THE INDIAN JOB REALITY: CAUGHT IN-BETWEEN

I am specifically going to expand on the work scenario in India, because in the West, every job is looked up to. Unlike in India, where jobs are minimal, and potential seekers are more. Let me present to you a classical case. 

He is working in a reputed organisation with less pay. The person has got an offer letter from a not-so-well known organisation, but here the pay is handsome. At the back of his mind he is looking to switch, given the moolah involved, but his peers ask him to stay off that offer. Let me also enlighten you on the fact that he is working thousands of kilometers away from his hometown.

The problem here is, his parents who are situated so many kilometers away, cannot figure out his situation and instead unknowingly ask him to get deeper in the hole of congestion.

What happens next? The person is forced to get sandwiched in a serious dilemma.

This in turn affects his work, where he feels his abilities are being under-utilized

. He soon starts feeling like he is a misfit in the reputed organisation he is working for. This affects his work, and slowly but unknowingly he is slipping towards a possible termination. At the end of the day what happens is that he loses his present job and he does not have a job at hand. He is experienced so he cannot apply anywhere and everywhere so opts to remain unemployed. Months keep passing and now things have taken an ugly turn.

Yesterday he confessed to commit suicide.

Now, to all you forceful parents out there, hope this will shake you up!

Virat & ABDV of cricket= Messi & Ronaldo of soccer

You must have been caught offguard when you came across this header. But I can promise you that if you really come to think of it, you will realise I am not off target. Virat, Abraham DeVilliars, Messi and Ronaldo have all been instrumental in redefining the dynamics of the respective sports they play.

The rate at which Virat and AB slam tons is unheard off, the Sunil Gavaskars of cricket would have never even had the audacity to dream this. On the other hand, Messi and Ronaldo are phenomenal goalscorers for their respective countries and clubs.

The four have been receiving awards almost every year setting new benchmarks. These are men who thrive under pressure as they absorb pressure easily. Virat Kohli and DeVilliars have reached a new horizon just like Messi and CR7. These are two cricketers who have mastered all the three forms. Now, you may ask, why has Sangakkara been eluded from the list? The answer is, Sanga is not a genuine match-winner in T20’s.

So what does it take to scalp such heights, maybe discipline. Virat and AB, like Messi and CR7 are always the most feared players. On their day, they will not give you a second chance. Another feature that forces me to draw this weird comparison is the consistency; it is unbelievable how consistent these modern day gems are. They attribute it to rigorous practice. Another distinct feature about these sporting super-humans is that they float; they are flexible and are ready to play in any given situation and position.

All the four super athletes have had their share of injuries and problems. Messi was weaker on his right foot, CR7 was a bit too creative for others to cope up, and hence he changed his game accordingly. Virat has had shoulder pangs in the past and DeVilliars has had injuries. What again strikes out loud is the way they screamed back to the big stage, with the ease only they can exhibit. They are winners and have no negative bone in their anatomy. Another similarity I vividly notice among the four is they are always aggressive and on the face of the opposition all the time, in most cases they end up strangulating their oppositions.

The fans surely know there is much, much more yet to be ushered.

VIRAT KOHLI ‘MENTALLY UNFIT’ FOR TOP-JOB

Throughout the tour Australian Summer Down Under (Test, Tri-series and WC 2015), Virat Kohli looked like a player on a different zone and the entire team was playing catch-up. I could probably draw parallels between Kohli and Messi, both want to be showmen. Actually, it is a tricky situation. CR7 was a misfit according to some ManU players, because they could not play his brand of football, hence the team collapsed. Cricket, like football is a team sport and combining well the key to success.

Virat Kohli epitomizes the Delhi attitude on field. He is a true badass, on and off the field. During his press conference he throws his weight around, vows to sledge when the entire team wants to focus on the game. We are not Aussies, we are not traditional sledgers, then why try doing something we are not masters at.

On field he looks to pick up a fight at the drop of a hat. Cricket matches can never be won by sledging, that is not our strength and we should not focus on that. I agree MSD was defensive in his approach during the semis, but that is a part and parcel of the game. There are days when you are taking the right decisions and find yourself ruling the roost, but you do not look the change the entire psyche of the team.

Even the shot he played during the semis proved that he does not have the temperament for the biggest stage of it all. As a viewer you must have felt that it was an ego-shot that saw the back of Virat. At that crucial juncture, after you have been blessed with a solid start he should have been looking to milk his way in with singles and twos. The bouncer was heading away from Kohli towards first slip and you knw it is a high risk shot with high probability of a top edge, he should simply have avoided or ducked the bouncer. There is no place for ballooning egos in the gentleman’s game and next time he dons the tri-colour he should keep this at the back of his mind.

There were two or three incidents which were good enough to prove that Virat is not ready for the top job. The dressing room brawl with state-mate Shikhar Dhawan, then there was the Mitchell Johnson spat which created panic in the dressing room and the last and the ugliest the ‘foul-mouthed’ Kohli, remember the way Virat lambasted the innocent journalist. These should be reasons enough for the team management to realize MSD has to continue and Virat has to wait.

Cricket in India is already in thick soup with allegations and controversies flying left, right and centre which also means the future of the beautiful game is at stake. After swallowing all these I am sure BCCI will wait and watch before passing the mantle for the top job to Virat.

By skill standards the brash Delhi-ite is at MT. Everest, but to create a Sachin-like aura he has to mature and not play a kid whose candy has been whacked from underneath his pillow.

VOICE FROM LEFT VENTRICLE OF WHORE-DENS

Brothels/ Whore dens are not only homes to sex workers, brothels are graves of several dreams and aspirations, they are the cremation grounds where several hope, desires, futures are cremated every day. In these cremation grounds a girl dies every moment, every second but there is no one to mourn over the loss. There are several voices of various kinds which can be heard in brothels like of a little child weeping who is trying to find her mother, of a female screaming of pain, giggles of young girls and loud music. But still if you look closer into the eyes of these young girls, of that child weeping and that woman screaming you will be able to notice that horrifying silence which will not let you sleep.

I am 18 and yes, this is my home. I live in a brothel with my mother and my 3 sisters. My mother is a sex worker, a prostitute, a whore, a call girl. She is been working constantly for us ever since I remember. She works whole day to get us manageable lives. Recently, I also joined the family profession yes, I am also a prostitute but an educated one. I have better clientele than my mother. I am writing this to take you through our lives and give you a perspective into what we do and why we do it?

My mother was sold here by her own father when she was 15 because he was an alcoholic. She still remembers fairly when as a teenager, how dirty she felt when a man of around 45 years of age touched her for the first time. She was scared to the hilt and screamed throughout, but her voice dint reach anywhere. She was bleeding profusely that day and had bite marks all over her body. After her first encounter she still remembers that she was lying on that bed for next few hours like a dead loath of meat. She had realized by now that this is her fate. Such encounters became too normal after few months and by now she had accepted her life and had even started smiling, giggling and dancing with the other girls.

But her smile, those giggles were short lived because soon she realized that she was expecting. Though for a girl of 16 years of age pregnancy is nothing but a freedom of 9 months from menstruations but soon she realized that she will be responsible for a life in few months. Obviously, she dint know who my father was and could not expect anything from anyone. But I can’t even complain because none of us children in brothels know who our fathers are and honestly we don’t even care because we are a result of their sexual satisfactions and nothing more. We understand very early in age what a sexual satisfaction is unlike other children of our age because that is the biggest reason of our existence. Coming back to my mother, she worked day and night to raise us, to give us education and a perspective in life. I am glad that now I can help her, as a year back I also joined this profession.

Looking back at my mother’s life and my future ahead I have several questions in my mind. Why does brothels exist atoll? Who are they for? Why are we blamed for them? Why are we seen with that stink in the eye? Why are we not part of you all? Why are we an abuse, a taboo, a black spot to the society? Aren’t we the result of sexual desires of this society? Don’t we exist because you need us? Yes, we do paid sex but who pays us and who needs us at the first place?

So, finally one question, WHO IS TO BE BLAMED FOR THIS?

WC 2015 S/F! 6 DAYS TO GO! OZ! OOPS! DIAL V FOR VICTORY!

So what were the reasons India clinically, breezed into the semi-finals? Several reasons amounted to the show. Scalping 70 wickets in 7 games, not losing a wicket in the second power-play, fielding was world-class, batsman were taking turns to stand up, MSD has his head on his shoulders and with the bat, it shows.

In the last one year whenever we have been writing articles on Team India or reviewing their performances, Virat Kohli has always trended. Hence when I could not use his name even once in my first paragraph, I was forced to ponder to discover the reason. Any batter would qualify as a hit batsman if his average is 60+, but here even with that average we are forced to feel he is still due for a big one. To be honest, I felt 107 was just the trailer, and more goodies are on the cards. But not to be!

If India is having a dream run in the Cup, the credit has to be shared. But, now with under six-days to go for the pre-summit clash, against a team that has made it a habit to tame India in the last couple of months, the ask looks tall.

With SCG being the venue for the ‘battle of the equals’, the focus will shift on Virat Kohli to stand up and get counted. He has been India’s saviour man, superman and a true dynamo in the half a dozen years. In 2011, Virat was playing under the shadow and aura of Sachin. Hence, the question will be, ‘Can Kohli create his own niche?’, ‘Can Kohli use this Cup to become a cricketing great, like his predecessor Sachin Tendulkar’?

There is no doubt that he has what it takes to make merry at the biggest stage of them all, hence is year 2015 his year? Has Kohli chosen Australia as his stage to go big? Can he face the likes of Starc and Johnson bowling at 145 kmph+, with their tails up? Big players select big occasions, like Sachin chose 2003 Pakistan. An attack, that comprised of the lethal trio of Waqar, Wasim and Shoaib.

The team will surely look up to Kohli to deliver, come Oz and SCG on the 26^th of March.

Saina ”The wonder girl”

Badminton over the years has never attracted significant attention in Indian sports. Cricket being the unofficial national sport of India, has always hogged headlines. It is surely ‘the ultimate’ for an Indian sports lover. Even a Vishwanathan Anand winning the World Chess championship five times never brought about a significant rise in the popularity of the sport. Honestly, how many of us actually knew it? The answer would be a handpicked few. The other side of this story is different; ask an Indian how many times has India won the Cricket World cup? The majority will jump the trigger and say 1983 and 2011, and if one doesn’t know the right answer he would be out-casted as a non Indian citizen. Then there is a huge question that would pass our minds, ‘why is Saina Nehwal so popular’? She is by no stretch of imagination related to cricket, then how is she the sporting toast of the nation. Possibly the answer is London 2012, or maybe because she hails from the city of of Md.Azharuddin and VVSLaxman or because her name is quite identical to Sania(Indian Tennis player). Whatever be the answer, currently she is the queen of the badminton world, especially, after her success at London where she won bronze, followed by the Denmark Open win. Then let us dig into the reasons of why sports lovers across the country drool about this Hydrabadi girl.

Ace schuttler Saina Nehwal was born on 17th March 1990 in Hisar District, Haryana and is a sensational badminton player currently ranked number 3 in the world by the Badminton World Federation. Saina is the first Indian to win the World Junior Badminton Championships and the first Indian to win a medal in Badminton at the Olympics. She won a Bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympic, becoming the second Indian women to win an individual medal at the Olympics. She is supported by the Olympic Gold Quest.

 Her love and romance with the sport started under the apt guidance of S.M. Arif, who was a Dronacharya Awardee, and her proud coach. She is currently coached by Indonesian badminton legend Atik Jauhari along with former all England champion and national coach Pullela Gopichand as her mentor. Being born to Harvir Singh Nehwal, who is a scientist at Directorate of Oilseeds Research and Usha Nehwal, who is a former Haryana state champion; Saina Nehwal has always received the support of her family members. She surely has given India an identity in the world of badminton. Super Saina comes across as a girl who possesses the, ‘devil-may-care’ attitude. On court she is like a tigress to say the least, and looks like a human creature possessed. Immense self-belief, perseverance and confidence, separates her from the crowd. Doesn’t her wrist work with the drop shots remind us of Md.Azharuddin or a VVS Laxman? There is surely something about these Hydrabadi’s, they are special just like the Hydrabadi Biriyani.

 It is said that talent without hard work is of zilch use. Sensational Saina followed a tough routine at a very early age. As an 8 yrs old, Saina followed a very tough training schedule where would travel almost 50kms a day. Such was the intensity of her relationship with the sport that she was sponsored by Yonex, a sports equipment manufacturing company, at the age of 12. Did you know she is a brown-belt in karate? That possibly gives her an advantage over her competitors. Karate helps one to attain super reflexes and that in turn increases her mobility on court. She has undoubtedly revolutionized the sport of badminton.  

Her rise to the top also means that many will now take to the sport seriously, as a career option. Ace badminton player Saina Nehwal has almost as many titles under her belt as her age. Well, that is how incredible and amazing this ‘revolutionary’ is. She is ‘revolutionary’ because she has also become the face of the women sporting fraternity in India. Her achievements are colossal. Will the nation ever see someone ever achieve half of what she has achieved? As of now let us just bask in the glory of her success and say its ‘Set, Match and Championship’ to the queen from India. 

Tete-e-tete with Nagender Chindam: Crusader of NRI voting rights

Nagender Chindam, the original petitioner in the NRI voting case and the crusader who made the NRI population heard in the portals of the Supreme Court of India for casting their ballots online, is a family man who refuses to rest on his laurels. He finds himself bemused by the sudden attention -- be it his colleagues or long lost childhood friends who cannot stop congratulating him on his achievement.

The 33-year-old NagenderChindam is the founder and chairman of Pravasi Bharat on whose petition the Supreme Court of India cleared the decks for NRI voting rights. Chindam, originally from Hyderabad and currently living in Milton Keynes, the UK, obtained his mechanical engineering degree from National Institute of Technology, Warangal. He founded Pravasi Bharat in 2012 as a campaign group for NRI voting rights. 

In an interviewon the eve of his visit to India for an important hearing in the case, he is both jubilant and positive on the outcome of the NRI’s voting rights case.

Excerpts from his interview:

A) So, who is Nagender Chindam? A family man or a revolutionist? How do you create a balance between family life and Pravasi Bharat campaign?

Honestly, I wouldn’t have achieved this without the support of my wife as she takes care of my kids whenever I am out for Pravasi Bharat’s event. She doesn’t even complain when I spend more time on Pravasi Bharat’s event instead of home. Luckily, being a well educated lady, she understands the importance of every vote; her moral support during the tough times was my strength to move forward.

Actually, these days, it is getting really very difficult to balance work and professional life, and in our case we have to manage personal lives  and our job abroad (in my case as a Software Consultant) and additional work for the social cause at the same time– It was same with every core member of Pravasi Bharat, we had to spend day and night  and our weekends for the cause. Sometimes, it was very difficult to manage – As a family man, it is expected that you take your kids out at least during weekends/during their holidays.  It used to be extremely difficult when the events of Pravasi Bharat were clashing with family events.  My older son Srimaan Chindam was very supportive whenever I used to tell him to take out some other time.

It was hard. But I did my best to balance both – Whenever I said that Pravasi Bharat is my baby – my wife used to say that it's more than your baby because you focused much more on Pravasi Bharat’s event rather than our kid’s birthday celebration. I'm quite thankful to my wife and the core team of PB who gave me an immense support and shared responsibilities when it was needed the most.

I am a family man, staying with my wife and two little boys (The elder one is 5 years old going to school while the little one is only 2 years old) in a family home at MiltonKeynes, UK. My mother used to visit us hardly once in 6 months. We have our family house (parents) in Regimental Bazaar, Secunderabad – it’s a small house that has only one room, we still own it and preserved it as well.

B)How did the movement start?                                                                                                                           I  started the movement with the very basics by creating a website,  Facebook page, online petitions and writ petition drafts for the Supreme Court of India. I started researching absentee ballot policies all across the world.Being an Indian citizen, I wrote so many letters to the heads of all major employers, requesting them to allow and aid their employees to exercise their fundamental right.I wanted to approach the Supreme Court way before  starting the campaign group, but it was important to put valid points before the proceeding.We used the step by step process to form our core team and  held our first demonstration on August 31, 2012, urging the Government of India to provide an absentee voting option for NRIs.Through the high commissioner's office in London,we submitted the petition addressed to the prime minister of India and the Election Commission of India In October 2012, taking inspiration from Gandhiji’s Salt March, we organised a London March as a form of protest. We submitted our petition to the Supreme Court first in February 2013. Last month, the court asked the government to assure that our right to vote is ensured within eight weeks.

C) What were the main reasons that inspired you to start the movement?                                   Being a software engineer living abroad, i realize that most of the professionals were not using their right to vote due to busy work schedules or their location. Even I had not exercised this right myself. According to me, every vote is important in a democracy. As a proud Indian citizen living abroad, it was really  very unfortunate that I was unable to vote in Indian elections unless I was in the country.                                                                                                 Gandhiji, Dr Ambedkar were both non-resident Indians during their lives and would’ve potentially missed the opportunity to vote in times such as ours.The only  area where we needed to and certainly could improve was one of increasing our voting percentage. Back in 2009, it was only about 59 per cent in India, which I felt very low.

D) According to you, what aspect of the movement proved to be the most important in this victory?                                                                                                                                                                    In 2014, when the general elections were only a few months away, I went on a three-day hunger strike that ended on Republic Day  in front of the Gandhi statue at Tavistock Square. For someone who eats rice three times a day, it was a tough three days.There are about 10 million Indian citizens staying abroad, and with 543 parliamentary constituencies, this means an astonishing average of 18,000 votes per constituency may get polled from abroad. These additional votes, if polled, will obviously play a crucial role in providing greater representation to the public in our democracy. I thought ‘If India can reach out to Mars, can’t it enable its citizens abroad to vote?’

E) How does a simple software engineer feel about the sudden attention from the media all across the world?

What made me much happier was obviously the achievement of absentee ballot for more than 10 million people.The media really gives you a sense of pride and connect. For example, some childhood schoolmates/friends who had never been in touch with you for more than a decade – but send you a message through Fb/twitter congratulating once they got the news...and person from remote village somewhere in India whom you happened to meet 20 years ago but get in touches with you with warm greetings....It happened. Thanks to media for spreading the news & the importance to each and every corner of the world.

F) What will be your agenda after this victory? 

At the moment, we will continue our work as the watchdogs for this issue until the postal ballot is successfully implemented. We will watch the process as EC would do pilot implementations first and then spreads it to the General elections in future. Our next job is to urge all eligible NRIs to get registered and utilise their valuable votes without any hassle.

And as a Pravasi Bharat campaigner, we always took up the social battles for good cause, be it a protest against the Delhi rape incident, contributing to Kasmir flood relief – we did our best and we will continue to do the good work within our best abilities.