart saying "You software folks are simply overpriced! I accuse you of an imbalance in the economic status among the Indian youth!". My first reaction for her outspoken remark was that she was jealous but when I thought with an open mind, I'd to agree with her. Accepted that we techies do slog but people in every other profession work as hard as we do or even more at times, correct? It is an injustice that their compensation is not on par with us.

My friend did not like the idea of a mechanical and monotonous job, so what if it was high paying, it was not her cup of tea. Instead she loved the freelancing where she was expected to come up with creative and innovative ideas. She would be openly appraised in public for her efforts. You need guts to face such kind of criticism on a regular basis. She was truly an inspiration!

What THE !

The garden city-IT city Bangalore is now BRUHAT Bangalore. The former calm pensioners' paradise has evolved into a burgeoning cosmopolitan today with an unending list of woes. Agreed it is a city of oppurtunities, so well that half of the silicon capital are the non-natives. But no city is custom made for such overbulging crowd, on the other hand is carefully tended and evolved. Although the infrastructure and the amenities are developed by the Government, isnt every citizen responsible for its maintainence?

Scene 1: Sarjapur traffic junction, 6.30 pm
A guy on a bike carrying a bag from one of the reputed software companies. A nice unmanned traffic signal glowing red, this hero jumps the signal and zips vrrroooom (Dude! watz the hurry?)..... the remainin ppl behind him r a confused lot now, some patiently wait for the signal to turn green and some are eager to jump it, so there goes the horns blaring their harmonic cacophony leading to a traffic deadlock ............. with all these ingredients a tasty traffic jam is cooked !!!!

Scene 2: Kormangala, 8.30 am
A stud enters the office cab, he is back to office after a long term onsite (ofcourse outside India)............. he goes on endlessly gloating abt how spic n span that place was so on n so forth and in the process distributes chocolates and the stud collects the chocolate wrappers and callously tosses them outside the window onto the road... What THE ? The minimum requirement needed for the transition from a garden city to a garbage city met !

These scenes are a common sight in blore. And then I hear things like "Uff... bangalore traffic is gettin on my nerves.......Gosh....... how dirty can this place get".......... What THE? I feel like screaming at the top of my voice... "Hypocrites...... blore doesnt really need losers like u, good and bad comes in a package but why dont u consider urself responsible for the bad too!"
The tolerance of the city is being challenged and by whom? None other than the educated lot !!!! Education simply doesnt mean having a plastic wallet, a high end cellphone or as a matter of fact an urbane lifestyle. Are these ppl setout to prove the point "I was born intelligent but education ruined me"...... well education definitely doesnt ruin some basic common sense. Is the educated lot so foolish that they need to be monitored.. supervised.... thats like the worst insult !

Simple things like following the traffic signals, keepin the city clean and taking individual responsibilty for public property can make a big leap of a difference. The most irritating part is the same ppl follow all the rules set out in a foreign country but why is it so blissfully ignored in our own country???? This post goes out for al the educated ones (yes....my NRI fnds included too) to diligently follow the rules....... I know it cant bring abt a revolution but such miniscule of efforts can positively reduce the woes.

This reminds me of MJ's song "Heal the world (err.... blore)...make it a better place for both you and me"..... :)