Rules of the game are...when you finish one tag u will be given yet another tag to do :))...so thankx Silverine for the tag :)
Here i go!
Sex of the target: Female
1) She should have a great smile (ok...wrong point to start on...i can see several female chauvinistic pigs already sharpening their knife!)
2) She should like me for what i am and not what i can be made into (Eggzcuze me...i am not a lump of clay to be moulded into any shape!)
3) She should be ready to put up with my "reasonable" eccentricities and i will try to return the favor (and if i forget she is free to remind me the deal!). The not-possible eccentricities we can make a deal on.
4) she should like bald men (hint hint...dont ever tell me that i didnt warn u!)
5) She should demand her space and allow me my own space (but only occasionally can she claim that the bedroom is her space and throw me out to sleep on the couch!)
6) She should be ready to take my cooking experiments with a whole lot of tomato sauce (or else she can command the whole kitchen and i will wash up!)
7) i am quite forgetful...One of the recent gaffes that i committed was when i wished a special gal happy bday one day ahead of the actual date (hope she has forgiven me!). i will be very very glad if i could be given some hints (preferably very obvious ones!).She should understand that when i promise something...the promise isnt meant to be forever.so feel free to remind me of them occasionally. On similar lines, resoultions (even new year one's) are made to be broken so dont even expect them to be fulfilled :)
8) I like to argue..fight and make up!..ok..i dont like it..but then thats the way i am..so expect a rollercoaster ride with me..not a cruise ship experience!
so is there anyone available for the ride? :)
I shall refrain from passing on this tag to anyone (one of my new year resolutions is to be less sadistic :) )
cheers
MoC
January 29, 2006
January 06, 2006
Memoirs Of A BookWorm
I got book tagged thankx to Silverine. The tag was a long time back but the lady is a determined one! I received my ultimatum a few days (er weeks!) back and hence here I go! This gives me an opportunity to write about stuff that i always wanted to. In fact when i started blogging, i thought most of the posts will be book reviews. Never got around to doing much of that. So here goes my life in books!
The Journey Begins
When did i begin reading? I am not sure..but it certainly was quite early and my first (outside of class room) reading was probably Malayala Manorama, the tabloid favored by people of my region (central travancore), people of my community (Christians) and people of my heritage (anti-communists!).
Now why did i start reading Malayala Manorama? The reason is not too difficult to follow. When i was a kid (before i moved to boarding school) my morning study schedule was (set and strictly made to follow by my parents) went like this. Get up at 6 AM, study till 8 AM. No interruption was allowed during this time. Then one day, i imagine my father offered me and my bro the chance to read news paper during the morning study time. And boy! did we jump at the chance!. so the routine was set..wake up..sit in front of the school books eagerly awaiting the tring tring of abu chettan the newspaper man. Abu chettan ofcourse leaves the newspaper at the gate about 50 meters away from our house. Being the youngest i was given the privilege of going and collecting the newspaper before it got drenched in the rain (memory says it was always raining..but that cant be true). I was more than happy to do this..the run to the gate..waving hi to abu chettan and then walk back in slow motion to the house..trying to read the news at least in the front page. Well as soon i reach home i had to hand over the newspaper to pappa as priority was determined by seniority. Papa goes first, elder bro next and me last (thankfully mom was always too busy in the morning to read paper!). And of course in our family, never ever we allow paper to be separated into sheets and be read concurrently. I still hate people who ask me sheets out of the newspaper while i am reading!. dad takes about 30 minutes to finish the newspaper while bro is faster and I get the paper at around 7 AM. Thus begins my marathon reading, I used to read everything twice over, from advertisements to obituaries until I can see the clock chiming 8!
The next step in my metamorphism into a bookworm came during the holidays. Dear mom, always worried about my dark complexion (!!) was horrified to see me playing full day in the nearby paddy fields. It must have been her idea (to keep me inside the house during daytime) that prompted dad to bring books from his company library during holidays. Soon I began to delve into books during the holidays. I read everything, right from the M magazines to painkili novels to detective stories, anything would do for me.
On To the Wonderland of English
I moved to a boarding school at the age of 10. Till then my reading was solely in Malayalam as I wasn’t familiar with English. In the next two years, I mastered a fair bit of English and one day i gingerly picked up a tarzan book to read. I picked up tarzan because I was a big fan of tarzan and had read all tarzan books in Malayalam. Hence I assumed it would be easier for me to read the same in English. I guess Tarzan is not written in the simplest language and probably was not a good first choice for a kid. Still I plowed through the book and found out I understood most of it. Well then I re-read the entire Tarzan series in English and I was on my way into the wide world of English literature.
Unfortunately by the time I started reading in English I was about 13-14 and thus missed a whole load of children’s books. I never read any of those hardy boys/nancy drews/enid blytons or entire series of comics. While I did try to go back to those classics later in my life, I found out that it did not recreate the childhood magic which it does to people who read those books in the right age. Well one cant be expected to have everything!
Engineering college is a great place to read for leisure, especially if it is one of those old govt engineering colleges. Mass bunks were the norm, strikes were as regular as classes (if not more frequent) and I read and read everything other than engineering books, in class (whenever I attended them), in the lab and once even during an internal exam (didn’t knew the answers to the question paper anyway!). This is also the time when I started to build up my library..mostly second hand books as the monthly allowance did not allow much discretionary spending after the obligatory hostel bills, thattukada bills and kallushaap bills were paid off. Coupla years after my engineering I started working and finally I was on the way to my lifelong ambition of building up a huge library!
The Libraries I Have Been To
Toshiba Ananad, Athani
My first library. This was the employee society library of the company that dad used to work in. After a few summers of dad bringing me books from this library, he started to bring the books that I have already read. Tired of my cribbing, he took me to the library and left me there while he went off to work. I spent countless days being the only member who was browsing books there (others were employees playing cards/caroms or engaging in union talk!). It was a wonderful little library. The company closed about 8 years back and the library is sadly all but destroyed by now.
Sainik School Trivandrum
For a school of about 600 students, my school probably had one of the best libraries in kerala. Enriched by contributions from generous alumni and teachers, this was a treasure trove for all of us. Add the knowledgeable and affable Librarian Mr: Simon Peter and it is no wonder that most of the ex students of the school have fond memories of the library. He is universally loved for his love and knowledge of books. Unfortunately I did not have a good relationship with him in the beginning. I was banned from the library for two years (I believe 8th and 9th stds) after he twice found me bunking classes to sit and read in the library. But the collection there was totally awesome and later on Good ole peter sir was sympathetic and allowed me to even borrow multiple books at the same time.
Alwaye Municipal Library
Post school, through out my engineering days this was the library to go into whenever I was at home. For a Municpal library this was extremely well maintained and had a quaint stacking system. The members cannot go over and choose books but had to go thru a list of books and give our choices to the attendants who will then recover the same if they were available. This system sadly doesn’t allow for lucky accidents (when u just stumble on an author who then becomes ur fav) and with typical govt service attitude kinda attendants becomes a major pain.
Thrissur Public Library
The Cultural capital of Kerala can surely be proud of the library it owns. Huge collection, extremely friendly and knowledgeable librarians, frequent conferences with literary people easily make this place the best library I have ever been to. This is also the place where I lucked out on a complete collection of Bernard Shaw’s plays. Having read the entire book, I thought about not returning the book and paying the fine (the book was out of print) but then somehow I returned the book.
Total Number of Books I Own: Should be close to 400 and increasing at the rate of about 3 per month. I beg borrow and steal books and behave like an absolute asshole when someone wants to borrow a book from me. That sure helps me in increasing the pace of my book collection drive
Last Book Bought: The Piano Teacher
Last Book Read: A Man in Full, by Tom Wolfe. One of my current favorite authors, the book is about a larger than life real estate tycoon in Atlanta. Set in the 1990’s, this is not as good as some of his other works but quite interesting
Books That Mean That Extra To me
I cannot put them in any order. Even the thought fills me with dread. So i am doing a random listing. The list is bound to favor my recent readings not by choice but by my considerably short memory. I have also removed some of the books which have come up in other similar posts for the sake of brevity (not that I have succeded in the effort!)
Bernard Shaw
He is the god!!!!, I accidentally came across four of his plays in a pavement shop and has fallen in luv with his writing ever since. For biting social sarcasm you will never find his match. His social satires can make you laugh n think at the same time. Having read all the plays written by him, my favs are Devil’s Disciple, Man and Superman, Major Barbara, Mrs: Warren’s Profession. All these books are available free on internet at Project Guttenberg
Last Temptation of Jesus Christ
Yep, this is the book that’s still on the Index maintained by Vatican. This book is a fictional attempt to strip the cloak of myth away from Jesus Christ. Nikos Kazantzakis never said this book is the ultimate truth about Christ, but this book portrays Christ as a human being prone to temptations and worries just like any of us. This should be in the reading list of any Christian and for that matter any compassionate human being. Ultimately, this book for all its failings (and there are many historical fallacies) manage to portray Jesus as an individual whom we can respect as one of our own (and not just as the mythical son of god). I am sure MT Vasudevan was inspired by this when he wrote Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha. The reversal of roles by Chadiyan Chanthu and Judas are strikingly similar.
The man who knew infinity
I rarely read biographies, because they usually are biased (for or against the character). But this is one of the best biographies I have ever read. The biography tracks the famed Indian mathematician, Ramanujam’s life, struggle, success and ultimately tragic death. A must read for ever Indian and anyone who is even remotely interested in mathematics. To me the book was even more interesting as I read this book while in Chennai and almost all the landmarks during the life of Ramanujam are still present there. Too bad that such a great book about one of the finest Indian mathematicians had to be written by an American. Mebbe one day we will see this book made into a movie jez like “A beautiful Mind”.
Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
This is the story of the wild days of America in the 60’s. Even the most conservative magazines such as wall street journal and Economist later hailed this book as the classic story of those times. This is the story of the Author hooking up with the celebrated novelist Ken Kesey as Kesey and his group of wild, LSD driven hippies travel around US of A in a painted bus. Quite a heavy reading this book is, almost as if the author himself was under the influence of LSD when he wrote it. But as an authentic account of that era, no other book matches this one. For people like us, who never experienced those innocent, free outpouring of hope and emotions, this is our guide to the swinging sixties.
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
It is very rare when the hero of a classic book writes a classic of his own. The demonic hero of Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Ken Kesey, wrote this classic novel. McMurphy is the classic loner Hero and Chief Broom is the deeply troubled narrator in this book where the slow but inevitable movement towards tragedy is so overwhelming that it is a relief when the end happens. Chief Broom’s narration about how degrading life can made to be in an asylum can move you (it definitely moved me) into tears. Made in to an eponymous film starring Jack Nicholson (perfect portrayal of Mac), the book also was butchered into a Malayalam movie called Thalavattam by priyadarshan.
Loneliness of the long distance runner
Considered to be the all time classic longish short story on the mind of runners. This is strictly not a book on running, not even a book on runners (for this you should try “Once a Runner” a fav of mine), rather this book is all about the psyche of the rebel. Many of my fav books have had heroes who are loners and rebels. Occasionally I fancy myself as the torch bearer of those great souls. These are souls whom you can admire even when you don’t want to emulate them. The book is actually a collection of short stories but the best and the longest one has the same title as the book. This story is about a teenager in a juvenile correction home, who rebels against the system (portrayed by the chief warden) even when he knows that obedience will ease his life while dis-obedience will make his life a hell! The way he rebels is intriguing but his thoughts while committing the act of rebellion is pure classic. Somehow I was reminded of Catcher in the rye while reading this book and trust me Holden Caulfield pales in comparison to the teenage long distance runner
Against the gods
No this is no story of an atheist. This book is about the story of “Risk” as it developed over ages. “Risk” as in financial transactions or esoteric mathematics. I enjoyed this book because Bernstein (whose other memorable books include Power of Gold and Capital ideas) yet again managed to take a complicated academic subject and managed to make the book knowledgeable and interesting to all readers of all ilk.
Daivathinte Vikruthikal
I wanted to include one Malayalam book among my favorites here. I have read lotsa mal authors. My all time fav is Mukundan (who I believe deserve a nobel prize, neither Rushdie nor marquez has handled magical realism as well as he did) but other favs include MT, Malayattoor, OV Vijayan and Thakazhi. But for my all time fav book in Malayalam I will have to commit sacrilege and chose the above mentioned book by Mukundan and pass over OV Vijayan. Kazhakinte Ithihasangal might be the book that heralded the new literature in Malayalam but by the time I read this book (just over a few months ago) I had heard so much about the book that it almost disappointed me (my expectations were sky high). On the other hand, Daivathinte Vikruthikal was such an amazing story. Mukundan is one author who has managed to uniquely portray Mayyazhi as it was during the French colonial period and as it is now (as part of India). But more importantly, he was there to record the transition. The result is two classic books Mayyazhipuzhayude Theerangalil and Daivathinte Vikruthikal, the latter being my fav!
Ah well there are lotsa other books, hopefully I will get to write about them later. This was one of the most difficult posts for me to write. But having written, I am glad I finally did it. Thank u Silverine :)
Cheerio
Anish
The Journey Begins
When did i begin reading? I am not sure..but it certainly was quite early and my first (outside of class room) reading was probably Malayala Manorama, the tabloid favored by people of my region (central travancore), people of my community (Christians) and people of my heritage (anti-communists!).
Now why did i start reading Malayala Manorama? The reason is not too difficult to follow. When i was a kid (before i moved to boarding school) my morning study schedule was (set and strictly made to follow by my parents) went like this. Get up at 6 AM, study till 8 AM. No interruption was allowed during this time. Then one day, i imagine my father offered me and my bro the chance to read news paper during the morning study time. And boy! did we jump at the chance!. so the routine was set..wake up..sit in front of the school books eagerly awaiting the tring tring of abu chettan the newspaper man. Abu chettan ofcourse leaves the newspaper at the gate about 50 meters away from our house. Being the youngest i was given the privilege of going and collecting the newspaper before it got drenched in the rain (memory says it was always raining..but that cant be true). I was more than happy to do this..the run to the gate..waving hi to abu chettan and then walk back in slow motion to the house..trying to read the news at least in the front page. Well as soon i reach home i had to hand over the newspaper to pappa as priority was determined by seniority. Papa goes first, elder bro next and me last (thankfully mom was always too busy in the morning to read paper!). And of course in our family, never ever we allow paper to be separated into sheets and be read concurrently. I still hate people who ask me sheets out of the newspaper while i am reading!. dad takes about 30 minutes to finish the newspaper while bro is faster and I get the paper at around 7 AM. Thus begins my marathon reading, I used to read everything twice over, from advertisements to obituaries until I can see the clock chiming 8!
The next step in my metamorphism into a bookworm came during the holidays. Dear mom, always worried about my dark complexion (!!) was horrified to see me playing full day in the nearby paddy fields. It must have been her idea (to keep me inside the house during daytime) that prompted dad to bring books from his company library during holidays. Soon I began to delve into books during the holidays. I read everything, right from the M magazines to painkili novels to detective stories, anything would do for me.
On To the Wonderland of English
I moved to a boarding school at the age of 10. Till then my reading was solely in Malayalam as I wasn’t familiar with English. In the next two years, I mastered a fair bit of English and one day i gingerly picked up a tarzan book to read. I picked up tarzan because I was a big fan of tarzan and had read all tarzan books in Malayalam. Hence I assumed it would be easier for me to read the same in English. I guess Tarzan is not written in the simplest language and probably was not a good first choice for a kid. Still I plowed through the book and found out I understood most of it. Well then I re-read the entire Tarzan series in English and I was on my way into the wide world of English literature.
Unfortunately by the time I started reading in English I was about 13-14 and thus missed a whole load of children’s books. I never read any of those hardy boys/nancy drews/enid blytons or entire series of comics. While I did try to go back to those classics later in my life, I found out that it did not recreate the childhood magic which it does to people who read those books in the right age. Well one cant be expected to have everything!
Engineering college is a great place to read for leisure, especially if it is one of those old govt engineering colleges. Mass bunks were the norm, strikes were as regular as classes (if not more frequent) and I read and read everything other than engineering books, in class (whenever I attended them), in the lab and once even during an internal exam (didn’t knew the answers to the question paper anyway!). This is also the time when I started to build up my library..mostly second hand books as the monthly allowance did not allow much discretionary spending after the obligatory hostel bills, thattukada bills and kallushaap bills were paid off. Coupla years after my engineering I started working and finally I was on the way to my lifelong ambition of building up a huge library!
The Libraries I Have Been To
Toshiba Ananad, Athani
My first library. This was the employee society library of the company that dad used to work in. After a few summers of dad bringing me books from this library, he started to bring the books that I have already read. Tired of my cribbing, he took me to the library and left me there while he went off to work. I spent countless days being the only member who was browsing books there (others were employees playing cards/caroms or engaging in union talk!). It was a wonderful little library. The company closed about 8 years back and the library is sadly all but destroyed by now.
Sainik School Trivandrum
For a school of about 600 students, my school probably had one of the best libraries in kerala. Enriched by contributions from generous alumni and teachers, this was a treasure trove for all of us. Add the knowledgeable and affable Librarian Mr: Simon Peter and it is no wonder that most of the ex students of the school have fond memories of the library. He is universally loved for his love and knowledge of books. Unfortunately I did not have a good relationship with him in the beginning. I was banned from the library for two years (I believe 8th and 9th stds) after he twice found me bunking classes to sit and read in the library. But the collection there was totally awesome and later on Good ole peter sir was sympathetic and allowed me to even borrow multiple books at the same time.
Alwaye Municipal Library
Post school, through out my engineering days this was the library to go into whenever I was at home. For a Municpal library this was extremely well maintained and had a quaint stacking system. The members cannot go over and choose books but had to go thru a list of books and give our choices to the attendants who will then recover the same if they were available. This system sadly doesn’t allow for lucky accidents (when u just stumble on an author who then becomes ur fav) and with typical govt service attitude kinda attendants becomes a major pain.
Thrissur Public Library
The Cultural capital of Kerala can surely be proud of the library it owns. Huge collection, extremely friendly and knowledgeable librarians, frequent conferences with literary people easily make this place the best library I have ever been to. This is also the place where I lucked out on a complete collection of Bernard Shaw’s plays. Having read the entire book, I thought about not returning the book and paying the fine (the book was out of print) but then somehow I returned the book.
Total Number of Books I Own: Should be close to 400 and increasing at the rate of about 3 per month. I beg borrow and steal books and behave like an absolute asshole when someone wants to borrow a book from me. That sure helps me in increasing the pace of my book collection drive
Last Book Bought: The Piano Teacher
Last Book Read: A Man in Full, by Tom Wolfe. One of my current favorite authors, the book is about a larger than life real estate tycoon in Atlanta. Set in the 1990’s, this is not as good as some of his other works but quite interesting
Books That Mean That Extra To me
I cannot put them in any order. Even the thought fills me with dread. So i am doing a random listing. The list is bound to favor my recent readings not by choice but by my considerably short memory. I have also removed some of the books which have come up in other similar posts for the sake of brevity (not that I have succeded in the effort!)
Bernard Shaw
He is the god!!!!, I accidentally came across four of his plays in a pavement shop and has fallen in luv with his writing ever since. For biting social sarcasm you will never find his match. His social satires can make you laugh n think at the same time. Having read all the plays written by him, my favs are Devil’s Disciple, Man and Superman, Major Barbara, Mrs: Warren’s Profession. All these books are available free on internet at Project Guttenberg
Last Temptation of Jesus Christ
Yep, this is the book that’s still on the Index maintained by Vatican. This book is a fictional attempt to strip the cloak of myth away from Jesus Christ. Nikos Kazantzakis never said this book is the ultimate truth about Christ, but this book portrays Christ as a human being prone to temptations and worries just like any of us. This should be in the reading list of any Christian and for that matter any compassionate human being. Ultimately, this book for all its failings (and there are many historical fallacies) manage to portray Jesus as an individual whom we can respect as one of our own (and not just as the mythical son of god). I am sure MT Vasudevan was inspired by this when he wrote Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha. The reversal of roles by Chadiyan Chanthu and Judas are strikingly similar.
The man who knew infinity
I rarely read biographies, because they usually are biased (for or against the character). But this is one of the best biographies I have ever read. The biography tracks the famed Indian mathematician, Ramanujam’s life, struggle, success and ultimately tragic death. A must read for ever Indian and anyone who is even remotely interested in mathematics. To me the book was even more interesting as I read this book while in Chennai and almost all the landmarks during the life of Ramanujam are still present there. Too bad that such a great book about one of the finest Indian mathematicians had to be written by an American. Mebbe one day we will see this book made into a movie jez like “A beautiful Mind”.
Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
This is the story of the wild days of America in the 60’s. Even the most conservative magazines such as wall street journal and Economist later hailed this book as the classic story of those times. This is the story of the Author hooking up with the celebrated novelist Ken Kesey as Kesey and his group of wild, LSD driven hippies travel around US of A in a painted bus. Quite a heavy reading this book is, almost as if the author himself was under the influence of LSD when he wrote it. But as an authentic account of that era, no other book matches this one. For people like us, who never experienced those innocent, free outpouring of hope and emotions, this is our guide to the swinging sixties.
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
It is very rare when the hero of a classic book writes a classic of his own. The demonic hero of Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Ken Kesey, wrote this classic novel. McMurphy is the classic loner Hero and Chief Broom is the deeply troubled narrator in this book where the slow but inevitable movement towards tragedy is so overwhelming that it is a relief when the end happens. Chief Broom’s narration about how degrading life can made to be in an asylum can move you (it definitely moved me) into tears. Made in to an eponymous film starring Jack Nicholson (perfect portrayal of Mac), the book also was butchered into a Malayalam movie called Thalavattam by priyadarshan.
Loneliness of the long distance runner
Considered to be the all time classic longish short story on the mind of runners. This is strictly not a book on running, not even a book on runners (for this you should try “Once a Runner” a fav of mine), rather this book is all about the psyche of the rebel. Many of my fav books have had heroes who are loners and rebels. Occasionally I fancy myself as the torch bearer of those great souls. These are souls whom you can admire even when you don’t want to emulate them. The book is actually a collection of short stories but the best and the longest one has the same title as the book. This story is about a teenager in a juvenile correction home, who rebels against the system (portrayed by the chief warden) even when he knows that obedience will ease his life while dis-obedience will make his life a hell! The way he rebels is intriguing but his thoughts while committing the act of rebellion is pure classic. Somehow I was reminded of Catcher in the rye while reading this book and trust me Holden Caulfield pales in comparison to the teenage long distance runner
Against the gods
No this is no story of an atheist. This book is about the story of “Risk” as it developed over ages. “Risk” as in financial transactions or esoteric mathematics. I enjoyed this book because Bernstein (whose other memorable books include Power of Gold and Capital ideas) yet again managed to take a complicated academic subject and managed to make the book knowledgeable and interesting to all readers of all ilk.
Daivathinte Vikruthikal
I wanted to include one Malayalam book among my favorites here. I have read lotsa mal authors. My all time fav is Mukundan (who I believe deserve a nobel prize, neither Rushdie nor marquez has handled magical realism as well as he did) but other favs include MT, Malayattoor, OV Vijayan and Thakazhi. But for my all time fav book in Malayalam I will have to commit sacrilege and chose the above mentioned book by Mukundan and pass over OV Vijayan. Kazhakinte Ithihasangal might be the book that heralded the new literature in Malayalam but by the time I read this book (just over a few months ago) I had heard so much about the book that it almost disappointed me (my expectations were sky high). On the other hand, Daivathinte Vikruthikal was such an amazing story. Mukundan is one author who has managed to uniquely portray Mayyazhi as it was during the French colonial period and as it is now (as part of India). But more importantly, he was there to record the transition. The result is two classic books Mayyazhipuzhayude Theerangalil and Daivathinte Vikruthikal, the latter being my fav!
Ah well there are lotsa other books, hopefully I will get to write about them later. This was one of the most difficult posts for me to write. But having written, I am glad I finally did it. Thank u Silverine :)
Cheerio
Anish
November 07, 2005
India Empowered
This is an article written by a senior from school in today's Indian Express. I had earlier posted an article about him Fighter Pilot For A While; Fighter For Life
I havent met anil yet, but he is a legend in our school. Each and every student sooner or later comes to know about him and the lucky ones who travel to pune reverently goes off to meet him there.
I just had to post this one, for the fighting spirit that he still keeps alive (even though he will never be a fighter pilot again) and for the noble cause for which he writes
here is the link
Indian Express
When the disabled stand on their own feet, on own steam
M P Anil Kumar
Former fighter pilot at Paraplegic Rehabilitation Centre, Pune
M P Anil Kumar; Former fighter pilot at Paraplegic Rehabilitation Centre, Pune As was the wont, I called on my old teacher N Balakrishnan Nair during a visit to my alma mater (Sainik School, Kazhakootam, Kerala) in the mid-80s. He told me in the course of our chat that the school had benevolently admitted 25 needy students from Bihar that year.
I scanned our alumni website days ago to ascertain where these students, some from the boondocks of Bihar, had stationed themselves in life. Officers in the Army, Navy & Customs, journalist, doctor, engineers, research scholar, lecturer, executives—all doing well and shinning up the totem-pole. I could not but wonder where these schoolmates would have been had they not obtained quality education? Flotsam and jetsam perhaps.
Roughly a century ago, Shri Narayana Guru, sage and social reformer, had an uncomplicated solution to nudge the oppressed masses of Kerala to unfetter themselves from their social and economic subjugation—education. Unlike the self-styled modern messiahs, Guru never exhorted violence or grabbing as means to amelioration. He foresaw education as the stairway to salvation. It reaped rich dividends.
The above illustrations epitomise the capacity of education to catalyse the upward mobility of the straitened strata of the society. At the risk of luring opprobrious epithets, I would aver that the time has come to defenestrate the reservation policy based on castes. It has failed to meet its exalted objectives. Its beneficiaries are the ones with political leverage and the well-heeled SCs, STs and OBCs, not the necessitous ones.
Instead the government should focus on their education, books, meals and groundwork for competitive exams; building top-notch schools to provide first-rate education to impecunious students; sponsoring the higher education of the bright among the indigent lot. Unimpeded access to quality education will aid them to make the grade through open competition, instill self-esteem and self-assurance among them, breed role models to emulate, and prod their social and economic elevation.
I know my impassioned pitch for skirting the beaten track will fall on deaf ears as no government will have the gumption to groom them that way. It cannot beget instant results and tangible fruition will take decades; hence it will be a political hot potato. Nostrums like reservation, and more reservation, are sly remedies to con the electorate. I boldly believe that empowerment through education is the sure-footed path to pull off the durable uplift of the downtrodden masses. Education is the one-way highway to empowerment. There is no short cut.
I was a fighter pilot in the IAF till a mishap 17 years ago snapped my cervical spinal cord, rendered me a quadriplegic and condemned me to a wholly dependent life. From my vantage point aboard a wheelchair, the world markedly looks a different place, nay a different planet. Disabled persons— variously seen as wastrels, counterfeit coins, eyesores and laughing-stocks—are indisputably at the nadir of the food-chain. Though there are excellent exceptions, lip-service and pity are what we get in abundance. Our Parliament passed the Persons with Disabilities Act in December 1995 after much goading. Equal opportunities and non-discrimination, its cornerstones, have been flung to the winds. Why not? The disabled community is not a mouth-watering, exploitable votebank.
‘‘Disabled persons will never be true citizens until they are defined by their contributions, not needs,’’ bemoaned Sam Sullivan, a Canadian alderman and a quadriplegic. Our society has chosen to be a moral one in which no one should be in need. In a welfare state, a need of one confers a right to the resources of the rest. ‘Needs Assessment’ is the bedrock of our social support system. The classic mechanism of the welfare state is to identify large numbers of similar needs and to assign means to agencies devoted to solving or mitigating them. Alas, people are earmarked by their needs, not by their talents and assets. Think of friendships: They are always based on assets and contributions; no one develops friendships based on what’s wrong with the other person.
In sum, we need to ripen our skills and talents; we need to make our communities aware that everyone, regardless of disability, has vital contributions to make. Communities prosper when all their citizens contribute.
Rehabilitation, that catchall mantra chanted by the government, means more than just equipping with crutches, prostheses, wheelchairs, etc. Livelihood is the crux, not handouts. Governmental props, regrettably, enslave the recipients, stunt their talents and abet corruption. Besides, the sundry arms of the jumbo bureaucracy customarily work against one another to nix well-meant welfare programmes. Yet, the imperative of the state joining forces with the society to enable a delivery system needs no emphasis, but we need a novel paradigm to expedite the deliverance of disabled people from the yoke of destitution. Ergo, I believe that a slick public-private tie-up is the avenue to redemption, as demonstrated by the polio eradication drive launched jointly by the government and Rotary. Apart from access to transport and buildings, the disabled people want to be made employable and find employment opportunities where they live.
Since unemployment is a curse worse than impairment, a two-pronged initiative to boost employability and employment cannot wait. The education model (with accent on vocational training) I broached above is the key to making the disabled persons employable. Since the 3-per cent job quota pledged in the 1995 Act has not swollen employment, a robust blueprint to fuel employment needs to be devised. Everything being equal, an employer will always favour a non-disabled candidate. As the private sector will not do it pro bono, why not ape the German policy of stipulating incentives? Like, higher the number/ratio of disabled workers, higher the tax incentives for the employers. The disabled community will be empowered when the support apparatus will facilitate them to stand on their own feet, under their own steam.
Lastly, India will be empowered when the state of affairs is conducive for her citizens, especially the underprivileged lot, to realise their full potential and live with dignity.
I havent met anil yet, but he is a legend in our school. Each and every student sooner or later comes to know about him and the lucky ones who travel to pune reverently goes off to meet him there.
I just had to post this one, for the fighting spirit that he still keeps alive (even though he will never be a fighter pilot again) and for the noble cause for which he writes
here is the link
Indian Express
When the disabled stand on their own feet, on own steam
M P Anil Kumar
Former fighter pilot at Paraplegic Rehabilitation Centre, Pune
M P Anil Kumar; Former fighter pilot at Paraplegic Rehabilitation Centre, Pune As was the wont, I called on my old teacher N Balakrishnan Nair during a visit to my alma mater (Sainik School, Kazhakootam, Kerala) in the mid-80s. He told me in the course of our chat that the school had benevolently admitted 25 needy students from Bihar that year.
I scanned our alumni website days ago to ascertain where these students, some from the boondocks of Bihar, had stationed themselves in life. Officers in the Army, Navy & Customs, journalist, doctor, engineers, research scholar, lecturer, executives—all doing well and shinning up the totem-pole. I could not but wonder where these schoolmates would have been had they not obtained quality education? Flotsam and jetsam perhaps.
Roughly a century ago, Shri Narayana Guru, sage and social reformer, had an uncomplicated solution to nudge the oppressed masses of Kerala to unfetter themselves from their social and economic subjugation—education. Unlike the self-styled modern messiahs, Guru never exhorted violence or grabbing as means to amelioration. He foresaw education as the stairway to salvation. It reaped rich dividends.
The above illustrations epitomise the capacity of education to catalyse the upward mobility of the straitened strata of the society. At the risk of luring opprobrious epithets, I would aver that the time has come to defenestrate the reservation policy based on castes. It has failed to meet its exalted objectives. Its beneficiaries are the ones with political leverage and the well-heeled SCs, STs and OBCs, not the necessitous ones.
Instead the government should focus on their education, books, meals and groundwork for competitive exams; building top-notch schools to provide first-rate education to impecunious students; sponsoring the higher education of the bright among the indigent lot. Unimpeded access to quality education will aid them to make the grade through open competition, instill self-esteem and self-assurance among them, breed role models to emulate, and prod their social and economic elevation.
I know my impassioned pitch for skirting the beaten track will fall on deaf ears as no government will have the gumption to groom them that way. It cannot beget instant results and tangible fruition will take decades; hence it will be a political hot potato. Nostrums like reservation, and more reservation, are sly remedies to con the electorate. I boldly believe that empowerment through education is the sure-footed path to pull off the durable uplift of the downtrodden masses. Education is the one-way highway to empowerment. There is no short cut.
I was a fighter pilot in the IAF till a mishap 17 years ago snapped my cervical spinal cord, rendered me a quadriplegic and condemned me to a wholly dependent life. From my vantage point aboard a wheelchair, the world markedly looks a different place, nay a different planet. Disabled persons— variously seen as wastrels, counterfeit coins, eyesores and laughing-stocks—are indisputably at the nadir of the food-chain. Though there are excellent exceptions, lip-service and pity are what we get in abundance. Our Parliament passed the Persons with Disabilities Act in December 1995 after much goading. Equal opportunities and non-discrimination, its cornerstones, have been flung to the winds. Why not? The disabled community is not a mouth-watering, exploitable votebank.
‘‘Disabled persons will never be true citizens until they are defined by their contributions, not needs,’’ bemoaned Sam Sullivan, a Canadian alderman and a quadriplegic. Our society has chosen to be a moral one in which no one should be in need. In a welfare state, a need of one confers a right to the resources of the rest. ‘Needs Assessment’ is the bedrock of our social support system. The classic mechanism of the welfare state is to identify large numbers of similar needs and to assign means to agencies devoted to solving or mitigating them. Alas, people are earmarked by their needs, not by their talents and assets. Think of friendships: They are always based on assets and contributions; no one develops friendships based on what’s wrong with the other person.
In sum, we need to ripen our skills and talents; we need to make our communities aware that everyone, regardless of disability, has vital contributions to make. Communities prosper when all their citizens contribute.
Rehabilitation, that catchall mantra chanted by the government, means more than just equipping with crutches, prostheses, wheelchairs, etc. Livelihood is the crux, not handouts. Governmental props, regrettably, enslave the recipients, stunt their talents and abet corruption. Besides, the sundry arms of the jumbo bureaucracy customarily work against one another to nix well-meant welfare programmes. Yet, the imperative of the state joining forces with the society to enable a delivery system needs no emphasis, but we need a novel paradigm to expedite the deliverance of disabled people from the yoke of destitution. Ergo, I believe that a slick public-private tie-up is the avenue to redemption, as demonstrated by the polio eradication drive launched jointly by the government and Rotary. Apart from access to transport and buildings, the disabled people want to be made employable and find employment opportunities where they live.
Since unemployment is a curse worse than impairment, a two-pronged initiative to boost employability and employment cannot wait. The education model (with accent on vocational training) I broached above is the key to making the disabled persons employable. Since the 3-per cent job quota pledged in the 1995 Act has not swollen employment, a robust blueprint to fuel employment needs to be devised. Everything being equal, an employer will always favour a non-disabled candidate. As the private sector will not do it pro bono, why not ape the German policy of stipulating incentives? Like, higher the number/ratio of disabled workers, higher the tax incentives for the employers. The disabled community will be empowered when the support apparatus will facilitate them to stand on their own feet, under their own steam.
Lastly, India will be empowered when the state of affairs is conducive for her citizens, especially the underprivileged lot, to realise their full potential and live with dignity.
October 25, 2005
Back 2 Blog!
I am back!!!!
About a month back me n my roomies decided to shift from our then abode. we hated the place but loved the location. The flat was supposedly furnished but all the furnishings were slightly older than us! However, the location kinda made up for it. Walking distance to a beautiful beach (a fav haunt of couples n so a fav haunt of us three eligible bachelors too!!), opp food world, few decent restaurants, ATM, a tasmaq (thats the booze seller) shop and very close to a shop which sells smuggled liquor (shhhh..dont tell any one!!).
So we started looking for a 3 bed room apartment, preferably furnished, in the same vicnity. Immediately we lucked out on a beautiful place right next to our old place, brand new apartment, luxuriously furnished (and by luxuary i mean real luxuary not the definition usually used by landlords in their ads!) with brand new appliances. The rent was sligtly high but all three of us loved the place. We will never be able to afford a place like this later and hence decided to go for posh this time :).
Well it was time to shift and everything went smooth..or atleast i thought so!. In the old place, i had a sify broadband connection but the new apartment was connected by Airtel. I thought its cool untill i found out that Airtel wont give broadband connection to bachelors!!!!!!!!!!!. The service guy specifically mentioned that "sir..you are all bachelors in the age group of 25-27". Now we thought that makes us "eligible" bachelors while for Airtel it made us "ineligible" bachelors atleast for their broadband connection!
Yeah, it seems some corporate honcho decided that bachelors are not welcome customers for their broadband (while they are welcome for airtel's cellular service). Had to run around for one full month to get this resolved. Thankfully my company had a corporate connection with Airtel and when i cntacted the account manager he was quite apologetic and said he will waiver the requirement for us. i am impressed with Airtel customer service and service quality but mebbe they need to change their rules a bit!.
Well...it wasnt the end of our broadband travails. We gave them a copy of our lease agreement and it seems a few lines got cut while photocopying (the lease document was of a different sized paper). Suddenly we get a call from Airtel's legal department accusing us of forging a lease agreement (yeah me too rolling my eyes!!). Grrrrr...had to run aorund a bit to sort it out again!.
Finally, we got our much anticipated broadband connection today today. So now we are comfortably settled in our new plush posh home and planning to stay there for a while. I hope to be a more regular blogger now on, its always a pain to blog from office!
cheerio
MoC
About a month back me n my roomies decided to shift from our then abode. we hated the place but loved the location. The flat was supposedly furnished but all the furnishings were slightly older than us! However, the location kinda made up for it. Walking distance to a beautiful beach (a fav haunt of couples n so a fav haunt of us three eligible bachelors too!!), opp food world, few decent restaurants, ATM, a tasmaq (thats the booze seller) shop and very close to a shop which sells smuggled liquor (shhhh..dont tell any one!!).
So we started looking for a 3 bed room apartment, preferably furnished, in the same vicnity. Immediately we lucked out on a beautiful place right next to our old place, brand new apartment, luxuriously furnished (and by luxuary i mean real luxuary not the definition usually used by landlords in their ads!) with brand new appliances. The rent was sligtly high but all three of us loved the place. We will never be able to afford a place like this later and hence decided to go for posh this time :).
Well it was time to shift and everything went smooth..or atleast i thought so!. In the old place, i had a sify broadband connection but the new apartment was connected by Airtel. I thought its cool untill i found out that Airtel wont give broadband connection to bachelors!!!!!!!!!!!. The service guy specifically mentioned that "sir..you are all bachelors in the age group of 25-27". Now we thought that makes us "eligible" bachelors while for Airtel it made us "ineligible" bachelors atleast for their broadband connection!
Yeah, it seems some corporate honcho decided that bachelors are not welcome customers for their broadband (while they are welcome for airtel's cellular service). Had to run around for one full month to get this resolved. Thankfully my company had a corporate connection with Airtel and when i cntacted the account manager he was quite apologetic and said he will waiver the requirement for us. i am impressed with Airtel customer service and service quality but mebbe they need to change their rules a bit!.
Well...it wasnt the end of our broadband travails. We gave them a copy of our lease agreement and it seems a few lines got cut while photocopying (the lease document was of a different sized paper). Suddenly we get a call from Airtel's legal department accusing us of forging a lease agreement (yeah me too rolling my eyes!!). Grrrrr...had to run aorund a bit to sort it out again!.
Finally, we got our much anticipated broadband connection today today. So now we are comfortably settled in our new plush posh home and planning to stay there for a while. I hope to be a more regular blogger now on, its always a pain to blog from office!
cheerio
MoC
September 18, 2005
Female Blogging!
In the last six months of life in blogosphere, i made a startling discovery!
There are lotsa more wonderful female bloggers, especially Indians, than male bloggers. This is not to denigrate the male half of the indian blogging world (of which there are quite a few celebrities!) but just something i saw.
I have often pondered over this, especially after a few pegs when my drinking buddies begin to make "well thats because you are biased towards finding female bloggers than male bloggers" kinda statements.
Well, today i got a partial answer. Was just browsing through old newspapers in my living room (making a desperate and totally unsuccesful attempt to clean up) when i came across this article in Hindu. Immediately went online and found the link as i wanted to share my discovery!
Here is the link : Blog Sisters Are Here
what the article basically says is that women blog because they often need a medium to let out their feelings anonymously. Hmmm..that set me thinking (which i can occasionally do even without having a peg!).
My immediate reaction was to reject it out of hand. Well men too need anonymity. Anonymity is a need for both males/females when they want to express their frustrations about boss, work, client, partner, inlaws etc!.
But, in the absence of a drink to celebrate my thoughtful rejection of an idea, i continued to chew over it!. And that was a mistake, as i found going back on my conclusions, something which i hate to do :(
Hmmm...it is true that women need more anonymity than a man (atleast in india) when they talk about the relationships they had, the ones they hope to have, their ideas on marriage, love etc..especially if one is single and comes from a conservative family background.
So i dedicate this post to all those wonderful female bloggers i have stumbled upon (and all those whom i havent too!), keep blogging in the brutally honest way that you so often do. u add a wonderful and totally new (atleast to me) perspective!.
Disclaimer: This is not a pick up blog :)) and i absolutely convincingly remain as a true blue MCP as my next post will show. This is just an aberration!
cheers
Anish
There are lotsa more wonderful female bloggers, especially Indians, than male bloggers. This is not to denigrate the male half of the indian blogging world (of which there are quite a few celebrities!) but just something i saw.
I have often pondered over this, especially after a few pegs when my drinking buddies begin to make "well thats because you are biased towards finding female bloggers than male bloggers" kinda statements.
Well, today i got a partial answer. Was just browsing through old newspapers in my living room (making a desperate and totally unsuccesful attempt to clean up) when i came across this article in Hindu. Immediately went online and found the link as i wanted to share my discovery!
Here is the link : Blog Sisters Are Here
what the article basically says is that women blog because they often need a medium to let out their feelings anonymously. Hmmm..that set me thinking (which i can occasionally do even without having a peg!).
My immediate reaction was to reject it out of hand. Well men too need anonymity. Anonymity is a need for both males/females when they want to express their frustrations about boss, work, client, partner, inlaws etc!.
But, in the absence of a drink to celebrate my thoughtful rejection of an idea, i continued to chew over it!. And that was a mistake, as i found going back on my conclusions, something which i hate to do :(
Hmmm...it is true that women need more anonymity than a man (atleast in india) when they talk about the relationships they had, the ones they hope to have, their ideas on marriage, love etc..especially if one is single and comes from a conservative family background.
So i dedicate this post to all those wonderful female bloggers i have stumbled upon (and all those whom i havent too!), keep blogging in the brutally honest way that you so often do. u add a wonderful and totally new (atleast to me) perspective!.
Disclaimer: This is not a pick up blog :)) and i absolutely convincingly remain as a true blue MCP as my next post will show. This is just an aberration!
cheers
Anish
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