The Arguments within

Telltales of a fundamentalist : 1. He is really a Chauvinist who strongly holds that his culture, society, country, religion or his people are greatest. 2. He continually tries to absorb ‘ only what is good in other cultures and countries’. Thus he puts lots of focus on demarcating the ‘good’ from the ‘bad’. 3. He is poor in his communication skills in any language, and may even admit that though he cannot put his thoughts in right words but his thoughts are still ‘right.’ 4. He is superficially a very ‘secular’ person who ‘respects other religions also’. 5. He also continues to assert that is being humane in his ways 6. He assures that ‘excessive’ freedom is bad. And so the freedom of Press should is most essential to be put in control. The Sting Operations are the obvious proof of it where personal areas have been intruded. 7. He instantly feels offended whenever anything critical of his goodies emerges. He tries to suppress it there and then. Thus

Negatives of Lucknow’s ‘Aap’-culture . “ Pehale aap .” “ Nehin, pehale aap .” And the train sets away rolling. This is the most vivid picture that comes to our mind, the moment we talk about the Awadh’s (formerly, for Lucknow) ‘ Aap-aap’ . And even when the train is missed out in surmounting one’s ‘pehale aap’ (‘you first, please’) on the other, Lucknowites are still proud of it. For, now this is seen as the symbol of the city’s greatest patronage to two popular language of the country at their distinction, the Urdu and the Hindustani. Javed Akhtar, Naushad, K.P. Saxena, -- don’t know how many noted literati have taken routes to fame through the streets of Lucknow. But, like we keep one-track thinking for most of our subjects, so do we do here. Because we consider only ‘aap’ to be pure and the best, and the rest to be sub-standard-- ‘Tum’ is more of plebeians. The two are never evaluated against their merits and demerits— formal or informal, stressful or comfortable. All ruled out—it h

Our misplaced obsession about Bhagwad Geeta Thousands of years, and this scripture is still so current. This has been the guide of the Hindu lifestyle, and may I propose- the Indian lifestyle, since time immemorial. And amazingly enough the ancient philosophy finds its relevance in our lifestyle even on this day, despite so many social and technology-driven changes. I was mesmerized to see the rock sculpture of Shree Krisna and Arjun on their chariot, on the battlefield, with Krisna’s forefinger stretched outwards (to the enemies) at the entrance of IIM-Lucknow. Perhaps this is the first and most classic case of war-management, wherein the Advisor—or the manager, in the seat of the chariot pilot, changes the ordained outcome of a war, the Mahabharata. The holy Shlok(the Verse) associated with this famous scene read: ‘ Yadaa yadaa hee adhramasya, glaanir bhavati bharatah, abhyuthanam dharmaya, tadaatmaanam shrijaamayham’ Meaning: Whenever shall the Adharm (the evil) humiliate this land,

My take on Rang de basanti… Truly a generation-awakening film. Apart from ‘people liked it so much…’; ‘ it became a movement..’; ‘candle light vigils became an in thing..’, etc, what I liked most about this movie was its take on handling the enemy within — the last scene in which actor Siddharth is shown killing his own father Rajpath Singhania, the corrupt Defense middleman, played by ever-supreme, Aunpam Kher. For the whole lot of Indian, the fight was simply about taking the enemy as close as inside the territory; but for Siddharth! Because for him, he was very much inside the house, may be inside his blood also . This aloof character is shown fighting the hardest battle. Mustn’t have been easy, I am sure. And I suspect it is here that the entire real life patrons are going to put the high ideals of this movie in the cold bag. For not all of us can fight this enemy, the self. We cannot choose to part ways with our luxuries; the bare facts of a provincial life begin to loom large bef

Be right, not dead right. Try not to prove yourself to be right; try to prove what u did was what you felt to be right.

Character sketch of Captain Vaz Captain Derrick Fernandes Vaz. This is his full name. Supposedly the most awesome and formidable of all the nautical surveyors in MMD, Mumbai. He is also seen as one of the most knowledgeable persons around. Very much up-to-date and thorough with the procedures, legislations and ship knowledge. His name has often given scares and sweat to candidates. He is known for asking highly ultra-syllabus questions which are instantly perceived as never-answerable. Though I myself never had any opportunity of facing him for my oral exams, I have always got intrigued by his charisma after hearing people’s reports of experiences with him. Hence my psycho profiling is based on the same along with just one write-up I have read, written by him, and a couple of encounters I had for other works. Most of time he puts up those subject questions only for which the candidate appears to be least prepared. For those who emanate a feel of thorough preparations, there are alw

New age management thoughts for future policy makers in India :- 1) Over ninety percent of Indians are congenitally dishonest and corrupt. Every policy must incorporate provisions to keep strict checks on people in its own circuit also. 2) There is no such thing as good-faith and altruism known to over ninety percent of us. Having born and brought up in a jungle-like living condition where we have to fight for everything from food to naukri to chokri, we always look at each other with suspicion. We are eternally cynical. 3) We are still very much an uncivilized society who do not know the concept of nation, society and governments. Our nationalism comes into play only when Pakistan is in opposition. Otherwise we like to have a jungle-like living. 4) Quite many of us do not believe in power of pen or the magic of good education for we have never seen it happening. 5) We span between to very extremes—super rich and super poor. Proportion of super rich in our population is very small. The

30 October, 2006 I am losing my favourite game… India loses out to Australia again. And what’s more, it was a predictable defeat. We knew, at least I did, that, we are born to be losers on most of the days. We win only on odd days. Defeat is ours, triumph theirs. In 2004, while serving on ship ‘Pataliputra’, we would go to Australia quite regularly. The coastal passage along the Great Barrier Reef from Cape York in the Torres Strait to Cairns is a pilotage waters. Hence in this June’04 trip there was this pilot, Mike, on board. An oversized, pot-bellied, couch potato who perhaps did nothing but piloting and watching sports on TV. Pilotage is a 3 days affair during which pilot stays on board night and day. I was serving as second mate at that time. On the second day of the inward passage, Mike and us, my two cadets and myself, got into some discussions on performance of Indian versus Australians in various fields. Funny man Mike counted to us how the Aussies have been excelling in task

Street smartness is an outcome of underdeveloped, uncivilized society. It should never be promoted. It may be kept as reflector shield only.

The Orals That’s how we popularly know them. The popular name gives an innuendo of that pleasure act equally popular in our MMS-crazed generation but, here, is actually a short form for Oral Examinations conducted by the Mercantile Marine Department (MMD) of Ministry of Shipping, India, for certification of merchant naval officers. The final steps towards acquiring any grade of licenses involves a face-to-face interview with examiners of MMD, known as Surveyors as per the provisions of the MS Act, 1958, and entails examination of our technical and managerial knowledge. The results of all MMD exams are best described by a well-known maritime adage –‘Sea yields out whatever goes in it; it does not eat away anything.’ Yes, that’s right, one day or the other we all pass. But then like all humans have a need for some challenge to give them reasons to live, we have devised the challenge in passing the exams in ‘first shot’. Over these years of revampe

25th aug,2006 " Education is what remains when you have fogotton all that you had learnt" the past few days have seen me at the peak of my anguish against certain issues,things and people. shouting ,protesting,howling-i did this all to prove my point. i wantes to make a statement but ended up making arguments. or was made to sound like that. actauly i wanted , first, to be heard, then, thought , and then, be argued. but simply got argued on. and by another rudimenart underexposed vestige of indian mind, less desirous of accepting change and staunch in his inherited value system-- that obedient son of his father! he clearly seemed to have mugged up al his knowledge to reach his stations-- hardly showed any understanding of the great altruist conceptswe got from our books of international maritime legislation composed mostly by the westeners. the indians, esp this pal of mine,my namesake, believs that those laws are impractical in reality! and why not must he think so!?where h

On Exodus from The SCI To start with, I feel deeply dejected at the way people have expressed the propriety of their exodus from SCI. most of the people have been negligent of their moral obligation towards a company which has given launch pads to their careers. The fleeing was something like kicking away your mother or your nation by putting the blame on numerous faults in them. We know there exist many, both in our nation and in our parent generation, but does that justify our fleeing as proprietary? And like the parents take satisfaction in their children’s worldly ventures so does the SCI not shackle or chase anyone for leaving it. In fact it takes pride in seeing ‘ex-SCI’ people heading or commanding other big companies or their ships. Like ever dutiful son, every such enterpriser has the moral responsibility to explain the causes of leaving the parent company with all sincerity. Reasons could be any, from poor money to unacceptable treatment to bad work environment,

My Depraved land It is not mere coincidence that one of the most fertile soils on the planet, the Indo-Gangetic Plains, has become abode of the most atrocious criminals; the fertile soil does not yield as much crop to feed its own inhabitants; religion’s predominance has pushed science-driven development and modernization centuries behind; education not fir enough to get good employment to its enormous population even while the rest of India starves for quality manpower; and then , of course, the over-population, driving all its natural resources from fertile soil to clean rivers to the verge of destruction. The fertility of soil becoming the cause of its own destruction—so I would call it Self-destruction. Among all causes of its depredation, I maintain, that religion’s predominance is the biggest. This soil hold foundations of many a religious structures of world fame from Ram Janambhumi to Kashi Vishwanath temple to Gaya , Sarnath and many more. That is where

the dizzy reporting system...Entry for August 09, 2006 This one is about highly unorganized vsl reporting systems we have in place which suffices probably no purpose. All vessels transiting Indian EEZ and Indian SRR are urged to send an INDSAR and INSPIRES report. Additionally all Indian flag vessels have to compulsorily send INSPIRES. In first place its amazing to find that the to different systems have not been integrated into one despite all advancements in the IT technology and computeronics and when India boasts of itself as an IT giant in world software developer’s market. Then, even with sending of the two reports the tracking of vessels through our region seems to be poor as we frequently some across Indian Naval ships completely unaware of our position and intentions. Further, as is ‘natural’ with Indian culture, we are brought up with a highly boastful, jingoistic attitude in which we even give up basic courtesy of talking to any foreigner whosoever,

Lt Sushmita Chakravarty commits suicide. That was the news yesterday. Hulla over it all over in the news. Wondering, I m. Case reports- she had given resignation but was denied. I m sure she must have felt like a shackled captive. And no other way to get her freedom than this inhuman way! Whose fault..her or the system.?? I m myself undergoing one such similar case in my professional life…that of abandoning my ship. Was I wanting to do it..or was I forced. What emotional turmoil did I undergo before I committed it. I know it for sure. Sitting alone in a chair looking into nowhere, thinking contemplating the available options, the consequences, the numerous explanations to be given to authorities to justify my move and to convince my own self. Wasn’t easy at all. Loosing away all my senses, my thirst my hunger my thoughts my dreams my smile. Alongside there was a news that UP chief minister gives away rs 500 unemployment allowance to some 52000 strong graduates of UP. And then that arse