joy of doing

this is in response to the edit (joy of giving) in today's (09/07/09) dna by n.raghuraman. mr. raghuraman (editor), what did you do beside feel sorry and angry about the plight of that child you saw from the shelter of your chauffer driven car? the piece paints the picture and moves on to bangalore international airport. there is no mention of the action only thoughts of despair. feeding sparrows bread crumbs is nice, like some feed street dogs and cats. but how will that allivate the plight of the children on the streets of our cities (as you have graphically described), who toil the entire day for handouts and crumbs.
it is in our culture to feel sorry and even show an attitude of caring for the not-so-well-off. it still is a long way from a behaviour change that provides a basis for action. we preach and then move on. the problem stays in the same place. it definitely is a moving piece and writers have a right to bring the images to life in various forms. what we also require is less preaching and more action as a society.

Final closure

Finally the Liberhan Report has been submitted- it took more than 13 years for the probe into the Babri Majid demolition to be completed. Initial reports suggest that the blame is squarely placed on BJP. Top leadership of the BJP have been named as having incited the mob to indulge in arson and destruction. It is, of course, not a surprise that the inquiry has indicted the well-know advocates of Hindutva for the crime. What is surprising is the delay is bringing out the obvious into the pubic domain. There is of course the political angle to the whole inquiry and the timing of the report. This should not divert our attention from the unprecedented, nay monumental, event that destroyed the political and social fabric of our nation. Unless our state acts fast and punishes those who have indulged in violence or destruction, sections of the society will feel let down and angry. The 1984 anti-Sikh riots, The 2003 Gujarat riots, and the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition are blots on our psyche and needs to be dealt with. Expecting time to heal the wounds is foolish. There has to be a closure to these wounds that keep infesting our secular fabric. Only when people perceive that justice has been done, the guilty adequately punished can we move on. Otherwise, we will be stuck in the past and not be able to expect a better, safe and all-encompassing future.

InPrinted in mind

It is that time of the year when the second year journalism students begin to grapple with the intricacies involved in putting together InPrint. A class of 60 odd students come together to host the intra-departmental fest that was started exactly 4 years ago. The purpose of the fest was to have an identity for the journalism students. In the past 4 editions of InPrint what was initiated by the class of 06 continues with a few modifications. I think the present batch needs to know the background to InPrint.

Expression was the inter-collegiate Journalism fest that had its last version in 2003. A step was taken to have a common fest with the Communicative English students. But in 2005 a bunch of bold, highly motivated students took upon themselves the role of setting a precedent that would brand the journalism students for years to come.

Today the present second year journalism students are going about trying to put their mark on this tradition. I am sure that in years to come, students every year would come together and forge a bond that would mark them out from the rest of the student community at Christ. Hopefully, a thought would go out to those who started it all.

listen in

took a break from work and attended a workshop. the workshop was interesting but not anything great. the food was good and the setting was perfect. there was no hitch and things moved smoothly during the entire duration of the workshop.
got an opportunity to network with professionals from various marketing and communication departments. also got an insight into what is happening in the US context as far as the use of social media is concerned and where we may be headed. one needs to have a presence on various social media like Orkut, Twitter, Blog and Linkedin to stay connected to the digital generation and feel their pulse.
but the best part of the workshop was the realization that we (including me) have a long way to go in accepting the reality of the virtual world. by being part of the social media, which by the way is growing tremendously, one can be part of the collective knowledge creation process and at the same time listen in to the digitally enabled and empowered young urban India. if one has to make a difference, one has to be part of the process.

it feels good to have an intellectual dialogue with a student who has matured beyond his age and is now a professional journalist. yes i am talking about the interaction with shashank in the course of the last two days. shashank has grown up, but in some ways he is the same student that i first came across more than five years ago. he personifies someone who has imbibed good values and any parent can be proud of a son like him. just one example hits this home. Shashank wanted to make time from a tight schedule to go and see the landlady who had housed and fed him during his student years. it is these small gestures that add up.

remembering past

the incident in class 109 the other day took me back a couple of decades to my pre-university days. a similar incident took place with yours truly in the hot seat. for the language class, we had to move to a different classroom. i, like many of my ilk, wanted to occupy the familiar seat in class. but that day i had to take another seat due to the non-availability. a couple of girls came up to me and asked me to vacate their seat. i, of course, refused and insisted that i had come there first (rather rudely).

in retrospect, i feel like a heel. as kids we do some really stupid things. i could have moved to another bench but at that time i wanted to be difficult. as humans we do this all the time. when we drive, how many times have we given way to the other drivers? in a queue did you give someone in dire need the chance to move ahead? we usually assert our right in such situations. isn't there a higher calling- one that calls for mutual respect, acknowledging the feelings of others...

student days are full of learning- the more diverse the group in class the tougher it is to get along, but a great opportunity to gain immense experience that stands the test of time. hopefully, the differences that we encounter all around will not be our undoing but a challenge and, ultimately, our strength. 

cathartic effect

when something affects you- and it happens very often to me- till it comes out in the open (your reaction or opinion) there is a sense of turmoil within. after the last posting i feel relieved that i got the angst out of my system. the things that trouble me and the issues that i am bothered about need a resolution. the kind of mental agony in the absence of a closure is difficult to overcome unless it is thrashed out in the open.
blogs allow for just this. an open forum to bring out any issue and place it in front of the world- inviting comments/criticism/acknowledgment. an open society is the safest bet against misunderstanding and conflict. only when things are hidden there is a scope for confusion. more than talk about issues, blogs allow for baring the heart out. what would have happened if this option was not around?

crime and punishment

the news about the students being made to sit the whole day in the corridor of the school as a punishment shook me and shocked me. it made me angry as i thought about it in the context of my school-aged daughter. how dare the school authorities impose this punishment or any punishment whatsoever. to top it all, the punishment was meted out not for an act by the students- their parents had skipped the parent-teachers meet on saturday.
schools are in the news increasingly for the wrong reasons. the inability to deal with the disciplinary issues, the excess workload and pitiable salaries are driving the teachers to take resort to punishment as a way out. it is high time punishment (out-moded means to achieve compliance) was done away with. What is the message one is giving the children (future citizens of our country) by punishing them for something they did or others did? what values are we imbibing in them? will they grow up to become better than us or just remain in our image?
The school authorities must be punished (not by making them sit in the open) for having done such a ghastly act. better still, they must be reformed. punishment does not achieve anything. the objective is to change the thinking of the person and not make him/her feel miserable. at least in the future children can go to school without fear of punishment.