Equality

We talk of equality, especially of the sexes, to a great extent. Its almost a style statement to say you believe in equality in sexes of late. Every other person - male or female- talks about equality of sexes with so much conviction, one tends to believe it indeed exists.

I was at a distributor's daughter's birthday party last noon. As it has been over the past few months, I was interacting with a bunch of retailers, a part of my team and some relatives of the host. Everyone was singing praises of the host because both his off-springs are daughters and he is still happy. What the hell. A girl child at home is a bad omen or what? What makes them think a person with two daughters and no son should be unhappy?

I know of couples who have had 4 children for the sake of a male child. I feel so sorry when you judge a child at birth itself. I dont judge who is better, cos at the end of the day, we are all parts of that puzzle we need to make sense of and each of us contributes in our own unique way. But it is the prejudices of people which should have been erased but are still intact, which enrages me. A male, no guarantee of what he grows up to be, is considered a gift and female, a curse.

When I was at a Madarassa in the interiors of UP, and saw a well dedicated to throw your girl child at birth and kill her, I was thankful that people in my state were not that backward-thinking. But we are no better. I have listened to spine-chilling stories of how girls in the houses of my team or my channel partners were killed, or got married against their wishes or discontinued studies. The stories are so heart-breaking you tend to forget if its happening to a man or a woman, you feel sorry for yourself that all these are happening in the world you are a part of!

Frankly speaking, an urban woman gets much more than what she should in the name of equality. I have always been a firm believer than when you believe men and women are equal, there ends the matter, no more concessions should be extended towards either parties. Exceptions and explanations can make another post.

Coming back to the rural setup, a woman has still not progressed. In a sales setup, a woman has no place, and a female MT from a reputed B-School is talked about cheaply because she is a woman and has chosen sales. Pity! The mothers, wives and sisters of all the people I meet in the up-country locations have a similar profile -discontinued studies somewhere in high school, got married before they could vote, and have been living the normal routine in the kitchen ever since then. Nothing has changed. No Equality. And we are still fighting over seats for women in buses, shorter queues for them at movie halls etc etc...

Power

When we say the powerful call it shots in this country, its true. I always thought our society had been emergin towards decentralisation of power so much tht the word power will soon lose its sanctity cos evryone wud b as powerful as any other.
But alas, no. Powerful ppl still exploit the powerless. The major disparity in power, esp in rural India, comes in wealth. The respect a rich guy wud gave a poor guy, howevr little tht was n whtevr reason it was for, in a Delhi or a Hyderabad was no whr to be seen for me in a Barabanki, a Kursi or a Nalgonda for me. The poor are still ants, stomped upon evryone above them.
Today a poor, young employee came running to me n complained that a rich, middle-aged guy punched him. Reason: my guy was dng his job, which included business ideals which did not comply wid the rich guy's whims! I thot an apology 4m the rich guy wud b the solution, n got it. I knew it was half-hearted. When he was mvng out, I cud c the glitter in his eye tht he emerged unscathed.
Thr was still a frustration, wid no solution to it. A slave to social networks tht I am, I thought my feelings wud b shared thr, n I always thot thtz wht these n/ws r 4, but I realised my network is full of blokes who can poke fun at someone's pain and get away with it. Injustice here too. These blokes, probly even am one such, are lost in comforts of life and cant understand the pain of a guy wrkng his ass of to earn a meagre 3K a month. Probly v all r like tht. This is the power of comfort tht has blinded us to the feelings of others.
Thtz when I realised I cud hv some power too, n summoned it. The brat is now behind the bars n the glitter is now in the eye of my boy who smiles thinkin this is justice.
But at the end of the day, thrz still frustration. LOTS of it. Whtz right? Whtz wrong? Have I misused my power? Do we all do it all the time? Dont we understand power?
Ppl r not the right ones to answer these, as twitter taught me. Probly its time. Time can only answer, n till then probly v all need to file our queries in these blogposts.
Thr is still frustration in me, but atleast a solace tht something has come out of me.
PS: Sorry 4 all the (mis)formatting n the shortcuts in typing, am bloggin 4m a mobile.

Here I am

Time has passed quite briskly, or else how could one explain the difference in timestamp between this and my previous post? Feels like I had taken this short break from blogging, but then when I log back on to twitter I feel like one of those shady characters who are imprisoned for several years, and when finally released are amazed by the speed at which civilisation has moved ahead leaving them aeons behind. Bloggers seems to have done that to me. Several things have changed, but then treading through alien lands is nothing new to me, at least now!

While in college, I always looked forward to having a job. I would imagine my salary getting credited, and how thrilled I would be to get that money and spend, and all that childish crap one goes through in college. Ya, it did and does happen sometimes but then the job I looked at from my college boy eye is entirely different from what I do for a living now. This is much more challenging, and much more intriguing.

Job has kept me busy and off from several things. College was much different. I now interact very less with my friends. Definition of fun has now emerged to be a quiet dinner and a sound sleep. And ya, even funnier part of my life is acting very serious all day. I havent yet realised if I appear serious, or am serious or act that way for the heck of it to eke out a living. I just be so, and at the end of the day, manage to pull through all the requirements of my job!

That apart, my job has brought me another step closer to the rural hinterlands. Several times earlier, I had tiny stints/rendezvous with the rural life, but never as close as this one. I now live in a small town, and commute every day to several remote villages where my non-A/C Maruti 800 is quite an item! That - not the recognition - has added some zing to my job.

Its been very long since I typed more than 160 characters. I send out 10s of SMSs everyday and an equal number of tweets. Probably that has kept me from missing blogger. But then, how many ever T20s and ODIs you watch, a test is a Test... Real Class! Probably that is what Blogger to me is!

When I think of what exactly is the meaning or reason for this post, or will I continue blogging, I have no answers... All that I know is that Here I am, after a long time... And what was I doing all this while?! Enjoying life, job and the monies! :D And ya, what made me break my sabbatical? This post - after a good 2 yrs on this blog!

God... Save this country!

Isnt the world so full of pseudo-intellectuals? Everyone wants to be a ‘wanna be’, and takes pleasure in giving you the feeling of ‘oh, you are too desi, I am firang’ kinda attitude. This reflects in every aspect of behavior of many 15-28 yr olds, male or female, earning or studying, intelligent or dumb. They seem to show off their English Quotient at every drop of a hat!

 

The first identification of this sect is at their sniggering anything bollywood. They are like ‘Oh… you still watch bollywood bakwaas?’ They watch The Dark Knight time and again even if they don’t understand it, all because they have a hangover that they are cool. They tune into English channels on tv, no matter how hurting to the eye the transmission is… They groove to any English song, only cos they are above desi masala numbers you know… They always have this ‘cooler than thou’ look on their faces! God save this country from such people!

 

There is very good probability that you, one of those I still like to stumble upon deserted blog kinds, reading this stuff belong to that. These are people who laugh at you when you say Singh is Kinng is worth a second watch, and instead go watch a dumb ‘The hero is here to save the world’ Hollywood non-sense. Okie, I agree Singh is Kinng is not a masterpiece, but it is just a case in point.

 

These are people who have completely given into the western culture. They seek solace and acceptance in the fact that they are aping a cooler culture. But then, I strongly feel this society, this public, this streets, this crowdy streets, this over-the-top Bollywood numbers is what our society is. You may not appreciate it, but if you feel alienated from it, you don’t belong here and you are welcome to go find yourself non-sense that fits your bill as cool!  If you don’t identify with this society, this country, please buzz off from here is my sincere advice to all these people… This Independence day, I wanted the country to be free of this breed, but alas, it is only multiplying… God, save the nation!

Why... So... Serious...

Isn’t Heath Ledger amazing?! I have been in the Dark Knight hangover ever since I saw the film last weekend. My office desk is full of Why… So… Serious… posters now! :D

Khatron Ke Khiladi

Akshay Kumar is the man of the moment, and the past year or year and a half in Indian entertainment has had his name written bold and wide. Probably, that is when he could sense the scent of the mega opportunity called TV and ventured on to host Khatron Ke Khiladi. It was definitely not a small deal, monetarily or in terms of scale. Viacom launched their brand new GEC Colors with this show as the trump card.

Finally when the date did dawn, what did we get? A mediocre fare! Mediocre stunts, mediocre babes and a mediocre Mr. Kumar. Hope things will only get better from now.

Roti, Kapda, Makaan aur Mobile

 

Mobile is the buzz word of the country today. It so happened years ago that when someone purchased a mobile, it was news in the entire colony and when someone wanted a new mobile connection, they had to pay for receiving calls too. Then mobile slowly made its presence felt in day to day chores, and mobile starting popping out of many pockets. This was the time when having lost my dad’s mobile, I was dead scared to face him and called my sister to ask her if we could trace lost mobiles back.

Cut to present, mobile is anything but a luxury. Mobile is something that started off like an Armani, and is on the verge of being a jockey, with absolutely no offence to any of them. Mobile never seemed to be a necessity in the country to the depth of justifying the title I put, but the advent of lower tariffs, cheaper handsets made it what it is today.

In villages with no toilets, no schools, no hospitals, we have mobile stores today, and I honestly don’t know if I should be proud of it or feel a sense of self-pity for my country! :S Is mobile really that much a necessity as we perceive and make it out to be? Is it really that indispensable, at the cost of what the family could have at the cost of the mobile especially in rural India?

Back 2 Blog

Its B2B time, people… Back to Blogging… Have been away from it, thanks to office restrictions. Now, am back, thanks to blog thru mail and Prasoon :D

Its been quite a while and life has changed completely in the midst. Have been working on Rural Markets for about a month now, and must say, my first brush with job is really really fascinating. Walking down the streets of villages gives you so many lessons, no am not talking Swades style, but am talking true MBA style. It throws open many many opportunities, many bullet points to throw in presentations, and many ideas to work on. More than all of that, it throws open to you an entirely new world, a world where no rules exist. All the sales lessons, MBA sophistication (if any) go for a toss when you get your hands dirty (literally! :P) It tells you that whatever you thought was the world waiting out there for you, it is anything but what you expect it to be. The world has surprises to throw at you, eternally, and all of them are rich, invaluable lessons for life.

 

The best part of going to the villages is the travel. Travelling through those roadways buses, sitting in those 8-seater tempos carrying 17 people, jeeps carrying 20 – 22 people… Its all been amazing, the best part being the interactions with different kinds of people adding inputs and information to my work.

 

Work beckons! More later…

 

PS: This is a pilot mail. If this mail thingy succeeds, would resume blogging full time! :D